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#In a gender neutral facilities at that
ibidflash · 5 months
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Every time I talk about a common trans experience in my thesis the temptation to just make my source list
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@deoxymoronic asked 13, 15, 22 for the end of year ask meme
13. How was your birthday this year?
My actual birthday was quite bad. I had a bad shroom trip and freaked out. After I sobered up I wandered the streets until like 5am, still freaking. It was a bad time in my life! 1/10 because it could have been worse if I hadn't been with some solid homies
But I rented a huge venue for my birthday party and had a party with 100ish people, Y2K themed. It was really fun! There was a bit of a slip up because we accidentally picked a venue in a dry zone so people had to sneak in alcohol. I had a great time, wore a great outfit, got incredibly fucked up, and made out with my friends. 10/10
15. What’s a bad habit you picked up this year?
drinking 6 cups of coffee a day, abusing stimulants, and disordered eating lol :) thankfully I quit caffeine in November and Ive been good about eating lately! I was happy because I was able to dance at the last party I was at, instead of being a feeble and brittle Victorian woman. nobody will tell you this, but abusing stimulants is actually bad, and eating and sleeping is good for you. I was shocked when I found out.
22. Favorite place you visited this year?
I haven't gone to any new municipalities other than my home town and my city. I'd say my favorite new location is a museum I went to recently with a couple of my pals
This is making me sound like a bimbotron 5000 I promise I also like, read books and stuff.
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pomefioredove · 2 months
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a private meeting
summary: yuu makes a list of the top five cutest third years. the following conversation type of post: short fic characters: cater, trey, leona, rook, vil, idia mentioned, lilia, malleus additional info: romantic?? platonic?? idk, reader is gender neutral, reader is yuu, this is more for character interactions. and fun
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"I'm sure you're all well aware of why we're here,"
The eight gentleman standing around the dark, candlelit room look between each other.
Leona yawns.
"How long is this gonna take, exactly? I was dragged outta bed for this,"
Vil glares. "Hush. I wanted to deal with this matter in the quietest manner possible, without disturbing the prefect. Sevens know what happens when your egos go unchecked,"
"Look who's talking,"
Another glare, but Vil chooses not to waste any more time.
"Two nights ago, the prefect hosted a slumber party for Ace Trappola, Deuce Spade, Jack Howl, and our own Epel Felmier,"
"I remember that," Lilia says, rubbing his chin. "Sebek was invited, but refused in case someone attacked Malleus whilst he was away."
Malleus shakes his head.
"During this event, the prefect created a list of the top five "cutest third years", as we all know. And, to avoid any childish squabbling, I've gathered you all here to open it as an ensemble. Rook?"
A slim, folded sheet of notebook paper appears from the dark of Rook Hunt's pocket. He holds it up, as if presenting it to the heavens.
"Where did you even find that?" Trey asks, adjusting his glasses.
"Facile! It was buried under a stack of homework assignments in our dearest Trickster's bedroom," the blond says merrily.
"Logistically speaking, that's almost too easy. Are we sure it isn't a fake?" Ortho pipes up.
"Ortho?" Vil asks. "What are you doing here?"
The boy giggles in an electronic chime. "Idia is hiding under his covers and won't come out, so I'm here in his place!"
"...Alright,"
"I don't know what he's so nervous for," Vil goes on. "When I am already guaranteed to be in the first place slot."
Leona scoffs, kicking back with his feet on the table. Vil glares again.
"How rude,"
"He's not wrong. You are the most beautiful here..." a smile creeps up Lilia's face. "But, as I recall, you said cutest third years, not most beautiful. And if anyone is the cutest, it's me."
"Oh, spare me," Leona sighs. "Let's just get this over with. Open the damn thing."
"You're not the least bit curious, Leona?" the fae asks, batting his large eyes.
"Don't patronize me. And no, I'm not. I couldn't care less,"
Lilia smirks, but says nothing more on the matter.
He turns to his tablemate. "And what say you, Malleus?"
Every person in the room falls silent, and then turn to the prince sitting at the furthest corner of the table with his hands folded in front of him.
He hasn't shared a single thought all evening.
"...The contents of this list make no difference to me," he finally speaks. "My feelings towards the prefect will be unaffected."
Rook sets a hand over his heart. "Quelle beauté! I am moved! Not even the strongest of winds could make your friendship bow,"
Leona groans as if he's in agonizing pain.
"Open it!"
"Okay, hold on. Isn't this like, a major privacy violation?" Cater says. He doesn't sound eager to see the results, either.
"I would hate for someone to read my private thoughts to a room full of people."
"He may have a point. This was a list made between friends at a slumber party. Taking it out of that context could be disastrous," Trey agrees.
"There's a 96% chance this will end in conflict!" Ortho chimes in, merry as ever. Leona sighs.
"Can I just leave?"
"No," Vil snaps. "Rook, open it."
"Rook, don't,"
"Rook!"
The poor man observes the conflict slowly unraveling before him, and he sets the folded sheet of paper on the table.
"Now, now, do not squabble! Let this be a chance to celebrate our bonds with the lovely prefect!"
"I agree with Rook," Lilia smiles big. "We should all agree that no matter what is on that list, we'll leave it after tonight and move on."
Vil sighs. "Yes, yes. You're all right. We can't let what they wrote at a private slumber party affect our relationships with them,"
"No matter what, we leave them out of this. Agreed?"
Everyone in the room nods.
"Alright. Rook, read it,"
Rook reaches behind him, the anticipation building, and... is met with a cool wooden surface.
The note seems to have disappeared into thin air.
Before anyone can express their obvious confusion, an evil cackling pulls their attention to the doorway.
Vil gasps.
"Grim! Put that down!"
The small direbeast, now holding a crumpled piece of paper in his paw, smiles wickedly.
And then, to everyone's horror, he eats it whole.
Leona is the first to react, storming over and lifting Grim by the scruff of his neck. "Seriously?!"
"Fufufu. Looks like someone cared, after all," Lilia chuckles. Vil rolls his eyes.
"Hey! Not my fault you guys were so loud! You woke me up from my nap over a stupid list!" Grim says, crossing his arms.
A brief silence follows, and then a sigh. Leona drops him and he lands on his feet.
"Perhaps Grim is right," Ortho says. "Instead of worrying about the numerical grade the prefect assigns you, you should focus on the unique and special aspects of your individual relationships!"
"How eloquent!" Rook coos. "Oui, you are right! Sometimes it is best to let secrets remain secrets."
"Something about the way he says that tells me he already knows what it said," Leona grumbles.
"Ohoho. A fascinating mystery, non? Did I sneak a peek before tonight, or am I just as clueless as you?"
The prince rolls his eyes.
Vil sighs. "Ortho is right. Now I feel ridiculous for getting so worked up over what amounts to a joke at a slumber party,"
Everyone grows quiet, seemingly reflecting on themselves for the duration of the brief silence.
Lilia's giggles change the melancholic mood of the room.
"Perhaps Malleus had the right idea all along. It doesn't matter who the prefect thinks is more attractive; they're still a wonderful friend. How wise- I'm very proud,"
Malleus beams.
"Yeah yeah," Grim grumbles, turning to the door. "I didja a favor, anyway. None of you weirdos were number one."
He leaves, and he takes the peace and reflection with him.
Slowly, everyone turns to each other.
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Alien Escape
Male Alien Yandere × Gender Neutral Reader
(CW: Noncon, oviposition, breeding, overstimulation, crying, fear, minor character death, weird alien dick, minor mentions of medical experimentation (NOT on reader), alien, implied abduction, general yandere behavior)
Word Count: 680
(Just something I typed up on my phone because it was in my head and demanded to be written, a nice little mini-fic. Hope you enjoy!)
Tears streamed down your face, and your legs burned and ached from running so fast through the labyrinthine halls. Your frenzied footsteps on the cold tile floor were completely drowned out by the incessant blaring of the alarms.
When you slipped and broke the containment field, you had doomed everyone.
At last, you had made it to the exit. But it was covered by a heavier metal door with no handle.
Of course. The entire site was on lockdown now.
Maybe you could double back and hide in one of the abandoned rooms. If they weren't sealed off by now, too.
You ran off down a side corridor, but it was a dead end. Maybe it wouldn't come this way since it wasn't the way out.
Suddenly, the alarms and all the lights turned off. Probably sucked dry due to the escaped alien's ability to absorb energy.
You huddled into a corner in the darkness, nothing visible.
Then you saw light. Coming from far down the hall. The pale sickly green glow of the alien slowly approaching.
When he entered your field of view fully you gasped. He had a struggling Colonel Hughs in his arms, a hand over his mouth.
The alien slowly walked towards you and as he did so, he impaled Hughs with a spike that protruded from his wrists causing the colonel to rapidly age before turning to dust.
The alien had absorbed his life force.
It was humanoid, but had no eyes, nose, or mouth. Scars from "research" littered his body. Its wrist spike retracted back into itself as it slowly stepped towards you.
His strange ribbed cock poking out of his genital slit and lengthening as he approached.
It looked slimy and writhed as if with a will of its own. All while glowing with the same green light the rest of his body did.
You cowered and sobbed. You weren't ready to die. You weren't ready to die. You weren't ready to die.
And you weren't going to.
The alien had no intention to hurt you. He wanted you to be his incubator.
Out of all the people in the facility you were the only one he sensed any sympathy from. And no ill will. He only sensed regret and anxiety whenever your gaze landed on him.
It was the only modicum of kindness he experienced while being captured, contained, and experimented on.
He clung to it, focused on it. It was a lifeline for him.
And when you broke the containment unit he was housed in, he was convinced you had been purposefully trying to free him.
As he loomed over you, he could sense your fear. He gently wiped your tears away with his prehensile cock before pulling you up, turning you around, and pulling your pants down.
Yes~
This would do perfectly as a receptacle for his egg.
You begged and babbled, sure that he was about to turn you into dust.
When his slimy dick worked its way into you the noises you were making progressed into screams.
He put his hands carefully on your fragile human hips as his priggle writhed all around inside you, causing you to squirm and moan involuntarily in pleasure.
If he had a mouth your alien mate would have cooed at that sound.
The alien's dick molded itself to your inside perfectly, to kiss every little fold of your intimate depths, leaking viscous goo as it did so.
After your tenth forced orgasm from your otherworldly lover your legs finally gave out and he had to hold you close as he pumped one final time into you.
He deposited a large egg inside causing your tummy to bulge out, quite beautifully in his opinion.
The creature put his hand on your head and used his abilities to make you fell into a well earned sleep.
Green slime leaked from your entrance and down your legs when he pulled out of you.
It was a good thing you were a janitor, because once he had you back on his home world you'd be dealing with this mess daily.
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xxbimbobunnyxx · 1 month
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Beautifully Broken (Eric Draven x Reader)
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Ever since you arrived to the rehab facility you were sent to, you can’t keep your eyes off of him… 900wk, Unprotected sex, choking, dirty talk 18+MDNI Part 2
A/N: I just saw this movie an hour ago and I am absolutely possessed. Bill skårsgard is the love of my life and this just did something to my brain. You’ll probably be seeing more of him…
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Ever since you arrived here there’s only been one thing on your mind, one thing keeping you going and it was him. He was so beautifully broken that you were immediately taken by him, even if you’ve never spoken to him. But you watched. You watch the way he almost always chooses silence over speaking. He never shared at circle or sat with anyone during meal time. You watched his defiance to the guards and doctors. The way he rebelled against them with a stone expression and a locked jaw, still not saying a word. You watched the way he would draw, scribbling away in his sketchbook like it was the only thing in the world to him. The way his large tattooed hands would grip onto the charcoal pencils made your thighs clench and his face was so beautiful it made your heart ache.
His sea green eyes always held a look of determination, his plush pink lips were always slightly downturned and it made you want to know what he looked like when he smiled. His jet black mullet was always slightly messy and the pink sweatsuit sat taunt against his large frame, you’re surprised they even had a size long enough to accommodate his height. He was an irresistible mystery that you wanted to pick apart and piece back together with pieces of your own broken soul. So you couldn’t watch anymore, you couldn’t wander, you had to know. You square your shoulders and march forward with purposeful steps before plopping yourself down at the table next to him.
“Hi.” You give him a soft smile and tell him your name and he just stares at you, those striking eyes roaming your face intently. That ever neutral expression gave nothing away. His eyes lock with yours and you stare at each other like you’re trying to search each other’s minds. After a moment he releases you from his hypnotizing gaze to glance around the room before looking back at you.
“They don’t really like opposite genders sitting with each other.” He rests his hands on the table, tapping the metal of his rings against the cheap glazed wood.
“Yeah? Well I don’t really give a shit.” You tilt your head to the side, your eyes sparkling with mischief and your lips turned up in the most beautifully sinister smirk he’s ever seen.
“I’m Eric.” His corner of his lips raises slightly and it makes your stomach erupt with butterflies. You can’t help but wonder what his laugh sounds like.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Eric.”
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“Shhh, baby, you gotta be quiet for me.” Eric’s inked hand comes up to cover your mouth as he pounds into you deep and rough from behind. He has you pressed up against the wall in the back of the laundry room with your pink sweatpants pooled at your feet. Your back is arched as far as it can go, your hips meeting his own with each brutal thrust. His free hand is shoved up your sweatshirt, groping your braless tits and playing with your sensitive nipples. Eric leans down to place sloppy kisses on your neck and it has your pussy clenching around him. “Are you gonna cum for me?”
“Mhm!” You moan into his palm, your drool starting to drip down his wrist. Eric moves his hand from your mouth so he can grip onto your throat instead and it has your eyes rolling back.
“I want to hear you say my name when you fall apart on my cock.” His voice is like honey when his lips ghost against your skin, his breath sending shivers down your spine. “Touch yourself for me.”
“Fuck, oh my god, I’m so close.” You bring your hand between your legs and find your slick clit, the feeling of your fingertips against your sensitive bud sending you over the edge. “Fuck, Eric! I’m coming, I’m fucking coming.”
“Yeah, that’s my girl, fucking cum for me.” His grip on your throat tightens as he fucks into you mercilessly, chasing his own high. “I’m going to fill you up so deep it won’t be leaking out until we are in the yard for gym hour and you start doing jumping jacks.”
“Oh, fuuuuck. That’s- that’s so fucking hot, please please, give it to me. Give me your cum, Eric.” You reach behind you to yank on the hair at the nape of his neck and it has his hips stilling against yours while he spills inside of you.
“Fuck, that’s my good fucking girl.” Eric growls in your ear as his cock continues to twitch inside you, filling you to the brim just like he promised. He pulls out gently, holding onto you with one arm so your legs don’t give out. He runs his fingers along your inner thighs and over your sensitive pussy, gathering the cum that leaked out before pushing it back in. “Wouldn’t want any to go to waste.”
He leans down and pulls up your pants and your panties before flipping you around so your back is against the wall. Eric chuckles before smiling down at you sweetly, those beautiful green eyes twinkling with adoration and it’s everything you could’ve ever dreamed. He’s so beautifully broken, and entirely yours.
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Divider is by @thecutestgrotto
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yandere-daydreams · 11 months
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Title: Rotting Divinity.
Pairing: Yandere!Scaramouche x Reader (Genshin).
Word Count: 2.9k.
TW: Reader Is Referred To As A Shrine Maiden But Gender Neutral, Set A Few Years After Dottore Starts Experimenting On Scaramouche, Unhealthy Relationships, Obsessive Behavior, Kidnapping, Themes of Chronic Illness, and Mentions of Human Experimentation.
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Scaramouche opened his eyes as the sun set, casting the sky a dull pinkish blue. You were standing above him, a straw basket on your hip and a frown tugging on the corners of your lips.
He let a groan as he hauled himself into a more dignified position, palms planted in the raw dirt and dried grass caught in his hair. One glance was spared to establish that he was no longer in the Doctor’s cramped observation room, all cold stone walls and porcelain tables with leather straps stapled into each corner, before his attention settled on you. “Mortal,” he barked, speaking loudly enough to hear himself over the pain still buzzing in his skull. “Which island is this?”
“Yashiori, near Serpent’s Head,” you muttered, disappointment heavy in your tone. When he clicked his tongue, you went on, your frown deepening. “You ruined my herb garden.”
Had he? He couldn’t remember anything after the Doctor worked those long, tapered needles underneath the skin of his forearms; after an iron mask was forced over his mouth and nose and he began to think his body may tear itself apart before that sadist had the chance to. He wasn’t supposed to be in Serpent’s Head. He wasn’t supposed to be on Yashiro at all. He hadn’t meant to be here, and yet, he’d be thrown in a cage of iron bars and subjected to another round of testing as soon as he trudged back to that dungeon of a facility. Thinking about the feeling of thick, pulsing electricity coursing through his hollow limbs was enough to send a familiar bolt of agony down the length of his spine. It was little more than a phantom, a shadow of the torture it would take to unlock his truepotential, but it was enough to leave him curling into himself involuntarily, glaring at the soil with a hollow type of malice.
He would’ve recovered in a second – less than a second, a moment, a breath – if you hadn’t fallen to your knees at his side, cooing as you pressed the back of your hand into his forehead. “Are you hurt?” If he’d tried to answer, his response would’ve been lost to your fussing, the way you hummed and shook your head as you hauled him to his feet. “Body aches? Migraines? Whatever it is—” An arm was drawn over your shoulders, his weight forcibly rested on you. “—I’m sure I have something for it inside. A place for you to rest, too – however you got here, the journey had to be burdensome.”
He considered protesting. Even in the state he’d been reduced to, it would’ve taken nothing to pry himself away from you, to shatter your ankles underneath his heel and leave you begging for the mercy of the creature you’d tried to pity. He could’ve penned a letter to the Doctor as you bled out in the soil of your own garden, recovered his strength as he took your body apart and fed your remains, piece by piece, to whatever scavengers would have you. He could’ve, if he’d wanted to. He could’ve, but then, he saw what you were wearing.
The sleeves of your kosode were rolled neatly to the elbow, the hems of your pleaded hakama dusted with dirt and grass stains. Unlike the maidens of Watatsumi and the Grand Narukami Shrine, you wore neither red nor blue, but white. Pure, never-ending white.
Scaramouche went limp in your hold, his eyes falling shut as you let out a surprised laugh, doing your best to accommodate his now-dead weight. He could kill you tomorrow, he figured. It was already dusk, and while he didn’t mind traveling at night, he knew the Doctor wouldn’t begin to wonder where he was until the sun rose tomorrow morning. He wasn’t a dog, eager to crawl home and prove his obedience. He could wait until he was called for.
At least, by then, your worrying might’ve done something to dull the burn of the electricity underneath his skin.
~
“So, you’re telling me that this is a waste of time.”
You ignored him with a light hum, a quick movement of your tasseled gohei. Normally, daily rites were something to be performed quickly and efficiently before the unlucky shrine maiden responsible for carrying them out returned to scrubbing floorboards and disturbing fortunes, but in a life as slow as yours, with so little to occupy the many hours of your countless days, even repetitive tasks such as this were given an unnecessarily artistic flourish. Scaramouche might’ve called it indulgent, if he ever decided to be so kind to you.
Currently, you were dancing in front of a dilapidated shrine at the base of the snake’s skull; the paint mostly chipped away and the wood close to rotting. You’d explained, four days after he first allowed you to haul him into your ancient cabin, that you would be responsible for rebuilding it once it inevitably collapsed, an honor only bestowed upon caretakers every few centuries, and he’d told you that you ought to save yourself a few decades and tear it down that day, but you’d only laughed. Most things he said made you laugh.
He'd noticed early on that you were of a weak constitution. Dark bags circled under your eyes despite how often and how deeply you slept, and you seemed unable to carry anything heavier than what could fit in one of your woven baskets. There should’ve been another shrine keeper, if not several. And, if there could only be one, then it shouldn’t have been you.
Still, Scaramouche was glad that you had been chosen, even if you were a bad fit for the position. If it’d been anyone else, he would’ve had to get rid of them days ago, and he was thankful to be spared the effort.
“It’s not,” you said, consciously clipping his choice of words. You finished your rite with a deep bow, then turned to Scaramouche. “Shows of dedication make him happy.”
“He being…” His gaze drifted upward, to the fanged skull. Orobashi no Mikoto – the beast’s name provided by some nameless well of knowledge that seemed to linger in the space between the back of his throat and the pit of his chest. Consciously, the only title Scaramouche had ever thought to put to the serpent was that of ‘festering remains’. “…the fucking corpse?”
Right. It was too easy to forget that there was a pretense to his time with you; that he was supposed to be some wayward, ailing traveler with a mysterious condition your charms and cures could only keep at bay. He wasn’t lying to you. All he did was lie back and let you fuss over his nonexistent pulse, the bloodless pallor of his skin, the way his temperature never seemed to rise above that of damp clay. He wasn’t like the Doctor – scheming and underhanded, prone to leading his victims in circles before gifting them with the mercy of a slow death – or the priestess he could only vaguely remember from his first days, all dark eyes and whispers of a merciful end. You liked doting on him, and he didn’t mind keeping his mouth shut.
“If you keep using that kind of language, you might have to start sleeping outside.” You took up the basket of lavender melons you’d (admittedly, unwisely) left in his care, snatching it away before he could add to the small pile of black seeds stacked on his opposite side. Your hastiness left one of the rounder melons toppling over the well-worn edge, though, and he caught it with a single hand, grinning as he dug his teeth into the ripe flesh and claimed it for himself. You rolled your eyes, but quickly occupied yourself with clearing away yesterday’s fruit from the shrine. “It’s not complicated. We keep him happy, hold our rites and make our sacrifices, and he ensures that my crops grow quickly and the village prospers.” A pause, a smile thrown carelessly over your shoulder. You smiled as easily as you laughed, something that irritated Scaramouche to no end. “If it wasn’t for him, you wouldn’t be recovering half as quickly as you are.”
“Don’t give yourself too much credit.” He dug his teeth into the lavender melon as you gathered your things, sugary juice turning his lips tacky as he went on. “I’ve always been hard to kill.”
You came to stand above him, your smile small and eyes vaguely narrowed. “If you’re feeling that strong,” you started, holding your now-emptied basket in front of you. “Then you shouldn’t mind weeding the garden and fetching water, this afternoon.”
It only took him a moment to think to protest, but you were already gone, stumbling down the mountainside as he hastily pushed himself to his feet. He called your name, but he could already hear your voice – rising above his in one of your obnoxiously repetitive hymns and drowning him out as he chased after you.
~
The villagers welcomed you as sheep welcomed field dogs; from a distance.
Scaramouche trailed behind you as you plodded through the humble village, humming and clutching your basket close to your chest, fiddling nervously with the pure-white material of your sleeves. The crowd parted around you, twin walls of watchful eyes and hushed voices forming well-ahead of your path and collapsing as you strode past them, either unable or unwilling to acknowledge the thick silence that seemed to hang over you like a shroud. Occasionally, you’d stop at a stall or a doorway, handing off bundles of wrapped herbs to gloved and trembling hands, and less often, you’d send him a smile over your shoulder, your tired eyes wrinkling at the corners, as if apologizing that he had to come along for such a dull errand. That was how you described it, when he asked where you went off to every few days. ‘Just a quick trip to the market,’ you’d said, as you tried to convince him to stay behind yet again. When he cited your poor health and his growing concern that he’d find you dead in that garden of yours one day, you didn’t waver. ‘You’ll only be bored if you come. The villagers aren’t very friendly.’
Scaramouche decided, mostly on a whim, that he would burn down this village before he returned to the Doctor. If he had time.
He moved to rush forward, to place himself at your side, but a hand shot out of a narrow alleyway and caught him by the wrist. It was a middle-aged blacksmith, judging by the ash smeared across his cheeks, the thick apron hanging from his neck. Scaramouche was quick to pull out of his filthy grasp, but he spoke regardless, his voice low and rough. “Mind your distance, boy.” A glance towards you, a deep sneer. “Don’t you know who that is?”
Scaramouche glanced over him, fighting the urge to scoff. “Why is no one speaking to the healer?”
“That’s no healer, that’s the shrine maiden.” He said it as if he’d caught Scaramouche attempting to throw himself into a rifthound’s mouth. “They cultivate the serpent’s remains. You’ll be dead in a week if you—”
This time, Scaramouche was the one to reach out, his hand wrapping around the blacksmith’s neck. By instinct, a bolt of pure, searing electro shot from his palm into the man’s neck, leaving him limp and convulsing in Scaramouche’s hold. Scaramouche released him as the last of the aftershocks faded, watching him collapse to the ground before planting his heel on the man’s diaphragm, prepared to shift his weight and crush whatever laid below his foot should the blacksmith say something to displease him.
“I’ll ask again,” he said, slowly, ozone thick in the air. “Why is no one speaking to the healer?”
~
Scaramouche returned to your cabin closer to sunrise than sunset. Somewhere, back in the village that he would see reduced to embers if it was his last act on the face of Teyvat, the charred remains of a blacksmith smoldered at the bottom of a stone well, and he opened the door to your ramshackle home with enough force to tear the rotted piece of wood from its hinges.
You were kneeling beside your work table, grinding dried lavender petals into a fine powder. He closed the space between you in a breath, knocked the pestle from your hand in another, then collapsed beside you. “You’re going to die?”
You eyed the spilled lavender wearily. “Even the archons will fall, eventually.”
He let out a ragged sob, burying his face in the dip of your shoulder. You allowed him to, your arms coming up to wrap loosely around him. You’d always been weak, but now, you seemed as feeble as a morning gale.
He was unable to speak, so you took up the mantle, tracing idle patterns into the base of his spine as you went on. “I know what they tell newcomers, about dead gods and their rot, but it’s not as bad as it sounds. He gifts us with herbs to cure our sick and soothe our elders and in return, someone sacrifices a few years. The villagers might not be able to linger, but they make sure I’m taken care of.” He felt you smile, heard you laugh. “So long as I get to help people, I don’t mind making sacrifices.”
“Other people don’t matter.” It took him longer than he cared to admit to pry himself away from you, to straighten his back and drag a deep breath into his aching lungs. He was thankful, not for the first time, that he couldn’t cry. You would only think him irrational if he fell apart so visibly. “How long do you have?”
Your head lulled to the side, your attention drifting to some indistinguishable point on the far wall. “Only the gods can say what fate has—”
“How long?”
“…another year.” Your tone carried a sort of detached acceptance, as if you couldn’t summon the energy to care. “Maybe two. The last caretaker was very fortunate – he survived half a decade in his position.”
He tried to speak, to scream at you for not telling him sooner, but his voice caught in his throat and you reached up, cupping his face in both hands. Slowly, with a dry chuckle, you leaned forward, resting your forehead against his. The cool porcelain of his skin sapped the warmth from yours, but for once, you didn’t seem to mind his unusual anatomy. “I hope I’ll be able to cure you, before I’m gone.” You were mumbling, now, speaking barely above your breath. “Do you think you’ll be able to stay for a little longer?”
He tried to answer, but you’d fallen asleep on top of him by the time he opened his mouth.
~
He left the next morning, while you were still tucked underneath a small pile of furs and quilts. A letter was penned and sent to the Doctor’s base, a caddy of wildflower seeds purchased from a young girl peddling wares by the side of the road, and he returned to your cabin just as your sleep turned restless. When you rose an hour past noon, he pestered you into taking him to the groove near the shoreline. By the time you returned, chiding him for distracting you from your responsibilities and pointedly ignoring the basket full of fruit at your hip, the sun was low in the sky and masked soldiers had stamped your garden into the ground. Your cabin was in flames and your shrine had been reduced to little more than a pillar of smoke in the distance.
Whatever concern you might’ve held for him was immediately forgotten. Dropping your basket, you moved to run towards the embers of your home, but Scaramouche caught you – one hand on your shoulder, another on your waist. Careful not to break what couldn’t be repaired, he forced you onto your knees, letting you scratch at his wrists as you screamed, the noise anguished and ragged. Masked soldiers gathered in the outskirts of his vision, but he bared his teeth, keeping them at a distance as you thrashed in his steadfast hold. Once he took you somewhere else, somewhere better, you’d be able to calm down.
Once he got you away from your rotting god and your unthankful village, you’d be able to worship something worth your time.
A moment passed, then another. Finally, the Doctor emerged from the crowd, his white coat unmarred by the ash in the air. He regarded you with a grin, then looked to Scaramouche. “This is the filthy toy you’d like to take home?”
It was a foolish question, undeserving of an answer. Scaramouche countered with one of his own. “Can you fix them?”
“Can I save a human being who’s been brought to the brink of death and infected thoroughly with the rot of divine remains?” The Doctor hummed, clicked his tongue. “That depends, little puppet. How much time are you willing to spend on my vivisection table?”
Scaramouche glowered, but he didn’t protest. Rather, he pulled you close – your crying softer, now, your struggling impossibly weak – and held you against his chest as he responded. “Do what you have to. They’ll be staying in my chambers, and you won’t lay a hand on them without my permission, doctor.”
“I do wish you could call me Dottore.” He sighed, shaking his head. His acquiescence was communicated with a dismissive roll of his wrist, a silent order communicated to his lackeys. His soldiers moved to take you up, but he kept you in his arms as he pushed himself back to his feet, letting you cling to and beat against his chest in tandem.
Your voice was hoarse, your shoulders trembling. Tears streamed freely from your eyes, and he allowed himself to wonder how poorly you would take it if he ran his tongue over your cheeks. “You— You monster. Hundreds of people will—"
“You said you wanted to stay with me, right?” His smile wasn’t as soft as yours, as comforting, but he did what he could. You let out another agonized sob, crumbling against him as he let his lips ghost over your forehead, speaking against your skin and above your wordless cries.
“Now, there’ll be nothing in the world capable of taking you away from me.”
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theamberfist · 4 months
Text
Sink or Swim | Stolas x Reader
Romantic! Stolas x Swim Instructor! Reader
Description: When Stolas signed his baby daughter, Octavia up for swim lessons, he never expected to like her new instructor so much
(Notes:) (gender neutral reader) (reader is a sinner) (reader is baby Octavia's swim teacher)
Words: 1,640
❀ Fun fact: I've taught parent-infant swim lessons IRL so all the exercises shown in this are real ones we use with infants ❀
Stolas frowned as he pushed open the door to the building in front of him; unable to help the slight nervous feeling that bloomed in his chest. He supposed there should have been no cause for concern, considering he was a prince of hell and easily one of the strongest beings in this ring, but it wasn't as if he'd ever done something like this before. 
He readjusted his arms, where Octavia rested on his hip sleepily. On a normal day, she would have been napping at home now, but not for much longer. He'd specifically chosen this time because he knew that, once she woke up, she would be as active as ever. Stolas reminded himself that this was for her sake, not his; he could hold his head up high for her, just as he always did.
When he entered, the imp at the front desk looked up from his work and his eyes widened slightly. "Prince Stolas..." He managed before finally clearing his throat and regaining his composure, "Right, we were expecting you." Though, something told the owl prince they hadn't actually thought he'd make good on his plans and come in. 
"The toddler pool has already been reserved, and your instructor is waiting for you there," the imp went on to explain as he checked their names off on a clipboard, "I'll let them know you've arrived." 
"Thank you." Stolas nodded awkwardly before turning and heading through the locker rooms to the pools. Though he could have simply signed Via up for regular lessons, he'd decided a private one would be better for the sake of them both. He wasn't aware that meant they'd reserve an entire pool for them, however small, but at least this way, he would have fewer paparazzi to deal with. 
Finally, he reached the pool deck, seeing that the whole facility only had a few people in it right now. There was a large lap swimming pool in front of him, as well as a splash pad to his right and the toddler pool to his left. When he looked over, there was already someone sitting on the side with their feet in the water as they waited. They wore a red swimsuit with the word 'lifeguard' printed in white, leading him to believe this was the instructor the imp at the front desk had mentioned. 
He made his way over to the toddler pool as Octavia began stirring in his arms now. It was a good thing he'd already gotten her into her swimsuit, or he would have had a hard time getting her to sit still long enough for it now. 
Upon hearing them come over, you looked up and smiled, setting the clipboard you'd been holding on the side of the pool. 
"Hello!" You called, "Here for the parent-child swim lesson?" Stolas nodded and you stepped out of the barely knee-deep pool to come over to him. To his surprise, you seemed to be a sinner, rather than an imp or hellhound like he'd expected. Your appearance differed from them greatly, and there was an energy about you that told him you had to be a human soul. 
You smiled and introduced yourself. "I'll be teaching our class every week," you explained, "If anything is too difficult or uncomfortable for you two as we get started, please let me know. Private lessons means I have a little more flexibility in what we do." You winked at the last part, and though it made the prince's heart beat quicker, he was fairly certain you just meant it playfully. 
"Anyway, who is this little one?" You asked, turning to the little owlet in his arms, whose big round eyes were staring up at you. 
"This is my daughter, Octavia," Stolas replied, immediately relaxing now that the topic of conversation had changed, "She's about a year old; I hope that's alright!" You waved him off.
"That's perfect," you said, gently reaching out towards the baby, "I've worked with kids much older and much younger than this." Octavia's tiny hand grabbed one of your fingers and you smiled kindly before looking up at her father. "And you're Prince Stolas, right?" He blinked.
"Just Stolas is fine!"
You nodded before removing your hand from the owlet's grip and standing up straighter. "Well, if you're ready, then we can get started." You said, that professional air returning to you, "I was thinking we'd have her in the shallow area to start with and ease her into slightly deeper waters." Stolas nodded, setting his bag down on a pool chair and then following you to the water. 
Now that you'd been properly introduced, Octavia was eager to follow after you, and he held her little hands as she stepped into the shallowest area of the pool. You giggled, encouraging her along the way. 
Once she stood so that the water was up to her knees, you brought out a dive toy and placed it on the pool floor, asking her to reach down and grab it to get her a little closer to the water. Stolas sat by her as she did so with ease, and then you moved the toy slightly deeper. 
He admired how much energy you seemed to have with his owlet, as well as how kind you were to her. Your soft voice and easy patience was a stark contrast to Octavia's mother; that was for sure. The two of you watched her repeatedly pick the dive toy up from increasingly deeper as if she had no care in the world. 
Finally, he broke the quietness between you two as you congratulated Octavia at another job well done. "Do you often teach lessons here?" He asked a little awkwardly, "I haven't seen many human souls in this ring of hell before." You smiled and nodded.
"Yeah, I teach almost all the lessons we offer here," you replied, moving Via's dive toy again, "It's the same job I had while I was alive, and I guess it's the only thing I've really found that I'm good at."
Stolas couldn't argue with that. Usually, Octavia was much more timid around water than this. She wouldn't even go in it at all if he wasn't holding her hand the whole time. With you, though, she was so enthusiastic that she hadn't even noticed the lack of touch. It was like he'd brought a different baby to the pool altogether today. 
"I see," he replied with a nod, smiling down at his daughter, who was happily splashing some of the water. "Do you have any children of your own?" You shook your head.
"Nope, I mostly kept to myself while I was alive- and, I guess, while I've been dead, too." You shrugged, "But when I found out how few kids in my neighborhood knew how to swim, I started doing lessons to keep them a little safer." 
Stolas nodded, wondering if it would have been too much to hope that 'keeping to yourself' meant you didn't have a spouse or partner, either. 
"If you're ready, we can move to the deeper water exercises." You changed the subject now and the prince nodded, placing a reluctant Octavia back on his hip and bringing her towards the deeper pool nearby. There, you helped him perform the next exercise, which consisted of him resting the owlet's head on his shoulder and trying to get her to kick her legs as he moved her through the water on her back. She was less enthusiastic about that, but you were quick to think; holding a toy up so her focus would shift. 
That calmed her down a lot, and soon enough she was kicking her legs happily as she giggled at you. "Do you get many attendees to your lessons?" Stolas asked in an attempt to strike up a conversation with you again, "I know those who died and ended up here aren't at as much risk of drowning." You nodded.
"That's why I work here," you smiled, "People in the pride ring aren't really concerned about dying unless it's at the hands of angels. I still think water safety is important, though."
The prince couldn't argue there. After all, that was why he'd signed Octavia up for these lessons. That, and he'd thought it would be nice for the two of them to get out of the house together for an activity. 
"Then I applaud you for your work!" He replied, "I'm sure many hellborn children can be quite difficult to teach." You laughed.
"You have no idea how much hellhounds hate swimming." 
The rest of the lesson went on just like that. With each new exercise, you found yourself getting that much more comfortable talking with Stolas, and vice versa. Octavia was also doing extremely well with everything you threw at her, and at this rate, you knew she'd be confidently swimming around on her own soon enough. 
Finally, the lesson ended and you praised the little owl before dismissing the class and hopping out of the water. Feeling warmer than you had when you began, you grabbed your clipboard to prepare for your next class.
Stolas glanced your way as he carefully dried Octavia off. "Same time next week, then?" He asked with a grin and you nodded.
"I'll be looking forward to it!" He didn't say anything, but inside, he knew he would be too. Just as he was grabbing his bag to leave, you came over and handed him a small piece of paper. The owl prince raised an eyebrow. 
"My number," you explained with a smile, "just in case." He nodded at that, feeling his heart flutter as he placed the paper in his pocket, and then you waved them both off as they left.
It seemed he'd gotten more enjoyment out of these little swim lessons than expected, and he couldn't wait to come back. 
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atskiruma · 9 months
Text
Chatty Medic
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expl: after meeting and patching up Soap on a dangerous mission, simon takes an interest in your conversational personality during your service
a/n: hi, second person writing, gender-neutral reader, mw2 settings, reader is implied to be a little short, sfw, reader is mentioned to have hair, 1,855 words
When you were first approached by your sergeant about loading onto the Spec-Gru plane to assist an injury, it was definitely nerve-wracking at first. To be on board with immensely important generals, lieutenants and captains was a scary thought with how low ranking you were in the medical field. Nonetheless, you obliged and with your medic bag in hand you began to board the ship.
The first thing you saw as you descended up the stairs of the military plane was Captain Price standing at the top with a smile. You had known Price previously when he visited the medic facility and was nice enough to start a short conversation with you. His eyes grinning as he greeted you stepping onto the plane.
"It's good to see you," He spoke, "I'm sorry that this request is so short notice, if we'd known the medic we usually had was already boarded on another plane I would of already notified you."
You smiled at his kind gesture, "No problem, I'm glad to help." In response, he smiled a little more.
"Great, just follow me, he's down here." Price spoke while turning to make his way through the plane. Following him closely, you couldn't see much with his tall stature blocking the view, but nevertheless you examined what you could beside you. Being as this was your first time in such an expensive and high-class aircraft, the numerous equipment was fascinating.
Finally making it into the main compartment, Captain Price stepped out of the way to give you view of the problem. 11 people sat on each side of the plane while 1 laid in the middle on a stretcher. A couple of the members looked towards the 2 people entering and the eye-contact made you a little nervous.
"Sergeant Soap, or Johnny, was hit by a bullet near his torso." Price said as you watched Johnny lift a weak hand in the air comically. You nodded at his words and walked towards Soap laying on the stretcher. A couple more eyes followed your movement but you kept yours set straight.
"Hello Johnny, how are you?" You spoke softly as you set your bag down and began to put gloves on for the procedure. He smiled up at you and spoke, "Doing well, until now, you?"
Smiling at his little joke, you spoke, "Fine, until now, but once we get you all fixed I'll be feeling a lot better." Giving him a soft smile before turning to adjust your tools. Soap also smiled bigger when you spoke such kind words to him.
As you began fixing up his wound and cleaning the blood, conversation began to start between the two of you. Although it wasn't common in the medical field, you enjoyed talking to whomever you were helping.
"You're quite talkative for a medic." Johnny stated as you were threading the sutures in his stomach. Without looking away at your work, you spoke, "Well wouldn't you wanna get to know the person digging into your skin right now?" He blinked a bit at your words before laughing, "You're not wrong!" Little did you know a second pair of eyes was peering in on this conversation as you were having it.
This calm atmosphere continued until you were finished and the plane had finally reached it's destination at the Army Facility. While most of the members in the ship started to get up and leave, you stayed behind to organize all the tools you used for Johnny's injury.
The sound of footsteps behind you stopped your task and forced you to look, seeing two men standing behind you, Captain Price and another man with a ghost mask. Price spoke up first,
"Thank you again for the service, I'll make sure to note your superior of what a good job you did just now." His smile was calming to look at, and you could tell why this man was given the role of Captain just by his serenity. The man in the ghost mask however just continued to stare you directly in the eyes without saying a word. His presence seemed heavy and dominating as he didn't blink nor look away.
Giving Price a smile and a few quick glances at the ghost-masked man, you nodded your head and spoke, "I appreciate it, sir. Feel free to request me anytime." After that, both men left the plane and you followed shortly after to head back to the office.
-
When you were approached for the second time by your sergeant about helping another high-ranking officer, you didn't expect it to be the notorious staring masked gentleman from last time. It had been a couple weeks since you had taken on the big role of helping Spec-Gru and since then you haven't given it much thought.
Until now, when you walked out of the office and into the medic hall, seeing the tall, frightening man sitting on one of the small medic beds. Nurses passing by gave him glances as he sat staring at the floor, others turned towards each other and fawned over him.
Putting on your best smile, you walked over and greeted him. "Hello, how are you?" You spoke, watching as his eyes lifted to look at yours and continued to stare for a while. Clearly not a talker, you stated in your mind. Blinking and reaching for the clipboard placed on the small table next to the bed, you continued, "It's okay if you're not up for speaking, almost everything I need to know is here anyways."
After reading his file, you smiled again and looked at him, he was already staring at you before you spoke, "It's nice to see you again Simon, I know we met a while back when I patched up your friend Johnny." His eyes never left yours as you tried to spark a conversation between the two of you. Nonetheless, it wasn't sparking at all, it was more like trying to start a fire in the rain than anything.
Deciding you'd have to talk for the both of you, you continued to chat with him about little things. How the weather was, wondering what they'd be serving at lunch for today, if he enjoyed the lunches they did serve here. Fortunately, he wasn't deaf, because when you asked for him to lift his sleeve in order to see the damage he obliged.
"That must of hurt," You said as you tightened your gloves and held his arm with one hand while picking around the wound with the other. "I know that you're not much of a talker Simon but if anything I ever do hurts feel free to pull away in order to show me."
This one-sided chat continued on for 30 minutes as you assessed the damage and patched him up, frequently sharing little bits of your life to keep the fixing process less boring. Just as you finished you decided to speak again, "Feeling better? Anything else you need from me?" Simon looked at you and shook his head, finally speaking with a rough British accent, "No, thank you." Was all he said before he stood up and left the wing.
The interaction was odd, but not too odd, because you could tell while he definitely wanted a large wall between him and strangers, he kept a very respectful manner regardless.
-
You saw Simon again on Sunday, when last time you saw him was Tuesday. He was back at the medical center again and requested your service as well. When told he was waiting in the wing for you, you put on your best smile and approached him again. This time, his eyes were staring straight at the hall you were coming from before you turned the corner.
"Hello Simon, it's good to see you again, how are you doing?" You spoke as you smiled at him and turned to grab some gloves to put on. This time, he responded.
"Doing fine, thank you." His gruff voice spoke out, a small smile made its way onto your face at his response.
"I'm glad, I'm sorry you're hurting today but I promise to do my best to fix that." You tried to soothe the possible ache he was feeling somewhere and comfort his worries if he had any at the same time.
Simon nodded at your words and stared at you as you examined the clipboard with his problem. A small gash in the arm, simple. You then proceeded to explain the type of ointment you were gonna use to numb the pain and pressed to advise you if it hurt anywhere.
Again, you started to speak of plain conversation starters and this time Simon either nodded or actually blinked when you spoke towards him. Progress is progress, you told yourself as you finished bandaging his upper arm and making sure no other injuries were present.
Seeing as he requested for you twice when aiding an injury, you began to wonder if he was enjoying your little chats. Deciding not to get ahead of yourself, you told him he was all better and wished him a goodbye on his way out.
-
Thursday rolled around and you were again, called to go check up on Simon in the medical wing. This time around though he seemed more interactive than usual. When you first stepped out of the hall and walked towards him, he spoke before you.
“I like what you did with your hair today.” He said, as he stared directly into your eyes. The compliment shocked you but nevertheless you smiled anyways and replied,
“Thanks! I tried something different today. What seems to be the probl-“
He interrupted you before you could finish, “You should wear it like that more often.” His eyes continued to hold yours as the awkwardness set in from his words.
“You think?” You spoke, as you lifted a hand up to twirl a piece around your fingers. “It wasn’t that difficult to do,” You continued, “Maybe I will, if I see you sometime this week I’ll make sure to wear it like this.”
Your eyes followed to the table next to bed, expecting to see a clipboard but instead it was empty. “That’s odd..” You trailed off, “Did nobody examine you before you came in?”
Turning to him again, for the first time since you met him he avoided eye contact. “Simon?” You questioned as he kept looking towards the ground.
“M’ not injured.” He mumbled, still avoiding your eyes. Your eyebrow rose as you held a concerned look on your face from his sudden change in personality. Instead of speaking, you waited to see if he’d continue his reasoning.
“Was wondering if you wanted to do something, sometime.” He spoke, giving you a quick glance here and there. Your confusion was still evident on your face. “Never done this before, think you’re pretty.”
“Oh,” was all you said as your cheeks dusted a light pink color. Simon looked as if he was trying his best at the proposal, so you tried to ease the stress. “I’d love to, when are you free?”
~
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pretzel-box · 1 month
Note
Imagine a little octo boy sticking himself to Sebastian and gets curious insisting to share with Sebastian
A sticky situation [GN reader]
words: 1k
status: none
authors note: It's gender neutral this time since I wrote it during a voice call with friends and paid 0 attention. It's a bunch of headcanons written lazily as a short story, hope it's readable haha
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The last thing Sebastian expected when releasing the experiments from confinement was for you to latch onto his tail. Your little octopus arms clung to him persistently, which irritated him greatly. His first instinct was to pull you off aggressively, telling you to be independent now that you were free. Yet you shook your head cutely, refusing to be alone in the dark facility when you could stick to his cold body like bubblegum. Since then, you've lived in his shop rent-free. He lets you sort files while he works, and every time he leaves, he tells you not to touch anything. Yet when he returns, he always finds silly little circles everywhere, evidence that your curiosity got the better of you. You miss him easily when he's out since he refuses to take you with him, so you cling to whatever he left behind until he returns.
One day, Sebastian returned to find you tinkering with random objects he had found. "I got you something," he said. Your head peeked up, glancing at him silently as your arms curled around him. He held up a gummylight, shaking it to show you how it worked, then gently flashed it without blinding you. One of your many arms pulled it from his grasp, shaking it in silent excitement without turning it on. It was all about the silly sound it made. You held it up to his face, showing it to him. His expression softened slightly as he rubbed your head with faint affection.
On other days, Sebastian often found himself perplexed by your attachment, but over time, he grew accustomed to the constant presence of your small, sticky arms. You followed him around the shop like a shadow, your round eyes always wide with curiosity. Though he rarely spoke more than necessary, you seemed to understand him perfectly.
One morning, as Sebastian was fixing a particularly stubborn gadget, he felt a familiar tug at his coat. Without looking up, he muttered, "I'm busy. What is it?"
You, undeterred, held up a tiny, shiny bolt you'd found on the floor. Sebastian glanced at it and then at you. With a soft sigh, he reached out, gently taking the bolt from your grasp. "This goes in the drawer, not in your collection." He pointed to a small compartment, but instead of obeying, you turned the bolt over in your hands, fascinated by how it caught the light.
"Fine, keep it," Sebastian said, shaking his head, though a tiny smile played at the corners of his mouth. He'd long since stopped trying to understand your hoarding habits—your stash of random, shiny objects hidden throughout the shop had become a part of the daily routine.
Later that day, Sebastian stood at his desk, organizing some files. He heard a soft thud and looked up to see you struggling to lift a book that was nearly as large as you. Your determination was evident as you used all of your arms to lift the book onto the desk, where you promptly pushed it toward him.
Sebastian raised an eyebrow. "You want me to read to you?"
You nodded enthusiastically, your arms tapping the book's cover in a rhythmic pattern. Despite himself, Sebastian couldn't refuse. He opened the book, and you settled down beside him, your eyes wide and focused as he began to read. His deep voice filled the shop, and although his tone was always even and calm, you could sense the subtle warmth in his words.
As he read, you slowly inched closer until one of your arms gently wrapped around his wrist. Sebastian paused for a moment, glancing at the tiny limb clinging to him, then continued reading, unfazed. You, content with your prize, closed your eyes and listened, occasionally making soft, pleased sounds.
The days passed in a similar manner. Sebastian would go about his work, always with you nearby, your silent presence a constant. Sometimes you would help by sorting tools or arranging items—though "help" was a generous term, given your tendency to make more of a mess than you cleaned. Other times, you would simply watch him, your large eyes following his every movement.
One afternoon, Sebastian noticed you were particularly fidgety, your arms twitching restlessly. He knew the signs well by now—you were bored. He sighed, setting down the delicate instrument he was working on. "Come here."
You perked up immediately, shuffling over to him. Sebastian reached into a drawer and pulled out a small, wind-up toy. It was an old trinket he'd been meaning to fix, but it still worked well enough. He wound it up and placed it on the floor. The little toy soldier began marching in circles, its tin legs clinking with each step.
Your eyes lit up, and you clapped your arms together in silent delight. As the toy marched around, you followed it closely, occasionally nudging it with one of your limbs. Sebastian watched you with a hint of amusement, though he kept his expression as neutral as ever.
Eventually, the toy soldier came to a halt, its winding mechanism spent. You looked up at Sebastian expectantly, holding the toy out to him. He took it and wound it up again without a word. This became a small routine for the two of you, and although Sebastian pretended to be slightly annoyed each time you interrupted his work, he never hesitated to rewind the toy for you.
One another evening, as Sebastian prepared to close the shop, he found you curled up in a corner, fast asleep. You had a soft, contented look on your face, clutching the gummylight he had given you days before. He watched you for a moment, his usual stoic expression softening.
"You're a strange one," he muttered quietly, though there was no malice in his words. He gently draped a small blanket over you, careful not to wake you, before turning off the lights. As he headed back to his signature spot, he glanced back at you once more, shaking his head with a faint smile.
No matter how much you puzzled him, he had to admit—life in the shop was a lot less lonely with you around.
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Note
Actually bathrooms shouldn't be gendered at all that's half the problem.
In communities that lack access to single-sex bathrooms, you witness an increase in the rate of sexual violence, physical health issues like incontinence, and mental health issues like PTSD. If women's health and safety aren't a problem to you, then by all means continue insisting that there's no need to provide them, but you should know these issues disproportionately affect poor women, disabled women, young women, and women from ethnically, linguistically, and racially diverse backgrounds (e.g. bathrooms in northern India are particularly unsafe for women).
I'll leave you with a quote from a book I read recently - Invisible Women, by Caroline Criado Perez:
According to the UN, one in three women lack access to safe toilets, and WaterAid reports that girls and women collectively spend 97 billion hours a year finding a safe space to relieve themselves [which affects their productivity, as women are more likely to be engaged in the informal economy, and their safety]. Local governments that fail to provide public toilets may believe that they are cutting costs, but a 2015 Yale study suggests that this is a false economy. [They linked] the ‘risk of sexual assault to the number of sanitation facilities and the time a woman must spend walking to a toilet, and calculated the tangible costs (lost earnings, medical, court, and prison expenses) and intangible costs (pain and suffering, risk of homicide) [against] the cost of installing and maintaining public toilets … [they found public toilets could save one town $5 million better off, which is a conservative estimate, as it doesn’t include the various health benefits saved from women having more regular and more private bowel movements (e.g. chronic constipation, cholera)]. Health problems arising from a lack of public sanitary provision are not restricted to low-income countries. Canadian and British studies have revealed that referrals for urinary-tract infection, problems with distended bladders, and a range of other uro-gynaeloogical problems have increased proportionately to [toilet inaccessibility]. Urban planning that fails to account for women’s risk of being sexually assaulted is a clear violation of women’s equal right to public spaces – and inadequate sanitary provision is only one of the many ways planners exclude women with this kind of gender-insensitive design. ... For women who try to escape from war and disaster, the gender-neutral nightmare often continues in the refugee camps of the world … [although] international guidelines state that toilets in refugee camps should be sex-segregated, marked, and lockable, [sic] these requirements are often not enforced [and] research by the Women’s Refugee Commission has found that women and girls in accommodation centres in Germany and Sweden are vulnerable to rape, assault, and other violence…
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firegirl888101 · 7 months
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Insatiable Madness (10)
|Sagau Yandere Fatui Harbingers x Reader|
You need to start planning an escape.
Reader is Gender Neutral!
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It wasn't the most flattering picture of you they decided to use. At least you could find some humour in that fact.
"...Why are you just staring at 'the television'?" Sandrone raised an eyebrow, looking distraught.
"Oh, hey, you're on there!" Childe pointed out. "You famous?"
"Something like that..." You mumbled in return, trying to hide the smug smile on your face.
This is perfect. They couldn't read the roman alphabet! Not only can you use this against them to plan an escape, but you can also insult them later for it!
Illiterate bitches You snickered to yourself.
"Yesterday afternoon, a local fast food restaurant in '_____ ___ _______' was attacked by an unknown group. Police officers found in the area of the crime were frozen solid in strong ice, scientists all across the country have come to try and understand how such a phenomenon could happen."
The screen changed to the McDonald's you were taken from yesterday, to a hospital ward with remnants of ice all over the floor. The camera panned upwards to a man laying on one of the hospital beds. His face looked awful, like he'd been revived from the dead. His nose red and lips blue, he was shivering as nurses rushed to get heatpacks for him.
"When the first officer was thawed, he had no memories after he'd been turned to ice. From what our journalist's gathered from him, the group whom attacked the restaurant kidnapped a civilian inside the facility, killing all who remained inside and allowing children to run away from the scene."
The screen then cut to a zoomed in clip of him sitting up, visibly in a better condition than before.
"Could you tell us what happened?" A cameraman from behind the screen asked him, the police officer looking directly into the lens of the device.
"It was... traumatising." He answered in a low tone. "I had ran from the station after being called to an emergency downtown. Something about an answer to a 999 call expressing worries of there being a hostage. My co-workers ran out of the police car first, and shouted from outside the building."
"And?" The cameraman pushed him, noticing the officer's hesitation.
The officer sighed, his breath shaky, then continued.
"A woman calmy walked outside, at least I think it was a woman. I remember my friends shouting for 'a lady' to stop walking towards them and put her hands in the air. Last thing I remember is seeing something blue and shiny heading right for my co-workers and the police car I was in."
"Bah!" The cameraman laughed out loud. "You're saying she was the one who almost froze you to death? Don't be ridiculous, unless you dreamt Elsa." He mocked.
"But, that's what happened!" The police officer shouted at him, the footage of the hospital suddenly going black.
"The Police Station checked all officer's body cameras. However, from the external ice interference, all footage was damaged and therefore unable to be investigated."
Another picture of you, different from the first one displayed earlier, transitioned next to the lady reading from her script. Her face showed one of concern.
"The missing person is Mx Y/N L/N, a college student who was kidnapped at the location. They were the one whom called 999 and first alerted authorities to the situation in the building. Our heart goes out to them, in hopes of them being safe." She said sympathetically. Her face soon changed to an interested one, forgetting about all the death's in the first place.
"Just who could this group and 'lady' be? Where did they get the power to turn others into ice? Perhaps the lady is their leader! Let's hope an update on the situation comes soon. To find out more, go to our websi--"
You turned the television off with a disgusted expression on your face.
Fake. Arse. Bitch.
"Her??? 'The Leader'? Fuck that shit." Childe scoffed, arms crossed with a glare sent towards the woman.
"Enough, Childe." Signora scoffed back, rolling her eyes at the child clearly fuming.
"So, everyone knows you've gone missing?" The Regrator whistled, fiddling with a mora coin and sitting on the only armchair which hadn't been torn to pieces.
Ugh, you forgot they could still understand the English language.
"Yup." You sighed.
"Even though I already know the answer," Scaramouche huffed. "Do you have friends who could have seen that and immediately thought to check up on you at your house?"
Oh yeah, if only you had friends who actually cared about you! Then, maybe someone would come looking for you. Also, was Scaramouche implying you had no friends!?
For his information, you knew plenty of people and had a lot of 'friends'! ... Unfortunately, you don't think they care enough to drop by your house.
"Pshh!" You shoved his shoulder lightly, slightly hurt. The puppet scowled and rolled his eyes. "Of course I do. They just... aren't available right now." You lied with a shrug.
Scaramouche simply stared back at you. "Uh-huh, I believe you." He shook his head, walking away.
"Hey, don't walk away from me. You need to- HEY, THAT DOESN'T MEAN EVERYONE ELSE CAN TOO! CLEAN THIS GOD DAMN MESS YOU LOT MADE OR I SWEAR TO-"
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Everyone walked off to do their own thing around the house after that... cleaning session. You spied on what the harbingers were doing, a notepad in your hands with scribbled writing full of potential ideas to get away from the house.
You'd crossed out many plans:
Use phone, call someone?
Definitely not, you'd be heard and questioned by the harbingers then lose your phone to their control. There's no doubt in your mind Pierro would let Sandrone and Dottore get their hands on it.
Run out house, when everyone is sleeping?
Wouldn't work. They said it themselves, some of them don't sleep. Plus, most of them probably have supersonic hearing.
Suggest to go out together then secretly pass someone a note?
Too dangerous. The harbingers would quickly catch on to what you were planning, and would potentially kill the person whom you asked for help.
Ugh! This is terrible. Your dumb brain has thought of every possible way to escape, and they all end up in failure! They're too risky, the phone one is the most ideal but you'd never risk your phone being taken away too early! It could be detrimental later down the line.
"Decider. If I may have your attention," The old sounding voice of Pulcinella coughed from in front of you. "I would like to ask a question."
"A question? I mean, it's not like I can stop you from asking it." You hid your notepad from his view.
You didn't want to make the harbingers suspicious. Even if they couldn't read what you were writing.
"Insolent child." Pulcinella sighed to himself, shaking his head. "What exactly do you plan to do about the food?"
"Huh? Whaddya mean 'the food'?"
"While your meal from last night was delicious, I noticed from how it tasted it isn't the... healthiest option. Feeding 12 people, including yourself, is quite a task so I understand why you prepared something like it. But, aren't you worried about eventually running out?" He scratched his mustache, sitting on the sofa next to you.
"You're right." You sighed back to him with a nod. "I'll need to go shopping soon to get more food for everyone. But if I start doing that, I'll eventually run out of money."
"The Regrator can lend you some Mora---"
"Fuck that." You scoffed. "First of all, I know just how harsh the Fatui are with debt. Second of all, Mora isn't even the currency used here."
"You mean to say The Regrator is worth nothing in this world?" The old man's face grew amused.
"I mean, he wasn't worth anything to begin with..." You grumbled, trying to be as quiet as possible. "Anyway, I'll need to go to the cornershop and grab us some food."
"You won't be going anywhere." Pierro walked into the room, a small yawn erupting from his lips.
"Welcome back from my office." You glared slightly, Pierro glaring in return.
Well, technically it's not your office. Buuuut, your father did always joke how it would be yours when he dies... so yeah, it's yours now.
"I see no reason why it must belong to you when you are so concerned of your bedroom." He put a piece of paper in front of you.
"What does this say?" He dropped the paper on your lap, you giving him an eye roll before taking a closer look.
It seemed to be a... private file addressed to your dad. Something about house bills being paid at a certain date,. Wow, that's not interesting at all.
"Don't you know privacy is the only thing I have left now?" You scoffed, pushing the paper away from you.
"Now, Now...." Pulcinella scolded you, his walking stick digging into your foot. "Treat The Jester politely."
"Fine. I don't want to read it to you since they're my father's personal affairs, got it?" You winced, sighing in relief when feeling the pressure on your foot fade.
"Understandable." Pierros sighed to himself. "It looked important, with this script being written in thicker ink."
I could have sworn Teyvat has made something equivalent to a printing press... How else would 'The Legend of the Sword' gotten so popular? You thought, scratching your cheek with a confused face.
Well, Pierro was right either way. What he didn't know, was the bold text he deemed important was just the money paid, and the next date due.
Not like the house bills mattered anymore, you were assumed missing and it's probably not going to be visited for at least a year due to the janky government.
Besides, you were missing, not dead. According to the law, you have seven years until you need to worry about the police barging down the door. You probably won't live that long, so yay for legalities sake!
"Well, it would have been important for my mother and father before you ripped their carcass' in half. Now it's meaningless, ...for the next seven years or whatever." You gave a sassy reply, handing the paper back to him.
"Could you put it back where you found it? You'll probably not let me back in the office."
"Very well." He took the paper from you, leaving the room without another word.
"You, Mx Decider, need to work on your manners." Pulcinella gave you a side-eye.
"I have manners, but I won't give them to people who killed at least 30 people because they couldn't 'find the person they were looking for'. And then proceeded to kidnap them and--"
"I am getting tired of your blathering." He cut you off, a vein very clear on his head.
"One would say you act worse than Tonia back in Snezhnaya, but that would be a compliment. The situation is over and done now, I don't think you realise how much trouble you're actually in at this moment."
"Well, old man, everyone has a different coping method for traumatic situations. It just so happens that one of mine is joking and yapping on and on and on--"
"Understood. Just, shut up for the sake of my headache." He rubbed his head with his fingers, effectively shushing you.
Ahh, being annoying truly has its perks no matter who you annoy. From a scolding mother, to a bloodthirsty harbinger.
Anyway, you have an idea. You may look like an idiot trying, but you have evidence it could work.
All the Harbingers called you 'The Decider', meaning they recognised you before you even met them. This must mean they were aware of your existence before they left the game and entered your world.
Arlecchino in particular, she commented on Aether's existence being involved with your title. This means you're tied to him in some way. Perhaps.. If you were to log in to Genshin again you could ask him what in the fuck was going on.
You're not the smartest person, but this seems like the most obvious choice right now. You wish you could say the same for it being the easiest choice.
You hadn't logged into Genshin since you were forcefully taken out of the bathroom's in the restaurant. Were you really ready to go back to Genshin? The game which started all of this?
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This is definitely not two (technically three) weeks late or anything... ahahah....
I, 100%, purposefully uploaded this on Valentine's Day.
Yup.
Anyway, I'm very unsatisfied with this. But I really wanted to post it. I'll try to make the next one as long as possible since I'd like to personally not make too many views...
One day, I'll most likely combine some shorter ones into one whole view if that makes sense :3 (I think I've mentioned this before...)
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Please don't expect too many happy, nice and generally fluffy scenes.
This is Yandere, a genre which should never, under any circumstance be considered normal. It's abusive, unhealthy and leads to a lot of victims facing awful conditions which they never should or ever have to endure no matter who they are.
This is fiction that I'm writing, meaning it's all taken light-heartedly IN A FICTIONAL SENSE.
If anyone, by chance, is currently in conditions where a loved-one or yourself has suddenly become distant and/or being hurt when away from eyes please get help. Talk to them, or if it's you, talk to someone you know you can trust.
If you can't talk to anyone, find authorities who can help you. Call 999, as it is in the U.K, or your local emergency service. They will always help you, and will never deny your rights or freedom.
Thanks for reading this, I hope all who's reading knows this information already, but I thought I'd include it since who knows when it comes to where you are in the world and whether your education programs taught critical information like this.
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✨Elusive✨ Taglist!:
@valeriele3 @pale-value @pix-stuff @yumi-genshin-writer @yuii-v @itz-luna @annoying-mary @etherisy @khalhaimdad @haikyuusboringassmanager @magica-ren @sweatyexpertdeputyduck @booksandteaplusart @9140 @whatamidoing89 @raesleepyhead @nasidibakar @shikanosn @purpleamethystsblog @chihawari @esthelily @stuffyfrenchflowers @conspicuous-mayonnaise @sielt @katsumikumo @greyhoundwires707 @carminerin @raidendeeznuts123 @angelofdarkness2 @shellofthewell @ginnxy-galaxy @clara-maddenlin @bk-4-trash-fire @uniqaal @tnsophiaonly @vianitry @dottoreandcolumbinaslovechild @melou008 @lsleepysimpl @steadybreadbluebird @thebigkessydisaster @eliciana @kamit-frog @twst-kumi @idk098 @kurayamioterasu @mmeatt @the-lazy-perfectionist @florelll
Quick Reminder Here! If you no longer want to be on the taglist that's completely fine; I take no offence whatsoever so please don't hesitate to tell me. ^^
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ghouldtime · 3 days
Text
Alone. Truly Alone.
A fanfic based on the Alone Operator, for all the monster lovers out there Pairing is: Alone Operator (aka Simon Riley)/ Gender neutral Reader / John "Soap" MacTavish
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Prologue/Drabble: Tomorrow
Chapter One: Going into an abandoned military facility for a quick job for some extra cash wasn't your best idea
Chapter Two: You go to collect your reward and end up with leaving with more than the money alone
Chapter Three: Johnny didn't want someone who asked questions - to him, anyways. That didn't mean you wouldn't try to get your own answers
Chapter Four: 20% done - You try to talk some sense into Johnny and get Ghost the one thing he wants
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dem-obscure-imagines · 9 months
Text
Let It Snow
Pietro Maximoff x Reader
Fandom: MCU
Summary: When the power goes out at the Facility, Pietro makes sure you’re keeping warm.
Note: Takes place in an “Everybody is alive and lives at the Avengers Facility” AU. Wanted to kick out one more Christmas/Winter imagine before getting into the New Year’s stuff.
Warnings: None?
Word Count: 1.5k
Reader Is: Gender Neutral, an Avenger.
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To be honest, you didn’t notice it at first, the slight chill in the air. You continued your work, typing away on the loud, typewriter-style keyboard on the fancy, expensive computer Bruce had built for you (with Tony’s money, of course).
And then it got…worse.
Your toes were numb and you were shivering, despite the long sleeves you were wearing.
You slid your feet into some slippers and walked out into the hallway, arms huddled around yourself as you wandered from your room, down the hall to where the thermostat was. You gave the up button a cursory press, waiting for the screen to blink to life and tell you what it was set to, but it didn’t.
Huh. Well, that was something, wasn’t it?
“(Y/N). Hello.” Vision materialized beside you, causing you to jolt in shock. “My apologies, I did not mean to startle you.”
“It’s fine, Vision. Do you know what this is all about?” You asked, shivering and motioning to the busted thermostat.
“It appears the furnace is broken. Mr. Stark and Dr. Banner are attempting repairs now, but it may take quite some time.”
“Oh. Gotcha.” You nodded, “Thanks for the info.”
“Of course. I do recommend you bundle up. It seems your body temperature is steadily decreasing.”
“Will do.” You saluted and pivoted on your heel, just in time to catch a face full of Pietro as he sped down the hall, sliding to a stop.
You ever so gracefully fell on the floor, staring up at him, disgruntled. “Nice one, Sonic.”
He chuckled, offering a hand, but you got up on your own, dusting yourself off. “What is the problem?”
“Furnace is busted.” You explained, patting his arm as you began walking away.
Pietro started walking backwards, keeping pace with you. “Where are you going?”
“To get into something warmer. Might be a while.”
One of his eyebrows quirked up. “Well, you know, I’ve heard skin to skin contact is the fastest way to warm up, if you need some help with that. I do have ‘improved homeostasis,’ as Banner puts it.”
“I’m good, thanks.” You deadpanned, shutting your door in his face. You could feel him lingering there for a moment before running back down the hall to his room, you presumed. You chuckled and rolled your eyes. Pietro was a flirt. Always had been. But things like this never worked out with people like him. Not in your experience, at least.
You changed into a cozy, zip-up onesie, feeling a lot warmer than before, especially with the hood over your head. You got back to your tying for a while. A few hours at least…until the lights went out.
“Great!” You threw your hands up, rolling away from the desk in your dark room.
In a huff, you stood up and walked to your window. It was a blizzard out there, inches and inches of snow on the ground. There was a knock on the door and whirled around to answer it. Part of you expected it to be Pietro standing there, but instead, it was Steve with a flashlight.
“Oh, hey. Is this because of the blizzard?”
“No, Tony says he snipped the wrong wire.” Steve shook his head. “Or something. Might be a while before it gets fixed.”
It was already getting late, and you were planning on going to sleep soon, but now, you weren’t so sure you should if you didn’t want to wake up a popsicle. “Okay, thanks for letting me know.”
You said, turning back to grab your phone and your water bottle to refill it before you figured out exactly what it was you should do in the meantime.
***
About an hour later, Pietro found you on the couch in the living room, shivering and reading a book by the light of a tiny, battery powered reading light. You were bundled up and, due to the lack of windows, you were pretty sure it was the warmest room in the facility. But as the temperature continued to drop, it didn’t seem to matter where you were.
“(Y/N), what are you doing in here?” He said, concern etched deep into his accented words. You met his eyes, wrought with worry and only offered a shaking shrug.
“I don’t want to g-go to sleep until the h-heat comes back on.”
He shook his head, crossing the room slowly for once, taking his time with each step. He sat beside you, not even bundled up beyond a hoodie and some sweatpants. For the first time in your life, you envied his powers. Carefully, giving you every opportunity to shove him off of you, he gently lifted your blanket, guided your book to the coffee table, and crawled on top of you, settling his body atop yours and sandwiching you between himself and the couch. He pulled the blanket back on top of the both of you, adjusting his head into the crook of your neck.
You were stiff at first, but at his warmth, you all but melted, eyes closing in bliss, your arms relaxing around him as you chased that feeling. His warmth. His scent, that sharp, woodsy cologne he was so infatuated with.
“Is this alright?” He asked, voice low and raspy.
You nodded, relaxing further into his hold, letting him warm you up. You pulled him closer, relishing in the feeling of your shivers slowly stopping. “Pietro…”
“I won’t say anything. The others don’t have to know.” He assured you, meeting your eyes before settling down again.
“I’m not too worried about that.” You whispered, suddenly overcome by it all. His proximity, his voice, the way his body felt melded against yours. It was right, what they said. Fitting like puzzle pieces.
“You’re not?” He asked, mischief at the edge of his tone. “Who are you and what have you done with (Y/N)?”
You scoffed. “You know, contrary to popular belief, I don’t dislike you, Pietro.”
“I don’t dislike you either.” He replied with a chuckle. “Kind of the opposite, in fact.”
Your heart picked up a quicker rhythm, cheeks flushing. You were kind of thankful the two of you were cuddled up in the dark. You hoped nightvision wasn’t one of his secret powers, or you were sure you’d never see the end of it.
“Please say something.” He murmured at the silence.
“You…”
“I thought it was obvious.” He muttered, words quick, flat at the edges.
You let another moment pass, choosing your words.
“I’m sorry. We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to—”
You touched his face with a cold hand, guiding his chin so you could attempt to look him in the eyes in the silvery rays of light streaming in the window. “I like you, too.”
He grinned, breath catching in his throat. “You mean it?”
“I have for a while.” You confessed. “Since that first training session when you bulldozed me on the track.”
“I did not bulldoze you!”
“I don’t know, I felt pretty bulldozed, laying there, flat on my back, feet knocked out from under me.”
He chuckled. “I was trying to impress you.”
“Mission accomplished.” You laughed at the way frustration crept into his words. “I could never forget about it. My very first week on the team and already, someone was out to get me.”
“Oh my God.” He rolled his eyes, the words sounding unsure on his tongue. He shook his head, gaze softening as he reached up, a careful hand brushing the hair out of your face. “Are you warmer now, drága?”
“Much.” You nodded, brushing the tip of your nose against his. “I do have another idea for warming up, though…”
He smirked. “Such as?”
“Do I have to spell it out for you?”
“Please do.”
You rolled your eyes, and looped an arm around his neck, tugging him down to you and crushing your lips to his. He hummed in agreement, calloused fingers hooking your jaw, keeping you close as his kissed you tenderly, passionately, lips soft and perfect and experienced. He was the perfect distraction from the freezing room around you.
Then, suddenly, there was a loud thrum and the power kicked back on, bathing the room in light. You squinted, the appliances in the kitchen all beeping as they came back to life.
Pietro shielded his eyes with a hand, still hovering over you. You stared up at him for a long, quiet moment, still not entirely sure it had happened until he dipped back down and pressed a long kiss to your cheek, his stubble tickling your skin.
“Now let’s get you to bed, hmm?” He asked, helping you off of the couch as the facility gradually warmed back up. The two of you walked down the hall together and you yawned.
“What were you two doing down there?” Bucky asked, standing in his doorway. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
“I was just letting (Y/N) know the heat was back on.” Pietro shrugged. “I am the quickest, you know.”
“Uh-huh. Right.” Bucky nodded, suspicious, but backing away into his room anyway.
You got to your door and stopped in the doorway, turning to look at Pietro. His hand grabbed at your waist, tugging you in for a kiss that you gladly returned. When you parted, you watched him speed down the hall, hoping that when you woke, it wouldn’t all be some sweet, winter dream.
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dilatorywriting · 1 year
Text
The Prince & The Pauper Prefect
Gender Neutral Reader x Prince Stefan (Twst OC) Word Count: 5.9k
Summary: 'Dear Ramshackle Prefect, you are cordially invited to tour the Royal Sword Academy at your leisure. We hope our libraries may have something of use to aid in your journey home. And if perhaps you find our facilities to your taste, we would be more than happy to extend you a more permanent invitation.’ Clearly, nothing about this could go wrong at all.
A/N: A commission for the very lovely @thefiasco-onyourblock. I'm having so much fun with all y'alls ideas, and this is one of the few that was asked to be public, so I'm happy you all get to see it! It was a lot of fun to dive back into this himbo~
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You’d just stumbled your way back onto Ramshackle’s sagging porch after your second third fourth foray into this wonderful new world of Near-Death Experiences when the letter arrived.  It popped into existence in a pleasant burst of bubbles and sparks—a scroll of soft, cream, paper stamped with a shimmering wax seal that looked like it could have been melted down out of literal gold. You waved a hand under it, over it, all around the thing in grand loop-de-loop. The letter just kept hovering in place, occasionally spitting out another bout of multicolored sparkles.
“Hello?” you tried, cautious, and the thing crinkled at the corners. Like it was trying to wave back at you.
You glared up at the grey sky for a moment, daring whatever higher power existed in this stupid world to try fucking with you yet again, before reaching out to grab the ridiculous, magic, note.
It unrolled at your touch, like a cat stretching when you scratched along its spine. And instead of some horrible prank or wayward contract, you were greeted with an opportunity.
.
.
“POACHERS!” Crowley howled.
You sighed and rested your chin in your palm. “So can I go?”
“INTERLOPERS!” he forged onwards, waving the letter back and forth like a parent raging over a bad report card. “Who do they think they are?! Trying to swipe my most precious intern—student! My most precious and beloved of students!—out from under my nose?! As if I wouldn’t be able to see through something so—so—ACK!”
“I mean,” you grumbled miserably under your breath, “it is a pretty long nose. Could hide a lot under there.”
He turned on you with a gasp, like you’d just insulted his mother. Or… whatever the Headmaster’s no doubt vaguely evil and eldritch equivalent would be. 
“It’s a mask! A mask!”
He crumpled the letter petulantly between his clawed fingers and went to hurl it to the ground, but the paper smoothed itself out with another one of those magical ‘pops!’ and floated up on an artificial breeze to land neatly in your lap. Crowley sneered at the thing like he was planning to light it on fire, and honestly, with how strange and ethereal this little letter was, you sort of wanted to see him try.
“I think it’s a perfectly reasonable opportunity,” Professor Trein shrugged, unbothered by his superior’s usual nonsense.
“It’s not as if the Royal Sword Academy is known for their treachery,” Professor Crewel added, sounding a bit like the acknowledgement had to be yanked out of his mouth with a pair of pliers. He glanced your way for a moment with those narrowed, steely, eyes of his before turning that glare back on the old crow. “And in comparison, I don’t think any of us can truthfully claim that Night Raven has provided a particularly safe learning environment for the Prefect.”
Crowley sniffed, indignant. “A sprinkling of danger is all part of the educational experience!”
Trein sighed and Crewel pinched at his brow like he was fighting the start of a migraine.
“They’re just offering to let me look through their library archives for more information on how I could find a way home,” you tried, and then leaned forward conspiratorially. “Which would mean less work for you, you know.”
For a moment you could see the calculations whirling behind those glowing, yellow, eyes—the promise of entirely unearned vacation time and accolades for tasks he’d had absolutely bupkis to do with. But then the sharp line of his mouth hardened in determination and he turned away from you with a huff.
“We’ll discuss this betrayal of yours later—when my poor, old, heart has had some time to stitch itself back together!” he harumphed and you sighed miserably. Then he snapped his fingers with a little ‘ah!’ and turned on you with a perfectly sunny smile. “And of course there’s the VDC to plan for! Do get on that, my favorite, little, busy bee!”
Afterwards you stood in the little alcove outside of Crowley’s office, the golden letter clutched tightly in your fists. The soft edges of the scroll lifted to curl around your knuckles, like a gentle reassurance. Before you could work yourself up into getting too upset about the unfairness of it all, Professor Crewel placed a hand on your shoulder with a heavy sigh.
“I’ll drop you off Monday morning.”
You fought the tremble that was doing its best to turn your mouth into a wobbling mess, and turned to launch yourself into his furs with a crushing hug. The alchemist patted your back with a great deal of aggrieved grumbling, but he didn’t bother to push you away either, so he probably didn’t mind you creasing his coat as much as he said he did.
.
.
Your assurance that this was just a jaunt through the RSA’s library had been… mostly a fib. Or at least, deceptive in the same way that the sweeping, cursive, missive was also sort of sneaky. You’d dealt with enough genuine schemers at this point to recognize subtle promises woven into the words of the well-meaning.
‘And if perhaps you find our facilities to your taste, we would be more than happy to extend you a more permanent invitation.’
You sighed and tucked the letter into your bag. It felt a bit wrong to be ducking away from your friends and your hovel of a home like a thief absconding in the night. But this was just… You were just looking. Spending a day away from the cloying, tarry, taste of pooling blot, and the endless runaround of all your little duties, and Crowley was not nearly the same as flipping your new friends the bird and fucking off into the sunset.
You repeated this to yourself ad nauseum as you pulled on your cleanest uniform, and then again throughout the entirety of the drive down the coast, and then more when Crewel waved you out of his car with a pointed look, leaving you at the RSA’s doorstep with a little shoo shoo gesture to get you moving.
Everything was so white. And not the gentle sort of lightness that came with nice things like fluffy sheep or foam off rolling ocean waves. It was sterile—so sharply bright in the morning light that it was nearly blue. The brick path beneath your feet was white, the guardrails lining the walkways were white, the walls of the looming castle, the impressive archways, the fluttering flags bearing the school’s regal coat of arms—all bone-bleached beneath the sun and shimmering like the architecture itself had literally been polished to a gleam. The only variation to be seen amidst the sea of monochromatic brilliance was the occasional pop of a cerulean spire—like some sort of awful party hat to top off the whole mess of it.
Say what you might about Night Raven’s gothic chic and whole ‘I mean, of course the cobwebs in the halls are Intentional’ aesthetic, but at least walking around the drab buildings there didn’t leave you feeling like someone had just set off a camera flash in your face. You felt like you were dirtying the roads by just existing near them. How did anything ever get done here without everyone having to constantly stop just to sweep up their footprints behind them?!
But such was the way of this dumb world apparently. Everything had to operate in extremes—nothing could just be normal. Real. It was all some fairytale recreation, varying only in if it fell hard on one side of the spectrum or the other.
You pulled out the letter with a sigh, and began roving over the contents yet again to see where exactly you were supposed to be headed. This whole fieldtrip turning into a miserable confirmation of your unintended loyalty to Night Raven or otherwise, at least you might be able to get some information out of these promised libraries.
You managed to cross a sweeping stone bridge, descend three separate flights of stairs, and follow nearly half a dozen signs with little, circled, stars on them before realizing you were probably only making things worse for yourself. You were still on one of those glistening, pearlescent, pathways, but now there were trees everywhere. It was a far cry from the twisting, black, forests smattered throughout Night Raven’s estate. Light filtered down pleasantly through the lush trees and the air was so nicely scented with flowers and pine that it was almost like someone had gone through with a bottle of Perfume de Forest and personally spritzed each and every plant. Which—ugh. Even the birds seemed to singing in tempo to some pre-orchestrated song. It was trippy.
But speaking of trippy—
You were so busy glaring suspiciously at a tree with a literal smiley face twisted into its bark that you didn’t notice the drop-off until it was too late. To be fair, it was still all very lovely—an overhang leading to a crystalline lake that bubbled gently under the roar of nearby waterfall. No jagged rocks at the bottom or anything. You probably wouldn’t even have to tumble all the way into the water, just into the little ditch about ten feet down. But of course, all that didn’t stop you from ‘eeping’ inelegantly in a panic as you stepped over the edge and started to fall.
And then you jerked back with a wheeze when something caught you around the collar of your uniform and tugged. You flailed wildly as you were hauled back up and into the air, and something behind you made a high-pitched, nervous, whinnying noise.
“Woah, woah, woah! Easy! Easy! You’re going to send all three of us over, you big baby!”
The huffing, angry, noises just got worse and you were dropped unceremoniously back on the pathway you’d wandered off from just in time to see a pair of hooves come crashing down precariously close to where you’d been dumped. You scurried back in a hurry, because you’d survived too much nonsense at this point to get taken out from something as mundane as a kick to the head.
The horse eventually got its singular braincell working well enough to realize it had to back away from the ledge, and you were finally able to look upon your savior without being too worried about taking a hoof to the face.  
He was clearly an RSA student, what with the garishly bleached uniform and impeccably put together everything. There was a crimson cloak tossed over one of his shoulders though, which did more to break the monotony of colorless brightness than any other architecture in the entire campus, so well done him you supposed. There was a sort of effortless attractiveness to everyone in this stupid world, but your new acquaintance in particular seemed to fall hard into that ‘windswept, accidental model’ sort of look, with loose brown hair falling in a neat fringe over his forehead, and wide, warm, hazel eyes. He looked a bit like the sort of person that a school might slather on all their recruitment posters to be like ‘see! We have jocks that know how to shower and brush their hair! Look how put together we are!’
“Are you alright?” He asked, looking down at you with a canted head—curious. “You don’t look a student here.”
“I’m not,” you sighed, making your way to your feet with a sore grumble. “I have an invitation. I’m just trying to find the Headmaster’s Office,” you said, holding out the letter like a hall pass.
“Oh!” He chirped, brightening. “I can show you the way,” He offered. “Not that I’m in trouble enough to know the way there by heart or anything, but I guess just enough that there isn’t too much of a chance that I’ll get the both of us lost,” he winked and you narrowed your eyes suspiciously. Normally this sort of overly familiar banter meant you were about to get dragged into all sorts of Shenanigans.
Before you could decide whether to take the chance or politely decline, his stupid, too big, horse reared its head back with a frustrated huff. Mister Red Cloak took the mini-tantrum in stride, despite the fact that the thing had nearly just clocked him right in the face with a head that looked as solid as a boulder.
“Oh, come now,” he sighed, patting the beast’s neck. “We can finish the course later. Don’t be a baby.”
The horse made some sort of unpleasant shrieking noise like some nightmare creature from just beyond the gates of Hell that had you flinching back to avoid being Murdered, but its rider simply rolled his eyes and tugged sharply at the reins.
“What do you think, huh? Just this once?” he asked, leaning forward over the withers to talk to the raging horse in its face. Like a lunatic. “For an extra bucket of oats? And maybe, just a few—” cue an absolutely horrendous eyebrow waggle, “carrots?”
And then the horse tossed its head back with a whinny that should absolutely not have sounded anything like a ‘hell yeah! Whatever you say, dude!’ before turning and prancing around you in tight, bouncy, circles. You scrunched in on yourself, because the thing was still probably a thousand pounds of muscle and flailing limbs. Even if it wasn’t actively huffing at you anymore, now it was just getting closer faster.
“You really don’t have to,” you tried. “Just point me in the right direction and I can find my own way.”
“Nonsense!” he chirped, dropping down from the saddle to land before you in the grass with a heavy thud. He brushed at his trousers, as if he wasn’t expecting his hands to come back completely clean. There wasn’t a speck of dirt on him. “What sort of savior would I be if I let you get lost in the wild and wonderful woods of this grand institution?”
“I can see the castle,” you griped, pointing to the blue peaks over the trees.
“Last I checked, you can see it from the entrance too,” he smiled and gestured to the forested path around you, chuffing a bit like he was laughing under his breath. “Must’ve been quite a turnaround, to wind up here anyways.”
Instantly you felt your hackles rising and a familiar, prickly, heat work its way up into your cheeks.
“Thank you, for your concern,” you grit out and swiveled on your heel. “But I guess even I should be able to find my way eventually.”
The pleasantly amused expression on the brunette’s face instantly fell and he darted back in front of you with a grimace.
“Sorry—that was. Sorry. I guess I put my foot in my mouth,” he rushed out. A gloved hand came up to rub awkwardly at the back of his neck. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
You snorted and glared off into the trees.
“Now you really have to let me show you the way,” he laughed, stilted and bordering on too polite. “For making an ass out of myself like that. It’s the least I can do.”
You glared at him sourly for a moment before sighing and glancing back at the looming Andalusian still prancing along the tree line. “Will… that be coming with us?”
“Helios?” he asked, like you had any concept of what a ‘Helios’ was supposed to be. Probably the horse. “Oh, no, no, no,” he said, waving you off. “He can find his way back to the stables on his own. Right, boy?”
The horse made another one of those high-pitched, blustery, noises and you forcefully reminded yourself that you had faced inky goop monsters that were personifications of your classmates’ literal demons, and also kidnapping plots involving another of said classmates diving into your brain to rewire it like you were his own personal puppet. And in comparison to all those trials, Sentient Animals should not be creepy.
“Fine,” you huffed. “It’s fine. Just—let’s just get going.”
“Right!” he beamed, instantly bouncing back to his earlier enthusiasm. “I’m Stefan, by the way.”
You offered your own name in return, if only to be polite, and he smiled like the fact that you’d managed to grit out those familiar syllables was a gift in and of itself and not just, you know, generic introduction protocol.
“You have a lovely name,” he chirped, falling into step at your side.
You snorted, still a bit too bitter and sore. “You don’t have to try so hard to be nice, you know. To make up for saying something you feel bad about, I mean. It’s fine.”
His blinked his wide, hazel, eyes at you in way that looked a bit like you’d managed to surprise him. His eyelashes were long and soft, and they brushed against his cheeks with each shutter. Never trust people with nice eyelashes, you thought a bit petulantly. You’d known you were right to be cautious.
“You think I’m just saying that because I feel guilty?” he asked, not sounding particularly incredulous or insulted so much as genuinely curious. He tilted his head at you and some of his fringe slipped in front of his eyes, softening the sharp lines of his face. “Do people normally do that?”
You didn’t quite frown at him, but it was a close thing. You could feel your brow pinch.
“…I guess,” you huffed after a long moment, turning to stare back at the path ahead.
“Huh,” he mused, thoughtful. “Well, I really did mean it. And it’s a lot better than my name by far. I mean, really, Stefan? A bit on the nose, don’t you think? ‘Crown?’ Come on. Couldn’t my parents have been anymore original?”
You glanced over at him, a bit lost. “What does that mean?”
“Stefan?” he repeated with another one of those eyelash-sweeping blinks. “It means ‘crown.’”
“No,” you sighed, long suffering. “As in, how is that unoriginal? It’s a nice name.”
“Well, it’s because I—” he trailed off, gaze lingering in open astonishment. After a long moment of gaping at you like he’d just been clobbered across the back of the head with a baseball bat, he finally cleared his throat and looked back off into the trees with a tight shrug. “Nothing. It doesn’t mean anything I guess. Don’t worry about it.” He seemed to chew on that train of thought for a moment or two longer before turning back to face you with a wide grin that was just on the right side of smug. “You think it’s a nice name?”
“Whatever,” you huffed, cheeks starting to heat with something other than bitter chagrin. “Just please get me out of this forest before I fall over another cliff.”
.
.
Headmaster Ambrose the 63rd (the sixty-third! What in the nepo-nonsense was that?!) looked like a wizard straight out of some homey after-school-special, with silver spectacles perched on his rounded nose and a soft, pointed, cap atop his head that flopped endearingly at the tip. He was an antithesis to Crowley in every sense of the word—flowing robes replacing tight vests and formal wear, faded white accents rather than sharp black, and not a single bit of Sparkling Flair to be seen. Like everything else, as nice as he seemed, it was such a stark jump into the opposite direction that it had your hackles raised in caution.
“Our libraries are some of the most extensive in the country,” he smiled, warm and fond. It made the corners of his eyes crinkle behind the rims of his glasses. “I hope you’ll be able to find something that may be of some help to your situation.”
“Thank you, sir,” you said, fighting the insane storybook urge to do something like curtsy.
He waved you off with a gentle shake of the head. “None of that ‘sir’ nonsense. You’re a guest a here! I hope my students have been treating you well?”
Stefan rubbed at the back of his neck and shot his headmaster a sheepish smile that was entirely, unfairly, handsome.
“Doing my best, sir.”
“Good lad,” he hummed, something nearly mischievous sparking in those blue-grey eyes of his. But you were hesitant to label it anything of the sort now that you’d seen what real sneaky nonsense looked like. This was more like… Children’s Program Mischief. That kind that usually involved an adult thinking themselves very clever for being able to sneak some vegetables into an afternoon snack. He turned back on you with that shining smile. “Allow me to find you an escort for the afternoon, and then we can get off to the library.”
“I’d be happy to show them around!” Stefan piped in.
“Is that so,” Ambrose mused, that same little grin playing over his mouth. “I thought you were meant to be in Equestrian Studies at the moment, hmm?”
“Well, I mean,” he spluttered, before collecting his argument and squaring his shoulders with another one of those blindingly bright smiles, “how could I possibly have left someone in need to fend for themselves, sir? I would have brought shame down on this entire institution! Heroes are meant to be made not born, after all!” He boomed, like someone cheering a school’s motto at a sports game.
All of this sounded like the largest crock of self-aggrandizing bullshit you’d ever heard, and by the time you’d had a whole internal debate with yourself over the merits of NRC’s outright nastiness versus this… whatever it was supposed to be, Ambrose was gesturing between the pair of you and saying something that you probably ought to be being paying attention to.
“Thank you, sir!” Stefan grinned, and Ambrose waved him off in that same pleasant way he had you earlier.
“You’re in excellent hands, Prefect,” the Headmaster assured as you were rushed out the door by the guy who was clearly going to be your newest Problem. “Take care! And please let me know if there’s anything at all that we can help you with.”
And then you were back out in the hallway, with Stefan already steering you towards who knew what. The archives, you hoped. But knowing your luck, probably not.
“You must be hungry, right?” he asked, perfectly polite. “Why don’t I take you to the cafeteria before we head over to the library?”
“I’m fine,” you said, just as your stomach gurgled a very loud complaint. You patted at your traitor of an abdomen in a silent reprimand and sighed, “You can just show me the way. I don’t want you to feel like you have to babysit me the whole day.”
“Nonsense,” he beamed, intertwining his arm with yours and tugging you off down another hallway before you could protest. He was so tall, and it should have been hard to keep up with his longer stride, but it wasn’t. “I like spending time with you.”
“What?” you blinked, thrown. Because maybe you’d hit your head or something, but you were pretty sure the last half hour had consisted of very little other than you being grumpy and unpleasant.
He canted his head to look down at you and the corners of his eyes crinkled in a smile.
“You’re nice to talk to,” he said. “Honest, I think. Would be the best way I could describe it. Genuine.” His hazel eyes went a bit distant, wistful. “There aren’t many people here like that. It’s different. Good different,” he promised, the corners of his smile tugging into something a bit teasing.
Your gaze tracked down to the brilliantly blue carpet beneath your feet and then around to the perfectly white walls. Other students filtered by in their starched uniforms and shiny, black, dress shoes—all impeccably groomed and all chattering idle nothings about the weather, about classes, exams. You could see the muddy imprints from your boots trailing along the floor and a few errant bits of grass fell in clumps from where they were still tangled up in your shoelaces. Something tight in you eased a bit at the mess, and you turned back to your companion with a sigh that was bordering far too close on ‘begrudgingly fond’ rather than the properly ‘put upon’ you were aiming for.
“If you say so.”
You hadn’t thought it was possible for the guy’s smile to get brighter, but somehow he managed. You squinted into the warmth of it with a strange, squirmy, feeling in your stomach that you didn’t think had much to do with being hungry.
“Come on then!” he beamed, tugging you along. “We don’t want to miss the Feast!”
“Feast?” you echoed, incredulous.
“With dancing silverware and everything,” he mock-whispered, like a secret just for the two of you.
“What the fuck,” you gaped, brain immediately latching onto the most ridiculous aspect of all of it. “How do you eat anything if it’s dancing?”
Stefan threw his head back with a roaring laugh that had you wanting to sink into your collar with your shoulders hunched up to your ears. But no one stopped to stare, or point, or snicker into their palms at his open enthusiasm. There were a few curious peepers, but once they seemed to identify the source of the noise, they all went back to wandering the halls in their perfectly pressed uniforms with nary a sly comment or sneer to be seen.
“See?” he beamed, tilting sideways to knock his shoulder against yours. “Honest. Now come on—we don’t want to miss out on all the grey stuff. It tastes way better than it sounds, promise.”
.
.
The pair of you entered the cafeteria right at the start of things, with dishes and forks just beginning to fly overhead in waves of strange, blinking, lights and motes of golden sparks. More than a few people waved at Stefan as he walked in, and he returned the greetings with polite, buoyant, ones of his own before herding you to an empty table off to the side.
“You don’t want to sit with your friends?” you asked, brow pinching in confusion.
“Hmm?” he mumbled around a spoonful of something already shoved in his mouth. There wasn’t any kind of plate in front of him, so he must have snatched it right out of the air. He swallowed and reached up to grab another. “Oh, no. That’s fine. Here! Try this!”
You leaned away from the spoon he held up to your lips with a huff and some obligatory complaints about how ‘you could feed yourself just fine, thank you very much.’ You plucked the bit of silverware from his fingers with a wary frown and very tactfully ignored that lingering, fluttering, warmth in your gut that you still hadn’t managed to completely snuff out.
“Is this… grey stuff?”
“Right on the money,” he winked, leaning forward to snatch up another flying fork. “My family’s not usually a fan of more ‘modern’ cuisine, so it’s always a treat to be able to try all the different foods at the Feasts here.”
You looked hesitantly at the goopy mess of monochromatic paste smeared across the spoon, and then back up at Stefan who was casually digging into his own floating mountain of toxic waste with an absolutely enraptured hum of satisfaction.
“Remind me to buy you a grilled cheese or something…” you muttered under your breath, before bravely swallowing the entire spoonful of sludge. And—huh. That was actually… pretty delicious. How weird.
You spent the rest of the luncheon event picking at random bits of floating foods as they danced by. Occasionally Stefan would lean forward to point out his favorites and give recommendations. He was surprisingly observant, despite whatever initial impressions his jock’s jawline and guileless grins may have led you to believe otherwise—taking easy note of the things you pushed aside and the ones you nibbled at more enthusiastically.
“Oh—you missed the desserts,” he lamented as the last remnants of a picked apart pie flew over your head.
“That’s fine,” you said, but he only shook his head and began to drag you off again with another of those brilliant grins.
And so began a weird sort of pseudo treasure hunt, where Stefan would take your hand and haul you off to some random corner of the castle with promises of whatever seemed to strike his fancy, or more accurately you supposed, whatever he seemed to think you might fancy.
“No one really uses this vending machine anymore, but somehow it always restocks and it has the best ice cream bars I’ve ever had. It’s wild! I’m sure you’ll love it!—“
“Oh, it is pretty cold down here, right? I didn’t even think about that. But… hmm… Here! I know the best place to grab a hot chocolate! It’s just over this way a bit—“
“These walls are kind of a drab view, yeah? Here! If we go down this way there’s a great little area to sit where you can see the whole bay—“
By the end of things, somehow you ended up back at the stables with that terror of a horse of his. And despite the runaround and the vaguely exhausting fact that Stefan’s social battery never seemed to wear itself out ever, it wasn’t… it wasn’t that bad, actually. Sometimes people would wave him down to talk, and he always introduced you and left the proverbial door open for you to join the conversation, but never asked you to participate, which was nice. You’d taken to just sort of slouching against his side in a food coma like a lizard on a rock as he answered whatever mundane questions all the other students asked of him. But otherwise, it was just the pair of you bopping around all over the campus.
Helios saw his master and whinnied merrily, and Stefan made an odd sort of chuffing noise in return that had you laughing into your palm.
“What?” He complained good-naturedly. “You’ve never barked at a dog before? It’s the same thing!”
“Of course it is,” you droned, lips twitching up at the corners.
The next destination was someplace on the coast that he was insisting was the absolute best place in the world to sit and think. Which if you wanted to do research, naturally you needed to get your head together about where to start, right? The only problem was that it was a solid hour hike away, but Stefan assured you that on horseback it was a much shorter journey.
You leaned forward on your tiptoes to get a look down the sprawling corridor of stalls, each larger and grander than the last. And each of their occupants following that exact same trend. There even looked like there was a horse with wings, which was—ah. Not helping the intimidation factor, to say the least.
“You can ride with me,” he offered. “If you’re uncomfortable, I mean. Sometimes it helps to feel like there’s someone more adept at the reins.”
You blinked, a bit taken aback that he’d picked up on your discomfort so easily. But then then you focused on the rest of that offer and you and the horse shared a Look. And wasn’t that a trippy thing to notice. You immediately forced yourself not to think about it.
“I don’t know if that’s fair to Helios,” you pointed out.
“Nonsense!” Stefan waved you off, and Helios pinned his ears indignantly. “He’s an Andalusian. They’re war horses, you know? Built to be as sturdy and strong as any horse can be.” He said the last part with a sickly-sweet uptick to his voice, and leaned up against the beast’s flank like they were sharing an inside joke. “They say Prince Phillip’s legendary steed was an Andalusian, and they rode into battle against a dragon together.”
Helios’s grey muzzle twitched prissily and eventually the horse lowered his great head to thump against Stefan’s side with a gusty ‘harumph’ that had the man stumbling forward with a pleasant laugh.
“There you are, you big baby. I knew you had it in you.”
After giving the horse a firm pat pat on his rump, Stefan turned and offered you a hand.
“It’s easier if I help you up first,” he explained.
“Isn’t there like… a ladder, or something?” You tried, and Stefan grinned sneakily before ducking behind you and hauling you up on Helios’s back all in one go. You absolutely, positively, did not squeak, or anything else ridiculous like that. It was a—a squawk! The most indignant and put upon of noises!
Stefan laughed and waved off whatever terrible sounds you were making with a bemused ‘Sorry! Sorry!’ that was the absolute least apologetic thing you’d ever heard. And then he was swinging himself up near effortlessly into the saddle behind you and looping an arm around your waist.
“Sometimes it’s better to just get it over with,” he explained in your ear, like your brain hadn’t just absolutely Blue Screened at the new weight along your hips. “Like ripping off a bandaid. I know it can all be sort of intimidating for people who aren’t used to being around horses.”
When you didn’t respond, because you were still trying to sort cognizant thoughts of the mess of ‘!!!’ that was hard at work blotting out the rest of your brain, you felt him start to shift a bit behind you. His hands flexed a bit tighter, as if the idea of you not being secure enough in the saddle was in anyway the problem here. After another moment of your continued silence, Stefan leaned forward carefully to hook his chin over your shoulder and spoke in that same carefully polite way he had when he’d worried he’d insulted you all those hours ago in the forest.
“If you’re still uncomfortable I can get you down if you want,” he offered, voice dipping low in something that sounded like hesitance. “I know I—I mean, you don’t have to go riding with me, if you don’t want to. I just thought it’d be…” He cleared his throat, and you must have been going delirious because out of the corner of your eyes you swore you could see the tips of his ears turning pink. “I can… I can just take you to the library now, if you want,” he said. “I know I’ve already been pretty selfish with your time today.”
Helios shifted to stamp his feet and you twisted your fingers nervously into his mane. You really didn’t feel entirely great about being so high, on something so wild and big. And honestly, you had wasted a lot of time sightseeing with your impromptu tour guide. If you were being in anyway rational, you should demand Stefan dismount and take you to the library like he promised. But all the same… Today had been—all of it had been…
“Just don’t let me fall,” you huffed, fighting the urge to duck your chin down into your collar to hide the rising heat in your cheeks.
“Of course not!” Stefan beamed, straightening himself back up so suddenly that he nearly tipped the both of you from the saddle. You sent him a glare over your shoulder and he laughed, loud and boisterous. “Sorry, sorry. From here out starts the ‘of course not.’ That was just a test run.”
“Whatever,” you sighed, letting him maneuver your hands to better hold the reins alongside his.
Naturally, by the time you got halfway to the beach, Stefan remembered that the library closed early on Mondays, and that you’d well and truly missed your opportunity as you’d been off gallivanting with him and his ridiculousness all day.
But you know what? It was fine. You’d just come back tomorrow. And maybe the next day too.
.
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A Lovesick Leviathan
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Male Leviathan x Gender Neutral Slime Reader (CW: Painless noncon, inhuman reader, size difference, kidnapping, magical branding, temporarily frozen reader, general yandere behavior, minor character death, extreme violence towards minor character) Word count: 3.3k (Piece developed with a lot of input and help from @maxog3n, they also did the amazing art posted with this piece. I am sorry this took so long, but really hope you all enjoy it.)
Screams of pain, some ominous cracking sounds, and then silence.
Auggie let out a defeated sigh as he peeled the body of the human he had just fucked to death off of his cock, their pulverized insides mixed with his blue cum and leaking out everywhere.
Like the others that had died to his amorous pursuits, he hadn’t meant to kill them. In fact, he had loved each one of them and wanted them to be his mate. He carefully determined a suitable candidate, brought them home against their will, and eventually couldn’t contain his lust anymore and fucked them.
The problem was that he was not human. He was a leviathan and his massive member was simply too huge, both long and thick, and his thrusts were powerful. None survived even a single round with him.
He shed a tear as he buried his latest victim.
Then he wiped it away and immediately regained his usual jovial composure. That’s okay, they just weren’t “the one”. He had to expect these kinda snags every now and then if he was going to put himself out on the market.
It was just how dating worked.
Auggie decided that he needed to clear his mind and leave his shack for a while. Get some fresh air. Maybe he would add to his collection of items. Much like a mermaid, leviathans like him hoarded trinkets and baubles.
He made the decision to hit up the old abandoned building a few miles up the coast from his seaside abode. He did not know what the building had once been for, but he was very adventurous and was always looking for new stuff to add to his collection of treasures or materials to extend his shack with.
The leviathan definitely didn’t feel like going into town. Sure, the humans all fled and he could take whatever he wanted, but he did not want to deal with the panicked screams. Plus, he had already done that a dozen times, he wanted to explore somewhere new. And besides, the town was a lot farther than the abandoned facility and he didn’t feel like being out too late. Not with the long he had.
Auggie left the confines of his ramshackle house, and waded into the water, the blood from his previous “mate” leaving a faint trail of blood behind him as he swam up the coast towards his destination.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
You were thrilled, your home was finally starting to feel cozy. Or whatever passed as cozy for a saltwater slime.
Spending all your life in the water just did not appeal to you, the surface was just so fascinating. You had spent a little time among some open-minded humans, but you longed to be closer to the sea.
So when you found a brine filled desalination plant completely abandoned for you to do with as you pleased you knew you had found a home from which you could explore the surrounding land and retreat to should the need arise.
It had taken a while, a little over a month, for you to tidy the place up and get things how you liked it. You had decorated the place with seashells, dead corals, and current smoothed glass to make everything feel more natural. You had even covered the first floor with a thick layer of sand!
Everything was perfect.
Just when you were admiring the work you had finally completed when you heard the stomping of a large animal of some type approaching.
You peered out the window and gasped.
A huge… thing… approached.
You had no idea what he could be. You only assumed it was a he because of the giant uncut cock flopping from below the most tiny and useless loincloth imaginable.
The lumbering behemoth had a chubby build, striking blue skin, scales from his ankles to his knees and from his wrists to his elbows, he had fins where a human’s ears would be, sharp teeth, and his dark medium length hair wasn’t hair at all, but instead a writing mass of tentacles.
He came closer and closer to the desalination facility, your home, it was clear it was his intent to enter and not just pass by like you had hoped.
The best option was to hide yourself. Luckily you were crystal clear, like gooey water, and could camouflage yourself easily.
There were many steel barrels along the wall to catch water from a sometimes leaky roof, you decided to hop in, even if he peeped in all you would just blend right in with the water that was in it.
Seconds after you got in you heard the door creak open.
Auggie took a few steps in and looked around the place, getting a handle of his surroundings.
The place had sand everywhere. And dried corals, shells, and smooth glass everywhere. Odd. It clearly wasn’t as abandoned as it had appeared to be from outside.
Maybe there was a potential mate here! If he wanted to find his soul mate he knew he had to be open minded about finding his partner wherever they may happen to meet.
And whoever called this place home had an aesthetic he enjoyed. They lived in a run down building not entirely unlike his shack, they were opportunistic like he was and they decorated the place to be like the ocean from which he originated.
He was sure he would get along well with whoever lived here.
You could not see him from your current position in the barrel, but you could hear him walking around and sniffing as if hunting for something.
Auggie explored every nook and cranny, using his sensitive nose to guide him, but even though it was clear as day that someone was using this as a home he could detect no scent other than that of saltwater.
Shrugging his shoulders, he decided to return to his original mission, seeking out trinkets for his treasure hoard and possibly materials to build with.
He found some rope and used it to tie some sheets of metal to his back, but other than that he hadn’t found much for his home. Carrying these he wouldn’t be able to swim back, he’d have to walk back at a leisurely pace.
Auggie started to head towards the doors to leave, as he did you heard the sound of his footsteps retreating and were so relieved.
But it was premature, he was disappointed in his haul so he took one last glance around the room just in case he missed something. He spied some pristine barrels in the corner. He could always use a nice new barrel!
The giant invader found one that was full of water, likely from that storm last night, it was pretty hot and since he had to walk back a refreshing splash of water would be nice and cooling should he need it on the return trip home.
You panicked as you and the water around you sloshed as he picked up the container that was currently serving as your hiding place. But your only option was to remain hidden for as long as you possibly could and make a break for it when you could.
Despite not having a traditional stomach you still felt very nauseous at being jostled with every step your unwitting kidnapper made. With how you were disoriented, you could not even give an accurate estimate of how long you had been in your current predicament, what was probably just thirty or forty minutes felt like unending hours.
Finally the moving about came to a stop, maybe he was home, maybe he would leave the container outside to use for water collection, you dared to hope. But these hopes were short lived as the behemoth lifted the container up and poured it over himself to cool off, causing you to tumble out in your default humanoid shape and reflexively grab on to whatever you could to prevent falling.
Whatever you could grab was the man who invaded your home, your gel-like arms around his broad shoulders.
You stared at each other for a moment until Auggie got a slight blush that was quickly replaced by a huge grin, revealing two rows of razor sharp teeth.
A brand new romantic interest just fell right into his lap! Well, you weren’t on his lap yet, but there would be time for that soon enough.
When you had recovered from the shock of being dumped directly on to this strange blue man you pushed yourself off of him and fell to the ground with a wet plop.
You started running.
“Hey wait! That’s really rude! I haven’t decided if I’m your boyfriend yet!!!”
What the hell was wrong with this guy? You heard him utter some strange mystic sounding words before hearing an odd whoosh and suddenly you felt indescribably heavy. Your vision frosted over and you fell over. Hard.
Everything was so cold, you couldn’t move at all! You had been completely frozen, evidently this crazy man had ice magic. Just your luck.
“Don’t worry, I am pretty sure I will be your boyfriend! I liked all the décor in your former home. We have so much more in common than the people I normally date!”
He walked up to you slowly, picked you up carefully, and then placed you back in the barrel he had been unwittingly hauling you in.
This manner of being handled was… humiliating to say the least.
Once again you were jostled around in the barrel, now without water and with more pain in your newly acquired solidified form. It was so restrictive. You were used to being more free moving than what a solid being was capable of and now here you were completely paralyzed.
Once again, the trip felt like it was taking an eternity. Except now it was worse, as every second was punctuated by the deep seated fear of what may become of you when the journey ended.
You also were forced to contend with the large man’s non-stop talking.
“I’m Auggie! I am so glad we met. I think it was probably fate. Like we were meant to find each other! I haven't met many slimes before. Only a couple times when swimming and I couldn’t see them well enough in the water to bring them back to date…”
You tuned Auggie out after a while. He just wouldn’t stop talking about how happy he was and how he had been in need of a new partner.
Finally you thawed out enough to talk, though you were still too stiff to move quickly.
“What is wrong with you!? We are NOT dating!!”
“Oh~ You have such a lovely voice! I am so happy to hear it. We are definitely dating now so I can hear you talk everyday~”
He hummed happily as he continued about his merry way, leaving your objection completely unacknowledged.
“Excuse me!? I just said we are NOT dating!!”
Though the words he spoke were… demented… he said them in the same happy go lucky jovial tone with which he had been speaking, “Don’t be silly, of course we are. I already was sure I would like you based on your home and with us both being sea critters, but after hearing your voice I simply can’t be without you~ I am so sorry if I implied you have a choice!”
After letting out a defeated whimper you went silent.
Auggie continued babbling about all the stuff the two of you would do together. As your destination approached he started running, he was just so eager to get you nice and settled in your brand new home.
You grunted in annoyance as you were bounced about in your glorified bucket.
“Oh. Heh heh. Sorry, I just got carried away.”
He slowed down to a brisk walk the rest of the way.
“We’re here!” He shouted in a chipper manner. For a totally psychotic kidnapper hellbent on forcing you to be in a relationship he sure was cheerful.
The barrel was placed down with a thud before he pulled you out. You were thawed to the point of being like a slurry and his warm hands felt rather nice.
Though you’d still rather be anywhere else.
You saw his home and were shocked, how could anyone live in something like this? It was a towering mass of junk. Large slabs of metal and wood cobbled together. It was actually kinda impressive how structurally sound it appeared to be despite the building materials used in its construction.
Auggie slung your chilled form over his shoulders without warning, eliciting a startled sound from you.
He opened the doors and set you down on a rugged chair that was clearly meant for beings around your size. Humans.
How many people had been forced to accept Auggie as their “boyfriend”. Were you going to die here?
You took stock of your surroundings, if you were ever going to escape you would need to know potential weapons, escape routes, and hiding places.
But honestly you didn’t even know where to start, the building was huge as it was meant for such a large being like Auggie. And it seemed like he had the same inclinations as mermen when it came to collecting objects of interest. Though instead of valuables like coins, gems, and shells Auggie seemed to be interested in… a different sort of collection.
Mounted on the wall as if some sort of poster was a set of doors that read “Tony’s Bar and Bistro”. Standing in the corner was a surfboard that looked as if a bite had been taken out of it with a lifebuoy around it. Other items strewn about the place included a slot machine, street signs, and a child’s tricycle.
There were random items in all sorts of places.
The ceiling was no exception. Hanging upside down from the ceiling, above even Auggie’s head, were several random and out of place items. Though the strangest of all was a… parking meter? You couldn’t be sure, you had only stealthily visited a human city a couple times.
None of this stuff helped you though, and it seemed the only way out was through the large front door.
Without any warning Auggie crouched down in front of you and stared intensely with a smug grin.
“I bet right now you are thinking of ways to leave aren’t cha? Without even giving our love a chance! Don’t worry I will take the burden of worrying about freedom away!”
He held his webbed pointer finger to your chest and muttered a complex incantation. You didn’t notice it before but he had a tattoo in the shape of a trident on his thigh, it glowed with a blue light as he uttered his spell and suddenly you had a matching tattoo marked on your chest.
It didn’t harm you at all, but his wicked grin coupled with the mark’s magical origins worried you.
“Wh-what’s that…?”
“Do you like it? It’s my brand! It means you’re alllll mine~”
You gave a face of disgust.
“It’s okay if you don’t believe it yet, some people are just slower learners. That’s okay.”
Your only reply was to glare at him silently.
“You’re never leaving me.”
You chose to just keep shooting him an angry look. It didn’t matter what he thought, you would slip away at the first opportunity. You were a slime, slippery and versatile, there were very few ways you could be contained long term. And he couldn’t just keep re-freezing you every single time you bolted.
“Haha, what? Don’t believe me dummy? Okay then… go ahead…”
With a smirk he got up and went to the door, holding it wide open for you.
“Go on, leave.”
He gestured you out the door and you didn’t hesitate, maybe he thought he could freeze you, or close the door, or push you back somehow, but were prepared for anything. You were positive that the smug expression was wiped from his face as you took on a taller and slimmer shape and zipped on by before he could react.
You got maybe all of 15ft. away from the shack before you were yanked back by some invisible force and landed on the ground.
“What th-”
You heard the heavy footsteps of your captor approach from behind.
“Have you caught on yet cutie? I told you, you’re allll mine~ My little mark on you ties you to me, you will never be able to go very far.”
For the first time that day you truly felt despair. The thought you could get away was the sole barrier that had prevented you from giving in to the filling of hopelessness that now threatened to consume you, but that was gone now. You were left with nothing but soul crushing helplessness… that and Auggie.
He scooped you up and carried you back to his house laying you in his large and rather decadent bed, a stark contrast to the ramshackle state of the rest of his home.
Auggie stood by the bed and positioned your legs to hang off of it, you guessed at what he was planning but were too caught up in your sense of doom and despair to react properly or mount even the slightest resistance.
“Awww, don’t be sad darlin’, this’ll be fun!” He chuckled with his normal sense of joy and lack of care for what anyone else wanted.
The leviathan stroked his cock to its staggering full length and lined it up between your legs.
You did not have an entrance there. Slimes simply absorbed plankton or other nutrient sources through their membranes and deposited what was indigestible in the same manner, and there was no conventional reproductive system. Slimes of your type would meet, partially join limbs, and create an egg.
But that sure didn’t stop Auggie from penetrating you anyway.
Luckily your slime body was extremely durable and felt little pain from such actions. He slammed into you right through your membrane, gripping your sides as he pulled you down to the base. His blue precum leaked into your body, leaving blue streaks where it dissolved.
He moved you back and forth like a fleshlight, like you were just some toy for his pleasure, not a living being with your own agency.
You were entirely limp in his hands, just a nice gooey warmth around his cock, feeling neither pleasure or pain from his ever increasing thrusts.
No, as you stared up at him, being moved back and forth on his cock, the only thing you felt was an uncomfortable pressure. And an overwhelming sense of violation.
Finally he pushed in as far as he could, his dick drilling all the way into your head as he unleashed his glowing blue cum into you. He let out a relaxed sigh as his cock lay inside you throbbing, still drooling more and more seed into you from his huge nuts.
Auggie finally pulled out of you, his semen had made your entire body swell considerably and it turned you from clear and transparent to a bright and faintly glowing blue as your body absorbed it like food.
“Oooh, you took my cock so well and became even prettier! It definitely means you’re meant for me! And it looks like my cum is good food for my gooey little darling too~ Don’t worry. I’ll make sure to feed you plenty EVERY. DAY.”
Your existence as a slime, what once granted you versatility and mobility. What you considered a blessed existence better than being a restrained solid, was now the cause of your loss of any freedom.
Because now that Auggie was in love with a mate that his cock couldn’t kill he was never going to let you go.
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i-thirsty-boi · 2 years
Text
Platonic Yandere-ish Ronal/Tonowari/Tsireya/Aonung X Human Child Reader
~A/N: I started writing this right after I posted my first avatar work. Reader is pretty gender neutral in this, but it IS implied that they are female. Your only real descriptors are you being tiny and having long hair.
~Masterlist
Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3
CW: yandere behavior (platonic), possesive behavior, obsessive behavior, near death experience, the human scientists are assholes
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-You came to Pandora with your Aunt when you were five. (Same as the other Platonic Yandere Avatar thing I did) You lived on the lab base with her and some other scientists that barely tolerated you.
-You were constantly bored out of your mind because you were locked out of the lab every day, where every other sentient being was. So, when there was a meal break you asked your Aunt if you could explore during the day. She said yes, but you had to wear an oxygen mask because the air here could hurt you otherwise.
-You weren’t happy about the mask and asked her if there was any way around wearing it. She told you there was but it was painful. Which, rightfully, made you scared but you said you’d do it anyway. So, your first interaction with all of the scientists wasn’t very pleasant, but it let you go outside!
-You fell in love with the planet during your trips outside the lab facility. But, you would have to move to a new one soon since they wanted to study the stuff on a different part of the planet. So, you packed your stuff in a watertight bag and went in the helicopter with, surprisingly, not your Aunt.
-During the trip over, you were constantly looking out the side of the helicopter to look at what you were passing, even if it was mostly ocean.
You were in awe at how beautiful Pandora was all over. As you were looking out the windows, you missed what was happening around you. The rest of the scientists did not like you or your presence in the labs. They knew your Aunt got annoyed with you too. So, they came up with a plan to get rid of you, but not necessarily kill you. They knew it was time when they saw the reefs approaching.
While you were looking out the window you noticed that one of the scientists was moving towards where you were. They grabbed your duffle bag before opening the door of the helicopter. You were panicking, not knowing what was going on. They then grabbed you, handed you your bag, and threw you out of the helicopter.
You gripped your bag as hard as you could while screaming on the way down. You passed out as soon as you hit the water.
-Tsireya had been watching the sky people contraption as soon as she noticed it in the sky. She was confused when the side of it opened up, but then saw a tiny human with a big bag get thrown out of it. She rushed over to where you would land, while listening to your screams as you fell.
-She immediately dove to get you when you hit the surface of the water. You had lost consciousness under the surface, so she dragged you to the surface, with your bag, and began swimming back to shore with you in tow.
-Once she made it to the shore, she carried you to where her mother was, in the healer’s tent. You were such a tiny thing, and she was so worried for you. 
-She got her mother’s attention as soon as she entered the tent. Ronal was floored that her daughter had a human with her, but focused on your physical state right after.
Tsireya explained to her mother all she knew as she laid you down on a mat, then set your bag next to you. Ronal was shocked at the story. She knew humans were cruel, but this was a new low to her. Throwing out a child. She immediately got to work on waking you up, doing some chants. (A/N: Basing this off the scene when Kiri had a seizure)
After she was done, your eyes immediately shot open and you bolted upright. You then promptly leaned to the side and coughed up some water. As soon as you were done with your coughing fit, you looked over to the two navi women looking at you intently. You gave them a strained smile and a wave before laying back down. 
They went right to either side of your head and began talking to you. They asked you what your name was, how old you were, and what happened. You introduced yourself then told them the full story of how you ended up in the water. Needless to say they were both furious about it. What kind of monsters would endanger a child like this?!
You then asked who they were, quite politely too. Ronal took the initiative to talk, saying, “My name is Ronal, and this is my daughter Tsireya.” You just smiled and told them they had pretty names. This made them both chuckle and thank you for your sweet words. They asked if you felt alright enough to move, and you said yes. 
-They then both got up and waited for you to do the same. They both smiled at how tiny you were compared to them, you only came up to the middle of Tsireya’s thigh and the bottom of Ronal’s. Tsireya picked up your bag and motioned you to follow them. 
-You tried to keep up with their slow and small steps, but weren’t really able to. So, Ronal asked if she could carry you. You smiled and reached up to her. She leant down and picked you up, tiny enough to be cradled to her chest like a baby. 
-You were having the time of your life being carried so high up. You took in your surroundings with a big smile as they walked through their tribe to their home. Once they got there, Tsireya set down your bag, and Ronal set you on the ground. To which you immediately went around looking at everything that you could see. 
-It wasn’t very long before Tonowari and Aonung each heard the whispers of a tiny human with Ronal and Tsireya. So, they both hurried back to their home to get to the bottom of it. 
-Sure enough, there was a tiny human in their home, looking around at everything with a smile. The two women noticed them immediately and motioned them closer. 
Tsireya got your attention by saying, “Hey Y/N, can you come over here and meet some more people?” You looked over as soon as you heard her, then nodded before running over to her. Which was more of a fast waddle to them. 
Once you were in front of her she asked you to introduce yourself to the two men. So, you said, “Hello! My name’s Y/N and I’m five!” You held up five fingers while saying it quite loudly. This made the bigger man chuckle and the smaller one just smiled at you. 
Then the bigger man said, “My name is Tonowari, and this one is my son Aonung. Ronal is my mate and Tsireya is my daughter.” You told him name was cool. He chuckled again before asking how you got here. So, you went over the whole story again. Which made him angry at the humans and reignited the flames of anger in the two women. 
“Well, that’s too bad for them. Would you like to stay with us since you’re here now?” Tonowari asked you in a very kind tone. You nodded very animatedly, excited to stay with the first nice people you met on that planet. 
-And right after that sweet moment, your stomach rumbled very loudly. Everyone in that room heard it. Which made you look down and blush, but all the navi laugh. 
-They went to start making lunch for you. Ronal had decided to make a meal for all of them since it was close enough to lunchtime for it. She just didn’t want to make you stay hungry until dinner. 
-While she started making the food, Tonowari had picked you up. You gripped him while seeing the place from a new angle. It amazed you again, how pretty everything was. Plus, Tonowari was very tall!
-You giggled as he walked around their home with you by his shoulder. He pointed things out to you as he went along, and you listened intently. Right as he was done showing you around, Ronal finished with the food. 
-She called everyone over to eat. They all sat around where she set the food, with you in Tonowari’s lap. She made plates for her whole family before having you make a plate for yourself, as she didn’t know how much to give you. You were a tiny human, but the amount of food you took didn’t seem like enough to her, and as she looked at her family they seemed to agree. They decided to leave it be for now. 
-Everyone started eating after you were done making your plate. You finished your food before everyone else and set down your plate in front of you. Tonowari asked you if you wanted anymore as you started leaning back against him. You just shook your head before yawning. 
-Everyone’s heart just melted looking at you falling asleep on Tonowari. Tonowari himself felt happy that you felt safe enough with them to fall asleep on him, and the others were jealous that it wasn’t them. 
The family left you be as they finished their lunch. Once they all finished their own food, Tonowari stood up with you in his arms as he made his way to where his family sleeps and laid down with you. As he settled down you snuggled into him further. Soon enough, the whole family gathered around him and you, to keep watch over you as you slept. 
They stayed that way for about an hour before you started to wake up. You blinked your eyes open before reaching a hand up to rub the sleep from them. You sat up and stretched before looking around yourself. You noticed that Tonowari was what you were laying on, and the other three were sitting around him. 
All of them thought it was adorable, what you did after you woke up. They all had smiles on their faces as you finally looked around yourself. With how unaware you were when tired, it was a good thing you ended up there with them to watch over you. 
You groggily said, “Good morning.” Then you stood up to stretch more before making your way over to your bag and digging around in it for something. Tsireya and Ronal got up to go with you to your bag and see what you had in it. It looked like mostly clothes, what looked like a blanket, a brush, a smaller brush, some circle things, and a piece of human technology. You grabbed the brush and circle things before turning to look at them. 
You looked at the two women and asked if they could brush and do your hair. It was a mess after being dragged through the water. They each smiled and agreed before taking you somewhere else in their home. Ronal sat behind you and started to gently brush through your hair, and Tsireya sat in front of you to ask you what you wanted them to do with your hair. 
You sat happily and described french braids to them. With the small explanation that the braids in their hair could mess up yours if they put them in it. They absorbed the information happily. Both took a mental note that tight, but not tiny, braids were fine in your hair. Once Ronal was done brushing your hair, you asked her to part it down the middle to do two braids. She parted it and both women started on a side of your head and quickly finished the simple braids.
You ran over to their version of a mirror and craned your head to look at it. Aonung came over and picked you up so you could look at yourself in it. You beamed and thanked them for doing your hair. They smiled and told you it was no problem. You walked to the ‘door’ of their home and looked out at the water. You saw some navi people swimming in the water by the rock things and wanted to go swimming as well. 
You turned to the navi around you and asked them if you could go swim. They told you they had no problem with it, only that Tsireya and Aonung had to go with you just in case something happened. You happily agreed and went to your bag to get out a swimsuit. They looked at you curiously for it. You explained the general purpose of a swimsuit and why it was important for humans to wear them when swimming. They were still confused but nodded anyway, surprised at how sensitive human skin was. 
You asked for help changing, and within a minute you were ready. This time Aonung was the one carrying you out to the water. He set you down just as he reached the shore. Him and his sister watched as you immediately went into the shallow water and waded around. It went up to your waist, but would only go up to each of their calves. You went to look around in the water, occasionally picking up a shell and tossing it to the dry part of the sand, clearly wanting to keep them. 
You waved both of them to go in the water with you as you went to the deeper parts of it. They quickly went to your side to swim with you. You almost ignored them as you paddled your way into the deeper water. You started to float on your front so you could look down into the water. Everything on Pandora was just so pretty to you, you were always in awe at anything new. After only a minute you brought your head up to the surface to get some air. 
You swam a little farther out before taking a deep breath and diving down a bit. You swam in little circles under the surface, looking at everything around you with wonder. The siblings were just looking at you with amusement. Happy that you like being here and being in the water. Though you can’t stay under for very long at this point. 
-Once you came back up, they went right beside you to ask if you wanted to learn how to hold your breath for a longer period of time. You enthusiastically agreed. 
-So, for a week you get some light lessons on breathing properly to be underwater for longer. Light, because Ronal and Tonowari didn’t want you to strain yourself too much. Plus, they each had you with them when doing their safer duties so they could spend time with you. Those lessons and meal times were their kids’ chance to bond with you more.
-As you got used to living with the family, they began to consider you family. Their baby. And they were very protective of you. They kept you close to them at all moments of the day, no matter what they were doing and who they were with. 
-They began subtly pushing you to call them your family. They begin to use phrases like ‘your siblings’, ‘your mother’, ‘your father’, and so on. And you accept them, but continue to call all of them by their names. You’ve given them all nicknames, which they think are cute, but they want you to acknowledge them as your family. 
-They think since you haven’t done it on your own, that they’ll have to prompt you to start calling them by familial terms. They brought it up to you one night at dinner.
-Tonowari looked over at you, who was sitting in his other daughter’s lap, and brought forth the question. 
“Y/N, you have been with us for a while now. We all see you as a part of our family now. But you still call us by our names. Can you try to refer to us as family from now on? Like Mother, father, sister, and brother?” He said this softly and tentatively. Maybe a little afraid of your response. You just looked up to him with a thinking face. You finally spoke to tell them that you thought of them as family too and would start adjusting to using different terms.
All of the family were so happy. Tsireya had hugged you further to her after hearing you say that. And the rest had beaming smiles aimed at you. You smiled back at them before going back to your meal. The rest of the night went as it usually did. 
-In the morning is when things changed a little bit. As everyone woke up, you said your good mornings as per usual. When you wanted to be picked up you reached up to Tonowari and said, “Up please Papa.” His heart melted when you said that and he instantly scooped you up and cradled you closer to him. 
-You leaned your head onto his shoulder as he held you while the rest of the family helped make breakfast. You ate breakfast in your new father’s lap, then thanked Ronal by saying, “Thank you for breakfast Mama.” She said, “It’s no problem at all, my baby.” The whole family was smiling at the interaction.
-You couldn’t figure out a way to use brother or sister in a sentence said to your new siblings, and you told them this. They were a bit disappointed at it, but figured it was a human thing with how you learned to speak. 
-They both hugged you and told you they don’t mind, as long as you knew they were your siblings now. You smiled and nodded before beginning to drag them to the water with you so you could wade around for shells and swim around a bit before lunch.
-You spent about 2 hours collecting shells you thought were pretty while Tsireya helped you and Aonung swam with his friends for a bit. His friends liked you, but you were very shy around them and preferred being around your family. 
-After you got bored with the shells, you put the ones you liked the most in the small basket your sister always brought for you. Then, you went back to Tsireya and dragged her with you into the deeper water. Well, she let you take her with you, and just let you think you were moving her on your own. 
-She continues to help you with your breathing so you could stay under for longer. You have gotten up to four minutes underwater. Your sister was proud of you for making so much progress, but knew you could improve a little bit more. You would never need to do anything under the water, as a human and the precious baby of their family, but she knew being underwater and looking around at everything made you happy. And she really wanted you to be, and stay, happy.
You had taken some extra instruction from your sister before following the special breathing and diving below the surface. You went about halfway down and towards the reefs. You gently touched the stationary life on the reef and smiled as it touched you back. Tsireya was right with you, smiling as you continued to admire the nature you now saw everyday. 
She kept an eye on you as you did your daily exploration. You went over multiple organisms on the reef before making your way back to the surface. You took another breath before going back under and swaying your arms to the movements of the tiny school of fish by you. You continued to do this before going back to the surface again. 
This time Tsireya came up with you. She knew you got tired quickly and would take a short nap before lunch. You went a bit away from her and started floating on your back before going still and lightly dozing off. She knew you floated well, but stayed close to you anyway. 
You stayed in your light sleep until you two got called to lunch. Your parents had brought the food they made outside so you could eat outside of the marui. You almost pranced up onto the shore after fully waking up and swimming as far as you could until you could stand on the bottom. Tsireya wasn’t far behind you, and Aonung started to swim over after spotting you from a distance with his friends. 
Aonung swam as quick as he could and made it to you two right as you were exiting the water. You waddled over to your parents as they sat down on the sand. You stopped a little ways away from them and wrung your hair out as best as you could before walking over to your mother and plopping down in her lap. 
-Everyone quickly gathered around the food and made their plates, with Tonowari making yours. He still thought it was too little food, but you never finished it if they added a little bit more, plus you seemed healthy and happy enough. 
-They started eating at the same time as you did. You happily ate and then set your bowl aside as you finished, then leaned further back into Ronal while everyone else finished their lunch. Tonowari took the remnants of lunch back to the marui and Ronal picked you up as she stood. 
-She took you with her as she went further into the village. She had some duties as Tsahik, and she was going to have you accompany her until dinner. 
-She had brought your basket of shells to where she would be so you could continue your little projects with them as she did her duties. She sat you down on a cushion with your basket and plenty of string for your projects. She sat down right beside you as she started with what she needed to do. 
-After an hour she looked over to see what you were doing. She saw you had weaved some of the shells into something, but couldn’t figure out what it was at first. As you held it up to your head to check if it was large enough, she realized you were making a headpiece to mimic hers with the tiny shells you had collected.
-It only took you another fifteen minutes to finish it before you had put it on. It was a combination of pink and white shells framing your face, a pink one in the center of your forehead, and it looped around your two ‘french braids’ to keep it secure to your head. 
-You turned to her and waited for her to notice. She had been watching you as you put it on, but hummed and turned to you like she had just seen you turn to her. She looked over the headpiece with you directly looking at her, and told you that it was very pretty on you. 
You smiled and hopped up to your feet, which made the shells clink together when you moved. You went over to Ronal and hugged one of her arms and said, “Thank you Mama! I’m gonna go show Papa and my siblings!” You giggled when she kissed you head before motioning to the doorway of the hut you were in. 
You giggled as you ran out of the hut to find the other members of your family. You ran to where you thought your siblings would be, swimming with their friends. You stopped with your feet in the water and called out to them, “Reya! Nung! Come see what I made!” 
You easily got their attention and they looked over and noticed something on your head, but couldn’t see it well. They swam over to you and finally saw what it was. A shell headpiece. They told you it was pretty on you, and asked who made it. You proudly said that you made it yourself. They both kissed one of your cheeks and told you they were impressed with your work. 
You asked them where your dad was so you could show him too. They told you he would be coming back from fishing in a few minutes. You went to the dock and watched as the group of hunters appeared in the distance with full pouches of fish. You stood on the dock and waited for the group to get closer before calling out to your dad. 
You shouted, “Papa!” which got Tonowari’s attention and he came over to where you were standing on his skimwing. He stopped just beside you and hopped onto the dock to pick you up, knowing the other men would deal with his fish he caught. 
Right as he settled you in his arms, facing him, he noticed the new thing about you. He complimented the headpiece, saying it made you look very pretty. You giggled and responded, “Thank you Papa! I made it myself!” You were very proud of what you made, and so was he. He kissed all over your cheeks and forehead while telling you how proud he was of your skills, and how cute you were. You were loving the attention and the tinkling noise the shells made. 
-You kept the headpiece on everyday after that. Mixing your hair up from two braids to two ponytails, to two space buns every few days. 
-But, about two weeks after you finished it, you started to not feel very good. You thought you had a cold, and told your parents this. They were very concerned and asked what that was. You told them it was a minor sickness and they both immediately looked you over and asked if you would be okay. 
-You told them you just needed some rest, and maybe more water throughout the day. They decided to keep you with them during the days because you complained about feeling cold too, even though you felt warm to them. 
-The first day of your cold, you were strapped to Ronal’s back and stayed with her the whole day. Really only waking up to eat and drink. The second day of it, you were strapped to Tonowari’s back. And he would occasionally reach over his shoulder and pat your head. Still with the headpiece on, even though you weren’t awake to appreciate it, you insisted you wear it.
-In the middle of your day with your dad, some other people had arrived through the air. You woke up from being jostled a little as your dad rushed to the docks where they had landed. You still had your head resting on his shoulder, so you looked over at the other navi. 
You noticed they looked a lot different then all the navi you had gotten used to in your time here. You hummed while looking at them, which made your father look at you and rub your head before turning to them and talking to them. 
At some point your mother showed up and rubbed your back before going to the new group of navi and inspecting them. 
While they were doing this, the Sully family was looking at you and wondering why a tiny human was with the Metkayina, and apparently was accepted by the chief and his wife. They all thought you were super cute snoozing on Tonowari’s shoulder with your tiny shell headpiece. 
Not long after your mother showed up, your siblings did too. They looked over at you to check on you before inspecting the new arrivals. Aonung wasn’t impressed by them, but Tsireya was very curious. Your dad decided your siblings would teach the new kids your ways. You quietly said to him, “Papa, can I go with them?” 
You were too cute to say no to, so he just unstrapped you from himself and handed you over to your sister. She just said she would take care of you and strapped you to her front, facing her, and walked off to show the new people around. 
You looked over her shoulder and waved at the new people before laying your head down and going back to sleep.
~A/N: There will probably be a pt 2 to this at some point soon
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