#In any case he's getting real big... Bigger than I'm used to but that's why I did this challenge (besides thirst).

[bigs-bigshot]

Fattytober day 11 - Bathtub, day 12 - Distribution, day 13 - Theater, day 14 - Legs and day 15 - Floating.

[darkworkcourier]

I was wondering, could you write Ghost x fem!reader hand to hand combat training that leads to them making out

YES'M COMING RIGHT UP

reader doesn't have a nickname or any identifying features other than, idk, having hair i guess? also no real warnings except for making out and some suggestive stuff. y'know, promises on the horizon. 👀 i didn't want to go much further in case all you wanted was just makeouts.

---

"No. Hands here. Right. Just about level with your chest."

It's hard to focus with Ghost's hands on your wrists, guiding you into a stance that feels off. You're accustomed to one particular style of defense, and he shifts you into another that makes your muscles ache.

You furrow your brow. "Is it supposed to feel like this?"

"Like what?"

"Like I'm about to throw my rotator cuff out?"

He shrugs, resuming his original stance—one where his hands are lower, parallel to his waist, arms spread like he's going to hug you. "Just means you're using muscles you're not accustomed to exercising," he replies.

"You saying I don't exercise?" you joke.

"Just hold your hands there."

You do, and he gives you about two seconds of warning before he comes at you.

Going up against Ghost in hand-to-hand combat is terrifying. There's no other word for it, no way to describe it outside of using terms like 'pants-shittingly scary'. He's a wall of muscle garbed in black, mask cementing the vision of a very buff Grim Reaper launching himself at you, dragging you into death in some judo move. You're still not accustomed to it, even this many months into your assignment with the 141. The second he moves, that fight or flight instinct screams flee, idiot! and you flinch.

He stops before touching you, sighing like an overburdened elementary school teacher. "You did it again," he says.

You fall out of the stance and raise your hands helplessly. "What do you expect me to do? You ever see yourself in a mirror?"

He ignores that latter question. "I expect you to defend yourself," he replies. "You're gonna meet people far bigger than me out there."

Doubt it, you think. You don't need to remind him that you have gone into the field before, and that you earned your place in the 141 through skill and tenacity. However, at this point, you still haven't seen someone like Ghost out there.

"Okay," you say, rallying yourself and raising your hands again. "I got this. Big, scary dude coming at me. No problem."

You think he raises a brow at you. Not something you can see, but you feel it. "You sure?"

"Yeah. Yep. Totally good."

Ghost goes back into the first pose with his arms out. He hunkers down, looming at the edge of the mat like a very large specter of the imminent end, and yet all you can think is can you use those arms for something else, please.

Which is why you miss the two second warning, and promptly get knocked off your feet by a skeleton-garbed missile of a man.

Because it turns out that he only corrected your stance from the waist up, and you completely forgot what to do with your legs. You didn't brace, didn't set your feet shoulder-width apart to lower your center of gravity and make you more solid. That, and Ghost has such a size advantage of you that it feels a hell of a lot like someone shooting a grenade launcher at a lawn chair.

All to say, you topple and hit the mat hard. Air whuffs out of your lungs, compressed under the sheer weight of Ghost. Sparks dance in your vision for one hot second before you come back to yourself, registering aches in brand new places and the feeling of one of Ghost's (impressively beefy) thighs between your legs.

Unfortunately, robbed of all oxygen, all you manage to eke out is a sad wheeze.

"Fuck," Ghost groans. He manages to hoist himself up on his forearms, lifting the stone weight off your chest so you're not getting compressed like a panini. "Ugh. You okay?"

It takes an embarrassingly long time to get your breath back, and a moment longer to work around the ache in your ribs from having a bulldozer of a man on your chest—not even in a sexy way. "Yeaaahhh," you force out, gritting your teeth and blinking away the last jittery sparkles in your vision. "Gimme a second."

He does, but you register that he's not getting off of you. In fact, he's holding pretty damn steady and not doing something in the name of good teamwork like, say, standing up and helping you off the mat, or asking if you need medical assistance, or making fun of you. Instead, he's most definitely staying quiet, and when you look at him, you suddenly feel pinned anew.

Because he's staring, and it's made so much more intense by the greasepaint around his eyes, drawing out his dark eyes by contrast. You feel his gaze like added weight, and it keeps you still, unable to scoot out from under him even though he's given you room to do so.

Your breathing's back online, but it's not steady, and your mouth is very, very dry.

"Um," is all you can say, and you're proud of yourself for getting that much out.

His eyes flick down, watching your mouth move. They widen when you lick your bottom lip to give it some reprieve.

There's no training for to do in this situation.

And there's certainly no training for— for lifting up his damn mask and revealing a mouth that you're pretty sure you've had wet dreams about. Plush lips, faint silvery scars, fine stubble. God damn, and he was keeping this a secret.

"Ghost," you try again, searching for anything to say. Any word, any question, any kind of affirmation that can give you a litmus test on what the hell is going on here.

Rather than explaining himself, his eyes find yours again and he says—in the lowest of low rumbling voices, "Is this okay?"

How do you say yes or, perhaps, fuck yes without sounding desperate? It's like he reached into your head and plucked out those fantasies you've kept under lock and key since you joined on and saw him for the first time. Hell, you're not totally sure this isn't one of those dreams right now.

So you nod. Just two quick jerks of the head, fabric on the mat definitely fucking up your hair. You can hear the static next to your ear, but you could care less.

Because once Ghost's lips are on yours, nothing matters.

He's so warm, lips deceptively soft (what did you think, they were going to be as calloused as his fingers?), the tang of sweat on his skin, his forearms bracketing you. He's in every direction, kissing you and siphoning out the air again, leaving you gasping when he pulls back.

One breath.

Two.

And he kisses you again, like a confirmation that yes, this is very real and it's happening to you. He didn't trip and fall and kiss you on the way down. His right arm comes up so his fingers brush against your cheek, and then he cups the side of your face with his enormous palm. You open your mouth against his, tasting him, hearing his heavy breathing in tandem with your own.

At the same time, your mind rushes to make all the connections to figure out how you got here, how Ghost is on top of you when he's supposed to be teaching you how to defend yourself. How—

How you missed all of those signals.

Too-long glances at meetings; hands brushing yours when he passed you documents, ammo, rations, a radio; the way he kept close to your six so it was never undefended; every nickname from him teeming with a little more whimsy than you thought him capable of. Never once did you stop and consider if that was how he treated everyone in the 141, or if that was saved for you.

You never asked the question, but you're sure as hell getting an answer.

His tongue brushes against yours, sealed between your lips, teasing whines out of you. He hums in satisfaction, or possibly pleasure; vaguely, you wonder if he's wanted this just as badly, or if this is a spur of the moment decision and he's enjoying the payoff. Regardless, you can't ignore the slight pressure of his thigh between your legs, riding up higher and higher until—

Until you get an incredibly stupid idea.

He doesn't get a two second warning. What he gets is your arms around his back—the hug you wanted and now he gets—and the sudden upward jerk of motion that sends him flailing backwards. In a move you had no idea you were capable of, he's now on his back, mask still riding up to his nose, eyes wide, expression damn near cartoonish.

"Wh—" is all he gets out before you're kissing him.

You're the one bracketing his hips with your thighs. You're the one pinning him down and making him breathless. And, damnit, once you pull back enough to get a look at his face, you're the one getting him to look up at you like he's seeing you for the first time.

You grin, leaning in close and whispering, "Is it supposed to feel like this?"

He licks his lips, and your eyes trace the trail of his tongue. "Like what?" he asks, quieter now than you've ever heard him.

Your answer is another firm kiss, the ache in your muscles shifting course and alchemizing into something far hotter, liquid heat settling between you. And you pull back one more time, dropping your head so your lips brush his ear. You swear you feel him shudder.

"I think we have a few more forms to go through," you say.

[pehmokoira]

I think we could all use a morale booster after 2 weeks in the gravy basket, so I decided to write a few reasons why I believe Our Flag Means Death can still be saved!

Please note that I know literally nothing about how the industry actually works, I'm just clowning and these are opinions based on articles I've read etc. 🤡

Arrested Development was saved by Netflix after Fox cancelled it because of low ratings and viewership. Now, we can't know the numbers for OFMD for certain, but the ratings and reviews have been preeetty good, and season 2 even has a higher Tomatometer score than season 1. (96% vs. 93%) So in that sense, the chances are good. Everything was pointing towards renewal until January 9th!

Which gets me to my next point. If the cancellation really was one person's decision (DZ better watch his fucking step), then that means the show was as good as renewed and it HAD the numbers and the viewership and everything it needed to continue.

Each cancellation case is unique. It's kind of pointless to compare OFMD with any other cancelled show, because the chances of any show getting picked up after cancellation depend on so many things. Production costs, show quality, the potential of the show, viewership, probably also connections/relationships in the industry, etc. But it all boils down to money in the end.

Max is covering up the real reason for the cancellation by lying, which means they've completely fucked up by cancelling this show. Max is the one that looks bad right now, not OFMD. This is bad PR for Max.

David Jenkins has not told us to stop with our renewal efforts, which means there's hope. He knows more than we do. In Jenkins I trust. I won't give up until he tells us it's over.

It's only been 2 weeks and 1 day. It would've been something of a miracle if the show had been picked up in that short a time. Lucifer was saved by Netflix a month after the cancellation.

And lastly, the pros for OFMD:

The show hasn't been on a widely available international streaming service so far. Big potential for new audiences on a different platform.

The marketing for the show has been abysmal, but it's become a flagship series for Max despite that.

The fanbase is loud and passionate, and we've shouted about wanting to buy merch on X. We won't shut up about the show and that's a beautiful and important thing.

Max's lies about the cancellation are so transparent almost anyone can see through them. The people in the industry have probably noticed Max's pattern of cancelling shows about marginalized groups.

The representation in the show is something you don't find in any other show, and while that could be its downfall, it's also the greatest strength of the show. Bigger streaming services aren't as scared of queers as Max is.

The story that the show tells is quite unique.

These are just a few things that came to mind right now. Feel free to reblog and list more reasons if you can think of any!

Edit: I wrote another post about this too! That one's about ✨the numbers✨!

[octuscle]

I am the only smart and social guy in my class and I’m also he only gay one, normally I prefer to hang with the girls and do all my projects with them…but this time our teacher forced all us guys together, in time for the group project I overheard the boys talking about making me a real Man/boy with there phones. Help!

You have your first project meeting. You are sitting in a circle with the boys. Everyone is playing with their cell phones, picking their noses or scratching their balls. You take a deep breath. And you think you have an idea for an environmental project. Collecting trash on the bank of the creek behind the school. And classifying the garbage according to the possibility of recycling.

Dude, that's a lame idea, grunts one of the guys. We were thinking something like "how far can hard training get you in a week". The other guys applaud. And one presses the "Activate" button on the Chronivac app.

Hehehe, you're not into sports at all. But that sounds like a cool project. Shit, why didn't you come up with that idea. You do a little research on the Internet. Calculate the budget, write to a few sponsors. Look for sportswear, nutritional supplements, also look for sources of potentially illegal support. The other guys play with their cell phones. One of them says you should chill out. It's enough if you start tomorrow.

Project diary, day 1:

Erkan sent me a message this morning that he and the other guys will be at the gym at 08:00. I should come already dressed. I don't even remember that I already got a bag with gym clothes yesterday. But in any case, there is one next to my desk. I put on a tank top, some shorts, socks and shoes. While brushing my teeth in the bathroom, I think to myself how ridiculous the way-too-big clothes look on me. On the bus, I'm a little uncomfortable with my appearance. And between the boys in the gym even more so. But it's a project, we have to go through with it.

We spend six hours in the gym. Has been amazingly fun. Somehow I was the only one sweating. The boys just played with their cell phones again. Hopefully there are good pictures for the project documentation. After the training I wanted to take a shower, but the guys took me directly to their regular shisha bar. I have rarely felt so uncomfortable. Because everyone else is bigger, more muscular and more masculine than me. And because I'm the only guest in sweaty sports gear. Besides, I'm starting to feel the soreness. I just fall into bed in the evening. Unable to move.

Project diary, day 2:

At 06:00 I get an address from Bogdan. Barbershop from his cousin. Meeting at 07:00 so that I no longer have to train with the ridiculous blond curls. I'm supposed to put on yesterday's clothes. I didn't have the clothes hung up yesterday. Actually I wanted to put on fresh clothes today So, of course, nothing has dried. Brushing teeth must go quickly, I'm late. Fuck, I actually finally get beard growth? Must take a closer look at me later in the gym.

So far it does not get at all. Bogdan's cousin not only gives me a new haircut, he also shaves me. In my opinion, completely unnecessary. But the result is cool. For the first time I can imagine in the gym on the weight bench in front of the mirror that the project will be a success. Otherwise, the workout goes like yesterday. After the six-hour program, I was looking forward to a shisha. But Ivo takes me to the outdoor pool. One hour of swimming One hour on the lawn. One hour of swimming. Ivo allows me to take a cold shower without shower gel after swimming. It feels good. And I like my tight white ass.

Project diary, day 3:

When Akay sends me the message to remember that my gym clothes are still in the locker, I'm already awake for an hour. Pushups and situps. I got quite a tantrum from my mom yesterday about how my room looks. Hey, the laundry isn't that dirty yet. And I'll clean up the cum-soaked handkerchiefs tonight.

Since the rest is as I said in the gym, I go only in tracksuit with white socks and Adiletten in the bus. I look so antisocial. Makes me somehow horny. In the gym I'm alone today. Fuck, to be honest, the losers only disturb. Let them hang out, I have my own rhythm. And it beats out of iron. For solid muscles. I take a break only to pour protein shakes into me. And on the way to the outdoor pool I make a quick stop at Bogdan's cousin. Trimming the sides And trim the beard.

At dinner, my mother tells me that I stink as much as my room. My father is on my team. He pumps himself. And considerably more than me. It's good to have support at home for my goals. I eat my five chicken breasts with rice, drink two more liters of water and then go to bed. Dad looks in again, laughs, says that nothing stinks as cool as pump sweat and asks if he should get me a syringe cure. Fist bump, old man! But I stay natural for now.

Project diary, day 4:

Was horny while pumping. Today on the bench 150 kilograms pressed. Need new tank top. The old one stinks excellent. But is too tight.

In the evening once again met with the guys on Shisha. Was cool. But they are not focused enough. Juri has scratched his belly. Ey, hardly a six-pack to see. Would I be ashamed of myself!

Project diary, day 6:

Ey, yesterday completely forgotten the diary. Was in great shape in the gym. In the afternoon then posed at the pool. Trained on the pull-up bars. The fans applauded. And in the evening with my old man bombed our arms for an hour. I'd like to have his biceps too.

Today is free. Sascha got me an appointment with the tattoo artist. Before again Barber And afterwards outdoor pool. And then party. The boys and me to the disco. Man, I could have had them all! And I fucked two guys on the toilet. Shit, I have so much energy, I really have to cum four times a day. At least!

Project diary, day 7:

I can only hope that one of the guys makes the presentation about our project. I'm so totally not up for it. I already wrote the damn diary. And I was the guinea pig. I'm a fucking hot lab rat.

One of the guys said last night that I used to be a nerd and a weakling. Must have been a long time ago.

[lemotmo]

One more! She got a follow up regarding the numbers guestimation.

A. Hi anon 🙂. It's actually relatively easy to figure out spamming. It's not a well thought out plan of action. And why I never understood why they thought it was a genius idea. My friend is a data analyst in his grown up real life so he could be much more technical than me, but I will give you the simple answer. Comment sections are full of the same blogs. The same blog names you can track from ppst to post on Instagram, Twitter and Ticktock. Same on Tumblr. The same group of blogs do all the spamming. It's also fairly easy to decipher which blogs/accounts are being run by the same person. Speech patterns, sentence structures. Posts that feel repetitive or similar to another blogs post. It's not a sophisticated tactic. And I do want to stress that there's not really anything wrong with doing it, except in this case people were doing it to send hate to the cast and to spam the shows official accounts. That's disgusting. And they deserve to be called out and busted for it.

Fandom is supposed to be fun, and it usually is. Smaller fandoms are usually the best kind of fandoms because less people usually means less manufactured drama. They tend to just stay in their lane and headcanon and fanon away with one another. It's great. All fandoms usually end up having de facto 'leader' blogs. It just happens. They tend to become the bigger voices within the fandom. Sometimes fandoms get lucky and they're legitimately cool decent people running them. Sometimes fandoms get unlucky and those blogs are run by douchebags (legit couldn't think of a nicer word, I'm so sorry). Unfortunately for you all, you wound up with the douchebags. The blogs you all ended up following the lead of were basically like politicians who had to manufacture enemies (Oliver and Ryan) and ship wars (Buddie) in order to get attention because their fandom numbers weren't big enough to garner attention any other way. That's the reality. They needed bigger numbers so they pretended to be more people. Only instead of just shipping their ship and enjoying it they used those extra blogs to openly send vile, disgusting and increasingly unhinged things to the show and its cast and anyone else who didn't ship their ship. Openly sending hate to a cast has never led to victory for shippers. It's the dumbest idea of dumb ideas. And inevitably leads nowhere. No one can outrun their hubris. And when you decide to start ranting about being sent private DM's from Tim, something that is blatantly and laughably false, it's the beginning of your end. The good news is increasing numbers of you have finally realized this and are backing away. If you genuinely enjoy the ship by all means ship it as long as it's canon, hell you can ship it once it stops being canon. That's what fandom is for. But you have to acknowledge the reality of canon. You can hate it. You can ignore it, but you have to acknowledge it. And then retreat to fanfic. It's the fandom way. But you don't get to yell and scream about homophobia and other invented wrongs because a higher number of people ship the other ship and the show doesn't appear to be telling the story that that blog and others desperately tried to convince people they were telling. Artificially inflated numbers don't change reality.

Oh, this is interesting. I had a basic understanding of how the detection of spamming worked, but this is very informative and frankly very fascinating as well.

The rest of this is, once again, serving major truth bombs. I'm in awe of the eloquence on display here. I wish I could meet the OP in real life. I have a feeling I'd love to talk fandom with them.

And it's true you know, shipping a couple doesn't have to stop because another one is canon. In fact, we are here doing the exact same thing. BT is canon right now. We know this. We accept it for what it is at the moment, but that doesn't stop us from shipping Buddie, speculating about their future, theorising what will happen in season 8, writing and reading fic, making gifsets, creating art, digging up parallels, discussing our own personal headcanons. We've been doing this for years, through multiple love interests for Buck and Eddie. We never quit and I highly doubt we ever will, canon or not canon.

Thank you again for dropping this in my ask box Nonny! :)

Remember, no hate in comments or reblogs. Let's keep it civil and respectful. Thank you.

If you are interested in more of the anonymous OP’s posts, you can find all of their posts so far under the tag: anonymous blog I love.

[ninjagirlstar5]

Imagine getting the talent of the guy you absolutely despise. Yeah, that's right, Yoruko is the Ultimate Wizard in this Swap Talent AU.

Yoruko's was fun to tackle as I don't think she'd be super flashy or anything as a wizard but she'd still look very pretty as one. She may have been a hostess but she only dressed up like that cause she required to look appealing while working. But making it clear that she was a wizard was a bit...I don't wanna say "difficult" but I definitely had to consider how she would dress herself up as a wizard as I didn't just want to put her in a witch hat and dress and then call it a day. She's not like Mikado, who simply put on a fancy hat, cape, magical mask and gloves over his regular clothes and called it a day. (And even then, he wasn't even a real wizard.) So I decided to just go off of vibes when approaching this design: I gave her a sleeveless sweater, a long skirt with a split (I might change that split design though the next time I draw this Swap Talent AU), boots with dark socks, made her bow MUCH bigger, a single glove with a bracelet that has a gem hanging off of it (most likely to help her control her magic), a shawl and some glasses to both reference her real self's sprite design and to put emphasize on her smart looks when it comes to magic. I also changed her ponytail to a big side braid as it symbolizes wisdom and I tend to think of braids as a sort of wizard-y kind of hairstyle. Fun fact: I used heart shapes to make her hair. ^^ The butterfly tattoo on her arm is kind of a brand or a symbol to what kind of magic she specializes in, which in her case, I'm thinking is probably transformation magic, a kind of magic that's exactly what it says on the tin: she can transform any object or person into another thing, although there's probably limitations. Like, for example, she can't turn a living being into an inanimate object and the more complex the object/living being is, the less time that thing will remained transformed. (Basically, if she changed Nikei - clothes and all - into a frog for annoying her, he'll only remain as a frog for a couple of hours at most and will wear off with time.) She can also make simple changes like turning her black hair to pink. Hey, why use hair dye when you can literally just use MAGIC to change her hair itself? That being said, that's probably the only physical change in her appearance that she made. I don't think Yoruko is the kind of person to make any DRASTIC changes, just small, simple ones. Especially since she tends to copy people she looks up to a lot. Anyways, I changed her color palette from gold and blue to gold and lilac since purple is associated with power and since an Ultimate Wizard would be pretty powerful in raw talent and, well, power, I thought it would suit Yoruko a bit more although I made the colors far softer and gentler than Mikado's darker and murkier cape and hat. Yoruko isn't perfect but she tends to have her heart in the right place most of the time, unlike Mikado, who is...Mikado. And so, Yoruko is done and wow she is a pretty wizard.

Next up is Syobai!

Okay, coming up with background story beats for Yoruko and how she came into her talent is...interesting, to say the least. Like, for starters, the talent wasn't even real in the first place. It was just AIkado fucking around in the Neo World Program thanks to his administration access and to be as powerful as he can be in contrast to his "fellow students." A show of power without revealing where they really are. To be honest, I don't see Yoruko being given any kind of administrative access from Mikado if the main story were to remain the same, just with swapped talents, unless he had made her into an AI/program and frankly, I'm not interested in approaching this background like she IS a program. So I'm just gonna ignore the fact that magic isn't actually real in the DRA/SDRA2 version of the Danganronpa timeline and say that it does, in fact, exist. And hey, if ghosts can be canon in Despair Girls, why can't magic? (This also probably means that the age twist wouldn't work cause they're not in the Neo World Program and it'd be impossible to de-age them like they were in the original story, at least in this version of events. But since magic is real...well, regardless of Mikado's swapped talent, he'd probably delve into Necromancy just to see if he can bring back Utsuro thanks to Yoruko's talent confirming that magic does indeed exist. Oops.)

Anyways, for Yoruko's background, she would have never became a hostess if she had never met her Senpai, who saved her from a group of bullies that were going too far and nearly could've killed her. I think in this version of events, the reason for her Senpai, Amane, to intervene was twofold: 1.) because it was the right thing to do and she couldn't stand watching the same thing that happened to her happen to someone else, and 2.) because she noticed there was magic building up around Yoruko and realized that there was going to be an outburst that could easily injure, or worse, kill these bullies and intervened to keep it from escalating. She knew that if that were to happen, Yoruko would forever be haunted by this event and she couldn't stand by and watch her younger classmate become fearful of her own power. So she helps Yoruko and befriends her, trying to subtly train her in her magic without revealing that she has it and to keep it concealed. The bracelet Yoruko has is to help her keep control over her magic without it bursting and creating havoc whenever she loses her temper or when survivor instincts kick in in a way that would hurt others when she didn't mean to. She thinks that, for Yoruko, ignorance would be bliss. At least, at the start. But eventually, Yoruko hears rumors about Amane being a "witch" or doing "creepy rituals at night" and she's like, "Pfft, yeah, right. Like magic ever existed...right?" She didn't think it was true, but when the thought of the rumors covering up something more insidious that Amane couldn't get out of, she caves into her suspicions and follows her one day after school to prove to herself that it's nothing like that. And it wasn't! But she does end up witnessing a magical ritual where Amane easily repaired a valuable object that seemed irreparable with how many pieces it had been turned into or how she helps a plant regain it's vigor and color. So, the rumors were a lot more truer than everyone thought it was and she kinda freaks out. Which was enough for her to get caught by her Senpai and she begs for mercy. But her Senpai is quick to reassure her that she's not going to hurt her and admits the truth: she's an actual wizard and probably one of the last ones left...at least until she met Yoruko. It's then that she also revealed that one of the reasons why she approached Yoruko was because of her magic and how it was this close to hurting someone, which she had a feeling that her younger classmate would regret. Yoruko would try to deny it at first but when her Senpai takes the bracelet off, her magic starts to sizzle out from her due to all her anxiety and ends up cracking a mirror. Hit with the reality that she was the same as Amane, she questions why no one had noticed and Amane just...tells her to sit down.

You see, if wizards/witches and magic really do exist in Danganronpa, you'd have to question why this wouldn't be common knowledge in this universe, especially with a world based off of real life and the real history we've been through. Some people's solution to this is to make a secret society, but that actually crops up OTHER issues like how some humans would react to actual real world events like, you know, war and such, and how many of them would probably try to use their magic to stop it or make it worse, and how difficult that would be to keep that a secret when such events happen. But honestly, I think there's a much simpler solution in this case: wizards are just...a dying breed in the modern world, for lack of a better word I could think of. If they were common place back then, then most of them had been hunted down and killed due to their power in magic scaring society. That's Amane's assumption, at least. According to her, even she doesn't know enough about magic and it's own history. Just that if no one believes that magic actually exists, that it's just a fictional part of storytelling or folklores, then the real history of magic had nearly all but disappeared from existence. Even Hope's Peak never had an Ultimate Wizard before since it's existence. There just isn't enough people to even be considered a group, and to Amane...she considers herself to be one of the few wizards left in this world. Assuming there are more of them out there.

Yoruko questions how the hell she even came to realize her own power, and Amane simply says that she was just lucky that her own parents had magic as well and were far more equipped to handle her magic when it became obvious that she had it. When Yoruko questions how the hell her own family never noticed, Amane simply asks if they had magic, and if they did, she should think back on the times when strange things were happening around her while growing up, if she ever got blamed for something that seemed out of her control, and how they handled it. If they had magic, would those signs have gone under their radar? After a pause of Yoruko thinking back on her childhood, on the times when she managed to jump higher than should've been possible when playing tag, on the times when a kid blamed her for getting hurt when they tripped on a root that wasn't there before and thought she had pushed them, on the time when she tried to blow out a candle when her group of friends brought her a birthday cake but somehow the flames grew bigger instead and accidentally set the table on fire, and how everyone started to avoid her for being "accident-prone" and becoming more and more pessimistic in her life in response, she realized, no, they didn't have magic. Yoruko's parents, and perhaps even her sister, were normal people that simply tried to comfort and support her when things went wrong, never realizing the power their daughter/sister had in her all along. Yoruko asks how that's even possible, and Amane simply shrugs, admitting that even though she and her parents had magic, her younger siblings did not. She may have theorized that wizards had been hunted down and killed, and for all she knew, she may be right since witch hunts WERE a thing, but it could also possibly be because magic was a gene and humans just...stopped needing a use for it over time and wasn't being passed down by the majority anymore. It doesn't mean it can't crop again, like what happened with her and her parents and even Yoruko, but that also meant that the majority of people born with magic are more likely to end up with a family that may not understand what's going on with them, let alone figure it out. Like what happened with Yoruko since, according to her, neither of her parents nor her sister seemed to have magic like her. Again, Amane didn't know enough about magic's history and even her parents knew jack shit, gravitating towards each other because of their shared issues and only then realizing that what they were dealing with was magic. All their learning was pretty much trial and error, which they passed down to her.

Yoruko...has no idea how to feel about all of this. On the one hand, learning that she has magic is almost...freeing, in a way. An explanation for the many things that just shouldn't have happened in normal circumstances but did. But on the other hand, she had a power that could hurt others. Kill others. That kind of power would be terrifying for Yoruko. What if she messed up? What if someone got hurt because of her? But Amane, ever kind and patient, calms her down, saying that she doesn't have to go through this alone. Not anymore. Not as long as she's around, and she offers to teach her to control her magic and even give it a use. If that's what she wants, at least. Amane reminds her that as long as she wears that bracelet she gave her, her magic would never get out of control, even when she uses it as an outlet to better direct what kind of magic she's using and such. She can easily return to her normal life if that's what she desires most and apologizes for leaving her in ignorance. But Yoruko, knowing that Amane may be the only one that can understand these magic-related issues in a way no one else would and wanting to stay by her side, accepts. After that, Yoruko spends months, perhaps even years, learning from Amane and even teaching her new things as well since she's still learning more about magic herself. Learning together, working together, and helping each other when the other is down helped Yoruko become just as skilled of a wizard like Amane, perhaps even better.

But one day, Yoruko would ask Amane why she has new things to repair almost every day. She would laugh awkwardly, admitting that she kind of turned her magic into an independent job by repairing people's most valued objects in exchange for cash. When Yoruko asks why she has to do that, for the first time, Amane grows quiet...and admits that her parents actually passed away in a car accident a few years back. She's not sure if they had no relatives or if they somehow became a black sheep to their relatives due to their magic, but no one took her or her siblings in so it was either being stuck in a system that may separate them all or try to take matters into her own hands. Clearly, she chose the latter as she's able to take care of both herself and her siblings through her magic, and even gained a reputation of sorts. A reputation that she really hopes doesn't take the notice of Hope's Peak cause as much as she wished there were more people like her, she knows better than to let the world know that such powerful magic exists. She doesn't want to think of the consequences that could entail from it. Yoruko agrees but is also surprised as she had never realized that Amane is dealing with a lot more on her plate than she admits. She simply says that she didn't want to burden Yoruko at the time since her teachings were much more important and she had managed this far, it's just...well, it's become a bit harder to find commissions lately and she's worried she may not be able to pay the bills in time. Yoruko rebuts, though, saying that she may be her mentor but she's also her...friend, and it wouldn't be fair if she just vented all her feelings to her but never allowed her to do the same. She even asks if she could help, which surprises Amane for moment but then...she agrees. She even says it would be a good opportunity to teach Yoruko how to repair objects from scratch as it's a pretty handy spell to know for daily life, although it's much more complicated for something that's to have a more permanent effect than Yoruko's usual transformation spells.

Looking back on it now, Yoruko wished her Senpai had turned her down. If only to avoid what happened next.

Amane had asked her to set up the chalk circle and candles while she double checks the book. Yoruko wasn't sure what she had messed up back then, especially under Amane's watch. Did the candles not have the correct properties? Did she make such a small, tiny mistake in the chalk circle when messing up just a smidge could change it into a different spell entirely? Or did she overdo it with her magic as she followed her Senpai's instructions in staring at the original photo of the object and visualizing what it should look like as she imbued the object with the spell?

Regardless of what the mistake was, magic was the embodiment of chaos, not logic, and only bends to it's own rules. And Yoruko, despite doing her best, messed up and turned the object into dust.

Shocked by what had just happened, Yoruko tries to apologize and even says that maybe they could still try to fix it but Amane just stared at the remains of the object in silence before saying that this can't be fixed. All the pieces had been destroyed and now it's impossible to fix it at all. She tried before, but couldn't, and had to bring the bad news to her customer, getting hit with a refund soon afterwards. Yoruko apologizes again, quieter, but this only gets Amane to snap at her, blaming her for losing the paycheck she could've used to help her and siblings from this one commission. In hindsight, she probably shouldn't have allowed Yoruko to work on a commission the first time trying out this spell as it's only natural for her to mess up on her first try, but she was too angry and distraught to realize her own misjudgment in this situation and Yoruko is too hurt and upset to try and defend herself. She just constantly apologizes as she leaves, hoping that by removing herself from the situation, it would allow Amane some space to calm down.

By the time Yoruko worked up the courage to talk to her again, though, she couldn't find Amane at school and finds out through her teacher that she had to pull out for the time being. Horrified by the implications, Yoruko runs back to the hideout, only to find the mess had been cleaned up with a stack of books left on the desk and a letter on top of it. When she opens it up, it was an apology from Amane snapping at her, saying that she shouldn't have done that and some of the blame was hers as well for making the wrong call in judgment. Still, due to her current circumstances, she could no longer stay in school and had to go searching for a second job, bringing her siblings along with her as she admits to moving away. The letter tries to reassure Yoruko that this was probably going to happen anyway due to the lack of commissions, but she's not internalizing that, instead blaming herself for forcing her Senpai into a position where she had no choice but to move away. When she gets to the bottom of the letter, her Senpai reveals that while she can no longer teach Yoruko due to both her own circumstances making it hard to meet up anymore and Yoruko simply being better than her at magic at this point, at least according to her, she left her all the books and research both she and her parents had done over the years in her care. She expresses the hope that she'd still continue to study and research magic so that maybe, one day, when they meet up again, they can understand their shared magical history together. Yoruko, still racked with guilt, chooses to do just that, taking responsibility for her actions by continuing her studies in magic.

And then, perhaps a few months or even a year later, Hope's Peak comes knocking at her door via a letter proclaiming that they know her secret and wish to bring her into the school to study her talent as the Ultimate Wizard. And if she doesn't, they'll out her to a government agency and have her be taken away. Worst of all, Hope's Peak is still tied to the government themselves, even when they lacked funding, so it's basically a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. So Yoruko decides her only option was to "willingly" join Hope's Peak Academy's newest class so she can have more freedom, and perhaps, more control over what they learn about magic. If she has to be forced out of hiding and reveal that magic exists, she'd doing it her way in the hopes that she can at least try to give guidelines on how it should be treated and worked with.

Too bad she ends up in a killing game, but hey. It was an effort, at least. And to keep her from being too overpowered in the killing game, Mikado probably set up some kind of magic-negation objects that keeps her from blowing him up on sight. After all, she does still have her bracelet that both negates her own magic and helps her control it, and doesn't actually require magic to create. Some gems simply have magic-negating properties. And HE learned this from HER during their time at Hope's Peak, even if she doesn't realize it due to the collective amnesia plot point. Oof.

[slxsherwriter]

Damnation as a Saving Grace

Fandom: 31

Pairing: Doom-head x female reader

Word Count: 2,725

Warnings: Cursing, mentions of death and murder

Author's note: So, due to life circumstances, Nano didn't go the way I wanted it. My final word count for the month ended up 12,666. I'm not disappointed with that by any means. This fic ended up being mostly written within the month. I added the last 600 words today. My first shot at writing Doom. I purposely left his lovely, wordy, wanting to seem educated way of speaking out for the time being due to the circumstances. There will be a continuation, and he gets to show off there ;)

The ache and pains that plagued your body were all shoved in the back of your mind, not present as the beat of your heart seemed to keep time with the slam of your feet against the concrete. Your own personal hell. Words had never been more true than when they had been spoken by whoever the hell was running this sick and twisted game. They weren't the focus though either. If you survived, then maybe you would dedicate some time to figuring out who the hell these people were and why they did what they did. If there was a why. But now, when you were trying to find a place to make your last stand, was not the time to narrow down your focus to those that didn't matter. 

After a while, the makeshift prison started to look all the same. Something that you knew wasn't true given the few places that you had moved through. It was the panic speaking. And panic was a surefire pathway straight to death. Calming yourself down was easier said than done, of course, but if you wanted to make it out of here alive, you had to force it. 

Finding a small space to squeeze that seemed like it would serve as a decent hiding spot for the few moments that you would need it, you forced your body into the space. As quietly as you could, slow, deep breaths were taken in an attempt to slow down the way that you were sucking down air. Think. You had to think. 

Without weapons, you were at a bigger disadvantage. Already, you lacked knowledge of your location compared to whoever it was that they had coming after you. Lacking a weapon just left  you far more vulnerable than if you could at least defend yourself with something. If you could manage to get an attack in. A big if. This newest guy? The one that you hadn't seen yet? He moved real god damn quiet. Unlike the other Heads that had hunted you down, it didn't seem like he liked to play by taunting and building anticipation and terror. It was far more methodical and controlled. The three people that had made it with you through to the final three hours had been picked off one by one. Without warning and without the pomp and show that you had encountered up until then. Which made it that much more terrifying. You only knew it was a man when your friend had taken the chance to shout out loudly as he had died. 

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," you murmured gently to yourself, squeezing your eyes shut. "Think…" A sneak attack would give you the best advantage but how did you sneak attack someone that was practically a ghost? And what were you going to use? A pipe? Could you get something off of the wall without making a lot of sound? It was a thought, one that you might have to seriously entertain and take the risk of with such limited options. There wasn't any scrap metal laying around that you could use. For likely being an abandoned area, it was surprisingly well maintained. Likely for the very reason you were looking around if the people running this game were as smart as they had seemed so far.

"Pipe it is." You glanced up and cocked your head. Could you manage to get up that high? A drop down point would be an even better sneak attack. He would be less prepared to anticipate it. At least you hoped that would be the case. And a reaction to that sort of attack might be a little slower, giving you a proper chance to actually cause a little damage. Maybe enough to incapacitate him enough to get away and get out. A fresh wave of determination came over you, washing away the doubt and the worry. It was your best chance, and if it worked out, you would be able to get out of here. It was all you wanted. Plan in mind. You just had to figure out how it was that you were getting up there and quickly. There was no telling where he was. If he was watching, well, your entire element of surprise would be ruined. 

It was a struggle, but you managed to find a small perch that was relatively inaccessible from any sort of high walkway or ladder. It had taken far more time than you would have liked, but the drop down was directly below. Your arms were screaming, muscles burning with the effort that you had needed to exert to get to your spot. Enough so that you were worried about being able to swing the pipe that you had pried off of the wall. Given that it was likely your only chance to get a whack in and escape, you were going to have to make due and give it your all. Survival demanded it. 

Again, you had to work on slowing your breathing. Every sound made seemed to echo in your ears, and the exertion had caused you to all but pant again. It felt like each sound you made was a bright, neon beacon hanging over your head, telling him exactly where to find you.

Straining to see anything in the dark or hear anything above your own breathing and beating heart, now it was a game of patience. Something that was incredibly difficult with the sense of anticipation that kept adrenaline pumping through your veins. The creaking and movement of the building in general was enough to send a shiver down your spine, spiking that adrenaline thinking that it was him who had found you. It was a horrid way to exist, ready to jump out of your skin at the slight sound, but you were going to make it through this. If not for anything other than to try and prove these fuckers wrong, to be able to shove it in their face. And maybe, just maybe, figure out how to get a little revenge for the friends that had died for their amusement. 

Steps. Careful, measured steps were coming down the hallway from your right. It was all wrong. He hadn't made that much noise up until now. It was almost as if he was purposeful in how he was walking to make sure that you were alerted to your presence. Set on edge, your hands tightened around the cool metal, eyes darting in both directions to see if it was some sort of trick. While things had been straightforward up until now, it didn't mean that they would stay that way. Maybe this was some method to get you to come out of hiding to play. You were sure that they didn't want anyone winning. Heaven forbid. That would cause an issue for their game. You were going to be that exception, though. You were going to survive this.

Nothing. Just the sounds of the careful steps. No man. The hair on the back of your neck stood. What was going on? There was still no appearance after a couple of moments, and it was all wrong. The pipe nearly slipped from your hand as you adjusted your grip, trying to keep your breathing as slow and steady as you possibly could. The steps faded away, but the feeling of urgency and danger did not go away. It heightened instead, the overwhelming feeling of dread just seeping in deeper and deeper. Eyes were on you. You could swear that you felt them, but it would be impossible. Shit. Stay still. You had to stay still. Movement would alert him to where you were. It had to be what he wanted, to draw you out, make you panic, get you running around without a game plan. That would just make you easier prey. 

So, you waited. As difficult as it was. Seconds passed in long, drawn out ticks of the clock, making it feel more like minutes for every second. But finally, finally, the lanky frame came into view. Just barely silhouetted against the light, the footsteps were near silent. That let you know the initial thought you had about the audible steps before had likely been right. They had been a purposeful decision meant to draw you out. He hadn't found you. There was a chance that staying would let you win. A slim chance. Which was one that you weren't willing to take. These people couldn't let you live if you did manage to make it through the time limit that had been placed on the game. 

Timing was just off as you dropped down onto the man, catching his back and shoulder rather than knocking him completely off of his feet. You grunted as you swung the pipe with as much might as you possibly could before you stopped midswing. Blinking, you tried again but found the same result. You couldn't bring the pipe against his flesh. Frustration mounted, and the fact nearly made you cry. This couldn't be happening. The man turned and went to swing at you in retaliation during that second swing, but he seemed to have the same problem, the punch missing you by a mile.

"Fuck me…" He grunted as he tried swinging again before reaching for a blade. The blade swung by your face but didn't come close to catching any skin. Realization sunk in as you both seemed entirely incapable of harming the other. This had to be some part of the sick joke that was being played on you. There was only one reason that someone couldn't harm another. Soulmates. This fucked up nightmare had just become worse. Maybe having him kill you would have been the better sort of end game. 

The pipe dropped from your hand, and you took a step back, but it was the furthest distance that you could manage. Something stopped another movement backward. He was simply staring at you, an unreadable look overtaking his features. An emotion that you couldn't place. Did you even want to? Christ, what did you do with this situation? It wasn't like the two of you could sit down and talk about this like normal people. He had been just ready to run you through with his switchblades, and you had been ready to bash his head, or really any part of his body that you could reach. 

"Don't move," he growled out and lifted the blade in his hand, using it to simply point at you this time. "You fucking understand?" You were torn between listening and ignoring the demand that had been made. Just because he couldn't harm you didn't mean that there wasn't others and that he wouldn't be going to get them. Another step back resulted in a rather aggressive sound being released from the man.

"You think I'm going to listen to you?" Your voice came out stronger than you thought it would, giving yourself a mental pat on the back for that. If your voice had come out shaky, you would have felt even worse than you were right now.

"Yeah, you fucking are." He moved closer, that distance that you had established vanished with two quick strides by the man. There was no stopping the wince that came. Logically, now you knew he couldn't hurt you. That didn't stop the emotional and a primal part of your brain reacting to the very real threat that was still perceived. Distance would help you feel more comfortable, as comfortable as one could get in such a situation. That also led to better observations, better decisions, and better outcomes. Swallowing hard, you found yourself nodding in agreement. Just because you agreed didn't mean that you would do it. Figuring that your best course of action would be to follow behind him, hopefully unseen, you had to appear obedient before making the attempt.

"Good. Now, stay fucking put and I'll be right back." One last inspection was given to you before he turned heel and began back down the hallway. You waited just a few moments, listening closely as the steps just began to fade away before you.made your move. The entire maze was disorienting but he made enough sound by the slimmest of margins for you to be able to follow. Was it a safe assumption to think that he would be moving to some sort of exit? Maybe and maybe not. Time would be the only way to tell. 

Ahead, the sound of a door being opened echoed out. Well, that spoiled a lot, but it didn't exactly signal a complete end to the spying idea. If you got lucky and the door stayed open. Given how the night had gone, maybe you had used up all of the luck that a person was allowed in a lifetime. But, the risk was well worth the reward.

There was a sliver of light guiding the way, hinting where the almost invisible door was. If you weren't trying to stay quiet, you would have cursed, violently and loudly. That was how these fuckers were slipping around unnoticed. Of course. Nothing to be done with that information now. Rather pointless to focus on it when the important bit was the murmured voice on the other side of the door. For a moment, you thought that there might have been more than one. Straining to hear, eyes closed and leaned as far forward as you cod be without giving yourself away, you realized it was only one. His. Low enough that it was nearly impossible to fully make out each word but the timber of the voice that had just sent shivers down your spine was now unmistakable. Only every second or third word was caught. 

He most certainly was talking about you. But was he talking to anyone? Those sick fucks running the thing were clearly watching so he could have some way to communicate without their voices being heard by others. Right? Maybe. Your fingers, weak and injured from the long night, couldn't keep their grasp on the wall, causing you to loudly stumble forward, actually falling right to your knees by the door. Well, that certainly would alert him that you hadn't stayed put like demanded and promised. 

The door ripped open, and there he stood, eyes wide and alight with anger. 

“Told you to stay the fuck put!” The words came out in a growl as he swiftly reached down and grasped your arm, yanking you upward. “Dumb fucking bitch.” Off balance, the pull that he gave towards rhe room that he was in had you stumbling again, barely able to keep to your feet. You didn't know what was going through his head but he was leading you somewhere and you were far too exhausted at this point to give much more of a fight. If this was the end, so be it. 

After a few minutes, you noticed that you didn't hear any other sounds. No voices, no pipes banging, no hissing of steam. It was far more quiet than any other section of the hell maze had been. That piqued your interest just a little bit. Either he was taking you somewhere private to kill you or…

The possibility sparked that survival instinct once more, and your eyes moved to the tall man that was just ahead of you, jerking you around by the ironclad grip he had on your wrist. Could he possibly be getting you out of here?

“You say a word, I'll change my mind about it all. One fucking word and I'll happily give you to to those two clown brothers.” The words were final and for once, you decided that it was best to listen to what you were being told. It seemed that maybe, your luck hadn't run out entirely. You didn't know what this meant or what his ultimate plans were for you. Maybe you were better off dying but it was an unknown and one that you weren't willing to chance. “Rich old fucks are gonna end up taking half my fucking pay for this shit…” Getting outside served better for you to have the chance to escape anyway. Following your twisted, psychotic soulmate was the only path forward that you saw. Hopefully it would work out. 

[dollkichi]

QUESTIONS QUESTIONS AND ANGEL IS HERE FOR ANSWERS!! 💕 Alsoo how could you tell Kokichi was my favorite how did you knooww/silly in all honesty he was my first DR crush he makes me wanna fucking punt him!!!! (romantically) also also, yeah!!! I do YouTube for funises and I have videos on these 4!!! (Hayase has only gotten one because that one drained the life force out of me the pain of being a gachatuber is real....)

Angel originally wanted Roselyn to be the Ultimate Actress cause it fit her past a little more to me (Acting her way through life. Acting so she didn't get targeted next because her family has this wonderful little habit of absolutely slaughtering each other apparently- also Acting so she didn't get hurt for showing anything more than at least blank discontent, Acting to protect herself and her emotions from being flushed out so she wouldn't get eaten alive. The business world is harsh, after all.) and it helped develop her personality and the fact that she didn't really have one, at least she thought. I mean, in one-shot fics I've written, Kokichi was the only person to ever get under her skin where she shows actual personality, while the others usually saw her sweet and proper fake outside persona before chapter 1. Liars know liars I suppose~

But the Pediatrician talent came when my big bro figure suggested it, since Rose and some of her backstory (at least, her side of the bigger story) was based on Mikan (it still is, the actress talent was just a different way she handled it) and my friend said it suited her, and I guess I can see it? Taking care of kids because she wasn't taken care of. But I'm thinking of sticking with Actress since it made me super proud for my first ever DR OC to finally be fully fleshed out!!!

Sukoshi's Talent... she didn't know how she got it either. She was guessing it's cause she was constantly outcasted for one reason (whoring herself out) or another (having a son and being a single mother), or maybe because she was responsible for her family's death. Though she didn't mean to set their house on fire. They were already dead, why wouldn't they believe her? The second fire was her fault. But she didn't have a choice, she had to, lest she died in a house with residents that wouldn't cry nor care if she died.

Nothing was wrong with her. Sure, she talked to herself, but that's because she didn't have friends at school. She tried to make some, but she was either never acknowledged, and even if she did make any, they'd all distance themselves and leave her anyway. She didn't get it. Nothing was wrong with her, so why did they outcast her like this? Maybe she was crazy. That's why everyone hated her. So, she had her mind to keep her company. At least then she wouldn't feel judged with her friends in her head. They feel real, so it isn't harming anyone, right?...

She also pops up post V3 because she wasn't really supposed to be in any game? She was going to be a sort of OC in my head I fleshed out from a dream, but I decided to make a blog for her and here we are! She's thrown into the loop but she fights and kills for her family<3

Ai's whole thing is being stigmatized and stereotyped because she's a demon. Despite all of that, she was raised by a caring mom and and very sweet papa!!! She also made it out of her stepmom's house because Kaede was there she'd probably died otherwise- She wasn't broken down because her mom always taught her to see the best in people, so she tries that motto, sometimes, it gets her hurt, other times.. it actually works. So, she keeps trying no matter now bad it hurts her to do it. </3 Demons, and specifically Succubi aren't and were never treated well, usually either killed to cleanse the world of them, sometimes just ridiculed and judged, and in Ai's case, Used as sexual relief, whether they want it or not, only to either be cast aside or killed to keep their mouths shut. Most humans even HATE Succubi with a passion they'll become priests or demon hunters just to get rid of them, and other times a few judgemental glances, derogatory terms sometimes and whispering is enough to show how much people hate them.

Fun fact!!! All of the Kokichi ships other than Rose wasn't planned to happen at least mostly on my end I just went along and ended up loving them <33

Aaah I ended up rambling-- (｡Ŏ ᗜ Ŏ ̆ ｡) Sorry about that I'm very normal about my DR OCs (III╥_╥⁠)

– 🩷🎮

I AM SO SORRY FOR THE LATE REPLY. I’VE JUST BEEN SO BUSY AND TIRED.

YIPPEE!! THANK YOU FOR THE ANSWERS!!! Also don't worry about rambling, I love reading your asks! They're always such a delight 2 get :3

Oh my god, I used to love watching gachatubers as a kid. I never understood how to use the apps very well myself though. I have a couple friends who still use them and it amazes me what they can do with it!!

CRYING OVER THE REASONS GIVEN FOR BOTH OF ROSELYN’S TALENTS. SOBBING. ESPECIALLY “taking care of kids because she wasn’t taken care of” OH MY GOD THAT’S SO SAD. I’m sure whatever talent you give her will suit her, congrats on fully fleshing her out!! Always fun to finally figure out what you wanna do with your OC

Omg. Poor Sukoshi, the people around her failed her :((

Would totes be her friend. I am hoping she is much happier now post game!! That’s really cool that she came to you in a dream. If she wasn’t supposed to be in any game though, how does she get her talent? Don’t you need to attend the school to be given your ultimate title?

Oh yikes, doesn’t sound like it’s very safe for demons & succubi in your canon. I’m happy for her in the sense that what she went through didn’t break her down and she was able to continue going!! I love characters like that RAHHHH!!! What is Ai and Kaede’s relationship like? Are they close with eachother?

Sometimes unplanned ships are the best!! It’s fun when something isn’t planned between two characters and they end up just having the best chemistry :3

[loopspoop]

He was getting increasingly frustrated. Nothing about this day was going right. And Goemon was making everything worse. He wasn't doing anything wrong per se, but his hesitation to act was starting to get on Jigen’s nerves. A part of him knew Goemon was right. Lupin DID always have a way of just popping back up again after disappearing for a few days. But there was always some reason. Some bigger picture. This was a small town, virtually a village, and they hadn't made any enemies recently, none that would cause this.

Perhaps Pops had arrested Lupin, but kept it on the down low to keep from being embarrassed when Lupin inevitably escaped after a few hours again. But it was unlikely. Zenigata had no control over it, and the press was unfailing in their ability to find out the tiniest details in the so-called Lupin case.

He had walked about a mile and a half, when he suddenly realized that he still had to gather his things. It had been a long time since he had gotten so lost in his thoughts. But none of it made sense, no matter how much he thought on it.

He entered into the closest store he found. It was relatively modest. He went to grab the simplest pre made meals he could grab a hold of. Usually, he would have grabbed something more ornate, to make himself, but somehow he didn't feel like cooking now.

He grabbed a few packs of cigarettes. An off brand, just to add to the kind of day it was turning out to be.

……….

Fujiko was in the bath when her phone rang. It was probably Lupin calling to rant about some new treasure that he was sure she was going to love, or that she could sell for an astounding amount of money even if they split it down the middle. Though she always managed to get a little more than a pure down the middle split. More like a humble 80 percent. She wouldn't mind a deal like that right now, as long as it wouldn't take too much effort.

She answered the phone and immediately flinched at the voice at the other end. That wasn't what she suspected. It was Jigen. He only called her if Hell had frozen over at least three times.

“Jigen? Yes I'm still in France. What's going on?”

There was a pause on the other end of the line, and then a somewhat rambling explanation.

“Oh come on. That's not a big deal! Lupin's always going places without telling anyone. Just use it as an excuse to go on a vacation for once in your life. He'll show up wherever you go. You can't escape the guy.”

Her mood had been ruined so she got out of the bath and started to get ready for bed.

“Look. I don't know why you're bothering me with this.”

Some harsh choice words came from the other end of the line. Typical. This is what she got for answering one of Jigen's calls. She hung up without another word. She didn't want to hear anymore of what he had to say. She knew it wasn't normal for Lupin to disappear with seemingly no reason. It worried her. She'd have to head there first thing in the morning. But she'd have to come up with an excuse for why she was there once she showed up. Maybe she was swinging by to check up on Lupin and in return for her generosity and kindness they could give her whatever they managed to get in their last heist. Seemed like a fine enough cover.

………

Goemon had stopped at a world market near where they had parked the car. There was a distressingly low number of Japanese food options, but enough. He wasn't too picky. He would take what he could get.

………

He woke up shivering. It wasn't too bad though. He felt hundreds of times better than he had before his rest. He looked out the window. It was solidly dark now. He was surprised, expecting to have slept through the entire night at least. He stretched as much as he could without endangering his injuries.

He stared out the window, still laying in the far bed, simply trying to recall anything. Even the simplest thing. But it all felt just out of reach, like he was lost in a deep fog but could make out some vague colors or sounds. But nothing of any real value. The longer he pushed, the more of a headache began to grow. He decided to leave it for now. He needed to focus on healing first. For the first time since he woke up at the museum, though, he felt spectacularly lonely.

He looked to the clock on the table between the beds. 10:56. It was possible that there was still some kind of store opened. He wished it had been later so that he could reason staying in bed just a little longer.

He reluctantly rose from the bed to go outside once more. He decided to leave his jacket behind this time. Hopefully it was warm enough to survive without it for a time. And it was the thing in the worst shape second only to him. He hadn't realized it before, but the jacket seemed to have saved him the additional torture of several more cuts.

………

He opted to return to the same store as before and hoped that the cashier had gone home for the day. He didn't like the way that she had looked at him before.

It took about half the time this time now that he had regained his energy, but he still felt the need to be cautious.

He entered the store with a great haste, gathered the gauze and some medicine that he hoped would help with the fever he felt forming. It left nearly no money for food, but he could find a way to get some more tomorrow. He grabbed a couple more of the same fruit from before, the cheapest in the store luckily.

And even more luckily, the cashier had indeed changed. He managed to leave without any trace of suspicion. But on his way out, his eyes caught something that he had missed before.

It was a small yellow car. His heart beat happily. He walked over to it without even thinking.

………..

Oooooo 👀👀👀👀

[deadmandreams]

Warnings: cursing, a lot

Two | Three | Four

"alright, I'll do it."

"excellent. masaki take her to the back door and teach her how to use the thing. remember that this little bitch is going to kill someone for us so don't give her more than two bullets. one for the first shot and the other in case she misses"

"yessir." Another guy with a creepy scar on the right side of his face got you out. you were so worried for poor yaga. what they'll do to him.

"You're not going to do anything serious with him, are you?"

"no, as long as you point the gun at the target and press the trigger your friend will be alright. he will just take a nap. now eyes on me I'm not going to repeat myself. first, you will insert the magazine you should hear a click. then disengage manual safety with another click and slide rearmost. pull the trigger one time for each shot and be careful to keep your finger away from the hammer. it can pinch it real hard when you're shooting. that's all the basics you need to know. it's easy even for someone like you. you understand?"

you didn't take offense. "yes."

"now try it for yourself. I will give you the full magazine only for practice. like my boss said you only have two chances to shoot him dead. capish?"

"capish."

"here's some practicing. shot those cans from five feet distance." you shot five bullets. two of them missed

"is not bad for the first time. beginners luck I guess. don't think that's at all. try to shoot them all from further distance." our friend sir scarface was purely shocked a few seconds later. you shot all the cans with no miss. it was clear as day. you were born for this.

"have you shot before this?"

"no haven't seen a gun closely. is my first time touching one."

"well, you're fine. you don't need more than this. it's wasting time for you" he took the gun from your hands and like he said he only put two bullets in it. one to kill and the other in case you didn't.

"I think two bullets are even more than you need. you can kill him with one if you want. let's get inside."

"hey...I know your reasons for killing this guy, but what has he done that your boss is so scared of him?"

"tsked you knew so easily? god naoya must look so bad from the outside."

"It's not he that I'm asking, is just why even you guys think they're sick."

"listen lady, the reason even US think that he's a sick son of a bitch is he killed hundreds of people in one blink of an eye" "you mean civilians?"

"no I mean important people, even bigger than my boss. he just decided that he does not like activities other than him in the region. one fucking day he came out from his shadows sent one message to our whole organization and said 'he doesn't like filthy rats like us, who only know how to kill innocent people just for their personal purposes what kind of fucking psychopath would say that? and then tomorrow after all people got his message they say..." "who says?"

"I don't know. no one knows, but some rumors say he went personally to the meeting, shouting something like 'to only death pure your dirty sins and wash the blood of the innocents from your hands. Abandon every hope, all ye who enter here(1)' and exploded the whole cabin. most of the people were dead or they died as they were running and asking for help but he with just insanity followed them all and kill them one by one...fucking sick bastard."

"and he's coming over today?" "yes...YES...he's coming and that's why we want you to kill him for us. now stop fuckin chit-chattin'. he can be here any moment and he's kinda late by now."

when you got inside you could hear some people talking in the diner's hallway. there were yaga tied down on a chair and there was someone new with them. tall guy, with long black hair, big muscular figure...and....and green eyes with a scar in corner of his perfect soft lips. toji was now smirking at something funny. he saw you coming in. he made eye contact with you but then, he looked somewhere else." pretend I wasn't here" is what he said. scarface's boss was laughing his ass off.

"masaki...masaki we got company. you missed a lot man, training that lil minx."

"boss I said don't call me by name." toji jumped in.

"no worries, no one is going to remember you and your name either."

"look! he's that funny! first, he got in here and said something like...what was it toji?" "this place is so fucked up no wonder they forgot to waste a rocket for it. up here it looks completely devastated"

"yeah...and I wasn't sure if this guy is cool...I kinda thought he was our special guest...but it showed up that there are still real men around here not just dead bodies. hey girlie if you're finished with your lessons get some drinks for us." you were going to your counter.

"where should I even put this thing?" you showed him the gun in the air

" I don't know in your pocket...hey you can put it in your garnet, women with a gun in their garnet are the hottest. I give anything to get killed by a sexy slut taking a gun out of her gurnet and the last thing I'm seeing is a beautiful sight of her cunt"

"amen to your death scene brother."

"amen. didn't you hear me bitch? I said drinks. NOW" he shouted as he punched the table. you went to your fridge. beers were all alcohol you had. seven beers for six idiot assholes around the table and course their crème de la crème. you hated how toji changed his personality, or maybe it was his real self? you brought beers to their table.

"what's this? you only have beers? no wonder you have zero customers. no garnets nor real alcohol is the lack of service" you huffed.

"I'm sorry it's not good enough for your taste but it's all we have in here."

"bet you're right." he stood up from his sit and looked through your eyes. even though he wasn't that bad looking, what made him look disgusting was his ruthless behavior and short temper. he was taller than you but shorter than toji looking down at you, but unlike toji's pure muscle build, he was smaller and skinnier.

"I can't stand that a worthless bitch like you is having this attitude with me, naoya zenin. you're so lucky you're not facing naobito"

you looked at him. you had enough of these people. the way they think they're on top of the food pyramid made you sick. you were hesitating that you should or shouldn't kill that guy for them. whether who he was or what he does, he seems to treat these people right.

"what makes me feel sick of bitches like you, is that look. that annoying look that says 'oh look everyone im an innocent angel and I reserved a special place in heaven next to mother teresa'. you're the most pick me up bitch I've ever seen. fuck you and of course your cheap beer that tastes like piss." he said all of it and threw his beer to the floor. "bitches like you deserve to be on their knees, dontcha think boys?" his underlings threw their beers one by one, even scarface threw his. there were glasses everywhere on the floor.

"what is it toji? you don't want to waste your royal drink on a bitch? I understand you bro." you were on your knees picking glasses with your hands that toji stand. you looked up at him with your glossy eyes and shaking lips. he looked deep through your eyes. like he was taking a mental picture of you. on your wounded knees, you look so vulnerable, so out of this world. that son of a bitch was right. you were an angel. just it wasn't your fault to be right in the middle of the worst time to live.

"nah....just it makes me feel good to see them where they belong"

he threw his bottle. everyone laughed and something broke in you. as time goes by humans gain nothing, but instead, they lose their humanity little by little. you gathered all of the glasses. your hands were bleeding in several places and your tears were falling on your cheeks. toji looked at you and said something and went to the bathroom. you ran to the kitchen where you can use some ice on your scars. you were crying like there was no tomorrow and thinking how good it would be to just go back before all of this. before seeing these demons or even before seeing toji. 1: a poem from Dante's inferno

[lapeaudelamemoire]

Slept poorly and didn't get much done today. That's fine, it's been a big week, and I deserve a break for finishing up my last week on placement while writing up these assignments, and the stress of having to deal with obtaining medical documentation.

Been dreaming of work even in my sleep for much of the last week and before that. I've spent the entire last week if not the last two or more pretty much staring at my screen all day, all week, now that all documents are digital. My eyes have deteriorated since last year writing my thesis and all of this continuation. It worries and bothers me, but I don't know that there's much I can do about how our lives and work all seem digital these days, in many fields; and even for leisure.

At least I won't have to be at work on placement any more come Monday and Tuesday.

(If I haven't been replying or interacting much, I'm sorry, this is why - I can barely take my eyes off work, I'm snowed under.)

-

Since deleting Instagram I've bought even less. I don't even really buy myself 'rewards' any more for doing work or finishing things; which is not to say that I withhold them from myself, but rather that I don't really feel as compelled to any more. It would be a nice treat, but it's not something I need, and I don't have to bribe myself the same way any more.

I scroll past lingerie posts by a brand that used to be my favourite. And there are things that I want that I would still like to buy, and might perhaps regret if I missed out on, but I don't feel like it would be So Terrible if I did; and have made my peace with potentially not having and 'missing out on', that being the case. I've noticed that I buy things because I want them, and would like to have them, but I rarely wear or use them. Parcels stack in my living room, unopened for months, even over a year. There is actually really quite little that I genuinely need or want. I can like something and not own it, or possess it. I think that's something good to learn, and one we don't learn enough or much of; but I think the world or things would be better if we did. I would like to travel still, too, but even that has lessened somewhat in drive.

I have my partner and really, the days are happy as they are. It sounds cheesy but when we're together, looking at him and being with each other is enough to give me smiles for days.

Lately, though, I've noticed myself buying some little things that I previously never bought, like stickers, or key chains. And I've actually used the keychain, but with the stickers, just having them and looking at them all still in the sheet makes me happy. Growing up and shedding the notion of trying to look cool and not personalising your things is great. I have never been more openly me.

But I think actually that all of this is also because of him; taught to me unwittingly by him. Maybe I would have gotten here by myself too, by now even, or eventually, I don't know. But being with him - I've changed. Of course, of course, being with different people changes you. But still -

I love being with my husband. Unpretentious as he is, caring as he is. With others there is always bothering about how we look - and he does like to be told he looks good, of course - but everything is so simple, so distilled. We are as we are. Unpolished as we are. We eat. Wake up together. Go to sleep together. Spend our days in each other's orbit. Maybe this is the definition of [一起/一块儿] 过日子. Nothing extraneous, nothing added or dressed up, no airs. I remember early on one day, this turn in myself I noticed brought on by being in his presence, a sense of community as something surrounding him and committed to in his actions. That was the first time I really felt community as something real as a context you lived in, and not just some abstract concept or nebulous notion of a large circle drawn around an area, bigger than just your immediate links to friends or family.

With someone else, I'd probably still be the same person I was, buying up lingerie and wanting to stay in fancy hotels and dressing up in finery. But I like who being with him has changed me into.

I want for so little now. We laugh plenty in each other's company. I am so aware, every day, how much this life with time spent together sharing our lives is a treasure.

[the-firebird69]

Couple more things this guy is moving his stuff out of the laundromat so he's saying some things while he's moving that he's forced out the kid and Mac did it and he's being horrendous and he's calling his forces to do stuff I'm going after them and we're going after the ones helping John the remillard and we are also finally charges and there are other people Mac Daddy and others finally charges for him being here in the first place and there's a group and it's getting bigger with every complaint people are decided to file charges because he's such a huge a****** about everything.

--on top of that he's saying he's going to go to the apartment and bother our son then move out sometime this week and not tell anyone stuff like that and he'll get exposed and he's a pest and his son is going to move out so we're hopeful. But he doesn't belong here we have an idea that he might not be back and our son is going to get money and it'll be able to move to a safer location

--a few other indicators are showing that one is the Continental Congress is part of it there's people still want to be rebels but he is in that case after a while he's just doing the rebel cause says it's a parallel but he didn't put weight way too high he's not coming down.

--there's a couple other things Max is having a lot of problems but really it's generated by the morlock and he's facing them doing a decent job taking a hammering and he's got stuff to do and he's figured out that there are ways to handle it

-+more shortly

Thor Freya

Olympus

The reason why he's leaving is to come back as someone else and that's what he's saying his cities and bunkers are cordoned off he's lost a lot of power his fleets can't get here and that's one thing so we have to wonder what he has for power of all that's held up and people are finding it in the cities at the finance centers and they're going after them and the credit card is helping and her son's Banks and our son and daughters money and her accounts too they are going hog wild after Jen's accounts and they're getting pizza hell she's a bunch of money and will probably get him stuff. She said he doesn't use you can't use the pressure but he's going to and to get her things and she's smiling cuz she knows what he means. And he says that she is worth everything and he's going to shrink the Taj mahal and turn it into a jewelry box for her and she says that might get real big and I don't need any says no they'll be too big and she knows but really father and mother say you can't do that it's okay I thought we made it it did but you can't do it everywhere in it the laughing cuz he said we can put jewelry it everywhere in it reverse the whole thing will be a fault you have to go to every morning. It's kind of hilarious cuz it looks like the computer in heaven from the Bible. That we are going to start to try and get things here to him and she's a little happier about it and the change to the content until Congress as a representative is a big deal and that should make things a lot more pleasant we think it'll be a raising pay they didn't count a few companies when he was younger and it's true he made a lot more money than that although it has quite a few companies it worked for about 10 construction and those were all listed and one at a time and then there's only like five more and in a benedetto was one of them his own company but he worked a lot before that and you don't have to report taxes if it's under a certain amount and he worked at Julio's we don't think they reported that either and they're saying they did but he worked there for quite a while since 6 months and he only made like a hundred dollars a week so it's only $2,500 but it's still counts for 6 months and they're missing the point it's time that they didn't catch and put on there and he worked when he was young for cash and he works pretty good hours every weekend he was doing work he was shoveling driveways it would take an hour he'd do a few like three or four and they're paying him good money so it's not really the money although accounts it is the time and Davis trying to get our son's money he buried and the Sun is wise to why he says I can't use anybody unless somebody gets them and it's like the first money practically so he's not laughing for them and possibly them but he knows about them and he's saying it's going to be some some point where the foreigners are involved and you guys be tied up with the Max and will be able to try and get their code which would be now and this guy John remillard things so kidnap our son he's asking listings have been building up for years and so more shortly but the schedule is going to take place on Tuesday

Thor Freya

Olympus

[ramuneempiremtl]

Slave-kun’s Happy Life in Another World: Chapter 32

……..

(Continuation of the flashback)

Even though I was told to speak, I didn't think I could make a sound.

However, when I tried, I was surprised to find that I could speak smoothly.

"……The guards said that the master is struggling to write the invitation…… So, I think it would be good to rewrite the invitation and have the guests arrive earlier than planned."

The butler looked surprised, as if he didn't expect me to answer.

His expression quickly changed to one of contemplation.

The slaves are also working during the preparation for the banquet. They will probably be overworked. If we change the time of the invitation, the official may arrive before the slaves are isolated and witness a decisive moment.

"That's a great idea. Since the letter before sealing it is left on the desk in the study and it's not read again, there won't be any notice even if it's rewritten."

When asked if I could do it, I conveyed that I couldn't write.

"Then, allow me to execute it. Fortunately, I have the key to the study, and since my master has poor handwriting, it will be easy to imitate his handwriting."

The butler who smiled kindly seemed like a savior. It felt as if a faint ray of hope had entered.

I don't know if the butler actually carried out my plan.

However, a few days later, it was not the guards but the soldiers and knights of the lord who opened the door to the slave room.

And so, we were able to escape from the depths of hell.

……..

Even when I think back on it, there was nothing suspicious about the old butler.

But that's based on my previous values.

Now I can see a completely different world.

If he is the mastermind.

My delusions are getting bigger and bigger.

It makes me think that Cattle Trading Company was intentionally crushed.

The reputation of Cattle Trading Company was not bad. They overcame prejudice as Casmanians and grew into a company rooted in the region.

For the mastermind who was trying to use the company, the head who didn't obey him must have become more and more of a nuisance.

On top of that, they realized the existence of "powder" by sniffing it out from the country.

That's why they decided to crush it.

In a way that would cause the most damage, so that the company would completely disappear.

And they executed it.

Surely, the company that will be put in its place afterwards is the real objective.

My plan was unnecessary. He appeared in that room that night to confirm the current situation of the slaves and their intentions, and to leave an impression as the butler who helped them rather than as the perpetrator in case of emergency.

In the first place, both the slaves and the Casmanian guards are probably pawns he prepared and contracted.

Because I was able to speak.

My true master was not the Cattle Company master, but that old butler. That's why I could speak in front of him.

We were just tools used to create a weakness of abuse towards the slaves.

The instructions given to the guildmaster were probably to divert the attention of the investigators towards him. It's because they can't ignore it if such a big shot is involved.

I don't know if they knew that this party was assigned for investigation. If they did, it's possible that they have someone in the capital spreading information.

His reach may already be longer than we imagine.

What a situation.

That old man may have been both a benefactor and a mastermind behind the slaves.

……I had various delusions, but what's important is not the details. It's the purpose.

Why did you do this?

My prediction.

Isn't it world domination?

It became a really stupid word somehow. But to cut through all the nonsense and get to the point, that's how it turned out.

It's all just imagination though.

I really hope it's just my grandiose delusion.

Before I knew it, I was back on Daine's stomach. I got too caught up in a grand conspiracy theory and got tired.

It's frustrating, I'm starting to feel sleepy. It's because I've been trained to sleep at this time. The downside of education! And also because of soft, sinking muscles!

My master approached me and reached out his hand.

"Come on, Owl, let's take a bath."

Oh, I have to wash my master.

Rubbing my eyes, I shook off the future of this city that came to mind and followed my master.

[Different perspective next time.]

[echantedtoon]

Kiddo Week Day 3 Act 2: Dead Bird Studios

Dead Bird Studios.

The place where for YEARS had been the birthplace of creativity and actors on the big screen. And now she was standing right in front of it. The others didn't look so fazed at the big building considering they had been there multiple times before but that didn't stop her from staring up in fascination at it all. It. WAS. HUGE!! WAY bigger than those tall buildings back on the moon. A giant logo sign of a black bird skull and film real decorated the outside on the big front there with the giant words under it reading DEAD BIRD STUDIOS. A parking lot stood between them and the entrance and they were already walking across it towards the entrance. It was normal by this point however. There was times Cookie had been forced to take her along with her to work if no babysitter could be found or if she couldn't watch her herself which was the case today. The babysitter called out sick on Cookie last minute leaving the poor cat to scramble to get Muriel to look presentable and shoo her out the door and to her workplace mind coming up with only one idea to fix this entire situation. Dragging the poor girl through the studios she didn't stop until she came across a certain yellow owl director. The Conductor was busy minding his own business, probably thinking about how to beat DJ Grooves again for the next Bird Movie Awards, but smiled when seeing the frazzled cat run up to him in a hurry.

"Ah! Lassie! I was nah expecting ta see ye today-"

"Thank goodness Ah found ya!," she panickily spoke before pulling Muriel in front of her and pushed her towards the older bird who would've blinked if he had eyes but his head turned towards the blinking blonde girl letting them both know he was looking at Muriel. "I'm late for work b-but the sitter cancelled on me last minute! I need ya to watch Muriel for me until my daily show's finished! Yo-You wouldn't mind watching her for just an hour would you?"

"I- W-Wha-" He didn't get a chance to say anything before Cookie was already turning and booking it back towards the penguins' side of the studios. "Thanks, Sugah! I owe ya one! Muriel you be good for Mr. Conductor ya hear!?"

And then that's how the two of them were left alone. By themselves. With each other staring at the direction at which Cookie had disappeared. An awkward silence was filled between the two of them as they stood there for the longest time shuffling and glancing at one another before. Well...this was awkward. For both of them tremendously. It's not that he didn't have any experience with children, after all he's raised a son and has five wee grandchildren he sees sometimes, plus there's that hat lass and her cheerful cat loving friend that came quite often to visit him and the peckneck penguin. But this girl-...She was an entirely different story. She was his lover's child so he was used to seeing her around but hadn't interacted much, but that wasn't just it. They weren't on good terms, or at least they were on awkward terms at most. He'll NEVER forget the battle between her and the hat lass, what she did to the world and calling her the 'Red Lass that needs to get lost' a couple times during that time. Imagine his giant surprise when he saw her again with Cookie and how motherly the old cat was with her. Why it had infuriated him to the core! Why the PECK was Cookie coddling this monsterous child!? Didn't she forget what Muriel had nearly done to everyone!? And it wasn't just Cookie. DJ Peckneck had also had no problem welcoming the child and treating her with the same gentle care he's give Hattie and Bow. Along with every other penguin, owl, and even the lasses themselves had no problem with her. Hattie would still give her a look and attitude from time to time. For the sake of his growing relationship with Cookie he had learnt to let go of most of his anger towards her and it had worked for the most part. The two were on a 'small talk from time to time' basis and he had let her have a roll in one of his movies at one point but that was more of a friendly gesture than anything. Awkwardly the two still stood there before Muriel finally spoke.

"Sooo...I heard you were using more explosives for your new movie?," she tried Gold eyes blinking.

He flinched for a moment. "Um-....Yes. I am."

"Good, good. Using them responsibly I assume. Wouldn't want it in bad hands."

"Wot!? Of course I am! I'm nah irrrrresponsible with my things!" He felt a bit irritated she'd just assume he would do something like that!...Well...Maybe he did once blow up his train, but ONLY ONE TIME!!

"Are you sure?" She crossed her arms. "You're not really the responsible type."

"OH! I suppose YE are any better!?", he steamed shouting back looking annoyed and anger rising now. He pointed right at her. "AT LEAST AH NAH SENT THE WORLD INTO CHAOS AND TYRRRRANY WITH THEM BLOODY HOURGLASSES!!"

The little girl froze for a moment stunned he said that, before she scowled herself and accused back, "OH YEAH!? Well what about you!? What about trying to shishkabob Hat Kid in the basement after you stole her time piece!?" He froze- "Or trying to blow up your train with everyone on it for just a stupid movie!? How does that make YOU any better!?"

Conductor was-...very much taken aback. In shock even. Opening his and closing his mouth as he stared at the girl before he settled on, "H-HOW THE PECK DID YE KNOW ABOUT THAT!?"

"Hattie told me!,'' she shouted back and he flinched when she sniffled and he just now noticed the small tears that threatened to spill from her golden eyes. "B-But I never said a-a-anything b-because Cookie likes you! I don't know why! You're so mean all the time to everyone!" her hands came up to rub at her eyes. "Y-You don't think everyone already knows what I did? *hiccup* People tell me all the time I'm a bad guy b-but I'm not! I'M NOT A BAD GUY!! Cookie said I wasn't one....I'm not a bad guy."

And he stood there stunned watching as she started to hiccup and wiping at his eyes and he felt-...Awkward. But guilty. Very, very guilty. He wanted to argue back, to say he wasn't the bad guy here either but-..She was right. He-...He DID do terrible things. Really, REALLY bad things same as her. Admittedly blowing up his train and possibly-..Ok. ACTUALLY putting everyone on board including himself was a pecknecking stupid idea. And as for what happened between him and Hattie-...That heavy guilt came back tenfold as it hit him. The child had long since forgave him, never knew why, but that still didn't change the fact he still did that. And unlike her-...He had no excuse. He was an old BIRD for peck's sake! He knew was right and wrong! Muriel was-....just a child. Just-...J-Just like his grandchildren. She wanted to get rid of bad guys and well-..Could he expect a child who grew up in a menagerie like Mafia Town to really not be affected by it? She probably took the first chance at fixing things she saw and ran with it. Things got-...extreme to put it lightly, but was that any better than him or what he did? He'll admit her reasoning was better. Can't say wanting to get rid of bad guys was worse than just being selfish over getting a trophy. She continued to sniffle and wipe at her face in front of him and he continued to stare at her in shock before sighing and reaching a hand to rub his face feathers drooping. Conductor you done pecked it up.

"*sigh* L-Lassie I-...*sigh* Aye." He nodded and she sniffled looking up at him with red eyes. "Aye. Ye right. M' an old peckneck who nah thinks about things enough. Guess that makes us both even mistakers."

Muriel still sniffled and looked at him for a moment before attempting to scowl and with red eyes pointed at him. "Yeah?...W-Well I'm still gonna keep an eye on you! I won't let Cookie be hurt by any bad guy! Mark my words! I'm the best hero in the world!!"

He..attempted a small smile and huff. "Aye, Lass. That's something we can both agrrree on."

"...Agree on what?"

"That we both care about the same person!," he pointed out. Hey..Maybe they did have some common ground after all. "If any peckneck tries anything...They'll meet my friend who's not rrrrubber."

"Dunno what you mean by that but you're right about that." She nodded but narrowed her eyes. "But I've got my eyes on you! Don't think just because you're dating her that I won't be watching out."

"Aye, Lass. That's a fair assumption." If he had eyes he would've rolled them. Kids. "I suppose you'll want to inspect me train next?"

She blinked. "....You want to show me your train!?" Her eyes widened. "Like the ones they have in the movies!?"

"The ones they have in the movies. I'll have you know there is only ONE train in any of those pictures and I happen to own it," he stated proudly much to the girl's wonder, "Would ye like to see it?"

"YES!!"

"Well tis just outside the studios! Ye need to jus show your bird ID card to the security guard-"

"Bird ID card?,'' she asked back confused raising a brow. "But...I don't have anything like that."

"Ye don't?" She shook her head no and he hummed. "Well this won't do at all! How does anyone expect ye ta not wrack up damage coverage if ya ain't a bird? C'mere Lass an' we'll get ye one."

Needless to say Cookie returned to a very excited child and an old bird with a better understanding of things.

[mechanicalinertia]

STMPD Attempts To Plan 2023

In case you haven't caught on yet, I make posts like this more to plan out what I want to do for myself, as a fanfiction writer, than spoil what's next in the ol' pipeline. I'm discovering what comes next for this year at approximately the same rate you are.

And... look. I think I'm going to be much busier than I was in 2022. This year is going to be a part of my life where I undergo a lot of big changes, make a lot of big moves, and hopefully don't fuck up too badly in between all of that. Bearing that in mind, my new year's resolution was simply to write less fanfiction and write more real fiction for real people. And given circumstances, I'll probably end up fulfilling that imperative.

But I'll still produce content. It will be smaller, less ambitious, but it'll still be there. I'll still be here. So let's go over what I could work on:

Anatomy Of A Lovedoll: Ha. Could work on? Oh, STMPD, you silly goose. I need to finish this goddamn thing. I have one big epic fight scene to hack out, goodness only knows how long that will take, then one super-short epilogue and I'll have a really good Bubblegum Crisis fanfiction actually finished! Of course, I have to get that fight scene finished first, and that's tricky right now for some reason. I don't know why, but the blow-by-blow just isn't coming to me organically. I'm not giving up on it, but I could stand to work harder on this piece. It's worth finishing, it really is. It's one of the things I'm unironically glad I wrote. I just got to give it one final push.

Divine Patronage: I used to think this was a fic with a lot of views: then I saw how many views Edgerunners fics can get, and realized that I don't know what I'm talking about. Ranma is an old fandom, certainly not a dead one but not a big one by any means. But I haven't stopped having ideas for adventures Urd and Ranma could go on together. Urusei Yatsura, Tenchi Muyo, Patlabor, Dominon... all these 80's and 90's anime that just call out for silly crossovers where Ranma and some cute girl can save the day together. So I need to get back to this one, but is that what I really want to do after Anatomy? Or do I want to try something else? Such as:

Witch of Tranquility: This, actually, was my original plan for a sequel to Anatomy, one which looks like it'll take awhile to really get going. I'm less enthusiastic about it compared to when I first drew up the concept, mostly because in my head it leads into several more fics involving more Edgerunners characters doing stuff. In other words, it's a commitment bigger than I'm willing to commit to, at least in my head. Maybe I could write it as a standalone fic, but it's the kind of fic that doesn't end happily, it has a big ol' world-shaking alteration to the state of the world in the 2060's. I was designing it almost predicated on the promise of there being more adventures after it, but who's to say there will be? And even then, the question of whether I should focus on Edgerunners characters or BGC characters looms its head. I had one idea for a Reika Chang-centric fic in the 2060's continuity, and another involving Celia / Sylia's mother coming back from the dead in a manner akin to Prospera Mercury in Gundam, but I don't know if either of those would really work.

As-of-yet-unproduced Fate / Edgerunners crossover fic: A relatively simple idea: David and the Edgerunners crew end up in a Holy Grail War in Night City. David's Sandevistan is magical, has a catalyst and artificial magic circuits implanted in it, etc etc. I came up with this idea in an Edgerunners fanfiction discord, only for the author of motherfucking Group Chat, one of the most popular Edgerunners fanfics out there, to turn out to be a huge Fate-head as well. I said I probably didn't have it in me to write it, and Arrow said he's interested in writing the fanfic. So I could theoretically just act as a creative consultant. Only... several people on forums think the idea is a bad one, and that it should be inspired by Fate/Extra instead, perhaps even eliminating David from the fic entirely. Which, since I know next to nothing about Extra's sub-canon, I don't really want to do. Well, we'll see if anything comes of the project. I'm excited for it, especially since I think David's drives are similar to Shirou's in crucial and interesting ways.

Fanfic Reviews: Sometime in the later months of 2022, I became convinced that I had run out of reviewable Bubblegum Crisis fanfic that I could recall without having to read too much of something I hated. But that's a falsehood. The number of review drafts I've got on tumblr speaks to that. Now, as tempting as it is to try to review a behemoth like YT2032 or something like that, I don't really feel ready to do that right now. Instead, what I really ought to do is start moving more reviews from drafts to complete posts, finish up what I can easily review and then go there. I reviewed a lot of fanfics over the past year, and it was a fun pastime, helped me get a better sense of what I want out of BGC fan content. So yeah, I need to get back to doing some more fluffy fic reviews.

Silly Miscellanea: Omakes, short stories - anything to get the ol' creative juices flowing. I have this fragment of a thing where Priss, Linna, and Nene talk about 3D printing as it might exist in the 2060's and how technology rarely disrupts the fundamental foundations of society anymore, this whole sci-fi philosophy discharge that could work as a short bit. I had this idea for a story in the vein of early 2010's battle harem high school light novels where Sho from OVA 3 grows up and leads the next generation of Sabers. I keep thinking it might be cool to explore the friendship between Reika and Linna once or twice. Stuff like that.

So: Will I end up writing any of these potential projects? Well, Anatomy's a given, the fanfic reviews are a given, but after that I honestly don't know. We'll see how the year shakes out, and if I find that I have the time to do more than just those projects - if I get to help write a fate fanfic, if I continue Divine Patronage, if I do anything else at all - then so much the better, right?

Yeah.

[likeahorribledream]

ɴᴏᴛ ᴀꜱ ɪᴛ ꜱᴇᴇᴍꜱ

SUMMARY: On your 18th birthday, you get a tattoo on your arm of what your soulmate’s first words/sentence will be to you. Yours always seemed so sweet until Ransom speaks those words to you in a very condescending way.

REQUEST: The first thing your soulmate says to you is tattooed on your arm and the first thing he says to reader is really rude but the second he realizes that she’s his soulmate he goes all soft.

PAIRING: Ransom Drysdale x Reader

WORD COUNT: 9.2k

WARNINGS: Angst, fluff, Ransom being a dick but also a very big softie. Reader has two dads, I don't think that should be a warning in 2022 but just in case some people are still stuck in the 1950s.

NOTE: This is my first ''soulmate'' story, hopefully it's good! If not, then I'm sorry haha!

ᴍᴀꜱᴛᴇʀʟɪꜱᴛ

Working for Linda Thrombey was basically like going on a suicide mission, every single day. You never know what’s going to be waiting for you but you still have a pretty good idea that it won’t end well. Even when she’s in a good mood, it’s still a very bad mood. Spending an entire day without irritating her too much is like trying to cross a minefield without stepping on any detonator; almost impossible. None of your family or friends understand why you keep putting yourself through this kind of torture. There are jobs in real estate all over the country, it’d be easy to find another one but none of them have Linda Thrombey. She might be horrible with human beings but she does understand business and you’ve learned so much from her already. She goes after what she wants and isn’t scared to make her voice heard. She’s absolutely ruthless and she makes no excuses for it. She’s dominating the field all over Boston and there’s a reason for it. She knows what she’s talking about and she understands selling like nobody else.

When you started working for her a few years ago, she used to take you to open houses and other business transactions to show you exactly how she operates and you had been pleasantly surprised to see that she doesn’t sell under pressure. She listens to her clients, listens to their needs and she finds the perfect house, apartment, condo, villa or mansion for them. You had asked her one day why she didn’t try to pressure anyone into buying bigger than they need, get them to go above their budget and make more money off of them and her answer was simple: people move all the time. If she does her job well the first time then they are more likely to buy from her again and talk about her to the people in their lives. If you try to screw your clients out of hundreds of thousands of dollars to put in your own pocket, the word is going to travel and you won’t have any business. That’s how you make more money and not by trying to sell them bigger, more expansive houses that they’ll end up hating.

It’s for moments like those that you keep coming into work every day. With time, she warmed up to you some. Not a lot, it’s still Linda we’re talking about, but enough to keep you around and keep teaching you whenever possible. She even gave you a few houses to show and you had sold every single one of them to very satisfied clients. She hadn’t congratulated you but she gave you a genuine smile so you took it as a win. You’ve also been the only employee who has stuck around for so long, everybody else goes running after a few weeks or a few months for the toughest amongst them. Funnily enough, Linda still keeps calling you ‘’new girl’’ even if you’re anything but new at her company. It’s better than ‘’dumb and dumber’’, which she has called more than one employee since you’ve been there.

You had tried to explain all of this to your family and to your friends but they stayed fixated on Linda and her reputation rather than what you were gaining from it all.

‘’If it’s because you need money, your father and I are more than happy to give you anything you need.’’ He told you one day when you had called your dad.

‘’I know pops and I appreciate it but like I’ve told you, and dad, multiple times I’m fine. She’s amazing at her job. Trust me.’’ You had reassured him, once more.

Having one papa bear to watch over you is nice, having two papa bears is nice too but also kind of stressful, you love your dads to death and you wouldn’t change them for the world. Every day you take a moment to thank whoever was watching over you when you were born and gave you to these two amazing men.

In the few years you’ve worked for Linda, never once had you been in contact with any other Thrombey family members except for Richard, her husband, a few times. You were thankful for that because you’ve heard all the rumors about her son being almost as ruthless as her, some would even say more. You could only manage one Thrombey at a time.

3 years. That’s how long you’d been there before shit hit the fan. 3 blissful-ish years that came to a screeching halt when you got to the office one morning and Linda wasn’t there, which is odd for her because she always leaves after you and gets in before you. Your phone had started ringing shortly after you walked into her building and you quickly picked up when you saw it was your boss calling.

‘’Mrs. Thrombey, is everything ok?’’ You asked, dropping a pile of files on top of your desk.

‘’I won’t be coming in today. My stupid husband broke his foot and I’m now stuck at the hospital with him, he might need surgery so I need to stay, apprently.’’ She sighed, exasperated. ‘’You’ll have to hold down the fort for the day, you already know my schedule anyway. I’ll send you my son to give you some help. Don’t be afraid to put that little prick back in his place. You’re in charge today, not him. Text me if you need my help.’’

‘’You can trust me, thank you. Do you need me to bring you anything? Coffee or breakfast? Clothes?’’

‘’Actually yes, do you think you could find me a husband that’s less stupid and come get the stupid one instead?’’

You chuckled quietly. ‘’I’ll get right on that, boss.’’

You quickly hung up, knowing the conversation wouldn’t be going any further and went to your computer to print Linda’s schedule like you do every morning and listen to all her voicemails, also like you do every morning. So far, you have the situation under control. You call back a few clients to let them know Linda would be out of the office for the day, those you knew would only go through her and her only.

Everything was going well. Too well. Around noon, that’s when trouble started. The phone kept ringing, like suddenly everyone wants to sell their houses or buy new ones and they all want to see Linda as soon as possible. You’ve been on the phone and the computer so much that you haven’t had time to eat lunch at all and you are starving.

Trying to multitask, you bring your lunch to your desk and keep talking on the phone while typing on your computer to schedule every appointment in the way Linda likes. This is your chance to prove yourself to her and you aren’t going to let anything get in the way of that.

As you’re talking to a client, you reach across your desk to take a file and when you pull it back you knock your sandwich off of your desk and it explodes as soon as it hits the floor.

You hold back a curse, trying to keep it professional but you feel like you’re about to lose it. Being overworked and hangry is not a good combination.

You wrap up your call as fast as possible and turn on your chair to look at what used to be your sandwich.

‘’Why?’’ You whine, moving to kneel on the floor to pick up all the pieces of food that scattered everywhere. ‘’One bite, that’s all I was asking for. This fucking day.’’ You mumble to yourself as you roll up your sleeves and start picking up lettuce, tomatoes and turkey from the floor.

‘’Thank god you’re pretty.’’

You almost jump out of your skin at the man’s voice. You quickly stand back up and look at the front door.

‘’Excuse me?!’’

‘’You’re such a fucking mess. How you’ve managed to keep this job for so long is beyond me.’’ He shakes his head and walks toward you. ‘’You’re the one my mother left in charge?’’

You have been so busy that you totally forgot that Linda had sent her son to give you a hand.

‘’I am.’’ You put your hands on your hips. ‘’Nice of you to finally show up.’’

Ransom rolls his eyes. ‘’Calm down, kitten. I’m here, aren’t I?’’

Oh this day is going to be long and painful. You move closer to your desk and grab a pile of files that you shove against his chest, holding them until he takes them. ‘’Less talking, more working.’’

He opens his mouth to say something, condescending you’re sure, but you hold up your hand and stop him. ‘’I’m the one in charge, Mrs. Thrombey says you have to listen to me so don’t even try it.’’

You’re about to put your arm down but Ransom grabs your wrist and pulls your arm closer to him.

‘’Ow, what the hell is your problem?’’ You try to pull on your arm but his grip tightens to keep you from moving.

With his free hand he drops the folders on your desk and pulls up his left sleeve with the fingers that are still around your wrist. He pushes your forearms together and your eyes widen.

From the moment you turn 18, you get a tattoo somewhere on either arm. Absolutely everybody over 18 has one. Sometimes it’s one word, two words, a sentence or two but it’s always the first words that your soulmate will speak to you when you meet. The tattoos didn’t mean that you are guaranteed to meet your soulmate but it helped you recognize them when you do. Nowadays, less and less people believe in soulmates. They don’t even bother looking at their tattoos or trying to listen to the first words that are spoken to them at all. They could meet their soulmates without ever knowing it because they don’t remember what the tattoo on their arms says. Most people give up completely on the ideas of soulmates and just date until they fall in love. It’s not because your significant other isn’t the one that you can’t love them.

The only people you’ve ever met in your life that found their soulmates are your dads. It was your favorite story growing up, hearing about how they found each other. They had told it to you over and over again to a point where you could tell it for them as you knew it by heart. Your dads had explained that it’s not because you find your soulmate that you’re automatically in love. Your soulmate is most likely a stranger after all, but they are still your soulmate and if fate chose them for you then there’s a reason. You’ll eventually get to know each other and then fall in love, it’s not a matter of if but when.

Lucky are the ones that find their soulmates at some point in their lives. The love of a soulmate is the purest kind of love that could ever exist. There aren’t words strong enough to describe how it feels to be united with your soulmate. Two halves of a whole coming together.

Here you stand, in the middle of your office with your sandwich still scattered across the floor with your boss’ son who’s holding your arms together.

Thank god you’re pretty is written across yours while excuse me is written on his.

‘’Since I was 18 I thought I was so lucky because my soulmate’s first words were going to be so incredibly sweet and instead they were meant in the most condescending way.’’ You pull on your arm and this time Ransom lets it go.

You go back to picking up the mess you’ve made while Ransom keeps staring at you.

‘’Look I’m sorry, I didn’t mean them in that way-’’

You cut him off. ‘’Yes, that’s exactly how you meant them. You walked in here, hours after you were supposed to, you watched me busting my ass to get everything done instead of stepping up and offering your help, and you had the nerves to insult me.’’ You throw everything in the trash can and stand back up. ‘’This day has been a shit show since I walked in this morning and all I wanted was a damn sandwich.’’ You walk away to the bathroom in the back to wash your hands and try to calm down.

When you come back out, the office is empty and you’re alone again. Ransom had left while you were in the bathroom.

‘’This fucking day.’’ You repeat to yourself, all the efforts you had made to calm down while in the bathroom were for nothing, you’re even more angry than you were before.

You sit back behind your desk and go through your drawers to see if maybe there were some snacks you might have forgotten about but sadly you find nothing.

You throw yourself back into your work hoping that if you keep busy your stomach will forget that you're starving and you can hold off until dinner with your dads tonight.

Thankfully the phone stops ringing and you're able to focus solely on updating files and doing research for Linda's clients.

As you're deep into work you hear the door to the office open. Great, Ransom left and didn't even bother to lock the door on his way out.

"Sorry we're closed to the public today, come back tomorrow please." You say to whoever walked in, without looking up from your work.

"Mh, it's just me."

You look up when you hear Ransom's voice and raise a brow. "I thought you left."

"I didn't. Well I did but just to get you this." He holds up a bag.

"What is that?"

"A sandwich from the deli." He takes it out of the bag and hands it to you.

You try not to look too surprised as you take it from his hand because you don't want to offend him but that's the last thing you thought he'd do. Where's the asshole from earlier?

"Thank you, that's really nice." He offers you a shy smile and goes to sit at his mother's desk, taking the files you had given to him earlier with him.

You're quick to take the sandwich out of the wrapper and take a big bite out of it.

"Is it good?" Ransom asks after a few bites.

"Very. Thank you." You smile at him before continuing eating.

10 minutes later the sandwich is all gone and you're back at work. You both work in silence, not really having the time to speak or knowing what to say.

At around 4pm you look at all the work you still have to do and there's no way you're getting out of the office before 8 tonight. That means you won't be able to have dinner with your fathers and it sucks because it's been so long since you were able to spend time with them.

You dial your dad's number on your work phone and pick up the receiver, waiting for him to pick up.

"Hello?"

"Hi, dad."

"Hey, princess. How are you?"

"I'm ok but I have to cancel dinner tonight. I'm sorry."

"No." Your dad says, clearly disappointed. "Why?"

"My boss is at the hospital with her husband and I still have a ton of work to do before I can leave."

"We were so excited to see you. We miss you."

You feel a little tug at your heart. "I know dad, I'm so sorry. I miss you too."

Ransom's been listening in on your conversation, it's a small room and there's literally no noises.

"You can go to dinner." Ransom says quickly, trying not to interrupt too much.

"Hold on, dad." You look at Ransom. "What?"

"You can go to dinner with your parents. I'll talk to my mom, don't worry."

You hesitate but shake your head. "No, she'll fire me. She fired people for a lot less."

"Like I said, I'll talk to her. She won't fire you, you're the only employee she's never described as incompetent and that's huge coming from her. So go, don't worry about it."

"Listen to him! He's giving you an out, take it."

You chuckle at what your dad said.

"Fine, I'll be there in about two hours ok?"

"If you're not here by 6 I'm sending your dad to pick you up and you know how embarrassing he can be."

"Damn, no need to threaten me. I'll be there."

"Good. Love you."

"Love you, bye."

You hang up the phone, in a good mood for the first time in hours.

"Thank you." You say to Ransom. "I appreciate it."

"It's the least I can do after the way I spoke to you."

"Well, I had forgiven you when you brought me a sandwich but allowing me to see my parents certainly won't hurt."

You roll your chair back and stand up to start cleaning up your desk.

"Is your mom as crazy as mine?"

You shrug. "I don't have one."

"You don't have a mom?" Ransom asks, slightly confused.

"I mean I have one, obviously, but I've never met her. My dads adopted me before I was even born so the moment she gave birth to me they took over."

"Oh, ok. That makes more sense." Ransom nods and stands up too. "How is it? Having two dads."

"It's great, for the most part." You put the files in your cabinet and lock it. "Two dads mean twice the dad jokes, you know."

Ransom laughs. "I don't think my father ever made dad jokes."

"Your family seems a little…" You stop to think of the right word.

"Loveless, cold, insane?"

"I was gonna say peculiar but those work too."

"Yeah, none of us are excited to see each other at family dinners and we certainly don't miss one another." Ransom shrugs.

"That's no fun. I'm sorry." You tell him sincerely.

"It's fine, I'm used to it."

You grab your phone, keys and bag and follow Ransom to the front door to put on the alarm and you lock up the doors once you're both outside.

"Could I get your number? If you don't want to give it to me I totally get it."

Ransom seems nervous and you feel like you might be one of very few people who have seen him this way.

"Of course you can have it." It's not like you'd turn down a chance to get to know your soulmate, not when you're one of the few lucky people who get to find their other half.

You give him your number and he gives you his, then he walks you to your car.

"For your safety." He had said with the cheekiest of grins.

You have just enough time to go home, change and go to your parents' house.

"Who was that boy I heard on the phone earlier?" Your dad asked between bites.

"Boy?" You laughed. "The man you heard is Ransom. He's Linda's son and…" You trailed off, hesitating to tell them.

"Your boyfriend?" Your pops said in a mocking tone.

"My soulmate, actually."

"Your what now?" Your dad asked while patting his husband's back who got into a coughing fit at your revelation.

"My soulmate." You continued eating like it's no big deal.

"How long have you known?!"

"I don't know 6-7 hours." You shrugged.

"Is he as sweet as your tattoo showed?"

Now you're the one who chokes on her food and coughs. "Not exactly."

"What does that mean?"

You put down your fork while thinking carefully about how to explain who Ransom is.

"Well, he's a little bit worse than his mother. What my tattoo didn't say was that the "thank god you're pretty" was followed by a "you're a fucking mess" all wrapped up in a condescending tone."

"Aw, honey. I'm sorry. I know you hoped for a really nice guy." Your pops said, now that he's breathing normally again. "But you don't have to be with him. If you stay away your souls won't connect and you won't fall in love. You can be with someone better, that's what most people do."

"I don't know. He's the one who realized we were soulmates, the second he saw my tattoo he knew whereas I hadn't even made the connection. His attitude changed right away and he turned into a very sweet guy. I don't know maybe it's fate pulling at me but I feel like maybe he's been looking for his soulmate for a very long time. Enough to put two and two together instantly. His family sucks, Linda is no different with him than she is with me. He's probably been looking for someone who is really going to love him, unlike his own parents."

Your fathers exchanged a look.

"You know best. We trust you." They smiled at you and you continued eating, changing the subject to something different.

The next morning as you get to the office, you notice Linda's car in the parking lot and you're suddenly very nervous. You take a few deep breaths before walking in, show no weakness she always tells you.

"Good morning Mrs. Thrombey. How's your husband doing?"

"Still useless. I see you were busy yesterday."

"A lot of potential new clients and returning ones. I've put quite a few meetings in your schedule, whenever you have time to look at it just tell me what doesn't work for you and I'll change it."

"Ransom told me you did a great job. He rarely has good things to say about other people."

You sit down at your desk. "I'm glad he was satisfied with my work." You turn to look at your boss. "Do you need me to bring you anything before I start on the voicemail and emails, Mrs. Thrombey?"

"I think you can call me Linda, you're going to be family after all." She smirks at you.

"Oh. Ransom told you about that, uh?" You ask as your leg starts to bounce under your desk because of the nerves.

"He did. He's quite proud that it's you, and honestly I'm relieved. I'd rather have you as a daughter-in-law than some bimbo whose only life goal is spending all of our family money."

Did she just compliment you? In her own way of course, but that was definitely a compliment of some sort. Your leg slows down and completely stops bouncing as you calm down.

"So you're not firing me?"

"Not today, no. You're staying late tonight to finish what you didn't last night."

"Yes ma'am." You quickly look away to hide the smile that's forming on your lips.

As soon as you got home from work, you texted Ransom.

You: Thank you for talking to your mother.

Ransom: I’m guessing you still have your job then?

You: I do!

Ransom: I’m glad I could help. Again, sorry for the way I spoke to you.

You: Can I ask you something?

Ransom: Sure.

You: Would you be apologizing if you hadn’t found out we were soulmates?

Ransom: Honestly? Probably not hahaha.

You: That’s what I thought.

Ransom: How disappointed and mad are you that I’m your soulmate?

You: What makes you think that I’m either of those things?

Ransom: Really? Does that mean you’ll let me take you out to dinner?

You: Maybe! We’ll see.

For the most part you only texted or called Ransom as you got to know one another, you wanted to form a real opinion of him and not let fate just pull you together like magnets and never knowing if you truly liked him or not. As it turns out, he’s actually pretty funny and nice. You can tell he’s trying really hard to show you who he truly is and that he’s trying to let down his guard. You stay patient and don’t necessarily point it out when he’s being a little bit of an asshole. There are still a few slip ups but nothing major, nothing that would make you change your mind about him.

‘’When can we see each other face-to-face?’’ He asks you as you’re facetiming one night after work.

You’ve been talking strictly on the phone for a few weeks to keep your head clear.

‘’We are face-to-face right now.’’ You point out, teasing him.

‘’Ha. Ha. Ha.’’ He rolls his eyes in a playful way. ‘’You know what I mean.’’

‘’Soon.’’ You promise, as you get on your bed lying face down and propping your head up with your hand using your free hand to hold your phone.

‘’You’re killing me baby, when is soon?’’

You chuckle. ‘’You gotta work on your patience.’’

‘’Will do. As soon as we can hang out for real.’’ He grins.

‘’Nice try.’’ You push yourself up to sit with your legs tucked under you. ‘’I gotta go. I need to shower and eat dinner still.’’

‘’Aw. Ok.’’ He looks disappointed that you already have to go. ‘’I’ll text you before you go to bed.’’

Every night you get a ‘’good night, sweet dreams’’ text and every morning you get a ‘’good morning beautiful’’ text waiting for you and it’s the sweetest thing. He has not missed a single night or morning since you started talking and you love that he thinks about you at the start and end of his day.

Ransom has surprised you so much, in a good way. The first impression he left on you wasn’t great, to put it lightly, but he has more than made up for it since then. Working with his mom every day for years, you can easily understand why his first instinct is to attack before being attacked. You’re just grateful that he has learned that he doesn’t have to do it with you. Sometimes you’d say something he doesn’t like and you can tell that he’s getting defensive so you take the time to remind him that it’s a simple conversation, that you aren’t attacking him and that he’s also allowed his opinion even if it’s different than yours. It’s nice to be able to witness his walls coming down, to watch as he reveals his true self. A self that he’s also getting to know at the same time you do.

After hanging up the phone with Ransom, eating dinner and showering, you decide to call one of your dads to get his opinion on the situation.

‘’Hey dad. I know it’s late, I’m sorry. Are you busy?’’

‘’Never too busy for you, princess. What’s going on ?’’

‘’I wanted to ask you questions about when you realised that dad was your soulmate.’’

‘’Sure, what do you need to know?’’

‘’Did you start dating right away or did you take some time apart while getting to know each other from a distance? You’ve never really told me about that specific part of your relationship.’’

‘’We did get to know each other from a distance. Like you and Ransom, we didn’t want to have our bond pulling us together without knowing how we really felt. Except we didn’t have texts so it was mostly phone calls and letters.’’ He chuckles.

‘’So freaking old.’’ You tease him. ‘’Can the bond still form if you’re never in the same room or close to one another? I’ve been talking with Ransom every day for weeks and I’m really getting attached but I’m scared it might just be the bond and not my actual feelings.’’

‘’I can’t tell you for sure how it works, no one really knows about how the bond works but everyone seems to agree that you need physical contact or at least closeness for it to really take form. It can take hours, days even to form so that day you spent in the office with him wasn’t enough to form a close bond.”

‘’Thank you dad.’’

‘’Does that answer your questions?’’

‘’It does. Thank you. Go back to sleep!’’

‘’It’s only 10 pm, sweetheart.’’

‘’Exactly, way past your bedtime.’’

‘’Smartass.’’

‘’Love you too!’’ You laugh, hanging up.

You throw a little curveball to Ransom and text him goodnight first before turning in for the night.

After getting to the office the next morning, you’re sure glad that you went to bed early last night because Linda is in a mood. She woke you up at 5am, told you to be at the office at 6 and she’s been stressing you out ever since. You don’t even know why.

You: You were right when you said I was a mess.

Ransom: Why? What happened?

You: Your mother happened. She woke up in a mood. She woke me up at 5, I’ve been at the office since 6 and she stressed me out so badly that I forgot my lunch. I can’t even leave to get one because she’s been riding my ass. I’m currently hiding in the bathroom just to get a few minutes of peace.

You: Oh crap, she’s yelling. Gotta go.

‘’Wouldn’t you like some lunch, Mrs. Thrombey? I can step out and go get you something.’’

‘’I’m not hungry.’’ She mumbles while typing on her computer.

But I’m starving, please let me eat. You think while turning around in your chair. You regret not filling up your drawers with snacks after the whole sandwich debacle from weeks ago. Maybe one day you’ll learn.

‘’Go make 100 copies of this flyer.’’ She points to it without looking up and you hurry up, grab the flyer and disappear in the other room with it.

You set up the copier in the way that it needs and sit down next to it while you wait for the copies to come out. You close your eyes and let your head roll back in a desperate attempt at letting the tension out of your neck and shoulders but unfortunately it’s not enough.

Suddenly as you wait, the smell of food hits your nostrils and you get out of your chair incredibly fast to go see what’s going on. You peek your head out of the room, just in case it’s a trap from Linda.

‘’What are you doing here?’’ Linda asks her son as she finally looks up from her screen.

‘’I brought food for my girl because she forgot her lunch.’’ He puts down the bag on your desk then turns again to look at his mother.

‘’What about me?’’

‘’What about you?’’ He frowns, crossing his arms.

‘’Where’s my lunch?’’

‘’I don’t know. Where did you put it?’’ He smirks, knowing damn well what she means.

‘’Useless. Just like your father.’’ She sighs, exasperated.

‘’Yeah, yeah. We get it. You hate us, bla, bla, bla. Get over it.’’

Oh, Ransom. He needs to stop railing up his mother before she takes it out on you.

‘’How did you know she forgot her lunch anyway?’’

Crap. Crap. Crap.

‘’Soulmate bond.’’ He lies.

Linda has never met her own soulmate so she doesn’t know how it is.

She looks at him suspiciously and rolls her eyes. ‘’How nice for you. Using your soulmate bond like it’s ÜberEats.’’

You sigh with relief when his mom believes him.

‘’Where is she by the way?’’

‘’Aw, your soulmate bond doesn’t have GPS?’’

‘’You seem in such a delightful mood, I just want to make sure you didn’t cut her into pieces and buried her somewhere.’’

‘’Believe me, if I ever kill her you’ll never be able to find a single piece of her.’’ Linda goes back to her work on her computer like what she said didn’t just make your blood run cold.

You go back to sitting on your chair, staring at the copier who’s not even halfway through.

Less than a minute later, there’s a knock behind you that makes you jump and turn around quickly.

Ransom chuckles. ‘’Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. I brought you food.’’ He holds up the bag that he had put on your desk a few minutes ago. He didn’t trust his mother enough to just leave it there, unsupervised.

‘’You’re an angel, thank you.’’ You take the bag from him with a big smile and look at what is inside. Your favorite because he strangely knows you very well already.

‘’How angry is your mom right now?’’ You ask him as you look up and start chewing on a fry.

‘’She’s pissed.’’

You groan and lean back in your chair. ‘’What time is it?’’

Ransom looks down at his watch. ‘’I don’t think you want to know.’’

‘’Hold on.’’ You take a couple of fries and put them completely in your mouth. ‘’Tell me.’’ You chew, waiting.

‘’1:30’’

‘’Fuck.’’ You fake cry, though you aren’t that far away from actually crying.

He chuckles softly. ‘’I’m gonna go. I just wanted to bring you food. Text me when you’re home so I know she hasn’t killed you.’’

You frown. ‘’Don’t joke about that. You and I both know that she definitely could.’’

‘’I’ll avenge you, I promise.’’ He laughs. ‘’Bye, baby. Good luck.’’ Ransom winks at you before walking away, leaving you all alone with your food and his crazy mother.

The rest of the afternoon goes without a hitch, though you’ve felt Linda’s stare burn holes through your head multiple times after Ransom’s little visit but you pretended not to notice, you thought it was safer that way.

You were absolutely sure that you weren’t going to leave the office before midnight but surprisingly, Linda let you go at 6.

‘’Are you sure, Mrs. Thrombey? I can stay for as long as you need.’’

‘’And you did. Now go home.’’ She dismisses you by a wave of her hand and you sure as hell won’t stick around long enough for her to change her mind.

‘’Thank you. Have a good night.’’ You say to her as you lock up your desk and grab your things.

‘’Good night.’’

You walk out of the office and toward your car in a good mood, which was a big change from how your day started. You’ll later blame what you’re about to do on the fact that you’re exhausted. You press the call button on your phone and bring it up to your ear as you sit in your car, locking the doors once yours is closed.

‘’Hey baby, still alive?’’

You smile at the sound of his voice. ‘’Alive might be too strong of a word but yes.’’ You chuckle.

‘’That’s a relief.’’ He chuckles along with you.

‘’Have you eaten? Dinner, I mean.’’ You ask him, your leg bouncing nervously.

‘’Not yet, why?’’

‘’I thought maybe if you still wanted to, we could hang out. For real. Like pizza and movies? I know it’s a dumb idea but-’’

‘’When do you want me there?’’ He quickly cuts you off.

‘’Mh. An hour? So that I have time to shower and change. I’m wearing my pajamas, just an FYI.’’

‘’I’ll be there in an hour. Text me your address.’’

Your smile is so wide that it almost hurts your cheeks. ‘’Great. I’ll see you later then.’’

‘’Yeah.’’ He tries to play it cool but you can hear the excitement in his voice.

As soon as you hang up you text him your address and once that’s done, you pull out of the parking lot and go straight home.

The next hour goes by excruciatingly slowly and incredibly fast at the same time. You hadn't planned on having anyone over and your house was a little bit of a mess. You needed to tidy up on top of showering and looking somewhat presentable in your pajamas.

Finally, there's a knock on your door and you almost feel like running to open it but instead you wait a few seconds, you didn't want to look like you had been waiting for him by the door.

You open the door with a big smile on your face, stepping aside right away to let Ransom in.

"Hi." You say, closing the door.

"Hi again." He grins.

You look down and can't help but chuckle. "You wore pajamas?"

"You weren't going to be the only one comfy here."

"I love it." You lead him to the living room and point to the couch. "Make yourself at home. What kind of pizza would you like?" You watch as he takes off his shoes and sits down on your couch, propping his feet up on the coffee table. "Pepperoni, cheese and bacon."

"Fries?"

"Of course." He nods.

"What do you want to drink?"

"I'd take a beer, if you have one."

"You got it, I'll be right back." You leave him in the living room and go to the kitchen to order and get Ransom's beer. You walk back in the living room a few minutes later and hand Ransom the bottle.

"What do you want to watch?" You ask, sitting down on the couch with your legs tucked under you. You left a little bit of a distance between the two of you and Ransom doesn't seem to like that.

"Whatever you want, baby." He drinks from his beer and leans over to put it down on the coffee table. "Are you going to stay this far away from me all night? If you aren't ready for us to hang out together, it's ok. I know I've been bugging you about it but I'll still respect your choice." A crease forms between his brows as concern washes over him, scared that you only wanted to hang out with him because you felt pressured to and not because you wanted to.

"No, it's not that. I just didn't know where I should sit." You look a little embarrassed. "It's the first time we spend time together, I didn't want to assume. Sitting here seemed like the safest choice." You ramble, making Ransom laugh as he tilts his head slightly to the side.

"I want you as close as you're comfortable being."

"Ok, hold on." You quickly get up and walk out, coming back a minute later with your duvet.

Ransom watches you come in, laughing. "What are you doing, baby doll?"

"I get cold." You shrug.

‘’A blanket wasn't good enough for you?"

"It's not as warm or as fluffy. If you don't want it, I won't share." You wrap it tightly around yourself, like a fluffy human burrito, and sit down next to him on the couch.

"No, let me in. I get cold too." He tries to poke at your side but there's too much fabric over it.

You look at him, like you're thinking about it. "Fine." You stand back up to unwrap yourself and as soon as you're done, Ransom grabs you by the hips and sits you down on his lap with your back flush against his chest.

"Is that ok?"

You nod yes, a little flustered, and cover the both of you with the duvet making sure to tuck your feet under it. You lean back against him, your body instantly drawn to his warmth, and snuggle up until you're both comfortable. Ransom's arms are around your middle, holding you close to him and he presses a single kiss on top of your shoulder.

"I'm beyond comfortable and I don't want to move but we didn't put a movie on." He points out to you after a full minute of just cuddling with you.

"Oh. Damn it." You laugh. "Hold on." You look around to find the remote and you spot it on the coffee table next to his feet. "I just need to lean over."

"Ok."

You wait a few seconds. "That means you have to let me go so that I can move." You chuckle.

"But I don't want to."

"It's 3 seconds. I'll have to get up eventually when dinner gets here." You smile, turning your head to the side to look at him.

He groans pretending to be seriously annoyed and finally removes his arms so that you can lean forward and grab the remote. As you lean back, there's a knock on your door for the second time tonight.

"Food!" You quickly untangle yourself from both the duvet and your adorably clingy soulmate, then almost run to the door.

You pay the delivery guy and take the pizzas and fries from him, closing the door with your foot. "It smells so fucking good."

You come back to the living room and Ransom's moving to the edge of the couch to get up.

"Where are you going?"

"Aren't we eating in the kitchen?"

"Oh." You look back. "I usually eat on the couch but we can eat in the kitchen." You say, slightly embarrassed that you just admitted to living a little like a slob.

"I do the same too." He laughs. "I just assumed we'd eat at a table. Girls usually aren't big on eating on couches." He sits back and watches as you put the food down on the small table in front of him.

"Sorry if you wanted a girly girl who's big on appearances. I usually prefer comfort over looks." You admit before leaving for the kitchen again and coming back shortly after with plates and napkins.

‘’You’re perfect just the way you are. I wouldn’t change anything about you.’’ He answers sincerely.

Your heart skips a few beats at his beautiful words and you can’t help but smile. ‘’Have you chosen a movie yet?’’

‘’No.’’ He laughs. He takes the remote you had tossed on the couch to go get the food and turn on your TV then Netflix. He browses for a few seconds then looks back at you. ‘’Can we watch a show instead? I’ve been wanting to watch You.’’

‘’Of course we can. Put it on.’’ You smile and hand him a plate with two pizza slices and some fries. You take your own plate and sit back next to him. ‘’Hold this please.’’ You give him your plate and wrap the duvet around your lower halves. You take back your plate and put a fry in your mouth right away. ‘’Thank you.’’

Ransom leans to the side to kiss your cheek then sits back up to start eating. There was a time when Ransom would have thought this was the lamest date ever but now it makes him beyond happy. He’s eating his favorite food with his soulmate and you’re watching a show together that he’s been wanting to see for a while, which he didn’t even need to convince you or even beg for you to agree to watch it. Now he understands when people say that it’s the simplest things in life that make you happy because sitting here with you is certainly the happiest he has been in a long time.

Once you’re both done eating you put your plates on the coffee table with the rest and lift up the duvet all the way to your shoulders.

Ransom puts his arm around your shoulders as he looks down at you. ‘’Are you cold?’’

‘’A little.’’ You admit.

He doesn’t waste time to sit you back on his lap, wrapping the duvet neatly around the both of you and then wrapping both of his arms around your middle to keep you as warm as possible. You lean back against his chest almost right away and sigh with content at your body already warming up.

‘’Thank you.’’ You put your arms on top of his, laying your hands on his while you rest the back of your head right under his shoulder.

After a few episodes, Ransom’s focus has moved away from the screen and onto you instead. It started with sweet little kisses on the side of your head from time to time then down to your cheek and finally down to your neck.

Your skin is covered in goosebumps and you laugh as it starts to tickle you. ‘’Ransom?’’

‘’Yeah baby?’’ He says against your skin.

‘’You’re not watching your show.’’

‘’I don’t feel like watching anymore.’’

You laugh again. ‘’So I can turn it off, then?’’

He hums as he brushes the tip of his nose against the side of your neck.

You turn off the TV and try to move to clean up but Ransom’s not letting you go. ‘’Stop tickling me.’’

Ransom chuckles. ‘’Sorry.’’

He pulls his head away from your neck and loosens his arms around you so that you can get up. He watches you move around the living room then to the kitchen and back. He can’t help but think that this is the kind of night he’d happily have every day. His need to be close to you has been growing incredibly strong since he arrived and he knows that it’s the bond pulling him to you, you’re probably feeling the same thing right now which only makes it harder to let go of one another.

‘’How are you feeling?’’ He asks you the next time you walk into the living room.

‘’Needy.’’ You laugh quietly. ‘’You?’’

He nods. ‘’Extra needy.’’ He admits with a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

You grab the duvet and bunch it all up to carry it back to your room at the end of the hall. ‘’Come on.’’ You say, nodding your head for him to follow you.

Ransom quickly stands up and follows you. ‘’Where are we going?’’

‘’To get some sleep.’’

‘’You want me to stay over?’’ He asks, extremely surprised.

‘’Under two conditions.’’ You throw the duvet on top of your bed and turn to look at him. You lift your index. ‘’One, no funny business.’’ You lift your middle finger. ‘’Two, hands stay on top of the covers.’’

‘’Anything you want.’’ He grins, excited to be able to spend even more time with you.

‘’Let’s go brush our teeth, then.’’ You take his hand and lead him to your bathroom, letting go of him to look through your drawers to find a new toothbrush. ‘’Ah-ah.’’ You say triumphantly as you find one.

You hand it to Ransom who takes it out of the wrapper and you both brush your teeth in silence, glancing at each other through the mirror above the sink.

Once you're both done, you go back to your room and put the duvet back on your bed in the way it should be. You walk over to "your" side of the bed and get under the covers.

"Are you sure this is ok?" Ransom asks, hesitating to join you.

"It's ok with me if it's ok with you." You smile, looking up at him.

"It's more than ok with me." He grins.

You laugh softly and lift up the covers to allow him to get under them. You let go of them once he's comfortably settled on the bed and turn around to grab your phone to set your alarm for the next morning. After the day you've had, the last thing you need is to be late tomorrow morning. You even set it a little earlier because you have a feeling Ransom won't let you go easily. You plug in your phone and lie down facing Ransom. He quickly does the same and smiles at you.

"I'm glad you called." He says, reaching over to you and tucking a piece of your hair behind your ear. His fingers brushing your cheek as he pulls his hand back making your heart beat faster and a shiver go through your body.

"I'm glad you came." You say back, inching closer to him. "Who else do you know that found their soulmate?" You ask him, curiously.

"I don't think I know anyone." He strokes your cheek with his thumb as he doesn't seem to be able to stop touching you. "You?"

"My dads." You almost stop breathing in anticipation when you see him leaning in slowly.

"Yeah?" His voice comes out as a whisper but you feel like he just screamed at you instead. It's almost as if all your senses are suddenly enhanced because of how close he is to you.

You nod, not trusting your voice enough to speak.

"Can I kiss you now?" He whispers again.

"Yes." You whisper back, almost adding please.

Ransom doesn't waste any time and as soon as he gets your permission his lips are on yours, his hand on your cheek moving to the back of your neck as he tries to get as close to you as physically possible.

Your eyes close the moment you feel his breath on your lips and your whole body lits up, like tiny fireworks exploding under your skin. You put your hand on his side, holding him and gripping onto him. You're almost scared to let go and lose this feeling.

It doesn't take long before the kiss deepens, though you're not sure who made the move. You only break apart when you can no longer go without oxygen and even then you barely move back only just enough to breathe.

Ransom wets his lips and chuckles. "Wow."

Heat creeps up to your cheeks and you feel like hiding somewhere he can't look at you.

"I'm never letting you go, you know that right?" He tells you, moving to kiss your forehead.

"I hope you never do." You hide your face in the crook of his neck and move your hand from his side to his back to lay your arm across his back and hug him tightly. He does the same thing by moving his hand from the back of your neck down your back, holding you just as tightly.

You both stay like this for a while, long enough for you to start falling asleep.

Ransom can tell that you're getting sleepy just by how relaxed your body is getting, going slightly limp in his arms.

"Go to sleep, baby. You've had a big day."

He turns his head slightly to the side to be able to pepper the top of your head with kisses.

"Good night." You mumble against his skin, your eyes already closed.

"Good night." He rubs your back up and down until you're completely asleep. Only then does he close his eyes and let himself drift off to sleep.

Neither of you moved all night, you stayed in the exact position you had fallen asleep in just holding each other as close as possible.

Your alarm wakes you up the next morning, too early for your taste. This has probably been the best night of sleep you've had in weeks, if not months, and you would gladly take a few more hours of it.

You quickly, but carefully, pull yourself away from Ransom to turn around and turn off your alarm before you wake him up.

You sigh. You definitely don't want to get up and leave Ransom to go be yelled at by his mother, but you don't really have a choice if you want to keep your job. Sadly, you do want to keep it.

Just as you muster enough courage and motivation to get up, or at the very least sit up, an arm is thrown around you and you're being pulled back until you're flush up against Ransom's chest. He buries his head in the crook of your neck and brushes the tip of his nose against your skin.

"Tell me you aren't actually going to leave me to go spend time with my mother."

"I'm not."

You can feel him smile against your skin. "Good."

"I'm leaving you to go work for your mother, who's my boss."

"No." Ransom holds you tighter to make sure you can't leave. "You're staying here with me."

"Yeah? Are you going to call your mother to tell her that I'm not coming in and that she can't fire me?"

"Absolutely. Give me your phone."

"Ransom, I was kidding." You chuckle.

"I'm not, I'm calling her. You're staying right here."

He lifts his head and pulls away from your neck, then he reaches over you and to your nightstand to grab your phone while his other arm is still firmly around your waist. He holds your phone in front of you. "You gotta unlock it for me."

"What if I don't?"

"You really don't want to stay with me?" It almost sounds like he's pretending to be sad just to get you to do what he wants but you know he's not pretending or kidding when his hand that's holding your phone lowers until your phone's on the mattress in front of you. He lets go of you completely. "I won't keep you here against your will." He clears his throat and sits up. "I'll be gone before you're done getting ready."

You turn around, scared that he might actually leave. "No, please don't go. I'm sorry. I want to stay, I promise, but I can't lose my job."

"You won't, trust me."

You hand him your phone, unlocked, and watch as he takes it.

He lies back down while holding your phone to his ear, waiting for his mom to pick up.

"What?" You hear his mom picking up, always with the warm greetings.

"Well good morning to you too, mother. Aren't you delightful at this hour?"

"What the hell do you want, Ransom?"

"Just wanted to let you know that my girl won't be coming into work today. Soulmate business."

"Oh she will come in if she wants to keep this job." She threatens.

"You and I both know you won't fire her. She's a great employee and makes you a lot of money, you've said so yourself. You're not stupid enough to throw all of it away just for one day off. You know she deserves it."

There's a long pause before she speaks again. "Fine. One day."

"Well, technically 3 because tomorrow is Saturday but yeah. Thanks. Bye Linda." Ransom hangs up and tosses your phone somewhere on the bed. "Done." He says happily as he lies back down.

"Thank you."

He turns to his side to be facing you and smiles, happy he gets to keep you all to himself for a full day. One of many days, he hopes.

For the first time since last night, you make eye contact with the other and it feels like you just got zapped with electricity. You can tell he felt it too by the look in his eyes that must be quite similar to the one in yours.

At first you're confused as to what you just felt but then you put two and two together.

"It takes hours, days even, to form a bond." Your dad's words echo in your mind. You just spent 8-10 hours with Ransom, having physical contact almost all of the time except for when you were eating.

All this time together allowed your bond to form and solidify while you were sleeping, leaving you now fully bonded to Ransom and he to you.

You both smile goofily at each other as you start really feeling the bond, and what it means, sink in.

Maybe you two might have started on the wrong foot but that is all long forgotten now that you're about to spend the rest of your lives loving each other.

You've never felt this serene and relaxed before, but this is just a peek at what your feelings are going to be like from now on.

You feel it in your heart, your mind, your bones and your soul; You are, and always will be, Ransom's.

@n3ssm0nique | @lover-of-bucky | @beingagodsucks | @littlemissthistle | @dancer3205 | @thatblondebrownie | @rainbowkisses31 | @benbarnesbussy | @emi11ie | @rogersdrysdalebarber | @broadwaybabe18