#Need some stress-removing patches too

[27thswan]

❝ 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐭, 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐡. ❞ hsr x reader

synopsis. cleaning their nasty wounds, just for them.

warnings. mentions of blood, wounds, etc. related i guess

author's notes. GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!!!! (im not from america)

pairings. gepard, kafka, blade, jing yuan, dan heng, caelus x gn!reader

gepard doesn't say anything at first, just let's you do your thing honestly. just likes to see you carefully wrap bandages around his wounds from fighting against nasty anti-matter legion monsters, doesn't do it on purpose, but somehow always gets scars, especially nasty ones that you really have to wrap around the whole of his chest, and all around his waist. he swears he doesn't mean to do it on purpose so much that you do it somewhat everyday, little, or big, he'll always end up coming home with them, and likes to really just sit in silence, just watching you cover up his nasty wounds for him. it's really a nice way to just spend the night together, in his eyes, you know?

kafka on the other hand, doesn't really always get them, but whenever she does, they're big as hell. always comes running to you first once her mission or whatever she'd be assigned with would be done. just playfully flirting with you while you wrap large bandages around her waist, carefully patching her up making sure her wounds wouldn't get her body infected or such. will always ask for a kiss on the scar when they're all patched up to 'make it feel all better', you better oblige because she won't go to sleep without it!

blade just walks up to you, no words, just walks up to you and gestures out to the wound that he wants you to bandage up. while you aid his wounds, likes his just kiss you on the forehead, randomly, no reason, he just does. even if the power he has is massive, he still ends up with a scar or two, big and small, no he doesn't do it on purpose just for you both to just be together, really silent while you do, but i promise you he's way more than happy for you to be cleaning his nasty wounds for him. please give him a kiss or two after, he says he needs it or else the wounds will just keep coming, even if you do though, small ones still occur the next day.

jing yuan likes to just lean his head on yours while he praises you for how good you clean and patch his wounds. kind of stalls while you do clean them just to give passionate kisses onto your lips, okok he'll stop he promises!! maybe.. wants to cuddle the shit out of you after, just to tell you how good you did. but anyways, likes it when you start to clean his wounds cause you tend to talk more then, just likes to strike random conversations while you clean up wounds all over his body. pats your head occasionally, tells you you've been good. just overall praises you and loves you throughout all of it, and will admit he does sometimes do it purposefully.. sometimes.

dan heng is also apart of one of the silent group, doesn't talk a lot when you clean up nasty wounds on his back. wrapping around the bandage around his waist, all the way to his back, he can't help but be a little flustered when you do. dabbing the cloth with alcohol to remove bacteria makes him shake a little, and he starts to smile as he sees your smile when the alcohol makes contact with his bloodied up wounds. kisses on your forehead, or cheeks, depending where you are on his body when patching him up, he'll give a kiss or two, just give him some love back too<3

caelus likes to talk about what happened that day while you bandage his wounds, they're common to see on his arms mostly. kisses are never uncommon, you'll always feel them when his head is near your neck and back. gets lowkey giddy when you start wrapping big bunches of bandages around his waist. after everything is all said and done, will hug you from behind and thank you with lots of cuddles and kisses in bed! after all it was a stressful day today, might as well!

gojo kinda cute ill post for jjk soon >_★

[sillystargirll]

Mommy's good boy

(a mini-sequel to Mommy's milk )

cw: mommy kink, sub konig, tit play, praise kink, oral, very smutty

After that little encounter between you and König finding out he is turned on by lactating from your tits along with a mommy kink, He's been more on edge lately to do it again which today was his lucky day. since he would be coming home from overseas from a mission.

You had sent your child over to your parent's house for a couple days since they really wanted the chance to see their grandbaby and spoil them, your mother had given you a smirk knowing why you wanted to drop off the kid with her and you were just straight up honest, you wanted to spend time with König for a couple of days. your mom said nothing and kissed your cheek making sure you had fun with him.

So here you were it was past 2am nothing out of the ordinary since he always came back late. Soon hours passed as it slowly rolled to 4am You had texted König but he wasn't answering, it was probably due to no service over there you didn't blame him. After all, you guys had a week together without a screaming baby interrupting both of you. you got up from the couch making your way to bed you removed your robe placing it on a chair close to the vanity. climbing onto the bed you pulled the sheets over your body slowly drifting away to sleep.

Half an hour later König walks through the door, turning on the lights of the living room he sets his belongings down carefully making sure he doesn't wake you or his kid up. walking to the kitchen König sees saw the large plate of food wrapped in plastic wrap to protect it and one light on in the kitchen. You always made sure that König had a plate of food waiting for him to come home at a decent time. He heated up what he needed and shoveled all of it in his mouth as quietly as he could.

He could feel his chest rumbling from the moaning. After feeding his stomach, he took a shower, allowing the dirt and grime, dirt, and blood from his body. When he stepped out of the shower, he patched up the minor cuts and scrapes he got throughout his mission.

Quickly going on to check his child the crib was empty, panic set in he quickly and quietly dashed to your shared room with him, finding you asleep he sighed in relief as he saw you there but was still confused about why his kid is not there, sure only you would hold these answers.

he pulled out a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt along with removing his mask to sleep in before heading to bed. He smiled at you sleeping peacefully, wrapped up in all the covers from the stomach down. you were in a tank top, exposing your beautiful skin. Konig crawled into bed and stared at you for a while. His eyes trailed from the top of your body down to her hip which was covered. He placed a small kiss on your forehead before his attention was drawn to the necklace around their neck. It was of a Heart with its initials on the belly of the heart.

It was small enough not to worry him too much when she fell asleep with it on. Then his eyes trailed more to your breast. It was slightly cold in the room, making your nipples peek through the fabric of the tank top. For some reason, tonight, his mind became fuzzy with the stress of everything. His one goal was to wrap his lips around the nipple to softly suckle until his mind went blank. Keeping his eyes on your face to make sure you were still fast asleep.

All of today's dark, echoing thoughts vanish in the background and allow his mind to suckle on your breast mindlessly. His eyes focused on her breathing, watching for any signs and movement, and he cuddled close to her head, his head under her chin. All you did to move was wrap an arm around him, still sleeping. 

“This is wrong. This is bad, like really bad she is going to hate you !” his mind screamed.  

He wrapped his arm around your, pressing his body as close to you as possible. you still didn’t move. Using the tip of his finger, he grazed the top of the tank top, carefully pulling it down far enough to reveal your nipple. your skin was soft under his touch, your breast large and filled with milk enough for him to cup with both hands comfortable with still spillage between his fingers. It looked so comforting yet arousing, but his lack of erection signaled it to move.

Slowly he wrapped his lips around the nipple, not moving. When he felt your body stiffen in his arms, he tried to pull away. But your hand cupped the back of his head, keeping him in place. your breathing was not heavy, just slow and calm.

He took a tiny suck, waiting for her reaction, but none came. His eyes looked for your facial response, but it was still as peaceful. König began to suckle, not daring to move his hands, his eyes trained on your reaction, but still nothing. When he felt comfortable, he moved his arm to pull the blanket around your body, covering his shoulders and suckling until he fell asleep. For the first time in a few weeks, he slept with no nightmares. 

roughly a couple of minutes after Konig fell asleep you woke up. There was a sharp tug on your nipple that jarred you fully awake. Not moving, out of fear of making whatever is sucking on her upset, you kept your hands where they were. you looked down to see Konig’s mouth around your nipple, sleeping peacefully. He still suckled in his sleep, but it wasn’t in a sexual way.

When König wanted to arouse you sexually, he would suckle on her neck, leaving hickeys, and his hands would trail to her core. This time was different. The suckling was soft, and your skin was tickled by his peaceful breathing. 

He looked cute as you moved to stroke his head softly. You felt no desire to remove him from your breast. Your hand stroked his hair, watching for a moment as he rested before she too felt tired again. With one kiss on your forehead, you fell asleep as you were nursing your Husband. 

Neither of you would wake up until noon. The haze of König was gone when he woke up. He blinked, surprised to see your breast instead of your hair or pillow, his mouth busy with the hardened nipple in his mouth. He pulled away slowly, nervous about what he had done while you began to wake up. König tucked your breast back into your tank top, praying that she would fall asleep, but his wrist was caught. your eyes blinked at him, watching his eyes build up with anxious tears, causing you to sit up and take his face in your hands. 

"König its okay just breathe."

He shook his head, nearly shrinking into himself as he began to mumble out an apology. 

“Konig, I’m not angry. I want you to look at me.” 

Konig looked up, struggling to fight back his tears as he sniffled softly. 

“Thank you” you kissed his forehead. “Let’s just talk about what happened and then take it from there.” 

“Okay,” he reached himself forward while hugging her tightly. 

You both sat there, cuddled close together before any of you began to talk. He spoke of how shitty the mission was and how he just wanted to feel protected for once—seeing your nipples poking made him want nothing more but to be lost in your chest. He apologized for touching your without permission and swore never to do it again. 

you shook your head and kissed his forehead, saying you didn't mind. König always loved the fact you were to nurse him even though you already had a kid which was a lot to tend to but you always made time for him. and now it was his turn to be taken care of. She can remember the first time. When they began to make love during their honeymoon, it was an experience.

They both had highly long stairs, going for roughly four rounds until you were both exhausted. you both were also animistic in a way. Groans and moans and aggressive skin slapping filled the room as it shifted from lovemaking to fucking. In the first round, they worship each other, König more than you. He was between your legs, overwhelmed by the scent of her core, but he kept his eyes locked on hers.

“Ask me,” you ordered softly, already knowing what he was thinking of.

“Please let me lick you m….” 

“Say it,” she said, reaching her hand down to stroke his bottom lip.

“Please let me lick your pussy, Mommy, please,” Konig begged as he caught your thumb in his mouth, sucking slowly.

“Lick mommy’s pussy, baby,” she moved her hand behind his head, pushing him at her core. 

Praise fell from your mouth, encouraging his mouth to work overtime, forcing you to climax. He spelled both of their full names with his tongue, barely able to finish his last name before you came into his mouth. He swallowed every drop, encouraged by your head pets. 

“That’s it, baby, don’t waste a drop.” you panted as he moved to push your legs back. 

The air tickles your wet folds causing you to laugh and soon turn to moan as his heavy tongue lap you up. Konig could never answer how little it turned him on to have himself sucked off, but each time you attempted, he would whimper and tell her no that he just wanted to focus on pleasuring you. When he pulled up to look at you, his lips were puffy and dripping with spit and your juices. He lapped his tongue over his lips and moved forward to nuzzle his nose against yours.

"B-better... then last time m-mommy"

“So much better, baby boy. You are such a good boy,” the kisses sloppily, both of yours arms wrapped around each other. 

Soon Konig was on top of her, slipping on the condom and squirting lube on his cock. you pumped him slowly, spreading it while you moved to bite his lip. When he pierced your body, you both screamed in each other's mouths in pleasure, tangled in each other as König thrust inside you. His thumb stayed on your clit, rubbing small slow circles as he began to pick up his thrusting. you moaned and screamed as he thrust inside of you, blabbing about how he was a good boy for you. 

“Oh fuck Koni….your such a good boy….your mommy's good boy,” then he snapped. 

He buried his face in your neck, moving his hands to clutch your thighs as he snapped deeper inside of you. He moves his knees up, keeping your legs high enough to pound you as he moved one hand to cover your screaming mouth, not needing another noise complaint. 

“Fuck !” he growled in your neck repeatedly while pounding into you. 

After the last three strokes, he came inside the condom, pushing himself balls deep inside of you. He panted shakily, his voice whispering Mommy until he emptied all of himself. He trusted himself a few more times, not caring for his sensitivity, wanting to wring out your orgasm. you came, shakily gripping his hair to pull him back to kiss him. 

“Fuck Konig fuck that felt good,” you giggled while kissing his face. 

His eyes were hazed over again, this time out of exhaustion, before nuzzling into her neck. you kissed his forehead, waiting for him to release his tight grip on your waist. When the shaky panting stopped, he pulled away and curled onto his side. He slipped the condom off, carefully tying it off before tossing it in the trash can beside the bed. He rolled over, looking at you, reaching for you with a soft whimper. 

“Cuddle me,” he whispered, his voice turning softer. 

“You wanna cuddle?” you said, mirroring his tone with a smile. 

“Yeah,” he nodded, his eyes big with want. 

Wrapped your arms around him, you carefully pulled him to his chest, his lip wrapped around your nipple, and suckled until his breathing slowed. When the both of you calmed down, neither moved to remove away and clean up. 

“Mommy missed you baby,” you said, playing with his hair. 

[heartfullofleeches]

Some quick fun facts about dollboy (Remmy)

His father is South-Korean who moved to the states for business and his mother is an African-American woman he met after the move.

His love for dolls comes from his grandmother on his mother's side as he lived with her growing up due his parents often being too busy with work. She was a dollmaker herself before her age caught up to her and made almost all of her and her childrens clothing herself, passing her skills onto her child and later Grandson. After she passed when he was about to turn thirteen, his parents felt he was old enough to stay home alone which was probably the worst choice as her death hit him hard and the dolls the two made together became his copping mechanism.

Remmy first gained control over his dolls while attempting to reach her in his grief. The spirit that greeted him was not her, but offered him an out to his pain.

His full first name is Remiel.

Of my human yans - Remmy places third for best cook after Selene and Miller due to his grandmother teaching him how to fend for himself as her years with him became shorter.

He has sensory issuse when it comes to food - heavy dislike for "slimy" things like oysters and jello. Gets overwhelm easily in large crowds or when talking more than he feels need - hugs his doll of reader for comfort in times like these. Switches to referring to himself in third person in cases of extreme stress and his usual ways to cope aren't working. "I have them......Remmy... Remmy has Y/n...they're all he needs."

He has double vision in his right eye when he removes his glasses that was never corrected in his youth - sometimes just wears an eye patch as he can see relatively fine without them since he looses his glasses often and he cant put contacts in his eyes alone.

[wytybbyds]

He won’t tho

(pic is swdwcdsbb on pinterest)

Pairings - Rafe Cameron x reader

Summary - Topper is clumsy

Warnings - talk of blood, reader getting hurt, overprotective Rafe

A/n - idk just popped into my mind

”Fuck!” Blood ran down your hand and onto the fruit on the cutting board. The now crimson clad knife clattered against the counter when you dropped it.

”Oh shit, I'm sooo sorry!” Topper had his hands raised in the air as he saw the blood coating almost your whole hand.

”Ah shit.” You quickly reached for a towel as you pressed it against the wound. In an attempt to stop the bleeding.

”What the fuck?” Rafe reached your side quickly as he entered the kitchen, seeing you hurt. His big hands wrapped around yours, the blood immediately staining his skin too.

”What happened?” He sounded angry and he looked over at Topper who without a doubt was involved, seemingly stressed.

”Uh.. I'm so sorry, I uh.. didn't know she had a knife and I uh.. just uh.. bumped into her.” Topper tripped over his own words. You shot him a reassuring smile to try to get him to calm down.

Rafe leads you over to the sink where he removes the towel and brings your hand under the tab. Turning the water on to let it rinse the blood off. You watch as the blood runs down your hand and into the drain. A big cut between your index finger and thumb reveals itself and you cringe at how deep it is.

”Wait here.” Rafe commands as he disappears out of the kitchen. Topper comes up to your side now, looking at your hand. Blood already starting to seep from the cut again.

”Fuck im so sorry.”

”Topper it’s chill, it's not even your fault.” You say reassuringly.

It wasn't his fault. Your hand gripped the knife as you were cutting up some mango. Topper was opening the refrigerator behind you grabbing another beer. As he babbled on about god knows what, flinging his arms around to get his point through.

As he stumbled around he bumped into you, pushing you forward against the counter. To catch yourself, you needed your hands. The hand wrapped around the handle of the knife was pushed down making you not just cut into the fruit but also your hand in the process.

Rafe stomped back into the kitchen with band aids. Making Topper instantly get out of his way and leave the room. He grabbed your hand and started to patch up the wound.

”Thanks.” You smile up at him.

”You okay?” When he was done his right hand went up to push a few strands of hair behind your ear. His thumb rubbing your cheek.

”Yeah, I'm fine. Just a scratch.” He licked his lips, his hand staying by your ear. But the movement of his thumb stops.

”The next time he pulls some shit like that I'll beat his ass up.” You frowned at his words that came out as a quiet mumble. His hand still on the side of your face as you pulled away slightly.

”He didn't pull anything tho’.” Rafe chuckled his hand leaving the side of your face and grabbing the wrist of your patched up hand. He brought it up to your face level, making a point for you to look at it.

”This look like nothing to you?” He shook your wrist in his hand a little, empathizing his words.

”He didn't mean to.” You purse your lips at him. It made you confused that he reacted this way. You couldn't quite understand how this was such a big deal and why it all needed to be blamed on Topper.

”Why are you defending him?” He looked confused, almost a little hurt and that made you even more confused at his reaction.

”Because he didn't do anything, it's not like he tried to hurt me on purpose.” You said the words slowly as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Your eyes searched his, trying to get him to understand.

”I'll live.” You chuckled lightly as he didn't respond. Trying to light up his mood.

“He won't tho.”

[webbo0]

Prodigal Doll

Goose Boys Mafia AU

AO3 Link

Length: 753 words (short and not sweet)

Summary: Nobody ever expected Ken to join the family business, but when he's caught in the middle of a war he knows nothing about, the other boys have to pick up the pieces.

Content/Warning: Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Torture, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Hurt/barely comfort

Authors Note: I don't even remember how this started lol

I think I saw those Tag Heuer photoshoot pics that look like Ken but as Six?

Anyways I have a LOT of lore ideas and a whole arc for Ken in this, but god only knows if I can actually write it ugh

Also I'm not sorry lmao

“He’s… changed”

“ Don’t say that”

“Look at him!”

“Shut the fuck up, Richard”

Gathered, the men stare at Ken.

Whenever he used to be scared, he was loud (it was a liability sometimes, all the shrieking and sobbing). But now, he’s silent. Tear stains cut clean lines through the filth and gore on his cheeks, but none fall from his eyes. Not anymore.

He’s… vacant. Not like Driver, his stare always intense, or like Julian, always lost in thought. No. He’s just. Empty.

Six and Lars are sanitizing and bandaging his wounds. Slashes on his chest, burns on his limbs, bruises scattered on every inch of available skin like a fucking Jackson Pollock, and blood from god knows who and god knows where drenching his scarily pale skin and platinum blonde hair. He doesn’t flinch, doesn't move at all, even when Six gently murmurs that he needs to reset his shoulder. The bone grinding into place would have even the toughest of men gritting their teeth in pain, but Ken just sits there. Disconnected from the world. Lars is delicately cleaning the blood off of him, swallowing tears of his own while dabbing a warm cloth over his exposed skin. 

Ken wears nothing but a ragged pair of boxers stained with fluids nobody wants to think too hard about (just like they found him). He hasn’t said a word since they found him, but Lars finally gets a reaction out of him. He’s shakingly whispering to Ken that they need to remove his old shorts to wash him off and get him into something clean, but when his hand goes towards the waistband an explosion of movement happens. Ken bolts away from the men, scrambling to the closest wall and pressing his back to it. His voice is raw and venomous as he roars at the surrounding men.

“Don’t fucking touch me!” 

Everyone in the room freezes because Ken never curses. All eyes are on him, the torn and bloodied nails on his hands scratching at the brick wall, the bloody trail of footprints he makes, his heaving chest, and his frantic, darting, unseeing eyes. Blood drips down his inner thigh.

“I think I’m gonna be sick” 

“He needs a professional, guys, we can only do so much”

“Oh yeah, get the cops involved that’s smart”

“I thought I told you to shut the fuck-”

“Everybody out.”

The room silences once again, save for some muffled sobs and Ken's rapid breath. All eyes now turn to the man who spoke, the man in charge . His white jacket is splattered with blood, and a fire rages behind his cold, blue gaze.

“... are you sure we should leave him like this?”

“Six stays, the rest of you leave. He’s in no state for visitors. Every man is allowed some dignity.”

The room empties without protest, save for Ken, Six, Driver, and Julian. Julian didn’t need to ask to stay (not that he would have). Wherever Driver goes, he goes.

“Why am I staying?”

“You have the most combat-medic training. And. You can… restrain him if you need to.”

The rage in Driver’s eyes slips, showing for a brief moment deep, soul-wrenching anguish before he clenches his gloved fists and returns to his default neutral, intense stare. 

“I expect a complete injury report once he’s patched up. Ask Julian if you need any extra supplies. I have to go deal with the rest of this shit storm.”

He turns to leave, but pauses, glancing back over his shoulder.

“And Six?”

Six stands at attention, ready to receive orders.

“...be gentle.”

Six nods once in affirmation and Driver lets his head hang down, taking a deep breath before straightening his spine and closing the door quietly behind him. The room was now solely occupied by the three men left there.

Julian, standing and waiting by the door. Both ready to retrieve any necessary items and guarding against any poor fool that might try and interrupt them.

Six, shoulders sagged and ruffling through a medkit.

And Ken, who had slid to the floor, legs finally giving out, but the wild look in his eye still shining.

And it wasn’t until Six slowly approaches (the same way he did when he freed a wild deer from a beartrap as a kid), sinking to his knees, gently carding his hands through his blood-matted platinum hair and softly reassuring him that you’re safe now, you’re safe, we got you back that Ken starts trembling, a tear finally slipping from his eye.

[messrmoonyy]

please please Tess being alive and living in Jackson with reader and Joel and Ellie and Tommy and Maria and everything is happy and nice and no one dies

When the snow gives way to spring

Tess servopoulos x fem!reader

A/N- I will say straight up this is a little shorter than my normal weekly uploads because I’m sick rn and just not been in the mood to sit down and write. But. Enjoy all the same. I did remove her backstory because she reminisces a little bit in this and I needed her to be single pre outbreak .

Warnings- absolutely none. It’s tooth rotting domestic fluff

Word count- 1.9k

Masterlist

Reblogs and comments are always appreciated <3

The world was currently in that odd part of the year where winter was ending and spring was on its way, where some days she didn’t need a jacket but others she had to layer up. The snow was starting to disappear, patches of green grass sprouting up in spots that it had melted, flowers were reappearing in the window boxes and the sky was looking more blue than grey.

Tuesday had blessed the world with one of the warmer days, when Tess could walk home with her jacket slung over her arm because the sun was warming her skin just enough. She’d just dropped her horse back to the stables, after being called upon by Joel in the early hours. Tommy had the flu and even though it was meant to be her day off, Joel had asked her to cover the ski lodge route with him.

So she’d reluctantly sacrificed her morning wrapped up in bed with you, scribbled out a quick note and left. At least it was one of the nicer routes. Though honestly all the routes weren’t that bad. There was never more than a few stragglers around. And the horseback rides through the woods were actually quite therapeutic.

People smiled and waved at her as she made her way home, they’d accepted her, Joel, Ellie and you into their town with ease. And you were all solid parts of the community now. It did throw her off balance sometimes though, at how stark the contrast was in Jackson to Boston.

In Boston she had power. Control. People moved out of her way when she walked by and knew that she was not to be fucked with. But in Jackson everyone had equal levels of power, she didn’t need to exude a scary confidence that made people fear her. People liked her. They didn’t turn the opposite way when they saw her coming, they’d walk up to her and start conversation.

It had taken some getting used to. But now she’d have it no other way. She’d never felt more like her pre outbreak self, never felt at such… peace.

The added levels of safety were a bonus too of course. She no longer had to worry about keeping you alive. You could handle yourself of course, but she’d always panic. She’d always feel obligated to take care of you, because you were hers. And she was yours. But now she didn’t have the ever looming fear of you getting snatched up by FEDRA officers coming back from a run. Or some wannabe drug Lord trying to prove a point by hurting you to get to her.

She could walk around town and hold your hand. Could dance with you when Maria held her little get together in the Tipsy Bison at the weekends. She didn’t have to hide away her affections anymore in fear someone would see her, see you, use you as a target.

She’d could happily leave home for the day and know you’d be perfectly safe. And vice Versa. It was nice not to be so stressed all of the time. You were happier. She was happier. No worries of if you’d die tomorrow, Instead she could actually picture you both growing old together now. It was nice to think about.

You had joked in the past that you two would end up like Bill and Frank. Grumpy. Old. Hating the world together. Not that she’d ever deeply believed it could happen. She’d never really believed that she would last to reach old age. But now she could see it.

She was starting to feel it too. Though you enjoyed telling her she wasn’t old at all.

She liked having a house to go back to. A home. The apartment she had shared with you back in Boston had never really felt like home. Too decrepit and too many rules. Rations of food and water. Constant bright lights shining though the windows at night from the wall. Gunfire and explosions the chosen ambience.

But now she woke up to the sun. Or the sound of horses or birds. She had an entire house with you. One that you had both made a home. You were everywhere in it and she loved it. The framed pictures of you both, of you with Ellie, of the four of you all together. The slightly wonky knitted blanket that you had secretly been working on with one of the women in town that you’d gifted her for Christmas. The flowers you liked to keep around the house when they were in season. The fairy lights. The boots that weren’t falling apart, that were sat by the door.

As she walked up the porch steps a smile pulled at her lips seeing the daffodils in the pots by the front door were blooming. She’d never really been one for flowers but you’d wanted to plant them. And she couldn’t deny you of anything. And they were nice to look at. As she walked through the front door she could hear music coming from the kitchen, you humming along to it happily, and it made her smile grow more.

She hung her coat on the rack by the door and kicked off her boots, quietly making her way through to the kitchen. You were washing dishes, hips swaying along to the song playing and she watched you for a moment. She leant against the door frame and was almost overcome with emotion.

If someone had told her back when she’d first met you all those years ago, that she would still be alive. That she would still be with you. That you would both be safe. She’d have thought they were off their head on pills. And yet there she was. There you were.

She wasn’t young anymore, yet in those quiet moments like that she could pretend she was. She could remember what it felt like to fall in love with you when she was young, could smile to herself and wish she could go back and talk to herself. Tell her not to worry. Tell her that fighting her feelings for you was a pointless thing, because the future would be exactly that moment. Together. Safe. Happy.

Watching you there she felt like she was back home. Pre outbreak. No infected roaming the planet, no real threats other than if her boss at work was going to be in a good mood or not. Or if you were going to have burnt your attempt at dinner again. She wondered if you’d have liked Detroit.

She’d had a nice apartment. A decent job. You wouldn’t have even really needed to work if you hadn’t wanted to. Though she knew you would’ve, you were no housewife.

The wife part did sound nice though…

She walked over to you, wrapping her arms around your waist from behind and pressing a soft kiss to your cheek.

“ hey you “ you turned your head to look at her, capturing her lips in another kiss before turning back to the dishes.

“ I thought we weren’t working today “

“ hm. Tell that to Joel “ you laughed a little, shaking your head and placing a mug onto the drying rack. Tess rested her chin on your shoulder and gave a small sigh, relishing in the pure domestic warmth the moment held.

She didn’t know what had gotten into her really. Why she was so overcome with emotion. She was just so suddenly aware of how lucky she truly was. How much she loved you. Loved your home. Loved her life now. Which was strange when she really thought about it. The world was a mess and people died every single day. Yet she was safe and content. And so were you. And that’s all that really mattered.

“ was everything okay? “ you asked, drying off your hands and then turning around in her embrace.

“ all clear “ she confirmed “ Joel was telling me today he was planning to go scope out that museum Maria told him about. Wanted to know if we’d go with him. Make sure it’s all clear, find a safe entry point “ Joel had been planning something big for Ellie’s birthday. Some way to make the kid have at least one day of pure and simple happiness.

She was much better now. She didn’t have so many quiet days. But still.

“ she’s gonna lose her shit when she finds out about it “

“ Maria said there’s a whole hall about space. So yeah. She’s gonna lose her shit “ she could already picture the joy on her face. She definitely wanted to be there for that. And she wanted you there too. And she knew Ellie would.

Ellie loved you. Maybe even as much as she loved Joel. You were the first one to trust her after all. The one to convince both Tess and Joel that taking her was a good idea.

“ is he going today? “

“ was planning to set off early tomorrow morning “ you nodded and your smile grew as you clearly thought about something “ what? “

“ why don’t we tell Joel me and you will just scope it out? That could be nice. Like a little get away “

“ yeah nothing says romantic getaway like camping out at an old museum “ you rolled your eyes and wriggled from her grasp but she grabbed you back around your waist and pulled you back “ hey don’t get grumpy I was joking “ she said with a laugh, nuzzling her face against your neck. It actually could be nice. Some time alone without Joel waking her up or Ellie charging in because she found a feral cat and wanted to adopt it.

Not that she’d change any of that for the world.

“ so you’ll ask Joel? “

“ I’ll ask Joel “ you turned around in her arms again and beamed a smile at her. You always got your way and you were always just as smug about it. Not that she really cared anymore. She’d do anything and everything if it meant you’d be happy.

“ it’ll be nice. You were joking that it wouldn’t be romantic but I’m gonna romance your fuckin pants off. You watch “

“ oh you are? “ she asked with amusement in her tone, watching you cook up the ideas your head

“ yup. We’ll be like the modern day Romeo and Juliet. Or. Juliet and Juliet? “

“ don’t they both die? “ she asked with a quirked eyebrow

“ I’m trying to be romantic now and you’re ruining it “ she couldn’t help but laugh at you. Not because she was making fun of you. Because you were.. sweet. You pressed a quick kiss to her lips before escaping her arms again, pulling open a kitchen drawer “ trust me I have this all planned already. You’re gonna come back from this trip and you’ll be ruined for anyone else “

“ as if I’m not already “

“ I’m serious! “ you called, disappearing into the hall and returning a moment later with a notepad and pen “ I’ll make a list of things we’re gonna need. It’s like what a couple days for a trip there, look around, then back? Will you get Maria to let us out with our horses tomorrow? Oh! No. Just your horse. That’s step one. That’s romantic “ she watched you in amusement as you scribbled things down

“ sharing a horse. Romantic. Got it “ you looked up at her and raised an eyebrow

“ why are you still here? Joel. Maria. Off you go. Go go! “ she shook her head but did as she was told, first walking over to you and pressing a kiss to your head and then your cheek.

“ yes ma’am “ she joked before heading for the door.

“ I love you! “

“ love you too, you sap “

[andreas-river]

HELLO! could i pretty plz request sum könig x fem reader comfort, where the reader messed up her face a bit from an injury she got during a mission? if that's okay plz😵‍💫💗

Scars [König X Fem!Reader]

A/N: Hello hello! Sorry to have kept you waiting for so long, but I really hope that you will like it!

Disclaimer: I do not own any MW characters. English is not my first language.

Warnings: hurt/comfort, angst, description of wound, mention of blood, description of scars, fluff, description of König's face (how I imagine him, please don't bother).

୨୧ ━━━━━━━━ ୨୧

Only you know how much blood you lost during the day. It came from a big cut on your left cheek, and the infirmary was crawling with soldiers with worse wounds than yours. So, hiding in the bathroom of your room, you try your best to clean the cut, to stop the blood flowing down undeterred: but the towel is heavier because of the absorbed blood, while it drained your patience out from your body.

A knock came from the other side of the door, and holding another towel that was quickly turning red- you opened the door, the sleek figure of König standing in front of you. He already removed all the gear, the helmet, and all the straps, only his hood remained in place.

His blue eyes widened, seeing you in an awful state: half of your face red from the blood, the other red too- but from the stress: you were watching him with watering eyes, still wearing all your gear: he can say that your stress level was never been that high.

Letting him in, he follows you to the bathroom, tossing away the towel, and feeling lightheaded from all the blood you lost.

"It’s like this since we came back..." you mumble, knowing that König was listening- you saw him behind you from the mirror. "It needs to be stitched up, but the infirmary is completely full." Tears were forming: some of them escape your control and the sight of all that blood made you feel nauseous, feeling your hands shaking uncontrollably.

You feel a pair of massive arms hugging you from behind, feeling the shape of his face on the top of your head through the fabric of his hood.

"You have the kit?" he asks, and showing him the cabinet, he rapidly leaves you to take all the items, leading you to the bed and making you sit on the edge.

After taking a chair and sitting in front of you, he worked on the injury, right when you were trying to not burst in front of him: you’ve never been injured like that, at the point you weren’t able to medicate yourself: you remember all the scars in your body, how did you get them, all the pain, and the spilled blood for all those missions-

"I’m done- hey." you wake up from your daydream, feeling a sting coming from your face, a patch already placed on the injury and covering half of your face.

"It will remain a scar, but you’re gonna be just fine." he continues, gently caressing your face. He knows his hands can snap a bone in half, so you never expected him to be so gentle. "You must lie down. You are too pale to do something else."

Slowly nodding and lulled by his voice, he removed your gear and tossing it away, joining you in your bed, both laying one in front of the other, only some inches of distance between your bodies because the bed was too small for both, his hood folded in on itself weirdly, making you giggling, the holes for the eyes not aligned anymore.

"Okay, you convinced me..." he removed his hood, his face fully displayed in front of you. "...better?"

He was smiling, his jaw defined with a hint of a beard, short dark blonde hair in a simple cut emphasized by the blue of the eyes, but the most relevant thing were the scars: a little one on top of the right eyebrow, two parallels on the side up to the neck, and the last one on the nose: only then you realize why he always wears the hood.

"Surprised?" he asks, raising an eyebrow and smirking, clearly amused by your reaction, or lack of reaction, to say.

"I... expected something." instinctively touching the patch on your face, feeling more relaxed now.

He laughs, his face closer to yours, your face becoming hotter. "You’re gonna look so badass."

[megistusdiary]

the idea of soft dom tohma fucking you after you have a long day to make you “forget all about it” and overstimulating you until you cant think and you’re js like crying and he has you suck on his fingers to shut you up because “i know you can take it, pretty baby.. just let me make you feel good” makes my mind go 💥💥💥

i am so tired rn. i just spent the entire day in class, doing chemistry homework, reports, busting out a bio report, and trying to do skincare and take breaks 🚶‍♀️

i finally finished my homework for the night, but i still have so much to do >:[

i am tired, but i wanted to write a little something while i finish my tea before i head to bed ♡♡♡ also so sorry this has been sitting in my box forever. my box is full of asks right now, and i feel so bad that i can't get to them :(

anyways, i could use some of this right now, so let's roll ✨️ sorry i am talking so much

warnings: soft-dom!thoma and sub!fem anatomy/pronouns reader

soft thoma, praise, fingers in yo mouth‼️, overstim, mentions of oral, condom usage 👍, a bit of fluff at the end

your hands feebly gripped onto thoma's shoulders, pulling at the sweater still covering his form. his hair was pulled from its usual ponytail, draped over his shoulders and tickling your skin when he leaned towards you.

your thighs trembled around his waist as he rutted into you, keeping his thrusts slow and deep, feeling you arch up into him.

when he saw you trudge into the house, dumping your bag onto the floor and laying your head on the table, he immediately contrived a plan to make you forget all about your bad day.

and oh, by the archons, was he good at that.

he drew you a bath, seemingly innocent, cooking you one of your favorite meals and even letting you pick dessert.

the second you finished washing dishes, he kissed your cheek, taking the plates away and asking you to wait for him in the bedroom.

no more than fifteen minutes later, he was in between your legs, tongue flattening across your pussy and toying with your clit.

by the time he got to actually fucking you, you'd come undone twice from his fingers and mouth, hands tugging his hair right out of its tie. you weren't sure if you could continue, squirming beneath him and trying to get his attention.

he purposefully angled his hips to help you chase your high, hitting deep with deliberate thrusts in search for your g-spot.

he heard you mumbling something about it being 'too much' or how you were 'sensitive.' but thoma knew how much you needed to destress. you always had your mind full of work and school, too busy to eat and sleep at times. it was good for you to have a blank mind for once, feeling nothing but pleasure from thoma.

thoma slid his fingers into your mouth once he decided he wanted you to relax a bit, leaning down to kiss your cheek. "shh, sweetheart. i know, you've had such a long day. let me do this for you, hm?" he pressed his fingers onto your tongue, hearing you whine around the digits. "such a good girl..." he smiled, moving his hips faster, pressing his pelvis to yours.

the small patch of blonde hair at his front rubbed just right on your clit, causing you to shake against his body, feeling too many sensations at once as he rutted his hips into your sweet spot.

"there we are," thoma hummed, hearing you gasp out when he moved his hips in circular motions, stimulating your g-spot so perfectly. thoma watched your eyes go glassy, tears building up as your oncoming high did the same, making you twitch and ball your fists into his shirt. "so good for me."

there were no more protests about your work, no more worries about rude customers or peers, no stress for tomorrow, only pure bliss on your mind as you finally felt your third orgasm wash over you.

you felt absolutely limp as thoma fucked you through the powerful waves, groaning at the white ring forming around the base of his cock. this sent him hurdling into his own orgasm unexpectedly as you convulsed around him. he hunched over, removing his fingers from your mouth and coming hard.

"so good, so good to me." thoma's voice felt distant and fuzzy as you laid on the bed, feeling completely slack and blissed out.

he flopped over next to you, slowly pulling out and tying up the condom to throw away.

"feeling better?" thoma asked as you slowly came back down to reality. you smiled softly up at him, gesturing for him to join you on the bed and curl up in your arms.

"thank you." you whispered, feeling sleepy and warm as he hummed, stroking your back, allowing you to fall asleep comfortably in his arms.

[sweetiehyuka]

My Baby - Yeonjun

warnings - gn reader, some angst, fluff, hurt/comfort, f l u f f, written in 25 mins or smth

w/c - something under 0.5k idk

~

A warm tear escapes from your eye, trickling down your cheek and landing on your linen pillowcase. The wet patch stains the sage green colour of your bedding a dark juniper. Bringing the pillow you're clutching to your chest with you, you roll over so the soggy area stops sticking to your face.

There are no words to describe the horrible feeling in the pit of your stomach right now. Your loneliness is truly swallowing you whole. Of course, this is no fault of his, but your boyfriend is extremely busy recently. It's impacting you both ; you are both the type to need constant affection and attention from your loved one most of the time, so when the loneliness hits, it hits bad. And right now, as Yeonjun is at the practice room extremely late once again, it is certainly hitting.

Just as you're about to drift off into a heavy-hearted slumber, you hear your bedroom door creak open. With a little sniffle, you move to prop yourself up on your elbows.

"Junnie?"

Your voice is hoarse, and it's evident that you've been crying as you speak. You silently curse at yourself, really not wanting to be a burden to your boyfriend after a long day of practices.

"Heyyy, sweetheart..."

He sets down his bag and walks over to you, crouching down at the side of the bed.

"Your face is all puffy... have you been crying, darling?"

Hanging your head, you swing your legs round so that you're sitting on the edge of the bed, facing him. Anxious, you begin picking at the edges of your pillow. Of course, he instantly knew something was wrong, even just by your voice.... he knows you like the back of his hand. You wish you could lie to him. Again, the last thing he needed after a tiring day was you crying on his shoulder....

"No-"

Your voice cracks.

"Oh, baby... what's wrong?" he coos, removing the pillow from your lap and taking your hands into his.

"Nothing, I promise. Don't worry about me."

Yeonjun furrows his eyebrows and pouts a little.

"Of course I'll worry about you..." He kneels between your legs, a bit taller than he was whilst crouching. You just look up at him, waiting for what he'll say next. You don't have the energy to talk, or to explain why you're upset. You're just desperate to be held and kissed by him.

"You gotta relax, honey. You're so stressed and sad, you must be drained, it worries me."

Taking your face into his hands, he grins at you lovingly.

"My precious baby... I can't have you feeling down, can I, hm? Can Yeonjun do anything to cheer you up?"

Almost sighing, you can't help but to smile back. He knows just how to make you feel all mushy. You feel your heart kind of sink, but in a different way than before - you feel so loved.

"Don't baby talk me, you know it gets me all soft..."

"Why do you think I'm doing it, hm?" he replies, that same soft smile still resting on his face.

"my cute,"

*mwah!*

"sweet,"

*mwah!*

"pretty,"

*mwah!*

"shy,"

*mwah!*

"adorable,"

*mwah!*

"giggly,"

*mwah!*

"baby."

You let out a squeal, your whole body heating up. He pulls you into his chest, burying his face in your neck.

"Ahhh, what am I gonna do with you... you're too cute to handle....." he whines. It feels like he's squeezing you tighter than he ever has before. You feel so protected.

"Shush!"

"Never! You're my baby."

[thelargefrye]

Speaking of the kim hongjoong, I have a request. Can we get some ynjoong fluff and/or smut?

[ +18 PROMPT ] —— you visit hongjoong while he’s working in his studio and he’ll gladly take a few minutes in order to wreck you.

pairing : hongjoong x idol!f!reader (background poly ateez) genre : fluff, smut warnings : studio sex, oral (f receiving), praising kink, pet names (princess), the skirt stays ON during sex

he should’ve known it was a trap when you came to visit him in the studio. it was always a trap especially when you came to the studio in the shortest skirt possible, legs all smooth and pretty for him to drink in.

your smile is innocent, which he also knew was a trap. everything about you was a trap, too good to be true as you greeted him with a kiss. your manicured nails running through his freshly dyed hair.

hongjoong feels so enamored by you as he watches you straddle his lap as you hug him. your chest pressing into his as your grind down on him a little

“what are you doing here baby?” hongjoong finally asks as he feels you nuzzle your face into his neck.

“i came to keep you company,” you say with a smile and hongjoong is once again convinced this is all a trap.

now what trap are you planning, you might be thinking, to which hongjoong would say to get him to leave and go home to rest.

or you want him fuck you.

when you cup his face and smash your lips to his, hongjoong figures it’s the latter of what you are trying to do.

hongjoong is fine with that. he could use a break if it meant he could his stress a little.

“princess, i know what you want,” he says after you pull away from lips breathless.

“you do?” you ask with a head tilt making hongjoong smirk as he stands up with your legs wrapped around his waist.

he sets you down on the small couch in his studio as he slips between your legs on the floor. he pushes your skirt up to look at your underwear and the wet patch that’s already there.

“have you been touching yourself, princess?” hongjoong teases as he rubs you over your underwear where the wet patch is making you let out little breathy moans.

“joongie, please take care of me. i need you really bad,” you moan out to him as you run your fingers through his hair.

“i like it when you ask nicely, princess, i’ll give you whatever you want,” he said before finally slipping off you underwear. he pockets them into his pants pocket before he spreads your legs as you bunch up the material of your skirt so you can get a clear few of hongjoong eating you out.

you let out a series of moans and whines hongjoong licks a clear strip between your folds. he gives your clit a suck before giving you another lick. he enters two fingers into you as you thread your fingers through his hair and he groans when you tug on his hair.

hongjoong curls his fingers into as he continue to lick and suck.

“hongjoong! fuck— don’t stop, please!” you cry out as you arch your back. hongjoong has to remove his fingers in order to hold your legs open.

“you gonna come, princess?” hongjoong ask before giving you a slow lick and you see his lips and chin covered in your juices.

“yes, please let me come!” you beg as hongjoong starts to draw figure eights over your clit. hongjoong can tell you’re close due your moans and the tight grip you have on your skirt.

hongjoong uses his hand to intertwine with your own. he knows how much you love hand holding especially when one of them is eating you out.

“mmh, fuck!” you cry out as hongjoong dips his fingers back inside you and you immediately clench around them. “i’m close, i’m close!”

“go ahead, princess,” he says as he kisses your hand and he does one final curl of his fingers before you finally come all over his fingers with a high pitch moan.

hongjoong watches as you come down from your high before he pulls his fingers out. the two of you make eye contact as he licks his fingers clean of your juices. he leans over before kissing you and sharing the taste of yourself with you which makes you moan.

hongjoong then cleans you up before putting your underwear back on. he goes to stand, but you immediately pull him next to you, trapping him on the couch as you cuddle next to him.

the leader smiles as he wraps his arms around you, “i guess a few extra minutes wouldn’t hurt.”

tag list : @tannie13 @icyb3rry @cookiechristie @atinytinaa

[princess-of-thebes-1995]

I am bored with free time. Getting ready for bed. Just a drabble

The days mushed together and you forgot what day it was. You didn't care. Since the betrayal, you became depressed.

You stopped eating, you couldn't sleep well, you stopped talking to people, and worst of all you had thoughts of suicide.

The colonel obviously noticed. He was dating you after all. He tried to feed you. But you would vomit. He tried to cheer you up by taking you outside. He knew your smiles were forced. He let you go back to the science pukes but you didn't really talk to them.

He went to Max and ordered him to evaluate you. Turned out you had severed depression and insomnia. And needed help like a therapist and medicine.

Quaritch sighed in stress.

You were given sleeping medicine and depression pills. The first days was a good improvement. You slowly began acting normal.

You would wake up and work again. Such as cleaning and cooking. You would start again ironing, patching, and washing his clothes and uniform and water the plants in the vegetable garden you would visit before the shut down of the Avatar program.

Quaritch was happy. People noticed you coming back too.

One day Max approached you and asked you for help. He was planning a rebellion with his other friends to take the base. You decided to help regardless. You would steal some weapons from the supply closet and give them to the science department.

You decided not to be Grace's or Jake's friend but you will help Max, Norm and Trudy

Fuck them

After the Colonel fucked you, he laid his head on your breasts. You would stroke his hair say nothing till you fall asleep.

You wondered when Jake and his Navi friends will attack the base. Max said they will send all humans back to earth after victory. So, maybe you can leave this place too and go back to your parents.

"what are you thinking?"

You blinked and saw the beautiful blue eyes of Quaritch. You gave him a nervous smile. "I just miss my parents." You shrugged

It wasn't a total lie. But you were tricked and forced to be with the Colonel. You hate him. You think of him as an ugly old man. A pervert. But Grace begged you to be his sex doll and date him or whatever for the Avatar Research program.

You don't know what to call your so called relationship with this jerk.

Not friends with benefits. You are not his friend.

But at least he saves you from Selfridge. Before you were sleeping with him. Selfridge would yell at you in public and call you sexist curses. Now, the Colonel would come to your defense.

He would argue for your sake.

You never did a mistake but Selfridge would put his anger in you due to Grace and Norm.

The Colonel was quiet for a long time. "don't worry you are with me. You will forget them."

You frowned in confusion. What did he mean? You looked down at the Colonel. (He's laying on your breast after all )

Weren't you going to leave Pandora soon and go back to earth after getting paid?

Like the others?

You said nothing. You didn't want to argue.

You went to sleep

....

The next day was odd. You heard a rumor that the Colonel almost choked Selfridge. Selfridge was yelling and the Colonel got fed up

You didn't care since you hated Selfridge.

You were in the kitchen chopping cucumbers when the door slammed open and caused you to flinch. You looked over your shoulders to see the Colonel heaving.

Uh oh. Did he found out the stolen weapons from the supply closet?

The colonel grabbed the knife and threw it away. He then pushed you on the counter and hovered on top of you

You were more scared than him now

He without warning started kissing you hard and began removing your clothes almost ripping them.

"Colonel why-?"

"Selfridge pissed me off so much. I need you."

You let him have you...

Like an obedient concubine, you let him have his way. You out of fear acted lovingly but it calmed him little. He was so angry he spilled inside you and collapsed on your chest.

You winced when he pulled out.

"you take birth control pills, right?"

You nodded

"stop taking them."

You blinked in confusion. "But-"

The Colonel glared "do not object!"

You flinched then nodded out of fear. Why would he ask such thing?

He saw you and rubbed his temples. "I don't want to punish you if I catch you still taking them."

You said nothing.

He rubbed your cheeks

"I don't understand. I will soon expect then."

The Colonel shrugged his muscled shoulders. "And?"

Your eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"I want to marry you."

"Colonel. Grace set me up with you. None of this is real."

The Colonel's eyes narrowed He stepped up to you and made you look at him. "I know that. I am serious about you the whole time. It was real to me. I will make it real for you too."

You gasped in realization. He won't let you go back to your parents.

"My parents..."

"you belong to me. Not them. You are mine."

[themagicalghost]

OK I FINALLY GOT TIME SO this is probably gonna be a series of asks if Tumblr decides to limit my characters (i dont feel comfy coming off anon in the tt community sorry)

First we gotta talk about the Cogs since all of the gag/reward stuff is gonna have to be based on them

.Exes and .Mgrs were a very welcome change. .Exes instantly give every battle some variety in requiring you to think to take them down instead of memorizing a chart of which combos wipe a group (fuck Zap Camp too btw), and .mgrs were a much needed shakeup, away from the 4 main bosses which got repetitive as hell, that allow just about all the gags and prestiges to shine in some way

Skelecogs and Virtuals in the same way as .exes force you to be on your toes thanks to the varied hp and debuff resistance, virtuals in particular being a good choice for the OCLO, sorry v2.0s but you're boring

Cogs do more damage in general, which emphasizes either taking them all out or stunning them, and Content Sync definitely helps with that. Even with how controversial it was at the start, it was a good choice

Cogs have proper scaling AND HAVE LEVELS HIGHER THAN 12 FINALLY TTR WAS SO BAD AT THIS AND THEY DONT EVEN LET YOU SEE THE NUMBERS WHY TTR MUST YOU BE LIKE THIS

Ok now onto the gags:

But before each one, even more TTR ranting:

WHY CAN'T YOU CHANGE GAGS TTR

ORGANICS ARE SO BAD, PRESTIGES ARE SO MUCH MORE INTERESTING, FUCK GARDENING ALL MY HOMIES HATE GARDENING

Level 7s, while I miss Railroad my beloved, were really badly done and limited where the game could go

LURE COMBO BONUS SUCKS DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-

Ahem.

Toon-Up: As stated, Cogs deal much more damage, so TU has much more use, especially in .mgrs. The self heal was also something that shouldve been in the game forever ago, and not just relegated to a prestige. At least the Prestige makes you heal even more now. However, TU MISSING was a shit idea on TTO's part because it was the only way they could get Toons to go sad in the sound spammy lure left kill right meta if everything missed. Now you might be forced to take damage, so your cannon missing would be a death sentence. Thank god they removed that early on in 1.3. also the accuracy buff is AN INTENDED MECHANIC THANK GOD

Trap: Trap FINALLY HAS USE CASES OUTSIDE OF LIKE LAWFICES. First off, it's an .exe killer. The hard counter to them. Bye bye mr .exe. And then Clash gave it Dazed, which made Trap/Drop an intended strat too. But also it's just BIG NUMBER. The Prestige is EVEN BIGGER NUMBER. This means you can oneshot even really big Cogs with like a prestige trapdoor where TTR wouldve needed an organic (also bad) TNT

Lure: Yeah Lure Decay was bad but they learned in 1.3, and instead we have a much better system with the per-gag knockback, which lets you deal even more damage with each throw or squirt gag you use, where instead of a hypno doing the same 50% total base damage as a $10 bill, $10 bills do more damage than hypnos. I legit almost stopped carrying 10 bills in clash entirely and went with like 15 magnets instead UNTIL they changed it like that. Also, using a Group Lure with a Single Lure actually synergizes well, especially with Throw setups in like OCLO, since the damage values vary, you can lure and IOU (more on that later) both, with your main target getting a 50 bill, before nuking them with 4 throws, for at least 400 extra damage (460 with prestige!), ON TOP OF THE ADDED COMBO DAMAGE SINCE LURE KNOCKBACK COUNTS FOR IT NOW BY THE WAY. In comparison to TTR which actually nerfed the most useless Organic. And again, I must stress this: LURE BONUS SUCKS DIIIIIIIIIII-

Throw: I'll admit, when I saw it in the QA patch notes, I was hesitant to say the least, but THROW SWAPPING WITH SOUND CHANGES SO MUCH. First off, NO MORE "you lure and throw, ill wedding *uses bike horn*" GREENING. Second: THROW IS JUST SO GOOD AS A DAMAGE DEALER. Combined with the lure changes above, you can deal insane damage to .mgrs with it and Lure. You could probably do an entire Litigation Team with just Lure TU and Throw if you wanted. But it doesn't stop there. Something i neglected to mention is how ALMOST EVERY GAG HAS A UTILITY ATTACHED TO IT. Throw's is a 10% damage vulnerability, and it allows you to do so much. Fun fact tho, it used to have that damage vulnerability as a Prestige, and it scaled with each throw used, but only for 1 turn, and this was when throw was second to last, so it was only really useful for Drop. Now only one person needs to use it and it affects EVERYTHING past it. Got a higher level cog in the mix with some easily soundable ones? Just hit it with a cream, and now it takes even more damage! Just soaked and trapped a .mgr for the accuracy boosts on drop? Add one more debuff to boost Prestige Drop even more (with a free stun!)! AND THEN you add the cherry on top of the Wedding Cake, the self heal prestige. This was absolutely a welcome change, taking some of the heat off of TU and unites as your only healing, to the point that I'd say you should always have your Throw Prestiged. My only complaint is that Toons should take a bite out of it and say "Om nom nom" to heal before throwing it if it's prestige.

Squirt: Squirt in TTR, Throw's crappier brother. Squirt in Clash? Oh man. I'll go more into it in Zap's section, but Zap alone gives Squirt so much use. On its own though, it's still very good. Soaking is good as a dodge debuff, setting up for quick drops on Cogs. But the SINGLE change that made Squirt so good is Splash Damage. Before 1.3, Squirt soaking multiple Cogs was stuck behind a Prestige, so you were basically forced to either run Pres Squirt or don't run it at all. Now, however, not only can you soak multiple Cogs, but it deals free, non-unluring damage to the Cogs on the sides! You can effectively just chip away at a lured Cog until you're ready to take it down, which like the Throw/Sound example above, allows you to lower the Cogs to juuuust enough in just the right way to where a specific Sound threshold kills. Unfortunately, Prestige Squirt kinda gets the short end of the stick, since unless you're running a solo building, you kinda don't need it for most situations. idk what they could do to fix that tho, it's still fine on its own, just usually overkill.

Zap: And now, the thing that singlehandedly both gave Squirt a purpose and alienated a ton of TTR elitists for the better or worse. Before 1.3, Zap was fuckin weird. Zap could change direction, but only if it was prestiged, jump over other cogs including dead ones, there was no jump pool, just a specific set of 3 decreasing numbers correlating to the order it jumped to, which led to charts getting made for specific groups- it was a lot to take in. Those who were able to master it were REALLY GOOD at taking down groups, but were also pretty toxic usually (hence the "fuck Zap Camp" comment earlier). Also, it was the same as Squirt: either run it prestiged or not at all, which fed into the toxicity even more. Now though? It's pretty good. It can be a few different things, a decent AoE on 3 Cogs with lower damage on 2 of them, high damage on 2 Cogs, with some thought into aiming based on prestiges (for unprestige, aim directly at the target, for prestige, aim at the opposite target for more damage), or a kill confirm on an already soaked Cog. It's way more user friendly now, and I will say seeing Zap Camp's charts be completely ruined gave me a little schadenfreude. Sorry, this was a little community ranty, I again have bad experiences with some of the older members.

Sound: SOUND IS NO LONGER META. I REPEAT, SOUND IS NO LONGER META. This comes down to Squirt/Zap being good AoE, as well as 2 more changes to Sound itself: 1. Sound swapped with Throw in the gag order (from 1.2 and back, not tto), and 2. Encore and Winded. First, the swap makes it to where if you're using Sound on Lured Cogs, it's less likely to troll, but for a specific reason. And even if it is to troll, there's ways to get around it better, since Throw and Squirt won't be affected now. And then we have Encore and Winded, two sides of the same coin. It's great to use your Encore bonus to deal tons of damage to a single Cog, but you could always risk being winded to take out an even bigger group now at the expense of having to wait to use sound again. This alternating pattern of Sound into anything else, along with the fact that Sound can't just wipe out everything in the game now makes sure Sound isn't necessary to beat most things. It's still kinda meta for Buildings and Facilities, but those are kinda harder to fix. Oh, also the prestige is the same as Trap, bigger number is better.

Drop: Oh boy, another gag with a tumultuous history. I'll go over this in the IOU section (yes im doing rewards), but to be Barry Brief, in the early days of Clash, Drop had a bug that made it do AoE damage, which some toxic players abused to hell and back, cramming Drop into the top spot of gags, before being squashed in the 1.2 OCLO update. As for Drop now, it's a really nice damage dealer. Not so much for normal bosses, where it's typically just a finisher for a big Cog, but for .mgrs it can be devastating given enough setup. Trap, Lure, Squirt, and either TU for accuracy or IOU for damage, then Throw and 3 Drop. Now, if you were running Unprestige Drop, it would only get a slight boost thanks to Throw, and the other gags the turn before were just to make sure it hit. But slap a Prestige on, and a single debuff adds 10% damage, with an extra 5% for each additional debuff, with Throw's vulnerability counting as a debuff, which STACKS with the Prestige boost, so those two turns just got you an additional 20%, on top of what Throw adds on the pile. And then consider Drop has a 30% combo multiplier instead of the usual 20% combo damage, and .mgrs start dying quickly. Most .mgr fights I do, I run Prestige Drop.

And now, onto the rewards.

IOUs: So before 1.3, we still had SOS cards, but these were the trickiest reward to balance, even more than Unites. On the underpowered side, we had the 1.2 SOS: a percentage increase for 2 TURNS. PERIOD. Wanted to setup for Drop? You better do it quick, because if Drop misses on that second turn youre SoL. Not that it'd matter because for a lot of gags it did jack. But then we have the other, darker side. The ORIGINAL SOS CARDS. If you played TTO or TTR, you already know how busted those things were. But do you remember that bug I mentioned making Drop an AoE gag? This is where it originated. SOS Cards inherited the Combo damage dealt to a single Cog and gave it to the rest of the Cogs as well, so you could potentially deal a ton of damage to multiple Cogs just by nuking one with Combo damage and using an SOS to spread it out. Do you remember Rain, that random IOU you get guaranteed in the VP that gives you and a friend a +15 damage boost on your next turn? Yeah they used to be a simple 20 damage Drop SOS you could get (and farm) from Derrick Man. You know, in TTC. Who at the time had only 63 HP, enough for an Opera pre-1.3 to kill in one hit. All that's left is an incentive to use Drop en masse... Oh? Old Drop had increasing Combo damage for every Drop gag used, up to 50%? And every Prestige Drop used added an additional 5% Combo damage, up to 70% with 4 Prestige Drops, or 65% with one person using an SOS? You can probably see where this is going. The only thing holding it back was the fact that it wasnt guaranteed to hit- OH WAIT TOONS HIT EXISTS IN ITS ORIGINAL FORM STILL. It was bad. Like "anyone who deviates from the Meta is bad" bad. I was one such very vocal dissenter of Team Drop, advocating that Throw was a good gag, and I got shit on hard for it, to the point where the people who still had a grudge long after fabricated false accusations and threw me out. Ugh this got too personal, sorry. Where were we? Oh yeah, IOUs! They're pretty good now! The fact that they use flat numbers and last a set amount of GAGS used means that setups are easier than ever, and even if you miss, you can still use it again with the boost! They're good for pumping out big numbers! They also affect things like Throw self heal and Splash Damage, so keep those in mind too! I personally like using a Sid Sonata after firing the first Cog after feeding round in CEOs to save on operas.

Unites: I have mixed feelings on how Unites were handled, but I'll save that for the Forges section. As for Toon-Up Unites in their current state, they're pretty good! The Cooldown is honestly a needed nerf (so much so that TTR has it now lmao), and the fact it's percentage based means the heals are more fair! (though if someone is really underlaffed for a fight, they might still get squashed even with a unite). Pretty gud!

Forges: Rest in Peace, Gag-Up Unites. You were so slept on. Forges are the worse version of Gag-Up Unites. Instead of everyone getting their gags restocked, even by a little at the expense of you specifically getting a decently sized cooldown, you can only restock a single gag at a time, and if that gag is too high, you get put on cooldown. Why. In a vacuum, they're ok, but it just feels wrong. They could have left Gag-Up Alls in the pool and kept them how they were with only level 7s or lower, but no, ALL GAG-UP UNITES MUST GO apparently.

Sues: honestly better than fires, imo. Let me explain. Both Sues and fires remove a Cog from the fight. "But wait!" You say. "Sues dont remove a cog from the fight, they just make a Cog not attack!" In theory, yes, that's all they do. But because they don't attack, they're basically out of the fight. However, they aren't OUT of the fight, meaning they take up a slot. And because they take up a slot, that means you can just ignore it and focus on the other 3 that are there. And guess which gags work very well with 3 Cogs instead of 4. Just remember to give them a tap every now and then and they won't ever bother you. Also iirc theyre meta to deal with oclo phase 1 lmao. However some fights don't let you use them as much, so be careful.

Fires: Despite what I just said, Fires are still really good. It's just their uses are more limited. The main examples I can think of are the first Cog after feeding round in CEO, as stated earlier, the Featherbedder fight, and Major Player's Dance Partners. Killing a Cog instantly is still killing a Cog instantly, after all.

WHEW that was a long one, sorry for the personal bits, I just wanted to share my thoughts on Clash's balance for a long time, and I'm glad I finally got to do so. Clash is in a much better state than it's ever been, and I can't wait to see how things are shaken up later.

Oh, one more thing.

LURE BONUS SUCKS DIIIIIIII- *gets sniped by TTR staff*

That's a whole novel in my inbox holy FUCK

This is a lot to take in and I love it, some gags and rewards just used to be broken like woah?? It's nice to see how much progress Corporate Clash has really went through all these years to balance the game out to become as fun and good as it is today

I was curious about those Gag-Ups after seeing them from a Multislacker fight stream just a year ago because I didn't know they were still around at 1.3, too bad they don't exist anymore 'cause they would be very useful in longer fights such as with Pace (round wise) and Chip. Maybe there's a good reason for the removal balance wise... hopefully

The SOS cards was something I was wondering about too after hearing someone say a long while ago that they wished those were still around, based on this I can see why they were removed though

Also I don't mind the personal tangents at all, I love hearing about the details of personal experiences and opinions as it puts it on perspective on how things were back then as well as adding to my own knowledge of it. Thank you for the very long info dump :]

[flowers-for-the-grave]

Flaming Death

This wasn't the plan.

All Joey had wanted to do was to try and get revenge on the resident Necromantic Witch who'd decided to curse him. That was fair enough. If he got cursed, surely it would be fine to return the favour? So he tried to learn about those curses. It was very complicated, and he didn't understand all of it, but a few curses seemed simple enough. Joey wanted to start simple; to give Scott the burning curse he'd used on Joey not too long ago. From there Joey wanted to get progressively worse, but starting small seemed to be the best idea. He would have to be careful in getting a taglock. Last time didn't go down too well.

Not to mention how Scott was taunting him. In his own home no less! And maybe that's caused Joey to resort to some...creative methods of getting that taglock. But it's mostly because he needs Scott distracted by something.

Joey heard Pris from within her tower. He left Spawn and saw her standing there buying upgrades from her...what were they called again? Ah, it didn't matter.

"Pris!"

"Joey? What is it?" She folded her arms and pointed her chin up slightly.

"I want to try and get Scott's taglock again."

"He killed us both last time. What says he won't try it again?" The Water Witch had apprehension and doubt laced within her words.

"Because I'll distract him while you get the taglock. But go invisible when you do it!" Joey grabbed her hand and pulled her out of her tower and into Spawn. "Ready?"

"I'm still not sure this is a good idea..." she muttered, then sighed in defeat. "Fine. But be quick. I don't want to drag this out too long in case it goes south." She pulled out a glass bottle with a translucent lilac liquid in it and downed the contents in one gulp. Pris disappeared from his vision, the only indication of her presence being small particles floating whimsically around her in a tiny shroud. "Ready." Pris had removed her armour and hat to go fully invisible. Joey trusted she was still there.

"Alright then. Let's go."

--------

Scott had been minding his business.

Which isn't the easiest to believe seeing as he'd been grinding to get new armour, spells and weapons from the very start. No, he wasn't doing much. He had enough taglocks of almost every other witch partaking in the contest to become Supreme Witch. So why worry? He could curse anyone who dared cross him with pretty much anything. Misfortune being his personal favourite. Watching his enemies become bombarded with nausea, then blindness and poison, all at random and some simultaneously...it was a great stress-reliever.

But he hadn't been dabbling in dark magic. The Book Of Shadows was firmly shut and resting somewhere in his inventory. For now, all he was doing was gardening. And by gardening, he meant trying to get more plants to grow so he could have more secret rooms. Because really, who doesn't want multiple secret rooms to practise dark magic away from prying eyes? It was perfect.

Until Scott heard a quiet chuckle from behind.

He spun around on his heels to see who it was. To see who he had to threaten with curses to leave him alone. Annoyingly enough, it was the Fire-Frost Witch. And some...weird particles? They didn't seem to rise up very high, which indicated it could be Joey's familiar hidden with an invisibility potion.

"Hello," Scott purred. "How've you been since I cursed you?" To his own surprise, Joey seemed unfazed.

"Fine, actually. Managed to sleep through most of it. Really, find some better curses." The Fire-Frost Witch had an almost playful glint in his eyes. "Anyway, what are you doing? Looks pretty secretive."

"Just some gardening," Scott shrugged. He had a small list of excuses in his head to back himself up. "I figured my area needed a bit more death and decay in some bits. Thus, wither roses." He gestured at the small patch of black flowers with sharp thorned stems. "They weren't too hard to collect. The withering effect wasn't that bad." Which was a lie; it hurt like absolute hell, but Joey didn't have to know that.

"I didn't take you for a gardener," Joey didn't seem convinced. Yet instead of calling him out, Joey let it happen for some reason.

"Not many people do." One person did. One person Scott had lost a while ago. One person he needed to bring back. And Joey was standing in his way of doing so. All the other witches were. "But now that you know," Scott slowly approached Joey, ensuring each step was dragged out, one foot in front of the other. "I can't exactly have you running around telling people. I have a reputation to uphold, just like you. So how about we keep this between us?" Scott was practically leaning over Joey now. Their faces were inches apart, and Scott ensured that Joey could see the power burning in his eyes. The stench of death was carried on the wind, and the Fire-Frost Witch winced from it. Scott was unaffected; he'd become accustomed to it. Joey's moment of weakness gave Scott an edge.

"Really? Then how about we make a deal?" Joey knew he was playing a risky game like this. Pris's potion was starting to wear off, and he could see her figure flickering in and out of visibility. But with yet another potion gone, she was invisible once more. They both shared a silent look speaking volumes on their behalf. Joey had to keep going. The smell of death caused his nose to wrinkle in disgust. Honestly, it was just distasteful.

"What kind of deal?"

"Hmm...well it would be one both of us benefit from," He paused to give himself time to think. Pris was already getting close behind him. He only needed to stall for a bit longer. He stared up at Scott's lifeless green eyes. The necromancer really did embody death in a way. Menacing when he had to be, while also caring to those who'd earned his respect. "How about..." Joey's hand subconsciously reached for Scott's shirt and grabbed a fistful of it. He pulled the Necromantic Witch closer.

What?

Joey didn't know what he was doing. He didn't have to do...whatever this was! He just needed to give Pris time to get Scott's taglock. But since they were here, like this, Joey couldn't help but be curious. Surely it would buy Pris time if he...

A pause. Neither man knew what to do. They gazed at each other as if asking for mutual permission. Their eyes spoke for them. And before either could blink, their lips were pressed together.

Joey couldn't breathe. His face must've been bright red. He tugged Scott closer and held him there as if scared the Necromantic Witch would run away.

Scott wasn't questioning it. It wasn't hard to do, when thoughts were buzzing through his mind faster than flies flocking to a rotted corpse in the woods. But he didn't have an answer. All he could focus on was Joey. His arms cirlced around Joey's waist.

The two pulled away. They were breathing heavy and were unsure of what to do.

Joey recovered quickly. "Until next time, Scott." He gave the necromancer a quick kiss on the cheek for good measure, then ran away.

--------

"What was that about?" Pris didn't get the taglock. She'd hesitated a moment too long and lost her chance.

"N-nothing," Joey's face was still red from that encounter. "I-it was nothing."

"Really? Because you seemed pretty enthusiastic when you ki-"

"Shh!" Joey clamped a hand over her mouth and dropped it a second later. His gaze settled on the floor at his feet.

"Now what? We don't have a taglock of him."

"I don't know. Maybe we should just get stronger first and come back to it later."

"That's what you said last time." Pris folded her arms. Her eyes scanned Joey with an analytical glint. Her lips curled up in a smile as realisation dawned on her. "Oh, I see. Yeah we don't have to curse him anymore. But, you can convince him to stop cursing us."

"O-okay." Joey nodded. That was a compromise he could work with. In fact, that was probably an outcome he preferred over Pris having gotten that taglock.

If anyone said he made a protective voodoo doll for Scott that night, Joey would say they lied.

[daydream-cement]

Violet and Rose Ch. 22

Larissa Weems x OC (Fern Rogers)

Authors Note: We need to get these two back to work soon! Yeeeshhh.

Frankly, Larissa had been overbearing since you returned to Nevermore. It had been a week and each day she would randomly check in on you to prevent you from doing any laborious work. You knew it was only because she cared, but her chiding about lightening your workload in the classroom and greenhouse grew tiring. With the stress of classes beginning in a few days, the pregnancy, and your worries about the forest, all you wanted was your hands buried in peat moss or wrapped around a trowel.

When you entered the greenhouses, you were shocked by how well everything looked. Truthfully, you hadn’t been expecting much to be alive, but Rowan seemed to have actually done what you asked of her. Even some of your more difficult to care for plants were thriving. Maybe the vampire had a green thumb after all.

You puttered around the greenhouse with headphones on, deadheading and removing unsightly leaves that develop from the passage of time. After a long while of caring for the tropical trees and shrubs, it was time to get down on your hands and knees to care for the ‘forest floor’ of your conservatory. Albeit time consuming, this was one of the most relaxing parts of running a greenhouse for you. As you crawled through the understory, you dragged a 5-gallon bucket behind yourself to discard all of the plant parts into.

As you kept moving deeper into the forest, you kept running across thriving patches of venus fly traps and pitcher plants. You found them to be quite curious as you didn’t raise carnivorous plants, but in the end you uprooted some and left patches of the rest, assuming a student must have planted them. When you finish, you clamber to your feet and push your way from the little jungle, coming face to face with Larissa.

She is speaking but you can’t hear a word she is saying due to the volume of your music. She seems to be furious, however. You pull the headphones from your head, trying not to dirty them too much, “Hi, honey.”

“What are you doing? I’ve been trying to get your attention.” She was completely exasperated with you. Her eyes scanned you up and down, seeing your palms and fabric at your knees was darkened with soil, “I told you not to do any laborious work.”

“Okay, doctor.” You push past her to empty the compost bucket in the compost pile just outside the backdoor to the greenhouse.

She follows behind you closely, “Fern, you shouldn’t be pushing yourself. What if-”

“No ‘what-ifs’. I spoke to Dr. Feng and she said it was perfectly fine to continue working in my greenhouse and caring for the forest.” You prop the greenhouse door open with your hip and dump the compost bucket. Afterwards, you push past Larissa once more, making her follow you back to the front of the greenhouse, “When I’m further along, then that might change. For now, I can go about my regular life.”

“When did you talk to Dr. Feng?” Larissa was right over your shoulder as she followed you about, her frustration with you now down to a low simmer.

“Yesterday afternoon. I was on the phone with your mother and she was there, so I took the opportunity to ask a few questions.” You pushed the bucket into its spot on the bottom shelf, dropped the trowel into the sink, and began washing your hands free of dirt as you spoke, “Now if we are done with the interrogation, I need to go out to the Council of Cedars to see what happened to the forest.”

“You can’t go out there by yourself-”

“And why not?” You pushed your wet hands to your hips and stared up at her defiantly. If Larissa had learned anything by now, it should be that you truly didn’t take kindly to being bossed around.

“What-” She was about to give another one of her ‘what-ifs’ when she stopped herself, choosing to rephrase her statement, “I just don’t want anything happening to you because I can’t be around you.”

“Honey, you can’t be by me every part of the day and you know that. You are more than welcome to come with me. Then I can see you in those boots that my mother mailed us.” You teased Larissa for a moment, wiping your wet hands on your shirt. If there was one thing that always bothered Larissa, it was the way you always wiped your hands on your clothes rather than using a towel.

Her arms folded over her chest, not wanting you to go alone but also not wanting anyone at Nevermore to see her in those atrocious shoes from your family farm. During her defiant silence, you spoke again, shaking your head, “While you decide, I’m going to start walking to the forest.”

You begin walking towards the backdoor to the greenhouse again, taking a shortcut. Larissa stops you with a hand on your arm, “Fine… Let me change out of this dress.”

—---

You couldn’t hide the satisfied smile on your face as Larissa trugged behind you. Much of the undergrowth was more troublesome to walk through when compared to months ago so burrs stuck to your jeans. Larissa was troubled in accepting that she was doomed to be covered in burrs as well, “Fern Rogers, there has to be a better way to get out there than this. You are pranking me, aren’t you?”

You smirk, happy she can’t see the look on your face. While you were feeling some type of payback for her being so bossy earlier, there truly wasn’t another option to get out to the Council of Cedars. Turning your head, you see Larissa lagging a bit too far behind, so you lean against a tree and wait for her to catch up. Her hair was falling out of place and the scowl on her face could kill, “Remind me why I love you.”

“There are millions of reasons. Off the top of my head, one would be the fact that I am pregnant with your children… and the other would be the fact that I will run us a bath and make us dinner when we get home.”

She rolls her eyes at your words, arms folding as she stands before you. Larissa was pouting as she looked around the forest, her eyes scanning for the Council, hoping that you would be close. You were struck by how beautiful she truly was. Even with Larissa’s light complaining, you loved that she decided to come with you. Being outdoors in this forest was one of your favorite places on earth, so having the opportunity to share it with her from time to time was wonderful.

Finally she noticed your staring, her face softening as she peered down at you, “What?”

For the first time in a long time, you felt butterflies in your stomach and your face became flushed, “Nothing… I just like you.”

Larissa paused a moment before letting out a laugh, one of her real Larissa laughs. Even though you were both gross from the long hike, she pulled you into a one armed hug. Some of her hiking frustrations seemed to melt away, “I like you too.”

You resumed your walking, Larissa keeping up this time. You could sense that you were getting close, the texture of the firm ground was giving way to the soft squish of moss beneath your feet. While you found the terrain easy to maneuver, Larissa did not share your same feelings. Occasionally, her hand would fall on your shoulder, stopping you from moving forward until she could gain a comfortable footing again.

Finally, you saw the towering cedars in their clearing. Larissa gently squeezed your side when she noticed them, not knowing they were already in your line of sight. Even from a distance, you could see the dieback from the center of the circle and how it had begun to fill back in once more. It was patchy, making you wonder what could have killed it and healed it in the same week.

Larissa lingered just outside the ring of trees, waiting to see what you would do about the concerning growth patterns in the center of the circle. First, you rotated around the cedar trees, hoping that one would just tell you what happened, but no voices came to you. You should have known better, you were the one who was supposed to be watching over the forest, not them. You make your way into the ring of trees, cautiously walking on the dead patches rather than disturbing the young mosses that were emerging.

When you kneel to the ground, Larissa takes a protective step into the circle, her eyes waiting intently for any motion that you need her help. You press your hands into the dead plant matter, and try offering some of your energy to the dead, but no power moves through you. You feel none of the warmth radiating from your chest down though your arms and into your fingertips. How strange. You pull away in concern, staring down at the scene beneath you. You were at a complete loss for what to do.

You lean down and press your hands to the earth once more, trying again, but again nothing happens. Larissa notices your obvious frustration as you try over and over and approaches you from behind, placing a gentle hand on your shoulder, “What is happening?”

“My-my powers aren’t working.”

At your words, Larissa sinks to her knees next to you. Her hand comes to rest on your back, trying her best to encourage you, “I’m sure everything is okay… Maybe they are just sleeping.”

You noticed the way her lips curled with her last sentence, knowing that she was trying to tell a joke. You offer her a smile in return. With your consistent failures of bringing back the patch of dead forest, you felt defeated. You allowed yourself to fall back against the cushy ground of the living and dead plant matter, staring up into the canopy of the cedars above you, hoping one of them could just reach out from the otherside to tell you what to do.

Larissa bit her lip. You were lucky she loved you so much. She moved to lay next to you, staring up into the canopy. Her hand came to grasp yours, pulling it up to her lips to scatter kisses across the back of your hand.

“What am I going to do? Even if the forest is growing back, how am I supposed to know what was killing it in the first place?” You ignored her lips on your skin, opting to stress about the situation instead.

“When did it start dying?” Larissa asked, hoping to help you troubleshoot the issue.

“Rowan’s friend noticed the death right after Rowan left… It was growing back when Rowan finally told us about it…” You felt like throwing a tantrum on the forest floor. With all of your plant knowledge and abilities, how could you be so confused about the cause of this issue?

“That was the entire time we were apart.”

“Larissa… How could a forest be affected by our issues from over 3000 miles away?”

“How could an evil pilgrim rise from the grave and drain the energy of the forest in one night? How did you die and rise from the dead days later?” She posed fair questions, but you seriously doubted that the ‘power of love’ was controlling the forest. That sounded entirely preposterous.

Link to Chapter 23

[moony-ghoul]

Moony if you give me permission to also project onto Ant...

I like to hc that he has trichotillomania, the smallest amount of stress or anxiety- even if he isn't openly affected by it- makes him pull at the soft hairs from his face to hairline.. it took a while for the others to understand, and the main way to stop him from pulling is by distracting his hand (why yes by holding them 24/7)

He won't realise he's doing it until he's got a pile of hair in his lap, and once he's conscious of it he can't control the urges to stopq

oh you’re so right

swiss just thought they had a shedding problem, makes sense for summer after all. everywhere he went he’d find strands of black and white hair, too dark to be aethers, too short to be cirrus’, too straight to be cumulus

until they’re at practice one day. copia and dew have been arguing over something ridiculous for an hour now and it’s holding all of them up, ant took a seat on swiss’ stage while he fiddled around with his guitar

he looks up and sees what looks like ant just scratching at the back of their neck, but behind them sits a pile of that familiar black hair

without even seeing their face swiss can tell somethings up, their shoulders sit by their ears, knees tucked to their chest. the hand on their neck seems frantic, swiss can’t see it’s exact movement behind their hair, sitting just past their shoulders and swiss can’t tell how much hair has been pulled out

he squats down quietly behind ant, taking the hand on their neck in his

“you alright?” he asks softly, “need some air?”

ant looks up at swiss, already big eyes slowly welling with tears as they nod silently

swiss places a gentle kiss on their hairline before standing up and clapping loudly

“ight i say all of us take 5 until you two can figure your shit out, sound good? great”

swiss is guiding ant off the stage and out of the room before copia is even able to register that he had said anything

by the time they’re outside ants hand is on their neck again, swiss slowly and gently removes it and cups their hands in his

“you good to talk?”

they shake their head softly, avoiding his eye

“that’s alright, bug.” he removes one of his hands and reaches towards the back of their neck, “can i?”

ant turns their head, revealing the purple bald patch

“oh baby,” swiss coos, rubbing a thumb over the patch, mustering up as much quintessence as he can to soothe the pain

ants shoulders relax as their skin returns to its usual inky black

“it got pretty tense in there didn’t it?” the question is rhetorical but ant nods anyway, “but it wasn’t your fault, dew and copia are just picky. you did so well in there, you hit everything perfectly, you should be really proud of yourself.”

a blush creeps onto their cheeks at swiss’ praise. his hand moves to cup the back of their neck softly and he gives them a quick peck

“i’m always here for you, you know? no matter what. i’m here and i’ll always try to help”

ant finally meets his eye, a grin creeping onto their face

“love you” they squeak”

“love you more, bug”

[walker-extended-universe]

It'll Be Okay

Relationships: Cassie Perez & Cordell Walker, August Walker & Cordell Walker & Stella Walker, Colton Davidson/Stella Walker

Tags/Warnings: Alternate Universe- Canon Divergence, Episode: s02e18 Search and Rescue, Gunshot Wounds, Hospitals, Surgery, Guilt, Feels, Angst, Hurt/Comfort

Summary: Because there's no way that little trailer got pelted with bullets and the only thing that got hit was Cordell's hat

A/N: Fic finally brought to you by people voting for it during my polls :)

Taglist (if you would like to be added let me know): @theladywyn, @ihavepointysticks, @klaatu51, @neptunium134, @itsjessiegirl1

----

Liam’s phone rang on his way back after his talk with Dan. “Hello?”

“Finally you pick up!” James’ frustration was palpable over the line. “Where the hell have y’all been? I’ve been trying to get you on the phone for hours!”

Well, that couldn’t be good. “Woah, sorry, we were at the nature park trying to find Stella and August. Cell service was really bad out there. What’s going on?”

“I- Look, there’s a lot to explain but the basic story is we were checking up on a lead and we got ambushed. Walker got hit with a few bullets and it’s not looking good. They’ve got him in the ICU right now.. He’s alive and stable but he’s not out of the woods yet. Get here now.” He rattled off the address and Liam made a note in his phone before his brain had time to catch up with what he’d just heard. 

Well fuck. Looks like the family wasn’t done for the night.

—------------------

Cordell was sedated and put on a ventilator to give his body time to recover. He’d undergone surgery to remove the bullets and patch the wounds. It wasn’t the first time his family had seen him like this but, with Emily’s death only two years prior, it wasn’t easy to see. 

Three bullet wounds. Major blood loss. Internal bleeding. Minor organ damage. 3 hours in surgery. The surgery had gone as well as could be expected and the doctors were optimistic but stressed that the next few hours would be critical. It was very much still a situation of if he would be okay rather than when. 

Unlike the Walkers, Cassie had other things to occupy herself with than just her partner’s survival. “Why wasn’t I called sooner?” she demanded from James. “He’s my damn partner; if something goes down, I need to know!”

He sighed and rubbed his temple with the hand that wasn’t caught in a sling. “Perez, we were investigating a lead. It was my lead and I asked Walker to accompany me. We didn’t need you there and frankly I’m glad you weren’t. As for why I didn’t call you after he was shot, I was a little preoccupied with figuring out why all the Walkers and our DA had suddenly gone AWOL. I’m not proud of it but I meant no slight against you. Besides, there’s something else you need to know.” He explained the phone call with Rita that set them on the investigation in the first place. “We weren’t sure what to expect and I didn’t want to give you any false hope so we kept you out of the loop. We did end up finding something before we got ambushed though.” He gestured behind her and a very familiar face stepped into their small waiting room.

“Miles?”

—---------------------------------

After an hour of sitting in Dad’s room in the ICU with no updates, Stella got antsy and decided to get up for some of the “coffee” they had in the waiting room. She didn’t have her wallet or she might’ve gone to the cafeteria to get a real drink or something to eat, not that she felt like eating anything. She just couldn’t stand to wait there any longer.

Her dad was strong and he’d been in these situations before. But after losing Mom two years ago and almost losing Colton earlier today, she was all too aware of all the potential outcomes, especially the bad ones.

She found a coffee station, poured herself a cup, and blindly walked around as a distraction. She’d been in hospitals many times before (she was pretty sure she was a frequent flier at this location in particular) but she never got used to how quiet they could be. It was one thing in an emergency, when everyone was running around and machines were going off and the air was charged with knowing that something was happening. But those brief moments weren’t the norm.

Hospitals were a dreadful place of quiet. It was a place where grieving family members said goodbye to their loved ones. It was a place where people sat, chained to their beds, knowing there was nothing to be done but wait for the all-clear. It was a place where medical debt was handed out like candy, killing any happiness someone might’ve had from knowing their mother or father or sister or son wasn’t dead after all. For every happy recovery story, there were at least five tales of woe.

She hated hospitals.

“Stella?”

A voice startled her from her thoughts and she turned to see Dan Miller poking his head out of one of the rooms. “Oh, hi Mr. Miller….”

“Call me Dan. What’re you doing here? Did you come to check on Colton?”

She bit her tongue to keep from snapping at him that his family wasn’t the center of the damn universe.. He probably just didn’t know and it’s not like that was a crazy assumption to make. “Uh, not. I’m…. I’m here for my dad. He got shot on a case and we’re all worried…..”

Dan blanched and he sheepishly glanced away. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“It’s okay,” she said reflexively. “How is Colton, by the way?”

“On the mend. The doctor says he can probably go home tomorrow, they just want to keep an eye on him overnight.”

“That’s good.” At least someone was making it out of this alive. “I’m sorry about everything. I should’ve had my phone charged better and I’m the one that decided to change trails without even telling August-”

“It’s okay,” Dan said. “I know today was hectic but…. It could’ve been a lot worse. And it wasn’t. Because you stepped up.”

She nodded and pretended to take the compliment. “I try. Do… Do you mind if I visit Colton? We’re just waiting to hear about Dad and….” And I need something to do or I’m going to lose my mind.

“Uh, yeah, he’s just down the hall. Room 232.”

She nodded and walked past him towards the room. She hesitated outside the door before going in. She didn’t want to bother Colton but she had to see for herself that he was okay. She softly knocked on the door as she entered. “Hey….”

Colton looked up from his phone and smiled at her. “Hey. I didn’t think you were coming to visit me tonight.”

“I wasn’t,” she admitted. “My dad is in right now. I’m just… Trying to kill time while we wait for news.”

“What happened?”

She fiddled with her empty coffee cup. “He got shot. Not our first time dealing with that. The doctors think he’ll be okay but we’re still waiting on confirmation.”

“I’m sorry,” Colton said, reaching for her hand.

She took it and sat in the chair next to his bed. “Thanks,” she murmured. “He’ll probably be fine but…. I worry about him. It’s like every time this happens I wonder if this is going to be it. If this is going to be the time he got too unlucky….” She shook her head. “I’m sorry, you don’t need to hear all this.”

“I want to,” he said gently. “I can’t imagine how scary that is, even if you’ve been here before.”

She felt a smile tugging at her lips. “I appreciate that, but I did come here to check on you. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Doctor says I can leave tomorrow. You did a good job earlier.”

“I try.” She squeezed his hand. “I know that wasn’t an ideal first date….”

“Maybe not. But it was a memorable one.” He chuckled and she couldn’t help but laugh with him.

—----

It wasn’t until the next day that the doctor’s declared Cordell was out of the woods and on the road to recovery. “You’re very lucky,” they told him after the breathing tube was removed. “We’ll have you out of here in a few days but no going back into the office for at least three weeks. And even then I’m going to recommend desk work only for a while.”

For once, he wasn’t going to argue. This whole mess had been a little too close. With everything going on, he wasn’t going to say no to a little family time. He knew his kids needed to hug him and his mother needed to fuss over him. He got lucky and if the past couple years had taught him anything, it was to not press that luck too far.

They moved him out of the ICU and into a normal room for the duration of his stay. His family was there as soon as visiting hours started. The kids got first hugs and he bit down the grunt of pain when Stella hugged him a little too close to one of the bullet wounds. He just thanked anyone who would listen that he could hug them again. He listened to the story of what happened at the nature park before they got called to the hospital and sent out another “thanks” that his family was still intact.

His parents came in next, followed by Liam. “How are you feeling, baby?” Abilene asked, brushing a few imaginary hairs out of his face.

“Like I got shot,” he muttered. “I’m fine, Mama. Really.”

“Sure you are.”

“What happened?” Liam asked.

“I was checking up on a lead with James and we got ambushed. Guess it was a better lead than we thought,” he tried to joke. “We weren’t prepared for it. Honestly, it could’ve been worse. I’m just glad we can start moving forward.”

“You mean James can start moving forward,” Abby said. “You are resting until the doctor clears you to get back to work.”

“Yes, Mama.”

—---

He could tell something was bothering Cassie from the minute she walked in, as much as she tried to hide it. He may be new to being her partner, but he knew her well enough to know where her thoughts were.

“Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Blame yourself for this.”

“I-”

“Cassie….” Cordell squeezed her hand. “I know you are. You’re doing that thing where you’re trying not to look at me and pretending you’re fine.”

She sighed. “I just…. It’s my fault you were there in the first place.”

“It’s not,” he said firmly. “The whole operation was James’ idea and neither of us expected that attack. We didn’t even know if there was anything to the lead. It’s absolutely not your fault.”

“I know that,” she said quietly. “But…. This is my thing. I should’ve been there.”

“Maybe,” Cordell said. “But you weren’t. And that wouldn’t’ve changed what happened. I’d probably still be in this hospital bed and you’d probably be in one of your own and then we’d be arguing with you about how much work you’re allowed to do on Miles’ case while you heal.”

“Walker-”

“My point is,” he continued, squeezing her hand again, “This isn’t your fault. There’s nothing for you to feel bad about. It happened, it sucks, but we can’t change it. I’m on the mend and in a few weeks I’ll be back in the office like nothing happened. In the meantime, you’re going to do your job and save your former partner from whatever mess he got himself into. Okay?”

Cassie nodded, squeezing back. “Yeah. I can do that.”

“Damn right you can.”