#Needless to say... I DID actually get a few people XD

[whispering-coffee]

I’ve been holding this off for a while mainly cause I was afraid of doing it but I finally pulled through and now I have a story to share with ya’ll explaining what happened during my hold at the mall!

I went dressed in black leggings and a sweater, bummer that it wouldn’t show I know but i was nervous! I had drank some before leaving my house so by the time I had arrived at the mall i was already feeling the need.

To make sure I was going to suffer (I know i know im a masochist bite me) i drank an entire water bottle i brought with me in the car before actually heading into the mall. So yada yada time passes and im trying to figure out what to do at the mall and I go get myself a drink at the food court then i head off to look around the stores.

About an hour in the mall and its starting to feel pretty urgent but not bursting so i decided hey, why not play a game with myself, and got into a bathroom line. However once i actually went into a stall i just sat there fully clothed not doing anything, still holding it in then shortly after left. Trust me i was getting pretty bored here to have to do that.

I got another drink and finally after finishing it I was getting antsy, crossing my legs and shuffling my feet while i sat at a table.

HEY IF YOU’RE SKIPPING THROUGH THE POST TO FIND THE INTERESTING PARTS ITS OVER HERE

So i go back to looking around stores, feeling my bladder ache each time i take a step and now im actually like, nervous because like its dawning on me that Im really doing this in a public place. Let me say its pretty crowded, its not like the mall barely has anyone in it. So here i am standing around in the corner of a store thinking to myself if I really wanna do it, i was thinking for like a good 5-10 minutes walking back and fourth till i decided i was gonna pull through, after all i made a promise that i would post something interesting and different ;p

I leave the store and about another hour passed and im pretty desperate, like constantly moving around wanna put my hands between my legs desperate. But since it was a public place i couldnt really just do that unless i had to go REALLY bad (foreshadowing haha).

Did i mention it was really cold in the mall, only made everything worse xD

Anyways so Im pretty desperate, i take a seat at the food court again and get ONE MORE drink, and as im sipping on it im squirming in my seat cross legged, im sure anyone who’s into omo would immediately catch on if they saw me.

Just a little bit later im scrolling through my phone with my other hand on top of my lap (not between my legs just yet)

Now Im REALLY anxious because its getting to the point where I know im going to have an accident soon so i get up and just start walking around with my chest aching from nervousness. I even stared at the bathroom in contemplation before walking away.

A couple minutes of aimless walking and i end up having to sneeze.. needless to say a little bit escaped but i stopped it albeit i looked a little silly. My heart dropped during it too.

About ten or twenty so minutes and i have to go REAAALLY bad and im super anxious, i even entered a bathroom line thinking i didnt want to actually wet myself but after a couple minutes of waiting in line i felt another leak which automatically prompted a hand to crotch response, you can imagine my embarrassment.

After the leak I was honestly horrified but also having a LOT of fun, i was close to having an accident so I decided to try to find a secluded area in the mall to hang around in for when i lose control. Each step i took was agony to take but i kept movin, slightly bent over too.

Eventually i found an area where not alot of people were, there were still some but it wasnt as crowded as the other areas. It was like this dead end section with nothing of interest other than a few benches and stores.

I stayed here for about a couple minutes, mild panicking, hella anxious, and kiiiind of excited. Thats when i started losing control. I was kind of in a little corner where a protrusion of wall was blocking me but if you’d still be able to see me if you walked closer to the dead end.

It was a mix of terrified excitement when i tried to stop the flow but couldnt. The sounds of my pee hitting the floor wasnt helping. I dont think anyone actually noticed plus since I was wearing black leggings it wasnt super noticeable. I promptly rushed my way out of the mall keeping my head down leaving behind that puddle.

When i got back to my car i put out the towel i had stored in my trunk over my driver seat so i wouldnt ruin my car seats and kind of just sat in the car thinking about what happened. At the end i actually found the experience really enjoyable and might do it again ;)

[elvenbeard]

2071

"Had to drive a thousand miles just to realize that this is where I belong... This is my home. I'm so fuckin' stupid."

"Some mistakes you gotta make, hermano. How else're you s'pposed to learn from them?"

Vince left Night City for a little less than a year in 2070. He'd burned too many bridges, in Charter Hill, in Kabuki... There seemed nothing left for him to gain, nowhere deeper to sink. Also, his mother had tracked him down two years into his hiding from her. Even though they parted ways somewhat amicably and Vince did not expect to see her again, a certain level of unrest had accompanied him ever since.

Together with someone he thought he was in love with at the time, he joined the backstage crew of a Korean lazrpop duo touring the NUSA. His actually quite extensive technical knowledge... did not land him the gig. It was mostly the good word put in by his acquaintance that was supposed to get him out of the city. But so, instead of working with the crew's techies, setting up the lights and sound for the impressive shows ahead, he ended up having to haul equipment cases most days.

Needless to say, the experience was underwhelming. Combined with his relationship turning sour halfway into the trip, Vince suffered from the worst homesickness ever - for Night City, of all places, the city and the people that had continued to wrong him so many times over, with their games and intrigues.

One thing though Night City had done very right: Jackie Welles. The first person who sincerely liked Vince for who he was, no ulterior motives. The first true friend whose intentions he no longer doubted, that would have his back no questions asked, and vice versa.

Bonding with him over their shared experiences with abusive parents, Jackie was to Vince the older brother he had never had. Naturally, Jackie was there to pick him up when Vince returned to Night City in 2071, disillusioned, alone, and uncertain about his future more than ever. But Jackie always seemed to know someone or something that could be done to get Vince back on his feet.

Night City had changed as much as Vince had during his short-lived, self-inflicted exile. The Unification War was over, Night City a free city. Most importantly though - unbeknownst to both Vince and Jackie still - the old, powerful corporation that had returned to the city's heart with its new, rebuilt headquarters, would forever change their lives just a few years down the line...

Vince through the years (3/9)

For today's behind the scenes ramblings: a few thoughts on something I've been noticing on my VP journey lately...

No matter where you go... I think in any scenic location near Night City, you can see the Arasaka logo somehwere in the background, and I think it's done very purposefully by the environment designers XD It's either the clover, or the whole word "arasaka" spelled out, glowing somewhere on the side of a building or an ad display. It is often there in important story scenes somewhere, too, subtle in the background, a constant, subconscious reminder to V (you know... apart from the constant, subconscious bickering at the hands of Johnny XD).

Arasaka Tower itself is also extremely prominent, unmistakeable with its shape, whenever I'm taking pics lately that are in slightly elevated locaions I look around to see if I can spot it XD And I chose this spot specifically because it's so nicely visible from there, too...

This was one of my very first shoots with AMM - don't think I ever shared these (and wanna recreate them badly now). Just Vince and Johnny pondering the next move, what they're gonna do and say during the meeting with Hanako, Arasaka Tower in clear view in the distance, almost as if it's taunting them.

This particular spot is very important to Vince... as mentioned, it's where Jackie picked him up after he returned to Night City in 2071, but it's more than that. Jackie showed him the place shortly after they became friends, to give Vince a "different perspective" on Night City he wasn't really aware of then, with his sheltered upbrining and the circles he moved in. It's by the dam, overlooking Rancho Coronado, and in few other places the extreme difference between poverty and wealth appears quite as jarring.

In the years to come after this first visit here, it develops into a favourite meeting spot of Vince and Jackie to discuss all manners of things in quiet and relative private... here is where, just a year later, Vince tells him that he's gonna take on a job at Arasaka 👀 And Vince is drawn back there over and over again, even when Jackie can no longer meet him there.

It's simply where he still feels closest to Jackie, due to so many important conversations they had here...

... and he takes Kerry here, later, too, to get away from the city for a little while, talk about the past and the future.

Sometimes he comes over on his own when he needs some quiet time to think, too. What would Jackie do now? What would he suggest? Does it all even matter in the grand scheme of things? What is really important right now, and what can wait for later?

It's the perfect spot to clear your mind, and gorgeous at every time of day <3

Also, I wrote above that Vince was homesick for Night City... but it was less Night City that he missed, but Jackie's presence.

[putschki1969]

hey puts, the captain of kalafina fandom XD i came across this instagram post which i think its talking about backstage stuff about wakana circulating in 2-chan. this is the post https://www.instagram.com/p/Bvy3CuchT-D/ can you share your thoughts about it ? or maybe you can help us what are they actually talking about since we can only use google translate.

Hello there, anon!

Ugh, you are throwing me a curve-ball here, I did not expect to get a question like this. Already feeling exhausted just thinking about writing my reply T_T

That Instagram post is from spring 2019, a - what I consider to be - particularly dark period in the Kalafina fandom. Wakana was in the midst of preparing for her first grand-scale solo tour after her official solo debut and Space Craft finally put their act together by releasing an official statement regarding Kalafina's state of limbo. In an attempt to put an end to a lot of uncertainty/speculation and to create a clear distinction between Kalafina and Wakana's solo activities, they declared a definitive disbandment. As you can imagine, everyone and their mother had something to say about that. Even Yuki Kajiura, Hikaru and Keiko made statements in response. All of this caused a lot of backlash against Space Craft and particularly towards Wakana herself. The fact that Wakana was still with Space Craft and dared to not address the announcement of Kalafina's disbandment with a statement of her own made many so-called fans very angry and disappointed - totally unwarranted of course.

Suddenly, there was an influx of certain internet trolls who got a real kick out of blaming and villainising Wakana, they made her into the bad guy and came up with a bunch of wild theories that mainly served the purpose of dragging Wakana's name and image through the mud. Needless to say, none of those claims were in any way, shape or form substantiated but as is the case with all negative content on the internet, it drew quite a bit of attention and some people even started buying into that bullshit. The Instagram user you linked to in your ask is a textbook example of one such troll. At that time, a handful of sock puppet accounts were created to feed into the smear campaign against Wakana. Those accounts regularly left nasty comments under Wakana's Instagram posts, pretending to be devastated fans and referring to all sorts of horrible things that Wakana had allegedly done. Most of those posts and accounts got rightfully flagged and suspended but some apparently managed to stay around for a while. They tried to continue their toxic behaviour but once they realised that Wakana's loyal fans would not stand for such horrible defamation tactics, most of them just disappeared again.

As for the information supposedly circulating on 2chan, I honestly give little to no credence to anything that is being said on anonymous text-boards like 2chan or its successor 5chan. As much as the Japanese are known for being overly polite and reserved, they can be incredibly nasty when they are allowed to act anonymously. I reckon about 10% of users who frequently post on these types of text-boards are actually decent human beings. 60% of them are either mentally handicapped, bored out of their minds or simply frustrated with their lives. The remaining 30% are scum of the earth sociopaths as far as I am concerned.

In order to do some research for this post, I went through a few old threads about Wakana containing hundreds upon hundreds of messages. I literally felt my brain cells dying with every new message I read. No idea how others manage to subject themselves to this level of stupidity but I really struggle to tolerate it. Out of curiosity, I would have liked to find a "source" for the specific accusations in that Instagram post but alas, I wasn't able to. There's just no way I can go through everything, sorry. Also, I will not dignify any of these messages or that Instagram post with a proper translation.

Believe me when I say that there is no incriminating material on Wakana out there, these people have zero authentic evidence (photo or otherwise) of her being a "stuck-up bitch", of her "mistreating staff members", of her "bashing Hi/Kei" etc. It's all just a ton of made-up gossip and rubbish. Everyone, please do yourself a favour and just ignore content like this when you come across it. Knowing what those people have to say does not add any value to your life, quite the contrary, it will only poison your brain.

That's honestly all I have to say about this topic.

[mislamicpearl]

Thoughts on Danny Phantom: A Glitch in Time

If you want the tl;dr of my thoughts on this graphic novel, it's simple: I LOVED IT! And I want moooore!

SPOILERS GALORE BELOW

I'm soooooo happy with all the dialogue and characterization, it is just spot on! I could perfectly hear the original voices of the characters saying these lines, this comic could literally be a new episode of the show and it would fit seamlessly! No 2020's slang or memes, no wokeness that wasn't there before, just pure Danny Phantom. The only few indications of the comic having been written in 2023 is the use of words like "selfie" and "goat", and those are already old enough now that they don't feel that blatant.

Needless to say I'm sooooo glad this story's main premise is on Dark Danny, the fact that that storyline never came back in the show was always a sore spot for me. And not only Dark Danny but Vlad AND Clockwork come back for major parts to play? This is like the most wish fulfilling fanfic ever, except it's CANON!

But yeah, love that Vlad got to come back, it's always funny when he has to work together with Danny, AND the fact that he gets a redemption of sorts at the end fixes one of the many things I disliked about the show's finale - it had always felt like this was a villain character that could have and should have gotten a second chance to do some good.

Ahahaha I had completely forgotten that Tucker was made mayor of Amity Park in Phantom Planet, and ngl it was a great move on the comic's part scrapping that idea immediately, that had always been pretty silly.

I wish we could've seen just a little bit more of Danny interacting with his parents now that they know his identity as a half ghost, but considering they weren't major characters in this plot (and considering how things end up) it kinda makes sense.

The important thing is that we still got lots of cute wholesome hugs between Danny and his friends. :')

Aaaaaah Dark Danny is so cool! The art style was really cute but the author also managed to make Phantom look just as dark and menacing as he was in the show.

The best and most disturbing joke was Danny seeing that Vlad still had a clone of him in stasis, ahahaha! And this actually comes back to play an important part in the plot later!

I'm glad Valerie got some moments to shine in this too, I never liked how her and Danny's whole thing was just kind of rushed and brushed aside in the show's finale. Now we can see, she still doesn't completely trust him!

If there's just one thing I fault this comic with, it's the whole glitching through different timelines thing to make filler action scenes. I felt like they ate up page time for nothing.

"I put you two in the ground before, I can do it again" HOLY FRICK THAT'S DARK, DANNY!

I really love the lore surrounding the ghosts that was added. Given that Butch Hartman has said the ghosts aren't actually deceased spirits of real people, the explanation given here actually makes the fact that we have ghosts like Poindexter, who was a living boy once, make sense without negating what he said. It also very simply explains why we have weird formless or creature-like ghosts, something I'd never even thought to wonder about.

I did think it was a little too easy for Danny to get his powers back after that explanation (and dang, as if he hasn't been compared to Spider-man enough XD), but I love what it did for Vlad's character arc.

I don't know how I'd never thought before about Dark Danny and Vlad interacting but WOW I needed to see that! God what a deliciously complicated relationship - Vlad literally adopted this version of Danny and made him who he was! And again, what a great way to develop Vlad's character making Dark Danny show him exactly what would result from him getting what he'd always wanted in making Danny his protegee!

Clockwork Dark Danny looked so cool~

"Why was I the one who lost everything?" God this part punched me in the gut. 

Clockwork returning Danny and his friends back to the status quo of the show would usually annoy me, but I totally see that this is the author's way of undoing the results of Phantom Planet and leaving the story open to doing the ending over again - and I'm all for that! You know, if in fact we do get more comics after this.

Which it seems like we will because we kinda left Valerie on a cliffhanger there?

And Dark Danny is now a kid again and back with Vlad, heck yeah! Again, I need mooooore! Bring back Dani next!!

5 stars man, this is a continuation done right in every way!

[dutchdread]

Rebirth Update 10a

85 Hours played and I finally got to see what I wanted to see for 27 years XD. First things first though, Nibelheim was a god send after Cosmo Canyon and Gongaga. Being able to actually comfortably navigate the map really cut down on annoyance and on the time required to do intel. As much as it pains me to say it Rebirth does a bad job at pathing. In general there are too many quests and moments that feel intentionally slowed down as to artificially bloat the run-time of the game. Like walking behind a bunch of black robes at 1 mph. I enjoyed the story content in Nibelheim, and except for the proto-relic quests (which feel slow in all areas to be honest) the intel gathering was a lot easier to swallow than in former areas as well. I wonder how the Nibelheim segments feel to someone who hasn't played the original game, it sort of feels like they might be making the solution to mystery a bit too obvious, but could just be because I KNOW the twist. I do worry however that rebirth loses a lot of the mystery that makes the original telling so effective. When you first get to Nibelheim in the OG you have no idea why the town is back. Any talk about them rebuilding is just speculation, the player has no idea what the deal is with the people in town, it could just as easily be that Cloud is full of shit. Here though it is immediately outright stated that "yes, Nibelheim burned down, we were hired by Shinra". This removal of mystery is lessened somewhat by the addition of the Zack interludes, but those run the risk of just making the entire story feel less cohesive and more convoluted, although we can't say for certain until part 3 wraps up. The Black robes also seem less scary to me but that might just be a result of modern graphics as well as the inevitable increased information about goings on that comes with it. Apparently the black robes are just handed out by Shinra, ok, who knew. That doesn't really change anything and yet it does make it a bit less creepy for some reason. The scene with Aerith on the water tower could already be seen as an LTD killer tbh. So apparently "staring at Tifa from the water tower" sounds just like Cloud, and that's a good thing since that scores you points with Aerith. Sounds like Aerith is cheerleading Cloud and Tifa again. Also, Tifa straight up calling Cloud out about staring at her as kids, cute as heck and just more to throw on the pile of cloti moments that together just make this entire game feel like the story of Cloud and Tifas relationship. Seriously, Aerith so far has seemed like a minor character, it's almost weird, I feel like I would have put more focus on Aerith this game than the developers did. Every scene feels like Cloud and Tifa and their children, it's not even an LTD, it's the story of two couples. One that is up and coming, and one that is in tragedy. The explicit insertion of Zack into the story as someone that Cloud remembers is really interesting, and when it comes to the LTD it is another death nail, but I do worry whether it was the right choice by the developers. I do love seeing Zack so I suppose I can't complain too much, but I am just a little on edge. Unfortunately one of the best segments of the game was followed by the worst. The Cait Sith segment of Nibelheim was dreadful and felt more like artificial bloating than anything in remake, even worse than deep ground. Apparently there is an underground lab that we have to traverse by very slowly throwing boxes around. I know having a bunch of needless mini-games was a staple in the OG and that they're trying to pay homage to that, but it shouldn't be in the way of story progression. The simple mansion layout with the quest to find a few codes honestly had ten times more atmosphere than this series of portal rooms that ends with the code lazily written on the wall. Definitely a low point.

[manchasama]

so i found out about your winged twins AU last night and then read through it all today and i am very 👀

like i'm a sucker for wing AUs (i have several on a roleplay blog for an unrelated character) and oh gosh i see you fellow ffix enjoyer. i see you

anyway as you may have guessed based on the icon, i am, in fact, a Melli fan XD i also roleplay him but uhhhhhhhhhhh. lemme just. see what comes out, okay? i hope this is okay. i just wish i had a single Ingo braincell beyond train puns. unfortunately i only have this asshole (affectionate) to offer

~~~

When Melli had gone out that night, he hadn't expected, well, that. It was entirely unbecoming of his fellow Warden, and he did not approve. The wings had been a startle to see, of course, but the state of them was something Melli could not, would not abide.

So, after helping Ingo to his feet and sending him on his way (he wasn't heartless, he simply liked to project a certain image, though alone in the highlands, they needed to work together somewhat) Melli decided to do some research. It wasn't as if he didn't have resources, and Sabi could be just as cryptic as he was when he felt the need. More so, even. Needless to say, he had practice talking with her, and she wasn't prone to letting secrets loose if he accidentally got too close to the truth. Not that he planned to, of course. It wasn't anyone's business what went on in the highlands so long as no one got hurt.

So it was that a few days later, Melli announced his presence at the entrance to the dwelling of his fellow highlands Warden, carrying a pack of supplies. "Take off your jacket, I'm not letting you bring down the view of this mountain with your poor grooming. The fact that your jacket is in tatters is bad enough."

I swear every time someone brings me such lovely gifts just because they like my idea, I get all emotional. This is fanTAStic<3

First off, glad you found and enjoyed the AU! One day I will actually write ha ha haaaaa (spoons where are you :<). Still, people have been living for it, and have been adding their own great takes on things! I hope you perused my Pokemon writing page and saw all the gift stuff, because CONTENT!

Yes hi hello i love ffix it is my second fav? tho my top three are pretty dang equal. 6, 7, 9 my beloveds. (Fun fact, the first time I beat 9 and went through the ending bit, the moment Zidane did his matrix freeze frame, a full fic bloomed in my brain. One day I might go back to that, because I did love the idea, but it was full of OCs. Now that I am older and wiser, I feel zero shame for this :p)

Do not apologize for your muse!! I co-write a FF7 fic with my bestie, and Cloud is definitely my muse, while Sephiroth is hers, and we suffer trying to write for each other's characters lol.

As for your asshole (affectionate) can I just say yesss, this is exactly my thinking for the scene. Melli probably fought and lost the battle against doing anything with the coat, but this at least he can bully Ingo over. Also having Melli go to Sabi instead of trying to figure out why Ingo would is perfect! I love when things slot into place like that lol~

But the highlander solidarity, the "it's no one's business" mentality... *thumbs up* I love that, so much. He may be an asshole (affectionate), but he's not a snitch! :>

[diaphragmjellyfish]

You Just Wait

gif is from @twilightofficial​

A/N: The hardest part of writing a fic is honestly choosing the love interest XD I have so many fictional boyfriends it’s hard to choose just one. I have noticed a significant lack of Jared Cameron content and he’s super adorable so here it is! Also, I left the concept a little bit more vague so more people can relate to it. It doesn’t specifically say vaginismus, it’s more of a general “sex doesn’t normally go well for me” type thing. 

Bottomless, covered in chocolate sauce, walking through the woods, phone dead, in the middle of August on a weekday. How did you end up here? Jared Cameron. Your boyfriend. He had roped you in to an elaborate prank on Paul that hadn’t exactly gone as planned. Needless to say, you were desperate for a shower and a nap. A hot meal wouldn’t hurt. And you were beyond irritated, not even looking Jared’s way as he walked next to you in a similar state. 

“Babe, if you let me carry you, we’ll get home way faster,” he whined.

You didn’t respond, only walking with more frustration around the roots and fallen trees. It was growing dark, just about twilight, and you knew you wouldn’t be reaching either of your houses at this rate. You were miles into the forest. But your pride kept you from accepting Jared’s wolfy-back ride, because he tended to make lots of jokes about being between your legs and you riding him and blah blah blah, and you honestly might punch him right now if he did that. 

So you just kept ignoring him, arms folded tightly against your chest because, yes, it was August, but this was also the Washington coast. It got pretty chilly no matter what time of year it was. 

“I can see you shivering from here,” he pleaded, almost sounding in pain at the thought of you being uncomfortable. “It’s only gonna get colder. Let me help you.”

You ignored him. 

“C’mooonnnnnn,” he cried. His preferred way of cracking your silence was usually by annoying you out of it, and it was working. “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon c’mon c’mon c’mon c’m-”

“Jared, I swear to God!” 

“Aha! She speaks!” he laughed. 

“”Only to tell you to be quiet, or I’ll-”

“Or you’ll what?” he cut you off. “I’m way stronger than you!” He was teasing you into talking to him. Even if it was in the form of arguing. Damn, he always got you to crack. You stopped walking, turning to face him, arms still held tightly around yourself. You couldn’t resist a good bicker, and Jared knew that. He would get the sass to come out, and then once you got tired, he’d apologize and you’d be made up within half an hour. That’s what always happened. And you couldn’t exactly stay mad at those big brown puppy eyes for long. 

“Physically, maybe,” you chided, “but I’m definitely way smarter than you.”

He stepped closer to you, a playful smirk on his face. “What, are you gonna read me to death or something?”

“I’m gonna strategize a huge plan, manipulate you, and leave you here in the forest by yourself. That’s what I’m gonna do,” you sassed. He never took arguments to heart, which is one thing you loved about him. He knew how grumpy you could get and would let you vent, and then make you forget all about the problem. 

“Oh, okay, yeah sure,” he giggled, hands going up in defense. “I’m just saying that in this situation, there is no way you come out on top. You run, I catch you. You hide, I sniff you out,” he teased. This made you crack an almost imperceptible smile, but one he noticed nonetheless. “And if you did somehow manage to get away from me, you’d freeze to death in an hour flat.” The cold breeze that caused you to shiver more violently could not have had worse timing. Obviously, Jared noticed, and his face dropped. He approached you slowly, silently asking if you were still mad enough to not let him touch you. When you didn’t step back or stop him, he wrapped both his arms around you and brought you into a huge bear hug. You sighed at his warmth, wrapping your arms tightly around his torso. He’d given you his hoodie hours ago, and was left in only a pair of shorts, though he didn’t seem to notice. Damn him and his werewolf heat. 

You still shivered in his arms, but his feverish temperature was a relief to your aching bones. 

“See? Could’ve been warm hours ago,” he teased once again, noting your clinginess. 

“Shut up. I’m still mad,” you mumbled into his neck. He laughed softly to himself, rubbing his hands up and down your body to create more heat. After a few minutes, you were starting to struggle to keep your eyes open. It had to be close to 2 in the morning, and you’d been walking for what felt like hours. Jared could have easily run home and let you brood alone, but he stuck with you no matter how long you went without speaking to him. 

“Sleepy?” he murmured into your hair. You just nodded softly, and didn’t protest as he bent down, one hand going behind your knees and the other staying around your back. He picked you up with ease and started walking through the woods once more with an “Okay Princess, I got you.” His stride never faltered, easily avoiding tripping over roots or slipping on rain-soaked moss. He must have been walking for about 30 minutes, never so much as breathing hard or shifting you in his grip. You didn’t sleep, but welcomed the rest he allowed you. Your eyes were closed, head resting on his shoulder when you felt him stop. You looked up, and in the distance, maybe 50 yards away, you saw a small building. 

“Hunter’s cabin, I’m guessing. No one’s home,” Jared stated, anticipating your questions. 

“Think there’ll be blankets?” you wondered, tired, yet still playful. 

“What, am I not enough for you?” he feigned mock hurt as you giggled at his unshakeable good attitude. Without another word, he began walking towards the small cabin, which was about the size of an average bedroom. When you reached the door, he set you down gently, holding his hands close to your waist while you found your footing, and then wrapping an arm over your shoulders to keep you warm. 

“I’m assuming it’s locked,” you sighed, disappointed. 

“Babe, no door is locked when you have super strength. Honestly, I thought you’d have more faith in me by now,” he smiled brightly. 

“You can’t just go around kicking random people’s doors in!” you scolded. 

“Okay, first of all, I can tell by the smell that no one’s been here in years. Second of all, how would anyone know it was us that broke in and not, like, a deer? And third of all, I’d say this counts as an emergency,” he sassed right back at you. You looked at him in annoyance, too tired and cold to actually care. 

After a long sigh, you muttered “fine.” 

He immediately turned to the door, not letting you so much as inhale before he slammed his foot into the space next to the knob, the door all but flying off its hinges. The whole scene caused deafening noise that interrupted the silence of the trees. 

“Jesus!” you called out in surprise, a hand shooting up to your pounding heart. You look around, though knowing no one was around for miles. Jared only turned to look at you, a cheeky smile adorning his face, and said,

“See? Told ya.” 

You rolled your eyes, but couldn’t help the loving and admiring energy that overcame you. Jared really was one in a million, and you were lucky to be by his side. He could be in the worst situation in the world and still find something to laugh about. 

He motioned for you to go in first, ever the gentleman. Walking through the door, the first thing you noticed was the dust. The entire inside of the cabin was covered in a thick layer of it. There was a small, rickety couch with cushions so worn they had holes in them throughout. And the fabric… my God. It looked like something from the 60’s, an obnoxious floral that had faded over time, and now just looked flat out stained. There was a flimsy throw blanket over the back of the couch, a cooler in the corner of the room that was covered in dirt, and on the opposite wall, a fireplace! No wood, no matches, but it was there. The floor was scattered with bullet shells, receipts, and decayed leaves. It was obvious no one had been in here for at least 3 or 4 years. 

“Okay, I can work with this,” Jared said. You really were jealous of his optimism. But, as disgusting as this place was, it beat the frigid breeze of outside, and had a place where you could rest your heads. You walked over to the couch, grabbing the blanket and beating the dust off of it. It was really only meant for one person, but you guys were okay with getting close. It would do. 

Jared walked over to the opposite corner where the cooler sat by the fireplace and opened the lid, peeking inside. 

“Just water,” he said, sounding almost disappointed. 

“Were you really gonna eat whatever was in there?” you spoke incredulously. 

“Babe, I’m starving. You have no idea how close I am to licking that chocolate sauce off of you,” he voiced. You had almost forgotten about the sticky sauce that covered both of your clothes. That prank really was a disaster. You looked down, face heating at the thought of Jared’s mouth on you like that, and turned to the fireplace where he stood. He was looking on the mantle, oblivious to the effect his comment had on you, and exclaimed “Aha!” before reaching up to grab something. “A lighter. We’re saved! Well, you are,” he laughed looking over at your shivering form once more. “Stay here and get comfy. I’m gonna go get some wood.” 

You tried your best, sitting on the edge of the couch and immediately feeling a spring poking you in the butt. The couch really was tiny. You guys were gonna have to bundle up close to fit. The thought excited you. Sure, you and Jared had always been comfortable touching and holding each other, but there were certain areas of your relationship you had yet to explore. More… intimate areas. It was your fault mostly. To make a long story short, you’ve just never enjoyed sex. You found yourself not able to get aroused, which made things painful. Sure, you wanted to. You’d thought about it a ton. But in the moment, your head was so full of thoughts of ‘What if he thinks I’m ugly? What if I smell? Am I doing this right? Is he having a good time? Am I taking too long?’ that you just stopped trying. And obviously you wanted to have sex with Jared, but you were worried he’d be disappointed. By the time he got back, just a few minutes later, you had brought your knees up to your chest, holding your legs close in an effort to preserve warmth. 

“Doing okay Sweetheart?” he asked gently. You gave a small smile and nodded in response. He plopped the logs in his arms down into the fireplace, scavenging the floor for receipts, dried leaves, anything that would catch fire. He dumped these into the fireplace and lit them, the fire catching within seconds. He walked over to the other side of the room where the couch was before bending down, grabbing the bottom lip of it, and pulling it (and you) across the floor, one-handed, and closer to the fire. “Better?” You had always been in awe of his strength. Let’s be honest, it was just plain sexy. Again, you just nodded your head, staring at him in adoration. 

He sat beside you on the couch, throwing an arm over your shoulders again, and leaning back, taking you with him. You cuddled into his side, watching the fire. 

“Ya know, if you take away the shitty couch and sticky clothes and add a few more blankets, this would actually be pretty nice,” he finally spoke. 

You laughed softly, replying, “It would. The couch isn’t even awful, but these clothes are really ruining the mood for me.” 

“Well why don’t you get out of ‘em, hot stuff?” he joked. You knew he wasn’t serious because you guys haven’t gotten that far yet, but something, maybe the exhaustion or the way he kept challenging you today, made you want to actually do it. Before you could lose your nerve, you reached down, pulling off the hoodie and shirt in one go and tossing them onto the floor. You relaxed back into his arms in just a bra, acting like nothing had happened. He was frozen beside you. Maybe it was mean, but you wanted to tease him a little. He’d put you through a lot today, so you wanted to mess with him a tiny bit. So, coolly, you brought a hand onto his thigh and began running it up and down, going higher and higher with each pass. He was still frozen, so you gave a light squeeze, and heard him inhale sharply, though he tried to hide it. 

“I thought you were tired,” he commented.

“Guess I’m not anymore,” you responded, turning to face him boldly. He immediately leaned in to kiss you, softly as always. You reciprocated, bringing your other hand up to cup his face. His arm that was around your shoulders slipped down around your waist, pulling you in further. Jared had always been gentle when kissing you, so you knew you’d have to make the first move to deepen it. Which is exactly what you did. Running your hand up his head and grabbing his hair, you pulled him towards you even more and traced your tongue across his bottom lip. He responded by matching your energy, tongue slipping out to caress yours before bringing your bottom lip between his teeth and nibbling softly. You guys had never kissed like this before. You felt a bead of warmth pool in your abdomen, something you’d never felt with a guy before. Sure, you’d been turned on while watching certain videos or reading certain fanfiction by yourself, but you’d never actually experienced it with someone before. It was exciting. Maybe it was the knowledge that you could stop things at any time and he wouldn’t be upset, or maybe it was how in love with you he really was, but you didn’t feel nervous or worried. You felt comfortable. 

Taking things a step further, you swung your leg over both of his, moving to straddle his lap. 

He pulled away slightly at this, making you ask, “What’s wrong?” 

“Nothing’s wrong,” he responded, “I just don’t wanna make you do anything you don’t wanna do.”

You smiled, “I’m not doing anything I don’t wanna do. Are you?” 

“Are you seriously asking me that question right now?” He laughed, making you giggle along. 

You leaned back in for another kiss, when he stopped you again. “What exactly… are we doing, though?” You knew what he was silently asking. Are we about to go all the way? And you didn’t know yet. This had started out as playful teasing, but now you were beginning to think that maybe you did want to try something. With Jared. He was it for you, the one you wanted to spend forever with. If you couldn’t trust him, you couldn’t trust anyone. And he’d taken such good care of you these last few hours, keeping you warm, making sure you were storming off in the right direction, that you knew he’d appreciate you in a more intimate sense. 

“I- I kind of would like to try… some stuff,” you answered. 

He looked at you, eyes wide, before answering, “What kind of stuff? I mean, I will do literally anything you ask me to do and you know that, but I didn’t really prepare for this. Like, I don’t… have what we need.” Oh, a condom. What a responsible boy. 

“I’m on the pill,” you replied a little too quickly before looking down and fiddling with your hands. “If you want to.” 

“Y/N, I would be absolutely fucking honored,” he breathed, before cupping your face and pulling you into the most heated kiss yet. Your tongues danced, hands wandering. Yours, across his muscled chest and abdomen, and his, down your waist and around to cup your pantsless ass, squeezing firmly. It felt nice. He handled you in a way that was gentle and painless, but still dominant and firm. And it made the heat in your belly grow. You continued kissing for several minutes, your hands moving up his neck and eventually landing in his hair once more, and his remaining on your ass and waist. You softly sucked at his lower lip, nibbling slightly, and it made him let out a low growl and pull your hips forward onto his, where you felt something hard push against you. You knew what it was, and it didn’t scare you like it normally would. You did, however, feel your damp underwear. Shit, that’s never happened before. You were normally bone dry at this point. You let out a soft sigh, grinding your hips onto him once more. 

He softened his kisses slightly, bringing a hand around to your stomach and running his knuckles lightly across your lower abdomen. 

“Can I?” He questioned delicately. 

“Yes,” you replied almost immediately. He brought his hand under the waistband of your underwear, when you said, “Wait,” and he stopped. “Just one thing. I kind of… have never been able to do this without it hurting a lot, so maybe you could just try to be gentle?” 

“Oh, baby, you’ve been in pain before? I’m so sorry,” he whispered genuinely. 

“It’s okay, I just…” It was now or never. He should know. “Normally I’m super nervous about everything, so I can’t really… get into it, and when girls aren’t into it it’s kind of… dry? And that makes it kind of hurt really bad.” You faded out at the end, feeling embarrassed. He brought his hand out of your underwear and up to your chin, tilting your face up to look him in the eye, looking concerned. “But I’m into this, I mean, right now. I’m excited. I just thought I should warn you,” you awkwardly laughed at the end. 

“You promise? Because you know that if you want to stop we will, and I would never be upset or pressure or anything like that,” he spoke sweetly, making your heart flutter. And you did know that, which is why you felt comfortable. Every other time, you felt that if you went past a certain point, you couldn’t say stop. Couldn’t call it off without making whatever guy you were with super mad and then… who knows what would happen. But when Jared spoke those words, you believed him. 

“I promise. And I know you’ll stop. But I don’t want you to.” 

With this, he scanned your face one more time for any signs of hesitation, and when he found none, brought you down into another heated kiss. You felt his hand trail from your chin down to your breasts, skimming over your bra, down your stomach and once again to the waistband of your underwear. Only this time he didn’t go under. He stayed on top of the fabric and brought his hand down between your legs, index finger brushing lightly against your core. You barely felt it, and began to worry that you’d once again feel numb. Oftentimes, when guys would touch you or go down on you, you felt nothing. It was like you were broken or something. And you started to become concerned that tonight would be no different. 

But he brought his finger down again, repeating the same movement, only with significantly more pressure this time, and it had you release an involuntary sigh. And instead of removing his finger like he had the first time, he kept it over your clit, drawing firm circles. 

Your mouth dropped open in a silent moan, Jared staring intently at your face. 

“Oh, wow,” you finally breathed. 

“Good?” he asked cockily, wearing a large smirk. He repeated the movement again, drawing a line from your core to your clit, stopping to rub circles. 

“Mmm hmm,” you sighed. He leaned in once more to meet you with the sloppiest, dirtiest kiss you two had shared yet, and it only made you grind your center into his hand. He repeated the action several times over, and you were a writhing mess in minutes. 

He brought a finger under your waistband once more, stretching the elastic out before letting it snap lightly against your skin. “Let’s take these off, hmm?” You’d never stood up so fast in your life, practically ripping the panties off of you, taking your bra off with it. Jared stood up to remove his shorts, but stopped to stare. 

“What?” you questioned shyly, moving to cover up.

“You’re literally the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my entire life.” 

The boy quite literally had heart eyes for you. 

“Oh,” you responded meekly, cheeks heating up. When you kept looking back at him, he seemed to snap back into the moment and hurriedly ripped off his shorts and underwear, sitting back on the couch and opening his arms for you. You moved to straddle his hips the same way as before, and he brought his arms around to embrace you as you shared another heated kiss. One of his hands moved up to cup your breast, thumb rolling over your nipple as if you were made of glass. Jared pulled his mouth off of yours and trailed his lips down the side of your face, to your jaw, and down onto your neck, suckling lightly and leaving wet kisses. You tilted your head to the side to give him better access, and brought one of your hands down between you two to grasp him. He shuddered, only grabbing your hips and bringing you impossibly closer. His other hand trailed down to your center once more, going straight to your core and gathering the slight wetness there before bringing his finger up to your clit and circling. With your underwear out of the way, you felt almost lightheaded at his touch. You never knew how girls could cum during sex before, because you never seemed to feel much at all unless it was pain, but with how aroused you were right now and Jared’s movements, you thought for the first time that you may actually be able to finish. People do say that 90% of sex is mental, and you guessed this is what they meant. The more into it you are, the more physical sensation you actually feel. Groundbreaking. 

“Can I finger you?” he murmured huskily into your neck. 

You tensed slightly at this, but trusted him. If you said stop, he would. “Ok, just go slow.”

“Of course,” he responded before placing a sweet kiss on your shoulder and bringing his index finger back to your core, swirling around the entrance a few times. You took a few deep breaths to relax your muscles, and he looked at you, wordlessly asking, Ready? You nodded, and he slipped his finger in, just to the first knuckle, and held it still while he brought his thumb to your clit and continued rubbing. When he noticed you visibly relax, he slipped his finger in further to the second knuckle, stopping for a few seconds, and then all the way. He kept it here again, giving you time to adjust or tell him to stop, all the while keeping you stimulated with his thumb. It felt really good. Well, you didn’t exactly feel his finger at all, which was better than pain, and his thumb was making you crazy. Your breathing was labored at this point, eyebrows furrowed as you held onto his shoulders, nails digging in and sure to leave scratches. He pressed the finger inside of you onto your front wall suddenly, massaging the ridges firmly, and you let out a moan. Your first real moan ever. And damn did it get Jared excited. He continued this motion again and again, building in intensity and pressure slowly. When he felt how wet you had become, he pulled his finger back out to the first knuckle, and added his middle finger next to it, sliding them both back in slowly so as not to hurt you. Your eyes widened at the stretch, but it didn’t hurt. It felt amazing. 

“Oh, fuck,” you whispered to yourself, before moaning once more as his fingers began the ‘come-hither’ motion once more. 

“Am I hurting you?” he asked, concerned at your cursing. 

“No, feels so good,” you moaned, and he smiled at this, increasing the pressure even more. Your eyes screwed shut, hips stuttering over his hand, letting him finger fuck you for several more minutes as you began to feel a tightening in your stomach. He brought his thumb off of your clit finally, adjusting his hand for a better angle and bringing his other hand off of your waist and up to his mouth, licking his thumb and bringing that down to your clit, resuming the tight circles. You could hear how wet you were, feeling too good to be embarrassed. The heat in your stomach was building, spreading. You felt your legs begin to shake, muscles begin to tighten around his fingers, and your eyes screwed shut as you opened your mouth in a silent scream and came. The waves of pleasure washed over you for a long time, Jared slowing his movements down so as not to overstimulate you. When you finally opened your eyes again, you were panting, legs feeling like Jello. Jared was staring at you with a look of absolute awe on his face, mouth agape and dick rock hard, red, and leaking precum. He was more turned on than he had ever been from actual sex before, and it was only from watching you. 

“Fuck, baby that was so hot,” he all but moaned. 

You reached down to grasp him, panting a “your turn.” 

He grabbed both your wrists, stopping you. “Nuh uh, this is about you. Lie the fuck down.”

You gasped, his dominant tone turning you on despite your recent climax. You both knew that if you were even slightly uncomfortable, things would stop immediately. But it was fun for both of you to let him be a little aggressive. You did as told, lying long ways across the couch cushions, Jared moving to kneel between your legs, moving your knees softly apart so he could look at all of you. You didn’t feel insecure being exposed like this. You felt excited. 

“Are you absolutely sure you wanna do this?” he questioned. 

“I have never been more sure, Jared baby, I want to,” you pleaded. This was enough for him, so he brought his dick down to line up with your entrance, rubbing the tip up and down a few times to collect your wetness. He was worried that there wouldn’t be enough lubricant, so he brought a hand up to his mouth and spit, rubbing the saliva on his cock. 

“You just wait ‘til we get some real lube and a real fucking bed, Princess. You won’t be able to walk for days.” You shuddered at the thought of this, and of the sensation of his dick rubbing around your clit and back down to your entrance. He pushed in slightly, letting the tip in before pausing and checking your face for any signs of pain. When he found none, he pushed in slightly more, and more. He was being extremely slow, and you appreciated it. Guys normally would just shove themselves inside, not giving you any time to adjust before pounding away. But Jared was careful, despite how turned on you knew he was. He still had your best interest in mind. Within a couple of minutes, he was fully seated inside of you, staying still until you told him to move. He brought his face down to give you a sweet kiss, waiting for you to give him the signal. 

After a few seconds, you didn’t feel any sort of stinging or pain, so you nodded, saying “Just start slow.” 

“Of course,” he replied genuinely. He pulled his hips back just a few inches, before slowly grinding them back into yours. You closed your eyes, focusing on keeping your muscles loose and relaxed as he continues this movement a few more times. The next time he pushed in, he ground his hips further into yours, hitting the deepest parts of you. This had you release a gasp, eyes opening to meet his. “Okay?” he questioned. 

“Yes.” 

He did this several more times, letting you get used to the feeling of him being so deep inside of you, before your hips began to grind back into his. It felt really good. When he noticed this, he began pulling his hips back more, pushing back in slightly faster, and this had you moaning. You threw your head back, back arched, just enjoying the sensations. Your hands were grasping at his shoulders, definitely leaving scratch marks. 

“Oh my God,” you whispered. 

“You’re so fucking gorgeous,” he responded, planting sloppy kisses to your neck and collar bone. “Baby, I’m not gonna last much longer.” 

You smiled at this, glad he was enjoying it as much as you were. “Go ahead, cum for me,” you spoke, and your words had him right on the edge. He pulled out of you quickly, hand fisting his cock as he stared at your sweaty, writhing body below him. He came hard, spilling onto your stomach as he growled out, the sound making your toes curl, almost animalistic. You both remained in this position as you came down, breaths labored and eyes barely open. He stood up fully off of the couch and reached for the flimsy blanket on the floor, using it to wipe off your stomach. He threw it into the corner of the room and lay down next to you on the couch, gathering you up into his arms to cuddle. 

“Did you have a good time?” he asked almost nervously after a few minutes. 

“Nah, kinda sucked,” you teased, and he let out a playful laugh, lightly shoving you away before pulling you back and planting a kiss on your temple. 

A pause. “For real though,” he prodded, beginning to panic slightly. 

You burst out laughing. “Of course I had a good time, Jared. Best i’ve ever had, if I’m being honest.” 

“Ok good,” he sighed, relieved but trying not to show that you actually had him nervous for a second. 

Another pause. “Did… did you have a good time?” you questioned back at him. 

He seemed almost offended at the question, bringing a hand up to cup your face so that your eyes met his. “Y/N, this was the best night of my entire life. That was perfect. You are perfect. And I’m glad you trusted me enough to do that with you.” 

You felt your eyes sting slightly, emotions running wild. You considered yourself the luckiest girl in the world to be with Jared Cameron. Not only was he totally gorgeous, but kind, hilarious, and great in bed. 

In an effort to switch the tone back to a more playful one, you replied, “Yeah, well I was promised some more fun involving real lube and a real bed so…” 

He tugged you further into him, wrapping his arms around you in a way that made you think he might never let go. He laughed, and said “Oh, you just wait.” 

[writingfromkitchenator]

Love! *taps microphone*

I need a fic!

I am pretty sure that it's needless to say, but here goes: Crowley! Reader! Fluff! I trust you with everything.

It was pretty obvious, wasn't it? 😅

Hope you have a lovely day!

Be prepared for Crowley chaos in the Christmas sequel! XD Enjoy!

~

I need your help.

Crowley had been staring at the text for at least five minutes. The Winchester's asked for help, even Castiel asked for help, but you never did. He wasn’t sure what to think, and the longer he dwelled on it the more his curiosity, and concern, grew.

Rolling his eyes at himself, he relented, and went to your location.

You jumped when he appeared and he raised an eyebrow. “You asked for my help, so here I am.”

He saw the guilt instantly, and the awkwardness, but the way you chewed your bottom lip let him know that you were just slightly desperate. “Yes, well...here you are.”

“Here I am.” He said. “You look troubled, but you don’t exactly look like you are in trouble.”

A nervous bubble of laughter left you and you broke away from his gaze. “Well...it’s not life and death, no. It’s just...well, in all honesty I didn’t actually think you’d turn up.”

Crowley raised an eyebrow. “Y/N, in the small group of people we know, you are by far the least irritating. You have gotten me out of a few sticky situations, so what exactly can I help with?”

The biting of your bottom lip continued, before your mouth opened several times to and speak, but ultimately failing.

He sighed. “I do not have all day, popular to contrary belief.”

You groaned and rubbed the back of your neck as your face screwed up in mental anguish. “I know...I’m just...look, I’ve fucked up, alright? I...I’ve said a few things I shouldn’t have and now I’m deep water without a floatation devise. Admitting to you...exactly what is going on and I’m pretty sure you’ll just push me under, because it’s not...your usual cup of tea.”

Crowley blinked. “Would you care to speak plainly, love?”

Sighing, you sat heavily, burying your head in your hands. “I...need a date. To a family gathering. Where I may have already told my family that I was seeing someone. You, to be precise.”

It took him a long few moments to process that, just staring at you like you’d grown an extra head. “I’m sorry, say again?”

You groaned and looked at him pathetically. “Don’t make me feel worse than I already do, Crowley. Look it...it just kind of happened. My family, especially as I’ve gotten older and my siblings got married or formed long term relationships, they began to pester me more. Now obviously hunting is not suited for that type of thing, but...it just kept getting worse. I had to tell them something to get them off my back and, well, yours was...the first name that came to me.”

He saw straight through that, but decided to put it away for later. “So you need me to be your date for your family gathering?”

A solemn nod and you looked even more miserable. “I need you to be my fiancé for a Christmas family gathering.”

Crowley went to say something smart when your words truly registered. “Fiancé?”

You grimaced sheepishly. “I...have been keeping this up for a while.”

He stared at you for a long moment, still in disbelief, but he finally laughed, which you weren’t overly sure how to take. “Oh, you are going to owe me big time for this one, love. You are very lucky I like you.”

Heat rose in your cheeks. “I never expected it to get this out of hand. If it wasn’t for the fact that my sister had moved out this way, so the family is travelling to see her, this wouldn’t be happening at all.”

Crowley continued to chuckle. “And when in this lovely event?”

“In a few weeks, no exact date yet.”

“Wonderful. I look forward to it.”

“You...are looking forward to it?”

He grinned. “Y/N, you are never living this down, so yes, I am indeed looking forward to it.”

You sighed heavily and flopped back with a heavy groan. “Great.”

[voiceswithoutlips]

Calico - Chapter Eight

— pairing: Hybrid ot7 x Human Reader (Female) — genre: hybrid AU, fluff, angst, slow burn (like real slow), eventual smut — word count: 3k — Rating: G — warnings: Slight mention of past abuse, description of a panic attack. — beta: Thank you @taegularities​ and @joheunsaram​ <3

Tag List || Masterlist || Schedule

— chapter summary:

Y/N is having a hard day, who will comfort her?

— A/N: Guys, I’m so bad at summaries, if this was an exam my grades would’ve been in the negative. Anyway, welcome to the new chapter! I know I was supposed to post fallen, but somehow I ended up writing Calico instead.

I’ve had a bad case of writer’s block this week so writing this chapter was really painful, words refused to come out of my brain xD I hope you like it! You guys have been so awesome, all your feedback is really helpful. Thank you so much <3

— taglist: @lovelyseomin @anaac28 @ghostkat23 @btswdwsmhrdt @sweeneyblue1 @luvtaeha @taegularities @ aajames217 @ littlewolfieposts @nochujeonjk @hamiltrashlebo @minyoonsh @hoebii @ sunshinee0-0 @egm09 @cstobitk @splaterparty0-0 @missseoulite @mirawi-fox @sea-nevermind-enthusiast @hemmofluke @seaoffangirling @gee-nee @woopetals @secretbangtnn @vminkook-ownsme

Ch. 1  Ch. 2 Ch. 3 Ch. 3.5 Ch. 4 Ch. 5 Ch. 6 Ch. 7 Ch. 8.5

I made my way downstairs in search of breakfast. Ice cream, that’s what I needed. It was that kind of a day. I was tired, jet lagged, and the tension in the house had me on edge. The flight home was fairly uneventful, except for the part where Jimin had gotten scared of flying. He had asked to hold my hand, but by the time we were in the air, the hybrid was practically sitting on my lap. Not that I minded, he was hella cuddly and his purring was downright therapeutic.

When I had asked Jungkook, if it would be okay to bring the newer hybrids home, the bunny had sounded excited, but as soon as we had gotten home, the mood had suddenly shifted. It was not the welcome I was expecting.

First, Jungkook’s hair was the color of the rainbow. His beautiful black locks were turned into a colorful mess, his white bunny ears poking out of it in stark contrast. It was a riot of colors, artfully mixed together, and I felt like I was looking at rainbow pasta. Not that the bunny didn’t pull it off, he looked really cute in it, but somehow I had a raging suspicion that it hadn’t been Jungkook’s idea.

Then, there was the growling match. I had never seen Jungkook so aggressive before. The usually sweet and well behaved bunny had started growling at Jimin as soon as we’d entered the house.. That had set off a chain reaction with Namjoon and Seokjin joining in to protect their younger packmate.

On top of that, I had to go to Seoul for three days to take care of business. I had to visit the main office to attend a few meetings and sign some papers. The whole time I felt guilty about leaving the hybrids alone. I was constantly worried that somehow they’d end up fighting. By the time I came back, somehow, someway, Jason had managed to convince Jimin to dye his hair pink. He was on a warpath.

And lastly, there was the issue of a certain stuffed penguin that went missing -  my nights were sleepless without him. All in all, this had to have been one of the shittiest weeks, and it felt like I was losing my grip on reality.

I stumbled into the kitchen, rubbing my eyes, struggling to keep them open. Unlike Jason, who was cheerfully humming, I was not a morning person. Seokjin was busy near the stove, cooking something and by the smell wafting from the pan, I could tell that it was something delicious. I had thanked every existing god when I’d learned that the sugar glider hybrid was actually an excellent chef. The first morning, he had seen Jason cook breakfast, he’d been horrified, promptly taking over the kitchen after that. Even Jungkook had begrudgingly ate his food.

My stomach grumbled as I peered in the pan. Kimchi fried rice, delicious. Unlike Jimin and Jungkook, the two older hybrids weren’t really that affectionate. I wondered if it was because they weren’t used to me yet or if they just had a different temperament. I needed to do more research on that.

I plopped down on the chair with a groan, resting my head on the counter, hands securely wrapped around my stomach. Jason gave me an enthusiastic “good morning” and I shot him a middle finger, too tired to curse at him. The bastard chuckled.

I was debating if I should stab him with a fork when I felt hands wrapping around my waist, long fingers intertwined with mine. Jungkook bent down to nuzzle the side of my face. His muscular body pressed close. My lips curled into a small smile as I made small happy noises. My brain wasn’t awake enough to form coherent sentences yet. I needed my cup of coffee or better yet, some delicious ice cream.

Jungkook’s arms tightened around me possessively, I could feel the vibrations in his chest as he let out a low growl. I opened my eyes to see Jimin standing near the chair, looking distressed, hands balled into fists at his sides. His tail was swishing rapidly in agitation, ears flattened to his head. He was biting his lower lip, trying his best not to respond to Jungkook’s hostility.

“Bunny no,” I croaked, patting his hands, my voice thick with sleep. I lifted my head, extending a hand to Jimin. Jungkook took his cue and reluctantly let me go, keeping hold of my other hand. Jimin grabbed my hand and with his other one checked my forehead, a worried look on his face.

“Are you sick?” he asked, gnawing on his lip.

“I’m just sleepy.” He giggled at my pout and graced me with a forehead kiss. He sat down next to me, and now I was sandwiched between two hybrids who were holding my hands, glaring daggers at each other. I rested my forehead on the counter with a sigh. What was I going to do with them?

Once again I was in a dilemma. I could scold them and make them shake hands, like a couple of kids, or I could let them handle it on their own, like adults. Taking care of four hybrids was tiring. I shot a quick glance at Seokjin, who was now setting up the table; he was ignoring the two younger hybrids in front of him, but his tail was curled tightly, ears flat. It seemed as if he was tense too.

“Guys, I need breakfast,” I said, reluctantly pulling my hands from their grip. I made my way to the fridge to grab a tub of my favorite ice cream, ignoring the stares that the hybrids were giving me. I had to stop myself from pulling Jason’s ear as I passed him, not now Y/N. The revenge for ruining Jungkook’s hair had to be elaborately planned, something memorable, just like old days. Like the time when I had super glued his shirt cuffs closed, so he couldn't put his hands through the sleeves. He had started this war, I was going to finish it.

“I like your garden!” Namjoon said as he walked in through the back door. Ears perked up, an excited glint in his eyes. I didn’t even know he was out there. I wondered if he could help me with the hybrid situation, he was a pack leader after all. He had informed me about hybrid pack dynamics on the plane while I cuddled a sleepy Jimin. Apparently he was their alpha, the leader of their pack, Seokjin was second in command and Jimin was their maknae. He was excited to meet Jungkook, since he was a rabbit hybrid, they're usually very docile and friendly. Needless to say, we had both been shocked at the bunny's behavior.

“I’m glad you like it. Maybe you could help me with it?”

“Really? I would love to!”

We all moved to the seldom used dining table for breakfast - now that there were six of us, the kitchen counter was too small to occupy us all. I debated where to sit, I didn't want to take sides in the hybrid cold war, so I chose to sit at the head of the table, safe middle ground. I knew Jungkook would want to share the ice cream. I wondered if the other hybrids would too, so I had brought extra spoons, just in case.

"Seokjin, this is delicious!" Jason said as soon as he took a bite of the fried rice. "Where did you learn to cook like this?" I couldn't help but smile at the hint of envy in his voice.

"Madame hired a professional chef to teach me when she found out I liked to cook," he said shyly, ears turning pink from all the attention. It was his cutest trait: whenever someone looked at him, his ears would start to redden.

"That was nice of her," I said dryly, the distaste apparent in my tone.

"She was really nice," Namjoon said pointedly, clearly disliking my tone.

“Clair was kind, she saved us from our previous owners and gave us a home,” Jimin joined him.

"Oh?" Jason said, trying to coax some details. The three hybrids shared a quick look. Jungkook had abandoned his fried rice and was digging into my ice cream, his ears perked, listening in on the conversation.

“My first owner was a gambler, but he didn’t play poker. He and his rich friends were into blood sports. They had their own dog fighting ring. He had raised me since I was a pup, trained me to be a fighter, forced me to participate. One day, Clair saw me at a party and she wanted to buy me, she offered him so much money that he couldn’t refuse,” Namjoon finished with a sad smile. I wanted to go and hug him, but I was sure the hybrid wouldn’t welcome the gesture.

“I…” Jimin paused, looking down at his hands. “The lady who raised me, she brought me clients. She’d sell me to people… sometimes it was for a night, sometimes it was more. She used to tell me that I was her lucky charm. Clair rescued me from her, she was really kind to me.”

The spoon in my hand clattered on the table. There was a ringing in my ear. My limbs were paralyzed, heart pounding in my chest as I felt the panic rise, almost drowning in it. I couldn't get enough air, finding myself on the verge of hyperventilating while my brain went into overdrive. It wasn’t my first panic attack, I was aware of what was happening to me, I knew I had to get a hold of myself. I couldn’t lose it here, not in front of them.

“Y/N? Hey can you hear me?” I turned towards the voice, Jason’s face slowly came into focus, “are you okay?”

“Y/N?” Jungkook said, looking extremely worried. He was holding my hand like a lifeline. I slowly removed his fingers and took my hand back.

“Yes, I’m fine,” I murmured, trying to control my breathing. I got up from the chair with wobbly knees, making my way towards the door. “You guys finish up, I’ll be in my office.”

Redemption, what a joke.

It was well into the afternoon when my stomach informed me that I was hungry. I was swarmed with paperwork. I’d been busy the whole week, running errands, filling forms, trying to keep the hybrids from tearing each other apart, so the paperwork got neglected, and now I was paying for it. I briefly wondered if I should go back home and grab something to eat, but then I remembered the look on everyone’s faces this morning. I had panicked in front of them. I had been feeling restless the whole week without a certain comfort penguin. I was too embarrassed to ask the guys if they had seen it.

I groaned, leaning back in my chair. How was I going to face them? What would I tell them if they asked? A knock on the door pulled me out of my thoughts. “Come in.”

It was Jungkook, holding a bowl. He tentatively entered the office, looking everywhere but at me. His ears were drooping behind him. “I brought you lunch,” he said, setting the bowl on the table.

“I’m sorry I pushed you away this morning,” I apologized, extending a hand towards him, which he took hesitantly. I pulled him in my lap and buried my face in his chest; he smelled like vanilla.

“Are you okay?” Jungkook asked, wrapping his big hands around me.

“No,” I whispered. “But don't worry bunny, I’ll be fine. I just need some sleep.”

“Is it because of Jimin? Can’t we just send him away?”

That made me raise my head to look at him. “Why don’t you like him, bun?”

“He’s too clingy,” Jungkook pouted, jutting his lower lip out. It made me giggle.

“What about Namjoon and Seokjin?”

“They can stay, Seokjin hyung makes delicious food and Namjoon hyung is so cool.”

“Oh, did you talk to them?”

He shook his head no. I almost cooed at him - the poor bunny was too shy to talk to the older hybrids. “Why don’t you try making friends with Jimin? I bet you’ll like him if you got to know him better.”

He buried his face in my hair and shook his head, “...don't wanna.”

I took his hand in mine. “Won’t you do it for me?” I asked dramatically, trying to sound upset.

Jungkook leaned back to look at me, pout more pronounced. He knew exactly what I was doing. “Fine, I’ll try,” he agreed with a defeated sigh.

“Thank you, baby.” I kissed his palm in gratitude. At least he had agreed to try. “Why did you dye your hair?” I asked curiously, running my hands through his multicolored locks.

“Iwantyoutolikeme,” he said in one breath, hiding his face in my hair again.

“What?”

“I want you to like me.”

“You dyed your hair because you want me to like you?” Jungkook nodded. “Oh baby, I already like you!” I squeezed him tight, letting him know how much he meant to me. Is that what Jason had told Jimin? That I’d like him better if he dyed his hair? Jason was diabolical, I really needed to come up with a good plan to get back at him.

“Bun, next time, don’t listen to Jason.”

I was curled up on the sofa with a blanket. It was past midnight but I was wide awake and restless, staring at the ceiling. I had almost turned on the TV, but then I remembered that there were four hybrids in the house with phenomenal hearing, and I really didn’t want to wake them up. And thus, I suffered in silence.

I hadn’t seen the three new hybrids all day; they hadn’t been introduced to the shelter yet, so they stayed at home. When I came back from work, they were already in their room. They had insisted on staying in the same room, something about new places and pack bonding. I was giving Jason the cold shoulder, at least until he apologized for his crimes. And Jungkook was busy playing his new video games.

Clair had saved Jimin.

The thought rang in my head. Why hadn’t she saved me? Would things have been different, if she had stepped in? I had to admit, I was a tiny bit jealous of the panther hybrid. She had saved him.

Madame was so kind.

I was furious. How dare she? Clair had been a coward, had lived and died as one. I knew it in my soul, never in a million years would I ever forgive that woman. She didn’t deserve it.

“You’re angry,” a quiet voice said. I looked up to see a tall silhouette standing at the bottom of the stairs. Seokjin stepped out of the shadows, clutching a pillow in his hands.

“I was thinking. Can’t sleep?”

“Namjoon snores really loudly,” he complained. It made me laugh. The three of them were always attached to the hip, I had wondered if it was because they were uncomfortable here.

“You know we have plenty of spare bedrooms, you can take any of them.”

“Why are you here?”

“I can’t sleep.” I shrugged. Seokjin nodded understandingly, but he didn’t move an inch. “Do you want to sleep on the couch?”

He hesitated, looking as if he was unsure if he should accept my offer before he murmured, “can I?”

“Of course! But I think, a bed would be more comfortable,” I said, moving from the couch to the armchair. Seokjin sat down on the couch, placing his pillow near him.

“Why can’t you sleep? Is it because of what Jimin said?” he asked cautiously, ears erect and attentive.

“I have insomnia.” I shrugged, but Seokjin kept staring at me. I squirmed under his piercing gaze;  staring at me like he could see right through my bullshit. “I didn’t have a good relationship with Clair. She raised me, but she was cruel, unkind. I just… can’t fathom her as someone nice.”

“So it had nothing to do with Jimin being a prostitute?” he asked suspiciously.

“WAIT! Is that what you guys thought? Oh my god, I would never…” I was shocked. No wonder the hybrids were avoiding me like the plague. “I’m really sorry, if it seemed that way but it's not like that. I’m really happy that Clair rescued him. He deserves a good home, a family. I don’t think you’d believe me, even if I told you what my aunt was like. I’m really sorry, if I hurt you guys. But believe me when I say that this is not a place where you’ll be judged for your past.”

“You mean that.” It was a statement, not a question.

“I do.”

“You could sleep on the couch with me?” Seokjin offered sheepishly, ears turning the color of strawberries. I was surprised to see him be so direct. He had been very reserved around me till now, only talking when necessary.

“Are you sure? Won’t you be uncomfortable?” I asked, eyeing the couch. It was big enough to seat five people comfortably, but Seokjin was big too.

He nodded. “I’ll be fine.”

Seokjin adjusted the pillow and laid down on the sofa, leaving room for me. I stood there with my hello kitty blanket, wondering if it was okay. The sudden change in the hybrid’s demeanor was unexpected and I gave up trying to dissect the situation. I had to admit, I was feeling a bit cuddly since the loss of my penguin and I desperately needed sleep. I scooched on the sofa, covering both of us with the blanket, resting my head on his arm.

“You’re not okay,” he murmured, wrapping his other arm around my waist, his tail curling around my thigh.

“I just need some sleep,” I sighed. Seokjin was like a furnace behind me. I wondered why all hybrids were this warm.

“Lies,” he said as he lightly nibbled on my ear. I gasped at the unexpected contact, my heart beating so loudly in my chest that I was sure he could hear it.

“I thought you didn’t like me,” my voice came out breathier than I had intended.

“I do, I just didn’t know how to approach you. You seem so independent, I didn’t know where I could fit in your life. The only thing I could do for Clair was look pretty. But this.... this I can do, I can comfort you. I want to be useful.”

I turned around to look at him. “Oh honey, you don’t have to be useful. You’re you and that’s enough for me. I just want you to be happy.” I lightly kissed his cheek.

“I’m going to be your comfort blanket,” Seokjin said with a smile and hugged me closer.

Previous || Next

[leiasfanaccount648]

The 3 Times Kenma Didn’t Get What You Wanted for Your Bday & the 1 Time He Did

(Kenma Kozume x Fem!Reader)

Summary: Like all friends, they remember what is most important to them, especially one another’s birthdays. However, Kenma seems to be struggling with finding you that perfect present year after year.

A/N: This is for the absolutely lovely @briswriting​!!! I’m so happy to call you my friend, that you got me into Animal Crossing, and I hope you have an amazing bday today <3 :)

Warnings/Contains: Fluff, birthdays, the tiniest amount of angst. Disclaimer, I did some research on the video games I mentioned in this but none of the release dates match up lol.

Word Count: 2033

Elementary School; 5th year

“Happy Birthday, (Y/N)!”

“Wait, what?”

Kenma looked up from his GameBoy as he heard people talking by the door of the classroom. He saw one of his neighbors that he had bet through Kuroo talking to some of her friends and receiving some gifts and snacks from them.

Kenma looked at the desk in front of him and saw a few more trinkets and such from people in other classes. They may not have known each other for that long, but (Y/N) was the first friend of his that actually wanted to play video games rather than volleyball like Kuroo.

(Y/N) was nice, and had great taste in games; he would gladly call her his friend. So what do friends of a couple months get one another for their birthdays?

“Good morning, Kenma!” (Y/N) brought him out from his thoughts as she walked over and sat down at her desk, facing him with a bright smile. “What’re you playing?” She peered over his desk to try and catch a glimpse at what game was on the screen.

“I, um,” Kenma glanced down at his GameBoy as Pokemon: Red and Blue was still playing. He didn’t get to answer as (Y/N) already saw the screen with a gasp.

“Are you about to play the battle against Professor Oak?”

Kenma couldn’t explain it, but he felt his heart jump at her knowledge of the game. He knew that she played it, but he thought that she had just gotten it a couple weeks ago. “Yeah, I am.” He smiled shyly and quickly paused the game so he could talk to her properly. “Happy birthday, by the way. I’m sorry, but I didn’t get you anything.”

(Y/N) shook her head, waving her hands in front of her as well. “No, no! It’s totally fine! Trust me, you didn’t have to get me anything.” She smiled, moving her hair out of her face shyly. “Honestly what I keep getting from my friends gets to be too much of a hassle.”

Kenma smiled a little, finding her reasoning quite amusing; however he could tell during lunch she definitely enjoyed eating the cookies that someone had made her. He tried to think of something he could do for her, but he trusted her word to not worry too much. Besides, there was always next year.

--------

Middle School; 3rd year

It was late, almost too late to Kenma’s liking as he had just finished volleyball practice and wanted to do nothing than go home and finally get some rest before the weekend started tomorrow. However, he had one last thing to do.

Kenma had been hearing (Y/N) raving about the game for weeks, and he had managed to get it pre-ordered and delivered the day that it came out. Now he stood outside her apartment, hoping that she would like it.

He texted her to come to her door, and it was obvious that she was confused, but did so nonetheless. She smiled as she saw him, about to greet him, but he beat her to it, holding out a small, wrapped box for her to take.

“Happy birthday, (Y/N).”

“Oh my god, Kenma you didn’t!” (Y/N) grinned wide as she noticed the shape of the wrapped box her friend had handed her. She opened it without hesitation, expecting to see Pokemon X and Y, but instead saw Animal Crossing: New Leaf. She felt touched that he remembered how much she wanted that game, but still looked up at Kenma with sorrow.

“Kenma, I am so sorry,” she laughed nervously, starting to feel guilty. “But my parents got me the game already along with a new 3DS.” (Y/N) knew that there was no way that he could have known, but she felt guilty nonetheless over the fact that Kenma had spent his money to get her the game.

Kenma on the other hand felt nothing but embarrassment. He realized his mistake and that he should have asked her parents if she was going to be getting the game. “I’m sorry. I should have asked if there was more than just that game that you wanted.”

Like she did back in elementary school, she shook her head. “No, you’re fine, Kenma.” She laughed softly to try and lighten the mood, but she could still tell that Kenma felt awkward about getting her a game that she had been gifted not 3 hours ago. Then she smiled. “Wait! Now that you have the game, we can play it together!”

Kenma tilted his head a little, confused. “I thought it wasn’t a multiplayer game.”

“It’s not, but we can still keep up with one another’s progress and stuff. It’ll be like when we play Pokemon and see who can defeat the boss quicker!”

Although it wasn’t Kenma’s ideal choice of game style, he still kept the game and played with (Y/N) both online and while they hung out together. Soon enough, he became addicted and got a whole level ahead of (Y/N) despite their agreement to build their islands and such together.

--------

High School; 2nd Year

It was raining after school, and Kuroo had decided to cancel practice due to the weather scheduled to get worse throughout the evening. Kenma felt grateful for two reasons. One, he could go home and finish his homework early before playing some more Animal Crossing. Two, he could see (Y/N) before she had her club and give her the batch of his mom’s homemade brownies that he promised her a few days ago.

Kenma was on his way towards the room where he knew she would be at, however he didn’t expect her to be sitting outside the door. He saw her phone in hand along with her backpack leaning against her. Then he caught sight of her face and rushed over as soon as he saw the tears in her eyes. “(Y/N)?”

(Y/N) looked up at the sound of her name, instinctively reaching up to wipe below her eyes before putting on the best smile she could muster at the last second. “Kenma!” She chuckled and stood up quickly to straighten herself out. “What’re you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at practice?”

“Kuroo cancelled it due to the weather planning to get worse. So I decided to bring you the brownies since you said you wanted them for your birthday.” Kenma reached into his bag and pulled out a small container that contained the sweets. (Y/N) didn’t say another word, just stepping forward and bringing him into a hug.

Kenma froze as she did so, not sure how to react. “(Y-Y/N)?”

“Just,” she took a deep breath to keep from letting out any tears. “Let me have this, please?”

Kenma looked at her, wondering what it was that was causing her to be so upset, but he knew that she would tell him on her own time. For now, all he did was hug her and he practically felt the tension and nerves in her body melt away, ignoring how his heart raced rapidly due to her being so close and for so long.

That year, Kenma was the only one who had remembered (Y/N)’s birthday.

--------

College; 1st year

It was a couple days before (Y/N)’s birthday and Kenma was stressing beyond belief. Ever since high school, Kuroo he had begun to realize that he had developed feelings for her and he never knew how to express them into words or actions. 

He remembered the day that Kuroo pointed it out to him because they were playing an online game together and Kenma had managed to lose against both him and Bokuto. Needless to say it was obvious that something was bothering him and Kuroo needed to know (even if he already did).

Either way, he wanted to do what he thought would make her happy for her birthday. Some had been flops while others he felt like haven’t been the right gift, but he still did what he could.

This year however, he wanted to know exactly what she wanted.

The two of them were in the middle of playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons when Kenma thought he’d just ask via the game while they were fishing on his island.

‘btw, what do u want 4 ur bday?’

Since they were at different universities and couldn’t physically see each other, (Y/N) assumed that he would just craft/give her something in the game.

‘a cat to cuddle & love 4ever’

Kenma chuckled at her reply, smiling to himself as he typed out one himself, but (Y/N) added another response.

‘even though it’s not in the game XD’

Oh.

Kenma froze for a moment as he realized how (Y/N) interpreted his question. But he still got an answer and wasn’t going to take it for granted. He quickly got on his laptop and pulled up Amazon. Lucky for him, he found a cat plushie that he knew (Y/N) would like that would arrive the day before her birthday.

On the fateful day, Kenma headed to her dorm as he knew she was spending her birthday on a different day with her family and would most likely be cooped up side playing games (much like himself). Once he messaged her to come outside and was met with a ‘read’ text, he knew she was on her way down to greet him. When (Y/N) saw him with the stuffed cat in his arms, she ran over and hugged him tightly as she could.

Kenma almost lost his footing and fell, but he managed to stay standing and hug her back. “I know what you said you wanted a cat, but I didn’t want you to get kicked out of your dorm.”

(Y/N) laughed, shaking her head at his words before pulling away. She also took the cat plushie from him to get a better look at it before holding it in her arms. She smiled shyly at him. “Kenma, I was talking about you.”

“Wait, what?” Kenma’s eyes widened, repeating the words she said a couple days ago in his head. He felt his cheeks start to turn pink as (Y/N) spoke up again.

“All I wanted was to spend my birthday with you.” She glanced to the side, starting to feel flustered. “You’ve been my best friend for years and you’re so nice and considerate, not to mention cute,” she giggled, pausing briefly. “It’s practically impossible for anyone not to be around you and,” she met his gaze again. “I like you, Kenma.”

Kenma didn’t know when he did or what made him think it was a good idea, but he reached out with one hand and held the back of her head as he pulled her in for a kiss, which she gladly returned a second later. Once he pulled away, he smiled shyly as though silently apologizing for being so straightforward and sudden.

“Uh,” Kenma cleared his throat, letting go of her so she could have some space. “Would you like to go get some dinner?” It was obvious that he wasn’t sure what to say or do at the moment.”

(Y/N) simply shook her head, reaching for his hand and leading him into the building in which she stayed at. “I’d much rather spend my birthday eating takeout and playing video games with you. How does that sound?”

“But, it’s your birthday.” Kenma followed her to the elevator, still holding her hand.

“Exactly, so that means we’re going to do what I want.” (Y/N) giggled and kissed his cheek before stepping inside the elevator with him and pressing the button for her floor. “And I want to cuddle you while we eat and play Animal Crossing together.”

Kenma smiled, squeezing her hand to let her know his thoughts on her plans for the rest of the evening. “Sounds like a plan.” He was thankful that he decided to bring his Nintendo Switch with him.

“Oh, and that means that I want all of the turnips you bought yesterday, too.”

“Wait what?”

[the-girl-in-the-box]

Can You Imagine? III

A/N:  It is 4:37 am and I just finished writing this chapter. Needless to say, I do not feel that this is my best work, but I did want to get SOMETHING posted tonight XD I had an end in mind, and a few things that I was able to string together into something of a filler chapter, so please bare with me as I get back into the swing of this one now that I'll be updating it weekly! Next week will be far more plot oriented, as can be seen by the end of this chapter, I think :) I hope this is still an enjoyable chapter, and if it is, I hope you'll leave a comment and come back next week for more! Until then, I leave you with this! Skål!

Summary:  Freydis was dead. At least, when she’d lost consciousness, she’d been sure she was. But now she has woken up in a cold, sterile environment, one she is certain is not Valhalla, and the world as she once knew it has changed. People now have strange abilities, some of them, and people they call ‘scientists’ are trying to give them to her. The bigger issue, though, is the fact they have also woken the very man who killed her. Ivar the Boneless lives again as well, in the same way Freydis does, and if they want to survive… she may have to learn to trust him again.

Masterlist

--

Look Into Your Eyes

As time passed, Freydis began to learn more and more about her strange captors. They had explained to her what they were doing with her, the experiment they were trying to recreate, and why they had brought a dead woman back to life to do so. The truth was, most attempts ended in death for those selected for the experiment. It had only been completed once, successfully, and so with Freydis they hoped to find a safer, more viable option in order to create more with her power.

But, to use someone who had passed before, and was brought back from the dead for this purpose… Then it would be hard to say there was any sort of ethical concern. No one would die who wasn’t dead before.

And others who they had given the serum to, others who weren’t Freydis, hadn’t made it. She had been a happy surprise, that she was surviving each dose, growing stronger in her power every day. She had graduated from learning to manipulate this new ability, to learning to fight with it.

That was what she was doing at the moment, dressed in dark black tight pants with a shirt to match, the sleeves short on her arms. Her hair had been pulled back into a tight braid that kept it out of her face. Someone threw a knife her way, and with the energy that now coursed through her, Freydis caught it, held it in the air a moment, and then hurled it back at the man who’d thrown it.

The knife landed in the protective layer the man was wearing, hitting its target perfectly. Another person moved toward Freydis with the clear intent to hit her, and this time she froze every muscle in the woman’s body. With ease, she shoved her away, and sent her flying back into the padded wall.

The last person in the room finally came at her, this one with a gun. There was no quick way to disarm him, Freydis knew, and so she did the first thing she could think of to stop any attack. She moved rapidly toward the man, in a way she was only capable of due to her powers, a way that almost made her seem to glitch, to like something from those ‘horror movies’ they had shown her. She wasn’t a fan, but she thought Ivar might have been.

When she reached him, she lifted her hand and let the energy flow out of her, pouring like red smoke from her fingers, and it seeped into his mind. At this point, her eyes began to glow a slight red that matched the energy, and they widened slightly, a look on her face almost as if she were in a trance.

The man froze in his place immediately, as his mind was flooded with the horrific things he feared most in this world. Freydis hated this part, because she hated the things she saw. Fear had never been something she’d really enjoyed, not now, and not before- though she knew Ivar had. Vaguely, she wondered if he was being given these very same abilities. The thought made a chill run down her spine.

If Ivar had these abilities, they’d have created a monster. Fear was what he excelled at. She knew she had asked him, once, if he would prefer to be loved or feared. He had said then that he didn’t know, but he’d just suggested he kill his brother, Hvitserk. If he’d wanted to be loved, more than feared, how could he have made such a suggestion?

Freydis was pulled from these thoughts when she heard applause come over the intercom- something she’d learned was used to be able to communicate with her when she wasn’t in the same space as those wanting to speak with her. “Very good, Freydis.” Dr. Schmidt was the one addressing her, as it always was during these training sessions. “Come out, I have news for you.”

This piqued her curiosity, and so as she came out of the room, her mind was already racing with what this could mean. They hadn’t had news for her just yet, not in such a way that they were announcing it to her, and asking her to come just to hear it. So what sort of news could it be?

When she stepped out of the training room, Dr. Schmidt was waiting in there with Professor Andersen, and Freydis lifted a brow curiously. “What is this?” she questioned. “You said you have news?”

“We do,” Professor Andersen confirmed. “Dr. Schmidt, would you like to tell her or shall I?”

“I’ll tell her,” Dr. Schmidt answered. “Freydis. As you know, we’ve been training you for more than just our own studies. Of course, we’re thrilled with your progress, and with what this means for these experiments, but there’s more.

“We’ve been training you for use in the field. With your power, Freydis, there’s nothing that cannot be accomplished. With you, we have begun something wonderful. You are the first in a line of new heroes. If we can continue recreating this experiment as we did with you, and have each of them be as successful as you, then this whole project will have been a success!”

Freydis nodded. “But what does this mean for me?” she questioned then, tilting her head a bit.

“It means, we are ready to send you on your first field test. The only way to continue your training is through experience. So, you will be shadowing one of our operatives."

Dr. Schmidt had gone on to explain what all of that entailed, and so that was how Freydis had ended up out in the cold, snow falling around her, hidden behind a tree.

Her job was to cause a distraction, and if anything went wrong, hold the line until the rest of the team could escape. What they were actually trying to do, she’d not been told. But she was their support. She just had to be sure everyone got out.

If she did everything right, she had been promised a ‘surprise’, one she was told she was going to like. They kept promising her that, and she was at the point where she no longer believed them. There hadn’t been any surprise yet, and she’d trained for countless hours, sat for countless tests, and allowed them to run countless experiments on her.

Not that she had a choice, really, but she figured this ‘surprise’ was meant to keep her in line, whatever it was. Part of her was morbidly curious, just enough to actually do as they asked long enough that she hoped they’d finally actually give it to her.

Freydis was perfectly aware she could escape at any time, but truthfully?

She didn’t know how to survive in this new world. There were new financial systems, new technologies, things she wouldn’t know how to handle. If she couldn’t work with modern technology, how could she possibly hope to make it in the modern world?

A slight shiver ran down her spine as she looked up at the snow falling around her. They hadn’t put her in anything overly warm, opting instead for flexibility. Apparently, her powers were supposed to be able to keep her warm, but she hadn’t quite figured that out just yet.

On top of the cold, waiting out here was getting quite boring. She had plenty of time to think over all of this, but she was starting to wish she was back in her room. At least there, though she’d still be bored, it wouldn’t be so cold. Gods, this was just torture.

What she missed most though, of course, was Kattegat. Perhaps it was cold there, but it was cold in a different way than this place. Kattegat was still home, and so it brought a warmth internally that this place didn’t. Even here, the knowledge that Ivar was with her brought her no comfort.

Years ago, before her death, having him at her side would have made all the difference in the world. She would have known she was safe. But now, now that she knew he was capable of murdering her, she knew his presence here was no help to her. She was on her own.

An explosion nearby made her heart jolt in her chest, and instead of running toward it, she jumped back, dropping to the ground and covering her head with her hands. That was something they’d not exposed her to just yet, and it wasn’t as if she’d been to battle before. So Freydis froze, and panicked, and sat in the snow and waited on something to happen.

The leader of the team she was with came running toward her, and he immediately demanded, “What are you doing? You were supposed to cause a distraction!”

“You never told me when!” she yelled in response, managing to push herself to her feet. “You were supposed to give a signal!”

“I did! You missed it! What were you doing out here that you missed the signal, hm?”

Something in Freydis very much did not want to answer him, and she glared. “Nothing which concerns you,” she snarled. He glared at her, and began to argue, when she lifted a hand. Red smoke danced at her fingers, and he stopped. “It doesn’t concern you, don’t ask again.”

The man nodded, and she smirked. Perhaps there were some benefits to this power she had been given. For instance, it allowed her to keep certain lines where she wanted them.

He didn’t bother her again all the way back to the facility she was housed in, and at the door were Dr. Schmidt and Professor Andersen. The man who led the mission stepped up and spoke to them quietly, in the language she hadn’t been taught- Professor Andersen had called it German, she thought- and Freydis frowned. She hated it when things were kept from her.

The man looked back at her once, then stalked away as the Doctor and the Professor approached her. “So… not a great start, hm?” Professor Andersen began.

“Pick someone more competent next time, and I may do better,” she bit out. Dr. Schmidt chuckled softly.

“We’ve been remiss in something, dear,” she said. “The Professor and I have pushed you too hard, and today, we saw that was true. You deserve some rest, more rest than you’ve been given, and we should have let you rest before this mission. So, why don’t you go and have a nap, hm? After that, we’ll have a surprise for you to thank you for all of your hard work.”

"A surprise?” Freydis questioned. “Is it one I’m ‘going to like’? You keep offering me things and never giving them to me. How am I supposed to believe you will really give me anything now?

Dr. Schmidt and Professor Andersen had something figured out, from what had happened in the field, and what was happening just then. Freydis was coming into her power, becoming comfortable with it, and if they didn’t start holding up their promises, they had no doubt she’d begin to use her power against them. So, they did what they had to do.

“You will get it after you rest,” Professor Andersen promised. “If you don’t, then you can leave this facility, and do whatever you wish with the life you have now. I promise.”

Freydis regarded him warily, but sighed. What more did she have to lose?

She returned to her room and took a long nap, one which she was woken from before she wanted to be by Professor Andersen. She regarded him with a slight glare, and he chuckled.

“Your surprise is ready,” he said. “Well, I suppose I could call it a reward, too. You’ve worked hard, Freydis, and you deserve this.”

He gestured for her to follow him, and she did, all the way to a wing of the facility she hadn’t yet been allowed into. Inside, Dr. Schmidt was talking to a few other scientists, and when Freydis entered, they turned and regarded her as if she were a goddess walking on Midgard.

“Ah, Freydis, good,” Dr. Schmidt said. “Your reward will be out in just a moment. We just need you to go and wait in that room, hm? We’ll bring it in in just a moment.”

Somehow, Freydis had a bad feeling about all of this. Anxiety clawed at her heart as she went into the room, and heard the door lock behind her. What was interesting to her, though, was the door at the other side of the room. Was she meant to go through it? No one said anything, gave her any direction, and she noticed there were no intercoms in the room. They weren’t going to give her any directions.

So, she walked toward the other door, and watched it for a moment. She couldn’t see through the door, despite it being glass, just the same as all the windows surrounding her. She knew, logically that whoever was on the other side of these types of glass panes could see through, but the false privacy it provided her was often well appreciated.

Nothing happened with the door after a few moments, and so Freydis decided to try and open it. After all, it was likely locked, and no harm would come from trying. Her hand moved to the handle, but before she could twist it and open the door, it opened from the other side.

Her eyes lifted to see who had opened the door, and her heart immediately dropped into her stomach as she began to back away instinctively. This was no reward, this was a punishment. It had to be. Those blue eyes had filled her nightmares ever since she woke, and standing to six feet tall in front of her, she knew something must have been done to him, some power given to him.

She didn’t know what they had done, but Ivar didn’t seem so boneless anymore. In fact, he seemed just as stunned as she did. But whereas he stepped forward, heart beating wildly in his chest at the sight of his wife, she retreated.

Freydis ran back toward the door she’d entered through, and began trying to open it. No matter how she begged to be released, which shocked those outside the room, the door didn’t unlock. And worse still in her mind, the door Ivar had entered through finally shut, and she could hear the locks move into place, caging her in with the man who ended her life.

Taglist:@youbloodymadgenius, @katfett, @zuzus-sun, @heavenly1927, @punkrocknpearls, @pomegranates-and-blood

If you want to be added to the taglist, feel free to reach out either by commenting, reblogging, DMing me, or sending an ask, and I’ll be more than happy to add you!

[calliecat93]

ST: TNG S4 Watchthrough Episodes 22-25

Half a Life: Okay Lwaxana, let's see if the fourth time is the charm. So… gonna be honest, this episode just made me uncomfortable with the subject matter. Essentially Lwaxana becomes friendly with a man named Timicin… who is going to commit suicide as part of his culture due to his age. needless to say, I thoroughly am not okay with this. The episode does delve into it like Lwaxana reacts as you would expect and there are points made about how she has no right to interfere in others cultures/personal beliefs and how we treat middle-aged individuals nearing their elder years. But… y’know… a society that dictates that you kill yourself at 60 is… I’m sorry, I just cannot discuss this topic fairly. While I am opinionated, I do try my best to be fair… but I’m just not comfortable enough to discuss this topic in this way because I thoroughly disagree with suicide as acceptable on any level. At least not with how it was done here. That being said, being fair, I can give some praise. First, David Ogden Stiers! Heck yes~! I love his work in various Disney films, and he was excellent here! And on Lwaxana… I liked her here. Not only is her man-chasing ways with a man who is receptive to it so it feels less dumb/annoying/kinda creepy and more charming and legitimately entertaining than when she’s forcing it on Picard, but frankly I was on her side throughout the episode. When suicide is involved, someone should intervene and Timicin shouldn’t have to die just because he’s hit 60 and they don’t want to burden their children with caring for the elderly. My dad died at 54, and I never hesitated in trying to care for him. No one in my family did. But you could see Lwaxana’s pain and grief and when she broke down in the Transporter Room to Troi… God. I may not be the biggest fan of her character, but the poor woman just needs a big hug. In the end, it's really hard for me to tell which side the episode is standing with. it chooses to shoot down the middle with Timicin choosing to go through with it and Lwaxana finally allowing it… but it doens’t feel like we’re supposed to be okay with it. I get it, it’s their planet’s beliefs and whether one should interfere in one's culture or not is a legit question… but when it comes to matters like this I just… IDK. Like I said IDK if I can give this a fair opinion because again, I just don’t agree with the subject matter whatsoever and it just feels utterly wrong. Maybe it’s supposed to, but… yeah. I’m gonna be fair here and shoot down the middle for the rating because I can’t say it’s a poorly done episode and the personal bias may be affecting my judgment… but it is certainly one I am unlikely to revisit. 3/5.

The Host: Crusher’s got a boyfriend, aww~! Too bad that he ends up dead, aww… but it’s okay! Turns out they’re actually a symbiote known as a Trill in a host body and they stick him into Riker in the meantime! Uhh… sure? Is this how it works for Jadzia in DS9? So the symbiote, Odon, is also an Ambassador and still needed, so Riker volunteers to be that host… despite no human ever carrying a Trill before. Needless to say, this not only causes issues for Riker but… well, muddies up Crusher and Odon’s relationship quite a bit. This makes sense, Odon not only mentioning this detail but being a symbiote that goes from body to body can be hard to settle. Crusher does eventually decide to try and make it work despite the awkwardness because she genuinely loves Odon, who is suffering due to Riker’s body just not being suitable. It’s fine, it’s certainly an interesting concept… until we get to the ending. What causes Crusher to break it off with Odon? His new host body suited for them… is a woman’s body. Now she says it’s because she just can’t handle the body hopping and I’m gonna take that as the truth… but the way the episode portrays it, it’s more like she can’t handle the body hopping into a female body despite her saying that’s not it. I know, I know it was the 90’s and again I’m just gonna act like seeing the new body was when the reality was hitting Crusher and she realized that it was just too much too fast. I can buy that. But again, the execution makes it feel… well, there’s no other way to say it, homophobic/biphobic/transphobic. Again 90’s, but still. At least the Trill’s aren’t picky about their gender at least physically, I can respect that. But yeah… needless to say this has quite a few unfortunate implications under a modern lens. Still, it was alright. Considering Jadzia in DS9, I’m looking forward to seeing more about the Trills then. The episode was alright, I just wish that the ending was more open-minded because it really put a damper on my final opinion. It shows that for all its progressiveness, ST still has plenty of prejudices from the real-life eras that they were made in. I’m just glad that we’re at least beginning to improve now. 2/5.

The Mind’s Eye: Geordi has been kidnapped by the Romulans. That sucks… and it gets worst when they conduct a painful mind-control experiment on him. Why? Well, the Enterprise is en route to deal with a Klingon insurrection and have a Klingon ambassador on board. They want Geordi to kill said the ambassador and thus crumble apart from the Federation/Klingon alliance. So yeah, bad. Geordi is a good boy, in romantically hopeless, he didn’t deserve this! Poor guy isn’t even aware of what he’s doing and can’t even sleep properly. It especially got tense there in the end as Data started piecing everything together… just as Geordi is readying to execute the assassination. Thank God that they managed to stop him, but again, poor Geordi. Oh and the fact that there was a Klingon turncoat on board triggering the order… yeah. Looks like Duras wasn’t the only Klingon in ona. Romulan conspiracy. Geordi’s left with implanted memories and the trauma of undergoing a brainwashing that he can’t even remember happening. Another solid episode that continues the threat of the Romulans and this whole RomulanKlingon conspiracy. We’re beuilding up to something, and it’s likely to be explosive. 4/5.

In Theory: A girl named Jenna has a crush on Data, oh my! Data, despite believing that as an android he can’t feel romantic attraction, decides that he’d like to pursue this, even making a romantic program for himself. In other words, it’s The Dauphin 2.0. So first, again with this whole thing about Data being an unfeeling android. Why can’t Data feel romantic attraction? He’s been shown to feel plenty of feelings including some level of affection for Tasa, just because it’s not in the ‘’normal’ way doesn’t make it any less true. Maybe Data is aromantic, but that’s not gonna come up in a 90’s show, which 90’s standards are why this feels so wrong. Data’s curiosity on the subject and deciding to pursue it is fine. He’s new to it and sure studying/emulating what media and books say about romance isn’t always best as the episode does demonstrate. That’s certainly a fine message to express and plenty of people have done/gone through that. There were some fun moments like Data seeking out advice from the others and Worf pretty much threatening Data to treat Jenna, who is part of Security, well or else was also amusing XD But yeah this episode was cute in a few ways, but I just can’t get over that whole ‘Data is emotionless’ thing. The show has shown far more evidence for Data having emotions than lacking them? Maybe Data thinks that he doesn’t, I can believe that, but still. Had they portrayed it simply as Data, being new to love and curious about it, didn’t fully get it/wasn’t ready but was trying to force it anyways and Jenna broke it off because of that instead of using the ‘he was a rebound’ excuse? I’d have been more accepting of that instead of wondering why they even bothered with this plot to begin with. To say that Data can’t feel love and anyone who tries is doomed to failure instead of Data learning to be better over time? Yeah… sorry, not buying it. The Dauphin, despite me not liking how Welsey acted at the end, was standard but still cute. This one though? Sorry, didn’t care for it. But hey, we got Spot again, so that made it worth it! 2/5.

So… aside from the third one, not the best episodes. But hey, everything else this season has still been good. Very least I’ll have plenty to make a Top 5 Best/Worst list for S4 now. Next time is the S4 finale/S5 premiere! Yay~! S4 has been such a fun ride so far! Will the ending end things on a high note and guarantee a strong beginning for S5? We shall see~!

[undertalethingems]

Undertale LIVE: My thoughts

I had the chance to go to the Undertale Live concert today, and--as requested--I’m going to share how it went!

If you hadn’t heard of it, it’s a small band of musicians who play tracks from the game while a playthrough is projected on a screen behind them. I know a lot of people thought it was actually a musical when it was first announced--but no, no one was on stage as the human or Toriel or Alphys, and honestly I’m happy it wasn’t since musicals can be pretty hit or miss for me. The audience has a chance to vote on what to choose at certain points in the game, making it more than a concert alone.

This is going to get long, so... here we go.

I met the friend I’d invited to see the show with me at the train station, and after some confusion and walking straight past the theatre where the show was being held we made it in and got to our seats just fine. The house was nearly full, which was really good to see considering this was the second show--the actual premier was yesterday. Needless to say Undertale--and it’s music--is popular. I was also a little surprised by the composition of the crowd--Undertale has the reputation of being a young fandom, but there were plenty of older folks and many of them weren’t just there to chaperone their kids. it was nice to see just how many different people love the game ^^

Soon enough, the lights went down; it was time for the music to start. Now, I won’t spoil every song they played... but honestly? The musicians did an excellent job, and whoever was in charge of the arrangement was on point, picking just the right instrument to play each part. The double bass on the low ‘theremin’ elements of “Fallen Down” was beautiful, and using both clarinet and violin for “Bonetrousle” was one of my favorite parts--it sounded perfect for Papyrus. I was also impressed by the guy playing bassoon--he often had to practically beatbox to match the chiptune elements he’d been given, but it worked really well.

But one thing I really appreciated was that they covered plenty of lesser known songs--not just the boss fights or ‘top hits’ as it were, but smaller moments like “Pathetic House”, “The Choice”, and “A Small Shock”; I was happy they included the basic battle theme and “Alphys” too. Those frequently get left out, so it was great to hear them covered, and overall it was a great mix of character themes, environmental themes, and more obscure tracks, and that’s more than can be said for some of the Undertale melodies I have on my youtube playlist XD All were given the same high level of attention and skill, and it was wonderful.

As far as the video elements go, well, it’s not like they could go through the entire game--that’d be a bit much for anyone involved. Instead, they’d partnered with a twitch streamer to collect footage, then cut out some of the slower parts of the game to keep it at the more reasonable length of about 2 hours. It did mean cutting some songs I would have liked to hear them cover, but I can understand why--and what they did cover was done perfectly.

Because that’s the other thing--the live music blended almost seamlessly with the gameplay, enough that I forgot it was being played maybe 30 feet away and not coming from the game. They do plan on recording and releasing a CD sometime this year, and needless to say I’m buying it when I get the chance :”D

As for the interactive parts... I’ll be honest--at my show, they didn’t seem to come up often, so it didn’t feel like it was a big part of the experience. But I say ‘my show’ because they want feedback on how to make it even better, so things may be different when they go on tour later. That said, the choices mainly came up when fighting major characters--and, uh, i have to say i was happy no one died (though i was side-eyeing the few folks who raised their hands at papyrus. c’mon, you know that alone’s not gonna get you megalovania, and we’d already spared toriel at that point :”D ) We ended up with a true pacifist ending, and i think everyone was satisfied. It seemed the show was over...

and then barely two notes of “Megalovania” played and the crowd roared. The musicians are fans themselves, they knew what we were hoping to hear =u= Now... it’s probably no surprise, but i’ve heard many versions of Megalovania--many of which don’t quite ‘get it’ for me, often lacking the bass or right energy for the song--but Undertale Live delivered, keeping the right energy for this absolute banger and ending the show (perhaps ironically, considering Megalovania’s context :”D) on a high note.

Overall, I was really impressed, and enjoyed every song immensely; Undertale still makes up the majority of the music I listen to, and like I said, I was very happy to see them give attention to some of the less popular--but no less good--tracks the game has to offer. They’re hopefully announcing further tour dates soon, so if you have the chance to go, I say take it ^^

[merakiaes]

The Perfect Father - Arthur Shelby

Pairing: Arthur Shelby x reader

Requested: Yes. 

Prompts: #4 from the fluff/humor-list. 

Warnings/notes: This is a combination of this, this and this request. I probably mixed it up a bit and since it’s been a few weeks since I wrote I’m a bit rusty. It’s also not read through because I’m too lazy atm, so there might be mistakes xD But I hope you liked it and that this was what you wanted! Feel free to request more otherwise😁

Wordcount: 3509

Summary: You find out that you are pregnant and Arthur is having some doubts. 

You were twenty-eight years of age when you first moved from London to Small Heath.

Who in their right mind would willingly leave the big city for a small backwater town like that, one might ask. Well, to a start, it wasn’t entirely willingly.

You were born and raised in Small Heath, but still, you never felt at fully home there.

Whether this was the result of two unloving parents that you had never gotten along with or the fact that the small town life simply wasn’t for you, you didn’t know, but the second you turned eighteen you had packed your bags and moved away from the shithole that was Small Heath.

But your parents weren’t the only people you left behind. You also had a brother, younger than yourself by ten years.

The year was 1922 when you got word from the authorities in Small Heath that your parents had both passed away in the plague, leaving your brother all alone.

You dreaded going back to your childhood home, but despite not having seen him for years, you cared for your brother more than you did anyone, and set off to Birmingham the next morning, planning to take him with you back to London.

But the day you arrived in the small industrial town with the intention of simply getting your brother and then getting the fuck back out of there at once, was also the day you met Arthur Shelby for the first time, and as you might have been able to guess, seeing as you were still stuck in the small town, it was a meeting that changed everything.

You might not have set foot in your childhood town in ten years, but the memory of your small apartment on Watery Lane was still fresh in your mind and you found your way without much struggle at all.

But upon arriving, rather than finding your brother as expected, you were greeted with a locked door and seemingly empty house.

You hadn’t seen him since he was eight years old, so you obviously had no idea of what he was like nowadays, and therefor had no idea where or with who he might be.

Luckily for you, a slightly older woman exited her house on the opposite side of the street just then, spotted you in your frustrated and confused state and told you that your brother would most likely be at the boxing rings with her youngest nephew.

At the mention of your brother surrounding himself with that kind of people and activities, you found yourself growing slightly worried, but nonetheless you thanked her wholeheartedly and ran along.

You reached your destination in no time, and the pit in your stomach only grew at the sound of loud and panicked yelling, boys and men of all ages rushing to one of the rings in the middle of the room.

Finding yourself doing the same, your eyes widened significantly as you spotted what the commotion was about.

In the middle of the ring a man sat straddled across a younger boy’s torso, sending blow after blow to his youthful face and messing him up beyond recognition.

Now, you were by no means reckless, quite the opposite actually. You always thought long and hard before throwing yourself into a situation that could mean trouble, but this time it was like something just snapped inside of you, sending you rushing through the final line of the crowd and straight for the scene in front of you.

Other boys and men were desperately yelling out the man’s name and trying to pull him off the boy, but only earning themselves elbows to their noses.

You knew you probably should have left the bloody business to the men, but you just couldn’t, knowing the boy was only barely holding on to his life by then.

Your skirts flowed behind you as you ran, and men instantly started yelling at you not to intervene when they spotted you running into the mess that was currently unfolding before them.

After that, everything happened so quickly. You found yourself reaching out for his shoulder and giving him a forceful tug while yelling out at him to stop.

You remembered getting an elbow to the nose just like everyone else who had tried to intervene, but it didn’t stop you, your hands going back in for a second attempt and intertwining at the front of his throat, pulling with as much force as you possibly could.

You weren’t very strong, especially not in comparison to him, but still, the force to his windpipe was enough to leave him momentarily stunned, which in turn was enough to get him off the boy.

While the two of you fell backwards to the floor together, other man hurried to pull the boy further away from you.

The man struggled in your arms, your hands still wrapped tightly around his shoulders. You yelled at him to stop, to look at you, and when he did, it was like something connected between the two of you.

The second his eyes met yours, he stilled in your arms, body instantly relaxing and hard eyes melting into a heartbreakingly desperate stare.

You were both breathing heavily, and despite the fact that you didn’t know him, you had brought your hands up to his face and pressed his forehead to yours, mumbling sweet words of encouragement only for him to hear as you forced him to keep looking into your eyes.

Some of the men had moved the boy to a safer location in the room, just in case Arthur would snap again, and as he slowly calmed down and came back to reality, he let his head fall into your chest.

That’s when your brother had first approached you, together with another boy whom you learned to be Arthur’s brother, and the youngest nephew the woman from before had been talking about.

Said woman arrived to the boxing ring not long after, alongside two other men who instantly started talking to your brother and Finn.

It took a minute for them to spot you where you sat in the middle of the ring, holding their older brother as he cried like a child would to a mother.

They approached you after sending your brother and Finn away with their aunt. One of them introduced himself as Tommy Shelby, and the other man as John, before proceeding to kneel by your side with a stern expression but soft eyes and handing you a handkerchief.

It was only then you realized the pounding pain in your nose, and the sensation of warm fluid trickling down your chin.

You accepted the small cloth and pressed it to your nose, but as the two brothers attempted to grab their older brother from your lap, he only clung to you tighter.

Needless to say, you didn’t get to go back to London that night as you had originally planned, instead getting stuck at the Shelby residence with your brother.

Arthur didn’t speak a word to you the entire evening, only sleeping away his pain on your chest.

His aunt and younger brothers repeatedly apologized that you had gotten stuck in the middle like you had, but you couldn’t bring yourself to be mad, and despite usually being very wary of letting new people into their lives, they weren’t either.

If it hadn’t been for you, Arthur would have beaten that poor boy to life that day. You saved that boy’s life, but you also saved Arthur’s. Both him and his family knew that there would be no coming back if he had killed the boy.

The next few days were a bit of a blur, but at the end of the week, the younger three of the Shelby brothers were helping you move all of your things from London to Small Heath, while Arthur went to the doctor with Polly to get something for the anger at your request.

You learned that the Shelbys had taken your brother under their wing long ago with the way your parents weren’t really the most present, and thanks to this, and with the way you connected with Arthur, you all accepted each other with ease.

Arthur never left your side after that day, your presence being the only thing that could really keep his mind collected, and when you spent that much time with somebody, feelings were bound to bloom sooner or later.

For the two of you, it didn’t take long, and although you never really put a label on your relationship, everyone knew it, including the two of you; they had all known the second they saw Arthur in your arms that day in the boxing ring.

Only a few weeks into your stay in Small Heath, Arthur was with a one hundred percent certainty the love and light of your life. Never in your life had you loved anyone as much as you did him.

He meant the world to you, and you meant the world to him.

You had now been together for about a year and a half, married for about seven months, and you both felt that it was time for your relationship to go to the next level.

The second best thing you knew in the world, after Arthur and your big, defected family, was children.

You loved everything about them, and you wanted to experience everything with Arthur, children included.

The two of you had talked about it a few times. Arthur always got significantly more excited to a start, but only a few seconds into every attempt to the conversation, he would grow quiet and distant, and tell you he had business to attend to.

You knew him like you knew the back of your own hand, and therefor knew that he still hadn’t forgiven himself for that day in the boxing ring. He had nearly killed a young boy, and when you had stepped in and tried snapping him out of it, he had broken your nose.

You had tried assuring him every day since that you didn’t hold it against him and he shouldn’t either, but every time he spotted the small, pale scar across the bridge of your nose or the subject of starting a family was brought up, he was reminded of that day.  

He was terrified; terrified that he would lose himself like he had that day and so many other times and hurt any potential child. But more than anything, he was scared of ending up like his own father, and because of this, he stayed away from children to his best ability.

But when he was distracted from his doubts, he was always handling his nieces and nephews so well, and he didn’t even realize.

Despite your heart swelling over with love and longing just at the mere sight of him with a child on his knee, however, you had to push those feelings to the back of your head in order to give him the time he needed to get ready.

But your biological clock was ticking, and you couldn’t help but feel nerve-wreckingly anxious at the thought of not getting to start a family of your own.

You were slowly starting to realize that you probably wouldn’t with the way Arthur was functioned and scarred by his own father and experiences, and it broke your heart.

You were about ready to give the dream of having children up, and that’s when it happened.

It started out slowly, you waking up every other morning with bile rising up your throat and sending you straight to the bathroom to throw up.

Then your breast started aching, and you could have sworn they were getting bigger, but you thought none of it until Arthur pointed it out one night when you were… well, fooling around, as you do.

It was only then you put two and two together and came to the realization that every bodily change you had been experiencing the last couple of weeks were adding up to one thing and one thing only; they were all symptoms of pregnancy.

The next day, you brought Polly with you to the doctor’s and got it confirmed. You were pregnant. You were actually pregnant.

When the midwife had told you the news, you had broken into tears in an instant. Despite having been ready for the news upon arrival, it all became so much real when it was spoken out loud.

To a start, you were overjoyed, smiling and crying happily, but then the tears rolling down your rosy cheeks turned from happy to panicked, as another realization struck you; Arthur obviously didn’t want children.

You knew already from the first moment your state was confirmed that you would do everything in your power to keep your baby safe, even if it meant having to do it all without Arthur by your side. But still, you mourned the thought, as you loved him so incredibly much.

Polly had to bring you back home to Watery Lane under her arm, shielding your face from the public as you were crying unstoppably.

She comforted you by rubbing your arm with her hand, all while leading you down the street with rushed steps.

You were lucky the boys were all out handling whatever Peaky Blinder business they had on their agenda on this day, their absence giving you the time you needed to calm down and start going over how you were going to tell Arthur in your head.

You didn’t get half as much time as you would have liked, however, the boys all soon piling into the Shelby kitchen, your brother along with them.

It didn’t take long for them to notice your long, sullen face and wet eyes, and Tommy and Polly wasted no time in ushering everyone else into the next room while Arthur approached you, giving you some privacy much to your brother’s dismay.

“What’s goin’ on, love?” Arthur asked lowly as he reached you were you stood leaned against the kitchen counter.

Your arms came up to cross over your chest as a sort of defense mechanism, swallowing thickly in an attempt to rid yourself of the nerves.

You were by no means afraid that Arthur would hurt you in any way if he got upset about the news, but rather afraid that he would push you away and punish himself. But you knew you had to tell him, and so you did.

“I’m pregnant, Arthur.”

Arthur’s hand, that had been on its way to touch your arm, instantly froze mid-air, and with the closeness of your bodies, you could feel his entire body tensing. His soft, worried eyes glazed over with a certain hardness, and his face instantly pulled into one of pure panic.

“What?”

His voice was barely even audible as he spoke, cracking in the middle. His eyelashes fluttered slightly, showing you that he was starting to panic.

You swallowed once more, searching his eyes carefully while slowly bringing a hand up to his clean-shaved cheek, repeating yourself silently. “I’m pregnant.”

He flinched every so lightly at your touch, but soon relaxed into your palm, his eyes falling shut and a deep, shaky breath coming out of his nose.

“You don’t want to raise a child with me, (Y/N).” He whispered, but despite his scared state, moved closer to you, wrapping his arms around your waist and leaning his forehead against yours. “I wouldn’t do a good job at it. I’m too damaged.”

You shook your head at his words, tears now pricking the corners of your eyes. “Everyone’s a little damaged, Arthur.” You told him back, swiping your thumb across his short stubble soothingly. “It doesn’t change one’s ability to be a good parent.”

His breathing was calm, but you could sense with the way his arms tightened around you slightly that he was everything but calm.

“I don’t know how to be a dad.”

“And I don’t know how to be a mum.” You joined in, now bringing your other hand up to cradle his face. “But we’ll figure it out along the way. Together, eh? Like always.”

He didn’t answer, only breathing calmly and keeping his eyes closed.

You bit the inside of your lip slightly, slumping against the counter behind you. “Look at me.”

He didn’t react, to which you squeezed his cheeks with a bit more force, a frown now having settled on your face.

“Look at me.” You repeated, and this time his eyes fluttered open, revealing those baby blues you loved oh so much.

You could see that he was fighting an internal war with himself, trying his hardest to remain strong in front of you when in reality, he was probably ready to break down with a mixture of various emotions.

You moved your hands from his cheeks to the nape of his neck and pulled him closer, feeling his body react by pulling you closer in return.

“Do you trust me?” You asked quietly, searching his eyes.

He looked into your eyes, staying silent for a moment, but it didn’t take long before you got a nod in return.

“Aye, ya know I do. With my life.”

His words made your heart swell, and although you were now feeling more happy than worried, your face remained concentrated as you spoke. “Then trust me when I say that despite whatever issues you have with yourself, whatever battles you’re fighting, I love you, and know that you would never hurt me or our baby.”

He listened intently, but once again didn’t say anything. It was truly unusual to see him this quiet, seeing as he almost always had something to say.

But then he nodded, and then suddenly, his head was buried in the crook of your neck, body slumping against yours just like it had the first time you met.

“I’ll do my best.” He mumbled into your hair, voice coming out slightly muffled against your skin. “I just don’t want you to leave me. I love ya so fookin’ much.”

Your hands automatically came up to the back of his head, pulling him closer.

“I would never leave you.” You scoffed. “Despite what you think, you’ve given me everything. You’ve treated me with such care and such love. I see you with John’s kids, and with Finn and my brother, and I know you’ll be the best father to ever exist. I just wish you could see yourself through my eyes, and you would see how amazing you truly are.”

He brought his head out of your neck, and only then did you notice the way your hair was sticking to your skin uncomfortably, wet with the tears that were now slipping out of Arthur’s eyes.

He sniffled slightly and pulled you closer by your sides, once again leaning his forehead against yours. “I don’t deserve ya.” He sniffed, one of his hands shakily moving from your waist to rest on your stomach. “Either of ya.”

You grabbed his wrist and pressed his hand against your stomach with a bit more force, giving him a stern look. “Yes, you do.” You told him. “I need you, Arthur. More now than ever.”

He sniffed again, and you could feel how his body slowly relaxed against yours, the hint of a smile soon ghosting over his lips as he nodded his head, giving you his promise. “I’ll be there. I’ll always be there.”

And at the end of the day, that’s all you wanted from him.

“What should we name him?” He asked you then, his thumb now swiping over your clothed belly every so lightly. The small act of affection melted your heart.

“Him? It might be a girl, you know.” You raised an eyebrow, but he only shook his head, grinning widely.

“Nah. It’s a boy. I can feel it.”

You shook your head with a laugh, but didn’t bother to argue with him anymore, instead just bringing him in for a sweet kiss.

It was if something in him switched inside of him then, as he the second after you had broken apart was laughing and yelling the news at the top of his lungs, giving the rest of the Shelbys the clear to come back in.

Everyone came over and congratulated you with hugs, all happy for the two of you. But more so than anything, you were all amused by Arthur’s newfound enthusiasm, watching as he swung around the room with Finn and your brother under his arms, much to the younger boys’ dismay.

Arthur Shelby had always been a family man, having raised his siblings alongside his aunt, he had just  been too scared of himself to know it. But now he knew.

Now he knew that he was ready, and you knew from that moment on that your child would be the most spoiled and loved child in the entirety of Birmingham because despite what Arthur might think, he would make the perfect father.

[ailec-12]

Fan Fic Tag Game 2020

Thanks to @hklnvgl for tagging me! This was fun.

Ao3 Name: Ailec_12

Fandoms: This year, I’ve written for OUAT and Harry Potter —tons of words, few works.

1. Fic that was the hardest to write/you spent the most time on: That would be House Potter. I’ve been working on it for a year, yay! As a writer, it’s not actually a hard fic to write, but as a person, Sev’s point of view gets overwhelming sometimes.

2. Fic you spent the least time on/easiest to write: Dear Tom, Who the Bloody Hell Are You? Wrote it in a three-day frenzy and can’t rule out the possibility that Tom’s diary possessed me, too.

3. Longest fic: Once again, House Potter. Can’t believe it’s over 60k words already.

4. Shortest fic: It would be this prompt (724 words). It can also be read on AO3 as part of Hotchpotch.

5. Fic you were nervous to post: I’m always nervous before sharing my writing, but I felt very insecure about the alternative points of views in the House Potter ‘verse, especially Friendly Fire.

6. How do you choose your titles: Ugh, I’m the worst with titles —especially in projects I work on for a long time, because I won’t bother naming the thing until I’ve got to share it and, by then, the provisional title has stuck with me. Anyway, I brainstorm a lot and try to think of something that bears relation to the story, but sounds vague/mysterious at the same time. For me, it’s a real challenge to name each of the chapters in House Potter and, if I come up with something ridiculous and/or funny, it stays.

7. Fave fic you read: Crime and Punishment, by mlocatis. I’m a little behind right now, though —just waiting to be in the right mood to enjoy it as much as possible.

8. Fave fic you wrote: Mmm, hard question. I adore what I’m doing with House Potter, but I’m also really happy with how Dear Tom turned out and very  proud of having added that epilogue to my Greenie series.

9. Fave comment: Oh, my. I can’t choose, I’ve got so many lovely comments this year. It touched me a lot that both @hklnvgl and @mariagvogel have said my stories —House Potter and Of Forgiveness and Hope, respectively— felt like coming home somehow. That’s HUGE. Also, I still have @allstoriesrtrue24601‘s last comment on OFaH stuck in my head months later and it’s not going away any time soon.

Agh, so many wonderful comments that deserve to be here! I feel bad for not including them all. Just know that, if I say you made my day or rendered me speechless, I mean it.

I especially love it when people comment on the characterisation or the writing style and when they ramble or tell me they’ve reread, cried or stayed up all night reading.

10. Fic you want to rewrite/expand on: I’m not keen on the idea of rewriting stories unless it’s necessary, so I don’t think I’d ever rewrite a fic that is already finished or posted. However, sometimes I do think about what a better job I could do now with Pocket-Sized or Of Heroes and Love, both written in 2015. I still like those stories, but I think the narration lacks subtlety. In any case, I loved writing them at the time and people keep enjoying them nowadays, so no regrets at all.

11. Share a bit of your WIP or share a story idea that you’re planning: I feel like I should stop sharing snippets from House Potter because I haven’t written all that much, but here we go anyway:

“It’s okay, I’m just getting you to bed,” came the nonsensical murmur.

His pleads might have worked out for once. It might be a dream. He really hoped so.

12. What was your goal for your fics this year? Did you meet it?: Before House Potter stormed into my life, I’d actually decided I’d finish my Marvel WiP and then stop writing fic for a while. Needless to say, I didn’t achieve either of these goals. xD

13. What is your goal for your fics next year?: I’d be over the moon if I could just finish House Potter and my Marvel fic. A more attainable goal, though, would be to finish the former and make some kind of progress with the latter.

14. Highlight of your fandom year: The amazing response House Potter has had! I’d never been read by so many people before. Outside fanfiction, I caught up on four TV shows, which may not seem like much but I’m glad I did.

15. Highlight of your personal year: I recently started a book and I’m hooked! Also, I wrote and shared a short story in Spanish for the first time in... I have no idea, over 5 years or so.

Tagging @mariagvogel, @thatawfulsnapeboy, @itslucyluna, @likelightinglass and anyone else who wants to do it.

[threadsketchier]

i'm the anon asking about Luke's Jedi school, i guess i meant the whole who, what, when, where, why thing? who was there? what did they do, in general? when was this (which i guess means how long after ROTJ)? i guess the where and the why can be skipped cause you said it was on yavin iv (right?) and the why is obviously the "pass on what you have learned" so yeah. also a random question haunting my brain is how did they, like, get groceries, were they near a town or something? thankssssss

OK  *cracks knuckles*

The Whoozle - Luke’s first class attendees were:

Tionne (a scholar/historian and musician)

Dorsk 81 (a clone from an entire society of clones)

Kirana Ti (a Dathomiri witch)

Kam Solusar (a former member of cloned Palpatine’s Dark Side Elite)

Brakiss (an Imperial spy who never fooled Luke but he kept him on hoping to turn him to good; he eventually ran off and got recruited by another failed student, Dolph)

Streen (a Bespin tibanna gas prospector who kept himself isolated from sentient contact because he couldn’t control his strong latent Force empathy from picking up everyone’s thoughts and emotions around him)

Gantoris (tormented leader of a forgotten colony on a deadly volcanic planet)

Corran Horn (attending under an alias of “Keiran Halcyon” for Reasons™, otherwise a cocky asshole from the X-wing novels lol)

Kyle Katarn (a dude who got his own graphic novels/video games; he didn’t stick around for long and had a bunch of adventures on his own - and actually spent some time tutoring Mara Jade)

Kyp Durron (a sadly messed-up kid who was fucked over by the Empire real good and thrown into the spice mines of Kessel before he could even reach puberty, so he carried a really big traumatic chip on his shoulder; he was like barely 17 or 18 when he was busted out and started at the academy)

Cilghal (a female Mon Cal - a niece of Admiral Ackbar, and also a New Republic ambassador - who possessed a natural talent for healing)

Mara Jade (that baddest bitch we all know and love from the Thrawn Trilogy lol)

***There’s a few others mentioned on Wook but I’m not including them here because they’re kind of sprinkled in from various other EU media and don’t make an appearance (that I can recall) in the actual JAT series.

The Whatzle - everything got started in the Jedi Academy Trilogy by KJAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

*cough* sorry  XD

Fun fact: apparently it was Mon Mothma’s idea to suggest the location and not Luke, go figure.

The Whenzle - about 7 years after ROTJ (I get annoyed with Legends EU always dating stuff as “X years ABY,” meaning After the Battle of Yavin, so I always gotta mentally subtract 4 years from those dates).

The Wherezle - yep, Yavin 4, a nice green steamy joint much nicer than Dagobah, where you can still get swamp-ass without the swamp.  They repurposed the ancient temple that the Rebellion had used as a base in ANH.

The Whyzle - Luke eventually let the fire under his ass get lit and petitioned the New Republic to get his Jedi school started so he could finally not be the only fucking Jedi saving the whole-ass galaxy all the damn time...aka, yes, “pass on what you have learned.”  (Like I mentioned, this took place barely a year after Palpatine tried to come back and wreck everything again, so there was definitely some motivation from that plus the Thrawn disaster that happened the year before THAT.  The GFFA is always crisis-central so the Jedi needed to make a serious comeback.)

WHAT DO - Like I also mentioned, Luke was still figuring everything out regarding the old Jedi Order, and his own training had been the severely abridged Cliff Notes version (plus, um, these books were written way ahead of the prequels so...they don’t mesh well), so needless to say his teaching methods were not nearly as formal, and he tended to use examples from his own training.  Because he was the only master to go around, there wasn’t any pairing up for “padawans” at this point, he was teaching everybody simultaneously, so there were a lot of group lectures and activities.  They’d also gather to hear Tionne sing about Jedi history that she’d researched and turned into ballads.  In order to keep everything running, there also likely had to be task assignments as part of everyday life - somebody’s gotta clean the toilets and cook, etc., but that’s technically extrapolation.

JEDI DOORDASH - no, loooool, considering that this place was on a jungle moon, they had a nice tropical climate but not a ton of clear space for agriculture.  Keep in mind Luke’s a former moisture farmer (and I can’t believe the only thing the Larses were harvesting was literal moisture) - he had to have extensive knowledge of hydroponics or other indoor farming, and that temple is huge, so it’s totally possible they could grow at least some of their own produce.  But they need a lot more supplies than that, especially at the beginning, so they had supply runs from cargo ships who would bring them stuff - and hey, Mara herself was one of those supply pilots sometimes.  Some of my fellow Legends peeps also conceptualized the academy as opening up to some tourism to contribute much-needed funds - come chillax in the hot springs and learn more about the “mysterious” Jedi that used to creep so many people out back in the day, and see they’re just ordinary folks like everyone else...

...except that, yeah, they can technically kill you with their minds.  :)

In Legends it seems like the academy (also known as a Praxeum) was the only habitation on Yavin 4, but in Disney nu!canon there are other settlements on the moon; Poe Dameron’s parents Shara Bey and Kes Dameron go live there with a baby Force tree.  Feel free to remix and mash-up whatever elements you dig!