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kaylaoldridgecorson · 2 years

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Beskar’s Bounty - A Mandalorian FanFic

Hello all! I’ve been working on a Mando fanfic since last year and posting it on AO3, but I thought I’d post here as well for more traction. It’s still very much a WIP and I post new chapters when I can (every 2-3 months). It is Mando x Female Reader/You (I try not to specify much about looks for the reader). Also, I am not great with reader warnings/TW, but I do classify it as being rated M. Not much smut as of yet, but it’s progressing there. Very slow burn. Please have a read and let me know what you think! And stay tuned for new chapters! (I also apologize for the wonky layout! It doesn’t transfer well from word to Tumblr/AO3)

Chapter 1

So, this was it? How it was all going to end? I quietly swear at myself for never leaving this cursed planet and seeing what else could be out there. Being too scared to stray too far from what I have known my entire life, even if it was only pain. I heard that last thoughts before you died were supposed to be flashbacks of all you loved and great moments in your life...instead, I loathe myself for never actually living a life as I lay in the grainy sand that I despise and my blood pools beneath me, as I stare up into the visor of a helmed stranger in shiny armor.

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Earlier that day:

I startle awake from another nightmare. The same nightmare, actually. The one I have had almost every night since I was a young girl. I despise going to sleep, knowing each and every night that I will have the same nightmare. Never being able to prevent it, no matter how hard I have tried...and I had tried. Meditating...self psychology...drinking...even stooping so far down as to buying blasted roots and rocks from a traveling peddler who promised that if I drank the steeped roots and held the rocks while I slept, it’d prevent them. Nothing ever worked. I take a deep breath, trying to mentally prepare myself for another day, and huff myself up and out of bed. The suns have just started rising, filling the sky with a burnt orange color that fills my one room sandstone and mud home with the same hue. I stretch my arms out, feeling each crack of bone from staying stagnant for too long from sleep. Blasted bed is going to break my back, but there was no point in investing in anything new since sleep was the last thing I wanted anyways. The caf starts percolating as I comb through my forever tangled hair with my fingers, the sand and dirt caking it for all my life without a real proper bath to clean it. I sometimes wonder what it would look like with a good washing. I sigh in defeat, as I do every morning, deciding on putting it up in a messy bun, even though my scalp aches from it being up all the time. Water was a commodity around here and I didn’t waste it often on cleaning myself up. What was the point? I live alone, far enough away from others so that I didn’t see anyone on a daily basis, and if I did, they were just as dirty as I was. That was life on Tatooine.

Today was one of those days I needed to head into town. I’m running short on caf, which is one of my very few needs and a personal treat. There were few things I got to enjoy and caf was both gratifying and useful to keep my energy up, especially after my nightmare-fueled nights. I also needed to stop to visit Llain, who owned the only moisture farm around, to drop off repaired clothes and help clean up her place. Wiping my face with a dry cloth to try to remove some of the stubborn caked sand, I take a hesitant glance into the old, cracked mirror and sigh heavily. My eyes are beginning to become like a strangers to me...no longer youthful or of that little girl that I used to see staring back, but now older, hardened out of necessity. My brows furrow and I watch the motion in the mirror, watching tiny wrinkles form at the corners of my eyes and the middle of my forehead, just above my eyebrows. The fine layer of sand makes the creases more pronounced than they are...at least I hope that was the case. For a moment I am reminded of my mothers face and how her eyes crinkled as she laughed. And my father, who constantly furrowed his brow, never finding anything amusing, but always softened his gaze when he looked at me. Quickly, I jerk myself out of the memory, cursing myself for even letting my brain wander that far into thought. Keeping those memories at bay has kept me safe from becoming too soft...like my parents were.

The caf is bitter, like always. When I think back, I have only had a decent cup maybe twice in my life. By the time trade had reached Tatooine and then made its way to my outer reaches trade outpost, it was nowhere close to fresh. But, it was caf and it was better than nothing. The drink warms my bones better than the suns ever could. It’s an internal warmth, filling my empty stomach with the energy I need to get through each day.

As I sip my caf, I start getting my items together, doing a mental checklist of everything I need for the journey ahead. Satchel...check. Canteen with my last remnants of water...check. Cloak...check. Llain’s repaired clothes...check. Gulping down the last drop of caf, I wrap my cloak protectively around my head and shoulders, throw my satchel over my shoulder and across my chest, and head out the door into the light of the already bitterly hot suns.

I have lived on this little spot of land for as long as I have been alive. I don’t know any other life...any other way of living except for this harsh environment. My father did odds and ends for the other villagers, bartering his services for our needs. That’s how all of us have survived out in the middle of nowhere on a shit planet no one else wished to travel to. He would fiddle and repair speeders and droids, and would trade with whoever passed through, including Jawas on the rare occasion,and Tusken Raiders on even rarer occasions. Anything he could do to provide for his family. My mother did her part as well, hemming or repairing clothes in exchange for food or water. That's how most of everything in our home came to be, from one exchange to another, including that blasted bed and the cracked mirror. I learned how to survive from watching them, even at a young age I had to do my part to contribute, from helping my mother sew or handing my father tools. They taught me the skills that have kept me alive.

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After an hour long walk, I finally made it to Llain’s moisture farm. Llain is sitting on a sun bleached wooden chair in the shade, watching me approach. She is old...older than old. She was ancient when I was a baby and she has somehow maintained her appearance after all these years. Her white hair, braided and rolled into a bun atop her head, is in stark contrast to her overly tanned skin, a result from living in the suns her whole life. Llain waves at me. “There you are!” she calls out to me. I start digging in my satchel to pull out her folded clothes I had mended. “I know I’m a few days late, I was dreading making the trip and put it off for as long as I could.” “Oh, I understand,” she sighs, “I couldn’t do it now if I tried...not that I would want to.” She holds out her rough, wrinkled hands to accept the bundle of fabric. “I did the best I could, but the fabric is getting pretty thin.” She smiles broadly up at me, “No worries, dear.” I genuinely smile back at her. Llain became a sort of guardian to me after...my parents. She supplied me with water and food until I was able to fully care for myself and still continues to support my water needs in exchange for mending her clothes and doing odds and ends around the farm that she is no longer able to do on her own. I am alive still because of Llain. She told me once that I reminded her of her daughter, but said nothing more on the topic. I go to work as she stays seated in the shade.

It’s mid-afternoon by the time I finish cleaning and giving the droids a once over. I start wrapping my cloak back over my head and shoulders when I hear Llain call from her seat outside. “A sandstorm is coming!” I walk out into the suns light just as I sling my satchel back over my chest. It’s a clear day, nothing abnormal in sight. I glance out into the distance, not seeing the invisible indication for an impending storm. But it’s a feeling that suddenly washes over me, in my bones, and I know she’s right. There’s one thing everyone on Tatooine knows, and that’s having the uncanny ability to know when a sandstorm is just on the horizon. “Of all days I pick to head to the trade post,” I sigh. Llain suddenly grabs my hand and gives it a squeeze. I peer down at her quizzically, feeling a sudden weight in my palm. “Hurry up, girl! Get what you need from the shop and get home. It’s going to be a bad one, I can feel it.” I believe her and stare down at my hand to find a few credits there now. “Do you need anything while I’m there?” I ask after a moment. I should give the credits back, I don’t need the hand out. But, the sudden weight in my grasp makes my mouth water at the possibility of better food and caf. She smiles up at me, shielding her eyes with a hand. “No...no…just, get home safe. I’ll send my droid with a water delivery after the storm passes.” “Thanks,” I say, with a parting smile. “Stay saf-” I start, but my voice is cut off from the sudden whir of an approaching speeder in the distance. Shielding my eyes with a hand from the suns, I watch as it speeds across the sand and away from the farm, kicking up small flurries of sand and dirt in its wake. “What…?” I start. Llain shifts uncomfortably in her chair, her eyes suddenly filled with concern. “Go, quickly! Get what you need from the post and go home as fast as you can.” I don’t ask any questions, I just nod in understanding and clutch at the cloak around my neck as I continue on my way.

A fine time for me to make this trip. I shake my head angrily at myself. A sandstorm on the way, and soon from the feeling in my gut. I’ll never make it home before it hits. And then the unknown speeder. I’ve worked on enough of the locals bikes, and that one definitely wasn’t familiar. And from the looks of it, it was headed for the out post. We don’t get visitors passing through here, especially not on speeder bikes. I sigh heavily, this wasn’t what I expected when I woke up this morning.

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Living out here, alone, for most of my existence, I have learned the way things are, quickly. Firstly, don’t form attachments of any kind. The only exception I have made is for Llain, and even then I attempt to keep an emotional distance from her, as she has with me. I don’t take offense and neither does she. That is just the way things are. Second, don’t expect handouts. I have had to work, hard, for everything I need. There have been many days I have gone without food. Third, don’t trust anyone. The only person looking out for you, is you. Lastly, you are alone. You were born alone, you live alone, you will die alone.

That’s how I have mostly lived my life since being on my own. That’s how everyone out here lives. Families don’t last out here on this blasted land, this is a place of solitude. A place you come to die. I’m the youngest around here now. There was a time, when I was younger, when families did live out here, with kids my age. We all grew up together, playing, then became teens and experimented with each other. But slowly, one by one, they left, or worse, died. I was born here and long ago I decided I will die here...for I made one vital mistake, and that was getting attached to the only thing left of my parents. Our home.

Another hours long journey and I finally enter the town, but it is hardly such. All but a few sandstone buildings litter a single road. A trade station, a cantina and board, and a few lowly huts used as homes for those too scared to stray far from others are all that stands here. Nothing of note. We call it a town, or an outpost, but there’s no official name and I am sure it is on no map. But...it’s home. There aren’t many of us now who even live in or near it. Everyone has either died or left to find something better. I never knew why my parents decided to settle here, a secret they took to the grave. Soon, this place won’t even exist, once we all die away and the sandstone buildings and crudely made huts collapse under the harsh elements of Tatooine. It’ll be as if we never existed at all.

I quickly scan my surroundings for any sign of a visitor. I don’t see any speeder bike in my view, nothing of note to tell me that someone new is here. Determined to quickly finish my business and get back home before I get stuck in the middle of the impending sandstorm, I clutch my cloak to my chest and continue forward to the trade station.

The door to the outpost clicks open as I near and I sigh when the dim, cool air hits my sweat sheened face as I unwrap the covering around my head and enter the post. It’s not an abnormally warm day, not for Tatooine standards, but I can’t help but still sweat under the twin suns.

“How you doing?” Barbek asks from behind the counter, barely lifting his eyes from his personal game of Sabacc, although I’m not quite sure how that’s even possible to play alone. I don’t ask him, but shrug my shoulders to myself. Barbek was a Sullustan, the only one I’d ever seen. He has run the trade post for the last few years, and where he came from before that, who knows. He never speaks to me except for simple greetings. “Good,” I answer back, short. There is no need for pleasantries.

It’s a small post, only carrying the necessities of living. Canned goods and portions, random clothes that were traded for other goods, thread and needles for clothes repair, and...caf. I walk through the post, ticking off my mental checklist of items I need. My hand instinctively goes to my pocket and my fingers wrap around the cool credits there. I hate myself for accepting the handout from Llain, but not enough to give them back. Credits were hard to come by and they could buy me better rations...or caf.

I just needed a few meals to hold me over for a few weeks. If I portion them out enough, I can get by on one meal every two days, maybe more if I don’t over exert myself. With the storm moving in, I won’t be outdoors doing much, and who knows how long that storm might last, so I can go three to four days if I needed to. I am used to going without a meal, my body adjusted to hunger pangs long ago. But water, water I needed...and caf, caf is a different story. I need caf every morning to keep my spirits high enough to keep me going.

Walking through the tiny outpost, I grab a few cans and portions I need, then find myself headed to the back of the shop, behind a stand alone shelf. I peer at the slim selection of caf available when I hear the door hiss and click open. I stop. “How you doin?” Barbek asks on default. Silence. I take a chance glance, standing on my tiptoes to peek over the top of the shelf, just enough to see the top of a shiny helmet. My heart instantly flutters as my mind begins to race and spills over with images of soldiers in white and my mothers screams filling my ears. I gently shake my head trying to erase the pictures, both feet now firmly on the floor, and take a deep breath. I remain utterly still. The silence carries on. Who knew silence could be so deafening loud? I can no longer stand it, not knowing, the quiet, and I peek around the shelf, just to see what is going on. Barbek’s eyes are on the fully armored stranger, his eyes full of...what is that? Terror? I see as his hand slowly goes under the counter, to reach for a blaster I assume. “What can I do for you, Mandalorian?” Barbek asks, cooly, but I can feel how tense he is. The stranger, the Mandalorian, doesn’t say anything for a long moment, helmet tilted towards Barbek. “Have you seen a Rodian around here?” His voice comes through the helmet modulator, smooth. “We don’t get many visitors out this way,” Barbek answers. The helmed man is silent again and from my view I can see that he takes a look around the tiny shop with a hard gaze. “And you?” his voice calls out as I can feel his eyes meet mine from the corner I’ve been peaking around. “Have you seen a Rodian?” With a deep breath, I come around the shelf. Standing before me is a tall, armored, beast of a man. Every inch of his body is covered with either dark clothing or a shiny armor I have never in my life seen before. I look up at him, tilting my head slightly back to do so, and shake my head no. I can’t even form a word against my now dry mouth. And he just stares straight at me, saying no words, and the viser where I imagine his eyes would be, burns into my mine. Without a word, or nod in understanding, he simply turns and walks out of the shop, the door hissing and closing with a click of finality behind him.

I stand there, frozen, watching the door, almost waiting for the armored man to come back. It’s not until I hear Barbek clear his throat that I turn my head and look at him. He looks just as stunned as I feel, as he brings his hidden hand back up and drops a small blaster on the counter that his fingers had tightly been gripped around. I look at the weapon and back at Barbek for a second longer until I collect myself and go back to the caf shelf, grabbing a couple packages. I quickly finish grabbing the additional items I need and place the items on the counter, next to the blaster. Barbek gives it all a once over. “Trade or credits?” he asks. “C-credits,” I croak, the first words leaving my dry mouth, so dry that my throat hurts from the word. He just nods as I place my newly acquired credits on the counter and start placing my items in the bag draped over my chest. I turn to leave, but suddenly stop short, curiosity getting the better of me. My eyebrow raises in question. “What is a...Mandalorian?” He huffs before answering, “Expert killers.” I blink. Without another word exchanged, I turn to leave through the same door the armored man went through and head for home.

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Llain was definitely right, a storm was coming in, and fast. I need to be quick if I want to get home before it completely blankets over me. But with the extra weight of the items I bought, and having had no food for two days now, I’m not feeling very optimistic. I was going to get caught in the middle of it. But I continue forward.

Passing Llain’s home, she has already packed in all her items and shuttered herself in, prepared for the approaching weather. I momentarily think about asking Llain if I could stay with her until the storm passes over, but I quickly dismiss the thought. I needed to get home. I can’t rely on help, especially after she passed me those credits earlier.

As I inch closer to home, it becomes harder to walk. The winds have now kicked up, whipping sand at my limbs like tiny needles of pain. Even through my clothing, albeit, thin clothing, I wince at the biting sand. I clutch my cloak tighter around my face, trying to protect my eyes as much as I can. The wicked air pushes against me, forcing me to take one strained step at a time.

It takes me at least double the time to make it home than it took me going into town. It’s dark by the time I reach the step of my familiar door. My whole body aches from not only the journey, but the wind biting sand as well. Groaning in pain, I push open the door and watch as it forcibly blows open, sending sand into the one room living space. I curse silently, watching the sand already start to pile in the corners of the room. I take a step in and try to force the door shut behind me, using all the energy I have left to work against the force of the wind. With my limbs aching in pain, the door clicks shut and the room becomes still.

Through the little cracks in the sandstone, I can feel the draft of the now howling winds blow right through my home, but it’s safer than being outside. I sag against the door, my body no longer wanting to do anything else but just be still, but after a moment and with a sigh, I push myself up. Setting my bag of supplies on the tiny table in the middle of the room, I unload and put away my items. I start a small fire in the oven and place a tin of food on the counter, knowing that I need to eat to regain my strength. While I wait for the fire to slowly grow, I pull off my weathered cloak and shake it out, getting sand on the woodbeaton floor. It didn’t matter anyway, sand was already coating every surface in the place and forming tiny piles on the ground, resembling the sand castles I used to make when I was young. I sigh at the mess, but with the storm blowing and not knowing how long it’ll last, I knew all I had was time to stay inside and clean. So with that, I let down my hair and shook it out as well, making it rain particles of sand and dirt too. I unfocus my eyes and watch as the particles float through the air. It was a childish thing to do, but I let myself smile at the dancing specks. But then, suddenly, in the corner of my vision I see a shadow that should not be there. Quickly, I refocus my vision and my eyes go wide as I see a figure standing in the corner of my home, watching me. A Rodian.

Something like fear and anger shot through me simultaneously. I didn’t know much about fighting, or anything at all in the ways of self defense, but I am prepared to fight if I need to. I quickly glance around, looking for any kind of weapon I can grab to use against the intruder, but as I take a single, tiny, side step towards the small dining table to reach my bag, the Rodian raises a blaster right at me, dead center to the little furrow between my eyebrows. I stop.

He starts speaking in a language I don’t understand, but it sounds just as threatening as the blaster raised to my head. Cautiously, I raise my hands in the air. “There are some credits in my bag,” I jerk my chin towards the table with my belongings, “I have some food and very little water. You can have whatever it is you want. Just leave.” I’m surprised by how confident I sound, because I am deathly afraid on the inside. The Rodian speaks again in the foreign language, this time yelling, slightly frantic. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand. Please...please...just, leave,” my voice quivers this time. He waves the gun aggressively as it remains still pointed directly to my head and he continues shouting words I don’t understand. Although terrified, a calm somehow washes over me and I close my eyes in something like acceptance. This was it, my end.

But, just as I accept my fate, my front door crashes open, slamming hard against the wall behind it. I jump and blink rapidly as the wind carries in a flurry of sand that whips around the room as if we were outside and not protected by four walls at all. The sand stings my eyes and makes them water, my face feels the thousand tiny prickles of grainy sand and I suddenly have to cover my face from the pain. Then, I see it...him. A glint of shining armor standing in the doorway of my home, like the shining heroes in the stories my mother used to read to me, who saved women from villains. I stare, watching him duck to enter the small doorway into my little sandstone and mud home, looking too large to be in such a small space. The wind still whips the sand about the room, stinging my eyes, but I can’t take my gaze off of the Mandalorian. At that moment, Barbek’s words suddenly come to mind. Expert killer. Why is he here?

There’s movement in my peripheral vision and I turn my head to watch the Rodian take his blaster aim off of me, lowering the blaster, and moving his focus solely to the armored man. He speaks again in the unknown language, directly to the Mandalorian. To my surprise, the Mandalorian answers him back in the same dialect and they carry an unknown conversation between each other until abruptly he turns his visor to me. I don’t know how, but I know, I feel, his eyes peering right into mine. I catch my breath as we stare at each other, seemingly waiting for...something. He’s only a step or two away from me and something inside me wants to reach out and grab for him. But, that’s crazy, I don’t even know this man...this killer, this-- And then it all happens at once, as I see the Rodian intruder swiftly take aim at the Mandalorian from the corner of my eye, who is still focused on me, and puts a finger on the trigger of his blaster. “Watch out!” I yell out at the Mandalorian as I take an unthinking lunging step towards him to push him out of the path of blaster fire. My hands meet cold, unbelievably hard metal, and I wince at the pain I feel in my wrist. But the Mandalorian barely moves at my push. I wrap my arms around his hulking figure in an attempt to move him, just as I hear the blaster go off behind me, and then I feel like the breath has been knocked out of me and I fall into him instead. A metal arm catches me as I lose all control of my body and I flop into the embrace. Another shot fires, this time from the Mandalorian. Then he’s wrapping both of his cold arms around me and placing me gently on the woodbeaton floor. I look up into the visor of his helmet, seeing my reflection, but not entirely recognizing myself. Instead, I see the screaming face of my mother staring back at me, a face twisted in an unknown agony. And now I feel it, the scorching pain shooting through my body, that was clearly on my face even before I truly felt it. The Rodian’s first shot missed its armored target and hit me instead.

So, this was it? How it was all going to end? I quietly cursed at myself for never leaving this cursed planet and seeing what else could be out there. Being too scared to stray too far from what I have known my entire life, even if it was only pain. I had heard that last thoughts before you died were supposed to be flashbacks of all you loved and how great you had it...instead I loathed myself for never actually living, laying in the cakey sand that I despised as my blood pooled beneath me, while I stared up into the visor of a helmed stranger in shiny armor. I blink up at him, seeing no flashbacks...no memories...just him, before it all goes black.

#the mandalorian #mando #din djarin #mando x you #mando x reader #mando fanfiction #mandalorian fanfic #din djarin fanfiction #starwars #star wars fanfiction

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smmahamazing · 3 years

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Rounding out your Valentine’s Day with one last fic for the @inudayoflove2021 !!!

Summary: It’s White Day. Inuyasha and Kagome have been dating for a month, and Inuyasha has planned a nice evening for the two of them. Except Inuyasha has something a little sweet prepared for Kagome in hopes of getting a little steamy with her. What happens when Kagome has a similar idea? Set in the Cowboy Blues Universe. Rated E for smut.

Let me tell you, this chapter has truly taken it out of me. This is my first foray into writing smut, and y’all that is hard. But in the end, it’s been worth all the trouble in the world. Next month exactly will be ONE YEAR since I started writing. And that’s kind of crazy to me. I have six posted stories with an entire google drive of wips that scream at me day in and day out LOL. All because of a little White Day one shot that grew into a 23k story, with another 8k of one-shots, all set in the same universe. I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate than with Inukag’s first time! Thank you so much to @clementinesgulag , who has also drawn a very sweet 😏😏😏piece of artwork for this chapter, and I’m so excited for y’all to see it!!! If you haven’t already, check out all the different fics with the Day of Love Collection on AO3!

Anyways, I’m dedicating this chapter to all you guys out there. This fandom has been an amazing part of my life this past year, and I’m so happy to be involved with such a great group of people. This past year has been crazy, but you guys have been worth it. I hope you all enjoy!!!

A special shoutout to @underwater0phelia for helping me with a few trouble sections! You're the greatest darling❤❤❤

Inuyasha loved routine. More specifically, he loved routine whenever his brain started to think too much about certain subjects.

Today was Mr. Tanaka's quarterly oil change. Mr. Tanaka had been a loyal customer dating back to the first week he had officially opened his doors for business. He told Inuyasha that he reminded him of a younger version of himself, and that he was happy to see a young man such as himself take a risk into opening his own business. Mr. Tanaka's kind words had really helped motivate Inuyasha through the good times and the bad times that first year, and so to thank him, Inuyasha gave the older gentleman a fair discount on any and all services, and let no one else service the vehicle.

Over the years, Inuyasha gained enough employees that he really didn't need to service any of the vehicles that came into the shop. He dealt with enough paperwork and general bureaucratic shit that, most days, he willingly let the boys take care of the line up.

But days like today were nice. Fantastic, really. Loud, heavy alternative rock blared through the speakers of a giant stereo as Inuyasha made quick work of the tiny honda. It was easy for Inuyasha to get all wrapped up in the monotony of his work. Today, Inuyasha had been more anxious than usual, so he decided to go ahead and perform a full diagnostic package on Mr. Tanaka's car. The extra work would help keep Inuyasha's mind focused.

The problem was that White Day was next week, and Inuyasha had absolutely no idea what to get Kagome. They had only been dating for about a month and Inuyasha was struggling with the decision of how grand of a gesture he wanted to make.

When he was growing up, the giving norm was usually either chocolate or candy, and sometimes flowers depending on the relationship of the giver towards the recipient. Given the short amount of time they had been together, chocolate seemed like a good direction to head towards, but Inuyasha had been overanalyzing the entire situation for several days now.

The main reason for his anxiety came from his already deep feelings for a girl he's only known for a month. Inuyasha truly enjoyed talking to and spending time with Kagome. They were constantly texting each other; asking a variety of questions about their lives and the things that they thought defined them. Random pictures broke up the mass of their text bubbles. Kagome had been given leeway from her boss to experiment with all different kinds of cakes, so practically everyday was an image of a new cake, decorated all cutesy for the romantic holiday.

The rational part of his brain told him to just get her a nice box of chocolates and flowers and enjoy a nice evening together. But Kagome deserved more effort than just purchasing a random box of chocolates. An ideal gift would be to make her something - she seemed like the type of girl to love homemade gifts - but to Inuyasha, the idea was….daunting, and a little embarrassing. Inuyasha knew enough about cooking and baking to just get him by, but he didn’t feel confident enough to make something for a woman whose career was based on cooking and baking. Not like Kagome would laugh at him or make fun of anything he made, but it was an insecurity Inuyasha couldn't seem to shake when put in front of his professional girlfriend.

It didn't help that the irrational part of his brain wanted to give her something more than just chocolate.

Despite being together for about a month, they hadn't had sex yet. Not because neither of them didn't want to, they just …never brought the subject up. The more they talked, the more Inuyasha began to realize how much he liked her, and he didn't want to do anything that would jeopardize the easy going relationship they had now.

In reality, he just didn't want to scare her off by demanding sex. Nor did he want to demand sex from her, he just wanted things to happen naturally. Before he knew it, a month had flown by.

Several hours passed before Inuyasha finally decided he couldn’t keep Mr. Tanaka's car in the shop any longer. He dragged his feet to the hand washing sink, taking his time to scrub the grease from his hands and the dirt off his forearms.

Mr. Tanaka always came first thing in the morning before most people were functioning enough to stop by, so the waiting room had several more people in it then when he started working on the car.

"Mr. Tanaka," Inuyasha announced, grabbing a free computer at the front desk to pull up the service information. Mr. Tanaka stood with a smile on his face and walked up to him.

"She's all good I assume?"

"Yup, fit as a fiddle. Gave her a good once over, which is why it took a little longer than normal. On the house."

"Ahh, Inuyasha my boy, you're too good to me."

Inuyasha chuckled as the computer calculated the total, and he prompted Mr. Tanaka to insert his credit card into the card reader.

"So, what are your plans for the rest of the day?" Inuyasha asked.

"Oh, I'm going to spend the afternoon with the grandchildren, maybe go out for a stroll and a banana split at the nice ice cream joint not far from my house. How about yourself?"

"Just take out for me and my girl tonight, nothing exciting,"

"Oh, I wouldn't say that, " Mr. Tanaka said with a glint in his eyes. "Every evening with your woman is special. "

Inuyasha snorted at his statement, grabbing the receipt that just finished printing and giving it to the older man. "Alright old man, I'll see you in another three months."

"Alright then, Inuyasha. Don't work too hard now!" Mr. Tanaka says with a sly look on his face. Inuyasha merely rolled his eyes at the joke the older gentleman made every time he brought his car in. Inuyasha always thought him a strange man; despite doing good business, not everyone wanted to stay and chat with a hanyou, but Inuyasha tried not to think about it too much. If his mother was alive, she'd say something about how "people can always surprise you" or "there's still good in the world, Inuyasha". He tried to think about those theoretical statements when he was faced with an actual nice person.

With Mr. Tanaka's car finished, Inuyasha walked back out to the garage to finish cleaning up his station. There was some paperwork to be done, but he was hoping today would be busy enough to justify him working on the floor instead.

'Maybe a little snack first,' Inuyasha thought as he held his hand up to his rumbling stomach. Now the only question was, sweet or savory? Mr. Tanaka and his grandkids were still on the edge of his brain, thinking maybe Kagome would be up for getting a carton of rocky road tonight to share.

That was when the idea hit him. It came in small bursts, just split second images his brain conjured up to give him an idea of what it would look like. It was something Inuyasha had never done before. Kikyo kept their sex life pretty...vanilla. Not that this idea was all that out there, but the whole thing would definitely feel a little odd to someone who really only used the missionary position in his last relationship.

It was definitely something Inuyasha would probably like - just the thought of it was already starting to wake up his lower brain - but would Kagome? Would she misconstrue the situation somehow? Would she be into that kind of thing?

One thing was for certain; Inuyasha needed to continue this line of thought in his private office, not amongst all his employees. He found his assistant manager and confirmed their current appointments for the next several hours before locking himself in the office to come up with ways to make this little "idea" of his work.

~~~

It was just starting to get dark when Kagome pulled up to her normal spot at Inuyasha's apartment. She killed the engine as soon as she put the car in park, but didn't make a move yet to open the door and make her way over to his apartment. This way, Kagome wouldn't be able to chicken out or drive away. Eventually, the cooler air outside would make its way in and lower the temperature in the car, prompting her that her time to sit around has come to an end.

Kagome didn't even know what she was so nervous about anyway. It was going to be just another date night with Inuyasha, perfectly normal and entertaining.

‘Oh yeah, because showing up at your boyfriend’’s house in nothing but lingerie is definitely normal,’ Kagome thought, shifting around in her seat a little and making herself much more aware of exactly what she was wearing and why.

She had been dating Inuyasha for just about a month now, and they had yet to “do the deed”. Which, if she was honest, Kagome wasn’t sure if that was odd or normal for a relationship. Her past relationships had been so varied, ranging from sex on the first date to no sex at all, or even pretty much only sex with little to no substance.

Kagome didn’t think it was because he didn’t want to. They had been texting back and forth practically everyday since their first date at that ramen shop. Inuyasha even made it a point to come to the diner for lunch just so they could see each other - which totally didn’t make her heart flutter, no siree. They just hadn’t really had the...opportunity to express their interest for each other in that way yet.

The plan for tonight was to just have a simple dinner at Inuyasha’s, and maybe pop in a movie during dessert. Very relaxed and extremely intimate. It was actually Kagome’s idea of a perfect date. Sure, going out to eat together is always nice, and spending the day out and about can create a lot of great memories, but she craved the closeness one could get when you were comfortable in your own home.

Kagome had some slight alterations to go with their evening plans It was simple: walk inside, seduce her hot boyfriend, and fuck him into next week. She still wasn’t sure where dinner and a movie fell between it all; she was just going to have to wing it. Earlier in the week, Kagome had made a stop at the mall and purchased a most alluring piece of lingerie.

It was a fairly simple garment, which was good because Kagome couldn’t even begin to wonder how she’d get into some of the lingerie she looked at. She was pretty sure some of them could double as their own sex toys. In the end, she chose two different colors of a two piece bra and panty set - one in red, which she was currently wearing, and one in green, her favorite color. It was made from a soft silk with floral lace borders around the edges of the cup of the bra and the elastic of the panties. Overall, it was a very comfortable fit, which is what greatly prompted Kagome to purchase two.

However, the real stars of the show were the crotchless panties and the cupless bra.

Despite its simplicity, it was the raunchiest piece of lingerie that Kagome had ever purchased.

It was still chilly outside, requiring her to wear her purple peacoat to and from the car, but the only other piece of clothing Kagome wore was a random slip dress she found buried deep in one of her dresser drawers. She was actually pretty sure it was meant to go over your bathing suit when visiting the local swimming pool or beach, but with only three buttons and a waist tie, the garment was perfect for easy removal. She rounded out the whole outfit with the most expensive pair of black stiletto heels she owned, and hoped that Inuyasha didn't question its...quirkiness.

Well, she was wearing an old pair of boyshorts over the crotchless panties, but Kagome just felt too awkward driving without a proper pair of underwear on.

'Alright Kagome, time to get your butt in gear,' she thought, giving her cheeks a few good slaps to motivate her. With a deep inhale, she carefully shimmied out of the boyshorts and tossed them into the backseat before grabbing her purse and stepping out of the car to walk towards Inuyasha's apartment.

She knocked on the door, running her hands through her hair to fix any errant strands the wind may have moved. After about thirty seconds, she could hear Inuyasha's muffled reply to ‘come on in’, like he was on the opposite side of the apartment. It was unusual of him - he never failed to greet her at the door the few times she had been over - but she reminded herself they had only been dating for a month. Plus, he was probably still getting things ready. No big deal.

He must have anticipated not being quite ready for her arrival, seeing as the door was already unlocked. She quickly stepped in and locked the door behind her, taking off her coat and hanging it, along with her purse, on one of the hooks beside the door. She forewent taking her shoes off though, since they were a part of the whole 'fuck me' look she was attempting to pull off.

Looking into the living room, there were a few extra blankets and pillows stacked on the ottoman, but nothing looked particularly different. The apartment was always pretty clean due to Inuyasha's sensitive nose - he had a hard time dealing with dust - although it looked like he did a quick wipe down throughout the room not that long ago.

Inuyasha didn't have a space set up for a dining table since he normally ate by himself , but he had taken the time to set up a couple of placemats for them at the bar that separated the kitchen and living room. Each spot had its own dinner plate, salad bowl, utensils, and wine glass all ready to be filled. Placed on either side of them and in front of them were three long candlesticks in their own respective holder.

The whole scene put a soft smile on her face as she tenderly touched each piece. She had yet to see Inuyasha, but tonight was already turning out to be the perfect date. It was obvious to see the work he put into making this dinner special for them. The plates looked like they came from his own cupboard, but she was pretty sure he went out to buy candles to set the mood.

Kagome was beginning to get a little anxious to find Inuyasha, but the smells coming from the kitchen were strong enough to tear her away from her search. There were a couple of pots on the stove over a low flame. Nothing smelled like it was burning, but what kind of cook would Kagome be if she didn't take a quick peek at some unattended pots?

That's what she told herself, anyways, as she slowly lifted the lid to the pot on the right hand burner. The pleasant aroma of tomatoes and garlic filled the immediate area, and Kagome inhaled it deeply. Inside the pot was what looked to be meatballs, simmering in a homemade tomato sauce. Kagome took hold of the spoon being used to stir the sauce and snuck a quick taste.

She closed her eyes, groaning slightly in satisfaction. The sauce was tangy and savory, a hint of sweetness found in the aftertaste. Kagome might have been the professional chef between them, but Inuyasha never gave himself enough credit when it came to his own cooking. Growing up as a hanyou, he always had to be careful with foods that could possibly be too spicy or over seasoned, and he learned that it was sometimes better to just cook your own food.

Not to mention the fact that there were few things more attractive than your boyfriend cooking a meal for you.

Kagome set the lid back on the pot to go looking for the hanyou in question. She hadn't seen Inuyasha since she came in, and a quick peek behind the balcony curtains told her he wasn't outside either, which left the bathroom and bedroom.

There were three doors down in the back hallway. The first door on the left - which was left open and clearly empty - was the bathroom, with a small storage closet directly across from it. Kagome walked right past both doors in favor of the closed bedroom door; the storage closet was small and cramped, not big enough to fit even the small built Kagome inside with the door closed, and so, inconsequential to Kagome's mind.

She stood in front of the bedroom door, suddenly nervous now that the sight of cooked food couldn't distract her. She still had no idea how tonight was going to pan out, or how Inuyasha would react to her advances. Kagome took another deep breath to relax her shoulders, making herself stand just a little bit taller.

She was a Higurashi after all, dammit! Known for their stubbornness and determination, there was no obstacle they couldn't climb. In fact, there was nothing for her to be nervous about at all. She was an attractive woman, he was an attractive man. This was just the natural next step that many people took in their relationships, and damn it all, she was gonna seduce the hell out of him.

Yet, she wasn't expecting the sight that laid before her as she opened the door. At all.

Her breath hitched as wide eyes landed on Inuyasha sprawled out on the bed.

Completely naked.

Well, was he considered completely naked if his dick was just barely covered? It was an errant thought that crossed her mind, despite how unnecessary it was at the moment.

Kagome didn't think she'd ever seen a sight as glorious as Inuyasha, propped up by a couple of pillows, one arm bent behind his head, the other laying across his stomach. She had yet to see Inuyasha without a shirt on, and found she couldn't tear her eyes away from the bulging muscles in his arms, or the rippling six-pack he sported. He looked like he could have been carved by Michaelangelo himself, an Adonis covered in whipped cream, chocolate sauce, and caramel, topped with a bright red maraschino cherry on top.

Kagome was sure she was about to develop a sweet tooth of her own.

She took a quick second to notice the overall look of the room. He had the same long stemmed candles placed strategically around the room, offering the only source of light. Beside him on the bedside table was all the fixings - the chocolate sauce, caramel, whipped cream, even a jar of strawberry jam.

'Oh my God, is this what he meant by having banana splits for dessert?' she thought, remembering the text conversation they had as she was getting ready earlier. Inuyasha hadn't told her what he was making for dinner, but he had asked her if she liked banana splits. Which she had replied to him that of course she did, who didn't?

Well, one thing for sure was that she'd never look at a banana split the same way again.

Neither of them knew how long she had been standing there for, but Inuyasha was getting more nervous by the second. She hadn't said anything when she entered the room, just stood there staring at him with this weird look in her eyes.

The last five minutes had been stressful for him, to say the least. Inuyasha hadn't wanted to put the whipped cream on too soon and have it start melting on him, so he waited until he could hear her soft knocking at the front door before getting himself all set up.

He had no idea how long it would take Kagome to make her way to the bedroom. She was far too curious for her own good to just sit out there waiting for him, but how many things would distract her on her way to the bedroom was the real question. Still, as soon as he heard the front door close, he got to work, covering his very erect penis with the whipped cream - just the thought of what her mouth would be doing to him soon was enough to get him going - and using deft hands to flourish it with the chocolate and caramel. He saved the cherry for the moment right before she opened the door, not wanting it to slide off and ruin the masterpiece he had concocted.

Surprisingly, he wasn't all that nervous as he was getting ready. It was when she finally came in and just stared that set his nerves on fire. What was she thinking? Did she like the view or was she trying to figure out how to get out of the situation entirely? He didn't really know what her scent smelled of when she was aroused, so he felt like he was walking into the fire blind.

He couldn't take it anymore. The silence was killing him, he was sure of it. He didn't know what he was going to say to her, but anything was better than nothing.

"Kagome,"

Hearing her name must have startled her from her own thoughts. She looked at him now - really looked at him - and what he saw in her eyes was pure determination.

Inuyasha didn't think he had ever been so terrified in his life. It was at this moment he realized that he really didn't know all that much about Kagome. Sure, they had been talking back and forth, constantly texting about their favorite movies or the places they like to frequent or comparing allergies, but that was just the small stuff. He had no idea what this look in her eyes meant.

And then, she showed him.

If he was worried about what she thought about his "gift" to her, her next actions put those thoughts to bed.

She slowly unbuttoned the dress she was wearing, sensually untying the waist tie until it opened and floated to the floor, bearing herself to him.

Inuyasha had to stifle the urge to whine. He had never seen a sight as alluring as Kagome, standing before him with her hair down over her shoulders in a bright red lingerie set. This wasn't like any lingerie set Inuyasha had ever seen. The cups to the bra covered the tops of her breasts more than most bras might, but he had a clear view of her dusky pink nipples poking through a set of holes in each cup.

The candlelight put the most tantalizing shadows against the muscles in her arms down to her toned calves, which was exaggerated even more by the black high heels she wore. And as his eyes wandered up and down her body, he was pretty sure they were crotchless, judging by the shape of the panties.

His first thought was that she looked like a snack, but he'd be lying - she was a whole goddamn meal.

"Is this for me?" she asked, walking up to the end of the bed, jutting her hips out with each step.

It sort of felt like an out of body experience, like she had control of her body but also not at the same time? Every step to the bed was fueled by a slowly rising arousal. Her mouth was beginning to water; she hadn't expected to do dessert before dinner, but she supposed she could break the rules just this once. After all, it would be rude to not immediately accept this most generous...gift.

"Ye - yeah," Inuyasha answered, trying to sound suave instead of like some virginal teenager. He wasn't so sure he was succeeding, but Kagome didn't seem to mind as she continued to get closer to him, bending down to lean her hands against the bed, giving him a fantastic view of her chest.

He couldn't control the twitch in his cock as she began to fully lift herself onto the bed. Kagome didn't miss it either, giving him a devilish smirk as she crawled her way to him. It made him feel like prey being stalked by a predator, which was a weird change in his bedroom dynamics. He had always been the more dominant party when he was with Kikyo, but he was finding that he didn't mind the change all that much.

Not when a beautiful woman like Kagome was looking like she was going to devour him.

And that was exactly what she planned to do.

Kagome gingerly put her hands on his calves, causing Inuyasha to take in a sharp inhale. He hadn't been expecting her touch, and it made him take in a sharp inhale. He expected her to dive straight in, but she leaned over to the right side of the bed instead, bringing her bare nipples dangerously close to his face.

Inuyasha turned his head away slightly and closed his eyes, not sure if he could stand to look at her much longer before losing his patience and having his way with her. The bed shifted back to normal a second later, and Inuyasha opened his eyes to find she had grabbed the chocolate sauce and the jar of caramel.

Kagome desperately wanted a taste of him, but she also wanted to make this whole experience last. She wanted to tease and torture him until he couldn't take it anymore and took her instead.

"Do you mind getting a little sticky?"

Inuyasha's eyes started to darken as her plans for him slowly became clear. So she wanted to tease him a little, huh? That was fine by him. He was sure he'd let her do whatever she wanted.

"I'm your blank canvas Kagome,"

'Smooth'

Inuyasha watched her face flush at his words and he subconsciously opened his chest up in pride at being the one to cause it. She looked so cute flustered, and he couldn't wait to see it again when she was underneath him.

Kagome took his words to heart and opened the top to the chocolate sauce. Moving over to his left side for a better angle, she started at his face, taking the bottle and carefully squeezing it over his skin - over his lips, on the apple of his cheeks, on his nose, sculpting the jaw.

And then she started moving downward, dotting all down his neck, not wanting it to run too much given the angle. When she reached his chest, she began drawing intricate lace designs over his pecs. Inuyasha could see the absolute focus in her eyes as she drew, almost as if she had done this before. She worked in a restaurant, and Inuyasha was pretty sure he remembered her saying she even did some baking, so she most likely had done this before. On a cake at least.

When she was done with the chocolate, she grabbed the jar of caramel and began painting him with that as well. Inuyasha had taken the honey dipper from his mother's old honey jar to make it easier to decorate with, and Kagome used it to accent the major chocolate work on his skin. She took extra care covering his nipples and belly button.

Kagome was about to get to work when she looked up and realized she had forgotten to take the strawberry jam. She went all out on covering his chest, so that was a no go. She scrunched her face up a little, thinking about what she could do with it, when suddenly the idea hit her.

"Hand me the strawberry jam?" she asked, innocently batting her eyelashes at him.

He did as she asked, going as far as opening the jar before handing it to her. She tossed him a sweet smile before taking hold of his left hand and dipping each finger into the jam. She gestured for him to take the jar back, watching him grab it with his free hand. She wanted until right before the jar was going to hit the table, and took his thumb into her mouth.

Just as she thought would happen, the jar clattered onto the table, the strange sensation of Kagome sucking on his fingers taking away all brain functions.

Inuyasha had never had someone suck on his fingers before, and if you had asked him prior to tonight if that was something he'd be into, Inuyasha would have probably answered with a scrunched face and a "hard no". Now though? He could see the pros.

She thoroughly cleaned his fingers, wrapping her tongue languidly around each digit and sucking hard enough to feel the blood flow temporarily stop. Inuyasha couldn't keep in the low moan as he imagined her using that tongue in the same way on his cock.

She gave him a break by starting with the chocolate on his face next. She pressed the flat of her tongue against each cheek, using the tip to sensually lick the chocolate off his nose and along his jaw, ending her explorations of his face with a sweet kiss. It was slow and wistful, sweet from of the chocolate.

Inuyasha parted his mouth to let her tongue in when she began licking across the seam. He used his right hand to thread through her hair, deepening the kiss. Gods, did she taste absolutely fucking divine, like chocolate covered cherries.

Far too soon, she pulled away from him, nipping his bottom lip for attempting to pull her back in. Kagome used her own hand to run through his hair, tipping his head back enough so she could run her tongue up and down the skin, licking up all the chocolate dots she had placed there.

Her tongue was so warm, and soft. It left him in a daze as she moved lower to tackle his chest. From the way she licked, starting from one side to the other and slowly making her way south, she must have drawn an elaborate maze. Her tongue deftly moved with precision; she knew exactly where to go.

Inuyasha moaned, his eyes half mast in pleasure, as Kagome sucked at his nipples. She took her time there, giving each one an equal amount of attention, erasing all signs of the caramel that covered them before moving on.

It was the most pleasurable torture Inuyasha had ever endured. She was getting closer and closer to the whipped cream tower that covered him, but it was obvious that Kagome was going to savor the taste of him before digging in. No amount of skin was forgotten as she traced lines of fire down his chest, dipping her tongue into his caramel filled belly button. Sometime during her travels downward, Inuyasha had grabbed a hold of her hair, helping keep it pinned back so she didn't get any chocolate or whipped cream in it. It was also an exercise in control, being careful that he didn't pull her hair too hard to cause her any pain.

Truth be told, Kagome was excited to get to the whipped cream portion of her dessert hanyou, although not entirely for what lay underneath. She had been eyeing that cherry since she walked in on him. It was the best part of a dessert after all.

She licked a line from the base of the tower to the tip, careful to not get too close to the skin of his shaft, picking up the cherry with the tip of her tongue and placing it between her teeth with the stem pointing out toward Inuyasha. Her gut reaction was to bite into the cherry and satiate her desire for the small fruit, but looking up at Inuyasha she had a better idea.

Leaning in towards him, she stuck out the stem towards his lips, offering him one last taste of her before she finally got a taste of him. Inuyasha greedily took the stem in his mouth, moving his lips generously over hers as she bit into the cherry, sharing the juice between the two of them for a moment before pulling apart.

Inuyasha wished he knew how to tie cherry stems with his tongue. He wanted to show her just what he could do with that tongue of his. Instead, he spit it out over the edge of the bed, far more concerned with what Kagome was about to do next.

Kagome had already moved to nestle herself between his legs, laying on her chest with her legs propped up at the knees, ankles crossed. Every time Kagome moved to another position, Inuyasha didn't think she could get any sexier, only to be proven wrong just a moment later. She gave him one last sultry look, placing her hands on his thighs to gently massage them, before taking the flat of her tongue from the base of his balls to the tip of his dick, all the way down to the skin.

Inuyasha pulled a low growl from deep in his chest at the feel of her tongue running up and down his hardened length. She felt even more amazing than he imagined she would, and he wasn't sure whether it was because he had been dry for so long or because Kagome just had a lot of practice.

They had been honest with each other from the beginning about their past sexual experiences. While Inuyasha wasn't a stranger to the act, Kagome had been with far more partners than himself, and with the way she licked his dick like her favourite ice cream cone was proof of that. Gods, when was the last time he received a blowjob anyways? Not since Kikyo, and that was years ago.

He played with the idea of threading his hand through her hair again, wanting to constantly be touching her, to feel her shiver as his claws lightly grazed her scalp. But as she finished licking off all the whipped cream, she fully engulfed his dick in her mouth, relaxing her jaw to fit as much of him in as she could. Inuyasha put holes into the bedsheets from gripping them so hard, and he was grateful he had stayed his hand from her head.

Inuyasha's head was spinning at the wet sounds of Kagome's mouth salivating around his dick. He didn't know how much more of this he could take before blowing his load early, and he much rather preferred the thought of cumming inside her undoubtedly wet pussy instead of her mouth.

"K-Kagome,"

She didn't slow down, didn't even look up at him as the hand that was squeezing towards the base tightened and the movements of her mouth went a little faster and deeper.

"Nng….Kags…."

Kagome could feel his balls tighten and knew he couldn't hold it much longer. The act of licking food off Inuyasha's body aroused her far more than she would have expected, and there was one aspect of the "banana split" that Inuyasha was missing: the garnish of chopped nuts. The chocolate and caramel she poured all over him and the whipped cream left her with a wonderfully sweet taste in her mouth, but she wanted to know how the salty taste of his cum would mix with it.

She ran a finger from her other hand along his perineum and moaned as she gave him one last hard suck. The vibrations from the skin to skin contact of her lips caused Inuyasha to let out a pitched whine as he filled her mouth with his cum. She held him fast in her mouth, keeping some controlled movement of her hand on his shaft as she swallowed every last drop of him.

Salty and sweet. Kagome was sure this was the ultimate way to give a blowjob, and she hoped by the panting she could hear from Inuyasha that he'd let her do it again sometime.

After cleaning up every last drop of his cum, she gave one last, chaste kiss to the tip of his cock and started lifting herself up by the arms when she was suddenly grabbed by the forearms and hauled up towards his face. He smashed his lips against her, clinking their teeth together as he pushed his tongue into her mouth, groaning at the taste of himself on her. He wanted to tell her how much he enjoyed what she gave him, but words seemed immaterial and not enough, so he decided to show her instead.

In fact, he loved it so much, he knew he had to return the favor. Besides, Kagome got to have her fun, so it was only fair that Inuyasha should as well.

He wrapped his arms around Kagome and flipped them so he was top, not once severing their connection at the lips. Kagome didn't seem to mind the change as her hands roamed his body, tracing the muscles up his arms and in his shoulders. When the need for air became too great, Inuyasha moved down to line open mouthed kisses to the pulsepoint in her neck, nipping the jaw on his way there.

It took a considerable amount of restraint to not move himself even lower. She looked absolutely delectable laying under him, her nipples already pebbled and hard from her aroused state. She had a soft expression in her eyes, but there was still a light held in there that waited for Inuyasha's next move.

Just as she had done, he reached over her to grab the chocolate sauce and caramel and carefully spread it all over the tops of her breasts and stomach, saving the caramel for her exposed nipples. It was not nearly as intricate as Kagome's designs had been; despite his desire to give back the love she gave him, he was slowly becoming impatient. It had been so long since he made love to a woman, and the imagined feeling of her warm heat clutching him as he pumped into her made him grow harder by the second.

He also didn't have nearly as much space as she did. Inuyasha didn't want to get chocolate syrup on her lingerie, which he guessed probably cost a good deal.

Inuyasha set the toppings down on the nightstand, bringing his nose to the silk material of her bra and gently rubbed his nose against it. The silk was so soft against his skin and smelled strongly of her natural scent, intoxicating him.

His original plan was to slowly work his way down her body, but he couldn't fight the instinct to lay his tongue flat against her right nipple, licking up all the caramel in one swoop. Her body twitched, not quite anticipating his touch there yet, and she let out a sharp gasp as he curled his tongue around her nipple and completely enveloped it into his mouth.

Kagome's body was already beginning to tremble, not used to the feeling of someone's hot breath against her skin. She arched her chest upwards towards his face, desperate to keep that connection intact. Every lick and suck was sending jolts of pleasure down to her core, setting her body ablaze in passion. When he started nibbling with his teeth, Kagome trailed her hands up around his head, gently grasping the base of his ears and massaging them.

Inuyasha growled at the sensation, her soft touch sending shivers down his spine. Despite how good it felt, Inuyasha let her nipple go with a loud pop! and with almost lightening speed, grabbed her wrists and trapped them together above her head. This time was for Kagome; Inuyasha was determined to make her feel just as good as he did - if not more - and currently, that didn't include him. Not in the same way.

Until he could bury himself in her, the only thing he wanted from her was to hear her moaning in pleasure.

"Ah ah, no touching yet baby," he told her, keeping himself lifted off her just enough to take her in. Kagome moaned at the absence of his lips, arching her back just a little bit more to tempt him to come back for more. Inuyasha wished he could keep her in this position. He loved the way her chest opened up to him from this angle, but he fully planned on giving both nipples this undivided attention. Unfortunately he couldn't grow a third arm.

"Tell you what," he said, placing open mouth kisses down her neck. "If you can keep your hands up here, I'll make it worth your while,"

Kagome rolled her hands into fists, trying her hardest to break free as he gently pulled on her earlobe, snaking his tongue up the sides. She wasn't sure she could keep still while he lapped at her skin. She wanted something to do with her hands, and his ears were a perfect distraction.

But he was giving her a challenge, and Kagome had no plans to back down anytime soon.

"Then show me what you got," she replied, relaxing her hands and lowered her body back down into the bed.

Inuyasha released her wrists slowly, making sure they stayed where he put them. His hand slowly lowered down, caressing her cheek and trailing a line down her neck straight to her breast. He cupped the underside of her left breast, lifting it right to his mouth.

Kagome sighed as his other hand came up to the other breast, pulling and twisting the nipple. She managed to keep her wrists where they were, but couldn't help flexing her hands.

When he was convinced her breasts had been worshipped long enough, he slowly worked his way down her body, licking the chocolate off as he went. Her skin was soft, arguably softer than even the lingerie she wore. Inuyasha had to control himself from marking her all over her stomach, settling for quick nips that only turned the skin red for a few moments.

Inuyasha couldn't wait any longer. He was so close to getting to taste her, and he was salivating at the prospect. Her belly button was the last place he focused on - swirling his tongue around it - before gripping her left thigh in his hand and lifting it so it sat on his shoulder. He used his other hand to spread her right leg, opening herself up to him fully.

Without thinking about it, he brought his nose against her dark curls and inhaled, letting out a deep groan. She smelled absolutely exquisite, a spicy scent reminiscent of ginger surrounding him. The image of her panting underneath him, pussy already glistening from how wet she was for him, was more perfect than he could have ever imagined.

He dove in, licking a long swipe from slit to clit. She was sweet and salty at the same time, something uniquely Kagome, and he’d never get enough. He worked his tongue in overtime, starting at the ever quickly hardening nub. He flicked his tongue back and forth, bracing his hands against her thighs as she twitched with each flick, before moving down a little lower. He used his right hand to gently push apart her folds, each swipe of the tongue imitating a soft caress to her sensitive nerves.

Kagome moaned at the feeling, jolts of pleasure shooting through her body like electricity. She had given up on his challenge, moving her hands down from above her head and threading her fingers through his hair, gently scraping his scalp with her nails.

She could feel her eyes roll towards the back of her head as he plunged his tongue inside her. There was something about receiving oral that just sent her over the edge. The feel of his tongue swirling inside her, hitting her innermost walls as she tried to keep him in, had her gasping and squirming.

Despite the overwhelming feeling, she made sure to keep her hands clear of his ears, not wanting to accidentally pull or pinch them. She tried lifting her pelvis off the bed, but her trembling body was no match for the pure strength of his arms as he held her down. Instead, she pushed his head further forward, making his nose bump her clit, sending jolts of pleasure straight to her core.

Inuyasha had to grind his pelvis into the bed to find a bit of relief from the sensory overload. He was drunk on the taste of her, but his impatience was beginning to get the best of him. He wanted to know how she felt wrapped around his dick, sucking him in and milking him dry.

He relished in the small whines Kagome made as he nuzzled his nose against her nub. He could feel her legs begin to shake as he slowly made his way upward, taking his time to generously lick around her folds before turning his tongue's attention to her swollen pearl.

It felt like the breath was being squeezed from Kagome's chest. Every inhale was followed by a shallow, barely present exhale. His tongue was working in overdrive. Every flick, every swirl had her entire body trembling under the force of her well awaited orgasm just starting to break over the horizon.

Inuyasha, in an effort to end their collective misery, took her swollen nub between his lips and sucked, letting out a contented growl, the vibrations finally sending her over the edge. Kagome let out an almost shrill whine and arched her back, her thighs tense with the desire to capture Inuyasha's head between them. Her eyes clouded, unable to focus on anything but the explosive orgasm running throughout body.

Inuyasha stayed right where he was, lapping up every drop of her essence that spilled from her. His ears stood at attention as he listened to her mewling, a soft rumbling spreading throughout his chest at the thought that he made her feel this way.

Inuyasha kept at her folds, slowly licking her clean, until the tremors stopped racing through her body. He pushed himself up so he could get a better image of the woman under him. Her face was flushed red, small tendrils of hair already beginning to stick to her neck, and her chest was heaving, taking in large gulps of air. When her breath was starting to go back to normal, she finally focused her gaze on Inuyasha, eyes filled with lust.

Inuyasha found it difficult to keep her strong gaze, his confidence from before slowly wavering now that there was nothing to distract either of them. Inuyasha wiped his chin on his upper arm, suddenly embarrassed about the mess he had made despite his best attempt at licking her clean.

Kagome let out a short puff of air, not wanting to fully chuckle at the man on top of her. She wasn't trying to laugh at him, he just looked so adorable. His eyes tried not to land on her face, but he didn't shy away from running them up and down her body. He was looking at her with what Kagome could only describe as reverence, yet just a tinge of uncertainty lingered.

Kagome leaned up, tugging one of his forelocks gently to bring his face to hers so they could share a kiss. It was slow and determined all at the same time; Kagome tried to pour her heart into it, to try and let him know that it was okay. They were okay, and Kagome wanted nothing more than to be with him like this for the rest of the night.

Kagome could taste herself on his tongue, and it only helped fuel the fire that had settled slightly after her body wracking orgasm. She wound her hands behind his neck, grazing the back of his neck with her fingernails, causing a deep groan to emit from Inuyasha's chest.

"Inuyasha, I want you," Kagome purred, running a finger lightly over the outlines of his ears while the other hand ran lines up and down his chest.

"Kagome…"

Inuyasha tried to keep his actions calm and smooth - leaning over to the bedside table to grab a condom from the drawer - a feat that proved to be difficult as Kagome continued to run her hands across whatever body part of his she could reach. His hands shook as he slowly rolled it onto his dick. When he was ready, he lowered himself down to lay on top of her, being careful not to put his weight on her, and instead into his arms that framed her face. She opened herself up to him, allowing him to nestle his stiff erection in between her legs.

"Kagome," he whispered, nuzzling his nose against her skin, starting from one cheek to the next. "Are you sure?"

Kagome brought her lips up against his one more time, teasing him with her tongue, swiping it along his lips, lightly caressing his own tongue in the process. She gently nipped his bottom lip when pulling back for air. She leaned up towards the top of his head, her breath ghosting the fine hairs of his ears.

"Take me, Inuyasha,"

Inuyasha had never heard words so sweet.

He slowly sank into her, nearly wincing at the pressure he felt. God she was tight! Already her walls were clenching and pulsing around his cock, her warmth seeping into him all the way up to his chest. Kagome moaned when Inuyasha was buried in her as far as he could be, basking in the fullness of having him inside her. For a minute, neither of them moved, each of them getting used to being so intimately joined.

Inuyasha kissed all along her jaw and neck - internally rejoicing when Kagome tilted her head back enough to bare more of her neck to him, a sign of submission to an Inu youkai.

Once Kagome was used to the added girth inside her, she rocked her hips up, letting him know she was ready for him to start moving.

He started slow, pulling out till just the tip remained before sliding back in. Inuyasha was the one to moan this time, Kagome letting out an erotic sigh as her body shivered under his touch. Every thrust sent a wave of pleasure through his body, the smell of their activities slowly beginning to permeate the air around them, creating a natural musk that was absolutely intoxicating.

Inuyasha raised himself up onto his arms just enough to look at her face as he continued to thrust into her. Kagome’s eyes were only halfway open, seeing but not seeing as she let her body be taken over by the pleasure of having him be not just inside of her, but to actively give her what her body desired. Her mouth was parted open, and Inuyasha could hear every little breathy moan she made as he tilted his hips back and forth, torturing her slowly.

Kagome hooked her ankles behind his legs in an effort to keep him as deep inside her as possible. One hand was gripping his bicep, the other was sinking into the supple flesh of one of his buttcheeks.

“Inuyasha....I….I need…”

“What do you need, baby?”

“I need more,”

“More of what?” he teased, slowing down his thrusts so he could circle his hips into her. Kagome let out a small cry at the sensation.

“I need it harder….faster…”

Inuyasha let out a low growl, and, with the precision only one with youkai ancestry could pull off, he fully raised himself up onto his knees, keeping himself inside of her. He grabbed both of her legs, hooking her ankles behind his head and gave her exactly what she asked for.

He began pounding into her with the fervor of a crazed man. Kagome became far more vocal, gasping and moaning at the force and speed with which he was fucking her with. Her head tilted back into the pillow, forcing her chest open to his eyed. Her breasts were bouncing violently against his movements.

“Touch yourself, Kagome,” he ordered, his tone leaving no room for disobeyment. She instantly grabbed her breasts, molding each of them to her hands before pinching and rolling her nipples between deft fingers.

Kagome was on fire, the heat radiating from her core and spreading all over her body. Once again, the ability to exhale was quickly becoming lost to her, the holding of her breath only making the heat in her groin feel more pronounced. Her legs were beginning to ache, but she could barely feel the tension as he continued to pound into her, using the force and dexterity only a youkai could give her.

Inuyasha could feel he was close to the end, the feel of her wet pussy clenching around his hardened length bringing him closer and closer. He could hear every gasp and hitch of her breath, knowing that she was getting close herself. He wanted to give her one more orgasm before his own. Being mindful of his claws, he snaked his right hand down and began rubbing her clit, his rough, calloused fingers inducing the right amount of friction for Kagome’s legs to tremble.

“Nn..ahhh...Inuyasha...”

“Come on baby. Cum for me, Kagome,”

All it took were those four words to send Kagome over the edge. She let out a high pitched whine, white spots blurred her vision as a tidal wave of pleasure crashed over her body. Inuyasha let out his own yelp, unprepared for the pressure that came when her walls clenched around his cock, feeling as if she was cutting off blood flow. He erratically drove into her a couple more times before shooting his seed into the condom he wore.

Inuyasha slowly lowered Kagome’s legs to the bed before falling forward, catching himself on his arms so he wouldn’t crush her. He nuzzled his face into the crook of her neck as Kagome wrapped her arms around his shoulders, absentmindedly grazing her fingers on the nape of his neck. They simply laid there, basking in the glowing aftermath of their orgasm, as they took a few deep breaths.

Inuyasha could have laid there all night, taking in the sweet scent of sex and sweat that had spread throughout the room. There was absolutely no way he was washing these sheets anytime soon. In fact, he might have to research how to bottle this scent, maybe put it in a candle, so that he could relive this moment at any time.

Of course, given the soft humming coming from the woman underneath him, he might be able to reenact this night in the very near future.

Not wanting to crush her any longer, Inuyasha finally pulled out - Kagome letting out a small grunt at the loss of him inside her - carefully taking hold of the now filled condom, tying up the end and throwing it in the small trash can beside his bed.

"I'll be right back," he told her, giving her a quick kiss before walking out of the room towards the bathroom, not giving a damn that he was walking around completely naked. He was still high on all that is Kagome to care about something as silly as that. He came back barely a minute later, after quickly wiping himself clean, with a warm, damp washcloth for Kagome.

He chuckled at the sight before him. Kagome had already cocooned herself under the sheets, a warm smile on her face as she brought the pillow she was holding up towards her face and took a deep breath. She looked so happy, and content, and satisfied. The youkai that slept deep within Inuyasha rumbled with joy at the thought that he was the one to make her feel that way.

She opened her eyes as soon as he reached the bed, her smile brightening just a bit more at the sight of him. Maybe it had just been a while, but Kagome was pretty sure that was some of the best sex she's ever had. Her heart melted a little at seeing the washcloth in his hands. She had always took care of her own needs afterwards, having never really stayed the night at a man's house after sex before. She had to admit, it was….nice, and made her feel more loved than even during the act itself.

She thanked him with another kiss, finding that it was hard to keep her hands off him for more than a minute. He must have felt the same, running his tapered claws through her mussed up hair as she took care of cleaning herself. The feel of the warm washcloth along her thighs mixed with his soft touches could have put her to sleep.

When she was finished, he took the washcloth from her and threw it in the corner of the room where his laundry basket sat. He grabbed the sheets to cover them with, wrapping his arms around her body, pulling her close to him so that her back was flush with his chest

"You know what the best thing about being an adult is?" Kagome asked. Inuyasha gave her an unintelligible reply, muffled by her own hair that he had buried his face into. She giggled from the hair that tickled her neck because of his breath.

"I don't know, you tell me" He repeated, now resting his head on her shoulder.

"Well, we were able to choose to eat dessert before dinner," she said with a laugh.

Inuyasha chuckled at her joke. "Dessert before dinner, that’s the dream,"

"Well, dessert has made me hungry for dinner," she said, playfully pushing him off her. She could feel that delicious ache between her thighs as she stood up, faltering a little on her first step. Inuyasha was ready to jump up if she fell, but Kagome shooed him away and walked to his closet to pull out a shirt of his to wear.

Inuyasha didn't think Kagome could be any more perfect than in that moment, wearing one of his favorite black long sleeved shirts. She looked beautiful when she dressed up in one of her floral dresses or high waisted skirts, and if all her lingerie looked like tonight's, then Inuyasha could count himself a lucky man. But there was something about seeing her in his clothes that riled up something primal in him.

Inuyasha had never really shown his more youkai tendencies to Kikyo when they were together. He had never suppressed them for her, but Kikyo generally ignored the topic, while Inuyasha's youkai side laid dormant and unimpressed with the woman Inuyasha had loved for so long.

Inuyasha had never experienced his youkai instincts feeling so active before. There was something about Kagome that fueled every fiber of his being, which was a little terrifying. He had only known Kagome for a month, how could he feel this strongly about her already? He certainly didn't want to scare her away because of it.

"Dinner can wait a few minutes, come back to bed," he said, rubbing the empty side of the bed

"Inuyasha, you can't let your apartment burn down because of unattended food! You promised me dinner and a movie. Besides," She exclaimed, a grin lighting up her face. “Who said we were done for the night,”

Kagome shot him a sly wink before stepping out of the room to go check on their dinner. The last thing Inuyasha wanted to do was get up after the mind blowing sex they just had - in fact, Inuyasha could fall asleep right where he laid - but a sudden gurgle of his stomach put thoughts of slumber on the back burner as hunger crept to the forefront. Another plus side to getting up was watching Kagome work in his kitchen, in nothing but his shirt.

Inuyasha thought there could be worse things to happen.

And so he flipped over the sheets, sauntering out into the kitchen, not bothering to cover himself. He would let her fiddle with his marinara sauce, and woo her with the fancy bottle of wine he bought for her to go with the meal. They’d then snuggle up together on the couch and put in a movie. The genre wasn’t important, it wasn’t as if they were going to watch it.

Like Kagome said, they weren’t done for the night, and he was looking forward to claiming her in every room of that damn apartment.

#day of love #one big bang #2 x 14 #inuyasha fanfiction #artist author collaborations #inukag

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kirindensetsu · 3 years

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The Making of Fubuki

((Reposting from Den of Angels workshop thread because I wanted my friends to be able to see~))

After years of pining after dolls I couldn't afford as a broke teenager, my first BJD was a Bobobie Sprite I purchased for my 18th birthday. Unfortunately, she didn't live up to my expectations and I never really bonded with her. Her face was cute enough, but the Bobobie body lacked the grace and posing ability I imagined for the Unseelie faerie I'd been daydreaming of for years. Sueding and wiring didn't help, blushing and tattooing highlighted her blockiness, it was a mess. I packed her away and tried not to think about my disappointment for 12 years. In the meantime I learned to build and paint resin garage kits, inherited one of my sister's dolls, bought some others, took anatomy & physiology in college, and did a couple extensive restorations and full-body modifications. I was sure I had thrown her away at some point as a failed project, but last weekend I found her tucked away in a doll bag I thought was empty. Having just finished substantial mods on a Dollshe body, and awaiting an unfinished Unoa kit for my birthday in September, I decided that I owed it to her to try again. Doll nudity below the cut, looooong post--

My Sprite was originally going to be a pooka with golden eyes and extensive woad tattoos. The golden eyes are incredible, so those are staying, but she's now going to be a blue oni to fit in with the rest of my collection. My plan is to do extensive additive epoxy work, and then to use Krylon Fusion to give everything a unified finish. The goal of the project is to reduce the... idk, STRAIGHTNESS of the old Bobobie body. I was never going to be happy with it, the lines were all far too rigid.

Head: Modified mouth for a wider, smirking smile. Magnets added to headcap (old Bobobie used an S-hook iirc; I did this part back in 2008). Forehead drilled for 3mm brass rod armature, and epoxy used to sculpt horns over rod. Bust: Substantial subtractive modifications to breasts, which involved removal and readdition of nipples. Addition of epoxy clay to back and shoulders to give a more curved body line in profile. Deepening of shoulder sockets with 18mm eye bevel, followed by sanding to make shoulders narrower. Waist: Reshaping of upper torso joint into sphere for smoother range of motion. Subtraction of resin in back and addition of epoxy in front to enhance lumbar curve. Hips: Substantial reshaping of lower waist seam to more naturally follow the pelvic girdle. It reminded me of granny panties before Added epoxy to butt, again for lumbar curve. Thighs: Suwariko joint mod (cut the thigh and added a PVC insert to enable swivelling at the hip). Added epoxy to make her thighs look less straight. Calves: Removed 1cm of length at the ankles and rebevelled the socket. Removed resin at the ankles to bring them in, and added epoxy at the calves to make them curvier. Feet: Sculpted little claws, which were cute, and then decided the feet needed to be 5mm longer. Cut across, drilled and pinned with brass rod for structural strength, gap filled with epoxy clay. I also modded her feet to have defined arches and balls back when I first got her. Alas, spitting into the ocean. I added S-hooks, but did so by drilling the ankle and inserting brass rod to form the axle for the hook. Arms: The proportions on her upper arms BOTHERED me! they were so SHORT! and I only just figured out that's what I hated about them last week! I added 5mm to the upper arms by cutting them in the middle and using SteelStik to make a structural repair (plumber's epoxy putty has a shorter open time but far greater structural strength than artist's epoxy clay). Sanded the heck out of the wrists to give them a more delicate taper. Hands: Beyond salvage. The hands were my least-favorite part of this sculpt. I tried to bulk them up to look less spidery but it was just too difficult... I've ordered a different pair of MSD hands which will have claws added, and then when everything is painted it'll all match. Thanks for reading this far! Here's a preview of what her golden eyes look like next to Krylon Fusion in Antique Blue.

((first progress post)) I think I'm mostly done adding epoxy clay (at least where it'll show; presumably the wrist sockets will require tweaks to fit the new hands), so now it's time for finish sanding. I start with 60 grit for shaping, then switch to a 120 grit sanding sponge. To check for scratches, pinholes, and inadequately feathered edges, I apply a wash of diluted acrylic paint. Once the paint has dried, I scrub the piece with a nylon scouring pad. Paint remains in the surface irregularities.

All sanded with 220 grit. I don't think I'll be going higher than 400 because I want there to be some tooth for the paint.

Any pitting in the epoxy clay that can't be sanded out is marked with a Sharpie and will be patched with Tamiya spot putty.

I did a test spray of the Krylon Fusion on the headcap and it's fantastic! Holy cow is it *poisonous* tho, I'm used to working with volatile chemicals but this was something else. Get OUT OF THE AREA between coats and leave it outside until it stops outgassing, not just until it's ready to handle.

This test piece is four light coats sprayed 1 minute apart, allowed to cure for 4 hours, and then wetsanded to remove the spray texture. It's pretty sturdy but I will wait several more days to see how it continues to cure before experimenting with matte sealants. ((progress update 2))

Haven't done much but sand-and-fill-and-sand-and-fill, but my 14mm beveller came in today so I can start deepening her elbow and ankle sockets. Added some epoxy clay to the insides of the eyewells so 14mm eyes will fit with no gap. I need a needle file to clean up the corners of her mouth... Monster feets! Nails on the right came out better than the left, still need to feather-sand everything.

Elbows progress. The early Bobobie elbows are I guess /technically/ double-jointed because the joint is a sphere with two slots, but I thought I could do better than that. You can see epoxy clay spliced in to make the sphere into a peanut: this isn't a structurally sound repair unless you pop it apart and drill/pin/glue-epoxy it back together.

View from the back. By keeping the joint heads spherical with no elbow-shaped detailing, there's some rotation as well as flexion, which I like.

Touching her face with one of her old hands. I hope the new ones come soon!

((progress update 4))

In good news, these parts are all ready for paint! It's really hard to do prepwork with no filler primer, hope I didn't miss any spots...

In less good news, her new hands arrived and they are... very smol ;u; I forgot that the new trend for slim minis means that everyone has TINY LITTLE HANDS.

They are, however, beautifully sculpted and a good 3D reference for what needs fixing and how. Bobobie palm is very short relative to fingers: I made a transverse cut behind the knuckles and added epoxy to lengthen More curved volume across the back of the hand: Not necessarily realistic, but looks a little cuter, plus it makes the transition into the cylinder of the wrist look less stylistically jarring. More defined joint angles: Some of these I did via cut-and-thermoform repositioning, mostly I'm aiming to fake it by building up and carving away at the weird smooth curves. The fingers are just TOO SKINNY: But obviously I'm not going to squish rice-grain-sized blobs of epoxy to the fingers, right? It's too fiddly, it doesn't want to stick. What's the solution? Brace for a truly hideous WIP image--

"AAAAAAGH WHAT IS THAT DARK GRAY MESS" it's JB Weld epoxy! It's like load-bearing, slow-curing modeller's putty! Slathering putty onto an armature and then carving it away to refine the shape is how anime figure artists make hands and detailed hair. I was thinking about it from a polymer clay technique/perspective so I missed the obvious solution. Hand in the foreground has more layers than the hand in the background, every layer gets the shape a lil closer. ((progress post 5)) Parts set up on sticks so I can handle them without touching...

... and after 4 light coats!

Closeup of the head, lil' glossy because it's still drying. For the deeper areas like the joint slots, mouth, and the crannies of the ears, I'm going to have to decant some of the paint into a jar and apply it with a sacrificial brush.

((progress post 6)) I return from Depression! I finally finished sanding-and-spraying the Krylon Fusion coats, gave her a last polish with microfine to even out the texture, and have started blushing her. I'm using a mixture of Tamiya X-series acrylics applied via airbrush for basic contouring, then I'll go back in with pastel to add warm tones and details.

Fun discovery: in an attempt to cover some accidental overspray, I tried spraying the Fusion directly into the paint cup of the airbrush and using it to "erase" back to the base color. I'm NEVER using this product straight from the can again, it goes on so smooth and gorgeous from the airbrush! No orange peel or bubbles to sand away. I'm seriously tempted to get a can of pink and try blushing with it.

((progress post 7)) Doing a faceup over a spray-painted substrate is HARD I want to CRY. I talked about sanding out the spray texture to get an untextured surface, right? Welp, didn't/couldn't sand well enough in the corners of the mouth and the folds of the eyelids, so it's crusty-looking with pastels over it and now there's nothing I can do about it that doesn't involve stripping down to resin and starting again.

((final post)) Sueded and strung!

I didn't take pictures of the sueding process because I was using Barge Cement and it is messy and time-sensitive. I used masking tape to make templates of her joints, transferred to some thin gray lamb suede I found on eBay, and glued it fuzzy side out. The suede was thicker than real pliver, more like the thickness of silicone KIPS discs, but I think it worked out without too many fit issues. The trim store had 3.5mm elastic in a beautiful slate-blue color that I thought would look nicer in the joint slots, so she's strung throughout with thicker elastic. Some more poses to show off the functional mods~ Suwariko joints let her sit crosslegged, and more mobile wrists let her put her hands into the pose.

A more ball-and-socked shaped contact surface at her waist lets her slouch at a full range of angles instead of being locked into two.

With longer upper arms, she can reach the ground in this pose! You can also see how the modded waist joint lets her cock her hips.

She could always stand with locked knees. I think she needs some wire in her legs to let the suwariko joints hold their rotation against gravity, but I'll see how the elastic tension settles in first.

A parting shot out the snowy window. We've been having a hard time picking between a few names for her, but I think this settles it. Welcome back, Fubuki~

#making-of-fubuki #doll custom #bjd #bobobie

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mcrmadness · 3 years

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Guys, I have this one pencil WIP I need a bit help with...

It’s still a WIP as I said but I wanted to ask: what’s wrong with Bela’s face? I can’t see it properly anymore. Does it even look like Bela yet? The reference photo is not the best one and believe me or not - Bela’s eye is the most difficult part in this whole thing. Here’s the reference photo and of course it’s easy to tell from this it’s Bela because why wouldn’t it be him, but it’s super difficult to draw right when this is the original:

The 21-years-old me really was a genius while choosing this photo to draw. Not.

Based on the eyes of the photobombing Rod (lol), I think also Bela’s eye do the same red-eye thing (how is it called in English? In Finnish it’s just red-eye...) and I tried to draw this without such effect but idk how to draw eyes from that angle. I googled for reference photos but it’s still so small that it’s hard to really draw that way with a pencil (the iris/pupil thing literally the size of the tip of the pencil). Also Bela’s head is slightly tilted and my hand is so good at drawing straight lines even without rulers that it feels almost impossible to draw anything that is even slightly tilted. I sometimes try to tilt the reference photos as well as the paper so that I could still draw not-tilted images but I just struggle at figuring out which way to turn the paper to make it look tilted on the paper, and tilted on the right direction too. I think there’s also something about the shape of Bela’s skull that I need to fix, I’m just not entirely sure what is it... move his forehead forward or make the back of his head bigger? I’m not entirely sure yet.

I also have to point out that this is actually a very old WIP originally. I started it in 2012 (yes I’m old, yes I turned 21 that year...) and I left it as a lineart that I thought I’d never continue, but I did in 2019 but wasn’t happy with the faces which is why I never posted it anywhere but also never used fixative on. (The old scans are under the cut for the first time ever to see.) So, almost everything that you see in today’s WIP is original (at least from the 2019 version) but just blended because I got a bit too much into blending so that I just needed to try that out with this one too and see if they (the eyeshadow applicators mainly) still work like little magic wands. And oh yes, they do indeed.

What I have drawn again or fixed are: the heads, Bela’s right hand (aka the one at Farin’s side), the side/back line of Farin’s jacket and his left leg (right one in the drawing). I might still need to do something about Bela’s legs because they look a bit weird for some reason but as you can see, the background in the reference photo is black so I have had to improvise there a little. That’s also the reason for why the end of the guitar looks really bad - it gets cropped out in the photo, but I might still try to fix that one too eventually.

Talking of the other things wrong in the drawing and what I’m still gonna fix one way or another - Farin’s mouth is too big (woooow). I haven’t had the courage to resize it because I’m afraid it would never look as nice as it does now but I’m afraid I have to do that anyway if I want to make it look correct. His whole head actually ended up being way too big and I have managed to narrow everything else down so far but not the mouth because I haven’t wanted to, yet. Also I have given him this cunning grin instead of just a smile so I need to move his lower jaw backwards a little, I see.

So my question is the same as in the beginning: does Bela look like Bela yet? Or does he at least look like he does in that photo? Is there something in particular that is still way too off that I should fix since I can’t see that? I do have this photo turned into black and white to make it easier to draw, and I’m still going to soften some lines in the final piece but atm I’m just trying to get Bela’s face look correct, as well as Farin’s mouth, and I will be going through everything else in this drawing later on to see if there’s anything else with proportions and such to fix (plus just cleaning up the highlights etc.) before I can call it finished.

Feel free to point out also if there’s something you see that I didn’t mention. Chances are that I either a) haven’t see it myself yet or b) just forgot to mention it.

Here’s the lineart WIP from 2012:

This is how it looked like in 2019 - I redrew almost everything in that original WIP actually:

I somehow had completely forgotten about blending because I hadn’t drawn anything in YEARS. So after my previous really successfull attempt with blending, I decided to try with this one again and it alone made already a huge impact on the drawing.

#mcrmadness draws #my wips #dä fanart #die ärzte #belafarin #and I appreciate CONSTRUCTIVE feedback!!!#I wanna know WHAT is wrong with it because 'it already looks good' is not helping! I know it's not good ENOUGH and I wanna know #what is it that I need to do and that is why I'm posting this wip here in the first place!#I usually never post wips because I don't want to 'spoil' anything but this time I need help.

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biwenqing · 3 years

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So this is for the day three prompt: Social Media AU for Spring Sleuthing over at @tsomdevents! I wrote this fic a while ago, and it fits perfectly for this. But I realized it was going to be more than one chapter. I will continue it once the prompt week is over!

WZ @theroommatedilema

i made this secret account to live tweet my two oblivious roommates having a quarantine romance. or not. they are idiots. follow to find out will they/won’t they.

he/him | Joined March 2020

WZ @theroommatedilema . March 27 we are starting week 2 of quarantine and i realized i needed to document this. my two roommates who have been dancing around each other since before shit hit the fan are driving me crazy and if i have to watch this the world has to as well.

WZ @theroommatedilema . March 27 we need to give them code names because, while i don't think either of them will find this account, best not to tempt fate. so we have 'hot chef' and 'smart aleck'.

WZ @theroommatedilema . March 27 all that out of the way, we can now get to the live tweet. hot chef was doing his laundry so he was walking around the apartment shirtless. smart aleck walked into a wall, not once, not twice, but three times. hot chef didn't help this when he put on an apron

WZ @theroommatedilema . March 28 smart aleck started the day by almost burning down our kitchen trying to make breakfast to impress hot chef. luckily i was awake and stopped things before there was a grease fire, before making breakfast myself. they both seemed to like it.

WZ @theroommatedilema . March 29 hot chef thinks we should try and exercise, but i think it is cold and slippery out, so if he expects me to join him on his morning runs, he is wrong. smart aleck did make an attempt and i got to watch him wipe out from the window. lucky for him hot chef caught him. yea i know

WZ @theroommatedilema . March 29 follow up to wipe out: hot chef helped smart aleck back into the house and then took care of him, before then still going on his run. smart aleck pouted next to me on the couch, watching out the window for when he came back like a puppy.

WZ @theroommatedilema . March 30 smart aleck has decided he needs to clean and organize the whole apartment. i think he just doesn't want to do his real job. this has led to an argument with hot chef because smart aleck has taken everything out of the kitchen cabinets and messed with his books.

WZ @theroommatedilema . March 30 as a household, we have a pretty solid 'don't touch my stuff' understanding, but that apparently goes all out the window during a pandemic. hot chef keeps all his cooking tools and supplies in a special order that makes sense only to him and i leave it be

WZ @theroommatedilema . March 30 but smart aleck wants to "help" and didnt ask if anyone wanted help so here we are. don't worry, this account isn't in vain, i can confirm that their argument is more bickering and that bickering is the stereotype of an "old married couple"

WZ @theroommatedilema . March 30 SA: but you do so much, i wanted to help! HC: if i need help, i'd ask for it SA: *arms crossed* would you? give an example of when you have asked for help. HC: ....i haven't needed help SA: bullshit! remember when you got the flu last year and didn't tell us?

WZ @theroommatedilema . March 30 SA: you practically passed out before you let WZ and i take you to see a doctor! and then you still argued about us making sure you got the food and fluids and everything you needed so you didn't die! HC: ...i didn't want either of you to get sick

WZ @theroommatedilema . March 30 SA: oh yes so ignoring the issue really helped? it’s better that you almost died? in case you didn’t already notice, smart aleck is always dramatic.

WZ @theroommatedilema . March 30 for those wondering, smart aleck is not wrong here. this is exactly how events occurred. it was only a few months after I moved in with them. for the fight i think smart aleck somehow won this round. tune in tomorrow for what happens next!

WZ @theroommatedilema . April 4 no updates because they have been pretending to ignore each other and focused on work. hot chef in particular. smart aleck claims it is because hot chef isn’t used to being cared about. he told me this in a deliberate stage whisper.

WZ @theroommatedilema . April 4 i think it is important to note that hot chef did still make dinner each night to share... he just went back to his room after.

WZ @theroommatedilema . April 5 i got a question asking what we all do for work. that’s classified. and mostly unrelated. though it is how we met in a very odd course of events.

WZ @theroommatedilema . April 5 that was not an invitation to send me more questions. i know you are all nosy, or else why would you be following this account. but we have established this account must go unnoticed.

WZ @theroommatedilema . April 5 fine. general ages = smart aleck is in his 20s. hot chef is in his 30s. and because you for some reason all want to know: i am also in my 20s.

WZ @theroommatedilema . April 5 pets = yes one. smart aleck has a pet cat named goat he inherited from a past roommate. goat the cat tries to eat anything and everything, thus the name. she particularly likes to eat house plants. she likes smart aleck the least, hot chef the most. i hold a pretty solid 2nd place.

WZ @theroommatedilema . April 6 update: they made up. a package arrived today and it was apparently a pan to replace one smart aleck had destroyed. hot chef made smart aleck’s favorite dinner. SA talked the whole way through to meal, and HC looked smitten. so we’re back to normal.

WZ @theroommatedilema . April 10 where do we rank the level of domestic where one person brushes their teeth/gets ready for the day while the other is in the shower? bonus points for some mild discussion and/or bickering.

WZ @theroommatedilema . April 11 smart aleck has a new scheme. he is trying to persuade hot chef to teach him to cook. so far HC has held firm. we mark day one of this new standoff.

WZ @theroommatedilema . April 12 i’ve been asked a few times why i don’t just use initials of smart aleck and hot chef’s names. it’s all part of keeping this hidden. i have also chosen nicknames that i don’t think they would think i’d use for them.

WZ @theroommatedilema . April 12 smart aleck is the type to figure this out if i’m not careful. he’s both too clever and too dumb for his own good. which is part of the reason i must document all of this, so i can shove it in his face later.

WZ @theroommatedilema . April 12 we are also on day two of cooking teaching standoff. i think some of you rightly assume SA is imagining hot chef standing behind him and idk helping him cut vegetables

WZ @theroommatedilema . April 13 standoff continues. i made dinner to see if that would throw the balance off. no change yet

WZ @theroommatedilema . April 14 resolution! hot chef did give in, on the condition that he teaches both of us. i didn’t manage to escape because smart aleck seemed to decide this was the only way. don’t know how this fits into whatever romantic daydreams he had.

WZ @theroommatedilema . April 14 i see those comments that this might give me a chance to put them together. but i think it is more fun to not help them at all. they need to do this on their own

WZ @theroommatedilema . April 15 to do such teaching, a grocery shopping mission is needed. because the world is... well. i suggested just they go together so fine. maybe i will try and assist.

WZ @theroommatedilema . April 15 level of domestic of sneaking things you know your “just friends roommate” loves but won’t buy for themselves in the cart without them knowing?

WZ @theroommatedilema . April 15 you ask how i know that and it is of course because smart aleck, so proud of himself, announced it as soon as he reentered the apartment. goat the cat tried to get into the bags to eat raw fish while this occurred.

WZ @theroommatedilema . April 16 first cooking lesson, some simple stir fry. i already can cook this so i get to just perch at the counter and watch. vote on the poll below how you think this will turn out

[hands brushing softly] [sparks, and not the sexy kind] [food hopefully?]

WZ @theroommatedilema . April 16 everyone who voted for fire won. the neighbors are quite upset. and not even goat the cat will eat the final product. i ordered take out and a fresh fire extinguisher while they dealt with the mild fire and smoke detector.

WZ @theroommatedilema . April 17 smart aleck is pouting so there will be no cooking lessons today. the good news (for his employer) is he seems to actually be focusing on doing his job.

WZ @theroommatedilema . April 20 hot chef actually asked smart aleck if he wanted to try cooking again. very interesting. this has mostly been coming from SA’s side, so i would call this positive movement.

WZ @theroommatedilema . April 20 SA has completely perked up and agreed.

WZ @theroommatedilema . April 20 oh apparently the plan is SA will watch and i get the place as the student in the kitchen. this is probably safer for everyone

WZ @theroommatedilema . April 21 for those asking what happen: dinner was made with no issue. I was in charge of the main dish and that left HC to work on side dishes. SA even helped wash and chop some vegetables. goat took some chicken right off SA’s plate and ran away with it growling.

WZ @theroommatedilema . April 21 i take that to mean the cat approves of my cooking. but she also tried to steal things from the trash, so that isn’t much of an endorsement.

WZ @theroommatedilema . April 22 SA is avoiding work and trying to clean again. he actually asked if he could move stuff around. growth.

WZ @theroommatedilema . April 25 hot chef spotted leaving smart aleck’s room this morning?

WZ @theroommatedilema . April 25 false alarm, he was just looking for the cat.

WZ @theroommatedilema . April 30 final report for this month: progress made in communication. new together activity established. the apartment has not burned down. a baby step closer, yet still so far away from them figuring this out...

#the sleuth of ming dynasty #tsomd #wang zhi #tang fan #sui zhou #springsleuthing #my fic #we'll pretend any grammar or spelling issues are on purpose idk amshauwhroaw #it is very late and i am Tired #sleuth trio #idk how dong'er fits into this i'm thinking on it #since this is only the start

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vodkassassin · 4 years

Note

Draco elfling? LOL it really wanted to autocorrect that to elf king

Lmao he wishes!!

Snippet: Draco elfling WIP

He’s absolutely tiny, his hair is short again, and he’s got no bloody clue where the hell he is.

Draco brushes dirt off his shins for possibly the twelfth time today, and scrambles as best he can up the side of a knobbly old fir tree to avoid the giant maneating spider that’s well the size of a fully grown skrewt, and finally begins to ask himself, why? Why him? What has he done to deserve this? He’d repented all his sins already, made peace with his enemies! Harry J. bloody Potter himself had said “Draco, I forgive you,” insomany words, so why can’t Draco catch a break?

He clings to a branch that hangs a bit lower than he really cares for, and prays to any higher power that will listen to save him, dammit, please, he will do so much better in life if he’s just saved, right now, saved and kept safe and not in danger of being turned into a corpse mummified by overly large webbing.

He will listen to whatever his mother says. He will hand write apology cards for every single person he’s ever wronged in his life. He will buy Daphne a new vase to replace the one he’d accidentally smashed the last visit over, so she’ll start talking to her sister again, because merlin but Astoria is so difficult to deal with when she’s moping. But Draco will fix it! He will! He’ll go out and— and he shall will each and every Malfoy property to charity, is what he’ll do!

Or just bloody well and give them over, post haste. No need to bring wills and death rites into it, because Draco is still very much alive—

He yelps, internally wincing at the squeaky, childlike little voice he’s been cursed with along with this useless, teeny little body, and reaches up to grasp wildly around for a more stable hold when the branch he’s clinging to starts to creak ominously. Come on! He’s not that heavy! This tree is lousy, how can this tiny baby body be enough to break that branch? It’s thicker around than he is currently tall!!

It cracks, and Draco has just enough time to lunge for the branch above it, hissing as the broken one gouges a jagged scrape down his side. Fresh blood springs up from the previously unmarked pearlescent flesh, and Draco really just wants to cry.

It hurts, dammit! And he’s little! He looks like a Merlin-damn child, he’s got the magic-given right to bloody well act like one, doesn’t he?

Long, hairy legs hiss and chitter right by him, somewhere along the trees. They brush right by his bangs, and he can hear it echoing in from all around him. This is so much worse than the Acromatula in the Forbidden Forest. Draco at least knows how to deal with those. No, these things are five times bigger and spit poison, no thank you, not at all!

Draco presses his forehead into the piney bark and sniffles. He scrunches his eyes shut, and he can feel the slow, menacing approach of the demon from the seventh level of hell, all however-many of its eyes aimed right at his back. There’s a click, craaack of its mandibles opening and shutting with a snap, ready to devour him, and all Draco can think about is what the hell would Harry do?

Turn around and stab it with its own tooth, as he bloody well did, at twelve. Draco’s is, what—this body can’t be older than five? What’s he going to do? Let the thing chomp on him just to get a weapon from its own hide? No thanks. Kudos to Harry Potter but Draco is different.

The spider closes in on him and Draco just ups and lets go of the tree branch, because why the hell not? He’s about to die anyway, might as well make it by his own terms.

He falls for what feels like forever, though he knows he can’t have climbed up that high what with his bitty little limbs being no longer than his own Merlin-damn wand—where was that useless shaft of wood, anyway?—and the wind and twigs whip by his face and leave marks as he descends. He hits another branch on the way down, somehow, which knocks the wind out of him, and Draco’s still working on trying to get his lungs to work again when a final branch scoops him right out of the air and makes off with him like a thief in the night.

They’ve run for a good two minutes before Draco finally wraps his head around the fact that trees don’t have arms and cannot, in fact, grab things even if they wanted to. He whips his head up to get a look at his captor, which is a miserable mistakes because it aggravates the large, dripping gash that runs along his side and is absolutely coated with half-crusted blood. Draco lets out a strangled whine, and curls back inward on it, hissing out another wordless cry when he sees all the red that marrs his previously white—not clean, but not a horror scene either— t-shirt.

A large hand firmly but gently angles his head into a rock-solid chest. Draco can hear a steady heartbeat under his ear despite the fact that they’re definitely not running anywhere under twenty miles an hour.

“Hush, little one. You will be safe soon.”

Draco sinks his teeth into his bottom lips and decides against complaining, as he’d been doing nothing but since waking up. This is rather what he’d been praying for, isn’t it? Perhaps a tad bit late, but… he can deal. He’ll find a way to deal.

#wip sampler basket #Draco elfling #Harry pottehp fanfic #Draco malfoy #LOTR #lord of the rings #crossover #vodka answers #vodkassassin fanfics

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goldeneyedgirl · 3 years

Text

TwiFicMas2020 Day 1: Anathema

It’s that time of year again - when I bombard you with fic I’ve written over the year and haven’t posted, whether it is an outtake, part of a WIP, or something that ended up going sideways but still had some cool bits I was proud of.

Everything will be tracked under the ‘TwiFicMas2020′ and ‘FicMas2020′ tags. Most fics are incomplete scenes - “--” is a scene break, “//” means that there’s a cut - it’s probably not yet written.

First up is Anathema, the fourth or fifth attempt at the ‘Alice works in a mortuary/funeral home’ idea that refuses to solidify itself - though I think I’m getting closer. I enjoy the idea that Charlie Swan is in on Forks’ secrets (before Jacob strips in front of him, lol) and I am always here for the supernatural world being more than just vampires and shifters.

I hope you enjoy and thank you for reading!

The day the Cullens arrive in Forks, two things happen.

The first, I draw both Death, and the Wheel of Fortune. A combination that, frankly, sounds time-consuming. I lie in bed and contemplate them for awhile. The cards are soft, from lifetimes of passing from hand to hand (my dearest and most beloved Great-Aunt Jeanne passed this set to me when she died. At the time, I was too young to understand the true gift in cards that had never before been touched by Brandon hands - before mine.) The cards are illustrated so carefully, so detailed. They smell like dried lavender and the scrap of linen that I wrap them in, and there is something so reassuring about each and every card.

I draw my cards every few days before I get up. I find it calming, the shuffle of them against my fingers, as I let my dreams fade. It’s a quiet time, and one I savour.

Eventually, I do have to get up, though. No rest for the wicked. The cards go back into the wooden jewellery box some young man carved for some young woman in Jeanie’s family long before I was even a glimpse of a thought, and back into my nightstand drawer.

I - we - live on the first floor of the Brandon Funeral Home, a perfectly respectable converted Georgian house at the end of Main Street, where it sweeps around to Cedar Road. It’s a shit place to have a corner, and more than once speed racers have spun out; whoever’s scraped off the road and our front walk usually end up in the freezers in the basement.

But I digress.

Breakfast is mundane. Dulcie is there, hair in curlers, and a frown on her face when she realises I am not dressed. I sit crosslegged across two thrift-store chairs in my camisole and booty shorts, spooning jam onto toast with the precision of a good scientist and ignore her reminding me of my dressing gown (a sturdy pink-flower print flannel that is buried in my closet. My preferred robe, a thin grey kimono, is currently in my laundry pile) and ‘common decency’, as if my elderly great-uncle is looking to leer at the decided lack of anything I have up north or down south.

Dulcie is… Dulcie. No replacement for Aunt Jeanie, but a good woman. I find it funny that Uncle Freddie is an old man now, and he still reels ‘em in. Or he would if Jeanie’s death hadn’t broken, shattered, and wrecked him. Dulcie worked for us for a few years before she set her eyes on the top bedroom and changing ‘Dulcie Dunn-Stanley’ to ‘Dulcie Brandon’.

Oh, that sounds very jaded. It’s mutual, Freddie and Dulcie. Their courtship was glacial and it’s really only recently that Dulcie’s been hinting about heading to the court house. And, honestly, whatever makes Uncle Freddie happy. Dulcie’s kind to me, we mostly get along, and her attempts to mother me are so far inconsistent - but she is usually pretty respectful.

My uncle lingers over his food; he’s got a new book open at his elbow, and no one can pry my uncle away from his books. They’re usually hardcover, non-fiction. Most of the boxes stored in the third floor are my uncles books.

After breakfast, I am banished to get dressed for work, which is in the basement today, where I am to be the hands as we prepare one Lewis Fletcher for his Saturday morning funeral. There’s a sack of bagged organs resting in the chest cavity, from the autopsy (elk or deer attack, the report says), and I get to stitch Lewis back together, get to fill him full of chemicals, seal things with putty, and get to face painting. The Fletchers are a pretty ordinary family locally, and the service will be simple - they were very agreeable when Freddie met with them last week.

I put my music on and hum as I prepare my kit. It’s no secret that an unqualified teenage girl doing this work probably breaks a lot of laws, but Freddie’s hands aren’t as steady as they used to be, and he’s old enough to remember when a family business meant that the younger generation was trained by the older at home, no degrees or certifications necessary.

Sometimes I wonder what Jeanie would have thought, me working down here like this. Would she have understood? Would she have been mad or upset or disappointed?

We’ll never know.

Freddie fetches us both a cup of tea, and hovers at my shoulder as I piece together Mr Fletcher’s chest cavity.

“Smaller stitches, Alice,” Freddie says, inspecting my work carefully. “Redo that section, stitch closer together, and small stitches.”

I nod, turning around to grab a scalpel from the tray beside me to cut the wonky stitches free and start again, and I freeze as the ice-cold feeling envelopes me. No, no, no it’s been so long…

For a moment, I am unfixed in time and space. I am still in the basement, with the buzzing fluorescent lights, and smooth metal drawers and cupboards, the stink of formaldehyde. But instead of a clean, bare second table, I am lying there. But I’m not dead, and I’m not alone. It’s him. The boy - man? - I’ve been seeing for so long, in visions and dreams. He’s hovering above me, a veritable sculpture of pale flesh as he peels off his shirt, our mouths still fused together, my hands gripping his hips. I am a much less collected figure, with my tights around my knees, one shoe still on and my shirt hiked up over my bra. Vision-Me pulls away to say something, and He laughs, and it’s then the light catches his eyes. Dark gold.

Golden-eyes.

“Oh fuck,” Real-Me says, and somehow Vision-Him knows I’m Seeing and looks right at me, where I’m standing with a scalpel in my hand.

“Alice?” My uncle’s hand on my shoulders brings me right back to the right point in time and space.

It’s at the point I hit the floor, manage to stab myself quite viciously with the scalpel and my uncle starts cussing.

It’s been a while between visions.

The Council was basically the reason Freddie and I stayed in Forks. It was a fifty-fifty split between honouring Jeanie’s wishes, and keeping me safe and out of sight - as if my aspirations were towards a Vegas nightclub act or international pop star. I wasn’t entirely clueless.

Forks was built in a special place. A place where the barriers between the ordinary and the extraordinary were a little thinner, where the supernatural were drawn to. Jeanie had theorised that was why the Quileute were able to tap into their spirit wolves so easily, and why the gene remained so strong, father to son without a constant presence of their enemies. I didn’t know enough of their history to have an opinion, but Forks was definitely a place with an interesting history that very few people knew - even I only knew a fraction of everything that happened, past and present. There were very few written accounts; most of the histories were oral and passed down on a strict need-to-know basis.

The Council were definitely in the know, and had been for generations. There was Billy Black, Sue and Harry Clearwater representing the Quileute tribe, there was Charlie Swan representing Forks and everyone not in the know, and there was Freddie and I. Freddie, was technically Jeanie’s representative, and was the Mediator between the Ordinary and the Others. Jeanie’s family had been Mediators for generations, but she’d never had children, so all of that had somehow fallen onto Freddie - and me.

It was extremely useful to have the Police Chief and a Mortician working the Council - we’d had to fudge more than a few deaths. There was always someone or something passing through the Olympic Peninsula, and we’d negotiated, challenged, threatened, and banished more than a few creatures over the last few years.

Technically, all parties were allowed to bring their apprentice representative, but I was the only one of the next generation who attended. Charlie Swan had made it clear he didn’t want his daughter involved in any of this, and both Billy and the Clearwaters had decided that their kids were too young to know exactly what went on around here. I figured in a decade or so, it would just be me, Seth, and Jacob Black (no way would Leah hang around just for this shit show), drinking beer in the woods and deciding whether to burn or bury.

But tonight’s meeting was Special. Despite the fact I’d been drawing nonsensical cards for days now - the Star, the Tower, and Justice - no visions had appeared beyond a dream about a locket with ‘W’ engraved on it. I’d expected a fairly normal meeting, until Freddie had let me in on the plan - we were, apparently, meeting with the Cullen family. No one had informed me exactly what or who the Cullens were, only that they had a ‘fourth seat’ in the Council that they’d been entitled to since the ‘30s. I’d have to go through Jeanie’s diaries again - there were boxes of them in storage, and Jeanie had useful tidbits dotted throughout.

So that was why I was in the forest with my grandfather, shivering underneath two coats and in my new fleecy boots, standing around a fire pit that didn’t really do much more than illuminate the burning wood; the lanterns we’d brought were more effective.

Some days I really wished Leah or Seth or Jacob Black would attend these meetings; they’d certainly liven up these meetings a bit.

“They’ll be here soon,” Billy Black said grimly. Billy Black had it worse than the rest of us - getting out to this part of the forest was awkward and time-consuming with his wheelchair. Since these meetings were clandestine, we couldn’t build a proper track.

“The terms are staying the same?” Charlie asked, sipping from a paper cup of coffee Sue had pressed on him.

Billy frowned. “We aren’t here to renegotiate, but we will listen to their petition if they have one,” he said finally.

“What are the existing terms?” I asked, nudging a mossy rock with my toe.

“We’ll go over that later on, Alice,” Freddie said, watching the woods carefully.

Fine, obstruct my completely transparent attempt at finding out what was actually going on. I was definitely intrigued by the idea this clan had a ‘seat’ at the Council, but it involve negotiations? The only creature I could think of that would fit that kind of profile would be some kind of shifter.

I was bored.

And then the mysterious Cullens arrived.

They came out of the woods like a mist; slowly but all at once. They kept a respectful distance away from the fire pit, clad in pristine new clothing that was a touch too light for the cold weather but was good quality. There were three of them - a blond man, a brunette woman, and a red-haired boy - all three of them taller than average, and pale as snow. And they were lovely, as if Grecian statues had climbed down from their plinth and wandered off.

“Hello,” the man said, nodding at us politely. “Thank you for welcoming us to this meeting.”

“You’ve a right to be here, as outlined in the treaty,” Billy Black said sternly. “This is the current Council - Charlie Swan for Forks. My self, Billy Black, and Harry and Sue Clearwater for the Quileute tribe. Fred Brandon as Mediator. Carlisle Cullen for the Cullen Coven.”

Coven meant vampires. That dampened my spirits a little; my history with vampires was messy. Plus the few vampires that had ventured into this area had been unpleasant experiences. But as I stared at the Cullen coven, I noticed their eyes.

Golden, like liquid light.

Was He one of them? Was the Cullen coven only these three, or where there more?

“And the young lady?” Carlisle Cullen said, looking in my direction.

“My niece,” Freddie said in a no-nonsense tone. “Shall we begin?”

“I assume Ursula Altis has since passed? My condolences to her family,” Carlisle Cullen said. “I had a great respect for Ursula.”

“Yes. Ursula’s apprentice passed on several years ago, and she named Fred and Alice as her successors,” Harry said.

“I am sorry for your loss,” Carlisle Cullen nodded at Freddie and I. I half-smiled back at him. Jeanie had been gone a long time but I still missed her.

“This is my wife, Esme, and my oldest son Edward,” Carlisle gestured to his two companions.

“Oldest son?” Charlie Swan said sharply.

“Yes - I have three others, but we did not want to overwhelm you,” Carlisle said. “They are here, if you would like to meet them?”

“Yes. We want to know the entirety of your coven,” Harry said bluntly.

Carlisle grimaced and nodded. “Of course. My other children - Rosalie, Emmett, and Jasper.”

Three more Cullens materialised from behind Carlisle Cullen - a tall blonde girl who was utterly breathtaking to look at, had a displeased expression, and was wearing the genuine designer version of my knock-off winter coat. The second was a bear of a man, with the friendliest face, and curly black hair, who winked at me as he wrapped an arm around the blonde girl’s shoulders.

And then a lanky blond boy with a dark expression and wavy blond hair, who hovered in the shadows, his features mostly obscured. All of them had the same golden eyes, the same pallor and dark under-eye circles. But they didn’t look or behave like other nomads that had passed through. They looked… like a nice family.

Maybe in a decade, Jacob, Seth, and I would be joined by Emmett Cullen for the ‘burn or bury’ booze up. He looked like he’d be the most up for livening up these meetings.

“Your family has grown.” Billy’s voice was accusing, and I turned to look at his stern expression.

“My son, Jasper, joined us in 1965,” Carlisle Cullen said politely, “Looking for a different lifestyle. We have abided by your terms, and would not have returned to this area if we were not prepared to continue to do so.”

The Quiluetes weren’t thrilled with that news, and Charlie just looked kind of tired. Freddie was taking notes on his phone, and I was just cold and getting bored again… until I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye.

Jasper was prowling away from the others, closer to me, where I stood at my uncle’s side. Both eyes were on me, like liquid amber, and I finally got a good look at him.

Jasper was Him - the boy hovering over me, half-dressed on the gurney; the boy kissing my scar, and sliding in behind me in the shower. The boy that had hovered at the edges of my visions and dreams since I was young, with adoration in his eyes and gentle touches.

The boy I’d love so fiercely and deeply…

Talk about a terrible time to finally meet.

“Oh fuck,” I said, as I looked at him, eyes wide. All those wretched cliches that terrible books write about happened at that moment. I was enchanted, besotted, and absolutely irrevocably attached to this Jasper Cullen. He was mine.

“Step back!” Harry barked out, but Jasper Cullen ignored him, watching me carefully. I couldn’t help myself; I smiled brightly at him, and he kept moving towards me. Flashes of knowledge were appearing in my head, and for some reasons I kept seeing the Lovers card, still in my deck at home. I could hear people talking, getting angry, but it was like the buzz of insects as Jasper Cullen got closer to me. His hand reached out slowly, to stroke the curve of my cheek, studying me with the strangest look on his face.

And then the pain hit, like someone had shoved an ice pick through my left eye and into my brain. The visions were folding over and over, like origami, before I could decipher them. Choices being made, minds changing, so fast I could keep up. I heard myself cry out as I fell, and then everything was dark.

Then I was seeing things in real time. The way I fell, blood running from my nose, to everyone’s utter horror. My eyes were rolled back in my head, and my body jerked in a seizure a few times before I was still.

But no one could get near me. As soon as I had fallen, Jasper had crouched over my prone form, with a horrified look on his face. Everyone was yelling and trying to get closer, and Jasper let out a snarl that was, frankly, terrifying before refocusing on me, taking my hand and plucking my glove off it, to rest against his own cheek. Whatever that was supposed to achieve did nothing, and whilst everyone else was yelling and bickering, he let out a low whine that was so pathetic, if I’d had any control over my body, I would have sat up and given him a hug.

Then Carlisle Cullen placed his hands up to the Council in a gesture of peace and nodded to Emmett before approaching Jasper.

The conversation would have been too low for anyone else to hear, but not me, in whatever kind of vision this was.

“Jasper, I understand,” Carlisle Cullen said in a low voice. “But she’s got a medical condition, you need to let her people take care of her.”

Jasper growled low, Emmett’s hand on his shoulder.

“Bro, c’mon,” he said. “You’re scaring them,” he nodded over his shoulder. Sue’s face was white with fear, and I was scared that Harry was going to stroke out on the spot.

And I was there, Sleeping Beauty, with a smear of fresh blood on my face.

“I can’t,” Jasper seemed to force out between gritted teeth. “She’s mine.” It was said with determination and desperation, and a deep tenderness.

I was pleased that whatever my embarrassing collapse had been, at least I knew we were on the same page -that we knew each other and we knew each other.

And just like that, like they were magic words, my eyes open and I was back in reality, staring up at the man-boy who was staring at me like I held the secrets to the universe.

“Alice, did he hurt you?” Freddie called out in a strained voice.

“No, that was me. Too much new information,” I said, as I began to sit up, Jasper sliding my glove back on my hand before I realised it was still missing. He held out his hand to help me up, his touch so careful and gentle.

“Okay, good. Come over here,” Freddie motioned for me to move to where the group seemed to have bunched across from the Cullens. Charlie Swan looked murderous. “She’s nothing to you, boy, just let her go.”

I winced when Freddie said that, realising immediately it was like a red flag to a bull, and all of a sudden there was a lot of motion. Jasper growled, attempting to shove me behind him - to protect me? - whilst Emmett and Carlisle Cullen decided it was time to get Jasper physically under control, and pulled him back towards where the rest of the family was standing.

I tripped over a rock and stumbled but righted myself as Jasper was bodily dragged back to where Esme, Rosalie, and Edward Cullen were waiting, looking worried.

“Are you okay, sweetheart?” Mrs Cullen asked as I moved back to Freddie’s side, where he quickly clasped me to him, giving me the once over.

“I’m fine,” I said before catching Emmett having bent Jasper’s arms behind his back at a hideous angle, his knee digging into Jasper’s spine. “Oh, don’t hurt him! Please!” I made a move towards them but Sue grabbed my arm, and Jasper turned to stare at me with what I can only describe as hope.

“I think this meeting is done,” Charlie Swan said finally. “You agree to maintain the existing treaty - that’s all we need. Thank you for coming.”

“Of course, we don’t want to cause any issues,” Mrs Cullen said, and Freddie snorted, shielding me with his body.

I felt like a prisoner being frog-marched back to the car.

“Back at the Brandon’s?” Charlie said, as we arrived at the cars.

“Of course,” Freddie said. “Coffee and debrief.”

#twificmas2020 #ficmas2020 #jalice #alice cullen #jasper hale #cullen family #fandom #my writing #fan fic #my fic #wip #charlie swan #my fic: anathema

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porcupine-girl · 4 years

Text

Untamed Fic Rec List

Look, most of these are reasonably popular fics already, so if you’ve been in this fandom for a couple months you’ve likely read them. Which is not how I normally do rec lists, but I’m new enough to Untamed that I’m still reading through all the fics by authors I know from other fandoms plus ones that have been personally recced to me, so I haven’t made it into the deep dive of underappreciated fics that I normally like to rec.

It doesn’t help that one of these recs is 445K, so for like two weeks straight it was basically all I was reading.

BUT if, like me, you are rather new to this fandom and its fics, here are some good ones:

The Same Moon Shines Series by sami

This is the 445K behemoth, made up of 23 works, and is technically made up of three interrelated series. The first fic, which establishes the whole universe/multiverse, is 139K on its own. Basically, decades into the canon future, WWX invents time travel.

He goes back to being born, but is reborn with all his memories intact. And he fixes, like, fucking everything and it’s so, so fucking satisfying. Everything’s not perfect though - for example, he like lowkey (highkey?) traumatizes LXC by showing him his previous life via empathy and that has some consequences eventually. Featuring ace poly JC/LXC/WQ triad.

Then in a cracky subseries, appropriately called “ridiculous future bullshit”, we assume that the main six from this universe (WWX, LWJ, JC, WQ, LXC, JYL, & Lan Sizhui) all achieve immortality and find out what they’re up to in the modern day, where they’re revered in the Five Nations (this does a great job of staying in the canon world instead of ours) but of course white Western assholes do things like try and make a disney movie called Hanguang-Jun and the Yiling Patriarch where they marry LWJ off to a girl.

And then in a third subseries, which so far has only one WIP fic, we go back to the canon universe, find out that JC and LWJ were stuck there watching WWX disappear in his time machine array (so WWX actually split off into another universe, he didn’t rewind his own), and so they get into the array having no idea what it will do but wanting to chase down the asshole they love. And so a third universe is born, where they are both born with their memories but WWX is not. I absolutely love seeing how different their priorities are from WWX’s in terms of what they want to change in their new life.

(Also: This is technically a MDZS fic that usually goes with novel canon over show canon if there’s a discrepancy, so if like me you haven’t read the whole novel you might need to look up some plot points now and then.)

The Vermillion Ribbon by @unforth

AU where Wei WuXian was taken in by Wen Qing and Wen Ning’s parents instead of the Jiangs. LWJ (who is the POV character) is a super DUPER dick to him at first, like even moreso than in canon, but the speed with which he regrets his choices is breathtaking and extremely satisfying.

LWJ is a VERY unreliable narrator. He has absolutely no idea what is going on with himself or anyone else at any point in time. Eventually he at least becomes self-aware of this fact, and can at least go wait am I missing something? I think I’m missing several somethings but fuck if I know what. Wei WuXian not understanding this about him leads to some miscommunication, because WWX doesn’t get that LWJ needs absolutely everything spelled out to him in single-syllable words with crayon drawings and y’know, WWX isn’t going to be straightforward anytime he can pretend he’s TOTALLY FINE :D :D :D instead.

LWJ’s friendship with NHS is magical, and NHS in general gets 810% more opportunity to scheme and plot pre-time-of-NMJ’s-canonical-death than in canon and is honestly living his best life. It’s also valuable for LWJ to have a scheming friend because, aside from realizing he misjudged WWX, this is how he starts to figure out that he’s a dumbass who has no idea what is going on ever. But he can count on NHS to always be ten steps ahead, so it’s okay.

(ETA: I’m sorry, I made unforth feel like maybe LWJ was too dense, and no, he’s very much not stupid in general. Like, honestly the fact that he becomes so self-aware of the things he’s bad at, and does things like trust NHS to always understand the stuff he’s missing, makes him come off as very intelligent. It’s just in the specific realm of understanding anything that people say or do that isn’t 100% honest and straightforward that he is just entirely hopeless in a rather relatable way, and like I said, WWX’s go-to is hiding any and all pain so that is a bad combo.)

The Fire Lapping Up the Creek by notevenyou

This diverges from canon when WWX is on his way to Jin Ling’s one month celebration, but doesn’t bring Wen Ning along. So when Jin Zixun attacks it goes very poorly for him, poorly enough that Jin Zixuan thinks he’s dead and it’s reported back at Carp Tower as such. Sending LWJ into a dissociative state. He manages to break through to reality just long enough to find out that Jin Zixuan took WWX’s body back to the burial mounds and left it with Wen Qing, and to get on his sword and go directly there. Thankfully, it turns out that WWX is not dead, but only just barely so.

So LWJ stays there, because now that he spent some amount of time (he isn’t really sure if it was like five minutes or two hours, because dissociation) thinking WWX was dead he now knows that he should never, ever be anywhere but with WWX.

Honestly, it almost feels like a spoiler to say WWX doesn’t die, but there’s no major character death warning while there IS one for graphic violence so it’s not a chose not to warn either, so that’s technically not a spoiler. But things are touch-and-go for him for a very, very long time. And the romance is a slow burn with pining galore. And you get to see LWJ teaching A-Yuan to play the guqin, so like imagine being WWX and you wake up from almost dying to see that going on in your cave.

Velle: to will, to wish by @aerlalaith

This one is actually canon-compliant, and as it’s both quite a bit shorter and more straightforward, plot-wise, than the others, my writeup will be short but that doesn’t mean I loved it any less. Basically, it’s the process of LWJ deciding to adopt A-Yuan in the aftermath of WWX’s death. It starts just after he’s been beaten for turning against the other cultivators, and at first it’s mostly his grief and both physical and emotional pain. A-Yuan starts slipping in to visit him. and LWJ isn’t sure if he’s really okay with that at first.

Of course he becomes very okay with it, but the Lan elders and Lan Qiren and all aren’t just going to be like “ok sure you can barely walk you should def adopt a four-year-old of unclear origins who may or may not have something to do with your demonic dead boyfriend and the evil people he helped, that’s cool,” so it’s not that simple.

There’s a followup fic where, years later, LWJ chooses the courtesy name Sizhui and Xichen gives him shit for it.

save a sword, ride a socialist by sysrae / @fozmeadows

Continuing on my grand tour of Untamed fics by my fave writers from other fandoms, I get to enjoy having overlapped with foz on a third straight fandom which is just fabulous. I totally thought I wasn’t gonna read AUs and then this asshole comes along and writes AUs, which is not playing fair.

I especially love this because it’s modern day but much like ridiculous future bullshit it’s modern day in (more or less) a canonish world, not our world. So like, they fly on swords, but not long distances because it’s easier to take a train or drive rather than use up all that spiritual energy.

Lan Qiren and Jin Guangshan miss the old ways, though, and they think the best ancient tradition to bring back is arranged marriage! Because that will go over well with today’s youth. They try to make LWJ marry Mianmian but he’s like “um I’m gay” and LQ throws a hissy fit about that so Jin Zixuan (who is LWJ’s bestie and is fucking hilarious) hatches a plot for LWJ to cause LQ to stroke out by bringing WWX to Lan Xichen’s birthday party as his fake date.

But when LWJ and WWX meet up to talk this over, LWJ is instantly fucked because WWX has a small child with him and it turns out that this small child is the orphan he adopted. He doesn’t notice he’s fucked until a few days later, though, when WWX comes over for “kissing practice” and they fuck and he calls Jin Zixuan all “I think I caught a feel, what do?” and JZX is like idk, you’re a moron, don’t ask me to clean up your moron messes. And the next day LWJ buys a car seat.

Lan Wangji heard about Jack 110% Zimmermann and said “challenge accepted,” is what I’m saying here. And now I’ve written as much about this 33k fic as I did about the 445k, so I’ll shut up before I just recount the entire plot.

#the untamed #fic recs #wangxian #if I haven't recced your fic I probably haven't read it yet #literally this is most of the fics I've managed to read so far #when I say the same moon shines took up all of my reading time for 2-3 weeks I am being entirely serious #and then vermillion ribbon is 220+k so it took a week or two too #so like i've got ao3 emails waiting in my inbox for fics by tippy and moosefeels and through_shadows_falling and a few others #I promise I will get to them!

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ghostgothgeek · 4 years

Text

Stuck.

Wasn’t planning on posting anything for DannyMay except I realized one of my WIPs literally has the same title as the theme for today, so here we are.

2.3k. Rated T for swearing. FFN || AO3

On a list of ways Vlad Masters could spend his day, he certainly never had “get stuck in an elevator with Samantha Manson” on it.

The day had started like any other; there was a ghost convention in town. Ghost hunters from all over the world came to the infamously haunted Amity Park in hopes of seeing a ghost, but seeing the new inventions from the Fentons (who were a big deal in the ghost hunter realm) and sharing their enthusiasm about ghosts with others would be satisfactory enough. (They really hoped to see a ghost, though.)

Jack and Maddie Fenton had dragged their children to the convention this year, happy they didn’t have to travel halfway across the world and their children could join them this time. They wanted Jazz and Danny to experience what they had dedicated their lives to, and to support the presentation of their newest invention. Jazz naturally brought a thick book with her to read, and a notebook for detailing her people watching (and psychoanalysis of said people). Misery loves company, so Danny managed to convince his friends into coming along and keeping an eye out. If a ghost showed up, he wouldn’t exactly be able to transform into Danny Phantom at a convention filled with ghost hunters and all their new weapons.

Vlad had shown up to keep up with appearances, and to see what pricey new inventions he could buy for Valerie. Surely, Daniel would know how to handle his parents’ weapons, but not weapons made across seas. Most importantly, though, Vlad had shown up for Maddie Fenton.

Vlad glanced around at all of the new inventions, paying close attention to the specifications of the weapons in case he encountered any as Plasmius. He checked his watch. Only ten minutes until the Fenton’s presentation. He wouldn’t want to miss out on the opportunity to stare at Maddie for an hour and watch Jack make a fool of himself. Vlad smiled to himself as he pressed the button to call the elevator. Maybe if Jack embarrassed them enough, Maddie would finally come running to him instead.

Meanwhile, Danny and his friends were walking the convention floor. Tucker was occupied with a game on his phone, as usual. Sam was on a mission to find the most dangerous looking weapon, and Danny was just trying to keep an eye on things. Sam excused herself to go to the restroom before the Fentons’ big presentation, telling Danny and Tucker she would meet them there. Once her bladder was empty and her lipstick was reapplied, she headed for the elevator and tapped her foot impatiently as she waited.

It finally arrived, and Sam started walking towards the inside until she saw Vlad Masters was already occupying the elevator. She contemplated just walking up the five flights of stairs but decided the elevator would be faster and easier. “Why hello, Samantha,” Vlad slyly greeted. She sighed as she stepped inside and turned her back towards Vlad, ignoring him and pressing the elevator button repeatedly in hopes that it would make the elevator move faster.

The elevator started moving and Sam switched to chipping some of the black paint off her fingernails when all of the sudden, the elevator stopped. It was way too soon to have gone up five floors already. “Uh oh,” she noted and tried pressing the elevator button again with no success.

“Oh, look what you did.” Vlad groaned irritatedly and pressed the call button. He waited through several rings before accepting the fact that this convention center was severely understaffed. He would have to remember to do something about that. “Well, it was nice seeing one of Daniel’s young friends, but I’m afraid I can’t stay and chat.”

“Hey! At least have the common courtesy to phase me out, too.” Sam glared at him, seeing he was about ready to ditch her when she added, “Just imagine how grateful Mrs. Fenton would be if you saved one of her son’s friends from imminent boredom.”

Vlad considered the offer, pursing his lips and deciding it would put him in good faith with the Fenton Family if he helped Daniel’s pathetic goth friend. He completely forgot about the fact that he wouldn’t even be able to tell Maddie exactly how he helped the dark child, but that wasn’t important right now. “Very well,” he grabbed her arm and was about to transform into his ghostly counterpart until he noticed a camera built into the corner of the elevator, with the little red light on signaling it was recording and pointing directly at him. He sighed and let her go. He could try to find a way to find the footage and destroy it, but he couldn’t risk getting caught at a ghost convention, of all things. Not to mention, there was likely a ghost shield up.

Sam followed his gaze when he let go of her arm and sighed, “great.” She slid down the elevator wall to sit on the floor, pulling her phone out and texting Danny in hopes he could find some way to get her out. Vlad pulled his phone out as well, and shut his eyes in annoyance as he discovered it was dead. Sam’s phone pinged and she read the message, sighing in defeat and putting her phone back into her pocket. “Danny said they are aware the elevator is stuck and are waiting for the maintenance guy to come back from his lunch break and fix it. It may be awhile.” She adjusted herself on the floor so she was at least remotely comfortable. It could take ten minutes or it could take two hours for them to be rescued.

After a few minutes of silence, Vlad smirked and spoke up. “Well, since you’re here and are forced to listen, how about we discuss how you can convince Daniel to be on my side and-”

Sam cut him off and stood up. “You’ve got to be shitting me. Danny will never want to join you! He thinks you’re creepy, which you are. I mean, you want to marry his mom and have him be your child? That’s weird. You’re a grown-ass man, you need to get over this shit already. Mrs. Fenton won’t leave her husband, especially for you. You are a moron to think otherwise.”

Vlad stared at the girl wide-eyed for a moment before opening his mouth to speak, but she beat him to it.

“Honestly, you’re so pathetic. You hurt and fight with Danny, who is old enough to be your child. Do you really have nothing better to do with your life? Don’t you have anyone else your own age to pick on? Because fixating on a child is just gross. And, you can’t even fight him yourself! No, you choose another child to do it for you. Lame.” She rolled her eyes at him.

Vlad didn’t know what to say. He was shocked into oblivion.

“Really, you don’t have anything better to do with your time or money? Do you know how much good you could do if you donated money to charities and organizations benefiting the environment? Instead, you choose to dress up like a vampire and be an asshole. Like Mrs. Fenton or any woman would fall for a guy like that. Plus, your whole vampire look? It’s so corny. Believe me, I’ve seen my fair share of vampire movies and read up enough to know they wouldn’t dress so stupidly. A cape? Really? Are you seven?”

“I-”

“You really need some hobbies. I mean, what have you even done with your life since you got ghost powers, aside from preying on and manipulating children and trying to grossly seduce a married woman who has zero interest in you? Seriously, get a life. Also, please actually stop with the whole vampire thing, you’re ruining it for me.” She sat down once again and smirked at Vlad’s agape mouth. She had the opportunity, she was going to take it.

“I mean, you aren’t terrifying or gruesome at all,” she continued, “you’re half dead and you aren’t even scary or even vaguely threatening. I’m sure more people are afraid of me than they are of you. I honestly don’t see why some of the ghosts in the Ghost Zone tolerate you; they certainly don’t respect you.” Sam picked at a scab on her arm.

“But...I’m scary! People respect me!” Vlad interjected.

“People only pretend to respect you because you’re the mayor, and you only won that by cheating. And ghosts don’t give two shits about you, the ghost who released Pariah Dark then fled at any hint of a challenge. Danny had to clean up your mess. Honestly, so pathetic.” Sam shook her head and watched as she flicked her scab across to Vlad, who flinched, and watched fresh blood rise to the injury. “And you are far from scary. My mom is more terrifying. And she’s a small woman who wears pink. Seriously, people see her coming and they move in the opposite direction. Oh gross, I guess that’s one thing I have in common with my mom…” She trailed off and made a face.

“I’ll have you know, Vlad Masters is well respected in the state of Wisconsin and Plasmius is feared in the ghost zone!”

“Survey says...no.” Sam whipped out her pocket knife from her boot and started carving some doodle into the floor. Vlad stared at the girl with wide eyes. What kind of fourteen-year-old girl carries a knife around to doodle?! “Danny beats you all the time and he’s younger than you. You’ve even been half ghost longer! Danny is less experienced and he still whoops your ass, seriously why are you so cocky?” She pointed the knife at him and he grimaced. “You’re just a pathetic little man-child who throws tantrums when he can’t get what he wants,” she rolled her eyes and finished with a “seriously go fuck yourself”.

Danny was pacing by the elevator door. It’s been 45 minutes and there’s no telling what Vlad could be doing to Sam in an enclosed space! She didn’t even have many weapons on her. He knows she’s tough and can hold her own but still! Vlad had been looking for every opportunity to get back at Danny, and holding Sam as a hostage would be a very good way of doing so.

“Come on, man he wouldn’t be stupid enough to pull something at a ghost convention,” Tucker started confidently, “er...right?”

Danny groaned, “I don’t know! I wouldn’t put it past him. God, if he hurts her, I swear-”

“I got it!” Some random maintenance guy pried open the elevator doors with a crowbar and stuck his arm inside to assist.

“Finally!” Danny ran over to the elevator and breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Sam scolding the man for touching her. At least she was alive.

The man quickly backed away and Sam popped her head out of the elevator, which was stuck between floors. “Hey Danny, hold this for a sec,” she tossed him her switchblade, which he fumbled in his hands and miraculously caught without stabbing himself or anyone else, as she climbed out of the elevator. She grabbed her knife and stored it back in her boot.

“Did he hurt you? Are you hurt? Tell me what he did I’ll-”

Sam ignored Danny’s questioning and she glared at the maintenance guy who was backing away slowly from her. “‘I got it’ my ass,” she mocked the man, “the only way you were even able to get a crowbar in the gap is because I made you one with my knife.”

“SAM!” Danny started shaking her, “are you okay?!” He looked at her arm where it was lightly bleeding. “You’re bleeding!”

“Stop. SHAKING. ME!” Sam shook him back until he cut it out. “I’m fine, this is from the other day with the Box Ghost. Vlad didn’t touch me.”

“Speaking of Vlad, is he still in there?” Tucker glanced back at the elevator.

After a few moments, out came Vlad Masters, looking as pale as a...well, you know. He was visibly shaken and looked quite disturbed. Once his feet were on solid ground, he took a deep breath and composed himself. When his eyes caught the lavender ones of the goth, he flinched. Sam smirked, while Danny and Tucker each raised an eyebrow.

“Are you alright, Mayor Masters?”

“God, Sam, what did you do to him?” Tucker quipped.

“Nothing! We just had a nice little chat is all…” Sam crossed her arms over her chest.

“I’m perfectly fine! I kept the child calm while-” Vlad tried explaining himself but with one look at Sam and one look at him, it was pretty clear who was shaken up about the whole thing. She cocked an eyebrow at him, as if to say “try me”. “I, uh, I’m fine. I gotta get going, lots of things to do…goodbye, Daniel. Daniel’s friend...Miss Manson, I’m so glad we came to an understanding-”

Sam lunged for him and he ran in the opposite direction. Danny gently held her back with one of his arms, “jeeze Sam, and to think I was worried about you in there.” He chuckled.

“You were worried about me?” Sam challenged.

Danny blushed, “I mean...we both, Tucker and I, worried, you know.”

Tucker laughed as Danny babbled, “Okay, but really, Sam. What did you do to him? He looks like he’s going to throw up!”

“Or shit his pants…” Danny added.

“Or cry…” Tucker continued.

“Funny,” she said sarcastically. Sam shrugged, “I just talked to him, gave him some of my Sam Manson charm.”

“Oh god.”

“Poor guy.”

#AKA Sam just roasts tf out of Vlad #also you can pry the 'AU where Sam carries a knife at all times' from my cold dead hands #Sam Manson #Vlad Masters #Danny Fenton #Tucker Foley #Danny Phantom #Stephanie writes sometimes #DannyMay #DannyMay2020 #am I doing this right idk

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mercheswan · 4 years

Text

My Little League Friend

AO3 My user name: MerCevans

Stiles Stilinski was nine years old , he lived in Beacon Hills with his mother Claudia and his father Noah, who was also the town’s sheriff. Stiles was an imperactive kid who enjoyed videogames, Star Wars and pretending to be a detective like his father.

This summer he was very excited because he managed to convince his parents to enlist him in the Baseball Little League. Stiles adored baseball, he practiced with his bat every afternoon.

His mother Claudia drove him to the first training. Stiles was really excited, there were many kids, and the coach was really nice. Stiles did pretty good, all the practice had been worth it.

When his mother came to pick him up, Stiles said goodbye to his teammates and went home. Stiles noticed a boy in the corner of the pitch. The boy’s name was Theo, Stiles knew him because they went to the same school. He usually acted shy and didn’t have many friends.

“Goodbye Theo! See you tomorrow!” Stiles shouted in Theo’s direction, waving his hand. The mentionated boy turned to look at Stiles, surprise in his face, after a few seconds he waved back.

At the next day at practice, when Stiles arrived Theo greeted him. “Hello Stiles” The boy said with a shy smile.

“Hello Theo!” Stiles saluted back returning the smile.

In that day’s practice one of the boys made Stiles trip when he was running to the third base. Stiles was on the groung fighting off the tears. He could hear some of the kids laughing, but then something surprised him.

“Hey! Apologise! You did it on purpose!” Theo shouted defending Stiles.

Coach lectured the boy who hit Stiles and sat him on the bench. Theo came to Stiles and offered him his hand to stand up.

“Thank you Theo” Stiles said and Theo smiled.

“We are teammates, right?” Theo asked

Stiles nodded and grinned. “Yeah, we’re friends” Stiles said and saw a shocked but happy expression in Theo’s face.

Stiles decided he wanted to be Theo’s friend. The had defended him and he seemed nice. Stiles also noticed that he had a Star Wars key chain in his backpack, so he had to be vool, because Star Wars was awesome.

That day when Stiles’s mother came to pick him up, Stiles babbled excitedly about the day while his mother looked a his with a fond smile.

“Mom I have to go to the bathroom very quickly” Stiles claimed.

“Okay Mischief, we can go” Claudia said walking towards the restrooms.

When Stiles exited the restrooms there were almost no kids left in the pitch.

Claudia took Stiles’s hand and the walked to the car but Stiles noticed a figure next to the bench. Stiles let go of his mother’s hand and ran to it. Getting closer Stiles could hear some sobs, then he saw who they belonged to.

“Theo?” Stiles questioned. Theo looked up, his eyes meeting Stiles’s. “Are you okay?” Stiles asked.

“Stiles… h-hi…” Theo muttered wipping off his tears.

“Mischief you can’t leave my side like that!” Claudia scolded his son, then she noticed the other boy. “Oh, hello, what’s wrong sweetheart?” Claudia asked.

“Theo was crying” Stiles explained to his mother.

“I-I’m fine.. really” Theo said getting up from the ground.

“Oh sweetheart you don’t look good, where are your parents?” Claudia asked looking around looking for them. Theo looked down at his hands not responding. “They haven’t arrived yet to pick you up?” Claudia questioned, Theo denied with his head.

“We’ll wait with you!” Stiles proclaimed taking Theos’ hand, pulling him towards the parking lot.

“No, it’s okay, you don’t have to wait… It may take a while…They are working and busy…” Theo muttered.

“Do they make you wait a lot?” Claudia asked. She had a suspicious that she hoped wasn’t true. Theo looked down again with a sad face. Stiles didn’t want to see Theo sad.

“Mommy Theo can come with us right? I can show him my videogames!” Stiles suggested excited, sqeezing Theo’s hand. Theo looked at Stiles eyes widening full of enthusiasm.

Claudia glanced at the pair, Theo’s excitement about being invited by a friend over, had to mean that they boy didn’t experience it often. Claudia didn’t want to judge, but It seemed as if Theo’s parents were not taking proper care of their son. Claudia couldn’t just leave the boy there alone.

“It’s a good idea Mischief, we can call your parents to tell them that you went home with a friend” Claudia smiled. Stiles screamed in triumph hugging his teammate. Theo giggled and hugged Stiles back.

When the three of them arrived to the Stilinski household, Stiles didn’t wait any second to grab Theo and guide him towards his bedroom, where all his toys and games where kept.

Claudia took the chance to call his husband. “Hey Claudia what’s wrong?” Sheriff Stilisnki said picking up the phone.

“Can you look for the number of the Raeken family?” Claudia questioned.

“Sure if they live in Beacon Hills I could find that information, Why? What’s wrong?” Noah asked.

“Their son, Theo, he is in Stiles’s baseball team, and neither of the parents came to pick him up. I think it’s not the first time the kid had to wait alone many hours. I couldn’t leave him there Noah, I brought him home with me and Stiles, they are playing videogames.” Claudia explained the situation.

“Okay, okay, Do you want me to investigate?” Noah asked.

“N-no, I just, can you call the parents to tell them where their child is so they don’t worry?” Claudia said

“Of course. I’ll call you when I contact them. See you later” Noah said ending the call.

Claudia felt conflicted about the whole situation. Theo looked healthy and his clothes were clean and new. She didn’t think his parents were abusing him or anything of the sort, but there was something wrong. She walked upstairs to check on the kids. Before reaching Stiles’s bedroom she could hear the laughter and the screams as well as the noises coming from Stiles’s console, which brought a smile to her face. The children seemed to be having a great time, Claudia was glad that Stiles made a new friend.

An hour later Noah called Claudia to tell her that he couldn’t contact the parents. How could someone just forget about their precios boy like that? Claudia thought.

“Mom and Dad are coming?” Theo asked starling Claudia a little bit.

“Not yet sweetheart, Are you boys hungry?” Claudia asked. Stiles and Theo both nodded. “We’ll have pizza today” Claudia announced which caused Stiles to shout in happines and Theo to laugh at Stiles’s enthusiasm. “You’ll have dinner with us Theo” Claudia proclaimed.

Noah arrived home and Stiles jumped into his father’s arms. “Dad! Today’s baseball training was great! One of the kids push me but Theo defended me!” Stiles explained and Claudia could see Theo blushing when he was mentioned.

Noah laughed at his son’s imperactivity. “That’s great Stiles, and thanks Theo for being a good friend to Stiles” Noah said.

“Okay boy, go to wash your hands the pizza must be about to arrive” Claudia ordered and the kids chanted affirmatively running upstairs.

When the kids were out of sight Cladia looked at her husband. “I told the station to send me the call if Theo’s parent finaly pick up. It’s so weird, it’s like they are missing.” Noah explained. Claudia sighed worried.

The pizza arrived and The Stilinski family plus Theo seated on the table to eat. Theo had impecable manners, Stiles was his usual imperactive self, babbling words and gesturing a lot with his hands. Claudia saw that Theo looked at Stiles with a fond expression while he explained what his father’s job consisted in. In the middle of dinner the phone rang. The Raekens.

Noah answered. Theo’s smile fell from his face and Stiles also got quiet. “What’s wrong boys?” Claudia questioned.

“Theo is leaving?” Stiles asked.

“I suppose his parents will come to pick him up, yes” Claudia responded. Stiles pouted. “What’s wrong?”

“Can’t Theo stay to sleep?” Stiles asked. Claudia was about to answer that Theo should go with his family when she noticed Theo’s excited face. Claudia stood up and walked towards her husband.

Noah was talking on the phone with Theo’s mother. “Ask them if Theo can stay to sleep” Claudia whispered to her husband.

Noah looked confussed at his wife but nodded. The Raekens accepted.

“Theo can stay to sleep, go to wash yout teeth. Stiles give Theo a pijama” Claudia ordered the boys.

The boys went upstairs holding hands, Claudia huffed a laugh, loving the sight of the two adorable boys.

“Her mother told me that apparetly there was a missunderstood and that the father thought the mother was going to pick Theo up and the mother thought the father would do it.” Noah explained.

“I think Theo will come over more times, he and Stiles got along really well” Claudia told Noah.

In Stiles’s bedroom Stiles was looking trough his wardrobe for the perfect pijama for Theo. “Here! Found it!” Stiles exclaimed cheerfully. While handing the pijama to Theo. “It’s my favourite one! It’s Star Wars and it’s orange and blue, I love orange and blue” Stiles blurted.

Theo took the pijama and hugged it to his chest. “Thank you Stiles! I love orange too!” Theo said before changing his clothes.

The pair entered the bed and Claudia came to kiss them goodnight. “Sleep well boys!” She said turning off the lights.

Sties turned his face towards Theo’s figure. “Did you have fun?” he asked.

“Of course! It was the best day ever, thank you so much Stiles. You have a great family, they are so nice.” Theo said turning his face to look at Stiles as well.

“So that means we are friends right?” Stiles asked.

“I don’t have many friends…” Theo muttered.

“I think you’re cool! I like you Theo!” Stiles insisted.

“I really want to be your friend Stiles” Theo claimed.

“Then we are friends!” Stiles concluded grabbing Theo’s hand under the sheets. Theo giggled and pushed playfully Stiles so he would fall out of bed, but Stiles hugged Theo tight to stop himself from falling. Both boys giggled out loud which made Noah shout to them to go to sleep.

The newly friends talked for hours in hushed whispers about, baseball, what they wanted to do during the summer, what they wanted to be when they grow up. They finaly felt asleep with their heads next to each other.

They could have been good friends but three men in masks intervined, creating a set of events that would end up separating the pair. But who knows what the furure holds, maybe Stiles and Theo will meet again and find their way back to each other.

#steoday #steo day #steo #stiles stilinski #teen wolf #theo raeken #steo fic #teen wolf fanfiction #steo au #stiles x theo #teen wolf au #claudia stilinski #sheriff stilinski #kid fic #pre canon

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ghostsofmemories · 4 years

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Insect Poison Update #1

Before you check out this post, please remember that the fight against police brutality is still happening, and education is critical. All proceeds from this shop are still being donated to the BLM organization and will continue to be. More designs have been added since the original post was made, so be sure to click the link to find something you like.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, feel free to jump over to my WIP introduction! I should mention that Aaron Bennett’s has been changed to Jack Bennett because I had a cool title idea for chapter 2 and needed to change his name for it to work.

So, I managed to spit out the first chapter in a couple days! It’s been difficult, but also way more fun than I was used to writing being (probably because I’m writing something I actually enjoy—who knew I was capable??). I wrote every day for five days in a row, counting today, which is wild and something I haven’t done since my NaNoWriMo days (AKA the first time I wrote this book).

Chapter 1 of the book is basically an intro to Robert and Ramona’s dynamics as (twin) siblings and a short look into how their mother interacts with them. I know the prose for this chapter could use some more work, but I think there’s a lot of character here that I liked exploring.

The chapter has three scenes: a scene where the twins are at the lake together, a scene where they’re eating dinner with their mom, Emily, and their older sister Lori, and one where they’ve stayed up late to eat cookies their mom baked for Church on Sunday.

(oop this update turned out a lot longer than I thought it would be) (CW for like, one teeny mention of drugs)

Scene 1: overhand throws are superior

In this scene, Robert and Ramona leave the house to go to the lake at the end of the street, which they’re not supposed to go to by themselves. They get into a bit of an argument that ends with a pair of shoes in the water.

The lake wasn’t big or clean or pretty, but they didn’t care much about those things. They didn’t mind the algae that tugged at their ankles or the rocks that are so sharp they gave off the impression of wanting to cut you open. It was all they’d ever known.

Since they weren’t supposed to be at the lake, they also weren’t wearing their swimsuits. They swam in their T-shirts and shorts, with Ramona’s sweater lying where the sand and the grass met. Their shoes were tucked underneath it, as if anyone would want to steal their too-small shoes with cracks in the rubber and holes in the fabric. As if their appearance wasn’t protection enough.

The water was cold enough to bite. It made their jean shorts cling to their legs, and they swam stiff and tight so they didn’t have to feel the friction. They did that for two hours; they were rebel children, breaking all the rules.

^ this part was overall just pretty fun to write, and the last sentence is definitely my favorite because of what happens next:

“Mom’s going to be so mad when we get home,” Robert said, treading water and staring his sister down. He didn’t see himself in her face the way everyone else did. Maybe it was because he spent more time with Ramona than he did with mirrors. Maybe it was because she wore her hair in two, rust colored braids and his was short and brown and untameable. Maybe it was because he almost never liked Ramona, but usually, he liked himself.

“Mom’s going to be mad,” he said again. She wasn’t going to be, but Ramona played along anyway. She kicked her legs a little faster, trying to keep her chin above the water like her brother could.

“Too bad,” she said, “we’re already in the water. She can’t do anything.”

The twins knew their mother wouldn’t be mad. She wouldn’t be mad if they were there for four hours. She wouldn’t be mad if they waltzed into the house dripping wet from their hair and clothes, right onto the freshly mopped kitchen floor. She’d mop it again without a second thought. She’d ask them how their afternoons went.

I love this part because I got to explore how Robert and Ramona almost want to get in trouble if it means someone will pay attention to them. They want to get caught and be told no about something, but their mom is so absent minded (and high) that they can get away with whatever they want. In this chapter and probably further ones, we get to see them test exactly how far they can go.

Here’s the part where the fight gets introduced: Ramona’s ready to leave and Robert isn’t, but he also doesn’t want to stay by himself (even though he’d never admit that). He tells Ramona to give her the sweater she’s holding, presumably to dry himself off a little. Instead, he tosses it into the lake.

Sweatshirts weren’t exactly known for being aerodynamic and eleven year old boys weren’t exactly known for their underhand throws, so it didn’t go far. It landed pathetically into the shallow part of the water where their older sister used to take them to catch tadpoles in the spring (they would bring them home in buckets and tupperware and try to have their very own front yard aquarium. Their mother always spotted them and made them march back to the lake and dump dozens of them back into the water).

“Robert!” Ramona yelled, stepping into his space. He put his hands behind his back and stepped even closer. “Go get it!”

“It’s your sweater,” he said. He smiled and bent down to pick up a rock, mostly because it looked like the sort Ramona would bring home and put in a box with three dozen others. He forced his hand into his wet pocket and let it sit there, wrist deep in clinging fabric with a rock clenched in his fist. Later, on the way home, he’d toss it into the grass and never think about it again.

We can see here that Robert is a little unhinged and manipulative, and really wants to get a rise out of his sister and see what she’ll do. Her response is to be even more unhinged and manipulative:

Robert watched as she sat down to put on her shoes. He saw her stand up and toss his sneakers right into the water, one after the other, socks still tucked inside.

Eleven year old girls weren’t known for their underhands, either, but their overhands could be surprising if they put some energy into it. The shoes sunk into the bottom of the lake, and the twins stared at one another as if to agree, just this once, to end the fight before things got worse.

Ramona didn’t smile. She took no pleasure in being wicked. Still, she’d be the first to admit that she took more than a little pleasure in her brother’s silence.

Scene 2: pork and potatoes and corn.

Time for dinner! This scene was fun and mildly uncomfortable to write.

Emily Bennett was nothing if not a creature of habit. She thought this was her greatest secret, something to hold close to her chest, but the things she tried to hide were always smeared down to her sleeves.

“Just in time!” She said, her smile wide enough to call a canyon. She still had silverware in her left hand and a stack of cups in her right, and stared at the next seat in line instead of looking at the twins. Her mind was only at rest when her body was in motion, and even then she struggled to drown out the noise. “We’re having pork and potatoes and corn. Go get your hands washed so you can eat, and let your sister know it’s dinner time.”

And a little later:

You kids are so quiet these days,” she said, setting her glass on the table. Condensation was already forming on the outside of the glass. The twins took turns shifting in their chairs, trying to escape from a heat that didn’t seem to bother their mother or Lori. “What have you been up to?”

The three of them looked at each other, trying to decide who would take one for the team. When eyes settled on Ramona, she spoke up. “I re-organized my rock collection this morning,” she said, and took a bite of mashed potatoes to avoid saying anything further.

“Oh, that’s nice honey. You’ll have to show me later.”

Ramona had no intention of showing her mother the newly cleaned and sorted rocks, and Emily had no intention of looking. They were simply humoring each other.

“Mhm. I think I might have found some amethyst.” Ramona was thought amethyst was her mother’s birthstone (it was, but after no comment from her mother about it, Ramona was sure she’d gotten it wrong).

“How’s the corn?” Emily asked, taking a bite of it and following it immediately with large gulps of water. The glass was half empty.

Lori spoke up. “Good. Same as always.” She wished, for a moment, that she could rewrite the sentence in her mother’s mind. It’s good, mom. Did we get it from the store or the farmer’s market? Could you show me how to cook it the way you do? She didn’t bother with these types of questions because Emily never taught her things when she asked. Lori couldn’t recall the last thing her mother had taught her.

I can’t really describe it, but the family dynamics are exactly how they need to be. I want there to be a certain feeling of tension and uneasiness when everyone is in the same place, but a tension they’ve all gotten used to.

The last scene is when the twins are stealing cookies and getting ready for bed, which I’m not sure is totally necessary but I think it further shows their dynamics so it can stay for now.

“I’m tired,” Ramona said, trying to dip her cookie into a glass of milk she’d almost finished. “I think I’m going to go to bed.”

“I’m not tired,” Robert said, popping open a tupperware dish and reaching into it carefully, like the cookies might disappear if he moved too fast. “Want another one?”

“We have to leave some, otherwise mom’ll notice.”

“She won’t do anything about it,” he said, pushing the bowl across the table to her, “you can have some more.”

“I don’t want anymore. I want to go to bed.” Ramona stood to rinse out her cup at the kitchen sink, the tile cool and grounding under her feet. Robert left his glass on the table and the cookie bowl with the lid half on.

“Fine, I’ll just go to bed, too.”

Not to continue telling every bit of psychology surrounding the characters’ actions, but this part is interesting because again, both of them are aiming to get caught and get into trouble, but they refuse to do it without the other. Robert starts everything and Ramona finishes it before it gets too far.

The chapter ends with them getting ready for bed and Ramona hearing her dad’s truck pull into the driveway, meaning he’s home for a weekend before his next set of deliveries and destinations and whatnot. I think I want this to be the inciting incident, but I have to work on it more and figure out what I actually want to happen here.

Overall, the chapter clocked in at 2802 words, and I think after I go back and add some more description and imagery (which is definitely where I’ve fallen short so far), it should end up around 3000-3200. I really enjoyed writing this chapter (I think this book is by far the most exciting project for me, and is going to help me figure out what I want to write from now on), and I want to talk more about how my process is going, but I think that’ll be a separate post where I talk more about process and music and all those little things that go into a writing session for me.

If you have any questions about the story or characters, want to get added to the taglist, or just have anything to say about it in general, make sure you do that in an ask so I can be sure to see it! My notifications are sketchy but I’ve never had an issue with ask notifications.

Taglist: @coffeeandcalligraphy @alicewestwater @fliiik-art

#insect poison #insect poison updates #writing upate #my writing #my wip

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dorminchu · 3 years

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WIPs [James Bond, Pokémon Lost Silver]

Wahey! Here are two mostly brand new scenes below the cut, just to prove I'm not dead! Note: Please view the post on the main page for correct formatting.

INSULT TO INJURY CHAPTER I: A THOUSAND DETAILS [REVISED]

Graduation from Oxford was a quick, unemotional affair. Madeleine had no extended family to invite—no one else of import, besides her short-term friends. The matter of her attendance was something to be addressed and then forgotten about. It was a little tragic. She tried not to let this show on her face when she had to make her commencement speech.

The ceremony went along as expected. Things were not as interesting when she could pretend her life was just as safe and boring as anyone else’s. As she was wrapping up an individual figure in the stands, no more remarkable than any other, caught her attention. It was an older man, perhaps in his early fifties, hidden partially behind sunglasses and a smart dress-hat. With a nauseating thrill she recognized his hat as well as his smile, the angles in his face a little more pronounced. To Madeleine it was like he was sneering. She did not let this discovery rattle her. If she hesitated it was on account of the crowd and her nerves and nothing else.

But when she was done, succeeded at the podium, she could only think: How long has he been standing there? Why didn’t I notice? They did not speak to one another, as it would surely draw unwanted attention. Not that it mattered. His presence was enough of an affront; why give him further opportunity to wound her pride by acknowledging him outright?

“I’m sorry,” she’d said to her roommate, “I’m really not feeling well. Just take me home.”

Even then, when she was perfectly alone, the memory of him took up residence where physical space would not permit. She tried to dredge up some residual emotions for the man who less so resembled a father and more an anonymous pen pal in recent years. Perhaps it was best for his pride if she continued to avoid him, rather than put him in a situation that would force him to admit his own daughter's indifference.

Her cotenants would be out for a while, glad to be around other normal people who didn’t skirt around crowded rooms, casing the doors and windows. Most of them, by now, thought Madeleine to be frigid, or else exceedingly studious. They’d given up a long time ago trying to invite her along on group dates—it was a losing proposition. She did not drink anything. She didn’t talk unless someone initiated and then she was perfectly reasonable. She would quietly, scrupulously vet what was offered. The other women were under the delusion that she was trying to compete with them, and the men were usually uncomfortable being scrutinised without a lick of pretence. Madeleine found it a little funny, but she was the only one.

So she didn’t mind being left behind. Most of the time. She looked around the room. It had served its purpose during her enrolment. Now it seemed intolerably small, like a holding cell. She had never thought about it this way before. Suddenly she wanted to be anywhere else.

At times such as these, she almost wished she hadn’t decided to go straight-edge—then, maybe, they would keep some alcohol in the flat. She had no friends she could call on without inviting scrutiny. The only other comparable colleague was Arnaud, a fellow Sociology major in her year. She found him tolerable enough to engage in polite conversation, though she did not want to give him or anyone else the wrong idea.

Or, hell, why not? She could use a drink.

⁂

Three years to that day, they were still talking. Well, her colleagues at Oxford would have likely referred to them as friends-with-benefits with a healthy measure of condescension—but this was misleading. It would imply some level of emotional investment. For Madeleine, he was a means of insurance. Whenever he turned up dead or missing, she’d know it was time to move on. Now, Madeleine was not completely heartless. She had taken Arnaud’s advice and transferred over to the 8th arrondissement, with the understanding that they would be rooming together. And Arnaud was easy to get along with and she could afford him the same courtesy. She had someone to come home to and he knew enough about her work ethic from their college years, and her demeanour, to not ask where she had been. She knew enough surface-level information about him that she could still keep up appearances with his friends, as well as her own colleagues at the office—to be discarded, once he outlived his purpose. The clinic was within walking distance from the flat. Open to the general public, rather than more exclusive clientele, but that suited her fine. Each day bled into the next and the seasons changed in rote, predictable manner. She’d go to bed and wake up thinking: Maybe today will be it. They’ll come to collect me. But it had been three years. The lack of apparent danger soon directed her thoughts towards various methods of escape. Usually, Madeleine found solace in identifying the root of other peoples' troubles; a faulty marriage brought on by substance abuse, or more permanent debts that could not be repaid so easily. Most were less extreme and involved simple conversations that were, in Madeleine’s view, no more impactful than the change in weather. She kept no photographs. She had a work computer that stayed in the office. She stuck to using burner phones. She did not discuss her life before Oxford or the Sorbonne with anyone. The only décor was a pot of faux flowers from an elder client; for her falsified birthday, of course. There was even a little hand-written note. The longer the pot stayed on her desk, the more disingenuous Madeleine felt. She'd investigated it a few times when she was alone, looking for wires, but never could prove her suspicions. She got rid of it anyway, just to be safe. The client never brought this up again but Madeleine could souse the hurt in her eyes the next time they met.

LOST SILVER: HIDDEN

Part of the wall had a give to it like rotting flesh. It caught on his fingers, porous and thin. Momentarily freed from the push of the unown Gold threw his body into the weak spot.

It didn’t stick to his skin but tore as like wet paper. Clean break.

Falling forwards into an empty void. Crashing on all-fours. The unown were gone. Ground had no texture but simply existed beneath him, impossibly smooth and cold. There was no light from the tunnel behind him. All the sound fell away from his ears. He felt himself screaming just to hear something but could only feel the physical strain in his lungs and throat. Unown frequency reached him through tinny speakers—overridden by static. He put his hands to his ears. It did not stop. He could feel the blood pounding in his head. Suddenly the tiny screen lit up. His hands caught on plastic. He clutched it desperately, staring into the harsh, inexplicable light of the LCD screen. A voice broke through static:

“Where do you think you are?”

Gold froze. He—

—falling forward again. Jerked out of time and space as though by an ally’s Teleport—familiar loss of footing followed by an abrupt solidity beneath his knees. Shock giving way to nausea. The last time he’d teleported anywhere was at the behest of the old guy who wouldn’t take no for an answer, and his abra, back at Indigo Plateau. He doubled over. His chest felt tight. He began dry-heaving, desperate for air—the serrated, raw feeling in his throat and chest told him he’d been screaming.

Dry, dusty earth beneath his fingers was baked over. The fresh air he drew into his lungs tasted warm. It was dusk. A thin layer of perspiration on his face and his palms. His stomach settled gradually into queasiness. He didn’t remember teleporting or what he had been doing before his arrival. He couldn’t recall why he was here, either.

“Hey, kid. Finally awake?”

Gold blinked. He straightened himself out and tried not to look as shaken up as he felt. The man in a lab coat and glasses looked down at him impatiently.

“We’ve been waiting for the last hour.”

Gold had no idea how to respond. His legs were shaky. He held up a hand to wave off any attempts at sympathy. “Teleport,” he got out hoarsely.

The man scoffed. “I don’t need an apology. I’ve got all the notes on my desk about what to expect down there. Nothing a tough guy like you can’t handle. We’ll be inside whenever you’re ready.”

The aide was nicer. “Gold, right? Prof. Oak’s told me about you.” She looked around his age, maybe a couple years younger. Her hair was dyed an intense shade of blue and pulled into twin ponytails. She was dressed for the season—just a pair of bright yellow athletic shorts and sleeveless red shirt, white jacket. Her body was toned—Gold had the fleeting thought that she could have been his twin, but her accent struck him as native to Kanto. She had her own POKéGEAR, too; clipped neatly on her bag, rather than on her wrist.

“Oh, uh—has he?”

“Only good stuff, don’t worry.” She extended a hand. “You can call me Kris. That other guy is Mr. Ito.”

They shook. Her gloveless hand was warm and soft, which surprised him. Gold noticed her belt—two standard pokéballs, a moon ball and a lure ball respectively. “You’re a trainer, too?”

“I’m more of a researcher. Lately I’ve been working on the Unown Mode feature of the POKéDEX. We’ll have to set yours up first, before you go down there.” She reached out towards the ‘DEX at his hip, suddenly very businesslike. Gold hesitated. She smirked. “What? I’m not gonna screw it up, I’ve done this enough times by now.”

“I never said—”

Kris inclined her head without waiting for an excuse. With a sigh, Gold handed over the POKéDEX. Kris walked over to the nearby desk. She clicked on a lamp and studied the screen for a few seconds. She whistled. “Wow! They weren’t kidding. Two-hundred and fifty on—” Mr. Ito clicked his tongue and she scowled “—yeah, okay.” She toggled through the settings with an air of aggression that suggested this was not the first time she’d been reprimanded. Gold’s amusement was undercut by the hope she didn’t break any of the buttons. Then again, he knew from firsthand experience that it could take a lot of punishment. “You’re pretty handy with that.”

#wip #lost silver #james bond #trainer gold #trainer kris #madeleine swann #mr white #for like a second #original characters #fanfic #fanfiction #writing #slight tone dissonance

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tracybirds · 4 years

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Mainly a Scott and John story, an interview unearths some unpleasant reminders of a childhood event. It was short and then EOS got involved and now I’m a little obsessed with writing her, it’s FUN!!

One wip down.... like seven to go xDD Hope you enjoy!

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“Once more, we’d like to thank the Tracy brothers for generously donating their time to speak with us,” said Casey Powell, her winning smile trained on the camera.

“Well, it was a pleasure to speak with you,” said Scott. “We decided early on that our priority would be the safety of those in danger. We’re thrilled to help raise awareness for civil defence across the globe.”

“Yeah,” interjected Gordon. “Because the more you can do to help yourself, the less likely you’ll need us.”

“I do notice that we’re missing the elusive fifth member of International Rescue,” said Casey. “What can you tell us about them?”

“John?” said Scott. “There’s no one better in a crisis.”

“And trust me, if you’re in a crisis you want to be talking to John,” said Virgil. “He does lot of work redirecting calls to local response teams who have their own expertise in their environment. So, as it stands, you’ll only hear from him if it’s a true emergency.”

“Brain like a supercomputer and the calmest person you’ll ever meet,” said Gordon.

“And he’ll never give up on you,” piped up Alan.

Scott nodded approvingly. “He’s not only our rescue coordinator, he also works with a lot of communities in disaster prone regions on improving their civil defence infrastructure and policies. So he’s really the most qualified to be here today, it’s a shame he couldn’t make it.

“It’s always so interesting to hear such a fresh perspective on John Tracy,” said Casey. “My own research was less than forthcoming.”

“Yeah, well, he likes his privacy,” said Scott. “Probably wouldn’t be happy we mentioned any of that, he keeps things pretty quiet.”

“An intriguing comment,” said Casey with a smile. “Particularly as I tracked down a number of his peers from graduate school. He was generally described as rather distant and uninterested in social connection. And this from a group of physicists!” She gave a tinkling laugh. The brothers did not.

“In fact, the only mention of John Tracy aside from old school records are a few scarce research papers which indicate he has a formal relationship with Canterbury University in New Zealand. That’s quite a distance from your Kansas base, isn’t it now?”

“And what of it?” demanded Gordon.

“Well, to the untrained eye, on paper it would appear that International Rescue has a rather large rift in their ranks. How can you claim to possess the unconditional trust required to fulfil your mission, when your own brother refuses to care for…”

“That’s enough,” barked Scott. “Speculation on the nature of our working relationship with our brother is not what we are here to discuss.”

The world watched as three younger brothers straightened from their relaxed positions. The command in Scott’s voice and the disdain in Casey’s was enough for their eyes to grow alert and their shoulders to be squared up in defence of their absent brother. The world couldn’t know that a fourth brother, high above, did just the same at the bite in Scott’s voice.

He swiped at the screen and shut the video off with a clenched jaw.

“John?” asked EOS softly. “Your systolic blood pressure appears to have risen to 128 mmHg. Should I begin assistive monitoring?”

John kept his eyes closed as he organised his thoughts. Anger at Casey Powell, irritation at Gordon for rising to her bait, and fear. Fear that she of all people could be right. What was he doing sequestering himself away from the very people for whom he cared more deeply than any other?

No, he thought to himself. I made the choice to be here to help people. She doesn’t know a damn thing about any of us.

“John?” prompted EOS.

“No, I’m fine,” said John, exhaling deeply. “What’s the status on that Californian wildfire?”

“All people evacuated from the area. Authorities are still discussing strategy but forecasts for the firefighters indicate minor casualties only.”

“Shift them down to Category Two,” said John, turning back to his array and immersing himself in the weather projection modelling he was working on to ascertain the risks of cyclones in the Pacific Tropics. “Let me know if their status changes.”

***

Scott paced back and forth in the living room, his brothers gathered together. “I can’t believe what sort of nonsense they’re saying. Don’t they know how much you do for us?”

John crossed his arms and looked at him irritably. “Of course they don’t. We don’t advertise it with good reason. And I’m not sure why you’re surprised really,” he said with a touch of acid in his voice. “Uncaring, distant John, must be a robot, let’s take him apart and see what makes him tick. This isn’t exactly new territory for me.”

Gordon and Alan looked between the brothers with wide eyes.

“This has happened before, John?” asked Gordon cautiously.

John started and looked down at Gordon in surprise as though he’d forgotten he was there. He shook himself and the laser-sharp focus returned to his eyes.

“It’s not important,” said John. “Alan wasn’t even born, you were just a kid at the time,”

“AND SO WERE YOU,” roared Scott. John flinched backwards and raised a hand as though to end the call before catching himself. He looked over at Virgil uneasily.

“Scott.” Virgil lay a warning hand on his shoulder. “This isn’t John’s fault. That Powell lady cornered us because she thought she had some dirt on International Rescue. There’s nothing more to it. We know she’s an idiot. Don’t make this personal.”

Scott took a steadying breath and his shoulders sagged. “Sorry John,” he said. “Just, sorry you had to see it all live.”

John shrugged. “At least you all gave me glowing feedback. Think I could get a raise?”

Alan let out a shrill giggle and clapped a hand over his mouth. “That didn’t happen,” he said, reddening as he looked around at his brothers.

Gordon laughed as he leaned over to ruffle Alan’s hair. “Aww, the kid’s got a cute laugh.”

“Get lost,” said Alan swatting at him. Gordon aimed a kick at the back of Alan’s knee in retaliation.

Ignoring the squabbles of the younger two behind them, Scott and Virgil moved closer to the hologram.

“Look, if you wanted, you could come home for a day or two,” said Virgil, quietly. “I know that this is small fry compared to what used to happen, but I don’t want the isolation getting to you.”

“I agree with Virgil,” said Scott with a nod. “You do have a tendency to brood.”

“I-I do not,” spluttered John.

“You’re the broodiest McBroody of them all,” said Gordon, dunking Alan’s head before joining the older brothers. “Get down here John, otherwise we might have to take Casey Cow-ell at her word and launch an investigation.”

A muscle twitched in John’s jaw. “We’re not doing this now,” he said, and cut the connection.

“Well that was abrupt,” said Gordon looking up at Scott. Scott was still staring at the place where their brother had been, eyes narrowed and unsmiling.

“Alan, prep Thunderbird 3,” he ordered. “Virgil, take Gordon anywhere that’s not here.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know when I’m not wanted,” said Gordon, rolling his eyes. “Come on Alan, let’s go.”

“Alan, do not prep Thunderbird 3,” said Virgil, a low warning tinging his voice.

Alan paused at the door, looking uncertainly between Scott and Virgil. He nodded quickly, before hurrying off after Gordon.

Virgil didn’t move. “Scott, you’re reading too much into this.”

“He hung up on us,” exclaimed Scott, whirling around to face him. “He’s pulling away.”

“Yeah, because Gordon was being a pain in the ass,” said Virgil with a snort. “Come on, I’m worried about him too but that wasn’t an out of character response by any means.”

“We have to go up there,” insisted Scott.

“What, you and Alan?” asked Virgil. “He’ll never forgive you if you drag Alan into this.”

“Then, I won’t bring him, you and I can go together,” said Scott. “Virgil, we have to, I can’t let him down again.”

There was an uncomfortable silence in the living room.

“Have you considered,” said Virgil carefully. “That this isn’t about John?”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m just saying,” said Virgil, raising his hands in defence. “You’re a lot more upset over this than he is.”

Scott looked at him, a mutinous expression flitting over his features. Scott was used to commanding a room, used to things going his way. But when his brother dug in, he knew it was useless to rage against him. Scott was a storm, but Virgil was unyielding beneath his mild demeanour and he knew how to outlast the fury.

“Give him twelve hours, and then call again. Without Gordon and Alan there this time, what were you thinking?”

He huffed irritably under Virgil’s calm scrutiny.

“Fine.”

***

It was not fine.

Tracy Island had fallen silent in the early hours of the new day, and Scott tossed restlessly in his bed.

His mind turned over the events of the day, unable to let them go long enough to rest.

“Research not forthcoming, I should have shown her where to shove her damn research,” he muttered into his pillow. “Who the hell is getting off telling her that crap?”

He thought back to the long suffering holocalls John had made with them during his undergraduate, calls interrupted by his roommate who seemed to think he had a scholarship in partying, the way John had always cringed away from the hands trying to pull him out the door. How in graduate school, he’d gotten his own apartment and they pretended not to see the way his eyes closed in relief when they’d all finished helping him move in his belongings.

Scott didn’t even want to touch on his memories at eleven, of finding John crying silently under his bed with a split lip and bruises all along his left arm. Of having to drag him out and clean him up and see him lie to their parents for weeks about where the pain was coming from. Of sitting on the sidelines and watching. Forbidden first by a brother and then by his parents to interfere.

He flung over and poked at the display screen hovering above the bedside table. The blue light of the clock shone bright in his eyes and he groaned at the thought of another four hours trapped in his room.

He had to act now.

“John?” he called in a soft voice, trusting his brother to hear him through the comms system, hoping he wouldn’t ignore his call.

John was falling nearly thirty-six thousand kilometres above him and it should take less than half a second for a response. Scott gave him ten.

“John?” he called again, sharper this time and more impatient.

“Scott Tracy?”

“EOS?” Scott blanched at the sound of her voice and pulled himself upright and turning the light on. He had never given her more than a customary greeting before, and even that had been the reluctant result of a baleful glare from John. He didn’t like the idea of having this conversation lying down in the dark.

“John is unable to respond,” she said simply. “May I be of assistance?”

“What do you mean unable?” asked Scott. “What have you done?”

“I have done nothing,” she said. Scott knew her voice was that of a machine but he didn’t think he imagined the chill in her tone.

“John is resting.”

“Oh,” he said, feeling foolish.

“Yes,” she said. “Despite the rotation of the Earth producing a standard sidereal day of twenty-three hours and fifty-six minutes, I was told it was a long day.”

“Twenty-three hours and fifty-six minutes, huh?”

“And four point one seconds, if we’re being precise. And I am.”

Scott couldn’t help but laugh. It was exactly the kind of non-joke his brother might have made.

“Careful EOS, he’ll remake you in his image,” he said.

“I think not,” she said, primly. “I’ll remake myself before he gets access to my programming.”

“You probably want another sense of humour at least.”

“Well, I want his. You can’t make me take another,” she said, and Scott stopped laughing abruptly.

There was a beat of silence before EOS spoke again.

“Your pulse has spiked.”

“No, shit,” said Scott, weakly. “You have no idea how terrifying you are, do you?”

“I understand your logic behind that statement but not the emotion.” EOS paused. “It is not an irrational fear.”

“You mean you’re planning–”

“I am not planning anything, Scott Tracy,” she said, dropping back into a monotone. “I was merely referencing the historic fear of robotic industries and artificial intelligence.”

“John showed you ‘I, Robot’, huh?”

“Amongst others. He made me understand why I had been hunted.”

“Right.” Whether showing a sentient AI famous examples of how to destroy humanity using robots was a good idea or not, was a discussion to have with his overly optimistic brother another day.

“You still have not stated whether you require assistance,” said EOS, interrupting his thoughts. “By your casual attitude to this conversation, may I assume it was not urgent?”

“Oh, right,” said Scott. “I was just checking in, I guess. Virgil told me to wait twelve hours but I couldn’t sleep. Guess I’m used to him being awake at stupid o’clock.”

EOS was silent, long enough that Scott wondered if she had cut communications now she was satisfied John would not need to be woken. He turned the light out.

“You are worried about John?” she asked, pausing carefully between each word.

Scott started in surprise.

“Yeah, I am.”

“He will not hear this recording,” she informed him. “I have encrypted it and will remove all traces of it from Thunderbird Five’s systems.”

“You’re worried too?”

“I am not sufficiently advanced to generate my own emotions. But he has acted in variation with past iterations of our evening routine in the last eight hours. I would like to know why.”

“Do you not know what happened? I thought you followed him everywhere up there.”

“I have limited information. I saw his reaction to Casey Powell’s interview. Then I saw his behaviour following your earlier call. There are certain restrictions to my observations of John. He can choose to deny me entry to any number of places. And he locked me out.”

“Do you have to stay out when he does that?”

“Well, no,” she admitted. “But I choose to. It is a section of the subroutine he has titled respect and it overlaps with another he calls privacy.”

“Isn’t this in breach of that?”

“I am a branch of self-editing artificial intelligence. I can choose to disengage any aspect of my programming as it suits. Do you always choose to take part in the social etiquette of good manners? It is an algorithm designed to produce desired human behaviours, yet you are no more bound to follow it than I.”

“Good point.”

“I would like you to discuss this with John. I would like your permission to be present.”

“Well, wake him up then.” Scott regretted the rash words the second they left his mouth. He hated to be the one to wake John up, knowing his sleeping routine was much more precarious than the rest of theirs.

Fortunately, EOS refused him just as quickly.

“My observations show that a conversation in person is the most effective. I will lower the space elevator and lock the controls. No-one will be able to access them but myself.”

Scott swallowed audibly. His life would be in EOS’s virtual hands and questionable morality. But he knew his brother needed him. He was certain of that fact.

“You are apprehensive. I have new programming that prevents lethal action against members of International Rescue. I wrote it myself.”

Scott could hear the hint of pride in that statement, clear as the sky above. He almost smiled, but the gesture snagged itself on one final fear.

“Didn’t you say you could choose to ignore your programming?”

“Yes,” said EOS simply. “But John tells me humans have a special subroutine to help deal with high levels of uncertainty. He calls it trust.”

Scott exhaled slowly and nodded.

“I’ll meet you in the hangar.”

***

Scott bounded through the airlock with a weird feeling buried in his chest. Technically, there was no difference in visiting Thunderbird Five during the daytime or the night – the sky was always an inky black and the lights remained on. There was only one person who lived on board, so there was no reason to eye the empty corridor with any caution or suspicion. It all looked very normal.

“Welcome Scott Tracy,” said EOS behind him, and he jumped as he caught sight of her whirring mechanism from the corner of her eye. “I kept the gravity on for you.”

“Yeah, thanks for that.” He knew he was openly staring, but it was the first time he’d gotten to see EOS up close without the blue filter of a hologram between them.

“John will awaken in seven minutes,” she said. “Would you like some breakfast?”

“I, uh, sure,” he said and jogged after her as she spun and glided towards the galley on the other side of the station.

“John keeps cereal and bread for visitors,” said EOS, and Scott watched as the relevant cupboards opened in front of him.

“What, no bagels?” asked Scott, with a grin.

EOS hesitated slightly before responding. “John keeps cereal and bread for visitors,” she repeated.

“Okay, I take the hint,” said Scott, pulling out the cornflakes. “You know EOS, you’re smaller than I expected.”

“That is because you have made the mistake of assuming my entirety is contained by the camera array you perceive me to be. I assure you, I am much larger in virtual space and it would take a much bigger entity to contain me.”

“You need to talk to John about how to put people at ease instead of just being honest,” said Scott. “Got any milk?”

It was an odd experience, to be awake in what felt like an early Wednesday morning and to look down and see the planet falling away from under his feet as the gravity ring revolved about the station’s core. It was odder still, to be eating dry cornflakes with a personable computer who still had cause to remind him of all the ways he could die horribly if a malfunction were to occur. They were chatting pleasantly about the levels of ‘need to know information’, when the swish of the doors announced John’s arrival.

“Morning EOS,” he said, groping blearily at the wall.

“Good morning John,” chirped EOS. Her voice was pitched higher that usual and Scott had to wonder if she had consciously incorporated the change to mimic the inflections she heard in John’s own speech patterns. She sounded just as guilty as the time John had tripped and landed directly on top of Alan’s newest gaming array.

John heard it too and he peered at her. “What did you do?”

“Nothing of concern. We have a visitor.”

“A what?” John spun around and looked outside. “I don’t see Thunderbird Three?”

“Over here, John,” called Scott. He waved slightly and chuckled at the look of astonishment his brother gave him.

“How did you get here?”

“Same way as you did,” he said with a grin.

“You let EOS bring you up in the elevator?” John asked sceptically, raising an eyebrow. “That’s new.”

He looked thoughtfully over at EOS before turning to pull out a bagel from a seamless cupboard in the wall. “When did you two become buddies?”

“Oh, last night,” said Scott airily. “It was nothing.”

“Scott contacted Thunderbird Five at 2:51AM, local time,” said EOS. “I detected an decrease in defensive body language at 2:57AM. Then he agreed to relinquish control to me.”

“I didn’t relinquish anything,” Scott grumbled. “Don’t go taking liberties just because we’re playing nicely.”

“Of course not,” said EOS, the ring of lights flashing blue.

“Well, why are you here?” asked John, settling next to him with his own breakfast. “What can I help you with that a holo couldn’t fix?”

Scott gaped at him. “Do you not remember yesterday? Has the radiation finally gotten to your brain?”

“I remember yesterday just fine,” said John, rolling his eyes. “I was just hoping that you’d done the sensible thing and gotten over it already.”

“Gotten ov– John, did you hear what she was saying.”

“Very clearly, in fact. I just don’t care.”

“How can you not care?” demanded Scott. “Even EOS was worried.”

“EOS is not omniscient. She doesn’t have the full story.”

“Then tell it, John,” said Scott, throwing his hands into the air. “You seem to forget who had to spend all those years picking you up again and I’m terrified that I might have to do it again.”

“What do you want me to say?” said John impatiently. “Yes, she got under my skin yesterday. But I’m an adult, I know she’s just looking for a story. Easier to attack someone who isn’t there to defend themselves. And from the outside, she’s right – the world thinks we’re based in Kansas and I have very public ties to a university in a country in a completely different hemisphere. They’re meant to think I live there, they’re meant to have an easy explanation for why I’m never seen with you. We did that on purpose, remember, so no one would think to look for a giant fucking space station.”

Scott sat stunned for a moment.

“In case you haven’t noticed, you’re getting upset about someone picking up the red herrings that we deliberately laid out for them to follow. So excuse me, if I think you’re overreacting.”

“But yesterday,” stammered Scott. “You hung up on us.”

“Yesterday,” said John, slowly. “Yesterday you chose to yell at me for something I never had control over, in front of Gordon and Alan, and then Gordon decided to be an idiot because he has the emotional sensitivity of a sprat. I’d had enough.”

“I didn’t mean to shout,” said Scott, shamefaced. “I got caught up in the moment.”

“I know.”

The brothers were silent for a moment. Scott tried to swallow the cornflakes in front of him, but they turned to cardboard in his mouth.

“I just didn’t want to let you down,” mumbled Scott.

John looked over at him in surprise. “You didn’t. You shut her down and got everyone back on track. I spoke to Virgil last night, the global civil defence discussion went viral and governments and councils are making sure our recommendations are incorporated into their action plans. Not to mention, the number of calls EOS has had to field after you mentioned the regional work I do.”

“I feel like you shouldn’t have to defend yourself to do that.”

“I don’t. But neither do you.” John sighed. “Scott, when are you going to see that what happened to me as a child wasn’t your fault? I don’t need to be protected from the bullies out there. I haven’t for a long time.”

“I know it wasn’t my fault,” snapped Scott.

“But you blame yourself anyway,” said John, patiently. “You think you should have seen it sooner, should have retaliated when you found out, should have done something about it.”

Scott was silent, stubbornly refusing to admit that John had hit the nail on the head.

John huffed irritably as the silence extended. “Fine, how do you think it should have gone, back when we were kids?”

“Mom and Dad should have let me tear them apart,” muttered Scott. “You have no idea how much that hurt John, to see your kid brother collecting bruises like they were stamps and being told to stand aside and do nothing.”

John’s hand fell upon his shoulder. Scott wiped angrily at the tears that were spilling onto his cheeks.

“This is stupid,” he muttered. “You got hurt way worse.”

“It was different though,” said John. “It was just physical and let’s face it, that’s not the worst I got as a kid. I got more scrapes and broken bones from falling out of trees. Remember when I got glass in my eye?”

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” said Scott making a pained expression. “You freaked everyone out with that one.”

“Yeah, but I got to choose the new colour,” said John, cheerfully. He sobered as he glanced over at Scott who was not laughing. “This is what I mean, Scott. You couldn’t have prevented that anymore than you could have prevented this. You can’t protect me forever.”

“Watch me,” said Scott immediately.

“No,” said John. “I won’t. You’ve got to let it go. No sense in holding on to something that caused both of us pain twenty years ago.”

Scott mulled it over. “I don’t think I know how.”

“I’ll put you in touch with some people,” said John with a nod. “We’ll work it out.”

A beep interrupted them and John looked over at EOS.

“There is an incoming call from Tracy Island,” she said promptly.

“Put it through,” said John, standing abruptly.

“John!”

“Hey Virgil, what’s happening.”

“We need you to activate Scott’s GPS,” he said worriedly. “He’s turned it off. We can’t find him anywhere, but all the jets and TB1 are still in the hangar. Kayo’s having a field day.”

John looked over at Scott, a half-smile twitching on his lips. “No need. I have eyes on him.”

“Oh, thank goodness,” said Virgil. “Where is he?”

“On Thunderbird Five.”

“Thunderbird Five?!”

Virgil’s squawk was echoed by a shout from Kayo, who wrestled the comm away from Virgil.

“You let him know that when I next see him, I am going to throw him into the next century,” she said, fuming. “What the hell is he doing up there?”

“Needed a chat. Making nice with EOS. Avoiding Gordon. Two of those are true.”

“You let him know, John Tracy,” she repeated and John shut off the connection with a laugh.

“Any chance I can finish your rotation?” asked Scott who was looking rather pale.

“After I just laughed in Kayo’s face and hung up on her?” asked John, incredulously. “I’m only that brave because I know she can’t reach me here.”

“Well, at least buy me some time.”

“Sure,” said John, smiling properly now. “EOS, take him through the ‘To Do Eventually’ task list. I’ll talk to you later.”

“This task list is comprised of everything John has asked me to remind him to do,” said EOS, her lights flickering to a cheerful yellow. “The first task is to teach me about aspects of humour.”

Scott grinned as John wandered off. “Oh he is so going to regret this.”

#scott tracy #john tracy #eos #thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds #i'm still deep in scott territory folks i can't escape xD #sometimes i fic

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themaskedwriter · 5 years

Text

The First of Many

Clues:

1) I specialize in angst typically

2) I love using song lyrics as titles

3) I have a bad habit of having more than one WIP going at a time

Pairings: Bucky Barnes x Reader

Warnings: Fluff?, alcohol?

Word Count: 3300+

Summary: While at a bar you get hit on by a guy as a dare and it looks like it’s just going to be one of those nights, until it doesn’t.

It was happening again. You could hear them. They thought they were being quiet but alcohol made people stupid. Especially former frat boys, somehow you always managed to run into the ones that never fully left college when you were out and about.

You were sitting at the bar waiting for your roommate, who wasn’t usually late but seemed to be today.

The bar was a dingy old place but it was fully stocked and drinks were cheap.

It was Friday and you’d just gotten off of work and desperately needed not only a drink or two but to interact with other adults. However, you could’ve dealt without the group of men behind you because you had a feeling you knew what was going to happen. You only hoped that Okoye would get here before one of them decided to come over.

No such luck.

One of them came up and stood next to you. He played dumb by staring at the wall of alcohol as if he was deciding what he wanted.

“What do you suggest?” He leaned over and asked.

You gave him a blank stare, he was cute. Or at least he could’ve been.

“I’ll have whatever she’s having,” he told the bartender, Wanda, who gave you a look.

“A sex on the beach,” you told Wanda, who knew you were lying.

“Wait, what?” The overgrown frat boy asked.

“One sex on the beach comin’ up.” Wanda pulled out what she needed before he could change his order.

Shaking his head he looked to you, “So, what’s your name?”

“Y/n,” you answered unenthusiastically.

“Y/n,” he repeated, “that’s a beautiful name. I’m Grant.”

His overconfidence was already annoying you. But you had to continue to remind yourself to play nice because he and his friends outnumbered you and you didn’t want to start anything

“Nice to meet you,” you gave him a half smile.

“So, what’s a pretty girl like you doing here at a bar alone?”

“Waiting for true love to come in and sweep me off my feet.” You took a sip of your rum and coke.

“Oh, well here I am,” he said making you choke.

“That’s presumptuous of you.”

“Thank you,” he smirked, “so can I take you out?”

You wanted to laugh or throw your drink in his face but you just smiled at him and shrugged.

“Maybe,” you said as flirty as you could manage.

Grant wrote down his number on a napkin next to you. He slid it over to you and winked, you smiled but you wanted to gag.

Once his back was turned you took the napkin and ripped it up and watched as the pieces floated onto the bar.

Wanda placed the drink she’d just made in front of you and winked, “On the house.”

“Thank you, Wanda,” you said as you played with the disregarded napkin pieces on the bar.

“That seems a little dramatic, don’t cha think?” A voice next to you asked.

You turned to a blue-eyed man who was sitting next to you with a quizzical look on his face.

“No, I don’t think it was,” you answered.

“Ok,” he nodded, “Then why did you rip up his number?”

You looked back to the group Grant had just rejoined then back at the stranger.

“It was a dare. He did that because they have dubbed me the least attractive person here and thought I would be an easy target. Jokes on them though I’ve been the butt of that joke before,” you threw up a peace sign and looked to your almost finished rum and coke.

Why were you telling this guy this? He is probably no different than the rest of them. And there you were telling this random guy about the one thing that kept you from dating the most.

“So if I was to give you my number or ask you on a date, would you assume that I was doing the same thing?” He asked.

“Well considering that I don’t know your name -”

“James,” he answered, “But people call me Bucky.”

“Who calls you James?” You asked surprising yourself with how interested you were in him.

He smiled while writing something down, “I guess if you really wanna know,” he slid the paper over to you, “you’ll find out.”

He gave you a wink and walked away.

“Who was that?” Okoye asked from behind you.

You turned and looked at your roommate.

“I don’t know,” you answered.

“She was just hit on,” Wanda said.

“By that guy,” Okoye pointed to Bucky who was joining his group of friends.

“Yeah but I think he felt sorry for me because that guy,” you pointed at Grant, “was dared to hit on me.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Okoye said.

“It’s whatever. Here,” you said sliding the sex on the beach to Okoye who grimaced and looked at you, “It’s free and I’m not gonna finish it.”

“Wanda, I would like to buy my lovely friend a bunch of drinks,” Okoye took the drink you handed her anyway.

“The usual coming up,” Wanda said pulling out multiple shot glasses.

“So how was work?” Okoye asked and you launched into a story about what happened during the day.

Being a nanny was interesting, to say the least. Especially when one of the kids you were a nanny for was only six-months-old and every person on the planet thought that the baby was yours despite the fact that the baby looked nothing like you. But that didn’t seem to matter to anyone, it’d be one thing if they thought you adopted him, but most of them made a comment about how ‘your body bounced back so fast after having him’ which made you want to scream.

But that wasn’t going to stop you from taking baby Mike out, because sitting around all day with a baby could get boring.

So you took Mike to Target because you wanted to buy some new clothes.

You were holding up two different black shirts.

“What do you think, Mikey? Black or black?” You asked the baby, who just stared at you, “No, I know. They’re both black, but one is more black than the other and they are different style shirts.”

Mike coos.

“You’re right, I should just get both, it’s not like I’m trying not to spend money,” you said sarcastically tossing the shirts in the cart. You look up and your eye land on someone across the way. “Oh, shit. Ok, Mike let’s make a quick getaway.”

“Hey,” Bucky made eye contact with you before you could dash off.

“Hi.”

“You never called,” he said getting right to the point.

“Is there an expiration date on phone numbers?”

Bucky laughed, you’d never head anything like it, and you instantly wanted to make him do it again.

“No, I guess there’s not. I never caught your name.”

You narrowed your eyes at him, “are you sure? Because if I remember correctly, you were there when I told it to the Gus guy. So is this your way of trying not to seem creepy for already knowing despite my never telling you?”

“Yeah,” he blushed.

“Y/n.”

“Who’s this?” He nodded towards Mike.

“Ah, this is Mike or Mikey. He’s one of the kids I nanny.”

Bucky leaned over so Mike could see him, “It is very nice to meet you, Mike. I’m Bucky.”

Mike stared at him for a moment, this baby had a serious case of resting bitch face, before he smiled at him and Bucky’s face lit up.

“Well, ya know what they say, babies are a great judge of character,” Bucky told Mike.

Mike grunted and Bucky gasped.

“Tell me more,” he said.

Watching him interact with a baby was almost too much for you and you needed to get him away from this before you completely broke down and asked him out right then and there.

“Well,” Bucky turned back to you, “I will leave you two to it. And I sincerely hope you do decide to call me, but no pressure.”

That night, after Okoye stared you down, you ended up calling him and asking him on a date.

“Stop pacing, you’re starting to make me nervous,” Okoye said from the couch not bothering to look up from her phone.

“Ok, but consider this,” you said continuing to pace, “What if he’s also doing this as a dare? What do I do then? Oh my god.”

“What?” Okoye looked up at you.

“What if he didn’t do this as a dare but hates me anyway? Or what if we start out liking each other and then -”

“Y/n!” Okoye cut you off. She shot up from her place on the couch and placed her hands on your shoulders. “If you don’t stop I will kill you. And I’d rather not kill you because that’s a lot of clean up for me and I don’t want to find a new roommate. So just chill out ok?”

“But -”

“No, if anything happens, I’ll kick his ass. So sit down and breathe.”

You sat in the armchair next to the sofa and took three deep breaths. Your text alert went off, you wasted no time in checking it.

Bucky: I’m downstairs.

“Ok, he’s here,” you got up and grabbed your things.

“Have fun and be safe,” Okoye called just before you shut the door.

Despite all your doubts and worries, you were excited, you couldn’t remember the last you went on a date. Once you walked out the door your eyes landed on Bucky who was wearing black pants with a navy floral button-up shirt and leather jacket. God, he was breathtaking.

When he saw you he started grinning.

“You look beautiful,” he said earnestly once you were within a foot of him.

You looked at the ground bashfully, “Thank you. You look beautiful too.”

“It’s the shirt isn’t it?” He teased.

“I like the shirt,” you told him and his smile widened, which you didn’t think was possible.

“Alright well,” He held out his arm and you took it, “let’s get the night started shall we?”

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll see,” he smiled.

He led you to his car and opened up the door for you. Once you were in he shut the door and jogged to the driver’s side.

You looked out the window not wanting Bucky too see the embarrassed look on your face.

This was the first time anyone has ever treated you like this on a date and it hadn’t even really started yet. And just like that, you finally understood what everyone meant when they said they had the best first date ever.

“You ok?” Bucky asked.

You turned to him hoping that your facial expression had pulled itself together.

“Yeah,” you said.

It wasn’t technically a lie it just also wasn’t the complete truth.

He smiled and kept driving.

“Ya know what sucks the most about first dates?” He asked out of the blue.

“Uhh,” you stalled not sure how to answer.

“The 20 questions game, like I ask you where you grow up and then you answer and then you ask me some stupid question that I answer.”

“What would you suggest we do about this dreadful game then?” You held back a laugh.

“I think we should just tell each other our best stories for the night.”

“So you want to burn through all of my date material in one go? What would we talk about next time?” You asked as he came to a red light.

He looked over at you and smirked, “We aren’t even to the date site yet and you’re already talking about date number 2?”

“I- I uhhh -”

“Well, I better not fuck the rest of tonight up if I’m almost guaranteed a second date.”

Once again you had to look out the window to hide your face.

After a minute or two of driving Bucky stopped the car at the pier.

“Really?” You asked.

“What?” He looked at you, “Dates should be an experience, not just a fucking dinner.”

He got out of the car first and raced to your side to open the door for you but you opened it before he got there.

“Ya know, it’s hard to show off my gentleman like qualities if you ruin my opportunities,” he said.

You laughed at him as you got out of the car. He offered you his hand and without even thinking about it, you took it.

He led you to the first stop, an elephant ear stand.

“Dessert first?” You asked.

“Are you not a dessert person?” He asked looking worried.

“What about me says I’m not a dessert person?” You laughed.

“Ok, well my current plan was to split one but if you want your own -”

“We can split one,” you told him, “but I expect cotton candy on the way back.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

You hadn’t realized that neither one of you let go of each others hand until he pulled away to reach for his wallet.

“If I’d known we were going to be near the water I would’ve brought a jacket,” you muttered, not meaning for him to hear.

But of course, he did. So, he shrugged off his jacket and placed it on your shoulders. You slid your arms into the sleeves. Involuntarily you inhaled his scent, it smelled like old spice.

“Ok, so normally I’d save this story for the end of the date or date number two. So this is either going to make or break tonight,” Bucky said in between bites.

“Lay it on me,” you licked your thumb and forefinger.

“Ok, well,” he then launched into a story about the one time his friend Steve and Sam were trying to show off for some girl at the bar and they happened to be playing darts at the time. One thing led to another and Sam ended up hitting Bucky in the shoulder with a dart. Then apparently Bucky dramatically threw his arms into the air and hit not one but two women in the face.

You couldn’t stop laughing if you tried.

“It’s not that funny,” he clearly thought it was funny by the smile on his face.

“Did it hurt?”

“Not really I was drunk,” he admitted.

“Were they ok?” You gasped.

“I didn’t ask I was too focused on the fact that my friend hit me with a dart!”

You continued to laugh until you made it to the Ferris wheel line. Your laughter died down a little and you caught Bucky looking at you with a fond smile.

“What?” You asked.

“Nothing, it’s your turn to tell a story,” he said.

“Ok, well there was this one time Okoye, my roommate, thought that it would be a good idea to try and set me up with someone she knew from her home. So he came to visit and then confessed his love for her right there in front of me while I was all ready to go on a date with him.”

He looked at you in disbelief, “That’s not funny.”

“First of all, it’s hilarious. Second of all, I don’t have a lot of friends. It’s not like I have co-workers I can go out with. The majority of my time is spent with a baby and I don’t have many opportunities to talk to other adults.”

“Alright well,” Bucky said as you moved up a few spots in line, “I think that you will get along great with my friends.”

“Oh, so we’re skipping right over the second date to meeting your friends? That’s almost more important than meeting your family,” you teased.

“How so?” He asked.

The ride attendant let you on to one of the seats. Once you were seated you looked at him.

“Well, you pick your friends right? You can’t pick your family and in my eyes, your friends’ opinion is more important than your family’s because you picked them. And you can be embarrassed by your family.”

“So what should I think about your lack of friends situation?” He teased.

“That I’m very selective with who I can out with and that my time is precious and I don’t waste it on just anybody.”

You looked at him and his eyes drifted down to your lips for a fraction of a second then he looked back up to your eyes. The Ferris wheel stopped when your cart got to the top.

“What?” You asked.

“Your laugh is the most sound I’ve ever heard.”

“Oh -”

“And you are smart and beautiful, and it boggles me that you are single.”

“People use me as a dare -” you reminded him.

“They’re stupid and don’t know what they’re missing,” he whispered as his eyes drifted to your lips again.

“Bucky -”

“Y/n, I really,” he paused, “I’m having a really good time tonight.”

“Me too,” you answered.

“Would it be too forward if I said I wanted to kiss you?”

“No, but we don’t always get what we want.”

“But if you try sometimes you just might find -”

“Don’t,” you told him.

He leaned in really close to your face and you scrunched your face as he sung, “You get what you need.”

“I hate you!�� You laughed.

“Do you?”

“No.”

“So,” he put his arm on the back of the seat, “On a scale from one to ten how is this date going?”

“I’ll let you know a the end of the night.”

And the night went on and it went amazing. And you would never admit it in a million years, well you might but not for a while, but you could feel yourself falling in love with him.

The drive home was odd, only because you didn’t want the night to end and that had never happened before. Typically you were ready for the night to end and you couldn’t wait to share with Okoye while you share a bottle of wine and laugh about how stupid the date was. But not this time, you tried to think of excuses to elongate the date.

At the end of the night, he walked you to the door.

“So I had fun tonight,” he said, “so, what’s the verdict on your side?”

“Well if ten is the best,” you clicked your tongue, “I’d have to go with a ten.”

“Just a ten?”

“Well, it’s a scale from one to ten,” you argued.

He stepped closer to you and cupped your face with his hand, “Do you want me to stop?”

You smirked, “No.”

He mirrored your expression and leaned in and kissed you.

His lips were soft as they glided over yours. He tasted like the cotton candy you had forced him to buy on your way back to the car. You leaned into him and pulled him to you like you couldn’t get close enough to him. And you couldn’t. You pulled away after what seemed like years to catch your breath. Your heartbeat was haywire and you could only hope that he was feeling what you were. You were about to invite him up to your place but he spoke.

“If I asked you on a second date -?”

“You’d get it,” you answered.

“Ok,” he gave you a quick peck on the lips before kissing your cheek, “until next time then.”

He waited until you were inside the doors to walk back to his car. After you made sure that he was safe in his car and driving away, you rushed up to your place to tell Okoye to tell her about the date you’d just had. You’d forgotten that you were wearing Bucky’s leather jacket but you didn’t mind so much, it just gave you an excuse to see him again. You didn’t have to tell her that you were falling in love, she could just sense it.

You didn’t know this at the time but he also felt like he was falling in love with you too, and he had no intention of letting you go. And neither did you.

#fic

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