#To be honest there might be a third part to this in your ask box in a few moments.

[lordofthestrix]

What would you do if I was a tree and you were a fish?

Transforming this into a duology because Aurora's curiosity isn't quenched.

The invisible web unfolded with the world as its prey. Tristan sensed the harmonious, devouring prowess of its threadlike commands forming what was yet to arrive. An immeasurable multitude of dancers, actors and singers alike. Each one believing in the delivery of their improvisation, almost all of them utterly blind to how accurate the stage would remain ever loyal to his opera.

Upcoming years of both splendor and ruin appeared like a vision in the sovereignty of his eyes and ploys, artfully sharpening the details of the design just as the one voice with the right to make an entrance inside his study without so much as knocking on the door visited in the sudden urgency of a somehwat familiar question.

His gaze abandoned the page and the frozen, echoed imprint of crafted tomorrows found the present deja vu of her inversed question with puzzlement.

The duel was short lived and absolute. The ghostly web, so grand and unfathomable mere moments ago, retreated in vanishing defeat, to be conjured to completion at a more convenient time. Soon, she was all his eyes chose to see.

Not a monumentally surprising turn of events. The performances he could play upon the world were manifold. But not one kindled the jolt of strange, jubilant and honest happiness his sweet Aurora inspired.

Fishes and trees. Second assault, or so it seemed. Amused, Tristan left his desk and his stratagems for sculpted futures, in favor of  dreaming up a response for her.

“Everyday I would battle in warring conflict against the will of the river in order to remain by your side. Until my fins hardened like armour. Only then, at the certainty of my daily return, I would venture its curse. With you as my stirring inspiration, I would swim to encounter the tidal mouth of the ocean. The gifts I would bring you back with each new moonlit or moonless night. All the untold treasures the seven seas devoured, I would uncover for you. I would command a thousand shoals and sail to endless shores in your name. I would reduce the oceans to my mercy just to see you grow, splendid and majestic as you are. Yggdrasil itself would wither in irrelevancy at your side. Your roots would extend to every land you please and I would jealously guard your waters as the most ferocious of leviathans.” It was her hand he claimed in a kiss this time. as the scorching promise of his words.

“Now. I believe it is time for you share where this new fixation with sea creatures and forest sentinels originated?”

@ladamedemartel​

[cainsau]

Can you do (Platonic) Homelander X reader. Like in S4E4, you were the only scientist that actually treated homelander as a actual human child and not a experiment, but then were fire for interfering with an experiment. And years later when he grows up and invite everyone back to the lab including the reader

Consequence || The Boys Imagine

(Platonic) Homelander x Scientist!GN!Reader

Summary: You are one of the scientists who worked on Homelander many years ago. One day he brings you back to the lab, for old times' sake, he says.

Warning: Canon typical violence and gore (not explicit)

Author's Note: Im so sorry but i dont fully understand your request! I hope this is close enough to what you're asking for :]

Masterlist

You recall the elevator ride from many years ago. It didn't use to be this long. Or maybe that's because you just witnessed Homelander shooting lasers at the security guards upstairs, all that to let you and him into the old lab. He probably can hear your heart beating abnormally fast.

"Do you think everyone will be there?" He asks.

You take a long breath, "Maybe not. Some of them probably don't work for the company anymore."

There is a moment of silence before he asks again, "Do you miss them?"

You think about it for a minute. His question feels like a test somehow. But, you've always been honest with him, and you're not going to stop now. "Not really, since they fired me."

"Right."

Homelander is a ticking time bomb. Since the beginning, you knew he was going to grow up with so much negativity from all that experimentation, and eventually explode. The least you could do was be kind to him, considering he was a literal child. Even now, you still feel a little bit of sympathy for him. But, it probably doesn't matter since he might have just brought you there to end your life along with the other scientists'. After all, there's no denying that you did work in that lab.

You sigh quietly. You didn't even get to say goodbye to your family when he picked you up at your current workplace.

The elevator dings, and the door opens, revealing the very same lab that you remember working in. The old faces try so hard to look delighted, but you can tell that they're as horrified as you.

"John?" Marty exclaimed in surprise.

"Homelander." The supe corrects him with an unending smile. "Just, Homelander." He then glances at you, putting an arm on your shoulder. "But [Y/N] is here too, y'know? You should greet them too."

You and Marty exchange a look. It's been years since the last time you talked to him. Though he's glad to see you after all these years, it is far outweighed by the horror of Homelander's presence.

Marty gives you a nod, "[Y/N]."

You return the nod, "Good to see you again, Marty."

"Well, well, well," Homelander steps forward with the box of cake while looking around, "I see that this place hasn't changed much."

He starts to talk and talk about his days in the lab. To the others, it might be an enlightening experience as he exposes their faults and... avenge it. Even if they didn't believe in god, they start praying inside their heads. Frank is the first to go, then Marty second. Thankfully, Barbara shows up before a third victim comes. But, oh, how wrong you are.

You stand there, breathing heavily, as Homelander closes the door to the Red Room. There's blood everywhere on his suit and hair, then as he turns around, his face is also covered in blood. But, the most terrifying part? His smile.

You hide your trembling hands behind your back. As much as you dislike how the other scientists treated him, you'd never think they'd end up like this.

"You alright?" You attempt to be nice to him, even if it's the last thing you do.

He laughs and approaches you slowly, "There should be more people like you in this world."

"You're one of a kind." He continues. "Most people are inconsistent. They're very prone to change, depending on where they are in the wheel of life- up or down- but, you? You're the same all around, then and now. That's great!"

He pats you on the back, leaving red stains on it, and guides you out. Apparently, he respects you enough to let you live, and not lock you in that room of corpses with Barbara.

As you arrive home safe and intact (physically, at least), you sigh in relief, feeling indebted to your alma mater for forcing you to take a class in ethics.

[milksuu]

❀. │GIRL DINNER (O1)│. ❀

❥ prompt: You're hungry. You want food. You want a snack. You just want SOMETHING. You send your HEARTSTEEL boyfriend(s) on a food-run adventure. Let's see what each boy brings back. ❥ content/warnings: sexually suggestive themes, profanity, fluff ❥ characters/pairings: v!Heartsteel (aphelios,kayn,ezreal) / f!reader

APHELIOS

sour patch kids and ariZona tea

Aphelios sneaks behind you, and presses the cold can against your neck. He can't help but enjoy how much you pout and whine about it.

He also can't help enjoying every expression you make: the first satisfied sip of your tea, the excitement of opening up the candy bag, and your mouth pursing from the sour taste. Then smiling once the sweetness settles.

But what Aphelios can't help most, is pulling down his mask, and tasting the sugar sparkling your lips. Smiling to himself when you're lost for words, cheeks stained pink, and nervously drawing cute circles against his chest.

It's enough to make him come back for seconds. And when he does, you taste even sweeter than the first. He was planning for a third but...he can wait till later.

Most likely past midnight underneath his sheets. When everyone's asleep but you two. And only he can hear the even sweeter noises you make—just for him. Only for him. Like an exclusive confectionary shop, and he's the only one allowed inside.

Until then, he’ll just savor the moment of watching you enjoy your snacks.

Aphelios likes his sweets. Even though he'll never admit it to anyone. But you're the only exception.

KAYN

flamin' hot fries and cherry coke

Kayn devoted his precocious time to get you something you could obviously get yourself, because he tolerates 'likes' you. (Whatever that means.)

He tosses the chip bag and drink in your lap, and plops down next to you. Pretending not to care whether or not you like his choices. Not his problem if you don't like it. He did you a favor, after all.

But all of that's a lie. He cares, like a lot. More than he wants to admit it. Because he values your opinion. And wants your validation. He scuffs to himself. Like he would ever beg or ask for it. He probably would.

You pause, staring at the snacks without a word. The anticipation is driving him damn near crazy.  And if you had to be honest with him…the combo is your total favorite!

You show your appreciation with showering praise, a hug around his neck, and love pats to his hair. He hates it. He fucking loves it.

Kayn doesn't easily show his joy. His happiness at your reaction starts off with a simple smile. Not so commonplace for someone like him. But then it curls into that all infamous smirk of his that only spells trouble.

Kayn was hungry himself. This whole time, didn't you know? Silly (and naive) of you not to have noticed. His gaze devours you till you find yourself caught by his lips. The nips and bites tell you the poor boy is starving. And he deepens the kiss till....

Well, guess your snacks can wait.

EZREAL

happy meal and sprite

Ezreal is excited to give you this happy meal. Why? Well, that's a surprise! And he loves surprising you.

He first covers your eyes and asks you to guess who it is. He does this all the time. You giggle at how silly it is. But you wouldn't want it any other way.

He then presents the box with the famous 'Ta-Da!' reveal.

You absolutely LOVE the happy meal from PoroKing! Not only is the food good, but the box art is always a cute treat to see.

Oh, but that wasn't the best part about it. The surprise was still inside. When you open the box, the toy inside is what makes you absolutely go crazy. It's the limited edition PoroKing keychain!

It's the only one you don't have in the entire collection, and somehow, Ezreal managed to get it for you.

You can't help yourself. You bounce onto his lap, and press your body and lips against his. He really wasn't expecting this much of a reaction! Afraid you might bounce away from how giddy you are, he takes your hips and presses you closer. Closer to the point where…

Looks like there's more than one surprise happening tonight.

[eshithepetty]

So.

This is it, mobsters.... our final stand. When the poll starts on @autismswagsummit, go....... do your part.

[Short ID: a comic pertaining to the autism swag summit, featuring Mob and Tome. Mob reveals that he feels insecure about how seriously everyone's been taking this, and how he's not sure he likes all this attention on him for it, but Tome argues and encourages him, saying that his could help him get Tsubomi's attention, since she's autistic herself, and might appreciate Mob being more confident about that. In the end, Mob brightens up, and gets pumped to win the bracket, before it's revealed that Tsubomi actually hopes Papyrus wins. End short ID]

Extended ID under cut:

[ID: a comic pertaining to the autism swag summit, featuring Mob and Tome. It's done in pink and orange tones, except for the last panel, which is purple.

First page: Mob sits down at the table in the telepathy club room, sighing. Tome, who is playing a video game and eating fries, looks at him and asks: "? What's wrong, Mob?" Mob looks to the side, eyes downcast, and says: "It's nothing really... it's just- the autism contest thing. Everyone's taking it so seriously but- idk. It feels weird. Like Mezato-san's cult thing, kinda." Tome, meanwhile, slides him the fries, and he takes one, and continues, "I don't think I like all this attention on me. Not for this." and Tome looks at him, chin on hand, and asks: "But wasn't that like, one of your main goals? To be popular?"

Second page: at this, Mob startles, and in the next panel he shrinks in as he replies "um- yeah, but. To be honest, I only wanted that to-" and shrinks even further in the next, blushing, trailing off with "to..." Behind him, there is the tapping of footsteps as Tome, off screen, rounds the desk, and makes Mob jump with a loud SLAM, and yells "LISTEN, MOB!" Then, she is looking at him with a frown, gesturing with one hand, and continues: "You need to look at this from a different perspective. What if this is the contest that winning would aid you the most? After all, isn't Takane herself autistic?" Mob, eyes wide and blushing, loudly interrupts with "S-SHE IS??"

Third page: Mob asks, "How do you know??" Tome, her arms crossed, eyes closed and a smirk on her face, says "Look. I'm autistic. You're autistic. We're ALL autistic, I know my kin, alright?" Under her breath, (under the speech bubble) she also adds "Plus I kind of heard her say "Leave me alone, I'm autistic" once," before she interrupts herself, her arms spread wide and flapping, with "but that's beside the point!" She continues in the next panel, only one of her moving hands visible as Mob looks up at her, wide-eyed, "My point is, maybe this is your chance to show her what you're all about; that you know who you are; are secure in your identity, proud of it, even!"

Fourth page: Tome crosses her arms again, a confident smirk on her face as she looks down at Mob and asks, "So tell me. What are you gonna do?" Mob, hunched in, shyly responds, ".... I'm gonna win...?" Off screen, Tome replies: "Say it with more confidence!" And Mob does, back straightening and a blush creeping in: "I- I'm gonna win!" Tome yells "Louder!", and Mob stands up, leaning on the table, yelling in response "I'm gonna WIN!!" And Tome, a fist pumped in enthusiasm, yells back "YEAH!!"

Last panel: Tome's dialogue box is cut off, as we see Tsubomi, meanwhile, laying in her bed, sucking a lollipop and phone in hand, as she thinks: "I hope papyrus wins." End ID.]

[papil0nglegs]

Fallen angel!Adam x Moth Healer!Reader

Chapter 3: The beautiful light

(Ch.1) (Ch.2) (Ch.3)

Warnings: Swearing, nightmares, cannibalism, and smoking

A/n: Just wanna thank all the peeps that were able to vote on the poll I made a few days ago <33 Had no idea what to do for the story so voting really helped me. Also this one’s kinda L O N G, I just had a lot of ideas for this part. (Also this song just reminded me of this fic listen to it PLS)

Adam’s pov:

Another weird ass dream, ever since I moved in this chicks hip-dip apartment I’ve been getting them. It’s mostly the day of the extermination, I can’t believe I didn’t turn back as soon as they started fighting back. Now I let everyone in heaven down, even Lute.

Whatever, I need to go wiz. I should probably stay quiet otherwise that butterfly bitch might wa-

Third dream pov (idk what to call it):

Before Adam can finish his thoughts, he looks towards the mirror, revealing his angel form but severely injured, and with a large gaping wound in his chest, surrounded by blood. Adam lets out a startled yelp, backing up against the bathroom door, awakening him.

Normal third pov:

Adam wakes up, startled at his new dream. He had still been lying on the couch, but his eyes wider than ever. He sits up, some of the leather couch sticking against his sweaty body, scratching the back of his head. The grey morning sky shined between the window blinds, he wanted to go back to sleep, but who could after a dream like that?

Adam rushes to the bathroom, quickly opening the door and turning on the lights, heading straight to the mirror. He gently touches his left horn, feeling a mix of relief but also disappointment that he’s back in his new body.

A lousy cough escapes his chapped lips, feeling that his throat is dry, and decides to get water from the kitchen tap, grabbing a mug and filling it up with water. Sure it tasted weird and warm, but he didn’t care. He chugged the nearly the whole thing in one sip, with some water spilling from the cup to his chin hairs. Adam slams the cup against the table.

Suddenly, a displeasing alarm goes off in the distance. He realizes that he’s not alone in here, what could that alarm be for tho? Y/n steps out of from her room still in her pajamas, yawning.

“Oh Adam!... What are you doing up this early?” She asks while heading to the kitchen. “I dunno man, just felt like it.” He responds in annoyance, “What are you doing up this early? You’re the one with the annoying ass alarm.”

Y/n rolls her eyes a bit while opening the fridge and taking out a box of frozen waffles, “I just have somethings to do today, so I thought I’d wake up early. I’m planning to pick up something from cannibal town.” She begins putting some waffles in a toaster while making herself a latte. “Gasp, you should totally come!!” Y/n exclaims excitedly.

Adam looks alarmed, offended even, and just stairs in confusion. “Y/n, why in the fuck, would I want to go anywhere, in this miserable place.” He says in a brutally honest manner. “I mean seriously, are you blind? Have you seen what goes on out there??” Adam pulls y/n to the window opening the blinds, revealing a guy getting his brains blown out.

Y/n cringes at the sight, “okay yeah it’s not great, but cannibal town is pretty enjoyable! Cmon you’ll see what I mean when we go there, plus you get to try out those wings of yours.” She says pointing at his scaly two scaly things, leading Adam to spread one of them a bit.

Y/n stares at Adam waiting for an answer, he sighs in annoyance, “eugh, fine I’ll go. Whatever means I can crash in here.” She then jumps in excitement, “Yess!! Also you’re going to have to pay at least half of the rent here if you wanna stay.” (He really thought 😭)

Time skip: 2hours

Adam waits on the couch waiting for y/n to finish up getting ready, y/n was lucky to find her old roommates clothes in his size. He has a leather jacket, along with black jeans and a Red Hot Chili Peppers shirt. He’s wearing the same boots he wore when he got here tho, he thought they’d look good with his jacket. Adam flinches at the sudden steps of y/n who just finished up, walking in the room.

“Sorry, I didnt scare you did I?” She says chuckling whilst brushing her hair. She had a long forest green skirt, along with a brown laced top and a cardigan that only reached her elbows. “So do you wanna fly or walk there? I can teach you how!”

Adam realizes, he has to pretend he doesn’t know how to fly, otherwise she might get suspicious. He assumes that since one angel has fallen, then there must be a shit ton. He can’t let her know that he’s the reason for the exterminations. “yeah, yeah totally totes you can definitelyteachmehowtoflymanandstuffhahahha” He rambles on while his eyebrows are furrowed and making finger guns to him, noticeably sweating his ass off.

Y/n notices this, then coming to a conclusion. “I know why you’re nervous, Adam..” She says gently, while looking up at him. Adam panics, nearly choking on his spit, “Ar-Ar you serious?”

“Yeah..

you must be afraid of heights!” She exclaimed happily, truly a eureka moment for this woman. Adam sighs in relief, the most unbearable relief anyone has ever felt. “I knew it from the moment I saw you, it’s always the tall ones.” She says shaking her head. “We don’t have to fly, Adam. It’s only a mile or two away, we’ll get there in no time!” Y/n adds picking up her messenger bag. “Now, let’s get going!” She says with a bright smile.

As they step onto the sidewalk, y/n notices that Adam seems a bit cautious. Normally when he was in hell it was to commit a massacre, not having to worry about a sinner hurting them because-well they couldn’t at the time. But now things are different, he’s one of them now.

“Relax,” Y/n starts, “just stay out of trouble, and stick with me. Oh and also watch your step, these guys are open to just taking a dump anywhere they’d like.”

The two begin to walk on the dirty sidewalk, y/n being extra careful about where she’s walking, but Adam doesn’t really mind stepping on a used condom or some junkies bag of coke.

“So, what’s it like up there?” Y/n asks, Adam gets alarmed at her question, stuttering a bit. “uuuUUP WHERE?”

“On earth! I heard that the sky is blue instead of red. And the animals there are not as scaly” y/n begins to stroke the soft hairs on her left wing, she was truly torturing this poor man. “How do the animals look here?” He asks, before y/n can respond,

splat!

A large red fleshy snake falls onto the ground, not really moving that much, just there. “I think that should answer your question” y/n then walks over the seemingly dead snake, while Adam does the same.

“So like, what do you guys do here all day?” Adam questions while sneering at the explicit posters causally displayed out in the open. “I mean, that depends on who you’re asking. Most people go on a rampage as soon as they get here, at least from what I see.” Y/n shrugs. “But sometimes you find a stable part of hell, or at least as stable as hell can be.” Adam becomes slightly intrigued about what she’s saying about hell. “Like, I work at a cafe around here. It’s nice but it’s a bit hard to keep up the wage when angels and demons wreck the place every now and then.” She says sadly, Adam feeling a wave of shame, that she has to live in constant fear while working because of others, and sometimes him.

Eventually, both y/n and Adam finally enter cannibal town. Adam being a bit wary, since he sees many familiar faces around the place, but not for good reason. Y/n then noticing, “Adam? You don’t look so good, is something wrong?” She questions. Adam begins to snap out of his cautious mode, “uhh, yeah?It’s not like on earth people are open to just eating each other out in the open-and NOT in the good way.” He scoffs, pointing to a gentlemen eating another’s guts out. “Oof, Rosie might wanna get that checked at.” Y/n says looking over at where Adam is pointing.

“And who the hell is Rosie??” Adam asks pretty loudly, “The mayor, but I’m sure she’s busy today. Anyways, I’m gonna go to the florist shop. Whole I go you can..” Y/n begins to look around, trying to find a place for Adam to get distracted, then finding a smoke store nearby. “-go to the smoke shop!” She suggests pointing nervously to the shop, hoping that her assumption wouldn’t offend him.

Adam stared at the shop for a bit, he had smoked before, but it was mostly when he was able to disguise himself as a human and go to earth. But he hasn’t done that in a while, last time he smoked he found himself passed out at the back of some hippies van. Ever since Sera made sure he was always watched whenever he went to earth.

“…yeah sure I’ll go smoke.” He submits. Y/n taking a breath of relief, “good! I’ll be in the shop if you need me” Y/n quickly gives him a nice 50, then going off to the flower shop.

Adam finishes his shopping trip pretty quickly, to be fair all he had was 50$ and the store was quite small. He just bought a bubbler and a pack of cigarettes, along with a lighter of course. He sits on a bench that had been between the two stores, then smoking one of the cigarettes.

He sat on that thing for at least 6 or 7 minutes. As he was sitting, he did notice that this place was nicer than every other part of hell. A bit weird to think about, how just a few days ago they were trying to kill each other. A huge gust of wind blows his cigar onto the floor, and into a puddle to his left. His attention is then drawn into the reflection for a few seconds, but he shrinks away from the pain of realizing he’s a demon now, and turns away closing his eyes.

After a good 9 minutes, y/n comes out with a woven basket of lavender, as well as candles with flowers inside of them. “Oh I took so long didn’t I?” She apologizes. “They just had a great sale on candles I couldn’t resist!” Y/n begins to sit down with Adam, hoping to rest a bit after standing round for a bit. “So, how have your last few days been down here?”

“Shitty. Do you have any eyeliner?” Adam replies manspreading, him being slightly slouched down. Y/n then scurries in her bag, hoping to find some. “I didn’t strike you as the type to wear eyeliner.” She chuckles, handing him the small stick along with a hand mirror. “What shape do you like putting it? I like a thin feline, it’s cute but basic.” Y/n shrugs, “Do I look like Jeffery star to you? I don’t know the fuckin species of eyeliner.” He laughs shaking his head giving himself a soft Smoke. Y/n laughs along with him, setting down the basket of lavender and candles between them.

“I got the lavender stuff for you.” Y/n says, Adam pauses, looking over at y/n. “…you’re not that smart are you?” Adam stares judgmentally, y/n taking lots of offense to his comment but keeping quiet. “Why do I need flowers right now? I don’t need a pity gift, especially if they’re some fucking flowers.” Adam scoffs. “No, they aren’t a pity gift or anything, I can tell you haven’t slept peacefully ever since you’ve gotten here.” Y/n removes a bit of the cloth on the basket to take one of the lavenders out. “These will be able to help you, I can make tea out of them and they’ll help you out. Or we can use the aromatherapy I got with it too, just in case you don’t like tea.” Y/n offers, she reaches over to gently grab Adam’s hand places it on hers.

“I know you’re going through a lot Adam. You don’t have to tell me why, but I need you to know that hiding your feelings wont do any good for you.” She explains giving a worried but weirdly comforting look at him, “so please, let me help you.”

Adam stares into y/n’s maroon and green eyes. He then feels as if a big weight of pressure left his chest, he’s never been able to have a person understand him like this. Especially when they don’t really know who he is. Tears slowly form in his red eyes, as y/n pulls him in for a hug. Feeling the warmth in her body made him feel safe in a way, that he could trust her. That she can always help him when he needs it. He didn’t know the exact words for it, but all he knew is that he hadn’t felt this way ever since Eden.

Adam’s dream pov:

Both Adam and y/n had gotten back to the house, it was a nice trip back since Adam finally trusted her a whole lot more. Once they got back y/n gave Adam some lavender tea, sure he would rather drink a cup of literal vomit than tea but he was desperate to sleep soundly for once. Hell, he could even sleep in jeans if we wanted to.

Adam practically throws himself on the couch, immediately going to sleep as soon as his cheek hits the pillow. He dreams of nothing but a void of darkness, as others do, but in that void he sees a familiar face in it, carrying a beautiful light with it. As the light came closer, it transformed into something Adam can only described as beauty.

He wasn't sure who it was tho, he's seen many women in his life, but he couldn't poke out who it was, only little things.The way she laughed, felt like small bubbles popping in his head. and her teeth coming from her smile, like beams of light, peaking through clusters and clusters of trees. And her eyes, oh her gorgeous eyes, like two pearls shining against the sunlight. Whoever it was, was truly gorgeous. But who was it?

Lilith?

Eve?

Lute?

No, it can’t be

You just met her..

Y/n? ♡

[slicznymartwy]

bloody mess

billy lenz x female reader

warning: contains mention of periods and blood, and billy being a pervert as usual

read all three parts on ao3

You sigh for the nth time, throwing a blouse over you shoulder as you search deeper in your hamper. It’s been a long day of lectures and labs, and you don’t have the time nor patience to deal with a missing rag. Having come back up unsuccessful, you groan loudly and shift from your knees to your ass. You might as well give your knees a break with how they’re screaming from the wooden floors.

“What’s with the huffing and puffing?” Barb asks from the doorway. You turn to look over your shoulder at her and see her smirking in that pretty way of hers. You sigh again. “Yeah, just like that,” she teases.

“I’m an idiot. I don’t know what I did with other pad. I just threw away my third one last month, and now I lost my 2nd. Lost! Jeez, what’s wrong with me?” you complain, pushing your hair off your face.

“What’s wrong with you is that you’re still using that ugly belt. I’ll get you some of my stickies, you’ll see that they’re far superior by the end of the week,” Barb claimed, turning away and heading to what you assume is the bathroom.

You hurry to stand up, lower abdomen throbbing and twisting uncomfortably after another cramp, but you push through and follow Barb down the hall.

“I dunno, Barb, seems wasteful and awfully expensive,” you say, stopping in the bathroom doorway to look at her as she rummaged under the sink.

“I’m telling you, you’ll see. One week and you’ll be tossing that whole belt in the trash like the rest of us did,” Barb promised. She came closer to you and held the wrapped sanitary napkin between her index and middle finger. She grinned at you as you assessed the little package. “Jesus, it’s not gonna bite you!”

You blush and snatch it out of her hands, but you then feel guilty. Pushing aside your embarrassment in the whole situation, you throw your arms around her in a quick hug, which she reciprocates with a pleasant laugh.

“It’s okay, I know you’re more irritable than usual,” she teased, which you playfully rolled your eyes at. Moving past her into the bathroom, you waited for her to leave and close the door before getting to work.

You remove the belt that held up your sanitary pads and then put your underwear back on, but not before applying the adhesive pad to the gusset of your panties. With your skirt pulled back down, you clean the little bit of blood that got stuck your fingers and gather your things afterwards. Looking in the mirror, you know there’s no way the change in sanitary pads, of all things, would alter anything about the way you looked, but you felt different. Like a new kind of woman, one that your mother would probably turn her nose up at. It was kind of exciting, if you were being honest.

You open the door, clutching the belt and used napkin, and see that Barb was waiting for you. She lets out a cloud of smoke from her cigarette and grins in her girlish way.

“So? You survive?” she asks.

“It got close, but I think I did,” you joke back, feeling in a slightly better mood now that she didn’t have to worry about bleeding through her pad. “Thank you for helping me out. I’ll buy the next box for the house.”

“Anything for my little sister,” she said, putting her free hand around her shoulder and giving her a small hug. “Just don’t go leaving empty boxes for us to get stuck with. There’s nothing worse than running out.”

You nod understandingly, smiling at her easy ribbing. Sudden aware of the fact that you’re still holding onto a bloody rag, you try to hide the rolled up pad more in your hands. You laugh uncomfortably and say, “I gotta get back to my homework. You know how it is.”

“Sure, sure. See you at dinner,” she says, releasing you and traipsing down the hall. You watch her go for a moment, her smoke tail billowing behind her, before leaving in the opposite direction for your room.

You go on auto-pilot once inside, throwing your belt and pad into your hamper and tidying up the mess you made while searching for the last rag. You’re straightening up your bedsheets when you finally notice it. Your bloody rag, still red but mostly oxidized to a deep brown color.

You go completely still as your mind races with reasons as to how it got there. It got stuck in another piece of clothing and landed there by chance, or maybe you put it there earlier and just completely forgot about it. Both sound unlikely, no matter how badly you wanted to believe it; you knew your bed was clean when you left.

Looking closer at the pad, you can see that it’s wetter than it was before, and more wrinkled. Actually, it looks positively mangled, which was strange because you always took care of your belongings. Standing right before it, you pick it up by pinching a corner, letting it unfold as it hung in the air.

Unmistakable as the moon in the night sky was a messy white patch, right in the center of the pad. It had streaked across the pad, however it must have gotten messed up and spread around. Your chest is rising and falling with silent panicked breaths as your brain grew stormy, with anxiety and paranoia clouding any rational thought.

With shaking hands, you brought the used pad with you to the hamper, collected the belt and the other pad, and threw it all into the garbage. It would be better to use the disposable ones anyway, you decided. Easier to forget.

.　 . • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆ .　 . • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆

just a really gross thought i had this morning hehe

i’ll probably write a part two bc now i can only think about billy’s pov

[nowoyas]

Koi no Yokan 3: guilt tastes like cola garigari-kun (Nishinoya Yuu x Reader)

First - Prev - Next - M.list - Ao3

A/N: once again, I will remind that if you plan to read the footnotes, ao3 is the best way to read. if you don't care or intend to read them all at the end without referencing what they're marked on with the text, feel free to carry on with the tumblr crosspost!

Summary: Popsicles with the guys and popsicles alone.

Warnings: some family-related angst

Word count: ~3500

"You know, when I said I'd bet actual money, I didn't mean you had to actually do anything. We didn't even say 'deal'."

He does not let up. You survived practice as before, with a bit more interest and a bit more focus on understanding what was going on, only to find Nishinoya waiting for you at the gate after you changed out.

"Your chance to protest was when I said I'd buy it for you this morning," he replies easily.

"I did protest. You ignored me."

"I don't remember that! Come on, let's go to Sakanoshita. We need to plan anyway, right?"

"…fine. I will allow you to buy me one popsicle."

"One box? Got it."

You snort. "Remember what I said this morning about actually listening to me?"

"I am! You said 'one'. You didn't give units."

That you didn't. "I didn't think it need to be said."

"Compromise: I'll get you just one popsicle, but you gotta promise to enjoy it!"

"And if I feel bad letting you spend money on me?"

"That's why you've gotta enjoy it! What's the point of life if you don't let yourself have something you like every now and then?"

You bite back the suggestion that you might not even like popsicles. There's probably a point where protesting just gets annoying, anyway, for you and the other person. And if he wants to, and if you don't have a real reason not to…

This, you think, may be what's wrong with you: you say yes when you don't feel like saying no strongly enough. You aren't sure, really, what else to say. So you let the pretty second-year drag you to the convenience store for ice cream you "won" in a "bet" no one made, and because it keeps you from having to go home as soon, you loiter with him and a few others outside the store. You take your time, hold conversation not to be polite or to entertain anyone, but because it makes the popsicle take longer, keeps you from going home for just a few minutes more. It does not make the popsicle taste sweeter. If there's a next time—and you suspect there will be—you'll have to push back a bit harder against the whole "buying you things" thing.

Your one consolation is that they're not all here for you. You doubt they would be, but still: Hinata and Kageyama have found some new topic to bicker about, the third years sans Shimizu are busily chatting over nikuman, and Tanaka and Ennoshita have relieved you of being Nishinoya's sole focus for the time being.

"So. [name]-san."

You glance up from your popsicle³ (cola-flavored, because you're sensible). "Mm?"

“I heard plenty about our practice match yesterday from Yachi-san⁴ talking to Shouyo, but someone didn't give her thoughts on how awesome we were."

You roll your eyes. "Uh-huh? That so?"

"Yeah! What'd you think?"

Tanaka and Ennoshita regard you with mild interest. Of course they do. You can't imagine any high school boy not wanting to hear compliments about how well they played. "I'm not gonna yell like she did. No shade to her, of course. That's just not me."

"I'm not asking you to! I just wanna hear all about how cool you think I am."

That draws a laugh from you. "Fine. I'll be honest, since you went out of your way to buy me a popsicle I didn't ask for and specifically told you you didn't have to buy for me."

"Really!?"

"Watch," Ennoshita says quietly to Tanaka, "this is the part where [surname]-san eviscerates him."

"It was fun. You guys are interesting to watch, and I could tell by watching you play that you're good."

"And...?"

"And I followed your advice by watching specific players instead of the ball." You pause, take a moment to save a melting bit of runaway popsicle from certain ruin. "I guess it was helpful."

"You guess? Who were you watching?"

The popsicle is really adding to this experience. Namely that it allows you a moment to figure out the most fun way to respond, which is, of course, to mess with him. "…Kageyama-san."

He looks stricken. "[name]-san?"

Tanaka laughs. "Man, no wonder you proposed on sight, Noya-san. She's perfect for you."

"Right? C'mon, [name]-san, hurry up and marry me already!"

"Nine hundred ninety-two, but thanks for the popsicle."

"I think maybe you should try making her feel welcome instead of pressuring the girl, but what do I know?" Ennoshita says.

"I'm not pressuring her!" he protests. "I even asked if she was okay with everything!"

"He did," you admit. "Oh—that reminds me. Nishinoya-senpai, did you wanna, like, meet up over lunch for the study thing, or…?"

He visibly lights up. "Right!"

"Study thing?" Tanaka asks. "What study thing?"

"Hinata mentioned you guys can't have any make-up exams or you have to miss some practice matches or something, right? I can't exactly tutor, seeing as I'm only a first year and have no idea what you guys are doing in class, but I offered to give him some tips for actually studying in a way that does anything. "

"R-really? Can you help me out, too? If that's not too much trouble!" Tanaka bows deeply to you.

"Sure, why not?"

"Not to get between all this," Ennoshita pipes up, "but you two definitely already gave up all of your lunches between now and exams."

"Chikaraaa," Nishinoya whines. "Isn't this important?"

"Sure, but not necessarily more important than you actually going over the material. Why not study on the weekend?"⁶

"Is that okay?" The two look to you.

You shrug. "I don't really do things, so I don't mind. Why not?"

"You'd really give up your weekend for us?"

"Oh, but I guess we can't use a classroom or something if it's the weekend. My house is no good, either…"

"Ryu, if you're coming, it's gotta be my place," Nishinoya says.

"Why yours? My house is perfectly good."

"She lives down the street from me. Makes more sense, right?"

"[surname]-san, are you really okay with that? These two can be a lot."

"Oh, I don't mind!" You wave a dismissive hand. "Really. It'll be rough playing without the full team if everyone can't go to Tokyo, right? And Yachi-san's already got Hinata and Kageyama-san locked down. Not that I think I'll be nearly as helpful. More of a longer-term solution thing."

"Do you think it'll actually stick?"

You smile. Tilt your head. "I'll see what I can do."

~

Nishinoya insists on walking you home afterward. You accept, namely because you can't really justify not walking with him when you're going the same way. You do not, however, let him carry your bag, although he insists pretty hard on doing that, too.

"I can't believe you said yes to Ryu crashing our study date," he teases.

"Date?" You raise an eyebrow. "That's news to me, Senpai. Besides, I didn't really have a good reason to say no."

"Is that all it is? Do you secretly just not want to hang out with me?"

"That's not it. I'm just too nice of a person. I'll be a saint whenever I get around to dying."

Yeah, that's good enough. The sarcasm soothes the ache just a little bit.

"Pretty sure you already are. I mean, I worship you, so—"

You snort. "No, you don't. You barely know me."

"I'd like to, though."

Your steps stutter to a stop. "Do you just, like, say everything that pops into your head, or like what?"

"Not everything! But most things, yeah."

"That explains the marriage proposals. You should rethink that, by the way. Pretty sure you're supposed to love someone before you even think about proposing."

"Haven't you heard of love at first sight? I knew from the moment I saw you that I needed to marry you!" He punctuates his sentence with a dramatic thump of his chest.

"Right. Yeah. I hate to be the one to tell you this, but love at first sight is a myth. Whatever you're feeling right now isn't love. It's just chemicals in your head telling you to find a mate because our brain chemistry hasn't caught up to modern society."

"How is my brain chemistry telling me to do something not the same as me wanting it?"

…he has a point, but you're the one who's right here. You stand your ground. "It's just different, alright? I'm not trying to be mean or anything. You seem like a nice guy. But you're setting yourself up for failure if you get attached here, and… I don't know. It's kinda obvious you haven't thought about this. At all. I'm not gonna be the one responsible if you get hurt chasing me, you know?"

"Is that why you told me to ask a thousand times?"

"Yeah, kinda." You fall into step beside him again with a sigh. "Mostly on impulse, though. It seems that I just sort of say things around you."

He grins. "That's love."

You're not dignifying that with a response.

"How about this? I'll keep up with my proposals, because a thousand is a big number to get through, and you stick around long enough for me to get to know you, and by the time I hit a thousand, you'll be ready to admit that you wanna marry me."

"You're impossible. Do you do this with every girl who gives you the time of day?"

He tosses his head back as he laughs. "Only the pretty ones."

"And let me guess, you think every girl's pretty?"

"You really are psychic! But, you know, there's only one pretty girl who's ever given me the time of day."

"Right." You pause, nod to his house. "Go home, Casanova. And don't stay up too late studying. Your brain can't actually form memories if you don't rest it."

He waves as he goes. "I'll pick you up tomorrow!"

"Stalker!" you call back in reply.

~

Okay, so that didn't go the way you planned. At all, really. So that's cool.

You meander slowly on your way home—just a few doors down, really not far at all, honestly, it's a marvel that you've never once run into him before—a bit wary of the thought that he might see which house is yours. It's not that you sense any threat from him. Nothing like that. You just… don't want any questions if he happens to recognize the house.

You don't bother calling out any sort of greeting when you get home—there's no way your father darkens the door before eleven at the earliest. Instead, you kick off your shoes in the genkan, nudge them to the side and out of the way so he doesn't trip on them later, and move right to getting started on dinner. Over washing and peeling potatoes, you try to think this whole thing through properly.

If you told him you were uncomfortable or didn't want him to, Nishinoya probably wouldn't press the issue. You don't think he would have even bothered checking if he didn't care at least a little bit about your answer. Admittedly, after the Shimizu-flying-leap-slap incident, he did seem to back off pretty noticeably, too. Hell, the other volleyball club members have made pretty clear that they'll tell him off on your behalf, so you wouldn't even have to say it to him directly.

But… he's nice. That's the part you can't seem to move past. Nishinoya Yuu is nice. You haven't smiled this much since your mother's death, admittedly for lack of trying. It's nice getting complimented every morning just for showing up. Nicer when it's a day you know you look like shit. You don't really mind the whirlwind keeping you from coming back to an empty house.

You always look a little lonely, Yachi had said. Does your suitor think the same? Did you look so lonely that he had to make you feel better even before he got your name?

Do you actually feel less lonely like this?

You set aside the peeled potatoes to soak and sigh. Grab the cutting board to scrape the peels into the trash bin. All this gives you is another reason to sigh—it's full again. It makes meals easier, sure, but it stings a little to see the evidence of yet another convenience store dinner in the trash.

At least if you go through with this manager thing, your father won't be hurting for food.

Maybe you should start learning how to meal prep in bulk. If you go through with this manager thing, it'll be hard to keep up with chores and cook every night. The last thing you need is for your grades to drop.

You're out of milk again. Running low on rice, too. You barely have the ingredients to throw together a passable lunch for tomorrow, which means staying up tonight to actually catch your father when he gets home. But as much as you can skimp at home—and you do skimp this time, not bothering to assemble a real dinner so much as prepping extra lunch ingredients into something that won't give you food poisoning—you don't need anybody bugging you at school about why you're not eating or why your bento is just seventeen aging cherry tomatoes and a rice ball.

No, there's no getting around this. You work through homework as fast as you can manage, then curl up on the couch with a cookbook and a notepad and wait.

You wake up to the sound of stumbling in the doorway. You're not exactly sure why you bother making sure your father won't trip over your shoes when he regularly trips over the step into the house proper anyways. He's sober, it seems, but exhausted. The clock reads 11:49 PM—no wonder, if he's just getting home from work.

"Welcome home," you pipe up when he's caught his balance.

He jolts, looks up at you with a deer-in-headlights look like you've caught him having an affair or something. "[name]. You're still awake?"

"I fell asleep on the couch," you admit lamely, then wince at the wounded look on his face. "Just woke up."

"Alone?"

You shouldn't have waited up for him like this. It's just another way to re-open old wounds. Just another layer of awkwardness in this stupid fucking haunted house.

"Yeah. Sorry. I just—we need groceries."

"Right. Groceries. How much do you need?"

This is the part where you try not to feel bad. "Honestly? I'm not sure. Can I just get a card to use? Last time I misjudged the prices and couldn't get everything I needed, and it's hard to plan without going to the store. The price of eggs went up again, too."

He nods. "Sure. Yeah." There's a moment where he's fumbling for his wallet, and then, he's thrusting out a debit card in one hand, barely even looking at you. "I'll get you your own card when I have the time. For now, you can use that. The PIN's her birthday. I'll keep it topped up, don't you worry."

You take it. It doesn't feel like a victory.

"Now you won't have to stay up waiting for me anymore. Just get whatever you like, I'll keep eating at work."

"Okay. Thank you."

"You should head to bed."

"Okay."

He pitches a plastic bag, the remnants of another convenience store dinner, in the trash. Stumbles off to his bedroom.

Leaves you sitting on the couch, a debit card in your hands, half-finished shopping list on your lap.

Leaves his daughter to handle herself alone.

~

You make it through the next day as easily as any other: a bleary-eyed morning ("good morning [name]-san! Please agree to marry me today!"), taking careful notes in class, lunch blissfully alone. Post-afternoon practice, you get changed and stop at the gate, once again hearing your name called after you before you can escape.

"[name]-san! Wanna walk home together?"

For once, you have a reason to say no, and so you do. Apologetic smile, gentle dip of your head in lieu of a proper bow. "Sorry, Nishinoya-senpai. I have to go grocery shopping tonight, so I can't."

"Oh. Wanna go grocery shopping together, then? I can help carry your bags!"

"I can carry them myself," you say. "I usually handle the shopping alone, anyway."

"But it'd be easier if you let someone help you, right?"

…it would be easier. No big reasons to say no, one lukewarm reason to say yes. "…why not?"

So quietly marking up your grocery list gets crashed by a chatty, pretty guy who happily carries the groceries and sometimes even makes you laugh. In the frozen food section, you stop when a box of Cola-flavored popsicles catches your eye.

They're not on your list. You don't need them. There is no justification for buying popsicles with your dad's card.

"You gotta let yourself enjoy things every now and then," Nishinoya reminds you in a sing-song tone.

You glare at him.

That night, your groceries are half as difficult to carry home. You don't let Nishinoya carry them inside, just have him leave them on the porch and you'll come back for the rest. Before you start on dinner, you kick back with a guilt-flavored popsicle and try not to think about anything at all.

Footnotes

3. Noya's favorite food is the soda-flavored of the Garigari-kun popsicles, but I was doing research for this fic and discovered that not only are these popsicles more of ice pops than ice cream, but flavors include soda, cola, and melon pan. BREAD FLAVORED POPSICLES, guys. I'm the bread guy. The temptation to start a kickstarter to travel to Japan, find a convenience store, eat a single bread-flavored popsicle, and immediately leave is so high I'm not even kidding. I already researched and, as expected, you can't easily import ice pops from a country a solid sixteen hours away by plane. I don't wanna visit Japan for weeb reasons. I just want to know what a bread-flavored popsicle tastes like.

4. So, I scoured basically the entire canon to break down how Noya refers to people. First, I checked to see if he ever refers to Yachi by name. He, in fact, does not.⁵ In canon, they only interact directly twice. Haikyuu is short on girls by nature of being a shounen about a boys' volleyball team, so Noya only ever actually addresses three girls by name in canon: Shimizu, Saeko, and a third-year named Aya on the girl's team in s1e18. As a result, there's very limited data on how Noya interacts with girls. We've got "Kiyoko-san" (first name, -san, "anata" as a second-person pronoun), "Nee-san" (she would appear to ask any of Tanaka's friends to call her that, at minimum. No data on second-person pronoun usage, which isn't common in Japanese anyway), and "Aya-senpai" (first name, -senpai, no data on second-person pronoun usage). Noya's pretty liberal about familiarity with people he likes—for example, he jumps pretty quickly to calling Hinata "Shouyo" after a decent first impression, but the other first-year guys remain last name only for the duration of canon. He cares a little bit about being polite if he feels like he should be polite to them—all upperclassmen are -san save for Aya, who we can assume he only kind of knows and therefore feels less familiar with beyond, presumably, "girl pretty". Generally, I feel like he'd dial up the politeness just a touch with girls because, you know, girls. All that being said, Yachi is an underclassman and not super on Noya's radar, so I feel like she'd just be "Yachi-san" to him.

5. Admittedly, I did not check back on the drama CDs, but as far as I recall, there aren't any drama CDs starring both Yachi and Noya, at least not ones where they directly interact. This is, of course, a shame.

6. So canon sort of implies that Karasuno doesn't have classes on Saturdays during Yachi's introductory arc—Hinata and Kageyama come over on a Saturday to study and Hinata's like, "thank you for helping us study on a Saturday!" BUT during that scene (s2e3 if I remember correctly) Yachi is wearing her school uniform. So, research time! According to the Wikipedia⁷ article "Secondary education in Japan", schools that do meet on Saturdays have half days and let out around 1. Later in s2 Kageyama also implies that the volleyball club practices EVERY day (by expressing shock that Oikawa has a rest day during the week), so I've decided that Karasuno has a half day on Saturdays, followed by a two hour or so practice.

7. Any teacher will tell you Wikipedia is not a source. Wikipedia is not an academic source because articles are subject to constant change. Despite my bullshit in these footnotes, this is not an academic context.

Tags: @deeplightgarden @idonthaveanameideayet @dusstory

[putawayurhalo]

Wish You Were Here

Pairing: Steve Harrington x Fem!Reader (use of she/her pronouns)

Word Count: 1.5k

Warnings: ANGST yet again :)

Author’s Note: yeah this sequel took too long to write and it’s super short but spoiler alert: you’re getting a third part, anyways this one is based on a neck deep song this time so enjoy! NOT EDITED BECAUSE I’M LAZY

Main Masterlist | Part One - Emergency Contact

Two months laters

“Steve!” Max shouted as she wheeled down the driveway, “You actually came.” She smiled at the older man, happy that he had taken the letter she sent him seriously.

“Well, you six have grown.” Steve fakes a smile as he pushes his sunglasses up to hide the dark circles - the evidence that he hasn’t been sleeping much - from the younger teens. 

“It’s only been like two months.” Mike scoffed and crossed his arms over his chest.

“We’ve missed you.” El smiled at him.

“We have so much to tell you!” Dustin exclaimed and the six teens started talking over one another Steve not understanding a word any of them were saying.

“Hey! Slow down jellybeans! Let the man have a minute to think… if he can even do that.” Eddie teased Steve, but frowned when Steve just shrugged and didn’t even fight back. “Why don’t you kids go inside, Nancy and Robin probably need help with something.” The kids - minus Max and Will all ran inside, Will offering to help Max up the makeshift ramp Eddie had made for Nancy and Jonathan’s house.

“How was the drive?” Eddie asked Steve as he shoved his hands into his pocket and leaned his left shoulder on his van.

“Fine.” Steve muttered as he grabbed a few wrapped boxes out of his trunk.

“Cut the bullshit, Harrington.” Eddie glared at him as he walked over to help with the boxes. “Your sunglasses might be covering the dark circles, but they aren’t covering the frown on your face or the tear stains on your cheeks so be honest Steve.”

“What, Munson? You want to hear about how I had to pull off to the side of the road after I started driving past the school and Sweet Dreams came on… her favorite song. Last time I actually listened to the song in full was with her in my stupid car and she was shouting the lyrics at people walking along the street without a care in the world.” Steve slammed the trunk door, “I don’t want to reminisce about any of this. I don’t even want to be here, but Max wrote me that letter and begged me to come and told me all the things I was missing… she’s the closest thing I have left to (Y/N), and maybe I should have called more… but I can’t think about her without crying for hours. How am I supposed to go in there with the kids while they talk about her like she’s still around?” Steve was crying again, almost choking on his words. Eddie just looked at Steve with a slight frown, he opened his mouth to say something but the front door swung open.

“DINGUS!” Robin went running to Steve full force jumping on him, almost knocking him onto the ground. “I MISSED YOU!” She shouted as she hugged her best friend and Steve stood there holding Robin, sunglasses falling off his face as he stared into the distance.

“Steve!” (Y/N) shouted from the doorway of one of the class rooms, “I passed!” she ran towards him and jumped on him, hugging him tightly.

“You got your license?” Steve asked her as he hugged her tightly.

“YES! And it’s all thanks to you! Now we both can get out of this town!” She exclaimed as other students pushed past the duo to exit. 

“Where would we even go?” He smiled at her as she leaned back, almost slipping out of Steve’s grip.

“I don’t know, but I do know anywhere’s better than here.” She giggled and it was like music to Steve’s ears.

-

“You know I still remember the first time I let you drive my car.” Steve chuckled to himself as he turned to look over at (Y/N)’s body laying in the hospital bed, machines keeping her alive.

“It had snowed the night before and the road was icy, I really shouldn’t have let you drive but I did and you promised to go slow, but then your favorite song came on the radio, Sweet Dreams, and you accidentally hit the gas and we spun out and you screamed the entire time… It shouldn’t be my favorite memory but it is because after we stopped spinning you looked at me and giggled and then sang ‘Sweet dreams are made of this who am I to disagree’ and I told you that you should sing more.” Steve laughed slightly, “You said you sounded like a Muppet and I had to remind you that you don’t, that Tammy Thompson sounds like one. You laughed for a solid minute after that and missed the ending to the song…speaking off, Max brought a boombox over last time she was here, said music might help you heal or some shit. And Dustin found a copy of Sweet Dreams on cassette… I’ll put it on for you.” Steve got up out of the chair and put the cassette into the boombox, turning the volume up ever so slightly not to disturb any other patients. 

As Steve turned around he heard the flat line noise coming from the heart monitor and nurses rushed into the room, one of them having to physically drag Steve out of the room. 

Steve hadn’t stayed long after that as he lifted to the yelling and shouting coming from the room she had been in. The sounds of Sweet Dreams mixed in there and with that he left, not just the hospital but Hawkins and hadn’t returned until that December after Max’s constant begging once she got an address from Robin to send letters to.

“Earth to Dingus… Hello? STEVEN!” Robin shouted as she slapped Steve.

“Ow! What the fuck was that for?” Steve exclaimed as he pressed a hand to his cheek.

“You went all space cadet on us! Now come on the kids are way too excited that you’re here, even Mike.” Robin grabbed a few of the presents and walked toward the door.

As Steve followed behind her he was greeted by the kids again as he set his sunglasses near the door. El turned toward Max and asked her question; Max just shook her and told her to not do that. Nancy handed Steve a mug full of hot chocolate and smiled softly at him as she gestured toward the living room. Steve nodded and walked into the living room and sat on the couch next to Dustin and sipped his drink, looking around he noticed the tree and the stockings on the mantle - each with their names on it but a spot had been empty.  Erica, El, Will, Dustin, Mike, Lucas, Robin, Nancy, Jonathan, Eddie, and… (Y/N) but his was missing and Dustin took notice of Steve’s curiosity.

“Oh yours is missing beca-” Dustin was cut off by Max throwing a game board piece at his face.

“What Dustin means is yours is missing because Robin lost it and we had to order you a new one! But we have all the stuff that goes in it upstairs, if it doesn’t get here in the next hour or so we’ll just give you the box!”  Max tells him before turning back towards the game and rolling the dice. 

Will looked at Steve and noticed him staring at (Y/N)’s stocking, “It’s tradition…” Will tells him, “Bob still has one at my house and we still fill it with presents.”

El looked up at Steve and touched his arm, “She’s in a better place.” 

Steve clenched his jaw, a better place is right here with him. That’s what he believed but everyone he’s met keeps telling him she’s in a better place. Steve slammed his mug down on the table, “Too bad it’s not what I believe.” Steve muttered before standing up and walking outside, sitting on the porch stairs.

Steve dug into his jacket pocket pulling out his wallet, inside his wallet was a creased Polaroid of him and (Y/N) that Max had taken one night, the two of them laughing at a joke (Y/N) had said but (Y/N) was staring at the camera and Steve was staring right at her like she put the stars, the sun, and the moon up in the sky just for him. “God I wish you were here, angel.” Steve wiped the tears from his eyes, “But you’re not coming back and I have to accept that.” Steve put the picture back in his wallet and threw it, “It should have been me!” Steve shouted, missing the sounds of footsteps coming up towards him, they stopped for a second and then picked up again.

“Steve?” 

Steve’s eyes went wide and he looked up, “(Y/N)?”

Taglist - people who asked about a part 2 - because I feel bad that it took me well over a month to write this: @etherealforever234​ @azydrateanatomy​ @selfdeprecatingnerd​ @phantomxoxo​ @thexplosivegirl​ @bonarvee​

[fandomsimagined]

Opposites Attract (Scara x Reader x Tartaglia)

Summary: Tartaglia doesn’t really think that his roommate’s girlfriend is a good match for him. She’d be much better with someone else... like himself. 

Pairing: Scaramouche x FemReader, (one-sided) Tartaglia x FemReader

Warning: Slight obsession, pretty toxic relationship, language and slight smuttiness. I mean it’s Scara and Tartaglia? 

A/N: Scaramouche has me in a chokehold right now. The brain rot is real and I'm not mad about it? please feel free to send me your thoughts on this amazing man that I am so ready for to come home!

Tartaglia knows that it's normal for couples to be different, they are different people after all and you know, opposites attract and all that. Still, surely two people need to have something in common right? But for as much time as he’s spent observing the ‘happy couple’, he doesn’t think he’s found a single thing (Y/N) and Scaramouche seem to share. 

Honestly, Tartaglia has been trying to figure it out since the day he met (Y/N) and realized she was in a relationship with Scaramouche. It’s a bit of an embarrassing memory, because he laughed in her face, literally, when she told him. He really thought it was a joke until he saw the tears welling up in her eyes and he heard his roommate berate him for making his girlfriend cry. In Tartaglia’s defense he had been living with Scaramouche for months and he couldn’t recall a single time that he’d heard him mention another person’s name with anything but disgust. When he brought that fact up Scaramouche simply told him that it was “none of your fucking business.”

Thankfully, (Y/N) was quick to forgive him. That was the first real instance of Tartaglia noticing a huge difference in personalities between the two and thinking that they seemed off. Since then he’s had somewhat of a weird obsession with figuring out exactly how mismatched they truly were. 

The second time was nothing special, but he still remembers it as if it were. A pretty boring day at work mixed with a healthy dose of seasonal depression that January usually brought had left him feeling weighed down by the monotony his job held at times. Truthfully he was actually looking forward to going home and picking a stupid fight with Scaramouche over nothing. It was hardly a productive way to blow off steam, but if he were being completely honest the competitive nature Tartaglia had always made him somewhat enjoy arguments. His mood only further soured when he made it back to his apartment and he walked in to see (Y/N) cuddled up on the couch to Scaramouche and him looking as indifferent as ever. 

Tartaglia had made a pretty bad first impression. Sure, they hadn’t had any more unpleasant run-ins since then, still he was enough of a gentleman to think twice about subjecting her to one of their screaming matches that turned volatile pretty quickly. Change of plans then, he’d just walk by and head to his bedroom and be miserable. It was not part of his plan to catch (Y/N)’s gaze and he surely didn’t plan on her asking if he was okay. He reassured her he was fine with a nod and a smile, honestly appreciative of the kind gesture he wasn’t normally met with there. 

The third time actually was a bit special, namely because it was a holiday and therefore more notable of a date. Valentine’s Day to be exact. (Y/N) bounced in happily with two neatly wrapped gift boxes in her hand. He could vividly remember the way her smile fell whenever she presented Scaramouche with the chocolates she’d spent archons knows how long she’s spent preparing. “We literally said no gift last week.”

“Oh, well… I thought it might be okay since I didn’t buy anything-” Her voice was so small and Scaramouche didn’t respond with anything but an exhausted sigh as he took the box from her hands. 

He did pop a small piece of chocolate in his mouth and smirk at the way she perked up at the simple action though. “I'm getting my coat. Be ready to go when I get back.” 

She was smiling again by the time she turned to Targalia and handed him the second, slightly smaller box, “It’s not much, but Happy Valentine’s Day!” 

Scaramouche may have gotten a small smile as he covertly snuck a piece of the candies she prepared. But she beamed when Tartaglia freely gave her praise and eagerly ate a few pieces. She even giggled a little when he let her know that if Scaramouche wasn’t willing to spoil her on Valentine’s Day next year he would do it without hesitation if she promised another box of chocolate. 

After that Tartaglia couldn’t help but start to think that HE would make a much better match for (Y/N) than her current boyfriend. But, by the fourth instance, Tartaglia was absolutely sure. His keys hit the counter with a quiet clink and thud as he threw them haphazardly and grabbed a beer out of the refrigerator. He headed towards the living room and stopped in his tracks when he spotted (Y/N) on their couch. She wiped her puffy eyes quickly when she saw him and offered him an unconvincing smile and wave. “You okay?”

“Yeah! I’m fine, I’m just waiting on Scara to get back.”

“Oh okay… he just left you here?” Tartaglia wasn’t sure how to word it without sounding so harsh, but he hoped his soft tone helped. 

“Yeah. He shouldn’t be too long. Funny story, actually, I was supposed to pick up something for him on my way here, but I completely forgot. He just went by himself since it was important and he was already late to get it. I didn’t want to slow him down or anything so it was just best if I waited here.” The chuckle she let out was absolutely pathetic and he winced a little thinking of the conversation that actually occurred instead of her sugarcoated version. “If I’m in your way or anything I can go wait somewhere else though?”

“No, of course not. In fact, mind if I wait with you? I was just planning on watching last night’s game, it’d be way more fun with a pretty girl beside me.” Tartaglia flashed a charming grin and plopped down beside her when she nodded. 

He almost forgot about Scaramouche’s existence until he returned and (Y/N) jumped up, apologies at the ready and waiting the second he closed the door behind him. That left a bit of a bitter taste in his mouth, but not as much as listening to Scaramouche detailing what she could do to properly apologize to him. 

She bid Tartaglia a goodnight with a flustered expression on her face. Cute, even if it was due to a man that he was now sure didn’t deserve to see it. But that was okay for now. Tomorrow would be a new day, a day where Tartaglia would start to open her eyes to the horrible matchup that was her and her current boyfriend. 

Tartaglia’s plan was… working? He was definitely getting closer to (Y/N). Conversations and playful flirting coming easily every time he saw her. Unfortunately his efforts didn’t seem to be driving the wedge between her and Scaramouche that he hoped. He was also starting to get the suspicion that Scaramouche was starting to catch on, if his more frequent glares were any indication. 

His suspicion was confirmed soon enough and his jaw almost hit the floor when he saw them. Tartaglia’s eyes locked with Scaramouche’s, the smug grin on his face let him know that their meeting in the living room was no accident. Tartaglia swallowed hard as his eye drifted downwards to where (Y/N) was settled between his knees, completely bare and bobbing her head seemingly unaware of his presence. 

He should retreat. Turn right around and walk back out the front door and try to forget what he saw, or head to his bedroom and try to rub one out. Still he stayed glued to the floor watching with bated breath as Scaramouche tangled his hand in her hair and yanked her off of him. The whine she let out was sinful and Tartaglia could feel his jeans tighten just a bit, “Come on, Scara..”

“Sorry, baby, looks like we’ve been interrupted.” Scaramouche twisted her head so she could get a clear view of their intruder. Tartaglia’s eyes widened to the size of saucers when they met (Y/N)’s. She seemed to be just as shocked as him and scrambled for a throw blanket on the couch to cover herself, while Scaramouche didn’t bother trying to move in the slightest. Apologies spewed from her mouth like water from an ornate fountain. Scaramouche did very little to hide his amusement. 

“No need to apologize. He walked in on us, and besides, looks like he enjoyed himself.”

Tartaglia watched as her eyes flitted to his crotch and quickly back up to his eyes like she was trying to hide the fact she was confirming her boyfriend’s claims. He guessed it was his turn to apologize, “Sorry, I was just-”

“Just what? Getting a good look before you got off on watching my girlfriend?” Scaramouche chuckled when he saw Tartaglia’s jaw twitch and face flushed. His attention then turned back to (Y/N), “Looks like I was right, huh? I told you he spends too much time fawning over what he can’t have. You know what though… I'm feeling kind of generous today. Maybe we could throw him a bone and let him watch just this once.”

Tartaglia was ashamed of how quiet he was, how uncharacteristically meek he was being. Still, he stayed glued to his spot and watched (Y/N). He wasn’t stupid enough to think that her bastard of a boyfriend didn’t have this entire thing planned. Tartaglia was pretty sure that (Y/N) was just along for the ride, and he could only hold that she might just have some mercy on him. She looked at him and then turned back to Scaramouch, “Umm… I guess that would be okay, if that’s what you want to do…”

Scaramouche scoffed at the relieved look on his roommate’s face and even muttered something on the lines of him being pathetic. Normally, Tartaglia would be ready to fight and defend his own honor, but he did feel pathetic at the moment and he could always punch him after… Then, a wicked grin spread across Scaramouche’s face, “First things first though. If you want something from me, you beg for it.”

[johnwickb1tsch]

Hi Julia! This is the guest on Bittersweet (AO3) who had just recently started watching the JW films.

I just finished part 4 and I have some Questions that I am frankly too emotional to find answers to and I need a friend to tell me the facts straight.

MAJOR MAJOR JOHN WICK 4 SPOILERS AHEAD IMMEDIATELY STOP READING RN.

What was that ending? Wht TF was that ending? Is he... is he really dead? Just like that? We don't get to see him go back to his car or his dog, get to enjoy his freedom except for a few seconds? I am balling my eyes out. I thought the grave stone was fake- just an added precaution to stop ppl from following him afterwrds- tht he faked his death or something. I googled it and 1 article says he is well and truly dead, other said he is dead but it's NOT the duel that killed him, while a third said we might have a 5th movie in production. I am so sooo confused and have I mentioned I am crying?? Cause I kid you not I have snot flowing down my face. I didn't realize what kind of cathartic fix it Bittersweet truly is. But I will re read it now with a new lens. Omggggg it's like I was reading it in the most honest reader lens and now I will understand John's action with a completely different depth. Ahhh tears again...

On another note in the first reply to comment you mentioned they took out clip of him bookbibding due to time constraints. Is there any clip of that somewhere. Becoz goddamit if I don't see John enjoying something stupidly domestic and simple rn I WILLL POP A VIEN.

Sorry for turning your ask box into my impromptu therapy session. But John has literally become an obsession right now. I so needed this man to - at some point catch a break and look what they did to him!! I am not mad, I am livid!!

Ohhh bby! I'm so sorry! I'm crying with you all over again! That ending was the cruelest! So, supposedly JW5 is in the pipeline, so I choose to believe He Lives! And Winston helped him fake his death with the tombstone. Whether that is canon true has yet to be seen, really. 😭😭😭

I know it was a dramatic and poignant ending but seriously, after everything that man went through, fuck them if that's truly the end. I'm so tired of Hollywood trying to be clever and totally ignoring what people actually need as a cathartic ending to something they're emotionally invested in. I think I've hated the ending of every movie/show franchise I've ever loved. By now i just expect to be kicked in the balls, metaphorically speaking.

As far as the bookbinding scene, to my knowledge, they have yet to surface to the public. There are pictures tho. There's a post around here somewhere. I'll try to dig it up for u.

Sending you hugs boo! This is what fic is for! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

[sassenashsworld]

A little bit more of Overthinking Nick

Because eh... when I have an inspiration...

Again an overthinking Nick (part 3)

What defines a man? Is that the member of prideness between his legs? Is it the flesh and blood that flows through his veins?

"Nick, stop it right now!"

Nick shakes his head and raises his gaze to the one who appears to be waiting for the apocalypse.

"Stop what?" he says in surprise.

"Stop overthink whatever you're spinning in your little plastic and titanium box."

"I don't…"

But he adds nothing. He is thinking. He is thinking about what Nora told him. He is thinking about what Nora questioned him.

"Have you ever considered for a moment that I might be interested in you as a woman is interested in a man?"

The answer, naturally, is no.

No, of course not; he didn't think for a single moment, not a single second, not a single millisecond, or even a nanosecond about the prospect that a lady, whoever she was, would be that interested in him.

Above all, he couldn't believe Nora, the most womanly woman he'd ever met, would feel that way.

Of course there are kinks.

Late in the evening at the Third Rail, he received several obscene proposals.

Especially for the kink.

He seriously doubts Nora's willingness of asks him a kink, an evening's commitment, just to say she made it with the synth...

Did Nora consider a relationship with him?

Him of all the options she may have?

Because options exist.

Danse, the featherheaded idiot of the Brotherhood, comes first and foremost. Even if Nick is unable to breathe the same oxygen as him, time has proven that Nora can. Okay, the man is so dense that he may just have failed to follow the bright pink the path; but Nora was always cooing in his direction.

To be honest, if Nick didn't think about it with bad faith, the man is an excellent option; strong, well-mounted (for what Nick can evaluate per se), with a tone of voice that brings respect…something extremely viril. But he is more than just virile. He has a tiny something, like a lost dog, that melts all the women in his path.

A lost puppy. And Nora is so easy to fall for, doggie doggy.

And in the animal way, this little rat of MacCready.

"Nick!"

"What? Nora?"

"I was wondering if you'd prefer we leave while it's quiet. I have a feeling that if we wait until tomorrow morning, the gunners will figure out what we did to their friends and find us."

"It might be an excellent idea. But are you sure you don't need to sleep? You seem to be exhausted."

"Listening to your rambling exhausts me. At least when we're on the road, we do something else. "

Nick is unable to avoid a guilty feeling to raise in his bowel. He knows Nora frequently complains about him babbling too much. Perhaps he got it too far. However, the young woman does not appear angry.

In fact, she appears to be amused, as she often is.

She appears amused by everything Nick does. Even when he becomes frustrated. Because he occasionally becomes angry.

He gets angry when she acts reckless. The list is lengthy.

Often, the vault dweller's actions irritate him, but on occasion, they make him furious. Nora commonly considers crossing the line to be a life goal. See how far she can go before he gets mad.

However, if he have to be completely honest, he doesn’t believe she is doing it intentionally. In her to do so voluntarily, she would need to be aware of it.

Nora represents unconsciousness itself.

And that's what makes him grasp she couldn't even be this aware of what she's implying when she claims he's man enough for her.

Because, basically, what defines a man? What defines him? What may be the bridge that leads Nick to proclaim that he is a man and entitled to a woman?

Is it the member of proudness between it’s legs that define a man?

[greytabbydreams]

Honest Confessions: (16+) warnings include curse words and slight sexual content. It’s mainly fluff and Arthur being shy and awkward lol.

Summary: Set in chapter four of the story, right after Jack is saved from Angelo Bronte. Arthur gets drunk and reveals a secret. 🤭

————————————————————————

 Honest Confessions ~

The evening was as optimistic as it was humid since we had just saved young Jack from Angelo Bronte, earlier that day. Although, from the sounds of it Jack didn’t seem to be in too much trouble. Talk of sleeping in some lavish room and eating Italian food. What did he call it again? Spaghetti? In any sense, the gang was in rather high spirits. Javiar is playing his guitar and singing, while a part of the group did their best to sing along overlooking the fact nobody could understand a word of Spanish. I laughed to myself watching my friends smiling faces flicker in the campfire light. I turned around to face the table I was resting on, there was an opened box of liquor. I reached in and grabbed a bottle and took a drink. A warm tingling feeling instantly sent a calming sensation into my face and chest. The drink was definitely some good whiskey. On a normal occasion, I wouldn’t want to over-drink, but since tonight was so great… What the hell, when isn’t there a better time to get drunk than being surrounded by friends? I finished my first bottle and grabbed another for walking around while chatting with everyone around the camp…

…

A couple of hours had passed, and the party was starting to slow down. But I think I might be on my… third?... probably fifth bottle of whatever alcohol I was sipping on, it honestly doesn’t matter I was feeling incredible and surprisingly chatty.

“J-John,” my words were tumbled out, “I, just wanna tell ya’ you doin’ okay.”

“Aw thanks, Arthur.” The stringy man replied with a goofy smile.

“You’re a good dad, you’re gonna do right by the kid.” I slurred while giving a little smack to the back of John’s shoulder.

“I hope you’re right.” He said while pushing me away from him.

“You should probably stop drinking now, and eat something though Arthur.”

“Alright, Marston.” I reply giving a dismissive wave as I turn around to face the entrance of the Shady Belle manor. I squinted into the darkness, did I just see something move? Could that be… Charles? He’s still on guard duty during the party? How absurd is that! I quickly began to stomp my way up the hill to confront the man.

“Wh-wat da’ hell are ya’ doin’ up here all by yourself?” I clumsily question the large man who didn’t seem too startled by my company.

“I’m on guard duty this evening. And you’re pretty drunk my friend.” He replied in his normal stoic yet warm tone.

“Come on Charles,” I wine, “ we’re c-clearly havin’ a party.” I gesture back to the campfire that was now being put out by Abigail, while other members of the gang were cleaning up the rest of the mess.

“Looks like I missed out.” Charles replied letting out a little chuckle.

“Aw shit…I think you’re right.” I said with a sigh.

“Well, I haven’t talked to you ALLLL night! So come on, take a little break and sit with me.” With that, I plop right down in the dirt beside Charles. Charles lets out a little sigh in protest but then sits down next to me.

“Okay, what’s on your mind, Morgan?” Charles asks.

“Well, I’m just really happy you’know?” I hummed while looking up at the stars that barely shined through the branches above.

“Things are just going our way at the moment. We got Jack back, I have faith in Dutch’s new plan, and I’m… I’m just in a great mood tonight.” I close my eyes for a moment allowing my head to hit the back of the stone wall that sat by the entrance of the manor. Maybe I was oversharing, normally it was hard to talk about any type of feelings I had. Could it be the whiskey? Or Charles’ calming presence? I shake away the thought, what was I talking about again?

“Well, I’m glad you’re happy, even if it ends up being just a fleeting moment.” Charles breathed as he moved to stand up. Reaching his hand down to me.

“Let’s get you to bed now.” Charles said looking down at me with his twinkling hazel eyes.

“Alright Mr. Smith, let’s go.” I respond grabbing his calloused hand and pulling me up with ease. We wandered over to the entrance of Shady Belle, Charles holding onto my ribcage to keep me from stumbling. However, his touch put my nerves on edge. Not because he was making me uncomfortable, but more because I was uneasy with human contact that lasted for this long. Once we had made it to my room, I pushed off him and face-planted into the pillow on my bed. Charles turned away walking towards the door.

“Good night Arthur.” He said quietly, trying not to disturb the others who were trying to sleep on that floor.

“W-wait Charles, c'mere I wanna talk to ya’,” I say slightly muffled by my face still practically covered by my pillow. He turns back around to me, crouching at my bedside.

“What?” he sounds in a hushed tone.

“Oh Charles, you’re so talented, a-and strong!” I mumbled “So handsome too, but you work soooooo hard. You need to let loose every once in a while.” Charles suddenly looked a little flustered as a small ting of pink filled his cheeks.

“Uhm, yes I’ll keep that in mind, Arthur.” Charles tries to move away again but I reach out to grab his arm. What has gotten into me?

“Where are you going?” I stammer as confidently as I could. Charles snorts looking at my hand that was on his arm.

“Back to my post cowboy.” He answered in a playful tone.

“Didn’t I just say somethin’ about workin’ too hard? Why don’t you stay here with me, and we can talk.”

“I don’t know about that Arthur, by the way you’re talking, you might say something you’ll regret later.”

“What do you mean by that?” I say gripping his arm a little tighter and trying to draw him closer to me.

“All I’m saying is that you’re clearly very drunk. Maybe we should talk in the morning.” Charles finishes breaking away from me and walks out the door. Dread and embarrassment immediately washes over me as soon as Charles exited. What did I just do? Did I make a move on Charles? Am I imagining things? No that definitely happened. I pulled my blanket over my face like a child cursing myself for acting so oddly. I’d always known I had a fondness for some men, but I hadn’t acted on any of those urges. Too afraid of being found out; especially by any of the gang members. Oh God, I’m sure I freaked out Charles, he probably despises me. FUCK.

…

The sun begins to peak through the window and onto the table in my room. My vision was blurry, as my eyes fluttered open. My head ached, and nausea flowed over me instantly.

“Oh God… what the hell did I do last night?” Memories of the party last night, and walking around camp came back to me. Memories of me and Charles. Shit, Charles. The feelings I had of embarrassment came to me again. Why did I act like such an idiot last night? I swear to God I hope Charles doesn’t say anything, or– just forgets about it and just assumes I was just drunk and didn’t mean anything by it. Fuck, I need to get out of here for a couple of days. I jolted out of my bed and moved to retrieve my satchel and pistol, head still pounding from the previous night’s liquor. I moved into the hallway going down the stair almost bumping into Hosea as I passed him.

“What’s got you moving this fast my boy?” Hosea questions in a slightly annoyed fatherly tone as he would speak from time to time.

“I just need to get some fresh air, Hosea.” I say a little more irritated than I intended

“Okay, don’t let this old man get in your way,” he replies sarcastically

“Maybe while you’re out try and get some deer, we’re running a little low on supplies.”

“Fine,” I nodded at the older man. I continued to rush down the rest of the steps and walked outside stepping onto the porch. I trek over to the edge of camp where Tobacco, my horse, was standing grazing on a patch of grass.

“Come on boy,” I say swinging myself on the back of the Arabian. I ride out of the camp, but as I passed the gate, I noticed Charels’ horse was also missing from the herd. Maybe that was a good thing, he wasn’t going to say anything to the gang about me.

…

I made my way into a clearing a few miles away from Rhodes where I knew I could find some deer for camp. It felt good to be far from camp. I can think a lot clearer when I wasn’t surrounded by people. I could see a large stag grazing atop a hill a couple of paces away from my current position. I took aim with my rifle, breathing in, and out slowly. The sound of my rifle shooting reverberated across the field the stag fell over dying instantly.

“Nice shot,” a filmier voice said behind me. I practically jumped out of my skin.

“OH, MY FUCKING–don’t-don’t sneak up on me like that!” I erupted turning to see Charles who had a slight smile on his face looking down at me from his horse Taima.

“Oh, I’m sorry Arthur, didn’t realize you would react so intensely.” He replied, obviously finding the whole situation to be very funny.

“What are you doing here?” I ask calmly, trying to stay relaxed while in his presence.

“Went hunting early this morning, Hosea mentioned we were running low on food.” Charles gestured to Taima, who already had a large deer strapped on. How amusing Hosea, I thought, what did he think he was playing at?

“Well, guess we had the same idea.” I say shortly moving away to retrieve my fallen stag. Charles seemed a little taken about by my tone. I didn’t particularly care, I just needed to get away before I embarrassed myself again.

“Hey, do we need to talk about something?” Charles asks sharply trying to catch my attention. My hair stood up on the back of my neck, and the same feeling of dread I felt last night washed over me. I cleared my throat before I spoke again.

“Alright,” was all I could muster before turning back to face Charles.

“So, about last night… I–uhh– it didn’t mean anything I was really drunk.”

“You’re sure?” Charles asked,

“Yes, I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me.”

“Okay, as long as you’re sure,” Charles reacted emphasizing the “sure” in his sentence, a twinkle behind his eyes. Why the hell is he acting so weird?

“ I’m confused Charles,” I blinked in confusion.

“Are you trying to tell me something?”

“That depends, are we on the same page?” Quickly, Charles moved towards me and pushed me up against a nearby tree. My face immediately flushed, eyes darting unsure of where to rest.

“Hm, seems like you were lying Mr. Morgan,” Charles said in his calm and patient tone. I was frozen, I didn’t know what to say.

“It’s alright Arthur, I’m not angry with you,” Charles spoke in the same tone, changing his position on me slightly by relaxing his hand on my shoulder.

“You’re not?” I asked, begging to let that feeling of embarrassment drift away.

“No, of course not,” Charles smiled warmly

“To be honest, I wanted to tell you I was interested but I wasn’t sure when would be the right time.”

“What?” I say stunned, could Charles really be interested in me— like in that way?

“I felt like I would have been taking advantage of you last night. That’s why I thought it would be better to talk when you were sober.” I couldn’t believe what Charles was saying! This handsome statue of a man was really saying he was interested in dirty, ugly me?

“So…” I start, straightening myself up against the tree.

“What now?” I ask trying to regain some sort of confidence. Charles hummed a moment before leaning in and giving me the lightest peck on the lips. My body felt like it was lit on fire, and this small action from Charles unexpectedly made me ache for his touch. I reached for the back of his head and drew him into a deeper kiss. I felt the hand that was on my shoulder shift to the base of my neck, while his other wandered down to my waist. I let out a sharp sigh as I felt Charles thrusting my body closer to his. Things seemed to be escalating pretty quickly, and I was still unsure of what was really happening. The last couple of minutes felt like a long-awaited fantasy of Arthurs. I turned my body slightly in hopes of finding a more comfortable spot against the tree. Instead, I lost my balance and started falling back down the hill.

“Shit!” I spat out before me and Charles started tumbling down the golden mound. We fell for quite a ways until we hit the dip between two hills. Charles and I lay still staring up at the sky.

“God Arthur, you really know how to make a man fall for you?” I could hear Charles’ smile spread over his face.

“Oh, shut up Charles!” I erupted laughing. I pushed myself up off the ground and reached my hand down to Charles. He grabbed my hand and I lifted him up to his feet.

“Maybe we’ll pick up where we left off later,” I say, trying to regain composure.

“I’m sure we will,” Charles replied with a gentle demeanor while brushing dirt from his shoulder.

“I should grab that deer I shot before a wolf gets it.” The two of us walked up the hill and retrieved the animal carcass and then made it back to our horses.

“I’ll meet up with you back at camp,” Charles said while turning Taima in the direction of the camp.

“Alright, I’ll meet up with you soon,” I smiled at Charles tipping my hat as a sorta wave goodbye. Charles’ trotted off. I took this moment to take a deep breath. My heart must have been beating out of my throat with how hard the thumping felt.

“Come on boy,” I say to my horse who began to move in the direction of camp.

…

The sun was starting to set over the Shady Belle house. The usual faces of friends, and Micha, were gathering around the campfire. Javiar was playing his guitar, John was poking the fire with a stick and Hosea was sitting next to Jack teaching him to read with some fantasy tale. I sat down on a log next to Charles, who was carving what appeared to be a little horse out of wood.

“How was hunting today boys?” Hosea asked, pausing Jack’s story when he noticed I had sat down.

“Great, we shot two bucks a little past Rhoads,” Charles replied calmly, as usual, so as to not hint that any other activities had occurred. I could only nod awkwardly after flashes of being pinned against a tree came back to me. Hosea smiled in response.

“Anything else happen while you were out?”

“No, just the deers.” I reply as plainly, as I could.

“Okay.” Hosea said with a shrug of his shoulders a hint of suspicion behind his tone. Why was Hosea so suspicious of us? Did he see us together up on that hill? No he couldn’t have, he almost never leaves camp by himself. Maybe it was best just to forget about it for the moment.

…

A couple of hours had passed, and members of the camp were starting to retire for the night. I had finished a sketch of the deer Charles and I shot today in my journal, every drawing I did seemed to get a little better with practice. Something I was secretly sorta proud of. Charles placed a hand on my shoulder leaning to whisper in my ear.

“How about you get ready for bed and I’ll meet with you in a little bit?” His warm breath on my ear sent a shiver up my back.

“Uhm–okay,” I say with a swallow. I sat for an additional moment, waiting for Charles to leave. I proceeded to get up from the log walking to the manor and eventually the door into my room. I began taking off some of the extra weight I had been carrying all day. First my satchel, belt, and gun holster, then my jacket, and lastly I removed my hat placing it on my shelf. A soft knock came on my door. I quietly moved to the door, opening it as silently as I could making sure not to wake Hosea, John, and his family in the nearby rooms.

“That’s you Charels?” I whisper through the crack of the door.

“Let me in Arthur,” Charles replied in a similar hushed tone. I pulled the door open wide enough for Charles to slip in.

“C’mere,” Charles said grabbing the collar of my shirt and pushing me onto the bed. He pulled me into his kiss once again and I replicated the motion pressing my lips into his. Charles pulled away from the kiss to set my body into a more comfortable position, parallel to the bed. I could hardly believe what was happing to me right now. If this was some sort of dream, I hope I never wake up. Charles brought his hands to my chest, removing my blue button-up, and I began to do the same with his shirt pulling it off onto the floor. Charles then moved his hand down near my crouch.

“This alright?” He said in a thick soothing tone.

“Yea’ that’s alright,” I say, heart, beating out of my chest, bringing my hand to his. He began pulling down my pants while maintaining partial eye contact with me. Just then the audible sound of my pistol hitting the wooden floors thudded. I had forgotten to take it off the bed and move it to my table.

“Shit,” Charles whispered through gritted teeth. We both froze waiting for someone to come and ask what all the ruckus was about.

“I think we’re in the clea–” I began before the sound of a door creaking opening could be heard. Shit, I thought still frozen with Charles on top of me, his hand motionless on my inner thigh. Footsteps could be heard coming in our direction.

“Are you alright in there Arthur?” Hosea asked, his voice dense with sleep.

“Yes,” I grumbled out “go back to bed, I just dropped my gun.”

“Okay son, try and get some sleep.” Hosea replied, his footsteps were getting quieter as he retreated to his room. I let out a breath of relief as I heard his door shut behind him.

“Would you like to pickup where we left off?” Charles asked, leaning into me.

“Of course darlin’,” I reply bringing him down to kiss him again.

…

The morning sun once again came pouring into my room. I blinked my eyes open, turning to see Charles who was still sleeping underneath my arm. The both of us were squished together because of how small the bed was. I turning over onto my side, staring at the man who layed before me. How unbelievably handsome he was; his muscular body, soft black hair, his eyelashes, everything about him was absolutely beautiful. I wanted to badly to grab my journal and draw him asleep the way he is. Although moving would only disrupt this prefect image that sat so peacefully. Some movement could be heard outside my door. It was Johns voice moving closer. Not again! I nudged Charles on the shoulder waking him up.

“Good morning Arth–” Charles began before I placed my finger to his lips signaling him to be quiet.

“I’m comin’ in Arthur,” John stated turing the door knob

“NOWS NOT A GOOD TIME MARSTON!” I shouted, but it was already too late. John had stepped into the room.

“So I was just letting you know I borrowed your–” His demenor suddenly shifted to stunned and dumbfounded. His mouth stayed opened as he stared at me and Charles laying completely naked next to eachother.

“Wow, uhh, I-” John spoke in totally bewilderment.

“Please, leave.” I spoke in a tense but calm tone.

“Shit, Arthur,– I– i’m so sorry” John said turning bright red with embarrassment. Right before he was able to escape this awkward situation. Another voice rang though the hallway.

“What the hell is going on over there?” Hosea shouted from the room across from mine. Why was this situation getting worse and worse by the second?

“NOTHING!” John and I shouted at the same time.

I quickly leaned down and grabbed my underwear that was laying on the floor slipping it on. I then pushed John out the door and shut it with a slam. Charles and I as quickly as we could scrambled to put our clothes back on. I stubbeled outside my door into the hallway where a still stunned John and a confused Hosea stood.

“Who else is in that room Arthur?” Hosea questioned

“Well–” I started desperately trying to think of a away out of this situation.

“Charles.” Hosea answered his own question gestuing to my shirt. I looked down noticing that I was wearing Charles’ shirt. What an idiot.

“I had a feeling you two were up to something.” Hosea said, who then shifted closer to me placing his hand on my shoulder.

“It’s okay son, I don’t care who interests you.” Hosea said giving me a warm smile.

“What?” I say staring blankly at the older man.

“I had a feelin’ you and Charles had something going on. I noticed Charles leaving your room a night ago.”

“WHAT?” John exclaimed mouth still agape.

“How long–how long has this been going on brother!?” John questioned in disbelief

“I guess I might have made a move after the welcome home party for Jack. But nothing really happened until yesterday.” I answered shifting from one foot to the other.

“Oh my God,” John said with an exhale.

“I mean, it’s totally fine, but shit–entirely unexpected,” He said scratching the top of his head. Just then Charles slipped outside the door behind me.

“Excuse me.” Charles said moving me gently to the side.

“Everything okay?” Charles questioned the group of men.

“Yep,” John replied nodding and giving a little thumbs up as he twisted around to his room. Hosea let out a little chuckle.

“I know you’ll treat him right,” Hosea says also nodding and walking away. Once the men had disappeared I turned to look at Charles.

“Well, I guess we don’t need to worry about anyone finding out now.” I say shrugging.

“That sure made things a lot easier,” Charles said turning to look at me.

“How bout’ we ride outta here for a little bit?” I asked the taller man. Charles’ face warmed with a smile.

“That sounds like a good idea Mr. Morgan.” Charles replied giving me a little kiss on the cheek.

[cupids-chronicles]

Hades X Persephone Saga: A Game of retribution #3

Author: Scarlett St. Clair

Genre: Romance, Fantasy, Mythology

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐/5.

Spice: 🌶🌶🌶

Goodreads rating: 4/5

Pages: ‎‎‎468 

Published: 31 May 2022

A Game of retribution Review

Note: This book is intended for mature audiences over the age of 18 due to explicit content (steamy chapters).

Well, dear readers, hold on to your mythical chariots because we've been taken on yet another whirlwind ride with the gods of Olympus and the Underworld in "A Game of Retribution". Our old pals Hades and Persephone have returned, along with an entourage of divine drama that could only be rivaled by a soap opera airing directly from Mount Olympus.

Remember that old chestnut of a quote, “Knowledge changes perception”? This statement encapsulates the essence of this third installment perfectly. Hades, our underworld anti-hero, who once saw no issues letting souls meander off into the afterlife, is found in the midst of many a mortal miscommunication. Bless him, he did try to respect Persephone's time with her friend, Lexa, but as they say, the road to the Underworld is paved with good intentions. You'd think after centuries of existence, the dude would’ve mastered the art of timing and empathy.

On a side note, why was Persephone so desperate to keep Lexa alive? If I were to see my friend for eternity in a place like the Underworld (which, let's be honest, is essentially an eternal spa retreat for souls), would I really be so worried about a premature send-off? No, but maybe that's just me.

Meanwhile, Hades is found juggling a narrative equivalent of chasing his own tail. Every time he tries to investigate, interrogate, or perhaps indulge in a much-deserved nap, our dear Persephone, with her seemingly never-ending escapades, interrupts him. And poor Hades is dragged from one scenario to the next, like a divine yo-yo. At times, you almost wish for the guy to just hit the 'mute' button on his celestial phone.

We also delve deeper into Zofie's past. Remember Zofie? Persephone's bodyguard who packs more mystery than Pandora's box? Our glimpse into her history and Hades' hand in her life added depth to an already intricate tapestry of storylines. It’s akin to finding out that your mysterious friend who always wears sunglasses was actually a spy… and also once played in a rock band.

However, let’s address the papyrus in the room: the formatting and editing. Was there a minor deity in charge of this? Maybe the god of typos? The occasional errors, though not tragic, did sometimes feel like Hermes had misdelivered a sentence or two. And as for the formatting - the margins! It felt like reading a scroll that Zeus might have accidentally sat on. Perhaps it's a design choice meant to symbolize the vast emptiness of the void? If that's the case, kudos for thematic consistency. If not, let's hope the next edition will be more space-efficient.

In conclusion, A Game of Retribution scores a celestial 3 out of 5 stars from this humble mortal. For all its highs and lows, it's a must-read for fans of the series. And I, for one, am eagerly donning my toga in anticipation of the upcoming books announced by Scarlett St. Clair on her divinely curated Instagram. Bring on the melodrama, the myths, and maybe a map of Hades’ underworld investigations - because this mortal is here for it all.

Please note that this book is part of a series and can not be read as a stand alone. Lucky for you this can be your little weekend binge as almost all the books in the series has already been released !

Wait a minute boys and girls, check out these trigger warnings first:

Suicide

Death

Violence

Romance Tropes, you ask ?

Miscommunication

Marriage

Who do we meet in this book ?

Hades

Persephone (Perri)

What to read next:

Neon Gods (Dark Olympus) by Katee Robert.

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black.

Drag Me Up (Gods of Hunger) by R.M. Virtues.

Or just like read the next few books of this series.

[bouqetofmemes]

Bro come get yo dog

Death mentioned here

"Holiday, Holiday, we're going on a holiday!" The servants sang  They were discussing how nice Ciel was, while you were wrapped up in a blanket, fighting the urge to sit on Ciels lap and get more warmth, not that he would mind much

"Do you hear how happy they are?" Sebastian asked Ciel "They're very grateful to you." "Such a kind young master."

"I couldn't leave them there alone." ""I might come home to find the manor in shambles."  "Indeed."

"We've arrived everyone." "Alright!" The servants shouted "Oh, my." Y/n said quietly "This isn't what I'd expected." Y/n said this time louder

'It's mighty old, like Sebastian.'

"Apparently a lot of the villagers have been violently killed or gone missing." "The village has shrunk to a third of its size in the last ten years." "A part of our task is to find out why, and to put an end to it."

"To be completely honest I hate them." Sebastian said talking about dogs "Woof." Ciel and Y/n said

You guys arrived to the place you were supposed to stay at and we're greeted by a maid "I presume this is the earl of Phantomhive, and the Mistress?" "Yes." "Welcome to Barrymore Castle. My master awaits your arrival." Said the woman, bowing

"This way." The maid lead you into a room that had multiple displays of animal heads Then you heard the maid scream "Who the hell is this chihuahua?!" The master was whipping the woman "And why the hell is there a random woman?!" "I told you to bring me the Queen's Guard Dog and Butterfly when they arrived!" "Chihuahua?" "Random Woman?" Y/n got pissed "Well, for your information, I'm the Queens Butterfly and he is her Guard Dog, I'm not a random woman, and he is not a chihuahua, we are the Phantomhive's and if you can't get that into that thick head of yours, you're better off dead for treating nobles that way!" Y/n said, stomping 

"There's nothing to discuss, I won't sell Barrymore Castle to anyone." "Why is that?" "Because of the curse." 'What curse?' 'Sure this village is strange but I never thought that it was cursed.' 'I think i hurt his feelings'

"My, how interesting."Ciel said smiling "Indeed." Y/n said giggling "What?" "You've piqued my curiosity. I'd like to see this dreadful curse of yours Lord Henry."

It was late in the evening when the maid asked for you guys to leave the village completely Then you guys heard a howl "No, the demon hound, it's coming!" "The what?" Then you saw a shadow of a dog in the curtains, it had surprised you greatly so you screamed, falling back "Sebastian!" Ciel yelled Sebastian ran to the curtains and opened them but there was nothing there You guys went outside to investigate because Sebastian saw a dog running along the trial and villagers were screaming about the Demon hound arriving "...Please wake up lord Barrymore at once." "Who was the punished one?" You all went to see the same man you saw earlier in the day you pitied him greatly "So that's it." Ciel said "Stand back, don't Touch!" Lord Barrymore said "I see it was James then, he was the bad dog?" "Yes, he broke the legal restriction on dog ownership, he had six dogs one more than is allowed." A villager had said "A sixth dog, then this was inevitable." "That's all you can really say, really?!" Bardroy asked "This village is under my rule and no other! The demon hound protects that rule! As the guardian of the Barrymore family, it punishes anyone and everyone who dares to challenge me!" After the man had finished, everyone started chanting a song  "I was sure you outsiders were going to be its next prey, you were lucky to have escaped."

"We've caught the dog, we've caught James' dog, he is about to be punished!" You heard villagers screaming and run to a small wall where the dog was kept  The men released the dogs and then they started attacking the poor dog, while the villagers were acting like it was a boxing match Your group was just standing there, scared, disgusted, worried, until Finnian yelled "Just let the poor thing go!" He then grabbed a thick wooden stump and threw it at the dogs "Stop this now!" You all were surrounding Finian, checking on him when the villagers were grabbing weapons "They interfered!" "They interrupted!" "Punish them!" "They must be punished like bad dogs!" You and Ciel were chained up while the servants were tied to the wooden stump "Master I beg you, show mercy this one time! These people don't deserve the punishment!" "You have a point, this little Pomeranian and that woman are the queens guard dog and butterfly, after all. If he can be made to see reason, perhaps I'll decide to let them go." "Leave this village immediately and advise her majesty never to send her minion near it again!" "You're so pathetic you rely on lowly tricks to retain your meager power. If there's a stubborn dog here I'd say I'm looking at it." "That's lower than what the poorest pauper would do, surely you would understand if you knew how to use your brain." Y/n added smiling slightly  "If that's your final choice, you can learn what happens to a dog that challenges me! Get them!" The dogs were running towards you guys when Sebastian came in time to knock them away "You cut that close." "It won't happen again, trust me." Sebastian said, fixing his gloves "You dare to interfere, dog? Well what are you mangy mutts waiting for? Kill all three of them now!" "Shameful. What coarse, noisy growls they have. One of the reasons I despise these creatures." Sebastian sent the dogs a glare and made them lay on their stomach  "What the hell? What did you do?" "Your pitiful farce ends here, Barrymore! Listen, there is no demon hound! It's all a lie, there's just him- an old man obsessed with power, determined to keep it, no matter what." "What? What evidence do you have?" "There's this, we found it in your mansion. I took the liberty of confirming that the teeth marks on James match the teeth in this skull." "Do you see it now? The truth  behind the demon hound. It's shadow is nothing but a projection. Just a transparent Trick. The glowing is phosphorescent dust, sprinkled on a normal dog." "The demon hound is merely an illusion, a story made up by and evil man. The man you let rule your village. This man: Henry Barrymore" "No it's all nonsense! You can't fool them! Where's your evidence" Ciel chuckled and you giggled 

Sebastian grabbed the piece of cloth from the dogs mouth and showed it to lord Barrymore  He tried escaping but the villagers crowded him, picking him up and bringing him to be punished "My wrist hurts!" Y/n whined, trying to rub them of their stiffness "You're going to be fine Y/n, it's was only for a few minutes." Ciel said, walking to your side "But I took extra long today to do my hair and my wrists and arms were hurting being of how long I had to keep them in uncomfortable positions!" Y/n said, grabbing a hair tie and attempting to put Ciels hair in a small ponytail

You guys went back to  the castle due to it raining "Yet another case closed, eh? We can leave the village when the rain lets up." "Indeed." You just tried resting your eyes in the chair that you were in, until you guys heard Mey-Rin scream

[recurring-polynya]

Are we allowed to share RenRuki fic ideas with you?

Ummmmmm.............I guess the question I have is, I guess it depends on why you want me to see it?

So, on one hand, I always want to support the Renruki fanfic writing enterprise. If you sincerely want help developing an idea, I am open to help with that, although if that is the case, *please* do not send your ask anonymously, because I would probably prefer to reply privately. You can also email me for that sort of thing. If we are already on a DM basis, and you want to chat about your ideas, I am happy to listen and support you! (or if we're kinda friends and you want to make the jump to DMs, maybe that's a good excuse).

On the other hand, I sincerely do not like it when people, especially people I don't really know, send me things that are like "here is an idea that I had!" because I have no idea what is being asked of me. I cannot even conceive the thinking behind sending something like this, I would never. What on earth would motivate you to put that in someone's askbox instead of just posting it on your own blog, where your followers, the people who want to see your ideas, can see it? If you tag it, then everyone who follows that tag will see it too! Maybe people want my blessing, or something, but I am deeply uncomfortable being put in that role. It's all well and good, I guess, if I happen to like your idea (although I still don't know what to say...I would be so much more comfortable reblogging a post that you made), but if I don't like it, that really puts me in an uncomfortable spot, you see? I have kind of particular tastes, but I very intentionally keep the things I don't like to myself. I don't ever want someone to be sad because I hated on their favorite idea, but sometimes I don't know what else to do when someone shoves it into my inbox and my only choices are to make a public comment on it, or just delete the ask, either of which is going to hurt the asker's feeling. I don't ever really think that what the asker wants is a sincere criticism of their idea, but unfortunately, that's what I usually end up doing and then I feel terrible about it and then I close my ask box for three months. Also, literally, who cares what I think? If you have a fanfic idea and you like it, you should write it. (Although, I guess maybe part of the reasoning behind sending strangers your fanfic idea is because you have no intention of actually writing it, in which case I am doubly not the person to send it to)

To be honest, I don't care very much about fanfic ideas. I care about fanfic execution. Most of my own fanfic is pretty low-concept. I know many people enjoy just talking about their ideas with no intention of ever writing them and this is not me. If I could write the fanfic without ever having the ideas, I would. I read just about every Renruki fanfic I see on ao3 (unless the tags are a no-go) and if I liked it, I'll leave a comment, and if I don't have anything nice to say, I won't.

I guess the third case is that you want to tell me about your fanfic idea in the hopes that I'll write it, to which I will say, a) please be very clear if that is the case, and b) I suppose if it's interesting enough, I might, but the odds are very low, and it will probably take me forever. Oh, also, once again, please don't ask on anon, so that I can reply to you on private.

[rex101111]

Dunno why I haven't asked already (maybe I did and forgot) but if you had to pick which strive themes are your favorites and least favorites what would you go with? If you don't want to do the whole listing then maybe just a couple of standouts? I'd like to hear your opinion on stuff!

hey izzy i used this ask as an excuse to just listen to all the Strive themes for the first time in a while. So here's every character theme and my thoughts:

Find Your One Way: for the longest time I thought it was "own way" but whatever. Okay so this is where I put my cards on the table and say that Strive's overall kind of metal is kinda not my thing. Or at least it took a while for me to click with it since I still use the Rev2 soundtrack as a workout mix so I kinda have a bias. As such I think this song is fine but Give Me A Break is peak Sol so it just sounds to me like its trying to reach that same level and it. uh, doesn't for me. still cool though.

The Roar Of The Spark: and in a complete 180 from the previous song THIS ONE FUCKING ROCKS. Christian Hair Metal, fucking wonderful. From that keyboard intro, to that fucking sublime guitar solo, this one is so fucking good actually.

The Disaster Of Passion: In contrast to the metal (ironically enough) I adore Strive's "pop" themes. Every one of them makes me smile like a doopy dope. Seriously when May's trailer dropped I had "NONE. STOP. LOVE SONG!" on repeat in my head for like a month. So catchy. Really good drum work here also, underrated.

Out Of The Box: This song kinda passed me by honestly, so this was the first time I really sat down and listened to it all the way. Brit Rock can be hit or miss, but this is pretty fun! the Engrish is just bad enough that its really charming and the chill vibes fit Axl really well.

Play The Hero: You're saying this is the theme of a weeb? Never would have guessed. Okay real talk I fucking LOVE this one. Catchy, cheesy, uncomplicated Anime Butt Rock, if that doesn't describe Chipp Zanuff I don't know what does.

Armored-clad Faith: SOCIETY. YOUR SOCIETY. Okay meme-ing aside this one's great too. Gonna be honest though Bass Heavy Metal isn't really my cup of tea, but even despite that its still really catchy. Sometimes memes blind you to how good a song actually is. Chorus is the best part tho.

Alone Infection: To be honest this took a very long time to grow on me. Verging on Screamo didn't help it, and its honestly kinda weird. But hell, it did grow on me eventually. Not my favorite by any stretch but not bad.

Love the Subhuman Self: God what a banger and a half. If you don't sing along to the chorus there's something wrong with you. Also this is a song made in the current century that uses the phrase "bee's knees" in the wonderful way only people who don't speak English can manage. What a fucking miracle this song is, damn.

Let Me Carve Your Way: Bad news, horrible greasy shadow man has a pretty good theme he absolutely did not deserve. Tragic. Okay seriously this is pretty good, strong beat nice chorus and the end bit is nice contrast overall. Yeah its alright.

Necessary Discrepancy: Part of me still prefers Diva Of Despair, but this bangs so hard holy shit. From that weird ass electronic intro to the guitar and that climax, bro. Bro. Not my favorite but I'd say...third place.

Hellfire:

Ky:...Leo, I think you might be suffering with depression.

Leo: Depression!?!? What kind of nonsense are you spouting!?!? Can a guy with depression have a theme this rocking!?

Ky: Leo. Half of that song is you calling yourself a liar and hoping you die.

Seriously though another song I kinda slept on but its really good also can someone tie Leo to a chair and take him to a therapist? Thanks.

What do you fight for: Lesser than the sum of its parts. Like the chorus is good, the melody is nice, a few verses are cool. But its kind of a mess. There's a really nice solo, but it just kinda stuck a bit too early in the song for it to really built up to the climax properly. Crawl is better anyway.

Trigger: probably one of my least favorite, honestly. It just kinda meanders around without really coalesing into anything substantial and just like. refuses to pick up any momentum at all. it just changes itself up too often and its kinda tiring to listen to. Also the lyric "don't make a big deal out of me" is so ironic in hindsight when it turns out she contributed a big fat load of jack shit to the story mode of Strive. but that's a pile of meat that was once a horse I am kinda tired of beating so lets move on.

Rock Parade: MY FUCKING BOY IS DANCING AND IN LOVE. FUCKING LOOK AT HIM! God I love love love this one, so freaking good. It tells a story, its rocking, its catchy, and that that more gentle bit near the last third is so evocative. I always imagine him doing a fan dance during that part. Second favorite absolutely.

Requiem: Heavy Metal has always been I-No's signature sound and aesthetic, and mixing that with Alt Rock gives this one a pretty unique feel compared to her other themes. Midnight Carnival still stands on top as far as I-No themes go but this one ain't too shabby. Sick guitar solo, naturally.

Crawl: Intense, rocking, better than Nago's actual theme. Pretty gnarly boss theme.

The Kiss of Death: The only way to do good Industrial Metal is to go All In. And this song does that and then some. How the hell did this head banger get past me??? I'm genuinely baffled that a guy as big as Beef Dickinson managed to evade me for this long. Fuck yeah.

Perfection Can't Please Me: I really appreciate those call backs to Juno in this song since that one was one of my favorites in Xrd. Even with all my reservation with how the Aria plot got resolved I can't deny this song is a ton of fun. Though, hear me out, how fucking funny would it have been if they took Meet Again and remixed it into something this poppy?

Drift: My thoughts about this song are about the same as the thoughts I have about Happy Clappy himself. There are certainly things to like about this song, there are some really cool bits and riffs and the lyrics are cool, but it switches around so much its hard to really get attached to any one aspect of it. Like sometimes its really fun and bouncy, sometimes its rocking out, sometimes its pretentious because Chaos can't fucking help himself. I like it better than I did when it first came out, but still just kinda meh. The "Disney" bit still funny as all hell though.

Mirror of the World: Best song in the game. No. Zip! It is, no arguments will be accepted are entertained here. This song rocks, this song slaps, this song tells a story, not just the story Baiken is going through in Strive but her whole journey up till now. This song is soulful and harsh and beautiful and fucking everything. This isn't my Baiken Bias talking its just true don't argue with me just sit with me as we listen to Mirror of the World on loop for two hours and then You Will Understand.

Like a Weed, Naturally, as a Matter of Course: This song is just vibes honestly. A cool and smooth song about how just living for the sake of it is good enough, because if a weed can be why can't we? Also the pronouns getting changed every few words is like two steps away from screaming "THEY'RE NON-BINARY NOW PRETTY NEAT RIGHT?" and you know what that is neat.

The Town Inside Me: The most Song of all Trans. Seriously though this song is so much fucking fun. Probably my favorite "pop" theme of the three we have so far. Honestly it just feels like a complete, full song. Like you can just take this out of the game and play it on the radio it just feels like there's nothing missing here its awesome. Personally though, the thing I like the most in this song is how triumphant it is by the end. Bridget is out of the box and she ain't going back in, and she is glowing.

The Hourglass: His Xrd theme was honestly just okay so I was more open to give this one a fair shake. And honestly? Pretty fun! Nothing really major to say here except that it's peppy, positive, energetic, and has a nice strong sound to it. So, Sin, basically.

The Circle: I really, really wanted to like this song. I listened to it a few more times and I just. Can't connect with it. It's like Drift in that there's a lot of different things going on and also like Drift nothing really comes together here. I saw a post mocking people who don't like this song as people who only like music with wide appeal and to that person firstly fuck off with the gatekeeping and secondly just because a song has complex things going on or messes with the time signature doesn't automatically make it good and I just don't like this song because its a damn mess that barely coheres into something a bit more solid by the end but only just barely. Delilah deserves to be her own character if only so she can get a proper fucking song out of it.