#and fact using books / words for bullets ♡

[dangerousskeletoncoptree]

thinking about the implications of font or their ghost companion teaching any of the cores magic (UT magic to be more precise)

[novasintheroom]

008. Kindness

♡ Pairing - Vash x Reader

♡ Word count - 1.1k

♡ Warnings - none

♡ Description - You continue to send Vash letters.

Part of the 150 Bullets drabble series on AO3

Part 1 ---- Part 2 ---- Part 3 (you are here!) ---- Part 4 ---- Part 5

The next letter comes a week later on a Tuesday. The one after that, two weeks and two days. And the one after that, just four days later.

You’ve made a habit of writing at nearly every post office and leaving it to be picked up by Vash if he chooses. He tries to resist and leave the letters there, but loneliness and the want to know how you’re doing always wins. He’s returned to a town more than once just to get a letter.

This week’s letter comes from a little town called Bangs. The mailwoman hands him the letter from the top of her tomas, and he gives her the twenty-six C-cents for handling it.

The paper inside is pink this time and smells a bit like almond lotion. Your curving and slanted writing greets him:

                Birdie,

                I’ve managed to add three new towns this week to the roster. There’re only a few people in each who are willing to join in on the book exchange, but a win’s a win. HQ says I’m doing great, and they’ve already gotten a few applications from some teenagers in the towns to apply for college in the bigger cities.

                In fact, they’re moving me to a new route soon. One that’s a bit more challenging due to it being so far out and away from most other places. I’m getting my own tomas for it since the towns are so spread out. I’ve drawn the map they sent me on the back…in case you ever want to visit.

                I hope you’re doing well. I wish I could see you. I know you’re getting my letters. Write to me, please. Even if you don’t think we should travel together anymore, we can at least be friends, right?

Forever yours,

       ______

P.S. What do evil toma lay? Deviled eggs.

He’s surprised to find two blank pages nestled into the envelope. You really want him to write you? After abandoning and dodging you for nearly two months? But he shouldn’t be surprised. You’re always adjusting to his boundaries, always making sure he’s comfortable, even if you disagree. You’re too kind for your own good. The least he could do is tell you he’s okay.

So, he writes back.

                ______,

                I’m doing fine. I’ve got a few jobs lined up in the town I’m in right now. I was able to help nurse someone’s grandma back to health here too. I’m doing my best, just like you are.

He taps at the paper. What else should he say?

                I’m sorry I I’m glad to hear you’re doing well. You’re making a huge difference by helping build up people’s education. It will help so many people in the future.

                What do you know about the region you’re getting assigned to? I’ve only been around there a few times, and I’m sure it’s changed since then.

Best,

              Vash

P.S. Why can’t you ever trust stairs? They’re always up to something.

He’s left with an extra page to write with, but just stuffs it in his pocket. He doesn’t have much of worth to say right now; he still feels bad about…everything. He finds the postwoman again, who takes the new envelope and trots off on her tomas, and that’s that.

The next letter comes on the road as a courier passes by on her own walk back toward a town called Ferret’s Claw. She hails him, and hands it to him. “Already paid for,” her gravelly voice says, then continues trotting down the path of dunes.

Vash watches her leave before he opens and scans it over.

                Birdie,

                I’ve heard about you helping the Plants in the region. You’re not as sneaky as you used to be. That, or people are a lot more talkative about the talented, young, handsome man going around fixing Plants.

                Sure sounds like you.

                I’ve had to deal with some bandits on the road. Been chased a few times. Luckily they either aren’t great shots or don’t have their own toma to chase me on. They seem to be young kids with nothing better to do. I hope the more we spread education, that will lessen.

                Be careful around here, birdie.

                                                                                                Forever yours,

                                                                                                                ______

A blush rises to his cheeks when he reads over the “talented, young, handsome” line again. Leave it to you to still get his stomach fluttering with butterflies, even at a distance. Vash lets a breath go through his nose, then folds the letter, putting it in his “letters pocket,” so dubbed now after receiving them. He brings out the spare piece of paper from the previous letter and begins to write, using his knee as a ‘desk.’

                Mayfl______,

                Don’t worry about me; I know how to run handle bandits. You should be more careful, though. Do you still have that knife you got from the pawn shop?

                I won’t be staying in the region long. There’s a call coming from somewhere else, and I need to go to it.

He taps the paper, looking up and around as he thinks. Should he tell you where he’ll be? He’d like more letters…

                It’s coming from a town in the east, I know that much. Hopefully I can get there in time.

                Be safe.

                             Vash

P.S. There are three types of people in the world: those who can count, and those who can’t.

There. That ought to be enough.

And when he’s in the east, he isn’t as surprised to find a letter waiting for him at one of the towns.

Birdie,

I’ll keep writing to you if that’s alright. It gets lonely on the road, and I don’t doubt you feel it too. I love getting your letters.

HQ says I’ll stay in this region for at least a few months. Please let me know where to send my letters; I promise I won’t follow – I’ve got too many people relying on me and the books now. But I’d still love to hear from you. Tell me about what you’re up to, any adventures, even the shoot-outs you’re in. I’ll worry, but I’ll know you’re okay with each letter.

I hope you’re well. I hope you find happiness wherever you go.

                                                                                Forever yours,

______

P.S. What do you call a can opener that doesn’t work? A can’t opener.

And Vash does write back. Even if it’s so much less than what you write, he keeps you updated.

Vash wonders, when he’s writing his next letter, if this should stop. He’s leading you on; he hasn’t stopped contact like he promised he would. He looks down at the paper and crumples it in his hand, then opens and smooths it out again. Your kindness is like a drug he can’t quit. It’s selfish, but he wants to keep you, like the letters he keeps in his pocket. Is it so bad to want one friend in the world?

Maybe. Perhaps not.

And so he writes.

[blindedguilt]

———  Basics! ♡

(PEN)NAME:  Simon/Simone (Either or! Swap between them, i don’t care lmao)

PRONOUNS:  Any 

ZODIAC SIGN: Cancer

TAKEN OR SINGLE: Single, mentally I’m in an Uziga Waita manga tho

TIME ZONE:  EST

———  three  facts!♡

I’m sucky at small talk but tend to get way too excited about shit online to the point I get exhausted of reading my own texts

Left-handed

Uhhh.... I have some OC’s and a little universe thingy I’m very passionate about, though I don’t talk about it much lmao (It’s one of the bigger projects in my life right now). I wrote a book for it at one point when I was like 14 which almost got published but I VERY narrowly avoided that bullet lmao

———  experience ! ♡

.... Since 2012-2013, I think? G+ was my first platform, and my early days were on and off lmao. I only started SERIOUSLY roleplaying recently, at like 2015-ish I think. I used to use a lot of OC’s, mainly two very special girls of mine named Zinnia and Alice, but my longest and “original” muse was Ash Landers/Angela Blanc from Black Butler (Ashamed as I am to admit, I was a very big BB fan before this), who I used from early 2015-early 2020. They’re still kinda special to me for that! I’ve been using my OC’s a lot less since G+ shut down, but even now I have one RP I’m doing on Discord with my boy Barnabas, and a forever in-progress RP blog I still have to get around. Uhhhh... This blog was made on October 25th after remembering Drakengard existed, going “what the fuck was even UP with that game lmao”, searching it on Tumblr and seeing a certain Caim blog. I got inspired, figured “Well, can’t hurt if I try, right?” I was between Seere, Leonard, and Inuart. Inuart got crossed off early because I knew I’d get bored playing him, and I almost didn’t do Leonard because I’m scared of hate. But I was starting to get REALLY into his character, went “I’ll do it for a week and then switch to Seere”. Made my first post, got noticed and... ... Well. Seere still isn’t completely safe, though.

———  muse preference !  ♡

Man, I dunno... I think I drift towards the more controversial muses (In a way that’s meaningful and not just baseless shock value) because of how fun it is to really explore those mindsets and how they percieve and/or deal with their own issues. And that’s absolutely what drew me to Leonard, just like Ash/Angela! Leonard is a bit funny because I normally roll my eyes at the “Big intimidating dude who’s actually soft” because,,, well, it seems like just a way to poke the hearts of fans and flip “images” on their heads without really doing anything, and if there is a reason most the time it’s not even that bad. But with Leonard, who’s genuinely frightened and disgusted with himself rather than just being a bit shy, well,,,, that fixed the issue right up for me lmao. Another big thing is theme! What morals they have, what message they were trying to send, if that’s not interesting to me 9 times outta 10 I don’t RP the character. Leonard being a moral conundrum in every aspect though is *Chef’s kiss*  Through experience however, I don’t write very introverted or sexually charged/themed characters. Ironically, I’m more well-versed(...??? Well, comfortable) with writing smug asshole characters - In certain flavours, that is. (Lukhege, Barnabas, Alice, Zinnia, Edwin, Maria, Margarette, Colin, etc.)

———  FLUFF / ANGST / SMUT! ♡  

FLUFF: Broken, but could be fun to fix! With Leonard he’s one of the more “normal” in the cast just by the fact that if you’re not a little boy he’s a very kind and polite little guy - However, there’s no denying he IS sad, and since Drakegnard itself just never gives him a break... Basically anyone who comes along to brighten this guy’s day in any capacity is a friend who is ALWAYS more than welcome to the Thanksgiving table. In other words: I fucking ADORE fluff (Not just for Leonard, but in general! It’s one of my favourite things to write~) and it gives me many emotions lmao

ANGST: Look at my muse. What do you think? .... I mean, I love that angsty shit, but I try not to lay it on too thick with the “everything is going wrong and has gone wrong and isn’t it all just soooooo fucked up :(” and make it an edgefest like I used to in my cringier days lmao, but BOY I’ve been getting a lot better at writing it thanks to this fella <3

SMUT: *Cough* I mean, admittedly outside of this blog I can’t say that all my RPs have been SFW.... *Cough cough* Then again, outside of partner RP (Where I’ve only ever used OC’s), I’ve only written written smut like once, in all my years of RP.  So far as this particular muse is concerned, it’s... A sensitive topic. Not completely off the table because who doesn’t want to fuck leonard  but like,,, i don’t actively participate myself in that stuff and prefer anything be decently built upon/chatted out before jumping the gun. In general I admit I like smut a lot more than what I say out loud, though.

PLOT / MEMES: I’m shyyyyy I want to respond to starters and send memes but one half is like “Can I really follow through, though?” and “Will they respond/Be actually happy to see me?” Because sure, we sometimes just can’t get the energy to reply to things (As is often the case with me) but if it becomes frequent enough (At least, without any notice) I kinda freeze up like “Did I overstep their boundaries somehow? Is it a motivation thing? Have they just moved on from wanting to RP with this character/fanbase?” and stop sending things with that pit of anxiety ready to haunt me for the rest of the month. XD And I know a lot of people get that too, so I always try to notify them in one way or another, whether through post or DM that it’s just a me thing - Because 99.99% of the time, it is!  As for hosting them on my own end, I have trouble driving the conversation. I love to collect memes, but sometimes it can be hard to find ones that really fit (There are a lot of shipping-dedicated memes to sort through). I enjoy tossing casual ideas around, but as for keeping a conversation going/spitballing ideas without trying to come off like I’m pushing it or shoehorning the other person into a particular plot/concept, I have a lot of trouble really,,,, putting anything effectively, ESPECIALLY coming back to things later without seeming like I’m being a hound. That said, plotting with me can be a pain unless you catch me at an extremely rare moment that I happen to have a lot of muse and am thinking about our characters that very second because trust me, i do, and i have to limit the number of memes i send at times if only to prevent being an obnoxious little kid dinging up your dms every second. Because of those issues, I often try to structure plotting questions in a way that’s like “What do these characters mean to each other right now?”  “Where is their relationship strong? Where is it weak?” “How can we develop/challenge that?” “Is there a particular aspect of both our characters and/or their relationship with each other that we as muns really want the two to explore?” And so on. Lord help me from turning into an online survey bot when I get to plotting with some poor soul (As some will soon be subjected to), if I don’t have my thoughts organised into neat, colour-coded little boxes then I don’t know what I’ll do with myself. Thanks for reading!

Tagged by: @voicelesshatred​ I Tag: I forgot who else was tagged in the previous post and I’m too lazy to check it out, so if you like this meme, don’t be shy and please take this as your sign to tag! Just please tag me if you do because I love to see the answers~

[louisemwrites]

One Afternoon

This one-shot is set during the events of Book 4: Loving A Bully. Enjoy. (๑°꒵°๑)･*♡

-----

His wife was going to be the death of him.

Or the cause of a lower back pain.

Not that it matters, Leon thought, as he juggled three watermelons to his shopping cart. He would gladly let his very beautiful and very pregnant wife kill him if it would serve to make her happy.

He should be used to this now. Sophia had started craving before she even knew she was pregnant and it was not like Leon wasn't willing to give her everything she ever wanted. But didn't her doctor say that her cravings would decline by the third trimester? Sophia was already in her third but instead of declining, it seemed to have gotten worse and even more spontaneous.

Two weeks ago, he had to end a call with a potential client when she asked him to buy her cheese sticks.

A week ago, she got him combing the streets in the middle of the night for tomatoes.

Five days ago, she got her knocking on Rohan's door before dawn broke for some kimchi.

Today, she called him in a middle of a meeting for watermelons. And she wanted three.

Leon would never complain out loud but fucking hell, he'd probably be the only one to eat the rest of these goddamn watermelons. She'd probably eat a tiny portion again and have other cravings. And who else would have to finish them? Leon. She didn't want to waste food or let them spoil so he'd have to.

Leon would have gained twenty pounds if he didn't hit the gym everyday. Hell, he even had to rearrange his father's offices in Boston just so they could have a larger indoor gym in the building. He didn't even do field work anymore since Sophia's pregnancy. And since they were currently living in his old house, he was glad he didn't clean out the basement were his old gym equipment was.

An amused voice brought Leon out of his thoughts.

"Domestic life suits you well, Leon."

"One word and I'll put a bullet through your head," Leon growled, turning to meet his best friend's laughing eyes.

John chuckled, not even hiding the fact that he was indeed finding all this amusing, and put his hands up. "Watermelons this time, then?"

Letting out a long exhale, Leon carefully brought the large fruits down in the cart. "Yeah," he answered.

His best friend was trying not to make comments that would anger him further, Leon noted this irritably, looking at how John's lips were pressed tight together. Leaning an elbow on the handlebars, Leon studied him suspiciously.

"What are you doing here in the supermarket?"

John shrugged. "I wanted to know what it's like."

"Explain."

John grinned broadly at him. "I wanted to know what it's like to be a henpecked husband."

He never learned, did he?

John howled in pain in the middle of the fruit aisle when Leon slammed his fist into his jaw.

"Jesus fucking Christ, you're a monster!"

Leon crossed his arms. "I'm in a testy mood and I don't want you to test me."

"You should have just said that before you punched me, asshole!"

"Ah, but it feels good to let out some pent-up emotions now and then."

John straightened, massaging his jaw. "I'm sure you're all pent up since Sophia's – kidding!" he avoided the fist that came again his way. "Damn it, Leon. You already left a mark. Punch me again and I'll be telling on you."

Leon narrowed his eyes. "Go ahead. I'll tell Terry you're skipping work to fuck with me in the supermarket then."

The two glared at each other for a few moments.

Then they burst into laughter, realizing the absurdity of their situations with the women in their lives.

"You two are fucking idiots," Rohan muttered as he passed by them with a basket filled with tampons, chocolates and pints of ice cream.

John grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. "And here we have another sucker. Fancy meeting you here, Rohan."

Grinning, Leon watched Rohan elbow John away. "The sisters?" he asked.

Rohan heaved a long suffering sigh. "The sisters," he mumbled in agreement. "Why they have to have both their periods at the same time is fucking beyond my comprehension. They've been running me ragged since yesterday."

John snorted. "They know they got you around their fingers, that's why."

"And you know we're both going to fuck you up if you keep fucking us up, don't you, John?" Leon said with a lift of his brow.

John's smile faded. "Can't we be mature about this? We're all working adults, aren't we?"

Rohan and Leon traded glances.

Then the both of them cracked up.

"Shut up," John hissed, looking around. "People are staring."

And could they blame them? Even if the three friends just stood there, they would still look.

Leon was in what Sophia would call his commando outfit, a leather jacket, black shirt and jeans, and boots. He'd come to the supermarket straight after receiving a call from Sophia saying that she wanted watermelons. He didn't even remove his guns.

John was in an expensive suit, his hair slicked back. The asshole probably had a full schedule of meetings but was here, making fun of him, probably hearing from Sophia where he was. John liked to make calls to his friends now and then, pretending it was official business just to slack off from work.

And Rohan, he probably had just woken up, given the crumpled hoodie he was wearing and messy hair. He had worked through nights for the past month for a security system that was going to be put on the market next week and at the same time, accompanied his fiancée around the city for their wedding preparations.

"When are you going back to Boston?" Rohan asked Leon.

Leon grabbed a bag of apples and put it in his cart. Sophia would probably move to apples next and it wouldn't hurt to stock up just in case. "In three days," he told Rohan. "I've already booked our flights."

Rohan didn't look happy to hear that. "That soon?"

"Yeah."

Should he tell them he and his father was considering opening a branch of their investigative agency here in the city and that he might be moving back with Sophia soon? Might as well surprise them.

John frowned at him. "I wish you'd stay for a while. Or just move back."

Leon's lips twitched. "I'd rather not."

"Why?"

"Because you'll keep coming round to our house, piss me off and spoil Sophia and our daughter with gifts."

"That's not exactly a bad thing..." John muttered slowly and Rohan chuckled.

"He's perfectly justified. You even stalked him to the supermarket, dumbass."

"You miss him too, smartass," John countered.

"Not as much as you do, fuckface."

Leon looked up the ceiling and prayed for patience as the two hurled childish insults at each other. They might all be grown men but some things never changed, don't they?

"I'm leaving," he muttered, pushing the cart up to the check-out counter. The two followed, still bickering. Leon looked straight ahead and pretended he didn't know them.

"No news about Skull yet?" Rohan suddenly asked him, lining to pay for his purchases as well.

At the reminder that Skull was yet to be found, Leon closed his eyes. Pressure pushed on his chest, tightening air in his lungs. Then he opened them again when John spoke.

"Yeah, we need to talk about him," he murmured, his eyes on Leon. "Haru has told me some pretty interesting things about him—."

"Save it for later," Leon cut him off with a glare. This wasn't the time or place. They had already attracted a lot of attention and there were too many ears. Hell, even the cashier who was checking out his fruits with a star-struck expression on her face was listening closely.

John nodded abruptly. "There's much to talk about. We can't put this off any longer."

Rohan agreed and looked at Leon. "We're having dinner tonight at your place anyway. We can talk after."

The cashier handed Leon his change with a 'have a nice day' that seemed considerably warmer than typical. Leon barely noticed, his thoughts on Skull. His cell phone had buzzed then and he pulled it out of his pocket. His hard expression softened when he saw who had sent him a text.

"Is it the wife?" John asked with a small smile.

"Yeah."

Leon picked up the bags. Then he nodded goodbye at Rohan and walked to the exit.

John continued to follow him. "What did she say? Why do you look so happy?"

Leon grinned. "Because she said her father can't visit us this weekend."

-----

part 1    part 2    part 3    part 4   part 5    part 6

-----

Hey, guys! 

Please consider reading my stories on Dreame. Because of the community quarantine, I don't have work and I don't have any income. They said they were going to give us compensation but I don't know when we will get it. I know this is a lot to ask especially in this time of crisis, but if you haven't read my stories, or haven’t finished The Bully series, you can check them out here in this link.

or in these links:

Book 1: The School Bully

Book 2: Sleeping with a Bully

Book 3: The Bully’s First Love

Book 4: Loving a Bully

You’ll have to buy coins to read them. You’ll help me a lot if you do. I’d prefer to give something back than ask you to donate. And don’t worry. I’ll repay your kindness by posting free stories. 

Thank you very much!

Stay safe and stay at home, guys. (*^▽^*)