#and the way the music just suddenly stops at the point his mom puts him in the crate

[vaugarde]

im not as invested in the kfp franchise as other people are, i didnt even see this movie til recently in the past year, but this is probably one of the best film scores for a specific scene that ive heard tbh.

[parrythisucasual]

What About Me? Ch. 1

___HERES THE STORY SO FAR!!! NOT BETA READ SORRYYYYY___

PAIRING- JAX X READER (ROMANTIC)

Something is wrong. This isn't right. You were just lying in bed, starting a new VR game. Where are you now? There’s… music playing. Chipper, happy music. And every single color is like your mom’s phone screen- full-on brightness. You blink a few times, staring around. There’s a group of people… But they aren't people, exactly. They seem more like children's toys.

You're suddenly feeling very, very overwhelmed. You can feel your body shaking as panic punches you hard in the gut. You’re going to scream, you're going to have a breakdown, you're going to- 

“Where am I?” Oh. Well, that wasn’t so bad. Until the motley group turns and looks at you. The fear only rises as a doll woman steps closer to you “Another one? But Pomni just got here last week…” You blink, utterly dumbfounded. She spoke to you. You can understand her.

“Who are you?” a second question makes its way past your lips, your mind searching desperately for some kind of clarity. “This one’s taking it pretty well. Unless you count the crying.” another voice piped up as a purple rabbit sauntered over, stopping right next to you, “at least they aren't screaming like someone did when she got here.” 

“Jax!” the doll snapped at the rabbit, “I’m sorry about him, he’s just a bully. I’m Ragatha.” she gently placed an arm over your shoulder, causing a small bit of relief to flood through you. Something grounding. “I know this is really scary and off-putting, but I promise you’ll be okay.”

“Except you can never leave.” Jax’s smile widened. Your heart dropped rather suddenly “N-never leave?” you asked, looking from Jax to Ragatha. “Afraid not, my dear!” a third voice, a rather loud one, came to your attention. You turned to see who this could be and almost jumped out of your skin.

A set of teeth with bulging eyes staring at you, hovering a few feet in the air, “Welcome to the Amazing Digital Circus! I’m your ringmaster, Caine!” he greeted enthusiastically, spreading his arms in a display of showmanship. You think you’ve had enough.

Reaching to your face, you try to pull the headset off. But… it's not there. It’s just your face. But it doesn't feel like your face. It feels like a soft silicone rubber, almost like the Gumby toy you’d had as a kid. “It’s not there!” you yelp, now simply holding your own head.

“It’s okay, I promise you’re okay,” Ragatha gently reached over and took your hands from your head, “Just take a breath, okay?” You nodded, taking a deep breath and relaxing a bit, “Why isn’t it here?”

“Who knows? You’re stuck either way, why bother thinkin’ about it?” Jax walked past you, shrugging. You can already feel a twinge of anger at this… man? Rabbit? You’re clearly terrified and he can’t bother being kind for one second? 

Oddly, that anger only serves to calm you more. You ignore him and turn back to Ragatha, “Okay. I’m stuck here… in the circus… we can’t leave. You’re Ragatha. That's Jax. That’s Caine,” you list your knowledge, nodding with each statement. A small smile spread across her face, “Exactly.”

Nodding, you glance to the other circus members “What about… them?” you ask. Ragatha points to each member “This is Zooble, that’s Gangle, there’s Pomni,” she gestures to a pile of pillows, “Kinger is in there.” You made a mental note of each, making sure to introduce yourself later.

“Ya know, it's kind of refreshing not having to deal with some crybaby freakin’ out on us,” Jax mused, waving a finger in your general direction. The anger twinged once more, and before you could stop it, a realtor shot from your lips, “It would be refreshing if you shut your mouth. Nobody wants to hear your opinion.”

Shock spread across his face momentarily, then he frowned “I don’t care what anybody wants to hear or not. I say whatever I want to.” Ragathe interrupted suddenly, “OKAY! Let’s not fight… Um, what did you say you wanted us to call you?”

“I didn’t say. I’m- uh… My name…” you couldn’t remember. Terror gripped your chest once more. You could see Jax smiling, and that only worsened it. They knew you wouldn’t know. You pressed the anger back. No fighting.

“Um… just… just call me (Y/N),” you spoke quickly, taking the name off the top of your head. With a nod, Ragatha smiled, “Alright. Well, welcome to the circus, (Y/N).” You couslnt help but return the grin. She was too kind, making you feel so welcome. 

“Why don’t I show you your bedroom, then?” she offered, “if you’d like me to?” “Sure,” you accepted, following her away from the group. You couldn’t help but notice Jax staring at you as you left. Something about his face made you feel off. You couldn't place it, maybe he was angry? But it didn’t feel like he was. Oh well. You could deal with that later. For now, you focused on getting to your room, getting settled, and simply taking in your situation. After all… you were here to stay, weren’t you?

______HOPE YOU ENJOY!!!! ANY IDEAS?? SUGGESTIONS??? COMMENT!!! WANT TO CHAT??? DM!!!!___________

[unnoticed-poison]

𝘋𝘢𝘳𝘬! 𝘠𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘦! 𝘝𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘰𝘴 𝘹 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳【 𝕿𝖗𝖆𝖎𝖑𝖊𝖗 𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕 】

Finished writing this yesterday but forgot to post it 🥲

Anyhow hope you enjoy this chapter! My dear friend @floatyflowers encouraged me to write this fic, thank you so much hun!

     ۰꒷꒦⏝꒷꒦.⏝꒷۰★۰꒷꒦⏝꒷꒦.⏝꒷۰

"Can I ATLEAST know where we're going?" you asked, annoyed at the blindfold around your eyes, It was unnecessary, you pulled at the fabric lightly. " And can I take this damn thing off? I'm not a kid."

Your dad chuckled, and even though you couldn't currently see anything, you could tell from the tone of his voice that he was getting annoyed with you. "Like I said for the HUNDRED times, it's a surprise, so no, you can't, we are almost there anyways, just be patient, okay?  here why don't I put some music on?"

You groaned. " Fine." 

You two have been driving for almost an hour now, you tried to pass the time by daydreaming about one of your countless fake scenarios, it would have been much better with the music you had on your playlist, not whatever your dad has playing, but you guessed it was better than nothing.

Your mom didn't accompany you today, saying she had some errands to run and it would take the whole day, that it would be better if you two went without her, but you knew she was lying, it was obvious really.

It's your birthday after all, your dad is obviously trying to keep you distracted with this 'surprise'  the whole day so your mom has enough time to prepare for your birthday party and invite your relatives and friends over. 

You didn't care much for your birthday, but you appreciated their efforts to make you happy, so you didn't say anything and just played along.

Besides, who doesn't like getting spoiled and receiving free stuff on their special day?

After another 10 minutes had passed, you lifted your head when you felt the car slow down before coming to a stop.

"We've arrived!" your dad exclaimed, excitement evident in his voice.

He turned off the radio before getting out of the car, walking over to your side and opening the door for you before helping you get out of the car.

"Great, can I take off the blindfold now?"

"Oh yeah, one second," he said, before removing the blindfold off you.

You squint your eyes against the bright light, when you managed to adjust you gasped at what you saw.

"Tada!!" your dad said, waiting for your reaction with a big smile.

"Is that...?" you whispered, taking a step forward, looking with a stunned expression at him as you pointed towards the huge building in front of you.

He nodded. " Yup, welcome to THE DreamWorks company."

.......

You were speechless for a few moments, before finally letting out a loud squeal and launching yourself at him, hugging him tightly.

"Thank you thank you thank you!!"

You suddenly stopped as you pulled away, raising a brow at him. "Wait."

"Yes?"

You looked back at the building in front of you. "Why now off all times? you never took me to your workplace when I begged you before?"

That's right, your dad works for DreamWorks company, you were a huge fan of DreamWorks so you always asked him to let you visit there, but he never gave in until now.

He chuckled. "Well, I wanted to go all out and beyond for this year's gift to you," he gestured towards the building, "and what better way to do so than bring you here?" he puffed out his chest proudly, waiting for your response.

You couldn't hold back the wide grin growing on your lips, " That's amazing!!! Thank you so much, I love it, I LOVE IT!!" You pulled him in for a quick hug, before taking hold of his hand and dragging him to the entrance. "Let's go then!"

      ۰꒷꒦⏝꒷꒦.⏝꒷۰★۰꒷꒦⏝꒷꒦.⏝꒷۰

The moment you stepped inside, you were greeted by a young man standing in front of one of the elevators, he had a friendly smile on his face as he walked towards you.

"Good morning Mr (L/N), you came in early today," he said, his tone polite but firm, he then glanced towards you." and you must be his daughter, I've heard so much about you." he extended his hand towards you, which you shook firmly with your own.

You couldn't help but stare at him and take in his appearance, his soft sky-blue eyes were the first thing that caught your attention, this man appeared to be in his early twenties, he stood tall, with striking black hair, he was dressed in an elegant and well-tailored suit, his fair skin shone against the black-trimmed suit.

You had to admit that he was truly handsome, everything about his appearance was perfect, even the way his lips curved into a charming smile, it was practically impossible to ignore.

"You're even more beautiful than your father described, it truly is a pleasure to meet you."

Damn was his voice so soothing.

Wait.

Say what now?

You snapped your head towards your dad, who avoided eye contact. 'Dad!!'

Why do you always do this?

"Is something wrong miss?"

Your face flushed as you turned back to him and cleared your throat awkwardly. "Um..no, it's nice to meet you as well sir.."

He seemed to sense your discomfort, because he quickly let go of your hand and stepped back.

Your dad put a hand on your shoulder and gestured to the young man. "Let me introduce you to my old friend's son, Noah. the new CEO of DreamWorks," he explained.

.......I beg your biggest pardon?

Old friend?

New CEO?

"The who now?" you blurted out incredulously.

Noah smiled again. "You haven't told her that you and father know each other?" he inquired amusedly.

"...oh right..." the older man muttered sheepishly as he let out a nervous laugh. "I guess it never came up?"

The fuck you mean-

"Your father asked me for a small favor and how could I refuse when he told me about how much of a fan you are of our movies? now if you would follow me please," he said while starting to walk towards the elevator, you two quickly followed behind him, with you still dumbfounded and confused.

Why did he never tell you about that?!

You'll have to ask him later.

        ۰꒷꒦⏝꒷꒦.⏝꒷۰★۰꒷꒦⏝꒷꒦.⏝꒷۰

"Please take a seat and make yourselves comfortable," Noah directed, gesturing to the chairs beside his office desk, once you all sat down he took out his phone and called his assistant.

"Hello.. yes you can bring it in now, thank you."

There was a brief pause after he hung up his phone before the door opened once more, revealing a woman pushing in a trolley with a pyramid of gifts.

You look up at the gifts in aww, they were all wrapped neatly and nicely on top of each other, and each present was wrapped in a different coloured paper.

Even your dad seemed to be taken aback by this. "Sir, what is all this?" he asked, eyeing the pile of gifts.

Noah gave him a small smile. " I hope you can accept those humble gifts, personally picked by me. " he said smoothly, his blue eyes meeting yours. "I just want to make sure her day at my company will be a good lasting memory, it's her special day after all, and she deserves to be showered with love."

Your cheeks started burning again, damn was he charming.

You blinked as he walked over to you and handed you a small piece of paper, " Here's another gift my father wanted me to hand to you, spend it however you wish."

hm?

You looked at the piece of paper and gasped, it was a check.

100k...

Oh my god...

This is heaven!

"Thank you so much! I appreciate it!" you thanked him sincerely, placing the check into your wallet as your dad thanked him as well.

"Thank you so much for all this, but don't you think it's too much?"

You rolled your eyes.

'Too much of what? he's a damn rich CEO, those gifts cost nothing to him '

Noah waved his hand dismissively. " nonsense, it's all good, besides, I'm literally a CEO, this cost nothing to me." He then looked down at his watch and hummed.

"I'm sorry, but I need to go check on something, Mr (L/N) if you would please follow me, you're needed there as well, as for you miss." he continued, turning to you. " You can just wait here and open up your gifts while we're gone."

Your dad looked confused for a second, his brow furrowed in thought. " But there's no urgent matt- oh you mean THAT, oh yeah I remember now, yup let's go right away!"

You raised a brow at how strange he was acting but nodded anyway as you watched them leave quietly.

heh.

Your dad was so bad at acting honestly.

With the way he was acting, you assumed that he and Noah arranged a party for you in the company.

You smiled.

You could tell that today was going to be fun.

You couldn't wait!

Now time to open those gifts!

     

      

        ۰꒷꒦⏝꒷꒦.⏝꒷۰★۰꒷꒦⏝꒷꒦.⏝꒷۰

Just how long was this going to take?

You thought, you've opened up all of the gifts already, an expensive watch, a brand new computer, a loooot of various clothes that were your style, and so on.

You loved all of them and wanted to thank the man again, but it's been a few hours now and they haven't returned, you played on your phone until your percentage was low, you were now bored out of your mind as you waited for them to return.

Just when you were about to get up to call for the assistant, your eyes drifted over to the book that was on the desk.

Huh, might as well kill some time.

You leaned over and picked up the book, it looked quite old from its condition, its cover slightly rusted and worn out, with the title 'The Book of Dreams' written in big bold letters.

As you opened the book and read the first page.

𝕴𝖓𝖘𝖙𝖗𝖚𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓𝖘 :

𝕴𝖙'𝖘 𝖖𝖚𝖎𝖙𝖊 𝖘𝖎𝖒𝖕𝖑𝖊 𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖑𝖑𝖞, 𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖗𝖊'𝖘 𝖔𝖓𝖑𝖞 𝖙𝖜𝖔 𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖘 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖓𝖊𝖊𝖉 𝖙𝖔 𝖐𝖓���𝖜

𝕴𝖋 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖜𝖎𝖘𝖍 𝖙𝖔 𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝖆 𝖈𝖊𝖗𝖙𝖆𝖎𝖓 𝖘𝖙𝖔𝖗𝖞, 𝖏𝖚𝖘𝖙 𝖜𝖗𝖎𝖙𝖊 𝖎𝖙'𝖘 𝖓𝖆𝖒𝖊 '𝕴 𝖜𝖆𝖓𝖙 𝖙𝖔 𝖌𝖔 𝖙𝖔 ____' 𝖎𝖓 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖇𝖑𝖆𝖓𝖐 𝖘𝖕𝖆𝖈𝖊 𝖆𝖙 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖊𝖓𝖉 𝖔𝖋 𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖘 𝖕𝖆𝖌𝖊.

𝕴𝖋 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖜𝖎𝖘𝖍 𝖙𝖔 𝖌𝖔 𝖙𝖔 𝖆𝖓𝖔𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖗 𝖜𝖔𝖗𝖑𝖉 𝖜𝖍𝖎𝖑𝖊 𝖞𝖔𝖚'𝖗𝖊 𝖆𝖑𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖉𝖞 𝖎𝖓 𝖔𝖓𝖊, 𝖏𝖚𝖘𝖙 𝖊𝖗𝖆𝖘𝖊 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖘𝖙𝖔𝖗𝖞'𝖘 𝖓𝖆𝖒𝖊 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖜𝖗𝖎𝖙𝖊 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖘𝖙𝖔𝖗𝖞 𝖙𝖎𝖙𝖑𝖊

𝖄𝖔𝖚 𝖈𝖆𝖓 𝖔𝖓𝖑𝖞 𝖜𝖗𝖎𝖙𝖊 𝖉𝖔𝖜𝖓 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖒𝖔𝖛𝖎𝖊𝖘 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝕯𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖒𝖂𝖔𝖗𝖐𝖘 𝖘𝖙𝖚𝖉𝖎𝖔𝖘 𝖒𝖆𝖉𝖊.

Huh..?

Was this a joke?

What the hell was this?

Your eyes moved to the end of the page, and sure enough, there was an incomplete sentence.

𝕴 𝖜𝖆𝖓𝖙 𝖙𝖔 𝖌𝖔 𝖙𝖔

Huh.

You shrugged and flipped the page, only to blink in confusion as the page was blank.

'𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘪𝘳𝘥..'

You flipped the pages, one after the other in hopes of finding anything written down but nope, all of them were blank, you gave up after reaching the middle of the book and returned to the first page.

......

Oh well.

'𝘈𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘐 𝘨𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘴.' You thought, grabbing the violet-coloured pencil and writing down a random DreamWork movie name.

The second you finished writing the sentence you gasped as a blinding light shone through the book.

You screamed when you felt yourself get pulled towards the light.

"HELP!!!"

A few seconds later the light faded, everything was back to normal.

Well...

Except there was 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 one thing missing.

You.

[cosmicpearlz]

under the mistletoe

summary: you friends decided enough was enough and had a plan to set you guys up together.

pairing: ajax petropolus x reader

day 2 of ficmas (december 20th, 2022)

…………………………………………………………………………….

you and ajax had a history of being the best friends that nobody could tell if you were dating or simply just friends. from lingering touches to you sitting on his lap at almost every party to pet names and even long hugs that ‘just friends’ don’t do. the friend group was planning on how to get you guys to confess to each other and the upcoming christmas party was definitely the perfect time.

it was an ugly sweater christmas party held at xavier’s house. of course, everyone had to wear an ugly sweater well except wednesday. she had threatened to murder enid when the girl tried to get her to put on the christmas sweater. wednesday didn’t even really want to go but enid had practically begged her to go and to get her to shut up, she reluctantly agreed to go.

“hi guys! sorry i’m late, the traffic was nuts,” you walked in to greet everyone with a smile. upon hearing your voice, ajax snapped his head up at the door completely forgetting the conversation he was in with kent.

“baby! i missed you,” the gorgon stands to meet you and pull you into hug. you felt yourself melt into his arms like you always did. he tended to have the feeling over you.

“you just saw me last week when school went on winter break.”

“a week too long. come, let’s get you some hot chocolate, yeah?” you nodded at the boys words and let him lead you by hand to the kitchen.

“that was a dreadful sight. why must they always be like that?” wednesday muttered to herself and enid nudged her arm to knock it off.

“enid, i’m just pointing out the obvious. it’s quite disgusting.”

“okay, do we know which doorway we’re hanging up the mistletoe on?” bianca quickly glanced at the two of you who were clearly in your own worlds before leaning in to whisper.

“yes. it’s the doorway before you go into the music room. that’s where we’ll do the white elephant game because the tree is in there. but remember, they must be the last to come in!” xavier reminded everyone and wordlessly everyone nodded along. the boy was pretty excited to help his best friend get his girl officially. when you and ajax walked back to the couches in the living room, they acted like nothing happened.

“so, what did we miss?” ajax took his previous seat guiding you to sit on his lap.

“nothing much besides how much fun white elephant was gonna be,” yoko didn’t understand how you guys didn’t even pay attention to anyone else but each other.

“oh yes! i’m so excited because i think i brought the best gift.”

“what’d you bring babe?” you looked at him while shaking your head.

“as if i would tell you,” ajax chuckled and placed a delicate kiss to your cheek.

-

“dinners ready!” xavier’s mom called out to the group of you from the dining room. everyone gets up to go to sit at the table. xavier’s mom decided to give you guys the space and not bother. his dad nowhere to be found, probably at work. xavier stopped relaying on his dad a while ago.

you went to sit next to ajax when xavier swooped in and sat in the seat. immediately following Kent sat in the other seat that was next to him. with furrowed brows, you walked around the table sitting across from him next to wednesday. you were a little upset that you didn’t get to physically sit next to the boy but hide it well. silently the group nodded once more to start the plan.

“so y/n, remember that guy patrick? the one from math class,” yoko smirked watching the way ajax’s jaw clenched. bingo, first indicator of jealousy.

“i mean yeah, what exactly about him?”

“he just was interested in you. i told him i’d mention it to you,” bianca sent you a smile while you suddenly felt uncomfortable.

“oh i’m just not interested in him. i’m sorry.”

“but you are single, right? why not just give it a shot?”

“enid she’s not interested,” ajax was quick to answer for you. he didn’t want to lose the best thing that’s ever happened to him. he’d think he would lose his mind if you were no longer in his life.

“i’m just saying,” enid shrugged her shoulders, “just think about it y/n.”

the rest of the dinner was quiet, the group had gotten you guys right where they wanted you. they could see ajax almost burst out the confession. step two was next.

“so everyone, white elephant is gonna take place in the music. c’mon,” as soon as xavier said that everyone was quick to get up. you’d almost laughed at them practically running to the room.

“you think they have something planned babe?” ajax whispered walking over to you helping you get up.

“honestly, i think they do. i mean i couldn’t sit next to you and the whole patrick situation,” you sighed throwing your hands up.

“are you gonna talk to patrick after break?” the boy was nervous to hear your answer but he needed to know even if his heart was currently thumping.

“what? absolutely not. i’m interested in someone else,” you looked down and smiled thinking about the boy standing right next to you. all ajax could hope was that you return those feelings he felt for you.

the walk to the music room was a short walk. when you got to the doorway, you noticed everyone had gotten quiet all of sudden. some staring and some smirking.

“hey ajax and y/n look up,” kent pointed up at the door. looking up you both found mistletoe neatly tape.

“it’s a christmas tradition. you wouldn’t want to break christmas traditions, right?” xavier faked the innocent smile he had. ajax turned to look at you with slightly warm cheeks.

“we don’t have to do this sweetheart.”

“what if i wanted to?” you gazed at him with a smile. instantly his hands were placed on your cheeks tilting your head more up before locking his lips with yours. finally, after years he’s kissing you. the kiss becomes a little more aggressive as ajax slides one arm around your waist pushing you more into him. you were careful not to mess up his beanie while your heads landed on his face.

“you guys are disgusting. this is unnecessary,” wednesday cold voice made you both step away from each other.

“well? are you guys finally together?! we set this whole thing up even down to talking about patrick,” enid almost couldn’t contain the squeal that came out of her mouth.

“oh so that’s what was going on?”

“yeah ajax, we knew it would make you jealous. got sick of seeing you guys act like a couple but saying you were just friends. so.. now what?” xavier asked his best friend hoping this plan the group had changed everything for the better.

ajax takes one glance at you and tighten the hold on your waist, “i’d say she’s officially my girl now.”

“yup, this sweet boy is officially mine,” you bring a hand to cover the little laugh you let out. you then guided the two of you to the floor where your friends were sitting in a circle and sat down in between his legs.

“okay let’s start the game!”



[angelsanarchy]

Alkaline: Euronymous x Y/N Series CH 4

Tagging: @ophelialaufey @madamemaximoff06 @forever-not-gonna-sink @ajmiila02 @liquidsmoothdomme @shady-the-simp

Oystein had been caught up with the band and his friends the moment they picked up Pelle. He was the perfect addition to their band and he couldn't help but feel like a revolutionary in the black metal scene as they put together new music. Y/n hadn't seen him around much and his sister informed her that him and the band got their own place about 30 mins away.

Y/n couldn't help but be a little bit bummed that she hadn't seen him but she knew he would eventually be too busy to entertain the idea of her. She figured wallowing in what could have been made the most sense when she walked into the packed bar. She squeezed between bodies until she was able to get to the bar top, bumping into someone with long blonde hair.

"Oh excuse me." The bump caused something to fall out of his pocket and Y/n was quick to pick it up. She realized it was decomposing rabbits foot.

"That's one way to keep luck with you." Y/n joked earning a silent smirk from the guy.

"I just cut it today." Pelle explained holding it in front of her face. He seemed almost surprised that she wasn't disgusted by it but Y/n grew up with two brothers and an uncle that was a butcher. Dead animals didn't faze her.

"You should change the metal cord out for string. As it breaks down, the cord will slice right through that like butter. String will give it some more time if you're trying to keep it around long enough to smell the death." Pelle looked stunned and nodded his head.

"Thanks." He held the foot in front of his own face as he walked away and Y/n shook her head. She ordered a drink and suddenly felt a hand on her back. When she turned she was surprised to see Oystein standing next to her with a smile on his face.

"Miss me?" Oystein asked smugly.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Y/n replied with a smirk. She must have missed him and his friends occupying a big table in the corner of the bar.

"You can admit it. My mom said you came by a few times." Oystein bumped her shoulder with his own.

"Just because you move out doesn't mean your family stops needing groceries." Y/n laughed.

"Maybe I should order some groceries for our new place. It's not too far out." Oystein leaned on the bar top.

"I don't usually do the orders that go outside of the perimeter but you can always put in an order and see who you get." She teased. Oystein's friends were loud and he glanced back at them.

"You met our new singer. His names Dead." Oystein pointed out the morbid blonde she had bumped into earlier.

"Wow...that's very fitting. Does he have an equally suitable name as you or?" She teased and he rolled his eyes.

"I would say his name is very fitting. He's a lot more fucked up than you can imagine. Living with him has been interesting to say the least." Oystein watched as she took another swig of a beer and couldn't help but stare at her throat. He wanted to wrap his hand around her neck tightly and fuck her until she was gasping for air and release.

"Don't let me keep you from your friends. I only came for one drink before I head home. It sounds like they're getting a little restless without their fearless leader." Y/n looked at his friends who gave her odd looks. They weren't sure exactly what someone like Euronymous was doing talking to someone like her.

"I don't care. Let them fuck off. I'm talking to who I want to talk to. I've missed seeing you." This surprised her. He was never upfront with feelings like this, especially amongst his peers.

"Really? I thought you would have forgotten all about me now that the band is taking off." Y/n kept her eyes on Oystein as he shook his head with confidence.

"When are you going to give it up and realize I'm not going to just piss off? I mean I will if you ask me to but not before that." He smiled, letting his hair fall into his face. Y/n reached up and pushed it away hearing a click of a camera from behind her. Oystein's smile dropped and the girl taking photos spun on her heel quickly.

"Don't let me ruin your image. You know where to find me if you're really looking." Y/n polished off her drink and Oystein seemed disappointed that their interaction was coming to a close.

"Do you want a ride?" He offered but she shook her head.

"No I'll be fine, thank you. Just try and get back to your place in one piece." She walked towards the door and he kept his stance at the bar.

"Oh and congratulations on the new place and the new singer. I'm happy things are going so well for you Oystein." The gang at the table started laughing and cracking jokes at him and he cut his eyes at them. She pushed out of the bar hoping he wasn't too embarrassed by her farewell. She had considered caving and calling him Euronymous but it just felt weird to her. She didn't see him like the others did. They didn't get to see the sweet, sensitive side that made sure to make it home for his mother's holiday dinner parties or who taught his little sister how to headbang. He made sure to always show her boss respect and even tipped him on holidays when the shop was usually dead. She didn't see him as this dark hero that they worshipped. She had nothing against that side of him but she liked him just the way he was.

"Y/n! Wait up." She spun on her heel and waited as he ran towards her with a napkin in his hand.

"Just in case you start missing me too." His friends poured out of the bar shortly after him and he ran after them before she could open the napkin. Once she did she saw a number scratched across it underneath his name: Øystein 

[1d1195]

Zipper Extra III

Read everything else here

@harrybabyyyyyyy hope you like it :)

This takes place the following Friday after the main story.

She sighed, pausing again. “I just feel very out of sorts,” she admitted.

“About us?” He asked tilting his head at her.

“Mostly that there is an us.”

Biting his lip, he nodded. Maybe she thought all of this was a mistake, it would make sense. He all but Stockholm syndromed her, being so mean all these years and she still said she loved him. Maybe her brain was trying to tell her to get out before it went too far.

Harry was watching her pace her apartment floor. Her index fingers pressed into a steeple against her lips and Harry swore he could see wheels turning in her head. “Do you want t’talk it out?” He asked gently.

She shook her head. “Not yet,” more pacing.

“Okay,” he nodded firmly. He sat patiently on the couch that they shared a little over a week before. His neck finally stopped hurting and the anger he felt finally subsided. He knew it would escalate the moment he saw the man that tried to harm the angel that was surely about to put a trench in her floor from her movements back and forth.

There hadn’t been a ton of time to explore their relationship since it began on a Monday. The whole work week was spread before them, so this Saturday evening spent in her apartment was the time to figure some things out. A good chunk of their relationship was out of order already. There wouldn’t be a huge getting to know you phase—most of that was done by the end of grade school. Past relationships were also a non-concern—she doesn’t even remember Harry ever using the word girlfriend before his love-speech in her life. Meeting families wasn’t even a worry—at least not for her—Harry’s family adored her already and her mom and sister were always certain Harry liked her.

“What’s your favorite color?” She asked suddenly. Harry glanced at her as she paused near the slider door of her balcony, her face was unreadable from his position. He didn’t understand her question at all.

“Blue or orange.”

“I thought so,” she mumbled and continued pacing. “What’s your favorite music?”

“Stevie Nicks,” he answered immediately.

She paused her pacing as she looked at him. “Hmm,” she hummed. Didn’t expect that at all.

He smirked and shook his head. “Do you want t’share with the class what’s going on up there?”

She sighed, pausing again. “I just feel very out of sorts,” she admitted.

“About us?” He asked tilting his head at her.

“Mostly that there is an us.”

Biting his lip, he nodded. Maybe she thought all of this was a mistake, it would make sense. He all but Stockholm syndromed her, being so mean all these years and she still said she loved him. Maybe her brain was trying to tell her to get out before it went too far. It saddened him—he wanted to be good enough for her.

He remembered how he hadn’t seen her leave the restaurant last week. He doesn’t know why but he was pulled to at least check she wasn’t sick or something—not that he cared at that point. He just wanted...well he doesn’t know why he wanted to check on her (but he did). He nearly went mad when he found her cornered in the hall by someone he so desperately wanted to kill. The poor thing looked terrified and Harry silently vowed he wouldn’t let her look terrified like that as long as he lived.

All of it made sense, every second of their life zipped so closely together. He adored her and there wasn’t any way he could deny it to himself any longer. When he brought her home and fell asleep with her in his arms, he thought there wasn’t a single person on earth that could ever make him feel this way—it was sad she was going to give up before it could start, but he didn’t blame her at all. “Yeah...I suppose s’a bit shocking,” he murmured finally.

“No, actually. It quite possibly makes more sense than anything.”

Oh. Harry blinked in surprise. His spiral was for nothing. “Then why are y’out of sorts?” She didn’t respond. Just went back to pacing. Harry took a deep breath and sighed. “I think y’might be overthinking it, kitten.”

“Oh, I know that,” she nodded. “Aren’t you shocked?”

“Well, no...not really. ‘Ve always had feelings for you, clearly,” he shrugged.

“‘Clearly,’” she repeated with an eye roll. “Yeah, like disgust, hatred, anger.”

He smiled wryly. “’Ve never hated you, love.”

“Well, you sure didn’t like me,” she reminded him.

“A mistake I’ll regret for the rest of m’life, probably,” he nodded. He stood finally and stopped her in her tracks with a hand to her forearm. He rubbed his thumb along the inside of her wrist. “What’s going on?” He asked again softly. His eyes were so unbelievably green when she looked at him, she could hardly breathe.

“I just feel like...it’s weird...you didn’t like me for so long—but you’ve known me my whole life. I don’t know. It feels like we skipped some stuff,” she shrugged.

Harry nodded. “We may have,” he agreed. “But...I think there’s a lot more we get t’discover,” he said and brought a hand to her cheek. She held onto his wrist as he gazed down at her and he smiled so beautifully she thought she might burst into tears. She had never been looked at the way Harry was staring at her. “For one, I don’t know how I made y’feel all those years. We can analyze every interaction we ever had.”

“That does sound like fun,” she murmured quietly.

“I particularly, am very interested in the whole...physical part of our relationship,” his eyes lingered on her lips for a few silent seconds. “Never thought about kissing y’before last weekend. Now s’probably for the best I didn’t. I could hardly focus all week—especially when we had lunch together and you looked all adorable and sexy. Never would have gotten a law degree with you on m’brain all the time,” he said letting his thumb skim over her lower lip as he spoke. It sent warm electric currents through her whole body.

Her cheeks warmed and Harry wanted to kiss each pink cheek and never stop. “I looked sexy eating lunch?” She asked.

He smiled and nodded. “Extremely sexy.”

“Hmm,” she hummed in response and looked up at Harry intently, inspecting the little flecks of blue and gold hidden in his eyes. “Do you think we could try kissing?” She asked.

“We can do whatever y’want, kitten,” he promised, bringing his other arm to encircle her waist and bring her closer to his body.

“Well...I want it to be whatever you want, too,” she said, resting her hands on his chest.

“Do I want t’kiss the most beautiful girl I know? I’ll have t’think about that,” he rolled his eyes. “You’re infuriating, y’know that?” He huffed but it was different than it used to be. The annoyance was only on the surface—it didn’t reach his eyes.

She smiled sheepishly. “I think that’s your favorite thing about me.”

“Very well might be,” he murmured and closed the distance between their lips.

[devilsflowerr]

I’m coming home - part 2

warnings: smut 18+ (minors dni) probs inaccurate time frame. brief controlling parents. oral (f and m receiving). Elvis finishing quickly. brief finger sucking. unprotected sex. creampie. fluff at the end(if you squint). nipple sucking?

Y/n anxiously chewed at her fingernails as she stared out her bedroom window. Elvis was supposed to come home today, the last she had spoken to him was when he had called just before he had left Raleigh. The sun was starting to set behind the trees in her yard as her mother called out that dinner was ready. Y/n let out a huff and made her way downstairs and sat at the dining table, putting a small portion of chicken and vegetables on her plate, feeling to nervous to eat.

Y/n slowly ate as her parents eyed her as she played with her food between bites, moving a pea around with her fork as she swallowed down her small mouthful of food. "What's got you looking glum?" Her father spoke, pointing his fork at her as she peered up at him. "Oh, nothing, just not very hung-" Y/n began but was cut off by her mother. "That Presley boy is supposed to be coming home today. I heard it from Susan. The whole town is talking about it." Her mother snarled, y/n dropping her fork on her plate loudly.

"Mom." Y/n warned with a glare towards her mother as her father clicked his tongue against his teeth in realization. "What, sweetie? You know that boy isn't good for you. He's filthy." Her mother spoke with a shake of her head as she cut through her chicken, y/n tapping her fingernail on her cup of water.

"You don't even know him. You never even gave him a chance." Y/n huffed, moving to cross her arms across her chest. Her parents never spoke to Elvis when Y/n brought him around, instead giving him judging glances as they sat at the dinner table. "We don't need need to give him a chance. The way he dresses, the girls around him all the time. Who knows how many girls he was with while he was gone!" Her mother began to raise her voice, interrupting y/n's father as he opened his mouth to speak.

"Mom, that's not true at all! He called me all the time, for hours on end! Hell, You don't know anything." Y/n roared, beginning to stand up before her father banged his fists on the dining table, getting the attention of y/n and her mother. "Enough! Y/n sit down and finish your dinner, you are never to see that boy again or so help me I will rip his throat out. You have to listen to your mother, he's no good!" Y/n's father roared, y/n's jaw clenching as she shook her head.

"I'm suddenly not hungry." Y/n mumbled, storming away from the table and back up to her room, her chest heaving as she slammed her door shut, running her fingers through her hair in frustration as she sat on the corner of her bed and let out a sigh before drawing her attention to her vanity, standing up and walking towards it.

Elvis gripped the steering wheel while the other hand rubbed at his eye before he moved his fingers to the dial on the radio, turning it up so he could hear the song on the radio and not just the rumble of the car, humming along to the music. He looked into the rearview mirror at the sunset, his stomach rumbled slightly, not wanting to stop to get food in hopes of coming home to his girl quicker.

He was nearly at her house, only a block away and his heart racing in excitement. He pressed his foot on the pedal to get their quicker until he saw her driveway. Y/n saw the reflection of headlights in the mirror as she swiped a pink lipstick on her lips. She rubbed her lips together and ran to the window, seeing the car in the driveway, letting out a small squeal before grabbing her purse and running out of her room, the beep of the horn sounding as she ran down the stairs.

"Y/n! Don't you dare!" Her mother warned as her father stood up from the dining table. "If you leave with that boy right now, don't even think about coming home!" Her father threatened through clenched teeth as he watched her open the door, following her. 

Y/n saw Elvis leaning against the hood of his car, his hands in his pockets as he stared off into the distance and chewing on a piece of gum. He turned his head when he heard her kitten heals tapping against the wood of the porch stairs as she ran down them, a smile forming on his face as he stood up straight, her cardigan flapping in the wind as she made her way to him, Elvis meeting her half way before she jumped into his arms.

Elvis wrapped his arms around her, lifting her slightly as he spun her, pressing a hungry kiss to her lips. As he put her down, he pecked her lips as she grabbed his face. "Boy, you have a lot of nerve coming around here!" Y/n's father yelled from the porch, both their heads snapping towards him. "Sir, I-" Elvis began but was cut off. "She's not welcome here anymore, and neither are you!"

Elvis looked at y/n's face as she chewed on her pink lip. "Let's go, Elvis." She muttered, lacing her hands with his as she pulled him towards the car. He let out a sigh and opened the door for her before he ran to the drivers side and turning on the car and driving off. "I missed you, my sweet girl." He spoke, kissing the back of her hand as she grinned at him.

"I missed you too, Elvis. I really did." Y/n spoke softly, taking him in for the first time in almost a month. The way he smiled as he watched the road made her tummy flutter, and the occasional tick of his jaw as he chewed on his gum. "You hungry, honey? Wanna get some dinner?" He peered over at her as they stopped at a red light, pointing at the diner sign down the road.

"Sure, baby, I'll get a milkshake. I ate a little." Y/n shrugged at him. "A milkshake?" Elvis exclaimed, rolling his eyes slightly as the light turned green. "Baby, we are gonna have a feast!" Elvis spoke, pulling into the parking lot of the diner, y/n letting out a giggle as he pulled the key out the ignition. 

Y/n got out the car and Elvis grabbed onto her hand as they walked through the doors of the diner, Elvis walking her to a booth in the back as a waitress walked up to them, handing them menus, Elvis denying them and Elvis immediately ordering a bunch of food as y/n stared at him wide eyed, seeming as if he was ordering two of everything from the menu. 

"Elvis, I can't eat that much." She whispered to him as he shrugged. "And I ain't gonna force you to, I just wanna take care of you, Honey." He spoke to her, a smile creeping onto y/n's lips. "Now, do you wanna tell me what happened back at the house?" Elvis asked her, stroking her hand from across the table. 

"Oh, you know my parents and how they always give me grief for being with you. Talking about how you must've been with other girls and-" "Aw hell, Honey, you know that ain't true." He cut her off, squeezing her hand. "I know, baby, I told them how we always talked. They said if I go with you, not to go home." Y/n mumbled as the waitress slowly placed food on their table, y/n muttering a soft "Thank you."

"My sweet girl, you can stay with me as long as you want. I'll always take care of you." Elvis reassured as y/n nodded at him with a smile, taking a fry and taking a small bite. As they ate as much as they could, they spoke about the tour and the label at RCA that the colonel offered, making jokes in between some of the serious conversations. They stayed in that diner, long after they had eaten, still taking sips of what ever they had left of their milkshakes and colas, they were just happy to be in each others presence again. 

"My apologies, but we are closing up for the night" The waitress spoke, eyeing them both. Elvis pulled out his wallet, placing a wad of cash on the table before they both got up, Elvis opening the door for her as they went back to the car.

"My girl, do you wanna go anywhere else?" Elvis asked her, turning on the engine of his car. Y/n shook her head and smiled at him knowing he must've been tired. Elvis gave her a small nod before he began driving to his house, the comfortable silence filling the air as y/n watched the lights of the town zoom past until he reached his house.

Elvis got out of the car and ran to the passenger door, opening it before y/n could, letting her out before he grabbed onto his bags, walking up the stairs of his porch, one of the lights still on in the house as he opened the door. "Booby, is that you?" Gladys, his mother called out from the dining room. 

"Yeah, mama, I'm home." He responded, dropping the bags to the floor. "Oh, Elvis!" Gladys cried out as she embraced him tight in her arms, Vernon standing up from the dining table, Gladys smashing his cheeks in her hands as Vernon greeted y/n with a small hug. "When did you get to Memphis?" Gladys asked as Elvis pulled away from her and hugged his father.

"Just now, I picked y/n up on the way home." Elvis responded, winking at y/n as Gladys smiled at her. "Are you staying tonight, honey?" She asked y/n who opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by Elvis. "She is, mama. She is staying as long as she wants." He spoke as he grabbed onto y/n's hand. "That's wonderful, we love having you around." Gladys smiled, also pinching at y/n's cheek as Elvis shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

"Thank you, Gladys." Y/n smiled at her with a soft nod. "Oh, are the two of you hungry? I am happy to make the two of you anything" Gladys spoke, pointing to the kitchen as y/n peered at the time, almost going onto midnight. 

"No, mama, I think we just might head up to bed, I'm exhausted." Elvis fake yawned, his free hand covering his mouth as y/n furrowed her brows at him. "Okay, Booby. You two get some rest now." Gladys kissed Elvis cheek as he grabbed his bags, both him and Y/n walking upstairs to his room.

Once the door was shut and Elvis put his bag down, he pressed y/n against his door, his lips crashing against hers, y/n's fingers tangling into his hair as his lips made his way to kiss and bite at her neck, y/n letting out a soft moan of his name, her hands moving to brush off his coat, revealing the lace shirt underneath it.

"I need you so bad." He mumbled against her skin, pressing his growing bulge into her leg as he tried to get closer to her. His hands pulled off her cardigan before he fiddled with the zipper of her dress on her back, pulling it down and watching it fall to the floor, staring at her with his mouth open as he took in her white lingerie, breathing heavy and quick as he felt himself twitch in his pants. "Is this for me?" He panted, his finger tracing her bra strap and the lace. 

"I picked it out just for you." She pouted at him before he pulled his shirt off, y/n undoing his belt and zipper of his pants as he kicked them off, y/n pushing him down onto the bed, his head resting on his soft pillows as she straddled him. She leaned down, pressing her lips to his in desperation as his hands gripped onto her hips, causing her to grind onto him softly.

Elvis groaned into her mouth before he bit at her lip slightly as she pulled her lips from him, her hands moving to undo her bra, throwing it onto the floor, Elvis moving his hands from her hips to her breasts, his thumbs stroking over her pebbled nipples. "Let me suck on them, sweet girl." He whispered, y/n leaning down, his mouth finding her left nipple.

He flattened his tongue against it before giving it a soft flick, y/n letting out a whimper as his hand on her other boob pinched and stroked her nipple, stimulating them both as she ran her hands through his hair, tilting her head back softly in pleasure. Elvis moved to her other nipple, the one he just sucked now being pinched.

"Elvis." She breathed out, pulling away from him as he whined, his fingers now hooking at the waistband of her panties before he felt her wetness with his index finger, bringing it up to her clit and rubbing circles, her hips bucking against her finger, causing her to grind against him again.

"So wet for me. Is this what I was missing while I was gone?" He mumbled, his mouth parting as she continued to grind against him. "I've been so wet for you, Elvis. I always touched myself to the thought of you. Of your cock." She moaned out, her hands going behind her to grip onto his thighs as he bucked up slightly, his eyes rolling back slightly to the thought of her touching herself.

He felt like his skin was on fire, every touch of hers feeling like a shockwave, the sting of his release getting closer from grinding like a horny teenager, his cock twitching almost constantly in his boxers as she bucked her hips against him. But he couldn't stop it even if he wanted to. He let out a loud growl as he stopped rubbing her clit, shooting long ropes against himself, a wet patch of white seeping through the material as he bucked his hips up, eyes rolling back into his skull, his head falling back against the pillow as he panted at every rope of cum leaving his body.

Y/n froze on top of him as he groaned out, looking down to see a wet patch forming in his boxers before looking at his dazed face, a pink flush creeping up his cheeks. "Did you just-?" She breathed out, watching as he blinked up at her.

"I-I-I'm so sor-ry, Honey. It just f-felt too good, I couldn't stop it." Elvis rambled, embarrassment flushing his cheeks, his hand covering his eyes as she leaned down and pecked his lips. "Baby, its okay, it's a compliment." She giggled, kissing him once again. "I-I just- I-I-, Give me a few minutes a-and I'll get it back u-up, I promise." He stuttered as y/n moved down his body, pulling down his stained boxers.

"Let's get you cleaned up." Y/n smirked, lapping up the cum that had traveled down his thigh from the force of his orgasm. Elvis watched her with wide eyes, watching her as she licked everywhere but his cock. He felt himself twitch again as she licked a stripe up his cock, moaning at his taste, her tongue catching at his tip of his once again hardening cock. She took as much of him in her mouth as she could fit, cleaning him off as best as she could.

Elvis shuddered, fisting a hand into her hair and pulling her off him. "Come on baby, let me fuck you now." He muttered, flipping her over, his fingers hooking her panting and ripping them off her, causing her to let out a loud gasp. "Elvis! Those were new!" Y/n scolded, leaning up on her elbows as he threw the torn garment behind his shoulder. "I'll buy you new ones." He shrugged, stroking at himself before lining himself up with her.

He let himself go, looking at her glistening pussy in the dim lighting of his room. He leaned down, licking at her slit as she let out a moan, his tongue flicking over her clit, Elvis letting out a whimper at her sweetness. "Elvis, please, I won't last." Y/n whined, bucking up into his face.

He wanted to get her as close as possible, knowing he wouldn't last either due to his sensitivity from his first orgasm. He slipped two fingers inside her, lightly thrusting them in and out of her. "Still so tight for me. Your fingers are too little, huh?" Elvis hummed against her, y/n letting out a cry as he hit the sweet spot inside her. "Nothing compares to you." She cried, pulling at the roots of his hair.

"Please, Elvis." She whimpered, her head thrashing slightly. "Please what?" He teased with another lick at her clit. "Please fuck me! I need you so bad!" She huffed, Elvis slowly pulling away. "Since you asked so nicely." He smirked, slowly pushing his cock into her.

His head fell onto her chest at the feeling of her, let out a breath of air as she bucked her hips up to take him fully.  He maintains a slow rhythm, although his thrusts are deeper and harder, he hushes her when she moans a little too loudly, his pubic bone continuing to hit her clit as he teases his middle and ring finger past her lips, tasting herself on his skin as she sucked on them, her tongue circling around them like she would if she was sucking his cock, as they muffled her moans.

Elvis let out a loud groan, his fingers leaving her mouth and gripping onto his headboard of his bed for leverage, quickening his pace. "I ain't ever gonna leave you alone again, gonna bring you where ever I go." Elvis groaned out, he never wanted to leave her again. He missed her and her pussy too much.

Y/n bit onto his wrist that was next her head on the pillow to stifle whatever noise came out of her. "Oh, my fucking god." She mumbled against his skin of his arm as he moved his hand from the bedhead and played with her clit. "My baby likes it like this, huh?" He growled as she nodded her head with a small hum, his body convulsing as she squeezed around him.

Y/n bucks her hips up to meet his thrusts, Elvis letting out a long moan. Y/n sped up her bucks to get Elvis to move faster, which he does, the headboard slightly tapping the wall as he thrusts faster, slight creaking of the bed mixing into the sounds of their moans. Y/n felt the fire raging in her belly as he hit her g spot with every thrust into her, his own hips beginning to stutter.

"I'm so close, baby." She breathed out, Elvis nodding slightly, his forehead falling against hers. "I can't hold it much longer." He mumbled, kissing her lips, hair now damp with sweat. "I wanna feel you cum in me, Make me yours." She moaned out, letting go as her walls fluttered around him, nails digging into his back, his thrusts becoming uneven as he tethered over the edge, giving her a few more thrusts before stilling inside her.

He shot whatever he had left inside of him, warmth filling her up as they both moaned each others name, Elvis collapsing just beside her as they both panted, his hand moving the hair from her face, pecking at her lips. 

"I'm so sorry for finishing so soon. I really wanted it to last. It's just been too long." Elvis murmured, his thumb caressing her cheekbone as his eyes flickered, taking in her face. "Baby, it's okay. I like to take care of you, you know that." Y/n reassured with another peck to his lips. "I know, I promise next time I'll last longer." He yawned, snuggling closer to her for warmth as she leaned over to turn off the lamp, him still inside her. 

"I love you, Elvis." She giggled, working the blanket up so it covered them, Elvis letting out a soft hum. "I love you too, my sweet girl." He mumbled before a soft snore escaped him. Y/n ran her fingers through his hair, working out any small knots while trying not wake him before she, herself was heavy lidded.

[taakosleftshoe]

Nanofather shit. Episode 39 spoilers.

So, to start- I seem to have been right about The Nanofather and the way he manifests. He seems to be tapped in to all the hardlight technology, and some of the electronic tech, throughout Steeplechase.

We've seen him manifest in-game within Geltfrimpen and the arcade machine. He's claimed to have manifested in Hard Doug and Grampy. And, at the start of 35 the silence where he would be is replaced by Orwell, being thrown in media-res. He can communicate through hardlight, that's established.

And Krystal has had a rather mysterious opening these past few episodes. First she was calling her mom, then panicked when she disappeared. Then Randy said he was filling in while Krystal was on vacation. Then, Krystal returns suddenly much more forgiving and slightly off, even distorting her usual background music. But in episode 39, The Nanofather opens.

A lot of us had been speculating that Krystal had been replaced with hardlight. And that intro pretty much confirms that. The Nanofather was talking to us through her- and maybe the world of Steeplechase at large.

Back to the revelations in the latest episode:

The Nanofather is the uploaded consciousness of Carmine Denton, to put it simply. Before Carmine's death, he found out he would die, so he took everything he knew, had written, everything that made him *him* and uploaded it to the database, the system, of Dentonic. His entire being was property of the company, him continuing to run it. They would consult him, flip the switch to ask what Carmine would do. That was until hardlight came about, and he expressed concerns about it, and the Dentons cast him off.

But what I did not understand, is why when Emerich brought out Scott Boldflex, The Nanofather had such a hostile reaction. After all, he is connected to hardlight, he even told Emerich how much he admired his work. But then I remembered: Emerich didn't make Scott. Hank Hart did.

The whole thing about hardlight going wrong- the point at which it became overkill for them, and for The Nanofather, was when it was used to replace real people. There is something fundamentally more complicated about them. Hardlight Gravel, for instance, was able to kill. One of the foundational rules of hardlight, as Emerich says, is that they are not able to harm people. This one is different. When Emerich asks Eustace, who was in standby mode at the Prize Palace Pantry, if he heard anything, he explains that he didn't, which is what makes it so unusual.

I think that something about this more advanced hardlight technology deactivates older hardlight tech. Like, this was intentional- Hank & the Dentons had to make sure other hardlight constructs wouldn't detect the commotion to try and stop it, so why not use tech that just cancels them out?

And I think this is why The Nanofather reacted so angrily to Scott. They're like incompatible systems, to borrow a metaphor my friend made.

The Nanofather manifests as a hardlight projection within the rocket. It seems that refractors in the ship create it, rather than having an actual prism. When Emerich studies it, the hardware is different and outdated. But the software is highly advanced. The code is based heavily off the earliest days of hardlight. "Who created this?" Emerich asks. "We all did!" the Nanofather replies. "All the hardlight constructs, working with my occasional nudges." He says the hardlight creations are all talking.

He has been outcast. He's actively being targeted by the Dentons. Why would they want him to have access to the technolgy they have? They want to sever him from it, protect their territory. They do this by slowly replacing things with this newer hardlight tech.

Maybe it starts out as just a test run, with Scott Boldflex. Then the Gallspire. Why else would they spend that much money to replace the heart of Steeplechase with an exact replica? To ward off Carmine. We know The Nanofather has been weakening, and maybe this is why. By killing his principles, replacing the spirit of Steeplechase with things that are physically against the technology he is made of, they're killing him.

[lilac-hecox]

Hello! I love your twin au! I was wondering if I could get some Daniel/Ian with some pining Anthony/one sided Ianthony on the side? The ending is all up to you!

Ian/Daniel + (one sided Ian/Anthony) - Twins

--

Anthony wasn’t jealous. He wasn’t. Anyone on Earth would be weirded out by the fact that their identical twin brother was suddenly dating their best friend. The best friend Anthony has had for years and grew up alongside Anthony and his identical twin Daniel. The best friend that previously spent all his time with Anthony and now spent the majority of the time with Daniel, leaving Anthony feeling like a footnote in his own life. Ian was his best friend. He wasn’t jealous. He was bothered. He missed his best friend. But he wasn’t jealous.

Anthony wakes up late one Saturday afternoon and pads sleepily out into the living room, intent on heading into the kitchen and making himself a bowl of cereal. Instead, he finds Ian and Daniel sitting together on the couch, Daniel’s hand open along Ian’s jaw, the two of them kissing like the world was about to end.

“Come on!” Anthony says, his voice raised, “I just got up.”

The two of them jerk apart, and Ian blinks wide blue eyes at Anthony. His eyes look darker, hazier, and something about them makes Anthony want to shiver. He’s got a flush over his cheeks, pink and stupid.

Daniel turns to look at Anthony, an eyebrow raised and his lips red and shiny.

“Good morning to you too,” he says coolly.

“Can you two please stop acting like animals for, like, two seconds?” Anthony asks, “I lost my damn appetite now.”

Ian clears his throat, “I, uh, actually did come over to hang out with you. You were sleeping so- “

“So, you decided to make out with Daniel in the meantime,” Anthony says, a little bitterly. He crosses his arms across his chest. He’s being childish, he knows, but he can’t stop. What the hell did Ian see in Daniel anyway? Daniel was pretentious. He liked to read, acted like he was too good to watch Pokémon with Ian and Anthony or play Halo or Call of Duty like they used to. He listened to weird music; he wasn’t funny at all. Anthony couldn’t see why Ian liked him as a friend, let alone anything more than that.

When Anthony had first started noticing Daniel flirting with Ian, he hadn’t been worried. Ian was as straight as they come, plus, Ian would never date someone who looked exactly like his best friend. Surely, it would be too weird for him to kiss someone that looked identical to Anthony.

Apparently, he was wrong.

“Stop being a jealous bitch,” Daniel says, rolling his eyes. “Ian really did come to see you. Is it my fault if I capitalize on how lazy you are?”

Daniel furthers his point by linking his and Ian’s hands together, intertwining their fingers.

Anthony sighs, “Whatever. I’ll be in my room.”

He’s aware he’s acting petty, but Anthony can’t help but slam the door shut behind him. Thank God he and Daniel had separate bedrooms. Anthony needed space away from his twin. People always asked him if he and Daniel were best friends, or they assumed that it would be that way, but most of the time Anthony was desperate for space from his twin brother. They used to be close when they were younger. Anthony, painfully shy, and Daniel, more outgoing, it was easy to follow Daniel’s lead and feel confident that someone always had Anthony’s back.

Somewhere around middle school, their dynamic began to change. Daniel started liking new stuff, started making a lot of friends. He asked their mom if she could request that their middle school put them in separate sixth grade classes because Daniel ‘wanted a chance to grow outside of always being with Anthony’. At first, Anthony was hurt, but it was for the best in the long run because being in that other sixth grade class meant that Anthony got to meet Ian, his best friend.

Except now Daniel was trying to take him too.

There’s a knock on the door and Anthony huffs.

One second, two, then a quiet, “Anthony?”

“Yeah, you can come in, Ian.”

The door opens and Ian is there, looking sheepishly at the carpeted floor of Anthony’s bedroom. Ian shuts the door behind him which thank God means that he and Daniel have stopped sucking face long enough for Ian to come talk to him.

“Look,” Ian says, “I’m sorry. I know you don’t like seeing me with him and-“

“I don’t care what you do,” Anthony says, turning away from Ian and to his computer. He turns on the monitor, intent on fucking around the Smosh website and ignoring Ian.

Ian sighs from behind him and Anthony hears him pad over to the bed.

“You sure? You really looked like you cared out there.”

Anthony rolls his eyes and spins in his chair, so he is facing Ian.

“Fine, I do care. It’s weird, Ian! It’s weird because he looks just like me! He’s, my brother! He’s a guy! You barely ever want to hang out with me anymore, you would rather spend all your time with my dumb ass brother and you’re my best friend, and I met you first! I’m the whole reason Daniel even knows who you are!”

Anthony spills his guts, all the thoughts he has been keeping pent up, he lets them go on Ian.

Ian blinks, his mouth frowns. Ian shrugs, “I don’t know what to say.”

“Why do you even like him?”

Ian’s eyes show traces of hurt and Anthony ignores that, ignores how it hurts him in exchange.

“I don’t know! He’s smart, and he’s cool, he knows all this shit I’ve never heard of. He makes me laugh...he makes me happy…” Ian says weakly.

Anthony feels like he’s going to throw up, but he can’t (or won’t) pinpoint exactly why.

“Of all the guys to go homo for, you pick my brother…”

Ian is quiet, he smooths out Anthony’s bedspread under him with his palms.

“I’m sorry,” Ian says, and he sounds like he means it.

Guilt pangs through Anthony. God damn, Ian. God damn him and his stupid blue eyes, and his idiotic sad face, and the way that Daniel makes him fucking happy.

Anthony sighs, “I just…guess I’ll have to get used to it or…whatever…” he says weakly.

Ian eyes him like he’s not quite sure how to take that.

“Can you make, like, more of an effort to still hang out with me too or whatever?” Anthony asks, his face flushing at how he’s asking for more time with Ian, scared that it’s the one thing Ian won’t be able to give him.

Ian though, he smiles, and he nods.

“Yeah, man. I have to go and do my daily conditioning run, but I wanted to know if you wanted to walk to the park later and hang out? Fuck around, you know?”

“Just you and me?” Anthony asks hesitantly.

“Yeah, dude,” Ian says with his crooked little smile.

Anthony nods, “Sounds good. Have fun at your run or whatever, don’t get hit by a car.”

Ian laughs, he stands and nods at Anthony, “See you in a bit, dude.”

Anthony nods back, watching Ian go. “See you.”

He ignores how he knows that Ian is going to say goodbye to Daniel before he leaves, that he’ll probably lean up and kiss him, that Daniel will wrap his hands that look just like Anthony’s, around Ian’s waist and kiss him like he needs Ian to breathe.

Maybe he and Daniel really are the same.

Then, Ian is gone, and Daniel is in Anthony’s doorway.

“Get lost,” Anthony mumbles.

“Hey, don’t get pissy at me because you’re jealous.”

Anthony flushes. “I’m not jealous. I’ve had a girlfriend before you did, and my first kiss.”

Daniel rolls his eyes, the same dark brown as Anthony’s. He hates it. It’s like looking in the mirror and hating his reflection.

“I’m talking about you being jealous because it is Ian.”

Anthony feels his cheeks go pink.

“I just don’t like seeing you make out with my best friend.”

Daniel leans against the doorframe. They are nearly identical, but Daniel has hit a minor growth spurt and he’s gained about one inch in height over Anthony. Anthony hates that too.

“And is that because you wish it was you, he was making out with?”

 Anthony flushes and crinkles his nose, “Stop,” he says flatly. He doesn’t even want Daniel to broach this topic, “get the hell out of my room.”

“I’m serious. Don’t be fucking jealous because you didn’t have the balls to make a move like I did,” Daniel says, his voice firm, hurtful in the way that only a sibling can be.

Anthony remembers reading something, some stupid thing online that talked about how a sibling knows you better than anyone and because of that, they can hurt you more than anyone else on this planet. He feels that in this moment. He can practically feel the knife leave Daniel’s hand and enter Anthony’s back.

“Shut the fuck up,” Anthony says, louder, standing from his chair.

Daniel watches him with dark eyes, a firm line across his mouth.

“I like Ian, a lot. He likes me. I’m not going to stop seeing him because you fucked up and missed your chance.”

“Get the fuck out, I said!” Anthony shouts at his twin.

Daniel, he relents. He takes a step back, far enough for Anthony to be able to slam the door in his face. He knows the conversation is only over for now. He knows he can’t avoid Daniel when they share a house, a school, when they both have an unhealthy attachment to the same dumb ass, blue-eyed, brown-haired boy.

Anthony goes to his bed and flops down on to the mattress, ignoring the pain in his heart and the hunger in his stomach. He presses his face into his bed, and distantly, like an echo, he can still smell Ian there.

[ggomos-maribat]

Aime Trent

Jon crashed on the space on the couch, letting out a dragged out groan. Marinette shifted her legs, stretching them out as she sat at the foot of the sofa. She poked the side of his head. "What's up?"

"I got terrorized." Jon shuddered. "They won't stop talking about it."

Damian uninterestedly looked up from his sketchbook.

"Who won't stop talking about what?" Marinette set down her chin on top of folded arms.

"Kon and Aunt Kara and Mom!" Jon lamented. "Do you know that anonymous singer who got popular recently? They keep playing her songs at home! I told them it's not my type of music but nooo they just had to force me to listen!"

"Is that why you flew all the way over here?" Marinette snorted out a chuckle. "Who's this singer anyway?"

"Dunno. Amy Whatshername or something."

"Aime Trent," said Damian firmly, stopping in the middle of his sketch. His gaze fell on Jon, shining with disapproval. "Her name is Aime Trent."

Jon's eyes went wide. "You know her?!"

"Obviously. It is evident that she pours her heart and dedication into the songs she composes and she delivers her own lyrics well with her heavenly voice," Damian said, "Not to mention, she's talented in playing instruments and the messages she puts into her songs are poetic and meaningful."

"You listen to her?!" Jon screeched. Even Marinette seemed taken aback.

"And what if I do?"

"I didn't know you like that genre."

"It's not my usual style, but her songs are too beautiful to be ignored." Damian crossed his arms indignantly. "In fact, more people should know about her."

"A lot of people already do." To prove his point, Jon took his phone out and showed them his Twitter feed filled with Aime Trent hashtags. "See? She's trending. They love her songs."

"That is not surprising. She deserves all the recognition she can get." Damian nodded.

Meanwhile, Jon eyed Marinette. "What about you? Don't tell me you're a crazy fan too."

She raised her arms defensively. "I haven't heard of her that much. I've only listened to a few songs."

Damian scoffed. "You both should learn to appreciate her masterpieces."

"Wait, but no one knows who she actually is, right?" Jon leaned towards Damian and the latter pushed his face away. "You didn't try looking for her? Oooh, maybe we can earn some money if we—"

"I am not breaching the anonymity she's worked hard to maintain," Damian cut him off. "Also, my brothers have tried and they have repeatedly complained that she's extremely difficult to track down."

Jon blew a raspberry. "No fun."

---

Marinette set the palette aside, careful not to spill any paint on the floor. She and Damian were working on their joint project for school: an oil painting with themes from their English literature class. They were taking a break, so she decided to get her notebook out to do some writing.

"What rhymes with 'all'?" She tapped her pencil against her lip.

"Tall? Small? Call?" Damian examined their paintbrushes for any bending. "Todd is better at flowery words than I am."

"I'll make a placeholder first," she scribbled on the page.

"What are you writing?"

"Hmm . . . a poem."

He granted her silence so she could focus while he washed their materials. She was bent over on her tiny notebook, tongue sticking out slightly in concentration. But she perked up when she heard him humming softly.

'Fireflower'. Third song of the first album. She recognized Aime Trent's song instantly.

"Marinette?" Damian called out suddenly.

"Yeah?"

"About Aime Trent . . . it is confirmed that she is from Paris, correct? Do you happen to know anything about her?"

She laughed. "There's still a lot of people in Paris. I don't know all of them. I can ask Luka later, though. Or Uncle Jagged. They probably know some insider stuff."

She looked up at Damian, who settled close beside her. "Do you actually want to know who she is? I heard she's making her official debut in a few months. Why not wait until then?"

He showed hesitance before answering: "I'm only curious for myself. I want to know more about her. If I do find out, I have no plans in divulging her identity to other people."

"Why, what do you like about her songs?"

"I've mentioned it before, but her voice is divine. It's unique, and she knows how to use her range in different dynamics," Damian listed off. "In Deep Wave, she uses breathy tones in the chorus but there is also her own background vocals towards the end. In contrast, she uses more powerful belts in Mythical City."

"I didn't know you knew so much about that." Marinette ducked her head, hiding her blush.

"I tend to research deeply about my interests. Get into the 'rabbit hole' as Drake called it," Damian said. "The instrumentations she uses in her songs are intriguing as well. According to one analysis I read, she used a traditional instrument in Blind, accompanied with modern samples. It is amazing to hear the sounds come together perfectly."

Marinette bit back a smile. His rambles were cute.

He wasn't finished. "And her lyricism. She weaves her words into a story to evoke vivid emotions. I believe that she references the former Paris situations in some of her songs."

"She—she does," Marinette stammered. "That's why she has a lot of Parisian fans."

"I will definitely come to her debut concert. Even if it's the last thing I do."

Her chest warmed at the thought.

---

Damian was not having a good day.

He had accidentally fallen asleep before the ticketing release for the debut concert. All her siblings had bought their own tickets without including him (Drake had even reserved an entire row for himself and his friends). Even Jon lucked out on a good seat and proceeded to resell his ticket for a fortune to someone who wasn't him.

He had tried to look for resales, but most had already been sold (not to mention, he had gotten scammed in one of his attempts to buy a ticket). He just had to hope he could A: get a ticket for the second show or B: sneak into the venue.

He dragged his groggy self into the classroom and slouched on his seat, exhausted. Marinette bounded up to him.

"Got your ticket?" she chirped.

"No, I may have to kill someone to get one," he grumbled.

"Here." Marinette pulled out slips of paper from her pocket and placed it on his desk. He stared at it.

Two tickets to the Aime Trent concert.

He rubbed his eyes. "What . . . how? Are you not going yourself?"

"I already have my own ticket?" She smiled sheepishly. "From . . . myself?"

He shot up from his seat and wrapped her in a tight hug. "Thank you. I owe you my life."

"Why don't you look at the back of your tickets and return your favor that way?" She pointed to the tickets before scrambling away to her seat.

Damian flipped one of the tickets. At the back, there was a note: Go out with me after my concert?

A lightbulb flickered in his messy mind. 'I already have my own ticket from myself'. A sharp intake of breath graced his lips as he looked at Marinette, who was smiling shyly at him.

He tucked the tickets safely in his pocket, smiling back. He had a date to plan. 

Permanent Taglist: @tinybrie

Cross posted on AO3

[cyncerity]

i have no self control so i finished it today

here’s chapter 1 out of idfk! I vehemently refuse to plan things in advance beyond just various scenes I want to happen :D

I’m actually super excited for this one and really proud of it so I hope y’all like it as much as I do!

tw: parental neglect ig this is different from what I normally write

“Honestly, Wilbur, house arrest?!” His mother scolded him. Wilbur sighed and dropped his bags at the door, pushing up his glasses to rub his eyes, pointedly looking away from his mom. “I don’t hear from you in years and I suddenly get a random call that says you’re getting dumped at my house because you’ve been put under house arrest??” “I know, I’m sorry mum-“ “Were you just planning to drop off the face of the earth? Would you have just never come back here if you weren’t arrested? What were you arrested for? Why wouldn’t they just drop you off at your house? You’re an adult-“ “That’s pretty simple, I don’t have one.” “Wilbur!!”

Wilbur walked over to the couch and dropped himself on it, head in his hands. He could feel his mother’s eyes on him, staring and trying to take in how much he’d changed. He couldn’t blame her. He’d left when he was 18 to pursue music, and look at where that got him. Homeless, lonely, and arrested, the court ordered anklet digging uncomfortably into his skin at a measly 21 years old. He was a mess. An exhausted, hopeless mess.

He heard quiet footsteps as his mother came to sit next to him, and a warm arm laid over his shoulder. “You know I love you. I don’t care that you were arrested, or why you were, I really don’t. But…why didn’t you come home? I’ll always be here to help you, you know that, right? Did I…did I do something wrong?” “No!” Wilbur quickly said, head still in his hands. “No, you’re a wonderful mother, i’m just a terrible son. I..I don’t know why I didn’t come home, I’m sorry, but it’s not your fault.” His mother sighed and pulled him closer, and he relished in the comfortable silence. It had been so long since he had felt like anyone around him actually cared, and yet his mothers patience and love for him was seemingly endless, even now, even for a horrible fuck up son like him. He didn’t deserve her. If he was being honest with himself, that’s why he didn’t come back home to her when times got tough for him. Why should she have to deal with him? It wasn’t her fault that he turned out a wreck, she did the best she could as a single mother, even putting aside her passions while she put her whole focus into him.

Speaking of that, since he left, she certainly seemed to pick her interests back up, if the messy house was any indication. Or maybe messy wasn’t the right word, maybe so trashed and horder-like that it was hard to believe anyone actually lived here. Wilbur looked up from his hands to fully take in the mess that completely covered the main floor of the house. Walls were covered in taped up drawings of creatures of all kind, floors covered in similar scribbles and notes. There were some cabinets with small observation cases full of taxidermic bugs and what looked to be small…weapons? Saddles?

Well, her collection had definitely grown in the past few years.

“I see your hobby has been going well.” Wilbur said, trying to deflect the situation. Luckily for him, he knew his mother. And if there was anything that could distract her, it was asking her about her odd fascination with all things tiny. “Oh! Yeah, I forgot it’s been a while since you’ve been here. My collection had grown…a fair bit. I haven’t touched your room, though! It’s the same as it’s been, things have just been…messier.” She said, getting up to show him around. He chuckled softly as he watched her make her way around the room, carefully avoiding the piles and piles of documents scattered around the floor. She stopped at a wall of computers, pointing up at them. “I’m close, though. I have cameras set up all over the forest, and I don’t think they’ve noticed them…yet. They’re fast, but I think I have some arguable proof.”

His mother leaned over the keyboard, frantically searching for whatever new clip she had. Wilbur smiled. He couldn’t say he actually believed in any of it, despite what she had taught him growing up. Of course the idea was fun, but the older he got, the harder it was to suspend his disbelief that there may be tiny people living in the forest. How his mom kept that childlike faith in her beliefs despite the lack of proof for years and years he couldn’t know, but he was happy for her. She had something to put her heart into and believe in, and Wilbur had forgotten what that was like after music had proven to be a bust.

He snapped back to the screen as his mom made an excited noise and leaned back to point at the screen. “See! There!” Wilbur looked for a moment before taking a few very careful steps around her findings and towards the screen. It was a blurry freeze frame; one smaller brown and reddish bird, one small brown-ish spec, and a much larger black blur that seemed almost iridescent. A couple of birds and a bug, probably, the finch looking one in the lead and the large black bird and bug close behind. “Mom I’m sorry, but…what evidence am I supposed to be seeing in a bird chase?” “That’s a raven,” she pointed to the black bird, “that bird is most likely a common redpoll, and judging from the wing color and shape that’s probably a bee. But here’s the thing!” She swung back to Wilbur, an excited, manic look in her eye. And people wondered where he got his crazy from. Certainly wasn’t his father, he never knew the bastard. “The bee is out of the Ravens sight, so it isn’t chasing a food source.” She continued. “Ravens don’t go after other bird species, either, and there’s no reason a bee would chase a potential predator. But look here,” she pointed back to the screen and Wilbur leaned closer, the fuzz of the old tv brushing against his face. “you see it?”

Looking where she was pointing, there were a few thin brown straps on the bird, and a small blurry green and slightly yellow blob on its back. The raven had a spot on it where the black wasn’t as iridescent, where it looked like something was wrapped around it. It also had something on it’s back; a greyish blob with more hints of brown and black and also white, weirdly enough. And looking at the bee, it also looked like it was missing a few legs, and was built strangely, along with having something green on it. He looked back to his mom, who looked more proud of herself than he’d seen her be in years. He was sure everything on screen had a logical explanation, but who was he to break his poor mother’s heart?

“That’s great! That’s really, really amazing mom.” He said as she squealed and hugged him. “I knew you would think so!” she leaned back, hands still on his arms as she made eye contact with him and sighed. “Fuck, here I am rambling when you’ve still got settling in to do. Let’s get your bags and head upstairs, yeah? Your old room is waiting for you, and who knows how long it’s been since you slept in a bed, you impossible child.” She said, letting go and grabbing his two measly bags and guitar case. Wilbur rolled his eyes and took his guitar case from her, given that it was the heaviest. “Hey, I’m not impossible, I’m stubborn, and I get that from you, y’know.” He heard his mom mockingly repeat him and scoff from the top of the steps, and he laughed. God, he’d missed her.

~~~

“I swear to fucking god!” Phil yelled, storming his way through his castle, Techno walking quickly behind, struggling to keep pace. “I need him for one thing and he just fucking disappears! It’s a miracle I haven’t strangled that child with my bare hands.” He stopped momentarily to command more guards to triple check Tommy’s room, and Techno finally managed to catch up, panting slightly. “You know this isn’t unlike him, Phil. He likes to do his own thing, wonder where he gets that from.” “I get that he’s too much like me for his own good, but at least I was always able to take account of myself and get my shit done.” Phil responded with venom in his tone. “He’s irresponsible, he’s brash, he’s rude, I don’t know how he ended up like this or what I could have done better for him.” “I’d respond but I’m assuming that was rhetorical…” he muttered under his breath. “What was that, Techno?” “Nothing, your majesty.”

Phil continued his walk and ended up out of the palace, the sky above them turning a dark grey and a low rumble of thunder cracking through the silence. Phil, however, seemed undeterred, ending up by his stable, his trusty crow waiting for him. He pet the bird’s beak gestured to a few more guards. “Get Brian saddled, I’m heading out for a bit.” “Do you really think this is necessary?” “You forget, Techno, Tommy thinks he’s so smart, but I’m his father. He’s the teenager and I’m the adult; I’m always a step ahead.” He said, holding up his necklace. A chunky green emerald swung from a thin leather rope, identical to one that Tommy wore every day. “I thought that was to help Tommy with his magic?” “It is…mostly,” Phil said, dropping the necklace back down to his chest. “It has a lot of magic stored in it, Tommy’s does, too. His is a chip off from mine, after all. In a pinch, though, it can be used to track. As long as Tommy is wearing his, I can get him to me. If I was truly in a desperate situation, I could call Tommy to me right now. But as it stands, that takes far too much of the necklace’s power, and he just needs to learn a lesson about refusing his duties and disobeying his father.” “It’s a magic session, Phil, he practices all the time, it can’t be that much of a deal. Besides, there’s a storm coming, this isn’t a good idea.” “He’s been blowing them off for 2 months,” Phil said, straddling his bird, Brian cooing softly. “And he knows that I’m rarely ever free for them, he needs to take this more seriously if he’s going to lead. Besides, if he’s still not home before the storm starts, that’s all the more reason to find him before he lets himself get hurt.”

“Phil-“ “I’ll be ok, I promise, mate.” Phil said, eyes softening as he leaned down to his right hand man. “I’ve never lied to you before have I?” “…no, sir.” Techno said, defeated. “Have a safe flight, I’ll see you home soon. If you don’t come back with Tommy by nightfall I’m coming to find you myself.” “Relax, I‘ll be fine. I run this goddamn forest, remember?” And with that, Phil was off, Brian taking off like a shot off the stable’s branch.

Techno couldn’t help the sinking feeling in his gut as he watched Phil shrink into the distance.

~~~

Wilbur was settling in as well as he thought he would be. One thing he’d grown to hate in his short amount of time at his old house was his court ordered punishment. Other than the ankle monitor, he had to do “community service.” Of course, the court hadn’t known at the time that there was literally no community to service for miles and miles at his house, and he didn’t have a license anymore (you do donuts on a private frozen lake one time) (ok maybe 6 but that guy was an asshole). So his “community service” consisted of cleaning up the forest; turns out that the one and only road near the forest was a pretty popular spot for passerby’s to toss trash. Most of his afternoons were spent along the side of a mostly undisturbed road that had way more trash that it logically should for how new the road seemed; he doubted anyone other than the jail car he’d been driven down in had been on the road for months.

Still, he donned the eye-sore yellow “hey! i’ve been to jail and i’m serving my sentence to community!” vest and grabbed a beanie and fingerless gloves. It was spring, but under all the overhang of the trees he knew it’d feel cooler than it was, which he accounted for when he put on a yellow flannel sweater and thick slightly dirty and ripped jeans, ones he wouldn’t mind getting dirty since he was going to be kneeling on the dirt. One step onto his porch told him it was also definitely gonna storm, the sky growing dark and that spring-time smell of rain filling his senses. He decided to lace up heavy steel toed and already worn and muddied work boots and threw a thick grey hooded t-shirt on for good measure under the vest in case it (or more like when it) rained. He wished he had better than a simple hood, but he didn’t know where the umbrellas were. He’d love to ask his mother, but she had already head out that morning to double check that her cameras wouldn’t be damaged by the rain.

He hoped she just got out before the storm.

~~~

Phil flew faster as the wind started to pick up and the thunder grew louder. Brian was sturdy, and above all else fast, but Phil knew his bird’s limits. He was getting tired, and Phil wasn’t any closer to Tommy somehow. He wished his stupid crystal could work better, but it was really a game of hot or cold until he got close enough to Tommy that the shard gave him some magic feeling that his son was close by and could lead him from there. It was stupid and time consuming, but he couldn’t risk just calling Tommy to him. Turns out he probably should have listened to Techno; this storm was shaping up to be a big one, and he knew he’d need the extra magic his necklace provided in order to repair whatever damage the rain caused to his forest.

He ended up near the tar strip through the middle of his forest (the damn humans put it there years ago, and though their cursed machines came through the forest sometimes, those instances were few and far between, thankfully)(still, fuck those humans). He may hate it, but it ran through the forest somewhat evenly, so he’d be able to hopefully sense at least what side of it Tommy was on if he just went down the middle.

The storm was getting heavier, but he couldn’t give up now. There was no sign of Tommy. Phil realized at some point that his concern had shifted from “i have to teach him a lesson about wasting my time” to “oh god where is my son is he ok.” He wasn’t surprised though, really. He did truly, really care about his son, even if Tommy didn’t think so. If he had all the time in the world, he’d spend it with him, he would. But he can’t. He’d wanted to be the one to teach Tom to read, to watch his first steps, to see him grow into the young man he was now. But he hadn’t. Tommy had been raised by royal staff who’s names Phil had never cared to know. He’d been there to hear Tommy’s first word, though, but he wished it would have been under better circumstances.

It had been “Tech,” and he’d said it while witnessing one of the most brutal and gut-wrenching arguments he’d ever had with Technoblade, out of the few they’ve fought. He’d learned that Techno was skipping his guard duties in secret to spend time with Tommy. And he’d been outraged, for some reason. He’d burst into a room where Techno was telling a harmless tale to a baby Tommy and screamed at him for neglecting his duty and fooling off instead. Tommy had people to be there for him, and Phil had never cleared Techno to be one of them. Techno argued that Tommy needed someone who cared about him, not just people who were rewarded for giving him food and attention. He needed people who wanted him, and Phil clearly didn’t. It’d stung like a knife to the chest at the time, but he knew where Techno was coming from now.

The fight grew worse and worse for minutes before he’d heard the desperation in Tommy’s infant babble. They were silenced as tears rolled down his chubby infant cheeks when he realized someone who he cared about was so upset, calling out to the only person who’d ever shown him voluntary affection. And it hadn’t been Phil. It wasn’t his father, it was his father’s guard and friend. Even now, though Tommy didn’t associate with Techno as much anymore since he was always with Phil, Tommy loved Techno more than Phil. And Phil would never resent Techno for that. He trusted Techno with his life, and if Tommy had to look up to someone other than Phil, he was glad it was his most trusted confidant, but he couldn’t stop it from hurting.

His kingdom thrived, his people were happy, and his son hated him. It was just a fact of his life, at this point. Even when Phil did his best to reconnect with Tommy when he was younger, when he was finally becoming his own person, it all went downhill. They’d been the closest they’d ever been for those few years, but it all plummeted in one conversation, and Tommy never saw him the same again after that.

All he could hope is that someday, when Tommy is king, he’ll see how hard it is, and know that his dad did his best to keep him safe and happy.

~~~

Wilbur sighed as he pulled his hood farther over his head to keep his glasses from getting wet as rain started down. Yup, he’d been right. Definitely rain. Should’ve worn contacts. Damn, and he’d just started down the road, it’d be hours till he was done for the day. Still, he sighed and picked up packets of chips and broken beer bottles with his cold slippery metal trash-grabber-thing and shoved them into a garbage bag.

Unfortunately, things only got worse the longer he was out there. He’d made it fairly deep into the woods at that point, but the rain pounded onto him like hail and thunder roared around him. He just honest to god wanted to go home and sit with a cup of tea and listen to his mom ramble about whatever new thing she’d seen in woods. But lucky him, his ankle shackle tracked his movements. He was only allowed to be in the house and a little ways into the front or backyard during the day. During his torture hours (that’s what he liked to call his court ordered punishments), he was not allowed to be in the house. Instead, he had to remain on the road and somewhat into the woods for his designated amount of hours or else he’d get a couple of very stern police officers at the front door telling his mother that he was on thin ice and to do what he was ordered to unless he wanted jail time. He did not, thank you very much.

He flinched as lightning struck a tree a ways behind him. Holy shit, this was actually getting pretty bad. Was his mom still out here? Had she gone home when the rain started? God, he hoped so. But all he could do for now was pick shit up and wait it out.

It wouldn’t be that long till he got home.

~~~

Phil panted, barely able to breathe through his panic as he pushed Brian to go faster. Rain started to pound on him, but he didn’t care. He was becoming frenzied. Oh god, where was Tommy? Was he hurt? Was he back at the castle, having heard the thunder and realizing that it was stupid to be out on his own? Brian softly chittered beneath him, but he could barely process it. Phil had to find Tommy. He just had to. He couldn’t leave his little boy out here alone, cold, scared…

Phil yelped as Brian swerved out of his control, landing on a nearby tree branch that only somewhat shielded them from the storm. “Brian, wh-“ He heard a soft coo and only then felt minute quivering beneath him. He reached out a hand and felt his wings, which were shaking badly. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, buddy, you’re probably pretty tired, huh…” He said, getting off the crow and petting his head. Brian pressed his head lightly into Phil’s hand as a response, and Phil reached over to his saddle and pulled out some berries and a water pouch, holding them out in front of Brian. He immediately perked up and opened his beak a little bit, enough for Phil to drop the food and pour water in. Brian cooed and nestled down onto the branch a bit more. Phil sighed and sat down next to him; seemed like they wouldn’t be moving for a little while.

They sat in silence for a while, Phil listening to the raid patter violently on the leaves above him while some stray droplets broke through and struck where he sat. He tried to even his breathing and think with a level head, but to no avail. He tapped his foot anxiously with no other way to get his nervous energy out, pulling at some of the leaves on his wrists. If Techno were here, he’d tell him to stop, but as it was, Phil was left to sit with his own thoughts as the storm raged around him.

Until the worst happened.

He wasn’t sure why his mind hadn’t registered the thunder around him. Maybe he’d gotten so used to hearing it in the past few hours, maybe he just didn’t think enough of it to even process it. All he knew after the fact was that it had been so loud it made the forest around him shake and caused a violent thud in his chest, but he hadn’t heard the warning until it was too late.

The clap of lightning around him was deafening, and snapped him out of whatever anxious spell he was in. Brian practically screamed as the trunk and the branch they were sitting broke with a ear crunching snap and heat engulfed him for a moment. He felt petals burn as pain bloomed in him and felt the gust of wind as Brian lifted in the air to avoid being hit or burned, lurching his wings downwards to try and grab Phil. And as much as Phil loved Brian, he was fast, not agile.

No amount of speed could help Phil as Brian’s beak barely missed one of his remaining petals and Phil felt himself free fall towards his forest floor. Those seconds felt like a lifetime, some parts of him knowing that he could save himself if he called onto his magic, some parts reminiscing on would happen to his kingdom, his best friend, his son…

would Tommy miss him?

He closed his eyes as the muddied grass grew closer and closer. He wasn’t sure what he wanted his last thought to be, he wasn’t sure why he was worried about it, all he could do was accept his death, knowing that once he hit the cold ground the earth would reclaim him and he’d become part of the forest he’d worked so hard to lead.

Phil landed hard, but…it didn’t feel like the cold ground he was expecting. It was damp, sure, but…warm. He heard Brian screech, but shockingly heard a different noise in response. He heard a gasp from a voice he’d never heard. It was a woman, he thought, but he couldn’t focus in on anything she said after or what was going on. He was fading out quickly, but he was alive, for now at least. The ground below him moved, the warmth starting to surround him, and the rain stopped hitting him. He should have been more concerned about what was going on, but he couldn’t find it in himself to stay awake anymore.

As he faded out of consciousness, he didn’t notice the lack of the weight that normally hung from his neck.

~~~

Logically, Kristin knew she should have gotten out of the storm before it got this bad. But she’d never really been on logic’s side, why start now?

She had started to run home when the thunder got worse, though.

Her rain boots pounded heavily on the road as she sprinted back to her house. Jeez, she hoped Wilbur’s officers could cut him a break with this one. She’d lived in this forest for over a decade and this was the worst storm she’d seen in a long, long while. Wilbur was never usually one to take instructions too seriously, so she hoped he’d just given up on the minimum hours and fucked off to go home. But she knew he also didn’t want to be in jail in case the officers were as heartless as she was lead to believe, so she couldn’t really be sure.

She practically jumped out of her skin as lightning hit a tree beside her, the leaves immediately starting to burn as bits of the top broke away and fell to the forest floor. It was getting dangerous out here, she needed to go-

And she would have if a bird hadn’t screamed.

God damn her good hearted nature, it was going to get her killed one of these days.

She ran over to the tree in time to see the bird lunging down towards a broken branch, trying to reach out to somethi-

Holy fuck.

Kristin’s eyes widened as she saw something- no, someone- falling, and falling fast. Someone green, though accented with yellow and a couple white petals, though most of what she could assume were longer ones had now been burnt back.

Holy shit, it was one of them.

Kristin ran faster and practically threw herself to the ground to catch them, the little person falling into her hands just in time. Holy shit, it was a little person. Here, in her hands, was a little man. She could barely breathe as she held him closer, taking in every detail she could. They seemed to be around her age, and they looked like a guy, but who knows how their gender roles worked in their role. God, who knew how anything worked! She had so much to ask! She could barely believe it, she’d finally done it! She got one!

She was snapped out of her thoughts as the bird screamed again, frantically flapping its wings and hopping towards her. She at first assumed it had just been hunting the little guy in her hands as a food source, but she then took notice of the green leaf-made saddle on its back. Ah, so the bird belonged to the green guy, it seemed like she’d been right in her hypothesis that the tiny people rode them to get around. It hobbled closer, and her thoughts were cut off as she gasped.

She hadn’t fully realized the damage to the bird; a few of the feathers were damaged on one side, especially on it’s wing, and it’s feet were swollen, probably from the heat. Along with that, it was shaking violently and trying valiantly to get back to its rider.

She cooed as she gently picked it up with one hand, the other still holding the small guy. It tried to fight, but in its exhaustion she guessed that it couldn’t do much. “It’s ok, little birdy, I won’t hurt you,” she cooed, closing her hand around the tiny and holding him against her chest under her coat to keep him dry. He hadn’t made a move, so she could only assume he’d fainted on impact, if he even could faint. To be honest, she wasn’t even sure if he was alive, but the fact that the crow was trying to hard to get back to him gave her hope. “We’re gonna go back to my house and fix you both up.” She slowly stood, and cringed when she realized her entire front was absolutely caked in mud, but she shrugged it off.

After all, an extra load of laundry and a shower were little to pay to see her life’s dedication paid off.

She couldn’t wait to show Wilbur.

~~~

“Phil? I’m home!” Tommy yelled. Walking into the entryway of the palace he lived in, completely drenched. He hadn’t meant to be out this long, he’s just gotten so caught up with his friends that he hasn’t realized time had passed. It was hard to tell when night fell when the entire sky was dark with a storm.

He’d only gone out to help Tubbo deliver some honey, but he and Ranboo had started talking and Tubbo had more deliveries to make so Tommy and Ranboo went to the tree base and invited Tubbo to join them when he was done. Tommy would have loved to stay at Dream’s place, but in case his dad ever found out where he’d been wandering off to he wanted the Bog king to have plausible deniability. He had started showing Ranboo all the stuff Tubbo had given him after trading with boggins, and it had turned into a fun game of “I’ll give a completely batshit description for this and then you’ll tell me what it’s actually for.” One thing looked like a torture device but was used for cutting rougher letter, and another was just a hairbrush, which Ranboo was surprised Tommy had never heard of since bugfolk used them, but hey, Tommy didn’t get out much.

Tubbo came over for a minute but left when the sky grew darker, since he couldn’t fly in the rain and had to get home before the storm. Tommy only went home once the lightning started, and Henry starting chirping, and Tommy could weirdly tell how concerned she was. Him and Ranboo also agreed that the top of a really high tree was not where they wanted to be in a potential lightning storm, so they’d parted ways for the day.

But Tommy hadn’t expected the palace to be empty, practically. Man, was the storm bad enough that the staff had gone home? He wandered his halls for a bit before he heard a voice behind him. “Tommy?” He spun frantically, only to sigh when he saw Technoblade. He dramatically caught his breath and walked over to him. “Whew, you scared the shit outta me, Blade, where’s dadza?” “He’s not with you…?” That made Tommy pause. “Nooo…should he be?” Tommy asked apprehensively, but Techno looked absolutely panicked. “He…he went out looking for you earlier. Like, this morning. You didn’t show up for your lesson with him and he said something about wasting his time and flew off with Brian. They haven’t been back.”

“…what?” His dad had gone out…looking for him? Wasn’t he more concerned about the storm? The forest? Why was Tommy the concern there? His dad rarely gave a flying fuck when he missed their lessons, why did he have to pick today of all days to throw a hissy fit and run after him? “Oh god, ok…how..how do we find him?” “I have no idea.” Techno answered, as blatantly honest as usual, but the stoic look having been replaced with fear. They both stood in silence for a moment before Techno put a hand on Tommy’s shoulder. “Ok, I’m going to go looking for him. You’re gonna stay here and see if you can bring him back.” What? “But how am I-“

Techno reached to the emerald around Tommy’s neck, held by a thin leather strap, the same as his father’s. Pretty much the only tying them to each anymore. “Phil explained earlier that your crystals are connected. He went out looking for you knowing that the necklace would signal him when you were close by. He also said that if need be, there’s some magic property that can call one crystal to the other, since they’re just pieces of each other. He didn’t earlier since it would have taken too much power and he didn’t know how bad the storm would get, but I think we’re to that point. I don’t know shit about magic, but according to him, you should be able to use the crystal to summon him here.”

Tommy stared wide eyes at him for a moment. “I- i don’t know how to do that…I can’t-” “It’s alright, you can do it, I know you can. If if you can’t, I’ll keep looking until I find him. It’ll all be ok.” Techno said, leaning Tommy into a hug. God, this must be serious, Techno was never this emotional. “O-ok, I’ll do my best.” Techno leaned back, smiling at Tommy before clapping him on the shoulders. “You’re a good kid, Tommy. I’ll be back.” He said, walking off. He hoped Techno would be ok. The storm had been getting progressively better little by little, but it was still pretty harsh.

Tommy went up to his room and sat on the floor. Ok, so he was basically trying to learn teleportation, no biggie, just…teleport someone. Yeah, he could do that. He bring Phil back and he’d yell at Tommy for missing another lesson and he’d yell back that it was how he felt when his dad missed his entire childhood and inevitably someone would bring up mom, god forbid, and it’d end with two slammed doors like it had at least three other times that week. Great, he was so looking forward to that.

…why was he doing this again?

Tommy groaned and hit the heel of his hand against his head. His dad may be a bigoted asshole to his two best friends and a shitty father on the best of days, but he didn’t deserve to die in a lightning storm. His heart clenched at the idea that he may be too late, that he’d never see his father again and it would have been his fault since he didn’t go to that stupid magic lecture earlier.

He tried to convince himself that it was only because he didn’t want the weight of his father’s death on his shoulders. That the sore feeling in his chest was annoyance and minor guilt. He didn’t miss his dad, he didn’t care about him at all anymore.

He didn’t.

Tommy breathed in and out deeply, closing his eyes and taking the emerald off his neck, clutching it tightly in his hands. He could feel the magic practically emanating from it, and did his best to find a similar power. His dad said when he needed to do more intense magic, he used the stone to feel out the life force in the forest that needed help. He’d taken Tommy to a cracked tree once and it had taken a while, but he’d managed to ground himself enough that he felt with the tree, and used his and the stones magic to redirect energy into it and heal it. He imagined the sensation would be something like that. If he could feel specific individual forces of nature, he could feel out a magic gemstone. He could do it.

As he started to concentrate more, and as he felt his own forces spread from himself to the walls of his room and his home and the whole forest around him, the stone started to glow.

~~~

Fucking. Finally.

The storm had…somewhat slowed down. Enough that Wilbur wasn’t getting even more soaked on his way home. Though, to be fair, he felt like he would never be dry again, he was soaked to the bone.

He walked down one side of the street under the branches. Since the storm had let up, the sun had come back with a vengeance and he was wearing very thick and warm clothes. He was already drenched, he didn’t want to add sweat to that.

To give himself credit where it was due, though, walking back, the road looked a whole lot cleaner than it had previously. It may not have justified hauling his giant-ass heavy trash bag all the way back to his house, but at least he was doing something.

After what felt like hours of walking back down the road he’d come up from (he knew it was only a few minutes but he’d been picking up trash in a thunderstorm all fucking day he was exhausted) he came upon the tree from earlier that had been struck by lightning. And shit did it look bad. He couldn’t help his curiosity as he stepped closer, observing the damage up close. The top looked like it had been on fire, all burnt and blackened, but even more confusing was the large section of land right in front of where he was standing where the grass had been shoved forward and it was nothing but a slick patch of mud. It looked like the dirt on a baseball field when a catches had to slide across the ground to get the ball.

As his attention was on the ground, though, something flashed in the dim light that shone through the trees. What in the world was that?

Maybe he’d missed a piece of trash, who knows how far into the woods people can chunk things from their car. He leaned down to get a better look at it, and saw that it was shiny and a dark, deep green. Ugh, another piece of a goddamn beer bottle that someone shattered against something. Though, this one didn’t look like the large smooth but sharp edged pieces he’d picked up like a hundred of. Something was odd, so he dropped his grabber and bag to examine it more closely.

None of it was smooth; it looked somehow natural. It was think and rough, but not sharp, not polished and thin and clear like he’d seen. Maybe it could be a rock? It also had a weird brown strap attached to it, each side of the rope having scorch marks on the end. Wilbur guessed that the fire had split the strap holding the stone on. Maybe it had been…a ring? Who uses a thin flimsy leather band as a ring? He also didn’t know who would have been in the forest to lose a ring, other than his mother. Maybe he should bring this home and ask her, and if it’s not hers, can’t hurt to see what the stone is and how much it could be worth. A little extra money never hurt.

As he looked at it more closely, he realized it was greener than he originally thought. It was brighter, almost. Had the sun started hitting it differently? He held it up to a patch of sunlight, and watched in awe as it looked like it almost started to glow. Woah, maybe he could get some serious cash for this thing after all. But as he brought it back down from the light…it was still glowing. Like, actually glowing. And it was getting brighter and brighter.

He confusedly wrapped his hands around it, peeking in to see if it was still somehow just a trick of the light or if it was glowing. He saw a trickle of green light breaking through the cracks in his intertwined fingers, but when he went to peer in closer, something happened. His hand jerked in the exact wrong direction, smacking him clean in the face and right against the left side of his glasses, shoving them hard enough that he heard a crack. Before he could be too confused about that, though, his hands were suddenly yanked forward, enough to trio him off his feet, but…

He was still upright. There wasn’t any weight on his legs, but he was upright. He looked back up to his hands and saw the glow getting brighter and brighter still, to the point it was almost shining through his hands.

His blood turned cold and pure fear flooded his body as he felt himself get lifter up higher. He frantically tried to let go of the stone, putting all his effort into ripping his hands away, but nothing. He felt tears drip down his face, he wasn’t sure when he started crying, but he paid it no mind. It swung him around again, almost slamming him into a tree. He tried to push away but he was like a ragdoll to this thing. It felt like he was in the tornado scene of the Wizard of Oz.

“Help!” He screamed, his muscles starting to get sore from the useless strain of trying to free himself. “Fuck, Help me!” Nothing moved. His hands stayed firmly stuck around the crystal. “Someone!” He started to feel nauseous, and he felt himself shaking from the fear. “Anyone?!” The world around him started to morph as the edges of his visions turned green. “Mom!!” And suddenly he was gone.

~~~

A green flash filled Tommy’s room as he shot up from where he’d been sitting. Holy fuck, he did it. He did it, he actually managed to do it!! He ran to the figure as the magic began to clear only to stop dead in his tracks, his face falling.

Something stood in front of him. Not his father, not even a leafman, but something.

He wore clothes that were somewhat reminiscent of Ranboo’s, but they were more…patterned. It was weird material, and it’s not like Tommy knew many people who actually wore clothes, but he’d never seen anything like it. The man was also a weird color, not green like him or any shade of grey like a boggin. He was tall, taller than Tommy, but still dwarfed under most boggins. Maybe he was a bugfolk? But he looked too squishy. He didn’t have the hard chitin that Tubbo had, his skin looked like it felt more Like Ranboo’s but without the spikes.

His thoughts halted as he noticed that the man hadn’t even seen him yet. He’d taken a second to look around, but he was just staring at the emerald in his hands-

The emerald.

That was his dad’s emerald.

Tommy went to take a step closer, the dead silence in the room broken for just a second by his footstep. The man’s head snapped up and he just as quickly fell over, mouth agape and breathing heavily. It was only then that Tommy realized he was also shaking like a leaf.

They both just stared at each other for a minute, neither making a move. Tommy’s confusion slowly warping to anger and the other creature’s morphing into fear and apprehension.

“Why the fuck do you have that?!”

“What the fuck are you?!”

[everlark777]

holding you is like the new past

next / original post

chapter one

“shots, shots, shots” the screaming was ear splitting.

i threw back my third shot of the night as my eyes found mikasa and felt the grin spread from ear to ear. she was the one familiar face in a crowd of at least a hundred people that i would be spending the next four years of my life with.

i found myself taking my jacket off and throwing it on a counter with no regard to how i would find it later. i couldn’t tell if the temperature rising was from the amount of bodies in the room or the alcohol in my system.

energy was running rampant, the adrenaline high of the people in the vicinity had me feeling bubbly as i made my way through the crowd to where mikasa was standing.

“you are so getting plastered tonight,'' mikasa screamed over the music.

“that was in fact the plan.”

the room had definitely started spinning more than it was just seconds prior, and i had begun to lose my bearings of the room around me when mikasa reached out and put her hand on my arm to steady me, “woah, how many shots have you had? might want to start slowing down”

my wide grin turned into a pout, “okay, mom.”

i snapped a hand over my mouth. immediately as i said that i could hear the slur in my voice and knew that mikasa was right. one more shot in such a short amount of time would surely lead to a blackout.

mikasa had her arm around my shoulder, keeping me steady, guiding me through the crowd. i took in my surroundings again watching as people entered and exited the room. all dressed differently, all living their separate lives. i would get to know and work with at least a dozen of these people. it felt weird like i could tell this was an actual path i was stepping on. i felt mikasa’s grip move from around my arm down to my wrist pulling me to an abrupt stop. figuratively and mentally.

i looked over at mikasa to see what that was about to find her almost frozen in place.

“OH MY GOD, did you see him? '' mikasa's eyes widened like saucers. “that has to be the most attractive man I have ever seen in my life.” mikasa was practically ecstatic with joy.

“where?” i frantically looked around trying to catch a glimpse at who she was so excited about.

the crowd surrounding me was much larger than before but i followed mikasa's hand as she pointed out a taller guy with short brown hair. he was mikasa's type to a tee. tall, lanky and probably an asshole.

“he’s definitely your type” i offered halfheartedly.

“see this is why we are friends, we will never have to fight over a man” and that's when i noticed the guy standing behind him with his back against the wall.

i took in his medium length blonde hair and black rimmed glasses. he was cute in his own way. a rare kind of cute. he looked kind and he had an expression of boredom like coming to this event was not by choice. the way he stood was almost casual but i noticed the awkwardness in the way he held his arms. he definitely did not want to be here.

“he’s going to take shots, come on.” mikasa pulled my wrist and suddenly i was being pulled through a crowd of people with no remorse for my heavy stumbling and sudden clumsiness. as i reached the table, mikasa was looking up at you with puppy dog eyes and you knew what she wanted.

“hey, would you mind if we took shots with you?” i hoped he heard me so i wouldn’t have to repeat myself because thinking too much on the matter would make me overthink taking another shot.

without a word he poured two shots and slid them down to the both of you. “sup, names eren”

his arrogance fit him. the words slid off his tongue like confidence was all he had ever known. i got why mikasa felt drawn to him but i found myself taking quick glances at the blonde standing less than ten feet away.

“hey, i’m mikasa” her once strong headed personality faded into a stuttering mess.

eren didn’t seem to pay much attention to her and turned to the blonde to bring him over to the table. i quickly picked up the shot glass and held it up to tap against mikasa’s glass before tossing it back. i hated the taste and made a face and laughed at the embarrassing trait.

looking at mikasa i could tell she was waiting for her in to talk to eren, and that’s when one of my favorite songs came on.

the alcohol was settling in my stomach so i didn’t think much about what i did next. i sized up the blonde one last time and walked over to grab his hand.

“let’s go dance” i eagerly grabbed the blonde’s hand and drug him out to the middle of the floor where other people were dancing. he acted surprised like no one outside of eren talked to him at parties like this.

a faint blush spread across his face “i’m armin”.

armin, the name suited him, his voice was cute, he was cute.

“hey sorry for this. i guess it was kind of weird to just drag you out here. i didn’t even ask if this was okay.” i knew the embarrassment would hit in the morning but right now my favorite song was playing and i wanted to dance.

“no it’s fine, it just surprised me” he was being nice about it. of course he was being nice.

i offered him a faint smile but the moment felt tense like whatever happened next was completely out of my control.

he wasn’t a dancing type, his once hidden awkwardness as he was standing still became prevalent when he was forced into the middle of the room. conversation slipped my mind, but i was used to this. the gut feeling when i knew there was nothing else to say, but armin saved the day.

“so what’s your major?”

“i’m a bio major with a concentration in mechanisms of disease”

“no shit me too”

a smile spread across my face. i would be seeing him around, maybe this wasn’t such a bad idea. i needed more friends than just mikasa after all.

“let me guess someone in your family died too?”

he had a questioning look on his face and you thought maybe this wasn’t the best choice of words.

���damn guess no one has individual experiences” he grinned and i realized i had more in common with him than i thought i would.

“or maybe we just have a lot in common? favorite color 3…2…1”

“blue,” you both said in unison.

“totally unfair, you heard what I was going to say.” armin protested.

“you totally waited until you heard me say bl and then finished with me.” i said feigning innocence.

“how in the world would I have done that? you gave me no reason to think that we were supposed to say it together.”

“okay fair, fair,” i glanced over to check on mikasa and eren and saw that mikasa was alone and eren was nowhere to be found. i guess armin thought i was looking for a way out because from the corner of my eye i saw his smile fade.

“it’s okay you can go back to your friend, guess talking about school isn’t what you want to be talking about at a party,” armin seemed as if he might be disappointed. his smile had faded and he tried to play it off as annoyance.

“oh no, I was just checking on my friend to see if she was…” as i turned back i saw that he was gone.

my heart was caught in my throat, i looked around to see where he ran off too, but he was nowhere to be found.

i caught mikasa’s attention and she walked over to where i was standing.

“no luck?”

“none at all, some bitch beat me to him, while i was trying to hype myself up she just swooped right in.”

mikasa had begun to slur her words and i knew she was catching up to me.

“bitches totally ruthless” i shook my head.

“soooo are we going to talk about what just happened with you and the blonde”

“nope, way too humiliating. another shot?”

“another shot!”

as i took my next shot, the rest of the night became hazy and i still don’t quite remember the details.

i figured armin got sidetracked and left. surely i would see him around and talk to him then but that was years ago and i haven’t talked to him since.

[isnorted12pixisticks]

Hi pokies, as someone who’s been in the fandom for a hot sec I have some opinions

So buckle up or just scroll past because this is a long one it’s just me word vomiting into the void at this point

Burner account because some of y’all scare me 😘😘

‼️‼️THESE ARE JUST MY OPINIONS ‼️‼️

Ocean

————

1. Wtf is y’all’s hate boner with her?

2. I have no clue where y’all got the idea that ocean parents are like these horrible abusive people. Like neglectful? Definitely . But I don’t think that Mr and Mrs offers their kid to take a hit off their bong are going to be incredibly strict and physically abusive towards her.

3. Ocean just a shity person with a superiority complex and that’s ok. she doesn’t need horrible stuff happening to her to justify that

4.Ocean was a bad friend to Constance, she was constantly putting her down through back handed remarks and talking over her “ she has self esteem issues why wouldn’t she?” “ do we really need another organ donor?” And not to mention her say that she believed that Constance did nothing with her life.

Noel

————

1. For the love of god stop making him an uwu soft boy twink <- this is not directed at people who just draw/ Write him with more feminine traits I do the same. I’m talking about those who infantilize him as the helpless soft boy who just needs a big strong man (Mischa) in his life and suddenly everything will be ok

2. I hate The Noel is Talia through either a code name or straight up catfish theory

A. The catfishing theory is problematic at best. Yes let’s take the single openly gay character and have him prey on another man character for his own satisfaction. Idk if Mischa’s cool with it in your fanfic it’s still weird

B. To me at least, Talia as a code name for noel just takes away the whole meaning behind her character. Talia is Mischa’s last connection to Ukrain. We see throughout the musical he was constantly trying to text her meaning they spoke constantly. She was his one and only lifeline, something for him to focus on and push through his shity situation to get to

Mischa

————

1. I beg of y’all stop himboafying this man, I get he’s big and strong but he’s not dumb😭

A. Mischas smart guys!!!! I get alot of actors portray him struggling with English at times but y’all got to remember fluency ≠ intelligence gance. it’s like his 3rd language cut him some slack. he speaks Ukrainian, Russian, English, and even some Dutch ( not even the Dutch speak Dutch)

B. Just look at his saw6 monologue! Man had an in-depth video essay explaining on a horror movie just ready to go when ocean put him on the spot

C. Mischa can be incredibly eloquent with his words when he wants to be. Ex his Talia monologue/ when he tells Noel he knows what clichés are

2. Listen Im obsessed with Gus halper so I get it we love his mischa BUT DONT COMMENT ABOUT HIM ON NON GUS MISCHAS

Talia

———

1. Stop 👏 hating 👏 on 👏 Talia 👏

A. I’ve seen so many people make Talia just a straight bitch in fanfics to justify Mischa not being with her and that feels weird to me

2. The amount of people I’ve seen straight up hating on Talia for doing absolutely nothing but “stand in the way of nischa” is wild. Like I don’t get how you can look at her, a character who doesn’t even have a single line and be like ya no fuck you

Ricky

————

1. I revoke my previous statement , I’ve seen some people ( mostly rp accounts) be weird ableist to not only Ricky as a character but his actors and I don’t need to explain why that’s gross

Jane

————

1. Honestly I don’t have anything to say here I haven’t really seen anything granted it is pretty hard to mess up a character who’s whole point is shes a blank slate

Constance

————

1. I think a lot of the fandom is guilty of seeing constance as just the “ sweet nice wholesome mom friend of the group” when (to me at least) the whole point of Constance was that people thought she was this, was because the never bothered to get to know her past that .

2. In her monologue it’s heavily hinted at that Constance was suffering with depression leading up to the cyclone.

A. Ontop of this we can see throughout musical she was self deprecating “Lost her virginity in a crap box in a crappy town, why of course she did.” you should always laugh at guys jokes otherwise they’ll think your a cow” AND PEOPLE DONT TALK ABOUT THSI ENOUGH

3. Also I dont get the “mom of the group” thing. Like she was nice to everyone and ocean mentioned that she baked but that’s about it

4. I don’t thinks it’s acknowledged enough that Constance was SAd. I don’t care if she wanted to loose her virginity, shes under aged and by Constance’s own emissions the carny was in his 30s

The fandom

————

1. Listen I love some angst as much as the next person but there’s a difference between angst and just some straight up hurt p*rn (especially with ocean, again wtf is y’all hate boner for her) I’ve seen literal SA fics written about her wtf

2.This one goes out specifically to you rtc rp accounts😘😘😘 (both on and off this app) there’s a time and a place to rp guys

A. If you're talking to other rp accounts then pop off. But That being said I’ve seen a lot of rp accounts bleed over into non rp post/ videos, while this is normally fine I’ve seen quite a few accounts pushing their head cannons on other non rp accounts as if their facts or an authority on the matter. Again nothing wrong with rp accounts / sharing your head cannons, just time and place guys

3. Look I get it plenty of the actors/ actresses that have been in rtc are attractive but some of y’all need to remember the characters themselves ARE CHILDREN

4. On the topic of the actors/ actresses some of y’all need to learn what boundaries are 

5. I saw someone try to pull some pro ship bullshit with the characters once and it haunts me

Rtc

——-

Listen. I absolutely love ride the cyclone, I’ve been hyper fixatingon it for the past years now that being said I’ve seen more than enough productions to get my fair share of opinions on it

1. Real Ukrainian war footage in Talia

A. It feels in very poor taste at best and just strange up gross at worst to the situation at hand. I get it Mischa’s Ukrainian and that’s a very important part to his character but that doesn’t mean you need to throw real war footage to the end of the song.

B. Talia and mischa story as a whole is tragic enough as is. You don’t need to add in the fact that on top of Talia possibly not even being real we’re now throwing in the possibility that she died in the war? It just seems like over kill to me.

2: Ricky’s disability being written out of the script was really gross. Like I get it they wanted to avoid another yannick situation but this like the worst possible way to go about it

There probably more but I’ve been at this for like 2 hrs (I’m going to update this as things come to me so stay tuned)

[roppongi-division]

Mireya's Thoughts on Second Members

Jiro Yamada

"Ichiro's younger brother, if I'm not mistaken. I've seen him trying to sneak into Gypsy's Palace on more than one occasion. Apparently, he failed to realize that he's famous throughout Japan, so him trying to use a fake ID to sneak in was bound to end badly. Don't get me wrong, I never want to keep someone from having a good time, but the last thing I, or my family, needs is to get hit with a lawsuit for letting underaged teenagers in."

Jyuto Iruma

"Argh, like my husband stated, I've had to throw this fake cop out of my club on more than one occasion. The guy claims he's there searching for criminals, but I know he's actually there just to start drama or plant evidence to get me or someone else in trouble. I know he's trying to get rid of drugs in Japan, and I have no issue with him in that regard. But you're not going to put me, my nightclub, or my family at risk for your little crusade."

Gentaro Yumeno

"My husband is a big fan of this man's books. Me, I'll admit he's a good author, but he really needs to learn to stop lying so much. I'm well-aware you need to tell white lies now and then in order to get ahead. But it seems like this guy just lies for the heck of it. ...On the other hand, someone with his talents would be of use for my casino. Maybe I should reach out and ask him if he's willing to work part-time here."

Hifumi Izanami

"I know Hifumi since I visit the 'Fragrance Club' in Shinjuku from time to time. Normally, I wouldn't go to clubs such as that, but Aika recommended it so I decided to give it a shot. Hifumi was very nice and charming to talk to. But while we talked, I noticed that he kept a firm hold on his suit jacket. I didn't understand why until he did remove it. At the first sight at one of the other female patrons, he suddenly screamed out loud and ran far away."

"I later found out from Aika he has a condition where he gets scared of any female who comes in close contact with him without his suit jacket on. Honestly, I've seen scenarios like him when I was young when my mom forced me into beauty pageants. Most kids would have to... shall we, 'condition' themselves in order to participate. Sometimes, it would work. Other times... well, best not to bring that up..."

Rosho Tsutsujimori

"Like Kai stated, I'm not entirely familiar with Rosho, save for the fact that he's one of Zakari's teachers. He seems educated, but from what Zakari tells me, he apparently has a condition where he's afraid to speak in front of more than a certain number of people. ...Like I stated with Hifumi, some of the kids in those beauty pageants had issues like that, as well. It got to the point where their parents actually had to drag them onto stage. Some of them fainted on the spot, others urinated on themselves, and others... yeah, let's not expound on that..."

Jyushi Aimono

"Can you believe Kai actually produced music for this young man's band? I've heard some of their music, and I'll admit, it's quite nice to listen to. I haven't invited them here to Gypsy's Palace, but perhaps I should. Besides that, I rather like this young man's appearance, attire wise. His persona though... when Kai told me that his actual voice is a lot different from how he sounds on stage, I wasn't too surprised. All artists like to make themselves sound different on the radio or T.V. Me, I'm quite fine with the way I talk, thanks."

[hilarychuff]

The Bastard of the Beach

a princess diaries au drabble

inspired by this au graphic; find the first in the series here and the second in the series here or read all three chapters so far on ao3 here

“Are you sure you want to go to this beach party?” his mother asks him for what must be the 4,000th time that day. She’s sitting at his desk as she watches him stomp around his room, stuffing a towel and swim trunks into one of the many tote bags she’s collected over the years.

“Yes,” Jon insists again, voice getting a little more stubborn each time, digging his heels a little deeper with every repetition. “I told you. Stop asking.”

“I know, I know. You’ve been working so hard with Daenerys lately. You deserve to have a little fun. It’s just,” Lyanna starts, sighing wistfully, “I thought you didn’t really like any of these kids.”

“Moooom,” he groans, stretching the word into multiple syllables, stopping in his tracks to tilt his head back and stare at the ceiling. He waits for a count of five before he takes a deep breath and looks back at her. “Could you just stop? Please? I’m going to the beach party, alright?”

“Alright, alright,” she says, holding up her hands in front of her. “I get it. What do moms know anyway? I just thought none of them were ever very nice to you.”

“Well,” Jon says, shrugging uncomfortably, “they’re being nice now, so…”

“And it’s a date?” his mother clarifies. “Or it’s like a group thing?”

“It’s a party,” he answers. “You know what a party means.”

“But you said that girl invited you —”

“—Margaery Tyrell—”

“—to go with her, didn’t you?”

Jon gives in, resigns himself to the conversation. He drops down onto his bed, sitting among the scattered band tees he’d tried on and discarded for being a little too off the beaten path. He really doesn’t feel like defending or explaining any of his musical choices to a bunch of preppy populars, especially not Margaery Tyrell. The fact that he agreed to go with her doesn’t mean he’s suddenly forgotten the way she’s laughed at all of Joffrey Baratheon’s jokes for the past year and change. But so what if he might be a little curious about what it’s like to actually be one of them? So what if he wants to know what he’s been missing out on this whole time? Sue him.

All he says, though, is, “Yes, she invited me.”

Lyanna just hmms. He sighs.

“What?”

“What happened to Sansa? I thought you liked her.”

“Yeah, well…”

He scuffs the toe of his boot on the ground. It’s probably stupid to wear combat boots to the beach, but he’d feel even stupider in sandals, and it’s not like he owns any of those twee little boat shoes. If she were talking to him, Sansa would know what he should wear instead, would probably be able to put together the perfect outfit to make him feel like himself without standing out at the beach, but, well, the point is that she’s not talking to him, isn’t it?

“She’s made it pretty clear this week that she’s not interested in hanging out with me, and Margaery is, so…”

He’d tried to keep his tone as neutral as possible, but his mom sees right through it. She lets out a sympathetic cluck and then comes to meet him by the bed, clearing a tee or two out of her way so she can sit beside him on the comforter.

“Is that what this is about?” she asks. “Sansa doesn’t want to go out with you, so you’re going out with another girl instead?”

He shrugs, and she makes another sympathetic noise, reaching over to cup his cheek, but he squirms away and gets to his feet before she can say anything.

“It’s not a big deal,” he says, walking over to his closet so he can pretend to rifle through it for something. “Can you just drop it?”

“What happened to my romantic little boy?” she tuts, and Jon drops his head back to groan at the ceiling.

“Mom, I’m not a little boy anymore.”

“I know, I know,” she says, and when he glances over, she’s haphazardly folding all of his tees into a messy little pile. “You’re all grown up now and ready to lead some foreign country, but when I look at you, I still see that same little boy who swore up and down that he was going to have a foot-poppin’ first kiss.”

“Mom!”

He can feel the way his face flames hot, flushed, even though there’s no one there to witness his embarrassment other than the woman dead set on causing it. He wonders if he could get away with pretending he doesn’t know what she’s talking about, but he’s pretty sure that wouldn’t stop her.

“What?” she asks, mock innocent. “I’m not allowed to talk about what a sweet boy you were?”

“Can you just… not?” he begs again. “Please?”

The thing is, he does remember. They’d been watching some old movie, one of those black and white ones where everyone spoke in an inexplicable accent, and when the hero had grabbed his girl and kissed her, one of her feet had lifted off the ground as if it had a mind of its own. He’d been determined to have a first kiss equally as powerful, equally as passionate — and his mom had laughed. And then, when she’d seen how serious he was, how struck he was by her laughter when he was not joking, Mom, it’s not funny, she’d assured him that of course he would have a foot-popping first kiss one day. He guesses now that she already knew then not all princes were made out of fairytale stuff, but he’d been young and starry-eyed and determined to be different than his parents. And then he’d gotten older and reality had set in for him, too.

“Besides,” he grumbles, “I already had my first kiss years ago, and Ygritte wasn’t exactly a ‘foot pop’ kind of girl.”

“I know, baby,” his mom says, following him over to the closet so she can run her fingers through his newly cropped hair the way she used to when he was little enough to lay with his head in her lap. “I just know you’ve been doing a lot for everyone else lately, especially when it comes to your father and aunt. I don’t want you to give up on the things you want just because other people want something else for you,” she says. “Even if what you want is for a girl to suddenly transform into a Hays Code-era heroine.”

—

He’d said it to his mom. He’s not a kid anymore. But if he’s honest with himself, really honest, he does still want it. Maybe not literally. He doesn’t need a girl to literally kick her foot up as some sort of chaste way of showing just how deep a kiss can really be, but he wants the sparks. He wants it to mean something. He doesn’t want to just fool around in the backseat of a parked car next to a bunch of other parked cars filled with teenagers fooling around. He’s done that before, and as good as it had felt in some ways, it had felt decidedly not good in others.

So when Margaery steps close to him in the storage shack on the beach, well, he’s not really sure what to think. She’d herded him in here after a news helicopter swooped low overhead, a floodlight searching him out amongst the partygoers, and she’s been flirting with him all night — all week, really, even before she told him that she dumped Joffrey for being the most obnoxious, fame-sucking scumbag dickhole on the planet (his words, not hers). But when she slides her hands up his chest, onto his shoulders, looks up at him from under her eyelashes, he can’t say he’s not curious.

It’s weird, suddenly being wanted by the most popular girl at school.

A week ago, she never would’ve looked at him. She would’ve seen him, sure — her sly eyes landing on him for some impossibly brief moment before sliding right past him as she assessed her surroundings and found him totally useless to her — but she never would’ve looked. And he’s not stupid. He knows why she’s looking now. Even if he gives her the full benefit of the doubt when it comes to her supposedly noble intentions in dumping Joffrey, he’s not blind to the optics of the upgrade. State politician’s son to a future king of a country. Local society papers to the national news. But there’s still something to it. All night, she hasn’t been looking at him like he’s useful to her. She’s been looking at him like he’s all of a sudden interesting to her.

And Sansa has never been less interested in him.

“Jon,” Margaery murmurs, her eyes on his mouth, and one of her hands drops back down to toy with the neckline of the plain black shirt he’d finally settled on earlier. “I’m sorry the paparazzi found you here, but I won’t pretend I’m not glad to get a minute alone with you.”

The shack is dark around them, umbrellas and volleyball netting and spinal boards taking up much of the space, crowding them together. She’s waiting for him to kiss her, he’s pretty sure. It really is like something out of a movie, the way she’s giving off all the classic signs. His hands had settled at her waist almost automatically when she’d first stepped right up next to him, reaching for him, but he still can’t quite bring himself to close the gap between them.

Margaery doesn’t seem to mind. She ducks her head, lets her warm breath fan over his neck just above where her fingers tug at the hem of his tee. Her knuckles brush against his collarbone, and then she turns into him, lets her nose trace the line of his jaw. The tip of it skates over his chin, drags along until it meets the corner of his mouth, and then her lips are right there, soft against his. His hands tense at her waist, but she seems to take that for encouragement, because suddenly she’s kissing him and, yeah, maybe he’s kissing back.

When she pulls away from him, she sighs his name again, a perfectly romantic sound that he’s pretty sure his younger, starry-eyed self would’ve swooned over if it didn’t all sound so… practiced. Performative. Whatever spell there was breaks, and he lets his hands drop, takes his own step back.

“Uh, I don’t — I don’t hear anything anymore, do you?” he asks, not sure the best way to extricate himself from the situation. “I think probably it’s safe to head back out now.”

The reality is that he doesn’t exactly care anymore. So what if some news reporters snap a picture of him at a party? If he was avoiding the cameras because he didn’t want to pretend to be some perfect prince, he’s not any better off in here as Margaery tries to manufacture the perfect moment between them.

Still, he’s not expecting the instantaneous burst of camera flashes the second he opens the door, and he nearly slams it closed again just so he can gather his bearings. Instead, he lets the door swing wide in front of him, jerks back a step, and then Margaery is at his back. One arm drapes over his chest, fingers tangling in his shirt, and her other hand reaches out in front of them to block the glare as though she’s some damsel in distress and he’s her dashing savior.

“Jon,” she whimpers, ducking her face into the back of his neck, and his stomach twists.

This was a mistake. This whole night was just a huge, stupid mistake.

He shakes her off, steels himself and charges forward, pushes through the crowd to stomp towards the parking lot even as shutters click and voices shout after him. He can feel his face heating up, his blood rushing in his ears, but he doesn’t stop until the sand ends and he reaches asphalt, and even then he only pauses because Joffrey is leaning up against the passenger side of his mom’s car. Lyanna had let him borrow it so he could fly under the radar, so he could pick Margaery up without his aunt knowing how he chose to spend his time, but now he’s wishing he’d taken one of the official Valyrian cars if only so there would’ve been a driver to go with it — a driver who would’ve never allowed Joffrey to hang around waiting for Jon to come back.

“Get off my car,” Jon orders, his voice low and to the point as he steps onto the pavement.

“Calm down,” Joffrey sneers. He’s moving slow, languid — like he’s been drinking, Jon realizes as he stands up straight, sways a little. “I was just making sure the reporters gave mommy’s Subaru a little space.” He looks over at the few photographers who’ve followed Jon up the beach, their camera flashes still bright at his back. “You do know Margaery was the one who called them, don’t you?”

Jon doesn’t answer, just gives him a wide berth as he heads for the driver’s side on the far end of the car. It doesn’t stop Joffrey from leaning back against the door.

“I guess it figures,” he says, voice loud in that way drunk people have, where it might well be considered shouting if it weren’t for the lack of intent. “She’s dating the fucking governor’s son, and even she wants to try and trade up the second she gets the chance.”

“Baratheon,” Jon barks. “Get the fuck off of my car.”

Joffrey makes a show of rolling his eyes, swaying back to a standing position again. “I’m just saying they’re all the same,” he continues, overenunciating a little.

Jon ignores him, unlocks the car, yanks his door open — and Joffrey tugs on the handle on the other side, doing the same.

“Gold diggers,” he says, and Jon stares at him, slack-jawed over the center console, as Joffrey slides into the passenger seat. He lets out an ugly, mean laugh. “At least Margaery puts out,” he adds. “Some of them are frigid fucking bitches.”

For a second, everything goes red. And then Jon is on the other side of the car. His fists are balled in Joffrey’s shirt. Jon grabs him, then shoves him, and Joffrey stumbles back, lands on his ass, palms slapping the pavement. Jon slams the car door, stalks back to the driver’s side, hits the lock as soon as he shuts himself in, because he wouldn’t put it past Joffrey to try again, to start something. And then he fits the key in the ignition, shifts into gear, and hits the gas.

–

He spends the first half of Sunday being screamed at by his aunt and the second half wallowing in his bed, boombox turned all the way up as angsty, angry rock blares through the speakers late into the night. When Monday rolls around, he wakes to find his mom let him sleep straight through his classes. Ghost curled up at his side, he turns to bury his face in a mass of white fur and will himself back into unconsciousness for another few hours, and the night comes and goes in a sluggish haze. Tuesday morning follows with a knock at his door about five minutes after his alarm would’ve gone off if he’d bothered to set it. He contemplates faking sick, continuing the pity party, but when his mom ducks her head around the door, then lets herself in to sit on the edge of his bed and rest the back of her hand on his forehead — he just can’t stand the look in her eyes.

He knows it was bad. Daenerys made sure that she permanently impressed upon him just how bad it all was. The papers had printed photos of him shaking off a wounded-looking Margaery, the picture perfect portrait of a lovelorn woman with her kiss-swollen lips and tousled hair, her arms reaching out towards him. They’d also gotten shots of him dragging Joffrey out of his car, throwing him to the ground, mouth twisted with some ugly words that Jon can’t even remember shouting. Each different weekly journal or daily newsletter had managed to snag their own slightly different versions of the images, one particularly vulgar looking shot showing Jon standing over Joffrey on the asphalt.

His aunt had insisted that he’d embarrassed the whole Targaryen line, put the whole dynasty at risk — nevermind the fact that the headlines were only bound to go global because they were all saying what a fucking chip off the old block he was. A philanderer like his father. Violent like his grandfather. “Do the Fiery Targaryens Really Need Another Hotheaded Heartbreaker In Line for the Throne?” one tabloid had asked in bold, black letters.

If they’d never fucked up, Jon would be just another teenager having a bad night. If they’d never fucked up, the Targaryens never would’ve even needed Jon in the first place. But the look in Daenerys’s eyes when he’d started to bring all that up had practically burned him alive, and it wouldn’t have mattered. She’d never have listened anyway. There would’ve been no point shouting himself hoarse, so he’d shut his mouth and grit his jaw until it felt like his teeth would crumble away into dust.

But that’s not the part that has Lyanna treating him like he’s a five year old with a fever. She doesn’t want to talk about what he did, what he’ll do now, what there is to be done next if he doesn’t want to take the whole family down with him. No, she wants to talk about how he feels, how he feels about whatever made him agree to go on a date with Margaery and how he feels about whatever made him run away halfway through it — and that’s somehow a thousand times worse, because he doesn’t want to think about how he feels. (Stupid. Unwanted. In the spotlight. Even more invisible than ever before.) If he stops and thinks about it, he’ll drown in it, so he’s staying sullen instead, surly, and he pushes his mom away when she reaches for him, insists he feels fine, he’s just running late, he slept through his alarm, but he’s going.

If he lets her baby him — if he lets her call the school and tell Arryn that he’ll be out for another day — he’ll be stuck for hours being looked at like he’s the saddest boy in the world. He can’t stomach the thought of that.

He almost wishes he had, though, when he gets to school and finds Sansa is no longer the only Stark giving him the cold shoulder.

It had been messy with all of them last week after the news had gone public. Between the press, his aunt’s people, and the popular kids suddenly taking an interest in him, he’d barely gotten time with a single one of them, but at least he’d talked to Arya on the phone, talked to Robb, managed to get at least a few moments with both of them throughout each day. Sansa, though… She’d been too nice to ignore him out right, always waving before fleeing the premises, but her message had still come through loud and clear. Now she’s graduated even from that, avoiding eye contact entirely and turning to head in the opposite direction when he tries to catch her attention from down the hall.

Worse, Arya has begun following her lead, only she’s shooting him full-blown glares from across the quad. Even Robb offers him only half-hearted shrugs, a gesture somewhere between commiserating and resigned before he’s following dutifully after one sister or being bodily dragged away by the other. It takes almost until the end of the day before Jon finally manages to corner one of them, hunting down Arya during their shared free period until he finds her whacking tennis balls on the rooftop court.

“Arya,” he calls, but she ignores him as the machine spits out a lime green missile — one she immediately fires back his way as he steps through the gate at the top of the stairs. He curses, dodges, and she smirks, then narrows her eyes again as she determinedly rockets another tennis ball in his general direction. “Arya!” he tries again. “Stop! I’m trying to talk to you!”

She keeps lobbing them, and he keeps ducking, until he’s close enough to yank the extension cord powering the equipment. One last ball falls free, rolls away, and Arya shrugs, turning to pack up her racket and grab her backpack instead. He has to vault over the net to follow, grab her shoulder, and he knows she’s let him catch up, but it doesn’t feel like that much of a victory when he spins her around and she immediately crosses her arms, raising her eyebrows in response.

“Arya,” he pants. He’s so tired — of dodging tennis balls, reporters, emotional minefields. He doesn’t have the patience left to play whatever game this is. “What is your problem today? What is everyone’s fucking problem lately?”

Her eyebrows shoot even higher.

“OK,” she starts, “so just to be clear, you don’t even remember that you agreed to be on my morning show on Sunday? You’re totally unaware of the fact that I got stuck trying to fill the whole time slot with Hot Pie’s various animal shaped baked goods?”

He groans, drops his head back. Of course. Of course he forgot. Of course he was so busy wallowing over how he can’t do anything right that he fucked up. Again. He rubs a hand over his face, sighs, braces himself for another apology, his millionth over the last 72 hours, but at least this one he’ll mean.

“Arya —”

Before he can get another word out, she’s cutting him off.

“And Sansa,” she continues. “Do you remember her?”

His stomach twists, clenches. He hesitates.

“What about her?”

Arya scoffs, and he can see her grip clench on her racket like she’s itching to launch another tennis ball at his head.

“Wow,” she says, voice flat. “And I really believed it when I told her that you were smarter than her douchebag ex.”

“She’s mad about Margaery?” he ventures, unsure.

“No,” Arya tells him. “That’s the worst part. She’s not even mad. She’s just fucking heartbroken.”

For a second, he can’t speak, his voice coming out strangled when he finds the words.

“Because I went out with someone else?”

“Because she waited for you at the garage for like three hours before she finally gave up and came home. Because she figured you probably got roped into some stupid royal responsibility until she saw all of the papers the next morning and realized you just ditched her for the same exact girl Joffrey did.”

“But —” he starts, the words dying in his throat because that can’t be right. That doesn’t make any sense. Even as a dawning horror sets in, he shakes his head and says so. “That doesn’t make any fucking sense, Arya. Why would she be waiting for me at the garage?”

Her jaw drops. She stares at him, hard, like she’s trying to tell if he really is stupid.

“Because she asked you out, and you said yes,” she says slowly.

“Yeah, but — but that was on Tuesday,” he tries.

“So?”

“So how was I supposed to know we were still on by the end of the week?”

“Because she never fucking canceled on you, dipshit,” Arya spits. Whatever patience she might’ve had for him a second ago is gone.

“But she was obviously blowing me off! Arya, she ignored me for the next three days!”

“When did she ignore you?” Arya demands. “During all the rides to school you didn’t give us? In all the classes you don’t have together? Did she screen any of the calls you didn’t make or not come to the phone any of the times you didn’t ask for her?”

“She —” he starts, fumbling for his words. “Arya, she practically ran out of the room any time I entered one.”

Even as he says it, though, he knows it’s not true. Or, at least, now he knows, now that he knows what it actually looks like when she runs away. This morning, she hadn’t offered him a little wave and a tense smile when they’d first locked eyes. She’d just frozen, then turned around and fled in the opposite direction.

Abruptly, he feels the need to lay down on the ground. He wants to let his backpack fall from his shoulder, to drop down on his hands and knees, to flop onto his back and splay his limbs out. He wants to stare at the gray sky overhead until he somehow travels back a week in time to the day Sansa first asked him out. It had started so well that morning, then gone so wrong, and he’d sort of thought things had only gotten worse over the weekend, that Sunday had been his low point, maybe Monday, but no, it’s now, it’s this moment.

Sansa asked him out. Sansa never canceled. Sansa didn’t run away from him, or at least not really. He’d been making out with Margaery while she was waiting for him at the garage, and then she’d had to see photographic evidence of that the very next morning.

Maybe he really is just like his stupid dad.

Jon gives in to the urge, sits down right where he is in the middle of the court. If he asked Arya to turn the tennis ball machine back on and aim it right at his head, she probably would.

Instead, she just watches him for a minute, uncomfortably shifting from one foot to another. Then, she nudges his boot with the toe of her sneaker.

“Get up.”

He doesn’t move.

After a moment, she tries again.

“C’mon, Jon. Get up.”

This time, she kicks at the soles of his boots, one first and then the other as though she can manhandle his feet back beneath him and him standing on top of them. When that still doesn’t work, when he’s still resolutely on the ground another long moment later, she sighs, then leans down and joins him.

“She really waited for three hours?” he asks.

“I really wish I was exaggerating,” Arya answers, mouth twisting in a grimace.

“I’m sorry,” Jon finally says. “God, I just — I just got really caught up in all the prince stuff, I think. I didn’t even really check in with any of you last week, and then I thought Sansa was blowing me off, and then I went to that stupid party, and then everything fucking blew up —”

He huffs another sigh, reaches to tug on curls he remembers he cut off over a week ago just a moment too late. He drops his hand back into his lap, looks over at her to make sure he meets her eye.

“I should’ve remembered your show,” he says. “I’m really sorry that I didn’t.”

“Yeah,” Arya says, “you should’ve. And, for the record, I will be expecting you to rebook your appearance in the coming weeks. But I hope you know I’m letting you off easy this time.”

She taps her foot against his, and he nods, and then she’s getting to her feet, reaching a hand down for him. He grabs it.

“Just for the record, though,” she adds, pulling him back upright, “that only goes for me. If you want to even think of apologizing to Sansa, you’re going to have to come up with something a lot better than that.”

[ashleycatchemm]

1-03: Ghosts

Part 3 out of ??

Pairings: Reggie x Reader, Luke x Julie, Alex x Willie

Summary: (Y/n) (L/n) has been able to see and feel ghosts ever since she was little, which made it hard to tell the ghosts from the humans. Everyone has always thought she was a bit crazy, even her best friends, Julie and Flynn. But when three ghosts with a love for music appear in Julie's garage, suddenly (Y/n) doesn't seem so crazy anymore.

Song: Ghosts (Micheal Jackson)

Season 1 Masterlist

Series Masterlist

Main Masterlist

♬♩♪♩♬♩♪♩♬♩👻 ♪♩♬♩♪♩♬♩♪♩

That night I was at the club till 2 am the next morning. The first few hours being the busiest, full of none stop playing and flirting from Caleb which I ignored. Then after the first few hours, came the partying and drinking, of course I never got drunk there. I knew the dangers of getting drunk at a club and I didn't want to take those chances.

Parking my truck in my empty driveway, I hopped out, grabbing my stuff and quickly went inside. Tossing my bag to the side, I pulled my phone out of my jacket pocket, looking at it for the first time tonight, only to see a text from Julie.

Jules🎹: Hey, (Y/n), can you please help?

Jules🎹: Three ghosts just appeared at my house and I have no idea what to do!!

I rolled my eyes and scoffed at her text 'Is she seriously making fun of me right now?' I glared at my phone, still slightly intoxicated as anger courses through me.

Jules🎹: Hey, (Y/n), can you please help?

Jules🎹: Three ghosts just appeared at my house and I have no idea what to do!!

Me: Am I just somekind of fucking jo ke toyou?

I knew that Julie would never say something like that to be mean. But I couldn't help it. I was angry at her, for even saying something like that. Flynn and Julie both promised me they wouldn't bring that shit up and now here she is talking about it. I don't care when Carrie does it, but when it's my close friends, I feel like I've been betrayed.

'She knows all my trauma from this and yet she says that.'

I grabbed my head before letting a huff out in anger and saying "Whatever. I'll deal with this tomorrow." Dropping my phone on the ground, I made my way up the steps and got ready for bed.

♬♩♪♩♬♩♪♩♬♩👻 ♪♩♬♩♪♩♬♩♪♩

The next day I was at Julie's house early, since I live right next door to her. I heard singing coming from somewhere and followed it, only to come face to face with her moms studio. The doors were closed but I could still hear her beautiful voice flowing through the doors.

This put a smile on my face as I leaned back against the wall with my arms crossed "Well what do ya know?" I mumbled after a minute or two the song ended. I stood there for a few seconds waiting for her to walk out when suddenly three ghosts appeared in front of me.

The three of them looked to be about my age. The boy who's back was towards me had brunette hair, a tank top, a blue sweatshirt with no sleeves, showing off his muscles, and a pair of black pants with a chain hanging off it. The boy in the middle who was facing me (but somehow didn't notice me), had blond hair, a pink shirt with a logo for a cleaning service on it, a chain necklace around his neck, a fanny pack clipped together across his chest being worn as a satchel, and black nylon pants, the drawstrings tied together on his waist in a nice bow. The boy behind the two of them had dark brown hair, a white shirt sat underneath a black leather jacket, a long beaded necklace sat hanging from around his neck, a black and red flannel tide around his waist, along with a belt to hold up black jeans that were ripped at the knees.

"Oh, dude, why'd you stop me? Julie needs a hug."

The blond haired boy spoke as the brunette looked through one of the windows on the doors. The dark brown haired boy seemed to be the only one that noticed me as he sent me a bright smile and waved at me. I sent him a small smile back and waved, the boy widened his eyes, mouth agape as he pointed at me in shock.

His friends either didn't notice him or decided to ignore him "Bro, a ghost hug isn't the feel-good moment that you think it is. All right?" Fixing up his sweatshirt the brunette continued "Trust me. What Julie needs right now is just a bit of privacy." The boy with the dark brown hair soon stopped looking at me like I had two heads, but nonetheless still stared at me with a smile on his face.

I huffed a bit, feeling a blush coating my cheeks 'They are pretty cute for ghosts..' grabbing the only backpack strap sitting on one of my shoulders to support it, they continued talking.

"You know what? I think you poofed us out because you can't handle when other people cry. I should know. I cried in a room for 25 years" his voice started shaking, which caused me to look back over at them as the blond continued, throwing his hand down.

"And I didn't get a single hug from either of you."

The boy in the black leather jacket went to hug the boy in the pink shirt "All right. Bring it in." The blond stuck his hand up before the boy in the leather jacket could touch him. "Don't touch me!" He stated causing the boy with dark brown hair to back off.

"This is why no one hugs you."

He stated, causing my hand to fly up to my mouth to hold back my giggle in amusement. My eyes met with the boy clad in a black leather jacket, causing him to smile and send me a wink in response to my suppressed giggling. "Ok" The boy in the blue sweatshirt said his eyes darting between the two boys in front of him "So I-I-I think the first thing we should do, once we get the courage to go in there, is ask Julie..." he paused for a brief moment before continuing.

"Why she lied about playing the piano."

"Yeah, and you know, maybe tell her how amazing she is."

"Yeah of course bro."

"Ok."

The blond and brunette talked before the boy who has been the only one to notice me so far, spoke "She's legit. I got ghost bumps" pointing to his arm, I smiled and let out yet another giggle while shaking my head. "Of course she's amazing. I wish I could sing like her." The three ghosts attentions were now on me.

I stood leaned back against the wall with my arms crossed across my chest, a small smile tugging at my lips as I looked at the boys. Two out of three of the boys both looked behind them, as if to see if I was talking to someone else, while the same boy as before smiled and waved. I let out a small giggle and waved back at him, as the two other boys looked back at me confused.

"You can see us?"

The brunette asked as I nodded my head "Yeup" dragging out the 'e' a little longer than needed. "How long have you been there?" I was about to answer but the dark brown haired boy answered for me "She's been here the whole time." All while walking over and swinging an arm around my shoulders. "Reggie if you knew why didn't you tell us?" The brunette asked as the two boys in front of me stared at the boy with his arm around me.

The boy (Who I now know is Reggie) shrugged in response "You guys never asked, so I didn't think it was important." The blond rubbed his forehead in annoyance before speaking "If you see someone who can see us and is just standing there, don't you think the best bet would be to tell us?" Reggie looked in front of him as the realization of the situation finally hit him "Ohhh, Wait." He leaned forward a little, putting his hand next to his lips as if acting as a sound barrier.

He whispered "Is this because you were talking about yourself crying?" He sucked in a breath of air, leaning back while bringing his hand back down and shoving it in his jacket pocket. "That's embarrassing." Reggie stated, I chuckled and decided to move the conversation along before a argument broke out.

Moving out from underneath Reggie's arm I was quick to say "Okay. Before this conversation turns sour, I'm just going to answer all of your questions now." Pointing at the brunette I stated "No I'm not a ghost." Moving onto the blond "Yes I can touch you guys. It's weird, I know." I now faced Reggie as I stuck out my hand "The names (Y/n), and I'm guessing you're Reggie?" Reggie let out a shocked gasp as he grabbed my hand and shook it.

"Woah! No way! You're psychic too?!"

I let out a small chuckle at his response as the blond shook his head "No, genius. She put the pieces together when Luke said your name." The blond in the pink shirt threw his thumb over his shoulder to point to (who I now know is) Luke. Reggie nodded his head while saying a small "ohh." I looked between the three of them.

"Okay, so if you're Reggie."

I pointed to the boy in the leather jacket who sent me a wink and a smile "That's me!" I then pointed to the brunette "And you're Luke" He sent me a small smile with a shrug, as my attention was quick to land on the blond "Then who are you?" The boy stuck his hand out, sending me a smile while saying "Alex Mercer, you must be a friend of Julie's." I let out a small breath of air before responding.

"Uh. Yeah."

My sentence drifted off as I noticed Flynn walk through the gate, tears streaming down her face. Quickly taking my hand away from Alex I was quick to ask "Flynn? Flynn are you-" she walked past me, not even looking at me before opening the door and slamming it in my face. "-alright..?" I finished saying after the door shut. Letting out a sigh in frustration I heard Alex asked "Oh my gosh. Was she crying too?" I rolled my eyes and Luke turned around to look at Alex.

"Yes!"

We spoke at the same time looking at each other for a quick second in confusion, Luke turned back around to face the other two. He continued speaking "And the only thing scarier than one girl crying is two girls crying." Alex nodded while they both looked at Reggie "He's right." Reggie looked over at me "Why not just send (Y/n) in there?" The two other ghosts looked at me.

I was quick to shake my head "Oh, no way. I don't do feelings they are nasty and gross. I tend to keep my distance when this stuff happens." Luke rolled his eyes letting out a small groan in annoyance "Well we definitely can't go in there." I scoffed while crossing my arms a crossed my chest.

"Why? Because you can't handle other people crying?"

Alex and Reggie both snickered behind him for a few seconds before Luke turned around, sending them a glare. Luke looked back at me and was about to respond only for Reggie to shrug and say "We could always listen. But we wouldn't do that." Reggie laughed a little, only for the three of them to look between each other and race towards the door.

I laughed a bit to myself as they looked through the windows, only to duck down a couple of seconds later. "Okay, you guys have fun spying on my friends." Reggie looked over at me, a smile on his face "Aw, Come on. You know you wanna" I shook my head while saying "No, I'm not gonna ease drop on my-" Reggie sent me a look as if to say 'Really?' I let out an amused huff, before dropping my bag and walking over to him.

"Scoot over before I change my mind"

He happily moved closer to Luke so I had some room to sit. I heard Flynn talking on and on as Julie tried to explain. Only for Flynn to go on a whole rant about me and her not seeing Julie as often. When she was finally finished Julie explained to her that she played the piano and sang again and Flynn was ecstatic. The four of us heard them coming closer to the door, Reggie put his arm around me and pulled me closer to him so I don't get hit by one of their bags as the boys tried to act natural.

Flynn and Julie both walked out, Flynn was the first to acknowledge me as she spoke "Hey, (Y/n), I'm so sorry I ignored you, I just-" I cut her off with a shake of my head, sticking out my hand for her to stop. "It's okay, really. I'm not good when it comes to emotions anyway. I would've been no help at all." She sent me a smile and stuck her arms out for a hug. I stood up and went to hug her, Reggie taking his arm away as I stood up.

Giving her a quick hug Julie stated "Oh, (Y/n)! You're here!" She sent me a forced smile as I broke the hug with Flynn only to get pulled into another by Julie. "Please tell me, you see them too." She whispered as I let out a small chuckle and pulled away from her. Looking over at the guys I nodded my head, and she let out a relieved sigh.

"Listen about the text last night..."

I started saying as I went to grab my backpack Julie cut me off "Don't worry about it. I didn't mean to make you angry, it's just.... you know my situation right now." I nodded my head and let out an embarrassed chuckle as I grabbed my bag that was next to Alex, and swung it over my shoulder.

"Yeah, umm, no, I mean, last night I didn't mean to get angry. It was just the alcohol-"

Before I could finish my sentence Flynn hit the back of my head "Ow! What the-" Flynn cut me off as I sent her a glare "You've been drinking again?!" I took a deep breath in and out to compose myself  "Can we not talk about this right now?" I asked her, as I looked over at Julie, refusing to look at any of the guys. Looking back at Flynn she was angrily about to state something when Julie came over, seeming to have gotten the message.

"Flynn, come on. Let's just get in the truck."

"Yeah, and have a drunk drive me to school. Perfect."

I clenched and unclenched my fists as I glared back at her. Letting out an angry huff, I stated "Whatever. I'll be waiting in the truck." Marching off toward the gate I heard Reggie state "Don't worry! We weren't listening." This caused a small smile to make its way to my lips as I left through the gate.

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