#apparently i'm getting into longer chapters again!! that's cool

[beardedjoel]

pretty little wife | meet cute, part 2

joel miller x f!reader one shot collection

series masterlist | main masterlist | ao3 | ✨kofi ✨ summary: 9.5k words; joel takes you on your first date, and it doesn't end up like he'd planned. not that either of you seem to mind, of course. warnings: 18+ MDNI! no apocalypse au, relationship/dynamic not established yet like the other chapters, unprotected piv, rough sex, oral sex (f receiving), reader is a little bratty in this chapter, talks of brat punishment, sub/dom relationship, dirty talk, pet names for reader, joel is so fucking handsy here i am Feral, minor bits of angst (reader backstory stuff) a/n: welp apparently i am incapable of writing a short chapter for these two right now >< i'm really loving the way that pretty wife started out a bit bratty and has this pipeline to being joel's good little wife it's kinda doing something for me

You don’t know if your heartbeat could get any louder, nearly drowning out the trill of the line ringing in your ear. You’re moments away from speaking to your mystery man from the bar again, to Joel, who’d seemed intent on changing the entirety of your life with one single fuck in a bar bathroom.

“Hello, Miller Contracting,” a deep voice lumbers out on the other end, sounding nearly clinical with the greeting. You have no doubt it's Joel - his voice feels too recognizable, the deep richness of it combined with his Texas twang that had you absolutely swooning last night. You will your lips to part, for words to rush out, but you pause, trying to get the lump out of your throat.

“Uh - Joel?” you croak out.

“Mhm,” he replies absentmindedly. You picture him at a desk somewhere, sorting through papers, or working on a construction site, his muscles bulging out his shirt and you’re temporarily lost to the fantasy. “What can I do for you?”

“I-it’s me -” you say, repeating your name to him. “From last night…” you add on.

He laughs, a deep rumble in the phone, and your heart lifts what feels like miles within your chest. “Yeah, from last night, didn’t need to clarify, sweetheart.”

“S-sorry. I’m Nervous,” you say simply, wringing your hands together on your lap.

“Now hang on a second, how’d you get this number? Don’t recall givin’ it out,” Joel says, a hint of playfulness in his voice. The fact that he seems eager to talk to you, tease you, immediately dissipates the nervousness you’d had about calling him. 

“Er, I’m persistent, that’s all I’ll say,” you tell him with a flush of your cheeks.

“Well, if I’m honest, I’m happy as hell to hear from ya,” Joel says. You feel your eyebrows twitch and mouth part in surprise.

“You are?” You wish you didn’t sound so desperately surprised by the fact, but the words tumbled out of you before you could stop them.

“Felt like a damn idiot, forgettin’ to get your number last night. Not how a gentleman should act.” You can practically visualize Joel shaking his head at himself and running a hand through his hair on the other end.

“And you think you acted like a gentleman otherwise?” You smirk and bite your lip, already feeling a tingling in your limbs, a slow, swirling pool of arousal sinking deep into your gut.

Joel chuckles and makes a small humming sound. “Maybe not, but it got you callin’ me, didn’t it?”

You laugh heartily and agree with a sultry “mm-hmm.”

“So listen, I knew if I ever got to speak to you again, I wanted to… uh-” Joel clears his throat, and you can hear a slight wobbling, like he’s nervous. “See if I could take you on a proper date.”

“Oh really, a date? Not just a bar bathroom this time?” you ask, trying to quell a little bit of your excitement, play it cool around him. You’re having a hard time believing that he’d want to take you out, for some reason. This past year or so has been a slew of failed dates, refusals to call back, men telling you one reason or another you no longer interested them. This tended to happen after they’d already gotten something from you, which had only served to make you feel worse about the entire thing. You tried not to let it get to you, but really, you were craving to be loved, to be seen for who you were and loved for it. That was something you hadn’t gotten enough of in your life.

“Now listen, if you’re gonna be like that, maybe I don’t need t’take you out, do I?” Joel teases, and the tingling in your core intensifies, your legs rubbing together just at the low drawl of his voice prodding at you.

“I’d love to, Mr. Miller,” you say coyly, and you hear a sharp hiss of breath from Joel’s end.

“Little shit,” he mumbles.

“What’s that?” you lick your lips and fight the urge to twirl your hair, the feeling of getting him so riled up just over the phone giving you a perverse little twinge of satisfaction.

“Fuck, I need to see you again,” he nearly groans, and you’re unsure if he’d even meant the words for you to hear, so low and quiet. ”Dinner this Friday, then?” Joel asks you, and you bite your lip and scrunch your face up in excitement, knowing he can’t see you.

“It’s a date.”

Joel picks you up that Friday at 6:30, a bit of a sweating, anxious mess after fussing over your makeup and outfit for the last two hours. You end up landing on a white, frilly mini dress with a corset top, knowing your tits are on perfect display for him. A devious huff of laughter leaves you when you reach into your underwear drawer and dig out your sheer white over the knee stockings with a lace trim at the top and slide them up your legs. Maybe you are in the mood to be a bit of menace for him tonight, you think to yourself. The thought of Joel’s eyes practically falling out of his head when he sees you in this makes you smile and nearly squeal with delight as you put your finishing touches to your outfit with accessories and a touch up of your shimmery lip gloss.

When you bound outside of your apartment building, you can see a nearly pained expression on Joel’s face through the windows of his blue truck, pulled up right in front of your building. You hear the clicking of your little heels on the pavement, giving you a boost of confidence as you stride towards him, feeling your hair bouncing behind you.

You feel… fucking hot. And you know it’s partly because of who you know is going to be looking at you all night. Joel takes too long to stare and enjoy the view of you walking over before he’s scurrying out of his truck to reach you and grab the car door. 

“Evenin’,” he says, clearing his throat and you notice he seems a bit more quiet and shy in the light of day. He seems almost dazed, trying to take in as much of you as he can in just a few seconds, blinking as he processes just how tiny everything you’re wearing is.

“Got you these,” he says, holding out a small bouquet of flowers full of different pastel flowers and greenery. You can tell he put some thought into it, that he didn’t just pick a random bouquet and roll with it, and it makes you smile. 

“Thank you,” you say, studying the flowers for an extra beat. “Such a gentleman,” you coo as you step past him and start to climb into the seat. He huffs a little as you pass and shoots his hand out to grab your wrist, a tight hold as he yanks you back towards him. He doesn’t waste a second before pulling you flush with him, pressing the tops of your tits further out of your dress and onto his chest, covered in a button up shirt. His hand splays along the small of your back, rough and warm, seeping through the fabric of your dress. He leans down, capturing your lips with his.

“Not gonna give me a proper hello, were you?” he rasps once he pulls away. “Thought you were a polite girl.”

Your lips part and spread into a little smile as you lick your lips. “Sorry,” you say, putting your eyes down to the pavement for a moment before lifting them back up to his and cupping his face, raking your fingers through his beard and leaning back in for a soft, chaste kiss. “There’s your hello.”

“Mhm” Joel mumbles before he takes your hand in his, guiding you into his truck where you settle in, wrapping the seatbelt around yourself and watching him walk back around the front of the truck to the drivers side, admiring the way his button up hugs his broad form. 

When he sits down, instead of starting the truck he just looks over at you, drinking in your show of skin, hungry glances all over your body until his gaze lands on your tits, the swells of your breasts heaving slightly as you breathe nervously now that you’re alone with him. 

“You look like a goddamn angel, or somethin’,” he finally says, flicking his eyes to the tops of your stockings, and you notice his jaw set tightly while his hands clench in his lap. He softens a little once he looks at your face, amused eyes looking back into his. “Beautiful,” he adds, and you beam at him, twirling a bit of your hair around one of your fingers.

“Thank you,” you say shyly, leaning a little closer to him, knowing your cleavage is only being pushed together that much more at this angle in your seat. “You want me to be your little angel, Joel?”

“Christ…” he says under his breath, reaching his hands up to grip the steering wheel, knuckles going white with the strain of it. “Think you already seem to know the answer.”

“Well, I’ll take it you like my outfit, then. I picked it out special for you,” you tell him cheerfully, flouncing the skirt of your dress in your lap a bit. 

“Sure do,” he says quickly, starting the car, seeming to need to high tail it out of here before he completely ditches the dinner reservation to have his way with you. You opt to just watch Joel drive, observing his profile with a small, thoughtful smile. You see his brows twitch as he feels your stare on him, and he turns to the side while he’s stopped at a red light, giving you a closed lip smile.

“Did you just ask me on a date because you felt bad?” you ask suddenly, biting the inside of your cheek.

“Felt bad?” Joel asks, turning his eyes back to the road. 

“For what happened the other night.”

Joel huffs in the seat next to you, his head shaking the smallest bit. “You think I felt bad about any of that? What gave you that idea, now?”

“I… I don’t know. I was just surprised you still wanted to take me out after…” you trail off, glancing out the window to try and avoid your own spiraling thoughts.

“C’mon, doll, need to give me more than that. If you don’t wanna be here you gotta say.”

“No!” you cry out a little too loudly.

“If you just need to hear me say that I liked fuckin’ your tight little pussy or whatever gets you off, just say it, yeah? Don’t need these roundabout questions like a little brat,” Joel snips, and you swallow hard, realizing he’s gotten the complete wrong idea.

“N-no, nothing like that, Joel, I… I really want to be here, I really do. I guess I was worried,” you suck in a breath. “That you’d just be done with me after you got what you wanted. That’s what other guys have done. Older guys.” You can feel your voice getting mousier, quieting with your confession, afraid that the answer will be exactly what you’re afraid of. Joel’s expression softens, the lines between his brows letting up as his eyes lighten a bit.

“First off, I ain’t other guys, and I want you gettin’ that in your head right now, okay?” Joel says, glancing over to see you nodding small little bounces of your head, eyes wide. “Okay?” he asks again, a little more stern this time, reaching a hand over to grip your thigh.

“Okay.” 

“Good. An’ I ain’t even close to getting everything I want from you, probably never could be, so don’t wanna hear you say anythin’ like that again, got it?” His grip squeezes on your thigh, and you place your hand over it, covering his hand with your own.

Your mind spins, reeling with such a strong confession from him. You don’t know how it’s possible that after one night together, the both of you have something damn near unexplainable, something that’s been nestling itself deep into you since then. You tilt your head a little, giving him a soft smile, feeling all the worries you’d had this entire week start to melt away.

“Got it,” you tell him with a stern nod, your hair falling over your shoulder.

“Good girl,” he says, patting your thigh a few times. They twitch and clamp together a bit with his praise, the familiar rush of arousal from the other night coming back to you when he used those same words. You catch Joel smirking out of the corner of your eye, the effect he had with those two simple words not lost on him. 

You can see his face steel, his jaw setting tighter as his fingers move up your thigh, unsticking from the bare flesh he’d been touching and climbing upwards.

“You dress like this a lot? Or just wanted to get a rise out of an old man, hm?” he asks, fingers digging into your plush skin a little harder.

You twist your lips into a thoughtful pout, knowing it shows off the shiny pink of your lip gloss a little better, and Joel’s eyes drift there for a brief moment when he glances at you. 

“Sometimes.” You give him an indifferent shrug. “Mostly wanted to see how you liked it.”

“I’ll bet you did,” Joel replies plainly, nearly sounding irritated, but you somehow know that he’s more angry with himself right now, barely able to keep his trembling hand from moving further up your thigh.

“I mean, I thought the stockings might be too much, but don’t you think they go just perfect with this dress?” You trill in an innocent tone to him, moving his hand to play with the lace edges at the top.

“Mmm,” Joel replies, lips pressed tightly together. His fingers bury themselves under the band of the stockings, pads of his calloused hands grazing the skin underneath. You try to hold back a shudder but it’s no use, Joel’s touch is fully electric, sending a zip of pleasure up your spine. 

Your legs spread open wider in the seat, inviting him to move higher and you let out a quieter moan and slide the hem of your dress up a bit higher. You’re warm all over, skin flushing as his hand creeps up towards the apex of your thighs. You admit you’re having even more fun than you thought teasing him. He’d done this same thing to you at the bar, sloppily kissing along your neck until you’d felt nearly insane with need for him, and it gives you a little pump of satisfaction to see him falling apart so quickly. 

“Even got…” you breathe out, “The matching panties on.” Another tiny little mewl slips out when Joel’s fingertips slide along your inner thigh, ever closer to where you know you’re already wet for him. He peers over to see your chest heaving a bit, curves looking so inviting - all it would take was one little tug and your tits would be spilling out, just as they had the other night, so pretty and just for him. 

“Fuck it,” Joel grunts out, tearing his hand away from you and pulling off to the side of the road, turning into a passing neighborhood and swinging the car into the closest driveway to turn around. “I live close by, we’re goin’ to my place right now,” he says. “Fuckin’ wearin’ this little shit to get me all worked up…” His voice is mumbling now, seemingly to angrily talk to himself as he keeps his eyes straight ahead, not looking at you. 

His face is going pink with the effort of holding back from you, grunting while he maneuvers the car and speeds off, booking it towards his house. Your mouth forms perfect O before it splits into a grin, knowing you got exactly what you wanted from him. Something about driving a man like Joel crazy - someone who seems reserved, in control of these kinds of situations, makes you feel a little spark of pride mixed with your dousing of arousal.

“Teach you some damn manners, that’s what I’m gonna do,” Joel mumbles quietly, letting out little sighs of irritation.

“J-joel…?” you ask carefully.

“Mm-mm, not a word right now. You’ve said enough.”

You clamp your lips together, knowing you maybe shouldn’t be as thrilled as you are right now, feeling like sparks are dancing across your skin, magnifying right where Joel holds you, squeezing to where it might leave a bruise tomorrow, as if to hold you down, keep you in this car with him.

“Please…” you whimper, unsure what you’re asking for, just knowing you’re growing more desperate to feel him on you, inside of you.

“Please nothin’. You’re gonna act like this, I’m gonna react accordingly, you got that?” Joel snips, veins on his forehead protruding as he drives along, unable to even look in your direction. You stay silent while he whips through a suburban neighborhood, finally pulling into his driveway. 

“Stay,” he spits out before exiting the car, coming over to your side and opening the door. 

“Thank you,” you coo sweetly, which gets a devious smirk from Joel. 

“You’re tryin’ to be good now, are you?” he scoffs, wrapping his hand around your upper arm. 

“Thought you liked fucking good girls,” you say with a sly smile, repeating his own words back to him. He chuckles low and deep in his chest before tugging you out of the car, keeping one hand on your arm and the other pressed on your lower back, guiding you to the front door. Instead of letting you step out of the way, he presses himself so that you’re between his body and the door as he reaches around to unlock it, keys clanking in his awkward position. 

You can feel him, hard and long, cock painfully erect and pressing against your ass. You fight the urge to grind into him, thinking that maybe he may not see that as something a good girl would do. Instead, you let a little whimper slip out when he digs into you deeper as he turns the nob and pushes the door in. 

“Gonna be makin’ a lot more of those pretty little noises soon, honey,” he says low, near your ear as he nudges you inside. It’s dark, only bits of the setting sun coming through the windows, and you fumble past the doorway, the only anchor you have is Joel’s hand on your back. 

He flicks a switch, illuminating the room with a dim floor lamp, and you can see that you’ve stepped into his living room. It’s modest but cozy, and definitely seems to ooze his busy, bachelor lifestyle with plain, somewhat mismatched furniture. You had to hand it to him, though, just upon first glance he seemed relatively clean, unlike some men’s places you’d visited. 

“This is a nice pl-“ you start, cut off by one of Joel’s arms wrapping around your torso and pulling you into him with a thud. Your back is tight against his chest now, his head burying near the crook of your neck. He’s kissing you urgently - every spot he can find, biting and sucking and flicking his tongue, all gentle but firm, full of an unrelenting passion and frustration.

He groans loudly, hand tracing up your chest to grasp at one of your tits, squeezing it firmly and running his finger over your nipple. Both are hard and aching for him, poking through the fabric of your dress with no bra holding them back. He sucks so hard on a spot on the side of your neck that you gasp and twitch in his hold. He chuckles, quickly soothing the spot with his tongue and lips. 

“Couldn’t wait for me to get my hands on you, is that it? Why you dressed like that, hopin’ I’d bring you back here? Say fuck the nice dinner reservation I made us?” he finally speaks, nearly growling in your ear.

“I just - I-“ you stutter, mind reeling from his warmth blazing into your skin now, his voice rumbling close to your ear, low and gritty and sounding… almost angry with you. You feel a tightening in your core, pooling between your legs and you already start to ache for him, turned on by the way he’s chastising you and covering you with marks. 

“You were such a good girl the other night for me, can you do that again? Or you want to keep bein’ a brat?”

“N-no I liked being good for you, remember?” you blurt out, chest heaving and body fighting the urge to squirm out of his arms and show him, get on your knees and finally get him in your mouth. 

“Didn’t seem to think so in the car… if I didn’t know any better you wanted me to punish you, fuck you fuckin’ dumb ‘til you submit to me. And the thing is, honey, I like my girls to be good f’me. Don’t wanna have to work for it unless I want to.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I just wanted to play around, make you a little crazy for me,” you say with a whine, your bottom lip starting to quiver. 

“C’mere, lemme see you,” Joel says, a quick grunt as he spins you around, catching you along your back with one hand, tilting your head up by the chin with the other. He takes in your wide, pleading eyes, plump lips turned into a frightened frown, and sighs. 

“S’okay, doll,” he says much softer, thumbing your chin and then stroking his fingers up your cheek. “Lucky for you I was in the mood to work for it a bit tonight, and you know why that is?”

You shake your head mutely, absolutely dumbstruck by his dark eyes narrowed and looking straight into yours. He’s so beautiful, so much more than you even remembered from the other night. It nearly sends an ache into your chest, just how perfect he is. 

“‘Cause you’re worth it, pretty girl. What kinda man would I be if I didn’t have to work for it a bit, hm?” His voice is changed, a bit more flexible, his tone coming off kinder now. You feel a surprised smile tugging at your mouth and you let it spread a bit, showing Joel that you’re pleased with what he said. 

“Show you how pretty you are…” he trails off, his eyes drifting down to your chest, where he’s watching your curves spilling out the top, your dress pulled down from the way he’d been touching you there. He tugs slowly on the fabric, pulling it so your tits are both spilling out, letting the neckline tuck underneath and press them upwards. 

He leans down to capture your lips in a softer kiss, letting your lips and tongues begin a gentle dance with each other. Joel’s fingers make their way under your dress, sliding the hem up to reach your ass, large palms splaying across both globes. He pulls you even closer, grinding you against his arousal and you groan, absolutely soaking for him, needing for him to touch you where you want him most. 

“Got your ass and tits out like a little whore for me now, don’t you? Like being my little whore?” he grits out, and you nod with a quiet mhm, lolling your head back as he places a few little bites on your neck. 

“Let me fuck you in that bathroom and comin’ home with me the first date ‘fore I can even buy you dinner,” Joel tuts, continuing to knead the plush flesh on your ass, stepping forward so that you have no choice but to walk backwards and further into the living room. He smacks your ass hard before rubbing the spot with a soothing touch. 

“Now get inside and take what you’ve been askin’ for, honey,” he says, stroking the side of your face gently. 

“W-where do you want me?” you ask timidly, looking into his chest before trying to meet his eyeline. He’s so intimidatingly in charge right now you can hardly meet his gaze, dark brown, nearly black in the dimness of the house. 

Joel seems to like your question, smirking and stroking your cheek again, calloused fingers sending a jolt of electricity that travels down your spine. “Good girl for askin’,” he coos, a flash of excitement in his eyes at your docility for him. He takes his hands to your shoulders, gently guiding you to stand in front of the couch. He turns and sinks back into the cushions, watching you stand in front of him, anxious with anticipation. 

“You gonna dress like a slutty little doll, I’m gonna treat ya like one and play with you as long as I want, yeah?” A quick, stunned nod from you before he continues. “Now take off that pretty dress,” he says, his tone deepening with the command. His eyes are glued to your chest where your tits are still popping out of the top, practically burning a hole in you with the intensity, heat creeping over your skin. You lift from the bottom, pulling it over your head in one slow movement, standing before Joel in only the skimpy lacy thong you’d chosen for tonight - white to match your dress and stockings. You reach to pull the stockings down and Joel shakes his head, eyes snapping to where your hands are. 

“Mm-mm, didn’t tell you to do that now, did I? Leave those on, doll. Panties next,” he drawls, and you follow his command, stepping out of your thong and leaving it on the floor beneath your feet. You take a nervous gulp, waiting for his next words, feeling right between your legs slickening even more as his eyes hungrily take you in. 

“C'mon over and sit right here,” Joel says, patting his lap. His words have an immediate effect, just like when he’d asked you to get on your knees at the bar, your body moving for him of its own accord. You pad over the few steps to him and settle yourself onto his lap so that you’re facing him, thighs on either side of his. Joel’s hands find your hips, holding you and stroking his thumbs along your bare skin there. There’s such a stark difference between the two of you right now - Joel, fully clothed, not even a button undone yet on his shirt, and you with the entirety of your body naked and exposed save for your stockings, sitting on top of him because he’d asked for it. All the fabric on your bare skin feels odd in the best way, like you’re doing something so wrong yet so right at the same time, like you’re Joel’s dirty little secret somehow with the way he has you in the palm of his hand right now.

He cocks his head a little, looking at you more seriously now. “Now listen, should’ve said this the other night, but you saw how I like to be in charge of things, right?” he says.

You nod. “Yeah,” you breathe out, just barely. You’re distracted by the feel of his broad, muscled body beneath you, his hard length pressing into you through his jeans. You feel your head swimming but you try to focus on his words.

“So tonight if it gets to be too much, if somethin’ is wrong, you gotta call out ‘red’ for me, mkay?”

You nod again. 

“Gonna need you to use your words, honey.”

“Yes, I got it. Red,” you repeat back to him, and the ghost of a smile comes to his lips. 

“Good girl,” Joel says, tucking your hair behind your ears and smoothing it. “Now…” he trails off, his grip tightening on you in an instant to flip you off of him and next to him on the couch cushions, his body following closely behind so that he’s on top of you. His mouth crashes into yours, all heat and tongue and teeth clashing and you moan into it with surprise, still trying to get your bearings from all the sudden movement.

He slips down your body, his lips trailing a hot, wet mess along the way as he sucks your neck, your tits, briefly swirling a tease of his tongue over one of your nipples before he finds his way between your legs. They fall open for him in your dizzied state and he takes no pause before burying his head there, licking fat stripe up your slit, groaning loudly at the taste of you. He licks the same pattern several times, relishing in all the slick arousal that was just for him, he thinks greedily.

When Joel starts to lap at your cunt in earnest, his tongue poking your entrance before flicking at your clit, repeating the motions over and over, you throw your head back, whining loudly and writhing down into his face and chasing your pleasure.

“F-fuck, I’m -” you whimper. “Joel I’m already gonna -” Your legs shake and he seizes one of your thighs into his palms before the other hand slips between your legs and swiftly buries two fingers inside of you, going deep to press against your g-spot. You’d thought endlessly about that feeling since the night with him in the bar, the way he’d been the first person to show you what you’d been missing, to bring you world ending pleasure when he split you open. You’re desperate for it again, knowing his fingers are enough, but you can’t help but picture the way his girth had stretched you, pressed into you so deeply that you already felt addicted to it.

When he pulls your clit into his mouth, pressing on the spongy part inside of you at the same time, you cry out, feeling your hips bucking into him, body taut and shaking as he pulls your orgasm out of you. His name spills from your lips as easily as anything you’ve ever said in your life, like you’ve been saying it for years and no other man has existed for you, could exist for you.

You slump back, breathless and wanting, a sheen of sweat coating your body from the intensity with which he’d rocked your reality, and you quickly realize he’s likely far from done with you tonight. It makes your stomach churn with anticipation, and you bring yourself back, focusing on the gentle touch of his lips on your sensitive nerves, peppering your pussy with little kisses, leading out to your thighs.

“Good fucking girl f’me, didn’t take long at all, did it?” he says wryly. 

“M-more…” you mumble, blinking your eyes to clear some of the post-climax fog you’re feeling, but it’s no use - Joel can see already how fucked out you are, barely even five minutes in. His heart swells with pride, excitement, the sick satisfaction of having you under his thumb, his to devour completely, body and soul.

He presses a kiss to your forehead, then your nose, finally meeting your desperate, soft lips with his. He’s on top of you, his body slithering over yours again, pressing against you. Your hands reach up and start to unbutton his shirt, hesitantly at first, but a small noise of approval from him urges you on, indicating that he’s okay with you making that decision. When he finally shrugs it off, you take a moment to pull yourself back from his kisses to gaze down at him, his bare chest revealed to you for the first time. You feel your sex ache as fresh arousal starts to drip out of you seeing the salt and pepper of the curls on his chest, his defined but still soft abdomen, so inviting and sexy. You start to feel nearly feral, your gut coiling tight with the need for him to fuck you again, to watch his perfect body relentlessly use you for his own pleasure.

“S-shit…” you manage to gasp out when you gingerly run a hand down his chest, letting your nails scratch through his hair, and Joel hums against you as his lips find your shoulder. You rake your fingers downwards, leading all the way to his happy trail where you leave your fingers to rest on his belt. He looks delighted at your visceral reaction to his body, never thinking much of it himself, the way it had gotten slightly doughy with age and his hair had already started graying. But seeing you see so much in it that he can feel your legs tighten underneath him, pussy likely fluttering just at the sight, makes his core twist in pleasure and his cock twitch.

He caresses your face gently, his touch soft despite the mischief growing in his eyes. “Don’t think you learned your lesson yet, bein’ such a brat in the car,” he says, letting you start to undo his belt. When his cock springs out, you nearly start again at how length and thick it is, nearly having forgotten just how stunning it was outside the confines of your memory. 

Joel notices your fresh reaction to his cock, the length of him twitching in anticipation to fuck you to pieces, to fuck you into being a good girl again. He can’t help but remember just how much it had shut you up to take his cock just a few nights ago, and he nearly whimpers at the memory alone. 

“N-no? Don’t think so?” you tease back, grinding yourself against his bare and freed cock and Joel responds first with a surly little growl, two of his fingers possessively gripping your chin. His eyes flash in a way that you think should scare you, but you can’t help but feel comforted by Joel’s presence nonetheless.

“Exactly what I’m talkin’ about, bratty little ass, y’are. And let me fill you in on somethin’ for your own good,” he drawls, running his thumb along your lower lip. Your breath is baited as your lips part in invitation to him and he doesn’t slip it inside, not yet, at least. He hikes your hip up with his other hand, angling you towards his body as he steps closer between your legs. “I don’t like brats, I want my girl to be nice ‘n good to me. Are you gonna be nice ‘n good to me, doll?” he says, finishing the thought.

You swallow hard. You don’t know how serious he is, if this is part of some bigger game of his, this dominance he likes to have. You feel a pull in your heart, like you find yourself agreeing with him, that the look he’d given you when he called you good girl and obedient the other night were exactly what you’d been seeking your entire life. There was something there, something to take pride in, that he thought you were doing good enough for him. You’d wanted to tease him tonight, sure, make sure he still thought you were beautiful and sexy, afraid you’d get left behind so quickly in the more than likely slew of women he could have interested in him. Joel’s version of sexy just happened to be someone submissive for him, and the way you’d felt being that for him the other night, so far tonight, it was exhilarating, like a part of you that you’d had no idea existed until now, until him.

“I don’t want to be a brat,” you say quietly, gazing up at him with delicate eyes now, having your decision made. You reach a hand down to his cock, practically pulsating with need for you, sitting so close to your warm heat as he hovers above you. You gently palm it, wrapping your hand around the shaft, admiring the fact that your fingers can’t even fit around the expansive girth of it.

“I want to be your good girl,” you breathe, and Joel’s eyebrow cocks before his thumb settles into your mouth as he groans a little. You sit still, the saltiness of his skin so inviting but you don’t dare move, feeling that it's some kind of test, one you intend on passing.

Joel knows that you’ve figured it out. He strokes the side of your hair lovingly with his free hand and chuckles deep and low, the sound reverberating in the quiet room.

“Suck,” he finally commands, and immediately you suckle on his thumb, hollowing your cheeks and swirling your tongue around it. Joel’s eyes flutter a bit and he groans between the feel of your hand on his cock and warm tongue wrapping around his thumb. He pushes it deeper and deeper, another one of his fingers entering your mouth, met with the same enthusiasm by your tongue. He gives a final push of his fingers, gagging you, and your hand falls off his cock, having you distracted enough that you barely notice he’s notched himself at your entrance. When he splits you open with his head you gasp around his fingers, stuffed far back in your throat. It burns and aches and stretches but you feel exhilarated by it, awakened and alive by the absolute girth of him breaking you open and finding a place inside of you as he pushes on inch by inch.

“Good girl,” he whispers roughly, eyes intently locked onto yours as they widen and tear up with all the different intrusive sensations. But despite all of that, your insides warm at his words, finding a home in your heart and nestling in. That’s when you know for sure - you’re done for, you’re a goner, this is the man you’ll spend your life doing this for, chasing and seeking those two little words from him no matter what it takes. You want this.

“Y’sure that’s what you want? Be my good little doll? Be sure before I use you like one,” he says, checking in with you quietly, his lips lingering just above yours.

You nod, your breath hitching, and he can see the fear of the unknown in your eyes, but he smiles at your willingness to try for him. “I want it, I want it, use me, Joel,” you breathe out erratically, the words tumbling out of you without a second thought.

The next moment is nearly a blur, a switch seeming to flip in Joel as pops his fingers out of your mouth, grunting with the effort of yanking your hips upwards so that you have no choice but to wrap your legs around him. He begins a relentless fucking into you, pounding his cock over and over, and its only now that you can see just how well controlled he had been these last few minutes, so collected only to unleash it on you now. Your eyes squeeze shut, rolling back into your head as you bite back the cries of him stretching you so quickly and harshly, so much more rough than the other night.

“Fuck…” he groans, “Tight little pussy, could never forget how good it feels, just like I remembered, baby,” he praises as he continues to jackhammer into you. Your body is crumpled up underneath his huge frame on the couch, legs moving further up his body until they nearly reach his shoulders. He takes the initiative to tug them that way, propping your ankles onto his shoulders before he takes a swift bite at one of them. You yelp but quiet immediately, letting the soft moans you’d been making slip past your lips again instead. 

You see Joel’s approval in his smirk, the way his face contorts with pleasure as he goes red from exertion, his body gathering sweat as you run a desperate hand down his chest. You feel so far away in this position, your lips so far from his, wanting to feel your skin touching in every possible spot. You’re drunk on him already and need more, more of his warmth and his scent and the feeling of him. 

“I want to - p-please, feel you closer, please…” you beg, hoping that your politeness will win him over into doing something that you want.

“Yeah? Want to bounce on this fat cock of mine, pretty girl? That do you some good?”

You nod quickly and urgently, breathing in with the anticipation of being moved as Joel pushes his cock as deep as he can before bracing himself to swap your spots. It feels effortless, the way he contorts the both of you until he’s laying back on the sofa and you’re straddled on top of him. 

“Oh my god…” you murmur when you sink fully down onto him. Your head tilts back and mouth gapes open as you feel him so fully, pressing so deep inside of you at this angle. “Joel…”

“I know, baby, m’so deep in there,” Joel says soothingly now, his demeanor changed for the moment. He starts to move your body for you, achingly slow on his cock while he urges your hips up and down. One hand slides to your belly, gently pushing low down on your abdomen. “Feel m’self right in there, baby, right where I’m meant to be,” he coos, looking at his hand in amazement. 

“Feels so fuckin’... so good,” you whine, starting to move more quickly on top of him. You can’t compare it to anything else, anyone else you’ve ever been with, the way Joel’s cock stretches you with each new thrust, the pain giving way to an aching pleasure as your walls are stimulated over and over by him.

“C’mere,” Joel grunts out, wrapping his bulky biceps around your back and pulling you down so that your top half is more flat against his chest. He slips one hand into your hair, bringing you in for a deep, hungry kiss that you both moan into. At this angle he holds more power, able to thrust up into you after he bends his knees. You’re losing all sense of time, of sensation and noise around you, just Joel Joel Joel Joel Joel fucking into you with everything he’s got, his hot breath on your neck and ear and buried into the side of your hair. His lips warm and wet on any part he can find while you take and take and take what he’s doling out, your cunt starting to ache from the way he’s pounding into you but desperately begging for more, fluttering around his length. Your moans ramp up when you feel your clit start to brush against the curls at the base of his cock, his name whispered into his neck in between your cries. 

“There we go, doll, get what y’need, c’mon,” he says near your ear, urging you on. You’re only brought back to some semblance of reality as Joel smacks your ass with a swift, hard slap and you moan out. A new flutter and gush from your cunt around him makes Joel grunt and he fucks up into you like a crazed, possessed man, intent on only you you you. 

“Tha’s right, honey, so fuckin’ wet for me,” Joel grits, his hips snapping in a nearly impossible pace into you. You think you’re starting to black out, your vision a bit spotty from how hard he’s ramming the entirety of his cock into you, your g-spot so stimulating along with your clit and you’re grasping at the cushions on either side of you, nearly pounding your fists into them as Joel holds you close, not letting you move an inch, not letting this climax get away from either of you. 

“God, Joel, fuck… I c-can’t -“ you whine, your entire body tightening, damp with sweat as your tits slide across his chest with each new thrust. 

“Y’can, now be a good girl and come for me,” Joel says, hot heat of his lips meeting yours for a sloppy kiss, both of your tongues half missing the others’ mouth, making a mess on your faces full of saliva and the remnants of your lip gloss. Everything is so slick, slippery, and you gush between your legs, your wet arousal dripping out around where he enters you again and again. 

You snap, the invisible tether you’ve visualized inside of yourself finally breaking and you let go, practically convulsing on top of Joel with erratic grunts and moans and the lewdest sounds you’ve ever heard yourself make. You bear down on his cock as he rides you through the waves of ecstasy that take over your entire being. 

“Good girl,” he coos over and over, his quiet praises only serving to plunge you further into this blinding hot cavern of bliss that you’ve fallen into. You can feel how his cock slips in and out around the way you’re creaming over his length, and you finally quiet into his chest, a spent mess. 

Joel stops moving for a moment, giving you time to catch your breath as he strokes the back of your head. You nearly want to purr with the contentment you feel as he lightly drags his fingers across your head.

“Your turn,” you finally say, a wry smile pulling at your lips. You pick yourself up a bit, wiggling your hips on him and hissing a little at the oversensitivity of your shot nerves. 

“My turn,” Joel echoes, a devious little twinkle in his eye is all you see before he sits up, pulling you close and kissing you as he ruts his hips into yours a few times. He quickly pulls out of you, handling your body roughly but smoothly as he turns you, pushing you down, knees on the cushions and chest pressing against the back of the couch. He crowds behind you, spreading your knees for you and you can feel his wet cock slap against your ass as he positions you and then himself. 

Joel’s cock forces its way between your legs again, immediately sliding into your wet heat. You bristle a little under the full size of him again, determined to take it like the good girl you say you are and let him spill every drop of cum he has inside of you. You realize you’ve said some version of that out loud in your mental fog when Joel chuckles a low, devious little noise and slams into you hard. 

“Yeah? Want all my cum, want to have me fuckin’ my cum into you, fillin’ you up?” Joel asks and you nod dazedly in reply. He plants a firm hand on your back, sinking you into the back of the couch while he pounds into you, chasing after his pleasure, using you to get himself off. You’ve never been more turned on, and you feel the creeping need of desire filling low in your belly again. 

Joel’s free hand starts to smack your ass relentlessly, as if to spur you on while you bounce your hips back into his movements. 

“Yeah, pretty girl, so good, takin’ this cock like a good girl,” he chants, erratic movements of his hips telling you how close he is. 

“Fuck, fuck, so tight…” he bellows out, “Gonna come inside you, baby.” One more thrust and he’s done for, his hips sputtering and stopping deep inside of you as he unleashes while your cunt flutters, your body reacting in pure effervescent joy to feel his spend coating you again. Joel wraps his arms around your chest, yanking you to fall back with him so that you’re laying side by side, tangled in each other's arms. You both breathe heavily, sweat and stickiness intermingling as you lay so close. 

“We missed our dinner reservation,” Joel says after a few moments of silence stating the very obvious. “We could order some takeout, how’s that sound?”

You listen to the beat of his heart where your head rests on his chest, steady and strong as it still comes down from his climax. You hum a little approving noise, nodding your head. 

“Yeah, that sounds good,” you tell him, barely able to care much about anything else right now. You think in this completely fucked out, limp state you’d let him feed you practically anything, spooning each bite into your mouth like you’re a helpless child. The thought makes you shudder a bit, a feeling of fear creeping over you that someone could have such an effect on you as to change you like that, to pull this side of you out that you’d buried deep inside. 

“Don’t wanna move, though,” you whine, snuggling down onto his chest. 

“I know, I know,” Joel says soothingly with a hand running down your hair. “Gonna have to eat to keep up with what I’m gonna do to ya next, though.”

You lift an intrigued brow and glance up at his face to find him already giving you an amused expression. “I’ll order us some food, why don’t you put on your pretty dress again and we’ll pretend we got our date, how about that?” he says.

You bite your lip in an effort not to smile too widely, and you give him another nod of agreement, finally sitting up and then clambering off the couch and stretching. Joel’s eyes roam your still bare body, unable to believe he could be ready for another round this quickly when his cock twitches at the sight. You throw on your dress and adjust it, smoothing the sides of your hair. 

“How do I look?” you ask innocently with a twirl, as if he hadn’t just been buried deep inside of you, stealing any semblance of reality from your very being. 

“Perfect,” he says with a chuckle. 

Joel orders Chinese food, and the two of you sit at his kitchen table, a candle lit that Joel had dug out from deep within a cabinet sitting between you two at the table. 

While you’re already sure the physical attraction with Joel isn’t wanting for anything, you’re pleasantly surprised to find that you two are connecting on all sorts of topics - from old country music that you listened to growing up to your dream vacation destinations. It seems like you two have more and more in common the longer you talk, or at the least, have an interest in the things the other person is saying. You can’t help but feel like you have a lot to learn from Joel, someone who has life experience, different interests (“old man interests” you tease him), and a whole new perspective on the world. You could listen to him for hours, sitting with your chin in your hand and lashes fluttering as you gaze at his perfect lips speaking about all of these new things. 

“Can I tell you something?” you finally say during a quiet moment, when your plates have long been pushed away, swirling your third glass of wine in your hand. One foot is planted on the dining chair, knee tucked up to your chin where you rest it, lip worrying in between your teeth. 

“Mhm, ‘course,” Joel says casually, sipping from his own glass. 

“When I said I couldn’t find my passion before… I’ve always known what it is, what I want out of life. I just can’t… say it because it sounds, well, silly.”

“Try me,” Joel replies coolly, his eyes flickering with curiosity. 

“I’ve always wanted to be -“ you hesitate, swallowing hard. “The reason someone comes home. The person they come home to. That’s it. That’s all I want. My parents… they never had that. Sure, they came home, but only because there wasn’t anything else to do, nowhere else to go. I never felt it from them. I’ve always wanted to just take care of someone and be that for them…” you confess, trailing off as your cheeks heat with the tipsy confession, slightly embarrassed to reveal it to Joel. 

He considers your words with a small hmm and a cock of his head. “You’re talkin’ about a marriage, yeah? You wanna be a married woman.”

You nod, breathing out a sigh. “Women I know, and my parents, oh god, would probably freak out if that’s what I told them. That I just want to be someone’s wife, make each other happy. Be there for them. It’s something I’ve been too scared to admit until now, because my parents just want me to go to school, get a job, and be successful in the ways they’re successful, but…” you pause to glance at Joel, then back down to the table, tracing your nail along the knots in the wood. “What if I want to be successful in the ways they aren’t?”

Joel’s face contorts slightly, feeling your pain. “You gotta do what you need, sweetheart. Fuck what anyone else says,” he says plainly. “I can relate, y’know. I was married before.”

You snap your gaze up to him, somehow surprised, but realizing maybe you shouldn’t be, that this man is well into his forties now and has lived an entire life before ever laying eyes on you. “Yeah? And…”

“Was all pressure. Wasn’t right. Divorced over ten years ago, so don’t feel too sorry f’me. Her parents had all this pressure on us gettin’ married but I knew she wasn’t the right one for me. Ended up divorcin’ five years later.” He tuts at the memory - the waste of time, the endless arguments, the strain of it all for nothing.

“I’m sor-“ you start, cut off by Joel grabbing your hand across the small table, dwarfing it in his palm.

“Said don’t be sorry for me, yeah? I’m sittin’ here with you now, aren’t I?”

A smile tickles at the corners of your lips and you look down bashfully, letting your fingers curl around his. “Yeah, guess that’s true.”

“Come on over here,” Joel says, patting his lap and setting his wine glass on the table with a small clink. 

You slide out of your chair, padding over and getting into his lap effortlessly. His fingers spread along your back to support you and you curl your legs up, resting against his chest. 

“Y’know marriage is a lot, right? I know you know, you’re a smart girl, can tell you’ve thought about this.”

“I know,” you snip. “It’s not something I’ve ever taken lightly. I just… that’s what I want.” You don’t know how to express to him the yearning deep inside of you, the way you’d watch your parents moving in parallel lives, just happening to share children and a home, and wishing for anything more than that. Praying you’d never meet that same fate, that you’d be so sickly, passionately in love with your future spouse that the entire world could know from a single glance. That you’d give your life to make sure they were well taken care of, and they’d do the same for you.

“Sweet girl,” Joel says quietly, nuzzling his nose against the top of your head. “I know you’ll get what you’re lookin’ for. Anyone’d be lucky to have you.”

Your skin heats at his close contact and adoring words, your stomach twisting a little with the anticipation that it could be him - could Joel be the one lucky to have you, as he said?

“W-would you?” you stutter out, licking your suddenly desert dry lips. “Have me?”

“Honey, I’d have you a hundred different ways and never tire of it. Such a sweet, smart, special little thing you are.”

Your lips purse into a smile, fighting the urge to giddily giggle right in his lap. You tilt your head up to kiss him, a motion he gladly returns as he deepens it for a few moments, tasting remnants of the wine on each other's tongues. 

“That what you want? Want me to have ya?” he asks quietly, the question carrying more weight in your mind than maybe he’d meant. 

“Yes,” you say, a whisper into the quiet air of his house.

“Stay w’me then, this weekend. Don’t wanna let you out of my sight.”

You nod, nearly imperceptible as your mouths meet again, passion driving the kisses now as you squirm in his lap, desire igniting every cell of your body. Joel chuckles against your already puffy lips and shakes his head. 

“Gonna ruin me, you know that?”

Three months later, Joel proposes to you in a park you frequently walk in together, a perfectly sunny and breezy spring day with the smell of fresh blooms surrounding you. You have on a pink dress, matching the explosion of color around you in the budding and blossoming trees and bushes. Joel wraps a hand around yours before getting down on one knee and revealing a solitaire diamond in a black velvet box, promising you all of the things you’d revealed to him in private months before. Someone to come home to. Someone who will come home to you. Succeed together in all the ways you’ve always wanted. Cherish you. And most importantly, love you for who you are.

[cottondo]

Fizzarolli x reader | black lace

chapter three ; glitter

When you first got the phone call from Ozzie's, you hadn't expected it. And you definitely weren't expecting the one to call you to actually be Fizzarolli. You told your manager at Loo Loo Land that you had to go home early because of an 'emergency'. He didn't care, so you left early anyway.

With the fact that you were going to be ON STAGE, NEXT TO FIZZ, you had to make sure that you looked good. Your hair was done up, makeup on point, and your outfit was sexy. Even if you were going to be changed into something else for the stage, you wanted to make sure that Fizz saw you in the hottest state you could possibly be in.

Your phone screen lit up, and you saw the text glowing on the lock screen.

[ UNKNOWN NUMBER ] :

— It's fizz. You here yet?

Your heart skipped a beat, and your excitement returned. He texted you. Fizzarolli fucking texted you!

You smile, bringing the phone up to your face and typed back,

TO: [ UNKNOWN NUMBER ]

— at the doors

  

   

The bright blue sign buzzed above you, shining the name of the man held responsible for the club. When you walked inside, it was loud. Glasses clinked together, demons and imps chat at their tables, and even some music was playing overhead. Your steps were timid, yet, there was a way that you held yourself, that still made you look confident.

Your gaze skipped across the room, until it landed right on Fizz. He was looking around the room, eyes curious. You came to realize that . . he didn't know what you looked like.

How the hell was he supposed to find you?

This left some ideas running through your mind, but you figured playing it cool would be best. As much as you wanted to run up to him, and tackle him to the floor in kisses, it wasn't ideal. He'd probably kick your ass out as fast as he could.

You put on the most confident smirk you can, and walked up to him with ease. Using a finger, you tap on his shoulder and hold back the excitement growing in the pit of your stomach. "How were you supposed to know who to look for, if you don't know what I look like~?" You tease, leaning over to his shoulder.

He turned around, first glancing to what touched his shoulder. After finding out it was a hand— his eyes quickly followed up your arm, and to your face, eyes widening. "Oh- - shit." He stumbled back one step, and while being wide eyed, checked you out. "You're the one I called in?"

You nod. The smile wasn't able to hold back any longer, and breaks through your little confidence act. He nods, giving you another look up and down. "Good choice on my end. You're gonna be getting us lots of attention tonight."

If you could have, you'd faint. You held yourself together, though, and laughed instead. "That 'a good thing?" You tease.

He smirks a bit, hand on his hip. "Oh yeah. Kid, I'm almost sorry I tossed out your application."

Shit. You weren't sure if you should feel flattered, or kind of mad about that. You shrug instead, thinking of a better comeback. "I am too."

He eases into a weaker smile, and nudges you to follow him. "So, what the hell are you doing working at Loo Loo Land? I went through your resume again tonight after fishing it out of the garbage, and . . yeah. Y'know, I'm still looking for the fucker that burned that place down."

You walk beside him, noticing as he picks up the pace through some of the crowd. The clientele was staring at you both.

He really didn't have to rub it in your face that he clearly didn't want to pick you for the job tonight. However, it was done, and he did. So that's all that mattered now.

"Oh, that place. Uh, I'm actually the tech for . . your robot double. Apparently the managers over there worked pretty fast to get the place back up and running. It was under construction for a while." It was almost embarrassing to admit it to him, but working on his double might come off as weird. You wished you could take it back, but it was too late.

Fizz almost tripped, catching your eye and frowning with a hint of concern. "What?" A short laugh breaks through his words, "So, you've got the experience with me, then, huh?" He snickers.

You decide to laugh along with him and nod. "I guess you could say that."

"Great, I'm sure you're already sick of seeing my face, then." He rolls his eyes playfully, and pushes open a door to the employee rooms for you. You sneak past him under his arm, and smile. "Pshh . . only a little bit." The smirk from over your shoulder caused him to tilt his head to the side and smile back. "I figured."

  He guides you down the hallway, up to a room with his name on it. You glance it over once before he steps inside, nudging for you to follow. The door shuts behind you, and you take a quick look around. Different outfits, props, ash trays, and other objects, lay around the room in an organized fashion. It smells like cologne, and smoke.

You absolutely adore it.

"So, here's the deal." Fizzarolli snaps his fingers, and it brings you out of the trance you've been in. "You're going to be my show girl! I'm gonna throw flaming arrows at you, and you're going to do your best to not get hit."

Suddenly, your eyes widen a bit. "Really-?"

"It'll be a piece of cake, doll. Don't worry." His hand waves you off, arm ribbed and bending freely. Fizz turns his back to you, and digs through a cardboard box situated on the floor. You watch nervously as he pulls out an outfit similar to his. Except . . it was a two piece. You'd be sporting his colorful stripes, only it was a tight fitting, two piece, that showed lots of skin. Hot.

"Change into that, and you'll be good to go." He shoves it into your hands. When you felt his fingers touch yours, you ignore all the worry and focus on him instead.

"Okay, cool. Should I find a bathroom or—"

"This is a dressing room, honey. You're gonna have to get used to demons staring at your ass. I'm not looking, don't worry." You catch him rolling his eyes, facing away from you to work on something else.

'Wish you were.' You think to yourself.

You idle there for a quick moment, and bite your bottom lip. "Okay."

Stepping back a few feet, you look around in the darkness of the corner, and slip off your bottoms, holding up the new outfit you'd been chosen to wear. "So, aren't we supposed to practice the act or whatever?" You ask, slipping into the new cheeky shorts. You pull them up and over your hips, and button the high waist.

"Yeah, scratch that." Fizz looks himself over in the mirror, catching your gaze for a split second. Noticing your eyes, he looks away again. "Too many people got here early tonight. I wasn't expecting that to happen. You must be a bad luck charm."

That made something sink in the pit of your stomach, but you brush it off as just a joke. "Nah, I'm the best damn good luck charm you'll ever get." You smirk at his reflection in the mirror and begin to take your top off.

He shrugs, looking away again. "Call yourself what you want, I guess. At least you're doing good for my robot double. I mean, I've heard he's been in some pretty good shape now."

You smile to yourself, slipping the new uniform top on. It was a bit snug, but that was fine. You fix any wrinkles it had, and smooth out the material. "He's still pretty glitchy, I can't even lie." You look up from the shirt, and gaze at him through your sight in the mirror. "Allot of demons really like it though." Your shoulder shrugs. You meet him at the vanity, hanging your previous clothe pieces over a chair, and stand beside him in the mirror to look over your makeup, and of course, check out the new outfit on you.

Fizz watches curiously.

"Allot of them like my doubles, too. I make more money selling those things, than what Loo Loo Land makes." Fizz crosses his arms cross his chest. Having him watch you fix up your makeup felt weird, but in a good way. Part of you was still in total disbelief that this was even happening right now. And getting used to it would be an A-okay thing from now on.

"Freaks that they are. Robots can't be hot." He shakes his head through a little snort.

You turn to look at him, leaning a bit closer to his side. "They can when they look like you." Your smirk catches him off guard. Fizzarolli's eyes widen a bit, and he looks at you with a stiffened back. "I guess you're right. I am pretty hot." He relaxes, waving a hand to back up his statement.

Hot was a total understatement.

"I mean, you're not wrong." You look down at the counter of his vanity, and smile to yourself.

He was so much better in person. RoboFizz was nothing compared to him. The real deal.

"You can say that again, sweetheart." He chuckles to himself, turning his sight away from you, and back into the mirror. You'd gladly repeat it if you really had to.

You smile to yourself instead.

Fizzarolli takes a small container of glitter off of the vanity counter, and looks it over. "Here, slap some of this on. We gotta make you look stage ready." His finger dips in the dish, covering it in colors of silver and gold.

You turn to face him and he holds up a hand, the one free of makeup grabs your face, claws closing tight around your jaw. His other hand, fingers dipped with glitter, nears your eyes.

You hold as still as physically possible. Trying to settle the jittered breathing was the hardest part- - your pulse would easily give it away, if he could feel it, that you were flipping your shit over him.

"I thought I already was." You tease, snorting some laughter. He swipes a few fingers across your face and places the sparkling shimmer where he figured would look good. "Well yeah, but on stage you need to really glow." Fizz shrugs a shoulder. "Now hold still."

"Okay." You speak softly.

Concentration on his face, you blink innocently up at him as he puts a little force into the design on your skin. You gently closed your eyes as his hand travels up to your eyes. Swiping some glitter over your eyelids, he then dusts it on your cheekbones, and exposed chest, with one of the vanity makeup brushes.

"Alright, kid." He steps back, narrowing an eye with thought as you turn to look at yourself in the mirror. It was cute, and he was definitely right; it made your face pop allot more. You nod, smiling at him. "Cutee."

Fizzarolli nods, flicking his tail from behind. "Now, going over some things on your application . ." He shifts his view to the papers that had been sitting on the countertop. Your own gaze travels over to it.

There may have been a few little lies on that. Yes, you've had the experience of working at Loo Loo Land, and yeah, you helped out on stage before over there. But you've never done anything extravagant; like, have flaming arrows fly at you. You just really wanted the job.

"Mhm?" You look over his shoulder and catch his gaze again.

"Where else have you worked that's in the dancing industry?" He asks.

Thinking back, it had been a while, but you did have some stripping experience as one of your first jobs in hell. You needed some quick cash, and that was your answer.

"I worked for someone a while back in the lust ring. He owned a club." You shuffle back and try to forget the thoughts. "Uh, I did some private dancing there for a while."

Fizz must have noticed the discomfort in the features before pressing on, because you saw the way his face cringed for a brief moment. "Great! So, you can do pole tricks, right?"

You weren't exactly a master at it- - but it was easy enough for you to do again. A year long experience with it in the past, you'd be able to do it again without getting too many bruises this time.

"Yeah! Totally." You smile.

"Great, that's all we need." He pushes the papers back into the trashcan underneath the counter, and you watch them flutter down. Shifting your attention back to Fizz, he steps away from your side, and places his hands on his hips. "So, I'm gonna have you on the pole, and you're going to dance. When I shoot the arrows, you're going to dodge them. Easy enough, right?" He grins a bit. You nod. "Sure."

"Maybe I tell some jokes in between sessions, but whatever the audience wants more of." His hand rolls while talking, and you earn more interest. "Usually, they just want the sexy stuff."

You tilt your head to the side in interest. "Do you have any jokes written down?"

He stops at that question, and turns to you curiously. "Some . ." With brows slightly scrunched together, he gives what seems to be an uneasy smile. Maybe it was suspicion?

"You care about my jokes?"

You offer him a softer smile in turn, laughing lightly. Of course you cared about his jokes. Him starting our small as a little boy in the circus industry was what really caught your attention all of those years ago.

Just an IMP trying to make it. And he did.

"Well, yeah. They're the best part of your acts." It was all true, and you clearly meant it.

Fizzarolli nods silently, slowly. Just as he was to speak up again, there was a knock on the door. You turn your head and he slouches. "What is it?"

A little demon pops his head in, looking around the room. He spots you, then Fizz, and cringes. "Shit, sorry, am I interrupting something?"

You slowly turn to look at Fizz and catch his expression. It was neutral.

"No. What do you need?"

"Ozzie wanted me to wish you good luck. He said he's sorry about not being able to preform tonight, but there's another group coming out later to sing." The man steps in the doorway now, hands holding a clipboard.

Fizz nods along, thinking back. "What group?"

"It's Verosika Mayday. The audience is pretty excited about it." He says. Then, two eyes land on you, and smirk. "So, is this your new side piece?"

Oh shit. You really are working with the big boys now. You finally fucking made it! It took some time, but you're here! Now, all you have to do, is just stay calm, and don't get in the way, and—

"No." Fizz scrunches his face at the man. "Y/N's here for a one night stand-in. I needed someone to cover for Ozzie's act tonight."

The mood ended fast, and suddenly, your body shattered in your step.

That's all you were to him? Just . . a stand-in. oh.

"Sure . . well, I'll leave you to it, then!" The demon laughs, nudging Fizz in the arm, before turning on his heel and making his exit out the door. Fizz slams the door shut behind him, and rolls his eyes, turning back to you.

It was more than obvious that Fizzarolli didn't like the guy— or, well, demon. He lets out an irritable sigh and steps around your idling frame in the middle of the dressing room.

"Hey, sweetheart,"

You snap back to reality and turn to face him. "Yeah?"

"Let's get this show on the road."

_______________________

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enjoying the story ! thank you <3

[white-wolf-buckaroo]

Chapter 6: Goodbye, Emily

This is probably one of my favorite chapters, and also one that broke my heart while writing it (it didn't help that I was listening to the Monsters Inc soundtrack while doing so, especially Boo's Going Home). Check out the full hearbreaking playlist for this fic here!

Word Count: 2500 ish

Warnings: it's giving Sully leaving Boo, iykyk

Fic Masterlist here!

Age 7

Summer came, and with that, the rest of the half-bloods.

Luke and Annabeth had been at camp for a bit longer than a month now, and they had settled in pretty well; after the initial turmoil of Thalia’s demise, life at camp went back to normal, and before they knew it, summer had arrived.

Emily had gone back at training with her siblings and some other demigods from various cabins, but she purposefully kept her distance from Annabeth; unspoken tension lingered between the two, and they avoided direct confrontation in the arena. Luke was an excellent swordsman, though; apparently, he and Thalia had been on the run for a long time, and he was experienced with combat fighting. His presence, and his skills, were a constant reminder of the dangers lurking outside of camp.

That summer, though, Thalias’ sacrifice and Annabeth and Lukes’ arrival wasn’t the only big thing to happen to Emily: every year new demigods arrived for the first time at camp, and this time, a young girl, around two years older than her, made it to camp, accompanied by a satyr named Gleeson. Her name was Clarisse La Rue. Claimed by Ares, she was Emily’s older half-sister.

Maybe she couldn’t be friends with Annabeth, but she had now a new sister!

Clarisse settled in their cabin in the morning, and in the afternoon she was already training with her siblings. Emily had flying class that day, and although she was super excited to meet Clarisse, she loved the Pegasi too much to miss out on riding them.

At dinner, the tables were once again full of demigods, all of them gathered for the summer. Emily loved it. Clarisse was there too, on the opposite end of the table, and she seemed to be fitting in nicely, which Emily thought was good. She was a bit louder than Emily, though, and she also seemed a bit harsh when another camper, a son of Hephaestus, accidentally pushed her while walking by; he apologized, but Clarisse’s face still looked angry.

They all sang songs together by the campfire, and Emily felt like the weight of loss on the shoulders of everyone who had been there when Thalia died lessened. That night, she dared to sneak out again; she hadn’t done it since the night Annabeth and Luke arrived, but she felt better again, and so she went outside to look at the stars.

What she didn’t expect, was to see her father that night.

Ares materialized in the quiet darkness, his form merging with the shadows; he never visited Emily during the summer (too many children around for his liking), but at night, with her alone sitting on a rock by the beach contemplating the stars, he thought otherwise.

He was starting to go soft on her.

“Anything interesting up there?” Emily looked at him, her whole face lighting up, and an instant smile appearing on her lips “Is there seat for one more?”

Emily moved to the side a bit, allowing her dad to sit down. She remembered then their last encounter, when he told her to not be friends with Annabeth; he didn’t seem mad at her now, so she guessed she had done good. His approval was everything that mattered to her.

“Don’t you get tired of sitting out here, all by yourself?” he knew of her little escapades, for a long time now. She always sat outside, even in the colder months, looking up at the sky.

"I like the stars. They keep me company" she said in a hushed tone "They're all sparkly, shiny… and they've been twinkling for, like, thousands of years! Chiron tells me their stories, often, and one day… I wanna do something super cool like the heroes from the stories, something… so brave like what Thalia did, so that when I'm not here anymore, my spirit can go up to the sky and turn into a brand new shiny constellation”

You didn’t hear stuff like that from Ares’ kids very often.

They were children of war, not poets or dreamers. Yet Emily’s yearning for heroic deeds, echoed something familiar to Ares – the desire for glory in death, to be remembered as a warrior… that was a fighter’s last victory, and it was something else she had also inherited from him.

“Look, that one looks like Chiron!” she was pointing at the sky, at the Archers’ constellation, which certainly looked like a centaur. Ares hummed, looking up as well; he never looked at the stars, not anymore. Why bother, if they looked the same as thousands of years ago? “He knows a lot of things. And he teaches me a lot too”

“Seems like that old centaur has been keeping you busy, huh?”

There was a sense of… ease, between them. They felt comfortable with one another. That was something Ares hadn’t felt with his children in a very, very long time, not since he withdrew from their lives. Whatever it was that drew him so much to Emily both intrigued and unnerved him. It scared him like nothing else could. Feelings, attachment, love… emotions were dangerous in war. They could be lethal.

But they were also the very essence that fueled one’s determination to keep fighting.

“Oh!” Emily looked back at him again, having remembered something “Guess what? I got a new sister today!”

She told him about Clarisse, who had arrived that morning. How she had already began training with them all. How she had seemed to settle easily among her siblings. Ares knew, of course; he had claimed her after all. That girl was different to Emily: she embodied the typical traits associated to him, and that most of his children had. He had seen her fewer times than Emily, and he wasn’t really interested in seeing her again anytime soon. She didn’t spark anything remarkable inside of him.

Ares listened to Emily talking about her new sibling, his stoic expression revealing little of the thoughts swirling within him; she expresses joy at having another sister, the news however, didn’t elicit the same enthusiasm from her father.

“That’s great, Ems” he responded, although he didn’t really mean it; he didn’t really care, to be honest. His face was neutral now, not really showcasing any emotion – there was a stark contrast between what he felt when he thought of Emily, to when he thought about his other children, and he was starting to become aware of that.

“She’s more like my brothers and sisters than me, though. She seems tough, and she’s loud. I think you’ll like her. Maybe you could come one day and meet her!”

Ares felt a sudden pang, a subtle discomfort, that made him want to disappear that same second. A crippling, uncomfortable feeling on his limbs and his chest, that made him clench his jaw and his muscles tense.

Emily’s innocent anticipation of him confirmed his fears. He sensed her growing attachment, her yearning for connection, which was something he had encouraged himself with his visits, and her believe that these sporadic meetings were something normal, when it was the opposite. It sparked an uneasy realization.

In that moment, Ares had to choose; if Janus had showed up that instant, he wouldn’t have been surprised. He couldn’t meet Emily’s expectations… and he was convinced that not even trying he would reach them – they were so high as the stars above them.

As the god of war, he had spent millennia cultivating the image he uphold even nowadays: ruthless, strong, an unyielding force indifferent to softer aspects of existence. He embodied the cruel moments of battle, where there was no sanity, but only raw emotions and an instinct to survive, to fight, to kill, and to thrive. Emily’s presence challenged this self-imposed narrative, the very essence of his divine existence.

She was still pure, and he could understand her eagerness for a real father-daughter relationship – he’d had that same feeling once, when he still believed Zeus could be there for him not only as a king or a ruler, but as a parent. For Ares, the idea of fatherhood clashed with his persona as the god of war, and the vulnerability that accompanied it was a territory he was unaccustomed to navigating.

The realization that Emily expected more from him than what he thought he could provide made him decide to distance himself for good. These sporadic visits would only encourage and enliven the idea she had of him, which was something he didn’t see himself as: a father.

He would end up disappointing her. He knew that it was inevitable. In his divine logic, a clean break seemed a safer option. So even if it pained him… he would ignore those feelings, and move on. He couldn’t be the father she sought. The remains of what he felt would vanish in time, and in a few centuries, he wouldn’t even remember them.

At least, that’s what he told himself, not entirely convinced.

If Emily’s mother was still around, everything would be better. She had been nothing but perfect to raise their child, in his opinion. Now without her, he didn’t know how to be the only parent Emily had left. He was… scared of ruining everything, so he’d step back. It was the best option.

He’d never stop caring, but he couldn’t stay by her side. Not anymore. For her sanity, and his own.

“You should go now” he said, looking at her little face. She resembled him, kind of. Every day that passed he saw more of himself in her than he thought was originally there “Warriors need their rest”

“But I’m not tired” the yawn that followed said otherwise. Ares didn’t hold back his chuckle.

“Oh, really?” she nodded, but another yawn came to her.

She then did something that made his heart skip a beat: she slid to the side, resting her small frame against his arm, and started playing with his fingers, tracing the patterns of little scars on his skin, and fumbling with one of his rings.

“I miss Mommy” she mumbled “But I’m happy to have you, Daddy”

She insisted that he accompany her to her cabin, since he’d never been there at night, and he gave in; he made darkness surround them, hiding them from anyone who could still be up and see them, but Emily didn’t seem to notice as she pulled at his hand in the direction of the Ares cabin, giggling. He found himself tucking her in, something he never thought he would do; she clutched that stupid teddy bear to her chest, smiling sleepily at him, in a bubble he created so none of his other children would see him. He didn’t want to deal with that.

“All set?” it was certainly an unfamiliar task, even slightly awkward for him, but he easily draped the thin covers over her, shielding her from the fresh summer night air, and she seemed content enough. He didn’t relish much in the feeling of making her smile, though - it was time “Goodbye, Ems. Stay strong for me”

“Can you stay until I fall asleep? Please, Daddy?”

“No, kid. Daddy has to go”

She sighed, fighting back tiredness. Oh, his little warrior.

“Goodnight, Daddy” she lifted one of her hands, and rested it briefly against one of his cheeks. She fell asleep a few seconds after, hugging her teddy bear off to dreamland, mumbling one last ‘love you’ before completely succumbing to sleep.

Ares stood up quickly, not bearing to stay there any longer. He may think this was going to be a clean break, but right now, it felt rough, sharp, and bloody. He made his way out of the cabin, off to the night, but he halted in his step one last time, looking at his hands; Ares could still feel Emily’s fingertips tracing the skin on his own fingers, playing with one of his rings.

Taking off said ring, he snapped his fingers, and made it disappear. It didn’t vanish, though, no. It appeared on Emily’s camp necklace, resting over her chest alongside the bead she had acquired last summer. With that, Ares left camp half-blood, for good this time.

Things didn’t get better for Emily from then on.

The sister she had thought could be her friend, turned out to be uninterested in her, rejecting her for her youth (she was only two years older than Emily, but that seemed to make a huge difference, being so young), and also because she wasn’t as rough as most of their siblings. She just wasn’t how Clarisse thought Ares’ children should be; Clarisse proved to be a stark contrast to her own demeanour, and while Emily cherished the gentle moments at camp, Clarisse, embodying the more traditional traits of Ares' children, sought intensity, sharpness, and harshness.

The dynamics within the Ares cabin began to shift as well. Her siblings, once fond of Emily's sweet nature, now gravitated towards Clarisse, recognizing familiar traits in her that resonated with their own. The demigods outside the cabin acknowledged Clarisse's formidable temper, making it clear that she wasn't to be underestimated.

Initially, Clarisse struggled to accept Emily as her sister. The stark differences between them, from their personalities to their approach to combat, baffled Clarisse. While Emily displayed skill in the arena, it wasn't enough to bridge the gap between the two sisters. Emily found herself grappling with the shifting dynamics, losing favour with her siblings as Clarisse asserted herself as a formidable force within the Ares cabin.

There was this one time where Emily asked one of her older brothers if he wanted to go to the strawberry fields to help the satyrs collect the harvest, like they had done the previous summer, but then Clarisse got in the way, laughing at her for wanting to do something as mundane as that.

“It’s fun, though” replied Emily “And last time they gave us extra strawberries”

“Oh, yeah, that sounds like something Ares would love seeing his children do” Clarisse snorted, and she nudged their brother, who still hadn’t answered Emily; he was older than both girls, but not as harsh as Clarisse, and she intimidated him “Do you want to go pick up some strawberries like a little boy? Or do you prefer to go to the arena and fight some Hermes kids with spears?”

He looked conflicted, until he sighted, shaking his head no to Emily’s direction.

“Maybe next time. Have fun, though”

The Ares cabin, once filled with warmth for Emily, became a battleground for dominance, and Emily found herself on the outskirts.

Clarisse reveled in the admiration she received from her siblings at her fighting skills, whereas Emily struggled for the first time to reconcile her own identity with the expectations placed upon her as a daughter of the god of war. She sought solace in the familiar embrace of the night sky, fiddling with the ring her father had gifted her at the beginning of summer, tracing the braided metal, memorizing every quirk and curve.

Her father didn’t show up anymore, not even when she was outside alone, at night; she hoped that at least then he would appear, but nothing happened. The very last day she had been truly happy, was when she had last seen him.

She remained hopeful, though, thinking that probably in autumn, when most of the campers went back home, he would visit again. Until then, she would wait for him. She would be strong, like he wanted her to be, and she’d resist. She could do that until he’d come see her again.

Little did she know, he would never visit her at camp ever again.

----

Taglist: @strawberryys-stuff@ladysybilchronicles@kyuupidwrites@nhloversblog@beansficreblogs@priyajoyyy@zeeader@lightsgore@gengen64@holb32@therockywhorerpictureshow @jasontoddorjasongrace @lflores2008 @mymelodymia

[satureja13]

The TukTuk with Jack and Kiyoshi on board was still flying through the rain - following the train Sai, Jeb and Vlad rode in. It's been hours already - and Jack was just marveling again over how cool Demon/Diety Kiyoshi was. And how happy he is that they sorted it out somehow, and that they are able to be friends/mates after all that had happened between them - when lightning struck the TukTuk! It crashed in a weird kind of swamp - and Jack felt a searing pain in his chest. The TukTuk was slowly sinking...

Luckily not Jack and Kiyoshi. Kiyoshi dragged Jack over on solid ground. Jack: "Are you ok? Where are we?" Kiyoshi: "Uh - Jack? I... I'm fine..." The strike from the lightning ignited a strange super awareness in Kiyoshi. He hadn't felt so woke since before he left the Temple - and Jack - and went to Kojin's realm, to become one with the tree. Decades ago.

They were soaked wet. Jack: "What now? We lost the TukTuk..." Kiyoshi was just about to try to get the TukTuk out of that swamp in the cool Yoda manner, to impress Jack (where Yoda lifted the X-Wing out of the swamp at Dagobah)...

...when they heard Saiwa yell. Oh, the others are here! So they hadn't been far from their final destination as it seems. And there is also Ms Coombes! (She'd been the Boys' teacher at Belgraves Institute. And Choongang Highschool.) Apparently the swamp was just sitting next to a little village ^^'

Sai: "Omg Jack! I'm so sorry I forgot you!" Jack: "Awww, don't worry. My good mate Kiyoshi and I had an amazing flight!" Luckily it had stopped to rain.

Jack took a look around: "Wow! Where are we?" Saiwa: "Verdantis. It even lies beyond the Otherworld. No one will get a grip on us here." This is the place where Ms Coombes, Francine (Jeb's grandmother) and Dtui (Kiyoshi's mentor) went to school back in their days! And where Jeb found his horse, Valerian. (TMI: and we also had a short gameplay 'story' here with adult Vlad and a few others. A little lot tour is -> here)

They went over to the 'Screaming Mandrake'.

Ms Coombes: "First of all: Ji Ho is here. We brought him to the Hospital Wing and put him to sleep. All his memories and feelings hit him at once. So he needs some time to process and to adjust. We also needed to silence your bond, to not overload him further. I know this must be hard for you, Vlad. Endure it for Ji Ho, won't you."

Vlad was near to tears again, but he drew in a shaky breath and said : "I will." He would endure everything for Ji Ho.

Ms Coombes: "You might know that this place here is our magical school and grounds. Me and some other professors are going to teach you how to protect and defend yourselves against the Siren's Songs and other spells. You also have a lot of other subjects to keep up with, since you never finished highschool... It will take your professors a lot of their power to reside here. It's already hard enough to stay in the Otherworld for longer - and this realm is much further beyond the Veil. So don't pester them, be grateful and study hard. Understood?" Saiwa: "Understood." Ms Coombes: "It should not be that draining for you, though. You already lived in the Otherworld for so many months now. And you have Vlad and Kiyoshi with you - hopefully Ji Ho will assist them soon to keep you here."

From the Beginning 🔱 Underwater Love 🔱 Latest

Current Chapter: 'Here comes the Sun' from the beginning ▶️ here Last Chapter: 'Who killed Jack?' from the beginning ▶️ here

📚 Previous Chapters: Chapters: 1-6 ~ 7-12 ~ 13-16 ~ 17-22 ~ 23-28

Outtakes We were lucky with the lightnings again! So cool 🌩

Sai when it finally stopped to rain 🌦

[3mcwriting]

Any Fan's Dream, Part 25

Any Fan's Dream Masterlist

Synopsis:

When you look around and see Avengers Tower in front of you and Peter Parker beside you, you wonder how the hell you managed to get into the MCU.Keep reading

Sorry this chapter is a day late, I was remaking the taglist and that took a lot longer than expected so I just passed out after lol

Taglist: @secretly-sirens, @zeeader, @imdoingathingmom, @x-theolivia, @ainsley-official, @ourgoddessathena, @vine-enthusiast, @hoohoohope, @myfturn, @mjaudrey, @igotthisasajokeyetimstillhere, @starr60, @lauraashley93, @coldmermaidhologram, @daenerysluvrr, @viperchick47, @im-better-than-your-newborn, @mynightandstars, @qvnthesia, @liallerr, @cypherverze, @afraidofshrimp, @alexsmonstercan, @huntress-artemiss, @im-better-than-your-newborn, @marvelwomen-arehot, @benzinaa, @maxinehufflepuffprincess

After your interaction with Steve, you managed to find your way back to the entryway you had come in through. It was just a large rectangular living room with an open style kitchen in one corner and large ground-to-ceiling windows spanning two of the walls. There was a large television in front of the plush couches and one person pacing in front of them. 

Your eyebrows raised. 

For some reason, you hadn't really expected to see him.

The clearly stressed man raised his head when he heard your footsteps, freezing the moment he saw you.

"What's up, Mr. Stank?" you asked. "Sorry for disappearing and everything..." You rubbed the back of your neck sheepishly, hoping he wasn't mad at you. Especially since you would've done it again without hesitation. You weren't really sorry for leaving but more so for betraying his trust.

He looked shell-shocked, completely speechless for once. Well, how was he supposed to react when someone who he thought of as one of his own was standing right in front of him mere days after being stabbed? He had heard the guilt in Steve's voice, felt panic rise in himself at the thought of how badly you'd been injured. The idea that you were only inches from death and that your only chance to live depended on the technology of aliens did nothing to ease his worry. He knew Thor cared about you, but what if the people there didn't want to help you? 

He didn't want to lose another person he cared about.

And wasn't that what every single one of them felt at the thought of you dying?

You weren't really sure what to do with his silence, but hugs had been working for everyone else, so you figured you might as well try it. Besides, in your experience, hugs almost always helped you, even if it was just a little. Obviously, they couldn't really fix your problems but they helped to ground you and remind you that you weren't alone in them.

"Can I give you a hug, Mr. Stank?" 

His expression changed, relief softening his features. "Yeah, of course, kid."

You moved forward, hugging him happily. As you'd said before, you truly were a hoe for hugs. There was something just so comforting about them to you. You knew some people didn't really like hugs though so you always made sure to ask before you did so. After all, if the point was to comfort a person, why would you do something that would make them uncomfortable?

Luckily, with Mr. Stank he seemed to be grateful for the hug. 

When the hug ended, he patted your shoulder. "I'm real glad you're alright, kid." His voice was a little choked up, but you didn't bother to point it out. 

"Thanks," you grinned. "I'm glad you are too, Mr. Stank."

He smiled at your attitude, glad to see you could still smile the same. "What do you say to working in the lab for a while?"

"Ooh! Yes!" You loved all the time you spent in his labs, there was so much cool stuff in there and even more cool stuff that you could build!

~~

A couple hours later (it was only around noon, but it felt later to you because apparently there was a time zone difference from Asgard and earth), Nat came into the lab while you and Tony were drinking juice packets. 

"C'mon, (y/n)," she said as she pulled you out of the room. "You need to have something other than juice."

"Sounds good," you nodded, your stomach agreeing immensely. "See ya later, Mr. Stank!" You waved to the man as you got pulled out of the room, missing the fond grin on his face. You walked beside Nat as she led you to the main living room you had been in earlier. 

As the two of you got closer to the room, a delicious smell began to waft through your nostrils--a delicious, familiar smell. You understood all those dogs you'd ever seen that would sniff the air greedily, behaving much too similarly at that moment. You couldn't help it, though! It smelled so. Damn. Good. And you hadn't eaten in hours and during those hours you had napped, comforted people, and began building a pear cannon for Peter! You were only human! You needed that delicious food that was giving off that heavenly smell.

As the two of you stepped into the living room, you glanced to the kitchen side of the room, your eyes set on the woman who was sitting at the counter of the island. She looked up from her phone when she heard the two of you enter, smiling at you in a way that made your breath catch a little. It wasn't your fault! Wanda's smile was too damn pretty for your weak heart!

"Hey, (y/n)," Wanda greeted. "Nat and I thought we could celebrate you being all healed, so I made your favorite foods and Nat bought your favorite snacks!"

You felt your jaw drop, but couldn't register much else. 

Wanda grinned at your expression, before setting out dishes laden with your favorite food on the low table in front of the TV while Natasha grabbed a bag from the corner of the counter and placed it beside the table.

"This is..." your brain was refusing to work, "I mean—you two didn't have to do all this. It must've taken a while." Your too-slow brain wasn't allowing you to properly process the situation. You couldn't really blame it, though. How—in any dimension—were you to believe that Natasha Romanoff and Wanda Maximoff would know your favorite foods? Or even more ridiculous, how were you to believe that they would take the time to make it for you when they were incredibly busy people themselves? Like, they were literally Avengers.

"We wanted to," Natasha smiled. "Although, I can't say I made much of the food. That was Wanda. I just got snacks." She held up the bag.

"Well, I think of you as a friend, and you were just healed from an almost fatal wound, so I thought it was well-deserved." Wanda's voice was sincere enough that you were almost distracted from what she'd said. 

"You think of me as a friend?" you asked incredulously.

"Of course," Wanda reassured. "Am I not a friend to you?"

"No! I mean—no as in you're not not a friend to me—like, you are a friend to me, ya know?" you tried to explain, losing respect in yourself with every word you said.

Natasha laughed. "Calm down there, babe. We got you."

You let loose a relieved laugh. "Anyway, thank you for everything." You looked to both of them, hoping they knew just how sincere you were being. "I don't think I ever could've imagined having such wonderful people being my friends."

Wanda hugged you, making your brain short-circuit yet again, and laughed. "I think I should be the one saying that." 

"You both deserve friends as wonderful as each other," Natasha said, joining in on the little hug. 

When the hug was over, Natasha grabbed the TV remote as you grabbed your food. She turned on the TV, a familiar movie ready as the screen turned on.

They had set up your favorite movie.

~~

You got to watch two of your favorite movies with Natasha and Wanda, munching on the food Wanda had made and the snacks Nat had brought. Overall, it was practically heaven. To be honest, you were a little disappointed when they got a call and were forced to leave. 

Both of them gave you a hug goodbye which reminded you that you were being stupid getting disappointed because you had still spent four hours with both of them. You were lucky that they had the time to do such considerate things for you. Once they were gone though, you were completely lost as to what you should do for the remainder of your time there. 

You couldn't call anyone because you had broken the phone Tony gave you a while ago so you were just stuck on the couch scrolling through channels--that is, until Scott and Sam arrived in the room and Scott began pulling things out from the cabinets. 

"Dude, how do you know where everything is? You've been here like...2 days." Sam said, confused at the confidence with which Scott was pulling everything he needed out.

"What can I say? I'm a quick study." Scott pulled out a metal bowl and baking sheet. "Besides, if I don't know where something is, that's what looking is for."

"What are you guys doing?" you asked.

"Oh, hey, (y/n)," Scott greeted cheerfully. "We're baking cookies for my daughter, wanna help?"

"Sure," you smiled at him, thoughts flashing to the scenes with Cassie in them.

Huh. Since Steve and Tony hadn't really ended up fighting, Scott never got arrested. 

He wouldn't have to be put under house arrest and his relationship with Hope wouldn't end up horrible. 

Your smile got a little wider.

"Awesome!" Scott said. "Her favorite are snickerdoodles."

~~

"I don't think we followed the directions right," you proclaimed, looking down at the sad little heaps of dough that Scott had just pulled out of the oven.

"My nephews can bake better than you, Scott." Sam laughed, hitting Scott on the back jokingly. "I don't see a future in baking for you, my man."

"They can't be that bad," Scott protested, reaching to grab one only for it to start oozing when he did so.

Cue screeching from the three of you--screeching that ended up bringing Steve and Bucky into the room tensed and ready to fight. 

"What's wrong?" Steve asked, searching the room.

You were too busy laughing on the floor at the look on Sam's face to answer so Scott had to. 

"I'm afraid our cookies are alive, Captain." Scott answered, the serious expression on his face only making you laugh harder. 

"Oh," Steve didn't seem to know how to handle the situation. 

Bucky peered at the lumps of goo on the baking sheet and winced. "Those look disgusting."

"I didn't know we had two Captains in the room." Sam said, not taking his comment too kindly. "Captain America and Captain Obvious."

"I mean, we could always remake them," you piped up, finally recovering from your laughing fit. "It's only like five."

"You're right, (y/n)!" Scott gave you an appreciative look. "Let's get cracking!"

"Are you gonna join us?" you asked Steve and Bucky. 

Sam looked to Bucky. "Yeah. You gonna join us instead of just judging us silently, ya weirdo?"

"I don't know how much help we'll be." Steve answered. "But I don't see how we could make it any worse."

"Damn!" you put a hand over your heart. "That was uncalled for, old man."

~~

Contrary to what Steve had said, it could get worse.

In fact, the five of you didn't even get any cookies into the oven before a towel lit on fire and flour ended up on Steve's face.

You were almost crying from laughter at the look on Steve's face, clutching your stomach while he looked confused. You were forced into shocked silence when Steve threw a handful of flour at you. 

You gaped at him, looking like you had taken a dive into cocaine with how much flour was covering you. 

"What was that for?" you demanded.

"Stop laughing at me."

"Oh, you petty-" you threw a handful at him, hitting Scott on accident when Steve moved. 

Scott turned to look at you.

"I didn't mean it! I swear!" 

~~

With the kitchen covered in enough flour to bake a life-size cake statue of Thor, you were lucky to be pulled out before cleanup time. You would've felt guilty if not for the fact that everyone in that room had hit you at least once with a handful of flour. Even Bucky!

Either way, you didn't regret anything about that day--it was the most fun you'd had in a while. 

But now you were going home.

[tokiro07]

Undead Unluck ch.191 thoughts

[FOUR YEARS AND AN ANIME!!!]

(Contents: Celebration, predictions)

WE DID IT, EVERYONE!!! As of this week's chapter, Undead Unluck has officially been running for four whole years!!!

I don't recall, though, did UU take an extra week off at some point? It should be at 192...Ah well, it's not super important! We've officially hit the goal I've been asking for since day one, and I'm over the moon about it! The hashtag is no longer a wish for the future, but a celebration of success!

At the time, I did expect that it would end around now rather than merely approaching the final phase, but hell, I'm not complaining! I don't know if I necessarily want UU to hit the eight-year mark, it might start to feel like it's dragging by that point, but I also can't really imagine it doing that anyway

If we assume that we have five arcs left before Ragnarok (Top, Tatiana, Kururu, Backs, Ruin) and we generously assume that each is 10 chapters (only Rip and Latla's arc has lasted more than 10 since the loop), we should have at most another year until the final battle, though it likely won't even take that long since most of these recruitment arcs are more like 3-5 chapters per recruit. From there, the previous Ragnarok arc was about 40 chapters, so we'll overestimate again that the next one will last a full year

In other words, depending on how much Tozuka decides to take his time, I think we should be seeing UU running until June 2025 or January 2026! It's a bit sad to see the writing on the wall like that, but as far as I'm concerned, we're playing with house money right now! I'm glad that my favorite series turned out to be such a hit, and that it should get to resolve itself as it pleases! So few series get to go out on their own terms, I can't be upset when one of my favorites becomes one of the lucky ones!

Onto the chapter itself, this was such a cool fight! Andy holding off all ten of the Superior Rules by himself for three minutes is such a badass display of how far he's come, and shows us some cool ways he can use his soul techniques! We've heard of him using his soul to move his body before, using it to overcome Nico's copy of Unmove, but seeing him actively replacing his lost body parts with his soul?? Now that's sick!

100-Twist Vortex Bullet, Soul Vulcan, Soul Road...it's all derived from what we've seen, but all on a whole new level! Even the soul chains are taken straight from his fight with Ghost. It's like a perfect showcase of how far Andy's come in the last four years of serialization!

BUT! For how strong he is now, for how much stronger he apparently is than the rest of the team, he was only able to hold off the Superior Rules for three minutes. In other words, while you might think he's become an invincible one-man army that could do everything on his own, you would be absolutely wrong!!! He had to let the two weakest Superiors go to temporarily match #1 (who we can reasonably assume is UMA Soul), so while we can assume he'd be capable of facing Soul one-on-one, we also have to assume that Andy is still nowhere near Sun's level. It took everyone together to hold off Sun for 11 minutes, including Rebellion!Victor, and at least half of them died in the process. Andy, as he is now, could only hold off all ten Superiors for three; if he'd had to hold on for 11, they probably would have all escaped, and since we can assume that all ten together don't measure up to SUN, we can conclude that Andy is not so strong that he could solo Sun

Andy will be a tremendous asset to the final battle, but he will not be the single deciding factor. To beat Sun, it won't be enough to simply have everyone together, everyone will need to raise their level to be capable of at least soloing a Superior Rule like Andy did to Sick. In other words, Andy's display of power here isn't merely a way to tell us how strong Andy is now, but telegraphing how strong EVERYONE is going to be by the end!!! Even if they never quite make it to Andy's level, we can expect that our team is going to be absolutely made of monsters, and I! Can't! Wait!!!

Until next time, let's enjoy life!

[artemis-b-writes]

A/N: Hey yallll sorry for not posting for like a month. i wish I had a super cool, funny excuse for why I was gone but I'm just so busy with work and was too tired to write in the evenings. BUT ANYWAYS at least this chapter is a longer one, I hope Yall enjoy!!!

*Radio Static* Is anyone there? If you can hear me please...anyone, say something...*Radio Cuts Out*

Chapter Four- Beware 

Late August/Early September, 2010- 

His eyes shot open. He was drenched in sweat laying alone in a hospital bed. Why the hell was he in a hospital bed? Oh, right. He’d been in a coma from a GSW in the line of duty. Rick looked over to his left to see a vase full of dead flowers with cards littered around it. He looked to his right and saw…blood? It was splattered on the window of the glass. He removed his IV and groaned as he tried, and failed to stand up off the bed. (Who knew you would have no muscle tone after being in a coma?) 

The hospital sounded..quiet, deserted even. 

Where on earth was everyone? Was he alone? Why was a gurney blocking his room door? He made note of his surroundings, blood splatters covered the walls. All he could do was stand frozen in fear.

Where was his family? Were his wife and children safe?

He darted back into his room to look at the cards that littered his bedside table.

 He gingerly picked one up and opened it:

“Hi daddy, It’s August 26th and the doctor says you should be waking up soon. Please wake up soon, it's not the same without you. Mom and I have been fighting more…I try to get along with her but it’s so hard without you here. Carl is doing good though and misses you everyday. Wake up soon please. Love, Victoria.”

Rick searched for more letters but that was the last one his daughter had written him. He had to find his family. Rick ventured back out into the hospital. He was horrified at how rundown King County General looked. He was used to seeing blood occasionally in his job, but not to this scale.

The blood ricocheted across the walls and splattered all along the ceiling. 

Rick walked through the halls, following the faintest sound, the only sound.

Groaning? And the sound of someone trying to break a door down? 

Maybe someone was here to help him. Rick stumbled as he tried to quicken his pace, praying someone was here to tell him what was going wrong. 

Instead he saw a woman in teal scrubs locked in a hallway. As Rick approached the door she lifted her head.

Her eyes were glazed over and blood dripped out of her mouth. The sight would’ve made Rick gag if he wasn’t frozen in fear. The woman was groaning, like she was trying to speak to him. 

“H….hun…gry” She gurgled. 

Wait. Rick had to be imagining things…she looked dead, she couldn’t possibly be speaking. Could she?

“Are you alright? Can you tell me what happened?” Rick’s voice shook. He tried to swallow down his fear. The woman rushed up to the glass and began to bang on the window. 

Her screams were animalistic. She was animalistic. 

He slowly backed away and started to head for an exit that he knew wasn’t far. He again followed the faint sound of banging that he prayed was more welcoming than the sight he’d just discovered. 

The lights flickered lazily. But it still caused shivers to erupt up and down his spine. 

Shivers turned into nervous shakes despite how hot he was. 

Do not open- dead inside

Dead. Inside.

The only thing holding back the apparent dead were the chains that were wrapped through the handles ten, twenty fold. Rick’s eyes were so wide they looked as if they may pop out of his head. This all had to be a horrible nightmare right?? Right??

Rick turned back the way he came and stumbled, trying to quicken his pace so he could get the hell out of dodge. When he found the side exit to the hospital, he had to use quite a bit to strength to shove the door open.

The sun gave Rick a strong awakened welcome, he recoiled at its presence: the heat nipped at his skin and his arm immediately raised to shade his face. When he adjusted to the hard rays coming down, he noticed the bodies. 

Rows upon rows of white body bags. Had the military come? This was certainly not something the local police department would have the resources to handle. 

He walked amongst the bodies that littered the hospital parking lot. Searching for any faces he knew. He let out a sigh of relief when he didn’t see his family.

That sigh of relief was caught in his throat at the sight of a crashed helicopter and a slew of more bodies littered before him. Rick decided to cut across the street, he needed to get home.

A bright red bike caught his attention. That's how he’d get home. 

The sound of hissing averted his attention from the bike down to the ground.

He fell backwards at the sight before him; a turned woman who had no lower extremities. Her ribs were exposed on either side, possibly from rubbing against the ground or maybe even from something trying to eat her. Her skin was almost a sickly yellowish green, her eyes glazed over with the same hue of color.

She stretched her arms out and groaned at Rick, her attempts to move were futile and her rotted body was decaying from starvation. 

Rick shook his head, he couldn’t do anything for the woman. He picked himself up and began to bike through the town. To home.

The streets were empty, littered with paper and trash. All Rick could think of was if his family was safe or not. Surely they were safe, Lori wasn’t dumb and Victoria would do whatever it took to protect them. 

Rick rode up to the front door of his house wide open. He tripped up the stairs and stopped right at the entrance. Terror shook his entire being.

“Lori?” He called out as he entered the house, an unsettling breeze made its way through the still house. In all the years he’d had his family, his house was never still. 

“Carl??” Rick ran into the house, looking through the bedrooms to see if his son could be found at all. “CARL?!” Rick ran into the living room and saw a broken picture frame of his family. Rick and Lori were sat at the top and a 12 year old Victoria could be seen holding her little brother, their smiles were both so full of life.

Everything he was feeling began to bubble over as Rick felt himself hit the ground. Sobs wracked through his entire body, but only for a moment. 

He could hear someone outside.

“Victoria?! Baby?!” Rick called out as he stumbled back outside, his grief filled mind must have been playing tricks on him. But there was a man dressed in black stumbling through the street.

Rick felt like he was trapped in a bad dream, waiting to wake up in the hospital and hold his family again. But something deep in the dark of his mind told him that he would never wake up, that this wasn’t a dream. His family wasn’t coming home.

For the first time in his life; Rick Grimes was alone. 

Rick watched as a man walked up to the carcass walking the street and shot him in the back of the head, he went limp and hit the ground. He was in shock and not paying attention to the danger approaching from behind. He was definitely going to have a headache later. 

*snap* Rick turned to see what was behind him. Praying it was someone he knew. Maybe it was Carl. He was wrong. The shovel came in contact with his face with quite a force, knocking him to the ground. His vision was blurred as he fought back the feeling of his brain being tossed around in his skull. He looked up to see the blurred silhouette of a small boy.

“DADDY! I GOT HIM! I GOT THE SUMBITCH AND ILL KILL HIM DEAD!”

“Carl?” 

A man came up behind the boy as Rick’s vision began to clear, his voice was muffled but he seemed to be assuring the boy that he did not need to kill Rick. What was going on? Why would this boy want to kill him. And why did the man standing before him also kill the man he saw in the street? Rick had a lot of questions and seemingly no answers.

“Whats that bandage for?!” The man pointed his revolver at Rick’s head. Rick gave the man a confused look, he was talking but Rick had no idea what he was saying. His head was swimming and his vision began to blur again. The ringing in his ears increased rapidly until everything went black.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Morgan thought about shooting the man in that moment but he didn’t look sick, not like the things that roamed the street. He had his son to think about, why was he doubting his decision? 

“Duane, keep an eye out for Walkers, we’re going to bring him back with us.” 

His son opened his mouth ready to argue but Morgan’s decision was firm, something in him just knew they needed to save this stranger. 

Morgan carried the man over his shoulder, thankfully the house they took refuge in wasn't far so they had very little interaction with any walkers. Unfortunately the sound from Morgan’s gun had brought attention and more started to come out from hiding.

Morgan laid the man in the upstairs bed and pulled back his bandages. Instead of a bite, he saw a wound that needed to be cleaned. It was a miracle that the wound hadn’t caused the man to turn. Morgan cleaned his wound, and the blood off of his face. He must have passed out from a mix of the shovel to the face and pure shock. As the stranger slept, Morgan grew more curious about his situation.

After some time Rick finally woke up. (Girl it’s been like an hour. What do you mean finally? Like calm down.)

Rick woke up, laying in a soft bed unsure of his surroundings. He tried to move but it seemed both his arms were tied up high to either side of the bed.  He scanned the room and made eye contact with the boy, Duane, holding a baseball bat. Meaning Rick needed to tread lightly.

Morgan stood at the side of the bed as he put his first aid kit away.

“That wound…it was pretty rank. What was it?” 

Rick seemed puzzled by the question. That was the second time he’d been asked by this man about his wound. Was it a crime to be a wounded man now?

“It was a gunshot.” He answered plainly, it was the truth after all. But Morgan didn’t seem satisfied, he scoffed and made his way to the bed. He was looking for a different answer.

“I ask and you answer alright?”

Rick nodded.

“Did you get bit?” Morgan made sure to emphasize every word. Rick wanted to know why everyone was so concerned over bites. But he had noticed that the people he’d seen in and around the hospital had been bitten…

“Bit? I don’t understand?”

“Bit, chewed, scratched, anything?!”

Rick shook his head in a firm no. He’d been shot, he told this man many times he’d been shot. The only thing he wanted to do was get released from the bed he was tied to so that he could find his family. 

It was also very clear to Rick that this man was not one to be messed with. He was prepared to kill him at any moment. Morgan checked Rick and confirmed he didn’t have a fever. That seemed to give Morgan enough satisfaction to cut Rick from the bed. He then took his son and left the room.

Rick sat for a moment and contemplated his options. He needed to figure out what was going on, then he would go find his family. Rick took a blanket from the bed and headed downstairs. This house was familiar, he’d been here before. 

“This is the Drakes house; Fred and Cindy Drake.” He spoke aloud as he rounded the living room. Morgan and his son were setting places at the dining room table.

“Never knew em”

“I did.” Rick paused…where were Fred and Cindy now? “This is their house.” He finished.

“It was empty when we got here.” Morgan huffed.

“Why did you shoot that man?” Rick asked, sitting down at the table. Morgan gave him a puzzled look.

“That wasn’t a man” Duane piped up. 

And that’s how Rick Grimes found out that the world he knew had absolutely shattered as he slept. That’s why everyone was gone, and the people who were left weren’t actually people….Walkers, Morgan called them. Some kind of virus was spreading through any kind of break in the skin, but mostly through bites. The virus caused people to have aggressive, cannibalistic tendencies. They were like animals. Noise and bright lights drew them closer and they seemed to be more active at night.

“Stay the night and then you can head out in the morning. I would head to Atlanta, there’s refugee camps there.” 

“Thank you,” Rick nodded. “I’ll look for my family in Atlanta.”

Meanwhile in Atlanta:

“GLEN I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU DON'T PUMP THOSE SKINNY LEGS HARDER I'M NOT SAVING YOUR ASS!” 

“I’M TRYING!”

Victoria and Glen bolted through the back alleys of Atlanta. With a herd not far behind them. Glen got the bright idea to do a test run before taking a group, and somehow Victoria ended up going with him.

She knew exactly how she ended up here, she was trying to get away from Shane and her mother. But that's neither here nor there. 

The only reason the two knew where to go was because Glen was familiar with the area. Apparently being a pizza delivery boy was a hot commodity in the big city.

They ran through the streets hoping to find a breaking point. Victoria gripped her hunting knife tightly, pressing little crescents into her palm from her nails. They still needed a few supplies to get them through the night. 

“Glen, that convenience store looks good, no?” 

Glen just hooded furiously, all his energy was going into not dying. 

The two made it into the convenience store, barely escaping the herd. They took shelves from around them and boarded up the door. They finally had a moment to breathe. Victoria would’ve laughed at the whole situation if she wasn’t so concerned on not dying. 

The trip hadn’t been bad, they took a car and drove into Atlanta. Stopping at a pharmacy and a few small buildings which were dead ends. But now? Now they were stuck in a convenience store praying the shelves would hold up. They would find and exit later. 

In the last few weeks Glen and Carl had been her saving graces. Shane did hear Victoria's warnings and hadn’t made any advances with Lori…in the camp anyways. But she could tell they were…doing things. The idea alone made her skin crawl.

“Hey, we should probably look around before we let our guards down completely.” Victoria swallowed hard. Her ankle hadn’t fully healed and she could feel that pain shoot up her entire side. 

Glen nodded. Victoria kept that tight grip as she stalked through the store, in an attempt to keep quiet. Thankfully the store was clear. So she and Glen got to work. Mostly canned goods, waters, any packaged non-perishables.

“Oh fuck yes I found a Charleston chew!” Victoria held the candy bar up high like she’d just struck gold. 

“Ew those are nasty.” Glen shook his head. Victoria whipped around to face him, she was slack jawed.

“Bitch who raised you?!” She gawked.

“People with good taste. Those don’t even taste like anything.” He laughed. 

Victoria made a mental note to never let Glen pick road trip snacks, he had no idea what he was talking about. Charleston Chews were a childhood staple and she would not let her friend slander them.

“Well, do you want to talk about what’s been bothering you?” Glen piped up as they sat on the floor and counted their supplies.

“Hard no.” She shot back. He nodded, respecting the determined tone in her voice. She wasn’t sure if it was respect or fear but she’d hoped it was just her friend not wanting to die by her hand. 

Victoria looked down at the little pile she and Glen had collected. Canned veggies, sausages, beans AND beanie weenies. They had the goods for now. The run tomorrow would be a lot more stuff and Glen would have to take a bigger group. The pain in Victoria's leg lingered in the bag of her mind, demanding rest.

“Well we got out shit, let’s go.” Victoria hopped up and held out a hand to help Glen up. 

“Wait…we blocked the only exit. How do we get out now?”

Victoria pressed her ear near the back door, there was definitely still a herd waiting to get their meal. Victoria had no intention of being on the lunch menu. She had always been quick on her feet, Glen was too, so she had no worries they wouldn’t make it out.

“Well…” Victoria scanned the store looking for any other exit that wasn’t the boarded up front door. Bingo. “we’re going to crawl through that skylight above the deli. At least from the roof we can get a better look.”

Victoria hopped up onto the deli counter and tried to see if the skylight would open. But she wasn’t quite tall enough to reach. Why the hell are these ceilings so high?

“Glen, get up here and let me stand on your shoulders.”

“What?!”

“You heard me. Up, now.”

Glen scrambled up onto the deli counter, and Victoria proceeded to climb onto his shoulders. Glen made sure his protest were known, but Victoria elected to not hear him. They had shit to do, like get home without dying. 

“Um, Victoria?” 

“What?!” She stood on his shoulders, annoyed at the sudden wobbling beneath her. “I almost got it, just hold still!!”

*crash* Well shit. Victoria craned her neck behind her and made eye contact with a walker that had broken a glass door she hadn’t seen. Her patience, with how sentient these walkers were, was growing thin. She turned back to the glass and tried to use the handle of her knife to break it. Glen urged Victoria to hurry up because the walkers were getting closer.

“H..hungry” The leader of the herd gurgled as blood fell out of his mouth. Glen and Victoria held back their gags. The problem came when they tried to crawl over the counter, grabbing at Glen's legs. But before the walker could take a chunk out of him, Victoria broke the window, hooked her legs around Glen's waist and pulled the two of them up through the skylight. 

“Shit that was way too close.” Victoria huffed, laying out along the roof. Glen stumbled across the roof and vomited over the side. Victoria pushed herself up off the hot concrete and walked over to meet him. They only had two problems; they had no car, and a herd of walkers was probably trying to make their way onto the roof with them. 

At least with the herd in the deli, it left the ground below them relatively clear of danger. And they were fast, they could make it to a vehicle and get the hell out of dodge. Piece of cake….right?

“Over there, that jeep might work?” Glen pointed across the road to a tan Jeep. Victoria pulled her hair back so it was out of her face. 

“Fuck it let’s go.” 

They jogged across the roof to the other side, where they were just ahead of the jeep. Victoria peered over the edge. There were a couple walkers wandering the street but Victoria was confident they could make it the short distance to the jeep. She just prayed it was unlocked and functional.

“Okay I’ll go in front, but stay close and cover me.”

Glen swallowed hard but nodded anyways. Victoria wouldn’t admit to him that she was also scared shitless but they just needed to get it over with. She threw a leg over the side and slid down the ladder, Glen came down behind her and they bolted to the Jeep. Great. Of course it has to be locked. 

Even better, here come Walkers. 

Victoria looked around to see if there was anything she could use to pick the lock. Glen broke the Antenna off and tossed it to her. 

“Come on Tori, hurry up please.” 

She fiddled with the lock and got it open. They both jumped in the car and slammed the doors right as the herd tried to swarm them. No Keys. Wonderful, she’d just have to improvise. Victoria popped open the compartment underneath the steering wheel and started to get to work.

“Do I even know how you know how to Hotwire a car?”

“My dad used to be a cop, I picked up a thing or two. Don’t worry about it.”

She fiddled with the wire and shoved the antenna into the ignition. The Jeep roared to life. Victoria threw it into reverse and backed over the walkers that tried to break the windows around the Jeep. 

They peeled out of Atlanta and Victoria sped all the way back to camp. They sat in silence for most of the drive. As far as Victoria was concerned they didn’t need to go back to the city they could find a town to raid. 

They pulled into the camp, Carl barreled into her. 

“Thank goodness you’re back.” 

She laughed and hugged him tight. He walked back to the jeep with her and grabbed one of the duffle bags full of supplies. Everyone came to greet them, glad that the two of them made it home. Victoria couldn’t help but notice that her mom and Shane were missing…

After getting the supplies unloaded and checking in with Dale, Victoria decided to head down to the lake to try and wash the sweat off. 

“What the FUCK?!” Victoria walked up on her mom and Shane in quite a compromising position. Lori yelped and pushed Shane off of her. “I can’t BELIEVE YOU!” Victoria screamed in horror. Shane tried to shush her but she only raised her voice higher.

“Baby….baby please, please be quiet.” Lori begged. She tried to get close to Victoria but she backed away.

“You have a husband, may I remind you.” Victoria scoffed. “I can’t believe the two of you I’m fucking DISGUSTED.” 

“You can’t tell anyone.” Shane demanded. Victoria laughed dryly at his demands. She paced back and forth. “Carl doesn’t know. You cannot say anything.” 

Victoria stopped in her tracks. And looked over to him, she wanted nothing more than to wrap her hand around his throat and squeeze until he stopped moving. 

“I’m only doing this for Carl. You’re going to hate yourself when dad gets home Lori, just as much as I hate you right now.” She spat. She stomped back up the hill, Daryl ran down to see if she was okay, and she’d assured him she just scared herself in the woods but everything was fine. She was just still jumpy from being in the city. 

She spent the rest of the day avoiding them unless absolutely necessary. She stuck close to Carl, knowing if she was with him Shane would leave him alone. Her whole body was hot and she was shaking with anger. She made a promise to Shane and she intended to act upon it, but for now she just needed to focus on Carl and finding her dad. 

Taglist - @ebodebo @starsofang

[loosingmoreletters]

1. Thank you and That One Anon for making the English speaking fandom for Weapon Creator!

2. In the name of bullying Yun Taeheon, I need his reaction to Mun Doyun- aka the B rank assassin that was Shin Junseo’s guild leader. Cuz objectively, Yun Taeheon knows a lot can happen in a year and stuff, but also he’s an S-rank leader of a top guild that is willing to give Shin Junseo just about anything and he still cannot recruit him. And then there’s this B-rank nobody (to him) who specifically hired Shin Junseo - as a D rank weapon creator who could only make an average knife every 20 seconds - BC HE HAD A SKILL THAST DESTROYED THE BLADES HE USED. Literally the same reason!! But no, somehow Yun Taeheon is losing this race.

Even better if he somehow gets more backstory or through some time shenanigans he meets the other Mun Doyun, who is basically the reason Shin Junseo is even as good as he is. Like, the reason sjs learned all he could and stuff. Anyway, yth being objectively, obviously on a higher level than this dude and yet still absolutely seething at the very idea of how much he apparently is not measuring up. How do you think that should go?

also, looking at the firsts chapter and think the first chapter and I think Sjs could be the little kid at the very beginning? Meaning that he has grown up in he world of hunters and gates, giving some cool world building to how this is a whole generation of ppl growing up with gates and magic.

However, for the sake of getting more of your sugar daddy au, I am ignoring that. Or maybe it could be incorporated, like- yth was trying to figure out how to ask sjs for just, an actual relationship. And sjs had stopped their contract after signing onto the guild. Extra tension!! Cuz obviously yth wasn’t gonna reach out and be like, “Hey, so that didn’t work out…”

glad to be of service!!!!! taking it from the bottom here, you mean this kid?

Huh! Now that you mention it, that could track! Would be rather interesting too as I'd put this kid somehwere between 8 and 12, which implies dungeons have been a thing for much longer than just a couple of years. Tho I assumed the adult in the next panel was YTH, so hmmm. But also what does this say about the state of his family. where the fuck are they. I need answers. And also I'd love some worldbuilding around growing up in such a world. In SCTIR, one of my fave things is to linger on like, the first weeks after the dungeon breaks. how did legislation change, the government, the way people reacto to this-

"In the name of bullying YTH" man we really all just took a look at this guy, who is probably meant to be like a cool badass character and decided we shall treat him like our sibling's new boyfriend and thus make fun of hinm. huh. god given right to bully the man.

But yeah, do you think YTH assumed just a little bit that SJS had like weird trauma. and also like- okay full confession time. when I started reading this, I assumed this guy would be our love interest second protag. I mean. look at him and SJS reaction to praise

and the way SJS also thinks of this guild in the future memories he receives? a place where he was accepted, found friends, where they kept pushing forward together- Listen. also the way it lingers on MDY's body there. I'm just saying, the vibes are accurate. to me.

Anyway, YTH does have the vibes of somebody who is incredibly understanding but privately also has beef with a dead man. he knows it's unfair and stupid, but also he could buy SJS a god damn pent house apartment. he would. that and any item he wants. actually I just realized while typing this would've been really fucking great to insert into my little soulmate fanfic given I did toss in like one sided bonds existing there. something to consider for the future.

But man, I think it would be interesting if SJS is confronted with him again also in the context of like, SJS not recognizing MDY's brother despite his future memories, which sure has some implication. I told a friend that like my assumption is that Mun Dojin died in the other timeline and I desperately need him and SJS to talk because even if the memories SJS has never actually existed here, that still sort of makes him the only person MDJ can talk to.

actually, man. this would make anything SJS/YTH even funnier. here's your crush. there's your crush's vampire familier and his ex guildmaster's (former bf's??????) little brother. god I need MDJ and Elizabeth to show up more often. slkdfhsldkh sorry got entirely off track here.

OKAY BACK TO SUGAR DADDY AU- I just realized how fucking hilarious this would also be because like. SJS manages to bag one man and it's this big shot guild leader. and instead of signing up with his guild, he goes to these small nobodies. like, it probably just makes sense to SJS. This was a job, now here is another, newer job. Life goes on.

YTH meanwhile is the math meme. Min Huisu told him to get a social life. he paid someone for that, but the guy turns out to be actually cute and fun, so he'd like to have a relationship that is not just superifical. and this guy just. mcfucking signs on to a guild he hasn't even heard of. f in the fucking chat

[bayofwolves]

Rereading Against the Tide

After two months... we're so back.

Apologies once again for the impromptu hiatus! I'm excited to get back to these rereads. It's been a while, so I'll explain the purpose of these posts again: This is not a full analysis, but rather a compilation of details I find interesting or missed when I was a younger reader. I'm rereading the whole series to gather information for A Revised History of Erdas, so there may be some commentary from time to time on how I plan to change or expand on certain plot points.

Let's find out what horrors are in store for our heroes this time!

Finally, Abeke gets her own cover! My girl!! They change how Uraza looks on every cover, but I like how she looks here. I especially love the purple wisps coming from her; how cool would it be if that happened every time your spirit animal appeared out of passive state?

Erdas has the Fahrenheit scale, apparently. Well, that's gotta go. The top of Muttering Rock is about 200 degrees, or 93 degrees Celsius -- leagues hotter than anything ever recorded on Earth.

I forgot how horrifying this opening chapter was. Gerathon pushing a little boy's body past its limits just to deliver a message to Kovo... awful.

Abeke seems to have scar tissue pain, possibly due to nerve damage, from the stab wound Tahlia dealt her in Fire and Ice. She mentions that even though it has mostly healed, she still experiences pain there, particularly in colder weather. If only this hadn't been forgotten by the next book -- it would have been super interesting, in my opinion, to see one of our protagonists deal with lasting effects from an injury they received.

Meilin referring to Shane as Abeke's "Conqueror boyfriend" has been occupying space in my head since 2015. We should have had more of this energy. (I need to have one of the Conquerors or Redcloaks call Abeke Shane's Greencloak girlfriend in return. Drina most definitely would.)

Kalani and her people share similarities with the Māori of Earth. They have the same tattoos and concept of tapu.

Tangaroa is the name of the Māori atua (god) of the sea. I love finding little references to the Earth culture a region of Erdas was inspired by. They did the same with Tiddalik, Tahlia's water-holding frog, who shares a name with the real-life Australian legend he is based on.

I wish Abeke had gotten the chance to see Leopard, the baby orangutan, again. They were so sweet. Also, the authors should have kept this habit she has of rescuing baby animals going for longer. Picture this: She encounters something a little more deadly this time. Dotes on it for a bit and nurses it back to health or helps it find its way back to its family. It remembers how Abeke helped it, and in her hour of need comes to her rescue.

At least there's a cleansing ceremony (this presumably refers to noa) to rid someone of tapu. Now why didn't the authors have Kalani do this for Rollan in The Evertree instead of having her go against her beliefs for his sake? Man... I should have been in the writers' room.

"This quest is leaving a lot of burned bridges in our wake. I fear we, and perhaps all Greencloaks by extension, will no longer be so welcome afterward in places like this." YES! Finally, someone considers the consequences of their actions. It's back to "the ends justify the means" in the next paragraph, but at least there was this fleeting moment of realization.

Nightshade Island was wiped from the world maps after the First Devourer War, along with Stetriol. I wonder if there were other places associated with the Conquerors and/or Kovo and Gerathon that were deemed "tainted" and erased from the history books. This also prompts a nitpick from me -- I wish the maps shown at the beginning of each book were more tailored to the book/arc. They added the Evertree and the Petral Mountain range in the second arc, which is great, but I want a whole lot more of that detail. In the first arc, the map could have had Stetriol missing from it. We could have had its first appearance on Immortal Guardians's map, once the Greencloaks could deny their existence no longer. Other important locations deserved to be on there too, maybe being added book by book. Glengavin. The Lake of the Elephant. Samis (perhaps disappearing without further comment after Fire and Ice). Cabaro's oasis. Muttering Rock. Zourtzi. The Place of Desolation. The list goes on. They all deserved to be put on the maps! I rest my case!

Meilin casually saying "I can still control Jhi" sent a shiver down my spine. It's so out of place. Like, how can she have spent so much time with the Greencloaks and still be so fundamentally wrong about the spirit animal bond?

So Timote was the heir to the Hundred Isles before the Conquerors captured him. And knowing how male-dominated monarchies work, the other brother, Piri, would likely have taken the throne before Kalani even if he is younger than her. The Conquerors knew what they were doing by killing the previous rulers and taking their two male children hostage. They wanted to leave the Hundred Islanders leaderless. To totally incapacitate them. I bet they were in for a shock when Kalani proved her capability as queen.

Feliandor is wearing a red cloak in Rollan's vision. Most certainly a throwaway detail, but it didn't stop me from sitting up and pointing at the page when I read it.

Rollan sees something vaguely familiar in Feliandor's face, and we have to wait an entire book before learning that he must have been reminded of Shane, his descendant. Seriously, the foreshadowing for multiple big events in the first arc is really well done. I love discovering all the little hints pointing towards Shane being the true Devourer, or Meilin being the mole. This is one thing the many authors successfully worked together on.

While the vision on Nightshade Island is one of my favourite parts of the book, something bugs me about it. Why did only Rollan have this vision? Despite Tarik and Meilin being right beside him as it happened, neither of them saw what he did. It would have been a lot better if they all had the same vision at once. If the echoes of what happened on that island centuries earlier still linger, shouldn't they appear to anyone who visits? Why would it only be one person out of three?

Peleke, the Komodo dragon, poses a brief threat to Abeke, Conor and Kalani on Sunlight Island. Except... his species should go by a different name in this world. Komodo dragons were named as such because they originate from Komodo Island on planet Earth. This is such an easy fix. Just name any one of the Hundred Isles and have the species come from there.

Abeke instinctively knows how to ride Uraza, despite it being her first time doing so. Was she Tembo in another life? Kidding. She is his direct descendant in ARHoE, though.

God, the scene with Tarik saying goodbye to the Four and begging them to come back to him haunts me. Tarik will never see Abeke or Meilin again, and he will die not knowing if they are alive or dead. He will die believing that he failed them.

I'm really glad to see some development of Tarik here. For all his appearances and importance to our protagonists, he is quite a flat character. But here, we get a good look into his headspace. He loves the Four deeply, like a father should love his children. He doesn't want them to go where he can't protect them. He wonders if the Greencloaks are doing the right thing by sending such young people into battles they might not return from, still thinking about what Barlow said all the way back in Wild Born. I need to see more of this Tarik.

"[Rollan] wondered if he and his friends would survive long enough to see a day when they could just enjoy a place like this -- the sunshine, swimming with seals, the warm water." As soon as the war was over, the Four definitely came back to Oceanus and had a beach day. They deserve a vacation after all of this, and I'm positive they took many of them. It'll be fun to figure out what they all got up to in the year between arcs for ARHoE.

I've talked about this before, but I love all the moments that suggest the Four Fallen will one day return to their old forms. I don't believe this would happen in their human partners' lifetimes, but in any case, it would be cool to see it come to pass.

Despite both Mulop and Briggan being visionary Great Beasts, neither of them foresaw Kovo using Feliandor to start a war. How convenient for him.

Abeke is able to spot Shane in the mass of Conquerors by his blond hair, which makes me wonder: What if blond people were considered a rarity in Erdas? What if golden hair was a trait exclusive to Stetriol, and most of the world had never seen it before? That would be kind of fun. (Yes, I know there's Conor, but he's more of a redhead in ARHoE.)

"Not far below her, Uraza was grappling with a huge doglike creature that Abeke thought might be a dingo." I know it's mentioned a few paragraphs later that Tarik used books to teach her about animals that were foreign to her (which is really cute), but dingoes are native to Stetriol, which the Greencloaks effectively erased from existence. There are probably no encyclopedias still in circulation that include Stetriolan flora or fauna. My headcanon is that Shane told Abeke about the animals that are native to his homeland, and that's how she knows about dingoes.

"She drew her bow back and aimed, trying to ignore her thudding heart. The man stood on an outcropping, shouting orders at the fighters scrambling up behind him. Her sharp arrow tip was pointed directly down at Zerif's heart." The way this scene directly parallels Abeke's attempt to shoot infected Zerif in The Burning Tide... wow. Ignoring canon and thinking of ARHoE where she does kill him in the end, this was written in the stars. It is her destiny.

"Stabbing, scratching pain seared through her, but she gained control of one hand --" So resisting Gerathon's mind control can cause physical pain. Interesting.

I know Rollan was kind of forced to leave Meilin, but couldn't he have swooped in on Great Essix and carried Abeke out of there AT LEAST? Not even Meilin can fight a giant gyrfalcon.

Gerathon is not any good at controlling people, damn. Maybe she's rusty after so many years.

This was a great read, as they all are. It was a nice refresher after Fire and Ice, with all the callbacks to what our heroes had faced in the previous books. Seriously, Fire and Ice was a mess in terms of continuity. But Tui understood the assignment. My favourite parts of this one were the beautiful butch lesbian that is Kalani, Abeke becoming mom to another baby animal and riding Great Uraza Tembo-style, the Feliandor vision and Mulop, ever a delight to read. I really enjoyed the people and culture of Oceanus; so excited for Kalani to reappear in the coming books. And, of course, the reveal of Meilin being the mole all along was utterly perfect. The amount of thought and planning that went into this decision, the layers of foreshadowing building up to this horrible truth... it deserves all the praise.

We're at the lowest point we've ever been, and it's about to get even lower.

This is part of an ongoing series.

Wild Born | Hunted | Blood Ties | Fire and Ice | Against the Tide | Rise and Fall | The Evertree

Immortal Guardians | Broken Ground | The Return | The Burning Tide

Heart of the Land | The Wildcat's Claw | Stormspeaker | The Dragon's Eye

Tales of the Great Beasts | The Book of Shane | Tales of the Fallen Beasts

[fountainpenguin]

"I've got to be where my spirit can run free... Got to find my corner of the sky~!" (x)

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New Dog's Life chapter today! ~ 3rd Life series fan-season

Chapter 12 - “Intermission Boogie”

Read on AO3

Start from Chapter 1

More Pixels Imperfect fics

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The days between Sessions 1 and 2 trickle by… Sniff searches for his place in the world and has a run-in with Scar. Grian takes a look at Impulse's code. Meanwhile, Cleo and Martyn get into trouble and Bdubs helps Scott investigate the anarchy breach.

(First 1,000 words under the cut)

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🌓 🖤 🖤

Tuesday

SnifferMyFeet

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Etho's Void-black room is a lot more fun without Etho in it, until it's not. Pause and Beef both went offline. Nobody's here to tell him what to do. Sniff bounces on Etho's bed, slapping the ceiling on every jump. He tries to do a backflip, but… too scared. He gets too close to landing funny on his neck and stops bouncing after that.

My gods, it's so dark in here…

The room feels like an open night sky. Sniff tests his weight against the mattress, bouncing just a little, and watches the glowing glitter up and down his arms. He's leaking… but the little sparks he's producing are drifting upwards, against gravity. Is that Etho? Is Etho the sparks? Where do they go? Sniff tries to follow them, but they twinkle and dissipate in the air. He pats his head, ruffling his hair, and checks the mirror hanging on the back of Etho's bedroom door. Huh. Yeah, his hair's leaking glittery bits too.

I guess this makes sense? When I ate his soul, he didn't really go down my throat. He kind of melted in my mouth and blended with my gums… Well, maybe just a little of my throat. But he didn't make it to my stomach. So if he didn't get digested like meat or bread, I guess this is how he leaves my system? Etho's mind may be unconscious, but the particles of light that form his body seem to be escaping through tiny gaps between Sniff's pixels. That's his current theory, anyway.

Okay… That checks out, actually. That goes along with what Grian said about getting cycled into the system faster if Martyn eats you than if Bdubs does. Bdubs eats more, so it probably takes a lot longer for everyone to sneak out again.

Huh. Sniff flaps his arms, trying to shake Etho's particles out faster, but that actually stops him from glittering for a hot second. It's a couple minutes before the sparkles start up again. Oops. Maybe all that shaking made whatever's left of Etho's consciousness kinda dizzy. Sorry, soulmate. Boat Boys for life.

Then he smacks himself across the cheek. What am I saying? Etho was Joel's soulmate. Not mine. Boat Boys are dead in the water anyway. They don't matter. Etho yanked him into Between to do one job and that's it. He doesn't care. There's probably something going on with Bdubs or the real Joel or Beef or Pause or Cleo anyway. He told me himself he was only cuddling up because he's greedy and touch-starved. My gods, Sniff… Get over him. Boat Boys are over and he was never yours anyway, so treat him like an ex. You've got Pig now. It's time to move on.

Etho snuffed the lanterns out before bed. Try as he might, Sniff can't find a proper lighter. He checks every kitchen drawer and even some in the front room, but nothing. Etho's lack of interest in knick-knacks, apparently, extends to the entire bleedin' flat. And there's no blimmin' coal around either, so he can't craft any torches. Absolute disappointment. He slams the last drawer shut in a huff, then flops against the counter.

I'm so bored…

Which is maybe a bit pathetic, actually. Sniff rolls over, sprawling his arms across the counter from this angle too. Ceiling's lame… Everything's lame. At least the dark is good for one thing. The purpur flooring's a lot less ugly when you can't see it.

It's not like he's never been alone before. He used to be alone all the time back on his home world - He really needs a cool name for it, like 'Empires' or 'Hermitcraft' but like, personal - and he'd pass days or even weeks with Pig only popping in every now and then. That was lonely too, like this.

But the thing is, when Pig was gone, Sniff still had a whole server to explore. He picked apart every End City he could find. He got wings. He wrangled villagers. He beefed himself up with enchanted netherite gear. He built himself a flying ship.

But I can't build anything here. Or at least, Etho and Grian said you can't place blocks in New Star Station. The whole thing's bugged out or something? Spawn protection? Not sure. To be fair, he barely paid attention as he had other things on his mind.

Well, if he can't build… At least he can explore. Etho tried to spook him out, claiming the HALO team or big bad Bdubs might come to log him out if he isn't careful, but what's it to him? Sniff just ate the man. And if he can eat Etho, what's to stop him from eating anyone else? He can eat anyone he wants. Yeah, that's right. His fingers, still splayed, tighten into fists.

Bdubs said it himself: he didn't want to poke around in here because he thought I might log him out…

Everybody's scared of vex. Even HALO. Even the phantoms. Sniff studies the blank ceiling in the dark for another couple seconds, then peels away from the counter. He walks straight through the den, slides open the bamboo door, and steps onto the balcony. Fresh air… Stale air, technically? They're still under bedrock-

"What are you doing?" asks a voice from above, and Sniff jumps about four blocks in the air.

"WHAAAA!? Oh my- What?"

Cackling laughter breaks out above him. Sniff jerks up his head, breathing hard. TwoMuchGrian is perched right on a copper bar above his head, arms wrapped around his stomach. He's doubled over, wheezing like an absolute madman (My gods…) His hair waterfalls down one shoulder, swishing with every wingbeat. He's losing petals from his flower crown. Sniff drags his hand straight down his lips.

"Oh my gosh… Two, what the hell? You scared the blimmin' daylights out of me! Ohh, I'm gonna be sick!"

It takes several seconds of laughter before Two's caught his breath enough to answer. He unfolds. He rights himself on the rod, letting his wings flap down in a blur of blue and gold feathers. "Ohhhh… You have no idea how long I've been waiting to catch you, Sniff. Ohhh… That's going in your newbie clip comp for sure." Two holds his fingers up in Ls, framing Sniff between them like he's pinned on a comm screen. "Wooo… How you feelin'?"

"Like I just short-circuited my own hearts. My gosh, you are something else. Uggggh… I'm so mad. You're so bloody lucky I don't have any weapons on me right now."

[Cnt'd on AO3 - Link at top]

[illegalmushrooms]

shrooooms, the kids miss uu where art thou 😭

... hey!

(incoming yap session, beware)

This is a little awkward. I haven't touched my Tumblr in like, apparently three years. There's some questions in my inbox, but they're so old it feels a bit strange to answer them now, right? 😭

Anyway. It's nice to see you! Whoever you may be! (Are the kids OK?)

Last week, for god knows what reason, I re-donned my mushroom hat (humor me for a moment and imagine a Mario Toad-style monstrosity) and published a new (old) chapter of Don't Leave! (y'all remember that? Does anyone reading this right now remember or know who I am??).

Laying off the parentheses now--I explained in the chapter a bit of the future of the story and what was happening with me. Oh my gosh, is that a conveniently-placed link to the chapter down below?

As I mentioned somewhere in that conveniently-placed link, I'm mostly fine, and there's nothing else I have written for Don't Leave! so far.

Well...

Okay, so that's a complete and utter lie. I do have something written. But I'm afraid it's not very useful.

I actually wrote... a complete, very dramatic ending to the story. It's an interesting ending, to say the least, but of course, the story is nowhere near that point. I'd have to write another thirty-forty-who knows more chapters or something to even reach this supposed ending, and by then I might not even like the idea I have there.

I guess that's not relevant. I suppose the point I'm trying to make is that I never, ever, forgot about Don't Leave! I've thought about it a lot, even when I haven't been writing a single word. I've been reading every comment and message I received across the different platforms, and you know, smiling stupidly at my phone every time. I've totally missed the world of fanfiction! I've missed Bella, the ridiculous character I conjured up within the depths of pandemic-era isolation! I've missed sitting down at my laptop and tap-tapping away and sinking into this wonderful world Togashi made!

So here's what I'm going to say about the story. (This post just gets longer and longer, doesn't it? Sorry!)

As of right now, there is no next chapter.

I can't say when there might be a next chapter.

I can say that maybe, life-permitting, I'll post something in the fall, if I can squeeze in some time to rewatch HxH. I've just... forgotten a lot of the go story's intricacies that an author has to keep in mind to write a comprehensible fic.

That's what I have to say about Don't Leave! .

(and, to anyone who might be thinking of those other fics I wrote, which I highly doubt anyone is... I actually have a few chapters of them simmering in my docs somewhere. But I'm a bit embarrassed about it, so let's consider them dead for the moment, alright?)

Now that I've cleared that up, and some of my conscience along with it, I suppose I'll drop in a tiny life update for any curious souls. I've never disclosed much about myself and I'd like to consider myself awful cool and mysterious, but can I speed run certain vague life events from my past three years?

I... survived a car crash, travelled to new countries and places, moved, wrote a ton (fanfic and general fiction, all of it kind of ass), survived a fire, worked and toiled to the capitalist machine, had a couple mental breakdowns, conquered the mental health, lost it again, conquered again...

...and so on...

What's next for me?

I am hesitant of publishing anything else at the moment. I have a lot of fics I'd written just sitting in my files; everything from miscellaneous anime stuff to Harry Potter to this one reallllly odd story about isekai-ing into Minecraft, of all things. (I actually kind of like that one. Don't know if there's an audience for that kind of thing, though). My writing has absolutely improved since those admittedly rough early chapters of DL (I am ASTOUNDED it ever gained the little audience that it did) but there's still an anxiety I have about sharing my work. Silly, yes, but that's that.

For right now, I have the new DL chapter, I have this long-ass update post, and I have my genuine appreciation.

Much love to anyone who might still care. <3

Until next time?

Illegal Mushrooms

[bthump]

idk if you've heard yet, but the newest chapter was leaked!

(ok apparently posting links in asks have gotten weirder ugh)

Ty for letting me know! What are your thoughts on it, if you feel like posting about it?

Here's the link for anyone else who hasn't seen it yet

And my thoughts and a couple more asks under the cut, ty for the asks!

Anonymous asked:

What are your thoughts on the latest chapter? It was centred around Casca. Also idk if you already knew but there’s another chapter coming out a month from now. Which is kinda insane for berserk lol

Yeah I'm glad we're gonna get another string of chapters instead of just occasional chapters in isolation.

And my thoughts are: whatever lol.

Like, it's basically what I expected. The magic-induced stupor Casca's in is both boring and shitty for people who wanted Casca to exist as a character, but for me it's also reassuring in that it prevents most things I don't want to happen from happening lol, and it keeps Casca's trauma and big emotions on ice for a while longer because I'm still hoping for the behelit to be hers. If Casca's a full character then I risk disappointment with how her trauma is handled and what she chooses to do. If she's a drugged up damsel in distress who occasionally wakes up enough to punch a guard then I don't have to care, basically. Cool, go through the motions, I'm not invested in this part of the story so idgaf. Sucks to be Casca, same as it ever was.

She's finally got an animal association, and yk, I don't mind it. I can roll with raven for her. (plsplspls say it's laying the foundation for her apostle form pls)

I would like to imagine there's some meaning to be gleaned from Danann putting Casca in a dress to go see Guts and Casca wearing a kind of similar dress here in Falconia (feathers, head-piece) but probably the only throughline is Casca not getting to choose her own clothes/highlighting that she prefers to wear pants.

The moment she wakes up was mildly interesting, I'm glad the memories were of Farnese and co even if she did start fretting about Guts lol. There's a subtle zig-zag pattern in the last drop of water before she wakes up and starts fighting guards:

Which may be absolutey nothing, but made me think of the Beast of Darkness and gives me hope for Casca's inner darkness.

Anonymous asked:

I’m sorry bthump but after ch372 it seems like the story is indeed heading in the direction of Gutsca being endgame and Griffith being this manipulative machiavellian emotionless type villain, that last panel of him looks so exaggeratedly evil

Idk, I mean we already knew Casca still has ~feelings~ for Guts, it's not surprising to me that she'd dream about being carried away from him and think about him. It's not great, but it didn't majorly disappoint me or fill me with dread. If anything it makes Guts' sword obsession even funnier lol. Talk about emotional one-sidedness.

And rather than feeling terribly romantic, that moment when she fights the guards and thinks that she has to get back to Guts or he'll... makes me think she's anticipating Guts walking into a trap to rescue her, which, yk, is probably what's going to happen lol, unless this sword crisis resolves in a way that gives Guts an upper hand/a better plan B. But again, it's not surprising, the only thing I'm really curious about is what's going to happen when Guts gets here.

Though it does make me a little concerned that enough time has passed during this chapter that we're skipping over Guts' side of the story for a while and he might actually show up soon? We left his story on a cliffhanger so I feel like that would be stupid, and when I read the chapter I parsed it as like, Casca's first day as a damsel, but upon re-reading it's more likely one day in the life after days/weeks/months, so who knows?

And Griffith's cartoonish evil smile is dumb but I don't care honestly, I already got over it last chapter which also ended with an evil grin lmao. I know Miura would draw him with an ambiguously neutral expression so I just substitute my own in. I don't think it's a sign that he's going to be a 2 dimensional cackling villian, though frankly if he is I'd still chalk that up to non-Miura writing lacking all nuance and subtlety. What I imagine is in the future for Griffith though is more evil smiles, some Guts taunting, and then like, a crumbling of the facade in a moment of truth. It's just that the facade is no longer mildly neutral it's smug sinister evil because the new crew can't draw him.

Though man I read your ask while I was still at work before I could read the actual chapter and I was like 😟. But also I appreciate it lol bc you gave me the chance to brace myself for the worst, so I ended up pretty neutral on this chapter rather than disappointed.

I see a lot of people very annoyed with this chapter (and the continuation as a whole), and like, I get it because it objectively largely sucks lmao, but idk, I guess I have very low expectations for the continuation of Berserk comparatively. I'm no longer here for a good emotional story, I'm here to find out how it ends. I'm reading the cliffnotes version as far as I'm concerned, just scanning it for clues that point towards my desired ending.

[creativeafterdark]

Chapter 9 and 10

Heyo folks taking a @journeythroughjourneytothewest

Had to take a break from book club last week, burn out was very bad. But I've had a week to relax, celebrated my birthday and slept most of the day lol. Let's get back into Journey to the West

First: Chapter 9.

We finally meet our Monk and learn the story of his family!

We don't spend a lot of time learning about them (minus his Dad, gets a thumbs up from me. Kind to all and easy going enough to be like "I got hit by a ball-- oh I'm married now? Okay cool". Like talk about a shotgun wedding), but we do see little bits that remind me of our Monk. He does share his kindness with his Dad, and I genuinely think his anxiety is from his mom. I'll talk about her in a minute because she is a whole other thing.

My one question is... wouldn't other officials notice that Liu Hong, essentially becoming Chen E, had no idea what he was doing??? He went on business trips, did no one recognize he wasn't who he said he was????? I mean you would think anyone who took the exams with him who got positions would be like "uh... that's not him tf??". Or they just did not care. Who knows at this point. Apparently he had Six Eared Macaque level disguise skill, rolled a nat 20 in bullshitery.

Now. Lady Yin. The poor lady went through hell for over 18 years. She had to watch her husband get murdered, had to abandon her baby, and had to play wife to a murderer. Even when her husband came back... I'm not surprised she still ended up passing. That's a lot of guilt (and I'm sure Liu Hong was not kind to her) on her mind for a LONG period of time, nearly two decades. I wish there was a happy ending for the family but I get why it ended how it did, knowing what depression and anxiety can do to people.

Now our baby Monk. Our Xuanzang. I am so proud of him for being as brave as he was. This recently turned 18 year old did everything he could to help his family. Licking his grandma's eyeballs was...a choice. But it was for a good cause so good on him. I can see why he was a good choice as the Scroll Pilgrim.

And as promised, a sketch of Xuanzang

And as a bonus baby Monk with a doggo

But now we move to Chapter 10.

...I legit got annoyed going thru the debate between the fisherman and woodman. Like it went on far longer than it should have. I'm sure there was a profound moment that we're supposed to glean from it but I just wasn't receptive to it. Maybe I'll read it again.

Anyway.

I have been doing some looking into of Chinese historical heroes (I desperately want to read Romance of the three kingdoms, and I need more reading material about folk heroes and heroines) so seeing some references to the stuff I learned made me happy. There was mention of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang and the painting of The Emporer's Generals on the doors (supposedly the Tang dynasty is where this practice was first used. A few three kingdom folks also get this treatment as door gods, or menshen, along with other important heroes and deities. Makes me wonder if the Emperor essentially deified his Generals and Wei Zheng. How does Heaven handle that?)

Fun fact! In my jttw x mythology story Wukong will work with Asena, mythical wolf mother of the Ashina Clan of Gokturks. Guess which dynasty of China had to deal with them a lot? :)

Anyway.

I've also come to the conclusion that Dragons just like to fuck around and find out. Like, the Dragon King just goes against heaven's orders to spite a very accurate fortune teller, does not even THINK of the consequences, and is surprised Pikachu face when he gets in trouble. Also not sure why he thought appealing to an earthly emporer would save him from THE SUPREME DAOIST DEITY'S JUDGMENT. Like, y'all, I'm beginning to think dragons just don't give a crap or just don't think. Got what he deserved for being dumb. Did the emporer make promises he shouldn't have? No doubt, you don't promise supernatural beings anything because it will make you want to die if they catch wind of you breaking promises, regardless of nationality. Did he deserve what he got? .... I mean historically probably but in the sense of this story, no.

I find the Tang dynasty interesting (because it gave us a certain Empress and had some fun female warriors, like Taizong's sister, who helped her father found the dynasty) and I can definitely thank jttw for getting my attention about it.

I think that's all I have as far as thoughts. And I apologize if my rambles just jumped around too much lol.

Over and out ✌️

[quietbluejay]

Ahriman Sorcerer 1

The chaos train has no breaks!

Ew it’s the weird space wolves again Why don’t you guys hang out in your fancy coffee shop and maybe you’ll calm down

Annnnd yep time for more cannibalism Meanwhile Ahriman is having a nightmare about being chased by wolves King of infinite space etc

So the first time I though this was a Magnus fragment in his brain Either that or tzeentch I was wrong but I don’t remember what was up lol

Is this about his Prospero trauma

Secure meeting place to plan stuff with your minions: your own brain

Take a shot !!! Ignissssss is hereeee Ignis walks in and all the preps look at him

Ahhh you know I missed the first time that he thinks that about the sword lol Ignis insults the dude and starts a fight Sanakht shows up to break things up Rip sanakht you were kind of fun

You know I completely missed this first time Ignis: huh somethings up with his aura Sanakht: he noticed he knows he thinks I’m a worm

more ominous foreshadowing kadin cannot remember his home

uh??? This is Iobel but her first description was blue-eyed redhead. I mean contacts and hair dye are thing but. Odd.

okay i'm trying to figure out the timeline because there's time travel shenanigans so, it mentioned it was "years ago" that the first ahriman book happened, or at least a specific conversation in it at least from Kadin's POV they ran into Iobel and co just outside Cadia this inquisitor conference is…happening directly after that

spooky so the chained seer in the middle starts saying a list of names it's all people who are relevant to ahriman and boy it's a surprising list didn't expect to see the remembrancer trio from A Thousand Sons mentioned here also, hi khayon!

yooo that was sick back over to ahriman once again i find the logistics of chaos….lacking press x to doubt that they manage all this today: silvanus taunts the happy fun astraeos. astraeos strangles silvanus. do not taunt happy fun astraeos astraeos, don't strangle the navigator

okay so we're…roughly 2k years out from the heresy assuming this is referring to the first black crusade

grey knights spooky

next chapter: ahriman commits war crime also see what i mean it kind of jumps from ahriman doing small scale stuff to straight up killing the biosphere of an entire planet just so there will be enough dead plant matter that he can hide surprise tool for later rubricae there it's a huge escalation and it kind of adds to the feeling of being disjunct from the previous book.

okay that's it bursts out of wall like kool aid man i need to chew on some warhammer furniture so

i'm gonna continue rereading ahriman and hopefully get more ignis tonight: ahriman contemplates the nature of light as he is about to commit war crime

actually, this is kind of cool a) the fact that cinnamon still exists b) the fact that ahriman knows what it smells like i mean the boring answer is probably "they synthesized cinnamon" but i can think about growing cinnamon trees…

oh! he's hanging out with Carmenta

im sure this isn't foreshadowing anything bad okay so, are the cable swarming over her clothing then i guess so, Carmenta is the one person he confides in the one thing Ahriman doesn't have, is trust the only person he trusts to tell anything to is Carmenta, the one who betrayed him

IGNIS POV MY BELOVED so Ahriman gave the order but Ignis was the one who figured out how to do it and actually ran the whole thing (killing a planet)

and back over to Astraeos. time for the imperial inquisitors to torture him

okay so over with ahriman and

squints suspicious at the timeline shenanigans

TIRED SMILE not a sad smile but its cousin

okay we got a timeline! we are now currently at +2 years of lived time for Ahriman and Carmenta since killing the planet for someone who is supposedly dying, Carmenta doesn't seem to be doing worse than the last time we saw her? it has according to ahriman been "much longer" for the imperium since they killed the planet

RIP Astraeos

okay more notes: ahriman apparently goes to meetings in his bare feet i sure hope your ship is in better condition than the harrowing's one or you're just asking to give yourself super tetanus huh ignis has hidden depths he's upset because it cost them three TS to kidnap Iobel

for the record they could absolutely have grabbed Astraeos okay Hemellion POV the king of the world they killed that Ahriman spared and turned into a slave which again was weird.

oh hey more blindness and light motifs (there have been more i just haven't quoted them)

you gave me a life i never chose i wanna leave but the world won't let me go what it is and where it stops nobody knows (context: lyrics of Blindness by Metric. Actually that song has some relevance to this story)

ANOTHER SAD SMILE take a shot ignis and sanakht team up! im sure this will end well (well. ignis will survive. at least.)

anyways. i love iobel as a foil owo new psyker ranting about the sons of prospero iobel: ??? ack! ack! not the muscles!

oh, okay, it was only one sentence seeing this, she casually threw aside a large rock also we got another descriptor of ahriman's eyes

owo

it's really too bad iobel couldn't become a long term opponent but then, well, ahriman is ahriman also hey! eye focus! (his eyes got a few more mentions) i just love all the eye/blindness/light/shadow that suffuses this trilogy

what are they coming together to say, in a story about hubris also, first book had a pretty clear character arc and story arc second book is unclearer since it's mostly outsider POV so, i am trying to pay attention oh another thing, this book is far less visceral than the first, in terms of violence and gore, everything is a lot more detached i guess part of this is probably because Ahriman is also getting more and more detached

ok time for Astraeos to be tortured for realsies this time or not. just the setup. WAIT IM CONNECTING THE DOTS kadin and astraeos' chapter being from a dark world, them doing their training in the dark…im connecting the dots… kadin making his chainsword go vrrr so he's not alone in the dark and quiet

lmao ignis ignis tells a bunch of warlords that ahriman doesn't care about them

ignis: i am going to get a good grade in smiling, something that is normal to want and possible to achieve (sanakht, later: i saw ignis smile and it was the most horrifying thing i'd ever seen and considering i'm a tzeentchian who was besties with lucius the eternal, that's a pretty high bar)

time for iobel to remember going to prospero and i said this when reading it original but i love how in wh40k the sins of the past are literally haunting the present like yeah it's ahriman's trauma but it's also a bunch of ghosts that are going to try and kill you not even going to get into characters literally weaponizing their trauma as magic emotion bombs

i'm actually going to use khayon as an example since it's a lot more clear cut in his case he's got ptsd from the burning of prospero, but also his literal trump card is a daemon he summons that was originally born from the albigensian crusade and the death and burning of civilians by the knights who were supposed to be protecting them there's a bit also where Lheor is like "some of us have figurative daemons possessing us and some of us have literal ones, it's really all the same" with respect to Kibre & co being possessed

what i like about it is that whatever else you might say about its metaphysics, the WH40k universe is one where your suffering actually matters it matters in a way that sucks, but it does matter! who knows if you die horribly a daemon might be born from it

;-; astraeos

light and shadow again

they took the light away

…this book also gets into ahriman's childhood and guilt complex over his brother. I think.

And hit image limit!

to be continued

[novankenn]

Cherry Pie - Twelve -

(Master Chapter List)

It was early evening when Blake and Weiss met up again, after attending their various elective courses or clubs. Weiss was just returning from the Glee Club, while Blake had finished with her creative writing elective about half an hour before. Pyrrha had yet to return to their shared dorm.

Weiss: So what do you think Goodwitch had to say to her and dipshit.

Blake: Gee, Weiss, tell us how you really feel.

Weiss: What is that supposed to mean?

Blake: Been almost a year since we met, and I could count the number of times I heard you swear on one hand, and today... you got a mouth on your girl.

Weiss: (Frowning) Well, I'm sorry. That sack of shit just brings it out of me. Never liked him from the get go. Glad Pyrrha has moved on from him.

Blake: Never liked him?

Weiss: Never.

Blake: You didn't say anything...

Weiss: It wasn't my place. He had been Pyrrha's choice and I tried to respect that, but after... after catching him with his pants down, I no longer feel the need to hold my tongue.

Blake: What he did, really upset you, can I know why?

Weiss: I'm not sure if I'm ready to discuss something like that with you or Pyrrha. At least right now.

Blake: Well, when you are, I'm all ears.

Weiss: I wonder where Pyrrha is? The Cheer Squad's practice ends around the same time Glee Club does.

Blake: Maybe Coach Fall decided to keep them longer?

Weiss: That is...

At that moment, Pyrrha entered the common room of their dorm. She was obviously not happy, and without saying a word to either of her roommates, she walked straight into her room and slammed the door.

Weiss: I wonder what all this is about?

Blake: We'll ask her after she cools down.

Pyrrha was not in a good mood as she tossed her knapsack and her gym bag into the corner of her room. In fact, she was less in a bad mood, and more angry. After practice, Coach Cinder Fall, had singled her out, but not for praise as she normally was.

No, this time, Coach Fall used her behaviour in dealing with Cardin as an example of what the coach personally voiced as an embarrassment to the team. Pyrrha fumed as she remembered Coach Falls' words...

Cinder: Ladies, gentlemen, what I witnessed in the cafeteria today was horrendous, and pitiful. You are the cream of the crop, selected from thousands of applicants to represent the ideals and pristine image of Beacon.

Cinder: I will not tolerate such disrespectful displays. You will keep your personal trials and problems out of the public eye. I thought you were all above having to be warned in this way...

Pyrrha fell on to her bed, and grabbed her pillow, crushing it against her chest, as she remembered the look Cinder Fall had given her.

Cinder: But apparently I was mistaken. So I will remind you all now. Personal lives are personal. They are dealt with in private, not in public! If I see or hear of another such embarrassment happening due to the actions of one of you... you will be off the team.

[fae-fucker]

Nexus: Chapter 1-3

It's time for the thrilling conclusion to Sasha Alsberg's and Lindsay Cummings literary diarrhea. Described by the illustrious Sarah J Maas (whose taste we can surely trust) as a "whirlwind, out-of-this-galaxy adventure," the queen of fae jizz has once again put egg on our collective faces and told blatant lies to uphold false narratives.

It's apparently been two years since I last left Andi to die as the new General of Arcardius. Nor was the evil queen, and Valen was the perpetual victim turned evil guy at the last moment. Dex was there, and so was Andi's crew. Dex rescued Andi and the general, but the general died after giving Andi his title for reasons as uninteresting as they are pointless.

I won't be recapping the whole thing, just read the last parts of the previous snark to get caught up. Or the whole thing, if you want xoxo

Chapter 1: Dex

Dextro Arez had never truly believed that the Godstars were tangible beings. They were soul-felt, a comforting presence inside your heart, an idea that filled your mind as if soldered on with iron and fire. Always nearby, yet as far away as the stars in the night sky.

Hoo boy. Shinsay are so very good at one-sentence K.O.s They bypass my armor and do direct psychic damage.

Dex is sitting by Andi's busted-ass body. She's been out for a week, and he's all angsty about how she has to wake up because she's the general now and is the only one who can save them all. He's then overtaken by a telegraphed wave of memories, flashing conveniently back to the climax of the first book, so we're all caught up on what's happened.

BUT THEN! Andi wakes up! And she's all angry about how Dex saved her but left HER GIRLS behind, and she gets up and tries to go and save them immediately despite having an open and gaping chest wound that starts bleeding the moment she gets up. She's so so angry you guys. And also really badass for how she wants to save her crew, whom she loves so much that she'd die for them. It's very cool and tragic and sad and uuh. Anyway.

She stabs him with a syringe full of a pain medication called "soduum" which, I mean, yeah. Soduum indeed.

The first chapter of Nexus ends like this,

“I’m sorry, Dex,” Andi said, her voice like a funeral dirge as his head hit the floor. “There is no me without them.” When she left the med bay, she was no longer Androma Racella. The Bloody Baroness stepped into the halls of the Marauder, a captain who would tear apart the skies to rescue her crew.

I do love the childlike sincerity of Shinsay being so enamored with the bad-mouth-feel name of their main character, and her shitty little title, that they keep repeating both. I also hate the way the title is deeply unoriginal while also being completely meaningless, indicating that Shinsay just chose words that sounded cool to them without thought or effort. There's a certain unearned smugness in repeating the full name and title every time Andi does anything they think is cool, because guys? You didn't do anything, but you're expecting goosebumps every time? Cmon now.

I read my own snark recently in preparation for reading Nexus (cuz there's no way I'm gonna read Zenith again lol) and I'm surprised that I never deconstructed the title of "Bloody Baroness," because it's so bad. So I'll do that now, because there's nothing else cool happening.

First of all, what does baroness mean in this world? The title existing implies the existence of peerage. Adhira has a queen, so that sort of fits, but Andi is from Arcardius, which is noted to be the most militaristic planet, ruled by a general instead of a king. So who gave her the title? Why is it baroness specifically? Does Andi hold land? Where did the title of baroness come from? Who started it and why? What did she do to earn it? We never really find out what Andi did during her criminal years, so her having a wacky title would have given us a clue as to what kind of pirate she is. Instead, we get baroness because it sounds fancy to Shinsay and is alliterative with "bloody," I guess?

As for "bloody", well, it speaks for itself, doesn't it? It's a fine enough descriptor for a space pirate, but the fact that it's followed up by "baroness" makes it sound too small for the title it's describing. The alliteration was also a mistake, IMO. It just sounds childish. Combine all this with the fact that "bloody" is something a mildly annoyed British person might say before a real curse word, it's just a bit silly.

Compare to two examples that kind of work, on the opposite ends of the spectrum that Andi occupies. We have Star Lord, from Guardians of the Galaxy. I haven't read the comics, but the title works for the guy because it's both ambiguous (in the first movie, nobody knows who he is or what he's done, because it's not a lot) and grandiose (because he's full of himself). It is a cool name, but it's clearly something an unimaginative egotist might come up with, name himself the lord of stars because they're in space, so ruling stars means he's a big deal. Nobody's calling him lord unless he convinces them first. It works because it builds his character.

Then we have The Blood Countess, one of the epithets given to Elizabeth Bathory, a real-life historical figure who was said to have killed women and girls in order to bathe in their blood and remain young forever. Notice the similarities to the Bloody Baroness. Except Bathory was given this moniker because she 1) was an actual countess and 2) killed people and had a fascination with their blood. Obviously this is a real-life person, but the title works because hey, she did do that shit, at least according to the people who gave her that name. She's a countess that likes blood? Blood Countess!

What did Andi do? Everyone calls her the Bloody Baroness, but we don't know why, and she clearly didn't give herself the name, though she embraces it because ...? She likes it, I guess. She likes to be called bloody because she loves violence, and to be associated with nobility, despite supposedly hating the upper class after they stabbed her in the back.

Y'all see what I mean?

We don't know where the title came from, so we don't get an insight into her past, and we don't know how she feels about it, aside from stuff we can assume that turns out to be contradictory anyway.

But hey, it sounds cool, right? Right? RIGHT?!

Chapter 2: Andi

Anyway, because she's got a huge hole in her chest that's gushing blood, Andi can barely get herself into the captain's seat, but she's so so so so determined to save HER GIRLS, you guys. Can you feel the female solidarity simply seeping off the page? Totally not undermined by the fact that the three girls are basically lamps who only exist to be Andi's motivation and have no character of their own in this book, essentially objectifying them in this supposedly feminist narrative.

The navigation holoscreen began to flicker before her eyes, highlighted by the swirling, shimmering clouds outside the varillium walls of the ship. The dense fog of color obscured Andi’s view of the stars, and the sight of it sent a shiver of dread down her spine. “Memory?” she asked breathlessly. The soothing female voice of the Marauder ’s control system came to life around her. “How may I assist you, Captain?” “Where exactly are we?” There was a long pause before Memory responded. “The navigation system is currently off-line. I am unable to determine our precise location at this time.” Andi stared at the dancing whorls of pink and gold mist, a sudden suspicion dawning. “Memory, what was the destination of the last hyperspace jump?” “The last coordinates entered were for a location just outside the Xintra Nebula.” Andi’s hands began to shake with rage. Her ship was inside a damned nebula. A massive pocket of space filled with gases and debris that rendered the Marauder’s tracking and navigation systems utterly useless. A place only the most skilled pilots could hope to fly through without losing their way.

A-heem heem. So, as a child, my obsession wasn't with dinosaurs, or Egypt, or animals. Mine was space. And though I couldn't tell you anything that you probably don't already know, I will say that uuh, nebulas? Do not work like that. Nebulas aren't, like, clouds or mist here on earth, they're MASSIVE. And yes, while they are filled with gases, it's not like water turning to mist, so the amount of gas molecules stretched across hundreds of light-years would make existing inside a nebula perfectly fine. The gases wouldn't even be visible to the naked eye. Like, you wouldn't be obscured by clouds or mist, and certainly not enough to scramble any science-fiction navigational tools in a world that's mastered space travel.

Also, while we're on the topic of Shinsay not knowing shit from fuck, can I say something else? Here's the map of the galaxy:

First of all, what are rogue systems? I don't know if they've ever been mentioned and I don't remember if they ever will be, so why even put them on the map? Second of all: you mean to tell me that none of these people name the stars in their star system? That they're all just "the sun" like we do here on Earth? Huh? What? Why? Third: so several of the aliens come from the same star systems? Most of these planets have been mentioned as habitable. Andi and Breck come from the same star system. How is that plausible in any sense of the word?

Third of all, what the fuck is this?

HOW IS THAT A FUCKING ASTEROID BELT? Like I don't expect authors to understand how gravity works in space, (even though it's pretty basic that these rocks would definitely be in orbit around the sun, much like the planets are) but didn't the word belt clue you in on how they look? Do you have no curiosity at all, or are you so overconfident that you can't even bother to look things up?

Also, I get that this is stylized, but this map feels really small. Combined with how Shinsay don't seem to understand how big space actually is, or how unlikely it is that so many planets and satellites in a system are not only habitable but inhabited, it leads to the whole thing feeling underwhelming, not like the great swashbuckling space opera they were clearly going for. Everything's just squished together, and the whole plot revolves around a handful of planets.

Anywhomst, Lon comes in (Lira's brother who's somehow a "universal donor") and reasons with Andi. They head back to wake up Dex, which is surprisingly easy, given that almost no time has passed and they don't even give him anything to cancel out the drug.

Dex and Lon catch Andi up on what went down once she got her ass beat by a skinny guy with a knife. Valen is Nor's half brother and their mom had fucked up space magic that mind-controlled General Cyprian back in the day. Now they're mind-controlling people into worshiping Nor, including Andi's crew. It's very dramatic but also stuff we already knew, so.

Andi squeezed Dex’s hand and nodded decisively. “So we find a way to free their minds and come up with a plan to get them out.” “And then?” Lon asked. Andi allowed an icy smile to spread across her face. “And then the Bloody Baroness will go hunting.”

Cool. This is the second time in a row that we're ending a chapter with the promise of Andi aka the Bloody Baroness doing something cool, and yet she never does. And guess what! She never will.

Spoilers.

Chapter 3: Valen

The chapter title loudly proclaims that this is three weeks later, so I'm assuming that's on top of the week Andi's been out. So like it's a month after the attack. Keep this in mind.

Valen sits in a garden in his old home and angsts about how this planet used to be his prison because his family hated him, except his half-sister Kalee, who was an angel who could do no wrong. But now thankfully he has another sister who is totally cool and awesome and gave him a new identity, as a Solis with compulsion powers.

With every moment that passed, with every new soldier that set out across Mirabel to spread the Zenith virus, more minds were added to Valen’s nexus of connections. At first, he’d felt the exact moment when each silver bullet hit its target. The bullets contained a serum that Nor’s two-headed scientist, Aclisia, had perfected back on Xen Ptera. She’d somehow replicated strands of Valen’s DNA and used them to create a virus that forever linked the minds of its victims to his own, leaving them vulnerable to his compulsions.

His DNA? They're blasting people with Valen's DNA in order to make them part of his semi-hivemind? This is like if I spit in someone's mouth and they started being able to see my OCs in their mind's eye. It doesn't make any sense, and would've worked better if it was just random space-magic, but sure, whatever, it's DNA now. I just don't understand how it works in-person, then? Because it clearly does, since that's how Klaren used it, and she didn't put her DNA into the people she controlled. It was rather the opposite, really. Bazinga etc.

Like, ok, making a virus out of his DNA is fine, but then why would that infection allow him to take control over them? Look at how it "works" in his mind:

Over time, he discovered a way to quiet the minds, to lock them away in their very own realm, so that when a new mind was added, it was simply background noise. He’d strengthened the mental boundaries around that realm, building walls around those other minds, until they were contained in an impenetrable fortress that rivaled the obsidinite prison he’d once been trapped in on Lunamere. And then, finally, there was silence. Now he need only hear the minds when he pleased. And with the help of the Zenith virus, Valen could reach them from anywhere in the galaxy. He compelled them to serve Nor, their true queen—no matter the cost.

So it's a fucking BBC Sherlock mind palace. Very clearly not science-based, so why the bullshit with making a virus? Guess it sounds more scienc-y.

On Xen Ptera, they’d shared a life together—two years spent honing Valen’s powers. And all the while, his heartless father never came looking for him. Valen had once cared about pleasing the general, but now he knew that hope had been futile. Foolish, and utterly pointless. His father had never been capable of loving him, of feeling pride in his son.

Well, you were his rape-baby. Like I hate to remind you but you were very much unwanted and unplanned and made from a forced union. I get that that's not Valen's fault, and the general shouldn't have taken it out on him, but with how much this book and the first demonizes the general and idolizes (or at least affords complexity to) Klaren, this comes off as kind of uncomfortable. You'll see how Shinsay just conviniently always forget that Klaren was an actual rapist. I guess it doesn't count if it's a woman raping men. Yes, multiple.

Valen talks to Nor through their mind link or whatever, which makes him feel better. He's avoiding Darai (Nor's evil advisor/uncle figure), because the old geezer gives him bad vibes.

As he's sitting there, his gaze drifts to a massive floating thing in the distance:

Nexus. The monstrous satellite had become Nor’s new obsession in the wake of their takeover during the Ucatoria Ball. Engineers, scientists and workers had been laboring around the clock these past few weeks, perfecting every angle and plane of the device that would amplify Valen’s compulsion ability, sending his message to every corner of the galaxy.

Ayoo, title drop! But also, what? How does that work? How are you gonna blast Valen's DNA virus through space and expect it to not only survive the process, but also reach across the galaxy? *Tim Allen AUEGH grunt*

Anyway, Nor is apparently preparing for a public announcement or some shit, and Valen thinks about the Unaffected attacks.

Yes. Time for another Nondescript Proper Noun. Get a load of this:

It was something Valen had feared from the beginning, after he’d learned that some wouldn’t be affected by his compulsion. Their numbers were slim, if Aclisia’s extensive testing of the Zenith virus was anything to judge by. For every hundred that fell to Valen’s compulsion, bowing to Nor despite their original feelings toward her, only one resisted. So despite his unease, he’d never truly thought they’d be able to fight back. But barely a week into Nor’s reign, a group of Unaffecteds had banded together and destroyed the military barracks on Tenebris that housed many of the newest recruits to the cause. Valen had felt the moment those minds beneath his compulsion had died. As if they were matches snuffed out. There one moment, gone the next. It happened again, mere days later, on Adhira. A small but organized group of Unaffecteds had emerged from the jungle sector of the terraformed planet and struck down the communication towers. Nor’s video feed, which was on a constant loop across the galaxy, had been cut off for half a day’s time.

First of all, is this some English speaker thing that I'm not getting? Some nuance I'm missing? Why the hell are they called "Unaffecteds" instead of just "Unaffected"? "A group of Unaffected" works just as fine and doesn't sound as awkward, no? Especially since Valen called them Unaffected previously. Am I wrong? Feel free to correct me but I think that this is just unecessary and weird. And yeah, it's not very original. It's giving Divergent but many years too late.

Second of all, one in a hundred in a galaxy is still a lot of people. However, probably not enough to form a resistance movement that fast and that organized in a manner of weeks. Especially considering that there's a visual difference between those that are affected and those that aren't (as we'll see later), and that most people aren't combatants, most Unaffected/s would be found out pretty quickly. I'm calling bullshit on this one.

Third, why is Nor wasting time on making videos for a galaxy that's already entirely brainwashed by her? This implies that the attack was a calculated effort to weaken her power, but aside from sending her a message, it doesn't really affect anything, does it? Are we meant to believe she's just very self-absorbed? That hasn't really been her characterization up until this point.

The Unaffecteds would fall eventually, when they ran out of steam. When they realized that the galaxy was beyond saving.

Nitpick, but for a guy who's spent an entire chapter wanking about how great and amazing his sister is, it's a very weird word choice to say that his enemies would be "saving" the galaxy from her. Is he devoted to her and her cause, or is he a mustache-twirling villain aware of his own actions? Cuz it really seems like you're going for the former.

But hey, what's one sentence in a book, right? It's not like stories are made up of words and that you should be aware of the choices you're making while writing them or anything.

Sometimes, Valen could scarcely believe what they had already accomplished; how quickly the galaxy had fallen beneath their joined hands. Having a scientist of Aclisia’s caliber on their side had been vital to their success in that regard. It had been her idea to send out the orbs full of tainted rain as soon as they’d seized control of Arcardius. A war does not always require soldiers, she’d said, showing Nor and Valen how the weapon would work. Thousands of silver droplets falling from the skies across the galaxy, unleashing the Zenith virus upon all nearby.

Hi, sorry, hi. WHAT. So you're telling me Aclisia has already figured out a way to poison the rain of the entire planet? So ... why the fuck are we bothering with the Nexus satellite? Why don't you just poison the rain on every planet? Given that Adhirans have "universal donors" and all of these different aliens are able to live in each other's atmospheres and eat each other's food, you could just poison each planet's water supply and wait until the virus infected everyone. Yes, that would leave starships and space stations, but given that we barely have mentions of those, and assuming that they still need to stop at planets to refuel and gather supplies, you'll still reach them eventually.

It's funny how Shinsay feel the need to lampshade and excuse how quickly their spaghetti plot happened by using a bunch of other extremely suspect science fiction that would've been a huge deal in any other writer's hand, but through doing that, they undermine their main plot instead. I love it. It's like the reading equivalent of one of an Escher painting. You have to untangle the layers and once you do, you still don't fucking understand anything.

Anyway, Valen falls asleep thinking about how they're totally gonna win, and doesn't notice how his nose bleeds ominously. Because the toll it takes on him to control an entire galaxy of sentient minds is, uuh, literally killing him btw. Spoilers, I guess. For the obvious.

I honestly think that Shinsay have no concept of how huge space is. I know it's hard to comprehend for most people, but y'all are writers, supposedly. Just no imagination in there at all, huh?

It would've been cool to explore how being connected to a literal galaxy full of sentient minds would probably kill you immediately due to the sheer volume of them, like a semi-eldritch hivemind tearing your brain to shreds, but instead Valen just kinda fizzles out physically like a fart in the wind, while his compulsion remains boring and organized and his mind entirely clear and his own the entire time.

Anyway, sorry for the small amount of chapters covered in this first part, I just had to go off on a billion tangents <3