#but I think at a point you need to ask WHY you immediately discount him saying he likes men as a joke

[tinogiehd]

are you seeing op on twitter

anon I am losing my MIND over op on twitter like why are you dying on this hill

[handwrittenhello]

i think its kind of ridiculous to think that homestucks are seriously using bots in this poll because why the hell would they bot this poll instead of the tumblrwoman poll which was the poll EVERYBODY in the hs fandom was actually making a big deal out of . also because im going to be real but i dont think anyone cares about polls enough to rig one? even the bayonetta/miku poll turned out to actually not be vriska voter fraud (most people in the homestuck fandom voted miku anyway) i think people are just unable to comprehend that a lot of people are still dormantly into homestuck & probably just saw vriska serket at the front of the trending disco elysium tag and thought it was funny. like oh my godddd no one cares enough about the outcome of this poll to bot it . somebody with a lot of followers probably just posted about it on twitter or something mundane like that its not that deep . a lot of people on tumblr have read homestuck its not extraordinary that a lot of vriska voters exist. disco elysium fans im sorry your blorbo is losing you’ll probably be back in the lead in a couple hours anyway all of you need to chill out‼️‼️‼️

answering only this ask about the cheating/botting, and no others, because i'm getting a lot of asks about it. congratulations, this contest has officially had all the fun sucked out of it.

here's data i've been collecting for every poll i've run. it's organized by votes the character received per round, then the total number of votes on that poll, for all five rounds. then there are two columns for totals.

the next five columns, Notes 1-5, are the number of notes on each poll. i've highlighted two posts that were circulated with a greater-than-average frequency even after the poll ended (the loki/JC one because people were memeing on JC, and then HDB/Howl one because it gained popularity following a popular blogger reblogging it.)

V/N is the votes to notes ratio for each poll. it was taken by dividing the number of votes when the poll ended by the number of notes on each post. one limitation is that this was not taken at the same time each day, and so older posts will have slightly higher notes. however, i believe this uncertainty isn't enough to discount the conclusions i'll come to.

i've highlighted vriska's V:N ratio in red at the top. as you can see, round vriska's V:N ratio wasn't even the highest; she beat kaeya alberich easily, and the comments in the notes reflected that.

in round 2, things started to get interesting. this is where i and other people noticed a sudden flip, but i didn't think much of it. she was up against izzy hands. izzy was leading all day, and when i queued the next day's poll and went to bed, izzy was leading by 60%. when i woke up, it had flipped to 53/47 in vriska's favor. it's not a HUGEamount, but it is a NOTICEABLE amount.

keep in mind that every single day, there have been other, closer polls, that hovered around 49-50-51 all day, and which also flipped at the end of the day, or remained 50/50 and could only be determined by tumblr. in these cases, the notes also reflect the split. these polls also never swayed more than one or two percent.

in round 3, when vriska faced zuko, there was a clear and immediate lead for zuko, with him leading by 80%. keep in mind that by this point, all 28 other polls i ran, besides vriska's the day before, never swayed more than 1 or 2% once a clear lead had been established.

this poll went from 80/20 zuko to 59/41 vriska. that's RIDICULOUS. the only way that's possible is if an OVERWHELMING amount of people voted vriska and NO people voted zuko. for such a thing to happen, this post would need to spread really rapidly, right? surely this post had tens of thousands of notes and comments!

the V:N ratio for round 3 is TWENTY-SEVEN to one. that's the most out of any poll. the standard deviation for the round 3 polls is 9.0, compared to 4.8 and 4.9 the days before. not to mention reading those notes also does not get us an overwhelming amount of comments rooting for vriska.

today has also been highly suspicious. it started out with an 85/15 lead for harry. i wouldn't necessarily expect it to hold exactly at that percentage, but the flip was immediate and drastic. you can see the trend being tracked on this post. not at all suspicious, right? also note that the comments all day have been 95% rooting for harry and maybe 5% for vriska.

please also look at the GRAND TOTAL column, which has reliably predicted the winners of future polls each day. vriska has received 49,064 votes over the course of the whole contest. harry has received 64,644. that's 24% more votes. and yet the poll is locked at 50/50?

and if this isn't enough evidence for you, then remember the tumblr sexywoman poll. it is a FLAT FUCKING FACT that those polls were spammed by bots. out of respect for their privacy i won't go into detail, but they outright admitted it.

TO CONCLUDE,

it's pretty fucking obvious that something is up, and although i admit that there's simply no concrete way of proving it, there would have to be a really standout explanation for this.

and besides this being super lame, it's also removed all the fun from this contest. it's a stupid tumblr poll that wins literally nothing, congratulations!

also, to everyone making death threats in the notes, BOTH SIDES, you've failed my secret challenge of not being rude which means i'm judging you personally. be fucking nice.

[the-fandom-is-now-my-life]

Would they peel an orange for you?

Yes, I saw the TikToks and thought about doing it before I remember I don't have boyfriend

Yes, unprompted

Thoma

There is approximately 30-40 minutes between the time Thoma gives ayato his evening tea and when ayaka needed to be escorted to town.

And like clockwork Thoma would be waiting for you under a tree in the residence, on a somewhat secluded corner with a tray with two tea cups and a little platter with cut up solsettias and oranges.

Even if one day you arrive early where he is still getting settled and just about to start peeling and ask to do it for him he just smiles but refuses with his head.

“ Don't worry about it! Why don't you drink the tea? It's a new blend that arrived today, though you would like it”

Childe ( he is used to peeling fruit for his sibling)

Itto ( hear me out, he hears a girl mention a novel where the main character gets fed apple slices while sick and how attentive that was and immediately starts a competition with nobody to prove himself the 'bestest' boyfriend ever"

Yes, if asked

Zhongli

He doesn't have the same nutritional needs as humans, where we would need variety of vegetables and fruits, grains and meat in his dragon form he only needs three cows every month, now as a human his metabolism had slowed significantly, even then it would be strange to only buy kilos of meat once a month and nothing else.

That is where you help him out, going to his house for diner and lunch to not let the good rot.

“ I saw green tangerine at the stall and decided to buy them” zhongli settles the fabric bag on the table “It reminded me of such a delectable tea I had a while ago, I guessed I would have my hand at it, it will take at most 10 years only”

“ Tea inside tangerines? It sounds nice. Do you think I can eat one, I never had one” he nods from the kitchen putting away a bag of rice and other things while he mumbles about only needing the skin “I don't really want to peel it though… Can you peel it for me?”

Zhongli looks at you, head slightly turned but he smiles as he answers “ as you wish” he walks to the table and grabs a knife, before skillfully cutting the skin and stabbing a wedge “open wide”

Kaveh

Kaveh might work as an architect, loving the flow and composition of his buildings, but that love extends further away to other areas of art, from painting to rug making to clothes, so when you ask him for help when remodeling your home ( you paying) he was on cloud nine.

Walking and haggling the price all around the grand bazaar from 7 am (he insisted all the good things arrived early) to 3 pm was expectedly tiring to your legs and to your head, seeing how happy kaveh was with a 20 mora discount. So when you two stopped at alhaitham’s house to leave some bags you threw yourself on the ergonomic couch that was on the living room.

“Oh, we didn't stop to drink anything all morning, do you want some water and…” you could hear him rummaging around the shared kitchen for something to offer “ … some oranges?”

You only sigh but nod, even if you knew he wouldn't see “ water is fine. I don't want to peel anything, I hate how the smell lingers on my fingers”

Kaveh brings a jug with cool water “ I can peel it for you if you want, I don't really mind”

“... Yes, please “

Diluc ( would ask a maid the first time but when they tell him what it means he starts peeling it himself)

Neuvillete (furina said it was something sweet between lovers and it stuck with him)

Wriothesley

Not really/ doesn't find the point:

Alhaitham

At breakfast he doesn't like to eat heavy, not wanting to dirty his kitchen before going to work and not having much appetite so early. Usually a warm cup of tea or coffee and a bit of fruit or bread.

Seeing as he was picking an apple from the bowl on the kitchen you ask him to pick you an orange to which he only nods and grabs you a knife.

Leaving it in front of you he sits on the contrary chair and bites through the apple and sips his tea.

“ I don't really want to peel it, though… maybe someone could do it for me” you look at him, hinting at him

“ Do you want an apple then? You don't have to peel it” he doesn't look up from the book on the table even as you sighs

Wanderer (rat man)

Kaeya ( does it because you asked him but doesn't find the point in asking him for such a small favor. Prefers showing love/care in other ways)

[missingexaltation]

How Eddie wins over Mr Harrington (by barely trying)

(in ten simple-ish steps)

Basically, how I imagine Steve's dad to be. I kind of think they have more in common than they don't, and maybe his son being queer is the *kick* that he needs to be a better human being (just like Nancy was for Steve).

Richard Harrington unexpectedly comes home from a business trip to find his son in flagrante delicto on his couch with an immediately antagonistic young man, (Edward, he later discovers), he waits in the kitchen, seething with disappointment and rage. Steven takes his things and leaves without a word, leaving the Munson boy to very purposefully throw Steven's house key at Richard's feet, keeping eye contact as he does so. The disrespect is blinding, and that night Richard drowns his anger in whiskey.

Days later his son comes home to collect his remaining belongings, supported by the Munson boy and his uncle. Wayne Munson is a enigma; on the one hand, clearly a soft liberal, but also a no-nonsense, sensible veteran with family values. Edward doesn't acknowledge Richard at all, too focused on guarding Steven from him. He watches his son cry like a child in the backseat, half listens as Wayne encourages him to keep in contact, and inwardly flinches when he sees Edward glare at him through the car window. He's not sure why his chest aches. Steven chose this path, he tells himself. Steven chose this.

Richard returns again to Hawkins, some weeks later, detouring past the store his son works in. He finds himself parked opposite, watching as Steven dances childishly with a female colleague through the shop windows. He's smiling and laughing and Richard's chest aches again. The passenger door opens and that boy gets in without permission. 'Stevie doesn't need you', he says, bold as brass in leather and covered in tattoos and chains, 'but he'll forgive you if you ask'. It hurts, and the only way Richard can breathe again is to invite them both to dinner later in the week. The subtle relief on Edward's face is immediate, and Richard hates himself a little less, though he's not sure why. He spends the drive home wondering at what point his son's life became unknowable.

Dinner starts awkwardly. Steven barely speaks, but Edward refuses to be quiet. He's a vocal young man, argumentative and strangely principled. They have polar opposite opinions on politics, and while Edward's not shy about his opinions, Richard is more than his equal on the topic. It's the sort of conversation Richard enjoys, trading viewpoints and internalising their differences. The evening ends on a warmer note as both Steven and Edward shake his hand as they leave. Formal. It's only a few steps to the car, but he notes that the boys hold hands nonetheless, as his wife tightly holds his. Middle ground, he thinks. They're not condoning the relationship of course, but accepting it for now. There's time for Steven to come to his senses.

Richard next meets Edward when he has to visit Thatcher's. His driver side tyre has a slow puncture, and although Edward's working on another customer's car he swaps with a colleague so he can see what the issue is. A simple 'he's Stevie's dad' gets him a family discount, and Edward changes the tyre himself when it's deemed too damaged to repair. As he works, Richard learns through his unending monologue that this job is temporary, as Edward's internship at the tattoo parlour doesn't pay, and won't for at least another year, that he needs the money now, as he and Steven are saving for their own place. Richard's immediate instinct is to give them the money himself, but knows it wouldn't be accepted. He takes comfort that Steven's in good hands at least. The Munsons seem to be a practical, friendly people.

Weeks later, when he's back in Hawkins again, he bumps into Edwards uncle, who's insistent on getting coffee and clearing the air. Richard guiltily confesses he's not comfortable with the idea of his son being one of them, that he's not sure he ever will be. Wayne simply points out that at least he's trying, and to keep trying. Apparently Edward's father didn't even do that much. Richard later relays the encounter to his wife, of how overtly proud Wayne is of Edward (my Eddie, he'd said). Richard's not felt proud of Steven for a few years now, only infuriated that he's intent on throwing his life away, but Wayne had plenty of happy stories of him too. As parents, they feel equally guilty and spend the evening drinking and reminiscing on Steven's childhood. It feels like they're reminding themselves of their son more with every day that passes.

He's still in town on the following Tuesday evening, and decides to take Wayne up on his offer and visit the bar that he recommended. He discovers that Edward's a talented musician. Even if it's far too aggressive and loud for Richard's own tastes, there's dedication, commitment and passion in each of the boys on the stage. He remembers his own music idols, how passionately they preached against the war in Vietnam, and he wonders when exactly it was that he stopped noticing the injustices of the world, when it was that his business suits became a comfort instead. He's quickly cornered by Wayne, Jim Hopper and David Jones ('my son's on the drums', he says, proudly). But they're all proud of their boys, he adds, and equally appalled by their music tastes. He goes on to say that the parents take it in turns to keep an eye on the boys each week, after what happened earlier in the year. Richard's in utter shock after hearing that there was a murderer on the loose not long ago, and plans to stay in town more after hearing that both boys were involved. He's clearly out of place and out of touch, but they're kind enough to not mention it. He buys the drinks for the remainder of the night, as penance. He has nothing else to offer, but hopes that's enough to start. His son could have died.

As is habit now, when he's in town, Richard drives past the video store to glimpse his son through the window. Further down the street he catches Edward balancing takeaway coffees whilst trying to open the door to the tattoo parlour. It takes moments to pull over and offer his assistance, and it hurts when Edward is surprised by the gesture. Richard's invited into the shop, and although Edward's busy, 'of course he has time for his father in law'. The phrase knocks him emotionally off balance, but Edward doesn't notice, simply updating him on their house hunt, and inviting them to the house warming, pending Stevie's approval. He shakes Edward's hand when he leaves, and when he turns back to his car, notices Steven quietly watching him from the window of his store. He waves, and after a moment his son waves back. He's alive, and there's hope, at least.

He and Kathleen invite the boys and Wayne over for dinner. He sees Steven smiling in the car as they arrive, and although it's faded by the time Richard opens the door, it returns tenfold when he shakes Edward's hand and greets him with 'hello son'. Richard's still very much uncomfortable (especially with how 'hands on' Edward seems to be) and if he finds himself in the kitchen knocking back a few more drinks than usual then it's his own business. It's worth it at the end of the night, when Steven invites them to their housewarming, and actually seems to want them there. He feels Wayne's approval through their goodbye handshake, and it makes him feel as though he's on the right path.

Jim Hopper lets them in through the front door. It's a small house, clean and characterless, and full of people Richard doesn't know. In the yard, Steven's at the grill with some other boys his age, and Edward is in the middle of the lawn, spinning a curly-haired teenager around like he weighs nothing. They look happy. Settled. Edward spots them first, waves them over and starts introducing them to the other adults. Steven brings them drinks, is beaming behind his sunglasses. (He can't remember the last time Steven smiled at him.) Hours later, when they leave, Edward shakes his hand and thanks them for coming (for trying, but that's unspoken), and Steven hugs him for the first time in so, so long, burying his head in Richard's shoulder like he used to as a child. Kathleen cries on the drive home, and he's not much better, but they're happy tears. He's a slow learner, Kathy too, but they're learning.

[seangelfish]

hii Hii this may sound strange but I would like to ask for TWC (separately) reaction headcanons when they see their mc getting what she wants in restaurants, stores, etc thanks to her "pretty privilege" a double edged sword that helped her survive working as a model but at the same time she was treated as an object when she was a minor unu .

thanks in advance and also thanks for opening requests /hugg

S/O WITH PRETTY PRIVILEGE

Featured characters: Naoakira Saimon, Yohei Kanbayashi, Ryu Natsume, Shiki Ando ♡ Tags: Headcanons, established relationships, casual romance, she/her pronouns, not proofread! ♡ Word count: 1,269 ♡ Synopsis: As stated in the request, you have pretty privilege. You could get anything you want for free! But there are limits, and not everyone sees what you see when using this to your leverage. ♡ A/N: I actually enjoyed writing this even though I wasn't really sure how to write it. It was an interesting request though, so I hope you like it~ (๑˃ᴗ˂)ﻭ

Saimon tells you with sincerity that this is morally wrong. He doesn't condone this, lecturing you that this might backfire on you one day.

And for the first time in forever, you feel at ease at these words. You weren't sure why, but it was probably because when you usually get stuff given to you for free, the people around you encouraged it.

It was expected that people only befriended you for your beauty and the privileges it offers. Though, at one point, it was too much, too suffocating.

That's how you ended up with nobody.

Until Saimon, that is.

When you explained why this happens to you, Saimon isn't taken aback because he knows how beautiful you are and it does make sense that these people would offer you all these things for free.

"But do you truly like it when they do?" he asked.

"Well, I can't say I don't," you replied honestly. "I guess sometimes I do feel like I'm doing something wrong though..."

He nodded and smiled. "Then you know what to do," he stated, caressing your hand.

Therefore, the next time someone offered you something for free, you tried declining. However, it was hard, it felt odd to decline their offer after this being a part of your life for so long.

"You don't need to do that," stated Saimon. "I will be the one paying."

You looked up at him, relieved. The server quickly understood the situation and let Saimon pay.

"I guess this will take getting used to," Saimon said with a lighthearted chuckle. "But I will be here for you when you need me."

You thanked him with a warm smile. Over time, you learned how to reject these offers. It truly felt like you were a part of society now, not an object that needed to be worshipped, and Saimon supported you all the way.

When the bill for the meal you had with your boyfriend was completely discarded, Yohei gets extremely suspicious. But he lets it slide until the second time when you actively ask for a discount with the use of your beauty.

He tells you to stop it immediately, that he can pay for it. However, you don't give in since this was your normality for such a long time, it would be weird to finally pay something in full.

So to Yohei's dismay, you keep accepting the generous offers. Your beauty was your strong point and you were going to use it to its fullest extent. Shouldn't Yohei be happy about this? He didn't even need to use his money on you! You could get everything for free!

But Yohei hated it. He hated seeing men succumb to your charms, to offer you a meal on the house. He hated seeing their eyes fall on your pretty face, their fingers to their lips as they shush you not to tell anyone about this.

"(Y/N), stop this now," he repeated. "Stop doing this."

"But why? Isn't this great? We can get anything we want!"

"Argh, that's not the point. (Y/N), you may think you're taking advantage of your pretty privilege, but one day, you may have to repay that."

You didn't understand what he meant by that.

He sighed. "Listen, one day someone will want something out of you for providing you with free things, and it isn't going to be pretty. So stop it now."

You were quiet. Yohei was right, but what did that mean for you? This was your life leading up to now, and you were just going to stop all of that? Yet again, using your beauty to survive in this world had always made you uncomfortable especially when you were young.

"And anyways," Yohei continued, cutting you off from your flashback. "I want to provide for you... as a boyfriend should."

As expected, Ryu is going to indulge in this privilege of yours because that means he can get free stuff too!

He doesn't question why people around you are offering these things to you nor does he really care, he just thinks this is neat!

But when you start batting your eyelashes and twirling your hair at the servers, the smile on his face quickly diminishes.

Why are you doing that? he wondered.

Yet those simple acts always result in luxury that he completely disregards it.

For a few times at least.

One day, he asks you the reason why these people are giving you free things. When you explain to him it was because of your pretty privilege, Ryu goes unusually silent.

"So you're entertaining them?" he said coldly which was unlike his super bubbly attitude. "What more have you done with them to get these things?"

This hurt you more than it should have. Why was he being so mean? Was it that big of a deal?

"Ryu, I don't really appreciate that–"

"Neither do I."

But before you could retort back, Ryu had snapped out of it. He recognised the sullen look on your face and asked you what was wrong.

"Do you think what I'm doing is wrong?" you asked him after the long, unbearable silence. He tilted his head like a cat, unsure of what you were talking about. "Of me getting stuff for free..."

"Oh..." he murmured. "I don't know, but it is kindaaa weird!"

"Haha, you think...?"

You didn't think he'd listen, but you clarified the reasons why this happens to you.

"(Y/N), I'm sorry," he said sadly.

"N-No, it's okay! That's all in the past now, but I guess old habits die hard. I'll try to stop it; if not, at least minimise it."

Ryu smiled, engulfing you in a big hug. He stroked your back like the way you'd do for him, reassuring you that all he wanted was for you to be comfortable with what you do, that you didn't need to do that anymore. After all, you were a person, not an object.

But it wouldn't hurt if you did use your pretty privilege once in a while~

Shiki gets extremely scared when you accept the free meal. He quickly rejects it, stating to the server that he’s already paying for everything. He doesn’t understand why this just happened even when you explained it to him.

He knows how beautiful you are, but this feels wrong. Should he even condone this? Whenever someone offers you something for free, their eyes look longingly at you and it’s something that Shiki fears.

He feels incredibly guilty now that this keeps happening, but he notices from the corner of his eye that you feel a little guilty about it too.

"(Y/N), it's okay to decline their offers if it makes you uncomfortable..." he spoke up. "B-But I know you've survived this long with your looks, so I don't expect you to stop! It's your decision after all..."

It just worries him that one day you’d be the one being taken advantage of. It scares him to think that someone would want something in return for their ‘generosity.’ Moreover, he thinks that the two of you would get in trouble for this, and he doesn't want to be caught up in that!

Due to his anxiety revolving around your pretty privilege, you decided to stop accepting the free gifts.

Sure, people are still going to goggle at you, but you no longer worked as a model who needed strangers’ generosity to survive. Now you can afford these things yourself like a normal person.

Shiki calms down, apologising for the fact that it was a great privilege to be this pretty to get free things. However, he just couldn’t have others gift you with free stuff when he was the one who wanted to do that for you.

"(Y/N), I'm going to work harder to afford the things you want!" he said triumphantly.

"Hehe, you don't need to do that, Shiki. You're all I need."

Intro page | Paradox Live masterlist | Request rules

[blueteller]

The Beautiful Subtlety of TCF World-Building

I could write an essay about how magnificent it is. In fact, I probably already did. However, it always hits me again, every time I re-read it.

Just look at this moment.

-Human, do you want to loot these magic devices?

“Aigoo.”

Cale was flabbergasted. […] Rather than trying out these gambling magic devices that resembled slot machines of his previous world, the Dragon instead wanted to steal the device and break it apart in order to see how it worked.

Cale did feel a sense of satisfaction, but feigned ignorance as he asked.

“Why?”

[…]

-What do you mean why?! We need to figure out how they work! […] And then I will be able to take all of the money from here! I will use 1 silver coin from my piggy bank in order to rake it all in!

Cale’s expression turned stiff.

A dragon really was amazing. Raon was thinking even more practically than Cale.

Cale seriously considered Raon’s suggestion before seeing someone put in 1 copper coin, which was 1 cound in the Caro Kingdom’s currency, into a machine and then turning away.

Resignation, anticipation, desperation, obsession, and despair. Cale didn’t want to take the money that was gathered through the collection of all of these emotions.

Wouldn’t it be better to steal from wealthier people if he was going to steal?

-Chapter 187

It's such a small moment, I didn't catch it at first. But did you see it?

Did you see how Cale considered Raon's offer, because it's in-character for him to like the idea of free money... then immediately turn away from it? Why would he? What is it about gambling that disgusts him so much?

Cale dislikes gambling because of his abusive uncle. And we don't learn about that until much, much later:

“Wow, really?”

It was at that moment.

Choi Han overheard a voice that made him stop on his way inside the mart.

Two women were standing by the discounted items located outside. They were frowning while chatting with each other.

“No, Mr. Kim really fell deep into gambling?”

Mr. Kim.

Choi Han couldn't help but stop whenever he heard that family name.

"Exactly! He's asking anybody he knows if he could borrow some money from them! Apparently his eyes look hollow and he reeks of alcohol!”

“My goodness. Unnie, then is Mr. Kim Seung Jong not working?”

“How can he work when he’s like that?”

The older looking middle-aged woman snorted and shook her head before lowering her voice.

“But isn’t there a kid in his house?”

“Ah! I, I heard that he brought his distant relative!”

The woman who was chatting with her covered her mouth with her hands.

“My goodness… then-”

“Ah. That is a bit concerning.”

-Chapter 736

We don't learn until Choi Han's indignity test that Kim Rok Soo grew up with an abusive uncle. We only heard about him being orphaned and spending time at the orphanage before that point. I'm not sure if his uncle was ever mentioned at all.

Cale is someone who obviously cares about family a lot. Clearly, his uncle is a memory he tried his best to suppress.

Because he is someone who can never forget, but is able to pretend to forget everything he doesn't like.

That is some excellent world-building, right there. The most amazing part is how far ahead the author was planning. Think about it!! The subtle moment about gambling happened over FIVE HUNDRED CHAPTERS before it became relevant to the story!!!

This author is incredible. I admire them a lot.

...Also, poor Cale. No wonder he didn't want to rob casinos. The idea of gambling is at the very least a source of minor trauma for him 😢

[heeracha]

## marriage discount. — p. sunghoon

from the world of buy one, take me.

synopsis: after endless of weddings that sunghoon attends to, he's been spending non-stop. so, upon hearing about a discount for married people even if it's just in the dry cleaners, sunghoon tells the employee that the girl, who happens to be you, walked in in the shop is his wife. even if he doesn't know you.

pairing: sunghoon x fem!reader

mentions of: botm!heey/n, botm!jay

content/genre: just a short one (i'm not sure if i will give part 2, but hey let me know), fluff, slight crack

warning(s): swearing. sunghoon jokingly calling heeseung 'daddy' 😭 if there's something, let me know. unproofread

note: this is rlly just short but i think its still cute lol,,, hopefully u guys enjoy this vv short piece HKVDBSHDF im sorry that its short, i rlly wanted it to be long, but yeah HBDSJHSF,, u dont need to read the smau, but for context, 'flower' is hee's nickname for mc in the smau

wc: 2k

sunghoon was annoyed lately. everyone he knows is getting married, so it annoyed the hell out of him. oh, don’t get him wrong. he’s not annoyed because everyone is getting married but him. he’s annoyed because of the fact that weddings are so much work and have to spend money for decency. speaking of money, he’s almost out of it.

sunghoon recently just got promoted in his job and had a raise, but the money just went by a snap because of the said weddings. he had to buy a tux, and it’s the only tux he’s been wearing in weddings. he just attended one the day before, now he’s here in the dry cleaning shop to have his tux cleaned. next month will be jay’s wedding.

he’s happy for them, he really is. and heeseung, too. heeseung recently reconnected with flower and he was insanely happy about it, but sunghoon can’t help, but think that it would heeseung’s wedding next and his money is out again.

“good morning, sir!” the employee greets. he was a bit younger than sunghoon, probably riki’s age or younger. sunghoon mumbles a hello, giving the boy his tux. “where’s your wife, sir?”

“what?” sunghoon asks.

“it’s just, we have a discount for married people.” the boy says and sunghoon, of course, will do anything for discounts. so, when the next person pushes the door open to get in, he wasn’t even thinking.

“there she is.” sunghoon says, pointing at you causing you to stop. he nervously looks at you as you just look between him and the employee.

“what?” you say, raising an eyebrow at him.

sunghoon’s doomed.

“i’m just asking him where his wife is, ma’am. he said it’s you?” the boy asks for confirmation and you look at the man who said that you’re his wife. hm. he’s fucking gorgeous, why not?

“he’s cute.” you mumble under your breath, but you knew they both heard when the man’s cheeks started to grow red. “sure, yeah!” you say and the boy raises an eyebrow. “i just like complimenting my husband. what is this even about?” you ask, chuckling nervously.

“we have discount for married people, ma’am.” he says and sunghoon swears he saw your eyes shine when you heard the word discount.

“really?” you ask and he nods. sunghoon softly smiles when he watches you. “how much?”

“20%.” the employee answers and you nod. “but ma’am, i don’t see any ring on either of you.”

sunghoon softly curses under his breath, but of course, just like sunghoon, you would do everything for discounts. “we pawned them last week.” you lie and sunghoon looks at you. “you know how tough life is lately.” 

“right, i’m sorry. is this tux and that gown all you have for dry cleaning?” he asks and you look at sunghoon.

“yup, that’s all.” he says as you give the gown to the employee. he immediately hangs it on the rack along with sunghoon’s tux and puts it together. “it will be ready in 24 to 48 hours. you can pay for it by then when we text you to pick it up. can i have any of your numbers?”

“sure.” sunghoon says as he takes the pen and paper that the employee gave. “okay, thank you.” he says and the boy says thank you as well. you and sunghoon come out of the dry cleaning shop, turning to the left right away.

“i’m sorry about that—”

“no, no! i needed the discount, too. i should be thanking you.” you say and sunghoon laughs, shaking his head. “you don’t have anyone, do you?”

“no, no!” sunghoon says, shaking his head. “you?”

“no,” you say, chuckling. sunghoon clears his throat, nodding as he doesn’t know what to say anymore, but he needs your number. he was about to speak when you beat him to it. “there’s this bakery that sells these insanely expensive cakes, but they’re good. they give discounts to married couples.” 

sunghoon smiles. “is it that bakery just downtown?” he asks and you nod, smiling. “we need rings, first.” he says and you chuckle. sunghoon talks to you as he drags you to an apartment building, exchanging names, numbers and information that you two need to know about each other until you two started talking about the most random things.

turns out, you were in the same university as he was.

“really? for discounts, you’re pretending to be married to someone you barely know?” sunghoon friend says, then he looks at you. “please don’t take offense, you seem like a lovely person.” he says and you laugh lightly, shaking your head.

“none taken, i know how it sounds.” you say.

“as if you didn’t take flower as a freebie in jay’s bouquet six years ago.” sunghoon says and his friend glares at him. “you barely knew her that time, yet you still did.”

“i didn’t take her as my wife!” he defended and sunghoon only raised his eyebrow at his friend. “and you know i can’t lend you their wedding rings, jay will fucking kill me.”

“how about the wedding rings you bought for you and flower?” sunghoon asks and his friend sighs. “i’ll return it safe and sound, not even a scratch. i promise. and like, let’s be real, you wouldn’t propose right away when you two reunite.”

“excuse me?” he says.

“come on, it took you a century to admit you like flower.” sunghoon says and he feels a poke on his arm. he looks through his shoulder to see you shaking your head.

“not helping.” you say and his friend sighs for the hundredth time. “and you know what? there’s an arcade somewhere where there’s a wedding booth for some reason, let’s just ask them for some fake rings.” 

“no, no.” his friend says, turning around to go to the nearby desk and pulling a drawer out. he grabs a velvet red box, giving it to sunghoon who is holding his hand out. but his friend pulls his hand back. “listen,” he says and sunghoon hums. “you’re going to be careful with this, you’re going to return it to me in the same state that it is, you’re not losing this, and you owe me, okay?”

“yes, daddy.” sunghoon says, jokingly, raising his eyebrows and his friend shakes his head, rolling his eyes as he gives sunghoon the box. “thank you!” sunghoon laughs as he turns around, exiting the apartment as he grabs your hand on the process.

“thank you by the way!” you exclaim and sunghoon’s friend nods. you jog along with sunghoon as you two stop outside of the building. sunghoon puts the ring on you as he puts the other on him. “wait, was that lee heeseung?” you ask. 

“yeah!” sunghoon says. “why?”

“i just remembered the one time i was in flower’s aunt’s shop. she was there with him helping her, but he wasn’t much of a help, actually. he was just goofing around and clinging on flower, trying to pull her away from her work. he kept saying he wanted to go to the movies with her.” you say, remembering six years ago as clear as a day.

sunghoon smiles. “i bet flower said something about kicking seungie’s ass?”

“she did. heeseung stopped and flower just glared at him, putting the flowers down and grabbing her coat, causing heeseung to smile widely.” you laugh, shaking your head. sunghoon chuckles. “anyway, bakery?” 

turns out, not only did the bakery give you a discount, they gave the cake for free and with some drinks. the employees were pretty convinced you two were recently married. sunghoon was just thanking the universe that you were the one who entered that dry cleaning shop.

“well, free lunch. that was great.” you said, walking out of the bakery with sunghoon holding your hand in his. he laughs, nodding. 

“and heeseung thought we were insane.” sunghoon says to which you nod, chuckling. “so… would you mind going around for a bit?” he asks, stopping as he faces you. “i kinda wanna see what more we can abuse with this thing.” he says, pointing at the ring on his finger. you laugh, nodding.

“sure, of course. you wanna see, i don’t know, there?” you say, pointing at an arcade. you look at sunghoon who was just looking at you to which you smiled.

that was the whole day. you two went around town to see if you can get any discounts, even with the stuff you don’t even know. you both acted like a married couple and it was honestly nice. and hey, sunghoon even got a discount for his wedding gift for jay. 

around 11 in the evening, you and sunghoon were silently walking on the way to your apartment. not that you two were tired of talking and got tired of each other, but it felt nice being in comfortable silence with each other as sunghoon softly holds your hand in his. he insisted on walking you home to which you, of course, did not decline. 

park sunghoon is pretty damn cute, after all.

you never know why you never noticed him back in college.

“this is me,” you softly say, stopping as you gesture on the building and sunghoon nods, smiling at you. “today was pretty fun.”

“it was nice being your husband for a day.” sunghoon says and you laugh, nodding. you remove the ring from your finger, giving it to sunghoon as he takes it and puts it in the box, along with his. “i’ll text you when we can get our tux and gown from the dry cleaning place.”

you nod. “thank you, sunghoon.” you softly say and he smiles. you sigh, nodding as you start to walk into the building, but sunghoon was quick to stop you.

“hey, y/n?” he calls.

you turn around right away. “yeah?”

sunghoon gives a soft gentle smile which he gives when he’s shy. “you maybe wanna,” he clears his throat, shrugging. “i don’t know, go on a date after we get them from the dry cleaning place?”

“sure, why not.” you softly say.

“i’ll pay this time.” sunghoon says with a smile. “no pretend marriage for a discount, but as two people on a date where we… get to know more about each other.”

you smile.

“and then, i don’t know,” sunghoon chuckles, shrugging. “from there maybe we can see where it goes.”

“i would love that.” you say, nodding. “um, you have my number, just text me.”

he nods, smiling. you keep your hands in your pocket, smiling as you nod. you were about to go inside, but you stop, turning around to sunghoon and walking up to him. you press a kiss on his cheek, smiling up to him through your lashes.

sunghoon, like the entire day, didn’t know what he was thinking. he leans in, pressing his lips against yours as impulsiveness takes over him. he pulls away, looking into your eyes filled with shock. he nervously chuckles, shrugging.

“i’m sorry.” he apologizes. “i just couldn’t wait for the date, you looked too beautiful up close.”

you chuckle, shaking your head as you bashfully look away, hand on your mouth to cover up your smile. a guy who you didn’t know went to the same university with whom you went around town pretending to be married to get discounts just kissed you.

the guy you know for less than 24 hours has kissed you.

and you wanted to do it again.

you looked at him, chuckling as a big grin grows on your lips. “one more,” you say, holding your hands out to cup his cheeks. sunghoon softly laughs, hands on your elbows as he presses his lips against yours as he feels you kiss back.

eventually, you two had to pull away as you two were smiling too wide, sunghoon resting his forehead against yours. “alright, good night.” you mumble and sunghoon smiles.

“good night.” he softly says and you smile as you pull away, turning around to go inside the building. sunghoon turns around when you’re out of sight, smiling to himself as he walks home.

he stops when he hears his phone ping, he takes it out and reads the message. it was from the dry cleaning place. they can get it tomorrow before lunch right away. sunghoon grins as he goes home.

too excited to see you again.

and who knows, maybe the next wedding he will attend after jay’s is finally his own.

a/n: if botm!heey/n is "she fell first, he fell harder", botm!hoony/n is "proof that you can fall in love within 24 hours". im sorry if this was boring ahbdsjksfhb but yas thank you for reading <3

[ghostinthelibrarywrites]

How about 6 and Yennskier for the fake dating prompts? 💚

6. On Valentine’s Day everything seems to have a discount for couples, so why not pretend to be one to save some money and have fun?

Here's a Yennskier modern AU with mentions of background Geraskier and Yenralt. Can be read as pre-OT3.

When Yennefer’s phone rings and she sees Jaskier’s photo—the most unflattering picture of him she could find, mid-blink with his nose scrunched up like he’s about so sneeze—on her screen, she wishes she could just send it to voicemail. But the last time he called her, it was because Geralt had gotten his insides ripped out by a grave hag and needed immediate healing. With a groan, she answers. And today was going so well; she’s made two lobbyist assholes cry and it’s not even lunchtime.

“What?” she asks by way of greeting.

“Yennefer!” Jaskier sounds cheerful, so Geralt must not be bleeding out in a swamp somewhere. “How are you?”

“Besides my sudden headache, fine. What do you want?”

“What makes you think I want something? Perhaps I just want a chat.”

Yennefer doesn’t answer, just sips her coffee and waits for him to get tired of silence.

“Geralt has been in the mountains on a contract for a basilisk,” Jaskier says.

“I'm aware.”

“Well, they got hit with nearly two feet of snow up that way and so he’s stranded. He won’t be back in time for Valentine’s Day tomorrow.”

“How fortunate for Geralt.”

“No, it’s really not, because we were supposed to go to dinner at The Alchemist. They have a special five-course meal for Valentine’s Day.”

“It’s fortunate there was a snow storm, or Geralt probably would have let the basilisk gnaw off his leg to get out of that.”

Jaskier ignores her. “But he’s stuck on the other side of Redania and I need a date.”

“Well, you can always go with your favorite person. Yourself.”

“I can’t go alone, Yennefer. It’s a couple’s event.”

“I’m still not sure how this is my problem. I would never bespell someone to endure your company for an entire dinner. I’m not a monster.”

“Since when?”

“Goodbye, Jaskier.”

“Wait!” he says quickly. “You could come with me. And don’t tell me you have plans. You’re like Geralt. You wouldn’t willingly go out on Valentine’s Day unless you were bribed.”

She can’t argue there. “So what makes you think I’d celebrate it with you of all people?”

“Besides a free meal at the finest restaurant in Oxenfurt?”

“I work in politics. I eat at far finer places than The Alchemist every week.”

“There’s endless refills of Toussainti sparkling wine included.”

Now, that is tempting. “Don’t you have other people you can invite? You have plenty of paramours.”

“And they all already have plans.” Jaskier’s voice takes on a wheedling tone. “Did I mention I’m paying? You could get the most expensive thing on the menu.”

Yennefer has been to The Alchemist. Some of their dinners cost as much as a week’s worth of groceries.

“Also, I think it will make Geralt happy if he thinks the two of us are getting along,” Jaskier adds.

Their mutual lover, Geralt, is the only thing that Yennefer and Jaskier have in common and the only reason Yennefer didn’t curse Jaskier into something slimy years ago. She doesn’t know what Geralt, who she considers a man of reasonably good taste, sees in his idiot of a musician, but he adores Jaskier. And Jaskier is right; it would make Geralt happy if she and Jaskier made an effort to tolerate each other’s company. She blows out a breath. “What time should I meet you there?”

“Don’t be silly,” he says and she immediately regrets everything. “It’s Valentine’s Day. I’ll pick you up at six.”

***

Yennefer thinks about backing out of their arrangement as soon as Jaskier shows up at her door, wearing a peacock feather-patterned suit over a bright pink button-up with the top three buttons undone to show off a generous amount of chest hair, because Jaskier seems to not know how to button up his shirts properly. But closing the door in his face just feels like an admission of defeat at this point, so she squares her shoulders and follows him to his car. She doesn’t even insult his outfit, because it’s such low-hanging fruit that it seems beneath her to even bring it up.

She thinks about backing out again and they arrive at the restaurant to find it lit by soft candlelight, a pianist playing in the corner, and rose petals scattered across the table. She expected a Valentine’s Day dinner to be filled with the trappings of romance, but this is excessive.

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this,” she grumbles as she takes her seat across from Jaskier.

He grins at her unrepentantly. “I’m so sorry to drag you to dinner at one of Redania’s finest restaurants. You look lovely, by the way.”

Yennefer arches an eyebrow at him. “You look like a peacock exploded on you.” Alright, it might be low-hanging fruit, but she can't not comment on it.

“Happy Valentine’s Day to you too, darling.” He bats his eyelashes at her as the server comes to fill two flutes with sparkling wine.

They sit in silence for a while, nursing their flutes of wine. When the server comes to take their order, Yennefer orders the most expensive of the three entree options, because she likes the way it makes Jaskier’s eye twitch. Around them, the dining room is filled with couples. She and Jaskier may be the only ones not making eyes at each other across the table.

As if he knows what she’s thinking, Jaskier reaches for her hand.

Yennefer snatches it away. “What are you doing?”

“Playing the part,” he says as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “It’s Valentine’s Day. This is a dinner for couples.”

“What, do you think we’ll be kicked out if the servers don’t see us playing footsie under the table?”

“There’s an idea.” Something brushes her ankle.

“No,” she says flatly and Jaskier’s foot quickly retreats.

The server brings the first course, a charcuterie board that’s barely more than a few slivers of meat, a hunk of cheese, a handful of olives, and a dollop of apricot jam. Places like this always skimp on the food, Yennefer thinks as she picks at the cheese.

“What do you normally do on Valentine’s Day?” Jaskier asks.

“You know what I normally do on Valentine’s Day. I sit at home with a glass of wine like someone who doesn’t want to get overcharged for a couple of slices of ham and some old cheese.”

Jaskier snorts, but tries to cover it up with a cough. “Oh come on, I know you have a romantic side.”

“Do you, now?”

“Geralt talks.”

“Since when?”

His lips twitch. “What is it with you and unicorns? I’ve been dying to know ever since he told me about it.”

Yennefer puts down her glass of wine hard. “He told you about that?”

“In his defense, he’d taken way too many potions and he was out of his mind. I’m pretty sure he thought I was you.”

“Well, that’s not flattering,” Yennefer says.

“You’re right, it’s not. I had to start getting facials after that. Can’t go around being mistaken for a withered crone.”

She kicks him under the table.

“And here I thought you didn’t want to play footsie.” He waggles his eyebrows at her. “Do you really have unicorn underwear?”

“I don’t know. Do you really have a tramp stamp?”

His mouth drops open in offense. “Geralt told you about that?”

She lifts one shoulder in a shrug. “Geralt talks.”

“It’s not a tramp stamp. It’s a very tasteful lower back tattoo.”

“Lose a bet?”

“No, a game of cards. Never play Gwent against Valdo Marx. The man is a shark.”

The server brings the second course, which is apparently a deconstructed salad. Yennefer realizes that she barely tasted the charcuterie board; she was too busy talking to Jaskier. She also realizes that she’s leaning close to Jaskier; they probably look like one of those dewy-eyed couples at the other tables. Quickly, she straightens her back and focuses on her salad.

“This is a piece of lettuce,” she says. “What’s deconstructed about it?”

“It’s quite a large piece of lettuce.”

“It’s lettuce. It could be the size of the table, but it still is what it is. How much did you pay for this?”

“Let’s not talk about it.” Jaskier nibbles at the edge of his lettuce.

“What about you?” Yennefer asks. “What do you and Geralt usually do on Valentine’s Day?”

“Sit at home with a movie and some takeout.” Jaskier shrugs. “I thought it might be nice to try something different this year.”

“This is different.” Yennefer pokes at the lettuce.

Not long after, the server brings their soup, seafood bisque. Yennefer is taking her first bite when there’s a squeal from across the room. She looks around to see a young man down on one knee on the other side of the room, ring box in hand while his date has her hand clapped over her mouth in delight.

“Aww.” Jaskier smiles at the sight. “You think they’ll get free dessert for that?”

At the glint in his eye, Yennefer says, “No.”

“Come on.” Jaskier fiddles with one of his many rings. “I hear the tiramisu here is to die for.”

“And you may die if you get down on one knee right now.”

“You wouldn’t. Geralt would never forgive you.”

“I think he’d learn to live with the peace and quiet.”

Jaskier sighs. “You’re right. I can’t propose without a proper engagement ring. How tacky. When I fake propose to you, Yennefer, I promise I’ll do it with the finest ring I can find for under fifty crowns.”

Yennefer rolls her eyes. “You’re an idiot.”

“Yes, but I’m your idiot for another hour or so.” He winks.

“I’d rather chew on this wine glass. Which I may need to do anyway if these portions continue to be tiny.”

“They really are, aren’t they?” Mournfully, Jaskier looks down at his soup. “I suppose that’s why this dinner was almost affordable. There’s no food.”

“Happy Valentine’s Day, darling.” Yennefer bats her eyelashes in an imitation of Jaskier and is gratified when he snorts bisque up his nose.

When their entrees come out, she’s not surprised when her meal is the tiniest filet she’s ever seen, while Jaskier’s shrimp risotto is three pieces of shrimp on top of a tiny pile of rice.

Jaskier looks up at her, lips quirking into a smirk. “Can you imagine Geralt right now?”

Yennefer snorts, lowering her voice into a rasp. “What am I supposed to do with this, Jaskier? I’ve seen pixies bigger than this steak.”

“That sounded just like him.”

Yennefer is pleased, despite herself. “He wouldn’t have lasted past the piece of lettuce.”

“No, probably not.”

“I’m sorry he’s not here,” Yennefer says.

“I’m not. I would never hear the end of this. Besides, if he were here, you wouldn’t be.”

“I’m glad I’m an adequate consolation prize.”

“I’m actually having a lovely time.” Jaskier’s eyes twinkle in the candlelight. “Despite the lettuce.”

Perhaps Yennefer has had too much of the sparkling wine, because she feels a surge of something that might be fondness. She’s never quite gotten what Geralt saw in this flighty, ridiculous creature—despite the cute little ass, which even she can admit is quite nice—but now, she can almost see it. When he’s not peacocking about, he’s not terrible.

“There’s a good burger place around the corner,” she says without thinking. “If you want to go get a proper dinner after this.”

“I’ve been there.” Jaskier looks surprised. “I wouldn’t think a burger joint would be up to Yennefer of Vengerberg’s high standards.”

“Sorceresses need to eat just like anyone else.”

“Well, then.” He grins. “Are you asking me on a date?”

“Hardly. But Geralt says you get whiny when you’re hungry and given how irritating you are when you’re not hungry, I’d hate to see that.”

“Fair point.” Jaskier makes a show of considering it. “Fine, let’s go get burgers after this. Anything for my beautiful Valentine.”

She kicks him under the table again.

His grin takes on a wicked edge. “You know, they have great milkshakes there. We could get one with two straws and gaze soulfully into each other’s eyes.”

“No.”

“But it’s Valentine’s Day!”

“I’m not sharing spit with you.”

He gasps. “Yennefer, there are plenty of people who would be honored to share spit with me.”

“That’s what I’m worrying about. Splitting a milkshake with you is like splitting a milkshake with half the Continent.”

“And here I was starting to enjoy your company.” He looks at her with narrowed eyes, but he’s grinning and Yennefer is surprised by another surge of that almost-fondness.

She pushes her glass of wine away. Yes, she’s definitely had a little too much.

***

Fake dating prompts

Tag list: @kueble @mollymawkwrites @feral-jaskier @geraltrogerericduhautebellegarde @dawnofbards @thisislisa @tsukiwolf42 @mosaicscale @rockysstupidity @fontegagrilledcheese @kuripon @help-i-need-a-cool-username @julek @flowercrown-bard @eveljerome

[rrrrinmaru]

the taste of vanilla on your lips

wc: 923 rating: T

When he shows up before you in an ice cream truck, the first thing you do is check the date. 

“It’s not April Fool’s yet,” you tell him, brows furrowed even as your lips curve up of their own accord. “What are you doing in that thing?”

“Making an honest living,” Marius replies, one arm braced against the counter as he tilts his head at you. From this angle, you can see the sharp slant of his jaw when he grins at you. “Is the pretty lady interested in ice cream? I’ve got every flavour under the sky in my truck.”

You stare at him, torn between exasperation and amusement. This isn’t the first time he’s shown up in an ice cream truck, but this time you aren’t at HoyoLand and he’s not in the signature uniform. 

He’s dressed casually. A white T-shirt with a rounded collar sits loosely on his shoulders, and the usual over-jacket is nowhere to be seen. There’s a dark blue apron tied around his waist and neck. Marius looks younger than usual, looking the very picture of a university student sneaking out to do some part-time work. It’s like a breath of fresh air, watching the way his lips curl as he grins at you.

And you’re in a park. You’re honestly surprised there aren’t more kids running up to try and buy ice cream from the handsome man in the eye-catching truck. The sun sets in the horizon, casting a gentle orange glow over the place, and the light catches on the bridge of his knuckles when he braces his palm against the roof to lean out. 

“So, what’ll it be, pretty miss?” He asks, eyebrows raised as he smirks at you. “Are you a classic type of girl, or more adventurous? Vanilla, or cereal and milk?”

“You have cereal and milk flavoured ice cream in there?”

“I have everything you want,” Marius says smugly, giving you such a self-assured smile that you can’t help but want to kiss it off his face. “Have your pick. Everything in this truck is at your mercy. And we have an ongoing discount! Two for the price of one, a special treat for our thousandth customer.”

The charm that rolls off him is effortless. You try to resist it, maybe give him a hard time for driving an ice cream truck all the way here, but you’re helpless to the twinkle in his eyes.

You hope it’s not too self-centered to think that he’s here for you. Marius certainly didn’t pick this park out of the entirety of Stellis for no reason. 

“Vanilla,” you decide. “Two scoops.”

“You only get to pick one,” he tells you, already ducking back in to scoop ice cream into a cone. “The other one is a surprise!”

You huff, shifting your weight from side to side as you wait for him to be done. Instead of handing you the cone through the main window, however, Marius turns to the door.

The door to the van. As if he intends on leaving.

You stand there, surprised as he does just that—he unties the cute blue apron with his free hand and slips it off his neck, hanging it up as he goes down the steps.

“For the lucky lady,” he says, offering the cone to you with a flourish. “Happy birthday, jiejie.”

The flush rises almost immediately. You put a hand to your face, trying to cover the redness of your cheeks. “I didn’t—how did you know? Did I tell you before, in the past?”

“I checked your ID,” Marius replies playfully, pulling at your hand to drag it away from your face. “No need to hide such a pretty face. Here, one scoop of vanilla ice cream.”

You grab the cone, trying to focus on tasting the ice cream instead of looking at Marius. But you can tell that he’s staring at you, one hand tucked lazily into his pocket as he smiles, and the flush stubbornly stays on your face. 

“I thought you said I could get two scoops,” you point out in a weak attempt to change the subject. 

As if on cue, Marius puts on the worst shocked expression ever. His eyes go comically wide, mouth dropping open in surprise as he pretends to gasp, and he looks at you like you’ve discovered the secret to world peace.

“Why, jiejie,” he says, smile clinging to his lips once he’s done acting. His fingers interlock with yours, grip tightening slightly like he wants to make sure he’s holding onto you properly, and he tugs you close.

“I said it was a two for one deal. Everything in the truck is at your mercy. Including the ice cream man, you know?”

“You—!”

Marius laughs, swinging your entwined hands lightly as he watches you get flustered. “I’ll get you another scoop if you really want one, jiejie. The actual ice cream man should be coming any minute now. I just borrowed his truck to surprise you.”

Ah, you think, seeing someone round the corner and head straight to the truck. He waves at Marius, giving a meaningful look in your direction, and your fingers twitch around Marius’ hand when Marius nods back. 

“How about it?” Marius points at the newly reclaimed ice cream truck. “Want another scoop?”

You shake your head. “I’ve got everything I want right here,” you whisper, and squeeze Marius’ hand. 

He blinks, surprised, and then it’s his turn to try and hide his flush behind the palm of his hand. 

==

(a/n: written for a friend! happy birthday 🥳 )

© rrrrinmaru 2023 | no unauthorised publication or reproduction allowed

[astrobei]

hello beloved suni. for valentine's day ficlet prompt... a lumax valentine's day perhaps?

(ft. lucas going Overboard and max secretly loving it?)

abby i would literally give you the world if you asked me to <3 happy early valentine's day and i hope you like this one !!

“I don’t understand this holiday,” El frowns, peering over the displays of red cardboard boxes and bulk-order roses. This corner of Melvald’s is completely decked out, with glitter and flowers and plush teddy bears as far as the eye can see– or at least until aisle three, where the store returns to its regularly scheduled programming of household cleaning supplies. 

The floral scent is almost nauseatingly strong, and Max is suddenly extremely thankful she’s nowhere near as allergic to them as she used to be, or Mrs. Byers would have had to drive her to the hospital as she broke out in hives. “Me neither,” Max says, squinting at a teddy bear with particularly beady eyes. “Consumerist nonsense.”

El gives her a bit of a weird look. “Um–”

“It means they just overdo the lovey-dovey thing to get people to buy stuff,” Max adds, and El’s frown smooths itself out.

“Oh, okay. I was just going to say that I don’t know why there’s only one day out of the whole year to buy someone flowers.” She reaches out, touches a tentative finger to one of the petals on the nearest rose, and then immediately retracts her hand as the petal falls off and flutters slowly to the checkered tiles of the floor. “Oh no.”

Max bites back a laugh. “I bet those flowers have been sitting in storage since the beginning of the month.”

“I don’t get this holiday,” El says again, and shakes her head. “Why buy someone flowers that have been sitting outside for two weeks?”

“Again,” Max says, rolling her eyes at the 20% off! sign, “they just want to make money off this stuff. They don’t care about love.”

“Bullshit,” El says, so suddenly that Max can’t bite back a laugh in time to keep herself from giggling loudly, the sound ringing through the quiet of the store. Half an aisle over, a guy in a suit shoots her a glare. She pulls a face at him.

“Bull– yeah, I guess so,” she says, as El turns to study the display of chocolates on their other side. “So jaded already?”

“I don’t know what jaded means,” El muses, “but I think this holiday is bullshit.”

“Yeah, that’s– yeah,” Max nods. “You got it. Hey, if these chocolates are on sale, then maybe we should get some anyway.” She picks up a heart-shaped box and flips it over. “You’re not allergic to nuts, are you, El?”

“I don’t think so. Won’t Lucas buy you chocolates?” El asks, turning back around to give Max a curious look. “He’s your boyfriend.”

“Yeah, well,” Max sighs. “This whole thing is so cheesy. I don’t need him to buy me chocolates, I just need him to put up more of a fight before I beat him at Super Mario Bros. I swear it’s not even fun anymore.”

El wrinkles her nose. “At least it would be better than what Mike did.”

“Oh yeah?” Max raises her eyebrows, then puts the box of chocolates down. The handful of change in her pocket can be spent on better things than overpriced and over-marketed chocolate anyway. “What did Mike do?”

“He got me a card that said I like you.”

Max stares. “I like– you’re joking. Please tell me you’re joking.”

“Nope.” El pops the p, and gives Max a look like yeah, I know.

“Okay, well, good riddance,” Max snorts. “I’ll be praying for Will. Poor guy.”

“I think it probably helps to actually love the person you give the card to,” El says thoughtfully, which is a pretty good point, and Max honestly doesn’t have much to add to that. She gives another cursory glance over the piles of sickeningly-sweet flower displays, the rows upon rows of stuffed bears that all look exactly alike, and then her eyes land on a discount bag of M&Ms.

“Okay, well, I still want these,” she says as she grabs them. “M&Ms are good no matter the day. You want anything, El?”

El peers around the corner of the aisle, and her face lights up. “Reese’s!” she cheers, then disappears from view. “One second!”

Max sighs, tossing the bag of chocolate up and down in one hand as she waits. She can imagine it now, being one of those poor schmucks at school who get bombarded with tacky cards and flowers that are on the brink of collapse. Just another way to flaunt relationships that are equally on the brink of collapse, probably. No one goes through the motions of over-the-top, elaborate stuff like this unless they’re trying to compensate for something.

She thinks about it, for a fleeting second– being given roses at school. The secondhand embarrassment of it all. A teddy bear that’ll no doubt collect dust on her bookshelf for the next ten years. Cheesy greeting cards– be mine and hugs and kisses and–

“Ready to go?” El pops back into her field of vision, a bright orange package clutched in one hand.

Max blinks. “Yeah,” she says, then firmly banishes any thoughts of cheesy greeting cards from her mind. No, thank you. She’s fine with her discount chocolate– that she got herself, mind you. No consumerist bullshit for her this time. “Yeah, let’s head out. Maybe Mrs. Byers will let us use her employee discount again.”

—-

Max knows something is off the next morning before she even gets in the car.

“You look weird,” she frowns, in lieu of a greeting. “What’s with you?”

Lucas ignores her. “Good mooorning,” he says, long and drawn-out and not nearly as obnoxious as it should be. “Are you ready for today?”

Max slams the passenger door shut behind her and says, “Well, my history presentation is today. So, no.”

“You’re going to crush it,” Lucas says, even though they have different history teachers this year and of course Max got stuck with the nitpicky one. “World War II isn’t going to know what hit it.” He takes the car out of park, backs slowly away from the lot in front of the trailer, and onto the main road. “But come on, that’s not what I mean.”

Max raises her eyebrows. Look, she’s not dumb, okay. It’s February 14th and she’s dating Lucas Sinclair. She knows there’s only one place this conversation is leading to. “Oh yeah? Well, I heard they’re serving chicken nuggets in the cafeteria today,” she says anyway, just to be difficult.

Lucas indulges her. He always indulges her. “Well I’m ready for chicken nugget day,” he says, even though he shouldn’t be, because Max is certain they haven’t used chicken to make them since before Indiana was even a state. He reaches for her hand over the console and says, “You might have to drive me to the hospital after but it’ll be worth it.”

Max bites back a smile and looks out of the window before he can see. “Loser,” she says. It comes out too fond for her to have any hopes about hiding it, and even though the radio is blasting Madonna, she hears him laugh as he squeezes her hand.

She thinks he’s dropped it, or maybe he’s picked up on the hint and hastily canceled whatever it was he’d been planning, but of course, no such luck. “Okay, well,” he says, as they get out of the car and make their way up to the school. “Can I walk you to your locker at least?”

She stops in her tracks. It wouldn’t have been suspicious if he didn’t ask, because he always walks her to her locker before class starts, but now–

“No,” she decides, walking away as fast as her legs will allow. “Don’t you have Calculus to get to?”

He catches up to her easily. “Come on,” he grins, matching her pace effortlessly. “It’s–”

She holds a finger up to his face. “Don’t say it.”

Lucas holds both hands up in surrender. “I didn’t say anything!”

“You’re thinking something! I know it! You’re– you’re scheming and you’re– up to something, I don’t know. Up to no good.”

“Up to no good?” Lucas laughs. “What are you, fifty?”

“Shut up,” she says, and then they’re basically at her locker already, and his grin grows exponentially which leads her to believe that maybe this was the plan all along.

“You should open your locker,” Lucas says, leaning against the adjacent one and clearly trying his hardest to look blasé about the whole thing. “Just saying. Because your books are in there and stuff.”

“If I open this and something jumps out at me,” Max grumbles, spinning the combination lock. “I’m going to–”

She trails off. Stares.

“Um,” Lucas is saying, peering around the open locker door. “You’re going to– what?”

“Kill you,” she whispers, before reaching into her locker and pulling out the biggest fucking bouquet of roses she’s ever seen. “What the hell?”

“Happy Valentine’s Day!” Lucas smiles. There’s something a little nervous about it, like maybe he was worried that she had some deep, lifelong trauma rooted in the holiday and maybe she was about to start crying in the middle of the hallway. “Do you like them?”

She could lie and say no, just to keep up appearances, but that would be mean, probably. “Yeah,” Max says, feeling herself smile before she can help it. “What– how did you get my locker combination?”

Lucas waves a hand dismissively. “Dustin,” he says, like this explains everything. Maybe it does– she doesn’t know. She tries not to keep up with whatever they have going on, because the less she knows the better. “But seriously– do you like?”

“Of course,” Max says softly. They’re pink roses, the real kind, fragrant and fresh and not falling apart at the seams like the flowers that had been shedding all over the Melvald’s floor yesterday. She wonders where he got them. She wonders how much he paid for them. “They’re– how?”

“I have my ways,” and okay, apparently Lucas is a total man of mystery now, and Max does not care enough to find out what his ways are, because–

Oh, these flowers are gorgeous. Like actually, genuinely, mind-blowingly gorgeous.

“You got me flowers,” she says, more to herself than Lucas, like maybe stating this fact as just that– a fact– will make it easier to comprehend.

He got her flowers. A lot of flowers.

Apparently Max Mayfield is, after all, one of the poor schmucks being given flowers at school.

“Well, I figured you’d think the red ones are dumb,” Lucas goes on, blissfully ignorant of the way Max can literally feel her entire face turning hotter than the inside of an oven. “And I know you like red, but they're red roses, which I know you’d think are tacky, so I figured these would be more your speed. More subtle. More– uh. Max?”

She blinks. “Huh?”

“Are you okay?” Lucas frowns, waving a hand in front of her face. “You haven’t blinked in, like, a minute.”

Max is definitely very, very red now. “I’m fine,” she gets out, “it’s just– thank you. These are nice.”

“Oh.” The tension slips away from Lucas’ shoulders, and he stands up a little straighter. Puffs his chest out just a bit, which makes her laugh. “Good. I’m glad.”

“I might just– leave them here for now, though.” She motions to the locker and tucks the flowers back inside. “If that’s okay.”

“Fine by me,” Lucas grins, then slings an easy arm over her shoulder. “Now about your history presentation–”

—-

And Max isn’t stupid, per se, but maybe it wasn’t the smartest of her to assume that it would end there. At lunch, Max is about to resign herself to her fate of a pathetically soggy peanut butter and jelly sandwich, when Lucas’ grinning face pops up in front of her.

“Hey!”

“Jesus Christ,” she gasps, and Mike snickers softly as she jumps.

“No,” Lucas says, pointing at himself. “Lucas.”

Max peels back the cling film around her sandwich with a growing sense of trepidation. “Why are you smiling like that?”

“Oh, no reason,” Lucas says, and so obviously Max does not believe him in the slightest. He’s got both hands behind his back, and Will is next to him stifling a laugh into his hand, and Max doesn’t trust Lucas as is but she especially doesn’t trust him if Will is involved.

“Could someone just tell me–”

Lucas sets a plastic tupperware container in front of her. “Ta-da!”

Max frowns. “What’s this?”

“Well maybe if you opened it,” Mike starts, and then she elbows him and he lets out a sharp, offended gasp. “Ow!”

“Shut up,” she says, peeling off the lid of the box. And then, “Lucas.”

He grins. “Yes?”

What the fuck. Max reaches into the box and pulls out the most perfect cupcake she’s seen in all seventeen years of her existence. “Did you– did you bake me a cupcake?”

Lucas scratches the back of his neck with one hand and says, “It’s from a box mix but. Technically, yes.”

“And it’s–”

“Red velvet!” Lucas announces, and he’s definitely being a little smug about it now, but Max supposes it’s probably deserved, with the way she’s been staring at this thing for the past forty seconds. “Um. Your favorite.”

“I–”

No one’s ever baked her anything before. She figures that no one’s really had any reason to, before Lucas, but that means it’s something that hadn’t even been on her radar of things that you can do for other people until now, which also means that she’s been staring at this damn thing long enough for Mike Wheeler to reach across her and try to scrape some of the frosting off the top.

That spurs her into action. She swats his wrist away. “Hey! Get your own!”

“I don’t have my own,” Mike pouts dejectedly. He looks over at Will. “Can you make me a cupcake?”

Will sets a second tupperware down in front of Mike. “One step ahead of you,” he laughs, “but you ruined the surprise.”

Mike’s mouth drops open, then closes, then opens again, in an excellent impression of a goldfish. “What–”

“Will came over last night,” Lucas announces, and they both have identical grins on their faces now. “While El and Max were off wreaking havoc on the poor city of Hawkins.”

“We went to catch a movie,” El chimes in, shoveling baby carrots into her mouth. “Hawkins is fine.”

“I can’t believe you,” Max hisses, because this is the second time Lucas has made her turn redder than a beetroot today.

Lucas just grins wider. “You love me,” he says, linking their fingers together across the cafeteria table.

“Gross,” Mike gags next to her, and then Will touches a hand to his wrist and he falls blessedly silent.

“You were saying, Wheeler?”

“Oh, shut up.”

—-

Max thought that maybe going home would mean an end to her suffering, but apparently not.

She frowns. Okay, maybe that’s a little dramatic. It’s not like the roses and the desserts and the cheesy greeting card Lucas had pressed into her hands before dropping her off are hurting anybody. She rolls over onto her side in bed, hours later after dinner and homework and when she’s done boiling herself alive in the shower, and stares at the card where she’s propped it up on her desk. 

I love you bear-y much, it reads, with the most ridiculous cartoon illustration of a bear behind it. So ridiculous, in fact, that she knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’d totally just picked it out to see the look on her face when he gave it to her. And it must have worked, and she totally gave him exactly the reaction he’d been looking for, because he’d laughed for, like, a solid three minutes after pulling up in front of her place.

“This is so stupid,” she’d said in the car, fighting back a laugh with every molecule in her body, and it’s true– it is stupid, maybe one of the most stupid things she’s ever seen– but suddenly her cheeks hurt and there’s something warm and fuzzy and gross bubbling up inside her chest, and she’s smiling.

“What the hell,” she whispers aloud, horrified, hiding her face in her pillow like there’s anyone around to witness her throwing all sense of morality to the wind and partaking in stupid greeting card traditions.

Clink.

Max sits straight up in bed. There’s a noise from the window, like someone’s tapping on it, but there’s no one there.

She frowns. What? Maybe it was a stray gust of wind, or a tree branch, or–

Clink.

A pebble comes flying at her windowpane, so small that she barely even sees it, then bounces off harmlessly.

“What–”

Lucas Sinclair is standing outside her bedroom window, waving like a maniac. “Hi,” he says, as soon as she gets the window open. “Are you busy?”

“Lucas?” Max looks down at her pajama pants and t-shirt, one she’s had for so long that she’s started to wear holes in it. “No, I was just– what the hell are you doing?”

“Being romantic,” Lucas says simply. “I was going to bring a boombox and blast something cheesy but I figured maybe waking up your mom and the entire community was less romantic and more asshole-y.”

“Asshole-y is not a word,” she says, in a meager attempt at a distraction from the smile breaking across her face. “You could have just knocked. At the front door.”

Lucas makes a face. “But that’s boring. Now are you going to come outside or do I need to climb through your window again?”

“You’re ridiculous,” Max decides, even as she swings one leg through the open window, shaking her head. “You are so ridiculous.”

“You’re laughing,” Lucas says gleefully. Her feet hit the grass and she shivers slightly, the ground gone icy with the February chill.

“Yeah, so?”

“And you’re also cold,” he says, and then he’s shrugging his jacket off and holding it out. It’s his varsity jacket, the one he has on almost every day. She’d never tell him, but she loves wearing it because it’s already a little big on him which means it’s huge on her and maybe the most comfortable thing she’s ever put on. 

She accepts the proffered jacket without a fuss, which is maybe out of the ordinary for today, but whatever. “Someone’s being real gentlemanly today.”

“Please. I’m always a gentleman,” and he says it kind of laughingly, but it’s not a joke. Not really. Lucas is the most gentle person she knows, and he brought her flowers and baked her cupcakes and gave her the most stupid card ever, and–

“Thank you,” she says earnestly, tucking the jacket in around herself.

Lucas shuffles his feet on the grass. “I know you’re cold,” he starts, “so I won’t stay too long. I just wanted to see you.”

“You wanted to see me?” Max stares. “You saw me all day at school. And you picked me up and dropped me off and–”

“I meant just you,” Lucas corrects, tugging her arms down from where she’s got them wrapped around herself, twisting their fingers together. “No rush. No first period bell. No basketball practice in the way.”

“I,” Max starts, throat gone completely, embarrassingly dry. God, she’s dating this guy, and she has been for forever, so why the hell is she still getting so flustered? “Really?”

“Uh, yeah?” Lucas says it like a question, like it’s obvious. “And I know Valentine’s Day isn’t your thing because you think it’s totally stupid, which is fine, because you’re kind of right, but– I don’t know. All I could think about all day was how lucky I am to be dating you.”

Jesus Christ. This is not a good look for her. If Mike ever asks, Max kept her composure, and was calm and collected and as totally cool as a cucumber.

“Really?” she squeaks, just a little bit, because the unfortunate reality of the situation is that she is not as cool as a cucumber and is, instead, as warm as– something that’s very warm. “You– really?”

Lucas laughs lightly. “Yes, really,” he says, thankfully ignoring her sudden combustion into a thousand little Max-shaped pieces. “And I’m sorry if the flowers and everything was over the top and they were so cheesy, but I literally just could not help myself.”

Max shakes her head. “No,” she says, warm and fuzzy and so happy that it’s threatening to spill over and out of her entirely. “No, it’s– I loved them,” she admits softly. “I did. They were lame and corny but I loved them. Even the bear card,” she adds, and he laughs again. “But holy shit, Lucas, you gave me so many things.”

“You deserve lots of things,” Lucas says. “Lots of good, corny, cheesy things.”

“I’m going to need you to shut up now,” Max says, then promptly buries her face in his chest. He doesn’t even seem fazed by the impact, solid and steady and unmoving as she wraps her arms around him. “But happy Valentine’s Day, stalker.”

She hears him laugh, somewhere above her. “Happy Valentine’s Day,” he says, and kisses her on top of her head. “I love you.”

[songmingisthighs]

Cache

introduction pt. i | pt. ii | pt. iii

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ch. xiv - what happened ?

wooyoung × reader, ??? × reader

in a school filled with the affluent, it would only make sense for birds of a feather to flock. but what if your new status doesn't immediately buy you a way into said flock? what if instead, it bought you sure rejection? to the rich and powerful, having different masks is a must. despite some people knowing your true self and your secrets

In a blink of an eye, lunch break came. While everyone rushed out, you calmly put your books away.

"(y/n)!" you snapped your head up to see the source of the voice.

You put on a gentle smile as San approached you with a cute grin on his face, "Are you coming to lunch with us ??" He asked. You looked behind him to see Wooyoung by the door, waiting for you two as he bounced on the balls of his feet with Mingi jumping in front of the classroom window and Yeosang next to him, staring at you with a small smile on his face.

Honestly, you wanted to say yes and just hang with them but then you remembered that you were waiting for Kai's friend to come. So you sadly sighed at San, showing your disappointment, "I'm sorry San, I don't think I can," you said. San pouted back as he tilted his head, "Aww boo, that's too bad... Do you want us to get you something instead ?" He offered. You perked up at his offer and nodded enthusiastically, "Yeah! Bread and milk sound nice," to which San nodded enthusiastically. Soon, he ran off to join the others who were waiting for him (and you initially) and waved off as they disappeared down the hall.

Despite feeling like you didn't fit in the first year you were around them, you were glad that at this moment in your life, you seemed to be able to make more friends. You wanted to prove your brother and parents wrong. Ever since your family came into money, they changed a lot. While it started from a different school and living situation, it progressed to them telling you just how they don't like how 'humble' you look. By humble, they meant shabby and poor. Although compared to Mingyu you've been more often exposed to money and luxury (being friends with Wooyoung whom at 4 years old wore a burberry scarf and used it to wipe mud off your 2 for 1 shoe from a discount rack at Dongdaemun), you don't really care much for it. Sure you're wearing branded backpacks that your mom bought and your laptop no longer needs to be fanned to function, but you don't see what's the point of changing your whole personality for money.

Above that, you don't get why your family felt the need to shame you and practically disregard your existence because you refuse to roll in a pile of 50.000 won bills.

Deep in your thought, you didn't realize someone was peeking into the classroom until they made their existence obvious.

"Hi, do you know where I can find (y/n) (y/l/n)?" the person asked.

You jolted slightly out of surprise. Once you realized that someone was talking to you, you sheepishly smiled at the person. "Sorry, that would be me," you said.

The person stepped into the classroom and boy is he cute. Tall, dark hair, and plump lips. You felt yourself blush as he approached you. "Kai told me to give you this," he said as he arrived to your desk, putting down a usb in front of you. You took it and nodded, "Thank you, Soobin," you smiled at him.

He raised an eyebrow in surprise, "How'd you know my name?" he asked, curious. You shrugged, "I've seen you around with Yeonjun in school and around our Cul-de-sac, I simply recognized you," you said, He nodded in understanding slowly when you pointed at his left chest, "And you have your nametag on," you grinned teasingly. At the mention of his nametag, he looked down at where you pointed, "Oh!" He exclaimed, seemingly surprised. The look on his face made you giggle.

Even without knowing him personally, you know that there were rumors going around about him and his friends. While Kai is very sweet, people gossip about how he's always seen at the dead of night in sketchy places. People also spoke of Taehyun and Yeonjun who seemed to frequent the hardware store with Soobin tailing behind, hands often occupied by chemicals. And then there's Beomgyu who has bloodied lips and bruises all over him at random times. The five of them screams trouble and people sided with Hongjoong (as he is the Student Body President) and his friends, not wanting to involve themselves with trouble.

But seeing Soobin being clumsy in front of you seemed to make you momentarily forget about the rumor that surrounds him. As much as he seemed scary, you saw a softer side to him. Makes you wonder about what's behind the rumors, how much of it is the truth.

Just as how Soobin's demeanor made you think, your own reaction to him made him freeze and stare. Soobin knows he's a good looking guy and due to that, girls has become something that of a tedious task to him, something that he doesn't really have much care for. No matter how many girls throw themselves at him and whatever trick they pull on him, it just makes him annoyed. But here you are, in front of him, giggling and suddenly his heart started skipping a beat every now and then.

"U-uh, what's the assignment about anyways?" Soobin asked, breaking the silence. "Some business analysis stuff. I initially wanted to do market analysis on the FMCG industry, but Kai suggested that we do logistics instead since it's related to many other industries," you explained. Soobin nodded at your words and turned around. You thought he would've decided to go out but he turned back around with a chair pulled up to your side close to you much to your surprise.

"You know," he started as he sat down, "Yeonjun's dad has one of the biggest logistics company in South Korea. They have partnerships with Western companies," he said. Your eyes widened in surprise, "Yeonjun? I thought his parents are giants in the Fashion and Cosmetology Industry?" "That's his mom, his dad handles logistics. If you or Kai need real time data, you could always ask for him," he smiled. Your heart skipped a beat when you see his smile, it was so pure and innocent, a different contrast to his ripped jean jacket and bruises on his knuckles.

"Why would she asked him when she has us?" a voice rang through the classroom.

Both your and Soobin's head snapped back to see San angrily glaring at you two. One hand was squishing a custard bun and the other wet with milk from a carton that he squeezed. "What the fuck are you doing here?" he asked as he walked closer. Your eyes shifted between him and Soobin who leaned back with a smirk on his face, "I'm accompanying (y/n) here. She was alone and I assumed you left her here without any care, so why not?" he said as he draped an arm behind your own chair. The sight seemed to set San off as he threw both items on the floor and ran up to you. It was obvious that San is shorter and skinnier than Soobin, but he still managed to grab Soobin by the collar and pulled him up slightly, "Don't mess around with my friends, you asshole!" He growled menacingly in front of Soobin's face who seemed awfully calm. Soobin tilted his head to the side and raised an eyebrow, "What makes you think I'd wanna mess around?" he taunted.

From the side, you don't know what to do. You felt like you should break them apart but with how San looked, you don't know if you really should interfere. But you decided you should try to avoid further misunderstandings, "San, he just came here to give me Kai's assignment," you said. San snapped his head at you and stared, seemingly contemplating. Then he turned to look at Soobin again, "I don't trust you," he muttered lowly which made Soobin rolled his eyes, "And you think I trust you? You're stupider and far more delusional than I thought," he scoffed.

Just as you were about to say something, you heard footsteps and you saw Wooyoung and Yeosang walking in. You looked at them as if you're screaming for their help. Thankfully, they reacted quickly. They went to San and pulled him off of Soobin, seemingly avoiding touching Soobin altogether. "Dude, not here," Wooyoung said. Initially, San seemed like he didn't care, his glare was hard on Soobin and he seemed reluctant to move on. "He might say something and we don't want that," Wooyoung tried to reason again. At that, San seemed to relaxed a little.

Finally, he stepped back from Soobin and Soobin was able to move freely. As he dusted himself off and fixed his collar, San pointed at him, "Just make sure this reject knows his place and stay the fuck away from something he has no right of," he spat out.

That seemed to tick Soobin off badly as he stood up with clenched fist. The glare he gave to San allowed you to finally understand why people feared him so much.

At first you thought that he was gonna say something to San, maybe to defend himself. But the way they were staring at each other, you could assume that they were communicating.

With a huff, Soobin kicked the chair he sat on, making you jolt in surprise while the other three just stared at him. Soobin then pushed past the three, his big stature could've knocked them down easily, and exited the classroom without saying anything else.

You could only stare at him in wonderment thinking, what happened?

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[l1tw1ck]

THE TONY ANON MADE ME FEEL THINGS ABOUT THAT ASSHOLE. so now i will write some stuff more in depth about having sex with him. imagine youre some rich ceo of a company that provides stark with what he needs for his big ol projects,, n stuff, and because hes been making so many stupid investments (girls that cheat him out of his money and booze) he doesnt have enough to pay for the expensive items anymore. but you dont mind! you could very easily give him a discount, after all, youre so close, right? tonys glad that he gets this special discount, but when he asks you what it might be, he goes pale. you wanna ruin him- just for a night, maybe a bit into the morning if he feels like earning a few bucks. hes desperate, and clearly too hungover to think, and agrees. as creepy and strange as he finds you- he really, really wants that equipment, and he may as well have a good time getting it, right? wrong. hed stretched himself for the day of the "payment," quite adequately so. just in case you werent all smiles and big cash. and you certainly werent. when you take off your clothes, and show off what god has bestowed on you, he turns as white as a sheet, but soon afterwards his cheeks start to flush... why does he find this so hot? hes fucking some rich guy for equipment, just the idea gets him all hot and bothered.. normally he imagines himself in the place of the rich ceo, but being the recipient of his torture might be something interesting to delve into. but he doesnt have time to think- you pounce on him, tearing off his clothes and shoving his face into your cushy bed with his ass pointed up towards your already aching length. hes surprised, but not reluctant, adjusting his position to be more comfortable while you shove a finger inside of him. "well prepared," you comment, and fiddle with his little dicklet. hes rich, why wouldnt he have the money to take hormones? youre happy that he has, because stroking it is almost hypnotizing, the squeaks and shaking whimpers coming out of his limp body enough to make you leak. and so, once youve had enough of your teasing, you dump what must be a quarter of a bottle of lube onto his hole, and position yourself at his entrance. he expects you to tantalizingly slide inside of him, which is the cause of his surprised yelp when you almost immediately start plowing him into the mattress, grasping his hips with a bruising, vice grip to keep him from sliding into a flat position. he can hardly keep himself from cumming right then and there, screaming into the linen of your bedsheets to keep his moans from echoing throughout your entire penthouse. tony can hardly think, but he realizes that hes going to have to endure your pace throughout the entire night, and whines pitifully when his first orgasm approaches at a disturbingly fast speed, his gut coiling into a tight knot thats almost painful. its when you latch onto his neck with a hard bite for more leverage that he squirts all over your bed, staining it with his sloppy juices. and that pisses you off only slightly- youre too focused on making this the most memorable "experience" hes ever had. your balls start clenching sooner than you want them to, and you groan into the skin of his nape when you empty yourself in his awaiting, squeezing walls, painting his insides white with your cum. you pant atop him for a short while, but what disturbs tony the most is how quickly your cock hardens once more, releasing a whiny moan muffled in toyour soiled bedsheets. (hope you enjoyed this, bc i sure did enjoy writing it (i like to horny rant about men, it is very relaxing))

-💢

im being blessed today😭💕💕

[tea42]

What's your headcanon for da4 for the titans and lyrium?

I think the Evanuris put the Titans to sleep in order harvest lyrium from them. It makes sense over killing them so that they continue to make lyrium to harvest and with what we see in The Descent expansion.

I think Solas used the arch dragons as seals for the Evanuris but he also used the the sleeping Titans as an anchor for the veil itself and so they and lyrium, which is their blood, exist in both Thedas and the Fade. I think the Veil will fall in DA4 and we have an immediate fall out with Evanuris but afterwards the Titans will also wake.

I actually think a Titan has already awoken fully on the planet but not in the area known as Thedas. The 'massive cataclysm' reported by Voshai people who once sailed across the Volca Sea to traded with people of the Anderfels in Laysh was in fact a Titan that woke up.

As for regular Lyrium, it fueled magic before the Veil so I think it will do so after but I also think there will the the chance for those using, especially non Mages, to be enslaved to the will of a Titan like the Sha-Brytol we see in the Descent.

I think the Evanuris used lyrium brands/tatoos as a way to enthrall their slaves. I think they copied this technique from the Titan with regaurd to the Sha-Brytol and other beings we see in the Descent. I think Fenris's markings are actually a reproduction of this Evanuris magic but there is no Evanuris awake (or willing if it is Solas's markings) to exert their will on him.

In regard to red lyrium my thoughts are rather complicated and I need to talk about what I think of the taint first.

I think the taint in general is the Evanuris trying to enthrall from their prison. The hivemind of the Darkspawn is what first made me consider this. If this is correct I think the Taint has to be a form of blood magic done by the Evanuris because they do not have lyrium in their prison. That is why it infects lyrium and doesn't use lyrium. That blood magic is also know for mind control in Thedas also makes me lean towards this idea. When the Veil falls the Evanuris will control the Darkspawn and also the Wardens if they don't find a cure.

I had considered at one point it was the achedragons/Old Gods trying to emulate the the thrall of the Evanuris, but the fact that the Darkspawn seek out an achedragon/Old God to infect with the taint and turn into an archedemon in order to start a Blight has made me discount that.

If this take on taint and tainted/red lyrium is correct than creatures exposed to it would be in thrall to the Evanuris in contra-point to how I speculate Templars will be in thrall to the Titans.

Thank you for the ask!

[hyperfixated-homo]

ooh I'm gonna be super predictable but I adore big brother Virgil in any capacity, so if you wanna write that go wild. muah <3

Tired, but never of them

Virgil has a bad day. His little siblings comfort him in their own special way.

Ao3 Link

A/N: This took a while, sorry! Sibling stories are not my strong suit lmao. It’s not even really explicit that he’s the older one here, but you know that he is and I guess that’s what matters. Also I almost got to 2k words with this fic!! Yay me :D

———

He was having a bad day.

Everything had gone wrong from the moment he woke up. He was late for school because he needed to stay up all night to study for a test (which he missed, thanks to his lateness). Then he got a call from his boss and he had to leave his brothers alone in the house because obviously he didn't want to get fucking fired and lose their only source of income. Then it felt like the only customers at their shitty little convenience store were all angry moms and spoiled brats who would take forever to buy their stupid fucking candy and gum and then complain when he didn't give them a discount when they gave him dirty looks. Then in a tiring series of events:

Some kids from his school showed up and started fucking around with the displays.

One of them jokingly asked him out and then called him gay for not immediately saying no.

They all proceeded to laugh at him for being queer for like, half an hour (which he was, but they didn't know that so what was the point?).

A middle aged man yelled at him for five minutes because he wouldn't give him a free beer for an expired coupon that wasn't even for their store.

A kid started crying really fucking loudly in the corner (she didn't stop for fifteen minutes and her parents refused to leave the store. He didn't know if he felt more sorry for them or for himself).

Someone smashed a bottle on the floor trying to take it out of a six pack even though they had a massive sign that clearly stated that they didn't sell single bottles.

And then, to top it all off, one of the kids smoked a cigarette in the bathroom and set the place on fire.

So yeah. In conclusion; Virgil Sanders was having an absolutely horrible fucking day.

When he got home, it was already seven pm and he hadn't eaten since his rushed breakfast (the granola bars at the store didn't count for shit). He was exhausted and stressed out and so sick of everything that he didn't bother to say hi to his brothers when he got back, deciding instead to immediately go to his room and flop onto his bed.

He didn't even take off his shoes or jacket. He just laid there staring at the ceiling and wondering what the fuck he was doing with his life. 

Everything sort of hurt, but not in the sharp way it hurts to get a scrape, or hit your head. It was more like a general soreness that spread throughout his entire body once he laid down. His stomach hurt. It always did when he got stressed or overworked, but it made him feel miserable.

He would need to redo his test. And have to explain to his science teacher why he had to redo the test. Would he need to do it alone? Was that better or worse than having to do that in a room full of people? He didn't know. But he was still thinking about it. For some reason. And probably would be for the entire evening. Fuck.

He stared at the ceiling for a moment and then let out a long sigh. He probably needed to make some food for his brothers. Fucking-

His brothers! Had they eaten anything for lunch? He hadn't had time to come back home after his second morning class, he didn't even check on them when he came home. What if they'd gotten in trouble? What if they thought that he hated them because he was in a bad mood and didn't talk to them? He knew that they got upset when he didn't pay attention to them, how could he just-

A knock sounded at his door. He called out (much more shakily than he would like to admit) for them to come in.

His door opened slowly and two big blue eyes popped out behind it.

"Hey Logan." Virgil croaked out (when did his throat get so dry?)

"...Hi." He sounded small, like he didn't want to say anything. Was he scared? Upset maybe? God they probably did think that he hated them-

"We made you some stuff."

Virgil blinked at him. That was most definitely not what he expected. "You made me things?" Logan nodded, almost shyly.

"Jay and Patton wanted me to give it to you because I'm the most quiet and they didn't know if you had a headache or not." The little seven year old explained, opening the door more and revealing a little tray behind him. Virgil couldn't quite make out the contents from his spot on the bed.

"Can I come in?" He asked. Virgil let him in, sitting up to talk about him better.

Logan picked up the tray and brought it over. Placing it on an empty spot on his bed, he pushed himself up and sat next to Virgil, putting his little hand over Virgil's.

Virgil damn near cried.

On the tray was a plate of pasta, some water, a little box of Pepto-Bismol, two cards and a little blue gem.

The pasta was clearly Patton's, heated warm enough to feel the heat in his stomach but not hot enough to burn. It was sprinkled with sliced ham and Parmesan, which was funny because Virgil was the only one who actually like Parmesan in this house. The ham and cheese combo was simple but it had become a sort of comfort food for Virgil, who had gotten used to making foods like that on a very low budget. When Patton started taking over some of the cooking a the ripe age of ten, he managed to make the recipe even better by adding melted cream (it was legendary; cheap, tasty and made the pasta so much better. Virgil was so amazed at his abilities that he upgraded him to the house chef on the spot).

The water and Pepto-Bismol were probably Janus' doing. Most of his siblings didn't know the difference between it and other over the counter medication like Advil or Tylenol. Janus had helped him do some research on which ones were safer after Virgil expressed concern about how much medicine this family needed (Seriously, between the twins’ chaotic habit of slamming into every possible surface of any place they go—plus Patton's leg injury and Logan's chronic pain, Janus' headaches and Virgil's stomachaches—the drugstore nearby basically knew them by name). Janus had probably taken the time to think about what type of pain he was in and somehow figured out exactly what medicine would make him feel better. He did that all the time, but it never failed to amaze Virgil. 

The cards had so much detail both on the back and front that it could only have been the twins' work. There were drawings and doodles all over the paper, Roman's featuring chibi versions of his younger brothers giving Virgil a big hug, while Remus' showed some more realistic drawings that featured an odd amount of eyes and limbs. They were both equally endearing. What really took Virgil aback was the amount of stickers the two had put on their cards. They loved to collect stickers, but had a general rule that using them was strictly forbidden. They were meant for looking and not using. The two of them using so many made the cards feel really special, as strange as it was.

Opening the cards, Virgil was met with a pop up drawing of himself on Roman's card and a big monster of limbs and eyes and mouths on Remus' that was labeled "the bad day". He was a bit confused for a moment, but then Logan put the two together and he couldn't help but laugh.

When the pages were pressed against each other the pop-out figures it formed a scene where Virgil was a heroic knight, holding his sword out and fighting The Bad Day. It was so thoughtful and creative and them that it almost made Virgil choke up a little bit.

The final thing on the tray was a crystal, small enough to easily fit into his palm. It was smooth on the bottom and jutted out into a natural looking formation, the bumpy pattern giving it a wonderful texture and a frozen appearance. It was slightly transparent, and through it Virgil could see that the edges were a bright cyan, while the middles were a deeper shade of indigo.

It was a salt crystal, one that Logan had made himself at home after a class demonstration left him interested. He'd kept them afterwards and called them his comfort crystals, because the knowledge of their creation made him feel better when he was sad, and the texture was pleasantly stimulating to him.

The crystal on his tray now was one that they had made together. It was one of the first crystals that had ever actually formed (when Virgil realized that the reason they weren't forming was because it wasn't humid enough for it to crystalize). It was also the first one they'd dyed.

It was Logan's favorite comfort crystal.

"Sometimes I feel better when I'm just holding it," Logan murmured when Virgil picked it up "so you can borrow it for a bit."

It really wasn't much, but it meant everything to him. The pasta had too much ham and the glass wasn't filled all the way, and there were spelling mistakes in all the kind words in the cards and there was no way to put the crystal down so that it wouldn't start rolling when the bed moved but it was so, so perfect and oh fuck he was crying-

"Virge?" It wasn't from the little boy beside him, but rather his door. "Are you okay?"

Patton's concerned voice from the doorway was enough to make him sob. He walked in immediately and started going through breathing exercises to calm him down.

Virgil spluttered for a minute, trying to find a nice way to voice his thoughts without sounding like a complete idiot but eventually just said fuck it.

"'I'm not sad." He said in-between sobs "I just really, really love you guys, you know?"

Patton's concerned face split into a grin, and he squealed, pulling him up and into a hug. "I love you too!" He said, squeezing him tightly.

It took a while for Virgil finally calmed down enough to get out of the hug and wipe his eyes. When they broke from their hug, he could see the others standing in his doorway. It seemed that Logan had gone to grab them while Patton comforted him through his sob fest.

He snorted, slightly wetly, and said "Well, what are you waiting for?"

Instantly, he had two little balls of red and green in his arms, loudly asking if he's okay. Janus came over to pluck the food from its spot on the bed and put it somewhere safer, and Logan rejoined him by his side.

It was nice. They were nice. He could feel himself relax and calm down as the twins explained the thought process behind their cards a little better, the background noise doing wonders for his overstimulated mind. Patton and Janus sat down eventually, Janus on his right and Patton holding Logan on his left. They gave him back his pasta so that he could eat while they talked about their days. 

They were so careful to not talk about anything that might trigger him. Every time he thought about it, it made him want to burst into tears again. 

There was warmth on all sides, not trapping but simply surrounding him. And he felt safe.

It had been a bit of a bad day. And he was still a little tired, but he knew at the end of the day he could never be tired of his family.

[pondjrwi]

Just Roll With It Recap

Riptide Episode 42 - The Serpent

- Jay wakes up. She tries to see if the serpent has kind eyes, but it just wants to eat them. Lizzie wants to cut their ships apart and lure it away, but Chip says it’s better to fight it together. Gil realizes this is one of the titans of the undersea. Gil gives it a barrel of fish to eat, but it eats Chip. Jay tells it in Primordial to spit it out.

Sea Serpent: “I do not drop what I have already eaten.”

- Lizzie jumps onto the ship badassly and casts Command on the serpent to regurgitate, but it doesn’t work. Gil Commands it to borf and that works. He doesn’t want them to hurt it because it’s a sacred creature. He jumps on it and whispers to it that they should go find something better to eat together.

Sea Serpent: “You carry something not of here, but of a different plane. I sense it. Should you bring it, I will take you away from here, and forgo this meal.”

Gillion: “It would be my honor to return this back to the sea.”

- It asks him to feed it the Luxbris Pearl, so he does. It leaves with Gillion. He asks it not to eat more boats, and it says that he’s satiated it for a very long time. Gil asks his name, which is Dugon. Gil hopes they meet again. 

- Caspian thinks it’s okay that they fed Dugon the Pearl because Gil had a formal education and probably knows more than him. Gil keeps bragging about his best friend Dugon. Chip goes to check on the sick people but can’t help them, so he brings Gil. Chip is surprised that Gil knows all the sick people’s names. Gil explains how one of his duties is protecting the ecosystem and the balance of nature.

Chip: “I mean, you’re Champion of the Undersea, Hero of the Deep; why do you do it all? You’ve been healing these people for days… You went to Loffinlot, helped all them… I guess I just don’t understand.”

Gillion: “Because, Chip…”

Chip: “Don’t say the thing.”

- It’s his destiny. Chip wants to learn how to heal people too. While Chip is trying to heal someone, Gil discreetly heals them, making Chip believe he did it himself. Gil immediately tells him it was a prank after Chip gets super excited and tries to heal everyone else. Chip hugs him. At some point, Jay copies Lizzie’s map into a shitty discount version.

- They discuss whether they should fix Ollie or save Marshall John first (Chip wants the former). Chip suggests that Jay uses her Ferin name to get them in John’s prison, but she’s scared to. Chip says they don’t have to if she’s not comfortable. 

- Chip asks Lizzie if she’ll help them save John. He knows that John is just one man, but there are lots of other guys in the prison who might join the army. Lizzie says she needs John too, so she’ll come. She whispers to Chip that going to Navy prison might be exactly what Jay wants. Chip insists she wouldn’t betray them. 

Chip: “I don’t know much about being a captain, but a great captain once told me that being part of a crew is being willing to die for each other.”

Lizzie: “You said it yourself. They don’t really trust you.”

Chip: “But I trust them.”

- Lizzie needs to drop off the sick people at Edison Kingdom first. They reach Edison Kingdom! It’s a very steampunk city. 

[kay-oc-rambles]

Rethinking the Cas x Harvey time loop AU bc I just unlocked Rasmodius's spell book thing in game & was reminded of that expensive fucking clock & if you know me, you know I love clocks. Also maybe instead of having it as an AU, it can be a whole story arc (not that I'm actually writing a fic of this, I just figured why not have it be part of Cas's canon).

Also I read this fic last night that doesn't technically mention the clock itself, but rather as a spell that Rasmodius casts & I think Cas would also be able to convince ol' Razzy to give her a discount on it.

Also also, this turned out SUPER long because I went a little more in depth than I originally intended.

(Sidenote that I'm considering starting a fresh file for Cas to help nail down the timeline for her story)

If you've read/watched D. Gray-Man, Miranda Lotto is my favorite character & I might have this AU take some inspiration from the Rewinding Town arc in that maybe the curse doesn't just make Cas relive the move to the farm over & over, but make it so that outside the town, time goes on normally.

So anyway, Cas & Harvey are already dating by the time Rasmodius asks Cas to go get the ink for him. She manages to do it without running into his ex (who I think I'm gonna call Esmerelda). He grants her access to one of his spell books. She of course looks through it immediately. The Junimo Hut could be nice (especially since she kinda misses seeing them around the Community Center). She doesn't mind making warp totems & would probably still use them if she had the obelisks (sometimes you're on the mountain & are like "shit, I needed to go to the beach", having a big ass obelisk on the farm is less convenient than having a few little totems on hand).

The clock fascinates her. "You can really make something like that?" She asks. He says "For the right price" and points to the listed price. She nearly chokes.

"Seriously? I mean, I get that you're essentially stopping time for like, specific things on the farm, but ten million??? It would take YEARS for me to save up that much money!"

She manages to talk him down to 100,000 gold, 100 solar & void essences each, 10 iridium bars, 5 prismatic jellies, and 100 gold bars.

It takes her a couple of weeks to get it all together but it's winter so she has a greenhouse full of ancient fruit plants, a few silos full of hay, and plenty of time to go into the mines. At some point during this though is when she realizes she wants to marry Harvey so she gets Rasmodius's help in making a rain totem that guarantees the following day will rain. (Upon looking at the wiki I guess it can technically be used in the winter but I like the idea of her having to wait a little, build up some anticipation, y'know?)

The gold clock gets made on the last day of Winter, when she also uses the rain totem. The following day, Cas does the whole thing where she shoots out of bed and barely remembers to throw on some proper clothes before she gets a totem out of her bag & warps to the beach to buy a mermaid pendant off of the old mariner. She runs over to the clinic (in the rain, she didn't even grab an umbrella or raincoat). It's not open yet & she left her phone, keys, & bag at home. She considers whether she should run home to grab her keys, or just hope Harvey is awake to hear her banging on the door (and that Pierre doesn't complain about hearing her battering down the clinic door at 7 in the morning).

When Harvey wakes up to hear the banging he rushes down thinking that there's an emergency (he wonders if Cas spent the previous night in the mines & was once again found passed out & injured, even though she swears up & down that she's more careful than she used to be & it's been a while since it happened). He opens the front door to find her standing there soaking wet and grinning from ear to ear.

"Are you okay-" he starts but Cas leaps forward to kiss him, knocking him a step back & soaking the front of his pajamas. When they part, Cas looks at him and she planned to just ask him straight away but she's just lovestruck and can't seem to get the words out at first. He asks what's going on, did something happen? She shakes her head, still grinning, and slowly opens up her hand that had been holding the pendant the whole time (it's a miracle she didn't drop it or crush it when she lept into his arms).

"Doctor Harvey Emerson, will you marry me?"

Of course he says yes, they kiss again. Harvey says something about Cas still dripping water on the clinic floor and urges her up into the apartment to take a warm shower (she didn't even realize how much she was shivering until he pointed it out) and dry off.

If Cas had it her way, they'd go have Lewis marry them that day, but Harvey convinces her to at least take a couple days to plan the wedding.

(It comes up that Cas doesn't really have any relatives to invite; she has no siblings or cousins, she never knew her father and her mother dying is part of what motivated her to quit Joja, which had basically taken up her whole life so she didn't really have any friends while working there.)

Meanwhile, Esmerelda is cooking up a plan. Her henchman told her what happened (to which she responded by turning him into a void chicken). She spies on Cas and Stardrop Farm, sees the gold clock and Cas planning the wedding with Harvey.

The day of the wedding, everybody including Rasmodius (who walks Cas down the aisle) in attendance, Esmerelda steals the gold clock to take back to her home and use it as the medium for a time loop curse. By the time Cas and Harvey come home it's been a long day and they don't notice that the clock is missing.

The next morning, everybody wakes up and it's the first day of spring, the first year Cas moved to the valley.

Cas wakes up at the bus stop with her bags, more confused than she's ever been in her life.

The first thing she does after making Robin think she's absolutely insane is go to Rasmodius's tower, but it's locked. Despite her pounding on the door hollering for him to open it, he doesn't answer. She decides to go into town, and when she comes across Lewis, he takes her to the community center. She's relieved when she finds that she can still read the golden scroll.

She heads to the clinic. Part of her knows that since so far no one seems to remember her, it's unlikely that Harvey will, but she hopes.

And he doesn't.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Harvey, the local doctor. I perform regular check-ups and medical procedures for all the residents of Pelican Town. It's rewarding work. I hope you'll find your own work equally rewarding, in time." He says, just like the first time she met him. Her heart drops. She looks so suddenly pained that it concerns Harvey but she just tells him "I'm fine, it was... it was nice meeting you too" and leaves, heading back to the farm & plopping facedown on her bed. It's barely noon and she's already exhausted. She wonders if this is all a nightmare, or worse, that the past couple years were only a dream.

Ever the busy body though, she can't just lay around moping all day so she gets up and starts planting the parsnip seeds Lewis gave her. By the time she's done tilling and planting them it's close to 4 and she has no food. She drags herself into town to visit the saloon so she can finally eat for the first time that day. On her way home she forages a bit so she has something to eat the next morning.

When she receives Rasmodius's letter the next day, she rushes to water the parsnips and head out to the tower.

There's the whole thing where she tries to tell him that something is wrong, she's lived on Stardop Farm for a couple years but the day after she married Harvey she woke up and the town was back to day 1. He thinks she's fucking insane and when she starts getting riled up he straight up teleports her out of the tower & locks the door.

It takes a few days before Cas resigns herself to the belief that everything before was just a dream. It felt so real, more vivid than any other dream, but she doesn't have much of a choice. Things go on like normal but with a dull ache underlying every interaction with the people she came to know as dear friends. She falls in love with Harvey all over again. This time she marries him before completing the Community Center (before Rasmodius thinks to have her steal the magic ink). She lives through the happiest day of her life for the second time... and wake up the next morning at the bus stop.

She tries not to freak Robin out this time. She tries to act normal. Plants the parsnips, heads into town, visits the Community Center, stops by the saloon to pick up some food. On her way home, she overhears Jodi talking about how surprised she is that Kent is home so much earlier than expected. He was acting weird, but she figures it's just because of the war. Given a spark of hope that *somebody* remembers the previous years, she visits 1 Willow Lane.

Kent, having not been anywhere near the valley when Cas first moved in, is apparently immune to the time loop induced amnesia affecting the rest of the town. Like Cas, the first time it happened he thought it was a fluke, just his war traumatized brain playing tricks on him, but this time, one day he's attending Cas & Harvey's wedding in the middle of fall and the next is the first day of spring. After some convincing, he agrees to go with her to the wizard's tower tomorrow. Hopefully, with Kent, they can convince Rasmodius that something really weird is happening.

Cas is much calmer meeting Rasmodius this time and in addition to Kent's testimony, Cas tells Rasmodius everything she knows about him and the rest of the town (at this point she has the Community Center bundles memorized), including Esmerelda having his magic ink.

Rasmodius isn't quite sure what to make of it all, but Cas seems genuine so he agrees to look into it. They come to the conclusion that it is no coincidence that both resets happened right after Cas married Harvey, and if Cas really did sneak into Esmerelda's home then it makes sense that it was caused by Esmerelda & that Cas is the focus of the curse.

(Kent finds all the magic talk to be confusing and overwhelming, so the trio agrees that while Cas will keep him in the loop, he should focus on reconnecting with his family while Cas helps Rasmodius figure out how to break the curse)

It is also agreed that until it's broken, Cas cannot marry Harvey. Despite this, Cas goes home that night filled with hope that with Rasmodius on her side everything will be back to normal in no time.

It takes some time, a lot of trial & error, before Rasmodius comes to the conclusion that they have no choice but to confront Esmerelda.

Rasmodius insists that he do it alone, as who knows what Esmerelda will do to Cas.

Cas also figures that they're close enough to breaking the curse that she can at least give Harvey a bouquet.

At Esmerelda's home, she & Rasmodius have a confrontation that escalates pretty quickly. Ras also notices the gold clock. Just when Rasmodius thinks he has Esmerelda cornered, she forces a reset.

Cas wakes up at the bus stop. She throws her bags and kicks her luggage in frustration. She's crying when Robin comes up to take her to the farm. She tells Robin that things just haven't been going well for her lately and she didn't get much rest last night.

She goes through what is becoming a routine: parsnips, Community Center, Kent. She tells Kent that she isn't sure what happened, she didn't marry Harvey yesterday but she did give him a bouquet. She tells him that Rasmodius went to confront Esmerelda, something probably happened. Once again they go to the tower the next day to tell him what's going on.

I'm kinda running out of steam so I'm gonna try to wrap this up.

At some point, whether it's in the current loop or if it takes another reset or two, they figure out that the clock is the medium and they need to both kill Esmerelda AND destroy the clock, but Rasmodius & Cas both have to be present to destroy it (because Rasmodius made the clock, and not only was it made for Cas but the curse is centered on her).

Also at some point in one of the loops, Cas got the bus repaired and found that time outside of the valley has gone on normally. Sandy & Mr. Qi had been wondering why they hadn't seen Cas in quite a while, but when Mr. Qi tried to visit, something prevented him from entering the town. Word has spread around that something is up with the town because the merchants that come around for special events have been thrown way off schedule.

Anyway, the curse gets broken, and all the memories from the loops come rushing back to the citizens of Pelican Town & time catches up with the rest of the world (causing a mass migraine event & ruining all of Cas's crops).

Cas & Harvey get married & live happily ever after, the end.