#but mainly already stressing out about the weird noise and shit

[tenrose]

Just turned on the heating for the first time of the season... Already seeing money running away through the window 🙃

[normally-alexis]

||Choked up

Pairings - Wilbur x Reader

Warnings - Heavily implied NSFW, Gore-related topics, knife kinks, spitting kink, Pain kink.

Summary - Nights before L'manburg was destroyed and Wilbur went insane you meet up with him and stay over.

Word Count: 1927

L'manburg was pretty much peaceful even though Dream and everybody else didn't want it on the server. It wasn't really bothering anybody so far even though some people, it's mainly just a place to get out of the tough rules of the smp.

You hadn't got into much trouble since you were partially on dream smp's side even though you switch sides pretty often. Whichever side would win you would switch to that side because you didn't want to pick sides you'd be a villain in either's eyes.

Hanging out with Tommy was fun even though he was three years younger than you. It wasn't weird since you both had a strong relationship with Wilbur and Philza. Philza was a father figure to all of you even though you weren't in the slightest related.

Growing up with Wilbur and Techno as best friends was pretty amazing, they taught you a few things throughout your teenage years. Philza before adopting Tommy was nicer to the three of you manly you and Techno.

Being the only female was different, you didn't have special perks as a kid, you were treated like a boy just with fewer responsibilities. Thinking back from when you were a kid towards now it was very rare for people to have kids on the smp. People just adopted children when you think about it.

Techno wasn't really in the Dream smp anymore he was with Philza somewhere out there. Tommy and Tubbo were kids and nobody really wanted them to do anything, they were still sorta young so they just joined L'manburg.

Nothing to stress about at the moment, still being one of the youngest adults of the smp gave you very few privileges. You had to take advantage of them while they lasted at the moment. Since it wasn't safe to live in L'manburg or on the Dream smp you had a bunker underground.

Why wasn't it safe? Anybody who picks sides cannot change that side, if you were on L'manburg's side you would be a big target considering you did have a private association with Dream.

You were underground sorting out some armor and some blueprints, you always have to move a lot if anybody ever saw you so why not be prepared? You kept sketching and erasing multiple times until you age up and burnt it.

The smoke was pretty bad to inhale so you move to an area where there wasn't much smoke at. It's pretty much clouding up the bunker and you start coughing, it's not that bad so you grab a potion and throw it on the burning blueprints.

It's not clouded up anymore even though you could have let it burn out. You drop your armor and weapons on the ground because you wouldn't be needing it at the moment. making your way over to your seat you sit down and look at all the notes in your notebook.

Flipping through the pages seeing if you found any notes you probably had written but most likely forgot were noted down. You stop at a page because it wasn't remembered from last time, it's a note from an anonymous person saying to come to the back of L'manburg.

You look back to see if anybody's there even though there's clearly nobody there. It must have been written early when you had left out. You push your chair out and then stand up, You take a moment and hesitate to think if you should do it or not.

It's a win and lose situation but what's life without a few risks? You leave from the seating of the area and walk over towards the ladder. Before climbing up the ladder you turn the lights off not wanting to draw any unwanted attention.

You grab onto the ladder and push yourself up placing your legs on the ladder, you climb up the ladder. Once you reach the top you push the top open and the trap door was forced open, you place one hand on the ground and place another hand on the ground.

You push yourself up and get on the top of the surface part of the ground. You take a small breathe and close the top. You push yourself up from off of the ground, you knew where L'manburg was since it was a pretty often visit.

You move throughout all the leaves and in vines, it's pretty normal to walk through it all. A few thoughts crossed your mind thinking about it, Dream wouldn't try contacting you that way he'd just catch you in the middle of the Dream smp and pull you to the side.

Thinking about meeting in L'manburg it would only be Tommy, Tubbo, Wilbur, Eret, Fundy, or Niki. It's not really Important who invited you but you really did want to know. You walk over to the area of the Dream smp and pass Tommy's house. It's pretty abandoned but you didn't bother starring at it too long.

You walk past it and walk towards the bridge that usually leads to L'manburg, you stop for a moment and hear a singing noise. It's not anywhere in sight per say but it's loud enough to hear. It's within the walls beside you and you put your ear on the wall.

It's more of a humming sound, you remove your ear from the wall and roam your hands along it. You hit a button along the wall not surprised but the wall opens up and the humming is more clear.

You enter inside of the cobblestone room not really expecting anything. The floor made a little sound when you entered inside of the room. You look on the ground and there's a few blood clots on the floor and some guts along with it.

You cover your mouth backing yourself backing into the corner. You sorta had a dislike of blood, not Hemophobia but it wasn't your favorite to be in a room filled with something dead. You look up and see Wilbur finishing cutting something up.

He already heard you since you had entered the room. He turns around and removes his gloves which were stained with blood. It's not a human thankfully but it's a dead animal, still very uncomfortable in this situation.

Wilbur looks up at you not very surprised  up at the moment, " What's wrong?" The whole display itself was wrong. You uncover your mouth smelling all the disgusting rotting corpses, "You're killing animals and letting them rot," How is he not disgusted? You roam around the room seeing more dead animals.

Wilbur tries explaining himself while coming towards you, but you get very distracted by all the blood splatter on the ground and much more graphic stuff. You weren't looking at him meaning that he knew your attention wasn't on his apology.

He grabs your hair and tugs on it making you shift your attention at him. Pulling and tugging on your hair really hurt because it's like being forced by Wilbur. As tough as you seemed whenever you had armor on being without armor is a completely different story.

"What's wrong tell me, you had a lot of nerve coming from somebody who would fuck literally anybody attractive enough," It's very weak of you to get degraded by somebody who doesn't even know how to defend himself.

"Or anybody who even found you attractive," You knew your worth but whenever somebody tells you something about criticizing yourself you'd just believe it and fix yourself. Was he right? You can't answer that yourself.

You had gone pretty silent and it causes Wilbur to get more aggressive with you. He knees your in your stomach not damaging your internal organs but it just made you feel weak and you tremble on your knees.

You grip onto your stomach squeezing it together, He's treating you like complete shit. He stops kneeing you and he pinches your cheek practically teasing you. You weren't even supposed to be meeting Wilbur at the moment.

Responding would get you in trouble and not responding would get you in more trouble. He's very agitated at the moment and he grabs the pocket knife from his pocket putting it towards your thigh.

"Can I Carve our Initials on your thigh," He asks you, You weren't too fond of punishment but you did like the attention being craved. You nod your head slightly and he removes his hand from your hair.

He grabs onto your thigh and you fall down stinging your back. He slowly starts carving your initials on your thigh, you don't make the loud noises you want to because he'll just end up cursing you out.

You wanted to curse so badly even though you liked it when he inflicted the pain, But why was it only acceptable when he did it. He was only done carving the 'W' halfway, you flinch and he messes up.

It a swerved 'W' and it looks very crossed out, He's upset with you and gets up from squatting. You try communicating with him, "Wilbur?" He's not necessarily listening to blocking out the thoughts.

He puts his foot in between your legs pushing it further near your shorts, His shoes against your clit. You can't tell what his original thoughts are, before you can even react he kicks you in your side. You fall on your face gripping onto your lower half, it's like a period without the loose blood clots.

He squats down and grabs onto your hair pulling you up making you look up at him, "Such a slut aren't you darling?" He spits on your face and it drips off of your face on the ground, is this really who you were such a despite slut that you would let a man do this to you?

Most definitely, you try smiling at him but it's a half-smile since you were in pain. "You holding up good slut?" He asks while looking you in your eyes, you nod as a response and try getting off of your sides.

You weren't damaged that badly you could always heal from it... He lets go of your hair once you were stable enough to stay on your knees. He takes his belt off and takes his pants down, he places the belt around your neck and ties it.

He takes his boxers off and grabs his dick which was already erected due to sadism. "C'mon slut, suck," He tugs on the end of the belt and you put your mouth on his dick, following rules in such a bad position in your life. Never would you have thought you would be sucking off Wilbur..

You take it slow at first not wanting to rush it since you weren't experienced as much, you mainly focus on the tip of his cock and rub your tongue over and over on his slit. Whenever he feels like he would release something he tugged on the belt making you gag on him.

It was hard to take him and focus on not being choked up by his belt, He's not the strongest of keeping his moans in. He climaxes inside of your mouth and some gets on your cheek, He wipes the semen off of your face.

"Is this okay darling?" he kisses your cheek and helps you clean yourself up, at least he did aftercare..

[fictionplumis]

Here's some stupid Roche/Iorveth AUs because I love the idea of them having no real reason to hate each other but doing so anyway:

-- High School AU with Jock on Jock violence. They play different sports and consider the other's sport to be stupid and thus the people playing it are stupid. Lots of snark and god help any teacher that has them both in the same class, they just will not leave each other alone. 

-- Mermaid AU with Iorveth as the mermaid. He swam through a seasonal tributary looking for food and stayed a little too long, so now he has to wait another year trapped in a lake near this small town. Roche is a small town cop that has to deal with locals calling in about dead animals on the shore of the lake only to find Iorveth. Roche is the only person Iorveth will reveal himself to, and it's specifically to piss the man off. Roche asks him to stop leaving dead animals around, Iorveth refuses. Roche seriously contemplates calling in the military and handing Iorveth over to be experimented on, but alas, he has no proof that Iorveth exists because he's a crafty bastard. 

-- Coffee Shop AU with Iorveth as the fed up barista. Roche stops by his coffee shop every morning on his way to work because it's convenient. He orders a straight black coffee, that's it. He doesn't tip. Iorveth hates him and refuses to spell his name right on the cup. It's always "Roach". Sometimes he'll draw a little cockroach on there if there's a line and he feels like wasting time. This leads to Roche retaliating by ordering increasingly outlandish drinks and discovering that he actually doesn't like his coffee black, but he'll never admit it. 

-- Pacific Rim AU where they're drift compatible. They're the only people who can't sit at the same table together without violence breaking out, yet somehow they're still perfectly in sync during testing and flawless in a drift. Mainly because they have a history no one knows about, where they've both already seen the worst in each other and themselves. They can't judge the other for it more than they judge themselves, so there's this weird understanding where they can hate each other for everything BUT the very legitimate reasons they should hate each other, because they've both committed the same atrocities. 

-- Punk Rock AU where Roche is a retired military and has this hole-in-the-wall bar he likes going to a couple times a week. Then the owner sold it and the new owner decided to hold live music performances. Roche is a habitual guy, it brings him comfort, so he doesn't want to change up the nights he goes drinking and other bars in the area have way too many people. Iorveth is in a punk rock band that's just getting up and running, so they play on the nights Roche goes to drink. All their music is very anti-military, fuck patriotism. But the thing that Roche really, truly hates is that the songs are good and he gets them stuck in his head. 

-- College AU where Iorveth is a struggling theater kid and Roche is there on a sports scholarship, mostly because he ended up making friends with the Dean somehow in high school and basically got an easy in. They're assigned a dorm together and hate each other instantly. Iorveth hates Roche's gut on principle because he got himself a free ride while Iorveth is stuck struggling and constantly stressing about how he's going to pay for classes. Meanwhile Roche hates the fact Iorveth hates him, finds him stuck up and overly dramatic, and gets annoyed that Iorveth always has his theater buddies hanging out at the dorm. They're passive aggressive as fuck to each.

--Ghost AU where Roche is once again retired military with PTSD. He decides the noise of the city and everything else is too much for him, but he also can't just sit somewhere and do nothing, he'll drive himself crazy. So he buys this super old house in the middle of the woods that's a fixer-upper. It's super cheap too, which is good because his pension is shit. Little does he know the house is already occupied by a very pissy ghost who doesn't like to be bothered by the living and can't wait for the forest to reclaim the place. He's scared off every occupant before Roche. He realizes Roche will be a problem when causing him nightmares doesn't work, 'cause Roche already deals with those. But it's worse, the guy is just unflappable. He pretty much chalks everything up to this PTSD, but weird things happen so often that he eventually grows suspicious, starts debating on whether or not he believes in ghosts, decides he does when he finds writing in the steam of his mirror after a shower telling him to go away (he just wipes it off because he's faced worse than that), but stays because it's still better for his nerves than the city. His calm ends when Iorveth knocks over one of his mugs one night when he can't sleep and Roche goes the fuck off on him, because the spooky noises, flickering lights, moving things, opening and closing doors, find whatever, but you break his shit? Absolutely not.

[hghway-2-heaven]

what would it be like to date mark & jaehyun together ( sfw + nsfw ) if you're okay with polyamorous stuff, if not can you do the two of them separately thank u ahh<33 i really loved your what'd it be like to date johnny post it felt super accurate 😳😳

i did them individually <3

— g/n reader

mark lee

• absolute madman

• you and johnny are close friends so y’all met when he brought you over to hang out at the dorm

• was so incredibly shy when y’all met because he thought you were really pretty (well, you are)

• but became less shy the more you came around

• he’s so fucking funny

• was always making you laugh and soon you found yourself coming over even when johnny wasn’t there, just to hang out with him

• and oopsie daisie you realized you were developing a crush

• you told johnny about it and his response was basically “yeah no shit bighead”

• you’re so obvious around him but he’s oblivious

• you 100% made the first move

• you two were having a movie marathon and he suddenly looked at you, and wasn’t looking away

• you basically said fuck it and kissed him

• and wowzers!!!!!!!!!! he kissed you back

• you’ve been together since

• he’s a big cuddler unless people are around

• mainly because some members walked in on him laying his head in your lap with his arms around your legs and they teased him about it

• doesn’t like being treated like a baby

• (you still do tho, in an endearing way)

• acts like he wants to be the big spoon but ends up being the little spoon every time

• the public found out y’all were dating because he instinctively slapped your ass when you walked in front of him at an event and someone videoed it

• another thing his members have yet to let him live down

• likes to interlock pinkies instead of hold hands when in public

• forehead!!!!!!!!! kisses!!!!!!!

• he laughs at all your shitty jokes

• thinks you’re the funniest person he’s ever met

• might be biased tho because he’s falling HARD

• tried to cook for you

• burned it. set the damn smoke alarm off

• decided to order takeout instead

• wrote a song about you

• (okay maybe 2 or 3)

• baths baths baths

• he likes when you sit between his legs, back against his chest, just relaxing in the water

• when he’s stressed after a long hard day at the studio or practice he just wants to be held

• and you always take it upon yourself to give him a massage without him asking

• and he never really says it but he’s so incredibly grateful for that gesture. it makes him feel so loved

• y’all are also the definition of cute cringy couple

• “just one more kiss”

• “no you hang up first”

• freestyle rap battles at 3 am

• aka roast sessions

• “big ass fucking forehead”

• “yeah that’s why your dick small”

• proceeds to prove to you that it absolutely isn’t

• but you already knew that

• which leads me into the ~nsfw~

• he will never forget your first time together

• mainly because it was a shitshow

• he tried to make it so romantic

• candles, rose petals, dimmed lights, WINE

• the whole shabang

• but then wine was spilled on the sheets and a candle was knocked over when he was trying to carry you to bed and tripped

• you hit your head in a way that looked a lot more painful than it was

• and he was FREAKING OUT

• so much so that it took him a moment to realize the spilled wine and blown out candle on the floor

• you assured him you were okay, and kissed him hard when he protested

• and you ended up fucking right there on the rug

• he love love LOVES when you give him head

• the only thing he finds sexier than your mouth around his dick is the faces and noises you make when he’s ramming into you

• he prefers missionary so he can see your face

• and he likes when you watch him slide in and out of you

• total ass man

• is always grabbing your ass when you’re making out

• and when you ride him

• sloppy nasty kisses he gives you when he’s about to cum >>

• def tries really hard to be a dom but ends up completely melting under your touch

• “you like how i ride your cock, baby boy?”

• has a sex playlist he’s always adding songs to

• “i wanna give you head to this song”

• jokingly says he wants to use your moans as ad libs in a song

• you like to send him nudes when he’s at practice or an event just to get him all flustered

• says he’s gonna punish you which just makes you laugh

• not the best dirty talker but he tries his best </3

• you just find everything he says too cute

• at the end of the day just wants to make you feel good

• you’re his biggest relief and happiness

jung jaehyun

• this motherfucker

• acts hard but gets nervous around people he likes

• esp you

• took him MONTHS to work up the courage to finally ask you out

• to which you replied “god i thought you’d never ask”

• huge cuddler

• always the big spoon unless he falls asleep first

• then you just like to hold him until you fall asleep as well

• sings you to sleep sometimes

• tries to talk mostly in english with you to brush up on his skills

• picnic dates!!!!! coffee shop dates!!!!!! netflix dates!!!!!!

• total cliche in the best way possible

• taking pictures of you alone or the both of you has become his new hobby

• as well as writing songs about you (but he doesn’t tell you that)

• still gets butterflies when he sees you

• pecks on the cheek when you’re busy doing something

• holding your waist while you cook

• makes weird ass faces at you randomly to make you laugh

• anyways the ~nsfw~

• walks around in just joggers when he’s horny in hopes you’ll see his body and won’t be able to resist

• and let’s face it how can you when he looks like THAT

• gentle and sweet at first for sure. calls it making love instead of fucking

• but DEFINITELY fucks you like a whore when you ask him to be rougher with you

• enjoys watching you squirm when he gives you head

• which you understand because the way he ruts his hips and has a hard time sitting still when you suck his dick gets you fucking GOING

• cums on your face then helps you wipe it off after

• treats you like a fucking prince/ss

[wank127]

denki hc dump ! <3

he speaks 8 languages (english, japanese, french, german, mandarin, spanish, korean and russian) and knows jsl, bsl and asl(sign language)

he uses his (sign)language skills to gossip to present mic during english

he stress bakes 100%

noone knows he can bake/cook well though so they all assume it’s sato, and since he bakes so much he doesn’t realize that it was someone else who made them

he learns everyone’s favorite treats and/or treats from their childhood that they mentioned. he just leaves it out for them to find like a weird tooth fairy

has freckles and curly hair

you can fight me on this. he does

learns everyone’s favorite songs on the guitar

mamma mia enthusiast <3

his favorite monster is either monarch, pipeline punch or ultra violet. he wants it to be the ultra yellow one but it sucks ass

i have so many different hc’s of his family but i’m gonna go with this for now,

he has 7 siblings (older: brother, sister. younger: twin sisters, brother and baby sister)

he lives with his parents, grandparents and younger siblings

his older ones moved out so he’s in charge of taking care of the younger ones and his grandparents when his parents are at work

vvv good with kids and he loves his siblings to death (can’t help but laugh when one of them falls over though)

has adhd but only finds out in his second year after breaking down to present mic after an exam

after he gets diagnosed and gets all the help n shit he moves up to 5th in class

he’s bisexual 150% (HAPPY PRIDE MONTH !!)

he needs a lot of electrolytes cause if his quirk so,,, energy drinks all day everyday

his sneezes are either really small, quiet ones or they’re full on screams

he doesn’t know which one it’ll be till it happens

(scared the shit outta all might one time)

loves bo burnham (or he is bo burnham 👀)

(go watch inside if you haven’t already ! it’s an absolute masterpiece !!!)

can ! sing !

he has a really good singing voice, only reason no one knows is cause he didn’t want to take jirou s spotlight away at the festival (not even a wee bit, he wanted her to have her moment so bad)

has lichtenberg scars, especially on his torso, back and arms

has his ears pierced, doesn’t remember getting them done, but he’s got em

he ! draws !!!!

he’s amazing at art ! he ‘doodles’ in his books in class, mainly just of whoever’s teaching at that moment, something he saw, or his friends

(*turning round in his seat* “hey kacchan what do your tits look like again, i can’t get them to look right” “fuck. off.” “okay, they’ll just look weird ig”)

(there’s drawings of his ~crush(s)~ too, they get the prettiest backgrounds)

mic sees his drawings and immediately talks to nezu about an art department

he wears eyeliner

he had a pet hamster. but, as all hamster do, it died a horrific and traumatic death

he can make bird noises really well, uses the to trick koda and tokoyami

he can also do the like siri/self checkout/robot kinda voice, like really really well

makes playlists for all his friends. he has 100’s of them for himself, so much music, music makes brain go ･:*+.\(( °ω° ))/.:+

makes special ones for the person(/people) he likes, like really cutesy names, loves song sprinkled in there, that shit y’know?

he likes to read.

he likes to read old english literature(wow original), he has this huge collection of books(old and new)

he discusses them with mic at lunch in a sort of book club, lots of fun

he will not, however, read anything school related. that’s stuff is boring and it does not make his brain happy

he loves his friends so much

he really loves them

(as much as i love found family tropes)

throws the best sleepovers, snack, forts, movies, you name it, he’s got it

(i’m ending this here lol)

<3

[yoshkeii]

𝟹𝚛𝚍 𝚆𝚒𝚜𝚑 | 𝟹𝟻𝟶+ 𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚗𝚝

࿐ character: Nobuyuki Kai, Tsukishima Kei, Shouhei Fukunaga 

࿐ prompt: 3) “You keep staring at me.” 7) “You’re safe now. Breathe.” 9) "Please never do that again."

࿐ type: imagine

࿐ requested by: anon for my 350+ event.

⌦ male!reader (he/him)

⌦ tw: panic attack (on Kai’s part.)

⌦ slightly suggestive?? on Fukunaga’s part- (its just.. thighs...)

⌦ ‘for the event, could I request an imagine with the dialogue prompts, 7, 9, and 3, with the characters Kai, Tsukishima, and Fukunaga? male pronouns‘

A/N: writing for characters i haven’t yet makes me have to use my brain to be original but its a fun process lmao- also hopefully i portrayed the panic attack for Kai’s part okay. Ive had some personally but they are really hard to explain for me. 

𝚃𝚜𝚞𝚔𝚒𝚜𝚑𝚒𝚖𝚊 / “𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚔𝚎𝚎𝚙 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚝 𝚖𝚎.”

Being the fifth 1st year on the Karasuno team, you really found it hard to fit in and communicate with the others. Adding on with not being in the main set or switched out often. During practice you mainly look different.

Often taking off some piercings you had that would make stuff difficult to play in, often just having the classic small earrings on. Your h/c hair being slightly longer than most boys, often tying it up into a half-up french twist during practice while you left it down during school hours to hide your piercings from attention.

After another rough afternoon of practice, you slumped down against a wall sighing in relief as you shut your eyes. Sweat dripping down your face, “another tough.. practice” you heaved softly to yourself. Sitting there silently you just listened to the idle chatter of the other members and the squeaking of rubber on the hard floor. Flinching at the sudden cheer of your name from Yamaguchi, you opened your eyes to see him with Tsukishima aside of him.

“Hurry up y/n! Tsuki’s gonna leave ya if you don’t!!”

“A-ah shit! M-my bad, Tadashi-” 

Quickly standing up you jogged over towards the two, already having your bag in hand. “Sorry about that..” you sighed, “..today was just really tiring..”

“It’s fine! Today was pretty tough than usual” Yams replied reassuringly.

As you three left practice you walked each other home, it often went like this. You and Yams bickering about your interests and what happened throughout your day, while Tsukishima just listened. Usually butting in with a retort or a salty joke at one of you. But as the distance grew close, Yamaguchi left first home. Tsukishima second. Then leaving you to walk home alone which wasn’t very far from his house luckily. But this time... he’s walking you home first, claiming he wanted to talk a little longer with you, oddly enough to hear.

Agreeing reluctantly, you both walked down the road towards your house.

“You said you wanted to.. talk right?” You looked up at the short-haired blond, head tilting to the side. “..but you’re oddly quiet now! What’s up with that-”

“Nothing in particular idiot.” 

“Is that so Kei?” “You’re so weird sometimes yknow that”

“Same goes to you piercing-boy.”

You stuck your tongue at him, revealing a silver ball on your tongue. How- How has it not caught that sooner? Has it always been there? He just stared intently at it then you, back and forth as you continued to talk about whatever... comeback you had. Was it a comeback? Or were you just talking. He didn’t fucking know at this point. His mind clouded with whatever.. thoughts he had. Before the soft raising of your voice snapped him out of them,

“..Kei! What’s up with you- You just keep staring at me? Are you not feeling well or sumn’??” you questioned, eyes squinting at him.

“N-no.. I’m f-fine..” Tsukishima stuttered.

“Hey!! You stuttered! That’s not the Kei I know-”

“I didn’t stutter- Now shut up dumbass-”

𝙺𝚊𝚒 / “𝚈𝚘𝚞’𝚛𝚎 𝚜𝚊𝚏𝚎 𝚗𝚘𝚠. 𝙱𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚑𝚎.”

It was finals week. Having less time to relax and have fun, you were here stressing out in your room. Sitting at your desk with a laptop, notebooks, textbooks, everything. You needed to pass. You needed too, this being your last year at Nekoma made it your last stretch.

Letting out a deep sigh as you slammed your head on your desk, the books and paper lightly cushioning the harsh contact. You were so stressed. Overwhelmed. The stabbing thoughts of being a disappointment stabbed your mind, heart, and even soul. You were scared of it. Deciding to get some fresh air, you got up and started to leave your room. As each step was taken, your legs felt like jello. Not solid. Worrying yourself, you grabbed the doorway as you swung the door open. Standing there for moment, everything felt weird... You felt weird.

You didn’t know what was happening. Your mind was too hazy. Clustered with confusing thoughts. 

Collapsing onto the floor, your knees roughly meeting the hardwood floor possibly bruising them. Struggling to regain your breaths from the hyperventilation, you had no luck. Grasping at your shirt for closure. You just kneeled on the floor.

Not noticing the front door opening from down the hall, the sudden bag drop. And the surprising warmth of Kai’s hands met yours and your face. Hot tears dripping down your face as your body continuously changed from hot to cold. Not being able to understand the words slipping out of the vice-captain’s mouth, he quickly took note and engulfed your body into his. Arms securing comfort around your back as he started to massage your scalp.

Releasing your trembling hands from your shirt, you slowly grasped your boyfriend’s jersey. Chin resting on his shoulder as he whispered reassurances and comfort to you, the tears dripping down your face didn’t stop. But you had shortly stop hyperventilating, having uneasy shaky breaths still. Hearing the particular words slip past Kai’s lips, 

“You’re safe now. Breathe. Baby please...”

𝙵𝚞𝚔𝚞𝚗𝚊𝚐𝚊 / “𝙿𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎 𝚗𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚍𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚊𝚐𝚊𝚒𝚗.”

Having Fukunaga as a boyfriend is really really nice- His personality and yours meshing well together, his presence is really comforting oddly enough. Even if its just him and you sitting in silence together in your shared space or him spitting out jokes he thinks out of the top of his head in any moment- It never fails to make you laugh or feel uncomfortable, and that means the world to him.

But as of now, your flustered expression only made the short-haired male look up at his boyfriend with a dorky expression... inbetween his lover’s thighs. His cheeks slightly squished as he lightly pushed your thighs with his hands that were on the sides. The silly grin on his face only made your face flushed up more, never really thinking Fukunaga would be.. kinda a thigh man.

You were just insecure about them. But he proved you wrong in the most adorable way. His dorky face being squished lightly inbetween them as he giggled softly are your expression.

“My lil’prince is flustered~” he cooed, placing a soft kiss on your inner thigh, earning a squeak from you.

Fukunaga gazed up at you, his eyes glittering at the cute noise you let out. He kissed you again in the same area, retrieving the same noise but with a few more words.

“S-shou! Stop that!! Y-you I’m pretty ticklish babe-” You angrily muttered, your rosy face making you look soft more than angry.

Without a reply coming from him, he did it again. 

“I s-swear to g o d, S-Shouhei..!! Please never.. do that again..” you muttered, the deepened color of flush on your face signaled it was a lie.

“..not even in be-” before Fukunaga could finish his snarky reply, you shoved a pillow on his face.

“SHOUHEI NO-”

[xpeachesncream]

Hey Nikki! Could you do a perfectly wrong drabble of reader thinking she is pregnant? thank you <3

perfectly wrong | drabble [10]: why are there multiple kinds of pregnancy tests for Taehyung to decide between?

word count: 1.9k

warnings: cussing, implied sexual content, pregnancy scare (use protection and use protection well, folks!)

note: this ended up being a little longer than i thought lol sorry! hope you enjoy still. i also just whipped this up before going to bed so this is pretty raw - excuse any mistakes pls. love me still 🥺

"Fuck!" You yelled as you ran to the bathroom as a huge wave of nausea hit you yet once again this morning. You were abruptly woken up early in the morning due to the feeling, not getting much rest after the first time you hurled last night's dinner into the toilet bowl. Taehyung had just walked into your apartment, mouth slightly open as he furrowed his brows watching you run off to the bathroom.

"Baby, what's wrong?" He says, swinging the bathroom door open as you dry-heaved into the bowl, curse words trailing shortly after. He crouches to your level, rubbing your back and holding your hair out of the way.

"I don't know, I just woke up feeling--" He watched as you threw your head back into the toilet bowl, a little bit of the water you had taken down earlier coming back up. "Really shitty." You continue after you spit.

"Shit, did you eat anything bad yesterday?"

"I don't think so? Nothing seemed suspicious." You pointed at him weakly. "And you look perfectly dandy being that we ate at the same places." You rested your back against the wall, eyeing how god-like your boyfriend looked.

"I'm sorry, love." He pouted. "You okay to get up now? Let's get you in bed and I can run out to grab whatever you need me to grab." You sat there, pondering on your thoughts for a second. The food you ate last night didn't seem bad, but also you never know. However, you were starting to freak out mainly because of the countless, amazing, 'let me rearrange your guts' type of sex you've been having with your boyfriend. That thought always has to be taken into consideration.

"What's the date today?" Taehyung quickly whips out his phone to check the date on his lockscreen.

"The 20th. Why?" Your eyes widened. You were supposed to get your period 5 days ago. Albeit, you've always been on a weird, irregular schedule ever since you were younger. Getting on birth control somewhat helped regulate that, but lately it hadn't been wonky. You usually got it on the 15th. "Why, baby?" His eyes started to widen.

"I'm late, Tae. I should've gotten my period 5 days ago."

"Okay, let's not panic. We can't assume just yet, right?" He begins to slightly freak out, but he's doing his best to keep his emotions in check. He was worried as hell now, not only because you were hurting but because this?

Lord, please. If you get me out of this one, I won't slap Y/N's ass ever again.

Don't get him wrong, he really wanted to be a father. He had always dreamed of having a good sized family with the love of his life. But right at this moment? He wasn't ready. You weren't ready. You both were just trying to survive school and that was already work on its own.

"Right." You say, but you're fucking screaming internally. Jesus fucking christ?!

"Let's get you in bed. I'll grab you some gatorade and soup while you get some more rest." He says, helping you up. You loved his cologne and taking in his scent, but today you couldn't deal. You sat on the edge of your bed, immediately grabbing the trash can next to your night stand and puked a little bit more acid.

"God, I'm so tired. Let this be ooooover." You whined as Tae tucked you into your sheets and wiped your face clean with a warm, wet towel. He folded it in half, placing the towel onto your forehead to help regulate your temperature as much as possible.

"I'm so sorry, babygirl. I hate seeing you like this." He kisses you on the cheek. "Don't drink water just yet, it doesn't seem like you can keep it down. I'll come back right away, okay? Try to get some sleep."

"Can you grab a test?" He swallows the lump in his throat.

"Yeah, of course." He smiles toothlessly, watching as your eyes slowly droop and shut close, the exhaustion from all this effort hitting you out of nowhere. Tae was worried sick, and he honestly wished he could snap his fingers so that the things you need would just appear and he wouldn't have to leave you alone.

He gets to the closest convenience store that would have everything you needed in one place. He grabs you a few bottles of gatorade, making sure to grab you the blue Glacier Freeze bottles because he remembers you saying that's the only flavor you grew up drinking. He grabs a couple of ingredients to whip you up some chicken noodle soup later once you're able to tolerate the gatorade at the very least. He also grabs a few unnecessary things like snacks for you both [mainly him cause it's based off of his own cravings right now] and then makes his way over to the aisle that has the condoms and pregnancy tests.

Tests?

Multiple kinds?

How the fuck is he supposed to know? Does one differ by the other much? They all look like the same fucking stick. They all look like that game of pick up sticks.

His eyes go from one box to another, mouth slightly hanging from how overwhelmed he is right now. This one says 6 days sooner, but the other box has two sticks for the price of one? He's assuming that's a nice safety blanket to have an extra stick confirm your results. But there's also one box with two sticks AND the 6 days sooner message.

Then a box with 4 sticks?

"Hooooly mother of pearl, fuck it." He says, grabbing the one with 4 sticks and the 6 day message. That's the gold for him. It makes him feel a little better knowing he could look at all 4 sticks. Does Y/N even have enough pee for this? He's about to make his way out of the aisle when he passes the condoms and lube.

Heh, no lube cause I make my girl hella wet already.

But condoms? After today, he was highly thinking about it. But lord knows how much he'd hate to have to wrap it up like that. Condoms are for sure your friends, but that raw feeling when he's inside the girl he truly loves - Exquisite. Chef’s kiss. Absolutely irreplaceable.

He eyes the boxes one more time before a little elderly lady walks past him in the aisle. She looks at him, smiles, then looks at the condoms before looking down at his basket with the pregnancy tests.

"A little late for that, don't you think?" She chuckles as she jokes to herself.

Well, damn? Like that??

He purses his lips into a fine line before rushing out of the aisle and making his way to the self-checkout lanes. He quickly checks out, not realizing he had gotten a little distracted from his own thoughts.

Getting back to your place, he notices you're still sound asleep. He takes your trash out and dumps it down the trash slot outside of your door. He cleans up a little in your living room, folding your blankets neatly and lighting your favorite candle. He washes the dishes left in your sink as he waits for the stove to heat up. He starts to whip up that chicken noodle soup for you so it would be ready.

Once he's done, he grabs a bottle of gatorade and sits on the edge of your bed, gently brushing the hair out of your face.

"Here baby, drink some." He says, handing you the opened bottle. You stir in your position, sitting upright in order to get some of the gatorade into your system. You hope you can keep it down and make some progress. "I got you the tests." He shows you the box with 4 sticks.

"Damn, babe. Four sticks?" He clicks his teeth and points a finger gun at you.

"The more the merrier, amirite?"

"I should probably do those now." You take your time standing up with Tae right beside you, making sure you don't get dizzy or lose your balance. In the bathroom, you stand and stare at the box for a little, reality kind of settling in for you. This is actually happening right now.

"Hey, whatever happens, I'll be right here, okay? We'll figure this out." He reassures you, giving a kiss on the side of your head as you silently nod and open the box. You sit on the toilet, Tae helping you swap out the sticks until you no longer need to pee. He sets the aside the sink carefully, putting on a timer on his phone.

"Fuck. I can't just sit here and watch." You dig your head into your hands.

"I almost bought condoms." He chuckles, trying to brighten the mood.

"Taehyung and condoms? No way. My boyfriend would never."

"I would if absolutely necessary - and by absolutely necessary, I mean like today o’clock." You shoot him a look, the statement only heightening your anxiety. "But! I didn't, okay! We'll be fine, we can't assume."

"You're pulling out next time."

"I mean if you let me bust my load on your—"

"No, you're gonna cum in your own fucking hands after today." You furrow your eyebrows angrily.

"Baby." He laughs. "That's no fun."

"Taehyung, we're sitting in my bathroom waiting for four pregnancy tests to show their results!" His timer goes off and suddenly you feel sick again.

"I guess we'll find out if I'm daddy in a few minutes." You smack him on the chest.

"Don't ever."

"Please, ladies first." He nods towards the sticks.

"You!"

"Why me?"

"It's your sperm that did this!"

"Woah m'lady, it takes two to tango!"

"Pick up the goddamn sticks." He clicks his teeth.

"Fuck, fine!" He picks up the stick. "Oh my god, baby." He says, gasping with his mouth agape.

That's it. You're gonna fucking cry. Everything is turning into white noise. Yes, you wanted a family but all of this shit was happening so quickly you couldn't even—

"You're not pregnant." He says in the same dramatic tone.

"I'm going to fight you!" You shriek at him, grabbing the sticks to double check. You see one single line across all four sticks, causing you to breathe a sigh of relief. You start to cry a little, causing Taehyung to laugh and pull you into a hug. He knows how stressed you just were and he knows this moment alone must have taken a lot out of you. He can't help but wanna cuddle you in his arms for the rest of the day.

"Oh never again, love."

"Don’t get me wrong. I wanna have your babies but I’m not ready to right now."

"I fully agree, 100%."

"I'll call my doctor tomorrow just to make sure we're in the clear." He nods.

"Feeling a little better?" You shake your head.

"Honestly, I still feel like shit."

"Go sit in bed, I'll bring the bowl of soup to you." He kisses you on the nose. "I love you."

"I love you, too." And that's what you do - sit in bed while your man brings your bowl of soup that he delicately prepared over so you can get something in your system. Luckily, you were able to hold both that and the gatorade down and that's what your diet consisted of for the rest of the day.

The good ol' doc says it's nothing but a dumb stomach bug and that your birth control is just playing mind games with you, showing you the results to confirm the negative pregnancy test. He demands you take it easy and get lots of love in the mean time until you fully recover from whatever thing you ate that day that wasn't prepared carefully.

You live and you learn. Life is all about that, right?

"Never again, Tae."

"We don't mean that." He whines as he chases after you walking towards the car.

"You try being in my shoes during a pregnancy scare then!"

[mvrkgeoli]

GHOSTING

pairing: ghost!yuta x reader genre: kinda 50s - 60s au for yuta, ghost au, angst, some fluff, kinda mature..? word count: 5.3k warnings: a handful of satanic themes, mentions of death / killing, bittersweet ending i’m sorry author’s note: lowercase intended. this is my first kinda lengthy fic and um yea i hope u like c:

settling into a new place where you weren't familiar with sure was draining, especially when you barely knew anyone around along with a long drive that separated you from your already long time friends. you had to move to alleviate the time it took to travel to the university you recently got into. renting a flat for yourself to live alone was the first "adult achievement" you had overcome, as how your mother would word it out. what definitely stunned you was how cheap the place was, for a whole flat you thought it would have cost you a few more hundreds at least.

from what you heard from the small old building's landlord, not entirely in detail, the flat was apparently owned by multiple in the past. you didn't mind it at all, you couldn't let such a price go for a student like yourself already struggling, happy with the fact that it was somewhat already furnished, furniture sitting dusted probably by the time that had passed from the last owner. some things stayed from all the years the building went through, mainly only the furniture and appliances being changed through the years. mentally reminding yourself to thank your bestfriend doyoung for helping you find places with affordable prices after you finish settling in the last of your belongings.

a few weeks had passed, finding yourself in a comfortable position in your bed along with stress clouding your mind from all the requirements already building up in the first semester. not to mention all the weird happenings that had been going on, you didn't know if you were just tired or already gone crazy.

the first time something happened was the day after you settled in the flat. the blinds in your room shut by itself just when you were going to bed, it had reminded you to close them before you drifted off into your deep slumber to shut off any peeping toms, you paid no mind to it thinking it was meant to be and nudged you as your first blunder.

the most recent one was by far the creepiest. the feeling of breathing against your ear sent shivers down your spine, sitting up from your bed abruptly, breaking you off from your little nap. the past ones had always been short hasty movements from the furniture or your belongings, sure they alarmed and spooked you but in contrast to the breathing occurrence, it was slow and calm, it felt so close. it continued for as long as it could until your wake that night, the feeling savored in your head for the rest of the day.

which leads you to today, texting doyoung if he knew anything about the unit before he suggested it to you. watching the small bubbles bobbing in your screen as you waited for his response, a short message making its way into your sight after a few moments.

dodoie | today at 6:23 not that i know of?? all i know is someone living there before but you already knew that :0

you sent him a brief thank you before shifting to your laptop to look for answers yourself, only thinking about it now after the breathing incident. first looking up the address, only the map and pictures of the neighboring buildings coming up.

after some time, you sighed to yourself, searching the last thing you wanted to if any incidents had happened in the building. woefully, an old article from a newspaper front decades ago popped up. the title reading, “nakamoto yuta, found dead in apartment…” a picture of the boy was attached, he had black slightly grown out hair, his smile was so pure you found yourself with a growing frown on your face.

what came next however, was a wave of shock running through your body at the discovery, quickly opening a new tab to search for the said name.

“local student uncovered to be a satanist—“ you trailed off, rubbing the palms of your hands against your face in stress.

clicking on another link to a 4chan discussion about the recent discovery, you saw a bulletin about the boy and some photos of the very unit you were in. he was apparently a sweet boy from what the neighboring people said. a boy who had a bright fresh smile that could lighten up any mood, it was unexpected for him to be revealed as such a person.

there was a picture of a girl next to yuta named kaiju, said to be the boy’s lovely girlfriend. the two lived together and were seen as the perfect couple.

after hours of scrolling through the page, you found a small recording of an old interview of the girl crying. “i-it was tragic… he was the perfect man— i thought he was the perfect man..” she sobbed. you frowned at your screen, eyes widening when a clip of the apartment rolled. it showed the floorboards under their refrigerator being opened to reveal different notes and certain objects that were said to be used for satanism.

you sat up to run to the kitchen, bringing your laptop with you. you compared the clip to the room in front of you. a cabinet sat where the fridge you saw was in the clip, you sighed to yourself before setting down your laptop to pull the cabinet aside.

nose scrunching in distaste as below you unveiled dust and dead bugs, taking the first utensil you could reach, in this case; a fork. you pried on the wood beneath you, pulling your shirt up to cover your nose from the dust that spread from your tampering. the wood popped open with a loud thump, you peeked inside to face dark emptiness. there sat cobwebs and dust for who knows how long, your eyebrows furrowed as the thought of the government probably collecting everything that had concerned the incident.

just when you were going to put back the floorboards, a noise rattled into your ears. you flinched back at the sound before taking into consideration to shine your phone’s flashlight at the darkness it held. there you saw the emptiness clearer. before you gave up, you saw one of the sides with little scratches and indents in the corner.

taking the fork again, you attempted to pry another piece of wood open, unfortunately failing when the prongs of the fork bent along with the burn of your fingers from using all your strength trying to open the side.

“almost...”

the voice seemed so close to you, letting out a yelp as you snapped your head towards the voice’s direction to face the empty kitchen. your breaths were heavy, heart beating at a pace you think it hasn’t been in before, your figure trembling as you hurry to unlock your phone to send all the articles you had found about this “yuta” to doyoung.

you slept by the unit’s entrance door that night in case you had to escape in a hurry.

you woke up to knocking on your door, groggily getting up from the floor to stretching briefly.

“hold on..!” you stood up and checked the little peep hole to reveal your bestfriend along with another boy.

opening the door immediately to face the pair staring back at you with questioning faces.

“jesus, did you sleep under a couch or something?” the unannounced boy spoke up. doyoung nudging him with his elbow in response, turning back to you with a small smile.

“sorry about him, this is donghy—“ “haechan.” doyoung rolled his eyes as he was cut off before continuing, “‘haechan’ right- this is one of my distant cousins haechan, i don’t think we have the money to hire a professional to check the place out but haechan here used to be in a ‘paranormal investigations club.’ and offered to help because he found you cute— ow!” an eyebrow raised at doyoung’s words as you watched the exchange between the boys. “anyways i called you and sent you messages hours ago, i thought something happened.”

you picked up your phone from the floor, the screen lighting up with multiple notifications. “oh.. sorry, i guess i was a heavy sleeper last night- wait you went all the way here!?” your eyes widened at the sudden realization, embracing the taller boy in your arms before inviting the pair inside straight away.

“holy shit the guy was into satanism?” haechan read in shock, his thumb scrolling through one of the articles you had sent doyoung. “you’re only reading it now?” doyoung scoffed at the boy as he shook his head, sitting himself right next to you on the couch.

“w..well yeah, i thought it wouldn’t be too big of a problem…” the boy rubbed on the nape of his neck in humiliation, to which your bestfriend responded with a low sigh. “i didn’t drive us an hour for you to end up useless, hyuck.” “—haechan!” doyoung only rolled his eyes at the other.

“and i’m not completely useless! one of the club members, chenle, used to say that ghosts usually only have unfinished business if they stay behind in this world. maybe we can confront this ‘yuta’ politely or make a deal with him-“ you raised a brow towards haechan rubbing the space between your brows in distress. “are you seriously telling me to make a deal? with a satanist? you’re basically making me make a deal with the devil, literally!”

haechan put his hands up in defense, eyes widening at your small burst. “okay, okay! what i’m saying is, if chenle was right about ghosts having unfinished business, maybe you can help ‘yuta’ to finish! if he was wrong, you can try getting a deal or something to leave you alone i guess.”

you sighed in defeat, this chenle guy could be right, but you would still take risk on having a deal with this guy. “so… how ‘bout it?” haechan shrugged as his eyebrows arched in proposition, to which you rolled your eyes. “okay kid, but how am i gonna summon him?”

“take this just in case.” haechan handed you a small bag, ‘iodized salt’ it read. you only nodded and casted him a quick thank you before he proceeded to enter the elder’s car first, giving doyoung another longing hug as he nagged on if you needed any more help. “sorry about donghyuck again, call me if anything serious happens. i’m also at fault here kinda ‘cause i suggested this place to you with no research.”

“what’s with ‘haechan’ anyway? and it’s fine, it was my fault i only looked at the price before deciding.” doyoung laughed and glanced over to the boy sitting in the passenger seat before turning back to face you. “he said it was a cool ‘code name’, he didn’t want any ghosts to know his name. anyway, seriously if worst comes to worst, it may cost more money but i’ll try helping with looking for another place.” you snickered softly before thanking him again.

and so, you were left alone again, waving goodbye to the car drifting off your sight. sighing to yourself as you went back into the building, sitting on the couch to research more about summoning dead people safely if that was even possible.

several hours had passed from reading about ghosts and looking for the right supplies, you just got back from a close bookstore to buy three new tall candles for summoning the little friend that had been haunting you, planning on doing it at midnight just like the “easy tutorial” donghyuck made doyoung send you.

later, moving to your bathroom hastily wanting to just get it over with, bringing the candles, a marker, along with the bag of salt donghyuck had given you. hunching over the bathtub to draw a decent sized summoning circle. placing the lengthened candles to three points of the summoning circle, you filled up the tub with at least an inch of water before lighting them.

you switched off the lights, closing the door before kneeling down behind the bathtub. taking a deep breath as you closed your eyes in advance of doing a cheesy chant along with saying the perpetrator’s name three times just like what donghyuck’s tutorial said.

“... nakamoto yuta,” the first holler of his name was said, already feeling stupid for using such a cliché way of summoning. “nakamoto yuta,” in an instant, your lips quivered when you felt your surroundings turn darker. “nakamoto..” the room felt colder, your ears ringing from how quiet the ambience had shifted. your breathing trembled as you finished the chant. “.. yuta.”

“so you did have the guts.”

your eyes crack open at the voice, only to face total darkness. the candles, from what you assume, blew over which meant something must have definitely happened. jumping back in a hurry as you rushed to turn on the lights, your breaths turned shorter as your eyes met with a dark haired man standing in the bathtub, right on top of the summoning circle you drew. your immediate reaction was ripping open the bag donghyuck gave and shoving it at the man as you recoiled your arms to cover your head in a corner.

a distant grunt echoed around the bathroom, followed by water sloshing around and dripping footsteps nearing your shaking figure. tears pricked your eyes as you felt the clear presence of the man get closer.

“this is table salt.”

thanks a lot, donghyuck.

your eyes creak open slightly, eyes meeting once again with the dark haired man. head still in your arms as you refused to lift your head for him, you spoke with a shaky voice. “yu.. yuta…?” your eyes were glued to the tiles of the floor, a peek of the man’s wet shoes making its way to your vision.

“that’s me— oh god, i don’t look like what i looked like when i died right??” your ears perked at the tone of his voice, eyebrows furrowing at the question. ‘oh god’? wasn’t he on the devil’s side? why was that his first question? why did he sound so soft? hearing the soft clacking of the soles of his shoes walking away, you lift your head to see the rear side of the man attempting to inspect himself and shake off the salt you threw at him.

“y-you’re a lot uh.. a lot less intimidating than i thought…” you spoke up, yuta turned to look at you with his big eyes before walking back to crouch down your eye level. “am i really?” you cowered back, his voice cutting you off before you could open your mouth. “i’m kidding, sorry..”

your fingertips reached out to feel his forearm in curiosity, lips pursing when it made contact to yuta’s arm. it felt real, the way your fingers would bounce back when pushed on the boy’s flesh. “you seem.. so normal- almost too normal…” his eyes trailed down to follow your finger’s movements, blinking to himself before speaking up. “i am normal- or i guess was… i won’t hurt you, don't worry.”

your eyebrows arched, skeptical of the man in front of you. eyes traveling down to let yourself think; in retrospect, for all of the things that have been happening, you will admit that none of them had hurt you in any way. your head tilted back up, still hesitant about everything and anything at that moment.

“okay, let’s- let’s have a small nice and calm talk—“

you sat across the ghost in the dining area in silence, your face buried in your clammy hands as you still couldn’t process everything. he sat stiff in front of you, blinking to himself as you both seemed like waiting for something to happen.

“it’s not true, y’know.” he broke the ice and attempted to make the first move to talk, he watched as your head tipped up at his voice, finally drinking in your features when you fixed your posture and pushed back the hair that got in the way of your face. “— the articles you read- i mean..”

you stared at the man in front of you dubiously. if he knew about the articles you’ve seen, how much of you did he see, you thought to yourself suddenly. blinking several times before thinking of a response. “the what?”

“the things you saw about me. they weren’t true.” his eyes trailed down to stare blankly at the center of the table as his fingers fiddled with the table’s ridges. you only raised a brow at the man, eyes following his movements.

“uh huh, okay..” you found yourself just nodding and humming to his words trying to talk you into him being good, you couldn’t trust someone that easily, even more so when it was a ghost who was known to be supporting the devil itself. “how am i supposed to believe a satanis—“ he looked at you with his wide eyes at this, palms laying flat against the table. “i’m not, i swear.. i haven’t done anything bad right?” listening to the man before you speaking softly shifting tone as he continued, almost as if he was scolding himself rather. “i didn’t hurt you? i didn’t hurt anyone who’s lived here before you! i didn’t hurt kaiju either!”

your eyes widened at the name, his past lover. staring closely at the man’s face, you almost see tears welling up in his eyes. choosing to silence yourself after the outburst not wanting to madden the boy in front of you more, you thought of anything calm to respond with.

you avert your gaze to the side as you saw the man stand up to walk away, listening to the soft footsteps he left behind him. lips pursing as you tried to think of anything to calm the mood.

“here.” you heard his voice ring from the kitchen area. looking up from your spaced out gaze to find yuta standing with his arms crossed by the cabinet you had previously moved. you stood up from your seat to walk to the kitchen in silence, making few steps to get beside the boy.

“open it again.” you only nodded, still feeling the awkwardness lingering in the air. you moved the cabinet aside once more, grabbing another fork from the kitchen drawer to pry open the floorboards. sitting on your knees as you face the empty compartment, eyes trained on the blemished side of the hollow cavity. you stared up at yuta only to face a blank look on his face insinuating for you to continue.

“i already tried…” you put the fork down to slouch. “i know, now try again.” he persisted, you only took a breath in before attempting to open another hidden compartment within the one already opened.

after several forks bent, a few dulled knives, the annoying thumping of a hammer ringing in your ears and your hands stinging with burns from the pressure forced onto them, you successfully pried open what seemed like the most superglued pieces of wood together to reveal an old looking shoebox. pulling it out before sitting comfortably to uncrate the box.

yuta crouched down beside you as you uncovered the shoebox. revealing a tattered pouch, something wrapped with worn down linen and some papers with characters you couldn’t read, opening the pouch with interest and dumping the contents onto the shoebox’s lid to exhibit different kinds of pendants and even some small lockets.

moving onto the linen wrapped item, you handled it with frail fingers, it weighed down your hands slightly making you more curious. it unraveled a small dagger.

you wince at the sight and dropped the dagger abruptly, the loud clang of the blade as it ground rang for what seemed like forever. it was covered with maroon. forcing yourself to think that it was just rust and not what you thought it was, you turned to yuta with your shaky eyes.

“she took one thing from people she had targeted after she was finished.” he said mindlessly, reaching forward to fiddle with the trinkets spilled from the pouch. you however, sat back to process the new discovery.

‘she’? you thought to yourself. kaiju? was it her? you blinked to yourself and tried to piece things together. the clip of kaiju sobbing appeared in your head. not once did she talk about the insights of their relationship when it was about ‘yuta’s satanism’. she even knew where the compartment was located after yuta’s death claiming he had left it open. burying your head into your dusted hands. yuta was haunting the unit not because he was bad.

he just wanted to be found.

you knew something felt off when you saw her smile whenever the public pitied her for the loss of her ‘lover’.

the thought of yuta staying for years being painted and seen as a bad person by the public made a frown quickly grow on your face, you fixated your eyes on the man beside you as he absentmindedly toyed with the small belongings of other people. the other people. did they stay behind and want to be found too? you thought.

“i’m so sorry…” you finally spoke words, yuta nodded and stood from the ground. “you summoned me to get rid of me right? sorry to break it to you but i was left here as a spirit beca—“ you took a sharp inhale at his words, standing up to face the taller.

“i wanna help you. this guy said people like you were left here as a ghost because they have—��� yuta looked at you with uninterested eyes. “unfinished business. i know, i was there when that haechan guy came.” he sighed and looked off to the side in contempt before continuing. “y’know, i’d be happy to accept but it’s hard when even i don’t know what my ‘unfinished business’ is. it made me think after what he said sunk in… what if we don’t move on after death. we don’t even know if that’s true.. who knows, maybe i’ll stay here as a ghost forever.”

you clenched your jaw as yuta spoke, he made fair points and what ifs. it made you even more mad that kaiju got away with it, yuta was portrayed as the bad guy and they left the case at that. “i’ll tell the police about this— i.. i can change what they think about you…!” yuta only shrugged, your eyes followed after his steps as he sat back down by the table. you trailed after him, sitting next to him this time. “it’s been years. i doubt all the people who were alive back then would care or would even remember.”

a sigh spilled from your mouth as you fell into a slump next to his careless state, you went from wanting to move out of the flat to feeling like you wanted to protect yuta and the apartment he had died in. “thanks though. for putting in effort i mean- all the people before you moved out in weeks or just ran away.”

he stared at your tired figure, eyes wandering to your distended fingers. he appreciated the pain your body had went through to see him, the thought of you wanting to even help him made him realize how much he missed how nice it felt to be given a care for. yuta watched as you straighten your posture back up to face him, he felt how dissatisfied you were by the droop of your eyes.

“then let’s still try.. we don’t know if what haechan’s friend said was true, just like you said but that doesn’t mean it isn’t. we just don’t know yet, it could be true! so let’s try..!” yuta blinked at your determination, letting out a chuckle for the first time since you met him. “you seriously don’t have to put this much into helping—“

“i don’t care! i don’t think i can live on with the thought of this man rotting here when i’m living my life like it’s back to normal. just let me help you… even if it fails i’ll be glad to know that i tried my best.” you thumped a fist to the table’s surface, seeing yuta flinch at the corner of your eye.

yuta had been rotting in this hell hole for years, he had long forgotten what it felt like to be important, even being thought about made him feel like he still had purpose. he was sure that if he still had a functioning heart, it’d be beating with how warm he felt.

“okay.. let’s try.”

a few weeks had passed, both of you agreeing to act like normal as if you were roommates, though the only difference was yuta not needing to eat nor bathe or anything, in an attempt to make your new ghostly friend feel happiness. he shared that he lived a pretty decent life, although short he was happy. he had no one who seemed like they would put up a fight with him, bad things that would come across nor anything physical that was unfinished from what he could remember of his life when he was alive- other than being killed and sacrificed to satan of course.

you contacted doyoung to tell and explain what really happened, he however didn’t know how to feel about the situation. a friendly ghost being by his bestfriend’s side almost 24/7, he was happy that you didn’t get killed or possessed or anything but he was skeptical that he hasn’t seen the man himself whenever you facetimed or called. yuta on the other hand refused to show himself even if he couldn’t be seen anyway especially if haechan was with doyoung, if you were in a call, he’d simply just hang around in a different room not wanting to lift some book just to prove he was actually the one moving it.

in yuta’s perspective, he thinks that this was probably the happiest and lively he’s been in years. he had someone to talk to, hang out with after he spent all this time trying to get attention from people and being lonely. you were there to listen to all the stories he had from all the exciting things he experienced and went through, and he was there when you needed someone to rant to even about the most random and little things. even teaching him about modern technology and watching series he hadn’t watched.

yuta felt like his presence was valued. sometimes he’d forget that he was even dead when he was having fun with you. you believe that everything was working out well, you almost felt like stopping because if you were to be honest, you probably had shared some of the happiest moments as well and didn’t want anything to end.

as more days, weeks, months passed by like nothing, yuta was at his peak of happiness spending time with you and learning about how things had changed through the years.

you made an anonymous 4chan thread about the truth, you wanted justice for yuta to be seen as someone he truly was. you named yourself as someone who lives in the flat currently and acted as someone who was curious about the old building. soon a small group who theorized yuta being innocent was formed, it made you glad that even a handful of people believed that he was actually good.

yuta shortly requested if he could lay with you in bed after you got comfortable with his company, claiming that ghosts could feel sore too. you only laughed and agreed, you learned that he had his ways to charm you into his silliness.

“so what was with the breathing?” you suddenly remembered the whole reason why you summoned yuta in the first place. he shifted his head to the side to look at you, bottom lip pushing out slightly as he tried to think. “the what breathing?”

“i remember feeling someone breathing against me, it was kinda the last straw with me back then before i did research about the place and found out about you.” yuta hummed to himself as he thinks all the way back to when you were kind of new to the place, he swore he could feel his face warm up when he realized what you were talking about.

“... i was uh.. you know how i get lonely right— i mean-! i swear i was just laying in bed! i didn’t realize i was so close to you and affected you!” you smirked at the response, giggling at how he babbled on and tried to explain himself. “hmm okay, perv.”

“i— what?” yuta sat up slightly, using his elbows to support his body on the soft mattress. “i mean, you probably have already seen me naked.”

“hey! i know being a ghost is creepy but i’m not that kind of creepy… i suppose i have seen— but i swear i didn’t think anything filthy of it-!” you laughed at the man’s embarrassed face, brushing off the topic to save the man from sinking further into shyness.

“y’know, i don’t think i’d get to see ghosts the same way as i did before i met you.” you started off, yuta only stared at you with interest as you continued. “i didn’t even believe in them before this, and everyone in the world thinks ghosts are always out to kill or haunt you or something.” your eyes trailed forward to look at your ceiling, thinking of the right words to say.

“but now i know.. a lot of you probably just want closure from death, it makes me sad that most of you just rot away not doing anything, moving stuff to get our attention and stuff, no wonder some tired and lonely ones end up haunting places with bad intentions.” yuta blinked at your sudden burst of feelings in words, he couldn’t help but smile at the thought of finally being understood.

“it’s too bad that you guys are usually interpreted as bad people, when you’re just finding your way to peace.” you didn’t realize a tear slipped down the side of your face until yuta wiped it off with his cold fingers. he fully sat up to face you, following suit to the man beside you.

yuta hesitated before leaning in slowly, you closed your eyes in content. lips pressing against his cold slightly chapped ones, you felt one of his hands travel up to cup your cheek gently. yuta felt himself flood his own tears after so long. the kiss lasted a good moment, it was sweet and genuine. pulling away with slightly hooded eyes, you cupped his cheeks with both hands, leaning in once more to kiss away the man’s tears.

“it’s okay, let it all out…” you whispered tenderly, he might be decades older than you but he was still the bright young hopeful boy he once was.

the happy moment quickly converted into confusion when you saw his figure slowly turn translucent, seeing the light sourced by the room peek through him slightly. he turned back to you with a happy smile this time, his voice rung in your ears with a slightly thrilled voice. “i think i understand what my ‘unfinished business’ was.”

your eyes widened further as you thread your fingers through his soft tufts of hair. “w-what do you mean…?” you weren’t ready to let go of him yet, your eyes swelled with tears as he spoke once more.

“yuta! no.. what—!?” you watched as your hands sunk into his figure. you couldn’t feel him anymore.

“thank you for loving me back.” you stared at the man in dejection, your breaths turning shallow as your time with yuta came to an end. he was finally at peace. eyes pouring rivers at the realization that he was actually gone, if past you knew that he was gone now, you would probably be happy.

weren’t you supposed to be happy? this was your goal from the beginning, why did it feel like a part of you died along with yuta’s disappearance. you slumped in devastation. yuta didn’t want to live perfect and happy.

he just wanted to be loved genuinely.

you didn’t even get to say the words to him, it was too late when you were certain you felt these strong feelings for the man.

“i love you too.”

[talesfromlissom]

Brother Sharpens Brother

A/N: This was sent to my DM’s personally, and was requested by @katsuki-bakubae for a reader with long black hair, and green eyes. They were also the sibling of Morro, despite the fact that they were calm. They liked to sing and meditate, they also like Cole :P. It feels refreshing to write something so fluffy after being stressed out of my mind with schoolwork, so I’m sorry if some parts are ooc or not up to par. Anyways, enjoy!

Also, just a heads up. I will most likely be completely reworking my rules, so if you plan to request something read those over first. I’m not sure when I’ll come out with the new and official ones, but just be on the look out.

                                               ──•~❉+❉~•──

Your brother was dead. And you knew he was your brother, because so many things lined up when Sensei Wu told you the story of his first student. 

You were only a baby when he left, merely a child. So it was no surprise when you spotted your brother across the docks, with the same green eyes as you, the same long black hair, the same powers, though not as large as Morro’s were. 

You remembered when the realization hit you, that he was your brother, it all came crashing down at once, and the look that Cole had given you had simply made it worse. 

So here you were, quietly singing to yourself, alone, and in your room, arms hugging yourself. Mainly because Morro was now dead, and he didn’t even say goodbye, again. 

A soft knocking came to your ears. 

“Uh...I brought dinner..?” The voice said. “In case you were hungry.”

You sighed. “I’m not hungry.” You mutter. 

The door slides open anyways, and you find Cole there, the plate in his hand. 

“O-oh, uh I can-”

With that, the plate falls and shatters on the floor.

“Shit-! Uhm, I’m sorry I-”

“It's fine Cole, really.” You reply, already grabbing the broom in the corner of your tiny room to sweep up the plate and what would’ve been your dinner if you were able to stomach it. 

Cole fidgets, as his hands pass through the steak on the floor. 

You clean up the plate and food, carefully scanning the wooden floor, and finding no remains, you put the broom to the side. 

Cole looks towards the wall.

“Uh..are you...doing okay?” 

You pause, raising an eyebrow. No verbal response comes from you, but it still makes Cole stiffen.

“I-I mean, your...brother just died...uh...everyone’s on edge because of what happened to Lloyd and..well..yeah.” 

You shake your head, placing a hand on Cole’s shoulder. Or really, attempting too, as it passed through him, and Cole seems visibly upset, even though he says nothing. 

“I’m fine, Cole. Really.”

Cole looks you up and down as you walk away, you hear the door slide shut.

“Cole-”

“No, you’re not.” He says. “You’ve been meditating all day. Sensei told me so.” 

“I haven’t been meditating all day.” 

“You’ve..been in your room all day,” He fidgets again. “And I’ve seen you meditate a lot, so I figured that’s..what you were doing?” 

You shake your head softly smiling. “You really wanna know what I was doing?” 

“Sure, if it makes you comfortable.”

“I was crying.” Your smile drops. 

Cole blink. “I-Sorry, I didn’t mean to-”

“Cole, it’s fine.” You say, sitting on your knees towards your open window. “It really is.” 

A tick of silence is all it takes for an idea to pop into your head. 

“You seem nervous. You wanna meditate with me?” You ask, arching an eyebrow.

“I..don’t wanna intrude.” 

“Cole, it'stt fine, as long as you don’t make a lot of noise, obviously.” 

Cole seems hesitant for a bit, but then nods his head. “Alright.” 

You feel him take place next to you, sitting on the pillow, mainly because of how cold he felt. 

Unlike normal, when he was practically a walking heater. 

You felt calm in his presence, you always did. That’s why you offered for him to join you. 

Cole fidgets next to you. 

“Is something wrong?” You ask, cracking an eye open.

Cole nods. 

You sigh, and turn to him, now sitting criss cross. “Ah, I probably wouldn’t have been able to meditate anyways, what’s on your mind?” 

“Uh...this might be weird but...I know...uh...how it feels to have someone die.”

You blink. “Uhm...okay…”

“No! Like...well...a family member, y’know?” A pause. “My mother...she died when I was a kid, that’s why I..offered to bring you your dinner, I thought...maybe I could help you. Help you not make the same mistakes I did.” 

You raised an eyebrow. 

“Same..mistakes?”

“Yeah.”

“Like…?”

“Just..stupid stuff.”

You lean forward, eyebrow raised yet again. 

“I was angry..a lot. Hurt some people, I-I never hit them but, I did...yell a lot.” He says. “It didn’t help that my dad acted like nothing happened.” 

He places his hands on yours, and you flinch, desperately screaming at your brain to not make your entire face flush red, but sadly, it does not listen. 

You swear even the tips of your ears go red. 

“I felt so alone...like nobody cared that she was gone, that I was the only one that did,” A pause. “I don’t want you to feel like that, so..here I am.” He lets out a soft chuckle, and god even if his aurora colored eyes are dulled, you could get lost in them all day if you wanted. 

He stares at you, eyes darting left and right. “What?”

You shake your head. “Nothing...just uh...thinking.” You pause this time. “Thank you, Cole..it means alot to me.”

Cole smiles. 

You gulp. “You..mean alot to me..” 

Cole stares. “Wait..what…?” 

“Hey Cole! Jay’s about to beat your highscore, you better get in here!” Kai’s voice calls from the hallway. 

Cole gasps. “No way! That’s unfair, I can barely even hold the controller!” Cole cries, before getting up swiftly and racing out of the room.

He’s gone before you can even say goodbye.

However, he pops in again, right after he leaves.

“Uh, if you want, you can watch me kick Jay’s ass in alleyway fighter, if you want.” 

You beam, getting up and smiling. “Sure, why not.” 

“Cool! Hurry up, I don’t want Jay to finish the round!” Cole grabs your hand, as you two race down the hall. 

He has a stride in his step, and the hand holding your own looks so human like. The smile on his face is wide, just like the one before.

And you for one, hopes it stays like that. 

                                               ──•~❉+❉~•──

Rules (REWORKING!!)

Overwatch Masterlist 

Ninjago Masterlist

[sparkmender]

Here’s the first chapter of Close Encounters, the Faebug/Hive AU series I’ve been working on. I’m gonna cross post most of this stuff to Tumblr too just in an effort to keep things organized. :>

It’s Monday night—

The last Monday night before the end of the world, not that anyone knows it—

And there are two blue, pupil-less eyes the size of the headlights on her beat up VW Beetle staring at her through her bedroom window.

They blink out almost as soon as Charlie twitches. Whatever it was probably got spooked off by the fact that she jolted upright in bed and stared right back at it, compelled by— something. That feeling of being watched. The remnants of a nightmare. Whatever.

If whatever the eyes belonged to made noise as it departed, she couldn’t hear it over the buzz of the heavy fan her mom helped her drag into the big bedroom when she moved in to the old Ochoco house. It might as well not’ve been there at all.

Except for the fact that she saw it, and all the hair on the back of her neck and along her arms stood like she’d rubbed a balloon over herself to see the static electricity.

Lots of things had been a little weird since yesterday, though. Especially in the upper Northwest. It’s not exactly every day that a volcano goes off in the United States. Even if Oregon is a state away from Washington, Sunday had been stressful, to say the least. Some part of her had anticipated another explosion at some point. Guillermo had teased her for being a worry-wart and then started listing off all sorts of possibly apocalyptic events from most to least likely on his fingers. He got to ‘alien robots who disguise themselves as kitchen appliances’ before Charlie threw a shoe at him.

Under the quilt next to her, Guillermo sleeps as he always does, an arm shoved under his ridiculous stack of pillows and his long legs tangled in more than his fair share of the sheets.

Maybe it’s all in her head. Dreams were supposed to be how the brain processed stuff that happened during the day, right? So.

So she’s not crazy. It’s just her brain trying to make sense of the whole active volcano thing compounded by childhood fears and the well-ingrained camping habit of keeping an ear out for bears trying to pilfer your supplies.

Probably.

Charlie doesn’t sleep the rest of the night, or she could have sworn she hadn’t, but between this blink and the next the alarm is going off on the nightstand and Memo’s already in the kitchen, fighting with the coffee maker he can’t stand to get rid of because he bought it with his first paycheck from his magazine gig. (Who knew speculative sci-fi nerd writing not only paid, but paid well, with the right kind of publisher?) If he’d heard anything in the night, he doesn’t mention it.

After pulling her socks on but before shoveling flapjacks into her mouth, the eyes are forgotten.

If they’d ever existed at all.

————

In fact, the eyes remain forgotten all the way until her third break of the day, hanging out with two of the older rangers who’d come back to the main office after clearing out a couple of downed trees off the Crater Lake hiking trail. Samson Jr.— who usually went by ‘Spike’— was a lanky, shaggy brunet a few years older than Charlie who still got carded at every bar they went to, with a permanent sunburn across the bridge of his nose and a personality so sunny it bordered on obnoxious. On the other hand, his father, Samson Sr., was a warm, stocky man who worked construction before throwing his lot in with parks and recreation and could have been anywhere from his mid 40s to his late 60s. They’d both been there when Charlie had started as an intern in college and were probably both going to still be there if she ever decided to leave or get transferred somewhere warmer, like California, or something.

She liked the both of them. Samson was more of a family figure to her than her stepdad Ron, and he’d helped her get a permanent spot on the team. Sometimes she and Memo went out with Spike and his girlfriend Carly, and Memo and Spike had more than a few interests in common. Mainly Star Wars, but also stuff like He-Man and tabletop games and computers. Most of it went over Charlie’s head— she’d grown up a music nerd thanks to Dad and a car fanatic thanks to Uncle Hank, never much one for pulp fiction— but she and Carly enjoyed teasing the two of them for being ‘Oregon’s own X-Files department.'

So it wasn’t exactly surprising when Spike brought up his perennial fixation, Bigfoot theories, again.

“I don’t know,” he’d started, mouth full of half of a Snickers bar as he waved the other end of it around for emphasis. “I don’t know. But I don’t think that those trees just fell over for no reason. I mean, there were some aftershocks from the eruption, right? But nothing out here. It kind of looked more like some kind of impact hit them, sort of like a boulder had rolled down the hill and toppled ‘em over. But that doesn’t make any sense either, since there’s no loose rocks large enough to knock over three whole fir trees on that side of the trail. Maybe it was a Sasquatch. I bet they mark their territory by brushing up against trees like the bears do, and this one just got over-enthusiastic.”

Samson snatched the other half of the candy bar before Spike could accidentally smack Charlie with it, just to toss it back into the basket of goodies on the windowsill again.

“First of all, stop raiding the candy stash. That’s for visitors, and last I checked, you haven’t been a visitor since you were 16,” the older man scolded, but he couldn’t quite keep the amusement off his face— Spike had to have gotten his enthusiasm from somewhere. “And something tells me that if there really was a ‘sat-squash’ or whatever it is, it probably wouldn’t be hanging around where there’s regular humans coming and going all day, every day. At least if it knew what was good for it. It was just a regular tree fall, it’s been cleared, and now we’ve got more firewood for the campers.”

Though mourning the loss of his candy, Spike was quick to poke a finger in the air triumphantly at Samson.

“Okay, but how do you explain the fur clumps we found scattered there, huh? Way softer than any regular sort of wild animal.”

Charlie had been absently nodding along to their pseudo-argument, only to perk up at Spike’s outburst, dropping the pen she’d been fiddling with. And then curse herself out silently as both of the older rangers turned to her at the way she’d reacted. In the back of her head, she remembered: that split-second glimpse of those unnaturally big eyes, framed by fluff and set into a broad, flat face.

“Uh.”

Spike grinned.

“See? Charlie agrees with me—”

“She said ‘uh,’ Junior, that’s not an agreement—”

“I mean, maybe,” she blurts out before she can stop herself, heat flushing her face at the outburst, awkwardly picking up the pen she’d dropped to snap the cap over it again. “I don’t know what’s out there. You know what they tell us when we start ranger training; don’t go off the trails.”

God, it’s like Charlie can’t help herself, suddenly, as superstitious and paranoid as one of the characters Memo would write into his stories. It was all just stuff the trainers would tell them to haze the kids starting out, the sort of shit teenagers joked about or camp councilors made up to freak out their campers. None of it was actually true. But in another life, maybe, to someone more interesting or smarter or less lucky (or luckier, some stupid impulse wants to say) than Charlie—

For a moment, vivid and shining, Charlie felt some spark of pure terror in her.

The thing in her bedroom window. Was it still near her house? Was she going to come home to find Guillermo missing, or worse?

“Sure, some of it is just common sense safety guidelines, but what about the weirder ones? The rules about not climbing random staircases in the woods— don’t stop to listen to any music if you’re not near a registered campsite, like that’s ever been a thing? Or never telling someone you meet without gear on a trail what your name is? I mean, there’s got to be some kind of a reason for these things, or else we wouldn’t all have them hammered into our skulls over the course of three years,” she rambles, pulse thudding in her ears. “Nobody makes up how-tos about things for no reason.”

In the quiet pause in conversation that followed, Charlie felt the embarrassed burn on her face spread to her ears and creep down the back of her neck.

“…Or it’s an opportunistic raccoon?” she squeaks out.

“Probably a raccoon. Damn.” Spike finally relents, shoulders slumping with a dejected sigh. He really looks genuinely disappointed, soon ambling over to drape himself over Charlie’s desk in the hopes of some sympathy pats as Samson chuckles in the background about how today’s cinema is rotting everybody's brains out their ears.

————

Nobody notices the candy basket on the windowsill going missing as they head back out to do rounds of the campgrounds.

[itsbenedict]

Two-Faced Jewel: Session 7

A half-elf conwoman (and the moth tasked with keeping her out of trouble) travel the Jewel in search of, uh, whatever a fashionable accessory is pointing them at. [Campaign log]

Last time, Saelhen and Looseleaf continued their scouring of the evil torture wizard's evil torture tower for clues as to the identity of the murderer terrorizing the towns of Barley and Wheat. They found a bunch of mysterious documents of ominous character, but they've yet to check out the tower's hidden basement- and the ne'er-do-well lurking within...

The basement doesn't immediately contain any horrors, unless you're the type to get the jibblies from a messy room. There's dirty dishes (recently used), empty beer bottles from a Zeishus Brewery, and discarded clothes everywhere. It's very lived-in, and whoever lives-in here doesn't seem like they were expecting visitors.

Saelhen takes a look at the desk nearest the stairs, next to a well-used recliner and a recently-extinguished candle. She gets a nat 20 on her Investigation, and finds that the desk has been rotated to face the wall, concealing a drawer that doesn't look like it's been opened in some time, judging by the cobwebs.

What's inside is mainly more of the sort of thing they found on the sixth floor- technical notes on neurology and pain magic. With the critical success, she's able to piece together that the odd numbers on the abrasive letter found upstairs were some sort of pain measurements the letter-writer was providing to Lumiere.

They also find a less academic, more personal note, expressing frustration with his own research.

"Why would the Burnscreamer's rituals require Abyssal? Even a god like him shouldn't have any connection to the demons- what is he playing at?" "If I could just correct the sigil, I could bypass so much of this nonsense..."

Saelhen then gets a nat 1 on her Religion roll to know what that means, and assumes the Burnscreamer is the frontman for a metal band her dad likes.

As they search the rest of the room, they notice- at the bottom of the central shaft- a circular basin in the stone floor. It's stained red, but it's dry- not as much blood as you'd expect to see given the carnage on the sixth floor, so it seems like it's been recently emptied or cleaned out.

Oyobi, meanwhile, checks the locked door by the stairs, and finds it... cold? I wonder what that means vis-a-vis-

The extremely sneaky +9 Stealth person hiding braced against the walls of the central shaft fucks up right about then, and slips a little, letting out an involuntary "Gh- shit!", alerting the party to his presence.

Saelhen tries to chase after this person by parkouring off those same walls, gets a 9, and faceplants in the blood basin, leaving the issue to the party member who has wings. As the hider flees through one of the doors in the shaft, Looseleaf uses her darkvision and 24 Investigation roll to pick out the right door and give chase.

(Meanwhile, the rest of the party heads up the stairs normally- and Saelhen orders Orluthe to bust down the front door, so they can go outside and catch anyone trying to escape by rappelling down the side of the building. This turns out to be unnecessary, because when Looseleaf detected that the front door was magic and assumed it was a trap, this was incorrect.)

Benedict I. (GM): ("who knows what kind of trap could be on this magic door? better go up and through the window into the room full of traps, instead") (i was laughing so hard) (it's just an automatic door!) Looseleaf: Honestly, the people in town oversold this place. They made it sound like such a deathtrap and really it was just a bunch of spiky bots. And knives. And comfy pillows. Benedict I. (GM): Well, when they were there, there was a living evil torture wizard actively trying to take them prisoner and torture them.

Looseleaf botches her Investigation roll to search the torture lab she emerges in, but... that doesn't stop her from just checking each and every possible hiding place one by one, manually. She alights upon the correct solution swiftly- checking inside the broken remains of the iron maiden.

bBenedict I. (GM): Anyway, Looseleaf, inside the corpse of the iron maiden, you find. A rather heavy man, performing a downright heroic feat of contortionism to suspend himself inside the door without getting impaled on the spikes. Arnie: "Uh." "Can you pretend you never saw me?" Looseleaf: "That depends on what you're doing here, I guess. Who are you and what are you doing here?" Saelhen du Fishercrown: oh that is a nervous man Arnie: "No one. Nothing. I'm, uh, supposed to be like, dead, probably." "So I'm not here." "Yeah?"

Arnie Zeishus is the deadbeat husband of Cassie, the innkeeper from Barley, who fled town a while back. He explains that after fleeing his responsibilities in Barley, he tried to set up shop in Wheat running a brewery, but got in trouble flouting the brewing regulations of the Ecumene of Harmony. So after getting arrested there and breaking out of prison, he decided to sneak into the torture wizard's tower and lay low as a squatter in the guy's basement. He figured he might get caught and tortured, but it couldn't be worse than what the townspeople wanted to do to him.

Except, as luck would have it, the torture wizard was already dead when he arrived! So he's been making a home of the place with Lumiere's old animated housekeepers, using the torture wizard's fearsome reputation as a way to keep anyone from tracking him down and making him do stuff like clean up a distillery explosion or pay child support or what have you.

On the other hand, someone has been sneaking around his tower doing something sinister on the sixth floor that results in blood pouring down into the basin periodically, and he's stressed out of his mind wondering who the hell is doing that and how he's supposed to avoid getting caught and/or killed by them.

(He notes that the "KEEP SHOUTING" sign was his attempt to get intruders to at least give themselves away by making noise, after they were clearly ignoring the "KEEP OUT" sign he put up.)

Looseleaf also takes the time to ask if Arnie here knows anything about someone named Choss.

Arnie: He looks surprised. "You know Choss?" Looseleaf: "Let's say that Choss is a figure of importance in this investigation." "Anything you could tell us about how they arrived in town and what they did in town would be appreciated." Arnie: He shrugs. "Choss was there before I was- she's a real weirdo." "Knows how to party, but- gotta say, her stuff's a little too strong for me." "A crazy high at first, but it gets- whoof, intense." Looseleaf: "She's an apothecary of some kind?" Arnie: He laughs. "You could say that. She's got herself a little drug lab in town, always smells like burning. Don't know how she gets away with it- some of that stuff's gotta be illegal." Saelhen du Fishercrown: "And how old is she, approximately?" Arnie: "Eh? She's- hard to tell with lizardfolk, s'not like you can read the wrinkles..." Looseleaf: Ah, of course. Lizardfolk. Saelhen du Fishercrown: yep Arnie: "Seems youngish, though? Party girl through and through." "Just, uh, if she offers you a blend, don't take it unless you're ready to spend the next hour feelin' like fire ants are chewin' their way out of your skin." He shudders a little. Looseleaf: "Hm. Sounds painful." Arnie: "You have no idea," he laughs.

They also inquire about the locked freezer room- and why Arnie would hide out here, in dangerous torture tower, rather than just running off to a city, which is a little weird that he didn't do. Arnie claims there's just groceries in there, and no stolen wine bottles whatsoever, he certainly isn't a thief and he definitely hasn't been lying low out here because if he goes to a city some old pals from Thunderbrush might find him and want him dead, no sir! He would never ever commit a crime, ["wink wink" in hand-signed Thieves' Cant].

Saelhen du Fishercrown: "Of course. I can't imagine we have any thieves here." [Nudge nudge.] Looseleaf: "In the meantime, Mr. Zeishus, you mentioned having done something that.. makes going anywhere where you might meet someone from Thunderbrush a dangerous thing?" Arnie: He fidgets. "Uh, well..." "I, I try to leave all that behind me." "You just... don't want to get involved with the ghost dryad mafia. Just a tip."

He drops a little bit of exposition about something that may be coming up- apparently, Thunderbrush used to have these huge skyscraper-sized trees, but they got chopped down in some sort of war or raid a while back, and now the Stumps are ruled by the necromancer ghost dryads of those trees who used the last vestiges of their power to cheat death. Apparently Arnie was strongarmed into doing crimes for various ghost dryad mafiosos and made too many enemies, so he fled to Barley to shake the heat.

Looseleaf also comes to a realization regarding some hints dropped earlier in the townsfolks' tragic backstories:

Looseleaf: (actually, wait, i just realized: choss is probably chitch's daughter, the timelines there line up perfectly and maybe this whole dragonborn business is a total red herring we invented for ourselves) (what the shit, lumiere, you kidnap a guy's daughter and raise them as your own child? that's fucked.)

Looseleaf occupies this Arnie guy by interrogating him about these things, while Saelhen slips downstairs to try to pick the lock to the freezer room.

Eventually, after a bunch of failed rolls and more small talk from Looseleaf to keep Arnie occupied, Saelhen pops open the lock. Inside, she finds a fairly large and frigid room. There are meathooks hanging from the ceiling, empty. There are shelves lining the edges full of frozen food.

And to her right, there's another door- this one out of place with the rest of the construction, made of a strange stone shot through with rivulets of glowing orange. There's a symbol on a stone circle embedded in the door:

Before she checks that out, though, she checks the darkened back of the room- which contains some tubs filled with ice.

And those tubs have corpses in them, with the four-pointed wounds.

It is not especially likely that Arnie had no idea these were here, in a room he claims to use to store groceries and has the key to.

Looseleaf, meanwhile, attempts to read Arnie's spirit to determine his alignment and general intentions. His Deception beats her Insight, but what she does manage to get is...

Arnie is afraid. He is filled to bursting with terror and desperation more intense than you've ever felt from anyone before. And the fear does not seem directed at you.

Meanwhile, Saelhen tries to get that door open. What's the deal with that thing, huh? There's no handle, so... she has the bright idea of slapping her mysterious god icon bracer (the one that when previously slapped against a magic thing opened a pit to infinite bats) against it, see what happens. And I get very excited, because ohohoho, I didn't expect that, I had to think through the ramifications of doing that, and...

...then I work through those ramifications, and what I realize is that, as far as the players would know, the end result is just that the door slides open, and nothing else of note occurs.

Saelhen du Fishercrown: "Why am I even here I just wanted to help a nice little girl show up her dipshit inquisitor mom now I'm in a pain room investigating pain machines..." Looseleaf: (looseleaf warned you about getting involved in the case, she warned you dog)

There's also a bunch of weird machines, and more of Lumiere's notes, which Saelhen goes and nabs as many of as she can. Then she beats feet immediately, not wanting to spend any longer than necessary in the hell lab. The problem is, she doesn't want to leave any sign she was in there, so...

Saelhen du Fishercrown: Does tapping the exposed bit of stone with the bracer again close the secret hell door? Benedict I. (GM): Nope. Saelhen du Fishercrown: hmm. poking it with her finger? Benedict I. (GM): Ouch. Nope. Saelhen du Fishercrown: physically pulling the stone upwards while muttering "fuck fuck fuck ow ow ow"? Benedict I. (GM): Oh, hm, yeah, that would work. At first there's no effect, but as you continue to pull and the pain gets worse and worse... Roll me a Constitution save. Saelhen du Fishercrown: 16 CONSTITUTION SAVE (3) Benedict I. (GM): That'll do it! Your pain feeds the door, and, satisfied, the mouth closes. Looseleaf: How extremely concerning!

Cool!

So Saelhen goes back upstairs, the party secretly confers and exchanges information, and... something has to be done about Arnie.

His expression changes, suddenly.

Arnie: "You don't know what you're talking about." "This doesn't have to happen."

Looseleaf continues to try to offer help to this guy, inferring that he's being forced to do someone else's dirty work. She rolls a 20 on Persuasion! So... what happens following them cornering and exposing the culprit is not the rolling of initiative. Still, though...

Arnie: Arnie... backs up a step. "You're morons." "You have no idea." "You're talking like you can help me?" "That's impossible. No one can help me." "I- I'm fucking cursed, dammit!" Looseleaf: is he? i have magic sense, he is clearly not actually magically cursed, right Arnie: "What are you clowns going to do about it? Nothing!" "What are you going to do, kill a dragon?" Saelhen du Fishercrown: "You are entangled here. If Looseleaf says so, then I trust her intuition and her investigative prowess. This doesn't necessarily mean you're entangled in such a way that there is no way out for you." Saelhen shrugs. "Theoretically, the device on my arm is responsible for drowning a small city in vampiric monsters from beyond the stars. And yet there was a way out of that, and a genuine silver lining into the bargain." "I want you to understand that I am absolutely sincere when I say: There is always a way out." Arnie: "That's- there's no way! There's only one way out!" "He'll free me from the curse if I do what he says, and that's the only way!" Looseleaf: ...That is not how dragon-curses work at all. Benedict I. (GM): Not as far as you're aware, no. Doesn't seem like anyone's told Arnie.

They continue to try to convince him that there's hope, that he doesn't need to do what the dragon says, that they can help him. And Arnie just keeps pushing back, refusing to acknowledge any of it, weeping and shouting and doing whatever he can to avoid believing that he didn't have to do any of that, that there was any other way- because if there was, he'd be a monster, right?

Meanwhile, Vayen... is standing a ways away and staring at them all, as usual... but this time, he's smiling. No one here has ever seen Vayen smile before. He looks like his birthday came early. And as they're on the verge of a breakthrough...

Arnie: "Fucking- you don't think I know that?" "I know that! I know he's manipulating me!" "But what else do I do?" Vayen: "You could kill yourself," Vayen suggests. Looseleaf: "Vayen what the FUCK?" Arnie: "What the fuck- shut up, asshole!" "I'm not dying! Not here, not nowhere!" Saelhen du Fishercrown: "...Vayen, you are placing a remarkable number of ticks in the 'leave you at the side of the road' column." Vayen: Vayen shrugs. "It's the most reliable way to neutralize a dragon's curse." "It's the sensible thing to do, if you don't want to cause collateral damage."

It's as though he deliberately picked the one thing to say to ensure that this argument would keep happening, and not reach a friendly resolution. The hell is his problem?

Still, the party keeps trying to talk this guy down.

Saelhen du Fishercrown: "And -- Arnie, surely you don't think the dragon would hunt you down? Dragons don't go out of their way to punish us; they just use us to accomplish whatever it is they're planning. He'll make it someone else's problem." "I know the type. Arnie, it wouldn't care enough to hunt you down. What seems like a personal connection, like it caring about you -- if it tries that at all -- it's just an implement. It's a way of getting you to do what it wants. Go to ground effectively, and it won't bother to spare the effort." Arnie: "What are you, talking like some kinda dragonologist? The hell do you know about dragons?" Saelhen du Fishercrown: "...I am not a dragonologist, no," admits Saelhen. Looseleaf: "...Are you a dragonologist?" Arnie: "Of course it could hunt me down! Damn thing's got magic items out the ass and it flies faster than I can run!" "As soon as it saw me going somewhere it didn't tell me to, I'd get turned into a midnight snack!" "And then I go to ground, and the curse kicks in, and I end up dead or worse anyway. Sounds great." "Or, I stay here, gut a few self-righteous fucks who treated me like dirt for a while, and maybe the thing keeps its end of the bargain and lets me go!"

Yeah, that's a confession, and like, not one that makes him look great. Still, given this guy's weirdly high rolls on physical stuff, and his apparent aptitude for murdering people, they're not super sure they want to fight this guy- on top of just, not exactly wanting to fight this guy.

What are they going to do? They have to come up with a plan- and their plan has to take less than three weeks to pull off, since Arnie only has six corpses left in the bathtubs, and the dragon wants two corpses a week to prove he's still doing the job.

(And is it even worth going to all that trouble just to protect this guy from the consequences of his actions?)

Next time: a plan is hatched, and the party gets back on the road.

[voiceofreader]

Could it be for NSFW a-z with Keith please?

Hiya~! Absolutely. Keith is my boi and I love him and I had to get this done before going to sleep cause I just love him so much. It’s currently 2 am, I’m tired af, but I could make this wait. Thanks for the request! ❤❤

Keith (Kogane)  A-Z (Smut)

I’m writing pre 7th season. Castle of Lion fans, where you at?

A = Aftercare (What they’re like after): -Keith is a nice boy. He holds you against him, talking about the future, his concerns, his love for you, anything in general. He just wants you next to him.

B = Body part (They’re favorite body part as well as their partners): -Keith likes his arms. He’s a strong one. He can throw knives and swing swords around like it’s nothing. He knows his talent and strength. He knows.-Keith loves your hips. Those things drive him crazy.

C = Cum (Anything to do with cum):  -Keith cums a lot. I think it’s a Galra thing. Just a fuck load of semen all the time. -And while he likes cumming on your hip line a lot, the Galra in him needs to breed and so he comes inside quite often.

D = Dirty secret  (Dirty Secret of theirs): Your scent drives him wild. He hordes a lot of your clothes. A shirt, a hoodie, your underwear. He loves to smell them when he’s away. Your underwear helps him imagine that it’s your hand pleasure him and not in fact his own because he really misses you when he’s off doing BOM stuff.

E = Experience (How experienced are they): Keith is an awkward dude. He is a tsundere. No one show him affection or he will d i e. So of course you were his first.

F =  Favorite position (Basically says it in the title): Kinda really loves hitting it from behind. Pressing his chest up against your back as he fucking goes to town, his body slamming against your ass.

I need jesus. I just fucking thirst for Keith real bad.

G = Goofy (How serious are they? Do they prefer joking?): -He is awkward, so he’s mostly serious during this time. -But if he misses something, slips out of a hole, makes a weird noise, he is scared you’ll judge him and never want to fuck him again, and so when you laugh at his adorable worried face, he doesn’t know how to feel. -So you have to let him know you’re laughing with him not at him, and then he’ll continue on. -Jokes during the sex makes him feel you’re not being serious about it and you’re not in the mood. -But tease him and try to make him laugh. -He’s gonna be so annoyed, but the cute annoyed. Trust me, it’ll be fine.

H = Hair (Does the carpet match the drapes? Are they groomed?):  Keith goes in between untamed and nicely cut. It all depends on if he’s had any real time to groom. Besides, it all depends on your preference, if its long unruly presence bothers you, Keith will try his best to stay up with the upkeep.

I = Intimacy (How they are during the moment): Keith is in absolute awe at how great you look underneath him. -He may take a moment to voice this, or kiss you. Maybe a bite or two. -That’s also how he shows affection.

J = Jack off (Masturbation headcanon): -Keith is a jerk off king. -If you can’t keep up with his drive, his hand will have to do.- Expect every shower of his alone to have a rubbing session.-He does it also to relieve stress.

K = Kink (One of their kinks): -Biting-Scratching-Mark him up-cause he’s already made you his personal canvas. Hickies all over the place. Your neck, collar, chest, hips, back, thighs. He puts his mouth all over you. -Pull his hair too. He lives for that. -Tease him a little bit. Not too much, it’ll drive him crazy and he’ll have to take over.

L = Location (Favorite place): -Mainly any surface he can put you on. But his bed is usually where it all takes place.

M = Motivation (What turns them on): - Thigh highs. Wear them and nothing else.- Or wear something cropped so he can see your curves. - Challenge him in anyway. Talk back, make a bet with him, say the words “Make me” - While watching you in real combat scares the living shit out of him, watching you stand on your own against anyone or the training robots during practice, he’s extremely impressed and in love and he needs you desperately.

N = No (Something they won’t do): - Nothing that makes you uncomfortable.-No sharing. No threesomes, nothing. Nope. -Okay maybe Lance cause Lance got that fine ass

I just really miss Lance a lot.

O = Oral (Giving or receiving): -Keith loves receiving way more than giving. -Not like he’s hesitant in giving, because he loves making you feel good. -But your mouth does wonders to him. He can’t help how he feels. Stop having a mouth that won’t quit and maybe he’ll change his mind.

P = Pace (Are they fast or slow):-Keith is a fast boy.-Unless it’s a special occasion. Like he was gone for like ever, or one of you almost died. Or an anniversary. He’ll go slow and soft for those times. When he’s having sex more or less as extreme cuddling because he just loves you so much and needs you a lot and there’s almost no way to be closer than this.

Q = Quickie (Their opinions on quickies): -Loves them.-That’s what a lot of your sex consists of. Since your schedules are so busy, if you guys have like 20 minutes, you’re off fucking. Because when else could it be done?

R = Risk (Will they be down to experiment in risky locations): - Depends on who will catch you.- If Allura, Coran, Pidge, or Shiro catch you, then he’ll try to keep things in the bedroom, but if it’ll be Lance or Hunk, he’ll fuck you right there in the lounge in the middle of the day. He doesn’t care if those two see. I mean, he cares less. He doesn’t have a thing for people watching. Let me be specific.

S = Stamina (How many rounds can they go): -Keith doesn’t stop unless he has to. So the only reasons he’ll stop is if:- You want to stop- One of you has an unavoidable thing to be at in like 10 minutes- he’s dead

T = Toy (Do they own toys and if they do, will they use them): -He doesn’t have one, and doesn’t want to use one ever with you-But he’s fine if you have your own. Though, he’ll feel bad because he should be the one tending to your needs and if he can’t do that, he fails as a boyfriend/fiance/husband/etc

U = Unfair (How much will they tease): -Keith is a fucking dick. He will take you to the very edge and then stop. On purpose. Multiple times. He knows what he’s doing and he’s prepared for the consequences. It’s worth it considering he has you a fucking quivering mess, almost on the verge of tears, begging for him to let you cum. And he holds that power.

V = Volume (How loud are they if they even are): Keith is a moaning mess. Whines, groans, moans, the whole works. Shut him up, He’s louder than you. Everyone is trying to sleep. Let’s not wake the entire castle with your fucking porn star noises, Keith.

W = Wild card (Headcanon of choice): -Keith and Lotor don’t get along for another reason than the obvious ones.-You are Keith’s and he doesn’t want Lotor near.-Two sexually mature Galras equal trouble-It’s not that Lotor wants you, or is even flirting with you.-It’s just his goddamn presence that sets Keith off. -Galra males are very territorial. Especially over mates.

X = X-Ray (What’s going on down there): -Keith is an 7 inch boy with some good girth.

Y = Yearning (How high is their sex drive): Through the castle of lions’ roof and into another reality streamline.- okay maybe not that much but it’s quite high. - It might be due to his Galran heritage, but it also just because you do things to him.

Z = ZZZ (How quickly do they fall asleep):

Depends on the night. If he’s had a long day, he’ll drop after the last drop of semen leaves his body. If he’s had an all right day, he’ll stay up and cuddle and chat with you. Though, if he’s highly stressed, he’ll stay up the whole night if you don’t try to calm him down in time.

I am a slut for some good Keith content. Keith was the reason I even started watching Voltron. I was in love with him before I even knew what he was from.

[suicidalcatz]

DOG DAYS ARE OVER : CHAP 11

Pairing : Jake Kiszka x reader

Genre : College AU

Previous parts : Prologue ; Chapter 1 ; Chapter 2 ; Chapter 3 ; Chapter 4 ; Chapter 5 ; Chapter 6 ; Chapter 7 ; Chapter 8 ; Chapter 9 ; Chapter 10

Masterlist : here

AN : It is wednesday, my dudes! This part and the next ones are like 90% fluff, 10% angst... like bittersweet. You’re still heartbroken but try to keep your friendship with Jake, while doing all of your homework... A lot to handle. Actually I had to cut the chapter in half because it was too long (9-10 pages). I really hope you’ll like this chapter because I liked writing it! Feel free to tell me what you thought of it, send me dms or questions, and thanks for reading me x

Chapitre 11 : Would you cook for me ?

Ignoring Jake's texts or avoiding him was useless. But hanging out with him was a challenge I wasn't ready to handle, never asked for, and yet was pushed into. Pretending I didn't see him when we crossed paths in the hallways, or that I didn't receive any of his texts was petty, there was no point in doing so. I couldn't avoid him without giving him any reason, and I couldn't tell him why I needed some time far away from him either because it meant revealing the truth and 1) I wasn't ready, 2) he'd be the one avoiding me like the black plague if I did. It brought me to the conclusion that I would simply pretend nothing happened at all. Jake hadn't noticed the whole situation anyway, so to him it'd already be like everything was normal, just like it always had been between us. It was the best I could think of. For him, for Josh, for anyone. For me ? Not so much. Of course I was still heartbroken, of course it'd take me some time to get over him, and staying by his side would be like rubbing salt on a wound while demanding for it to heal. But I wouldn't risk to break our group's dynamic for selfish reasons. So I sucked that in, everything. The sadness, and painful pang of my chest every time I saw his face, while repeating myself it was for the best.

That aside, I had some other things coming. For the worst. My useless self got so into self-pity and deprecation that I had totally forgotten about homework... And my drawing teacher would be less than pleased as we were all supposed to hand her five new portraits on Monday. Realization hit me during breakfast with Josh who had slept here, when I saw Mandy pack her things and idly noticing out loud that I wasn't carrying a lot of stuff for once. This. This was the cue. But it was too late now, I thought as I walked down the halls by their side. On our way to the amphitheater we saw Jake, waiting in front of the door for the teacher to come. Other students were here too, chatting and yawning with their backs against the walls or sitting on the floor. Josh looked at me like he wasn't sure if he should greet him but the brunette was the one spotting us, gesturing us to come join him. My eyes were probably still a bit puffy but with the makeup it could pass for lack of sleep. Of course he knew Josh stayed at our place last time, I had made sure the boy texted him, and the jerk had taken this opportunity to ask his brother to bring him all his school supplies, backpack included. Unbelievable.

- Your stuff, said Jake handing Josh his bag.

- Who's the big brother again ?, I jokingly asked with a raised eyebrow.

- He's 5 minutes older, replied Jake.

- You'll never live it down !

We all chatted quietly, and I never felt more conflicted in my entire life. My heart didn't know if it should beat faster or hurt like hell, so it seemed to do both, making me feel weird just by being next to Jake. My body was in total contradiction with itself. I couldn't hold back the smile that crept across my face, but at the same time wouldn't meet Jake in the eye, disguising it by cracking joke after joke while my stress level kept rising the more time passed. My thoughts were running wild. In a few hours the drawing teacher was going to yell at me in front of the whole workshop and I couldn't handle it. I'd surely burst into tears and feel even more ashamed. I'd probably-

- Hey, you alright ?

A soft touch caressed my back and I involuntarily jerked forward, out of its grasp, before realizing and suddenly feeling bashful at my reaction. I could tell Jake was surprised by it but it lasted only a second before his face showed concern.

- Yeah, I just didn't finish my work on time... That witch is gonna murder me and ask the others students to draw a perspective of my corpse I'm sure.

I heard his chuckles before the tutor cut him off, passing by us with the keys in hand to unlock the door, separating the sea of students in half like an artsy Moses. Jake was at the other side when the crowd engulfed through the small door, letting us no choice but to keep our bodies to the walls.

- Do you wanna sit together today ?, asked Jake above the loud stomping noises.

Because of the students between us I couldn't really see his face, but was glad because it meant he couldn't see mine whitening. Josh and Mandy on the other hand were just next to me and clearly witnessed my expression change. To think that a week before I would've been on cloud nine being able to sit next to him for two whole hours... Oh how things could change fast.

We were now the three last people left outside and Jake held the door for us, continuing speaking.

- You guys are always exchanging notes, we should just, ya know ? Sit next to each other and... quietly chat.

As backup to his words, he murmured the last part in a very exaggerated fashion, in a failed attempt to make me smile. I couldn't just say no to him without looking weird because I had no reason to. Even if I knew he wouldn't push the matter, there was no way he wouldn't question it, right ? Josh came to the rescue, playfully elbowing him.

- But then where's the fun in that ? Right girls ?

Both agreeing, we rushed to our usual seats, letting a dumbfounded Jake close the door behind him. In their habitual fashion, Mandy and Josh threw paper balls at each other, while I was for once too focused on the lecture to participate in their shenanigans. I needed to get my mind to focus on something and right now Gilgamesh sounded like a good deal, so I took as many notes as possible. A task proven even more difficult because in the corner of my eye, I could see Jake staring at me.

Saying my drawing teacher killed me was a little bit of an understatement. She scared the shit out of me with her scolding. To be fair, even in a normal mood she was a scary woman. The already quiet   class went completely still and silent when she barked at me, admonishing me with charming names such as « useless », « disappointing » and the timeless « lamentable ». A classic. Truth to be told it hurt much less than I previously anticipated, mainly because I was already half dead inside, with the emotional range of a cactus, and my self-esteem nearly reaching zero. Nothing much to attack, really. Nevertheless, she demanded that I hand her all five portraits plus the five others we had to do this week by the next monday. Meaning I had ten to do in a week. It physically hurt just thinking about it, and I could hear a quiet « oof » escaping some of my classmates' mouths. It's with a huge relieved sigh that I found my bed this afternoon once school was over. This day had been a catastrophe so far, so there was no other thing I wanted to do more than put on my Pjs, put some music on, and slowly work at my desk, thinking Tuesay will be a better day.

Tuesday was not a better day. Wednesday either. All my homework slowly started piling up on my desk to the point where it was starting to be difficult to keep track of it. And sleeping four hours a night wasn't doing my mental health any good. I knew I had two possibilities now ; sleep less but do my work, or skip some classes to work. It was beginning to get ridiculous, skipping classes so I could do my homework. I knew art schools were difficult, awfully so, but like most people I hadn't realized until then, in this very moment, standing in front of my desk completely covered in paint, canvas, my computer, sketches, inks... some brushes had fallen on the floor, staining it in their passage. My laptop was so dirty it wasn't in its original color anymore. There were blotches of paint, ink, and charcoal here and there that I couldn't remove the harder I had tried to, forcing me to give up. At some point I got so tired I put my paintbrush into my cup of tea/coffee, mistaking it with the goblet of water.

- ...Are you alright ?, enquired Mandy on Thursday night.

One look at my face and she had her answer. Bless her soul, she didn't need any more to bring me an energy drink from the fridge.

- I still have five portraits to do. Four pencil ones, and one painting. They all have to be from different angles, and I can't find any models, I complained while throwing my hand in the air in an act of pure desperation.

Mandy knew better than to sit at the edge of my risky desk with her designer clothes, so she leaned on the doorframe, slowly nodding her head in a pensive manner while I kept explaining the situation.

- All week I couldn't find anyone because they all had homework to do, and now most of them are skipping tomorrow's lecture to go home early so nobody's available !

My rommate crossed her arms, thinking hard. I already did almost all my paintings, asking for both her and Josh's help. Both of them were glad to help and even more so to figure on a monochrome painting on a canvas.

- Can you draw the same person multiple times ?, she finally asked.

- Actually... I don't know. I don't think that would be a problem as long as the work is done ?

Hopping on her feet, Mandy lifted an eyebrow before dragging a chair to sit on.

- Let's get into it then, we only have one lecture tomorrow, you can skip it I'll take notes for you.

Having a good night of sleep never felt this good. No. Waking up at 8, slowly realizing everybody was sitting on a lecture except me, and then getting back to sleep was way better. I sketched poor Mandy two times last night but the results were good, and she looked pleased herself. I didn't have time to redo any of these anyway, I still had other work to do. Waking me from my well deserved nap, my phone vibrated under the pillow, the screen blinding me despite the sun peaking through the curtains.

« The boys asked where you were. Told them about the portraits situation. Jake wants to help. Couldn't stop him. »

If the beginning of the text made me smile, the end completely shook me awake, making me sit hurriedly on the bed, rereading the words multiple times. Scratching my face, I quickly glanced at the hour. They were out in a few minutes. My fingers tapped the next message as soon as they could, asking her how and when, while I ran to the showers with my towel, soap and toothbrush in hand. At this hour, and a Friday, they were all available. The other residents were all either drunk as hell and passed out in their room, or in their hometown with their family and friends. The buzzing of my phone vibrating reverberated against the shower walls and it almost got drowned in the sink when I caught it to look at the screen. It was Mandy.

« They kinda invited themselves over to eat. Josh's idea.»

What the hell Joshua we're not your moms ! Throwing my phone to the nearest flat surface, I jumped on some discarded overalls and put on a sweater, wet hair dripping everywhere on the floor, table, but mostly on my clothes, making me sneeze in the process. The whole week I was so overwhelmingly busy with work that not only did my fingers hurt but I didn't have any time to see the Kiszkas let alone think about them since our shared lecture on Monday. I even skipped the Lunch Club in order to get back to the dorms and work on my assignments. Which thankfully saved me a lot of time, but I still had 2 pencil drawings to do and one painting. Once I had put on some makeup, I took a moment to look around me. Our place looked like a dump, no less. Clothes and art furniture were everywhere, the trash was overflowing with empty cup noodles and fast food leftovers, it smelled like perfume and soap mixing with rotten food, paint and cold tobacco. It was terrible, and made me shocked that I even got used to that. A life achievement of some sort. Everything on the floor I put it on a trash bag, running in the stairs to throw everything outside with the others'. My phone vibrated in my pocket, a new notification popping on the screen.

« They bought some stuff at the store, they wanna cook us something. Jake's idea. »

Okay, time to clean the kitchen.

By the time they got here, I looked even more tired than before, owing my guests looks of concern. If was funny, how they put on the exact same face while seeing me. It was like I just mirrored a picture. Their similar features would never cease to amaze me.

- Mama you're very pale.

- Did you not sleep well ?

- I did, don't worry, I dismissed their concern. Had to clean up a bit.

Mandy bit his lip, knowing damn well the place had been a war field when she left. Unaware of anything, the boys put the bags of groceries on the table before apologizing for intruding. We all sat around the table to have a pleasant talk, my friends always making sure I wasn't next to Jake to avoid any brutal peak of awkwardness / sadness. But some habits died hard, I realized when Jake asked if he could have a tour of our dorm. Ignoring glances, I stood up and gestured for him to go first, into the biggest room, were Mandy and I's workshop and beds were. The boy let out a low whistle that flattered me. He looked impressed by everything around him, touching odd looking brushes and browsing illustration books. I knew better this time, and had put his painted portrait under my bed, wrapped in an old sheet. Just as his brother did, he liked to take in his hands everything that came by, caressing it with his fingertips or idly lifting the weight of it in his palms like he was discovering an unknown world. Unmoving, I let Jake do his little tour, watching the street view by the window, sitting on my disheleved bed, jumping slightly to make the mattress bounce like he was testing it before buying.

- So this is where you're gonna paint me, he said, pointing at a chair between my desk and me.

My pale face grew some colors at the thought of it before I nodded quickly, in a childlike way, caressing the wooden chair's back.

- I'll try to be fast so you won't get bored, I assured without looking him in the eye.

It was this moment Josh chose to appear at the corner of the doorframe.

- Jakey we should start cooking or the potatoes will never be ready on time. Come on, doll.

He took me by one of my overalls' straps, pulling me inside the kitchen, making me laugh and pushing my shoulders so I stayed on my seat. Mandy and I gazed at them with awe as they poured us drinks while Jake asked where the spatula was, and Josh was washing the vegetables, already familiar with his surroundings.

In silence, I looked at Jake removing every one of his rings to put it on top of the fridge where no one could kick them, before tying his hair in a tight ponytail. Maybe it was because I only ever saw him with long brown locks framing his face, but he looked even better than usual. If he caught me staring, he didn't adress it, only smiled at me, turning his back to us to help his brother.

- Do you need any help ?, I asked while showing them where the frypans were. You guys are our guests it doesn't seem fair...

Of course the kitchen wasn't a real one, there was only a microwave and some hotplates fixed to a cabinet by the sink. Putting more than one person behind the counter was impossible without bumping into each other, and I could smell the accident from afar when Josh maneuvered the hot water filled pan at the same time Jake opened up a cupboard right above his curly head. Curiously so, probably because they had way more cooking experience than I thought, the boys handled the situation neatly, and Jake was the one preventing me from bumping into his brother.

- Go sit and relax, we've got this, he said while turning me around by the shoulders.

Watching boys make lunch had got to be some sort of ASMR because just watching the muscles of their back move while they were chopping onions and peeling potatoes had some real therapeutic effects on me. We continued chatting together, all the while answering their questions on « Where are the knives ? » and « Where do you keep the salt ? ». Kind of surprised that Josh had the permission of holding a kitchen knife, by the way, this part made me feel the absolute opposite of ASMR but he did a pretty good job, from what I could see. Mandy put on some music on the speakers, argued with Jake over the sound of it as to what was acceptable or not music-wise, and Josh made a show of crying because of the onions, yelling about becoming blind until Jake gently slapped the back of his head. It was all laughs and good conversation, like we've been friends for years, and at the same time I couldn't shake these feelings I had towards Jake. There was something extremely erotic about seeing a dude wearing a dishcloth on his shoulder. Or was it just Jake wearing it really well ?

They refused to tell us what we were eating, muttering to themselves and sometimes asking if we were allergic to this or that, only announcing it while putting the plate on the table, with Josh making grand gestures as usual, using his best waiter voice.

- Crêpes au zucchini accompanied by a fresh salad decorated with feta and its apple slices, ladies.

- Bon appétit, added Jake.

The table was already set because it was the only thing we were allowed to do, so at least the boys could now rest. It looked really good. Way less fancy than what Josh had announced of course but it smelled wonderful, the sweet scent settling in all of our dorm. And the taste, oh Lord. Everything melted in my mouth, the onions they fried were just crispy enough to add something to it, and I learned this day that cheese and apple were really good and refreshing together. A new snack idea I'd keep for my sleepless work nights at the desk. And as dessert, the boys brought beers. Of course.

[kattimariias]

movie sonic hcs bc why not

hes 12-14

sometimes makes snort noises when looking for something

purrs when relaxed

can speak the language of just normal ass animals, mainly owls

his owl mom tried to teach him how to swim once when he was younger. he got a little too carried away by trying to swim further into the lake, which led to him almost drowning. hes had a fear of deep water since then and refuses to go anywhere near it

used to living in nests, trees, and eating weird stuff

tended to stress his mom out due to being rlly active during the day, and she did not want him getting into possible trouble

initially he was really scared of humans due to his mother telling him that they were dangerous, especially since they werent used to his kind. tom and nan help him get out of this mindset tho

speaking of said tree? it was harvested, and while he managed to get out of there safely, his mom didnt make it (i hc her as a spotted owl since they have a subspecies in california, and the species in general’s main threat is timber harvesting)

his fear of humans worsen after that and he occasionally has nightmares of both the swimming incident and his mother’s death. he refuses to talk about both to anyone since its too much for him

he really wishes he could’ve done better to save his mom. its why he always tries to save parents so no one has to go through what he went through, and to make up for what he did “wrong” (there wasnt really much he could do since he wasnt there when the trees fell)

generally more emotionally sensitive than modern and classic sonic, since he isnt a well known hero yet and he doesnt have much of a reason to hide things, and plus hes like. in his early teens

half of this is so angsty already jfc me

car rides bore the shit out of him. he wants to Run

anthros in his planet have primarily elemental powers, but also secondary powers that connect to primary! hes basically electric/speed

his first attempt at spindashing led to him bumping into a wall

he loves carnivals bc he is keen towards places with lots of movement

doesnt know that swears are bad until he randomly said “fuck” once

whenever hes anxious, his quills tend to fall out (but since he has ~powers~ they quickly grow back in)

whenever hes in water thats not too deep, he floats on his back

most of his noises are rlly cute squeaks

chilidogs are so DELICIOUS to him that he feels like hes on another planet whenever he eats them

saw the sonic restaurant once and couldnt stop cracking jokes about it

walked on all fours often when he was younger and he still occasionally does it (usually whenever hes sitting somewhere and it transitions into just walking/running on two legs)

secretly likes ear scratches

tom buys him a phone and he plays mobile games everyday. sends memes to tom and nan every five minutes, overuses XD and keysmashes a lot, and fuckin eats up old ass memes

then he got fortnite and took note of all the dance emotes

also ofc he has a tiktok account. his first one was him running around and lipsyncing blue by effiel 65

sometimes wishes that other anthros like him lived on earth. even though hes under tom and nan’s care now, theres still slight loneliness lingering

he pays more attention to the beat of music, so when hes asked why he listens to gangster’s paradise hes like “because it’s catchy???”, then hes told about the meaning and hes just like “o_o”

he has fangs and hes not afraid to bite idc about what the currently known model tells me

[zipp0flare]

Infection part 1

(So, this is an old relic piece back from when I first started playing Left 4 Dead. I loved the character and infected designs so much back then (still do, tbh) that I actually made several characters, whom I still love to this day. I only have stories for two of them, back from my deviantArt days, which is why this may look familiar. Anywho, this is the origin story for my Hunter, Luke (based off a GaiaOnline avatar I made one day, which is why the design choice is kinda funky.))

The rave that was so often filled to the brim with people on Saturday nights was close to being empty, mainly only filled with the loyal regulars that spent their free nights dancing amongst the music and flashing lights. A young male made his way to a small group of men gathered around the bar, some of which gave him surprised greetings.

"Whoa, Luke! Didn't think we'd see you here!" A man with a large, orange dyed mohawk called as he motioned the other male over. 'Luke' merely scoffed and sat down next to the man, as well a second man, wearing a ridiculous, tie dyed ski cap. "You know you look like a moron with that on, right Mal?" Luke asked, to which he received a punch in the arm from 'Mal'.

"You don't look any better. What's with the goggles, and the hood? Hell, what are you doing here in the first place?" Luke gave Mal a scowl, which only grew when the first man piped up; "Yeah, he's right. I mean, you have heard about the Green Flu going around, right?"

Luke leveled a glare at the man. "I could ask you the same question. I could ask everyone here the same question. I came here because I had planned to ever since Tuesday. But it looks like the hype about this flu has caused everyone to run for home with their tail between their legs."

Luke coughed into his arm, causing his two companions to inch back a little farther. "Damn, did you come here with it? What the fuck were you thinking?!"

"Vince, I don't have the flu, my throat's just been sore. You can calm down." Mal and Vince still looked leery. "I think you should go back home. You don't know if you're not infected, and none of us want to come down with the thing. I mean, I've heard some people are dying from it." Vince actually sounded somewhat worried, though it was hard to tell if the worry was for his friend, or for himself.

"That's just the media making this whole thing look worse than it did. Remember their last, so-called 'epidemic'?" Mal choked back a laugh. "Yeah, you boarded yourself up in your apartment for a week and a half. You thought the world was ending or something." Mal may have controlled his laughter, but Vince had begun to guffaw at the memory.

"And nothing happened, which made me look like a damn idiot."

"Yeah, you did look like a fool when you finally came out of your 'house of safety' with the fire axe you practically stole from your apartment building."

"Exactly. So, just like nothing happened then, everything's just going to go over in a week or so, and everyone will soon forget about the Green Flu." Luke raised a hand into the air with three fingers up, and waved to the bartender, earning a nod as the woman behind the bar got to work.

"So... you're sure your not infected, right?" Vince asked cautiously. "Yes. I know I'm not infected. I haven't even been near someone who's sick. Though..." His face scrunched up in disgust, to which his two friend gave him odd looks. "You remember my weird ass neighbor? Who lives in the apartment to the right of mine?"

"You mean crazy old hag Meri-something?" Vince received a nod. "What the hell did she do this time? Start up a story about her toe jam again?" Mal had to keep from retching when he heard Vince, even though he hadn't been there for whatever this story was, unlike poor friends. "No, not another toe jam story. I went to get my mail this morning and saw her walking my direction. I've gotten to the point where I wait for her to start going through whatever crap she's received until I leave. I stood there for two minutes and she didn't start rummaging through her mail. Instead, the crazy bat reaches over and bites me in the arm!"

"The fuck?! I knew she was out of her mind, but biting people?"

"I have no idea what was going through her freaky mind, but it was hard enough to break the skin." Luke rubbed his bandaged arm, currently concealed under his black arm warmers. "What did you do?" Mal asked, knowing that the story couldn't have ended there.

"I immediately elbowed her in the stomach out of reflex. She whined like a dog and took off after that."

"She broke the skin? Did you disinfect and all that crap?" Luke nodded. "I pretty much bathed it in rubbing alcohol, which burned like hell I might add."

Mal and Vince still looked disgusted with the story, thankful that neither of them had a out-of-their-mind neighbor that went around biting people. "Maybe you should head back home." Vince piped up after a few moments of silence. "If she bit you and all, maybe she's infected?"

"I'm sure the cause of that is from being out of her mind. I'm fine." Luke stressed the word 'fine'. "So, you wanted to come here on a Saturday, mainly only because we always do. You also think that all of this is just the media hyping things up a bit. I still don't see you going out, risking getting sick. You're the one who's always against that kind of-"

"It's nothing!" Luke exclaimed, startling his two friends, along with other people that were close by. "It's... just your normal flu."

"Dude... what the hell has your panties in a bunch? You're never this worked up." There was only silence from Luke, who seemed to almost be refusing to answer Mal's question.

"Maddie's sick." Those two words were so quiet that Luke's friends almost didn't catch what Luke had said. Maddie, Madeline, was Luke's five-year-old sister; she meant the world to Luke. "Maddie's sick with it. And if I start freaking out about this whole thing, I"m basically telling myself that my little sister's going to die." He bit his lower lip. "So, all of this is just nothing, alright?"

"... Sorry, I.. I had no idea, man." Mal apologized. "How's she doing?"

"She's currently in quarentine with CEDA. Or, that's what I'm being told." Luke coughed into his arm again, a bit more harshly this time. "I'm not sick, you can drop it." Luke knew what his friends were thinking and his words shut them up before they could say anything.

The bartender came back with his drink, but Luke could tell that she was keeping her distance as well. "Damn, why the hell is everyone acting like this.." He growled. Luke was hardly ever this agitated but Mal and Vince took it as him simply being worked up about his younger sister.

There was silence amongst the friends once more (minus Luke's coughing every few minutes) none of them knowing what to say. The silence was broken by a loud swearing from Luke. "They need to turn down these fucking lights. My eyes are burning from them!" His friends cringed, not expecting Luke's outburst. "Uh... the lights are the same as they always are. You sure you're oka-"

"I'm fine! Dammit, I'm fine!" Luke held his injured arm close to him, his fingers digging into it. Vince simply held his hands in front of him as if to guard himself from Luke's verbal lashing.

Luke's coughing seemed to have quickly and steadily grown worse, and he was beginning to notice a slightly red stain decorating the inside of his arm. Maybe he was seeing things though, his eyesight seemed to steadily be growing worse, and it was hard to think of anything with the pounding headache that had suddenly overwhelmed him.

Luke could barely make out his friend's worried looks, only seeing their lips moving while no sound came from their mouths, but the music in the background seemed to only be getting louder and louder, the noise assaulting his eardrums and causing his headache to grow worse.

As his eyes began to slowly bleed was when he fell backward and off of his seat, his head making a sickening crack as it hit the floor. Luke could barely see now, barely think, barely even keep his eyes open. "Holy shit! Someone call an ambulance, or something!" Mal and Vince had only become more and more concerned for Luke, giving him questions and suggestions, both of which went unanswered. None of that, though, compared to the panic going through their systems when their friend suddenly fell off the seat, bleeding out of his eyes.

"C'mon, Luke! You've been through worse, stay with us!" Vince exclaimed with frustration, trying to make things not at bad as they seemed, as he crouched down next to his friend. The bartender had already called 911, though Vince and Mal were wondering if it would do any good now.

When Luke slowly started to come to, letting out groans and what sounded like low growling, the duo's hope skyrocketed. It came crashing down, though, when Luke suddenly rolled off of his back and onto his stomach, crouching and growling at his 'friends'.

"Whoa, calm down, buddy... everything's alright.. you're going to be okay.." Neither of them had anymore time to say anything before 'Luke' pounced and attacked them both.

When the ambulance finally arrived, along with several people in hazmat suits from CEDA, they found the rave a bloody, gruesome mess. Several bodies were scattered on the floor and against the bar's counter. All of them were viciously torn into. "We need to block this place off. Don't let anything come out or into here." One of the CEDA workers commanded. While several people rushed to various parts of the club, a lone ambulance worker looked out at the horrific scene and sighed. His eyes turned down to see a man at his feet, with a large, orange mohawk, who looked even more torn into than the rest of the bodies at the scene. He didn't seem to pay much mind to the smeared blood trail that led away from the body, simply assuming that it was caused by the thing that had caused all of this. "God, this sickness is horrid..."

[timeoutforthee]

Like It or Not-Chapter 19

Summary: Logan, Patton, Roman, and Virgil are all struggling in their recovery. Their doctors, Thomas Sanders and Emile Picani think they can help each other out.

Aka Group Therapy AU

Trigger Warnings: None, maybe? Not for this chapter?

Read it on AO3!

Taglist: @itsausernamenotafobsong, @sea-blue-child, @iaminmultiplefandoms, @princeanxious, @uwillbeefoundtonight, @zaidiashipper, @arandompasserby, @levyredfox3, @falsett0, @error-i-dunno-what-went-wrong, @scrapbookofsketches, @podcastsandcoffee, @helloisthisusernametaken, @amuthefunperson, @michealawithana, @yamihatarou, @heck-im-lost, @unlikelynightmareconnoisseur, @idkaurl, @bubblycricket, @fnp-alizay, @neonbluetiefling, @comicsimpson, @a-little-bit-of-ace

Roman rubbed his temple. The last of his classmates were emptying out, and he could hear the music drifting from the theater. You would think after a month he would be used to not going to rehearsal, but you would be wrong.

“Nooooo one-”

“No!” he could hear his director shout, bringing the piano notes to a halt. “You have to get your voice lower-”

Okay, maybe he didn’t miss everything about it. He just mainly missed being a part of something. And having something to distract from his thoughts. Like right now. He had to go to therapy and all he could think about was everything that had went wrong in the past week, and his mind was just not giving him a break. It would’ve been great to just belt something out now.

He had tried, once, to just sing by himself, but his dad had quickly shut that down. He said Roman was making too much noise, and when he had tried to explain what he was doing, his dad told them to go down to their home gym and work it off there. Roman knew technically that he wasn’t supposed to be exercising unsupervised, but what else could he do?

Roman slammed his locker shut and made his way out to the parking lot.

Instead of seeing his parents’ car, he saw Max’s, which was becoming a more common occurrence. When Max saw him approaching he tossed his keys. Roman reached his hands up to catch it but it slipped through his fingers. Max laughed.

“I don’t know why Dad wants you to go back to football, you suck,” he walked over to the passenger side, completely missing the look Roman gave him.

“What are you doing?” Roman asked, “I can’t drive your car.”

“Sure you can. You have your permit, I’m 23, get in.”

“But Mom and Dad have only taken me out once.”

“So? They don’t have time. I do.” With that, Max slides into the passenger seat and shuts the door.

Roman looks down at the keys and tries to breathe. He walks over to the front door and gets in.

“Breathe, baby bro. It’s just a car.”

“This car probably costs more than my life.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Max laughs, “It’ll be fine. It’s a straight shot down the highway. The only thing you need to worry about is the speed limit.” Max watches as Roman pulls out of the parking lot. “And I have a feeling you’ll be too slow.”

“I’m not denying that.”

“So,” Max says, leaning back, “How was school?”

Roman groans without thinking. Max raises his eyebrows.

“The Theatre used to be, like, this safe haven, this escape for me, now it’s the worst part of my day!” Roman bursts out, “Everyone in my class is in the musical except for me! They sing the songs constantly, the only thing they talk about is what happened in rehearsal the day before! And I-” I’m already an outsider at home, I can’t be one there, too. “It’s just annoying.”

“Hate to break it to you, but theater kids are annoying.” Roman frowns and Max backtracks, “It’s just a joke, Ro, sorry. But really, that does suck.”

“I don’t even know why I didn’t do it, it was stupid.”

“Then why did you drop it?”

“My...doctor...thought it would be good for me to take some time off and focus on my health.”

Max goes silent for a moment before saying, “Oh.”

“Oh? What do you mean ‘oh’?”

“I mean oh, that’s probably a good idea then.”

“I literally just said it was a stupid idea.”

“But if your doctor thinks it’s a good idea shouldn’t you listen to him?”

“I guess,” Roman says, “It’s just-” he takes a deep breath. He knows he can’t say too much, “I wish I could just do normal things and be...normal.”

“Are you feeling okay? I’ve never heard you say that before,” Silence falls, and Max glances over at Roman, who is staring out the window. “Oh. You’re serious.”

“Of course I am!” Roman says, “You think I don’t know how annoying I am? How overdramatic and irritating? Of course I want to be the sports star like every Prince before me. But I’m not. And lately, I can’t even act like a normal person.” Roman shakes his head. “Whatever, sorry for going off like that. It’s nothing.”

“It’s not nothing, it’s just,” Max’s head falls back, “I am awful at this, but let me try. Eventually, you will be normal, you’re going to a doctor to make you normal-nope, that came out completely wrong.” Max winces, “Okay, um, you’re going to someone who’s going to make you your, uh, fabulous self again. And that’s good. Even if now it just feels like a long, agonizing process, that goal is within reach and you will get there, you just need a little help.”

“It’s not exactly little-”

“I know,” Max winces again, “I know that, Roman. I know that you’re hiding something-”

“What? I-”

“No, don’t. Don’t even bother denying it. A teacher was worried enough about you that they sent you to guidance counselor, and the guidance counselor was so concerned they got an outside therapy practice involved, and now you’ve been there for five months? And if you don’t want to tell us, that’s fine, you don’t have to. But I can’t keep pretending to believe you when you say you’re fine, you’re clearly not.”

Roman’s eyes immediately get misty at that, and he rubs his eyes.

“Are you crying?”

“If we could not address it, that’d be great,” Roman says, finally turning into Foster’s. Suddenly everything feels a little too real, and he needs to get out of this car.

“Okay, okay. I’m sorry. That was...a little intense. I just…”

“We can talk after,” Roman says, pulling into a parking space, “I’m going to be late.” Technically, he’s fifteen minutes early, but he needs Max to leave.

“Okay, we’ll-” Roman shuts the door before Max can continue talking.

Only after his little brother disappears into the building does he let his head fall against the dash once, twice, three times. God, he had to get better at this.

^

“I just had the strangest conversation with my brother,” Roman says, sitting in his usual seat next to Patton. “Like I think it was a heart to heart but it also felt like an interrogation.”

“Aww, that’s nice of him! At least he tried?” Patton says.

“If he even attempted a heart to heart, he gets an A for effort. That shit’s hard,” Virgil says, “What was it about?”

“Ugh,” Roman groans, “Can’t we wait until Picani gets here before we start having serious talk time?”

“Don’t have to wait long, then!” Picani says, sticking his head in. “What are we having serious talk time about?”

“My brother,” Roman sighs, knowing he’s not getting around this now, “We had this weird conversation, I told him I wanted to be normal, and snowballed into this whole thing about me coming here and how he knows I’m hiding something. It was just really weird.”

“Hiding something?” Patton asks.

“I may not have told my family about my eating disorder,” Roman admits, “Not because I don’t trust them! I just don’t want to stress them out or anything.”

“Are you sure it’s really about stressing them out?” Dr. Picani asks.

“Of course, what else would it be?”

“Are you afraid of disappointing them, perhaps? Is that why you suddenly feel the need to be ‘normal,’ as you put it?”

“I want to be normal because I failed at greatness. I tried to be brilliant and bold, but I ended up being annoying and overdramatic. I’m the joke of the family, the outcast of the theatre department, who knows what else I could fail at?”

“So you want to give up instead?” Logan asks.

“Not give up, just...aim lower,” Roman says, his voice quieter than usual. “Is there something wrong with that?”

“Well, yes, in a sense,” Dr. Picani says. “There’s something wrong in the sense that normal doesn’t exist, and aiming for what could be considered ‘normal’ by others means your dictating your life on what other people think, which is not what we want for you.”

“I just want to eat!” Roman snaps. “Sorry, I just...it’s been a long week.”

“We’ll discuss this more in our individual, Roman,” Emile says, gently, “But we have something else to accomplish today, something I think will also help you. We need to set some more goals for you guys.”

“Like what?” Patton asks, his voice a little too chipper.

“Well, like last time, that’s mainly up to you guys,” Dr. Picani says, “What do you think would be a good stepping stone? Though, I will say this, Roman, I think it would be a good idea to open up to Max a little bit more this time around.”

“Open up? How much?” Roman asks.

“As much as you want. Remember, you guys are in control here.”

“I...guess I could do that,” he replies, tentatively.

“Good! What about the rest of you?”

There’s a bit of silence before Virgil sighs.

“If Roman can open up to his brother, I guess I can open up to my aunt.”

“Ooh, that’s a great idea!” Emile says, making a note of it.

“Yeah, well, she’s been trying. I might as well meet her halfway.”

“I’m glad you see it that way, Virgil.”

“I’ve noticed recently that there are very few foods I eat,” Logan speaks up, “I think the natural way to progress would be to expand that. So...maybe some fruits?”

“Okay, good step,” his therapist says.

Four heads turn to Patton, who is focusing on the ground.

“I...don’t know.”

“That’s okay!” Dr. Picani says, “We can think of one. Personally, based on what Dr. Sanders has told me, I think you should try eating something for breakfast.”

That makes Patton look up. “You want me to eat more?”

“If this is up for discussion,” Virgil says, “I think he should work on being nicer to himself.”

“I’m nice everybody, don’t worry about that!” Patton says, trying to blow off that idea before anyone can say it’s a good one.

“We literally all know that’s a lie,” Logan says. Patton’s smile falls.

“Virgil’s got a point,” Emile says. “A very good one, in fact. Have you heard of affirmations?”

“Yes.”

“Has Dr. Sanders given them to you?”

“Yes.”

“Did you actually recite them out loud, into a mirror?”

“Well, no, not like that, just...to myself…”

“Ah, but then they don’t work as well. That settles it! I want you to come up with a positive affirmation with Dr. Sanders and recite it at least five times before next week.”

“I can do that,” Patton says, voice tight. He clears it, then tries again, “I can do that.”

“Great!” their therapist says, “Then I’ll see you all back next week.”