#i bow before you trash goblin to trash goblin

[obsessedtomone]

Unravel Yourself Before Me ⛓️ Chapter 1 - Convenience ▸Shigaraki x femReader

Summary: “Say, I’ll make you a killer deal,” he begins, the tone of his voice deceptively even, failing to mask the coldness. “If you fucking apologize to me right now, and manage to clear things up with the professor before—” He slides his sleeve just above his expensive-looking smartwatch and casually checks the time, “—the class ends, in about… mmh, give or take three minutes? I promise you won't regret this as much as you will if you do go through with this stupid shit you started with me.”

His face breaks into a slow and creepy smile as he threatens you, body emanating nothing other than incredible malice.

You wish you could turn back time and never cross his path, that stupid night at the store.

You wish you were a different, nicer person, one that knows when to bow their head or to apologize if they messed up.

But you weren’t and you won’t. Setting: University AU - No quirks (unless degenerate personalities count) Tags: Slow burn, Eventual Smut, Unhealthy/Toxic Relationships, Humiliation, Mentally Ill Reader, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Enemies to ??? Warning: Dead Dove – Do Not Eat | Mind the tags TW: Implied Su/Self H, Dubcon, Reader has a super shitty past like actually, Shigaraki Tomura is his own warning.

AO3 Crosspost | Chain Divider by firefly-graphics

Chapters: One • Two • Three

Chapter 1 - Convenience Pitter-patter.

With a pop of your joints, you reach for the moon or the ceiling or maybe the gods above. You reach and you reach and finally you feel that satisfying stretch burn through your muscles.

What time is it anyway?

Uh-oh.

You cringe, because the birds are chirping, the first light of the day is starting to show, and because… you’ve been gaming your entire fucking Saturday night.

It’s 4:30 AM when you check your phone.

—And you could’ve been studying, could’ve been in touch with your project buddies, to at least send them your part of the project in time. But you didn’t and you won’t.

Not at least until tomorrow anyway.

Tomorrow, probably around ten minutes before your group’s deadline.

Yeah, you’re that special kind of asshole.

Looking around yourself, you realize that—all of the sudden, the room feels so fucking stuffy you could suffocate. It’s messy and god fucking knows when you opened your goddamn windows last.

So that’s exactly what you decide to spend your next action point on, as your mind briefly wandered back to your past few Valorant matches. 

You actually stayed up late, trying your best to climb to Diamond and dealing with the hyper-misogyny of random pathetic incel teammates who immediately shit themselves the moment a woman opens her mouth on mic.

Whatever.

At least you weren’t living in your mommy’s basement, swimming in a sea of trash, right?

You glance around your room and wince.

Okay, maybe you’re swimming in like—a puddle of trash. 

But that’s okay, because you’re definitely way above those goblins on a societal level… right?

You don’t dwell very much on that particular thought.

With a yawn, you reach for the windows and open them wide. The cool air of soft autumn rain invades your stale room the second you open them, replacing the warm stuffiness of your man-cave and filling your lungs with fresh oxygen.

You wonder how long it’s been raining for already, when you feel your stomach—the one vital organ you’ve purposefully been ignoring all night—growling. What did you eat today?

When the fuck did you eat last, actually?

“Uuugh—” you whine, finally feeling the shakiness of your hands and the overall weakness of your body. 

On your way towards your joke of a kitchen, you decide what flavor cup noodles to scarf down quickly before you hit the hay. Your internal debate is torn between two particular flavors, before you open the cupboard and realize—there aren’t any instant noodles left.

God fucking damn it.

You briefly glance down over your sorry excuse of an outfit—one that would put homeless people to shame—made up of plain black sweats and an oversized black hoodie, noting how you should also maybe perhaps take a fucking shower after literally sweat-gaming all day.

Fuck it, you think, taking a total of two seconds to decide that this was good enough for the world, before you set off to the nearest twenty-four hour convenience store.

So you grab your phone, your keys, and that’s what you do.

────────

Despite the hints of a rising sun, it’s still pretty dark outside. The air smells like fresh morning rain and wet concrete.

You don’t mind, because to your own delight, it couldn’t be quieter around here.

The neighborhood you live in is incredibly sketchy, but you couldn’t complain given it’s barely a fifteen minute walk to your university and the rent to your rundown one-bedroom apartment is dirt fucking cheap.

It suits the broke ass bitch that you are and you like it this way—one, because you have a thing for sketchy run-down places and two… because it’s yours and yours alone.

The totally-legal-and-definitely-wont-blind-you pepper spray you bought from the shadiest internet store sits snugly in the pocket of your hoodie, one hand occasionally fidgeting and feeling the rim of the object. 

Knowing you have something to use in your defense makes you feel safer when you’re outside. You never know when something unpleasant could go down.

You’re so used to being on-guard after all the years of shitty experiences. 

Of being on your own.

Of stupid shit that kept happening to you.

So you walk, if only with a smear of anxiety, because you still need to stay vigilant and not put the universe to a fucking test.

The first thing you notice when you waltz into the corner store, is how goddamn bright the fluorescent lights are. They’re far too bright for your tired eyes that are used to endless hours of staring into dimmed screens with the lights off.

The second thing you notice is how eerily quiet it is inside—save for the whirring, clicking and occasional gurgling of the refrigerators in the back. Or at least that’s where you think the sounds come from.

It’s odd that the current shift didn’t think of turning on the radio to fill the silence—to make this place feel less like a ‘bad end’ location from a horror game—but a quick glance towards the staff at the counter and their wireless earpieces tells you that they couldn’t give less of a fuck about the store’s ambiance.

Not that it matters, when you’re too busy surveying the shelves in search of some food, of something edible, the ‘food’ in question consisting mostly of snacks and other nutritionless garbage that would give nine point five out of ten doctors a cardiac arrest.

Speaking of heart failure, you find yourself in front of the refrigerated drink aisle, using all of your brain wrinkles to make your hardest decision yet.

Which one of the canned heart attack flavors are you gonna buy today?

You hum, spending a good three minutes (give or take) thinking, and when you finally go ahead, reaching with your fingertips to grab the energy drink—

“Hey,” a low and grating voice speaks right behind you.

The sound makes you fucking jump.

You turn around with a scowl and then—straight out of a comedy skit, you feel like you’re staring at your male doppelgänger.

An extremely sketch-looking guy, wearing black sweats that match your own, the hood of his equally dark colored hoodie up and covering a messy mop of white hair.

And then you notice his… his intense crimson colored eyes, drilling a hole through the middle of your fucking skull.

If only looks could kill.

“Did you need something?” You fail to mask the venom in your voice, aimed at him for no good reason.

A skin care routine, you think.

Not like you bothered with one either, but at least your face isn’t disintegrating into disgusting flakes yet, unlike his punk ass.

Motherfucker couldn’t have waited two fucking minutes for you to pick something? 

Where the fuck do you have to be at like 4:50 in the morning?!— you scoff, but the words remain yet unspoken.

The hooded figure raises his hand to scratch at his pale neck, seemingly annoyed at your shitty attitude towards him. 

He just has to meet the worst type of bitch at this ungodly hour, on a Saturday no less—and he isn’t having it. 

Red eyes stare you down for a moment, watching your face scrunch up at his sight.

“You’ve been standing in front of the drinks for like ten fucking minutes, ugly ass bitch.” He finally claps back, and with that, your eyes narrow. “Pick something or get the hell outta my way.”

“I was just about to, asshole,” you reply, voice betraying you and ultimately cracking while you seethe. “Grab your stupid ass drink so you can finally go home to the boys and cry about not getting any.” 

You finish your sentence and stand aside for him, motioning to the drinks all the while his eyes widen in what you presumed to be shock—but before he has the chance to respond, you hurry the fuck up and leave.

The poor employee at the counter who saw the scene playing out (store ain’t that big, now), seems to want nothing to do with any of this. Graveyard shifts must be really fucking fun when you’re graced with not one, but two annoying idiots.

You drop all of your items on the counter and while the cashier is scanning them, you pat all four of your pockets, looking for your wallet to pay.

Until it dawns on you.

No fucking way—

Ain’t no fucking way your stupid, braindead ass forgot to bring money.

This isn’t fucking happening to you right now.

Especially since the embodiment of patience is standing just a few inches behind you, shifting uncomfortably from one leg to the other and waiting with bated breath for you to finally pay and get lost.

“Uhh. Do—Do you guys keep tabs open?” you ask, recoiling at the sound of your own voice, scratching at the back of your head sheepishly and almost whispering the second half so the guy behind you wouldn’t be able to hear it. “I kind of… forgot my wallet at home.”

The cringe that is already coursing through your veins, deepens infinitely when you see the employee stare at your face, as if you grew a second head.

“No.”

Your humiliating predicament makes the guy behind you break into the creepiest snicker. You shoot him a glare and dare him to say something, but he’s too busy laughing at you.

God, if only the ground would swallow you whole, right fucking now.

With the worst shades of shame coloring your face, you turn around to leave, swearing to never set foot in this fucking establishment ever again. Nevermind that it’s the only store close to your house.

Before you have the chance to make good on your promise, the white haired guy reaches out—if a bit hesitant—and grabs your arm.

What’s the chance a nuke would crash into this fucking store and wipe out your entire existence, together with whoever is here to fucking witness this? Or maybe aliens could finally make contact with planet Earth and take you the fuck away. Getting your ass probed sounds infinitely more appealing than this incredible embarrassment you feel in front of the two assholes.

“Hold.”

Your pathetic gaze lifts from the ground and when you meet his eyes he looks—amused?

“What. Let go of me, man.” You panic, trying to free yourself from his grip, but his fingers are firm. Is that blood under his fingernails?

“I’ll pay,” he offers, a disturbing smirk playing on his dry lips.

This fucking guy.

“N-No, I’m good. Thanks.” Your voice is shaking more than you want it to and you feel tears finally prick at your eyes.

Why do you live your life this way? Why are you so fucking pathetic—especially in front of assholes like him?

Why are you still so weak? 

After everything you’ve been through?

You try once more to shake him off of you, but he’s deceptively strong for his build, and doesn’t relent now that he’s got you where he wants you to be.

“It’s okay, really. This just made my night so I’m gonna pay for ya,” he says, the almost-even tone in his voice not matching the way his creepy smile seems to be getting wider.

He swiftly pulls out some scrunched-up bills from the pocket of his sweats, slipping them to the employee who could not give less of a fuck about whoever pays first, grabbing your already-bagged purchase and basically shoving it to you as he gives his best ‘Come again soon!’ bullshit line that actually translates to ‘Please fucking leave the store already’.

“How about that, huh? Now you owe me one, little bitch,” he whispers into your ear, voice low and full of grit sending chills down your spine and rendering you absolutely speechless.

Without sparing you so much as a second glance, he finally pays for his own shit and leaves the store in a smug stride.

You could basically read the “EZ” he wrote in slash all chat while destroying your fucking nexus.

What a horrible fucking night, you think to yourself, hurrying to go home as well.

Your only comforting thought being that you wouldn’t have to see his stupid fucking pasty face ever again.

[ecofmaster]

Making actually good updates to Clash Royale every day until Supercell fixes their stupid game

So today is special because we're talking about a single card

Day 5: X-bow

Now here's what's special about the X-bow; I use it. So I understand what is and is not reasonable. That being said, the balance I'm proposing is VERY ambitious, and WILL need some polishing if it is ever to be considered for the actual game.

That being said...

The X-bow has been trash for literal years now and I don't think people understand how bad it is because it's annoying. It's like the hot rider. People call for nerfs, when in all honesty the card is healthy. But in this case the X-bow is not healthy at all, it is incredibly weak.

Change 1: increase the X-bow's elixir to 7. This does a few things. Firstly it will hopefully stop it from being used viably as a defence. You would much rather use a zappies and a knight than a seven elixir building as defence, no matter what that building can do. Increasing the elixir will also make many 4 elixir pairs with X-bow weaker. I have five different four elixir cards in my deck just because plopping down an X-bow with a full bar of elixir gives you just enough elixir to afford a hunter, electro wizard, or whatever else I need. This elixir change will make it better to use 3 elixir cards for that same purpose. For that same reason, X-bow Tesla will not longer be a menacing combo. But this is a nerf, and as I was saying before, X-bow is already in a weak state.

Change two: Other buffs

Which is why giving the X-bow other buffs is necessary. I would like to give it a sight range increase of one tile, a slight damage increase (just enough to kill spear goblins in one shot), a health buff (enough to survive four wall breakers), and a MAJOR shot speed increase. Like Clash of Clans level speeds of attack. This will make the x-bow INSANELY powerful, because with the combined hit power increase and speed buff, the X-bow will shred through any swarm and even some mini tanks too. And giving it that sight buff makes it so much easier to defend. So how will you defend against it?

Change 3: No more lock on

I propose a special change to the x-bow. One that no troop has gotten before. Removing X-bow's entire lock on ability. This would mean the x-bow would now shoot whatever is closest to it no matter what, as long as that thing was in its range. This would make it MUCH harder to use X-bow, essentially making it a high skill only card. You would have to defend it with your life to get any value, but if you're able to, it would be very rewarding.

Obviously I can't test these changes out, and I know they definitely need some polishing and changing if they can ever be considered for the main game. But I think this is a way to put the x-bow back in the game in a healthy way.

[bleaksqueak]

Kinda weird question but, rate the Thorncrofts on a scale from 1 to 10 on how likely they are to do something stupid and/or unhinged, racoon style (speak about examples if you'd like [I like their family a normal amount])

You say it's a weird question, but I have an established chart of (Voted Most Normal --- Sicko Mode) for them



I'm going to leave Daddio out because he's not been introduced yet, so you can have fun planting him on the sliding scale of idiocy if you want: Lyra is the king goblin, and even should I try to dethrone her, I would not be strong enough. The raccoons all bow before her, and each has a cute little Mad Scientist theming more Adorable than the last. This in reality is just her joke wallet album she spent way too many nights on to entertain herself during boring fundraising galas.

Elias is only slightly trailing behind her, but his unhinged raccoon nonsense manifests in slightly different ways. He unfortunately takes after his mother but in possibly every horrible-not-good-way possible. He's bypassed the joke trash panda album and gone straight to simply manifesting as one. It's easier to do crime things behind people's backs that way. Possibly all of Lyra's worst traits.

Meanwhile: Audric was voted "MOST NORMAL (VERY APPROACHABLE)" several years in a row now, beating out Bradley by technicality of being Less-Rock-Like . So, needless to say, they depend on him to do the grocery shopping.



Maia disagrees wholeheartedly on that whole 'approachable' thing and just kind of, in general, wants to stop meeting her idol in these roundabout not great ways.

Edit: lmao i’m so sleepy I missed the 1-10 rating.

ok: Daddio: (N/A unintroduced)

Audric: 1, maybe a 2 if the mood strikes.

Bradley: 4 (he’d be a solid 1 if he wasn’t a rock being puppeted by Lyra. Alas.)

Elias: 10

Lyra: 11

anyone else related to this trash fire: 5.5 until proven guilty.

[rolliwant]

Heroes 5 last soul standing walkthrough

Heroes 5 last soul standing walkthrough how to#

On the picture below is shown your spawn location on map (yellow circle) and an ideal path of collecting mana from chests. In the first build phase you're about to build the bulk of defences and run a lot. And title of this guide may say 'Done Easily', but take it easy, you'll still need to do quite a lot of work.īefore you even load the map, switch to your Tower Monk. Wave 1 - Goblin wave First before first, I advise you to read through description and look at screens provided below each description furthermore to get an idea what are you about to do before you do anything. The goal of this challenge is to prevent wave-specific male & female enemies from pairing each other (males spawning on the east part of the map and females on west) while being constantly swarmed by hordes of Mini Ogres and Djinns. Also recommended beside Hero Damage to spec into Piercing Shots, those help to clear heroes on last wave and speed up boss fight tremendously, since this hero is going to deal the majority of damage to bosses.Equipped with a decent weapon (100k+ Blaster Rifle, or 160k+ Pawn Shot preferably Blaster Rifle) and a Cat boosting at least 2 players.Recommended with a fair amount of Hero Boost for clearing the last wave easily and for boosting during boss fight.Equipped with a decent DPS pet and a melee weapon I DO NOT advise at all using ranged weapon since you're going to use this hero in close-range combat during last wave.and as it was said in the Introduction, you'll need one extra hero or teammate with you. And at least 90% of Generic resistance (for Nightmare) since you're going to be running between mobs quite often.Having a Genie and a Mana Bow is a must for fast mana collecting.

Heroes 5 last soul standing walkthrough how to#

It is necessary that you know how to use Jester's Wheel O' Fortuna - at least the ability Heal Allies (3x potion).Highly recommended to use Jester with high Casting Rate for this role (but any other hero with Genie works too, although it won't be as universal).Same deal as with EV, put emphasis/respec into Tower Health, since your Minions are going to play the role of meat-walls, they are going to need to take some hits and survive long enough.Highly recommended to respec your hero points into Tower Radius, since you're going to place Gas Traps to prevent Djinns from desummoning your defences, those traps need to have some range recommended at least 2k stat.Recommended to have some speed-boosting pet equipped.Highly recommended stat to emphasis is Tower Health, since the success of your build is going to depend on Physical Wall health and Minion duration, other stats are not so important.Recommended to have some speed-boosting pet equipped since the time for building is tight.Probably every stat is important for this builder since auras kill the majority of 'trash' mobs.The heroes (builders) with stats listed bellow are probably the lowest recommended for this challenge, but with some practice and map knowledge still easily doable. As in all my previous guides I tried to make this work with as low-accessable stats as possible.

[missmizzmozz]

Hello and welcome to an in-depth(?) analysis of Stand Tall from Julie and the Phantoms.

I am very tired but I had an epiphany in the shower so I’m going to try and gather the mushy pieces of my goblin brain so I can share my thoughts on the underlying meaning in this song. It’s very likely that someone else has similar ideas and has already talked about them but please bear with me. Here we go:

Don’t blink

No, I don’t want to miss it

I think this is talking about Julie’s fear that the boys have gone without being able to say goodbye to her. She’s performing at the Orpheum under the impression that they’ve disappeared forever so these lyrics – whatever their meaning when she and Luke wrote the song – are now very bittersweet.

One thing, and it’s back to the beginning

This might be obvious but “One thing” (C*leb’s jolts) has brought her back to the way things were at the start of the show – no mother (although she is there in spirit bc the dahlia) and no himbo ghost band. 

‘Cause everything is rushing in fast

Keep going on, never look back

The difference between the Julie at the beginning of the show and the Julie who is performing this song now is clear; she’s not going to stop and break down although it’s all happened so quickly. She’s learned that even in grief she can keep on moving through life, grateful for all the love and memories she’s had with these three boys. She’s going to keep going for them.

And it’s one, two, three, four times

That I’ll try for one more night

One, two, three, four people that she’s lost: her mother, Luke, Alex and Reggie. The four reasons that she’s going to “try for one more night”. To make them proud.

Light a fire in my eyes

I’m going out of my mind

The “fire” is her passion for music that her mother helped nurture when she was alive and the band helped return to her after her mother’s death. It’s an imperative sentence which could suggest that she is asking them to give her the passion for this last performance.

Whatever happens, even if I’m the last standing

I’ma stand tall, I’ma stand tall

Whatever happens, even when everything’s down

I’ma stand tall, I’ma stand tall

The chorus is pretty self-explanatory. Julie is the last standing and she declares that she’s going to stand tall even though her heart is broken and she’s lost all hope of ever seeing the boys again. 

I gotta keep on dreaming, ‘cause I gotta catch that feeling

Whatever happens, even if I’m the last standing 

I’ma stand tall, I’ma stand tall

Again, I think the meaning is pretty obvious. Even without the band, Julie decides to keep their dream alive and carry on creating the music that they all share the same passion for.

And now for the moment when the waterworks start for me. 

Right now, I’m loving every minute

Hands down, can’t let myself forget, no

‘Cause everything is rushing in fast

Keep going on, never look back

ALEX AND REGGIE ARE PERFORMING ALONGSIDE HER!! THEY HAVEN’T GONE!!

You can see the relief and happiness in Julie’s face when she sees them for the first time so I think these lines are a true reflection of how she’s feeling in that moment: a bit overwhelmed with emotions but still continuing to perform.

And it’s one, two, three, four times

That I’ll try for one more night

Light a fire in my eyes

I’m going to talk about the music in this bit bc I don’t really have anything new to say about the lyrics here.

The music starts to swell as Julie, Alex and Reggie wait for Luke to appear on stage with them. Julie’s voice is even stronger than before because her hope has returned. You can hear Luke’s guitar coming in and out with the melody as he fights the jolts to return to her, and you think for a moment that maybe he won’t come back in time when –

I’m going out of my mind

HE’S BACK BABYYY!!!!

Whatever happens, even if I'm the last standing

I'ma stand tall, I'ma stand tall

Whatever happens, even when everything's down

I'ma stand tall, I'ma stand tall

This time Luke is singing these lyrics. I think it’s him encouraging the band to keep going, no matter what happens at the end of this performance, even if this is the last time they’ll ever see each other again. 

The serotonin when Julie and Luke start to harmonise tho. 🤌🏻

I gotta keep on dreaming, ‘cause I gotta catch that feeling

Whatever happens, even if I'm the last standing

I'ma stand tall, I'ma stand tall

THEY’RE SHARING THE MIC! The one thing that binds Julie and Luke together as friends or potentially as something more is the fact that they share the same dream and love of music so as they sing this part together, it represents the connection they share.

Like I'm glowing in the dark

I keep on going when it's all falling apart

Yeah, I know it with all my heart

Ooh, ooh

Our girl Jules is practically glowing with happiness that the boys are with her on stage. 🥺 Even though she knows it’s likely the last time she’ll ever sing with them again, she’s holding on to this moment and fully enjoying just being with her friends, her band, for one last time.

(Also the little back to back thing with Reggie at the ‘ooh, ooh’ bit just melts my heart ugh)

Never look back

Throughout the show, Luke always says that he has ‘no regrets’ in life but it’s at this moment when he is truly free from any regrets he might have had so it’s only right that he gets to belt this line.

Whatever happens, even if I’m the last standing

I’ma stand tall, I’ma stand tall

i’m full on sobbing now Alex, who has struggled with his anxieties over the uncertainty of death and how he became a ghost – not to mention all the drama with Caleb, now stands up and sings this with confidence. I like to think that this is him saying goodbye to his friends and especially encouraging Julie, telling them (and himself) that it’s going to be okay.

Whatever happens, even if I’m the last standing

I’ma stand tall, I’ma stand tall

My sweet boy Reggie... He was so scared about never seeing his friends again after crossing over so him singing this makes me so sad because it’s almost like he’s preparing himself to be ‘the last standing’ on the other side but he makes the decision to be brave and face his fears head on. 😭

Stand tall

Stand tall

Julie, Alex and Luke all echo Reggie because they feel the exact same way, expecting to be separated forever after this performance, but they each tell each other to’ stand tall’ no matter what.

Whatever happens, even if I'm the last standing

I'ma stand tall, I'ma stand tall

Whatever happens, even when everything's down

I'ma stand tall, I'ma stand tall

I gotta keep on dreaming, ‘cause I gotta catch that feeling

Whatever happens, even if I'm the last standing

I'ma stand tall, I'ma stand tall

They’re all singing together until the final note which Julie sings alone because she truly will be the last standing after they take their bows. I also think it’s because the boys love her so much and really want her to get the credit that she deserves, especially since they believe they won’t be around to perform with her anymore. So they let her hold that last note – really showing that SHE is the star of the show. They are HER band but she should get the last note of their final performance.

And thus ends my tired, shower-induced, emotional analysis of Stand Tall. I hope my points were coherent enough and I haven’t repeated myself too much. Basically, I’m JATP trash and Stand Tall makes me cry.

[tobswrites]

The Dragons I Know

I'm writing different one shots, alternative universes of the Fantasy Universe| 2nd Popularity Poll.  A llot of these are just ideas that ended up incomplete. This is part 1. 

The abandon tower was once part of a beautiful castle, the rest of it had completely disappeared through time and age. If Bakugou had not know the history of this village he would have never known an old kingdom had once prospered here.

The ruins, or could even call it that? Since there literally was almost nothing left. Well, anyways, the dirt underneath his boots felt different. Instead of the earthy thick soil, he felt more stationed on the path to the tower.

The castle must have been buried underneath, it was likely nature had taken back what was stolen from them, covering up a kingdom many have forgotten about.

There was rumors of the tower leading to an underground treasure. But one not easily found. There was a monster underneath this rubble. One that ferocious and easily angered when one trespassed its land.

Bakugou had respect for that, he would hate it if humans started to come in to his own to take his shit.

Which brings him to why hes here.

The creature, the monster, just from pure curiosity, he wanted to know what it was. And if he's seen it before.

He loves a good fight, a good trespassing monster slaying. But most of all, he loves the creatures that roam the world...excluding the humans, elves, fae, goblin and fairies. All of them thought too much alike, and because of that, those assholes were constantly at war with one another.

Why couldn't they simply coexist like the rest of the world?

There was only one opening into the ruined tower, and that was a previous dug hole, by a man simply intrigued of what was left behind.

Finding the hole was easy, but looking into the opening, Bakugou was a bit skeptic, it was complete darkness leading to the unknown.

But he's never been afraid of the dark.

He falls, completely to the unknown, and with his magic igniting his hand, he was able to see exactly when he was going to hit the floor.

Falling feet first, he landed comfortable with a roll to reduce any damage on his body. He wouldnt have been able to use his magic without the risk of closing his only known exit.

Darkness is still present, but following the echo of wind for a good twenty minutes, he found himself surrounded with mounted lit torches.

"Weird." He mutters, unless someone had arrived before him, it shouldn't have been impossible for these torches to be lighted from months ago, since the last known guy to come down and never resurface.

Information he should keep in mind, for all he knows the last person here could have offed the monster and could be living in these treasures.

Maybe he became cursed, or completely obsessed with the treasure that he couldn't possibly leave from.

So he should keep an eye not only for a monster but for a human too.

The empty corridors proves Bakugou's previous theory correct. The castle was indeed within the ground, fallen, and submerged into the earth. There was entryway completely closed off, and some crumbled brick and ash were pushed into the corners...which was odd.

Because...well...it was oddly clean down here.

Blinking with conflicting thoughts, Bakugou had moved to grab his sheathed sword, pulling at its hilt, he carefully takes his steps forward.

Although he finds no one. At least not a human.

On top of a mountain of rubble and trash, before Bakugou eyes, was a dragon, a red, breathtaking dragon.

"Holy shit" he whispers, letting his sword go, causing it to slide back to its home. Standing straighter than his attack position.

Bakugou quickly drops his head, shutting his eyes, he places his left hand, curled in lightly on his forehead. The other hand, his right, is flat over his heart. A sign of respect.

His people have treasured the dragons for hundreds of years. They were a sign of prosperity, lividity, and power to his people. Overall they represented the warmth and heart of his culture.

Bakugou may not follow many traditions in his family, but since he was a young brat, he adored the tales of the dragons.

When his mother was younger, younger than he is now, there was war that started out of jealously. Many were jealous of favoritism the dragons had given to his tribe.

And to protect both the tribe and the dragons it was decided that the dragons would leave to find a new home where they would be safe and at peace.

The dragon has noticed his presence, at first, the dragon huffs but once the creature gave Bakugou a better look it lifted his head, now interested.

Bakugou came here out of pure curiosity, maybe a little fight if the creature didnt let him leave.

But a dragon, and beauty like the one in front of them, was completely unexpected. Bakugou wasn't entirely sure where the dragons had flown off to. But to find one here?

He wants to give the dragon better than this.

The dragon stands, causing the rubble to fall, but Bakugou stays put in his stance, head still bowed, eyes still closed.

There's a loud thump and the dragon causes a draft from simply moving, he feels the creature getting closer, the air he exhales his hot on Bakugou's face, but the man stays put.

He's not afraid, he's never been so defenseless before, but he's not afraid.

"Why do you do this?" A voice that startles him, causes him to open his eyes and look at the man infront of him. Although they were relatively the same height, the other male's eyes held so much wisdom.

The dragon is gone. And in his place was this red head male, he had a heavy accent, his torso bare like his own, and covered with scars. There was even one just over his right eye.

Bakugou is smart enough to know who the man in front of him was.

"Out of respect."

"You dont even know who I am."

"You're existence is enough."

"Is it?" The red head looks away, expression now sad. "Why did you come here?"

Bakugou who bows slightly and says a quick prayer before he drops his hands.

"Curiosity."

"About a dragon?"

"About what was down here."

"To take my 'treasure' then?"

"I'm not interested."

The dull red in the dragons eyes changed, brightening only slightly. "Am I interesting enough?"

"More."

[sketchyships]

You remind me of the babe (chapter 1/?)

I can explain.

....No I can’t.

Listen, just read this and pretend that you didn’t see it.

TW: Verbal parental abuse

/./././././././././././././././././././././

My hands shook as I locked my bedroom door behind me, my mother’s still screaming voice echoing across the house. She had been doing this for two hours now; two hours of endless berating, and insults. I couldn’t handle anymore of it. 

“LET ME IN!” I winced as she screeched through the thin wood of my door. 

My cries caught in my throat, causing me to hiccup and sob. “N-n-no. I-I need a m-minute.”

“You don’t get to walk away from me! I’m not finished! You’re acting like a spoiled child-” Her tone grated against my skin, making me want to scratch, to pull my hair and scream back. Before I could think about what I was doing, I stumbled away from the door and into my closet, slamming it shut behind me. Within moments I was on the floor, clutching my chest and sobbing. I couldn’t do this anymore. I couldn’t stand to live like this.

“You’re such a fucking child! Twenty years old and you can’t even take care of yourself! Do you even think?!” 

Her earlier words echo in my mind, still ripping into me. My own mother didn’t think I was capable.

“Some of us have to go to work and pay the bills! The least you could do is try and help out, but no, you don’t care to do anything unless it’s fun for you!” All of this just because I had forgotten to take out the trash. Was I really so selfish for forgetting something so small?

“You were supposed to be in college by now, and instead you’re wasting your life! You want to be a child?! Fine! I’ll take everything away from you, and you won’t be able to leave! I’ll treat you like one!” She thought I was a failure, and to be fair, I probably was one.

My chest ached as I struggled for breath, the memories of everything she had said overwhelming me. I cried out without thinking, my voice hitching as I rocked back and forth. “I-I wish I c-could just disappear! Just get me out of here! Anyone, please!”

My voice faded, and I was left in silence. There was no one to hear my cries, no one to comfort me. I was totally, and dreadfully alone. It was stupid of me to give in and let myself break like this-

I froze in place as I heard a tiny, high pitched giggle above me. I blinked and looked up, squinting in the darkness. “H-hello?”

Another giggle, this one in front of me. My breath froze in my lungs as I reached up and tried to shakily turn on the light. No matter how hard I searched, I couldn’t seem to find it.

The giggling grew louder as I stood, forcing open the closet door before stumbling toward the light switch. The light flickered on for a moment before the light bulb sputtered out with a loud POP! 

I screamed and ducked my head to avoid any falling glass shards. Ok, fuck this. The stress was finally making me crack. I shook myself and tried to open the door. “Mom? Mom, I’m sorry, but I-I need help-”

The door knob didn’t move as I yanked it side to side. The giggling was growling steadily louder around me as I struggled to keep my breathing steady. “M-mom-”

I screeched as I felt something latch onto my leg in the darkness. The laughter exploded into cackles as I felt what seemed like claws dig into my legs and start to drag me down.

“STOP IT! STOP! HELP!” I had lost it. Was this some kind of nightmare?!

“What do you think we’re doing?” A voice like broken crystal crooned in my ear as more tiny claws dug into my shoulders and sides, lifting me off the ground.

I strained to get out of their grasps, covering my face as I began to hyperventilate. This was a nightmare, it was all just a nightmare. I had fallen asleep inside the closet, I was going to wake up. I needed to wake up, RIGHT NOW!

“That’s quite enough. You can let her go now.” I gasped as all of the hands dropped me, and I smacked into the ground with a harsh thud. I jolted up, kicking at the tiny creatures that were scurrying away from me.

“That’s the last time I send them to retrieve something so important.” I froze as  a shadow fell over me. “Are you quite alright? They didn’t smack your pretty little head off anything, did they?”

I blinked and slowly forced my eyes upward. The man standing over me was… I couldn’t decide if he was enchanting, or insane. The first thing I saw were his riding boots, shined so perfectly I could see my own terrified expression in them. Then a pair of light gray dress pants, and a black corset vest over what looked like a Victorian dress shirt. The entire outfit seemed to glimmer slightly, as if the wearer had been dipped in a mix of shellac and glitter. All of that paled in comparison to his actual face. His eyes practically glowed, one a radiant emerald green, the other a honeyed earthen brown. His skin was pale, and his face was chiseled like a marble statue. When he spoke, his mouth was overfilled with fangs that grew in every direction, and long, warped ears stuck out from his golden hair, which emulated both a spider plant and a cartoon cigar that had exploded. My heart sputtered for a beat, but it wasn’t out of fear.

My mouth opened before I could think about what I was about to say. “If I’m dreaming, I’ve got some issues to work out with my subconscious.”

He snorted before offering me a hand. I flinched back on instinct, lowering my head.

“I’m not going to hurt you.” He raised an eyebrow and looked back at his hand expectantly. 

I paused before slowly taking it and standing, glancing around. I was in what looked like a stone throne room. The walls were crafted with what looked like giant, uneven bricks. We stood on uneven, cracked tiles, and a deep fire pit was set in the floor about a dozen feet away.. The walls were covered in uneven shelves, and large, colorful banners. For a throne room, it was rather… unfinished. 

“What do you think, Emily?” I froze as he spoke just behind my ear.

I turned, nearly tripping on an uneven tile as I felt my eyes widen. “How do you know my name-no, stupid question. It’s- it’s fine.” I took another step back, trying to get space between us. “It’s lovely, really. Now, I… I hate to be rude, but I really must leave. Which exit do I take to wake up?”

My stomach dropped as he smirked down at me. “Leave? Wake up? Dear girl, you aren’t making any sense. You did ask to be taken away, didn’t you?”

My desperate words from before echoed in my mind. “I- well, yes, but I- this is just a dream, this isn’t real-”

“Is that so?” I took another step back as he walked closer to me, flinching yet again as he grabbed my arm. He lifted his free hand to reveal a crystal ball. He pressed it into my hand, and I winced as it warped against my skin. When I looked down, I was holding a white rose, it’s thorns digging into my palm. It’s perfume was overwhelming, and I grimaced as he guided my hand closer to my face. “Tell me, does this seem like something you would dream of? Something so vivid, so life like?”

I dropped it, shaking my head and raking my hands through my hair. “I- That’s not- I don’t- stop!” I couldn’t handle this. This couldn’t be real, but he was right. Everything around me was so unwillingly real.

“No. You asked to be taken, so I took you. It will be easier for you to calm down if you accept that.”

“Who are you?!” My panic began to sour in my stomach as I stared at him. “What kind of sick joke is this?” 

He smiled again. “You don’t know? Has it been so long since you thought of me last?” He bowed at the waist. “The dreadful goblin king, Jareth, at your service.”

I felt like I had been shot point blank. So many childhood fairytales, so many daydreams, so many days out in the woods with imaginary friends came rushing back all at once. This couldn’t be real. The goblin king was the antagonist of so many stories I had made up when I was younger. He was an evil, possessive, manipulative bastard that was obsessed with control.

And, now apparently, he had kidnapped me, and taken me hostage. 

He stood straight and stepped closer to me. “Why so shocked? Do you not recall the many times I offered to help you? To take you away? All I asked was that you gave up your old life and became mine. Now, you have finally seen reason-”

My shock faded as I stared at him. With every word, I felt something molten hot begin to grow inside me. It didn’t matter if this was a dream; the audacity of any character, any creature to think that they had any right to steal me, was disgusting. I decided to do the only thing that seemed logical in the moment.

I reeled back, and sank my fist into his smug, glittering face.

[foreverfangirlalways]

The Astronomer and The Florist (Chapter 12)

Summery: Logan and Virgil are at Disney World with Roman and Patton’s and they are all just being straight up adorable.

Ships: Analogical & Royality

Warning: This is more Royality centic in honor of Roman’s birthday

-let me know if I need to add more warnings-

*I added links to help visualize the outfits!!!*

(This was so much fun to write! And a special thank you to @kawaiikat54 for some ideas and a major plot point for this chapter!)

—-

Virgil woke up, and smiled up at his boyfriend. Logan’s hair was draped over his eyes, and looked so peaceful while sleeping.

Virgil was reminded of their sleepover date, almost 2 months ago. He had woken up just like this, and felt the same sense of adoration he’s feeling now.

He thought of everything that happened in the last two months. They had a more dates, ate dinner with Thomas three more times, and had four more sleepovers.

He swept Logan’s hair out of his eyes, and and kissed him on the nose. “Wake up sleepy head, we have a big day ahead of us!” Logan blearily looked at Virgil and smiled.

“That we do. I won the slug bug competition on the drive down here, so I can’t wait to see you in the Mickey Mouse ears I pick out.”

Virgil let out an offended squeak and shoved Logan. Logan fell off the bed, and busted out laughing. “That’s not fair! You cheated and you know it!”

Logan laughed and headed to the bathroom. “It’s not cheating. I kissed you every time I saw a Bug, and you just happened to miss seeing the car. It’s making use of my advantages!” Logan called before shutting the bathroom door.

Virgil yelled into his pillow. While he was upset that he lost the competition, he wasn’t THAT upset. It was just fun to tease.

Besides, he better hurry up and get dressed before Patton and Roman barged in. He changed out of his Nightmare Before Christmas onesie and into his version of the matching couple shirts that Patton got for both couples. Logan helped Patton with theirs, and Virgil loved it.

It was a ‘He’s Mine/I’m His’ couples shirt that had the Mickey gloves pointing at the other shirt. The reason Virgil loves it so much was because Logan had it personalized with the blue galaxy them that has come to represent their relationship.

He paired the ‘I’m his’ shirt with so distressed black jeans, and knocked on the bathroom door. Logan open the door and was wearing his ‘he’s mine’ shirt with dark wash blue jeans.

“You look as good in the shirt as I thought you would.” Logan said, kissing Virgil on the cheek and moving to get his shoes.

Virgil grabs Logan’s hand. “Hey, what did I say about missing your target?” Logan chuckled while rolling his eyes. “How about you brush your teeth and hen we will work on my aim.” Virgil huffed and shut the door.

Virgil finished getting ready, went to get his shocks, and then put his shoes on. As soon as he finished tying his shoes, he stood up and jumped into the arms of the man how has been standing next to him.

Logan caught his boyfriend, laughing at his antics. “I’m guessing you want to practice real quick before before we go to meet up with Patton and Roman?”

Virgil nodded and they met in the middle.

“Alright starlight, if we delay any longer Roman will break down the door.” As if summoned, there was a long knock on the door.

“You both better be decent because I’m coming in!” Roman yelled at the door. Logan set Virgil down just as Roman opened the door. Roman laughs and Patton walks in.

“Hey kiddos! Whatcha doing?” “Target practice.” Virgil said as Logan ‘subtly’ stepped behind Virgil. Everyone laughed at Logan.

“Aww, come on Logan! I thought we bonded, we made T-shirts together!” Patton said.

“Yes we did. And y’alls turned out amazing.” Logan said, still slightly weary of Patton. It is true, they bonded over the two months and made the T-shirts together. Though Patton still liked to make slight threats.

For example, when Patton was picking out the pattern for his shirts, he looked Logan in the eye and said, “I really like how this is cut! And you know what they say, best friends will literally cut people out of toxic relationships!”

He said this while brandishing a kitchen knife.

Patton giggled. “I know! Roman really likes his shirt!” Patton’s shirt had the words, “I support my boyfriends Disney Addiction” on it in a baby blue color. Roman’s shirt had the words “I’m the Boyfriend” written in a deep red.

“Oh, we knew that Roman liked his shirt as soon as you surprised him with it. He was so confused until you put yours on and handed him the tickets.” Virgil said.

“And I still haven’t gotten back full hearing after he found out that you actually planned to take us all to Disney and kept it from him for so long.” Logan added.

Roman sighed. “I was quite possibly the best early birthday present ever! Now, come on! Today is my actual birthday and I can’t wait to see what type of ears Logan picks out for Virgil!”

Roman and Patton ran out of the room laughing as Virgil threw a pillow at them.

-_-_-_-

Roman wanted to go to Magic Kingdom, so that’s where they went. After taking some pictures, they headed into the nearest gift shop, to ‘go ahead and get this over with’ as Virgil put it.

Logan came back with something hidden behind his back, and a huge smile on his face.

“I found the most perfect one ever, I think you will love it. Close your eyes.” Virgil rolled his eyes then closed them, amusement shining on his face.

Logan placed the headband on Virgil’s head, and Patton and Roman tried and failed at stifling giggles.

“It better not have a giant bow on it, or I will hurt you!” Virgil growled with no actual threat in his voice.

“Open your eyes starlight.”

Virgil opened his eyes and looked into the mirror that Patton was holding up. It was a Mickey Mouse ears headband with a Sorcerer hat situated between the ears.

Logan was smiling over Virgil’s shoulder, and Virgil turned around.

“So... what do you think?” Virgil wrapped his arms around Logan. “I love it moonbeam, great job!”

Logan looked extremely proud of himself. “It has the moon and stars on it, so it represents us!” Patton and Roman took a few pictures and then went to go get eachother headbands.

Virgil looked over at the retreating couple, and then back at his boyfriend. “Before we follow them, can we have matching headbands?”

Logan laughed at his boyfriends puppy eyes, and put on a second headband that he had been hiding. “Way ahead of you. Now, let’s go catchup to those oblivious gays.”

Virgil laughed and walked over to where Patton was putting on a Mickey Mouse ears headband that has a Golden crown on it on Romans head.

Logan is already taking pictures of the soft couple, and Virgil took a video of Roman presenting a Mickey Mouse ears headband with a baby blue bow and flower on it, and a Silver ornament of Cinderella’s carriage in the middle of the bow to Patton and then placing gently on Patton’s head.

“A gorgeous headpiece for my gorgeous boyfriend.” Roman declared. Virgil and Logan shared a soft look as Roman and Patton shared a kiss. This was going to be one great day.

-_-_-_-

After paying for the headbands, the boys took a few photos in front of the Castle.  

They went all around the park, ridding rides, eating snacks, and meeting characters.

Cinderella loved Patton’s headband, Roman got into a sing competition with Gaston, and Virgil got dragged away by Peter Pan while Logan just laughed and recorded the whole thing.

Patton had booked them lunch at Cinderella’s Royal Table, and all the princess sang Happy Birthday to Roman.

As night began to fall, the group headed back towards the castle to watch the firework show. Knowing what was about to happen, Virgil and Logan started recording Roman and Patton as soon as the fireworks went off.

“Roman?”

“Patton...”

They both laughed. The couple recording were trying not to shake their cameras from laughter. ‘Here we go...’ Logan and Virgil whispered to eachother, smiling.

“The fireworks are beautiful,” Roman said. “Almost as beautiful as you.”

Patton blushed and replied, “these fireworks are bright but your the brightest thing in my sky.”

Both Roman and Patton kneeled on one knee and presented a ring. They then looked at eachother in shock.

“WILL YOU MARRY ME?!” They both rushed out at the same time, trying to say it first.

They then leaped into eachothers arms screaming “YES YES YES!”

They kissed right as the big finally went off, and everyone cheered.

The new fiancés didn’t stop smiling for the rest of the trip, especially after a photographer Logan and Virgil hired showed them the photos she took of the proposal.

Everyone agreed that it was the best trip ever, and Roman wouldn’t stop gushing about how he got a Disney trip and fiancé for his birthday.

Taglist-

@dragonwithproblems

@five-falseh00ds-ph0nated

@kawaiikat54

@thefingergunsgirl

@sanders-sides-with-quinn

@aleiimm

@007ardra

@yikesdodson

@nerdycupcake559

@softestvirgil

@teacupfulofstarshine

@impatentpending

@star-crossed-shipper

@rainbowemonightmare

@ravenivy2079

@ladyartemisia28

@moose-boi

@resident-trash-goblin

@parx-boiiz

[the-overgrowth]

Retrospective: “Faybane” #1

This is where it all started, on July 8th, 2016. Although probably a bit earlier than that, but this is the earliest thing I can find that’s actually written down, so that’s what counts. And back in the day I didn’t let ideas marinate the way I do now, I just started writing pretty much as soon as I got the idea.

Anyway, the document was created at this point in time according to Google Docs, and was last modified in October 3rd, 2016. It’s only 3 chapters long, plus one incomplete fourth chapter, and the whole thing is about 17k words.

Which is a lot for 3 chapters. I would say something about how I’m less wordy now, but the latest draft is like 107k words long, so, like, I will always struggle with shutting the fuck up, methinks.

Also, the reason this is called “Faybane” is because that was the working title I used, and the name of this document. I thought it’d be the proper title but like. It’s bad lmao.

Anywhomst, let’s get into it!

Some background info for those who are new or need a refresher: this WIP became a thing after I read and was disappointed by A Court of Thorns and Roses by SJM, as well as The Iron King by Julie Kagawa and some book by Holly Black, was it Tithe?

ACOTAR was the biggest culprit. I feel that this is important to keep in mind as we go through this mess.

We open on Sidra in the forest with a bunch of men she calls a hunting party. It’s clear she doesn’t want to be there, but since she’s the only decent hunter among them and it’s her sister’s wedding today, she has to make the kill to feed the people attending said wedding.

This is, as the kids say, big stupid, and seems like a very ill-prepared celebration? I guess it makes some sense for them to want fresh meat, but this fresh? What if they didn’t find anything? What if they didn’t manage to kill anything? Is the whole thing cancelled? Stupid.

We find out they’ve been hunting a boar and that this dude named Liam, our Gaston replacement, previously wounded the animal but didn’t kill it, causing it to flee and force the hunting party to follow. It’s up to Sidra to make the killing blow, which she does with an arrow straight into its head. This was back when Sidra was still YA Heroine Extraordinaire and the time period was Vaguely Medieval, I guess.

They begin taking their quarry back home and Sidra thinks about how she normally doesn’t hunt this close to the “Faewilds” because animals closer to the border are said to be bigger and more violent. There isn’t an actual border, people just had to rely on intuition and not wander too far into the forest.

She also mentions a girl named Wilda, who disappeared fairly recently and everyone suspects it was the fae. This isn’t relevant now, but Wilda will return in later drafts, I think.

Everybody, especially my family, knew that I was one of the best archers in town, whether I used a bow or a crossbow.

Shut up, Not!Feyre. Nobody likes you.

I should mention that at this point I didn’t bother googling how big wild boars get and just assumed they were the size of like, a thick medium dog. Which is, if you know how big boars are, very incorrect. Four men pulling the animal seems realistic enough, but then Liam just lifts it up on his own? Not buying it.

Sidra laments how much she hates Liam and we find out that he apparently tried to assault her and she stabbed him? And apparently she’s not happy about his marriage to Sinéad but can’t do anything about it because “Father’s word is law” and Sinéad herself laughed it off when Sidra tried to warn her?

Yeah, gonna call bullshit on that one. No idea why this was here or what purpose it serves, the reason Liam doesn’t exist in the latest draft is because I never figured out what his purpose was so I axed him entirely. 

Current!Sidra would just kill him the moment he showed an interest in Sinéad, and Current!Sinéad would 100% believe her sister about something like that.

Some bloke named Connor strikes up a conversation with Sidra, seemingly worried about being this far away from human civilization. Liam teases him about it and calls the fae “knife-ears”, because I still had brainrot back then and liked Dragon Age and had zero original ideas in my head.

The men make jokes about having sex with fae women and Sidra seems so disturbed by this that she nocks an arrow. This isn’t the first time she makes references to feeling unsafe around these men, I have no idea why I wrote it this way aside from being edgy, I guess.

My village was mostly populated by men, and even though I wasn’t one of the pretty girls there, I knew these men weren’t picky, even with all their talk about beautiful fae women. I’d heard that fae women would kill their men after sleeping with them. I had no way of know it was true, but a part of me hoped it was and that Liam would some day soon get “lucky” and encounter a female fae, so she could end his misery.

Edgy, dude.

They eventually arrive and Sidra goes inside her house, which is a simple cottage with three rooms. I think her family are all farmers? It’s kind of confusing. She goes into her and Sinéad’s bedroom, where Sinéad is preparing for her wedding. Also, she’s blonde.

“Sid! There you are!” she said cheerily. “Killed a boar, huh? Good on Liam for taking all the credit.”

If you know your man is trash, why are you marrying him?

Apparently Liam seduced Sinéad with sweets and baked goods. I mean ... fair enough. Considering how Sidra complains about being hungry and skinny and going without food if she doesn’t kill the boar because this year’s harvest was minimal, I’m assuming y’all are starving.

We find out Sinéad’s mother doesn’t let her do anything around the house or farm, to preserve her “soft and white” hands and pale complexion so she could be married off easily. This makes zero sense, you’d think these medieval men wouldn’t have the same beauty standards as Victorian England, plus having a mouth to feed that doesn’t even help feeding itself is just nuts. 

But remember, this isn’t Sidra, this is Not!Feyre. She needs to be sad and put-upon and a victim. She explains how she was never pretty to begin with and thus nobody considered her to be worthy of marrying off, which then meant she was put to work and became even less attractive because now she was so cool and badass that all the men were intimidated by her.

Yeah, in a village that already doesn’t have a lot of young women? I’m not buying this, lmao. But go off, Not!Feyre.

I’d been the one helping around, instead. Hunting, mostly. Sometimes I’d chop wood or work the farm. Marrying out of the house seemed impossible. Marrying up was practically a dream you forgot upon waking. Had I been pretty from the start there would’ve been a foundation to work from, but I was a lost cause even before my skin became tan and my hands grew veined and calloused. I had freckles which people mistook for mud and dull brown eyes, a long nose that had been broken one time too many and a mouth that made it look like I constantly felt a bad smell no matter what facial expression I made. I’d always been of rather short stature and had brown hair and thick eyebrows, which in combination with everything else made my parents call me their “little goblin”. The scar on my face didn’t help me either: men didn’t like it when their women were more battle-hardened than they were.

Oh god please, don’t go off! We don’t care! Stop going off!

Also what fucking parents call their poor kid a goblin? Yikes.

Sinéad convinces Sidra to get prettied up and Sidra is all “oh I bet all the men will just fall over themselves for my favor now huh” which is just the most annoying fucking thing, prompting Sinéad to respond:

“Well, winter is coming and game is scarce. If they want to survive, marrying the best hunter in the village might be a good bet.”

Yeah! This is correct! I refuse to believe people wouldn’t be into Sidra! Not only does everyone apparently know she’s the best hunter in town, but Sidra herself confirmed the men here outnumber the women and aren’t very picky.

This is fucking stupid. I’m glad I axed it. In my defense, I was very much trying to emulate the YA shit I’d read so far.

Sidra’s grandmother enters the stage. She’s very old in this draft, but otherwise unchanged.

She was a short and wrinkled old lady with extremely bad vision and an even worse grasp on reality. Or maybe an extremely acute grasp on reality, depending on whether you believed her stories or not.

Sidra changes out of the dress again to go out and help her father prepare the boar, all while sulking.

I didn’t envy Sinead, nor any other bride. Despite what most people thought of me, I wasn’t some poor ugly girl longing for the love of a man and the security of marriage. Did I enjoy the idea of having somebody care for me? Sure. But it wasn’t on my list of priorities. I was still trying to figure out what actually was on that list. Not that it mattered. The prospects for a poor village girl were very finite.

Womp womp.

We get some confusing and barely related stuff about Sidra possibly becoming a royal hunter for the king and also about where the village is located in relation to the Faewilds. She speculates that maybe the fae aren’t real, but the way she and everyone else talks about them makes it pretty obvious that they are? This was supposed to build mystery, I guess.

We skip forward to the wedding and Sidra is moping again.

“How are you feeling?” Father asked and squeezed my shoulder. 

I wasn’t sure why he was doing that. I assumed it had something to do with the wedding and the fact that despite there being fewer women than men here, I was still not asked to dance. Though this didn’t really bother me, so I just shrugged.

“It doesn’t bother me. Anyway I will continue to mope and feel bitter about this thing that doesn’t bother me.” Hunny ...

At least Current!Sidra has the self-awareness to admit she’s sad and lonely.

 [Father’s] marriage to Sinead’s mother was never out of love, more out of necessity. It was easier when you had a big family.

Except for when this “big family” is 3 people who work and 2 people who are just being fed, right? See, I knew back then that having a big family helps when you have a farm, but I also needed to make Sidra Special so Sinéad had to sit on her ass to highlight how pretty and feminine she was or whatnot.

Bleh.

They talk a bit about Sidra’s mother, who passed away five years ago, and Sidra reminisces about how she used to tell amazing stories. It’s all very ... whatever, and serves only to make this point for the hundredth time:

I wasn’t like Mother. I wasn’t full of life and spirit like her. I wasn’t loved and respected by the entire village like her. I was just her disappointing child whose existence they’d rather forget except when they wanted something killed.

Right after this there’s a really abrupt scene transition. Nothing about the wedding coming to an end, nothing about her going to bed, it’s just ... some while later?

Sidra’s father comes back home from ??? and tells Sidra he saw a stag somewhere, but it was hours ago so she better get a move on.

I’m not sure what either of them thinks this will accomplish? Like ... what is she gonna do with it when she kills it ... Carry it home? On her little boney ass? Hmm? I guess I didn’t think of that because I had meta knowledge that she wouldn’t get it home either way, so who cares about logic, right?

Sidra kills two rabbits while stalking the deer, and despite telling us earlier that she doesn’t venture far away from human civilization and the boar hunting being the farthest she’d been and that she wouldn’t go this far alone, she has no issue dwelling very deep into the forest this time.

Like. Henlo? Can we have one logic please and thanks you? Granted, she keeps stopping every now and then to Feel Things Out, but this really goes against how careful she was before and at no point do we get an explanation to her sudden boldness. Plot reasons, I guess.

She nearly stumbles into fae territories and finally decides to head back, except when she starts returning, she sees the stag she’s been tracking. It’s abnormally huge and has a “dark brown” coat that she finds odd, but of course she’s too stupid to connect the dots.

She sneaks up on it and honestly? This chapter ending still slaps.

A scream of pain left the creature and I saw it topple. But though my arrow hit a deer, a man fell to the ground.

DUN DUN DUN.

And yeah, the ACOTAR roots rear their ugly heads again. I liked the idea of the protagonist shooting a fae disguised as an animal, but I decided to cut out the middleman and just have her obliterate Val right in chapter one. Don’t worry, he doesn’t die.

[jennifercrowart]

D&D Diary - The Yawning Rodent, 5

Refresher: Our adventurers Lugs (grung barbarian), Lurk (grung rogue), Aelia (tiefling cleric), Valas (drow sorcerer), and tagalong Meepo (kobold) defeated the giant spider mother, and confirmed that her latest human victim was not one of the Hucrele children they're looking for.  After resting through the day, they journeyed deeper into the Goblin Gang's territory, and fought groups of both on and off-duty guards.

When Meepo began to hear cries for help through a door, the group were able to unlock a room that was being used by the Goblin Gang as a dungeon cell for their Kobold Gang hostages. Amongst the kobold prisoners was a small ratfolk man - Deku, who his brother Big Oak had asked the party to look out for on their way to the Sunless Citadel. Deku had been trying to study the ruins using a library book about cults, but had been captured when he wandered too far inside. After retrieving his confiscated belongings from one of the guard barracks, Deku realised his library book was still missing, so he eagerly decided to join the party and hopefully find it.

But, first, the party had to find the Kobold Gang's missing dragon. Having found out her location from a guard they subsequently knocked unconscious, the party soon did just that...

Sunless Citadel spoilers!

Through the open door comes a rush of the stagnant stench of ammonia. Aelia, Valas, and Lugs enter the room first, finding it to be trashed as though it's been hit by a hurricane. Dressers, cupboards, and a table that all look like remnants from when the citadel once functioned as more than makeshift gang territories have been tipped over, with trophies knocked from the walls, and contents of drawers spilling onto the rug and stone floor. This room is chillier than the others, and patches of frost and snow coat the floor and pieces of furniture, glittering and sparkling in Valas' eerie green torchlight. In the center of the room is a stake that's been hammered unceremoniously into the ground, holding what's left of an iced-over and broken length of thick chain.

From above comes the light creak of wooden beams, and when they look up, they see a small, thin dragon crouching on the icy, dropping-stained rafters. Her scales are a bright white, and her feral eyes are a cold blue, though she's only as large as a wolf.

The white dragon wyrmling suddenly pounces on the party from above, her jaws just missing Aelia who ducks out of the way just in time. She  and Valas begin to panic, not having expected the dragon to be hostile straight away, while Lurk and Lugs already start going after Calcryx. With their springy frog legs, they find no trouble in jumping up to the rafters to go after her as she attempts to keep a height advantage over the group.

The adventurers hurriedly decide that they'll all try to do non-lethal attacks so they can still capture her alive. Deku casts bless on Lugs, Lurk, and Valas, as they're making the most attacks against the creature. Lugs goes after Calcryx with his club and Lurk with his bow and shortswords, but Lurk gets hit with an icy blast from the dragon's maw and falls off the rafters, unconscious and bleeding out when he hits the floor below. Aelia uses her healing magic to keep him stable and send him back into the fight.

When Meepo catches up to join the battle, Calcryx's attention suddenly shifts focus, her expression furious as she hisses and yells expletives at him in Draconic. Deku, with his understanding of the language, pales, awkwardly translating a censored version for the others. Valas frowns, and starts to question Meepo about his real relationship to Calcryx - it seems that she wasn't treated very well by the Kobold Gang at all, and it's now no wonder that she's so hostile to people. Meepo, incredulous, doesn't seem to understand that treating a dragon who he can talk to like a vicious circus animal is not going to win him any affection...

Calcryx goes after him immediately, letting out a roar and shaking the rafters so a hail of icicles rains down on the party below, before swooping down after the kobold. "YOU BETTER RUN, LITTLE LEECH."

Aelia and Lurk tell Meepo to get out of the room for his own safety. Calcryx zooms down and reaches him just beyond the doorway, snapping at his neck. The others try to keep fighting, while her thought begins to glow with recharged energy for her ice breath, and the steam from her mouth becomes a chilling fog that makes Valas feel like he's freezing down to his bones, preventing him from moving as quickly. In another furiously desperate and scrabbly attempt, she grabs Meepo's shoulder between her jaws before he's able to get far enough away, and crunches down with her icy fangs, landing a critical blow on the already-feeble kobold. Meepo yelps in pain, before losing consciousness as Calcryx tosses his limp body like a discarded toy. "Bad... girl.... Calcryx..."

Aelia, Deku, and Valas yell out to him, but have no choice but to keep fighting for now. Deku tries to help with his radiant magic, Lurk sends an arrow through her wing, Lugs lands a heavy hit on her back with his club, and Valas shoots out a Chaos Bolt of psychic energy. Like a shaken soda can, his wild magic begins to bubble up and overflow uncontrollably, and triggers for the first time; while Valas is dismayed at this, this time it results in summoning a spectral shield to protect him.

Calcryx, having completed her objective of killing the kobold Keeper of Dragons even though she's now badly wounded and limping, flies back towards the ceiling. She hisses at them to leave. With a well-aimed shot, Aelia hits her in the leg with a crossbow bolt, and it's enough to send Calcryx toppling to the ground and crashing into a smashed cupboard, unconscious.

With the fight over, Deku rushes over to Meepo, panicking. At a glance, the heavily bleeding and completely still kobold is dead. Deku leans over him and presses his Rat King holy symbol over the deep wounds in his shoulder and neck, and in a desperate plea, he casts Preserve Life.

While it seems like Meepo is too far gone at first, soon, the ragged tooth marks start to glow warm blue in tandem with Deku's holy symbol as the skin starts to slowly knit itself back together. His breathing is very faint, and blood had already been irregularly pulsing from his neck from a weak heartbeat, but he's still alive. The gashes heal over, but, with his clothes still wet and stained with blood, he doesn't wake up, even as his breathing slowly steadies. Deku watches over him, letting out a sigh of relief.

As the situation calms down, the rest of the party discusses what they should do about Calcryx. Knowing now that the Kobold Gang treated her poorly, they discuss potentially taking her back to the Rat's Nest to either be set free or nurtured properly by the ratfolk. Deku mentions that, if the group were to return to the Rat's Nest, the Yawning Rodent tavern does serve food that could give them a strengthening boost for when they return to the Sunless Citadel to continue adventuring. However, he also awkwardly tries to suggest that if they do go to the Rat's Nest, he'll just stay here and wait or hide outside of it, anxious that his brother would stop him from returning to the ruins with the party if he sees that he's been rescued already.

For now, the party seems to settle on trying to take Calcryx and Meepo back to the Kobold Gang's leader, Yusdrayl, as long as they make sure the gang knows to care for Calcryx more kindly. For now, they begin to look around for anything they can salvage from this trophy room, and find some crystal goblets, fine silverware, more jade dragon figurines, and a scroll that Valas finds out is in Dwarven, though it's heavily water-damaged.

As there's another reinforced door out of Calcryx's room, Lurk picks it open, curious as to where it leads next. Before him lies what looks like a long corridor, hazy with smoke from the wall sconces and decorated with more etchings of dragons. Meanwhile, Lugs cracks some ice out of the rug on the floor and fashions it into a sling, so they can drag the unconscious dragon wyrmling with them back to the Kobold Gang's territory.

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

I actually felt good about this session! For the first time, my players had a real challenge with the Calcryx fight. I looked into white dragon lair and legendary actions, and came up with some that were similar but more suitable for a wyrmling, like the freezing fog just slowing affected creatures down instead of dealing cold damage, Calcryx being able to use a 'villain action' to fly a little bit and not take opportunity attacks instead of fly and deal damage with the wingbeat, etc. Still challenging, and helped to keep up the pressure even though it was one creature against six - of course, I doubt it's perfect, but considering this is the fifth session I've run and the first time I've felt so good about a boss fight, I'm pretty happy!

Of course, Meepo dying was a big deal - I didn't really expect it to happen, but I forgot how little HP he had, and how much Calcryx could do with a bite attack - the book adventure does say that she'll attack him first if he's with the party! I am a bit of a softie though, and the players really liked Meepo, so while he won't be joining any more fights in this adventure, he's alive... ;v;

Also, for clarification, Meepo has been played by me as an NPC (taking instructions from the players when they want), but Deku is played by my friend Zak as a guest! Deku was written into the adventure anyway, replacing a more generic acolyte NPC the players could rescue from the goblins, and when Zak's schedule opened up so he could join the game for a while, that opportunity seemed pretty good!

[immysticalgarbage]

Progress

I hope everyone is enjoying their quarantine because it's gonna be a long one.

For the past 2 days, I have been working on stuff related to the Brane ship and Onward. More than art wise, but I'll be writing some stories. I want some people to imagine rather than depend on a picture when there's a story. I just felt stressed out because of family...which resulted in a emotional breakdown and had to put things on hold. I appreciate everyone's patience. Because of that, I'll provide a bit of what I've written for both the Brane ship and Onward. First, the Brane ship.

Because of the Bunny

(Bane & Scarecrow)

Another year and new reminders added upon Jonathan's mind. Failures. Foiled plans and feeble attempts to destroy the Batman. It doesn't make it any better that it's his birthday. Memories of his abusive great grandma and father mixing with the dreaded stress. He didn't want to do anything today. No research or testing. He just wants to take some painkillers and rest after his last fight with Batman. Least he put up a fight despite his lanky figure and the loss of his left eye from the Joker. Lack of strength and no depth perception, it did seem obvious who would win in that scenario.

Crane returns to his office. His stitched up shirt cut and torn that parts of his chest were exposed. The cuts still bleeding and even blended in with the color of his shirt. His hands wrapped up from the bruises and dark red knuckles. Crane's breath became rugged from his struggles of gasping for a full breath of air without the injuries overwhelming him. He's accustomed to this, but sick of it. He was starting to run out of bandages.

Jonathan stops at the office door to see a bit of color in his rather gloomy setting. A red box with a blue bow on it. It did confuse him, but he somehow assumes this is Joker's doing. A prank to smear more salt in his open wounds. He retreives his scythe from the left side of the door, bracing himself, protesting his aching body to not fight. He slowly approaches his desk, his grip on the weapon loosening because of his sore hands. His body shouting to stop, but Crane wasn't taking any chances. He raises his scythe until a familiar voice made him stop.

"Espantapájaros!"

Jonathan turns around to see Bane. Bane took the scythe from him with ease.

"What's with you?" Bane questioned.

"I thought it was some gag set by Joker. I hate asking this, but can you please dispose of it for me?"

Bane sighed, having that expression that questions Jonathan. He walks pass him and picks up the present, "I got it for you. I was told today is you birthday."

"Bane, you didn't have to. I don't really care for the day of my birth."

"You're being negative again. Is it really burdensome to have a miniscule shred of positivity? I'm giving up venom for you and I'm trying to pull you out of the deep hole you dug yourself in. The least you can do is put the effort you place in your work to try and get yourself out of your melancholic slump." Bane explained.

"That hole is for a select few. It's not my grave." Crane japed before taking the gift. "How is the progress anyway?"

"Glad you weren't here for it this morning. It wasn't pretty." Bane replied with a slight chuckle.

"Oh, I wish I was there. You're just experiencing an advanced form of withdrawl symptoms. The mind is the greatest muscle. I have no doubts you're capable to kicking such a habit." Jonathan spoke.

"I only said that because if you were here this morning, there was a possibility I would've snapped you like a twig."

"Awe. That's sweet of you, Osito." Crane remarked in a sarcastic lovey tone.

"Just open the gift, Scarecrow."

Jonathan opens the gift. First is a book by Craig Davidson, then a CD of Ice Nine Kills' Silver Scream. He was clearly embarrassed for having his interest of horror rock exposed which made Bane grin. There was one more object in the box. Crane looks in it and picks up a pink bunny pillow. Almost resembles a very soft marshmallow with the rabbit ears, tail, nubby limps, and expressionless face. He was puzzled, but it felt very soft.

Now for Onward.

Jealousy

The Phoenix greets the morning with its caw and fiery light as it spreads its glorious wings. Not even summer and its blistering heat could outshine such a beautiful bird. Of course, the Phoenix was interrupted by a goblin by having a boot thrown at it to silence it. Though it may be early, the residents of New Mushroomton were outside, whether it be to retrieve the mail, enjoy the summer fun, or just to carry on with their jobs. A very peaceful start to a new day despite the unicorns rummaging through the trash cans as usual.

The Lightfoot residence was fairly silent...so far. No metal music blaring from Barley's room or the pet dragon Blazey pouncing and licking her owners. Ian heads downstairs after washing up before his older brother could use it first. It wasn't a competition, but that Barley would take a bit longer to get ready. As he walks to the kitchen, he retreives his small notepad and pen, giving it a click. He has a little schedule for the day with a checkbox beside each one. His list goes as follows: Play Quest of Yore, Go to the gym with Barley, Help mom clean the living room, Practice spells, and Watch the fireworks with family. It's going to be a busy day today.

Laurel emerges from the backdoor after wishing her boyfriend, Colt Bronco, a good day at work. Ian smiles at his mom.

"Good morning, Ian. I hope you're ready for today." Laurel stated.

"Hi Mom. Yeah, I'm ready. It really has been a long time since we just go all out for a family night." Ian replied.

Laurel picks up a gold bone chew toy from the kitchen table and smirks before giving it a light squeeze. The squeak summoned Blazey. She barks as she runs to the toy. Laurel holds up the toy out of the dragon's reach. She tiptoes to Barley's room, opening the door slightly, and chucks the toy in the room, trying to aim for Barley's bed. Blazey storms into Barley's room, barking.

Barley is still sound asleep, snoring until he opens his eyes slightly to the noise. Blazey jumps onto the older sibling's gut and licks him. Barley laughs and tries to hold the pet at bay.

"Blazey! Knock it off!" Barley shouted.

"Morning Barley. I hope you don't plan on sleeping in." Laurel spoke with her hands on her hips.

Barley chuckles and grabs his beanie, "Sorry mom."

"Shower first. It'll be hot out and there is going to be a lot of running around to do."

"Got it, mom." Barley responded, getting semi clean clothes for the day. Navy blue cargo shorts, a Metal Maidens t-shirt, and obviously, his undergarment.

Ian follows Barley, "Ready to go on another quest?"

Barley ruffles his little brother's curly locks, chuckling, "Always ready for one. Hope your spirit is up for a more challenging quest."

"I noted some stuff we can do before we prepare for family night." Ian said, holding up his notebook, "Corey is joining too."

Barley then stops, "Officer Bronco also joining?"

That upbeat tone turned into a more serious one which made Ian cross his arms and tuck his hands into his sides.

[floral-and-fine]

Last Song part 1

Spiderman Noir x female reader

Warnings: lemon and cheating

a/n: I tried my best to write this in a Noir style novel, so it’s kinda dark, no one is really a “good guy” and it’s in his pov. Never really wrote anything like this, not sure how I feel about tbh. But I saw some Spiderman Noir fan art that made me want to write something for him.

Summary: The reader hires Peter Parker Private Investigator to search for her missing husband.

Queens, the city where I was born and raised. A city that has declined into darkness. A city drowning in its own filth, overrun with criminals and scum. From the dark alleyways, all the way to town hall was corruption.

Thunder roared outside my office window and lightning struck lighting up my office for a brief second. In the corner, there was a leak in the roof and there's a low buzz coming from the light fixture above.

I've stayed in this city long enough, but every time I think I can get out, something pulls me back.

I opened the bottom drawer of my desk and fetched the bottle of scotch. There was only about a shot left. I swallowed the last bit and sighed. It wasn't nearly enough.

There's a knock on my door and my secretary, Ms. Stacy, peeks her head in, “Mr. Parker, there's someone here to see you, sir.”

“Let 'em in,” I nod, tossing the empty scotch bottle in the trash.

A lovely woman steps into my office. She was wearing an A-line dress and lace gloves and was tightly clutching a matching handbag. Half of me hopes she hear for a date, but I know better in this kind of work.

I motion for her to take the seat across from me, “What can I do you, Miss-?”

“Y/n,” she answers without missing a beat and settles down. “I need your help, I've got no one else who I could turn to. I heard you’re one of the best private investigators in Queens.”

“Get to the point,” I cut her off.

“It's about my husband,” she starts, her eyes laced with concern.“He's gone missing… the police refuse to get involved, but I know there's something fishy going on.”

“Sure he didn't just run off with some hussy?” I questioned.

“I know my husband,” she argued sternly. “If he had a mistress, he would've had the courtesy to let me know he was leaving me for her.”

I roll my eyes, I've had other cases dealing with missing spouses, they almost always ended with them having a new lover.

“Mind if I?” she asks, removing a pack of cigarettes from her handbag.

I nod and push the ashtray on my desk closer to her. Her hand shakes as she tries to light it.

“Listen, Dollface,” I say, taking out a book of matches from my pocket. “I'm not the good guy you're looking for,” I explained to her, swiping the match against the strip. “I ain't gonna do you or nobody any favors out of the goodness of my heart.”

She leans towards the match I'm holding out for her, and she takes a quick drag and blows. “Money ain't a problem if that's what you’re worried about. Just please find him.”

Missing husband cases never go well. It always leads to unnecessary heartbreak. But if she's willing to pay, I'll keep my mouth shut for now. I got bills to pay after all.

“Fine,” I give in. “I'll take your case.”

I tell her to leave the details with my secretary, and with that, she leaves.

I get ready to head home for the night and to check in with Aunt May. I grab my hat and coat by the door and stop by Stacy's desk to say goodnight.

“So, Whaddya you think, Stac?”

She shrugs, “Think there might be something to it and something that might interest you. Here's what she told me.” Stacy handing me a note.

My eyes narrow when they spot a familiar name, Harry Osborn. So, the broad's missing husband was none other than my old chum.

“Small world,” I mutter bitterly. ...

Aunt May welcomes me home with open arms as soon as I walk in. While she has me near, she explains that my dinner is in the oven.

Not feeling hungry, I thank her and tell her I'll eat it later as I head upstairs instead. I can see that concerned look in her eye she often gives me, but she keeps quiet about it.

Digging through a box of old junk in my room, I find an old photo of Harry and myself, back during our school days. Life seemed so simple back then.

I had become aware of the sort of shady business Harry's father had been a part of shortly after high school.

Norman Osborn may have appeared like a saint in public, but that man had a finger in almost every criminal organization in Queens. It took a lot out of me to bring the Green Goblin down.

However, last I checked, Harry had nothing to do with his father's affiliations. And I hadn't heard anything through the grapevine about a new Green Goblin taking over.

But a lot can change over time and this city has a way of changing people for the worst.

Discarding the picture aside, I run my hand down my face, questioning if I can pursue this case without it taking a personal toll.

...

I started my investigation following Harry's last known activities. I searched for clues while following his footsteps.

Everywhere I went, I came out empty handed. Just when I was at my wit's end, one of Harry's employees mentioned a bar his boss frequented and adds that Harry was on his way there after work. He also warned me that the place was known to serve the shady sort of patrons in town.

The speakeasy wasn't easy to find, had to walk through what seemed like a maze of alleyways before finding the steel door to what appeared to be an abandoned factory.

As I opened the door I was greeted by a waft of thick white smoke. All eyes turned to me, watching me with suspicion. I recognize a few faces, several mobsters and petty criminals.

I approach the bar and ordered a drink. So, this is the place Harry Osborn was last seen. Not a surprise with all these shady characters around.

What the hell had Harry gotten himself into?

I run the scenarios in my head. Did he have a drug problem? Couldn't pay back a loan shark? Became a target for kidnapping?... Or worst-case scenario, Harry had decided to follow in his old man's footsteps.

There's still so much I don't know. I needed more clues and information.

My thoughts come to halt as applause breaks out. Shifting my attention to the stage, a man in tuxedo introduces the entertainment for the evening.  

“Y/n,” I whisper to myself, as the dame sauntered on stage. Apparently, the missus had kept from crucial facts to herself.

She looked even better than she had the other night. The skin-tight satin dress hugged every curve of her body.

She smiles at the crowd as she takes ahold of the mic, and the music starts. It's clear that she's no stranger to the limelight.

I watch mesmerized as she begins to croon a beautiful but sad song. She sings so effortlessly. Song after song, I find that I can't possibly take my eyes off of her.

Y/n looks in my direction, her eyes locking with mine as she coos some pretty words, and with that, her last song comes to an end.

Applause erupts again as she takes a bow and disappears backstage.

I feel my teeth grind and my fists clenched, as I finally come to my senses. She must've known her husband was a regular patron here.

I practically snarl as she slides into the barstool next to me a few minutes later.

“Mad at me?” she jokes playfully seeing the scowl on my face.

I scoff turning my face and finishing my drink. “I don't appreciate getting played.”

“Didn't know you were investigating me,” she shot back.

“Don't play coy, Mrs. Osborn,” I snap. “You hired me to find your husband, and all anyone can tell me was he was last seen here.”

“Mr. Parker,” she barks clearly displeased with my tone. “I'm sure you could understand, that I would want to keep this side of Harry's life private…”

Y/n sighs, crossing her legs and adjusting her dress, there's a faraway look in her eyes, “I'm not even entirely sure what all he was up to… but I'm scared, Mr. Parker, scared that I won't see my Harry again alive.”

My blood is still boiling over her withholding information.

“Might need to get used to the idea,” I say unnecessarily harsh. “You could've helped prevent that.”

She wipes away a stray tear and I regret my words.

“I'm sorry,” I start but she interjects.

“No, you're probably right,” she murmurs with trembling lips. “I need to tell you everything, Mr. Parker.”

We take a taxi back to my office so we can talk behind closed doors. I shut the door and stand back as she leans against my desk.

“When Harry and I first met I was a lounge singer and he had a bright future ahead of him. He was educated, came from a well to do family… I Had no idea how I caught his eye,” she says with a sad smile. “But we were young, in love, and a year or so later we married.”

“Then things really took a turn for the worst after Harry's father passed, and the ugly truth to his father's success came out to the forefront,” she sighs, her shoulders slumping. “The bribes, the scheming, the manipulating… Harry's not cut out for a life of crime… he's been distancing himself from me and keeping secrets.”

“When I try to talk to him, he gets defensive and puts up walls,” y/n rubs her forehead, her emotions getting the better of her. “I'm afraid that even if you do find Harry, Mr. Parker, he won't be the same man I married anymore.”

“I'll get to the bottom of this,” I promise her. “But I don't know if you'll like what I find.”

Y/n glances up at me with those sad eyes. I cup her cheek feeling her warm tears on my hand.

Next thing I know we’re kissing like our lives depended on it. My fingers caress her neck, and my tongue slides across her bottom lip.

Her coat slides off her shoulders, and my mouth kisses and sucks on her newly exposed skin and collarbone.

I scoop her up by her hips and help hoist her up on my desk. I push her dress up and my hands hastily move up her thighs. In a swift motion, I yank her lace panties down.

Neither of our actions would necessarily be considered loving or affectionate. We were caught up in our passion, lust, and overall desperateness to soothe our pain and loneliness.

Her hands fumbled with my shirt and belt. I feel her delicate fingers on my chest.

I know deep down we should stop, that I should be the voice of reason, but my most carnal desires take over. There's only one thing I want right now, and it's to be inside her, to feel her warmth.

Slowly, I push into her cunt, not being able to resist any longer.

Her nails drag across my shoulders as she clings to my body.  She moans, throwing her head back as she takes every inch of my cock. I take this opportunity to sink my teeth into the crook of her neck and gently biting the tender muscle.

I smile against her skin as she tugs on my hair. I teasingly grind deeper into her. Her legs wrap around my hips holding me close.

“Enjoying yourself,” I purr lowly.

She pulls me into another heated kiss and our tongues swirl around passionately.

I can hear the desk rattle as I thrust my hips into her. Slick noises fill the room along with our panting and moans.

Y/n starts getting louder and is in on the verge of screaming as she gets closer to cumming. With a few more rough bucks of my hips, she tenses and her walls squeeze tightly around my cock, milking it for every drop of my seed.

My fingers grip her soft skin tightly as I cum. I rest my forehead on her shoulder, catching my breath.

“Sleep on the couch,” I mutter. “It's not safe to travel alone this time of night.”

She doesn't utter a word as she slides off my desk and lays on the couch. Taking my trench coat in hand, I go over to her and cover her up with it.

When I wake at my desk the next morning, the first thing I notice is the empty couch. Not that I pictured things to go differently. She's a married woman after all.

Yet, a dark part of me hopes that Harry never turns up and that maybe something more can transpire between y/n and me.

…

[mischiefandspirits]

From the Start: Goblin’s Gold

It was supposed to be a one time thing. Arthur let the sorcerer run off with his life in return for him saving Arthur’s. He had never expected to see the boy again, especially not only two days later in Gaius’s chambers.

Merlin and Mordred groaned as they searched for the book Gaius had asked for.

“Do you see it?” the boy asked kneeling on the floor to check the lower shelves.

Merlin glanced around and spotted it on a high shelf out of even his reach. “Unfortunately.”

Mordred looked up, then followed his gaze. “Great,” he huffed. He peaked in the direction of Geoffrey’s desk. “Do you think we could just…” He waved his hand.

“With our luck when it comes to Geoffrey, he’d see,” Merlin sighed. He leaned up against the shelf and cupped his hands. “Here, I’ll help you up and you can grab it.”

Mordred set his foot on Merlin’s hands and they pushed him up. He grabbed for the shelves to keep his balance, but one missed. He gave a choked off yelp as he lost his balance. His other foot sought purchase and landed on a lower shelf, which tilted under his weight.

Suddenly the bookshelf was swinging around, sending them into a hidden room.

The two warlocks shared a look then Mordred grabbed the bestiary and hopped down.

“What is this place?” he asked.

“I’ve never seen it.” Merlin brushing spiderwebs and dust off a book.

“Do you think Geoffrey knows about it?” Mordred asked, squinting his eyes at a clouded jar to try to see what was inside.

“Considering what’s in here, I doubt it?”

Mordred turned to look at him and he held up what was clearly a book of magic.

“Woah.” The boy came over to see it, knocking into a box as he went.

The box knocked back, something inside grumbling and pounding against its walls.

Mordred jumped away from it and Merlin grabbed his shoulder.

“What is that?” he asked.

Mordred shook his head, pressing closer to his mentor.

“Should we open it?”

Mordred shrugged. “Probably not.”

They shared a look.

Merlin held out his hand. “Onluc scrin.”

The lid flipped open and a green-skinned creature climbed out.

What is it? Mordred repeated.

You’re the one that knows more about magical creatures.

I know of them, you’ve encoutered more.

Well, not this one.

“Are you going to say something, or shall I?”

The two jumped.

“You can speak,” Merlin asked.

“You're a sharp one,” the creature said. It stretched with a groan.

Merlin and Mordred fled the library.

“By the gods, a goblin!” Mordred groaned. “We just released a goblin into the castle!”

“A goblin?”

“I think so. The way it was acting, it sounds just like the stories. They’re supposed to be mischief makers. Cerdan used to tell stories about how they love nothing more than playing pranks and hoarding gold.”

Merlin’s eyes widened. “You mean a magical creature is going to be running around, causing trouble and stealing gold, all because of us?”

“Yes.”

There was a moment's pause then they both shouted, “We need to find it before Arthur finds out!”

“Merlin, Mordred!”

“We didn’t do anything!” Mordred squeaked and Merlin sent him a look.

Arthur crossed his arms, glaring at the two. “And what, exactly, didn’t you do?”

“Nothing, as he said,” Merlin answered, closing the book of magical creatures he had been reading.

“Really, so you two have no idea why my father has suddenly gone bald.”

“Your father is… bald,” Merlin choked and Mordred stuffed his hand in his mouth to muffle his laughter.

“Think it’s funny, do you? You think I’m not aware that only magic could have done that to him. I should have you both in the stocks. Or maybe a few nights in the dungeons.”

Merlin’s smile immediately fled and Mordred threw his hands in the air. “It wasn’t us!”

“Then who was it?”

“It… might have been a goblin,” Merlin answered slowly.

“A goblin?”

The two nodded.

“Why do I get the feeling there’s more to this than you’re saying?”

Merlin glanced at Mordred, who ducked his head. “In our defense,” Merlin started, “we didn’t know the box had a goblin in it.”

“Merlin!”

“Don’t worry, we’re working on a plan to capture it. But, um, we might need a bit of gold.”

“Gold?”

Gwen watched the two warlocks as they readied the storage room for the goblin. “I can’t believe Arthur just gave you a chest of gold.”

“He said if we lose it he’ll just put us in the stocks for longer,” Mordred muttered as he finished laying out the coin trail.

“He won’t actually put us in the stocks,” Merlin comforted.

“I wouldn’t be too sure of that,” Gwen teased. “He’s put you in the stocks for less than releasing a magical creature into the castle.”

“That was years ago!”

Gwen chuckled into her hand. “I know, Merlin. I’m only joking.”

“We’re ready,” Mordred said, not looking at all reassured.

“You let it escape, you stupid boys!” Gwen huffed. “Now you just stand there like sacks of potatoes. Go after it! Go! Shoo! Shoo!”

“Merlin told me what’s going on,” Freya said, coming into their house. “Have you seen any sign of the gob- What happened?” She looked over the trashed room in shock.

“It's that pesky goblin!” Gwen snapped. “Those two let it escape and it's ransacked our premises! You better tell them they've got some cleaning up to do.”

“Are you going out?” Freya asked as the other woman headed out the door.

“I'm going to the tavern.”

“I’ve never seen you go to the tavern before.”

“Then I shall see what I've been missing.”

Freya frowned at Gwen as she shuffled out from behind the curtain that marked her sleeping area. “Are you alright? How much did you drink last night?”

“You don't look so good yourself. What's your excuse?”

“What?”

Gwen shushed her. “Too much talking. I have a head like the inside of a drum, and a mouth like a badger's armpit.”

Freya’s eyes widened. “Gwen?”

“Don’t you have a job to get to? Away! Go!”

Freya frowned, eyes narrowing. “Are you feeling alright? You’re acting odd.”

Gwen frowned, then smiled. “I’m sorry. Last night has given me a headache. How about I make you breakfast as an apology?”

Freya studied the other woman. “That would be lovely, thank you.”

Gwen gave the guards a smile and curtsied. “The Lady Morgana has asked me to retrieve a necklace from the vaults for her.”

The guards, recognizing her, let her pass.

Gwen smiled and licked her lips as she saw the shelves of golden jewelry.

Mordred!

The young warlock looked down and gasped.

“Gwen, good to see you.”

“Can’t say the same,” she snorted, continuing on.

Merlin frowned at her odd behavior before he spotted a bit of gold peeking out of the collar of her dress.

“Arthur!” Mordred called as Arthur entered his chambers. “We’ve got a problem.”

“You bet you do. Where’s Merlin?”

“That’s not important right now. Arthur, look.”

Arthur raised an eyebrow as the boy held up a black cat. He might have thought it was Cavall if it weren’t for the cat’s warm brown eyes.

“A cat?”

“It’s Freya.”

The cat meowed and waved it’s paw like it was saying hi.

Arthur pinched the bridge of his nose. “How?”

“She came to find me. She told me Gwen did it to her.”

“Guinevere?” Arthur scoffed. “Why would she do this? How could she do this? And how can Freya talk if she’s a cat?”

“She can talk in our way. And I think the goblin is possessing Gwen. Freya said she has been acting weird since last night and Gwen was helping us catch the goblin when it disappeared.”

Arthur frowned. He had tried to talk to Gwen earlier, but she had blown him off. He had thought she had just been worried about being caught, but maybe…

“Where’s Merlin?” he asked again.

“I don’t know. I came here hoping I’d find one of you.”

“Right, let’s go find him then we can track down Gwen.”

“Sire!” The two turned to see Leon standing in the door. He bowed his head when Arthur acknowledged him. “A guard has reported a magical creature loose in the castle. A dragon the size of a horse.”

Arthur’s heart skipped a beat and his thoughts went back to a year earlier. “Are you certain?”

“He was, though none of the other guards saw anything. One of them even suggested that he had been drinking and that’s why he was seeing dragons. I’m not sure what to think.”

“Hopefully, he’s wrong. I’ll look into it. Where was the supposed dragon heading?”

“Towards the dungeons, sire.”

“You keep searching for our vandal.”

Leon nodded then left.

“Find Merlin.”

“Right.”

Arthur kept his sword at the ready, even though he knew it would do little if it truly was a dragon he was going to find. Any hopes that there wasn’t something down here had been crushed when he’d stumbled upon a trio of downed guards (only unconscious, thankfully) and a hallway of overturned torches that spoke of a large creature trying to make its way through.

The hallway that led to stairs to the Great Dragon’s cavern.

The stairs Arthur was currently reaching the bottom of.

He held his torch high as he stepped into the cavern, but saw nothing. “Show yourself, beast!”

“Arthur!”

His eyes widened at the familiar voice. “Merlin?”

There was a gust of wind then a dragon around half Kilgharrah’s size clumsily landed on the outcropping Kilgharrah had once used when Merlin or he came to talk to the dragon. This new dragon was black with silver spines and bright blue eyes.

“What on earth?”

“It’s Gwen, she’s the goblin.”

“Yes, Mordred realized that when your leman showed up as a cat. What happened to you though?”

“Freya? Is she okay?” Merlin growled, rising up and stretching his wings.

“She’s fine! You, on the other hand, are a bloody dragon!”

Merlin slumped down again. “Yes, it gave goblin-Gwen quite a shock too. I think the spell it used just turned people into animals according to spirit.”

“And your spirit animal is a dragon?”

“Well, I am a Dragonlord after all. The blood of dragons runs through my veins when I’m human, let alone when I’m an animal.”

“Right,” Arthur sighed. “Well, you’re useless like this. We’ll just have to figure out how to take out the goblin then hopefully Mordred can turn you back. You’re far too big to hide.” Arthur looked up at him and frowned. “How’d you even get down here?”

“I wasn’t this size at first. As soon as I realized what I was, I rushed down here. Barely made it inside before I was too big for the tunnel.”

“Right, well, just stay down here and keep quiet. The fewer people who see you, the easier it will be to play it off as the goblin’s mischief.”

“Be careful, Arthur.”

“It’s just a goblin, Merlin. I think Mordred and I can handle it.”

“It’s inside Gwen, though. You can’t just take a sword to her.”

“It will be fine.”

Arthur glared at Merlin, who was lain on his back across the rock. His legs and wings twitched with his laughter.

He brayed at the dragon, who only laughed harder.

“I can’t understand a word you’re saying, sire.”

Arthur turned to Gwen and Mordred, the former was smiling apologetically while the latter had his face buried in Freya’s fur to poorly hide his own laughter. He brayed at them and Gwen stepped forward.

“Please, Merlin, can you fix him? I feel so bad about what happened. Mordred tried but he’s not strong enough.”

“It’s not your fault, Gwen,” Merlin said, his laughter dying down to the occasional chuckle. “For you though, I’d be happy to. Although, it kind of suits him.” He turned to Arthur. “I always have said you were an a-”

Arthur let out a loud bray and threw a rock at the dragon.

Merlin tilted his head. “Wow, I couldn’t even feel that. Scales are way better than armor.”

“Merlin.”

“Right, right.”

He leaned closer to the group. His eyes flashed gold as he breathed a golden mist onto Arthur, washing away the donkey ears. He then did the same to Freya, returning her to human.

He shook his head as he straightened. “That’s a weird feeling. Definitely different from my normal magic.”

“I should put you on the pyre!” Arthur shouted now that he had his normal voice back. “First you set a goblin loose and now you nearly refused to turn me back!”

Merlin rolled his eyes, knowing Arthur didn’t mean it. “Come on, you know I was going to turn you back. I just wanted a good laugh first.”

Arthur threw another rock at him.

“Can you turn yourself back?” Freya asked, looking over him worriedly.

Merlin shook his head. “I tried already, but it’s a lot harder to direct my own magic back at myself like this. Stupid dragon magic.”

Mordred frowned. “I don’t think I can do it. I couldn’t even fix them and my magic can’t pierce dragon scales like yours can.”

“It’s alright, Mordred, you’re still learning,” Merlin said, his voice rumbling in something resembling a purr. His wings stretched out. “Unfortunately I think there’s only one person who can help me. I was just waiting for sundown to call him.”

Arthur scowled and Merlin ducked his head.

“If that’s okay, Arthur.”

“Fine. It’s not like we can leave you like this. I need to go speak to my father.”

Merlin sighed as Arthur marched off. “You guys should go. I’ll come back once I’m myself.”

“He’ll be fine, Merlin,” Gwen said.

“I know. And I get it. I still don’t forgive Kilgharrah either, but we can use his help.”

Gwen smiled and led Mordred out. “Come on, let’s go start cleaning up the goblin’s mess.”

Merlin turned to Freya. “I’ll be back soon.”

She shook her head and hiked up her skirt. “I’m coming with you.”

He chuckled and jumped over to cling to the wall next to the overhang she was standing on. “I’m still clumsy with my wings.”

She pressed a kiss to his scaly cheek and climbed onto his neck near his shoulders. “That’s nothing new for you, love,” she teased.

In case anyone's curious, had the spirit animal spell been used on them as it was on Merlin and Freya, Arthur would have been a phoenix, Gwen a dog, and Mordred an amphiptere.

I can now announce that since I've gotten a pretty balanced amount of requests for either side, I've decided to go the canon route when it comes to ships, or as I put it on an earlier post: Freya and Gwen hang out often to have tea and discuss how in love with each other their boyfriends are. I should say that while Arthur and Merlin's relationship will be brought up a few times, they won't be having make out sessions or anything like that as I honestly love their romance how it is in the show, more emotional than physical.

[locitarose]

I’ve officially started rewriting that HP AU and Leonard’s barely even gotten to Gringotts and the word count on this is already more than half of the entire original series so I’d say it’s definitely more detailed. And because I like posting sneak peeks at stuff, here’s a bit of what’s been written so far:

           While most boys would probably shy away from holding their mother’s hand, Leonard didn’t mind. He had been worrying about her and Lisa since she’d convinced his dad that Leonard needed to go to Hogwarts.

           He wasn’t worried about the fact that Lewis had said nothing other than “good riddance” and “at least I’m not paying for that crap”. No, Leonard worried about what Lewis would do when he realized that his mom had taken sixty pounds out of the account so that Leonard could get extra things if he wanted. (Books, he thought, might be his best bet. Books might not be perfect but it’d give him a place to start at the very least.)

            “Mom, we don’t have to convert all—“

            “We do,” she said, interrupting him with a smile as she pushed Lisa’s stroller. They weren’t far from the area that Professor McGonagall had said they’d find The Leaky Cauldron. “I want you to do well at this school, Leo. That means learning as much as you can before you get there. If that means your father gets a little upset, well, then he gets a little upset. I only took out what I deposited from some of my side jobs anyway.”

            Which was even worse, Leonard thought. Mom needed that money. Just in case.

            “Mom—“

            “Leonard Snart, that’s enough.” Her expression softened and she briefly let go of him to run her hand over his hair—what little he let remain at least. Her son had taken to keeping his hair cropped very close to his head two years ago. “I won’t hear any more arguments from you on this. We can afford this much and you need it. That’s final.”

            Leonard stared at her for a few moments and then nodded. “Okay,” he said eventually. His hand slipped back into hers, remembering that Professor McGonagall had said that to see the pub they would go through, his mom would have to be touching him though they’d be fine once they were in Diagon Alley.

            It wasn’t even ten minutes later before Leonard tugged on his mom’s hand. “There,” he said, fighting down the feeling of giddiness that wanted to come over him. As excited as he was, he also knew that he needed to be careful. He had no idea what this new world was like or whether the people were decent or not.

            He’d learned a long time ago that while most people might not be abusive like his dad, they were definitely blind to the abuse. Or they just didn’t care.

            He still hadn’t decided which was worse.

            “Oh,” his mom breathed as she took in the grubby looking pub between the book shop and the record shop. She watched as people walked by as if it didn’t even exist and smiled slightly. “Well, let’s go in.”

            The inside wasn’t very crowded. There were a few people at tables here and there though it wasn’t exactly easy to see inside with how dark it was. There were candles lit throughout the room along with a few lanterns giving off just enough light that a person wouldn’t have to strain their eyes to read anything. Leonard wondered why they didn’t just use lamps but decided against asking just yet. He paused as he caught a glimpse of a newspaper called The Daily Prophet and noticed the picture on the front was moving.

            He glanced away before the person reading it noticed him watching and allowed his mom to tug him towards the bar as she carefully maneuvered Lisa’s stroller between the tables.      

            “Excuse me,” Natalie said once they reached the bar, “but would you happen to be Tom?”

            The balding man blinked at the sound of an American accent before smiling. “That I would, miss! How can I help you today?”

            She smiled. “Professor McGonagall said you’d be able to help us get into Diagon Alley. My son is going into his first year.”

            “Is he now? I’d have thought Ilvermorny with your accent,” he said. Off of Natalie’s confused look, he added, “Ilvermorny is the magic school in America.”

            She nodded in understanding. “We moved here a little over a year ago due to my husband’s work,” she said.

            “Aye, that would explain it,” Tom said. “Come along, let me show you how to get in the alley.” He motioned for them to follow him and led them through the bar and out into a small courtyard with brick walls. There was nothing but a trash can (dustbin, Leonard reminded himself) and a few weeds. He smiled down at Leonard and pulled out his wand. “Now pay attention to this, lad. Once you get your wand, you’ll be able to enter the alley with it. You’ll always use the wall that the dustbin is in front of and count from the top of the dustbin.” He pointed at the bricks. “Three up and two across and then tap three times. You’ll do the same thing on the other side to come back.” As he tapped the brick a third time, he moved to the side. “Welcome to Diagon Alley, folks.”

            Leonard watched, unable to hide his amazement as the brick Tom had tapped quivered and then a small hole appeared in the middle and grew wider, turning into a large archway that led to a cobbled street. Leonard followed its path with his eyes, taking in the way it twisted and turned until it was out of sight and let out a breath. The alley was packed with people, some in colorful robes and others in Muggle clothing like he and his mom were. He felt something loosen inside him.

            It was real.

            Tom smiled at them. “Follow the path all the way to the end. You’ll see a large white building. That’s Gringotts.”

            “Thank you, Tom,” Natalie said absently, staring at the alley with just as much amazement as Leonard. They moved forward and behind them they heard the brick shifting, glancing back to see that the archway had become a solid brick wall again. Leonard allowed himself a grin and turned back, noticing the way his mom was smiling down at him.

            They made their way slowly down the path, taking in the different shops. There were cauldrons—Leonard couldn’t believe they used actual cauldrons—piled high outside the nearest shop.

            “Mum, Dad, look! There’s a new Nimbus,” a boy with messy black hair and glasses practically shouted as he ran by.

            “James, get back here,” his mother called. She frowned at a man that Leonard assumed was her husband. “He gets this from you.”

            “Of course, dear,” the man said with a smirk as he began to pull her in the direction of the shop the boy was standing in front of. “Now come on, there’s a new Nimbus!”

            “I’m only going so that you don’t walk out of there with two new brooms, Monty. Honestly, there’s still Christmas and his birthday to think of and he can’t even take a broom this year.”

            “We can still look, Mia, my love.”

            She sighed. “Fine. But we’re going to the apothecary afterwards. I’m nearly out of asphodel.”

            As they moved passed them, Leonard looked over to the right and took in the sights of all the shops. A place that had to be the apothecary the woman from before had mentioned had a barrel of bat spleens outside. He wrinkled his nose a bit at the smell coming from the shop as they passed. Another was selling robes while the sound of soft hooting could be heard coming from Eeylops Owl Emporium. Another shop had telescopes and a bunch of other instruments that Leonard couldn’t identify. Flourish and Blotts had stacks of books outside around the entrance and the store itself was two stories high. A stationary shop had parchment and quills, across from that was a shop that sold trunks. Leonard thought that’d be a good place to start. At least they’d have a place to put everything they’d need to buy.

            Finally, they reached a sparkling white building with bronze doors that towered over the shops. Leonard fought to keep the surprise as he saw the guard at the door, remembering that Professor McGonagall had told them that goblins ran the bank and it was never a good idea to cross them. As the goblin bowed, Leonard nodded in reply. He wasn’t sure if he was even supposed to acknowledge the goblin but it couldn’t hurt.

            Leonard paused as they reached a second set of doors though these ones were silver and had a poem of sorts engraved on them.

 Enter, stranger, but take heed

Of what awaits the sin of greed,

For those who take, but do not earn,

Must pay most dearly in their turn,

So if you seek beneath our floors

A treasure that was never yours,

Thief, you have been warned, beware

Of finding more than treasure there.

            Leonard paused as Natalie entered the bank, moving off to the side so that he could read the words again. He briefly considered telling his father about this bank just what would happen when he got caught. He dismissed the thought almost as quickly as he’d had it. While Lewis had stopped taking him on jobs due to all the cameras that London had, he was sure that his father would make an exception so that he could use his wizard son to try and rob a wizard bank and Leonard wasn’t about to get busted for his father’s crimes.

            Besides, if Lewis got arrested, it’d leave his mom in a bind. She’d have to try and find a full-time job just to support the three of them and that would mean having to find someone to watch Lisa during the year while he was at school.

            So, as tempted as Leonard was to set Lewis up, he wouldn’t do it. But it was nice to imagine.

            “Trying isn’t worth whatever the goblins would do to you.”

            Leonard turned to find a kid with dark hair watching him, not even bothering to hide his curiosity. He tilted his head.

            “I wasn’t considering it for myself.”

            “Then you must really hate whoever you were considering it for,” the kid said.

            Leonard paused. “Yeah,” he said, not bothering to explain further.

            The kid shrugged. “Long as it’s not me, I don’t care. I’m Mick Rory.”

            Leonard studied him for a few moments and then nodded. “Leonard Snart.”

            They stared at each other for another few moments and then, as if they’d reached some sort of unspoken agreement, headed inside together. A pair of goblins bowed at them as they went through the doors and entered a marble hall. There were hundreds of goblins sitting on high stools behind a long counter. More doors than Leonard had ever seen led off the hall and even more goblins were leading people in and out of those.

            “My parents are already inside but I got distracted by the brooms,” Mick said, scanning the room for his parents. “Ha! There they are.”

            “Leonard!”

            Leonard glanced over to find his mom coming towards him. “Hi, Mom,” he said.

            “Hi, Mom, he says,” she muttered, rolling her eyes. “Don’t wander off.” She focused on Mick. “Sorry. Hello.”

            “Hi,” Mick said brightly. “Sorry, I distracted him.”

            Leonard fought not to show his surprise at the blatant lie.

            His mom smiled. “Well, I suppose I can’t be mad if he was making a friend. I’m Natalie Snart, Leonard’s mom.”

            “I’m Michael Rory but everyone calls me Mick,” Mick told her. “I sort of got distracted by the brooms instead of coming in here with my parents.”

            “I’m sure we can find them.”

            Mick nodded. “I know which lines they’ll go to.” He paused. “Do you need to convert pounds?”

            “Yes,” she said, not mentioning that they’d need to talk to a goblin about fund that helped students pay for Hogwarts as well.

            “That’s the lines furthest over. If you want to open a vault for Leonard, you can ask one of the goblins over there about it too. It takes a bit but I bet my parents wouldn’t mind waiting for you guys.”

            Natalie blinked in surprise. “If they’re okay with it, then we’d love to join you.”

            “I’ll ask then find you,” Mick said. He glanced at Leonard and grinned before moving off towards a group of lines not too far from where they were standing.

            “He seems nice,” his mom said as they headed towards the lines that Mick had indicated before.

            Leonard nodded. “Yeah,” he agreed, thinking of the way Mick had lied to his mom about being the reason Leonard had fallen behind. “He does.”

[wolveswithhats]

writing wip game

Rules: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Send me an ask with the title that most intrigues you or interests you and I’ll post a little snippet of it or tell you something about it! 

The titles weren’t interesting so I vainly just posted some excerpts from a grab bag of more recent stuff. If I did everything it’d honestly probably go on for pages. I have a lot of unfinished stuff (pretty much...exclusively unfinished stuff dfjkdjfkg). Like a decade’s worth.

Tagged by @ackbang​. TY TY, MY DUDE. If you see this and you’re a writer, consider yourself tagged. Like for real. Only not tagging because I can’t remember who writes fanfic and who doesn’t.

Looooooong post below.

ling ling the goblin king (ling + lan fan, fma)

"lan fan did it," the prince says, and for a moment she feels a flare of anger and betrayal over his deception. 'it wasn't me, i didn't do this. i didn't kill anyone.' but the prince is bending at the waist, low enough that that his tail of hair brushes the dirt, and she realizes his lie is for her benefit. "thank you, m'lady. i owe you my life."

her mouth feels dry, face hot from exertion and the burning gaze of her older peers. "d-don't do that," she stutters, and she's not sure if she's referring to the lie or the bow.

"you dare give me orders?" but there's no heat in his voice, eyes crinkling with humor as he rises to his full height. she has no idea how he can look so amused with a hole in his shoulder, covered in the blood of a man he just killed. he grins lopsided, teeth crooked and painted red. the sight is altogether ghoulish.

limb choppy choppy (lan fan + greed + ling, fma, part of the revival au)

And Greed is stilling his struggles, catching his wandering hand in his own, running comforting circles with his thumb over Ling's blood-smeared cheek. “Hey, you little pissant, this is nothing, piddly kids table shit. Remember that time that one Central soldier tried to gut us? Right down the middle, like splitting a sausage. Goddamn crimson tide. I thought we'd never get the blood out of that coat. Now that was an injury.”

“T-they took my arm.”

“Yeah, and who needs one of those anyway? Gonna get you all sorted, get you one of those shiny metal ones, like your girl Lan Fan here. Guess the adjustment period takes a bit, a year or three, but bet we could expedite the process with proper motivation. I'm thinking sandwiches.”

He laughs, or something approaching as much, a soggy intake of air. She's struck with an unexpected wave of jealousy, that it's Greed that's offering reassurance and intimate personal jokes. A former homunculus, a former demon, a watery imitation of a man. Creature comforts from the creature. It should be me, she thinks, though she has nothing to offer beyond promises of protection, and even those feel like falsehoods after all that has happened here. Comforting platitudes are beyond her. What could I ever say to make this better?

lets get lit fam (greedling + ed, fma)

wobbly-legged, too uncoordinated to walk. almost stumbles into a line of trash cans at the mouth of the alley, but ed hooks his elbow and steers him away. "what the hell were you thinking? we're supposed to be keeping a low profile."

it's not an accusation he's fully equipped to grapple, not when he's still so bleary from sleep—and some other pleasant, dizzying sensation he thinks might be inebriation. he's never woken up drunk before. he's never been drunk before period. "what'd i do?"

"not you, ling. you would have gone straight for the food menu, not the liquor list. i'm talking to the dipshit you share a mental occupancy with. greed, what the hell?"

"was just a few drinks," ling slurs, but it's not his words, or his voice, and wow he's never been so aware of his own tongue before.

solid citizen (ling + greed, fma)

"geez, kid, you're certainly in a mood." so he was reading his thoughts, just fantastic. he look he gives him is withering, but greed pats his shoulder, almost condescendingly, pitying for sure.

"you're plenty fine, kid. i'll give you the ears, but you're top shelf in the looks department otherwise. if you were ugly, i'd tell you straight up. i don't lie. this here," he points to his own face. "is ugly. nothing like my old human face."

it's a bated response, he knows, and he doesn't really feel like playing, but greed did make a passing effort to make him feel better. "human face?"

he beams, dreamily, which is an impressively soft expression to pull off a mouthful of razors, and ling is suddenly reminded of the mythology of the man fawning over his own reflection. surely greed can't be that vain? "yeah i was a real stunner. fucking gorgeous." or maybe he could, apparently, what did ling know anyway.

wreckage (vincent, re-l, ergo proxy)

When she makes it back to the Rabbit, chest burning and damp with exertion, Vincent has already stripped Pino of her overalls and laid her across the table. Cooling fluids draining, frayed wiring spooling out of her gashed torso, sprawled like a tiny metal Tityos. Her left arm is snapped off and dangling at the elbow, her eyes glassy – glass, literal glass – staring at the ceiling. Broken doll parts. Just another disassembled AutoReiv, but this isn't like that at all, because Pino isn't just another AutoReiv. She's like Iggy--

It's almost too much for Re-l to take. Hand over her mouth, breathing sharp through her fingers in short repetitions. Tries to steel herself, to be calm and assertive, because one of them has to be, and Vincent-- Vincent was awkward and mousy and sensitive, Vincent who spilled his cereal and tripped over his own feet and housed an ancient being of unspeakable power in his lanky boy-frame. But his god-strength was of no use here, drowned under the weak, simpering, overpowering grief for something that was no more human than he was.

do NOT worry about meryl (vash + wolfwood + milly, trigun)

milly caught the hurt. naive, for sure, but shrewd. "oh, we'd never think that of you, mr. vash. it's just our job as representatives of the bernadelli insurance society to mitigate any and all damages from the humanoid typhoon, even the rumored ones."

wolfwood: "bernadelli employing a little insurance of their own, eh?"

milly nods. "if we had to pay out claims on every false report of mr. vash's wrongdoings, we'd go belly up in no time!"

caught up on the word 'wrongdoing', growls, "you make it sound like i'm doing any of this on purpose."

"it's just sensible. your name has a lot of weight, vash."

grumbles: "yeah, i'm aware."

"and that's why meryl was so insistent on following up on this one, even knowing it wasn't really you. so many people drag your name through the mud, and it just doesn't seem fair at all."

his name had long since been dragged, strangled and shot, left to rot under a flock of buzzards circling its carcass in the heat. There was no saving it. still, the intent was kind, if not bewildering. "you...were trying to protect my reputation?"

milly looks at him like he's insane for thinking otherwise. "well, yeah. we've come to think of you as a friend, mr. vash, and that's what friends do.”

baby scrub (locke + rachel, ff6)

offers his hand and a single word: "lock."

her faces scrunches distastefully at his uncouth greeting, but she's not sure what else she was expecting from a dirty street boy. "lock?"

"with an e," he adds, as if that clarifies anything.

"that can't be real. you just made that up."

"all names are made up," huffs locke-with-an-e, looking impatient with her slow uptake on this odd world of his. "and i never said it was real, but it's all you're going to get."

spike bday (spike + dawn, btvs)

“if I show you something, you need to promise not to say anything. not to the watcher, or your sister. not to anyone, right?”

even through her tears, she nods, curious. spike's always good for skirting just outside the limits of good taste.

“I'm serious. spool your intestines out your nose, string 'em up like christmas garland. I mean it.”

“colorful threats of bodily dismemberment, I get it.”

hands her a faded yellow tintype. a young man, twenty-five or thirty maybe, a riot of disheveled curls, glasses, frumpy suit. not an unattractive man, but a timid one, uncertainty written into the slanted bow of his shoulders. he had the weedy air of someone who spent a lot of time duct taped to flag poles, or whatever the victorian equivalent would be. did it count as a twirly if you were dunked into a chamber pot?

a rebellious counterpoint in wrinkled tweed to the hard, starched lines of victorian decorum – interesting, but not very relevant. and a little disappointing, if she was being totally honest. spike's anecdotes usually had more flash and gore. “I don't get it.”

he's exasperated, fingers twitching like he's ready to snatch it away, and he tucks his hands under his arms in an awkward self hug. she takes in the hard set of his jaw and the...flush of his cheeks? god, she didn't even know vampires could blush. it had to take some serious breaking of undead physiology to ping that level of embarrassment, and something beyond that even to flap the unflappable spike. he hisses impatiently. “would you just—look at the face.”

and she does, tilting the little photo to and fro in the dim of the crypt. unassuming man-hermione with hair that cannot be tamed. sharp cheekbones and dark heavy brows under the rims of his glasses and suddenly she sees it—him—the angular planes of his face coming into sharp relief, like a camera finding its focus. “oh. oh my god! this is you. holy crap, spike. you look....”

“normal,” he finishes for her, and something in her stomach swoops and clenches, stones in a pond. “mundane.”

“i was going to say like a megawatt dorklord, but we can use your word instead.” she wipes her nose on the back of her hand. he snorts, amused and embarrassed.  

“i was a poet.”

she tried to envision anything beyond smutty limericks carved onto the wall of a bathroom stall.

“were you ever published?”

“i was a shitty poet,” he amends, grimacing.

boston au (spike + dawn, btvs)

bodily kicking a dumpster, sending it careening into the street with a rusty scream of metal. a hydrant follows suit, ripped from the sidewalk. caps off his tantrum with a boot to the side of Angel's GTX, but even the size-10 crater marring the passenger door of the angelmobile did little to ease his frustration.

“better?” dawn asks, when he drops bodily into the driver's seat with an aching sigh, anger dissipating. she looks so tiny and forlorn, knees drawn to her chest, picking at a cigarette burn in the upholstery. two years ago she'd have been a ripe treat, poor little lost lamb. now the idea twists his gut, her sorrow palpable, proprietary, under his skin and in his veins.

“no,” he grunts, staring out impassively at the aftermath of his outburst. water spurting from the sidewalk, skip spilling out into the road. half a dozen cars along the block chirping in a chorus of wailing alarms. and angel in the foyer, something vaguely resembling pity etched across his massive cavebrow. fucking wanker.

...

“we go back to sunnydale then. try again. badger the scoobies until they agree to help. we'll figure this out.”

“i don't want to.” quietly. barely a whisper.

“to figure it out?”

“to go back.”

“dawn...”

“there's nothing there. they're not going to help because i'm nothing. it's an ongoing memorial to my own non-existence. can we not go back? can we just keep driving?”

“where?”

“I don't care. away.”

thinks about leaving sunnydale. thinks about what he's leaving behind. shitty memories, regrets, lost love. he has a small collection of personal effects; records, first edition books, family heirlooms that cannot be replaced, a hundred years of mementos of his whirlwind romance with dru. wonders if he can ring up clem, ask him to send a care package once they get to wherever they're going. looks at dawn in her clearance-rack pajamas, realizes she has lost everything. she has no belongings, no family, no remnants left as evidence she even had a family. nothing but him and her, here, in this moment.

it's just stuff. it's surprisingly easy to let go.

he drives.

taco hell  (spike + dawn, btvs, part of the boston / unravel au)

Right where her window was supposed to be, a swirling doorway of light ringed in licking green flame, spilling out into....a fast food restaurant?

"I think it's Taco Bell," Dawn said, pinching a tissue to her--aw hell--bleeding finger. He took inventory of the spell books around her, the scrying bowl, and the ashy pentagram burnt into 70s shag weave of her bedroom carpet. So much for their security deposit.

"You opened a hell dimension to Taco Bell?"

She craned her head to squint at the pimply teenager manning the register, oblivious to his cross-dimension spectators. "I think it's just a regular Taco Bell. I don't see any dragons or shrimp people or anything."

"Not all alternate universes have shrimp people."

"I know that. You know, it actually looks like the one downtown, across from the KFC? On Kellner? Unless the Kellner Street Taco Bell is a Taco Hell. I've been reading up about liminal spaces, where the fabric between realities is weakened. Maybe it's a hot spot, and all the employees are actually like, octopus centaurs. How would we know? Not like I'm going to crawl over the counter to check, you know?"

"Well, now's your chance to ask Squiddly Diddly here what he's got going on downstairs." Slack-jawed employee finally cottoned on to the door to another universe in the restaurant lobby. Dawn awkwardly waves. Poc Ock waves back, bewildered, before the portal collapses in on itself in a burst of white light.

"It stopped bleeding." she holds up her finger.

-- 

(I don’t think anyone would, but as a precaution: please don’t reblog these to the Herald. They’re sloppy and incomplete and mixed in with a bunch of other fandoms so it’d just be really weird. THANK)

[xcosmicficsx]

What Are Friends For? | Park Jimin | Part Two

Title: What Are Friends For? Pairing: Park Jimin x Reader / Jung Hoseok x Reader (BTS) Genre: Angst, fluff Warning(s): None

[x] request

Part One - Part Two - Part Three (FINAL)

Prompt: “It’s six o’clock in the morning, you’re not having vodka.” (This doesn't really pertain to this part, but I’ll leave this here anyway.)

Summary: A better life is blossoming between you and your new boyfriend; Hoseok.  

A/N:

No Jimin in this chapter, sorry! But another chapter is in the making, babes! Stay tuned <3

Two months had passed since you had last seen Jimin, and things seemed to be getting better. A few days after you returned back home, you had met some guy who had gotten along well with you; his name is Jung Hoseok. He was like a ray of sunshine when you were going through such a hard time, even though the way you met wasn’t the best.

One second you were on the phone with your older brother who was late meeting up with you. “C’mon, Daehyung, you promised you’d be here!” You wined into the phone.

“I’m sorry, YN. I have some business to do, keeping my job is my priority. If you want, I can stop by the house tomorrow?” He mumbled. 

You put your head down and sighed. “Whatever, I just really miss my bro.”

A chuckle was heard over the line that made your heart light up a slight bit. “I miss you too, sis.” Your brother was one constant throughout your life. He was unlike most; he was kind and tough. He was so rough on the outside, but he was a huge sweetie when you dug below the surface. Since he was such a rock for you, you were there for him during his rough patches; especially when he was coming out as gay.

“I’ll call tomorrow to check in on you, and you’re gonna spill your emotional beans when I come over, okay?” He said and it was evident in his voice that he was smiling.

“Fine, but you better not blow me off for work.” You grumbled.

He chuckled and replied. “Agreed. Bye-bye.” And with that, the line went dead and you looked around.

You were at a cafe that was pretty much dead, but it still seemed lively. It was a calming place that you used to go to at lunchtime when you were still in middle school. It didn’t have the florescent ceiling lights that you despised, but the sitting area was lit by hanging, plain, Christmas lights. It gave you feelings that you couldn’t exactly describe with words.

After you finished the coffee that you ordered while waiting for your brother, you left. You wandered around for quite a bit before running into a man. He had seemed familiar, but you couldn’t pin it. He had accidentally spilled his drink on you, which was pretty cliche if you thought about it. The brown liquid started to make a stain on your white button up.

His eyes immediately widened as he rapidly apologized. “Oh my god! I’m so sorry, I wasn’t paying attention! I’m such an idiot!” He panicked. “I made a stain, fuck!” When his dark eyes met your soft ones, it was like he melted on site. He went silent and bowed after a while. “I’m sorry, Mrs.”

Instead of exploding over the fact that he just stained your shirt, you smiled sweetly. “I’m not married, and don’t worry.” You assured him.

The man was surprised to say the least. He let out a soft ‘oh’ and stopped staring at you. It was awkward silence for a moment before he spoke again. “Miss, allow me to buy you a new shirt, that one is ruined and I don’t think you’d like to walk around in a wet, stained shirt.”

For a moment, you contemplated it. It didn’t feel right to accept nor deny it, but you went ahead and accepted his offer. “Uh, sure. There’s a little fashion shop not far from here, we can stop by there and then go our separate ways.”

He nodded in agreement and followed you as you lead him to the shop. It was a quaint store with some pretty cheap products of good quality. You spent a quick five minutes in the store and picked out a plain grey t-shirt. After he paid for the shirt, you changed it and shoved the dirty shirt in the plastic shopping bag. 

Before you left, he stopped you and apologized once more. “Hey, I’m really sorry for fucking your shirt up, and I understand if you would like to never see me again, but I think you’d be a really interesting person to hang out with and I want to take you out for a drink sometime,” You were surprised that he was his bold, since he was so easily freaking out over the incident prior. “Now, to my point, can I have your number?” He looked at you with eyes that resembled the softness and pleading of a puppy.

It honestly made your heart skip a beat. You took a second to think before you ultimately decided to give in. He had the biggest and brightest smile you had ever seen gracing his features. “Sure thing, Mr...” You looked up at him, wanting to know his name. 

“Hoseok, Jung Hoseok.” He responded with an excited tone.

You giggled at the adorable man. “Alright, Hoseok,” The name actually felt nice rolling off your tongue. “Text me soon!” You shouted as you began to walk off in the direction of your parents’  house.

It wasn’t long before he wanted to go to the next level with you, asking you out on multiple dates, each one better than the last. Hoseok was such a nice guy, and he was far from the usual guys you had met. Your family had even liked him! You had finally gotten over Jimin.

You decided you wanted to move back to your shared apartment with Jimin, but you didn’t want to go without Hoseok.

You dialed Hoseok’s number, and when he picked up, your heart went into a frenzy. “Hey, Hobi.” You muttered softly.

“Babygirl, I missed your voice so much.” He purred.

Your face lit up light pink and you shifted in your seat. “I was wondering if you maybe wanted to move to Seoul with me? I have an apartment over there and I didn’t want to leave you.” 

“I would love to!” He cheered from the other side of the line, bringing a soft smile to your lips.

“Awesome, can you pack tonight? I plan on going back tomorrow, if that’s okay with you?” 

You heard lots of shuffling around on his end, followed by his cheery voice. “Absolutely, baby. I can’t wait to get a taste of living with you.”

“God, you’re such a weirdo. Be prepared, I’m a trash goblin.” You said, half joking. You weren’t the neatest of roommates, but you tried your best to lessen your clutter. 

“Shush, you know you love me.” He chuckled.

You rolled your eyes and giggled. “Whatever you say, hon. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Bye, baby!” He blew you a kiss and hung up. 

You started packing your bags and preparing yourself mentally, not only for living with Hoseok, but for seeing Jimin again since your breakdown.