#i gave 2 different presentations and gave them 6 times each day like

[spiriteddreams]

you ever give 12 presentations over the course of 2 days? i don't think i've ever spoken this much in my life and my raging headache is back :D

[chrissturnsgirlll222]

okok you can make this super fluffy or u can add smut if you’d like, i don’t have a preference. i also can literally see this in my head so i’m sorry if there’s too much lolol. but basically reader + the triplets have been best friends since they were like 6, but reader and nick are closest. she’s had a crush on matt for ages and basically matt finally realizes what he feels (even though anyone w two eyes could see) and kisses her, but they get caught by nick and matt kinda runs out, later being scolded by nick saying smtg like “why are you doing this? she doesn’t need you breaking her heart over and over again anymore.” after that he confesses and at first she thinks he’s fucking w her before realizing he’s being genuine

sandbox

matt sturniolo x fem!reader

summary - this rec ^^

warnings - kissing, fluff, swearing, use of y/n (i think thats all)

word count - 2400??

NOT PROOFREAD

-

me and the triplets have been best friends for as long as i remember. i honestly think i gained consciousness when i was with them. we have spent countless summers together just playing around outside. showing off our new toys, board games and just growing up together.

we were all inseparable from the moment i met them and have pretty much experienced everything with them. i was always super close with chris and he was even my first kiss at the ripe age of 8. nick and i met first during baseball practice and i was the only girl on the team. nick is my best friend in the whole world and that never changed as we grew up. matt and i are very different people. we always got along and played together as kids but as i grew up i developed feelings for him. i had an eye for him ever since we were 13 when he ditched his date and took me to 8th grade formal because no one else would. he was always my knight in shining armor.

i always thought he was attractive but as time went on i grew to love everything about him. i confided in nick about my feelings when i was 15 and have continued to express my feelings for matt to him. nick promised me that this would be the only secret he would ever keep from his brother and he has kept it for 2 years now.

which brings us to present day.

-

matt was driving me home from school since nick and chris were hanging out with their friends after school.

“did you see that amount of homework our history teacher gave us, i was ready to walk out the second she gave me that booklet.” i say. “oh i fucking know she can be ridiculous.” matt replies. he was driving with one hand on the wheel and the other tapping his fingers on the centre console to the music we were listening to. “matt.” i ask looking at the size of my booklet, “hmm?” he says watching the road. “do you think we can work on these together i really dont think i can get this done on my own.” i mumble, he chuckles looking over at me “i was just about to ask you the same thing.” he smiles.

“ok ill drive over later i need to do some things at home before i start homework.” i breathe. “sounds good.” he says.

once matt dropped me home i immediately began getting ready. although i would never admit it, i always tried my best to look my best when i was around matt. even though we have known each other for years i never wanted him to think i was unattractive.

growing up and watching the girls matt would take on dates and have all of those ‘firsts’ with always crushed me. he never knew it but he broke my heart countless times. the worst time was when we were 15 and he came to me nick and chris after hanging out with his first girlfriend and told us he lost his virginity. that was the night i confessed to nick my feelings for his brother. i spent the rest of that weekend crying in my room about matt when he did nothing to hurt me, i was just in my own head about loving him since i was 13. its safe to say nothing has changed since then and i have continued to be in love with him and i am now currently 17.

- later that night - 6:15 pm

i arrived to their house and walked in after being greeted by their mom and a hug from her. their mom treated me like my own as i was at their house more than i was at my own. she told me that there was dinner left over since chris and nick werent home if i wanted some.

of course all i wanted to do was just hangout with matt.

i made my way up the stairs to matts room to find him playing a game on his computer with headphones on. i walked over to him and tapped his shoulder. “oh y/n you scared the shit out of me.” he breathes clearly startled. i laugh and walk over to his bed and plop down on it. “i actually think i would rather step on nails for a day than do this history bullshit.” i sigh.

matt chuckles while shutting off his computer and grabbing his history booklet and sitting down on his bed. we both got right to work going from looking in our textbooks, to writing down answers, copying the answers from each other and wording them differently. we continued that same process for about an hour before my hand felt like it was going to fall off.

“oh my god matt i cannot do this anymore we need to take a break.” i sigh laying down on my back. “me too i think my head will explode if i keep going.” he agrees. i close my eyes and get comfortable in his bed while he grabs his phone and starts scrolling on it eventually turning it to my face “what do you think of her.” he asks showing me a girl that is in our history class. i just raise my shoulders in response. “words would be more helpful you know.” he chuckles. “i dont know shes the same as the past 3 girls you have been with.” i blankly reply. he hums in response and goes back to scrolling. “so helpful.” he says jokingly rolling his eyes.

“you never really like any of the girls i talk to huh?” he blurts. i freeze not knowing how to respond, i dont know matt maybe because ive been in love with you for years but your too stubborn to fucking notice it? i obviously wanted to scream I LOVE YOU AND I HAVE SINCE I WAS 13, at him but i didnt. my face goes blank and i just turn away from him and go back to resting my eyes even tho i know it wont last long. while me and matt had a great relationship as friends i always shut down when it came to moments like these. matt knows when something is wrong, all the fucking time. its frustrating in moments like these when i am literally mad at him for showing me a girl hes interested in but of course i cant tell him that.

“ok snap out of it what is your problem now?” he snaps. “matt i dont have a problem.” i state lying through my teeth. “anyone from a mile away can read that you are upset right now so just tell me what the issue is so i can fix it.” he pleads. “matt can you drop it.” i huff twars brimming my eyes, “no.” he pauses “why do you keep doing this, you always shut me out when theres a problem. i know that your upset and you know that i know your upset, just tell me whats wrong.” he explains.

“matt i cant.” i say as tears spill out. he lifts his hand to turn me over to see that im crying, his face saddens. i instinctually cover my eyes and sit up.

“theres clearly something wrong, what happened why cant you open up to me anymore.” he says. i sniffle and get up to use the bathroom. i couldnt stand to even look him in the eye. not knowing the strong feelings i have for him.

j went into the bathroom and broke down. i never broke like that in front of him before. every time this has happened i usually just go home and deal with it or complain to nick. this time i was looking him right in the eye and he saw what he made me feel. matts not and idiot he definitely knows why that upset me. if he didnt have a hunch that i was in love with him before he absolutely knows now. everything ive held in for the past 4 years has spilled out and i dont know how to handle what will happen when i walk back in to that room.

knock knock

“y/n can you open the door.” he says in a quiet tone. i put my hand on the handle and press my other hand to the door. “deep breaths” i keep repeating to myself. i crack the door open and matt sees me mascara on my face. puffy eyes and a sniffily mess. he grabs my face and either side and wipes away my tears. i just watch him as he does this. he moves forward to get closer and slowly connects our lips. i immediately melt into his touch and start kissing him back, wrapping my hands around his on my face.

we continue kissing as i wrapped my arms around his neck to bring him closer as he smiles into the kiss. i heavily breathe in as he slips his tongue into my mouth. my heart beats faster at the new feeling. i always imagined kissing matt but this is better than what i ever could have imagined. he moves one hand from my face and places it on my hip.

“what. the. fuck.” i hear nick say from behind.

we both stop and turn around and nick and chris standing behind us.

“nick please dont be mad.” i plead. “i will talk to you in a minute y/n” he says point at me “matt go to your room with me.” nick says sticking his hand in the direction of matts room.

matts pov

my heart was beating so fast as nick followed me into my room. kissing his best friend what was i thinking. she was my best friend too but their relationship was always closer but its still no excuse.

“what the fuck are you doing kissing y/n?” he yells, i open my mouth to speak but he interrupts me. “do you know how much you have fucked with her already.” he exclaims.

now im confused.

“you have been messing with y/n’s head for years now and you have spent the past four years breaking her heart over and over, she doesnt need you doing it again.”

i pause i thinking about his words rubbing my hands over my face.

“she has spent everyday loving you since we were 13 and has watched you countless times talk to girls and being girls around and she has always kept it in as to how she feels. unless you truly have feelings for her that to you was nothing. but matt, what just happened right there.” nick says shaking his head, “just might hurt her more than anything you could ever have done to her.” nick breathes before walking out of my room.

y/n’s pov

i walked into chris’ room after what happened and just cried as he watched me spiral. he surprisingly had nothing to say and the silence of the situation made it even worse. i was freaking the fuck out. i never anticipated kissing matt and especially not his brother, my best friend catching us.

nick walks in to chris’ room “y/n are you ok?” he asks. i look at him and just break down. he walks over and sits down on the bed with me and chris. chris friendly pats me on the shoulder and i smile at him “thanks chris.” i say and he gives me a warm smile.

we hear a knock on the door and see matt open it. “y/n please can i talk to you.” he says and nick looks at me with worry written all over his face. “its ok.” i whisper as i get up and nod at matt.

we close the door behind us and he begins. “nick just told me ive been breaking your heart since we were 13.” he breathes, “why didnt you say anything before.”

“matt i couldnt.” i say tears threatening to come out of my eyes again. matt looks at me with concern. “dont, dont look at me like that. you never felt anything for me now dont start now because you feel bad for me.” i say now feeling angry at him. “y/n but thats the thing, i always felt something for you. anyone with eyes can see that. you know that i never let any girl come into my presence without asking your approval, your the most important girl to me in the world nothing can ever change that.” he says looking at the ground. “bullshit.” i huff. “i dont believe you, if you really ever had feelings for me you would have seen that i loved you for 4 years.” i say tears pooling out of my eyes but i dont care, “4 years matt. ive been seeing you with girls for years envious of their life and then you pass them on like their nothing.” i say putting a finger to his chest. “4 years i had to keep this to myself to prevent it from ruining years of friend ship, not just between us but between your family.” i say pushing my finger on his chest harder and he steps back. “4 years that i had to get my heart broken by someone who didnt give a shit about me.” i say walking towards him now pushing him harder, crying even harder now.

he wraps his arms around me and i fight out of his grip. he doesnt let go as i stuggled but eventually i grow tired and just clutch on to him like if i let go i would fall. “im sorry.” he says petting my hair and i cry into his chest. “you know that i would never hurt you, you are the one person besides my brother that i care about the most.” he says resting his chin on my head. “i love you.” he says. i look up at him from his grip. i moved up to his face finding his lips and connecting them once more. this kiss more sweet than the last.

“ive waited to hear that since i was 13.”

-

thank you for reading xx

taglist: @sleepysturnss @blahbel668 @alorsxsturn @w4nnabeurs @junnniiieee07 @waydasims @accio326 @bitchydragonparadise @matthewsturnioloswifey @iloveneilperry

a/n: i hope you guys enjoyed this and to the person who requested it i hope this lived up to your standards 🤍🤍🤍

[abbyfmc]

Yandere Emperor! x Opera artist! reader Headcanons:

Warning: I will use the Chinese imperial harem system, plus it will be set in a kind of forbidden city (yes, I have seen Chinese palace dramas, XD). Topics to talk about: Mention of kidnapping, abuse, possible manipulation and murder. Although I use elements of ancient China or imperial Asia, I am not describing any emperor in particular; instead, I'm making up my own.

Enjoy it!

1. Yan Li was about 29 years old when he became emperor, and at that time he had an empress whom he loved very much, but she died in childbirth with the first prince due to her poor health, and from then on he became very sad and depressed.

2. You were a beautiful street opera artist who sang and danced at different events. You ran away from home after your noble parents planned to marry you to a man of not very good intentions.

3. You suffered a lot the first few years, but slowly you gained a group of artist friends, and among them is this girl from a humble class named Lili.

4. On the other hand, you had met a young blacksmith named Zhou, with whom you had a secret romance, which only Lili knew about. You and Lili had become confidants.

5. Due to your escape from home, you were also able to avoid the mandatory imperial selection for a long time. In this selection, girls from certain clans were taken to the palace to be selected to be consorts or concubines of the emperor or princes present.

6. You had lived happy and free, without problems until that fateful day…

7. Yan Li's mother, the Empress Dowager, saw how depressed her son was, so she convinced him to organize a trip to the southeast of the country to distract himself, and after a while, Yan Li agreed. After this, the townspeople and ministers organized all kinds of spectacles for Yan Li's arrival.

8. You and your group of artists were hired for those shows, and you were the main actress, not knowing that that would put you in hell.

9. When he arrived at the town where you were, everything started well until the show started and you started acting, dancing and singing. He was captivated by your beauty and your voice, a quality that his wife also had.

10. For him, it was like seeing his wife back. He watched you do similar dance moves, and he remembered his wife doing these same dances for him in the past.

11. He was very impressed with you, which made him come to the conclusion that he wanted to have you.

12. After the performance, you sensed that something was wrong, so you told Lili and your group, and then fled through the darkness of the night to a neighboring town.

13. Yan Li finally set out to find out about you and your whereabouts, and was not at all amused to find out that you were gone.

14. You began to flee with your group of friends from Yan Li's clutches, and you even met with your beloved Zhou and told him about your situation. Yan Li on the other hand, was already getting impatient for not finding you, so he gave the following order:

--Look everywhere for her, and if anyone is hiding, kill them and bring her to me!-- 15. The guards questioned each villager to find out about you, and thanks to that you were located and caught trying to escape with your friends at night.

16. Yan Li walked up to the scene, walking with a smile as his men captured you and your friends. You were very scared; Yan Li holds your face lightly by your chin, making you look at his face. Seeing the situation you put your friends in, you began to beg for their lives.

17. --I…I will surrender to you, but please let them live, your majesty-- You begged Yan Li. He was surprised that you didn't resist him, so he just ordered them to put you in his carriage. Lili tried to do or say something, but Yan Li told her to stay out of all this.

18. Yan Li had you put into his carriage and tied your wrists and ankles and then Yan Li got in, sitting next to you and that's how he ended up taking you to the palace.

19. He talked to you the whole way and although he seemed kind, it didn't take away your fear of what he might do to you. Basically when you arrived at the palace he locked you in a palace that he had prepared just for you.

20. After investigating your past, he discovered your bad relationship with your parents and what you did after running away from home. You seemed magnificent to him and in a way… bold and brave.

21. When he let your parents know that you would be his consort from now on, they agreed. You weren't expecting anything good from them, but this last one definitely hurt you, since they sold you to him just like that.

22. The wedding took place, and Yan Li conferred on you the imperial title of "Noble Lady", and immediately had your green label prepared. The green labels are labels that contained the names or imperial titles of an emperor's consorts, which turned the label of the concubine with whom he wished to sleep.

23. Yan Li spent his free time with you and explained to you personally what things were like in the palace, something he had not done with any other woman, in addition to emphasizing that he would take care of you and love you.

24. When your green tag was ready, Yan Li immediately turned it over and sent word that you would sleep with him that same night. He sent for you with eunuchs and everything. When you were locked in his room, you were wearing fine silk pajamas that Yan Li loved. It was a beautiful dream to see you like this; you wanted to run, but he held your hand tightly, reminding you of what he was capable of doing to your friends, innocent people, and possibly your loved one, so you ended up submitting to him.

25. He did this every time he wanted to get you pregnant, which is why you ended up having six children with him; four princes and two princesses, while your first son, the "third prince" was the eldest of all the princes. You had to rise through the ranks and use Yan Li's hands to protect yourself and your children from palace intrigues.

26. Thanks to Yan Li, you have gone through the following ranks: Noble Lady, Imperial Concubine, Consort, Noble Consort and so on until you reach the empress.

-End of part 1. Have a good night :3

[danaredbeard]

The real reason the CRM fell so quickly.

Rick was imprisoned by force even kept on a leash at the beginning and did everything to escape. Later, he imprisoned himself by fear. He was afraid of the three pages of scrawl that Jadis wrote about his family and community. That is why Michonne tore it up and cried, this stupid piece of paper kept him away from her for years.

Listening to this lunatic Beale you could see Rick almost physically get sick. All these years he lost because a Beta b$tch has Daddy Issues. Later Rick tells Michonne he is just angry at the loss of time with his family.

In the end the CRM was just a bunch of B’s clinging to each other in hopes of survival by destroying those who may challenge them. The only part of the Echelon Briefing I think Jadis and Pearl heard was that they will be in elite company and safe.

People keep saying it is “rushed”. How? At this point can’t we tell a Beta B$tch a mile off? He killed Omaha, gassed Michonne and her friends, should they have waited for him to kill Portland… to make sure he is a bone fide Big Baddie? The opportunity presented itself… and that is who they are they “Make sh!t happen”. It could have been stretched out, Rick was disgusted and now he was the one begging Michonne that he wanted to just go home.

At the end of the day, there is no difference between Beale and the 3 scroungers Rick and Michonne saved in the woods who then turned on them. Beale just took an opportunity that presented itself and killed off another city to protect himself. Rick and Michonne are doing the same with this opportunity “Live by the sword of opportunity, die by the sword of opportunity” or something like that.

Michonne spent an entire episode breaking the mental chains the CRM had on Rick. Episode 6 was the payoff he had to return to the scene of the crime and see clearly, no hesistation. He saw his only friend Thorne was too far gone to be save and he saw that Beale was a lunatic. What he saw made him angry that he wasted so much of his life with these fools.

Michonne gave him Clarity.

This is the world Shane would have created… and it is ugly.

I like that they did not glorify yet another sociopath with fascist tendencies.

So not rushed, also the CRM still exist all Rick and Michonne did was cut out the cancerous part.

What I would like to see for the future: I always considered Rick in the model of Cincinnatus, the reluctant Roman leader. He was asked to became an absolute dictator and when order was restored he quit and went back to his farm.

If there is a season 2, I see Rick being begged to take over the CRM and lead the fight against the doomsday clock of humanity.

[serasfanfiction]

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3| Part 4 | Part 5| Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12

CW: For Valentino being Valentino. He doesn't do anything, but he does say some things.

oOo

The closer they came to V Tower, the more loud everything became.

Paper posters gave way to bulletin boards. Every street was lit with flashing signs and arrows, pointing the way to different businesses down the main strip. Advertisements were nearly plastered on every single available surface, competing with each other in a cacophony of bright colors and promises to make all of one's troubles go away, if only one bought the product.

Sinners wandered the streets, some glued to their phones as they typed out a text message, watched a video, or shouted at someone on the other end of a phone call. Some sinners loitered around various shops selling televisions, each screen showing an advertisement for the latest gadget VoxTek was selling.

The Vees made it ridiculously easy to learn their faces, as none of the trio were shy about plastering their likeness all over their wares. Vox was clearly unafraid to throw his reputation behind anything he supported, one advertisement proclaiming, "I'd buy it." Valentino left nothing to the imagination - figurative or literally - on what he was selling, with various larger than life posters that featured the moth scantily clad and in suggestive poses. Velvette was significantly more reserved, in comparison, with only a billboard advertising her perfume, named, Love Potion.

Quite frankly speaking, it was all a bit overstimulating.

Walking nonchalantly at his side, Alastor barely gave any of bombastic sights around him a second glance. He had made little commentary since they had set out from the hotel earlier in the day, falling silent as they had entered the Vees territory. Where all of this technology was practically invented yesterday, as far as Lucifer was concerned, Alastor had lived on Earth when most of the technology around them was still in its infancy stages. Advertising, likewise, was hardly new. Humans had been shouting at each other to buy this or to buy that since they'd first come up with the idea of selling a product. They may not have had flashing lights in the 1920s or 30s, but there had been posters, billboards, and radio ads.

Modern technology just made everything more... flashy.

Lucifer watched a group of sinners standing before an electronic shop, TVs stacked up in the window. Each TV was showing the same thing: an advertisement for the latest cell phone. He was a little surprised he still cared enough to be sickened as Vox straight up hypnotized the viewers into buying the phone. He shook his head in disgust a they passed group turned mob making a mad dash into the store. "Quite the salesman, Vox is," Lucifer commented, not trying to hide his judgmental tone.

Alastor snorted. He glanced at the group scampering out with their new cell phones as he drawled, "Vox has always had a... persuasive sales pitch."

It was Lucifer's turn to snort as they passed another poster of Vox, this time just the overlord and his VoxTech logo. His ever present slogan, Trust Us, curved around the logo. "You mean he hypnotizes people into doing what he wants." It was good to know in advance. No one had ever tried to hypnotize the Devil himself before and he wasn't keen to find out if it was possible.

"Hm," Alastor hummed in agreement. "Just so."

V Tower was easy to spot, even with all the noise going on in the background. The number of surveillance cameras also began to increase the closer they got to the trio's headquarters. Lucifer eyed one as it followed their trek down the street. "So much for keeping our arrival a surprise."

The redhead smirked, obviously pleased about something. Sing song, he assured, "I wouldn't be too sure about that."

The blonde sighed. He was walking right into it, he knew he was. He was going to do it anyway, because damn his curiosity. "Oh?"

Alastor twirled his staff around his fingers like a baton. "All the cameras we've passed so far have been laughably easy to take out." With a practiced hand, he caught the staff, it's tip pointing at the offending camera. As they passed it, the little button on the side of it blinked from green to red. "Vox isn't paying attention to his little toys. Dear me, he must be away from his surveillance room."

Lucifer squinted at the camera dubiously. "You can tell we're not being watched, by, what? The camera not coming back on?"

Alastor laughed, short and cutting. "Oh, it's more than lack of interaction." He leaned in close, as if he were parting with a juicy secret. "I can tell when Vox is watching." His smile was sharp and cruel and said everything about how pathetic he found the overlord in question. "His attention has a certain... desperation to it."

Lucifer wasn't certain which part of all of that to focus on first: the fact that apparently Vox had flat out stalked Alastor to the point Alastor knew when he was being watched or the fact that Alastor clearly found the whole thing hilarious.

Father, these sinner could be fucked up sometimes.

Lucifer grinned, unable to pass up the opportunity he'd just been handed to needle the deer demon. "Didn't do much about the camera that recorded the fight."

Alastor's expression soured around the edges. His ears flattened as he resumed his previous position, snide as he pointed out, "Yes, well, I was a bit distracted by doing all the work. You should try joining in next time."

Alastor hadn't let him get involved in any of the attacks, insistent that he had everything covered, and they both knew it. Lucifer had let him because he always half hoped someone would kill the asshole.

Lucifer let the conversation drop with little more than a roll of his eyes, his mind drifting as he processed this new information. If Alastor could indeed tell when Vox was watching (which, creepy) and had been surprised by one of the attacks being filmed, one could infer that Vox was keeping the hotel under a certain level of constant surveillance.

After returning from their day out, he had hauled himself up in his room as he scoured the news for mention of any attacks. Had tracked down the news reports Rosie had mentioned. There had only been a number written reports and many more reposted written reports, with a single video dedicated to the subject. The video itself contained footage from the first attack, despite the news articles having all been posted fairly recently. Judging from the general comments under the articles and the video, few people were interested in the hotel itself beyond wanting to know if it still stood or not.

They had been lucky the fight had forced the drone to retreat or risk being destroyed. Distance had rendered the video quality poor enough his bleeding hand wasn't visible for all of Hell to see. Everyone already knew angels could be harmed, killed even. It wouldn't do for anyone to get it into their pretty little heads that angel weapons might work on him or Charlie, however.

(Lucifer tried not to think about the main image he had seen, again and again, in those news articles. Tried not to think about how reverent Alastor had looked like as he reached his hand out to the Devil, as if he were the only God the sinner would ever be able to touch. The framing of the image had made it appear like it was something so different than it had really been.)

Light pressure on his shoulder drew him out of his thoughts. Out of the corner of his view, he caught Alastor withdrawing the hand he'd used to get his attention. It was a good thing he had, as it took a second for the sensor above the door to register their presence and trigger the door to open. He could only imagine what the media would have thought if a camera had caught Lucifer running right into the front doors of V Tower while lost in thought.

They stepped through the doors into a lobby themed in oranges and reds with purple accents. Hearts were definitely a motif, accenting arches and their support columns. Purple lanterns dotted every other column, more decoration than function. Lucifer took in the additional advertisements, some on the walls, some on a-frames. A large, flat screen tv displayed the VoxTek logo, but there was nothing currently playing on it.

There were a number of employees dotted around the lobby. A sheep sinner carrying a precarious stack of tablets raced off in one direction, while a horned rabbit sinner ran in another direction with an armful of clothing. A trio of sinners loitered off to the side, whispering back in forth in a frantic, hushed argument about what sounded like bottom lines and stocks. Near the back of the lobby, a blue and yellow sinner shouted about "messy actors" and "shitty wardrobes" as he frantically slammed his finger into the up button of the elevator.

At the center of the lobby, themed similar to the surrounding columns, was a welcome desk, currently being run by a white haired, fuchsia skinned sinner. Her tiny bat wings fluttered and drooped as she fielded calls. Distracted as she was, she failed to notice anyone had entered the lobby until Alastor and Lucifer had already reached the desk.

"One moment, please," she said to them, showing that she had at least noticed they were there. "Now where did Velvette say she wanted her calls sent to today...?" She bit her lip, finger hovering over one of a quite frankly insane number of optional extensions. Her eyes darted back and forth between two of them, before she shrugged and for all intents and purposes flat out guessed which one to send the line to. "Thank you for waiting," she said in a practiced, albeit polite monotone. "How may I... help..." She trailed off as she finally laid eyes on who had walked into the lobby, eyes going wide. She gaped as she recognized Lucifer but went completely blank as she took in Alastor's presence. The blonde was fairly certain that if he could read minds there wouldn't have been a single thought going through her head at that moment.

Lucifer fixed an equally practiced polite smile on his face. "Excuse me, miss," he began, only to pause when she failed to regain her senses, apparently still too flabbergasted by his companion. Brow twitching, he rapped his knuckles sharply upon the marble surface of the desk.

The noise seemed to do the trick, the sinner snapping out of her trance to jerk her head around. "Yes! Um." She swallowed, casting one last nervous glance at the Radio Demon. Between looking at Alastor and looking back at Lucifer, he could see her clawing her professional mask back on with the kind of experience that came from needing to remain calm when one's life was on the line. "How may I help you, sirs?" Her voice didn't even shake a little.

Noting the reaction and shelving the topic for later, Lucifer said, "Please let Vox know we are here to speak with him."

The sinner blinked, disbelief clear as day on her face despite her best efforts not to show it. "You..." Lucifer had the distinct impression the 'you' here was Alastor, even if she wasn't looking directly at him. "Wish to speak with... Vox?" Her tone suggested that had she not been speaking with Lucifer Morningstar, the literal king of Hell, she might have asked him if he was smoking something.

The noise, or lack there of, reached his ears. The general hustle and bustle of when they had entered had completely died down to be replaced by whispers and murmurs. Even without turning, he could feel all eyes on them. Lucifer glanced at Alastor, whose Cheshire Cat grin suggested he was internally laughing at all the fuss his being here was causing. His ears flicked to and fro as he followed different conversations.

Smile fixed in place, he affirmed, "Yup!" He waggled his fingers in the direction of her phone. "Now, please."

The receptionist stared off into the middle distance, the same blank look in her eyes he'd seen on soldier's who'd died at war. In the fatalistic tone of someone who didn't expect to have a job (or possibly be alive) in the morning, she said, "Whelp, this job sucked anyway."

Someone, a little too loudly, stage whispered, "Oh, I would not want to be in her shoes, right now."

Without turning, the receptionist flipped the person off with one hand while picking up the phone with the other. She pressed a seemingly random button as she put the receiver to her ear, a down right manic smile crossed her face.

Lucifer (and likely everyone in the lobby, as well) could tell the instant the phone was answered on the other end. A voice that matched the one's he'd heard in the advertisements bellowed, "WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT INTERUPTING MY MEETINGS?"

Taking advantage of the fact that it sounded like Vox was a sinner who needed to breathe on occasion, the woman said, voice picture perfect cheerful, "The King of Hell and the Radio Demon are here to see you, sir."

A very long, audible pause, both on the phone and from the lobby around them. Then, "WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN ALASTOR'S HERE??"

Lucifer raised an eyebrow at the redhead, incredulous. Seriously? What kind of history did these two have that Alastor showing up at V Tower was causing this kind of fuss? It was almost enough to make him forget he had been totally overlooked in that last statement.

Around them, every camera in the lobby suddenly came to life, zeroing in on them. Lucifer could tell by their synchronous motion, someone was likely watching them. Alastor's whole posture changed as he turned on one of the cameras, head tilted just so and smile lazy as he waved at it.

As one, those very same cameras began to sizzle and pop as they were all taken out.

Lucifer noted the redhead looked far too pleased with himself for that to have been anything other than deliberate. He knew Alastor hated being recorded, but that was just petty. Turning his attention to the receptionist, it was only because of his heightened sense of hearing that he was able to hear Vox, voice considerably more in control and at a much more reasonable volume, telling her to send them down.

"At once, sir." She set the phone down at leisure, as if she hadn't just had her eardrums tested by her boss shouting in them. Still looking at something only she could see, she said, "Vox will see you now." She pointed behind her to a set of elevators. "Please use the elevator on the right, as this is the only elevator with access to Vox's personal office." Placing her hands on the desk in a deceptively casual way, she finished, "Please have a hellish rest of your day."

"You, too," Lucifer said on reflex. He watched her as they made their way around the desk, throwing glances over his shoulder after they'd passed it. Under his breath, he asked of Alastor, "Think the hotel needs a receptionist?"

They had a front desk, didn't they? And a land line? Maybe? There was no mail service in Hell and Alastor had to get communications somehow, seeing as he refused to touch anything more modern than a radio. He'd check on it when he got back.

"Ha!" Alastor side eyed him. "Come now, your Majesty, you don't want poor Husker to be out of a job, do you?"

Lucifer belatedly remembered that apparently Husk doubled as not just their bartender, but also as their receptionist. He guffawed. One the one hand, Husk was indeed an great bartender, even willing to be a patient ear for one's troubles, if he tolerated them. He was certainly an exceptional judge of someone's character. On the other, was he a good receptionist? No offense meant to the avian feline in question, but, not in the slightest.

Lucifer added the mental note to check in on the receptionist later to his growing list of things to do.

The elevator opened without them pressing any buttons, suggesting that Vox, the creep, had other ways of keeping tabs on them. Lucifer and Alastor stepped in, the former not thrilled with how tiny the elevator was. There was just enough room for the both of them to stand side by side with little to spare. Insult to injury, the most obnoxious elevator music he had ever had the displeasure to have inflicted on him played over head. There were no buttons to chose from, but there seemed to be none needed as the elevator began its decent on it's own.

Lucifer reiterated: what a creep.

More to fill the silence and distract himself from the growing need to destroy the speaker putting out that horrible noise, he asked, "You ever been here before?"

In the same way most people would say, 'I'd rather die, thanks,' Alastor scoffed. "Absolutely not! I'd never inflict such poor company on myself willingly." Still, it wasn't hard to notice the little ways Alastor was on high alert, very much aware of the fact that he had walked willingly into enemy territory. His ego didn't allow him to worry, but it still paid to be alert to potential surprises.

Thankfully, the elevator didn't take long before reaching its destination. This new room was vast, with a color scheme nothing like the lobby's. Where the lobby was warm shades of orange, red and purple, this room was all cool shades of blue, red, white. The room was dark, only illuminates by dozens upon dozens of screens, most glowing with white light, a handful with red light. Red light filtered up from what appeared to be a deep pit surrounding a bridge-like walkway. Attached at the end was a round platform and attached to the platform was a seat surrounded by even more monitors.

This wasn't an office. This was a surveillance room.

Walking down the walkway was none other than the founder of VoxTek, Vox himself, striding along with all the confidence of someone who was at the top of their industry and knew it. His smile was wide and Lucifer immediately pegged it as the fake kind he usually saw on car salesmen. "Your Highness! Welcome!" Vox greeted. When he was close enough, he offered his hand out for a handshake.

Lucifer eyed it, just long enough to make it look like he wasn't going to take it. He didn't expect anyone to actually bow to him in greeting, but something about this guy left him half tempted to push for it now. Taking the hand, he allowed Vox to shake it to be polite.

When it came time to greet Alastor, the TV demon merely gritted his teeth and said, voice dripping with venom, "Alastor."

Alastor didn't appear bothered in the least by the rude greeting. Matching vitriol with amusement, he merely said, "Vox."

Lucifer looked from Vox, to Alastor, and then back to Vox. Man, he was so sorry he hadn't asked for more details on these two before they'd gotten here. Predicting this could go on a while if they were left to their own devises, Lucifer pointedly cleared his throat.

Vox's smile smoothed out, salesman mask back on place. "Yes, of course. Now, your highness," the sinner held out his hand towards the bridge, indicating he'd like them to come into his "office" proper. Lucifer didn't fail to notice there was only one seat down that way and it was meant for Vox. "May I call you Lucifer? Lucifer--"

Oh, absolutely not. They were going to have to nip that in the bud. Even Alastor, who had somehow become his rival for his place in his daughter's life and literally lived down the hall from him, was smart enough not to call him by name.

"The word you're looking for is 'Majesty'."

Vox paused, body tensing. The fallen angel got the impression he wasn't used to being interrupted. "Excuse me?"

Lucifer effected a bored stance, one hand settled on his cane as he explained, deliberately just this side of hostile, "Your Highness is how you would address my daughter." He looked Vox dead in the eye, making it pointedly clear he was deadly serious and there was going to be none of this BS about who was calling the shots. "Your Majesty is how you address your king."

Vox interestingly grew more calm in the face of his king's ire. "Of course, your Majesty," he said, immediately correcting course. He offered they move the conversation to the platform again. This time, Lucifer nodded. He followed as Vox lead the way, noting how the TV demon never quite turned his back on them, seemingly uneasy having Alastor at his back, even this deep into what was his own territory.

Lucifer took the time spent crossing the bridge to exam the pit around them. While the red light obscured the bottom itself, he was able to make out what appeared to be a very large tank behind equally large glass walls. Swimming around without a care in the world were what appeared to be several glowing sharks. He followed one as it made its way from one side of the pit to the other, able to sense there was nothing natural in their design. These creatures may have appeared to be alive, but they were all circuits and wires, through and through.

When they reached the platform, Vox showed sense by not going for his chair. He did stop in the center of the circle, a subtle attempt to regain some control of the situation. "Now, your Majesty," he began, just sincere enough it was impossible to tell if it was fake or not. "Please, tell me how I and VoxTek can be of assistance today."

Lucifer watched him. Watched the way his face was turned to Lucifer, but his eyes kept ticking to Alastor. Noted the way his body was tilted ever so slightly in the redhead's direction, as if drawn by a magnet he couldn't resist. Vox may have been putting on a show of talking to Lucifer, but he very much only had eyes for Alastor.

Someone was obsessed.

Someone was obsessed really badly.

Something that felt suspiciously like possessiveness reared its head deep within his chest. Lucifer had no more of a claim on Alastor than Vox did, but Alastor had chosen to live under his roof and was his daughter's hotelier. Finicky to the last, with all the loyalty of a feral, stray cat, Alastor was theirs.

Smile all teeth, eyes gold on red, Lucifer raised his free hand until they were right under where Vox's nose would be if he had one. He snapped his fingers, once, twice, sharply.

Vox nearly went cross-eyed, as he zeroed in on the offending digits, leaning slightly back.

"I know Alastor is very eye catching," Lucifer drawled, voice deepening as he let his displeasure seep in. "But you are talking to me. Do you understand?"

The TV demon had the grace to raise his hands, not necessarily in surrender, but certainly in a pacifying manner. It was easy to see him cycling through possible responses, as he fished for the one that would deescalate the situation the fastest. "I apologize, you Majesty, for any offense," he settled on, tone so polite it reeked of falseness.

Lucifer let him have it because it seemed Vox was finally cottoning on to the fact that there was a larger predator in the room then either of the two sinners. The reluctant king withdrew a step, pleased when Vox's eyes followed him, with not a single glance at Alastor. Now that he had the CEO's full attention, he decided it was time to get this show on the road. "I have a message for everyone in the Pride Ring. I've noticed how many people have a TV or a cellphone. I've also noticed VoxTek's reach." Lucifer said this last part only because it was true. However they had managed it, VoxTek has even managed to make it's way into the other rings.

For the first time since they'd arrived, Vox's smile actually appeared real. It put into stark light how fake the one he had been wearing up until this moment had been. "We would be thrilled to feature you on one of our television shows, your Majesty." He was smart enough not to look at Alastor, although it was obvious the next part was directed towards him. "Our viewership ratings have been going through the roof over the last few years. Statistics show that almost every household in the Pentagram City has a TV these days."

It was a good sales pitch. It might even have been true. The hotel had even had a TV, although Lucifer had explicitly forbidden anyone from bringing one into the palace, the exception being the live-in servants' personal quarters. Regardless, Vox hadn't said that to try and sale anyone on anything, he'd said it to rub it in Alastor's face that Lucifer had chosen to pass his message along over Vox's medium, instead of Alastor's.

Although they hadn't discussed it ahead of time, Lucifer found himself saying, in all the casualness of it having been a given, "If Alastor wishes to broadcast the message simultaneously over radio for our viewers who prefer the medium, he's more than welcome to do so, but we're not here to discuss that." He was fairly certain, even without turning around, that Alastor hadn't given it away that this was news to him.

The idea was reinforced by the way that Vox's eye twitched before he could regain control over it. "Yes, of course we want it to reach all of the intended audiences." Hands coming to rest at the small of his back, the TV demon attempted to steer them back on course. "Now, about the content of the message."

Lucifer tilted his head to the side. "Does it matter what the content is? Unless you prefer I go somewhere else to do this." Something that was also true. Mammon may lack any talent of his own, but he knew a cash grab when he saw one. He jumped onto the bandwagon that was television sets, TV shows, and moving advertisements as soon as the technology had hit Hell. The only reason none of his products where seen in the Pride Ring was because Lucifer limited his exposure to sinners were ever he could. If he gave him the green light, Mammon would topple VoxTek within a matter of months, if not less.

Vox paused, sensing he was in troubled waters, but not quite sure from which direction. "No, no. We here at VoxTek simply prefer to make sure that all the content we put out is content we stand by--"

Lucifer leaned in. If his tail were out, it would have been thrashing. "Are you saying your king could say anything VoxTek wouldn't support?"

Vox's screen left eye widened ever so slightly, the sclera going from a solid red, to more hypnotic red and black. It was there and gone in the blink of his eyes. His voice sounded glitchy as he gritted out a, "No."

"May I suggest something, your Majesty?"

Lucifer broke off what was quickly becoming a staring match with Vox to turn his attention to Alastor. The redheaded sinner had been standing behind him, seemingly content to watch the drama unfold from the side as Lucifer took the lead. Considering their rivalry, Lucifer was a little hesitant to allow Alastor to enter the fray, lest he potentially make things worse. However, he did appreciate the fact that these two knew each other better than he knew either of them.

Giving away the floor, at least for now, Lucifer gave a single short nod, for him to proceed.

Alastor stepped up until they were side by side.

Unable to resist now that the redhead had center stage, Vox immediately shifted to face him, Lucifer all but forgotten. He frowned, almost all pretenses of being a businessman all but thrown out the window. "What are you doing here, Alastor?" He snipped at the redhead. "I know you'll take any opportunity to move up in Hell, but I didn't take you as a kiss ass."

Alastor smiled at him, as if he were a short sighted child. "We hadn't gotten to that part, have we?" He gave his staff a little spin, noting the way Vox's eyes narrowed as he took in it's repaired state. "His Majesty asked me to stand with him as he gave his address."

Vox snorted, doubtful. "You'd never agree to appearing on screen." He actually started to laugh at the idea, until he realized Alastor was completely serious. "Wait, you said yes?" Gaping, he turned on Lucifer, seeming in his shock to forget who he was talking to. "What the hell did you do to get him to agree to show up on TV?" He glared back and forth between then, baring his teeth as he asked, "What, are you two fucking or something?"

Lucifer narrowed his eyes, lip curling back. In one fell swoop, Vox had just reduced himself to less than scum on the bottom of his boots. The only reason they were continuing this conversation was because he didn't feel like dragging Valentino down to the Greed Ring. "Maybe you just don't know how to speak his language," he snipped back, mouth moving before he could think about what he was saying or how much it gave away.

Before Vox could think too deeply on it, the redhead cleared his throat. For all that he preferred to be an unseen voice on the radio, Alastor did how to play his audience in person. "Let me sweeten the deal," he said, his hand running down the pole of his staff, eyeing the TV demon as he did so. "If you agree to broadcast our King's message, I'll do that one little thing you wanted me to do when you asked me to join you." He pointed the microphone end at Vox, the tip perilously close to his screen. "From when you agree to the end of the broadcast."

Vox stared at the microphone. Slowly, he raised his eyes until he met Alastor's. Something that looked suspiciously like sadness peaked through his anger, although Lucifer was certain they weren't supposed to see it. "You'd really do that. For him?"

Alastor withdrew his staff, tucking it under his arm. With his free hand, he reached out until a single claw rested under Lucifer's chin. Encouraging him to look up at him, Lucifer let Alastor tilt his head up and around to meet that fond expression on the redhead's face. "As his Majesty said, he knows how to speak my language."

Vox's eyes widened, a dawning expression coming over him. Real horror followed shortly behind it. "Holy shit," he whispered, staggering back. Lucifer tore his gaze away from Alastor's just in time to see him drop into his chair as if his strings had been cut. Dragging a hand down his face, Vox said with absolute certainty, "You actually made a Faustian Bargain."

He said it like this was his worst nightmare came to life.

Beside him, Alastor practically radiated smug triumph. It was all the affirmation he needed to give.

All of the fight hadn't been been cut from Vox just yet. Unhappy as he was with this set back, Vox was already trying to figure out how spin this in his favor. An elbow resting on each arm of his chair, the knuckles of his joined hands pressed to his lips, he countered, "Alright, Alastor does his thing and I'll broadcast whatever you want." His grin took up most of his screen, all pretenses of friendliness dropped. "Give me an hour to prepare the studio for you."

Before Vox could run off, Lucifer placed one last little condition on him. "Vox. Make sure the other Vees are in attendance." At the TV demon's questioning tilt of his head, the blonde merely said, "I wouldn't want anyone to miss my message."

Whatever Vox thought of this was hidden behind his joined hands. Instead of bothering with any of the usual ways out of the room, Vox transformed into a bolt of electricity, disappearing into one of the monitors.

Silence descended over the room. Then, "You two have history."

Alastor snorted. "You know how to use your eyes, your Majesty. I'm impressed."

Lucifer ignored the sarcasm and the insult in favor of observing his companion. The redhead's brows were furrowed with concentration, eyes closed and the very air around him warped to a noticeable degree. To Lucifer, a creature who had existed before physical matter, picking up on the way Alastor was enhancing certain electromagnetic waves around him was child's play. Hoping to kill two birds with one stone - learning more about their shared history while figuring out what the sinner was doing - the little king gave into his curiosity and asked, "What did Vox want you to do?"

Alastor didn't answer for a moment, whatever he was doing taking quite a bit of his concentration. Lucifer patiently waited him out. Several minutes ticked by with nothing by the hum of the monitors and the swimming of the sharks to keep him occupied. Cracking open a single eye a slit, Alastor reached a point in whatever he was doing where he could split his attention. Lucifer noted the pupil of the visible eye was a dial.

"Do you know how the technology in that silly little device in your pocket works?" Alastor asked by way of response.

The only things Lucifer tended to carry on his person were his cane, which was in his hand, and his cellphone, in case Charlie tried to call him (rare that it was). His cellphone, which was indeed in his pocket. Fishing it out, he eyed it. He knew it worked. He knew how to work it. Did he really need to know more? Besides, it wasn't one of VoxTek's cellphones, which made him less wary of it. Confused as to where this was going, he said, "It works, isn't that all that matters?"

"Such a pedestrian response." Alastor hummed, his microphone coming over to point at the little device. "You device works because it's able to transmit data via radio waves." He used his staff to gesture to the room around them, his eye falling shut now that he no longer needed to see to engage in the conversation. "Vox's specialty is electricity. He can interact with anything that uses it."

Lucifer remembered the way the TV demon had disappeared into his monitor, a chill running down his spine as he imagined what all else he could likely interact with.

"Radio waves, on the other hand, are my specialty," Alastor continued. This fit with what Lucifer had observed both in the current moment and back at the radio tower. "Usually I simply use them to connect myself to any radio in Pentagram City, but I can also enhance them." His edges of his smile tightened. There was no strain in his posture, but Lucifer was suspicious they might see hints of it if this carried on too long. "When Vox wanted to introduce wireless technology to Hell, he suggested that we team up. He would create the technology and the demand, and I would enhance his reach." His expression sharpened into a sneer. "I had no interest in being a mere tool in elevating him to the top."

Judging from the short interaction he'd observed, Lucifer was suspicious Vox had wanted much more than just to use Alastor as a tool. Vox had done little to hide the depth of his anger and hatred, and no one reached that level of emotion without having swung in the opposite direction first. Lucifer wondered if Alastor had really turned Vox down because of his own lust for power or if Alastor had seen the way Vox had looked at him and hadn't been interested.

Since that question was more likely to shut down the conversation then receive an answer, resigned himself to never knowing. Either way, he supposed he should be happy that Alastor had turned Vox down. Lucifer didn't want to think about what they could have accomplished if they had somehow found a way to work together.

Instead, he went with, "So, you can interact with anything that receives radio waves, then. Not just radios?"

In response, his cell phone dinged. The screen lit up to the lock screen, showing he had a new text message. Though it should be improbable, there was nothing in the place of a sender's name. Lucifer silently frowned at it, suspicious of who was the sender, but unwilling to open anything he didn't know who it came from.

As if sensing his distrust, Alastor crooned, "Go on. I promise it's not spam."

Lucifer was still wary, but he unlocked his phone. If this was malicious ware, Alastor was getting him a new phone.

The text message was indeed not spam. When he opened it up, there were simply two words:

You suck!

Lucifer glared at the message. "So, what? How would this help Vox?"

Alastor wagged a finger at him. "I'm currently high jacking every TV and cellphone with it's WIFI turned on. 666 News has never been more popular than it is right now." He paused, as if searching for something. "I excluded most of the phones in the hotel, but I do have Angel's."

Lucifer whistled, giving credit where it was due. That was honestly incredible. Terrifying in it's reach, holy shit, but incredible. A thought crossed his mind, an unholy grin slowly spreading across his face as he wondered, "Wait, if I reply to this, will the message go straight to you?"

"Ha!" Alastor shook his head, using his microphone to bop the top of Lucifer's hat. An impressive feat, considering his eyes were still closed. "Sorry, but I'm merely a transmitter and an amplifier. My abilities don't work that way."

Lucifer straightened his hat, half tempted to try anyway, just to see if it were true. Perhaps he would another time.

He was interrupted from any further questions by one of the monitors coming to life over Vox's chair. A moment later, the sinner himself reentered the same way he had left. Vox settled back in his chair, legs crossed and significantly more calm than when he left. "The studio will be ready for you in half an hour." He glanced once at Alastor, who had opened his eyes upon the TV demon's return, before returning back to Lucifer. "Let's relocate there now, shall we?"

Lucifer nodded. Instead of leading them towards the elevator they'd come down in, Vox merely joined them in the center of the platform. It became apparent why when the very middle suddenly began to rise, revealing there was yet more ways in and out of the surveillance room. Once they were back in the lobby, he led them over to elevator on the left, only sticking with them long enough to press the button of the floor with the studio, before pulling back out of it. "I'll meet you up there."

The door closed, once again leaving just the two of them and that horrible elevator music.

Lucifer glanced at Alastor. He still looked fine, but he was definitely putting out a lot of power. Feeling concerned (Alastor had agreed to do this for him) and wary of insulting him, he asked, checking in, "You doing okay, still?"

Alastor's ear twitched, the widening of smile showing he wasn't insulted, but rather amused. "Oh, don't worry your little head, I'll be just fine, your Majesty." Eyes aglow with more than just the power it took to carry out his promise, he added, "But I expect a reward when we return to the Hotel."

Lucifer felt a jolt run up his spine. The chain around his neck didn't manifest, but he could feel it tightening ever so. Alastor was invoking their deal, officially giving him his 12 hour notice. He supposed he shouldn't be surprised, as Alastor had yet to actually invoke the deal since making it with him. Tilting his head so his hat hid his expression from both Alastor and the camera's gaze, Lucifer grumbled, "Should have known you'd do nothing for free."

The doors to the elevator opened, illuminating the redhead's sinister grin. A few sinners had paused to catch a glimpse of them as the doors opened, only to pale at the expression on Alastor's face. They quickly scurried off to carry out their tasks. Lucifer stepped through the doors, taking in the chaos in front of him. Numerous demons were running around, similar to the frantic energy he'd seen in the lobby, everyone getting the studio ready. A stack of papers and angry shouting from a blonde woman in a red dress (what was her name? It started with a K) suggested that something else had been planned for this hour, but had been cancelled due to Lucifer's abrupt interruption.

Lucifer might have felt bad, if it weren't for the fact that he knew without a shadow of a doubt this particular reporter was likely going to find some way to verbally eviscerate him later. He may not have remembered her name, but he did remember her particular brand of cutthroat journalism and the outright nasty things she had said about his daughter in the past. And her casual abuse of her co-reporter.

As if sensing she was being watched, the reporter turned her head a full 180 degrees, her smile down right unhinged and full of promises.

Not for the first time since landing in Hell, Lucifer almost wished he was still capable of creating Holy Water. There were some situations one just needed a spray bottle full of the hard core stuff for.

"Your Majesty," Vox pipped up, appearing from seemingly nowhere. The only reason Lucifer didn't jump was because he was still caught in a glaring match with a literal reporter from Hell. "This way, please."

Lucifer carried on glaring at her, right up until he physically couldn't. "I don't care who you've got sitting with me, I don't want her anywhere near me."

Vox followed his gaze, snorting when he saw who he'd been making a stink eye at. "Oh, no worries." He turned his own glare on Alastor. "I'll be copiloting right along with you."

Lucifer took in the two chairs. If he was sitting in one and Vox in the other, Alastor was going to be left standing. Judging from the gleam in the TV demon's eye, this was on purpose. Vox pulled out the seat on the right, the malicious reporter's coworker's usual seat, a smile so fake one would have to be blind to think it sincere spread across his screen. "Just a few more finishing touches, and then we'll be ready to begin." He turned on his heel and disappeared back into the bowels of the studio.

Lucifer blinked down at the seat. He could already feel the sheer number of eyes from the people in the studio, watching and waiting to see what he was going to do next. This was the first time almost every single one of them had ever seen him in person. He already hated everything about this. It was more than enough to make him want to retreat back to his room at the hotel and not come out for the rest of the month.

A gentle brush, an almost tickle, against the back of his neck, the feeling almost shockingly intimate, startled him. He inhaled sharply, not having noticed that he had stopped breathing. Instinctively, he turned his back on the growing crowd, his hand coming up to half way, before he aborted the motion. Turning to face him, Lucifer noted that Alastor appeared to have not done anything, standing in that default pose he favored. The only reason Lucifer could tell it had been him that touched him was from the way the redhead was watching him.

"Smile, your Majesty," Alastor murmured, voice pitched low and soothing. "The hardest part is almost over. I'll be with you the whole time."

How out of sorts had he been that even the Radio Demon was taking pity on him? That the reassurance was a comfort?

Lucifer breathed in slowly through his nose, breathing out even slower through his mouth. His racing heart began to calm, as he reminded himself that he had taken on far more terrifying beings than a room full of nosey sinners. This was all for Charlie and the safety of her dream, and for that, he could handle anything.

He dropped into the offered chair, the anticipation of a battle falling over his shoulders like a weathered cape.

A door opened off to the side, one that he hadn't seen anyone coming and going through. Stepping through were none other than Valentino and Velvette themselves. Velvette was typing away on her phone, muttering about an interruption to her photo shoot.

Valentino paused as he caught sight of Lucifer and Alastor. "Oh! If it isn't papito, himself!" The grin spreading across his face and choice of wording caused the blonde's skin to crawl. Sauntering over, Valentino nearly draped himself over desk, bringing his and Lucifer's faces far too close together. "You wouldn't want to hang around after this little show for some one on one time, now would you, mi pequeño rey?"

Lucifer had barely managed to do more than lean back in his chair, trying to escape the heavy stench of smoke and hard drugs that hung around the Overlord like a second skin, when a weigh settled heavily on his shoulder. He glanced up, finding that Alastor had stepped up beside him, hand placed in such a way that it wrapped possessively around shoulder and was beginning to snake around the back of his neck.

"Valentino." Alastor's filter was grating, a warning despite his pleasant smile.

Valentino lazily blew out a thin pink, heart shaped mouth of smoke. It hit Alastor in the face. His smile was filthy as he gave the deer demon a once over. "Don't be jealous, venado, my offer is still open to you, too."

The static glitch of a record screeching. It wasn't hard to pick out Alastor's distaste with everything from the offer to the Overlord himself. "Pass," he quipped back, shotting down the offer with extreme prejudice.

The pimp shrugged, viewing it as his loss. He turned his attention back to his original target. "What do you say, papito? We could--."

"Val." Vox's voice was barely recognizable through whatever filter he was using, the noise causing Lucifer to flinch as it grated at his ears.

Valentino pouted, somehow making it look aggressive. "Vox, querido, what have I said about using that tone with me?" He twisted around in a way that accented his figure. "Don't be upset because the Radio Demon's already turned you down."

"The show is about to start, Val," Vox pointed out evenly and sternly, despite the dig. Lucifer was beginning to pick up that when it was anyone other than Alastor, the TV demon might actually be able to keep a cool head. "How do you think it will look if we don't start on time?"

Valentino's pout to edge in the direction of a normal pout. "Spoil sport." He leaned back until he was facing Lucifer. He reached out, running a single finger along the underside of the blonde's chin. "Call me if you change your mind." Offer made, he thankfully, finally got off the desk and made his way back over to Velvette.

Lucifer was going to take a long, hot shower when he got back to the hotel. With acid. Regrow some nice, new skin that Valentino had never touched.

Alastor pulled him from his thoughts, giving the back of his neck a squeeze. Lucifer was almost sad for the loss of contact when he pulled his hand away so he could resume his prior position.

From where he stood, Vox watched the two of them, his expression unreadable. Several minutely later, the blue and black themed sinner dropped into his own seat, calling out to the cameraman as he did so. "How's the camera holding up?"

The cameraman peaked at Alastor, indicating this question was because of the redhead's tendency to take out anything with a camera around him. The sinner studied his monitor and then gave a thumbs up.

Vox clicked his tongue. "So," he gripped, irritation heavy in his voice. "You can be recorded without destroying my electronics."

Lucifer couldn't see Alastor from where he was standing almost directly behind him, could only hear the tapping on his fingers on his microphone. His taunt was malicious as he came back with, "We both know I can be photographed ...when I want to be."

The TV demon grimaced, the hit landing where it obviously hurt. He had little time to recover, as the cameraman began his countdown. As he hit zero, Vox's smile was back in place, just a lot less real.

"Top of the hour, folks!" Vox's voice was loud and boisterous, the rhythm and pace almost break neck. "Breaking news: in a rare interview, we're joined by none other than the King of Hell and the Devil himself, Lucifer Morningstar!" Vox leaned over, holding a hand out to indicate the fallen angel sitting beside him. "Please, give your people a little wave, your Majesty."

Lucifer resisted the urge to flip him off. Gave the camera a little wave with little enthusiasm.

Vox carried on, unphased, "Equally rare and unlikely to never happen again, fellow sinners, we also have radio talk show host, the Radio Demon himself, Alastor!"

Alastor didn't wave. He grinned straight into the camera, as if staring into the very souls of the views, eyes and teeth alight as reality itself threatened to warp around him.

The camera gave an alarming whine. The cameraman gave an alarmed cry as it threatened to give out.

Point made, Alastor seemed to remember he was supposed to be behaving. The camera stopped whining as reality returned to normal.

Vox's eye twitched. Smile strained along with his chipper tone, he said, "Your Majesty, I assume your being here is because of the attacks on the hotel your daughter is running?"

Lucifer gave him his own chipper smile. "You mean the attacks you only know about because of your voyeuristic habits?"

Vox laughed, a touch nervously. "You've clearly never dealt with the paparazzi, sire. One has to cross a few boundaries if they want to get the exclusive first."

Was that what he was going with?

Either blind to it or ignoring it, Vox glossed over Lucifer's offense, moving on to, "Please, tell us, do you have any idea who's behind the attacks? We're dying to know."

Lucifer highly doubted that. Or at least, doubted Vox cared. It was more likely he wanted the hotel to fail or get taken out, judging from his poorly concealed eagerness. He leaned his elbow onto the table, chin resting on his palm. "I'm not here to waste my time nor the listeners' with an interview." He took delight in watching Vox falter for the first time since the interrogation began. Over his shoulder, he called sweetly, "Alastor?"

Alastor's voice was just sweet and still more bloodthirsty. "Yes, sire?"

It was a show of how in tune Vox was with Alastor's moods that the TV demon was already beginning to sweat. He was doing a good job of hiding it, Lucifer would give him that. It was a pity he was sitting beside someone who could see right through him, when he chose to make the effort. Lucifer rose from his chair, the blue and black sinner nearly taking a screen full of wings as they manifested. "Be a doll and make certain Vox doesn't get any ideas. Like interfering."

"With pleasure." Alastor's words were nearly lost to his filter. The air around them crackled, the shadows in the corners of the room growing unnaturally dark. Vox dropped all pretenses of pretending he wasn't unnerved, leaning back as much to avoid the wings as to distance himself from the redheaded sinner.

Red and white wings fluttered, giving Lucifer the lift to make stepping up onto the desk look effortless. Papers flew everywhere and a few people made startled noises as they were hit with a few errant pages. His wings fanned out, allowing him to gracefully fall into a seated potion on the other side of the desk. He leaned to the side, placing his weight on the hand braced on the desk, head rolling until he was facing the other two Vees. "Velvette, if you value your life just sit there and look pretty for a bit."

Velvette narrowed her eyes to slits at him. "What the hell?"

Valentino waited to see what advice he had for him. When he received none, the pimp blew out a lung full of pink smoke. His expression turned sultry. "Nothing for me, pequeño rey?"

Lucifer didn't respond, not wanting to give the game away too soon. Relaxing his control over his form, he allowed the full extent of his corrupted, angelic form to appear on full display for all of the viewers to see. Far too many eyes focused in on not just the camera, but the cameraman and the sinners directly around him. Each of them instinctively shied away, hindbrains warning them they were out in the open and too exposed. Vox attempted to push his chair back, the area around the desk suddenly a little too hot, only to be stopped by the end of Alastor's strategically placed staff locking the chair in place.

Lucifer rolled his head back around, until he could easily stare into the camera. "Now, to clear up a few things: I could care less about sinner politics." He grinned in that way he knew looked off, even for a creature of Hell, leaning into the fact that he wasn't human and had never been human. "How you decide to throw away the one good thing you stupid, stupid little humans have going for you is up to you." His pupils were lost in a red glow as his temper spiked, the flame of hellfire blazing between his horns. " What I do take issue with is someone sending hitman to threaten my daughter over something as silly as potential lost contracts."

He slid off the desk, the sinners in front of him all collectively taking a step back. Only the cameraman stayed in place, too frozen to move. "Perhaps it's my fault, I've been away a while." He held out a hand, fingers searching until he found the particular contract he was looking for. "Perhaps it's yours for never reading the fine print." His hand closed around his desired target, a chain made of pink, translucent smoke, deceptively fragile, coming into being. One end led out the doors. The other end led off to the side, leading over to a certain Overlord.

Valentino's and Angel's contract.

The pimp held up his wrist, confusion evident on his face. "The fuck?"

Lucifer's grin was all teeth. He wrapped his hand around and around the chain until he had a nice, solid grip on it. Without warning, he viciously yanked on the chain.

Valentino was pulled so hard, his shoulder nearly popped out of its socket. The pimp yowled like a cat dropped into pool as he was sent crashing to the floor. Lucifer didn't give him the chance to recover, reeling him in like a particularly resistant fish, the Overlord shouting and cursing as he was dragged across the floor. The Devil gave no quarter, even when he had him where he wanted him, pressing his heel into Valentino's back and twisting moth's arm until it was just short breaking.

"You see," Lucifer carried on, tone bored and voice raised over the slew of insults being thrown his way, "There's this little clause in your contracts that say I have the final say in every single one of them."

"You little shit!" Valentino hissed, twisting in a way that should be impossible for someone who purportedly had a spine. "We had nothing to do with the attacks on that shithole your hija is running."

Lucifer pulled on the chain until he could hear the shoulder pop. The sinner's claws dug into the ground beneath him, glare baleful. "Maybe," Lucifer said, almost nonchalant. "But you're the lowest kind of sinner: the kind that profits on selling human flesh and locks people into contracts so they can never escape."

The moth demon snarled, composure gone. "Every one of those whores came to me willingly. I made them stars. They would be nothing without me."

The Devil peered down at him, unmerciful. All of Valentino's sins where on display for him to see and judge and he found him wanting. "Nothing gives you the right to abuse another human being."

Lucifer returned his attention to the camera. He wrapped his free hand around another section of the chain, pulling the links tight between his two fists. "Let everyone remember that your little deals mean nothing if I say so."

Without further ado, he pulled almost effortlessly on the chain, Valentino's strength that of a kittens next to his. A link, just off center, gave, pulling apart until it shattered. Each one of the links similarly followed suit, falling from his hand like crystalline shards. They vanished like the smoke they had originally appeared as before they could hit the ground.

Valentino's arm, free of the chain, fell to the floor with a heavy thud.

Lucifer stepped off his back, releasing him. Stepping around the desk this time, he held his hand out to Alastor. The Radio Demon blinked back at him, something delighted behind his gaze.

It looked a little like victory.

He took Lucifer's hand.

"The Hazbin Hotel and every one of its residents are under my protection," Lucifer declared into the stunned silence, voice projected loud and unearthly, raising the hair on ever sinner's head, save the one in front of him. He looked upon each of the sinners in the room, gaze coming to rest on the camera lens. "I will not have mercy upon anyone looking to cause my daughter anymore trouble."

To his right, a portal appeared. Without another word, he stepped through it, pulling Alastor along with him.

As everyone continued to stare, the portal vanished and they were gone.

tbc

Translations:

-Papito: Little daddy

-Mi pequeño rey: My little king

-Venado: Deer or venison. I chose this word as a way for Valentino to make a dig at the fact that Alastor's demon form is a type of food source.

-Querido: Darling, used if you love or like someone. Chosen as a shoutout to the affair they're clearly having.

[misc-obeyme]

9 Days of Solomon: Day 8 - Barbatos

Okay, I see the shade here. Barbatos is the prompt for day eight lol.

I was kinda struggling with the prompt because any time I started to write a scene that Barb was actually in, he took over the whole thing. (Sorry, it's my bias as usual.) And these are the 9 days of Solomon so... I ended up just writing about him being eighth on the list lol. Mostly I thought MC would ask Solomon about it and I really think Sol would take the opportunity to flirt with MC.

You noticed right away, of course. Back in your own time, in the present, Barbatos and Solomon had a close relationship. They were friends and they trusted each other. But here in the past, things were different.

Of course you noticed. This was calm, collected Barbatos. Until he saw Solomon and then he displayed a level of anger and dislike that you had never seen from him.

You would never forget the look on Barbatos's face in the labyrinth beneath the castle when Solomon summoned him. When Solomon commanded him to open a portal to transport everyone out of there. The subsequent banishment of your teacher to some far away place as a response.

If you could have told Barbatos that you were from the past, you would have. Just to ask him what that was all about, to tell him that you were aware that something weird was going on.

It turned out that you had the opportunity to ask him anyway and nothing could have prepared you for the answer he gave.

Solomon seemed just as stunned by it as you were.

To think that a demon as peaceful as Barbatos always seemed to be would get so riled up about being eighth on Solomon's list of demons to make a pact with.

It was so unexpected, you almost didn't believe it.

Solomon seemed to accept it, though, and you couldn't help but find the whole situation quite funny.

You were having tea and donuts in the kitchen of Cocytus Hall when you asked him about it directly.

"Did you really make a list like that?"

Solomon shrugged. "I suppose I did. But it wasn't exactly a meticulous thing, just something I was jotting down while I was thinking about it."

You sighed. "Barbatos seemed really upset about it, too."

Solomon frowned. "I didn't mean to hurt his feelings."

"I kind of get it," you said. "If you made a list of your favorite apprentices and I was eighth on the list, I would be upset, too."

"Ahaha!" Solomon laughed, nearly choking on the tea he had just taken a sip of. "MC, that's ridiculous! It wasn't a list of my favorite demons. And I would never make a list of favorite apprentices or demons."

You laughed, too. "Sure, if you say so."

Solomon reached across the table and took one of your hands. He was still smiling, his eyes sparkling. "Anyway, you're far more than just my favorite apprentice."

The way he squeezed your hand made your heart race. You felt your gut flutter as you twisted your hand in his and interlaced your fingers. "Yeah, but I am your favorite, right?"

Solomon shook his head slowly, still smiling. "Do you actually have to ask?"

Of course you didn't. Maybe there was something more to Barbatos's unusual display of disgust and maybe there wasn't. Maybe there was more to what happened between them than Solomon wanted to share with you and maybe there wasn't. But that was between them, in the end.

You couldn't help but be curious about it, though. Maybe you would ask Barbatos more about it later, when your heart wasn't busy doing flips at the look in Solomon's eyes.

day 1: stars | day 2: nostalgia | day 3: knife | day 4: ocean | day 5: pact (nsfw) | day 6: snow | day 7: familiar | day 9: humanity

masterlist | Thank you for reading!

[rorywritesjunk]

Let’s be one another’s present tense

Buggy ‘rescues’ you from an abusive situation, and after a less than stellar introduction, he has you audition for his crew to keep you safe. You want safety, security, and joining a circus seems like the best idea.

Rating: R-ish for now. Warning: Swearing, brief nudity, snarkiness to one another. A/N: This has been sitting in my head as I worked it out for an Anon’s request. I have been really intrigued by this and wanted it to be just right. Also, it gave me the chance to ask my circus obsessed friend about different routines and we bounced some ideas off each other. This is also a touch different than other things I’ve written, which is why I’ve been taking so long to work on it and get it posted. Enjoy!

Title comes from “Crater Lake” by Lady Lamb.

Chapter 1 + Chapter 2 + Chapter 3 + Chapter 4 + Chapter 5 + Chapter 6 + Chapter 7 + Chapter 8 + Chapter 9 (NC-17) + Chapter 10 + Chapter 11 + Chapter 12 + Chapter 13 TAGLIST: @lostfirefly @neuvilleteismybby @fluffybunnyu @sinning-23 @the-angriest-angel @ane5e

Chapter 3

Settling into life in the tent was easier than you thought. The cot wasn’t that comfortable but you had a blanket and a pillow and it was your bed that you didn’t have to share. No one on the crew made any comments about the newcomer sharing a room with the Captain, but they knew better than to start gossiping. And it was just the room, not the bed. That was very clear and you were grateful for the space.

Though Buggy needed to work on not being naked in the room when you were in there. In the weeks since you arrived, you had woken up at least five times to a very naked pirate getting dressed and while you shrieked at him the first three times, the fourth time you tried to pretend to be asleep while the fifth and final time you allowed yourself a moment to see what he looked like underneath the makeup and uniform. You liked seeing his long hair that he kept hidden away, and he was quite hairy on the chest and stomach, with the color matching what was on his head. You tried not to look down further past his waistline, but you got curious and so you looked and well, damn. 

He caught you looking that morning and said nothing, but he winked at you before pulling his pants on.

You couldn’t look him in the eye the rest of the day. 

You were ending your fourth week at the circus, now having been there a month. Your black eye was long gone, bruises healed, and you were already feeling more rested from your time in the tent. You had acquired an old Marine uniform for your gig, somehow finding enjoyment in wearing the uniform while pretending to drown. Buggy wanted you to make it a performance with you faking the drowning while you held your breath under water. He refused to let you go longer than three minutes and there was a freak ready to pull you out of the water if you tried to push it. 

And while it was… different having someone looking out for you, it was nice. You were friendly with them now, some offering you tips on your performance to get the reactions from the audience (who, as you learned, had no choice but to watch the show as they were chained to their seats). It was, for you, a nice restart to life.

You interacted with your captain the most when you were in the tank, practicing holding your breath. He did it ever since your audition and you wondered if he was worried over you pushing yourself, but at the same time, he also paid that much attention to the others, though he started waiting for you to get out of the tank with clean towels to get you dried off faster and Cabaji was standing by with a hot cup of tea for you. 

No one else got a hot cup of tea, just you, but it was just to warm yourself up after being in a tank full of cold water for almost an hour. Lemon ginger seemed to be what was available, and after you mentioned in passing to Cabaji about once having a lavender and mint blend, you were surprised to have it a week later. Cabaji said nothing as he handed it to you, though he glanced at his captain as Buggy handed you a warm towel.

You didn’t say anything to Buggy but you did smile at him as you took a sip of it. He pretended not to notice.

After a month in the tent you felt a little more comfortable with him. You called him Captain, he called you Cupcake, but occasionally you’d call him an asshole when he annoyed you or he’d call you a diva if he felt you messed up your routine (how do you mess up holding your breath?). It was chaotic at times, the two of you throwing petty insults at each other while everyone listened. 

After one rehearsal, where you kept coming up for a breath every 45 seconds, Buggy finally couldn’t take it. 

“Did you forget how to hold your breath already?!”

You spat water in his direction before splashing some out of the tank at him. “Hard to concentrate when you keep staring at me through the glass, you asshole!”

“I’m making sure your technique is right!”

“You don’t even know what I’m doing!” You shot back. “Why don’t you get up here and show me?”

“Did you forget something?” He looked at you like you were an idiot as his hands popped off his wrists. Oh, well, you kind of did forget he couldn’t get in the tank because there was occasionally sea water mixed in and you didn’t think it would be fair if the captain drowned during your practice routine. One hand flipped you off while the other went to the top of your head, dunking you under water just for a moment before returning to Buggy. 

You came back up and grabbed onto the ledge, sticking your tongue out at him before your helper hoisted you out. Buggy didn’t wait around with towels, but Cabaji was there with your tea while you climbed out of the tank and went down the ladder. You took the cup and grumbled something about annoying captains and he needs to shut up while taking a few sips. Cabaji did get you one towel in the end, which really didn’t do much to dry you off, so you marched back to your shared room, leaving a wet trail behind you. 

The room was empty, which was perfect because you didn’t need him critiquing you getting undressed. You shut the door and set your tea down before grabbing a dry pair of pants to put on.

“‘Oh, I’m just making sure your technique is right!’” You repeated mockingly as you pulled your wet clothes off and draped them over a chair. “‘Oh, did you forget how to hold your breath?’ Blah blah blah, I’m Buggy, I know everything even if I never did that routine before.” You dried your face with the towel before moving onto the rest of your body. “Asshole, distracting me while I’m trying to practice not drowning.” 

“I wasn’t distracting you, just making sure you weren’t distracted.”

You stopped what you were doing and turned around to throw your wet towel at him. He managed to enter the room without you noticing and he was lucky it was just a wet towel you threw at him and not your tea. You were very naked and you really didn’t need him in the room with you while you were that exposed.

“Really? The door was shut!” You snapped as you hastily pulled a pair of pants on. You didn’t grab a shirt so you went to the wardrobe to find one, grabbing the first thing you saw. It was one of his, but honestly, you didn’t care because you didn’t need to be yelling at your captain while topless. “Learn to knock, asshole!”

“It’s my room first!” He shot back as he threw the towel on the ground. “You get the privilege of sleeping in here, so watch it or you’ll sleep in the lion’s cage!”

“At least the lion wouldn’t barge in on me when I’m naked!”

“You’ve seen me naked countless times! What’s the big deal?”

“I told you to stop being naked when I’m in the room!” You exclaimed. “Boundaries, Captain, boundaries!” 

 “You never said anything about me being in the room while you’re naked!”

“I shouldn’t have to!” You rubbed your face as you sat down on his bed. “It’s like talking to a brick wall.”

“At least I’m better looking than a brick wall.” He grumbled as he kicked the towel away. You sighed and nodded.

“You’re not wrong about that.” You retorted. “I’d rather look at you than a brick wall. You at least talk back.”

Buggy crossed his arms and just shrugged as he looked you over. “Well, you seem okay. Just don’t drown. Cabaji likes having you around and he’s been more focused since you arrived.”

Huh, weird, okay. You shrugged as you looked up at him, your hair damp and hanging loosely around your face. It was a bit of a nuisance in the water and you thought about cutting it short, not to mention drying it was obnoxious. Buggy looked you over again before he walked over to you. He reached out and touched a lock of your hair before tucking it behind your ear.

“You need a better hairstyle, Cupcake.” He told you as he pulled his hand back. With how loud he was, passionate, intense, he had these random moments of being soft and gentle around you which completely threw you off. You never knew when to expect it but you liked seeing it wondering if he was like this with the others. “That’s the next thing we have to work on. It’s only been a month, y’know, but I want you to look your best when you perform.”

“What d’you have in mind for my hair?” You asked. You almost regretted it because he was now grinning at you and in the short time you knew your captain, that grin meant something chaotic was about to happen.

~

So, you didn’t really hate the haircut but you didn’t love it. 

Neutral, you were neutral, and you whispered to yourself that your hair will grow back. You shouldn’t have let Buggy near you with a knife after you two argued, and you made the mistake of telling him he was getting your hair way too short and… he may have taken a chunk of hair off that he didn’t mean to because you jerked away from him suddenly. 

At least he evened out the mistake by doing the same to the other side. 

Your hair was shorn on the sides, with it tapering up to the top of your head where he trimmed it so you still had some body to your hair. You could style it if you wanted, letting it stick up in any direction, or let it sit on the top of your head. Cabaji thought you copied his style, and maybe you did, but his hair was at least longer and could easily comb over to either side. Your hair looked like you let someone with a knife too close to your head and that someone didn’t quite know what they were doing, but they wanted to try it anyway.

Yea, you weren’t going to let Buggy near you for a haircut again.

“It’s going to grow back, it’s going to grow back.” You chanted quietly every day for two weeks. Admittedly, having less hair meant you spent less time drying your hair, and you now didn’t have to figure out how to keep it out of your face when you were getting out of the water. Before it was just a rubber band, but your bangs had been at that length of too long to be out of your eyes but too short to be in a ponytail and since Buggy gave you a new style, your bangs sat just above your eyebrows now. 

It wasn’t a terrible haircut and he had looked rather proud of his work. He even gave your cheek a pinch when he was done, and it didn’t really hurt but your skin was pink where he touched you, and honestly, you were starting to get used to him touching you.

A month and a half under the tent and you were seeing that Buggy was often touchy with his performers. Not in a creepy way, but his hands would guide them to make sure they hit their mark right, or he’d detach his feet to use as markers for Cabaji to steer his unicycle towards. It was at your seven week mark that you saw him start to get a bit touchier with you.

He kept a hand near the tank while you practiced holding your breath, ready to pull you out if your helper wasn’t fast enough. His other hand would take the tea from Cabaji and give it to you by the time you got down the ladder while he walked up to you with warm towels. The hand that was at the tank grabbed a towel and draped it over your head to help get you dry faster. You appreciated the help, recalling your audition when several of your fellow freaks swarmed you with towels, drying you off quickly to make sure you were okay. 

Now it was just the captain taking a few minutes to help you out.

It was kind of nice. He made sure your hair was dry before wiping your face with the towel, though you had to tell him to be a little gentler as he poked you in the eye twice. 

“Oh please, that’s not the worst thing I can do to you.” He said with a smirk as you stuck your tongue out at him. “Watch it with that or I’ll cut it out.” 

“You haven’t yet.” You shot back playfully as you draped the towel over your shoulders. “I’m going to change into dry clothes so please don’t walk in on me this time.”

He winked at you and you just rolled your eyes as you left the area. The banter was something you started to get used to. Yea, you two still got into petty little arguments, but who didn’t when you worked together? Buggy knew what he wanted from his performers, and while you never ever thought you’d be any kind of performer, you found you liked it. You liked the reactions from the audience, and you liked watching the others perform (watching someone breathe fire never ceased to amaze you). 

Honestly, you wished you joined the circus sooner.

[sm0lprism]

Bite-Sized (9) - A G/t BG3 fanfic

This contains g/t (giant/tiny content) so if that isn't your thing, then I suggest you stop reading. Thank you!

Read on ao3

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9

Summary: Astarion brings Ria along with him to the heart of the Goblin Camp without the rest of the group knowing. However, before they can even get inside, things take a very unfortunate turn. In other words, this is the beginning of Ria's VERY bad day.

Pairing: Astarion x f!borrower!oc (Tav/oc) (slow-burn)

Warnings: MOUTHPLAY WARNING!!! If you are uncomfortable with mouthplay or vore-ish themes, then DO NOT read this chapter! No actual vore occurs but mouthplay is VERY prominent. Don't worry, Ria will be completely fine, I promise. Swearing/course language, mentions of blood drinking, vampire stuff.

Word count: 2.4k

The smell of burning meat and alcohol hit Astarion’s nostrils well before he had even stepped foot into the Goblin Camp. While he preferred more refined company, he did relish in the chaos that goblins often brought with them – and it was clearly abundant in the stronghold of the camp as he followed behind Gale, Wyll, and Karlach. Lae’zel and Shadowheart had reluctantly been nominated to look after the camp while the others were away, much to both the half elf’s and gith’s dismay. He wondered if they would kill each other while he and the others were gone.

His stomach grumbled as dozens of goblins flitted around a roasting spit, cooking what smelled like dwarf meat, as they downed pints of alcohol. Seeing this many exposed necks and pulses made the never-ending ache in his stomach worsen. Soon enough he would be able to feed – thanks to Ria persuading the group, he could drink all the goblins dry if he wished once they were done with the leaders.

Ah, yes, the little snack in my pocket…

He was so swept up in the moment that he almost forgot about the tiny passenger that he was carrying. She hadn’t stirred since they had left camp and he wondered if she had in fact fallen asleep. Her small heartbeat had slowed down considerably as well.

His hand hovered over his breast pocket where Ria was concealed inside, and he gave the pocket a little tap to alert her that they had arrived. Almost immediately the borrower inside began to stir, her tiny heartbeat increasing as he felt her squirm against his chest.

Scanning the area, he noticed that everyone else had gathered towards the centre of the camp. Karlach, Gale, and Wyll were standing near a small stage where Volo, a poor bard that he and the others had met in the Emerald Grove some time ago, was performing some terrible rendition of Dror Ragzlin. They seemed completely enthralled by Volo’s presentation as they didn’t even bat an eyelid towards Astarion’s direction.

“Oi! You smell funny, mister.”

Astarion blinked and swiftly turned his gaze downwards to see a female goblin standing directly in front of him.

“How polite of you to say,” Astarion sneered, sharpening his gaze at the little goblin. “And you smell utterly dreadful. Is that all you wanted to say to me or can I be on my way?”

The goblin chose to ignore his statement and instead took a deep inhale of air through her nose. Her eyes grew as big as saucers as she inhaled and she stared at him intently.

Shit. She can smell Ria.

“There’s something in your pocket, isn’t there?” The goblin said, folding her arms across her chest. “I can’t quite make it out, but it’s different to whatever poxy perfume you have on, and the smell of blood in yer mouth.”

“That’s not for you to know,” Astarion hissed, flashing his fangs at the goblin. “Why don’t you mind your own business. Unless you want my fangs to meet that green neck of yours, you best move along.”

The female goblin nearly jumped out of her skin upon seeing Astarion’s perfectly white fangs flash in the sunlight and she immediately backed away from him.

“S-shit, sorry!” she exclaimed, panic evident in her voice. “I didn’t think a blooming blood-sucker could walk in the sun…you must be some freak or somethin’.” The goblin quickly scampered off, not daring to look behind her as she vanished into the hazy crowd.

The sudden outburst seemed to garner some attention as a few goblins had stopped what they were doing and eyed him up curiously. There was no doubt that they could also partially smell Ria’s scent to some extent, too. It seemed that his own scent wasn’t quite enough to mask the borrowers unfortunately. If any of the goblins stopped to really smell him, then he would be in trouble.

He had to get out of there. And fast.

Astarion wasted no time in melding into the shadows, something that came very naturally to him as a vampire spawn, and quickly vanished from sight. Ria was still safe inside his pocket for now, but he knew if the goblins were made aware of a borrower in their midst, it could end very badly for her. Perhaps it would be a good idea if they could mask her scent somehow. He snuck behind a large stone pillar, now out of sight from the masses of goblins and his own companions.

“Astarion?” Ria’s small voice chimed from inside his pocket.

He opened the lip of the pocket and glanced downwards at the tiny passenger he was carrying. He would never say it aloud, but as her little face stared up at him, he couldn’t help but to admit she did look rather cute. She was so tiny, so vulnerable, so fragile – it would be so easy for her to become injured if he wasn’t careful.

Not that he cared if she got hurt. She was just a borrower after all, nothing more.

So…why was he feeling a sudden urge of protectiveness when he looked at her?

He shook his head, dismissing the thought from his brain.  

“Are you just going to stare at me or will you tell me what’s going on?” Ria asked, bringing Astarion back to the present.

He blinked and flashed her a grin. “Well, I was just thinking that it might be a good idea to disguise your scent, darling.”

Ria’s eyes widened in realisation. “Oh…right. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that…” Her voice trailed off as her brain tried to think of a solution. “Maybe I should’ve thought about that before we left.”

“Perhaps that would’ve been a good idea,” Astarion commented. “It’s just fortunate that the goblin from earlier didn’t press me further. I thought my scent would be enough to mask yours, but it seems that you just smell so…” He paused as a grin tugged at the corner of his lips.

Appetising. That’s what he was going to say, but he held his tongue. He knew that teasing her like this when she was only just starting to trust him a little was a bad move, especially after she had asked him not to call her things like that from now on. Still, he couldn’t deny that she did smell delicious. Even with the masses of goblins around him – who significantly had plentiful more blood – her blood sung to him the loudest out of everyone there.  

“So…what?” Ria said, her tiny brow furrowed as she craned her neck up at him.

“Never mind,” Astarion chuckled lightly, attempting to shake the growing thoughts of hunger out of his brain. “Well, you know what I mean, anyway. I’m sure you heard the conversation with the goblin. We really do need to hide your scent somehow.”

“You do have a point.” Ria pursued her lips in thought. “I need to have a better look at what’s going on outside.”

He watched the borrower as she wriggled around until her tiny head just barely managed to peak out from the lip of the pocket. He imagined she must’ve been standing on tip toes just to reach that high.

Ria’s gaze searched the Goblin Camp, concentration hardened her facial features as she tried to think of what to do. After a few moments, her eyes finally settled on a large tub where some goblins were collecting alcohol from.

“That’s it!” Ria exclaimed, pointing towards the tub full of booze on the other side of the camp.

Astarion glanced down at the borrower and then his gaze flicked to the giant tub of booze she was pointing at. Multiple goblins were walking up to the tub to take a swig of alcohol in large mugs, some of them downing their drinks as if it were only water.

“Hm, the pungent alcohol would most certainly cover up your scent,” Astarion said. “But getting you in the alcohol, however, seems like a risky move. Are you sure about this?”

“You’re a rogue! Use some of that dexterity of yours!” She flashed him a small smirk. “Just dip me in the booze quickly and then I’ll be out in a second. I’m sure a vampire spawn can handle that.”   

Astarion arched an eyebrow, wondering just where the sudden burst of confidence that she had was coming from. Not long ago she had been deathly afraid of letting him hold her, now she was placing even more of her trust in him to pull off a stunt that could backfire badly if he didn’t do it carefully. Still, he wasn’t going to let a borrower downplay him like that.

“If you insist,” he replied. “And I suggest we do it quickly. We really don’t want to attract any more attention to ourselves.”

Ria gave him a small nod in reply before she vanished into the inside of his pocket again to conceal herself. With their new goal in the forefront of his mind, he clung to the shadows of the camp to pass by unseen until he reached the large tub. Very swiftly he reached into his shirt pocket and plucked Ria in between his index finger and thumb and leaned towards the large tub of booze.

“Do it!” Ria whispered fiercely.

Before Astarion could do anything, a strong force collided into the back of his legs, causing Ria to fall out of his fingers as he was knocked forwards. All he could do was watch as the little borrower fell out of his grasp, followed by a small plop as she disappeared into the liquid.  

Shit!

Seething with anger, he whipped his neck around to see who the culprit was and his gaze fell on a goblin who looked like they were on the verge of passing out.

“Oh man, I could go for another-HIC!” The goblin spluttered, the smell of beer radiating from his mouth as he wobbled around to gain his footing before passing out on the floor.

Astarion rolled his eyes and hastily returned his attention back to Ria, who was now, quite literally, swimming in the tub of alcohol.

“Hey, you’re holding up the line!” A raspy voice hissed to his left, and he noticed yet another goblin standing close to him. “Hurry up and grab a drink, we all want some!”

Growing somewhat stressed now, Astarion snatched up a nearby cup before returning his attention back to the tub. Ria had fortunately resurfaced, looking rather dishevelled and shaken up, but otherwise she was alright. He wasted no time and scooped her into his cup, keeping it close to his chest as he attempted to sneak away from the masses of goblins that were starting to cluster around them.

“Hey! Where do you think you’re going?” The same goblin with the raspy voice from earlier tugged on his armour, stopping him in his tracks.

Astarion immediately grimaced.

This can’t be good.

“Don’t mind me,” Astarion replied through gritted teeth, wanting nothing more than to turn invisible. “I’m just passing through.”

“Not without having a drink you’re not!” The goblin persisted, clearly somewhat drunk, and clung on stubbornly to his light armour. “You look as pale as a bloody ghost. I’m not letting you go until you’ve drunk every drop from your cup!”

The commotion had now brought even more attention to him, as Astarion quickly realised that multiple sets of eyes were glued to his frame and watching his every move. No matter how he looked at it, there was no getting out of this.

He tentatively gazed down into his cup, and saw Ria’s little face staring up at him with pleading eyes. She could obviously hear everything that was going on, and judging by the petrified look that was painted across her face, she knew exactly what he was going to do.

“Go on!” The goblin pulled on his armour once more, and Astarion had to restrain himself from biting the creature’s head off with how hard they pulled at the fine fabric. “You could do with some colour in your cheeks.”

He pulled his lip into a thin line as his gaze flicked back down to where Ria was sitting in his cup. All the colour had drained from her face as she stared at him with watery eyes, she looked as if she had been crying. Knots twisted in his stomach as he felt a wave of dread wash over him as he tried to rack his brain to think of an alternative. If he pretended to drink, there would be the chance of Ria falling out of the cup and to her death, which he wasn’t going to risk.

The only other option was to drink.

He gave her a wink before mouthing the words ‘I’m sorry,’ silently to her, and her eyes widened in response as he brought the cup towards his lips. The beer hit his tongue and he immediately had to force himself not to spit out the liquid as he took a forceful gulp. He had never been one for beer, wine, on the other hand, or better yet, blood, was more to his liking, but it wasn’t as if he had a choice in the matter. His attention on the beverage was soon replaced as he felt something soft and warm press up against his lips.

Ria.

Her tiny hands were pushing against his lips, her body squirming as gravity pushed her rather forcefully towards his mouth. He was very careful not to swallow her, and rather gingerly he used the tip of his tongue to push her tiny body away from the inside of his mouth so that she wouldn’t fall in.

He pulled the cup away from his lips and glanced downwards at the goblin. The goblin was still stubbornly standing beside him with narrowed eyes, very clearly not impressed with his half empty cup.

“I said drink all of it you elf pansy!” The goblin exclaimed. “That was merely a sip! Come on, you aren’t leaving until all of that is completely gone, and I’m going to look at your cup afterwards, so make sure you guzzle it all down!”

Oh dear.

If the goblin was going to investigate his cup afterwards, he had to ensure that it was completely empty.

Ria wasn’t going to like this.

Very slowly the cup was brought to his mouth once more, and this time he took a hungrier gulp than before. He could smell the overwhelming fear from Ria as she was once again pressed against his mouth, her tiny hands scrambling across his lips, and this time, he didn’t stop her from falling inside. With a final gulp, the borrower disappeared into his mouth and he sealed his jaws shut.

[fiveloml]

the umbrella academy x reader. “ i love you. “ [ gender neutral reader. ]

─ ✧ the hargreeves' different love languages.

─ ✧ HELP thank you all for blowing up all my fics so far u guys r so cool

@ ─ luther hargreeves ☂︎ number 1.

the night was dark, thunder boomed through the skies as you and LUTHER held each other in bed. admittedly ─ with all the time he spent on the moon, luther grew to fear the sound of thunder. it was so loud compared to the years of silence he had on the moon.

you gently put your hand on luthers chest, feeling his speeding heartbeat slow down under your caring touch. you give him a smile, in which he weakly returned as his arms wrapped around you. holding you tight almost like if he let go, you'd disappear.

luther loved to hold you, more than anything.

@ ─ diego hargreeves ☂︎ number 2.

DIEGO always offered to do whatever you were doing, whether big or small he was always there to lend a helping hand. many would say that his love language was acts of service but he really only viewed it as helping his partner.

“y/n! here, i'll carry it for you.“ diego grunts, taking the boxes from your hands as you give him a smile. “thanks diego.“ you say while giving him a kiss on the cheek.

@ ─ allison hargreeves ☂︎ number 3.

“you're doing great, hun.“ ALLISON grins, helping allison train as it was also training for you and your endurance. allison didn't hold back, so the fact you were managing this well was impressive.

when training was over, allison placed a kiss on your forhead and gave you a side hug. “you get stronger every day, i'm so proud of you.“ she praises you, a proud smile on her face when she realized you were flustered yet again.

@ ─ klaus hargreeves ☂︎ number 4.

KLAUS always appreciated any gifts, some would think theyre in a relationship just for gifts.. but they've always appreciated the smallest things yet meant everything to klaus. “you got me my favorite smoothie?“ they sniffle, and you look at them with a confused but amused smile.

they gave you a quick peck on the lips before happily sipping away at their favorite drink, smiling widely because it was with you that klaus was the happiest.

@ ─ five hargreeves ☂︎ number 5.

“i care for my siblings, but getting to spend time with you when they're around is impossible.“ FIVE grumbles, letting you play with his hair as he rested on your lap. “i know, but on the bright side.. altleast we can spend quality time alone.“ you smiled, ruffling his hair slightly as he blew away some that got in his face.

“yeah.. and thats all that matters.“ five smiled slightly, being alone for so many years of his life made five enjoy quality time with you.

@ ─ ben hargreeves ☂︎ number 6. [ if he were alive ]

BEN liked to hold your hand, his was always intertwined with yours and usually in the pocket of his jacket. he always loved feeling the warmth of your hand or even when it was cold, no matter what he would hold them.

and if you felt happy every time he did, it was always nice always having ben with you.

@ ─ viktor hargreeves ☂︎ number 7.

“i got you.. a gift. i wasn't sure what you would've wanted so i got every single one i knew you liked..“ VIKTOR says rather quietly, looking down at the ground as you admired all the flowers and chocolates he got you.

you looked back at him and the assortments of gifts, mouth agape as you felt that your small present felt inferior to what viktor had gotten you for valentines.

you handed him your small memory book with a bunch of your favorite pictures with you and him, he smiled as he flipped through it and gave you a tight hug. “i dont need a big and extravagant gift.. you and your cute little ideas are all that matters.“ he chuckles, littering your face with kisses.

[blackroseguzzi]

The Girl Next Door Part 2

*This series will go back and forth between flashbacks, and I promise they all tie together to why the characters don’t talk anymore (but I think I might add in a few present day chapters along the way) 

Summery: Another flashback of your relationship with Kai. Angsty conversations over an Adderall deal.

Warning: Language, mentions of drugs

*Flashback* 

You slipped on your sweatpants and University sweatshirt, knowing that you had an entire night full of studying left. Caffeine was coursing through your body, but your eyes still felt heavy like sleep would be the only way to comfort you. That’s why your roommate had asked her boyfriend to hook the two of you up with his Adderall dealer. It was your last year of college, and you had to finish strong in all your classes. Of course, you had your fair share of partying and sex but you had never done drugs. A little wiggle room would be okay since you knew the only way you were going to stay up and cram for this test was to take something to keep you awake - Caffeine pills just made you shit your brains out.

“Lets go, he’s just down the street behind the 7/11. Robbie is going to drive us,” Your roommate, Sophie, called out. You checked your appearance in the mirror. You never went anywhere in your sweats, but you figured you didn’t have to dress up to go get drugs. 

“Geesh relax, I’m coming.” You both left the dorm and walked quickly towards Robbie’s beat up truck. You snuck in the back, cringing inwardly as the couple exchanged a wet kiss. 

“This dude isn’t some freak, right?” You asked as you watched the snow fall outside of the truck. Robbie’s laugh filled the air.

“I mean he’s eccentric but I doubt he’d hurt a fly.” 

“That’s what they said about Jeffrey Dahmer!” Sophie smacked her boyfriends arm playfully. They pulled into the 7/11 and Robbie pointed towards the back next to the dumpster and bathrooms. 

“Alright, He’s back there. Y/N, just knock on his window and he’ll give you what you need.” Robbie twisted himself in his seat to look at you in the back. You scowled at him, realizing they expected you to go by yourself.

You weren’t scared, obviously but you were annoyed. You gave them a tight lip smile, knowing the momentary alone time was going to be spend touching each other as much as they could.

You hopped out of the truck, the light dust of snow falling down onto your head. You pulled up your hood, and smashed your hands in your pocket where they $100 dollars in 20’s lay rolled up. 

You walked towards the back of the 7/11. There was one old black car with tinted windows. Before turning around and running away from this sketchy situation you found yourself knocking on the driver side window. You watched as the man opened the door, stepping out as he dug into his pocket and pulling out the ziplock bag of blue pills.

“Here. $100 for 6 pills.” The guy finally looked up and you felt your heart stop when you noticed his dark eyes and familiar low voice. 

“Kai?!”  You pulled back your hood, revealing yourself and staring at him like you’d seen a ghost. It had been three years since you’d last seen Kai. You two had an extremely rough ending to your friendship/relationship/friends with benefits or whatever you’d like to call it. 

“Oh wow, y/n,” Kai’ voice sounded different. He also looked nothing like the mental picture you always had of him in your brain. His hair was much longer and unkept, his eyes sunken in with dark circles around them and his clothes were much more baggy. What struck you the most was that his cheerful demeanor was replaced with seriousness. 

Speechless, you just reached into your pocket and handed him the wad of 20s. You wanted to get this interaction over as soon as possible.

 He looked between the pills and your money.

“Nah, I can’t do business with you.” He pushed your hand away, about to get back into his car. You let out a cruel laugh, grabbing his sweatshirt and twirling him back to face you. 

“Are you kidding me Kai? After four years you can get rid of the protective savior complex.” 

“Why do you need Adderall anyway?” Kai narrowed his eyes at you. He was used to your anger, especially when it came to his protectiveness over you. If you had been any other girl he would have taken that money without a care, but after all those years he still held you on some kind of pedestal, yet he’d never admit it after the way you had hurt him.  

“Isn’t your job just to take the money and give the drugs?” Eyebrows raised, you shoved the money back towards him. 

“Answer my question.” Kai growled. 

“I have a fucking test I need to study for and I’ve had a long week. I don’t think I can really focus unless I get something to help me,” You kept pushing the money at him until he grabbed your wrist. 

“You don’t need this, I’m not giving them to you.” He shoved your hand away and the money flew to the ground. 

“You’re such a fucking piece of shit, Kai. As shocked as I am to see that you’re a freaking drug dealer now, I’m glad you’ve sunken this low.” Your words hit hard, Kai’s face sunken with regret and pain as he watched you retrieve the wet dollar bills off the cement. The snow was sticking to your dark hair, and as you popped back up he could see tears brimming your eyes. You clearly still harbored the same pain as him.

“Jesus Christ y/n, just go back home. I don’t ever want to see you buying drugs again. I’ll make sure that nobody in this area deals a fucking thing to you either so don’t even try.” 

You slowly shook your head, a few tears now slowly falling from your eyes, down your cheek and onto the ground.

“Why after all these years do you still need to make sure you can control me?” You felt all your emotions over the last four years tumbling around in your stomach. Just looking at him made you an anxious mess, and it’s why you tried your hardest not to go home for holidays unless absolutely necessary, staying only a very short time without a thought of visiting the Anderson house. 

“ME, control YOU??” Kai let out a scoff and ran his hands through his long greasy hair. You wanted to know how he had gotten to this place in his life, your soul screaming that you were partially responsible.

 “Last I knew you made all of your own choices, without me.” You could see the anger in Kai’s words, his face twisted in a way you’d only seen a few times in the many years of knowing him. 

“Looks like I made the right choice,” You spit out, eyeing up and down his disheveled drug dealing state.

Kai walked up to you, his face inches from yours, his hands wrapped around the extra fabric in the shoulder of your sweatshirt. You wanted to push him away, but your body was frozen in fear.

“Like I said before..Go the fuck home. I don’t ever want to see you again.” As much as you wanted to break the stare between you two, you couldn’t help but watch his pupils glass over as his final words left his mouth. 

Everything in you wanted to retaliate, to breath out more hatred towards the man you once considered your best friend, the one who you’d grown to love, the one who you had clearly broke - but those famous words replaying in your head; “it takes two” had gotten you through a lot of guilt. It wasn’t hard to forget that he too hurt you just as much. 

You clenched your jaw as you threw the hood of your sweatshirt over your damp hair and marched yourself back to Robbie’s truck. 

“So?” Sophie turned to you, her eyes wide and her lips were tickled pink from the friction of Robbie’s.

“He ran out, said he only had Oxy and I can’t do that shit.” You avoided her glare, knowing it was disappointed.  

“What are you talking about, he said he was all good on the phone earlier,” Robbie questioned you further which deepened your anger.

“Fuck, I don’t know Robbie! I didn’t get the Adderall so please just drive me back to the dorms so I can start to study.” You pushed your head back in the seat and Robbie decided not to pry more, just turned up the radio and pulled his truck out of the parking lot. 

You were never going to be able to concentrate on studying after that interaction. 

[onlyswan]

hi art 💓 so im rereading iw couples breakup drabble as one would do everytime shes on her period (its a canon event i think ppl would relate) and i have a few questions!!! 🥹🦋

1. what were the iw couple doing before they were in the car? like did they spend the day only to then break up? i rmb reading that jk was on tour, did he came back and break up w them right away? did he at least get them a present???!

2. what events led him to the decision? we know that prob he’s overwhelmed, the uncertainty of his career and the drabble from where he saw how draining it is on oc. but is there a bigger thing that happened?

3. u wrote that he “practiced” breaking up with oc. like is this true? how long has he thought of breaking up w oc before he actually did it? and how did oc not expect anything??? ☹️☹️

4. who is this “not married yet” girl that jk was teasing tae about? that sounds so saucYY a drabble for that would be super fun!! its gonna be super angsty too!!! hahahahhaha

5. we know jk regretted it right away after breaking up w oc, but why didn’t he backtrack and take it back? i know oc must’ve thought hes crazy but he didnt even call or text first? us reading is comforted by knowing that jk is also having the worst time, but oc doesn’t. yet theyre brave enough to be the one who reached out first, bc for all they know, jk could be with some other people right now, alr over them. did oc know that he’s not that kind of person or deep down they’re just being as brave as they can asking for what they wants which is him?

6. can we pleaseeeee have more drabbles where we can see how much the boys adore oc? or just their dynamic i would say. also do they have a special connection with each of the boys on different things? like maybe a drabble where jk & oc pack a homemade lunch to bring when visiting jin hobi or yoongi 🥹🥹

7. after the initial breakup, were things ever awkward? were there times when oc had to get used to him being in their life again or something less dramatic? did he ever see doubts or worry in oc’s eyes and is the even when he gave u reasons to drabble, the first time they had to address the traumatic event in their relationship? do they ever talk about it now? or laugh about it?

8. what happened with the “someone else i met in a bar turned out to be a jerk”??? when was this?! HAHAHHA jk must’ve lost his fucking mind after learning about this

9. kinda curious has there been a time when jk really needs quality time w oc and just brings her on tour? my dream is becoming a tour wifey so this would hit all the right spot:( esp w how easy he handled the situation from the last drabble of just inviting her to come w him. cutest ☹️

thank you so much for providing one of my comfort fics!! i hope ure having a great day🌷🥹

oh!! also!! i think we’ve never seen iw couple be on a date date, like fancy super dressed up date. is that just not them? can we see more of their date nights??

heyyy beloved i missed you 🥺🥺🥺 omg???

there are two types of onlyswan readers: one - those who reread the period drabbles then they’re on their period / two - those who reread the breakup drabble when they’re on their period 😭😭😭

ALRIGHT [cracks knuckles]

1. he broke up with oc as soon as he arrived back from tour 🥲 like literally. our guy was still jetlagged. he just wasn’t in his right mind at the time honestly. oc hopped in the car thinking they were going to spend time together someplace else but… yk what happened… ofc he got oc lotssss of presents though </3 including those gifts he talked about in the video oc watched before they called him :(

2. at the time they were already making plans about what will happen in the next few years of their career including the m word ehem ehem so. yeah he was overwhelmed and tired and he felt guilty of having to always leave oc + we know how oc is so empathetic so he also felt guilty that they have to carry his burdens as well ☹️

3. probably a month 🤨 but he didn’t actually want to break up with oc yk? it felt more like a thing that he had to do </3 so oc never suspected anything because the way he was acting towards them never changed. he wanted to hold on.

4. LMAOOOOO maybe in the future i’ll get around to that 🤞🏼 but tae was going through it for reaaaaal

5. he didn’t jump out the car to chase oc because him immediately changing his mind would’ve pissed oc off thinking that he was just playing a joke on their feelings and that would earn him a slap on the face 😭 he thought of that. and oc said they wanted to decide for theirself too :( so he wanted to respect that but he ended up becoming too much of a coward to reach out first after that bcs what if oc already decided that the breakup was for the best too 🥲 what if they hate him now 🥲 but he should’ve thought about it more from oc’s pov bcs they were suffering thinking that he alr gave up frfr </3

hmmm joon did talk to them about jk having a hard time, but during the breakup they did ask if he cheated so we know that they have this anxiety :( oc is just our bravest soldier who knows what they want and always tries their best to get it (him) 🫡

6. omg yessss more soon i’ve been thinking about one with jimin too specifically !! oc definitely bonds with each of the tannies about different things 🥺

7. yea, the even when he gave u reasons to drabble was the first time they brought it up again :( after they got back together jk really made efforts to reassure oc and that’s partly because he did see how they became kind of timid when he expresses affection. (i.e., jk saying “i didn’t love you any less and you know that.” and oc not saying anything and walking away instead) (this shit still kills me today sorry)

8. this was oc’s bf before jungkook aka guy with the dirty nails aka the ex who cursed them out like crazy when oc broke up with him (called them a slut) AND ALMOST made oc delete jungkook’s first ever texts to them bcs they lowkey started believing him. (he makes me mad sorry)

9. heeee wanted to but oc has only tried flying out for the ptd la and vegas shows bc the circumstances before then were different :( they were balancing school and multiple jobs. and we know how hard oc studied. they were so committed 😭 but now they live together and oc has a stable job and everything’s just more flexible overall so going with him overseas when he has work there is easy and not a problem at all 🥺

oh ofccc they’ve been on fancy dates esp that oc loves feeling pretty <3 but someone take me on a fancy date first so i can write about it 🤧

this is the first time someone called the giving up drabble a comfort fic lmaoooo this made my day i love you 😭 i hope i answered your questions and thank you soooo much for reading my works 🥺💕

[canonicallyobserving911]

Buck & Eddie: Buck, Chris, Chimney and Denny

In 6x13 “Mixed Feelings” both Buck’s relationship with Chris and Chimney’s relationship with Denny were shown and the differences between Buck’s role in Chris’ life and Chimney’s role in Denny’s life were clearly distinguished.  It’s been mentioned several times in CANON the 118 is a found family and everyone helps and cares for each other.  They attend celebrations together and everyone supports one another especially when one of them is hurt but even though they are a found family, there are also separate family units within it.  Those individual family units include the Grant-Nash (Bathena), Wilson (Henren), Buckley-Han (Madney) and the Buckley-Diaz (Buddie) families.

Chris and Denny are friends and their parents are part of the 118′s found family. Eddie is Chris’ biological father and he named Buck to be Chris’ legal guardian in his will but Buck’s been a second dad to Chris for years.  Hen and Karen are Denny’s mothers and Chimney is Hen’s best friend.  He introduced Hen and Karen and they adopted Denny not long after he was born.

Buck is Chris’ other dad and he’s like an uncle to Denny while Chimney is more of an uncle to Denny and he will become Chris’ uncle after Buck and Eddie get married.  The above GIFs illustrate the roles they’ve played in both boys’ lives over the years.

GIFs 1 & 2: Whenever the 118 gather for a celebration, Chris and Denny are usually together.  In 3x18 “What’s Next?” they helped blow out the candles on May’s graduation cake and in 5x10 “Wrapped in Red” after Hen and Denny arrived, he ran over to hangout with Chris.

GIFs 3 & 4: In 3x10 “Christmas Spirit” Buck gave Chris a Christmas present while they were next to the pinball machine inside of the firehouse. It’s important because the 118 had to work on Christmas Day and Chris was upset with Eddie because of it, so he asked Buck if he could spend Christmas with him. Chris asked Buck the question the same way a child would ask their parent for permission to do something when the other parent has already said no.  This was an example of the Good Cop vs. Bad Cop parenting dynamic between Buck and Eddie.  In order for everyone to have the opportunity to spend the holiday together, Buck worked with Athena to organize a family dinner for the 118 and it was held inside of the firehouse.

Both boys were sitting at the coffee table making gingerbread houses with Buck while Hen and Eddie were sitting at Eddie’s dining room table but Chimney wasn’t present.

In 2x4 “Stuck”, Chimney placed some of the firehoses on the floor so Chris could reach the pinball machine. Chris spent the day at the firehouse because after Eddie’s abuela broke her hip, Eddie didn’t have permanent childcare but Buck called Bobby to let him know Eddie might have to bring Chris to work with him.  All of the 118 helped care for Chris that day but it was Buck who contacted Carla to help Eddie obtain permanent childcare.

GIFs 5 & 6: In 3x2 “Sink or Swim” Buck and Chris spent time on the pier playing games, eating cotton candy and riding rides before the Tsunami hit.  At the time Buck was off work because he quit after he had an embolism during his welcome back to the 118 party.

To cheer him up, Eddie took Chris to Buck’s loft to spend the day with him and the day after the Tsunami, Eddie took Chris back to Buck’s loft and said, “There’s nobody in this world I trust with my son more than you”.

In 6x8 “9-1-1 What’s Your Fantasy?” Buck went to the Renaissance Faire with Hen and Denny but even though he was there with them, the way he interacted with Denny was the way an uncle would act. Hen and Buck are like brother and sister, therefore Buck’s role in Denny’s life is similar to Chimney’s role, they’re like Denny’s uncles.

GIFs 7 & 8: When Chris got upset with Eddie in 4x8 “Breaking Point” he ordered an Uber so he could leave the house but he didn’t tell Eddie where he was going.  He could have gone to Isabel’s or Pepa’s but instead, he had the Uber driver take him to Buck’s loft.  In 6x9 “Red Flag” Denny asked his mothers about his biological parents and after they gave him some information about them, he left to find his biological father on his own.  He didn’t tell either of his moms where he was going and he didn’t call Chimney or anyone else to ask for help.  This is one of the big differences between the role Buck plays in Chris’ life when compared to the role Chimney plays in Denny’s life because they both ran to their other parents, i.e., Chris went to Buck’s loft and Denny went to Nathaniel’s house.

GIFs 9 & 10:  In 6x11 “In Another Life” when Buck was in a coma, Chris insisted Carla take him to the hospital so he could see him. When Eddie saw them, he reminded Chris kids weren’t allowed in the ICU but Chris said he didn’t care.  Carla distracted the nurse so Eddie could take Chris into the room to visit with Buck and when he got inside, he stood beside Buck’s bed and told him he had to come back. He talked to Buck the same way a child would talk to their parent.

After Buck woke up, he hugged Chris the same way a parent would hug their child after having been gone and the child was worried about them.  Both Hen and Chimney were in Buck’s hospital room with the rest of the 118 but Denny wasn’t which further illustrates the different role Buck plays in both boys’ lives.

In 2x13 “Fight or Flight” after Chimney came out of surgery, Chris was sitting by his bedside and when Chimney woke up, Chris talked with him like he was an uncle.  He told Chimney he heard he had another surgery.  Chris was younger then but he didn’t react to Chimney being in the hospital the way he reacted to Buck being in the hospital in 6x11.

GIFs 11 & 12:  In 6x13, Chimney arrived at the Wilson home to pick up Hen and Denny because Hen’s car broke down and Karen had a meeting in Barstow. Chimney sat on the porch and talked with Denny and their conversation revolved around both of their fathers. After Hen came outside, they all got up and walked away but even though they walked away together, based on the conversation Chimney had with Denny, his role in Denny’s life was shown to be that of an uncle.  

In 2x13, Hen told the 118 a story about the first time Chimney babysat Denny. She explained how he gathered information about the different ways to help a baby fall asleep, therefore he’s been involved in Denny’s life since he was a baby.  But his role in Denny’s life is that of an uncle since he’s one of his mom’s best friends and he’s also a good friend to his other mom too.

Buck and Chris were preparing to bake cookies so Chris could take them to school the next day and their activity of cooking together is something a parent does with their child.  Chimney knows how to cook but he has never been shown baking cookies or anything else with Denny and Buck’s never cooked anything with Denny either.

After 6x13, the roles Buck and Chimney play in both boys’ lives should no longer require an explanation because the show made it clear who’s been coparenting Chris with Eddie and they also showed Chimney’s role in Denny’s life too.  Buck is Chris’ second dad and he’s like an uncle to Denny while Chimney is like an uncle to both boys.

[cordria]

Need some help

I've found myself in a little pickle, and I need some thoughts from people who are not involved. If you'd like to read and answer the ending poll, please read more. Poll at the end.

Necessary backstory part 1: When I first met my brother in law (BIL), my husband referred to him as an 'asshole'. BIL was raised in a family with very 1950's thoughts of how women are supposed to be, drank all that kool-aide, and got a huge dose of 'I get everything I ask for' on top of it.

In the years I've known BIL, I've found my husband's initial description to be apt. Always needs the best stuff, saves no money at all, bounces between jobs, gets everything he wants but never seems to be happy. Took up drinking about ten years ago and never looked back. Haven't had a sober interaction with him in years.

Necessary backstory part 2: Every year, my in-laws do a big family reunion at the end of December. Plan it a year in advance. Put down a deposit on a large party room. This year, in early-ish December, BIL texts and says he got the greatest tickets ever to go to Mexico - super cheap flight and resort stay. Only the plane leaves the day before the big family get-together... so can we move it?? Everyone reorganize their schedules instead of him just not come?

And... yes. Apparently my mother in law bent over backwards to move this family reunion for him. Everybody lost our non-refundable deposits. Had to do the reunion at my mother in law's tiny little house. Had to listen to my husband complain for a week about the whole thing.

Necessary backstory part 3: BIL was married and had two kids (currently 18 and 21), then divorced and found this new girlfriend and had two more kids (4 and 6) with her. When he got these tickets, he had framed it as a 'family vacation' and said 'the kids were going to have a blast'. Apparently when he said 'family' he meant him, his girlfriend, and his two newer kids. Not his older kids, who had thought they'd be invited as well, only to find out they don't apparently count as family anymore.

So we're walking into this reunion with feels, right? And lots of people are walking into this reunion with FEELS. Tense would be a good word for it. Ready to punch BIL into oblivion if he says the wrong thing would be another way to describe it.

SO. Story time.

Holiday gifts are being exchanged. We get BIL and family a gift card for a dinner out, and get nothing in return (as usual). Towards the end, BIL pulls out his wallet and grabs a bunch of money. Calls his two older kids over and hands them each a hundred dollars. That's it. That's their entire holiday present. Then he calls over (most) of the rest of his nieces and nephews and hands them each fifty dollars. My son gets skipped.

Normally, I'd call him out on it, because he's drunk and probably forgot my son (who was quietly playing with his new Lego set in the corner) even existed. But the atmosphere was tense and I was definitely on the side of just let it go. It'd take more than $50 to stick my hand in that hornet's nest.

Nobody really noticed. My daughter did, even offered to split hers with him, but I shook that idea off and just gave her a hug for being awesome. Repeat the phrase I've said plenty: gifts are given, not demanded to be received. BIL is under no obligation to give everyone a gift - even if he's an asshole for skipping just one kid, it's his choice.

Party goes without too much of a hitch, but everyone is definitely happier when BIL leaves early to go to a different party. (although the amount of bitching about how we had to move the whole thing and he left early?? was just insane to listen to)

Afterward the party is over and we head home, daughter goes shopping with part of her money (donated some to the food shelf near our house, saved the rest) and gets some doll thing she's been wanting. Son picks out a dinosaur that roars when you squeeze it. (They ended up with a significant sum of money from several relatives.)

We go home, write thank you cards. (yes, I'm old fashioned. If you get money or a gift in the mail, you send a thank you card.) Daughter writes out her cards (she had five to send), son does his four (same four, then not one to BIL). Thank you cards are getting too expensive to send for not getting a gift. Mail them off, think nothing of it, move on.

About a week later, I get a text from mother in law asking when my son's thank you card to BIL would arrive. I reply back that he's not getting one. If one does not give a gift, one does not get a thank-you card.

CUE DRAMA. OMG levels of drama. BIL was too drunk to remember what happened, and thinks he gave my son some money, and refuses to be talked out of it. Thinks that if he really missed someone, he would've been told at the time. He's dug himself a deeeeeep hole and nobody's going to be able to get him out of it.

Current situation, which is now almost six weeks of this insanity: My daughter's birthday is coming up, and BIL is threatening not to come and bring a gift if we don't send him a thank you card from my son. My instinct was to respond 'you were not invited; I don't want your drunk ass in my house ever again', but thought better of that before I clicked 'send'.

MIL is on BIL's side, thinks I should just send the thank you card and keep the peace, that it's just a silly little card and it doesn't mean anything. Husband is on my side, thinking BIL is throwing a man-child sized fit my three-year-old is old enough to know not to do.

Nobody's arguing that I'm in the wrong here, btw (other than BIL). I'm not the asshole in this situation. Nobody thinks I am.

HOWEVER. Sometimes you can stand on the moral high-ground of one battlefield and watch the war fall apart around you. Makes you wonder what's the bigger goal? I'm not 'fixing' my BIL with this. I'm not making a dent in the toxic hell-hole of a FOX-riddled black hole he calls a brain.

So now I have to make a choice - a bigger choice than just the stupid $2 thank you card. And here's where I need your thoughts.

Option 1: send the stupid thank you card. I'll likely hear about this later when he tries to lord his 'win' over me, but it'll stop the family rift. My children will not have to be in the middle of an almost-50-year-old throwing a tantrum any two-year-old would watch in amazement. Even though I and my husband would be willing (and happy) to never see BIL again, it's harder to unilaterally cut that tie from my children's lives. They deserve to get to know their family, and understand their family - the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Option 2: send an essentially blank thank you card. He'll get his card, but I am not sinking down to actually thanking him for anything. 50/50 on whether this would solve anything or make it worse, though. Would simply depend on his mental state when he gets it.

Option 3: hold onto my moral high ground, disinvite him from a party he wasn't invited to anyways, and wait for the chaos or for BIL to forget about it. This could possibly be the stake that drives BIL away (not sad at that thought). My worry is that where BIL goes, my children's nana will go as well. And the ultimate worry would be that we (me, my husband, and our kids) stop getting invited to family functions, since MIL coordinates most of them and she has zero backbone when it comes to BIL. It's a not-unreal possibility that this could cut a good portion of my husband's family out of my children's lives for some time (and most of the rest are wonderful people). And even if the worst was not to happen, this'll be a constant source of stress and strain on everyone.

So I'm... not sure really what to do. My family thinks I should hold my ground because morals are more important than having a relationship with a drunk asshole - and that there are more relatives to fill the hole. (all true) My in laws think I should just send the card because I'm not 'winning' anything here and I should look at the bigger picture. (also true) One even offered to purchase, fill out, and mail the damned thing for me.

I just... I dunno. This is just stupid. So, so, very, very stupid. Stupid enough it makes me want to cut BIL out of my life just because I don't want the anxiety surrounding this any more.

I'm trapped in a stupid, bizarre situation and I'm to the point where the thoughts of random internet people I do not know apparently mean something to me.

tl/dr: My asshole of a brother in law forgot to give one of my kids a gift, and is now causing major family drama by demanding a thank you card.

[lenalvthor]

tethered playlist breakdown - ch 1: chemtrails

hi hi hi! thank-you to everyone who has read, commented, left kudos, and bookmarked tethered so far (and if this is the first you're hearing of it, here's my critical role / bell's hells / imodna music au)! this beautiful, musical lil world has been knocking around in my head for a little over 6 months and i'm so excited to share it with other people 💗

so as I said on ao3, to create the Full Experience of this au the way i've been stewing in it over the past 6-odd months, i wanted to also pop chapter tie-in posts on here that give a more detailed breakdown of the music in each chapter, mainly bc I'm not someone who writes songfics rly and I don't like breaking up the flow of the fic + the suspension of disbelief with lyrics etc, so: we're gonna do it this way.

(again, if this is the first you're hearing of this au and it has piqued ur interest, would recommend giving ch 1 a read and then coming back to this post)

but okay, let's start with this first chapter ⚡🎼

i gave a bit of a generic ‘vibe’ of what everybody’s music sounds like in the end-notes, but i’m gonna elaborate a bit here + also fill in some gaps!

Liliana

in this fic, Liliana Temult gained acclaim as a teenage country star, kind of like early early Taylor Swift (vibes: TS debut, Fearless, + specifically the songs Sparks Fly, Mine, and Ours from Speak Now are songs Liliana released about her high school sweetheart turned husband (Relvin)). 

*important to note: any TS songs that are confirmed as Liliana’s are re-recording versions of these songs, as the original versions of them are how i imagine Imogen sounding if she were to cover her mom’s music, plus also draws a more distinctive line in the differences in sound between Imogen and Liliana if both of them have TS music in their discographies. if you’re super hardline abt only listening to Taylor’s rerecordings, that’s chill, but just putting it out there as my distinction between Imogen’s TS songs and Liliana’s TS songs!

as Liliana got more popular, signed to a new label (Ruidus Records, owned by Ludinus Da’Leth, and Liliana was managed by Otohan Thull), Liliana’s sound changed and she spent more time away from home, in New York and LA (vibes: AURORA by Daisy Jones and the Six, Fleetwood Mac - 60s/70s-esque pop-rock with some country tinges to it). 

Imogen

more on Imogen’s music in the fic’s present-day for the ch 2 breakdown, but for a backstory vibe: the first music Imogen releases are with songs from Kacey Musgraves’ album, Deeper Well; Imogen’s EP, called If I Let Go, has this tracklist: 

Sway

Lonely Millionaire 

The Architect

Cardinal 

Sway is fairly self explanatory, and it’s the leading single for the EP.

Lonely Millionaire is about Imogen’s desperation to not slip into the wrong side of the industry no matter how alluring it may be at times, no matter how caught up she gets in the glitz and glamour and magic of it all, she doesn’t want to forget that it’s not worth it to get lost and end up on your own (like Liliana did).

The Architect is ‘small-town grew up in a christian community and maybe has some queer religious trauma’ Imogen Temult going ✌🏼don’t know if i believe i still believe in god and i don’t know if it would make it easier or harder if i did✌🏼.

Cardinal is something Imogen had written for years and years before she ever released it, but it’s a song that’s so clearly inspired by Liliana’s later career music, and it’s very much about Liliana too, and it almost gets swapped out for a different song because Imogen’s a little terrified that putting her mother’s musical story into her own at the start of her career is as good as damning her from the beginning, but Bertrand and Laudna convince her otherwise so this song ends up closing off the EP. 

(later, when Imogen puts out the rest of her album (which includes songs I haven’t figured out yet lol), she adds Giver / Taker and Nothing To Be Scared Of also from Kacey’s new album, and both of them are written about Laudna :-). (the album is also called Nothing To Be Scared Of.) 

Laudna

Laudna also got into music as a teenager (signing to Briarwood Records under Delilah) but exactly what kind of music that was, i’m not 100% on so taking suggestions + recommendations if you have any. tethered’s present-day Laudna’s music is mostly following the sound of Lizzy McAlpine. the six feet under EP referenced in ch 1 is: 

doomsday

firearm 

ceilings 

chemtrails 

there’s more for Laudna’s music - including other songs she wrote in the time Imogen was away - but we’ll get into those as they come up in the fic 😉

The Crown Keepers

finally, for this chapter’s musical rundown: to put some context to The Crown Keepers, they are, in fact, the Full Gang. Orym, Fearne, Dorian, Dariax, and Opal make up TCK, and they started out as a folk/indie lil group who wound up being signed to Eshteross Records by Bertrand. they’re the characters i have the Most songs for bc their musical sound is my favourite kind of music, but i’ll just give you some artists to listen to + some of the key songs tied to their group’s backstory! 

vibes: Wild Rivers (both in music And in their actual Vibe as a group, go look them up, seriously) / Judah & the Lion (their song Spirit is the first song of TCK’s that blows up and they start to break into mainstream popularity) / Motherfolk / McFly / Morningsiders / Kodaline / Avalanche City (Sunset is one of the last songs they release + the very very last song they play at the end of their world tour right before they go on hiatus) / and Tiny Habits as little smaller combos of different members of the band (esp their cover of landslide). 

quick addition because I keep forgetting: the song that Imogen and Laudna sing together that Orym and Imogen text about is Call It What You Want from High School Musical the Musical the Series, and it's actually the song t hat set this whole fic off, funnily enough.

anyway! that’s some musical insight for u for ch 1!! here’s the playlist (so far) — will add more as it comes up! 

love, chim ⚡

[fryingtimes]

My personal Bagina head canons because I miss my girlies.

1) This one may actually be canon, I just haven't had the time to watch Bagi's perspective of the date's beginning (at the time I was doing homework, so I was listening to Tina's pov until the llama ride) The reason Bagi's date outfit was just her normal outfit minus the jacket is because she was really nervous for the date and got all sweaty, and she made up the "I got so strong during purgatory that my jacket doesn't fit as well anymore" was just an excuse so she didn't "look bad" in front of Tina

2)The music on Bagi's streams are a reflection of her inner emotion/desires/idk how to explain, which explains the multiple times Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl" has been playing/begins to play when Tina shows up

3) They're both ace. This might be a little controversial because they're so weird about each other (Bagi's "I thought I was..." after Tina talked about big breakfast, Tina's smelling thing she got going on, Tina saying that Bagi gave birth to Empanada, I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting) but I just get strong ace vibes from both of the characters, I can't even describe it because there's really not "proof" that the characters are ace, but... They are

4) Richas made the presentation about getting FitPac together instead of Bagina because he knew that FitPac needed all the help they could get in order to get together, but he could "help" bagina get together by himself (which he proceeded to do that same day)

5) ok this one is actually so canon to me but Tina fell first, Bagi fell louder. I was going to make a post explaining it but literally the day I did Bagi wrote that she should've been louder about her feelings towards Tina and I'm just like noo girlie you were the loud one... But basically my thoughts are that they love each other to the same extent with both of them changing their mind for the other and doing different things to show the other that they care. Tina fell for Bagi on her first day, Bagi fell for Tina when they truly met and got to know each other and has never shut up about it

6) this one's semi-canon and not really bagina-centric, but you know the thing where lesbians can "smell each other"? Bagi has that but for demons because the three confirmed demons on the island are close to her, and Bagi's smell sorta has the same effect (?) on the demons because why else would Tina smell her fucking walls. I'll never get over that. Tina. Why.

[thelilbish]

Say your prayers and bottoms up! We are about to begin.

Okay, we still don’t know how long it has been since Ava entered the portal and returned. I assume it's been ≈ 2-3 weeks here and and let me explain why.

See Yasmine? She looks healthy and fresh like she has never been involved in a fight but she has.

If we look closer that one-eyed old dude punched her in the nose at least once, at the end of the video. I’m not sure about the first one tho cause it seems like he gave her a blow to the jaw. I slowed down the video and there was no blood after the first punch.

That’s what we got. She is beaten up not to mention she can barely stand on her feet. Besides, her nose is bleeding. A lot actually. That means it is either broken or there is a bad bruise. A really bad bruise.

The easiest way to break a nose (thanks to boxing) is to hit it on the side. It's exactly what happened. I'm not a doctor but I'm pretty sure it's a nasal fracrute. The symptoms are present.

So, it takes 3-4 weeks to fully recover from the fracture. Besides, there are a lot of recruits, I don’t believe they could find so many people within a few days. And Beatrice. She would never leave the OCS, her family, until she was sure everything was ok.

Moreover, Father Vincent’s leg was broken, that’s for sure. He even used to wear a knee orthosis. The treatment duration is up to 6 weeks (thanks to @beavasilva for the detail).

Btw, a lot of Cardinals and Duretti himself were killed. The papal conclave takes place 15-20 days later after the cessation of the pope’s reign. It’s also a question of money. That’s why I think it’s been at least 2-3 weeks since Ava left.

But then another problem arises. Let’s do some calculations (I’m really bad at math tho). The experiment carried out by Jillian showed that time on the other side moves 823 faster.

Then we have: 1 month here is 68 years there! And if Michael had spent 14 yrs on the other side then he was back in our realm on 6th day.

First, it’s too much. Second, Ava will be very old. I see one possible explanation here. Time moves differently for each of them.

The lab rat was Lilith who is not a human anymore compared to Michael. Ava is a human but the Halo makes her kind of a demigod (Lilith is a demon tho). I think the Halo slows down time so she doesn’t get old as fast as Michael. She is closer to Lilith by her nature than to Michael. Besides, the essence of the Halo is different from that of Divinium. Different metals, different characteristics.

Pretty much they are not “birds of a feather flock together” but def belong to the other side.

Thus, I’m sure it’s been 2-3 weeks but how long it has been in that realm and how time moves for Ava are the questions not answered yet.