#i just want one more day dude i’d live the most boring day ever over and over again if it meant i could go back to when everything was ok

[babyfairy]

i’m so sad tonight lol. i wish my family was stable again. i wish my friends weren’t always busy and wanted to spend time together as much as we used to. i wish all the good things i have left didn’t feel so fragile and impermanent. i feel too anxious to trust anything fully. like if i get too comfortable something bad will happen to me

[hookedonhuge]

A Hard Challenger to Beat

Wednesday night was men-only at the small country town bar. Living in a remote area could get awfully boring at times, but boy’s night was a highlight for most of the men’s weeks. There was truly nothing like blowing off some steam with your pals after a hard day’s work. No hassles, no consequences, just dudes having fun.

One of the main attractions on Wednesday nights was the Beat Billy pool challenge. The challenge was simple: play Billy in a game of pool, if you lose you have to give him ten dollars, and if you win then you get a special reward.

What was the special reward? If you saw Billy in action, it wouldn’t take long to find out. Every Wednesday night you could find Billy bent over the pool table lining up for a shot, with his big butt sticking out and his jeans, stuffed with ten dollar notes, looking like they’re about to split. 

Yep, the special reward was an all-expense paid trip down to pound town (also known as the last stall in the men’s bathroom) with the one and only, Bubble Butt Billy. It was a shame that Billy was the best darn pool player in that town and the next town over. 

It was a lucrative business for Billy, who never once had to surrender his pride to another man. However, it was speculated that the Beat Billy challenge was more profitable for the bar than it was for Billy himself. The challenge drew large crowds of pent-up men, some, who in their lustful delusions, thought themselves skilled or lucky enough to earn themselves some quality time with Billy’s behind, and others, who were more financially conscious, would instead egg on their pals to give the challenge a go just for the chance to see Billy bend over the pool table a couple more times.

Without a fault, each Wednesday night would bring to the bar a rowdy crowd, despite how predictable the events of the night were. Billy would pocket a nice amount spending money at the expense of his hopeful challengers, and the patrons would get their fair share of Bubble Butt Billy action. Billy barely had to try against his challengers and was eager to play a game of pool against an actually formidable opponent, and on one Wednesday night he got exactly that.

It was a Wednesday night that seemed to be going the same as every other Wednesday before it. Billy had just defeated yet another challenger and was counting ten dollar bills with his signature cocky smirk painted across his face. “Anyone else want to challenge me?” he said, teasing his audience by leaning his upper body ever so slightly over the pool table.

“I will.” An unfamiliar voice boomed from the back of the room. Billy turned around to size up the stranger. Billy, who was never short of words to belittle his upcoming challengers, was silent. It wasn’t the stranger’s face that left Billy at a loss for words; his eyes hadn’t even gotten up that far. Billy’s gaze was stuck on the bulging mass that was tenting the stranger’s tight jeans. For the first time in a long while Billy remembered the consequences of losing the challenge, his mind trapped in thoughts of how his virgin hole would fare if he lost this one time. 

“My eyes are up here buddy,” the stranger said in a playful tone, strutting towards Billy with an irresistible swagger. “Just teasin’ ya. The name’s Rick,” he said warmly, reaching his hand out for a handshake. “I’d like to challenge you to a game of pool. I’m sure that wouldn’t be a problem.”

Billy snapped out of his daze and shook Rick’s hand. “You’re new around here, so I’ll have to warn you not to get your hopes up,” Billy said, building up his confident facade again. “I haven’t even been trying tonight.”

“I expect nothing but your best.” Rick was unfazed. “I’ll let you break.” 

Billy picked up his cue stick and the white ball as Rick set up the rest of the balls to break. As he had done a hundred times before, Billy got ready to begin play, lining his cue stick up to hit the white ball as his butt pointed out towards the leering spectators. Usually, Billy was so quick in his play that his opponent’s wouldn’t have time to register that the match had started. That night, Billy wasn’t so fast to start.

The cause of Billy’s delay was his opponent, who was standing on the opposite side of the table with his crotch directly in Billy’s line of sight. Rick’s hands were on his waist and he leaned just a little bit back to accentuate his large package.

“All bark and no bite,” Billy muttered under his breath. Billy struck the white ball, which jetted in the group of remaining balls causing them to scatter. Not a single ball had been potted into one of the holes, which was unusual for Billy.

It was Rick’s turn and he grabbed one of the cue sticks from the rack. He stroked the long wooden stick with his powerful hand lewdly under the guise of surveying its quality. “You know where I’m from, they call me Thick Stick Rick,” he said to Billy as he walked past him, meeting Billy’s gaze with a wink.

Rick quickly potted two balls in a row with ease, putting Billy on the back foot. Billy countered with his renowned precision. He potted three balls in quick succession and set himself up for an easy put away with a fourth.

The white ball had rolled to the centre of the large table meaning that Billy had to lean over extra far to reach it, causing his two large cheeks to stretch his jean fabric to its limit. Billy, who had been able to regain focus in the match, was about to sink his ball into one of the pockets when he felt something large and hard brush up against his crack. He turned around to see Rick towering over his lower half.

“Hey, you have to win first before you can have any of that,” Billy snapped, audibly annoyed.

“Apologies, I didn’t mean to bump into you,” Rick said, feigning sincerity. “I just forget how big I am sometimes.”

Billy tried his best to brush off Rick’s comment and struck the white ball, but it clearly affected him as the ball he was aiming for, which was set up so well, bounced off the rim of the pocket and back towards the centre of the pool table. Billy swore under his breath; he never missed a shot like that.

“Don’t stress about it,” Rick said, placing his middle and index finger into one of the pockets. “These holes are so tight,” he wriggled his two fingers, “that these balls only just fit in.”

Rick’s innuendos had a marked effect on Billy, allowing Rick to even the scoreboard in spite of the vast difference in their skill levels. Each player now had one ball each to put away before they could go for the win by potting the eight ball. It was Billy’s turn and he was once again bent over the table, ass in the air, and lining up for a shot.

“Looking good Billy boy.” Rick chimed in as Billy was doing some practice shots in front of the white ball to check he had the right alignment.

“I don’t need you to help me with my alignment, I’m the expert… '' Billy trailed off as he realised Rick wasn’t commenting on his shot preparation. Instead, Rick’s eyes were glued to Billy’s famous butt.

“Don’t mind me, I’m just keeping my eyes on the prize,” Rick said, biting his bottom lip.

Billy tried to ignore Rick and went ahead with his shot. He managed to pot his final ball, but foolishly sunk the white ball as well. The crowd, who had fallen silent from the tension of the match, let out a gasp when Billy made this rare error.

Rick was able to sink his final ball as well, leaving the two in a race to pot the eight ball first for the win. Rick had no success on his first attempt as the eight ball was stuck in a tricky position. His comparative lack of experience showed as Rick was not careful enough to put the eight ball in a difficult position for his opponent to finish off.

All Billy needed to do was hit a straight shot from one end of the table to the other, which was easy for a player like himself. Rick, the schemer he was, was still not out of ideas. He moved himself behind the pocket Billy was planning to sink the eight ball into and started grinding his huge bulge against that corner pocket.

“How badly do you want to get into this hole, cause I want to get into this hole real bad,” Rick said with a slight grunt. Billy stayed silent. “It’s only a small hole Billy boy, it could be a real struggle to fit in.” Billy lined up his shot. “God Billy,” Rick’s voice turned low and rough as he took a step back from the table and squeezed his tightly wrapped manhood with his hand. “I’m a big boy, and I’m not even hard yet. You can’t even imagine the damage I could do to your bussy, or is that what you want? Have you been going easy on me on purpose Billy boy?”

Billy’s face was red from a mixture of anger and fear. He was sweating profusely and his hands were trembling. Billy drew his cue stick back then thrusted it forward with as much might as possible. The white ball rocketed into the eight ball which slammed into the pocket. In his desperation, Billy had struck the white ball far too hard and it followed the eight ball into the pocket.

Despair was the only thing that could describe Billy. Sinking the eight ball and fouling in the same shot was an automatic loss. The crowd knew this and roared with excitement. Thick Stick Rick was victorious. 

Billy looked to the crowd, his eyes pleading for mercy. This was futile as the crowd, who had lost a lot of money over the years to Billy, were seeking retribution and Rick would deliver it. 

“Rick! Rick! Thick Stick Rick!” the crowd chanted.

Rick approached the defeated Billy. “I ain’t gonna force you or nothin’ Billy boy, I ain’t like that,” Rick said, placing his hand on Billy’s shoulder. “But if you –”

“I’m a man of my word Rick. I couldn’t show my face in this town again if I didn’t go through with this.” Billy replied earnestly, not letting Rick finish.

“That’s the Bubble Butt Billy I’ve heard so much about. Now don’t you worry, Rick is gonna treat you real nice.” Rick gave Billy’s big butt a friendly smack.

The crowd’s chanting reached a climax as Billy and Rick walked into the men’s bathroom together. “Give ‘em hell Rick!” yelled a frenzied patron.

Soon, the bar fell into silence as the once raucous spectators listened suspensefully. At first there was no sound coming from the bathroom. After a little while a faint banging noise could be heard. It got louder and louder, until Billy’s moaning commenced. Billy reached a transcendent state, his shameless moans of pleasure filling up the bar and causing the pants of everyone in it to become a little more snug. Some opted to loosen their belts to relieve the pressure that was quickly building below.

“That son of a whore Billy is really enjoying this isn’t he?” commented one of the bargoers.

“Rick sure is a stallion!” remarked another.

“Billy won’t be able to walk properly for a week!” 

“Don’t tell me Bubble Butt Billy lost on purpose!”

Rick and Billy’s erotic encounter culminated with a shared orgasmic roar that reverberated throughout the entire establishment. Rick, ever the gentlemen, offered to book a hotel room for the two of them for the night once he caught his breath back. All Billy could do was nod and collapse into Rick’s arms, his body completely exhausted.

“You’ve got a body that men like me dream about, Billy boy.” Rick kissed Billy on the forehand and proceeded to carry him out of the bar on his shoulders to a nearby hotel. There, Billy slept peacefully in Rick’s arms and Rick dozed off with his hands cupping Billy’s big cheeks.

[glitched-dawn]

So I have noticed some cool grimblos do in fact notice that I have written funny words and want to read them so uhhh

Imma just post the first chapter here?

Aight here we go: Novel 1 out of 9, Breached Containment, Chapter one: How haven't I seen this cool thing before?

[Warning tho it is really long like 20 A5 pages]

[Also PS if this gets over 100 notes I'll post chapter two]

How haven’t I seen this cool thing before?

Soon I’d literally die from boredom. No offense to my teacher, but since I was used to having biology lessons indoors, maybe doing an experiment or two, this was just a punishment. Walking around in the woods, that I knew inside out, looking for anomalies in fungi.

But this day turned out to be something unusual - something unusual, cool, and potentially, bad.

☙•❧

Me and my friend Rick left our class’s search for mushrooms pretty early (cause who could be interested in mushrooms when they’d already explored almost the entire forest?), and we had special permission to leave and “explore”, which was weird, since we got permission because we knew the forest inside out.

We’d left the school about ten minutes ago, and most of us were enjoying the warm and fresh air. Others (ehm, those who didn’t know forests exist) were just staring at their phones, waiting for the lesson to be over.

Two of our teachers were there with us, our PE and - of course - biology teacher. Our PE teacher, Mr Raminez, a buff bald dude with a blonde beard wearing coaching clothes, walked around trying to push us into doing healthy exercises. And our biology teacher, Brian (he’s such a homie, everybody just calls him Brian), mainly just mingled with students about their grades, about fun and lean lessons he’d have in the future, and about potential future trips like this one, hopefully not in the local forest.

Rick and I didn’t have much to do, except maybe finding a good tree to climb, or maybe doing the exercises Raminez wanted us to do. But since we knew the forest here inside out, there wasn’t anything fun we could do during the trip, if we didn’t sneak away.

I sighed and looked around. The dense forest had all kinds of different trees - it wasn’t just a boring pine one, or a birch one, so on. There was both pine and birch, there were mighty old oaks, clusters of rowan and juniper, and spots with fir and beech. And the whole place was filled with life, even though you couldn’t see it directly.

Squirrels were easy to spot, they didn’t care about being hidden. Then the frogs were everywhere, so that wasn’t a surprise, and you were heavenly lucky if you caught a deer or fox. Unluckily, since there was so much passive wildlife, there were also many predators, like wolves, bears and wolverines, and also the biggest moose I’d ever seen in any forest throughout my life.

I remembered one time, when I was out in my backyard, there was a moose munching on our apples. I ran to my dad, who grabbed his rifle and shot it, because we wouldn’t risk the moose hurting anyone. I hadn’t understood why until later, when Dad told me that a portion of the apples were fermented. The moose tasted good though, and we got to hang its antlers over the fireplace in the living room, which was extremely cool.

Rick shook my shoulders, making me wake up from my zone-out.

‘Oh, what is it?’ I asked him.

‘There’s a gap’, he announced, and I grinned. It was time for some exercise.

☙•❧

As the other students in our class stood bent over one of the most common mushrooms in the forest, that I’d seen at least a couple hundred times, Rick and I took our chance and threw ourselves away from the others in hopes that the teachers would assume that we’d just gone for a quick detour - when in reality, we were running as fast as we could away from the class to gain some free time.

We ran for a few more minutes, until we had to stop so I wouldn’t choke on my laughter.

‘Bro, they didn’t even notice!’ I laughed, stumbling backwards. I hit a tree and leaned against it, to give me something to hold on to as I tried to sip air. Rick was out of breath too, laughing at me.

‘Couldn’t they hear what was happening? Like seriously, we almost threw ourselves down that cliff!’ I fell forwards, and Rick caught me at the last second. I struggled to stand up and I fell again, causing Rick to cough, he was laughing so hard.

When I had finally gotten up and brushed myself off, and when our laughter had subsided somewhat, we took off through the forest again - through shrubbery, glades and brushwood, over fallen trees and narrow streams. It was cloudless and warm outside, and the sun shone in rays through the beautiful arched roof of fresh green leaves. It wasn’t very windy, the most noticeable sound was us walking on leaves and pine needles, and the birds and other animals going about in the distance.

We walked casually, safe and sound, in the direction of the old limestone quarry, where we could take a fresh dip later today. It wasn’t that popular, with the ocean so close by, so we usually had it for ourselves.

But we must’ve walked in a somewhat wrong direction, and we walked for a good fifteen minutes before I realized. I interrupted Rick in the middle of his epic, overly dramatic story about how he beat me in Castle Crashers for the first time (he got to use my most powerful character, and he didn’t let me heal. Sounds unfair to me).

‘Hey, bro, I think we went in the wrong direction’, I cut him off. He stared at me in confusion. Then his eyes lit up in excitement.

‘Well, that doesn’t matter now’, he said quirkily, ‘cause I’ve found something way more interesting!’ He turned around and started running away from me, through a glade filled with thicket, and past a wall of trees.

‘Oh woah, take a look at this, bro!’ Rick shouted to me. I followed up and when I reached Rick, I wasn’t very surprised.

’What? I thought I’d shown you the ravine before’, I said, confused. In front of us, a rip in the earth cut through the dirt and rock below. On the other side of the ravine, there were more coniferous trees than on this side. That place looked pretty dark, and I hadn’t spent much time there. In the bottom of the rave, a small river snaked through the rubble and boulders. It wasn’t really a ravine, it was more of a canyon, but whatever.

Rick frowned and answered; ‘Yeah, yeah, you have, but that’s not what I was talking about-’ he turned around and pointed at something at the line of the horizon -’my bro, you goin’ blind? There’s a building over there!’ I squinted at the spot Rick was pointing at and saw a gray block, and it did look like some sort of building. I regretted not having explored the forest past the ravine.

‘Ey, that’s epic!’ I responded with a smile, ‘But I don’t think we have the time to go get your binoculars.’ Rick nodded.

‘That’s true. And sneaking past the teachers and the other students would be harder than before’, he summed up. I glanced at the building again - it was hard to see what kind of building it could be; but it was easy to foreclose. It obviously wasn’t a normal house you’d live in, not even an apartment building. Maybe it was just an abnormally huge abandoned house, but from the shape and gray color I doubted it; it looked more like concrete, and not many abandoned houses in the forest were made out of concrete.

‘What do you think it is?’ I asked Rick. He squinted at the block just like I did, frowning.

‘It’s pretty hard to tell from this angle and distance, I should really bring my binoculars tomorrow.  But it can’t be a normal house - I’d say that it’s an abandoned factory or something.’ Yeah, that made some sense, but why would it be out in the middle of the forest?

‘Yeah. That’s neat, though. You think we can check it out tomorrow?’ I looked back at Rick. He caught my gaze and smiled quirkily.

‘Time for some urban exploring’, he grinned.

☙•❧

‘I’m home!’ I yelled into the quiet house.

Huh, that’s weird, I thought to myself. There was usually quite a bit of noise here, even when I wasn’t home.

I looked around the empty space. The wooden walls were coloured a light brown, tainted gray. Past the narrow hall I was standing in was the living room, and to my right was the kitchen. To my left were the stairs up to the master bedroom and my room, plus a soundproof room, a little common room and a bathroom.

I heard someone getting up from bed upstairs, and a few moments later my dad came stumbling down the stairs - an averagely tall dude, with mixed ginger-brown, fluffy hair, dressed in an orange flannel shirt and a pair of ripped jeans.

‘Hey buddy! How was school today? I heard you went on a trip to the forest’, he said brightly.

His sky-blue eyes glittered friendly, and his warm smile was extremely contagious. People often told me I looked similar to him, probably because we were both tall, had the same bushy brown hair and lanky posture, but he had many many more laugh lines than me, blue eyes, lighter skin and a warmer face. I had energetic green eyes, a crooked smile, a browner, more coffee-colored hue, and a few faded freckles around my nose. If I’d just been a little taller, we’d almost look like we were the same age. It was magical how he managed to look like an older teen, when he really was 39.

I smiled back and responded; ‘Oh, yeah! Rick and I got a special permission to leave and explore, which is really weird since we’ve already explored a really big part of the forest’, I told him while taking off my shoes and backpack.

‘We did go exploring though, we walked all the way to the ravine and spotted some kind of building on the other side of it. We plan to go see what it is tomorrow - on a distance, of course, with Rick’s binoculars.’ I walked into the kitchen and grabbed two mugs from one of the cabinets. Dad followed me into the kitchen.

‘Oh, by the way, my buddies from work invited me for a fishing trip tomorrow, but we’ll be home by the evening’, he said, grabbing some milk out the fridge, putting it on the counter, and then he grabbed the sugar and cocoa from the pantry.

‘You want some hot chocolate?’ He smiled.

‘Yeah, sure!’ I replied. I got up from my chair and helped him prepare - I put a small saucepan on the stove, and I turned the heat up. As Dad started to cook the heavenly drink, I told him about my day and what plans I had for today. He nodded along, listening, smiling encouragingly.

‘Where are you going, though? The ocean? Along the coast, or out in the big blue?’ Dad nodded.

‘Yep, we’re going fishing in the ocean, out in the endless bright blue! It’s gonna be lit, and my buddies are even going to bring a barbeque with them on the boat!’ I grinned. That sounded awesome!

‘I hope you catch some fish for me’, I said, and Dad smiled back, nodding again.

It was wonderful how happy he still was, considering he’d lost his wife - my mum - just a few years ago. She’d died in a terrorist bombing in a large city we’d lived in, and from there we had moved to EverNought afterwards to be able to healthily deal with the trauma. She’d saved many lives that day, and I was proud of her. She’d been an amazing mom.

Our family were atheists, but we were always grateful for nature and believed in its spirit. My mum had always prayed with us before bed, more for fun and giggles, singing fast-paced little tales as she tickled us and clapped her hands. We’d stopped after her passing, as it was her own thing, and it was kind of down-feeling to have a memory like that bringing longing and sadness every night.

My dad often said, “As long as we have each other, there’ll be no need to cry, and if you cry, you’ll always have someone to cheer you up.” And that was true, and really comforting. He was a very light dude, after all, and he had a good life. Two kids, a good house and a well-paying job, not to talk about the beautiful environment. The huge, mixed forest is astounding, and the small town is cozy and overall pretty nice. And about his two kids…

‘Hey, by the way, where’s Samantha?’ I asked Dad. He turned around and took the saucepan with him, still stirring.

‘Oh, she’s out on a date with someone. I don’t remember his name, but he seemed decent. Or she’s out with her friends, it’s hard to keep track of her’, he chuckled. Wait, what? My whiny, slightly bratty little sister had gotten a date?

‘Nah, you’re kidding’, I said. Dad laughed again, and he almost couldn’t stop.

‘No, for real! I wonder how, though. She hasn’t really worked on her manners’, he grinned. ‘She’s a bit ahead of you, eh?’ I gasped and dramatically put my hand over my chest, and now Dad had to put the saucepan down again, he was laughing so hard.

‘You dare insult my fabulous singularity! Absolutely flabbergasted!’ I exclaimed with a grin. We laughed for a long while, and it was hard to stop since we just laughed harder every time we looked at each other again. But finally, when we’d managed to keep calm for approximately three seconds, Dad approached me and patted me on my shoulder.

‘You know I won’t force you to love, right? That’s something you choose yourself, buddy. It’s not my business, and you’re safe to love whoever you want! Sorry if I haven’t told you before.’ I hugged him and responded; ‘No, you’ve told me before. You’re safe to love whoever you want too.’ Dad hugged me back.

‘That’s right’, he replied, smiling. Then he let go and hurried to the stove - we’d both forgotten the hot chocolate. A few minutes later, Dad grabbed a pad and brought the saucepan to the dining table.

‘You up for some steaming hot liquid heaven?’ He asked triumphantly - not only a lit dad, also an amazing cook - as he showed me how he’d managed to avoid burning the cocoa into the bottom of the pan. As he talked, I grabbed the mugs and Dad poured in the cocoa. I took a sip, and… wow.

‘Woah. That’s amazing’, I managed to say before gulping down almost the entire thing. Dad smiled and sipped his slowly and calmly.

‘I’m surprised it turned out so good even though I forgot to stir for a while’, he said contentedly.

‘Is it okay if I bring some for me and Rick’s exploration adventure tomorrow? This cocoa is honestly better than heavenly! Though, I feel like we’re using that term a bit too much considering that we don’t believe in God and that stuff’, I figured. Dad smirked and said, ‘All hail the hot chocolate!’ while raising his mug. I burst into laughter and was relieved I wasn’t drinking at the moment.

I’m happy Dad doesn’t get irritated by my almost-constant laughter, at least. Dealing with my energy though, that was somewhat worse. Thinking about it, I should probably talk more about it with Dad. But not this second, I thought, when I heard someone unlocking the door.

‘That must be Samantha’, Dad said, getting up to welcome her in.

‘Okay, uh, I’m just gonna…’ I wanted to avoid more teasing - because of course my little sister took every chance to make herself feel better than me - so I got up and quickly swept around the corner of the hall into the living room, then I bolted to the door leading to our backyard, opened it and rushed out into the forest in a split second.

Great placing of the house, I thought to myself. Free activity whenever I felt like it.

Somewhere to spend all my overflowing energy and avoid annoying siblings.

Somewhere to feel a little more peace and quiet.

☙•❧

I run out into the woods regularly, so I didn’t have to worry about Dad wondering where I’d gone. It was no problem - and it was easier to spend time in the forest than in my room. Sure, my room was big and I had loads of stuff I could use to pass time with, but there were no walls in the forest - not any boundaries for my energy.

Plus, I wanted to go to the ravine and see if there was a way over without needing rope or other equipment. So I started making my way through the forest, and I realized that I should have brought a flashlight. It must’ve been quite some time past noon - the sun almost almost touched the treetops. Well, it is what it is. I just had to make it back before six, or else I’d miss dinner.

And I’d have to be really careful - there would be a lot of dangerous animals out now in the evening. But spending more than half of my conscious time in the forest gave me quite a lot of experience. I was sure nothing was going to happen.

In the fading sunlight you could see decently under the crowns of the trees, but soon enough it’d be too dark to see my own hands. It wouldn’t be a problem spotting wildlife considering their glowing eyes, but they’d have an easy time spotting me too, so that was one of the reasons to stay quiet. I was used to walking around in the forest in the dark, so I had a route where I’d be relatively predator-safe.

Just past my house was a big, pale oak, stripped of its bark. It was hollow and crooked, so when the wind passed by, it made a loud, continuous whistling noise. Past the whistling oak, there was a healthy, normal oak I used to climb. And I did so this time too - I climbed the healthy oak, and from there, I could continue climbing from tree to tree, naturally avoiding ground-borne predators.

It was in the middle of April, so it was just starting to get warmer outside, and the insects hadn’t really come back yet. That was nice - it would’ve been much worse if I had to climb around in the forest while ants marched around the branches I grabbed and wasps flew around my head. For now, it was just the most perfect time of the year.

I would say that I’m pretty fast, but the time literally flew by as I swung from tree to tree in a flow. I was having a really great time, so I didn’t even notice the shadows growing longer and pushing the sunlight out of view.

There were a few, barely visible rays of sunlight almost horizontally shining from the treeline far away, but as I got closer to the ravine, more and more light made its way from the ravine through the lush vegetation. When I measured I was roughly twenty meters away from the ravine, the forest opened up to reveal a small glade.

It was partially filled with fresh green grass, thinning out into flat, dirty rock closer to the ravine’s edge. But the building on the other side was nowhere in sight -  instead was another, different one.

To my left, almost halfway into the shrubbery and trees, was an intact abandoned cabin. It was pretty big, and from the look of it, it seemed to have been built pretty recently. But why was it there?

Wonder if someone lives there, I thought to myself, before approaching the building and barging down the door.

☙•❧

Okay, I didn’t really barge down the door, but I should’ve been a lot more quiet. Maybe it wasn’t so smart to break into an abandoned house during nighttime, but I couldn’t see any light inside it, and it was safer to be inside than outside now - and it doesn’t hurt to be concerned about safety. Plus, I could always talk to humans if there were any in here, but I would just get mauled by a bear or something if I stayed out. And I simply wanted to check the place out. So I was pretty relieved when I saw that there was no one inside from what I could see from the door. I closed it behind me - quietly this time - and examined the place.

The room I was standing in seemed to be a mixup between a living room and a kitchen, with a long kitchen island shielding off part of the kitchen. There wasn’t much furniture, just a worn old couch, a coffee table, a firepit - that I really hoped wasn’t clogged - and a couple armchairs in the corners. A rugged mat covered about half of the floor in the living room, and a dusty, dusty chandelier barely clung to the ceiling.

The kitchen wasn’t much better: there was a gas-driven stove, and miraculously enough an oven, a few pantries, cupboards, a sink and a kitchen island between the sink and stove. The stove seemed to work, I just had to bring gas and an icebox, then I could comfortably spend a few nights here.

I decided to quickly check the fireplace; and it was clogged with clumps of thicket. That was relieving, it’d be easier to remove than a bird nest or chimney creosote. I remembered when that’d happened to a friend of my dad’s - their chimney had been clogged by the tar-like stuff, and it’d almost caused a house fire. My dad had luckily been close by and noticed the smoke through a window, so he saved them from that. He worked as a firefighter, so he knew exactly how to work through it.

But there was still a lot of work to do - that I saw when I discovered a door in the living room, leading to a bedroom and a bathroom.

I didn’t spend much time in the bathroom, understandably. But in the bedroom, there was much to discover.

The double bed was torn up and dirty, as was the floor, the walls and surprisingly, the roof. There were a couple wardrobes, a shabby dresser, a moldy rug that had almost melted into the floor, and a bedside table that was barely intact.

I’ll visit here again, maybe with Rick, I thought to myself. I don’t have time to clean today, though. I checked the wardrobes and the dresser cautiously, but there was nothing inside except for a few blown-in leaves and a scared mouse. Had to check where it came from later on.

But I found something exceptionally weird when I opened the bedside table. The first table drawer held an old book, but it was covered in dried mud so I could hardly see the title, and the text inside was too small. The second drawer was filled with papers in plastic pockets, and they looked brand new. I wasn’t interested in them, so I let them be for the moment. They all looked like office files anyways. But the weirdest thing was in the third drawer.

There, under a layer of leaves and dry dirt, was a pretty wicked thing looking like a murder-weapon. 

☙•❧

It was a shining steel device, unlike anything I’d ever seen before. And I often visited the science lab at EverNought High. It was roughly the size of my arm, maybe a bit bigger, and it looked like a syringe mixed with a miniature robotic arm holding a couple pairs of pliers.

‘Uh… the hell is this?’ I mumbled out loud, examining the device closely. It didn’t have any buttons, or levers, so I wasn’t sure how it worked. It was made up of two sections, one short arm with the pliers sitting on top and the syringe kind of sitting in the middle top between the pliers, and then another arm below it with some kind of attachment system on the bottom. I guess it was made to connect some other kind of instrument.

‘I… don’t think I want to get too deep down investigating this thing’, I mumbled. It’s never too great to do so. So I carefully laid the device back in the bottom drawer, closed it, and began looking through the papers in the drawer above. Man, those were unsettling.

Most of them seemed to be documents over different “Subjects”, as the texts described them, sorted by numbers and occasionally letters. Some of them were files over things like “sector four”, other sectors, weird tools and instruments.

But there was something that really caught my attention. A file regarding something called Subject A.

There was no picture, but the descriptions were enough to illuminate an image in my head.

In the text, the subject was described as a bear-sized creature, looking like a wolf with furious, feral eyes. It was made out of an unknown substance beneath the fur and didn’t seem to have any bones, apart from its teeth.

The image painting itself in my head didn’t look very friendly. But why in the world would this be in an abandoned house in the middle of the forest? It had to be fake, right? Some kind of prank?

With shaking hands, I put the documents back down in the drawer, and brought my phone up from my pocket. I opened the bottom drawer again and took a photo of the device. After that, I called Dad.

He answered quickly with a bright ‘Hello, Jay!’, and a familiar sizzling in the background.

‘H-hey’, I stammered.

‘Hey, you sound kinda shook. Has something happened?’ Dad asked, now in a concerned tone.

‘No, not really. But do you think you can drive Boomer over to the ravine and pick me up?’ I asked, putting down the papers in the drawer with one hand.

‘Yeah, sure, buddy! Where around the ravine?’ I tried to describe where I was, including the abandoned cabin, but it was hard when I was shaking so much. I hadn’t found anything this messed up in a long time. Dad tried to console me, telling me to keep calm as he got the ATV going.

‘You said you’re inside an abandoned cabin, right? I think I’ve seen it before. Stay inside, I’ll be there as soon as possible’, he assured me, before ending the call.

I took a deep breath. Only a few minutes. Then I’d be back to safety. Away from this messed up house.

[notfknapplicable]

I signed my lease at my new place today! Now I need to go to the water office at some point and turn on the water/trash service, and I'll be all set to move in on the 15th. And lemme tell ya I am so ready. I catch myself fantasizing about the most boring stuff ever - taking naps on my couch, reading on the porch, cooking whenever I'd like, cleaning with bleach and other chemicals, pooping with the bathroom door open, deep cleaning behind things and in the corners, showering with the bathroom door open, playing video games for hours, baking cakes, keeping the temperature where I'd like it to be, not having a dirty-wheeled bike hanging over my couch, doing aerobics in the liminal space where the kitchen and living room meet in my lil open-plan duplex. I really like this new duplex's layout way more than my old one too because the bedrooms are on the outside walls instead of on the inside ones, so the only thing on the other side of the wall from me is the outdoors. Our living room and kitchens are butted up to each other and I'll take that any day over having to hear my casually racist Spanish neighbors fucking in the middle of the day while I'm trying to pot nap.

My roommate seems to be calming down (she's started speaking to me again), but she's also doing passively aggressive things like turning the heat down lower and lower. When I came back from SF she was in there with the heat on 66 while it was below freezing outside, if you need an indication of how she keeps it. Always burning hot in the summer, always freezing cold in the winter. Honestly she just needs to live alone again. She's very particular about certain things and isn't great at compromising. I'm the exact same way, and I am willing to cough up a few extra bucks in service of being at peace in my home. She makes way more money than me and I'm fairly certain that she can afford the rent and bills on her own. Hahahahaha I bet that I'm gonna do all of this scrambling to find her a new roommate just for her to tell me "actually I'm gonna live alone / my dude is gonna move in" or something. She's been seeing this guy for a good lil' minute anyway - take the plunge!

All of that is one note. I'm gonna have my own place again soon, and just in time for summer. I was really dreading having to do another summer in that house (for real she wants the air on like 77 in Georgia in the summer) so I'm incredibly happy to have found this place. The yard is pretty much a dust bowl but that's okay, I'll probably plant vegetables and herbs once spring gets here proper. I just have no words. It'll be more expensive, sure, but it'll also be worth every penny.

[storiesbyjes2g]

My turkey was perfect, and our conversations were even better. I enjoyed not worrying about someone else's feelings and what not to say. That's why we were friends. It's just so easy! We spent most of dinner catching up on the latest happenings in our life. Dwayne liked his new job so far, though he wasn't sure what exactly the company did. They had way more equipment in the lab than needed for synthesizing serums and analyzing metals. And there was an entire floor he didn't have access to. For a company that claimed to produce life enhancing products, it had an overabundance of communications equipment. He suspected they contact aliens and maybe even experiment on them. I wasn't sure where I stood on their existence.

I told him about my kids' crushes and the house I'd found. He'd been to that neighborhood and said it was nice. Lots of cute bungalows and a park. It's attractive for young couples looking to start a family, apparently. I only hoped to have cool neighbors. Courtyard Lane was kind of dead with one empty house, one neighbor I didn't like, and another I'd never met.

After dinner, we retired to the living room and continued our conversation. Dwayne asked how I got into crafting candles. Telling him about Ali's dream was sad, but I enjoyed recanting the parts about practicing, improving, and the positive reception on Plopsy. It was 100% my business now, and I even had Ali's blessing.

Dwayne gazed at me inquisitively.

"It's interesting we're both doing something the other didn't expect. I didn't peg you for a crafter."

"Yeah...me neither. I'd never worked with my hands like that before. Ali told me I was a natural. My first candle was perfect. I don't know... I just ended up falling in love with it."

He smiled warmly.

"We've been friends all this time, but we're still learning about each other," he said like an epiphany.

I considered his statement.

"I guess that makes sense. We've never spent time together like this before. Well, except...the jungle."

He smirked.

"That's cuz you was always chasing after some dude," he said and winked at me.

I feigned disgust.

"I beg your pardon! Finding a husband was serious business! I couldn't waste time with the likes of you."

He laughed so hard; I thought he'd fall over.

Though it was a joke, I saw another opportunity to ask a question that had been boring a hole in my brain ever since the affair. Despite knowing I could trust him not to jump to conclusions or get the wrong idea, I was still afraid to ask. My first opportunity was when he apologized to me, but I wasn't ready to get into any conversations with him that night.

"Dwayne?"

"Yeah..."

"I need to ask you something. I'm not judging you. Watcher knows I have no room. But...something has been bothering me for a while."

"Come on now, Ki. You know how we do. Say what you need to say."

"Okay." I took a deep breath. "We talked about this already, but I need to understand something. Were you waiting around for me to cheat on Ali all that time?"

His eyes flicked open, as if surprised by my question. It wasn't every day someone asked if it was your goal to sabotage someone else's marriage.

He sat silently, staring at the floor, giving the question serious thought. Honestly? I didn't expect him to think on it that hard. I thought for sure this would cause our first fight.

"No," he said confidently. "At least not consciously. I told you before, I was holding onto the idea of us and should have let it go a long time ago. You kept telling me to date, and that wasn't bad advice. But I couldn't jump into a relationship knowing my heart was somewhere else. It wouldn't be right."

I gasped.

"So you've never been with anyone else?"

"I didn't say that."

I knew Dwayne wasn't the home-wrecking type, but it relieved me to know, officially, that was not his goal.

Another question came to mind that made me even more nervous. We were doing well as friends, and I still hadn't decided if I wanted to give a relationship a shot. But despite knowing he had things he needed to work through, the idea of him moving onto someone else pained me. I needed to know where he stood. Maybe it would help me decide.

"So...where is your heart now?"

Dwayne squirmed and sighed a lot as he considered his answer, and I got even more nervous. Maybe his fresh start didn't include me and he was trying to think of a way to let me down gently. Maybe I needed to move on, too. Was this not the same situation Mommy told me to get out of? But I-

"My heart is still right here...if you want it."

I smiled softly and nodded.

"That's good to know."

"I think you misunderstood me," he said. "Letting go of us doesn't mean I don't want to be with you. I just needed to free myself from it. That thing had me in a chokehold and held me back in a lot of ways, so I let it all go. I needed to be in a place where I'd be okay if nothing happens."

"Wow," I said. "That's...so mature."

I thought about how I had to let Tofu go. Glaring at my daughter behind her back and being passive aggressive was not mature. How was it, at this age, I still had growing up to do? At least I knew he wasn't running away. Now I needed to decide what I wanted in all this.

[alcalexandria]

Grace of The Terminator and Reese of Dark Fate.

Source: Scumlow

In this post I'm going to outline some of the main ways Terminator: Dark Fate deliberately treats Grace as a counterpart to Kyle Reese in T1/The Terminator.

There are plenty of allusions to Kyle as a character with Grace, in some cases with a bit of a twist, and we know those echoes are deliberate rather than accidental for reasons I'll go into below.

I’m mostly just itemising them here and some of it will also crossover with the Sarah Connor stuff posted before, but I wanted to have this together in one place to refer back to. Not least so that in a future piece when I say “Hey, you know how Grace is playing Kyle’s part, well…” I can link back and people can see what I mean if they want, without having to take a huge diversion in-text.

So like I say, I won’t go too deep into the big picture implications of this stuff, but that's something I have got in the pipeline.

Finally, if I’ve missed out on anything obvious, I’d love to know - I will be updating in future if I think of anything else to add.

It's all happening under the cut, baby.

First though, a word -

Word of God.

Before getting into the stuff from the movies themselves, I want to look at what Tim Miller himself says about it.

He drew the parallel explicitly in this interview with EW (and probably others) -

“There’s this new future because of what Sarah did at the end of Terminator 2, and it’s worse than ever,” reveals Miller. “And that gives us the opportunity for these new characters. Gabriel comes from something that is not Skynet, but it’s like Skynet. And Mackenzie comes from something that Kyle Reese and the Resistance did.”

Terminator: Dark Fate director Tim Miller on the new Terminators | EW.com

The context here feels a little garbled, but to clarify I don’t believe he means Kyle’s actions literally, directly brought about Grace, I think he’s framing her as part of the Target/Protector/Attacker triumvirate he mentions here. YMMV, so I've linked both.

Regardless, we know from this that Grace as a successor to Kyle was a conscious thing. That established, more interesting to me at least are the ways that is done by the movie, and that's really what I want to talk about.

1 – Come With Me If…

Source: Scumlow

The first half of T1 is played as a surprisingly straight mystery, and the full bore sci-fi and horror stuff really only takes over pretty late in the day. Who are these two extremely weird dudes tailing Sarah across town? What are their respective goals are in Los Angeles tonight, and how are they connected either to Sarah or each other?

Both are presented as alien and possibly threatening to Sarah in different ways, but it’s mostly Kyle, not the T800, who is presented as the most immediate threat – he’s a strange, dirty stalker, with improvised weapons and unpredictable behaviours, and he's cunning enough to evade the police Sarah still genuinely believes might help her. The T800 is clearly weird and dangerous, but he’s a shadowy, distant ogre of a thing, lurking almost out of view by comparison.

All of this is exploded at last when the T800 catches up with Sarah in a nightclub, and finally gets her in his sights. Reese shows up with his shotgun to save Sarah just in time - “Come with me if you want to live”, he says, and in an instant, everyone’s cards are on the table.

Grace declaring herself to Dani by essentially quoting Reese's opener is how Dark Fate first definitively tells us she’s a goodguy just like him.

Though the trailers spoiled the shit out of it, if you watch Dark Fate in isolation it’s clear we’re not meant to be sure which of the two time-travellers is aggressor, and which is protector, right up until the shooting starts. James Cameron himself talks about this in the “Legend Reforged” featurette, noting that we’re given conflicting clues about which one is which for the first 20 minutes of the movie.

Until then, in fact, people who encounter the Rev-9 are generally better off than anyone who runs into Grace. The Rev-9 shapeshifts, sure - and Taco thinks he’s no good, yeah - but it’s Grace we see actually hurt people and use a digital HUD to fight with superhuman reflexes and speed. Where the Rev-9 is downright personable to everyone it encounters, Davis plays Grace initially as a little odd and… well, mechanical.

Rev-9 even seems to have the inside track on where Dani is. Grace lands in the middle of nowhere and has to find her way across town to link up with her, but he seems to have her home address from the get-go*. He introduces himself as her friend, but Grace is friendly to nobody so far.

By the time everyone does step into the open in the factory, okay, sure you have probably started betting on Grace, but it’s still a little ambiguous. It remains so right up until the moment Dani’s dad pulls a gun, and Grace appears from nowhere to say the magic words and blow his face off.

Grace breaking out her shotgun serves mostly the same purpose as Kyle's in T1 - showing that she’s here to protect Dani, not to do her harm – but invoking the line is what defines her as Reese’s direct successor, as surely as uttering a passphrase or flashing an ID badge to camera.

The contract in it is updated a little this time around, all that said – Grace’s offer is “Come with me, or you’re dead in the next 30 seconds” – the nature of the Terminator they’re facing now means that, unlike Reese to Sarah, she can promise Dani only a half-minute of survival at a time.

[*As an aside – Check out how the Rev-9 calls Dani by her good old goverment name, Daniela, something unusual enough for her father to remark on. Grace, from the get-go, addresses her very directly as “Dani” – an instant clue how well she knows her. The Rev-9’s appearance right on Dani’s doorstep might initially suggest his information is better than Grace’s, but it’s likely he’s just taken the address from the same digitised files now that phone books are a thing of the past. Grace has her info from the source - she has been tipped off to go direct to the factory, because that’s where Commander Ramos knows (and remembers) she’s going to be.]

2 – What’s in a name?

Most Terminator geeks call Kyle… well, Kyle, myself included - but actually we only hear that name for the first time in the last third of T1, almost 200 pages into the script.

Up until then, he is referred to only by his surname - Reese. That’s how he introduces himself to strangers, and to Sarah.

In fact it’s even how the script captions all his dialogue; he is exclusively called Reese in the script notations. He only offers his first name to Sarah eventually, as they finally start getting to know and trust each other.

That’s redundant for Grace, obviously, who both knows and trusts Dani more than she can imagine already. Grace dispenses with the formalities altogether, and only bothers offering her first name.

We never do hear her surname in the movie at all though - she goes only by Grace, and even when we glimpse the rest of her family at the end we never learn what they’re all called. According to Tim Miller, the name is “Harper” - but it’s not clear to me that’s altogether canon, and it’s not in the end credits. Even the Rev-9 has a name in the end credits.

Reese, Grace, the point is they’re both fairly close cousins when you yell that single syllable sibilance across a factory floor, and I think that's very definitely an intentional choice.

3 – She's Got The Look.

“[Reese’s] over-coat is off, draped over the shotgun on the seat beside him. His bare arms are sinewy and scarred.”

- Kyle Reese, as described in the script for T1

Visually, Grace has a fairly unique silhouette for the Terminator universe, but she does take some key character design cues from Reese (to the point that even her hairstyle isn’t a mile off, in some of the Future War stuff especially).

As a more overt example though, she and Reese have both been given prominent scars on their left chin/jaw. Reese’s scar is important enough that it’s actually described in detail in the T1 script’s description of him, so it is considered a character element, and – like Grace’s augmentation scars – is used to distinguish the passage of time between one flashback and another, so it’s no coincidence*.

But the characters also share a thing for more deliberate body modifications.

Kyle has an ID tattoo he reveals to Sarah when he’s still earning her trust, put on the inside of his forearm when he was taken as a Skynet work camp prisoner. It’s described in the script like so –

“He pushes up the sleeve of his jacket and shows her a ten-digit number etches on the skin of his forearm. Beneath the numbers is a pattern of lines like the auto-pricing marks on product packages.“

Compare his code to Grace's coordinates -

Unlike Grace’s, it’s got barcode lines along with the digits - but just like hers, it’s an unusual red colouring.

That's interesting because other post T1 properties tend to retcon Kyle’s tattoo to a more generic black ink, but after showing it, Kyle goes on to explain it was burned in by laser rather than inked - so technically it’s a skin brand rather than a tattoo as such.

Grace does refer to her co-ordinates as a tattoo - and it would make sense if it was ink rather than scarring given her healing factor - but reverting to red even though it’s not super screen friendly marks it as a deliberate decision regardless.

Not for nothing also - both of these tattoos are flashed to Sarah Connor personally in the cabin of a car, in order to convince her skeptical ass to get onside.

There probably wasn’t a ton more thematic significance or whatever on the rest of Mackenzie Davis’ real sculpted-looking stomach there incidentally, but I sure would have loved a really good look. Just to make sure and all.

[*What is probably coincidence, but makes for a fun sidenote, is that both scars suffer some continuity issues - Grace has her scar before the Rev-7s attack the Dragonfly, as seen above, but when speaks to the medic it’s turned back into an open wound. It’s seen as an open wound again when we briefly see her awaiting surgery. From there, it seems to disappear, and it continues to reappear and disappear alternately throughout the modern day scenes later too.

Similarly, Kyle’s scar alternates between being a fresh wound to being a scar, before disappearing altogether through T1, and then reappearing again. It’s a classic bit of nerd trivia about T1 as it happens, but although it’s tempting I can’t imagine a deliberate Easter Egg quite so obscure.]

4 – History Lessons

The starkest difference between Kyle and Grace as characters is probably in their upbringings – Kyle tells Sarah outright he was born after the war began, so he didn't experience it directly, and doesn’t know a time before it. In another mark of how much more urgent the threat is this time around though, Grace does – she has already been born in our time, so her war isn't a lifetime away, it’s right around the corner. Unlike Kyle, she remembers the world of now before it was broken, which is presumably why she’s able to adjust to being dumped backwards into it a lot easier than he does. Even then though the parallels are probably deeper than the divergence. Here's how Kyle describes his childhood to Sarah in the T1 script -

REESE (continuing)

Didn't see the war. I was born after, in the ruins. Grew up there. Starving. Hiding from the H-K's.

We only hear about his childhood like this, second hand - but this is the exact situation we see Grace in this scenario on screen. This scene is part of the reshoot reframing Grace and Dani as familial, so I'm inclined to wilfully ignore it for the most part, but it is interesting in that it show us Grace, as a child starving in the ruins, living out the scenario Kyle has described down to a tee. Indeed the fact Future Dani uses the term “HK” in Grace’s flashback is probably drawn from this conversation - it's a term she could only have learned from Sarah, who heard it in turn from Kyle in the very exchange above.

Both movies also use Reese and Grace’s dreams and nightmares as the means to show us their respective Future Wars. Reese is tired enough from running that he simply falls asleep, and we are shown his nightmarish memories in the meantime; Grace loses consciousness due to an Augment crash and has the corresponding flash back (or forward, if you prefer) to the battle at the South Tunnel.

Cameron has often explained that Terminator’s Future War was inspired by a nightmare he had, and Grace’s sequence is shot appropriately, per the commentaries, to echo that - it's meant to look like a nightmare or fever dream, which is why it's distinguished by woozy camera, muted sounds, foggy colours and the quite Hellish imagery of Rev-7s stalking in front of the fiery horizon line. Kyle’s nightmare-memory of the infiltrator massacre pivots around a moment where he ponders an image of Sarah, a photo that's then damaged in the attack – Grace, more directly, looks on at the wounded figure of Dani herself as a sharp reminder of the stakes.

The details, the nuts and bolts are different, but the dynamic is much the same.

5 – Role Play.

Most obviously of all of course, the two characters play similar protective roles.

Grace shows up from the future, having come across time, to protect Dani from her would-be assassin, just as Kyle protected Sarah. Beyond having her quote him on her reveal and repeating his shotgun intro, the movie makes plenty more visual allusions to really underline the point, and uses multiple shots of Grace to recall shots of him in T1, even outside of action sequences (the shots at the top of this post, for example, as both characters realize their pursuer is once again an imminent threat).

But by the end of T1 of course, Kyle’s destiny is revealed to be far more important than simply Sarah’s bodyguard - he is in love with her.

And he has always been in love with her, before ever he met her.

Indeed he frames his decision to come across time as because he’s in love with her, as you can hear here -

The Terminator(1984) I came across time for you - YouTube

Check out the emphasis there by the way, “I came across time for you, Sarah."

Kyle isn't privy to the grand scheme, but he sure as hell knows why he volunteered - I came across time, not because I was ordered to or to save the world, but for you, because I love you.

Within that grand plan, his role isn’t simply to protect Sarah either; it is to love her, and be loved by her in return, so that together they'll conceive the leader to save the human race in the future.

That this is her predecessor's ultimate purpose is something Mackenzie Davis herself is very much aware of, even acknowledging and goofing around with the extrapolation -

Source: Youtube around 0:45

- so again, it’s not like this is an unconscious parallel either*.

Davis is more than aware the character her own was proxying wasn't simply there to keep his "Dani" physically safe.

In the both movies, Time Travel for humans is depicted as a painful, and dangerous, thing to endure, and even if the mission succeeds these people will die a very long way from anyone else they might know or care about. Kyle speaks of travelling as if it's something he might only consider doing for love; such that only that person would matter.

One distinction between the two depictions - one that Miller himself highlights - is that time travel from Kyle's future is visually associated with fire and the colour red. Time travel from Grace's is associated with ice and the colour blue. Fire as a motif tends to follow Kyle around throughout T1, in a way that ice and water and the colour blue has a funny habit of following Grace.

What is consistent though is that Kyle's arrival, like Grace's, is depicted as a physically difficult thing to endure, something that not everyone could even survive. In an early T1 draft, Kyle arrived with a working partner who didn't; Grace arrives alone, but few others could have survived the fall that greeted her.

When Kyle tells Sarah he came across time for Sarah, he says it as doing it was a self-evident proof of the love he asserts. We can only take the same as true for Grace.

Source: Scumlow

Obviously Grace’s role from there is a little different to Kyle's because, okay, she doesn’t literally impregnate Dani and they don't literally conceive a warrior-saint together in the process - but she does what she does for the same reason he did, and Dani does inarguably love her back.

Whether that’s all platonic or not is an argument for a subsequent post, but the lengths to which Dani goes for Grace throughout the movie - and, it’s implied, afterwards - can only be interpreted as love in some form.

In a message she records for her as-yet unborn son, Sarah wants John to know that in the few hours she spent with his father, they “loved a lifetime's worth”.

Grace, for her part, has known Dani for years - but Dani only knows Grace for a couple of days, and still, for her sake, sets out to change the course of the future. It’s surely love that prompts Dani to make herself Commander, so she has a chance to save Grace from going back later - just as it was love that had Grace offer her life for Dani’s, out loud, at least three times.

In the end, Dani and Grace’s bond, in the short time they spend together, marks the conception of a future saviour every bit as much as Sarah and Kyle’s sexual liaison. They even have that much in common.

**********

Those are the most overt parallels that come to mind to me, and like I say, I'm all ears to hear more, but the obvious question raised by this stuff is how are we to interpret that?

What are we - or were we, at some point in the movie's development - intended to make of it? Well if you're as interested as I am in that question, stick around, because I'll be thinking about that in much too much detail too, someday soon.

I just want to say, also, special thanks to @scumlow for coming through with the immensely useful gifs, I'm really grateful and it's a big help to break up the text walls of doom!

**********

[*This caught my eye btw because Davis said in another interview she’d never actually seen T1 until preparing for the part, so she’s not a lifelong Terminator lore nerd.

You know who is though, clearly, a lifelong Terminator lore nerd, is Tim Miller... so while it’s not impossible this is an off-the-cuff remark entirely on Davis' behalf, it's very tempting to wonder if it was something the two had actually discussed during production. Something to think about, eh?]

[redrobin-detective]

The late Daniel Fenton

It was shaping up to be a beautiful if chilly December day and Casper High, as always, was bustling. It was 7:49 and class was about to start. The teacher watched the last few kids stumbling in at various levels of wakefulness. He already knew who would be the ones to rush in after the bell but that was alright. Life was too short to stress about being a few minutes late to class, especially in Amity Park of all places.

He looked up to see Madison, one of his shyer students walk in before making a beeline for his desk. She was biting her lip and nervously rubbing her hand down her skirt. “Hey,” she began quietly.

“Good morning. What’s up, Mads?” He asked casually. She looked upset, he could probably put on a video for the class if she needed to talk. They really needed a permanent counselor but the constant ghost attacks ran off most of them so he’d taken up the unofficial mantle. It felt good to help his students like that, make up for past wrongs.

“Are we um, expecting any new students?” She asked, her eyes darting over to the door she’d just come through. “Any transfers, exchange students or anything like that?”

“No,” the teacher frowned. “Amity isn’t the kind of place people transfer into. Why?”

“There’s a kid in the hallway,” she mumbled. “I don’t recognize him, he’s got a backpack and everything but he’s... I don’t know he doesn’t feel right.”

“Oh you’re talking about that weird dark haired kid,” Kyle said as he entered and sat down with a slouch. But even the class slacker looked unusually tense. “Dude’s creepy, can’t put my finger on why but he definitely doesn’t belong.”

“Oh,” was all the teacher had to say. Suddenly he realized how cold the classroom had become, the uncomfortable feeling that was pressing ever so slightly down on them. “I suppose it makes sense, the ghosts have been quiet lately with the Truce and all. He probably got bored.”

“Sir?” Madison said.

“Shannon,” he said instead, looking over at the frizzy haired girl hunched over her sketchbook furiously at work. “Would you do me a favor and move to the vacant seat in the second row? Just for today.”

“What? Why?” the girl whined even as she gathered up her various arts supplies and got ready to move.

“That’s Mr. Fenton’s seat,” he said taking in a deep breath and closing his eyes in preparation for what he was about to see. Danny would come here, of course he would. This was Lancer’s old classroom and Danny had him for first period English Lit. He and Dash both did.

“Mr. Baxter? What’s going on, is it a ghost?” Malik asked from the back row while Shannon shuffled to her new temporary seat.

“Yes but you don’t need to be scared,” he said softly, evenly. “He won’t hurt you.” The bell rang but Dash didn’t start the lesson. Instead, he waited. Danny had never been on time to class the entire time Dash had known him, of course death wouldn’t change that.

“Sorry, I’m late Mr. Lancer,” Dash gripped his desk so he didn’t jump when Danny Fenton simply appeared in front of his desk instead of walking through the door like any other student. “My folks couldn’t drive me, they’re still working on their stupid ghost portal.” A quick glance over at this class showed varying levels of fear, shock and curiosity but they were Amity kids through and through. The cold, powerful energy radiating off Fenton told them it was best to play along with whatever the ghost wanted.

“Perfectly alright Mr. Fenton,” Dash said softly, searching the 14 year old’s perpetually young face. He hadn’t changed a bit since Dash last saw him their second week of freshman year. It seemed unreal seeing how the years had taken their toll on Casper’s favorite son, Dash Baxter. God had they really been that young once? “Take a seat and we’ll get started.”

Danny shrugged and walked over to the seat Shannon had just vacated. He sat just the same, one leg stretched out and the other propped up against the leg of the desk. As soon as he took off the backpack and put it around the chair, it disappeared. He didn’t say anything else, just sat as stared at Dash with piercing blue eyes like he could see right through him.

“We had been talking about the lead up to the Civil War but let’s table that for today,” Dash said, proud his voice only wavered a little. He knew other people had seen Fenton around town. Lina saw him standing outside the Nasty Burger maybe five or so years ago. Dale, who used to live near Fenton Works swore he sometimes saw someone moving through the windows of the long abandoned house. He’d always secretly dreaded the thought of seeing Danny Fenton again, afraid he’d finally get was coming to him.

“Instead, we’re going to talk about local history,” he continued, not daring to take his eyes off the undead teen. Every other living student was tense, afraid. He wished he could assure them that the ghost wouldn’t lay a hand on them. In the event Fenton decided to ditch the hero schtick, it would be Dash and Dash alone he’d come after. “Amity Park has long had rumors of being haunted dating all the way back to the 1600s. It wasn’t until the last century that scientists determined that Amity Park is located on top of a thin spot between our world and the ghost realm. Natural portals form here all the time allowing spirits to pass through.”

No one spoke and barely anyone breathed except for Danny would wasn’t breathing at all. He just sat and stared at Dash with steady, unblinking eyes.

“Jack and Maddie Fenton were the scientists who discovered the weak point in reality in Amity. They devoted their entire life to the study of ghosts and made remarkable advancements in our knowledge of ectobiology and culture, the first being,” he paused as Danny cocked his head in confusion, squinting his eyes suspiciously at Dash. “The first being their manmade portal to the ghost zone. The portal remained active for almost two decades for research purposes but was shut down following their deaths.”

“You’re not Mr. Lancer,” Danny said suddenly, his eyes shifting from baby blue to an ectoplasmic green. Marty, who was sitting to the left of Danny, swallowed a squeak of fear and squeezed his eyes shut.

“No,” Dash sighed, “Lancer died almost thirty years ago now. Best teacher I ever had, he gave me his blessing when he passed on the job to me.”

“I,” the ghost ran his hand through his hair which was starting to lose its color. Seeing Fenton looking so scared and confused made him ache. It reminded him of old times. Dash had spent most of his life making sure he helped hurt kids if only to make up for the one he’d never been able to make it up to. “I don’t understand.”

“It’s okay, Danny,” he soothed. “I know it’s a lot to take in.”

“The portal, it wasn’t working at first,” Danny justified, his aura glowing a little more. “Sam and Tuck, they were curious. They wanted to look but I told them it wasn’t allowed, Sam, Sam she dared me to go in. I put on the hazmat suit and went inside and found the on button inside. I accidentally hit it and-” he paused midsentence and looked down at his hands. They weren’t pale flesh anymore but covered in white gloves. The black was completely bleached from his hair. A few of the students gasped as they saw the strange would be student melt into Phantom, the ghostly hero who’d been protecting their town since their parents were young. “I died.”

So much time had gone by. People were born and people were buried and the truth became distorted until it was just a legend passed jokingly around cafeteria lunch tables. Amity’s youth had forgotten their town’s history until it was sitting in a desk, trying once more to be one of them.

“You did,” Dash said sadly. He remembered hearing the news of Fenton's death. An assembly had been called the morning after the accident. Lancer had cried at the podium, Manson and Foley hadn’t returned to school for a week and had never been the same again. Dash hadn’t known what to think at the time, only that the kid he’d beat up for the crime of being different would never show up to school again. Or so he’d thought. “It was a tragedy, you were mourned by a lot of people.”

“I know you, don’t I?” Danny said quietly before he sat up straighter. “Dash?”

“In the flesh,” Dash grinned shakily.

“But you’re so old,” Danny said, once more distressed. “Your hair is grey and there’s wrinkles on your face and-and you’re a teacher now?” The last line was said with incredulity, his eyes flaring again. “You used to push me down the stone steps of the school and shove me into my locker and call me names.”

“Yeah, I did,” he sighed, feeling every one of his years. He was pushing 70 but he didn’t think he’d ever stop feeling like a stupid 14 year old who took out his frustrations on the ones who didn’t deserve it. “But you were the last; I never touched another kid again. I’m married now, four kids. I’m vice principal now, teach History and coach the school’s football team. It’s,” his voice caught again, still unable to process how young and stupid Fenton looked sitting there like no time had passed at all. It made Dash feel like all his accomplishments and attempts to be better would never amount to anything so long as his last victim roamed the earth unable to find peace. “It doesn’t fix what I did back then but I make damn sure that there won’t be any bullying at Casper so long as I’m here.”

“Huh,” Danny said, slouching once more in his seat but it looked less like his earlier teenage laziness and more weary. He and Dash were the same age after all, just because only one of them got old doesn’t mean time didn’t still affect them. “You did change, a lot of things did.” Danny looked down at the desk, “how long has it been?”

“Almost 50 years,” Dash sighed. “My wife wants me to retire but I guess I always find more things to do.” He paused then decided it was now or never. “I’m sorry Danny, for hurting you back then. I wish I'd gotten to know you better.”

For just a moment, Danny was perfectly clear. Even half floating out of his chair and looking like the local celebrity, his eyes were so painfully human. A boy killed before he ever got a chance to get started. Who’s will to protect was so strong it lasted half a century. It haunted him late at night to think of the glory and power of Phantom overshadowing just how incredible Danny Fenton had been. Not that anyone had seen it at the time. Soon there wouldn’t be anyone left to remember that quiet, kind teenager and then Danny Fenton really would be dead. Kill him just as thoroughly as that portal had.

The moment was broken by a breath of cold leaking out of the ghost’s lips and, just like that, his highschool classmate was gone and Phantom was left in his stead. He looked curiously around the classroom as if he didn’t know how he’d gotten there.

“There’s a ghost, stay here and don’t leave unless the fighting gets too close. I’ll get it though, don’t worry. No kids are dying today.” Maybe it was Dash’s imagination but he thought he saw Phantom’s eyes linger on him for an extra moment, trying to place where he knew the teacher from. Dash just smiled.

“Our lives are in your hands. Good luck, Phantom,” the ghost teen saluted before fading away entirely. Dash let out the breath he didn’t know he’d been holding, suddenly exhausted but also lighter at the same time. It wasn’t every day you got to look your mistakes in the face and apologize. “Shannon, you can move back now.”

“No, I’m okay here,” Shannon said as she flipped to a new page in her sketchbook and looked intently at the spot where Fenton had once sat. “It’s like you said, that’s Danny’s seat.”

“I had no idea, Phantom’s been around for like, ever,” Freddie mumbled, pushing up his glasses. “But he used to be just like us.” And still was, Dash thought sadly. Danny would never grow old, never go to space like he’d always dreamed or marry Manson like he’d probably intended to. He was stuck, in more ways than one for who knows how long.

“Yes, that’s why it’s important to know your history. The Civil War and my other lessons are important but we can’t forget these smaller, more intimate histories. If we lose these lessons to time then we risk repeating the same mistakes over again.” He looked his students in the eyes, holding their attention.

“So we’ll continue today with the local history. Before he was ghost butt kicking superhero, Phantom was Danny Fenton, son of the local ghost hunters and a bit of an outcast in town. The Daniel Fenton Foundation was founded about a year after his death and was-”

[baecvlt]

Stalker Nagito Komaeda x Milf!Reader

this was requested via my twitter:

“Hey! i’ve seen your works and I’m in love. Can I request smut where a stalker Nagito Komaeda becomes obsessed with a milf reader who moves into the neighborhood who’s like a dom in bed and ya know just large bust and taller than him. Thank youuu🤍”

a/n: ofc. but I have my own idea of a dom which i’ll use involving certain things (heed warnings)

warnings: he is so obviously a virgin in this, degradation, slight masochism, asphyxiation, spit, also Nagito calls the reader mommy (side note: nagito is in his early 20s in this, he lives alone. age of reader isn’t specified BUT I say she’s in her late 20s/early 30s)

• • •

It was a bright day...which Nagito despised. It was summer. He hated the sun, hated the mosquitoes, and the unnecessary humidity. It was days like these he wishes he was back at his university dorm. The A/C, the tall tree covering his window and blocking the sun...it was perfect. Hell, he didn’t even hate classes. Yet, he couldn’t live in the dorms forever. When it came time to buy a home, he stupidly did so in fall, moved in during the winter.

Well, no shit the home seemed perfect then. It wasn’t fucking summer. His A/C decided to break, his windows has a great view of the sun, and most of his friends were out of town (all except Hajime, but Hajime is fucking boring and a bummer). Nagito sat on his couch, watching reruns of old tv shows. He took a sip from his nearby glass (cold water), suddenly hearing sounds of what appeared to be a loading van. He looked outside his window.

A moving van?

Right, that one old man who lived there passed away. Freak accident, by the way. Oh well, may he rest in peace. Meanwhile, Nagito was being himself and trying to see who it was. Pretty much, the dude was being nosy. He saw another car pull up. That must’ve been the family’s car. Out jumped 3 kids, what appeared to be 2 girls and 1 boy. An adult stepped out. Nagito decided he’d get a better look at the situation. He put on his shirt, black jeans, and his green hood.

He was “going for a walk”.

Without being noticed, he made his way to the other side of the street. It was a woman, she was taking boxes out of the truck. The minute Nagito saw her it was if he was stricken by Cupid’s arrow. She was tall and beautiful. Her skin complimented her hair and her legs, he couldn’t take his eyes off them. Her breasts...he needed to stop—

“Hi!”

She was in front of him, a warm and inviting smile on her face. “H-Hi,” he muttered. She didn’t hear him well, so it helped that he waved. “I’m new in the neighborhood. We just moved in,” she added, putting the box down. She stuck her hand out, going for a handshake. He shook her hand, her warm hand against his cold ones. Why are his hands always cold? “I see,” he responded, getting his shit together,“I’m Nagito Komaeda. I live across the street”. She introduced herself and complimented his house.

“What a lovely home. I hope the neighborhood is just as lovely”

“It should be. It’s pretty quiet. There’s not many families here. Say, can I help you pack?”

“You’re too sweet! I’d really appreciate it”

He helped take all the boxes in her home, helping load a couch too, and help with other large objects. They finished in 9 hours, taking a majority of the day. “Thanks for helping out, Nagito”. She made a lemonade, handing him a glass.

“Don’t mention it! Also, thank you”

One of the kids ran in the living room where they sat on the couch. He gasped when he saw Nagito. “Mommy! That man looks dead!!!”. Nagito smiled, but his mom was not amused. “Michael! Apologize..”. The kid kept smiling and said,“Sorry!”. He ran to another room. “I’m so sorry,” she muttered. Nagito shook his head.

“Hey, I’m rather malnourished”

“Ha. On an unrelated topic, are you hungry? I could make us something”

“Oh, I shouldn’t linger any longer. I wouldn’t want to disturb your husband”

She laughed. “I know you mean no harm, but I’m not married,” she added. “Oh,” Nagito muttered,“I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean it in any way”. She shook her head and reassured him it was fine. “Sit, Nagito,” she pulled out a chair,“I’m not letting you refuse having dinner with us. Especially since you were such help”. She rubbed his back before heading back into the kitchen to begin cooking.

She made him a bowl of pasta, adding chicken on the side. Nagito was quite happy. He hadn’t eaten a good meal in so long. Her kids didn’t eat at the table, but on the counter. Meanwhile, she ate with Nagito. Just as Nagito thought he couldn’t grow fonder of her, he did just that. All she did was let him talk about himself.

“Jesus, I’m sorry about your parents? How are you keeping yourself afloat with university and expenses?”

“Academic scholarships”

“Wow, you’re such a smart boy”

The way she phrased it made him flustered. “Thank you for the meal, ma’am,” he muttered,“I haven’t eaten like this in who knows how long”. She smiled tenderly, picking up his empty plate. “Seconds?”. He shook his head.

“No, thank you. I’m already so full”

“I’m glad. You know, there’s always a meal for you in store if you can do me a favor”

“What’s that?”

“My oldest daughter has her final test this week. You think you can help her study? I’ll make you a nice, warm meal every time you come over”

Nagito thought about it. He would also have time around her. Plus, she wasn’t a bad cook. “Of course, I look forward to it,” he told her. “Lovely”. He got up and excused himself to go home. “It was nice having you over, Nagito,” she said softly. He could tell she was getting sleepy. When people are tired, Nagito has noticed that their tone is rather sheepish. She walked him to the door, ruffling his hair playfully and he blushed. “Goodnight, neighbor”.

“Goodnight, you”

Before he left, she stopped him and handed him a paper: (xxx) xxx-xxxx ♡

“Call me when you get home so I have your number saved. Then, I can call you when my daughter, Vanessa, needs help. Take care, okay?”

He nodded.

She closed the door, his thoughts racing on his way home. He picked up some things about her, things she didn’t even tell him. He went home and opened a notebook, writing all of it down. He called her and she answered, her voice as sweet as when he left (only sleepier). “Hello?”. His breath was heavy without realizing it as he spoke. “H-Hey, you told me to call you,” he breathed,“It’s Nagito...Komaeda”

“Oh, hey, angel! I’m not interrupting anything am I?”

“What? No, it’s all good— why’d you think so?”

“You sound like you need to catch your breath, but anyway, thanks for calling me. I’ve saved your number now”

“Oh, great! Well, if that’s all, I’ll let you go to bed now”

“It was. Goodnight, Nagito”

“G-Goodnight”

He hung up, flustered more than ever as he continued to jot down his thoughts on paper. The next day, he woke up at 6am to wait in his car. He knew what he was doing was wrong, but he couldn’t help it. At around 7:41am, his front neighbor and kids headed for their car. Nagito, who had taken a light nap in the driver’s seat, was awoken by the car starting. He waited for the car to drive away just slightly past his house to start his own car, slowly tailing behind her.

He dropped her kids off at the nearby elementary. She got off, kissed them on their forehead (all minus the eldest, who walked swiftly through the gates). Seeing how she cared for them made Nagito feel bad, but all he did was brush that feeling off. Next, he followed her through her daily. As he did, his notes from last night echoed through his mind, adding new detail.

“She works at an office not everyday She doesn’t have allergies but is sensitive to dust Red seems to be her favorite color but always in a darker shade Her daughter is around 10 years old She isn’t vegan but enjoys almond milk Maybe has an issues with abandonment but I can’t assume that either She buys many apples but not the same amount of bananas at the store so maybe she only eats the bananas—”

Just more to add to his notebook.

He got home before she did, writing down what he had learned. His phone rang about an hour later of him getting home. He picked it up,“Hello?”. “Nagito, hi!”. It was her. He started having a mini-panic attack, because why would she be calling him? “H-Hey, how are you?”

“I’m doing alright. I was wondering if you could come over and tutor Vanessa”

Oh, thank god.

“Yes, of course. I’ll be down there right now”

“Great. See you then!”

He was relieved, heading to her home happily. He knocked on the door. When she opened it, she did so with the same warm smile as yesterday. “Thank you for coming over,” she said,“She’s in her room”. Nagito nodded, freezing when she grabbed his hand and took him to the room. Her touch was so soft, noted. They got to the room, where a girl was reading a book on a desk. “Nessa?”. The girl turned around.

“Nagito is going to be here for a few hours to help you out with homework and studying. He’s really smart, so pay attention and be respectful”

“Okay, mom”

She nodded, squeezing Nagito’s shoulder before leaving. Nagito approached the girl, she took her things out. Before he could speak, she stopped him. “Please don’t call me ‘Nessa’,” she whispered,“It’s bad enough my mom does, but not you, Please”.

“Don’t worry. I wasn’t planning on referring to you at all”

“Bastard”

“Nessa”

“I guess I walked right into that one”

Nagito laughed, grabbing a chair and sitting next to her. Her work wasn’t what he expected. Is this what they’re teaching kids now? He could’ve sworn he hadn’t seen this type of stuff until he hit middle school. It wasn’t anything he couldn’t do, but damn. All in all, tutoring went well. Vanessa actually learned something today. “Good job!,” he said. “Thank you,” she smiled and hugged him,“I felt so stupid”.

“Hey, its okay not to understand things”

Her mom walked in. “Dinner’s ready”. Vanessa got up and went to the kitchen. “How’d it go?,” she asked Nagito. “Went well, she gets the math now,” he answered. She smiled, thanking him for his help and asking him to join them for dinner. He’d be foolish not to, so he accepted the invite.

Fish tacos were served tonight with rice and beans, another lemonade made. It was different than anything Nagito had ever had, but that doesn’t equate to bad. He actually enjoyed the meal. The kids sat at the main table today, much more respectful than yesterday. “Michael how was school?”. He put a thumbs up, getting back to eating. “And Adrianna?”. She looked up from her meal and shrugged. “What’s wrong?”.

“I’m tired, but class was okay”

“Oh, okay. When you’re done, just take a quick shower and get to bed”

“Thanks”

Nagito thought it was endearing. Seeing how understanding and loving she was, it was refreshing. The kids all eventually left, Nagito finishing his meal. “Did you like it?”. He looked at her, nodding. “Great! Seconds?”.

“Full again. I don’t usually eat, but your food is always so good”

“Oh, you’re just saying things...”

“No, really! Thank you”

He said his goodbyes to the family, walking back home. It was as if he was falling for this woman more and more everyday. He went to sleep, this time dreaming of her. He never dreams, but this time he dreamt she was on her knees for him. Then, nothing else. It was as if his dream teased him.

The next morning, he woke up to some knocking on the door. He looked at the time. 8:23am. He put on a pair of jeans and his shirt, walking to his door. He opened it and there she stood, wearing a black dress and red heels. He assumed she had work and needed a favor before going. “Good morning,” he said.

“Were you following me yesterday?”

Shit.

“I, uh...,” he didn’t know what to answer. He was indeed following her yesterday. He also liked her, so if he straight up said that he was to following her, it’d ruin things. His face was glowing a shade of pink to a slight red as he thought of the right answer. He was still stumbling over his words. “I think it’s kinda cute,” she added. The fuck? “Huh?”. She pushed him inside the house, closing and locking the door behind him. “When a boy follows someone around, it’s because he wants something,” she added, but her tone was so sultry,“Well, Nagito—”. She pushed him onto the couch, leaning in front of him with her hands on his chest.

“—What do you want?”

None of what was happening felt real. Nagito couldn’t find the words to express what exactly he wanted. This was the first time he’d ever been in a situation like this, it wasn’t a bad one either. He began to panic when she straddled him. “Could it be that you wanted me?,” she asked. He frantically nodded and she laughed as she locked her lips with his. He gasped against her lips, kissing back. She slowly trailed her kisses down to his neck, cupping his jaw while grinding on his lap. Nagito moaned, his shaky hands grabbing her ass. She grabbed his hands and put them away from her. “It’s cute that you’re getting this carried away”.

“I’m sorry”

“No time to apologize. Get on your knees for mommy”

Nagito was about to lose his mind when she said that, but he obeyed. Her presence was domineering as he stood on his knees against his carpeted floor. She spread her legs, noticing Nagito desperately trying to get a look. Her red heel stopped him, stepping on his head lightly. “Am I teasing you?,” she asked,“It’s okay to be honest”.

“Y-You are, but its okay. I want to be teased by you”

“You’re adorable,” she took her heel off his head,“Let’s go to your room”.

He practically ran to his bed. He sat and waited patiently. She entered the room, heading to his bed. She began to take off his shirt, admiring his frame. She then unbuckled his belt and unzipped his jeans. He kicked them off and sat down. She sat next to him. “Give me your hands”. She held them, frowning slightly. “Boo, they’re so cold,” she teased,“I’ll warm them up for you”. Carefully, she grabbed his left hand, putting his middle and ring finger in her mouth. She licked to his fingertips, leaving him tense and speechless. She stopped and smiled at him.

“This is your first time, isn’t it?”

He nodded shyly. “Don’t be shy,” she said,“I’m going to guide you, but I’m also going to have my fun”. He gulped, nodded. She stood up and removed her dress. She wore a lacy black bra and panties. She brought his hands to her breasts, allowing him to fondle them. They were huge in his hands. “You like them, baby?”. “Y-Yes,” he muttered,“Can you, uh, take....the bra off?”. He was ashamed when asking, he felt desperate. She smiled and nodded, unhooking it and allowing the bra to fall to the ground. He gasped at the sight of her tits, grabbing them. She straddled him.

“Do you know what to do with them?”

He nodded, rubbing one and sucking the other. She moaned sweetly, grinding on his lap. He popped his mouth off them. That was when she took the opportunity to knock him onto the bed. She began to make out with him, shoving his tongue down her throat. They lay sideways. Her hand was on his neck, slightly choking him. He couldn’t resist but try to grind on her lap. She laughed. “Look at you,” she mocked,“Humping my leg like a desperate little puppy”. She didn’t let him speak, sitting up and pushing him back down. “I’m going to give you what you want,” she whispered in his ear,“Take your cock out”.

He was nervous as he did, hands shaky. She blushed a bit at his size. “It’s so big,” she said, straddling him,“I’m going to have my way with it”. “Please, do what you want to me,” he begged,“Abuse me, please”. She didn’t speak, sinking down on it. Nagito gasped, she was extremely wet. She began to bring her hips up and land straight down on it, repeatedly. She put her hands around his throat, now being rougher. Nagito gasped for air, grabbing her hands.

That was a mistake.

“Hands down,” she ordered, striking him across the face. “Sorr-”. He was slapped once again. “Only speak when you’re spoken to”. He nodded as his stomach began to cave in. His cock twitched each time she slapped him, making her moan. She leaned forward, capturing his earlobe between her teeth. He winced, his hands tangling in the sheets. He felt as though his entire body was blushing.

“You’re so sensitive there”

She teased him, kissing the skin and nibbling. His hips involuntarily snapped upward, making her whine. “You’re so desperate, baby,” she laughed,“it’s so cute”. He could feel her warmth running along his cock. He bit into his hand, trying to stop himself from cumming inside her. It worked, but she didn’t like him doing that. She grabbed his hands and kissed them.

“Don’t hurt yourself, put them right here”

She placed them on her boobs. He watched them bounce up and down, grabbing them gently. His rather large hands seemed small on her tits. He was extremely flushed. He took them off her and placed them on her hips. “Open your mouth”. He lay back more and did as he was told. She leaned forward, grabbing his jaw again as she spit into it and kissed him. He moaned when she did, his urges getting the best to him and thrusting upward. He hit her cervix every time, causing her to produce the sweetest and sluttiest of moans. Her walls tightened around him and now he was whining. “Are you gonna cum, honeybun?,” she asked.

“Y-Yes..”

“Where do you wanna cum?”

“I wanna cum...everywhere. I want it. I want it so bad. I wanna cum inside and on your tits, on your ass, y-your face..mouth. Please let me cum, mommy”

She motivated him, riding him harder. “Come on, Nagito,” she whispered,“Cum for mommy. Cum all the way inside her”. He lost his mind after that, groaning as he shot his load(s) inside her. He was still inside her as he tried catching his breath. She rubbed his chest, shushing him. “Good boy, you did so well,” she cooed,“Such a good boy.” He was covering his face, embarrassed and still hard. “I wasn’t too rough, was I?,” she asked. He shook his head, thinking,“Not rough enough”. He whined when she got off, revealing he was still erect. She noticed.

“You wanna go again, baby? Kids don’t leave school till 2:30. We have time for an extra fuck”

“C-Can I?”

“Yes, dummy”

She let Nagito choose how to fuck her. He wanted missionary, mostly because he craved intimacy and she did not disappoint. She kissed and praised him, telling him he was good. She held onto him the whole time and cuddled him afterwards. Nagito felt so special, he felt loved. “I can come over when I don’t have work,” she said,“Would you like that?”.

“I’d love that actually”

“You make me happy, Nagito. I could stay here and cuddle all day”

“I feel so lucky”

He yawned, looking at the clock. “Its 10,” he told her. She nuzzled his chest, humming. “Mmmm, let’s take a small nap,” she whispered,“Okay?”. “Okay”. He kissed the top of her head and held her to him, slowly joining her in slumber.

[once-upon-a-oneshot]

Game Over

Based On: “When You Sleep” by Mary Lambert

Summary: Frat!Harry only wants you when he’s drunk, and you’ve finally had enough

Warnings: swearing

Word Count: 1.8K

Here I was for the third time this week pulling up to a frat party in the middle of the night. I didn’t want to be here, but, just like all the other times he had too much to drink, he needed me. Usually it takes a great amount of pushing past drunk underaged college kids to find him at these things. But this time, as soon as I reached the yard of the house, dimly lit by an array of neon party lights, I spotted a mop of curly brown hair, hunched over a bush.

“Yo! Harry dude! I thought we agreed no more puking in our bushes?!” Some frat guy was yelling at him from the porch. Harry’s only response was to flip the guy off and grin while using the bush to hold him up. “Finally! Your baby sitter’s here” The guy half-joked noticing my arrival.

Harry turned around to face me a little too fast, and he stumbled forward nearly falling. I tried my best to support him but there was no chance. I by no means would consider myself “small” or “petite”, but compared to Harry’s 6-foot, broad shouldered stature, he was too large.

“Hey! What’re ya doing hur?” Harry drunkenly slurred semi-regaining his balance.

“Haz, you called me, remember?” Normally I would’ve been embarrassed calling him anything but his name. But I’ve done this enough times to know, in the morning, he won’t remember any of the words exchanged tonight.

It took nearly an hour to get Harry back to my dorm room. Our new personal best. It’s not that I live far from the frat house, it’s more the process of getting Harry here. The trip usually goes something like, helping Harry stumble to the car, pulling over at every traffic light so Harry can throw up, finally making it to his apartment (which is past my own apartment), Harry begging me to help him to his front door, Harry realizing he “forgot” his keys, Harry asking if he can just crash at my place instead, me driving Harry back to my apartment, helping Harry stumble into my dorm.

It took about the third time of this routine being repeated for me to realize the coincidence of Harry forgetting his keys every time he went out, got shit faced, and called me to come pick him up, wasn’t so much a coincidence. And even though it was the same thing every time, I never skipped the step of driving to his apartment, because I knew it meant he’d have to verbally ask me if he could stay with me. And in some sick way, I got off to hearing his lips form those words. It was something so small, but something that meant so much to me. And he knew that. Drunk or not. I knew what the morning would bring, but for the night, I’d listen to Harry’s slow, peaceful breathing as he slept.

The next morning, I woke up to the sound of Harry attempting to tip-toe around, collecting his things before I’d wake up. And just like every other morning, I lay perfectly still, letting silent tears hit the pillow, while I listen to the boy I love try to pretend he was never here.

LATER ON CAMPUS

“Hey (Y/N), what did I miss in class today?” I swiveled around in the library chair to face the person who was speaking to me.

Before even facing him, I recognized the voice as a kid from my Biology class, who also happened to be from my hometown. We weren’t necessarily friends, but we engaged in small talk every once in a while. Although I knew who it was before I turned around, I didn’t expect Harry to be standing there with him.

“Oh, uh, not too much.” I focused as hard as I could on my classmate to keep from looking over at Harry. I could feel his eyes burning into me, but I was too embarrassed to look at him. “I can send them to you if you want.”

“Sick! Can you email them to me right now, so I can print them right quick?” I wanted badly to make up some excuse for why I just had to leave and send the notes later, so I could get far far away from Harry. But when I opened my mouth, “Sure” is all that came out.

The guy sat at the computer across from me, and Harry sat down next to him. I fixed my eyes on the computer screen and tried to steady my shaky hands enough to hurriedly send the notes. All the while Harry continued to stare.

As soon as the notes were sent, I logged off the computer and packed up my things. In order to get out of the library I had to pass Harry and the guy, and it was just my luck that the guy had gotten up to go print. As I passed Harry, he grabbed my wrist stopping me. I finally looked into his green eyes, but he didn’t say anything, he just continued to stare like he had already been doing.

“What?” I asked getting uncomfortable with the intensity he was looking at me with. He just shrugged in response.

Once Harry noticed his friend walking back to the computer, he quickly released my wrist, and turned around, as if nothing had ever happened.

Things have been this way with Harry since I met him. Since the day I became his. He knew I had a crush on him, and it gave him some sort of ego trip. Even though he knew I already wanted him, he wanted to make sure it would stay that way. So, whenever he felt like I wasn’t paying him enough attention, or he thought my yearning for him was slipping away, he’d throw me a bone to keep me begging. Initially I made the mistake of thinking this meant that by some chance, he wanted me the same way, but he proved time and time again (through his actions and his words), this wasn’t the case.

And after months of taking whatever treatment Harry would give me. I finally snapped. It happened one night at a party. I was drinking, and I didn’t know he’d be there. I spent the night avoiding him. I was afraid of what drunk me may say or do once I got around him. When he entered a room, suddenly I had somewhere else to be. When he needed another drink from the kitchen, suddenly I wasn’t thirsty anymore. When he wanted to join on the beer pong table, suddenly I was bored of the game. And Harry noticed.

I was on the second floor of the house on my own, exhausted from dodging Harry all night. I leaned my back against the wall of the hall after the stairs reminded me just how buzzed I really was. I guess Harry spotted me heading up stairs because I heard footsteps on the stairs, before he appeared at the top of them. Without saying anything, Harry glanced over his shoulder, before walking and standing directly in front of me. He put an arm up on either side of my head, trapping me between him and the wall.

“I didn’t know you were gonna be here.” he said too casually for our position. “Are you mad at me or something?” This took me by surprise.

“What?”

“You’ve been ignoring me all night.” Again, his tone was way too casual for the things he was saying. But honestly, that’s always how Harry played it.

“You mean living my life? Enjoying the party? Not worshiping the ground you walk on?” Harry’s only response was a smirk. That’s when I started getting angry. “Look I’m too drunk to even be having this conversation with you right now Haz, so can we ju-“

“What’d you just call me?” Harry questioned raising an eyebrow at me. I froze. I was so drunk and emotional that I had accidentally let it slip. But upon processing the look on Harry’s face as something almost resembling distain, my embarrassment turned to pure anger.

“What do you want from me Harry?!” anger was thick in my voice as I pushed him backwards further from me.

“What are you talki-“

“No. Don’t you dare do that! Don’t act like you’re clueless. Like-like you haven’t been playing games with me since we met!” He said nothing. Instead he just stood staring at me. An emotionless expression painted across that beautiful face.

I wanted to stay angry. I wanted the fire burning inside of me to push me to finally walking away from this toxic man. But seeing that there was truly nothing there, the anger fizzled out to simple exhaustion.

“Look, we both know you know how I feel about you. And we both know you don’t feel the same way. But you play with my head. You flirt with me just long enough to wrap me around your finger. And then silence. Just like I never existed. That is until your hold on me starts unraveling again. It’s just some big twisted game for you. It’s like when you can’t have my attention, you suddenly want it.”

“It’s no-“

“I’m not done. For once in the history of whatever the fuck this thing with us is, it’s my turn to talk, and your turn to just listen. And I want you to listen good, because this is the only time I’m ever going to say.” I waited for some sign from Harry to let me know he was really paying attention.

He nodded so I continued.

“I can’t keep being a pawn in your torturous game Harry. It’s not fair to me. You’re breaking me apart and you don’t even care. The thing that hurts the most Harry,” I fought the tears for as long as I could, but the alcohol made it nearly impossible “is the fact that I know I could make you so happy. I would do everything in my power to give you the world. Hell, I basically already do. But you’re so blinded by “not wanting to be with me” that you don’t even realize how good I am for you. How good I am to you. If you stop telling yourself you’re not allowed to love me, I guarantee I’d make you fall. But if that’s not what you want. If you really, truly don’t even want to give me a chance, I’m done. I’ll have to walk away before you finish draining what little of me, I have left. And if that’s what it comes to, I’m begging you, please just let me go. No more games.”

Harry just stood and, like he so often did, stared. Blank. I felt like I was frozen in that moment and all the air had been sucked from the room. Unfortunately, I could feel myself began to sober up as I stood in anticipation of Harry’s response. I wished like hell I was still drunk, because maybe it would’ve hurt less when Harry finally spoke.

“I’m sorry,” he began backing away back towards the stairs. “I’ll leave you alone.” And with that he spun on his heels and trotted back down to the party.

[ivyaugustetc]

the dead poets at hogwarts: a headcanon from hell

@aedan-mills @charlie-dalton-simp @pretentious-strikes YOU ENCOURAGED THIS BEHAVIOR SO YOU'RE GONNA HAVE TO LIVE WITH THE CONSEQUENCES. also i love you a lot but THAT'S BESIDE THE POINT.

also @aedan-mills i found out that some of the wand stuff is related to their birthdays and i am much too lazy to look all that up and figure it all out, but anyone else is welcome to lmao. sorry to disappoint but alas it's summer and i don't want to research that much. but other than that, please listen to me flex my extensive knowledge on harry potter :)

neil (half blood): i'm sorry,,,, can you say gryffindor? this boy would get up there and in a second the sorting hat would have him all figured out: big dreams with the will to pursue them, but not ambitious enough to step over others to achieve said dreams? sounds like a gryffindor to me. i just know he'd thrive at hogwarts, probably going on to play quidditch (def a chaser) and would excel in charms class. as far as pets go, i feel like he'd stay simple and classy with a chill barn owl he'd name after a famous broadway actor. he would kind of be a mix of james and remus, in which he's wild and crazy but still manages to get good grades. the teachers love him simply because they don't know much about him outside of class. he would absolutely LOVE going to hogsmeade and going batshit crazy at zonko's and honeydukes. he'd have a whole phase where he gets addicted to licorice wands and everyone else thinks they're disgusting but he simply cannot buy enough of them. he'd play a bunch of zonko tricks on the rest of the poets, saving the most harsh for charlie and the most wholesome for todd <3

todd (muggle born): ugh see i can see him being both a hufflepuff and a ravenclaw, but my heart says hufflepuff so i'm gonna go with that. he would absolutely HATE the sorting ceremony with a burning passion. getting up in front of everybody only to have a hat judge u??? no thanks. HAHAHA CAN YOU IMAGINE HIM ON A BROOM. i can't either because he would simply never get on one, probably referring to them as "flying death traps" more often than not. "hey todd, you think about joining quidditch?" "no thanks, i'd rather keep my limbs intact ;)". but he would love muggle studies a lot, even if the teacher was boring as hell. snape would scare the hell out of him for sure, resulting in his lowest class being potions. he would excel in classes that are more learning out of the book rather than in practice. for a pet, he'd want something that could not possibly turn on him and would just be sweet and loving, so ima give him a toad :) he'd name it something fancy and british, like nigel or sumn. and because of nigel, he'd love chocolate frogs because hey they're twins!!

fanon knox (pure blood): hogwarts fuck boy. okay well maybe not f boy but like...his favorite part is the fact that this is a co-ed school rather than an all-boys school so he can spy on both genders equally yknow. hmm i get hufflepuff vibes from him because he's a big romantic, sucker for cute relationships, etc. he would enjoy whichever class his current crush is in, although I feel like he'd do well with classes that involved spells and wand work mostly lmao. he'd want a really fucking cute pet, so i'd give him a kneazle (it's like a cat but a bit more lion like). he'd give it a strong sounding name, something german idk. but he'd love the shit out of that kneazle, i can tell you that much. i feel like he'd try out for quidditch his first few years, not make it on, and then make it on to the team around fourth year and somehow end up team captain in seventh (and that proves kids, that you too can have a redemption arc in sports). as far as candy goes, ima say he likes the super sour candy like acid pops n shit. like i feel like the others would dare him to each as much sour candy as he can and then he wouldn't be able to taste for a week. but he'd think it was worth it :)

cameron (muggle born): good god this boy just wants to learn. magic just fascinates him, what with growing up in a big muggle family (bestie he is the weasleys if they were all type a). he's a ravenclaw, no questions asked. he would love classes involving preciseness and attention, things like potions and transfiguration. i feel like he'd have a cute, stable relationship along the way ofc because he deserves so much love and happiness and UGH he's a baby. he'd stick with a lil ginger cat, naming it after one of the famous wizards he's read about. he would love spending christmas at the school and going places when the ground are nearly empty, enjoying the scenery. for candy, he'd go plain and simple with chocolate frogs. can't go wrong with those. he'd still have fun with his friends, but he'd skip a lot of parties for some studying (don't judge, i do it too lmao). would not play quidditch but would enjoy it, end of story.

charlie (pure blood): slytherin. don't dispute it. think the weasley twins but even more flirtatious. he would be a regular at every single party that happened, flirting with the guys and gals shamelessly and drinking butterbeer like it was water. look me in the eye and tell me he would not absolutely fucking HATE GILDEROY LOCKHART WITH EVER FIBER OF HIS BEING. he'd do spot-on impersonations of him though. teacher's worst enemy. like when he walks into class on the first day, every teacher collectively mutters "bloody hell not this kid again". asks the most incredibly stupid questions ("okay but is there a spell to turn my eyebrows green? just the eyebrows though, not my hair"). he would be the most aggressive beater on the slytherin team, though he would never deliberately try to hit someone, just distract the shit out of them ("put the fear of god in them and fate will do the rest"). he'd want a loud, aggressive pet but he'd probably end up with a mean cat that hisses at everyone. he'd give it the most adorable name that just. does not fit the personality. something like priscilla. for candy, he'd take his chance with bertie botts' every flavour beans and just roll with the punches. he's chaotic like that.

pitts (half blood): ASTRONOMY IS HIS JAM. he fucking loves that class. he tutors the entire ravenclaw house in that class. he's the guy that little first years who are terrified of the class go to when they're completely lost and don't understand what's going on. besides that, i feel like he'd just be everyone's cool older brother yknow? like he'd be in charge of helping all the first years figure out where stuff is and giving them advice to help them and stuff. he would be a die-hard quidditch fan although he would not play the sport (maybe recreationally on the weekends and holidays and stuff, but the fact that it's so fucking dangerous just does not appeal to him). he'd like the candy that does tricks and stuff, like fizzing whizbees and stuff. he gives me charlie weasley vibes, where he's hardcore in certain areas (in his case, astronomy) and just flipping chill in anything else. cool older brother vibes, man. it fits.

meeks (half blood): i've said it once and i'll say it again: nonproblematic ginger dumbledore. also a hufflepuff <3 this dude just wants to fucking coast along, getting good grades and not participating in the dumb shit that could probably get him killed (even though he would in a heartbeat if his friends were in danger. duh). he'd be a teacher's favorite, probably having conversations with his favorite teachers during free time. okay ik this isn't technically at school, but i swear to god he would be dumbledore one day. like he would be the chill ass headmaster who gets shit done while also being very la di da life is nice flowers are pretty type of person. that being said, his favorite candy is and has been lemon drops ever since dumbledore got him addicted to them. his favorite classes would be potions (he'd surprisingly get along well with snape) and he'd just be great and mixing shit right and just knowing how much of stuff to add in ("how much powdered root do i add?" "about three and a half shakes." "that's not a measurement, meeks." "*shrug* it works"). he'd stick with his small friend group and love them to death, but he'd be a friend to all really. he'll help anyone that comes to him asking for help with homework (and though he won't admit it, he gets super prideful when it's someone a few years ahead of him).

stick (muggle born): harry potter if harry potter could've been more harry potter. like he would just be a part of everything and end up being part of some prophecy that demands he'd save the world and at first he'd be like HEY i'm just a small boy but then he'd grit his teeth and finesse the shit out of this preventing the end of days stuff. he'd definitely be a gryffindor, and fucking proud of it. he'd be the seeker on the quidditch team because he is so short and small and yeah he'd fucking kill it there. he'd kind of be the shy one no one expected much from, but once he starts absolutely wrecking the shit out of the other houses' quidditch teams, he'd become sorta popular? like people would invite him to parties and stuff and he's too nice to say no, but he'd mostly just hang around the outskirts, saying hi to the other poets if he saw them and mostly talking to chris and ginny (danburry, not weasley). he'd like defense against the dark arts and minerva mcgongiall would become his literal mother i can't explain it. he'd have an owl as a pet and treat it like it was his own child, telling it thank you every time it brought his mail or took his mail. as for candy, he'd like drooble's bubble gum because the bubbles are all magic and shit and i just feel like that would make him so happy <3

chris (pure blood): the older sister lesbian <3 she'd be a sweet hufflepuff who would be friends with everyone while also being the greatest socialite the school has ever seen. you know that party that practically the entire school attended and talked about for months on end? she planned that shit. she'd be like pitts in the respect that she'd help all the first years find their way in the school and in life in general. she's just such a warm and kind person that everyone would love her. she's have a little pink pygmy puff to match ginny's purple one, and she'd give it such a perfect, human name like lila or something. she'd be great at muggle studies and all the teachers would love her. also every one is so invested in her relationship with ginny it's adorable. he favorite candy is acid pops even though they make her eyes water like crazy. she'd make pretty good grades, every once in a while getting one slightly lower than she'd expected, but she always manages to bring them up to her satisfactory level :) she would not play quidditch, but she would go all out to support ginny, even though they're in different houses. that's what i call love, baby.

ginny (half blood): the mom lesbian <3 she's a ravenclaw and also one of the sweetest people in the whole school. while chris helps other with the social aspect, ginny will help anyone in any subject they need help with (she and meeks are a help duo on this). she's quieter and less social than chris, but she's one of the best chasers the ravenclaw quidditch team has ever seen. she'd end up team captain by fifth of sixth year. she'd be like oliver wood in that she is sO invested in the team's success that at sometimes she'll go a bit crazy, but chris is always there to help her put things back into perspective <3. she'd make stellar grades of course, being good friends with all of her teachers. her favorite candy would be the sweetest things like fairy floss. as previously stated, she'd have a purple pygmy puff to match chris's pink one, and she'd also give it an adorable human name like lisa or something. ginny's just sweet to everyone, especially neil and his friends.

I DID IT. IT TOOK FOREVER AND A FEW HAIL MARYS BUT I DID IT. enjoy besties <3 love u all

[kasienda]

The Five Minute Adventures of Snake Noir: Ch 7 - Five Minute Adventures of Ananta

Chapter 1: I Want It To Be You

Chapter 2: Best Friends

Chapter 3: Best Laid Plans

Chapter 4: A Thank You

Chapter 5: Unwanted Revelations

Chapter 6: Miraculous Abuse

Chapter 7: Five Minute Adventures of Ananta

Adrien’s room felt more like a prison than it ever had before, and he had always felt like the walls were closing in on him a bit, and so that afternoon he had snuck out to Nino’s the second he had managed to chase Nathalie out of his room. 

Nino’s room - despite being small and cramped - never made Adrien feel claustrophobic. Adrien suspected it had something to do with the company. 

“What should my snake name be?” Nino asked out of nowhere.

“You’re not going to use it!” Adrien objected. “You don’t need a name.”

“Come on, dude! Just for fun!” 

Adrien sighed. “Basilisk.” 

Nino tapped his lips in consideration. “It’s okay. I don’t feel much like the king of anything.” 

“Python.” 

“Boring.”

“Diamondback.” 

Nino’s eyebrows furrowed together. “What does Diamondback have to do with anything?”

“It’s a type of snake,” Adrien explained, and then turned to Nino with a smirk. “But it’s also a type of turtle.” 

Nino just shook his head. “That’s a better reason not to use it. No associations with turtles! We gotta keep my identity super secret!”

“The best way to keep it secret is to not use the snake at all!” 

“What about something to do with time?” Nino asked, ignoring Adrien’s objection. 

“Cronos.” 

“Also boring! Dude! Why are you so bad at this?”

“I don’t see you coming up with anything.”

“Because you’re definitely the cooler of the two of us,” Nino said.  

Adrien shook his head. “Nino, I named myself Black Cat. I’m not super original when it comes to names.” 

Nino laughed. “Fair point.”

“And you are just as cool as me,” he insisted, though he whipped out his phone anyway and typed out a search for ‘names related to time’ and started scrolling through various sites with baby and pet names. 

“What do you think of Baqi?” Adrien asked. “It means eternal.” 

Nino frowned. “That’s an arabic name. Do you think me taking on an arabic name is potentially identity revealing?”

“Okay, here’s one in sanskrit. Ananta.”

Nino nodded. “A bit of a mouthful, but I like it.” 

Adrien’s eyebrows rose. “A mouthful compared to Carapace?”

Nino laughed. “What’s it mean?” 

“Infinite.” 

“Dude! Perfect. Let’s go with Ananta. I wonder what I look like with the snake.”

Adrien groaned, seriously regretting in that moment giving Nino the Snake instead of Ladybug.

“Do you not want me to?” Nino asked seriously.

Adrien waved his hand in encouragement. “Just do it. I’d be curious too.” He was curious, too. 

Nino grinned and scrambled to his feet. “Sass! Scales slither.”

Adrien found himself mirroring Nino’s excitement. These silly stupid moments with Nino were the ones that were keeping him sane at the moment. 

The rest of the time he was a bit of a mess. 

Keep reading on Ao3

Adrien found himself a lot more resentful of his homework than normal when it stole away most of his time to spend on his friends and on himself now that he was used to being able to finish at least half of it in the space of five minutes as far as the rest of the world was concerned. 

And it didn’t help that it was suddenly so much harder to pay attention in class since he was hyper aware of Marinette sitting right behind him every single day. 

Seeing her in general was really hard because he knew how she felt. He knew that if he asked her out she would likely say yes, and he had to hold himself back. Before he had given up the snake, he had been able to scratch that itch by visiting her in the evenings in a time loop. 

Now? Now, he had to survive off of her garbled greetings and flustered blushes. 

He lived for her blushes. The blush that had always been there since he had apologized to her in the rain the day they met. He had thought she was just shy and self-conscious. But now, it was easy to recognize that she didn’t do it around anyone else - not even Chat Noir. That blush was reserved for Adrien Agreste and Adrien Agreste alone. 

It meant that she loved him. 

It was a good thing that it didn’t take much to trigger. Just a simple greeting often did the trick. 

“Good morning, Marinette.” 

And the pink would bloom across her cheeks like flowers in spring every time. 

That blush kept him from going out of his mind. It reminded him that she still loved him even if she wasn’t able to say it. 

A god, he hoped that she didn’t say anything because right now, he wasn’t ever going to be able to say no. 

“G-good morning, Adrien.”

He smiled. Her stutter was less reliable. She was getting better at talking to him, which he figured was a good sign, but he also loved that he could still fluster her on occasion. “How are you?” he asked. 

“I’m fine,” she said.

He didn’t like that answer. He knew that it wasn’t real. He turned to her as she sat down, and leaned into her space. “Marinette, how are you, really?” 

She looked at him in surprise. “I’m… things were rough for awhile, but I think I’m starting to get a handle on the new order of things.” 

“I’m glad.” And he meant it. Telling Alya had clearly changed things for her for the better. He was so glad she didn’t have to hold the weight of the world alone anymore. 

“How are you?” she asked. 

He shrugged. “I’m still figuring out my new order of things, but I like to think that things are actually trending in the right direction.” It might even be true. He wasn’t sure, to be honest. He was definitely getting better at coping with the absolute insanity his life had become if nothing else. 

“Will you let me know if you need anything?” she asked.

He smiled. “Of course.” 

It wasn’t everything he wanted. It wasn’t everything he knew the moment could be. 

But… it was enough.

At least most of the time. 

When it wasn’t, he called Nino and screamed about the injustice of it all, whines about how unfair and unreasonable his father was,  cursed Shadowmoth’s existence to all nine levels of hell, ranted about how much he just wanted to be able to be done with it all so that he and Ladybug didn’t have to worry about akumas or the end of the world. They could just be teenagers.

They could just be happy. 

But Shadowmoth clearly had other plans. After a lull, the akumas exploded both in frequency and awfulness. The encounters were taking longer to handle - especially without the benefit of the snake - and Adrien was having a much harder time explaining his disappearances and his father was suddenly breathing down his neck even more than usual. 

“Your marks have not been up to your usual standard, Adrien.” 

“I’m sorry, father.”

“Need I remind you that you promised you would continue to excel if you started at public school? If you cannot maintain the usual standards of excellence, I will not hesitate to return you to lessons with private tutors.”

Adrien hung his head. “Yes, father.” 

“In the meantime, you will spend less time with your friends until your grades improve.” 

Adrien sighed, and trudged back to his room. The punishment meant almost nothing because as far as his father was concerned, he only was allotted an hour a week with his friends, and usually a photoshoot got scheduled on top of his scheduled “friend time”. And of course, Adrien was actually hanging out with Nino almost every day without his father’s knowledge. 

But he felt exhausted anyway. He was tired of shoots, he was tired of homework, he was tired of Akumas, and he was most definitely tired of pretending. Tired of pretending for the sake of his father’s company image, tired of pretending he wasn’t worn down to nothing from all the responsibilities of both his personas, tired of pretending Marinette was just a friend. 

He flopped onto his bed only for the akuma alert to go off two minutes later. Adrien groaned. It was the second one that day and the fifth one that week.

But Adrien dragged himself to his feet anyway. At least he would get to see Marinette again.

But it wasn’t Ladybug he ran into on the scene.

It was Ananta. 

“What the hell are you doing here?!” Chat Noir demanded. 

Ananta was hiding hunched over in an alleyway with the whole akuma scene in clear view. “Just offering a little insurance. I haven’t actually engaged in any of the battles, but they’ve seemed a little rough lately.”

“Battles?” Chat Noir repeated. “As in plural, as in more than one?”

Ananta winced. “Yeah, I’ve been doing this for the last four or five akumas because things have seemed super dicey for you. But I haven’t actually engaged with the akuma or anything.”

“How many loops?” Adrien asked harshly.

“So far, none. You’re that awesome, dude!” Ananta raved, clapping Chat Noir on the back.  “You would have known if I had been through a loop because I’d have to intervene to give you the info on the last loop, right?”

Adrien relaxed. “Right.” 

....

But the akuma after that, Nino did intervene. 

But at least Ananta had managed to stay out of Ladybug’s sight and out of any pictures. 

And after the fact, Nino had insisted he had only needed three loops to defeat that akuma. 

“I don’t like it,” Adrien had insisted anyway. “Please, don’t use it anymore.” 

“Dude! I’m not doing this for some adrenaline rush. I’m not like Alya who goes looking for trouble, or like you who insists on throwing yourself in front of the blasts. I’m doing this only because it’s clear that Hawkmoth has stepped up his game, and you need support.” 

Adrien started to object. 

“Ladybug needs support, too,” Nino added. 

Which was such a low blow. Because Adrien was never going to be able to argue with that. 

“Unless you want to take it back?” Nino offered.

Adrien considered it. He didn’t want Nino to get stuck in a battle loop. He didn’t want Nino to experience anything like Desperada. At least in his own case, he was already damaged and traumatized by what he had experienced.

But even the idea of taking it scared the crap out of him. Because there was no way he wouldn’t use it to visit Marinette. 

He missed her with every fiber of his being. It had only been three weeks. Three weeks where he hadn’t been able to have a conversation with her without filters, three weeks since he had been able to kiss her. He hadn’t been able to kiss her for like three weeks. Three excruciating long weeks where he hadn’t been able to tell her that Adrien and Chat Noir were one in the same. Where he had been truly seen for all that he was and truly loved because of it. 

And the more time that went by the less convinced he was that he’d be able to come out of that loop.

“No, you should still hang onto it,” he whispered. 

“Or if you wanted, we could give it back to Ladybug,” Nino suggested. “She could hand it out to whoever Viperion is.” 

Which was reasonable. Though Adrien wasn’t sure he wanted Luka to experience a bad battlefield loop either. 

Then the akuma alert rang simultaneously from both their phones. Adrien covered his hands in his face. 

“Gah! Does he never sleep?!” 

“Come on, mec. Let’s go.” 

“I’m coming! I’m coming!” 

During the battle, Nino had intervened, but he hadn’t intervened with Chat Noir; he had spoken to Ladybug in the final loop. The battle had gone amazingly smoothly after that, but Ananta slipped away before the traditional fist bump and Ladybug was not pleased. 

She was pissed. 

“You lost the snake?!” Ladybug demanded, her blue eyes flashing in anger.

“I didn’t lose it!” he said defensively. “I know exactly where it is.”

“You gave it away? Why?”

His claws tore through his own hair as he took a deep breath. “Because… it wasn’t safe with me anymore,” he admitted softly.

Some of her anger faded, replaced with concern. “What does that mean?”

“I can’t explain without telling you things you’ve told me not to tell you.” Which was mostly true. 

She fidgeted on the spot, considering. “Can you tell me who he is?” she asked. 

He laughed. “Definitely not.” 

“What?! Why not?”

“I gave it to my best friend, Ladybug. If you know who he is, you’ll know who I am. And that apparently might lead to the end of the world,” he bit out sarcastically. 

She frowned. “Are you okay?” 

“No,” he admitted. 

“What can I do?” she asked. 

“You can’t do anything,” he told her gently. “I’m handling it.” 

“I… I don’t like not knowing what’s going on with you,” she admitted. 

He laughed darkly. “Welcome to my world.”

She blushed. She actually blushed! He had made her blush as Chat Noir! Sure, it was probably more out of embarrassment than love, but he would take it!

“I guess I deserved that one,” she said. 

He took her hand and squeezed it. He wished he could sweep her into his arms and kiss her senseless, but he couldn’t risk that. “I know exactly how frustrating it is to be left in the dark.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. 

He shook his head, squeezing her hand through their gloves once again. What would it feel like to hold her hand when neither of them was transformed? He wanted to find out. He wanted it so bad.  

“I’m not trying to make you feel guilty,” he said. “I just want you to know that I understand. And I will tell you everything when it’s safe. In the meantime, can you please just trust me?”

She nodded. “Absolutely. You know that I do!”

And he did, now, didn’t he? 

He smiled. 

“I’m just…  I’m scared that if something happens to you, the snake will be lost,” she said.

“The person I gave it to knows how to get it back to you in that case,” he said.

“And how would he get it back to me?” she asked.

“He’d give it to you or to Rena Rouge during a patrol.”

She seemed startled at his inclusion of Rena Rouge, but she nodded. “You trust him?”

“I trust him more than I trust myself. And as much as I trust you.” 

“And they can handle the side effects of the snake?” 

Adrien sighed again. That was the million dollar question, wasn’t it? Could anyone handle the effects of the snake? “He’s done really well so far. This wasn’t the first battle where he’s been here, offering us a bit of insurance.”

She winced. “Yeah, the akumas have sucked lately.”

“Tell me about it.”

She sighed. “I’m sorry that I questioned you. I do trust you and your judgement. Your friend can keep the snake as long as you think it’s best.” 

“Thank you, LB,” he said softly. 

She nodded and smiled. He returned the expression and offered her a friendly salute. 

Then he vaulted straight for Nino’s family home. 

“How many loops?” Adrien asked without preamble. 

Nino rolled his eyes. “It was nineteen this time. But it wasn’t bad at all, dude. Kinda weird and trippy, but not so bad.”

But Adrien didn’t like it. He feared the number would keep growing. How many loops was too many? 

Adrien didn’t know.

…

His father had missed eight dinners in a row, and Adrien couldn’t decide if he felt relieved or disappointed.

On one hand, his father’s absence meant Adrien could ask to eat in his room, which meant he could escape the mansion that much sooner. And Nino actually wanted to spend time with Adrien.

It also meant he’d avoid his father’s censure about everything from his last photoshoot to the way he held his fork. Adrien simply did not have the energy to be on his best behavior.

But his father’s continued absence also felt like it reaffirmed Adrien’s fears - that his father didn’t care. And the longer his father’s absence the more desperate Adrien was for any sign, no matter how small, that his father had thought about him at all. 

When his father’s scowling face did join him at the dining room table on evening number nine, Adrien regretted ever wishing for his father to make an appearance. 

“Your grades have dropped unacceptably low,” were the first words out of his father’s mouth.

Adrien fought off his eye roll. He literally had two B’s and the rest of his classes were A’s. Admittedly one of them was borderline, but he didn’t think anyone else’s parents in his class would have found his performance subpar even if this was the lowest his own grades had ever been in his life.

“You also didn’t behave professionally at the last photoshoot. You arrived late and your hair and make-up had to be redone.”

Adrien sighed. That had been four Akumas ago. Or was it five? Honestly, Adrien was losing track. 

“We didn’t get all the shots we needed. It has been rescheduled for Monday morning. You have two weeks to turn around both your attitude and your grades,” he father said without an ounce of warmth or concern, “or you will return to home schooling.”

Adrien sighed. “I’m sorry I have disappointed you father. I have been… having a hard time maintaining my motivation lately.”

Gabriel’s expression did not change at all. “Why?” he asked. 

Adrien froze at the question. He didn’t know what to say because he knew there wasn’t a correct answer. And not answering at all wasn’t acceptable either. He was going to lose here no matter what. 

He shouldn’t have said anything other than he would try harder.

Well, if he was screwed no matter what, might as well go with the truth.

“I think I’ve been depressed lately,” he admitted. 

“You’re not qualified to make that assessment.”

“I suppose not,” Adrien conceded. But would his father offer to send him to someone who was? 

Most likely not.

“What do you have to be depressed about?” Gabriel asked coldly. 

And something within Adrien just snapped. Whether it was his sleep deprivation, being beyond overworked both physically and mentally, or his longing to drop all the masks, or some combination of all of it, Adrien didn’t know. 

“Are you kidding me right now?” Adrien demanded. “Every second of every day of my life is planned without my input or consideration. I have no control. But I do all of it anyway. I train for national fencing competitions, get perfect scores, work I-don’t-know-how-many hours a week modeling for you. I have no space to breathe, let alone enjoy anything. I feel like a programmed robot going through a routine!”

The room fell into silence as Adrien’s tirade ended abruptly. Every muscle was locked and tense, waiting for punishment and condemnation. And despite that, Adrien couldn’t bring himself to regret it because, well, he was screwed either way at this point, so he might as well go down with a bang.

“Are you finished?” his father asked. He didn’t raise his voice, but Adrien flinched anyway. 

“Yes, father,” he said meekly. 

Gabriel removed his glasses and began cleaning them. “Clearly, I have expected too much of you.”

Adrien knew better than to find any relief in that conclusion. 

“I will arrange with Nathalie to have your schedule adjusted. She will add additional recreational activities suitable to a boy of your age, and reduce your current obligations significantly.” 

Which translated to they would remove him from school and schedule his so called free time with activities that Adrien had no interest in or with other teenagers he didn’t know.

“Father, I appreciate your concern,” he said formally. “That will not be necessary. I was having a weak moment. I will work harder,” he promised, though Adrien knew he wouldn’t be able to manage much more at the moment. 

His father nodded. “I look forward to seeing notes of your improved performance this Friday.” 

And now he had five days instead of two full weeks. 

Adrien wanted to scream. And he did scream later that night when he had escaped to Nino’s bedroom for the tenth time that week. He ranted and complained about the unfairness of it all, and Nino just listened with rapt attention.

“Can I at least deck him, dude? Please?” Nino asked when Adrien had finally run out of steam. “Just once? He won’t even remember!” 

Adrien laughed. “It won’t help anything.”

“I might feel better,” Nino disagreed. “You might, too.” 

And then an akuma alert sounded from both of their phones. 

They both groaned, but a second later, they had both transformed and were leaping out of Nino’s bedroom window.

The akuma was a porcupine the size of a bus. It’s spines did not look remotely friendly. That first impression solidified tenfold when the akuma started hurling the spines off its back like javelins in a jousting tournament. 

But despite his initial misgivings, the fight could not have gone more smoothly. 

Ananta had barreled both he and Ladybug out of the way, and helped them identify the akumatized item pretty much instantly. The whole encounter lasted about three minutes. 

But when he turned to Ladybug and Ananta for their traditional fist bump, Ananta had pushed past the offered fist and tackled him in a hug. Adrien returned the embrace with a surprised grunt. A second later he felt Nino’s quaking form in his arms. 

Apparently, the fight hadn’t been all that smooth afterall. 

“How many loops?” Adrien asked softly. 

“You don’t want to know,” Nino sobbed into his shoulder. 

“Ananta,” Adrien growled.

“1,674,” Nino admitted.

Ladybug tried to reassure them both with small hands on their shoulders. Nino just pulled her into the hug, too, and didn’t let go. 

“I’m really glad you’re both okay,” he cried and then he dissolved into wracking sobs again. Chat Noir and Ladybug both held him tightly.

But Ladybug couldn’t stay, as she was about to time out. She pulled away from their group hug with a concerned frown. 

“Are you going to be okay with him?” 

“Don’t worry,” Adrien assured her. “I’ll take him home and make sure he’s okay.” 

“I’m sorry I have to run,” she said.

“Don’t worry about it,” Adrien said again, before wrapping one of Nino’s arms over his shoulder and vaulting them both up to the nearest rooftop. 

He then ducked them both into a secluded alleyway that Chat Noir had used to transform before. Nino hadn’t stopped crying the entire time. 

“Nino, can you hear me?” 

Nino nodded.

“You need to lose the transformation, so we can feed Sass. Can you do that?” 

Nino managed to follow the instructions through hysterical sobs. Adrien followed suit and both kwami’s ate a slice of Plagg’s cheese. It was a sign of how serious everything was that neither kwami complained. Adrien transformed again.

“Okay Nino. You need to transform again, and then start a loop. Stay in that loop until you’re able to stop crying, you got it? It doesn’t matter how long it takes. I will be here with you the whole time.”

Nino was still shaking and crying, but he managed to choke out the transformation phrase and called for his second chance. 

Instantly, Ananta stood before him, infinitely calmer than he had been just a second prior. 

“Woah,” Adrien said. “That’s weird. How long?” 

“Just a few hours,” Nino said, his voice was quiet, but it was steady. Adrien wrapped him into a hug. 

“Thank you,” Nino whispered. 

“As you have told me many many times, as many times as you need, whenever you need.”

“I don’t know how you have dealt with it so well,” Nino said. 

“I mean, you don’t remember all the times I was as much of mess as you were just a few seconds ago.” 

“I remember you freaking out about learning Ladybug’s identity,” Nino countered. “I… I didn’t understand why you didn’t want me to use it for battles. I… get it now.” 

“I’m sorry,” Adrien whispered. 

Nino shook his head. “The alternative would have been so much worse, dude. You would have lost this one.” 

“Thank you for saving our lives then. I’m sorry for what it has cost you.” 

Nino shrugged. “I think I’ll be okay. Can I keep it for a few more days? Abuse it a bit?” 

Adrien nodded. “Yeah of course. Abuse it like crazy and it will put space between you and what happened.”

Nino nodded, and actually smiled. And for the first time, Adrien was positive things would be okay. 

“I already have some ideas,” Nino said.  

“Do I want to know?” Adrien asked. 

Nino’s grin was wolffish. That was a no.

“Have fun, dude.”

… 

Nino still felt shaky the next morning. It was too easy to close his eyes and see his best friend impaled through the chest, his green eyes wide in shock. But it almost worked out in his favor because it hadn’t taken any convincing for his parents to agree he should stay home from school. They thought he was coming down with something - that he had chills. 

He didn’t correct them. 

He just rocked himself back and forth, nursing the tea his mother had brought up to him, and waited for both of them to leave for work. The second the door had closed behind them, he had bolted out his window as Ananta. 

The freerunning helped, but it wasn’t enough. He had just gotten too good at it - he could leap across rooftops almost without thinking now, and certainly without any fear. What could seem terrifying after everything he had seen the day before? 

And that was how Nino found himself on top of the Eiffel Tower staring down at the ground below - the ground that according to his best friend was 324 meters below him. Adrien had said at one point long before Nino had ever known of his friend’s superhero identity that it would take just over eight seconds to fall to the ground, probably a little longer because of air resistance. 

Nino had never thought anything of why Adrien had taken the time to calculate that. He had just assumed Adrien was a nerd who liked physics and had too much time on his hands. Now, he found himself wondering if Adrien had calculated that for an entirely different reason. 

Nino activated the second chance and leapt off the tower backwards with an ecstatic whoop. He slid his fingers across the bracelet five seconds into his fall, and rematerialized at the top of the tower giggling. 

Now, that was base jumping. He performed the trick dozens of times diving off the tower in different angles and positions. 

He knew Sass did not approve. The kwami had said as much when he mentioned the idea this morning. Adrien likely wouldn’t either, but Nino would only tell him well after the fact. 

But the adrenaline rush was exactly what he needed to wipe away the memories from the day before. 

Next, he had broken through his homeroom’s window, and swept Alya up in his arms. He definitely noticed Marinette’s disapproving glare, and Adrien burying his face in his hands, but he didn’t have to care about this. In four and a half minutes, this would have never happened. 

“Ask me to tell you that I love you,” he said. 

She arched her eyebrows. “Am I going to regret this?” 

“Nope! No repercussions today.” 

“Tell me that you love me,” she said, her face alight in a grin. 

“I love you,” he said. 

“How much?” 

“More than a superhero,” he said. 

She smiled, and her fingers locked around his neck. Then he kissed her hard. The whole class was catcalling behind them, and Ms. Bustier was trying to restore order. 

Alya was giggling against his lips. “I can’t believe you.” 

“I’m just getting started,” he promised. 

He went through hundreds more loops abducting Alya from parts of her day. It was different every time, and he was insanely grateful that she played along as soon as she realized it was him each time without even knowing that he was having a tough time. 

Or maybe, she did know. Like, she had covered Ananta’s exploits the day before on the Ladyblog. He hadn’t been able to bring himself to read the post, but someone had no doubt had caught the tearful group hug at the end of the battle, and Alya would have had a better guess than most what that likely meant. 

And so when he showed up as Ananta and revealed himself to be her boyfriend she would know that had been him. 

She didn’t ask questions or demand explanations. She just laughed and kissed him over and over. She let him abduct her from their dreary classes over and over and bury his face in her curls and wrap himself in her protective embrace until his senses were overwhelmed with all things Alya.

God, he loved her so much. 

The tricky part was then trying to escape from each of their teachers. Surprisingly Mendeliev had been the easiest to slip around, but Bustier had given him quite the run around. 

Once the school day was over he had followed Adrien’s limo home. He had intended to spend a few loops just being stupid with Adrien, but once there… well, he had been wanting to give Gabriel a piece of his mind since Nino had befriended his son. He had only held back because Adrien wanted him to, and Gabriel was terrifying. If only one of those things had been true, Nino thinks he would have pushed it ages ago. 

Ananta set the timer from the rooftop of the mansion and then broke through the front doors. 

Nathalie jumped to her feet, but he ignored her and stormed straight for Gabriel’s office. 

Gabriel rose to his feet more slowly than Nathalie had to face his intruder. 

“Gabriel Agreste, I’m here to tell you that you are the absolute worst parent.”

The older man gestured Nathalie away from the door. She stepped back, but she did not close the door. 

“You are trespassing on private property. I demand that you leave,” the stoic man said, barely raising his voice, which Nino found infuriating. 

“No! Not until I’ve said my piece.”

Gabriel took a visibly annoyed breath. “You’re clearly a teenager.” 

“Your point?”

“You’re hardly qualified to judge my parenting approaches.” 

Nino wanted to pull his hair out.

“Except that I am because I’m the one who picks Adrien back up everytime you tear him down!”

Gabriel considered him stoically for a moment, his hands hidden behind his back. 

“Mr. Lahiffe, I have already banned you from the premises. Your adopting an anonymous persona does not negate those rules.” 

“Your rules are stupid and unfair! Adrien is amazing! He gets the highest grades! He has an insane work ethic, and is always kind and respectful to everyone! He does everything you ask of him! And then he does more! He’s an Olympic level fencer and is fluent in three languages!

“And somehow, you still find him wanting. You never give him the time of day. You never tell him you’re proud of him or that you love him! At best, you ignore him, and at worst you take the time to point out every tiny fault!” 

“He internalizes everything you say, everything you ask for. He tears himself to pieces trying to meet your impossible expectations, he buries his struggles and doubts, and you don’t even acknowledge his effort or his love for you.” 

Nino was shaking in rage at this point. Gabriel still seemed unaffected. 

“Are you finished?” The man asked indifferently. 

“No! I’m not! I don’t know if you know how much you’ve harmed him! How many times I’ve been legit worried that he was going to hurt himself or give up! 

“Somehow, he’s been able to survive it. But not because of any of the crap  you’ve taught him about being strong and exceptional. He’s just that resilient!” 

“Which is a good thing because he’s also Chat Noir!”

Gabriel’s lips tightened and his eyes narrowed, and Nino wanted to run a victory lap for finally getting a reaction from the asshole. 

Nino barreled forward. “He manages being a superhero in between all the hoops and circus you run him through! And if he’s been struggling more than normal lately, it’s only because Hawkmoth has been putting him through the wringer.” 

“Nathalie!” He called. 

Nathalie marched into the room so fast, Nino was convinced she had been waiting right outside the open door the entire time listening in. 

“Didn’t we eliminate the possibility of Adrien being Chat Noir during Gorizilla?” 

Nathalie typed something into her tablet and handed it to him. 

“It looks like we did not get facial confirmation, sir. The person we presumed to be Adrien was wearing a helmet.” 

Gabriel removed his glasses and began cleaning them. “My own son, this entire time.” 

Nino felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise at Gabriel’s emotionless words that felt like a prison sentence.

Nino’s miraculous beeped. 

Gabriel’s stormy grey eyes shot toward the sound, and Nino took an involuntary step back.

And then Adrien’s father did something Nino never would have predicted. He lunged forward and struck Nino in the knee, and grabbed for the snake miraculous.

Nino dropped to the ground in agony, and jerked his arm just out of reach behind his back. 

“Second chance!” Nino screamed, sliding his other hand over the switch, grateful that he had so much practice in the last few days that the motion was automatic. 

He was back on the roof of the Agreste Mansion. His knee cap was fine, but his heart was roaring in his ears. 

That had not gone as he had been expecting. Not at all. 

Gabriel had actually attacked him and tried to take his miraculous. 

Nino wasn’t sure what it all meant. But he knew it couldn’t be good. 

...

[five-rivers]

Face Your Dreams

Almost forgot to post this here as well!  @anthropwashere 

Phic Phight 2021

Prompt from Anthrop: Any flavor of the Reverse AUs that strike your fancy. Who gets the ghost powers? Who becomes the ghost hunter? Who gets ghost magick'd into the villain of the week?

 Danny’s phone was dead.  Which was just typical, really.  His parents were brilliant, wealthy inventors that played with the fabric of reality on a daily basis and had managed to turn, not one, but two of Danny’s best friends into half ghosts, but they couldn’t be bothered to get Danny a phone that was actually reliable.  Although they hadn’t intended to do the half ghost thing and didn’t know about it.  

Probably.  

Maybe.  

(Honestly, Danny didn’t know.  His parents were weird.  And Danny suspected they were keeping secrets.)

Back on topic.  Phone.  Not working. Which was a problem because Danny was something like ninety-percent sure a ghost had been following him for the last block or so and he couldn’t call for help.  

Correction, he could call for help all he wanted, he just wouldn’t get any that would be any good against a ghost.  If he got any at all.  It was the middle of the night.  

He should have taken up Sam’s offer of a flight home. Or Tucker’s.  But, no, he had to be sulky about how both of them were developing yet more really, incredibly cool powers and Danny was still just…

Himself.  

Faceless, boring Fenton.  Only notable for the number of bullies he attracted and the people he was related to.  No special skillset, no dreams he had any hope of achieving, no triumphs.  Nothing to contribute.  Not in and of himself.  Only useful to enemies that wanted a hostage.

He was about to be murdered by a ghost and he was still sulking.  God, he was pathetic.  

(Not all ghosts were evil – Sam and Tucker’s stories had taught him that much, on an intellectual basis.  Was it too much to hope that he could reach home without the ghost attacking?  Too much to hope that it was just watching?)

White noise tugged at Danny’s ears.  It reminded him of the sleep CD Jazz played when Mom and Dad were being loud.  

… and, also, oddly, of a video he’d once watched about what stars might sound like, based on how they vibrated.  

Danny shuddered, his heartbeat redoubling as he picked up speed, reaching a run.  If he could get home, he could turn on the ghost shield and call Sam and Tucker from his home phone.  They’d be annoyed that he was bothering about a ghost so long after a patrol, but he was freaked out enough to not really care about their teasing.  

(He’d been freaked out enough for the past two blocks.)

His breath began to catch in his lungs, his side burning. He splashed through a puddle, dark, oily liquid sticking to his right sneaker and pant leg.  It glittered in the light of the waning crescent moon.  

Wait –

It hadn’t rained for weeks.

He slipped and fell, skinning hands, knees, and chin on the sidewalk.  Something wet, sticky, and smooth as silk spread over the pavement beneath him.  It bubbled like a tar pit, and captive stars shone from within.  

Danny tried to push himself up, but the liquid held on to him, pulled him back down.  

He was sinking.  

He flailed for the sidewalk, reaching, trying to stay afloat.  It didn’t work.  His elbows were below the level of the sidewalk, and inky, glittery black dripped from his front.  It seemed to be eating through his clothes.  

Forget useful help.  He’d take any help.  He screamed.  

And he fell.  

.

“You have such lovely dreams,” said the masked man, his horns curling into galaxies.  “Impossible dreams.”

Danny couldn’t breathe.  He was in freefall.  A vacuum.  No ground in sight, only the cold, heartless stars, perfect in their beauty.  

(And his eyes.  Oh, god, was this really a ghost?)

It was his dream, to be an astronaut.  With this little twist, it became a nightmare, and yet—

Yet.  

“You feel faceless,” continued the masked man.  “But there’s freedom in that, is there not?”  

Danny shouldn’t be able to hear him.  There shouldn’t be any sound in space, and there wasn’t.  Not except for his voice.  

“Freedom,” said the man, “to follow your wildest dreams, unshackled from responsibility, from reality, from reasonability.  No longer dependent on those that call themselves your friends, who claim to be your family, who walk over your dreams for the sake of theirs.”

Suddenly, Danny hit the sidewalk, and he could breathe again.  Something thick dripped from his nose, his mouth, his eyes.  He pushed himself to his hands and knees.  His clothing was gone.  His limbs were painted with the night sky in all its glory.  He froze, staring.  

From Danny’s shadow, the masked man rose, towering over Danny until he felt like little more than a shadow.  “Don’t you want to have the chance to see your dreams come true, child?”

Danny blinked.  It was hard to force his eyes back open.  They seemed to want to stick closed.  

“Who are you?” Danny asked, words garbled by the dripping stars trying to force their way past his lips.  

“I am Nocturne,” the ghost said, leaning closer.

“You’re like,” Danny choked, “like Desiree.  I don’t want—”

Nocturne scoffed.  “Desiree.  A creature of wishes, of momentary things.  I do not care for what you wish for.  What matters is that you dream.”  

There was something in Nocturne’s hand, round and white and moonlike.  It looked small, held between two of his fingers, but it had to be the size of Danny’s face.  

“Don’t you dream of flying?” purred Nocturne.  “Of being among the stars?  Don’t you dream of a peaceful world, where your friends are safe, and the accident never happened?  Where you’re a friend, not a weapon supply, a sidekick, or a damsel in distress?”

Danny had been thinking something so close just minutes ago and he couldn’t—

“There, there, my child.  No need to cry.”  He brought the round thing closer.  

Danny could see, now, that it was a mask.  Just his size.  

“Close your eyes,” said Nocturne, gently, cupping Danny’s trembling shoulders with his other hand.  “Close your eyes and dream.  Let your face go, for a little while.”

(Danny did as he was told.)

.

“Hi, Sam,” said Mrs. Fenton, her voice crackling slightly through the phone speaker.  “Have you seen Danny today?”

“I haven’t seen him since last n—Since yesterday,” said Sam, correcting herself halfway though.  Mrs. Fenton didn’t know about their nightly escapades, and for good reason.  “Is something wrong?”

“I don’t know yet,” said Maddie.  “He just…  I haven’t seen him either.  He usually says goodbye before he leaves.”

He didn’t, but Maddie didn’t need to know that.  

“Have you checked with Tucker yet?  Sometimes they hang out without me.  Guy things.”  This… was also not entirely true.  Danny and Tucker hadn’t had a ‘guy thing’ for ages.  They’d been smoothly replaced with ‘ghost things’ like most everything else in their lives.  

Sam… might have felt a little bad about that.  All of their normal friend activities being replaced by ghost things, that is.  Often ghost things that Danny couldn’t really participate in, because Danny couldn’t fly or shoot lasers from his hands.  

He did do a good job of setting up obstacle courses and covering for her and Tucker’s—

Wait, no, not the point.

“He hasn’t seen him, either.  Jazz doesn’t know where he is.  I don’t—”  She broke off, sighing.  “Call me if you see him.  Or tell him to call me.”

“I will,” said Sam, opening the window and preparing to take off.  

“Thank you,” said Maddie.  She hung up.  

Sam went ghost with a burst of green fire.  She floated up and out of the window, fading out of visibility as she dialed Tucker’s number.  

“Starboy’s missing,” she said.  

“Yeah, I’m already searching for him,” said Tucker, the microphone crackling with static but otherwise clear.  Tucker’s powers both did and didn’t mesh well with technology.

“Any luck?”

“No,” said Tucker.  “This is one of those times when I wish he did have friends other than us.  Then we could ask them about where he is.”

“Do you think he’s been taken by a ghost?” asked Sam.

“I mean, maybe?  There was that whole thing with Desiree…”

“And the second thing with Desiree,” added Sam.  

“And Skulker.”

“And the second thing with Skulker.”

“And Spectra.”

“And the second thing with Spectra.”

“Not to mention Vlad.”

“What a freak,” said Sam.

“Are you picking up a pattern here?”

“Yeah, maybe.  Who’s only kidnapped Danny once?”

“I’m not sure…  Maybe it’s a new guy?  We do get new guys now and again.”

Sam sighed.  “Never mind that,” she said.  “Where have you looked so far?”

“Not too many places.  Do you want to meet up, or…?”

“No, we’ll have more luck going separately.  I’ll check in with you in a bit.”

.

A whole day passed without any sign of Danny. They did, however, find a lot of ghosts with stitched-shut eyes, which they decided was probably related and also incredibly creepy.  

By that time, the police got involved.  Danny was officially a missing person.  

But they were distracted.  Didn’t have the manpower to search for just one missing person.

Why?

The sudden surge in coma patients.  

“I don’t get it,” said Tucker.  “Is that more of a, you know,” he lowered his voice, “doctor thing?  Like, if it’s a bunch of people, don’t you think it’s a disease or something?”

“The police think that someone poisoned ‘em,” said Sam.  

“How do you know that?”

“How do you think I know that?”

“Dude.  You have to stop eavesdropping on the police.  I’m, like, ninety percent sure that’s illegal.”

“Not for ghosts, it isn’t.”

“Okay, I’m one hundred percent sure it is.  You’ve read the anti-ecto acts, haven’t you? I’m not the only one who did that, right?”

“It was, like, fifty pages thick.  And stupid.  The only reason I’d read it would be if I wanted to break the laws more efficiently.”

“Seriously?”

.

An alien world spread out below Danny, a place to explore to his heart’s content, the sky twinkling above him.  He couldn’t see it, but he knew it was there, in the nameless, infinite way you knew things when you were dreaming.  

He was an astronaut.  An adventurer.  An explorer.

He was doing everything he had ever dreamed of.

The only thing missing were the people.  His friends.  His family.

But… He could bring them here.  He knew that, too, in the same way.  

He just had to reach out and touch them.  Feel them.  Take them.  

(A bit of black and starlight in their eyes, a touch of the gift given to him.)

(Nocturne whispered in his ears.  A song only for him.)

.

They found the ghost responsible for the comas.  And maybe they should have realized a ghost was causing them, but Danny was the one who usually put the pieces together, and he wasn’t there.  Which was the problem.  

(What Sam wouldn’t give for some kind of reliable ghost-detecting power.  Or even technology.)

(No, the Fenton Finder didn’t count.)

It was small, human proportions, human skin tone, where it wasn’t covered with some kind of ghostly paint that mimicked the night sky. Its hair was colored the same way, and a blank mask covered its face.  Seemed to be directing the green stitched-eye ghosts somehow, despite not saying a word. So.  All in all, typical ghost, if somewhat more annoying due to his lack of witty banter.

Then he shrugged off the thermos beam like it was nothing.  Almost like he was human.  

Then Tucker froze.  

The ghost was carried away from the fight by its minions, faster than Sam or Tucker could go.  

“Tucker!  What was that?”

“Birthmark,” gasped Tucker.  

“What?” asked Sam.  

“That was Danny’s birthmark.”

“Oh my god,” said Sam.  “Did he really get himself transformed into a ghost again?”

“This seems different than Desiree,” said Tucker. “I don’t…  Were we really fighting him?”

Sam rolled her eyes.  “Let’s go get the Ghost Catcher.”

.

The Ghost Catcher was not in evidence in the Fenton basement.  

“What now?” asked Tucker.  

“Beat it out of him?” suggested Sam.  

“That is a terrible plan.  No, I can’t even call it a plan.  It’s just bad.”

“Do you have anything better?”

(Tucker did not have anything better.)

.

(And Danny still couldn’t find his friends, to show them this dream come true.)

.

When about one in ten people in Amity Park was in a coma, things managed to get even worse.  The people who were asleep began to sleepwalk.  And sleep attack people.  

Sam and Tucker were used to fighting ghosts.  Not humans.  They didn’t want to hurt anyone.  

Especially Danny who was especially vicious. And also seemed to be targeting them.

.

Danny was so close.  So close he could almost touch them.  He could feel them, electricity and green things and dreams of power and justice.  He could feel them, feel them, feel them, and he was so, so close to inviting them into the dream and he needed it, needed them.  Wanted them.  

His dream, the dream, his dream, it just wouldn’t be complete without them at his side, wouldn’t be right.  

He reached for them, reached for Sam, brushed her sleeve and—

A meteor shower threw them apart.

.

Tucker dragged Sam away from Danny’s hand and the sleep-inducing liquid it was coated in.  

“We have to go,” he gasped, looking out at the veritable horde of ghosts and sleepwalking humans.  

“Yeah,” said Sam.  “Yeah, we have to – Have to regroup.”

They retreated to the Ghost Zone, and, predictably, were separated.  

.

The ghost’s name was Undergrowth, and he was interested in Sam.  Interested enough to offer to teach her.  

His power was the same as hers.  Nature.  Plants.

His rage against humans was… much greater. Overwhelming.  Too much, too far, to extreme.  She was glad he didn’t see her as human, didn’t seem to know that she wanted to protect humans.  

(That she wanted to save Danny.)

.

Tucker already knew Technus.  Had met him, fought him, beat him.  More than once, even.  

So, he had to ask why Technus was suddenly helping him.

The ghost fixed Tucker with a look that managed to be both incredulous and flat.  

“Ghost child,” warbled Technus, “I, Technus, Master of All Things Electronic and Beeping, know what being electrocuted feels like!  By the very power we both now wield!”

“Oh,” said Tucker.  “Yeah, that makes sense.  You were saying?”

.

Sam and Tucker stood in front of the portal, side by side.  

“Ready to be a wake-up call?” asked Tucker.  

“You’d better believe it,” said Sam.  

.

Danny was caught, trapped in Sam’s vines.  

“This isn’t working,” said Tucker, lightly shocking Danny once again.  The ectoblast didn’t help, either.  “Usually, this’d zap the ghost out of him, but…”

“Maybe we could try to overshadow him?” asked Sam, dubiously.  

“Ugh,” said Tucker.  “My least favorite power.”

“It could be the only way to find the ghost actually responsible.”

“Let’s do this.”

.

Danny was thrilled!  He’d finally found his friends.  True, he couldn’t move, but—

The stars shuddered.  Shifted.  Blinked.

Nocturne was angry.

.

Sam was knocked out of the sky at full speed, making a crater in the dark ground.  People were gathered nearby.  Amity Park people.  

This couldn’t just be the inside of Danny’s mind (overshadowing had never worked this way before, but, well, it wasn’t like they experimented with it a whole lot), it had to be some kind of shared dream.  A special power of the ghost, perhaps?

Sam fired up her powers, reaching for the nearby plants. They didn’t respond.  

Crud.  

This was a dream.  They just looked like plants.  

Then Tucker lit up the sky like a dying star, electrocuting everyone in range.  

.

Danny woke up, throwing Sam and Tucker out of his body, something metallic clanging against sidewalk pavement.  Out of his mind, out of his dream.  Out of that dream, the one Nocturne had made for him.

Oh, god.  He’d just spent the last week—Had it been a week, or longer? —out of his mind, in that dream, reality at one remove, if that.  He’d been blind and—

He reached up to his face, to that mask and he pulled.  It stuck. He pulled harder, and felt the goo sticking it on give, the mask coming away while dripping thick strands of ooze. He gasped.  And it felt like the first breath he’d taken in—

How long had it been?

He opened his eyes just in time to see Nocturne rise out of his shadow.  

.

Both Sam and Tucker had more of an advantage out here in the real world, without having to worry about hurting people.  Well, without having to worry about hurting people more than usual.  Wrecking buildings and missing with ectoblasts were still concerns.  

“Draw him towards the park?” called Tucker, once they got close enough to confer with each other.  

“You grab Danny?”

“I don’t—” started Tucker.  He dodged a swipe from the large, starry ghost.  “He might be safer, if—”

A column of blue light strobed into the sky, and Nocturne was pulled into the Fenton Thermos.  The Fenton Thermos held by Danny Fenton.  He coughed, black liquid dripping down his chin.  

“Hey,” said Danny.  “Thanks.”

“I’ve got to stop losing that thing,” groaned Tucker.

“I think the more important thing here is getting Danny some clothes,” said Sam, shielding her eyes.  

“Yes, please,” said Danny.  

“Glad to have you back, man,” said Danny, landing next to Danny and transforming.  “Honestly, without you, we kind of suck at the whole investigation angle.”

“What?” asked Danny, taking the sweater Tucker offered him.  

“We missed you,” clarified Sam.  “A lot.  We kind of… don’t do to well at anything about ghost fighting.  Or life.”

“Yeah, our social life sucked even more than usual.”

“Oh,” said Danny, wrapping the sweater around his waist. “That’s cool.”  He spit some of the black liquid out onto the sidewalk. “I need a shower.”

“Yep.  Hugs are going to be deferred until then.”

“I’m okay with that,” said Danny.  “I kind of… don’t want to be touched, for a while.”

“Ah,” said Tucker.  “Well.  I’m depressed again.”

“Just.  Until the shower,” said Danny.  

Sam reached out as if to pat Danny on the shoulder, then drew back.  “Do you want a flight back home?  Or to, uh, Tucker’s house?  To shower. And get some clothes.”

“How is that different from a hug?  You’ll still have to carry me.”

“It just is,” said Sam.  

“It really is,” said Tucker.  

There was a long pause.  

“I lied, I want a hug so bad,” said Danny.  

His friends practically flung themselves at him.

[storiesforallfandoms]

we’re too stupid ~ the vlog squad

word count: 1885

request?: yes!

@iawaythrown​  “May I ask for a vlog squad x popular youtube reader

The reader has their own very popular youtube channel/podcast like a scientific/space podcast. (Like a Vsauce\GameTheory channel) The vlog squad and the reader fan base (somehow) always wants them to collab. One day David says "It won't happen because the reader probably doesn't like us." This ends up getting everyone on the podcast.”

description: when their favorite youtubers show interest in being on their podcast, they jump at the chance to invite them on

pairing: vlog squad x gender neutral!reader

warnings: swearing

masterlist (one, two)

“You know what I’ve been listening to a lot lately?” Scotty asked David on the newest vlog David had uploaded. You were watching the vlog on your TV while you prepared to upload the newest episode of your podcast. You had a drink half raised to your lips when Scott responded to his own question, “The Spaced Out podcast.”

Your drink nearly slipped from your hand at the mention of your podcast. You were sure you had imagined it, so you went back and repeated the part just to be sure. The name of your podcast slipped from Scott’s lips again and you had to pause the video to scream with excitement.

When you placed the video again, David spoke next. “Oh wait, is that the one about space and shit? You played it for me before.”

“Yeah! Man, it’s so interesting. I could honestly listen to the host talk about space all day,” Scott said.

“He keeps bringing it up during the Scottcast, too,” Jeff commented. “I’m starting to think he’d rather co-host that podcast instead of our own.”

“Man, I’d love to be on that podcast!”

You could hardly contain your excitement. Your favorite YouTubers knew who you were?! They knew your podcast?! You had to be dreaming, you were sure of it.

“There’s no way they’d ever have us on the podcast,” David was saying. “We’re too stupid and immature, they’d probably hate us.”

“Speak for yourself!” Zane, dressed in some weird costume for a bit, called, causing the boys to laugh together.

This gave you an idea. You put your laptop aside and opened Instagram on your phone. You searched the name “David Dobrik” and went to his DMs.

~~~~~~

A week later, your podcasting room was filled with 11 extra people than there normally was. The room was only small with a handful of seats, so a lot of your guests were squeezed in together or basically sat on one another. No one seemed to mind, though. Every single person in the room was super excited to be there.

“What’s up all my space geeks? Welcome back to another episode of The Spaced Out podcast, the podcast where we discuss super nerdy space things,” you started with your usual intro. “Today’s episode is a little different, though, as today I am joined by not one, not two, not even three, but eleven special guests. You heard me right, eleven. Special guests, wanna say hi?”

All eleven of your guests rang out with a chorus of, “Hello!”s at the one time, making it all come out as just a shouting mess. You laughed and waved a hand to silence them.

“In case you had trouble understanding what they were saying,” you said, “my guests today are David, Scotty, Toddy, Zane, Erin, Carly, Natalie, Heath, Mariah, Corinna, and Jeff, better known as a large chunk of YouTube’s biggest vlogging group: The Vlog Squad!”

The Vlog Squad cheered at their introduction as you just clapped your hands.

“Can I just say,” Heath said once the noise started to die down, “that I am impressed with how fast you said our names and how easy it was. You didn’t even stutter once.”

“I’ll be honest, when David told me exactly who was coming I prepared myself for this,” you admitted. “I’ve never had so many guests on the show before. Actually, I don’t know if I’ve ever had any guests at all. I don’t really know anyone in my real life that’s as interested in space and science as I am.”

“To be fair, none of us are, either,” Jeff joked, causing the room to laugh.

“Yeah, you picked the wrong people to be on your podcast,” Corinna added.

“You don’t have to have any sort of interest to be on the podcast, really. As long as you don’t mind me talking about my nerdy space obsession every now and then anyone is welcome on the podcast.”

Your heart was beating so fast you were sure everyone else could hear it. You were shocked that you were managing to remain so calm in that moment. Your favorite YouTubers were sitting right there in front of you, being guests on your podcast, and somehow you were acting as though they were just friends that you had convinced to come on the podcast.

“Is there any cool space facts you can share with us to get the ball rolling?” David asked.

“Dude, I’ve made over 300 episodes of this podcast that is literally all about space, you gotta narrow down your parameters there,” you told him.

“What’s your favorite space fact then?”

You thought for a moment, going through all the little facts you had in your mind. There was so much you could share with them that you really didn’t know where to start.

“Okay,” you said finally, “I have one. I think David will like this cause we all know he’s made of money: there is a planet that is called 55 Cancri e. It is over twice the size of Earth and it is potentially made of diamonds.”

They all gasped and made comments of astonishment at the same time at this.

“Like, literally made of diamonds?” Corinna asked.

“It’s hard to know for sure. It’s roughly 41 lightyears away so it’s not exactly easy to reach, but they think it’s made of graphite and diamonds,” you explained. “My favorite fact, and one that’s a little scary, is that it’s actually completely silent in space. Like not a single sound, because atmospheres around planets are what contain the soundwaves to make noise.”

“I told you,” David said, turning to face Scott. “We’re too stupid to be on this podcast.”

You all laughed together. “You guys aren’t stupid! I was just fascinated with space as a child and my parents let me feed into that fascination. They always bought me books about space and brought me to visit certain space centers. I was that kid that always said she was gonna grow up and be an astronaut. Instead, I just talk about them on the internet.”

Everything was going so well. You were getting to know your guests and they kept urging you to tell them facts and stories about space. You knew a lot of what you were telling them you had talked about on the podcast before, so devoted listeners probably wouldn’t be too interested in a lot of what you had to say in that episode, but you didn’t mind too much. You just loved to see the looks of astonishment on everyone’s faces as you continued to tell them fact after fact.

When you came to a segment you did in the podcast in which you would read messages from fans, you decided to your guests choose which messages to read and respond to. David took the tablet you used for this first and read through the thousands of messages you received between uploading your most recent episode and recording the current one.

“Are you going to talk about the new 4K pictures of Mars?” he read.

“Oh my God, yes!” you responded. “That will be next episode. I haven’t looked at them all yet because I wanna have a live reaction to them, but I did see one picture and it looks absolutely stunning.”

“It blew my mind how it just looked like a desert here,” Carly commented. “Mars is a lot more like Earth than we think. Sucks that we’ll never be able to live there or anything.”

“I don’t think we’ll never be able to live there, but I don’t think it’ll happen in our lifetimes,” you commented. “But that’s a whole other thing, let’s move on from that.”

“What has been your favorite space related story of the past year?” Natalie read the message she had picked.

“I don’t know if it’s my favorite, but it’s definitely one that I was very interested in reading: a star just vanished in 2020,” you responded. “Apparently that’s something that can just happen, stars can just suddenly disappear and no one knows where they went. This star from the Kinman dwarf galaxy that shined almost brighter than the sun just vanished between 2011 and 2020, and they have no explanation for it. That story stuck with me the most cause I just find it funny that a star that bright just vanished and no one can figure out where it went.”

They continued reading you messages for a while before passing your tablet back to you.

“While I wish I could sit here with you guys and talk about space and your vlogs forever, unfortunately we are running out of time,” you said. “I want to thank the Vlog Squad again for joining me on this episode, and I hope I didn’t bore you guys to death with my stories and facts.”

“Not at all!” David spoke. “I can’t speak for everyone, but I really enjoyed myself. Listening to you talk was really interesting.”

The rest of the group agreed. You tried not to blush from all their kind words.

“I always wanna thank our sponsors again. As always I appreciate them supporting my show, and of course I want you guys, the listeners. Your constant support for the show means so much to me. If you wanna hear more fun facts about space that you’ll never use in live, follow me on my social media. If you’re not already following the podcast, follow the podcast! I upload episodes every Friday, and if you want to be involved in the show be sure to send me your space related messages and maybe I’ll read them out on the next episode. Have a good weekend, little space geek out!”

You ended the recording and the group almost cheered for you. You smiled and stood to thank them again for coming on the show. You were shocked when Corinna pulled you into a hug, which caused the rest of the group to hug you one by one.

“This was the most fun I think I’ve ever had,” Erin commented. “Would you be open to having more guests on the show? I’d love to come back and to just listen to you talk for a full hour.”

The rest of the squad agreed. You really didn’t think you could feel any more excited or on cloud nine, but they kept surprising you.

“I would definitely be open to having guests again,” you replied. “If you guys ever wanna be on the show again, just send me a DM. I’d love to have you!”

“We’d love to have you on the vlogs sometime, too, if you’d be open for that,” David told you.

There they go again, making you feel like you had passed cloud nine and now were on a completely different planet with excitement.

“Y-Yeah!” you managed. “Of course, I’d love that!”

After some more small talk, you showed the group out and thanked them again for coming. Once you were sure they were gone and unable to see you, you began jumping for joy and exclaiming with excitement. You couldn’t believe it! You had just hosted a podcast with your favorite people, and they asked you to join them for filming sometime?!

“This is the best day of my life!”

[kingexpl0sionmurder]

Missed Connection - Shinsou Hitoshi

Author: @kingexpl0sionmurder​ Rating: NSFW 18+ Warnings: Unprotected sex, blowjobs, dirty talk, poking fun at fakes who shop at UO and wear band t-shirts for bands they don’t listen to, terrible poetry, Kaminari is a weirdo. Pairing: Shinsou Hitoshi/F!Reader Words: 4,554 AN: This is for the bnharem server collab, the theme is pen pals! We were able to write basically anything as long as there was some kind of communication/writing/texting etc! This is the first time I’ve written for Shinsou and I head cannon him as a fucking closet goth so don’t at me. Collab Masterlist (Please go check out everyone else’s contributions!) My Masterlist Buy me a Ko-fi -- When his phone started ringing, Shinsou was tempted to throw it halfway across the room. Whoever thought it was okay to call him at - he turned to squint at the clock on his bedside table - 10 in the morning on his day off, better have a good excuse. He frowned at the screen once he’d found his phone, and sighed.

“The world better be on fire, Kaminari.” His palm rubbed over his face as he pressed the phone to his ear, his eyes closing again.

The blonde chuckled, full of energy as usual. “Aw, come on ‘Toshi! It’s not that early.”

A million ways he could kill his friend and make it look like an accident flashed through his mind. “You know I like to sleep late on my days off.” He left it at that, no further explanation needed. Kaminari knew he stayed up impossibly late on his off days, crawling under the covers only when the sun started to rise.

“You want to hear this, I promise. I wouldn’t call this early unless it was important.” Shinsou listened to the sound of a keyboard clicking through the phone, waiting impatiently for his friend to continue. 

“So, you know how I sometimes like to fuck around on the internet?” This was a rhetorical question. Of course he did. “Well, occasionally I like to browse through Craigslist, and this morning I was in the missed connections section, and I found something interesting.”

“Why do you look through missed connections?” He didn’t really care, he just thought it was kind of...weird. But, then again, this was Denki, so he shouldn’t have been surprised.

Kaminari huffed. “Dude, sometimes it’s so sad to read how they saw someone and thought there was a connection. It makes me wonder if they ever find each other.” He was quiet for a moment like he was deep in thought. “But then sometimes, it’s like ‘You farted in the produce section and I’d still date you, let’s go out’ and it kind of loses the romantic appeal.”

“You’re a sap. Also, gross.” He found himself drifting off, bored with the conversation already. “Do you have a point?”

“God, you’re impatient! Listen, I was scrolling through the ads and I found this one, I think you should hear it.” Clearing his throat, he began to read. 

“You were the sleepy purple-haired man in the cat cafe on Main, I was hiding behind an orange tabby by the window. I was staring, but I wasn’t trying to be creepy. You just looked kind of lost, and the black and white short hair on your lap seemed to have all your attention. Oh, I think his name is Socks. Isn’t that unoriginal? Anyway, I’ve seen you there a few times and I want to know more about you. If you see this, please respond.”

Shinsou sat up in his bed, ignoring the sharp pain of his muscles protesting at the sudden movement. “What the fuck?”

“This is about you, isn’t it?” Denki’s excitement was clear. “You’re the only sleepy guy with purple hair I know who frequents that cat cafe on Main Street.”

“How long ago was that posted?” Hitoshi felt strange, restless energy flowing through him. Someone had noticed him and decided that he was interesting enough to want to get to know? He wasn’t anything special, and he kept to himself mostly. What did this even mean?

“Last night! When did you go to the cafe?” He didn’t even wait for a response. “I’m forwarding this post to you, and you better send them an email! It’s been too long since you’ve dated someone, ‘Toshi, and I’m concerned.”

Unfortunately feeling more awake than he wanted to be, Shinsou shifted until his feet were on the floor. “Yesterday afternoon. And it hasn’t been that long.”

“It’s been like a year, dude.” Kaminari sighed. “Okay, I sent it. Please write back to them. Let me live vicariously through you in this weird turn of events.”

Shinsou sighed and said goodbye, ending the call and staring off into space for a minute. He needed coffee before he could even think about reading it for himself and then maybe responding.

--

Uh, hello.

 I can’t help but feel like this was about me? I’m not even really sure what to say. This feels weird. You could have come over and said hi, maybe. I don’t bite. I might have stared at you and made things awkward but I feel like it would have been a surefire way to talk to me instead of posting this on craigslist of all places and expecting me to see it. 

You’re lucky I have a friend who likes to scour the dark recesses of the internet for entertainment purposes and happened upon this post.

-Shinsou

--

How do I know this is really the person I’m talking about? What were you wearing when you went to the cafe? That’s like the only way I can be sure you are who you say you are. 

The only reason I didn’t come over and talk to you was that I had Oliver on my lap and he is a grump and didn’t want me to get up until he was good and ready. (That’s the orange tabby’s name, by the way.) By the time I was able to coax his fat ass off of me you had gone. 

Honestly, I’d let those cats climb all over me like their own personal cat tree all day long and not complain about it, but I digress. 

I didn’t expect you to find this or reply, it was kind of my way of convincing myself that I’d given it a shot, even though I really hadn’t done much.

-Y/N

--

I was wearing the following:

A Joy Division t-shirt depicting the cover of Unknown Pleasures, which is arguably the most cliche t-shirt I own. It’s become one of those shirts that people wear who have no idea who Joy Division is, they just like it for the aesthetic. (I’ll have you know I happen to know who they are and like their music very much.) This shirt was more than likely covered in cat hair.

Black jeans, which were probably covered in cat hair as well.

Black boots, a staple of mine.

I am a closet goth. I don’t know what else to say. I won’t deny it. I’ve learned to embrace who I am. I happen to know that Oliver is a grumpy shit, so I am not surprised he kept you pinned down for so long. That cat has been known to knock people over and purr loudly while “making biscuits” on their chests for hours at a time. I’m glad to know that you survived his assault.

So what are you going to tell me about yourself now? I have confessed to you about my goth status, so I demand something in return.

-Shinsou

--

Yeah, it was you.

I was hoping that you actually liked Joy Division and you weren’t one of those Urban Outfitters aesthetic people. I can now rest easy. I like them too, but I really like New Order more? I hope this isn’t the end of our budding friendship.

I will not say that I am a goth, though I have goth-like tendencies? Or I just appreciate the music. Whatever. I don’t have, like, a pet bat or anything. I own a pair of Doc’s, though.

I have been on the receiving end of one of Oliver’s attacks before, so you don’t have to tell me about them. I have experienced his pushy demeanor on more than one occasion.

So, something about me? I don’t know. I spend a lot of time in that cafe because I love cats, but that’s kind of a given, isn’t it? I usually bring my laptop and make an attempt to work on my homework, but it’s usually futile. I’d rather pet the cats. 

Oh, I guess that counts as something right? I go to college. I’m an English major and taking a fuck ton of creative writing courses. What about you?

-Y/N

--

An English major? That sounds like fun. I think if I had a need to go to college I’d have liked to take something like that. I have a friend who writes ultra depressing Gothic poetry, that would be right up his ally as well.

I’m a pro hero, hence why I didn’t need college. Saving people is something I’ve always wanted to do, especially since I was always bullied about my quirk as a kid. It kind of made me more determined, I always wanted to prove those assholes wrong, you know? So, here I am.

I’m glad to know we can wear matching Doc’s together, and that you don’t keep a bat as a pet. As cute as their faces are, they’re not very easily domesticated. 

New Order is fine. The real question is, The Smiths or The Cure? Your answer to this question will be what determines the longevity of our friendship.

-Shinsou

--

This is the worst question you could ever ask me. How could you do this? I could never choose between them. Both? The answer is both.

I hope your next email will not be your last.

Bats are cute but they always seem to dive bomb my head when they’re around. Not that I go places with bats often, but I used to go camping as a kid and they always did that. It was not a good time.

I think it’s amazing that you’re a pro hero! You’re really out here, fighting the bad guys and saving people and then coming into the cat cafe and petting kittens and drinking coffee like a normal person. I think it’s admirable how hard you worked to achieve your dream. I know we don’t know each other that well, but I’m proud of you. Why were you bullied for your quirk? You don’t have to answer that if it makes you uncomfortable.

I wish I could write ultra depressy Gothic poetry. Here let me try:

The night is black like my soul Clove cigarettes burn slowly My life is Meaningless

How was that? Do I get a gold star? Or a black skull? Which is appropriate?

-Y/N

--

I’m printing that and sending it to Tokoyami. Thank you for making my entire existence with that poem. I’m breaking out the red wax candles and putting on “How Soon Is Now?” right now.

You get a star, but it’s a pentagram. We have to keep with the theme.

My quirk has to do with mind control, so I was always told I was meant to be a villain. You can imagine what that could do to a kid’s psyche, being told by peers and adults alike that you weren’t hero material, when that’s all you wanted. It’s okay though, I did what I wanted and they can eat my ass.

Sorry if that was too raunchy, but it’s how I feel.

If my earlier comment wasn’t proof enough, I prefer The Smiths, but I cannot deny the impact of Disintegration. Lullaby is a really great song.

That being said, this will not be my last email, so you can breathe easy. 

On a semi serious note, I really enjoy talking with you. We have a similar sense of humor, and you like cats which makes you automatically better than most people. Would you like to get coffee sometime? I know a nice place that’s quiet and filled with fluffy kittens...

-Shinsou

—

I’m glad I haven’t lost your friendship due to my opinion. I know how important that feud can be to some people. People get very passionate about it. Kind of like with Blur versus Oasis, or Brand New versus Taking Back Sunday. I hate that these are the only examples I can think of. 

It wasn’t too raunchy. Those people can most definitely eat your ass. I’m glad you have decided to use your powers for good. You’ll have to explain to me how your quirk works sometime. 

I shall treasure my shiny pentagram sticker with my entire heart.

Isn’t Tokoyami the Jet Black Hero: Tsukuyomi? He looks like the type to write Gothic poetry. I am not even mildly surprised. 

Even though the way we met was unconventional, I’d like to think I’d have gotten up the courage to speak to you the next time I saw you in the cafe. Somehow this is better, though. It makes for an interesting story, you know?

I’d love to get coffee. I think I know the place you’re talking about. Let me know when.

-Y/N

—

Shinsou was nervous. It was stupid really. He’d been exchanging emails back and forth with you for a few days, and even though you’d barely revealed much about each other, the easy banter through your messages was comforting. He felt like the two of you would be compatible. He just hoped that he was able to keep the conversation going in real life. 

When he entered the cafe, he ordered his usual and picked his normal table towards the back. Socks, his favorite black and white companion, was at his side almost immediately. He let his hand drift down to scratch behind her ears, his gaze fixed on the door as he waited for you to arrive. 

Out of habit he was a little early, but he figured it would be easier this way. He had no idea what you looked like, but you knew him, so he knew you’d come over when you got there, and it would make things less awkward. 

A few minutes later he saw the door open, and he immediately knew it was you. Black Doc’s and thigh high stockings, a black skirt and an oversized deep red sweater adorned your body, a leather jacket over your shoulders and your hair tucked under a black beanie, cheeks pink from the chill of the autumn weather outside. You were pretty, and he felt his nerves increase tenfold when your eyes met his, a smile gracing your face. 

He watched as you ordered a drink at the counter, the paper cup clutched in your hands as you made your way to his table. He stood up when you approached, letting himself appreciate you up close. “Y/N?”

“Hi, Shinsou.” You were so much shorter than he was, and he found himself having to gaze down at you when he was standing at his full height. 

“It’s nice to put a face to all those emails.” The way you blushed under his attention made his heart flip. “Please, sit.”

You nodded, sliding into the seat across from him. He sat back down, his hands moving to grip his coffee cup. 

“This is kind of weird, isn’t it?” You looked down when Oliver made his way over, rubbing himself against your boot. “I almost feel like I don’t know what to say.”

“I know what you mean. We could just sit here and email each other, if that would make you feel better.” Your laugh was like music to his ears. “I’d rather hear your voice though.”

Your face was red when you looked back up at him. “I have to agree.” You leaned your elbow on the table, your cheek cradled in your palm. “Tell me more about yourself, Shinsou.”

“It’s Hitoshi. You can call me Hitoshi.”

—

If anyone would have told him that the night would end this way, he’d have said they were insane, and should probably get themselves checked into the nearest institution. 

But here he was, his face pressed into the spot where your neck and shoulder met, lips ghosting over soft skin, his calloused palms sliding underneath your sweater. You were purring, your head thrown back and your fists clenched in his t-shirt, your back pressed against the wall in the hallway that led to his bedroom. 

“Fuck, ‘Toshi.” You mumbled, pressing yourself closer to him. “Bed?”

You didn’t have to ask twice, his hands sliding down to lift you up by the backs of your thighs, his cock hard and straining in his jeans as you rutted against him. He turned himself and began walking toward his room blindly, his eyes still shut as he sucked a mark into your neck. 

He pulled back so he could peer over your shoulder and maneuver your bodies through the doorway without bumping into anything, laying you back on the bed. 

The events of the night were a blur, your coffee date turned into him taking you out for ramen at the restaurant down the street, and then he asked you back to his apartment to show you his record collection. 

It was mostly a ruse though. You’d been flirting back and forth, the both of you getting bolder as the night went on. He was only half surprised when you’d entered his apartment, barely removing shoes and coats and hats before you spun around on him, pressing him against the door and kissing him like your life depended on it.

He rested on his forearms, poised above you, looking over your flushed face and kiss bruised lips. Your legs wrapped around his waist and pulled his hips closer, making him groan. “Impatient?”

Your hands moved to cup his face, pulling him down toward you. “Very.” 

He wasn’t expecting your strength, caught off guard when your lips crashed into his, your body pushing him over until he was on his back and you were straddling him, knees on either side of his hips. You ground down against him, moaning when his hips snapped up reflexively. He was happy to give you control for a while, especially when you sat up and grabbed the bottom of your sweater and pulled it over your head. The view was spectacular.

He let his hands wander, tracing along the lines of your thigh highs from under your skirt, and up to the lace at your hips. Your chest heaved as you tried to catch your breath, the devilish glint in your eye was not lost on his as you shifted down his body, fingers swiftly working to unclasp his belt and undo the button on his jeans. 

You slid off of him, and he lifted his hips to aid you in pulling his pants down his legs, his boxers following. His cock was achingly hard, the tip angry and red as it sprung free from it’s confines, nearly slapping his stomach. You eyed it greedily, and he was lost for words when you surged forward, delicate fingers wrapping around his length and stroking him, your tongue peeking out to taste him.

Amethyst eyes rolled back when you took the tip in your mouth, tongue swirling around the head, a low moan sounding from the back of your throat. The warmth and wetness that surrounded his cock when you closed your eyes and bobbed forward had him breathless, his hand threading through your hair, and his palm resting on the back of your head. He kept himself steady, fighting back the urge to buck his hips and push you down further on his length. 

Shinsou bit down on his lower lip, his stomach muscles tensing as he tried to keep it together. Kaminari had been right, it had been a while since he’d been with someone, and he wanted this night to last as long as possible. The sweet and innocent look in your eyes as you looked up at him through your lashes, your mouth enveloping him all the way to base, was nearly too much for him to handle, his hand tugging at your hair gently to pull you off of him. “I’m not going to last if you keep that up, kitten.”

You visibly shivered at the pet name and he grinned, loving the feeling of being able to invoke that reaction from you. He scooted forward when you sat back on your knees between his spread legs, his arms circling your torso as he worked at the clasp on your bra, pulling the straps down your arms when he unclipped it. Strong hands gripped your waist and moved you to the side as he stood up, reaching under your skirt to tug your panties down your legs.

He took a moment to consider what he’d do next. He wanted to taste you, it was only right for him to return the favor, and he was almost certain you would taste as sweet as you looked. Another part of him wanted to hike up your legs around his waist and slam inside of you, desperate to hear you moan his name as he pounded you into the mattress. As he contemplated what to do, reached back and pulled his shirt over his head, and then let his hands wander up to the apex of your thighs, digits sliding through your folds. You gasped, falling back onto your elbows, back arching as he toyed with your clit, letting his long fingers slip inside your heat. “So wet. Just for me?” Eyebrows raised, he teased you.

“Fuck, Hitoshi, please.” Breathless and panting, you gazed up at him, biting your lip.

“Please what? Tell me what you want.” You would make the decision for him. “Would you like my mouth or my cock? I’ll let you choose.”

Huffing, your hips rutted against his hand impatiently. He kneeled on the bed between your legs, adjusting his arm and adding a second finger in with the first, his thumb finding your bundle of nerves again. He listened to your breath hitch, and your quiet mewls, pride filling his chest that he was the one coaxing those noises out of you. Finally, you breathed deep and answered him. “Fuck me, Hitoshi.”

Ignoring the protesting whine that left your lips when he removed his fingers, he brought them up to his mouth, maintaining eye contact with you as he sucked on them, tasting you. “You’re delicious, kitten. I’ll have to make sure to taste you properly later.” 

Wasting no time, he lifted your legs up to rest your legs over his shoulders, one hand on his cock. He lined himself up with your entrance, grabbing at your hips and pushing himself inside you. If he thought your mouth was hot and wet and basically everything he thought was heaven, he was mistaken. This was it. This was everything. He wasn’t even inside you all the way and he was fighting back the need to cum again, cursing himself and breathing deeply. He leaned forward, forearms on either side of your head as his mouth crashed against yours, all lips and tongues and teeth, his need for you growing tenfold as you wiggled your hips in an attempt to feel more of him.

Groaning, he bucked forward, filling you up, the both of you sighing in relief at the feeling. He gave you a moment to adjust, lips moving down your jaw and tongue laving at the mark he’d left on your neck earlier. “You feel so good, kitten.”

“Toshi, you can move…” Your hands were gripping his biceps, nails leaving crescent shapes in his pale skin, breathing ragged as you clenched around him.

Hissing, he followed your instructions, hips pulling back until he was almost completely out, before sliding back in. Your arousal made the glide easy, your back arching underneath him. He started a steady rhythm, grunting quietly and letting the feeling of you pulsing around him keep him grounded. He let one of his hands wander, shifting his weight so he could ghost his palm over your side, fingers pinching your nipple and rolling the hardened bud between them. You keened, chanting his name like a prayer, the sound of blood pounding in his ears almost masking the sound.

It spurred him to move faster, his chest tight, sweat pooling at his temples and between his shoulder blades, purple locks sticking to his forehead. His gaze was locked on you, and it stole his breath. Your chest and neck were flushed, the most beautiful sounds spilling from your lips as he fucked into you. It became clear to him that he wasn’t going to last much longer, and neither were you.

“Hey, kitten. You gonna cum for me?” He shifted back to his knees and trailed the fingers on his left hand down your stomach, coming to rest between your parted legs. “I want to hear how pretty you sound when you come apart.” He kept a firm grip on your hip to keep you from sliding away, rolling his hips and rubbing tight circles on your clit. 

“Fuck, Hitoshi!” The effect was almost immediate, your body and lungs seizing, eyes rolling back as you fell over the edge, your cunt clenching around him like a vice. 

Falling back over you, his thrusts became sloppy as he chased his own release, barely able to move with how tight your pussy was gripping him, your orgasm still rolling through you. He felt your hands on his face, guiding him to kiss you again, fingers carding through his hair and down his back, your nails raking red trails down his back. He felt like he could barely breathe, lost in you. “Y/N…”

He felt his muscles tense, and moved to bury his face in your neck, his hips stilling as he came hard, filling you up with his release. You squeezed around him again, and he sighed into your skin, eyes closed as he tried to regulate his breathing.

Rolling over to the side, he hissed when he pulled out. You chuckled, and he turned to look at you, a lazy smile on his face. “What?”

“Is that what you call showing me your record collection?” 

Snorting, he propped his head up on his palm, leaning on his elbow, his free hand reaching out to push a piece of hair away from your face. “You attacked me, remember?”

“I couldn’t help it!” Protesting, you blushed. “I wanted to kiss you from the moment I walked into the cafe.”

It was his turn to blush. “Yeah?”

Shrugging, you turned on your side to face him. “Mm. Can you do me a favor?”

His body was still buzzing, muscles loose and pliant as he shuffled closer to you. “Anything.”

“Can you thank your friend for being a weird internet troll and finding my post?” 

Shinsou coughed a laugh, leaning forward to rest his forehead against yours. “Please, I can’t do that. It’s all he’d ever talk about for the rest of our lives if I did.” 

You leaned up and kissed him, your fingers pushing back his hair. 

He hummed against your lips, feeling content, shifting himself on the bed and wrapping his arms around your waist, tugging you into him. “Maybe I’ll send him a text later. For now, I have other plans.”

--

Kaminari’s phone buzzed on the coffee table, and he picked it up, eyes widening at the message that appeared on the screen.

Toshi: I owe you a crate full of Pokemon cards and my eternal gratitude for being a weirdo meme king who trolls the internet.

Denki: Oh, you’re in a good mood. Did you get laid?

Toshi: Fuck all the way off. 

Denki: That’s a yes. You’re welcome.

[neverdoingmuch]

Wait cql lawyer/law school AU

i got you my pal dont worry!!

law school, im gonna be honest and say i know like nothing about law or law school so pls ignore any inconsistencies or inaccuracies

lwj goes to law school and he is definitely the top student in his class. they’ve been there for like a month and everyone already knows he’s gonna be the best

his one and only competition is this dude called wei wuxian but lwj isn’t particularly worried about him

so far they’re still in the stage of the course where they do the fun things to sucker people into doing the class for the semester so there’s been some practise debates and arguments and stuff in their tutorial classes

wei wuxian has that Charisma and like yeah all of his arguments are perfect but also he has an amazing smile and people are like yes i can trust him 

(he’s definitely the sort to be like hm, the easy way to argue this case would be to quote some laws and use precedence to justify this but that’s boring)

lwj is also good at that sort of stuff because his arguments are perfect and everything is so perfectly researched that there should be no ground at all for someone to lodge a counterargument

(wei wuxian manages somehow and it makes lwj so mad)

but that’s whatever lwj thinks,, a lot of people join law thinking it’s gonna be like the tv shows and books and then get completely blindsided when it comes to the rote learning part or like the actual laws 

and for all of wwx’s confidence, lwj hasn’t actually seen wwx so much as touch the textbook/s and he always studies in the law library so he knows that wwx has probably never even been there bc he hasn’t seen him even once (why’s he looking? bc he needs to see which books wwx uses to study,, bc there has to be something going on there,, obviously)

then they do their first like proper written assignment and lwj and wwx tie for the highest scores and now lwj has a Rival and he refuses to lose to someone who thinks that putting a ‘-us’ sound at the end of a word makes it latin (did wwx say habeas corpus and then point at a soft drink and go  sprite-us can-us,,, maybe,,,,)

anyway! lwj and wwx are kinda rivals for the top spot and it’s one of those situations where one test lwj wins by a point but then the next test wwx gets full marks and they just keep exchanging the top spot in class

and this whole time wwx is like The Worst to have in class. he’s always interrupting to ask questions or just straight up not listening and spends the class doodling pictures of rabbits (they’re cute but wwx is terrible and he’s not allowed to make cute drawings)

so after a few months the most horrible thing happens.... they get put together in a project and lwj is like ugh. internally of course but his face is also saying ugh

the first time wwx and lwj get together to work on the project, lwj is prepared with a proper list of tasks to do all nicely split up between the two of them and a schedule for when they should get certain parts done by. 

needless to say, lwj does not expect wwx to be ready, but wwx is definitely on top of things

he rocks up and is like yeah let’s do this, this and this and have them done by this time - basically proposing to do everything that lwj has already written down

and lwj is pleasantly surprised and is like hm maybe i misjudged wwx and decides to like re-evaluate his opinion on him

in doing so he realises that when he’d never seen wwx studying, it wasn’t an exaggeration at all. he’s never seen wwx so much as touch a textbook or spend more than a minute on a laptop doing something that wasn’t minesweeper or solitaire

but wwx is also making all of their deadlines and even adds extra information and resources to their document that could be useful elsewhere and sometimes he shows up to their study sessions and he looks absolutely exhausted

eventually lwj manages to get the truth out and wwx is just like yeah it’s easier to get worse grades than a genius but if you both study and you still get lower grades, it’s not easy,, for jc or for me

so wwx usually studies at night when his brother is asleep and lwj is like that’s bad, you can’t keep that up and just when wwx is about to go off at him lwj is like you can come study at my place

and thus begins the wonderful time where everything is alright and lwj falls in love with wwx

they work really well together and wwx is strangely considerate and nice? when he finds out lwj likes rabbits, he goes out and buys bunny post-it notes for lwj and starts to always bring him a doodle of bunnies every time he comes over. he always gets his work done on time, early even, and his work is always so brilliant and every time wwx smiles at him, lwj feels warm inside etc etc

for a long while lwj is like yes (: this is friendship (: bc he’s never had a crush before but then on the day they submit their project wwx is like hey,, the two of us make a great team,, we should always work together,, now and next year and even when we graduate,, i want to help the innocent people who need our help and i think i’d like it a lot if you joined me and lwj has his oh moment

they get a perfect score on the project of course and even after it finishes, wwx keeps coming over to lwj’s place to study or just hang out and lwj is just falling more and more for wwx each day

they’re best friends now and everyone gets used to seeing them work together on projects and then turn around to try and decimate each other when they’re working one on one and lwj thinks that he might just be the happiest he’s ever been

but then one day wwx doesn’t show up to class. it shouldn’t be strange but wwx has never missed class even once and he ends up hearing from lxc who heard from jgy that wwx was caught sabotaging some other student’s work (the other student was jzxun, who had a fondness for playing devil’s advocate and other than wwx once telling him that his argument was shit, wwx never spoke to him or seemed to know who he was but lwj is a bit too angry to remember that)

he manages to find wwx outside of his dorms as he’s moving out and he’s just like why did you do that? and wwx is like oh y’know,, bc he’s not really sure what’s happening himself,, one second he was at the top of his class and the next he was being brought before a board and being told that he was being expelled but he’s not going to tell lwj that bc lwj would definitely try and stand up for him and then they’d both get expelled

but lwj is furious and just spits out well if our dreams meant so little to you then maybe it’s a good thing you failed now,, bc his mother was a lawyer who took all these little jobs that helped people who actually needed the help and lwj was looking forward to doing that with wwx and he doesn’t even seem to care that now they can’t do that 

wwx flinches and then smiles at him and just cheerily says, that’s me and leaves. he doesn’t look back and lwj doesn’t chase after him.

lwj doesn’t see him again for years (you can do 13 or 5 or however long you feel like)

lwj is a fully licensed lawyer and he’s working for the family company and he spends half of his time working on cases and uses the rest of his time to do like outreach programs where he goes and visits schools and runs sessions on what it’s like to be a lawyer, how to apply, and to provide assistance to any students who decide to study law at uni

and then at one of these programs he meets this kid, wen yuan, who is ridiculously bright and enthusiastic and has a smile that seems oddly familiar

at the end of the second session he comes up to lwj and is like mr. lan, is your name lan wangji? and lwj just says yes, expecting the kid to be a fan of one of his cases or something but then wen yuan is like oh wow! i thought i recognised you from my dad’s photo!

and lwj isn’t expecting much but he asks what the photo looks like and wen yuan pulls out this photo from his pocket and lwj immediately recognises it,, it’s the only photo he has of him and wwx

your father is wei ying? lwj asks him and wen yuan is like yes, hesitates, and then asks, would you like to see him?

and that’s how lwj finds himself following wen yuan to some dinky little office that has a plaque outside that reads wen and wei

(wen ning is the nicest and sweetest person ever and lots of people underestimate him but then he’s an absolute monster on court. he gets up and completely decimates the opponent and then at the end is like (: it was so nice to meet you!! i am baby!! and all that,, you know our boy)

anyway they walk in and wwx turns to greet wen yuan but then he sees lwj and is like woah! you! and he’s not sure whether to hide or go and hug lwj so he just gives him a fist bump,, like a bro,, and immediately wants to shrivel up and die

anyway they get the reunion stuff out of the way, swelling music, tender wrist holding, lots of staring, lwj silently declaring his wholehearted love for wwx and refusing to believe rumours about him again even though he doesn’t actually know what happened, you know how it goes

from wwx’s side of things,, after he got kicked out he went to some small uni. good in its own right but not known for their law program and ended up specialising in family law

the first case he ever won was for the wens to have the right to keep custody of a-yuan and the first case wen ning ever won was to let wwx adopt a-yuan bc i’m soft like that

so wwx has just been kinda vibing,, being a single dad, living with the wens and helping to make that difference he always promised he would

now this isn’t gonna be some au where lwj goes oh my! i must give up my high salary job and work with wwx! bc lwj has been doing good stuff at his current job and for all of his family’s stuffiness, they run a fair and just company 

but! he does end up helping wwx when wwx gets a letter with a bunch of information about the jins and how they’re actually super corrupt and evil (big surprise,,) and how wwx was maybe definitely framed bc he was doing some casual work on the side and stumbled across some bad shit on the jins back in uni

lwj ends up being the one to take the case officially but wwx is definitely the guy leading it and so lwj ends up spending most of his time at the wen-wei office

lwj definitely bonds with wen yuan, who also wants to go into law, and writes him recommendation letters and helps him edit his applications and stuff

(and one day wen yuan is like leaving you was the hardest thing dad ever did and i dont think you appreciated how much he cared about you. he really did think that he annoyed you ‘til the end and lwj is like no! he didn’t! and wen yuan is like yeah i know but you gotta tell him and lwj really does mean to but the time is never right or something like that but also wen yuan is all but calling lwj dad at this point)

anyway they end up going to court, side by side, working as a team just as they promised to do and just as they finish their final day on the case, ended with the jury ruling jgy guilty and wwx’s reputation all but saved, wwx turns around and flings himself at lwj

is he crying? is he laughing? a bit of both tbh but wwx ends up confessing right then and there, still on record and everything (is that how that works??? idk! let’s say it does)

and what can lwj do but make out with him?

did a news crew come in to film the results of this massive court case just to end up with five minutes of wangxian kissing?? maybe! but when it played on tv it meant wwx and lwj didnt have to actually tell anyone they got together

(and does lwj eventually pop the question using wwx’s bad latinification? yes and wwx is too busy laughing to accept at first but he does and they end up being the worst possible tutors for wen yuan as he goes through law school bc they keep being all gross and lovey-dovey and acting like law school is the most romantic place in the world)

[restlessfandoming]

“the president and the troublemaker” (part 4) (chilumi fic)

“Lumine is the student council president and Childe is the school’s number one troublemaker. They cross paths more than they’d like. Especially when Childe finds out Lumine’s big secret. Highschool AU à la Kaichou wa Maid-sama.”

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

[Fic Masterlist] // [AO3 Link]

the president and the troublemaker (part 4)

Lumine narrowed her eyes at Kaeya. “What does this have to do with fighting?” she asked as she pulled at the frills and lace of the dress her manager had forced her to wear. The bright pink garment made her look like some fairytale princess on her way to meet the nearest unicorn. 

“Nothing,” Kaeya responded, the shutter of his camera clicking as he took her picture. “This is for publicity.”

“I need publicity?” 

“Well, no one is going to fight you if they don’t know who you are,” Kaeya explained. “I also think we can catch people off guard if we present you like this.” 

“She does look very...docile right now,” Aether noted from his perch on a pile of gym mats. They were currently in the back of Zapolyarny Palace; Lumine was posed against a white sheet for a simple backdrop to their photoshoot.

“Exactly.” Kaeya nodded. “People are going to think she’s easy prey to beat for some cash. Until she hits them where it hurts.” 

“And what does Childe think of this?” Lumine asked. 

“Tartaglia is in charge of your skills as a fighter. I’m in charge of your image as a fighter.” 

“Is that really that important?” 

Kaeya smiled. “Even as a fighter, you’re still an entertainer. The more likeable you are, the more you put yourself out there, the more sponsors you’ll get—which means more money for you.” 

“And you’re sure that her identity isn’t going to be revealed if we get too much in the spotlight?” Aether asked, pursing his lips. 

“We’re going to keep it contained within Snezhnaya, and as we’ve talked about, your little school friends don’t venture this way.” 

Lumine sighed. “Fine; let’s get this over with.” She gave a stiff smile. 

Kaeya brought the camera down, his face cast in disappointment. “This is part of the job, Lumine. You need to play the part. People can tell from a mile away if you’re not exactly passionate about this.” 

Her face dropped, and she yet again pulled at the dress. “I just don’t feel comfortable in this.”

It was Kaeya’s turn to sigh. “Let’s just call it a day then.” He gave the dress a glance-over. “You’re right, this doesn’t exactly fit you.” 

“It’s not really her color,” Aether agreed. 

“You’re right about that, Aether.” The captain put his hand over his chin, pondering. “But what color fits Lumine best?” 

“I’m fine with any color. Can’t we just use the pictures you’ve already taken?” 

Kaeya was already packing away his camera. “You look like a dead fish strung up on display in a seafood market; no one is going to want to sponsor that.” 

“Can’t we just win people over with my skills?”

“Do you think sponsors would rather back a good fighter who is personable, or a good fighter who seems to hate everything around them?” 

The blonde crossed her arms. “I guess personable,” she grumbled. 

“Good job,” her manager acknowledged, his voice almost tipping into sarcasm. “So just give it some thought as to what color you would rather your dress to be, and I’ll have my seamstress recreate a dress for you, okay?”

Kaeya walked off, and Lumine flopped down on the mats next to Aether. She let out a frustrated groan. “Why does this have to be so hard? I used to just show up and punch people, and now I’m doing photoshoots?” 

Aether laughed, then patted her shoulder. “Just something else to study, right?” he said jokingly. 

Lumine sat up slightly. Sure, her brother was joking, but studying was something she was good at. Later, as she changed out of the wretched dress, she compiled a list of how to start her research. 

First, maybe some fashion magazines...Then...

* * *

Unfortunately, her student council duties and school work came first, and Lumine wasn’t able to swing by her local library to pick up some magazines for her research. 

“You okay, Lumi?” Amber, the student council secretary and Lumine’s friend, asked. 

The blonde gave her a small smile. “Yeah, I’m just thinking about work.” 

Amber perked up. “Oh, where do you work? Maybe I can help!”

...Shit. “Oh, uhm, just at a local restaurant…,” she lied. Please believe me, please believe me.

“Ah, I see,” the brunette said, nodding. “Customers got you down?”

“Uh, no actually. Management is kind of asking a lot of me. If that makes sense,” Lumine found herself saying. “Like expecting me to wear some stupid costume and...act a certain way that isn’t really true to who I am.” 

“Hmm,” the secretary hummed. “I totally get that. It’s always hard when people try to force you to be something you’re not.” Her face split in a cheeky grin. “But you are one of the most authentic people I know! And hardworking! I know that whatever you do, you’re going to do your best and still be the great president we all know and love!” 

Lumine felt her heart warm. “Thank you, Amber,” she said softly. 

Amber saluted. “Anytime, Pres!” 

Just then, a group of boys passed by the open door of the student council room, all excitedly chattering and gathering around something. 

“Dude, she’s so hot!” the two council members heard them exclaim. “Are there any nudes in here?” 

Lumine’s soft expression immediately faded, and she stood up from her desk. “That sounds like something I have to take a look at.” 

She stepped into the hallway, and the boys were at the end, still crowded around their object. She marched up to the group, immediately identifying their object as a magazine of swimsuit models.

“Inappropriate magazines are banned in school,” Lumine announced as she snatched it from one of the boy’s hands. All the boys let out various shrieks, then ran out of the hallway. When she walked back into the council room, Amber was gone with a note saying she had to go grab paperwork from the main office. 

Lumine sat back down at her desk, setting the magazine off to the side as she tried going back to her homework. She found herself glazing at the magazine more than she wanted to admit. 

She glanced around the room, slowly picking up the magazine, and peeling it open. She stared intently at the way the models held themselves in the pictures—their postures, their facial expressions—and tried to imagine herself in their shoes. 

“I didn’t know you were into that kind of stuff, Pres.”

Lumine nearly jumped a foot out of her seat. Childe was bent over her shoulder, looking down at the magazine with her. 

She slammed it closed. “Childe, do you ever go to class? Like at all?” 

“Of course I do,” he said, sitting on the edge of her desk. “I just leave when I get bored.” 

She sighed. “Do I have to write you up for skipping class?” 

He raised a brow, then picked the magazine off her desk. “Do I have to write you up for being in possession of this?”

Lumine ripped it from his hands. “It’s not what it looks like,” she tried to reason, her cheeks flooding with warmth. “I’m just researching. For Kaeya.” 

“For Kaeya? Does this have something to do with why he asked me what color fits you best?” 

“He asked you that?” Lumine rubbed her forehead. “Just tell him any color is fine.” 

“Why’s Kaeya got you doing all this anyways?” 

“Publicity, promotion, whatever you want to call it,” she explained. “Making me ‘personable.’”

“He doesn’t think you’re personable?”

“Apparently. He basically stuffed me in a frilly dress and told me to ‘smile for the camera.’” She turned to him. “You don’t do any of this stuff?” 

“My managers in the past tried to make me do it.” He shrugged. “I told them that if they made me do it, I’d just beat them up.” 

“Geez, Childe.” Lumine rested her head on her hand. “I’m not going to threaten Kaeya. I know he means well.” She shook her head. “I guess it’s just something I’ve got to do.” 

“I’ve had plenty of colleagues in the industry go through stuff like this though. Maybe I could come to the next photoshoot and help you with Kaeya?” he offered. 

“I appreciate the help,” Lumine said. “But this is my image, isn’t it? I think it’s something I’ve got to do on my own.” 

A small smile from Childe. “You’re very stubborn, you know that right?” 

“Is that bad? I like going my own way.”

“No, not at all.” He leaned back, eyes locking with hers. “I think it’s quite strong of you actually.” 

Lumine swore her heart had skipped a beat. “Ah, th-thanks, Childe, I guess.” She quickly stood up, packing her stuff up. “Well, I’ve got to go. I’ll see you later.” 

She rushed out of the room before Childe could say anything else. She brought her hand to her forehead, searching for signs of a fever. 

Why did my body do that just now?

* * * 

“Wow, Kaeya, I love this dress,” Lumine said genuinely, as she turned around in her new dress. 

It was a white dress, on the shorter side, the length going from high to low, with gold—almost armor-like—embellishments sewn in. The collar was a scarf that connected to the top of the bodice with two crossing straps, and the outfit was further accessorized with matching gold and white thigh high boots and long gloves. It fit comfortably, so comfortably that Lumine was confident she could actually fight in it. 

Kaeya nodded. “It fits you like a glove.”

“Aether, did you tell Kaeya to go with this look?” 

Her brother shook his head. “I really didn’t have any good ideas, so I didn’t suggest anything.” 

Lumine furrowed her brows. “Then who—”

“Looks like I was right—white really is your color,” Childe said, walking up to the trio.

“White?” Aether asked, his brows furrowed. “Like innocence?”

Lumine scoffed. “I’m not exactly ‘innocent.’ I mean, I punch people for a living.” 

Childe chuckled. “It’s ‘white’ because you don’t let others influence you. You are perfectly strong and hardworking all on your own.”

Lumine felt her face warm. Kaeya smiled. “Perfect,” he said. “I like the symbolism.”

“I must say, the piece turned out way better than expected,” Childe commented, his eyes roaming over Lumine. 

Again, her heart felt like it had stuttered for a second. 

“So, are we taking these photos or not?” she asked quickly. “The sooner we get these out, the sooner I can schedule matches, right?” 

“Okay, okay,” Kaeya said, unpacking his camera equipment. 

Soon enough, the backdrop and lighting equipment was set up again, and Aether and Childe sat in the corner while Kaeya instructed Lumine where to go and what to do. Aether had his nose in a book (avoiding conversation with Childe) while the orange-haired troublemaker just sat and watched. 

Lumine had been fine doing this ridiculous task in front of just Kaeya and Aether, but now that Childe was here, she was hyper-aware of his eyes on her, feeling more awkward than before, despite the better change in clothing. 

“Lumine, the dress does look much better, but you still look super stiff,” Kaeya commented. “Try to relax.”

“I am relaxed,” she said through gritted teeth. 

Childe laughed from the corner. “That’s what you call relaxed? You look like you’re about to pop a blood vessel.” 

“I’d like to see you try,” she snipped. 

A smirk. “Sure.” 

He sauntered up to the front of the camera, and Lumine stepped out of the way. 

“Wow, I get the honor of being your first official photographer?” Kaeya joked. 

“If Lumine demands it, I must,” Childe joked back. 

Kaeya started instructing Childe on what to do. To everyone’s surprise, Childe followed the instructions perfectly. 

Each pose struck, each expression made, Lumine could see coming straight out of a magazine. He was actually doing it, and doing it way better than Lumine had. Her muscles twitched at her failure—Can I really not do something as simple as this?

“See? Easy enough,” Childe said, smiling. “Are you really going to let me show you up at your own photoshoot?” 

“No,” she replied pointedly. She walked back to her place, eyes narrowing at Childe, silently telling him to get out of her space. 

Instead, he pressed into her space more. “Let’s try some things.” His hands were then on her arms, pulling them into specific angles. “Maybe if you tried posing like this…”

The embarrassment and frustration bubbled in her throat, and before she could even think about it, she yanked her body away from him. “Maybe it would be better if you left,” she snapped at him, her tone so poisonous that she swore her tongue tasted bitter afterwards. 

The room was absolutely silent. Kaeya and Aether’s eyes flickered between Lumine and Childe.

Childe stuffed his hands into his pockets. “Sorry. Seems like you’re in a bad mood today,” he said, walking away. “I’ll just leave then.” 

The anger in Lumine’s body quickly dissipated upon seeing Childe’s face—the cheerful glimmer in his eyes gone. He was just trying to help. 

“W-wait,” she said quietly.

Childe stopped, turning her way. 

Her eyes were cast downwards. “Ch-Childe, please help me.” 

Silence filled the room once more. 

CLICK!

The camera flashed, blinding everyone for a split second.

“That was the one,” Kaeya said. “A nice, genuine photo of you.” 

Both Lumine and Childe looked at Kaeya, a bit taken aback, then looked at each other. Lumine immediately averted her gaze back to the floor. After a second, she felt someone’s hand patting her head. 

“Looks like you didn’t even need my help,” Childe said, looking down at her. 

Secretly comforted by his touch, Lumine crossed her arms, feigning displeasure at his head pat. “But you did help,” she mumbled. “In a way.” 

BAM! 

Everyone turned to Aether in the corner. His hands were clasped tightly on his book, after he had slammed it closed. 

“Childe,” Aether said with a forced smile. “She’s not your pet, so let’s take your hands off, okay?” 

Childe pulled his hand back. “Oops,” he whispered to only Lumine. “Don’t want to get in bad favor with your brother, now do I?” 

“You’re already in bad favor with him,” Lumine whispered back, walking away from him and joining her brother. She glanced back, amused by his confused expression. 

“Sis,” Aether murmured once she was close enough. “Look, I’m glad he’s helping you with your job, but don’t forget that Childe is quite literally a delinquent at our school and has given you so many problems. Don’t get too involved with him.” 

“It’s okay, Aether, I don’t plan on ‘getting involved’ with him,” Lumine responded. 

Aether looked at her, and she could tell he didn’t believe her. 

...Why doesn’t he believe me? 

* * *

[part 5]