#i love a person who puts on voices when they tell stories haha i do the same thing

[todayisafridaynight]

would it be okay if u told me why u like aoki😭/gen😭😭😭😭BEEN TRYNA LIKE HIM FOR SO LONG I JUST CANTT but i love ur art so much so i still consume it otherwise lol

i liked tohru adachi in high school and tbh i think that alone is enough of an explanation for why i ended up liking aoki

[annymation]

Reimagining the characters in Wish

(Part 1- Asha)

Hey guys! I don’t really know how to start this, but let’s just say that I… Didn’t like how Disney’s 100th anniversary movie turned out, like at all.

But I can tell there was a lot of unexplored potential beneath this story, that in my opinion felt overly simple and bare bones.

But if you love it, that’s awesome, more power to you, I wish I could’ve loved it too. And I don’t want to rewrite it to show I’m ��better than the writers at Disney” because I’m definitely not lol, I have no experience in writing, and I’m sure they put a lot of passion into the project and I respect them for that. But this movie inspired me with ideas for a different story that I think is worth telling.

But I won’t start telling it today, instead, I'll start a series of blogs sharing my ideas for changes in the characters and their stories, after I get some feedback I will start posting more of the story itself.

If you’re interested, then come along!

Asha✨

Personality

- Asha is a 18 year old girl, with a passion for drawing and helping those around her, sometimes even worrying more about helping others than helping herself

- She’s like a big sister to her 7 friends, always being the voice of reason and acting responsible, but not in a bossy way, she’s actually very playful with them

- To the people of Rosas tho, she's seen as kind of a weirdo, for you see, she spends almost every time of the day drawing in her sketchbook

- She practices everyday to become a better artist, and the people of Rosas find this to be very peculiar, after all, why would you take so much effort to perfect a talent when you can simply wait to turn 18 and wish for the king to make you an amazing artist?

- Asha doesn’t mind these comments, although they have made her less willing to share her drawings with others that aren’t her 7 friends

- As the story progresses we see Asha flourish from a shy and introverted girl to a brave woman who after discovering a terrifying secret about the kingdom’s rulers, steps in and inspires others to join her and fight an evil sorcerer king and his alchemist wife (yes, I made Amaya an alchemist, more on that on part 2 when I talk about how I’d change Magnifico and Amaya)

- Some Disney characters that share similarities with her personality wise are: Belle, Tiana, Pocahontas and Esmeralda

Main Traits:

Calm and mature

Determined

Passionate about her interests (drawing, dancing, philosophy and stars)

Helpful and generous

Perceptive and always questioning things around her that no one pays attention to (like why do all the artists only paint the King and Queen?)

Playful

Compassionate

Backstory

Oooh boy I gave this poor girl so much angst, okay let’s go

Asha grew up with her grandfather, her parents both died in a fire when she was just a baby

(this isn’t just to fit the “haha Disney princess has no parents” cliche, there’s plot relevance in this “mysterious fire” that I’ll talk about later)

Growing up with her grandpa, he’d always support her dream to be an artist, like her mother, who was an art teacher

Her mother not only drew really well, but she also was able to create the illusion that her drawings could move, by flipping through the pages of her sketch books

In other words, her mom was an animator

Asha saw this technic her mom used as a form of magic, so she would often tell her grandpa she wanted to “Do magic just like my mom”

Her father was a philosopher (this was established in the actual movie but never explored haha whyyyy), who taught people that working hard to achieve your dreams is not only rewarding, but also essential, because it’s part of the human nature to persevere and fight for what we believe, even if we fail, even if it’s hard, just keep moving forward.

This philosophy may sound very “umm duh” for me and you since we all know and hear everywhere nothing in life comes for free… But that’s not the case in Rosas

In this rewrite the kingdom wasn’t created by Magnifico, but rather the kingdom has existed for many generations, being ruled by different kings before Magnifico who also granted wishes… but I’m getting ahead of myself.

The point is that the culture of just asking the king to give you or make you whatever you want to be has been in this kingdom’s culture since forever, so when Asha’s dad comes out saying “hey! Maybe we should stop just relying on the king to make our dreams come true, right?” He’s actually being quite a revolutionary… and sharing a very dangerous belief to other people…

At this point you might suspect what caused that “mysterious fire”

So, back to Asha, growing up with her grandpa, they shared a lot of happy memories together. Reading her father's books and her mother's art books helped Asha connect with them even tho she never had them in her life.

But as her grandfather grew older, he became senile.

Asha went from being taken care of by her grandpa to being the one who took care of him when she was still around 13 years old, and when she turned 15 her grandfather passed away of old age

Asha went on to live with her best friend Dahlia, the two became like sisters.

Though she managed to move on from the loss of her grandfather, she could never shake the feeling that he died without getting his wish granted... But she had no way to prove that, it was just a feeling

The wish granting system works different in my rewrite, instead of there being a public wish granting ceremony once a month, there would only be a public wish TAKING ceremony, that would work just like in the movie, you turn 18, you go give your wish to the king yada yada yada.

But the wish granting part would work like this: Almost every night the king would release the wishes up in the sky, they would float down like balloons to their respective owners while they sleep, and once they woke up in the morning they'd feel that their wishes were granted, for they would wake up changed.

With this method, there's no way of confirming if someone really got their wish granted or not, unless you went to ask the king.

Asha never did ask the king if he granted her grandfather's wish, but her grandfather would sometimes express how he wasn't feeling completely fulfilled in his life, he felt like there was something... missing.

This feeling of hollowness persisted in him until the very end, no matter how hard Asha tried to help her grandfather, she never knew him as his real self, because he gave part of his soul to the king, the most beautiful part of his soul, his wish.

Asha had no proof that her grandfather didn't get his wish granted, only a gut feeling.

But because of this, Asha wasn't that thrilled to give her own wish to king magnifico, knowing there was the possibility of it never being granted.

Not to mention she didn’t even know what to wish for, “I’m just 18 and you guys expect me to already know what’s my heart’s deepest desire? I’m still figuring that out, all I know is that I wanna draw”

Plus she wanted to follow her father's philosophy and achieve her wish on her own, eventually, when she figured out what her wish even was.

Asha never rebelled against the system tho, she wasn't a confrontational person. She just accepted the people of Rosas preferred to rely on the king's magic, but that just wasn't for her.

However, on her 18 birthday, when it was expected of her to give her wish to the king, she simply said she didn't have a wish, and even if she did she wouldn’t want to hand it over, she wanted to make it come true on her own. This lead to an argument with the king, and after a series of events (that I don't have time to summarize here, but you can find out about it on my rewrite) leads to her finding out a terrible truth about her kingdom. And that's how her story begins.

Design

- I’d keep these braid ornaments that Asha had in the concept art

- Since in my rewrite she’s not that invested in the kingdom of Rosas, I’d remove all the Kingdom of Rosas symbols that are present in her design (there are a LOT of them)

- I’d replace these Rosas insignia with more star and constellations themed symbols, to reflect how Asha believes that the stars are connected to people and they can guide us, just like how her father believed.

Final Thoughts

My intentions with these changes were to give Asha a strong emotional hook, and something that makes her feel relatable.

The emotional hook here is how she spent so much of her life taking care of her grandfather that she kinda never had time to worry about her own desires, that alone can be relatable to caregivers of elderly people that watch their grandparents or even their own parents lose themselves as time passes, and end up worrying more about the person they’re taking care of than themselves.

Asha has this internal emotional conflict where she feels she needs to constantly help others the same way she helped her grandfather, and one of the things she’ll learn as the story progresses is that it’s not selfish of her to want more for HERSELF.

Another thing that would be relatable about Asha is her passion for drawing, and how most people in Rosas would say she’s wasting her time practicing so much when she can just wait until she turns 18 and wish to be amazing at drawing.

She’d never stop believing that taking her time to improve on her talent and trying again and again was worth every second of her time, because let me tell ya folks, drawing is HARD, and animating like Asha’s mom did is even HARDER, it takes a whole lot of practice, and Asha was determined to keep trying.

She’d be much like Belle, remaining true to herself even tho those around her considered her odd, and very passionate about drawing just as much Belle was passionate about reading.

I also find it funny how Asha’s motivations are fairly down to earth, like in Disney movies you usually have:

I want to be free from these palace walls!

I want to explore the ocean!

I want to open a restaurant!

I want to find true love!

And then there’s Asha here like

“My life is fine, I just wanna chill and draw stuff”

And that’s it, but, in her environment where everyone is expected to have this great wish that they have to give to the king so he’ll make it a reality, she’s kinda the odd one out, and I love that. Would be a great subversion of the Disney formula.

Of course after she learns Magnifico and Amaya’s true intentions she gets a lot more agency and the desire to save her people, her “call for adventure” if you will.

But what are Magnifico and Amaya’s true intentions? Click here for part 2 and find out!

Thank You For Reading!

[a-whisper-in-the-forest]

Oh my goodness, I just read Coffee and Tips and IT’S SO GOOD! I love the civilian’s and villain’s dynamic and like villain said “now that I got a taste and want more.”

So I was wondering and hoping, could you please continue it? I understand if you were intending it to be a fun one off story, are too busy or can’t.

It’s alright either way and I know when it’s hard to continue something you write and feel like there’s nothing more to add. So no pressure. Thanks regardless, it’s absolutely wonderful and I love your writing style! Please take care and I hope you have the most wonderful day and everyday beyond that! 💖✨

Hi! That's so nice! I hope you have a wondeful day too and everyday beyond that haha. Anyway, here it is! There's a bit of fighting, so not that sweet (unless you think protective villains are sweet). I hope you like it. Enjoy!

Part 1 (coffees and tips)

Somebody I care about

Civilian looks at the clock. Only one hour before their shift ends. They sigh as they wipe down the already clean counter. There weren't a lot of customers today, they are probably all scheming in their lair. It has been their most boring shift in a while.

Just as Civilian puts away some clean mugs, a customer walks in. “Good morning! Can I get you anything?” they say as a record on a loop. As they turn around though, their heart makes a little jump.

“Villain! I didn't know you were coming today,” Civilian smiles. “I didn’t have anything else to do today and my henchmen are horrible at making coffees,” Villain says, also smiling widely. “It’s a nice day, right? The sun has been shining all day.” Civilian lets out a sigh. “I’ve been here the whole day. I haven’t had the chance yet to enjoy the weather.” Villain takes a few steps closer to the counter. “I’m sorry to hear that, you should come sit outside with me.”

Civilian really wants to go sit outside with them. Villain has visited the café a few times now and they always enjoyed their conversations. They can rant about their problems and tell them about their life and Villain would always listen very carefully. Then, after buying themselves and Civilian a coffee, they would leave an outrageously large tip (not that they were complaining) and leave. Civilian doesn’t know why villain does this, but it is so relieving being able to tell somebody everything they were worried about. They could really use a talk like that right now.

Right as Civilian wants to agree with Villain’s proposal, another person bursts through the door. “There you are! I swear Villain, if you don’t give back Sidekick right now!” Superhero’s voice booms across the little café. Now it was Villain’s turn to sigh. “They really don’t understand the concept of free will, do they?” Villain asks themselves more than anyone else in the room.

“Hand them over!” Superhero yells. Villain lets out an annoyed groan and turns around. “You morons really are too thick to understand what I’m saying, huh?” Superhero lets out an offended scoff. “Morons?! How dare you call us that, you lowlife thief!”

They get closer to Villain and start getting in their face, which, given Superhero’s height, looks ridiculous. Villain towers over Superhero, not only by physical height but also by demeanour. “I’m only going to say it one more time. Sidekick. wanted. to. change. sides.” Villain starts slowly. “They are not going to and don’t want to come back to you.”

“Lair.” Superhero hisses. “Are you serious? I wouldn’t want to go back either if my boss acts like this.” Civilian only realises that they said that out loud after it was said. Superhero’s gaze snaps to Civilian. If looks could kill, they would drop dead right that instant. “I don’t need your opinion, rat. Be a good peasant and keep your mouth shut.”

Civilian saw something in Villain shift. “I think it’s time for you to leave,” Villain says in a tone that sent shivers down Civilian’s spine. “I don’t think the same thing. Who are you to-” That’s all Superhero could say before crashing into a wall. Villain slowly walks towards the coughing hero. In a ice cold tone that would scare the toughest person on earth, Villain talks slowly. “I don’t want to see your face ever again. You run back to your agency and tell them to never expect Sidekick back.” Superhero is still trying to catch their breath. After a few minutes they manage to speak. “But-” Villain kicks the kneeling Superhero down and puts their foot on their neck. “I don’t want to hear it. You’re lucky someone I care about is in the room. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been so kind.”

Villain lets the hero go and steps back. The Superhero runs out and doesn’t dare to look back. Civilian comes around the corner of the bar. They can’t help but repeat the words in their head.

‘Somebody I care about’

It makes their heart jump and their stomach is feeling funny. “Sorry about that,” Villain starts, “Just tell Boss I will pay for the damages.” Civilian nods. They are thankful it won’t be taken out of their paycheck. “I think it’s better that I leave,” Villain says as they push a heap of cash into Civilian’s hands. “For the trouble.”

Before Civilian can ask about anything, Villain is out the door. Even though villain isn’t there anymore, there are still butterflies flying in their stomach.

[dedicatednotobsessed]

Hi there, if your requests are still open I have one for Ewan Mitchell. It’s a bit of a funny one, but since Ewan is obviously so private and apparently doesn’t speak about his personal life at all. My idea was that him and his wife both work on hotd playing a husband and wife, and no one knows that they’re married at all, like no clue because they met on TLK set and have been married for years. Until the dinner scene when the whole cast is at the table, they’re just all chatting between takes. Someone mentions something about a wedding and Ewan turns to his wife and says “didn’t that happen at our wedding.” Dead silence, until everyone freaks out (in a good way) about it, it would be hilarious, especially if he was the one that blew it haha

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Of course! For more HOTD requests, just submit a strong snack to Vhagar through my ask box 💚 {I will be opening my ask box soon for The Last Kingdom and Game of Thrones requests, so keep an eye out for that announcement! 💕}

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Secret Lovers [Ewan Mitchell x Reader]

Other HOTD stories [requests open]

Summary: You are an actress on the set of House of the Dragon, playing the role of Adryana Targaryen aka Aemond Targaryen’s wife. You met your husband on the set of The Last Kingdom and it quickly blossomed into a relationship. The two of you ended up eloping and have been happily married in secret for a while now….

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You hummed lightly while you laid in bed hugging the sheets to your chest. You felt as though you were on cloud nine; you and your boyfriend of a couple of years decided to elope when you were on vacation from filming. It was a rushed decision, but you knew it was the right one.

“What’s taking you forever!” You called with a giggle and smirked lightly when he walked out from the hotel bathroom. “What took you so long?”

“I was brushing my teeth,” Ewan replied with a chuckle while he made his way over to you.

“You were in there for like ten minutes,” You pointed out, smiling when he climbed over you.

“Well, I had to brush my teeth among other things,” Ewan corrected himself causing you to giggle.

He leaned down giving you a gentle kiss on the lips, his hands on either side of your head that rested on the pillow. You returned his kiss lovingly, smiling as he released to trail his kisses down your neck.

“What are we going to tell everyone when we get back to set?” You questioned with furrowed brows.

Ewan hummed lightly against your skin, his lips trailing down your shoulder. “Do they have to know?” He asked after a moment.

You laughed a bit. “Well, Mark would certainly want to know why we went on break earlier,” You replied, talking about your fellow The Last Kingdom costar, Mark Rowley.

You played the role of Fianna, Finan the Agile’s younger sister who had fallen for the baby monk. It was an unlikely romance between a whore and a monk turned warrior, yet it ended up being an insatiable love.

“Hm.” Ewan pulled away, his blue eyes connecting with yours and a small boyish smile upon his features. “They can keep on guessing what we did,” He said with a slight teasing tone to his voice.

“You are so evil,” You said with furrowed brows while laughing.

Your laughs only grew as Ewan pulled you close to his body. “I’m the evilest person ever,” He whispered before his lips found yours once more.

You kissed him back eagerly, your arms moving to wrap around his neck. Your fingers danced lightly at the hairs on the nape of his neck, feeling his hands move down your bare sides. You already had one round earlier and you just haven’t gotten dressed. There was no real point of putting on clothes if they were going to be on the floor by the end of the night.

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You smiled while standing in the kitchen of your flat in Derby, singing along to a song stuck in your head as the bacon sizzled in the pan. You had been happily married for close to four years now and you knew you made the right choice when you said yes to Ewan’s proposal, then eloping a week later.

You felt arms snake around your waist, your smile widening a bit as you leaned back into your husband. “Did you hear back yet from the casting director?”

Ewan rubbed your sides gently through the oversized shirt you were wearing- it was his shirt- before he leaned down and kissed you on the cheek gently. “Not yet.”

You frowned a bit hearing the slight sad tone to his voice. You had found out a couple of days ago that you got the role of Adryana Targaryen on an upcoming Game of Thrones spin-off and Ewan auditioned as well to play your husband and twin brother, Aemond.

“You know, it takes some time, love,” You said softly moving the bacon off the hot stove top onto a paper plate.

“I know.” Ewan sighed while he got the kettle to brew some morning tea. “I just worked really hard for this role.”

“I know, love. I know. But hey.” You placed your hands on either side of Ewan’s face so he would look down at you and you offered him a soft smile. “It’s going to be okay in the end. Everything works out for a reason, right?”

Ewan nodded with furrowed brows. “Right.”

“So cheer up.” You giggled while leaning up to give him a gentle kiss on the cheek.

He chuckled lightly and turned away with furrowed brows as he began to boil the water. He leaned against the counter while watching you with a slight hum.

“But it would be really fun to play your husband,” He spoke up after a moment.

“You play my husband every day,” You reminded him reaching up to get two plates.

“I know, but we’re not twins and we don’t live in a fantasy world,” Ewan said jokingly.

“Well, I hope you’re not my brother. That would be a little creepy.” You scrunched up your nose at the thought before you giggled.

You yelped when Ewan suddenly grabbed you by the waist and lifted you up. You smiled while he placed you on the counter and looked lovingly into his eyes.

“I’m glad we’re not siblings either,” He said after a moment and chuckled, lightly hooking his fingers under your chin to pull you closer for a kiss.

You hummed against his lips smiling as you slowly pulled away. “I know you’ll get the role,” She told him quietly with a soft smile.

Ewan returned your smile while he reached up and pushed your hair back lightly. “What would I do without you, Y/N?”

You pretended to think while tilting your head. “I don’t know,” You replied and giggled kissing him once more.

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You looked around the hotel room in London, a content smile on your face. It was about a two and a half hour drive between Derby and London so it was rare when you really got to go. You were to be staying in a hotel for a few months before heading out to Spain for the exterior Capital scenes.

You set your bag down on the bed and turned hearing the door shut, smiling lovingly at Ewan as he drug the luggage in.

“Are you excited to begin filming soon?” You asked while plopping down on the bed with a sigh.

Ewan chuckled at you as he set the suitcases down before he laid on the bed beside you. “Of course I am. I get to not only be your husband, but I also get to be your twin brother,” He said teasingly.

You giggled and leaned over kissing him gently on the lips. It was a dream come true that you were to be part of the realm of A Song of Ice and Fire. You were a huge fan of the Game of Thrones series and had read Fire and Blood in full twice already.

Ewan returned your kiss, wrapping both of his arms around you. That night you had a cast dinner to attend to meet everyone formally then you began working on the show. You and your husband were only in three episodes near the end of the season, your formal title being the twin green dragons.

“I think you love playing my brother more than my husband,” You teased.

“Hm.” Ewan smirked as he leaned his head against yours. “Maybe I am,” He replied clearly joking.

You scrunched up your nose. “Although I am the prettier twin. I don’t know how we can be related.”

Ewan laughed at that before he leaned over kissing you once more. Your husband made you feel as though you were on cloud nine; always treating you as though you were a Queen and he was your King. You just could not wait for the day you started to try for a family.

“How much time do we have until the cast dinner?” Ewan asked suddenly with furrowed brows, his hands lightly playing with the hem of your shirt.

You smirked lightly and giggled. “Enough time,” You replied, connecting your lips with his after you helped him get your shirt off.

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You stood by Phia while they prepared the feasting hall for the family dinner scene, your fingers lightly fiddling with the fabric of your blue sapphire-colored dress. You were beyond giddy to find out they incorporated the blue sapphire for Adryana as it stated in the book she was often seen wearing the color of the gem along with the gem necklace her husband gave her on their sixteenth name day to show her love and admiration for him.

“How did your bedroom scene go earlier with Ewan?” Phia teased you.

You laughed a bit at that. “It wasn’t too bad. Just awkward for a bunch of people to watch while you pretend to….” You trailed off causing you and your costar to laugh.

You had done one other bedroom scene with Ewan before on the set of The Last Kingdom but it was certainly different than the one for House of the Dragon. The scene in the former was more sweet and intimate whereas the one in the latter was a bit more aggressive and it included a prop knife. Ewan was a bit shy at first, but it wasn’t because of the exposure the two of you had to do. It was for the fact that he had to pretend to hurt you.

“You know, you and Ewan have some really good chemistry,” Phia stated while scrunching up her nose. “Both on and off set.”

You smiled lightly. “I guess it was meant to be to play each other’s love interests again.”

Phia was also an actress on The Last Kingdom although you sadly weren’t able to get to work with her. Your character’s death happened in season four and she did not come until season five, yet you loved her acting and was excited to work with her on this show.

“If I didn’t know any better, I would say you guys were a couple in real life,” Phia teased with a giggle.

You laughed a bit and shook her head. “We are just really good at playing husband and wife.”

You smiled lightly when you were told to get into your place and you moved to sit beside Ewan. You looked over at him and smiled more. It seemed a bit odd to see him with an eyepatch and with long hair, yet you were still glad that he got the role. You knew how hard he worked for it and it paid off in the end.

Ewan took your hand under the table while returning your smile. “Did I ever tell you how beautiful you looked today?” He whispered to you.

You nodded a bit. “Five times now if I remember correctly.”

He chuckled a bit and looked down at the empty plate in front of him before sitting up straight as they finished setting everything up.

You smiled and laughed leaning back in your seat as they set up for the third take. You loved working with everyone on the set even if you met them not too long ago- especially with Tom and Phia where you seemed to have a real sibling bond with them.

You took a sip of the fake wine in your cup furrowing your brows a bit as everyone began talking about what they did before they began filming.

“I went to a wedding and they had a DJ do their first wedding song. It was Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran. I told them I could write and perform them a wedding song with my band but they wanted to do their own thing,” Tom explained with a hint of jesting to his voice.

“Wasn’t that our wedding song?” Ewan asked furrowing his brows as he looked down at you.

The whole table fell quiet, everyone looking towards you. You couldn’t help but feel your cheeks heat up at the attention. It was in fact your wedding song, having danced to it in your hotel room.

“When did you guys get married!” Harry spoke up.

You laughed and looked down with a sheepish smile. “We’ve been married for about four years now,” You admitted.

You smiled more when the table erupted into cheers and excited chatter. You laughed and looked up at your husband who had his head down, his own shy smile on his face.

“I guess the secret is out now,” You teased leaning up to kiss Ewan on the cheek.

He laughed a bit and nodded squeezing your hand lightly under the table. You had kept it secret for so long, but now it felt almost a relief to not have to hide your marriage anymore. Now all that was left to do was announce it to your fans on social media.

Every time you posted pictures of you and Ewan though everyone seemed so accepting so you know they wouldn’t mind you as a married couple.

It was the last weight on your shoulders and later that night, you announced it posting the few pictures you and Ewan had from when you eloped. Everyone seemed to accept you and shortly after filming was over you had a nice real wedding ceremony with family and friends. You never regretted the rushed decision to marry, always knowing ever since you first began filming with him for The Last Kingdom that he was meant to be yours and you were his.

[cherrypeaking]

five steps — intro (hueningkai x fem!reader story) additional platonic!ot4 x fem!reader

NEXT

wc: 1.4k words

summary: you’ve lost complete contact with your boyfriend out of nowhere. kai, your best friend, wants to be here to comfort you all the way through… if it weren’t for his own secret feelings for you…

content warning: best friends to lovers, hurt/comfort, angst (?), the reader uses she/her pronouns, has attachment issues, very low self esteem, intrusive/dark thoughts, fear of abandonment, mentions of ghosting

a/n: i’ve decided to divide this story in seven parts! thank you so much to everyone who read my other works 🥹 just hoping this is okay haha

Sent on 12/16/2022.

You sighed, putting your phone away and hiding yourself under your blankets.

No matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t remember anything positive out of whatever that happened in that relationship. All you could focus on was the pain your, now, ex put you through.

Had it not been for Hueningkai, your best friend, you weren’t sure how that would’ve turnt out.

“I-it’s been two weeks Hyuka… I don’t understand… I can see he’s online… I haven’t seen him in weeks… he isn’t answering my messages anymore…” Kai listened to you with an aching heart, trying to pull you close to him.

“I’m… I’m sorry Y/N… I don’t want to… give you false hopes… or the opposite…” he mumbled back, earning a pained sob from you.

Imagining your life without your boyfriend was completely impossible. You had centered your life around him. Your friends had told you a few times that you seemed completely disconnected and that it was worrisome.

You never listened to them, until the bastard decided to completely cut ties with you out of nowhere. Now you were dealing with all the obvious consequences of his behavior.

It was only then, that you really came to terms with how unhealthy your feelings for that man were, but you couldn’t help yourself.

As though there were two sides of you, one that knew rationally speaking that detaching yourself a little from your boyfriend was the best thing to do. But the other didn’t want to.

“Y/N?” Kai’s voice brought you back to reality.

You pulled away, never looking him in the eyes.

“I… I just… I’m terrified… of being abandoned again…” you let out, Kai immediately covered your hands in his.

“Why would you say that? I’m here…”

Tears streaked down your cheeks uncontrollably when he said that, because you oh so wished you could believe him. He was your best friend after all.

However, and that was just how everything was, you could never be certain. And given the circumstances, you were convinced everyone would leave you anyway.

“What if you left too? I… I don’t know what I’d do with myself… I… I think I…” Kai didn’t want you to finish your sentence.

He could only assume the worst of your thoughts. Thus he rummaged through his bed and covers a little bit only to present you with one of his bigger plushies.

“Tobin? Tobin is amazing at comforting people…” although you were about to tell Kai how distraught you were, his actions always managed to make you smile.

You took the stuffed bunny in your arms and buried your face in its mellow material.

Once again, you started sobbing, trying to cry the pain away.

It’s because you’re a terrible person.

Everyone is going to leave you.

Everything would be better without you.

You’re a piece of trash.

People like you don’t deserve love.

Thoughts were spiraling in your mind over, and over, and over.

You felt so much hatred and disgust towards yourself. You felt as if, no one would be able to save you from that pain.

“I… I hate myself…” you whimpered, keeping your head in Tobin’s belly.

Kai couldn’t bring himself to leave you alone. All he did was stay there with you, until your tears had worn you out so much that you ended up falling asleep.

“You should’ve seen her… I can’t believe that asshole did that to her…” Yeonjun hissed a little, not being used to hearing his friend curse like that.

Kai had asked Yeonjun, his oldest friend, to come over his flat. He did not trust himself fully to take care of you on his own — for more reasons than one.

“I know you like her, Kai.” Yeonjun began, having the said boy look his way. “But you can’t let her current state affect you so much…” he added.

Kai looked down, needing time to collect his thoughts after hearing his friend out.

He was right. Kai knew he was.

“It’s difficult… Y/N is your friend too… don’t you understand me?” He asked, tilting his head back towards Yeonjun, who frowned before joining Kai on the couch.

“I can’t pretend I do…”

Obviously you were among Yeonjun’s worries, but he knew Kai was not only your best friend, but also crushing on you since middle school. He couldn’t claim to know exactly how his friend was feeling when it came to you.

Kai sighed, not expecting Yeonjun to pat his shoulder though.

“However… if you’re really worried about her… so am I. You know her the best…” The elder added.

“I lent her Tobin… for tonight… because she was crying so much… I hate that she is in pain…” Hueningkai mumbled, fiddling with his hands.

Yeonjun knew where the latter was getting at.

“Do you want me to go get Molang?” he offered, earning a shy nod from Kai.

With a small wince, Yeonjun went on to find Kai’s second big plushie.

Meanwhile, Kai merely stayed there, on the couch, ruminating.

Seeing you in tears, for a loser like him… it breaks my heart.

Sadness.

I hate that asshole so much, no one should break your heart like this.

Anger.

If I were your boyfriend… nothing like this would’ve ever happened… I would’ve protected you…

Protectiveness.

If he completely listened to all the emotions he was feeling in his heart, Kai would probably do a lot of things he would regret later on.

“Here, that little guy is bigger than I remembered.” Yeonjun handing him his plushie distanced him from the thoughts.

He giggled, taking Molang in his arms.

“It’s because you have to make sure he eats well!” He replied, in a childish tone.

Yeonjun snorted a little.

So cute.

He joined Kai on the couch so they could discuss.

“You know… it’s going to be hard for her… they say there are five stages of grief… so it’s obviously gonna take time for her to move on.” Yeonjun broke the mild silence that was going to set in.

Kai solely kept his nose on Molang’s head, trying to calm his thoughts down. He felt that it was better to just let Yeonjun go on with what he was saying.

“Also, she has to go through this on her own… You wouldn’t want her to start depending on you just as a replacement for her ex right?” Those words made Kai freeze a bit.

“We should definitely take her out sometime… to help her distract herself, you know? But if you just stay with her, only you, all the time… it’s not gonna end well for either of you…” Yeonjun rubbed his chin, not knowing what else to say.

All he wanted was to protect both of his friends from a potential second heartbreak.

Kai slightly pulled away from Molang, chuckling.

“Since when did you become my therapist?” he asked in a light tone.

That made the elder scoff in surprise, bringing his thumb in his mouth.

“Speaking from personal experience…” he began, his jaw getting tense.

“Oh no… hyung I’m sorry…” Kai pouted, putting Molang away — next to him.

Out of nowhere, Yeonjun started making kissy faces and throwing his arms at him for a hug.

“This is why I don’t want my babie Hueningie to suffer okay?” It was very Yeonjun of him to do.

However it did take the poor boy aback and he got off the couch, trying to escape the elder’s arms.

“Hyung! I’m serious!” Kai whined, pushing Yeonjun away, despite his kiss attacks.

They both laughed it out, the situation being pretty silly. When Yeonjun had had enough of being pushed away by his friend, he sat back down, next to Kai.

That was when the latter suddenly spoke up.

“There are five stages of grief they say hm?” Yeonjun tilted his head, confused with Kai’s rhetorical question.

He just nodded, waiting for what he was about to say next.

“And Y/N has five friends… the five of us…” Kai added, looking at the elder who still did not understand a thing of what he was saying.

“Yeah…? And…?”

Kai solely smiled, and the little sparkle in his eyes seemed to reassure Yeonjun immediately.

“Hyung, please call the others. I have an idea.”

Today was Sunday, which meant tomorrow would be Monday — the first day of a busy week.

[cosmignon]

you may have talked about this before but i'm very curious how olivia got into the mix, both in fiction and in meta :0

also do you have any animals you associate with the squad? like not necessarily fursonas but if the shoe fits 🤔

also also, do their colors have significance to their personalities/names/etc? as someone who also has a set of color coded ocs i always love to see how folks decide what colors to put with each character :3

Olivia is a fascinating facet of the Stardust Scouts story because in zer earliest iterations ze was NOT such a major character like ze is now!!

Ze used to be this minor character in a scrapped arc about the Scouts going to Mars in order to confront an opposing, alien group of martian magical girls and get them to join their side in protecting the galaxy instead of trying to fight them on their home turf. This arc doesn't exist anymore, I think the opposing alien force is further away from Earth than that & are sending basically drone/scout enemies to Earth to try to conquer/destory it.

These were the original martians' designs! They have music associated with each of them because the main 4 Stardust Scouts were originally designed based on a "randomize your playlist and design a character based on the first 3 songs" prompt, so I figured the rival magic girl team should be inspired in the same way.

The conceit of the martian arc was that our MCs the Earth scouts would've used their magic to blend in with the martians w/disguises. Inversely, once the martians were on their side they would come visit Earth and wear their own disguises as well.

Can you guess which of these martians eventually became Olivia as we know zer? I will give you a hint

It's the one who's the obvious TAK from INVADER ZIM EXPY! YAAAY <3

Zer original role was the skeptic martian cleric/priest of the martian scouts, who was the most distrusting of the earth scouts having any good intentions, and I believe might've also had a toxic yuri thing going on with either the pink or blue martian.

All the other martians here never got developed much because Olivia, as the Tak Expy, meant ze had a lot of my favorite character design tropes going on and I wanted to specifically explore those more and ze became the obvious favorite haha. After that Zer role just kept increasing over time.

I think the most major development though was definitely when I decided ze could keep the toxic yuri energy originally planned for zer, but with One Of the Main Scouts instead... Tabitha and Olivia have HISTORY BABEY!!!!

(Fun Fact: My files say this was drawn Oct 2019, soooo... 1 month after the Steven Universe Movie came out. Spinel got her fingerprints all over this damn character, for real, she's one of my voice claims for zer)

This was the point where I decided Olivia was not an alien anymore, but a human who had been abducted BY aliens back when ze was a teenager and best friends with Tabitha. The both of them were private school goody two shoes with parents who put way too many expectations on them to get perfect grades. They would start breaking the rules a little bit by going out at night in the car Olivia got as a gift for good grades + passing zer drivers exam (important to note, Olivia used to go by she/her bc ze picked up new, alien genders while out in space)

The two sneaking out once in a while turned into most nights which culminated in the both of them being out in the woods when one of the Inciting Incident meteors with the Scouts' special magic maguffin rocks crashed nearby. Olivia was bolder than Tabitha at the time so ze investigated and got both magical girl powers and abducted by the enemy aliens who had been chasing the meteor at the same time. Tabitha was left absolutely shaken up and in the middle of a missing persons case where she couldn't tell anyone the truth of the matter bc it sounded absolutely batshit nuts.

This is information I give freely bc I don't really think it's worth hiding, but I know in the actual telling of The Story, The Stardust Scouts, this would all be information that was slowly handed out during the actual plot where Olivia initially serves as a disguised, alien general of the grunt forces being sent out to Earth. Ze's like, a hammy villain of the week that likes fucking with the Scouts because it's funny and ze Doesn't Respect Them.

Olivia doesn't recognize Tabitha at first bc he's changed so much over the years, transed her gender, stopped caring about things like school and grades. Tabitha also doesn't recognize Olivia bc ze is dressed in a full body suit, also transed zer gender, and Tabitha never thought he'd even see zer again. Spicy drama!!

Look at those dramatic fuckers... having feelings about rivalry and lost friendship and abandonment issues!! I should redraw the fake anime screenshot/do more of those sometime, those are always fun.

Also! This is an old design, but Olivia's main power when an antagonist is that ze can copy the powers of the other scouts and counter their attacks, meaning in the moments when the gang can fight zer one on one ze has the upper hand and can get away every time. I imagine then, that Olivia's main color scheme is very steely and grey when NOT using this copy cat ability, and ze doesn't have a sense of identiy beyond what ze can do for the aliens ze considers zer superiors.

Also! Also. Zer a jester/joker, since ze doesn't "fit" into the group's dynamic of being based on playing card suits.

EVENTUALLY, eventually, through a lot of monster of the week encounters, plot progression, and secrets revealed, Olivia's original identity would be uncovered and the team would convince zer to defect from zer alien captors, making zer a top level wanted deserter in the eyes of the big bad alien group (which I could talk abt another time).

Then Olivia gains a color of zer own, orange! Because the gang was always (in fiction) meant to be a team of 5, like the 5 points of a star! And colors of the rainbow/light spectrum, red orange green blue purple (yellow acts as a unifying accent color!).

To answer your question about the color meanings, I mostly assigned them originally based on vibes without too much through about specific symbolism. Plus I just like having characters all get one specific color, makes giving them outfits more enjoyable and fun for me. Like, you can see up above that Olivia (being Tak and all) originally had purple as zer main color. It took me a while to change that after I decided Savannah got purple instead, bc I was attached to how it looked. But orange felt like a good logical landing place. It's vibrant and fun and a little off the beaten path, again based on vibes.

Olivia starts off the story living among humans ""in disguise"" while plotting evil bad bitch things, and then after defecting ze just starts crashing at everyone's places while learning to really return to humanity in zer own way and hopefully make amends with the scouts for maybe sort of taking delight in fucking with them. Lol. Zer demeanor stays irreverent and annoying and punk throughout, even after zer turn to good/becoming the 5th ranger of the group, which makes zer a really fun character to think about and write.

[thetargaryenbride]

Nail To The Coffin - S3 - Chapter 1

Warnings: chasing, hitting 

Pairing: Steve Harrington x f!Byers!Reader

Word Count: 4560

A.N: So, season 3 begins. I warn you in advance, this season is gonna get freaky and dark haha Billy and reader's fate gets even more intertwined and lots of angst will follow. Hang in there, dearest readers. Also, WE CELEBRATE HITTING 100K WORDS 🤩🥳 As always, please do make me know if I’ve written certain characters OOC and if you think there is something that can be corrected within the story. Thank you for reading. Hope you like it! 🖤 🥀

Masterlist || S2, Chapter 9 || Chapter 2

Late June 1985, Starcourt Mall, Hawkins

“Alright, hang on a second,” chuckled Robin in disbelief. “You are serious about this? You actually have a girlfriend?”

“Uh, yeah?” Steve lifted his shoulders and furrowed his brows at Robin’s expression of pure cynicism.

“And we’re thinking and talking about the same person, right? Y/N Byers?”

“Yeah, since November. Why is this so hard to believe?” groaned the boy and Robin did a double-take.

“I don’t know, maybe-maybe because she is actually gorgeous and like, prodigy-level smart and you are…you,” she shot him something like a pitying expression and he glared.

“Thank you so much for the confidence boost.”

“Just sayin',” she shrugged before popping a spoonful of ice cream in her mouth and he let out a huff before closing the window in her face.

A couple of minutes ago, Steve had told Robin how excited he was that you were coming back from California and she decided to pull his leg. Of course, she knew you were his girlfriend. She had seen you two being all lovey-dovey at school on a couple of occasions. But she just loved messing around with her silly co-worker.  

Not even a minute later, repetitive ringing could be heard and Robin turned around and walked to the counter, rolling her eyes at the group of kids who were hitting the bell again and again.

“Hey, dingus!” she sing sang as she leaned on the counter. “Your children are here!”

“Again? Seriously?” asked Steve defeated as he slid open the window to look at the group and Mike shrugged.

He let out a long exhausted sigh but beckoned them in anyways, opening the backdoors to let them sneak into the staff hallways from where they could enter the cinema unnoticed. 

“I swear if anybody hears about this-“

“We’re dead!” they echoed at the same time and he shook his head before heading back inside and joining Robin up front at the counter. She sent him an ironic look and he grumbled under his breath.

“Excuse me? Can I order a U.S.S butterscotch sundae?” came in a familiar voice and Steve’s head snapped to look at the person, eyes widening in surprise.

“Y/N!” he all but shouted as his face lit up in excitement while Robin looked on with stupor as the boy pretty much threw himself around the counter and grabbed you by the waist, pulling you close and lifting you in the air to spin you around, making you erupt in giggles.

“Alright, alright. I missed you too! Now put me down,” you laughed and he set you down clumsily before capturing your lips in a kiss.

“Gosh, it feels like I haven’t seen you in ages,” he chuckled breathily and you shook your head.

“It’s only been a week…but I understand how you feel,” you shared knowing looks as you ran a hand through his hair, smoothing it back a bit.

“I can’t believe it…You were actually serious about this,” Robin interrupted the moment, making you both turn your heads to face her, bodies still flushed against each other, and you lifted an eyebrow at her perplexed expression. “You were telling the truth this whole time?!” she over-exaggerated with a slight smirk.

“What is she talking about?” you stammered in confusion as you looked at Steve and he rolled his eyes good-naturedly while you pulled away from his embrace.

“She didn’t believe me when I told her you’re my girlfriend,” he put a hand on his hip while the other he threw in frustration.

“I know that it’s hard to believe sometimes but Steve is more than what meets the eye,” you smiled brightly before extending your hand. “Y/N Byers. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Robin Buckley,” she accepted the handshake and smiled politely at you. “And for the record, I do believe you, dingus. I’m just messing with you,” she addressed him and he gave her the ‘Seriously?’ look, making you giggle.

“Look, I’m sorry to ask this of you but can you cover for me for a bit? Just for awhile, I promise,” asked Steve and the girl nodded.

“Go on, catch up with your girl,” she waved him off and he grinned before taking your hand and dragging you away.

“But I really wanted some ice cream,” you moaned and he halted in his step before rushing back behind the corner to scoop you some big balls of strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla ice cream and dump them in a cone, sprinkling it with some rainbow sprinkles and shoving two wafer sticks in the creamy substance before dashing back to your side and handing it to you. You shook your head at his antics before pecking his cheek and grasping his hand once again, the two of you walking away from his workplace and opting to take a walk through the mall.

“How was your week? What happened in LA? Hope everything went good,” inquired Steve and you hummed as you licked your ice cream.

“Everything was good. I went to UCLA, sorted out some documents and now everything is cemented. I’m starting October first.”

“That’s…great. It’s great!” he grinned but it didn’t reach his eyes and your smile faltered as you pulled him to a stop.

“Steve, I’m…I’m going to visit as often as possible. A-and once I establish myself there you can come visit me too! Maybe you can find a job in LA and that way we’ll be together!” you gave him a hopeful expression and he smiled at you.

“We’ll think it through.”

Suddenly, the power went out, showering the whole mall in darkness and you and Steve looked around in confusion, his grip on your hand tightening.

Not only a minute had passed when the power was turned back on and the two of you relaxed. After everything you’ve been through the past two years, things related to lighting always drew you on edge – be it flickering lights or the power going out. It was a hassle to deal with.

“Let there be light,” joked Steve and you chuckled. “So, what are your plans for the summer? Are you thinking of finding a place to intern at? Or getting a job at the mall?” he asked as you resumed your walking and you shook your head.

“Oh, heavens no. I have worked my ass off since I can remember and I kept working almost until graduation last month. I’ve saved enough money and I’m probably going to find a job in LA when I start uni so I’m thinking of resting until then.”

“That’s a good choice actually. I don’t want you overworking yourself. You totally deserve those couple months of rest after all the working and studying you did,” he nodded in agreement as he gesticulated with his free hand and you smiled. It was very sweet of him to support your decisions as he did. “Besides, we’ll get to spend more time together,” he smiled at you and you pecked his cheek.

The two of you walked around the mall some more, catching up for the missed week before Steve told you he had to finish his shift. You told him to go do his thing while you decided to browse some stores to pass the time.

.

You were currently in Jean Nicole’s, holding a hanger with a white frilly lace dress.    

“Try it on. If anyone can pull off that Bianca Jagger Studio fifty-four look, it’s you,” came in Steve’s voice, making you turn around to find him leaning against the wall admiring you. You put back the hanger and shook your head.

“It’s not gonna be the same without the doves,” you pointed out and he chuckled, uncrossing his arms and taking a couple of steps towards you. You looked him up and down, noticing the tight jeans and shirt that fit him like a glove and complimented every curve and muscle of his body.

He was hot and he was yours.

You curled your finger around his belt hoop and pulled him towards you, making him instinctively wrap his arms around your waist and pull you in for a kiss, smiling against your lips as he moved his against yours expertly.

“Wanna take that home?” he murmured and you nodded.

“With pleasure,” you spoke quietly against his lips and he smirked, letting out a breathy chuckle. 

You were curled by Steve’s side when you woke up, lips stretching in a smile when you felt his arms around you. You placed a kiss on his biceps and he grunted quietly as he stirred, waking up.

“Morning, sunshine,” you sang out as you turned in his arms so you could face him properly and his eyes fluttered open. You chuckled at his disheveled appearance and ran your hand through his hair to fix it up a bit before placing a kiss on his eyes and nose.

“Stop teasing,” he grumbled before kissing you lazily on the lips and you let out a breathy chuckle as you watched him slowly sit up and rub his neck.

“Well, aren’t you handsome, looking disheveled like that,” you winked and he jumped on top of you, making you squeal as he began peppering your face and neck with kisses. “Stop! It tickles!”

“Never!”

You don’t know how long you just wrestled and tickled and kissed each other but Steve suddenly stopped and you looked at him in confusion, trying to calm your breathing.

“What’s wrong?” you asked and then you saw that his eyes were locked on the scar on your left arm, causing your smile to falter slightly. “It’s ugly,” you muttered after a moment of silence and he scrunched up his forehead, glancing at you.

“What? No way. You look badass,” he stated firmly and you raised your brows.

“Really?” you whispered and he nodded before leaning down and kissing the scar, tracing his lips from the beginning to the end of it before he got lower and lower until he reached the side of your abdomen and began to gently plant kisses on the scarred tissue there. You let out a sigh of contentment as your hand buried in his messy locks, fingers gently caressing his head and sliding down to his neck where you scratched him lightly with your nails, making him shiver and let out a muffled moan.

His hands roamed over your thighs and climbed up and over your abdomen before he also pulled himself up to capture your lips once again.

“You’re beautiful just the way you are. All of you,” he muttered as he looked at you deeply and you smiled.

“And so are you,” your knuckles traced his cheek and he took your hand in his, kissing every finger before nuzzling in your palm. “Alright, lover boy, I hate to break it to you but we gotta run. I have to go home and change clothes. Then I and the others will be going to surprise a certain someone because he’s coming back from summer camp,” you told the boy and his face lit up in realization.

“Henderson!” he exclaimed and you nodded with a smile. “Damn, I missed this boy.”

“I suppose you’ll see him after work…for which you have to prepare to go to…like, now,” you reminded him and his eyes widened as he shot out of bed and ran to his bathroom.

You and Steve parted ways after you freshened up and got dressed. He headed for the mall while you went home to change your clothes and pick up Will. You had your breakfast before you and your brother headed for the Henderson residence, sneaking inside with Claudia’s permission and secrecy. She said she’d skip to the store for some grocery shopping, leaving the whole house to you.

“Alright, I think now’s the time,” you whispered and El nodded before closing her eyes and suddenly, all toys came to life and began marching down the hallway with Dustin following after them fearfully until they came to a stop in the living room and he crouched to inspect them while you snuck behind him.

Everyone blew up the party horns except you who simply shouted “Welcome home!”

Dustin however got startled and he screeched to the high heavens while spraying the Farrah Fawcett spray in Lucas’ direction, getting him in the eyes. It was very comical how the two of them screamed while the rest of you scrunched up your faces in sympathy and tried to hold back your laughter.

“What the hell, guys! Are you trying to kill me!?” yelled the boy as he breathed heavily while lowering the spray.

“Are you!?” wheezed Lucas as he rubbed his eyes with his forearm and Max snorted before grabbing him by the elbow and dragging him towards the kitchen to help him wash his face.

“We just wanted to surprise you,” you chuckled as you went to hug the boy and he let out a long exhale, returning the hug.

“Come on! I have something to show you guys!” exclaimed the boy.

“You guys have fun. I gotta run, though,” you informed them and Dustin frowned.

“Already?”

“I promise I’ll come back later. I just have a couple of stops to make, is all,” you ruffled his hair and he sighed dejectedly but nodded nonetheless. “See you guys later,” you bid them goodbye as you hugged Will and El simultaneously, placing kisses on their heads, before heading out of the house and jumping in your car, driving off towards the pool.

Late November 1984 (a couple of days before your confrontation with Neil)

“Hey,” you called after Billy once you saw him walking towards his car after school. The boy halted in his step and turned to face you, not saying anything. “I wanted to…talk.”

“So they didn’t sew your big mouth at the hospital?” he took a final drag of his cigarette before sharply plucking it out of his mouth and throwing it on the ground. When you just stood there, looking everywhere but him, fidgeting, he let out a sigh. “I’m just joking. Don’t get your panties in a twist.”

“Right,” you chuckled awkwardly. “Of course. Um,” you cleared your throat as you approached the boy and handed him a small wrapped present. He looked at it then back at you and lifted a brow. “I never got to thank you. For bringing me to the hospital and all.”

“I’m pretty sure lover boy was gonna do it either way if I hadn’t knocked him out,” he snorted.

“Yeah, well, that’s true. I should be angry that you beat him up. Frankly, I still am a bit salty about it but I think it’s best if we let bygones be bygones,” you smiled as you handed him the gift and he hesitantly took it off your hand, tearing the paper more gently than you thought he was capable of.

“Is this,” he drawled as his eyes widened and you nodded, smile growing.

“Deep Purple’s newest album, Perfect Strangers, yes,” you responded. “I know how much you love rock, I mean the whole school knows with how you’re always blasting it, so...”

“Thank you.”

That was the first time when you ever saw Billy Hargrove smile genuinely with eyes full of gratitude. It was the first time you’ve seen him show a kind side of himself. You didn’t count the moment of vulnerability during that summer party because he was drunk and delirious back then. Now he was sober and he showed some normalcy. So he did have a good side and it made you wonder what exactly did he go through that made him choose to act the way he did?

And that was the moment when you decided to stop rolling your eyes at him or feeling annoyed every time you saw him and instead try to worm your way into his heart by being kinder to him, secretly hoping that one day he’d start showing more of that good side. 

You pushed open the door and set foot back outside, mindful not to step in any puddles or slip. You saw the boy at his chair, overlooking the pool and you lifted an arm, waving at him. That picked his attention and he straightened up in his seat before climbing down and strolling towards you in that typical Billy walk.

“Fancy seeing you here, Byers,” he greeted you and you smiled.

“I don’t want to bother you while you’re working so I just came by to set a meeting for tomorrow instead.”

“Meeting? Tomorrow? What for?” he arched an eyebrow in curiosity.

“Well, Max’s birthday is coming soon so I intend on doing some shopping. And you’re coming with me,” you informed him and he huffed.

“Is that a threat?”

“If you consider spending time shopping with a friend for your sister’s birthday a threatening experience, then sure,” you quipped and he rolled his eyes.

“You’re not my friend,” he drawled. “And she’s not my sister.”

“Oh, c’mon. Just break that pride of yours a tad bit more, will ya? Do something nice for Max. She deserves it,” you gave him a look and he let out a tormented exhale.

“Alright, fine,” he agreed after a while. “I’ll come pick you up tomorrow and we’ll go to the mall. Happy?” he grumbled and you grinned.

“Very much so!”

“Aight, now get outta my sight,” he waved his hand dismissively and you waved at him before whirling and leaving.

What you learned about Billy after getting the chance to hang out with him on a couple of occasions, and after discovering the way his father treated him, was that he was a grumpy person who was angry at life, angry at the world, and everything happening in his life was a pure torment, corroding him on the inside. You learned that this was the reason why he acted like a jerk most of the time and why he bullied some people – because he wanted everyone else to feel as bad as he did, so he could not be alone in this torment. It was a very toxic coping mechanism but there were people who weren’t as lucky as you and your brothers were and found bad ways to cope with trauma, falling victim to toxic behaviors and patterns. Such kind of people needed help – to be shown kindness, love, and that things could be done otherwise, that there are other coping mechanisms. Billy was one of these people. And you knew that there was goodness deep down, buried under this tough act he was pulling in order to protect himself from being hurt over and over and all those months you never stopped digging for it, trying to bring it to the surface.

The change wasn’t that big, particularly considering that it’s been only a couple of months, and you kept reminding yourself that “Rome wasn’t built in a day”. But what mattered was that he did change, even if it was by a bit, and you considered it progress.

A step forward.

You could only hope that he would keep on changing and would become the good person you knew he had the capability of being. Not only for his own sake but for Max’s sake because she deserved a good older brother who cared for her.

So you were beyond happy that he agreed to accompany you and pick a gift for her. You were sure that this would definitely contribute to their strengthening bond as siblings.

One good thing you picked on was that he didn’t correct you as often as he used to. Months ago, when you or someone else would call Max his sister, he would immediately cut them off and correct them, rejecting her as sister and saying she was only a ‘step-sister’. But he rarely did that nowadays which gave you hope that he was beginning to accept Max as a sister more and more.

You were excited and hopeful for the change in dynamics and what was to come.

You were excited for this summer.

“Aw, honey, you look amazing,” complimented Joyce as she stopped in her tracks to give you a look and you smiled, thanking her.

You were currently wearing a creamy-colored, frilly sun dress with flowy off-shoulder sleeves that reached your elbows. You had opted for the “elvish” hairstyle as Will called it – braiding front locks into small braids and pinning them on the back of your head while leaving some strands to hang over your ears. You didn’t put much makeup besides some lip gloss and blush because the temperatures were so high you felt like your face would melt within the first couple minutes of stepping outside.

“Are you going on a date with Steve?” she asked knowingly as she adjusted the laundry basket in her hands and you nodded.

“Yes, we’re going out.”

“What plans do you guys have? Or is it a secret?”

“We’re actually planning on going to the Hideaway because Eddie’s band will be playing there tonight and we want to support him,” you informed her with a smile and she returned it.

“It’s lovely how the two of them are friends now, considering they couldn’t stand each other before.”

“Well, sometimes they still get irritated when they’re in the same company but there’s been significant progress for the past two years,” you chuckled as you put down the bottle of perfume you had sprayed yourself with when the phone rang, startling you and Joyce. “I’ll take it,” you told her as you marched to the device and answered it while she returned to her room to leave the dry laundry.

“Hello?”

“Y/N?”

“Billy!?” you gasped, furrowing your eyebrows in confusion as to why he was calling you. “Is everything ok?”

“I…I need to see you…now,” he said flatly and you blinked astounded.

“Did something bad happen?”

“Can you meet me at the graveyard?”

“The graveyard? Now? I mean…I have a date so whatever it is you want…help with? Will have to be fast, ok?” you asked but the only thing you heard was a hum before the line went dead, leaving you with more questions than answers.

“Everything ok?” inquired Joyce as she returned to the living room and you shrugged.

“I actually don’t know. Um, a friend called and…It seemed like an emergency. I do have some more time before the date so I’ll go check what’s going on.”

“Ok, honey, be careful and have a great evening,” she gave you a peck on the cheek and you ran out of the house and into your car.

Not long after, you were parking by the cemetery and getting out. It was dark and scary and for some reason the air around here felt a bit more chilly, causing a shiver to run down your spine as you slowly walked further into the graveyard, looking for your friend.

“Billy?” you called out when you saw a familiar figure and he turned to face you, chest heaving, hair disheveled, face sweaty and bloody. He looked like death. “What happened!?” you exclaimed as you sprinted to him and looked him over with wide eyes, hands going to grasp his upper arms.

“I don’t know,” he let out breathlessly. “I-I feel like I’m losing my shit, Byers,” he smiled sardonically before it faltered back to a frown and he bit his lip as his eyes darted elsewhere.

“Listen…whatever it is, I will help you, ok? But we have to go to the hospital, Billy, those injuries are just…What happened?”

“I don’t know what happened!” he snapped and you flinched. “I can’t explain it. I don’t,” he rubbed his face in frustration. “I don’t even know why the fuck I called you! There’s-there’s something inside me that-“ he choked on whatever words he wanted to spill out and let out a pained grunt as his hands flew to grasp his head. 

“Billy, you’re scaring me. Tell me what’s wrong,” he shook his head as he bent over in pain and let out ragged breaths and pained groans through clenched teeth and shut eyes. Your hand went to grab his arm again while the other rubbed his back soothingly as you slightly bent to try and get a better look. “Billy, talk to me!”

His body leaned and slumped against yours, your hands instantly flying to catch him. He shook and sobbed against you and you just hugged him closely, his head buried in your collarbone.

“I’m sorry,” he sobbed out and tears gathered in your eyes at seeing such a strong, unwavering boy like Billy completely break in your arms.

“It’s ok,” you breathed out. “It’s ok, I got you. It’s ok,” you whispered as you rubbed his back and held him before he slightly pulled away.

But there was something strange in his look this time. His pupils were dilated and he was looking at you void of emotion. You felt like someone threw cold water on you as you watched him take a step backward and lift his arm and before you could react, he backhanded you so hard that you stumbled and fell on the ground, knees and arms grazing painfully on the stone. You groaned as you turned to look at him.

“What is wrong with you!?” you yelled but your voice died out when you saw him take a step towards you, making you crawl away and use a gravestone as support to help you stand up. You didn’t hesitate to sprint away and your heart beat rapidly when you heard his thumping footsteps right behind you.

You ran for your car, wanting nothing more than to get in and drive away. But just when you were a couple of steps away from the vehicle, your chance at running away was crushed like an ant by a boot when you saw Billy standing there, blocking your path.

You almost stumbled and tripped in your haste to stop yourself from running right into his arms and quickly changed directions, running back inside the cemetery. You threw yourself on the ground behind a gravestone and tried to calm your ragged breathing as you heard the shuffling of footsteps come closer and closer.

“You can’t hide from me, Y/N…I see you,” his uncharacteristically monotonous voice drawled uncomfortably close and you dashed from your hiding place once again. 

And then you felt him grab your hair and pull, bringing you to a sudden stop and making you gasp in pain as you fell back against his chest. His one arm encircled your body to keep you in place while the other wrapped around your neck tightly, immediately cutting off your air supply. You struggled against him and tried to free your arms and kick with your legs but he was too strong.

You managed to headbut him and he let out a groan, his grip loosening. That allowed you to slither under his arms and fall to the ground. Just when you lifted part of your body up, in hopes of running away again, he grabbed you by the leg and pulled, bringing you back down and at his feet.

The last thing you felt was a harsh blow to your head and then everything went black.

[cainluvr69]

Let Me Tell You The Story Of A Rainbow - Chapter 10

Previous Chapter

Aslan: No, that would be…the world that she sees.

Akira: Huh…?

I abruptly recalled what Snow and White had told me. The creatures depicted in the picture book we received do exist in reality, but they aren't seen very often--phantoms.

Akira: …I was told that the wonderland she draws and writes about is one that even very powerful wizards don't get to lay eyes on very often. Is it really…something Miss Luca can see?

Aslan: Yes, it is. It's really something beyond what you and I can try to imagine, isn't it? …She's always had the power to see such things, even before she knew how to differentiate it from what was actually in front of her. We can't see the things she does, but to her, that wonderland has always been right before her eyes. She can see sea-green clouds in the sky, the ripples across a pink lake, strange plants and odd flowers swaying in the breeze, and she can smell their fragrant perfumes…

Akira: …And the fluttering rainbow-colored butterflies, and those animals running across the hills, too…?

Aslan: Yes. Everything about that landscape is the "reality" that's reflected in her eyes.

Akira: Why are you so confident she can see it? I mean, it's not like you can see it too…

Aslan: Haha, well, funny you should mention that. To tell you the truth, at first I actually just assumed that all wizards could see the things she could. That all of them could see strange and wonderful things that we humans could not. Luca was the first wizard I'd ever met, you see. She would talk happily about things I couldn't see, and painted the world I could see, but in completely different colors… She turned what she saw into art and turned it into a story, and that let us see it, too. It's always very exciting for me, to be honest.

I could hear the timbre of honesty in Aslan's voice as he very calmly recounted all of this to me. The way he talked reminded me of a little kid attracted to the mystique of things yet unknown.

Aslan: Ultimately, though, I wasn't very surprised when I found out later that it's actually a very rare talent. Luca is loved by the world that she sees. And when I see that world in her art and in her writings, it really feels like those plants and animals are things that she lives alongside. Like an author who only writes stories about their hometown. It's that kind of familiarity.

But despite how happily Aslan seemed as he talked, I could see a faint shadow of worry in his eyes, too.

Aslan: But…even though for her, it's something she's seen since the day she was born, the average person isn't going to understand that. When she talked about the world she saw, she was treated like she was lying or trapped in delusions, so she was ostracized for being "unpleasant", and…it seems she was treated very cruelly…

I'm sure it was just my imagination that his voice cracked a little. I imagined what it would be like if I couldn't share the things I could see and reach out and touch with the other people around me. I thought of the girl in question and how she seemed scared of something, her eyes downcast and her heart closed off to outsiders, and my chest clenched painfully.

Akira: Um… What about her parents? She's still just a little girl, so does she at least have a home to return to…?

Aslan: I don't have all the details, but as far as I'm aware, she doesn't have any relatives. I first encountered her while I was visiting Eastern Country to look for new pieces of art to add to our collection, and took her into my care. At the time, she wasn't…she was obviously in a bad state, to put it delicately. …I think the choice I made back then was the correct one, but I also think that I was the lucky one in regards to our meeting.

Akira: …Huh?

Aslan: Because I was the one who was charmed by that rare talent of hers.

His amber eyes, so straightforward in their gaze, with no falsities or hesitation clouding them, were the same color as the warmth of the sun.

Aslan: When I first found her, all she had to her name were a thin stack of papers and pen made from the branch of a tree. A breeze caught some of her papers and even though it was only a glimpse of that world, my heart was still gripped. It was truly beautiful… It overflowed with a strange charm that to this day I still haven't seen in anything else. It was like…like a baring of the soul. That sort of beauty. At first I tried to tell her that--or rather, I did tell her that, quite enthusiastically--but she didn't accept any of my praise. She had spent so long on her own, unable to trust anyone, that her heart refused to listen to what I was saying.

Aslan closed his eyes, lost in his reminiscence, and then he slowly took a deep breath.

Aslan: She is as gentle and delicate as the world she illustrates. I want to show the world her world. I want everyone to know who she is.

Akira: …I'm sure you'll be able to do it. Once they open the cover of one of her books, they'll immediately find themselves captivated. That's what happened to me. And not just me, either. Everyone in the manor, both the young wizards and the ones that had lived for centuries, was captivated by the world in Miss Luca's book.

Aslan: Oh… Thank you so much! I'm hoping this exhibition lets a lot of people get exposed to her work so she can have more confidence in herself. That's why…

???: Kyaa…!!

There was a sudden loud noise and a scream that followed it.

Aslan: That was Luca's voice…!

The words were hardly out of Aslan's mouth before he was off like a shot, with me close behind.

✦✧☾✧✦

As soon as we arrived at the picture book display, we saw a small someone crouched in its center…Luca. Rutile was next to her, his arms around her trembling shoulders, and Heathcliff was crouched down with her, too.

Akira: Rutile, Heathcliff! What happened?

Now that I could get a better look at them, I saw a largish book next to Luca. It had fallen open, and I could see something that looked like ivy reaching out of the pages, squirming like worms across the floor.

Aslan: Oh, Luca… Did it happen again…?

Luca: N…no.

She shook her head, voice quiet. Her eyes were shaky and unfocused--she looked terribly upset.

Heathcliff: Um… She didn't do anything wrong. Rutile and I just startled her on accident.

Rutile: We saw her holding one of the books and called out to her, and that surprised her so much that she dropped it. That's all that happened. Isn't that right, Luca?

Luca: …

Suddenly, everything seemed to start to glitter, like a mirage in the desert. Rainbow-colored scales, like those from a moth's wing, danced through the air around Luca even though there were no wings for them to fall from.

Luca: …Roxy.

Luca's words were barely more than a whisper as she stared blankly at…nothing. There was nothing there.

Akira: (…Roxy?)

Aslan knelt down next to Luca and gently rubbed her back.

Aslan: I'm not going to be upset with you, Luca. Take a deep breath and calm down. Everything's going to be fine. Your exhibit is going great. There's nothing you need to be worried about, because I'm right here with you. Your world is going to make everyone happy. I promise.

Luca said nothing, her eyes on the floor, her small mouth pressed into a tight line. But once Aslan put his big hand on top of her head and gently stroked her hair, Luca's shoulders drooped in something like relief.

Aslan: She's very close to finishing a new work, so I imagine she's a bit tired. This is the first time she's done a public exhibition of her work, so we've both been a bit on edge, too…

Aslan looked at the vines creeping out of the book that had fallen to the floor, and took a breath. Luca's delicately fine silver hair swayed as she leaned closer to Aslan, but she said nothing.

Heathcliff: …We wizards use magic with our hearts. So when our hearts are in turmoil, our magic starts getting unstable, and we can't cast spells as well as we normally can.

Aslan: Magic comes from…the heart…?

Heathcliff: Yes. I've had times where I'm so worked up that I can't use my magic well, too…

Heathcliff smiled a little bit as he spoke, his words as gentle as a spring breeze. His voice was overflowing with kindness.

Akira: …I know how it feels when you're so anxious your heart starts to harden. I can't do things the way I want, and I start getting all worked up… That's how it is for me, a human, and I know it's even worse for those of us who need their hearts at peace to use their magic. For example…I was horribly nervous when I was first pulled into this world and didn't know a thing about anything. And the reason I was able to finally relax and pull myself together was all thanks to that blonde boy there.

Heathcliff: Do…you mean me?

Akira: Yeah. When I was facing my very first morning in the manor, we made ojiya for breakfast together… You gave me some sugar, and just like that, my heart calmed itself right down.

Heathcliff: Oh… Right, I remember that. That really takes me back. I'm a little bit embarrassed, but I'm still happy to hear you say that, Master Sage.

Luca: ……Sugar?

The word that fell from Luca's peach-pale lips was a hope sweeter than honey. Even as she continued to cling to Aslan's suit, she turned her wide eyes to us, peeking through her bangs.

Rutile: Put out your hand, Luca.

Rutile's smile was the perfect gentle invitation--Luca hesitantly held out one hand, fingers spread out like a maple leaf. Rutile pressed one finger to her palm and drew it over her skin, leaving little stars of sugar in its wake.

Luca: …!

Aslan: Woah, it appeared out of nowhere…! Was that…magic?

Rutile: Yes. Wizards can't create something from nothing, but our sugar is made from our magic. So, Miss Luca. If you eat this, it'll make you feel better and help your heart ground itself again. You look like you're not feeling too well, but I'm sure it'll help with that, too.

Luca: This is…sugar…

Shino: What, you're a wizard and don't even know that?

I turned towards the sound of a familiar voice, and saw Shino, who'd walked up next to me without me noticing. I saw Arthur, Mithra, and Murr, too--they must have heard Luca's scream and come to see what had happened.

Luca: …It looks like little tiny stars. I can eat them?

Rutile: Yep. They're all yours!

Akira: It's very sweet and delicious.

Luca: …

She stared at the sugar in her hand with her big, lavender eyes. She was hesitant but at the very same time, she was curious. And then…all of a sudden a long arm reached out and stole the sugar right out of Luca's palm.

Akira & Rutile & Heathcliff: ?!

Mithra: Crunch.

Akira: M--Mithra…!

Next Chapter

[insomniac-astronomer]

Can I request a fic ? Kate bishop x reader or Kamala Khan x reader? Maybe angsty and then fluff? Anything is fine though haha

She/her pronouns :)

Okayy thanks

sincerely anon

Kate Bishop x Reader: Ice Cream?

I'm DYING to do a Kate Bishop story!!!!

I've been so burnt out, I'm sorry I missed like a whole week of flufftober.

Description: Kate talks about how she's finally going to ask her crush out. Reader has a crush on her, though. Angst w/ fluff ending :)

Gender: fem! She/her used

WARNINGS: idk being sad for a bit, crying

It's a young avengers fic.

*not my gif*

"I'm gonna tell her today." Kate smiles.

"Finally!" America yells.

"About time." Kamala rolls her eyes.

Kate has been talking about this girl for weeks. All of the Avenger family dinner conversations were about her. The only problem: you had a huge crush on Kate. Each time she mentioned this "mysterious girl," a little piece of your heart shattered.

"Ooo, Kate's gonna have a giiiirrrlfrrrriieeend." Tommy sings and Billy smacks his shoulder to get him to shut up.

"You should make a sign and stand outside of her house with flowers." Cassie says.

"That feels a little extreme," Kate replies warily.

"No, it's romantic." America says.

"I'm just going to ask her if she wants to grab ice cream." Kate says. "Nothing crazy."

"Does she like ice cream?" Kamala asks.

"Yes she likes ice cream." Kate glares at her.

Kamala puts her hands up in defense. "I'm just saying, she could be lactose intolerant."

"Ice cream is her favorite food." Kate rolls her eyes. "I'm not stupid."

"Aw, you know her favorite food?" America coos. Kate chooses not to respond.

You like ice cream, too.

"What do you think about that idea, Y/N?" Cassie asks you.

You push down the burning pain in your throat. "I think it's cute."

"I still like flowers," she grumbles.

"Ice cream is a better idea." Morgan jumps in.

"Why?" Cassie shoots back.

"Cause I know who it is." Morgan smirks.

"What?!" America shouts.

"That's not fair!" Kamala backs her up. "Why does Morgan get to know?"

"Because Morgan won't tell anyone else about her, or so I thought." Kate growls.

"Relax," Morgan rolls her eyes. "I'm not gonna tell them who it is."

💫

You lay on your bed, silent tears rolling down your face. You have a random TV show running in the background, and all the lights off except for one lavender-scented candle.

You are clutching onto your stuffed animal (which only was brought here because of Kamala's "sleeping pillow"). You know it's stupid to be crying over one person like this. You're an Avenger for crying out loud! And yet Kate has you crying like a baby.

There is knock on your door.

You wipe your tears away and gather yourself. Your eyes never go red when you cry, so no one ever knows as long as the tears are gone.

You open the door and Kate is standing there. You notice she is nervously wringing her hands together.

"Hello?" You ask, keeping your voice surprisingly steady.

"Hi." Kate says and then groans, hiding her face in her hands. "I'm sorry, I'm so awkward. Would you want to go get ice cream?"

You stand there, shocked for a moment.

"Oh, my god, I knew this was a bad idea. I'm sorry-"

"No!" You stop her rambling. "I would love to go. I just . . . didn't know you were talking about- me."

"Really? I thought I gave it away when I said 'her favorite food is ice cream'!"

You shake your head harshly. "I still thought you were talking about someone else!"

"No! I'm sorry!" Kate laughs. "Were you crying?"

Your eyes widen. "Why do you ask?"

"You have a tear," she sets her hand against your neck and brushes away a tear on your cheek that you must have missed. The action makes you blush. "Can I give you a hug? I didn't mean to make you upset."

You accept the hug. Muffled by her shoulder, you say "you didn't upset me, it's okay."

"Well, I'm not going to make you cry again. Now, let's go get ice cream!"

You smile widely and giggle. "Okay."

Thx for reading, don't steal. I'm finally not as burnt out as I have been the rest of the week, sry.

Buy me a coffee?

[sizhuyu]

Hewo! Are request open? Can I ask for a fluff one with a female reader x Lan Zhan: who is very kind and optimistic most of the time. Very hard working and Wen Chao comes one day and says something very hurtful to her and she ends up crying for the first time in front of Lan Zhan. Maybe causing him to enter protective mode? (I just love how caring Lan Zhan is 🥺)

Thank you so much!

Man, I haven't done any for these for awhile... Well, I'll be posting very much less and probably more about other things. ( I regret everything i've drawn or written on this blog ) anyways, here is your request dear anon :

How Dare You

"Lan Zhan!" You wave your hand at him and he nods his head, his face remains the same but his golden eyes seem to express more than what his face shows. You flash him a bright smile and Wen Chao sees this. He rolls his eyes and turn to a servant girl from the Nie clan and wanders off to "greet" her.

You walk excitedly to Lan Zhan and give a bow. "Nice weather today isn't it? Lan Qiren and your brother instructed me to tell you to come to the library and help us with the new scrolls." His gentle eyes look left and right then he nods his head and gives a small smile, barely noticeable, but you can tell. You both walk to the Library Pavilion while having a nice chat. You notice Wen Chao from a distance with one of your friends from the Nie clan. "..Lan Zhan, uhmm.. I'll be back go to the Library without me tell Xichen-ge and your Shufu i'll be a bit late." We all know Wen Chao is very infamous, probably black listed from dating like Jiang Cheng. He reaches out his hand but you run towards your friend, you know you are breaking a rule but you hear her screams the more you run towards them. Lan Zhan goes to the Library and decides to help out first and he'll go to you later.

"Wen Chao!" You shout, another rule broken but you could care less when you saw your friend crying and her clothes ripped.

"Hah? Who are- OH! You're that girl, Y/N right? Haha who knew you'd be such a beauty..."

"Let go of her."

"Only if you'll come with me in her stead hehe.."

"I said.."

You grab his wrist and drop the outer layer of your clothes and give it to your friend.

"Let. Go."

He winces in pain and releases your friend's wrist from his grasp, you tell your friend to run and call Lan Wangji and where he is. She fixes your cloak on her and runs off to the Library.

"You think you're stronger than me because you train with that young Lan?! I thought you were so positive and cant hurt a fly. Guess the runors were wrong about you."

"I dislike people like you. I wouldn't treat you the same as others knowing your personality."

"Hah! What makes me so special? Do you like me?"

"In your dreams."

You throw him to the ground and step on him, eyes full of anger. He coughs out blood while you stomp on him more.

"Disgusting bastard."

Few moments later he passed out, you began to walk to the dorms and clean yourself but when you got out..

"Be careful, she isn't who we think she is.."

"I heard she bullies other people for her own amusement.."

"Disgusting whore."

More profanities blabbered out and the more personal they were the more they hurt. You just wanted to cry out that isn't what they think, that isn't the full story, that it's unfair for everyone to come up with stories and false rumors.. But alas, what can you do? You don't even have a quarter of the people on your side.

"Unjust words."

People turn towards the voice and it was Lan Wangji, your friend.

"Can you prove those true?"

Everyone stays silent for awhile and he turns to you, silently crying. His eyes widen and he glares at everyone.

"L-let's go!.."

They all ran away while you burst out in tears, why were people always assuming? Why were people who knew you would never do such believe those rumors? Why doesn't anybody believe you? Is it because you are a girl or your social standing? Why can't they sit and think, you aren't like that. Why? Why..

"Y/N."

Lan Wangji puts a hand on your back and you look up at him.

"Ah, I'm fine. I'm fine no worries! Uhm.. How is the library?"

He frowns and sighs.

"It is all taken care of."

"Great! I have to check on my friend-"

"She's fine."

"Ah that's great then! I feel quite bad I didn't to help you..."

"It's alright, you aren't fine."

He wipes a tear from your face.

"Don't believe them."

"Haha I won't."

"Mn, good."

He extends his hand to you.

"Let's go."

"Yep!"

[fatuismooches]

Fontaine Archon Quest Act 1 + 2 Spoilers beneath the cut!!! 👾 anon and 🎺 anon i responded to you here :) (Also lots of talking about Arlie because I LOVE HER)

I've also gone through Lyney and Lynette's character stories/voice lines regarding Arlecchino (and a rough translation of Freminet's) and I completely agree! To be completely honest she seems more nicer than I thought she'd be. Of course, she's still strict and evil but she still has standards and seems to care for the siblings to some extent. One of the lines I found most interesting was "Perhaps the most amazing aspect of Lyney's Founding Day magic show was its ability to have even "Father" lay down her heavy burden and enjoy a brief moment of familial love." I didn't expect her to have such a close connection with the siblings. Plus, when she denied giving Lyney a Delusion and also allowed Lynette to keep a box of cats? Loved that. She can be cruel and mean but she does have some sort of heart left. Not to mention Arlie's confirmed to be from Fontaine. I hope we learn her real name soon! Totally with you there with her being soft only for reader ❤️ She has the ability to be kind but expresses it in perhaps an unconventional way. Even when she's being soft she doesn't know exactly how to act. Really looking forward to her in-game appearance!!

HELP I WAS ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE😭😭 Saved for months with absolutely no regrets. Currently saving for Arlie as well! I wish you luck on your primogem saving ❤️❤️

FR I LOVE THE SIBLINGS SOOO MUCH 😭💖💖 (Freminet was robbed of screentime though) AND YES ARLECCHINO I LOVE HER 😭 Ugh I can totally imagine that <3 Arlie shows her kindness in a stern and strict way but you're the complete opposite. You can't fathom being cold to these little cuties! You're the affectionate one and while Arlie does scold you a bit about spoiling them too much she can't get too mad because at least you can handle all the mushy stuff which she cannot do very well. I'm now brainrotting about the kids seeing you and Arlie argue and becoming scared for your relationship and trying to get the two of you to reconcile 😭 I'm literally bouncing in excitement for 4.1 i want to see her so bad!!

Moving on to me just talking about the quests. Did anyone else feel a bit upset at Traveler for how they treated Lyney and Lynette at the end?? I did considering everything the twins went through. I understand the Traveler not trusting the Fatui but they were literally holding onto Childe's Vision in that moment?😭 Besides that little piece, these two Archon quests were really solid and lots of fun. Was also surprised how many serious topics were put into it too. Usually they leave the dark stuff for side/world quests.

Navia. Definitely an amazing character i loved her in the quests. Really beautiful, great personality, and i love her two bodyguards. Her voice while yelling at Neuvillette was really raw 🥺 Also loving Furina a lot. I didn't expect her to be insecure of herself. Seems like her confidence is just a facade for her people's sake. Y'all already know how I feel about Neuvillette haha i didn't expect him to be so emotional but I'm loving him so much! (I love everyone lemme just stop repeating myself 😭)

But damn being dissolved into water is so grim 😭 Imagine just being Fontanian and all of a sudden you learn you could simply dissolve and no one would ever know. I'd literally be so scared that i could die at any time 😭

EDIT: I CANT BELIEVE I FORGOT TO TALK ABOUT CHILDE IM SO DONE. IM SO SORRY CHILDE LOVERS I GOT TOO SWEPT BY ARLIE. Anyway. Childe was so freaking cute. He is the kind of guy who would tell you every little detail no matter how minuscule it is about his siblings. Teucer told him about something that happened to him? Okay now you're getting the same story but more drawn about and longer because Childe can't help babbling about his family.

I know people are clowning on Childe for getting beat by Neuvillette but give my man some credit 😭 He managed to scratch A DRAGON THATS IMPRESSIVE OKAY.

[kaitaiga]

CoD MW OC: Captain Lachlan Jones

G'day everyone! Today I can *finally* introduce you to my second oc, Lachlan! This post will serve as his profile and what not so I hope you like him and look forward to seeing more of him soon! (ᵔᴥᵔ)

*click for better quality!

Edit: also, just realised I forgot his sidearm. Gave him the mags but no gun to go with it HAHA 🤦🏻‍♀️ I’ll add it in soon.

Profile under the cut!

Basics

Name: Lachlan Jones

Nickname(s): Lachie/Lockie, Jonsie, Cap, Boss, old fuck.

Birthday: 1982, aged 40 (2022) in Perth, WA.

Nationality: Australian

Face Claim: Henry Cavill

Height: 194cm

Weight: 96kg

Occupation: 2nd Commando Regiment, B Squadron.

Rank: Captain

Call Signs: Bravo 0-6

Family: Talullah Jones (wife), two children – two daughters, Ava (13) and Mia (8).

Appearance: Brown hair, green eyes, chevron moustache + stubble, thin scar across the left eye that splits into two all the way down to collar bone, large rose tattoo on right side of neck.

Accessories: AMCU Operator cap with Aus patch, Oakley Batwolf sunglasses worn backwards on his head.

Personality and Traits

Look overall once you’ve got to know him a bit and have a few chats, he’s a pretty chill guy, easy-going. Loves a bit of chat or whinge every now and then over a few drinks. You wouldn’t know this at first though since he looks so done with everything and everyone in conjunction with his gruff voice constantly sighing or telling people to go fuck themselves.

In reality, if you catch him at a time when he’s not busy, he’ll be happy enough to have a chat with you (as long as you don’t get on his nerves), same applies for everyone else in the unit. Just for fun, I see him as a guy who likes listening to drama even though he says otherwise - “I don’t have time to care about stuff like that” as he recalls the info the next day.

Though don’t get me wrong, he can lash out quite easily thanks to his developing anger issues after being in the military for so many years as well as family issues I suppose…but he tries his best to control it and is seeking help over it, for the sake of himself and being a good role-model to others and his children.

Speaking of his unit, he can be an absolute hardass on them, putting them through the worse of the worse scenarios so that they’re prepared for anything as well as being an outstanding solider on the field. He just wants them to have the best chance of survival out on field, and all while being one of the oldest members in the unit, shares his many years of experience with them. In short: when training or on operations, he shows little to no mercy on his men, will yell and scream at them to get on top of their shit, and if they don’t, suffer consequences later.

With that being said, he just cares a lot for them like they’re his own, especially the more time they’ve taken to grow and work together. He will check in on them and see how they’re doing like mentally since he knows how taxing this job is on the mind. Sometimes when they’re back in Australia, he’ll take some of them out on trips (like fishing or like driving to a nice Airbnb somewhere) or to grab food.

Pre-MW

Lachlan was born in Perth, WA to his father (who was an ex-SASR solider) and his mother who was a primary school teacher. His upbringing was pretty standard, not much to comment on, went through school pretty smoothly and was in the Aus Army Cadets in high school.

The start of his military career started when he was young. His father was still in the SASR for majority of his childhood and so when he wasn’t on deployment, he would take Lachlan to base a lot, showing him the various equipment, medals and even letting him have a go on the range once he was old enough. After hearing stories from his father and seeing all his achievements, he really was influenced by him to sign up once he was old enough to.

He enlisted at 17/18 (2000), into the Aus. Army where he served as an infantryman for a couple of years before going for commando selection, approximately at age 22 (2004). His father wanted him to go for SASR selection instead to follow his own footsteps, but Lachlan decided that the commandos were more his style.

Sometime during the mid years of him joining the commandos, Lachlan marries his wife and has two children whom he loves dearly. Few years later, they do separate on good terms due to the both of them not being able to sacrifice time for one another, along with Lachlan’s long departures and just the entirety of his line of work in general. He was paranoid about something happening to his family just because of their ties with him. When on leave, they all do meet as much as they can, especially his children who he’ll take care of. In short, he loves his children so very much and does hope to rekindle things with his ex-wife once he leaves 2CDO.

Current Events – Modern Warfare

Just like Damien, he spends most of their time out in the Middle East – Urzikstan – following orders dished out from the Ministry of Defence, unless specifically called upon by Price.

2009: Lachlan joins Lieutenant Price alongside other SAS members to raid a Russian chemical lab whilst also saving Farah and her brother, Hadir.

2019: Seen in Piccadilly and Clean House alongside Damien, Gaz, and Price. Returns to Urzikstan with Damien.

2022: Violence and Timing: help rescue Kate Laswell from AQ fighters.

Sometime in the future: Lachlan states he’s getting a little old for the full-time commando job. He plans to retire from 2CDO and transition into 1CDO (reserve commandos), where he will primarily work in the West Australian Police Tactical Response Group (WAPOL TRG), focusing on domestic counterterrorism.

Involvement with 141

As previously stated, he doesn’t particularly work alongside TF141 very often UNLESS Price specifically asks for his and/or his team’s aid. He’s met some of the members before with Damien, but very rarely do they work together with the full task force.

The two actually go waaaaay back! They’ve been good friends for years, ever since they met at an exchange exercise between 2CDO and SAS when they were both just sergeants. I think they admire each other in the sense that they both hate following certain rules/orders that go against their own morals, so they’re both willing to go against them. They’ve worked together in many operations over the years, either side by side or across the globe, and have earned each other’s trust. In general, they do have similar personalities, but Lachlan is a bit more hot-headed.

In their downtime though, they love bantering. Particularly poking fun at each other’s hats…

 Lachlan has also gotten to know Gaz pretty decently too since he’s always by Price’s side in recent years. He and Price are always talking about Damien and Kyle like proud fathers ;’)

Another interesting note to add is Lachlan’s relationship with Simon Riley, rather than Ghost. There was a line in MWII suggesting Price knew Simon before he became Ghost, so taking reference from this, Lachlan has definitely met him before and has worked with him/trained him.

He could see that Simon was different from the rest of the SAS members in the sense that he was more quiet and observant, but above all, incredibly skilled in a multitude of things. He really took a liking to him – often calling him ‘kid’.

I don’t know Ghost’s lore in the reboot/if it’s the same as the OGs, however, you could imagine when Lachlan met up with Simon after a while he was taken aback by his new identity as Ghost. Of course, he was naturally inclined to ask why Simon had suddenly just changed, but he stopped himself when he looked at his overall demeanour. He knew something had bad happened but ultimately decided it was up to Ghost if he wanted to share.

Again, I don’t know how much Price knows about Ghost’s past but if he does, then Lachlan would too sometime later, either through Price dropping subtle queues or Ghost just outright telling him.

That’s all for now! This post may or may not be updated over time (bc I am incredibly indecisive, and things change over time) so keep a look out 👁️👁️

[blank-house]

hello again! i'm back with more questions this time >:] sorry if these are too many questions at once

1. would Percy play any games with lighter horror even if it's a more story-driven game? or is it an absolutely not for all horror?

2. do any of the characters have pets at home or had pets in the past?

3. this is just a guess based on their color palettes (and maybe a little the mc personalities in-game), but i'm guessing their favorite seasons are spring for Percy, winter for Jamie, and summer for Elio. am i right?

4. will there be partial voice acting throughout the game or will we only hear the characters' voices during voicecalls, like in the demo?

i'll probably be back if i can think of more questions lol

Oh please *cracks knuckles* I got all day! NOW LET'S GET CRACKING

Percy knows his limits. Gory games, he can stomach- he is studying in the medical field. But games that amp up the suspense, that wind you up and you can't tell when they're about to snip the tension-- yeah, he'd probably need one of the guys in the same room as him. He'd also commentate a lot or ask them questions so he can distract himself from the dread. Otherwise, if the game doesn't have a compelling enough story, he won't touch it haha

Jamie had a lot of pets! I can't tell you specifics, but he does love animals and he has one waiting for him at home. Elio also has a pet waiting, a turtle called Mo'o. She fits in his hand though and so he likes to put her on his head. Everyone else doesn't have one and never owned any pets before. Cameron would want to, though, but they're not allowed to bring any animals in the house hahhh

Oh, favorite seasons like in terms of the weather? If it's weather, Percy likes the Winter actually! He's a walking heater so he thrives in colder climates, plus he likes the snow a lot. Jamie adores Spring for the flowers, how pretty the world is, and nature walks. And Elio... well, it's hard. He grew up in warm climates where there's hardly a Winter, so snow and winter sports is incredible to him! But Summer's got his birthday and a long break from school. But Fall's peak cozy vibes and the temperature's always nice. But Spring is when festivals start and the flowers are in bloom... Yeah, he wouldn't be able to decide. If we're talking about in-game personalities though, the guys wouldn't have any favorites. There are season types that they seemingly click with more easily because they're reflections of themselves but that's how it is when you find someone who's just like you. Otherwise, there are no bias between personalities.

There will be partial voice acting! I was actually supposed to add them into the demo but it was more important to me that we have a demo for the jam haha. But yeah, they would be in the rest of the game.

[smooth-boob]

2023 Fic Year in Review

Thanks @penny-loaf and @hydriotaphia for tagging me!

List of Fics Completed this Year

Excluding the WIPs and stuff started in 2022:

To Tell the Truth - https://archiveofourown.org/works/46747165

The Bustle in a House - https://archiveofourown.org/works/47126467

From the blood of the wound, a flower sprang - https://archiveofourown.org/works/48305152

Overcome - https://archiveofourown.org/works/46083325

Doing The Voices - https://archiveofourown.org/works/47976274

The Morning After Death - https://archiveofourown.org/works/50856436

Running Toward Running Away - https://archiveofourown.org/works/47131885

Number of Words Written

47,530 (only those that are posted; my WIP word count is a very different number lol)

Your Most Popular Fic

To Tell The Truth. That one was a real rising star.

Your Personal Fave

The Bustle in a House, but tbh whatever I've most recently finished is most likely to be my favorite because I'm riding that high of having said what I wanted to say.

You Fav Scene

Don't make me choose!!! Right now I've been thinking about the garden scene and its aftermath from Chapter 3 of The Bustle in a House. I find it difficult to read, and I think that says something about its emotional impact!

A Fic or Scene that Challenged You

Chapter 3 of To Tell the Truth sent me into a creative spiral because I was working to figure out how to make the scene feel as honest and raw as the first two chapters and go really deep and emotionally soft and also get my Barbie dolls to just kiss already! 1000% worth it. That's my other favorite scene.

A Line of Writing You’re Proud Of

From The Morning After Death:

He spends the morning with his youngest siblings (his brother’s children), sharing stories and allowing the memories to crest and break over them in waves. In this family there are so many of them, siblings and stories, that they sometimes tell the same ones, some remembered differently, at different ages, or they confuse each other’s memories for their own and retell those stories, as if all the ways they remember him are true. In a sense, they are true. After all, memory is the only thing they have left.

A Comment that Touched You

Anybody who said my work felt honest, real, and/or special to them, and special shout-out to @andthebubbles for commenting along their journey reading Bustle because it let me know somebody else was out there wanting to read exactly what I wanted to read and to write!

Something that Inspired Your Writing

A fear of grief, Emily Dickinson, watching The Crown, these lines from Richard II that live rent-free in my mind...

For you have but mistook me all this while. / I live with bread like you, feel want, / Taste grief, need friends—subjected thus, / How can you say to me, I am a king?

Your proudest accomplishment (that one scene; finally finishing that one fic; posting your first fic; etc):

It felt really amazing to get properly back into writing in general, and to push the boundaries of emotion I can convey. 2023 was something of a breakthrough year.

Do You Have Any Writing Goals for Next Year?

To actually work on my novel...haha.

As far as fanfiction goes, I really want to finish my Kathony fic that's basically season three for them, which I'd love to put out there before season three comes out. We'll see about that. I'd also like to finish my Bridgerton Phantom of the Opera AU.

In terms of skill development, while I love the precision and brevity of my work, I am trying to slow down more and know when to give scenes space to breathe.

Tagging @andthebubbles, @hyperesthesias, and anyone else who would like to do this!

[dandylovesturtles]

2&7 for the get to know you ^^

2. Do you plan each chapter ahead or write as you go?

I almost never write actual outlines. At most I might scribble down a few thoughts but usually I just go at it. That said I usually have an idea in my head of what's going to happen and where the chapter breaks will be. Of all my chapter fics I think I knew least what IMBI would look like just because it's ended up being so LONG.

7. How do you choose which POV to write from?

OO OK THIS IS SOMETHING I LOVE TO TALK ABOUT because choosing a POV for your story is crucially important! Maybe the most important decision you could make!

The POV affects a lot of things but it will especially affect tone, voice, and dramatic irony. If you're limiting perspective to one character, you also limit the reader's field of view, which is really important to the way you reveal information. It makes more sense to write a mystery novel from the POV of the detective, for example. And different characters are going to have different thoughts and feelings and takes on events, and different ways of expressing that, which affects tone and voice (yes, even in 3rd person, the character's voice should affect your writing, if maybe not as directly as in 1st person).

For me I usually think about:

who has the most emotional stake in the story being told

how do I want to reveal information to the audience

what POV tells the story most effectively

So for IMBI for example, I chose to limit the POV entirely to Leo because he has the most emotional stake in events and because I didn't want the curse itself to be a mystery, I wanted how he was going to break it to be a mystery. Also, Leo's limited perspective means he doesn't always know how his family is dealing with things until they make those feelings known to him, and he sometimes has misunderstandings as a result (and so the readers experience that suspense along with him). Plus trying to write the story with the communication gaps would probably have been a nightmare haha...

Putting the story in one of the other brother's POVs would have given some added mystery around what happened to Leo but probably wouldn't have been sustainable in the long run. And switching back and forth would reveal too many things too quickly, losing some of the suspense.

On the flip side, I chose to write Corrupted Upgrade with a POV switch off: we start the story in Donnie's POV, then move to Leo's, then back to Donnie's for the finale. In Donnie's POV at the start, we don't have any information, we just experience events as Donnie does and get hurt alongside him. The emotional stake at this point in the story is with Donnie, and the readers are left just as confused as he is as a result. Then we move to Leo's POV, where we learn the explanation for what's going on as Leo does... but the reader is left knowing what's wrong with Donnie while Leo is still in the dark, and we all get to wait in suspense for the moment he figures it out and tries to fix it. The emotional stakes move to Leo, who is trying to save his brother, and is dealing with the fall out of learning some new things about him along the way.

BTW if you look into some writing advice, it will tell you to always choose one perspective and stick with it for the entire story. I personally think this is bad advice - switching POVs is perfectly fine when it makes sense to do it. That said, I feel like POV switching shouldn't happen willy-nilly. If something is primarily written from one person's POV and then there's just one section from another person's, this can be really jarring. There needs to be some balance in what's happening and why.

Also I will say, sometimes I think a story is going to be from one perspective, then I start thinking about it and change it to another, and that really unlocks the story for me. So if you feel like you're ever stuck, trying considering if maybe you're in the wrong POV for the story you're trying to tell.

[eyesofshan-if]

Hello there! :D

First of all, Happy New Year! I wanted to tell you that I'm already hooked on your IF. You immediately got my attention. I'm already in love with Hansol and Yongsun, haha <3

I've got a few questions, if that is alright with you. Please feel free to only answer what you want or ignore it entirely if it's too many at once!

First: I checked your Tumblr and the post on the forum but I didn't see anything so I'm wondering what we should refer to you as? (It feels a bit weird to always say "dear author" and the likes, unless that's something you'd prefer of course!)

Second: I love the character posts you've already done and talking about the ROs I'm wondering if you could--if you have time, no rush there--post a color palette for skin colors? I read the text but I always have a hard time getting it from that alone 🥲

3rd: what sort of voices does everyone have? (Rough, smooth, melodic, etc. ) Maybe you even have some voice actors in mind what you'd think they would sound like? Though I personally only really recognize Japanese VAs, I would gladly Google anyone else lmao

That's it, sorry this got so long😭

To wrap this up I hope you have a wonderful week, lots of fun with your story and please don't forget to rest, eat and hydrate enough! :D

happy new year (although this reply is a few days late oops) i’m really glad that you like my sorry attempt at an IF!! here are my answers under the cut because its pretty long!!

one: you can refer to me as pingu (i just decided that today) for now!! but i do like being called dear author as well <3

two: i will try my best for a skin colour palette, but here’s a warning that my eye for anything colour related is absolutely awful. trying to do those moodboards was an emotional rollercoaster. but because you asked i will try my best. please remember that these are only my take on the subject, and you’re free to have some artistic freedom with where you take it!!

^^ this was an awful struggle and should probably just be used as a suggestion because i am an absolute clown when it comes to colour. please just use it as a reference for the light to dark and warm to neutral skin tones!!

three: i’ll try putting a mixture of kpop idols here together with japanese vas, so you can hear them speak in a normal tone!! japanese vas tend to exagerrate a lot in their delivery, which is not how i imagine them to speak in real life hoho. most of the kpop idols voices come from the group ateez, who are around the ages of most of the characters mentioned

hansol: warm to people he is close with. his voice feels like the gentle heat of a fire after spending a long time out in the cold. tends to speak politely and use proper language, but there’s a certain liveliness to his tone. his voice references are ateez’s yunho and hino satoshi

insu: his voice is always sharp and cold, like the edge of a steel blade. he speaks briskly, always prioritizing efficiency. not afraid to swear at anyone, including the emperor. his voice references are ateez’s yeosang and yuki kaji (specifically his todoroki voice, not eren yeager)

yongsun: listening to his voice feels like you’re sitting next to a running stream alone at night, moonlight ripping off the waters. he always speaks calmly, seemingly able to make any situation feel lighter with a single sentence, and each word contains a certain quiet self confidence. his voice references are kaedehara kazuha (nobunaga shimazaki) and kamisato ayato (akira ishida)

wooyoung: lighthearted and playful. there’s are little ups and downs to his cadence that makes you feel as though the sun is shining on you, beckoning you to play outside. he might not sound like the refined gentleman he’s supposed to be, but his voice is enjoyable to listen to. his pitch isn’t very low, and sounds youthful. his voice reference is ateez’s wooyoung (wow)