#i wouldn't lie to queue

[perilegs]

i got tagged by @wetusb to

do this picrew

and last song i listened to!

i'm too sleepy to think of ppl to tag rn but if you think this looks fun consider yourself tagged bc i'm more than interested in seeing everyone's little dress up and songs!!

[billiethepumpkin]

Miss You Too: Katsuki Bakugou x Reader

Warnings: Rated X. This content is intended for readers ages 18 years or older. If you are a minor, do not interact.

Contains: Fem!Reader. Sex toys. Masturbation. Getting caught masturbation. Husband/Wife relationship. Emotions.

Featuring: Katsuki Bakugou.

Author's Note: All characters are written to be adults because I am an old fuck :)

It was late.

It was so late. And you were so exhausted. You had so many feelings coursing through your veins. You just wanted to lie down and go to sleep.

You were finally getting tomorrow off, after having worked for eleven days in a row. You knew you didn't have to keep picking up shifts. Your husband made sure you knew, too. He made plenty of money for the both of you as Japan's #2 Hero. Shit, you would've never had to work another day in your life if you hadn't wanted to. But now, Bakugou was away. He had been for nearly three weeks, even though he had promised it'd be two. Even though he promised he wouldn't be going away for another several months. Even though he promised he'd come back to you as soon as he possibly could.

And what else were you going to do with your time? Sit on the couch and miss him? Wallow in your own self pity? Nope. Instead, you were going to work extra shifts and surprise your hubby with a nice gift when he came back. Besides, you liked your little cafe job well enough. It paid the bills before Dynamite was in the picture, and now it became your escape when things were rough at home.

You didn't even bother showering or washing your face. You just stripped down into your birthday suit and crawled into bed, leaving your dirty work clothes scattered on the carpet. You slid into the cool, smooth sheets and settled between the blankets and pillows. You rolled to your husband's side of the bed. You smelled him. His mint and musk shampoo, mixed with his natural scent of burnt caramel and firewood. You took a deep breath from his pillow. You were ashamed at the way your body came to life. Your body begged for him, seething at his absence. Seemingly on their own, your hands trailed between your legs and applied a small bit of pressure, trying to calm the aching that settled there. You missed him deeply. You couldn't tell if you would cry or cum from his scent. But when you took another deep breath and pressed your legs together, you felt the twitch of muscle and nerve at the apex of your thighs. You wouldn't be able to hold out for very much longer at all.

Back on your side of the bed, you opened your bedside table and brought out a powerful little bullet vibrator that Katsuki had bought you on his first trip out of town, right before you'd gotten married. At the time, it was only for three days, and it seemed a little bit excessive. But the trips got longer, and you only missed him more fervently as the years passed. You longed for your husband.

You turned on the vibrator and slid it between your thighs. You got right down to business. You didn't care much about how it got done. You just wanted to get it over with and go to sleep.

You felt the vibrations in your core. You thought of his arms around you. You dragged the bullet over your nerves, circling over them again and again. You remembered the way his tongue glided over your nipples. Your breathing hitched as you tried to remember the way his hands gripped your hips as he pummeled into you from behind. Your hips bucked at the thought, getting closer and closer to the edge.

As if on queue, the bedroom door opened. You stopped your motions immediately, startled by the sudden movements. You saw no shadow, no movement at first to indicate that anyone was there. And for a brief moment, you started to believe in ghosts until you saw the head of messy blonde hair peak into the room. "Damn, you couldn't wait till I got here?" he growled, a teasing smirk spreading across his cheeks.

You couldn't think of anything to say in return. What the hell are you doing here?!?! you wanted to say to him. But also, you didn't want to talk at all.

You sat up, and he tucked himself in between your body and the headboard. He was sweaty and dirty from work, but he brought into bed that same caramel and woodsmoke scent that you loved so deeply, the scent that had almost gotten you off by itself. Silently, he took the vibrator out of your hand and started to draw circles on your clit himself. You laid your back against his chest and breathed deeply, taking your time to just feel the gentle caress of his biceps around your body. "You miss me that much, huh?" Bakugou teased. He ran a calloused hand up your body and stopped on the side of your face.

"Mmhmm," you manage to hum in reply. Just then, Katsuki hit a nerve with the vibrator, and you squirmed against him, your back arching so prettily for him.

"'m gonna make you feel so good, baby," he whispered in your ear. You felt his calloused hand trailing over your body again. He pawed at the different squishy parts of your body. Your thigh, spread over his for access to your pussy. Your hips, plush and his for the taking. Your love handles and your belly. And, of course, your breasts. Katsuki took his time squeezing every part of you, as if he had forgotten what it was like to have your flesh in his hands. He continued to circle the vibrator over and around your clit.

"Pretty girl couldn't even wait till I got home, huh?" he teased in that signature growl. "Had to take care o' your pussy for me." He squeezed your breast even harder, putting pressure on your nipple and making you squirm against him again. Your back and ass pressed up against his length, and you felt him twitch to life. "Oh, honey, I'm gonna fuck you so good as soon as we both get some rest," he promised, his grip moving to your throat and your head laying back on his shoulder. "Right now, though, I just want to make you cum."

As if on some kind of timer, you felt your entire body contract against his words. Your breath got caught in your throat. Bakugou kissed your shoulder all over, and you felt his teeth graze over your skin. You let out sighs and gasps involuntarily. You fell over the edge into bliss, the sensation washing over you little by little at first, and then all at the same time.

"That's my girl," Bakugou growled into your ear, his free hand now roaming over your body, touching anywhere he could reach. You rode out your orgasm until your breathing leveled and he fumbled to turn off the vibrator.

"C'mere," he whispered as you turned around and straddled his lap. You wrapped your arms around his neck and rested your head on his shoulder to come down from your high. He wrapped his arms tightly around your waist.

At this point, you couldn't even help it. Tensions were so high that you couldn't take it anymore. Your emotions bubbled over, and you felt your tears sneak out of your eyes when you took another deep breath full of his scent. You tried to stifle a sob as you admitted, "I missed you so much, Katsuki."

Bakugou rubbed your back as you cried into his shoulder. "I can tell," he teased, still wearing that same smirk he always did. You both giggled to yourselves for a moment before he finally admitted it.

"Missed you too."

[world-of-aus]

But like why do I want bestfriend!Bucky giving his bestfriend 'lessons 😉' you catch my drift?

Alright listen.

Like his best girl is shy to ask for what she wants during sex because she's been turned down by previous partners. He's not having any of that though, he's never known you to be insecure, that just isn't who you are, you have no problem asking for what you want. It becomes obvious to him then that men you've been with are shit, and they just don't know how to please a woman, all they know is their own release. They don't care to take their time with something as precious as you.

He does though - so he offers.

And listen as two idiots in love (its me come on of course theyre in love) not knowing the feeling is mutual his best girl is iffy, it's not going to be just sex to her ya know? But after another night left unsatisfied she cracks, and BUCKY is there to pick up the pieces..

'What do you want sugar?'

He wouldn't like how you shied away from him. He wants you to ask, to take what you want from him, because unlike your previous partners he wants you.

'Hey, Look at me. What do you want? Ask me for it.'

'Bucky Please.'

He never thought he'd hear his name tumble from her lips like this, but he finds he wants to hear it more.

He'd squeeze her thighs, the ones he's knelt between.

"Ask me for it."

And when she'd go to hide behind her hands his much larger ones would catch hers. A shake of his head as he regards her, she'd watch him with baited breath as he took her hands bringing them between his legs to his aching member. He'd want her to know what she's doing to him, how hard he is for her just from being knelt between her legs admiring her pretty pussy all slick and glistening for him.

'You feel that?' She'd nod eyes wide, 'good now ask me.'

He can see where she gets brave, her hands cupping his cock through his grey sweats.

'I want you to eat my pussy.'

'Fucking hell' he'd groan cock throbbing in his sweats.

'I want to cum on your tongue.'

He'd grin releasing your hands, 'good girl, now lie back for me sweetheart it's my turn.'

And queue the brain rot 🫠

[boba-beom]

ೃ⁀➷ airport crush pt 2 | CHOI YEONJUN NSFW

pairing: brother's best friend!yeonjun x fem!reader

genre: smut, fluff, kinda angsty

wc: 3.4k

warning: angstier than I thought oops, smut with plot, arguing, yeonjun pining for reader, jealousy, possessive yj at some point, but also lowkey sub!yeonjun ngl, reader confesses about the past but yj does for the present, heavy petting, oral (fem!receiving), fingering, just the tip tease, piv but yj doesn't cum— mile high club ;) , toilet sex again, pet names (baby, good girl, good boy), praises (both), yj calls reader mommy ONCE, light marking, let me know if I've missed anything!

summary: after spending some time with your airport crush, yeonjun's pissed you were spending your time 'efficiently' with someone who isn't him. but you agreed to do anything so he wouldn't snitch to your brother about the marks on your neck.

a/n: the long-awaited next part is here, there is one more main part after this. I hope you enjoy this part just as much as yeonjun did hehe what better way to save this than for @majestyjun's 24 days with yeonjun for our jjunie's birthday! ♥

airport crush part 1 (beomgyu)

boarding the plane was no problem, beomgyu had made you laugh in the queue–maybe even flirted–despite the slight delay, but it didn't go unnoticed by the people around you. you heard yeonjun subtly bickering with your brother, but soobin wasn't having any of it—he was too jet-lagged to even give two shits at this point. you knew this was going to be a long flight ahead of you and yet all you could think about was beomgyu and his fingers, and how bad you want him to—

you heard a ping and looked down at your phone to see beomgyu had airdropped you a note as your way of messaging each other before the plane had set off. he sent you a few memes and your scoffs would turn into chuckles until you both decided to rest and talk when you reach the airport.

it was a given that yeonjun isn't keen on whatever is going on between you and your newfound fuck buddy. yeonjun may be two years older than you, but there's something about him that you weren't aware of.

"yn? are you even listening to me?" yeonjun fakes a heartache with his palm flat on his chest while you give him a deadpan glare. "and what's happened to your 'stranger danger' policy?"

"yeonjun, I can't lie, I've developed this talent to block you out. now you're like white noise to me." you force a smile until it immediately dropped. "also, YJ, I'm not a kid anymore. I'm literally in my early twenties, chill out."

he scoffs, an annoyed smile crawling on his lips. "and I'm literally just looking out for you, how do you not see that?"

"I don't need you to look after me, m'kay? I have soobin for that. even still, just let me make my own choices." turning your body slightly, facing the window.

you couldn't care less with what he had to say. you were just pissed that it was him, and not beomgyu, sitting next to you. beomgyu was sitting a few rows down from you on the opposite site of the plane, you could just about spot the plum tinge of his hair. soobin, on the other hand, was sitting between random people in the middle section of the plane, a couple of rows in front of you and yeonjun. you weren't in their line of sight, and vice versa.

that's going to be a problem.

"you know what annoys me actually? the fact that you're so smug about this whole thing. you meet a stranger and now you feel like you've met the love of your life." you roll your eyes and take a deep breath before exhaling your frustration.

"oh boo you, is it because I managed to find someone to hook up and have fun with before this holiday even started?" you retort, refusing to look at him, bearing in mind that there are a few people sleeping around you.

"oh for fucks sake, yn, grow up." you hear him exhale.

you scoff. "me? no, yeonjun. you, grow the fuck up. I'm sick and tired of whatever problem it is you have with me."

raking his hands through his hair, he looks up before placing a hand on your knee, “listen here, little miss princess, stop being a fucking brat, you’re so annoying like that.” but what you don’t know is that it's slightly turning him on, knowing how hot-headed you can be, he secretly loves how argumentative you two are and he sort of thrives off of that. he had no intention for it to take a turn like this though.

you stare at him, eyes steady, narrowing and not wavering even a little bit. “and you’re starting to piss me off, choi.” you unbuckle the seatbelt over your hips, your hand pushing off his from your thigh before passing his legs to scoot yourself to the aisle, catching soobin's sleeping form and making your way to the toilet at the end of the plane.

from beomgyu’s peripheral vision, he turns his body to look back, watching you make your way to the toilet and noting the dull look on your face. his eyes trailed behind you to find yeonjun who looked like he was chasing after you. he sits back comfortably, sighing and rolling his eyes from the thought of what yeonjun must have done to piss you off this time.

yeonjun knocks on the door and calls your name softly a couple of times, “let me in. come on, talk to me.”

you sigh, not wanting people to continue watching him knocking on the door, and for all they know you two look like you’re in some sort of lovers quarrel. he quickly enters as soon as you open the door, and you scoot aside as an attempt to make space for his six foot figure.

“and you couldn’t just leave me alone? how embarrassing.” you huff, crossing your arms against your chest, but due to the close proximity, you can feel his breath fanning by your neck.

“you want to talk about embarrassing? how about hooking up with a stranger at the airport? hmm?” he retorts, slightly raising his voice at you.

you cover his mouth to remind him to keep his voice down.

“what the fuck is this obsession about me hooking up with beomgyu. just say you’re jealous and go, oh my god, yeonjun." you aggressively whisper.

your chest heaves from the anger gradually coming out, and if you weren't in a plane right this moment then yeonjun would definitely get a taste of your wrath. it was silent for a moment with the both of you holding this intense eye contact with a hint of something unspoken. yeonjun breaks away first, turning around as much as he can with his hand back to running through his teal strands.

"I am." is all he mutters.

"you are what?" you exasperatedly rub at your temples with your eyes shut in the hopes that he'd just be straight with you.

"I am jealous." he starts. "god, all this time I tried to avoid the littlest thoughts about you, and now that you've grown up to be such a confident, intelligent and beautiful woman it's kind of hard not to be around you."

your head shoots up, almost breaking your neck at his confession. a million things were going on in your head but not a single thought was stable enough to comprehend that your crush throughout your childhood and teenage years had liked you all this time.

it took you so long to get over him, and after being completely over him for two long years, he's thrown away all your efforts.

"I... hate you." your voice breaks, tears threatening to run down your cheek, tired of his stupid games.

the warmth of his body starts radiating even more, feeling him lean closer than you already were. your eye contact lasts for less than a second until he crashes his lips on yours with his hands desperately fumbling with your arms and throwing it over his shoulders before finding purchase on your waist.

the kiss was messy. nothing but teeth clashing and heavy breaths until yeonjun swiftly swaps places with you and hits your back against the door, hard enough for it to just rattle gently.

"you don't hate me." yeonjun whispers before diving in to capture your lips again.

the pace of the kiss was starting to pick up; his hands gradually lifting your shirt until his hands were massaging and roaming over the mounds of your breasts through your bra, whining from the contact, and your fingers tangling themselves in his dishevelled hair.

you let out soft whimpers as soon as his plush lips peppers along the column of your neck, a heated trail over the hickeys that beomgyu had left before.

"I hate you so much," you whine.

"you look so hot marked up, too bad this area's been marked by someone else." he growls in your ear, while his hands busy themselves by tugging down your sweatpants.

the material of your sweatpants fell just above your knees and that was enough for yeonjun to slide his fingers into your panties, roughly circling your clit with his middle finger, making your core twitch with every circle he drew.

"oh fuck, jjun—" a moan got stuck in your throat while yeonjun went back to attacking your lips with soft nibbles on your bottom lip.

his lips descended down your body, from your neck, littering kisses over your breasts, down your navel and straight to your plush thighs. his finger stopped working on you and instead, grabbing ahold of one of your thighs to prop over his shoulder so he could kiss and suck on your inner thighs.

"you should be marked more often, only where I can see them." after leaving a mark on your skin, he sensually flicks his tongue on the surface, giving you a preview on what his tongue could be used for.

"shut up and eat me out already." you lace your fingers in his hair, tugging on them to inflict minor pain.

yeonjun's dick throbbed from the way you explicitly said that aloud, never thinking he'd hear you say that.

his hands steadied your hips, holding on tightly and kitten licking at your clit. the wet muscle twirling around your bundle of nerves had you holding in your moans, letting out airy grunts as an attempt.

"so sweet." yeonjun draws back before diving his face straight into your core, sticking his tongue out and lapping up at your entrance. you could feel the vibrations from his moans as soon as he sticks his tongue into your slick cunny. it was difficult to not get so wet when yeonjun's lips felt like heaven on yours, and you felt like your soul was ascending when they were all over your body.

"YJ— fuck, did you know I— mmh, liked you back then?" you struggle getting your sentence out when yeonjun's basically tongue fucking your pussy.

he ignores your question and groans against your core, his tongue reaching as far as it can inside you, but every time his nose bumped your clit you'd curl in a little. annoyed, you tug his hair back so he's looking up at you, the dim light in the toilet reflecting the sheen layer of spit and your arousal on his lips and dripping down his chin.

"I asked you a question."

he grabs your wrist, shaking off your hold on his roots and brought the back of your fingers to his lips. "I knew." and then he inserted your index and middle fingers past his lips, feeling his tongue dancing between and around your digits.

you could moan at the sight, knowing that he probably knows those are the two fingers you used to fuck yourself to the thought of him.

"then why didn't you say anything? do you know how hard I wanted you to notice me?" you almost whine.

"oh trust me, I always noticed you." he guides your fingers at your dripping entrance. "I didn't want to make a move because you're my best friend's little sister. Soobin would fucking kill me if I thought about you like that, hell, he'd kill me if he finds out I'm eating you out several rows away from him."

you wince at his choice of words, but more so when he flat tongues your clit while controlling your fingers pumping in and out of you. but it wasn't enough.

"jjun, I need more." you quietly cry behind the palm of your hand, trying to keep your cries at bay.

he sucks at your bead until a quick yelp slipped past your lips, grabbing him by the collar of his quarter-zip and pulling him up to kiss you. the taste of your arousal lingered on your tongue as he plays around with yours.

this was something you had wet dreams about. something that you desperately wanted every time you saw him come over. the things you would think about when he'd bring his then-girlfriends around when he was hanging out with soobin.

"please, I want to feel a little more." you hate to beg, but you were thinking, you're already in this situation, why not go the extra mile?

"of course, baby. anything for you." he switches up so easily now that he's confessed to you, wondering that all this time he could have been bearable if he had just told you, even if you were to keep it between yourselves, he would have been so much easier to deal with.

yeonjun spreads his wet kisses along your jaw and behind your ear, imitating your quiet moans as you continue to unzip his loose jeans, pulling them down just below his balls.

as he strokes his length, you lean your head against his shoulder, looking down and observing how pretty his dick is; the pink tip that's a similar tone to his lips with a clear bead of pre-cum dribbling out slowly. not to mention his girth was perfect to the point you could feel yourself aching to have him inside you.

"should I just put the tip in?" yeonjun mumbles by your temples.

he aligns the head of his cock at your entrance, feeling the faint stretch as it dips inside. you sigh, wanting more but he purposely slides it against your folds an swiping over your clit. the motion had you exhaling your breath that you had been subconsciously holding in ever since he was stroking himself.

"yeonjun, please. I want you inside of me." you beg so prettily that yeonjun could feel his dick twitch in his hand, his eyes tightly shut briefly.

"want you to feel good." his sentences have now reduced to wanting to please you, he didn't care about himself, though you're about to wet his dick, he was still doing whatever you wanted.

you hold onto his shoulders, one leg wrapped around his hip as he pushes in, feeling the delicious stretch against your walls. "gonna. fuck. you. so. good." he grunts in between shallow thrusts.

his hands are glued to your hips and under your thigh, holding you in place for him to fuck in this small compartment. but that doesn't stop him from eagerly reaching as deep as he can inside you. his thrusts get deeper after every other kiss you leave on his neck and collar bone, loving the way your lips makes his skin tingle.

the speed of yeonjun's thrusts get faster, and the hold your pussy has on his cock gets tighter. he has his eyes trained on your face, watching your brows knit and your mouth parting.

"mmhh yeah, that's it baby, right there." you moan by his ear and his pace picks up gradually. he loves the way you want more of his dick, not beomgyu's, but his.

the corners of his lips quirked up at the thought of you forgetting about beomgyu and wanting him at that moment. yeonjun wanted to take this chance to show you he could fuck you better than whatever beomgyu did.

"like that?" he whispers, pulling up your shirt and bra so your boobs were on full display.

he gawked at the sight of your bare chest in front of him, his hips not faltering a single bit; still aiming to make you cum on his dick. it took him no second thoughts to latch his mouth onto one of your nipples, sucking and releasing with 'pop' sounds and repeating as he hears more of your mixture of moans and whimpers.

you loved the sensation of yeonjun's tongue and pillowy lips on your boobs, but his dick was starting to drill into you, feeling your mind going hazy with every stroke against your gummy walls.

"I'm close." you whimper above him, his lips still suckling at your aroused nipple and the other massaging it in the palm of his hand.

"wan' you to cum around me mommy." his words were muffled from his occupied mouth, but the slight rasp in the way he said it was ticking your orgasm closer by the millisecond.

yeonjun lets go of your boob and starts playing with your clit again, his thrusts doesn't falter even when you clench around him like a vice, your walls convulsing around him. your moans were becoming dangerously loud, and if it wasn't for yeonjun swallowing your moans by helplessly kissing you, then you were sure you would have a flight attendant knocking at the door.

your thighs start shaking under his hold as you leak down your legs but yeonjun pulls out, his cock still standing strong as reaches for the tissues to clean up your mess.

"feel better?" he wipes down the remaining droplets by your knees, before throwing the tissue away and tucking his hard dick into his baggy jeans.

you cock your head to the side, "you didn't cum?"

"it's okay, just wanted to make you feel good, remember? you were about to transform into a dragon out there with all your huffing and puffing. and even though I got my dick wet, at least it was by you." you slap his shoulder light-heartedly, scoffing at his comment before you both bursted into a shared laugh.

"you were irritating me that's why." you reply. "and you really are just that obsessed with me huh? that why your temper went down too?"

you watch him check up on himself through the mirror, relaying a slow nod to you. noting the faint couple of hickeys you left just under his collar, it's as if he knew what you were thinking and he zipped up his quarter-zip a little higher than before. he seemed more peaceful now, and you found it cute that the tip of his ears were blushing pink.

"I am obsessed with you. literally can't stop thinking about you." his hand reaches for your waist and brings you closer until your chests collide.

"okay, lover boy. take it easy on the simp talk." he scoffs, but the smile he has on his face seems like he's satisfied even when you haven't said how you currently feel towards him.

"can I have another kiss? literally miss your lips already." he kisses your shoulder slowly, maybe leaving two or three. something about that gesture made your heart drop.

you were selfish. you just met beomgyu who you have a good feeling about. but that isn't enough for you apparently. you have yeonjun wrapped around your finger and the fact that he's obsessed with you just as much as you were for him just feeds that emptiness you'd been feeling for so long.

"yn? you know you can say no." you snapped out of your thoughts and didn't realise there was a gap, as much as there can be, between you and yeonjun.

"kiss me." your hands are splayed flat on his chest, caressing the area with your thumb as he cups your cheek with one hand and pulls you in by the hip with the other.

your lips have only kissed three people in your lifetime. your first kiss in freshman year college, beomgyu and now yeonjun. but you seem just as in need of his lips as he is with yours. they were perfect and pouty. soft but also dangerously addictive. and the way he lets you lightly trap his bottom lip between your teeth just makes you want him even more.

you both pull away, a short string of saliva fallen from your lips which has yeonjun's eyes filled with lust for you.

"I- I think we should head out. we're lucky it isn't a full plane." you stutter from the gaze he had on you just a second before.

"it's fine. we'll never see these people again." yeonjun chuckles at you for your attempt at discretion. "and I don't think they cared enough to stop us."

you shrugg at his response, adjusting your shirt even though it still wasn't going to miraculously cover the hickeys beomgyu left.

as soon as you open the door, you step out first and yeonjun stepping out after with him faking a cover up conversation for the people you would walk past to hear, "are you feeling better now?"

you find your row and take your seat, nudging him, "oh shut up." and he laughs at your response.

you genuinely did feel better after the released tension, but now you just don't know how you're going about this sticky situation you were in. you see beomgyu slowly turn his head and you keep an eye on his purple hair until he looks at you, shooting you a smile.

and you still felt your heart skip a beat for him.

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[gallusrostromegalus]

Speaking of public health. What was the soul society reaction to the eradication of small pox like?

"You notice there's a lot less dead babies these days?" Iba asked in the middle of one morning's office work.

"Fewer dead babies." Komamura corrected without thinking. "Less is for things you measure by volume, fewer for things you count. We do not measure dead babies by volume."

"Oh. right." Iba nodded. "Yeah, that wouldn't be right."

After a moment, what his lieutenant actually said caught up with him. "Sorry- force of habit from living with a Librarian." Komamura shook his head and looked up from the monthly intake statistics analysis report, peering at Tetsuzaemon Iba through the narrow gap of his helmet. "What do you mean, fewer dead babies?"

"I dunno, it just occurred to me. When I started the academy in the 40's- right after the catastrophe- we did a student tour of the 7th division's recently deceased souls intake queue, remember?" Iba waved his hand leaning back in his chair, apparently uncertain of where he was going with this either, but articulating his thoughts.

"I believe so. I had just taken over from Captain Kotsubaki." Komamura nodded, patient. Chikane Iba was an excellent shinigami and had done a magnificent job running the third division, but she had a tendency to talk over and bulldoze her son, so Komamura had learned to be patient when the young man when he felt like he should share a thought.

"Yeah, yeah- Not gonna lie Boss, you scared the crap out of me back then." Tetsuzaemon laughed. "-But the thing that stuck out to me that day was just. The sheer number of Infants and little kids in the line. the guy giving us the tour- I think it was Old Ito, actually- He said that one in five babies in the living world didn't live to see their fifth birthday."

"An improvement even back then- it was one in three children when back when I started in the 1840s." Komamura nodded. "It's funny that I frightened you- Captain Aikawa apparently headhunted me for the 7th because Kaname told him about how the children at the library used to use me as playground equipment."

"Good grief." Iba blanched. "So, what, he threw you in the deep end with all the dead kids?"

"In Captain Aikawa's defense, I did volunteer to handle children's cases. As sad as a frightened infant is, it's infinitely preferable than dealing with the deceased who are angry."

Iba frowned, opened his mouth like he was about to object, reconsidered, closed it, considered further, rocking his head from side to side, and then nodded. "I- yeah, Yeah, that tracks."

"You were saying though?" Komamura laced his fingers in front of him, leaning forward to listen.

"Oh! Well- not as much these days but back then, every family had like seven and eight kids, you know? And I realized that, well- almost everyone I know has a dead sibling or two? Almost every mother lost a child- Gods know my mother's a basket case but even getting a cold could send her into fits. If something had happened to me when I was a tyke- I don't think she would have pulled through."

Komamura nodded enough for Iba to see his helmet tilt to indicate he as still listening.

"I- I don't actually know where I was going with this, but I was reading that report earlier and there's a note from Shita-san at the end that this is the first month we haven't had a kid under the age of five in the intake queue. Ever."

Komamura flipped though the pages of the report to read the hand-written note at the end. "That is excellent news!"

"Oh! Yeah! It's great!" Iba nodded enthusiastically. "It just- I don't know, I guess it just snuck up on me and I'm so used to hearing something went wrong I guess I don't quite know what to do with good news?" he shrugged.

Komamura pondered this for a moment. "Hm. Well. Take heart, to start. But I see what you mean- it's a tremendous achievement, but not one we contributed to, and a "No Dead Babies This Month" office party feels in poor taste at best."

"Oof, yeah- especially if next month there's an accident or something and there's a whole bunch in the queue." Iba nodded. He considered things for a moment.

"-What happened that there are le- fewer dead babies, actually?" Iba frowned. "-Whoever it is, it would be appropriate to toast them and make an offering in their name to the Gods of Good Fortune, I think. Also do more of whatever they did."

"That IS a good idea!" Komamura smiled under his helmet. Perhaps it was his training as a priest, but he did enjoy an offering of goodwill ceremony. Also, nobody would ask him to drink- just pour any alcohol he was offered on the statue of the relevant deity. "I think- It's probably in our statistics, if the tenth division doesn't have an idea already. Can you collect the cause of death data for young children for the last-"

He was interrupted by the thunderous footsteps of someone sprinting towards the office, immediately followed by a tall young woman with short white hair throwing the door open, red-faced and winded.

"THEY DID IT! THE MAD BASTARDS THEY DID IT!" She shouted with wild excitement.

"Isane-? Uh, Miss Kotetsu?" Iba flustered.

"Please keep your voice down-" Komamura said through gritted teeth, trying not to growl at being suddenly shouted at. "Who has-?"

He was interrupted by Miss Kotetsu bolting right up to his desk and shoving a newspaper into his face hard enough to actually wrap around his helmet in excitement.

"SMALLPOX! IT'S GONE!!" She shrieked with joy.

"-gone?" Iba asked, bewildered as Komamura gently took the newspaper from her and pulled it back to actually read it. It was a newspaper from the living world, dated that morning- someone had gone through some pains to get it back to the Seireitei at speed, but the news was worth it:

SMALLPOX IS DEAD!

"TOTALLY ERADICATED! EXTINCT! KAPUT! IT HAS CEASED TO BE!" She bounced excitedly. "IT IS AN EX-PANDEMIC!"

"So like. Nobody has it this year?" Iba tried.

"Nobody has it this year, or will ever have it again, if I'm reading this right." Komamura muttered in awe. "Thanks to an aggressive worldwide vaccination and disease protocol program, there have been no human cases of the disease for several years. Since there are no people infected, there is no way for the disease to come back..."

Both men stared into space, the news almost unbelievable.

"Well. That does explain the Less Dead Babies thing." Iba nodded.

"Fewer Dead Babies." Komamura and Isane corrected in unison.

"I mean yeah that sure is part of it because Smallpox was the number one killer of infants in the living world for a long time there, but there's a whole bunch of stuff that's really cut down on infant mortality in the last few decades in particular." Isane nodded.

"We were JUST Talking about that!" Iba said, excitedly. "-Good to know you guys in the fourth are keeping track of that, It was gonna take forever to pull out that data..."

"Oh, could you pull it out anyway Tetsu-kun?" She asked. "-That's most of why I came over- I mean, to share the good news first, but Unohana-Taicho is planning on using this to really push a widespread vaccination program in the Rukongai and having the numbers to back us up would be really helpful!"

"Oh! Uh, sure!" Iba blushed.

"...You know this young lady, Tetsu-Kun?" Komamura lightly teased.

Both of the young people twitched and bowed to him, pointing at each other and speaking at once.

"Oh! I'm sorry Sir, I'm fourth division third seat Isane Kotetsu, i just know Iba because we were in the same class at the academy-" She babbled.

"-this is Isane Kotetsu, she's the smartest person I know and she saved my life from a lizard one time!" He waved excitedly.

"...That lizard was not going to kill you." She sighed, covering her face in embarrassment. "-I mean, if you developed a sepsis infection from the contaminated wound it might have made you very ill but that would take weeks and we have antibiotics for that, the lizard itself wasn't all that dangerous."

"It was INSIDE my LEG!" Iba gestured to his right thigh.

Komamura slowly tilted his whole torso sideways at Iba, hoping that sentence might make more sense at a forty-five degree angle. "...How?"

"I. Uh." Iba stopped, realizing his story was maybe not one he should be telling his boss. "I was. um. Out camping with the lads back when I was in the 11th, and a lizard climbed into my cot and I was. not totally awake and thought someone was trying to cop a feel and well you know, that's behavior you respond to with force so I rolled over and tried to stab the intruder's hand and. Uh. Missed."

Komamura continued to stare at him blankly.

"There was. screaming. lotta flailing, blood, general mayhem sort of thing. And in the confusion the Lizard.... climbed. inside the hole. In my leg. Sir." Iba explained, slowly crumpling behind his desk.

Komamura sighed deeply.

"-but Miss Isane was right there and actually kicked Ikkaku halfway across the camp because he was trying to lure it out with a Banana and generally being useless and she just grabbed that sucker and ripped him right outta there and had the wound packed and sealed in less than a minute and I even got to finish doing boot camp!" He rallied, cheerfully waving at Isane in hopes of distracting his captain with how cool she was.

"...What happened to the lizard?" Komamura asked, warily eyeing her through the gap in his helmet.

"Oh! He was really, really human acclimated and sneaked into my medkit rather than go back into the wild, so Harry lives a very spoiled lizard life in a terrarium in my room at home! Though it's actually my sister's room now but he still gets all the mango and smashed beetles he can eat!" Isane nodded cheerfully.

"You named a lizard. Harry?" Komamura asked slowly.

"...Iba-san named him, actually." She blushed.

"Ironically!" Iba protested. "I'm only mostly stupid, sir."

Komamura sighed deeply and once again regretted that his disguise would not let him rub his face as needed. "Alright. Thank you for the announcement, Miss Kotetsu. We will get that data to you in a timely manner- was there anything else you needed"

"Oh gosh, there was something else, what was it-?" She tapped her chin, trying to remember.

There was the distant sound of explosives, and all three of them turned to see what looked like midday fireworks going off at the 4th.

"Oh Right! Unohana-taicho requests your presence at the 4th as. Um. 'Designated Non-Drinker and Unarmed Combat Specialist' because the party was getting kind of wild when I left actually-"

Komamura sighed, and picked up Tenken from his stand and started tying the zanpaktou to his belt anyway.

---

The following morning, a small party arrived at the local shrines to The Gods Of Good Fortune, bearing offerings on behalf of the living world's World Health Organization and the handful of names they'd been able to glean from the living world newspapers, and nursing varying degrees of of hangover.

Komamura lead the party, having gotten them up at a slightly malicious 5AM to be there first thing in the morning. Tetsuzaemon and his friends from the 11th he insisted come along and 'suffer with me, as my sworn brothers' were quite pained but doing their best to hold it together.

Shunsui was a veteran of this nonsense and was hiding the pain very well behind his longtime party companions, Ukitake and Unohana, who seemed so extraordinarily cheerful that Komamura had to conclude that they were both still significantly chemically altered. He couldn't fault Unohana- they were faint and only visible on the rare occasions she let her hair down, but just below her left ear there was still the faint divot scars from surviving her own infection.

Isane had celebrated just as hard as the 11th Division lads, but had also had the good sense to alternate beer and water and take both aspirin and some sort of horrible pink goop that apparently relieved nausea before passing out under a table and had woken up only slightly groggy.

Komamura's new friend Harry the Lizard- a remarkably loquacious and quick-witted reptile -had taken up residence inside his helmet, lightly intoxicated on the cocktail fruits people had kept feeding him, and was politely nestled in the thick fur of his neck to ward off the morning cold.

The rituals of gratitude for this miracle, and asking the Gods to bless those who had worked so hard went smoothly, and Komamura couldn't help but notice when he turned around that Miss Kotetsu had opted to lean on the shoulder of 'Tetsu-kun'.

It was not often Komamura started the day with the feeling that everything would turn out alright, but as he watched Tetsuzaemon cautiously but gracelessly take Isane's hand and her squeeze it back on the way back down from the shrine, he felt like the feeling might stay this time.

[violentdelightsandviolentends]

North Star.

It's New Years Eve. Jake is tired of waiting.

Pairing - Jake Seresin x female reader

Warnings - None

Word Count - 1638

Author's Note - Thank you so much for all the love on The Orange - I've been giggling and kicking my feet reading all of your comments and tags. I loved writing it, and I loved writing this one too. Please feel free to send me any requests, ideas, prompts, comments or questions - I'll always read them. If I could kiss you all, I would x

Masterlist. Requests.

Multi colored lights adorn the beams of the ceiling. Metallic streamers hang from the bar. Music is blasting from the jukebox. The Hard Deck almost looks unrecognisable. 

It's New Years Eve, and The Squad have agreed to spend it together. Hangman, Coyote and Payback are at the dart board, allowing Jake to show off his talent. Bob, Rooster and Fanboy are convened by the pool table, taking turns to shoot, unbothered by who's meant to be sinking what. You and Natasha are standing by the bar, waiting for Penny to serve you when she gets the chance.

"So, come on, who are you kissing at midnight?" Natasha looks at you with a glint in her eye. Mischievous girl. 

"Yeah. Right. You, if you're not careful," you warn her, teasing lilt in your voice. Honestly, you don't think she'd be the worst choice in the world. 

"As much as I'd love that, I don't think the squad could handle it," she winks at you cheekily. "Seriously, who?" 

"I don't know!" you laugh. But that's a lie. You do know. At least, you know who you'd like to kiss. 

Jake Seresin. Hangman. America's Sweetheart. 

Pilot, Texan, Heartbreaker. 

Your friend, your teammate, the man you've been in love with since you met him that first day of basic training. 

The two of you were partnered for the first few exercises that day, and you beat every other pair by a mile. You both figured out pretty quickly that you make a damn good team. 

That hasn't changed. If ever you have to pair up for an exercise, a mission, or just a class, Jake's eyes find yours immediately. A silent question. Shall we? And your answer, always - of course. 

You seem to have your own language, this shared communication. You don't have to speak to know what the other person is saying. On the ground, or in the air, you know each other's next moves. Predictable, but comfortable. 

Maybe that's the problem. 

You believe strongly that women are more than capable of making the first move. You've thought about grabbing Jake and kissing him stupid more times than you can count. But you don't. Every time there's an opportunity, you brush past it, let it go. Because the comfort isn't worth sacrificing. At least, that's what you're telling yourself. 

Your friendship with Jake has been built on years of trust, empathy, and reliance. You know that no matter what, he'll have your back. He's demonstrated it more than once. Countless times. Showing up for you, without fail. When you were harassed by a man at the Hard Deck, Jake showed up. When you had a family member's funeral and didn't want to go alone, Jake showed up. When you broke your wrist and ended up in the hospital, Jake showed up. He was your North Star. Always there, always guiding. Always comforting. 

So you can't help but repeatedly ask yourself - why hasn't he made a move? You're convinced you know the answer to that question, though. Because you're friends. He sees you as a friend. A teammate. Which you wouldn't change for the world, not by any means. But it doesn't stop you from wishing that maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't hold his cards so close to his chest. Just for a minute. 

The Devil Himself sidles over to the two of you, still at the bar, and throws an arm over each of you. Natasha manages to wiggle under and away from him, but you stay put. You don't mind. 

"Hey pretty ladies," he beams, "whatcha whispering about?" 

"It's kind of impossible to whisper when you keep queueing Duran Duran on the jukebox at full volume, Hangman," Natasha barks back. 

He laughs, a real, full bodied laugh that shakes both him and you, still with his arm slung over your shoulder. You laugh with him. It's impossible not to. His laugh is contagious, you think. Unavoidable. He laughs, you laugh. That's the way it's always been. 

It's at this moment that Bob pushes his way through the crowd, grabbing Natasha by the hand. 

"Phoenix, I need you. Fanboy doesn't believe you can do that pool trick you showed me last week. Come and prove him wrong!" 

She grins at you, and allows herself to be pulled into the swarms of people, on her way to earn some respect. 

You turn back to Jake at the bar, and see that he's ordered a beer, and your usual. Observant boy. 

You take a sip of your drink, only for a drop to miss your mouth entirely. Maybe it's the alcohol, or maybe it's just his impatience, but Jake decides he's tired of waiting. He leans in to you, and slowly, deliberately, follows the journey of the drop with his tongue, from the bottom of your neck up to your jaw. He pulls back, and watches you with that gaze of his. Measured, careful. Adoring. Mischievous. Just so Jake. 

You feel the heat rise from your chest and up to your cheeks, but you don't break eye contact with him. It feels like a confession. You're baring your truth to him, silently, and he's understanding. That shared language. You're both saying so much, without saying anything at all. 

It's then that you realise where you are. The Hard Deck has somehow become even more crowded, and you keep being bumped left and right by people attempting to get to the bar. The music is too loud, the lights are too bright. You need a minute. As if he can read your mind, Jake speaks. 

"Let's get some air. It's hot in here." 

He grabs your hand, interlacing your fingers with his, and leads you out of the door, onto the deck outside. 

The cool night air hits you both, and you sigh with relief. You allow the breeze to flow through your hair, to ripple your dress, to cleanse you of your worry.

Jake's still holding your hand. Tighter, now. As if he's scared you'll blow away. Or run away, maybe. 

You lean into him slightly, and rest your head against his arm. He's warm, soft. He smells like Jake. Like love. Like home. 

"You okay?" he asks. Always so worried about you. Attentive boy. 

"I'm good. Just a little overwhelmed, I guess."

He starts to rub circles over the back of your hand with his thumb, grounding you. It's all so intimate, you don't know whether to pull him closer or sprint in the other direction. 

He makes the decision for you - closer. He kisses your hair, and then rests his head atop of yours. You can hear the squad laughing and cheering inside, all of them completely unaware that out on the deck, two of their teammates are baring their souls to each other. 

You have no idea whether it's been two minutes or two hours when Jake speaks again. 

"You're the prettiest girl in that bar, you know." Then, he says, a bit quieter, "You're always the prettiest girl in the room."

He says it so sincerely, so earnestly, that you want to rip your heart out of your chest and place it in his hands. You want to give it to him so that maybe he'll finally understand - it's already his. 

You don't know what to say, so you bring your interlaced hands up to your lips, and kiss each of his knuckles individually. He's so warm, so golden. Radiating light wherever he goes. Your North Star. 

You both listen to the gentle crash of the ocean waves, sitting with the weight of the moment. It feels like with every second that passes, silent revelations are being made. As if the love, the feelings, the comfort, are passing through your hands and into his. You're quite convinced that you could stay right where you are forever. 

Bury me like this, you think. Immortalise us here. 

All of a sudden, the sound of a countdown breaks through your solitude. 

Ten. Nine.

You smile gently, and look at Jake, to see him gazing down at you. Stars in his eyes. Cosmic boy. 

Eight. Seven. 

He glances inside, to see the squad all gathered together, arms around one another. His family. 

Six. Five. 

Jake turns to you, and cups your face in both of his hands. Those hands that have picked you up from the ground. Those hands that have wiped your tears. Those hands, so strong, but so gentle. That's him all over, though. Your gentle boy. 

Four. Three. 

He looks at you with promise in his eyes. You can understand, clear as day, what he's telling you. Life will never be the same, from this day forward. Neither of you can wait. 

Two. One. 

Jake leans in, and presses his lips to yours. He tastes like spearmint, and the future. One of his hands travels to the back of your neck, to pull you in closer. Now that he has you this near, he knows he's never going to be able to let you go. 

Bodies pressed together as close as can be, you kiss him with so much love, you're surprised he hasn't fallen over. He's breathing you in, trying to commit this moment to memory. He knows he'll tell your grandkids about this. Hell, he'll tell any damn person that'll listen. 

"Happy New Year, sweetheart," he murmurs against your lips. 

"Happy New Year, lover," you whisper back against his. 

Bright beams of light appear above your head suddenly. Explosions of color dance across the sky, illuminating Jake's face. You look at him, and feel the urge to burst into tears. He's not watching the fireworks. He's watching you. He's gazing at you like you hung the moon. You're looking at him like he's the North Star, guiding you home. And that's exactly where you are. Home.

[same-pic-of-rickroll-everyday]

Follow for the same picture of the rickroll every day!

＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚ The Rickroller ˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊

──────⊹⊱✫⊰⊹──────

This gimmick blog has the same picture of the rickroll everyday. I also rate rickrolls I find, and generally geek out about the rickroll here.

Feel free to send me asks. I am also accepting stories of how you rickrolled other people.

I have a fairly active queue that includes rickrols, cat videos and random memes.

Pronouns: He/him

Link

Here is the video of the Rickroll in the Internet Archive in case the original goes down.

Link

You can download the rickroll here, if you have an account with the Internet Archive

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Tagging related to rickrolls:

#daily rickroll=my daily post of the rickroll

#rickroll answers=asks I answer

#rickroll hall of fame=someone who manages to rickroll ME, the rickroller

#rickroll rate=rating of a rickroll meme

#rickroll database=rickroll links I am bookmarking

#not a rickroll=something that is not a rickroll

#whimsy=yakety sax

MISCLENPUS UNRELATED TAGS

#epic

#lol

#blinkies

#she died but will live on in our memes = a tag remembering the death of the Doge dog.

Plaintext rickroll lyrics:

We're no strangers to love You know the rules and so do I A full commitment's what I'm thinking of You wouldn't get this from any other guy I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling Gotta make you understand

Never gonna give you up Never gonna let you down Never gonna run around and desert you Never gonna make you cry Never gonna say goodbye Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

We've know each other for so long Your heart's been aching But you're too shy to say it Inside we both know what's been going on We know the game and we're gonna play it

And if you ask me how I'm feeling Don't tell me you're too blind to see Never gonna give you up Never gonna let you down Never gonna run around and desert you Never gonna make you cry Never gonna say goodbye Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

[dorthyanndrarry]

Unknown -2-

Tags: Angst, Post war deatheater prejudice, light injuries, chronic illness, post war trauma

Suggested rating: Teen

<- Part 1 || Part 3 ->

-

Draco shook the melting snow from his hands and pulled up the collar on his robes, ducking his head down between his shoulders. He pushed his hands deep into his pockets relishing what was left of the weak heating charms drawing the numbness from his fingers.

He slipped into the crowd, doing his best not to get too close to anyone, cutting through the narrow alley leading to Carkitt Market. Before stepping out into the market, he pressed himself into the shadow of Gladrag's awning. He drew his wand, pulling his sleeve down to obscure it as much as possible before casting a basic healing episkey on his knees and hands. It closed the scrapes but left the dull ache of the tender, bruised flesh. The important thing was that it looked good as new.

He followed the episkey with a quick cleaning charm and a reparo on his torn slacks. He ran his hand over the fabric to make sure it took, finding the linen fully patched though it had gotten thinner. Soon there wouldn't be enough fabric left to stretch and they would begin to fray, or unravel entirely.

Draco shivered and quickly put his wand away before stepping back out onto the street. He followed the edge of the square around to the owl post office and stepped inside to use their public apparition zone.

He landed on the gravel drive in front of the manor.

"You're late," Narcissa said. She was standing in front of the doors waiting for him. Her face was drawn and pale despite the heavy cloak wrapped around her. "Is everything okay? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Mother," Draco said, hurrying over to her.

"You said you'd be home twenty minutes ago," Narcissa said, a shaking hand reaching out to the railing and starting down the steps.

Draco cursed under his breath. He should have kept better track of time. He should have hurried.

Draco quickly picked out a lie that would be believable, "A queue at the potions supply held me up." He took the stairs two at a time, catching her other hand in his before she could take another step. Her skin was cold, shivers making her fingers tremble.

"It's too cold out here," Draco said, tugging Narcissa back up the steps, an arm around her shoulders to support her.

"Next time, use the house elves for the shopping, won't you? You must. It's not safe in Diagon Alley," Narcissa said.

"They do all the shopping other than my potion supplies," Draco said gently. He clenched his jaw to hide the wince of pain as he pulled the door open with his sprained wrist and ushered Narcissa inside.

The door thumped closed behind them, their steps echoing loudly on the cold marble floor. The rugs and tapestries were gone, destroyed during the war, or disposed of not long after. Only a few sconces still had working lighting charms in them, leaving the entry hall in a permanent dusk.

"Send the elves o-or owl order them, you don't have to go. You should stay safe. You need to be safe." Narcissa said, grasping Draco's hand so tightly the tendons showed through her thin skin.

Draco forced a thin smile. "Of course. I'll do that from now on," he lied, taking out his wand and casting a passable warming charm over his mother, rubbing her arms to speed the warmth into her bones. "You shouldn't wait outside, you'll catch sick again."

"You were so late," Narcissa said weakly, her shivers going stronger for a moment before slowly beginning to subside.

"The windows in the drawing room look out onto the drive," Draco suggested.

"I don't like the drawing room," Narcissa said sharply.

"Right, right," he said quickly. There were many rooms one or both them hadn't stepped foot into since the war ended and the Aurors finished their exhaustive sweep of the property. It was hard to keep track of them all.

"Draco, darling-"

"I won't leave again. I'll stay here," Draco reassured her. He would make sure he only went out when she was resting, then she wouldn't have to worry. He could tell their elves, the two they had left, to fetch him if she woke before he was done. He would go mad if he had to stay in this tomb for the rest of his life.

Narcissa nodded to herself, "good... good."

As her anxiety drained away, so did her strength and she slumped, leaning all of her weight against him.

He held her tighter, "Mother-!"

"I'm fine," Narcissa said faintly.

"You are not," Draco said, guiding her down the hall to the small side room near the kitchens that had been repurposed into a bedroom so she wouldn't have to go up and down the stairs. He shouldered the door open and helped his mother to her bed.

"I will be, I just need to rest, to get my strength back," Narcissa said, letting her cloak fall onto the ground and collapsing onto her bed.

Draco grabbed a heavy throw blanket from the end of the bed and tucked it around her.

"Wake me for dinner," Narcissa said, her eyelids drooping.

"If you feel up to it," Draco said.

"I will," Narcissa said with a weak smile, "Promise that you will. I hardly get to see you otherwise, you're always at your cauldron."

Draco sighed, "Very well. I shall see you for dinner."

Narcissa smiled as her eyes closed and she fell into an exhausted sleep.

Draco leaned over and pressed a brief kiss to the top of her head. He hoped this would not lead to relapse, she had only just recovered from the last illness that had left her bed-bound for weeks.

He collected the empty potion bottles from her nightstand and dropped them in a basket that one of their elves would bring to his brewing room once it was full. He pulled open the drawer took out a fresh bottle of each and lined them up on the edge where they would be easy to grab.

Draco took a quick inventory of the potions left in the drawer. She was nearly out of invigoration draught, so he would make more of that first. The healing potion and draught of peace were equally low but the healing potion was more important so that would come next, followed by the draught of peace, then dreamless sleep and girding potions.

He slid the drawer shut and stood up with a sigh. And he needed to find time somewhere to prepare a blood- replenishing potion. Draco hoped it might provide his mother more strength if administered in smaller doses. If it didn't, he'd try another potion and another, as many as it took. He couldn't lose her. She was all he had left in the world.

-

Tags below v💜 same as always, leave a message or reblog to get tagged in the next post

@havingaverydrarryday hi hi! it's so good to seeyou!

@shadowsofstories 😭thank youuuuuuu!

@dewitty1 ye 😁its gonna be so angsty lol💜thank yuuuuu💜

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[roseapothecary]

hey, fam. as some of you know, my father unexpectedly passed away at the beginning of june. he'd been diagnosed with liver cancer in february, and he experienced sudden cardiac arrest at home — we think it was a complication of his liver failure, but we're honestly not 100% sure. i'm not gonna lie, either... it was literally the worst night of my life. it's been a really, really tough month, ya'll. so, if you've been wondering where the fuck i've been and why this blog has been running on a queue... now you know.

i'm just tossing it out there that i now have a ko-fi. i'm taking on a lot of financial responsibilities i wasn't expecting, literally overnight. my mom's social security isn't nearly enough to cover her bills, so i'll be supporting her going forward. that wouldn't be half as hard if it weren't for my giant pile of student debt and outrageous monthly payment, but... y'know. america. anyway, there is obviously no obligation to support me. however, if you have a couple bucks to spare and want to help my mom and i out sometime, it would be appreciated.

[doyouknowthischaracter]

Do you think the polls are inherently biased, because the well-known characters will be shared more wheras the unknown characters might never even reach their bubble where they are actually known by a lot of people?

Short answer is no.

Long answer is: well, if we want to be pedantic, an argument could be made that no method of collecting data via surveys, even self-administered surveys, is completely free of bias because that's just human nature and all you can do is minimize it by wording questions neutrally, trimming outliers, etc etc. With that out of the way, one very important thing to note here is that this isn't an opinion survey. The question being asked is very straightforward and the answer is not something that can be swayed or influenced by peer pressure, propaganda, unwillingness to disclose private information, or any other factors, be they internal or external. You either know a character or you don't. I mean, people could certainly lie, in either direction, but 1) why would you do that?? it's not even like we have winners or losers here, and 2) there's nothing I can do about it anyway.

Now, when it comes to sampling bias (which, from what I understand, is what you're actually asking about) my answer is still no, I don't think that's accurate. Popular characters will reach more people and get more votes overall precisely because they're more popular. If this were a tournament style blog or if I were asking your opinion on the character in question, then yes, I could definitely see how more well-known characters would be at an unfair advantage (or how tagging the polls with the character's name is encouraging that bias, as it's been suggested before), but this is not that! Well-known characters reaching their bubbles faster/more efficiently than obscure characters is an inherent part of being more popular. Everything is working as intended.

All that being said, there are a few factors which I think could influence results somewhat unfairly, but I wouldn't necessarily call them bias. They're more like limitations of the medium.

Firstly, the time and day of the week when a poll is published. I don't have access to this kind of data right now, but off the top of my head, I'd say Sundays around 10pm is when Tumblr users are most active. That, coupled with the fact that most users are from the United States, means that polls that come out of the queue on US Sundays during that time window have a chance to reach more people than all the others. However, this potential problem is organically circumvented by people going back to see previously posted polls, finding polls through reblogs or from tag searches, etc. So it's not really a significant difference. I haven't noticed the numbers reflecting this yet either, but in theory that's how social media works, so I thought it was worth pointing out.

Secondly, polls that were posted early on when the blog had fewer followers reached less people, on average, than polls being posted at the moment or that will be posted in the future. No argument there, that's just a fact. But, again, this is a limitation of the medium. Potentially, I could repost older polls at some point in the future and reassess characters' popularity, but how do I choose which ones? All of them? Wouldn't we just get stuck in a loop of reposting the same characters over and over then? That'd be no fun. So I don't really think there's anything to be done here, unfortunately.

Thirdly, meme-able characters will be see better engagement and consequently higher numbers of votes. Point in case, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Once again, not something that can be helped, not really. I do my best to maintain uniformity in how I format the polls and which pictures I choose (as high quality as I can find, cropped adequately, consistent size, etc.). But some characters will just have better chances of being shared around by virtue of featuring in memes or having some recognizable line or something like that.

To sum it up, overall I don't think there's an inherent bias in how the polls work at the moment. I do think there are certain factors that could marginally influence voting numbers, but not the votes themselves. (Which is why I've decided to compile two separate lists, by number of votes and by percentage-- they measure slightly different things, but that's a post for another day.) As long as every follower of this blog is delivered every poll to their dash and everyone pinky promises not to lie and screw up my numbers on purpose, then I'd say we're golden.

This is probably more than you asked for lol, but hopefully it all makes sense. And as always, feel free to share your opinion. I'm always happy to hear it!

[tactician]

as you probably know, the most recent pokemon games feature pretty significant pokedex cuts due to the sheer magnitude of pokemon that are now available to us. this means that some pokemon are simply not featured in certain mainline games, which adds a unique element to a lot of pokemon's ribbon master journeys. re: my experience with reides, working around unobtainable ribbons wasn't exactly a new experience - after all, there were no available shadow horseas/seadras/kingdras in pokemon colosseum or pokemon xd, so i knew that my kingdra wouldn't be able to get the national ribbon (granted to purified shadow pokemon) - but it still was something i had to consider and plot out carefully as i brought him up towards the more recent generations. for example, reides was unable to get the hisui ribbon (granted for taking a photo with your pokemon in the region's photo studio), as the horsea line was not featured in legends arceus... and, for a long time, i figured that he wouldn't be able to get any of the ribbons (and marks!) featured in scarlet and violet.

but then... the dlc happened. the glorious, glorious dlc.

the horsea line was re-introduced into the pokedex when indigo disk - the second batch of dlc for scarlet and violet - dropped. needless to say, i was EXTREMELY hype about this. in my previous post, i mentioned not being sure if reides would be able to join me in this current generation of pokemon. i wondered if i'd have to brave the long, long queues of pokemon shield in order to get the master rank ribbon on him and make him a true ribbon master... but fortune smiled down on me, and reides was miraculously granted access to generation 9 of the pokemon games.

before i get into reides' journey through paldea, kitakami and unova, here's a quick reminder you can find each part of reides' ribbon master journey here on my personal website, or here in my ribbon master tag on this tumblr! it spans from my childhood copy of emerald version to my... uh... adulthood (lmao) copy of scarlet version... so it's quite the sizeable read! to everyone who's stuck by me for this whole challenge and expressed support for my lovely kingdra: thank you so much! and for anyone new to the reides saga: welcome, and i hope you enjoy my posts about him!

with that handled... it's time to cover a brand new generation of ribbons and marks!

as a big pokemon fan, i tend to play new games and dlc the very moment that i can. in the current era of #gaming, that means obsessively checking for game updates on the night of dlc releases. as i mashed that + button on my pro controller to check for updates to my copy of scarlet, i felt especially nervous. thanks to people being mischievous and sneaking alleged leaks around on twitter, i knew that the horsea line was supposedly being introduced into the game... but i'm extremely skeptical by nature. (can you believe that some people go on the internet and lie?!?!) i didn't want to believe that reides' ribbon master journey would continue until i saw a little horsea (or seadra... or kingdra...) swimming around in a digital body of water myself. once my game finally updated, i sprinted over to blueberry academy as SOON as i could and began running around the terarium in search of a horsea. i found one swimming around in a lake almost immediately.

when i tell y'all... the scream i scrumpt... LMFAO. joking aside, it felt like i could finally breathe again. i was SO READY to plop reides into my file and get right to grabbing the ribbons and marks that were added for gen9. unfortunately, gamefreak had other plans for me, and pokemon home was under maintenance. after falling dramatically to my knees, i busied myself with getting the rest of my team for the dlc ready. this included grinding out the necessary bp to unlock wild starters in the terarium, then embarking on a shiny hunt for my fav starter pokemon of all time - totodile! after hours and hours of looking around, i managed to catch one successfully in a love ball and named him barge. along with the rest of my indigo disk team, barge would go on to be close friends with reides. anyway, after a lengthy maintenance, pokemon home was eventually ready to go. i leapt right in, retrieving reides and plopping him into my party. i'm a huge fan of the updated pokemon models in scarlet, so i was hype to see the one that they gave shiny kingdra. i was NOT disappointed in the slightest!

LOOK AT HOW GORGEOUS HE IS. the tiny scale details... the glossy shine... my god. as much as i liked the sleekness of the models in gen8, i like the more realistic ones that gen9 introduced a whole lot more. the devs did a phenomenal job; kingdra looks absolutely majestic. with my full indigo disk team now present in my copy of scarlet, i had to take a group shot and treat everyone to a sandwich!

reides met five new pals: bane the weezing, grunge the krookodile, bento the snorlax, axe the haxorus, and, of course, barge the feraligatr! i shiny hunted for all of them myself, as i really enjoyed doing the same for my kitakami team during my teal mask playthrough.

i wasn't quite ready to take on the indigo disk plotline, though. my first order of business was grabbing a ribbon for reides - namely, the paldea champion ribbon! i hopped on a plane and flew back to paldea, signing up for a spot in the academy ace tournament.

i really love the vibes of the academy ace tournament; everyone is so passionate about the battles, and the music is an absolute JAM. i was especially happy about reides' first experience as a competitor in it, too, because my fav character in the game just-so-happened to show up for it!

that's right: arven - the man, the myth, the legend - challenged me and reides to a battle.

shoutout to him holding his pokeball upside down. just one more reason as to why he's truly one of the best pokemon characters. (btw, as happy was i was to see arven, i always feel so bad to fight his mabosstiff. that's my FRIEND!!!!!!)

anyway, after sweeping his way through everyone in the academy ace tournament, reides was granted the paldea champion ribbon for his efforts.

after nabbing that ribbon, i decided that i should really get a move on with the indigo disk's actual plot, as i wanted to avoid spoilers and also REALLY wanted to know what happened next in the plot. i was pretty invested in the hooks that teal mask introduced and was especially worried about kieran. (just why did teal mask's plot force us to lie to that poor kid, btw?! just thinking about it gets me so annoyed. i'd go through an 'evil' arc too if i was in his shoes, i'll tell you that.) even though it's not really relevant to reides' ribbon master quest, i figured i'd share some photos of his storyline adventure, too.

(btw, i'm writing this post in feb 2024, which means that indigo disk has been Around for around 2 months and thus the spoiler embargo is pretty much lifted - but, still: be warned that there are some spoilers for indigo disk beyond this point!)

the battles in indigo disk ended up being pretty tough; i was glad that i put time aside to train up my team properly. we managed to take on the blueberry elite four and kieran and ultimately Prevailed - even if the battles were quite close, at times! i was kinda sad that there was no ribbon associated with beating all of them - it would've been nice to finally get some form of an unovan ribbon on my ribbon master - and i was also pretty shocked that the dlc didn't introduce a battle tower. regardless, even if reides didn't get a ribbon for his performance in the battles, it was still awesome to include him in them, and i had a whole lot of fun.

i also brought reides along for the Shenanigans following the blueberry academy plotline.

luckily for me, briar, carmine and kieran were chill with waiting in the underdepths of area zero while i took reides on a bit of a photoshoot. it was just so pretty down there!! how could i resist!!

anyway, silly little wanderings aside, it was really cool to have reides involved in the big showdown against terapagos. i was especially happy when kieran snapped out of his funk and i got to battle alongside him. his hydrapple even used dragon cheer, powering reides up during the battle. it made the whole experience feel all the more significant.

with everything all sorted out, i ended up being really happy with the indigo disk's overall plot. i definitely liked it a lot more than teal mask's narrative and was really pleased that we could become proper friends with kieran once more. (i still wish that we could've apologized for lying to him, though.)

now that i was safe from indigo disk spoilers and emboldened with love for pokemon as a whole, i decided to pick up my ribbon-collecting in earnest once more... though the next ribbon on my list was not actually a ribbon. it was a mark! introduced in gen8, marks are basically the same as ribbons. i think of them as little stickers on pokemon, haha. the first one that i set my sights on was the gourmand mark, which has a chance of being randomly given to your pokemon after eating a meal with them! these meals can be the store-bought ones or the ones that you make yourself via the picnic system.

frankly, i have no idea WHEN reides got this mark, as i went sort of crazy with buying lots of different meals. (i really like the food art in this game, okay!!) it definitely didn't take long for one of these meals to really strike his fancy, though. he got the gourmand mark very quickly and also got the title 'reides the gourmet' along with it!

i then decided that i'd try to get the other two marks on reides in one fell swoop. the first of these marks was the itemfinder mark, which your pokemon has a chance of getting when they pick up an item in the overworld. to get this mark, you have to make use of the let's go feature, which allows your pokemon to walk alongside you. the second of these marks was the partner mark, which... can be quite the ordeal. your pokemon basically has a 1/100 chance to get this mark with every 10k steps that you take. additionally, your pokemon also has to be friendly towards you in order for them to have a chance at getting this mark. since both of these marks rely on random chance, i knew that i could get really unlucky and end up going off on one hell of a grind for them... but i decided to just take it one step at a time. instead of focusing on getting the marks to trigger, i wanted to wander around and enjoy the sights around the various regions of the game. after all, i was lucky to even HAVE reides in this generation - and these marks gave me the perfect excuse to take lots of photos with him, too!

i was especially happy to take some photos of him with aske, my shiny gallade who joined me for my teal mask journey. as you guys know, reides the kingdra is named after a character that i play in a dnd campaign. similarly, aske is named after another character in that campaign; he's reides' boyfriend!

i also enjoyed roaming around *as* reides while using the new synchro machine, too! i'm not sure if items that you pick up count towards the itemfinder mark in this mode, but i'd like to think that they do.

thanks to my casual approach to getting these marks, i actually have no idea how long they took for me to get on reides. one day, i just happened to check and they were BOTH there, so i guess the 'grind' truly ended up being completely painless. in the following screenshot, i'm hovering over the partner mark, but you can see the itemfinder one at the end of the row above it, too.

with the marks now handled, i had one more ribbon to get on reides before he could become a true ribbon master. this ribbon was the one that i was the most nervous about by FAR. the master rank ribbon is granted to your pokemon once you emerge victorious in one (1) online battle against another player... but the catch here is that the battle has to be in the master rank. for me, it meant climbing from the beginner rank all the way up there.

naturally, i procrastinated with this ribbon a whole lot. i took reides along for the (amazing) epilogue when it dropped in january, taking more pictures with him and making more memories... all the while wondering just when i'd get around to tackling the Final Ribbon.

as it turns out, i didn't actually end up procrastinating on it all that long. my friend cody visited me a few days after the epilogue dropped, and my other friend blee stayed over at my house for his visit, too. both of them knew about reides the kingdra and we decided that we'd tackle operation: final ribbon acquisition together, with blee spearheading it as someone very well-versed in vgc. over the course of a few days, we managed to get up to master rank - running into a bunch of really interesting teams and occurences during the climb of legend. (special shoutout to a dedenne who kept trying to spam nuzzle on pokemon who were completely immune to it, but who successfully spread the glory of Cheek Pouch via entrainment onto us all.) i learnt a truly crazy amount of stuff about the competitive world of pokemon and really enjoyed all of the different rental teams that we tried out.

upon arriving in the master ball tier, we had to switch gears, though, as we couldn't use rental teams anymore and, instead, had to build one from scratch so that reides could be included in it. i ended up building this portland regional finals team as per blee's recommendation, though we swapped out raging bolt for reides, himself. since it was my own team and not a rental one, we gave nicknames to each team member.

my entei is one that i got in an event years and years ago (they're shiny and in a cherish ball), so i couldn't nickname them... but just know that they are 'flamberge' in spirit. o7 reides also got an electric tera type (and tera blast as part of his moveset) for fun, as his namesake is associated with storms.

it was a lot of fun making this team!!! the very specific ev-spreads that some of the pokemon required gave me a newfound appreciation for all of the feathers that i happened to pick up while wandering the terarium... not to mention all of the mochi that i collected while oustin' ogres in kitakami.

once the team was all built, it was time to get the final W in order to secure the ribbon at long last. we could all breathe a whole lot easier, as when you rank up to another ball tier, you can't "demote" to a lower one - so falling back into the ultra ball tier wasn't a concern. victory didn't evade us for long, either!

after a REALLY fun battle against someone named alex, operation: final ribbon was finally complete.

reides - along with the rest of the team who helped clutch out the victory - got the much-coveted master rank ribbon.

upon getting this ribbon, it finally happened.

reides the kingdra officially became a ribbon master.

a journey that began back in october 2023 finally came to a close. with his 91 total ribbons (since his two golden memory ribbons have 48 ribbons in total within them), reides now has each and every single ribbon that he can possibly attain from his origin game of emerald version to the current pokemon generation.

i'm sure that all of my posts speak for themselves in terms of the sheer amount of effort that i put into this challenge. there were many times that i thought i hit a "roadblock," be it in the form of a gruelling grind or worries over not being able to access something due to hardware restrictions. in the end, however, reides was able to rise above all of the challenges. i got sooo much help and support from friends over the course of this whole challenge, so i have to give a BIG shoutout to every single one of y'all! and, of course, i have to extend thanks to all of the people who posted about their ribbon mastery experiences online, as i definitely couldn't have guided reides to this point without them. i'm hoping that the posts that i made about reides' journey can serve as a guide of sorts to anyone who wants to pick up the challenge for their pokemon, too!

at any rate, reides is my very first ribbon master and i definitely plan on keeping his ribbon collection up-to-date in future generations of pokemon. i say it time and time again, but the ribbon master challenge is amazing because it gets you interacting with aspects of the pokemon games that you may have never even thought of trying out. you form a true emotional bond with your pokemon, and it's just... so very fantastic. you make so many memories!!! so while there might not be an update to the reides saga until those generations are out and about, i'm already excited to keep on hunting for ribbons and am hoping that the horsea line is included in every single game going forward! because, quite frankly... it's what reides deserves. >:)

before i Sign Off on this post, however, i wanted to share something i bought to celebrate reides; namely, a custom shiny kingdra diorama from nerdidecor on etsy.

ISN'T IT SO CUTE!!!!! i put it right on my desk next to my pc so that i can always have a little reminder of my amazing ribbon master with me. i'm hoping to get more shiny kingdra stuff in the future, too!

either way, thank you all so much again for keeping up with me and my beloved kingdra! i'm already looking forward to being able to write up another one of these posts in the future! until then, reides is definitely going to enjoy a nice vacation from ribbon hunting. rest assured that i will be taking the very best care of him!!! :D

[secretprincesskitty]

It's nice to see support for my ship RocheCiri, not only hate and ignore, even if it's a lie.

I support NO ship!

I see a nice picture of Ciri and I put it in my queue, that's all! Ciri is a lesbian leaning aromantic on the ace spectrum to me

and if I were to ship Ciri with anyone, it wouldn't be Ciri/Roche because that's the only ship whose fans have sent me pushy messages the moment I started this blog and now they're stealing other people's art to fit their own delusional world, those aren't people I want to be associated with

now kindly fuck off with shipping wars and leave me alone!!!

[homoqueerjewhobbit]

Modern day Seinfeld:

George and Jerry get into an argument about why people tag their queued posts.

George: if you don't tag it as a queued post then how do you know it's a queued post?

Jerry: who cares if it's a queued post or not! I have never once thought to myself, "boy, I am glad to know that that person put that post in their queue. That really made a difference to me."

Later, George decides to skip out on his new girlfriend's experimental noise music show and stays home to browse tumblr on the toilet. He tells her that he had to get an emergency root canal.

Girlfriend: if you were getting a root canal, then how were you posting on tumblr the whole time?

George: baby, please, those were queued posts! I wouldn't miss your show unless it was a real emergency.

Girlfriend: don't lie to me, George, I know you tag your queued posts.

Later, Kramer: oh you missed a helluva show, George, she had these samples of this woman chewing carrot sticks during a zoom meeting--*

*in the b-story, Elaine (who is off carbs and crabby) has been chastised by her boss for eating carrot sticks too loudly during zoom meetings even though she swears she had her mic off and it was someone else.

[ddagent]

27

"Good afternoon. I have an appointment at five o'clock?"

Aziraphale Fell smiled at the lovely receptionist in the dentist, who handed him a stack of paperwork after he politely reminded her - yet again - that he did not have an email address, had no desire to have an email address, and he had no issue filling in paperwork. She handed him a biro with a chewed end and sent him upstairs to await Doctor Service.

The waiting room at the Whickber Dental Practice was small: there were six seats, all told, and a sprawling figure with black snakeskin boots was taking up half of them. Upon spotting the figure, the hand clutching the clipboard fell. "You."

A pair of sunglasses slipped downwards and an easy smile bloomed on the other man's face. "Angel. If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were stalking me."

"Hardly. And I have a name, you know. It's not Angel."

The other man merely snorted and went back to perusing an out-of-date copy of Gardner's Weekly. Aziraphale took one of the empty seats opposite, nose wrinkling at the pen, and began filling out the forms required before his appointment. More than once, his gaze drifted to the dreadful man opposite him. They had first met in line at the coffee shop - where this awful man had pushed past Aziraphale in the queue. Next had been the pharmacy - where Aziraphale had let everyone bar him cut in front. Then the post office. The Dirty Donkey. Even waiting for a table at the new restaurant Aziraphale had been dying to try.

It was becoming rather ridiculous. Yet, Aziraphale had no desire whatsoever to get to know this man that fate kept throwing in his path. Aziraphale's gaze darted in his direction, following the long line of his legs. Even if he was bloody gorgeous.

Aziraphale quickly busied himself. He had forms to fill out. His brushing habits were excellent: twice a day, electric toothbrush, regular flossing. He began to falter, however, when he came to the questions on units of alcohol and sweet treats per day.

"You can lie, you know. They won't know." Aziraphale glanced up from his form. The man was watching him intently. "It's what I do."

"But they will. Know, I mean. They can tell from my teeth." Aziraphale, shame crawling over him, put down the accurate units. Ish. "For the best."

The man hummed. "I 'spose. But we both know that whatever advice they give you, you'll be back to ignoring it before lunchtime. Maybe at a charming bistro or a lovely patisserie."

Aziraphale flushed. He did not care for this man's judgement - especially from a man who had a beaten packet of cigarettes in his front pocket and a dusty mouth guard case that looked like it hadn't been opened since the 90s. But, before he could be drawn into yet another argument about social decorum, Doctor Sandwich's dental assistant appeared.

"Anthony Crowley?"

The man raised his hand. "That's me." He stood from the chair, hips swaying as he followed the assistant. Before he climbed the short flight of stairs to the dental suite, he stared at Aziraphale. "A pleasure, as always, Angel. Where will we meet next?"

"Nowhere, if there is a God."

The man, Crowley, threw his head back and laughed. He then offered Aziraphale a wink and went to his appointment. Aziraphale just sat, clipboard firmly clutched in his hands, and tried to focus on the fact that he loathed this man - and not that the acrobatics his stomach was making at the memory of the way Crowley had stared at him. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if they were to run into each other again. Maybe.

Give me a number - that’s how many seconds I’ll spend thinking of an Aziraphale/Crowley AU to write for you in 200 words or more.

[daddycardan]

hey um i LOVE ur content!! okay so i have a head canon that my freaky children jude and cardan are super into giving each other hickies and jude will try to cover them up as best as she can but fuckin cardan will show them OFF and be like LOOK WHAT MY WIFE DID TO MEEE like if he’s got hickies on his chest u best BELIEVE his shirt will barely be buttoned

i fucking love this idea, sorry it took me so long to write it!

they love giving each other hickeys, for several reasons

first, they are sloppy and hot

second, kissing each other so hard that it causes small-scale internal bleeding and bruises is the type of harm they love to inflict upon each other

third, it leaves a mark

a mark that sends a very clear message to everyone

jude, though she doesn't like to admit, loves marking her territory, and cardan loves being subjected to it

but when it comes to bearing the mark herself, she prefers doing it discreetly

after a particularly hot & heavy night, she makes sure to wear a high-collared dress the next day

she applies a layer of concealer on areas that aren't covered by clothes—her jawline and the base of her ears

cardan frowns at her. "why are you doing this? are you embarrassed of the mark of my lips, my love?"

"no," says jude, a blush creeping across her cheeks, "i just prefer keeping our business to ourselves."

he cackles. "there's nothing about the king and queen's marriage that ought to be concealed from the court. they expect us to produce an heir any day now. surely, a few hickeys won't trigger a scandal."

jude shoots him a sharp look. "are you familiar with the concept of public decency? i hide hickeys just like i wipe your cum off my face: because the sight of it might make someone uncomfortable."

"why bother?" a lazy smile spreads on his face. "i wouldn't mind going into public with my lips drenched in your juices. i would wear you like a jewel."

jude snorts—the fact that he can't lie yet is able to make such a statement is... oddly charming.

and a little concerning.

as the day goes on, jude's attendance is needed at living council meetings, in the court of shadows, and for a brief visit in the tower of forgetting. she keeps busy, as always

cardan holds the front at being picturesquely lazy, as usual

in the evening, when jude returns to the throne room, she finds cardan lounging on his throne, listening to complaints and requests from a queue of courtiers

she makes her way up the dais, and takes a seat on her throne, next to cardan

he leans over and places a soft kiss on jude's neck, while the courtier to continues her long tirade

jude assumes the kiss is just a form of quick greeting

but he continues

his hand reaches over, palm sliding across her abdomen and hips, while his lips leave a trail of increasingly sloppier kisses along her jawline

jude's face hardens, but she doesn't pull away

her gaze fixes on the courtier and she attempts to focus on listening to her long-winded tale about her cursed kelpie, pleading for a solution from the high king

when cardan begins sucking on jude's neck, she finally nudges him away

"cardan, we have a job to do," she whispers.

he acknowledges it with an offended groan

"your story is dull!" he raises his voice at the courtier. "i don't care for your dead kelpie."

"it's not dead, it's cursed," the courtier corrects.

"well, i hope it stays cursed," cardan sneers. "it's the least you deserve for distracting my queen. now, get out of my sight."

the courtier scurries away, and the next one seems hesitant to step forward

"i'm not the one who's distracted!" jude protests in a hushed voice

only now, when she fully turns to face him, does she notice his loose, open collared shirt, which exposes an ungodly amount of hickeys

calling it open collared is a conservative term—it's split open in the middle, almost all the way down to his navel

the small, dark bruises span from his jawline and neck, through his chest, all the way down near his lower abs

jude's cheeks bloom deep red at the sight

anyone who casts their gaze at the high king—and let's be honest, everyone does—can clearly tell that the high queen has been busy with her mouth recently

jude's eyes dart around the room, and she can see several familiar faces

nicasia is feasting at the dinner tables, taryn and the ghost are dancing together, and her knight fand is standing at attention near the dais

"i hope you're happy," she scolds cardan. "i hope it does it for you. displaying yourself for everyone to see. not a decent bone in your body, cardan. you're truly the worst."

"oh, this isn't the worst i can do," he snickers. "i can show you more, my queen."

he stands from the throne, pulls his shirt apart completely, and pushes his pants down his hips, exposing a dangerously low part of his abdomen

"cardan, what are you doing?" she asks, throat gone dry in horror. it isn't hard to imagine that he will shed his pants completely

"look!" he says with a wide smile. he dips the edge of his pants to reveal a hickey there, just near the right side of the base of his cock

jude remembers when she put it there, of course

but now, everyone else in the room will also know

and jude is on the edge of losing her mind

but he looks so proud of himself

he wears those goddamn hickeys like badges of honor

and jude can't help but find it a tiny bit amusing

and finally, her mouth twitches, in what looks like a supressed smile

[swannieluv]

Teyvat's Festa Junina!

✦⸼࣪⸳ Pairing: PLATONIC! Genshin characters x GN! Reader ✦⸼࣪⸳ 𝐖𝐜: 1,5k ✦⸼࣪⸳ 𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆!!: none (if I missed one, please tell me!!) ✦⸼࣪⸳ A/N: Hello! This is something I've really wanted to write, so I hope you can enjoy this even if you don't celebrate it! :)) ✦⸼࣪⸳ likes, reblogs and comments are appreciated!! <3

It's winter, and what better way to celebrate than under the covers and drinking hot chocolate? Holding a Festa Junina in Teyvat! It was a simple idea, but it took on slightly bigger proportions than intended.

Stalls with games, colorful flags and lots of food. These things made it one of the liveliest parties Teyvat has ever seen!

One of the main traditions is jumping the campfire in pairs. But by coincidence, the only person left was Bennett. His bad luck, coupled with his fear of jumping over the fire, could only result in absolute failure.

"Bennett, that's not a good idea," you hesitated, as you stared into the embers coming from the fire. "We're just going to hurt ourselves on that fire."

"Really?" the boy's face saddened slightly. Jumping the fire was something he really wanted to do — but he couldn't, not with all this bad luck. No one really wanted to jump with him, but it was a tradition that Bennett would really like to try.

Watching the other pairs jump the bonfire while Bennett stood still was a bit depressing. Of course, you didn't want to get hurt and ruin your colorful outfit; but if it was for the happiness of a friend, then it would be okay to come up with yet another accident story to tell.

"Okay, decided." With a sigh, you stood up and brushed the dust off your clothes. At least a jump of one and a half meters would be enough not to hurt yourself, since the fire wasn't that high. "We're going to make the biggest jump this world has ever seen!"

"Are you sure? What if we fall face first into the fire?"

"Trust me. I'm 100% sure we'll make it!"

Lie. Although the others could do it, you weren't sure about your own abilities at the moment. But as the saying goes: who doesn't take a risk, doesn't take a chance.

"We'll make it..." Bennett paused before grinning from ear to ear. "Let's do it!"

Hand in hand, you went to the back of the queue. The confidence of a few seconds ago seemed to disappear completely, replaced by a certain fear. Were the flames too high? Wouldn't the wind blow them onto you?

But as soon as it was your turn, you ran towards the fire. Holding each other's hands tightly, you matched your steps so that they were in complete sync; that's before you gave an impulse to jump over the fire.

It was quick, less than a second perhaps. And by some miracle you didn't hurt yourselves or knock over the wood during the jump.

You grabbed his hands, jumping for joy. "Bennett, we did it!"

"We did it!"

His face became confused for a moment as he looked around. "Do you smell something burning?"

"Yes..." With your eyes widening, you realized that the smell of smoke was coming from the back of his jacket. "BENNETT, WAIT A MINUTE!"

Just then, a kamera shot a picture of the two of you. Bennett's flaming jacket would stay in your memory forever, just like you trying to put out the flames with a little flag you grabbed from the decorations.

One of the most special traditions of the Festa Junina is undoubtedly the preparation of the traditional dishes. And who else could be in charge of such a task but Liyue's best chef: Xiangling.

Her stall had a huge queue all afternoon, so you couldn't wait to grab something. How much money was she making selling so much?

"[Name]!" As if in an instant, the girl grabbed your shoulders and shook you lightly. "There you are, I've been looking for you all afternoon!"

"Say, do you have any food left? I'm starving, and running after Bennett didn't help much..."

Xiangling went behind the tent, setting up a plate full of the delicacies she and Guoba had prepared. Putting a finger over her lips as if to shut someone up, even though no one was talking, Xiangling passed the plate to you as if it were a top secret item. "Don't tell anyone, it's all here!"

"But what exactly is... all this?"

Even with your decent knowledge of cooking, you had no idea what each of the things she put on your plate was. But it looked good, and that's what mattered.

"This is cuscuz, I made it with corn!" She pointed to a yellow pile, which seemed to be made of flour. "There's also freshly fried pastel! It's a kind of fried dough with cheese inside, a nice simple recipe, right?"

"Damn... I'm going to end up with a stomach ache eating so many different things."

Xiangling let out a laugh, pausing only to sort out more food, "It's not that bad, go! There's still sweets!"

"Sweets?"

"Pé-de-moleque, rice pudding, fubá cake. Everyone will eat later!"

"Let's see how it goes, I'll stop by again if I need to. Thanks!"

She smiled back at you and went back to the back of the tent. In the background, you could see Guoba wearing a hat with fake braids sewn into it — only the Festa Junina could bring moments like that.

On the bloody battlefield, hundreds fall during the fight. Victory is never certain in the face of the merciless monster that is Klee with a packet of estalinhos — little bombs made for children to play with.

"That... That's crazy!" Running like crazy, you couldn't help but get hit by some of the projectiles Klee threw. Since there was no real explosion, she had no restrictions on who she threw the estalinhos at.

Nothing made the moment worse than the certainty that your sanity was diminishing with every popping noise. You wanted to throw any estalinho back at her, but there was no box near you - Klee had monopolized everything.

"Hey, you!" a faint voice called out from behind a pile of boxes. While Klee was distracted by chasing someone else, you hurried to hide there.

"First time playing with estalinhos?" It was Diona, hiding with Qiqi. Although Qiqi didn't seem to be paying much attention, more entertained by the braid in her hair than anything else.

"Mhm. Why is it so difficult?!"

"Festa Junina is Klee's new battle ring. Well, pretty annoying, huh?" Diona's face frowned slightly. "It's impossible, we never beat her! Do you throw a estalinho? BOOM! She throws like seven!"

"There are three of us, aren't there? She's one."

Diona raised an eyebrow, looking at Qiqi for a few seconds and then back at you. "So your crazy plan is to go three against one? Really?"

"It doesn't hurt to try." You stood up, offering a brand new packet of the bombs. "Come on, let's do it. Please!"

"There! That's good, that's good!" She clicked her tongue, handing Qiqi some estalinhos. "Are you coming too, Qiqi?"

"I'm coming..."

And so began the great estalinho war of the Festa Junina. As it was three against one, Klee made no effort to throw the bombs. In the midst of so many people, it was impossible not to hit someone with an estalinho by accident. But you didn't expect to be the unlucky one to throw one right Jean 's face.

"Oh, what a thing! Now we'll have to stay here!" Diona complained, crossing her arms in sheer irritation.

Klee giggled as she re-braided Qiqi's hair, which had come loose while playing. "It was super, hyper, mega, ultra fun! Isn't that right, Qiqi?"

"Mhm... I wrote about it on my notebook..."

Being grounded, sitting on plastic chairs until it was time for the quadrilha, wasn't very nice. But the fun was worth it, at least they didn't kill anyone in the process - yet.

And then the most eagerly awaited moment arrived: the quadrilha. This year, you were the lucky one to lead the dance. Although it was easy, rehearsing so much made that tune stick in your head.

"Get ready to dance. Smile!" You joined your partner, leading the line of pairs to the center of the party. In the middle, the circle opened up and everyone joined hands to spin around the fire.

"Look at the snake!" With a jump, everyone left the ground at the same time. Then you turned in the opposite direction. "It's a lie!"

"Look at the rain!" Covering their heads, they continued spinning. "It's a lie!"

"Look at the mora!" They looked down down, pretending to pick up coins from the ground. "This time it's a lie!"

They laughed, it could be true — who wouldn't like a bit of free mora? But now, it was time to prepare for the tunnel, where the pairs go underneath.

"Tunnel!" You raised your arms upwards, instructing the others to do the same and create a roof over their heads. And then the first pairs began to pass through.

"Snail!" Holding hands again, you began to make circles. Back and forth, repeating the process twice.

Standing in the center, you can appreciate the decorations that took so much work to put up. The little colored flags that were strung from one end to the other looked radiant in the campfire light. In the end, everything went well. The quadrilha ended and you did a good job.

As night fell and the festive music stopped, people were already leaving. Perhaps it was time to end this year's Teyvat's Festa Junina and save the memories for the next year.