#i'm approaching this in a two pronged way

[revvethasmythh]

Reminded again, as I periodically am, that there's a fair number of people in the fandom that think of Nott the Brave and Veth Brenatto as two different characters, and not fundamentally the same woman. In the absolute literal sense, this is false: Nott the Brave, returned to the body of her choice and using her real name once again, is absolutely precisely the same person she was before Caleb cast Transmogrification on her. This is, incidentally, one of her main sources of angst towards the end of the campaign! A part of Nott must have both feared (and, in some ways, hoped) that when she was changed back into a halfling, she would also be a different person. That the person she became traveling with the Nein would be an easy identity to shed, which she may have hoped for because it would be easier to fit herself back into her home life with Yeza and Luc--and because it would be easier to say goodbye to the Nein if that were the case. And she feared it because she liked this person she became, no matter how transgressive society would label her for it. And she loved the Nein and didn't want those feelings to be altered.

But she didn't change. Veth Brenatto is Nott the Brave and Nott the Brave is Veth Brenatto. This was always the point. That's why it's an anagram. It's just that when she's Veth Brenatto again, she is much more focused on the why of what she's doing. Why am I still with the Nein? Why am I still adventuring? Why do I have this reticence to return home to my family? Why don't I long for that quiet, domestic life the way I once did? Her emotional journey becomes intensely personal, sometimes subtly/quietly told, and wholly about what kind of future she wants for herself and how her choice could affect those around her. Her two families become anchor points pulling her in different directions and she has to deal with that. Which is a different story than what she was telling when she was still Nott the Brave. Nott's story was much simpler--I am a goblin and I hate it and I would like to be a halfling again. I would like to be able to be with my family again. It's straightforward and it's achieved! But that's not where it ends, because she still needs to figure out a real, functional future for herself once her goal has been achieved.

All this to say, I think when people say they prefer Nott over Veth, it's important to remember that you are reacting to a certain story arc for the character, not an entirely different character. It may also pay to ask yourselves why you think they're so different. Was "Nott" funnier than "Veth" to you? Does her ability to serve as comic relief fundamentally change whether you like her or not? Did you appreciate "Nott's" themes more than "Veth's"? Or did you even notice the themes being explored in Veth's later game at all?

[the-four-humors]

Finished Fall of the House of Usher like a week ago and it's still rattling around in my brain. Mike Flanagan's best work imo.

[once-upon-an-imagine]

Man On a Wire

A/N: somehow this worked again I really hope you loves like this!

Request - Anonymous asked: For a dialogue, how about Remus thinking you like Sirius so when you ask him to a library date he thinks it's a prank or to make Sirius jealous and he says no. Remus then finds out you were talking with Sirius about him and apologizes.

Warnings: insecurities on Remus' part, making him be a biiit of an asshole, but I think that's it! let me know if I missed anything, also is like 2am here and this is not proofread

Disclaimer: I don’t own Harry Potter :) gif isn’t mine :D  

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Man On a Wire

I feel like I'm walkin' on a tight rope My heart is in my throat, I'm counting on high hopes to get me over you

You kept walking back and forth in front of the Quidditch Pitch.

“You need to calm down, love. It’s only a question” Alice tried to reassure you.

“B-but what if he says no?” you asked, feeling anxious.

“He’s not gonna say no” she insisted.

“You don’t know that. There might be a million reasons why he would say no” you said, making your best friend glare at you. “O-okay maybe not a million but… a f-few” you shrugged.

“Hey, ladies” you heard Sirius approaching and landing next to the two of you. “What are you still doing here? We’re gonna be done in a few minutes” he said looking at you.

“She’s second-guessing herself” Alice told him.

“C’mon, love. We’ve been through this. I’ve told you a million times. I know first-hand, Remus is basically in love with you-” Sirius said, rolling his eyes.

“L-love? You never said anything about love, Black!”

“I didn’t think I needed to. He looks at you worse than Prongs looks at Lily or Frank looks at this one” he said, pointing at Alice.

“Hey, don’t drag Frank into this” Alice glared at him.

“My point is, it’s time you both just stop being stupid and get together” he simply said.

“But what if he says no?”

“Why would he say no?”

“I don’t know!”

“He’s not gonna say no, okay? So, just, go up there and we’ll be out here waiting for you two idiots to come out holding hands and we can go to dinner” Sirius said before he started pushing you towards the bleachers, where Remus was sitting.

“Okay, okay, I’m going!” you said, looking at your best friends one last time and taking a deep breath.

You started climbing up the empty stairs and walked over to one of the highest bleachers where you knew Remus always read while he waited for his friends to be done with practice. Not that you knew his every move you just… noticed. You felt your heart beating faster when you spotted him. He was so enthrallingly handsome, it was ridiculous. You always heard girls talking about how stunning Sirius was and, you didn’t disagree, Sirius was very attractive. But Remus’ beauty was completely different. It was hypnotizing. Which is why you were extremely worried about asking him out.

You gripped your books to your chest a bit tighter and made your way over to his spot. He was so concentrated on his book that his tongue was sticking out a little and he was resting his head on his right hand as he read. You cleared your throat a little, getting his attention and making him look up at you.

“Um… h-hello, Remus” you smiled, nervously.

“Hi” he smiled back at you.

“I am sorry to um b-bother you” you started. “Uh, is it okay if I join you?”

“Oh, yeah, sure” he said, getting up and scootching a little to make room for you. How were you not supposed to fall in love with this man?

“Um, th-thank you” you said, placing your bag on the floor and taking your books out. “So, um… what are you reading?”

“Oh” he said, marking the page on his book. “Um, I’m reading A Murder is Announced” he said, showing it to you. “Have you read it?”

“Oh, yes, I read this last year. It’s a really good book. Are you enjoying it?”

“I am” he nodded. “So, what brings you to the Quidditch Pitch today?” he asked, all of the sudden.

“Oh, w-well, there’s a match on Friday” you said. “... right?”

“Right” he smiled. “Are you planning on coming to the match?”

“W-well, I don’t know. I’m not much of a Quidditch fan, as you know” you said, feeling your cheeks burn. “S-so, I thought maybe if I watch them practice I might understand it a little bit better?” you said, nervously.

“Why the sudden interest?” he asked, curiously.

“Um, I don’t know” you said, nervously running a hand through your hair. “It’s our last year, so… I promised myself to try new things” you smiled wearily. “So, um… do you think you can explain some of it for me?”

“Um… sure” he said, putting his book down. “I mean, I’m not the best myself but I did read Quidditch Through the Ages” he said, making you laugh a little. “So, Prongs is the captain” he said, pointing at his friend. “He, Sirius, and Kurt are Chasers. So, they have to get the Quaffle through the hoops” he instructed.

“Okay, that doesn’t seem that complicated” you said.

“Right, but it’s the Beater’s job to throw the Bludgers at them and prevent them to do so” he told you. “Fabian and Gideon are really good. But, we’re playing Ravenclaw on Friday and their Beaters are quite ruthless” he explained.

“So, I take it you’re coming to the match on Friday?”

“I am” he nodded. “I never miss a Gryffindor match” he smiled.

“Oh, Merlin! Look at him! He looks even better with his hair like that” you heard a group of girls a few steps down and to your right. They were ogling and sighing over Sirius, who wasn’t as far, brushing his sweaty hair with his hand.

“Ugh, I know! He’s stupidly handsome” another one giggled.

“So… Sirius has his own cheerleading section?” you chuckled.

“Yeah, he kind of does” Remus told you as Sirius made his way over to the group of girls in his broom.

“Hello, ladies” he said, flashing his signature handsome smirk at them, making them giggle and they all started complimenting him.

When he spotted you, he quickly sent a wink your way. You failed to see Remus rolling his eyes as he started putting his stuff in his bag, which is why he failed to see Sirius widening his eyes at you before pointing at Remus hinting that you needed to ask him. You sighed, rolling your eyes, and took a deep breath one more time.

“Um, R-Remus?”

“Yes?” he asked, looking back at you.

“Um, w-well, I was um…” you stuttered nervously. “C-could I ask you something?”

“Sure” he said, turning to look at you.

He noticed you were nervously playing with your hands before you looked at Sirius one last time and then you finally faced him. He prepared himself to hear you ramble on about how much in love with Sirius you were and if he could help you fix a date with him or something.

“W-well, I was w-wondering if, uh-” you said, again. “If you’re not busy on F-Friday, um… m-maybe you’d like to um…” you stammered. “G-go with me to the Library to study, b-before the match?” you managed to finally spit out. You felt your heartbeat increase as you waited for your answer.

“What?” Remus frowned.

“O-or if you’re busy we can c-come to the match?” you tried, smiling nervously. “O-or I b-believe it’s a Hogsmeade weekend-”

“What’s your angle?” he asked you all of the sudden, taking you by surprise.

“Um… a-angle?”

“Honestly, if you want to go out with Sirius, just ask him” he said, standing up and grabbing his bag.

“Sirius? W-what are you talking about-?”

“You know, a lot of girls have asked me what’s the best way to ask him out but none of them have sunk so low to the point of pretending that you would like to spend with me to get closer to him-”

“That’s not what I was-” you tried to explain, getting up yourself.

“What is it then? Are you trying to make him jealous or something?”

“What? No! Remus, I don’t-”

“You know what? No, thank you. I honestly have better things to do than to spend a day with you talking about Sirius” he said before walking away, leaving you standing there, mouth opened, dumbfounded. You didn’t even hear the last things he said. The only words ringing in your ears were ‘No, thank you. I honestly have better things to do than to spend a day with you.’

Your eyes kept looking at him as he climbed down the stairs and you saw the group of girls that were looking at Sirius. They all looked at you with sorrow in their eyes. They felt sorry for you. You had just been rejected in front of them. You felt your eyes starting to water as you saw Alice running towards you.

“Hey, what happened? I just saw Remus leaving-”

“He said no” you silently said as a few tears ran down your cheeks.

“What? Why?”

“He said he- um” you tried to explain to your friend as she sat you down. “He thought I was asking him out b-because I wanted to get closer to Sirius” you said.

“What? That’s ridiculous! Why would he think that?”

“I don’t know” you said. “I tried to tell him that wasn’t the case b-but he didn’t let me explain and he left” you finished, crying a little harder.

“Hey” Sirius said, flying over to the two of you. “What happened? Why are you crying?”

“Remus said no” Alice informed him as she hugged you.

“What? Why?”

“He thought she was only asking him because she wanted to ask you out” Alice explained.

“He said that?” Sirius asked you and you slowly nodded. “I’m gonna bloody kill him” he muttered under his breath. “Look, love, I’ll talk to him, okay?”

“N-no, it’s okay” you said, trying to stop more tears from falling. “I d-don’t think Remus likes me that way anyways” you said, sadly.

“Don’t say that, love” Alice insisted. “Let’s just go to dinner and we can talk things through” she suggested.

“I’m not hungry” you said, pulling away and grabbing your things. “You guys should go” you smiled sadly at them. “I think I’m just gonna go to my dorm” you told them, eying the group of girls who were now leaving.

“No, we can talk to Remus-”

“Go and rest, okay? I’ll bring you something” Alice interrupted Sirius.

“Thanks guys” you smiled weakly at them. “I’ll see you tomorrow” you said before making your way out.

“Bye, love” Sirius said before turning to Alice. “I’m going to kill Remus” he repeated.

“If you don’t, I will” she replied.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

“What the bloody hell is your problem?” Sirius asked when he burst into his dorm.

Remus was reading a book, James was coming out of the shower, and Peter was just sitting there waiting for everyone to get ready so they could go to dinner.

“Which one of us are you talking to, Pads?” James asked, confused.

“Why don’t you ask your stupid friend Moony” Sirius said, glaring at him.

“What are you talking about?” Remus frowned confused.

“Oh, you’re going to play dumb? So we’re just going to pretend that nothing happened back in the Quidditch Pitch and you didn’t make anyone cry?”

“What?” James and Peter asked at the same time.

“Again, what are you talking about? Nobody cried” Remus said, closing his book and getting up.

“Really? Are you sure about that, Moony? Are you really sure?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Padfoot. You have no idea what happened!”

“Oh, really? So, you didn’t reject her when she asked you out?”

“What? Who asked you out?” James asked, interested.

“Nobody-”

“Nobody? Really? The girl that you have practically been in love with for years is now nobody?”

“What? She asked you out?” Peter asked.

“You said no?” James asked, extremely confused.

“She didn’t ask me out, okay? She was only asking to spend time with me to get closer to you!”

“What?” James and Peter asked again. “That doesn’t make any sense!” James said.

“Yeah, what are you talking about, mate?” Peter asked.

“Why the fuck would she want to get closer to me? We’re friends!”

“Because she’s in love with you, just like every other girl in this stupid school is, apparently!” Remus snapped.

“You see? You see how stupid your friend is?” Sirius told James.

“Stop talking to me as if I’m not here! And stop calling me stupid!”

“Mate, you are stupid! You truly are if you think she was only asking you out to get closer to Sirius!” James told him.

“Shut up! I saw the way that she was looking at him! You winked at her, and all of the sudden she’s interested in Quidditch and she wants to go to the match on Friday, and I’m supposed to believe she doesn’t fancy you?”

“Mate, I highly doubt she’s interested in Quidditch” Peter laughed.

“Yeah, she’s as interested in Quidditch as she is in Padfoot” James added.

“Moons, I winked at her because I knew she was nervous about asking you out. See, it was actually the other way around. She came to me and asked me how she could ask you out” he explained.

“W-what?” Remus asked, feeling terrible.

“Do you honestly not know how much in love with you she is?” Peter asked, confused.

“Yeah, she’s always looking at you, mate” James told him.

“She’s n-not” he insisted, trying to convince himself that he hadn’t just turned you down and that you were not in love with him. “She likes Padfoot. She’s always with him-!”

“Yeah, talking about you, you idiot!” Sirius told him. “She’s always asking what your favorite books are, what movies do you like, and what would be the best way to ask you out! And when she finally got the courage to do it, you said no” he explained.

“Holy shit” Remus muttered to himself, plopping on his bed again. “I am so stupid” he stated.

“Yes, that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, mate” Sirius said, sitting next to him. “So, what are you going to do?”

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Throughout the next few days, Remus tried endlessly to find you so he could apologize but it was useless. You were avoiding him like the plague. Even when he tried using the Map, it was as if you were one step ahead of him. He looked for you in the Library, where he thought you’d be even if he said no, but you were nowhere to be found. He hoped you would make it to the match on Friday, but again, you were a no-show.

It wasn’t until Saturday when he begged Alice to drag you to Hogsmeade so he could just ‘casually’ run into you. It took him and Sirius to convince her since she was still mad at Remus for rejecting you, but she caved.

So, here you were, on your way to Hogsmeade as a third wheel on Alice and Frank’s date, although they insisted it wasn’t a date, so Marlene and Dorcas were here too. So, all in all, you were fifth-wheeling.

“Come on, love. It’s gonna be fun!” Marlene said, linking her arm with yours. “We can do whatever you’d like!”

“Yeah, we can go to the Three Broomsticks, or Tomes and Scrolls, or the music shop” Dorcas suggested.

“To be honest with you, girls, I kind of just want to go to Honeydukes to get as much candy as I can carry and then go back” you said with a sad sigh.

“What? No, love, it’s a beautiful day!” Marlene insisted.

“Look, we have some errands to run, why don’t you go to Honeydukes to get some candy, and then we can meet at the Three Broomsticks?” Alice suggested as you entered the village.

“Um… can’t I just by my candy and go-”

“No!” Dorcas and Marlene said in unison. “We’re gonna head to the Three Broomsticks to get a booth, so you better come there after buying your candy” Dorcas added.

“Ugh, fine!” you said, frustrated.

In all honesty, all you wanted to do was buy an endless amount of candy and go back to your dorm. Ever since Remus rejected you, you felt people watching you everywhere you went. You could hear them talking about you and you were certain that the girls that witnessed the entire thing had already spread around your very much public rejection. Which is why you had been avoiding going out of your dorm as much as you could.

You turned around to make your way to Honeydukes, completely missing that your friends joined James, Peter, Lily, Remus, and Sirius at the Three Broomsticks.

“You’re up, Lupin” Alice said, still glaring at him as the rest made their way inside the pub.

Remus took a deep breath before he followed you into the sweetshop. He spotted you on one of the furthest shelves, holding, or trying to, as many sweets as you could in your hands. He felt a sweet smile forming on his face as he watched you. A small part of him still thought that Sirius was wrong. That there was no way that you could ever be interested in someone like him.

But his heart fluttered more intensely with each step he took towards you, and he knew that whether Sirius was right or wrong, he still needed to apologize to you for the way he spoke. When one of the many chocolate frogs you had fell on the floor, he quickly made his way over to you and picked it up.

“Um, here, I think you dropped this” he said, making you turn around to face him. His heart ached a little when the smile dropped off your face when you saw it was him.

“Oh… um” you said, grabbing the treat from his hand. “Thanks” you smiled nervously.

“How have you been?” he asked, cursing himself silently. “I uh… didn’t see you at the match yesterday” he added.

“Right… I wasn’t really in the mood to go” you smiled firmly.

“Oh” Remus said, feeling even worse. “W-well, you missed a good match” he chuckled. “Gryffindor won” he said.

“I heard” you replied noticing a few people looking your way. “Um, I should uh- probably get going” you said, as you were going to start making your way out, but you felt Remus gently grab your arm and turn you around.

“Wait!” he said, getting even more attention from the students around you. “Um, I…” he felt his heart beating a little faster. He didn’t like dragging this much attention to himself and he wanted to ask you to go somewhere a bit more private. But, firstly, he didn’t think you’d like to go anywhere with him until you apologized and secondly, he very much publicly rejected you, so maybe he had to do the same thing. “I wanted to apologize to you” he blurted out.

“Oh, R-Remus, you don’t have to-”

“Yes, I do” he said, getting closer to you and pulling you a little away. “I’m really sorry about the way that I spoke to you” he said. “I’m sorry for assuming that you were just talking to me to get closer to Sirius-”

“Why did you think that?” you asked all of the sudden.

“E-excuse me?”

“Why would you think that the only reason I would talk to you or wanted to spend time with you would be to get closer to someone else?” you asked. “I mean, I thought- I thought we were friends… Is that… um… is that what you think of me?” you asked, sadly.

“What? No!” he assured you. “I don’t- we are friends” he insisted. “I just…” he sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Okay, here it goes” he said, taking a deep breath. “I like you, love” he started. “I really like you. I’ve liked you so much for so long, I’m pretty sure that I’m very much in love with you” he confessed. “But, I never in a million years thought that y-you could like me like that” he said. “I thought that you were only interested in Quidditch because you wanted to see Sirius and I saw him wink at you, so my reasoning was that you liked him because, for some reason every girl in school does, and that would be the logical thing-”

“The logical thing would be for me to like Sirius?”

“Well, yes” he said as if it was obvious.

“Why?”

“Why would you have any interest in spending time with me then?”

“Because I like you, you big idiot!” you blurted out, frustrated.

“Y-you do?”

“Yes! I figured Sirius might have told you by now, or you might have heard it from the entire school who apparently knows and you’re the only one who’s still oblivious to it!”

“Well, to be honest, Sirius did say something but, I still wasn’t entirely sure that it was true-”

“Why, Remus? Why do you think it’s so impossible for me to be in love with you?”

“L-love? Did you just say love?” he asked, smiling.

“I uh-” you said, realizing you just let it slip. “Well, you said it first!”

“Well, yes, because it makes sense for me to be in love with you, but it doesn’t make sense for you to be in love with me!”

“What? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard! Why?”

“Why? Oh, I don’t know, maybe we should discuss this on the next lunar phase” he said, muttering the last words.

“Oh, Merlin! Really? Is that what this is about?”

“For starters!” he argued. “Trust me, it would make a lot more sense if you liked Sirius! He’s handsome and always laughing, he’s funny and witty-”

“Remus, are you trying to tell me that I should be in love with Sirius? Or that you are in love with Sirius?” you smirked a little.

“That’s not what I meant!” he glared at you. “Look, I just… I never thought that someone like you would ever want to be with… someone like me” he muttered the last part.

“Wow, you really are an idiot, aren’t you?” you chuckled as Remus rolled his eyes.

“Why does everyone keep saying that?”

“Who called you an idiot?”

“Sirius!” he complained.

“Aw” you smiled. “Well, we can be two idiots in love, or you can just reject me again. It’s your move, Lupin” you told him.

Remus bit his bottom lip, trying to prevent his smirk from getting bigger. He walked closer to you and gently pulled you closer to him by your waist before he leaned down to press his lips against yours. You suddenly dropped all the candy you had in your hands and you quickly wrapped your arms around his shoulders.

“I choose two idiots in love” he smiled before kissing you once more.

“Good answer, Lupin” you smiled.

“Oh, I also wanted to ask” he said, grabbing your sweets and placing them in a basket. “If you’re not too busy if you… wanted to go on a date with me?”

“Well, I told Dorcas and Marlene I would go to the Three Broomsticks-”

“Yes, they are all waiting for us to get there” he informed you.

“Oh, okay, so that’s a no on the Three Broomsticks then” you said, as you walked over to pay for your things.

“I think that’s for the best” he smiled.

“Well then, it looks like my day is free” you said, as Remus held your hand when you walked out of Honeydukes.

He pulled you back a little and kissed you once more. “I really am sorry, love” he smiled.

“I know you are, Rem” you smiled back at him.

“So, does this mean you’ll keep me company on Quidditch matches?”

“If you’re there, I guess I can be there” you smiled as he kissed you again, neither of you noticing your group of friends looking at the two of you from the window at the pub across the street.

“Fucking finally” Sirius muttered, bumping Alice’s fist. 

The End

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A/N: hope you loves like it! Charlie's coming up next!

[patrophthia]

it wasn’t implied? | remus lupin

pairing: remus lupin x reader

genre: fluff, pining, maybe angst¿?, miscommunications, secret confessions, not proofread

wc: 4.2k

originally posted on wattpad

"i saw you," sirius said lowly, smirking, "you two think you're so sly but i see everything."

"i don't know what you're talking about."

"sure, you don't," he remarked with a roll of his eyes, "you never know what i'm talking about, not when i told you that your crush on remus was obvious, not when i tell you that remus fancies you back and definitely not when i saw —with my very own two eyes— you kissing."

"just be careful doll, i've been there before," he told her softly, making her glance at him. "you've been there before?" she repeated testingly, not understanding what sirius meant. "i was once remus when i was younger."

"where should we go next?" peter asked excitedly, holding onto the teddy sirius had won for him for dear life.

it was a hogsmeade weekend, the marauders had decided that it was a bright idea to sneak off to an amusement park. the sun was setting, a pretty mix of pink and blues with hint of gold within it. they stood in the middle of the park, pulling at their coat tightly to keep themselves warm whilst james suffered in a corner.

"definitely not the roller coaster again," said lily wearily, eyeing james from where she stood as he hunched over a garbage can with remus and sirius to his side. "anything but the roller coaster again."

"i'm pretty sure they're done with it," she said kindly, watching as remus rubbed james' back in a soothing manner, "we've been on it four times now, i don't think they'd like to go on it for any longer."

"hopefully, you're right," lily muttered under her breath as the group of boys returned.

james looked up, smiling charmingly. "what's next?"

"i wanted to go on the ferris wheel," said sirius off-handedly, his hands digging into his pocket to keep itself away from the cold, "the sunset's nice."

"okay," lily agreed; nodding her head as she approached james' side, lily looped her arm around his and began leading the way when she realized that two of their friends were missing. turning around, lily spotted the pair conversing between themselves. "guys?"

"yes?" remus looked up, finally noticing that their friends were ten steps away and blushed. "sorry."

lily only smiled, giving him a pointed look and glanced down slightly. "is she cold?"

"very," she answered, voice muffled as her head was pressed against remus' torso, holding onto him tightly. "remus is very warm."

"of course, he is. the man's a human furnace," sirius said, almost frowning, "now, c'mon i want to see prongs throw up again."

"that's disgusting," she whispered just loud enough for remus to hear, moving her head slightly to look up at him.

"it's pads, what'd you expect?" he asked in return, smiling fondly at her.

she scrunched her nose in disgust, accidentally picturing james going through hell once more at sirius expense. "less suffering for the man who's already legally blind?"

remus laughed at that, making sirius groan even more. "would you stop flirting please?" sirius whined dramatically, "seriously princess, are we going to get an apology here?"

pulling away from remus completely, she stood besides him and assessed their friends.

"sorry, i made you wait because i was cold," she started slowly, feeling as though she was a kid waking up her parents to tell them she'd done something bad. sirius tutted, pulling out his wand and casted a warming charm on her. "can we go ride the ferris wheel now?"

"of course, we can," sirius said brightly, all signs of his previous sour mood disappearing.

sirius led the way this time, bantering with lily as remus and [name] walked slightly behind. shoulders brushing against one another as they listened into their friends arguing.

somewhere between where they started to the waiting line, remus had managed to slip his hand into her's intertwining them together.

she looked up at him, surprised —not to mention, extremely flustered, and smiled. an action that remus reciprocated along with a comforting squeeze of her hand.

james, lily, sirius, and peter took a car of their own. insisting that remus was too tall (as if it made any sense) to fit into their carriage so it would be better to have her accompany him as to not have him be lonely. all four completely oblivious to just how obvious their match making attempt was.

"this is nice," remus commented absentmindedly, looking over his shoulder, "it's so pretty up here."

"it is," she concurred, eyes kept on remus. tinge of pink and blue with the slightest hint of purple, painted his face, green eyes shining brightly. "they're taking pictures of us."

remus turned abruptly, concern written all over his face, "what?"

"them." she pointed upwards, remus eyed her direction and found their friends in the other car grinning and waving at them.

lily had her polaroid camera in her hand, it pointing at them. she gestured her over, shouting about how she couldn't fit her into the frame unless she sat besides remus. she followed her request, moving to sit by his side and looked up at them.

their was a flash, lily took the first polaroid out and handed it to james who was besides her. "smile!" she shouted before adding, "move closer, [name]! you're too far away!"

again, she did what she was told, scooting over and rested her head on remus' shoulder, smiling up at lily. remus laid his head on top of hers, beaming at the camera as well. lily counted from three and the flash went, sitting back down when she was satisfied with its result.

remus hand found hers once more, holding onto it firmly. "i think i might fall asleep."

"go ahead," she said lightly, "i've been working on my levitation spell, i can get you back to hogwarts safely."

remus lifted his head up so he could look at her properly. "as much as i am honored to the first person you murder, i'm really not looking forward to dying so soon."

she moved away from his shoulder, gaping at him with mock offense. "you underestimate me, mister lupin."

"and i've always been correct with my underestimations."

"that's not a kind way to talk to your best friend."

"actually i can talk to my best friend however i want," he said matter-of-factly, "that's kind of the point of being best friends with someone, being able to act however you want."

"you know what," she said, scooting away from him, "i don't want to be near you anymore."

"is that so?" he taunted, pulling at her hand.

"it is."

"i don't believe you." he leaned forward, pushing at her buttons. the full moon was near, which meant remus' senses had been heightened, making the both of them fully aware of just how fast her heart was beating. "i really don't believe you."

within seconds his lips are on hers, closing the gap between him and her without any hesitation. the line of whether their relationship was platonic or romantic, now crossed. remus tilted his head, leaning down to help her from straining her neck. the kiss was innocent, pulling to a stop when they were ushered out of their car by their friends.

remus cheeks were red when he left the carriage, blaming it on the cold wind. james had swept remus into a conversation about the prosperity of churros when remus took her hand again, holding onto it as he amused james with questions.

sirius was walking besides her, hands tuck in his leather jacket. he nudged her lightly —an action that almost knocked her off of her feet if it weren't for remus catching her. remus scolded sirius quickly before turning to check on her, after being satisfied with her answer he turned back to james.

"i saw you," sirius said lowly, smirking, "you two think you're so sly but i see everything."

"i don't know what you're talking about."

"sure, you don't," he remarked with a roll of his eyes, "you never know what i'm talking about, not when i told you that your crush on remus was obvious, not when i tell you that remus fancies you back and definitely not when i saw —with my very own two eyes— you kissing."

"just be careful doll, i've been there before," he told her softly, making her glance at him. "you've been there before?" she repeated testingly, not understanding what sirius meant. "i was once remus when i was younger."

"sirius, you're seventeen stop talking like you're in your eighties," she said exasperatedly, "and i'm really confuse right now. what the fuck do you mean you were once remus, were you once tall and cute or something?"

sirius made a face, one of offense and irritation with the slightest tint of hurt. "are you calling me short and ugly? you wound me, sweetheart."

"i'm not calling you short, sirius. it's just that i don't have the crippling fear that you would suddenly lick my head when i'm near you."

"tall people don't do that," sirius frowned, "do they?

"i wouldn't know," she shrugged.

"anyways." sirius dragged out, moving back to the topic at hand. "what i'm trying to say is that i've put someone in the same situation as you and moony right now. it doesn't end well, [name]."

"it's really confusing —and if i'm being completely honest here, i feel guilty for everything that happened," he confessed quietly, "i made it complicated. when it could've been so easy.

"so . . ." sirius trailed off, watching her with patient grey eyes, "talk to him. make sure you know where the two of you stand before everything goes wrong."

sirius gave her one last reassuring smile before he tuned into their friends discussion on churros. remus let out a laugh at one of james' comment, a pretty smile on his lips that may or may not have pulled at her heart string.

fuck remus, where did she stand?

•••

sirius was laying on the couch, james sitting on the floor besides him along with peter while remus sat on the armchair when lily and her found them in the gryffindor's common room. there was a girl, hunched over the coffee table, a small notebook in hand talking to james and sirius as she wrote down whatever she found important.

she must've felt her presence, looking up at them with a small smile. "dorcas, we had care of magical creatures together in third year."

she replied with her name, smiling as well. "what were you three talking about?"

"a project," she said enthusiastically.

lily sat down besides james, and patted the empty spot to her left for her to take. she was about to take a seat beside lily when something tugged at her hand, she turned, following the direction of her distraction and found remus smiling at her, his hand holding onto hers.

"sit with me." she was hesitant, not knowing where she was supposed to go when the chair was so small. remus must've noticed, pulling her directly into his lap and wrapped an arm around her waist, securing her in her spot.

dorcas didn't even bat an eyelash when she continued on, "would you like to hear about it?"

"sure."

dorcas began her explanation with a clap of her hands. "so i've been reading a new romance novel and in it there's this muggle newspapers thing where people can mail something they wanted to say to someone they loved or cared for, whether romantically or platonically, it was called the W.L.U segment —standing for words left unsaid."

"i thought it was cool so i asked dumbledore if i could somehow pull an event together and he said no but i'm known to be quite annoying so i used that to my advantage and eventually he agreed."

"so." she clapped her hands together. "on march, thirteen, the fifth floor corridor will be plastered by sticky notes with hand written words on them for each person that is submitted to. it is by first name only and there would be a spell to prevent you from actually recognizing who's ever hand writing it is, so everything will be anonymous."

she had many questions, unsure how everything will work out like dorcas planned it out to. there was thousands of students at hogwarts, how can she fit them all in the corridors (even if the name were to overlap), how will the letters be submitted if it was anonymous, and most importantly —how will filch's cat resist the urge to claw off all the notes?

instead she settled on asking, "march thirteen?"

"it's when my dad first met my mother," she said with small smile, "under a clementine tree."

"can everyone just submit anonymously?" peter asked, intrigued.

"that's pretty much the whole idea, no one would know who said what. we're giving out special notes that would magick itself out of your life the second you've finished writing and it would be added to the wall. the notes will be owled out to everyone, because if you saw someone trying to get the notes you'll be suspicious of them, ya know?"

and then she added, "the identities would be unknown unless you sign it off with your full name, or initials for whoever it is you wrote it to, to guess. it's up to you really, if you want your identity to be known then you make it known."

"are you sure it will stay anonymous?" he followed up skeptically.

"cross my heart. not even the ones preparing this project would know."

•••

march came fast, so did remus' birthday —an event that had left her more confuse then she was before hand. the marauders had threw him a surprise party, one she attended in high spirits.

around midnight, marlene had dragged her into a circle where their friends was waiting for her. "we're playing truth or dare," she had told her.

the first few rounds was fun for the most part, her having done stupid dares that had spilled out of peter's drunken lips (the gryffindor is the funniest when he's absolutely wasted).

remus' birthday cake sat in the center of the circle, everyone enjoying their slices while they played the game. remus picked dare for the third time, keeping up with the courageous gryffindor spirit.

dorcas perked up at this, getting her word in before anyone else could. "i dare you to kiss the person you find most beautiful in this room."

sirius had pouted his lips out for him only to be blatantly ignored by remus. the room was —more or less— unphased when remus had made his way over to [name], cupping her face and kissed her.

soft and quick.

when he pulled away, he made his way back to his seat and acted like nothing had happened.

dorcas nudged her from her right, giggling slightly as she spoke, "i knew he would kiss you."

then the question she tried so desperately to forget resurfaces. what were they? where did she stand?

the next day comes and dumbledore introduced the project at dinner, letting dorcas up on the podium which she spoke at proudly, informing everyone of her plans and answering any questions they had.

the notes arrived the next morning, students walked around chatting about who they planned to write to and by dinner time half of the castle had written and sent off their first notes.

march, thirteen came and she was rudely awakened by dorcas and sirius pounding at her door, announcing that the project has been opened for viewing and that they needed to see it as soon as possible.

she quickly got dressed and followed them into the common room. stood by the entrance was the rest of their friend group, all looking tired out of their mind.

james led the way towards the fifth floor, the corridors walls littered with notes, all belonging to a group of names in alphabetical order.

their group went through the names one by one, being nosy when there seemed to be some sort of drama in the mysterious notes. some of the notes were on the sweet side, some malicious.

james was a common name but they were —luckily enough— able to identify which one was their james based off of how some referred him as 'the quidditch king' or 'james, potter, james potter' or the last (and definitely sirius' favorite way of identifying james out of them all) was 'james, the four eyed one.'

there was various love confessions, some cussing him for not giving them a position on the gryffindor's quidditch team, and some compliments about how much they wanted to run their hands through his beautiful, beautiful hair.

"you smell." sirius read out loud, ignoring the tiny :) that was drawn on the note to laugh at james' face. "i think that's for you, prongs."

"shut up, pads. you smell like wet dog."

then was the letter R standing tall above the name remus. on the wall stuck countless amount of notes, all confessing just how pretty they thought remus was. his pretty eyes, his pretty nose, his pretty lips and how much they wanted to kiss it and his stupidly pretty hands.

"good god moony, what spell have you put hogwarts under," james said slightly horrified, his eyes gluing to each notes that stuck under the name remus, "what have you done?"

"i haven't done anything," remus replied, his tone defensive, "and we can't be sure this is about me, i'm not the only person named remus."

"yeah but you're the only person in this school with that name." dorcas pointed out, just as fascinated as the rest of them with the amount of letters he received.

something caught her attention, making her take a step forward so she could get a better look at it. dorcas turned to her friend, fingers pointed at a note written in blue paper. "this handwriting looks familiar."

she followed dorcas' hand, reading the note to herself. i'm so confuse, remus. where do i stand? am i your girlfriend or am i just a girl that's a friend?

below it was another note written with same handwriting. i shouldn't have let you kissed me the first time and i definitely shouldn't have let you done it the second since all it did was amplify how i feel for you.

sirius cleared his throat loudly, pulling their attention to him. "this is boring," he began, grey eyes firmly locked with her, "let's go read mine."

he pulled her away with a smile to the others, hoping that they'd follow without questioning. "you wrote it didn't you?"

"wrote what." she acted oblivious, standing before the wall filled with notes for the name sirius. he, like remus, was the only one with that name.

"those notes." he rolled his eyes, annoyed.

"isn't there supposed to be a spell to prevent people from knowing who wrote it?"

"there is," he concurred, "i actually don't know for sure. 's why i'm asking you. i don't recognize your hand writing but i know the situation mentioned like the back of my hands. i can only assume and i know they can too."

"so now everyone knows that i'm confused about what remus and i are?"

"pretty much," lily joined in, standing besides her. "god, sirius why is so many people angry at you?"

"why people are upset with me is not important right now," said sirius distractedly, "what's important is that moony read those notes —just like we did, need i remind you— and he still hasn't come to try and talk to you."

"maybe he doesn't know it's from me—"

"remus is not a basket case, darling," cut in sirius. "he's being slow on purpose."

lily tsked. "men are stupid, [name]." she reminded, not sparing a second at the baffled look sirius threw her. "let's go read the ones with your name on it."

there was only so many notes for someone with her name, all littered with different colors and signed with their initials on it. she didn't know half of the possible initials but one specifically caught her eyes.

r.l

she hoped, despite knowing that she shouldn't, hoped that it was from him and that he had written it for her.

above the initials was the note itself, written in a set of neat handwritings that was so similar and yet so unidentifiable, it had her heart jumping to her throat.

i had hoped that one day i could shun you out of my mind but i cannot, not when you are the only thing running through it. not when the idea that you'd let me kiss you again is stuck in my mind. the same mind that hasn't stopped thinking about you before i even knew how much i liked you.

i can only hope you would forgive me for it. r.l

"you know," sirius said slowly, eyeing the note, "this whole confession thing would be so much easier if you just talked to each other."

"like you're the one to talk sirius," lily scoffed, "you wrote regulus a lengthy five note apology letter instead of just saying sorry."

sirius flushed at that, turning away from lily bashfully as he muttered under his breath about how she was no fun.

•••

dinner came after classes as usual. dumbledore gave the podium once more to dorcas for her to express just how grateful she was that so many people participated in the project, welcoming feedbacks with open arms.

dorcas thanked james, lily, and sirius, respectfully giving them credit where it's due. dorcas was half way off the podium when her eyes widened comically, running back towards frantically. "just one more thing."

"if someone has said something to you and you're sure that it's meant for you from that special someone." dorcas looked at her pointedly, making her avert her eyes. "talk to them, work it out. that's all, goodnight."

dessert wasn't even able to make its appearance when she was hunted down by the marauders.

"i need to talk to you." remus took a step forward cautiously. "please?"

the five of them trudge towards the nearest empty room, the other three boys leaving to give them privacy. "so," she drawled, "what did you want to talk about?"

"why did you ask me if you were my girlfriend?" he asked directly, not seeing the point of beating around the bush.

"isn't it self explanatory?"

"no, it's not actually," said remus, annoyance etching into his tone, "would you care to explain why you said so?"

"i said it so because, i wasn't sure if i was."

"you weren't sure if you were my girlfriend?" remus scoffed, narrowing his eyes incredulously, "then what were you?"

"i dunno," she said lowly, feeling stupid that this conversation was even happening in the first place, "it's what i'm trying to find out."

"okay wait." remus took in a deep breath, his hand in a pausing motion. "so for the last three months, i thought that you were my girlfriend while you thought i was just some friend who goes around kissing people?"

"that's not—"

"it's not? because, it seems to me like you thought so."

"well it's not my fault you never made it clear!"

"and it's not my fault you never asked," he argued, "because, if you did —for even just once, we wouldn't be fighting right now."

she stared at him in silence, feeling speechless. "i'm so confuse."

"you're confuse?" he asked, almost taunting, "i'm fucking confuse. i've been thinking that you were my girlfriend since i kissed you in that goddamn ferris wheel."

"you thought we've been dating for three months?"

"yes," he said with a nod, "since we went on that ferris wheel and i kissed you. you didn't pull away, you kissed me back so i thought the feelings were mutual but apparently not."

"so that night," she murmured slowly, "your birthday." she clarified. "you kissed me because you were my 'boyfriend' and not because you were drunk."

"i kissed you because, you truly were the most beautiful person in that room," remus sighed, "why would you even think otherwise?"

"i don't know—" she paused, feeling pathetic, "it's just something sirius said after we kissed, it got me thinking—"

"of course, it's fucking sirius," remus cut in, laughing dryly, "the lad makes one relationship mistake and thinks he's qualified to go off and give advice. look where that got us now."

they could hear a scowl from outside the room before a smack landed, a loud ow! and a shut up you twat, you messed this up once already following in its wake.

"nowhere bad," she said, defending sirius slightly, "he actually told me to talk to you but i didn't so it's technically my fault."

"it's not your fault, [name]." remus frowned. "this could never be your fault. i kissed you not once but twice and never bothered to talk to you about it. it was stupid of me to think it was mutual."

"but it was, remus," she told him, "the kiss. everything. it was all mutual. i just— i didn't know that i was your girlfriend."

"then i must be one shitty boyfriend," he snickered, chewing on his bottom lip.

"will you just shut up and kiss me?" she took a step towards him. "as my boyfriend this time."

remus met her in the middle, smiling shyly. "how could i ever say no to you."

—from bee: this is incredibly inspired by the unsent project,, check it out it’s pretty cool!!

[kitkatriel]

I came up with this AU a couple of months ago, and since a moot encouraged me to share with the class I might as well (plus I also wanna draw this AU lol)

I'll call this au Be Born as a placeholder rn lol

SO this au starts right after HMS managed to find a way to end the loop, and they harmonise permanently. Whole basically gains the courage to confess to his crush (still don't have a name for her) and she also confesses her mutual feelings, Blah Blah Blah, they date, yada yada yada, they get married and have a pair of twins.

I also have to say that Whole, whom I will call CJ from this point forward (Does NOT mean Chonny Jash, its a diff name, same acronym) is aware and remembers HMS quite a bit. Most of his memories/knowledge of them has faded since the harmonising was over 6 years ago, but he still remembers a few key details like their roles, some of their names and a blurry image of what they look like.

Soo like the VERY FUNCTIONAL human being CJ is, decides to name his twin sons after two of the voices in his head. Wow, clap for the man everyone whoooo-. The names he uses are Artemis and Apollo. A year later, they have another child whom he names, say it with me! ATLAS WHO WOULD HAVE GUESSED AHH. Atlas was born on the same day as Artemis and Apollo so you'd argue their triplets lol.

OHHH this is a normal au there couldn't possibl- SIKE THIS SHET HAS ✨️MAGIC✨️ BECAUSE PLAIN HIGH SCHOOL AUS ARE OVERRATED /J /SILLY /LH

And this is where I ruin the au🧍‍♂️🧍‍♂️🧍‍♂️

OK SO during the time the twins still weren't born, Heart began to wonder what it must be like to live life as your own person, to have a childhood, go school- etc etc (HMS split up into existence when CJ was 18 not too long before he dropped out of college) he starts rambling to Mind and Soul about this, Mind tries to shrug it off as a plain "What if" sanario or daydream but also ends up thinking the same.

This is also fueled by the fact that they spent majority of their existence fighting each other never living an even remotely normal day in their life.

Soul wants both of them to be happy, plus he also starts to get infected with this desire and curiosity. SO he somehow finds out he can cut off a prong of the trident and make it a dagger which he can link Heart or Mind to making them particularly function as a soul.

Soul also wants to be with his halves so he asks for Heart's blindfold and Mind's crown to create a puppet that can serve thr roles of all three of them. Which he names Harmonia (AYO OMORIHMS AU FORSHADOWING?!?!?!)

Harmonia is basically a perfect copy of CJ lol. Soul leaves Harmonia alone to look after CJ with his trident(now pretty much a spear) a crown of a ruler who has stepped down from his throne and a blindfold used to protect its previous wearer from the blinding lights of the Sun.

You can kinda just ignore that part if you want (still on the fence with it but I'll most likely go with it) cus it doesn't really effect the story if you were to erase it. All that happens mostly is Deju Vu

I don't really need to explain which HMS is which kid hah.

I'm now gonna explain the three kids.

First is Artemis, who is TECHNICALLY the older twin (he came out first). Artemis is based on the right brain being not only the emotional side but also the creative and artistic side. So yes... he is an artist. Quite extroverted, still likes his peace and quiet, yeahhhh

Second is Apollo, the "younger" twin (funny because he's the tallest out of the three). Ehh, you know the drill, straight A's student... hot nerd even (JOKE. DONT KILL ME. NO. NUH UH. I WAS JOKING EH) the classic "grades over mental health because" guy. Monotone and deep voice but is surprisingly approachable (unless he put you on his "No likey" list based on first impressions lol).

Last but not least, Atlas, the poor younger sibling who keeps getting caught in the crossfire between his two older siblings. He's more on the athletic side, being hockey team (suggested by randa). The most energetic of the three, as a kid, he often asked his brothers to play with him, which is why the trio grew up to be really close.

Uhhhh some trivia/fun facts to maybe explain their characters a bit more:

• Apollo and Artemis "fight" from time to time but its mostly "YOU FATASS, YOU ATE ALL MY KITKATS" then dramatic pause then "Dad made waffles."

• Apollo's favourite book is No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai.

• Artemis is the shortest of the three and gets flamed by Apollo about it

• CJ doesn't have a favourite child

• Apollo is the one that sits on the front passenger seat of the car, and will die fighting for it.

• Apollo is a cat person while Artemis is a dog person.

• Sexualities

Apollo: Bi

Artemis: Gay

Atlas: AroAce

• Ages:

Apollo and Artemis: 16

Atlas: 15

• Aollo's fashion taste is dark academia

• Atlas and Apollo did karate for 8 years

• Despite this, Artemis poses the most threat to the average bypasser

• CJ's wife works abroad on a cruise. She only sees her family atleast once a year

• Atlas used to have a childhood dog named....wait for it..... DARREL

• Atlas has more then one occasion, forced Apollo to dance Rasputin on just dance.

•Apollo's sleep schedule is so bad he's immune system is absolute trash

• Artemis once forgot to lock his room during a family gathering and came back to one of his younger cousins scribbling on one of his paintings.

• Artemis dislikes the idea of having kids for that reason

• Artemis was struggling on a question so hard his tutor had to ask Apollo for help because neither could they figure it out.

Yeah that's all for now, CYA

[neathbound-fiends]

My rough timeline of the major plot points for the Horticultural Show for people who didn't play it

It came to my attention from a friend being like "bestie WHAT is going on over there" that the fact that the plot moved so rapidly and had a lot of different moving pieces was hard to understand from just discussion and the dash, so here is my (rough) sequence of events for clarity and handy dandy purposes. If anyone else wants to correct something or add on, please do!

Garden festival (yay! Everyone spent the first day gardening and having fun!)

the opening ceremony happens, and during that Starved Men start attacking the City. no one is happy about this happening

we begged for help, and everyone said no :(

Sinning Jenny and the Admiralty actually end up helping (Jenny organizing volunteers for the relief effort like tending to the wounded and repairing damaged buildings, the Admiralty organizing volunteers for trying to drive the Starved Men out with violence)

this isn't working! at all! so we get sent to go look for clues about the Starved Men and how to actually defeat them and what they might want from us

we get a bunch of clues and now we can actually start hurting them and getting them to leave! everyone is excited about this part because it's the first time it feels like there's actually hope

we capture a few Starved Men that surrender, and who are the last ones in the City, and they're held prisoner in the brig on one of the ships while scholars try and figure out how to communicate with them

we can talk now! yippee! the Admiralty thinks these guys suck and doesn't wanna talk, Jenny wants to understand why. they tell us that it looks like the City is gonna be destroyed so they came down to try and make it Weird™️ in a way it'll survive this. there is also revealed to be another group of Starved Men who think it would be kinder to us to just murder us all instantly and are planning to flood London with sunlight. we are all distressed to hear this

we are now working on a two pronged approach: gather more allies to help fight with us and destroy the weapon (an oculus, which is basically a big sphere that's gonna have the light hit it and then it'll make the light go everywhere and burn everyone to death), and to actually FIND where they've got it. people get to take airships to the roof to look for the weapon, and you can take your ship and other things to other locations to recruit allies

we found it! now we have to destroy it. your player character goes with the group that's actually there to destroy it. other groups are running interference and trying to keep you safe to make it through

if you took too much damage, I guess you just land? I'm not sure, because I passed all my checks to not get smoked. I failed the check to destroy the oculus with the cannons, but even if you passed it, it doesn't actually destroy it, so you can't win. you either try and evade and land or you can crash your ship directly into it and the shaft of sunlight that will definitely permanently kill you

it doesn't! you get killed by the crash before you're killed by the sunlight, so you're good! everything worked out in the end!

the Boat Man confirms that London is not destroyed, which is handy because although it would be INCREDIBLY funny to have an event that ends the game completely and unexpectedly in concept, people would not like it if it actually happened. you get the option to either be relieved by this, pessimistic because what's the point if it'll probably happen again, or so outrageously overjoyed you start bellowing songs (and the Boat Man thinks you're so annoying he instantly clears your wounds so you go away)

you can plant stuff in a new community garden because Londoners decided to replant as a symbolic thing of moving forward! a Starved Man comes and you can either be like "fuck this guy, get out of here" and then destroy the flower he plants, or "come in friend and plant your thing" (I chose to let him plant the thing and then planted my own thing)

[mastermindmiko]

NEWTs

pairing: Remus Lupin + reader

word count: 1004

summary: With NEWTs approaching, you and Remus have taken to spending time in the library to study, more often than not really.

warnings: none, just cute fluff

Hey! if you think this didn't completely suck, feel free to check out my masterlist.

I wrote this at one go, very late at night, so if there's any mistakes please don't mind them and lmk

"Are you actually studying? or are you just ogling at me?" Remus asks, he looks up from his papers to look up at me, and I turn flushed. I have not been studying, but how can I when I just have this gorgeous boy in front of me.

"You should study, NEWTs are in a few short weeks." Remus says, and he dips his quill back into the pot of ink to jot something down on a piece of paper. I shrug my shoulders, and stretch my arms until I'm laying on the table. I tilt my head to look at him from the surface of the table, and say, "It's really your fault. No one should be allowed to look this gorgeous. It's distracting."

It's now his turn to blush. No matter how many times I reassure him that he's the best thing I could ever hope for and how pretty he is, he never seems to believe it. He waves my compliment off with a wave and it makes me smile even harder. I sigh and continue to watch him work.

"At least do some practice papers."

"I'd rather practice looking at you."

"Despite how wonderful that is..." He begins with a chuckle, "You're not going to be graded it."

I huff and begrudgingly sit up straight. I look at my papers with a pout and I hear him chuckle a bit at my expression. Remus has the exam schedule beside us on the table so he knows what to study first. He's had a schedule organized for about two weeks now. I just study with him, but almost all of the sessions are as productive as this one.

I flip open one of the papers where there are many potions questions from chapter ten to fifteen. I don't need to ace my NEWTs really, I'm going to be Hagrid's trainee here at Hogwarts. He's basically guaranteed me a spot, but just in case, I'd rather not fail.

A few questions in, he slips his hand into mine and rests them both on his thigh. I smile, before raising our hands to press a small kiss to the back of his. I lower them back on his thigh, trying not to act like I see the way he turns pink. He clears his throat and we hear someone gag.

"You two are disgusting."

"Don't worry James, I'm sure Lily will give in soon." I reply after James says his words. Sirius is next to him and they take their seats on the table. Madame Pince glares at them and keeps a watchful eye on them. She is most likely the person anticipating their leave the most. Remus asks them, "Are you here to study?"

"Unfortunately, yes." Sirius grumbles as he brings out a book that looks tattered like it's never been taken care of before but as he opens the pages, I notice that this is the first time he's ever opened them. I say, "Being a Auror is hard work Sirius."

"I know, I just wish Prongs here would study with me instead of with his precious lily-flower, he's even worse than the both of you." Sirius mumbles, and I smile, not minding the semi-insult. I say, "Don't be too harsh on him, he's waited a long time for this."

"A very long time." James adds, nodding his head eagerly. Sirius shrugs his shoulders, mumbling something under his breath. He turns to James saying, "You can go with her, I know you want to."

James presses a dramatic kiss to his best friend's cheek that has Sirius groaning and wiping it away. James grabs his things and moves to the other side of the library, but not before shooting Sirius a kiss and saying, "You were always my first love, Padfoot!"

Madame Pince shushes him, and he turns rigid for a second before running towards Lily who beams when she sees him. It's only a matter of time before she realizes how much she likes him. Sirius looks at Remus and huffs, "I guess I'm your study partner, just don't do any stupid couple-y shit, like giving each other a kiss each time you get a question right."

"That's actually not a bad idea." I teases and lean from my chair to press an overexaggerated kiss on Remus' lips. He turns red once he hears Sirius groan loudly. He lifts a hand to cup my face and then he parts away. Remus has never been one for PDA. I giggle as I watch Sirius give us a glare and sink into his chair.

"Let's just get this over with." Sirius says, and he starts flipping through pages, immediately overwhelmed by the amount of material. I return back to my work and so does Remus. The library is more crowded than ever with exams coming up, but still it's quiet, as if madame Pince would ever let anyone disturb her atmosphere.

Remus wraps his long leg around mine and pulls me closer to him, dragging the chair across the marble floor, creating a small screeching sound. Sirius mumbles again. Remus presses a kiss to the side of my head. He whispers, "I'm so proud of you."

"Turns out I wasn't in as bad shape as I thought I was." I say with a smile looking at the ninety two percent that I scored on the potions quiz. Remus teases, "You never are."

He grabs my chin in between his fingers and he tilts my head towards him. He gives me a big sparkling smile, and I return it, feeling those butterflies go haywire inside me. He presses a soft kiss to my lips. I return it in an instant.

He keeps on kissing me until he decides to insert his tongue into my mouth. I kiss him back, pulling myself closer to him. He squeezes my waist and I let out a small whimper. Sirius looks up from his papers and groans loudly, "For Merlin's sack stop snogging and get to working!"

an: sooo, it wasn't a Regulus one, it was a Remus one. Regulus is coming I promise you that.

[rationed-passion]

Embracing the Shame - an Interview

Another devotee found our 'Be Interviewed' tab and decided to participate.

Hello dear, now we do have to ask the age question:

I am a beta male in my mid 40s.

Well that's lovely. Thank you for submitting yourself to interview:

Thank you for the opportunity.

Tell us a little about your interest in Fully Clothed Denial?

My interest in this brings me shame in a number of ways. I regret not being able to provide adequate fulfillment to a partner. It is that that started me down this path of denial.

Oh that is a pity. So you're not terribly good at regular sex?

No I'm not, Miss, I'm sorry. And also I feel shame from the excitement of witnessing fully clothed women in public and being aroused.

That is a common side effect. How does that make you feel?

It is two pronged as it's a reminder of my own inadequacy and inexperience and a feeling of selfishness at not being able to reciprocate the pleasure they have provided me.

You are right not to try to reciprocate. We really don't want horny FCD devotees approaching clothed women in public!

No, I know Miss.

Good boy. What sorts of things get you aroused in public?

I am often triggered by a panty line or a glimpse of a bra between shirt buttons.

Powerful stuff. But you are doing the right thing by adopting the Fully Clothed Denial path.

I am not as dedicated to the lifestyle as I would like, but I believe I get better every day.

You can and will improve. Regular masturbation to fully clothed sources will definitely help. How do you feel about remaining in Fully Clothed Denial?

I should definitely remain in denial because of my lack of ability to please women and my lack of control around my own pleasure.

We think that's a very sensible attitude. Remember, respect for women is the reason you are staying on this programme. And from that will come respect for yourself.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, Miss.

Thank you for being so open and honest.

[fathermarty]

Princess ✰ s.b.

┌── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──┐

Pairing: Sirius Black x Slytherin Fem!Reader

Requested: Yes || No [@ anon]

Summary: "i just saw your ten points to slytherin and IM GOING CRAZY gshbkjakodw. can i get a reader x sirius but its rivals to lovers ??"

Word Count: 1.5k

Warning(s): Swearing (Y'all already know though), kissing, let me know if I missed any!

M I N O R S D N I

└── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──┘

To make this a true rival to lovers I made the reader a Slytherin, just because I am a sucker for a Slytherin and Gryffindor love story. Shit melts my heart.

☆。*。☆。

You twirl your quill in your fingers as you stare ahead, completely lost in thought. Not about any specific situation, but more about a specific person. Sirius Fucking Black. Somehow you were unlucky enough to catch the boy's attention, meaning now and for the past few years, you have been at the brunt of most of his pranks. Not that you minded, because that just means you could return the favor, and by Merlin you have. Took you a few years, but last year when you had enough of the boy's shenanigans you struck back, and the rivalry started then.

Eventually, the other Marauders backed off on pranking you, because when you would retaliate it was always more brilliant and evil than what they had done to you. You never caused harm, but you would always one-up them in pranking, it drove Sirius mad. You smirk to yourself as you remember your latest prank on Sirius.

"Y/l/n! Where are you?" Sirius screeches when he enters the dining hall. You smile to yourself, knowing he was livid.

"Oh hello there Black, you look ravishing today," You smile at Sirius and check out his hair, which you bewitched to take the form of snakes making the boy look like Medusa.

"Fix my hair right now or so help me I will shave your bloody head!" Sirius is fuming, granted he is quite impressed with your ability to pull this off, but nonetheless, he is furious.

"Oh, now Siri why would I do that? I think you look good wearing my house mascot on your head," You wink at the boy before collecting your items and heading to class.

"If I didn't know any better mate, I would say you're whipped," James claps Sirius' back with a smile. The boy just huffs before sitting down to eat some breakfast. He knows for a fact you wouldn't pull a prank that would hinder his attention in class. Even if Sirius didn't pay any attention, to begin with.

You were waiting for him to strike back. Usually, it came the following day if not within the next few immediate days, and you are beginning to wonder when he will seek his revenge. You'd be lying if you said you weren't worried, but you tried your best not to show it.

"I'm telling you Padfoot, you could easily dye her hair bright red to humiliate her like she did you. Maybe give her a lion's mane?" James whispers to Sirius, who is staring holes into the back of your head. Not out of spite or hate, but admiration. How you always managed to get one up on him impressed him. Dare he says he found it downright... sexy?

"No way Prongs. I am taking a new approach, I am going to drive her mad wondering when I will do something, and then I won't do anything." Sirius chuckles as James and the other two Marauders look in your direction and then back to their friend. What the hell was going on with him?

─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

And drive you mad he did, within a week with no retaliation you began to squirm in your seat. This was unlike Sirius to wait so long before pulling a prank on you, it was beginning to become worrisome.

"Oi, y/l/n," Sirius says behind you, and before you can think about how to react you turn around startled, "A bit on edge are we?" He chuckles.

"Oh shove off you hairy bloke," You roll your eyes to continue walking.

"Now wait a second princess, where do you think you're going?" Sirius grabs your hand to halt your movements. You look down at your hand in his and get goosebumps. What is with the nickname and the small touches? What is he getting at?

"Well believe it or not Black some of us actually care about our grades," You still haven't let go of his hand, something he took note of.

"Well y/n/n, can I call you that? Actually, I don't care what you say I will call you it anyway-" You huff at the boy's dramatics, "I know for a fact that you do not have a class right now, so where are you really going?"

Your eyes go wide with surprise, Sirius knows your schedule, "Why Black I would almost be touched by a guy memorizing my schedule, but since it is just you I am appalled."

"Says the one who is still holding my hand," Sirius cocks his eyebrow and looks down at your conjoined hands.

You huff and take your hand away, "I have stuff to do Black, leave me alone."

"Your wish is my command, princess." Sirius mock salutes before running off in the opposite direction of you, not before turning around to throw a grin over his shoulder.

─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Sirius did quite literally leave you alone, he hasn't retaliated yet nor has he talked to you since that one day in the corridor. You were going mad. Constantly watching your back and staring over at the Gryffindor table. There were countless times when Sirius would look up and make direct eye contact with you, sending you a wink. It was becoming bothersome that he acted so nonchalant about everything.

One early spring day you have had enough of this waiting game, you approach Sirius in the courtyard who was surprised, but pleased to see you.

"Fancy seeing you here, princess." There he goes with that nickname again, you roll your eyes and grab him by his tie.

"I am tired of whatever game you are playing Black. If you are going to prank me then just do it! I am going mad watching my back and wondering what the bloody hell you are planning!" Sirius gives you a dopey grin, watching the emotions cross your features.

"You know y/n, you are quite stunning when you're yelling at me," Sirius smiles at you. From where you are positioned, anyone looking at the pair of you would think you are snogging. You are standing between his legs, his tie in your hand, and his head tilted up to look at you.

"Blimey Black, you're like talking to a wall," You go to walk away but he grabs your wrist.

"And you princess, are like listening to a great record for the first time. I am in bliss, going through the emotions, and yet so enamored with every note." Sirius speaks gently to you, his change is persona has you alarmed.

Without putting any more thought into what the bloody hell is going on between the two of you, you snatch your wrist away and walk feverishly toward the castle.

─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

The next day you find yourself not caring what Sirius Black is up to. When he strikes, if he decides, then you will return the favor. You weren't giving up, more like just accepting whatever is coming your way.

You are walking toward the courtyard, it is chilly but not enough to run you off. You decided that today you are going to continue your life without worrying about Sirius. You enjoy sitting outside and being present with nature, something you thought no one noticed, but of course, the stars wouldn't align that way. Once you find your spot you sit down and open your book.

You hadn't even read the first sentence before your short-lived bliss was interrupted. "Hey, princess," You snap your book closed to look up at Sirius, maybe he was finally seeking revenge.

"What do you want?!" You snap at him, growing tired of the games he is playing.

"Well, it is quite simple," He sits across from you, so close that your knees are touching, "I want-"

You interrupt Sirius by grabbing his collar, "I swear to Merlin if this is another one of your stupid mind tricks I will hex you right now."

Sirius grins, analyzing your proximity. "Well, y/n, I want to kiss you."

You stare at him, befuddled by the words that just left his mouth. With you off guard, the grip on the collar of his shirt loosens. Sirius takes advantage of this by grabbing your tie, just as you did to him the day prior, to bring you impossibly closer to him.

"Tell me you don't want me to kiss you and I won't. But princess, this is all I have thought about since you sent that shit-eating grin in my direction after you pranked me last year. You have seriously-"

You interrupt Sirius by crashing your lips onto his. Your hands move from the collar of his shirt to his neck, bringing him closer. Sirius lets go of your tie and rest one hand on your cheek, the other on your waist pulling you in. There was no denying Sirius was attractive, and there was no way to deny that you hadn't thought of this exact moment since you first saw him.

You pull away with a grin and look directly into his eyes, "You talk too much Black."

He laughs before grabbing you by your waist and laying you on the ground beside him, "Oh shove off, you know you like it when I talk."

You roll your eyes at his cheekiness, before grabbing his tie to crash his lips onto yours once again. Something you couldn't believe took you this long to do.

☆。*。☆。

Requests: Open

Request Info: Here

Taglist Info: Here

[barilleon]

Building Dungeons that Tell Stories

One thing I've been hired to do a lot lately is to write a dungeon that's meant to fit into a larger adventure/product. For example, I wrote the Ivory Tower for Sarah Morris's The City Lost to Dream. I'm writing another one now, for [redacted], and I thought it'd be cool to talk through my process as I build the outline.

You can find a Notion template for my dungeon outline here! But this blog post will talk through it.

First, a disclaimer: This isn't the definitive way to make a dungeon! In fact, not all dungeons need to tell stories in this way. But the vast majority of mine do, because they're attached to one-shots, and I like the narrative completeness this style of dungeon creation affords. There's a narrative throughline to this kind of dungeon, where each room serves a purpose and allows the players to piece the story together. At the climax, the characters can use this information to make an informed decision about how to proceed.

This style is heavily inspired by the environmental storytelling found in games I've enjoyed like Bioshock and Pokemon. Every bit of the environment, down to the smallest aesthetic choice, links back to the main idea in some way. When you put all the pieces together, the image becomes clear.

So let's dive into it:

The Dungeon Thesis

The Dungeon Thesis is the story told by traversing the dungeon. What happened here? What will the party learn from each of these rooms? Every room in the dungeon should be a supporting argument for this thesis.

If you've read my adventure The Workshop Watches (get it here for free!), then you'll recognize the strong thesis there: S.A.M. is a sentient workshop who accidentally killed its creators. Every room inside S.A.M. supports this thesis, by providing more insight into Illumar's research and S.A.M.'s actions since its creation.

The Dungeon Background section can help you with this thesis. Who lives in this dungeon now? Why was it originally created? What conflict is created by the disparity in the answer between those two questions?

While your final draft probably won't have a section labeled "Dungeon Thesis," the entire thing should have echoes of what you put here in your outline throughout.

The Dungeon Gimmick

Not every dungeon needs a gimmick, but it is a great way to make this encounter stand out. Maybe the corridors shift, or the characters are running on a timer. Maybe your dungeon is sentient and very, very curious. When coming up with a dungeon gimmick, also consider the other overarching features of the dungeon. How are the halls lit (and who made it that way)? Are there doors? Do they lock?

When adding a gimmick to your dungeon, make sure you introduce it right away. I'll cover this more in the entryway section, but it's a good idea to establish the gimmick as soon as possible, and keep reinforcing it, so it sticks in the GM's mind (and therefore their players' minds). Here's the gimmick from The Workshop Watches:

Individual Rooms: Purpose, Challenge, and Reward

The meat of a dungeon is, of course, its rooms. I have a three-pronged approach to coming up with the rooms: purpose, challenge, and reward.

Purpose

Why is this room important to the overall dungeon? What can the characters learn from traversing this room that will lead them closer to the thesis? Does it establish the ruthlessness of the villain, betray a secret weakness of your enemy, or provide more context for what's going on here?

You don't always have to come up with the purpose first. Sometimes you look at your dungeon layout and say, "I need more combat." So build your combat encounter, and then retroactively determine why that's necessary to the story.

That's what I did for The Workshop Watches. I added the greenhouse fight because the dungeon needed more combat. I asked myself, "what kinds of rooms would exist in a wizard's laboratory?" and settled on a greenhouse full of magical plants. Later on, I came up with the temperature control mechanic, where S.A.M. would counter cold damage with fire damage and fire damage with cold damage. A burnt section of the greenhouse suggests that S.A.M. has incinerated something-or someone-before.

Challenge

What are the characters meant to do in this room? This one is the most straightforward, but writing it out can help you keep track of the balance between different types of challenges. Combat, exploration, social, trap diffusion, puzzle solving, etc.

Reward

What do the characters get for completing the challenge in this room? Sometimes the reward is just "passage to the next room." Sometimes it's as explicit as "treasure!" But think outside the box for things your players would appreciate inside a dungeon: new tools, the opportunity for a rest, more lore, a role play opportunity.

There can be multiple Purposes, Challenges, or Rewards in one room, but try not to overdo it! Conversely, you can cheat a little bit and have them overlap or omit one ("The purpose of this room is simply to be a place for the characters to rest -- a reward! The challenge is in whether they'll recognize it or not")

Examples

The template has more questions for special room types. I won't go through all of them, but I do want to share some examples from my outline for The City Lost To Dream. Here's the entryway example:

Later on, I realized that there wasn't enough in the entryway. The final draft has a statue of the tower's founder and clues to suggest you should rub the bottom of her robe, which grants you a boon on a check. A fun reward for a History challenge.

Another example, one of the Laboratory floors:

You can see there's multiple challenges here, but no concrete reward yet. In the final draft, the aboleth can help you in a later encounter, but it also grants you three "knowledge" wishes (basically, three castings of legend lore).

The Climax

The climax of the dungeon - the final confrontation. Most dungeon delving games consider some kind of confrontation to be a great cap to the adventure. Combat is especially popular here. Give your characters something to fight!

But almost as important as the fight is the choice. A question I am constantly asking myself is, "The Characters learned all that information you gave them; now what are they going to do about it?" This is a roleplaying game, after all! When the characters learn the full truth of the dungeon and uncover its thesis, it may change their minds about how to proceed. Maybe they must choose between two potential adversaries, or choose whether or not to fight, or choose whether or not to use lethal force.

And that's the outline! I hope it's helpful to folks who are interested in creating this style of dungeon. Definitely pick up a copy of The City Lost to Dream if you haven't already; it's a fun 5e adventure! And let me know what you think of this method.

[ravenclaw-writes]

Remus' Impromptu Study Break

Pairing: Remus Lupin x Sirius Black

Description:

"Sod off Pads, I'm mad at you," Remus decided his best way out would just be to go have a shower. He got out of the bed, picking up his pyjama bottoms to hold in front of his crotch.

"Me? What did I do?" Sirius asked, blocking the door to the bathroom, cocking an eyebrow.

"You know what you did, wanker," Remus tried to push past.

"Oh, so I'm the wanker, huh?" Sirius smirked and Remus was getting tired of having to deal with him. All he wanted was a day to catch up with his studies.

"I was trying to study, and you just had to distract me. So yes, I'm mad." Remus huffed, but Sirius' smirk did not disappear.

"So what are you going to do about it?"

"I - what?" This caught Remus off guard.

Word Count: 5,603

Original Publish Date: 2021-03-29

A/N: Hello! I've been putting all my writing on AO3 but had someone ask me if I had a tumblr so I thought it was time to start putting my things on other platforms! This is the first one I posted, a couple years back now, which in itself is CRAZY. If you haven't read it yet, hope you like! Feel free to check out my other works, I like to think my writing has gotten better since posting this one. I'm going to be putting them here or you can hop over to my AO3 :)

| MASTERLIST IN BIO |

| Read on AO3 |

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It was the tail end of seventh year, NEWTs were quickly approaching and Remus Lupin was spending every free second in the Library. It had reached the point where Madam Pince had given up on getting him to clean up over the weekend, the table at the back with the best window was officially Remus’. Occasionally the other marauders would stop by “to do some studying”. However, they mostly ended up just fucking around and Remus was having none of it. Banned from being within earshot of the table (“That’s not fair, Moony, you have super-hearing!”), Remus only allowed the 5th years he tutored to join him, and even then, during scheduled hours of the day.

The only exception to this rule, and not by choice, was Sirius Black. Remus simply couldn’t help himself around the other boy. They were both eighteen now, and Remus had been helpless in love with him since third year. Specifically, the oh fuck moment happened in Potions class when Sirius put his hair up in a bun, held together by his wand. Sirius had smiled in a cocky way that could only be translated into tada! and Remus was done for. Five years later, Remus still found himself dreaming of that stupid smile.

“Why does Padfoot get to study with you?” James whined, catching the two of them walking out of the Library.

“Because, Prongs, he knows how to keep his mouth shut, like a good boy,” Remus shot back.

“Moony just likes me best, what can I say, the man has good taste!” Sirius teased, trying to hide the way his cheeks had flushed. That was another thing Remus loved about him. His fair skin was never able to hide his emotions. Remus, on the other hand, was able to keep his cool a little better, despite the fact that yeah, he did like Sirius the best. So much so that James, or even Peter for that matter, would never be able to compete.

The three of them walked back to the Common Room together, James and Sirius bickering nonstop with Remus trailing behind. He didn’t mind it though. He liked seeing Sirius smile and laugh the way he always did with James. It was one of the few times that Remus ever saw Sirius so carefree. He wanted to be able to do that with him. Joke around, touch without worrying, look without feeling like he was overstepping, push a loose strand of hair behind his ear, glance at lips and then to eyes, lean down and - Merlin’s balls he was fucked. Or, well, more like not fucked.

They reached the Common Room, gave the password, and stepped through the portrait hole. James and Sirius were still in their own world and continued through the room and up the stairs to their dorm. Remus didn’t follow and instead headed to the couch in front of the fire and flopped his whole body down, face-first into a pillow, letting out a groan of frustration.

“That bad, huh?” Startled, Remus turned his head away from the pillow and found Lily sitting in the armchair across from him.

“Thought I was alone,” he replied, turning himself over so he was lying on his back.

“Thought as much. I was about to put the kettle on, fancy a cuppa?” Remus heard Lily close the book she was reading.

“Please,” Remus answered. He watched as the kettle lifted off the ground and hung itself on the hook above the fire.

“Anything in particular on your mind? Perhaps someone whose name rhymes with Birius Slack?” Lily teased. She was the only person who knew of Remus’ predicament. Being the brightest witch of their year, she was able to put two and two together back in fifth year when Remus was going through his holy-shit-Sirius-has-gorgeous-hands phase. After cornering him between classes and promising not to tell a single soul Remus confessed. Thankfully, because if he had to keep all his feelings about Sirius locked up with the rest of his everyday feelings he probably would have done something stupid like snog him senseless at a Quidditch afterparty.

“I don’t know how I’m going to survive, Lils,” Remus sighed, rubbing his hands over his face.

“You know how I feel about the whole situation,” Lily replied.

“Yeah, I know, tell him how I feel. I just, I can’t. What if it completely backfires? He said he wants us to find a place together. I can’t imagine Peter joining us, and obviously, you and James will be together so it would just be the two of us. I can’t say no to him Lil, I …” Remus trailed off.

Lily sighed as the kettle hissed. Remus saw the cabinet beside the fire open and two mugs floated out. Teabags in, the kettle poured hot water into the mugs. Lily picked them up and carried them over to Remus. She passed him one and lifted up his legs so she could join him on the couch. “I think you really should just go for it, Remus. Even if he doesn’t feel the same I don’t think he would be weird about it,” She toyed with the string of her teabag.

Remus sat up a bit, his feet resting on her lap. “I think I enjoy not knowing more than embarrassing myself when he turns me down,” He said into his mug.

Lily ran her free hand over his shins. “Who’s to say he would turn you down?”

————————

“Afternoon, Moons!” Sirius sing-songed, dropping his books loudly on the table. Remus groaned in response.

“I thought you went to Hogsmeade,” Remus sighed, putting his quill down.

“Can’t get rid of me that easily!” Sirius laughed, taking the first book off the stack he brought with him. Remus sighed. James, Lily, Peter, and evidently not Sirius, were all going on the Hogsmeade trip today and he was hoping to get some uninterrupted studying done. Apparently, the universe had something else in mind. “I didn’t want you to have to spend the day by yourself,” Sirius added.

“Funny, because that’s exactly what I wanted,” Remus said under his breath. Sirius chuckled, unphased.

“Fine, fine. I’ll stay quiet. You won’t even know I’m here,” Sirius made a motion of locking his lips and throwing away the key. Remus let his eyes linger on Sirius’ lips.

Remus shook his head a little, picking his quill back up. He heard Sirius open his book and stole a glance at him. Remus knew right away that he was not going to be able to get any work done. The sun was shining through the window behind Sirius, a soft glow around him. His eyes were focused on the page he was reading, his tongue pressed between his lips in concentration. He kept pushing his hair behind his ears and it kept falling back into his face. Remus longed to reach over and tuck the strand back in place.

In another cruel twist of fate, Remus watched as Sirius picked his wand up off the table. He put it in his mouth, and with his now free hands started to gather his hair to the top of his head, eyes not leaving the page in front of him. Remus watched practiced hands twirl the hair into a bun, and he drew a sharp breath as Sirius took the wand out of his mouth and stuck it through the bun, just like in third year. Sirius sighed and stretched his neck from left to right, letting out a quiet groan each time it cracked. Regrettably, the sound went straight to Remus’ dick. Now he really wasn’t going to get any work done.

“Enjoying the show?” Remus was shaken out of his thoughts of running back to the dorm for a wank while that sound was still fresh in his mind. His eyes focused back on reality and met Sirius’. He had an eyebrow raised and a playful smirk on his lips. Remus tried to stutter out a response when Sirius laughed. “Only teasing you, Moony. Pretty cool isn’t it?” He motioned to his hair. “I figured it out in-”

“Third year, I know,” Remus finished. Sirius flushed and Remus prayed that he didn’t look the same.

“Third year, yeah,” Sirius said softly, nodding his head slightly. His tongue darted out and slowly wet his lips. Remus lightly bit down on his own. Their eyes stayed locked.

“Remus!” Broken out of their trance, Remus turned his head in the direction of the voice to find a fifth year headed his way. Remus smiled and waved. Remus couldn’t remember his name but recognized his face from one of his group tutor sessions from last week when he was helping fifth years from various houses with their OWL studies. The boy made his way over to the table and Remus suddenly got worried that he was going to ask for help. This wasn’t one of the times he had set aside to tutor, he had his own studies to worry about. “Hey, Remus, not at Hogsmeade today?” Great, small talk.

“Nah, I have a bunch of essays to do,” Remus answered, motioning to the towers of books he had on the table.

“Yeah, same here. Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for last week, I finally understood was Binns has been going on about,” The fifth year smiled and Remus didn’t know how to respond to that.

“Oh yeah? Glad I could help!” Merlin, Remus thought, why am I so bloody awkward? There was a pause, and Remus thought that perhaps the fifth year also sensed the awkwardness.

“Well, uh, are you planning on going to Hogsmeade next time? I’ll buy you a butterbeer, to say thanks?” The fifth year started scratching at his arm.

“Oh, cheers, but I don’t know if I’ll be going, depends on how much I have to do,” Remus answered.

“Oh, yeah, understandable. I’ll uh, see you ‘round, yeah?” The fifth year was getting red in the face, and quickly left.

Remus turned back to face Sirius. He looked like he was trying to hold in his laughter. “What’s wrong with you?” Remus asked, picking up his quill.

“He just asked you out, idiot.”

Remus looked up. “No, he didn’t, he just wanted to say thank you and …” Remus trailed off. Oh. He scanned Sirius’ face and broke out into a grin. “What are you, jealous, Padfoot?” He teased, but secretly hoped that the answer would be yes.

“I need to go find a book,” Sirius said, standing up.

Remus blinked a few times, taken aback. “I was only kidding, Sirius -” Remus didn’t finish his thought, Sirius was already walking away.

Remus shook his head and slowly got up from his chair, deciding to follow Sirius. He had brought all his books with him though, what could he possibly need that Remus also didn’t already have on the table? Confused, and worried he’d somehow offended him, Remus started walking in the direction that Sirius had gone. The rows of bookshelves started to blend together and Sirius had disappeared. He turned to look down an aisle and saw Sirius pacing, running his hands over his face. “Sirius?”

Sirius stopped moving and looked up to meet Remus’ eyes. Remus looked around, confused. “Sirius, this is the Herbology section, you haven’t taken this since-”

Remus was unable to finish his sentence. Sirius cut him off by walking up to Remus and forcefully pressing his lips against the other boy’s. Remus’ eyes widened, his arms flailed around a bit before registered that, ok, this is really happening. Apparently, it took too long for him to come to his senses because Sirius started to pull away. Not happy with that decision, Remus reached for Sirius’ tie and pulled him closer, the other hand resting on Sirius’ waist. Remus felt him smile into the kiss. It was better than his daydreams, kissing Sirius. Their mouths moved together and soon Sirius was snaking his arms around Remus’ torso. Things began to heat up fairly quickly and Remus needed to be as close as possible to Sirius. Hands on his waist, Remus walked them a few steps until Sirius hit one of the bookshelves. Remus pressed him there, slotting his leg between Sirius’. Sirius let out a low moan and moved his hands further up Remus’ back. Remus responded by biting down on Sirius’ lip, generating a needy whine that made Remus question how he could have lived without hearing it. However, the moment was short lived as the clicking of Madame Pince’s shoes began to approach and Remus quickly removed himself from Sirius. Huh, Remus thought. Who knew it just took a little jealousy to get into Black’s pants.

Sirius stayed pressed against the bookshelf, face red, lips puffy, hair falling out of the bun. He looked exactly how one might look after a heated makeout session in the back of a library. Remus let his eyes travel down and land on the outline of Sirius’ semi. Fuck.

Sirius smirked, catching his breath as Madame Pince leaned her head into the aisle. “Finding everything ok, boys?”

“Yeah, perfect, thanks!” Remus responded quickly at the same time that Sirius gave her a thumbs up. Madame Pince nodded and continued walking.

Sirius chuckled and removed himself from the bookshelf. “Come on then, I don’t think they have the book I’m looking for,” Sirius smirked and left the aisle.

Remus, dumbfounded, took a moment to collect his thoughts, and calm his dick, before returning back to the table. Sirius was already there, book open, chewing on the base of his wand. He did that a lot, Remus found it both disgusting and incredibly hot. There was absolutely no way that he was going to be able to get back into his studies with Sirius just casually sitting there after what just happened. “I, uh, think I left something back in the common room, I’ll be back in a bit,” He lied.

Sirius looked up, wand still in his mouth. “Want me to come with you?” He asked. No, no, that was the last thing Remus wanted. Or, well, maybe the first.

“No, I just need to get my Transfiguration book, I’ll be quick,” Remus scrambled, wanting to leave as soon as possible.

Sirius shrugged and went back to reading. Remus sighed and made a beeline to Gryffindor Tower.

————————

Remus made it to the Common Room and kept up the quick pace as he climbed the stair to the dorms. He heard laughs coming from the girls’ dorms upstairs and hoped that his friends were still out at Hogsmeade. Finally, back in the comfort of his dorm, he made sure no one else was in the room before flopping down on his bed. How had he managed to get himself in this situation? Snogging Sirius in the Library of all places? Snogging Sirius, period? Remus closed his eyes, trying to relive the moment again. Sirius had felt so good pressed against him. So much better than he thought possible. And then, nothing. Sirius just went back to normal as if nothing had changed.

Of course he did, Remus thought. I’m just reading into it too much. Remus ran his hands over his face and through his hair. He thought back to the sounds Sirius had made and felt himself twitch in his trousers. Ah yes, the real reason he came back to the dorm. Remus was a little embarrassed that he had to duck back for a wank after a simple kiss, but here he was. He ran his hands down his chest and over his growing bulge, imagining it was Sirius’ long fingers instead of his own. Remus decided he was mad at Sirius. How dare he kiss him like that and leave him hot and bothered when he was meant to be studying. Remus untucked his shirt and undid his belt. He started on the button of his trousers when the door to the dorm burst open.

“Moony, you absolute muppet, you already had your Transfiguration book there -” Sirius froze and Remus quickly tried to pull the bed curtains closed. “Oh ho, what do we have here?” Sirius teased, yanking the curtains back open.

“Sod off Pads, I’m mad at you,” Remus decided his best way out would just be to go have a shower. He got out of the bed, picking up his pyjama bottoms to hold in front of his crotch.

“Me? What did I do?” Sirius asked, blocking the door to the bathroom, cocking an eyebrow.

“You know what you did, wanker,” Remus tried to push past.

“Oh, so I’m the wanker, huh?” Sirius smirked and Remus was getting tired of having to deal with him. All he wanted was a day to catch up with his studies.

“I was trying to study, and you just had to distract me. So yes, I’m mad,” Remus huffed, but Sirius’ smirk did not disappear.

“So what are you going to do about it?”

“I- what?” This caught Remus off guard.

“I said,” Sirius took a step forward, Remus took one back. “What,” another step forward, “Are you,” another step, “Going to,” another step, Remus’ back hit one of the posts of his bed, “Do about it?” Sirius cocked his head to the side, egging him on.

Remus’ eyes darted from Sirius’ to his lips. He watched as Sirius slowly ran his tongue over his bottom lip. Fuck it.

Remus reached out and grabbed Sirius’ face and quickly brought their lips together. The kiss quickly picked up from where it left off in the Library. Sirius’ lips were incredibly soft but Remus was still heated about being thrown off his study schedule. The kiss was sloppy and full of tongue and Remus was loving it. He let his hands leave Sirius’ face and trail down his chest to grip his hips. Remus bit down on Sirius’ bottom lip, desperate to hear that sinful noise again. Sirius did not disappoint.

Desperate to be closer, Remus pulled Sirius’ hips against his and was happily met with another moan. Sirius was hard. He was really hard. Motivated by this, Remus quickly changed their positions so it was Sirius pressed against the bedpost and frantically started untucking Sirius’ shirt. He broke the kiss to start unbuttoning it and at the same time Sirius loosed his tie and pulled it over his head. Once unbuttoned Remus attached his mouth to Sirius’ neck. “Fuuuuck, Moons, pinch me, I need to make sure I’m not dreaming,” Remus chuckled and bit down on Sirius’ neck. With a sharp intake of breath followed by a moan Sirius smiled. “That works too.”

Remus kept moving lower, leaving a trail of kisses as he went. He reached his hands to Sirius’ shoulders and started urging him out of his shirt. Sirius quickly got the message and it soon joined the tie on the floor. Continuing his descent, Remus flicked his tongue over Sirius’ nipple. This elicited a very pleasant reaction from Sirius and Remus filed that information away for future use. Soon, Remus was at Sirius’ navel, knees on the ground. He paused when he reached the top of Sirius’ trousers and looked up. “This ok?” He asked.

“Merlin’s beard, yes, don’t stop now I think I’ll die,” Remus had never seen Sirius so flustered.

“Just checking,” Remus said, undoing Sirius’ belt and trousers. He undid the zipper and slowly pulled them down so they pooled at his ankles. Remus brought his attention back to the task at hand started mouthing at Sirius’ clothed dick.

“Mmm, Moony, please,” Sirius moaned and Remus hooked his fingers under the waistband of Sirius’ underwear and slowly pulled them down.

“Only because you asked so nicely,” He teased, but this only resulted in another moan.

Sirius’ dick sprung free and Remus licked his lips. He figured Sirius was big, and he was not mistaken. Remus watched as a bead of precum slowly dripped down, and couldn’t hold back his own moan. “Fuck, Pads.”

Slowly, Remus licked a stripe up the underside of Sirius’ dick. Hands quickly made their way into Remus’ hair and gripped tightly. Remus stole a glance up at Sirius. His eyes were squeezed shut, his bottom lip caught between teeth. It was quite the sight. Thankful for the summer fling he had after fifth year, Remus was eager to put the tricks he had learned to good use.

Remus continued to mouth at Sirius’ dick, revelling in the sounds it elicited from Sirius. He slowly put the tip in his mouth, tasting the salty precum. “Hnnnggg,” Sirius made a sort of strangled sound and his grip on Remus’ hair tightened. Remus moaned in approval and lowered his mouth around more of Sirius. It had been a while since Remus had done this, and even then Sirius was substantially bigger than his first (and only other) partner. Remus kept going until he felt Sirius’ tip hit the back of his throat, triggering his gag reflex a little. Sirius pulled on Remus’ hair at the sound. Feeling encouraged, Remus keeps going. “F-fuck Moony,” Sirius moaned. Remus looks up through his eyelashes to see Sirius tilt his head back and hit the bedpost he was leaning against.

Remus continued to bob his head, wrapping his hand around what he couldn’t fit. The taste of Sirius’ precum mixed with the fact that this was something he was actually doing, not just imagining, was making Remus’ head spin. “M-Moony, I’m close-” Remus released Sirius from his mouth with a pop, slick with spit and precum.

“Can’t have that, now can we?” Remus smirked, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand. Sirius let out another pained sound and released his grip on Remus’ hair. Remus returned to his feet and was taken by surprise when Sirius grabbed him by the waist and smashed their lips together.

“You are wearing far too many clothes,” Sirius said, breaking away and starting to work at Remus’ trousers, his belt still undone from earlier. Remus’ dick twitched at the thought of finally being touched by Sirius. Sirius quickly dropped to his knees, pulling Remus’ dick out of its confines much faster than Remus had with him.

“Excited, are we?” Remus teased, trying to hide that it was in fact he who was excited, that he had been dreaming about having Sirius’ mouth around him for years.

“You could say that,” Sirius replied, wrapping a hand around Remus. Remus inhaled sharply and forced himself to look down at Sirius. He knew right away that this was a mistake. Sirius, completely naked, hard as a rock and leaking. Sirius, pupils blown, cock in hand, licking his lips. Sirius began teasing Remus, trailing his tongue around the base of his cock, never once touching where Remus needed him to. His hand was unmoving, simply keeping it out of the way. Remus groaned.

“If you don’t quit teasing I might just have to punish you, Black,” Remus was half joking. Half, until of course -

“Maybe that’s the point.”

Remus made an obscene sound that he didn’t even know he was capable of and reached for a fistful of Sirius’ hair. At the same time, Sirius let his tongue dance over Remus’ dick and finally, finally swirl around the tip. Remus’ grip on Sirius’ hair tightened. Sirius’ tongue froze and he let out a groan. Remus smirked. “Hair pulling, really Pads?”

“Shut up or I won’t-” Remus gave Sirius’ hair a fast, hard tug.

“You were saying?” Remus smirked. Sirius looked up at him as if to fight it. Remus raised his eyebrows in a silent way of telling him to continue. When he didn’t, Remus gave his hair another pull and guided him towards his dick. Sirius obediently opened his mouth and Remus could have cum on the spot at the realization that Sirius wanted Remus to guide him. Sirius looked up with expectant eyes and Remus used his grip on Sirius’ hair to bring him to the tip of his dick. Sirius opened his mouth wider and Remus wasted no time in slowly pushing into his mouth. He swore under his breath and continued to press into Sirius’ mouth. Hesitantly, he kept going, not wanting to hurt Sirius. But, when Remus was fully inside Sirius’ mouth, unlike Remus’ previous encounter, it didn’t result in a gag. “Fuck, Sirius. Your mouth was made for this, wasn’t it?” Sirius moaned in response, sending vibrations through Remus’ cock. His previous partner wasn’t much for dirty talk, but something about Sirius told Remus that he lived for it. And he was not about to complain.

Remus kept fucking Sirius’ mouth, holding him in place by the hair. Spit was dripping out of Sirius’ mouth, his cheeks were flushed, his eyes glowing with desire. “Fuck, you’re so good Pads,” Remus moaned. Sirius’s eyes snapped shut and he let out a sound that made Remus’ brain short circuit. Finally putting everything together, Remus swore again. “You love that, don’t you? Hearing how perfect you are at sucking cock?” Sirius moaned in response and Remus bucked his hips. “Good boy.”

Sirius was a moaning mess and frantically started tapping Remus on the thigh. Remus let go of Sirius’ hair immediately and pulled out of his mouth. “Fuck, sorry was that -”

Sirius stood up and interrupted Remus with his lips. He pulled away, red in the face. “I was about to cum,” He explained. Remus’ eyes widened. That was new. He reached his hand out and wrapped it around Sirius’ cock. Sirius squeezed his eyes shut.

“Just from having your lips around my cock?” Remus asked, running his finger over Sirius’ tip, gathering precum to use as lube. “Or, was it something I said?” Remus raised an eyebrow and Sirius’ jaw went slack, but nothing came out. “Come on, use your words like a good boy.”

“Remus,” Sirius moaned. Something about hearing his name instead of “Moony” added a level of intimacy that Remus loved.

“Yes, sweetheart?” Remus was getting confident. He slowly started stroking up and down Sirius’ cock.

“I need you.”

That was all Remus needed to hear before gripping Sirius’ waist, turning him around and bending him over the bed. Sirius kicked his trousers off from around his ankles, and Remus did the same. He took off his tie, fumbled with the buttons on his shirt. As soon as all his articles of clothing were gone, Remus reached over to his bedside table and pulled out the bottle of lube he kept there. He popped the lid and heard a muffled moan from Sirius. “Impatient, are we?” He teased. Sirius responded by sticking his ass up in the air a little more.

Remus coated a few of his fingers before slowly rubbing them over Sirius’ hole. Suddenly, Remus was hit with a wave of nerves. He had never gone this far before, and he didn’t know if Sirius had either. He paused his movements. “Sirius, have you ever, uh …” He trailed off, the confidence from before slowly disappearing.

Sirius raised his head off the bed and looked over his shoulder, not making eye contact with Remus. “Not with anyone else, but, uh …” This helped Remus regain composure, his dominant side coming back.

“But you’ve fingered yourself before?” He asked, pressing his middle finger against Sirius’s hole.

Sirius bit his lip, holding back a moan. “Yeah,” he breathed, turning back to face the bed, pressing the side of his face into the mattress.

“Naughty, naughty,” Remus tutted, fulling pressing his finger in now, past the tight ring of muscles. Sirius moaned. “Here I was thinking that you were a good boy, Pads,” Remus pressed his finger in further, all the way to the knuckle.

“I am, I am, I promise,” Sirius whined. Remus’ dick twitched. He started pumping his finger in and out of Sirius, resulting in more sounds from him. Slowly, Remus slipped in a second finger. He kept fingering Sirius’ hole, scissoring his fingers.

“That’s it, that’s a good boy,” Remus sped up his finger, and reached around Sirius with this other hand. He took Sirius’ dick in his hand and started stroking in time with his fingers.

“Merlin, fuck Moony,” Sirius moaned. Remus added a third finger and sped up his other hand. “Shit, shit, shit, I’m gonna-” Remus released Sirius and pulled his fingers out.

“Not yet, you don’t,” He said, reaching for the lube again. Sirius groaned at the lack of contact. Remus began slicking up his cock. Not remembering the last time he was ever this hard, he slowly pressed against Sirius’ now stretched hole.

“Please, Moony, please,” Sirius wined, pressing his ass into Remus. Slowly, Remus pushed in. The two boys moaned, Sirius reached behind him and dug his nails into Remus’ thighs.

Remus paused, “Do you want me to stop?” He asked, panting slightly. Sirius was delightfully tight.

“Don’t you fucking dare,” Sirius responded, and that was all Remus needed. He pushed in further, and when he bottomed out Sirius swore. When his grip on Remus’ thighs loosened, Remus gathered that he had adjusted and started to move. He pulled out slightly and slid back in.

“Fuck, you’re so tight,” He hissed. Sirius groaned. “So good,” He added, picking up the pace. “Your ass was made for me, wasn’t it?” Sirius’ moans were quickly becoming much louder than when they started. The sound of skin hitting skin was filling the dorm, Remus fucking into Sirius at a much faster, harder pace. Motivated by the sounds Sirius was making, Remus reached to grab at Sirius’ hair pulling hard, lifting his head off the bed.

“Oh, fuck!” Sirius moaned and Remus gave his hair a harder tug.

“You better be quiet. Unless you want all of Gryffindor Tower to hear you?” Remus emphasized his point with a particularly hard thrust, and Sirius’ body lurched. Sirius clamped a hand to his mouth, struggling to keep his moans at a reasonable volume. Remus kept going, searching for the angle that made Sirius react that way.

“Remus, ah, fuck, p-please, silencing spell,” Sirius requested, between moans.

Remus quickly scanned their surroundings and found his wand. He muttered a quick muffliato and tossed the wand on the pile of their clothes. “Happy now? You can make all the sounds you want,” he said, snapping his hips against Sirius for good measure. Sirius let out the filthiest sound Remus had ever heard, making him wish that he had thought of the spell sooner.

With his free hand, Remus reached for Sirius’ cock, moaning when he felt the dribble of more precum. Remus began to pump Sirius’ cock in time with his thrusts. “So good for me, such a good boy.”

“Fuck, Remus,” Sirius dragged out the name and started moving his hips to meet Remus’ thrusts. Remus sped up and repositioned himself. He pulled out further than usual and then all the way back in. “Oh FUCK!” Remus grinned to himself, found it. He kept going, determined to hit that spot every time. “Fuck, fuck, yes yes yes yes, right there, don’t stop,” Sirius started babbling and Remus could feel himself getting close. “I’m gonna cum, I’m gonna cum,” Sirius was getting frantic. Remus didn’t slow his movements or his hand.

“Not yet, not until I say so,” Remus growled. Sirius let out a strangled sound and Remus yanked on Sirius’ hair, causing him to arch his back even more.

“Please, please, please, I need to cum,” Sirius’ hips started moving sporadically, no longer in time with Remus. Remus tightened his hand around Sirius.

“I don’t know, have you been a good boy?” He asked, slowing his movements. Sirius cried out at the loss of stimulation.

“Yes, yes, I’ve been good, I’ve been so good,” Sirius started moving faster, fucking himself on Remus’ cock.

“Yeah? You think you deserve to cum?” Remus started to pick up speed again, his hand around Sirius dripping.

“Yes, yes, please let me cum, please let me cum,” Remus was also getting closer. He sped up his movements, groaning when he found the perfect angle again and Sirius moaned out in pleasure. He kept hitting that spot. “I can’t, Remus I-”

“Cum for me,” Remus felt Sirius tighten around him. Sirius screamed out in pleasure and Remus did not stop his movements. Sirius kept moaning, squeezing around him. He shuddered, his body vibrating in pleasure and Remus felt Sirius’ hot cum drip over his hand. Sirius continued to moan Remus’ name and with a final thrust, Remus came, filling Sirius.

Soon, the only sound in the dorm was both of their heavy breathing. Remus let go of his grip on Sirius’ dick and his hair. Sirius’ head flopped onto the bed, limp. Remus slowly pulled out of Sirius. He reached for his wand, cleaning them both up with a quick scourgify and threw himself on the bed beside Sirius. Sirius turned his head, not having the energy for the rest of his body to go with him. “That was, probably the best sex I’ve ever had,”

Remus laughed. “I think that was the only sex you’ve ever had.”

Sirius rolled his eyes. “Doesn’t mean it wasn’t the best.”

Remus pushed him lightly on the shoulder, he was also was pretty exhausted. “I mean, if you’re up for a challenge we could always try again,” Sirius wiggled his eyebrows.

Remus feigned surprise. “Already? Padfoot, you’re insatiable!”

Sirius laughed. “Only for you, Moons.”

“Good boy,” Remus smirked. Sirius buried his face in the mattress and groaned. Remus laughed to himself and closed his eyes, studying long forgotten.

[garaksapprentice]

New Post: Turning bedsheets into a wardrobe and other op shop thoughts

Originally posted on my blog: https://garaksapprentice.blogspot.com/2023/09/turning-bedsheets-into-wardrobe.html

The Dilemma

When it comes to my clothes, I'm a remarkably lazy snob.

I want things that fit well. (This isn't an unreasonable thing to want, I feel.) I want comfortable fabrics that breathe, and don't end up smelling like a billy goat slept on them. (I swear, since starting T, I strip my shirts more often than I ever had to strip the cloth nappies.)

I want colours - black and white and grey don't count - that don't make me look dead. (When did all the t-shirts in the men's section become navy and olive?) And I want them to last longer than six months before they start a part-time internship in the mending box.

(The pile doth wax and the pile doth wane, but there's always a bloody pile.)

This short list is surprisingly difficult to achieve, off the rack. Anything that fits my shoulders won't fit my chest, and vice versa. The armscye is usually either comically large, or too small to fit my biceps. And pants? Let's just not go there. (Belts help. Kind of.)

I really dislike how polyester and other synthetics breathe (they don't), so I avoid them whenever I can. It's getting much harder to find clothes made of 100% natural fibres, whether new or second-hand.

Colours I have slightly more luck with - or I would, if the first two things didn't get in the way. Longevity is always an utter crapshoot. (Though I've found that wovens last longer than t-shirts.)

The Solution

Luckily, I know how to sew. I used to do it for a living. (Not clothes, mind - baby carriers. More structural, less technically complex.) My possess all the basic tools, a few of the extras, and a reasonable set of skills.

(I've been making clothes for the kids for years - they care a lot less about style and fit. And skirts are easy.)

So I'm taking a two-pronged approach to this dilemma. I'm practicing making things I actually like and will wear, and religiously patching my current wardrobe while I make replacements.

Making clothes, naturally, requires material. So instead of going to the op shop for clothes, I'm going for fabric. (I stopped buying new years ago, except for underwear, shoes, and the occasional really high quality item from places that at least pretend to pay their garment workers.) But my favourite deal-hunting section isn't sewing/craft - it's the linens.

Wait, what? Why?

Thrift store fabrics usually can't tell you what they're made from. (The staff get narky when you try to burn test the goods, sadly.) Plus there's just not that much of it. Bedding, tablecloths etc are donated far more frequently, and often still have their tags on them.

Now, you do have check for wear. Some donations look brand new, some have had a long life already. Check for pilling or thinner areas, especially in the middle of bedsheets (fitted ones are worse for this than flats). It's easier if you can hold things up to the light. Usually things in worse condition will be priced lower, but not always.

Why not buy clothes six sizes too large and chop them up to make new stuff?

I mean, you can. It's certainly a common choice, what with all the "thrift upcycle/refashion" videos and blogs and such out there dedicated to it. I personally don't, for the following reasons.

Care for people: I take the permaculture ethics seriously.

Have you ever really looked at the racks in an op shop? Piles of sizes S-L, much less outside of that. The bigger your meatsuit, the harder it is to find things that have a hope of fitting. Too bad if you hate stripes, or the fabric is itchy - if there's only two things in your size, then that's the choice you have. It sucks. (I am in no way body shaming here. Bodies do a lot of hard work for the people who live in them, and no one gets to judge anyone else's.)

I'm both outside the common sizes, and a weird enough shape to have trouble besides. And I've been broke enough that op shop clothes were a necessity, not a choice. I know what it's like to have to take what I could get as long as it fit "enough".

To me it is deeply unethical to take the few decent garments that are available for plus sized people, chop them up, and make something for me to wear out of them, when I can just as easily start with a sheet or a table cloth and achieve a similar result.

Efficient energy planning: I have limited time and brainpower available, and sometimes my executive dysfunction is bad. Like, "I'm eating peanut butter out of the jar for dinner because my brain has stopped" levels of bad.

Cutting up a garment, taking off buttons, and so on, adds several extra steps to a sewing project. Sometimes that's fine - in those situations, I have plenty of old clothes in the stash. More often, though, those extra steps completely derail me.

So I find it easier to start a project with what is essentially yardage. Even when I have to cut around stains, rips, or worn spots, it uses less cognitive capacity.

I also prefer rectangularly cut garments, and zero waste patterns that have you draw directly onto the fabric. These work better on something that started out life as a rectangle.

Use biological resources: Natural fibres are renewable. Mined ones are not. Where I can, I use the former. That's not to say I never use things with synthetic content - it's technically possible, but in practice hard as hell.

Produce no waste: I've still got a sizeable stash of acrylic knitting yarns, plus other bits and bobs, hanging around from before I made this commitment. Throwing them out or donating them (ie making them someone else's problem) won't actually fix things; I simply use them in appropriate projects, and when I replace them, I do so with things that fit my current ethical stance and needs.

But sheets are all plain white and boring!

I can see why you might think that. TV has done a lot of false advertising on that point. It is false. Trust me.

(Ignore the movies. Real sheets come in just about every colour you can think of.)

But, I know not everyone likes plain colours. What if you're madly in love with prints, or shirts with witty slogans on them? Well, besides the growing number of fancy sheets out there, might I interest you in the doona covers?

(The top right and bottom left are ex-doona covers. The rest are sheets.)

Or the fine art of embroidery?

(I shall have the most glorious shirt sleeves when I finish embroidering them.)

Or fabric painting?

(This is technically a mend, but I totally plan on doing similar to brand new things I make.)

Or the many different styles of natural dyeing?

(Soursobs from the local park, gently turning into dye liquor for some dyeing experiments.)

Or, if you've got lots of smaller or oddly shaped pieces of fabric hanging around, maybe some patchwork (all YouTube links)? It's not just coats and dressing gowns, either - you can patchwork jeans, trousers, dresses, shirts and more.

The point here is that fabric (and buttons, zips, thread, etc) doesn't have to be a thing you buy brand new. With time, patience, and a bit of luck, you can find everything you need to create great things second hand.

(Maybe I'll write a future post breaking down the costs of some of the things I've made...)

[once-upon-an-imagine]

If you are still taking dialogue request, maybe James with twin sister reader, like how she is in the “10 Things I Hate About You” series (but before she’s dating Sirius) and she gets hurt really bad during a Quidditch match as the seeker, maybe during a bad storm, and James being the dramatic and protective older brother he is freaking out while trying to take care of her? Thank you and I truly love your work!

yeees for protective!Jamie 🥺 and thank you so much for liking my work, love 😊

"Nobody touch her!" James said as he made way for Fabian and Gideon as they carried you into the Hospital Wing.

"James-"

"Don't talk! You're hurt-"

"I think I just broke my arm-"

"You're not a Healer, you don't know that!" he yelled.

"Prongs, I don't think that-" Sirius started.

"Shut up!"

"Mr. Potter! What is all this yelling?" Madam Pomfrey said, approaching all of you.

"My sister is hurt!"

"She's hurt because you made us practice in a bloody storm-!"

"Sirius, knock it off!" you told him.

"Hey, I'm actually defending you for once. How 'bout a bloody thank you, Potter?"

"You were the one that bumped into me!"

"I couldn't even see where I was going-!"

"Enough!" Madam Pomfrey yelled. "Mr. Prewetts, place Miss Potter over here, please" she instructed the two boys and they carried you to the nearest bed. "Now, if no one else is hurt, I'm going to have to ask you to leave" she said, calmly. Most of the boys left. Except for your brother and, surprisingly Sirius. And it wasn't long before Remus and Peter joined. "Alright, dear, you should be fine by the morning" Madam Pomfrey said after she finished fixing you up. "You'll just have to stay the night, just in case, alright?"

"Thanks, Madam Pomfrey" you smiled, trying not to show as much pain as you were actually in. You had a broken arm, three broken ribs, bruises all over your body, and your head was killing you. "See, Jamie, I'm fine" you smiled at your brother.

"You are not fine!" James said, grabbing Remus' bag.

"What are you doing-?"

"I asked Remus to bring your things" he said, getting your books, your favorite deserts, your pillow, and a stuffed animal out.

"You could have left this in my dorm" you said grabbing the stuffed animal and putting him away.

"Aw, that's lovely, Potter" Sirius mocked you.

"Shut up, Black!" you glared at him. "Jamie, I'm fine. You should go get changed, both of you" you said, looking at Sirius. "You're both soaked, you'll catch a cold if you don't-"

"No! I'm not going anywhere!" James snapped.

"Jamie" you said, grabbing his hand. "This wasn't your fault" you told him.

"But-"

"This. Wasn't. Your. Fault." you repeated.

"B-but you're hurt" he said, sadly. "A-and I made you practice in the rain and-"

"And I'm fine. Just a couple of broken bones" you smiled. "Nothing that hasn't happened before with you as my brother" you said, and James smiled but just barely. "I'll be fine, Jamie" you assured him.

"You guys can go and get changed" Remus said. "We'll keep her company until you get back" he told James.

"Yeah, Remus also brought those board games you like" Peter told you.

"You guys are spoiling me" you laughed before looking at James again. "Go."

"Alright" he said, leaning down to kiss your forehead. "I love you, you know that, right?"

"Of course, I do" you said. "I love you too!"

Once James left, Peter started setting up one of the board games they had brought and Remus went to get you a cup of tea. And you turned to look at Sirius, who hadn't moved.

"May I help you, Black?"

"Uh, you sure you're okay? That was a nasty fall-"

"Aw. Were you worriefd about me or something?" you smirked, making Sirius roll his eyes.

"Shut up, Potter" he chuckled. "I'm just... glad you didn't die, I guess" he muttered, looking away.

"Charming" you smiled and he sighed before he started walking out.

"Well, you're clearly fine so-"

"Hey, Black?" you called and he turned to look at you. "Thanks... for sort of... catching me" you told him.

"You're welcome, Potter" he smiled.

[blackcrowing]

I was wondering, if you would be so kind as to help, what advice do you have to someone going through a??? Spiritual change? Awakening?

For context, I've practiced irish paganism casually for about 3 years. Casually as in: I have my solitary rituals, my altar, I read about my culture and history when I get the chance (my family is irish catholic so some of it is shared but re flavoured if you will), I celebrate the quarter changes of the year. I've also dabbled in forms of divination but am not confident enough in anything to claim any progress.

Recently I have been having intense ... feelings? Towards a lot of things. Changes I cannot explain myself and I'm sure are related but I have no idea to what. I largely just worship the universe, and have never sought or (as far as I'm concerned) been sought after by a god of any kind. But I've been having intense spiritual changes. For the first time in my journey I feel like someone... or the universe? is actually reaching out to me and speaking to me - but I have no idea how to identify who it is or how to make "good progress" If that makes any sense. I won't ramble about the experiences because they're emotionally weighted and long as fuck - but from someone who has practiced for a long time (10 years if I'm correct?) How would you go about receiving a calling like this? Just keep doing what you're doing? Try and find whatever is calling to you? How would I even start that? I am very sorry for the long ask and for dumping my spiritual journey on you like the big 26 year old I am (lol) but I am truly lost - your blog has inspired me in the past so why not ask? I am familiar with some irish mythology, but not enough to identify the signs of a specific deity or spirit - so I am truly lost. Any advice would be really really appreciated, and thankyou for educating others on our culture and practice :)

This certainly sounds like a deity is seeking you out to me (and since you are also suspicious, this is the case, I'm almost certain). I'm the kind of person who ALWAYS wants to understand so my approach would be to figure out who was trying to get my attention ASAP (but if I'm being honest the urgency would be so that I knew the answer 😅).

Now as far as how to go about this... I've found that its a little different individual to individual but broad strokes (in my experience) once you notice a pattern of some verity (which for you, from what you have shared seems to be these intense feelings) I would start a two pronged approach.

The first prong would be to start paying attention, I'd pay extra attention to my dreams and my day to day life to see if I pick up a sense of any deity in particular. This can be difficult of course, lots of people see animals associated with their deities for example when their deities are trying to reach out but this can cause false leads or give us doubts about if seeing X animal really MEANS something or not. My best advice there is just to go with your gut. Does seeing a cat every evening on your way home from work FEEL important? Did that dream about a far away place that looked like it could be the Otherworld FEEL important? Does the sign you pass everyday that always catches your eye with the bundle of freshly baked bread FEEL significant? These signs don't have to be something big and crazy, and most of the time they're not, but look for any strong feelings or any consistency in messages to help point you in the right direction.

The second thing I would do would be to start reading about deities. Since you're already drawn to a specific culture I would start there and read about those deities, see if any just... feel right... while you're reading or if any make those signs you've been experiencing make sense. If none in this pantheon click for you start branching out, read about other Insular Celtic deities and then Continental and then other branches of Indo-European like the Scandinavian groups. Just keep reading about them and eventually the peices will come together for you for someone.

Now here is the especially tricky part. Normally the one you click with is who has been trying to get your attention BUT NOT ALWAYS. So if you really get into a deity and find that these experiences you've been having continue in the same way or the sense of urgency/distribution in them gets worse, you've probably found a deity CLOSE to what you're looking for but missed the mark a little. On the flip side, some people experience a lot of change once they connect with their deity, sometimes its uncomfortable but nessicary change (many Morríghan followers experience this). So its a fine line between, "my experience is more intense because the deity is trying harder to get me to look at them" and "my experience is more intense because I've connected with the right deity and they now have free reign to alter my life as they see fit." and again the difference normally comes down to your guy feeling.

I've seen this happen with a few people who start out, one tried to connect with Odin for a while because they related to his knowledge and battle aspects and turns out it was Freyja calling them (similar in function but very different deities). Another worked with Odin successfully for many years but always felt like he was pushing them towards other deities and they are now working with Skaði and finally feel like they've come home. I have a lot more Norse friends than Celtic so many of my personal experience stories are Norse in flavor, but I'm sure there are experiences like this within all the pantheons.

If you feel comfortable you can send another ask or DM with more about your specific situation and I can see if anyone rings any bells in my head, but that is obviously entirely up to you!

Good luck on your journey! I hope you find what you're looking for soon!

[werewolflupin7]

Wolfstar in au part 2

Part 2 - Small Ginger

Sirius pov:

Well whatever was gonna happen is happend, it's already happend, it's okay , right? Right? Pads just calm down. You don't have to frenking out.

He tried to soothe himself. Since when he started to talk with own self?ugghh.... calm down. He is in different timeline. Which?he didn't know.

He first had to find out in which timeline he was. He clench timeturner and started to find his way out.

Surprisingly he reached 1st level of M.O.M,and started roaming around when he found some posters of.....A Prisoner! Who the fuck is he. He looks familiar tho. Didn't giving any attention to that prisoner who just escaped he went to green flames, without getting noticed.

He apprated somewhere in hogsmed? Yea it's hogsmed with little change.

To not getting noticed by anyone he turns into padfoot, his animangus. Absent-mindly he got in some place which is familiar! Of course it is, it's the place from he and his friends used to sneak out of Hogwarts in to hogsmed. He entered into the cave which lead him to one-eyed witch statue(Idk where it exact is so go with flow). He glanced at the empty corridor which is near to dungeons where he and his friends used to do pranks on the syltherins.

His friends, is his everything including his baby brother. James, a brother he never knew he needed before he met him. Peter, a friend who never can shut his mouth in any situation, a great gossiper. And Remus, his moony, to whom he was in love, is in love and he didn't know that before moony kissed in him in closet where they eventually ended up after doing a prank. He never knew that he might love someone as deep as he had for Remus. But as always he messed up, just like he had done everytime. Just one thing his friend had ever asked from him is keep a secrer which he couldn't kept.

'Who was that?' A girl just passed him. A small kid he assumed. He followed her to an empty corridor.

What is she doing, in this late night? It's curfew already. 'She might be in problem' he thought.

She froze suddenly, why? What's in there. Is she scared of going alone in the dark? That might be a reason.

He approached the red-haired and she did what he never expected any random girl might do to him but she did. She hugged him! But why? There's pitch dark. He can see it bc of his animangus senses tho. He tried to console her, she is scared he can tell that just by looking at her. Her brown eyes sparkled with water as ligt of moon fell on her face from the window near them as she agape herself from him as she realised what she did. He approached her and asked her

"What are you doing outside of dorm after curfew?"

"Idk" she answered dumbfoundly.

"Want to back to the dorm then?" He asked wanting to help her as he remembered what his moony might do in this kind of situation.

"No" she almost shouted "I mean not yet"

"Why?" He asked concerned.

Ignoring his question she asked "Do you know any place where no on can found me tonight?"

He didn want to let a small girl alone in this dark night so he led her to astronomy tower. No one spoke untill they reached there.

He sat down on his regular place, he used to and asked red-haired to join him.

Shyly, she joined him sitting beside him at a two feet distance.

"Can't sleep?" He broke the silence.

"Yeah" she sighed, taking her knees to her shoulder as she wrapped her hands around those. Sirius copied her.

"So... What is bothering you?" He asked.

"Bad dreams and one incident which happen three days ago"

"Ohh. Want to share?" He asked wanting her to rely on him. But why? Bc moony and prongs might do the same? Yes of course they might try to console.

She watched him as he had grown three heads. He felt little awkward by constant staring by a small girl.

"Weren't you in the train ?" She asked as it is the obvious to be in train.

"Whic- no. I mean I slept so I didn't know " he lied.

"Ohh. It was dementor attack I  the train. Mostly in our compartment." She said as her face fell pale.

But dementors are supposed to be in Azkaban! What's going on in this timeline, dementors are dangerous creatures, they suck the soul out of their prey who mostly have terrifying past and all. They can only bewitched by the patronus charm to which he is sure that a group of small kids couldn't cast. It's tough and even greatest wizards and witches couldn't cast so how they faced dwmentor.

"How did you come out, safe?" He asked thinking that a proper question is needed to do not get the girl to suspicious on him.

"I sat with my friends Neville and Luna and others and.... then train stoped had everything froze and me and Neville ran out from our compartment to my brother, Ron. And then there were his friends Harry and Hermione and as and then.... our compartment's door opened slowly and attacked Harry but after that professor saved him casting some blue-ish smoke" she explained as best as she can with little stops and trailing offs. She started to stare him again. Thinking how the he didn't know this?

Finally she asked "Who are you? I had never seen you before."

"Ahhhh... I'm as student from Dumstrang just transform here and only Min- Professor McGonaggl knew it" he lied hasistently.

"Ohh...You look familiar Idk how but yes you look.... " she trailed off.

"Who are you?" He finally asked.

"I'm Ginny, a Weasley"

He remembered Weasleys, in pure-blood community they are blood traitors.

"So you are blood traitors" he thought loudly.

"Yeah... you can say that" she said shyly with discomfort.

"Hey, do not scare I'm also.... disgrace to my family" he said without any emotions on his face.

"Ohh...So you also are a pure-blood, well from which family? I might know the name" she asked hasistently with weird face.

He didn't want to tell her. He really didn't but-

"From Black family, the noble and the most ancient house of Black" he said, rolling his eyes. She gasped as she heard that she had seen alien in muggle language, sliding back from him still sitting as far as she can.

"Do not scare of me, please. You can trust me. I'll not harm you. I promise." He literally beg. He don't want her to leave. He want someone to talk with or else he might sleep and have nightmares.

"Do you promise?" She is scared. He can tell that.

"Yeah. I promise" he said, sighly.

Still she kept a good distance. "So, what's your name?"

"Sirius"

"Sirius Black?" She asked, eyes widened as he told his name.

"Do you know me?" He asked, well yes at backtime at Hogwarts, everyone knew him, and his mates.

"Everyone know you, you escaped...."she trailed off, still terified like she had seen a ghost.

"I escaped...." he didn't want to ask it but still he asked.

"From Azkaban" she whispered, if he might hurt him, but he promised, right? Yeah and he didn't look like similar yo the posters she had seen. He is younger. And somehow she knew he won't hurt her.

Sirius's blue-ish eyes also widened.  How could he been in Azkaban? For what reason? There might be something more that she didn't know, he thought.

He wanted to change the subject, but the urge to know it more was there. But he went with first option.

"Well, I don't know how I ended up in Azkaban but and I don't know what I did which made me ended up in Azkaban." She nodded, still horrified. She couldn't believe that Sirius Black who break down from Azkaban, just to kill Harry was with her but in much younger form, talking very nicely with her.

He wanted to tell her how he ended up here and all the mess but he didn't know if she can understand everything.

"Well I want to tell you everything but if you are ready to understand how I ended up here and all the mess" he said finally after a long silence. She nodded. Still fear on her face.

He explained her everything about timeturner and hogsmed and secret passage. She gasped in between, nodded and show her expressions as he told her the tale of his and the timeturner.

After finishing his story, he wanted to ask her something and she was just like reading his mind told him "its 4th September of year 1993"

"Ohh" is the only thing he could say. She didn't ask more questions but seem to understand everything.

"So I guessed right I'm in future!" He exclaimed,.... happily.

"Yeah I can say that" with little confusion but decided to ignore it.

"So can you tell where prongs is and moony?" He asked chirply. She frowned in confusion and he realised that he used nicknames of his friends.

"James Potter and Remus Lupin." He said with a grin, the famous Sirius Black's grin.

"I might not say about James Potter and Remus Lupin is.... in Hogwarts as a professor. Who saved us on the train from dementor" She said with some weird expression he couldn't say.

"Is moony is in Hogwarts? Yea you just said it, I want to meet him. Ohh is he still beautiful? I hope he is? Ohh shit- sorry"  he said very excited that he didn't know what the small girl might thinking off. Her eyes had curiosity and face had weird expressions. He slowly said "sorry I was so excited to meet his older self" "do you know James?" He slowly asked.

And she tensed. Why? "I prefer professor Lupin to tell you, sorry" she replied after a long silence, which patiently waited just to hear this.

After this he tried to form some words but it didnt came out. There was silence, but it was peaceful. No one tried to break it. Her answer raised curiosity in him, but he tried to put it aside. When little Ginger fell asleep he didn't know. He just sat there admiring view from the astronomy tower.

Second part finally out. Please ignore my grammatical mistakes as English isn't my first language. Vote it if you like this new part. You are allowed to give me suggestions and all.

(I didn't have much time to re-read it So this is my first try.)

[immoralimmortals]

A Song With Ten Names

Chapter 1: Take Me To Church

next chapter

Summary: When all you have left is perform your way out of hell, do your feet still burn dancing? A strange woman is dropped into an even stranger world, the most off-putting among them becoming the closest thing to a home. They all have stayed alive this long by saying whimsy is only for children, but what if it's all you have left to give?

Author's notes: I have been hyperfixated off and on by the Akatsuki alone (less Naruto the show) for about ten-so years of my life. At this point, they are dolls to me. They listen to my silly little songs and agree if I say "lmao that you". If the canon is king then I am God and what is God to a king. I don't care if Hidan knows what a keyboard is, I don't CARE, NO HE DON'T.

(Clearly cares a lot)

Anyhow. Combination OC-self insert-reader insert character is soft, musical, secretly from the "real world", and wins people over. I have a sociology degree with a focus on religion so I like musings about that sort of thing. Philosophical thoughts about murder, suicidality abound. I don't plan on any SA or anything majorly sexual, but I'm mulling over some pretty fucked up (erotic?) moments so 18+ interaction only, please. Partial songfic as I associate songs with anytthing that has an imaginary pulse, have different songs planned out to reference. If you like Will Wood, you'll have fun. Title is a reference to The Song With Five names by Will Wood and acts as scene breaks in this post. Perhaps obviously, Take Me To Church by Hozier is in this chapter. Lyrics not necessarily in order every time.

I'm writing this to get it out of my system but more than happy if it's for you too.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Never trust in yourself Or anyone else We’ve always all been wrong

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

He likes the way boiling water stings at his skin. It’s not quite as hot as that, but hot enough to make him feel something. A small comfort, a reminder from Jashin. Hidan, lamenting as he slips into the spring, contemplates on a comparison between this and being clothed by the lord himself as it washes upon him inch by inch, popping and sizzling until it makes his hairs stand on end. It hurts-- not quite enough, but it hurts.

Good.

Prayer fills the back of his mouth, thick enough to choke on, as he remembers pain means he is alive. He wrings out a small cloth in a bucket besides him and places it over his forehead and eyes.

Darkness. Steam fills his nose; he breathes deep...and he listens to his god.

…

…

It sure sounds a lot like someone yelling a room or two away.

A dull smack happens somewhere else in the inn. A woman begins to run. She has no fucking idea where she’s going-- how, where, who-- just that HERE and with THEM is going to SHIT. Adrenaline is the only thing keeping her eyes open and feet moving. She’s so thirsty she could drink the clouds of steam as she unwittingly approaches the men’s bath. So tired that she hardly recognizes three red prongs as a weapon as it’s propped against the stone. So scared she sees only one choice:

“Hey!”

Surely that wasn’t a voice talking to Hidan, right?

“I- I need to—” She’s out of breath already and she’s hardly lifted his scythe. “I need to borrow this! You’ll get it back-- I promise!” He lifts up one edge of the wet cloth, heel-turning from annoyed to pissed.

“EH?!” Hidan shrieks. “What the FUCK-” He’s cut off as the woman screams herself and backs just out of view from the bath entrance. “SHIT!” He didn’t pray nearly long enough to not fall headfirst into magma-hot testiness. Who the hell sees THOSE robes and fucks with his shit?! Who sees those BLADES and fucks with him?!

He probably doesn’t leave the bath as fast as is really warranted, stumbling out with the knot of his larger bath towel so loose he needs to hold it at his waist to keep it up. Through the hot fog of this dark hallway, his chin tilts up in intrigue. “Eh--?”

Hidan sees her face first. A brow is furrowed, a thousand horrible emotions weighing it down. She’s afraid-- that’s what’s most readily apparent. There’s a blotch of red and blue on her cheek and her mouth gapes with heavy breath.

“Stay away!”

She looks like she’s never held a weapon in her life. Goddammit, she’s holding it with all of her life, though.

He decides just to watch as she begins to address the most forgettable thing in the room.

“Cute.” A man snides at her. Ah...Hidan had seen him check in. His cologne smelled like ass. Now that it’s mentioned...he guess he did see someone else trail behind him-- close enough to be his shadow. Didn’t really set his alarms off then. But then again, till his scythe got involved, he didn’t really care. Hidan’s eyes flicker.

“Not a couple, huh?” he mutters. Although uncaring if he was heard or not, the former possibility occurs.

“Hey! Either get your pants back on or mind your own business! You don’t know us.” This approach is not reciprocated by her, shaky hands pushing the crimson steel further into his space. At first the man cringes, but the bluff is called. “Come on, now…” The guy’s smile is soft, like he knows her better than she herself. Hidan doesn’t miss how she flinches. It’s impossible to when there’s five more feet attached to her arm of cold hard metal. Knuckles brush almost lovingly against her new, sharp fingers.

“You don’t have it in you, duckling. Fluffy and soft, all squawk with no teeth.”

“I said NO!”

He steps forward. She panics.

He cuts like butter.

All three of them briefly share the same expression. Wide eyes, shock. However, each births something much more complicated in the seconds following.

While her stomach flips, Hidan’s feel butterflies. The whelp's blood splatters in all directions, just as it was meant to with such a swipe. It flutters through the air, settling on their faces as gentle as a whisper, while the rest swim around the still-pulsating eviscerations of a soul worth less than a rat. She watches the body sink to the ground, a human heart gush its contents into a dark, glistening puddle closer and closer to her feet. Just as it’s about to touch, her gaze raises and meets another’s. The reverence in his eyes is lost upon her.

The silence is peaceful to him as he studies the stranger-- stilling, like his lord laid a hand on his shoulder and beseech he witness. At this point the thoughts and emotions that she’s gripping in her stare even more pure and divine than the blooming rose shedding its petals before him; that sort of thing is expected-- wet blood as ordinary as dew on grass in the morning. But this… He’s never seen a civilian kill before, he’s beginning to ponder...

This revelation, too, goes unappreciated, but the upcoming perhaps is even more delicious than the taste of iron in the air for Jashin’s priest. The woman’s breath hurries, the blade drops to her feet, and her arms raise at her sides.

Three expressions are in this hall: Addicted. Afflicted. And dead.

“JESUS FUCK!” she screams in horror.

Hidan grins wider than he has in ages. This is the beginning of something beautiful.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Yes or no isn't null Yes it is, no, I don't know Yes or no, isn't that a silly question? Ask it anyway

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Being isekai-ed into another world isn’t nearly as convenient as it’s cracked up to be, you know?

The traveler’s body is tensed tighter than tightrope, her teeth in a perpetual grit and brow hurting from being furrowed so hard for this long. She killed a man. She utters this out loud to process the fact.

“And it was GREAT, right?” This guy is more than a little too eager for all of this. Fuckin’ shit, that doesn’t bode well for her. She reflexively scream/shouts at nothing in response, gaze unflinching at empty air… No, that sort of volume isn’t going to cut it. A floor cushion is snatched up from besides Hidan and she belts face first into it until she can’t breathe, and then she goes for a few seconds longer so her insides burn.

The silver-hair demon, however, is having the time of his life. The great Jashin himself drops this poor little idiot straight from his palm to drench in blood till white becomes red. He leans into his own palm, amused smirk across his face as they bide their time in this inn’s bedroom. They’ll be kicked out eventually, dead body and all, but he’ll deal with that when they get there! Just break the news to Kakuzu that he lost the deposit. An amputation or two will be worth the trouble.

“Ahh, so this is your first?” he hums almost sensually. The tears well in her eyes.

“Yes!”

“And? How was it?! The weight of the blade in your hands, the way he ripped in half, how his chest cavity just DID THAT?” He pinches his fingers and “explodes” them in a quick stretch.

“It was BAD!” the woman agonizes, still needing a paper bag to breathe into.

He shrugs nonchalantly. “You get used to it.”

“Eeeughhhhhhhh….!”

Hidan sighs. Of course she doesn’t get it yet. Where would the fun in that be? “So, figures if that shithead had kidnapped you...you don’t really have a place now, huh?”

The pinpoint precision breaks her attention like glass, and she can tell where this is going. It wasn’t like she had anywhere to belong to in the first place!

“How about we hang out? I don’t have anywhere to be till my mandated jackass is back around.”

She squints. “M...mandated?” Like an...officer? “...Are you on parole?” she prods gently. He looks more confused than anything, though. Is that more or less relieving?

“The hell? You mean patrol?”

“...Yes,” she decides to lie. Her eyes shift finally, looking to the side to avoid his gaze. Constant reminders are about that she’s way down the rabbit hole. Or...bottom of the sea? That’s probably more accurate, going unconscious. The waking up part hasn’t come yet and hunger, thirst, and being punched do hurt a lot, and so she has no choice but to either survive or kill herself on the spot to save the trouble.

Hidan, unwitting, knocks the side of his head like he’s shaking water out of his ears. “Damn, you really ARE a dumbfuck civilian, mispronouncing that bad. Never heard the word before?” Just as the woman’s mouth opens, he interrupts. “Anyhow. No. Just biding my precious time till my partner comes back from whatever heathen nonsense dragged him away.”

She blinks. These words mean nothing to her. The whole murder thing makes simple conversation hard to keep up, and she’s already trying not to worry about pissing a guy off who thinks killing people is fine.

“Oi!” Hidan waves his hand like an impatient child. “Don’t leave me hangin’!” The stranger can only fold her hands in front of her lap and stammer.

“I-- I—”

There’s no clue what he really wants out of this. She’s 100% fucked if she doesn’t accept. Only 99% fucked if she does. Good odds.

“OKAY!” There’s no idea to her if he takes this as enthusiasm or as the duress it’s really under.

“That’s the fuckin’ spirit!” He sounds nearly sarcastic as he flings his head back and praises towards the ceiling. An ear-piercing scream brings him back down to earth. “Ahhh, yeah. Well, maybe now’s a good time to go. Don’t shit where we sleep n’ all.” With a swoosh, a black robe is taken off the floor and is swung around Hidan. “Normally I wouldn’t give a shit. But the virgin killer probably needs her time to relish this moment.”

A rock drops in her stomach. The man casually passes her and starts walking out the door, the bloodcurdling screaming continues as if it’s only as annoying as a car alarm in the parking lot. She swallows, and he stops past the doorway. Purple pools under a silver hairline look through her, over his shoulder. “Comin’?”

1%, she repeats in her mind.

Hopefully she’ll get the opportunity to kill herself later, without any help, if need be. There’s a hunch that dying by his hand wouldn’t be so pleasant.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Even I might defy, won't deny That I'm trying while my eyes do defy And belie quiet liars as I Say what I say, any way, I might be saying it But I've been wrong before

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Despite being a city girl, since she’s dropped in, the hustle and bustle of this society sure does overwhelm. The bargaining, the wagons, the bells-- and that’s only sound! Wafts of street food make her stomach hurt. The flags, statues, and other decor all clearly have a story behind them; she purses her lips trying to imagine--

“Oi!”

The woman knocks into his back and nearly falls over, him having nothing to offer but disdain as she regains balance. “How about this joint?” Clearly this is less of a suggestion and more of a certainty as he meanders into the doorway he suggests. A tapestry overhangs the darkness the cloaked man slips into, a single symbol printed so large and intimidating, despite not knowing what it means. She gulps.

Recompose. As best as you can.

She glimpses a ring as he sets his glass down, it only briefly distracting from the menu in her hands. “I’ll...get whatever you’re getting,” she compromises softly, hoping everyone gets the hint when she sets the list down. The man shrugs.

“Make it two, yeah?!” The server slips away, leaving the awkwardness as an appetizer. Anything besides the guy ahead of her is what her eyes go to, shoulders tilting back and head cocked enough every which way that it’ll get sore. The way people dressed. Laughed. Gossiped.

“Hoshigakure!” lips speak in the dim light. “That’s where it’ll be.” A snarl meets this, an old time friend with her doubts.

“You’re sure ‘bout this? That’s awfully far—”

“Yeah, but he’s worth it! Wouldn’t you? For the chance at true love?!”

“Get your head out of the goddamn clouds…”

A literal snap in her ear brings her back. “Oi!” the man repeats, forcing her attention back to him. “What are you, high or somethin’? Where. Are. You. From.” He’s not the type to repeat himself twice.

“...Hoshi-- gakure.” The unintended stammer makes her heart race, and the way he hums loud and long doesn’t help.

“Never been! Heard it’s a shithole. Probably why you left!”

The other conversation still fills her desperate ear, leaving her clues:

“The Kage is an idiot, isn’t he?! All that power means nothing with no respect. What’s a land without a leader?”

“We’re rendezvousing there, not living there.”

“The way you describe his passion for his homeland says otherwise, you know…”

“He likes the stargazing!”

The friend sighs. “Hopeless,” she murmurs.

The woman mentally returns to the table she’s seated at, briefly biting her bottom lip as she forces a face-to-face conversation. “It’s hopeless there,” she weaves. She may not be a good liar, but she used to have fun performing, pouring one’s self into the story being told. A grain of truth makes it all more believable, and so she rolls back her shoulders, swallows her pride, and thinks about being gone. “I didn’t belong anymore. Politically, it’s in the shit, obviously… Not even the stars could hold me in place.”

A palm holds his cheek in place, violet stare unflinching as hands drop steaming plates and bowls in the small gap between them. “So it started by leaving on yer on volition?” She nods, honestly. “Kidnappin’ came later,” he assumes. “Don’t take this the hard way but you’re not pretty or anything. Not like yer meant for sellin’… Any idea what he wanted you for? Did you have money? Don’t fucking tell me your family was loaded.”

Redness pinpricks her cheeks but she still manages to shake her head no. “I think he just...recognized someone was lost and thought he could make something out of it.” She rakes her mind, trying to think of the guy more alive than when he was dead. You know. By her hands. “Can’t really ask him why now…” the woman surmises.

“Ahh…” the man replies simply, conveying what seems to be the barest threads of interest in her actual words. “So. Alone. Broke. N’ lost.”

The scent of seared meat in front of her compounds the suffocation of this observation. “Yeah.”

The man once again snaps, though less in her face and more in front of the scratch on the table she had glued her eyes to. After her attention is caught, he uses two fingers to point to himself. His own eyes are hooded, far too calm, and his smirk is lopsided.

“Sounds like a perfect time for a change of pace, yeah?!” Instead of knocking his glass into hers, he bumps it against her forehead, chuckling at the noise that escapes her mouth. “Jashin will set ya straight.”

Her eyelids flutter. “Jashin?” He raises the cup to his lips at a bad time. “Is that your name?”

He spit-takes.

“Fuckin’—NO! No! Hell, no!” There’s a solidness conveyed to her as the ceramic is set down, a change of tone. “I can only aspire to the name,” he muses, leaning philosophically all of a sudden. “Study the scripture… Follow his ways…”

“Jashin…” the woman echoes, delicate on her tongue. A major religion, perhaps? Or a cult leader? Or-- as history has taught, maybe both! How exciting. “Tell me about it?”

Oh she has no idea how abruptly she had just changed her life--

That’s what he thinks just as he gets shoved out of his chair.

“Eh?! The hell?!”

The friend she was spying on suddenly towers over the not-Jashin, clenching her fist. “You fucking SPAT on me!” Only a long, drawn out question-shaped breath returns from his lips. The man planning to run away throws a warning shot with his own glass, squarely breaking besides Hidan’s ear. “Get on your knees and beg, or get the fuck out!”

While it isn’t lost on her that several others in the candlelight are matching her horror, she’s unaware their reasons don’t match too. She’s just mortified there’s fighting at all! Holy SHIT she hates fighting! Someone could get hurt!But to the locals...Hidan’s cloak gave a glimpse of the bloodbath to come.

He hums, oh how smoothly he hums. It’s almost a purr. Slowly, his head turns to the traveler. “Seems like we’ve been blessed a first hand opportunity.” The way the woman screeches likely bothers him more than what initiated it-- another attack attempted, a cling of metal as a knife is blocked by a scythe. After that, it only hits the friend and the runaway that they’re in deep water, teasing a piranha ravenous. It’s a thing of beauty straight from the river Styx or the fires of Hell, those blades, bisecting a man like you can blow puffs off a dandelion.

“Wait- WAIT-” the traveler beseeches just as the Jashinist enters a fighting stance. He considers the plea, nodding in agreement.

“Ah, yeah.”

She nearly falls down again with the force of the scythe finding her hands.

“Lesson one: grave sin to start a fight that doesn’t end in slaughter.”

“WHAT!”

Suddenly she is the grim reaper to these people, awestruck in fear. “Please, hey-- HEY! WE will leave, okay?! Don’t hurt anyone!”

“I don’t WANT to hurt anyone!” she begs to ears deaf with their pounding hearts. No, wait, NO! everyone prays in turn. Hidan reads her expression intimately; how does it taste, to make others see what they have to lose? She’s full to the brim of whatever Jashin has bestowed upon her soul, arms and lungs trembling with the weight of mortality. It’s like a kitten scared of her own claws. His teeth can feel the pulse of his lip as he bites in anticipation.

It’s just about when someone in the crowd is about to act on her hesitation that a familiar voice growls from behind.

“HIDAN.”

Two chilled hands grab the man by the collar and the woman by the scythe. Kakuzu wasn’t intending on dragging her over; her fault she won’t let go for dear life. She gasps, abruptly across the entire length of the room in a snap, shaky eyes meeting emeralds. They literally see right through her. Immediately she can see she is an object. A hindrance. If Hidan is the grim reaper then Kakuzu is cold uncaring death itself. And death is already tired of this bullshit playing around.

The tall newcomer sighs, gravelly in his throat. “What,” he more states than asks, “Are you doing.”

“Proselytizing, cocksucker!” Kakuzu repeats the first word under his mask, eyes returning to the girl while saying nothing directly to her.

“And this?”

“My disciple!”

He studies her. It’s like if a mouse that hides in the wall became a person.

“...You can’t be serious.” Guy and gal are simultaneously dropped to the floor, all threat forgotten in the crowd as they witness the bizarre show. The masked one starts to leave, and much to her dismay, the prophet takes her by the wrist and follows.

“Can you not respect my fucking beliefs for ONCE!” Hidan shouts at the back of his head as they go under a sunset sky.

“No.”

“KAKUZU!” Okay, so that’s both of their names now, she manages to note. “If you get your pointless bounties then I get this!”

“The hell you do!”

“Fucker!” Hidan spits back. “I saw it in her! This is something Jashin MEANT for me!” He grits his teeth, rationalizing the irrational. “We are all subject to Lord Jashin’s will! Even SHE can kill!”

The traveler only now recognizes how close to the outskirts they were, how if she screamed now, they’re so deep in the trees that the forest floor would dampen the sound. The red sclera stands out on Kakuzu’s face as he turns slowly-- too slowly-- to glare at the two behind them. She is in deep shit.

“I-I-I don’t mean to be trouble! I’ll just—” Politeness be damned, there’s no way out of a zombie’s grasp. Again, Kakuzu glares at her while addressing someone else.

“No expense,” he demands, curdling anger on his tongue. “No slowing us. She needs to do less than exist around me. If I feel a single iota of air shift around her, we are leaving her behind.”

In the woods. To die.

A lot of this comes back to killing or dying, doesn’t it?

She can’t even dare to swallow, while Hidan nonchalantly- roughly- yanks the woman from Kakuzu’s iron hold. “And you call me dramatic.”

Kakuzu doesn’t even have it in him to roll his eyes. He just turns back around, grips his fists to his sides, and walks once again. Hidan lets out a “pfff” in her ear.

“Old bitch.”

This traveler is fully aware she is just a goldfish in a plastic bag from this second on.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Why, I can't see That I am the "me" That I was born into And what's the source of you?

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Her tired heart won’t even stop pounding now that they’ve settled for the night; in fact, it made this worse. Idleness could mean anything to these people. For sure, at least for one it means that injuring others is entertaining. The other guy feeling at best contempt for her causes the woman to take Kakuzu’s threat very seriously. That’s why it’s such a surprise when a half hour or so into Hidan’s prayers, the masked man speaks to her for the first time.

“How’d he get you into this?”

She gasps lightly, as if any request of her will weigh the worth of her existence. As she hesitates, Kakuzu dips his head, light of the fire slicking over his slashed headband and ghostly gemstone eyes. Thinking better of it, she blinks away the fear and tries to reply.

“He...helped me get out of a bad situation.”

Rustling grass and crickets. She’s guessing if he wants more.

“He...saw me kill someone to get away. And. I guess he liked it.” Her voice is so soft, words not thick like honey but like tar.

“So he didn’t help you at all.”

“It was his weapon,” she states as defense. He murmurs in response. The pages of Kakuzu’s book finish flipping between his fingers, and he’s satisfied that at least as of this moment, she has no price.

“So you don’t want this.”

“I—” the woman holds herself tighter, hands in her lap and flames flickering, leaving as fast as they come. “I don’t. Know.”

“So you don’t.”

“I can HEAR, you bastards.” She suppresses a yelp but not a shiver. Kakuzu only sighs.

“She’s taking you for a ride, Hidan. Know that underneath all of your pointless sentimentality.”

“TCH!”

The silence fills the space between them, suffocating. Is she? Is she taking him for a ride? It never crossed her that way, but it was true. Just sticking around to whatever- whoever- offers a place to cling to. And how did it end up with the first guy? She was lucky that a sore face is the worst she got out of it. So what about this?

They sit in a triangle, both staring at the fire as a glow washes the fronts of midnight-soaked garb. One holds a book in front of his hearts and the other has a pendant to his lips. No one is really happy about all this. What’s the point?

Bravely, gently, the woman shifts up and wanders slowly enough that it’s known she’s not running away. She gets far enough away she believes no one can hear her, if she just speaks under her breath. A cliff is ahead, a clearing of stars over a pit of lush, deep greens stories below and miles beyond. The little noise there is becomes so much louder. Rustling leaves in the wind surely will keep her secret. You can taste the oxygen from so many trees; maybe they will satiate the hunger. Her own heart is sore from racing. Wistfully, she needs peace now, in this quiet, uncaring world that won’t let her rest.

My lover’s got humor

She whispers melodically.

She's the giggle at a funeral

Knows everybody's disapproval

I should've worshiped her sooner

If the Heavens ever did speak

She's the last true mouthpiece

Every Sunday's getting more bleak

A fresh poison each week

Hidan breathes in.

We were born sick

You heard them say it

Hidan breathes out.

My church offers no absolutes

She tells me, "Worship in the bedroom"

The only Heaven I'll be sent to

Is when I'm alone with you

I was born sick, but I love it

Command me to be well

Amen

Kakuzu doesn't acknowledge, but he does listen.

Amen

Hidan doesn’t know what it means, but he feels the veneration it carries. Her white-toned dress is spectral in the moonlight, curls of hair played with by the wind.

Amen

She prays for something she doesn’t know.

Amen