#id only get mad if someone was being a real asshole about me asking for credit kcbdjfjd

[rouge-the-bat]

god i always feel so awkward asking people to give me credit when theyve used my icons or transparents jfksjjfd

like ik i didnt like. draw these or anything, i just took official art and did a bunch of edits.... but it Does take quite a bit of time to make them, and it also requires having a good eye for icon-making to have them actually look nice in Icon Size

like i gotta keep it visually pleasing and add color adjustments but have it still recognizeable what is in the picture when small, cropping just right so its not too zooomed out/too close and also centered or off-center in a way that fits the pic better, choosing/editing the background, any extra details i edit/draw on, dont have it be cluttered, etc. some of the transparent i make are even from bad quality and/or small pics that i have to manually clean up and basically draw over bits to make them look nice.

im always putting a lot of thought and work into making my icons nice and my transparents clean so i feel like i deserve credit for them! and yet when it comes down to approaching someone to ask for credit when theyre using one im just like ah, >.<;; could you credit me pls... if you dont mind... if thats okay with you... 👉👈

[beann-e]

I have a head cannon that bakugou would not be sweet to who he liked or dated and instead deny it and hate on them even more.

The reason being because he doesn’t really understand feelings so, when he’s talking badly about you he just assumes it’s normal and a bit funny at the lies he’s spitting that his just continuously friends are eating up.

he’s been talking bad about people for years so , who cares if your his s/o your no acceptation all people are equal in his mind. Now lemme explain please fall in line and hold a buddys hand kids we’re going on a trip inside my brain

It wasn’t easy getting the spiky haired male to ask you out honestly if someone asked you , which they’d never dare since they’d never know per bakugous request him saying it’s not their business , how you two got together you would shrug your shoulders and walk off.

It wasn’t that it was a boring day or a simple question that you supplied the answer for. It was that it was unusual.

You’d been at quirk practice after school in the gym like you’d usually do only this time bakugou made his way over to you.

You’d been seeing him more often when you were in the gym and you weren’t sure why until he explained that he was interested in your workout routine saying you two could have a contest to see who’s was more grueling

It seemed like fun so like any competitive person you agreed. Only for him to tap out on day two your laughs swirling around the gym as he fought so hard to say he only lost because he just didn’t like how the air would hit his ass crack anytime he did your little girly squats you’d wrote down for him.

You couldn’t say you weren’t both confused and happy when he let the air calm down before he spoke “ i’m kind of conflicted “ his eyes coming up to look at yours from the floor “ could you maybe help me“

“ of course what’s up “

“ i’m at a standstill “

“ more like a sit still “ you joked eyes peering down at his straight face “ yeah ok let’s imagine that didn’t happen —continue “

“ uh yeah anyways — i’m at a standstill because honestly I like your shit workout “ he shook his head to the floor “ but I also like you so I find myself thinking if I couldn’t get through your workout even though I enjoyed it so much could I “

his voice rasped shakily “ could I get through a relationship with you even though I like you even more “

truthfully you’d wish you’d said no because right now you wanted nothing more than to just be friends with the male sitting across the room from you.

It’s not that you didn’t like him of course you did he was hot , smart, and felt strongly about his goals but, he was an asshole.

Not in the aspect of hes just mean and rude but he was an all around prick as he laughed with his friends from across the room.

Their voices only getting louder as you sat alone a few seats away from them trying to complete some work on your desk you’d just been given “ dude gotta admit class 1-A’s got some hot chicks “

“ yeah honestly minas top three if we’re being truthful “

“mina dude come on have you seen jirou “

“ don’t even get me started “ denkis voice came out in a soft groan “ god I would— “

“ yeah yeah all that jazz but “ seros voice came out soft. His hand coming up to point at the seat as you sat in with your head down eyes furrowed in anger at the math on your paper that wasn’t syncing up with your brain right now

“ y/n “ his fist tightened as he groaned “ y/n could get it on all accounts — the car “

“ you don’t have a car “ denkis voice came out as sero continued

“ the school bathroom “

“ but which one ? because one of you would have to go in the wrong sex’s unless its a handicap or family stal-“

“the fucking dorms “

“ y/n ? “ kirishima asked quickly “ y/n l/n ? “

“ fuck yeah “

“ hmm “ kirishima studied you before shaking his head “ honestly kinda hot never really paid attention to that stuff before though “

“ what the fuck how can’t you “

“ uh i’m more so a personality guy “

“ so by personality would you fuck em ‘ “

“ not to be vulgar but of course “ his answer taking no time “ y’know how fun they’d be in a relationship though not just with sex ? imagine cuddles—fuck —what about cuddle monster y/n maybe ? god that’d be so hot “

denki getting restless as he held his thoughts in from the other males. His mind spazzing before finally getting to speak “ i’d fuck her too “ he yelled everyone’s eyes going sharp on the boy before he coughed “ id rock it too — we’re talking about getting mullets “

“ oh boys that’d be kinda hot “ you said laughing sarcastically sero turning to you smiling softly “ oh yeah on who in particular “

“ mm totally blondie over there “

“ the fuck ? “ his eyes shot away from denkis and moved to yours anger pouring through his gaze making you jerk back a little in surprise “ the hell you mean i’d look hot “

your eyebrows creased “ well because I — you do you would “

“ don’t go talking out of your ass you hear me—shit people like you don’t deserve to talk to anyone about looks “ your mouth went dry at his lazer stare.

His lips curling up into a smirk before he shook his head “ these assholes are talking about fucking you yknow “ he whispered to you “ you gonna let em ? you gonna let em right? because that’s the only attention you’d ever get right “

“ bakubro hold up chill out “

“ yeah bakubro chill out “ you said your gaze wavering from the hard one you’d had when you felt the heat radiating off of him no comfort coming from him to you only confusing you more. Had you two been in a secret argument that you knew nothing about

“ whatever “ he leaned back in his chair as the class went back to what they were doing your hands gripping the pencil when the class got even louder but you only searching for your boyfriends voice easily drowning out the others

“ i’d never fuck “ your heart broke at the deep voice youd identified

“ dude seriously come on with the lies —fucking beautiful “

“ correctomundo my friend their absolutely stunning “

his laugh ripping through their claims hand jerking back to point at you “ you think their beautiful much less hot ? “

“ yeah you don’t ? “ denki spat all of them looking at the boy like he was crazy for enjoying this obviously racy topic right now much less taking the wrong side of the debate

“ I literally just sat here and said I wouldn’t fuck em’ pokémon —so you can guess what that correlates to “

“ hey dude why’re you being sucha a dick —the personality’s top tier even if your stupid enough to think their not at least hot“ kirishima putting the ending words in quotation marks honestly a bit upset with his friend

“ hey watch it your over here defending an extra like your gonna make moves on em “ he laughed “ I advise otherwise “

you let out a sigh thinking he’d finally stopped acting the way he was. Your mind preparing to only give him the silent treatment for today and then tomorrow peppering him with kisses until he laughed and apologized for his words

Heart only being snatched away from your body when you heard his deep vibrating voice cut through the room “ probably gonna give you a rash from all the shit that’s on their mouth all the time “

it’s just lipgloss.

Lipgloss bakugou bought you packs of earlier this week after he swore he loved the taste and scent.

moving to wipe at it gently with the sleeve of your outfit him still going causing tears to start building up in your eyes “ bet the bitch doesn’t even shower —had em’ over for a project last night had to wash my sheets and blanket —took hours last night “

“ oh “ denki let out “ I was a bit confused when I saw you at the laundry room at 3 in the morning.

Tears blurring your vision as you thought about his earlier words when he’d given you your favorite sweater of his after saying he’d washed it for you because he knew you wouldn’t do it yourself because in his words ‘ you would never wash it without his help because you were a creep and didn’t want to erase his smell or some shit ‘

“ yeah —smelled so bad im telling you stay away you don’t wanna ask em’ out “

you moved to grab your phone as he kept talking you typing out a message as best as you could before hitting send. His hand moving off the desk and going in his pants pocket to pull his phone out keeping it hidden under the table eyes trailing over the screen

Firefighter >3

baby are we arguing

if your mad at me please just tell me don’t just talk shit about me in front of your friends

him locking his phone and placing it on his desk before you typed out one more message him letting out a sigh as he grabbed for it again

firefighter >3

if you keep going we’re over

“ but imagine whoever bags them apart from bakugou at least since we all know he’s all anti hot y/n “

“ they’d be so lucky “

“ yeah right “ he spoke lowly almost trying to hide his voice from you eyes glued to his phone “ wouldn’t dare “

“ wouldnt dare what bakugou “

“ oh wouldnt dare be —-be lucky “ he locked his phone again “ feel bad for the person dating them all the shit they gotta go through put up with , claims they make through message and not with real words, being too much of a pussy to speak up for themselves“

he shook his head softly eyes twitching “ you wouldn’t put up with that —you couldn’t put up with that your not built for it you gotta have tough skin y’know like me “

he licked his lips moving to sit up straighter when hearing his phone vibrate “ don’t uh “

firefighter >3

one more bakugou

one more bakugou katsuki and were over

his eyes darting over to yours before his eyebrows furrowed and body shook in anxiousness he couldn’t figure out what to do.

He was an asshole you knew this so why the fuck were you being such a crybaby now? did he pick the wrong person to date he thought you were strong

He genuinely just wanted to keep these creeps away from what’s his by scaring them off he wasn’t doing anything wrong? well at least in his eyes

He moved to talk again trying his best to string together a nice sentence “ just don’t uh ask —ask em’ out —-their utter dog shit when it comes to relationships leave it to someone who can handle that y’know “

he relaxed into his chair at his victory when he watched you throw your phone to the table and fix your skirt and standup. Him sighing out when you picked up your stuff to leave “ thank all might “ he whispered head shooting to lean back against his desk chair and look up at the sky blood running cold when his phone vibrated against the table

firefighter >3

all your shits gonna be outside my dorm door. So you might want to come collect it before I have half and half lighting campfires tonight

y’know since i’m such a shit person —gotta hope your bestie deku can give me some after school lessons on personalities. He’s so sweet I bet he’ll fix me right up

screw you katsuki see you in hell

“ the —the fuck what did —the hell did I do wrong “ he screamed when he saw you slam the classroom door after flicking him off

his friends eyes moving from the door to bakugous phone that he’d thrown on the table.

Todorokis eyes going wide when he read his stupid nickname given to him by the steamy male “ I —I uh“ he coughed “ I think i’m gonna go help y/n since their now single—don’t want em’ getting hurt with amateur fire starters again when i’m right here “

his stone face peered down at the red faced boy “ I mean that is ok with you bakugou seeing as though you two were most likely in a relationship by the messages before today “

“ you asshole did you go through me and my s/o’s messages “

“ judging by the series of recent text I don’t believe that’s the case for you two anymore “ he reached to grab his backpack saying a formal goodbye before he spoke “ I feel like i’m needed by a very —very perfectly intelligent unshitty person right now “

seros voice coming out softly as he let bakugous phone fall to the table disappointment in his eyes “ look uh —dude you didn’t have to mess your relationship up just to go against us ? “ he winced at the claim“ honestly you could’ve stayed quiet the whole time —it’s not like we agreed with you anyways “

bakugou leaned back in his chair anger swirling in his stomach as he felt his body sweat at the new heat spreading throughout his whole body.

How the hell did he mess up where the hell did he mess up he explained to you he wasn’t gonna treat you any differently than any other extra here and that went for basic conversations too

Maybe he went a bit far with the dont date em ‘ that was probably it you didn’t like how he said don’t date you because he was the only one who could handle you right ?

He shook his head a bit confused you just wanted him to say that you could handle yourself and didn’t need him right ?

So , why the hell did he feel like he’d done something wrong he wasn’t stupid but he just wasn’t well versed in feelings. He already didn’t know how to handle his own so how was he expected to handle another persons.

To him his words were normal he talked about all people like this hell, he bullied deku for 3 years going as far as to make a special nickname for him

that wasn’t even the worse he could’ve done and you knew that so why was he in trouble and worrying about Icy hot taking his place

He was honestly confused?

Could words really be that hurtful?

could his words really be that hurtful ?

[anxiousstark]

S2 10 | Fury

BIG MASTERLIST | TW REWRITE

Stiles Stilinski x Reader! Half-sibling!Mccall

Word count: 2848

Warnings: Mentions of guns, degrading names, injuries, blood, murder, swearing (always).

↪ PLEASE RESPECT MY WORK. DON’T COPY, TRANSLATE OR CLAIM THEM AS YOURS. NOT ON THIS WEBSITE OR ANOTHER. ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED.

"So this kid's the real killer?" Noah Stilisnki asked, his eyes moving from Scott and Stiles to me. We were in Stiles's bedroom, showing him a picture of Matt. We needed to end this, but Noah didn't seem convinced by what we were trying to explain.

"Yeah." Stiles rolled his eyes.

"No."

"Yes!"

"No."

"Dad, come on." He got up from his chair, standing in front of the man who had raised him. "Everybody knows that the police look for ways to connect victims in a murder, okay? So all he had to do is, like, look through their transcripts and figure out which class they all had in common."

"Yeah, except for the fact that the rave promoter Kara wasn't in Harris's class."

"All right, okay, you're right, sorry. Then I guess they dropped the charges against him?"

"No, you know what? They're not dropping the charges. But that doesn't prove anything." Stiles groaned, throwing his hands up.

"Scott, do you believe this?"

"It's really hard to explain how we know this, but you just gotta trust us. We know it's Matt." His calming voice reassured the Sheriff, but still, he seemed to have doubts. He glanced at me, and I nodded my head.

"Yeah, he took Harris's car, okay? Look, he knew that if a cop found tire tracks at one of the murders, and that if enough of the victims were in Harris's class, that they'd arrest him."

"All right, fine. I'll allow the remote possibility, but give me a motive." We looked at each other, sighing in relief. "I mean, why would this kid want most of the 2006 swim team and its coach dead?"

"Isn't it obvious?" We still didn't know why Matt was doing this, so no. "Our swim team sucks! They haven't won in, like, six years." He shouted before his voice lowered. "Okay, we don't have a motive yet. I mean, come on, does Harris?" Before Noah could answer back his son, I hit Stiles's arm. "Ouch, what was that for?" He rubbed the placed where I had hit him while glancing at me.

"I'm in the swim team, asshole." I pouted, but then I quickly connected another dot. "That's why he attacked me." Both boys looked at me confused, still trying to understand. "That could be another reason, guys. I'm in the swim team." However, there were other people in the swim team, so why didn't he attack them?

"Attacked you?" Mr. Stilisnki directed at me. He seemed mad. "Okay, what do you want me to do?"

We smiled, sighing in content. "We need to look at the evidence," Scott's voice sounded confident.

"Yeah, that would be in the station, where I no longer work."

"Trust me. They'll let you in."

Sheriff Stilisnki was perplexed due to his son's words. "Trust you?" His fingers pointed at him.

"T-trust Scott?" Sheriff still wasn't convinced. "Trust...Y/N?"

"Y/N I trust." I grinned, feeling better than the other two boys, which made both of them push me a little. Tsk, is that jealousy I smell?

"It's 2:00 in the morning." The Deputy behind the counter gave us a judging look. Sheriff Stilisnki took the three of us to the station in hopes of finding more information, which seemed complicated as he no longer worked there.

"Believe me, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't extremely important."

"We look at the hospital stuff first, okay?" The hazel-eyed boy whispered to Scott and me. "Because all the murders were committed by Jackson, except for one, you remember?" We nodded. The pregnant girl, Jessica.

"Yeah. Since Matt had to kill her himself, somebody from the hospital could've seen him."

The Deputy made a gesture with her head. "Thank you. Boys. Y/N." We entered the office, watching the recording from the cameras of the hospital. "I don't know, guys. I mean, look at this. There was a six-car pileup that night, the hospital was jammed."

"All right, just keep going. Look, he had to have passed one of the cameras on that floor to get to Jessica, okay? He's gotta be on the footage somewhere."

"Oh, hold on, stop! Did you see that? Scroll back." I hurriedly pointed to the camera.

"That's him! That's Matt!"

"All I see is the back of someone's head." Mr. Stilisnki glanced at us over his shoulder.

"Matt's head, yeah. I sit behind him in history. He's got a very distinct cranium, it's weird." A disgusting expression decorated his face. But it couldn't surpass Noah's face, realizing how weird his son was. "All right, fine, then look at his jacket, huh? How many people do you know who wear black leather jackets?"

"Millions, literally."

"Okay, can we scroll forward? There's gotta be a shot of him coming at one of the cameras."

"Right there! Stop, stop! See, there he is again."

"You mean there's the back of his head again."

"Okay, but look. He's talking to someone."

"He's talking to my mom." He took his phone out, calling Melissa who was working. After sending her a picture of Matt, she affirmed recognizing him. She had stopped him because he was tracking mud in the hall.

Noah rapidly grabbed some files. "We've got shoe prints alongside the tire tracks at the trailer site."

"And if they match, that puts Matt at the scene of three murders. The trailer, the hospital, and the rave." Stiles added.

"Actually, four. A credit card receipt for an oil change was signed by Matt at the garage where the mechanic was killed."

"When?"

"A couple hours before you got there."

"All right, dad, if one's an incident, two's a coincidence, and three's a pattern, what's four?"

"Four's enough for a warrant." We sighed in relief. "Scott, call your mom back, see how quick she can get here. If I can get an official ID, I can get a search warrant. Y/N, go to the front desk. Tell them to let Scott's mom in when she gets here."

"On it!" I quickly hurried. When I arrived at the front desk, there was nobody. "Hello?" I glance down. The Deputy was lying on the floor, wide eyes, blood covering all of her chest. Then, I noticed that her gun was missing. I heard a click, turning around. Matt was there, the gun pointing to the space between my eyes.

He turned my body around, now pointing the gun to the back of my head. "Walk." We both started walking towards Noah's office.

Stiles was the first one to notice me, his eyes shaking. He was going to take a step forward when his father stopped him. "Matt?" Noah showed him his empty unarmed hands. "It's Matt, right? Matt, whatever's going on, I guarantee you there's a solution that doesn't involve a gun."

"You know, it's funny you say that because I don't think you're aware of just how right you are." The barrel of the gun was pressed tighter against my head as he talked.

"I know you don't wanna hurt people."

"Actually, I wanna hurt a lot of people. You three weren't on my list," The gun he was holding hit the back of my scalp, making me hiss. "She was, Y/N McCall. If it wasn't for her, everything would have gone perfectly. But she HAD to be there, at the video store, fucking everything up." He sighed, pushing me forward. Stiles grabbed me, checking my face quickly, touching the back of my head to make sure that I didn't have any wound. "But I could be persuaded. And one way is to try dialling somebody on your cell phone like McCall is doing. T-that could definitely get someone hurt. Everyone. Now!"

Matt made Stiles handcuff his father, then he took us with him. On the corridor, three officers were on the ground, lifeless. "What, are you gonna kill everyone in here?" Scott asked.

"No, that's what Jackson's for. I just think about killing them, and he does it." He smirked.

Now, we were destroying all the files that conducted to him being a murderer. "Deleted. And we're done. All right, so, Matt, since all the people you brutally murdered deserved it because they killed you first, whatever that means, I think we're good here, right? So I'll just get my dad, and we'll go, you know? You continue on the whole vengeance thing. Enjoy the Kanima."

We saw a light, followed by the sound of a car. "Sounds like your mom's here, McCall."

"Matt, don't do this. When she comes to the door, I'll just tell her to leave. I'll tell her we didn't find anything. Please, Matt."

"If you don't move now. I'm gonna kill Stiles first, and then your mom. And then," He smirked. "I'm going to kill her. Because thanks to Y/N the Kanima isn't as strong as it could be. That night, if Jackson would have been the only one getting scratched, all of this wouldn't have happened. You guys would probably be dead." His rage was directed towards me. "But this bitch had to go inside the video store, and fuck everything up."

"And I will fuck everything up again if you touch anyo-" Stiles gripped my arm, begging me to calm down.

To our surprise, it wasn't Melissa. It was Derek. But he was paralyzed as soon as he came inside, falling to the floor, and letting us see Jackson behind him. "This is the one controlling him? This kid?" I tried not to chuckle.

"Well, Derek, not everyone's lucky enough to be a big, bad werewolf. Oh, yeah, that's right. I've learned a few things lately. Werewolves, hunters, kanimas. It's like a fucking Halloween party every full moon. Except for you, Stiles. What do you turn into?"

"Abominable snowman," I whispered his name, trying to let him know that it wasn't the time to be sarcastic. "But, uh, it's more of, like, a wintertime thing, you know, seasonal."

Matt didn't like Stiles's comment. Jackson scratched his neck, paralyzing him. His body fell on top of Derek. "You bitch."

"Get him off of me."

"Oh, I don't know, Derek. I think you two make a pretty good pair. It must kinda suck, though, to have all that power taken away from you with just a little cut to the back of the neck. I bet you're not used to feeling this helpless."

"Still got some teeth. Why don't you get down here a little closer, huh? We'll see how helpless I am."

Again, we heard a car. This time, it was Melissa. Scott went out with Matt, the next thing we knew, we heard a gunshot. I stayed on the floor, next to Stiles and Derek. Jackson's eyes fixed on me, smirking. I wanted to hit him. I wanted to end all of this.

A couple of minutes later, Matt came back to the room. My eyes focused on Scott, seeing the blood on his shirt. I walked up to him, examining his face for any type of signal that would let me know that he was healing. He just side-hugged me, keeping me away from his injury. "Is Melissa okay?" I whispered.

He nodded, glaring at Matt. "The evidence is gone. Why don't you just go?"

"Y-you think the evidence mattered that much, huh? No, no, I-I want the book." We both were confused. Matt groaned, getting madder. "The bestiary. Not just a few pages, I want the entire thing."

"I don't have it. It's Gerard's. What do you want it for, anyway?"

"I need answers." He used the back of his mouth to clean the visible sweat around his mouth.

"Answers to what?"

"To this." He lifted his shirt. His right side was the same colour as the Kanima, scales all over it, and it seemed to palpitate. It looked like that thing had its own life. "I'm tired of this," He grabbed Scott's shirt roughly. "Come with me. Jackson, keep an eye on those two," His glare went to me. "And her."

I sat down again, next to both boys while Jackson kept guard of the room so nobody would go inside or outside.

"Hey. You know what's happening to Matt?" Stiles whispered.

"I know the book's not gonna help him. You can't just break the rules, not like this."

"What do you mean?" I asked, keeping my eyes on Jackson.

"Universe balances things out. Always does." He panted. "He is using Jackson to kill people, and killing people himself." I stared at Derek, waiting for him to continue. "Balance."

"Wait," Stiles intervened. "So he becomes the Kanima? Derek nodded. We needed to stop him. We needed to tell him. I glance around the room, seeing my backpack on the floor. "Oh no," I heard Stilinski muttering. "What are you thinking of, McCall?" He tried to move his head to glance at me. "Don't do anything stupid, please. You are the one who told me that when I confronted Peter Hale."

"Did you listen to me, Stiles?" I asked in a hushed voice, crawling to my bag, rummaging through it until I grabbed the object that I was searching for. Pepper spray.

He groaned. "No, I didn't." I slowly got up from the ground, without making any sound. "You aren't going to listen, right?"

"Hey, Jackson," His head snapped to me, eyes shining. "Beautiful eyes." I rapidly used pepper spray. Jackson groaned, kneeling on the ground, and aggressively rubbing his eyes. I threw the spray back to the boys. "He will come to get me. I need to help Scott. Use the spray if you need it!" And even though Derek Hale told me not to do anything absurd, I continued running.

However, the power in the entire station turned off. "Fuck," I muttered. The sound of guns being shot scared the shit out of me, but I had to find Scott. I crawled on the floor, hands covering my head as the windows were being broken by the bullets. Then, when the shots seemed to stop, I got up and ran.

"Shit," My heart almost came out of my chest when I saw Allison. I felt fear because something bad could happen to her, then I felt relieved because we were worried about her as we hadn't seen her at the end of the party. And again, I felt terrified when I saw her face. A numb expression decorating her features while she had a hard grip on her crossbow. "What are you doing here?"

"Where's Derek? She avoided my question, answering with her own. "Where's Derek?!" Her eyes were teary.

"An answer for an answer," I replied. "What the heck are you doing here? You need to get the hell out of here." I looked around, deciding to whisper. "Allison, this is dangerous."

"I'm going to kill Derek Hale because he killed my mom." She spat. "And I will kill anyone who gets on my way."

"Bitch," I mumbled. "Derek Hale saved our asses a million times. Yeah, he probably isn't the best at communication, but when I say our asses, I also mean yours." I scowled. "Your mom," I smirked. "A huge bitch she is. Well, she was." Allison threw a punch at me, but I surprisingly dodged it, something you would only expect in films or books. "She deserves all that she got. She went to the hospital to get information from Mellisa." She glanced at the ground while I continued. "She deserved all that she got. Do you know why? Because she tried to kill Scott." She was in denial, but she knew because her family was deranged. "She tried to kill your boyfriend, Allison. She tried to kill my brother." I firmly stated.

"Shut up!" Next thing I knew, there was an arrow piercing my stomach. The arrow was exactly in the middle. I stared at it, and the blood coming out, although no words were coming out of my mouth as I stared at her. "Oh my, I-I didn't mean to-" I fell to the ground, thankfully on my back so the arrow wouldn't get more stuck in my abdomen. Allison was also interrupted when the Kanima appeared, paralyzing her. Then, it was Matt's turn to make an appearance.

"You should've given me a chance. Because remember how I said I'm not the kind of guy who would say something like: 'well if I can't have her, no one can.' It's not totally true because, Allison, if I can't have you, no one can!" He screamed. "Thank you for finding this slut," He kneeled next to me, brushing my hair. "Pepper spray, uh?"

"If I could," I gasped for air. "I would fucking k-kill you right now."

"Yeah," He laughed hysterically. "But I think you are dying first. Should we show momma McCall, Scott, and Stiles how stunningly beautiful you look as the blood leaves your body?" This dude was sick, utterly sick. "Yeah, let's show them." The hand that was caressing my hair clutched it forcefully, dragging me by my hair through all the rooms in the station. I lost consciousness.

.

.

TAGLIST: @og-baby-ob14 - @savemypostcards - @cas-loves-pizza - @used-avocado - @mvrylee - @bilesxbilinskixlahey - @honeydoll-stark - @arieltheworldisamess - @softpeteparker - @kit-kat-katie99 - @thatsuperherosidekick - @bexbetterxthanxwords - @big-galaxy-chaos - @littlemiss-forgotten - @enchantedcruelsummer - @coldfreakeggsexpert - @merla123 - @sammypotato67 - @weirdowithnobeardo - @maggiesblogsblog - @itskindyl - @bobo-bush - @moongoddesskiana - @multifandxm353 - @irwxnhugsx - @xoprincessmel - @iclosetgeek - @andreagf956 - @niawoods - @anerroroccurrrrred - @perrytheplatypus11 - @trustfundparker - @nmriia - @steve-harringtonnn - @trustfundparker - @brithedemonspawn - @weirdowithnobeardo - @my-soul-is-the-moon - @azayamari - @poguestyle17​ - @bibliophilewednesday​ -

People in bold means it doesn’t let me tag them.

[thenamesseven]

Warnings: Mentions of fights and blood.

Word count: 3.1k

A/N: It’s finally here! I’m going to do a taglist so send me a message if you want to be added!

@guess--monster​

Masterlist                   Next Chapter->

You have waited years for this moment, five to be exact yet now that you were parked in front of the prison your best friend was locked in, the place that he had been living in all these days since that fateful night your body was completely glued to your car seat.

Your hands had only left the steering wheel to turn off the car's ignition and your eyes were frozen on the boring looking building placed in front of you. Sighing, you reached up with one of your shaky hands to brush some of your hair out of your face, calming down had been impossible since this morning, in fact, you were sure it was a miracle that you hadn't suffered a heart attack yet. You could feel your heart pounding against your ribcage and you knew it would beat even faster as soon as you stepped out of the car. 

Your mind was not better, there were a million questions running through it, echoing in your concerned thoughts. Would he remember you? How would he react when he saw you? Did he change or was he still your Jongho? And the most important question out of the thousands you kept coming up with. 

Was he mad at you? 

He was locked in that cell and wouldn't get out of it for a lot of years thanks to you. What happened that night had only been your fault yet Jongho took advantage of your shock to save you from the horrible fate that would have awaited you in court. No matter how much you and the best lawyers you had found for him fought for his freedom, his reputation as a gang member and the sins he committed for that night were stronger than the truth nobody believed and put your best friend behind bars for an eternity. 

Jongho had every right to hate you even when you were here to get him out of this prison. 

The plan didn't have any details yet, you only had the objective and even though you believed your life would totally change once your best friend was out of that cell he now called home you couldn't stop thinking it would be worth it. 

Jongho deserved to be free, he deserved to live his life. 

"Come on…You can do this" You whispered to yourself, finally opening the door to get out of it as you grabbed your purse "You owe him your life, you can't back out of this now"

Your voice shook as much as your hands did, you knew you couldn't walk inside in this state but fear was taking control of your body. The fact that you were planning to set Jongho free when the law said he should be locked up for more years than he could survive made you a bit paranoid. It was completely impossible that somebody would guess your plan on your first day at work but who were you trying to lie to? You've always been a good girl, rules were never broken by you and now, all of a sudden, you were planning an escape plan for your imprisoned best friend Jongho. 

You were way out of your comfort zone. 

"Identification please" The guard's voice who was standing on the other side of the fence snapped you out of your thoughts. Your eyes travelled up to him although you couldn't see much of his face thanks to the blue cap he was wearing. 

"Uh yeah, sorry" Your voice shook a little as your hands instantly fished into your purse, getting your wallet and your ID out so he could check it. 

He looked down at it before looking at you once again, now that he was entirely sure you were the same person in the picture, he signaled for his mates to open the fence and let you walk inside and deeper into the lion's dent. 

"Have a nice day" He said with a small smile, nodding his head once in a greeting way as you walked inside. Too nervous to speak again, you only glanced his way and nodded back, fearing that he would somehow guess your intentions based on the tone of your voice. 

With the sound of your high heels clicking against the pavement, you tried to take deep breaths as you walked into the prison, ready to face your best friend after so many years and ready to get him out of there as soon as you could. 

In one of the hundreds of cells that were inside the building, Jongho laid on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. 

Everyone had warned him of all the dangers that hid in prison. Psychos waiting to kill you, corrupted cops that wouldn't miss the chance to ruin your life, the lost of friends that were either murdered by somebody else or by themselves, the homesickness….But nobody had warned him about boredom and how dangerous it was for the mind to repeat the same exact routine one day after another.  After his first four years locked up he needed some changes or his sanity would start to get damaged.

"I heard someone new is coming to work here" Min Yoongi, Jongho's cell partner commented out of nowhere. He was not much of a talkative person, Yoongi only started a conversation when his own thoughts got too scary for him to handle and he needed a distraction. 

He didn't tell you this of course but Jung Hoseok, one of his closest friends, liked to gossip too much and sometimes useful information about other inmates slipped from his lips. Jongho had always been smart enough to keep his private information for himself. 

"Oh really?" Jongho didn't care too much, the people working in this prison were as nice as….Let's just say they weren't nice at all "New guard?"

"New nurse" Now, Yoongi was one of the few people that always managed to hear about everything people talked about. No matter how quietly you talked, how secretive you were, he was always there listening, it was obvious why Hoseok was his closest friend, Yoongi was a fountain of gossip "Jaehyun, the guy from cell 67, hurt the last one so bad during a check-up that the poor guy ended up being too scared to come back to work"

"He was an asshole so whatever Jaehyun did, the guy probably deserved it" He muttered shrugging, keeping his eyes on the ceiling as they talked "Let's hope this one is better"

"I heard she is a girl, so she might be a bit more sensitive" Yoongi added, sitting up straight on his bed. 

"A girl?" Jongho frowned, turning his head to move his eyes away from the ceiling and back to Yoongi just to make sure he wasn't just fucking around with him. 

"Crazy right?" Yoongi scoffed "With all the pervs that are locked up in here I bet she won't last too long"

"Or maybe she is a badass and kicks all our asses" Jongho said with a small smirk, making Yoongi smile too in amusement "Who knows?"

Little did Jongho know that the nurse they were talking about would be you and that you were only a coward with a mission disguised as a badass. 

“So this is where you will be working” The guard, whose name you hadn’t had the pleasure to discover yet, that had been guiding you through the facilities mostly showing you the areas that were empty of inmates, stopped once you reached the nurse office “Though, I would recommend you to bring a book or something to entertain yourself”

Your eyebrows arched up, curious at his advice “Not to many patients to deal with?” You asked with a polite smile. Not that you were disappointed by that, you had only wanted to work in this place to get Jongho out somehow, not to treat some people that could snap your neck before you blinked.

“If it’s a good day you won’t get any visits” He answered, hands in his pockets, relaxed as the two of you chatted. He didn’t seem to be looking forward to going back to his work and showing the newbie around seemed to be the perfect excuse to avoid that “Unfortunately, there are bad days too” He sighed tiredly, hinting that he had been present in more bad days than he would like. 

“What would you define as a bad day?” You asked hesitantly, you weren’t sure if you really wanted to know what he considered a bad day. You were at a prison after all.

“Someone getting stabbed, beated to almost death, strang-”

“I think I get it now” You interrupted before he could keep listing horrible events that you didn’t even want to think about “I hope you all don’t go through bad days too often”

The guard smiled sympathetically “That depends on how well these guys want to behave” The two of you stayed silent for a second, it was obvious that the conversation topics between the two of you were slowly coming to an end despite his insistence of keeping the chatting alive “Don’t worry about your safety though, most of the guys here wouldn’t hurt you and the ones that possibly would are never left alone, a guard will stay with you if they think you could be at risk” You nodded at this information, partly glad at that. 

Prisons were no joke and truly dangerous people were locked up in here, murderers and rapists were something you would have to deal with if you wanted your plan to go well. Although this kind of worried you, Jongho had been sentenced because he murdered somebody and even though newspapers made sure to let the world know that the life he ended that night was not an innocent one, he was still considered a murderer and a gang-member. Would they leave him alone with you if he ever needed medical assistance? Because if they didn’t, you were royally fucked.

“That’s a relief” You said with a small smile, hand going up to your chest as you let out a small sigh “I was a bit worried about that, I’ve never worked in this kind of…” Your voiced died down a little, not really sure about how to refer to this place without sounding scared as fuck or insulting “Kind of place”

“Don’t worry, the inmates behave most of the time” Not going to lie, the fact that they didn’t behave all the time wasn’t surprising but that didn’t make it less scary. The guard opened his mouth to say something else but a static voice coming from his walkie-talkie interrupted your conversation, signaling him that it was about time for him to come back to his real work. Throwing a small smile your way, he picked up the device and muttered a quiet ‘On my way’ before turning his attention back to you “Well, I’ll see you around miss” He said with a friendly smile, nodding his head as his feet started walking backwards “Good luck on your first day!” 

You nodded, standing outside of the infirmary until he disappeared around the corner. Left alone in that hall you truly didn’t know what to do with yourself, despite his reassurance of the guards protecting you from any danger you couldn’t help but feel a little intimidated by the idea of having to treat inmates. Jongho better not be mad at you or you would beat his ass.

Sighing you finally opened the door to what would be your work space for as long as you needed to perfect your plan and the situation didn’t improve. Nobody had told you what had happened to the last person that abandoned this position but by the blood on the wall poorly cleaned you could slightly guess what had happened.

“The things you get yourself into” You whispered to yourself, dropping your purse on the desk as you walked deeper into the dusty room, eyes scanning your surroundings and purposefully avoiding the blood stains on the white wall.

“That’s exactly what my mom tells me whenever she visits” 

You were startled by the new voice coming from behind you, hands instantly going to your chest where your heart was pounding incredibly hard against your ribcage and breath getting caught in your throat, good thing you hadn’t been holding something like your phone or you would have dropped it for sure.

When you turned around to find the source of your almost heart attack, what you found standing there didn’t make it less scary. Your first inmate patient was standing by the doorway and by the lack of guards around him, you guessed he wasn’t considered a threat. 

“Sorry I didn’t mean to startle you” 

He was tall, like ridiculously tall. This guy was probably three head taller than you and even though it probably wasn’t his intention, his height only made him more intimidating for you. Although, the way his smile seemed shy and his eyes darted away from you gave away that he was being honest. His hair was blond and looked fluffy, how his hair managed to look better than yours in a place like this was a mystery but if you two would have been in a totally different situation you would have asked about the products he used.

This wasn’t the time to think of that. Dumbass.

“It’s alright, you just interrupted my daydreaming session” You said with a small smile in return, forcing yourself to relax and not be so on edge. Just because he was in this place didn’t mean he would try to kill you whenever he got the chance. “Can I help you?” He nodded to your question, less tense now that you had visibly relaxed and decided it would be a good moment to walk into the room too, always keeping his distance with you. He was probably conscious of your nerves and didn’t want to freak you out.

“I’m Mingi or inmate 2356 but you know, since numbers are difficult to remember you can call me by my name” His little presentation mixed with the friendly smile that stretched the corners of his lips upwards brought a smile of your own to your face.

“Well, nice to meet you inmate 2356” You joked with a smirk, leaning back against your desk as you crossed your arms on your chest, keeping down the bubbly chuckle that threatened to spill from your lips.

“Damn, she’s good with numbers, what do I do know?” He joked back, laughing quietly as he fidgeted with the hem of his orange clothes. “Let’s start all over again, my name is Mingi, nice to meet you” His smile widened when you finally chuckled, if his objective had been relaxing you in his presence then he had done a pretty good job.

“Nice to meet you Mingi” You said amused, not scared of him and his height anymore as your eyes travelled down his figure, searching any wounds that you could treat or anything that told you he was sick but to your surprise, nothing was found “You look fine to me, what can I help you with?” 

“Well, you can say no if you don’t want to but I used to help the last guy that worked here, you know, we all have to study or work in here and since books were never for me I worked my way to the Infirmary!” He said with a proud smile, one that kind of make you think he was cute “So I was wondering if I could keep learning and helping you out, I promise I won’t mess things up and that I’ll take this seriously”

The way he kept saying that he wouldn’t mind if you rejected him but also kept lowkey trying to convince you made your smile even bigger. He seemed to be a nice guy and you honestly wouldn’t mind having some company around, it would surely make things a bit more difficult for you and Jongho but maybe if he even showed he could be trusted, you could tell him your true intentions and plans. Mingi could be helpful for sure.

“Okay, having some company sounds nice” You accepted, uncrossing your arms and getting ready to clean the room a little and organize everything on the shelves. There was so much work to do and so little time to keep friendly chatting with Mingi.

“Thanks God, I really didn’t want to go back to painting classes” He mumbled while watching you, pulling the sleeves of his uniform up so he could start helping you out in whatever you were planning to do at the moment. 

“I’m assuming you weren’t born to be the next Van Gogh?” You asked chuckling, hearing how Mingi snorted.

“These hands were made to make many things but paintings are not one of them for sure” He answered and even though your eyes weren’t on him right now, you could hear the smile on his lips.

“I hope they were made to heal people” You teased.

“Were they? We’ll see” He said in a light tone obviously joking “So what’s your name? Since you don’t have a number I can easily remember” Mingi muttered teasing you about your greeting earlier, making you smile again.

“My name is (Y/N)” You simply said.

Mingi froze in his place, his smile only getting wider as he turned around to look at you. He had been having the feeling that he knew you as soon as he walked in the infirmary but he hadn’t been able to guess the reason why you were so familiar to him. Now that you had said your name, Mingi remembered how many times his friend had spoken about you, how easily was to make him smile whenever he remembered your shenanigans and oh god, let’s not talk about the picture he had in his cell of the two of you. Sure you looked way younger but Mingi was sure you were her, you were Jongho’s girl.

“Wait, your (Y/N)?” He asked genuinely surprised, making you stop your rearranging of the medicines that were on the shelves to turn around and look at him.

“I just told you” You snorted, not really getting why he was asking that.

“I can’t wait to tell Jongho you’re here” He said smiling warmly.

“You know Jongho?” You asked surprised, eyes glued to his face.

“Of course I do” He said as if it was the same obvious thing, pointing to the tattoo on his wrist “We were in the same gang”

[anna-amelie]

Overwatch Characters as MPGIS quotes

(crude humor warning)

Ana: Oh come on, punching that girl in the face showed some real initiative! That's the kind of attitude that the youth of today need! Always with the texting and the Instagrams, it's like none of them have any balls anymore!

Ashe: Yeah, you think you can bitch me out? I am the queen of bitch! You look up bitch up in the dictionary and you're gonna see my fucking face!

Baptiste: You gonna come in this doghouse, you're gonna get bit.

Bastion: beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep...

Brigitte: Well, I mean, it's funny, but it's not Cat Dressed as a Shark Riding a Roomba Chasing a Duck funny.

D.Va: I mean, are we supposed to believe that it's his colored beak that gives him the power to turn the fruit into loops?

Doomfist: It's like a stew. If you use too much salt and pepper, when you taste it, you're not gonna like it. Curses have to be looked at like spices. You never want to use too much or they lose their impact. You've got to pick your spots. The less you curse, the more powerful the words can be. (on phone) Tell me something good, Frank. Well then you tell those little f cking b tchy c nts that if they don't get their f cking sh t together, I will personally b tch slap each one of those p ssies up and down f cking Wall Street. If this f cking deal goes f cking f ckity f ck sh t, I will happily knuckle-f ck every last one of those p ssy-ass b tches, rings on! And you know my rings, Frank. You f cking hear me? Good! Now get it done, you f ck. You b tch. You little b tchy f ck b tch! (off phone) So like I was saying, the key is moderation.

Echo: Now, remember! Confidence! You are a sexy bitch!

Genji: (probably sarcastically) I’ll die before that pig-tailed labradoodle ruins the legacy that you worked so hard to build

Hanzo: (sighs and sits down) Every single one of you is a wrinkle in my face.

Junkrat: Here's my rule for eating crayons: red before blue, very happy poo, blue before red, you're gonna have to go to the emergency room.

Lucio: Now are you ready for me to blow your mind? Kickball is just baseball but with your feet!

McCree: Alright, alright, somebody's ass isn't being a team player. *bonus* Aw, you fuckin’ traitor.

Mei: I would like a Dora the Explorer with gumball eyes, please, and those little poppers that you throw on the ground to scare away little kids with?

Mercy: Relax? I'm sorry doc, but I don't live in a goddamn mentos commercial!

Moira: Well if ignorance is bliss, you must be one very happy fucking idiot.

Orisa: I think we should probably be paying attention to what's being said back here, because it sounds like someone's confessing to several very serious felonies.

Pharah: Here I was trying to be the bigger person. And there you were, being, well, the degenerate trashbag slut that you've always been.

Reaper: How many times have I told you that I am not allowed to let you out of my sight? So you know, don’t tell anybody.

Reinhardt: I won! But I lost! But I won!

Roadhog: Okay, so just to be sure, we're a no on car fires, correct?

Sigma: Do you guys ever talk about anything other than, like, revenge? I just saw this video of a kid online who could light up a lightbulb by sticking it in his mouth. I mean, what's going on there, right?

Soldier 76: Oh, I'm sorry, do you not want to be here? Would you rather be at home with a nice glass of red WINE, sitting next to your pet WEIMaraner while you guys WIND down your day by catching up on old episodes of Mad Men, created by Matthew WEINer? Is that what you'd like?

Sombra: Tú es un bitcho.

Symmetra: (laughs) I'm sorry, do you know who the fuck you're talking to?

Torbjorn: ... It doesn't matter where you go, there's always gonna be bitches and assholes in your life. So the only thing you can do is surround yourself with the few bitches and assholes you can actually stand being around. And for me, that's you guys.

Tracer: I’m in the Matrix! (screams)

Widowmaker: Listen, I am buying this bottle of wine. Now you can sell it to me or I can sell your organs on the black market! So far tonight, your little power trip has cost me twenty-five minutes that I could've spent eating a delicious chicken fried prime rib dinner! So, while I hold your fragile little life in my stainless steel fingertips, I ask you cashier, do you need my ID? Do you?

Winston: Alright, sorry, geez, just trying to build some team morale.

Wrecking Ball: Yeah, lookin' good! Who's the best? You're the best! You've had all year long to prepare for this day, are you ready? You're goddamn right I'm ready! Gobble gobble, motherfucker. Gobble, gobble.

Zarya: So then he was like, "Give me a lap!" And then I was all like, "Hey coach, why don't you give me a lap?" And then he was all like, "You know what? I respect you."

Zenyatta: The only true happiness comes in death.

Bonus interaction between D.Va and Widowmaker

D.Va: Can you get me a two liter of Mountain Dew? Or whatever the French equivalent is of Mountain Dew? Like a Mountain Deux

[ninja-go-to-therapy]

Shaken

Chapter 2

Summary: MK wakes up in the hospital. If there's one thing he knows, it's that he's got to get away.

Trigger Warnings: hospital, referenced abuse, mentioned death

2990 words

“—just started freaking out—”

“—swear, if this is more monkey madness you’re putting him through—”

“—not.”

Words and voices faded in and out. What was going on? His head felt like it was going to explode. Everything was fuzzy, and he hadn’t even opened his eyes yet.

Come to think of it, he probably shouldn’t open his eyes. He didn’t want them to know he was awake.

MK fought to keep his breathing even, just barely suppressing a groan.

He hadn’t escaped.

He was in the “hospital”, no doubt, completely surrounded by those fake shells of his friends. He had to get out of here.

“—think he’s waking up!”

“—id! Kid, can you hear me?”

Shit. They knew he was awake. There was no getting out of this. 

He fluttered his eyes open, sitting up with great difficulty.

“MK? How are you feeling?” Fake Tang asked. He looked so real, too.

MK scanned the room as subtly as he could. The door wasn’t blocked. He had to make a run for it. It was a long shot, but if he could just get to his staff, then he could get out of here. But it was so far away.

Pretend Monkey King took a step closer, reaching out a hand to put on MK’s shoulder — or to kill him.

“Don’t touch me!” he demanded.

“Oh, kid—”

He scrambled off the bed and onto the opposite side, nearly collapsing entirely at the immediate searing pain that came from it. He’d forgotten about his leg.

“Shit, kid, sit back down!” Not-Pigsy said, like he was panicking and genuinely worried for MK’s safety and well-being.

As they advanced on him, MK backed away, using the wall for support. He had to get away.

He made it to the door, but immediately bumped into something — or someone. He turned around, stifling a pained gasp at the action. Pretend Sandy was there, almost totally blocking the doorway.

He looked back behind him, terror growing as he saw the concern etched on his not-friends faces. It looked so real, and that only made it worse.

He had to get out of here.

He faked left. As predicted, not-Sandy followed.  MK quickly changed his direction, sliding past him and making a break for it down the hall.

The violent burning crawling up his leg was, quite literally, his downfall.  His leg gave out, and he was sent sprawling to the floor, and then he was being surrounded, by nurses and his friends alike, and then… he didn’t remember much, after that.

He woke up again in the same blindingly white hospital room. It felt like he was missing more than he knew he was.

This time, he was alone.

Hope soared in his chest. If he wasn’t being watched, he could get out! He went to sit up, but was stopped short by straps that were holding him down. 

“No,” he begged, tugging on them desperately. “No!”

He was trapped. Done for. They were going to kill him, and there would be nothing he could do about it.

Oh god, he was sure now that they’d make it extra slow and painful. Of course they would. They had to despise him, by now.

He heard someone approaching from the other side of the door, and immediately, he went limp, pretending to be asleep again.

The door opened.

“Oh, bud…” he heard pretend-Monkey-King say. “You’re gonna be okay.” they must have known MK was awake. There was no other reason they’d be spewing this bullshit. Maybe they could watch him even without a human puppet around.

MK couldn’t take it any longer. “Just drop it,” he said, staring numbly at the ceiling. “You don’t have to act anymore. The jig has been up for a long time.” he blinked back the tears that were pushing at his eyes. “So, who am I talking to? Jin or Yin? Or both? I don’t know how this Calabash shit works.”

MK couldn’t see not-Monkey King’s reaction to that. He just kept staring at the ceiling, blinking away his tears. His head was beginning to hurt.

“Those bastards? You think—? Oh, MK…”

Oh, great, now they were playing from this angle. When would they just give it up? He knew it was them.

“I don’t think. I know.”

“Oh, come on, bud, you don’t really think they could replicate my stunningly good looks, do you?”

In spite of himself, MK laughed. That was just like his mentor.

Monkey King smiled. “Really, bud, it’s me. Wukong.”

MK glared at the ceiling. “Nice try. The real one wasn’t… I wouldn’t have called the real one by that name.” he never had before. The demons clearly hadn’t done enough research.

Pretend Monkey King’s confusion was so fake it hurt. “What do you mean?”

“We’re not that close, you know. Hell, I doubt he even actually knows my name. Just — god. Kill me. Don’t try to make me believe it’s really them. Just get it over with!”

“Dammit, MK, we’re not going to kill you!”

“Whatever.”

For a moment, fake Monkey King looked genuinely upset. He sighed. “Get some rest, kid.”

And then he left.

MK spent the next few minutes in silence, struggling to get out of the restraints. But they were tough. Fucking hell. 

But he didn’t give up. He couldn’t afford to. He had to get out of them, he had to get home, to his real friends. How long had he been in here, anyway? Pigsy would probably be pissed at him for missing work.

The door opened, and this time, it was the fake version of Mei. He didn’t even get the chance to wonder what she wanted before she spoke.

“Ask me something,” she demanded. “Monkey King told us what you think is going on, so ask me something. Something only you and I would know.”

Oh, so they could make it all worse by making him see just how much they knew about him? Hard pass.

At his lack of reply, Mei began to talk. “We’ve known each other since we were 13. Pigsy took you in a year or two after that. Your favorite season of Monkey King: the animated series is season 8, because you think whatshisname is hot.”

Okay, sue him, he had a thing for redheads! But that wasn’t important right now. “So what? Anyone could find out stuff like that!”

Mei huffed, continuing on. “Your favorite coping mechanism used to be writing fic about Monkey King adopting you. You wrote one of the biggest fics in the fandom ever.”

“And? That’s not that hard to figure out!”

Mei looked like she was about to scream. “Your parents were bad people.”

MK, who had been struggling, immediately went still.

“They were bad people, and they were even worse parents. You told me not to go after them, even after you got kicked out. Because you’re too good to have ever even considered it. What else do you want from me, MK? When you defeated DBK—”

MK had to admit, he’d almost begun to believe her. “You almost had me there,” he admitted, “I don’t know how the hell you found out about any of that, but if you didn’t notice, the DBK thing didn’t work last time either.”

“...What?”

“Oh my god, I’m not that dumb. I would remember locking away DBK if it had really happened.”

“But… it did?”

“Yeah, sure. I really did lock away the entire Demon Bull family, yeah. And Tang and Pigsy have some weird gay relationship going on, and Mo can just talk now, and Sandy is hosting romantic river cruises, of all things. And you,” he said, forcing down the vomit. “are in love with me!”

Mei made a face. “Ew! That’s disgusting. Wait, okay, I think I have one. What if I tell you what MK stands for? Then will you believe it’s me?”

MK rolled his eyes. Nobody knew what MK really stood for but the real Mei. Even demons would have a hard time figuring it out. Hopefully.

“Whatever.” 

They were probably bluffing, anyway.

His name, what MK really stood for, was a nearly perfectly kept secret. Especially in… recent times.

“MK stands for Monkey King, “because he’s like, my hero! And doesn’t MK have this super cool and kinda mysterious edge to it?” she replied, imitating him badly and hardly missing a beat. “And, even though you think it’s a super cool name, you’re embarrassed about it, and keep it to yourself.”

MK glared at her. “I don’t know how you heard that—”

“What will get you to believe me?” she begged.

“Nothing! Absolutely nothing! I’m not falling for this bullshit again!”

“Ask me something! Anything! Please.”

MK thought for a moment. There was maybe one thing he could think of that they wouldn’t know. Something real. Something they would have no reason to. 

He sighed, weighing it over in his mind. There was no downside, he supposed. “What did you say when I first told you about… me?”

Again, Mei didn’t even need a moment to think. “I told you that I was really happy that you were comfortable telling me, and that I would love to take you shopping sometime to get you some better clothes, and then I demanded to know where your father lived so that I could scoop his eyes out with a plastic spoon, because he doesn’t deserve to even be able to lay eyes on you. And then I said I would keep him alive, but only barely, because an asshole like that deserves to suffer.”

MK’s blood went cold. It was too oddly specific, and had happened years ago. There was no way they could have known. Which could only mean…

“Mei?”

“Yes!” she cried, nodding frantically. 

He couldn’t help himself, the tears he’d been so desperate to hold back earlier finally beginning to fall. “It’s really you?”  he sniffled.

Mei nodded. “It is, I swear.”

Carefully, she wrapped him in a hug. It felt so nice and comforting. For a moment, MK just let himself be swept away by it.

Until the door opened.

He pushed Mei away gently, wiping his eyes furiously. 

“You uh… feeling alright, bud?” Monkey King… the real one…? asked.

“I’m okay.”

It was real. Pigsy and Tang, they were both real. And Sandy, and Monkey King, and Mei. God, he was so stupid.

“So… you thought you were in some evil magical illusion? Why?” Sandy asked.

“Because I was there before, and—” MK cut himself off. “Wait, no, this is still wrong. I would remember defeating DBK. That never happened.” But they knew — but he also would have remembered — he didn’t know what to believe. Oh god. How was he supposed to know for sure? How was he supposed to be confident in his decision? What was he supposed to do?

The others shared a look.

“You defeated them weeks ago,” Tang said, slowly.

“In like, April,” Mei added.

“It’s March,” MK corrected, his breathing picking up.

“It’s definitely May,” Pigsy said.

“I don’t… but…” MK took a deep breath, trying to ground himself. He didn’t feel so good. His head hurt so bad. He wanted it to stop.

His eyes were hurting, too. Was the world always so covered in little black spots?

“MK?” someone asked, their voice a thousand miles away. “Are you alright?”

The darkness fully overtook his vision, and MK didn’t have the chance to answer.

———

“—kill you, monkey asshole—”

“—do I have to do with this?”

“—our kid a — concussion!”

“—my fault?”

MK groaned, feeling faintly like he was going to vomit. He didn’t try to sit up, this time.

“MK, how are you?”

He eyed his maybe-friends warily. “Trying to figure out if I’m being tricked.”

“Yeah, about that. You’ve got a concussion, kiddo.”

Well, that was a lousy excuse. “I didn’t even hit my head,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Try again.”

“What about that earthquake earlier?” Sandy offered.

“That lasted for like, ten seconds.” Not even. It had been over before it had even actually begun. They needed to try harder than this to fool him. He’d almost fallen for their lies the last time he’d been awake. He couldn’t risk it happening again.

“It definitely lasted for longer than that,” Pigsy said.

“No?”

“Yeah?”

“I bet that’s what happened, then. You hit yourself on the head during the earthquake, forget some important shit — I mean, stuff — gave yourself a concussion, and then you went on a quest that I like to call how badly can I scare my parentals?” Pigsy said, all but yelling by the time he was done with his explanation.

Out of all of that, MK couldn’t help but hone in on one part of it. “...parentals?”

Mei sighed. “You’ve forgotten a lot.”

MK looked at her for a long moment. He still just wasn’t totally convinced. But if there was one thing he knew Yin and Jin would jump at, it was this. One last try. “You know what? I changed my mind. I am in love with you.”

“I — what the fuck, MK?” Mei asked, looking sick at the thought.

“Oh, thank god,” he said, sighing in relief. “Okay, I believe you now.”

Thinking about it, he supposed it all made sense. It didn’t make it much less disturbing, though. In fact, the growing sense of horror he was getting was almost worse than thinking he was inside the Calabash.

But god, it had all been so obvious. Besides the initial earthquake, there had been nothing else like it the entire day. No glitches, no inconsistencies, no random people surrounding him and insisting that this  was completely and totally perfect. Yin and Jin would have probably jumped at the chance to gloat once he’d initially figured it out, too.

In short, MK was just… really fucking stupid. 

Shit, it was really hitting him now. He must have seemed absolutely fucking crazy all day. Especially considering he’d never told anybody about his first experience in the Calabash.

His friends really had been concerned about him. And with good reason. To them, he’d just lost his mind out of nowhere.

He’d attacked them. He’d actually landed a hit on Mei. He’d been so sure that they weren’t really them. Oh god.

He couldn’t breathe.

He was so stupid. He’d freaked out over nothing, and had very obviously put his friends through enormous stress. All because of a little paranoia that had snowballed into — well. This.

He’d gotten a fucking concussion, broken something in his leg, he’d attacked Mei, he’d fought with everything in him against the people who were only trying to protect him. And all he had in response was to try to hurt them.

He was an idiot.

“C’mere, bud,” Monkey King said, crouching down beside the bed and wrapping MK in this sort of embrace that was all warm and soft and fuzzy. It was so comforting and nice, and probably more than he deserved. “I’ve got you.”

From the other side of the bed, Mei leaned over, hugging MK from behind.

The others, to the best of their ability with the limited space the hospital bed provided, joined in, however uncomfortably.

It was like being completely cocooned in warmth and love. 

They… still wanted him around.

He’d completely flipped shit for no reason, had attacked them and screamed at them and done everything in his power to get away, but they still wanted him around. He’d been so sure they would be disappointed in him, would be angry that he’d fought them so viciously, or even hate him.

But if this was anything to go by, they didn’t.

In fact, he’d never felt so safe.

“You’re gonna be okay,” Tang assured from somewhere to his left.

For the first time in the last day (two days? more?), he actually believed it. His friends were real, they weren’t out to end him, and the danger, for the most part, was gone.

The Demon Bull family was gone, locked away under a mountain. Jin and Yin had nothing to do with it, this time.

Also, Pigsy had willingly referred to himself as MK’s parent figure, and wow was that strange.

Strange, but not unwelcome. 

And, if the day’s interactions were anything to go by, it seemed like Monkey King didn’t just tolerate him, but actually… actually cared about him?

He wondered if he’d felt that way at the point in time where MK’s memory stopped.

It was startling to know that everyone else in the room was much better informed about… well, everything, than him. They knew about thoughts and feelings he’d had that he didn’t even recall experiencing. They knew about his greatest battle, about how his relationship with all of them had developed in that time, all of it.

And he didn’t.

There was an uncomfortable gaping hole in his mind that he hadn’t even known was there. He felt sort of… naked without it. Like he’d run to work without his pants on and for some reason or another, couldn’t get back up to grab a pair.

His stupid brain was locking the door so that he couldn’t retrieve his pants.

But it would be okay. Something deep within him told him it would be. Or maybe it was the pile of people crowding around him in a group-hug, who knew. Probably a little bit of both.

But really, he was somehow certain that it would work out. He would regain his memory, and in the meantime, the others could fill him in on everything that he’d missed.

It was all going to be fine. It would take some adjusting, and it would be hard, but they still wanted him around. That was, in of itself, a miracle.

“Wait, does this mean he doesn’t remember that Tang and Pigsy are together?”

“What?”

[jonbernthalslut]

ok no ones gonna read this but i don’t care bc my brain is full as shit rn

OKAY SO FIRST OF ALL

in age of ultron steve can’t lift mjolnir but in endgame he can so one can ask what exactly changed

civil war

steve knew that the winter solider murdered howard and maria stark bc obviously when he was trying to find bucky he found out everything he possibly could and in age of ultron he’s keeping that secret

how could one be worthy of the power of thor while keeping a secret like that from someone so close to him? obviously he wasn’t but the hammer moved a little. because he was still steve rogers and he was close

and then tony finds out and steve spends the next few years fighting his ass off to save the world and save all of the people he cares about and he doesn’t have this secret anymore and he’s just whole and good. so he’s worthy.

AND SECOND OF ALL A BIT OFF TOPIC

wandavision!!!!

1. darcy lewis was a fucking POLISCI MAJOR and met the god of thunder and now she’s a fucking astrophysicist. and ITS DR DARCY LEWIS WHAT AJ ICON and also she’s so cute i’m in love with her

2. agatha fucking harkness. agnes absolutely knows what’s going on and is possibly behind it. she’s completely off her rocker in the comic books. agnes is the one constantly showing up to “help” wanda. she’s the only one who kind of breaks character and doesn’t freak about it like she literally asks wanda to restart the scene. maybe she created the entire reality and she’s the one doing this

3. whoever did create the reality because i’m 80% sure it wasn’t wanda has an ulterior motive. they obviously didn’t create this sitcom shit to give wanda her happiness. i’d bet money theyre after the kids who in the comics come from shards of mephisto’s soul and are incredibly powerful. the only reason they’d give wanda the family she wants. ie vision and the kids would be to get these children whether to use them as weapons or kill them to gain more power

4. MEPHISTO. okay in the comics this asshole gives her the kids and i cant remember if he wanted to weaponize or kill them. either way i’d bet the kids aren’t identified because they weren’t real before west view. aka they were created within the anomaly. in the comics everything he does drives wanda so mad she breaks the multiverse

5. multiverse. in the comics wanda breaks the multiverse. it has been confirmed she is connected to dr stranges multiverse of madness which begins after wandavision season one. i personally think that wanda will break the multiverse (possibly having something to with evan peters pietro (peter) maximoffs appearance in wandavision (the x men could join the mcu seeing as disney bought out the franchise)

6. vision. so i don’t think vision is a corpse anymore. i also don’t think he’s connected to the mindstone at least like he was. vision has shown sympathy before but the emotions he shows in wandavision (especially episode 5) is something more. he’s never gotten angry at wanda like he did. he’s never been confused like he is. vision has never been unaware. i think someone else brought vision back, either agatha or mephisto or some other villian marvel will bring in. before episode 5 vision has never really questioned this reality before but something changed and i can’t really pinpoint what. honestly if anyone figures out what’s going on i think it’ll be vision

6. wanda has also never shown she has the power to bring someone back from the dead AND if she can, i don’t think she would. when sparky dies and billy and tommy beg her to bring him back she says ‘we cannot reverse death no matter how sad it makes us’ and wanda has seen so much death in her life. her parents, pietro and vision. not to mention all the people she killed in lagos and everyone who died in sokovia in age of ultron. not once in her grief of pietro is it shown she tried to bring him back.

7. wanda didn’t start this. she literally says in episode five ‘i don’t even know how any of this staryed’ so maybe mephisto or agatha promised her vision and a family to sort of trick or sate her to get what the want. wanda has been thru a lot yes but nothing so far has pointed to her losing it like this. if it is wanda then it would have to be a complete character change because the wanda we know so far would never enslave and warp people’s minds like this, so permantly (so far) and so widespread. she would be essentially holding an entire hound hostage which just seems out of character for the girl that killed the love of her life, who begged her to, just to save the world. also when she re-enters west view after giving the drone back to sword the force field goes from the blue we’ve been seeing to red indicating someone else’s power is present.

8. pietro!!! so obviously it isn’t the pietro we know. it’s evan peters pietro which is leading to me questioning if whoever created this anomaly mahbe has the power to pull people from another universe. it would be really cool if our first introduction of the x men j to the mcu is peter maximoff. either way pietro’s return is further evidence it’s not wanda creating and controlling the anomaly. when there’s a knock at the door she says i didn’t do that. and she is completely thrown off when she sees pietro. she doesn’t even recognize him at first because obviously it isn’t the same pietro. but id bet that like dottie and agnes sword cant identify pietro either since he probably wasn’t somebody that existed in this universe. i don’t think peter maximoff would willingly work with someone like mephisto or agatha unless he was tricked but i’d bet he literally just doesn’t know what’s going on

9. monica woo and darcy!! i don’t really have many theories about them but i am very very glad that these characters who were previously just side characters in marvel movies that aren’t as widely appreciated as say iron man or the avengers are being given bigger roles!!! i would definitely like to know why monica is uncomfortable talking about carol though? it’s a very big change from the monica we met in captain marvel.

10. hayward. man this guy SUCKS. the only other person we’ve reallt seen talk about wanda like he did was thaddeus ross when he was trying to get the avengers to sign the sokovia accords after lagos. he calls her a terrorist and brings up her history with hydra, talks about the people she killed in lagos and basically insinuates that she’s a villain (which darcy and woo visibly disagree with as id imagine a lot of people do seeing as wanda was key in defeating thanos and bringing people back from the blip, helped save the world after ultron tried to blow it to hell and earned the trust and respect of earths mightiest heroes) i wouldn’t be surprised if he works for hydra or even aim if that makes its presence in the mcu

[nachotrash]

MORE INCORRECT QUOTES WITH MY MOOTS

ft: @catchmewiddershins @lilikags and @paradise-creator // no haikyuu boys this time

Pauline: No more making fun of me when I misuse dated cultural references, alright? Are we cowabunga on this? Wid, sighing: Fine. We're cowabunga.

------------------

Pauline: We're having a baby. Shiyu: Oh, congradu- Wid, slamming adoption papers onto teh table: It's you, sign here.

---------------

Pauline: Why are there little handprints all over the walls? Shiyu, whispering: Why are there little handprints all over the walls? Wid, whispering: Because I have little hands. Shiyu: Because they have little hands.

------------------

Wid: I was born for politics. I have great hair and I love lying.

--------------

Lili: Life keeps fucking me and I can't remember the safeword.

---------------

Wid: Pros and cons of dating me. Wid: Pros. You'll be the cute one. Wid: Cons. Holy shit, where do I begin-

(cons. you're the smart one😔)

----------------

Shiyu: Sure, you're verified on twitter, but are you verified in the eyes of god?

-------------

Pauline: Theater kids are just choir kids who joined forces with the band and strings kids.

-------------

Shiyu: Did you just call me a shrimp, you asshole?! I'm still growing, dammit!

(*lipbites in 166 cm*)

--------------

Wid: I don't dab. I stab.

(nOw WhEarE HAvE i SeEn ThIs BeFoRe)

----------------

Shiyu: I scare people a lot because I walk very softly and they don't hear me enter rooms. So when they turn around, I'm just kind of there and their fear fuels me.

(t-pose to assert dominance)

---------------

Shiyu, as a child, reading their school assignment out loud: I love my library because... Shiyu, mouthing words while writing: I love reading, fuck you.

(lmao baby nacho really be bold)

--------------------

Shiyu: The ‘how the fucks’ and 'why are you so dumbs’ don’t matter. All that matters is that I have a new gun.

------------------

Lili: It's not ugly, just aesthetically challenged.

----------------

Pauline: The last time I went to an urgent care clinic, I checked off 'excessive crying' on the symptom list, and then the nurse got really confused and said that was meant for babies.

--------------

Pauline: All of your existences are confusing. The Squad: How so? Pauline: Your presence is annoying, but the thought of anything bad happening to any of you upsets me.

(we are the squad now)

---------------

Lili: Blackmail is such an ugly word. I prefer extortion. The X makes it sound cool.

---------------

Wid: Real life should have a fucking search function, or something. Wid: I need my socks.

------------------

Pauline: New year, same me. Because I'm perfect.

(yes yes you are how dare you)

------------

Shiyu: Yeah I'm LGBT. Shiyu: cuLt leader. Shiyu: God hates me personally. Shiyu: cowBoy hat. Shiyu: *sniffles* Trying my best.

(my asexual ass be like;)

-------------

Wid: *plays shreksophone* Wid: Woo. Wid: Time to listen to this on loop for all eternity. Shiyu: ...Genius coping mechanism my friend

---------------

Shiyu: Treat spiders the way you want to be treated. Pauline: Killed without hesitation.

----------

Pauline: The next time I open up to someone, it'll be my autopsy.

---------------

Pauline: Sometimes, I don’t realize an event was traumatic until I tell it as a funny story and notice everyone is staring at me weird.

-----------------

Pauline: I hate Lili. Shiyu: "Hate' is a strong word. Pauline: I have strong opinions.

(oh no)

----------

Wid: How does that even work? Shiyu, mocking them: hOw dO yOu UsE a cOmPUteR aNd KnOw wHaTS GoiNg oN iT DoEsNt mAke SeNSe?! Wid: Your face doesnt make sense.

(...fair enough)

------------

Pauline: Get in, loser, we’re committing vehicular manslaughter!

-----------

Pauline: My stomach growled super loud in French. Pauline: I would like to clarify, my stomach did not speak in French. It growled during French class. Shiyu: Bonjour. Lili: Le growl. Wid: Hon hon hon, feed me a baguette.

(reminds me of the 'ill speak french between your legs' tumblr legend and im wheezing)

------------------

Shiyu: *tapping fingers on table* Lili: *taps fingers back furiously* Wid: …What’s going on? Pauline: Morse code. They’re talking. Shiyu: -.-- ..- .-. / - …. . / -.-. ..- - . … - Lili: *slams hands on table* YOU TAKE THAT BACK!

-----------------

Shiyu: For self defense reasons, I'm going to pretend to be a burglar and you guys have to act wisely. Wid, Lili, & Pauline: Okay. Shiyu: If you don't want to die, give me all your money. Wid: Bold of you to assume I have money. Lili: Bold of you to assume I don't want to die. Pauline: Bold of you to assume I can die.

(pauline is a goddess. goddesses cant die)

------------------

Lili: If I punch myself and it hurts, am I weak or strong? Wid: Strong. Shiyu: Weak. Pauline: An idiot, is what your are.

(as long as you dont flinch or scream youre strong. unless you get punched in the gut by someone like ushijima ofc)

--------------------

Shiyu: Those darn tall old people. Wid: Darm em' indeed. Pauline: Don't worry, they'll be gone soon enough. Lili: *sharpening knife* Yes. Dead. The Squad: Lili: Hahaha. Lili: ...Is this self-destructive behaviour?

-----------------

Wid: Oh god, they texted you ‘hi.’’ punctuation only means one thing, Pauline. They're mad at you. Pauline: No, it's Shiyu. They're just being gramatically correct! *meanwhile* Shiyu: And then I used a period so they'd know that I'm mad at them. Lili: A period doesn't say 'I'm mad', it says 'you're dead to me'. Shiyu: I stand by my choice.

------------------

Wid: What do we think of Shiyu? *pause* Lili: *sighs* Nice pal. Pauline: I think they're gay.

=------------

Wid: Where is Shiyu? Pauline: I'll do you one better, who is Shiyu?? Lili: Here's a better question, why is Shiyu?

(i dont know man. ive been trying to figure it out for the last few years)

--------------

Wid: On the count of three, what’s your favorite cake? Wid & Lili: One, two, three- Wid & Lili: Chocolate cake, peanutbutter frosting, and chocolate chunks! Shiyu: Our turn, Pauline! One, two, three- Shiyu: Vanilla! Pauline: I’ve never had cake before. What is cake?

----------------

Pauline: I am darkness. I am an power. I am your worst nightmare. I could kill a man in more ways than you can imagine. I am the night. I am fury, I am a weapon, I am- Wid: A doll. Shiyu: A cinnamon roll. Lili: A sweetheart. Pauline: Pauline: ...stop it.

(cant deny the truth bby)

---------------

Wid, Pauline & Shiyu: *screaming* Lili: *runs into the room* What's wrong, Shiyu?! Wid: Wait, why are you asking Shiyu that when Pauline and I are also here? Lili: Because Shiyu wouldn't scream unless it's an emergency. You two scream whenever you have the chance.

(i mean... its true )

-----------------

Pauline: What’s wrong? You look 10 seconds away from ripping someone’s throat out. Wid: Fucking Shiyu and Lili were trying to invoke one of the minor gods again last night. I didn't get an ounce of sleep, thanks to their bloody chanting.

(manifests dvalin cause i wanna ride on their back and fall off)

-------------------

Lili: Wake me up- Wid: Before you go go Shiyu: When September ends Pauline: WAKE ME UP INSIDE

(cant wake up- WAKE ME UP INSIDE)

--------------------

Shiyu, watching Pauline & Lili panic : What's going on? Wid: Pauline is having a midlife crisis and Lili is just having a crisis.

--------------

Lili: *Gasp* Pauline: wHAT?? Lili: What if soy milk is just milk introducing itself in Spanish? Pauline: *inhales* Wid, in another room with Shiyu: Why can I hear screeching?

(shiyu: same shit different day)

----------------------------

Shiyu: Christmas is cancelled. Wid: You can't cancel a holiday. Shiyu: Keep it up, Wid, and you'll lose New Year's too. Wid: What does that mean? Shiyu: Lili, take New Year's away from Wid.

--------------------

Pauline: So, are they your friend or... Lili: They’re like Wid, but if Wid was ordered to be around you. Pauline: Oh, so Shiyu. Lili: Precisely!

(if its about how annoyed i always look then you ahve a point)

----------------

Wid: You’re just being paranoid. Again. Pauline: When have I been paranoid? Wid: Um, when you first met Lili you thought they were an undercover cop…? Pauline: No one has a wart that big, I thought it was a surveillance camera! Wid: And last year you were sure Shiyu was a mermaid! Pauline: They hate wearing shirts! COINCIDENCE?! *Later, when Pauline’s theory is proven wrong* Wid: Do you have anything to say for yourself? Pauline: I still think Shiyu is a mermaid.

(id gladly be one)

--------------------

*Wid drunkenly wanders around the manor and Lili is drunkenly giggling* Shiyu, completely sober: *sighs* Well, looks like it's just me and you against the wold, Pauline. Pauline, going to their room: Nope, just you. *shuts door*

----------------

Wid: We need to distract these guys. Lili: Leave it to me. Lili: Centaurs have six limbs and are therefore insects. Discuss. Pauline & Shiyu: *immediately begin arguing*

(*pulls out dictionary*)

------------------

Police: You’re under arrest for trying to carry three people on a single motorcycle. Shiyu, with Wid and Lili behind them: Wait, what do you mean THREE?! Police: Yes…three. Shiyu: Oh, my God— What the fuck!? Police: Wha- Shiyu: Pauline FUCKING FELL OFF!

----------------------

Wid: What is love? Pauline: An emotional minefield. Shiyu: A neurochemical reaction. Lili: Baby don't hurt me.

(BECAUSE FUCK EMOTIONS)

--------------------

Pauline: I currently have 7 empty notebooks and I have no idea what to put in them. Any suggestions? Wid: Put spaghetti in it. Pauline: I am currently taking suggestions from everyone but you. Lili: Put spaghetti in it. Pauline: I am currently taking suggestions from everyone but you two. Shiyu: Put spaghetti in it. Pauline: I am no longer taking suggestions.

------------------

Shiyu, pointing to the wall: What color is this? Pauline: Gray. Lili: Grey. Shiyu, turning to Wid: Now tell them what color you think it is. Wid: Dark white.

[rowaning]

The Complete Fiction of HP Lovecraft rated by me, someone who read them all* but has a terrible memory

The Beast in The Cave: uh a guy goes on a cave tour and finds a creature that was like a human that got lost and adapted to its surroundings. 0/10 just because im pretty sure there was another one with this exact premise and neither of them were memorable at all.

The Alchemist: dude achieves immortality and lives in the narrators basement and has pledged to murder his entire lineage or something. 4/10 the alchemy stuff was actually kind of interesting

The Tomb: im pretty sure this is the one where a guy starts hanging out in a tomb and like travels back in time/becomes one of his ancestors? 5/10 if its the one im thinking of i did enjoy reading it

Dagon: guy lands on a mysterious island with signs of a long dead civilization. 1/10 i do not remember what happened in it

A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson: 0/10 i have no memory of this

Polaris: also 0/10 i forgot all about it

Beyond the Wall of Sleep: could be any of the dream focused ones. if its the one about the dude sailing into the void or whatever than 4/10 not too bad

Memory: ironically, i dont remember it. 0/10

Old Bugs: 1/10 for the title god i wish i remembered this one

The Transition of Juan Romero: i got nothing. 0/10

The White Ship: this might also be the one about the dude sailing into the void? i liked that one he lived in a lighthouse and boarded a dream ship and just fucking left it was fun. 4/10

The Street: uh i think really steep street that didnt actually exist. 3/10

The Doom that Came to Sarnath: i wanna say another one of the dream centered ones where a town discovers some old relics and blatantly disrespects them and gets exactly whats coming to it. 5/10 they deserved what they got

The Statement of Randolph Carter: ok this dude shows up several times. i think this one is about how he returns to his childhood home then travels back in time and creates a time loop paradox thing. 1/10 meh

The Terrible Old Man: uh some thieves harrass a weird old guy and get got. 5/10

The Cats of Ulthar: someone is mean to a cat in a dream city, all of the rest of the cats get revenge and are revered for the rest of time. 2/10 (-3 because lovecraft has a specific name he gives to apparently every fictional and real cat he encounters and wow i wish he hadn't)

The Tree: i feel like this is something to do with a person becoming a tree but i cant actually remember. 0/10

Celephais: yeah no i got nothing 0/10

The Picture in the House: also nothing 0/10

The Temple: nope 0/10

Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and his Family: is this the one where the dude's great grandfather married an ape? i dont think so but im not sure. 0/10, -5/10 if it is that one cause that one was especially shitty

From Beyond: nope 0/10

Nyarlathotep: charismatic dude shows up and is like get in bitches we're going to the void. i love nyarlathotep cause hes the one who directly interacts with humanity and like wears a human suit or whatever so hes just some dude whos like hey im gonna feed you to azathoth 5/0

The Quest of Iranon: got nothing 0/10

The Music of Erich Zann: narrator makes friends with an old musician whos being hunted by supernatural forces. 2/10 because i remember it but it was just ok

Ex Oblivione: 1/10 for the title but i have no clue what it was about

Sweet Ermengarde: lovecraft's sole attempt at comedy. not to my taste like at all 0/10

The Nameless city: nope 0/10

The Outsider: also nope 0/10

The Moon-Bog: sounds cool, dont remember it. 0/10

The Other Gods: dude tries to find the gods of humanity where they live on a big mountain, actually finds them, is immediately smited by the Other Gods who protect the gods of humanity. 3/10 he deserved it

Azathoth: dont recall, 0/10

Herbert West- Reanimator: Arkham man Herbert West and his assistant ressurect the dead with little thought to the consequences, then get murdered by a band of said resurrected dead. 5/10

Hypnos: nope 0/10

What the Moon Brings: also nope 0/10

The Hound: still nope 0/10

The Lurking Fear: again, nope 0/10

The Rats in the Walls: dude returns to his ancestral home, hears rats, excavates the basement and finds out that his ancestors ate human flesh, eats his friend. 1/10 it was an interesting read but can lovecraft please stop calling cats that.

The Unnameable: no clue 0/10

The Festival: nope 0/10

*Under the Pyramids: ok im pretty sure this is the one with houdini which is the only one i could not read. i went into this mentally prepared for lovecraft's bigotry but i was not mentally prepared for him dropping harry houdini, avid skeptic who absolutely would have beat the shit out of him for this, into the middle of his super racist paranormal horror. -1000/10

The Shunned House: nope 0/10

The Horror at Red Hook: also nope 0/10

He: cool title, no memory of the story. 0/10

In the Vault: wow im bad at this. 0/10

Cool Air: still no 0/10

The Call of Cthulhu: kind of all over the place, there was a thing about artists and then a thing about a cop investigating a cult. 3/10 meh but ill give it a bonus for being a staple of horror fiction.

Pickman's Model: uh artist sees some wild shit and draws it and then it eats him. 2/10 i forget the details

The Strange High House in the Mist: if this is the one im thinking of, dude does a dangerous climb to find a mysterious house and meet the inhabitant who is kind of interdimensional and also being hunted by interdimensional things. also maybe the house eats people? 2/10

The Silver Key: another Randolph Carter one, and i think this is actually the one about him travelling back in time so idk what the other one was. 3/10

The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath: randolph carter goes on a quest in the dream world to find the gods of humanity and ask why they wont let him check out this cool city he can see from his window. lots of action and very wordy and went a lot of different places. 4/10 good read but extremely xenophobic

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward: guy investigates his ancestor who looks disturbingly like him, ancestor comes back to life and kills him and takes his place and a bunch of other stuff happens. mostly a dramatized genealogical study. 3/10 not bad, very suspenseful

The Colour Out Of Space: meteor lands on a farm, scientists get weirded out by it, everything in the area gets weird then dead, alien thing gets enough power from draining nearby life-forms to escape earth. fun twist ending. 4/10 bonus for being one of the better ones, detraction for writing out a 'rural accent'

The Descendant: nope, 0/10

The Very Old Folk: nope again, 0/10

History of the Necronomicon: very dry. fake history of lovecraft's fake book thats super important to a lot of the stories. 0/10

The Dunwich Horror: isolated witchy family has a kid who no one likes that grows up real fast. graphic descriptions of renovation. a horror gets unleashed on the area and the local folklore scholars have to deal with it. 1/10 nothing good enough to counter the xenophobia

Ibid: i remember this one. no idea what it's deal was. pseudo-bibliography? it was weird. 0/10

The Whisperer in Darkness: guy has a correspondance with another guy about local folk legends based on evil crab things. other guy gets straight up replaced by an evil crab thing and first guy doesnt even notice. imagine if you followed up on a scam email and didnt realize anything was up until you saw that the face of the dude you were talking to in person was a mask. 4/10 for the comedy this guy would not last in the internet age at all

At The Mountains of Madness: guy whines about penguins and how awful it would be if there were civilizations that predated humanity. also commits grave desecration. i get hit by the realization that if lovecraft was less of a racist coward he wouldve made a great speculative sci fi author. 3/10 i would love to watch that old asshole get absolutely torn to shreds by the monster fucker community

The Shadow over Innsmouth: Fish People! Leave Them Alone! Or Else! 5/10 the protagonist gets to live the dream by escaping human society and becoming an immortal fish person

The Dreams in the Witch House: dude rents an objectively haunted room, doesnt listen to people trying to help him, gets murdered by a weird rat. later they find a shit ton of bones in the attic. 2/10 meh

Through The Gates of the Silver Key: Randolph Carter transcends time and space, then de-transcends time and space and immediately gets stuck on another planet in the distant past, makes a long and difficult journey back to earth to find that his estate is being divided amongst his heirs. the comedy potential of a man stuck in an alien body dealing with a legal system that has declared him dead is not examined. 2/10

The Thing on the Doorstep: narrator's good friend marries a fish person witch who steals his body. thats basically it. 3/10. at this point im like wow these narrators really refuse to believe the heavily foreshadowed supernatural explanations that turn out to be correct huh.

The Evil Clergyman: dude is in a room. some ghosts (?) show up. dude has a UV light for some reason. Gets his face stolen i guess and just has to live with it. 5/10 for being absolutely buck wild and refusing to explain anything

The Book: nope 0/10

The Shadow Out Of Time: dude gets his body stolen by ancient scholar species. agonizes about it for a while. finds archaeological evidence of said species. finds a book he wrote while living with said species. almost gets eaten by something. 3/10 more cool speculative sci fi but lame protagonist

The Haunter of the Dark: you'd think id remember it bc this was the last one and i read it last night. oh wait, nvm i do remember it. dude finds an old box in a run down culty church and unleashes a horror that then comes and fucks him up. 1/10 meh.

[h2bakugou]

attention | dabi

summary: dabi and you were a thing but after he messed around with a friend, the two of you split. you’re still infatuated with him, and craving his attention.

a/n: i’ve been thirsting over dabi lately, someone send me a bible. this is based off of charlie puth’s ‘attention.’ i’m also totally open to doing a part two?? 

key: (y/n) - your name / (f/n) - first name / (l/n) - last name / (e/c) - eye color / (h/c) - hair color / (y/q) - your quirk

warnings: swearing, mentions of sex, smut (sorta)

wordcount: 1.3k

»»————-　★　————-««

»»————-　★　————-««

You've been runnin' 'round, runnin' 'round, runnin' 'round throwin' that dirt all on my name.

Dabi was pissed. Not as much as you thought he’d be though. He would’ve guessed you’d be mad. Hooking up with someone you were close too, it was a dick move. But you’d be lying if you said you weren’t still so attracted to him.

He was enchanting, alluring, persuasive. An asshole. He was everything and more, and not to mention he outlived all of your expectations from shitty men you’d met in the past.

So you’d been slandering his name. Calling him a lair, doing everything in your power to bring him down a few notches. You knew exactly what you were doing, and you had no intention of stopping.

'Cause you knew that I, knew that I, knew that I'd call you up.

When Dabi’s caller id appeared on your screen, you couldn’t help but smirk. It was about time.

“You think you’re real clever huh?” Dabi’s voice drifted into your ear. The sound of him in your ear brought back so many memories, so many fantasies.

“To what pleasure do I owe you, Dabi.” You retorted, playing coy would draw him in. You wanted him back. But you’d never admit that out loud.

“Stop playing dumb. I know what you’re trying to do.” Dabi’s voice was as rough and arrogant as always. It was his voice that left you on edge the most. He could touch you and send sparks throughout your body, but his voice was wonderful on top of it all.

“Do you? I’d hate for you to misunderstand.” You remarked. You could hear Dabi chuckle on the other end. You bit your bottom lip and sat back in your chair. You stared at the sleek dress hung up on the clothing rack.

“Look I’ve got business to tend too. Later.�� Dabi hung up abruptly. You frowned and chucked your phone onto your bed. It was time for step number two.

You've been going 'round, going 'round, going 'round every party in LA.

The dress was exactly as short as you thought it’d be. It’d be explicit for sure, but you didn’t care. You weren’t worried about anyone else’s eyes on you except for Dabi. He was your goal.

And so you headed out, short and tight black dress, heels, and all the other nonsense, you began your search.

Traveling to the clubs was fun, but also annoying. So you started asking people around if they’d seen Dabi. And finally, you made it to the same club. You thanked yourself for being so talkative. 

You wouldn’t have gotten here if you hadn’t talked that guy into thinking he was going to get a blowjob. Poor guy.

'Cause you knew that I, knew that I, knew that I'd be at one, oh

You locked eyes with Dabi and smirked. You made your way over to the man and he pinned you against the wall.

“Oh well, what a coincidence.” You smirked. Dabi’s eyes gazed at you hungrily. You could tell he hadn’t seen you like this in a while.

I know that dress is karma, perfume regret.

“I ‘outta take you to the back room and fuck you senseless.” Dabi cursed, his hand gripping at your throat.

“I don’t mind that plan.” You teased, running your hands down his chest.

“I know what you’re up too. You aren’t in the slightest bit slick.” Dabi groaned.

You got me thinking 'bout when you were mine, ooh.

He couldn’t stop thinking about how you used to be his. Only his. His little fucktoy. His princess. His everything.

He remembered the times you’d fuck him for doing such a good job on a mission. Or when you’d fall asleep next to him after a hard day.

He missed that.

He missed you.

And now I'm all up on ya, what you expect?

Dabi leaned in closer, his mouth lingering by your ear.

“You’ve always been a slut, whether it was for me or attention.” Dabi’s breath tickled your neck and made your knees weaken.

“You should punish me. That might make up for how bad I’ve been.” You teased, your hand slipping down into his pants.

“In public like this? Babygirl you really do want me back huh?” Dabi bit your earlobe, closing the space between you two a little more so the act wouldn’t be seen by everyone.

You began to jerk Dabi off, your hand stroking his cock.

But you're not coming home with me tonight.

“You were always so quick to make me feel good.” Dabi groaned, his lips pressing against your neck. He kissed and nipped at your neck while you continued your fun.

Dabi was still as extravagant as you remembered. Girthy and big. Slightly above average and enough to drive you crazy. God how much you’d give for him to be inside you right now.

The more you played with his cock, the more you felt yourself get worked up. Dabi noticed this and slipped a hand down under your dress.

“No panties? It’s like you were expecting me.” Dabi smirked, connecting his lips back to your neck. He’d be sure to leave you with some good marks for in the morning.

Dabi stroked your already soaked pussy, dipping a finger inside you. You let a moan slip out but his lips masked that.

It felt good to have him kiss you again. It felt good to have him teasing your cunt again.

“We don’t want people to know what we’re doing do you babygirl? Or would you like them to see how you’re playing with my cock? You’re so fucking wet for me, it’s adorable.” Dabi teased. He pressed his lips back to yours, his tongue slipping inside your mouth.

It distracted you for a second while he slid another finger inside of you, his thumb rubbing circles on your clit. 

You could feel Dabi twitch in your hand. He came in a matter of seconds. You pulled your hand out and watched as he pulled away from your lips, his fingers never ceasing their movements.

“Lick my cum up, princess.” Dabi ordered. You licked his cum off of your hand and watched as he smirked at you.

“Fuck, Dabi.” You cursed as he picked up his pace. His fingers working diligently under your dress.

Eventually, your legs were shaking and you had came all over his fingers. Dabi licked them clean as you had done with your hand.

“It’s a shame.” Dabi looked at you, twirling a strand of your hair between his fingers.

“What is?” You questioned, leaning against the wall of the club.

“That you’re not coming home with me.” Dabi smirked. You frowned and looked away.

You just want attention, you don't want my heart.

“You want attention. From me.” Dabi spoke so you could hear him. You turned back to look at him.

Maybe you just hate the thought of me with someone new.

“Why?” Dabi asked. You didn’t answer.

“You don’t want me to be with anyone else huh? You were the best I’ve ever had so I’d see why.” Dabi complimented you, in a way.

“You hooked up with one of my-”

“I know. I know.”

Yeah, you just want attention, I knew from the start.

“I knew from the start you just wanted my attention. Wearing that dress, no panties. Slandering my name? If you wanted to fuck that badly you could’ve just asked.” Dabi teased. You knew he wouldn’t have answered if you’d asked upfront like that. He'd give you some witty remark and you’d have to go through all this again.

You're just making sure I'm never gettin' over you, oh.

“Go ahead, continue with your little adventures, I’m not gonna stop you.” Dabi pulled away for the first time that night, the space between you opening back up.

“Dabi wait-”

“See you later, princess.” Dabi smirked. He walked off, leaving you against the wall. 

You pushed a sigh out and stood up, fixing your dress.

“Asshole.” You mumbled. You headed out as well, part of you hoping he’d be waiting outside. But he wasn’t.

And so the quest for Dabi’s attention was over.

But you still weren’t over him.

»»————-　★　————-««

masterlist

[crystallic-moon]

I’m reading Blood Like Magic so here’s my live comments

There will 100% be spoilers

Is she sitting in a pool of blood?

A lot of blood.

Ok but the whole Voya not being able to make a decision thing is exactly like me.

Fuck Uncle Cathius.

“And so humble” I LOVE KEIS BEING ABLE TO HEAR HER THOUGHTS

Wait- Alex’s bleeding came from her eyes and ears, but it was said that that’s how it is for the guys since they don’t have a period. Soo.. is Alex trans?

ALEX IS TRANS I LOVE THE REPRESENTATION

Aww i love what Voya’s mom said to her when Voya was becoming insecure about her hips.

Luc may be mean but he sounds hot ;-;

Holy shit- Mama Jova’s scars— my heart hurts for what she had to go through

Holy shit I think we’re watching how Mama Jova died

The year 2049, I’d be 44 years old in this story

Nooo Eden 🥺

Ok but maybe Mama Jova didn’t mean kill him? But also I get why she’d want bloodshed because of the way she died...

Voya just exposed Luc :0

Omg why am I starting to like Luc

I’m a Luc simp but I shouldn’t be

I suck at remembering to write in this. This whole mystery with Auntie Elaine is confusing.

I also loved that scene at the Night Market where Luc gave her a temporary tattoo. It felt like their first real raw bonding moment.

I wonder if Lucs secretly a witch. Like what if he is but he doesn’t know about it.

Aww Luc called over Voya while he was workinggg she’s growing on him.

LMAO DENNIS BEING LIKE HOW TF DID U GET LIC TO TALK TO YOU

Priya holding Edens hand hurts because she’s probably scared it may be the last time she might get to.

AHAH- LUCS LIKE U SURE UR MOM WOULD LET U HAVE A BOY IN UR ROOM, AND VOYA FREEZES AND HES LIKE DIDNT THINK ABOUT THAT DID U

Why was that cute omg

Oh they’re definitely starting to like each other

*clears throat* Lucs letting her get into his personal space

Justin did something to Elaine I know it.

I think Elaine had something to do with Justin discovering the genetic modification thing.

I like Luc and Alex kinda bonding over both being trans.

Are they really talking about her when they know she’s in the house or near it?? Y’all are witches I’d assume you’d be a bit smarter about this.

Omg he went after her crying, my heart.

HE OFFERED TO HUG HER

AWW HES SO AWKWARD IT HURTS

Dammit she has to kill him.

“‘I think you make him flustered.’” MHM YES SHE DOES

I feel so bad for Alex she didn’t deserve to find out that way.

I don’t know if I love or hate that Voya said yes to dinner.

“Every day, more and more cracks in our family get exposed” - my theory is that the whole ‘destroy your first love’ thing is about her family. Voya’s family is her first love and the has to destroy its secrets.

Can we not kill Luc please

Oh shit she killed Juras-

Oh he survived

*cough* they definitely like each other

Man, fuck Justin.

YES GO BE SPONTANEOUS

Peptalkpeptalkpeptalk

“If I give it back, what excuse will I have to keep inviting you places to return it?” STOP HES SO CUTE

I really love the representation of both Luc and Alex being trans. And Keisha being a lesbian.

He’s definitely given her profile more than a ‘glance’

I know I’ve said it before. And it’s probably getting repetitive. But I love the trans representation in Luc.

I feel like Luc is being more soft with Voya, when Voya was like examining his body cuz he told her about how often he eats, he awkwardly was like could u not examine my body. But like with other ppl I feel like he wouldn’t been more snappy with it, cuz as we’ve seen he’s not afraid to be a little mean.

Honestly I get Lucs thing about speaking Spanish to his family and being told he has an accent every time. Happens to me a lot, it’s irritating but I try.

Yes u like him and he likes u it’s so obvious now kiss.

THEY KISSED OMG

They are so adorable please don’t make her kill him.

I am so worried about her watching this.

JOHAN OMG

stop the man was wipping them like how Mama Jova died is that meant to be a sign???

Luc came to see her???

Okay okay but how tf is she supposed to explain to Luc that she got whipped by a magical man or whatever that wat because she wanted to watch a ritual so she could prepare to kill him?? - not even the killing him part, how is she supposed to explain the some magic dude whipped me part?!

No it’s a vision girl don’t believe it.

ITS A VISION STOP IT.

Omg can this girl catch a break she just got badly injured and almost died she doesn’t need this.

WAIT LUC WAS ACTUALLY THERE

WAIT THE THING SHE SAID IN HER VISION DID SHE SAY THEM OUTLOUD?!

CUZ IF SHE DID SHE MENTIONED HURTING JURAS SO LUC WOULD KNOW SHE DID SOMETHING TO JURAS.

NOOOO

I’m upset.

Watching Voya and her dad bind is bittersweet cuz I know he still hurt her despite this bonding moment.

Mama Jova better have a good ass lesson to teach Voya with this task cuz girl is going through it.

I want to see Luc again.

I am so anxious to keep reading cuz I genuinely don’t know what’s going to happen.

I feel like Lucs gonna show up to her cooking competition especially since he can easily find her location.

I WAS RIGHT HE SHOWED UP

Fuck Justin man.

At least he’s the successor

Ok I get Voya wanting to be honest but why would admit that he still considering killing him ;-; for all you know he could be recording this and take it to the cops.

“Are you breaking up with me?” STOP STOP RIGHT NOW

I hate that he blocked her but like -he has a very very valid reason. Surprised he didn’t get a whole restraining order.

Wait wait since Voya broke the circle when they were casting the spell to protect caribana that means there will be no protection and that has to mean something??

I’m betting that something bads gonna happen at the Caribana

I feel like her mom told her until to stay until they got back for a good reason

YAY SHE PASSED BUT WAT DID SHE ASK FOR

Omg I thought Voya got shot—

Ok yes technically Voyas partially to blame for breaking the circle but it’s not entirely her fault

No no no u could’ve just gotten rid of her internship or something but trap her in the house forever? Sorry girl I wouldn’t forgive u either.

I like that Lucs back but it hurts

Holy shit things have gone very south

Ofc he was gonna trap u in glass cage with Eden what did u expect Luc ;-;

Mf I swear to fucking god if u kill granny

Aww Luc and Voyas little moment through the glass. I can tell he feels guilty and still loves her...

He’s still trying to protect her.

Oh shit he’s known since before Luc and Voya even met

They’re not a legitimate genetic match-

THEY STILL FELL FOR EACH OTHER WHO CARES.

I like Voyas thing about him thinking what he had with Elaine was love, because wat they had wasn’t love if he expected her to do anything he asked just because she loved him.

Granny to the rescue

Granny is not to the rescue.

Yes Luc he’s a lying cheat.

Please I thought Luc was destined to die, not Granny 🥺

“Who will by my grandma is she’s gone?” STOP IT RIGHT NOW

“Does it also not matter that I can’t even have a conversation with my parents without arguing? That I’ve forgotten how to speak my own language because you told me it wasn’t important? If the outcome of good, are the consequences irrelevant?” STOP LUC MY BABY DOESNT DESERVE THIS.

Stop that actually hurts cuz Luc sees how great of a relationship Voya has with her family and he’s just there without a relationship with them besides shared genes.

Yes Luc argue with the asshole.

Even tho u were once an asshole.

Edennn 🥺

Omg u love Luc fighting for them

Like I love how Luc fought for Justin to let Granny hug her granddaughter goodbye. It shows he cares and how this really does hurt him especially the way Voya described him wiping away his tears and screaming.

“Granny puts Eden back down on the chair and pauses to stare at Luc. ‘Thank you. ‘Please don’t,’ Luc croaks. ‘Too bad. I already thanked you.’” - Luc probably feels like this is his fault, that’s why he doesn’t want Granny to thank him.

:0 granny was the one who saved Luc from Voya stabbing him in her vision.

I like that Granny respected Voyas wishes of not killing him by saving him herself.

Keis is eternally trapped in the house for nothing.

Seriously.

I mean I’m glad Eden was saved by that but still.

“Why would you tell me this now? Why would you make me sparked as shit with you right as your about to die?” 🥺

She regrets not trusting Voya 🥺

AWW STOP “That means you can’t die. You have to make it up to me. Borrow someone else’s gift. Fix this.”

Granny was always planning making Voya the matriarch.

STOP SHE WONT GET TO BE A MAMA

Omg omg omg it’s Auntie Elaine.

Wait that’s so smart, turning him into the prototype

Omg her killing his body’s was intense—

“Why couldn’t you listen to me? Why couldn’t you find another way?” Luc still cared about Justin but of course he did, he wasn’t the best but it’s still the man who basically raised him.

Aww he tried to save Eden regardless

Omg she almost collapsed

Oh shit. “It’s the Luc I imagined once he knew the truth. That hateful twist to his mouth and narrowing of his eyes.” He hates her.

Wait that’s so sad, him only having the bionic lenses to remember Justin by.

“‘For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. But don’t forget that we both lost someone today.’ Luc shakes his head. ‘You lost someone. I lost everyone.’” - Stopp that’s so sad. Voya lost her granny but she still has her family, but Luc doesn’t have anyone else. He’s absolutely done with Voya, he doesn’t have any other friends, his sponsee siblings seem to hate him, and he argues with his family. Justin was all he had and now that’s gone too...

Sorry I’m mad a Voya too for trapping Keis in the house.

AWW LUC CHANGED THE CHROMOSOME ID THING

“Alex said that now her ID brings up XX the way it should.” I LOVE IT

“I like to think it’s because he’s better than that.” I think he hasn’t threatened or punished them for what happened because deep down he still wants to protect Voya and he’s aware they did it to save themselves and their family.

Woahhh Justina dads death

“The ancestors must love irony.” 💀

I guess she sort of did listen to Luc cuz she’s interning at Roti Roti for Johan.

I hate that Granny’s gone :(

Voyas showing Rena, Lauren’s mom, how she died 🥺

Wait I love that.

“I bring the intent. They bring the blood. We both pay for the gift of magic.”

This was a good book.

I loved the different genres blended together. I loved the magic side of it, it’s witches, and how they had this whole system with a matriarch, and a whole community. I loved the sci fi parts, with the genetic modification and this huge new company NuGene. I loved loved loved the romance between Voya and Luc and how they didn’t get their traditional happy ever after, and how they also weren’t a legit genetic match but they still fell for each other. And I loved the mystery side with figuring out who Mama Elaine was and what important role she played.

I’ll admit the story felt slow in the beginning and I almost decided to turn around and return it for another book but I’m so glad I didn’t because it was a good and eye catching book. But it does upset me and Keis really got the short end of the stick, she spent the whole book working to get a NuGene internship only to end up trapped in the house by the person who pushed her to get the internship.

This was a good book tho I do recommend.

Also Luc never returned Voyas food container.

4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Finished July 15, 2021 at 2pm

[cabaretcal]

it would mean a latte / a.i.

An AU where Ashton works at the campus coffee shop, and you, someone who never even drinks coffee, find yourself wanting to come back to see him...

A/N: Hello babes! I haven’t wrote in a while, but I’m back with this very soft cute AU. This is a part of the 9to5!sos series i started a while back! 

Warnings: None, just a lot of fluff, very cheesy

pairing: Ashton Irwin x reader

Word count: 2.7k

“Kate, I don’t even like coffee. Why would I want to study in a coffee shop?” You follow closely behind your friend, Katie, on the way to the local coffee shop to study for finals. You complained the whole walk to this “super hip coffee shop” that Kate wanted to go to so badly. “I don’t even like coffee, so why would i study here? 

“You can get tea or something, (y/n). Stop complaining!”

You groan at her remark. You usually would just study at the library, but Kate cannot handle having to be quiet in any scenario. That being said, you agree to go to the coffee shop instead. You both walked inside and it was just as you expect: Too loud to study.

You both walked up to the counter, and you had to study the menu for what seemed like forever. What can you get when you hate everything about coffee? The only option is tea. And there’s so many kinds you’ve never even heard of. Chai, english breakfast, London fog, green, mint green, very berry, and more. The amount of teas made you want to pull your hair out. You usually just ordered a sweet tea from mcdonalds. These were all so odd. 

A cheerful, yet calm, male voice filled your ears, “Welcome to Good Coffee! What are we gonna make for you two today?”

You look up at him, and to say you were suddenly interested was an understatement. He had somewhat curly, sandy brown hair. His eyes were a hazel color, and he had a smile that could make someone's day go from a 0 to a 10. 

“I’ll just have a latte without any flavors. She doesn’t like coffee so I don’t know about her.”

The cashier furrows his eyebrows and looks at you with a look of shock, “You don’t like coffee at all? Not even the frappucino shit?”

You blush, stumbling over your words, “I guess I just haven’t had a good kind of coffee before is all. I don’t really know…”

He hums, thinking for a moment, “I’ll surprise you then. If you don’t like it I’ll make you something else. How does that sound?”

You nod shyly, finding it hard to make eye contact. 

He chuckles, taking Kate’s card from her and swiping it.He looks at you, smiling, “I’m Ashton by the way, just so you know.”

You feel heat rise to your cheeks and you quickly walk away to find a table. You set your backpack down by your chair and open your laptop, attempting to hide your face with it. Katie comes to the table holding the two drinks, setting yours beside you while laughing to herself.

“Stop laughing, Kate! After Ben and I parted ways for college I don’t know how to talk to guys…” You pick up your cup and see something written in sharpie on the sticker label, so you look closer for a better look. 

if you have any questions, here’s my number ;)

You were shocked to say the least. That barista was quite attractive, but you made a terrible first impression, so you were confused as to why he gave you his number. You glanced up at the counter, scanning around for him. You caught sight of him steaming some milk at the espresso machine, and he glanced up and locked eyes with you. He smiled, mouthed ‘call me’, and turned back around to work on the drink.

Looks like Good Coffee is gonna be your new study spot. 

--

You paced around your dorm once again for the 4th day in a row. You put his number in your phone and you had a message drafted out: a simple “hey”. But sending it was the real challenge. He was very nice, and extremely good looking, so you were intimidated. What if it turns out he just wants to hookup? Or what if he was only being nice because that’s his job? What if in reality, he’s an asshole? There were many risks involved, and you were not much of a risk taker. You didn’t go back to Good Coffee with Kate because you were nervous. She has been back everyday since, but it just made you nervous. Your phone dinged with a snapchat video from her. You opened it to see a video of Ashton she sneakily took from the table. He was wearing a collared striped shirt and he was laughing with a coworker. She captioned it, “Text your man before I go tell him you want to hang out myself >:(“. 

You sighed, wanting to reply to him badly. But god, it was just really scary. Ever since you broke up with your past boyfriend from high school, you didn’t have good relationship luck. You went on a few tinder dates, but most of them wanted hookups. You will admit, some of the hookups were really good, but they just weren’t the relationship type. 

Your phone dinged again with a text from Kate, saying “He just finished his shift if you want to come study”. You did have a biology exam in a few days, so studying would be highly beneficial. Defeated, you picked up your backpack, shoved your laptop in it, and walked the short walk to the coffee shop. Once you walked in, you sat across from Kate.

“He asked about you when I ordered. He really wants you to text back-”

“Kate, he wont like me. I’m too awkward and scared. There’s no use.”

The bell for when someone comes in the door chimed, and the voice was familiar, but you weren’t sure why. 

“Forgot my jacket, as per usual.” 

“Ashton, you’re always at work even when your shift ends!”

It was the barista guy. You hid behind your laptop screen, praying he wouldn’t see you. But unfortunately, he saw you. You sat up straight and looked at him, face red from embarrassment as he approached the table.

“I thought you weren’t coming back, miss ‘i don’t like coffee’.”

“Oh, um, you know college… really busy…” You fumbled for your pen, trying to occupy yourself. 

“Don’t let her fool you. She’s just shy.”

Ashton chuckled, closing your laptop, “Well, well, well… now you don’t have to worry about texting me.”

You were slightly hurt. Did he just call you out for not texting him? Was he mad at you?

“How about you stop studying for the day and come get lunch with me? I can pay.”

You were shocked, and couldn’t find the words to say. The way his hair fell in his face was mesmerizing, and you found yourself staring at his hands, your mind wandering.

Kate took the pleasure of answering for you, “(y/n) would love to! I can take her bag back to our dorm. Take all the time you want with her.” She winked at you and your face just got redder.

You stood up, following him out the door nervously and went to find somewhere for lunch.

—

Ashton was quite an interesting guy. He was from Australia and was majoring in music education. He was extremely polite, holding open doors and keeping eye contact during conversation. 

You guys both were walking from the restaurant back to your dorm, “So what about you? Tell me about you now. My life story is boring.”

You hummed, thinking of what to tell him, “Well I moved here to Portland from St Louis. I’m majoring in criminology, and a fun fact about me is that I play piano. I'm not very interesting.”

He shook his head, “I think you’re pretty interesting, babe.”

You blush at the nickname, looking down at your shoes, “Most guys here just want to hook up… they never ask about me.”

“Well, I’m not most guys then.” he laced his fingers with yours, walking the rest of the way to your dorm holding you close to him.

—

“Well, here we are…” You stopped in front of your building, letting go of his hand.

“Wanna meet for breakfast in the morning at one of the dining halls? I don’t work tomorrow… or have classes… because it’s Saturday.”

“Yeah, of course! Um… wanna just meet right here at 9?”

“Yeah that’d be great! Well… have a good night…” He started to walk away, but turned back around. 

You looked at him, slightly confused. What did he want to say?”

He gently put his hands on your waist, kissing you softly and pulling away, smirking, “See you tomorrow morning, gorgeous.”

You watched him walk away, stunned. You smile to yourself, swiping your student ID and going inside. 

—

“Good morning, sunshine.” Ashton greeted you when you walked out of your dorm building, holding out his hand for you to take. 

“Good morning, barista boy.” He laughs at your remark as you take his hand and starts walking to the dining hall. On the way to the dining hall, you pass by the coffee shop. He takes a detour, walking inside.

“I need my caffeine fix, what about you?” He looks at you expectantly, waiting for an answer.

“Ash, I’m not much of a coffee drinker. I don’t know what i’d even get.” 

He thinks for a moment, “How about I make you a drink that reminds me of you, hm? I can make tea or coffee, your choice. Or an Italian soda. But I’m choosing the flavors.”

You think for a moment. He seemed so enthusiastic, so you couldn’t say no, “Make me a tea of some kind I suppose.”

He grinned excitedly, going behind the counter, greeting his coworkers in the process. Watching him make drinks was always so mesmerizing. He was so fast and made intricate latte art. He made his and your drink, saying goodbye to his coworkers and leading you out, handing you your drink.

“What is it?” You took a sip, and it was the most delightful tea you had ever had. This beat McDonalds any day.

“So it’s a tropical green tea over ice, with 2 ounces of lemonade because you’re sweet like lemonade, and one ounce of pineapple because that’s my favorite fruit, and you’re my favorite gal, so it fits!” He giggled at his own comment, causing you to giggle as well. 

“It’s amazing, Ash. Thank you for making me appreciate tea that isn’t from McDonalds.”

He smiled at your comment, walking the rest of the way to the dining hall. He held open the door for you and walked in behind you. You both swiped your dining hall cards and went to pick something to eat. You chose a waffle and some fruit, whereas Ashton went with a more savory option of scrambled eggs. You both sat across from one another at an open table and talked about everything and nothing all at once. He told you about his family in Australia and you told him about your family in St Louis. He talked about his passion for music, and how his family would only let him major in music if it was music education or music production, so he decided he would teach music to kids and give them a love for music, which you thought was just amazing. 

“Wanna come to my dorm? My roommate is at work right now, so we can just hang out and like, listen to music or something.”

“Yeah, definitely!” You both put your plates in the bucket to be washed and left to his dorm.

__

“Well, here’s my dorm. Not very great interior design, but it’s home!” You looked around at his side of the dorm. There was a keyboard, a futon, a nintendo switch on the bed, and an espresso machine on his desk. Even outside of work all he does is make coffee. He picked up his switch and put it on the charging dock, plopping down on the bed and sighing.

“Tired of me already?” You grin, sitting cross legged on the bed facing him. 

“Oh, I could never get tired of you, darling.” He pulled you into him and wrapped his arms around you, yawning softly, “God, I’m exhausted.”

You close your eyes, sighing into his neck, “Take a nap then.’

“No! I wanna hang out with you. I’ll just take a shot of espresso.” He got up and went over to his desk, putting some espresso into the portafilter and putting it in the machine. At first, you thought he was being dramatic and was just making a latte or americano of some sort. But he proved you wrong. He put the shot glasses underneath the portafilter and once he finished pulling the espresso shots, downed them immediately. 

“Ashton! You’re crazy…” “Crazy for you, and espresso. That is absolutely amazing. I feel so awake.”

“How about you make me another drink, hm? Coffee this time.” You gave him puppy dog eyes, practically begging him. 

He shook his head at your resilience, pulling another two espresso shots to make you a drink, “Do you want hot or iced, babe?”

“Hot please, Mr Barista.”

He chuckled, getting in his mini fridge and pulling out a small thing of milk and pouring it in the metal pitcher. He put the steam wand in and started steaming the milk, making it the consistency for a latte. You stared, mesmerized at his abilities. He grabbed one of the two mugs from the desk and poured in the espresso shots, then poured the milk in a circular motion first and then poured it closer to the top of the cup and wiggled it slightly, making a delicate design on the top. It was way too perfect to drink to say the least.

“I have a medium latte for a pretty lady in my dorm? Is she around?” He grinned at you, handing it to you carefully to avoid burning you.

“Thank you, Ash, but you made it too perfect to drink!” You giggled, admiring his latte art.

“Not as perfect as you! That was very cheesy, but I stand by the statement, darling.”

“You might have just made lattes my new favorite thing, and i used to not even like coffee.”

“I’ll make you lattes until all of the espresso in the world runs out.”

__

You found yourself at Good Coffee almost everyday. You’d always have Ashton make you a surprise drink, and every time you walked in his eyes would light up. He'd finish the current drink he was making as fast as possible so he could talk to you. On the third week of your Good Coffee addiction, you once again ordered a surprise drink.

“Surprise again for you, darling?”

“You know it, Mr Barista.” You smiled at him, but you were growing worried he wasn’t as into you as you thought. You had been talking for about a month and he hasn’t made any moves or anything. Did you get your hopes up too soon? You tended to do that a lot.

“It’s on me today.”

You took the five dollar bill you were gonna pay with and put it in the tip jar, smiling at him warmly. But you were still extremely paranoid. You went down to the pick-up counter and waited for your drink, thoughts invading your mind. 

“Vanilla latte for (y/n)!”

You picked up the to go style cup and went to sit down, and you noticed some writing in sharpie on the side of the cup. Ashton didn’t usually leave notes, so what was it?

It would mean a latte to me if we could make it official :)

You smiled the biggest smile, looking at him to find him smiling at you, expectantly waiting for an answer.You nod, and he runs from behind the counter and kisses you on the cheek, “Come to my dorm after my shift for more coffee, yeah?” He winks, going back behind the counter. Who would’ve thought you would fall for the campus barista?

____

Taglist: @ukulelecal​ @blahehblah​

[insidetheacademy]

Say You Love Me || iii

pairings: peter parker x fem!reader

summary: reader and peter went out and had fun times!

warnings: insecure reader? flUFFFS, explicit language (a bit)

gif credit: tomholandd

part i part ii part iii part iv part v

-

your back slides down on apartment door, your face were red. you were feeling happy but you also felt mad at Peter. it was a bit inconsiderate of him to just waltz back into your life as if nothing happened between the two of you but at the same time you couldn’t help but be happy that you got your best friend back.

you took out your phone from your bag to call MJ. ring... ring... ring... “hello?” MJ greets, you said “hey, i think i just made the biggest mistake of my life,” you stand up from your position to sit on a more comfortable spot. “what did you do, y/!?” MJ asked in a very concerned voice.

you explained everything to her, “i don’t think my input would be valid, honestly, but i do think that you should set some sort of boundaries between the two of you so the same thing wouldnt happened again,” MJ advices. to be fair, she was right, when you told her about how Peter rejected you, she called Peter a dickhead and she was angrier at it than you were.

what you need to do is set some boundaries. of course you want everything to be normal back but if it meant getting your heart break for the second time, is it even worth it?– you thanked MJ for the advice and ended the call.

you laid out on your couch just thinking about Peter. it’s not that you still like Peter. well, a bit. but he hasnt crossed your mind since today at that café. you were doing perfectly fine. but the thought of him suddenly liking you back is also a possibility.

ugh, look at me, you groaned to yourself. how pathetic could you be? you have everything that you ever wanted in this whole world. your own studio apartment thats filled with your art equipments and not to mention a bunch of your arts are still at the 3 months long exhibition. you ccouldn’t be more happy. you just dont get how you feel like you need someone to make you even happier?

the thought of not being so lonely sounds amazing but you weren’t sure you were ready for that commitment again.

*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)'･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*

it was officially the day of the meet up. the “i’m getting back with my friend after i screwed everything up” meet up. you were kinda mad at yourself for promising to meet up with him. you were so nervous, you swore that your fingers are literally trembling from the fear of what’s going to happen.

you walked into the shower and try to give yourself some pep talks. practice some conversation stater or conversation fillers that you may or may not have. you wiped the fog from your mirror and take a good look at yourself. this is it, y/n, you can still cancel on him but if you do cancel on him, you’re going to look like a huge asshole, you took a deep breath and decided to put on your best face.

you picked out a leather jacket with a black top and pair it with some denim washed jeans. you put on some makeup because let’s be honest, you look kinda dead due to you not being able to sleep peacefully for the last few nights. it’s not a surprise on the reason why you couldn’t sleep. putting on a last touch your face, you put down your lipstick and look at yourself, not too bad, time to show Peter what he lost.

your phone rings without looking at the caller id, you picked it up, “hello?” you said, to which you then heard a familiar voice, “hey y/n! i’m waiting by the stairs of your apartment!” you were shocked that he still had your number. sure, six months wasn’t that long but it was long enough for you to forget some things about him– “oh! i’ll be right down there. just a sec, Pete.” you said.

you opened the front door of your apartment building to see him in his black and yellow jacket. “woah, someone’s looking cute as ever,” after you blushed at his comment, you suddenly reminded yourself that he was only messing around. you tried to not make it awkward by complimenting him too, “you don’t look half as bad as you used to, Parker” you smirked whilst looking up and down at him. he throws his hand in a “aw stop it you” gesture.

“what are we gonna do today, Pete?” you looked at his face, awaiting for his answer, “what? why me? you were the one who set this up!” he said in confusion, you laughed at him and said “nah, i’m just messing with you, Parker. we’re going to the art exhibition” you then jokingly added “so i can brag to you about how i’m doing much better in life than you will ever be,” he scoffed at you “psh, have you tried saving the planet from aliens?”

ah, yes, you remembered when you guys blipped from the world. it was a crazy experience, though it was pretty upsetting that we had lost one of the greatest superhero, Iron Man— you giggled at his remarked. once the two of you arrived at the exhibition, the both of you headed inside and straight to where your paintings are held.

you looked up brightly to your own paintings. stil couldn’t believe that a small girl like you could make it out here. you noticed Peter started taking up on the details too, especially the painting where’s theres a boy and girl who looks just like the two of you. he pointed at that one and asked, “what’s that painting about?”

it was a girl lying down on the boy’s lap while he’s feeding her grapes. it looks so elegant and you have to say it’s one of your best paintings. you loved it because it reminded the time when you went through a similar situation with him. just lazing around on the couch feeding each other snacks while reading books and listening to songs.

“well, they’re together which is obvious, i guess. lying on the couch with your significant other while doing something is such an intimate moment, in my opinion. you get to sit and talk about your day, your future and anything. i feel as if the world is small whenever i’m doing that,” you explained to Pete, you noticed that he looks at you throughout your explanation.

you grabbed his hand to lead you to the other paintings by other painters. you pointed at the scribblish one which you can’t quite describe what it was. it’s funny how even a scribblish painting could make it to an exquisite exhibition. “can you try explaining this one to me?” Peter jokingly asks, pointing to the painting that you had just pointed. you chuckled at him and said “yeah, it’s your brain whenever you’re trying to process something simple.” his smiled turned into a frown real quick earning a “hey!” from him.

you looked at Peter with a worried face and shook his arm, “i-is everything alright, y/n?” you looked down at your feet and shake your head, no, he was starting to get worried, “what’s wrong?! is everything okay?!” he asked, you looked up to his eyes and said “i’m hungry,” he once again rolls his eyes trying hard to not be mad at you, “god, you made me worried sick for a second there, y/n.” you snorted at him, poking fun of how his face looked.

*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)'･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*

you two went to the nearest bagel shop as Peter was craving bagels eventhough you were the one who’s hungry. you ordered the classic bagel with cream cheese and Peter ordered the same too. the whole time you were queuing with him, he made you laughed. to your surprise, it wasn’t as awkward as you thought it would be. it was going so well, you didnt want this moment to end.

Peter grabbed his and yours order while you were looking for a table to sit. you found a table right outside next to the window of the bagel bakery. he came right up at you and said “one cream cheese bagel and black coffee with three sugar for a sweetheart,” you melted at his words thinking that it was for you but it turns out he didnt finished his sentence just yet “and one cream cheese bagel and hot tea for y/n” if you had to roll your eyes one more time at is dumb jokes, you swear you werent gonna see the light of day again

“so, how’s Jane?” you addressed the elephant in the room. his smiled went into a frown as quick as sugar dissolves into a liquid. “she... she and i broke up a month after i... you know,” he said not wanting to bring up the topic of him rejecting you but needless to say, you were quite shocked. why didnt he messaged you after that happened to atleast confide in a friend.

you spoke “i’m so sorry, Pete. why didn’t you messaged me, though? i could’ve done everything that i could to cheer you up,” you immediately closed your mouth with both of your hands, regretting that you had said that. he’s gonna think you only care ahout yourself, “well i was going to but i figured that you didnt want to hear anything from me,” you sighed at his words and reassure him that you always want to hear from him whether it was good or bad. he smiled at your kind words

you sipped your tea and continued to make your conversations alive once again after you decided to ruin it by asking him a dumb question.

*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)'･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*

it was now 6:30pm, you were parting your ways with Peter. he had to run off to buy a couple of things for Aunt May, you wanted to accompany him but he insisted that he can and constantly brings up about how Spider-Man can do it on his own. what a cheeky bastard.

you arrived home and settled down for a minute before opening your laptop to check your emails. you head to your fridge to make yourself a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich. you had to admit eating bagels didnt exactly fill up your hunger but you weren’t feeling like eating a lot. you sat on your study desk and took out your laptop.

you typed in your email address and password, once you’ve signed in, this particular email caught your eyes, you clicked on it and read it.

“Dear y/n l/n,

We, from ArtSix company, would like to fly you over to Paris, France to work with us. We are a group of artists who would try to find interesting jobs for painters and offer them, just like you are being right now. We would like to pay the amount of One Thousand Five Hundred American Dollars for you to paint something in honour of Oscar-Claude Monet. This job would require you to move to France, if you are interested in taking it.

Would love to hear from you, soon.

Best regards, ArtSix”

you were shocked, you couldn’t believe your eyes. someone had offer to give you a job! finally, you’ll be able to earn good money while doing something you love! just sitting at home and ask your parents for money isnt doing you any good or rather at most times doing small jobs like being a waiter at a restaurant isnt doing any good. your apartment rent was getting expensive, anyways.

this might be your chance to get a fresh start! you texted MJ about the news and she said “congratulations!! we definitely have to trade paintings before you leave for 🇫🇷!!” you shoot back a gif that says “duh” but suddenly it hits you, how are you going to tell Peter? will he be happy for you or will he beg for you to stay?

*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)'･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*

a/n; aAAA UH OH READER IS GOING TO FRANCE WHATS GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT,, also if its not obvious,, reader is in denial skdjskfks

say you love me taglist! (dont be afraid to ask to be tagged! also i’m tagging some of yall who i think have been reading from the first chapter :-) and gave such kind criticism )

@imawkwardandhereweare @canyonmoonspidey @thebadassbitchqueen @thequeenreaders

[lavendersoft]

My Soulmate’s Soulmate.

Part 5

Soulmate! AU-

Synopsis: Before you meet your soulmate your world is black and white, without color. When soulmates meet, their world glows with vibrancy. The reality, however, as harsh and uncommon as it is, is that you are not always your soulmate’s soulmate.

Pairings: Jungkook x Reader, Taehyung x Reader, Jungkook x Taehyung (poly!au)

Warnings: some angst.

Author’s Notes: there’s a lot of crack in this one.

--

They both noticed Jungkook as soon as he entered the building, his presence notably panicked.

He was dressed in his usual comfortable work attire. His hair looked ruffled and messy as if he’d been running his fingers through it, something he does when he’s stressed or nervous.

Jungkook all but ran to where they were seated when he spotted them. His eyes darting back and forth between the two.

“What happened Why are you..?” he asked cautiously.

You stood up to calm your partner as much as you could. Wrapping your arms around his torso gently and leaned to kiss him on the cheek.

You knew the news was going to break him. Somewhere deep down you think he may have already suspected it, but was choosing to disregard the signs. Then again, you hadn't the slightest idea when the same thing happened to you. The dreaded memory replays in your mind over and over, “I can’t see color, Y/n.” until tears start to swell in your eyes. You wouldn't wish this fate on anyone, especially not your own soulmate. Then a thought rushes over you. Glancing over to Taehyung you give him a teary, sympathetic smile. He was going through the same predicament. Still, he keeps a semi-stoic facade.

“I think you’d better sit down, Kookie.”

He did so immediately after giving you a wary glance. Taking the seat across from Tae who watched the couple intently, Jungkook was practically vibrating in his shoes with anxiety.

“Someone please tell me.”

You and Taehyung exchanged a quick look before you gave a curt nod.

“Jungkook,” Tae started, “There’s been a huge misunderstanding. From all of us.”

Jungkook gave Taehyung a curious look.

“What do you mean?”

Rip off the bandaid, Y/n.

“Jungkook, you’re not Taehyung’s soulmate.”

The air went cold around you when your boyfriend’s eyes shot towards your direction. 

“I am.” The words felt unnatural to say. 

Jungkook’s eyes shot between the pair in front of him, his mouth trying to find the correct words.

“What do yo- How did you- what are you talking about?”

“I didn’t start seeing color until the night I met Y/n.” Tae stated quietly.

Jungkook’s face displayed a range of emotions, from confusion to skepticism to distress to realization. Jungkook’s shoulders relaxed as he leaned back in his seat. His hands reaching up to cover his face as he laughed bitterly.

“I’m such a fucking dumbass.”

The instinct to comfort your soulmate came over you like a tsunami. You prayed he didn’t push you away.

He didn’t. In fact, he pulled you into his lap and buried his head in your neck. His heartbeat was racing and you could tell how much this must hurt him. You reach up to smooth his unruly hair and bring him as much solace as you could.

“You’re not. We all made the same mistake. We didn’t read the signs well. It’s not your fault.”

“Yeah, it’s not exactly a common situation.” Tae added. You nodded your head in thanks.

“Exactly.”

After Jungkook’s breath had stabled and after a minute of Tae fidgeting uncomfortably in his seat, you figured you should get off Jungkook’s lap as not make Tae too uncomfortable. Tae, the gentleman he is, quickly offered you his seat while he went off to search for another chair to bring over.

Jungkook was in deep thought for a while. You figured you should give him some space while you continued to make small talk with Taehyung.

“So the cover art is coming along well?” You asked absent mindlessly. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Jungkook’s head shoot up in alarm.

“It’s okay, Jungkook,” you murmur as you don't want to upset him more, “I know you’ve been seeing him. I’m not angry, I understand.” You explained. Jungkook’s eyes shift down in guilt as if he were a kicked puppy, avoiding eye contact with you.

Taehyung smiled and nodded, “Yeah, I think we’ve actually decided on a piece. But Jungkook insists that you’re not allowed to see it until debut.”

“What? That’s not fair!” You pouted and crossed your arms, trying to lift the heavy mood.

“Trust me, you love it.” Jungkook spoke, his voice soft.

After saying your goodbyes to Taehyung and promising to contact him again, you and your boyfriend went home. He was quiet most of the night until walking into the bathroom while you were putting on a much-needed face mask.

“We need to talk.”

“Hm. That doesn’t sound good.” You responded.

“No, it’s actually just a proposition.”

You lifted your eyebrow.

“Oh?”

“Don't get mad, okay? It’s just an idea.” Ugh. You’ve heard that before and the aftermath is never good.

 He took a deep breath,

“What if we,” His tongue darted out to wet his lips in nervousness, “What if we tried a polyamorous relationship?”

You nearly dropped your bottle of toner in shock.

“What?!” The idea had actually already crossed your mind but you'd never tell him that. You figured he wouldn't want to but your soulmate is an unpredictable one.

“Please, just listen!” He took in a deep breath,

“This situation couldn't be any more perfect, for the circumstances at least. I love you so much, Y/n. If you aren’t my soulmate I’m glad that you’re my soulmate’s soulmate. It’s like a love triangle!”

You sigh, leaning a hand on the counter to stabilize yourself and your thoughts. 

“A love triangle isn’t a good thing, Kook.”

“Okay, then.. a love circle, Miss Technicality.”

You started to feel like such a pessimist next to your optimistic boyfriend.

“Jungkook, we’ve been in relationship for years. We just met Taehyung. We need to give it sometime before we go asking him to join a polyamorous relationship with people he just met two weeks ago.”

“So, then, you’ll consider it?”

“I don’t want to scare him off for your sake. But, yes, I’ll consider it. However, we have to do it the right way. Let’s start with one of us asking him on a date.”

“It should be you.”

You were a little dazed at his suggestion.

“Me?”

“It’s only fair. I’ve been on a few ‘dates’ with him already. I know him pretty well. It’s you who needs to get to know him. Not only that, but I’m sure he’ll be happy about it. With you being his soulmate and all. But!” He holds up a finger as if to scold you,

“No kissing! Not until he agrees to date us!”

You’re half tempted to bite his finger but instead you decide to pull him in for a hug.

“Seems a bit blackmail-ish but,”

For the first time in a long time, you have hope for the future of your relationship.

“Deal.”

—

The cell phone in your hand feels like a stone.

Five days have passed since you met Taehyung at the bookstore. Jungkook continued to meet Taehyung for the finishing of his cover art. He promised he’d keep it professional although you were a bit doubtful. That would be close to impossible at this point. 

I wonder what Tae thinks about all this. Is he uncomfortable meeting Jungkook after finding out that he’s Jungkook’s soulmate? Are they really keeping it as professional as Jungkook makes it seem? 

Is it really a good idea to make a commitment to a poly relationship with all of these suspicions?

Ah. You’re stalling yourself again. You’ve been dreading making the phone call that your boyfriend so eagerly awaits.

“It’s easy. Just call him and ask. That’s it. You’re his soulmate so he’ll be more than welcoming of the invitation.” Jungkook’s been trying to coerce you since he brought up the idea.

“I’ve never done it before,” You explain, “You’re the only real partner I’ve ever had and you made the first move, remember?”

He grins at the warm memory.

“You were so cute and bashful.”

“Obviously. I’d just met my soulmate. Anyway, focus.” You have such a hard time fighting the smile that threatens to spread across your face. Jungkook always seems to bring out the fondness in you. He definitely knew how to play that to his advantage. He gets everything we wants just by giving you that puppy dog pout.

“Ask him if he wants to go with you to get bulgogi. He loves that. Tell him you were craving it and you thought of him, he’ll get all flustered. Guaranteed.”

“Well, aren’t you the charmer. I knew you a flirt but damn.” You land a playful punch to his shoulder. You try to calm all your nerves and the voice in the back of your mind.

“Here goes everything, then.”

The phone rings only once.

“Hello?” His deep voices chimes through the speaker.

“Hey. It’s Y/n.”

“I know.” You could practically hear the smirk in his voice.

“You know?”

“Caller ID, Y/n. You think I wouldn't save my own soulmate’s number? Plus, I’ve kinda been expecting your call.”

You roll your eyes knowing Jungkook could see your face turn three different shade of red from embarrassment.

“YeaH-” your voice and your resolve cracks, “-ehem, yeah, I was just calling to um... ask if you wanted to like, uh, meet me tomorrow night for some bulgogi.” Your boyfriend silently coaches you as you continue, urging you on.

“It’s just that I’ve been craving you- I mean it! I’ve been craving it. And I thought of you.” 

And I want to die.

Jungkook hits the ground laughing. You know Tae could probably hear him. 

“Well if that's the case, how could I refuse?” Tae’s voice is smooth and confident. He’s just as flirty and aloof as Jungkook is. How the hell are you gonna survive two playboy boyfriends?

“Great. Meet me at six?”

“I’d prefer picking you up if you don't mind.” 

“Oh. S-sure. Yeah, that's fine. See you tomorrow?” You hate the way your voice trembles.

“Wouldn’t miss it.” With that he hangs up, leaving you a blushy, embarrassed mess. You look down to see Jungkook squirming with uncontained laughter. The next thing he knows he’s being chased with the slipper you’d been wearing.

“You asshole! It’s not funny! That was so embarrassing! Stop laughing, I swear to God, Jungkook!” 

“It’s not my fault you’re so fucking terrible at flirting! Like what the hell was that, Y/N!”

--

Taglist: @ourwhispersbecomeouranthems @fantasyjoon  @ally22042000 @ireadfanficsonthisleavemealone @embrace-themagic  @lexi-tries-art @ccmemoirs @just-call-me-trash-can @karlykim92 @omg-sol-s-dreamland

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Felix and Kyle Visit an Adult Book Store: Part Two

Hello and Welcome back for part two!

Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a ninety-minute car ride that felt like it had been about four hours they finally arrived at their destination and what a fucking sight it was.

Jimmy’s Adult Toy Chest wasn’t the highest-rated adult store in Nashville. It wasn’t even the closest to their town. It was, however, pretty well known amongst pretty much everyone under the age of 18 as being extremely lax about IDing its patrons. Kyle had turned 18 in September so he didn’t have to worry about that, but Felix wouldn’t be 18 for another eight months. He had a fake ID, a really fucking expensive one actually, but it was for the state of Vermont. That wasn’t necessarily a problem, but Felix was pretty sure it would draw unwanted scrutiny. Jimmy’s Adult Toy Chest’s apparent apathy for looking at effect such things pretty much solved that problem.

Apparently, this also meant that Jimmy’s Adult Toy Chest was in the seediest part of town in the shiftiest looking building Felix had ever seen. It was pretty much just a one-story rectangular building dropped in the middle of a gravel parking lot surrounded by what looked like abandoned buildings. The building might have once been painted red, but the color had long since faded and was presently a weirdly muted and dingy looking pinkish purple color. It had a few windows that Felix could see but they didn’t give away any of the store’s secrets because they appeared to be covered with black paint. Felix felt like he was going to catch an STI just looking at the place.

One look at Kyle and Felix could tell that the place didn’t exactly live up to his expectations either. “Still think this is going to be fun?” Felix questioned with a grin.

Kyle looked at the building for another long minute before turning to Felix and obviously forcing a grin. “If we don’t get murdered,” he answered with fake cheer.

“Or kidnapped and sold on some black market,” Felix offered flatly at what he saw as a real alternative. The place kind of looked like a serial killer’s preferred killing room for fuck’s sake. He grinned humorlessly at Kyle before adding, “You know how there are all those jokes about red-headed step-children? What do you think happens to red-headed sex slaves?”

Kyle chuckled and rolled his eyes. “You are a fucking asshole.”

Felix just continued to grin at him. “You are not the first person to tell me that.”

Unfortunately, even though the place looked like it was going to be the site of a future murder Kyle still wasn’t deterred about going in. Felix knew it had been his idea to come in the first place, but the more he thought about it the more he wanted to get out of it.

The whole situation was just so stupid. The thing he wanted or at least wanted to look into was easily found online on dozens of websites, Felix was sure. Thing was, Felix was one hundred percent sure that his dad checked his internet history now. Felix knew how to scrub that. It wasn’t perfect, but it was good enough to handle his dad’s prying eyes. He had done a little looking already and his dad didn’t seem to know about it. So he could have looked at home but buying anything was a complete no go. His dad would absolutely open any package that showed up at the house for him and Felix couldn’t guarantee he would be home in time to beat his dad home to get the mail every day with soccer practice. If Felix wanted to purchase anything he needed to go to a brick and mortar store except he didn’t have a fucking car. Felix was working on that, and he was so fucking close, but that didn’t actually help him at that moment. No car meant he needed a ride which is why he had ended up enlisting Kyle.

Great plan except that Kyle was just so fucking enthusiastic about it. It made Felix feel even more uncomfortable about the whole thing than he already did, and he was already about as uncomfortable as he could get about it. Not that Felix was ashamed of sex or liking sex, but this was a bit more than that.

His last opportunity to escape effectively squashed, Felix walked into the store with Kyle. The outside had prepared him for something dank and dirty and probably sleazy which wasn’t what they got at all. The place was well lit and looked clean and organized. That juxtaposition alone was enough to give Felix pause, but he was sure that the display of dick and boob shaped paraphernalia meant for things like bachelorette parties that were set up so they were the first thing you saw when you walked in didn’t help.

“Wow,” Felix exclaimed. He might have even taken a step back from the shock of all of it. “That’s a lot,” he admitted.

“It’s like sensory overload with sex toys!” Kyle agreed although he sounded more excited than surprised. When Felix looked over at him, Kyle was looking around like a fucking kid in a candy shop. “It’s Toys ’R Us for adults.”

I should have just risked it and bought what I wanted online, Felix thought to himself.

“You two are 18?” Someone asked. Felix looked in the direction of the voice to see a bored girl sitting behind the counter by the register. She looked like she was in her late twenties or early thirties. She had more piercings on her face and in her ears than Felix dare try to count, and her hair was fire-engine red. Her phone was still in her hands and she was looking at them with an annoyed disinterest. It was pretty fucking clear they had interrupted her internet scrolling and she wasn’t fucking happy about it.

“Yeah,” Felix replied easily even though it was very much a lie. Considering his relative history of bad luck, Felix wouldn’t have been surprised if she asked to see their IDs but if she did he was prepared to deal with that.

“Yup,” Kyle also answered. Felix knew it was in his head, but he would have sworn Kyle sounded more sincere than he had. Dean could do that too and Felix blamed the southern accent. Kyle reached into his back pocket as he asked, “Do you need to see our IDs?”

The girl behind the counter actually seemed to think about it although it became clear pretty quickly she wasn’t going to take Kyle up on the offer. She just had to go through the motions for appearance's sake which Felix got even if he didn’t appreciate the stress.

“Nah,” she eventually dismissed and returned to looking at her phone like they didn’t even fucking exist.

Well, that was one hurdle dealt with, Felix guessed.

Felix went to take a step and Kyle caught his arm before leaning into his space to whisper. “Is that porn on the TV behind her?” he asked, and it was hard to tell if he was bewildered or horrified by the thought.

Felix almost asked what TV because he really hadn’t noticed one, but on a second glance, he saw the flat screen TV sitting on the shelves behind her. It took all of two seconds of looking to determine that the TV was, in fact, playing some good, old-fashioned porn. It wasn’t exactly a surprise considering porn was the place’s business, but Felix did find it a little amusing which was probably why he chuckled before answering, “Looks like.”

“Oh,” Kyle exclaimed, and he did sound surprised. How he could be surprised at that point Felix didn’t know because he had eyes and it was clearly porn, but it was Kyle. The guy could be shockingly innocent when it came to some things. “I guess that is on theme,” he commented sounding a little awkward about it.

Maybe he would have been more comfortable if it was gay porn. Or that could have made it worse. Felix really couldn’t tell so it was anyone’s guess.

Unfortunately, Kyle got over his discomfort quickly and went right back to being an excited puppy about the whole thing. He released Felix’s arm but turned to look at him curiously, “So what are you looking for?”

“None of your business,” Felix answered immediately. The thought of actually saying it out loud made Felix’s face burn. He was going to buy it which in its own way was embarrassing enough but he wasn’t going to talk about it.

“Dude,” Kyle laughed, “You know I’m going to see it when you check out, right?”

“Fuck,” Felix hissed, “I hadn’t really thought about that.”

How he had managed to not think about that Felix didn’t fucking know because it really was beyond obvious. He guessed he had been so hung up on actually going to the place that he didn’t think out all of the details as much as he should.

I should have just taken the risk and ordered one off the internet, Felix thought as the situation finally truly hit him.

“Well, now that you are aware why don’t you tell me so I can help look,” Kyle suggested as he started to crane his neck to look around the store curiously.

He was going to find out anyway, Felix realized and let out a sigh. It was stupid but he found himself looking around the store to make sure there was no one nearby to overhear. The girl behind the counter was already engrossed in her phone and Felix was pretty sure that he and Kyle were the only actual customers. “Um….,” Felix hummed. He was just going to admit it because it was going to come out eventually. He totally was until he thought about the horror of actually having to say it out loud really struck him and he couldn’t make the words come out.

“Let’s just start looking around,” he grumbled instead.

“You are literally the definition of a bisexual disaster,” Kyle exclaimed with a dramatic eye roll. It wasn’t the first time Kyle had called him that and Felix was pretty sure it wouldn’t be the last. Felix couldn’t even be that mad about it because he wasn’t completely wrong. “Where would you like to start?” Kyle asked as he looked around the store again, “Lube? Sex games and other paraphernalia whatever that means? Bondage?” Kyle gasped at his own question and looked at Felix wide-eyed. “Oh, god, is that why we are here? Like to get a pair of handcuffs or something?”

“No,” Felix dismissed quickly. He liked to think he was a pretty flexible person and he was willing to try a lot in the bedroom but there was no way in fucking hell he would ever let Dean tie him up. Thankfully, Dean had never expressed an interest in that, and Felix couldn’t imagine Dean would want to be tied up either. Dean could barely handle laying back and let Felix pleasure him. He would probably have a fucking heart attack being tied up and completely out of control. “Just… come on.”

[jaqdawks]

added a short story bellow :)

content warnings: alcohol and implied nsfw acts, also mention of death.

—————————————

Nickolai awoke in someone else’s bed with a splitting hangover. He sat up and looked around the unfamiliar room. He checked if it was possibly Alcor’s, until he realized he didn’t know what Alcor’s bedroom looked like at all. He also didn’t know what most of Alcor’s flat looked like; he’d only ever been as far in as a single hallway.

For a few minutes, Nickolai fought the hangover to remember who he was with and what identity he’d assumed. All he could remember was Noah. He had a fake ID that said Noah, and his false identity as a Noah was a man who fixed computers. Noah was a common name though, and he couldn’t remember who the Noah here was.

He didn’t think about it much longer before he succumbed to the hangover and flopped back onto the bed—which Nickolai was alone in. The disturbed sheets on the spot next to him hinted to someone else having been in it earlier.

The door began to creak open, and Nickolai shut his eyes.

“Hey, it’s almost noon. I don’t want to be rude but you need to wake up,” sounded an unfamiliar voice.

Nickolai grumbled a little. He looked at the stranger, who had soft green eyes and curly red hair. He didn’t look untrustworthy, to Nickolai’s relief. Then again, Nickolai didn’t look untrustworthy either on a normal day.

“I have Advil if you need something for a hangover,” the stranger offered.

Nickolai sat up again, for real now. “Sorry, what’s your name?”

The stranger laughed. “I’m Joel. Were you too hammered to remember my name?”

Nickolai shook his head.

The stranger seemed concerned. “How much do you remember then?”

“I don’t know, I remember thinking I should get mad drunk in public instead of passing out on my couch. After that it’s just fuzzy.” Nickolai assumed he told Joel that his name was Noah.

Joel looked a little perturbed in an endearing way. “Ah, well, do you want me to fill the gaps or. . ?”

“Can I get some Advil first?”

“Yeah. I’ll go get some water for you to swallow it with,” Joel complied. “You should get dressed.”

Nickolai waited for Joel to leave before getting out of bed and tracking down all his clothes, which were strewn about the room. His shirt smelled like liquor to the point that Nickolai thought he might gag. However, he didn’t have any spare clothes and decided to just put up with it.

Joel was back a few minutes after Nickolai got dressed. It was clear he was trying to ignore the smell, but after Nickolai took the Advil, Joel asked if he needed to borrow something that didn’t smell so rancid. Nickolai obliged and was relieved to be able to rid the putrid button-down.

“Okay, so the parts you don’t remember,” Joel began. “I can’t say I remember it too well either, but I think I have a decent memory with these things.”

Nickolai nodded. “Go on.”

“So,” Joel continued. “It began when I think I saw the bartender cut you off on drinks, and I felt kind of bad about that. So I thought, hey, company’s much better than drinks, even though I was also drinking, like a lot. And I guess at some point we kinda started flirting, and I was like ‘should we take this back to your place?’ and you began to freak out. I think you said you have a dog that bites people or something? Is that true?”

“Nope.”

“Okay. Well anyways, you did not seem to be very happy with the idea of taking anyone to your place, so I took you to mine. And you can probably guess the rest, considering you woke up naked in my bed.”

Nickolai silently acknowledged the implications in his head. This wasn’t how he planned to start his weekend, but he could roll with it. “Yeah. Sorry for sleeping until noon, by the way. I’m not at all a morning person.”

Joel smiled with amusement. “How do you pull that off? I can’t even sleep past nine on a good day.”

“Sadness.”

Joel’s face went blank with a bit of underlying surprise at Nickolai’s off hand answer. “Oh. Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it, no harm no foul.” Nickolai was vehemently aware that he may have used that saying incorrectly.

Joel veered the conversation away from the topic. “How does your head feel?”

“A little better.”

Joel was oddly kind. Nickolai wasn’t used to receiving this hospitality from strangers like him, but that probably had more to do with who Nickolai associated himself with and not people in general. Nickolai decided he liked Joel, even if he barely knew him.

“I would offer you some breakfast, but. . . it’s almost one in the afternoon. You’re probably hungry though, right?”

“Oh, you don’t have to.” Nickolai attempted to smile back at Joel but he was too tired to count off what would make it look genuine. Regardless, Joel didn’t seem to notice.

“I’m gonna do it anyway,” Joel decided. “Any allergies?”

“Strawberries.”

“Oh! That’s a rare one.”

Nickolai shrugged. “I seem to cash in on the rare things a lot. Albinism, an extra rib, and the strawberry allergy.”

“Casinos must hate you if you’re that lucky.”

Nickolai let out a genuine laugh. He decided he definitely liked Joel. He also felt a tinge of astonishment that someone like Joel casually hooked up with him, or generally anyone. He seemed like too much of an angel to even drink.

Nickolai followed Joel out of his room. Joel’s place was considerably nice, to the point Nickolai was in a bit of disbelief. He couldn’t have wound up in an upper class area if he had started last night at a shoddy bar, right? Joel didn’t act like he was rich, he didn’t seem like it either. But this place completely contrasted whatever Joel was like. Even Joel’s cat, a rather well groomed Norwegian forest cat—which was massive and somewhat intimidating—seemed to completely outclass Nickolai.

“Do you live here by yourself?” Nickolai asked as he surveyed the expensive wallpaper lining the kitchen walls.

“Nah, I have a housemate named Anwyll. He’s visiting family right now though.”

Nickolai froze. “Anwyll. . . As in Anwyll Tait?”

“That’s the one!”

Nickolai suddenly felt sick. “Oh fuck.”

“Is something wrong?”

Nickolai retched. Had his stomach not been empty, he had no doubt he would have thrown up all over the nice counter top.

Joel dropped what he was doing and crossed the room to Nickolai. “Are you okay?” He was suddenly at Nickolai’s side with his hand placed gently on Nickolai’s back.

Nickolai’s head spun. He knew he couldn’t tell Joel that Anwyll Tait took his brother’s life in the deathmatches. If he did, Joel would have a catalogue of every possible person Nickolai could truly be, and it would clearly point to Yuskol Voskoboinikov.

Nickolai ran through every excuse he could think up. He could say he hated the rich, but that could offend Joel. He could say the deathmatches made him sick, but Joel was obviously linked to them somehow if he was in league with a Tait. Joel felt like dangerous company, a double edged sword.

“Noah?”

“Sorry, sorry,” Nickolai croaked. “I think it’s just the hangover. I haven’t eaten since yesterday, so I guess I don’t have anything to throw up.”

That was the safest excuse.

Joel looked at Nickolai with pity. “Do you think you can eat right now?”

“Yeah.”

Nickolai felt somewhat content that he had definite confirmation that he had told Joel his name was Noah last night. The slight accent in his voice may throw off the authenticity in his identity as Noah Martin, but it wasn’t consistent enough to jeopardize him.

At the same time, the fact that he slept with someone of such high class alarmed him. Most public record photos of Nickolai Voskoboinikov’s face was outdated or somewhat photoshopped, but a Tait might be able to figure him out if they surveyed him for long enough.

“So, what’s your housemate like?” Nickolai asked. He tried to keep the nervousness from spreading to his voice.

“Anwyll can be such a jerk sometimes, but he’s also sorta nice. I’ve known him since I was little,” Joel said. “He doesn’t like new people that much, but I think he’d like you.”

“Dunno. I can be very unlikeable when I’m on my medication.” Nickolai knew with certainty that Anwyll would hate him no matter what. “Also I’m. . . lower class.” Nickolai also knew that Anwyll was a classist asshole.

“Lower class? That doesn’t matter,” Joel piped up. “The whole class thing is kind of stupid. I think the way it’s set up is interesting, but it won’t stop me from having friends from all kinds of walks of life.”

“I. . . yeah. I guess so,” Nickolai mumbled. He doubted Joel would be this positive if he knew of Nickolai’s illegal trades ties, the upper class notoriously hated brokers like him. They also especially hated him in particular.

Being there felt like the most dangerous stunt Nickolai had pulled, and he hadn’t even done it on purpose.

Joel set a ridiculously fancy, yet somehow definitely homemade, grilled cheese sandwich on a plate in front of him.

“Wow,” Nickolai mused. For a moment he wasn’t sure what to say. “This looks like something an expensive ass chef would make.”

“Thanks! I went to the top culinary school in the city, my parents say it was a waste of time.”

“Fuck what your parents say,” Nickolai replied before he took a bite. The sandwich tasted unreal. The last time he had food as good as this was when he posed as an intern for one of the deathmatch organizers.

“I’m glad you like it,” Joel smiled. Nickolai felt unease crawl back into his chest. Joel seemed so genuinely friendly, though a nagging suspicion told Nickolai it could be a lie. Nickolai couldn’t take a risk by being near him for much longer. At the same time, however, he felt captivated. Joel had that charisma that so many of the notorious upper class families seemed to unanimously mirror. He was a golden face among a sea of golden faces, all rotten under their skin. Nickolai knew what they were like.

Even then, Joel seemed to care a lot more than most would let on.

Nickolai took a deep breath. “I have to go home, sorry. I left my meds there, and I probably have people flooding my inbox about work and all that bullshit.”

“That’s alright. If you don’t mind me asking, what’s your job?”

“I fix computers,” Nickolai lied. That was Noah’s persona, and a story that should hold up if Joel decided to try and look in to it.

To be polite, he exchanged phone numbers. Nickolai only had his burner phone on him, which was a relief. The calls and texts that flooded Nickolai’s personal phone daily would have definitely been suspicious.

Nickolai liked Joel, but he knew he wouldn’t call him. Nickolai had a hunch that Joel may not be the worst of his kind, but he knew he wouldn’t text him back. It felt harsh to shut Joel out like this, but Nickolai wasn’t going to risk identification simply because he had a good encounter. They waved goodbye, and Joel’s cheery expression was a reminder that Nickolai would have to be silently cruel.

Nickolai didn’t call for a cab, he walked until his hangover began to bother him again. Then he called Alcor—Alcor didn’t have Nickolai’s burner phone address, but he was a safer bet than any cabs in this place.

The phone rang for a while before Alcor picked up.

“Who’s this?”

Nickolai felt relief wash over him to hear a familiar voice. “It’s Nick. Can you come pick me up?”

Alcor’s words were laced with suspicion as he spoke over the phone. “. . . Sure. Where are you?”

Nickolai looked at the street sign. Of course he had to stop on Ivory Street—the richest and most notorious, and also the one Nickolai hated the most for almost no real reason. With a sigh, he said, “Ivory Street.”

“How the fuck did you get there?”

“Drunkenly and against my conscious knowing.”

“Is this going to be dangerous?”

Nickolai groaned. “Not as dangerous as standing in the house that belongs to the man who killed my brother. Now get over here, I don’t think it’d be safe to use public transport in this area.”

There was a silence on the other end, then Alcor replied, “I’m on my way.”