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#im not surprised really that this would be the direction theyre working towards
kate-m-art · 11 months
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Keep seeing Zelda movie news reactions and like feel like my only contribution right now is I'd much prefer live action to an illumination style animated movie...
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tojisun · 10 months
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Ok, this is really random but I wanna write a letter to my s/o and idk where to start. Any ideas?
hii! im so sorry for the late rep hhh
this is so so cute omg 🥹🫶🏼
thank u sm for asking me!! i dunno if youd be up for my ideas (im actually so anxious that youd find my suggestions cringe) but i do hope these would help ^v^
you could start by letting them know why you’re writing the letter!! could be just as short and direct or as long of a tangent, tbh
direct:
dear (their name or a pet name u use),
i’m writing this letter because i miss you.
tangent:
hello, my love,
i was on my way to the library when the street lights flickered and, for a moment, the raindrops looked like they were frozen in time. my first thought was, “oh, wow.”
then, “i wish [s/o’s name] could’ve seen this.”
i miss you.
i tend to lean towards the second one when i write because it kind of sets the stage better, after all, when i write, i do it because i want my reader to have a glimpse into my thoughts and my feelings. the rant kinda grounds me too – that instead of the emotions bleeding all over the page, it feels like i could ease them slowly. but that is me! im a writer by heart and theres nothin i love more than crafting a world so divorced from reality so that my partner would be whisked away even just for a moment.
the short beginning is not any less beautiful and heartfelt, btw!! the short introduction feels like a startling surprise, one that would make me take in a sharp breath of air if i received it. like, reading the short intro would feel like the world stopped on its axis until all thats left is me and that letter and my s/o’s love for me, yk?
i guess the main difference is how you want to frame your letter to your s/o!
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after you explain about why you’re writing, i think you can integrate questions! ask them how they are or anything specific that you would like
ex:
how are you today, sweet love? how was your presentation? i remember how much effort and hard work you put into your project so i hope it turned out well.
(i know it would.)
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other things i do when i write is i reminisce! i share memories of them that i keep in the pocket of my heart, hoping that theyd see the way i see them (how beautiful they are and how my chest is full because of them).
of course, you also share pieces of your day/week/life! write aboit things they didnt hear or give them updates. your s/o would love hearing (seeing) you talking about yourself because, well, they love you! like for me, i get so <3333 when i read about what my partner ate or what songs they listened to or what happened at work, etc!! because sharing these things bridges that distance between you two :’)
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that is all i have for now :((
i hope these would help and if they didnt or you think theyre cringey, im so sorry 😭
take care!!
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finnoahsource · 4 months
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yeah, i'm surprised by how many movies noah seems to be watching too. maybe it just seems a lot cos theyre all listed out like on goodreads, and im sure he is just unwinding with some late night watches when the filming schedule gives such unsociable hours. it's like jet lag for actors. but i know some actors dont like to watch drama or fiction movies at all while working because they get distracted or end up comparing. so they watch docus etc., so i am still intrigued and it does seem like noah is getting inspo!
i also know some directors give actual film refs to actors, and the duffers have done before, but maybe this time theyre trying to help the boys by giving them grown up movies with great sexual tension etc? to break through that awkwardness and move toward adult acting and inspirations. im sure finn is already there and has seen many of these films. (would love to see his letterboxd actually!)
theres a director called luca guadagnino who told his actors to watch the love scene in wings of desire and emulate the specific intimacy in that scene. maybe the duffs have got some spicy favs they wanted to show noah and finn! i just watched the barn scene from Witness on youtube and it's very byler, all the longing stares and slow shots. i really hope they go for something more mature like this in s5 with byler... theyre already on the way there with the van scene which is actually insanely intimate, tender and erotic compared to the rest of stranger things.
that's a good point about the unsociable hours! since he seems to be doing a lot of late nights too.
I wonder if there'll be a clearer pattern to the things he's watching 👀
yeah I thought maybe the refs would've come before filming but it's not unheard for more to be given as production goes. if they are giving them as guides for more mature acting then that's sweet and would be so nice if noah and finn were watching them together or at least discussing them afterwards. I like your thought that the directors might have specific scenes in mind to be emulated, ST definitely takes direct inspiration sometimes.
I looove that eyewitness scene in the barn for byler! more and more I'm starting to think it's going to look like that, I mean the way the character leading the kiss hesitates just before it's too late and he crosses that line? that's so mike to me. it's innocent, a little awkward but it's real and would be their moment.
noah post more film crumbs for us pleaseee
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basilly · 3 years
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blushy boy || cc!georgenotfound x reader
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summary: you love to see george's reactions to your light flirts. . . that he doesn't think are real
note: ive had this idea for SO long im so excited for this- this is a college au! and its the first long one ive written in a while-
pronouns: they/them
word count: 1.3k
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the class bustled with conversation, the little groups engaged in supposed 'academic' conversation. you chatted along to karl and quackity, watching quackity laugh so hard that he almost fell out of his chair.
the class was about to end, everyone ready to dash out and escape the long lecture. from the other side of the room, george and sapnap got up and approached the three of you.
george's baby blue sweater caught your eye, plush and soft looking. it had perfectly complemented his complexion, not that he would ever know. oh how colourblindness was a curse.
"george! sappy nappy! do either of you have the notes from professor harris' lecture?" "do you think i take notes?? ask george." "karl you need to take your own notes, this is the only time i'm giving it to you." "thanks george, i owe you."
you watched as george pulled out the notes from his bag, eyebrows perfectly arched. he is so pretty. you decided to take this as your chance.
"wow, pays attention and takes notes, and dresses well? the perfect man."
george's cheeks tinged red, making everyone in your group giggle. you grinned at his reaction, winking in his direction.
george was flustered, motions now stiff and eyes avoiding yours. although you often did it, he never once got used to it. you made it a little game to yourself, 'how often can i get a reaction out of george?', which, he probably hated. however, you knew if he was uncomfortable he would speak up about it or at least one of your friends would.
"let's go, class is over."
---
sitting down in the dining hall, you frown, noticing you have another class today. classes have been draining you but you suddenly smiled, remembering your little 'victory' in class. your last success had been a few days ago, you needed to step it up.
you had sat down at your guys' usual table in the middle back of the class. as the professor drawled on, you had taken a peek to your left and noticed an incredibly bored george.
you admired him for a second, watching his fluffy bangs tickle his eyebrows and lips pressed in a line. quickly ripping off a corner of your notebook, you scribble down a quick question.
'hey can you look over my worksheet answers? i think you mentioned you finished them.'
george was undeniably smart but he mostly kept to himself, unless in a comfortable situation. he was in all honesty your type. not even bothering to fold it, you slide the note towards him. george peered at it, giving a shrug and a nod. he had nothing else to do anyway.
he quickly side by side compared your work and his, scribbling a response on the note when he finished.
'number 6 is c- it can be easily confused since. . . '
you quickly fix your mistake before ripping another corner off your notebook.
'thanks george! wow a smart man as well- you really are the perfect man.'
at this, his cheeks flamed red, only shaking his head at you. a small smile tugged at his lips but he tried to fight it away. you could only silently laugh, hoping no one noticed.
victory.
---
plopping down onto the couch in the boy's shared dorm, you let out a loud sigh. karl had to hand you your notebook after he had borrowed it for his class. you wondered when he was going to take his own notes.
you texted karl, asking him where he was.
y/n:
karl where are you karl i need my notebook
karl:
oh shoot im so sorry y/n i forgot! :( im at a meeting with my professor but its on my desk- see if one of the boys can let you in
y/n:
karl theyre all in their classes???
karl:
sorry i gtg!
you sigh, pinching the top of the bridge of our nose. darn you karl.
however, as if on cue, george walked into the dorm. his face morphed into one of surprise and confusion.
"y/n?" "george! oh thank goodness you're here- can you let me into karl's dorm, he borrowed my notebook and i really need it back." "uhh yea sure."
he quickly threw his bag and stuff down, grabbing his keys. with a click, he opened it for you, gesturing for you to go in.
"thanks again, karl is so forgetful."
you walk in and spot your notebook, quickly snatching it and putting it into your bag. george waited at the door, scrolling through his phone.
"alright, got it!"
he shut and locked the door behind you, placing the keys back into his bag. you fumble around your bag once more, realizing your throat was dry.
"did karl take something else of yours?" "oh no i just- don't know where my water went but its fine." "do you need one? i have a case of plastic water bottles in my dorm." "yes please."
you smile apologetically, sorry for having to bother him again. he walked into his shared dorm with sapnap before looking back at you.
"you coming in?" "oooh george- me and you in a dorm with no one else here? didn't know you were into that stuff." 'nevermind- just stay out there." "no wait i was kidding!"
you laugh, walking in and grabbing the water from his hand. george couldn't meet your eyes, his face hot and ears red once more.
"ok i have to go, but thanks so much george!"
as soon as you were out the dorma nd the door shut, george crashed onto his bed.
'why do you do this to me y/n...."
---
you fiddled nervously with your fingers, two tickets in hand. you wanted to finally and properly ask george out on a date. you had hoped you made your crush obvious, this little 'game' was in actuality not a game to you.
you spotted george, quickly shouting his name. he turned, spotting you and waving off his group of classmates. the other feral boys were not in sight.
"hey y/n, what's up?" "so i have these tickets for this tech convention this weekend and wanted to know if you wanted to go-"
george froze for a minute, shoving his hands in his pockets.
"me? why don't you take like karl or someone." "why would i take karl?? i want to go with you." "like what, on a date?" "yea, a date."
the silence was so loud. george stood there in shock, not believing what he just heard. he shook his head aggressively, refusing to accept as he mumbled.
"you don't even like me like that y/n, you should ask someone else."
you were beyond confused. had you not made it obvious enough? did he not pick up on the clues? was he that daft?
"but i like you george. why else would i flirt with you so much." "you were probably just playing with me-" "george do i have to shout it from the rooftops? because I LIKE YOU and if i have to, i will."
at this point, you had almost screamed and george's eyes widened. he looked around, hoping no one was watching this go down. he quickly grabbed your wrist, dragging you into an empty classroom. you wilted a bit, knowing he would probably reject you at this point. what you thought were signs that he reciprocated your feelings may have been wrong.
"okay okay, we don't need to shout-" "it's. . . fine if you don't like me back george, i just thought-" "NO! wait i do like you i just- wasn't sure if you were being real. . ."
he ran a hand through his hair, the red pigment filling up his pale complexion. you perked up, searching his face, only seeing his once again bashful and genuine face. you grinned.
"then its a date blushy boy."
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@inniterhq @dysfunctionalcrab @mitzimania @acidtabletz @cherios @yamturds @ttakinou @strawberrymilkgeorge @cr0wbonezz-wr1ting-inc
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reyeslonestar · 3 years
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Question what are some things you wanna see in season 3 of lone star? Character development, plots, anything
I want to see Tonya Kong write every episode. that's all. thanks for asking!
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sadfkja I joke, I do have other ideas, but that is definitely high on my wish list! i'm gonna go through by character and talk about what I'd like to see for them, so this is gonna get quite long whoops...
the main thing that I'd like to see overall, though, would be evidence of an overarching season plan or arc - it doesnt necessarily have to be a plot that stretches through all the episodes or anything major, but I'd love them to have plotted out the season before they start. from watching this season and then reading interviews after the finale, they dont appear to plan many things from the start and end up throwing in ideas as they go along. if they plan it from the start they can foresee how theyre going to affect character development more, and they can have a bit more balance in the types of episodes they have, so that the season is less insane and more naturally ebb-and-flow with a few light episodes to break up the drama.
okay, onto the characters! just going to do this in billing order for simplicity's sake. customary reminder that these are just my own opinions and thoughts, and this is more of a wish list than a realistic expectation.
if you want to search for a specific character, ctrl F for one of these terms including the dash at the start:
-Owen
-Tommy
-TK
-Grace
-Judd
-Marjan
-Paul
-Carlos
-Mateo
-Nancy
press “j” to skip the whole post.
-Owen
okay so I'd love to see them actually develop his character. Owen has been given a lot of backstory with lots to play with development-wise, but to me it feels like the show never goes anywhere with it. he's got a lot going on what with 9/11, feeling responsible for the fates of his fellow firefighters, the codependence of his relationships etc. I'd like to see him go to therapy and see him grow some self awareness and seek to manage himself better, rather than all his screentime devoted to him being a hero when other characters have the situation handled. it would really show him as a good leader if he drew on the skills that his team has and refer to them for advice/ideas. realistically he is the main character, so I'd like them to develop him like one.
also, I kind of love the chief role for him? I think it would suit him really well. but it would drag him away from the 126 and split up the dynamics too much so it would make for bad tv and I wouldnt actually want to see that. good for his character though.
-Tommy
I love Tommy :) just wanted to say that.
so obviously Tommy's got a lot of grief to handle next season, and I don't want them to shy away from that. I want it acknowledged and processed. (I'd also like a little bit of seeing the twins' grief too, because they're also suffering a massive loss). maybe something with Judd helping Tommy learn to manage her grief with his own experience of losing the original 126, encourage her to go to therapy, plus Tommy, Grace and Judd all feeling the loss of Charles together. after all, Grace and Judd were his friends and they will be grieving too.
I'd also kind of like to see Tommy have something outside being a working mother. obviously we're going to need to deal with that a lot especially now that Charles is gone, but I feel like she's been assigned the Character TraitTM of being the working mum and I'd like to see them give her a hobby or something. idk. and give her a night off with Grace or something. give her something just for her.
-TK
okay so I think theres a fair likelihood that theyre going to return to looking at TK's addiction next season which im not averse to. I think him struggling with his sobriety would be worthwhile to see for his character and to show that its not a straightforward path, plus it makes sense with all the insane stuff they've thrown at them in s2. however, Id like to see it in the context of his friends and family rallying around to help and support him and show him that he's got people to rely on, and that he's allowed to rely on them, plus the support of his AA meetings and therapy. I also need them to lay the groundwork for him struggling, so putting in signs of him deteriorating so the situation makes sense. this storyline doesn't need surprises to be interesting or good, and frankly it shouldn't have any.
as for him and Carlos, I definitely want to see them househunting! I'd like to see the combination of househunting/Carlos with Tommy's kids/Grace and Judd having their baby have an impact on their perspectives regarding their future and spark that conversation (like, looking at houses with more rooms and thinking about kids, future, marriage etc). I think that maybe one of them, probably TK, or maybe both of them those boys have way too many parent issues having anxieties about being a dad could be an interesting way to add tension without being too drastic, and then that can be resolved in a way that reassures them of their relationship and reaffirms their strength as a couple. the talk about the future would also lay the groundwork towards a proposal at the end of s3.
-Grace
grace :) my love :)
I could watch episode after episode of Grace kicking ass and saving people over the phone. I'd love to see an episode set there? like, some kind of story within the call centre with all the handlers having to resolve that between them, but also tie in the first responders, so we see the fire team, the paramedics and Carlos all working but we only see the bits that Grace and the other call handlers hear, if that makes sense? also an actual Grace/Carlos team up where they are coming in from the different angles with different amounts of evidence and figuring out the best way to solve something together. plus I'd like to see her maybe get some recognition for being awesome at her job, maybe another handler coming to her for advice on how to solve something.
of course we've got the baby Ryder on the way, and I want that to go comfortably and smoothly for her. she deserves that. lots of wholesome excitement for her and Judd from the whole extended firefam, baby shower, gifts, the full works. pamper grace please.
-Judd
judd4captain2k22. please.
yeah I know its not gonna happen, but I loved judd stepping in as captain this season and I'd love to see that continued with him taking more leadership, and Owen deferring to him for advice/council in a work environment rather than personal life. maybe set up a long term idea about judd being a captain someday.
he's gonna be a dad :') so what are his anxieties about that? why were they putting it off before? was it related to his PTSD? he's got lots of people relying on him now, how does that make him feel? what if his kid loses him? id like to see him still using therapy as a tool to help himself deal with everything. lots of meaty questions to dig into there :D
-Marjan
I'd quite like to see more of her balancing her daredevil nature with the impact of that and realising how much danger she puts herself in sometimes. or on the flip side, maybe the team is dealing with a really dangerous situation and they utilise her fearlessness to save people. her relationship with social media could also come back? but bring in the development they gave her this season, and her Firefox presence is more serious, less flippant?
I think that theres now a space for her to explore her sexuality/romantic experience now that she hasn't got her engagement with Salim as a kind of failsafe. maybe she wants to put herself out there and date, but thats really daunting as shes never really had to do that before? personally I think this could tie in really well with a self discovery/exploration regarding her sexual orientation, but I doubt they’d go there with her, so thats just my headcanon.
-Paul
I want them to draw on Paul’s observational skills and perceptiveness more, especially on calls and in emergencies. I remember someone (sorry I cant remember who) pointed out that he would have been a great character to centre the arsonist plot around in terms of noticing the clues etc, so id love a storyline that revolves around him dealing with an emergency like that. I also really want a Carlos and Paul friendship so maybe them collaborating on a call to solve something, that’d be cool.
can we give Paul a girlfriend please. if im not complely insane, there was a reference to someone in like,, 2x04?? someone who put mayo in his sandwich? idk I havent checked (edit: it was aioli in his banh mi! thank you @meneatyoghurt), but if there is someone can we show him having a fun and loving relationship please. I dont need there to be any drama. just them having fun on a date or something.
-Carlos
so I know that some people are keen to see him in his police role more but I really don't need much of that. on calls with the 126 I'd like to see him be the officer in charge more, but I don't need police-exclusive storylines. I've talked about it here if you want to know why.
the only area that I'd like to see would be in the direction of reform/addressing the flaws of the system, and I think they can do that on a personal level for him, because he and Mitchell need a chat. if they'd gone with her decision in 2x08, he, Mitchell and the bank robber would all be dead, and I think thats gotta have some impact. also the fact that he was suspended for trying to preserve life. theres a lot they could work with there and maybe have him thinking about how he can do good and how he can effectively protect and serve. not to mention, the opportunity that would provide in terms of addressing his relationship with his dad and how he maybe sought approval by pursuing a police career?
also I’d like him to learn that he doesnt need to accept blame/preemptively put blame on himself and that he doesnt need to apologise when someone else hurt him. kind of want to send him to therapy. kind of want to send all the characters to therapy. but yeah, him learning that he can accept apologies and understand that he doesnt have to make people feel better for hurting him. hes allowed to be hurt and feel pained about it. and that can tie into his relationships with Mitchell, with TK and with his parents.
I think I mentioned most of the tarlos stuff in TK’s section, but I wouldn't mind at least one instance for them where we see it all from his perspective instead of TK’s.
finally ive mentioned above how i’d like a team up with Paul on a scene and both of them figuring it out together. I'd also like them having a friendship outside work, just the two of them, bonding over books and being relatively sane people compared to the rest of their friends.
-Mateo
Mateo is so sweet. I loved 2x14 and the recognition he got, more of that please! also theres still so much I want to know - one of the more consistent things they set up for him in s2 was his faith, so I want to know more about that. what's his relationship with religion and God? he's pretty isolated from his family so how does he feel about that? is his religion something that helps him feel connected to them? maybe the church helped him find a community when he first came to the states, before he got settled with the 126, and he finds reassurance in faith that God is looking after his family while he cant be there? I think maybe there's scope for a conversation between Marjan and Mateo about that, about that distance and caring for their families through faith and prayer.
also, if he's still with the horrible firehouse, I'd like to see the other firefighters being won round by his resilience and stepping up to look out for him, and someone backing him up against the captain. Mateo is used as the butt of the joke most of the time, but I'd also like to see a bit more acknowledgement of things like losing his house and the bullying hes going to get more of from this firehouse.
-Nancy
I think that her speech to Tommy in 2x14 was really telling, and I'd love to see them expand on that a bit more. first on the loss and fear of losing her friends and coworkers, but then also on her hopes and aspirations - she said she wants to be a paramedic captain so lets see her working to take her exams and qualifications, and showing initiative on scenes etc.
id like to see more of her being integrated into the 126 group. she and marjan turned up to the hangout together, so lets develop that relationship more. I would love it to be romantic but I'd also love to see that as a friendship. but also her forming bonds with others in the group as well as more of her and TK being a chaos duo. I love that they stole the ambulance, more of that insanity please!
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I think thats it? if youre still reading, youre insane and I appreciate you a lot! honestly im open to all sorts of things in s3, this isnt a prediction or anything, its just stuff I think would be interesting based on where the characters are now. 
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bathroom-spiders · 3 years
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I posted 12.223 times in 2021
43 posts created (0%)
12180 posts reblogged (100%)
For every post I created, I reblogged 283.3 posts.
I added 1.685 tags in 2021
#the magnus archives - 491 posts
#critical role - 403 posts
#what we do in the shadows - 396 posts
#the mandalorian - 73 posts
#cr spoilers - 71 posts
#lord of the rings - 70 posts
#the mechanisms - 55 posts
#the penumbra podcast - 50 posts
#cute characters - 39 posts
#it speaks - 37 posts
Longest Tag: 117 characters
#do i need this cuppa to make it through evening shift even though i know i wont be able to sleep till like 2 o clock?
My Top Posts in 2021
#5
Babby hedgehog!!! They walked by while i was napping in the garden :o Sound on for baby noises
8 notes • Posted 2021-09-22 09:38:11 GMT
#4
Felt emotionally ready for a new podcast today. (New for me.) Babes Mabel is such a ride. I am entranced. My brain bit down on this and will not let go.
Listening to it feels so nostalgic, like it's written both for me as a little girl with her head in a book and stirring flower petals in rainwater for witch reasons, and me as a tired adult who works and has lost all sense of time passing.
I love how you can see the shape of a tragedy long before you learn its facts. The secrets and the mystery are characters all on their own.
It's so unapologetically open and vulnerable in its acting and format, it feels like im being included in a dangerous secret. I'm in love with this podcast and terrified of how it's gonna end. Ill probably finish in a few days no spoilers pls <3
11 notes • Posted 2021-06-18 19:12:57 GMT
#3
Critical role finale spoilers below!!
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Can I just say how much I loved that battle with Ickithon. Starting with the surprise encounter when everyone was getting ready for a couple days of downtime and the swift terrifying buildup of a grand wizard battle.
How they won using an item they found dozens of sessions earlier and that Caleb had been tinkering with for this very purpose. Beau and Veths dope teamwork! Caleb going down and then not and then having his old master fall from the sky with a snap of his fingers. Astrid helping, described with so much feeling. The thorough humiliation that this self-important horrible wretch of a man was subjected to.
Caleb knowing that it isn't over, that keeping him alive (catching one of the biggest bads in the campaign alive!!) will mean a slow difficult victory, but at least the man who hurt him so cant do it to anyone else ever again.
I can't even begin to express the emotions I got to feel at all the directions that battle took. I think about his secret dickhands and i smile
14 notes • Posted 2021-06-04 17:27:20 GMT
#2
Coming from my magnus archives fixation and falling headlong into what we do in the shadows feels so right.
Theyre so so different, but they both have that good indulgent maximalism going on, and that unpolished feel that make a series so much more relatable. (Minimalist bright shows are exhausting because with so little aesthetic stimulation it all has to hang on the writing and delivery, and hell that makes most shows absolutely unenjoyable. Im looking at you netflix lucifer.)
Wwdits is goofy where tma is serious. Horny to all hell. The vampires are hot. Its still horror themed but with the tragedy turned way down. It's exactly what my brain needs right now? Like dinner was 8 hours ago and I'm still awake so i gorge myself on pickles and it's glorious. Guillermo emits lo-fi charm. I want Nadja to murder me in a horny way. I want to learn how to do hair horns.
18 notes • Posted 2021-10-03 20:57:45 GMT
#1
What if aliens exist, but they are like, really tiny. Ant sized. What if they visit us all the time but dont count us as sentient beings but this weird subcategory of like, flesh landscapes.
What if they study us the way we would study weather patterns. Are we slow to them? Do we seem to move with the same speed as a plant turns towards the sun? Undeniable but observed only in time lapse?
177 notes • Posted 2021-08-30 10:35:40 GMT
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meow-bebe · 4 years
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Love Comes Naturally
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The second installment of my Neo Classics collection, Love Comes Naturally is set in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet."
“You've always thought that you could learn to love the husband your parents pick for you, but after sneaking off during a masquerade you realize that with Kun everything just falls into place."
Pairing: Kun x reader, tiny bits of Jungwoo x reader
Genre: fluff, Romeo and Juliet au
Warnings: nothing as far as im aware
Word count: 4.3k
Tonight's soundtrack: Check Yes, Juliet - We the King's, Collar Full - Panic! at the Disco, Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy - Queen, Dancing’s Not a Crime - Panic! at the Disco, Mother Tongue - Bring me the Horizon, After Midnight - WayV
A/n: hello! so this may be a romeo and juliet au, but its pretty toned down, theyre not about to die. im pretty happy with how this turned out and i hope you will be too! as always, i appreciate feedback so much, so if you liked it, reblog it! enjoy!
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“And yet I wish but for the thing I have. My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep. The more I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite.” - William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
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You have never really been one for social gatherings, much less the large parties that your family liked to throw whenever they could come up with a half decent excuse to do so. One would think that considering how you’ve been attending them for as long as you could remember, you would grow used to the recurring events that would without fail make you miserable every time. The men constantly doing their best to win your affections, the heavy and often uncomfortable formal wear, the ghastly summer heat that would often settle over the ballroom, the hours of dancing with people you don’t care for.
Of course nothing goes the way it should logically, and as a result you still couldn’t find it in you to enjoy them. Yet you suffered through, as there really wasn’t all that much of a choice involved.
Tonight your parents were hosting a relatively large function in honor of your sister’s birthday. It was to be held outside on the grounds of your residence, and at the direction of your overly giddy sister (who liked to make everything as dramatic and unnecessary as she possibly could), everyone was to be masked.
Each of these things made the night easier for you to tolerate, and so you weren’t quite as opposed as you usually were to attending this time around. Spending the night outside meant there would be no stifling heat or restricted space, which always greatly improved your attitude towards the time you were forced to spend chatting meaninglessly with every person who just so happened to cross your path. The attention would be on your sister for the night, which meant it would be much easier for you to disappear into the crowd or slip off to get away from all of the excitement if necessary. Being the eldest was not ideal, as it was your job to marry off to a nice and wealthy man. Balls and parties were always used by your mother and the several men who wished to become your suitor to try and match you off with one of them. It hadn’t worked yet, as you couldn’t stand most of them. And of course wearing a mask always made everything a little more enjoyable. It would help you to hide yourself a bit better, while simultaneously letting you enjoy the air of beautiful mystery that came with wearing your favorite mask. A deep blue in color with white detailing, it was quite beautiful and there were rarely any others in attendance with the same colors. And just to top off the list of things that make tonight more tolerable, as you stand by the edge of the garden with one of your more clingy suitors hanging off your arm, a flash of a familiar blue mask that matches your own catches your eye. You smile softly to yourself, and think that perhaps tonight would be better than you had thought.
The main garden, where the night’s dancing would take place and where most of the guests would mingle around the edges while not dancing, was while sparsely decorated, beautiful. Torches lined the edges, with lanterns hung here and there to cut through the darkness that was just beginning to settle in with their friendly golden light. Spirits were already high amongst the guests gathered around the garden, the upbeat tempo of the musicians’ song keeping those who had already taken to dancing churning in a chaotic yet perfectly measured rhythm. Dusk was steadily pulling her blanket of night across the sky, and more people arrived every minute, joining the crowds and chatter.
You found yourself to not yet have moved away from the house, arm looped through one of the young men who often found you during nights like this. Jungwoo was polite enough, however he was very clingy and quite obviously completely enamoured with you. You didn’t mind him, though his constant presence could get tiring, but your mother, as it of course would happen, loved him. If it were up to her, you would have already married him, and you really weren’t thrilled with that idea. You weren’t sure if he was actually just incredibly boring or so flustered by your presence that he couldn’t make conversation about much other than “hello”s and “how are you tonight”. Either way, you wouldn’t want to spend your life with someone you can’t even talk to.
You chatted politely with a group of girls in masks that were absolutely gaudy, not particularly paying attention to the interaction. They were mostly just discussing the male population of attendees, and you didn’t miss the nervous look that would cross Jungwoo’s face every time you would add a comment of your own. You weren’t too bothered by it, as you didn’t say much to begin with and could hardly be expected to do anything except respond. You only had eyes for one, and unfortunately for your suitor it wasn’t him.
As the girls continue to giggle amongst themselves, you let your mind and eyes wander, searching for something interesting to look at or perhaps another flash of the other blue mask and its wearer. Jungwoo, who could be surprisingly intuitive for someone who had never picked up on your disinterest, nudges you gently with the elbow tucked around your arm.
“Perhaps we could wander around for a bit?” he suggests, and you had never appreciated him more than in this moment.
“Yes, I think that’s a wonderful idea.” You give him half a smile, and red paints his cheeks as you turn to the girls who had occupied you so far. “It was wonderful talking to you, perhaps I’ll see you again later tonight.”
They chorus their own goodbyes as Jungwoo leads you away, and silence falls between you as you wander. You let your thoughts drift as you scan the faces in the crowds, hoping for something to cure the restlessness that was already settling in even after just this much time spent around people whose presence you didn’t particularly enjoy. Or perhaps something that would distract Jungwoo so you could make your escape.
More of the torches have been lit now, and night has almost fully settled upon the grounds. The air is warm, and the atmosphere of the party is light and cheerful. For some reason you’re not yet quite sure of, you’re enjoying yourself more than usual, not letting the usual downsides bother you. Perhaps you were just beginning to care less. You meander alongside Jungwoo, staring up at the stars twinkling in the perfectly clear sky.
“Jungwoo!” The cry of your suitor’s name jars you out of your stupor as Yuta, an old friend of Jungwoo’s, approaches you from the side. Jungwoo’s face lights up when he sees him, and he lets his arm slip out of yours as he steps forward to clasp Yuta’s hand. At the same moment you finally see the blue mask you've been searching for again. Yuta sends you a wink and you smile gratefully, slipping away into the crowd. He had always picked up on your discontent, and though you had never truly talked to him you considered him a friend, or at the very least someone you thought you might like.
“You remember Y/n, my–” Jungwoo turns, but you’ve somehow managed to disappear in the few seconds he wasn’t looking at you. Yuta drapes his arm across the shoulders of an extremely confused Jungwoo, and pulls him away into the small groups of people scattered about.
“That’s alright, my friend. They were never interested in you anyway.”
“What?”
~~
Walking away from Jungwoo felt like a weight lifted off your shoulders. If you had been feeling as though the night wasn’t oh-so-horrible earlier, perhaps you were almost enjoying yourself now. Free to pursue whomever you wanted, to blend into the crowd, to not be the eldest―ready to be married off―for just a second. And so, a smile set upon your face, you slip around a couple of boys laughing to themselves and set off into the crowd of people.
You don’t limit yourself to searching for the wearer of the other blue mask, knowing that your paths will cross eventually―they always do. But one eye is kept on the people on your sides at all times. The music floating over the garden, almost drowned out by the laughter and talking, changes to something you can recognize, and you let your hips sway a bit as you dodge through the meandering guests, humming along to the melody.
You wave hello to Yuta as he passes by, a sullen looking Jungwoo not noticing you as you breezily sidle past. You almost feel bad for him, but you had made it obvious from the start that you had never thought of him as a possible husband. And not having Jungwoo hanging off of you at all times when he’s in your presence was most definitely a good thing. You couldn’t stand being constantly attached to someone as he always did.
A hand on your shoulder interrupts your thoughts, and you spin around with a gasp of surprise, a scolding for startling you on your tongue. But the one who startled you wears a blue mask and a happy grin, and anything you feel other than delight dissipates upon seeing his face.
“Kun!” you greet.
“Hello my love,” he responds, dramatically snatching up your hand and pressing an obnoxious kiss to the back. You let out a little giggle and draw him forward to press a kiss to his cheek. As soon as you pull back you replace your lips with the palm of your hand, thumb stroking along the ribbon edge of his mask.
“We match,” you point out.
“Well, would you just look at that,” he takes your hand in his and brushes another feather light kiss across the knuckles. “What a coincidence.”
“Indeed,” you laugh, “a coincidence. A wonderful little coincidence.”
You tuck your arm through his and give him a dazzling smile before beginning to walk around the edges of the garden, pulling him along as you drift amongst the other guests, finally feeling as if you were truly having a good time now that you had found Kun.
As you approached the crowd of pairs twirling and dipping, dancing and laughing, Kun pulls his arm from yours and falls into a bow before you, eyes sparkling with mischief, and offers his hand, palm up.
“May I have this dance, my dear?” he asks, and you pretend to have to think about it for a second before placing your hand in his.
“As there are no others who have offered a dance tonight, I suppose I will have to accept.” The corners of eyes crinkle up into a smile, even though the both of you knew there was no way you would ever decline him.
Kun sets his other hand on your waist and pulls you into the fray, a startled laugh escaping your lips as he seamlessly joins the rhythm of the dance. He had always been a much better dancer than you, and it's obvious as his feet move in time with the beat and he matches the others dancer's movements perfectly. It takes you a moment to find the pattern of motions, and even when you do the way your steps are clumsy and they way they don’t match Kun’s precise steps would be obvious to anyone watching. You barely notice though, too caught up in the moment and the happiness shining in your lover’s eyes.
As Kun spins you around, one hand suspended over your head, you catch your first glance of your mother since the beginning of the festivities. She has a sour look already on her face, as though someone had worn a dress that was just a bit more spectacular than hers. She roves her gaze over the dancers and locks eyes with you―dancing with the son of the family yours has quarrelled with for generations―and her nose wrinkles in obvious disappointment. You have never adhered to the standards of your family the way they wished you did, but this was perhaps your most offensive act of rebellion yet.
“Kun,” he pulls you out of the spin, unoccupied hand landing back on your waist. “Perhaps we could find somewhere a bit more secluded?”
Kun, ever so attuned to your thoughts, notices the slight discomfort that always comes over your face when the two of you are noticed together and without missing a beat or interrupting the dace leads you swiftly to the edge of the makeshift dance floor. “Your mother is staring?”
“My mother is staring,” you confirm, and as soon as you escape the churning dancers, you leave your hands attached and lead him away from the crowd of the party. Having attended many a social gathering you didn’t particularly feel like spending your whole night at, you knew all the best spots where none of the guests would ever think to wander off to.
One such spot was located beyond the path that snaked around the main garden where most of the guests were gathered, and through the break in the walls of shrubbery that separated all of the different sections of the grounds. There was then another layer of bushes to go through, where there was only a small, slightly overgrown path. Each barrier you crossed or path you traveled along brought a little bit more quiet, until the noise of the party had faded to a low hum in the background as you finally came to the much smaller garden you loved more than anything else on the property.
A little open-top gazebo stood in the middle, where you had hidden from your parents and the men they wanted you to marry for years. Barely anyone ever came to this place, you were almost certain it was just you and the groundskeeper. You never saw your sister there, and no other guests ever made their way to the secluded little garden.
"This is it," you say, stopping and taking in the full beauty of the place as Kun’s hand slipped from yours. It wasn’t decorated at all like many of the other gardens your family boasted, full of perfectly shaped hedges and tastefully designed flowerbeds. No, your little garden was simple. There were moonflowers crawling up the terraces that stood next to the bushes that closed it in and up the posts of the gazebo. It was small and square, with a little stone bench being the only other decoration. It was wonderful during the day, but it's true glory was after moonflowers stood proud and open and their namesake was bathing everything in her delicate white light.
"This is beautiful," Kun says, slowly wandering around the gazebo to see all of the flowers, marveling at the way they seemed to glow under the moonlight.
"I know," you sigh happily, reaching behind your head and tugging at the ribbons of your mask, "I've always loved it back here. It's kind of a safe place for me." A comfortable silence falls between you as you set the discarded mask of the bench and continue to drift among the flowers before finally slowing to a halt after making a loop and settling down in the grass. Kun was still standing next to the gazebo, so you turned to look in his direction.
"Come join me, love," you say, laying back in the grass. "Let's watch the stars.” Kun smiles, coming over to you and sitting down. You reach up and undo the strings to his own mask, pulling it off and setting it to the side. He smiles as his whole face is revealed, and you pat eagerly at the grass next to your head, hoping he would get the hint and lay down next to you. He does, and you lace your hand with his, head rolling to the side so you could look at him.
Kun squeezes your hand, fingers tangled with his and carelessly laid between your heads. "The stars may be beautiful, but nothing could compare to you, my love," Kun says, and you burst out laughing, rolling your love filled eyes and pulling your hand out of his just to gently let it fall on his shoulder.
“Oh stop it,” you say half heartedly. Though you always acted like it didn’t amuse you, you loved the way Kun would layer compliments and sweet little sayings on you. It was just one of the many charms of his you’ve fallen completely in love with.
A comfortable silence falls between you, the moon illuminating your features as you stare up into the sky. A beautiful wonder sparkles in your eyes, the same that Kun always saw when you first caught his eyes from a distance. As he stares at you, he wonders if it was him or the stars you were thinking about.
“I’ve never brought someone else here before.” Your voice was quiet, barely disturbing the crisp summer air.
Kun didn’t respond for a moment, but your eyes never left the sky, leaving your guessing as to what he was thinking.
“Really?” he asks suddenly, and you let your head fall to the side again to see the glow of happiness and moonlight on your lover's face.
You nod in affirmation, unsure of what to say. And as it turns out no words were needed. Kun unlaces your hands and quickly turns on his side, free hand coming up to cup your jaw.
“I love you,” he whispers as he dips down to kiss you. The familiar weight of his lips is warm on yours, and you melt into the comfort of the kiss.
“I love you more,” you reply as he pulls back for air, forehead pressed against yours. You lean up to give him a small peck on the mouth before laying down again.
“I really don’t think that’s possible,” Kun says, and the look in his beautiful eyes tells you more than words ever could.
You hum in assent. “I never brought anyone back here because I’ve never had anyone I wanted in my little garden. Sometimes I feel like this garden is the only place I can truly just be me. Just exist as I am…” you trail off, eyes drifting back towards the moon and her entourage of twinkling little pricks of light. “Most everyone in my life wants me to be someone else, someone I can only pretend to be. Mother wants me to find a good husband, my sister just likes that the attention is never on her, and Jungwoo, poor boy, is hopeless lost in what my mother presents to him….you’re the only one who doesn’t want me to play some part or another.” You sigh heavily, and Kun’s fingers find yours once again, giving them a comforting squeeze.
“I’m glad you feel that way, I like you better when it’s just us and you’re not glancing over your shoulder to make sure no one’s watching.”
“I’m not done,” you say, holding your hand up and Kun quiets down, a crooked grin on his face. That was perhaps the best part of your relationship, even when serious feelings were being shared you still felt that beautiful weightlessness in your chest, that want to laugh all your worries away and spin in circles till you fell over from dizziness.
“I’ve always thought that love was something that could be learned, something you could coax yourself into. And I suppose you could, but that’s not love, that’s just living as a player in the grand production of your own life. I always thought that when the time came I could love Jungwoo―or whoever else, I suppose―as my husband, my life partner. He’s nice enough, I always thought, isn’t that enough?” You shift around and nudge one of your shoes off with the toe of the other.
“But I don’t think it is. Not after you. Not after everything I’ve felt. Sure, perhaps there have been little sparks here and there over the course of my short few years in this world that we call life, but nothing like the inferno that roars inside me for you.
“I think that before I forced myself to try and feel something, and it was just that; forced. But with you, I feel like love comes to me naturally. Like it has always been there, I just hadn’t had a reason to unleash it yet. Like water filling up a dried-up creek bed after heavy rains. It courses through my body like the blood in my veins.” You shove the other shoe off and wriggle your toes around, appreciating the freedom.
You finally look over at Kun, and his eyes are transfixed on you. He looks at you with such adoration, one would think you had created his whole world and hung the stars in the sky for him to see by. (And perhaps to him you had, you know he had lit the way for you.) You wonder if he had been looking at you like that the whole time you spoke.
“You’re absolutely wonderful, you know that?”
“Only because you tell me at every chance you get.”
“Well I mean it,” Kun says, “you’re truly such an amazing person. There’s so much going on in your mind, but you hide it all away and you just blow me away every time you pour everything out like that. Emotions are usually such a mess but it's just poetry flowing from the deepest little nooks and crannies of your heart and it's the most beautiful thing I've ever heard.”
“Oh, Kun,” you sigh, “I love you.”
“I don’t know what I would do without you,” he professes, and a small, somewhat melancholy smile quirks at your lips. Though you wish you could continue to live in your fantasies, you know that the both of you would have to learn to live without one another.
“Maybe we should just run away together,” you tease, dreamily letting your gaze roam across your lover’s handsome face.
Kun huffed out a little laugh at the notion, laying his head back to look up at the sky and dream a little daydream, just you and him forevermore. As you watch on he seems to mull it over before shooting his head up, and hauling himself up onto his elbows.
“What if we did?”
“What?” you ask, eyebrows drawing together in confusion.
“Run away!” There's a wild and delighted look in his eyes, and in that moment you know that for once he’s not teasing.
“Kun...” you say cautiously, trying to keep yourself grounded despite all the sparking little ideas of the freedom you would have shooting around in your brain, “don't you think it's a bit….well, extreme?”
“No,” he says, simply, “you’re not happy here, and when you aren’t happy neither am I.”
“But that would mean completely starting over, love,” you say, though your voice holds none of the reluctance your words do.
“Exactly!” Kun says, eyes sparkling. “Think about it! We wouldn’t have to be a Qian and a Y/l/n―families always at odds―it would just be us. Just Y/n and Kun.” His voice softens as he continues, and you find yourself imagining little snippets of what life would be like if you took this risk. “You’d be free to just be you….”
You lock your gaze on his, thinking about all the possibilities. No arranged marriage, no mother hanging over your shoulder, no role you’re always forced to play. No more having to hide your love for Kun….
“Just imagine―” he continues enthusiastically, but you cut him off.
“Okay.”
Kun stops mid sentence, eyes widening as he looks over at you. “What?”
“Okay,” you repeat, a giant smile beginning to crawl across your face. “Let’s run away.”
“Really?” Kun asks, and you giggle at the bewildered look on his face.
“Yes, really.”
“Wow,” Kun runs a hand through his already somewhat messy hair, making it stick up even more. “I honestly didn’t think I would even get this far. You’ve always been so restrained about us, I thought it might take a while to convince you.”
You tilt your head to the side, slightly taken aback. “Qian Kun, have you been planning this?”
“Maybe,” he says sheepishly, but you just grin even wider, if that was possible, and lean over to ruffle his hair.
“I love you,” you say, sliding your hand down to his cheek and drawing him in for a sweet kiss.
“I love you more,” he laughs before rolling away from the hand set on his cheek and springing up. He grabs your hands and pulls you to your feet as well before latching his arms around your waist and spinning you around in a giddy circle. “Put your shoes on my love, tonight we leave this place.”
You slip your feet back into your shoes, saying, “I should grab a couple of things before we go.”
“Of course,” Kun says, twining his fingers with yours. “If you go in the front I’ll wait for you under your balcony, can’t have anyone seeing you sneak off.”
And with that, he gave you a beautiful smile, all of the love he held shining through. You beamed right back, giddy and riding the rush of leaving everything behind and starting afresh. Perhaps running off into the night was the stupidest decision you had ever made, but you had no qualms about it. You were absolutely, completely in love, and maybe love made you blind to reality. But perhaps in the end a little blind and a lot in love would be enough.
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@kpopscape​
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urmomification · 4 years
Text
WOOO POG DREAM SMP AU
theres 1.8k words and 9,393 characters of a schlatt au below the cut LMAO
[i was rambling to my friend and this is what came out of it! send me an abt it if u have questions i would love to talk abt it more pls]
(slight body horror/gore tw!!)
slams fists on table rattling any dishes on the table au where schlatt doesnt die of a heartattack and tubbo locks him up to rot basically and his horns grow into his eyes effectively blinding him and chained his hands together and basically a leash on him to keep him from moving around in his cell so he cant do anything to break the horns off before they get too long and one day when technos breaking into lmanberg he gets chased into the prison and loses them in the halls before coming across schlatts cell and schlatts calling out like 'whos there i can hear ur foot steps whos there please someone whos there' etc yk and technos speechless they thought they executed him to keep him from causing any more problems in the country but this is this is just much worse than anything he even thought theyd do and hes standing in front of schlatts cell just looking at him as if hes imagining it he knew lmanberg was bad but holy fuck they just let this man rot in a cell to the point of his own horns blinding him and giving him no aid or way to ease the pain so he makes himself known and schlatt 'ive never been so happy to see, well, hear an anarchist in my life, its good to see- hear you technoblade' and chuckles and blood runs down his face like tears would, few drops landing on his clothes before techno starts trying to get into the cell to take him out of there he cant leave him here sure he was an anarchist terrorist w a murder record but he had standards and now that schlatt wasnt in power he had nothing against him really considering he isnt a citizen of lmanberg so he manages to pick the locks enough to get him out of there, schlatts arm slung over technos shoulder they stumble out of the prison building and as they slowly make their way to the nether portal to get back to technos base, they run into tubbo and quackity, schlatts old right hand men and they try to stop techno bc hes well an anarchist terrorist w a murder record but the glare techno gives them levels them and theyre left staring at each other for a moment when schlatt 'whyre we stopped whos there tech' and techno mumbles 'tubbo and quackity schlatt' and schlatt just furrows his brows as far as he can without sending excruciating pain into his eye sockets before he purses his lips and asks 'are they going to try and stop us?' techno looks back at the other two 'no they wont, isnt that right boys?' tubbo and quackity slink away allowing techno and schlatt to the portal and them going thru, schlatt still silent as he tries not to trip over technos cape or off the ledge of the bridge passing over the lava lakes, they make it to the portal and begin the walk across the arctic tundra to technos house, philza isnt there right now so its just the two of them and techno leads him up the ladder to his room (its not really a room i think its just a bed, a bell and an enchantment table) and sits him down on his bed mumbling something abt being right back and he is with some medical supplies and a change of clothes to clean everything up, they dont talk techno works in silence and when schlatt winces he mumbles a small apology before continuing eventually techno got schlatt as cleaned up as you can get someone w horns in their eyes and a sweater to keep him warm and finally starts asking questions 'how long had u been in there' 'lost count' 'did they bring you food' 'a chests worth at the beginning of the month' techno sighs 'i thought they executed you' 'tubbo chickened out despite me being 'an active threat to our peace in lmanberg' and locked me up a few days after u set the withers loose and dropped off a chest of food once a month and most of them refused to talk to me others couldnt even make eye contact with me, other than the few instances where they said things like 'heres ur food' or 'u deserve this' or 'i cant believe tubbo let u live' i talked to no one other than myself for however long i was in there' techno stands and walks around for a moment before flipping some pages and schlatt can hear him gasp quietly in mild surprise 'what is it tech' looking in the direction he heard techno from and techno says, turning to face schlatt on his bed 'schlatt that was almost 3 months ago' a single beat of silence rings for what feels like forever 'oh. i, i didnt think itd been that long. though it would explain my current predicament' loosely gesturing towards his face 'oh right abt that i have a few questions if ur ready to answer some' schlatt hums and techno grabs a pen and paper and sits next to him in case he needs to take any notes for future reference 'how fast do ur horns normally grow' 'idk just a steady amount my whole life pretty much' 'will they ever stop growing' 'they generally stop growing around 30 and continue to grow more in width than length' 'did anyone who brought u food notice' 'they grow quickly and by the time the person w the third chest came around they were getting close to my eyes but they didnt listen to me, no one did' he sighs looking down at would be his hands 'the odds of both of my horns growing into my eyes and blinding me like this are so low but of course it would happen to me' a chuckle void of any amusement 'because losing my country and my people and my power wasnt enough already' techno stands up 'you had that coming' schlatt actually laughs this time, short and curt 'ok fair, u were the one that took me down afterall' and from then on schlatt lives w techno and phil and eventually tommy and then without tommy (tommy was Not happy when he found out that schlatt was living with techno but he needed somewhere to stay too and techno happens to live in an arctic tundra where only a handful of people know how to get to so he didnt complain too much) and eventually techno saws off schlatts horns at the bend adn removes them from his eyes bc if they kept growing into his head theyd hit his brain and kill him on top of blinding  him and techno gags and almost throws up despite not being sensitive to gore  and gives schlatt a bandanna to cover the holes in his head for everyones sake and once they heal somewhat he can find something else out and thats how they live, schlatt helps with what he can like farming w phil but mostly spends his time learning braille or something so he can read and techno gets him books in braille so he isnt bored or alone like he was in the prison and he feeds him and takes care of him and schlatt is funny and entertaining despite being blinded by something from his own body and the torture it was like to rot in a cell alone for almost a 1/4 of a year and nights when techno gets home late and hes shaken and the voices are bad schlatt will sit behind him and play with his hair and talk abt his own day and rub technos back and in return when schlatt relapses and gets violent and angry techno will wash his hair and read him stories until he calms down and hopefully asleep and no one told him the news that wilbur died so when ghostbur shows up and starts talking to him he treats him the same as he would wilbur bc he cant see that hes a ghost all thats different is his speech pattern and overall personality and one day he says 'ur different wilbur what happened to that, i dunno spark u used to have' and wilbur simply 'im not sure if im being honest a lot abt me has changed since i died, or so im told i dont remember much from when i was alive' and schlatt just 0_0 and then hes scrambling down the ladder and stumbling around the house looking for techno, finding him in the basement working on something and when he gets there hes out of breath and his hands are shaking bc holy shit wilburs not only dead but a ghost and he was just talking to me and he doesnt remember what i did and and and and techno is shocked to see schlatt in the basement and asks whats up and schlatt just 'wilbur died wilbur fucking died tech why didnt anyone tell him and now hes a ghost hes a fucking ghost who lives in ur house and doesnt remember anything he doesnt remember that he blew up lmanberg does he he remembers my name but not anything that i did what hes a fucking ghost techno hes a ghost holy fuck' and technos just standing there like ??? no one no one told him 'yea philza had to kill him after he blew up lmanberg i thought u knew thats why i didnt say anything' oh. 'phil, phil had to kill him?' 'yea its a touchy subject, dont bring it up' and simply goes back to what he was working on so schlatt sits on the ground by the ladder and listens to him work his brain going a mile a minute trying to comprehend whats going on 'would i have become a ghost if theyd chosen to execute me?' 'its hard to say im unsure if theres specific circumstances that contribuite to someone becoming a ghost but theres really no telling' and goes back to working yet again and from then on they fall into an easy schedule of techno going out and doing whatever an anarchist terrorist w a murder record does on ur average wednesday and schlatt stays home reading and organizing whatever he can based on size and feeling and sleeping in windowsills and schlatt greeting techno comes home beaten up and full of new resources and a side of bruises and cuts so he tends to them, getting better at maneuvering and functioning without needing to see then techno making dinner and then curling up by the fire for the night enjoying each others company as they talk abt their days :]
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oboevallis · 4 years
Text
advice pt2
my apologies this sucks and doesn’t really have a storyline, hope everyone’s staying safe, happy Halloween!
“It’s so good to see you.” Amelia said as she hugged her mother.
“It’s good seeing you too, and look at you, you look amazing for just having a baby.”
“Oh come on, now let me take your bag.” Amelia said as she tossed her mothers bag into the trunk of her car.
“Thanks for picking me up. It really wasn’t necessary, I would’ve taken a bus.” Carolyn said once Amelia got into the drivers seat.
“Mom, that’s ridiculous. It’s really no trouble.”
“So I’m assuming my newest grandson and Link are back at your place?”
“Yeah, we were thinking of going over to Merediths for dinner. If that’s alright with you.”
“Of course, it’s been too long since I’ve seen the kids and Meredith.”
“Good, I know Zola will be excited to see you. She loves to show off all the tricks she’s been teaching their dog.” Carolyn smiled softly, Amelia assumed she was thinking about her late brothers love for dogs.
________________________________________
“Mrs Shepherd it’s so good to see you again.” Link smiled, offering his hand for her to shake.
“Nice seeing you as well Atticus. Please, call me Carolyn.”
“Only if you call me Link.” He said shooting her his charming smile.
“I think we can arrange that.” Carolyn smiled, and then directed to her attention back to her daughter who came into the living room carrying her son. “And this must be my new grandson.”
“Yep, this is Scout.” Amelia said admiring the baby propped on her hip.
“May I?” Carolyn asked holding out her arms for the small child.
“Of course” Amelia carefully shifted the baby into her arms. Links pager then started to beep quickly. “Why are they paging you?”
“No idea.” Link answered looking at the page. “I’ve gotta talk to the chief, she really needs to find another ortho surgeon who doesn’t call in sick every other day. I’ll meet you guys at Mer’s.”
“Okay see you there.” Amelia pecked her boyfriends lips, before he raced out the door which she locked behind him.
“Does he get paged a lot?” Carolyn asked sitting down on the couch.
“I mean for him being on paternity leave, yeah. It’s not his fault though, his fellow was supposed to take over his service, but he’s working a new job and the other ortho surgeon is incompetent. Tom has been covering my service though.”
“Grey-Sloan has become quite the hot spot, I can’t imagine a better offering coming up to someone.”
“He got a job as the Mariner’s team doctor. Link set it up, they offered him his old job back but he recommended Nico instead.”
“I hadn’t realized Link had worked for the Mariners. I’m surprised he turned the job down.”
“Yeah, well it’s a lot of travel, and Scouts so little so he decided to stay at Grey-Sloan.”
“Not a lot of men will let go of a job like that. Link seems like a really good man.”
“He is, and he’s so good to Scout. I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop, he’s just so perfect.” Amelia gushed, her boyfriend never ceases to amaze her with his kindness.
“So how has Scout’s colic been.”
“He’s doing a lot better, he’s starting to sleep through the night.”
“That must be a relief for you two.” Amelia hummed in agreement, and the two sat in silence before Amelia spoke up with a question.
“This may be a stupid question, but you know this stuff. He’s seem to lost interest in breastfeeding, like he’s on strike or something. What am I doing wrong?”
“Well I don’t think it’s anything you’ve done. It could be a number of things, he could be getting distracted by surroundings if he’s overstimulated, or he could be teething so his gums are sore. He’s still little so I wouldn’t stop. I suggest just being patient, and making sure surroundings aren’t overstimulating.” The neurosurgeons mother suggested. Amelia smiled.
“Thank you. It’s nice being able to go to you for advice now.”
“I’m sorry if I made you feel like you weren’t able to do so before.”
_____________________________________
“Meredith it’s so good to see you again.” Carolyn respectfully greeted when Meredith answered the door.
“You as well.” Meredith awkwardly hugged her mother in law. “The kids are just in the backyard playing with the dog.”
“Would you mind if I joined them?” Carolyn asked.
“No not at all.” Meredith smiled, once Carolyn was out of earshot she confronted Amelia. “Your mother absolutely hates me.”
“She doesn’t hate you, trust me. She absolutely hated Addison, we all had to make sure my mother was on her best behavior. I don’t have to worry she’s going to say something offense to you.” Meredith held her hands out for the small boy, which Amelia passed to her.
“That’s what Derek would say to me, but that was before I unplugged her son without her knowing.”
“Hmm, true.” Amelia bluntly agreed.
“That doesn’t help me, Amelia.”
“I’m sure she doesn’t hate you, she wouldn’t of come over.”
“She’s obligated to come over, those are her sons kids.”
“Are you spinning out?” Amelia chuckled. “I barely ever see this side of Meredith.”
“It’s only your mother who brings out this side of me.”
“She has that way over people.”
_____________________________________
“Hey sorry we’re late.” Link said walking into Merediths kitchen with Maggie and her boyfriend.
“It’s alright, we put your plates in the oven, hopefully theyre still warm.” Meredith said uncharacteristically cheerful. Link shot Amelia a confused look which Amelia giggled to.
“Oh, we just came to pick up some of my old notes from previous patients of mine, for a case.” Maggie said gesturing to her and her boyfriend, as the two left the kitchen.
“Is Scout asleep?” Link asked once he sat down next to his girlfriend.
“Yeah, he went down without a fight.”
“If you’ll excuse me I’m going to go put Ellis to bed.” Meredith gestured to her youngest asleep on the couch. Leaving Carolyn, the couple, and the older kids at the dinner table.
“So my daughter tells me you used to work for the Mariners.”
“Yeah, I did that for a while I really enjoyed it. I love working at Grey-Sloan though, I’m able to do research which I really enjoy.”
“Did they fire you? Because your not very good at hitting a baseball.” Bailey commented
“Well I was their team doctor I wasn’t playing for them, and I didn’t get fired. And if you recall, you were the one who was throwing the ball too low.”
“I’m working on it.” Bailey gave his uncle a double thumbs up. “We’re still going to play on Wednesday right? Maybe Scout can play?”
“Of course we are. But I think Scouts gonna stay with his mom, he’s still little.” Link wrapped his arm around his girlfriends shoulder.
“It’s time for bed you two.” Meredith came into the kitchen gesturing towards her children. They said their goodnights to everyone and made their way upstairs with their mother.
“So Link, tell me about yourself.”
“Mom.” Amelia quickly said, not wanting her boyfriend to feel uncomfortable.
“Oh it’s fine. Well Im a ortho surgeon, sure you probably knew that though. Umm, I’m pretty laid back stress free, but not too laid back like I can handle things.” Link quickly added not wanting to seem irresponsible. Amelia put his hand on his thigh to try to help calm him. “I-I hate avocados, I was a Cub Scout resulting in very good smore making, I can fix bikes pretty well, oh and I play blues guitar.”
“And you still haven’t written me that song.” Amelia added, to which Carolyn chuckled.
“Do you remember that song your brother wrote for Addison?”
“I never knew he could sing, it was quite awkward though. I don’t know what part of him thought that he should write her a song. I think he rhymed ‘Addison Fine Ass’ with ‘Gross anatomy class’”
“I doubt your brother wrote that, that has Mark written all over it.” Carolyn chuckled silently remnicing on when the two best friends were little and very much alive. The baby’s cries disrupting the moment, to which Amelia jumped up to go tend to the baby. Once Amelia was up the stairs Carolyn continued. “I’m going to be honest with you Link. I like you, I’ve never seen my daughter this genuinely happy. I have you to thank for that. And I’d say we didn’t pick up on the right foot. But it appears I tend to like my children’s partners who don’t make the best first impression. Amelia loves with her whole heart and some people find it hard to love her, but you haven’t.”
“I can’t imagine thinking someone would find her hard to love, she’s a straight shooter, and so funny, and the kindest human I’ve ever met, and the best mother to Scout.” Link gushed, getting carried away he loved talking about her girlfriend.
“Welcome to the family.”
part 3
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hansols-yoda-boxers · 5 years
Text
Somewhere In Translation
@sneaky-ash: Im not sure if youre taking requests but im not fussed about when/if you write this; its just youre one of the best smut writers ive found in a while and lowkey a seungkwan enthusiast. Anyway ive been thinking about bumping into svt whilst theyre like, filming a surprise or smth in your local area. They ask you for directions and you end up hanging out with them and SK get flirtier the more time you spend with them. Eventually you guys end up getting together in his room all the while he’s tryna communicate in english as much as he can, and you try your best with extremely limited korean. Idk i feel like the language thing is something thats really ignored in fics and i kinda wanna see smth more realistic. Anyway!! Ive droned on a bit but if you find this ask kinda boring then dont mention it :(: but i wanted to get this out there since i thought youd be the best write for this. If you cant tell, i love your work! Im not extremely active but ill support you x 
Seungkwan x Female Reader
Word Count: 2553
Contents: fingering, oral (female receiving), some nipple play, unprotected sex
Note: I can’t seem to tag you. Also as expected this took a while but it’s here now. I’m back from my mini hiatus and I love u all.
You had to do a double, then a triple take to process what you were seeing. You really thought you might be going crazy. There was no way that actual members of an actual kpop group were in your town. It was a big enough city to warrant them visiting but you hadn’t heard about any concerts.
And what were the odds that they would stop by your favourite café?
You were almost thankful that Seventeen wasn’t your favourite group or you might be screaming right now. You liked their music and knew them well enough to know their names and faces and a little bit about each of them but you didn’t know every single detail about them and you had failed miserably when you tried their name chants. You looked between Seungkwan, Seokmin, Soonyoung, and Hansol thinking that they were much taller than you expected, until one of them caught your eye.
You would have felt silly that Seungkwan caught you staring at him, but they had people staring at them all the time. It couldn’t be that much of a surprise, could it? You smiled at him warmly and confidently despite feeling a little shaky. You swore he checked you out quickly before returning the smile. You took your drink and made your way to a table, catching him each time he threw glances at you. Hansol caught the two of you looking at each other and chuckled before saying something to Seungkwan that you were too far away to hear. He blushed and looked between you and Hansol before his drink was ready. He took it and Hansol nudged him and motioned to you.
You’d decided that you were going to go with this. Maybe it was all a crazy dream but either way you were going to enjoy it while it lasted. Seungkwan made his way across the café to you while throwing glances back at the others nervously. He stopped behind the chair across from you.
“Hi,” he said awkwardly.
“Hello,” you hummed, grinning. “Did you want to sit down?”
“Ah, yes,” he blushed and took a seat. You waited as he thought through what he wanted to say. “You’re… very pretty.”
You couldn’t help he blush that spread across your face. You’d decided this had to be a dream. There was no way this could be real. On the slight chance it was though, and you weren’t about to wake up, you had to enjoy it.
“Thank you, you’re very handsome, but you probably already know that,” you said. You watched as he processed what you were saying and a shy smile spread across his face. “What are you all doing here anyway?” you asked, motioning to the other three who were sitting a little ways away, sipping their drinks, and chatting while shooting glances at the two of you.
“We have… um, schedule. We are…” he looked back at the others who all looks down at their drinks, chuckling. “lost.”
“I know the area really well if you need a hand,” you smiled.
He blushed and nodded, throwing his friends what almost looked like a dirty look before getting up. You followed him to their table where the other three greeted you warmly. Hansol told you where they were looking to go and you smiled, assuring them it was nearby and that you could take them there yourself to make sure they didn’t get lost.
You did your best to talk to all of them as you walked but it was easiest to hold a conversation with Hansol. Soonyoung and Seokmin walked behind you and chatted with each other while Seungkwan tried to keep up with you and Hansol. You did your best not to speak too quickly and you noticed Hansol giving him lots of chances to talk.
You led them to the nearby arcade they were heading to. It very much seemed to be the right place as there was a camera crew there and someone who might have been their manager who looked relieved to see them. You watched as they made their way into the arcade and turned to leave but someone grabbed your hand. You turned back to see Seungkwan smiling nervously.
“Will you, uh… wait until we are done?”
You smiled and nodded. He sighed happily before going to join the other members. You watched from the corner of the arcade as they filmed. They all seemed to turn on their energy and turn up their smile for the camera. Still them, but like turning up a dimmer switch, they were a brighter, more glamourous version of themselves. Whenever the camera was pointed elsewhere Seungkwan shot you a smile. It was the same smile he used on stage, it was dazzling and took your breath away and seemed like such a stark contrast to his shy grin from earlier.
You realized why he had asked you to stick around when they wrapped up filming sooner than you expected. You leaned against the wall and watched as the four of them approached you.
“You’re done so soon,” you said brightly.
They all nodded and Soonyoung pushed Seungkwan closer.
“We are going, uh,” he gave Hansol a panicked look. Hansol whispered something to him. “to the mall. Do you want… to, come?”
You grinned. “Yeah sure, do you know the way from here?”
“Ye-” he started but Soonyoung shoved him. “Uh, no.”
You offered your hand. “Let me show you then.” Seungkwan blushed as he took your hand and walked with you. The others chuckled and followed along behind.
“It was fun watching you film,” you said. “You’re so interesting, and I think the video will turn out well.”
You swore you saw a smirk cross his face and he followed along the crowded sidewalk of the market. “You seemed… happy?” he thought for a second. “…interested?” He spoke quickly to Hansol who laughed.
“He wants to say you seemed very charmed by him.”
You felt the blush creep up your cheeks and he chuckled and squeezed your hand. “Ah, you’re so cute.”
You wandered through the mall with them. Eventually Soonyoung and Seokmin wandered off to look at something, pulling Hansol with him to translate. You felt more nervous being alone with Seungkwan but as you were finding out he understood English well. Speaking was another matter but considering your Korean consisted of phrases that you had picked up from kpop you thought he was doing pretty well. You wandered through a few clothing stores where he insisted you try on a few things and almost made off to pay for them before you caught him and pulled out your own card. He did buy you a tea which you sipped on as you wandered back to the front of the mall. You had a feeling your day with him might be coming to an end.
He seemed nervous as he considered his words carefully. “Do you want to… hang out?”
You smiled, way too happy that this was happening. “Of course!”
He grinned at you as he ushered you towards a car. You got in with him and tried to take in the conversation between him and their driver that was ultimately lost on you. The driver took a sigh and drove and you noticed the way Seungkwan kept glancing at you. His hand found yours but after checking to see that the driver wasn’t watching he slid it over further to rest his hand on your thigh. He rubbed his thumb in slow circles on your thigh before you leaned over.
“What did you mean exactly by ‘hang out’?” you asked, not being able to help the way a grin tugged at your lips.
In response he kissed you, quickly but passionately, his hand squeezing your thigh.
He pulled away and chuckled at the slightly dazed look on your face. “Something like that.”
“Okay,” your said breathily, now very aware of his hand which had moved a little higher on your thigh.
He pretty quickly pulled you out of the car once you got to what you assumed was their hotel. He moved quickly through the lobby and to the elevator. You noticed the way he was biting his lip while he glanced at you and it made you wish there was no one else in the elevator. He pulled you out just as quickly and down the hall to his room. The second he had the door closed behind him his hands were on your waist and his lips found yours. He kissed you deeply and backed you into the wall as you wrapped your arms around his neck and pulled him closer. When he broke away from the kiss you were breathless and dazed.
“I have… wanted to do that all day,” he said.
“God I’m so glad you did,” you replied as your eyes focused on his plush lips before you pulled him back in for another kiss. You let your hands wander down his shoulders to his arms as he pressed closer to you and rocked his hips against yours. He let out a soft sigh into your kiss and said something quietly in Korean that you didn’t understand.
“Hmm?” you hummed against his lips.
He pulled back enough to look at you and blushed. “Don’t worry about it,” he blushed. You opened your mouth to protest but a small whine came out instead as his lips started to suck on your neck. His hands slid down your body and he grabbed your ass, pressing you closer. You could feel his bulge through his pants and it only served to turn you on more. He rolled his hips against yours moaning against your skin. He painted your neck in purple before kissing you deeply again as you started to pull him towards the bed.
You back against the bed and barely laid down before he crawled on top of you, ridding himself of his shirt before kissing you again. He pulled your shirt off between kisses and started to kiss down your body. He kissed the tops of your breasts and lifted you enough to get you out of your bra. He mumbled something against your skin before he sucked one of your nipples between his plush lips and you blushed as your ears registered the Korean word for beautiful. His hands slid down to waist and started to undo your belt. He helped you out of your jeans before settling between your legs. His hands trailed up your torso and he let his fingers trail over your nipples while he kissed further down your body. He peeked up at you as he went and took in the way you were arching into his touch.
He kissed along your inner thighs until you were squirming and giving him a pleading look.
“Seungkwan, please,” you whined.
He grinned up at you as he pulled your panties down slowly. He kissed slowly along your inner thighs until he was kissing right next to your core. You tried to roll your hips against him but he just chuckled and pulled away.
“Patience,” he hummed and you whined as he went back to teasing you, bringing a finger to tease your entrance. You let out a small whimper and tried to hold still, need him to move on from his teasing. You gave him the sweetest, most desperate look you could muster and he let out a whine before finally bringing his lips where you needed them. You let out a loud moan and bucked your hips his face and he held them down as he traced your clit with his tongue and pushed one finger into you.
He pumped his finger slowly, and soon added another as he moved his tongue too slow. You moaned for him to go faster and searched your memory to see if you knew the right word in Korean but one look at his smug grin and you realized he was doing it on purpose. You groaned and threw your head back, gripping the sheets as he slowly picked up the pace with his fingers. You cried out when he passed over a particularly good spot and he started to rub back and forth over it faster before sucking your clit between his lips.
You moaned out his name as you came on his fingers, bucking your hips against his hand and face. You whimpered as he pulled his fingers put slowly and moved to lap up your release until you were pulling away. He mumbled something against you and you hmm.
He looked up at you a blushed. “You, taste good,” he hummed, blushing slightly.
You smiled as you pulled him up towards you. You kissed him deeply and started to fumble with his belt. As soon as it was undone you helped him push down his pants and he kicked them off, still kissing you passionately.
He let out a loud moan as you took his cock into your hand and started to stroke him. He quickly stopped your hand and broke away from the kiss, scrambling for the words.
“I… if you… I might… um,” he was blushing deeply and grinned as you took in what he was saying.
“You might cum too fast?” you asked, pumping his cock again.
“Y-Yes,” he gasped up, trying to stop your hand again. “I want to…” he trailed off unsure of the words.
You kissed him sweetly before pulling him closer to you. “Me too.”
He started to grind his cock against you and you both let out moans at the feeling. You helped him to align himself with you before he slowly pushed in. He let his head fall into the crook of your neck and moaned as you gripped him tightly. He stayed still for a few moments as you both adjusted until you started to whine and move your hips. He pulled back and thrust into you slow and deep.
He worked up his pace slowly, leaving more kisses and love bites along your neck and collarbone. Your toes curled at the feeling as you moved your hips in time with him and started to moan out his name.
You could feel your second orgasm building and from the sound of his moans he was getting close too. “Fuck, Seungkwan, c-can you, your hand-”
You felt his grin against your skin as his fingers found your clit and started to rub it in quick, even circles.
You cried out as you came on his cock, holding him close through your orgasm. His thrusts grew sloppier and the way you were clenching around him had him cumming quickly after. You pulled him in to kiss you as he roll his hips into, riding out his own orgasm.
You were both panting as he rolled off of you and you started to come down from your highs.
“That was fantastic,” you breathed.
He smiled at you. “Yeah.” He tugged you  little closer and you cuddled up to him. You had no idea if this would lead somewhere or if this meant anything at all but you could at least enjoy the cuddles while they lasted.
You decided that if that was a dream, it was the best dream you’d ever had.
110 notes · View notes
midnigtartist · 6 years
Note
6. The super long kiss that wasn’t intended
He knows he should be watching the treeline. Sat beside Nott at the front of the cart, Molly knows that he ought to be scanning the tree line for any potential threats to their merry band as they weave their way through the valley. But he just can’t seem to get himself to focus on the slow passing trees as Nein marches southward. His gaze keeps slipping from the road, as he glanced over his shoulder at the wizard curled up in the back of the cart.
As to be expected, he’s got a book propped up in his lap. One of the spellbook he keeps strapped to his side, Molly notes, as he carefully and meticulously sifts through their recent spoils. The faint hum of arcane energy hangs in the air around him. It pricks at the back of Molly’s neck, making the hair there stand on edge and that’s why he’s been so distracted, and certainly not because Caleb looks so darling and content with his task, a small smile curling at the corner of his lips.
No, Molly thinks wryly to himself, it’s certainly nothing to do with that. Not at all.
He swings his legs over the side of the cart bench, earning and disgruntled yelp from Nott as she’s jostled by the movement. Molly ignores this, instead watching Caleb’s, dare he says, giddy smile as the pearl clasped tight in his hand dulls, and he picks up the bracelet he’s been inspecting. Sliding off the bench, Mollymauk seats himself cross legged at the perimeter of Caleb’s pile of spoils, resting his cheek to his fist.
“Anything interesting?”
Caleb starters, but only a little, his head jolting up and eyes blinking as he takes in the new addition to his ring of shiny things. Molly offers him a curling, close mouth smile in lue of a proper greeting.
Caleb nods, pulling at his beard. “Ja, this-” he gestured vaguely over the lot of stuff, a crooked grin on his face. “This ist gut. There is a lot a usefully things here.”
“Almost finished then?” Molly asks.
“Oh yah, I just have to look over these rings for Jester, you know, and then that will be all of it but ahhhh- you have come over here? Is- is there something you need?” the thrill the magic gives him, seems to bear wearing off and Molly can see Caleb slowly receding back into his shell. And that simply won’t do.
He shrugs “Not particularly. This is fascinating, by the way.”
Caleb lowers his gaze to his spellbook. He twiddles and twists the pearl between his fingers and Molly tracks the movement because that’s fascinating too. Caleb’s long fingers rolling the small bead between them is truly something and he can feel the slight flush crawling up his neck.
“You have seen me identify objects before,,,” Caleb mutters.
“And I find it thrilling every time!” he says. He leans forward so his elbows are pressed into his knees. “I think it’s just wonderful, that. How you can learn all of that stuff just from looking at it for a few minutes. It’s very impressive!”
Caleb shrugs, but Molly spies a phantom of a smile touching the corner of his mouth and he finds himself beaming all the wider for it.
“Well you know, there is a bit more to it then that but it is ahhh,, nerd shit.”
“What I’ve learned from traveling with the lot of you terrible people is that nerd shit tends to be the shit that keeps us alive. It’s very useful shit. Don’t sell your shit short Caleb, it’s very good shit! Quality, even.” he says. Somewhere to the right of him, he can hear Jester cackling. He keeps his eyes and his smile trained on Caleb, who’s actually turned a bit to face him.
“Ha ha.” it’s not a laugh, not really. It more just the noise, but it’s so endearing that Molly’s insides squirm with delight at the sound. “I suppose you are right- about that at least.”
“You’d be surprised by how much I’m right about, actually.” Molly says.
This time Caleb does laugh, even if all it is a huff of air. “Mister Mollymauk.”
“Mister Caleb”
The pearl rolls between his thumb and forefinger. “Would you like learn a magic trick? I, you know, I have tried teaching Jester before, and umm, Beauregard but, they don’t, well, they really do not have the patience for this sort of thing.”
He cocks his head to the side. “And you think I do?”
“I have seen you mend your coat.” Caleb says, actually leveling his clear blue gaze on Molly, effectively pinning him in place. “That embroidery is your handy work, hmm? Something like that takes a lot of time.”
Molly draws back so that he’s sitting up straight. “Well as flattering as it is to know you keep eye on me.” Caleb flushes. “-I don’t think I’m quite clever enough to do what it is you do dear.”
Magic, at least, the magic Caleb does, seems to require a lot of reading, and reading has never really agreed with Mollymauk Tealeaf. It makes his eyes hurt and his whole brain revolt against him, can even give him a terrible headache if he forces himself to work at it for too long.
Caleb’s brows draw together, forming deep creases between his eyes. “It is not that hard.” he says.
Molly flashes him a tight smile. “Yes, but I’m not that smart.”
The wizard shuts his spellbook with a forceful snap that makes Molly’s tail jump and curl up behind him. “Come here, Mollymauk.” Caleb says, commands really, Molly thinks with a shiver. “I will not force you, if you do not wish, but do not withhold just because you think that you might not be clever enough. I will be the judge of that.”
“Well when you put it so nicely,,,” Molly says, praying to the Weaver that he sound relatively unaffected by whatever that was. He slides over so that he’s sitting next to Caleb, instead of across from him. “So, what will I be learning then?”
Caleb hesitates, but only for a moment before he opens his book back up, and shuffles over so that Molly can see the pages, balancing it on his knee.
“Something simple, I think.”
“Oh goody.”
Even the creak of the branches in the wind sounds ominous, which Molly thinks is rather ridiculous and painfully cliche. His blade, glowing with a warm, white light, is wrapped up in the tails of his coat to dull it’s radiance as Molly creeps along low in the brush. The Nein had decided, against Molly’s better judgement, decided to travel a few hours past sunset.
“The next town isn’t that far, guys.” Jester had told them, brandishing the map with the same ferocity with which she handles her sickle. “We’ve been on the road for daaaaaaaaaaays and my feet are getting all tired and gross from walking so much and I just want to sleep in a bed and not in the grass and wake up with like, bugs in my hair and stuff.”
So they’d marched on, and now they’re paying the price because not only is it a good couple of hour past sunset, but they’d been assaulted by some ruffians. Taking advantage of the exhausted state of the party, they’d managed to stop them, rob them, and make off with Jester’s haversack of holding. With so much of their valuable shit in that bag, they’d decided to give chase, and had gotten spread pretty thin in the processes. Which, isn’t such a bad thing, Molly’d been able to pick off a few of the bandits, spread thin themselves, quickly and quietly. But he’s worried about everyone else. If they were unlucky enough to run into more of the bastards then they could handle alone, with Jester possible very, very far away. That could make things a bit more sticky.
Of course, they’re all pretty capable, decently strong. And yet,,, Molly’s worried about some, specifically squishy members of their party.
He’ll- they’ll be fine.
He marches on deeper into the woods.
A bit of time later, the sound of muffled voices hit Molly’s ears. Not long after does he spy the flicker of firelight through the leaves, painting speckled shadows along forest floor.
Molly pauses a moment, tucking himself against a rotting old tree trunk. Peeking over the top of it he can just barely make out a group of darkened figured, hooting and hollering like idiots around a makeshift camp. Why do petty thieves always do that? Make a whole fucking ton of noise that gives away their position. Every single band of thieves he’s ever run into does it. It’s just not smart. Though, if they were smart enough to understand that they probably wouldn’t be out here robbing well seasoned mercenary groups, he thinks. He counts the shadows, or at least he tries to. The back lighting from the fire is fucking up his night vision but he thinks he sees four or five distinct individuals. Too many to take out alone.
Reaching into his pocket with his free hand, he pulls out a little piece of wire. Its difficult, harder with only one hand, but he manages to wrap the bit of copper around his finger and brings it up to his lips. He points out into the woods in the general direction he thinks he saw people running. “Found a group of them. Looks like five maybe? North. Just past that one rock that looks remarkably like a penis. Oh ! and you can reply to this message” he whispers into his fist.
Molly does this eight more time, hoping that if he casts a wide enough net he’ll be able to get in touch with at least some of the Nein. Between not knowing exactly where everyone is and the, frankly concerning, fizzle of the spell against his lips he not sure how many of them got the message. On the fourth time, he hears Jester’s cackling rattling around in his skull. It’s a horrible bizarre feeling that makes his skin tingle,and not even in the fun way.  On the sixth one he hears Beau’s exasperated “real fucking mature, man” and has to stifle a chuckle. On the last one, it’s Caleb’s voice ringing around in his skull.
“I see the rock you are talking about. oh- ja it does look like a dick.” He says. “I am making my way over to you now.”
Molly waits, one eye on the trees around him, one on the group of bandits, watching for any strange movement. Maybe one of them will come over here to take a piss. He could take them out nice and quite, and that would be one less shit head to deal with.
The bushes to his right rustle and Molly tightens his grip on his sword. Caleb comes sprinting out of the underbrush towards him, crouched low to the ground to avoid being spotted. Molly can’t even even get a word of greeting out before Caleb is suddenly upon him, hands reaching to curl around the lapel of his coat.
The wizard is positively beaming at him, his face cracked with a wide smile Molly has only ever seen him give Nott. His eyes are practically glowing, wide and excited and full of pride. He’s on Molly in an instant huddled against the rotten log alongside him and Molly is stunned.
“You cast message!” Caleb says, barely able to keep his voice to a stage whisper for the excitement. His hands come up, cupping Molly’s face between them and immediately the teifling feels himself start to color. Thumbs rub over his cheeks, Caleb squishing his face between his calloused palms “You cast the spell, you did the thing that I showed you! Oh! I am so proud! I am so proud of you! You are brilliant Mollymauk. I could kiss you!”
Well, that makes Molly’s heart do all sorts of ill advised and complicated gymnastics in his chest.
He puts a shaking hand on Caleb’s knee. “Don’t say thing you don’t intent to follow through on, Mister Caleb.”
Brain seeming to have caught up with his mouth, Caleb pales, then flushes a deep scarlet. His hand stay cupped around Molly’s cheeks, though they do lessen they’re squeezing a bit. His gaze falls past Molly’s right shoulder. “I ahh- right. I was- well I got a little excited I suppose,,,”
“Happens to the best of us.” he gives Caleb leg a friendly jiggle “Your secret’s safe with me”
Caleb chuckles.
They don’t move. They’re still dreadfully, painfully close. Annoyingly, not close enough. He watches as Caleb’s gaze flickers back over to his face. Watches the way his sharp, ever curious blue eyes trace the curve of his palm where it’s pressed into Molly cheek, all the way down to the corner of his mouth. He leans in.
The center of gravity suddenly shifts and Mollymauk Tealeaf finds himself crashing against Caleb’s warm mouth. Its quick, but it’s everything.
Caleb presses his lips firmly to Mollymauk’s for a brief moment, pulling him in with the fingers still curved around his jaw. Molly gasps, fingers tightening around the fabric of Caleb’s pant leg. He lets his eyes flutter shut. And then the warmth is gone and Molly opens his eyes to see the wizard staring at him, wide eyed and flushed. Still his hands don’t move from Molly’s face.
“I should not have done that. I-”
Molly brings his other hand up to the back of Caleb’s neck and pulls him forward. Their lips meet again and Molly can taste the crackle of arcane power that lingers on them. It shoots a thrill down his spine. The hand on Caleb’s knee tangles into the coarse fur lining of his coat and Molly sigh, deep and wanting against the other man’s mouth.
To his glorious surprise, Caleb responds in kind. His hands begin to move, one sliding down his face to rest at the juncture of his neck and shoulder, those long, scholarly fingers spanning across his throat, making Molly shiver. The other tangles into the short curls at the back of his neck, drawing Molly even closer.
Molly breaths through the kiss, eyes shut tight as he focuses on the feeling. Of dry and ragged ruined lips against his own. On the slight scratch of stubble against his chin and the rough pads of Caleb’s fingers on his skin. He feels exactly like he looks, coarse and rough around the edges. Nothing like the soft, sweet smelling hired company that Molly’s used to. He finds he likes this much better. The earthy smell that clings to weather battered skin, mixed in with faint hints of whatever spell components line Caleb’s pockets. Licorice and molasses.
Caleb sighs against him, tilting his head for a better angle.  Molly puts all other thoughts out of his head. Forgets about the bandits at his back, and his friends stomping through the underbrush. Even forgets about their stole bag of good. He put his facilities to better use, memorizing the shape and heat of Caleb’s lips against his own
Molly parts his lips and prods at Caleb’s lower lip with the twin prongs of his forked tongue, makes a soft sound of pleasure as Caleb’s fingers tighten in his hair. Caleb jumps under his hands, pulling away. He desperately wants to follow, but Molly let him go, keeping fingers folded against the lapels of his coat, half  to keep himself grounded, half to keep Caleb from bolting before he can find his voice again.
“Don’t you dare apologize for that.” He crooks out after a moment.
Caleb stares at him with blown out blue eyes. He swallows, runs a hand across his jaw. His fingers linger against his lips. “Ja- okay,,, That was ahhh-”
“That was good.” Molly assures him, stroking fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck.
Caleb nods, looking a little unsure. “Gut, ja. You know, uhh maybe we should- should, you know- maybe we could do that again, sometime. But I think we should probably take care of those bandits first.”
A smile splits Molly’s face. “Think we can take them, just the two of us?
“No.” Caleb hands come back around to cup his cheeks, then slip down, coming  to rest against the front of Molly’s coat “We are pretty tough, but you said that there were at least five of them. I do not want us taking any unnecessary risks.” he starts fidgeting with Molly’s coat, adjusting it on his shoulder and smoothing out the silk with his hands. “Clever boy.” Molly says, fondness laced into his words.
Caleb doesn’t meet his gaze, but he does smile.
The sound of twigs snapping catch their attention and moments later Beau comes slinking out of the bushes, a new bruise swelling up over her eye. Caleb hands fall away. Molly keeps fingers pressed lightly against the side of his knee.
“That’s a good look on you.” he says, once Beau is close enough.
“Thanks asshole.” Beau wedges her way between the two of them, elbowing Molly in the stomach as she does.  
He whizzes out a pained laugh.
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ladyboltontoyou · 6 years
Text
Arthur Morgan x Reader: Farmer’s Daughter. 3
Ask: OH MY GOD IMAGINE THE READER IS A GIRL FROM A GOOD FAMILY, SHES WITH ARTHUR FOR A WHILE NOW, THE PARENTS WANT TO MEET HIM. THEY’RE HAVING FAMILY DINNER AND THE COWBOY MAN JUST CANT KEEP HIS HANDS TO HIMSELF UNDER THE TABLE oh my god if your request are open and you would write that i would probably, most likely die...oh btw i love the “farmer’s daughter” story OH MY GOD MAYBE THIS COULD BE THE NEXT PART AAAAAAAAH SHIT! okay okay i’m sorry i just got excited! love your writing, have a great day!
Warnings: Cursing, probably. Slightly public sex, ya get fingered at dinner ok? 
Pairing: Arthur Morgan x Reader
A/N: YEEHAW MY FELLOW SLUTS! ENJOY! Also, idk what they called panties back then so I just went with panties, ok? 
Two months later and you had fallen completely in love with the man. You both had told yourselves you wouldn’t let it get that far but it was nearly impossible. Every time you would see each other he had something to give you, be it a new drawing of yourself, wildflowers he had found out in the woods, or some suspiciously expensive jewelry that he wouldn’t talk about.
He hadn’t planned on any of it, really, but multiple times a day he would see something that reminded him of you and he just knew he had to take it. Even the jewelry he had stolen from the folks who were unlucky enough to start a fight with him.
After a while of successfully sneaking around the day came you’d both been expecting. Your father caught him. 
It wasn’t in the way you’d thought it would happen, thankfully. He didn’t walk in on the two of you or catch Arthur climbing up to your room or sneaking out of it. It was more subtle and less suspicious. The two of you, like the fools you were, were out in broad daylight at the stables on your property. You would go out there regularly to spend time with your horse so you knew your parents wouldn’t question you being down there. 
You should have known being that comfortable sneaking around was just asking to be caught. And sure enough, you were.
“(Y/N)? Who is this?”
You fucking twitched. When you turned around you saw your father standing behind you with a look of concern on his face and one of the stable boys watching the whole thing go down. You had given him some money earlier to keep his mouth shut and he sure was getting more than he asked for.
“Howdy mister!” Arthur waved and stepped past you. “Remember me? I stopped by here a while back to ask for some directions.”
Your father squinted and reluctantly shook his hand. Suddenly realization spread across his features as it all clicked. “Oh! Yes!” He laughed and clapped Arthur’s shoulder. “How have you been? Ever find your way?”
“Sure did, thanks to you. I was in town and was asking around, looking to buy some good horses, and a few folks told me you were the man to talk to.” You looked at Arthur with parted lips, in shock at how good of a liar he was. He turned a potential disaster into the most casual and normal interaction without the slightest effort. It was kind of scary.
Your father laughed and nodded, crossing his arms proudly. “You’ve come to the right place, follow me.” 
Arthur tossed you a wink and you had to smile then, dumbfounded by how smoothly the whole thing went.
***
After your father had whisked Arthur away to the expensive section of your stables you went back home. Your mother was preparing dinner along with one of the ranch hands, which surprised you. When you questioned why he was there she explained he was making his mother’s famous gumbo, your mother insisted upon it after she had sent some over to your family. 
When dinner rolled around your father made it back just in time, a surprise guest at his heels. 
“Jane, you remember this man, don’t you? He was the fellow on the white horse who asked for directions to-”
“Of course I do!” She wiped her hands with a kitchen rag, walking into the main room where the two men stood. 
You stood up from the kitchen table to watch the whole thing play out, locking eyes with Arthur who just shrugged.
“He came down today to buy a horse from us!” Your father said as he closed the front door behind them. “And to congratulate him on his purchase I’ve invited him to stay for dinner.”
Your mother smiled happily, it wasn’t often you had visitors that weren’t your families prude friends or relatives. “Good! We’re having gumbo tonight, Thomas is cooking his mother’s very own recipe.”
“Oh!” Your father raised his brows. “The one she sent over yesterday?”
“That’s the one.” 
“Brilliant! I loved that.” 
The two of them talked for a while before Thomas announced the soup was done and your mother went back into the kitchen to help him serve. Your father excused himself to wash up, telling you and his guest to have a seat in the dining room.
You sat down next to Arthur and gave him a look. 
“What?” When he finally noticed you looking at him he furrowed his brows.
“How did you manage that?”
“Manage what?”
You snorted, rolling your eyes. “Come on. You’re the best liar I’ve ever met.”
Arthur shrugged, taking the glass of water that Thomas set down in front of him.
 “You must not of met a lot of people then.”
“All right, then. Keep your secrets.” 
He chuckled and set the glass back down on the table after taking a few generous sips. “Before we almost got ourselves killed, I was going to give you somethin’.” Another gift? He reached in his pocket and pulled out a small folded piece of paper. “Don’t let anyone see that.” He added with a whisper since Thomas had walked in with the rest of the drinks. 
You smiled at him and slowly unfolded the paper in your lap under the table. Once you had it done you squinted before realizing it was upside down. You flipped it the right way and your face was suddenly burning. Your breath caught in your throat as you took it all in, quickly folding it back up when your mother walked into the room carrying the giant pot of soup. 
The urge to punch him was strong. Why did he have to give that to you then? Why couldn’t he wait? You slipped the paper in the front pocket of your dress and cleared your throat. 
Arthur chuckled and took another sip of water, smiling sweetly at your mother as she started filling everyone's bowls. “Thank you, ma’am.” 
It was impossible to get the image out of your head. It was a drawing of you, completely naked, lying on your stomach with your head resting on your folded arms, your legs kicked up and locked at the ankles. You were looking directly into the viewer’s eyes with a wicked smirk on your face, some of your hair in your face. Once again you looked utterly magnificent, your body drawn in a way that accentuated every part of you perfectly. If it wasn’t a drawing of you, you probably would have gotten off to it. You probably would anyway, knowing Arthur was the one who drew it.
“What horse did you end up buying, Mr…”
“Arthur. The young brown mustang, think your husband called him Taro.”
Your mother nodded and sat down at the opposite end of the table when she was finally done serving. You wished she would let you help with dinner but she was firm in her belief, not allowing you or your father to help her in the slightest.
It was another ten minutes before your father finally joined you, taking his seat beside his wife. “Please excuse me, got carried away with my hair again.” He laughed and eagerly started eating. Your mother shared a laugh with him, chiding him lightly about how vain he was.
Most of dinner was fine, you all talked about the usual dinner subjects such as work, the weather, and town gossip. You barely paid attention though, the image of you drawn naked was stuck in your mind, along with the idea of Arthur drawing it. You wondered if he had done it in the heat of a lust filled moment or if it was just something normal to him.
What finally snapped you out of your thoughts was the feeling of a hand on your knee. You brushed it off at first, it seemed innocent enough, he had done it plenty of times before when the two of you laid together. It wasn’t inherently sexual.
But then he moved his hand lower, brushing his fingers against the hem of your dress. You looked at him with a subtle glance but he refused to acknowledge you at all. 
Crossing your legs you tried to get him to stop but that didn’t deter the cowboy at all. He pulled your dress up just enough to slip his hand under the fabric, then let the hem fall back down over his arm. You wanted to curse him out but you held your tongue and tried to act as natural as possible, taking another spoonful of soup into your mouth. 
“So, Arthur, you never told us what you do for a living.” Your father said after sending one of the kitchen maids to bring out a bottle of wine.
His hand traveled up to your thighs, his fingers gently rubbing circles over your skin. “Oh, well, it’s nothin’ excitin’. I work for a man collecting debts from people. Good money.”
“Oh!” Your father acted impressed, shrugging and exchanging a look with your mother. 
“If that isn’t exciting, I wonder what is to you!” Your mother laughed and so did your father.
‘Maybe fingering your daughter five feet away from you.’ You thought as you shifted in your seat, thankful for how high the table was. If it was any lower surely they would see that the lower half of his arm was extended towards you.
Slowly, extremely slowly, his hand continued it’s journey upwards. You forced yourself to keep a straight face, even when you felt the tips of his fingers brush against your panties. ‘No problem,’ you told yourself, feeling him pull the fabric aside so he could touch you better. ‘No big deal.’
Arthur rubbed slow circles into your clit with a firm amount of pressure, but not quick or firm enough to get you anywhere fast. And he knew it, too. He ate his second bowl of soup just as normally as he did the first, showing no signs of the fact that his fingers were about to be stuffed inside of you. 
You liked to think you looked just as calm as he did. You had finished your soup and were waiting for everyone else to so your mother could bring out dessert, and then you could finally leave the table. If only Arthur would hurry up and finish his meal. 
The small talk carried on and left almost no silence which worked to your advantage. If they were quiet they probably would hear how fast your breathing had gotten, especially when Arthur pushed that first finger inside of you. You had to practically bite through your tongue to keep the moan silenced. 
“(Y/N), you’re quiet, for once. Are you sick?” Your father joked and everyone laughed, including Arthur. That bastard. 
“I’m fine, just like listening to you all talk.” You said quickly, surprised at how even and calm your voice sounded. Almost as if you weren’t being finger fucked. 
That seemed to satisfy them enough and they carried on with conversation.
Normally at dinner, you rarely drank any wine, since you were never able to just have one glass. It always led to two, or sometimes even three, and you would end up passed out on your bed hours before you usually would. But tonight you happily drank, finishing the second glass right as Arthur had two fingers curling inside of you. 
As hard as you tried not to let yourself orgasm you could feel it approaching rapidly. Arthur could too, noting how your chest rose and fell and how you were twitching around his fingers. He slowed down momentarily, allowing you to catch your breath, before he was right back at it, quicker than before. He had a hard-on of his own but with his belt and gun holster in the way, no one would have the slightest idea, even if they looked right at his crotch. Lucky him.
“Are we ready for dessert?” Your mother's voice scared you out of your wits and you jumped. 
“Yes!” You laughed to draw attention away from the fact that you almost spilled your wine. 
She left along with the kitchen maid, directing her to get together new sets of dishes. 
His fingers curled quicker as he sipped on his wine, keeping his eyes anywhere but your father or you. Your father kept up the small talk, allowing you to give yourself the time to focus on having a discreet and quiet orgasm. 
You slowed your breathing as you felt it coming, gripping Arthur’s arm under the table with your left hand as you curled your other hand into a fist around your dress. He looked down at you for a split second, savoring the sight of you as best as he could before he forced himself to look away as to not look suspicious. He gave you a few more deep pumps before you came. The heat and tingles exploded, rippling from your clit and inside your body to your entire form. You bit your lip and looked down, sinking your nails into the skin of his arm. The waves of pleasure that coursed through your body were enough to make anyone scream but you kept your mouth shut and posture still. 
When it finally finished you sat back in your seat, running a hand through your hair as you sighed, wiping the sweat off your forehead when your father wasn't looking. Arthur smirked at you and you threw him the angriest glare you could, but you couldn’t keep it for long. When he chuckled you broke out into a smile and you had to look away so you didn’t laugh.
“Here it is!” Your mother said proudly as she carried the pecan pie into the dining room. “Took me all day!” 
Arthur made a show of looking impressed and your father praised your mother's cooking to no end, telling her that she was the best cook in the whole west. She smiled proudly and served everyone's plates. Thank god you had already came and Arthur’s hand was back where it belonged.
“I’m going to make you regret that.” You whispered to Arthur as your mother talked about how hard it was to find enough pecans. 
“Lookin’ forward to it.”
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bluesfortheredj · 6 years
Text
Gwilym and the reader have been best friends for as long as they could remember and they just did a movie together so they’re doing an interview together and he accidentally reveals a huge secret
You sit in the middle of Joe and Gwilym on a small velvet purple coloured sofa, so small in fact, that it seemed as if it were made for you three, and you lean your head back as one of the make up team applies some powder to your face to make you look a little less shiny on camera. The three of you had done two previous interviews, and by now the room was a little on the warm side, so you needed all the help you could get for the next one, although it was your last, so there was a light at the end of the tunnel thankfully.
“You okay?” Gwilym asks in a slight whisper as the make up lady moves on to Joe.
“Yeah, I’m great, you?” you smile, turning as much as you could to face him.
“Perfect,” he grins, placing his hand on your thigh and squeezing it lightly. This was nothing out of the ordinary for you two, everyone knew that you’d been friends for years before doing Bohemian Rhapsody together, and your small public displays of affection went unnoticed nowadays, especially from the rest of the cast.
“Get a room you two,” Joe smirks from beside you. Well, it went unnoticed most of the time, anyway.
“We did, but you followed us in,” Gwilym quips back, shooting Joe a playful grin over your shoulder.
“Okay, calm down boys, one more interview then we can go for a drink, yeah?” you say as you turn to the face the currently empty chair in front of you all.
“Sounds good to me,” Joe replies, “will you be joining us, Gwil?”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world, mate,” he says, stretching his arm around the back of the sofa, and carefully placing his hand on your shoulder so that it’s not visible to the camera. His thumb strokes your t-shirt, then the interviewer enters the room, and you all stand up to greet him. He’s a young man named Harry, and his hand shakes a little when it gets to you.
“You okay, Harry?” Gwilym asks, noticing the slight shake.
“Yeah, yes, this is my first big interview though, so please forgive me if I’m a little nervous,” he smiles as he takes his seat, “feels like a job interview with you three sat opposite me!”
“Don’t worry! At least it’s not all of us, right?” you grin.
“True, very true,” he nods, “thank you.”
The camera starts to roll just as he gets his papers in order, then with a surprising air of confidence, he makes his introduction, then delivers the first question.
“Gwilym, I’ll come to you first, how was it working so closely with the Brian May?”
“Intimidating, to say the least. Although by the end of it I think I was the one freaking him out… We sort of ended up mirroring each other quite a lot, it was a little worrying,” Gwilym chuckles.
“If it weren’t for the colour of the hair, you’d never have been able to tell them apart!” Joe adds, and you laugh along with them.
“Now, (Y/N), what was it like kissing Rami in those teeth? Did they get in the way at all?”
“It was more than a little awkward,” you laugh, feeling Gwilym’s hand on your shoulder again as he stretches out once more, his long fingers tickling you slightly, “there was a certain amount of practising that had to be done beforehand, that’s for sure.”
“Is that what you call it?” Joe smirks.
“I think Lucy would have been having words with me otherwise...” you say, nudging Joe’s arm.
“Speaking of which, were there any other romances on set?” Harry asks, looking along all three of you for some kind of sign before you answered. He may be nervous, but he knew exactly what to look for.
“You mean apart from the bromance that formed between the four guys?” you answer, before anyone else opens their mouths, “they weren’t exactly subtle about it, either.”
“What can we say? It was an instant connection,” Joe smiles.
“If only we’d met a few months earlier, they definitely would have been invited to our wedding,” Gwilym laughs, then his face drops as both you and Joe turn to look at him, shocked expressions on both your faces.
“Our wedding?” Harry asks without missing a beat. Gwilym looks directly at you, his mouth moving a little, but no sound coming out of it yet, and you manage to arrange your face into one of calm, then give him a nod, keeping your face turned to him as he speaks to Harry.
“Yes,” he croaks, then clears his throat as he sits upright and places his free hand on yours, which is resting on your knee, “our wedding.”
“Well, to be honest, that’s thrown my questions completely out of the window,” Harry laughs, “how long ago was the wedding?”
“Just over a year,” Gwilym replies confidently as Joe sits there like a deer in headlights.
“Guys!” he eventually gasps, “guys!”
“I take it you had no clue?” Harry asks Joe.
“No clue at all!” he replies, still looking at you both, “I’m speechless!”
“And he’s never speechless,” Gwil adds.
“(Y/N), would you like to add anything?” Harry asks, and you finally look back up at him with a smile.
“I don’t think so, no,” you chuckle.
“So, in light of this news, I have to ask… How was it watching your wife kiss another man?” Harry smirks.
You sit back against Gwilym’s arm with a laugh, his other hand still caressing yours on your leg, and you shuffle over to rest against his side as Joe looks at you both with a smile. Thinking about it, he knew there must have been something between you at one point, or there was going to be something in the future, and he was actually impressed with how well you’d kept the secret from everyone.
“It was a challenge, I’m not going to lie. Especially as they did actually have to practise it beforehand,” he laughs, “how I stopped myself from letting this slip then, I do not know.”
“Is there any reason you’ve kept this a secret so long?” Harry asks, looking to you more than Gwilym. You feel Gwil turn towards you, his hand resting soothingly on your back, and you give a short shrug before answering.
“Not particularly,” you start, “it just sort of… happened.”
“It was such a natural progression in our lives, that it didn’t even occur to us to ‘announce’ it as such,” Gwilym adds.
“You two are too much,” Joe says, pretending to wipe tears from his face, “the sweetest damn couple I’ve ever met.”
“Stop it, you,” you laugh, playfully slapping his leg.
“I’m just really happy I was here to witness this moment,” he carries on, dabbing his cheeks with his jacket cuff as if he were crying. Gwilym reaches from behind you to give him a shove, and you all sit there laughing for a moment before regaining your composure and directing your attention back to Harry.
“I have a question,” Joe then says, turning to you both on the sofa, “when were you going to tell us?”
“Probably when we got back to normality and started wearing our wedding rings again,” Gwilym laughs, “it would be the only time we’d actually remember that we hadn’t said anything before.”
“True!” you agree, “it’d be that sudden moment of realisation that you still had no clue!”
“I’ll try not to take it too personally...” Joe winks.
“Sorry, we’ve sort of derailed your interview here, haven’t we?” you apologise with a slightly worried look on your face as you meet Harry’s gaze.
“I can forgive you, you’ve given me more than enough with your accidental reveal,” he grins.
“Me and my big mouth,” Gwilym scoffs, rolling his eyes.
“What else has he got that’s big?” Joe asks you, a devilish grin spread across his lips.
@disneyprincessbuffyannesummers @mychemicalimagines
255 notes · View notes
71tenseventeen · 6 years
Text
Take My Hand (Take My Whole Life Too)-8
Pt 1, Pt 2, Pt 3, Pt 4, Pt 5, Pt 6, Pt 7
Warnings for sexual content, male pregnancy, non-hockey Sid. Sid and Taylor’s ages have been altered to fit the story.
Perpetual credit to my betas, @queen-alia and @icosahedonist as well as the GC and @ljummen.
They meet at a quiet pizza place at Sid’s suggestion.
As soon as Sid sees Geno on the sidewalk he realizes it was a mistake. He already has people stopping him and Sid can see the stress lines around his eyes as he glances up and back to the people around him.
Sid has no idea what the protocol is but he suspects it’s better if he stays out of all of that so he tips his head toward the door of the restaurant and ducks in, grabbing them a table in the corner of the dark, quiet dining room.
It takes another ten minutes before Geno finally ducks into the restaurant looking very harried but at least he’s alone. He immediately spots and heads for Sid, carefully avoiding eye contact with the handful of other patrons. He gets stopped anyhow and politely signs autographs and poses for pictures with a family of four before he finally makes it to the table looking more than a little stressed.
“Sorry, Sid. I was hoping since it Tuesday afternoon would maybe not be such a big problem.”
“No, I’m sorry. I should have known. Next time we’ll figure something else out, okay?”
Geno nods, looking very grateful.
“So…” they both start after an awkward moment and it breaks the tension. Sid gives a quiet laugh and Geno’s face softens.
Sid thinks maybe, finally, they can relax.
Of course that’s when a waiter arrives at their table and starts his welcome spiel before stopping completely and exclaiming, “Whoa! Geno! Hey man!”
“Hello,” Geno says cordially, but Sid can see the lines forming around his eyes again.
The waiter, “Braden,” he informs them as he shakes Geno’s hand and ignores Sid completely, is grinning ear to ear and turns long enough to call in the general direction of the kitchens. “Yo, Frank! You gotta get out here! We got Geno Malkin in the house!”
Sid sees Geno slump in defeat and sits quietly as he politely signs autographs and poses for pictures with what must be every staff member there… and a couple of construction workers who hadn’t bugged him when he came in. As far as get-togethers go, this is a disaster.
Geno finally asks Braden to please give them a minute with the menu and turns to Sid with a pinched expression, talking low and fast. “Sid, okay if we get food to go? I take us somewhere private to eat and talk. Don’t think this going to work.” He says it like he’s asking permission and Sid feels terrible.
“Yeah, of course.”
That’s all it takes for Geno to motion Braden back over.
It takes another twenty five minutes before they’re actually leaving the restaurant with bags of food and a pizza, Geno having left a generous tip.
He pulls his hat down over his eyes and seems to be trying to hunch in on himself even though there was no way someone that big is going to be able to hide. Sid follows quietly and they make it to Geno’s car with only a couple of people stopping him. As soon as Geno slides into the driver’s seat, he drops his head back and lets out a deep breath.
“Really sorry, Sid.”
“It’s not your fault. I’m sorry for suggesting this place.”
“Not be sorry. Let’s just go eat. Hungry.”
“Yeah, me too.”
Geno turns to him with furrowed brows. “You ok? Need to eat and drink now?”
“No, I can wait. I feel okay.”
Geno’s face relaxes a little then and he nods. “Okay.”
He takes them to the arena. It’s the last place Sid expected to find himself but it makes sense. When they go in, no one does anything more than give him a wave. Certainly no one seems concerned that he’s toting a bunch of takeout bags and has a stranger trailing along beside him.
And that’s how Sid finds himself eating pasta and pizza in the Penguins’ team kitchen.
It’s Sid’s turn to be jumpy, glancing nervously at the door every few seconds until Geno explains, “No practice here today. Not expect anyone around or I take us to private conference room.”
Sid breathes out in relief. “Okay.”
“So—” they both start again and Geno laughs.
Maybe this won’t be as bad as Sid feared.
Geno is enthusiastic about any mention of the baby and wants to know all about Sid’s appointments with the ‘baby doctor.’  He listens to every tiny detail—from the baby’s heart rate to Sid’s blood pressure—with rapt attention and asks what seems like a hundred questions.
Sid doesn’t mind. It’s nice to have a conversation about the pregnancy that isn’t revolving around what a crisis it is.
He likes how easy it is to talk once they’re relaxed, that Geno actually takes interest in his life. He isn’t just asking questions to have something to talk about—he genuinely listens to Sid’s answers and asks more questions, seeming to want to know everything he can.
He asks about Sid’s studies at the university and Sid spends several minutes talking about the courses he plans to take and his plan to teach someday. In turn, Sid asks him about hockey and they spend a good half an hour talking about the upcoming season. Geno seems pleasantly surprised at Sid’s interest and knowledge.
From there the conversation turns back to the pregnancy and Geno asks if Sid has talked to his family in the last couple of days. “For a few minutes last night. I told them I told you about the baby.”
Geno fiddles with the edge of his cup. “They know is me?”
“No. I didn’t tell them that much.”
“What they say when you tell them I know?”
Sid shrugs. “Not much. My parents are still hoping I’ll change my mind, I guess. But my sister is happy.”
“Glad you have her, at least. Hope your parents come around.”
“What, um, what about your parents? Did you, um, tell them about…?” Sid glances down at his midsection.
“I not tell them yet, no.”
“Oh. Right.” Sid’s not sure what he expected and he works hard to push back the pang that’s threatening to bubble up inside him
“Going to tell them, Sid.”
“You don’t have to.”
Geno frowns. “Not keep something like this secret from them. Is just hard, try to figure out how to say. Worry how they respond.”
“You think they’ll, ah, be upset?”
Geno sighs and runs a hand through his hair as he leans forward to rest his elbows on the table. “Maybe. Probably.” He takes a deep breath. “Mama, Papa very close to me but they not really know about my private life. Just not sure how they react when they find out, you know.”
“Find out about the baby or…?” Sid feels like it probably doesn’t need to be said.
Geno nods. “In Russia, be with guy very bad. Not safe.”
“Yeah,” Sid swallows hard. For the first time he’s thinking about consequences beyond the scope of Pittsburgh and the NHL and he’s suddenly grateful he’s from Canada.  
“Not something I need to tell them before but now…”
“Right. Now I’m pregnant and fucked that up for you.”
Geno looks up and grabs Sid’s wrist. “You not fuck anything up, Sid. Take two people make this happen. Was my choice, too and I’m not regret.”
“Well, I’ll understand if you decide not to tell anyone. I mean, I’d get it.”
“Not going to be that way. Just have to figure out best way. Maybe not be easy but I do because it’s important. Besides, better to tell now than someone here find out and they hear in press.”
Sid looks up, struck again by all the things weighing on Geno with this pregnancy.
“I guess we should probably be more careful around town, too. I mean, if it got out it would be bad.”
Geno sighs and runs a hand through his hair again. “Would be very bad. Here, maybe not as much but Russia… I probably can’t go back.”
“Oh god.  You can’t—” Sid shakes his head. Somewhere in his mind he knew it but hearing it like this brings it into stark contrast. “I can’t be the person responsible for that. I won’t tell anyone, Geno. I promise.”
“Not the kind of thing to keep secret forever. Eventually, baby born and grow. Seem impossible to keep thing like this secret.”
“We’ll do it, we’ll find a way.”
Geno shakes his head. “You really want that? Not so sure I do.”
Sid’s heart sinks. “What do you mean?”
“Even if we could keep total secret, what kind of life that be for our baby? What kind of life that be for us? Maybe not ideal and maybe some hard consequences but still a baby, still going to be child for us to raise. Our baby, Sid.”  To Sid’s surprise, Geno smiles and it fills him warmth.
“Only know for two days and already think about baby growing up. Want to teach him to skate and play hockey, want to take him to family skate and bring him to games.”
Sid realizes he’s smiling too. “Him?”
Geno’s grin brightens. “Have a feeling.”
“What if it’s a girl?”
“Not matter. Do all same thing. All that matter is she our baby, our family.” Geno’s smile stretches across his face. “We gonna get to love our little baby and watch him grow up. Maybe hard, little bit scary now but gonna be worth it, you know?”
And Sid suddenly has to blink back tears because in all the time he’s known about the pregnancy, he’d never felt like he could talk about his future with his baby, that he could look forward to it. It had hurt that everyone saw this as a burden, nothing but a crisis to manage. But now Geno is saying things out loud that Sid has barely felt allowed to even think privately.
“Yeah.” Sid has to swallow. “I do,” he breathes and he means it.  
“Wouldn’t trade for anything now that I know, Sid. Don’t care what happen.”
“But what about the team? The NHL, Russia?”
Geno meets his gaze. “We figure it out. Not want you worry about it, okay? Just focus on take care of you and take care of baby. Most important.”
Sid sighs. “I’ll try. I, um, I have a doctor’s appointment in a couple of days.”
Geno’s face lights up and Sid’s glad he told him. “When? Maybe I find way to go?”
“Friday at three.”
Geno frowns. “Have meeting.”
“Oh. Well, I…”
“I’m sorry.”
Sid takes a deep breath and forces himself to look at Geno. “You don’t have to apologize. I know you have responsibilities. Honestly, the fact that you care at all means a lot. So, don’t worry, okay?”
Geno nods, looking a little miserable. “You call me, tell how it goes?”
“For sure.”
“Maybe we get together after?”
Sid smiles because this is just all so much more and so much better than he ever expected. “Yeah. I’d like that.”
Geno drives Sid back to where he’d parked earlier. It’s still crowded and Sid knows they can’t linger with Geno idling in a no parking zone so he pulls the envelope out of his pocket and pushes it into Geno’s hands before he gets out of the car.
“What this?”
“It’s not all of it, not even close but it’s part of what I owe you.”
Geno frowns. “Sid…”
“Not negotiable. See you Friday.” He closes the door before Geno can reply
Part 9
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dragonwitch77 · 6 years
Text
Shadow Girl Ch2
“AAAAAAHHHHH! HELP US!”
“RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!”
“THEY’RE AFTER US!”
“SOMEONE HELP US! AAAAAAHHHHH!”
The screams of his minions did little to grab his attention. His eyes were glued to the book, reading every line carefully and studying the sentences word by word. It had his full and utter concentration, and nothing would tear him away from it.
“Waaaor!”
Except maybe for the occasional checking glance.
Snatcher looked up from his book, looking down from the stump home of his many minions he had perched himself on the moment he entered the small village. Many of his minions were running around, heading in different directions with a unanimous unspoken agreement to get away from one individual. The said individual who was one not among the dead that was chasing them.
“Waor waor!” Down on the ground chasing the minions was a little girl. No older than four, she was like any typical child would be. Hyper, full of energy, curious of the world all around her, and purely innocent.
Snatcher couldn’t help but smile as the young child ran around his village chasing his minions, roaring like a monster with her little hands up in the air. He noted that her hood had fallen down again, and one of the pigtails was coming undone. He would have to fix that later if not sooner with the kid running around messing it up.
“AAAHHH! HELP! SHE’S CHASING ME!” One of the minions cried out. But Snatcher knew they weren’t in any real danger. None of the minions were. Nor were they screaming in fear. The cheeriness in their tones and attempts to hold in their laughter was a far cry from any fear that would be there if they were in real danger. But, no. It was just a typical game of Monster Chasing.
It was currently the kid’s favorite game this week. It was one of the more ‘quiet’ games that Snatcher preferred her to play other than her more adventurous role playing games. But at least she wasn’t playing with the Fire Spirits or getting stuck in a spider web. Even the Dwellers would join in once in a while for fun chasing or being chased.
“Waor! Wao-ah!” Snatcher’s eyes widened as the small girl tripped, landing face first on the ground. Before he could move to do anything, his minions were already there surrounding the small girl.
“Oh no! Newbie fell!”
“Is she alright?! Is she hurt?!”
“Poor newbie!”
“Check her for any owies!”
The minions helped the small child up, dusting any dirt that might have gotten on her when she fell and checking for any signs of injury. Satisfied that his minions were handling things, Snatcher went back to his book.
It was odd that a ghost would be caring for a child. Much more so a living one. It wasn’t something Snatcher had planned or even wanted. The child simply came into his undead life without warning. He didn’t plan to keep the kid for this long, he had thought of getting rid of her, but he just never found the heart time to do so.
Now he was stuck with a kid he didn’t want in his forest. It wasn’t so bad. His minions tended to do most of the work in keeping the girl entertained and most of them enjoyed playing with her.
“Snatcher!” Hearing his name, he once again peeked over his book down at the small girl looking up at him. Her big blue eyes stared up at him, holding up one of her ribbons. Ah. Her ribbon fell out.
He sighed, setting the book aside and picked up the small girl in his hands. There was one thing that the girl refused anyone to touch and that was her hair. Aside from Snatcher, she never let any of the minions touch it, claiming that they pulled too hard or it wasn’t pretty enough.
Mostly Snatcher had a feeling she only wanted him to do it since he had fingers. And she liked being near him for some reason. “There.” He smiled at his work, finished the ribbon into a bow at the end. “Now don’t try to mess it up.”
Once Snatcher had set her on the ground, the child turned around and blew a kiss at him. He merely rolled his eyes and went back to his book. Giggling, she turned around and started chasing the minions again. “Waor! Waor!”
“OH NO SHE’S BACK! AAAAAAH!” And with that, the game continued.
It was a peaceful day in Subcon. A typical, normal day.
“Aw~! She’s so cute~!”
Until Snatcher got an unsuspecting visit. The ghost nearly jumped in surprise, whirling around to come face to face with the last person he wanted to see today. “Moonjumper!”
“The same.” The corpse giggled. “You seem a little jumpy today Snatcher. Did I manage to catch you off guard?” Moonjumper poked the shadow’s cheek, which was slapped away rather harshly.
“Don’t. Touch me. Shouldn’t you be up in the sky keeping a lookout?”
“I was. But then I spotted my little niece playing with your minions!”
“She’s not your niece.” Snatcher said in a deadpanned tone.
“Then why do you keep her?”
“Because there was no way to get rid of her.” Snatcher growled. “I’ve told you this hundreds of times! I’m only keeping her now because she may be some use to me when she gets older.”
Moonjumper frowned. “Well that’s not very nice. If you wanted to have some servants, you could at least force some intruders to do your bidding. That is what you normally do.” Snatcher glared at him. “And what use would you have of her when she got older?”
“Probably some task that might pop up in the near future that I need her to fix.” Snatcher scoffed. “The only thing I care about is my forest. Whatever happens to her is none of my concern.”
“Got you!” The girl shouted, catching Snatcher and Moonjumper off guard. They glanced at the child, spotting her hugging one of the minions from behind.
“Oh no! You got me!” The minion playfully whined, placing a hand on top their head. “Oh woe is me! She got me! Woe is me!”
Snatcher frowned as most of the other minions shook their heads or groaned. “… Oh.” The child let the minion go from the hug, running over to a different minion and hugged them. “Got you!”
“HEY!”
“Sorry dude.” The minion shrugged, patting the child on the back.
Moonjumper chuckled lightly. “The child certainly knows which minions are her favorite.” His voice caught the attention of the minions and child.
“MOONY!” The girl squealed with delight, letting the minion go and running up to the corpse, holding her arms up.
“Why hello little star! How’s my favorite niece?” Moonjumper picked the child up, holding her to his eye level.
“She’s not your niece!”
“Everyone says otherwise!” Moonjumper stuck his tongue out at Snatcher. “Look how big you’ve gotten! I only see you at a distance but I swear you’ve gotten taller! How old are you now sweetie?”
“I’m thr—” The child started before stopping, holding her hand up with three fingers. “… FOUR!” She finally said, holding up another finger and making Moonjumper and a few minions swoon over her cuteness.
“So CUUUTE~ Now, what would my niece like from uncle Moonjumper? Dancing dolls? A puppet theater? Story time?”
“HEY! Story time is MY job mister!”
“Dolls! Dolls!” The girl chanted, making Moonjumper laugh.
“Dancing dolls it is then! And after that we can play some games and have some snacks and watch the stars and—”
“Annnnd now it’s her bedtime.” Snatcher plucked the child from Moonjumper’s hands, heading off towards his tree home.
“Nooo! Not bedtime Snatcher!” The girl whined.
“Yes. It’s certainly not the child’s bedtime. That’s not for another hour!” Moonjumper followed after the pair much to Snatcher’s dismay. “You can’t send my niece to bed just because I wanted to play with her! You’re being utterly rude! And not to mention messing with the child’s sleeping schedule.”
“She’ll be FINE. And let’s not forget how you kept her up nearly the whole night into the morning that one time.”
“IT WAS JUST ONE TIIIME!” Moonjumper whined, making the young girl giggle.
“Moony funny!”
“Moony has to go bye bye now kid. He needs to be at his post, like he should be.”
“Oh you’re no fun.” Moonjumper huffed with his hands on his hips.
“No. I’m just cautious. I don’t want intruders scampering about in my—”
“Our.”
“In MY forest. I only have room for one living being and that’s all.” The girl looked to Snatcher with confusion on her face.
“What’s scamping?”
“Scampering in when you run in quick light steps all around the place kiddo. You do that with the minions all the time.”
“I do?”
“You sure do! Like a little bunny~” Moonjumper peered over Snatcher’s shoulder, getting shoved away by the shadow.
“Post. NOW. And you. Bed.” This earned a loud groan of complaint from the two. “None of that now! What I say, goes.”
“Fine. Have it your way then.” Moonjumper huffed, turning to leave. “But you don’t need to be so pushy about it.”
Snatcher glared at the corpse a bit before he felt small tugs on his mane. “What is it kiddo?”
“Why you hate Moony?” The child asked, staring up at the ghostly shadow with her big blue eyes.
“I don’t hate him kid. I despise him.” Snatcher growled before shaking his head and sighing. “It’s… an adult business kid. I’ll tell you more about it when you get older.” The child huffed, pressing her face against his chest so deep that the lower part of her face was obscured and only her unhappy eyes were visible. This made Snatcher smirk a little. “Heh. Alright kid. How about a story before you go to bed, hm?”
The mention of a story instantly perked the young girl up. “Yeah! Story! Story! I want story!”
“Alright, settle down. Settle down.” Snatcher chuckled. “How about a story with…” He hummed, thinking up a story to tell the child. “Wiith knights. And a dragon?”
The child gasped with excitement. She loved stories with dragons in them! It was always funny when the dragon burned the knights stinky butts! “Yeah! Yeah! Dragons! Lots a dragons!”
“And some magic?”
“Yes!”
“And some daring adventure?”
“Yes Yes Yes!”
“And cute little princesses?”
“Oh don’t be silly. We don’t add princesses in our stor—WHAT ARE YOU DOING BACK HERE?!”
Moonjumper frowned. “I would put a princess in a story.”
“GET. BACK. TO. YOUR. POST.” Snatcher growled through gritting teeth.
“Not until you promise to—URK!”
“POST. NOW.” Snatcher tightened his grip around Moonjumper’s neck. “Or else I’m going to break that neck of yours you little—” He stopped short, looking at the small child in his arms. “… uh, meanie. Yeah let’s just go with that.”
“No! No hurt uncle Snatcher!”
“Okay, kid, we really need to work on your sentences.” Snatcher let Moonjumper’s throat go, turning his focus back on the child. “And on that matter we really should start teaching you about the basics and learn some astronomy and—”
“Boats?”
“Noo. That would be ridiculous.”
“Oh. Well that’s a shame.” Moonjumper rubbed his neck, hoping that he wouldn’t find any marks left behind later. “Because I saw some ships that were nearing along the coast line of the forest that looked interesting enough to study.”
“Well the kid isn’t going to le—I beg your pardon?”
“There are ships coming at the coast line of the forest. BIG ones.”
A cold pit formed in Snatcher, gripping the child closer to his chest.
“Snatcher?”
“Sorry kiddo. Story time will have to wait.” Snatcher hurried to the tree, Moonjumper following behind in pace with him. “Snatcher has to go somewhere really quick and check it out.”
“But story!” The child whined as she was placed on her bed. “And dragons!”
“Kiddo, I promise when I come back, I tell you a story.” Snatcher started to pull away, but the child quickly grabbed his hand.
“No go! Snatcher need to tell story!”
“I will! When I get back kid. I just need to make sure that—” He stopped, looking at Moonjumper. The corpse only shrugged. He didn’t know how to help at the moment. “Okay, look, kid.” Snatcher sighed, turning back to the small girl. “How about when I get back, I’ll tell you an extra story? Hm? Would you like that?”
The child looked into the shadow’s eyes. She liked Snatcher’s stories. They were always funny and cool. But she really didn’t want him to go either. She didn’t like sleeping without Snatcher there. But an extra story…
Snatcher could almost chuckle at the cute look on the child’s face as she tried to decide what she wanted, though he wished she would hurry up soon. The longer she took, the more he worried about those ships getting closer.
“Snatcher.” Moonjumper was a little more impatient, clenching and unclenching his hands on his arms, ready to go at a moment’s notice.
“I’ll be there just hold on.” Snatcher shot back before looking at the child. “Well kiddo?”
The young girl really didn’t want Snatcher to go, but the idea of an extra story was very tempting. Finally with her mind made up, she let Snatcher’s hand go with a pout. “Back soon?”
“I’ll be gone and back before you know it kid.” Snatcher promised, floating out the tree. “Just stay in the tree and wait there! Smell ya later!”
“Do you really think she’ll stay there when we get back?” Moonjumper asked as the pair took to the sky.
“Of course not. Why do you think I have minions stationed around there in the first place?” Snatcher huffed, breaking through the trees to the sky above Subcon.
“I knew they were placed there for a reason.” Moonjumper mused.
“Alright, enough chitchat! Where are those ships you mentioned?”
Moonjumper pointed to where the forest met the sea, out in a distance where a pair of large ships were sailing. Snatcher summoned a telescope, looking through it and frowned deeply.
“Well? Is it a false alarm? Or are we going to have some company?”
Snatcher was quiet a moment, studying the ships carefully.
“Snatcher?”
The shadow huffed, squishing the telescope between his hands which then evaporated into nothing. “Looks like we have far away visitors coming to pay a visit.”
“Imperials? Monarchs? Pirates?”
“More along the lines of travelers sent out by a sovereign.” Snatcher crossed his arms, not liking this one bit. “They seem to look like they’re on an expedition.”
“Well that doesn’t seem so—”
“An expedition for take over.”
Moonjumper frowned, looking out at the ships that were sailing closer and closer to the forest. “… Really?”
“Well if cannons, spears, handful of armed knights, and barrels of gun powered is somehow their friendly way of saying hello, they probably haven’t heard of our customs.”
“What if the cannons are full of confetti?”
“Who in their right mind would fill a cannon with confetti?” Snatcher sighed, pinching his face. “You know what? Let’s not dwell on that and focus more on the situation here.”
Moonjumper smiled, cracking his fingers one by one. “Soo… I take left, you take right?”
A deep smirk crossed Snatcher’s face. “Only if you’re willing to lose.”
Moonjumper laughed, disappearing in a flash of dark pixels as Snatcher took off diving into the shadows.
~~***~~
She didn’t like waiting. Waiting was boring! And boring was a bad thing like timeouts and eating nasty veggies.
She didn’t like veggies. They tasted yucky! Not like the sweet stuff uncle Moony brought her when Snatcher wasn’t looking. Those were yummy! She wished that Snatcher wasn’t so mean to uncle Moony so much so that he could visit her more often and give her more yummy stuff.
She sighed, flopping over on her stomach on her bed. “It no fair Mr. Floppy Ears. Snatcher promised story. Yet he weft with no story! Oh! Left. Left. Left. Left. Snatcher says I need to pract my words better. Left left left!”
Snatcher told her that she need to work on her words since she was getting to be a big girl. But uncle Moony says she was fine speaking like that.
“He promise two stories when he come back. But when he come back Mr. Floppy Ears!” Mr. Floppy Ears was silent. “Yeah! He take looooooooooooooo—(Deep breath)—ooooooooooong time!”
She rolled over on her back, looking up at Mr. Floppy Ears and giggled seeing him upside down. “Uncle Moony says Snatcher goes on importan stuff. Snatcher goes for very looong time before come back.” She frowned. “Uncle Moony always fun when Snatcher gone. Makes you dance silly! And makes funny shows with you and Puff and Flip!” Her frown deepened. “… but uncle Moony left with Snatcher.”
She sat up, turning around and picking Mr. Floppy Ears up. “They left Mr. Floppy Ears! With no story! Snatcher say to wait, but I want story!” She huffed, looking out the tree. She smiled. “I go to story.” She slid off the bed, walking with Mr. Floppy Ears in her arms to the front of the tree. She peeked out.
Snatcher left minions behind to watch her when he left. He didn’t like it when she left the tree on her own. Something about it being bad? She didn’t know. And didn’t really care.
She smiled when she looked to the right and saw the funny fire foxes dancing around the fire. Snatcher didn’t like the fire foxes, but he kept these foxes next to the tree. Saying he needed them for a wall? But why? All they did was dance around a fire and Snatcher didn’t like it when she got close to them.
She would play with them later. She needed to find Snatcher and get her stories first. Climbing out of the tree and walking slowly down the root to the land, she started on her way to find Snatcher.
“Newbie’s out of the tree!” She froze, stopping in place as four minions popped out of nowhere and surrounded her.
“Newbie! What are you doing?”
“Boss said you needed to stay in the tree.”
“Yeah! You need to stay inside the tree till he gets back!”
“He won’t be happy if he catches you out of the tree.”
She huffed, hugging Mr. Floppy Ears closer. “He left! No story!”
The minions looked at each other. “Story?”
“Is she talking about her bedtime stories?”
“Boss does like to tell her stories.”
“He left! No story!”
“Newbie, calm down. I’m sure boss will be back soon to tell you stories.”
“No! He left! I go find him for story!” She pushed past the minions, trying to get away from them and find Snatcher, but they blocked her path.
“No newbie! Boss doesn’t want you out of the tree when he’s away!”
“He gets really mad when you don’t listen.”
“And he doesn’t want you wandering around on your own!”
“You might get hurt and get owies!”
She frowned. She did hate getting owies. They hurt. But she wanted her stories!
“Listen. How about we tell you a story?”
“What?” Three minions looked at the middle minion in shock but her eyes lit up. A story from a minion and two stories from Snatcher? That was THREE STORIES!
“YES! YESYESYESYES! Gimme story!” She hopped up and down, really wanting the story.
“Oh great. Now you made the newbie want a story from us.”
“What? There’s nothing wrong giving the newbie a story.”
“Nothing wrong?! Do you not know how the boss gets when someone other than him tells the newbie stories?!”
“The last time Moonjumper told her a story, boss was livid for WEEKS!”
“Not to mention that the boss made it very clear that he doesn’t want other people telling the newbie stories!”
“Story?”
“Sorry newbie. You’re not getting a story.”
“… no… story?” Her lip trembled. No… story? She wasn’t getting a… story? But. But she liked stories! Why wasn’t she getting a story?!
“… Ooooh no.”
“NO! Don’t cry newbie!”
“Please don’t cry!”
“Y-yeah! Don’t cry! You don’t need to cry!”
“Story…” Her eyes were getting watery. All she wanted was a story.
“OKAY! OKAY! We’ll tell you a story!”
“YEAH! We’ll tell you a GREAT story!”
“A really really great story!”
“You’ll be begging to hear it again!”
“… weally?” She rubbed her eye.
“Yes! It’ll be a story you will remember forever!”
She smiled. That sounded great! “Tell! Tell!”
“O-okay, uh, um. O-Once upon a time in a village, uh, far, FAR away—”
“—there were four bestest buddies in the whole wide world!”
“Who really liked to get into mischief a lot—”
“—because they wanted to have fun!”
“And these buddies got into a LOT of trouble—”
“—TONS of trouble!”
“Very big trouble.”
“Well. You guys did.”
Three minions turned the heads at the minion.
“… what? It’s the truth. You guys always got into trouble.”
“YOU got into trouble too!”
“Only because you dragged me along!”
“Oh Yeah? What about that time you tried to steal a pie?”
“You guys made me do it!”
“No way!”
“Nuh-uh!”
“You did it by yourself dude!”
“No I didn’t.”
“Yes you did.”
“No I didn’t.”
“Yes you did.”
“No I didn’t.”
“Yes you did.”
“No I didn’t!”
“Yes you did!”
“No I DIDN’T!”
“YES YOU DID!”
“NO I DIDN’T!” The minion jumped on the minion next to them, slapping them and tumbling around on the ground. The other two minions jumped on top of them and then proceeded to fight.
She… was confused. Did he steal the pie or not?
She wanted to know, but Snatcher always told her that she shouldn’t get close to minions that were roughhousing or she would get owies. Thinking of Snatcher reminded her of way she was out of the tree. She needed to find him and get her story!
She couldn’t go forward since she wasn’t allowed near roughhousing minions and she couldn’t go to the swampy part of the forest. She gazed towards the fiery part of the forest. Snatcher always said that she could visit there someday when she was older. She was older now! She could go in there and find Snatcher!
The only thing standing between her and the fiery forest was a fence, but that was easy! She just crawled under it and came out the other side. The minions were still fighting, so they wouldn’t be busy watching her as she made her way inside the burny, fiery, hot part of the forest all on her own.
She was such a smart kid!
~~***~~
“There it is. Subcon Forest. A real nasty work if you ask me.”
“So that’s what it looks like. I always imagined it to be creepy. But not this creepy.”
“Did you ever imagined trying to invade it?”
“Not really…” The young soldier frowned, looking at the helmet in his hands. “Why are we invading? Subcon really hasn’t given us a reason to invade them before.”
“Ba! Who knows?” His companion leaned against the side, staring out at the large forest they were heading to. “King probably wants more land or resources or something. Can’t really tell with him. His advisor might have an idea, but he probably won’t tell any of us lowly peasants.”
“Still, don’t you think it’s odd?”
“About what?”
“No one has ever come out of Subcon over hundreds of years, right?”
“So they say.”
“Are we even sure there’s anyone living in that forest?”
“Living? Pfft. Sure are.” The two soldiers turned to the third knight who was leaning his back against the railing that had joined them. “I’ve heard that there was at least one living person spotted living in that forest. People just assume everyone else is just too shy to come out of that forest to say hi.”
“I wonder why.”
“Probably because of that old legend about the crazy king and the mask.”
“Old legend? What’s that?”
“You haven’t heard of it?”
“You’ve got to be kidding. No one hasn’t heard of the old legend about this place!”
“I know of a mask and the king.”
“So, you had heard of it.”
“Probably. I do tend to hear a lot of stuff now and then and different versions of any story.”
“Then you should know about the old legend about how an old king used an evil mask to control his kingdom and how he used it for evil deeds and wicked tasks against the different nations before the rose up against him!”
“I heard he used it to separate his kingdom from the rest of the world.”
“Yeah, I heard that too. The nations had such a big army that the crazy king used his mask to push the lands far away, breaking them into islands that made new kingdoms! The mask has crazy power!”
“Get real. The mask isn’t really real. And neither was the king. Subcon’s residents are probably just too cowardly to show their faces or reach out to anyone. Guess seeing two ships ready for battle will wake them up from their illusion of a peaceful dream to the harsh reality of the world when we dock.”
“I’m pretty sure someone should have seen us by now.” The young knight glance at the second ship sailing beside them. “I mean, two big ships coming from a different land armed to the teeth just to invade. That really not the best welcoming party I know.”
“You’re right. It isn’t. I’m pretty sure Subcon’s residents wouldn’t be too happy about it either! Especially the Snatcher!”
“… who?”
“… You’re kidding.”
“No. Who is the ‘Snatcher’?”
“That’s an odd name to give someone at birth.”
“Oh for the love of! The SNATCHER! Ghostly being?! Stealer of souls?! The living shadow!”
“OH! You mean HIM!”
“Oh yeah! Yeah! I know him!”
“Yeah, heard a lot about him!”
“Yeah a really spooky guy. Don’t want to run into him on a dark night.”
“…”
“…”
“…”
“… you have no idea who I’m talking about.”
“Nnnope!”
“Sorry.”
“Who would call themselves the Snatcher? That’s ridiculous!”
“Besides, there’s no such thing as living shadows.”
“Or ghosts. Ghosts are pretty dumb.”
“Yeah, I used to be afraid of them when I was a kid but now? Not so much.”
“When you get older, you start realizing how dumb things are now that you know things better.”
“Ghosts are pretty dumb.”
“Yep. Not even the brightest. I mean, what can a ghost do? Float? Yeah, really scary.”
“I obviously don’t believe in ghosts at this point. I mean have you seen a ghost?”
“No. Have you?”
“Not in my life. Have you?”
“… Every… Single… Day.”
“Okay you’re obviously lying. There’s no way you could ever have seen a ghost every day.”
“Yeah, also, what’s up with your voice?”
“… PECK IT.”
“Wh—” The young knight started before the knight they were talking to evaporated and a large shadowy being stood over them, glaring with deep anger.
“DUMB? YOU WANT TO SEE DUMB? WELL, TOO BAD!”
The knight coward in fear, staring up at the shadowy being that was towering over them.
“YOU GET THE NOT SO NICE GHOST.”
With that, the shadow lunged at them and attacked the ship. It was an uproar in that moment as soldiers were blasted and had their souls ripped out of their bodies, not even noticing the second ship being attacked by their own enemy with red strings.
~~***~~
She was a smart girl.
Snatcher told her that often when she did something new. Like when she climbed a tree without help. Or when she played hide and seek with him and hid with all the other minions so he wouldn’t find her. Or the time she painted a picture of her, Snatcher, the minions, Dwellers, and uncle Moony!
Though, uncle Moony was gone from the picture last time she saw it.
Oh well! She could make more paint uncle Moonys later! She needed to find Snatcher and get her stories!
… but, where was he?
She looked around, turning to find the familiar shadowy being. He wasn’t anywhere nearby, and she couldn’t see very far between the trees.
Maybe he wasn’t here? But he wasn’t here, then where was he? Uncle Moony said that the forest was a big place. Maybe he was deeper in?
“Snatcher is hard to find Mr. Floppy Ears. I no see him in forest.” She hugged Mr. Floppy Ears closely. “I no give up! I want story! Find Snatcher and get story!”
She huffed, continuing on her path to find Snatcher and get her story!
“We’re going the wrong way!”
“No we are not!”
She stopped. Did she hear voices?
“Yes we are! We’re supposed to be at the tower!”
“And we’re getting there!”
“Does this looking anything like a tower?!”
“We would be getting there sooner if you would just shut up and follow me!”
“You don’t even know where we are!”
She looked around, but couldn’t see anybody. Where was the voices coming from?
“Well we’re somewhere in the forest heading towards one of the towers.”
“That’s not comforting at all!”
“Hello?” She called out, looking for the voices. “Is anybody there?” Something flew past her ear, making her jump and let out a squeak of fear.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOU IDIOT?!”
“I was just defending myself!”
“AGAINST A CHILD?! REALLY?!”
“It could be a ghost disguised as a child!”
“You are such an idiot Naon!”
She hugged Mr. Floppy Ears tightly. These voices were loud. Loud like when Snatcher got angry. And when Snatcher was angry he got scary. And she didn’t like scary things. Scary things were bad. Uncle Moony always told her to hide at the tree when bad scary things appeared.
“Oh! Wait! Don’t go!”
“Maka! Don’t go down there!”
She looked up, spotting something jumping out of the trees and land in front of her. She froze up. This didn’t look like a minion or a Dweller. She whimpered, backing away from this new thing.
~~***~~
“No no no no! Don’t be scared! I’m not going to hurt you.” Maka softly spoke. “Did Naon scare you?”
“I didn’t scare anyone! That’s a ghost Maka!”
“She is not a ghost!” Maka shouted up in the tree Naon was still hiding up in. She turned back to the child, smiling softly. “Don’t listen to that big meanie. He’s just being paranoid.”
The little girl clutched her doll close to her chest, her wide big blue eyes staring up at her with fear in them. “w… what’s par… par… parnod?”
Maka’s smile widened, kneeling down so she was smaller so not to spook that child. “Paranoid means that he’s scared and jumpy. Like a big old scaredy cat.”
“HEY! I am NOT a scaredy cat!”
Maka shot a frown over her shoulder before looking back at the scared child before her. “What are you doing in this forest sweetie? Are you lost?”
The child was silent for a moment before nodding her head.
“Are you trying to find something?”
The child nodded again.
“We’re trying to find something too. And we got lost too.”
“Again! We’re not lost! Just off track!”
Maka frowned, turning to look behind her as her partner jumped down from the tree. “That’s the same difference Naon!”
“Look, we’re not going to get anywhere talking to some ghost disguised as a little kid!”
“She’s not a ghost!”
“You don’t know that!” She looked back the child, finding her backing away with fear on her face. “Oh. Oh no, don’t cry sweetie! We’re just being angry at each other.” She knelt down in front of the child, rubbing her head gently. “My name is Maka and he’s Naon.”
“Don’t tell it our names.” Naon whined.
“What’s your name?”
The child fiddled with her doll, drawing a circle in the ground. “… kiddo.”
Maka frowned. “N-no. I mean your name. What do your parents call you?”
The child blinked, tilting her head. “What’s parents?”
Her frown deepened. “… your mommy and daddy.”
“I no have mommy and daddy!”
Maka felt her heart stop a moment.
“Whoa whoa whoa. Back up! How can you not know what a mommy and daddy is? Or have any?” Naon stepped forward, making the little girl back away. “Someone has to be taking care of you! You got clothes on and you don’t look to be starving.”
Maka looked at the child carefully. Naon was right. The child did appear to be healthy. But she did question the clothes. Purple raggy clothing with a matching poncho. The only thing that wasn’t colored purple was the two pink bows in her brown hair that were kept in two tiny pigtails.
“Don’t you have any siblings? A cousin? An aunt or an uncle?”
“Uncle? I have uncle!”
“You do?” Maka asked.
“Yeah! Yeah! Uncle Moony! He fun uncle!”
“And where is uncle Moony?”
“He over…” The child glanced around, her smile slowly looking around the forest. “He over… over…”
“… Are you lost little one?”
“Obviously.”
“Shut it Naon.”
The child looked back at her. “Uncle Moony no here.”
“I see. Well, how about I help you find uncle Moony then?”
The child’s face lit up brightly. “Really?!”
“Maka! You can’t just abandon the mission!”
“You can go ahead if you want to Naon. I’m not letting this child get lost any further.” She picked the child up, carefully sitting her on her hip.
“It could be a trap!”
“Would a ghost really go as far as to disguise themselves as a human being?”
“Master won’t like this.”
“I wouldn’t like what?”
Maka and Naon jumped. They quickly turned to the voice. “Master!”
There standing before them was Master. Deep black cloak with his special mask on his face, eye boring at them with unamusement before looking at the child in Maka’s arms. “Why is there a child in your arms Maka? I don’t recall you bring one for this important mission.”
“We just found this child here sir.”
“It’s a ghost in disguise! I keep telling her but she won’t—”
“The child is not a ghost Naon. A ghost would need considerable amounts of energy to make a disguise this convincing and hold it for this long.” The Master spoke, cutting off Naon and walking up to Maka.
The young girl eyed him warily, hiding part of her face against Maka’s chest.
“Hello child. How are you?” The child let out a small squeak of fear, hiding her face more from the Master. “Shy aren’t we? Do you have a name?” The child shook her head. “Really? Now that can’t be right. You must have a name now, don’t you?”
“Master. We don’t have time for this. The longer we stand around here, more the more time we waste.”
The Master was silent, contemplating Naon words. He was right, in a sense. The more they focused on this random child, the more they were getting off track of their mission. The ship were likely being attacked by now, so it was only a matter of time getting to the tower.
“… Very well. We’ll worry about the child later.”
“But sir—”
“You may bring the child if you wish Maka. But we must focus on our task first.”
“… yes sir.”
“Good. Now I believe the tower is this way. Keep close. Especially you Naon.”
“Oh come on! I wasn’t lost!”
~~***~~
Moonjumper hummed, marveling at his handy work with glee. The boat was practically destroyed, with bits and pieces floating on the waves along with bodies of soldiers. He didn’t exactly know what he was going to do with this boat, but he figured he could take some of it apart and make it in a smaller boat for his little niece to play with.
His smile broadened. Thinking of his little niece with a pirate hat on her little head with a wooden sword in her tiny hands was a cute thought. One that needed to come to fruition.
“Whelp. I’m done on my end.” Snatcher floated over to him, a few souls in hand. “Could have gone better than I wanted to. So how’s your ship fairing?”
“Better than yours I suppose.” Moonjumper cast a quick glance at Snatcher’s ship, which was nothing else than a few scraps on fire quickly sinking to the sea. “You really have a dramatic for flair in your attacks.”
“Please. I could have done better.” Snatcher shrugged, shoving the souls in his mouth and swallowing them whole. The action made Moonjumper cringed, finding the act rather gruesome and inhumane. “Don’t give me that look. You used to do it too.” Snatcher licked his finger.
“That was before I knew what I was doing was wrong.”
“Whatever. You’re missing out on a good meal here.” Snatcher shrugged, heading off towards the forest. “Anyway, I better get back to the kid. No doubt she’s trying to escape to get her stories.”
“Or you.” Moonjumper followed after him. “She’s really attached to you you know.”
Snatcher scoffed. “Please. She only likes me because I tell her stories and put bows in her hair. Between the two of us she prefers you over me more.”
“Ouch. That must be hard to admit.”
“DON’T PUSH IT. I still don’t like you hanging around the kid. You’re a bad influence on her!”
“I’m a bad influence? Mister, you do realize that you hardly are even a better role model for her than I.”
“Like what?”
“Well for starters, who keeps taking their eyes off her often?”
“I have to patrol my forest mister! And besides, the minions keep an eye on her for me.”
“Who keeps forgetting that she’s afraid of the dark?”
“The whole forest is dark! You can’t blame me for that!”
“Who keeps on getting her into trouble with spiders?”
“For the record, you’re half of the blame there.”
“And let’s not forget that one incident with the Fire Spirits and the swa—”
“OKAY! I GET ALREADY!”
Moonjumper smirked.
“But let’s also look at the fact that you don’t tend to have the best intentions for the kid either.”
His smirk quickly fell into a frown. “What? Don’t be absurd! I have the best intentions for her health and life!”
“You keep giving her sweets for food. She’s going to get fat before she reaches the age of ten!”
Moonjumper sputtered. “She is not going to get fat! And there’s nothing wrong with giving her sweets!”
“All she ever wants to eat are sweets! And further more—” Snatcher suddenly froze, putting a hand to his chest.
Moonjumper stopped, eyeing the shadow carefully. “Snatcher?”
“… something’s wrong with my tower.” Snatcher gazed in the direction of a tall tower covered in fire and thick spiky vines. “I… I have to check it out.” He changed his course, veering away from his original intended path to his tree.
“Wh—Wait! Snatcher! What about the child?!”
“KEEP AN EYE ON HER!” Snatcher shouted over his shoulder before disappearing, leaving the corpse to hover there confused.
He could have gone after the shadow, but for years he dared not to go anywhere near his tower. Snatcher only had two things that Moonjumper knew he was very protective of. First being the forest and its inhabitants. Second being his tower. He didn’t know why Snatcher was so protective of it. No amount of poking or asking ever got him to open up about it.
And it wasn’t a good idea to go anywhere near it since last time he did, he ended up with broken bones and deep scars. Since then, he had lost any interest to go anywhere near there. But, what exactly was going on over there that would draw Snatcher’s attention? He could follow to find out.
… Ooor.
His eyes landed on the tree with a giant vine wrapped around it in the distance, smiling widely. Maybe he could take this little chance to spend some time with his niece after all.
~~***~~
Cold.
She wasn’t used to cold. Snatcher always made sure she stayed warm wrapped up in blankies and uncle Moony gave her funny looking mud water that tasted great. But Snatcher wouldn’t let her make mud water. Something about it not being mud?
She shivered, snuggling against the nice lady. What was her name again? Maka? Yes that sounded right. Maka was a nice lady. Even if she wore dark clothing and a funny mask on her face like the other two. The mask reminded her of the ghosties that were in the forest and love to funny moves and chase her in Monster Chasing. And they had pretty colors.
“Are you cold, little one?”
She looked up at the nice lady, nodding her head.
“It’ll be alright. Soon we’ll reach the tower and be out of the cold.”
She smiled, nuzzling the nice lady. She was so nice! She never met someone as nice as her. Well, uncle Moony was nice too. But he didn’t count!
“Maka. Come take a look.” The loud one called out.
She didn’t like the loud one. He was mean, and loud, and stupid. So he gets no name. Mr. Floppy Ears said so.
“What is it?” The nice lady went up to them. “… oh.”
Why was the nice lady suddenly quiet? She looked to where the nice lady was looking. Her mouth fell open in shock as she gazed up the big tower that was in front of them.
“… big.”
~~***~~
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE GOT PAST YOU?! YOU FOUR WERE IN CHARGE OF WATCHING OVER HER AND YET YOU’RE TELLING ME YOU LOST HER?!”
The four minions cringed, looking at the ground in disappointment.
Moonjumper growled, facepalming with one hand and clenching his other tightly. “One. Job. You four had. One. Simple. Job. And you botched it up! Not only were so preoccupied with fighting over some petty squabble, you also managed to lose my niece?!”
“We didn’t know she would wander off when we were fighting.”
“IT DOESN’T MATTER! My little niece is out there on her own and you four have done nothing but argue instead of searching for her! How does Snatcher deal with you IDIOTS?!” Moonjumper huffed. “… Now is not the time to be yelling at you. I need to find my little niece before she gets hurt.”
“We’ll hel—”
“NO!” Moonjumper roared, causing the four to cower in fear. “Absolutely not! You four will be nothing but trouble! You couldn’t keep an eye on her and when I come back there will be consequences to your actions!”
The minions trembled as he left to go look for the small child.
~~***~~
“This tower seems bigger on the inside. It feels like we’ve been climbing forever.” Naon said, glancing down the side of the stairs they were ascending. Kicking a small pebble, he watched as it fell. When it disappeared and he couldn’t hear it land, he chuckled nervously. “Yikes. Don’t think anyone would survive a fall like that.”
“It does feel like this place is going on forever.” Maka agreed. “This place doesn’t feel normal. Almost like we’re in a different place. Yet… not.”
“Then it must mean we are on the right track.” The Master gazed upwards. “But luck would have it, we do not have far to go now.”
“Thank goodness! I was getting tired of walking up these steps.”
“Don’t be hasty Naon. This is only minion to what we have to do now.” The Master stopped at the top of the stairs, looking about the small stone bare room. Icicles hung from the ceiling and covered the floor, jutting out like swords that were placed about with no meaning.
The Master gazed intently at the ice, feeling dark power radiating off it. Just the same as the power radiating below them deep underground.
“Ice!”
“Yes child. This whole place is covered in ice. Be careful and don’t slip.” The Master gazed over as Maka led the child up the stairs, making sure she didn’t slip or step on any ice patches. Naon was right behind them, keeping an eye on the child and the ground.
“Hurry up. The item we seek is near.” The Master turned his focus to one side of the room that was covered in thick ice. Calmly, he walked over to it, taking out a small vial and opening it. Tipping it over, drops of green liquid landed on the ice. Once the liquid touched the ice, it began to crack and melt. Satisfied, he put the small vial away, waiting for the ice to melt away.
“Made it!” The child cheered as she hopped up the last step.
“Yes you did! Good job!” Maka cheered, clapping her hands as the child did a little twirl.
The Master couldn’t help but smile a little behind his mask at the child’s antics. Such a young mind and innocent of the world around her. He always envied that of young children.
“Come. Our path is almost at an end.” The Master beckoned his group to follow, heading up the wet stairs to a trap door. It took some force for it to move before it opened, letting a full blast of cold air seep in. Stepping out into the cold, The Master gazed around, his eyes landing on the center of the room where a single pedestal stood.
It looked harmless enough, but it was the box that sat on top that The Master was after. The deep thick chains made of magic wrapped around it intrigued him to step closer and inspect it. It was there, just in reach, yet so far away out of touch.
Naon poked his head out, spying the pedestal and the box. “Whoa. So it really is here.” He said with slight awe, stepping up on the floor with Maka not far behind him with the child.
“Yes. But we must be quick now. We cannot dawdle now.”
Maka eyed the box, feeling the power coming off it. “It feels… suffocating.” She clutched a hand to her chest, pulling the child close to her leg.
The child looked between the box and everyone, confusion written on her face. “What that?”
“That, child, is a powerful artifact. The very reason we are here.” The Master stepped closer to the pedestal, yet dared not to get too close to it. “With this our troubles will be far behind us and the kingdom.”
Naon nodded his head, stepping forward next to The Master. “Well, best we get this done now. The weather certainly isn’t being nice to us.”
~~***~~
Moonjumper was panicking.
Not only was his niece gone, but he had no clue to where to look for her. The village was out of the question for searching. The minions living there would have brought her back to the tree. She couldn’t have gotten into the swamp. The Fire Spirits were still there and barrier was still up. So that only left the burning part of the forest.
Still not an ideal safe place for a child, yet Snatcher didn’t put any barrier or wall to prevent a small child from wandering inside like he did with the swamp and ruins. He would have a strong talk with him later once he found his niece.
Right now he was more worried that the young girl would burn herself or have a run in with spiders or, even worse yet, one of Vanessa’s living ice statues. He would never forgive himself if something happened to the child and he wasn’t there protecting her.
Just as he was looking in one of the tree houses, he felt a thrum of power. His flying faltered for a slight moment before he caught himself.
“What the-?!”
Surprised and shocked, he turned to where the wave of power came from. The tower. The one covered in ice. He could feel it pulsing with dark energy, even from the great distance he was at.
Someone was at the tower.
His first thought was to rush over and see what was going on, but his mind drifted to his niece and worried about her safety. He wanted to find her first, but the tower was just as important. He knew what was there. He knew it had to be guarded.
But at the same time, his worry for his niece bled in.
He had to find her, to make sure she was okay. But he didn’t know how long that would take or if he ever would find her in time before whoever was at the tower was gone.
If he went to the tower first, he could stop whatever was going up there.
But with a cost of potentially losing his niece…
~~***~~
The box pulsed with power like a beating heart, sending wave after wave of dark magic in the air. The air felt colder, fear was emanating, and all anyone could do was stare at it in mixed awe.
The Master, standing closest to the box, gingerly held out a hand, touching the wood with light taps before taking it in his grasp.
“… WOW. That was… this is…” Naon started, trying to find the words yet failing to come up with any that could speak what was on his mind. Maka could only numbly nod her head, having no power to speak or take her eyes off the box.
The one who was greatly effected however, was the small girl pressed against the stone pillar with her doll clutched tightly to her chest. No one in the room could feel the power so great such as she did. Her eyes were wide, her heart rate going up to concerning rates, and cold pit of fear was overtaking her. But that wasn’t all she felt.
She could feel something. Something bad and wrong coming from the box. Something that made her feel small, helpless, and scared.
Maka took notice of the child’s distress, slowly moving towards her as her limbs felt numb and out of place than they normally did.
“… such power.” The Master whispered, feeling the power pulsing through his very core. He never felt such power before. Never in such great volume.
“Master?” Naon quietly called out. The Master was quiet for a moment before shaking his head, turning to Naon.
“We should start heading back now. There’s no doubt that someone felt that power surge and will come check it out. We need to leave. Now.”
“Yes Master. I don’t want to be caught in the cold. It makes my joints ache.” Naon joked, though there was a noticeable lack of any real humor in his tone.
“Come now child. Let’s go.” Maka held her hand out for the child to take, but the young girl’s attention went past her and spying a figure fast approaching the tower.
“UNCLE MOONY!” She cheered, catching the three off guard.
~~***~~
“Little star?!” Moonjumper couldn’t believe it as he approached the tower. There was his niece with three dark cloaked figures with masks. One holding the box, and another in front of his niece.
That sight set off warning bells in his head and he charged forward. His magic surged, creating strings that materialized out of thin air and shot forward at the three figures.
To his disappointment, the three evaded his strings, jumping out of the way before they could land their mark. This didn’t stop him so easily. Commanding the strings, they followed after the strangers, making sure to maneuver the strangers away from his niece. He didn’t want them or his stringers accidentally hurting her.
His main objective was to get the box. The power coming from it was bad, and needed to be sealed away again.
“Hold still and let my strings grab you!” He growled as, somehow, the three cloaked figures kept getting away from his strings.
Until one grabbed at his string, giving it a mighty tug that surprised Moonjumper at how strong the pull was as he was suddenly pulled down and into the tower, landing in a heap. The fall left his dazed till a burning pain in his back snapped him out of it. With a roar of anger, he leapt up and turned to face his attacker.
Using a bit of his magic, his strings bundled together, weaving into a sword. Grabbing the handle, he swung at his attacker. To his credit, the attacker had thought that the sword was a useless weapon being made out of string, but was quickly proven wrong when they sidestepped away and the sword got nothing but the cloak, leaving a clean cut in it.
Moonjumper grinned, swinging again and again at the figure who evaded his attacks with great skill. He did not get to enjoy the feeling long as he was attacked from the side. Growling, he made another sword and began fight with the three figures in cloaks all at once.
He couldn’t risk going all out. Not with the chance of harming his little niece. His best option was to battle these figures. He knew they would tire out soon. They were still living being after all. He could keep this up forever and snot feel the strain of it.
Raising one sword up, he brought it down fast at one of the figures pinned against a pillar, smiling with glee as they could not get away and only held their arms up for protection. His glee was short lived however as when his sword made contact with the figure’s arms, it bent. Confused, he brought it up close to his face for inspection, wondering why it bent when it was supposed to slash.
He didn’t have long to inspect it however as he was suddenly clocked in the jaw. The punch was powerful enough to send him to the ground, and it was then that he realized how tired he was. But that was impossible! He shouldn’t feel weak!
He then kicked in the gut, slashed at the arms, kicked in the face, and then stabbed through the chest by the three figures, slamming against a pillar and pinned there.
“Uncle Moony!”
Moonjumper weakly cracked open his eyes, spying his little niece. “l-little star…” His voice crack, coughing as the sword in his chest was making rather difficult to speak. He wanted to scream at his niece to run, to get help or at least get away from the danger of these strangers.
Unfortunately, his niece decided to run towards him and the three cloaked figures. His heart sank as one figure turned their head towards his niece.
“Uncle Moony?! I knew it! The kid IS a ghost!”
“Naon! No! She’s not a—”
“Can it Maka!” The one known as Naon stepped between him and his niece, stopping her in her tracks and gazing up at the cloaked figure in fear. “I knew it was only a disguise! Its been fooling us this whole time!”
Horror pooled inside Moonjumper as Naon took out a dagger.
“Naon! No! Leave them be! We got what we came for! We must leave now!”
Naon seemed to falter a bit. For a moment, Moonjumper hoped that Naon would leave his young niece alone.
But in one quick motion, Naon swung his arm, hitting his niece and sending her flying to the ground. Anger bubbled in him. Glaring daggers at the Naon as the one known as Maka rushed forward and grabbed Naon.
“Naon stop! Don’t hurt her!”
“Don’t Hurt It?! Do you realize that it set a trap here?! Fooling us with that fake kid disguise?!”
“Ghosts can’t bleed!”
“What?!”
“There’s blood on your knife!” Maka pointed to the dagger. Blood dripped off the steel, landing on the cold ground.
Eyes turned to the child, slowly picking herself up, holding her bleeding cheek in one hand as tears rolled down her face.
Before anyone could move, there was a deep growl. An inhuman growl. One that shook the very core inside Moonjumper.
He knew that growl anywhere.
In a flash, the three cloaked figures were smacked aside by a shadowy appendage. The child was dragged over to him, and Snatcher glared darkly at them, hovering over the child protectively with an arm shielding her.
“NEVER TOUCH THE KID!”
Moonjumper could almost smirk. He knew he loved her.
“Sna-nat-ch-cher!” The child hiccuped and sniffled, fat big tears falling down her face.
Snatcher cast a quick glance at the girl before turning to Moonjumper with a deep scowl on his face. “Why didn’t you take her someplace safe?!” He growled, grabbing the sword and pulling it out.
Moonjumper grunted in pain, rubbing his chest. “To be fair, I didn’t get much of a chance to.”
Snatcher huffed, patting the child gently on the back as she cried against him. His eyes were trained on the three figures as they picked themselves up. “So, mind telling me what you’re all doing here. And more importantly.” His eyes landed on the box clutched in one figure’s hands. “What you plan to do with that.”
“None of your business ghost!”
“Naon! Shut up! You’re making things worse!”
Snatcher growled, sending a wave of his own power out. “Better watch your tongue boy!”
“And do please try to think before you speak. Whatever you say next will determine your fate.”
“It is none of your concern.” The one figure who held the box spoke. “Only know that we have gotten what we came for, and if you may somehow stop us, the others have already gotten the other half we need.”
“Oh, they were friends over yours?” Snatcher smirked. “They made a nice treat when I got there. Though they weren’t much of a fight as I would have liked.”
“YOU PECK!” Naon shouted, charging at them. His path was blocked as thick thorny black vines shot out from beneath.
“LANGUAGE! There’s a kid here!” Snatcher turned to the child, pulling away slightly. “Kid, stay here. Snatcher and Moonboy—” “HEY!” “Need to take care of this real quick.”
With that, the vines dropped down and the pair lunged out, claws and strings ready for round two.
The child watched as her two guardians battled with the three not so nice people. She pressed up against the pillar, making herself as small as possible. She had never seen Snatcher or uncle Moony like this before. And Snatcher was angry, which made him scary.
She hugged herself, but then realized something was missing. Looking down, she found that Mr. Floppy Ears was missing! Oh no! Looking around, she spotted him near the edge.
Moonjumper was not having an easy time. Naon was proving to be a difficult opponent, blocking his every attack with the small dagger. Snatcher wasn’t faring well either, as it turned out Maka and the third cloaked figure were skilled in the use of magic, blocking and attacking with their own power that counteracted Snatcher’s power.
Things were not looking good. Adding with the fact that Moonjumper was getting weaker and weaker, which was really getting on his nerves. Bring down his swords only to be blocked again by Naon’s dagger. Blood was being smeared on his swords, making his anger flare.
How dare they? How dare they attack his precious little niece?!
Out from the corner of his eye, Moonjumper spotted the on with the box edging away from the battle. It didn’t take a genius to know that they were trying to make a break for it, and that got under Moonjumper’s skin.
Well if he wanted to leave the battle, then he will.
Permanently.
The moment the figure tried to run, the moment he tried to make a break for it, Moonjumper had only enough power to throw a pair of strings at him. One thin for wrapping and grabbing stuff, and the other one thick for moving heavy stuff around. The thin string wrapped around the box, swiping it from his grip, while the thick string slammed in to their chest hard enough to push them over the edge.
But what was meant to be only one victim, another was also taken.
The world slowed down as Moonjumper and Snatcher watched in complete horror as the young girl, innocently picking up her Mr. Floppy Ears, was rammed into and pushed over the edge along with the figure.
Her scream was carried in the wind as she fell from the tall tower, disappearing into the mist far far down below.
“KID!”
“LITTLE STAR!”
Moonjumper was kicked in the head, knocking him down. Naon then threw an elongated knife at Snatcher, hitting him in the middle and stunning him. His magic seeped out, draining him till he could no longer move and slumped against a pillar.
Maka and Naon ran to the edge, looking down from the high height. “MASTER!”
“He’s… he’s gone.” Naon slammed his fist on the ground. “He’s gone! Peck! He’s Gone!”
“And the child.”
“Who cares about her?!”
“I do! She was just a kid Naon!”
“She’s not that important now! We lost Master! How are we supposed to complete the mission now?!”
The two argued, not noticing Moonjumper slowly making his way towards Snatcher. Bit by bit he crawled towards him, eyes focused on the knife embedded in his middle. Once he was close enough, he grabbed hold of the handle, tugging at it. With all his strength left in him, he tugged the knife out of Snatcher, throwing it over the edge.
“Look! We got to focus on the mission! It doesn’t matter that a few kids die along the way!”
“How heartless are you?! How can you just says that with a straight face?!”
“I’m being reasonable here! We need to take the box and get out of—” A dark shadow cast over them.
They both looked up to see a red eyed Snatcher glaring down at them before he grabbed each of their heads, lifting them up high before smashing their head down hard enough that the ground cracked. Both bodies went limp.
Releasing his grip on them, Snatcher turned to Moonjumper, going over and lifting him up by the collar to glare at him in the eyes. “WHAT. DID. YOU. DO?!”
“I… I-I don’t—”
“YOU SHOVED HER OVER THE EDGE! YOU PUSHED HER OVER!”
“I-I didn’t… I didn’t want—”
“Save it!” Snatcher tossed Moonjumper down. He flew out of the tower, leaving a broken Moonjumper to think about what he had just done.
~~***~~
“Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasebealright!”
Snatcher had never once been so scared in his life up to now. His yellow eyes scanned the mist, hoping that the young girl had grabbed onto one of large icicles that could have possibly saved her from the fall.
Though that was a very slim chance.
“Pleasepleasepleaseplease!”
Eyes landed on an icicle, and Snatcher froze. Every part of him felt cold and hallow as he stared in terror at what he saw.
“… no…”
He shook his head. “NO! Kid!” Snatcher doved farther down, trying to reason that the red tinted ice wasn’t from the kid.
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candymayvary · 5 years
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how do you deal with UL like there's some parts i like and a lot of parts i dont... im rly disheartened by some stuff in it and the directions they take but at the same time im glad that theyre doing what theyre doing because it means the game is kind of keeping up with the current time like youve said before
Taking into account that I’ve still only played through 3eps or something entirely, there are parts I like and enjoy. I know that. I’ve said that. There’s also a lot I don’t like. A lot of my earlier gripes were more administrative in the grand scheme of things, as UL’s production really affected the way HSL wrapped up and you can see that. Whatever.
I don’t recall saying that lmfao I might’ve at some point but UL isn’t original with it’s plots or direction it’s taking... it’s quite low-key to some things I’ve played in the past (or still do play). But it’s like. More playing to shock value, without any respect towards their characters? Or no outright acknowledgement of the development their characters have taken. A lot of the plots are cheap. HSL was episodic, so for the most part things ended after the resolution of the ep, and there might’ve been a linking branch into the next one, or several down the line. UL isn’t nearly as episodic, so there is the overarching kind of dialogue flow.
But yeah look it just doesn’t seem to have much appreciation for the story it’s trying to tell, or the plots it’s trying to keep. Sure, it’s more modern, and UL is still 100% being used as a hook to make people play HSL, but HSL is outdated and needs more than just a facelift. The writing needs a fine tune. I don’t know how many times I can say this, but Castiel alone is a reason why HSL would not work as a game in this current day. I’m surprised people were still latching onto HSL in the last few years, considering Castiel’s entire character. In 2011/2012 it was a very common character trope and almost endearing, which is probably why I still have a soft spot for him. But it’s 2019. People don’t want jerkasses who make comments on your body or critique your self worth. People want someone who is nice and sweet and funny and respects you, because the bar is so low for a good relationship and we’re coming to that realisation and shaking off all the things we learned growing up. I guess that’s why Castiel’s one night stand thing took me so off guard because... Yikes™. Always him. 
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