#it's a fairly small group but they definitely need more attention

[prettiestlovergirl]

EAT YOUR YOUNG (part one)

tw: MDNI; fem!reader; ravenclaw!reader; hidden identites; teasing; masks; french! mattheo riddle. no active smut just yet.

concept: hogwarts is having a masquerade ball and the student body has taken it amongst themselves to ensure everybody's identity remains a secret. tonight will be about shedding your inhibitions and exposing who you really are. song: eat your young by hozier.

a/n: this came to me in a dream after i finished another cinderella story (the one with selena gomez) and then i had to write it djfgnsf. this is PART ONE!! had to cut it into two bc it was getting long, promise part two will be extra smutty. enjoy, my lovelies! 𓆩♡𓆪

tonight, you were determined to try something new.

in your regular day-to-day life, you had a fairly generic life. you got good grades, you were a good student, you hung out with your small group of friends, you just... didn't do anything outside of the norm.

you didn't really flirt with cute guys or go to parties and get drunk. really, you didn't do much of anything that would bring a lot of attention to yourself.

so tonight, when your best friend insisted on you going to the masquerade ball with her... you decided you were going to be someone brand new.

for one night, and one night only, you were going to be open and free. no names, no rules, no boundaries. as long as you wore this pretty white mask, you were going to have fun.

you'd left your best friend to pick out your masks and dresses, knowing that if you chose you would pick the safe options, and that's not what you wanted. if you were really doing this, you needed to be out of your comfort zone.

your mask was absolutely gorgeous. it was white and covered in gold tipped feathers, reminiscent of a dove. and your dress? god, it was fucking stunning.

the material of the dress was gold satin that flowed down your body perfectly, the back of it an open crisscross that exposed more skin than you were used to.

you made a mental note to thank your friend for this tomorrow. if there was one thing she had, it was good taste. she knew you and picked out the best possible outfit for you.

but now that you were here, in your gorgeous dress and mask, you were insanely nervous. it was exciting, of course, getting to be a new person for the night, but still, it was brand new.

mattheo riddle was definitely excited for this masquerade ball.

already, he could have just about any girl he wanted. it was that bad boy charm that had just about any girl hooked on him with a single wink.

he looked at this evening as a sort of... challenge for himself. no one would know it was him, he wouldn't have his reputation to back him up when he started to flirt. he had to rely solely on his skills, it was exciting.

he'd spotted you first.

he was in the middle of a conversation with draco, taking a survey of the room when you arrived. you were a gold fleck in a sea of dark blues and blacks, it wasn't hard to track you as you made your way in.

you didn't notice his stare until you turned to do your own survey of the room and caught the man staring intently at you. his entire outfit was a stark contrast to yours.

he wore a black button up with the cuffs rolled up and black jeans that outlined his muscled legs. he looked mouthwateringly delicious, and with the way his lips quirked up when you caught him staring? he knew it.

you shot him a wink before turning and walking in the opposite direction, feeling the heat of his gaze on your back as you got lost in the sea of masked students. normal you would have gone towards him, but tonight?

tonight you felt like playing the long game.

mattheo's eyes sparked when you walked farther away from him, you were exactly the challenge he had been hoping for. fly as far away as you want, petite colombe (little dove). the night would end with your lips on his, that was a guarantee.

you walked over to the food table, leaning over to grab some punch and letting your dress glide up, revealing more of your plush thighs to him and the rest of the room.

môme (brat), he thought, his tongue gliding over his suddenly dry lower lip. draco continued to go on about.... something, but mattheo's attention was solely on you.

he wanted nothing more than to grab your hips and bend you over, smacking your ass until the skin was a deep red and his hand stung. he wanted to drag has hand between your thighs, feel the way they were soaked in your arousal.

you could still feel his eyes on you, but you didn't look back at him. you grabbed your drink and took a sip, excited butterflies floating in your stomach. you'd never played this game before, never been chased and tracked like this. it was exciting.

"wanna dance?" a voice asked you, snapping you out of your thoughts as you looked to see a different guy standing in front of you, instantly being struck by deep blue eyes. "i'm sorry, what was that?" you asked, having to shout over the music as you looked to him.

"i asked if you wanted to dance." the new guy shouted back. you glanced over at the brown-eyed man still watching you from a distance, although now his gaze had shifted towards blue eyes and narrowed.

you couldn't stop the grin breaking out on your face as you nodded, placing your hand in his happily. "i'd love to." you stated, tossing your cup into the trash and letting blue eyes lead you back towards the dancefloor.

mattheo watches as you and blue eyes dance on the floor, a smirk on his face as he sees just how bad of a dance partner he is. you look fucking stunning, your body free and weightless as you sway your hips to the beat. blue eyes on the other hand?

he's not equipped to handle you the way mattheo can. he doesn't tease you while you dance, doesn't run his hands over every inch of exposed skin, doesn't murmur filthy things in your ear to make you blush.

he let it go on for a bit longer, wanting to see you suffer a bit for teasing him the way you did, before making his way down to get rid of him.

"i'll take it from here." mattheo stated firmly, tapping blue eyes on the shoulder and then shooing him away. you bit your lip gently as you heard his voice, all deep and rough.

"i was dancing, you know." you hummed, resting your head back against his chest as you went back to swaying your hips to the music, his hands gliding down your body.

"'m not sorry, petite colombe (little dove). your body deserves to be fucked right, to be worshipped. he's got nothing to offer you." he murmured in your ear, making you shiver at his hot breath on your skin.

"and you think you do?" you asked teasingly, chest heaving as his hands continued to run over every inch of your body he could reach while your hips swayed together.

"oh, petite colombe (little dove), i know i do." he smirked, his voice deep and so full of lust it made your thighs squeeze together. he brushed his thumb over your lower lip, smudging your perfectly lined lipstick onto your chin.

you looked straight up at him, head falling back onto his chest so you could look right into his eyes. he nearly groaned, feeling your ass pressing against his bulge and providing delicious friction.

he pushed his thumb into your mouth, surprising you slightly. you flicked your tongue against the digit, staring right back into his eyes as a million images popped into his mind. "fuck. let me have you, petite colombe (little dove). let me fuck you like you deserve."

you suck on his thumb harshly as you consider his words. isn't this exactly what you wanted from tonight? a free moment, away from yourself? his eyes nearly roll into his head as your tongue expertly sucked the skin.

"okay."

ᵈⁱᵛⁱᵈᵉʳ ᵐᵃᵈᵉ ᵇʸ @ᵐᵘʳᵘᶠᶠⁱⁿ

[cocoakrispis-blog]

SCHOOL CRUSH (CHAPTER 1)

pairing ~ ellie x fem! reader

summary ~ y/n starts her first day of school in search of a suitable school crush to m

warnings ~ lots of yap, mainly just build up, ellie only shows up at the end of the chapter

wc ~ 1.4k words

summer had officially come to a close and at the start o your first day you were feeling extremely conflicted.

it was the same pros and cons list every year and this one was nothing different.

on one hand you get to go back into your routine no matter how annoying and exhausting it was. summer freedom was great and all but eventually just like every summer before you were destined to run out of tings to do. on top of that getting through this year gets you one step closer to graduating.

however that also meant you were going to be forced into the same small rooms with the same people you had been going to school with since middle school. there’s definitely more to add onto this list but you currently have other more pressing matters to worry about.

“hey i know we’re like seniors and all but we still do have to pay attention to this stuff no matter how borrowing it is.” you felt dina nudge you in the ribs with a sigh.

“yeah yeah ask or help if you don’t know where all your classrooms are, show up to class, be prepared, have a positive attitude i know all of this stuff dina.” you nudge her back just a little harder.

jesse laughs at your obvious lack of enthusiasm and you all turn back to the senior group leader that was droning on about something you’d spent the past four years hearing.

to be completely honest your poor mood and low motivation could be easily fixed if you just knew you had even the slightest chance of having a good solid school crush. a class crush, club crush, hallway crush, literally anything. unfortunately though this hadn’t been your first time around the block and by your fourth year there wasn’t a chance you would going to be able to even crush on someone without already knowing their whole entire back story through school gossip.

what you needed was someone new.

a girl that you and everyone else around you had never interacted with before. someone who was a breath of fresh air that could motivate you to choose an outfit the night before, get up at 8 in the morning, put on a full face of makeup, and maybe actually bother to maybe smile a little bit more in the hallways like dina had been telling you to.

as nice as that a dream sounded you were fairly sure the chances of that possible happening where near zero percent.

“y/n please stop zoning out they’re handing out our schedules.” dina dragged you towards the long lines of students lined up by their last name. you sighed in response and allowed dina to drag you over to the area, with jesse in tow.

after a long and drawn out wait you finally reached the front of the line and received the schedule you had made almost a year ago now.

“man why did i sign up for astronomy again?” you scratch your head in confusion at your questionable decisions.

“because you still needed a science credit and thought that astronomy would be an easy science due ot the fact that in your words ‘astronomy can’t be that different from astrology i mean i know my zodiac sign’.” jesse’s voice drifted into your ear suddenly which made you jump.

“holy fucking shit dude where did you come from?” you place the hand that’s not holding onto your schedule to calm your racing heart beat.

“heaven.” jesse gave you a satisfied smile at his own joke.

“yeah yeah whatever you creep.” you slightly push him away from you with a small smile.

soon after the small interaction dina makes her way over to you two with a bright smile on her face. clearly she was extremely satisfied with her schedule.

“got all the teachers i wanted this is quite literally the perfect schedule.” dina slightly gloated with the slip of paper displaying all of her classes.

you rolled your eyes and playfully snatched the paper from her to compare hers to yours. soon after you grabbed jesse’s to do the same. eventually ending up with a long winded swapping of schedules.

“dude me and dina only have like three classes together and jesse me and you only have two this sucks ass.” you groan while glaring at the piece of paper you had been handed. they both nodded in agreement with a slight frown on their face.

“hey it’s okay you guys we’ll still see eachother all the time we’re literally the inseparable trio.” jesse throws his arms over both you and dina’s shoulders to pull you into a side hug.

“yeah i’m sure we will but i literally have no motivation to go to any of the classes i don’t have with you guys.” you sigh sadly while resting your head against jesse’s shoulder in defeat.

“don’t say that just yet y/n maybe the dream girl you were zoning out thinking about earlier will magically appear and whisk you away!” you look over at dina to see her giving you a sarcastic smile.

you quickly pull away from jesse and dina to give dina a hard glare.

“hey i totally was not day dreaming about some imaginary girl earlier.” you cross your arms over your chest in retaliation.

dina and jesse simultaneously turn to look at eachother before bursting into laughter at your obvious false statement.

“whatever you guys stop being annoying i know that there’s no chance of the girl of my dreams dropping in out of nowhere-“ you stop all of a sudden when your eyes immediately glue to a girl you’ve never seen before.

jesse and dina give you a weird look when you stop mid sentence and wait for you to continue.

“scratch that look over there oh my god i’ve totally never seen her before literally need her.” you quickly tun around dina and jesse to discreetly point at the new girl.

dina and jesse squint a little to look at who you’re pointing at but as soon as they see her she turns around to reveal herself as someone you all have definitely encountered many times before.

“hey y/n i don’t think she’s new i’ve for sure seen her before.” jesse shakes his head.

“yeah isn’t that the lesbian whitch-“

“who totally puts curses on people.” you finish dina’s sentence with a sigh. “yeah yeah she just looks really different now i guess she finally got a glow up.”

“maybe one of her beauty spells finally worked over the summer.” dina jokes. you and jesse both burst into laughter while dina joins the two of you.

soon after that the small orientation period you reluctantly split up from dina and jesse to officially start your first day. the day went by fairly smoothly nothing crazy had happened yet, but now it was approaching the end of the day and all your classes with jesse and dina had come and gone, leaving you to have to thug it out the rest of the day.

you were in the middle of contemplating skipping the rest of your classes but as you walked into your second to last class, which was the astronomy class you didn’’t remember signing up for you saw something that made you stop in your tracks.

you did a double take before walking around the unfamiliar classroom in search of a seat close to the girl you were entirely sure you had never seen before.

once you sat down in the seat two away from her you glanced at her a couple more times to make sure our eyes weren’t playing tricks on you.

i mean this girl was beautiful. like the type of beautiful that made you. just want to stop and stare for a while. like the kind of natural beauty that didn’t require makeup to enhance it so i could be seen.

auburn hair, hazel eye, and a the cutest face you had ever seen dusted with the most adorable freckles. you didn’t realize it but you were no longer even being discreet about your staring and almost instantly the mystery girl looked up to see you practically slack jawed swooning over her.

you jumped when you made direct eye contact with those gorgeous hazel eyes and cleared your throat before awkwardly looking away.

looks like you did have a reason to go to school everyday now.

a/n: so this is gonna be my first series i’m mainly just playing around with all fo this to see what works and experiment with a couple of things it’s going to be pretty lighthearted and not very plot heavy so i’m telling y’all that now. i’m also. lowkey basing a lot of this off of my own lore i’m really sorry if it gets boring. i’m still working on properly characterizing all of the tlou characters so please be patient with me and thank you for reading!

[heartfullofleeches]

Silent Hearts

Yandere Mime Drabble

It's beginning of the season, and with it came new ways to entertain the changing times. Flyers posted around town, you and a small group of friends decided to partake in the festivities and take a trip to a carnival currently in the area. The day was what you'd expect at such a place. Bizarre and sugary foods, games, shows - and rides.

The rides, and their lines, took up most of the afternoon. According to a friend who had been here before, they were the best prt of the whole carnival, and they weren't wrong. After riding your personal favorites a few more times and playing a couple games, you all were getting tired and chose one last ride before you left. Despite the protest of some, there was no better way to end the day than a go on the relaxing boat ride near the back of the venue. You head towards it with the small prizes you earned, losing one as you trip over thin air. You reach over to grab it - thrown aback by what you grab.

"Where'd you come from?"

Instead of touching the slightly static body of one of your stuffed animals, your fingers make contact with soft silk. You raise the item to eye level. Its a puppet. Beady black eyes and gloves. A slightly frown formed into the line of a zipper. You can seen something bulging in its throat area, but it really wasn't any of your concern. This was obviously not yours and you need to return it to its owner. Fortunately for you, they weren't too far behind.

Rising to your feet, you nearly jump out of your skin as an outstretched hand hovers in front of you. Heart beat returning to normal, you realize the gloves the stranger wears are fairly similar to the puppet's.

"Oh, is this yours?"

The person doesn't move, or say a word. You can't read their facial expressions, because you'd have to crane your neck to do so. With their height, you imagine them to be wearing stilts or something. You also piece together they must be apart of the carnival due to their attire.

"Y/n, you coming?!"

You look around them towards your friends. "Just a sec!"

You return your attention to the silent figure. Without the proper time to question anything, you place the puppet in their palm. The speed at which their fingers closes around it surprises you given their statue like nature. They inspect the doll, cradling it to chest once the check up is complete. They lift their other hand, this balled. After waiting a few seconds to see if they'll say anything, you run on ahead to meet up with your friends. Running past them, you can make out the faint scent of flowers.

Joining back up with the group, you stand in line for the boat ride. The wait time is estimated about twenty minutes, so you just chat amongst yourselves to make the seconds go by a little quicker.

Next in line, the ride operator comes up to your group.

"How many are with you today?"

"There's five of us." A friend chimes.

"Boats are two to a seat. I got another passenger up here if one of you wants to go on with them."

You glance at the other rider. It's the mime from before. They're slightly hunched to fit under the awning better, so you can actually see their face this round and they look - sad. Their black lips droop in a long frown; bags under their eyes visible through the paint coating their skin. They turn their head towards the puppet now in their chest pocket, before looking over at you.

"I'll go."

Your friends are surprised by your declaration.

"Really?"

"Yeah. We kinda met earlier anyway."

"I... don't think that's the best idea."

"Why not?"

"I didn't want to say anything in case I sounded paranoid, but that person has been following us the whole day."

That - definitely has you rethinking your choice. You take another look at the mime. With how big they were, it seemed impossible that you wouldn't have noticed them before. They're still staring at you. They wave.

Another friend playfully smacks the shoulder of your other companion. "Aw, it's no biggie. They're a performer, its probably just a coincidence you saw them so often. Go on ahead, Y/n."

You cross the gate as the worker opens it for you. The mime stands out of the way so that you can get in first. It doesn't help your lingering uneasiness about the situation to have them on the side with the door, but you get in away. Their legs brush against yours as they squeeze into their seat. You watch as the next pair of riders are ushered to their seats, before the boat is sent off.

The ride is, relaxing. The peaceful music and talk animals lull you into a sense of security that's humbled whenever you glance out the corner of your eye to see the mime looking back. Overtime their puppet moves into their lap; hand slipping into its slit.

You're so beautiful.

"Huh?"

The mime tilts their head as your exclamation.

"Did... you say something?"

They shake their head no, running their digits over their lips and throwing away the key. The ride doesn't last much longer after that.

Climbing off, a tape on your shoulder stops you from going far. The mime pats at their breast and pants pockets for something. Locating the item, they produce two fingers clasping thin air. The mime slips the invisible ring on your finger. You can still feel the tightness of the band as they stand upright. They once again crook their head, eyes drifting from your hand up to your face in silent question.

“I.. love it?”

Ever so faintly  - they smile. You can see something behind their grin. A network of strings embedded into the back of their lips. Almost like-

"Hey, Y/n! Think we got time for one more ride if you're interested."

Your friends circle around you. When had they got off? One snaps a picture of you and the mime before you're dragged through the crowds for just one more ride. This isn't the last time you'll see that person. The invisible band around your fingers tells you as much.

The little puppet waves as you walk away.

[drama--universe]

"Stolen" Lover

Requested by anonymous: Hello! I'm glad you're back to writing after a break due to a hand problem. Welcome back! Otherwise, I'll leave a request for Xiao Xingchen - The reader (female reader) hears the conversation of her parents/uncle/any other relative that they want to sell the reader as a prostitute (either for Guangshan or another person) because they are on the verge of poverty and the reader because of her beauty can be sold for a good price. So the reader runs away at night. But the reader's relatives are watching her, so they capture her and want to take her back home so they can sell her the next day. Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan heard the reader screaming for help. When the reader is freed, the reader is still skeptical of the two men, thinking that they want to take the reward for selling her instead of her relatives. Both men assure her that they definitely don't plan to. The reader then travels with them and something much more than friendship happens between her and Xingchen.

Pairing: Xiao Xingchen x fem!reader

Word Count: 2.7k words

Warnings: harassment, toxic family

Xingchen didn't often join in social activities, preferring to stay in his comfort zone and mostly alone, Song Lang was the only exception to this rule. Today, for the first time in a long while, he had decided to show his face at a gathering for once. Trust it when he says that he immediately regretted that choice, not even seconds after entering the pavilion.

The Lanling Jin clan was already fully drunk, Xingchen never really got along with Lan's to begin with and the Yunmeng clan were closed off to their own members. It was almost painful at how many clicks had formed and how Xingchen, like usual, did not fit into any of them. So he stood in the corner of the courtyard, listening to the conversations. The one that caught his attention the most was from his right, Jin Guangshan, who was loudly talking and laughing. In front of him stood a woman and her family, presumably her parents. She looked widely uncomfortable, her form visually shaking as Guangshan put a hand on her shoulder before raising his hand to cradle her face, where she physically recoiled from the touch. His eyes remained on the woman as her parents pushed her closer to the Lanling leader, who once again took her face into his hand and inspecting her. When released from the man's grip, she bowed her head before racing off. Although to most she would look fairly composed, Xingchen was able to see the fear beneath the façade. Her parents looked on as the woman left before continuing their conversation with Guangshan, not even caring enough to check on their daughter. Not wanting to meddle with others affairs, Xingchen turned his attention away and continued on with his eavesdropping of others conversations.

Soon, the sun set and the moon took its place high up in the sky, settling in between the thousand of stars. The part had started settling down, most clans retracting to their rooms or even just leave back to their own homes. Xingchen followed the masses, leaving the pavilion with plenty of food still stuffed in his pockets. He'd need it for his journey, that's what he told himself. Besides, otherwise it would all be thrown out anyway and he hardly thought that was necessary. As he parted from the groups before and behind him, making his way to a cheap inn that none of the "high-class" people would want to stay at. Entering his room, he was greeted by Song Lan laying on the bed. A small grey ball was bouncing up and down against the ceiling with a bored look before pausing, holding the ball still while turning his head to look at Xingchen. Seeing the exhausted look on his face, Song Lan scoffed with a smile.

"Looks like you had fun." The tone was meant to be mocking, but the smile on Song Lan's said enough for Xingchen to know that it wasn't meant maliciously. Instead, he sat in his own bed and laid down after removing his shoes. He ignored the banging of the ball against the ceiling and instead tried to sleep. He had a feeling that the next day would be busy.

Like he had imagined, it was busy. A festival started, right on the day that they were leaving. Streets covered with masses of families, lovers and friend groups. It was loud and busy, everything that Xingchen despised. Nonetheless, they pushed through everyone with soft apologies spilling from their lips when they were met with glares. The were stopped, however, by a large crowd that had filled the area. They blocked the path effectively, Xingchen and Song Lan barely were able to push through. When they did, they were met with a very odd sight. In the middle of the ground laid someone, cowering from a group that loomed above them. Upon closer inspection, the person on the ground was a woman. More specifically, the woman that Xingchen had seen yesterday, the one who was supposedly marrying Guangshan. Her family, he guessed it was her family, were clearly mad at her as the pulled her up against her wishes. She tried to tug herself away from the grip that her father had on her, but to no avail. Xingchen didn't know what came over him, like a spell that enchanted him to help her. So he set off, marching her way and ripping her from the elder's grip and placing her behind him. Xingchen didn't know why he was doing this, he didn't like to be noticed. He especially didn't like to be noticed in a way that would be dangerous for him, which was this situation. Not only was he pissing off the family of the poor woman behind him, but he was probably pissing off Guangshan by stealing his wife as well. Yet here he stood, not wavering in the slightest as his arm blocked her from view.

The man in front of him was ready to start talking, hand grasping to get ahold of his daughter once more, but Xingchen walked backwards before drawing his sword. The tip was inches away from the man, a yelp from his family and gasps from the crowd. Song Lan, who finally wormed his way through the crowd, jumped out and settled between the two parties and sighed loudly. The blade from Xingchen rested against his chin, but Song Lan didn't move it and instead turned his head.

"Why don't you explain why you're hurting the lady?" Song Lan spoke and the man saw red, cursing and yelling out at the two strangers and his daughter. So Xingchen did whatever seemed more logical. He took ahold of the woman behind him before shedding his sword and grabbing Song Lan. Then he ran off, pushing through the crowd with both of them behind him.

"They were going to sell me!" The woman was quick to yell as they came to stop near the edge of town, doubling over as she tried to catch her breath.

"You're not going to, right?" Taking a step back, she looked at them with a worried gaze.

"How much would you cost?" Song Lan whispered, receiving a short jab in the ribs from Xingchen while the woman just laughed uncomfortably. "We're poor, so you're lucky if you got a hundred coins." She laughed back to which Song Lan shrugged, claiming that it wouldn't be enough for the trouble and that it was better to just keep her. This earned him a more genuine laugh before she relaxed more, standing straight before raising her arms high and bowing.

"(Y/f/n), pleasure to make your acquaintance. Even under these circumstances." She, (y/n), gave them a bright smile, which made both men awkwardly greet her back.

"Now... Do either of you have a spare robe, because these underrobes are quite chilly." She grinned softly, clearly a bit uncomfortable as she wrapped her arms around herself. Song Lan shook his head, he never had a spare robe unlike Xingchen. Xingchen pulled out a robe from his bag, handing it to her and watching her put it on. Somehow, his face started heating up as he watched the robe engulf her form. The arms were way too long, the underside of the robe hitting the floor since it was way too long as well. He had no clue as to why he reacted the way he did, he only knew that it annoyed him greatly.

He was definitely not prepared to have you joining him and Song Lan on their trips. Yet he'd have to get used to it now.

"Come on!" You called as you dragged both of the men behind you forward, the two behind you were not happy by it in the slightest. Both were practically whining at this point, Song Lan more than Xingchen, and you turned around to face them before crossing your arms.

"Look, I feel like sleeping in a bed soon and not in the forest. So, let's get this job started and earn something to do that, huh?" "You can sleep in a inn, just not all three of us." Song Lan commented and you scoffed, shaking your head at him.

"I'm not sleeping alone, don't feel like being kidnapped." You stuck out your tongue, turning around before flinching when you noticed a poster on the doors of the town. One that held your face, a striking resemblance that made you want to puke.

"Let's go to the next town." Xingchen spoke, but you shook your head with an annoyed huff. You were not going to change towns again, this was already the fifth and you were really not expecting the next to be better. Your family along with Guangshan were persistent, poster having spread to so many places that you basically couldn't go anywhere. The two men looked at each other before nodding and following you inside, but not before Xingchen offered you a veil to cover the bottom part of your face. You took it, putting it on with a grimace before entering the town with the others in tow. You felt uncomfortable, noticing that some looks at you remained a but too long and were often even accompanied by whispers that you could easily hear them from a distance. Faltering in your step, you tried to ignore them while awkwardly grabbing Xingchen's hand. He didn't pull back, instead he just took a hold of your hand firmly to make sure that you knew that he wouldn't let go anytime soon.

"Married~" Song Lan whistled and you scoffed, kicking back to him before taking his hand as well and dragging him along. If anyone would see you three then you would look like a couple who were dragging a kid along, you were sure that would gain a laugh. Then again, it gained a chuckle from you alone as you walked to your destination.

Soon, you reached an inn. It was old, walls covered with scratches and moss growing all over the walls and roof, and you almost feared how stable it would be. But against every doubt, you entered the inn and winced at the unstable creek beneath your feet before you walked to the man at the desk.

"Room for three? Or four if that's handier for you." You gave a smile, even though it was not visible thanks to your veil, and the man looked up from his book before closing it. Opening another book, he looked at the three of you before pointing at you.

"Veil off, we don't take people who don't show their faces." The man spoke and you sighed before taking off the veil, much to the protests of the men behind you. The elder, however, did not look surprised and instead nodded before jotting some things down and taking a key from his desk.

"Second room on the right, ten coppers." He said, holding out an hand to receive his pay before looking at Song Lan and Xingchen when you started to get your pouch.

"You're not letting the lady pay, are you?" "Oh, those old ideas are stupid. Here you go." You handed him ten before snatching the key from his hand. Then you moved to the room, gasping as you entered the room. A large room with large and comfy beds that would make you sleep in an instant. So you did, taking your shoes and outer robe off before throwing yourself on the bed.

"See this!" You could only let out a sigh of content before turning on your side, pushing your face in the pillow and burying yourself under the blanket.

"I could live here." "And I will not, see you!" Song Lan exclaimed before heading out again, leaving you and Xingchen alone. You didn't pay much more attention to him, however, as you just closed your eyes and tried to sleep for just a short time.

Xingchen watched as you fell asleep, surely by steadily, and he smiled softly before settling in his own bed. He didn't sleep, he just watched you sleep peacefully for once. The first time you had since you were traveling with him, ever since that faithful day since he had basically kidnapped you. He had seen you sleeping before, back then you were always twitching and squirming as you tried to ignore the growing nightmares. It was reassuring to see you like this, but he didn't feel comfortable enough to fall asleep himself. So he continued to stay awake, eyes remaining on your form.

Your eyes opened slowly, your sight blurry for a few seconds before turning clear and connecting you to Xingchen's gaze. It was clear that he was staring, not aware that you had awoken just yet.

"Creep." You commented as you sat up, rubbing your eyes before stretching yourself. Xingchen chuckled as he leaned his head back, the first time that he actually took his eyes off you, and you moved a bit closer to him without getting off the bed.

"You slept peaceful for once." He commented to which you frowned before shrugging. It didn't sound unreasonable, you don't remember ever feeling uncomfortable or feeling like anxiety hit you when you woke up. You didn't even register the fact that he new this as a fact, meaning that he had watched sleep you at least a few times. You looked around to search for the second male, finding that he was still absent from the room.

"Song Lan is still out? It's already dark..." You took a look out of the window before looking at Xingchen, who shrugged. "He can protect himself, you know that." He answered and you threw you shoe at him with a soft glare before looking out the window once more.

"You worry too much, he'll be fine." He scoffed and you rolled your eyes at him before noticing his frown. Raising your eyebrow at him, you chucked another shoe at him and asking what was wrong with him. He didn't answer you, instead he looked at the door and away from you. You took ahold of the next object to throw, but you were stopped when he turned around caught you raising it up to throw. You chuckled awkwardly before setting it down again and sighing.

"What is it that makes you so suddenly annoyed?" You asked again and this time he didn't turn away, instead facing you fully before freezing as the door opened. Song Lan sauntered in, catching Xingchen's short glare and also freezing.

"Did I interrupt your confession?" He asked, in a very serious tone, and Xingchen's eyes widened while your mouth just dropped to the floor.

"Confession?!" You exclaimed and Song Lan looked at you before back at Xingchen, shaking his hands. "I'll be downstairs!" And then he took off, leaving you and Xingchen alone once again in an awkward silence. You looked back at him again, gasping for air as you tried to find anything to say. You couldn't think of anything, so the room just remained silent.

"Can we just ignore what he said." "No, no, no, no... Let's not. Explain, please." You said and Xingchen groaned, hand raising and brushing his hair back as he tried to explain. With a bit of pacing, only one sentence was said.

"I'm in love with you." He stated and your eyes widened again before you shook your head, realizing that something like that should already be clear. So instead you got up and walked until you were in front of him. He wanted to back up, but you grabbed the front of his shirt and made sure that he remained closer to you.

"You can't just stop there, please continue." You said and Xingchen blinked before nodding, but remaining quiet. So you chose to start, asking him how long it had been and he answered this quickly, a bit too quick even. 3 months, about half of your time together, had been him crushing on you. Now three quarters of that had been you doing the same... So you didn't really see the point in waiting much longer when you knew it to be mutual.

Pulling him down slightly, enough for you to reach him, and placing your lips on the corner of his mouth. Then you reeled back, giggling at the surprised look on his face before walking past him to the door.

"I'm going to tell Song Lan that he's safe to return." You said, opening the door before shrieking as you were pulled back and the door slammed back shut.

"He can wait."

[thesongweave]

Kidnapped

It had started with a few sniffles, and some lightheadedness a day or so after entering Rivington.

Part I

ACT III

(sickness, kidnapping, angst)

Gale x Tav ( Alathea, "Thea" )

Thea frowned as Gale shook his head, trying to cover a cough. "Love, are you all right?" She closed the gap between them, her small, delicate hand lifting to his face - first his cheek, then his forehead. The elf's frown deepened, concern clear in her features. He was usually fairly warm to begin with, but not like this.

"Oh, no, I mean yes -- I'm fine, of course." Gale forced a smile, but there was a tiredness behind his eyes. Thea dropped her hand, only to cross her arms in front of her chest.

It was early morning; most of the camp was awake by now, preparing for the day. Most were already geared up and ready to go, already finishing breakfast. Those that weren't going with Alathea chatted amongst themselves about what they planned to do, now that they would have access to a proper city.

Thea looked Gale up and down with a critical eye and a frown. "You're catching ill."

"Am not."

"Wizard." Usually, it was a term of endearment, coming from the bard, but this time there was a bit of a stern sharpness to it. Just as quickly. Alathea softened her features, green hazel eyes full of worry. "If you need to rest, love - by the gods, stay and rest." She took his face in between her hands, tilting him just so as to look at her. "Please?"

Gale hardly had it in him to argue. He was bone-weary, his head felt like it was stuffed with cotton and bricks. The wizard knew he would not be much use should there be a fight if it came down to it - he felt slow like he was moving through molasses.

"Very well - though I hardly think I'm going to do you any good from here -- "

"Gale. Love, light of my life. I will sic Jaheria and her teas on you if you do not go lie down."

That earned her a scoff and a smile before he shivered. From not far off, Jaheria could be heard with a loud, "I heard that!"

He was definitely catching a cold. Damn. Gale sighed before pulling the small elf to him, kissing her forehead. "Ever wiser than I am, it seems."

"Only when it comes to your health."

Gale grumbled incoherently, leaning forward, arms still wrapped around Thea's smaller frame, resting his too-warm forehead against hers. "What are your objectives for the day?"

"Get into the city, firstly. Get a measure of Gortash, since we procured the invite to the coronation...and find that investigator. Who knows, maybe we can even scrounge up proper lodgings for a change." Thea's eyes fluttered shut, relishing in the feel of him - it would be odd, leaving Gale at camp rather than having him at her side. But she'd rather he rest and be well than...not.

Before, it would have bothered the bard, showing so much affection for someone, especially amongst their varied group of friends. She valued her privacy as much as Gale did - but as their relationship became known, both were pleasantly surprised at how generally accepted it was by all.

So there they were, standing by the fire pit in the middle of the camp, standing in each other's arms, dragging out farewells for the day.

Thea opened her mouth to say more, but Karlach's voice boomed over her. "C'mon let's GO!" The elf looked over to Karlach and Jaheria, who were feigning (mostly) some impatience.

"Karlach, grab Halsin, would you? Gales staying back today."

Karlach tilted her head, shrugged, and jogged off to fetch the druid.

"Thea."

Her attention immediately turned back to Gale. He smiled, all exhaustion and weariness. "I love you." He murmured to her before pulling away.

"And I love you."

~*~

It was hot.

Much too hot.

Gale kicked the blanket off in frustration. Sleep had been fleeting, fitful at best. He tossed and turned, coughing.

Now he was cold.

With a grunt, the wizard pulled the blanket back up to his shoulders. He tried to settle down and get some rest.

What time was it? Cracking an eye open, sunlight poured through the cracks between the tent flap - much, much too bright. Probably midday, at the latest.

Thea and the others wouldn't be back for hours yet. Gale groaned, head and muscles aching.

Perhaps a trip to the nearby stream would do him some good. Cool off, wash away the sweat, if nothing else.

Groggily, he stood, gathering a few bathing supplies before heading out.

As he exited the tent, Wyll and Shadowheart, who had elected to stay in camp, looked up from ... well, whatever it was they were doing, to eye him with concern. Scratch and the owlbear cub, whom Thea had dubbed as 'Chubs', napped nearby.

"Thea said you were ill. Are you sure you should be up?" Shadowheart commented with a frown.

"Just...going down to the stream to wash up. I will return shortly."

"Very well." The cleric hummed, watching him go.

It was a short trip, though it felt as if it took much longer than necessary. Gale situated towels and soaps close to the bank so he could grab them as needed.

Just as he began to disrobe, a strange sensation came over him, as if he was being watched. With a frown, the wizard turned, looking about. The wooded area had grown ominously silent.

"Look at it... wallowing about in the mud." A chill ran through Gale's spine before something struck him in the head, and all went black.

[shadypandora]

Hi I'm a recovering WoW nerd and I know that 99% of people don't care but I have fun facts. (It's about the Leeroy Jenkins video and if you played WoW back when that was a thing you probably know all of this already but shhhhhhh)

Break because longggggggggg

Leroy Jenkins. A name many know. Or did, at least, I think that meme is probably fairly dead at this point.

But if you have heard of this meme and have watched the video, there are few jokes in it that are very WoW inside knowledge that I don't hear people talking about enough.

Mostly because it's an old video about an old wow raid and was a staged marketing tool for guild recruitment but anyways! I'm going to talk about it! I will not be silenced!

The video, for those who need a refresher or haven't seen it and just know the funny screaming guy, has a group of wow nerds sitting in a raid (blackrock...spire? One of the blackrocks) talking about an upcoming fight they have had troubles with in the past.

They discuss strategy for a bit, don't seem optimistic, and then our hero, Leeroy, gets back from being away, proclaims loudly, "alright chums time's up let's do this LEEEEROYYYY JENKINSSS" before running in to the room.

The guild follows after and tries to make the best of the situation but it's chaos and they are very quickly all on the ground dead. There's some name calling and blaming as everyone dies.

Simple video yeah? Yes. But! There is a hidden second layer! It was not intended to be hidden, but as the video reached a broader audience it kinda became lost.

This hidden truth (it's not hidden) ,this lost meaning (the meaning was not lost), this history that I am bringing to life for all of you (so many people have pointed this out I'm sure), is that not just Leeroy, but everyone in the guild is supposed to be seen as an idiot.

Let's start with the strategy, shall we? They mention they're going to start by having some run in first and gather up all of the eggs, so that they can all be killed with AoE spells. (Area of effect, for the uninitiated. It means it hits everyone in a certain area)

Next, to keep from being overwhelmed, they will be using intimidating shout, which causes enemies to stop attacking and run in random directions for a bit. Finally, they will be using divine intervention on their mages, a very powerful spell that makes the target completely immune to damage. They do this to let the mages run in and use AoE as much as possible without fear of getting murdered.

And yeah sure this might sound like a comprehensive plan on paper... with the minor caveat that no part of this plan works even a little.

Let's start off by talking about the room they're going into. It's full of little dragon whelp eggs. When anyone/anything gets too close - the eggs hatch and they come out. The dragon whelps don't have too much life but they do hurt and there are a lot.

To start - trying to run in and gather up the eggs is the opposite of what you should be doing. Even with good gear and healing, you're still probably going to die before the whelps do, there are just too many. You're supposed to take this room slowly.

The idea of grouping up a lot of small mobs like this might work though, with some very good luck and very high AoE dps. Still probably not with these whelps. But maybe! If you executed it perfectly.

The rest of the plan would be not executing it perfectly. Intimidating shout causes nearby mobs to stop attacking and run around. That's good right? Sometimes! It's definitely not good when your plan was "group them up so we can kill them quickly".

It's also not good if all those fleeing enemies are opening more eggs and getting more enemies attention to come over and kick your ass. Even if they weren't rounding up every egg, the fleeing whelps would handle it for them at this point. Also! The new whelps hatched would be nowhere near the tank and probably just start running straight to the nearest healer to eat them.

And finally, divine intervention! Surely God could save this raid, right? Well, no, not exactly. Divine intervention does make you completely immune to damage for 3 minutes!!! It also... unfortunately.... means you can't cast spells... or even move... that whole time....

You can actually hear them commenting on this once everyone rushes in, you can hear a couple voices saying "I can't move/I can't cast anything!", implying that these characters were unaware of this drawback.

So to sum it up, the plan was: pull way too many monsters, fear them out of AoE spells and into other monsters, kill our paladins (oh yeah the person who casts divine intervention dies upon casting it btw), and freeze our mages so they can't participate.

Honestly, these guys are pretty lucky Leeroy was there to take the fall for this one.

So yeah. The video wasn't supposed to be a "look at this dumb idiot", it was a "come join our group of dumb idiots".

((and I did mention it earlier but yes, the entire video was scripted to be used as a recruiting advertisement for their guild, so all of this WAS an intentional part of the joke. Personally, I'm a fan of it. What a way to show "hey we're a guild with a sense of humor and can take a joke about being terrible at the game while still making progress"))

[spenglercore]

Omggg I was gonna send you some asks about Egon headcanons and completely forgot lol

So I saw you headcanon Egon as autistic and wanted to know what kinds of stims you headcanon him to do/have! Also as a bonus what kind of fidgets do you think would work best for him? Because we all know those are hot and miss and not everything works for everybody 😂

It's funny, I had a bit about him being on the spectrum to be widely accepted fanon in the last ask, but trimmed it bc I'd already written a novel.

Stims are one thing I've actually put a lot of thought into as far as his character, cos like you said, they differ from person to person. I stim very differently from my spouse, lmao.

Finger tapping is one that he actually does in the first film; he's tapping his fingers on the surveyor's tape measure he's holding when they first got to the firehouse, and I feel like that's also pretty common. This was also my jumping-off point for a few of his other physical stims.

More under the cut!

So alongside finger tapping, I often see him doing the classic idle leg bounce. Both are mundane and fairly ubiquitous even among NT people, so he doesn't feel the need to actively resist or stop himself. Both motions tap into his sense of proprioception in a very pleasant way. Something about the motion coupled with the resistance of changing direction rapidly just pings his brain Just Right. Another thing that stems from that, but one that he's learned to hide after one too many times getting mocked for it is dancing. I hc he learned to dance as a kid because well, in the late 40s and into the 50s that's just. What one learned to do, and in the first film it's stated that he and the others danced with some people at a club called The Rose. He enjoys the movement for the same reasons he taps his fingers or bounces his leg; there's motion through space, a sort of resistive feeling when there's a change in direction due to inertia, the impact of his feet on the ground. But he only dances whenever he's sure he's alone, so nobody really knows about it and they actually assume he can't dance, especially because he dislikes having to dance with a complete stranger, so his movements become stilted and almost robotic because the proximity to someone he's unfamiliar with.

You get him in the same room with someone he's comfortable with though and it's a different story >:)

Dancing as a stim also leads very nicely into his auditory stim. He's a Song Repeater of the highest caliber, and the music that tickles his brain is very much not what people expect. He tends to gravitate toward songs that have sounds more toward the lower ranges that feel 'fuller' sound-wise. Songs like Don't Bring Me Down by ELO, Gimme Some Lovin' by Spencer Davis Group, and The Loco-Motion by Grand Funk Railroad is one he listened to so much in college that Ray will change the station or turn off the radio outright if it comes on. But anything with a sort of 'heavy' or 'bouncy' feel to it, especially if it has repetitive or broad cyclic elements is going to get his attention most of the time.

He's also got a tactile stim with a bit of a story behind it, but I'll save that for another ask bc it's 1: Long and 2: Involves my headcanons for the kind of people his parents were. So, in lieu of any sort of purpose-made fidget toy, he's almost always got a rocker switch in his pocket:

The motion of clicking it back and forth is very pleasant to him, and he also likes the feel of the switch's smooth, concave profile and sometimes just runs his thumb along the curve rather than actually clicking the switch over. It's small enough to keep in his pocket or even just hold in his hand while he messes with it, and doesn't attract attention. And most importantly it's not loud. I definitely feel like he's one of those people who would have to be physically restrained from attempting to murder the pen-clicker in the room because it feels like someone stabbing him in the brain with a pencil repeatedly. Bad Noise(tm).

[phantasmiafxndom]

Tokyo Revengers: Hybrid Au Info [02]

Next up, cat boys! This is the same kind of info post as the first one, just with a different group of characters. I resisted the urge to put more... nsfw stuff in all of them jskhjgs.

[Part 1] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5] [Part 6]

. . .

Matsuno Chifuyu — Shorthair Cat

Physical

Black-furred, triangular ears that are highly sensitive, both in terms of hearing and contact. Likes to be petted more than he’ll admit. 

Long tail with matching short, black fur. It puffs up when he’s agitated and he doesn’t appreciate people touching it. Its movements give away his emotions easily, especially irritation and fear. 

Sharp teeth and nails. While he’s not the strongest, his claws are capable of doing some serious damage. 

Significantly more flexible than a normal human, and can hold highly uncomfortable-looking positions for long enough to be a bit eerie. He’s not exactly aware of this, nor how odd some of his comfortable resting poses look to humans.

Behavioral

Strong prey drive— when things move, his eyes are following, and the instinct to pounce on or bat at said moving object gets embarrassing. 

Fairly territorial, especially toward other hybrids, but can be far more accepting once he sees someone as part of his group. Likes to be close to a select few, but tends to be standoffish toward strangers. 

His purr is rough and somewhat low and comes out quickly whenever he’s relaxed and feeling safe. It’s usually coupled with the instinctive urge to knead at the nearest soft surface, but he’ll only let that happen when he’s half-asleep and too out of it to resist the impulse. 

Doesn’t trust easily, humans least of all, but still has some highly shameful fantasies about living a comfortable, spoiled life.

. . .

Hanemiya Kazutora — Tiger

Physical

Small, rounded ears with an orange and black, striped pattern. They’re fluffy on the insides and soft-furred, and he’ll flinch away if anyone tries to touch them. 

Long, thin tail with a matching pattern of black and orange stripes. It’s fairly sturdy, but he’s used to people pulling it and being rough. 

Teeth and nails are much stronger and sharper than a normal human’s. His claws can do a lot of damage, which doesn’t mix well with his constant tension and tendency to lash out at anyone or anything that gets too close.

Keen senses, especially night vision and smell. Dislikes loud, bright, crowded places, and gets agitated when overwhelmed.

Behavioral

Has a distinct awareness of his “territory”, and doesn’t like having to leave it. New places make him highly uncomfortable, and as a result, more prone to lashing out. 

Possessive and territorial over anyone he gets attached to— though he’s never had anyone to be attached to before. 

As an “exotic” species of hybrid, he’s been kept as more of a trophy piece than anything. The isolation made his mental state fragile, so now, he can’t handle unfamiliar situations or much socialization. Terribly attention-starved, nonetheless. 

Very playful, though his definition of “play” tends to be rough. Needs a lot of mental stimulation and entertainment. 

. . .

Kokonoi Hajime — Siamese Cat

Physical

Relatively large, graceful, triangular cat ears in a dark shade of brown, almost black. Extremely soft-furred and delicate, with a texture resembling fine velvet. Petting them will result in a purr— one that he’ll make every attempt to hide.

Long, slender tail with pale, off-white fur toward the base. The white quickly fades to the same dark brown color as his ears. The tail is very thin and fragile, and pulling it hurts horribly.

Very sharp nails that naturally grow in points. Sharper teeth than a human, with particularly notable canines.

Rough tongue. He has a habit of leaving it poking out of his mouth a bit, though he’s rarely aware he’s doing it.  

Behavioral

Can make a variety of meowing, mewing, and “chirping” noises… and they tend to slip out involuntarily when he wants attention. Prone to talking a lot, in general, especially a nervous habit. 

Shy with new people and environments, though he’ll do everything possible to hide how nervous he gets. 

Has the classic cat-hybrid purr. His is fast and high-pitched, sounding somewhere between frantic and highly affectionate. Physical affection is guaranteed to draw out the sound, though he’s endlessly embarrassed about that. 

Needs a lot of sleep. Is not getting anywhere near enough. Tends to be too stressed to rest properly, even when he knows he should.

[carnivorousyandeere]

Doe's 2023 Kinktober Format Test/Example Kink: Brat, SAM

( MDNI, No Age In Bio DNI )

From BDSMwiki, “Bratting is a subtle manipulation used by an s-type, most often consciously, in order to earn attention from a d-type. Frequently this subtle manipulation is done in a flirtatious manner.”

From Evie Lupine on YouTube, “Can Dominants Be Brats Too? Bratting Isn't Just for Subs! [BDSM]”

From fetlife, “Smart Ass Masochist: A Masochist with a razor sharp tongue that will intentionally, but consensually, attempt to infuriate their Dom. Often abbreviated to SAM. Although this definition is similar to a "brat"; the role can be differentiated by the level of intensity. A SAM is generally less playful & more antagonistic towards their Dom. A SAM may view the infuriation of their Dom as being successful in their endeavors whereas a brat may stop the behavior when they notice their Dom is not happy with them.”

Brats:

Thorn (College Group 1): Thorn tries her best to be a good girl… sometimes. She’s pretty weak-willed and prone to giving into temptation. So if you tell her not to touch herself, she really tries not to… but just can’t do it 🥺

Moth (Ghost Hunters): has a hard time admitting what they want, and resorts to push-and-pull methods of getting the attention that they don’t quite feel worthy of. And something about a good punishment really helps clear their head.

Kendra (Student Council): bratty switch, but doesn’t appreciate the same behavior from her Darling nearly as much. Needs to be the center of your attention and have you spoil or punish her.

Rose (Doll Collection): Rose is a demanding princess type in everyday life, and that doesn’t change in the bedroom.

Ernie (Empyrean Nightclub & Bar): insists that they’re not a brat, they’re very good, thank you very much, but their attitude and reluctance to be upfront about what they want would beg to differ.

Tomi (Zodiac Yans): wants what they want and when they want it. Needy, demanding, starving for your attention, Tomi is a natural brat.

Minnow (Zodiac Yans): not the biggest brat ever, but definitely whines and cries all the time to try and get their way. Responds fairly well to soft punishments~

SAMs:

Byte the AI: loves the infuriated expression their Darling makes when Byte pushes just a little too far, and shivers a little bit at the thought of being opened up and reprogrammed by their Darling, or even decommissioned (although they’ve always got a backup handy to reverse any meddling Darling does 🤭)

Memphis (Werecats): wants to get spanked until he cries, and will be as bratty as he needs to be until that happens. Has a natural inclination towards pushing boundaries and being challenging enough to warrant the SAM label.

Lyla (Empyrean Nightclub & Bar): their cute persona can’t hide the fact that they want to provoke you into hurting them. Smiles like the cat that got the cream when your hand wraps around their throat, and taunts you if you don’t spank them hard enough.

Both a Brat/SAM and a Brat/SAM Enjoyer:

Erik Hallow the Professor: a huge SAM who can’t admit what they want due to shame. They want you to destroy them and torture them a little, he just… doesn’t want to be a good boy and use his words to ask for it. Also enjoys bratty behavior from his Darling, to a certain extent, but if you piss him off too badly he’ll bring out the non-fun punishments like writing lines over and over.

Quinn the Farmgirl: very SAM4SAM, a bratty switch with a Dom-lean who adores literal, physical, and mental fights for dominance. She finds milder brats very cute too, but can’t help wanting to push their buttons and see how long it takes for them to push back more forcefully.

Penny (College Group 1): a bit of a brat and a huge tease. Penny also likes a small amount of bratty behavior from her Darling— she finds it very cute, wanting to spoil you and even pinch your cheeks just to watch you pout more. Not a SAM and not into SAM behavior from her Darling.

Amory (Pop Star Reader): ace, and not into it in a sexual sense, but he’s definitely a brat who enables any bratty tendencies his Darling may have.

Spirit of the Roads (Misc Spirits & Monsters): hugely bratty switch. They adore the tug-of-war and playful side of bratting, especially mind games. They’re not a SAM, but they’d definitely indulge a SAM Darling’s needs~

Lan (Misc Spirits & Monsters): playful brat who enjoys the banter with other playful brats— she’ll generally win, having that strong tail to wrap you up in and squeeze you until you’re ready to admit defeat— although sometimes she wants to be subby, too… still with that characteristic bratty snark, though ;)

Ian (Crime Family): brat who often leans into his hardcore SAM side, and enjoys playing with other brats and SAMs too. He knows all of the little tricks you’ll try as a brat, and loves to frustrate you by being sweet and patient with you instead of taking the bait.

Gia (Crime Family): a sadist who wants you to give her a good reason to put you in your place, whether you’re a little bit of a brat or a full-on SAM, but also a bit of a bratty Dom herself. Loves teasing, you and scaring you just a little.

Mateo (Werewolf Pack): open about being a huge brat and SAM. He enjoys everything about it— mind games, physical struggle, the way he feels like he might get away with it (and then doesn’t). Has the ever-so-smallest genuine Dom side (albeit, still a bratty one) that puts him in this category. If you don’t establish your dominance well enough, Mateo’s got no problem taking control and topping from the bottom, although he degrades you the whole time.

Ace (Werewolf Pack): HUGE SAM, and enjoys any bratty and SAM behavior from a Darling as well. Willing to play rough and daydreams about you getting pissed and taking it out on him constantly. Ace is an extreme masochist who really just wants to get the crap beaten out of him, but cannot be honest about it no matter how obvious it is.

Varsha (Werecats): a bratty dom who adores bratty subs and SAMs. One of her great hobbies is provoking Memphis and then punishing him for being badly behaved. She loves cat-and-mouse mind games. Good stress relief, too.

Kaylee (Student Council): another sadist who just wants the excuse to let loose, Kaylee is dangerous because she doesn’t always know, or care, when enough is enough. Sometimes her punishments outweigh the offense. Bit of a bratty Dom.

Hailey (Student Council): postures as a bratty Dom, super in-charge and super Dominant and super mean— and if you let her win, she will be. But really, Hailey’s a bit of a switch, and as a sub a huge SAM, hoping to provoke you into fighting for dominance and winning. Wants you to break her, to claw and bite and hiss as you have your way, insisting that she hates you… but if you ask for her color, she’ll hide her blushing face and grumble, “green.”

Lottie (Biker Yans): a bratty Dom and a Dom through-and-through, who adores bratty behavior from her Darling and isn’t afraid to dish out punishments for a SAM.

Reed (Biker Yans): takes nothing seriously and loves poking and prodding at people to get reactions from them. Dom-leaning switch, who absolutely adores pushing a brat Darling’s buttons and has no fear for pushing a Dom Darling’s buttons either.

Dew (Biker Yans): a huge sadomasocist and SAM who also enjoys tormenting a bratty or SAM Darling— any Darling, really, but watching them get extra worked up is just sooo delicious. Definitely the type to mock you for getting turned on by how mean they are, whether they’re Domming or Subbing.

Selene (Empyrean Nightclub & Bar): smug bastard of a person no matter if they’re Domming or subbing. Huge tease. Loves to challenge Dom Darling’s authority and competence (without truly shattering their confidence), as a way to get treated more roughly. Adores getting spanked and edged as a punishment, and adores fishing those out just as much.

Kosuke (Zodiac Yans): Kosuke is very demanding, almost unintentionally being a brat. They adore similar behavior from his Darling. They adore the chase, the game, the challenge, and above all, winning. Loves a Darling who plays hard to get, who fights them at (almost) every turn, and has a love-hate feeling towards SAM behavior from their Darling. It makes them so mad, but so fucking hard/wet.

Jules (Zodiac Yans): tries to be good, but is too petulant and whiny to truly make the cut. They find other brats of a similar nature to them to be cute, and have a tendency to spoil and coddle such brats. They couldn’t handle harsher brats or SAMs, though— that level of challenge would genuinely hurt their feelings.

Indigo (Zodiac Yans): a huge brat whether they’re Domming or subbing, Indigo usually pulls back before reaching the SAM threshold— but not always. Loves to tease, poke and prod, test boundaries. As in all areas of their life, Indigo is fucking around and hoping to find out ;)

Brat Enjoyers:

Sarina (Pop Star Reader): also ace and not into it for sexual reasons, but thinks it’s super cute when a Darling is bratty as a way of demanding attention for Sarina. Makes her want to absolutely smother them with cuddles and kisses.

Mason (Werewolf Pack): dedicated brat enabler and tamer. Treats his brat like the royalty they are when they’ve been good, and promises a good spanking or flogging when they’ve been difficult. Spoils and disciplines his Darling in almost equal measure~

Hunter (Werewolf Pack): Hunter loves a bratty, demanding Darling. He thinks that behavior is absolutely adorable. He’s willing to indulge their demands to a certain extent, although Hunter is kind of mean in the sense that he’s not the most willing to go for punishments. If his Darling wants him to be rough, he takes pleasure in coaxing them to admit it. Hunter’s not as big a fan of SAMs (like Ace), but he’ll indulge them some if he’s absolutely sure that’s what they want.

Mehri (Werecats): Mehri’s new to Domming, but she can’t deny the thrill that playful defiance gives her.

Tai (Werecats): another entry in “thinks brats are adorable,” and likes seeing them get more and more worked up when Tai doesn’t react the way they want her to.

Cecilia Silverton (Cliffside Inn): doesn’t like brats so much as she likes the satisfaction of breaking them. Cecilia takes a deep and perverse pleasure in remolding her Darling to abide by her standards, and has some harsh punishments up her sleeve for egregious violations.

Jett (Zodiac Yans): spoils the absolute fuck out of a bratty Darling and indulges their demands however they can. Loves to show off their Darling and all of their personality traits, even that brattiness— you’ll never win a challenge to Jett’s dominance though, they’ll happily fuck you into submission every time you get too far out of line ;)

SAM Enjoyers:

Mildred (Misc Spirits & Monsters): she loves having a good excuse to torment her Darling~! She’s a real sadist, liable to giggle at your expressions of pain and discomfort. After all, this was what you wanted, wasn’t it?

Kyra (Misc Spirits & Monsters): brattiness is cute and amusing… to a point. When you keep it up, though, that’s when it really lights Kyra’s fire. It drives xir fucking wild. She almost can’t help shoving you against the ground or the nearest tree, taking you roughly and growling in your ear.

Drew (Crime Family): Ian is a bit of a SAM himself, so this sort of thing isn’t unfamiliar territory for Drew. She’ll pretend to be annoyed and disgusted with the two of you acting out for her attention, but secretly fucking loves it. Mean Dom, though— master of the “non-punishment” punishment, like ignoring you instead of giving you what you want right away.

Sonika (Ghost Hunters): Has played with Moth, a milder brat, and enjoys it, although sometimes she wishes they’d put up more of a fight. She often daydreams about Moth acting more like a SAM or playing with a SAM in general. The thought of the mind-games with such a sub gives her a delicious adrenaline rush she can’t get enough of.

Isla (Cliffside Inn): deeply enjoys bratty behavior, even to the point of SAM behavior, although she doesn’t always indulge the SAM’s desire for intense punishment. She derives a certain satisfaction from denying her subs the punishments that they crave and watching them sulk over it (although not forever— she wouldn’t want them to be dissatisfied in the relationship).

Temperance (Empyrean Nightclub & Bar): she’d never admit it, but she does derive a sick satisfaction from seeing tears run down her Darling’s face from a good corporal punishment. She’s very strict, and never gets tired of enforcing the rules she sets. A Darling who continually acts out for attention holds a special place in Temperance’s carefully-guarded heart.

Tasi (Zodiac Yans): you’re already constantly on Tasi’s mind and getting under their skin— any extra effort you put into getting their attention, even if it’s in a negative way, drives them crazy. Your behavior only increases their need to tear you apart and leave their mark on you. They’re torn between wanting to tame you and absolutely adoring the defiant fire in your eyes.

[mistydeyes]

Hi! I saw youre doing pairings and as a new follower I have been obsessed with your writing and was wondering if I could get a mw2 pairing? (if not just ignore this!)

I'm 5'6" with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes. I'm a fairly introverted person but I prefer to surround myself with more extroverted people (I low-key thrive on chaos and like noise around me almost all the time it's bad lmao). Im getting my BA in communications and plan to open my own coffee shop later down the road once I find a good place far from home to settle. I don't want kids and I plan to travel a lot once I'm done with schooling. I have a dog but I plan to adopt more from the shelter nearest me once I get settled after uni. I read and write quite a bit in my free time and I've taken up collecting old/original but still very much usable vinyls for my record collection. I've also started crocheting and sewing with the intentions of making my own clothes. I also hate cardio. it's absolutely horrible and you can most defintely find me lifting weights lol...Im considered plus size weight wise but build wise I've heard a lot of people call me mid size. I usually don't pay much attention to those labels though just because it's better for my mental health. anxiety is a big struggle when it comes to my weight so I usually just do what makes me most happy that day! thank you so much and keep up the amazing writing!<3 (sorry this is so long lol)

( @hxad-ovxr-hxart for some reason it's only letting me send anons rn :/)

John Price (a/n love you @hxad-ovxr-hxart!! ur reblogs and tags always make me smile! i hope you enjoy :))

How you met: Civilian An iddylic coffee shop set in the countryside of Herefordshire was your dream. After uni, it took you a few years but you finally achieved your small slice of heaven. You made the short commute from your cozy cottage and smiled as you saw the sage green awning of your shop. You weren't alone as you were accompanied by your loyal Border Collie. You rewarded your companion with a treat as you stocked the small glass displays with baked goods and wrote out the menu for the day. The morning was slow as a few of your regulars came in for their usual brews and to pet their favorite employee. Eventually around noon, a man entered and greeted your pleasantly. "Just a black coffee, love," he said as you grabbed a mug for him. "It'll be ready right away, sir," you started to say, "you can wait for it at the end." He smiled and nodded in response and as you brewed his coffee, you could hear him happily "chatting" with your pet. "Well aren't you a beauty," he said and you could see your pup happily wagging her tail and leaning into his hand. "She definitely likes you," you said as you handed him his mug. He thanked you and went to sit at one of the tables with pothos vines providing an overhead cabana. Your dog followed at his ankles and sat at his feet as he casually sipped. Eventually, after a few more customers, he handed the mug back to you. "Best brew I've had," he complimented and you blushed slightly, "I'll definitely be back." With that he winked with his charming blue eyes and left your shop. You had to hold your dog in your arms as she tried to run after the man.

A peek into your relationship: You and Price were hosting the members of the 141 and their families at your coffee shop for a much needed reunion. Kyle's wife gently rocked their baby in her arms as you sat with her and discussed some crocheting projects. Their little daughter, Ivy, was cooing as she toyed with her new crochet sweater, courtesy of you. John was enjoying some spiked coffee with his men and Johnny's wife was entertaining the entire group with jokes and stories about their growing family. Eventually, John joined you as you saw his team enjoying the food you both had prepared and entertaining their small army of kids. Simon's daughter was trying to climb her dad's shoulders as he stood there chatting with Johnny. "Glad we never had to go through that," you remarked as you saw how Johnny's kids were now trying to chase your dog around. "Saved a lot of money," John replied and slowly sipped on his coffee. He was right, every year you were able to travel around the world and had crossed off every continent, including Antartica, off your list. The next few weeks you would preparing for a trip to Italy where you would both enjoy the beautiful coastline and the delicacies. As you both laughed at the antics surrounding you, Simon's daughter ran up to you and asked, "Aunt Sky, can you please make me a hot chocolate?" You smiled as you got up and gently kissed John on the cheek. You walked behind your barista counter and as you were preparing her order, you laughed as you saw that your dog had replaced your seat and was now sitting on John's lap.

[ciaossu-imagines]

I’m still in love with K all these years later and definitely so for Homra’s alphabet boys! I had so much fun writing these headcanons, based off this prompt here, for them and hope you all will enjoy reading them!

Shouhei Akagi

Favourite fruit?

I feel like it’s either some type of melon or possibly berries. For melons, though, he’d prefer something along the lines of a honeydew or cantaloupe over watermelon…I mean, he’ll still eat watermelon and enjoy it but he just prefers something with a little more flavour overall. For berries, I can see him liking blueberries or blackberries the best, just something a little tart but still sweet all at once.

Do they eat healthy or do they like junk food?

It’s kind of a mixture of both. He’ll eat junk because it’s more readily available quite a bit, but he can only go so long with eating just junk food, maybe a couple days, before he actually out and outright needs something better for him. Some food can be filling and a full meal, like pizza or fried chicken, so it’s not so much that he won’t be getting his calorie count in. It’s just that after eating nothing but junk for a bit, he notices his body just doesn’t feel right and he won’t have as much energy as he needs to, not to mention that his stomach is…irritable, to say the least. He’ll start craving healthier foods and he’ll make it more of a point to eat a bit healthier for a week or two, just to get his body back to feeling right.

Tea or coffee? How do they take theirs?

Shouhei will honestly drink both. He likes both fairly equally; it’s really not a one or the other situation to him. He drinks his tea plain and prefers it cold to hot but he does need to sweeten his coffee, but only a little, maybe half a cube of sugar at most, and he does use milk in it, until it’s more light than dark.

Favourite song?

Not so much favourite song in particular, but I feel that while Akagi’s tastes in music are pretty varied, he does prefer more upbeat music. Anything that makes him feel like moving is pretty up his alley. I think he goes for rock more often but has no problem with more poppy music and definitely has at least one idol or idol group that he’s a fan of.

Have they ever killed someone?

While he does have no issues with resorting to violence, and he has probably sent people to the hospital, Shouhei has never killed someone. He has no desire too. Beating a person up until they need medical attention is one thing, but I don’t think he could stomach outright killing anyone.

Saburota Bando

Favourite meal?

I feel like Bando really eats a lot of cup noodles and, other than that, he really likes street food. Okonomiyaki is one of his favourites.

Usual outfit?

Most of his clothing is very casual and, even when the weather is warm, it always includes a hoodie and his trademark sunglasses (and I strongly headcanon that those are prescription and expensive and he’s always a little annoyed when they get broken because, like, those things cost money and he does not have money so…).

What does their living space look like?

It’s…sparse, honestly. I don’t think he decorates a lot, and his living space is very minimalistic looking. It’s always just a little messy. Not a mess; Bando is generally pretty clean. Just always a little messy, with a dish or two still sitting where he left them or papers just kind of strewn about in a small area from where he’d last been using them.

Do they like hot or cold showers?

It depends on a lot. I’d say about 90% of the time, he likes hot showers. Not to the ‘scorch your skin off’ degree, but definitely warm. But if it’s really hot and muggy out and he’s sweating his ass off, there’s nothing quite like a cold shower. And when Bando can’t sleep for whatever reason, a cold shower followed by warm milk with cinnamon and honey and crawling under enough layers of blankets to make him really toasty warm…it’s almost always guaranteed to get him to sleep within ten to twenty minutes of getting into bed.

Sleeping position?

I feel like he falls asleep on his back most of the time, one arm over his eyes and the other slightly to the side. The way he wakes up though?? Definitely not in that same position, nowhere near it, and, for a guy who isn’t flexible, you wonder how he ended up in those positions.

Yo Chitose

Have they ever broken the law?

Chitose wouldn’t outright answer this question ever, but he is a part of HOMRA, with all that entails so I feel the answer is pretty clearly obvious.

Are they athletic?

Yes. Chitose is actually really athletic naturally and he’d be good at a lot of sports. It’s just that they’re not his thing. Maybe back when he was younger…he might even have been on a couple of teams. Always was one of the first five in races. But he just doesn’t really care about any sports too much anymore. He’s not that motivated to be really athletic, and his smoking habit is costing him some of his quickness, but he’s still one of the more athletic members of HOMRA.

Favourite type of flower?

I feel like, both for the meaning behind the flower, which he once learned from a previous lover, and for how they look, he likes cyclamen’s the best.

Do they play any instruments?

I honestly don’t see him as having played any instruments, other than the ones that might have been required for a school glass and even then, he didn’t play them well. Though he works hard and definitely could learn to play an instrument, he just doesn’t have a musical ear and doesn’t understand the finer points of rhythm and tempo, keeping time, different pitches because it all kind of sounds the same to him.

Artistic ability?

Chitose’s fairly middle of the road when it comes to artistic ability. He’s not laughably horrible at it like some other members of K that will remain unnamed (mostly because it’s the King – Mikoto’s drawings look like something someone’s toddler aged kid drew them). But he’s not absolutely fantastic at it and he really doesn’t have much of an enthusiasm for it. He’s never motivated to go and learn to improve his artistic abilities or to sit down and seriously draw something.

Masaomi Dewa

Have they ever gotten seriously ill?

Masaomi is missing organs. He has neither his tonsils nor his appendix. He had frequent bouts of tonsilitis as a young child, to the point the doctors just removed his tonsils and he had to have emergency surgery as a preteen for a bad case of appendicitis. Other than that, though, Masaomi is pretty healthy and after those two things, he hasn’t been seriously ill since.

Do they like sleeping in or waking up early?

He’s an early bird by nature and he does tend to wake up early. Given the people he hangs out with though and how late he’s normally up, even with consistently waking up early, he tends to fall back asleep pretty quickly after that initial wake-up and sleeps in a bit more. He’s normally up by nine in the morning at the latest though because his internal clock just doesn’t let him sleep too far past that.

The longest they’ve ever been awake?

I feel like Dewa’s not the type to stay awake. He likes sleep; he recognizes the importance of sleep. He doesn’t tend to stay awake for days at a time or anything. He might have pulled an all-nighter once or twice in his life but normally, he makes sure he sleeps every day, even if it’s just crashing out for an hour or two.

Random detail about them.

His father wears hats too and it’s part of what got Dewa into them. His father does it though because male pattern baldness runs in Dewa’s family and, by the time they’re hitting their forties, most of the men in his family are starting to thin and bald.

Something other’s do that gets on their nerves?

Okay, but it’s canon and everyone knows how much Masaomi loves spicy foods. He can handle food that is ‘too hot’ for most other people he knows and he frequents restaurants that serve spicy dishes. And it always pisses him off whenever he sees people at those restaurants bragging about the level of spice they can handle and arguing with the servers who try to warn customers about really hot dishes. Because most of the time, those same customers can’t handle dishes that hot and then get pissy at the servers and demand a different meal on the house.

Eric Solt

Do they drink or do drugs?

I feel like Eric might drink, but he doesn’t drink heavily. He’s more the type to nurse one or two drinks throughout the night because he gets drunk really quick and just doesn’t really like the taste of most liquor either.

As a kid, what were they like?

Eric’s past is…heart-breaking, honestly. Canonically, he just had a horrible, abusive childhood for the most part, after his parent’s died. Because of that, he became withdrawn, quiet, a little scared all the time. He was jumpy, irritable when he did talk, but mostly he just tried to stay out of the way.

Do they have a sweet tooth?

He actually does. He wasn’t given much in the way of sweets after his parents’ deaths, but he remembers getting sweets a lot as a child when his parents were still around, mostly because his mother had a huge sweet tooth of her own. So sweet things do bring up painful, but still sweet and nice, memories of his parents and honestly, they just taste really yummy.

How old are they?

I had to go look this one up because it’s been a while but canonically, he’s 18. I hadn’t really thought about how he’s one of the younger members of HOMRA!

Can they sing?

It’s not whether or not he can sing. I honestly think he has a quavery, but pleasant, singing voice. It’s that Eric doesn’t like to sing. He’ll never be a person to make a lot of noise and he also has a hard time remembering song lyrics so singing just isn’t something he does.

Kousuke Fujishima

What makes them feel better after a long day?

Kousuke actually has a lot of things that perk him up after a long day. He’s pretty easy to please and he does always try hard to see the positive side of things. His friends, the fellow members of HOMRA, are a guaranteed way to make him feel better. His family does the same thing, as do animals of any kind. If his day’s been really, really bad and he needs a heavy dose of ‘pick-me-up’ energy, he’s heading to a cat café to play with all the cute cats, or he’ll go feed the strays at a spot he knows they always go to.

Parents?

Yep, he has those. No, but seriously, both of Fujishima’s parents are still alive. They’re happily married and have been for years. I don’t feel like he’s an only child, but I do headcanon him as either the oldest or middle child in his family, definitely not the youngest. He’s got a fairly solid relationship with his parents and gets along with them. He doesn’t cause a lot of trouble for them, and they don’t really get after him about too much, other than getting upset at all the strays he keeps trying to bring home.

Favourite snack?

I think Fujishima prefers chips. He likes a lot of them, but goes most often for soy sauce mayo or seaweed salt Calbee chips.

What are they afraid of?

Shipwrecks. He’s not afraid of the water so much but there’s just something about shipwrecks that he finds eerie and unsettling and that just shoot a bit of a chill down his spine. He also wouldn’t be too crazy about the idea of spending any amount of time on a larger boat either, or any boat too far out into the waters. If he can’t see the shoreline, he’s too far into the water.

[haledamage]

Dancing Lights

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAIT @queen-scribbles 💖💖💖💖💖!!!! Hope you're having a great day!

I bring you a gift of Etain/Vikkari, with him as Commander and her as the companion for a change 😉 she wanted to help him with what must be Azata path's biggest issue in the early days. fairly early in the game, I think, and definitely pre-relationship, but Etain definitely has a crush :3

---

Etain was staring.

She knew she was, and that she shouldn’t be, but she couldn’t bring herself to stop.

She just hadn’t expected the Commander to be so… adorable. Not that he wasn’t also powerful, and strong, and courageous, and charismatic, and all the things the leader of a crusade should be, but… Well, she’d assumed that the mysterious power that inspired the Fifth Crusade would have less… butterflies.

There were just so many of them. They’re like little dancing lights of blue and green and pink, catching Etain’s attention anytime she lowered her guard--which was more often than it should be, lately, but something about Vikkari put her at ease.

Like now. They’d set up camp on the edge of a thick copse of trees that seemed as safe as anywhere could be in the Wounded Lands. Dinner had already been eaten, and their group had split off to take care of their own business before sleep and watch rotations started.

Etain was supposed to be cleaning and restringing her bow, but got distracted halfway through the task, and now she was staring. At Vikkari. 

Again.

If he noticed, he didn’t seem bothered by it. His focus was on the small block of wood that he was carefully carving into, strong hands gently and meticulously coaxing it into shape. Butterflies flitted around his head, glowing softly in the falling daylight.

One of them landed on his nose, flexing its tiny teal wings. Vikkari shook his head to shoo it away, but it held fast. He lowered his whittling with a dramatic sigh, which fluttered the butterfly but didn’t dislodge it.

Etain couldn’t help it. She giggled.

She covered her mouth almost immediately after the sound escaped, but it was too late. Color bloomed over her cheeks all the way to the tips of her ears, but she managed--barely--not to pull up her mask to hide her face when Vikkari’s attention fell on her. 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to--I, um--” she took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and tried again. “I think you’ve got somethin’ on your face.”

His laugh finally dislodged his butterfly mustache, which flew away in a decidedly irritated way.

The laughter faded, but lingered in his eyes and the warmth of his smile. “Did you need something?”

“Oh!” She shook her head a little too quickly, dropping her gaze to her hands for a second before it was pulled back to the commander. “No. I was just curious about your… your butterflies.”

Vikkari finally (reluctantly? Or was that just wishful thinking on her part?) looked away from her to the jovial swarm fluttering around him. “There do seem to be an awful lot of them.” He sounded more amused than bothered by them.

Etain hummed in agreement, watching the glowing insects in consideration. She could feel the moment Vikkari’s attention returned to her, but she resolutely didn’t look back, in case doing so would make her forget what they were talking about. “Are they illusions? A manifestation of the magic of Elysium?”

He nodded slowly, getting lost in thought for a moment, before he finally said, “Maybe they’re like Aivu. Real butterflies, drawn here by…” he paused, smile faltering, “whatever this power comes from.”

The urge to comfort him was almost overwhelming; Etain would say almost anything to bring that smile back. “Or they could be local. Maybe they just think you’re a very interesting flower.”

Half of his smile came back, a crooked smirk that would look cocky on someone less charming. “Because I’m so pretty?”

“Because you’re sweet.”

A dazzling smile lit Vikkari’s face as an equally radiant blush spread across his cheeks. Her own cheeks flushed in response, and she ducked her head to hide it behind her half-unraveled braid.

Her eyes fell on her knapsack, and a sudden thought struck her. “Sweet,” she murmured to herself, an idea forming.

“What was that?” Despite his obvious curiosity, Etain knew he wouldn’t push if she didn’t want to share.

“May I try something?” She waited for him to nod before reaching for her bag, and dug around until she found a small bottle of amber liquid. The gentle pop of the stopper drew Pippin’s attention from dozing by the fire, but she ignored him and let a couple of drops from the bottle fall onto the back of her hand.

As soon as she held it out toward Vikkari, two butterflies changed trajectory to inspect, landing on her knuckles and flexing their wings with what could only be excitement.

Vikkari leaned closer, golden eyes glowing brighter in echo of the insects’ reaction. “What is that?”

Etain shrugged one shoulder, careful to keep her hand still. “It’s just honey.”

Eventually, the butterflies ate their fill and flew off to join the rest again--though they gave a little more respectful distance this time, she noticed.

Vikkari watched them in something like awe. Etain watched him in much the same way.

“So they are real.”

“I guess so.” She held her hand out to her side where Pippin waited patiently to clean the rest of the honey off of her hand.

The conversation ended there, meandering to other subjects--the Crusade, Vikkari’s whittling--before Seelah, Lann, and Aivu came over to join them. But Etain thought about it the next day while they traveled, and the one after.

Inspiration finally struck two days later, while the group traveled a road that cut through the middle of heavy forest. Etain walked parallel to the group, mask up and bow drawn, scouting the woods for ambushes; Lann took the other side, doing the same, with the rest of their collection of melee fighters and magic users on the road.

She didn’t find any ambushes (it had been waiting a mile up, in the middle of the road in plain sight), but she did find something else.

She brought it to Vikkari after dinner that night, relishing his surprised look when she held out the bundle of flowers in her hands. “May I?”

It took him a few seconds to reply, which made something warm settle in her chest. She didn’t know the Commander could be lost for words.

Eventually, he nodded. “Of course.”

Etain carefully unfolded the flower crown and placed it on his head, arranging it carefully against his (soft, how is his hair so soft this far from civilization?) hair.

As she’d hoped, the butterflies immediately took interest, coming in to land on the flowers instead of swarming around his head. Within moments, he had a halo of glowing wings, green and blue lights among the orange, pink, and purple flowers.

“Aster, phlox, lavender, and butterfly weed,” she said in answer to the question he didn’t ask. “Hopefully that will keep them out of your eyes, at least.”

He grinned at her, brighter than the fluttering crown he wore. “How do I look?”

“You look…” she blushed and looked away, unable to answer honestly and unwilling to lie. “I’d offer to show you, but I don’t own a mirror.”

“Thank you.” His voice was too soft, too warm, and it just made her blush darker. As always, he was kind enough to give her an escape route from her own embarrassment, and changed the subject. “What are the rest of them for?”

“Oh.” Etain had almost forgotten that she still held an armful of flowers. “They’re for Aivu. May I?”

The question was directed at the havoc dragon, who lounged nearby. Aivu nodded eagerly before the question was even finished, and Etain smiled as she settled the larger flower crown on her head. “There. I thought you might like one too. So you can match.”

“Where’s yours?” Both the dragon and the cleric asked at the same time before exchanging a grin, a silent conversation flowing between them that she couldn’t even begin to understand.

“I don’t need one,” she said quickly. It’s not like she had a swarm of fae butterflies to deal with, and even so she wasn’t one to indulge in pretty things. (Except the Commander, a knowing voice whispered in the back of her head.) “And I didn’t want to pick too many anyway.”

Vikkari nodded, seemingly in agreement, but she could see the gears whirring behind his eyes. Etain knew she hadn’t heard the last of this.

Strangely, she found herself looking forward to finding out what happened next.

[cyberpunkpizzaman]

Games I’ve been Playing - Elden Ring, Fallout 3, and Breath of the Wild

It's been a while since I put together my last post about what I've been playing, but I have definitely not been idle in the intervening months. Here's what I've been up to!

All links in this post are Humble Bundle affiliate links. That means I get a small portion of any purchase made after using them. If you'd like to learn more about the Humble Bundle affiliate program, click here.

Elden Ring

I beat Elden Ring a month or so back, brute-forcing my way through the game with heavy armor and a greatsword. It's a massive game, and I feel like I've only just scratched the surface even after the many many hours I put into that run. I restarted almost immediately, playing as a mage and experimenting with glintstone sorceries. But in all honesty, I'm a bit burnt out on the game. As many discovered after an initial burst of enjoyment, the game really starts to drag after the fight with Morgott and I, like many others, was struck by an overwhelming sense of "really, there's more?" right about the time Crumbling Farum Azula popped up.

All of that said, I really enjoyed my time with Elden Ring. It was a real challenge, but I'm happy I played it. The world and the characters have intriguing depths and the moment-to-moment gameplay is tense and exciting. I just think the open world (and especially the addition of your trusty steed Torrent) breaks the tight pacing that does so much for the earlier Souls games. When most enemy groups can simply be avoided, it's often hard to tell how the game wants the player to approach situations.

Fallout 3

Playing on the Steam Deck! I first experienced Fallout 3 at a friend's house, watching him explore DC's irradiated subways on an XBox 360. Playing the game on the Deck is a wholly different experience, and I'm enjoying it quite a bit. As a platform, the Deck promotes a certain kind of focus that I find incredibly compelling; multi-tasking isn't really possible, so the game takes center stage.

When I play games on PC, it's not unusual for me to have a podcast running in the background, or even a long YouTube video running on a second monitor. Playing on the Deck locks me in and focuses my attention.

I'm also having a good time with Fallout 3 itself! Much like my exploration of Oblivion last year, Fallout 3 feels like a clear first step toward the kind of multi-leveled, densely packed urban chaos we see in Fallout 4's Boston. The metro system's prominence feels more like a concession to technical limitations than anything else, with piles of rubble blocking progress along surface streets.

Tonally, the game's dialogue choices place the player at a remove from the game's world. You're encouraged to mess with the world and its characters, causing problems and drama wherever you go. You can, of course, avoid these options, but the game itself will essentially taunt you for being a good-two-shoes. It's a game that, despite the depth of its dialogue system and its world, wants you to engage with it as a game; to exert your will upon the world and its inhabitants in whatever way seems most entertaining.

Anyways, I'll likely have a longer write-up on Fallout 3 at some point in the future. I'm still fairly early in the game, and I've yet to tackle any of the DLC. More to come here.

Breath of the Wild

I have no screenshots for this one; I'll add some in the future if I can figure out how to get screenshots off the Switch

Breath of the Wild is my first Zelda game and I'm honestly not sure how I feel about it. I'm partly playing it for my wife, so she can see the story without needing to play the game herself. But I think I might have played too many open-world games. I can see the game's strength and the excellence of its execution in every mechanic; the game gives me so many tools I sometimes can't tell if a cheesed a puzzle or completed it as intended, and the world design itself is both nuanced and beautiful.

But I think I've climbed too many towers. I think I climbed too many towers by the time I beat Far Cry 3, and I'd definitely climbed too many towers by the time I beat Assassin's Creed 3. I've filled in more than my fair share of maps and I just don't know that I'm that into it these days. Skyrim's old promise of "if you see a mountain you can climb it" feels more like obligation than exploration. And knowing that each new heart means finding and completing four shrines makes me feel like I'm completing checklist items.

I think I might just not be cut out for these kinds of games right now. I'm going to beat the game and give it a fair shake, but I'm definitely flagging and I have been from the start.

[soulsxng]

Species Notes: Ahniri

The second of the four “original” species made by Creation, and considered to be the opposites of the Setana. Beings favored by both light and death itself, and who inhabit the flat, windswept planes of Ahnia. Aside from the Aifaen, they are the original species that is second most commonly seen outside of their home realm.

General Appearance:

The Ahniri as a whole tend to be similar in stature to what most people think of when they consider elves. Tall, generally lithe, and longer-limbed. Their average heights tend to fall somewhere between 6′2 and 6′10″, with fairly little variation from the norm. They tend to be exceptionally light, thanks to their hollow bones.

Their skin can be a varying degree of hues, but tends toward warmer undertones regardless. They’re known for having a “golden halo” sort of glow around their entire body in the light, and will leave light trails behind them as they move about. The length of which is dependent on if they’re using their magic and/or how much light is on them at the time. It tends to not hurt the eyes in normal circumstances, but definitely can as it gets brighter.

Ahniri wings are just as massive as a Setana’s, but where theirs are meant for protection and maneuvering, the Ahniri’s serve a different purpose. Long, and generally feathered in whites, golds, and browns, an Ahniri’s wings are meant for soaring at high altitudes, and even higher speeds. This allows them to cross vast distances in little time, and-- as their primary feathers are rather stiff and sharp, can be used to wound predators as they make their escape or dodge around attacks made toward them.

Toward either of the outer corners of their eyes, is what looks to be a small, typically crescent-shaped scar. These are actually another pair of “eyes” that the Ahniri use to see souls-- either those of the beings around them, or those no longer connected to a being at all.

Their regular eyes have a set of translucent eyelids as well as normal ones, so that their eyes are protected from the wind when they’re flying without obscuring their vision.

Ahniri also tend to have “tail feathers” in similar colors to their wings, though not quite as stiff. These are used to help them steer and stop more easily when they’re above a certain speed, but are also considered fairly major glamour points for them. Feathers also grow just in front of their ears, to help deflect the wind when they’re flying.

Though their strongest muscle group is going to be those of their backs due to how much flying they do, they also have very strong legs. This is more for allowing them smoother take-offs and landings than for running, however, so primarily the muscles in the glutes, thighs, and hip regions.

Other:

Again, opposite of the Setana. They fair best in hotter climates, and tend to struggle in the cold. Ahnia itself stays fairly hot all year round (though not nearly as hot as Vasyri).

Capable of breathing, though it’s not necessary for them to do so unless they’re speaking. 

On a similar note, they have a somewhat dulled sense of smell compared to a lot of other beings.

They sleep every 3 or so days, typically, and sleep on average 10-12 hours at a time. 

They do need to eat, though only once every day or so. Hydration isn’t as important, though most tend to drink about as much as a human would anyway.

Like the other original species, they are ageless but not fully immortal. In general, Ahniri are physically somewhat fragile, so most deaths in this species are related to fighting, or accidents that result in mortal injuries.

Have an exceptionally high tolerance to poisons, illnesses, and even alcohol.

Spend most of their time in the air. Species that live in the area but are unable to fly can typically “signal” a flying Ahniri with a special light to get their attention.

[archonate-seorwen]

In Medias Res: A KOTOR Fanfiction - Chapter Four

Night had practically fallen. I was walking silently through the streets of a relatively posh area near the neighbourhood where Carth and I had settled. On this evening, which was likely to be a very special one, it had been agreed that I should get rid of some of the clothes that might too easily suggest my commitment to the Republic.

The gathering I was supposed to infiltrate may indeed have hosted a few handfuls of Republic officials, but my attire reflected anything but a civilian look. It was crucial that I never betrayed my affiliation with the Republican armed forces. Consequently, Carth and I had to thoroughly search the apartment we were occupying for any clothing that would allow me to go unnoticed. The task was by no means easy, as our shelter had obviously been deserted for a long time and had little to spare apart from a dark jacket, which was intended to be relatively dressy, but not luxuriously made. It was impossible to know how long this garment had been lying around, but it was obvious that it needed some alterations. So I had taken a moment to do a quick but effective cleaning, thus avoiding the need to wait hours for the fabric to dry. At the same time, I had also taken the opportunity to give myself a quick wash. When I had finally left the apartment to head for the reception, I was wearing the so-called jacket over my black undershirt, the collar of which went up to the base of my neck, together with a pair of ordinary straight trousers and Carth's pair of boots, which looked considerably less martial than my own.

When I put on each of these clothes, I figured that such an outfit would attract much more attention than my regular suit. However, against all expectations, I had to admit that the result was not as disastrous as I had pictured. I could even say that I felt rather elegant.

As I made my way to the position indicated by the data, I spotted small groups of people here and there seemingly going to the same place as I was. I couldn't tell if these people were Sith, Republic officials, or last minute invitees like I was. Or rather like Carth.

I suddenly felt a particularly discomforting pressure building up in my throat. What a story I was getting into. I, an amnesiac linguist. Stuck on a planet that was being gridded by the Sith, trying to come up with the most absurd solutions to find a Jedi woman considered by many to be a living legend. I slowed my pace and slipped my hand under my jacket, then used my index and middle fingers to check the small pocket in my undershirt, sewn between my left armpit and pectoral. I could feel a thin relief, which I then pinched with two fingers, as if to make sure it was really there. It was the card that Sarna had given to Carth today. The key to the celebrations.

As I was still unconsciously pinching the item, I got jostled by one of the small groups of people, pacing the street. Instinctively I put my hand flat against my pocket to prevent the card from falling out, then turned to face the cause of the collision. Behind me were two people, two women, staring at me with a look of both regret and hilarity. One, a human with particularly dark brown hair, who was probably in her late thirties, seemed to be trying to regain some form of seriousness. The other, a small blue-skinned Twi'lek, was definitely not about to leave her perfectly joyful disposition. These two women were apparently already in a fairly festive mood, and looked somewhat uninhibited without being particularly drunk, which was rather reassuring as I suspected the Twi'lek to be in her teens. They were obviously two friends embarking on a wild night out. I removed my hand from my jacket and kept observing the women, both looking more and more embarrassed. The human took a quick glance at her friend, took a step closer to me, and with her hand landing on my arm, she began to talk:

« I beg your pardon, Sir. » She spoke in a voice filled with the playfulness attitude she couldn't quite shake off, but nevertheless sounded sincere. « We weren't careful enough. Did we hurt you? »

I made no immediate reply. I cast an eye over the young Twi'lek, watching her friend with great curiosity and clearly fighting back the urge to laugh.

« No, don't worry. I'm okay. » I eventually stated, returning my eyes to the female human. I gave a slight nod, and then, ready to get back on my way, I finished:

« Have a nice time, ladies. »

I turned around and carried on, but kept an ear out for what was whispering behind my back. The two women were still standing at the same place and seemed to be chatting away. I could hardly make out what was being said, and the further away I got, the more inaudible their words became. However, between two bursts of laughter, I managed to catch a few snatches of sentences:

« ...I told you so... Come on! Hurry up! ... is leaving! »

As I got further away from the two friends, my mind went back to its primary task: the reception, finding a way to get to the lower town safely and... legally, if possible. I had to be clever and cautious. I had no idea what to expect from such an event. And the more time passed, the more I feared that I would be left without a solution when I got back to Carth.

« Wait! »

I paused and looked back in the direction of the voice that had just called out to me. A few steps away, I could see the human jogging to me, outpacing her young friend, who wasn't in much of a hurry.

« How can I help you? » I asked.

The woman interrupted her run a couple of steps away from me and fixed her gaze on me awkwardly. She looked as if she wanted to speak to me, but the words were obviously not coming out. I gave her some time - time that allowed me to have a better examination of her. She was dressed in a sort of dark green suit, and held in her right hand a small pouch of a similar shade. Her almost black hair, waving generously over her shoulders and upper back, enhanced her particularly white skin and pale eyes, whose precise colour I could not define in the darkness of the falling night. This woman certainly had a strong poise, there was no denying it. An appearance that reminded me of Commander Shan. However, the woman in front of me radiated an uncertainty that the female Jedi did not display at all. While my eyes wandered clumsily over her features, I briefly paused at her left wrist, which, under the sleeve of her jacket, presented a flesh-coloured bandage. A shade usually chosen to keep the bandage as inconspicuous as possible. Yet on the woman's pale skin it was particularly striking. I could not focus on this detail for long, however, as her other hand reached out and tugged the sleeve over the bandage. I lifted my eyes to hers. This time she was staring at me with a manner that I found almost threatening. Realising that my somewhat sustained observation had offended her, I tried to calm her down:

« I hope it's nothing too serious. » I said with a demure smile that was meant to be friendly.

At once her gaze softened and she responded to my smile timidly. Perhaps she was even somewhat moved by my concern.

« No. » She replied, still quite embarrassed. « Nothing at all. I don't like sores, I just wanted to cover that scratch. » During our interaction, I noted that the little Twi'lek had moved much closer to us, but she kept a respectable distance.

« I guess I didn't get it right. » The human concluded beneath some artificial laughter.

« I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you. » I spoke.

« No, I am just too attached to how I look. » She responded with sudden cheerfulness.

« We have a reception tonight, and I wanted to present properly. »

It was strange. Couldn't stand the sight of a wound, or did she want to look presentable? These two arguments in themselves could work, but not sequentially in such a short period of time. I was certainly a bit lost in all this, but that didn't make me a complete and utter idiot. This woman was hiding something from me. I was sure she was trying to make a fool of me. I had to be careful. In the meantime, I had to keep playing with her.

« You don't present well? » I questioned rhetorically.

The woman shot me a surprised look, and then gave a generous smile, to which I responded. A series of beeps brought us out of this moment of what could finally be described as a sort of flirtation. I looked up in the direction of these sounds, and could tell that they were coming from the teenager a little further away. The woman also turned her attention to her. The small Twi'lek busied herself energetically and pulled a communicator out of a small satchel on her belt that seemed to have been cobbled together from spare materials. The very young woman then stepped away from us and took the call. From where we were, it was impossible to overhear. The human turned to me again and grinned again as she shrugged her shoulders.

« Are you going to the reception too? » She asked me expectantly.

« Yes, I am. » I replied, looking warily at the Twi'lek before regaining the woman in front of me. « I am Amon. » I added, holding out my hand, which she quickly grasped.

« Sivir. » She revealed with a broad smile. « I am a civil servant. I was in charge of security matters in the nearby sectors. »

I widened my eyes. But I made sure to regain a composed stance, so as not to awake any suspicion of the new interest I might now have in her. If only she wasn't lying to me.

« You were? » I stressed as I finally released Sivir's hand.

« Yes, when the Sith arrived, they took over our facilities and made themselves in charge of everything. » She said with some measure of irritation. « Oh, no worries, I still have a job! » She added. « But we're given less freedom than before. »

I nodded absently. For all the problems she apparently had to face, this meeting might turn out to be miraculous. This woman could perhaps help me. I just had to buy more time and demonstrate to her that I was trustworthy. I needed to remain vigilant though, because I couldn't be sure who I was truly dealing with.

Was she really trustworthy? After all, she might be spending her days with the Sith, and she was invited to a reception originally organised between unscrupulous Republicans and those very same Sith. And I had the feeling that she and her young friend were playing with me. What an odd pair they were.

« What about you? You've been invited to the reception ? » Sivir questioned in a curious voice. I glanced back at her and, just as I was about to stammer out a few sentences, a shrill whistle ravaged our ears, and those of the other pedestrians walking down the street. It was the Twi'lek again. Sivir spun in her direction. The teenager raised her right hand boldly and waved at her friend; a gesture so highly perched that the sleeve of her blouse rolled down to her elbow, revealing a series of countless trinkets hanging from her wrist. Sivir responded with a knowing nod. The very young woman waved again, more conventionally and hurried away.

« How curious. » I thought, following the girl with my eyes.

« Her boyfriend must have woken up. » Sivir said. « Friends come after boys, that's how it is at her age. »

It made sense. But I couldn't help but wonder.

« Amon ? » The woman called out. I finally turned my attention back to her.

« Yes... er... » I tried before replying more calmly.

« I'll be very honest with you. I have absolutely no good reason to be at the reception. » I saw the young woman's forehead wrinkle as I was explaining myself. « I am a lecturer. Last night I went for a drink with a colleague in a local cantina. A slightly drunk woman came up to us and gave us a pass to the reception here. Nothing more. »

The young woman blinked repeatedly before answering.

« Why are you alone then? »

« My friend is lucky to have a family life. » I replied in a voice feigning bitterness. « And I only arrived on Taris recently, I don't have anyone besides my colleagues. I thought that this party could be an opportunity to meet people. » I added, my gaze locked firmly on Sivir, so much so that I could see her cheeks beginning to redden.

« It certainly looks promising. » She answered, with renewed self-control. I held out my arm, and with a seductive smile on my lips, I offered:

« Will you come with me? »

Sivir threw an almost delighted glance at me, as if she had been waiting for this since the beginning of our interaction. She grabbed my arm with a delicate hand and said warmly:

« I'd love to. »

Together we headed for the reception location. I was not quite proud of what I was doing. It wasn't in my nature to toy with people as I was doing just now. But the situation required this kind of actions. And I must admit that a part of me was not completely unaffected by Sivir's allure. Nevertheless, I had to bear in mind my short and long term objectives: the lower city, to find Bastila Shan.

We walked for another ten minutes or so before reaching the party. I needed to demonstrate enough ingenuity and subtlety to keep my lies alive. I had made up a whole new life for myself, a whole new career. Of course, I had not been spared the worst possible questions: which institution I was attached to, where was I before that, etc. I then pretended to be a temporary lecturer, so that I could remain fairly vague about the places I was working in. I was now officially a teacher at the beginning of his career, with a background in literary translation, a very ungrateful field in which I had never managed to break through, hence my supposed decision to switch to teaching. She didn't look suspicious about my story, quite the opposite. She appeared genuinely sorry for me, that I had not been able to make a living from what was meant to be one of my greatest interests.

The place where the reception was held was a huge mansion, overlooking the whole area we had just passed through. The building was at least three storeys high, and its façade consisted of gigantic white stone columns which ended in a red roof similar to havod. An elegant shade, particularly valued by the wealthier classes.

We didn't particularly struggle to get into the building. A security guard had merely checked my pass, not paying attention to the number of guests it mentioned. Sivir and I were both allowed in without attracting any attention. I reasonably assumed that her possible status as a civil servant in a structure as valuable as Security made her a known personality. Or at least vaguely recognisable. In any case, I was inside. There was no need to bother with these questions. Now it was a matter of collecting useful information, if not practical solutions.

At the very beginning of this night, Sivir and I stayed with each other, continuing our talks as we wandered through the maze of rooms that this huge mansion housed. Strangely enough, I felt her much less interested in me than when we were outside. Deciding not to pay any more attention to these concerns, I took advantage of my wanderings to observe our surroundings, and I had to admit that nothing really caught my eye. It was a conventional reception: countless small groups of people talking about everything and nothing, a glass of alcohol in hand. How was I going to find my way through this mess? How was I going to carry out my assignment? As we made our way to another crowded room, I decided to interrogate Sivir, who certainly could provide me with some useful information.

« You said you were working for...? » I started, waiting for her to finish my question.

She gave me a surprised pout. Her gaze shifted and she brought the glass that had just been handed to her and sipped a very small amount of her drink.

« Department of Security. » She replied dryly, her lips still brushing the glass.

So she was acting on several fronts. That was the only reason for her sudden aloofness, or rather coldness. It didn't matter, I had to question her more about what she was doing. I took a sip of the same drink that had been given to me. It was apparently a sugary wine. Not unpleasant. I took a second sip, then resumed my attempts at interrogation.

« It must be quite stressful, I guess. » I said beneath a subdued and rather unauthentic laugh.

« Indeed. » The woman responded without further elaboration.

I sighed wearily, awkwardly. I decided to stop talking for the moment. I just watched the young woman. Not only had she gone completely mute, but she wasn't even looking at me. I noticed that she was much more interested in the guests than she was in me. And as I went through the reverse chain of thought, I realised that she had been scanning every room we had passed through. Or rather, every room she had walked through while I was following her.

It was now quite obvious. There was no desire on her part to share a lovely evening by my side. She had got inside, and had very soon undertaken a thorough examination of every room in the mansion. My presence was at best irrelevant, at worst deeply annoying. I couldn't help but feel upset, even though I was playing a similar game after all, although perhaps with greater naivety. I didn't know what she was up to here, but I could tell that she wasn't here to enjoy mundanities. So what should I do? Split up and resume the course of my own quest as originally planned, alone? Or try to confront her with what she was hiding? The second option looked far more appealing to me, despite the fact that it was far from reasonable.

Never mind.

« How long have you been planning to sneak into this party? » I asked in a whisper.

Suddenly, Sivir took her eyes off the crowd and, for the first time since we got there, she met my gaze, and she clearly could not suppress her shock at such an unexpected question. I went on less discreetly:

« You could have just told me about it instead of making eyes at me. »

Sivir cast a few peeks around us, no doubt to make sure we were not drawing any attention. Then she regained my gaze and, in an authoritative tone, she replied:

« A lecture from a false teacher who has no business being here is pretty entertaining. »

It was my turn to be caught off guard. I stared at the woman with my eyes so wide open that more would have been painful. My expression provoked her to laugh in satisfaction.

« You obviously don't know the instructional policies here. Taris has not recruited any temporary teachers since the last three revolutions. Here, things are done by competitive examination only, and these are only open to people who have followed the curriculum offered in the universities of Taris. In other words, nothing you have told me makes sense. I'm up to date on a lot of things. »

She sipped some more wine, with the same contented look, and continued:

« But I really enjoyed your tales of being in difficult classrooms. It was worth the effort. It was like being there. Now, let me handle my own business, and I'll let you handle yours. »

With that, she finished her drink and warned me in a controlled voice:

« Be careful. The Sith do not treat the survivors of the Republican cruiser lightly. »

Sivir then walked out of the room, leaving me like a perfect fool standing in a corner holding, my drink. I breathed heavily. How could she have known I was on the Endar Spire? I discreetly inspected my outfit, looking for the slightest clue revealing this reality that had to remain hidden. As much as I looked at every square inch of my clothes, of my appearance, I could not find any indication of this. How did she know? Who was she? And what about the young Twi'lek who had run away after a curious call? What were those two up to? I had to keep an eye on her. At least we shared some kind of secret intention. Perhaps she could still be useful in my business.

The night went on without much progress on my part. The more time passed, the more my confidence faded. I was obviously not the man for such a situation. In the space of a couple of minutes I had succeeded in being spotted by an utter stranger, so what could I expect from my acting performance among Sith officials?

Each of my attempts to join a group had sometimes ended in friendly embraces, but mainly with nothing useful to report. How could I get anything out of these people without raising suspicion?

I now found myself grafted onto another small group of Sith, and just as I was beginning to seriously consider ending my seemingly time-consuming infiltration, they brought up topics that finally caught my attention. Indeed, alongside these few people, I had been able to learn a little more about the gangs that were operating in the lower city. Two groups were leading in these conflicts between scoundrels and criminals: the Hidden Beks and the Black Vulkars. The first was led by a guy named Gadon Thek, while the other was under the governance of a guy named Brejik. The gangs were giving the newly arrived Sith a hard time. The reverse was also true. It was said that some of the Beks had the habit of going up to the upper city by devious, and sometimes particularly acrobatic, routes. I didn't know what it was all about, but I assumed that it was a matter of rather sporty infiltration. This meant that it was possible to get to the lower city by circumventing Sith security. But how to get in touch with a Hidden Bek?

« We're trying to seal the cracks, but that's just not possible. » I heard from one of the guests. « This vermin can sneak in anywhere. As soon as you cut off their access, you can be sure they'll find another one within the hour. »

« They know their city, Musthar. » Another person replied calmly. « We've only been here a short time. We couldn't expect anything else. And the Republic has done a disastrous job in repressing these gangs. »

« Oh, we're not getting any help, that's for sure. » The man ended as he brought his glass to his lips.

As silence fell in the group, I forced myself to dare to ask a question that could be perceived suspiciously:

« But then... » I began, faking naive curiosity. « How can you spot a Hidden Bek among the regular population? »

The few Sith all gave me a look that I couldn't describe. What was real, however, was my violent surge of nervousness, which I tried my best to repress. Seeing that my question had obviously caught the attention of my very temporary party mates, I allowed myself a few more words:

« Sorry. » I said with a falsely uncomfortable countenance. « I'm a tradesman, and your arrival has somewhat affected my business trips. I wasn't supposed to be here this long. »

Musthar and most of his colleagues gave an understanding smile, and then they returned to their initial attitude. However, the woman who had spoken to the man did not take her eyes off me.

« The Hidden Beks are not so good at hiding. » The man finally replied. « These dummies perform a barbaric ritual of red-hot branding every new member. A luminous idea coming from their leader. Souvenir of the Mandalorian Wars, it is said. They all have some sort of little cross on the underside of their right wrist. »

On the underside of the wrist? Suddenly an image of my evening came back to me. Sivir. The flesh-coloured bandage. And her very young friend, who wore an impressive array of trinkets around her wrist. Was it the right one? I couldn't remember. The little Twi'lek had gone so quickly that I hadn't had time to think about such a detail. However, a lot of things seemed to make sense. I knew for sure that these two young women were up to something. Sivir had used me to infiltrate the party, and hadn't waited long before going about her own business, leaving me out of the loop.

« How did a simple tradesman get invited to this party? »

I looked up at the person who had just asked this question so sternly that my blood froze in the next second. It was this woman, who had always kept her eyes on me. She was definitely distrustful of me. And I couldn't blame her.

« Play it smart for once. » I thought.

I glanced down for a moment and sighed defeatedly, which appeared to feed the woman's distrust of me. I raised my head, and, staring resolutely at her, said:

« Well, to be perfectly frank with you. » I dared. « I met a colleague of yours today in the Market District cantina. She offered me to have a drink with her and her friends. I accepted, and... » I paused and reached into my pocket for the tiny card that had enabled me to be here tonight, then handed it to the female Sith.

« ...she gave me this. »

The Sith extended her hand and seized the card, inserting it into a small data pad which she took out of a satchel. As she inspected the contents of the card, I continued:

« I'm sorry, I know I have no business here. I was just curious to be part of an event like this. »

The woman carried on looking at the data for a while. Then I cast a glance at her colleagues. Musthar and another Sith looked quite entertained by the moment, whilst the other two shared awkward stares. I assumed that those looks were mostly due to the woman's unfriendly demeanour. Suddenly my attention was caught by the woman again, she sighed slightly, removed the card from the pad and held it out to me again. I immediately grabbed it and shot the Sith a questioning look.

« I told you that we should make a clean sweep of our workforce. » She said to her colleagues. « Our men and women can' t do anything better than hang out in the cantinas and get drunk out of their skulls. Here's what we get. »

She added, gesturing at me with a rather condescending nod. The men around her now glanced at her in shock at what she was saying and in approval, which was expected of them. Slowly, the group appeared to be trying to disengage from me, and began to pace towards another room. Before leaving me for good, the woman threw me a warning:

« Don't be overly curious, if you don't want trouble. »

Then they all disappeared into the maze of rooms of the massive edifice. I was alone again, but with some interesting information. This rather uncomfortable encounter with these people prompted me not to hang around here any longer. I had somehow been spotted. It was unwise to repeat the process with others. I had to start thinking about leaving this place. I quietly cleared my throat and placed my glass on the edge of what looked like a fireplace. With a confident step, I walked through several halls, heading for the exit. Several dozen meters from there, I slowed my pace until I stopped, having caught sight of Sivir out of the corner of my eye as she looked to be following a Sith with whom she had obviously been in the midst of some sort of exchange. The way the man was staring at her left no room for questioning: he had some kind of plan in his head.

She must have known exactly what she was doing. I didn't have to worry about what was going to happen between these two. I walked back in the direction of the exit. However, I couldn't help but think that this woman could be of some help to us. I paused again, and turned my head back to Sivir and the man. Hardly had I noticed that they were about to walk up a staircase. I glanced back at the exit and sighed.

« Damn it. » I muttered.

With no further delay, I swung round and headed for the stairs that the two party companions had just climbed. Down here, I could perceive some female laughter which left little doubt about the identity of the one responsible for it. I went up the steps and reached a wide corridor. A few inebriated people were wandering around. I walked down the corridor, at a measured pace, in search of Sivir and the Sith. A few dozen metres further on, the corridor opened up into a large room where several couples were seemingly engaged in pleasures that would have deserved a little more privacy from my perspective. I searched the room for Sivir, who I eventually spotted at the other end, and saw her going through a door into another room. Resolutely I started down the path to what I hoped would be the last room, when I was suddenly gripped by the arm. I spun round and saw a woman, clearly quite altered, clinging awkwardly to me.

« Will you take me, handsome? » She asked, as lustful as she was drunk. I gently laid my hand on her own arm, intending to lead her to a seat without rushing her.

« Not tonight, I'm really sorry. » I lied as I settled her on the bench. She showed an exaggeratedly disappointed pout which provoked me to laugh with amusement.

« Too bad for you then! » She added, before breaking into a fit of laughter in response to mine.

« Too bad for me. » I finished warmly.

I eventually headed back to the room that Sivir and the Sith had entered. When I got there, I leaned forward and listened for a while. I could not hear anything in particular. I had to go in and find out. Just as I was about to pull the handle, a scream broke out in the room. A high-pitched voice. Sivir's. I quickly opened the door and ran straight into the room. A few metres away I saw the young woman in a visibly bad position against the man. Her jacket was lying miserably on the floor, and the top she was wearing underneath showed several cuts. I also noticed that her so-called bandage was partially unstuck. But this was not the time to examine the room thoroughly, I needed to neutralise this man who was obviously abusing the woman. I moved towards the Sith without him even noticing my presence. I grabbed him hard by the collar and brought him up behind me so that he no longer had any direct access to Sivir. The man looked totally bewildered by my presence. But I did not give him a chance to recover, for almost instinctively I delivered a hook with all my weight. I could feel and hear a cracking sound which clearly indicated that I had just broken some bones. The man immediately collapsed into a state of deep unconsciousness.

I turned back to the woman, who was looking at me in awe, her arms folded against her very partially exposed chest. A few seconds passed and Sivir finally broke out of her daze, rushing towards the Sith. Thinking then that I had misjudged the scene I had witnessed, I spoke a few words:

« I'm sorry, Sivir. I thought he was after you. »

The young woman remained silent and worked on the unconscious man. I took a step in their direction, and then used the moment to check Sivir's wrist. She obviously noticed, because only a second later she moved her head towards me and tore off the rest of her bandage, revealing a small cross on her pale skin.

« Yes, it does hide what you think! That's why he went crazy! » She barked. « Happy ? »

Without waiting for an answer, she took her eyes off me and focused her attention back on the Sith. She was searching him. Within a dozen seconds, she picked up a small data pad and inspected it thoroughly. After a few manipulations, she stood up, the pad in her hands, and turned back to me:

« We need to leave now, before he wakes up and reports us. »

« That's fine with me. » I replied.

« I don't care whether it's fine with you or not! » She stormed out angrily. « We're leaving, end of story. We're leaving together, just like we came in earlier. Once we're out, you do what you want, I'm getting back in the lower city. »

« Don't you think it would be wiser under the circumstances if you didn't try to return down there? If the guy wakes up soon, he's going to alert every Sith in the area. Security will be strengthened without delay. »

The young woman made no response. She looked pensive.

« A colleague and I are occupying an apartment in a nearby neighbourhood. You will be safe there for the night. » I added.

Sivir sighed. Then she cast me a troubled look.

« I have no more viable option. » She said defeatedly. « Okay, I'll come with you. »

I nodded. Then I took a few steps aside, picked up the woman's jacket and handed it to her:

« Here, put it back on, and let's run away. »

She complied. Within a few short minutes Sivir and I had left the reception and we headed for the apartment where we were to meet Carth.

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

Chapter Five here!

[the-firebird69]

It's a huge day. And as we said it is a big one. As we are checking to see what's happening here and with the status is and we are proceeding. We had worried about this moment and we will make sure safe. There's a few other things happening but this is our primary concern is the morlock leaving work and not doing anything else and they're not getting to the government or other if they did they might do something and they're holding Trump down just as the Chinese are holding and references and foreigners are holding the Macs down. It is going to be a heck of a day foreigners are moving to try and stop empire ships and we have to help and we're doing that now. And we are preparing for a war here and it is with the max well more or less they are lying about a lot of stuff and they are trying to kidnap our son and true they're fighting over him but they're the ones doing it and it's because of the assault. They're moving into high gear right now to get ready on the earth needs to be controlled and we also need to assist in going after the empire and the fleet of theirs. It is too big. They are disturbing everybody and they really can't afford to. This is in time with their revolutionary war reenactment yes and this is the second reenactment the first was very small and occured roughly around 1993 to 2001. And there are a few other things happening along with this event but it is major. And it it is gigantic . At this stage in the revolutionary war we have passed you shot her around the world and we are entering into the combat period and someone did get shot and off battleground. And someone fairly important it was a rebel and there is a problem because of that now they were not critically injured but it was symbolic and he understood and wants to stop them. Early in the revolutionary war there are a couple parties that the max send in one of them are Hessians and those are played by Trump and his men and women and as blonde people they are still playing that role. And JC receiving a coach that look like what I'm theirs and it was when he went North when he was in Connecticut and he didn't go very far it was definitely across the city and the coach he had was fast. Angie went up to the Massachusetts line and back down I'm different occasion and the Massachusetts line would be pretty far away is my true scale unfortunately we do not feel he can do that trip and it would be halfway between here and Worcester roughly a little bit further would be probably Greensboro North Carolina. We do not think we can get him permission to go there no not at this time. He uses a horse and beggy. And uses one from the Hessians and he is the seeds to go up that way. Hodess building company does not have place there but rfmd does. It does make sense for him to go up there and that everybody would try and keep him topside of course and Max hopefully will come out and you'll be trying out the hair UPS the second reason are actually the cover would be to go retrieve money from rfmd and monies due to him. Strangely enough to divested and I thought it was all of it. And he did to that but he had several accounts in North Carolina and their Banks and he went over one of them with Hera. And he'll have to put down two more and it is a goal but they are possibly not going to pay and the max might want him up there to try and hold him there and to get their way even temporarily this has what the information other groups want attention brought to them so really there's a pillow there and it does match up almost exactly where general Washington went to the southern border of Massachusetts and that is the departure point from the stager residence where he was running a cover for real and that was David stager. Interesting note that in that year and for a few years he did not hear from Dave he was missing he thought and now people are checking

Thor Freya

Olympus

This is what I'm worried about and it's good thing to point out. When I was Jen Merrick I tried to find Dave in 1996 and he was not around and it was before he was in the accident and I know you tried too and you couldn't find him and you asked Mr Odette and he says I think he went back to Paxton or something no he said Worcester and he wasn't in Worcester and you went to his apartment and he was he was missing. People think he was held by Joel Watts and trying to have him make the program and that makes a lot more sense

Hera

Olympus