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rin-fukuroi · 7 months

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𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐩𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐬

Please do not translate or publish my works without my permission.

The originals of my works can be read here

Fandom: Honkai: Star Rail Pairings: Blade, Jing Yuan, Luocha, Dan Heng, Sampo, Gepard, Welt x fem!reader Warnings: NSFW, sharing intimate photos, references to masturbation.

Note: English is not my native language, so I apologize if there are errors in the text qq

I'm not sure I've seen anyone write about this, so I decided it would be fun to think about how men from HSR send us photos of their dicks XD Enjoy!

✦ Blade

The first time it was your idea. Although he treated this with some suspicion, all doubts were immediately dispelled as soon as he received a seductive candid photo from you.

Blade has a lot of strange addictions, but now your little game at a distance has also been added to them. The job of a Stellaron Hunter takes up too much of his time, but it's a little easier for him to bear separation when you please him at least just by the sight of your sexy body.

Although you started it, Blade quickly gets into the taste, putting you in an awkward position especially at those moments when you are out of the house or, especially, at work. He likes the idea that your hips will close, your pretty face will surely be powdered with blush, and your underwear will be covered with warm moisture from just one photo that he will make especially for you.

Blade doesn't like anything else as much as teasing you and making you beg. He will definitely take care to accompany his photos with tempting captions, as if the sight of his excited penis alone is not enough to drive you crazy.

But even this will not be enough for him when he orders you to retire with the phone at any cost, no matter where you will be at this moment. Prepare yourself properly, describing to him in every detail how you play with yourself under his strict guidance and do not forget to send a photo report.

✦ Jing Yuan

The General will definitely be the first to suggest that you send him your intimate photo while he is relaxing in his chair, shirking from work.

Jing Yuan likes it when you obediently fulfill his requests, but he loves it even more when you yourself take the initiative to pamper your lover a little. If you surprise the General in the middle of the working day with one of your piquant photos, be prepared for the fact that when he comes home, he will properly thank his playful girlfriend.

As for him… If that's what you want, then why not? He will make any photo for you, no matter what you ask, without a bit of hesitation and doubt. If you want to take the initiative, forcing him to caress himself under your guidance, he will be happy to play this game with you.

Like Blade, Jing Yuan is a very teasing man, although not in such an overbearing display. He doesn't mind making you feel embarrassed at any time and in any place, but he prefers that you fall for his bait yourself, satisfying him with your charming detailed stories about how much you enjoy playing with yourself with thoughts about him.

✦ Luocha

His eyes widen slightly in surprise when he receives a candid photo from you, overwhelmed by feelings that he has not experienced before, since no one else has honored him with such an honor. Especially when you consider the fact that you are both in the same apartment, when he is relaxing reading a book waiting for you to get out of the shower.

Is this an invitation or did you just decide to play a little? Anyway, Luocha is intrigued and doesn't mind having fun with you at all. When he gets excited enough from your teasing, be prepared that he will no longer hold back. Throwing the phone on the sofa, he will definitely join you in the shower, properly demonstrating to you what pranks can lead to.

After this incident, he is no longer surprised if one of the days when you miss him too much, sitting at work, you ask him to make a juicy photo for you. He will treat this issue with all seriousness, carefully choosing the angle and going through several different options to satisfy your request.

We can say that Luocha definitely likes your little innocent games, especially those moments when you are finally alone so that he can throw out all the tension that your intimate correspondence caused. You didn't think that photos alone would be enough for him, did you?

✦ Dan Heng

Oh, innocent Dan Heng. He definitely won't be the one to take the initiative. In this relationship, you're definitely the one who teases, but not the other way around.

With all the outward seriousness, Dan Heng is so easy to embarrass and embarrass. It's even funny. That's why you decide, without any warning, to ask him to take a photo of a piquant content for you. You can't see it in the correspondence, but you can imagine how his face immediately lit up as soon as he read your message.

He's never done this before, but he can't refuse you. It will be a clumsy photo taken with a trembling hand, but incredibly cute from the fact that he really got excited from just one unexpected request of an intimate nature.

Although he doesn't quite understand why you are doing this, but he is pleased to receive these lovely sexy photos from you. He will save each of them in his phone, hiding it in a private folder so that, God forbid, no one will ever see your naked body. This privilege is only for him.

Will he ever do something like that for you again? Well… a little practice and maybe someday he will stop being so embarrassed by this request, but for now he will prefer to replenish his precious collection with even more photos of you taken especially for him.

✦ Sampo

There's not even anything to talk about, he will be the first one to come to you without any warnings.

His courage and perseverance, when he asks you without a second thought to take a couple of photos for him, definitely deserves respect. Although you know that your boyfriend likes to fool around and you've almost stopped being surprised by his strange antics, this one seemed very tempting.

Let his messages that accompany your little game sound even too dirty, but in each of them he is ready to literally worship your body, with pleasure using all your photos in the future to satisfy himself when you are not around.

Oh, you only have to take the initiative, and Sampo will kiss the asphalt on which your foot has trod! You're too good to be real if you can literally read his mind, spoiling him with naughty photos when he's busy with one of his dirty deeds, which he will gladly give up in order to return home and properly thank his goddess.

✦ Gepard

Gepard is even worse than Dan Heng. Not only is he confused by your request, but he will also bombard you with a ton of questions, why exactly did you need it.

The Captain is too far from such games and you really should explain to him the purpose of your request. But, as soon as all the questions that have arisen are satisfied with the answers, Gepard will gladly fulfill any of your requests.

As for your photos… Oh, what are you doing with him, he's at work. It will take a lot of effort for him to hide the bulge in his trousers that arose because of your candid photo. What a blessing that the Silvermane Guards uniform is loose enough that it does not cause questions from his subordinates. Although his red face will be harder to hide. You should definitely pamper him on his return from work for all the willpower he showed by going through this ordeal because of you.

And, of course, he will save every photo you take for him. Not even to satisfy himself in your absence, he will just sometimes admire your body, enjoying the thought that it all belongs to him.

✦ Welt

It would seem that such a mature man should have a lot of experience in everything, even in sexual aspects, but do not hope that he will immediately correctly understand your hints.

Even after receiving candid photos from you, it will not immediately reach him that you want to pamper your lover in this way. But as soon as all the pieces of the puzzle in his head come together in a clear picture, he will not mind at all. He really even liked your frankness and the fact that he now has the opportunity to save a couple of your intimate photos in his phone, instead of sketching your naked body from memory in his album.

As for Welt himself, yes, of course, he will do whatever you ask. Perhaps he, like Locha, will approach this issue with all seriousness. Welt is an artist, so the photo you get should be perfect, no matter how much time it takes.

Welt is really grateful to the universe for giving him such an amazing girl. He should definitely pamper you properly as soon as you are alone, paying special attention to those parts of the body that were so seductively flaunted in your photos taken especially for him.

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heliads · 1 year

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So happy that you added top gun maverick to your fandom list. If you’re up for it could you do a Rooster x reader enemies to lovers where he’s in love with her but doesn’t want to get attached to anyone cause what happened to his dad and his repressed feelings manifest as him teasing and picking on her. She takes it like a champ and throws it right back at him (which only makes him fall for her more). One day she gets hurt (she can be another pilot or something else if you’d prefer) and she’s expecting him to make fun of her for fucking up but instead he’s very serious about taking care of her. Then they both confess their feelings for each other.

i am always up for top gun

masterlist

y/c means your callsign btw

In a world as crazy as that of the US Navy pilots, you’ve learned to treasure the brief moments of peace. They come few and far between, usually overshadowed by missions of great calamity. Those you can find, though, are certainly wonderful indeed.

You’re in the midst of one of such instances of tranquility now, staring over the railing of a balcony high up in one of the administrative buildings. It offers you a beautiful view of the ocean, which is not too far off in the distance. It’s just you and your best friend Phoenix. Also the pilot you hate most of all briskly walking your way.

Rooster.

No.

Thus another blissful moment is ruined. You turn to Natasha with a look of utter horror, and she has to clap a hand over her mouth to stop from breaking out in laughter. You glance around for a chance to flee, but Bradshaw’s too close, there’s nothing you can do but face him.

His footsteps stop behind you, and your knuckles tighten on the balcony railing. “Rooster. How wonderful of you to ruin my morning.”

You don’t have to look behind you to know that Rooster’s fixing you with the same smug grin he always seems to wear whenever you’re around. “Y/C. Still searching for ways to be faster than me? I admit, the ocean is pretty big and beautiful and all that, but it still might not be deep enough to hold all the secrets you’d need to beat my records.”

You snort. “A puddle would hold all the secrets I’d need to beat you. I already do that.”

You turn around at last, and Bradley folds his arms across his chest, the perfect picture of military indignation. “Is that so?” He asks slowly, “because I seem to remember Maverick struggling way more to take me out yesterday morning than he did for you.”

“I recall it being the opposite that afternoon,” you reply. “I wouldn’t blame you for having a bad memory, though. You’re bad at everything.”

By your side, Phoenix makes a choking sound that’s most likely her trying to disguise another laugh. “Keep it down, you guys. We only get one morning off from practice, and I’m trying to enjoy it without the constant sound of you two sniping at each other.”

“You don’t have to worry about Rooster sniping at me,” you say pleasantly, “he’d never hit. Just like in a plane.”

You think you see Rooster’s jaw drop, just a little. “So not true. I’d kick your ass in a dogfight any day if Maverick would let us fight each other instead of him.”

You arch a brow. “Then how about you ask him to let us fight? You’re close to him, aren’t you? Go use your advantage for an actual result instead of just trying to get a better showing than me. At least that’s a reasonable goal.”

Bradley scoffs. “That so? I think you’d go down in about half a second.”

“Not a chance,” you declare, “I’d have you in my sights in less time than it takes you to do a roll.”

“Prove it,” Rooster says, “I’d hate to think you’re just talk.”

During the course of the conversation/expressions of deep hatred, you and Bradley have slowly gravitated towards each other, unconsciously taking a step forward in an attempt to get the upper hand. Right now, the two of you are practically breathing down each other’s shirts, neither willing to back down first.

It takes Natasha sighing exasperatedly and shoving the two of you apart for the situation to ease. “Back off, you two. Is it possible for you to stop fighting for two seconds? You’re worse than Hangman.”

You chuckle. “That’s a pretty terrible comparison. Alright, Nat, let’s go somewhere with a better view. I’m getting tired of this one at the moment.”

You widen your eyes in mock horror as you say it, and Rooster rolls his eyes. Ignoring him, you link your arm around Phoenix’s and lead her away.

Natasha starts grinning once Bradley is out of earshot. “You guys are insane, you know that? At some point, you’re going to have to stop flirting with each other and actually go get drinks or something.”

You nearly choke on your own indignation. “Flirting? Natasha Trace, you must be out of your mind. I’m not flirting in the slightest.”

“You must be serious, you’re using my full name,” Phoenix muses, “but you’re wrong. You guys have more tension than anyone I’ve ever seen.”

“Yeah,” you agree, “tension because we hate each other. Bad tension.”

“Good tension,” she argues, “because you love each other dearly.”

You shove her on the shoulder, but the action only serves to make Natasha’s smile broaden. “You can’t say anything to convince me otherwise,” she reminds you, “I know what I see.”

You roll your eyes. “You might have to get your vision checked if you’re that blind.”

Despite your comebacks, you can’t be annoyed with Phoenix forever, even if she’s way off in her predictions of what is to come between you and Rooster. She’s your best friend, both among the pilots and outside of work.

That’s why she must know better than to think that you and Bradley would ever be interested in each other that way. First of all, Rooster would never allow that to happen, your own feelings be damned. He’s been a lone wolf since day one. Sure, he’ll talk to his friends, and get drinks with a big crowd just like anyone else, but he’s not looking for anyone closer than a buddy from work. That much is certain.

There are rumors, of course, about why that would be. Some whisper that Bradley lost his father in an airplane crash and so he refuses to let himself get attached to any one pilot out of fear of history repeating itself. Others say that he’s so competitive about getting the top result that he wouldn’t want to weaken himself by tying himself to another pilot.

Regardless, you know one thing for sure: Rooster is not the kind of person to fall for you. Ever. From the moment he met you, Bradley’s been teasing you nonstop. The two of you engage in verbal warfare every time you’re stuck in a room together for longer than a minute. During aerial practice, the two of you risk your necks to outdo each other, and back on solid ground, you’re firing comebacks at each other like missiles.

Thus, the force of Bradley’s obstinance alone could thwart any idea of yours. There are no ideas of yours, though, none in the slightest. Rooster is a thorn in your side, a too-clever piece trying to stop you from crossing the chess board and beating him once and for all. If you have ever looked at him with different eyes, ones that shine instead of glare, that must be blamed on too many drinks or too many late nights. Anything else would be traitorous.

So, you turn your focus towards doing better, always doing better. Maverick’s demands for his selected group of pilots are a hair short of perfection; seeing as you’re one of them, you have to cross that line, be flawless as no other fighter pilot can be. You are the best of the best, but you must prove it every single time you crawl into your cockpit.

Maybe that’s why you end up pushing harder than you should during daily practice. Maybe that’s why you ignore every warning thrown your way that you’re going to get in trouble. In the end, you do, but not over a disciplinary violation. Instead, the danger headed your way is physical.

You didn’t crash. You feel like that should be stated another dozen times. Your plane was never impacted, nor was anyone harmed. The whole thing happened so quickly that you’d swear it was just a figment of your imagination were it not for the radio logs played over and over again, showing just what you did.

More specifically, the comms show what you didn’t do, and that was stay conscious during the flight. You’ve been burning the candle at both ends just trying to keep your place ahead of the other pilots, and it’s finally slowing you down instead of speeding you up. You were coming out of a sharp dive when the exhaustion took its toll.

You passed out then and there. Maverick’s shouting over your comms didn’t do anything to wake you up. Your eyes opened when you were far below the hard deck, plummeting towards the ground. It took every bit of skill in you to pull the nose of your plane up and save yourself from fiery impact.

Even after you landed, your trouble wasn’t over. You barely managed to climb out of the cockpit before you were passing out again, tumbling over the edge of the plane and falling towards the hard ground below. Your head would have struck the concrete if it weren’t for someone managing to catch you, and of all the people to be your savior, it was Rooster.

That still bewilders you. You ended up staying in the medical wing for a couple of hours with an IV to get your stats back to normal, but you’ve been cleared since then, let go with a warning to take it easy. From the moment you regained consciousness and learned what happened, you haven’t been able to stop wondering why Bradley would have been the one to catch your falling body and not any one of the other pilots.

For one thing, he would have had to act quickly to notice and grab you before your head hit the ground. For another, he would have had to be by your plane in the first place. That means Bradley was waiting for you, something he has obviously never done before. The whole situation makes no sense, and your mood isn’t exactly lifted to see Rooster waiting for you by the door of the med wing when you finally get out.

He’s been leaning up against the wall, but straightens up when he sees you. “Y/C. Good to see you upright.”

Your head is still a little fuzzy, and you really, really don’t want to hear him sniping at you, especially not after the results of the day. You don’t lose control, not when you’re in a plane. You can already picture him calling you out for that little lapse, so you decide to cut to the chase and cut him off before Bradley gets the chance.

You hold up a hand before he can say anything else. “I don’t want to hear it,” you warn him.

Rooster blinks in surprise. “Hear what?”

You laugh bitterly. “You’re here to make fun of me for passing out, obviously. If I hear a single joke about me falling for you, I’ll kick your knees in, how about that?”

“Well, I’d prefer if my knees stay intact,” Rooster says slowly, “besides, that’s not why I’m here.”

You stare at him, confused. “Why the hell else would you be here?”

Bradley spreads his hands. “To check in on you. You’ve got us all worried, Y/C. I just happen to prefer you alive rather than dead, and I wanted to make sure you were going to stay that way.”

This takes you by surprise. “Really?”

He laughs. “Is it really that much of a shocker that I might care about if you’re alright? I saw you fall when you were in that plane. I thought you wouldn’t be able to save yourself. I haven’t been shaken like that since–”

Bradley cuts himself off abruptly, but you sense what he was trying to say. No one has clear memories when they’re that young, but losing your father would do something to remind you of what it’s like to hurt.

You reach over and gently place a hand on Rooster’s back. “I’m okay,” you assure him, “due in part to someone making sure I stayed that way. Thanks for catching me.”

“Thanks for catching yourself when you were in the air,” he replies back, “that would have been harder for me to stop. Just don’t make it a habit. I’m not used to doubting you.”

You laugh. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you be this nice to me. Keep doing it, will you?”

Rooster’s smile is soft when you look back at him. “I don’t think that’s going to be a problem.”

It occurs to you that Phoenix might have been right. You’ll have to check in with her later and ask what other revelations she’d been keeping from you. In the meantime, you’re perfectly content to walk back with Bradley, to talk and be happy with him. You don’t think you need anything else. Not even a top finish.

top gun tag list: empty for now!

#rooster #rooster imagines #rooster x reader #rooster oneshot #bradley bradshaw #bradley bradshaw imagines #bradley bradshaw x reader #bradley bradshaw oneshot #top gun #top gun imagines #top gun x reader #top gun oneshot #top gun rooster #top gun rooster imagines #top gun rooster x reader #top gun rooster oneshot

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pjohoo-reclists · 9 months

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Percy Jackson Criminal AU Fic Recs

Request: Looking for Percy Jackson fanfiction with criminal AU and preferably Percabeth.

Here's a few. They're all crossovers, but I don't think you have to know the other fandom to enjoy and understand the fics. At least, I haven't seen Brooklyn Nine Nine TV but I still really enjoyed reading those crossovers. Posted 14/8/23. Enjoy!

act natural by maverickk

G | 900 words | Complete

Percy Jackson & Tony Stark

Crossover (Marvel), Interrogation, Percy Jackson is a little shit

Percy and Tony might be in a little bit of trouble.

i'm an atheist by maverickk

T | 1.6k | Complete

Percy Jackson, Nick Fury

Crossover (Marvel), Interrogation, Sarcastic Percy Jackson, Nick Fury just wants to do his job

Percy finds himself in an interrogation room, and his best bet is to talk his way out of trouble.

Missing, Presumed Dead by Deerlie_03

T | 5.7k | Complete

Percy Jackson/Annabeth Chase, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace

Crossover (Brooklyn Nine-Nine TV), Conspiracy Theories, Humor

Jake Peralta brings the teenager to the precinct on a day that should be like any other. Then he spends the next few years trying to unravel the mystery that is Perseus Jackson. Why exactly does the kid know so many missing people?

Now and Then by Deerlie_03

T | 9.8k+ | Ongoing as of 14/8/23

Percy Jackson/Annabeth Chase

Crossover (Criminal Minds TV), POV Outsider, Aged Up Percy Jackson Characters, Future Fic

“Are we finally finding out about the new recruit?” Prentiss opened her mouth with every intent to continue but was suddenly cut short by a new voice. “Finally? Prentiss, have you been keeping me a secret?” “Nice to see you again, agent Jackson,” Ten years after "Lykaion" (part 1 of this series) Percy reunites with the BAU, this time as a new recruit to the team. This is the story of some of his first cases alongside them as well as the more important moments in-between.

Lykaion by Deerlie_03

T | 20k | Complete

Percy Jackson, Criminal Minds characters

Crossover (Criminal Minds TV), Outsider POV, Case fic

They were used to catching killers in the act, not listening to audiobooks and making strangely coloured cookies wearing gingham aprons but that hardly exonerated the kid. After all, there was a lot about him that just didn't sit right, that seemed far too close to the case to be a coincidence. In which Percy Jackson really isn't a serial killer, he just has terrible luck.

Long Forgotten Enemies by littlebear62007

Not Rated | 52k | Complete

Percy Jackson/Annabeth Chase

Crossover (Criminal Minds TV), Murder Mystery, Police Officer Percy Jackson

The BAU is called in when teenagers across New York City are found dead and tortured. Joining the investigation late, after being held up by another case, the team is immediately overwhelmed by the unusual nature of the case. Both the families of the victims and the lead Detective Jackson seem to be hiding something. Why would these families keep critical information from federal agents just trying to find and rescue their children? Percy Jackson has been working for the NYPD, happy to live a normal life after years of war. When demigod children begin turning up dead throughout the city, Percy is torn between two worlds. How will he find the person responsible for killing his family while keeping their world a secret for both his fellow officers as well as government agents?

Heroes of the 99 by Dusana

G | 62k | Complete

Annabeth Chase & Jake Peralta, Percy Jackson/Annabeth Chase

Crossover (Brooklyn Nine-Nine TV), POV Outsider, Magic Revealed

After working with the squad of the 99 for almost a year, her colleagues start finding out that Annabeth Chase is more than an ultimate Detective (/Genius). One by one, they come face to face with the supernatural world their co-worker and friend grew up in. And just in time, because a new threat is looming in the distance...

The Wise Detective by Dusana

G | 79k | Complete

Annabeth Chase & Jake Peralta, Percy Jackson/Annabeth Chase

Crossover (Brooklyn Nine-Nine TV), Season/Series 07 Spoilers

A new Detective joins the squad of the 99th precinct. Her name is Annabeth Chase.

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aldryrththerainbowheart · 1 year

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[XV - The Devil] ; How possessive are they?

Fandom: Devil May Cry

Characters: Dante, Vergil, Nero

Relationships: character x reader

Note: I want to clarify something. Some people may be disappointed with this, because I've written these character as mostly non-possessive types. I know some people like to read about how possessive their blorbos are about them and some writers may feel inclined to write certain character more jealous than the canon would imply simply to please. I personally believe that possessiveness is not indication of one's love to you or how special you are to them. I don't like it in fiction either. I think you guys should know that before you continue reading.

Dante is not the type to get possessive and actually prefers to have space in his relationships. He wants to give his loved ones freedom and enjoy seeing them do their own thing. Dante dislikes feeling like he is being controlled, and does not want to be seen as controlling in return. He wants to feel connected to the ones he loves, but this connection does not go away just because he isn’t always with them. Dante enjoys being with people he can trust. There can be times, however, he needs to be reassured of some of his values. It is not easy for him to find a person he can connect with, so he guards this relationship closely. He wants to be reminded from time to time that he’s still important to you, and another person does not play role in this.

Vergil is definitely not a possessive person and actually wants to give his loved one space. He enjoys having plenty of alone time himself and strives to maintain a sense of independence. He does enjoy sharing part of himself with special people, but he doesn’t want to smother those people. He sometimes worries he’s too much of a bother, so that led to his partner thinking he is distancing away from them. His partner needs to bring him out of his bubble. Vergil is perfectly fine with allowing his loved ones to do their own thing, and to have other friendships and bonds. Vergil is not possessive and realizes that people are not things that he owns. He might have times when he can demand a certain level of attention from that person, but these times are rare.

Nero enjoys giving people space and room to be themselves. He doesn’t want to smother his loved ones, because to him it seems as if he does not show them enough trust and that’s disrespectful to him. He uplifts traditional values in relationships, such as trust, communication, and stability. He wants to inspire the people he cares for to be themselves, no matter what that means. Nero prefers to trust his partners at all times. There might be moments when he wants to have plenty of attention from his favorite person, which might make them seem possessive. But that’s because Nero is very needy and may require more attention and affection than the next person. Nothing that can’t be fixed with a few hours or days you save just for him.

#devil may cry vergil #dmc vergil #vergil x reader #vergil x you #devil may cry nero #nero x reader #nero sparda #dante devil may cry #dante x reader #dmc dante #devil may cry dante #dante x you #devil may cry drabbles #dante sparda

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toasecretsanta · 1 year

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Family Time

Fandom: Trials of Apollo Rating: Gen Genre: Family Characters: Apollo, Nico, Will, Austin, Kayla, Jerry, Yan

After a stressful day of family arguments disguised as a council, Apollo really wanted some less stressful family time. A gift for @crystalcatgamer from @tsarinatorment using the prompts “Apollo visiting his kids” and “Apollo and Nico bonding”. Couldn’t fit the third prompt in, unfortunately! This is set in winter so it’s year-rounder campers only, and I headcanon Gracie as a summer-only, which is why she’s missing.

Campers were just beginning to peel away from their breakfast tables when Apollo strolled into camp. The winter solstice the previous day had been full of its usual family tensions and thinly veiled posturings – things Apollo only really enjoyed when he wasn’t directly involved, and in the darkest depths of the year, when he was cold and tired and maybe Artemis wasn’t completely wrong when she said he got lazy in the winter, it lost most of its entertainment factor even then. No wonder, then, that he wanted to spend the next day with his children, away from the tense politicking of Olympus.

His intention had been to spend it relaxing, but immediately he noticed something a little odd at his table.

Nico was there (not odd at all, the son of Hades frequently joined his children and was incredibly welcome to do so), but Will was not.

When Apollo thought about it, Will’s absence wasn’t completely surprising – even whilst dealing with the biannual family argument disguised as a council, Apollo had felt and responded to his son’s healing prayers as they reached him, so he was well aware that something had happened late into the previous night, although the lack of unease throughout the camp implied that nothing was concerning the demigods now.

The only question was whether Will was doing the sensible thing, or the worried healer thing, but even that was quickly deduced by Nico’s unhurried presence at his table. If Nico thought Will was doing anything remotely daft, he would be telling him so at the very least, and almost certainly attempting to stop him, so Apollo approached his table with the reassurance that Will was fine.

“Good morning,” he trilled, sliding onto the stone bench between Austin and Yan and putting an arm around each of their shoulders, reaching out to grip Kayla and Jerry’s shoulders in greeting and sending Nico an enthusiastic grin which had his future son-in-law rolling his eyes – but also the hint of a returning smile playing at the corner of his mouth, which Apollo’s keen eyes definitely spotted.

“Hi, Dad,” his kids chorused. Yan leant against his side subtly and he gave their shoulder a brief squeeze as he began with the usual questions – what had they been up to since he last saw them, anything fun or exciting? He’d been keeping as much of an eye on them as he could get away with, of course, but it was always so much better hearing about Austin’s latest youtube fame straight from his son’s mouth, or the fact that Kayla’s experimenting with bow styles outside of her mastery in recurve had her currently focusing on a specific type of horse bow (Apollo had wondered if she would ever pick one of those up, and if she did, if it would be because or in spite of the memory of a certain older brother). Jerry’s continued determination but tragic failure to convert the primarily American born-and-raised kids to the wonders of cricket always made for a riveting story, and Yan’s own strides in increasing their distance at the archery range filled Apollo with pride.

Nico, Apollo noticed as he listened to his kids’ stories, was quietly piling a plate full of food which looked suspiciously geared towards Will’s preferences. The fact that he wasn’t running off with it as soon as he was done, but rather set it to one side with a glare towards table eleven that just dared someone to try and touch it (not even Hermes’ children were that foolish), added weight to the likelihood that Will was still asleep.

Eventually, after their tales were fully regaled, his kids helpfully confirmed it for him.

“There was a new arrival late last night,” Austin told him. “Will didn’t get back to the cabin until…” he trailed off, clearly trying to remember although Apollo was pretty certain none of his children had any real sense of time when the sun was down, if they’d even stirred when Will had no doubt stumbled back into the cabin, exhausted and bleary-eyed.

“Three in the morning,” Nico finished for him. “I was the one that dragged him out once he was done,” he informed Apollo, who gave him an approving look.

“You’re good for him,” he said, not for the first time and certainly not the last, either. The Italian boy’s pale cheeks flushed slightly pink, although Nico didn’t look away or otherwise acknowledge his words.

“He’ll probably wake up soon,” his son’s boyfriend continued instead. “Seeing as for some reason he always seems to wake up at dawn, or near after it.” The accusation was pointed.

Apollo shrugged. “What can I say, it’s the best time of the day,” he said, fully supported by his four awake children who were, of course, all natural morning people.

Nico scoffed. “Just keep telling yourself that,” he retorted, and Apollo pressed a hand to his chest, swooning back in dramatic offence.

“The betrayal,” he whined, to the beautiful sound of four children laughing and a fifth snorting almost imperceptibly. “Nico di Angelo, I thought we were friends!”

“Am I supposed to be friends with my boyfriend’s dad?” Nico asked, eyebrow raised, and Apollo spluttered, remembering at the last moment that Nico might not like the reminder that he was also Apollo’s cousin in the context of the current conversation and redirecting his response into safer waters.

“Are you telling me we weren’t friends before you met my son?” he demanded instead, hand still splayed across his heart. “I don’t give just anyone a ride in my chariot, you know!”

“You would if you could.” Nico’s call-out wasn’t wrong but he didn’t need to say it. Apollo chose not to respond to the accusation, partially because that was the sort of thing he didn’t really need as more than a passing remark where certain gods might be listening.

“So, what are you all planning to do without Will to keep an eye on you?” he instead asked his children.

“Yan promised to help me get enough people for a game of cricket,” Jerry said instantly, and Apollo glanced down at the child in question, who scoffed.

“Are there enough people in camp to make a full game?” they asked, not disputing their British brother’s claim but ruthless with their logic regardless.

Jerry was undeterred. “We can adapt it,” he insisted. “Smaller teams, with less wickets…” He continued along the vein for several minutes, having clearly thought about the topic in great depth, while his siblings rolled their eyes good-naturedly. “…and Harley already agreed to make us bats, wickets, and balls!”

That got the alarmed attention of Austin, who had at some point during his youngest brother’s impassioned speech withdrawn an oboe reed (Apollo suspected it was one of Alice’s spares, left behind when she’d gone back to her mother for the school term) from one of his pockets and started absent-mindedly blowing into it. The loud squawk that erupted from it at Jerry’s proclamation earned him a punch from Kayla, who had the misfortune of having her ear a little too close.

“No,” Austin declared immediately. “Will would kill you.”

“Will’s asleep,” Jerry pointed out, with all the flawless logic of a preteen.

“And staying that way,” Nico interjected, a little forcefully. “Not being dragged out of bed to patch up everyone who gets in the vicinity of Harley’s latest death traps.”

“Cricket is a safe sport!” Jerry argued back, and Apollo sensed the potential for some injured pride and genuine sibling arguments – things he had left Olympus to escape.

“It is,” he agreed, reaching for Jerry’s shoulder once more and giving it a soft squeeze. “What your siblings and Nico are trying to say is that Harley, while a very impressive young man and inventor, has a tendency to make things that are supposed to be safe… not so safe.” He remembered the three-legged death race all too clearly.

“But camp doesn’t have all the gear,” Jerry whined, shoulders slumping dejectedly. “I’ve got Mum’s ball, but…” There was the hint of a quiver to his lower lip and Apollo was not letting that happen.

A snap of his fingers and one flash of bright light later had a pile of cricket equipment on the ground next to table seven, complete with all the safety gear Jerry had forgotten to mention. Instantly, bright brown eyes lit up in delight, and the threat of tears disappeared. “You’re the best, Dad!”

He all but launched himself from the table, rummaging through the gear until he found the brand-new ball nestled inside one of the wicket keeper’s gloves and held it aloft proudly.

“Dad,” Kayla complained, just as Jerry excitedly insisted that Yan join him and the other demigod slipped off of the bench with far less enthusiasm to get drawn into a game of catch. Jerry jammed a helmet on their head, and Apollo had to fight not to laugh at the unimpressed look on their face.

But Yan and Jerry had managed to develop a strong bond at some point while Apollo had been mortal and forcibly unaware of his children’s lives – he had later heard that the two of them had met on the way to camp, escorted by satyr guides who didn’t all make it, and that sort of shared experience usually prompted a powerful connection – so they didn’t take it off despite clearly disapproving of their younger brother’s antics.

They did, however, throw the ball a little hard and high, and smirked when Jerry let out a wail and tore down the pavilion after it. “Yaaaaaaaaan!”

Yan chuckled and reclaimed their seat next to Apollo, tugging the helmet off but keeping it in their lap.

“Cricket’s not so bad,” they shrugged at the disbelieving noise Kayla made. “Just a lot of throwing, catching, and running.”

“Archery’s better,” she grumbled, and Yan – also a fantastic archer and general marksperson – shrugged in agreement.

“It keeps him happy,” they said, which was a point she had to concede on, if rather ungracefully.

Nico muttered something under his breath which wasn’t as grumpy as the son of Hades tried to make it sound, and stood up. “I’ll go leave this where Will can grab it when he wakes up,” he said, picking up the heavily laden plate.

“I’ll come with you,” Apollo said instantly, giving the still-sitting kids another shoulder squeeze and making his own way to his feet.

It was somewhat of a surprise that Nico not only acquiesced, but also waited for him rather than walking to cabin seven by himself, and Apollo certainly didn’t waste time scrambling to join him, throwing a “be good!” over his shoulder at his awake children – Jerry had finally caught up with the ball and was hurtling back to them with it held triumphantly above his head, and Kayla’s bright hair splayed across the stone table as her forehead connected with it – despite being well aware that four demigods between the ages of twelve and fourteen left unsupervised was a recipe for chaos.

The thick curtains of cabin seven were all drawn tightly shut, a sure sign that there was an occupant either sleeping or recording a video inside. Given that the only one of his children currently in camp that wasn’t outside and causing a ruckus was not one with particularly musical proclivities, it was a clear indicator of the former – or at least, that Will was supposed to be asleep.

Neither Apollo nor Nico made a sound as they edged the door open and slipped through, but something had apparently alerted Will’s trouble’s brewing big brother senses regardless, because Apollo’s eldest in-camp child was blinking blearily as he pushed himself into a sitting position.

The blankets pooled around his waist as Will yawned, running a hand through an impressive bed-head of tangled waves. He still looked exhausted, skin a little too pale and an indication of bags threatening to form beneath his eyes, and in a wordless agreement Apollo and Nico were immediately at his bedside, the plate of food set on top of his semi-cluttered dresser and promptly ignored.

“Go back to sleep,” Nico said bluntly, gripping his boyfriend’s shoulder and pushing him back down with arms that were far stronger than their thin appearance implied.

“What time is it?” Will asked, his voice thick, as though Nico hadn’t spoken, and Apollo added his own hand to the fray as, between them, he and Nico got Will once again laying back down.

“For you, it’s sleep time,” he informed his son, and got wide blue eyes as Will registered his presence.

“Dad?”

Apollo smiled at him, pulling the covers up and tucking them under his chin as Nico hovered, ready to stop any attempts to sit up again.

“You did well last night,” he promised, fussing with the edge of the blanket until it sat just right. “But that’s no excuse to go without sleep. Camp is fine, your siblings are fine” – it was a testament to how much Nico wanted Will to continue resting that the son of Hades didn’t have any quips to make on the subject – “you are tired, and need some sleep.”

“But-” Will protested, and Apollo shushed him.

“But nothing,” he said, brushing a light hand over his son’s forehead. Messy stands of hair tried to cling to him as he did so. “Everything will be fine; I want you to stay in here for a few more hours.”

“’m not tired,” his son tried, but the fact that he hadn’t even managed to vocalise I’m at the start of the protest defeated his argument before it even started.

“You’re being an idiot,” Nico grumbled at him. The son of Hades had perched himself on Will’s bed, near his legs, and was regarding his boyfriend with dark, slightly worried, eyes. “You need some more sleep.”

“So do you,” Will pointed out, which was clearly true on a technicality because Nico, too, had been awake at three in the morning, but also the son of Hades’ sleep schedule appeared to have finally settled into something that was far more akin to frequent naps rather than a single long sleep.

As adorable as their bantering could be, right then it was starting too feel too much like the bickering that Apollo had had more than enough of at the solstice yesterday, so he cleared his throat and drew both of their attention back to him.

“A few more hours, Will,” he said gently, adding a slight pleading tone beneath the words to make it clear that, at the end of the day, it was his son’s decision – although Apollo had strong opinions on the decision he should be making.

“I’m already awake,” his son pointed out, still not sounding like the most awake demigod the world had ever seen, but with a clear point regardless – Will, like the majority of Apollo’s children and unlike his boyfriend, was not one for naps. Having woken up already, getting back to sleep would be a greater challenge than before.

“I can help with that,” Apollo offered. Will looked torn, and Nico stepped in.

“If you sleep now, you avoid the insanity of Jerry dragging the rest of the camp into his stupid game,” he said. “Apollo gave him what he needs to torment the rest of us with it.” There was a dark look sent his way, but Apollo just shrugged it off.

“They’re bickering,” he said instead of responding to the accusation. Instantly, a look of tired resignation crossed Will’s face; head counsellors did not enjoy separating bickering younger campers, especially when said campers were also their siblings. “Escape while you can.”

Responsibility and tiredness waged war across the battleground of Will’s eyes, a battle Apollo could well appreciate.

“I won’t let it escalate,” he promised, and those words seemed to be enough to have the tension draining from Will’s muscles.

“Just a couple of hours,” his son demanded. Apollo was relieved to get any agreement at all – Will had a deep well of stubbornness which he frequently drew upon, which was probably not entirely from Naomi’s side, but apparently the idea of facing his younger siblings bickering over cricket was enough to make him want to roll over and go back to sleep for a few more hours.

Apollo could certainly relate to that.

“Just a couple of hours,” he confirmed, brushing his son’s forehead one more time and this time humming the beginning chords of a lullaby. Nothing too loud or powerful – Will would benefit best from a natural sleep, which meant being simply coaxed back down rather than being forced under – but just right for a couple more hours of truly restful sleep.

“You’d better still be here,” Will mumbled suddenly as his eyes began to droop, and something in Apollo’s chest did a happy little twist.

“I plan on being here all day,” he assured him – it wasn’t a promise, he couldn’t promise something like that when Zeus might start making ominous gestures and insist he depart, but it was the closest he could truthfully get.

It was enough to bring a small smile to Will’s lips as he slipped back under again, and Apollo pressed his lips lightly to his forehead, unable to resist.

“Sleep well,” he murmured. “You deserve it.”

Part of him wanted to sit in the peace and quiet of the cabin, rather than face whatever mischief his other progeny had managed to whip up in the handful of minutes they had been left unsupervised, but not even the constant bickering of siblings was enough to put Apollo off the idea of spending as much of the day as possible with happy demigods whose biggest issue was whether or not they wanted to play a ball game.

In the shadows of the bunk, Nico’s pale face stood out starkly as he surveyed Will’s sleeping form for several long moments.

“He’s just sleeping?” he asked after a moment, voice barely above a whisper. Apollo lowered his voice to match.

“Just sleeping,” he promised – that was an easy promise to make. “He’ll wake up again in a few hours, as agreed.” He half expected Nico to make himself comfortable and settle down for the hours’-long wait, but once again the son of Hades surprised him as he slid off of the end of Will’s bed, leaving barely a wrinkle in his wake.

“He’ll get mad at me for ‘wasting’ the day looking over him,” Nico explained, apparently sensing Apollo’s faint confusion. “And I want to see how long it takes Kayla to turn that cricket ball into a pincushion.”

It was certainly a possible scenario, although Apollo hoped she wouldn’t show off her prowess quite like that – Jerry would not react well and then he would have actual fighting children on his hands. Parenting One-oh-One books tended to advise not to let that happen, especially the godly ones which were fully aware that the children involved could be rather… powerful. And destructive.

Definitely destructive.

“Please do not give her that idea,” he replied as they cautiously slipped back out of the cabin, Nico squinting at the sudden change in light levels. “She has plenty of feasible targets to try and hit in the archery range.”

“She’ll call that ball feasible,” Nico deadpanned. “You know she will.”

Nico wasn’t exactly wrong, but Apollo made a mental note to get Kayla her own supply of balls fit to be converted into pincushions so she had no excuse except pettiness to target Jerry’s new collection.

“Even more reason not to give her the idea,” he said lightly.

In the time he and Nico had been in the cabin, it appeared that the rest of his children had devolved even further into bickering – although Apollo was hopeful it remained playful bickering rather than a serious argument – over whether or not Jerry should try and get the entire camp into a game of cricket.

Kayla and Austin were firmly refusing to participate, while Yan stood steadfastly at their younger brother’s side and plucked at the grill of one of the helmets’ mouth guards. Apollo was fairly certain they didn’t actually mind the idea of playing, even though it was clearly more Jerry’s interest than their own.

Then again, Yan had already proven that their aim was as sharp with a ball as it was various other projectiles and knew they’d be a force to be reckoned with as a bowler or a batsperson.

“Is he still asleep?” Austin asked Apollo as he and Nico approached. The oboe reed had disappeared from his mouth at some point, and Apollo got the feeling that Austin was subconsciously slipping into Will’s role of eldest sibling while his own big sibling wasn’t around.

“He’s asleep,” Nico confirmed before Apollo could compose an answer. That didn’t, however, stop his mouth from running with other ideas.

“Will’s worked very hard recently,” he said, not sure if he meant just the past couple of weeks, where winter and ice provoked falls from even the most graceful demigods, or recently in the terms of a god’s reckoning, which encompassed Will’s entire life, near enough.

Not that it really mattered, though. Will deserved a break regardless, and Apollo was determined that, at least for this one morning, he would get one.

The murmur of agreeing noises was the first time since his arrival that all four awake children had been in harmony with each other. It was far more soothing than the various small bickers and snipes he’d been hearing since.

“Should we do something for him?” Austin wondered, fingers fiddling with one of the buttons on his long, soft jacket.

“He got breakfast in bed,” Kayla pointed out, although Apollo didn’t think she was actually disagreeing. “When’s the last time we got breakfast in bed?”

“But that was Nico and Dad,” Yan said. “Not us.”

“He hasn’t actually eaten it yet,” Nico muttered, but if there was one person (besides himself) that Apollo was certain was fully on board with Austin’s suggestion, it was the son of Hades. Apollo regarded the demigod in question out of the corner of his eye as his children started debating what they could do for their brother – “no, Jerry, we’re not making Will play cricket!” – and was relieved at what he saw.

Nico had been through a lot in his life. Far too much even for a grown adult nearing the end of a long and fulfilled life, and both physically and mentally he wasn’t even sixteen yet, despite what mortal records might suggest. Apollo remembered the young, sullen and betrayed child he had seen in the snow, just over four years earlier, remembered doing what he could do distract him at least for a short while from the abandonment of his sister whilst fully aware that the camp he was taking him to would not, at the time, be Nico’s salvation despite his wishes.

Not for a son of Hades, not against the stigma that had been in place for millennium. In all four thousand or so years of the camp’s existence, it had never been a safe place for children of Hades, although Apollo had tried.

To see him here, now, still standing with a group of demigods despite his main link to them being absent, interjecting in their debate and being listened to – respected, as much as a group of twelve to fourteen year olds knew how to respect someone – and all parties completely comfortable with his presence.

If Apollo was still mortal, he would have burst into tears then and there.

It was still a close-run thing, even with a sliver of godly self-control to hold them back, as he reached out for the son of Hades and gave him a brief, tight, squeeze.

Nico jumped, and fixed him with a confused glare.

“What was that for?” he demanded, interrupting Kayla’s suggestion of archery lessons.

Apollo couldn’t say what he was thinking, not without several suddenly self-conscious demigods in his midst, so he just gave Nico the biggest, brightest smile he could manage without blinding him. “I’m so happy for you,” he said, which did absolutely nothing to clear up the confusion on the Italian boy’s face.

Nico blinked at him once, twice, then shrugged and turned away. “Whatever. Kayla, are you trying to stress him out more? You know he doesn’t think he’s any good at archery.”

“A concert?” Austin suggested as his sister pouted. “I could whip up a few things for us to play… Nico, I can’t believe I’ve never asked this before, but can you play anything or would you rather sing?”

The look of stunned outrage on Nico’s face had Austin’s siblings all laughing, and even Apollo couldn’t help but smile, amused.

“Neither,” the son of Hades said firmly, and Austin’s face fell.

“Not even for Will?” he wheedled, and got a glare in return.

“Not in front of you,” Nico countered, and all of Apollo’s children pouted. There was a gleam in Austin’s eyes, however, that had Apollo wondering what idea his son had suddenly got into his head and if he should be worried about it.

Whatever it was, however, it went unspoken as Yan spoke. “We could make him something,” they suggested.

“Like what?” Kayla asked. “Best Bro Mug? He’s not Nico’s brother, though.”

“A cake!” Jerry piped up, and all of the demigods looked at each other, and then, to Apollo’s mild concern, him.

“We’re not allowed in the kitchen without supervision,” Austin said slowly.

Oh. Apollo could take a hint.

“I think a cake sounds wonderful,” he agreed, before gesturing in the direction of the Big House. “Shall we?”

The thinly-veiled concern on Chiron’s face as Apollo shepherded five demigods into the kitchen was entirely uncalled for. Dionysus simply scoffed as they passed and informed Apollo that any disasters were on his head, and Apollo beamed back at his brother, reminding him which god it was that tended to leave culinary disasters in his wake.

(So maybe Apollo had left a few. But Dionysus’ parties were legendary for a reason.)

It was only once he’d nudged all five children into washing their hands – none of them had hair long enough to need tying back, although he snapped his own from its half-up half-down manbun into a low ponytail – that he realised there was an important question that needed asking.

“Who knows how to bake a cake?”

Immediately, they all looked at each other, eyes widening a little as none of them put their hands up and said I do!

“Mum makes them all the time,” Jerry said after a moment. “It can’t be that hard.”

Genevieve Allen might have baked a lot (and Apollo remembered how delicious the outcomes had always been), but it took less than a minute into the start of the process for Apollo to realise she had never imparted any lessons on her son – or that Jerry had never paid any attention if she had.

Flour was spilt – not that anyone believed for a moment that was accidental when the victim was Nico, whose all-black aesthetic was suddenly inverted in a single incident – eggs were smashed, and Kayla seemed more interested in eating the chocolate than melting it.

Still, Apollo let the chaos continue, plucking out shards of eggshell before they could join the mixture and subtly replenishing the flour and chocolate supplies, because while it was readily apparent that none of them really knew anything about baking, they were having fun with it – despite his makeover, Nico still had a small grin on his face as he attacked the mixture with a spoon – and Apollo knew that that would be far more important to Will than the cake itself being a culinary masterpiece.

It definitely took some godly intervention (mostly in the form of Apollo prodding the five of them into doing things in approximately the correct order, rescuing more shards of eggshell, and in one particularly close call, catching the bowl when Jerry got too enthusiastic in his stirring and it almost fell to the floor), but the thing that went into the oven to make at the end of it all would at least not poison their poor brother.

Actually, Apollo had full faith that it would still be delicious. What was the use of being the god of knowledge if he didn’t know things, and he definitely knew how to bake a cake, even if for some reason no-one believed him? The steps might have been rather haphazard and chaotic, but they were still the right steps, overall in the right order.

Then he remembered that he was supposed to be supervising more than just the cake-making process, and that the kitchen looked like a warzone.

His suggestion that the children clean it while they waited for the cake to bake was met with a glorious chorus of whining, and Yan’s suggestion that Apollo do it for them – which was then met with a chorus of agreement.

Apollo shouldn’t. He knew he should make them do it themselves, but really, who was he to deny five pleading faces (even Nico’s was expectant enough that Apollo mentally grouped him with the other four).

With a sigh, he snapped his fingers and the kitchen was once again sparkling clean.

“Now what?” Kayla asked, leaning against a cupboard with a slightly-open door. Apollo could see her fingers sneaking inside to grab some more chocolate but decided to turn a blind eye. If his daughter wanted chocolate, she could have chocolate – at least until it reached the point of making her sick, but he was confident he would notice before it got to that point and stop her.

“Icing!” Jerry chirped. “Mum always makes icing!”

“Cakes need icing,” Apollo agreed.

“How do we make that?” Austin wondered, as Kayla gave up on the pretence that she wasn’t raiding a cupboard and threw it open.

“There’s sugar in here,” she proclaimed, “hey-!”

Nico had swooped in next to her and swiped the half-eaten bar of chocolate, taking a bite with a satisfying crack.

“That was my chocolate!” Kayla protested. Nico shrugged.

“Mine now.”

“I’ll shoot you,” she threatened, but Nico just smirked at her.

“Try it,” he dared.

Apollo decided to intervene before it got out of hand.

“For starters,” he answered Austin, “we need this.” A snap of his fingers had the chocolate bar disappearing from Nico’s grip and materialising on the counter.

It was Nico’s turn to exclaim “hey!” in protest. Kayla laughed at him.

“Dad, do you know how to do this?” Jerry finally asked, and five pairs of eyes settled on him. He smiled back at them.

“Of course I do!” he insisted.

“And you let us guess our way through making the cake?” Nico demanded. Apollo shrugged.

“You were having fun,” he defended himself. “It’ll be a fantastic cake. Now, as for the icing…”

With the five children now looking to him for direction, he split up the tasks between them and with far more concentration and less chaos, by the time the cake was out and cooled, they had more icing than they really needed, in a variety of colours, and Jerry had demanded Apollo produce a pen and paper so he could design how they were going to decorate the cake.

Mess returned with the application of the icing, and more of it ended up consumed than used, but that was why Apollo had arranged for so much to be made – even by the time they were done, there was plenty left over, which he reminded them was Will’s share when Kayla’s sticky fingers made fresh advances.

His daughter surrendered, and this time Apollo persuaded them to clean up the kitchen themselves – although he did at least snap them all clean so they didn’t all need urgent appointments with a shower – rather than doing it for them, which neatly ran them up to ‘a couple of hours’ since he’d helped Will roll over and go back to sleep for a bit.

No-one needed any encouragement to scramble back to the cabin, although Nico threatened all of them with shadowy horrors if their chaos woke Will if he wasn’t already awake. Apollo took care of transporting the cake, well aware that a quintet of hyped-up-on-sugar demigods was a recipe for disaster (maybe Will wouldn’t thank him for that, although there was more than enough icing left over for him to join their number very quickly), and before long they were all impatiently tapping their feet on the cabin floor.

Will, it transpired, must have already woken up because his bed was empty – although not yet made – and the plate of food Nico had left had been partially eaten. The sound of running water from the bathroom left no doubts at all as to his location, leaving the six of them with nothing to do but wait.

Nico commandeered Will’s bed, even going as far as to roughly pull the covers up before sitting on it. The other five scattered to their own bunks, while Apollo snapped a low table with plates into existence to place the cake on before perching on Will’s bed, next to Nico.

With enough noise to wake the dead, there was no way Will didn’t know they were all in there, so when the bathroom door edged open to reveal a fresh, healthy looking demigod with still-dripping hair, all they got was a fond eyeroll.

“What are you all doing in here?” he asked, apparently not noticing the new table. He was eying the clear hyperactivity with an air of I don’t want to know, and Apollo found himself the target of an exasperated look that clearly said I thought you were going to keep an eye on them.

“Waiting for you!” Kayla exclaimed, jumping down from her bunk and landing nimbly on all fours, rather like a cat.

From the look on Will’s face, that didn’t reassure him at all – or maybe he just didn’t like Kayla jumping down from her bunk rather than using the ladder.

“You can’t tell me you’ve had nothing better to do than wait for me to wake up,” he said, putting his hands on his hips – every inch the big brother he was.

Apollo decided to put him out of his misery.

“They made something for you,” he prompted as Austin joined Kayla on the floor with far more suave and much less chaos in his approach. Yan and Jerry scrambled to join them, and Apollo watched Will’s eyes widen in a surprise that quickly shifted to delight as Nico slunk to the back of the pack but unmistakably part of it.

“You helped, Dad,” Austin told him.

“I just supervised,” Apollo deflected. “You all did the work.”

That was the moment Will finally spotted the table. His siblings and boyfriend crowded him as he approached it, while Apollo settled himself by it and waited.

It would not be winning any fancy cake-decorating tournaments, but in his humble and not at all biased opinion, it was one of the best cakes he had ever seen.

THANK YOU was picked out in golden calligraphic icing – Jerry had a much steadier hand than most people equated with twelve year old children, although there were still some wobbles where he’d lost control of the piping. Around the words, each of the five had drawn something with various levels of skill.

Austin’s musical notes notated the opening bars of his latest composition in a perfect copy, while the saxophone he’d attempted to draw looked more like a smudged banana, especially when he’d started trying to scrape it off before Yan told him not to. Yan themselves had drawn the rising sun, with its rays just starting to poke over the horizon, while Jerry’s artistic talent had been used up on the calligraphy and he’d opted for a simple red cross, and a dark red blob that everyone knew was supposed to be a cricket ball, even if it rather resembled a splotch of blood.

Kayla, predictably, had attempted a bow at full draw. Bows weren’t difficult to draw, if kept simple, but she’d tried to add on all the accessories on her recurve so it had ended up a rather indistinct mass of various shades of greens and greys. Nico appeared determined to pretend he didn’t have any artistic talent at all, and had simply drawn a bright ring of gold around a black circle – Apollo was pretty certain it was supposed to represent Will’s ability to glow, although it also looked rather like a simplistic solar eclipse.

“I-” Will started. “Wha- Guys, what is this for?”

“It says right there!” Jerry protested, pointing at his calligraphy. Will put a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“I can read it,” he assured him, “but… what for?” His confusion rang through the cabin clearly. The six of them looked at each other; Apollo wondering how to say everything in a colloquial way that would get through to his son as the demigods seemingly faced the same dilemma.

It was Nico who answered him, in the end, summing it up with a blunt succinctness.

“For being you.”

Will blinked, but then Kayla grabbed him in a hug, and that was the cue for the rest of them to dog-pile their big brother. The blond boy went down in a flail of too many limbs, and Nico and Apollo both laughed at the sight before catching each other’s eyes.

It was only a split second, but they came to an instant, silent, decision.

Will shrieked in protest as two more bodies joined the pile on top of him, but then there was laughter, and maybe a few tears, and far too many demigods hyped up on sugar and emotions – and maybe a god, too.

It was a long time before they got around to eating the cake – which was absolutely delicious in the way all things made with love were – and catching Will up to the rest of them in terms of consumed sugar and subsequent hyperactivity that Apollo could already sense Chiron’s despairing disapproval for, but he loved every moment of it.

This was how family gatherings were supposed to be. Olympus: take note.

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ciaossu-imagines · 1 month

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As you lovelies might have seen on other posts, depending on how the shuffled queue puts these out, I spread the Disney love from the Disney day of the event around to all my various fandoms! For The Outsiders, I loved thinking about and then writing about what Disney World hotels each Greaser would love the most, if they ever became rich enough to go to modern day Disney World! I hope you wonderful people enjoy!

I really do strongly headcanon Darry as being someone who is into architecture. He might not know all the technical terms and all the different styles and such, but he appreciates them all and does want to learn more about architecture. He went to work helping build houses, so houses and architecture and buildings became an interest of his that spun into a passion. Because of his love for architecture, his favourite Disney hotel is one that has some unique architectural features. He really loves the Animal Kingdom Villas, even if he can’t afford to stay in them. He’s especially a fan of Kidani Village.

Sodapop just can’t relax and feel right if the hotel’s too fancy-smancy, unlike his brothers. He prefers simple and comfortable and a less fancy atmosphere suits him best. Not only are the cabins at Fort Wilderness simple and rustic, but the resort also allows him to go trail riding and to really be around and interact with horses in a very rustic, nature-filled setting. It’s not something he really gets much of but it’s something he truly loves, so that has to be his favourite by far.

Ponyboy actually does have a taste for the elegant and fancy of bygone ages. There’s just something that really hits him, emotionally and mentally, about that architectural style and those kinds of surroundings. Because of that, he definitely would prefer a statelier hotel. I think the Grand Floridian really attracts Ponyboy’s attention and he would be really pulled to everything about that hotel. The others might tease him about it, but everything about it just hits him perfectly.

Steve cares more about a hotel’s amenities than what the hotel itself looks like. He isn’t going to be someone who spends a lot of time just lazing around in the room and only cares about whether he’ll have fun and interesting things to do. Because he is someone who really loves sports and being physical, it’s no surprise that his favourite Disney World hotel ended up being the All-Star Sports Resort. He really likes the arcade at that one, but also the theming and the jogging trails there. He and the boys also definitely goof around at the playground and get told off by at least a handful of parents.

Dally honestly doesn’t give too much of a shit about the hotel he stays at. He really doesn’t. He’ll be fine in any of them, especially since he’s mostly using them as a place to lay his head and has plans on stealing everything he can from them anyway. What matters the most to Dally is the parks since that’s what he’s there for. His favourite land in Disney World is Hollywood Studios so he does prefer the hotels that are within walking distance of that land. Out of those, I think he has a mild preference for the Boardwalk Inn, mostly for its pool. He really enjoys that waterslide and definitely races with the other boys to see who has the fastest time going down it.

Johnny is a lot like Soda in that he can’t really get comfortable in a lot of the hotels. They’re just a little too fancy for him and he’d enjoy roughing it just a bit more. He’s also like Soda in that he loves Fort Wilderness, but Johnny, who is used to sleeping on the ground, actually prefers the campsites at Fort Wilderness. He finds camping fun and it’s made all the better by the lush forest and all the interesting things that the resort has going on. He’d also be a big fan of the recreation options at the resort as well, especially the trails, the nightly bonfires, and he’d actually turn out to enjoy and be fairly good at archery.

Two-Bit really enjoys the novelty and fun of the really heavily themed resorts. He doesn’t want fancy luxury but instead would opt for smaller rooms but more fun surroundings. Because of this, he’s really fond of Disney’s ‘All-Star’ resorts. However, his absolute favourite has to be the Pop Century Resort, for it’s bright colours and whimsical theming. Plus, it has the Skyliner, which Two-Bit really does enjoy just a tad too much as he rides it every day they’re there.

#unrequested prompts #the outsiders #darrel curtis #darry curtis #sodapop curtis #ponyboy curtis #steve randle #dallas winston #dally winston #johnny cade #two bit mathews #headcanons #disney

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amethystina · 4 months

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Hellooo, I have a question! it's not related to TDJ, I was just curious if you are from any fandom (a singer/band/group fandom). You don't need to answer if you do not want!

I guess that depends on how you define "being from a fandom"? I'm a fan of a lot of singers/bands/groups, but I don't engage with the fandoms. Well, aside from the occasional reblogs from MVs and such, I guess? Nor do I take part in or consume the usual fandom content. I don't even watch interviews unless I have a really good reason to xD

So, based on that, I don't think I am from any fandoms?

Which I know sounds weird to some, but it's what works best for me. I prefer to just focus on the music itself because I have very little interest in getting to know the performers as people. Which some might argue limits my understanding of the music — since there might be deep, personal reasons for it — but it's just how I feel the most comfortable. I prefer to keep a certain distance between me and singers/idols/actors/authors etc. because I, personally, don't feel a need to know what goes on in the lives of these very real people. I just like the stuff they make :)

The only fandoms I'm in are those related to fictional media like movies, dramas, books etc., because that feels safer for me. I can obsess about a fictional character like it's my job, but I feel no such desire when it comes to real people. That's not to say I think it's wrong or weird for other people to do so — knock yourself out! I hope you have a lovely time! :D It's just not something I enjoy.

(Tbh, I'm often told that I'm the weird one? Like, a lot of people have questioned why I don't like to know more about the talented people whose content I consume because that seems to be the norm. But I guess I'm the exception that proves the rule ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )

But, as mentioned, I'm a fan of a lot of things! Especially music! I've got a pretty hefty K-pop album collection at this point and have around 30 GB of music on my computer. But, even then, my focus is on the actual media itself and I rarely venture outside of that.

... well, this was a rather disappointing answer, wasn't it? Sorry about that x'D

#Amethystina Replies #Anonymous #Honestly #My main reason for keeping a distance from celebrities is because I don't like how easy it is for me to read people #That's not to say that I'm always right #But the reason why I write characters so well is because I observe so well #And can analyse what I see and write it down #And I don't want to accidentally do that to real people #It feels invasive to me #So I just avoid watching them as much as I can outside of the intended media xD #It's bad enough that I can't keep myself from doing it to the people in my surrounding #I don't need to add complete strangers too #Unless they're fictional I suppose #Then they're free game xD #And also keep me so preoccupied that I have less time to overanalyse my friends and family #Or myself #My brain is a curse as much as it's a gift sometimes

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pansy-picnics · 6 months

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Okay hi! I first want to apologize for how long this will be, but I just found your page and am sort of new to tumblr.

For one, your art is amazzingggg! Every fandom you're in is heavily blessed. It's especially awesome for myself as a tts geek, to see so many dedicated to creating content. As far as the unknighted ship goes, from what I can tell, and this may be totally wrong so please correct me if it is, you want more people to be in the ship? I 100% agree that the division in this fandom is honestly detrimental to its growth, however, I feel like it keeps the peace in a way.

I myself like new dream and am fine with the poly ship, but, i was speaking with a friend who doesn't ship unkighted and cassunzel at all. They were explaining to me how it seems like most of the unknighted shippers do prefer cassunzel, which is again fine. I'm not sure if that's a fact through and through but the sentiment is there. But it got me thinking about how that perception in itself could disuade newcomers who are more into the Eugene/Rapunzel relationship? As far as division goes, I mean.

Again it's no problem to have favorites, in fact it's actually great that this fandom has so many spaces to include people who have a particular liking to any one thing, but it's rare to see anyone here really neutral on pairings if that makes sense? I know those people exist, but even beyond ships, our favorite characters, platonic relationships, and much more are pushed usually, very individually.

Love Cass? Great there's a ton of blogs for that! Rapunzel? Eugene? Varian? So many blogs for them too with art, concepts, etc! But with this fandom being so tiny- and that other weird anon we shall not mention by name, I think as long as people aren't flat out rude to each other, maybe a little separation is alright. Not everyone mingles well together. Maybe it's for the better?

I hope this wasn't annoying to read oops- but I am interested to hear your thoughts, if you feel comfortable responding.

oh no absolutely and i really enjoy these kinds of discussions!! i 100% agree lol and i’ve never meant to make it seem like i don’t. the distance between the fandom is absolutely what keeps the peace and as much as i SAY i want people to branch out more i know if it actually happened it would probably just leave us with even more division and infighting LOL😭

the neutrality is VERY rare and it’s honestly the only reason i’m so passionate about it, because i’ve never fallen into any of those divisions and it makes it really hard to find likeminded people!!! it’s why i put so much effort into my characterizations and how i portray all the dynamics, it tends to cater to everyone because i’ve never been able to pick and choose favorites myself haha

i would love for more people to find enjoyment in uknighted dream especially, since the dynamic is so important to me, but i totally understand it’s just not everyones thing and thats cool too!! :) i’m a bit surprised about the idea that most of us prefer cassunzel though, i never thought about it that way especially since i’ve never had a preference myself. i do sometimes find myself drawing cassunzel more, but that’s less because i prefer them over new dream and moreso because i feel the need to be super upfront about it…💀 i’ve had a lot of new dream fans comment on my uknighted dream art who seem to COMPLETELY miss the point and/or just disregard cass entirely. when i try to be subtle abt it most people don’t acknowledge it so most of my art is just me like violently pointing to them like LOOK!! she’s in love with BOTH of them!!! THEY’RE KISSING!!!!

as someone who’s been super involved with the uknighted dream community i’ve never felt like any of us really have a “preference”, a lot of us are hardcore cassunzel fans but that’s a given cuz that’s usually what drives us to the polyam ship in the first place. i have seen a lot of people argue that like “its just an excuse to ship new dream and cassunzel at the same time” and like….Yeah???? thats kind of the point??? 😭 i really don’t understand how people make it out to be a BAD thing bc like. the point of fandom is just to do whatever and have fun. so what if we wanna ship two pairings at the same time. why NOT just shove them into a polycule

it’s not like cass and eugene don’t have chemistry either???? they obviously care about each other and they don’t get along solely for rapunzel!!! i can’t speak for all ukd fans obviously but i think in my experience most of us did just start off “shipping two things at the same time” but with all the substance involved they VERY quickly become a set. cass and eugene’s dynamic whether platonic or romantic is really fun to explore and they all bounce so well off of each other i think it’s perfect!! they all just mean so much to me ok. they’re all equals and at the end of the day that’s really what i try to portray most in my work :3

#pansy rambling again #ask #tangled ask #uknighted dream #new dream #cassunzel #tangled the series #rapunzels tangled adventure

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tsaritza-mika · 1 year

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Unpopular Opinion #3

Okay...so this might ruffle some feathers, but I still really feel it needs to be said. As always, if you don’t like what I have to say, just keep scrolling. I am a full believer in curating your own internet experience, and if you find yourself upset about a random opinion, please just leave and find something that makes you happy. You deserve it, and I promise that you will never hear me advocate otherwise.

Now then... Let’s talk a bit about our favorite mountain man. Shall we?

I see a lot of posts, especially as of late, that really go hard on the way Muriel’s route dealt with his various issues. Now, yes, Muriel is not one of my top LIs, he’s jut not the personality type that really gels with me, but I love him as much as I do all six of them for different reasons. I also acknowledge that his route isn’t perfect, but I honestly don’t think it’s nearly as bad as other people automatically jump to. Muriel has a metric fucking ton of issues, which include severe lack of self esteem, trauma that links to both those self esteem issues and his time in Vesuvia’s arena, depression, and some fun little sprinklings of Nihilism just for extra flavor. And all of that is just from a pure amateur observation. I’m not a psychologist, nor will I ever claim to be, but from the little bit that I know from former college classes and being friends with people who have experienced trauma from various forms of abuse, Muriel has all of these issues, and likely more that I’m not immediately familiar with.

A good amount of people in the fandom seem to believe that a better way for Muriel’s route to go would have had him ending up being more forceful in standing up to Lucio, really digging into him for the harm that he caused and is still causing, and more of coming out of his shell than he did. Now, while that would be a more dramatic take, you’ve gotta keep something important in mind: give or take a few years, Muriel has been dealing with most of these issues since he was at least around 6-8 years old. If we assume he’s maybe somewhere along the lines of 26-28, that’s twenty years of issues in an increasingly hostile situation. A single year alone of that much negativity is likely to leave some pretty impressive mental scars, let alone the possibility of twenty or more.

People who experience trauma will process and react to it differently, this is true, but to say that it’s OOC to have Muriel just be only a little more talkative and at ease with others outside of MC and Asra, strikes me as those who aren’t very familiar with how trauma can actually work. The entire ‘stick it to them’ fantasy seems great and totally cathartic in theory, but when victims of abuse and trauma actually have that chance, more often than not, I’ve only ever known them to prefer not wanting to be anywhere near their tormentors. Muriel actually being comfortable with himself, speaking up more, but still very much wanting his distance from everyone is a HUGE step in his healing process, and I honestly don’t think people give him enough credit for that.

Muriel has been exploited and manipulated, verbally and likely physically abused, and all of that we could apply to JUST the time he was known in Vesuvia under the mantle of ‘The Scourge of The South’. We see in the Travel at Night tale that he already dealt with excess stress and fear from traveling through a war-zone at a very young age, where he says he even distinctly remembers hearing Lucio enjoying himself as he killed others. He’s already terrified by roughly age 12 when Lucio picks him out of the other street kids. He’s very aware that Lucio would enjoy hunting and killing him, and for a child to be aware of this, that alone is gonna fuck him up somethin’ fierce for a long time. Hell, when Lucio points him out from the other kids, he’s so afraid of him and what he knows Lucio is capable of, that his arms and legs go numb, and he can’t move. And later when he’s talking to Asra, if chosen, the response he gives Asra when asked about what he would do with magic is to make himself invisible, the very thing he’d wanted since the start of that tale. He wanted to be left alone, not deal with those kids who wanted to hurt others and steal, or be noticed by Lucio.

Muriel even straight up tells MC and Julian when they visit him in the forest during Julian’s route that he asked to have the gift of being forgotten. If he was forgotten as soon as he left someone’s sight, he wouldn’t be exploited anymore, and he wouldn’t be forced to take lives in exchange for keeping his most precious person safe anymore. To Muriel, deeply set in his traumatized and self loathing state, it was the perfect solution. Being forgotten meant that he wouldn’t take up space, that no one would force him to hurt or scare others just to exist, and that Asra, the only person who had ever told him he was worth it and more, wouldn’t be taken from him.

You don’t just magically get better when your tormentor is gone or gets what they deserve, and confronting your abuser is not always going to be the right answer that puts you on the road to healing those mental scars. Muriel is far from cured of his issues by the end of his route. If anything, the end of his route is just the start of his even longer road to recovery and being able to fully enjoy and embrace life without fear that he’s taking up space and isn’t wanted. He’s just gotten better about it all. People who experience trauma can take years to even begin to feel comfortable in their own skin, but Muriel learning that he has value, that others value him and want him around without asking for anything in return, and to learn that others will sacrifice for you because they want your happiness instead of some leverage on something you can do for them; there is just so much beauty in the subtlety of that, and I honestly don’t think it gets the attention it rightfully deserves.

#the arcana game #the arcana #muriel of the kokhuri #the arcana muriel #unpopular opinion

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st-just · 2 years

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☕️ Wildblow

*snuggles in my blankets with popcorn*

By the revealed preference of 'how many tens of hours have I spent reading his stuff' I'm pretty sure he's my favorite author. Like, objectively. I mean part of that is just the fact that I don't know many others who have the same amount available to read, but still.

In another life, he would be a fairly well-regarded cult horror film guy. In a different other life, he would write setting bibles and fluff supplements for some 90s-style 'the business model requires a new book every six months to sell' rpgs. Which is to say it does sometimes feel like the actual passion is in coming up with fucked up monsters and situations and then also in doing worldbuilding and setting creation, and the writing of the actual stories just kind of happens as a happy natural progression of those two things.

Anyway he is as far as I can tell literally Writer Georg Who Lives In a Cave In Ontario And Writes Ten Thousand Words Every Day For The Last Twelve Years, Who Is An Outlier Adn Should Not Be Counted. Like if you told me he made a deal with a devil on a crossroads for writing ability I would straight up believe you.

The serial format is good for him, and I enjoy reading his stuff more than enough to not mind, but dear god he is awful at pacing and that is one area which he has not improved with time (unlike basically every other, imo).

Also, like, should just maintain a healthy distance from his fandom. Preferably involving someone beating most of them away with sticks.

#reply #red-anansi #ask meme #wildbow #parahumans #otherverse

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sugarlywhispers · 2 years

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ELIGERE ME [I]

Summary: The war had ended, but no one was expecting what just happened. Voldemort won. It was the beginning of hell for those who stood against him. You preferred to have died than to suffer as much as you were at the moment; yet the only one with the power to give you a little bit of peace in this Hell was him, former Death Eater, Min Yoongi, who had tried to kill you on more than one occasion. Could you trust him? Was he really who he showed to be?

Pairing: Min Yoongi x Reader (Fem); Jung Hoseok x Reader.

Genre: DARK FIC; Harry Potter AU; Death Eater x Muggleborn; Stockholm Syndrome AU; Yandere-ish AU; Angst.

WARNINGS: DARK THEMES, adult content, swearing, explicit situations, smut (in future chapters), descriptions of blood, tortures and traumatic situations.

A/N: Well, hello there again. The annoying bitch, a.k.a. ME, who can't stay away from fanfiction came back.🙃 First of, let me scream how much I love my baby @sincerelylexx for the amazing banner she made for this fic and for always reading and encouraging me to keep doing this🥺🤍 I love you forever!💕

Alright, now let's be real and clear here, friends. This is a dark story, there won't be fluff, well maybe sometimes and thru the end, but still... Let's position ourselves in the time my story is gonna refer to. It's the second wizarding war, Harry Potter against Lord Voldemort. And for this story, Harry loses, which means Voldemort wins, which also means nothing nice can come from that. Reader fought for the Light, while Min Yoongi fought for Voldemort's side. No, I won't say more about that (😉). BUT, what I want y'all to realize is that IS A WAR. Nothing pretty nor good comes from them. So, I'm sorry, don't expect flowers, unicorns and rainbows, THIS SHIT'S GONNA BE DARK.

Also, yes. I have joined the redeemed Death Eater x saving the Muggleborn witch in HP fanfics. But here, I'm combining two of my most favourite things in the whole wide world, Harry Potter fandom and BTS.😍💖

Having said that, those who still want to stay and read, enjoy💖

CHAPTER ONE: "Hell on Earth".

"Crucio!"

The pain was excruciating. It was pain like no other; your whole body shook and trembled on the dirty floor and all you could think, feel or want was to be dead.

You really wished you were, that way you wouldn't be suffering this way. That way you would be free.

It all had happened too fast for everyone's exhausted bodies and minds to realize it during the battle; so when they turned around and saw Harry's dead body limp, moveless, lifeless on the floor, a whole silence reigned around.

Nobody moved nor dared to make a sound for minutes.

Minutes in which your mind was processing what just happened, what it meant.

Harry Potter was dead.

Harry Potter lost.

Lord Voldemort won.

Laughs, screams and cries were heard all around the castle, or what was left of it. Chaos began again; some people regained their duels, others started to run away while battle broke loose again.

You still couldn't believe it. No. This couldn't happen. This couldn't end this way; it wasn't supposed to end like this, damn it!

Had everything you did, everything the Golden Trio did, been completely in vain? Was history really written like this, with this end? What happened with all those stories in which the Light, the good, the superheroes won? Were all just that, mere stories? Were all a lie?

Yes. A big fucking lie…

Hope did not exist.

"Y/N, RUN!" Someone yelled at you, but it was heard in the distance.

You were really tired… Your whole body ached in a way that was indescriptible. What was the point? Why keep running? They won. What else could you or anyone else do? Harry was the chosen one, not Hermione, not Ron, and definitely not you. Why keep fighting?

But for some reason, your body did not realize you had already given up and your legs were running towards the big doors of the castle. Then, you remembered why it was worth it to keep fighting; you remembered him. You dodged down at every curse that got in your way and sent back curses to every Death Eater you could catch.

You could see the morning sunlight brightening the outside, the sun waking up the earth for a new day right through the horizon. As you got closer to the entrance, you felt the light breeze of freedom.

Freedom. That sounded fantastic. It sounded like the best thing that could happen after all this hell.

Yet, in your running, you never saw that big, wall-like Death Eater following your track from the side like a hawk getting closer and closer to attack. Your mind was so focused and thriving for that freedom that you never expected him to win in speed and stand in front of you right at the doors of Hogwarts castle.

You groaned gasping for air, eyes opening wide as your body collided with his. He had caught you. You had been so close...

"Got ya', mudblood," he laughed, picking you up on his shoulder as if you weighed nothing.

You fought; arms and legs jerking and kicking as hard as you could against him. You were not going down without a fight.

This was not supposed to end like this…

In your fight, you looked one last time at the horizon getting far away from your reach as the Death Eater walked deeper inside the castle again.

Then, everything went black.

Little did you know, that was going to be the last time you ever saw the outside, the beautiful sun in daylights, for a long time.

How many days had passed since that tragic day? Had it been days, weeks, months? Maybe years? You really didn't know; you lost count after the second session of rounds filled by the Cruciatus Curse that kept going for endless hours until you finally passed out again.

After each session, when you woke up, your body spamming uncontrollably on the dirty ground of that cell that became your new "home", you were back in the darkness of the dungeons on the farthest and deepest floor down the castle. Sometimes, you could see through a little window the silhouette of the giant squid swimming in the lake. You named it Willy, though you didn't really know if it was male or female.

Nothing had really changed for the beast; it just kept swimming in its environment like nothing had happened, as if everything was as normal as it had always been.

However, it couldn't be said the same for you. Everything has changed for you.

You remembered feeling a small spang of jealousy for the animal. You wished you could be as free as Willy was.

But now, you were a prisoner, a toy Death Eaters liked to play with. You were scum to them; a mudblood, which meant, nothing. You were simply nothing.

One last painful cry was torn from your raspy throat before the curse was lifted. Your body kept jerking in pain, every limp in your body trembled. Pain was everything your mind could focus on; but somehow, when you opened your eyes for a millisecond, you noticed you were in the Great Hall at Hogwarts. Of course you were still at Hogwarts; you never left this place since war started.

Pain clouded your mind again, remembering how much all of this felt like hell in those mere seconds you could breathe.

However, mercy wasn't something Death Eaters were known for, so it didn't take them long before another round of torturing began.

A shrieking, full of evilness and madness laughter that belonged to a woman sounded above all the other laughs, even above your own screams of pain.

You were at the point in which you were now comparing pains, trying to decipher who each pain was related to, under whose wand.

The Crucio under Bellatrix's wand hurt. Like thousand needles constantly pinching your entire body; like the most painful electric shock traveling the insides of your whole body, burning everything on its path. Indeed, her crucio felt like the worst nightmare ever.

But nothing would ever compare to the Crucio curse under Voldemort himself. It was pain like no other. It was a pain that you were unable and incapable to explain how it felt, but one thing was for sure: it was a pain that only made you wish you were dead.

Why? Why had everything had to end like this? What sin could you have done in this life to deserve this pain? At this point, nothing made sense. Was it day or night? Was the morning shiny or cloudy? Was it Spring or Fall already?

All you knew was that you knew nothing.

But you definitely weren't expecting what was going to happen at that moment.

"My most loyal followers and friends," started the evil snake, gathering the attention of his laughing Death Eaters, which were very entertained by watching one of them raping a girl on one side of the hall.

You have learnt that it was better to close your eyes and try not to pay too much attention to what was happening around you. One, because it was painful to even think. A handful of rounds of the Cruciatus Curse would make anyone go nuts. How or why were you still a little bit conscious yet, no one knew. It was a game for them, who gets to finally break the little Gryffindor princess; the winner gets to rape her. And two, because simply there was nothing, absolutely nothing you could do for them. And that was the most horrifying thing you have ever experienced.

Not being able to do anything for your friends, for people you have known for years, for the kids that still were trapped in this hell, it was killing you alive. Every. single. day.

"Today, we celebrate our first anniversary of finally ending our most hated enemy," your eyes opened instantly.

A year... Just one fucking year had passed; it felt like a fucking eternity.

You looked at the ceiling, no sky this time giving you the welcome to Hogwarts. It was the plain image of an old ceiling. There was no magic– correction, no good magic surrounding these walls that once made you feel safe and at home.

It's been one year…

Tears started to blind your sight, all the sadness and pain, all the frustrating helplessness twirling so fast inside you, you were unable to control it.

"As a celebration and reminder of how much I do appreciate all my dear followers, I'll be granting one wish to each one of you," Voldemort said, and everyone felt the sickening feeling that something hid behind his faked nice words.

Nobody spoke but the silence that surrounded everyone in the Great Hall of Hogwarts which screamed 'dangerous'.

Least was to say that everyone was surprised when one of his closest followers, former Death Eater Min Yoongi, took a few steps closer to his master where he was seated in the place which once had been Headmaster Dumbledore's seat. He bowed to Voldemort, practically kneeling on one leg and resting his forearm on his bent knee in front of him as a sign of respect and loyalty.

"My Lord, I've been nothing but loyal to you and the cause," Yoongi started, but Voldemort interrupted him.

"You dare tell me what I already know, Yoongi?" If anyone had paid precise attention to him, they would have noticed how he gulped nervously.

Still, Yoongi continued, "I have a wish."

"Oh, and what is this wish you have for me to fulfill for you, my dear Yoongi?" Everyone could feel the amusement in their master's voice. He was the one having fun with all of this, he was playing with all of them. And it was scary.

"I want… I want the Gryffindor mudblood."

Gasps and whispers surrounded the ambience, some were surprised, others were angry.

"You'll have to be more specific, my friend, we play with a lot of mudblood toys in here," Voldemort mocked.

Yoongi never looked up at his master as he said, "Y/L/N Y/N."

You could not believe your ears. Your eyes, filled with tears, averted from the ceiling to him.

You remembered him. He was in the same year and class as you had been; he even was friends with Draco Malfoy, but he wasn’t such a prick like the blond. You remembered Yoongi being more quiet, more kept to himself and his stuff. But you did remember once colliding with him on a hallway in your run to class and him spitting that horrible word at you… Mudblood. He was the same prejudiced asshole as everyone else was in Slytherin.

You also remembered him cursing one of your friends from the back during the last battle. What a fucking coward, you thought.

So the question was, why? Why did he want you? Was this some kind of sick thing he was into? Did he just want you as a consolation prize for all the shit he did? Was he going to parade you like his trophy? Was this a stroke to his ego?

Simply, why? Why you?

Voldemort pretended that he was thinking about it for a moment, and then he looked at you, laying almost helplessly on the floor, pretty hurt and still spamming with the after effects of the Cruciatus Curse. He smiled, wide and devilish.

"I know what you're capable of, Yoongi," snakeface praised, still smiling and looking back at said man. "But sadly, this means you'll take one of the most fun toys we have, especially for our Bella," everyone, including her, laughed out loud in a mocking way, until Voldemort raised his hand to make them shut up. "However, you have proven yourself to be one of my most impressively loyal followers, and I'll grant your wish. You can have the mudblood."

More whispers, you could feel their eyes on you. But you traveled your gaze at Min Yoongi, who bowed his head one more time in his master's direction and thanked him, then stood up and walked towards you, eyes still not finding yours.

One of the reasons they considered you "a fun toy" was because you still had it in you to fight them, to still put some resistance not only in your mind, but also in your body. You fought nails and punches against everyone, and Min Yoongi would not be an exception.

When he was right next to you, he bent over to grab your arms to make you stand up, and that was when the fight began. They had called and compared you on more than one occasion with a wild animal, and maybe you did look and acted like one now, but you didn't care. You were not going to give in easily, to any of them.

Yoongi tried to dodge and hold you with his strength so your punches wouldn't hurt him, but one particular kick on the stomach made everyone that were paying attention to the scene laugh amusingly at his grunt, but it made him angry.

When he finally made you stand up, he forcefully grabbed the back of your head by your hair and pulled you closer to him, his other arm holding your entire body against his chest. You had to admit, you were surprised for a second there. When did that thin, languid boy become this buffy, slim man with enough strength to restrain you?

You were still struggling in his arms, when he whispered in a hiss right at your ear, "Quit fighting, damn it! I'm trying to help."

You froze. What?! What the hell was he playing at?

“Already having trouble controlling your new pet, Yoongi? You know I could always assist you, even show a few new tricks, mmh?” One Death Eater that you couldn’t recognize at the moment joked from behind Yoongi, making the man in front of you tense. You didn’t know who the man that spoke was, but if he made Yoongi react that way, it only meant he was dangerous.

You were about to start struggling again when you felt invisible ropes hold your arms behind your back, and the anger returned to your whole being. Fucking bastard! He tricked you! Your eyes threw daggers at the asshole in front of you while Min Yoongi stood tall and proud that he finally got you to cooperate. You hated him so much already.

“Thank you, Corbyn, but I have my own fun tricks,” Yoongi said, his tone sounding mocking and full of himself, making several people laugh maliciously at what lay ahead of you as his possession. You were so ready to spit at him, but his eyes made you freeze again.

While his words had been harsh and full of evil intent, his eyes that only you could see were full of begging for you to cooperate; it was like they were screaming at you, ‘Please, please do as I say’. For some reason, he was terrified. Of what?, you didn’t know.

You wanted to scream back at him to go fuck himself, that you didn’t need him nor his help, that he was and evil prick like the rest of them, a murderer, a Death Eather scum! You hated him like the rest of them for all the hell they brought to yours and everyone else’s lives.

However, his almond shaped black eyes full of fear made you hold back and stay put.

For now.

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fruit-of-infidelity · 1 year

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I just saw that fandom oc meme and tbf I don't remember much of HDB in general to point out a specific scene (and the one I'd so ask for was already done, about cordie's death dsdfhf) but 😭 ! now I have a light-hearted question:

I remember reading that Ryuuto likes going to school because he used to be homeschooled? So: Whether it's in his verse/route or not, what was his first day at school like? 😭 And what does he do between classes? Does he stay in the classroom, walks around the hallways? Goes to the rooftop or spends time somewhere else (like Shu in the music room)? Does he touch grass outside (?? or deals with simps like Kou 👀 kdgdjg

// Oohh, thank you for your question, Rox, hehe. This is really fun, so I'm sorry if I ramble a teeny-tiny bit below- I have many, many thoughts about Ryuuto's first day of school ><

Ryuuto had not long "finished" his educated from his tutors at his father's mansion, when Richter announced his enrolment in Ryoutei Academy the night before he was to attend. When inquiring as to why, Richter's explained that with Karlheinz' sending of 'brides' to his sons, it would "prove necessary to keep an eye upon those boys, and any potential vessels that were entrusted into their care", lest Yui ws one of them.

He was promptly given a uniform and the necessary notebooks and appliances, and expected to regularly attend as per the others. However, having been privately homeschooled as most noble children were, all his life, Ryuuto lacked many skills key to interacting with his peers and with engaging with many subjects that were not taught by his tutors.

Rather hesitant at first to attend, Ryuuto grew quite giddy on the drive there by himself. Of course, being eighteen, Richter enrolled him into the third-year (the same year as Reiji and Shuu).

His first day consisted of many curious peers wanting to know more about him, many of which being young ladies, which he wasn't at all pleased with. With the other Sakamaki's picking up on his presence rather quickly, rumours spread about their potential relation which he, begrudgingly, acknowledged. Preferring to keep to himself for the most part, however, Ryuuto quickly earnt himself a reputation as one of the more mysterious Sakamaki's, approachable but quite the loner type.

Between classes, you'll often find him studying in the library, or in the art rooms. As mentioned previously, he was rather unfamiliar with a few subjects from his private tutoring, such as complex arithmetics, law studies, and a few of the sciences. Whilst he doesn't enjoy these classes considering the study he has to dedicate to them, he does greatly enjoy the humanities, such as history and Japanese.

He does, on occasion, have to deal with "simps" like Kou (as you'll observe in his route), but Ryuuto does't really entertain them; He keeps a charming although distant appearance for his peers, and his association with the other Sakamaki's only makes those who "simp" more intrigued, and more likely to admire from a distance.

#(( if this was too much info or me just rambling IM SO SORRY T-T #(( i also did not proof read so...#(( if you see a grammatical error? no you dont #sakamaki ryuuto #ryuuto sakamaki #kindan-no-kanojo #admin

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underratedbananawerewolf · 6 months

Text

Fictober Day 30

Prompt 30: "Are you with me?"

Fandom: Honkai Star Rail

Rating: G

Warnings: None

Stelle enjoyed sitting in Jing Yuan's garden. Regardless of his complaints about the weeds it was a beautiful place. Here she didn't have to be anybody but herself. Her origins, her position, even the Stellaron inside her didn't matter. Here she could be just Stelle.

The contentment only grew when her lover was sitting with her. Often times their few afternoons together ended up with him taking a nap out in the 'sunshine' and she simply enjoying being here with him.

However this time she found herself dozing off, leaning against Jing Yuan with one of his arms wrapped around her to hold her close. Stelle didn't know fear. It was hard for her to understand other than what her friends told her but she had never experienced it herself. Regardless in his embrace she felt safe. There was that subconscious sense that if anything happened she would be protected no matter what. Perhaps that was one reason why she found herself drifting in the warmth of the false sun of the Luofu. She could afford the relaxation.

Sleepy golden eyes blinked open as soon as she felt the scrape of tiny claws on her knee. A finch sat there, looking up at her curiously with bright black eyes. Of course she knew what they were. These were Jing Yuan's birds. He had a small flock of them, with at least one following him at all times. This was the first time one had actually landed on her though.

"Are you with me?" A low voice murmured in her ear, the tone amused as he watched her try to comprehend what was happening. "Or would you prefer to sleep more."

"I'd thought you'd have been asleep first." Stelle answered with a yawn. "You usually are."

"I decided that I would rather enjoy the time holding you instead." Jing Yuan chuckled. "We get so little time together."

Unfortunately. She would have loved more time but the Nameless wandered far and wide in the universe and he was bound to the Luofu and the Xianzhou Alliance. "I won't stop you." Her shift to place herself closer and more comfortably against him caused the bird to flutter off but soon returned to land on the General's shoulder. "I like your arms around me. And I miss you every time I'm away."

He sighed, his warm breath tickling her ear as he drew her into his lap so he could wrap both arms around her. "There are times when I wish to keep you here, darling." He nuzzled her neck, causing her to hunch her shoulders in an instinctive way to protect herself. "Sometimes I think I could by force if necessary."

She blinked but didn't speak. He so rarely admitted to what went on inside his mind. Whether it was out of a reluctance to face the negativity or to simply spare her and anyone else concern. She was glad she hadn't said anything else when his next statement emerged, his voice muffled against her skin.

"But I know better and it is far more satisfying to have you return to me out of your own free will than it would be to lock you away so you couldn't leave again. You have made me remember what it is like to long for someone." He chuckled again. "I don't know whether I should be thankful I can still feel all that or be angry at you."

Her gaze softened at that confession. She gave her affection to all her friends, freely and without reservation, but Jing Yuan hid behind his enigmatic smile. She knew he kept his distance from almost everyone but Yanqing, fearing what could happen.

Losing the rest of the Quintet in one fell swoop had left scars that went deeper than those carved into his skin. She could only hope that her presence here could give him some level of comfort. He seemed happy enough with her, at least.

"...come with me, Jing Yuan." She finally whispered before she even realized it. "Join the Express crew."

He looked up at that, one of his masked smiles on his lips, one that she knew was a wall he hid behind. It didn't change his teasing however. "Are you intending on stealing me away from the Xianzhou?"

"And if I was?" She looked down at him, reaching up to gently run her fingers through his silvery hair. It was always so soft; she loved to take any opportunity to touch it.

"Unfortunately I'd have to refuse." The smile couldn't hide all the weariness this time. "I am bound here, Stelle, no matter how much I might wish otherwise."

"Yanqing." She guessed quietly.

"Yes. He is one such reason."

"I wouldn't force you away from him just because I miss you."

That brought a more sincere chuckle as he pressed a light kiss to her lips. "That I'm sure of. Maybe when he's older."

She smiled at that, taking the opportunity to kiss him tenderly. "Until then I'll take as many chances to visit as I can. I love you."

Jing Yuan leaned forward to kiss her again, lingering against her lips. She was always happy to receive any kiss from him and he enjoyed giving as much affection as he was capable of to her. Somehow through her efforts to practically force him into having friends again she had managed to ensnare him regardless of his belief that he was incapable of any romantic attachments.

He yearned to keep her here aboard the Luofu where he could see her everyday and fall asleep with her in his arms every night. And yet he knew that it wasn't possible. She was like his finches. No she was far more like his lion; independent, stubborn and beautiful. She would never agree to stay here permanently.

Her place was out among the stars aboard the Astral Express, traveling the path of the Trailblazers. It made her return to him as soon as she could even more of a precious treasure. She returned because she wanted him and he wouldn't trade that feeling for anything.

The long dormant child's dream of wanting to be a Galaxy Ranger always sparked when he thought about it. Yet he knew what an impossible dream it was. Wanting to leave the Luofu to join her was only slightly more obtainable than that childish ambition. Still, he'd have to consider it.

Maybe someday. After retirement.

Finally he broke away from their languid kisses to simply rest his forehead against hers, his arms tightening to hold her firmly against him. In the silence he spoke so softly that only she could hear. "Marry me, Stelle." If he had to be honest the request was just as startling to him as it was to her juding by the widened eyes that stared down at him.

"I can't stay here. You know that." She whispered, a shadow crossing those captivating golden eyes.

The man cleared his throat, scrambling to make sense of what he had asked. Startling as it was he didn't regret his absentminded proposal. He was more nervous that she'd refuse; a peculiarly feeling far more suited to younger men than himself. "I'm not asking you to." He murmured in return. "You coming to visit me is more than enough."

"Then...why?" No disbelief or anger was present in her voice; just a curious note.

"I want one more hold on you even when you aren't here." He explained with a smile. "I want everyone to know that you're mine." He didn't often show that possessive side of himself.

"And bruises fade." She answered with a bit of a smile. As usual there was no hesitation or shame in her speech.

That brought forth another chuckle. "Yes." He sighed and cupped her cheek with one broad hand. "And I want a way to draw you back here, to me."

"You already have that. I'll always come back to you. Forever."

"Forever is a long time." He teased her to hide his nerves over her answer.

Reaching up she cradled his face in both hands and leaned down to kiss him yet again. Something that he was not objecting to in the least. "Yes. I will." A pause. "Marry you, that is."

He cupped her chin in his hand, forcing her to look directly into his eyes. "Don't say yes unless you are certain. I will keep you. You will be mine and no one else may handle you."

A smile lit up her face as he watched her. "I'm certain. I want to be yours and only yours." The smile widened a bit. "Just like you want to be mine." She kissed him again, lingering there.

He sighed against her lips, one hand tangling in her hair as he focused on kissing her just the way she liked. He could listen to her all day long. "Then it's settled." He chuckled again. "You will be mine and I will be yours."

"...always, Jing Yuan. I promise."

#fictober23 #fictober day 30 #honkai star rail fic

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