#keeping things light and easy <3 on discord if anyone wants to chat !

[regisraven-a]

i will have writing inspo for 3 days straight only to go [cricket noises] for the next six months

[nemobeatrice]

@fugio-week0

FuGio Week 2023 Day 3: Video games - Phasmophobia with the Boys

Ao3

Quotev

Wattpad

Giorno had just finished his homework and was about to play a game on his computer until Fugo sent him a message on Discord.

“Babe, check your Steam. I bought you something,” it read.

He got on Steam and received a gift from Fugo. It was Phasmophobia.

“Thanks,” he texted. “But what’s this game about?”

“Four people hunt a ghost. Narancia and Mista want us to play it.”

“Mista’s aware that there will be four of us, right?”

“Narancia and I had to convince him it’ll be five if we include the ghost. I know you usually play a game at this time, but could you maybe wait and install this?”

“Sure, I already have it downloaded. It’s installing quickly.”

A few minutes passed, and Phasmophobia finished installing.

“It’s done,” Giorno texted him.

“Excellent,” Fugo replied in text. “Could you join the voice chat? Here’s the code to join our game.”

“Sure, give me a second.” Giorno searched for his headset, and once he found it, he turned off all the lights in his room and joined the call.

“Giorno, hey!” Narancia’s microphone sounded distorted.

“What the hell?” Fugo commented. “Why does it sound like your mic is in your throat?”

He giggled. “Do you want to know?”

“Sorry, I was getting some chips and a soft drink,” Mista said. “Sup, Giorno!”

Giorno brought the mic close to his mouth. “Hey, I’m doing alright.”

“No, Giorno!” Fugo cried. “Not you too!”

“Just do you know, I have no idea how to play this,” he said in his normal voice.

“Well, there’s only one available map to you,” Narancia explained. “Don’t worry. It’s easy. Just let us do everything.”

“Let Giorno help,” Fugo said. “Here’s the code to join us. Oh, and we’ll use the game chat to talk. Mute the Discord call unless you die.”

Giorno got on Phasmophobia, clicked on multiplayer, and copied and pasted the code to join their private game. Once he joined the server, he saw a blond-haired guy, a brown-haired guy, and a brown-haired woman.

“Giorno, change your player model,” Mista said. “If you want. Click on the board.”

“Wait, Mista, is that you?” he asked. “Are you a woman?”

“I don’t want four guys.”

Giorno changed to an Asian woman. “There’s three white men to pick from and no Asian guys.”

“Oh, I can change into a guy now. Except, I don’t want to. Alright, which map are we voting on?”

“6 Tanglewood Drive,” Fugo answered. “This is Giorno’s first time. I’ll also bring everything.”

“Everything?” Narancia said. “Sweet!”

“Don’t mess this up! I’m looking at you and Mista. Wait, where’s Mista?”

Mista was upstairs playing basketball.

“Ugh, let’s just go,” Fugo said. “Tell me him to come down here. Okay, Giorno, what equipment do you want? You can only handle three things, but you’ll need a flashlight, which takes up a slot.”

Giorno looked at the equipment. “I don’t have to buy all this?”

“No, I have everything covered.”

“I’ll take the spirit box and the camera.”

“Alright, so you’ll be in charge of taking photos of the bones and cursed objects. You can take a picture of the ghost, but I wouldn’t risk it. Also, if anyone dies, take a picture of their bodies. You can only take five photos with each camera. When using the spirit box, you want to keep the lights off and, depending on how the ghost will respond, either alone or in a group. However, some ghosts will not respond to it. Once we find the ghost’s favorite room, you’ll want a response as soon as possible. Any more questions?”

“No,” Giorno replied.

“Alright.” Fugo turned around to see if Narancia and Mista were there. They weren’t. Both of them were playing basketball. “Oh my god, these idiots.” He went upstairs. “Come on! We have a ghost to hunt.”

The three came down.

“Alright, click on the board when you’re ready. Since this is Giorno’s first time, we’ll play on amateur.”

Giorno readied up, and so was everybody else. The game then teleported them into a truck.

“Alright, do you see this board right here?” Fugo guided him. “This is the ghost’s name and how they respond to it. There are also optional things for us to do, but we’ll ignore that for now. It looks like Yoshihiro Kira responds to people who are alone. Oh, and as for the map, that’s important too. And that bar right there, that’s our sanity. The lower it is, the ghost will target you for it when it triggers a hunt.”

“Um, I think the ghost targets anyone indiscriminately regardless of sanity, except for the banshee,” Narancia said.

“Whatever. Just make sure it’s not low.”

“How long have you guys been playing this?” Giorno asked.

“I bought it a week ago,” Fugo answered. “But the others had it longer.”

“And somehow you’re a higher level than us,” Narancia commented.

“I played it by myself. That’s also how I’m filthy rich.”

“Hey, Fugo,” Mista said. “You’re not the richest guy in the group.”

“Oh? Please explain.”

“The game gave me 200 cameras, and I sold them all.”

“200? How?”

“I don’t know!”

“Alright.” Fugo walked to the truck’s door and grabbed the key. “Let’s go!”

He pushed the button to open the door and headed inside.

“Oh, Giorno,” Fugo spoke on the radio, “make sure you turn on the lights, or your sanity will drain.”

Giorno checked the blue room, and nothing was there. Then he headed to the baby's room, found a right humerus next to the wardrobe, and photoed the bone with his camera. “Found a bone in the baby’s room. Is the ghost here?”

“I’ll need to check,” Fugo said. “I have the thermometer. I was in the kitchen, and the temperature was 17 degrees Celsius.”

“I have a camera,” Mista said. “I’ll see if there are any ghost orbs.”

The lights in the room suddenly went off.

“Who?” Narancia panicked.

“Someone head to the garage,” Fugo said. “That’s where the fuse box is.”

“Ugh, I’ll get it,” Mista said.

The lights came on, and Fugo was there.

“Hey!” he said. “I could’ve gotten the lights, but I wanted to see how you were doing. Are you enjoying the game so far?”

“I wasn’t expecting to find the bone so fast,” Giorno answered. “What’s the temperature in the room?”

“That’s because the house is small. 14 degrees Celsius. It’s not here.”

“Freezing temperatures in the basement,” Mista said. “I can see my breath. There’s also a summoning circle. Giorno, you might want to take a picture of it. God, shit! The chair just moved.”

Narancia laughed. “I’m coming. I also got a lighter for us to summon the ghost.”

Giorno and Fugo came down to the basement.

“Okay,” Fugo started, “the ghost could be a demon, hantu, jinn, moroi, oni, onryo, revenant, shade, mimic, twins, or a yurei. Make sure you circle freezing temperatures. Does anyone have the D.O.T.S.?”

“I do!” Mista said. “I always carry one with me if I’m holding a camera. I’ll place a camera on one of the shelves.”

“Alright, we’ll have to leave Giorno here in the dark.”

“Wait, can I summon the ghost?” Narancia asked.

“Not yet. We want to see if Kira will respond to the spirit box. You’ll want to ask how aggressive it is, where it is, or an age-related question. If it responds, then circle the spirit box as evidence.”

The three left, leaving Giorno to himself in the dark.

“What do you want?” he asked.

Kira did not respond.

“Where are you?”

Nothing.

“How old are you?”

Once again, silence.

“I asked three questions, but the ghost didn’t respond,” Giorno spoke into the radio.

“Yeah, about that,” Fugo said. “You’ll have to repeat some of the questions.”

“Can I summon the ghost now?” Narancia asked.

“Hold on. Everyone, make sure you turn off every electronic. Giorno, once Narancia summons Kira, you’ll want to take a picture quickly and run. The ghost will activate a hunt, and you’ll be unable to leave the house. Hide in a closet or something.”

“Wait, can I change my equipment before we summon the ghost?” Giorno asked. “I don’t like using the spirit box if I have to repeat asking questions.”

“You probably need to say the ghost’s name, but I should’ve figured you’d hate the spirit box. Narancia, do you have the UV flashlight?”

“No, I don’t,” Narancia replied. “I think it’s still in the truck.”

“Then what do you have?”

“The lighter and candle.”

“Do we even have the optional objective to have the ghost snuff out the candle?”

“I didn’t read.”

Fugo sighed. “Of course, you didn’t read. Doesn’t matter. Light the candle.”

“Giorno, could you hand me the camera?”

“Sure,” Giorno said.

Someone switched the lights on, and the three returned to the basement. Giorno dropped the spirit box and camera and headed to the truck, grabbing the UV flashlight.

“I can grab more things. What else should I grab?” Giorno asked.

“I placed a journal in here,” Mista replied. “How about another video camera?”

Giorno took the camera and sprinted back to the basement.

“Okay, good,” Mista commented. “Place the camera in front of the journal.”

He did as Mista said.

“Okay, we’re all set,” Fugo said. “Light the circle!”

Narancia lit the circle, and Yoshihiro Kira appeared. His skin was gray, he still had some of his hair, which was white, and his figure was slim.

“Run!” Fugo yelled.

Everybody except Narancia sprinted out. Giorno went to the blue room and hid in a closet. His heart pounded like the time he asked Fugo out.

“Narancia?” Mista called out on the radio.

The ghost’s footsteps got closer and closer but then went away.

“Is it gone?” Giorno asked on the radio.

“Wait a few seconds,” Fugo replied.

“Hey, guys,” Narancia spoke in the Discord call. “I’m dead and took multiple photos. You’ll need to get another camera.”

“Damn it!’ Fugo responded. “Alright, I think the ghost is gone.”

“We’re going to make that ghost pay!” Mista said. “Where’s the spirit box? I got something to say.”

“I’ll get a camera and photograph Narancia’s body. Mista, do whatever you want. Giorno, stick with me. I’ll take photos of the ghost’s fingerprints. By the way, where are you?”

“I’m in the blue room currently in the closet.” Giorno stepped out and saw Fugo heading towards the exit. He returned a few seconds later.

“Okay, so here’s what you want to do,” Fugo began. “Shine the UV light at doors, except for the exit, light switches, windows, keyboards, and mirrors.”

Giorno and Fugo wandered the house for a bit. They found evidence on the basement door and took a photo.

“Circle fingerprints,” Fugo ordered. “Since we have freezing temperatures and fingerprints, the ghost could be a demon, hantu, or jinn. Since nobody’s in the truck, Giorno, you head over there.”

Giorno returned to the truck.

“The bitch is a demon,” Narancia said.

“I think so, too,” Mista agreed. “And before we check off one last thing, I got something to say to Yoshihiro Kira. You are a nasty little fuck. You know that, leaving your fingerprints all over the place? Fucking clean after yourself, you piece of shit, dumb bitch!”

“Hey, dumbass, you’re talking on the radio,” Fugo reminded him. “Let’s go downstairs to see what he’s doing.”

The couple returned to the basement. Mista had the spirit box in his hand.

“I bet you have dick cheese, you nasty manwhore!” Mista continued to insult, causing Narancia to laugh. “How many kids do you have? One? A hundred? Do you hug your children? I bet you don’t! You’re probably a deadbeat dad who—”

Yoshihiro Kira appeared right in front of Mista and killed him.

“Damn it!” Fugo shouted. “Run again!”

Giorno hid in a locker in the garage.

“Guys, I’m dead,” Mista said.

“I think the ghost is after me,” Fugo said.

Everything was silent. Although Giorno couldn’t tell where the ghost was, he started counting down to guess how long the hunt lasted.

“The ghost is gone,” Fugo said. “Come on. Let’s take a picture of Mista’s body.”

Mista’s body lay next to Narancia’s.

“Perfect,” Fugo commented while taking the picture.

Giorno looked at the journal and noticed violent scribbles on it. “We got evidence of writing!” He brought his journal and circled demon as evidence.

His boyfriend took a photo. “Wow, this went perfectly.”

“Perfectly?” Narancia sounded offended. “We’re dead!”

The couple sprinted to the truck and left.

-

The game returned them to the lobby, bringing them to the board. Since Giorno had the ghost type correct and the team photographed the evidence, he now had more money.

“Should I buy anything?” he asked.

“No, you don’t have to,” Fugo replied. “Do you have 10 Ridgeview Court unlocked?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Perfect! We’ll do that one. I’ll bring everything again. Everyone, click on the board. We’re heading to Ridgeview.”

Everyone readied up. When the four loaded in the truck, Giorno first took the strong flashlight and thermometer but stared at the sound sensors.

“I’m guessing these pick up the ghost’s sounds,” he said.

“Yeah,” Fugo replied. “We should probably use these to locate the ghost’s room. Hmm, what’s the ghost’s name.”

The two checked the board, and the ghost’s name was Reimi Sugimoto. It said she also responds to everyone.

“Since there are four of them, shouldn’t we all grab one?” Giorno was back on topic about the sound sensors. “I was thinking that Narancia and Mista use the EMF readers.”

“Well, I want one person to use the spirit box. Maybe Narancia can have the EMF reader while Mista holds the spirit box.”

“I’m cool with that,” Mista said.

“I have no idea how to use the EMF reader,” Narancia said.

“If it’s at four, run,” Fugo informed. “There’s a low chance the ghost could activate five. Don’t worry. Giorno and I will find the ghost’s room before you two can.”

“Oh, we’ll see about that!”

Everyone grabbed the sound sensors and left the truck. Fugo rushed to the basement to turn on the fuse box and place a sensor on one of the shelves. Giorno placed his near the master bedroom, while Narancia placed one near the garage. Mista planted his sound sensor somewhere in the second-story hallway.

“I just checked the basement room’s temperature,” Fugo said on the radio. “Not cold enough for it to be the ghost room. I’m going upstairs.”

Giorno went to the truck to fetch the UV flashlight while Narancia grabbed a photo camera. While on their way, they noticed the sensors picked up some noise on the second floor.

“Noise on the second floor,” Giorno said on the radio.

“Perfect,” Fugo said. “Aha! There’s a music box in the girl’s bedroom. Also, the temperature is the coldest here, but it’s not freezing.”

“Wait for me!” Narancia said. “I’ll take a photo of the object!”

Narancia sprinted out of the truck.

“I’ll get the cameras,” Mista said.

“I’ll get the D.O.T.S.,” Fugo said.

Giorno walked out of the truck and explored the house for fingerprints on the second floor. Meanwhile, he could hear Narancia communicating with the ghost, and Mista constantly went in and out of the house, placing equipment in the girl’s room.

“Are you friendly?” he asked. “How old are you? How close are you? Are you French?” Narancia would go on repeating the same questions.

“Hey, you might be at that for a while,” Fugo said. “Do you mind dropping your camera?”

“Sure.”

“Giorno, I’m coming to you. Where are you?”

Giorno headed to the girl’s bedroom. “I’m right here.”

His character model approached his. “Oh, perfect! I see you’re carrying a UV flashlight. We’ll be perfect together.”

“Wait!” Narancia stopped them. “If it takes a while for the ghost to appear, can I use the music box?”

“Yes, but you must tell us before you use it,” Fugo turned around and answered. He faced Giorno again. “Let’s check the bathroom and see if she touched the mirror.”

They checked the bathroom, but Reimi hadn’t left any prints yet.

“We have ghost orbs!” Mista said. “I checked the cameras on the truck.”

“I wouldn’t circle that yet,” Fugo said. “It could be a mimic.”

“D.O.T.S.!” Narancia yelled. “Oh god, fuck! The ghost!”

 Everyone inside scrambled to find a hiding spot, causing Fugo and Giorno to split up. They ran downstairs. Giorno hid in a locker in the garage, while Fugo hid in the basement.

“I hate this game,” Narancia complained on Discord. “I died in the bathroom upstairs.”

It had been 25 seconds. The hunt should be over.

“Okay, I think it’s over. Circle D.O.T.S. and ghost orbs as evidence. Reimi could be a banshee, raiju, thaye, yokai, or yurei,” Fugo said. “I’m going to go back upstairs.”

Giorno got out of the locker and joined his boyfriend. Once he met up with Fugo, he used the UV flashlight in the bathroom, revealing that Reimi touched the mirror and door.

“It’s a banshee,” Fugo said. “We can go now.”

“Did you take a photo of my body?” Narancia asked.

“Yeah.”

“What about the bones?”

“Forget the bones. Let’s leave.”

They returned to the truck and left, returning to the lobby.

“Man, we can find the ghost quicker when we place those sensors,” Mista commented.

“Why was I the only one dead?” Narancia asked.

“Your body was in the middle of the room,” Fugo said.

“There was no place to hide!”

“Don’t run into the bathroom then. Anyways, are you down for one more?”

“Nah,” Giorno replied. “I’m exhausted, and it’s getting dark. Maybe tomorrow?”

“Oh, later then! I love you!”

“I love you too.”

Giorno quit the game and turned off his computer.

[strawberrymilkgeorge]

Part Two. Jackbox Shenanigans

warnings: swearing word count: 2.6k (not including pictures) behind the screen (irl dream x reader) series masterlist ultimate masterlist

Y/n flinched awake, startled by the sounds traveling from the kitchen. Once again, the frosty air pricked her skin, trying to convince her to not move, to stay in bed under the warm blankets. Despite the feeling pulling her into her bed, she rubbed her eyes and sat up, grabbing her phone from her nightstand. Texts from Karl flooded her screen and she replied as she took her comforter off her mattress and wrapped it around herself. She pattered to the source of the noise to find her roommate was making food.

"Sorry, did I wake you?" Naomi asked, eyes wide with concern as she looked at Y/n. "I dropped a pan."

Y/n, who was observing the world through one squinted eye, shook her head and she sat at the counter in the kitchen. "No, I should be awake anyway."

"You're usually awake much earlier. Late night?"

Y/n nodded. "George streamed and we all talked for a little after."

"Oh, yeah, I watched his stream this morning..." she started, eyes focused on the food in front of her but Y/n still caught the mischievous glint in her roommate's eyes.

"Of course you did," Y/n laughed through a yawn. "That's your lover."

Naomi rolled her eyes. "Maybe if you gave me his number he would be."

"He doesn't give it to many people. I just barely got it and I've been friends with him for a year. I'm pretty sure Karl doesn't even have it."

Naomi groaned, though Y/n knew it was a joke... for the most part. She got another text from Karl, and consulted Naomi for a second opinion.

"Should I post this?" Y/n asked, lazily holding up her phone with a picture on the screen. Naomi squinted as she looked back over her shoulder. "Karl keeps yelling at me too."

"Yeah! That's a cute outfit. Make sure to credit Karl or he'll yell at you for that as well."

"No chance I'm doing that."

.

Incoming FaceTime... karol <3

Y/n hit accept and held the phone up to make a face at Karl. He mimicked the position. "Hello, sir."

"Hello, ma'am."

"What are you doing?" she asked him, walking to the bathroom to brush her teeth, her comforter dragging on the floor behind her as it continued to protect her from the cold.

Karl got distracted and started messing with something out of the camera view. "Um, trying to figure out what to do for my stream tonight. What about you?"

"I'm waiting for you to give me a fit check!" Y/n yelled. Karl quickly looked at the camera and smiled. He set his phone down on his desk and ran backward so his whole body was in frame. He posed awkwardly a few different ways before running back and resuming his position.

"Yes!" Y/n hyped with a mouthful of toothpaste. "Let's go, Karl! Karl with the old man sweater!!"

He giggled. "You're the one that told me to buy it."

"Because it's sick. Doesn't mean it didn't belong to an old man before you."

Karl pouted before his face lit up. "Guess what. I met a girl."

"Oh?" Y/n cooed. "Where? Do you have pictures? Is she cute?"

"She's Jimmy's new cameraman. Camerawoman. I don't have pictures, and yes. She's very cute." His cheeks turned red and Y/n smiled, flipping off the bathroom light and heading to her closet. She threw her comforter back on the bed and tried to pick out an outfit.

"Come on, bud, elaborate. What's her name? Have you asked her out yet?"

"You don’t get to know her name, I don’t want to jinx anything. Plus, you’ll just look ‘Mr Beast crew’ and find out anyway. Also, no, I haven’t. I'm pretty sure she thinks I hate her because I have not said a single word to her. I get so nervous when she's around I freeze up and just like... act weird. And then as soon as she's gone, Chris freaking roasts me so bad."

"Aw, I can teach you how to flirt if you want!"

"Yeah, okay," he scoffed, sarcasm dripping from his words.

"What's with the attitude? I'm great at flirting."

"No, you're not. I watched Gogy's stream last night."

"What does that have anything to do with anything?"

"I heard the way you spoke to Dream."

"What?!"

"You have zero game, Y/n. Absolutely none. Zilch, if you will."

"Yeah, because I wasn't flirting with him?"

"Not successfully, at least."

"Karl, what?" Y/n laughed but she was so confused. "No part of me was trying to flirt with anyone in that stream."

"Oh, come on," Karl groaned. "Don't do this again. Don't pretend to not like a guy and then cry to me when you're wack ass attempts don't win him over."

"Karl," Y/n started, looking directly at him. "I genuinely have no idea what you're talking about. I wasn't flirting with him. I do not like him."

"I'm just saying, you talk about him a lot. Like, you always panic when he interacts with your posts because you're scared he's going to DM you right after. And you gush about him a lot."

"I do not gush. I admire the hard work he puts into his videos but I talk the same about him as I do with George and Sapnap. The only difference is I'm friends with them and not Mr. Minecraft. He's intimidating, that doesn't mean I have a crush on him."

Karl stared for a moment, trying to read Y/n's expression to detect any lies. "You'd tell me if you did, right?"

"Karl, I tell you everything. I'd tell you if I murdered your family." They both laughed. "It's impossible to hide anything from you, you're my best friend."

"Okay, sweet, but please don't murder my family, just to be clear."

"I won't. I love your mom too much."

"Well, how was meeting Dream, then? Despite apparently not being in love with him?"

"It was cool. Terrifying because it felt very forced but the four of us hung out on the call after George ended his stream and he was much more relaxed."

"That's true. Aren't we all?"

"Not you! You're the exact same person on and off camera. Just a little ball of giggles."

Karl giggled which made them both laugh more. Suddenly, as if he completely forgot until that moment, Karl sat up quickly and yelled, "What am I going to do for the stream?"

Y/n shrugged. "See if anyone wants to play Jackbox. Chat always loves those and it's relatively easy to throw together last minute. You just need to find people that are free to play."

"Genius. Who should we invite?"

"We?"

"Yeah. It was your idea, you have to play."

"But, I've never played! And I barely know all your friends so I wouldn't get half the inside jokes. I'd be a boring addition."

"Please? They're your friends too! You just talked to Sapnap and George for four hours yesterday and George was the only one playing anything. That's friendship if I've ever seen it."

"But... others.... like literally everyone besides Sap and George...."

"Things like this are how you get to know them better. Besidessss, you're never boring."

"Fine, I'll play."

"YES!" he shouted. "Okay, who should we invite?"

**********

**********

Y/n huffed and scooted her chair closer to her desk. She pulled up Discord and hovered over the voice chat everyone was in. An overwhelming number of voices chaotically spoke over each other as soon as she joined.

"Oh no," she mumbled.

"AYYEE!!" a voice yelled, the green bubble lighting around Quackity's name confirming her suspicions.

"Aye," she said back less enthusiastic. "Hi everyone."

"She's here!" George cheered.

Y/n could hear Sapnap huff. "Finally. Geesh."

"This isn't even your stream, calm down." Y/n's eyes scanned the names on the left to read who else was involved in tonight's games. She had suggested a few people to Karl but wasn't sure about the final list. Besides the boys who had already greeted her were BadBoyHalo and Dream.

"Hello, Bugsy! It's nice to meet you! I'm BadBoyHalo."

Y/n smiled widely at his voice. "Hi, BadBoyHalo! Nice to meet you too."

Her eyes slowly traveled to the last name on the list, which had yet to greet her. She wasn't bitter, but she was curious why he hadn't said anything yet. The boys hyped up him talking about her so much but she had yet to feel that energy from him. She picked at the bottom of her hoodie, eyes darting between the names as they lit up when someone spoke.

"Is Dream still AFK?" Sapnap asked.

"I think so," Bad replied.

Maybe that's the only reason he hadn't said anything. Y/n felt stupid for thinking it had anything to do with her.

"He's probably coding something or something like that," George teased.

"Haha nerdy ass man," Quackity cackled.

"Language."

"Don't you also code shit, George?" Sapnap called out. "You're probably helping him test something after this, huh? As Quackity said, nerdy ass man."

"You know what, Sapnap? I'm not sure I like your attitude all that much."

Y/n smiled. Despite feeling nervous, she was already having fun just listening to everyone talk. The real nerves would kick in when they were live in front of tens of thousands of people and she would have to be funny.

A message popped up in the general chat, notifying everyone that Karl was joining the voice call soon so they shouldn't say anything bad.

"Everyone say something weird," Quackity directed.

Discord dinged and Karl's name joined the list on the side. "AAAHHHH-!" he started yelling over everyone to let them know he was here in case they were saying anything bad. With his luck, they were going to say stuff anyway to mess with him.

"So, yeah, that's how I lost my virginity," Quackity said as if he just finished a story.

"To a prostitute?" Sapnap added quickly. "Wow, I never thought you... oh Karl!"

"Language!" Bad gasped.

"What the..." Karl laughed loudly. "What did I just join?"

"Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry," Quackity apologized, which was hard to make out since he was laughing so hard, surprised at what Sapnap added to his joke.

"Bad, you can't say language about a prostitute," Sapnap defended. "That's really rude of you. Maybe it's a little unconventional but they're just tryna make some money the best way they know how."

George laughed with Quackity as Bad sputtered. "I-I said language about what Quackity said!"

"What, virginity?" Karl asked innocently and Bad yelled again.

"Bad hates people who have had sex!" Y/n called, causing Quackity to laugh loudly.

"Bad! How could you?! That's so messed up!"

"Wait, guys, is everyone here?" Karl asked.

"Dream isn't. We don't know where he went."

Karl groaned and started typing something, presumably yelling at Dream to join.

"Let's goooo! We're popping off!" Quackity started saying, stalling. "We're popping off!" George joined him, becoming absolute fools to keep the chat entertained.

"Okay, he's here!" Karl said. "Everyone's here!"

"I'm here, I'm here, sorry. I was... yeah, sorry," Dream stuttered out.

"Welcome back, Dream!" Bad chirped.

"Hello!" he replied. Unexpectedly, his next greeting was directed at Y/n. "Hi, Bug."

Y/n instantly got shy for no discernable reason. She blamed it on his voice and its ability to manipulate emotions any way he wanted. That and she was getting attention from someone first. "Hi," she squeaked back, hoping the contrast of her icy hands would cool her face enough to focus on the game.

"Bugsy, you are adorable," Bad stated simply.

"Sapnap! What did you just send me?" George asked loudly, and just like that, the attention was off of her and she could breathe again.

"What?" Sapnap feigned innocence.

This was going to be a long game.

"Let's play!" Karl decided. "Should we warm up with some Quippy?"

Y/n focused intensely on her answers, silently hoping the others would find her funny.

"Oh my gosh," she mumbled as everyone else finished writing. "Y'all, I'm about to get Quiplashed so hard. Don't make fun of me."

"I seriously doubt it," Dream said. "You can't possibly be worse than George at this game."

"Shut up, we always-  it's like 3 am my time. I can't, like, think of things 'cause my brain isn't functioning."

"Yeah, that's why," Sapnap teased.

"Surreee," Dream said.

The first round wasn't too bad. Y/n was in 5th place but she got quite a few laughs so she didn't care too much about where she stood. She got a notification from Dream on Twitter as everyone laughed at one of Quackity's answers.

Y/n looked back at her screen and saw the new prompt and answers. She read them quickly as everyone was laughing and with a few seconds left to choose, voted for the one on the left. It was funnier anyway.

She loosened up substantially after another round, and she knew it was mostly because Dream had reached out to her. Something about him comforted her and made her feel safe, which warmed her heart.

"Bugsy! What the hell, that's so messed up. You're so messed up," Quackity yelled, laughing at the answer on the screen. They were playing Survive the Internet and her comment got taken way out of context, just as the game intended.

"Oh my gosh!" Karl cackled loudly. "Bugsy, I didn't know you felt that way. Oh my gosh? They're just kids?? Bugsy out the gang?"

Y/n hid her face in her hands and laughed. "Noooo!! Wait I never knew- I didn't know I was ever in the gang?"

"She really said, 'infant children? slaughter them all'," Sapnap joked.

"You know, I think you'd get along really well with Technoblade," Dream added. "Though his specialty is orphans, as it appears."

"No, no, no, whoever wrote that heading is SO messed up!" Y/n defended, rereading the heading that made her comment look bad. She knew it was a game but all the attention on her was making her embarrassed. "Who would think to put that?"

"Everyone cancel Busgy!" Karl yelled.

"Karl, no! You're supposed to be my best friend!"

"I don't know how I feel about my best friend killing children..."

"Karl!!"

"Nooo," Bad protested softly. "I like Bugsy. Don't cancel her."

"Everyone vote!"

The article with Y/n's name turned out to be Dream's. "Dream! What the hell is wrong with you?" she yelled, causing him to wheeze loudly.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I wanted point."

The whole night ended up being like that. Y/n had a lot of fun and by the end, she felt a lot more comfortable with all of them. Quackity, Karl, and Sapnap were loud and very high energy while George and Bad were quieter. Dream was half and half, sometimes matching Quackity's volume and sometimes going a while without saying a word. Overall, Y/n had a lot of fun and hoped to let back in the gang in the future.

**********

PREVIOUS • NEXT

**********

A/N: WOOO PART TWOOO!! Hope you guys enjoyed this part! Also thank you so much for all the love on the first part!! I did not expect it to get as much attention as it did!!!!!

we clearly haven’t got to dream and yn being close yet bc they literally met the day before this but i added a small little dream/yn moment :] pls let me know how you liked this part!!!!!!!!!!!! 

taglist: OPEN (at the time) @hydrate-tion @loraleiix @tinaswagbd @charsdummb @smileyyuta @1ghoste1 @cerberus-hellhound @gaysludge @queestionmark @carnations-red @letsloveimagines @the-fictionwriters-hairdo @boiled-onionrings @a-cryptic @fee-btheweeb @letsloveimagines @erwinss @just-a-stan

[ariwritesstuff]

power duo

CORPSE x fem!reader

this is my first fic, please go easy on me!

summary: you and corpse are playing among us together, along with rae, toast, poki, sean, dave, sykkuno, lily, and felix. you and corpse got impostor together! :)

warning: none!

pronouns: she/her

word count: 1,107

A/N: i’m sorry if it bothers anyone that their avatar color is pink, i doubt it will but just in case.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

A black colored bean wearing a suit and tie, accompanied by horns on its head, stood next to a pink bean with red words that read “Impostor” at the top of the screen.

You and Corpse had been keeping your relationship secret for a while, due to the fear of public backlash or embarrassment.

You heard a groan from the other room and chuckled a bit. “Time to kill.”

You went into admin and watched Felix and Sykkuno do card swipe, then walked out. About thirty seconds later, you ran into Sykkuno in upper engine and coldly murdered him. You then sabotaged lights, and camped in electrical. Poki was the first one to come in, so you killed her and then vented to medbay.

As you were just about to exit medbay, a thick, red line with a brown dead body over it flashed across your screen, reading “BODY REPORTED.” You look and so far there had been 4 people dead.

The player list displayed 10 people and different colored beans. 6 people were alive, and only in white text there were 4 people. On the left side, there was a dark green avatar accompanied by a name, “Spedicey,” written in white text. Under that were 3 different people, a red avatar named “Valkyrae” in white, a black avatar named “CORPSE” in red, and then two grayed out names and avatars. Among the grayed out names and avatars were a light green one titled “Sykkuno,” and a cyan avatar named “Toast.” On the right side, at the top there was a purple avatar titled “Lily” in white text, under that would be a pink avatar titled “[Y/N]” in vibrant red text, and just under that would be a white avatar with words written in the same color as the avatar that read “pewds.” Lying under that were two, once again, grayed out avatars and names. These included a yellow avatar going by the name of “Dave,” and a brown avatar named “poki.”

“What the fuck?” Sean called out.

You chuckled and then unmuted your mic.

“Holy shit.” Corpse said, sounding calm as ever.

“DAMN.” You yelled.

“Alright alright, calm your tits. Where’s the body Rae?” Felix asked.

“The body.. was in Electrical.”

“Of course it was... really sus, Rae!” Felix called, holding back a laugh.

“How is that sus?” Sean asked, laughing.

“Wait, Sykkuno’s dead? Wasn’t he left with Felix last?” You asked.

“Well, they were in card swipe.. then they went to medbay. I don’t know what happened after that...” Lily said, matter-of-factly.

“YEAH REALLY SUS PEWDS,” Rae yelled.

Corpse was his usual quiet self.

“Okay, shut up, shut up and let me explain. So, I was in admin, doing the card swipe thingy. I failed like three times and then Sykkuno, buddy, was waiting for me. We headed to medbay, he scanned, and then,” he paused, “Then what?” Sean asked. “WE SPLIT UP. I went to cafeteria and over to weapons, he went to reactor or in that direction, I think.” Felix explained.

“Right, okay, I guess you’re good. Still sus of you. Anyways, did anyone see anyone else leaving electrical or leaving from the direction of electrical?” You asked.

“Hang on, Y/N. Where were you, Rae?” Corpse inquired.

“Ah shit.” She whispered, which obviously got a few chuckles from people. “I was in cafeteria, with poki, and then she went to do admin. I went down to to shields, where I met Dave, but he’s dead, so..” She paused. “Anyways, I then went to nav, did a task there, then lights got called. I went back to cafeteria, then down by admin and then found poki’s body.” Rae explained.

“SUS!” Felix screamed.

“Shut up, dummy.” You said, jokingly.

“Now you’re sus,” Felix said.

Yours and Felix’s little cat-fight raised giggles, mostly from Corpse. Corpse adored you.

“Alright, no evidence, I’m gonna skip.” Corpse said.

“Same.”

“Yeah, same.”

“If it’s Corpse, I swear...”

“SKIP!”

In about 4 seconds, 6 different-colored beans popped up on the “SKIP” vote. The screen showed a black screen with moving, white dots--presumably stars--with letters popping up one by one, reading “No one was ejected (Skipped).”

You muted your mic and went on to look for Corpse so you could get a double kill. You found him in Reactor as he had sabotaged it. Lo and behold, Sean and Rae pulled up at the same time. You performed a double kill, winning the game.

Everyone unmuted their mics as you slyly chuckled.

“Y/N?? IT WAS YOU?! FUCKING Y/N.. THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE.” Felix called out. 

“Damn, nice going Corpse,” Sean said, calmly.

“I hate you Corpse.” Dave said, surprisingly nonchalant.

“OH YEAH BUT I WAS SUS, FELIX.” Rae exclaimed, spitefully.

“Y/N!! WHY WOULD YOU KILL ME? I TRUSTED YOU!” Poki said, obviously joking.

“Payback!” You yelled.

“Okay, okay. I’m just wondering why Sean didn’t say shit when I was killed like five feet away from him,” Toast added.

“WHERE DID YOU EVEN DIE?” Sean asked.

“Communications!”

“I left like 15 seconds before you died.”

“I was literally with Felix the entire time, and the second we split up Y/N kills me.” Sykkuno cuts them off.

“Alright alright, nicely done baby- I mean Y/N.” Corpse praised.

The entire call went silent, and everyone’s Twitch/YouTube chats were flooded.

“Baby?” Rae asked.

“Did you mean to say that?” Toast added.

“Ah, uhm.. I..” Corpse stuttered.

“Yes, he did. Thank you babe.” You finished for him, your heart racing.

“Alright, we’re gonna get off now. Thanks guys, I’ll play with you tomorrow,” Corpse said, an obvious nervous shaking in his voice.

“Bye!”

“See ya.”

You shut off your stream and left the game & Discord call, as did he. You went into his room and immediately hugged him to calm his anxiety.

“Hey, babe, it’s okay. Please don’t worry. You did amazing, and I know how much this must’ve hurt you.” You reassured him.

“But I know how much you wanted to keep it private, and I know how much I fucked things up for us. I’m so sorry love, I’m so, so sorry,” he apologized, his deep voice beginning to crack.

“It’s okay. I don’t mind. Look at me.”

He looked at you, his eyes filled with sadness, anxiety, and a hint of lust for you.

“It’s okay to cry.”

The minute you said that, he buried his head in your chest and began silently crying.

You two stayed there for about two minutes, hugging each other and non-verbally offering each other your love, until you suggested that you should lay down.

“Yeah, that’d be great.”

“I love you, Corpse.”

“I love you too, Y/N.”

[limelocked]

Sundial blurbs

So most of my part of the Sundial au has been locked into general au chat on our server in the form of joking, theorising and sometimes writing as much as the discord character limit allows me to. I did the two first blurbs in this post today and @pomodoko commanded i actually post it and tag them so here they are, sorted into story chronological order and not the order in which i wrote them

Also this is the link to the document with general information on the AU

--- Dreams POV, the inciting incident

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8- NINE It has been ten seconds since Fundy landed at the bottom of the stairs at the lowest level of the building, there had been a noticeable thud that sounded distinctly unpleasant but Dream hadn't picked up on any cracking noise that'd indicate broken bones. Not that it'd be easy to hear over the commotion that led to later events.

Because it'd been seven seconds since Techno had lost his balance because of the falling fox mentioned and seven seconds since he stood back straight, almost brushing against Wilburs taller frame. It had only been five short seconds, that might have felt like weeks to others, since Wilbur in turn furrowed his brow and geared up for retaliation. Four seconds ago techno had been pushed. Three, Wilbur had gone into the wrong portal. Two, Philza had with Fundy still leaning on his shoulder tried to stop them both. One, they were gone.

It was surreal. The room had been filled with chatter before the fight, louder during the fight and now it was quiet. One second in the future, after it had all happened, the silence broke by no one who had seen it happen but by Tommy, babbling on about something with Fundy that didn't matter to anyone but himself. He quieted down when the person he was intending to talk to was nowhere to be found, confused. "Where'd Fundy go?"

"He and Wilbur already went through" the lack of effort it took for Dream to bend that truth would be concerning if not for his record, and technically they already had. "Oh-" an unsatisfactory answer but not one that would send him towards the throat of Noxite. "You can just talk to them back home. Come on." The portal after the hermits was supposed to be theirs, something quickly confirmed as they enter the community house with a crisis averted, or rather pushed back until a later date, and two people lost to another server.

--- Omniscient/Unknown POV, the dreamsmp aftermath

un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf... sept, huit, neuf... sept, huit... Seven hours later was when the lie couldn't hold anymore. Tommy already didn't trust Dream much but Tubbo had been a help in convincing him that Wilbur and Fundy were just away building or something. But the truth comes eventually. He sent a clear message of; <TommyInnIt> stop lying to me

Hour eight was the worst, accusations being thrown and swords being drawn. Screaming and explanations that never really felt enough. The ninth hour was bad in another way, depressing. Tommy's anger had simmered into bargaining as if Dream, George or Tubbo had the power to do anything of substance. It never got to begging, Tommy's pride forbade that but the things he put on the line for help that he couldn't get made it almost seem like it.

Noxcrew was contacted and they confirmed that the hemits had talked to them about the guests. Solutions were suggested and just as quickly rebuffed. Hour ten was a loss and the eleventh hour was one where Tommy and Tubbo got to speak alone.

"Can't you just use your powers or whatever to make the portals take us to hermitcraft" he was exhausted. "It doesn't work like that, probably, and Noxite has probably already tried it" "Yeah but Tubbo could you do it?" "I mean... maybe?" To that something glinted in Tommys eye, hope that Tubbo didn't want to extinguish as fast as it needed to be. "But I'm not allowed into the MCC world anyways so it wouldn't work" "FUCKING CHRIST TUBBO everyone here's useless!"

--- Technos POV, first night on hermitcraft

It's the first night and bones tower above him.

There were other buildings around, and the area was lit up well but eyes followed him from the darkness, eying the stone tools he'd manage to scrape up while leaving the group now probably settled in a warm house far away. This world scared him, the monsters and the way his sword hit differently, and the fact that the air itself felt new.

A pair of eyes glowed at him from it's place under one of the ribs of a beast too huge to want to think about. Techno readied his sword, but the dog decided that it'd rather go back to sleep. This world scared him and he just knew he'd gotten lost now because his goal had been to retrace his steps, the path that Xisuma and Bdoubleo had shown them to the little village far away by boat, to find the house cleft in two and then head straight out to sea until he could find a better place to stay than the tension thick cabin that their hosts had suggested.

Another dog offered a quiet bark in his direction and with an embarrassed sssh, covering fright, he continued forward. He had found the water, true, and he remembered something vague about a neighbour... but... No. No he decided that he'd choose a direction and if there weren't any light he'd just have to turn around or dock and make a little cave to live out of. It wouldn't be glorious but neither is 5 million potatoes.

A boat is placed into the water at the straight of Joebralta and a pig starts to row.

Clang. He is confused. The boat shakes in the middle of open water, he's been turned around. Clang. A trident, something he's only really seen in Skyblockle, shoots into the air a meter to the right of his boat. He speeds up. Clang. It misses, but he has decided that the sea is no longer safe.

--- Technos and Ethos POV, the first days in hermitcraft

He's starting to feel bad for leaving. Still justified, but also bad. He felt horrible the instant the championship room disappeared from right in front of his eyes with Wilbur still in it, and still worse when Wilbur then Phil and Fundy appeared next to him in this world, all statues as unseen confused messages fill the communicators of the worlds inhabitants.

When they arrived he was surprised that a lot of the hermits knew about them, or at least him, from the returning cast of hermits that played in MCC and their apparent tendency to tell stories as soon as there was space for it. It'd made it less awkward but the looks from the others stopped him from talking much about his side of the tournaments.

This was perhaps night four? He had stepped ashore in a jungle a bit from an area he could almost feel at home in with its skyscrapers reminiscent of some survival games arenas. But it was built by someone and someone should be avoided so he had trudged through plains and deserts walking around it only to find more tall buildings in another jungle.

The jungle was... safe? Safe from people at least, less so mobs. He had a little cave with a bed now that kept the hot and humid air out most of the time and while small and cramped and utterly horrible it felt far safer than returning to the others... even though he could practically hear Phils calm and nonchalant reassurances.

Leaving the small home he searches for the water he remembers spotting nearby. The bright orange tracksuit wasn't something he wanted to wear but there wasn't much of anything else and it still needed to be washed of stone dust and sweat no matter how much he disliked it. He leaves with a compass and map to find his way back, and around other peoples territory. And water is found easily with these. Stone, coal and redstone is scrubbed away in the freshwater lake that's only relatively cold, but it still feels nice, like the wind on his island in skyblock or in the skywars arenas.

Not too far away a man is working in a terrarium of his own design containing no animals but currents in thin snakes coiling around comparators and observers. The change to the nether has been an exciting one but it did come with problems for the technicians and thankfully for this one the Google hasn't broken too far beyond belief and is back in functioning order faster than expected.

Satisfied he looks at the path that he paradoxically want to end and to continue and decides to wait, flying up to sit near his portal instead to think about it and access the expansions he's already made. Something bright orange is spotted in the distance which at first is ignored, it can wait, until the realization of a possible abandoned shulker, so very common in this group, grabs him and almost instantly leaves as it moves around.

Several seconds later the orange turns brighter and the idea of lava pops in and out of his head in a flash.

<Etho> Beef have to lost an orange llama? <VintageBeef> no? <VintageBeef> at least I dont think so...? <Etho> o_o

He's been keeping out of the way for a while, like usual, and only knew some of the news about new people on the server. That they'd gotten there with Rendogs sports gang by accident and that they'd been living mostly over at Bdubs' place to avoid having them be excluded to their own little village. Apparently something had happened, he'd missed the details but it was looking like there was a manhunt for someone or something that he should by all means be more invested in.

Curious he misses the orange go out of view in favour of finding out about this missing thing in case he's found it. A person and a description, hidden deep in other messages. His height, human pig hybrid, last seen wearing...

Does he want to do this? He knows his way around a jungle but it's still annoying and Xisuma lives close by... but he's most likely AFK. Well, you make a good first impression on the new guys if you find their missing friend.

--- Omniscient/Unclear POV, Technos time with Etho

Silence is golden in silver light. The hermits can stay up days on end without sleep, working through nights when it’s needed and even with guests this doesn’t change. Like the sliver of moon in the sky, Ethos hair glows radiant from inside the redstone machine he calls the Googler and Techno does nothing but look on as repeaters are moved and redstone is smeared in new paths into blocks he has never seen before, something he’s had to get used to lately.

His host works in silence until a question breaks the jungles chime and an answer is given with the rhythm. The redstone had changed and he thought he had fixed it, an unhelpful follow up is posed and a pause is moved into a somewhat oversimplified version of the circuit. They both know that Techno is no help here, but the company is nice and something is learned.

Etho in the day when working the fortress tells Techno about the old days and in turn Techno admits to never having left those old days for long. Etho talks about Pause and Beef. Techno fails to talk about his own team.

[emsylcatac]

😂🥺😭😗😞 with marichat

Ok I decided to try my hand at a bit of angst here; and make it waaaayyy longer than it should (yes because I’ve decided to completely ignore my own rules from the beginning of this game like the clown I am). I’m sorry in advance for the length (I even had to put a cut aha) and lack of crack writing 😬

[Edit: Now with more parts!]

Part 1 · Part 2 · Part 3

* * * * *

Marinette gripped the railing of the balcony tightly, trying to get her breathing under control. She had not been expecting that. Chat Noir. 

Chat Noir, who she had fought Hawkmoth and Mayura with during four long years. Chat Noir, who had sacrificed himself for her more times that she could count. Chat Noir, that she had last seen two years ago. 

Chat Noir, her partner, that she missed oh so very much.

And here he was, still naive and filled with wonder and happy, unaware of everything that had happened and certainly not understanding why Marinette had promptly fled the room at the sight of him to avoid anyone seeing her just loose it and cry for no apparent reason.

She had been having a nice time with her friends at Alya and Nino’s apartment; everything was going great and they had fun until Alix rang and came in with a Chat Noir that looked like he was 15 years old at most. Marinette had forgotten how much of a baby face he still had at that age. Alix explained that she had randomly found him in the streets and that he had been transported into their time by a sort of time travel akuma. Marinette had an inkling idea as to how exactly she really found him but it’s not like she could share the information. 

“All we have to do is keep him company until the Ladybug from his time resets everything!” Alix had informed them. Easy. (Ha! Who was she kidding).

So here she was. 20 years old Marinette, breaking down over seeing a younger version of her partner. She felt pathetic. Adrien, who had been invited as well, had also looked very shook at the sight of Chat Noir and had immediately excused himself; she supposed it had to do with everything that had happened with his Father being Hawkmoth. She couldn’t really blame him.

“Hey. Are you all right?” a soft voice startled her from behind. She didn’t need to turn around to know whose voice it was.

She tried to keep it together and closed her eyes tightly, hoping it would magically work. She felt a hand coming to rest on her shoulder. It didn’t work.

“Hum… I saw you running there and… Uh… You looked like you’d need company.” he finished nervously. 

‘Always so concerned for the others, Kitty’, she thought. She chuckled sadly.

“I…” she sighed. “Yes, I’m fine!” she lied, a waver in her voice. She turned around to face him and– “No.” she started to sob again, “No I am not fine at all!” and she collapsed into his arms, and she was a crying mess, and Oh god he must not understand anything yet she couldn’t find it in herself to loose her grip on him.

He so ever patiently let her cry her eyes out while patting her back softly and whispering what she assumed were words of reassurance.

While she sobbed uncontrollably and hold onto him for the first time in two years, flitting images jostled in her mind from the final fight and the aftermath. A Chat Noir held by Hawkmoth who had stabbed him with a sword hidden in his cane. One that looked completely erased and absent of whatever stories she was retelling him; she had been worried that day but he had shook his head and said it was fine. Another Chat Noir, completely shocked at discovering who was behind Mayura’s mask; one furiously charging towards Hawkmoth. One who was crying on a roof one night; he never told her why. And then… 

…The last one. The one who told her he needed time. That he needed to retreat for a while for his own sanity. That he wasn’t ready for an identity reveal, not yet. How had things come down to that? Ladybug didn’t know. She couldn’t know. And he said he would let her know when the time was right.

‘It seemed that the time had never been right’, she thought bitterly.

“I don’t know what made you sad, Marinette. If it was me, then I am sorry.” he told her once she had calmed down.

She swallowed. “It… Don’t you worry about it.” she told him. “And you will probably be gone in a short time if everything is going fine.” she chuckled.

He smiled softly. “You’re right; but it doesn’t mean that I can’t stay there with you so you can feel better!” he gave her a warm smile. “The others, uh… Were busy and worried for Adrien and went after him, for some reasons.” he frowned. He then looked sadly towards the inside of the apartment, where Adrien probably was, as if worried of something else than simply Adrien’s well-being. “They’re all in Alya and Nino’s room.”

“That is sweet of you.” she told him. He turned his head back towards her.

“I could tell you a joke if you’d like.”

She looked at him with wide eyes. She hadn’t heard him joke since… Well, since.

“How do you call a cat that can support a house?” he asked, taking her silence as a confirmation for him to go on. She continued to stare at him with wide eyes, not knowing how to answer.

A teasing smile appeared on his face. “A caterpillar!” he said sounding way too proud with himself.

Marinette couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing. Blame it on her nerves, or the fact that the joke was so lame that it was what made it funny, or that she had already heard it on patrol and her Chat Noir had assured her that–

“Thanks! I came up with it myself!”

Yeah, that. She slowly calmed down and smiled tiredly with closed eyes. Sweet nostalgia.

“I don’t know what has gotten you so down, Marinette,” Chat Noir spoke again, “but the girl I know is amazing. And she can accomplish anything she sets her eyes on. So no matter what, I am sure that you can summon her because she never left. And she can help you to overcome what is making you sad if you give her the time and chance.” And it was such a naive and a Chat thing to say but also had he always been so wise?

She took a deep breath. “You’re not going to remember anything when you’ll come back, are you?” she asked him.

Chat Noir seemed to ponder her question for a few seconds. “I don’t think so,” he answered, “at least that’s what happened every time an akuma has sowed discord.”

“I thought so too.” Marinette said. She actually already knew that but she felt like she needed some kind of confirmation. Before saying what she was about to say.

She sighed. “I missed you, you know. I still do.” she started. She couldn’t see Chat Noir fixing her with a questioning look since her eyes were closed, but she could feel it. “You disappeared a few months after Hawkmoth and Mayura were defeated. I never knew why… Well… I knew something was wrong. But you never told me.”

She heard Chat Noir gulped. “Why… Why would I have told you, Marinette?” he asked.

She smiled and chuckled quietly but it sounded sad even to her ears. “Because I am – was – still am – your partner.” she let it sink in a few seconds before finally opening her eyes and turning to Chat Noir.

“I am Ladybug, Kitty.” she whispered so low that she was sure he heard her only thanks to his enhanced hearing.

He was staring at her with his mouth agape and eyes impossibly wide. He slowly raised a finger and pointed it at her.

“You are… You are?”

“Yes,” she said smiling while tears were gathering once again in her eyes. “Yes it’s me..”

A smile stretched onto his face and he was suddenly grinning happily.

“I knew it! I knew it had to be you! It makes so much sense! Oh wow – do you know who I am?” he asked excitedly.

Her smile dropped and she looked away.

“O–oh… You said I left didn’t you? But this is so stupid why would I–”

“I don’t know. I don’t know and I miss you and I want to be there for you if you’re in a bad place and…” she sighed and closed her eyes, trying to regain control of her breathing before she would be a sobbing mess once again.

“… I could tell you who I am?” Chat Noir suggested.

She smiled painfully. “No… It wouldn’t be fair, I guess… I guess I need to wait. For the older you to… Give me a sign.” but even she didn’t like the sound of it. She just wanted to beg Chat Noir to tell her who he was.

For some reasons, he looked back towards the inside of the apartment sadly. He then shook his head, sighed, and looked at her again.

“Why are you telling me? Not that I mind, of course, I am ecstatic to know who you are and that you are you but…” he trailed off.

“I guess I just wanted you to know.” she smiled softly. “So you would… Understand and… Because I want to be able to tell you and this is the closest I’ve been to you in two years and… A-and you’re going to disappear any minute now a-and…” she stared to sob again. She really hadn’t thought seeing Chat Noir would put such a wrench in her heart.

“Hey.” Chat Noir said, approaching her and putting his hand on her shoulder. “Hey, it’s okay. It’s okay. We will find a solution. I understand.” he soothed.

“Thanks, kitty.” she said while wiping a tear. She slowly approached her head of his and dropped a gentle kiss on his cheek. “You’re always there for me.”

“Apparently not so much these days…” he said sadly with rosy cheeks. “I am… Sorry. I don’t know what happened but… I truly am.”

“I know you are. I know you wouldn’t leave me without a good reason. Don’t worry about it.” she replied, wiping more tears out of her face. “I just hope that you are all right, wherever you are…”

They stared at each other for a little while without speaking. Suddenly, a pink light started to surround him.

“Oh no, I guess my time is up! There was something I wanted to do before–” Chat Noir said frantic.

Marinette tried to not let her panic seize her. “Thank you Chaton.. For everything. Goodbye and take care of you and of your Ladybug…” she said and ugh, she couldn’t fight the onslaught of tears that rolled down her cheeks at the idea of seeing him leave once again.

“I am Adrien Agreste!” he said while the last magic ladybug disappeared, making him fade away back into his own time.

I am Adrien Agreste.

I am Adrien Agreste.

Oh. OH. This explained so much and how had she never thought about this before–

Marinette scrambled to her feet and ran faster than she ever thought she had back inside the apartment.

____________

Thanks for the ask ♥ WELL I MAY HAVE OR MAY HAVE NOT COMPLETELY GONE OVERBOARD UH

I honestly have no idea what that is and how it came to my mind oh well, I hope you liked it though…! Again, I’ll try to keep the next ones short but I wanted to try something longer there.

5 emojis and 2 characters game 😊💩😱😻👀 (/!\ I already received a lot to do – thanks by the way – so you don’t feel like you have to send me new ones, I just leave the link here in case someone else want to participate to the game as well; I’m still accepting requests though but they won’t be dealt with too soon).

[thethousandyearwitch]

The Show Must Go On! - A Youtuber AU you didn’t want and didn’t need

Hisoka Morrow, italian Makeup Youtuber, enjoys his life in the comfort and occasional drama of his profession. But nothing brings more drama into his life than the eldest son of the Zoldyck fashion magazine empire.

Meanwhile, aspiring australian Twitch Streamer Gon Freecs forms a special bond to a Speedrunner commonly going by "Kil".

Chapter 2

FF.net link - AO3 link

Gon Freecs had started his twitch account mostly for fun. After he had saved enough of his money from summer jobs to afford a computer for himself, the young boy had discovered the vast world of video games, diving headfirst into whatever flash games or free steam games he could (Until Mito caved and gave him some redeemable online gift cards as a present). Pretty quickly he started making connections over some of those games, getting invited to discord groupchats, and developing friendships with people he’d frequently play with.

One Day, his friend Leorio, a medical student from France who Gon had met through one of those groupchats, asked if he wanted to join his Sunday Stream. He explained that they’d just team up for a couple of rounds of Fortnite, and Gon could leave whenever he wanted to if he ended up not liking the Twitch experience. Leorio did not admit to the fact that he only asked Gon because his usual partner bailed due to a bad hangover, and he himself was too hungover to manage a stream by himself. This resulted in a lively evening filled with banter, excited yelling, and only minor technical difficulties considering Gons location further out in the country. Leorio ended the stream, thanking his viewers, signing off, but he stayed on call with Gon.

“Thanks so much for jumping in today, I owe you!” His French accent wasn’t too thick, but it still curled around his words.  

“Its no problem! It was actually pretty fun, so if you ever need another stream-pal...” The young boy trailed off as he started to feel faint traces of sleepiness creeping up on him. His computer screen was the only light on in the room, and it wasn’t exactly gentle on his eyes.

“About that actually; Have you thought about trying to stream for yourself?”

“Huh?” Gon could hear the tell-tale creaking of Leorios chair as he reclined back. “I mean, you’ve definitely got the energy for it, you’re not half bad at playing video games; Though that’s not really a requirement...Point is, I think you’d have fun with it.” Gon let the thought of it roll around his mind like a marble. He did have a lot of fun livestreaming this once, and there wasn’t anything that exactly spoke against it, except maybe that his sleep schedule could suffer under it. But that may as well be expected of a boy his age.

“Do you think people would really come to watch me play video games?” He finally asked, voice lined more with curiosity rather than insecurity. “Are you kidding? My chat loved you! Everyone loves a cute kid whose always one victory royale away from changing his legal name into his gamer tag and develop an addiction to monster energy.” Gon giggled in reply, “I’m not even allowed to drink those.” “Thank God you aren’t, if you had any more energy than you already have, you’d probably explode on the spot. Those things are loaded with junk anyways.” Gon decided not to bring up the infamous Redbull-pyramid that always lingered in the corner of Leorios videos. He could always use that another time if Leorio tried to lecture him about healthy living habits.

“Well, I guess I could try it out this week…But I think I’d need a guide to help me set the whole thing up…” Gon grinned to himself, hearing the familiar creaking again as Leorio sat up straight on the other end.

“I mean, I did say I owe you, and who would I be to leave a kid struggling with modern technology. And since my chat seemed to love you, I may even host your first stream, get you some exposure, y’know?” Mission success, Gon fed into Leorios ego and ensured that he wouldn’t have to struggle with stream setup by himself. He was quite thankful for the older mans (by stretch of that word) help and friendship, almost like an older brother, switching between caring protectiveness and friendly torment.

“Now, isn’t it time for you to get some shut-eye?” Busted. Gon glanced at the clock in the corner of his screen, 12:13 am. They said their Goodbyes, and the young boy settled into bed almost as quickly as he fell asleep.

The coming week, as promised, Leorio had helped Gon figure out his stream setup, settling for his channel name ‘Foxbeargaming’. With each passing day and conversation about the topic, Gon felt the static inside him build up, excitement and anticipation mixing in his bloodstream, until that long-awaited Friday.

And it was worth that wait. Gon spend a good 3 hours that day streaming Fortnite, at first in Teams with Leorio and his usual stream-pal Zepile, and later a few single matches. He hadn’t even realized how easy it came to him to interact with chat, leisurely talking about what came to mind, joking about events in the game, and just basking in this new way of releasing his bubbly energy. Leorio had warned him that he may feel exhausted after the first stream, but that’s not at all what the young boy experienced; After turning everything off, he was still beaming with joy. When he nestled into bed, he curled to his side, trying to repress his smile, though it would still take a good hour before he had calmed down enough to drift to sleep.

That joy he had experienced was enough to drive him to continue to stream at least once every 5 days, not consistent enough to build a schedule, but often enough to slowly gather a fanbase, loyal viewers who started tuning in whenever he announced a stream. It took a couple of months before people started posting his stream highlights to YouTube, and after that only a few weeks before someone offered to do official edits for him, on his own YouTube channel. A YouTube channel ended up drawing even more attention to him, people in Twitch-chat mentioning they found him through compilations and highlights.

Of the people whose attention was caught by the bright faced boy, one appeared for the first time in chat while he was streaming Super Mario 64, a palate cleanser from his usual Fortnite streams. The first message had been inconspicuous enough, provoking, but not too much out of the ordinary.

“KilCat666: try a BLJ lol”  

This however prompted Gon's entire chat to egg him on to try various speedrun tactics, until the rest of the stream was spent attempting (and failing) a “Lobby Backwards Long Jump”. Gon took it well and promised chat that if they wanted to he’d try to practice again on the next stream, asking for tips in his Discord chat. Speedrunning wasn’t really his way of playing games, he was too impatient and would rather experience the game as intended, but it shook things up, and was a surprisingly great way to regain focus after playing a different game for too long. Soon enough, the Server started bubbling with tutorials, tips, and heated discussions about optimal routes. Gon read through the chat, enjoying how everyone seemed to get into the topic, while also mourning his dwindling attention span as more and more messages came in. With the overflow of information, his brain felt like it was thrown into a deep fryer (Though maybe he was just hungry). Defeated, he dropped his head on his desk. Maybe he bit off more than he could chew. How was he supposed to take all this information in and actually learn it in time for the next stream? This was worse than school. Maybe he should ju-

Bloop.

Gon raised his head from his desk, greeted by a new private message. It wasn’t anyone from his friends-list, but that wasn’t too unusual, a lot of people from his Server would DM him, and he didn’t mind talking with anyone who had something to say to him.

“Kil: Yo.”

“Kil: do you need like help with SM64 lol”

The young boy adjusted his tired eyes to the screen, trying to find recognition into the profile picture of a white cat, but not finding it.

“GON: Hi!! :^D I’m taking tips right now if you have any!”

“Kil: your inputs were really sloppy lol”

Ouch, though true.

“Kil: but you’ve got morale at least”

“Kil: I made a short guide on my channel, if u wanna check it out?”

Attached to the last message was a link to a YouTube video, and just as announced, it was a eight minute tutorial on “LBLJ”, with text overlay explaining the various steps. What stood out more to Gon however, was the view and subscriber count to the Channel ‘Kilcat666’. After scrolling through the channel a bit more, and following another link to an adjacent Twitch channel with the same name, it dawned on him; This guy was a pro.

“GON: WOW :^O you are really good at this!!!!”

For a while, Gon thought that’s it. He browsed through a couple more of this kid’s videos. He was usually just referred to as ‘Kil’ or in rare instances ‘Killu’, and there wasn’t much on him as a person, just a short bio: “Kil, 14, him/his, Yorkshire area. SM64 0 Star contender.”. His streams of attempting to break the World record for any given game got a reasonable amount of viewers, with a steady fanbase that would spam inside jokes and cat emojis in chat. And in no single video did he ever show his face, or even speak. The only real communication he seemed to do with his audience was the occasional answer in chat, or text-overlays in his YouTube videos. Gon thought about how he was a little honoured to have another well known streamer actually give him advice and watch his stuff, though obviously it seemed that Kil wasn’t interested in keeping more in conta-

Bloop.

“Kil: Thanks uh, if you’d want to, we could like make a deal?”

“GON: What kind of deal? :^O”

“Kil: I could show you some tricks for casual speedrunning”

“Kil: And maybe if you want to you could show me how to get better at fortnite lol”

Gon was beaming. He wasn’t sure why, but he was grinning from ear to ear, and it didn’t even register to himself that he was already typing up a response until he hit the enter button.

“GON: Sure!!!!!! :^D!!!! Have you ever played before? We can team up with a friend of mine for the first couple rounds!”

  Killua was never a child with many friends. Or any friends. Growing up sheltered by his family, with the mindset of one day inheriting a multimillion-dollar company, it was taught to him that acquaintances were convenient, friends were distractions.

When he got pulled out of school and put into home-schooling, it was because his friends at school were distractions.

When he snuck out to play with other kids in the country, he was placed on supervised house arrest, because he had been too distracted.

When he noticed his brother appearing in some weirdos YouTube video, he had to be told “That man is not my friend, he is a work associate.”

And like a drop of water can gradually tear through stone, the constant echoing of this rule tore through Killuas head. He still didn’t want to overtake the family legacy, but he knew better than to endanger others with his efforts of finding friendship. Instead, he decided to find solitary distractions, and found those in video games he first borrowed (or rather, took without being noticed) from his older brother. Gradually, he got more and more invested in video games, how they work, and the cultures surrounding them. That is how he found out about Speedrunning and streaming. Speedrunning was fascinating to the young boy. The effort to clear a game as fast as possible, faster than anyone else, past all supposed limitations a game would present casual players with. Specific tricks would look messy and incoherent to untrained eyes, but the hidden inputs were mechanical and exact. This is a distraction worth investing in.

At first, he didn’t care much about streaming or even recording his attempts. However, as he was slowly approaching Regional and World Records, there was hardly a way around it if he wanted to get verified records published. So, he started a Twitch Account, opting to go for his shortened name “Kil”, a half-assed attempt at keeping his family off of his tail. And as his collection of Top-3 Records grew, so did his audience when he was streaming attempts. When he got used enough to a game, he learned how to read chat while playing, even occasionally taking the time to answer questions, followed by a wave of excited cat emotes.

These are not friends, they are fans.

If he could continue to justify this, keep these people at a distance from him, it would be fine. Minimal interaction. No attachment. Easy enough.

It should have been easy enough.

But when he went through active play sessions of Super Mario 64 on Twitch, and he chose to tune into the first stream that popped up, it stopped being easy. It stopped being easy when he found himself laughing along with the cheery voice of the young streamer.

He wasn’t sure what he expected when he sent that first discord message. A small part of him hoped that this Gon kid wouldn’t reply. That way he could have just written him off as some vain lowtier streamer who isn’t worth Killuas time.

But of course he replied. And of course he would reply so kindly despite being contacted by a random stranger. Killua could feel something pull in his chest writing back and forth with Gon. This was just friendly- no. This was normal banter between two streamers who were exchanging helpful information. Two young, up-and-coming professionals in video game streaming, who can communicate like professionals.

Like work associates.

Work associates help each other out. They make deals. So, it would be okay if Killua would make a deal with Gon. Maybe get to know him in the progress, just a little, just enough to get a sense of his personality.

The pull in Killuas chest subsided when Gon agreed to his deal. But it would come back the first time they were on a call together, the first time Killua let someone else online hear his voice, hushed through a shitty in-ear cable headset, careful that he wouldn’t draw attention if someone were to walk past his room. And it subsided again when he heard Gon laugh at every bad joke he’d tell, loosened even more when he let himself laugh with him. Gon would try his best to follow any instructions he’d been given to learn speedrun strategies, and in turn Killua would let himself be guided through fortnite battles and aim-lessons. They worked well together, as if they had known each other for years, falling into a natural rhythm of jokes and casual conversation. This rhythm would continue for weeks, always coordinating when to call, taking turns with the games they would play.

Slowly, they started branching out to more games to play with each other. Slowly, Gon introduced Killua to his friends. Slowly, Killua got used to speaking on stream, just so Gon and he could guest-star on each other’s streams.

Through this gradual process, Killua felt like he was trapped in a pot of water, and the heat was being turned up just slow enough that he wouldn’t notice until its too late. Until the pull in his chest would threaten to tear him apart.

And then it did, as his mother raised her voice at the breakfast table, “You’ve been spending an awful lot of time on your Computer, Killua.”

“So is Milluki.” He tried to keep his voice unwavering, desperately trying to keep all of these gathered secrets behind it.

“We are just concerned of what you are doing on there; The internet has a lot of dangerous sides..” Kikyo Zoldyck was awfully good at turning her voice into a wail at any given time. Killua could feel his phone in his pocket vibrate from what he was sure was a message from Gon.

“..Maybe we should put some restriction on your use of it. Before it can start distracting you.”

[lfglistings]

Critical Roll Wildmount Campaing

Game: D&D 5e Group preferred: Online on Roll20 Experience: Open to all Location/Timezone: Eastern standard time Availability: 8pm Monday Night Preferred role: DM 

Welcome one and all to Wildmount, this fantastically land is a wonderful sandbox for your D&D pleasure, brought to you by me DM Mystic. Our epic adventure begins in the Dwendalian Empire which is in drect conflict with the Kryn Dynasty. For one reason or another, your character will find themselves in Gnomish city Hupperdook, an semi-independent polis in the Dwendalian empire. Earning it's independence through their unique ability to provide the Empire with high quality and power weapons of war. Whether your here to marvel at the Gnomish creations or looking to learn a earnest trade during these uncertain times. Strap in fate has something different in mind for you and where she will take you only your actions can decide!!

This is a truly open ended campaign, my plan is to bring you from 1 to level 20, if you aspire to be one like one of the Mighty Nein, shoot for the stars! Word of caution in your ambition though, I am not Matt Mercer, this will be YOUR adventure and I will be the DM to guide you, so let take a chance and roll some DICE!

Now that we have gone over the Hype and got you blood rushing a bit, lets go over some of the basics of how the game shall be run, there won't be any shockers, if you a good player, please feel free to skip the point below:

1) Cursing is allowed at my table, however in moderation. Should you design a fowl mouthed character by all mean RP that shit up all you like, but keep it relatively clean so as to not make other uncomfortable.

2) Be respectful of the time people spend in the spotlight, please try and keep talking over one another to a minimum. Granted we are all getting to know one another and over time we will develop a tempo that will nearly cut this down to non-existence.

3) Mic check, mi mi mi MIC CHECK! Lets all face it at one time or another we've all been in a game and heard tons of backround of another players Mic. This can and does diminish the fluidity of the game as well as people enjoyment. No one needs to hear you munching on cheetos between your round of combat!

4) This for the majority will run as rules as written, if you want to do something on the fly that kind of bends the rules but doesn't outright break them... Well let the RULE OF COOL Rule! Though it will be sparing, reserved for epic moments and not every session. I am fine with Rule lawyers, but once I made a call let it be and we can chat after the session as much as you like. 5) Be Cool and have FUN!!

What you can expect from me:

I am light-hearted, easy going and have a great sense of humor, I am here to have as much fun if not more than you guys! I really do strive to put you in that world, in that moment and help you fully realize in vivid description how cool and bad ass your character and your actions are. Conversely, actions do have consequences, so things can go real sideways if you murder hobo! This will of course vary with each person and each group I run, but I am for a 30% RP, 10-15% exploration and the rest combat. I will by no means will ever make you RP if you don't want to, but I do reward good RP and inventive thinking more than combat XP. I run a mix of XP and milestone type system, that account for attendance, so if you miss a whole bunch of games you might be a level or two behind the rest of the party, which is totally fine! Life happens, it is what it is, Now for the nitty Gritty:

I love providing an immersive experience, I will be using a soundboard through discord for background noise, ambient sounds, battle music and sound effects. I use a voice mod app to give each NPC there own sound, because I am not a voice actor! I am putting in a ton of effort to make this a memorable, please have a good headset so you can take full advantage of my efforts. There is a choice to be made right of the bat... Roll for stats OR take point buy once you've decided there's no going back until that character either gets written out or dies (which you can completely do the 1st session if you want). Next Variant human is okay and every other race that is within my compendium!

This is pay to play, for anyone interested in joining or have any question hit me up on discord:

mysticvhedd#6266

https://app.roll20.net/join/8673079/glhcow

[mysticvhedd]

Wildmount Monday Night 8pm (paid)

Game: D&D 5e Group preferred: Online (Roll20) Experience: All Levels Location/Timezone: Eastern Availability: Monday Night 8pm Preferred role: DM

Welcome one and all to Wildmount, this fantastically land is a wonderful sandbox for your D&D pleasure, brought to you by me DM Mystic. Our epic adventure begins on the not too far from the jewel of the Menagerie coast, Port Damali. For one reason or another, your character will find themselves in Palma Flora, whether it be to enjoy a peaceful retreat or the thrill of shark hunting, or whatever marvelous inventive reason your own design. All aboard! The waters looks calm, warm and inviting, but beneath the waves there is a mystery to unravel!

This is a truly open ended campaign, my plan is to bring you from 1 to level 20, if you aspire to be one like one of the Mighty Nein, shoot for the stars! Word of caution in your ambition though, I am not Matt Mercer, this will be YOUR adventure and I will be the DM to guide you, so let take a chance and roll some DICE!

Now that we have gone over the Hype and got you blood rushing a bit, lets go over some of the basics of how the game shall be run, there won't be any shockers, if you a good player, please feel free to skip the point below:

1) Cursing is allowed at my table, however in moderation. Should you design a fowl mouthed character by all mean RP that shit up all you like, but keep it relatively clean so as to not make other uncomfortable.

2) Be respectful of the time people spend in the spotlight, please try and keep talking over one another to a minimum. Granted we are all getting to know one another and over time we will develop a tempo that will nearly cut this down to non-existence.

3) Mic check, mi mi mi MIC CHECK! Lets all face it at one time or another we've all been in a game and heard tons of backround of another players Mic. This can and does diminish the fluidity of the game as well as people enjoyment. No one needs to hear you munching on cheetos between your round of combat!

4) This for the majority will run as rules as written, if you want to do something on the fly that kind of bends the rules but doesn't outright break them... Well let the RULE OF COOL Rule! Though it will be sparing, reserved for epic moments and not every session. I am fine with Rule lawyers, but once I made a call let it be and we can chat after the session as much as you like. 5) Be Cool and have FUN!!

What you can expect from me:

I am light-hearted, easy going and have a great sense of humor, I am here to have as much fun if not more than you guys! I really do strive to put you in that world, in that moment and help you fully realize in vivid description how cool and bad ass your character and your actions are. Conversely, actions do have consequences, so things can go real sideways if you murder hobo! This will of course vary with each person and each group I run, but I am for a 30% RP, 10-15% exploration and the rest combat. I will by no means will ever make you RP if you don't want to, but I do reward good RP and inventive thinking more than combat XP. I run a mix of XP and milestone type system, that account for attendance, so if you miss a whole bunch of games you might be a level or two behind the rest of the party, which is totally fine! Life happens, it is what it is, Now for the nitty Gritty:

I love providing an immersive experience, I will be using a soundboard through discord for background noise, ambient sounds, battle music and sound effects. I use a voice mod app to give each NPC there own sound, because I am not a voice actor! I am putting in a ton of effort to make this a memorable, please have a good headset so you can take full advantage of my efforts. There is a choice to be made right of the bat... Roll for stats OR take point buy once you've decided there's no going back until that character either gets written out or dies (which you can completely do the 1st session if you want). Next Variant human is okay and every other race that is within my compendium!

This is pay to play, for anyone interested in joining or have any question hit me up on discord:

mysticvhedd#6266

https://app.roll20.net/join/8673079/FfN2iA

[kusunokihimea]

                                                                     [ x x x ]

     [ So due to life being a TOTAL MESS these last several weeks, I actually managed to miss a rather important date last week...that being the fourth anniversary of Ryū and I RPing on Tumblr! It’s weird, it both feels like it’s been longer, and shorter...but! To celebrate, I thought we’d do a little shout-out to the peeps who have stuck around the longest, interacted the most, and overall just made these past four years as fun as they have been. 

     Sadly very few of our original partners remain, but we’ve gained and lost many over the past four years! This, of course, isn’t mean to exclude anyone who has found us more recently (and some inactive blogs may be excluded, but are still loved), but as a little something for those who have been around for the long haul, and who we’ve gotten to know well both IC and OOC! The Naruto RPC has seen its share of ups and downs and changes, after all. So without further adieu...here we go! ]

@historias-multorum :: Little sib! Someone I’ve known I think pretty much since you started, right? A wonderful friend, and so many great interactions between our many muses. It’s been so awesome watching you and your muses grow since you arrived in the community. Tumblr wouldn’t be what it is to us without you <3

@ascxndinggg :: MY SON. Core of my heart, receiver of puns, sharer of memes. The last of my OG mutuals from those first few weeks when so many of us OC blogs banded together and got each other going. You’ve grown so much little one, as a person and a writer, and it’s humbling to see. I love you, kiddo <3

@duckbuttsurvivor :: Sanjiii! One of the first Sasuke blogs we got to interact with, and my goodness Ryū scooped him up as her little brother so fast xD She adores him, and you’re such a good bean, Sanji. A wonderful artist (who has drawn FAR too many things for us (which we love ofc)) and just a sweet guy with sweet muses that we adore <3

@despairinghxpe / @uchiha-madara :: Oh Phoenix, where to begin with you? The clicking between our muses was so much fun to explore (and in some cases, so unexpected!), and remain some of my most memorable interactions we’ve had in this site since coming here. Your writing is phenomenal, and you’ve always been such a sweetie to talk to whenever we get the chance <3

@frogprinceus / @redlineoffate :: MITSUKI! Oh my gosh, writing with you has ALWAYS been such a blast. I love your muses, and all of their bonds with my silly beans. From father-daughter interactions with Jiraiya, to ItaRyū, to all Ryū’s friends on redline, there’s never a shortage of bonds between our blogs. And you are legitimately one of the nicest muns we’ve ever had the pleasure to meet! <3

@hyugainterior :: Hina-mun, you too are one of the brightest lights in the Naruto (and other fandoms) RPC. Your voracious positivity never fails to inspire me. While we don’t write IC, you’re still one of the most memorable people I’ve met during my time here, and every snippet of conversation we have is a gift I treasure. I just hope you’re keeping up with your own well-being as much as you strive to do so for others <3

@sennenryuu :: Another AMAZING OC blog - one that’s dipped in and out of the RPC, but one I’ve adored since discovering it. N, your level of attention to detail of your character and her lore is something I very much look up to and strive to match as a character creator and worldbuilder myself. We’re so happy to see you back in the community, and can’t wait to write with you and get to know you more <3

@yukaikokoro :: STAR! Devourer of my lore x’’D Seriously though, you’ve become one of my closest friends, and I love just chatting with you, and writing with you. It’s been so much fun talking about DL with you, and you’ve honestly been a huge help in pushing my imagination further with it. Now all I gotta do is write it, right? But seriously, we love you both <3

@scnjuclan :: Another blog we’ve formed such awesome IC bonds with. I love our family verse so much - it’s one of my favorite canon-based verses. Little Ryū looks up to Tsunade so much, and uncle Nawaki is a major favorite! All of our interactions always feel so welcoming and organic, I love them. And it’s always great to chat with you, Bailey <3

@silverfaxg :: Oh my goodness, this is seriously the cutest OC blog we’ve ever encountered. Kadia is SUCH A SWEETHEART, and I adore our interactions, especially with Ryū and with Reiji. They’re all just so fluffy and filled with good feels. And chatting ooc is always fun, talking about our silly beans and what shenanigans they’ve gotten themselves into next, ahaha <3

@kyuuzuchiha / @xkaekox :: Booooo~ One of the sweetest muns on the planet. And I know you don’t write too much anymore, but our interactions with both Naruto and Sasuke are too beloved NOT to say something. Between the sibling-like aspect with Naruto, and the budding romance with Sasuke, just...! So many great times. And of course we miss YOU alongside those boyos, and hope you’re doing well my friend <3

@quiet-kunoichi :: Jack, my dear friend. Golly I miss writing with your girl. The modern thread we had was honestly one of my all-time faves and I miss it to pieces, it was SO GOOD. And I love having our little pop-up chats! I hope you’re doing well, and look forward to any return you might make in the future so our girlies can continue being gay messes xD <3

@abyssaldespair :: mEEEG! Bruh. One of my most active RP partners, and one of my closest friends. Still astounds me how we went from cracky side interactions to the mess of shipping and threads and fics we have now, my gosh xD I LOVE our IC stuff, and also just getting to chat with you. Just! One of my besties for sure <3

@noharin :: I AM SO HAPPY YOU’RE ON TUMBLR AGAIN AHHH. I am A Mess at keeping up with Discord stuff but ohman, it’s so great having Rin-senpai back in town across all my silly bloggus. Mey you’re a peach and I love ya and we’ve had so many great threads and AUs. By far one of my favorite blogs and muns <3

@ncgeru :: Oh my gosh, this blog man - this blog xD You are so much fun to talk to OOC even if we don’t do so too often. My goodness. And don’t even get me started on your boy. He’s such a gem! Ryū cares about that boyo a ridiculous amount, and I still giggle to myself over the ToD game with him and Obito duking it out, my gosh xD I love our interactions and always love to see where they go next <3

@i-minato-chan :: I don’t get to write Ryū when she’s a smol too often, so honestly this blog and the AU we write in is SUCH a breath of fresh air. Your little Minato is such a good boy, and Ryū’s friendship with him is so pure and adorable. I love it. Whether it’s them being nerds together or just chilling, each thread has been so much fun <3

@masshirohebi :: Okay real talk, your blog intimidated me for the LONGEST TIME - you’re such a beautiful writer and your characterization is just! So amazing. I’m so glad to be finally interacting with you more. Seriously your Oro is just beyond perfect. I adore them and all their sneaky ways xD And you’re such a sweetie OOC, thank you for writing with us <3

@oc-lootcrate :: Oh my goodness, the OCs on this blog are so GREAT! We need to interact with more of them, I just haven’t had the time dfjhgdfg but the ones we HAVE written with have been a blast. Whether it’s adorable lil Senri or Ryū being this || close to nabbing Kenji, your muses are awesome. And you’re so sweet and easy to talk to, a v v good bloggu <3

@thecorpsecarrier​ :: This blog is just so...unique. I love the idea of the corpse corps, and Jun is such an intriguing character. I have LOVED our threads with the smols. Ryū is so curious about her and just! Wants to be friendos. I love them. And you’ve always been super approachable. I hope life isn’t keeping you too busy, and we get to write again soon! <3

     And to all of our other mutuals we have yet to get to know, we love you guys too! And we look forward to getting to interact both IC and OOC as more time passes. Tumblr RP has, at times, been a rough place to be...but overall it’s been a second home full of wonderful friends who have gotten Ryū and I through many a tough time. So even if you aren’t listed here, you’ve made a difference in this nerd’s life one way or another, so...thank you, and we look forward to another year <3

[gem-quest]

[ QUEST 02. — I N F E R N A ]

taglist: @bebemoon​ @now-on-elissastillstands​ @armadasneon​ @mysteriousdeathofpoe​

[ M E R M A I D . C O V E . L E V E L . 3 0 ]

They managed to beat Aydina and the pirates, thank God, because otherwise, Aydina’s commentary would have been insufferable. Tourmaline, an annoying Obsidian player whose “bubblegum” ability was nevertheless rather impressive, discreetly attached some of the sticky hot pink substance as she hurled the turtle-shell-turned-dodgeball back at the pirate queen. The dodgeball connected with Aydina’s arm and stuck, the momentum from the throw pushing her out of bounds and securing the victory for the rest of them.

As soon as the annoying sappy NPC lady finished her dialogue on the shore of the beach, she disappeared in a puff of sky blue smoke, transforming into the Angel’s Breath. The SS-rank potion looked like a wispy blue semi-gaseous substance, encased in a crystalline bottle with a mini halo floating around the cork and tiny white wings attached to the back, “flapping” to keep the potion bottle afloat.

The Angel’s Breath was directly in front of Neddy - they’d activated the event under her account, which had completely slipped Inferna’s mind...until now. The potion hovered cheerfully in front of her, a stark contrast against the tension that filled the air as their teammates eyed the grand prize. Out of the corner of her eye, she could make out other players closing in on them.

Inferna rolled her eyes. She was hungry as fuck, and she didn’t care about the Angel’s Breath. Turning to Neddy, she said, “Look, I hear they’re serving free sushi back in Yue City, so if we-” her words were cut off as Tourmaline, the player who’d won the game for them, sent a stream of sticky pink magical “bubblegum” towards the potion, evidently intending to take it for herself.

“Hey now, what the hell?” Inferna shouted, just as one of their other teammates stomped on a pile of Black Pearls, releasing a thick cloud of smoke.

Inferna had one of her flaming daggers out in an instant. Using it as a light source to see through the smoke, she grabbed Neddy’s hand - not bothering to check where the Angel’s Breath was - and began running in a random direction. 

As she pushed through the smoke, Inferna caught a glimpse of Morningstar’s scary-looking scythe swinging through the air (she’d have to thank the other Obsidian player for the ‘vodka potions’ at some other time), a flash of Tourmaline’s deceptively innocent bubblegum. And Balestra was ahead of them, some distance away. 

“Hurry up and cast an ictuium!” she yelled over her shoulder, dragging Neddy along with her.

“Okay, okay!” Neddy replied, evidently winded by their mad dash through the smoke.

[ Y U E . C I T Y . L E V E L . 01 ]

A blink of darkness, and then the two of them were back in Yue City, in an alleyway. Inferna came to a screeching halt, and they fell against the wall of the building next to them. Inferna was breathing hard - as was Neddy, who was clutching at the stitch in her side.

Inferna squinted, letting her eyes adjust to the bright sunlight. She glanced over at the Moonstone player. “You good?” she asked, picking herself up and holding a hand out for Neddy.

Neddy blew out a breath, puffing her cheeks before beginning to laugh. “That was...awesome!” She exclaimed, slapping her hand into Inferna’s.

Inferna grinned. “You think so?” She asked, and pulled Neddy to her feet. “Isn’t Aydina such an asshole? You see what I mean now, right?”

Inferna took a moment to scan their surroundings, trying to figure out how far they were from the free sushi event she’d heard about. “Let’s go get food?” She proposed. “I’m fucking starving.”

“Right behind you.”

Inferna grinned, upon hearing Neddy’s agreement, and she trotted out of the alleyway, pulling out her player-plexus to consult the Obsidian free food group chat she’d started not long after she first joined the game. Other players were sharing pics of their meals, and Inferna zoomed in on a picture of a small “rice bear”, evidently relaxing in a bowl of some kind of curry or broth.

“Oh my gosh! Look at this,” she said excitedly, thrusting her player-plexus into Neddy’s hands.

Neddy raised both of her eyebrows, and Inferna stifled a giggle when the other player’s stomach made an audible noise. “Let’s go,” she agreed.

Inferna grinned again. She started down the street in the direction of the town square, where there were supposed to be market stalls and outdoor picnic tables set up for the players.

A thought occurred to her. “Oh! Do you know what happened to the Angel’s Breath?” She asked, pausing and turning to face Neddy.

Neddy blinked. “Oh,” she said. She reached around to her rucksack and rummaged for a moment. Finally, she drew the potion out, the vial enveloped by a faint blue glow as the miniature angel wings attached to it flapped cheerfully. “Right. I have it.” 

Neddy seemed troubled, as she stared at the potion. “So much fuss over this stupid thing, and I don’t even have anyone to resurrect.”

Inferna grinned and punched Neddy in the arm, playfully. “Holy shit!” She exclaimed, admiring the potion. “Well, fuss or not, I bet you could sell it for a ton of gold,” Inferna said. “If you don’t want to actually resurrect someone.”

“Yeah…” Neddy said thoughtfully, turning the bottle over in her fingers. “Maybe.”

Inferna punched Neddy in the arm again. “Well, put that away for now, and let’s go get food!” And with that, Inferna spun on her heel, tugging Neddy along behind her as she determinedly headed down the street. It wasn’t long afterwards that they reached the sunny open square, filled with the hustle and bustle of all sorts of players who wanted to get their hands on some free food. After briefly consulting the map, Inferna dragged Neddy towards the rice bear stall. She quickly grabbed two bowls from the wooden table, and then plopped down at a picnic table, taking out a standard-sized bottle of Inferna Sauce.

She spread some sauce liberally over her own rice bear, swirling the bright red condiment into fun little curlicues to “decorate” her own bear, before she plunked the bottle down in the middle of the table. “You can have as much as you want,” she said, beaming at Neddy as she pulled out her player-plexus and tapped open the ‘camera’ function. “Say cheese?”

Neddy took the sauce bottle and beamed for Inferna. “Formaggio!” said the other girl, as Inferna snapped a picture and quickly forwarded it to her.

Neddy then sauced her rice bear just as liberally. Inferna took a picture of her own bear and then tasted a spoonful of the curry. “Oh, this is so good,” she said, and took another bite.

She was halfway into her third bite when Inferna remembered the potions from Morningstar. Inferna put her spoon down and rummaged through her things until she found the bottle - it looked like a standard potion bottle, cork and all, filled with a clear liquid.

“Morningstar made me a vodka potion. Or was it tequila? Something like that,” she said, by way of explanation. “I’m still waiting for something in this game to smoke like weed, but so far, no luck.”

She grinned, and put the potion down on the table, going back to rummaging through her inventory for something to use as a shot glass - as well as something to chase it with. “You want some?”

Neddy wrinkled her nose. “No, thanks,” she said. “I’ve never been much of a drinker.”

Inferna laughed. “Suit yourself,” she said, finding a teacup that she’d (probably) stolen from the Tearoom to substitute for a shot glass. There was no soda in-game, as far as Inferna knew, so she also took out a bottle of pomegranate juice that she’d somehow gotten her hands on, a while back.

She uncorked the potion, sniffed at it, then poured herself a shot. She then passed a teacup to Neddy and poured her some of the pomegranate juice.

“Cheers?” Inferna said, holding up her own teacup.

“Cheers,” Neddy grinned. They clinked their cups together. “To us, the victorious...victors. Eh, whatever. We kicked ass today.”

Inferna grinned, too. “We did,” she agreed, downing her drink and then immediately chugging some of the pomegranate juice, straight from the bottle. She let out a satisfied ahhhh, then took a bite of her food.

“Tell me how the sauce tastes?”

Neddy, mouth full of juice, hummed with a thumbs up. Then, rubbing her hands together, she said, “Right, let’s try this.”

Inferna watched as Neddy took a bite, sat for a moment, and then her eyes started to water. She started to flap her hand and suck air to cool the inside of her mouth. There was no way to help herself and look demure at the same time.

Inferna chuckled, and handed Neddy the open bottle of pomegranate juice. “Good, then?” She asked, taking another bite of her own rice bear.

Neddy coughed into the crook of her arm, her face turning pink. She accepted the juice gratefully and took a swig. “De-delicious,” she wheezed. “I...love it. What’s that made from-m? Garlic and hellfire?”

Inferna giggled, and drizzled a bit more of the sauce over her food. “Too spicy?” she asked, pouring herself another shot. “It’s my own recipe. I had to sort of make it up on the go inside the game, but once I found the right ingredients it was easy,” she said, and downed the second shot, wincing slightly at the taste and taking a swig of the juice to wash it down.

She grinned again. “Though maybe we should just stick to giving Jack the sauce.”

“Still,” Neddy said, looking down at her lap. “You’ve gotten pretty far on your own skill. It’s nice to have someone around again who knows what they’re doing. God knows I don’t.”

Inferna shrugged. “Nah, not really, I was on Reddit 24/7 before. And there was a Discord server with other players that I regularly consulted. I didn’t figure out most of this game by myself.” She shrugged, again, and grinned. “I’m just here to fuck around before I have to graduate and get a boring desk job, you know?”

“What about you? Why’d you join Gem Quest?”

Neddy looked...uncomfortable? “Mm,” she began hesitantly. “A boy…. I joined to spend time with him.” 

Inferna cocked her head to the side, curious. “Oh? Was it Jack? I’d definitely join this game to spend time with Jack.”

At that, Neddy smirked a little. “No,” she said on an exhale, her shoulders lifting and falling. “I wish…. So, it’s no wonder you’re so savvy in this game- you’re a tech-head. Me and computers, not friends. I’m pretty sure Siri is out to get me, and every digital watch I’ve ever worn has died within twenty-four hours. And I still have a flip phone. So...” 

Inferna snorted out a laugh. “I mean, I prefer the term video game aficionado, but I guess you could say that. My parents made me major in computer science too, so…” she trailed off, thoughtfully. “In all honesty, I only joined Gem Quest because League has this thing where you have to pay $10 for each skin, and I’m not fucking made of money. And GQ has better clothes in general, I think.”

“How the fuck do you survive with a flip phone, though?!” 

Neddy shrugged and sipped her juice. “Smartphones intimidate me. I like simplicity…. You can’t even imagine how long it took me to figure out the Plexus. I think I was diving everyone crazy asking questions…. If we both make it out of here, maybe you can help me figure out Smartphones so I can finally enter the twenty-first century. Maybe start up an Instagram like all the other kids.” 

“Oh, yeah,” Inferna said, confidently. “I mean, the good thing about flip phones is that you can literally throw them at the wall and they’ll be fine. I dropped my old slide phone from 3 stories up once, and it worked perfectly.” 

Inferna was starting to feel the effects of the first shot - it wouldn’t be long before she was tipsy. Inferna was...kinda a lightweight, in all honesty, and taking two shots in a row, on a fairly empty stomach, wasn’t exactly her brightest idea ever.

She’d practically demolished the rice bear, though. After slurping up the last bit of the curry, she asked Neddy, “Are you in school, right now? I’m a junior, and like I said, a CS major.”

“Actually, before all of this I was waiting to be accepted to a school,” Neddy replied. Then, a little bashfully, she added, “For dance.”

Inferna’s eyes lit up. “Really?” she said, whistling. “That’s badass. I’ve never been able to dance a day in my life. When were you supposed to hear back?”

Neddy hugged her elbows and sat forward, her lilac hair swinging forward. “A couple weeks ago,” she answereed. “But I’m here, so...it’s unlikely, even if I did get accepted, that I’ll be going.”

Inferna frowned slightly. “Well, did you want to leave the game to check then?”

The other girl seemed slightly downcast, and before Inferna could press the issue further, a shadow passed overhead. Everyone nearby looked up, including Inferna.

Neddy said, “Oh. Jack’s looking for us.”  

Inferna squeed, and clapped her hands. “Let’s go meet up with him?” she asked, polishing off what remained of her food and taking one last shot. She took another swig of the juice and began putting her things back into her player-plexus, dragging out a box of sugar cubes as she did so.

Neddy did the same, downing the rest of her juice. She then stood and shouldered her rucksack. “Ready,” she announced. “Onward.”

So, with a bottle of sauce and the box of sugar cubes tucked in her bag, Inferna grabbed Neddy’s hand and began making her way out of the square and towards the Wildflower Meadow, following the shadow across the sky.

They were going to find Jack!!!!

[flipsideds]

“ oh, haha... ”  a default response to a very non-default situation –– a little post-show, barside rendez-vous with an older man who insists nour has been singing to directly to him the entire night. “ flirting ?  i... ”  

gentle eyes gloss over the banquet hall’s dimmed lights, bright smiles, flickering electric candles... “ . . . what’s that ? ”  and then he’s off, gin and tonic in hand. three strides and it’s already half-drained. yikes.

or, alternatively :  greetings loved ones!! my name is linc ( 21 / est / she/her ) and here is the ever so graceful, ever so unintentionally magnetic nour al-busiri! below the cut you’ll find a messy run-down. i am so excited to plot & write with all of you !!

( i’m scheduled for a tonsillectomy tomorrow so i’m gonna be so grateful for the distraction, y’all have no idea. ) 

if you want some great mood-setters for this beb’s backstory / insight into his soul, slap on some jacob collier, kevin garrett, or charlie burg ‘n let’s get cookin’ !

so this is all copy-pasted from a discord chat with devon bc i improvised nour’s entire life story over a span of... 10 minutes ?? bahaha pls enjoy i apologize in advance. ( i also put this in normal text size bc it is v long and i don’t want anyone hurting their eyes !! protect dem beautiful retinas <3 )

h i s t o r y .

his parents met in grade school in egypt, but then didn't reconnect until their masters studies crossed paths in london... immediately fell head over heels again ( had they been searching for one another in crowds since being 6-7 years old?? maybe... ). graduated top of their class, accepted job offers in london in the biopharmaceutical realm. but then. when nour was 3...

they were involved in a freak monorail accident on their way back from a science conference in amsterdam. the babysitter paid 80 quid to watch the kids for two nights became their sole protector in this world. british authorities had trouble contacting other kin, but managed to reach mr. al-busiri's mother, rashida, who was still living in dahab with her second husband, zaim.

the al-busiri's came from old money. so off nour goes ( and potentially his older bro if i decide he exists... potential wc with a rami malek fc tbh ) to live in the city which, unbeknownst to him, sparked his parents' storybook love.

so nour grows up in this like... picturesque seaside childhood. collects shells. bonds with his grandmother and her husband. they encourage him with school, etc. but he quickly shows that he excels at maths and... music? wow. that's unexpected. gets his first piano at 5. first guitar at 6. by 8 1/2, he's managed to hodge-podge together a little recording studio for himself in his bedroom, and he's constantly serenading his friends at school.

( death tw / illness tw ) then comes zaim's stroke. he lives for four months after, but he loses his ability to speak. his motor skills deteriorate. nour and his grandmother do their best to tend to him –– she's already about 40% down the macular degeneration path, but hasn't told him yet that her vision's going. so 10 y/o nour does what he does best: unconditional love and support, delivered through the gift of song. zaim dies after requesting his favorite song: 'blackbird' by the beatles, sung in verses alternating from english to arabic.

after,  it's just nour and rashida against the world ( maybe his brother too bergorghre if i decide he's a thing ) . rashida's forced to come clean about her vision the day she can't for the life of her find the bloody pen she just put down so she can finish signing off on nour's choir trip permission slip. ( it's right next to her, to her left, just out of her closing field of vision. ) things progress more rapidly after that. by the time nour's 16, his grandmother is legally blind. it's not an uncommon sight to see him at the markets or strolling along the beach with her on his arm. she refuses canes as long as nour's around. ( “ don't rob me of my youth, nuri-nuri [ my light ] ”  )

despite her growing dependency on him, she encourages him to apply to unis all over the globe. by the time college apps roll around, nour is somewhat of a local household name: he plays summer concerts, coffee shops, and is even asked to play at his teacher's wedding ceremony –– and his neighbor's cat funeral.

acceptances roll in. julliard. berkeley. chicago school of music. he chooses chicago, because there's someone there. someone he connected with online a few years back, a friend, but... could turn into something more. this hopeless romantic heedlessly ventures off to find out if this boy in chicago might... be someone. something more.

spoiler alert: he gets to chicago, starts music school. and each meet-up they set? gets pushed. sometimes it's traffic. a cold. transit trouble. can't get work off, sorry. things with ma are really tough. the excuses kept coming but... nour's naive. he believes every word. but in his second year of uni, things....... start getting suspicious. by chance, he spots this man in the window of a coffee shop downtown. overjoyed, he texts as much. but ... messages go read and unanswered. phone calls dwindle.

his music suffers. so does his muse. so much so that he's tempted to drop out, to throw in the towel, to just...... go back home. he speaks with his grandmother each day on the phone. she's doing well, stop worrying, nuri-nuri, your uncle is taking good care of me. nour goes on dates. thinks about chicago boy. thinks about him a lot.

he's 20 when it happens. sat on a stage in a little dive bar, tuning his acoustic guitar for an opening number, and there. those eyes. he knows them.

they talk after the show, in the alley. share a cigarette. and it's almost like... maybe things are finally clicking. maybe this is finally their shot.

except chicago boy ( neil ) says they have to stop talking. that he had to just... see nour for himself. see that he's real. hear him sing, and... move on. nour doesn't buy it. pushes back. asks why the hell neil'd come out now only to slink back to the shadows. things get heated. neil yells. and the men... the men who hear and come running ?  they think nour is the cause of it all.

( hate crime tw, violence tw )  how many kicks does it take to break to the center of a broken heart ? twelve. how many broken ribs does it take to immobilize a probably terrorist, dude ? four. shattered wrist. snapped ankle. broken arm. cracked skull. and neil scuttles off like nour's bad meat. bad blood. like he asked for this. 

chicago school of music receives a call from weiss memorial three days later.

nour never gets his degree. he breaks his apartment lease. flies home after he heals, spends a year with his grandmother and uncle. just... creating. writing, playing, trying to fill that void with something. but then things with his uncle get heated. he wants to put his own mother in a home, sell the estate, pocket the cash. nour fights it, but he's got no legal bearing.

the nursing home concept never takes hold, though, because his grandmother's still sharp as shit and refuses to sign anything nour doesn't read first. eventually the uncle grows tired of fighting and stops trying, just... slinks back to his husband and keeps his mouth shut. nour's grandmother pressures him to go back to chicago, make that city wish he never left. take back his own story. together they work to find a live-in aide they trust. freshly 22, nour ventures back to the city that broke him.

he finds cheap housing, a gig. the malnati, seems legit. good money. good exposure. and then he meets @ryderxmms​ –– they form one night stand. when not scheduled for malnati banquets, you can find nour providing vocals ( and occasional keys ) in the dive bars / parties the band lands gigs at.

g e n e r a l .

nour creates like food and drink don’t exist, sunlight is an illusion, and all the human body needs for sustenance is sound. he can find his way around just about any instrument under the sun, but his main poisons are piano, acoustic guitar, and digital recording tools –– think jacob collier and you’re right on the money.

actually, i’m stealing a lot of jacob collier discography and pegging it as his creations. this kid’s got an experimental sound and loves it.

he grew up speaking english and arabic equally, but because he learned english in london and then continued in egypt, he does have a mild brit-arab accent. it’s v cute, i promise.

looks like he’d be a total lothario, yeah ?? but. he’s so shy ?  so sweet ?  get him on a stage and he’s shameless but plop him in a bar and eye him up and he’ll honestly just smile nervously and pretend you’re looking at someone else.

love languages : singing to his succulents and plants before his 5am morning runs. facetime calls at times least convenient for him, but most convenient for you. little notes written on napkins, smiley face doodles included. candy bars. lingering a little longer in doorways after saying hello, just to see you smile.

he’s got major water sign vibes. birthday comin’ up in march, woot woot !!

he often wears very simple statement pieces. he likes rings, crystal pendants, leather bracelets. soft tees layered with embroidered jackets, metallic blazers. somehow he pulls off mixed media and crazy prints that should never go together ?  he just... is so easy breezy.

he often wears his hair wild ‘n curly, unless the gig he’s got mandates a more streamlined look. 

falls in love.... 14 times a day ??  really.

has a scar across his left temple from the incident with neil. will probably write it off as a bike riding accident. ( he doesn’t know how to ride a bike. )

don’t let him cook ever, okay ??  unless you want him to literally do this.

pls come at me for all the plots ?  i’m so open for all the things !!!  y’all got me on discord, so feel free to slide on into my dms. i promise i will be so thrilled <3

[hot-tae-with-suga]

This Looks Bad || 1

Summary:  Taehyung and I were just horsing around, but someone took a picture, and now everyone thinks I’m cheating on my boyfriend Namjoon with one of his best friends. Which I’m not, because I don’t (let myself) think of Tae that way. And neither does Namjoon. Right?

Reader (1st person unnamed femme OC)/Namjoon/Taehyung

Idol AU

36.2K total || Rated M || Part 2 | Part 3 (final) | AO3 || Masterlist

Genre: fluff / smut / angst with happy ending || Warnings: Misunderstandings, Failure to Communicate, Bisexual characters, Threesome (in later parts), Smut (in later parts) 

Originally Posted 2019-03-25

Thank you so so so much to my editor S, and my wonderful betas from the JAG discord (L, V, and D)

DOI (Day of Incident)

Balancing my laptop on the arm of a couch with my legs curled up under myself to avoid accidentally flashing someone (because my very sparkly cocktail dress was very short) was not exactly how I’d imagined I’d be writing my thesis for my doctorate. Nevertheless, my boyfriend Namjoon had asked me to accompany him to this event with some music types from Japan, and I was nothing if not a dutiful partner.

I’d been proper arm candy for the first hour, but my Japanese skills barely stretched past nodding and smiling when Namjoon did. He saw that it was starting to wear on me, so he reminded me that my laptop was still in the overnight bag he’d packed if I wanted to go get some work done. I’d kissed him on the cheek and quietly made my escape. The stylists and coordi-noonas had wandered off to the loading dock for a smoke break, or were busy in other parts of the building, so I had the place to myself for at least half an hour before I even heard anyone else.

Voices carried down the hall, but I tuned them out until someone opened the door and strode through. I looked up to see who it was, smiling when I saw Taehyung, Namjoon’s group member I was closest to. He was followed by a pretty young woman who he was speaking to about some style of art, from the few words I caught before he greeted me.

“Hey Charlotte Bronte,” he joked. “Are you hiding from the guests of honour, too?” The woman looked confused, which was rather unsurprising given Taehyung’s habit of calling me by author’s names whenever he caught me writing. Which, at the current stage in my thesis project, was pretty much all the time.

I nodded and stood, quickly bowing to the woman he hadn’t yet introduced. “Yeah, I could only understand about two out of every ten words, so Joon sent me down here.” I quickly saved the work I’d been in the middle of and closed my computer. “If you need the room or anything, I can take off, though.” Maybe not the most subtle approach, but I’d never want to be accused of cockblocking one of my best friends. If Tae was desperate enough to drag this woman to the green room in the middle of an event, I wasn’t going to get in the way of him getting some. It was hard enough to date as an idol, so they tended to take every opportunity they could if they found someone they liked.

Taehyung shook his head. “No, I’m just getting changed a bit early because it will be way too crowded once everyone is back here,” he said, moving to grab his carefully labeled stage wear from the rack in the middle of the room. “Plus, everyone out there was boring, except Park Jiyoo,” he nodded toward his companion. “We were discussing art and photography. She is a curator at a gallery in Ilsan.”

I bowed again in her direction. “Hello Park Jiyoo, I’m-”

She cut me off. “I know who you are,” she said softly. “You’re Kim Namjoon’s girlfriend.”

I chuckled and nodded. “Among other things. I’m hiding out back here to work on my thesis project, feels like it’s all I do these days.”

“Joon-hyung got a smart girl,” Tae commented from behind the folding privacy screen at the back of the room. The hanger clinked against the metal frame as he hooked it over the edge. “Cause he’s a smart boy. They’re a matched set.”

“So are you looking for your match then, Taehyungie?” I teased. Even if he wasn’t bringing Jiyoo back here to hook up right this moment, I’d be a poor friend if I didn’t at least try to play wingman. “So we need to find you a goofball with little-to-no sense of personal space?” Jiyoo giggled at that.

Taehyung stuck his head around the side of the screen, obviously unbuttoning his while dress shirt. “Don’t listen to Ms. Smart Ass, she is cruel and knows nothing.” He ducked back behind the screen again, and I could hear the sound of his belt slithering out of the loops of his pants before it came flying over the top to drape over the screen. I grabbed the belt, sliding it between my hands and then folding it in half.

“Which basically means I know everything,” I told Jiyoo triumphantly. I snapped the belt against itself, the sharp noise making Tae jump and Jiyoo squeak. “But I will admit I can indeed be cruel, to boys who deserve it.”

Tae stepped around the screen, his shirt hanging completely open and off one shoulder, gathering at his elbow, while he held up his unbuttoned pants with one fist. His eyes narrowed at me.

“Give me back the belt, noona,” he warned. I giggled and held the belt behind my back, shaking my head. “The stylists have already warned me about losing costume pieces, I don’t want to get in any more trouble.”

I shook my head again, backing up as he stepped forward. The game of keep away was familiar, reminding me of nights of drinking in the dorm or playing around after a concert as the adrenaline faded. “Nuh-uh, it makes such a fun noise. I think I’d like to use it to scare Namjoon later,” I teased.

Tae took a couple long steps towards me, gaining ground quickly since his legs were to much longer than my own. “I don’t care what kinky shit you and hyung get up to, do it with someone else’s belt!”

I stepped backwards to escape the approaching man, but I’d reached the edge of the room, where a series of tables and mirrors had been set up for makeup and hair, and Tae was in front of me before I could divert course. He reached around me with his free hand, but I twisted and bent to keep the belt out of his reach. Frustrated, he dropped the hand holding his pants up, letting them fall to the floor so he could use both arms to grab for the accessory. I was laughing, switching it from one hand to the other, trying to keep it from him even though I knew that with his superior wing span he’d pin me eventually.

That’s when we saw the flash of light.

Both of us turned to see Park Jiyoo with her phone out, the camera lens pointed at the two of us, with a look of guilty embarrassment on her face. I looked down and saw what she had been taking a picture of: a half-naked Taehyung practically groping me.

“What the hell, Jiyoo-ssi?” Tae asked sharply, and the woman looked panicked. She spun around and ran for the door, both Taehyung and I close behind her.

Tae was slowed down by his loosened pants, which had fallen around his ankles, so I was the one to slide out of the green room in my stockinged feet and shout at security to stop Jiyoo. I watched her try to evade them for a few moments, but it was a narrow hallway and they were big guys, so it wasn’t long before they caught her and took her to the venue security office.

I followed, speaking to the guard in charge. “She was backstage with us, and she took an unauthorized photo, of V,” I used his stage name, trying to impress upon them the seriousness of the matter. I crossed my arms over my chest, suddenly feeling very vulnerable. I was used to being photographed when I was out with Namjoon, but this had been a private moment between friends, and I knew the situation we were in would look incredibly suggestive, even though it had been mostly innocent.

Namjoon, Taehyung and the other members were such a big part of my life now, they acted so normal, that it was easy to forget how careful they had to be with the people around them. Sometimes that nice young woman they were talking about art with wasn’t able to be trusted with their privacy. It was a wonder they ever let anyone outside their own industry in.

Venue security turned the situation over to Big Hit’s security team, who directed me to wait nearby in case they had any questions. Taehyung found me shortly thereafter, having re-dressed himself and then wandering a bit to find the security office. He wrapped his arms around me and I leaned into him, soaking up any comfort he could offer. The other members happened to file past on their way to prepare for the performance, Namjoon breaking off to join us when he noticed we weren’t where he expected.

“Hey, what’s going on?” he asked, immediately opening his arms and pulling me close when I extracted myself from Tae and approached him. “What’s wrong, baby? You look worried.”

Taehyung’s large hand rubbed across my back where it wasn’t covered by Joon’s arms. “There was a woman, a fan maybe? I don’t know. Someone I brought back to the green room with me when I was getting changed, she ended up taking a picture of noona and me while we were goofing off. Who knows, maybe more than one,” he explained softly.

“So what?” Namjoon sounded confused. “So she got some backstage pictures? It’s not like our relationship is a secret, so what’s the issue?”

“The pictures will look bad, Joon-ah,” I mumbled into his chest where my face was still pressed. Leaning back, I added, “Tae and I...We were in a kind of compromising position.”

Tae sighed and elaborated, “I was in the middle of getting changed, noona and I were goofing around like usual. We’ll just hope they can delete the photos off the phone and send her on her way.”

Just as he said it, their head of security stepped into the hall and approached us, while one of the venue security lead Jiyoo in the opposite direction, toward the back exit. “I’m afraid I have some bad news,” the security head lead with. “She sent a couple of pictures into a group chat before they grabbed her. One of the ones that got out…” He shrugged and looked sympathetic. “Let’s say its not flattering. I’ll contact head office, they’re going to want to get ahead of the storm that’s coming.”

***

I’d been more than a little worried that the commotion might have thrown off their performance, but all the members had been doing this for too long to let a little incident like that bleed through. I’d heard tales of shows on tour that they had performed hurt, sick, and heartbroken; one little kerfuffle with a rogue fan wasn’t going to shake them.

After the event, Namjoon came back with me to my place, as we’d planned beforehand. We’d been instructed by management not to look on our SNS or any gossip sites, management would get a handle on what was happening and didn’t want us to be unnecessarily stressed. I explained to Namjoon exactly what happened in the room, every single detail at least three times, but I still wouldn’t know how bad it was until I saw the picture.

I could only imagine the worst, though, remembering that Tae was practically shirtless, his pants around his knees, pinning me to the table with his hips and reaching around me with both his arms. My dress was so short it had ridden up high on my thighs, I’d had to pull it down before running after the girl. I’d remembered more details each time I described it to Namjoon, repeating it often enough for him to accuse me of trying to turn him on with it.

I stamped my foot and crossed my arms, pouting at him. “Kim Namjoon, this is serious! I don’t want you to think I’d ever do something like that to you,” I whined. “I just want, like, full disclosure. I don’t want you to be surprised.” He moved in front of me, putting his hands on my shoulders.

“I know baby, I know you’d never cheat, that’s why I’m not worried. I trust you, and not only that, but I trust my members. Sure, Jungkook has issues keeping his hands off his hyung’s things, and I’ve seen the way some of them look at you when they think I won’t notice, but they are my family. Closer than, even, and more loyal,”Namjoon said. He chuckled to himself, adding, “And if it was going to be any of them to try something with my girl, it’d never be Taehyung.” He ran his hands down my arms and pulled me closer.

“Hmm?” I asked. “Why?” The way he’d said that last bit struck me as weird.

He looked down at me, mumbling, “I told you, I trust you.”

“Why are you so sure of Taehyung out of all of them though? Because he’s your roommate? Am I so far out of his type that he’d never be attracted to me?” Something occurred to me, and I gasped. “Is he gay?” I started to backpedal, aware of how that could sound. “I mean, its fine if he is, of course, I’d just never had any idea, and I thought he’d had a girlfriend before-”

“Babe,” Namjoon interrupted my spiral into incoherent rambling. “Tae likes girls, and I’m sure he thinks you’re very cute. Just trust me when I say that Taehyung would never think of doing something like that to me.” He bent to give me a gentle kiss that quickly turned into something hotter.

Namjoon picked me up, not breaking our kiss, and set me on the back of my couch, his arms still around me to keep me stable. “Now,” he started. “All of your talk about this potentially naughty picture kinda got me all worked up. Were you like this?” His hands on my hips slid the dress I still wore up a little further, and he pressed himself between my legs. Evidence of just how ‘worked up’ I’d gotten him tented his pants, and I moaned feeling it against my thigh.

He kissed me again, lips sliding against mine until I pulled back enough to point out, “Yeah, just like this. But Tae was wearing way less clothes.” Namjoon laughed, shrugging off his jacket and helping me with the buttons of his shirt.

1 Day P.I (Post Incident)

The next morning I accompanied Namjoon back to the Big Hit offices, which photographers captured since they were waiting for us outside my apartment building. I wasn’t even sure how they had found out where I lived, but apparently they were motivated enough to do so and caught us by surprise. Namjoon held my hand as we walked as quickly as possible toward the car the company had sent for us, hiding behind sunglasses and masks as best we could. It took at least ten minutes longer than normal to get to the offices due to the circuitous route we had to take. Once we finally arrived and rushed inside, I thought we were safe.

I hadn’t taken the other members into account though, and we were greeted with whistles and applause as we entered the conference room.

“Taehyungie-hyung, your new girlfriend is here!,” Jungkook shouted, despite the face that Tae was just two seats away from him. Taehyung lunged to slap their maknae upside the head, and Jungkook rolled away from him in his chair, rubbing the spot he’d been hit.

“How bad is it?,” I asked the room. “We haven’t looked yet.” Jin whistled, the note falling at the end, and I knew it had to be pretty bad.

“Our managers will be back in a minute,” Taehyung said, and stood to approach us with a tablet in his hand, offering it to us. Namjoon grabbed it from him, frantically scrolling up to see the picture that was the subject of the string of comments on the screen. He hissed when it finally came into view and angled the tablet so I could see.

It was a worst case scenario. The picture was cropped so you couldn’t see that Tae’s pants were technically still on (though who knows why that fact was so important to me), the way the shot was angled made it look like my arm was wrapping around his far side, and worst of all, our faces were only inches apart. I groaned and sank to the floor in a squat, wrapping my arms around my knees.

“Babe, babe, it’s gonna be okay,” Namjoon crouched down next to me, patting me on the back. Tae sank down on my other side, rubbing my arm to comfort me.

“ARMYs are going to hate me, Joon!” I cried into my arms. “I’m going to be a villain in their eyes, like from a drama!” I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes, but I managed to keep them from falling. “Tae-ah, you’re going to catch so much hate, too!”

Before he could answer there as a noise at the door as the managers returned, all looking very serious. The three of us stood up, and I ran my hands over my cheeks to make sure they were dry. Namjoon put his arm around my shoulders and I leaned into him.

“We’ve made a statement on Namjoon’s behalf, that the picture was a private moment that was taken out of context, captured by an over enthusiastic fan who was in an unauthorized area,” Manager Sejin told us, with a sharp look at Taehyung. I had a feeling he’d be getting in trouble for bringing someone “backstage” without clearing it with management. Sejin continued, “It’s a start, but we will need to do more to stay clear of a major scandal.”

I was a little worried about what exactly “more” entailed.

***

Sejin’s “more” turned out to be a complete media blackout, at least on my part. I had to take all of my SNS accounts private, or deactivate them, and I wouldn’t be able to attend any events or even be seen in public with any of the band until this all blew over. The last part would be easy enough, with Namjoon needing to concentrate on finishing their new album and my own thesis due date looming, we weren’t going to be going out together a lot anyway.

Big Hit and the group would also be making an effort to emphasize that everything was fine on their end, lots of content with Namjoon and Taehyung together on their SNS to show there was no tension between them and reassure the fans.

“I hate this,” Namjoon said, his arms wrapped around me as we sat on the couch in his studio. We’d retreated there after the meeting with the managers, to get the last bit of time together we would have for a while.

I nodded. “Me too,” I agreed. “But, we’ll make it through this, right? Its not like we were going to see each other a lot in the next few weeks anyway, with our own obligations we’ll be so busy.” I twisted in his arms to be able to see his face. “We’ll text and call and FaceTime.”

Namjoon smiled. “You gonna tune in to my vlive when I get bored in the middle of the night and can’t just come over to bug you?” he teased. I blushed.

“I always do,” I reminded him. I stretched to kiss his cheek softly. “I’m gonna miss your face.” He pulled me up so that my face was even with his.

“I’m gonna miss your everything,” he said, and returned the kiss, on my lips. “Gonna have to figure out a way to sneak out, like when we were first dating. Or maybe we should sneak you in.”

I smiled against his mouth. “Mmm, every girl’s dream, being snuck in like a dirty secret to fuck in your shared room,” I joked.

Namjoon chuckled and kissed me again. “I’m sure Taehyung won’t mind, since he’s the one who got us in this mess.”

I smacked him playfully. “Don’t blame Tae!” I admonished him. “It’s my fault, too, I was the one who stole his belt. I shouldn’t have been teasing him like we do at the dorm.”

“You didn’t bring some outsider into our space,” he argued. “And Tae will be forgiven much faster than you will be.” His tone was light, but there was a bit of annoyance or even anger behind it.

“Don’t, Joon-ah.” I spoke softly, still curled up against him. “He’s your dongsaeng, don’t go there.” I leaned down and pressed a kiss to his neck. “Let’s not talk about that, it’s the last time we’ll be together for a while. I’m gonna miss this, being with you like this.” His head fell back, giving me room to trail kisses down toward his collarbone, exposed by the tank top he was wearing. I couldn’t help but lick along the ridge of bone, dipping my tongue into the hollow by his throat.

Namjoon groaned and pulled his arms from between us so he could lift me by the hips, turning me and settling me back down so that I was straddling his legs. I rolled my hips against him and celebrated the moan the move drew from him with a nibble on his earlobe. His large hands slid up over my waist and started pushing my shirt up, pulling it over my head. He threw it to the floor, his hands back on me as he claimed my mouth.

Our kisses grew heated, no longer about enjoying the last moments we had together and instead building toward something more. My hands were fisted in Namjoon’s hair, holding his head at the perfect angle for me to dominate our kiss. One of his hands had slid under the waistband of my pants, gripping the skin at my hip, and the other was fumbling with my bra strap when the door opened behind me.

I shrieked and looked frantically for my shirt, but Namjoon had thrown it to the other side of the narrow room. Instead I curled my body in toward my boyfriend, only showing my bare back to our unexpected visitor. Namjoon leaned to one side, keeping an arm around me so I didn’t fall off, and grabbed a zippered hoodie from the back of his chair, wrapping it around me.

“What the hell, Tae?” Namjoon bit out.

Taehyung stood by the door with his hand over his eyes. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” he was apologizing. “I just came to tell you that security is ready to take noona back to her place.”

I sighed and dropped my forehead to Namjoon;s chest, and he squeezed me close for a moment. “Of course it had to be Taehyung, didn’t it?” he murmured, close enough so that only I could hear. I barked a laugh, earning a look from Taehyung that I didn’t acknowledge.

I stood up, zipping up Namjoon’s hoodie so that I could reach up my back to refasten my bra where he had managed to undo one hook. Joon stood up behind me, grabbing my arms and holding them, making me arch forward awkwardly. “Hey!,” I objected, but he just leaned down and kissed the spot where my neck meets my shoulder, sucking long enough that I knew I’d see a mark there in the morning. I let it happen, forgetting myself in the moment and relaxing back in to him.

Namjoon finally pulled back, and I could hear the smile in his voice as he declared, “There. Mine.” His oddly possessive comment made me turn to look at him, but instead of looking down at me, his head was turned toward Taehyung.

I pulled away from him and grabbed my abandoned shirt off the floor, balling it up and shoving it into one of the oversized pockets of the hoodie. “I’m keeping this, by the way,” I told Namjoon, grabbing my purse as well.

He whined, “But it’s my favourite! I’ll get cold.”

I returned to him and reached up to pat him on the head. “It smells like you, so I like it. You have plenty of other sweaters.”

He hugged me again, and gave me a fond little kiss on the forehead. “You’re lucky I love you,” he warned me.

I nodded. “Yeah, I know.”

***

That night we chatted on the phone. We didn’t usually need to talk again when we’d seen each other throughout the day, we weren’t that kind of couple. The events of the day, though, had left us both feeling a little more needy than normal.

“So, how was your day?” Namjoon asked, his usual conversation opener. I was sitting on my bed with my laptop open in front of me, going through my SNS accounts. I couldn’t resist posting one last picture to my twitter feed before making it private, knowing ARMYs would take a screenshot before it disappeared. It was a shot I’d taken a couple a weeks earlier, we were laying in bed after we’d woken up, and he was holding my hand up to his mouth to kiss it. His expressive eyes stared at me through the screen and I felt like I could still feel the love that had overwhelmed me at that moment. I’d captioned it simply, ‘Steadfast’, needing to make my loyalties known when the world was going to make a lot of assumptions about things they didn’t know. Namjoon and I were in it for the long haul, we would remain steady through this storm.

“What, before or after I was told I wasn’t allowed to see my boyfriend or some of my best friends for weeks?” I replied, though I immediately regretted how passive agressive my words sounded. “Any day I get to see you is better than one I don’t, though,” I added to help soften them.

“I know, the whole situation is fucked up,” he agreed. “But I have total faith in us, we can get through this.” We lapsed into silence, neither of us wanting to burden the other with complaints about a situation we were both stuck in.

“Oh,” I remembered something I wanted to ask. “What was with your little possessive act in the studio today, with Tae? I felt like you were marking your territory or something.”

“Ah,” he said, suddenly sounding shy. “I was just realizing that people might assume we’d broken up or something. Got a little over enthusiastic.”

He hadn’t really answered my question about Taehyung, but I let it go. “I’m not a possession, Joon-ah. Even if someone were to think I’m single, I am perfectly capable of telling them I’m not.”

Namjoon sighed. “I’m sorry, babe. This whole thing is messing with me.” I stayed silent for a beat, waiting for him to add something more. “And I won’t do it again.”

“Thank you,” I replied. “I’m not looking forward to wearing turtlenecks for the next week.” Again we fell silent, unsure that there was anything more to say.

“I love you.” Namjoon’s sudden declaration wasn’t rare, but it was exactly what I needed to hear.

“I love you, too.”

Silence fell between us. It was a comfortable one, though, borne of having shared everything we needed to and merely enjoying each other’s presence, even on the phone.

“We should probably get to bed, though,” I finally said.

“Uh huh,” he mumbled noncommittally, which meant that instead of going to bed, he was going to stay in his studio for a few more hours at least. Usually I would nag at him about getting enough sleep, but I figured he might need the cathartic release that music brought him.

5 days P.I.

“Joon-ah, what does 《bros be-pore hoes》mean?” I asked, knowing I was likely mispronouncing the English phrase. My English was pretty good when it came to academic subjects, but idioms still escaped me.

“What now?” Namjoon asked. We were on the phone again, our nightly ritual of the last several days, to compliment the steady conversation in texts we exchanged throughout the day. Last night he’d initiated a video call during our talk, apparently hearing my voice had made him really miss me in a certain way, and he wanted to show me the evidence. I’d never really been one for phone sex before, but it had at least taken the edge off. It was something I was going to have to get used to before their next extended world tour, at least.

I scrolled through the replies to the latest picture in the group’s feed, a candid shot of RM and V eating noodles. I had to separate them in my head, the men I knew and their stage personalities that they shared with the world, it was the only way to stop me from going off on the people in comments lusting after my man.

“There’s this hashtag people keep using, I know I’m mispronouncing it,” I clarified. “What does it mean?”

“ 《Bros be-pore-》-” he stopped midway, then said it again with what I could only assume was the correct English pronunciation. “Oh, 《bros before hoes》. It’s a rhyme in English. It’s about choosing your brother over-,” he coughed. “About choosing your brother over a woman.”

“Oh.” I couldn’t keep the disappointment out of my voice. “So they think you’ve forgiven Taehyung and chosen him over me.”

“Babe…” I could hear his bed shifting, he was moving around in his helpless frustration. “It was a long shot that they’d believe our statement, you know that. This is the best case scenario right now: they aren’t losing faith in Bangtan and fearing we’re going to break up. We just have to wait until this blows over, or some other scandal takes its place.”

I knew he was right, but it still hurt to hear him say that the best case scenario was having his fans call me an adulteress. I tried to keep quiet, but a hiccuping sob escaped me, making Namjoon curse.

“Babe, I don’t want you to be alone right now. I’m gonna find a disguise or something and come over,” he muttered.

“No, please, I’m fine,” I tried to convince him. “I’ll be okay.” My voice was as shaky as my insides felt.

“I’ll be there in like 20 minutes, tops,” was the last thing he said before hanging up.

6 days P.I.

I’d fallen asleep in Namjoon’s arms after crying my heart out the night before, and barely remembered him tucking me in to bed before sneaking back to the dorm. I’d awoken feeling better, more secure in our relationship and more confident than ever that we were going to be able to see this through to the other side.

Then I checked my phone. It turns out that my boyfriend was super smart, but be could also be a gigantic idiot.

“Joon, how could you?” I hissed into my phone. I was alone in my office at the university, no one to hear me, but I knew he was surrounded by people on his end and didn’t want them to head me screaming at him.

“I didn’t even think! I grabbed a hat and coat that weren’t mine that would fit!” he explained.

“Yeah, but you grabbed Taehyung’s coat, Namjoon. His Gucci coat! And you’re of a similar enough build that it’s easy enough to mistake you in the dark!” I wasn’t even sure when or where the photographers had caught him, only that the news sites were splashed with the image of a tall man with a very distinctive coat at my apartment complex in the middle of the night.

“You didn’t notice either,” Namjoon pointed out.

I ground my teeth. “I was emotionally distressed,” I bit out. “And now people think that Tae snuck over here to see me last night, and that you’re a fool to have forgiven him.

“I’ll fix it,” he promised, hanging up without even a ‘goodbye’. Or an ‘I love you’.

8 days P.I.

“Buying all the members copies of Tae’s coat wasn’t exactly how I imagined you’d fix things, Joon,” I said a couple of days later.

“Now they can’t say for certain who it was,” Namjoon said with pride in his voice.

“Yeah,” I signed. “Now I could be fucking any member of BTS.”

Namjoon scoffed at the idea. “Not any of them, I’m several centimeters taller than most of them.”

“You’re taller than Tae, and they still confused you,” I pointed out.

“I’m sorry.”

11 days P.I.

“Do you think Yoongi would start dating that girl for us?” I asked.

Namjoon mumbled, “Sorry, what?” He was distracted again. He was distracted a lot during our nightly phone calls these days. Working on the album, writing songs, and collaborating with both his members and other producers kept him busy.

“That idol singer he made a song for. If he started dating her, it would at least be something else for people to focus on,” I explained.

He sighed. “I don’t think he’d do it, but you can ask.”

16 days P.I.

It’s the first day we don’t talk.

I told myself we were both busy, I’d forgotten until it was too late to call. But so did he.

It hurt more than I wanted to admit.

20 days P.I.

The managers had decided it was safe enough for me to come visit Namjoon at the dorms. He hadn’t mentioned anything about it when we’d talked, but he texted me that morning to come over in the afternoon and to be cautious.

As the day went on, the data I was supposed to be analyzing was going blurry in front of my eyes. I couldn’t concentrate any longer.

I was leaving straight from the university to minimize the chances of someone seeing or following me, though the crowd camping outside my building had pretty much dispersed. After weeks of no nighttime visitors and my going nowhere except to the school and to run exceedingly boring errands, they’d mostly given up. Still, I had the taxi drop me off several blocks from the dorm, and donned a hat, sunglasses, and a mask before I got out.

Security was waiting for me at the private entrance and I slipped inside, letting out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. I made my way to the boy’s dorm and hesitated before I barged in like I used to. It felt weird being there, probably because things had begun to feel increasingly weird between Namjoon and I.

Seokjin looked surprised when he opened the door after I rang the bell, whether it was due to my bothering to ring or that he was surprised to see me at all, I wasn’t sure. Jimin, Taehyung, and Jungkook were all relaxing in the common area, Jimin on his phone while Tae watched Jungkook play Overwatch on his laptop, but they looked up in sync when I came padding around the corner. Jimin and Jungkook both jumped up to give me a hug, and Tae waved from the couch. I could see the hesitation on his face, and it broke my heart a little that he decided not to come hug me like he usually did, but I understood why.

“Thank goodness you’re here,” Jungkook said. “Rapmonnie has been an asshole!” I laughed.

“So, I’m here for your benefit, not Namjoon’s?” I joked.

“Yes!” Jimin insisted. The boys sat back down, and I leaned on the arm of the couch, not intending to stay and chat for long. “He’s been super grouchy. That’s why Yoongi-hyung asked if you could come visit.”

The happy feeling I’d felt building inside me, that Namjoon had wanted to see me, had asked the managers if there was any way I could come visit, suddenly left in a rush. “Oh,” I said simply. Unsure what to do now, since Namjoon obviously wasn’t eagerly awaiting my visit as I’d assumed, I slid off the arm and into the couch, pulling my purse into my lap. My coat was still on, since I’d planned on heading to the studio to hang out with Namjoon after dropping off my stuff but now...

“Aren’t you going to go see him?” Taehyung asked softly.

I shrugged. “He knows I’m here.” At least, he knew I was planning on coming to visit after our texts this morning. “He told me to come to the dorm. I’m sure he’ll come back when he wants a break.”

Taehyung shrugged and turned back to Jungkook’s screen. I settled in, shrugging off my warm jacket and laying my legs along the couch, not quite reaching Tae at the other end. I watched Jungkook play for a little while, but my mind wasn’t on the game. Part of me kind of wanted to leave, to see if Namjoon would even notice that I hadn’t come over, but I dismissed that as too petty. Not that I wasn’t already being petty by not going to the studio, but I knew he would come back to the dorm at some point.

I felt useless, just starting off into space, so I pulled out my phone and started re-reading through some of the data analysis for my thesis project. I had to switch apps back and forth in order to make some notes, which was getting annoying, so I asked Taehyung if I could borrow the tablet sitting beside him to email myself some points to include in my own analysis.

“What are you doing?” Jimin asked, looking up from his phone.

I scoffed. “Boring math stuff,” I replied, my eyes darting from one screen to the other as I typed a short sentence about a possible bias in the data.

Jungkook took an interest and exited the lobby he was in, getting up and crouching behind me so he could see my screen. “What’s with all the dots?” he asked.

I laughed mirthlessly. “I’ve graphed all the data points from my research. In an ideal world, they are all supposed to fall between here-” I pointed to a spot on the graph, “-and here, in an even spread.”

“But a bunch are all together there at the end,” he commented.

“Yep,” I confirmed. “Which means either my data is incomplete, or there is a bias that we haven’t accounted for.” I let my head fall back so I could look at Jungkook upside down. “Which means I need to find it or find more data to include in the analysis.”

“Aish,” he muttered, bracing his arm on the couch beside my head and leaning his chin on it. “It’s all just dots on the screen to me. You’re so smart, noona.”

Footsteps sounded behind us and we both twisted to see who had come in, since we hadn’t heard the door.

It was Namjoon. Of course the first time I see him in weeks, I’m sprawled out on the couch having an intimate looking conversation with his friend while another had grabbed my feet out of habit and was giving me a massage, a fact I hadn’t even noticed in my concentration.

“Hyung, look who came to visit!” Jungkook said, bouncing to his feet.

“Hey,” Namjoon greeted us all collectively. His hands were shoved in the pockets of his oversized knit cardigan, horn rimmed glasses framing his eyes, and a black ball cap pulled down over his blonde hair. After so many weeks not seeing him, he looked like a wet dream.

“I came back to see if anybody wanted to go grab some food with me,” he continued. Silence hung in the room. I tried to tell myself that he’d just forgotten that I couldn’t go out with them, but their silence proved that everyone else had managed to remember.

Seokjin cleared his throat and stepped up next to Namjoon. “How about the four of us go grab something and bring it back here,” he suggested. “Give you two a moment to yourselves?” I met Jin’s eyes, thanking him silently.

I’d never seen the lot of them scramble so quickly to get out the door.

I had stood up while they were all running around, sticking next to the couch, my hands in the back pockets of my jeans. Once the room cleared and we heard the front door close, I looked up at Namjoon and approached him slowly.

“Hey stranger,” I said, and went to wrap my arms around his waist, but he stepped back. I frowned in confusion. “Joon-ah, what’s wrong?”

He reached down and grabbed something from the floor next to my purse, the hoodie I’d stolen and brought back to return in his hand. “Is this it? Because if you’re here to break up with me, I don’t want to draw this out.”

“What?” My confusion only grew, now that he was speaking nonsense.

“You’re returning my shit, you didn’t come down to the studio or even tell me you were here, you’re- you’re fucking flirting with Jungkook!” he rambled, his voice getting heated. “Just do it, already!”

I couldn’t help the edge in my voice, an automatic response to the aggression in his. “I can’t believe you,” I growled. “I’m here, I snuck over here just to see you, because I thought you wanted me, that you needed to see me. I brought your favourite hoodie because it doesn’t smell much like you anymore because I’ve been wearing it for weeks and I wanted to trade you for another one. But I get here and find out that it wasn’t even you who wanted me here, it was fucking Yoongi who asked, because you’re being as asshole to all of them.” I crossed my arms over my chest, huffing at him. “And I’m not flirting with Kookie! He asked me what my thesis is about! And as far as I know, you are the only man in existence who finds my discussing statistical analysis sexy.”

I watched his face soften as I spoke. “Babe, I’m sorry,” he apologized. “I’ve just been so busy-”

“I’ve been busy too, Namjoon,” I pointed out, my righteous anger not yet slaked. Now it was my turn to step back and avoid his embrace. “And I didn’t pull away like you did. Don’t try and pretend this is just about today.” Frustrated tears fell down my face, and I was helpless to stop them; pretty much any strong emotion made me cry. “This doesn’t exactly bode well for the future of our relationship, does it? Because after you’re done this album, then it’s weeks of promotions, and then your world tour. And it’ll be even harder if I take the job in Busan!”

I hadn’t meant to tell him like this. The offer from a university near my hometown I’d received a couple days previous had been weighing on me and I’d been looking for a chance to tell him about it.

Namjoon froze, his face contorting again. “Busan? You’re moving back to Busan?”

I let my arms curl around my abdomen, feeling very small and sick to my stomach. “My thesis advisor sent part of my draft to a colleague at the university there, and he offered me a job,” I explained. “I haven’t decided anything, and it wouldn’t be until after graduation, but…”

Namjoon scoffed. “Well, good luck with that. You think Tae- or-or- Jungkook would be any better than I am at long distance?” His stutter when he got angry was something I’d never seen directed at me before. “Good luck with that,” he repeated.

“Why the fuck do you keep thinking that I’d leave you and start dating one of them?” my voice had finally risen enough to be called a shout. “They are my friends. How many times do you need to hear it? I’m not interested in dating any of the other members!”

“Because I know you’re attracted to them!” Namjoon shouted back. “You told me, back before we started dating, before I confessed, that you thought every one of us was attractive.”

“But I’m not in love with them, you idiot, I’m in love with you! You’re impossible sometimes, you know that?” I threw my hands up, grabbing my purse and sweater off the couch. “Talk about a double standard. You work with some of the most attractive women in the world, I have to sit there and watch you actively flirt with them on camera, and you smile and give them that look-” I gripped the strap of my bag and shook it in his face. “But I trust you to know the difference between casual attraction and wanting to pursue a relationship, and to come home to me.” A sob wracked my body, the tears coming all at once and my throat constricting painfully. “I trust you. But if you can’t trust me the same way, then there’s no point to this, I guess it’s over.”

I tried to move around him, heading for the door, but he stopped me by wrapping his arms around me. “Please, don’t go,” he begged softly. I felt his body shake with sobs to match mine, though he was better at keeping them quiet. “Don’t leave me like this, please. I can do better.”

“What more do you want from me, Namjoon?” I asked, not moving as tears fell down my face. I was afraid to move, to look at him, not knowing what I would see on his face.

He spun me around, sinking to his knees in front of me. “I see now how I’ve fucked up,” he admitted, his voice muffled by my shirt where he pressed his face into my soft abdomen. “I guess I just got too far into my own head, and I lashed out at you, and I just miss you so goddamn much it hurts.”

I let my things fall to the floor and wrapped my arms around his head. “I miss you, too. It’s been breaking my heart, feeling like you’re pulling away from me.” I felt him turn his face up toward me and looked down to meet his eyes. “This doesn’t work without that trust, Namjoon. I can’t keep doing this.”

“Please,” he choked out a sob, rubbing his face against me again. “Let me try again, I can make it up to you. I can do better, I swear. We can be better together, just don’t leave me.”

“Can we be better?” I asked, more to myself than to him. “We have no idea when things will get back to our normal, this could go on for months.” My heart was breaking even though I knew I had to say the words. “And even then, I’m still busy, you’re still busy, and you’re going to be travelling for extended periods. And who knows where I’ll end up working.” I swallowed, trying to keep my voice even. “Should we just- just cut our losses now?”

“No no no,” Namjoon chanted. “Don’t give up on us, on me. Please.” He stood up, and I let my arms fall back to my sides. I looked up into his face and saw the pain spilling out of his eyes.

I’d spent the last days wondering if he’d been distant because he didn’t love me anymore, that he’d stopped caring when I wasn’t constantly there to remind him. The tortured expression on his face made those worries seem ridiculous. His love for me, his enduring affection and care, was plain as day.

“I don’t want to,” I whispered. “I don’t want to give up, I mean.” I leaned into him and hugged him around the waist. “I love you too much to give up.”

He returned my embrace, one of his hands reaching up to cup my head, tangling in my hair. We stood there for several minutes, each lost in our own thoughts, but so grateful to simply be in each other’s arms.

I finally pulled back and sniffled, wiping the back of my hand across one cheek. Namjoon’s strong hands cupped my face, this thumbs wiping away the rest of the tears. Once that was done, he leaned down and gave me the sweetest kiss on my mouth, just a soft brush of his lips on mine.

We heard a door close down the hall and turned to see Yoongi walking in from his room. “Thank fuck,” he cursed, seeing us embracing. “I was afraid I’d be coming out to see you alone and crying after the shouting, but looks like you’ve made up. Are you going to stop biting my head off now?” Namjoon laughed softly at his hyung’s question.

“Thank you, Yooni-ssi,” I said, turning to him. “I hear you’re the reason I was allowed to visit.”

Yoongi shrugged. “He was unbearable, and you said you missed him,” he brushed off my thanks.

“You were talking to Yoongi-hyung?” Namjoon sounded surprised. Doubt crept into my mind, wondering if his newly revealed irrational jealousy was going to make for another fight.

“Yeah,” I admitted. “I texted him a few days ago to ask if he’d start a scandal to take the spotlight off of us. And he asked how I was doing.”

Namjoon laughed. “I didn’t think you were actually going to ask him!” he admitted.

I bit my lower lip, knowing I needed to be upfront. If Namjoon was going to take issue with me contacting my friends just because they were guys, I needed to know as soon as possible. “A few of the other members texted me, too, asking how I was handling things. I thought they were just being sweet, but now I think they might have been worrying over you.” I met his eyes, looking for any clue as to how he’d react. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, I didn’t think it would be a big deal.”

Namjoon pulled me close again, placing a kiss on my temple. “It’s fine, you don’t have to tell me about your friends texting you.”

Wanting to make myself clear, I added, “You don’t have a problem with us being friends, do you?”

Namjoon looked me in the face again. “Of course not. What did you think, I was going to ask you to cut them off? Imagine Jimin if you just suddenly stopped being friends with him. It would break his little heart.” He smiled at me. “I’m sorry my stupid jealous freakout has you doubting your own friendships. I just- I guess I’m not all that good at long distance after being able to be with you for so long. That’s on me, though, something I have to work on for myself. Because I do trust you, implicitly. I swear I do.” I felt like that wasn’t the whole story, not the root of the problem anyway, but it was enough for me, for now.

My boyfriend leaned down to kiss me again, this time a little harder, more like he usually did when he was just saying hi. I let my lips fall open as his tongue swept inside to meet my own. He moaned a little into my mouth, pressing his body closer until we heard someone clearing their throat.

“Ah hmm,” Yoongi coughed very deliberately from where he sat on one of the couches, staring at his phone. “Are you done? Cause the guys want to know if its safe to come in with the food, and I’m hungry.”

***

I leaned back in my chair, resting my hands on my over-full belly and sinking into the comforting feeling of Namjoon’s arm around my shoulders. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t feel like a relief to be back here, hanging out with all of them again. Namjoon especially, of course, but I missed the camaraderie of the whole group as well.

“Do you want to come back to the studio with me?” Namjoon asked as he pushed his chair back from the takeout container covered table and stood. “I can play you what I’ve got so far.” I nodded and moved to stand up as well, knowing that ‘listening to what he’s got’ was code for some time alone, which we both needed and knew we weren’t likely to get if we stayed at the dorm.

“Hyung, can we hear too?” Jimin asked, rushing to stand with us. Taehyung and Jungkook both jumped up as well, though the maknae was still bent in half, shovelling another bite of noodles into his mouth. “You’ve been such a bear, we’ve kind of been afraid to ask.”

Namjoon leaned into me and groaned, but I could see the dimple in his cheek, so he was smiling at their antics. It warmed my heart, that he was willing to indulge them even though he knew they were using me as a buffer. “Fine,” he sighed for dramatic effect, his smile gone when he straightened to look at them. “It’s still pretty rough, though.”

Even rough, the little snippets he played for us held a lot of promise. The three boys were obviously as into it as I was, asking Namjoon to play some parts over and over and throwing out ideas of their own. He’d been working with other writers and producers, as usual, but I felt like I was starting to recognize the spin he put on each piece of music.

“And Taehyung already laid down vocals for this one,” Namjoon reached around me and clicked to open a new file on his computer, the smooth notes filtering through the speakers. He pulled his arms back around my waist, holding me tight on his lap, a position so easy and familiar it was hard to believe we’d been fighting at all.

Taehyung’s voice filled the room, the deep soulful tone sliding around the melody, and I smiled. “Oh my goodness, Tae!” I gushed. “Your voice is absolutely- It’s like, toe-curling!”

Namjoon chuckled behind me. “Don’t you usually call his voice panty melting?” he asked, loud enough for the others to hear over the music, much to my shame.

I blushed. “I didn’t think that phrase was entirely appropriate, given the circumstances,” I muttered, and they all laughed quickly before quieting down to listen to the rest of the song. Taehyung’s haunting voice was lamenting a love he could not have, purely due to circumstances out of their control. Tears sprung to my eyes, and I leaned back to ask Namjoon, “You wrote this one, didn’t you?”

He nodded, and added, “Taehyung helped with the melody and some of the lyrics. Not sure this one is going on the album, but maybe we’ll release it on soundcloud or something.”

I snuggled further into his lap, pulling his arm around me until he squeezed me so tight I could barely breathe. The combination of the sweet lyrics and Tae’s voice were only making that time alone with Namjoon more urgent. “Do you think I could spend the night?” I asked softly. “Ask Taehyung to pile in with one of the others, just for tonight?”

I felt Namjoon smile, since I couldn’t see him. “I dunno, baby, I think Taehyung might not mind watching,” he said, louder than I had been, deliberately making it so the boys could hear.

Jimin started laughing so hard, he curled into a ball and rolled sideways on the couch, bumping into Taehyung beside him. Tae’s face coloured and he looked pointedly at the floor as Jungkook giggled and slapped his knee.

I rolled my eyes. “Ugh, Joon-ah, don’t be such a pervert,” I admonished him. “Come on, isn’t it time you took me to bed?” I knew that would get a reaction, and it did, everyone laughing at my intentional hypocrisy.

“Aish, noona, I never thought you’d be so cold,” Jungkook said. When I shot him a confused look, he continued, “You get turned on by Taehyung, and then you kick him out of his own room to bang Namjoon-hyung.”

I laughed at his analysis. “Or, my lovely boyfriend wrote a song for me, which he got his friend to sing because he knows how much I love his friend’s voice,” I argued. “Really, it’s Joon-ah who is using Tae as foreplay.”

The guys laughed at that and Namjoon grumbled, telling everybody to get out, and we all made our way back to the dorm. No one said anything, but I saw Taehyung duck into Kookie’s room as everyone headed off to bed.

***

Despite how tiring our day had been, both physically and emotionally, neither Namjoon nor I wanted to fall asleep quite yet. We’d fucked as soon as the door to his room closed, all rough hands and hard mouths, then cuddled for a while and made love a second time. Namjoon had ducked out to get a washcloth to clean ourselves up with before we fell asleep, but he hadn’t waited long enough for the water to warm up, so I yelped when the cold cloth first made contact with my cum streaked thigh.

“Sorry, babe,” he said, moving quickly so as to minimize the amount of time I had to deal with it. I sucked in a breath when he swiped over my swollen labia, and he grinned. “A bit sensitive, hmm?”

“Just a bit,” I confirmed, and pushed his hand away when he moved to shock me again. He dropped the cloth to the floor, and I tried to see where it landed so I wouldn’t step on it in the morning, but he flopped on top of me before I could spot it. “You should really hang that up or something,” I pointed out.

“Mmm,” he hummed against my throat where he’d nestled his head. “Missed this.”

“What, squishing me to death?” I asked, slowly shoving him until he rolled onto the other side of me, but he pulled me with him so I was lying half on top of him. “You just missed sex,” I accused, trying to play it off like a joke, but I still worried that’s all he wanted me for.

Namjoon shook his head. “Nope, I’m sure it’s you,” he asserted. He kissed my neck softly, then pulled his head back, voice turning all serious. “Babe, can I tell you something? Promise not to get mad?”

My heart dropped, sure he was going to confess to something awful like cheating on me. We’d been apart for weeks, and I knew the sexual frustration would have been getting to him as much as it did to me, and he had no shortage of opportunities. I swallowed thickly, hoping my voice wouldn’t betray my inner turmoil. “Sure.”

“See…” he started, and my heart rate increased, terrified of what was to come. “For a long time, Taehyung and I have had this kind of friends-with-benefits arrangement-” My brain short circuited, not understanding what I was hearing. I was expecting something, something like an intern he made out with, but he’s suddenly confessing to some past relationship with Taehyung? His roommate and fellow band member, Taehyung, who everyone thought I was cheating on Namjoon with? I didn’t even know he was into guys, like at all. Namjoon was still talking though, so I tried to catch back up. “-So when he offered I kinda freaked out and he didn’t mean anything by it cause he thought it’d be cool, and I swear I didn’t fuck him.”

I turned on my side so I was facing him. “Okay, slow down. You and Tae have...a past?” He nodded. “A romantic one?” He twisted his mouth and brought his hand closer to our faces and tited it back in forth, meaning kind of. “Okay, not quite romantic, but sexual?” Another nod.

This time the feeling in the pit of my stomach wasn’t dread or fear, but something molten I felt to my core. Namjoon smirked when he saw the way my pupils reacted. I tried to push aside the flash of lust that had hit me at the thought of my boyfriend and his group member together in that way. “So, sorry, what happened with Tae?”

“Whenever we’re both between relationships and feeling horny we, you know, help each other out,” Namjoon explained unnecessarily.

I shook my head. “No no, I get that part. What happened the other day that Tae didn’t mean anything by cause he thought it was cool? I kinda lost the thread of what you were saying in the middle there,” I admitted, which made him smile even wider.

“Uh huh,” he leered at me as he said it. “So Taehyung saw that I was...shall we say I was struggling with being away from you for so long, and he thought I might need some relief of a sexual nature. And he offered by, uh, kinda waking me up with his mouth. Like, on my dick.”

I listened to him struggle to give me details, and the images his words brought to mind were some of the most erotic things I’d ever imagined. I glanced around at the bed we were lying on, imagining Joon splayed out across it like he usually was when he had the bed to himself, morning wood tenting the soft grey sweatpants he used as pyjamas. Taehyung, sliding out of the bed on the other side of the room and approaching Namjoon’s bed slowly, pulling down Joon’s pants to free his erection and sliding that wicked looking tongue of his from base to tip. I knew from experience that would be enough to wake Namjoon, but in my little fantasy Tae didn’t stop, crouched over my boyfriend and taking him deep into his throat a few times before Namjoon’s hand fell to the back of his head and Joon arched up into the younger man’s mouth…

“Well now, isn’t that interesting,” real life Namjoon said quietly. I snapped my head up to meet his eyes, falling into his all too perceptive gaze. “You like that, don’t you?” He slipped his firm thigh between my knees and pressed upwards. “Here I thought you’d be pissed, or need me to convince you that I didn’t take him up on his offer, which I didn’t, and that he knew now that it wasn’t something I’d be welcoming since you and I are together, which he does. Instead, I think you want me to tell you more.”

His thigh was high enough to press against my core, and I rocked against it. Namjoon hissed. “Baby, you’re soaking again. I can feel it on my leg. We just got cleaned up for bed, but you’re such a dirty girl, aren’t you?” he said into my ear, his voice low and gravelly, which wasn’t helping my level of arousal. I moaned and twisted my head to kiss him again just as a sliver of light fell across the opposite wall and the door creaked open. Namjoon grabbed a blanket and quickly pulled it over our entwined bodies.

Taehyung walked into the room slowly, glancing around in the dark to detect any possible movement, trying not to disturb us while he thought we were sleeping. After he stumbled over something on the floor, it was too dark to see what, Namjoon took pity on him. “It’s okay, Tae, we aren’t asleep yet.”

“Oh, sorry,” Tae whispered. “I can go back, I was just getting tired and it sounded like you guys had, uh, finished…”

“We were just falling asleep, Taehyung,” I reassured him. “Go to bed if you want.”

“Mmm, are you sure, babe?” Namjoon teased me. “We were just talking about what happened with Tae and I the other morning, and you were getting all hot and bothered.”

Taehyung coughed. “I’m sorry, what? You- you told her?” I wished there had been enough light to see the expression on his face, to see the shock that as so evident in his voice.

“Yeah, don’t worry, she’s kind of really into the idea,” Namjoon laughed until I struck his arm lightly. I didn’t want Tae to know I’d been fantasizing about him fucking my boyfriend and get all awkward with me.

“No, we are just going to go to sleep, you’re safe to stay,” I assured the younger man. Namjoon rocked forward, the thigh still between my own pressing against my centre, so I shoved him back. “And if you don’t stop that, my love, I’ll go find somewhere else to sleep, and you can sleep alone.”

25 days P.I.

“Come on, babe, please?” Namjoon begged. I sighed, knowing I shouldn’t give in but wishing I could.

Things between us had been better since I’d been to visit a few days earlier, back to the nightly phone call and endless string of texts. Now he was asking if he could come by my place for a quick visit, and being whiney about it.

“I have a deadline, Joon-ah,” I reminded him for what felt like the twelfth time in the five minutes we’d been on the phone. “I need to work through the edits from my advisor before I submit my final draft, and after that I need to start preparing for my defense.”

“I promised I won’t stay too long,” he argued. “I’ll even bring some of the guys with me so we have chaperones. We’ll bring dinner and we can all eat together. I know you probably haven’t been taking time to eat properly…” I looked at my messy kitchen, counters piled with bowls of half-eaten ramyeon eaten hastily in front of my computer, knowing he was right. Namjoon’s voice dropped as he added, “I don’t want to go so long without seeing you again. I don’t want us to end up doubting each other again.”

Of course he knew exactly how to pull at my heartstrings. “Fine,” I acquiesced, as he knew I would. “But only for a little bit.”

I really should have known better. Namjoon showed up with Taehyung (“the others were all busy”), dressed so stylishly in their ripped jeans and designer shirts that I wondered if they’d just come off a photo shoot, and filled my coffee table with the boxes of food they’d brought. Once we’d eaten, he’d insisted there’d be no harm in them staying to watch a movie while I continued to work. He just wanted to hold me, he claimed, so I settled in to his lap with my computer and ignored the movie on screen. I was so engrossed in my work that I didn’t even notice when the first movie ended and they started a second, but it was one of my favourites, so eventually I closed my work and settled back into Namjoon.

After a few moments of my leaning across him, Namjoon shifted so that he was sitting sideways on the couch, his legs on either side of me so he could pull me more firmly into his lap. I wiggled back against him and he let out a low groan, slipping his hand up under my shirt to splay across my stomach.

“Uh, Joon-ah, don’t be gross in front of Tae,” I chided him, but wiggled back again, wanting to punish him a little bit for staying longer than he’d promised.

Namjoon swatted at my thigh with his free hand. “Sit still, then!” he returned. “I wouldn’t have been gross if you weren’t being dirty.”

I gasped for dramatic effect and twisted to look him in the face. “How exactly am I being dirty? I’m just getting comfortable.”

Namjoon scoffed. “Yeah, you’re comfortably grinding on my dick.” The hand on my abdomen slid up high enough slip unter the wire of my bra and graze at the underside of my breast, causing me to wiggle yet again. “You’re killing me here, babe!”

I stopped, remembering we weren’t alone, and looked over at Taehyung to make sure he wasn’t about to run away in embarrassment. To my surprise, he met my gaze and smiled. “It’s okay,” he assured me. “Nothing I haven’t heard or seen before.” I blushed, but smiled my thanks and grabbed the blanket from the back of the couch, throwing it over Namjoon and I for a little more privacy if he decided to pull my shirt up again.

By the end of the second movie, Namjoon was snoring behind me and Tae could barely keep his eyes open. “Okay, guys, you’ve been here longer than you said you would, time to head home,” I said, loud enough to startle them both. Taehyung groaned, and Namjoon hugged me tighter, pulling me back into his lap.

“Babe, it’s too late,” he complained. “Can’t we just crash here?”

I muttered, “How did I not see this coming?” but still freed myself from Namjoon’s arms and went to the closet to grab an extra pillow and some blankets. “Here, Taehyung,” I said, dropping them on the couch. “The couch is comfy enough that I fall asleep on it all the time.” I helped Namjoon to stand and pulled him behind me to my bedroom.

We had settled down, ready to fall back asleep when we heard my couch scrape against the floor as if someone was moving it around. It finally stopped, but we listened to bare feet padding down the short hall to my closed door.

“Noona?” Taehyung asked through the door. He said something else, but it was muffled.

“What?” Namjoon asked. “Open the door, we can’t hear you.” Taehyung did as ordered, but stood in the doorway, not stepping into the room.

“Do you have an air mattress, or some more blankets or something? I’m too tall to fit on the couch,” he said.

I shook my head. “Sorry, I don’t really.” Tae nodded and reached for the door to close it again.

“Just-” Namjoon said with a sigh. “Come join us,” he offered. “We should have enough room.”

My eyes widened in shock, and I turned back to look at Joon’s face. Was he serious? I knew he was used to sharing a bed with Tae, but I certainly wasn’t. Did he really want to spend the night sandwiched between his past and current lovers? I may have found the idea of the two of them together that way...intriguing, but I wasn’t sure I was ready to lay next to them while they snuggled or something. I certainly wasn’t a fan of having the situation sprung on me like this.

I couldn’t exactly deny him after the offer had been made, though, so I scooted back toward the edge of the bed to make room for Taehyung on Namjoon’s other side. Joon grabbed me, though, and started pulling the both of us the other way. “You know I’d overheat if I was between the two of you,” he explained, and I felt the bed sink behind me as Tae climbed in. “You good?” Joon asked once we were all settled in.

“Yeah, sure,” I promised bravely. Tae and I had technically fallen asleep together before, but there was a big difference between falling asleep against each other on the couch at the dorm and sleeping in bed together on purpose.

“You know,” Namjoon began with a smirk. “If you get too hot, you can always take off your pyjamas. Neither of us will mind.”

“Hyung!” This time it was Taehyung scolding him. “This is awkward enough without you making it worse.”

I kicked my way out from underneath the blankets, sitting up to crawl out of the bed. “I’ll just go sleep on the couch, I’ve done it before,” I grumbled, trying not to let emotion creep into my voice. I’d nearly made it to the end of the bed before a strong arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me back. To my surprise, it was Taehyung who held me to him, not my boyfriend.

“Ignore hyung, he’s being an asshole,” Tae said, his mouth right next to my ear. I hoped he couldn’t feel the shiver that coursed through my body; I really wasn’t exaggerating the effect his voice had on me. “It’s just like passing out on the couch together, no big deal.” He had a point, our relationship had always been heavy on skinship and it had never bothered me before.

As if to further convince me, Taehyung started humming softly, some tuneless notes that turned into the melody of the song I’d heard at the studio, the one he and Namjoon had written for me. My body was still tingling from his voice, so I closed my eyes and slowed my breathing, hoping I’d drift off.

I must have looked convincing, because once the song was over, Tae started whispering at Namjoon. “What the fuck are you trying to pull, hyung?” His voice was harsh despite his attempts to keep quiet.

“Don’t act all innocent, I know you still like her,” Namjoon answered, his voice almost teasing and heavy with sleep. It seems Tae’s lullaby had worked on Joon as well. “Seen the way you watch her when she isn’t looking, use every excuse to touch her and hold her close. That picture, the scandal...I don’t know how she doesn’t see how bad you want her, it’s all over your face.”

“Hyung,” Tae whined. “So you just want to torture me? Force us closer to punish me for wanting her, or is this retaliation for interrupting you the other night?”

Namjoon chuckled. “No, nothing like that.”

“Then what, hyung?”

Namjoon was silent for a few moments, long enough that I was tempted to open my eyes to check if he’d fallen asleep mid conversation. Finally he spoke, but his words gave me no comfort. “Look at her, curled up with you in an instant, when I’m right in front of her. She was looking at you the same way, Taetae, in that picture. She wants you too, I’m pretty sure.”

I felt more than heard Tae’s sharply indrawn breath; he had pulled me right up against him and his arms tightened around me even further in his moment of shock. I had to will myself to remain relaxed, knowing that if I even stiffened they would realize I was awake, and I’d lose out on hearing the rest of this conversation they were having.

“I would never, hyung! Noona wouldn’t- She’s your girl, Joon-hyung,” Taehyung stumbled through the words, clearly at a loss for what to say to Namjoon’s revelation.

I wouldn’t have known what to say, either. My mind was racing, overwhelmed with new information and things to consider. Was he right? Did I really have a crush or something on Tae? He was probably my best friend, and I adored him to pieces, but I had been into Namjoon from the moment we met, head-over-heels in love for a couple of years now. Sure, Taehyung was attractive, but so were all the other members, and no one could fault me for enjoying the view. But I couldn’t deny that my relationship with Taehyung was different from the rest of the guys, we were closer and hung out together more, and were more cuddly, but I figured Tae was just like that with everybody. Unless that touchyness was a manifestation of some kind of feelings for me…

“She is, for now. Doesn’t have to stay that way,” Namjoon said softly, and my racing mind ground to a halt.

Next (Part 2)

[lcgendcfzvlda]

☆ — wait , is that ZELDA KING ? dean lockwood has been looking for them . you didn’t hear it from me but , apparently the JUNIOR might know something about the whole omega chi & kappa tau situation . while they can be BRASH & IMPULSIVE , they’re far too WELCOMING & COURAGEOUS  to be involved , right ? those who know them say they’re reminded of FLANNELS WRAPPED AROUND THE WAIST, THE CLICKING OF A CAMERA, A COMPUTER SCREEN ILLUMINATING A PITCH BLACK ROOM, THE “IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA” THEME, BAGPIPES PLAYING IN THE DISTANCE whenever they’re around .  honestly , the DIGITAL MEDIA major should try to keep their head down . after the events of last semester , lockwood is out for blood . did you know that ZELDA is a member of GAMMA RHO ALPHA ? that might explain why their name is being brought up .

                                               you’re an explosion , you’re dynamite                                                   playlist. pinterest. to listen as you read.                                                like for a plotting dm on tumblr , react for a discord dm                                                rocky lynch lovebot / hylia.#0329 on discord.

WOOOO I really can’t keep myself from holding only one muse can’t I. WELL. This is Zelda , a bit more of a happy-go-lucky muse compared to Sam !! She’s both her own character mixed with a few others I have - I love her dearly , so please please please feel free to come at me for plots !! <3 HERE WE GO :

HISTORY

Zelda’s backstory isn’t anything special - growing up in Scotland her parents had a nice marriage , she grew up an only child , always got good grades

But she always felt... average. She never was really anyone to anybody , so Zelda had a bit of a knack for wanting attention and trying to get her voice out there. So some took this as endearing , some took it as annoying.

In high school , she was lucky enough to be selected for an exchange student program in Salem , Massachusetts - and then she’d meet the FIRST person who would make her feel special in SAGA ( Sexuality And Gender Acceptance ) Club , a cheeky blonde boy named Cyrus who had a tendency to hide in the corner of the room and not talk to many people. And they’d date for about a year , up until Zelda would have to go back to Scotland.

They had to break up when Zelda would leave , but remained extremely close and communicating daily through digital connections.

ANYWAY , that little one year romance sort of gave her more confidence to use her voice and try and light up the room - since if she could do it for one person , she could do it for multiple people. That’s what gave her the idea to pursue a career in DIGITAL MEDIA -  namely , film & video ( with digital art and photography on the side ) in the more comedic aspect. Screenplaying and the technicals behind sketch-comedy skits. Stand-up comedy , even though that was more performing.

Think like Saturday Night Live - and then think of all the technical stuff that goes into it besides the acting. The script-writing , camera angles , etc. Zelda just wanted to make people laugh.

Soooo… when she told her parents that would be what she wanted to do , her average home-life would turn sour CONSIDERING they didn’t want her to explore such risky career choices. An easier life would be to become a lawyer or a doctor - more stable. But that’s not what she wanted. So after a LENGTHY argument with her parents , Zelda would be thrown out of the house with only the money she saved ( thankfully , she’d always been the frugal one ) , and would call . . . her ex-boyfriend and his mother. Since even though they’d only been communicating digitally over the past two years , it still felt like home in Massachusetts.

Her ex’s mother would pay for a flight for her to go back to the United States , and after some time of adjusting , she’d get into Hollingsworth to pursue her career in Digital Media - staying there , but often traveling home ( being where her ex and his mom lived ) routinely.

Pledging to Gamma , her insistence for encouraging people to live their life to the fullest and readiness to include people in her free spirited antics would leave a great impression on the sorority - eventually even leading to her current position as its president.

CHARACTER / FACTS

So again !! Zelda is my trans female pansexual bby , 5’11 bc tall girls make the world go round and she is the LIVING EXAMPLE of the Halcyon label. She’s loud , carefree , optimistic - never really known to pass up an opportunity to have fun.

...that’s so basic of an intro to her personality BUT IN MY DEFENSE IT’S EARLY

BUT YEAH Zelda ?? Does not give a shit about anything. She holds no grudges towards anyone , waaaay too chill - but she flips from extremely chill and laid back to “HEY HEY LET’S GO DO THESE TEN THINGS” and it’s. Definitely a 360. But nobody’s ever seen her angry and it sort of makes people wonder if she even feels anger or if she has a secret dark side nobody knows about.

...She doesn’t. Zelda’s only habits when angry are that she’s short , to the point , and WILL call you out if you’ve done something wrong. But making her mad is extremely hard and she’ll only remotely get upset if you prove time and time after again to be a shitty person.

Which , can sort of lead her to get taken advantage of because of her chill nature - that’s how the previous issue with Gamma getting in trouble at one of their parties happened. Zelda got pissed. She knows she’s chill but she doesn’t think about how that could lead SOME people to thinking “oh I can do anything I want and she’ll be fine with it” because she doesn’t. Get angry about much.

ALSO THAT DOES MAKE HER A BIT NAIVE - just again. She’s easy to take advantage of because she believes the best in everyone and automatically assumes people will do the right thing as people. Doesn’t really understand why people will do things to hurt others and doesn’t really want to.

Also kind of jumpy like she’s a social person and definitely flips between lax and loud but it is SO easy to startle her.

AS FOR HER INTERESTS IN DIGITAL MEDIA - she is extremely talented with the entire Adobe Creative Suite , especially Premiere , Photoshop , and After Effects.

She has an Instagram dedicated to posting manips , edits , etc. she made in both PS & AE. You know those funky Insta edits you see all the time ?? Zelda makes those.

She ALSO does a lot of editing and promotion for Gamma - a lot of times they’re memey little videos or advertisements or skits that display how welcoming Gamma is , and they do a great job at leaving a good impression on possible recruits.

Her BIG thing though would be a little YouTube channel she runs where she often posts videos just around campus - think Billy On The Street , which is what she really wants to do with her digital media career.

“I’M RUNNING AROUND HOLLINGSWORTH WITH A PACK OF WILD LESBIANS”

“LET’S GO LESBIANS LET’S GO”

She either wants to do that - or mockumentaries to put on Youtube ( or even documentaries in a whole that she approaches with her extremely sunny demeanor on conspiracies or the like ). She’d also like to film her own show to put on TV , either something like reality comedy , a reality show spoof , or even something like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia or The Office or Brooklyn 99. Comedy film is her passion.

Commentary videos are ALSO something she’s considered , much like iNabber or Strange AEons , but she thinks mockumentaries , skits , and her other work

Also that person who Photoshops heads on people’s bodies and makes memes for all the group chats she’s in

She really doesn’t take herself seriously often but frankly that’s just Gamma as a whole so it WORKS.

A good portion of Zelda’s existence is a meme tbh I honestly adore her

She has a LOT of tattoos that were designed by her ex-boyfriend since he was an art major and now is a tattoo artist in Salem - I’d point you in the direction of Hannah Pixie Snowdon’s body art as a reference , just Zelda isn’t nearly as covered as she is.

This would be the best reference I can think of rn , lots of pretty designs and some animals, maybe some symbols and references from stuff. 

Olivia doesn’t have any tattoos but WE CAN CERTAINLY PRETEND

A lot of her spare money is made doing either graphics commissions or even photography from whoever needs her services !! The majority of her stuff has been done for cosplayers , budding models , budding actors and actresses , and even for other fraternities and sororities around campus. Zelda knows no rivalries when it comes to these things.

She’s also 100% that person who keeps around a polaroid camera so she can hang up pictures she takes she’s just That Person

Decorates the Gamma house with a lot of polaroids she’s taken and memey edits she’s done in Photoshop

INSIDE JOKES ARE HER THING

She also plays guitar and is fairly good at it but doesn’t have a band or anything rn bc she’s just someone who does it bc she wants to look cool ( and also bc the guitar’s a neato instrument but yeah she started it out just bc she wanted to play SOME kind of instrument at least )

,,,but she also knows how to play the bagpipes

and she owns a pair.

they’re in the gamma house. zelda plays them at meetings.

Also I can’t 100% guarantee she didn’t get her name from the Legend of Zelda series if y’all know me u know how much I adore that series so yeah

WANTED PLOTS / CONNECTIONS

GIVE ME A COMEDY SQUAD PLEEEEEEEEASE maybe even ppl she works to make a webseries or something with ?? give me people who work constantly just to make other people laugh

People she routinely takes photographs of !!

Whether they pay her or she uses as a muse for whatever

OTHER PPL FROM THE GREEK ROW THAT JUST DON’T… LIKE ZELDA FOR WHATEVER REASON

Maybe they think she’s too chill. Maybe they think she’s hiding something. Maybe they don’t like how she’s running Gamma but for whatever reason they just DON’T LIKE HER and I want enemies so fucking give me enemies

This is so general but more Gamma sisters would be lovely Zelda’s so eager to bring in more people to make their sorority feel like home

Give me crushes Zelda pines over !! Crushes that pine over Zelda !! Gimme that skinny love shit bc my god it gets me going !!

Hookup plots are also 100% acceptable bc again Zelda’s a carefree spirit and gives No Fucks

Also 100% down 4 cute romantic plots too - Zelda is ur regular poly pan babe w/ room in her heart for 12000 suns

it’s very on brand of me to place the romance/sex plots right smack in the middle as I’m thinking of what to put down

Okay when I was in high school we had majors and I was a Digital Art major and all the Visual Art majors had this bond with us for no reason so I’d really love some Vis. Art buddies that Zelda gets along with much like the bond she has with her ex-boyfriend now

OTHER PEOPLE TO DESIGN MORE TATTOOS FOR HER PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE one day she hopes to be a coloring book

I’D LOVE SOME UNLIKELY FRIENDS TOO JUST SOME GRUMPS ZELDA’S CONSTANTLY BOTHERING W/ HER SHIT

Memey group chat pls

THATS ALL I CAN THINK OF FOR NOW maybe i’ll do a more detailed / organized list soon but yeah !! Come at me !!!

[shipmistress9]

FTLOAP - 32.5 - Interlude 3: Chaos Squad

Title: For The Love Of A Princess

Fandom: HTTYD

Theme: Hiccstrid - Medieval-style AU - Romance - Angst/Hurt/Comfort

Summary: Reduced to little more than a stable boy, Hiccup, despite his noble birth, has few prospects for more in life. But when he meets a girl who came to look at the horses, being a stable boy might not be enough anymore. Together, they have tough choices to make and great risks to navigate if they want to survive and be together.

Rating: Explicit

FF-net  -  AO3 -

Discord-server for discussions and questions

Prologue; Chapter 1; Chapter 2; Chapter 3; Chapter 4; Chapter 5; Chapter 6; Chapter 7; Chapter 8; Chapter 9; Chapter 10; Chapter 11; Chapter 12; Chapter 13; Chapter 14; Interlude 1; Chapter 15; Chapter 16; Chapter 17; Chapter 18; Chapter 19; Chapter 20; Chapter 21; Chapter 22; Chapter 23; Chapter 24; Chapter 25; Chapter 26; Interlude 2; Chapter 27: Chapter 28 ; Chapter 29 ; Chapter 30; Chapter 31; Chapter 32

Alpha/Co-author: @athingofvikings

. – * – _ . o O o . _ – * – .

AN: Okay, when we originally considered putting this part into the story, it was meant to be a joke. A bit of relief from tension and feels. Pure fun. And then the boys decided that, nope, we're gonna do it like this. And this. And this too. *shrugs helplessly* So don't blame me for anything, it was all them!

. o O o .

As it turned out, carrying four big mugs of beer at once wasn’t easy, but Eret thought he managed it sufficiently. That being said, the mugs were heavy, solid pewter with a lid on top, which was the only reason he’d avoided splashing anyone as he had to dodge other customers in the big tavern’s room. They’d dressed down for this pub crawl, which had the pleasant advantage of not having everyone bowing in obsequiousness – but also the distinct disadvantage of having the people around him not exactly putting in much effort to make way for him. But it wasn’t more difficult or exhausting than reining in one of his House’s untamed horses either, even less so if one considered that the mugs weren’t actively fighting against him. So, all in all, he didn’t think that getting drinks for them had taken that long, but when he returned to their table in a calmer and slightly detached niche, Dagur already awaited him eagerly.

“Oh, thank the Gods, you’re back,” he exclaimed, and directly reached to claim one of the big mugs. “These two are driving me insane!”

Eret’s eyes wandered to the other side of the table where Daniel and Hiccup sat side by side, their heads bowed over a notebook on the table between them. A relieved smile tugged at his lips at that sight; they were obviously deeply engrossed in yet another technical-looking sketch, and didn’t even react when he placed their mugs down in front of them. That was a good thing, he mused as he sat down in the last empty chair. Last night, during the festivities for the grand blot, Hiccup’s bold move to help Astrid on Markor’s back had worried him, and then there’d been Astrid’s hug and Daniel’s strange reaction to it… For a moment, Eret had honestly been afraid for his cousin. The war had hardened Daniel noticeably, and with the repeated assaults on Astrid, his sense of protection for his little sister had hardened as well.

And Hiccup… Well, Eret would vouch for Hiccup’s integrity. Tyr, he had! But no matter how well his cousin fit into their group and how fond Daniel seemed to be of him, none of that would matter when it came to Astrid. So it was good to see them like this again, with the tension from last night entirely gone. They were just getting excited over scholarly crap, together, once again, and even though Eret hadn’t thought it possible, the sight gave him a good feeling.

But it was too much fun to tease Dagur, so he let out a theatrical sigh. “Welcome to my life. They’ve been like this ever since my accolade, drifting off into technical conversations no sane person can follow. You’ve only endured this for a week now, but believe me, it’ll only get worse the longer they talk.”

Dagur cackled, amusement sparking in his eyes, and with Daniel thoroughly distracted he felt safe enough to throw his lover a warm smile. It wasn’t like they deliberately wanted to keep Daniel in the dark or lie to him… But they knew the Prince well enough, knew his sober attitude toward love and marriage. He wouldn’t get angry at him and Dagur for loving each other. But he also wouldn’t understand it, would only lecture them on how they couldn’t keep their relationship up forever. The good of the Kingdom was more important. And they knew that! But they didn’t need to be reminded of this fact every day again…

For another minute or three, they watched Hiccup and Daniel, how they kept bouncing ideas back and forth, both having a pencil in their hands now to simultaneously add to their sketch. It was funny in a way, though not why anyone visited a tavern.

“And here I thought we’d come here to have fun tonight,” Dagur commented after a while, disbelievingly shaking his head. “You know, after spending nearly the entire day at the Temple to help tidy it up again, I thought we’d earned a reprieve now. Laugh, chat, get a little drunk…” He paused, shaking his head again. “Is this going to keep going on like this? Or is there a chance they might reach another topic at some point?”

“If you can provide an interesting enough topic, that’s possible. But otherwise? Nope. It only gets worse.”

Dagur gave him an almost comically pleading look. “And if we just… leave? I mean, not necessarily to you-know-what. Just, I don’t know... Do something else? Maybe join the men over there? I’m pretty sure I’ve spotted some of this year’s recruits; we could teach them a lesson. I mean, beating them in an arm-wrestling match won’t make as much of an impression as Swanja’s performance with her bow would have made, but it surely would be better than nothing?”

Eret glanced over into the main room. Dagur was right, in all points. There were some recruits out there, also revelling in their liberty before heading off for war, and teaching them some respect surely would be helpful for their further training. Some of them were insufferable this year. But he let out an exasperated snort, and shook his head. “No, we can’t leave,” he said dryly, then nodded back to Daniel and Hiccup. “We can’t leave them alone. Believe me, it’s better to keep an eye on them before they go overboard. Again!”

“What, you think they’d slip away when we turn our backs on them? Maybe run riot?” Dagur laughed again, loud and true. “Oh, wait, I get it. Maybe they’ll go over to the armoury and test their theories from the other day. Which angle and distance is best to tear down a wall.” He laughed again at his own joke.

Eret just raised his eyebrow though, and gave Dagur an ‘Are you certain this is just a joke?’-look that made him choke on his next laugh. Sure, they hadn’t torn down any walls. Not yet! But it certainly wouldn’t be that much of an escalation to previous experiments either…

Leaving Dagur to get a grip on his laughing fits on his own, Eret reached for his beer and took a big gulp. Dagur was right, however. As happy as he was to see Daniel wasn’t against Hiccup… this was their last night before they’d all meet up in Westhill come summer. And selfish as it might be, he’d rather they would all chat together.

He was just scouring his mind for something – anything – to change the topic to, when a boy in the uniform of a courier appeared at their table.

They all looked up at the boy, wearing the sash and badge of the king’s messengers. He appeared to be a little self-conscious in the loud tavern, where a lad his age would normally be shown the door, as he glanced from one to the other. “Sir Eret?” he eventually muttered, settling to look at him. “I have this note for you. From your father.” The boy handed him a sealed letter, and Eret accepted it reflexively, even as a frown formed on his face.

A note from his father? That was strange. What would be so important that it couldn’t wait until the morning? “Thanks,” he said to the courier, and made attempts to stow the letter away into the pocket of his vest for later.

But the boy shook his head, looking highly uncomfortable as he raised a hand as if to stop him. “I-I’m sorry, Milord,” he stammered. “But I have orders to wait for your answer and deliver it back to his Grace directly. Just… just something about whether you… approve or not?”

Eret’s frown grew deeper, and he noticed that his friends around him all had looks of equal confusion on their faces. Even Daniel and Hiccup had interrupted their conversation for now. “All right,” he sighed, and got up. “Then I’ll see whether I can find a more private place to read it, and get right back to you.”

The boy nodded and stepped to the side, making way for Eret to leave their niche. He looked around, then decided to go outside to read. The light falling through the windows would be sufficient, without the noises of a full tavern to distract him.

Inside the letter were two pieces of paper. One was just a short note, the other another formerly sealed letter addressed to Grand Duke Eret of House Jag’r. Blinking in confusion, he first read the note, written in his father’s messy handwriting.

Son,

This letter from Eastervale arrived an hour ago, and I want to send back a reply immediately. But, as the future head of our House, it is your right to give your opinion as well.

His father wanted his opinion on a matter that affected their House? What could it be, some new trading contract maybe? Frowning even deeper, Eret read the note again, but couldn’t make any more rhyme or reason to it than the first time. Since when did his father need his opinion on such matters?

Shaking his head in bewilderment, he turned his attention to the letter. The seal was broken, but since it had been addressed to his father, that wasn’t surprising. What surprised him, however, was that even though it was broken, the seal was easily recognisable. It was the same as the one on the note the courier had just given him: The seal of a family member of House Jag’r. Even more confused, he opened the letter, and read it.

Dearest Father,

I send this letter to you in the hope that it might reach you soon. If my calculations are right, then I hope you had a wonderful Midwinter’s Night yesterday.

You might be wondering why I’m sending you this letter now instead of waiting for your return in a few weeks. You see, there’s been a development during the last weeks, and even though I know that the final decision only can be made once you’ve returned, I’m eager nonetheless to know your opinion on the matter.

Isku, Baron Hammond’s second son, asked me to become his wife. I know that his father already sent an official proposal, and that it is not my decision to make. But dearest Father, I want to let you know that, if it were my decision, I would gladly say yes.

So I’ll be waiting to hear from you, hoping for your approval.

In love,

Ester of House Jag’r

Gulping, Eret stared at the letter, and let his fingers glide over his sister’s name at the bottom. This didn’t come as a surprise, not really. Baron Hammond’s second son, Isku, had been a regular visitor during the summer months and had been one of the few that hadn’t been a nuisance but a real help instead. His genuine interest in Ester had been an open secret, and even though she’d tried to hide it, Eret had noticed that the interest was mutual.

No, this letter didn’t come as a surprise, and there was no real question whether their Father would approve of the union either. Baron Hammond was an influential and loyal vassal, and tying them tighter to their House would only strengthen them both – even if Eret the Elder would whine and complain about how it was a less than optimum dynastic union, given that Isku was only a second son, and the Hammonds were already vassals, and they should have held out for a first son of a Duke.  

But the irony...

Eret shivered. His sisters would marry out of the House. Ester would join House Hammond if this was approved, as the law stated.

And Dagur’s siblings were all in the Temple. Even though they were acknowledged by Oswald as his children, they were still Ástir-born bastards, meaning that, by law, none of them could inherit in Dagur’s stead. So, for both him and Dagur, the ‘line of succession’ was a noose around their necks, strangling their love. This letter was just a reminder that nothing had changed. No, if anything, it made everything more real.

He couldn’t tell for how long he stood out there staring at the letter, his thoughts chasing around and around. But when his fingers started to turn numb from the cold, he returned back inside. “You can tell my father that I approve,” he said to the still waiting courier, who nodded and then hurried out of the tavern. Eret gazed after him, then sighed.

He was happy for Ester. Marrying for love was a rare luck, and he was glad to know that at least one of those around him would have that luck. Without his help, his eyes wandered through the crowded room, to their niche, to Dagur. Yeah, it was rare luck indeed, one he himself would never have.

With a heavy heart, Eret weaved his way back to their table, hoping to find some comfortable distraction among his friends – but paused in his steps when he finally noticed the change. Daniel and Hiccup had stopped talking about their sketch, as it seemed. In fact, they weren’t talking at all anymore, and instead laughing cordially. All in all, that wasn’t that much of an unusual sight, except that something about them seemed off.

As if–

. o O o .

With a satisfied grin, Dagur leaned back in his chair and watched the other two men laugh about the silly joke he’d just made. Yep, this was definitely more fun. Not that he begrudged Daniel and Hiccup having this common interest, not at all. But this was their last day together, so this was really not the best time for such discussions. In addition, a tavern also wasn’t the right place for it, given that who knew who might be listening in on them discussing defence plans and such.

“What in Loki’s name happened to them?”

Dagur turned at the exasperated tone in Eret’s voice, and grinned up at his disbelieving expression. “Oh, I just got tired of all the technical terms. So I… helped them to relax a bit. See things in a different light.” It sounded good in his own ears. Sophisticated.

But Eret wasn’t fooled. His eyes turned into slits, then he leaned forward and sniffed at Hiccup’s beer. The big mug was half-empty by now, but with how people outside of Southshore brewed their beer for taste and not alcohol content, that didn’t mean much. Or… usually wouldn’t mean much.

“I can’t believe it,” Eret muttered. “You–” He broke off, then hastily rounded the table to take his seat, but pulled it closer to Dagur to speak quietly. “Are you out of your mind?” he hissed. “Please tell me you didn’t lace their beers with your Gods-damned Skullcrusher.”

Attempting to look innocent, Dagur schooled his expression and reached for his own beer. “I didn’t lace their beers with my fantastic self-brewed booze,” he repeated dutifully. But Eret knew him too well, obviously wasn’t buying it, and it only took a couple of seconds before Dagur broke. “No, it’s true,” he snickered. “I didn’t lace them. It was more of a liberal swig. Very liberal. But look how good it did them.” He pointed his round chin at the two men on the other side of the table, still laughing about Odin-knows-what. “We’re here to relax, Daniel specifically. And I understand that he enjoys talking about all this theoretical stuff. But he gets enough of that. Today, he should let go. Only the Gods know when he’ll get the chance to do so again.”

Dagur knew that he was right, but Eret still didn’t seem convinced. “Maybe,” he grumbled. “But this was still not a good idea. You do realise that their alcohol tolerance is not quite as high as yours or even mine, right? Freyr, you only would have needed to wait maybe another half an hour, and the beer alone would have been enough already. Now we can only hope that Daniel won’t suffer from a hangover when he starts his journey tomorrow. And we better make sure Hiccup safely gets back to the stables and doesn’t end up in some stream.”

Okay, maybe Eret had a point. But Dagur wouldn’t let such neglectable facts deter him. “I still say it’s more fun this way. But don’t worry, my Skullcrusher doesn’t cause hangovers, it’s too good for that.” Eret snorted at the blatant lie. The drink was aptly named, after all, for all that Dagur had named it after Eret’s uncle’s horse when the poor beast had been returned from the Tribes two years ago. “And as for Hiccup; stopping by the stables to make sure he gets there isn’t even much of a detour, so that shouldn’t be a problem either. Calm down, Chippy. Relax! We’re here to forget all worries for a night, remember?”

He could practically see how the anger flowed out of his lover, though whether it was due to his reasoning or to the use of his usual nickname – short for Chipmunk, a reference to his striped chin – Dagur couldn’t tell. Maybe he would have gotten an answer to this question as Eret was about to reply, his mouth already half-way open. But he never got the chance to actually say anything as his return had apparently finally soaked into Daniel’s alcohol-laced mind and the Prince looked up at him, beaming.

“Heh, Eret! When did you come back?” he asked cheerfully. His voice was a little too loud and there was a slightly glassy shimmer in his eyes, but in Dagur’s opinion, that wasn’t cause to be worried yet. “What did your old man want that couldn’t wait?”

Eret threw him a last meaningful look, but then turned toward Daniel. “He wanted to ask my opinion,” he explained, immediately catching Dagur’s interest too. “About… well, it’s not really a secret anyway, I guess. Apparently, my sister is getting married.”

There was a tightening on Eret’s face, Dagur noticed, and, knowing where it was coming from, he wished he could reach out and squeeze his hand to offer comfort. But that would have given away too much… Sometimes, Dagur really hated having to keep secrets.

“Your sister is getting married?” Daniel and Hiccup asked almost simultaneously.

“Ester or Mirja? Wait, how old were they? Aren’t they… still toddlers, or something?” Daniel looked positively perplexed, frowning as he tried to remember. His question made Dagur snicker. With all his additional duties that had come with growing up, it obviously had been a while since Daniel had been to Eastervale.

“‘s got to be Ester,” Hiccup muttered, voice slurring heavily. “She turned seventeen a few months back. And Mirja is almost fifteen, by the way. Hardly t-toddlers anymore. So did that–” he frowned a little, “–uh... son of a baron ask her after all? Wha’ was ‘is name? Isker?”

“Isku,” Eret corrected, nodding. “And yeah, apparently he did,” he added with a grimace.

“And… that’s not good?” Daniel asked hesitantly, reacting to Eret’s tense posture. “Didn’t you say something about how you wouldn’t mind–”

“Oh, it is good,” Eret interrupted quickly. “Isku is a good man. Reliable. Digilant. Not above getting his hands dirty. And he truly cares for Ester. No, I couldn’t hope for a better man, for her and for the stud farm in Sunhill alike. It's just…’ he trailed off, eyes cast down at his hands. He took a big gulp of his beer, and didn’t even grimace even though Dagur was sure he must have noticed the Skullcrusher he’d put in there too. “It’s just… weird, I guess? It’s as if we’ve really grown up now, you know? I mean, sure, we’re knights now and all, but this…”

“Yeah, I get what you mean,” Daniel muttered as Eret trailed off. He took a swallow of his beer as well, before gesturing around from one to the other, starting with Dagur. “Heather is married, but she’s older anyway, so it’s not that strange. But now Ester marries, and… And it makes one wonder where we will end up, doesn’t it?” He laughed, a little shakily, then shook his head. “I mean, could you imagine getting married anytime soon?”

Next to him, Eret chuckled and shook his head, and Dagur was quick to follow. No, he couldn't imagine it, didn’t want to imagine it. There was only one person he wanted to spend his life with, but it could never be. Having to actively fight glancing at Eret, he turned his head into the opposite direction – and halted when his eyes landed on Hiccup instead.

A bemused expression crossed his face. He wasn't sure what kind of reaction he'd expected to Daniel's question from the boy. No, Hiccup wasn't a boy, Dagur reminded himself. He was just as old as he and Eret, and it was just his slighter build and serving demeanour with the underlying humour that made him seem younger. But that wasn't the point.

Dagur cocked his head. Hiccup's eyes had an undeniable glassy gleam in them, the alcohol clearly affecting him more than Dagur had anticipated. But what really drew his attention was the fact that Hiccup was grinning like an idiot. His lips were stretched, teeth showing a little, and his eyes were unseeingly cast to the table between them. There was an absent-minded and dreamy look in them that somehow fit to the way his left hand rubbed a spot at his chest.

“Hah,” Dagur laughed out loud. “Maybe you can’t imagine that, but it looks like there’s someone here who can.” Both Eret and Daniel looked at him in surprise, then turned toward Hiccup when Dagur nodded at him.

“Uh... what?” Hiccup muttered. When he looked up at them all staring at him, he had an undeniably caught look on his face, yet the dreamy grin was still there somehow.

“Hiccup?” Daniel asked, disbelievingly. “Don’t tell me, you–”

“Oh, don’t dare to deny it,” Dagur interrupted Daniel gleefully. He propped himself up on his elbows and leaned over the table to look at Hiccup more intently. “That look on your face just now said it all.”

Hiccup made an unintelligible noise somewhere between a whine and a groan as he looked from one to the other.

Dagur grinned. “So? Tell us everything about her. Who is she? I guess it’s a ‘she’? I want to know everything!”

Hiccup, having finished looking around the three of them for rescue and finding none, let his shoulders slump. But then a shy but dreamy smile once more spread across his face. Again, his left hand reached for his chest, and this time it looked as if he was toying with something beneath his tunic. A charm maybe? Glancing at Hiccup’s neck, Dagur noticed a leather cord peeking out at the hem, one he was relatively certain hadn’t been there before. So he actually already wore a token of his love? Oh, this should be interesting.

“You’re right,” Hiccup eventually muttered, not meeting anyone’s eyes. “There is someone, and she’s…” he trailed off, shrugging helplessly.

The show was highly amusing to Dagur, but Daniel seemed more confused. “I thought… Didn’t you say something about never having been in love like that not so long ago?”

The smile on Hiccup’s face grew a little sheepish now as he looked up at Daniel. “Was the truth back then,” he affirmed. “But… So many things happened since then, and–”

“No humming and hawing now, Hiccup,” Dagur probed further. “We want all the details.”

When Hiccup turned his attention toward Dagur, there was a bright spark of excitement in his dazed eyes. He’d apparently made a decision, and it seemed as if he’d only waited for an opportunity like this, because once Hiccup started to talk there seemed to be no end. “She’s amazing!” he began. “I only met her after we got here, but it already feels as if we’ve known each other forever. She’s so beautiful, her eyes gleaming as bright as the sky, and her hair… her soft skin, and those sweet lips. I could spend all day kissing her. But she’s so much more than just beautiful, also kind and funny, witty and smart, strong and brave. So brave…” he trailed off for a moment, his eyes gazing into the distance as he kept playing with the charm beneath his tunic. “And I love her. Gods, I do. I love her so much.”

A fond grin played around Dagur’s lips as he listened to Hiccup’s outburst. When he and Eret had found him all those months ago in that roadside tavern, he’d been wrecked. There was no gentle way to put it, really. He’d been shattered and broken, both physically and mentally, more dead than alive. Later, during the weeks Dagur had met him in Eastervale and during this last week here at the capitol, he’d seemed better, healthier, but still so calm and cool, detached. But this now? This was undeniably a new spark of life, and Dagur was happy to see him like this.

He glanced at Eret, knowing that his lover cared deeply for his cousin and that he had been worried about Hiccup’s welfare too. It surprised him then when, instead of a fond smile, he saw a tense frown on Eret’s face. Was he still thinking about Ester and her marriage? He wanted to give Eret a nudge, maybe a questioning look, something subtle, but before he could actually do so, Daniel drew his attention again.

“That sounds great, Hic,” he said, placing a hand on Hiccup’s shoulder. “Honestly, I’m happy for you. Surprised you didn’t say anything before though.” Hiccup shuffled a bit, mumbling incoherently, but Daniel didn’t seem to notice. “So I was wrong after all... Are you really thinking about marriage already, even with how short a time you know each other?”

At that, Hiccup laughed, a little giddily. “Yes,” he gasped with a measure of confidence that surprised even Dagur. “Yes, I am. I want to marry her. And I will marry her one day. She’s the one for me, I know it.”

“So she feels the same?”

Hiccup turned to look at Daniel again, a sincere expression on his face now that only barely got dulled by his obvious state of drunkenness. “Amazingly, she does.”

Daniel nodded. For a moment, Dagur thought he noticed a rueful, almost sad expression crossing his face, but it was gone before he could be sure, replaced by an honest smile. “Then you shouldn’t wait. You never know what the future brings; you should go and ask her father for her hand right away. If you’re sure then there’s no point in waiting.”

“It’s… not that easy,” Hiccup muttered, his shoulders slumping. “First, I… I have to convince her father of my worth. And her brother, too…” The last words were barely more than a whisper, and Dagur wasn’t quite sure whether he’d understood them right.

“Oh, but why wouldn’t they?” Daniel went on cheerfully. “You’re a good man, Hiccup, and if they fail to see that then they’re stupid. If you think you need time then so be it. But know that I’ll be supporting you if that helps.”

Hiccup was quiet for a minute, and just stared at Daniel. “Thank you,” he eventually breathed, the gleam in his eyes almost looking like a hint of a tear. “That… that really means a lot to me!”

“Anytime,” Daniel grinned back. “That’s what friends are for, right?”

“Very true,” Eret chimed in, and lifted his mug. “To friends who stand up for each other. Which reminds me, I haven’t heard much from Snot in a while. Do you know what he’s up to lately? Last I heard was that his crush on Swanja’s maidservant got thoroughly destroyed by his father. The poor man. But seriously, what did he expect? As if Uncle Spite would let him marry a servant.”

“Also true,” Daniel laughed. “But to be fair, Rachel had already done a lot of destroying that crush by that time. No idea what her type is, but it certainly wasn’t Snot. Besides, from what I heard, he’s already well over her anyway.”

Grinning to himself, Dagur leaned back in his chair. Maybe Eret had been right and adding Skullcrusher to this party had been a little over the top, but he didn’t feel like it was doing much damage either. The atmosphere was definitely more to his liking now. He took another gulp of his own beer, by far the strongest mix on this table, then joined the others as they discussed Snot’s latest exploits. Yep, this was certainly more fun.

 . o O o .

*hides under rocks and enjoys the company there*

Here’s a reminder that there won't be a new chapter next week. However, there might be another bonus, possibly uploaded separately. Keep your eyes open :)

Next Chapter

[resonanteye]

via http://resonanteye.net/the-new-american-death-cult-part-3-my-sister-didnt-even-like-trump/

The New American Death Cult, part 3: my sister didn't even LIKE trump

We all know someone who’s seemed normal but who’s somehow gotten involved in reposted propaganda and nonsense about this stuff.

I am talking about someone who isn’t a Limbaugh listener. A yoga teacher, a coffee roaster, an office worker. Someone who isn’t even all that political really, but who is nevertheless posting heavily photoshopped images about “saving children” with random celebrities hovering like demons in the background. How did these people get sucked into a strange cult? How did regular people end up believing an antisemitic trope about “baby brains”? Why is Nevaeh even aware this shit exists?

IF ONE, THEN ALL

It starts with that tag. “save * children”.

Most people are really glad to feel like they’re doing something useful to battle against child abuse. We all hate seeing people get away with abuse, assault, or molestation just because they’re rich. Even people who understand that trump fits this category, agree that anyone who hurts a child should be stopped. It’s universal. It’s a common point of agreement.

Yes, they have written entire guides about how to involve people in the Death Cult. This one is relatively easy to find, but there are entire discord and app chats full of ideas on this. They’re constantly discussing how best to brainwash and argue people into the cult.

So this common, universal point of agreement is the entry into it all. It’s a small step to next start picking out random celebrities who actually HAVE hurt someone- Polanski, Woody Allen, Weinstein, and then extend it to another celebrity. There’s an inexorable drag towards the wilder side of things, but they’ll go slowly, pulling people in bit by bit. I hate to use the “frog in boiling water” analogy but it’s what they are doing.

ALWAYS BE CLOSING

They’re pretty much following core cult recruiting tactics.

Another route of entry is anti-vaccine beliefs. Admittedly, people who are fully against any vaccines are usually always convinced of further weirdness that slots nicely into the Death Cult:

they think modern medicine is a lie

they think “big pharma” wants to kill kids

they are terrified of their own kids being hurt or defective

they don’t care about 3rd world children who still die from polio

often they already believe conspiracy theories about Bill Gates, random politicians and celebrities

Once they’ve gotten on board with the idea that the elite are hurting kids, their fears are pretty easy to redirect.

Now, the red flags here aren’t that they think powerful or rich people hurt kids or assault women. They do. We can look directly at the cases that have come to light and see that there is a grain of truth. Epstein did in fact traffick and rape kids. He did have friends in high places, and they were involved- trump, prince Andrew, Acosta, Dershowitz.

Thinking there’s conspiracy to hide this is also true. ICE has “lost” thousands of children from their facilities. Many were trafficked and yes, have been found. ICE officials have been arrested, and convicted of both trafficking and covering it up. Acosta brokered a deal to keep Epstein’s clients from being charged with sex crimes against children, in 2007 when Epstein was first charged. This could be called a cover-up. Hell, Weinstein had an army of lawyers to help him get away with it. Trump has hundreds of settlements he’s paid. Sure, this is a thing that happens.

These things do happen. And so, you’ve taken that first small step. Each step along this path gets harder to believe, but is only a small step from the last.

Let’s follow the logic.

1. children are being trafficked (ok, true)

2. by powerful people who are protected (sometimes, sure)

3. they’re celebrities and democrats (at this point, people will start to argue about if trump is included. they’ll admit to Roy Moore, or a random Congressional staffer- but not to trump. they will not want to hear about ICE or cartels or anything but white, American kids)

4. Depending on how gullible they think their target is, they’ll either go step by step through a list of people they think are involved, or they’ll jump right to Hillary Clinton. (pizzagate). they’ll spend as much time as necessary inventing “proof” of pizzagate.

5. this is where the baby brains will get mentioned.

6. sometimes, they’ll go a step further into “lizard people”, aliens, The Cabal, etc.

  By the time people have been to, and accepted, step 4, it’s too late to get them out of it. They’re indoctrinated. They’re cult members. They may be only tenuously involved but cults are incredibly hard to leave once inside.

You can use any common agreement to get from the start to step one. “Bill Gates is hurting kids with vaccines” works just as well. step 2 becomes “vaccines are made out of aborted fetuses” (not true, but some believe it). etc

The anti-Semitism of all this doesn’t seem obvious unless you’ve read about the history of medicine, and specifically about previous plagues. Since the plague of Justinian, “blood libel” has been a way of accusing Jewish people of causing plagues.

It was this accusation that fueled the flagellants in 1349, too- another cult that was massive, and that took hold during a plague. I feel that the modern Death Cult is related to the flagellants in a lot of ways. These are very old, very common thoughts for a lot of right wing or christian people. Anti-semitism is still very active, a very real force in the world, just like racism or sexism.

It is not about Israel. It’s about Jewish people themselves, and is a threat to them. Usually this kind of talk is coded.

“Lizard people”, “Soros”, “Rothschild”, and the claims of blood libel all are examples.

This is where your regular, everyday receptionist ends up. After simply wanting to do something to “help kids”, they follow the train of crazy deep into the cult, and end up thinking lizard people are eating baby brains. By the time they’re this deep, they also tend to believe trump is some kind of undercover hero, not a serial abuser at all. They will lie or avoid proof from outside the cult- anything not sanctioned by the cult is “fake” or “part of it”.

They’ll be using thought-stopping phrases, whenever they feel doubt about what they’re doing they will repeat these. They seem like they’re directed at you, but they’re not. These phrases are self directed and are repeated almost a mantra, to quash any feelings of doubt or discomfort with cognitive dissonance they’re having. “Wake up”, “Do your research”, “You’ll see”, “Watch and wait”, “Trust the plan”.

These are said in order to stop themselves from thinking about the cult AS a cult. They’re not directed at you.

This is why your somewhat normal friend is now a rabid trump supporter involved in antimask parades. Sorry. …