#new year same (1) brain cell

[korcariiwitch]

j. 30s (cryptid). she/they. pan. 🌈 nd. chronically ch(ill). introverted af. here to indulge and share in the hyperfixations and hype up the dope content other people create. 🖤

18+ blog. don't be a clown or you'll end up like dribbles. 🤡 no racism, homophobia, ableism, sexism, terfs, etc. not spoiler free.

currently: BG3, OCs (let me love your muses), video games, shows, film, etc.

etc: ask/messages/tags are always welcome. if you need me to tag something, just lmk. 🖤

[godmadeaterribleerror]

No Love Lost Series Masterlist

Read on A03! - Listen to the Playlist!

Main Masterlist - Soldier Boy Masterlist

Rating/Warnings: 18+ for canon-typical violence, swearing, mental health issues, mentions of rape/non-con, and sexual content.

Tags: Soldier Boy/Supe!Female Reader, enemies to friends to lovers, canon divergence, slow burn, smut, angst, fluff.

Series Summary

Three years ago you were normal, the only demons you had to fight were your own, and you the most you knew of Vought and the Boys were what you saw on TV. But then you met Homelander at a stupid party, and woke up the next morning in a cell.

After almost two and a half years of you being Homelander's little project, Soldier Boy was woken up only go rouge and be put back under. Somewhere in there, you escaped. And before Queen Maeve went underground, she told William Butcher about the Anomaly, a powerful supe who recently escaped Vought captivity and may have an agenda against Homelander.

One month later, the Boys found you.

You spend the next five months helping them best you can, though your control over your powers is weak and your fear of Homelander makes you useless in combat. But you get an idea. A stupid, dangerous idea that turns you into Soldier Boy's keeper, giving him a second chance to take down Homelander, you hanging over his shoulder, a threat should he want to go nuclear again. It's exhausting and frustrating, and you might kill him and yourself as soon as this is over, but you said whatever it takes.

And this is what it takes.

Author's Note

This story is non-canon compliant, with the two main differences being;

1) Butcher doesn't have brain cancer, because I said so.

2) All of Gen V didn't take place, because I don't want to deal with the whole supe-plauge thing. Also that's too many characters to keep track of squad.

Because of this, the story will start in a similar setting as s4e5, but with different events leading up to it, and will deal with similar themes and have similar events to the rest of s4, but at an inconsistent rate. If you have any questions about other, smaller changes I have made, feel free to ask!

Navigation Key

❤️‍🔥 = Smut

🚩 = Additional Warnings

Chapter List

Chapter 1 - Where Winning Looks Like Losing Chapter 2 - A New Kind of Tension Chapter 3 - You've Torn Your Dress 🚩 Chapter 4 - You Might Be The Same As Me Chapter 5 - Popped, Cool, and Ready to Go Chapter 6 - I've Been Searching for a Fortified Defense Chapter 7 - The Blinding Ultra-Violence 🚩 Chapter 8 - I Just Find My Way Back ❤️‍🔥🚩 Chapter 9 - Can't Cover It Up ❤️‍🔥 Chapter 10 - Lead Me To The Ark ❤️‍🔥 Chapter 11 - The Wolves or The Ocean Rocks Chapter 12 - While My Blood's Still Flowing Chapter 13 - The Terror of Knowing Chapter 14 - Choke on Sun Chapter 15 - I Found A Martyr ❤️‍🔥 Chapter 16 - Let It Flood ❤️‍🔥 🚩 Chapter 17 - Make My Chest Stir Chapter 18 - Something In The Static ❤️‍🔥 Chapter 19 - Don't Look Back 🚩 Chapter 20 - Forget to Fall Down Chapter 21 - Some Things You Just Can't Speak About ❤️‍🔥 🚩 Chapter 22 - I Stayed In The Darkness With You Chapter 23 - Wherever You're Going ❤️‍🔥 Chapter 24 - You'll Never Be Alone ❤️‍🔥 Chapter 25 - All I Know ❤️‍🔥 Chapter 26 - I’ve Loved Everything About You That Hurts ❤️‍🔥 Chapter 27 - Just A Shot Away 🚩 Chapter 28 - Something That I'm Supposed to Be ❤️‍🔥 Chapter 29 - All My Bets On You Chapter 30 - Every Demon Wants His Pound of Flesh 🚩 Chapter 31 - I'd Do It All Again ❤️‍🔥

More Than You Could Ever Know - A No Love Lost Christmas Special

Part 1 - The Boys start Secret Santa, Ben pretends to do his job. ❤️‍🔥 Part 2 - Ben and Ryan go shopping, and you all try to find a tree. Part 3 - You and Ben have a Christmas Eve date. Many gifts are opened.

Bonus Footage (Standalone Chapters)

Dying’s Up to Me - A Prologue. Takes place 6ish months before Chapter 1. 🚩 They're Never Gonna Find You A Home - Request! Everyone adjusts to your life with the Boys. Takes place 5ish months before Chapter 1. 🚩 Back to Here - Request! They get horny at the dining table, and Butcher takes it personally. Takes place in Chapter 14. It's So Simple - You make Ben do icebreakers. He's a little bitch about it. Takes place in Chapter 14. Just Your Time - You give Ben internet lessons. Takes place in Chapter 14. As Much As I Do - Request! Ben finds you dancing, is immediately very normal about it. Takes place after Chapter 14 and around Chapter 15. Calling Your Name - Ben's first birthday awake isn't great. Takes place in Chapter 19. ❤️‍🔥 I Skip My Pride - You share some music with Ben over text. Takes place in Chapter 22. The Only Place That I Call Home - It's team game night, and everyone is sick of you and Ben's shit. Takes place in Chapter 24. ❤️‍🔥 Can't Help Myself - Request! Ben has a breeding kink, and you're incredibly horny, so it works. Takes place in around Chapter 24 and Chapter 25. ❤️‍🔥 Anywhere Else Is Hollow - A halloween special episode! Takes place in Chapter 25. It Was Smiling Down - A Ryan pov Chapter. Takes place between Chapter 26 and Chapter 27. A Call To Motion - Request! There's a lot of things you're good at. Sex with Ben is one of them. Takes places in Chapter 28.❤️‍🔥 I Want You Only - You and Ben go shopping. Takes place in Chapter 28 ❤️‍🔥 I’ll Hold Your Hand - Request! You get your period, and Ben has to do his job and take care of that. Takes place post series.

Found Footage (Post-Series Chapters)

Just Too Important - You and Ben head to Costco. Takes place about two months post-series. Dreams of Love - Request! You and Ben have to babysit. Takes place ten months post-series. Setting In A Honeymoon - You and Ben finally get a honeymoon. Takes place about a year post-series. The Best Thing - Request! You, Ben, and Ryan get a cat. You Can Feel It - Ben has a birthday. Takes place on May 19th, post-series.

Stuff By You Guys!!! (Art, Memes, and Anything more)

Early Chapters Moodboard by @deans-yn Ben and Sunshine Inspired Art by @castielsfoot

[followthebluebell]

Who are the current roster of residents at your work? I know Roomba is, and that there are at least two Persians, but I can't keep them straight in my head. Q was a resident but then got adopted?

My current residents are:

Roomba (bengal - 13-15? years old, blind, female)

VERY LOUD; loves kittens, waffles wildly between loving adult cats or absolutely hating them. Sometimes to the same cat. She adores Maddie the most and will try to cuddle up to her as much as possible but since Maddie has been going into the Impossible Zone (the couch upstairs) lately, Roomba has been cozying up to Pookie.

Has lymphoma but we're trying to make her time comfortable. She's got a severe sensitivity to poultry and fish, so her food has to be beef, venison, lamb, rabbit, pork, or goat. Her favorite is lamb. On her good days, she likes to play fetch with her favorite purple plastic ball or green spring. I don't know why those are her favorites. She just plays with them longer than any of the other plastic balls or springs.

She's usually found in the office/kitchen.

Butterscotch (persian - 3? years old, blind, male; misaligned jaw)

Looks ancient, is actually a young man. He is permanently scrungly. He likes to play with pieces of garbage. He's got plenty of actual cat toys to play with, but he just wants to play with the little plastic wrap that comes off the tops of bottles and such. He's VERY sweet to people; he mostly ignores other cats. If another cat sleeps by him, he's fine. He just doesn't really seek them out.

His jaw is misaligned, which makes his face look even stranger than a typical persian's. We're not sure what happened to it. It may just be a birth defect, it may be a broken jaw that never healed right. It doesn't seem to bother him TOO much, but it does mean his face needs extra cleaning.

He doesn't like any wet food, except for sardines. Otherwise, he likes the cronch. He likes to sleep in exclusively uncomfortable places.

Pookie (british shorthair - 1 year old, female, FIV+)

VERY playful and outgoing. She likes to greet anyone who walks in. People are delighted by her. They think she's the best thing either (they are not wrong). She's cat social, but doesn't really want to play with other cats. She just likes to exist around them.

She's a menace in the office. She's learned that if the phone goes off, someone will sit down at the desk and she can annoy them until they pet her. She knocks things off the desk too and thinks it's a lot of fun to play with and rip up pages in the appointment book.

She's generally found in the office or on the front couch.

Penelope (persian, 2-3? years old, female)

Also outgoing, but much more relaxed. Penelope mostly wants to sit on someone's lap. Her favorite toys are crinkle balls--- the little cellophane ones--- and tunnels. She likes to sit at the edge of a tunnel and bat at feet as people walk past. She also likes pens, especially if someone is using one.

She likes to sit in the office chair. I think it's because she knows someone will sit there eventually and have no choice but to let her sit on their lap, but also she doesn't have very many brain cells, so I'm not sure she can fully conceptualize that sort of plan.

She tends to pick a new Favorite Place every week.

Maddie (persian, 12-13? years old, female)

Winner of the 'Are you alive...?' contest two years running. She's a picky eater and will only eat things that she sees Roomba eating. I'm not sure they recognize the other as 'alive'. Maddie adores people, as long as they aren't trying to brush her. Then she grudgingly tolerates them for a few minutes at a time before deciding to go somewhere else.

She's permanently snotty. She's been tested for many, MANY things to ensure it's not contagious--- the vet's guess is that a fungal infection caused a severe allergic reaction which resulted in nasal polyps. Combined with her very tiny nostrils, she's got some permanent drip going on there. It's... unclear whether or not surgery is a wise option. She's a senior cat, a persian, and already has breathing problems :/ We might just have to wipe her face frequently.

She's not a fan of that either, for the record.

I'm hoping that Penelope and Pookie will go up for adoption one day. There's literally no reason why they could not be adopted and I'd prefer to keep the office pet slots for cats that cannot be rehomed for behavioral or health reasons.

[a-dauntless-daffodil]

A) You are mean to Vaggie

B) Obligatory Complication: Emily is crushing impossibly hard on Vaggie and hangs out with Charlie as much as possible for vicarious enjoyment.

harold we have a problem?? ALL OF THEM ARE GAY AND NONE OF THEM HAVE CUSTODY OF THE BRAIN CELL!!!!

thing is tho i could totally see a version of Emily that latches onto Vaggie in some kind of emotional way

Emily's faith in heaven was shaken by Sera and the revelation of the exterminations...... Emily finds out her older sister and the head of the seraphim of heaven has known about Adam killing souls this whole time- was hiding it AND condoning it- which Emily HAS to take a stand against because it's wrong-

and then Emily finds out about Vaggie.

She sees how a lowly exorcist is living in hell now, has been for years, and is running a hotel to redeem sinners. She sees. Hope.

How frustrated was Emily at the end of season 1? The next extermination goes ahead in spite of Emily fighting against it, Sera won't listen, she's not allowed to even watch it happen, she's sitting across from Sera doing PAPERWORK while people die and then Pentious is there and presumably tells them how the fight went up until his death, probably mentions how Charlie and Vaggie worked together to prepare the hotel and were fighting in the thick of the battle- and then Lute comes back missing an arm and Adam is dead and the hotel is being rebuilt-

An angel fought alongside the sinners who she used to kill, she risked her life for them...

That could be such a point of hope for Emily to cling to.

Someone in heaven did think it was wrong. One of Adam's very own soldiers, even.

I could see her getting a bit desperate to know more about Vaggie. Wanting to find out what made her switch from killing souls to saving them, how long did it take, did anything help, why did she ever think it was okay in the first place

(Emily trying to understand Sera by proxy because it hurts less this way)

And of course Emily's easiest source of Vaggie Lore would be Charlie, Vaggie's girlfriend, the only part of the hotel running duo who is actually interested in talking about anything other than purely heaven-hell related business and who will stop glaring silently long enough to chat

Naturally, given Vaggie's bad history with heaven, Charlie would be RELIEVED to see how one high ranking angel seems to actually care about her girlfriend

So Charlie would answer the Vaggie questions eagerly, bc she loves talking Vaggie and wants her to have a powerful ally up in heaven and also maybe the whole Rosie thing showed her how helpful it is to talk with someone other than her gf about her gf and Emily is so nice and kind and they can trust her and she listens so intently and Charlie's so happy this one thing is working out and she can't stop smiling about it-

and meanwhile. Vaggie is just out of earshot. Grinding her TEETH

Romantic or not, in the same way that Charlie and Emily could bond over caring about the people under their protection so much, Emily might look at Vaggie and feel a need to get closer to her. To connect with the only other angel who really seems to GET it

heck, Vaggie being in hell running the hotel might even be a point of admiration and slight envy for Emily.

A seraphim can talk to the other high ranking angels, but what use does that feel like its serving, if they don't listen? Emily can shepherd Pentious around his new life in heaven but it's HEAVEN, what is THAT compared to helping a sinner carve out some kind of better life for themselves down in hell, where the help is really NEEDED? And while it makes sense Charlie would be down there doing that, she's princess of hell- Vaggie shows how angels could be doing it too. They could be making a real, tangible difference every day, instead of....

I could see the idea of Vaggie becoming something Emily thinks about a lot

[i2ycat]

— the ‘us’ theory

pairing sunoo x fem!reader synopsis after years of no contact, a sudden rekindling in your relationship with sunoo makes sparks soar higher than they’ve ever gone. it’s hard not to see just how much you missed being around your old best friend again genre slight angst, fluff, childhood best friends to lovers, college au word count 4.3k (was only supposed to be arnd 600, idk what happened LOL) warnings wrote this on 1% brain cells so please excuse if it seems like the plot is underdeveloped and pacing is weird, i know nothing ab mortal kombat, semi-proofread main masterlist

reblogs and comments are very much appreciated!

You’ve known Sunoo since forever. From the moment you took your first baby step to the moment you got absolutely hammered by another girl in your grade, Sunoo had been right by your side, from kindergarten all the way to primary school.

It was weird not to see your brooding self beside the beaming boy, seeing as you guys never separated from each other for even a second. It made your parents think the both of you had separation anxiety, always throwing tantrums whenever the other wasn’t around.

But that was only until primary school.

By the time secondary school rolled around, you naturally started to drift apart. Being in the year above him, he stuck to his own group of friends, while you had yours. You had easily accepted the course that your relationship with Sunoo was headed off to, wanting to fit in with the rest of your ‘ew juniors’-minded clique so badly, because who hung out with juniors anyways?

It didn’t help that, not soon after, your father was stationed to a different department of the company on the other side of the world. You felt sad leaving everything you knew behind, all the familiar places, but you were also 13 and ready to be anywhere but the place you had been confined to. It felt exhilarating to finally leave everything behind — not that you had much to begin with. It’s always been just your mother, your father, and you.

Sunoo was out of the conversation by the time you turned 16. He became just someone you’d remember in passing; your parents bringing him up every now and then, but you never dwelled on the thought of him for too long.

By the time you were 19, you could barely remember what he even looked like, given that you'd only seen up until his pre-puberty phase: toothy grins, chubby cheeks, and all.

So imagine your shock when a taller, more mature shell of a man presents himself in front of you, claiming to be the Kim Sunoo you’ve already forgotten all about.

“Don’t you remember me? I’m Kim Sunoo!”

You met him by complete chance.

The last time you heard of Sunoo was when your mom broke the news on a random Sunday night that the Kim family would be permanently moving to Japan, and that was three years ago.

“Cmon, I’ve known you for, like, 13 years.” He clicks his tongue.

“Yeah, I guessed. I’m just shocked to see you here.”

“What? Is seeing a young man shopping for groceries so hard to believe?” He jokes, taking a pack of ramen noodles from the shelf and placing it carefully into his cart.

“It’s not that.” You chuckle. “I thought you moved to Japan?”

“Well, I can’t really be leeching off my parents forever.”

He’s got more wit to him than you remember.

“Right,” You quickly reply, unconsciously walking the rest of the noodles and pasta aisle at the same pace that he is.

“Wow, even after all these years, you’re still the same old Y/n I used to know.” He smiles at you, the apples of his cheeks tinting a light pink under the blindingly white LED lights overhead. It suddenly brought you back to times of playing together in the playground after school, the summer rays rendering the both of you sweaty messes while your mothers talked about adult gossip somewhere in the distance. The simpler times, when fitting into social circles barely even mattered yet.

“Am I supposed to be offended?” As you arrive closer to the snack aisle, you start to grab at items not scribbled on your sad excuse of a grocery list. You should really stop doing that; you mentally chide yourself.

“Maybe. Depends on how you take it.” He shrugs. “Doritos?” You shake your head.

Silence starts to permeate the air between the both of you, save for some random Nirvana tune playing faintly in the background. It wasn’t awkward per se, but it wasn’t entirely comfortable either; rather, it sat right in the middle.

You’ve known Sunoo for 13 whole years of your younger adolescent days, but right now, it feels like you’ve just met him for the first time. Technically you are, after a few years that is, but maybe it was just you and your ineptitude for social interactions. Chae was right, you really should socialize with people more.

A beat or two passes by, “Are you free tomorrow by any chance?” Sunoo turns to you, bright eyes boring into yours.

“Why?”

“I just moved here like a week ago, and I have absolutely no friends.” He pouts, “Mind giving an old friend company on his own birthday?”

“It’s your birthday?” You stop in your tracks.

“Tomorrow, yeah.”

“Okay. Just send me the address.” You take out your phone to hand him, “You’re not just about to lure and kill me right?”

“Now why would I do that?” He lifts his eyebrows at you as he keys in his phone number, naming himself ‘no.1 childhood best friend’ in the process.

“You can never be too sure nowadays.”

“Yeah, as if I would kill my only friend in this entire city.” He retorts, fingers brushing yours ever-so-slightly as he hands you back your phone.

—

Seeing the bare-bones state that Sunoo’s box apartment was in made you feel for him. You’d already spent your early teens adjusting to the chaos that New York was, and you’ve acclimated to it by now, with the help of your parents, of course, but Sunoo, on the other hand? He came completely alone, with a singular suitcase in tow. It ignited a sense of protectiveness towards him. The same way it was when you were younger.

Sunoo was always one of the more smaller and younger children in the kindergarten, but that only made him more loved by the teachers and other caretakers. Memories resurfaced of how everyone would coo whenever Sunoo showed his signature smile, silently wishing they had a kid as endearing as Sunoo. They’d bring extra just for him, and Sunoo, being the sweet kid he was, basked in all of it blissfully.

The rest of the older kids didn’t like how Sunoo hogged all the adult’s attention, so they would constantly pick at him during play time, behind the knowledge of the teachers. Since you were a year older and much taller than Sunoo then, you always felt the instinctive need to step in and protect him from all of it, even getting sucker punched in the face for him one time. You chuckle at the distinct memory of Sunoo crying in the sidelines whilst you laid on the mat, a comically large bandage plastered on your cheek.

“What’s so funny?” Sunoo sticks his head out from the cupboard, eyeing your figure on the couch.

“I’m laughing at the fact that you at least have a couch.” You pat the space next to you.

“Hey, you can’t judge. I just moved here, and I don’t know where anything is anymore.” He says this as he pours room-temperature orange juice into plastic cups. “Happy birthday to me.” He sighs, handing you one.

“This is actually really sad.” You take a single sip out of the clear cup before setting it down on the arm of Sunoo’s sofa that was more like a loveseat if anything. “And I’m not just talking about the orange juice.”

“At least I’m not alone!”

“Why’d you move here anyway? I’m sure there’s better places than big ole overpriced New York.” You bring up a leg to get comfortable, and Sunoo does the same, his knee lightly grazing yours in the process.

“You wouldn’t wanna hear it.” He sighs.

“No, tell me!”

“It’s stupid.”

“I won’t judge. Pinky promise.” You bring your pinky rings towards his, locking them.

“I actually moved here for you.” He says it so softly that you thought you had misheard.

“Sorry, I think I misheard.”

“Nah, I think you heard correctly.” He bends down to grab a forkful of noodles, the one he bought yesterday, and moans gleefully at the bundles of flavour exploding in his mouth, “Woah. I think this might be my new favourite ramen.”

“Wait, you’re not being serious, are you?” Sunoo shakes his head at you, his cheeks blowing up as noodles enter his mouth, strand by strand. “Are you stupid?” You completely drop the smile you had been sporting just a minute ago, beyond baffled by Sunoo’s lack of critical thinking.

“Gosh, Sunoo! What would you have done if I hadn’t run into you last night? What if I already moved to a different state? A different country even?!”

“My mom is still in contact with yours, so I’m pretty sure I would’ve ended up at your front door anyway." He nonchalantly answers, shrugging his shoulders the way he always does.

You’ve completely forgotten how Sunoo was always the free spirit in your dynamic, doing anything and everything he wanted without ever thinking about the after. He always downplayed the severity of the consequences, only thinking about the moment and living in it blissfully.

Just a few days prior to your drift apart, Sunoo had dragged you out of your 6th grade classroom just before recess ended and towards the outdoor basketball court. A little mat had been planted on the grass, with what you could recognise as Sunoo’s lunch box set neatly on top.

He had asked you to skip class with him, a kind of celebration on the last day of school. Thanks to him, you were absolutely horrified to come home that day, while him, on the other hand, was not the slightest bit concerned.

“Why? Just why? We haven’t talked for, what, 6 years? And suddenly you move 13 hours away from home to be in the same city that I am?” You were fuming, and for a reason you weren’t too sure about yourself.

Maybe it was the knowledge that he had been thinking about you even after your drift apart, while you were not. Maybe it was the guilt of being the one to instigate the drift in the first place, but he still made his way towards you.

“I’m not too sure either.” He places the chopsticks on the makeshift coffee table. “But at least you’re here, and I’m not alone on my birthday.” He offers you a cheeky grin, one that reaches his eyes, and it almost instantly gives you whiplash.

“You’re driving me crazy here, Sunoo.”

“You said you wouldn’t judge and… it’s still my birthday, ya’know.” He pouts, cocking his head to the side in an attempt to soothe your bubbling anger with his biggest weapon — his face. “Can you stop being your practical self for just a second?” His tone was light, and his eyes were pleading.

He probably still remembered your weakness for pretty faces, and was taking advantage of that at the most convenient of times.

Damn Sunoo and damn pretty privilege.

—

After Sunoo’s semi-successful birthday party—his words, not yours—he’s been sticking to you like glue. He practically lives in your apartment with how much time he spends there. Even when you’re out for classes or errands, he'll take it upon himself to make himself feel at home. You practically spent every second of every day with him, just like it used to be when you were younger.

Your mother was overly ecstatic to find out that you had rekindled your friendship with Sunoo — almost so ecstatic in fact that it alarmed you just a tad bit, scared that she might try to set you up with her best friend’s only son.

She had even suggested that the both of you live together to save costs, she says. You weren’t entirely sold on that fact, seeing as you still wanted your semblance of privacy and freedom in your own home, but with the rising rent prices these days, it wasn’t really a choice now, was it?

“My mother says we should move in together.” You say this over a plate of scrambled eggs, one that Sunoo had so graciously offered to cook.

“I’m sorry?” Sunoo chokes on his cup of black tea.

“I mean, our dynamic is pretty good. You finish things that I don’t. I say it’s a pretty good match.”

Over the course of the last few months that you’ve been on-off living with Sunoo, you learned that he has a habit of picking up things that you’ve left aside to be forgotten. One instance of this was when you found your incomplete knitting project in Sunoo’s more nimble hands, working away while on his spot on your couch.

He explained that seeing things unfinished was a big pet peeve of his, and it usually works in your favour anyway.

“Yeah, but what about my apartment?”

“You say that as if you don’t basically already live here.” You pick up a piece of egg with your fork to bring it to your mouth.

“I guess, yeah, but..." His words trail off. “Never mind.”

“But what, Sun?”

“Nothing.” He shakes his head, taking a big gulp of his tea before setting the cup back down onto your wooden table, the one Sunoo had picked alongside some other furniture pieces that now scattered your flat.

“You better give up that act now because you know how stubborn I can get.” You peg the fork at him in a faux effort to assert intimidation. Not that you could be any more intimidating with your furrowed eyebrows and grim expression.

“It’s just...”

“Just?”

Sunoo ultimately sighs, picking up his plate to bring to the sink and turning his back towards you. “I would love to live together, really." He starts off. “But what if you bring other guys over? I don’t think I could handle that.”

“That’s it? You’re flattering me by even thinking I can pull guys.” You laugh as you make your way towards Sunoo with an empty plate in your hands. “Sun, there’s nothing to worry about, but I’ll make sure to let you know beforehand if I ever do.”

“That’s not what I was implying.” Sunoo keeps his voice low and whisper-like, almost like he doesn’t want you to hear, but you do anyway.

“Okay, then what do you mean?”

“I’m saying that I think I like you.” He takes a deep breath, finding it hard to formulate words from his thoughts. “I... I just... When we were 13, when we started drifting apart, I felt so lost and confused. I didn’t want to be like those movie cliches, losing my best friend because of high school or whatever.” He doesn’t look up from the dishes in front of him; instead, he focuses on mindlessly scrubbing the mug.

“I followed you here because, even after six long years, you were still my number one. I missed your presence. I always wondered when you would contact me again, but that never happened. I guess I was also too scared to talk to you first, so that’s that.” He continues. “I don’t want to burden you with my feelings any more than they already are, and if we officially, actually lived together, I don’t think my heart could handle all that.”

To say you were speechless was an understatement. You stared at him long enough to see dots, and yet you couldn’t think of anything to say.

Sunoo liked you. The little boy from kindergarten that you promised to protect liked you. Your best friend up until you were 13 liked you?

“Sun...” You start off but can never seem to find a proper end to your sentence.

“You don’t have to answer me right now. Or, as a matter of fact, you don’t even have to accept it. I just thought you should know since you proposed we live together.” He washes the foam away, setting the clean dishes on the drying rack. “I’ll take my leave now.” He smiles at you, and by the time the door closes behind him, you’re still standing frozen.

You don’t know what to do with this information. Yeah, Sunoo was cute, and you had a soft spot for him, but that doesn’t mean you like him. He grew up well, but that doesn’t mean you no longer saw him as the boy you needed to protect from the world. It was all a clash of thoughts, really.

—

A week had gone by since you texted Sunoo back, saying that you needed space to think. But you weren’t really using the time to think at all; you were actually doing quite well at doing the exact opposite.

“Chae, come on! That’s cheating!” You yell, aggressively pressing away at the console for your Omni-Man to dodge Kung Lao’s wrath.

“No, you just suck.” Chae sticks her tongue out at you. And after a few moments of tense silence, “Aaaand, K.O!” She cheers in your face while you pan at the bold K.O. letterings on the screen in admission of defeat.

“I’ll beat you next time.”

“Oh baby, there won’t be a next time until you sort out whatever it is you’re worrying about first.” She takes the console from your hands and sets it back in its original place under the divider of her TV set. “Now, talk to me.” She says this as she takes a seat beside you.

“There’s nothing to talk about.”

“Yeah, sure, as if you're coming here at 1 a.m. on a Wednesday night, even when you have classes tomorrow, is because of nothing.”

“I just couldn’t sleep. That’s all.”

“I’m going to go bald from all the stress you’re giving me.” She tugs harshly at her shoulder-length hair. “See this?!”

Your laugh echoes in Chaewon’s humble apartment, which overlooks the entirety of New York with the perfect view — one that her life as a social media influencer is able to afford. At times like these, you felt like you were her sugar baby, leeching off her big-time success like the broke college student you are.

“You’re being overly dramatic.”

"Yeah, and sometimes I wish you were more like me. Give me the damn drama!” She drapes herself all over you, head resting on your bare legs.

“Okay, fine!”

“Good.” She finally grins, taking a bag of popcorn from the table and tossing it into her mouth one by one, occasionally offering one to you.

“You remember Sunoo?”

“The one you cried about when you first met me?”

“I wasn’t crying!”

“Yeah, sure you weren’t.” She grimaces at you.

“Okay, but that was when I was 14, so it doesn’t count.”

“Whatever, whatever. Just continue!” Chaewon switches her position to comfortably sit face-to-face with you, her eyes wide and full of anticipation.

“A few months ago, I met him at the supermarket, the one you tell me to never go to.”

“What?! And you’re only telling me this now?!” Her voice was piercing, and it made your ears almost bleed onto her velvet-carpeted floor. Judging from her reaction, she was probably more concerned about the fact that you went to the only supermarket in the city she told you not to ever step foot into, rather than not having told her about your meeting with Sunoo there.

“Just let me finish, yeah?” Chaewon quips out a small apology before you continue, “And after that, we started hanging out here and there, ya'know, the whole old childhood friends shebang. It was great, honestly. He’s great company, and as you said, I was socialising with other people!”

“But?”

“How’d you know there’s a ‘but’?”

“There is always a ‘but’, my dear Y/n.”

You clear your throat. “He confessed to me just a week ago, after I had proposed to live together, ya'know, to save on costs.”

“You, what now?”

“Not everyone is as rich as you are, Chae; we grass-rooted people need to save money somehow.”

“You know that’s not what I meant!”

“Ugh, it’s stupid, I know! But my mother suggested it, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a good idea!’” At this point, the bag of popcorn lays haphazardly on the floor, forgotten as you contemplate all your decisions with Chaewon clinging onto your side, koala style.

“Do you like him back?”

“I haven’t really thought about it before then.” You honestly say, “He has always just been ‘the younger boy who needs protecting’ to me.”

“He’s his own grown person now, Y/n.” She reminds you.

“I know. I just think he’s cute, is all.”

“How about this? You give him a chance to try and swoon you over; if it doesn’t work out, then you guys can pretend as if nothing ever happened!” She claps her hands together, as if she had just won a Nobel Prize for solving global warming. “You’re killing two birds with one stone!”

“I don’t think that’s how the saying is supposed to work.”

"Oh, who gives a fuck? YOLO.”

—

Chaewon’s advice to just yolo the fuck out of everything sticks to you more than you’d like to admit. It echoes in your mind when you’re taking the subway all the way to Sunoo’s apartment, echoes even louder as you stand in front of his door, and echoes almost deafeningly as you knock twice on it.

In about half a heartbeat, Sunoo opens his door with an urgency you could barely register in your haze of emotions. You felt bad after having practically ghosted him for a week straight after his confession, and even worse now that you could tell he was losing sleep over it. His hair was tousled into a mess that made it seem as if he had just gotten out of bed, even if it was already 3 p.m.

“Hey.” You greet, your lips pursed into a tight smile.

“Hey.” He greets her back.

“Can I come in? Or, is it a bad time? I’m not really too sure why I came in the first place.”

“Yeah, yeah. Come in.” He steps aside to make space for you to enter his home.

The last time you’ve been here was the night after you first met him — the day of his birthday. It’s less barren than you remembered, with pops of colour in random corners that somehow represented his sporadic personality perfectly.

“I see you finally did some decorating.”

“I mean, it’s already been more than a few months since I’ve moved here; it’d be weird if I didn’t.” His voice is groggy and still laced with sleep, but you don’t comment on it, instead sucking in a deep breath.

“I wanted to, um, get back to you.” You play with your fingers, picking at the skin. “And, uh, give you an answer. Well, it’s not really an answer, but you get what I mean.”

“Yeah.”

The both of you still stood just beyond his doorway; the faint playing of the TV in the background didn’t help to ease your racing heart. In your two years of being a young adult, you hadn’t found the opportunity to really sit down and find love, given that school had always been your top priority. So when you find yourself in such situations—not that you ever do—you're rendered a blubbering mess.

You’ve practiced this many times before with Chaewon, but it feels even more nerve-wracking now that the man in all his drowsy glory is standing right in front of you.

“We can try.” You start off. “I mean it as in, you can try courting me or whatever, and if it doesn’t work out, we can pretend as if nothing ever happened.” His lack of reply gives you time to really take a good look at Sunoo, now that the weight has been lifted off your shoulders. You’ve said what you wanted to say.

At an arm's-length distance, Sunoo is the textbook definition of attractive. He’s a head taller than you, has broad shoulders, and has a pretty face. His lips were full, his nose was tall, and his eyes were a golden brown colour. What was not to like about him? You just had to accept that he was no longer the Kim Sunoo from kindergarten. He was no longer the same young Sunoo who constantly needed your help.

“Really? You’d let me court you?” His face is bright with hope, and you nod to it wordlessly. “As in, you’d let me take you out on dates and stuff?”

You can’t help the chuckle that lets out, especially endeared by his enthusiasm. “Yes, Sun.”

—

BONUS!

It has been exactly a year since Sunoo had courted and officially asked you out. It wasn’t hard to fall for him because you already had an inkling that you had unresolved feelings for him anyway. The moving in part went as smoothly as it could, save for the slight mishap with Sunoo’s landlord, but with the help of your mother, everything was resolved soon after.

Sunoo lays peacefully on the sofa, soaking in the sunshine that filters through the blinds. He was practically in heaven right now.

“Kim Sunoo!” Your voice reverberates throughout the entirety of your shared apartment.

“Uh-oh, not the government name.” Sunoo looks up from his phone to see you standing in the hallway, hand tucked under your arms, with an expression that reminded him slightly of the French bulldog he’d seen on his morning walk. “Yes, baby?”

“Don’t ‘baby’ me! You let Luna sleep on the bed after she had her walk?!”

“Oh.”

“Oh!” You mimic him.

“I’m sorry, baby. She looked so sad sleeping on the floor by herself, so I just invited her to the bed.”

“Yeah, now her paw prints are all over the white sheets! Couldn’t you have at least cleaned her before you decided to do that?” As if Luna had heard her parents arguing from inside the room, she waddles out, footsteps padding down on the wooden floor, making it her mission to soothe her parents with just her existence alone.

Luna barks, grabbing both of your attention. You immediately lean down to pick Luna up, cooing at her before glaring at Sunoo, “You better wash the sheets.”

Sunoo stares at the both of you, dumbfounded. He thought he saw Luna smirking at him, so he blinked once and then twice, only for you and your baby to disappear as you walked towards the bathroom, your voice echoing as you continued to baby-talk to Luna.

Even with your overbearing practicality and new spoiled baby to take care of, he’d never regret asking his mom about you that one fateful night.

© i2ycat 2024 idk why the first half got me thinking i was gonna write a murder mystery fic HELPP. i swear it’s just romance 😞 also this is straight dogwater, i’m so sorry idk what i was writing…

[multiplicationdivision]

The Replication Phenomenon

Mitosis felt good, like a full body message that releases a lifetime of tension. Matthew was tense after these past few weeks of nonstop work, so he’d needed some help with balancing the books and cussing out shit customers. Nature provided.

He could feel it the day before, scrubbing dishes in the back, that rare telltale feeling of tightness in his brain and chest. Saw the little crease of skin on his forehead and the ridge of bone beneath paired with that slight gap in between every action, like his movements needed to be decided upon by committee before they could be proceeded. An echo of neurons just ever so off synch on the same intentions.

He’d slept on it after eating more that he’d thought possible, a confused doordash driver shovelling bag after bag of cheap fastfood into his ravenous hands. The guy had eyed him up, seeing the tiny valley forming from Matthew ’s chin down, hearing the odd way a slowly doubling pair of lungs and vocal cords changed the man’s deeper voice. The man had just grinned at him and wished him well, Matthew catching the site of the man’s car down his drive way, a man dozing off in the driver’s seat clearly bored from waiting.

A perfectly identical man tapping on the wheel, same clothes, same hair, same everything.

He’d passed out scrolling Youtube, having already deepdived WebMD for all its worth as his dinner got confused between which throat it should travel down. His vision just ever so confused as the irises widened, a second pupil splitting off in a perfect simulation of a dividing cell.

1/4th of the population experienced Replication in some form or another in their lifespan. It was a strange an unpredictable process with a thousand names in every culture, spanning history. Even the most primitive form of humanity felt its effect, finger paintings of twinned men and women in every combination that division would produce. It was so impossible to be always divine or demonic, religions never deciding whether to be hateful or worshipping to the doubled individuals in their halls.

Once Kane had killed Abel, God had spited the action by pulling him in two, a simulacrum of brotherhood he’d spoken. Yet Jesus’s earliest miracles was splitting James his cousin into a greater and lesser pair, forming an absolute mess of beliefs to dictate the view of duplicates in this god-fearing country. An evil curse or something that created an unequal pair of doubles. That or it was still a pagan thing, witches in the night spilling potions and elixirs with the essence of the Morrigan, the Morai, the Norns, Janus and the wicked Furies.

The advice portion on WebMD told him to drink water and relax, listing every way his mitosis could conclude. Positive outcomes were the greatest majority, links to 100 years worth of articles describing the healthiness of the process. Alcmaeon of Croton said it balanced the humors, the excess shared between two bodies. A study from last year described a vast decrease in stress and negative health effect associated with the dualism movement, a recent and legal trend that acknowledged the lack of initial individuality between doubles.

He remembered a two headed lawyer arguing for a ruling outlawing another remaining individuality bill, something related to distinguishing duplicates between different legal identities. He hardly remembered it all, although now he wished he could.

Matthew was thankful he wouldn’t mostly deal with the perception of a lesser or greater James to his new selves, so far removed from old bible bullshit still hot and concentrated in the distant south. He’d fallen into unconsciousness with two sides of his brain imagining the mirror of himself, unable to feel the differences between each other as intentions were predicted, body temperatures and heart beats identical. Unable to feel any difference in themselves

His dreams that night were pleasant, but strange. Two perspectives to every stray thought, old friends passing notes in class. He was doing the taxes he put off, his hands multiplying, scribbling numbers down at rapid efficiency. Grinning to himself through three mouths. Going further than grinning.

He’d woken up what felt like two times, blearily feeling his brain(s) coming to awareness before lazily shifting to look in his bedroom mirror. His facial features danced, stretched between two forming skulls, the desynchrony in his mind now two minds struggling to be one as a quarter of their brains was still shared. He had three eyes now, one sat between the two originals, two pupils in it that couldn’t decide whether it belonged to the right or left. They’d swallowed, one after the other, necks still one, yet separate beneath, two adams apples moving up and down, sliding aginst each other.

Their body felt tight, but not in an uncomfortable way. Hell, if Matthew had remained like this, feeling doubled musculature beneath his skin, he wouldn’t feel mad. Half of him wanted to stretch as they lay there, the other agreeing through the echo of thoughts as two pairs of biceps squeezed against each other beneath their arms. They looked through multiplying eyes at their bare chest, all that multiplicity beneath deceptively appearing as if they’d been taking steroids their whole lives. It wasn’t a perfect disguise though, given the way actual division pocked through.

A quite literal poking that was, a glance at the dual monsters making their boxers tight showing two tips peeking through the nylon.

It hadn’t taken negotiation to relieve themselves, although deciding which one was first had been a battle. A meaningless one, considering that while their erections were seemingly split down to the base between their forming sides, both cocks were happy to provide a slew of sensation to both forming minds, whether they stroked the left or right.

They’d taken to one then the other, one equally full stream of cum shooting from each from their doubled balls, four testicles beneath their shared ballsack. Their sweaty palm felt the same yet different in its grip, stronger and bigger, two people’s worth of tendons and strength overlaid and making every motion just that little bit unpredicatable. One dick being slowly messaged as the other felt fingers pass by it, a sensation like they’d never imagined.

They’d cleaned up with unsteady steps towards the bathroom, struggled through an upright piss through two penises before staring far too long into the mirror. An hour lost to a morning stress relief and yet in that time, their body had already changed again. A chin and nose became two as their hair thickened at the top, follicles rapidly producing hair to eventual distribute between two scalps.

Matthew tried to grin, but there were less pretty things about replication relating to the teeth and bones that were better left unsaid. He’d attempt to talk though, but with two tongues battling for control over syllables, it was a fruitless effort.

Any grin or reassurance was unnecessary. He’d been worried the night before as any person should be. Sharing was a scary thing, especially with personhood. The interviews he’d found online had been right though. It wasn’t scary at all.

A HGTV star showed off his change on screen, reveling in his new “improved” self to his adoring audience. Twin heads taking turns at how it felt, how easy the transition was. Flexing their shared muscles, paired with copious shots of them swinging a hammer at dry wall and the like. Soft porn for the middle-aged woman, as well as Matthew.

A basketball star who’d split just a little more, animatedly talked to a reporter who’d found him at a community court. They only shared a pair of legs, yet Matthew had seen them deftly play through so many games, two men from the waist up abusing their two pairs of arms to pass and shove. In fact, nearly half the athletes on the field were doubled in some way, replication just another factor to a great athlete like height and strength.

Perfect dupes were the most common and Matthew had seen enough of them in his life to know they never seemed to have problems. It was an almost annoying thing to witness, like a pair of twins so codependent as if they were competing against every other pair of complete dupes to be the best clone stereotype. The door dasher before an excellent example, likely having a closet of two pairs of every item, fulfilling the oddest psychological need to be identical that was ingrained in every dupe. Getting their hair cut, piercing their ears, getting tattoos by the splattering of specialized locals, cared for by similarly duplicated pairs of service workers.

Matthew had thought it so bizarre, yet even as he did his damned best at cleaning up his beard, just the thought of the two halves of his splitting face having a difference ate a little at him. A thought of difference that now seemed so alien as to be laughable. Logic was there stating that it didn’t matter, but his instinct said it did.

Humanity had an obsession with enforcing distinction and Matthew was thankful he’d never have to face experiencing this in any other time. There wouldn’t be an original or copy dictated by a authoritarian government, or a lesser and greater self-assigned by the church. Practices of trying to manipulate a replication had been mostly outlawed, no people trying to force a person back into one or any medical practices to force a partial dupe into a complete dupe.

The Matthews ate breakfast as their shared eye slowly split and their noses separated. They were fortunate to be a relate fast duplicator, a part of both of him praying that this ease didn’t mean they were predisposed to repeated duplications, the greater part of them hoping for it.

Cooking had felt nice, humming coming from two voices as they fumbled a song both half remembered. It was still a hulking meal, although they were now of two minds to multitask the doubled portions. Food eventually settling in whatever was going on with their stomach(s), leaving them a satisfied man.

They’d gotten dressed in loose stretchy clothes, pulling on a pair of joggers and some comfortable slip-on sneakers. Medical advice stated they continue on with their day as they were best able, so they’d gone through their morning routine, even as they felt their chest widening and as the skin on their neck tighten as it began to separate. They’d gone on their morning run, any clumsiness from the morning gone as even as their brains now seemed fully separate, their muscle memory was alive and well. They were sure they had multiple lungs now, given how easily they shrugged off any sense of physical exertion, their compounded muscles having caused 14 miles to feel like 1.

They’d finished half out of boredom as they settled in their garage, focused on the tightness of their sneakers and joggers as they dozed off. It was enough to distract the two from the obvious, their heads having diverge at some point in the run, temples now resting against each other as they leaned against their old workout bench.

They’d noticed it when one of them had satisfied sighed and the other had woken up just enough from the post-run stupor. He’d glanced as much as he could at the other, half surprised even if he shouldn’t have been. The other had the same expression, taken aback yet unable to look away.

“Hello” Matthew had said, both of their voices ringing out. It felt awkward until it didn’t just a moment ago. “Nice to meet you Mat” they both said, laughing after it came out in sync. It felt good where it should’ve felt strange. Instincts were a hell of a drug.

“Mom’s going to fucking flip man” his other self said. They hadn’t told anyone what was happening, half hoping for a surprised reaction and half nervous. No one in his family had replicated in recent history, so he’d be the first. His sister had a kid and he supposed he’d make up for the asexual reproduction.

“Imagine Dad’s reaction” he suggested, already visualizing his ridiculous old man screwing up pronouns for his new pair of duplicated sons. “He’s going to vomit he’ll be so confused” his other self said fondly, thinking back to his part of sexual education where they’d awkwardly fit in replication and his father had tried to explain to a 9 year old Matthew how that worked. Didn’t help that the guy didn’t know himself.

They’d be good sports about it though, given they were a rare pair of liberal boomers. They’d be embarrassing sure, but he wasn’t worried about their reaction.

“Still don’t want to call them though” his other self said as if reading his mind. Their similar thoughts would never stop and Matthew wondered how living would be like from now on. Another guy with identical worries and hang-ups to him.

“Nah” he agreed, imagining if his other self was just as scared of telling anyone as him. They were different now, not clones like a sci-fi movie and a whole world of differences away from being twins or brothers. Research had shown that dupe’s brains never really diverged in the long term, never reaching that point when they could be called separate people. Especially if they never fulling split, although given their collar bones already felt a little tautly built and a third peck was forming on their chest, they were pretty sure they wouldn’t remain just a two headed man.

He wasn’t afraid of sharing being Matthew, but he was terrified of everyone else. His sister would hug him and her kid would love having kinda two uncles. His brother-in-law would be a toss up of being uncomfortably curious or completely apathetic and his grandparents were a complete mystery, apolitical wild cards that they were.

He’d have to go into work and explain to his boss. The woman was kind enough, but legally being enforced to raise his pay according to his degree of replication was always a messy situation. Same with trying to juggle this new life with all of his friends and acquittances.

Dating especially was daunting, now more so than before. Steven had left him just 2 months ago, a stressor that likely contributed to his replication in the first place. Loneliness was the greatest contributor to duplicate formation and he could only imagine his ex’s pleased reaction to thinking Matthew had coped by multiplying.

“How can I feel so worried about this shit, yet also excited” his other self said, sighing as he ran on of their hands through his hair. He paused afterwards before running it through Matthew ’s head in turn, making a part of his newly own heart melt a bit.

“Steven’s going to call this extreme narcissism you know” he commented. The fucker never liked dupes, probably some misplaced anger from his duped father and mother, never having time for him despite their doubled status. Matthew wondered if that’s why they broke up now, Steven smelling the signs so soon.

“He’s a dick though and I think I’m fine with being self -obsessed now” he said, not bothering with whatever internal dialogue they were playing out with two voices. The other him laughed and Matthew wasn’t even embarrassed when his cock hardened against its twin. Was hard to be self-conscious when that other cock hardened just the same moment later.

“Yeah, I’d imagine we’ll be pretty self-involved for a bit” one of them said, both absent minded touching their cocks already rearing to go so soon after their morning masturbation session. Precum already wet their slightly uncomfortable joggers, the pants now stretched a little too tight as their legs were itching to begin actually splitting.

“Don’t get carried away bucko” he said for the both of them, getting up from their place sweating in the garage. It wouldn’t do to get lost in this advanced masturbating before some key steps. First of all, shrugging off these remaining clothes.

The sneakers were a bitch to get off, the old pair ripping off to reveal his feet with a couple too many toes than before, a little oddly shaped for the doubling of the ankles and the properly dividing musculature. They’d inspected the shoes and noticed their hands, extra fingers appearing in secret, a thumb doubling before their eyes as it widened and split. It looked alien, yet was simple to control to roughly shrug off their joggers, even as their appendages split at random.

Their legs were both wide, the freedom from their fabric prisons allowing the bones to enlarge then separate. It was rapid, leaving them only the time to get to their couch before the tingly sensation of rapid skeletal growth left them largely immobile.

It was sensory hell, yet their erections remained, somehow getting larger as they lay there, feeling as if they were costumed in each other. Their legs all but separate aside from the skin, joined to a waist that seemed ready to split itself if only for their cocks that were at the moment refusing to move, if only so they could release again.

Both Matthew s desperately hoped no one looked at them through their patio door as they furiously worked at their cocks in their living room. They’d realized as the cum streaked over their chest again that they’d been able to jack off both with their dominant hand due to it completely splitting at some time in the process. Identical right hands now wet with sum were held up in front of their eyes as they sat their ass naked. A distraction enough for a moment before their satisfied cocks decided to stop resisting the rest of the duplication and the world shifted again.

Matthew felt his cock sink, its sensitive skin post ejaculation feeling like electricity as it was pulled beneath the muscles of his crotch, dragging two of their four testicles with it. The other Matthew reacted as if it truly did disappear, momentarily yelping as one of their hands touched the now empty space.

Matthew ’s waist separated from behind and he drew his new singularly his cock and balls out of the other guy’s ass, the immature part of him giving a brief shove with it against the other guy’s prostate to make him yelp again.

“Fuck do that again” his duplicate said, although Matthew was rendered unable as the separation between their waists quickly travelled up their body, his abdomen and chest pushing out from his duplicates back, feeling their muscle fibers and blood vessels untangled. Matthew only had the brief urge to hold his breath before his head was pull back as well, feeling as if he was being born as they truly separated, awkward splayed hands and feet parting to leave them a mess of limbs atop each other on their now messy couch.

A complete duplication, an incredible yet messy (legally and emotional) affair. Incomplete duplications were just as chaotic, but there was some comfort in always knowing where your double was, attached to you in some form. Matthew now felt an otherworldly sense of unease as he held his double as he breathed steadily through the exertion beneath him. A part of his soul atop him, able to wander off if he so chose.

It felt vulnerable and Matthew wished he could just hold the other guy close. The other guy seemed fine with it, happy to push himself back down onto the man, nestled deep. Sneakily pushing Matthew ’s cock into himself as if it would emerge back out of his waist.

They’d get up some time, probably to shut the blinds to then get back onto the couch. When they actually got up though they’d nervously wait for their order of clothes to arrive, wearing whatever they had in duplicate that was already in their closet. They’d call their parents, call their boss, send a inquiry to their state department about their completed replication. Arrange to get a new pair of ID card, both of them in squeezed together into a single shitty photo.

They’d masturbate again, figure out how it felt in two bodies rather than 1 ½ and 1.9999 bodies. Meal prep and update their dating profile, check the box that said duplicated and scroll through other men who were just like them in circumstance.

But for now, they would sit here, comfortable and sleepy. Ignore the complications oncoming and cuddle, hot and heavy against each other.

Still Matthew, alone together and so much more.

[covid-safer-hotties]

what does aging the brain by up to ten years mean?

is the "age" of a brain not just the same as the age of the body?

is it like, a lifespan thing?

it sounds scary and bad but i have no clue what it actually entails

While your brain *is* in your body, it is isolated by a special barrier like a server administrator might isolate their profile from the others for security reasons. Brain aging is a process that's difficult to sum up succinctly, but think of it like this: each year of your life, your brain loses some mass (typically no more than 1% and usually a bit less). Some of this is the natural process of growing older, as after a point, you run out of the cells that make new neurons and the neurons you have stop growing. When they die, it causes the loss of mass. Some of this is from damage (e.g. binge drinkers tend to have faster brain aging than say pious Muslims). Some brain aging results in conditions like dementia and alzhimer's. Covid has been shown to do at least one or two years worth of damage to the brain, even in asymptomatic cases. Some who have a bad reaction to covid's lasting immune effects, a very severe case, or have had covid many times show a loss of brain mass equivalent to ten or twenty years of natural aging. This is almost the same thing as rapid onset dementia when viewed by neurologists. They're still figuring out the exact process, risk-factors and biomarkers, but the end result is clear: even a "mild" or asymptomatic case of covid does damage directly to your brain, and the effects stack. You need to do your best to keep yourself safe from covid by masking in a high quality respirator (especially in public), distancing when you can (attending via Webcam, for example), improving air filtration and ventilation, and assuring those around you adopt some of these behaviors (all would be nice, but this is the era of "you do you" public health). Rapid tests can help you assess when someone has a high viral load and you shouldn't, for example, invite them over for movie night.

[sinful-lanterns]

Same person as the Jasmine issue

1 and 2- I know my dictionary you don't need to educate me what I already know. You yourself said in your post you were expecting a poc/black character because she was advertised as being of exotic origins. I really don't know why you suddenly started blabbering about racism when I was telling you exotic is a word referring to things outside one's culture. Of course it's weird to call a person exotic but I was referring to things overall. If you live in one continent then everything from another continent is exotic to you that's what it meant. Du Ruo or Yanyan were never called exotic but so is the same for Jasmine, unless you can find in the story where she is called that. And I gave the former two as an example for you to understand the first time when you single mindedly thought only a black person can be treated as foreign/different in the game setting. Now I am getting confused because where the fck you are going with the first point of yours to me when you yourself said in your first post thaat you were expecting Jasmine to be poc/black because of one word. And I was only trying to explain but your stupid pea brain cannot comprehend.

3- Clearly you skipped the story and it's half a year ago (according to cn release) not a year ago, it's been like 2 months on global (then you should have known even better but oh well you don't) but since you do keep up with cn news you must have seen it 6 months ago when cn updated. She was at the end of the last main story chapter on global go fcking read and see.

4- Did aisno ever say they take inspo from real people? It's a frictional world they can even create their own cultures, politics, economy. Unless they said they took inspiration from something but didn't implement ist correctly then you can go cry about it. I looked up the Tswana, at least spell it right. Literally nothing looks alike nor did they say the clothes or anything are based on it so what makes you call it racism? Keep crying about a frictional culture in a game.

Ps- not mad at your take on her, but the lack of brain cells in you is astonishing how you keep putting words in that were never there and unnecessarily relating her to something that doesnt even relate to her and your lack of research

Note: No, SWANA is not an incorrect spelling. SWANA is an acronym used for Southwest Asian and North African. MENA and Middle Eastern are also terms used to refer to the people of those regions, I just used SWANA because that is what I’m most familiar with and often see. Tswana refers to the language and people in Botswana and South Africa.

If you read my original post critiquing Jasmine’s design (the one where I talked about all the new sinners), the only reason I brought up being disappointed by her lack of melanin, was because in her CONCEPT ART which was released alongside her, she had some of her beta designs having darker skin.

And here is some of her concept arts that you can find on the left:

I understand there are lots of SWANA people who have lighter skin, but the fact that we could’ve had her with darker skin, it could’ve been great. Is it so wrong for me to be disappointed with the choice for lack of skin diversity in a gacha game? Obviously I understand not everyone in the Middle East will be dark, but it’s the fact that we could’ve had another sinner with darker skin that made me disappointed. I was merely expressing my disappointment with the choice Aisno made to make her lighter. But now with some newfound information that just released after I made that post, I understand the choice made now, as Aisno probably did it to avoid controversy with a certain scene.

EDIT: Also, i forgot to mention this but if you wanted to see where Jasmine was referred to as “exotic,” this is how she was marketed in her first teaser. @/PathtoSnake is an account that is reliable in translating CN news to English, and is where I get all my PTN news from:

Secondly, I went to go rewatch the ending of Chapter 14 just to make sure I wasn’t forgetting Jasmine being there (as you so claimed). I’ve went through each scene of the new characters introduced, and none of them bore any resemblance to Jasmine. If you’re referring to this woman:

Who is the closest person I can think of being close to Jasmine, this woman is not her. According to @/PathtoSnake on Twitter, Jasmine and the “Delicate Female Voice” are different women because of their marks:

Jasmine’s marks/scars are on her back. The Delicate Female Voice has her mark on her waist. I don’t think Aisno would forget such an important detail about a character and forget about the placement of the Delicate Female Voice’s marks.

Also, your argument on Aisno saying they don’t take inspiration from real people and cultures is actually bullshit. Following your logic, that means Eastia is not based off China because Aisno didn’t explicitly say so, despite all Eastian sinners having Chinese names, similar clothes, and culture. Aisno, and many other gacha games, do take inspiration from real life cultures and people. Even if not explicitly said; clothes, names, and other aspects of culture shown in the game, pretty much imply that they were inspired by the real world.

[to-mm-y-23]

Thanks to the drains of the script for the third part of the film, for making my brain work harder. I just couldn't miss the moment where the Spider breathes without a mask while outside the base.

So here are my crazy theories about why it happened. (indirectly, one or more of them were taken for my little Avatar au)

1. The Spider is literally a secret experiment to create and nurture a genetically modified human adapted to life on Pandora in natural conditions.

And how so? Cytoplasmic transfer or the "three-parent method" has occurred

The "three parents" method involves the transplantation of mitochondrial DNA from a female donor into a mother's egg. As a result, the child receives mitochondrial DNA from a third party.

The procedure is as follows:

1. The nucleus is extracted from the mother's egg and transferred to the egg of a female donor, from which the nucleus was also removed.

2. The result is an egg cell with the mother's nuclear DNA and the donor's mitochondrial DNA.

3. The egg is then fertilized with the sperm of the father of the unborn child.

However, this theory has a "loose foundation":

1. The Na'vi do not have DNA. Although despite this, there are still human and Na'vi hybrids (avatars). This means that the absence of DNA from one of the donors is not a hindrance.

2. I can't imagine na'vi volunteering for this.

3. I can't imagine Paz agreeing to this. However, I think that in this case she would simply have been told that for the sake of the child's health, several studies and surgery were necessary. After all, Paz is clearly not young (I think she's over 35 years old), she comes from a polluted and dying planet.

4. Could the Spider's appearance have been different in this scenario? Although by that time (based on the movie) people have enough genetic engineering technologies to "design new people"

5. During medical examinations, other internal changes in the body could be visible, which Norm and Max could detect. However, in a piece of the script, Norm is clearly puzzled by the Spider's new ability.

2. Rapid evolution

Example:

Under this theory, a Spider would be someone who has gone through a new stage of evolution in a new environment that is not standard for its biological species.

According to biologist Scott Solomon, colonization of Mars can accelerate human evolution. Environmental factors on Mars can cause significant changes in human bodies faster than on Earth.

It should be noted that predictions about the rapid evolution of humans on Mars are hypothetical and have no scientific confirmation.

But there are nuances here too:

In order to comfortably move around residential areas or bases, avatars and na'vi need to be inhaled in a timely manner to prevent shortness of breath. Does this mean that the Spider may have difficulty breathing, which can be mistaken for asthma attacks? (actually, this can also be applied to the first theory)

3. Eywa is involved in the Spider's appearance.

The simplest explanation, in my opinion, is the intervention of the Great Mother.

Absolutely every child is Eywa's blessing, which means she has to take care of her children and their comfort in one way or another. However, the disadvantage of this theory is the same as in the second one.

I'm sorry if something was unclear. English is not my native language

[talonabraxas]

How to Transmute Human Consciousness into Buddhas Wisdom

1. The Ten Mysterious Gates

There are ten gates of wonderful manifestations as taught by the Hwa Yen School. I have omitted four of them which duplicate other ones. One may meditate on the six gates of mystic manifestations as follows:

(a) The mysterious gate of perfect yoga of the co-relation and co-existence of all things both in space and in time. As the nature of all Dharmas are Sunyata, every condition of every Dharma relates freely, moves freely, is united freely and plays freely. It is just like a great plain which does not belong to any ego-centered individual, and every person may play there. Hence the mystic circus brings their lions, elephants, horses, monkeys, bears and dogs with their girl and boy members to play there freely. So in the great Dharmadhatu which is of the great Sunyata, all Dharmas may play together and the space of four or ten directions and the time of the three periods may be united or separated, interlocked or interwoven at the meditators will since his mind has been sublimated by the Sunyata.

(b) The mysterious gate of sovereign power in connection with all the Dharmas. As oneself is Sunyata so are those other than self; as a being lacks self so does a thing lack self. Whenever the self is void where the power of the mysterious gate or rooms are opened, one is in all and all may be in one, too; one behind all, all may be behind one, too; small in great, great may be in small; low in high, high may be in low also. Thus all elements of beings and things are mutually identified. A universal identification forms an unlimited and ultimate freedom. Those American hippies who ask for more freedom by laziness onlybeard may be unshaven, clothes may be unwashed, girls may be sexually enjoyed without being married, drugs to enhance sex may be taken often, school lessons may be left but picnics should be frequently takensuch freedom is only a kind of suicide. One who really wants the great freedom should lay more stress on this meditation.

(c) The mysterious gate of performance of manifestations of either appearance or disappearance. When something appears, it appears in the Sunyata; when it disappears, it disappears into the same Sunyata. When the atom was only a potential, scientists treated it as superstition but Buddhists knew it could be broken up, 3000 years before the scientists. When the atom was made up into the atomic bomb it was not a new thing to the Buddhists. The atom and atomic bomb are one thing, but the former holds the potentiality of its disappearance, while the latter its appearance. Both form the complement of the whole entity of truth.

(d) The mysterious gate of sovereign power in different and opposite formswide or narrow (2nd gate), one or many (3rd gate), subtle or gross (6th gate). These pairs may interpenetrate one another commutably, freely, and uninterruptedly. Is not the finger narrower than a mountain but sometimes when held in front of ones eye it may hide a mountain in the distance. Is not the atomic bomb powerful and can destroy gross or great matter but it is invisible, as subtle as a spirit, when it is not split. Buddhists found out this truth approximately 3000 years earlier than the scientists. Are not the lungs 600 square feet larger than the body when they are extended; but they occupy only one small part of the body! Are not there 200 billion nerve cells in only one small brain? These examples are common things. If by the power of Sunyata, the mysterious and supernatural maya becomes much more inconceivable, yet it may actually be realized through this meditation.

(e) The mysterious gate of the various performances of separated Dharmas in the ten periods. Each of the past, present, and future also contains three periods. To the whole one, if these nine are added, it will make up the ten periods. By the speed of gnostic light, Buddha sees the things of the future and remembers things of the past. Time seems to go in reverse which is known by the theory of Einstein in these days, only Buddha knew it 3000 years earlier. Such a vertical connection completes the interconnection and interlocking of the separate beings along the nine periods. The precious five gates are mutually penetrated in the horizontal plane. When their vertical connection of time is added, it becomes four dimensions, which was known to Buddhists almost 30 centuries earlier than Einstein. Two dimensions may be symbolized by a plane. Three dimensions by a cube. Four should be symbolized by a ball fully encircling a cross. But there is the fifth dimension when it is added causes a mysterious penetration, and this may be symbolized by this signcrossed vajra non-limitation of time and of space. Things only occur with length and width in mathematics, materials adding height are solid geometrical materials. Adding time again are durable materials, yet they are physical. With the addition of the Sunyata mystic emergence it then becomes metaphysical. Hence philosophically length, width, height, duration and Sunyata emanation form a fifth dimension, as I newly make this term.

(f) The mysterious gate of completion of virtues of the master and family working together harmoniously and brightly. If any one of the Dharmas or persons is taken as the chief one, all other Dharmas or persons might work agreeable as his retinue. For instance when the practitioner is practicing Ahimsa, all his neighbors follow his good example and out of great compassion send birds to their natural state from their cages, fishes to the ocean from their tanks, doves to the sky from their prisons. Remote neighbors follow their close neighbors, the village follows the remote neighbor, the town follows the village, the city and the whole nation and whole globe will follow one by one and the third world war will not happen. No matter how the facts really appear, one should meditate like this as if it is so fortunately becoming true. By the addition of the time dimension, the three periods may unite as one whole, so here and there, all persons of the whole world will eventually become kind, merciful and peaceful once and for all.

As Sunyata has no ego, it enables oneself to be united with all others. When one practitioner, Mr. A., takes one person as the master, all other persons of the ten Dharmadhatus, may be his family. At the same time, another practitioner, Mr. B., C., D. or so on may take someone in the family of Mr. A as his master and all other persons other than that master may be his family. Thus, master yet family, family yet master, they all have the philosophic emanation. Wonderful and inconceivable incarnations would happen without limitation. Again one master has his inner family and outer family, small family and big family, appeared family and disappeared family, small family in the big family, big family in the small family. Their transformations are at the will of the master without any confinement.

Alas! Very few persons know that Sunyata is not negativism. A philosophic, mysterious positive potentiality is within it. Still very, very few practitioners or scholars know the discriminations between the ten goodnesses and six paramitas which I am going to deal with below.

2. To Distinguish the Six Paramitas from Ten Good Conducts and Diligently Practice the Former Ones

(a) The liberatable way of charity. To give alms to the poor even frequently in an amount more than the whole world can contain is goodness which may get one a good rebirth in heaven, but to be liberated from heaven or earth one should give alms with the Sunyata which has no giver, non-giving, and non-objects of giving. In doing this liberatable charity, one is able to approach the liberation of Buddhahood. Buddha taught it in the Dragon Palace with the following stanza:

"Give all things till the ego remains, Give the ego till others remain, Give the others till Dharmas remain, Give Dharmas till Buddha to attain."

(b) The liberatable way of holding the precepts. All silas, vinayas or commandments should be kept with wisdom, as Buddha taught on some occasion:

Holding the Silas not depend upon Body, speech and mind, or depend upon Three periods, two sides, or depend upon Delusions, or awareness but by none Dependence is precepts holding the precepts on.

(c) The liberatable way of patience. To be patient on the occasion of misery or to the harmful person or at difficult work does good which is not sufficient to be liberated by the paramita. He who practices this should follow the main meaning of the stanza taught by Buddha on the same occasion:

Patience never knows there is I or you Neither keep the idea of mine and yours All men, things and views should be purified When all Dharmas become pure its patience.

(d) The liberatable way of diligence. To exert ones energies to do good and to leave no stone unturned to forbid evil, these are profane merits by which alone one does not reach the thither shore of Nirvana, but following the teaching below one does:

As men are in their nature so am I As Dharmas are in nature so is my Lord, knowing there is no thing to gain It is the real diligence so high

(e) The liberatable way of concentration. Sitting straight, thinking of nothing, neither sleepy nor disturbed in ones mind, this is a common attitude of a religious person. One does not abide in the truth unless one can follow the stanza taught by Buddha Gautama correctly:

Mind is not inside Nor outside nor bide Holds nothing but a void Dhyana can not hide

(f) The liberatable way of wisdom. Even one who is wise as a serpent or as Solomon and can see as far through a brick wall as anybody but sees no Sunyata, gets no realization thereof. One would not be liberated at all. Hence the ultimate Prajnaparamita should be practiced under the guidance of the following stanza:

All Dharmas are so plain Has neither goal nor vain There is view without sight But not view it as light No request no volition Pity on fools is real wit.

3. To Distinguish the Sunyata Identification with Bodhicitta from that Dry Sunyata without Bodhicitta

The wise one does know that the Sunyata does not stand alone. The ancients called those persons who had little recognition of Sunyata and mistook it as a thing of voidness separate from everything else as men of dry wisdom. Hence one should develop five kinds of Bodhicitta.

a. Bodhicitta of Will

When one is still in the Course of Hinayana, one finds out that he is in transmigration and suffers many kinds of pain and one then has pity on those who are suffering with the same pains. A strong sympathy arises in his mind. He might think that if I were a Buddha I might save them. So he keeps such a good will to become a Buddha for the sake of saving mankind and every sentient being trapped within the same transmigration. Every day he should frequently think like this. He might write down his special good wills in some ten provisions or more. Every day he should repeat them and practice every good Dharma for their accomplishment and ask his Protector to help him until this aim is reached.

b. Bodhicitta of Conducts

When the above mentioned wills are developed, one must perform with the six paramitas many myriad conducts of goodness to carry on all the good wills and actually benefit all sentient beings. Thus all the eight right paths of Hinayana and the six paramitas of Mahayana and all the Vajrayana precepts thereof under this guide or basis will be fulfilled.

c. Bodhicitta of Victorious Signification

To get rid of the volition of Bodhicitta, to flee from the demon of compassion, one has to develop the victorious signification which is thoroughly fixed with the Sunyata of nature. One of my stanzas on Bodhicitta may be introduced below:

The best significant Bodhicitta Is without any kind of work or data There is no real mind to arise it Nor is there volition to hold it.

There is neither pleasure nor pain, neither sufferer nor enjoyer, neither agreement nor sympathy, neither I nor he. One may know this well but one has to have some Bodhicitta to pity them who do not know that the Bodhicitta and the person who has been pitied are both of Sunyata. One is still in the Sunyata.

d. Bodhicitta of Samadhi

When one has passed the study of exoteric doctrines and starts to learn Vajrayana, ones Bodhicitta is no longer confined to mentalization but always keeps ones mind identified with the materiality. Thus Bodhicitta is symbolized by the moon. One must visualize ones Bodhicitta as a bright moon which is situated in ones heart and on a lotus in the middle of the heart. From the moon many rays of great compassion are emitted to sentient beings through all of transmigration.

e. Bodhicitta of Kunda

When one has studied Tantra and gets progress in the Anuttarayoga, one is enabled to practice the vajra love. One then has to develop this kind of Bodhicitta of Kunda which is the gnostic semen containing both the Sunyata of nature and the great compassion and great pleasure. Through the good karmas held in the lotus of the Dakini, the ultimate salvation may be fulfilled. This is the final and highest, deepest Bodhicitta.

The first three Bodhicittas are known to every scholar of exoteric doctrines but the next two are only known to the students of the Tantra and they are never systematically emphasized as I do.

Under the first two kinds of Bodhicitta, adding thoughts of impermanence and the pains of transmigration, one may practice again great compassion toward sentient beings and things or Dharmas. Adding the Sunyata meditations, through the third Bodhicitta of Victorious Signification, one practices the great compassion of the same entity with all sentient beings and things and that of non-condition. That is, without any particular connection with others, one should have great compassion towards every being and every thing.

Thus the human mind which was acting in a self-centered psychical sphere now is sublimated by the Bodhicitta and great compassion and becomes the mind of a Bodhisattva who is the prince of Buddhas and acting in the accumulation of Holy Karmas.

[madelynraemunson]

CALL ME WHAT YOU WANT 𓆩♡𓆪

(Book #1 of the Hellfire Gentlemen's Club series)

(strip club owner!eddie x fem!exotic dancer!hargrove!x reader)

𝐌𝐎𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐍 𝐀𝐔 18+ minors skiddaddle pls

Chapter 009: Nina

There’s a new girl at Hellfire and Eddie is seemingly wrapped around her finger. Meanwhile, Max makes a shocking new discovery…

* = somewhat smut

** = smut

↳ chapters: 001, 002*, 003** , 004**, 005 , 006 , 007* , 008**, 009, 010, 011, 012* , 013**, 014**, 015, 016**, 017, 018, 019, 020*

word count: 3.8k words

disclaimers & warnings — ⚠️ this is a verrrryy emotionally intense chapter. pls read at your discretion ; generational curses, physical altercations, profanities, throwing objects, heated arguments, implications of suspected grooming, shy girl being delulu, lmk if anything else

“Shouldn't have to listen to the shit you say.”

♡

"C’mon... COME ON!" Dustin roars in frustration. "What starts with a T and ends with a C?"

Slow Monday afternoons call for Wordle with the Party.

With little else to do in Hawkins on your day off, you find yourself situated at DRAGON’S BREATH with Steve, Dustin, and Jonathan’s younger brother Will.

Figuring out the last Wordle is a daunting task. Thankfully Argyle has been periodically swinging by, his emotional support nachos being the only thing keeping you from ripping out your hair.

"Tunic," Will suggests.

"Tonic," Steve contributes. "Like tonic water."

"Topic?" you pitch in. “Like Hot Topic.”

This is taking all of your last brain cells combined.

"Topic was one of them, Shy Girl,” Dustin sighs irritably. “I said that already.”

You raise your arms, surrendering. It seems you’ve poked the beast.

It’s been hard for you to focus anyway. The hot and heavy night you spent with Eddie a couple nights ago is taking up all the space of your dirty little mind.

You think of Eddie. His moans. The O-shape his mouth made as he chased his own pleasure on you. How full your pussy felt with just his three fingers pulsing in and out, and how full your mouth felt with Eddie's cock ramming the back of your throat with no mercy. The taste of him. How shocked he looked when you swallowed. How rough he was with you, but oh so thoughtful at the same time.

Truly an experience from another dimension. And you’re already fantasizing about the next time.

But you still want to keep it on the down low. Considering Eddie might still be seeing his Lady Friend, and you're still getting shagged by his roommate whenever he’s not home, you can't exactly get mad at him for texting someone who isn't you.

“Pssst,” you nudge Steve while the others brainstorm. “I think Eddie is talking to Nina again.”

Confusion sets in on Steve's face. He raises his eyebrows. “What?”

“Yeah,” you smirk, trying to pretend that it doesn’t hurt. “Saw a message exchange between them a couple days ago.”

“Who’s Nina?”

“Isn’t that the Lady Friend’s name?”

“No…” Steve shakes his head. “Lady Friend’s name was Heather.”

It really has you wondering now... who is Nina?

"Yeah, the kukris are cool huh?" you hear Eddie's soothing voice come into earshot.

Odd. He stopped coming in on Mondays, you thought.

"That's the cool thing about owning a business,” you hear Eddie explain. “You get to choose where the money goes, when it goes, how it goes — at least most of the time."

Where have you heard that before?

Then Eddie comes into view, with a girl walking very closely behind him.

She’s stunning, standing to be about five-foot-two with a youthful face, petite body, and straight, long jet-black hair. Both conventionally, and legitimately beautiful, the girl looks to be at least 20 years old, dressed in cream-colored Chuck Taylor's, tattered booty shorts, and a playful white off-the-shoulder blouse. Scattered fine-line tattoos ornament her body. Her makeup has been flawlessly painted on, her lash extensions a hybrid between voluminous and wispy. And because you’re from Southern California, you can spot lip injections from a mile away.

A new dancer.

"This is where you clock in," Eddie explains to her. "I'll be sure to get you your punch in code by the end of the week. Over at the lounge we have Will, Shy Girl, Steve, and Dustin. Hey guys!”

Now you know why it sounds familiar. You received a very identical run down when you first started.

You're too shocked to wave so you feign a smile at your new colleague. Also, Eddie is too quick for you to react.

"We call the hookah lounge Dragon's Breath," Eddie continues. "And main-stage-slash-tip-rail is called Vecna's Lair."

They walk over to VECNA'S LAIR and you crane your neck to watch.

You observe Eddie give the girl a very familiar run down of Hellfire, using his arms to talk and eyes to listen.

She laughs at Eddie's charm, as anyone would. They talk for a bit more before he walks, what looks like to you, a predatory circle around her — a lion and a gazelle — and then spins her. Then Eddie does something that just about snaps your heart in half.

“MWAH!” he exclaims. “You are gonna do great. I just know it.”

The verbal kiss. The spin. The drowning her in compliments. Everything he did with you.

If Eddie’s gonna do his job, could he at least make every interaction with his employees unique? It all makes you feel betrayed. As if you were just another number in the factory.

"Traitor." you hiss sharply under your breath.

You abruptly stand up to start towards Eddie, hands balled into fists at the blatant disrespect displayed in front of you. You feel sick to your stomach, skin seemingly dragon-green with envy.

"That’s seven letters not five!" Dustin calls after you.

Eddie sees you in his periphery and waves. For the sake of keeping the peace, the smile you exude is fake to him, but friendly to the girl next to him.

"Hey, Hargrove!" Eddie smiles. "We've got a new person on board."

"I see that!" you exclaim. "Hi, I'm Shy Girl."

"I'm Nina," she introduces herself with a bright smile. "It's nice to meet you."

You two shake hands. Nina is just darling. Her eyes are so kind and bright, full of wonder. Her energy is warm. For a second there she was making you nervous.

“Y-you gonna be starting with us soon?” you investigate.

“Yeah, I start on Friday!”

“First dancing gig?”

Eddie shoots you a look, almost as if what you said was disrespectful. It wasn’t your intention. You were just wondering, after all. Nina looks really, really young.

“Uh, no actually,” Nina smiles, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’ve been dancing since I was 18. So two-ish years now.”

Your soul hurts.

Eighteen is just a baby. Twenty is a fresh adult. Nina is only a year older than the kiddos and can't even be near POTIONS without redirection from Henry.

Now you’re disgusted with Eddie. Why would he ever get so close to someone so young? You thought teenagers at Hellfire made him queasy. Nina is 20 now, but still. What would she have in common with a 28 year old? What about her was so appealing to Eddie?

“Oh! That’s cool… I think?”

Eddie’s harsh lines deepen across his face.

“Nina, why won’t you put your bag down by the cubbies, sweetheart?” Eddie suggests. “Then I’ll have Argyle make you something to eat. My treat.”

“Okay!” Nina chimes. "I was eyeing the chicken wings."

"Done deal. Wings or flats?"

"Flats!" Nina says as she skips away. "Please."

Eddie's admiring eyes trail after her as Nina acqauints herself with Hellfire.

So many questions arise in your head. Is Nina who Eddie’s been texting all this time? Did she come in and audition like you did? Did he ask her out on an 'orientation' lunch/dinner that he apparently does with all of his dancers? It wouldn't surprise you. None of this behavior is new.

This jealousy feels icky. And most of all, it hurts.

"Ugh!" Eddie clutches his chest. He turns to you. "I love her already."

You remain stiff as a board as Eddie slowly leans into you. A part of you is aching to lean in as well, but you can’t give him the satisfaction.

Eddie hovers his hand over the small of your back because he knows Steve is watching. His eyes are out on a prowl per usual the way they burn into you.

"Looking beautiful as always," Eddie compliments you. "How are you? I haven't stopped thinking about you since Saturday."

He looks over your shoulder at the Wordle group.

"What was the last word?"

“Don’t know,” you huff. “You seem to have gotten it.”

“What?” Eddie questions cluelessly.

“With Nina,” you cross your arms. "And all your words that you've been wooing her with."

“Oh you’ve gotta be kidding me,” Eddie scowls. His hand drops back to his side. “You're mad because I... hired a stripper? Cause that’s kinda what I do.”

“I'm not mad that you hired a stripper, you literally own a strip club,” you shrug. “It’s just that…I didn’t know you use the same script with every new hire.”

"I'm sorry? Script?”

"You used almost the exact same words with me, Eddie," you explain. "Like you do with everybody I'm guessing.”

Disbelief sets in on Eddie's face, accompanied by an ounce of fear. Eddie is scared of something.

"Well, I don't know what you expected me to do when you first started," Eddie shrugs. "I'm not gonna come off strong and hit on you like some creep. Of course I'm gonna give you the same treatment I give everybody."

Eddie's got a solid rationale, but it didn't take away from the fact that you simply felt ordinary. When you compare the interactions side by side, nothing about Shy Girl stuck out from Nina.

"Why are we even having this conversation right now?" Eddie asks you. "We're not even together."

“I’m not trying to pick a fight, believe me,” you cross your arms. “I’m just disappointed is all. You made me really think you were falling for me.”

“Oh so all it takes is me walking with a girl to have all of my words not ring true anymore?”

Your tongue and stomach are in knots. All you can do is stand there and blubber like a baby. You’re making no sense, you’re aware. But why does it hurt you so bad?

Eddie paces back and forth. "I don't even know why I feel the need to explain myself, Hargrove,” he continues. “I’m not the one fucking the other’s best friend."

It's a reasonable standpoint. Still. You felt disgusting.

“Yeah but..." you argue softly. "How can you feel so comfortable touching…kissing…interacting with someone like that after being so intimate with me?”

Your boss can only release a chuckle, a baffled one at that. He shakes his head rapidly.

“Just because we hooked up over the weekend, you think you have a say in who I associate with or what goes on around here?" Eddie spews. “What, are you trying to take over Hellfire or something?”

Your lip quivers. “I never said that! Where did that even come from? Why are you so fucking defensive right now?”

Eddie’s nose flares angrily as he tries to keep himself collected. Suddenly, Nina calls out for his attention and he softens up again.

“Eddie!” the new girl cheers. “Argyle gave me some of his flats and it's so good! I think I’m gonna shoot for Creeping Death next!”

“Hey, nice!” Eddie smiles. “You like spicy, huh?”

“Mhm!”

It would be a lot easier to hate her if she did something to you. But Nina didn't do anything.

Eddie turns back around to face you, kicking at the ground before he thinks of something to say.

“Let’s not do this right now,” Eddie resigns, placing his hands over his hips. “You uh…clocking in?”

“No, I’m going home actually,” you respond. “It’s my day off.”

Eddie makes a face. You project it back onto him. For a moment, you two are staring at each other, appalled at one another's behavior. Being infatuated with the literal mirror version of yourself is hell.

“Hey Eddie!” Will calls. “Do you know a five-lettered word that starts with T and ends with C?”

Eddie’s eyes don’t leave you.

“Sure do,” he answers. “TOXIC.”

There’s a pause.

“BADA-BOOM!” Dustin hollers. “That’s the one.”

Eddie doesn't bother to chase you after your mini altercation. Just then, another pair of heels that don't belong to you click across the hard club floor. Chrissy comes into sight, holding a tray of slushees and her car keys in her hands.

“Hey guys!” Chrissy sings. “I got us some slushees from 7-Eleven. They're Cherry flavored...”

“I’ll pass,” you huff. “You can give one to Nina.”

“Ooh we have someone new?!” she chirps. “Where?”

Chrissy notices your shift in attitude when you walk away and Eddie’s stand-offish posture.

“What the fuck did you say to her?” you hear her snap at Eddie as you walk away.

“Nothing,”

“Bullshit. You look guilty as fuck.”

You stomp your way back over to your section and ask Steve to hand you your purse. It's obvious by the look on his face that Steve caught onto what you were feeling. He doesn't question it. He hands you your things.

"I'm not feeling too well, guys," you announce. "I'm going home."

You collect your trash and organize it neatly for Argyle when he comes back over with some waffle fries. Showing your appreciation for him, you thank him and give him a soft pat on the shoulder.

"Argyle, you should've seen the new girl," Dustin fawns. "She's so pretty."

"Yeah?" Argyle quirks up. "What's her name?"

"Nina."

"Was she hot?" he turns to the guys. "Byers, what do you think? Was she a 10 or what?"

Will, who never seems to pay the Hellfire girls any mind, eyes glued to his sketchbook instead of their sultry outfits, squirms around in his seat. He shrugs. "I-I don't know."

"Steve?"

"She was pretty cute."

Your blood boils. Not her stealing Steve's heart too!

"Nina…” Argyle repeats. "How exotic. She sounds like a small feisty Latina woman."

“Bet Shy Girl can vouch,” Dustin comments. “Right, Shy Girl?”

Intrigued, the line cook turns to you.

"Well, Shy Girl? Is she giving chunti, chingona, or what?”

Steve encourages Argyle to stop as you walk away, hair covering the sides of your face on the way out.

“What?” Argyle sounds bewildered. “What’d I say?”

"Was I made from a broken home?"

A girls day with Max would surely take your mind off of the Nina situation. She always knew how to make you feel better. Lucky for you, she is home today, evident by her skateboard that is situated neatly in the garage.

You hear some commotion coming from your shared bedroom and go in to greet her.

"Hey girl hey!" you call out to your sister. "It's my day off so I was wondering if you wanted to go t-"

You pause in your tracks, horrified.

"Hmm," Max ponders aloud. "Last time I recall, stilettos and G-strings aren't really part of nursing home etiquette."

Propped open on Max’s bed is one of your unpacked suitcases, the one that you hid all your lingerie, heels, and the Hellfire shirt Eddie gave you when you first started in. Typically you lock it but you left it open this morning. Out of all days Max had to look through your room, it had to be today.

Max has a tennis racket in her hand, the handle acting as a hook the way it swept up a thong of yours so effortlessly. You feel your knees buckle.

"What are you doing looking through my stuff, you little shit?" you bark.

"Looking for my sports bras," Max replies nonchalantly. "Still can't find 'em."

She dangles the thong in the air like it's something she caught at the lake.

"Found some other goodies though."

"You couldn't have just waited to ask me?"

"I would've had to wait a day or two since you work nights," Max snaps. "Now I know why. And do I even need to ask where?"

Just what you needed. This is JUST what you needed.

You feel exposed. Violated. Disrespected. In every aspect and every situation. There was no safe place to turn. It makes you angry.

Fine. If people are going to disrespect you, you'll be disrespectful too.

"When is it EVER okay to snoop?" you hiss. "Have you any respect for others and their belongings? How would you feel if I started picking apart at your shit?"

"I wouldn’t care because I don't have anything to hide."

"That's not the fucking point, Maxine."

"Oh, not the government name!" Max exclaims, sassily putting a hand over her chest.

That really tips you over the edge.

"I should've known," Max proceeds, shaking her head. She chucks the racket back onto her bed. “You haven't renewed your CPR cert since you graduated high school. And you need that to even work as a caregiver. Didn't catch that loophole when you were LYING, did you?"

"I was lying to protect you."

"You still lied, Sis," Maxine argues. "You're missing the point..."

Oh, now she wants to mimmick you.

You're blind-sided. Tunnel-visioned. You are feeling all five stages of grief all at once. It’s all too much to bear. You feel the bomb ticking...

As much as you love your sister, it sure was a bitch to raise her. You spent most of the time explaining to Max what social cues are, what is acceptable and what is not. It often made you short-fused because what was common sense to you took ages for Max to understand. Like how you shouldn't look through other people's things.

Max learns best when she puts herself in others' shoes. You've learned that the hard way, over the years.

“How would you feel if I was looking through your drawers and shit?” you walk over to Max’s corner of the room, prying open her drawers and tossing whatever is in there out. “And just tossing your shit out onto the floor?"

“What the fuck?!” Max exclaims. "What are you doing?!"

“Or what if I just went to your side of the mirror and…” you knock her perfume bottles off from the dresser mirror in numbers and watch them fall onto the floor. "Knocked all your shit down because I was looking for my own things?"

"I get it now, stop."

“Or," you brainstorm. "What if I just started unpacking your vinyls and shit and just not care about the packaging?”

Max stops you right there. "ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY?! I said STOP."

“How would YOU FEEL?” you yell. “HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF I DID THAT TO YOU?! IF I PULLED A 'YOU' ON YOU? NOT GREAT, HUH?”

How would everybody feel if you acted the way they did? Would they be mortified? Would they be disgusted?

Would Dad not hit anybody?

Would Mom have chosen to stay?

Would your first love never want to see you again?

Would Eddie be angry at your behavior?

Would Max think you're the worst sibling ever?

You would hope so for all the above.

Your heart couldn’t take any more pain.

"SHUT," Max screeches. "THE FUCK UP!"

She tosses an acrylic storage box at you. It hits you and you yelp in pain. When she realizes what she has done, Max punches the pillow on her bed. Physically aching for the last word, you take it upon yourself to chuck your empty Hydroflask at her. Thankfully, it misses and the ear-piercing CLINK sound is enough to startle her. Max shrinks herself down in fear, trying to process what you just did.

You regret it immediately. You didn't want to hit her. You mainly did it for intimidation.

It puts you to shame. You are toxic.

Suddenly, Max inflates again, her entire face extending to her ears redder than her fiery amber hair.

"YOU," Maxine growls. "ARE JUST LIKE BILLY!"

Silence.

You take a look around the trashed room. Never did you think you had it in you to be someone like your brother. But of course, the Wolf who is fed the most prevails.

The amount of hurt and anger you actually harbored was way more than you thought. You can’t take back the fact that you’ve exploded on everyone you love now. But at least you can hold yourself accountable.

"I didn't mean that," Max mumbles. “I’m really sorry.”

"No, Max," you sigh. "You're right. And I'm sure you've been wanting to say that for a while..."

But Max refuses. “NO! I just wanted the last word again. Like I always fucking do even when I know it’s never worth it.”

You and your sister join each other by sitting criss-crossed on the floor, pushing the debris off to the side to be handled later. Max leans her head on you and you let her, combing through her knotted hair with your trembling fingers.

"We have a lot to unlearn, don't we?" she sighs.

You nod. "Oh yeah..."

She grabs your hand.

"Are you safe at least?" Max questions. "At work? Any creeps I gotta beat up for you?"

A laugh escapes you. "Nah, someone's already got that covered. Bones snapping and all."

Max flinches.

"That's how you got all that money real fast, huh? Stripping?”

You nod to confirm. "I did it for you. Well, us."

You watch as Max takes out her phone and shuffles through her camera roll. Her most recent in the gallery are videos of her shooting free throws at the Y and playing tennis. She cancels out some apps for more storage, one of them being Messenger. The tab reveals that Billy was spamming her again.

You both shudder. Max puts her phone away.

"Because of you I have a membership," she beams. "And I have a safe place to rest my head and I have money to do what I want and I have food on the table."

She hugs you.

“I hope you know how grateful I am for you. For putting my needs before yours. For throwing yourself into something so terrifying just so I can have a better life than you did growing up.”

“I never thought for a second you were being ungrateful,” you hug her back. “And no matter what I say or do, I’m sticking by you no matter what.”

“Even when I’m being an asshole?”

“Even when you’re being an asshole.”

Max giggles. “Thanks for the reassurance.”

Suddenly your door swings open, causing you and Max to jolt in place. Thankfully, it’s just Robin and Vicky, both worried and confused about the state of your room.

"ToTo," Robin says. "We're not in Hawkins anymore."

"What tornado rummaged through here?!" Vicky exclaimed. "Guys. Are you okay?"

You and Max burst into laughter.

"Yeah, we’re good," you nod. "Just Hurricane Hargrove passing through."

As long as you have Max and your sisterhood with Robin and Vicky, you know you're going to be okay.

You refuse to mope around for the rest of the day, so in the evening you go bowling with Max and your roommates, loading yourselves up with carbs and soda. You ignore Eddie’s “can we talk?” messages, along with Billy’s routine “where the fuck are you” texts followed by rage-calls without a care in the world . Towards the end of the night, however, when the “Sad Boy Hours” hit, there’s a text from a man you simply can’t ignore.

Maybe: Henry

Hey 🧍🏻 it's Henry from work. Can I ask you something? Pls be honest.

tag list: @battymunson , @the-fairy-anon , @ali-r3n , @corrodedcoffincumslut , @bebe07011 , @mmunson86 , @eddiesguitarskills , @chelebelletx , @imonhereforareasonsadly , @eddies-trailer-babe @hideoutside , @motherfckerrr , @jxpsi i , @munson-magic , @lindseyj23, @sidthedollface2 , @manda-panda-monium , @elvendria , @micheledawn1975 , @hereforshmut , @siriuslysmoking , @nymphetkoo , @m-chmcl-rmnc , @justinelittlewoodsworld , @ahoyyharrington , @keepittoyourselftellnobodyelse @kellyxo1 @emsgoodthinkin @winchester-angel @chloe-6123

[freneticfloetry]

It's been so much fun reading everybody's year-end roundups (and making my way through this round of Tarlos Secret Santa fics!). I wrote so much this year, y'all. But as my 2024 was nowhere near as prolific where actual published fic is concerned, I'm taking a page from @tellmegoodbye's book and using this Sunday to feature seven sentences from the things I actually posted, plus a single sentence from seven things to come.

Thanks to @heartstringsduet @whatsintheboxmh @alrightbuckaroo @lemonlyman-dotcom @carlos-in-glasses @nisbanisba @reyesstrand @paperstorm @strandnreyes @carlossreaders and @tellmegoodbye for the tags!

words to get off his chest (9-1-1 / 9-1-1 Lone Star, 3.7k)

Carlos hums, right hand circling his wrist for a moment before he reaches back to the stovetop to tip stalks of asparagus into a skillet. But his left stays low, fingers slipped between TK’s, ring pressed to the skin where his own should be sitting. “And a batch of my mom’s Texas toast.” TK’s stomach rumbles again, which is almost enough to cover the whipped-sounding whimper that leaves his lips. “That might be the sexiest thing you’ve ever said to me.” “TK, I really hope that’s not true.” TK tucks a smile into the side of Carlos’ throat. There’s also this — the playful pattern of call-and-response they’ve shared since the very beginning, where TK comments and Carlos cringes and somehow they’re both saying I love you.

Buck Up, Cowboy (9-1-1 Lone Star, 3.7k) My part of the collaborative Carlos Whump Project for Lire's birthday

TK’s face is as flashcard quick to react as always, and Carlos watches the delight turn to intrigue turn to a thoughtful contemplation that might mean trouble and tries to head it off at the pass. “What, you didn’t work out all your bucking bull curiosity with the bloody one you cut out of a car?” “I mean, yeah,” TK mumbles, “but this one’s not gonna gore anybody half to death.” He shrugs, shaking his head a bit. “I don’t know, it’s just…” He lingers on the machine for a moment, then looks up at Carlos through a curtain of lashes with sea glass eyes gone smoky and dark. “There was this video.”

esta noche es de alegría (9-1-1 Lone Star, 27.8k)

“I swear it’s okay if we don’t perfectly mashup every aspect of our holidays. To be honest, Hanukkah isn’t even that big a deal.” Carlos raises an eyebrow, which almost erases the anxious, apologetic expression that had actually hurt to look at. “Really,” he scoffs. “‘Cause that’s not what you said yesterday, when you were busy stuffing our brand-new piñata with the bag of gelt you bought in bulk.” “I mean…” TK bunches his shoulders up around his ears. “That’s chocolate.”

And coming in 2025:

the same in every language (9-1-1 Lone Star)

There are words on the tip of his tongue, the three syllables you’re never supposed to say in succession during sex, and he cranes up to catch Carlos’ mouth and lets himself feel it instead, lets it carry him into oblivion.

don't ruin this on me (RWRB)

"He blew me until at least half my brain cells permanently relocated to my dick, and I gave him a half-assed handjob while I babbled about what a baby bisexual I am."

had we but world enough (and time) (9-1-1 Lone Star)

“I’m so glad you’re okay, I really am,” Carlos says, and swallows, and sweeps his eyes to the floor. “And now I need you to leave.”

the full extent of what forever is (RWRB)

Alex is a lot of things: bright and brilliant and blindingly beautiful, and blessedly, miraculously, Henry’s.

a strong enough foundation (9-1-1 Lone Star)

After hauling all of TK’s stuff into the townhouse that had already housed all of Carlos’ for years, then filling the loft piece by piece by himself from the ashes of what they’d had together, it’s a heady, heavy thing to hold the keys to an empty space he finally gets to make a home with TK, not for him.

i was fixed on your hand of gold (RWRB)

"I mean, who among us has not had a spontaneous bi awakening in a midnight showing of The Mummy, freaked out about it for a week, and finally found themselves in a bar in the Meatpacking District doing body shots off the first hot guy in all black they could find?" Alex glances around, utterly guileless. "No? Just me?"

what should've been you (9-1-1 Lone Star)

TK swallows, thinking of all the ways that was true, of every unspoken question Carlos has asked since they met, with his heart set on some flat surface, served up soft and sweet and hopeful and just waiting for TK to take — Can we be more over untouched champagne at a midnight dinner and Can we be real over unfinished bubble tea at a street cafe and Can we be everything over unexpected sparkling cider on a stretch of countertop in an empty loft — and all the ways he had found to ignore everything beating between them, to hand that heart back and say No.

Why yes I did alternate those on purpose, though these are in no particular planned posting order. Also, count the Hozier lyrics! (Hint: it’s all the FirstPrince.)

It's late, so consider this an open tag, but I would especially like to hear from @liminalmemories21 @never-blooms @rmd-writes @ladytessa74 @orchidscript and @welcometololaland!

[yutasbimil]

Enticed

gryffindor!beomgyu x fem!hufflepuff!reader ft. slytherin!jaemin | txt ft. nct dream ff. ✦ (6/8) [series fic] !!! also posted on my ao3 acc! { here } tags: fluff cw: friendship/love, bestie-lovers energy, frenemies vibe, friends to lovers, lots of bantering, tutoring, teasing, crushes, confessions, jealousy, tension, slow burn, unrequited love, love triangle, hurt-comfort, eventual smut lol, break up, eventual happy ending, FLUFF!!! ! not that comfy w/ 2nd POV, but hope 3rd POV is good for y'all ♡ word count: 1.8k

part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 7 | part 8

do not repost © yutasbimil (2024)

It didn’t help with Yumi’s spiraling state that Jaemin broke up with her. 

Well, this was her on the last days of the previous semester. 

Now, it’s just the beginning of their final school year, they’re all gathered up in the Great Hall when the topic is brought up.

“What was the reason?” Bora asked. 

Yumi shrugs, just sad, but it was great while it lasted. “And we’re on good terms, so no worries.”

“That’s not exactly what I’m worried about, Yumi-yah.” Bora pouts, sighing as she looks too solemn for her own good. And for her to leave out the details? Not exactly in character for Lee Yumi.

“I’ll be fine.” Yumi pressed. “It’s great that we tried…”

They only got together for a few months? The three months were more than good enough really.

Yumi shuffles a bit in her seat, fiddling her fingers nonchalantly. “It happened over the course of summer… we eventually faded away then broke up.”

Distance was the problem? Meh.

“That’s dramatic.” Soobin comments, making Bora nudge him hard at his snark tone. 

Yumi took no mind of it as it was, indeed, a bit of a dramatic way to put it.

Throughout the summer, it just so happens that when Beomgyu got injured, it was the end of the semester. It gave time for him to focus on healing. It also gave a chance for Yumi, and some of the gang to spend some time hanging out due to proximity, staying in the same city.

Unlike her and Jaemin… but it’s better off this way.

It helped how she got distracted throughout the summer and just focused on herself.

“Finally, she woke up,” Yeonjun mutters, making Taehyun immediately elbow his side. Soobin and him surely are of the same feather. His mouth is truly something else. Even if you yank out the sleep-deprived part of him right now.

Nothing is new though. 

Beomgyu is still nowhere in sight. Or does he already know?

Soobin ponders but immediately brushes off the thought incoming. Nah, they wouldn’t approve that he immediately makes a move on her after a breakup. And they know enough he has respect for Yumi to not be an A-hole like that to take advantage of her vulnerability.

Wait, how did the thought go to Beomgyu—

“So it was mutual? The breakup or…?” Taehyun rolled the dice.

“Oh…” Yumi blinks, oddly surprised as it’s not an obvious thing to be picked up. “Jaemin called it off, but we talked it through properly before parting ways.”

The boys looked at each other, exchanging brain cells of what they may be feeling off of what might have happened. Bora slightly picks up the radar as easily as she picks up her food using her chopsticks.

There’s something…

Speak of the devil.

Beomgyu joins in, already recovered. Just as if nothing happened as he just casually sits down and joins them all composed.

“You preparing for the big test?” His eyes are directed at the dispassionate Yumi.

The moment he joins in, this is his upfront greeting.

“It’s the start of the school year, Beomgyu.”  Her bland response aligns with her unenthusiastic expression. She rolls her eyes as Beomgyu continues to elbow her energetically. “Yeah, yeah… I know we’re graduating so we need to take it seriously with the N.E.W.T.s. coming…”

He pursed his lips, taking it down a notch seeing her not matching energy levels. 

As if his mask was stripped off, Beomgyu just shrugs, passively as he levitates some food onto his plate. “Just keeping you back up to pace, chum. How about we get you some tutoring from your good ‘ol Mr. Choi, hmmm?”

“Urgh, he’s loud as fuck.” It managed to slip a slight smirk off her lips, she heavily sighs as Yumi noticed herself give in. “Again, I know this is your usual tactic to lighten me up. But get back to me after a week or two, then I’ll get to ya, Mr. Choi.”

“Ouch, treated as a business partner.” Beomgyu scorned, he crossed his hands. “As if you didn’t tend me last summer vacation.”

“Not in the mood, Gyu.” Yumi rolls her eyes, chomping harshly like the meat in her mouth. “I haven’t rejected your offer yet.”

“Well…” The conversation between them quickly died down. Amid their little bubble, the guys’ eyes on them are wide as they exchange looks. So it’s Beomgyu who will replace Yumi’s “tutor”?

It’s a way to distract each other, and Beomgyu knows and they know that she needs to get back on track. Like, this is nothing out of the ordinary, this was the usual even before being involved with Jaemin. They gather as a group and have their weekly study sessions. And it’s better now that they're more accustomed to their academics than last year. They can focus more properly now.

Them hanging out together as a group helped tremendously as it was easier for them to keep on track. But one rainy day, it just so happens that Yumi and Beomgyu were left alone; just the two of them.

“Finally decided to be my friend again?” Beomgyu speaks, his hand on his waist as Yumi approaches them. Yeonjun and Soobin are with him as if sending them off.

She perks her brow at the sudden attack. “I was always your friend, what the fuck?”

“Not that I was feeling any of it, doofus.” He purses his lips, emphasizing the cold treatment on their group sessions. She was there but not quite the most pleasant towards him. The two weeks in business days was just unbearable for him.

Soobin and Yeonjun weren’t having any of it.

“Aish, we’re already graduating and y’all still run your mouths?” Yeonjun had his face scrunched up. 

Soobin quickly brushes them off.

“Just don’t go strangling each other. We’re heading off to the fields now.” He says, waving off as if telling off his kids. 

Yeonjun has Quidditch practice, and before they walk away, he’s as if gawking his eyes out as he points his fingers to his eyes and then to the two. Most especially at Beomgyu.

But Ah yes, the air is different. Like there’s a lingering tension. A different tension, like different.

Yumi didn’t take any mind off any of this, just letting off Beomgyu as he took her books from her to carry. And off they went to the library.

It’s not a big of a deal. 

Beomgyu is also knowledgeable of the subject they’re tackling for today’s agenda. They can manage even if the others have their personal plans.

What’s different today? Was it the mild mildewy air? The rain pattering filtering the atmosphere that it added to one's desire for warmth at the drop of temperature? 

As opposite the heated gazes they spat at each other, the shift made them stir to a familiar memory lane. The array of books displayed across the shelves may be to blame. They may not withstand the amount of stories untold in each page, they would want to continue and preserve their memories like books.

Ah, the entrapment of flowery words. A poet is damned.

Yumi found herself lost in a garden of words as she scribbled nonsense in her notebook. But she had to be engulfed back to reality.

They were serious but something seemed off with the vibes, now that she thought about it— or is it because they touched a subject of sentiment?

There was a sudden pull of nostalgia in each other’s eyes. The closeness of her breathing altered his thought process, she’s too close, he felt her alluring warmth. 

Beomgyu had to swallow back an abrupt nerve of agitation. 

“You frustrated me,” she told Beomgyu. Yumi was so caught up looking at her lap that she didn’t get to see the aftermath of what her staring did to the Gryffindor guy.

“I just miss us being in the feel of it in our usual antics back then.” Yumi best managed to construct the ache in her chest. There was a feeling of loss; as if it could never be brought back; not in the same intensity of emotion as in the past. Their lenses were not that clouded with the vision they have right now that they have grown past that certain youth threshold.

As much as Beomgyu sees Yumi’s perspective, he has a different take on it. Spinning his Muggle pen of a contraption, a slight laughter escaped his lips.

“And that isn’t a bad thing?” He says as normal and expected to harbor such fear or whatever anxiety occurs in one's heart at some point. “We’re also here to create new memories together, at least we’re here, right?”

She had to pause, looking at the said source of the words to seep in its meaning and its meaning from her best friend’s heart.

Yumi faintly smiles. “That’s a nice way to put it.”

As gloomy and frigid as the ventilation in the vast room brings, it wavered a different tinge of light for Yumi on how she views Beomgyu at this moment. Now that they’re graduating… they expect that they have matured now. Hopefully.

But still clueless, as it seems.

In the midst of the crowded library, Jaemin sees quite a deafening atmosphere between the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor’s resolved focus. Even as Yumi and Beomgyu both had their lips sealed, their strong gazes in their own little force field said otherwise.

Jaemin subdued himself behind an adjacent bookshelf, not making his presence known nor daring to break the bubble the two created.

He admits, there was still a flutter of butterflies seeing a glimpse of the familiar girl in his sight, they had a bond at some point after all. But he’s mostly okay now; assured even as he sees her accompanied by the reliable lion in her stead.

If you were Jaemin, one may feel it’s better off, especially since he can see that Yumi and Beomgyu are more deserving to be together.

Like Gurl, from miles away from just watching them, you can pick up how they’re running in circles on how they interact with each other. Years of playing cat and mouse even…

And I just can’t bring myself to go in between that further.

Mostly Jaemin is just looking back at the good times with Yumi. He shakes his head in amusement.

Yeah, they’re both idiots in love.

Jaemin is lowkey rooting for them to end up together soon.

He sees the way Beomgyu is looking at her, for so long, it’s hard to ignore and deny he’s down bad.

It’s not hard to spot a fellow guy liking someone. And it’s not just when she was his girlfriend… Even before, Jaemin noticed. He kinda feels bad he shoot his shots, but it’s fine they tried.

It worked till it didn’t.

He and Yumi decided on their differences; they didn’t have chemistry other than the physical and wits aspect. Jaemin enjoyed the times and decided to end on good terms, parting ways.

※ my masterlist | #enjeiwrites ※

[jackiequick]

ABC Family ~ Baby Daddy OC 🍼

—> Expanding on a OC from this playlist

Skylar Chez

Full name: Skylar Chez Gonzalez

Nickname: Sky, Mama, Chez, Wonder Twins, Picasso, Ms. Wheeler

Age: 25

Height: 5’2

Place Of Origin: New York

Nationally: American

Ethnic Background: Colombian and Mexican descent

Relationship status: Single on and off again, until she realizes her feelings for Ben.

Occupation: Artist

Season: 1-6

Relationship to family: BFF to Ben, Danny and Riley since they were kids. Bonnie babysat Sky since she was 2 because her mom is friends with her. So in result she grew up closely to them. Later on, she met Tucker during early college years.

Personality: Sweet, artistic, nerdy, good with the flow and very open. However she can be strong and stubborn, as well as a little crazy. Overall usually pretty chill. Oh yeah I forgot to mention, she’s a huge foodie!!

————-

Skyler was brought into the group from day one once again when she moved to New York for her career, little did she know that she would be living together alongside her best friends. In the same apartment. Working at the bar and studying art as well. It was good until everything changed the day Danny moved into the apartment since baby Emma came too!

—> The boys were freaking out and confused calling for Riley’s while Skylar was cooing at Emma. She was so cute.

The guys looked at her waiting for her to pick Emma up. Sky just joked, "What? You guys see boobs and automatically think mommy?"

Riley snorted at her joke.

Everyone, especially Bonnie believed Ben couldn’t make it a few hours with Emma but the girls disagreed, and thankfully they were proved right. Since then, Emma stayed with the 6 of them after 48 hours. They were happier than ever!

Her and Danny are like siblings! The two are them are sometimes attached to the hip, always helping each other and supportive. Tall and short besties for sure! They are such nerds, always going to the movies, sports game and concerts. Skylar even sometimes steals Danny’s graphics t-shirts when hers are dirty, styling them to fit her outfits.

With Bonnie, it’s like they are aunt and niece! Bonnie says that Skylar is like the daughter she never had while she glares at her sons in annoyance. Just as insane and sweet as her mother, I guess that’s why Bonnie loves her.

Tucker! Let’s just say those two are sassier than ever before when they’re together in one room. Tucker and Skylar are each other’s back up no matter what. Finishing each other lines and chasing each other around. Skylar can say, “Hold my earrings!” And Tucker would smirk like, “I got you girl!” But those two fight like crazy if allowed!

Riley! As much as she jokes and teases Riley, she’s her girl. Besides she does the same thing to her, dragging Riley into doing crazy stuff. Always by her side to snap her out of it and tell her the truth, when needed.

—> When it came to Emma, Ben and Skylar practically shared the same brain cell! As much as Ben and Sky were complete opposite for certain things, the two of them shared the same ideas for plenty of things. Ideas for plans, work, ways of dating, strong attitudes, the way they acted and especially their parenting style. You name it, they have probably have or heard it.

-> They’re great friends! Always by each other’s side. Very supportive about their plans and smacking some scene into each other.

Speaking of Emma, during late season one and early season two of the series. 2012. The duo made a decision that changed their lives. Mama and Daddy.

It all started when Ben was looking for a future wife for himself but mainly a mom for his daughter, he figured his daughter deserves a mother figure or two in her life. He dated looking up and down, tired of scanning waiting for the girl to see Emma the way he sees her. Until Bonnie made him realize that girl was standing right in front of them.

Ben found her sitting alone that late afternoon on the fire escape sipping a beer and softly smile, asking if he can join. She nodded handing him one, Skylar was tired and annoyed with her love life after dumping her boyfriend, Johnthan, two days ago. Ben decided to comfort her and show her in care rather seeing his best friends smile than upset. After a while they talked…

“So how’s the mom search going?” She asked reopening another beer smiling, handing him one.

He opened him beer and replied, “Not the greatest. Due to, Emma already having a mom.”

“Yeah Angela! I told you it wasn’t the best idea..”

“No, not her. You.”

“What? Uh Ben I wasn’t the one who pushed her out and put that cutie on your doorstep. She did.”

He laughed and nods, “I know that! But since Emma been here you’ve been nothing but wonderful and I love you for that. And I believe Emma deserves someone like you in her life.”

She smiled sweetly, “She already does…wait Ben, do you want me to be like her Mama?”

“If you want. You don’t have to play house or anything, unless you want too of course..”

“Yes.”

“R-really?! Cause I know it’s a big deal and our careers are friendship will be on the line.”

“Nothing will change.”

“Nothing will change?”

Skylar took his hand, “Yeah it won’t.”

“And what if it does?” Ben replied squeezing her hand gently.

“Then I don’t know.”

“Okay.”

It was steady and still, the two friends started to become parents overnight. Closer than ever. They drank and talked smiling the whole way through the whole night.

————

It was a darling, sweet and absolutely comfortable transition. It felt natural, nothing truly changed. They were supportive parents like always, playing house sometimes and teasing each other. Sometimes they would get carried away and start calling each other “Mama” and “Dada”, especially in hopes Emma would say one of the two first sooner or later.

-> Ben walked into the kitchen with Emma and smiled softly, “Hey mama.”

“Hi.” She replies handing him a slice of toast as she chuckled, “Hi Emma.”

The baby girl giggled at the kisses being peaked on her face. Ben put his daughter in her high chair along with a bowl of cereal, then walked over to Skylar wrapping his arms around her to steal a bite of toast.

“Hey!” She yelled laughing, “Get your own.”

“What? Danny does it.” He joked laughing and poured himself coffee, “Uh where is Danny exactly?”

“Slept over at a girls place. And Tucker is still asleep, hangover times ten.”

“Oof been there, done that! Mom is coming over to pick up Emma so that means I get extra time before work and you can take your classes.”

“Yes! You know how hard it is to paint a castle in the forest with a baby and two idiots running around?”

“Hahahahaha! I bet, hey—! I’m not a idiot.”

———

-> When it came to dating life, Ben went on his dates such as Riley or Veronica for insist meanwhile Skylar went on her dates such as Kyle or Jordan. Nonetheless it was fun and extra supportive about it. Even comforting each other as well when Danny wasn’t there to do.

Believe me, if someone breaks Skylar’s heart or hurt her feelings, best believe you will have a Danny Wheeler after your ass like a pissed off Superman.

Especially if Tucker heard about Skylar being hurt.

A) He’s gonna fight him or trick them into being screwed.

B) Encourage her to fight back and ignore the dumbass.

C) Drag Bonnie into a plan for revenge.

Note: Bonnie, Tucker and Skylar are a little bit of a trio. They get into the craziest stuff 😼 haha. Bonnie and Tucker even tracked down Angela after Skylar stupidity suggested something but they took that literally! During that time Ben was trying to date Riley so that caused a small rift between them with Emma’s biological mom being there.

—> Even Skylar got pissed off! Angela was trying to play house, Bonnie wasn’t too happy that insulting the women.

It got to a point where Skylar dragged her into the apartment and told Angela, to her face that, “You may have carried and birthed Emma, been her mother for 6 months. But afterwards you were gone! Biologically you may be her parent but I’m the one who helps put her to sleep, change her diapers, feeds her, brings her play dates when her daddy, grandma or uncles can’t. And I make sure that girl is happy! All you’ve done while being here is try to win Ben back and play house.”

Angela scoffed with a slight laugh, “And what are you? His best friend? His side piece when Riley isn’t around? If I’m correct Sky, we used to be friends. What happened?”

“I still am a friend to you, Ang. But I’m also Ben and Riley’s. And I’m more of a mother to Emma over the last year or two than you ever were.”

“Sounds like Ben has a lot of women in his life. Especially Bonnie! I’m just trying to figure out how to make a plan here, okay? I’m sorry, and your right, it’s clear that you all Emma’s family here. Especially you.”

“Good. Ang, your my friend and want you to figure out that plan. Tucker and Ben said you’re trying to find a place to stay that isn’t our apartment.”

The girls smiled and hugged it out, still bitter about the situation but didn’t show it. However Bonnie and Tucker were in the corner listening into the conversation silently cheering hoping that Angela leaves soon. Also very proud of Sky having the strength to call her out on her bullshit. A few days later Angela left, not without leaving her mark within Ben and Riley’s relationship, they broke up. Going as far to jokingly tease Sky that she should make that ‘mom thing’ official and go on a date with Ben.

Things went back their chaotically sweet and glorious ways after that. But that romantic debate still hung over their heads. Riley went on dates finding a boyfriend name Philip, Danny slept with a couple of girls but his heart belonged to Miss Riley Parton. Ben stayed within the dating scene teased how Riley still liked him until life took a turn in his direction. And that direction was Skylar Chez.

—————-

Ben Wheeler was thrown into a loop and knocked off course. Yeah sure he will always love Sky but those feelings started to shift into something stronger perhaps. It started during Emma’s first birthday seeing her dresses in a viking inspired outfit and carrying his almost one year old daughter in matching clothes, made his heart flutter. He smiled, leaning forward to kiss Emma’s cheek and grin at Sky giving her a kiss on the cheek.

“What was that for?” She asked with a darling smile, bouncing the almost one year old on her hip.

Ben shrugged with a smile, not knowing that came over him and replied, “You both look really pretty. You know i love you right?”

“Always. And we do look pretty.”

“I have to head out with mom, to figure out the whole thing with Deluca’s ice cream parlor.”

“Oh right Bon Bon mentioned something about it, what happened?”

“I might have another kid, with Jenny Deluca this time.”

“Ben!”

“I didn’t know, okay? I swear women keep have babies and won’t tell me about it.” He added with his hands in the air and shake his head, “It’s starting to hurt my feelings.”

Sky tried not laugh and sigh, “Aww poor baby. Focus! We have probably another kid on our hands here.”

“Don’t worry, i tried talking to Jenny beforehand but she busy. So we’re gonna try again today.”

“Alright, meet you at the parlor in an hour. No funny business!”

Both of them tried talking with Jenny Deluca about the situation but she just shrugged pretending to ignore it, telling them to have their kids party and leave. Her father showed shouting and claiming for them to get out, especially not wanting to see Ben again.

Bonnie shouted over him and pointed out confidently, “Frankie Deluca, you would lucky if my son ever impregnated your daughter!” Tucker nodded in agreement saying ‘Hell yeah!’. The man ignored them upset as ever until Jenny revealed Ben wasn’t the father it was somebody’s else kid, she just blamed Ben cause it would leave less questions from her father.

It was sorta fair, still they would’ve welcomed the kid regardless. Afterwards Emma fell asleep and they had to celebrate her 1st birthday at home instead, none of them minded the change. But that whole time Ben saw how loving and supportive Skylar was the entire day with the chaos of the news, he truly loved her for it.

~~~~

The next time was when Skylar eventually started getting jealous of his dates, snapping him out of it and then fixing the problem by the end of the day. But Ben wasn’t far behind since he started to question her dates more often and had to end up saving her by the end of night, coming up with a lame excuse that somehow worked.

Catching each other’s falls at work, sharing food together, leaving random kisses on their cheeks, adding text messages for one another, teasing the other person and bickering over the smallest thing.

Tucker even joked, “Damn. You two sound like your dating..”

Skylar and Ben turned to him yelling, “Stay out of this, Tucker!”

He laughed, “You sure?”

“She’s not my girlfriend.” Ben replied with a scoff pointing at her.

“He’s not my boyfriend. You don’t get it, Tucker.” Skylar added.

“Why would he? Us together wouldn’t make any sense.”

“Yeah, if I were to date him I must be insane.”

“Exactly!”

“Let’s go, baby.”

“Right behind you!”

The two walked out together heading to the park to meet up with Danny. But truth was Tucker was right, the two were practically dating each other from day one without actually doing that dating part. They just didn’t know it yet. Skylar’s smile always grew around him, loving how supportive he is, adore the patients he has at times and dragging Ben Wheeler into doing the most silliness things. He was her world, she was dating the man without even noticing it herself. To Ben, he always grinned widely around her, she was one of the reasons he’s where’s he is today, adoring how gentle she can be to how crazy she may act, and he was proud to have her in his life.

——— ~~~

— They’ve seen each other fall and rise, Ben held her when she may cry til midnight and Skylar hugs him when he feels like died a little inside. They didn’t notice how much love and opportunity there was for them until Danny and Tucker pointed it out. So in result that same week during 4th Of July, everyone was on the rooftop celebrating the fireworks while eating outdoors, when they realized that needed more ice, water and beers. Skylar offered to bring it upstairs and Ben followed behind, knowing she was need help carrying that upstairs.

The two were chatting as they entered the apartment and collecting items that they believed could also be needed. Ben saw more fireworks from the window, taking Skylar’s hand climbing onto the balcony taking a seat next to each other. The fireworks stopped for a moment, or at least the ones that could be seen for them since you see hear the booming noise from the streets afar from the building, they started with smiles. Ben realized they were alone as so did Skylar, as the pair yelled out in unison ‘I have to tell you something’ ‘No you first.’ The two laughed.

Ben chuckled, “ this is ridiculous but Danny said that we’re dating but not dating, I mean we’re dating while not actually dating.”

“Oh my god, Tucker said the same thing! Ay that’s hilarious. He pointed out the stuff we do.” She replies chuckling.

“But we’re not dating right? We haven’t kissed or anything! Unless we were drunk and i don’t remember..and I think I would remember.”

“I mean yeah we do, some things are typically seen a couple. I kinda wanna prove Danny and Tucker that they’re wrong..”

His eyes perked up and leaned against her shoulder with a grin, “Oh really? Oh how so?”

“Like this.” She replied with a matching grin, leaning forward, “Kiss me. Prove that they’re wrong and we’re right.”

“Oh I like the way you think women! 20 bucks this kiss would mean nothing.”

“Ooh a bet? Make that 25.”

“25 it is!”

Ben leaned over taking the back of her neck gentle as his hands gliding around to her cheeks. Skylar rested her face in his hands, her hands sliding down to his cheeks with the cheeky eyes that matched his. They were too excited, finally touching their lips brushing against one around to a simple one time thing. As they did, the fireworks in the sky went off.

The kiss lasted around less than 3 seconds or so, until Ben decided to turn around and make the kiss last less than a minute. Skylar rested her head against his, pulling back for a moment with a smile and said, “So Danny and Tucker were wrong?”

“I think I will need to test out that theory again.” Ben repiled with a shrug, lacing his lips onto her with a laugh, “We’re right, they’re wrong! But they can’t know that.”

“Oh yeah! Hmm, we can still openly date whoever we want to like Riley and Johnthan?”

“Oh yeah! If not, my bedroom is right next door. I mean we’re practically dating without actually dating.”

“I think another kiss might seal the deal, we created.”

Little did they know Bonnie Wheeler was unlocking the door and walking in to grab the beer bottle since they were taking too long. She joked and grumbled, “Damn it Danny! He couldn’t have—” her eyes fell onto the balcony to see her son and practically daughter in law sharing a smooch, “—WHAT THE HELL?!”

The two heard her practically falling onto the floor, gasping and stumbling into the room, yelling out ‘MOM!’ and ‘BONNIE!’.

Busted.

—-

The paired found themselves the next time stealing kisses in secret, sharing winks and preparing the other for a date. They coined it as a open relationship, trying to not let anyone else know about this little affair. Especially Riley, because then she will tell Danny, who will in result tell Tucker.

Ben was bouncing loopy and sleepy Emma as Skyler walked out, fixing her collar for a date. It was her turn for a night out. She played around with her hair with a smile, “How do i look?”

“I would gorgeous but then i would have steal you from your date.” Ben joked, placing their daughter into the playpen before walking over to her zipping the back of the dress.

“You sure you’re okay with me going out? I could just cancel, you know?”

“No go out! I got a boy’s night planned out with Danny and Tucker here in the apartment.”

“No strip poker like last time! Tucker still mad about that.”

“In my defense, we shouldn’t have betted too high. If you need anything call me.”

“Okay.”

She quickly peaked his cheek and walked out, earning a grin and a playful friendly catcall from the boys who walked inside. Skylar laughed twirling as she left, leaving Tucker, Danny and Ben chuckling.

The whole night went all, her date with Tad with nice meanwhile the boys played a simple game of poker. Bonnie saw Tad and Skyler out again, rolling her eyes because she saw her and Ben kissed two weeks ago—but she kept their dirty little secret to herself, knowing the others will find out soon enough.

—> The next time, Danny found out one morning. He was walking into the kitchen, greeting Emma who happily ate her cereal and Ben who sat was eating his bagel with a cup of coffee. Tucker was still snoring. The brothers chatted, joking around and figuring out their schedules for the day.

That was when Skylar walked out of the bathroom, placed a kiss on Ben’s cheeks and stealing fruit off Danny’s plate with a grin, before walking out to the bedrooms. Danny grinned, “Did she just?”

“Yup she did. She got a 100% on her art project, so that’s why she’s happy.” He replies smiling.

“Yeah that’s great, i know that! But she just kissed your cheek!”

“So what? It’s normal, right? She’s happy and so I’m happy.”

“Ohh—Holy crap, you still like Sky!”

“No I don’t!”

“Holy crap, you really do still like Sky!”

“Shut up, I don’t.”

—> Other time was Riley, catching them finding them at work behind one of the walls near the entrance chatting. She walked in ready to unwind and have a drink, stopping short turning to her left to see Ben’s hands on Sky’s shoulders with a smile. They didn’t notice her, since it looked like the pair were speaking onto something rather important.

“I’m telling you, the accident wasn’t your fault, okay?” He replied with a smile.

“It was a mishap i know! But Jonathan looked at me and then Tad saw me.” She said with a sigh.

“Hey you spooked! Same thing, happened with Angela and Riley months. I split for god’s sake.”

“That’s because your clumsy Ben and an idiot.”

“Yeah well, Riley still loved for me it.”

“Haha, you’re right. I’ll got tell them what happened.”

They walked to their separate sides of the bar. Riley was sitting at the couch, walking over to the counter to order a drink waiting, that’s when Sky scurry around the corner.

The girl smirked at her latina friend, “Sooo?”

“So what?” She asked her blonde friend, confused.

“I saw you and Ben talking, then i saw Jonathan and Tad were in the room.”

“We were just talking about me screwing up with both guys.”

“Ohh? And Ben?”

“He was reassuring me that everything is alright and Jonathan will forgive me.”

“I hope so, he’s a catch! You know, you and Ben have been rather close lately.”

Sky chuckled, “Riley, he only got eyes for you!”

“I don’t know, Sky.. what if-?” She replies with a soft chuckle.

“He loves you. I know that for a fact.”

Riley smiled, picturing her relationships with Philip vs hers with Ben. She knew she had plenty of other options and opportunities at her door.

———————

Ben and Skylar little affair didn’t last long, they love each other but felt that they needed to explore their other options first.

Riley and Jonathan to be exact since those feelings were clear as well. So they dated their lovers, Ben and Riley’s relationship was long but felt brief but Skyler and Jonathan relationship lasted longer than expected.

However the pair broke up one night, since Jonathan wanted to see other people, as in someone named Veronica who was in her art class. Hell he was secretly trying to see her already. They may have said it was mutual break up..but it didn’t feel like it…

Skylar returned home that night, finding her daughter on the floor and sat on the couch cuddling Emma who played with her bunny. She tried not to cry but Bonnie, who was babysitting, noticed pulling the girl into a hug telling it that it will be okay.

“It’s not okay Bon-Bon! I wanted more..i thought we had something specific and special but he practically dumped me after dinner..” She explained, with tears in her eyes, “It should be me in his arms, not stupid Veronica!”

Bonnie kept in her arms, kisses her forehead, “I knew sweetie. Just let it out, some things just happen and he’s an idiot for letting you go. But hey, your talented and smart and so sweet! Any guy would love to have you..i know Ben did.”

She scoffed, “It was a fling, a small thing. We both agreed to stop it before anyone got hurt. He loves Riley.”

Bonnie winced, “Yeah he’s not only the one who loves Riley.”

“I know Danny does, i figured it so. But i want revenge on Jona…” Sky stood up from the couch, smirking she stormed into the bedroom area, “TUCKER! I need you!”

-> To say Skylar got her revenge was a understatement. Her and Tucker tricked Jonathan, giving him a temporary job at the Mary Heart Show only for it go crashing down on the man, literally.

A bucket of huge ice cold water with fish fell on him during production while the show was on the air, causing the man to run out screaming like a cartoon character in Looney Tunes.

Mary Heart got a bunch of rating for that episode and new followers for the show meanwhile Jonathan got to smell like fish for a week, and got shown in the embarrassing videos section on YouTube. It took some work but the duo got it done, even involving Danny and Bonnie to set the prank up perfectly.

It was a win win situation for Tucker and Sky. She got her revenge and selling her artwork to Mary, meanwhile he got promoted to production manger, working his way to TV producer soon. The duo high fives at their success!

——

Skylar’s career pretty much took off a lot further from that. She was already studying art, selling it and working at the bar with her co-workers. But since Mary loved her artwork so much and photography skills, Sky was able to get a lot more offers, putting her name out there for people to see.

Designing artwork, stylish decor for people when it came to working with Brad and Bonnie’s realtor jobs. And having her sketches be used for fashionable people in the New York industry.

It felt good, she felt like her job was being seen a lot more. Danny, Tucker and Riley even displayed her art pieces on the walls of offices, hallways, suggesting it to people they meet. Ben already had the artwork display around the bar since day one, since Skylar’s style was shown throughout The Bar when she just starting out working there.

——

But the question some if you may be asking. Did Ben and Sky end up together afterwards? Short answer, yes.

Long answer, it took some time to find themselves stable enough to admit how much they still love each other. But when it did happen, the pair found themselves arguing on a Saturday afternoon getting ready to close up the empty bar…

The two were in the mist of an argument, screaming, shouting to the top of their lungs and going as far to point fingers at each other.

Ben slammed the chair onto the table and had a serious look on his face, “I can’t believe you! God you’re such a liar.”

“Me?! You couldn’t care to listen to everyone, stupid!” Sky shouted, wiping the whiteboard clean and searching for new markers.

“You knew that Riley and I weren’t gonna last! You stood there like an idiot.”

“Um hello?! Danny was always in the damn picture and clearly had the hots for her. You stood there like an idiot.”

“An idiot? Me?”

“Yeah! Too blind to see the signs, Ben. Hell even Riley didn’t notice, cause both of you were on separate planets.”

He walked over waving his hand and scoffed, “Funny. I didn’t know we were playing the blind game here. Who’s next? Oh yeah, you!”

“Me?!” She scoffed this time whipping her head towards the man, “I did nothing wrong here!”

“Oh really? Let me thing, Jonathan and Tad this! Jonathan and Tad that! What about me?”

“What about you?”

“Did you forget our little affair? All the hugs, morning kisses and secret fun! We had something going on!”

“Y-you still think about that? I thought..I thought you forgot about it.”

“No of course not! It was one of the best times of my life and we stopped because we had other people in mind. I love Riley and i fought my own damn brother to have her but then you were..you came along and i messed it up!”

“Well, you were all up in Riley-town, and I was wondering around Jona-city that we didn’t bother to continue it! You wanted her Ben…then you wanted another girl afterwards. You never know what you want!”

“Yeah right, you’re right I’m sorry. I don’t always know what I want, but when I have it..I tend to lose it. A lot! I lost Riley and screwed up. Every girl i mess up relationships with. I had an affair with you and decided to stop us from having fun. But you never know what you want either..”

She sighs, “Cause I um..I can’t choose my own way to which guy I want. I had it good with Jonathan then he dumped me and I screwed it up with Tad cause I kissed his twin brother by accident. I had it and I screwed up everything! I don’t think I can ever find a guy that can keep up with me and make it work with our lives.”

The room was silent for a moment as they looked at one another, not saying a word but their eyes said it all. Every moment shared between the mishaps to the arrangements made that lead them here.

“I guess..the only girl I’m destined to be with aside from Emma, is you.” Ben confessed with a chuckle.

She blushed and smiled, “Yeah? You mean that? Because if you don’t then we will have to start this argument all over again.”

“Yeah I mean it. I’m sorry, I never went with my gut feeling in the first place.”

“It’s okay. I’m sorry, I didn’t went straight to you about everything.”

Ben gently walked over to her and a sheepish smile, “How about we start over? Hi, I’m Ben and I think your really cute.”

“Oh my god.” She chuckled shaking her head, feeling silly.

“Come on try it! Go back to the way it was, with me.”

“The way it was. Hi I’m Skylar, do you have any idea if this bar is open?”

“Yeah I do and I know what are the specials this weekend.”

“What are the specials?”

Ben smile grew bigger by the second, leaning his head towards her face and placed a daring kiss on her lips. Skylar chuckles grew, resting her head against his forehead and returned the soft kiss. A hand wrapped around the other, with a gentle touch and whispering mumbling only about god know what.

It felt slow, knowledgeable and gentle. Like a rather passionate peck of sweet idiotic love.

He laughed, pulling her into his arms, stumbling his back against the wall and cupped her cheeks brushed against her lips against his very own. Standing on her tippy toes, she laughed at the ridiculous jokes they made, cupping the back of neck as she placed a few smooches on him.

“Wait-wait are we really doing this? Like full on addressing this?” Sky asked with the biggest goofy grin.

“I think we are. Let’s grab a couple of beers and head over to the apartment.” Ben replies with a even bigger grin.

She grabbed his hand without a second later scurrying out the door as he rushed to grab the beer bottles and keys. The two stumbled upon the streets of New York, coming back to the apartment for quiet quality together with no interruptions, due to Bonnie watching Emma that afternoon. It also helped that Tucker was on a date, meanwhile Riley and Danny were hanging out together.

So in response, they were hushing and giggles along the way.

——

As for marriage and family, they got accidentally hitched in Vegas—I mean what?! No, they didn’t!

Ok byeeee!

Was this an accidental extra HUGE excuse to write for one of my fav extremely underrated sitcoms? Yes, yes it is. Anyways, i hope you like it tell me what you think about in the comments below!

Please like, share and reblog for more. Btw, you can watch ABC Family's Baby Daddy on HULU/Disney Plus! Or on Freeform.com

Tags: @gaminggirlsstuff @halesfavoriteharlot @rooster-84 @mallowbee4 @gcthvile @missstrawbs2001 @mandylove1000 @theloveoftoms @thisgirlisonfayeeer @starkleila @hardballoonlove @buckysteveloki-me @sherloquestea @nakiaswg @carellmcu @ximehs and etc

[rassilonsleftbollock]

An idiots guide to...BIGENERATION~

(under the cut- very long you have been warned)

Okay so firstly, what is regeneration and how does it work. Well before we even get yo that we have to discuss how Gallifreyan blood works (now this is just a theory, but I have done lots of research over the years). So main components of Gallifreyan blood are T-cells, these are the immune system and can asexually reproduce and often specialise (differentiate) into cells very similar to phagocytes and Lymphocytes in humans, which are then used to fight infections; next there is blood cells, biconcave and basically the same as human red blood cells, but not red as the 'hemoglobin' is an orange compound designed to take in oxygen from a different atmosphere to Earths, however that chemical works the same and carries blood the same; next is lindos cells, these are the platelets of the Gallifreyan system and when an injury occurs they clot the blood and work of healing the area, this bloot clotting can also cause the same issues as in humans, with strokes or hypoxia, but still do the job for both external and internal issues; next is something unlike humans, atron carrier cells. These cells carry artron energy which reacts with the enzymes on the surface of the lindos cells to speed up healing.

They are not natural to the body and are placed there when the time lord recieves "rassilon's imprinteur". These cells do not die because the atron they contain keeps them alive, they are modified blood cells with a different compound for storing atron energy. They are made specially for a specific time lord when they graduate, they combine a marrow extract of stem cells with the chemical so they differentiate in certain conditions, causing "imprinteur" cells to specialise. Then the marrow is transferred back into the host body and the cells are rarely rejected. Then everytime the Timelord(TL) is exposed to the vortex or a rift, their atron cells are replenished.

Regeneration however, is caused when a large scale clotting of Lindos cells occurs on a large injury. When this happens loads of the imprinteur cells get stuck behind them and react rapidly, this influx of energy causes artron radiation to damage the DNA, and when the lindos cells repair the damage they repair the damage to the new DNA print, causing a new body. This can go wrong and cause structural changes to the brain, resulting in new personality, limb differences or missing/malformed internal organs.

After regeneration a person's lindos cells are very low, but after an hour the cell count would've doubled in the body's rapid attempt to make enough. This large influx of cells will stay alive for two weeks, creating an "elastic stage" of regeneration where any damage caused after the first hour and before the end of the first two weeks, will repair itself even quicker, albeit at large cost to the already deprived energy and caloric biome of the body. This means limbs that are severed can regrow, not ones however that are not already there, unless the stump is cut off. Please do wait at least a day before acting on the elastic stage otherwise your poor TL will be very exhausted.

So now we've got that out of the way, it's time to discuss Bigeneration. Lindos enzymes are catalysts, which means they react with artron energy causing the increased healing effect, however like other catalysts they have an optimum PH and an optimum temperature. Most importantly, more energy creates a faster reaction, but too high a temperature (please please please try to keep your TLs at 14.6°c) causes the enzyme to denature or at low temperatures, work slower. They also can only be used once, but considering every Lindos cell carries and excretes roughly 5 microlitres of enzyme when its working and about 300,000 work on an area of 1 cm³, there are always enough.

The Doctor Bigenerated because of the Galvanic radiation, which is what also killed him. Galvanic and artron radiation work in tangent with each other, meaning he had more energy to regenerate with. This caused his cells to undergo mitosis faster, raising his already high Lindos (we can assume this because otherwise no Bigeneration could've occurred and it has been documented that they have an abnormally high count. See: sixth doctor regenerating from small head injury due to internal clotting and high lindos cell count causing fast regen), and more artron energy carrier cells to be produced. This would've accelerated regeneration and given enough energy for two separate bodies to be created.

In the Rani's case however, she was exposed to the unfiltered radiation of space. Her bigeneration doesn't exactly make sense from the same point of view as the Doctor's does, but when you factor in the fact that the flux left a lot of background radiation around, including artron energy. In the deep of space its also very likely there could be an undocumented vortex rift nearby that could've also 'supercharged' her atron cells. However in those deep space temperatures, her enzymes would've been damaged severely*, preventing regeneration until she was dethawed. There she would've had enough time to replenish her lindos count (atron surplus would increase the rate of this).

This acceleration of both factors would've caused a Bigeneration in both these two subjects, however whilst it is very unlikely and there has only ever been one case (See:Pandora and Romana) documented, with these factors it is possible.

-Rani has three brain stems like all timelords, so stayed alive by keeping one thawed

Extras:

-* urm my friend corrected me on my enzyme knowledge so here u go

- the penetrative ability of artron is very contradictory. A lot of sources claim it isn't very penetrative hence the separation of vortex and original dimension (can be stopped by 5-10 metres of air), however some say more penetrative than galvanic due to the existence of rifts. This is important when investigating the source of the Rani's artron energy to regenerate as likely she used up the majority of it she had keeping warm in space. Without this energy she could've regenerated so I have considered it to be as penetrative as gamma radiation, hence its need for the imprinteur cells to be contained.

- the brain has more capillaries than other areas of the body. Capillaries have a thin lumen and narrow tube. This means they are more suceptable to bursting and clotting. Hence six's rapid regeneration and mental confusion.

[ae-azile]

Option 1: Genre/Tags - Romance, Proposals, Misunderstandings, Vacations, post-canon

A year after being released from prison, Style’s insistent words about not rushing to the altar are echoing through Fadel’s brain. He's tired of feeling like he's failing Jay, who sends him curious and expectant glances every time Style isn't looking. Fadel also feels confused whenever Style buys him expensive presents or asks about buying a house together, but still puts off the marriage conversation. It's one Fadel accepted putting off before. It used to feel like a daunting thing to talk about, despite genuinely wanting that future with Style one day. Now, Fadel tries to find ways of bringing it up nervously and hopefully, only for Style to successfully redirect the conversation. 

So Fadel just finds himself frequently looking at the ring he designed sitting in his online cart, wondering when he will ever feel confident enough to buy it. It doesn't come down to money. He has the money. The restaurant is so successful that they gave all the new employees raises and bonuses. It doesn't come down to Fadel not wanting to make that step. Considering it has become the thing he thinks about the most, he knows what he wants. He just thinks Style doesn't want the same. 

When he has a drunken bonding night with his brother to talk (and maybe cry) about it, Bison just says, “Don't worry. Marriage isn't everything.” 

It’s a statement that might be more comforting if Bison weren't wearing his own engagement ring while saying it. But while there is still validity in the statement, he and Style are going on an extended vacation soon. He will buy the ring just to have it on him. If he can find a way to have a productive conversation about the possibility so that he can know where Style stands for sure, then maybe - just maybe - he will be able to ask the love of his life the question that has been gradually traveling to the front of his mind for years. 

Or…

Fadel wants to propose. Style has other plans. 

Option 2: Genre/Tags - Romance, Hurt/Comfort, Proposals, Medical Emergencies, post-canon

Bison knows exactly what Kant is doing. This is the mountain Kant’s father proposed to Kant’s mother on. Wanting to trek up it close to sunset on a whim doesn't have Bison wondering what is going to happen. He just feels happiness as they walk together hand in hand, anticipating their arrival to the top. There is no one in sight and the lack of cell service gives Bison the feeling they are the only two people in the world. Despite making cheeky comments as he hints at his expectations, he is excited for what's to come.

Kant wasn't supposed to fall. 

Option 3: Genre/Tags - magical realism, mpreg, crack!fic, post-canon, crack treated seriously, labor and delivery, kid!fic, baby!fic, post-canon, excited uncles, excited grandfather, protective Style, hormonal/glowing Fadel

After a customer comes up slightly short on their payment for their car repairs, they give Style a “male fertility artifact” as a way to make up for the difference. Because it's so weird, Style accepts it and figures it will be a funny story to tell. His father and Fadel think he was ripped off. Style knows they're right. They just need better senses of humor. 

And maybe open minds. Style apparently needs one too. He never expected his odd new statue to work, let alone let him impregnate anyone. 

Anyone.

Option 4: Genre/Tags - Humor, Friendship!fic, matching tattoos, post-canon

Kant gives Style his first tattoo, only for Style's ideas for more to grow from there. 

Option 5: Genre/Tags - Episode 12 missing scene (and/or post-canon), past child abuse, manipulation from a “parental figure”, hurt/comfort, found family, father-in-law of the century

Despite Style reassuring Fadel that his father doesn’t mind his past, Fadel still feels like he should talk with Jay to make sure that is true. He doesn't expect to hang out with him the entire evening or get so emotional about it.