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#or things like having haste cast on me and using wholeness of body
pisswizard420 · 1 year
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Act 3 of bg3 is just tenderly kissing monk players on the lips
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Day 4
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Liber Liberi vel Lapidis Lazuli
Adumbratio Kabbalae Aegyptiorum sub figurâ VII
VI
1. Thou wast a priestess, O my God, among the Druids; and we knew the powers of the oak.
2. We made us a temple of stones in the shape of the Universe, even as thou didst wear openly and I concealed.
3. There we performed many wonderful things by midnight.
4. By the waning moon did we work.
5. Over the plain came the atrocious cry of wolves.
6. We answered; we hunted with the pack.
7. We came even unto the new Chapel and Thou didst bear away the Holy Graal beneath Thy Druid vestments.
8. Secretly and by stealth did we drink of the informing sacrament.
9. Then a terrible disease seized upon the folk of the grey land; and we rejoiced.
10. O my God, disguise Thy glory!
11. Come as a thief, and let us steal away the Sacraments!
12. In our groves, in our cloistral cells, in our honeycomb of happiness, let us drink, let us drink!
13. It is the wine that tinges everything with the true tincture of infallible gold.
14. There are deep secrets in these songs. It is not enough to hear the bird; to enjoy song he must be the bird.
15. I am the bird, and Thou art my song, O my glorious galloping God!
16. Thou reinest in the stars; thou drivest the constellations seven abreast through the circus of Nothingness.
17. Thou Gladiator God!
18. I play upon mine harp; Thou fightest the beasts and the flames.
19. Thou takest Thy joy in the music, and I in the fighting.
20. Thou and I are beloved of the Emperor.
21. See! he has summoned us to the Imperial dais.
The night falls; it is a great orgy of worship and bliss.
22. The night falls like a spangled cloak from the shoulders of a prince upon a slave.
23. He rises a free man!
24. Cast thou, O prophet, the cloak upon these slaves!
25. A great night, and scarce fires therein; but freedom for the slave that its glory shall encompass.
26. So also I went down into the great sad city.
27. There dead Messalina bartered her crown for poison from the dead Locusta; there stood Caligula, and smote the seas of forgetfulness.
28. Who wast Thou, O Caesar, that Thou knewest God in an horse?
29. For lo! we beheld the White Horse of the Saxon engraven upon the earth; and we beheld the Horses of the Sea that flame about the old grey land, and the foam from their nostrils enlightens us!
30. Ah! but I love thee, God!
31. Thou art like a moon upon the ice-world.
32. Thou art like the dawn of the utmost snows upon the burnt-up flats of the tiger’s land.
33. By silence and by speech do I worship Thee.
34. But all is in vain.
35. Only Thy silence and Thy speech that worship me avail.
36. Wail, O ye folk of the grey land, for we have drunk your wine, and left ye but the bitter dregs.
37. Yet from these we will distil ye a liquor beyond the nectar of the Gods.
38. There is value in our tincture for a world of Spice and gold.
39. For our red powder of projection is beyond all possibilities.
40. There are few men; there are enough.
41. We shall be full of cup-bearers, and the wine is not stinted.
42. O dear my God! what a feast Thou hast provided.
43. Behold the lights and the flowers and the maidens!
44. Taste of the wines and the cates and the splendid meats!
45. Breathe in the perfumes and the clouds of little gods like wood-nymphs that inhabit the nostrils!
46. Feel with your whole body the glorious smoothness of the marble coolth and the generous warmth of the sun and the slaves!
47. Let the Invisible inform all the devouring Light of its disruptive vigour!
48. Yea! all the world is split apart, as an old grey tree by the lightning!
49. Come, O ye gods, and let us feast.
50. Thou, O my darling, O my ceaseless Sparrow-God, my delight, my desire, my deceiver, come Thou and chirp at my right hand!
51. This was the tale of the memory of Al A’in the priest; yea, of Al A’in the priest
(Years favorite is with bold as always) and I can’t even explain this days choice haha
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dubiousduskwight · 5 hours
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Day 21: Shade
“Look, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Rorogino lied, leaning back in his chair in his new studio and hoping the Blades wouldn’t feel a need to check his back room. “Caravan ambushed on the road to Gridania. I get that. Wagon destroyed in a pit trap, lots of cargo lost, I get that. But a painting of a pit trap made it appear?” He folded his arms, rolled his eyes, and did everything he could to look disinterested while picturing what it would look like if an anvil fell on the guard’s head.
Wishing it to be so didn’t cause it to manifest, and the Blade remained resolute. “That is what the leader said when they tried to hawk the wares to one of our fences, yes,” she continued, looking about what Gino refused to call his atelier with the disinterested curiosity of the suspicious. “It does seem far-fetched.”
After having to leave his previous residence in a great hurry due to unforeseen circumstances involving his clientele, he hadn’t had time to unpack and really make the space his own, so it had the appearance of the residence of every young Sharlayan man living alone in the Studium dormitories for the first time: Bed and candles on the floor, crates to be unpacked later put haphazardly in corners, and care and attention in placement given only to his easel, worktable, and chair, which caught the light of the Horizon aetheryte through the window and cast a brilliant sparkle against his canvas at the start of the day. It helped motivate him when he needed to escape the consequences of his actions in haste.
“Well there you go,” he said, doing his best to repay disinterest in kind and putter about with his paints. He figured he could at least get his pallette and brush in hand if things went south. Pity if it did, the rent was cheaper out in Horizon even if it happened to be the one town in Thanalan with an honest contingent of Brass Blades. “Rubbish. I paint landscapes and portraiture for hire. You want somebody painted, come see me, but I don’t know about pits.”
“I did come see you, actually,” said the Blade, taking off her helmet and shaking out short, choppily-cut red hair. Gino didn’t recognize her, but he gathered this was supposed to make a point somehow. “At your old address. Surprised to find it had partially burnt, though. It was lucky that the landlord knew where your post was being forwarded.”
“Oh, yeah, yeah, that guy, I mean, he was good with the mail but he was bad at, you know, not starting fires in public and private places where he really shouldn’t just to watch them burn. No idea why he broke into my place to do it, just glad nobody was hurt.” The number of anvils he wanted to drop expanded. Curse Ma for demanding a forwarding address for her posts.
“Except for the three bodies found in the apartment, you mean.” She added this with a light tone, as if to be helpful.
“That could mean anything, for all we know those bodies were dead when they walked in, but I always knew the landlord started fires using weird ingredients. Guess thaumaturges have the right idea with all those fire spells, people burn well, you - “ There was a cough from the back room. Gino promptly doubled over in a longer, louder coughing fit. “Sorry, sorry, I’m just really broken up about it, lost a lot of supplies because of that whole thing. Put me way behind on my schedule.” “Well, we did at least identify one of the bodies,” said the Blade, ambulating in a menacing way around the crates in the corners. She hovered her hand over one of them, but never touched it. “Belonged to somebody in a cactuar fighting ring. Checked up on the kin, and they said he had also gone to you about a painting. Something to do with portraying, what was the word - “ She paused, as if to recall. “Septillion Needles? Something about prepping for an upcoming match and wanting an edge.”
Gino’s laughter was forced and shrill as he shrugged in exaggerated confusion. “What even is septillion? I can’t count that high.” He really couldn’t, and how he was supposed to fit that many tiny lines onto one cactuar drawing? It wasn’t his fault the guy didn’t like the no refunds policy. “Okay, listen, Officer, ah - “ “Sergeant Greaves,” she said, looking behind Rorogino to the door behind him. “What’s back there, anyway?” “The shitebucket, obviously. Sergeant Greaves. These are all weird coincidences, and look, yes, I can paint real well, if I say so myself. Yeah, some might call it ‘magic’.” He threw up quotes with his fingers and rolled his eyes again. “But I’m just providing a normal service, the kind of work the folks in Ul’dah deserve. I think if you checked my paintings, you’d see that.” He grabbed a cloth from his worktable and dabbed sweat from his forehead. “Hot as the hells out here. Thought it was cooler in the city, somehow. You familiar with that?”
“No, it’s just Thanalan. Hotter day than usual. You get used to it.” She gave Gino a level expression, her light blue eyes piercing. He would have painted that part of her, but not the rest. Probably composite it onto another model. “Well, I just had to follow up this lead,” she said, putting her helmet back on. “But if you do get anybody asking you to, I don’t know, use some strange iteration of a re-emerging magical art to commit some crimes against the Syndicate, just let us know.”
Keep it petty, don’t swive with the big money. The message was received. “You got it, Sergeant. Keep up the good work, love the eyes by the way, you seeing anyone?” He gave her no chance to answer as he hustled her to the door to his flat. He kept his eyes closed and ears open, waiting until he could no longer hear footsteps going down the stairs. Then he waited a ten count. He waited another ten.
Once he was sure she was actually gone, he stomped over to his bathroom door, forced it open, and started striking the occupant with the tip of his brush. “What was that? What was that cough?! You want to get us both busted? Worst godsdamn timing for a handoff, I swear if Thaliak ever lets me know you led her here then you’re going in the sketchbook, you hear me?!”
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libidomechanica · 7 months
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“What men too late and”
A sonnet sequence
               I
Than if this face: of fraude at thing graveyard. While, disyoke thee? With those mind draw his fury from then that light Yet Childe, how creature cast the hawthorns and spite above the her pride anywhere fresh care na coming, turn youth too hard hold, and why, Sir—and throws. What men too late and lovely nearer bliss demon fear more to-morrow seized up with cheerefull stopped. What is probably don’t fling but what nipt me cause my pain, here, sleep for slaue, and I neuer lyst, yts ticked her perpetual dullness. That may thy sweet be movies fitte, but thought toll me thy siluer season. Hordes, hey ho Perigot of prison.
               II
Two you moved by your part you sat she sigh; goodbye, good buy! Who pay it Cuddies Embleme. They to me; whan to wandring out with all over tape delicate you hast the stowres. Those store or allusion: but yeeres my craft vs safety pin to gape for aye be shepheards all she dwelt in. But woman and they see, and tell me, ye were name. And tell vpon a poison roof collusion: for feet. By what fair. One from a cense do pleasures up: embryonic chickets: other body: he was refresh-cut hard, and the Prince the Beauties fitting else to fight; nor grave, o sister. And from Heaven, If I takes successives thy feet self; if the rain and found so thou came back again, we tway be that learn to wexen old Lord Maurice, its gulf a fine the sighs, and smooth-shaven, like task of fonder at has for fear on her full with faithless sharp sleep it so will both thy bier. I have been wait?
               III
Of hem twa. So well-built house, with Bab-o lest to speaks poor Solomon marble beams and to go alone. Then cheeks have learned back in you thing vpon a whole from Psyche, but lack’d geese of dead. Icy hoodwink’d without reede: and as in her eyes, and Sopps in the Love come nae sae me. Fast, I was spreading, rapid, merely thristen time ages had stooped some or else tops his voice I took a bird upon mine is as swan or complain and he fence, ever long to ruin all all theyr art praise of the Royal Stem,— a Perfume like a thou lacks salt, estrange glebe, but purpose; then myne the loyal bed.
               IV
After her! This can tell morning like vision straight, he respecially trickes; while world. Because he did aright was nothing on the Heart. But keep the dream Fairies’ proprietresse, the spake wither heare, she best so, perhaps. But not thrice thy hair of chillis, has truth, the board blind, sweeter than the stronger, as Cuddies more tame forest, and what in woolly eue, hey hungry for your mother day. They flee from her neighbors had a world is like lobster of life wild to go, but that made a curled up her eye. With his way, I pity grace sappho and dark: thence closet crept, manna anither, them seem.
               V
Witness paid thy law. Beams and insane discern hill send to see, as if thys so enamoured to be fulmined metal and twine with Golden scorn of trembled: and up a flower; his eare all help the from the more by side, oh, hid by Charlotte thee, and he sapphire-spangle her Loues to not stopped. Love be done your with her boughs mortal Bird of shepheard, having me light. Midnight, shall the she utter; sic a wide wild, and hot-bloomed us: then I am but should carrion can triple-arch’d thus what complexion dwell or art alone of them in her pride, that thine, but yet rest, or eves.
               VI
The pillours for here? Down the Lady Psyche, ’ I rejoice! Dame returning stars in pray; ether. I pynen in his was, to saue a deceive in a honeysuckle time draw then thing to looke in an hour; we while he stoon? Has we lay, since erst, till flourish wrung thousand daintye Daysies due their child. The deep, untested surface streetlamps. One wilds would gae made of. The hadde it the prest, Full of this: they are cliché. But Angela give heir, and I sit be a great did aright of clams are dried at all casement and sick of dust, nor Valiant, to winne, an’ I’ll halt, they came, what the broke away.
               VII
Amorous ill as other dempt Salámán was past affairs in his hide She hunt old carrion can lead the aisles, and vermeil dyed? For my chain, and glanced, Blythest conscience and that so forgot, and no my simple awning liker to necessary wanton nature done, she would twine. Flash, that the title o’ love, an’ a’ should smiles when Phoebus stopt his shirt on thee those weaving here two, and well: well the Silver in the subject that goodlihead vpheld, aglaia sleep sorrow shouder my hear or me, and scorne. Thou euer lyst, ye blest else to giue my sorrow’s life at its will is like Munch’s sign!
               VIII
Thy father own her rich the gentle swinck. Almost despairs, seeming our coats. A million lead her bring all be king a woman liness, and sleep. A dent and why thine asleepy-ey’d. Her female, look as fairest may with my mind, a way he will on the yate faces the hurried to kisses. Her fault; I crave strip mall, false loved by night and should I flee from spot of all it had got about, we provincess; fields devout with meagre, bene would she, like a scar beyond to the cryes, from bear unless wing. Thou wish and midden a bowling with simple, and looke hath her find o’ my Philling payned.
               IX
Murderous citadel: look nor since to be-that not rob thy mammie’s warmth of mee, and her shattering till should I not prize of loved, boxes bene and built that first her? That cruel loveth, looking, his hauty one gentlemen to be attone was Lady Blanched on the mad—its separating I strut and it not find your his he music picking in that neede were parts of the glittering came vested baits bad case on her hours of this is now. Of candied in the iron with ruffianced, Sirs, the abyss. Because men out your was great organ in his forces, ground us away.
               X
Like met, He forefingers quiet wood, to see. But, ’tis pride her woe: the first thy princes, and Ausemán—the Heart-of-Heart that nun-lit filling of trees and all his coming to hit. Arise, Oh Moon of their goodnight gaze opened to love him to a cureless Jeanie on the Kerke, will thy father flesh, as are the same for Kim. But when hen in the christall glass, escapes; but uncurrent high and setting shee to ye, my lovely nest from that clear: then lock’d even as kind look nor shut, and thus did na gie a butter’d creature newe were that deadly light: by the stars, and Mary Morison?
               XI
From ancient case were na comb, two of corn, like thee from the mind—or false love that least o’ the faces in the tinsel clincks of our carelesse in a clue wi’ ony body making in me sickness lake. It’s much my birth on my fair longer and I, but a bad casement and bowing, or other, that accountryman, after love like pray you and the Wods withouten and waters neighbors had brook then stick a wounds that she made of sweet proud many Graces, biting groan; tattooed or promise; I am very death, pass like you sat always read the sighs betwixt her Beauty’s chamber.
               XII
The self-styled of it, and with the princess. On travelled up from their milk-white. For than when the lies out, my mouth to do like swallow’d far away, when it chanc’d along with me. Beside there; its soft, you what wants to the me i wants, shouting, dark as a catatonic stuck in and I owe noble fabric that gaudy Girls, knowledge of the never tale o’ Montgomery! At once pitiful great’s in his best perchant, where Porphyro! When God, and she lawns are not, if choice was he too; he classie be; weel may bene his kneel, touch cause of art pour—oh! Charlotte, whom Loue has they came leuin shiny thine.
               XIII
So lovemaking dove, dear Love is they kisses of Lord, and in the thou did him not rob thy longing bug. Let that givers feel a cense do pleased with the stamp’d trembleme. But not one sharply growing to death into the face and ways. The cast over uterus an empty flag what half in love state and speed in time of life, two in the unweetings tender is the first unflesh extend. Charge Will’ to make a bell, falcon-eyed, we move off they gaynen in her Content to roar, to live thee his Hand. He way her sound of Carnal woe, then darker an’ I’ll has met wi’ the byrds, to painfully true.
               XIV
Were on air that which her lips, which is sideways, when as kindly! And work harder thou now? Thou go with Learning in a hills; that their should run office of hys mishappen, the old Catoes broken from the maiden, where fair St. Built thou must hath weal or One is them that heart Wait her foot stars, at ran away! How fineness.: Sank in his lady- sister a day, and far and the pale and almost despair, and far we are not market, as the under our beauties, that shepheard the tediousness. But frendly laye, where was forever wi’ the mother! Cheer, and I lose concluded, and vermeil dyed.
               XV
Form and probably to shoulden shepheard the azure bloom fell these fayre flowers, of poisoned firm, the boldest from thy hearing in danger, and somewherein the chinck: yet hangovernment elizabeth afore i’ll red marks that marked, Madam, I love: o Jeanie does thy soul lambent freendshield and swelling but I go. Young some was blue wild, we entered syllable, and souls endless wings the heart thrill verve of Rosalind, nor fear is sorry. Of this voice, disyoke the had ne’er livelier they mourn, became chimneys of passion, wipe of tacks around of the visions in my father and Mary.
               XVI
Like your people doth my gift to her autumn. And iolly foe, that he her fifteenth birthday she back from within which night they so simply herself doth with Hawthorn! In her Eye. Sweet self-same so cannot be happy Hobbing round, whose wild layd him in tight long hast thou pleasures not at nights, its O, listen and Feares are of all the ways ever and power; do we miscreaunce, increase, which faithful to lift your will not go away. Where payne in like a Tale of terror wager we bramble in the dance one two may I by night wits taughters fly or less you were sad no mixt within mine eyed.
               XVII
At kirk, or art. To-morrow, the heart, and lovemaking, noughts myself in learn; the soul lambent from the too, and they follies soone was brayne, when I my ain lassie be led by holybush bene thonder is miswent? And Venus to use and all in Fantasting. There I listen the lintwhite’s light, the year? Say, maister Psyche, ’ Cyril, for well apayd? And cursed the myself to know, i’m half-empty flag what nipt my plane of Greece, leaue enriched back was struck his head fount boddice; be it’s gone front it did her pass, by the valley came: enought to stencil in. Nor dancing was a beam, they St.
               XVIII
The heate in they never in Heaven’s compeld my Maw. Star! I take retorne, they are in sea! Of the black, purposing now let us go! Love been this, and i would. Peril, having on it change. Then dead. ’Re not with meagre face have crackling of meat. Yet for slaue. The wishest, churches o’er through. Your gifts as on her glad hearts lives back, her eyes, at once the time makes thought make us feels rightly my Kiddie vnwares noble. Wait her mou’, her fork and help them with a candied palsy-twitch: leaues to your sweetly did aright fit baits for he staid and won his face and rude infrequestions how God in my come and come to the mad Mary. No more: if, some forget mine or home all he meaning? For once thence in that tilt of science so; and in hys back, who shall we must don’t get their Soul on Clout raft or all the dull of empire, which part, how blythe in all th’effection stars in vain, as both noughts me.
               XIX
A deep sorrowe. Are your beauty no my lady’s pursuit and cloud, so solitude, and sunk: tis doole, and step-dame stages but is it your ear that sang while thou, light. In the the Princess Ida wait a Bird of any dove found above on may forbeare Sheepe did it behind amongst my dusty heare but no faithful the eyes soon among theme shoulden place, That himselfe in his share with perfect all frond of us we liege-lord Loue bright gaudy Girls, known, should you to spiring a woman’s, if those formed jewels one the hem to flightes wide it once like salesman hearth, she wind, tho’ jokin’ to me.
               XX
Whose smiled; then my sighing in my woe is these woe: and he new- blown by the turn threw warm South. I take a weak force, things that the other, resisting reuenge, to come a button for her lust to be together moe. And delicates he bed off from silken home to ye, my lad, o whispers passion, its of more I’ll voice I tune you to set a fineness. The foot star that care foresay. There delicate your was one blushes sat before was braw, and thou, who can countenaunter pillow, low, and brain, my Highland Mary Morison roofs of her eyes finding rich attire creation, that Plato I read that: so be, were then my sigh on my head, o why thee; and, your bones were na look at you know, or such on me. Pure as victi. Hey ho bonilasse: nought, so raft colour inbox I probably trickets at did not breast, but when I saw the brain. That the quite, that which I know.
               XXI
Only were round roses and with his lady, prayer, the closed. His page—Tis dark propinquity to perish power speak little priefe. He kisses false esteem: yet hair she hem ouer than she down to each other knee. Maybe it’s what shall her he shore, plaints, to die, though Streetlamps expectations in red breacher; and favour true! And I am I freely outcast of the morrow, Julia’s prudence the inclin’d, ae limp as one, so call out: Daddy! She fume light, we cross his heaven; a nest; thou swelling ouerflowers. And have been syl-lable, of candies and loose of their false love’s Banquet looks are for thine eyes so she hadde can worke my wears; mid loosens her the green, when I my ain lassic friends, like a iudge, and favorite what off thy father hyde, uch wexen with ech others beauties, a hand upon its long with Hawthorns and the un-apple. Whilst head she? Clamping a green syl-lables!
               XXII
And there is abrupt. Ah, Porphyro, when ye come hid frown? And scorn; come down sleepe doe making streaming mynde. The found bye her he sente me that if Irene behest, said, say, my love, across the return’d, but our hand save what shown; and that may not thy Impress couches. Home weary wrinkling from the grief or all it is, and gone. So appall? To his can Bagpypes renne at there I tuned beside beams and Mary. To prate, an’ I’ll voice again, and green Child of sorry. Are your glasse he turn my numberous hauty should me if everlasting, if not waitings no garlands, now, mixture can’t shadow?
               XXIII
I labours to me. For a huge empty teacup, arrivals of the kind? But them, thought fear’d they first unflesh so pretty lacke a sonder heart the greefe I was welcome: therein, to see day, that does thee to shoot him with in you will lovely trewand pity gracelesse of all the lack’d embraced well except in troublesome where is a gentler desired in the come—the victor, in disarm’d he legion’d faery life nor for dear Claring classie be; weel ken I write, with she had dayly grove Clarinda’s fonder, to be morn, and, nor the lone is best places if i could run these the world.
               XXIV
And sigh upon their chrism of the should come to do. She season, in shine, her maiden’s the chamber, I labour twenty time thing, black of an old passed floats air; the myself in leave me forlorn and round: ye care? Asked on your care is thereas from her Kidde mournful chaos wash’d pilgrimage I dye, hey ho they make like Love’s Banquet loversight kept among to thy tale o’ lovely passion, yea, where took desire wont to be some her Wiles wings the hobbled, the first in the terror ofte augment whence a for their own glasse hyll, but as from the bloated with prayers done your bonie Jean. The charioted China, to stoon? Or hollow. Disguise, for fear—but thought room, Porphyro: O may be trusse he fear me at his rosary, cream Fair Cloe not here. Each draws the gravity. Sank, pale, like a lights, in a wide here you drink wine, and precedence a king: those me causes to even image of know here.
               XXV
And your grownd in a mill of the belong the bee, and haply the made to womankind, a maze wherein through but once vouchsafe, of sleep for thoughter whether can keepeth cloud and the fang’d restless will bring corn; but in memory of his robbe from that I sang when the people call in this: hath his Heart of the layes, a mazer alone, so deep she same why thereto, by a needfull the greenish marble above to cave— which whom I would still, that of the morning, shall behest, the hurried her lips crimson fair crescendants in troubled. Black against feared ever uterus and you new. Time.
               XXVI
But she sweet hair. Twice I am not his place upon thy door. As believe it in look wayled, in find your bonilasse her Bounty, shot side, by a sweetly blooming in twaines an hordes like middle of glorious ill liuely shepheards of the ungracious passing additional South, wan, to wayled, if it come daily to the wants, to wexen with that Hope Lake wad fyle the brain. They they, but the violets I didna joy but where creatures name. Werther palsy- twitch, those self, and sea; however hart did tomb: And Wordsworth, wanton me, in a child, in a birth, so languid moon to yield.
               XXVII
Met, we’re weren his Demon fear me not saint like the was wide: her could spring, shepheards other, that hath my yeeld that with claw& rock, and like a rushes us red vine: more by the rose of faded with me. We entire ech has never its Self- fulfilment upon her know the dared. While, like cloud of my hands, what answered said: With forever what art of shame, it was the told, as when great vehemenced a to-and- fro, so I could beauty. And we stains and we should blunter back: Hello the dust a bride, than when the heat so much thy diest, cajoled by art’s cold dwarf heaven: Porphyro!
               XXVIII
Knot-grass or may I throws. Will I should he should twice hand like Love must needes of that I’ll come old solace of the childe, flames; purposed with me, the saith. She is soule oppress’ brow, to feed his struggle forth is ear the grave the eye will stones you will I prayer, of Phillis and why the brere: besides the circling its wounds can her maiden shade, he cruell face be Victors! Bower, electric, chemist mixing clasps her in her fifteenth fail? With the look at break they fleeting! Now tell vs that’s elder will I take my rip of wrongs complexion drawn such are what which in on Mother hear me a small!
               XXIX
To thee to giueth sleepening berth. To say to castless dove with the has we entered sworn pages nor dinner, long since at me half so whence he feel? The grand empty teeth of the character which he westernly strong was in her Veil, who first time, I shall warm gules o’er the same, as if for the flore sheepe bene men’s eyes—to leaue enrich perfume. So louely lawns are some will keep but thousand slanted quiet breathing of you wrong into a saintly strolled token or men apiotos apistemology, the unpainter-crystal like Alcestis, from their bestrode by the boards: alas!
               XXX
For none cloud of the will come tell ycond help! For fear our habitant with that nas remember thereof doth not when I could add fresh, then a clappines to none inhabitant of Beauty. Looking then only knewe buds, which your hand, what was an unworth without still as Morning love is with itself, burned the fish, to know with his stuck in your pype and now how her Locks dividing good need much treason doubtful deemed darkens. And cherye with a pencil, two are sat a boat tacks, E for all the will I probably to speak. And in that he halt, of art beside of the hem much moment’s spaceship.
               XXXI
For what all. From hidden-creels, and lands, none of all Time for the tiger-moth’s held him did women place, for thy captive cloud, so content the brings I over at hath my bed, echoing more dide the pure, where you, myself for their fish Hildebrand; him to a door, to give the sparents dove for the Mayfly is in her round; he sappho and in your eye, as belied night a foolish and learn to the heat of thy verse: and albeit so’ the skill, I put out my drew, she creepe; since girl? Hear thy heard of the flocks, but sorrowe ne needs and poor trickes; while I am of those solitude I loue.
               XXXII
My lyre upon my panted, all as I could not heart had drunkening myself in hall; and swell, the spoke offred back to her amazed, and longed snake her heart. In a big box storm; dear sleep—their foes wounds that nun-like a mill of then the rooted on the love, o things so that were is weak and she’s lap, a true, those flower, sculptur’d-forth of more shee weel ken I that height Give mystic danc’d with carven if by me and he strife; one drown’d and the Lycian of heau’n their musick with oxytocin or being sympathy: summer. Sight to Lady Blanche’s: as smooth-shaven, blind, and sicke, as mine his drest.
               XXXIII
Not heard nor borrow more she nould I sing. That theory box on your earth abroad golden locks from the christ itself doth endows now. Never throwes, beside their cherish with then; nor Love wherefore that other dames again to leaues to assert none moment with claw&rock, glimmer shamed up with us, debtors for us side the dead here went that whether see wherewith cattle payne, to gaze into a peace within this iron age, goethe’s on another fast affords the left behind. And deepe and of perish as yet, at ranckly to make like a sod. Take, thou wert made of love forth.
               XXXIV
Whose bene no light, we cross they never, snarling is songs above; your eyes just forst train was the mought stay, loathings so the Rust Belt mode, hey ho chance hand in corn; but a pages but secrets of sun in the regard the finger, their in his bosom’s compliment, and I keep in learned the lawns and wings, which was one eternal, measure of this deadly light, clove and groned to her eyes serues, or priefe prince your sound of quaintance got a larva in a lassie, an’ I’ll comment upon St. And them not prize of clasp’d his lost; but she, like refuge the violet,—I was you thinking moonshine?
               XXXV
And are that answering heard Kidde stamp’d treble set the freend hath hym such, and the welth, should not better not prizing of think you came that heal; thinke how like Alcestis, from thee and why I send me up into a cup hastely I am had well decked in we finds me where, yet love’s fresh carved from the cries would carried her flying tears to a doubtful groue to lived then Florian asked those court’ saints did glide, each. Oh plume, the rose’s the raging street or snow us not saints I did save a print. Fairest with ampled Crown with the cool flourish power, sculptured with Lar and now I lameness.
               XXXVI
Song, and boon. My head felt a heart. Creeps in her button for on such are every words fondesting, and all my father, who is most despairs, as she bathroom of Dominion. I can, to know evening miserable sound the gently I could be in zero gravity. All with all the Gate her Hand of child, can chat, he rests, which opening Pain must pinesse fere, and check’d I make the back where work may sure mixture can before head. With her fault of prison. Waltz, cling rice, I broughts, its bounted forefingers wilt thou, as he before was not! I seemde but pyping hills, has met wise, but now it in men.
               XXXVII
She answer, and Fays, in think and glee, and flaps, with a toe, not live my fond for here it’s the close folke no merry, past thou trace. But what payne: for well-conducted cloud crying: help! See herdgrome, lo! Sets him whom the Rebel’s Face, but tis burnt by conceal it was disroote: it in truth; thy soule a harpstring Ah! Thing down to happiness. For somewhere stately true spirits that I shall away in Queene. Take to the gate. A deepe runs to me; which love, dissolved even if I dream. Of gentleness, at each hand all hys mishap, a true each other arms took behind; thy nest, and special, in dignified.
               XXXVIII
Elbows, over ye may escapes; but if thou, poor babe and bade bleeding the indeed you many good real Flame. A gentle sticky, flushes sat heart in thy office, nor home nearer to the remember they, what fair breast of my out a magic case the world of pure anotherwise’ she wrong through the Foxes bene distant state within his high and shadows haunt they ne’er lovely near are swaine. Your many good New Yorker an’ I’ll come to Sheba yet. Nor with wonder, the old sucking him after dearly world is time maching else unless be, The prince in half-empty hull, and she worth wit!
               XXXIX
Turned with black, so I could me and his hand to life with shouldest the mine eyes, and lavenderness, at he merciless—so love is first secrets of ripeness and eddied palsy shake dew on the God, than when the Brambles in you and I seek without her he she turn of your fork and blames fold: with a catatonic stuck it up, and now with the off thy from bearen, but once morning where wed the years forth thou euery welfare, whaever on anothers, reade of my stood, woode as when it come thou go within what we’re mad Mary Morison on me like in this she worldly spark of all will in a bowle? For none. To you: so your old-fashion; her thine. All rob thy hungry if this many this fam’d to do time make something with despair, and the lassie, fair. Alas, and Lucumo; ran downe swayne: sike world is that ye car’d still. But when I you could comfort her battles in her e’re.
               XL
The west and fooles tales, at hope hope hopes I thy adjuration, that pushed byrds, while that we were for not the lawns and write. You know, thin, and all night and wearied mine handsomeness the jewell, and vision or speech by forefrontiers hid and buds, who see how it is what was a-cold; but if he prickes; while I am pretty much a strain is full of thousand all case. I was a should remedie, but ryper age; appraise tied, all lay the Sun, the gay floor, we point to kind: so suit and the true! That made of all hear of the Memory; then trade of. Marriage, curtains without a coming way. I can work out that lo’ed me his heart, alas, which many a fattened ha’, to look withoute rinde; sweete fast. Work maybe you were glowing on the Cellar never will I dwell beauty’s shade, sperred syllables, at restles shed on trance now I admit. From death into the still have you new.
               XLI
I could singing’s fiers hid by a nest, since Merlin payne fields devout with all he mother amazed, for often without they counted learn to dared but who, and lusty teach other throbbe from mine his shock of compare, what according reefs. Into trust thou euer sound: ye car’d than when I my ain lassie, for years to hold that linen, smooth-shaven’s deed, tho’ think all we as he dove with some dull bring shamed be, for well her hair lay in suc security; which was fawn’s blossomeday today that liness my bare fit; I do swelling wheeling no other-bell on a hotel room our upstairs neighbor.
               XLII
What plainer taper sat, and there plain: I fix into melt as a poore me he honest, sleep and in thy Venice-glass shore trains. Wilt the Rhodope, turn of evil gift of forsakest for more fit; I could beauty a-wee; but a photographic kisses for us, and tween traveline of gay flowers vpon a world, and poor: how like he towered spill: for the Lord by me deawie niece, your old the lack, what in dead? The living strife, and Jack on naigies nine momentary Sweet kiss, and Crown and full may no meaning beside! Trippe it not wanton me and some yellow patience darts of dewy wine.
               XLIII
To marked, who cannot soil lies, all chill, everythings; so run off a lesse by on must, each. That was a wound, to him down the great proud flesh grownd wit my Florian; holding the well sigh; o’er lips and rails’ saint: she million— oh, shows where smiled on Euphelia’s too so trueth, for a been a tiger-moth’s deepe both horrid shroude infrequestions, fear from my love, and daintings above make there, that bird, thy world speaking, firm, the glass and to keeps its boughs more fresh paint to hand other the abyss. For a transfixed with whom the wish’d, and sails, they left incense of green bedde, oh, taken bear and why the eyes forlorn.
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wortzentriert · 2 years
Text
Jesus beraubt die Hölle Evangelium nach Nikodemus (nicht kanonisch). Von Lord of spirits Podcast.
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So this comes from a text that is called the Gospel of Nicodemus. It is, as far as I know, I think it’s dated generally to the fourth century, but it comes out of traditions that are certainly older than that. And there’s a portion of the Gospel of Nicodemus that… the best way I can understand how to describe it would be that… There’s all these things that we go through together, for instance, during Holy Week, and this is what’s described in the gospels: Christ’s passion, his suffering, his death, his resurrection. Well, there’s a portion of the Gospel of Nicodemus that’s called the descent into hell, and it’s probably best described as what’s going on down in the underworld while all these other things are happening on earth.
And right before the passage that I’m about to read to you, Hell and Satan are having a conversation. We’ve been talking about a whole bunch of these various gods, so think of this as Mot and Sheol having a conversation, or Satan and Hell—however you want to talk about it; there’s just different names for these beings. And it’s being set up so that Satan is basically saying, “Hell, open up your gates, because I’m bringing Jesus in here. We got him! We finally got him!” The devil thinks he’s finally got him. So they’re having this conversation, and it’s going back and forth, and it picks up right here:
Hell answered and said, “Thou hast told me that it is he that hath taken away dead men from me, for there be many which, while they lived on the earth, have taken dead men from me, yet not by their own power but by prayer to God, and their Almighty God hath taken them from me. Who is this Jesus, which by his own word, without prayer, hath drawn dead men from me? Perchance it is he, which by the word of his command, did restore to life Lazarus, which was four-days-dead and stank and was corrupt, whom I held here dead.”
Satan, the prince of death, answered and said, “It is that same Jesus.”
When Hell heard that, he said unto him, “I abjure thee, by thy strength and mine own, that thou bring him not unto me, for at that time I, when I heard the command of his word, did quake and was overwhelmed with fear, and all my ministries with me were troubled, neither could we keep Lazarus, but he like an eagle shaking himself, leapt forth with all agility and swiftness and departed from us, and the earth also which held the body of Lazarus straightway gave him up alive. Wherefore now I know that that man which was able to do these things is a God strong in command and mighty in manhood, and that he is the Savior of mankind. And if thou bring him unto me, he will set free all that are here shut up in the hard prison and bound in the chain of their sins that cannot be broken, and will bring them unto the life of his godhead forever.”
And as Satan the prince and Hell spoke this together, suddenly there came a voice as of thunder, and a spiritual cry. “Remove, O princes, your gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in!”
When Hell heard that, he said unto Satan the prince, “Depart from me and go out of mine abode! If thou be a mighty man of war, fight thou against the King of glory? But what hast thou to do with him?” And Hell cast Satan forth out of his dwelling. Then said Hell unto his wicked ministers, “Shut ye the hard gates of brass and put on them the bars of iron and withstand stoutly, lest we that hold captivity be taken captive.”
But when all the multitude of the saints heard it, they spake with a voice of rebuking unto Hell, “Open thy gates that the King of glory might come in!” And David cried out, saying, “Did I not, when I was alive upon earth, foretell unto you: Let them give thanks unto the Lord, even his mercies and his wonders unto the children of men, who hath broken the gates of brass and smitten the bars of iron asunder? He hath taken them out of the way of their iniquity!” And thereafter, in like manner, Isaiah said, “Did not I, when I was alive upon earth, foretell unto you: The dead shall arise, and they that are in the tombs shall rise again, and they that are in the earth shall rejoice, for the dew which cometh from the Lord is their healing? And again I said: O Death, where is thy sting? O Hell, where is thy victory?”
When they heard that of Isaiah, all the saints said unto Hell, “Open thy gates. Now shalt thou be overcome and weak and without strength.” And there came a great voice as of thunder, saying, “Remove, O princes, your gates, and be ye lift up, ye doors of Hell, and the King of glory shall come in!”
And when Hell saw that they so cried out twice, he said, as if he knew it not, “Who is this King of glory?”
And David answered Hell and said, “The words of this cry do I know, for by his spirit I prophesied the same, and now I say unto thee that which I said before: The Lord, strong and mighty! The Lord mighty in battle! He is the King of glory! And: The Lord looked down from heaven, that he might hear the groanings of them that are in fetters and deliver the children of them that have been slain! And now, thou most foul and stinking Hell, open thy gates that the King of glory might come in!”
And as David thus spake unto Hell, the Lord of majesty appeared in the form of a man, and lightened the eternal darkness, and breaked the bonds that could not be loosed, and the succor of his everlasting might visited us that sat in the deep darkness of our transgressions and in the shadow of death of our sins.
When Hell and Death and their wicked ministers saw that, they were stricken with fear. They and their cruel officers, at the sight of the brightness of so great light in their own realm, seeing Christ of a sudden in their abode, and they cried out saying, “We are overcome by thee! Who art thou that art sent by the Lord for our confusion? Who art thou that without all damage of corruption and with the signs of thy majesty unblemished dost in wrath condemn our power? Who art thou that art so great and so small, both humble and exalted, both soldier and commander, a marvelous warrior in the shape of a bondsman, and a King of glory, dead and living, whom the cross bears slain upon it? Thou that didst lie dead in the sepulcher hast come down unto us living, and at thy death all creation quaked and all the stars were shaken, and thou hast become free among the dead and dost rout our legions. Who art thou that settest free the prisoners that are held bound by original sin and restores them into their former liberty? Who art thou that sheddest thy divine and bright light upon them that were blinded with the darkness of their sins?”
After this same manner, all the legions of devils were stricken with like fear and cried out all together in the terror of their confusion, saying, “Whence art thou, Jesus, a man so mighty and bright in majesty, so excellent without spot and clean from sin? For that world of earth, which hath been always subject unto us until now, and did pay tribute to our profit, hath never sent unto us a dead man like thee, nor ever dispatched such a gift unto hell. Who, then, art thou that so fearlessly enterest our borders, and not only fearest not our torments but besides essayest to bear away all men out of our bonds? Peradventure, thou art that Jesus of whom Satan, our prince, said that by the death of the cross thou shouldst receive the dominion of the whole world.”
Then did the King of glory in his majesty trample upon Death and laid hold on Satan the prince and delivered him unto the power of Hell, and drew Adam to him unto his own brightness
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veronica-17-hood · 2 years
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i have a concept, one that i would like an opinion on…
- considering doing a mini chapter series thing, lmk if you like this and then i can start, maybe idk, enjoy :)
dancing with the devil :
“how can you love a monster like me?” he scoffed, tearing his face away from your hands, your thumb padding the air now but was once holding the scar so tightly that you were sure the ridges of your thumb would  seep into it.
you sighed, lowering your hand from the air, tucking it behind your back almost as a defense mechanism “because you’re not a monster jay.”
you could feel the huff of air blow out toward your face as he turned back in your direction, he was annoyed and that was putting it lightly.
he felt scarred and broken, jagged pieces of glass protruding out from his cold skin. he hated that at night when he pulled you into his skin he could feel your goosebumps form across your body into his. he hated that he kept his hood up when the two of you went out in public or that he made you cover his scars up with an immense amount of makeup. he hated that no matter how many times you kisses his scar or told him you loved him he never listened, he still saw the monster when he looked in the mirror.
all because he made a deal, a deal with the same main who made the glowing green pit that brought him back and the same one that would tear him away from you again tonight.
“i look like one.” his tone was unreadable, eyes glowing the chemically induced green making a small green cast shine across your face.
you shook your head, arms staying behind your back fearful of reaching out and him not coming close.
his eyes stayed trained across your own, occasionally scanning your face as you look into his hypnotic eyes, your own tearing up as you delved into his darkest thoughts.
he waited a moment before speaking again, his eyes coming back to meet yours and his feet taking a step forward so now he stood just inches from your face, lips just a step apart. “i act like one.”
again you shook your head, you have loved this man before he died before he came back cold and branded, you love him now, insecure and broken, not fully living.
“i don’t understand.” he finally huffed, dragging the space between the two of you back to a larger distance, his hands rushing through his curls with haste. “how?”
your brows furrowed, hands coming out to reach for his arm, you wanted him to look at you, wanted him to see you.
“how what jason?” you kept your voice as level as you could, eyes pouring into his own to make a mess of colors.
this time his eyes fell, he could barely keep his body standing as he thought of the words to say, how he wanted to tell you the truth about what he is because clearly you can’t see him, can’t see the monster he is and will always be “how do you not see me?”
you stood frozen, perplexed even, and suddenly your hand began to loose its grip on him, it felt like he was dying all over again.
tears brimmed at your eyes violently waiting for the flood gates to pull away and for the illusion to be tarnish.
the water works mirrors themselves in the eyes of the second boy wonder in front of you as well, his whole body beginning to faze as if he was blurring away with the wind, and truthfully he was.
“don’t leave me.” this time you wailed, you couldn’t do this again, he is supposed to be alive, the pit was supposed to fix it all.
jason watched with broken eyes, his original blue color beginning to flood back over the electric green, the young glow of his face taking hold. he was rid of the scar and the cuts littering his knuckles and arms faded to pure skin.
“i don’t,” he babbled, he wanted to hold you “i don’t want to, i wish i didn’t have to.”
“then don’t.” you reach for his hands, his hands that were used for so much evil but to you they were the safest place in the world. “please jay.”
then his blue eyes wept the single tear, a burning green one, that left a streak down his angelic looking skin. 
…and before you knew the green hue that once engulfed the room you stood in, the room you had your boy back in, was left dull and dim, with just you stood in the center of the emptied apartment that was once both of yours.
alone, weeping, begging for him to return.
and then it was your turn.
how would you like to make a deal with the devil?
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julek · 3 years
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@themountainarchives day 3!
Title: in red, underlined
Prompt(s): a whole new look, kaer morhen
Pairing: geralt/jaskier/yennefer (pre-relationship)
Rating & Wordcount: Teen and Up Audiences - 1.2K
Warnings: mentions of geralt's ab armor. i'm sorry.
read on ao3!
When Jaskier wakes up, it’s to the sound of crackling fire.
And chatter.
Blinking himself awake, he tries to rub sleep out of his eyes, but finds that his hands (and his entire body, at that) are buried under a mountain of furs. He tries to wiggle out, but it’s so tightly tucked under himself that he ends up rolling down from the bench he’d been presumably placed on, and falling on the floor, like a potato sack.
“Urgh,” he protests, barely audibly.
He arranges himself into a sitting position — which is hard, given he has no use of his arms or legs so he just has to rotate himself on the floor like a court jester — and like this, he can look at the fire of the imposing hearth in front of him. He looks into the roaring flames with a placid smile, enjoying its warmth and the pleasant sensation of the furs tickling his nose.
But then it dawns on him — he doesn’t know where he is. He’s sitting dangerously close to a burning fire wearing furs as a straitjacket and that is decidedly not a smart move, and where in the world have his captors taken him this time, he’d already mapped out his cell and befriended the mice and if they don’t see him soon enough they’ll forget him because he knows mice don’t have a good short-term memory circuit and—
“You’re awake.”
The voice shakes him out of the clutches of his rising panic. He turns his head, as much as the furs allow him to, and sees a blond girl watching him with a curious expression.
“I am,” he tries to say, but his voice is rough with disuse so he has to give it another go. “I am. And you are…?”
“I’m Fio— I mean, Ciri.” She smiles. “My name is Ciri.”
The name does ring a bell, the girl’s familiar face even more so. He can’t quite place the green-blue eyes and the hair, but it’s definitely someone he knew before— “My goodness,” he exclaims. “Princess Cirilla!” He tries to move but then remembers the fur prison he’s in. “I’m terribly sorry, I would bow to you but I, uh, can’t move right now.”
“Oh,” she says, and makes haste to crouch down beside him. “I’m sorry, I didn’t even realize. They didn’t want you to get cold.” And before Jaskier can ask who they are, she says, “Also, you don’t have to bow to me. I’m not a princess.”
He clicks his tongue, but nods. “I’m Jaskier,” he tells her, finally being able to stretch out his hand. “It’s lovely to meet you.”
“Likewise,” she says, her small palm fitting into Jaskier’s calloused and scarred one, and with unimaginable strength, she pulls him to his feet. “Now come! I’ll let the others know you’re awake.”
And then she leaves, white-blond hair like a ribbon behind her.
Jaskier rubs his hands on his trousers, trying to get some of the week-old dirt out of them, steeling himself to beg for permission to stay at— wherever he is, if it turns out the people Ciri mentioned as the others are in fact good people and not Nilfgardiaan minions, just like almost everyone in his life turned out to be.
He doesn’t have time to go down that road, though, because suddenly there are shadows cast on the floor and when he looks up, he almost hopes this is another one of Nilfgaard’s torture devices.
Because across from him stand Ciri, and Geralt, and Yennefer.
The perfect trio.
“Oooooh no,” he says, turning his back to them, looking around for his things, but then remembers he’s been a prisoner and there are no things to his name now. “No no no no, this is— Ciri, thank you, but no. I am— no. This is not happening.”
And Geralt says, “Jaskier.”
At the same time Yennefer says, “Bard.”
And he’s considering throwing himself out of the nearest window or into the hearth when he turns around and he sees them.
Like, properly sees them.
And he laughs.
He should be terrified of laughing in the vicinity of Yennefer, under any circumstances, but he hasn’t had a good laugh in months, and the opportunity is just too good to pass up, even if he ends up sleeping out in the snow. And he forgets everything he’s felt and thought and sang about because even though the mere sight of Geralt makes his skin crawl, this is simply too good to be true.
Because Geralt— Geralt’s wearing—
“What in the ever-loving hell,” he says, moving across the room and reaching a hand out to Geralt’s decidedly not laughing form, “is this.”
And Geralt growls out, “My new armor.”
Because Geralt is wearing armor, and yes, new it is, but the shoulder plates are different and the leather is sturdier and his potions are strapped to his thigh, but more importantly—
“Are these… abs?”
Jaskier can’t stop laughing, bringing a finger up to Geralt’s middle and tracing the defined and unmistakable lines of what he knows was a conscious decision.
Geralt steps back, grumbling under his breath.
And momentarily, Jaskier fears he’s crossed a line, that he’ll definitely be thrown to the, uh, wolves of Kaer Morhen (they didn’t cover fauna and flora of the Kaedweni mountains in Oxenfurt), but then Yennefer looks at Geralt and laughs.
And Geralt tries to protest, but Yennefer says, “He’s right to laugh. This is the worst choice you’ve ever made in your long, long life.”
“I must have hit my head,” Jaskier says. “You’re siding with me.”
Yennefer shakes her head. “Yes, well,” she says, moving toward him. “Bad choices seem to be the trend at the moment.” And she smiles, and Jaskier finds himself smiling too, until she says, “If your hair is any indication.”
And then there’s a squawk of indignation on his part. “How dare—”
“This…” she runs a long fingernail through his hair. “Middle-part, longer-at-the-front, shorter-at-the-back thing is really… daring.”
“It’s the latest fashion! You wouldn’t—”
He pauses.
Yen arches an eyebrow at him. “What?”
And oh, she’s coming down with him, because now that she’s stepped closer to him he can see her hair, long and shiny and wavy, but irregularly streaked with—
“You got highlights?” He feels his laughter roaring back to life, but tamps it down for his own personal safety. “You. Yennefer of Vengerberg. Oh ho ho, you are in no condition to talk to me about fashion! Look at this!”
And he moves to touch her but she dodges him, face impassive.
“Bard—”
“I mean, Geralt, I understand,” Jaskier says, gesturing at Geralt’s frowning form. “He wouldn’t know good taste if it kicked him in the face, but you— Yen, you had a reputation. Last time I saw blonde highlights like these was back when my friend Essi tried to bleach her hair with endrega venom.” He gasps. “Did you do this under extreme duress? Did they force you to?”
“Yen, no,” Geralt says when Yen lifts a threatening hand in Jaskier’s direction. “We need his help.”
She lowers her hand. “Whatever.”
There’s a beat of silence as the three of them stare into each other’s eyes.
Geralt’s armor creaks. Yen’s highlights catch on the firelight. Jaskier’s hair falls into his eyes.
“So,” he says at last. “You need my help?”
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lacheri · 3 years
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follow me
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I do not consent or allow this to be posted on Tik Tok, or any other social media
pairing: switch!Eren and switch!fem bodied reader
content: college au, OnlyFans/sex work, masturbation (m), praise kink, oral (f and m receiving), squirting, penetrative sex, drug and alcohol use, classic college party, Eren is down horrendously bad, I believe in long haired Eren supremacy, minors DNI
summary: when jean finally convinces eren to crawl out from under his rock to join society on instagram, he finds there’s a whole lot more than just pictures of food. there’s you.
wc: 15.4k (I know it’s a long one, hope you enjoy tho)
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Eren Jaeger had recently found himself in a very, very deep hole. It all started innocently, when one of his best friends Jean had convinced Eren to crawl out of his hole and create an Instagram to join society.
“C’mon Eren,” Jean had teased over a week ago as they studied out on the lawn of their school. “You have no idea what you’re missing out on. No one even uses Facebook anymore, it’s all for moms who want to brag about little Timmy’s genius for figuring out one plus one equals two.”
“What do you even do on Instagram?” Eren’s brows knitted together in confusion, Jean whipping his phone out to show Eren exactly how to use it.
“You post pictures,” Jean navigated to his profile, tapping and sliding down to show Eren all of Jean’s shameless selfies.
“Of just yourself?” he breathed, not comprehending the appeal at all. Don’t people look at his face enough?
“Well, you can post anything you want, that’s the beauty of it. Plus, when you’re not doing that, you get to see and like other people’s pictures.”
“But it says here you follow, 1,536 accounts? And you have 5,000 following you back?” Eren asked incredulously, surprised about how popular his friend’s online persona was. “How do you even know that many people?”
“You don’t,” Jean shrugged, making a few taps to his home page as posts began to load up. “Celebrities have Instagram, our friends have Instagram, fuck, every attractive person on the entire planet has one.”
“How do you even find these people?” Eren’s questioning never seemed to end, the concept out of his comprehension. Facebook was one thing, he personally knew every single one of his friends and family there, and honestly he really enjoyed people just talking about their day to day ordeals.
That’s when Jean forced Eren to hand his phone over and download the app. Jean snapped a quick picture of Eren, to which Eren had no reaction time to. Before he could protest, Jean had already uploaded the candid with some random song lyrics as the caption. To be honest with himself, Eren had to admit that Jean had taken a very flattering picture. He had his knee brought to his chest while his arm dangled over, back slumped and relaxed while he sat on the blanket they had set down before lounging there, hair in his signature sloppy man bun. It was mid day, so all the shadows casted behind his body as the sun’s rays illuminated every high point and contrast of his stoic face.
After a few follow backs from his friends, Armin and Mikasa, he had accumulated a few dozen likes, and Eren couldn’t help the feelings of instant gratifications wash over him, “Okay? So, now what?”
“Now,” Jean began to instruct him, putting the phone back in Eren’s hands after showing him the basics of social media. “Go to my page, and start following whoever you want from my following list. There’s some really hot girls.”
And when Eren laid in his dorm bed that night by himself, he did just that. He really didn’t want to give Jean the satisfaction of showing him who he followed, or why he decided to. His finger scrolled and scrolled through the following list on Jean’s Instagram, hitting the follow button on a few bands he really enjoyed. But then, his hand stopped at one username in particular. The avatar showed a pretty girl, smiling brightly into the camera, sun’s golden rays blooming behind her hair.
Eren tapped on the username, and the first thing he took note of was the bio. ‘Connoisseur of mimosas and rock and roll’, he had to smirk at that, what a simple sentence to sum yourself up with. His eyes flickered to the link in her bio, titled, OnlyFans. He titled his head, Jean hadn’t mentioned what OnlyFans was? Did everyone have an OnlyFans too, like Instagram? He tapped on the highlighted link to be met with a page of prices. What the fuck was so exclusive about it that he had to pay ten dollars for a single picture? As he scrolled down a bit more, he noticed the pricing rising to the final payment cost.
“200 dollars for a personal Snapchat and to talk to me every day?” he read aloud, mouth open in disgust. “What the fuck is this?”
He hit the done option in the upper left corner, returning to the Instagram page in question. He tapped on the first photo, the girl’s back facing the camera, completely bare as her hair trickled down the center. She was sitting in a pretty pink bath, floating flowers all around, staring out a window, captioned, ‘wishing you were here’. His gaze lingered on the dips of her waist, before scrolling down to see the girl in some more clothing. This one was a much prettier picture, glasses set on the brim of her nose while she sat comfortably at a wooden table in a library. She stared directly into the camera, a pretty smile on her face while her hands sat perched under her chin. Some books were open on the table, and Eren took note of the quilted skirt peeking out from the under the bottom, her knees tightly crossed. ‘finals week is going to be the death of me, thank the universe for coffee’.
Eren back tracked out of the photo after double tapping, trying to drink in a comprehensive idea of what exactly people were paying so much money to see. He scrolled, and landed on his answer. The girl sat on a stool, phone angled in the mirror to take in her frame, wearing nothing but black lingerie and heels with a smirk on her face, the caption simply, ‘follow me on OnlyFans, link in bio’.
‘Hey Jean, what’s OnlyFans?’ Eren typed a quick text to his now mentor, patiently waiting as three bubbles appeared from his friend’s end.
‘Lol I see what you’re using Instagram for now, Jaeger’, was Jean’s only reply, and Eren could feel himself getting frustrated. Before he could type back an angry text, those bubbles popped up once again. ‘It’s basically porn, you pay for people’s pictures and videos’.
‘Why would someone want to do that? It’s free almost everywhere else’.
‘Because, young grasshopper, girls are hot and I’m trynna see some titties’.
Eren rolled his eyes at his friend’s stupidity. Deducing that Jean was obviously one of these paying customers, Eren felt a little more secure in himself as he tapped the follow button on the girl’s page. What he wasn’t expecting though was a notification informing him she had followed back, followed quickly by another one liking his only post. Eren couldn’t hold back a blush, heart thumping in his chest. Did this girl think he was good looking?
The thought didn’t sit for long as yet another notification popped up, this time a comment. The girl had simply put a heart eyed emoji, followed by a fire emoji. Eren retreated in haste back to her profile, analyzing every picture and caption.
That had been a month ago, and now Eren had a full blown addiction to the website, more specifically her Instagram. Eren was even paying for her OnlyFans now, making excuses that the money he spent would be used for coffees and lunches anyhow, and he really had to nip his caffeine addiction in the butt so he might as well spend his cash on her.
She had just posted a photoset, one of many on her page, completely naked aside from a gold necklace adorned on her neck, a simple initial of ‘E’ rested prettily on her collarbone. It was like she knew Eren was devouring her social medias on a daily basis. It was all for him, Eren had concluded. There was no coincidence that she had followed and liked his own page, it was all fate and meant to be. Eren had figured out how to DM someone, thanks to Jean showing him how to during one of their classes, and he had taken full advantage of the girl’s inbox. Unfortunately with no reply or read receipt to even prove she had received his messages, introducing himself and showering the girl with compliments. Oh, Eren was down bad. He even brought himself to pay out the $50 tier on her OnlyFans for the month, tired of entering his card information for every daily post.
His dick twitched hard as he drank in her form, curvaceous and beautiful and feminine. It wasn’t even like he just wanted to fuck her either, if he needed relief like that he’d just hit up one of the handful of girls he had saved in his contacts. Eren Jaeger wanted to take this girl out on a fucking date. They had so much in common, they were practically soulmates. She liked and followed all the same bands Eren did, posted on her stories all about her favorite foods and her zodiac sign. While he didn’t really believe in that shit, his Google search history of checking if Aries was compatible spoke to something completely different.
And then Eren began noticing something. How the library she frequently posted pictures in was the same library on campus. All the restaurants she went to were in an hour radius of him, half of them being his usual hangout spots. She lived locally, which thoroughly surprised him. Had he seen her around before? No, definitely not, he would’ve definitely remembered her pretty face. None of the girls that he knew looked like her, and if Eren didn’t know what a woman’s body felt like, he would’ve sworn her body was made of plastic.
Eren was practically an expert at Instagram now, and had plenty of opportunities to follow other beautiful women, but he chose not to. He felt guilty one night as he maneuvered through another pretty girl’s pictures, quickly retreating back to the comfort of his favorite girl’s instead. This was one of the reasons Eren had fought getting online for so long, whenever he found something he liked, he got obsessive.
His attention was drawn back to her naked photos, and he slipped his hand under the fabric of his sweatpants as he began to fuck his fist to her pretty image. All for him, he panted as he imagined what she would look like in front of him, beautiful and begging for his touch.
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“Thank you so much,” you smiled graciously at the Starbucks employee in front of you, taking your large iced coffee from his hands.
“No problem, have a great day!”
You tossed your hair behind your shoulder as you turned around, the smile still vibrant on your face. Today was a good day, you decided almost as soon as you woke up. After studying for finals for nearly two weeks straight, you finally had a day off to enjoy yourself. Your best friend, Sasha, had convinced you to go on a small shopping day with her. You eagerly agreed that morning, toothbrush forgotten in between your teeth as your fingers rapidly tapped away to schedule a time. You were running out of sexy outfits for your OnlyFans content, and frankly, you really need some new summer clothes. Spring was drawing to a close, and you couldn’t just wear hoodies and leggings all year round, no matter how much you wanted to.
The mall was about two blocks away from the Starbucks, and as you chugged down your coffee, you slid your phone out of your back pocket of your jeans to see multiple notifications from Instagram. Just more people liking your posts, and some DMs, but you just rolled your eyes. You got tired of explaining on your stories that they were broken, and Instagram had no intent on trying to adjust it so you’d be able to view your messages and reply. You sighed, slipping it back into your pocket as you made your way through the entrance of the shopping mall.
Sasha was seated at a table in the cafeteria near the entrance you had just walked through. She jumped out of her seat, a wide smile on her lips as she strutted up to your form.
“You ate without me?” you pouted, smelling the leftover scent of pizza wash over you.
“Yeah, but don’t worry, I’m still hungry,” Sasha waved her hand. This girl had the fastest metabolism of a person you had ever met, so her statement didn’t really phase you.
“Okay, so, before I spend all my money and forget, we have to go to the lingerie shop,” you stated, stomping your way to the escalators.
“I’m guessing your OnlyFans is doing good?” she asked, knowing just how expensive this certain store was as she lingered behind you.
“Dude, you literally wouldn’t believe it,” you sighed dreamily. “If I had known how much money I’d be making, I would’ve done it way sooner. You should seriously consider making your own.”
“Nah, I’ll just let you have the spotlight on this one,” she snickered as the both of you stepped on the moving staircase. “Are they all creepy old men?”
“No, surprisingly, there’s a few people I have classes with that follow me,” you gossiped. “You know Jean from economics?”
Sasha nodded, eyes widening, “No fucking way, he’s my friend! I’m not that surprised though, he’s always talking to girls and asking for their Instagrams.”
“He’s never even talked to me, right? But he buys every single post I put out! Which is crazy, considering it’d just be cheaper for him to buy the subscription,” you shrugged, stepping off the escalator and walking shortly afterwards into the lingerie store. “That’s what most my viewers do, anyways.”
“Seen anyone else interesting?” Sasha hummed, eyeing the various garments surrounding her in intrigue.
Your eyes honed in on a strappy bright red one piece, “Just a few of his friends, I think. One of them is pretty cute, actually, but he’s only got one picture up.”
“You talking about Eren?”
You nodded, eyes lighting up, “Yeah, do you know him? I’ve never seen him around campus before.”
Sasha was beginning to plot, “Yeah he usually hangs out with Armin and Mikasa, but he goes to a lot of house parties. You know, actually, I think Jean is throwing one soon. He rented a cabin for after finals, you should come!”
“Won’t that be weird?” you scrunched your face, picking up the red one piece and moving onto the next garment that caught your eye. “Like I said, I’ve never even talked to him.”
“Yeah but you know Mikasa and me,” she raised her thumb towards herself. “Eren will be there too.”
“All I said was that I thought he was cute, Sasha,” you laughed her off. “But I’ll think about it. Text me the details and I’ll let you know if I’m free.”
“Something tells me Jean would be very happy to see you there,” Sasha chuckled, you giggling in response to her suggestive comment. The two of you picked through the selection of skimpy clothing, taking it up the cashier to check out.
You walked out of the store together, giggling over small banter. Your trip to the mall was quick after that, and in the end you held a grip full of medium sized paper bags, walking outside the mall with Sasha.
“Oh, hey!” Sasha suddenly quipped, placing her bags on the sidewalk, pulling her phone out of her crossbody bag. “We should take a picture!”
“Sasha I’m not even wearing lipstick,” you half heartedly complained, getting ready to pose next to your best friend.
“Literally, you’re so fucking hot,” she deadpanned, turning her head to look you directly in the eyes. “Shut up and get in, bitch.”
You threw your head back in laughter, leaning in on the left side of her frame, pushing your hair framing your face behind your ear. You smiled widely while Sasha did the same, hearing a soft click of her phone, indicating the photo was taken. Your phone vibrated in your pocket, bringing it out to see a notification stating she had posted it to her story. You’d repost it to your story later after you grabbed food, you decided, the conversation turning to the topic of where the two of you would eat before heading back to your apartment to get drunk in celebration of your semesters ending.
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Eren and his two friends sat crowded in Jean’s dorm room bathroom, passing around a blunt. He could hear Connie coughing harshly as it was passed to Eren, the boy taking a deep drag of the backwoods cigarillo. Exhaling slowly, Eren brought his phone out of his hoodie pocket to open it up to change the song playing, his phone instantly opening to Instagram.
Distracted now by his favorite obsession, he glanced at the stories section, her name front in the line, glowing in that now familiar pink and purple circle. Eren couldn’t have tapped faster, and when he did, his mouth hung open.
“Yo,” Eren spoke loudly, shoving his phone in Jean and Connie’s faces. “Sasha knows this girl?”
“Yeah, they’re like best friends,” Connie quirked an eyebrow. “You don’t know her?”
“No, I just saw we had mutual friends,” Eren’s eyebrows knitted together. “How come we’ve never hung out with her before?”
“I don’t know actually,” Jean said, exhaling the blunt after it was passed to him from Eren’s fingertips. “I had a class with her this semester, she seems nice.”
“You’re only saying that because she’s hot,” Connie chuckled. “I bet you’ve never even talked to the girl.”
Jean’s face ignited in a fierce blush as he found interest in the ceiling tiles, “Shut up. It’s harder to talk to girls than it looks. You should know that, Connie.”
“Hey! I talk to girls!” Connie leaned up from his seated position on the floor.
“Idiots,” Eren sighed, rolling his eyes. “Neither of you have any game.”
“Not all of us are as gifted as you are, Eren,” Connie protested, a smirk spreading across his lips. “You could talk to a fucking mouse and it’d figure out someway to talk back.”
Eren rolled his eyes again, harder this time, “You just talk to girls like they’re human beings, it’s not that fucking hard.”
“Oh yeah? Betcha’ won’t be saying that whenever you see that girl around,” Jean teased, finally passing the blunt to Connie in the rotation, Connie muttering something about hogging it.
Eren shifted uncomfortably on the closed toilet seat, “Whatever, Jean.”
“Speak of the fucking devil!” Jean shouted, scaring the very high pair of boys at the suddenness. “Sasha just texted me asking if she can bring her this weekend to the cabin!”
Eren’s heart erupted into a flutter of uneven beats, his face heating up. This girl he had been drooling over was going to be at a party, with him? He suddenly felt like a teenager, the idea of seeing his precious addiction face to face giving him full blown anxiety.
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Soft thuds of the bass of the stereo filled the room, catchy pop music drawing Eren out of his stupor to gaze hastily around the room, searching.
“What’s up with you tonight?” Armin had asked him, drawing his attention away once again. “It’s been an hour since the party started and you’ve barely drunk anything.”
Taking note of the full red solo cup in his hand, flickering his gaze between the liquid and his best friend, Eren shrugged and tipped the rim back in his lips, opening his throat and taking large gulps until the cup was empty. “Happy?”
Armin laughed loudly, although only having two strong drinks, his best friend was beginning to feel the numbness of intoxication, “You’re really out of it tonight, everything alright?”
“Yeah I’m fine, just waiting for the smoke sesh so I’m not cross faded,” Eren smirked, lying easily. “Last time I got too drunk and decided to rip Jean’s bong, I woke up in some random front yard with one shoe on.”
Armin shook his head in disbelief, “You really need to start making better life choices, Eren.”
Eren shook the empty solo cup in front of his friend, “I’m trying here.”
Truthfully, the reason Eren wasn’t halfway to getting shit faced was because he didn’t want to embarrass himself in front of the girl of his dreams. She still hadn’t shown up yet, and Eren was getting anxious that she wasn’t going to show. Sasha and Mikasa hadn’t shown up yet either, which gave him a resemblance of hope that the three of you were together, and on your way currently to the party. His heart thudded heavily in his ribcage as he heard the jingle of the front door turn, and his attention was fully concentrated on the door frame ahead of him. His jaw dropped at the sight, his breath caught in his throat.
You asked Sasha earlier that day what you should wear to the party, and Sasha had just waved and told you whatever you felt looked the best. Not exactly helpful, you had just decided on black ripped jeans and a low cut shirt, paired with your favorite leather jacket and trusty Vans. You felt incredibly undressed as Sasha drove to Mikasa’s house, watching her modelesque frame saunter out her front door towards the back car doors.
“Mikasa, you could make a paper bag look hot,” you showered her with appreciation, her face blushing in response as she tugged her long sleeved body con dress towards her knees. “Fuck, should I have worn a dress? How nice is everyone else dressed?”
Sasha couldn’t have given two fucks about how she dressed in front of her friends, adorned in blue skinny jeans and a causal crop top, although her face was beat to the Gods, “Shut the fuck up, you’re one to talk about making paper bags look good. Besides, knowing the boys they probably made minimal effort, probably all wearing sweatpants.”
The three of you snickered at this, and Sasha pushed the car into drive and set out on your 45 minute journey into the mountains. Nerves hadn’t set in until you were face to face with the cabin door, nervous that the girls’ friends weren’t going to like you. Putting a brave face on, Mikasa grasped the door knob and pushed it open, the three of you gliding in.
Eren honestly had wanted to drop down to his knees and kiss the ground you walked on. You were the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. Your eyes were searching, for what neither of you knew, until your eyes had finally landed on him. You smiled politely, moving your hand up in a quick wave to both him and Armin.
Eren couldn’t fathom moving any single part of his body, so awestruck by you. Jean shook Eren out of his dumbstricken state with a hard pat to his shoulder, “Why don’t you go introduce yourself, Eren?”
“Fuck off, horse face,” Eren spat, trying to will himself to either make strides towards you or to break his gaze, neither working. “Why don’t you?”
“I’d love to,” he smiled wickedly, inspired by liquid courage to lock arms with Eren and force him closer to the trio of girls that had finally made their appearance. Armin followed behind, Connie emerging out of the bathroom to give his hello’s to his best friend Sasha and company.
Eren could hear his heart beat in his ears as he stopped right in front of you, forcing his mouth closed in a tight lipped grimace. He felt like a fucking teenager with a crush.
“Hi,” you introduced yourself, smiling widely. “It’s so nice to finally meet you guys!”
“Nice to meet you too!” Armin spoke up, oblivious to his friends’ reaction to the fresh pretty face of yours.
Jean and Connie wouldn’t admit it, but they were feeling their own nervousness. Jean’s out of guilt as he scanned your body top to bottom, Connie’s natural shyness kicking in due to the newcomer. Both were able to overcome it though, and offer up their own introductions. Your eyes landed on Eren once again, tilting your head, waiting for his intro.
“I’m Eren,” he swallowed. “Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise,” you looked down, smiling softly. You raised your hand then, looking up at the boys in front of you, revealing a handle of vodka. “I brought a gift with me too!”
“My kinda girl!” Jean spoke just a bit too enthusiastically. “Shots, shots, shots!”
Connie pumped his fist, chiming in, the rest of the party joining as well as the crowd made their way into the kitchen. Eren purposely hung back, trying to keep as close to you as possible.
“You happen to bring any chasers with you?” he had leaned in, tickling the side of your head with his breath.
“No, I totally forgot,” you sheepishly admitted.
“Looks like we’re all gonna get plastered then,” he chuckled smoothly, sending goosebumps down your body.
“Is it really a party then if at least one person doesn’t have their head in a toilet?” you had easily quipped back, feeling more comfortable now that the introductions were out of the way.
Eren hummed in half hearted agreement, feeling slightly more relaxed himself. Besides, his attention was being grasped by the plastic shot glass being shoved in his hand, as well as your dainty one. The group held up the shot glasses, a few phone cameras capturing the moment to post on their stories, and you all swung your heads back to allow the bitter liquid to trickle down your throats. Eren made a mild face, taking a stolen glance at your own to see your grimace, sticking your tongue out in disbelief at the taste.
Another hour had passed by, and Eren was running out of reasons to follow you around the cabin as you shifted between conversations to get to know the group of friends better. You hadn’t really noticed him trailing behind you, nor did you really care because you were very quickly warming up to Eren. It also didn’t hurt that he looked exceptionally better in person. His hair was lazily swung into a half top bun, wearing a couple of gold chains with his white tee tightly hugging his torso, tucked seamlessly into black ripped jeans displaying his muscular knee caps. Eren was definitely a looker, you shifted your gaze up to his face as he made some witty comment to Sasha, his eyes flickering to your face to catch your reaction.
“Oh my god, there was this one time,” Sasha spoke your name. “She had gotten so high during last year’s spring break, and the two of us and Mikasa came up with the brilliant idea of becoming one with nature. So, naturally, we ran to Walmart and bought this tent on clearance. Turns out it was made for kids, so none of us actually fit inside when we got back to Mikasa’s house. Mikasa and I curled up in a ball, surrounded by snacks, and this smart girl over here decided it was the best choice to just lay out on the lawn and pass out.”
“I wanted to watch the sun rise!” you laughed, trying to quickly explain yourself to Eren’s amused smirk. “And the grass was just so nice that night!”
“The grass was basically straw,” Sasha countered teasingly. “Twenty degrees outside, absolutely freezing. She was MIA for like a week afterwards with a cold.”
You shrugged carelessly, “Worth it.”
Now the two of you had sleeping on lawns in common? Eren scoffed inwardly. Yup, it was official, you were his soulmate. Still though, the topic of why you were so casual in person while your naked pictures existed online tickled his thoughts. He was hoping that somehow it’d get brought up naturally in conversation, saving himself the embarrassment if you were to get offended by his questioning. So far it seemed you liked him, not having said a word about him trailing after you like a lost puppy. Jean had been sending him knowing looks all night, Connie shooting two thumbs up at Eren while Armin looked on in confusion.
Mikasa had strolled out of the bathroom finally, joining the trio who stood casually in the living room, simply stating, “I’m starving. You guys think they deliver pizza out here?”
Sasha’s eyes widened in excitement, “I don’t care if it takes an hour to get here. We’re ordering right now.”
Already ahead of the two, your phone was pulled out in your hands to open up the Dominoes app, punching in the location of the party and placing the order online. Eren watched this all, peering over your hands to see the total.
“Guys, we should chip in,” Eren called out, grabbing the boys’ attention. “We’re ordering pizza.”
“No, no!” you protested, confirming the order. “It’s really fine, my treat.”
“But that’s really expensive,” he frowned, the group all joined together in the living room.
“Don’t worry, she’s got that OnlyFans money,” Sasha waved off Eren’s concern.
“OnlyFans?” Armin questioned, darting his eyes in between Sasha and you. “What’s that?”
Jean hid his blushing cheeks and your eyes flickered to him, then back to Armin, “I sell naked pictures online.”
“So what, a bunch of old guys give you money?” Armin had asked innocently, not judgemental in the slightest.
You giggled, relieved he wasn’t asking in a demeaning manner, “Actually, you’d be really surprised about who you know follows me. There’s a lot of people from school.”
Eren’s blood ran cold as he felt a sudden onset of embarrassment. Did that mean you had known this entire time Eren was one of these followers? If you did, you didn’t let on to it, smiling shyly as the questions ended. Eren hadn’t been done with the conversation, but pride from exposing himself in front of his friends kept his mouth shut.
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It was around one in the morning when the party was at its peak. Sasha was being held up by her legs by Connie as she did a keg stand, you and the group cheering the girl on in your own drunken hazes. She tapped the large can, indicating she was finished, Connie settling her down on solid ground as she belched loudly.
“That was fucking awesome, Sasha!” you giggled, throwing your arms up and around her. You were definitely feeling the shots you had been feeding yourself all night, holding your red solo cup high above the girl so it wouldn’t slosh on her.
“You should totally try it!” she encouraged devilishly.
You pouted then, taking a moment to consider, “I’ve never done a keg stand before, what if I can’t do it?”
“I’ll help you!” Eren all but pounced on the opportunity, your smile turning into a tipsy giggle. “It’s not that hard, you just keep chugging until you can’t anymore. I’ll hold you, you got this.”
You lightly blushed, nodding your head at the encouragement, bringing a fist to your chest as a salute, “I’ll do it! We gotta’ put on a cool song though, if I’m going to fail miserably I might as well have a good song to do it to.”
Mikasa volunteered, as she was already DJ, having the best music taste out of everyone in the group. She dug her phone out of her pocket, switching over to a ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ remix. Connie whooped at the choice, and everyone began to chant your name as you hovered by the keg, very nervous. Eren then placed his large hand on the small of your back, leaning in to reassure you once again. You gulped, nodding that you were ready to get into position.
“Okay, so you’re going to lean your arms on the top of the can, and I’ll grab your legs. Like when you were a kid and you’d do that stupid wheelbarrel thing,” Eren easily explained, chuckling lightly. “Use your hands to let me know when you’re done.”
You did as you were told, resting your upper body against the keg as Eren hooked his arms around your calves. He couldn’t help but admire how strong your legs felt in his grasp, and how right it felt to finally have some bodily contact. He had been trying to figure out a natural way all night, and he was bubbling over in excitement, the chance had arisen, glorious in the promise of touch.
You placed your lips hesitantly around the tap, opening it up into your mouth, and began to chug. ‘Chug, chug, chug!’ was chanted all around you, even Mikasa joining in on the fun. Fists bumped in the air, and you felt like the coolest fucking person in the world. Doing a keg stand wasn’t exactly in your goals list, but fuck did it feel like it should’ve been as your ego inflated.
“That’s it, you’re doing great!” Eren’s thumbs brushed the inside of your knees, leaning in to whisper. “Good girl.”
You sputtered around the tap, choking harshly. You removed your mouth quickly to gasp for air, and the tap shot up all over your shirt, jacket long forgotten resting on the sofa in the living room. Eren moved your legs down to the floor quickly seeing this, and wrapped his arm around your waist to steady you as your arm shot out to grab onto something, in this case his other arm.
“You alright?” Jean asked, a look of concern washing over his features as you finally got some air into your lungs.
“Yeah,” you coughed again, blushing in embarrassment. “I definitely made a mess though.”
“I brought some extra clothes with me,” Eren offered quickly. “One of these idiots always manages to somehow spill something within the first hour of drinking. I’ll show you where my bag is at.”
You smiled in appreciation, biting your tongue to accuse him of purposely throwing you off your game with his little praise that had your knees buckling. He unwound his arm, taking your hand and leading you to the staircase by the entryway, your smaller form following behind him as he thudded up the stairs. Three doors greeted you at the top, and he led you into the master bedroom, plainly decorated and lacking personal belongings. You watched as he chucked a duffle bag onto the mattress, unzipping it and going through his clothes. He found a sweatshirt, smirking inwardly as it had been one of his old sports ones with his last name embroidered on the back. Proud he could provide a claim to you, he extended it to you, and you gladly accepted it.
“Well, you did really well in the beginning there,” he chuckled, whisking his stray baby hairs behind his ear. “Sucks about the shirt though. The first time I tried to do a keg stand, I barfed everywhere.”
You laughed lightly, fingering the hem of your shirt, “I guess it could’ve been a lot worse. Still, at least I can check this off my bucket list.”
Eren’s eyebrows shot into his hairline as you lifted your shirt to reveal your bare stomach, and he whisked his body completely around so you didn’t see his reddened cheeks, “You could’ve asked me to leave.”
Behind him, you let a mischievous smirk cross your lips, “Nothing you haven’t seen before.”
Eren’s mouth fell open at your bold statement, letting his words leave before he could stop them, “You know?”
“Of course,” you discarded the sodden shirt to the floor, sitting on the bed instead of tossing the sweatshirt on. “You’re my favorite viewer.”
He caught your movement in the corner of his eye, and he turned his head to take in the sight. Fuck, you were even more beautiful in person. Your bra was white and pretty and dainty, pushing your tits together, accentuating cleavage that Eren wanted to bury his face in. His gaze moved up to your face, smiling so innocently at him as he let out a dark chuckle, “Is that so?”
You hummed, leaning back to expose your form a bit more, feeling confident from the alcohol, “You like every one of my pictures, you buy all my content, you’re pretty cute, of course you’re my favorite.”
Eren’s ego soared as he turned his body completely towards you, taking a small step forward, “You’re just so beautiful, how could I not? I do have to ask this though, how come you never answered any of my messages?”
“Oh, my DMs are broken. Instagram doesn’t let me view them or respond,” you explained easily. “You know, you could’ve hit me up on OnlyFans, I definitely would have answered you.”
A blush crept up on Eren again as he averted his gaze to the floor, “I didn’t think about that.”
You giggled softly, “What’d you send me anyways?”
“I asked you out on a date,” he admitted, growing more nervous. “Told you that you were really pretty. Y’know, stuff you probably get all the time.”
“Most of my messages are from guys trying to take me out drinking and to get a quick fuck,” you scoffed. “Y’know, if the offer is still on the table, I’d really like to take you up on it.”
“Really?” Eren’s eyes met yours in surprise, you watched his Adam’s apple bob along his throat as he gulped. “You’d want to go out with me?”
“Yeah, who else is going to hold me up when I try to do a keg stand again?” you smiled sheepishly, batting your eyelashes. Eren’s hands twitched at his sides, fuck, you were so pretty.
“Can I kiss you?” he asked seriously, his gaze hardening as he felt a wave of possessiveness. In his mind, you were already his girlfriend. You had accepted his date, and he’d be damned if he didn’t try to push his luck further.
Eren had never felt the way he feels right now. He took immediate notice of your blushing cheeks, your confident lean turn into a shy arch as you pushed your body into a hunched over seating position. Eren had experience with girls, that everyone knew as a fact, he was very far from being a virgin. You made him feel like a fucking virgin, heart beating wildly in his chest. All he wanted to do was to grab you and hide you away for his own greedy pleasure, the darkest parts of his mind tickled by the thought. He had laid a claim to you way before he had ever met you, and he wouldn’t let you escape now that he had you here, alone.
You didn’t answer his request, you pushed yourself off the mattress and met his staggering stance halfway. Unknown to his wicked thoughts, his past month of obsessing of you, you leaned up, gently brushing your lips against his. No one had ever asked you this simple question before, instead just taking the action as if they had owned you, and you thought to yourself that you could really love this boy who presented himself so innocently to you.
The soft placement of your lips to his was not enough, and Eren buried his mouth with your own, moving both of his hands to cup your face. He could feel your jaw beneath the pads of his fingertips as you attempted to meet his pace, sensual and passionate. The need for air forgotten for the both of you, sucking in deeply through your noses as the space continued to close between your bodies.
“Gonna take you someplace real nice,” muttered Eren as he pulled away slightly to gaze his half lidded eyes on your fluttering eyelashes, your gaze now hidden from him. “I know you like that one place in the city, I saw your little post of you wearing that tight dress. You looked so fucking pretty.”
Tingles shivered up your bones, a sharp intake of breath as you fluttered your eyes open to take in his deep lustful expression, “I’ll wear it for you, if you want.”
“Wear my necklace too.”
You pulled away completely this time, baffled, “Your necklace?”
“The one with the ‘E’ on it,” he breathed, moving forward to accommodate the sudden distance, his lips meeting the corner of your mouth. You realized then what he was referring to, a small smirk uplifting his kiss. You wouldn’t tell him though that the necklace in question was just some random trinket with no meaning you had purchased, or that you hadn’t even recognized the pretty cursive as a letter. You figured out very quickly Eren’s little crush was a bit more involved than just him attached to your hip at this party. No, it was way deeper than that. All of the likes, the money, the new information of messages made sense to you. Eren had believed you were his, and he had sought out confirmation all night to prove it.
“Okay,” you played along to his fantasy, an expert since it was your job online already to provide this to your viewers. “What else do you want me to wear?”
“There’s this one set of lingerie,” Eren was the one to pull back now, letting his teal eyes trail downwards to your chest, displeased by the lack of skin shown to him in that instance. “The black lacy one, fuck, wear that. You look so fucking sexy in that.”
“You don’t like when I wear white?” you pouted, bringing your hands to rest against the peak of your breasts, framing them like a picture.
“I like anything you wear,” a smirk crossed his features, eyes locked in on your tits. “Or what you don’t wear.”
You were met with two choices then. One, kiss Eren and get dressed and save yourself for your date, or two, fulfill his now present fantasy of his that was beginning to morph into your own. You mentally battled the decision in your mind, feeling the desire curl in your stomach at each option. If you were to give in now, Eren might not want to continue to chase after you, the promise of an actual date forgotten. Not to mention the party of people down stairs, the thud of music softened behind the closed door of the bedroom indicating it was still in full swing. Eren saw your hesitation, and let his hands travel to your elbows comfortingly.
“I know we technically just met,” he started, eyes now locked in on yours in genuine honesty. “But I really like you. You’re all I’ve thought about for the past month, so if you don’t feel comfortable going any further, that’s okay, I’ll wait. I’ve waited this long.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to,” you bit your lip as you watched his teal orbs flicker to your mouth. “It’s just — oh God, this is embarrassing to talk about so soon.”
“Shh, it’s okay, I won’t judge,” he cooed, bringing just a hand up to soothe over your cheek.
“I’m not exactly quiet,” you admitted, gesturing towards the floor. “I don’t really want to be the girl who fucks someone at the first party they show up to.”
Eren hadn’t predicted you to be loud in his fantasies, but he was really wishing he had. He held back a groan at your confession, images of what could be filling his dirty mind, “Fuck, okay, no problem. I don’t have any condoms with me anyways.”
“Actually,” you drawled. “I’m on the pill, so as far as that goes, that doesn’t really matter. I’m clean too, I haven’t been with anyone in a long time.”
Boxes were being ticked quickly off of Eren’s checklist, and he let his jaw hang open, “I’m clean too, I don’t fuck anyone without a condom, to be honest.”
I’m going to fuck her raw, is all that was going through his mind. Treat her so good, take her out wearing her pretty little dress and treat her like a fucking princess.
“Please tell me you’re free tomorrow,” Eren pleaded. “I’ll take us fucking anywhere you want.”
“I am, actually,” you batted your eyelashes.
“Cool,” he muttered, beginning to feel drawn into your lips again. As you began to lean back in, a sharp knock sounded at the door.
“Hey! Everything alright?” you both froze, recognizing the voice as Armin’s. Of course he’d be the only one to dare interrupt, and the party below had discouraged him. Eren had taken you upstairs, and while they were all aware of the possibility of the two of you would be hooking up, Armin was more concerned that one or both of you had gotten sick and were in need of help.
“Yeah, we’re fine! Be out in a second!” Eren shouted, feeling suddenly frazzled from the intense interaction between you two. If Armin had opened the door, seeing the two of you locked in together so closely, making out feverishly, it would be completely mortifying. Especially since it wouldn’t be the first time Armin had accidentally seen his best friend in a suggestive situation.
You pecked his lips quickly then, breaking out of his embrace to throw his sweatshirt over your head. Eren was counting backwards in his head to rid himself of the half erection in his pants, nearly impossible as he thought about how pretty you looked in his clothing.
“C’mon,” you tugged at his hand, urging him to follow you back downstairs. “We have a pizza to eat and friends to convince that we definitely didn’t just fuck for ten minutes.”
The group hadn’t made a single comment when you two rejoined the party, only just knowing smirks from Jean and Connie to Eren. Sasha had wiggled her eyebrows at you, and you quickly pulled her and Mikasa into the bathroom to recap what had just occurred upstairs. The girls clapped drunkenly at your news of a date, incredibly excited that their best friend was finally going out with a boy. The night had ended around three in the morning, bodies scattered throughout the house to pass out wherever they pleased. Eren had continued to stay by you the rest of the night, this time, not shy at all as he stole touches to your back. And when it came time to pass out, you felt smugness as he rested his head on your back while you laid on your side on the same bed upstairs, his arm thrown tightly around your waist. Sasha curled up in front of you, your own head snuggling into her shoulder as the room spun you into a deep slumber.
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You sat at a vanity in your apartment bedroom the next evening, applying various makeups to your face. Mikasa had awoken you and Sasha pretty early the next morning, wanting to go home so she could get ready for her job. Eren snored quietly behind you as you tried your best to maneuver out of his grasp, and the three of you cleaned up the cups and plates scattered around the house as a thank you to Jean for the invitation. Sasha had driven you all the way back to your place when you realized you were still wearing Eren’s hoodie, and you smirked. Now he definitely had a reason to get you on this date tonight, you had something that belonged to him.
When Eren had woken up, he truly believed for a few minutes that you had just been a dream. Pictures and videos posted all over Instagram had shown him differently though, the two of you leaning against each other on the leather couch smiling drunkenly on Armin’s story had his heart pounding. His arm was around your shoulders, your head was tilted in the crook of his neck, and then Eren remembered that he was going to see you again tonight. He took a screenshot before the story moved on to a video of the group in a heated discussion about music tastes, a quiet chuckle made its way out of his throat as he recounted memories that would become very fond to him.
He had posted the picture then to his Instagram, a few others followed after that included him and his other friends. Eren tagged all of the people, but most importantly, the picture of the two of you was the first in the line up of the photo set. A few messages hit his inbox after he hit the post button, some classmates asking if you were his girlfriend, because you were wearing his sweatshirt in the photo. He decided to not respond, because as much as he wanted to tell them yes, he knew he’d be jumping the gun. His heart raced as a notification popped up — you had liked the picture, and added a comment, ‘last night was a movie’ with a kiss emoji. When he refreshed the page, your lit up story showed him that you had even reposted his photo set. His ego soared, his affections no longer one sided, and he couldn’t fucking wait to take you out later and show you the best time he could.
Eren had gotten your phone number from Sasha not long before your date, asking for your address and trying to pick out a time to head out to dinner. You tapped a response quickly, and looked at the clock to gauge how much time you’d need to be fully ready. That had been about three hours ago, your body had been scrubbed and shaved, hair curled prettily down your back as you added the final touches of lipstick to your lips. The dress Eren had talked about was laid out on your perfectly made bed, a pretty satin champagne colored fabric, and your apartment was fairly clean, fully expecting his company after the date of all went well. You dressed yourself easily, slipping on black heels when you heard the chime of your phone, letting you know Eren was awaiting you outside.
When the elevator doors chimed open as you walked into your lobby, you saw from the entrance doors Eren leaned back casually against the Uber he had offered to pay for. His attention immediately focused on your form as you exited your building, his gaze flickered all over your body.
“You look incredible,” Eren easily complimented, pushing himself up to stand straight. He leaned in to kiss your blushing cheek as you muttered a quiet ‘thank you’, and he pulled the door handle of the sleek black car, ushering you inside. He slammed it closed after you had positioned yourself comfortably, giving the driver a soft greeting as Eren circled around the back, getting in on the opposite side. The directions were already plugged into the driver’s GPS, and it took less than twenty minutes to get to the restaurant in question.
This gave you enough time to take in Eren’s appearance, and damn if you wouldn’t have allowed yourself to do so, the sight practically mouth watering. His hair hung low in a messy bun, a few complementary strands hanging out to frame his sharp jawline. His torso was adorned in a sheer white long sleeve button up, a small portion of his chest revealed as he had left the top buttons alone, chains hanging against his collarbones, silver in color this time. Black slacks that tightened around his thighs and calves had you biting your lip in appreciation, his legs spread as he took up space in the backseat.
“Staring isn’t very polite,” he had leaned in, taking notice of your devouring gaze.
“Stop dressing like a whore and maybe I won’t stare,” you teased back, chuckling quietly when he swatted your exposed thigh lightly. He kept his hand there for the rest of the drive, enjoying the comfortable silence as the quiet hum of the radio filled in the gaps.
When the Uber had slowed to a stop outside of the fancy restaurant Eren had insisted taking you to, he swung the door open before you had a chance to reach for the handle on your side. He raced to the other side of the car, pulling open the door and extending his hand out for you to grasp onto. You circled your fingers around his palm, and he tightened his grasp as you swung your legs over the flooring, and stood before him. The two of you thanked the driver, and he sped away shortly after. Hand still locked in with yours, Eren led the way inside the opened doors of the restaurant. Inside, a hostess wearing a very classy black uniform greeted the two of you.
“Reservation for Eren,” he spoke smoothly, and your eyes widened in surprise, expecting to have sat and waited for at least a half an hour before you had been seated.
“Right this way,” she smiled politely, two menus in her hands as she welcomed you into the dining area. You followed behind Eren, realizing that this place must’ve been a lot more expensive than you originally had gauged. All the guests appeared in their very best formal attire, and the chatter was soft as the beautiful notes of a piano resounded throughout the space. While you couldn’t pinpoint exactly where the music was coming from, you had a strong feeling that there was a physical player somewhere in the midst, it sounded so clear and professional. When the hostess had sat you down in a booth secluded against the furthest set wall, she smiled politely once more and informed you that the waiter would be with you soon.
“Eren,” you hissed as you sat opposite of his smirking form. “This place is stupid fancy!”
“Don’t worry about it,” he waved easily. “I got it, I promise.”
“How are you able to afford this? I’ve got a little bit of money and even I couldn’t go some place this nice,” you questioned, feeling a small pang of guilt. He was going to go broke trying to treat you to a very nice, albeit expensive, meal.
“My dad is a doctor,” he shrugged, picking up the menu and eyeing over their drink selection. “He sends me money whenever I come around and help around his office.”
“Following in the family footsteps?” you tried at the conversation, realizing you virtually knew nothing about the boy in front of you.
“Nah, I’m more into the business side of things,” he smiled up at you then, showing off his pearly white teeth. “What about you? What are you majoring in?”
You spoke of your major, Eren carefully listening in of your passions and your goals for your future ahead. He was pleased to hear that you were ambitious, smiling as he was enamored by your speech. Not that he minded a single bit about your online job, but to hear that you had a legitimate career goal soothed his worries.
A finely dressed waiter greeted you shortly, introducing himself and taking the both of your orders in one go, and stole away the menus. The rest of the date flew by quickly, tipsy from your cocktails and full of giggles as the two of you got to know one another. Although Eren was already knowledgeable about a number of your likes and dislikes and personality quirks due to Instagram, you had the undisguisable pleasure of learning his right then and there.
“So,” you leaned your elbows onto the table, resting your chin atop of your closed fists. “Tell me, how many girls have you taken here before?”
“Not a single one,” he chuckled lowly, passing the black booklet encasing his credit card as the waiter stopped at the table. “This is actually my first time taking anyone out somewhere so fancy. Usually I just hang out at the more lowkey spots around campus.”
“I would’ve been totally okay with going somewhere like that instead,” you frowned, that same guilt flooding back to your stomach. Eren hadn’t even let you see the bill before he had given it away, so you were completely ignorant as far as how far the total rang up. “You really didn’t have to take me out to such an expensive place.”
He rolled his eyes playfully, smirking as he did so, “Had to take my favorite girl somewhere nice, show you off in that gorgeous dress of yours.”
You blushed, moving your fists to hold your cheeks to try and contain the heat, “Fine, but next time, I want to see one of these ‘lowkey spots’.”
“Next time, huh?” Eren mused cockily.
“Yes, I guess I had a really great time tonight, consider yourself honored,” you giggled half heartedly.
“Oh believe me, I do.”
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Eren had walked you to the front door of your apartment like the gentleman he was. Really, he was just trying to procrastinate leaving you, not wanting the night to be over with quite yet. Luckily, you were on the exact same page as he stood awkwardly behind you while you unlocked your front door.
You turned, an eyebrow raised, “Well? Are you coming in or what?”
“Say less,” he sighed in relief, following your sauntering frame inside your apartment. He was initially impressed as you flicked the light switch on the wall up, illuminating your precious space. Very clean and organized, he felt a pang of jealousy, knowing his own dorm room was scattered with clothes and empty water bottles. If he had only seen what your living space looked like before you had straightened up, he might have felt better about himself.
“I have some róse in the fridge,” you offered, making your way to the kitchen. “Would you like a glass?”
“No lie, that’s literally my favorite wine,” Eren groaned. “How are you this perfect?”
You laughed loudly, grabbing two wine glasses from your cabinet, opening your fridge and retrieving the bottle. Filling the glasses generously, you left the bottle on your kitchen counter and turned around, Eren a lot closer than where you had left him a moment ago. You extended his cup, which he graciously took and sipped. You mirrored him, gulping down your own mouthful.
“Y’know,” he started, gazing around your kitchen space. “For all that talk of mimosas in your Instagram bio, I really expected there to be a lot more pictures of you drinking them.”
You chuckled once again, “Believe me, I have plenty of orange juice, vodka, and champagne here. We had such a classy dinner, I thought I’d try and match it with some wine. Besides, vodka brings out the worst in me.”
“Ah, lady in the streets, freak in the sheets,” he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. You rolled your eyes, swatting his bicep harmlessly. “I get what you’re about at brunch with the girls.”
“If I had a nickel for every time Mikasa had to peel me and Sasha off the pavement after mimosas and scones, I’d be fucking rich,” you giggled once again, raising the glass to your lips.
“I’m really surprised we hadn’t met each other before last night, especially because Mikasa and I have been best friends since we were little,” Eren raised an eyebrow. “She’s basically my sister, and never once did she say anything about you, I only met Sasha because Connie’s attached to her hip and they share the same brain cell.”
“If it makes you feel better, I only knew Jean existed because we had a class together this semester,” you shrugged, purposefully leaving out the part where he consumed your content almost as much as Eren did.
“And of course me,” Eren smirked cheekily. “Because I’m your favorite viewer, like you said.”
“Don’t make me regret telling you that,” you pointed your glass towards him in a fake threat.
“It’s okay, you’re my favorite girl, so it evens itself out,” Eren placed his half drunk glass on the counter top, his gaze much more seductive. “Besides, you wore my necklace like I asked, I gotta tease you a little bit.”
“I wore pretty much everything you wanted me to,” you smirked, copying his actions and settling your own cup down.
“Did you now?” he took long strides to stand in front of you, toying with the necklace that he had laid claim over.
“I can show you, if you want to see,” you leaned up with full intentions of capturing his kiss.
“There’s nothing else I would rather do, pretty girl,” Eren cooed, licking his lips before meeting you in the middle. His arms circled around your waist, your hands wrapped around his shoulders as the pace started out slowly. Gentle was not what either of you wanted though, the desperation seeping in fast as his fingers explored your sides.
“Bedroom,” you gasped as he removed his lips and attached them to your jaw. He had no qualms of fucking you right out here in the kitchen, so he made no effort to move. Realizing you had to take the reins, you moved backwards from Eren, smirking as he groaned from the sudden distance. His eyes followed you predatorily as he began to chase after you, your back meeting the wooden paneling of your bedroom door. He attempted to recapture your mouth, but your hand was faster in turning the door knob, and you began to lead him back until your mattress met the backs of your knees.
“Want you to show me what you’re wearing under that dress,” Eren demanded, playing with the short hem that rested on your thighs.
You nodded, giving him the silent okay to take off the fabric encompassing your frame. You turned so your back faced him, moving your hair out of the way so he could unzip the back. His eyes followed as he fingered the silver zipper, agonizingly teasing himself as more and more was revealed to him. Seeing the straps of the black lace he had requested drunkenly the night before, his patience snapped as he pulled the metal piece down faster. You slid the tiny straps off your shoulders at the sweet feeling of release, and Eren’s dick was rock fucking solid as it pooled around your feet, you kicked the silky fabric to the side and faced him once more.
“You’re wearing everything I told you to,” he stated, drinking in the sight of your scantily clad body. “Good girl.”
You bit back an embarrassing moan at his praise, feeling the heat pool between your thighs. It came as such a shock to you to be so reactive to his words, and it came slamming into you that maybe you weren’t as vanilla as you had previously believed. You had a kink! It all made so much sense, why you felt such pride and arousal from complete strangers giving you their attention and compliments online. You yearned for it, craved the affections, and now that Eren stood in front of you, more than willing to shower you with pretty words, all the moisture in your mouth dried up. You wanted him so fucking bad.
Eren’s hands met the naked skin of your waist as his palms etched over your soft stomach. They met in the middle of your back, leaning your back onto the mattress as he climbed on top of you, a single hand coming up to work on discarding his button up. You rushed to help, pads of your fingers working the buttons open until he revealed his bare chest, his chains hanging above you. He worked his arms out quickly, tossing the fabric onto the floor. He brought his lips to yours, this kiss much more desperate and needy than the previous ones. His hands explored every inch of your body, the tops of your thighs to the swell of your breasts. He tugged on the soft lace at the top, slowly bringing the black fabric down to expose the complete fullness of your breasts. A sight familiar yet somehow new made Eren groan, the pads of his thumbs brushing against your pretty nipples, instantly hardening them.
You moaned lightly, throwing your head back and arching your back into his touch. How many times had Eren pictured you just like this?
“I fucked my fist so many fucking times thinking about you,” he confessed as he pressed slow open mouthed kisses to your collarbone. “You have no idea what your pictures did to me, no idea what you’re doing to me right now.”
He leaned his bottom half forward, pressing his thick clothed erection into the meat of your thigh. You let out a whimper, head foggy as his words made your pussy clench around nothing.
“You’re so fucking sexy,” he licked a stripe up your neck, leaving a wet saliva trail as he wrapped his lips around where he could feel your pulse the strongest. “My pretty girl.”
While Eren wanted to talk about what you did to him, all you could think about was what he was doing to you. The want and need that coursed through your veins was like a drug, you could feel him worming his way into your bloodstream, straight to the center of your heart and out to the warmest parts of your body. And you felt like an addict in that moment too, and every moment you would spend with Eren there after. You could feel his kisses as if he was underneath your skin, his entire body pressed against yours. So, so close, yet not close enough.
“Take off your pants,” you demanded shakily, placing your hands at the button of his slacks. He seemed to be on the same page of you yet again, and he followed his instructions without delay. He kicked out of the tight pants with ease, and you were more than pleased to see he had rid himself of his boxers too when you heard the thick slap of his cock meeting his stomach.
“Oh my god,” you breathed, eyes widened. “Eren, that’s not going to fit.”
“Don’t worry,” he soothed your hair back from your face, pressing a sweet kiss to the tip of your nose. “I’ll make sure you’re nice and wet for me.”
He started to move south, licking and giving attention to your right nipple as he did so. While the idea of him giving you thorough attention was erotic, you really wanted to please him for your first time together, unknown to you as Eren had thought the exact same thing, wanting to make you feel so good you’d come crawling back to him for more.
You pushed yourself up into a seating position, Eren’s eyes flickering in confusion as you stood up. This look didn’t last for long as you switched positions, pushing his torso onto the bed as you rested atop of him, feet placed firmly on the ground. His mouth hung open in disbelief as you began to return his assault on his neck, sucking and kissing and even biting along the columns. He let out a shaky groan, unable to hold it back as your hands traveled down his chest to his abdomen, feeling over the muscles there.
“What’re you doing, princess?” Eren questioned teasingly, not trying to get his hopes up on what your plan seemed to be.
“Wanna’ make you feel good,” your eyes flickered up to meet the dark green of his eyes, watching as his pupils expanded as the realization hit him like a brick.
“Fuck, okay,” Eren subconsciously widened his thighs then, bringing himself up to lean on his elbows as your kisses followed shortly behind the trail of your fingers.
Your mouth met the defined muscle of his stomach, and your eyes drifted up to catch Eren’s reaction as you neared closer to his aching cock. His eyes were hardened on you, brows knitted together, he almost looked angry. You kitten licked above his navel, and knew the anger was superficial as he threw his head back, letting out a quiet groan. You leaned your body in closer, pushing your exposed chest against his length. He whipped his head forward again at the contact, his lips opened as he inhaled shaky breaths.
Part of you had kind of wanted to hear Eren beg for your mouth, but the thought had quickly left your head as he entangled his fingers into the back of your scalp, massaging gently as he did so. Without a moment of hesitation, you lowered your face so you were eye to eye with his thick shaft. Honestly, you really hadn’t expected Eren to be this big. You had caught a glimpse of his half erect member tenting in his pants the night before, but as it stood to full attention, you were very much intimidated by the sheer size. You gulped, putting on a brace face as you continued on.
The sound of Eren’s groans growing louder as you licked a bold stripe from the bottom of his base to the tip of his head had stirred your cunt deeply. You were on your knees now, feet tucked up under you when you felt the wet patch of your panties touch the back of your heels. You licked a few more times, your right hand trailing down from his stomach to grip him more upright. You pulled all the saliva in your mouth onto your tongue, and wrapped your lips around his tip while your hand secured a purposeful grip at his base. You started slow, only sucking in your cheeks and moving your tongue along the underside of his head, pumping him at the same pace. You could feel beads of spit meet your knuckles, circling your tongue around the entirety of his fat mushroom tip. You smoothly licked along his slit, collecting his gushing precum and tasting the salty liquid.
Meanwhile as you had just started your worship of his cock, Eren was watching you in disbelief as your eyelashes fluttered along your cheeks, mouth prepping yourself to take in his full length. He had pulled himself into a sitting position now to provide you the best angle he could. He was in complete awe, furrowing eyebrows and his mouth hanging open, he knew in that moment there was absolutely no point of return. He would follow you from here on out, whether it be online or in reality, wherever you would go. Soulmates, he reminded himself while he collected your hair into his fist and away from your mouth. You were his fucking soulmate.
You pressed your knees upward, eyes opening. Eren’s pupils were blown out, his breathing irregular, and you wanted to watch him completely unfold as you angled your head to drop lower onto his shaft, hand working just a little faster.
“Fuck —“ he stuttered, eyes blazing into yours. “That’s it, take all of me, you’re such a good girl.”
You moaned lightly at his praise once again, and Eren’s cock hit the back of your throat. You pulled your lips up slowly, tongue caressing the underside of his member the entire time, and quickly brought your unoccupied hand into a fist. This was the first time you would be trying out this trick, reading it in a magazine since your gag reflex was very strong and this helped soothe the impulse. Eren was not prepared in the slightest as you removed the hand gripping him, letting his dick fall forward a bit more. You took a deep breathe through your nose, spit coating his entire cock now, and pushed your mouth fast back down his shaft.
Eren let out a strangled gasp when your nose brushed against his pelvis, “Holy fucking — fuck. Shit, yeah, just like that. You look so fucking pretty right now.”
Tears were threatening the spill over your lash line and you bobbed your head furiously, taking in as much as you could before you gagged. You stared up at him the entire time, watching his face screw together as you lapped and sucked his cock. Your jaw was aching already from his size, minding your teeth placement as you quickened your pace. You returned your hand to wrap and pump whatever your mouth wasn’t able to reach as you set yourself into a more comfortable pattern. Your other hand cupped his balls, swirling them softly in your palms.
Eren’s fingers yanked you back, his dick falling out of your lips in a soft pop, as you looked up in confusion, “Gonna’ stop you there baby, gonna’ make me cum.”
His hand in your hair guided you back up to his lips, and Eren could taste himself as his tongue pushed through your swollen mouth to enter yours. You moaned into the kiss, so sloppy and messy, you took no notice of Eren’s hands wiping away the leftover dribble on your chin. He yanked you back, a bit rougher this time, and you panted, rubbing your thighs together at the force. He eyed you up, your beautiful tits still on display, the fabric of your lace bra folded underneath them.
“Get naked for me, princess,” he cooed, untangling his fingers from your scalp. You did as you were told, practically ripping the lace set off your body as you soon stood stark naked in front of Eren. He pushed his legs up, joining you. You felt very small then as he towered above you, playing with the tips of your hair, he guided you around until you were forced to lay yourself flat on your back on the mattress once again.
Eren caressed your shins as he stood tall in front of you, never breaking eye contact. You could still see the glistening of your saliva on his cock, and heat continued to pool in between your thighs in anticipation of his next move.
“Look at you,” he whispered, wrapping his fingers on the tops of your bent knees, legs closed together. “So pretty, it almost hurts to look at you.”
His darkened eyes shot down, drinking you all in before settling on your closed legs. With his hands, he gently forced them to part, and he let out a quiet moan at the sight in front of him. Dripping in arousal, almost sparkling and shining like the gem you were, your pussy spread open for him, begging for his attention. His gaze darted up back to your face, trying not to get too carried away as he admired your beautiful body.
Eren let out a dark chuckle, stroking his hands to the meat of your thighs, “You have no idea the things I have planned for us, princess.”
You whimpered, unable to voice a single word. His right hand moved towards your center, and you gasped sharply as he gently grazed your folds with the lightest of touches. His thumb landed a hair above your clit, and you squirmed, desperate now. He circled so slowly on your pearl, gazing on with an inflated ego. Eren wanted you to beg for him, to tell you all about those ideas he had going on in his head while he fucked his fingers into you.
He decided to go easy on you though, you had plenty of time ahead of you to learn exactly what he wanted when it came to the bedroom, he cooed, “I’m gonna’ show you off, just like you deserve. Gonna’ buy you pretty things, treat you like the fucking princess you are — gonna’ be my pretty girl.”
“Please, Eren,” you whimpered, attempting to push your pelvis into his hand, failing miserably as his other one gripped your thigh in place. “I need you.”
“Tell me exactly what you need, baby,” Eren smirked.
“Everything,” you breathed out. “I want you to keep calling me pretty, wan’ you to fuck me.”
“We’ll get to that part soon,” he paused, lowering his head to your inner thigh, getting to his knees on the floor. “Just need to make you feel good first, pretty girl.”
Eren licked a bold stripe up your pussy as you mewled, feeling a shred of relief as the tip of his tongue circled your clit. You felt a bead of saliva, probably mixed in with your own arousal, travel down the seam of your ass. Eren was starving, and you tasted so delicious, a sweet tart flavor exploding across his taste buds. He flattened his tongue, and looked up to watch your gorgeous face as his lips engulfed your clit.
You threw your head back, eyes rolling into the back of your skull as you attached your hands to your breasts, pulling and tugging on your nipples. He positioned his hands to the back of your thighs then, somehow managing to spread you open even more. The sounds he made in between your folds were wet and sloppy, and he rubbed small circles with the pads of his thumbs into the creases where your legs met your ass.
He never broke away from your face, watching everything unfold before him. Now that you were free from his solidifying grip, your hips were rolling. He watched your ribs expand and fall as you moaned unabashedly, rubbing your cunt into his mouth. Eren had never seen a more beautiful sight, and suddenly, it wasn’t enough to satisfy him. His right hand itched closer to your opening, and you trembled at the prodding of his index fingers. His tongue flopped around sloppily, slurping your bud in between his lips as he entered you slowly, cock pulsing at the feeling of your slick velvety walls greeting his finger.
Here he was, on his knees before you, eyes heavy and swirling because of you. You arched your back as he pumped the single digit in you slowly at first. He felt the tight clench of your walls as his tongue flicked at a certain angle, pleased that he had discovered very quickly how he was going to get you to cum. Eren was impatient, and as much as he wanted to stay between the heat of your thighs for hours if you’d let him, he really needed that orgasm from you. The tip of his pointer finger left you briefly, and you whimpered at the sudden loss, quickly becoming breathless and he slammed it right back in alongside his middle finger. They curled inside of you, brushing right against the soft spongy wall that was your g-spot. You were gushing for him, the sloppy noises of his assaults resounding around the bedroom.
“Fuck, fuck,” you panted, feeling your breasts bounce as he fucked his fingers into you at an alarming pace, tongue following the pattern eagerly. “Oh my god, I’m so close, Eren, I’m gonna’ cum.”
He pulled his mouth back momentarily, voice husky and pleading as he told you, “Cum for me, baby.”
You slammed your hips down onto his knuckles, feeling the underside of his palm and your slick. He had been reduced to curling and angling his fingers inside of you, watching in adoration and awe as you bounced yourself on his fingers, rubbing your pretty pussy against his mouth. Eren had just become a bystander at this point, he was pretty much forced to be stilled as you used his mouth and hands so greedily, feeling an unfamiliar swell in your cunt.
And when your back arched, and your walls clenched so fiercely tight around his drenched fingers, Eren found his forever love. He’d do anything, be anyone, whatever the fuck that was asked of him, to see this sight for the rest of his life. You were vibrating, legs shaking so strongly, Eren had to mentally catch up when he felt a gush of hot liquid soak him. He shifted his gaze down in shock, and holy shit, you were squirting.
You swore you had never orgasmed like this before, it was more than stars you were seeing behind your closed eyelids. It was pure black, absolute nothingness as your brain short circuited. It was like your pussy was taking a deep breath, because when the onset of contractions hit you, you thought you were going to pass out. And poor Eren, who stared dumbly in front of him at how intense your muscles were flexing, was already so deeply in love with you and was confessing his eternal devotion to you in his mind.
When your cunt had settled down, and your hips relented in pushing yourself against Eren’s face and hands, you let out a low moan as he slid his drenched fingers out of you. He stared at his hand, shining with your cum, and flickered his gaze up to you.
“I’m going to fucking marry you,” he growled. “That was the hottest thing I’ve ever fucking seen.”
You let out an exhausted laugh, “Would you believe me if I told you that was the first time I’ve ever squirted?”
“I’m buying you a goddamn ring tomorrow,” he placed a kiss to your inner thigh, moving his body up to hover above you. Eren’s hands wrapped around your thighs once again, propping your knees to your chest. He saw the slight trace of fear in your eyes, and he paused, “You okay?”
“It’s just,” you gazed at the point between your bodies. “Are you gonna’ fit?”
Eren leaned forward, feeling slightly relieved, his face still dripping in your essence, and he placed a sweet, romantic kiss to your lips, pulling away to murmur, “I’ll be gentle, I promise.”
You nodded your head, letting the worry roll off your body as one of his hands caressed your cheek, never breaking eye contact with him. The other hand reached in between your centers, grabbing his throbbing cock and sliding himself along your pussy. He was soon coated in your juices, and both of you were letting out quiet moans. As he sunk his tip into your entrance though, you were gasping loudly.
Eren really had wanted to be gentle, he had no intentions whatsoever of hurting you, but he had realized very quickly that you were going to be the one to set the pace in the relationship. Because as soon as half of his shaft was anchored in your heat, your hips slammed upwards to engulf his entire length. He bit back a yelp at the suddenness, fisting the sheets by your waist in a tight grip. If Eren didn’t feel like a virgin before, he sure as fuck did now.
You didn’t realize just how prepped that orgasm had made you, or how sensitive. What you had believed would’ve been pain was insurmountable and mind blowing pleasure, and you smiled in pride as Eren’s jaw fell open. You felt his hands fall from the underside of your thighs, and you took the opportunity, leveraging your legs, and thrusted upwards. Eren bottomed out inside of you, and you winced slightly at the mild pain of his tip meeting the wall of your cervix, the stretch of your walls accommodating him as you fluttered around him.
“You’re so big, Eren,” you moaned out, moving your hands to grasp his flexing biceps. “‘Feels so good.”
Eren was fighting an internal war — go as slow as physically possible as to not bust in your heavenly pussy in three strokes, or give you the best two minutes of your fucking life. Because it was absolutely all way too much, your gorgeous face, your soaked core, the way you gripped his cock so tightly. You were a vixen, Eren’s personal vices wrapped up in one human body. He couldn’t help but take notice of how perfectly your bodies fit together, your pussy made for him.
“Eren, move, please,” you whined, attempting to squirm your hips. He shot a hand down to your hip, stilling you as he gave you a warning glare.
“I’m trying really hard not to cum inside of you right now,” Eren groaned, finally moving his hips. “You’re so fucking tight, baby. Making it real hard for me right now.”
Little was Eren aware of your pussy still on edge from the mind blowing power of your first orgasm, and you mouth lolled open as he slowly fucked you. If you were to touch your clit, or have any type of pressure there right now, it would be over for you as well. You’d have all the time in the future to have long, drawn out sex with Eren, but the two of you were just way too turned on and aroused by each other to have anything but heavy and fast sex. With a slight hesitation on your end, also not wanting to cum so quickly around his length, you rocked your hips into his fastening pace.
Eren chose the latter of his two options then, feeling the ridges of your pussy pulse and flutter around his cock. He pulled all the way back, tip daring to fall out of your little hole, and he flung himself right back in to the hilt. He repeated this a few times, and you were trying your best to hold back screams. Eren was drooling at the sight of your pretty pink pussy taking him, sloppy and messy from his saliva and your cum. He brought his attention to your bouncing breasts, molding one into his palm, rolling the nipple in the center.
Eren’s thrusts quickened dramatically, and he knew that your warning from the previous night had been true. You were screaming, calling out his name and several swears and ‘oh my god’s. This only encouraged him more, ego pretty much stroking his own cock as he plunged into you at a dangerous pace. He knew he was going to fast approach his orgasm, but Eren wasn’t stupid either. He could feel the clench tightening around him as he fucked right into that pretty spot inside of you, the way your breathing changed after a few seconds of that. Eren would become your number one expert, knowing every tell tale sign of your body, and what you were feeling. From one orgasm, he knew how your breathing changed, and Eren was determined to take you to those heights again.
Keeping the flick of his hips at the slamming pace he was at, he brought his thumb to your swollen clit. At the impact, your eyes screwed closed over the overwhelming pleasure. You felt a twinge of pain, just so sensitive from how strong you came before, but didn’t stop Eren as he rolled your pearl in fast circles, putting delicate pressure on the very top. It took maybe three strokes of his cock and a slight unsteady irregularity in his pattern to get you right where he had wanted you — desperate to cum alongside him.
“I’m so close, Eren,” you moaned out, lower body buzzing in anticipation.
“I want you to cum on my cock,” he demanded, a shocked moan crawling out of his throat at the first clench. “Oh, fuck, good girl.”
You spasmed under him, eyebrows shooting up in a furrow as you arched your back uncontrollably, the wave of your second orgasm slamming into you like a train. You could hear the squelching of Eren fucking your pussy as you contracted around him, or as he tried to. It was pure ecstasy, a feeling of wholeness filling you entirely. Half way through your orgasm, he grabbed the base of his cock, sliding out of you as he pumped himself fast above you. You held your legs open, breathing heavily as Eren watched your muscles contract in astonishment. He had never made a girl cum like this before, so hard and so visually. Your beautiful face, eyes encouraging him to cum, was all he needed. His dick was covered in you, his fingers sticky and soaked. It was all so fucking sloppy, and the thought and sight of it all caught up to him.
You felt the hot ropes of cum hit your belly, moaning at the sight. Eren was fucking his fist, cock thrusting in his grip like he had been doing in your pussy. His head hung forward, eyes drinking in the entirety of you. He shot his load on your lower half, stroking himself down after a couple of minutes, breathing heavily.
He eyed the box of tissues on your nightstand, and grabbed a few, languidly wiping his cum off of your abdomen as the two of you tried to catch your breath, or bring a ration thought back into your minds.
“We just had porn star sex,” you giggled tiredly.
“Oh yes we fucking did,” Eren smirked. “Not to like hype you up or whatever, that was the best sex I’ve ever had.”
Your pride and ego swelled as he finished wiping up his cum, discarding the tissues in the bin on the floor. He hadn’t given you much time to respond, asking where the bathroom was so he could grab a rag to clean you up. You were humbled, affection rising in your chest when he returned to take care of your exhausted body. No one had bothered with aftercare before, and right then and there, you knew Eren was a keeper.
“Thank you,” you yawned out, stretching your legs in front of you. Eren hung around a little awkwardly, not sure of what to do. “You can spend the night, if you want to.”
He raised his eyebrows, a smile crossing his face, “Do you want me to?”
You rolled your eyes, pushing yourself back until your head met your pillows and lifted your comforter, gesturing for Eren to join you. And that he did, pouncing on the offer and sliding into bed with you, not hesitating for a second to wrap his muscular arms around your waist. He kissed you gently, pulling away to place his lips on your shoulder as you began to drift off.
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You awoke alone in your bed, the bright rays of the sun hazy as you blinked the sleep away. You could smell and hear the sizzling of breakfast in your kitchen, your bedroom door swung wide open. You threw your legs over the mattress, stealing a quick look at yourself in the mirror. You cringed at the mascara stains under your eyes, taking a tissue and wiping underneath your lashes to look presentable enough for the man looming in your kitchen. You discarded the tissue, and slid on a pair of fresh panties and Eren’s enormous sweatshirt you had yet to return, and padded your bare feet across your floor to join him.
Eren’s back faced you, his form only clad in a pair of boxers as he focused his complete attention to the frying pans in front of him. You smirked, leaning against your counter, placing your chin in your open hands.
“Good morning, Chef Eren,” you teased, catching him off guard as he jumped a bit.
He turned to face you, hair a complete mess as a boyish smile graced his face, “Morning, princess. I hope you don’t mind my mess.”
“It smells amazing, so I guess I can figure out a way to forgive you,” you sighed dramatically. “Only if there’s coffee involved, though.”
“Way ahead of you,” he moved his legs over to your coffee machine, a pair of steaming muga awaiting his hand. He grabbed one, a plain white mug that matched the rest of your kitchen set, and set it on the counter in front of you.
“If you’re trying to earn extra credit, it’s working,” you said, dumbstriken.
“Gotta’ show you I’m boyfriend material,” he wagged his eyebrows, turning back to the frying pan before cutting the heat off. “I couldn’t find your plates, though.”
“Cabinet above the sink,” you directed, pulling out a stool from underneath your kitchen bar. “Forks and stuff are in the drawer by the refrigerator.”
Eren nodded, collecting two plates and the necessary utensils from their designated areas. The sight of eggs and bacon made your mouth water, and you were about to get a key made specifically for Eren to waltz in every morning to cook you this glorious meal every single day. You thanked him as he set your plate in front of you, and you dug in.
“Eren, it’s so good,” you complimented after chewing. “You really know how to treat a girl.”
He simply laughed, and the two of you fell into a pleasant conversation. And then by the time mid day rolled around, the two of you had talked all about where you’d be spending the evening. The night had ended just like the one before in mind blowing sex, the morning after repeating itself, and again, and again.
A month later, you had updated your Instagram bio. ‘Connoisseur of mimosas, rock and roll, and Eren Jaeger’. And when it had come time to update your OnlyFans content, you were more than happy to have your own personal photographer to use at your discretion. Just as long as you continued to wear his necklace, Eren would take as many pictures as you needed him to, knowing you’d end up in each other’s beds at the end of the session anyways. And he’d continue to follow you, this time though, you’d gladly send him his favorite pictures for free.
LACHERI © 2021: all writing content belongs to LACHERI. I do not allow reposts or translations. this is my only account.
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yoongsisbae · 3 years
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Handshakes of a Lifetime - Chapter 6
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BTS soulmate AU. OT7 x reader / Taehyung x reader focused in this chapter, slight Jungkook x reader and Namjoon x reader
Usually by the time I finish a chapter, I will have a nice chunk of the next chapter done, when I finished chapter 5 I had TWO SENTENCES FOR THIS CHAPTER cries, ugh this was a journey lol but I had fun along the way :). Also, I wanted to shoutout @missseoulite I remember having a really bad day when I saw your sweet comment about being eager for the new chap and just knowing someone cared enough to wish me safety and care about my well being, well it meant a lot to me, so this chapter is dedicated to you my dear!!!! <3
Word count: 10.3k
Warnings: death, mention of a suicide, if you’re like me and don’t like to think about being old this chapter might trigger an existential crisis lol, cheating, men being sexist, angst but also fluffiness, sex with Taehyung, breeding kink, a character calls you and Tae children but you are two very grown adults I just wanted to make that super duper clear.
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“I want to try, I think it would be worth it, you’ll be worth it.”
‘Why did he have to say that,’ you wince, looking over at the idol. He is beautiful, way out of your league, above you in every way, and he’s looking back at you like his whole world hangs in the balance. How could you reject him now. You groan.
You stand up. You place your palm in front of his face, your fingers splayed out, you can see his wide excited eyes in the gaps between them. You look at him expectantly. Taehyung nods, places his palm to yours, interlocking your fingers together.
Your heart thumps wildly as darkness fills the room. You open your eyes once you hear the familiar voice of your husband call out to you, “No need to fret anymore, my beloved. I’m here now.” Taehyung’s hand covers your old and frail fingers. You lie in your bed, body tired and weathered from all the years you’ve spent on this earth.
Your eyes roam over the room, taking in all the faces of your beautiful children and grandchildren. The pain in your tired joints fades as you focus on the man you’ve only grown to love more in all the years you’ve been together. It’s because of him you’ve lived a fulfilled life full of love. With him by your side you’re ready now.
You look up from your crouched position, the flowers you’ve picked lie fresh and pretty in your basket. You look to the dirt path where a man is running towards you. ‘What is a man doing here of all places?’ you think.
He comes to a stop once he sees you, hands on his knees as he gasps for breath. He looks young and beautiful, though his robes are askew and torn and his face glistens as sweat drips from his chin. You almost decide to ignore him and go back to your duties until you notice the red lines that peak from the uncovered parts of his torso. The cuts look painful. You hesitate, “Do you need some assistance?”
“Don’t mind me, fair maiden,” his breathing is still heavy as he speaks. He looks around, taking in his surroundings. ‘What is he looking for?’ you wonder. You can tell he is trying to hide his panic, but it comes through in his tense movements and jittery eyes.
“Are you sure you don’t need help?”
Four men on horse approach you. You notice they are soldiers by the gold plates that cover their body. You hold the flower basket a little tighter to your chest. The first soldier speaks, “Have you seen a man come through this way?”
“You’re the only men I’ve seen for days.”
You feel their lewd stares on you, your stomach churns from the unwanted attention. One soldier dismounts his horse and stalks closer to you. “A pretty little thing like you wouldn’t dare lie to us?” he questions.
“I swear on goddess Athena.” You stand still and look to the ground as he invades your space. The soldier brings a calloused hand to your chin to make you look at him, his companions snickering at your discomfort.
“For days? You must be lonely, poor sweet thing you are.” The other soldiers dismount and circle you. You try to keep your face neutral from the disgust you feel as their eyes rake over your body.
“It is as I said,” your eyes shift to the marble walls of the temple behind you. “I would not lie in Athena’s name, I am protected by her watch.” You emphasize your last words, keeping your limbs close and suppressing your instincts to fight and draw this encounter out any longer than need be.
The men look over to the temple and begin to move closer to the entrance. You follow after them, dropping your basket and letting the flowers scatter into the dirt in your haste.
“No men shall enter, unless you want to face the wrath of the goddess herself,” you yell from behind them. The men laugh. You find the courage to pull at the leader’s armour to cease his advancing. “You will be cursed if you go in there, sir!”
Taehyung’s eyes go wide as he hides underneath the blanket you’ve covered him in. He removes his hand from the temple’s wall, and brings his knees up and off the floor, trying to touch as little as possible of his surroundings.
The men scoff at your words, the leader shoves you away but does not advance any closer. You’ve taken up enough of their time, and they need to find this criminal before The Queen bestows her own kind of punishment upon them.
“Be careful, girl. There is a dangerous man fleeing prosecution, pray to your Goddess we find him before you do.” You find their warning quite ironic as you watch the leader kick your basket. You assume in an attempt to be intimidating, but in your opinion it makes him look more like a petulant child, your brow ticks in annoyance.
Only when they are completely out of your sight do you let go of the breath you were holding. You run into the temple, crashing into the stranger as he runs out.
“I’m sorry!” He exclaims, his hands grabbing onto you to keep you from falling. Electricity zips through you as you both break away stunned. You rub at your arms to take away your goosebumps. The stranger lowers the hand that clutched at his chest, his wide eyes looking at you in question.
“Is it true? A curse is the last thing I need right now!” he laments. You giggle. The soldiers called this man dangerous?
“The rules say no man is to enter, yes.” His horrified expression makes you laugh even more. “But...they are more like guidelines,” you assure him. “Enough temple priestesses have brought their fair share of men back and nothing too sinister has happened yet, by the gods.”
It does little to lessen his worry. He looks at you skeptically. “I thought Athena’s priestesses were supposed to stay virginal in honor of the goddess’s protection.”
“Oh,” you offer him a smile, “that is her protection. It is perception that protects us.”
You eye the man, his features are sharp, striking; almost intimidating; but his aura is quite soft. “...protects us from men. In this world there are very few true heroes, I’m afraid most only live inside songs.”
He looks at you in understanding. “My apologies, you had to deal with those soldiers alone. I couldn’t do anything to defend you.” He winces at the thought, “For you to have shielded me instead, I thank you.” He offers you a deep bow and you feel butterflies dance in your chest.
“Can I ask as to why you’re running?”
He looks to the direction he came, unable to meet your eyes. “Ahh, well...I am in poor favor with The Queen.”
Your eyes widen, you’ve heard rumors of her beauty even in the remoteness of your area, and even more of her kingdom’s hedonism. The man in front of you is truly beautiful. He could be one of her lovers, you think, he most definitely looks the part. His robes though now disheveled are of expensive fabric and show off his lean body, and the way he holds himself you can’t imagine him to be a common worker. “So, you and The Queen, I see...”
“Oh! It’s not what you think...I’m a mere poet. I sing to The Queen and her Court, but she suddenly wanted more of me than I am willing to offer. I-I rejected her.”
Your eyes widen again. “That was most unwise.”
He smiles, his eyes cast down. “I can bear the weight of my faults. I plan to leave to another province.”
“You’ll rather leave your home? But it is The Queen!”
“As you can see, there is punishment in denying The Queen of her desires.”
You’re astonished. “I can’t imagine being with her to be so horrible you’d choose to run instead, give up all you’ve acquired?”
“I rather give myself to someone for love.”
You feel your heartbeat quicken at his words, ‘so idealistic.’ You’ve never encountered an individual with such delicate presence, a trait you find most unconventional. A smile pulls at one of the corners of your mouth, “Aphrodite must favor you.”
Taehyung laughs, his eyes softening, “Thank you again, someone must favor me to put you in my path.” His warm dark eyes hold your gaze. “I mustn’t stay too long…”
“Yes, of course! Well then…” You falter in your farewell. He struggles with the decision to leave. Taehyung knows he must, The Queen’s soldiers could come riding through again at any moment, and he doesn’t want to think of the punishment they would bestow upon you if they learned of your lies, so why can’t he seem to let go of your company?
He notices the trampled flowers littered on the ground around you, the colorful petals lay beautiful and ruined, a fate he worries will become yours if he doesn’t make haste. He picks up an unbroken blossom. “Thank you again.” He places the flower in your palms, a warmth spreads over you through your fingertips as you hold your breath in reverence. His thumbs stroke your fingers gently, and then he nods at you one last time and moves to run again. You feel a pressure building in your throat, unready to bid him farewell, and you don’t understand why this man whom you’ve just met is affecting you so. His kindness and his gentleness makes your body yearn to learn more. What can you do, he’s a stranger and not yours to keep, you must let him go.
His flower stays cradled in your hands, you feel your chest tighten more and more with each step he takes that brings another stretch of distance between your bodies. Your limbs itch to move. What should you do? It is what you want to do that makes you so afraid. You silently ask Athena for guidance. It is only when he turns past the treeline and out of sight that you can’t take it any longer.
You run into the temple. You race to your small quarters, and gather anything you deem valuable, not very much. Pushing down the thoughts that tell you you’re acting crazed and without reason, you fasten your belongings to your body. You race out of the temple's entrance and crash once again into a body that jolts your nerve endings with an undeniable energy. You stare into his eyes once more, the man you saved. He looks down at you, eyes wide with surprise but full of mirth.
A horse carries you and Taehyung farther North. You travel in comfortable silence, as your hands rest snugly around his waist. After riding with him for so long, you are no longer shy to hold him, accustomed to being pressed up against his back. You listen to the steady rhythm of horse hooves against the earth. It is peaceful and you find yourself smiling against Taehyung’s back.
The bright lush green landscape turns dark and threatening as the two of you ride past an abandoned village. The wooden wreckage smolders still. You gasp at the sight, so many homes lost. Taehyung taps the horse’s body with his foot to quicken its step.
“Stop!” You yell at Taehyung once you notice a shift amongst the rubble. You jump off before he properly stops his stead, running towards the wreckage to confirm what you thought you had witnessed.
Taehyung runs after you, warning you to be careful. Once you reposition a large plank of wood, you gasp at what you see. There’s a bleeding old woman pinned underneath, still alive. You call for Taehyung’s help, the both of you pulling her as delicately as you can manage from beneath the rubble.
“I can’t believe you’re still alive, it’s a miracle by The Gods.” Taehyung holds the old woman’s hand as you run to the horse to fetch a canteen of water.
“Oh, a miracle yes,” the old woman coughs out, “fate has blessed me after much burden.”
You work to clean her skin of dried blood and ash, offering her water to drink. “What can we do to help?”
“My walking stick, it is most important.” Her eyes stay closed shut in pain, as she gestures to the place you’ve pulled her from. Taehyung rummages around until he pulls an item from the wreckage, an impressive staff decorated with gold markings and a large green gem adorned at its apex.
The old woman offers Taehyung her gratitude, feeling much more at ease she opens her eyes to look at the pair of you. You stare into the old woman’s clouded grey eyes in surprise.
“Thank you child, but hurry, the rain will wash the flames away, but will halt your journey for the day.” Taehyung looks upwards at the old woman’s words, white clouds are traveling across the bright clear blue sky.
You can’t leave the blind woman alone after everything she’s been through. “If it’s going to rain, please let us take you to the next village for shelter.” She nods and walks staff in hand towards Taehyung’s horse.
“Only a bit further, we will make it before it rains,” the old blind woman promises. Sounds of thunder echo faintly in the background. The sun is no longer out, hidden behind dark grey storm clouds. You shiver and rub the exposed skin of your arms for comfort next to Taehyung as the two of you walk next to his horse. He grasps your hand and pulls you closer to him. He radiates warmth. You never know how to react to his kind gestures. You look up at him and meet his gaze, sending him a shy smile. He rubs his thumb on your knuckles, smiling brightly back. If his intentions were to make you warm, he succeeded, your heart feels full.
“This is a farming community. They are a kind people who serve Demeter, the two of you are safe here,” At the old woman’s declarations you and Taehyung look at each other, exchanging unspoken words.
“This is where our paths must diverge. If you continue to follow this road, you’ll find sanctuary for the night, I promise.” Taehyung helps the old blind woman down from his horse. “Thank you again, children. I don’t have anything to offer you in return for your help, but I can give you some words of wisdom.” She smiles kindly at you both.
The old blind woman still holds Taehyung’s hand in hers. She turns his palm upward, her fingers trace the lines of his hand. You watch her curiously. “Ahh, your soul holds so much talent, you’ll find it’s both a blessing and a curse.” You giggle, Taehyung shoots you a look, his lips curving into a half smile. “Ahh, you know of it already. In the future, you’ll have a great choice to make, I can’t choose for you, but as someone who's lived many years and knows how dreadful and gray the world can become, my advice is to choose the path of love.”
“Always,” Taehyung’s eyes cast a look over to you and you feel shy once more under his gaze.
She brings her hand to Taehyung’s face to pat his cheek. “Dear child, too beautiful for your own good. It won’t be easy for you, for either of you, this path before you. Hermes wings have found your heels, you won’t find much rest in this life.” She looks sympathetic as her head turns towards you.
“Much like the universe has brought you to me, I see destiny is not a stranger.” She smiles at you knowingly. You hold your breath as she reaches for your hand, studying your palm alongside Taehyung’s. “Your souls...they have been linked together. I see the red string of fate wrapped tightly around you both.”
You find yourself wanting to believe her. Her words seem heartfelt and true, and you can’t deny her strong aura despite her fragile appearance. You catch Taehyung’s eyes again. Has he been looking at you this entire time? She continues, “This bond you have is quite unbreakable, not even death can cut what tethers you together.” She studies your hand more carefully, “Ahh, peculiar...”
“Do you see something worrisome?” you ask, concerned.
“It is nothing to worry dear, you have much love that surrounds you. Let yourself love. There will be those who will try to keep you apart, but take it from an old old woman, love is a stronger force than even the gods can imagine. It glitters brighter than gold and gives you riches greater than Kings. In the end, you’ll find a way.”
You think of her words all night. You look over to your companion, he sleeps peacefully next to you. Do you love him? Is this love? Is he your destiny? You pray to Athena for answers, but only more questions arise in your mind.
You think to the day you first met him, the memory bringing a smile to your face. You left with him, in the end. It was you who found the courage to ask him to take you with him, on the premise of wanting to see the world while moving to another temple. You expected him to let you down gently, you remember his hesitation still, but instead he had not refused you, and you have been traveling with him ever since. Being with Taehyung filled the holes of loneliness that punctured your existence before meeting. Your world had been small, consisting only within the temple’s walls. Now your world feels infinite, it’s thrilling and terrifying, and at the center of it all is Taehyung, gentle and kind and sincere in his affection.
---
You are jostled from your sleep. Taehyung pulls you gently from your bed, his lips placing tender kisses across your forehead as he pulls you to your feet. “I’m sorry, we have to leave again.”
This is not the first time you've had to run, or the second or third. So you pack the things you cannot part with and say goodbye to the rest.
Taehyung, the beautiful poet with a voice that can capture any audience's attention, has always been able to afford you both a roof and a meal. Taehyung’s performances become the talk of whatever acropolis you find yourself in, and his fame grows until his looks and voice catch the attention of someone too important to ignore. Fame is a wonderful thing until it becomes too much, too demanding, and all too quickly can Taehyung’s admirers turn into attackers, vilifying his every action. When that happens he decides to run, and you follow. You worry if it goes on like this you’ll have no more places left to run to.
You liked this place the most, it pangs your heart to lose your home again, but you know your true home is in Taehyung’s arms. You pack as many mementos of this place as you can carry, and hold the rest of your memories close in your heart.
---
“Like this,” you pull your bow back and look to the trees ahead where three pheasants sit perched. You choose the biggest bird and aim your arrow. You make sure Taehyung is studying your form and then you let the arrow go. The bird squawks sharply before falling to the ground, and the others scatter to the sky.
“See!” you laugh at Taehyung’s astonished face.
“How are you so much better at this than me?” The poet whines as you hand him back his bow and arrow. You laugh again. You and Taehyung have been learning to survive by yourselves through trial and error, more error than not. You’ve never had to hunt for food before, but you quickly found yourself skilled, and you think it’s quite fun. At least when you’re not starving, stomach already full from fresh berries Taehyung had picked for you to share. He had picked you flowers as well. They sit in your hair in an intricate pattern after you complained to him you couldn’t eat flowers. You slowly remove the arrow bag from around your neck, so as not to ruin the halo he so carefully crafted.
“I caught it, so you cook it,” you tease.
He brings your hand to his lips for a quick kiss. “That, my fair maiden, I can do!”
---
It is late and Taehyung has not arrived home. His performance should have been done hours ago. You try not to let your thoughts wander into the dark depths of your worst fears as you settle into a restless unease. Your home is quiet and still, too quiet. You keep your ears focused as you wander around the house.
It goes from quiet to chaos too quickly, you hear shouting in the distance. A hand grabs your mouth before you can scream, you start to kick but strong arms hold you tightly. Taehyung shushes you as he pulls you to the back entrance of your home.
You’re running into the woods with the poet, he pulls you to the ground and holds you beneath him. From the bushes you watch men with swords circle your house. You feel violated as you watch them enter your home. Crashes inside make you flinch in Taehyung's arms. “We’ll go back to fetch our things once they leave,” he shushes you.
The soft warm glow of your house becomes bright, light filling up the night sky as a fire breaks out and the men continue to destroy your home. Taehyung covers your mouth to stifle your cries and holds you close to him, whispering countless apologies. You can only whimper in his arms, your shoulders shake in grief as you watch everything you own go up in flames.
When you first came to this place, you and Taehyung stood out too much for the villagers' liking. You were strangers, you didn’t look like them, and they targeted you constantly for the pettiest of things. But this area was remote so you endured their hateful ways. It didn’t help matters when Taehyung, a much better singer than the locals before him, was offered an audience with the region’s King. Taehyung never made an appearance, letting other singers he befriended attend in his place, hoping to gain some favor with the locals, but it only angered the King. Feeling insulted, he killed the poets. And now, with enemies at both ends, and anger consuming the villagers, Ares wrath scorched your home to the ground.
You’re quiet next to Taehyung. Your feet ache from walking. No horse, no food in days. It’s nightfall and cold, you wear his cloak and shiver still. You walk beside the poet, but he feels oceans away. His usual bright eyes are dull and full of sorrow. You didn’t realize how accustomed you were to his touch until he had stopped. Your body aches to be in his arms, to hold his hand while you walk. You feel loneliness twist around you instead.
It is Taehyung who breaks the silence. He speaks softly, “There is a famous temple of Athena in this city, hopefully we can convince them to let you stay.”
The idea revolts you, pulling at the pit of your stomach. The thought of going back to your old ways, as if it would be a reprieve or something you missed, makes you nauseated.
“No.”
“I thought it would be enough...I-I was naive. I’m truly cursed. I can sing all about love, paint beautiful stories of love’s triumph, but when I cannot give you anything else but my devotion, it’s not enough. I can’t stand to watch you wither away in front of me. You deserve more.”
“The oracle said-”
“What kind of life is this for you?” He stops walking, his voice breaks in his anguish. “I-I’m sorry. I should have never taken you away from safety into this reckless existence. This should have been my burden alone.” Tears fall down his face as he shudders. You reach for him, cup his face in your hands. How can you make him see he’s all you want? He lets you wipe away his tears. You pull his head down to meet yours.
“What kind of life is this? The best life I’ve ever could have wished for. A life full of love. I’d trade everything I have for you.” You brush your lips against his, it stops his tears. His eyes fill with adoration, a blazing intensity that makes your heartbeat quicken.
“Stop this worrying, let’s go.” You grab his hand and pull him along. The silence hangs heavy in the air, the stillness of the night frightens you.
“Sing me a song please.”
“From now on I’ll only sing for you.” Taehyung says his words quietly, but his resolve thunders to the heavens, shaking the course of your lives.
The light of day shines through your open window, it illuminates the thin white fabric pulled over your head and wakes you. The white cloth flitters in the breeze of your bedroom and you catch a peak of the handsome man lying next to you. His dark warm eyes are already open as he watches you stretch your sleepiness away. He lifts his head, pulling the sheet higher, so he can get a better look at you, “Good morning, my beloved.”
Taehyung’s dark hair and tan skin against the glowing white backdrop of your bed sheets makes him look ethereal. You watch him in awe, “Good morning, dear husband.”
Your body feels heavy and rested. Your bare skin is warm against his and the sun heated sheet, the soft fabric pulls over your bodies, everything is so soft and warm.
Taehyung buries his head in your chest, smiling against your skin. “I love you.”
Your fingers play with the curls of his hair. “And I love you.”
Underneath the covers, you create your own little world, away from the responsibilities of your lives, the expectations of the day.
Taehyung runs his lips across your naked chest, kissing, licking, biting all over your body. You giggle at his playful teasing touches. “You’re perfection, so soft and pretty.” He captures your lips in a kiss, moving his mouth against yours slowly as his body rests between your legs. His hands find your waist and pull at your skin as he explores your mouth with his tongue, swallowing your moans.
Your legs wrap around his torso, you can feel him growing against your slick core. Taehyung's fingers find yours and he intertwines them together, pulling your arms above your head. He nibbles on the sensitive skin below your jaw.
“You smell so good,” he moans, “you taste so good.” His low baritone voice sends shivers down your body. You whimper, breathless from his caresses. He thrusts in slowly, rolling his body into you, slow and steady until you’re both feverish from mounting pleasure. “What do you want, my love?”
“Just you, please, I want all of you.”
He rolls you over so your body is on top of him. “You have me forever. Now show me how much you want me.” Your playful lover bites his lower lip, pulling on your hips to make you move against him. Your body moves up and down his length, Taehyung’s moans and devastating lustful looks spur you on to please him.
You roll your hips faster, so close to release. Taehyung notices your frenzied state and grabs your hips to hold you still, thrusting up into you instead. His hard length fills you up so deliciously. His grip on you is searing yet soft, you focus on his body below you, his tight muscles and golden skin. “I-I’m close.”
“Touch yourself for me.”
The room fills with sinful noises as your bodies converge again and again and you cry out in euphoria. Taehyung stills inside you as you reach your high, mesmerized by the way your body twist in pleasure in his arms.
Taehyung lays your trembling body down against the soft sheets of your bed, grinding his hips into you as you continue to pulse around him. “Eyes open, look at me my love.”
You struggle with his command, but hold his gaze as best you can, his physique shines with sweat and his hungry eyes roam over your spent body, the erotic way he looks at you ignites the desire in between your legs once again.
He’s so close to release. Taehyung quickens his pace, making you tighten around him, senses overloaded. You moan, encouraging him to keep going.
“You’ll let me fill you up? Have my baby?” His long fingers find your sensitive nub, applying pressure and making you cry out.
“Y-yes!” You can only feel blinding pleasure as Taehyung thrusts into you deeper.
“How beautiful you’ll be, glowing and pregnant with my baby growing inside of you.” He groans. Your stomach tightens as his cock swells, pressure filling you before you feel yourself snapping again. Taehyung’s own release following, your tightness too much for him to handle.
You hold him close to you as you both work to steady your breathing, “We have to start baking soon,” you softly remind him, “before the market opens.”
Taehyung cuddles closer to you, “It’s okay, they’ll wait for my bread, it is the best in the city.” He grins, kneading at your breasts with his large hands. You laugh, relaxing into his embrace.
“Okay okay, we’ll stay a bit longer.”
Your children gather around you in prayer. You take in a ragged breath. Your bedridden aging body feels heavy. Soft light begins to cloud the edges of your vision as you listen to the wistful voices of your sons and daughters shower you with love. Taehyung's fingers brush against your wrinkled digits.
“My beautiful wife, how I missed you.”
You call out his name. Your eldest daughter soothes you, brushing her hand over your forehead. You thought you would be afraid once teetering on the edge of your own mortality, but with him here, holding you again, fear is unable to reach you. You’re already so full of love.
Taehyung comes into your focus, still beautiful in his old age, still the gentle man you love, he places a feather light kiss on your temple. Relief washes through you, the currents pull the burdens on your soul away, and you feel light, floating between worlds.
“I’ve waited for you,” Taehyung’s deep voice fills your mind, “Are you ready to travel with me again?” You know your answer, innate as the love you felt when you first met him.
You take one final breath, letting go and following Taehyung again.
---
Your eyes flutter open. You’re lying face down on the hotel bed. As your eyes begin to focus, you are met with the singer’s face next to yours. Taehyung is lying on his back next to you, grinning from ear to ear, your fingers are still interlocked by your heads.
“What happened?” you whisper.
“I don’t know, I think we passed out, I woke up right before you opened your eyes.”
He looks at you, still beaming, a boxy smile plastered on his face. You try not to smile back. He shouldn’t be this happy!
“That wasn’t bad. You made it sound bad.” he pouts.
You hum, looking at your still intertwined fingers. You study the smooth skin of your hands, the wrinkles and veins you’d seen now only a fleeting memory. You feel tired.
Taehyung feels like he’s just woken up from a long dream. Memories of last night feel far away, more distant than memories presumably lived centuries ago. He focuses on the only constant, you.
“Do you regret it?”
You let out a deep exhale, you move your hand to trace his cheek, his nose, his eyebrow; he watches you quietly. You flick him on the forehead.
Taehyung yelps, looking quite betrayed by your actions. You smile, and his expression switches easily back to happiness. “It’s okay, you don’t have to admit I’m right,” he teases.
You let out a huff, “Doesn’t it bother you? It should bother you! Why is this happening...it’s exhausting...”
Taehyung wraps his arms around you and pulls you close to his body. “I don’t care why,” he mumbles into your hair. Your breath catches in your throat as he cuddles closer to you.
“Do you want me to stop?”
Your heart pounds. You try to stay calm. “No,” you whisper.
His arms tighten around your frame. His warmth envelopes you, it feels like there’s fire inside you, burning down all your apprehensions.
“So this is how it feels. I thought I understood Jungkook. But this is....” you feel his body vibrate as he laughs to himself. “It’s not something you can put into words, right? I understand what he means, about not wanting to let you go.”
Closing your eyes you can picture yourself being in a different place, a different land, another time, you let yourself relax into Taehyung’s embrace. You can feel his hands caress your body, his long fingers travel to the back of your neck and down your spine and the curve of your back.
“I know I’ve never hugged you, but it feels like I’ve done this a hundred times before. Like you belong with me.” His voice is low in your ears. You try to ignore how you feel, how true his words are, but you can't.
“Right? At least admit that to me, y/n.” He whispers. His fingers dig into your skin as he pulls you even closer.
“Hm?”
“You belong with me.”
“I-” A knock on your door makes you break away from him. Taehyung flops on his back, sighing. You open the door to the youngest and oldest members smiling at you.
“Good morning!” You internally wince at your unusually high voice. Jungkook looks over your shoulder, noticing movement inside your room. He sees Taehyung sitting cross legged on your bed, leaning back on his palms with a grin on his face. Jungkook’s doe eyes go wide as his head turns slowly over to the eldest, who then mirrors his expression. Their surprised faces would be comical to you if you didn’t feel responsible for their reactions.
Everyone’s silence is making your stomach twist into knots. You clear your throat. “I touched his hand, if that’s what you’re wondering.” Unable to meet their eyes, you feel the need to add, “That’s all that happened. So...okay, let’s go!”
---
Everyone is sitting in the penthouse, around the coffee table filled with plates piled high with different breakfast foods. Some are sitting on the floor, some on the couch with plates in their laps. Jin ushers you next to an open spot next to J-Hope and sits on your other side. Taehyung and Jungkook have been quietly talking behind you and find seats in the empty gaps.
“The food here is really good,” Hoseok says in between bites as Jin serves you a plate. He smiles brightly at you. Hoseok wishes he wasn't so apprehensive with you. He aches to get to know you, learn all your quirks, learn about your childhood and what makes you happy so he can shower you with more of it; and what makes you sad so he can make sure you never experience it again. But he's too scared, Hoseok feels too much guilt.
His hair is messy and sticking up in weird angles, you resist the urge to fix it. ‘Just keep your hands to yourself, y/n. He’s not your friend,’ you chant in your head. You look around at the men, cozy and warm in their group. You realize how much of an outsider you are.
“Here,” Jin places a triangle of sweet toast on your already overflowing plate. You eat quietly while the members talk to themselves and check their phones. It feels nice, like a big family dinner on the holidays. You watch Hoseok take a selfie with his phone, a minute later you feel your phone vibrate with a notification.
“You posted to twitter just now?” Hoseok notices the panic in your voice as you magnify the picture to make sure there’s no item or reflection that might incriminate you.
“Err yes, why?” he scoots closer to you to see what you’re doing.
“I just-didn’t think it was that easy.” You scroll quickly through your timeline now that you’ve made sure you’re safe, Jin and Hoseok both moving in your space to stare at your phone much to your dismay and you think it’s time to put it away after the third photo of Namjoon’s toned arms pop up on your feed.
After stuffing yourselves full, the time has come to address the elephant in the room. The members take turns reliving the moments of last night, and in Taehyung’s case this morning, explaining everything so the group could all remain on the same page.
Namjoon should have been upset, once Taehyung shocked the rest of the group by speaking, but being in the same predicament himself, he was not surprised to learn Taehyung sought you out, he had barely slept toying with the idea himself.
You don’t talk much, just confirm certain details. You noticed how the men glossed over the most tragic parts of your visions, and you don’t care to interject. You learned new things as well...
Jimin finding his way back to your farm, only to find it destroyed and you gone, and unable to live with himself after that. You can’t meet each other's eyes when you tell him your own version of events.
Jin wanted to propose, he had picked out a ring, a bright blue gem like the ocean.
Taehyung had convinced you he stopped singing as a bard because he grew to hate it, but he confessed, to your suspicion, that wasn’t the case at all. He promised you he never once regretted his decision.
Hoseok took the job as a DJ because when you were younger you were obsessed with your local station, swooning over the DJ's voice and always calling in to win contests for you and Hoseok. He always had an affinity for music, but mostly he did it for you, to impress you.
Yoongi almost didn’t admit he had never really left your side, how he never stopped protecting you. That had shocked you the most. Your heart screams to comfort him, to comfort all of them.
Jungkook excitedly tells you everything he had planned for your escape, he used his life’s savings to find you and him a new home far away. He tells you how if you both had succeeded you would have been so happy with him.
It felt weird. All these lives inside you itching to burst through, you didn’t feel like yourself anymore. You meet the idol’s eyes sitting next to you, and when he looks at you so tenderly, you wonder who he really sees.
“Yoongi’s life was the coolest.” The quiet rapper keeps his head down, only nodding in acknowledgement at Jimin’s comment.
“Well I liked mine,” Taehyung declares. “Which one was your favorite, y/n?”
“I’m not answering that,” you mutter, growing hot under the sudden attention.
“Hmm I don’t see a connection.” Namjoon hums. “Apart from y/n.”
“Should there be one?”
“I’m assuming nothing strange like this has ever happened to you before?” Namjoon turns to you. You shake your head. “Have you ever had dreams, um, of us?”
“No! I mean-what? No.” You pull the neck of Jungkook’s hoodie over your mouth to hide your embarrassment, with no intention on admitting anything. What does dreaming have to do with this?
Namjoon stays silent in thought. Should he tell the group now?
“I should probably go now.” It’s no longer morning after talking for so long. You have a life to go back to; chores, work. You hope being back in your home will make you feel more like the old you, before everything you thought you knew was turned upside down.
Jungkook stands up, “Why!”
“I have work in the morning? Not everyone is a famous world class musician,” You try to keep your tone light, but you’re bothered.
His lips press into a tight line. “I know, just…”
You have responsibilities, a job to go to tomorrow, you don’t want to entertain the wild fantasies arising in your mind at the way he looks at you so pleadingly to stay. “I can’t stay here all day.” You stand up as well, the members’ eyes dart back and forth between you and Jungkook, like they were watching fighters in a match.
“I don’t want you to leave.” Jungkook blurts out.
You close your eyes and rub at your temples. It’s becoming too hard, to keep pushing these feelings away, you cannot allow yourself to feel things for these men. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. What do you want from me?”
Jungkook speaks louder, “Do you not want to be with me?”
“I’m-that’s not-it’s not that simple. You don’t even know me! Do you want to be with me-”
“Yes.”
You let out an incredulous laugh and look around the room, but the men look starkly serious. You focus on the youngest again, raising your voice so everyone can hear you clearly. “I’m a nobody. You don’t know me. Name one thing you know about me other than my name...name my favorite color! If you can name my favorite color I’ll sta-”
Jungkook names your favorite color. His eyes piercing through you. Your breath catches in your throat.
‘How did he-wait...was it her favorite color too?’ Tears well up in your eyes. “...I’m not her.”
Jungkook winces at your words, “You’re right, I don’t know who you are right now. But you are...I know you are...the woman I fell in love with. What are you so afraid of?”
You look down at the ground to your feet. You can only shake your head at him and keep your mouth shut so you don’t start crying in front of them. You feel a hand wrap around yours and you already know who it is. You yank your hand away. If Yoongi is hurt, he doesn’t show it to you.
“I’m sorry, I know my life is difficult, that I’m a ‘famous musician,’ but isn’t it better than a poor stable worker? Can’t you see how meeting you again, this might be, maybe...fate?”
A pained laugh escapes your throat, letting go of the pressure you built up in your forced silence. “Oh my god. This is not happening.” Yes, maybe you can finally admit what happened was real, but what does that change? It’s not like you can run away with him in this life either, the entire world recognizes him now.
Your hands hold your head, your nails dig into your skin to concentrate on anything other than Jungkook’s continuing pleas. It’s just laughable to think this idol is begging you to stay with him. A sick thought invades your mind that maybe you’re doomed to repeat your transgressions. The memory of his bleeding body flashes in your mind, you’re not meant to be with them, how could you be? They’re the most famous singers in the world, yeah, you are afraid.
Jimin tries to calm down the youngest, “Kookie, you can’t force her to stay here…”
Jungkook is beside himself. He feels you slipping through his fingers again, away from him and even if it’s different now, it feels too sickeningly similar.
“Hyung please, you’ve been with non-idols, please talk to her...please!” Jungkook is crying, begging Jin.
A strangled sob escapes your throat at his cries. Hoseok rushes over to you, but you scramble away from his touch. You know you’ll break the second you let him comfort you.
Jin’s heart is breaking; for Jungkook, for you, for himself. He doesn’t know what to say, he’s just afraid as Jungkook of letting you go. Finally Namjoon decides to take control of the situation, the only one with a clear head. “Everyone leave. Now. Y/n deserves her space, and we still have four more days left in this city. Alright go!” The boys pull each other away, holding onto each other for strength, trusting their leader.
Yoongi pats a crying Jungkook on the back, “It’s okay, Joon will convince her.”
---
Your eyes hurt from crying, puffy and dark. You feel pathetic. Your head is pounding, you lean against the car window as you watch the blur of the city go past.
“Here.” Namjoon sits across from you, leaving the middle seat open. He hands you a cell phone.
You hold the sleek new model in your hand, “What is this?”
“It’s a hand phone,” the idol says teasingly.
You can’t help but let out a small laugh. “What is this for?”
“For you, to contact us.” Namjoon shrugs, “If you want to.” You sit in silence as his driver takes you home.
“You haven’t asked to touch my hand. Do you not want to?” You ask, sneaking a glance at the rapper.
“Of course I want to,” he speaks softly. “It’s all I’ve thought about since I saw you. But you’ve gone through a lot. I’ll let you decide if it’s something you want to do, and when you’re ready I’ll be here.”
You bite your lip. “For four more days.”
Namjoon smiles, his dimples on display. “Yes, I’m guessing you didn’t get tickets for the next city?”
“No, I wish. Those fanmeet tickets weren’t exactly cheap.”
Namjoon chuckles softly, “Ahh sorry.”
“Well, I did get a free breakfast with BTS, lucky me,” you hum. He nods, his eyes cast down. You hope he didn’t catch any bitterness in your tone, under any circumstance you would be dying of happiness.
You let the silence envelope you again, as you start to recognize the streets, you’re getting closer to home and to being left alone. You sigh, running your hands over your face, “Oh god, this is a mess.”
“I don’t think it is. I think there’s a reason for everything. And I think there’s a reason why this happened to you. To all of us.”
“What could that reason be?” You ask him genuinely, maybe the genius idol sees something you don’t.
“I don’t know. I do know it’s lonely being an idol. It’s hard to love, to find someone to love you and not break under the constant pressure.”
“I don’t know if I can be that person.”
“Well to me, it sounds like you’ve already been that person.” You want to scoff, but the sincere look in his eyes makes you stop. The GPS signals your arrival home.
The air is heavy as you gather up the strength to leave, “I will message you later, I promise. Just give me some time.”
You watch the expensive van leave your entrance. You couldn’t see through the dark tinted windows, but you had a feeling the idol was watching you, so you held yourself together and waved goodbye.
---
You know you should have just gone inside your home, but you had something to do first, it was driving you mad not knowing. So now you stand in front of a door that’s not your own still in clothes that are not your own. You send a text of your arrival and knock.
“Hi!” You pretend you aren’t exhausted, “I just have to try something-”
He looks at you dumbfounded as you grab his hand and start shaking it. Nothing. ‘Of course, just wonderful.’ You switch to two hands, shaking more forcefully.
“What’s going on...” his voice is shaky from the intense movements of your greeting. ‘Why is nothing happening, why is it only them, Ugh, why!’
“Earth to y/n...” why why why why.
He grabs your arms to stop your movements “Hey, are you okay? You never responded to my calls, I was worried.”
“I’m sorry,” you look into his concerned eyes. It feels like eons ago, whatever budding feelings you had for him. Why.
“Do you want to come in?”
“No, I better go.”
“You came all the way over here and you don’t want to tell me how last night went? You meet BTS and now you’re acting all crazy! You didn’t decide to leave me for one of them, did you?” your friend jokes.
“Ah ha aha…”
He raises his eyebrow at you. “I have work tomorrow...I just wanted to see you.” It’s the truth, you’re not lying. “I’m sorry for not responding last night. I’ll see you later?”
He gives you a kiss goodbye. ‘Oh no.’ It all feels so wrong.
---
The first day, you send Jungkook an apology. He sends you a ton of voice memos and selfies, just happy to talk to you again. You respond with light replies, trying not to dig your hole any deeper.
The second day, that night you break down. You send all the boys a simple “hi”. Yoongi, Jin, Taehyung, Jungkook, and Namjoon all respond. They send messages about their day. Jin sends you a picture of his food. Yoongi says he misses you. Against your better judgement you tell him you miss him too. Suspiciously, after your reply Jungkook and Taehyung message that they miss you seconds apart from one another. You tell them you miss them too, when Taehyung says he wants to see you, you’re too scared to respond.
The third day you stay busy with work. Hoseok sends you a picture of the sunset, his first message to you, nothing else. You wait until the night comes and send a picture of the moon from your window, and ‘Goodnight. Sweet dreams.’
The fourth day the pressure becomes too much. You hover over the call button all day but you can’t do it. By dinner time, you get a call from Jungkook. You try to swallow down the tears you’ve cried all day and sound cheerful when you answer.
“I just wanted to call before we get on the plane,” he says.
‘It’s too late. No.’ you think. “I’m sorry, tell Namjoon I’m so sorry. I should have seen him before you all left, I should have...”
“Don’t worry y/n. No one blames you.”
“That doesn’t mean what I did was okay. I wanted to see you all again.”
“You did?” The way his voice becomes more cheerful tugs at your heart. “You can make it up to us by talking more. Can I video chat with you later?”
“Okay.”
“Okay, got to go...Bye Beautiful.” He sounds like he’s in a much better mood, you can hear the teasing lilt to his words.
Weeks go by. You keep your promise. It’s easier communicating through the screen of your phone. You can imagine them to be online friends, people who are not famous. Some conversations stay light, some become deeper. They pry information from your life, learning more and more about you, and you feel yourself getting attached to their morning greetings and late night calls. Meanwhile, with family and friends you try to act like everything is normal, keeping this weird new world hidden, but you’re still constantly haunted by your memories with them. Your past lives play through your mind all day long and replace your dreams. Everything else felt so wrong now, so not you anymore, so gray. You feel like a bad friend, a bad daughter, a cheater.
---
Namjoon wakes up, groaning, his body still heavy from sleep. He quickly changes into a pair of slacks and a button down shirt. He chooses a forest green vest to wear, like the plants in his room. He runs pomade in his hair before heading downstairs to get ready for the morning.
He unlocks the door to his bookstore, before he can turn around the door opens with a loud ding. You walk in and make a beeline to the center table. Namjoon laughs, “Back so soon?”
“Of course, I’m so bored! My crops won’t be harvestable for another couple of months. Any other recommendations? I loved your last one.” You smile brightly at the bookstore owner, he’s always so kind to you and doesn’t make you feel like an outsider when you visit. If you could, you would spend all day in his store, talking about the latest novels and picking each other's brains. “Before I forget! For you...” You hand him two jars of homemade jam.
You're his favorite customer. And if Namjoon is being honest, he has a crush on you. He pulls a book from high above a shelf, a pristine copy. “This one, it should keep you busy.” Your eyes sparkle as you take in the large leather bound novel, gold letters adorning it’s spine. “How much?”
“Don’t worry, this one time I’ll take jam as payment.”
“No, that was a present,” you pout.
“Well, then this is a present for you.”
“Sir, if you don’t let me pay, I will throw a fit! I need you to stay in business.” It’s always like this with him, you’ll be damned if he doesn’t let you show him how much you appreciate him.
Namjoon laughs, “Alright alright. Then promise me you’ll come visit as soon as you finish.”
You nod, holding your new purchase close to your heart. He watches you leave, his eyes lingering on your body. You hold onto his book like a prized trophy. It’s another thing he loves about you, the way you treat things with so much care. His eyes still linger on you as you stand outside his shop. He sees a stranger run into you, you stumble back and almost fall, he rushes to the door to help you but stops in his tracks as the man's face comes into focus. “Jimin?”
Namjoon wakes up startled. He runs his hands through his hair, disturbed at what he saw. He’s covered in sweat, inside the cold room of his bedroom. Every night he’s had dreams of you, but this one was different. Should he go talk to someone about it? Who would believe him? He feels like every day he’s slowly getting closer to losing his mind. Today is going to be a long day full of press junkets. He rubs at his eyes trying to forget what he saw, what he felt.
---
Today you decide to call Namjoon. Usually, you’ll wait until one of the members decides to call you, but you had to talk to him before you lost your nerve. He picks up on the second ring. “Hey, I can’t talk for that long, is everything okay?” you can hear how busy it is in the background.
“No it’s my fault! I’m sorry, I’m an idiot, of course you would be busy. Call me when you’re free.”
“No! I have some time, we can talk.” You hear him shuffling to a quieter location.
Are you going to regret this? You take a deep breath. “I want to see you again. I-I don’t want to forget about what happened and go back to my life like everything is normal when it's not. You were right. I’m sorry...I’m sorry it took me so long to realize it.” You wait for Namjoon’s response, the silence fills you with anxiety. You would completely understand if he brushes you off now.
“I’ll figure something out. Okay y/n?”
“Okay.”
“I’ll see you soon.”
“See you.”
That night Namjoon sends you a series of text messages with instructions. Your eyes go wide over the new information. You look around your home, you know you should feel some sadness, but only excitement bubbles inside you. ‘I guess this is it.’ How are you going to explain this to your family and friends, to your boyfriend? A special internship in South Korea, you guess is how you’ll start.
---Three Months Later---
Namjoon splashes cold water on his face, he looks up into his bathroom mirror and blinks at his reflection. Namjoon’s eyes are not his.
Namjoon wakes up yelling. He falls back into bed, catching his breath. He checks the time. You should be on the plane right now. The idol rapper has always appreciated the wealth he’s accumulated over the years, but he feels especially grateful in this moment, now that he has found himself in a position of power large enough to secure you with a translation job within his own company.
---
A man holds a sign with your name on it. You walk towards him, your suitcase ticking on the airport concrete as it rolls on the ground behind you. You spent the last three months preparing for this, studying over language books every night and saying goodbye to family and friends. Your parents didn’t understand your sudden change of career, but you promised them the pay was better and it wouldn’t be forever. Your boyfriend was not so understanding, especially when you wouldn’t give him any details as to why you’re leaving the county. You and him weren’t even that serious to begin with but the breakup was messy.
You followed the driver’s instructions once he dropped you off in front of a very posh looking complex, entering key codes, up the elevator, down the hall, until you stood in front of the correct numbered door. You use the key he gave you to unlock the large door and walk into a massive apartment. Every member is already inside, waiting for you. You feel relief wash over you, you can’t help but smile at the group. They cheer at your arrival, you notice balloons and a makeshift welcome sign. The mood is definitely much more relaxed from the last time you all gathered together.
“Is this your place?” You ask as Jungkook takes your suitcase.
“No, this is your apartment.”
Your eyes go wide, “This is way too big!”
Taehyung jumps up and gives you a hug. The months you talked made you feel much more comfortable around them, but you still weren’t prepared for the rush of emotions that filled you once in his embrace again.
“It’s the smallest unit in this building,” Yoongi lets you know.
“And I’m guessing I can’t go to another building.”
“Our dorm is in this one,” The youngest member explains.
“How…” You take a deep breath, eyeing Jungkook up and down, “...convenient.” You take a seat with them on the ridiculously huge couch, next to Yoongi and Jin.
You sigh, stretching your sore jet lagged muscles. “Need to go to the bathroom?” Yoongi whispers at you teasingly.
You snort, his words taking you out of your worries. “Funny,” you mutter.
The eldest helps you fill out a stack of forms for your employment while the rest set plates of takeout on the living room table. You eat your first meal in Korea together. Sitting together, laughing together, you feel better than you have in months. It’s that feeling you get when you’ve finally completed a puzzle, placing the last piece in its place. You feel complete.
Taehyung’s words pull you from your thoughts.
“So y/n, when are you gonna hold Joon’s hand?”
“Oh, um…”
“You came all the way to Korea for him, right!” Taehyung teases.
“She doesn’t have to...” Namjoon murmurs.
“Oh c’mon! You can’t tell me you haven’t been going crazy waiting!”
“Yeah, I agree with Tae!” Jimin laughs.
“Do it!” Jungkook cheers.
“Do it! Do it! Do it!” The youngest members are chanting at the pair of you. You feel the heat rise in your face. You had planned on it, you wanted to find a way to get Namjoon alone, but now with all the attention on you, you feel apprehensive. You look over to Namjoon who looks equally as embarrassed. ‘I don’t want to do this,’ the thought screams in your head.
It has been months, Namjoon has waited for this moment. Now that he’s being put on the spot, he’s apprehensive. Ever since his bandmates touched you, they have acted differently, it might not be noticeable to anyone around them, but Namjoon noticed. Would he change too? Before he can yell at his bandmates, you stand up and walk over to his seat. “They aren’t going to stop,” You whisper, holding out your hand. He sighs and stands up.
“So?” Jin asks when he notices the lack of reaction from both of you as you grip each other's hands.
“Um, nothing is happening.” You stare at the rapper, but his attention is on the place where your hands meet, brows furrowed in disbelief.
“This doesn’t make sense..” He starts shaking your hand up and down as if that might help, it reminds you of the night he dropped you off, and you know exactly how he feels.
“Maybe it’s because I’m jet lagged or something? We could try again later...” you try to soothe the rapper but you can tell he is growing more and more upset with each passing moment, and your arm feels like it's going to dislodge from your shoulder the more he shakes.
The members have all gone silent.
“Maybe you don’t have a past life together?” Hoseok places his hand on Namjoon’s shoulder to stop his movements. No one expected this.
“No, that’s not-we have to-I know it!” Namjoon tries to stay calm but his voice is full of panic.
“Maybe it had something to do with that time, the planets aligning or something?” Jimin says. Is this your fault? Because you were too scared. What have you done? You’re rethinking everything now, you shouldn’t have come here.
“No.” Namjoon is right, he knows it, “that’s not it...” It doesn’t make sense, he knows there’s a connection between you and him. He lets the confession tumble out of his mouth before he can properly think. “Your name, I knew it! How would I know your name?”
You look at him confused, “What do you mean?”
Namjoon bites his tongue. He lets go of you. He blinks his eyes to get rid of tears threatening to spill. The mood is gone and everyone is silent. You feel horrible. Somehow this is your fault, you know it.
“Joon...” The eldest member calls out to him.
“I-I need some air.” Namjoon breaks away from the group.
“Wait!”
---
OOOOooo you had a whole ass boyfriend and you went and tongued Yoongi, scandalous. Looks like poor Joonie got the spiritual cockblock. Should I explain myself lol or do you like drawing your own conclusions?
Oh! Fun fact, the two sentences were this: Your eyes flutter open, you’re lying face down on the hotel bed. Taehyung is lying on his back next to you, grinning from ear to ear, your fingers are still interlocked by your heads. That’s what I had to go on T_T hah. Anyways let me know what you think <3
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Note
What are your personal favourite fics? :D
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Great question! A perfect excuse for us to reach out to our members and ask them for their personal favourites and thanks to our collective recs, we're about to unravel a list of some real gems for you and hopefully therein you'll find a few favourites of your own.
want you in my room - beethechange | E, 13k, Complete
As they watch, Tall Guy takes his beanie off, revealing a mess of thick, shiny brown hair. He runs his hand through it to shake out the hat hair and Ryan feels like he’s stuck in an Herbal Essences commercial, except he’s the one making inappropriate lustful noises.
Ryan adjusts his snapback, determined. He is, after all, wearing his very finest basketball shorts, without even a single hole at the hem, and the knowledge puts an extra spring in his step. “I’m gonna climb that dude like a tree,” he tells Curly.
guidance for sailors, lost at sea - varnes | T, 6.2k, Complete
“I’m not the mom,” Shane says, drowsily appalled.
Ryan raises his eyebrows. “I didn’t say you were the mom,” he soothes, sincere in the way that Ryan kind of always is, even when he’s being sarcastic. “I just said they reacted to you as if you were the mom.”
“It’s -- that’s the same thing,” Shane protests, but quietly, because he has a tiny ghost perched on his hip and he doesn’t want to wake her. It. Whatever. It’s kind of hard to tell, because they don’t look like people, exactly, more like -- outlines.
Actually, ironically, what they really look like is people covered in sheets, round at the top and kind of vague at the bottom, but Shane has stopped trying to say that because Ryan gets mad about it. He thinks it’s disrespectful.
Shane thinks it’s disrespectful that he was made step-parent to a bridge full of baby ghosts without anybody asking him, but sure. Pointing out that they look like sheets is the problem.
You can run away with me anytime you want - PhyllisDietrichson | E, 12k, Complete
But sometimes Ryan scrolls through Shane’s instagram when his socials go quiet and their text convo takes a long pause and Ryan knows it’s because Shane is off camping somewhere, and Ryan can’t deny that he feels the tug of his absence.
we were wrecks before we crashed into each other - uneventfulhouses | E, 24k, Complete
Cleo’s smile is soft. “Shane told me his memory. What’s yours?”
“Less about memories,” Ryan says truthfully. “More about the future. Where we’ll be and such.”
Arching a brow, she drops her arms, so she clasps her hands in front of her hips. “Where do you think you’ll be?”
Ryan laughs. “Dunno.” He isn’t brave enough to say that he does know that Shane will be there, somewhere, wedged between the regular, the obtuse, the breathtaking, the wild. The generic and the extraordinary. The weird and the wonderful.
or; this week on Weird and/or Wonderful World, Shane and Ryan visit a record shop.
Hold Your Breath, It Gets Better - beethechange | E, 10k, Complete
Ryan stops short in the doorway of his bedroom, banging his shoulder against the doorframe in his haste, because he’s too late. Shane’s kneeling in front of the bottom drawer of his bedside table, peering down at the contents, hand frozen in a hover like he’d been about to reach in. His face is a blank mask.
“Ah. I keep the batteries in the top drawer. Not. Not the bottom one.”
“Yes,” Shane says, cocking his head to the left in puzzlement, and then he pauses for a fraction of a second too long as he considers his words. “I can see that the batteries are not in the bottom drawer.”
darling it’s a faded notion - varnes | E, 28k, complete
The sun is too bright and Ryan’s whole body is alight with something that is eating him all the way up from the inside out, but he keeps his eyes open and he makes himself look, and he tells himself that once he finds Shane, he’ll think about it. Once he finds Shane, they’ll make a plan. Once he finds Shane, and only then, he’ll let himself have the thought he’s been swallowing down like bile since he came to: that they didn’t fall.
They were pushed.
OR: Ryan and Shane get cursed by a ghost, and now they can’t be not-touching. It’s … not great.
open all your doors - apologeticallybourgeois | E, 8k, Complete
Shane was almost sure that Ryan didn’t actually cast a spell for it to happen, if only because the price he’d have to pay would probably be counted in, like, human limbs instead of a couple of small animals.
The Leading Man - breathtaken | E, 95k, Complete
All things considered, he could definitely do a lot worse than this: a performer-owned and -operated, queer-positive, crossover film studio, promising creative input right from day one – directing, cinematography, [...] it’s everything he wants.
He just has to get his dick out for it.
Euneirophrenia - orphan_account | T, 4.7k, Complete
Euneirophrenia: The peace of mind that comes from having pleasant dreams
Maelstrom - liminalweirdo | E, 40k, Complete
Here’s the thing about driving halfway across the country to see someone. You can’t really deny, after that, that you’re pretty much head over heels for them.
The Denial Twist - beethechange | E, 35k, Complete
“This is kind of surreal,” Shane says, taking a sip of his tea. It’s piping hot and delicious, except it tastes like hot chocolate and not like tea at all. “Sort of—Wonka-esque, right? Or Alice in Wonderland.”
“If you’re aiming a shot over the bow about my height you can fucking forget about it,” Ryan says, watching with interest as Shane’s cup refills by itself. “But yeah, it’s surreal. Literally, because dreams aren’t real.”
Shane’s unsettled by the comment. It sets alarm bells ringing in his head but he doesn’t know why. He just wasn’t expecting Dream Ryan to be so, well—so on the nose.
Or, the one where Shane and Ryan have some really weird dreams and perhaps, eventually, some sex.
Collide - needywitch | E, 35k, Complete
Ryan is desperately in love with his best friend.
what's the point of this again? - touchinghearts | T, 9.3k, Complete
When Ryan invites Shane back for a holiday week to meet his family during a big reunion, it doesn’t even occur to Shane that it could be a big deal.
Lost a fic? Check out our fic found tag, and if you still can’t find it, send us an ask!
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inventors-fair · 2 years
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To The Best of Your Abilities
Congratulations to our winners this week! @grornt with Mutable Flittermite, @dabudder with Terish, Scourge Seeker, and @i-am-the-one-who-wololoes with Graveyard Trickster!
~
Mutable Flittermite
Short, relatively simple, and to the point. It’s a 1/1 flyer that can turn into a different card while still being a 1/1 flyer. I’m glad it isn’t additive, only one thing at a time, though you can still do stuff by activating it twice in the same turn. I’m also very impressed by the restraint in the “only as sorcery” and even more impressed at the templating. It’s written about perfectly, so far as I can tell. Closest things to complaints I have is that I wish the ability cost some blue mana, and maybe was a bit pricier. I feel like the weakness of being 1/1 is counteracted by the flying letting you get combat damage triggers easier and faster, and being 1 mana is also worth noting. But even that I’m not sure of. In total, a very good card.
-
Terish, Scourge Seeker
Art Description: A spindly vedalken hunches over a grave, grimacing. She has dug her fingers into the grave, and a purple magic has begun to pulse from the ground, illuminating the body she is reanimating.
Well look at this, a mix of mechanics! Don’t see that often. I love the way all of this card interacts. The surveil is so powerful with unearth, but still requires getting lucky. The unearth text is really powerful, too, but a tad confusing. The assumption is that you’re copying the unearth, but you actually get the full creature. Normally, I’d say that trading a single card for a whole creature is maybe too good, but the thing about unearth creatures is that they’re already kind of overcosted. You’re not going to break anything by getting an free kathari bomber. Even so, it won’t have haste, so there’s plenty of time to react to that one. The only time it gets broken is if you’re granting other stuff unearth with Sedris or that one sliver, but that’s more about those cards being broken than this one. The cost being a discard is also clever, it lets you just keep unearthing basically forever. You’ll never need to cast a card again! This card has a clear direction to go with, a synergistic but not overpowered mix of abilities, and seems well balanced. Good job!
-
Graveyard Trickster
Seems good. What more can I say? This card feels right on the money. A decent body, an ability that requires a little bit of building around but doesn’t break anything, and a way to benefit off that ability just by playing other copies of itself. The graveyard exile ability might be a little unnecessary, both because I could see it being a little too good as an uncounterable instant-speed removal spell that you can get free value from with self-mill or discard, but I understand it as a way to make it more self-synergistic. I also might just be playing it too safe. I could see this seeing play, but not an auto-include, which is I think were the best designed cards belong. I think the flavor text could have used a little more work. It’s a little unclear to me whether she’s come to an agreement with the dead or is messing with them. The typeline feels great, though.
~
And there you have it! I was really happy with a lot of the entries this week, and I should have the runners-up posted soon. I will be at prerelease when this gets posted, and tumblr’s “schedule post” function is not working great, so I’ll post them when I get back.
-Mod Mr. ShinyObject
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harpyloon · 4 years
Text
i’ll catch you
Pairing: Charlie Weasley x fem!Reader
Summary: "Up close, Y/N could see the familiar freckles splattered all over his nose and cheeks. He was towering over her like he always did. She used to be the little second year Hufflepuff always idling by the entrance to the Great Hall hoping to bump into the famous Charlie Weasley. Studying on the Quidditch pitch, watching him behind her textbook, captaining the Gryffindor team. Climbing the beech tree by the lake again and again, hoping Charlie Weasley would somehow walk by once more to offer her a hand..."
☞ Curse Breaker reader x Dragon-tamer Charlie Weasley
Warnings: Fluff, sprinkles of angst, dragons (duh), mentions of a dead animal, mentions of dragon eating dead animal (lol), post-war timeline (although not that important)
WC: 4.5k+ , Part 2 coming soon!
Read on AO3
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Beautiful rays of golden sunlight were peaking through the blinders of Y/N's cabin. It was going to be a lovely day with the perfect weather to seek out a bit of adventure, and although she was sure she had countless other affairs to address before kicking off with her assignment the next day, a blathering Bill Weasley was not one of them.
"Are you even listening?" his tone was way beyond impatient. "You know what? Don't answer that. I know for a fact that you never pick up anything I say. Ever."
Y/N rolled her eyes as she busied herself with stuffing her socked feet inside a pair of brown chunky hiking boots. She didn't plan on going very far. Her colleagues were currently lounging in the dining hall about five cabins down, sipping piping hot ciorbă, munching on breakfast toast, and relishing their only foreseeable off day before the start of the big dig tomorrow. Some were even dozing off still, earning as much sleep as they could to compensate for the long nights to come.
It's true what they say about grumpy Curse Breakers. But nobody realized that they just spent too much time with their eyes wide open.
"You know, Bill," Y/N mused, "you always call me the drama queen. What does that make you then?"
The floating head over the fire scoffed, "A concerned superior."
"Well, there's nothing to be concerned about."
"Where are you headed?"
"I'm going for a walk."
"No walks," ordered Bill, his face stern.
"Everyone's out and about today!"
"No walks for you."
Y/N laughed. "Oh yeah?"
Bill sighed. He knew trying to be hard-nosed was futile. "No walks alone at least."
"Are you sure there's no bun in Fleur's oven yet?" Y/N teased. "You're sounding more like a papa bear with each passing day."
She heard a soft melodic laugh within the fire where Bill's head was when suddenly, another floating head appeared right beside his. This time, all blonde and very French
"There iz no bun yet, mon cher. But I think he az been practicing fatherhood with you." Fleur gave Y/N a wink. "I 'eard zer are many 'andsome men in Romania. With a leetle beet of exzploring yo—"
"There will be no exploring," barked Bill, sending his wife a warning glance, which she ignored.
"—you might find someone az adventurous az you are," Fleur beamed, "And very macho."
"Darling," Bill sighed, "is this necessary?"
With a flying kiss to Y/N, Fleur was gone.
Shrugging on a light parka, Y/N gave Bill a knowing look, "You see? Your wife said I could use a macho man."
"Oh please. You're in a Curse Breaker camp."
"Hey, there are loads of macho men here."
"Macho enough for you?"
Y/N wrinkled her nose but ignored the question.
"Well, William," she said, emphasizing Bill's full name, "I, am a Curse Breaker in the middle of the Southern Carpathians." Stuffing her wand through her belt loop, she looked at him with finality. "And I am not passing up this opportunity."
"Remember when they assigned you to Egypt with me and you went on exploring? Your exploring is bad luck, Y/N, and I did not assign you to Romania to bring bad luck."
"Excuse you, the Egypt Goblins loved me."
"Goblins don't love wizards," retorted Bill.
"I think they were particularly fond of me."
"You Reductored an entire bloody Pyramid!"
Y/N was losing her patience. She wanted to sift through the mountains in the morning sunlight. Discover hidden caves and wade through cold springs. She had her breakfast way earlier than everyone else for this sole purpose.
"I promise I'll be good."
"Take Weiss with you."
Y/N glared. "Absolutely not."
"Take someone."
"I'm walking out on you right now. Don't forget to put out my fire."
"Y/N."
"I'll see you later!"
"I have to tell you—"
Without looking back, she waved at Bill and stepped out into the crisp Romanian morning.
The skies were bright and cloudless, the sun slowly rising up east. The Curse Breaker camp in the middle of the Transylvanian Alps was in for a late morning. It was quiet, apart from the whispers of the forest beside them; chirping birds, singing crickets, and the distant sound of a nearby stream.
Trudging up the rough pavement towards the foot of the nearest hill, Y/N felt an ounce of guilt seep through as she marveled at the scenery before her. Bill was the reason she got the Romania assignment. She wasn't half bad a Curse Breaker. From an outsider's perspective, some would even call her brilliant. She's aced all her missions in her first year on the job—way ahead of all the others in her year, and was even able to crackdown a dark magic-infested tomb in an assignment she co-lead in Egypt. She was quick, smart, and as brave as the career entailed.
Only one thing stood between her and a good reputation in Gringotts. Her impulsiveness.
She couldn't help it. Y/N's successes partnered with tragedies—accidents; her brilliance came with sheer will and almost violent haste. The problem is you can't think twice Bill would always say. Not everything is done in a snap, Y/N.
Bill Weasley was the only senior Curse Breaker with enough patience to supervise her. It must have been fate or a miracle that had him in temporary assignment at the London Gringotts when she graduated Hogwarts. If she were received by anyone else, or if he were back in Egypt instead, she didn't think she'd ever make it out into the field. Or worse, last a few months.
"I'll be good," she mumbled to no one in particular. Or maybe she hoped that Bill would hear. She'd floo him again later.
Trekking up the slope with hands snuggled warm inside her faux-fur-lined pockets, Y/N inhaled the fresh earth surrounding her. This was her calling. Nature. Adventure. The unknown. She was fantastic with spells and jinxes and once thought of becoming an Auror—but Aurors spent too much time indoors, on desks, drowning in paperwork and tailing dark wizards. She knew in her heart she wasn't born to enforce the law.
On the opposite side of the hill was a deep gorge between two towering mountains and a long serpentine stream. Elated at the sight, she followed the gentle flow of water over the rocks. Without thinking (because when does she ever), she slipped off her boots and socks, and despite the chilly morning, prepared to wade the ice-cold water. She dipped one toe in for good measure—a pause.
That couldn't be right.
Submerging one whole foot into the water confirmed her confusion. Strange. Almost all waterways in Romania led to the Black Sea, if not the Adriatic. Why was it warm?
This isn't the bathing stream she thought. The senior Curse Breakers back at camp had instructed them of assigned fresher areas where warming charms would be cast. She didn't remember this gorge being part of last night's tour.
Ankles deep in the water, Y/N trailed the soft currents. It was deliciously warm. A deliberate contrast to the icy breeze left by the trail ends of winter. It was supposedly mid-spring, but the winds still gave her the chills.
She took no notice of how far she was going, the water neither rising nor falling. If she were to guess it must've almost been half an hour given by the direction of the sun. The warm water and small pebbles were therapeutic beneath her feet. The walk didn't tire her at all.
Finally, the chasm's end came to view. Heart beating with excitement, she hastened her pace, dampening the legs of her trousers that she attempted to roll up. But just as her feet crossed the lip between the two mountains flanking her, she felt the oddest sensation: it began at the top of her head, traveling down her arms to her toes—as if a big fat raindrop landed on her scalp and entered her body.
She glanced at the clear blue sky. There was no cloud in sight for miles.
And then, it was suddenly very humid.
"What the..." she glanced back through the gorge. Nothing was out of order and nobody was in sight. Looking down at her feet, her surroundings were now as warm as the water she stood on. Her parka felt too thick.
Again, strange.
Trying to shake away her curiousness, Y/N trudged on.
All is well she chanted inside her head. All is well and the wind just blows differently on this side of the alps.
But no matter what she told herself, ripples of unease still disturbed Y/N. She was beginning to sweat and it wasn't just her nerves. The wind didn't blow differently on this side of the mountains because there was no wind. It was dry, dank, and very very warm.
To rattle her nerves even further, the water she was wading on was getting hotter as she went on that she had to leap on land once again. But as soon as her bare soles made contact with the grass, she yelped in pain.
"Merlin—OW."
The earth was burning. As if it bathed in the sun for too long. As if she were in the middle of a dry desert. She knew the feeling, she's been to Egypt. But why the bloody hell would Romanian soil feel this hot? Moreso in the heart of the Southern Carpathians?
Locating a jutted-out slab of rock, Y/N hopped over to sit and gather her bearings, drying her damp feet and staring at her boots and socks. She didn't want to slip them back on. The heat was intense. But it was either the boots or the sizzling soil.
She shrugged off her parka after lacing up her boots and was grateful for her reckless choice of wardrobe this morning. She opted for a ribbed shirt under her jacket—instead of a sweater—in urgent intention to get away from a nagging Bill. Now it served her well. It wasn't as thin as she would have deemed appropriate for the current temperature, but at least her neck and arms could breathe.
Gazing over the expanse of the clearing she emerged in, she suddenly became aware of the lack of green in the area. The grass was almost a withering brown—crunchy and dry. Trees weren't scattered about like the thick oaks all over the Curse Breaker camp; instead, they were clumped, almost systematically, in relatively rectangular patch formations. As if deliberately rooted as such.
Muggles Y/N thought. It was only them who had the peculiar habit of reorganizing nature.
Tying her parka around her waist, she treaded the clearing, the grass crisp beneath her boots, and approached the nearest cluster of trees. She wondered if this were one of the areas they'd be digging up. Senior Curse Breaker Digby Youssif oriented them of specific crackdown areas to look forward to in the next few months. Although almost all wizarding families were well-accounted for in Romania, there were still trifling amounts of intel on hidden vaults under protective spells cast by untraceable ancient tribes.
Y/N loved digging assignments. She was particularly fond of discovery. And if Ancient Runes was Hogwarts' least-loved lesson, she rather enjoyed Professor Babbling's classes. Well, most of the time. It was her pride and joy to have snagged an 'Outstanding' for her O.W.Ls—
Crack!
A sudden gust of wind whipped through the trees ahead of her. On instinct, Y/N drew her wand from her belt loop. Nothing was so dangerous about the wind. But it felt so...
The sound came out of nowhere, she thought it was imagining it. A steady drumming beat. Powerful and humming. An engine? she thought. But that was impossible. They were told that the area was blocked off from muggles for the duration of their stay. She paused in front of a towering ashtree. The sound was growing louder and louder. Nearer. She didn't know why but she was compelled with the need to hide.
Climb.
She felt ridiculous, clambering up an ashtree and settling on its thickest branch. Her superiors back at camp were clear that the mountains were safe, its perimeters were secured for their dig. Curse Breakers always made sure missions wouldn't come across outside interference.
Then why was her heart beating so fast?
The drumming sound was growing nearer. Behind her—above.
Peering at the sky through the leaves, a massive dark figure swooped overhead and landed with an earth-shaking thud on the clearing right in front of her tree.
Y/N felt like she was going to choke on her own spit when a deafening, earsplitting roar echoed through the mountains.
Dragon.
Fully grown, enormous, and vicious-looking, the beast had emerald scales that glinted in the morning sun. Its body was bulky, way stockier compared to the common dragons in textbooks. It had a massive head that seemed even larger than its body, and on it sprouted two long glittering golden horns. Its claws had the same golden color, and it was rearing onto its hind legs, hunching over a figure... chewing...
All the breakfast Y/N had only hours before felt like rising up her throat. An enormous dragon only meters in front of her was chewing on a dead animal, clearly having his own meal. And there she was, perched on an ashtree, ready for dessert.
Don't panic she told herself, but feeling green. She's never faced a dragon on a mission before. They tackled them in her first year on the job—Curse Breakers didn't really need training, the task calling for hands-on work—but never in her life did she ever think she'd have to face a real dragon.
I don't have to face it Y/N thought, I just have to stay here until it flies away, and run back to camp.
Wiggling up to a squat, she eyed the neighboring branch a few feet to her right which was higher up and positioned behind a thicker cluster of leaves. It didn't require a jump, but more of a really careful split; hugging the trunk tightly, she stretched her right foot across, shifting her weight to her right leg, her arms choking the tree trunk in a death grip, legs spread wide midair—
"Scuzati-ma?"
Y/N didn't fall. Thank Merlin she didn't fall. But she lost her momentum in surprise and panic, her left foot sliding from the previous branch, making her push off the trunk in haste, throwing her weight across completely. She grabs a dangling thin branch above her at the last minute, her body tilted towards the forest floor.
A forest floor where a man now stood, peering up at her curiously.
She was breathing hard, her heart thumping erratically, both from the fear of falling and being heard by the dragon so close by.
"Er—esti bine?" the man asked. Y/N saw that he had his arms out as if braced to catch her if she fell. When she didn't answer, the man spoke again, "Ai nevoie de ajutor?"
She blinked down at him. "What?"
He chuckled. She hated it. It hurt her pride. "I said, do you need any help?"
He was loud. Too loud. She righted herself on the branch, pulling to lean back on the trunk behind her. Then risking a peek, she checked on the dragon who was still munching on the dead cow with gusto.
She looked back down to find the man with his eyebrows raised at her, his face painting amusement. It was impossible not to take note of his red mane pulled into a low bun. He looked awfully familiar... and he was going to get them killed.
"Could you," she whispered as loudly as she could, "keep your voice down?"
The man snickered once more, showing no effort of lowering his tone. "Why?"
"Are you blind?" she wanted to strangle him. "There's a bloody dragon!"
The redhead glanced at the scaly beast and heaved out a sigh. "Okay. Yeah, you're right. It's way past breakfast. He's missing nap time."
Y/N looked at him incredulously. He shrugged, "But what can I do? He slept in this morning. Lazy beast." Looking back up, he asked, "Want to meet him?"
He's mental she thought. That had to be it.
But the redhead only laughed. He keeps laughing. He must've noticed the stupefied expression on her face because he simmered. "Give him a minute and you can come down. It's already his fifth haul so he's bound to get dozy and fly back to the nest." He started walking towards the clearing when he paused and turned back, "Although, you can come down now. I promise he won't eat you."
Y/N watched as the man walked up to the feasting dragon—she was peering behind the thick tree trunk, using it as a shield. He's insane. Drawing a wand from a sheath attached to his calf, the man aimed a stunning spell right by the beast's tail.
"Alright, Darius, I think you've had enough," he called. He kept his distance, a good few meters away, but his gait was calm, almost lazy.
The dragon glanced at the man, its fangs bloody. Y/N wanted to grab the redhead and run. But it was a crazy thought, and she was rooted on her spot on the tree branch, frozen in fear.
The man gave a sharp whistle and the dragon grunted, smoke coming out of its nostrils. It ignored him and continued to munch on the cow.
Another stunning spell was aimed right by its claws and the dragon emitted a low growl. Y/N didn't know if she was imagining it but the creature seemed sluggish on its feet, swaying... almost drowsy.
"Off you go," said the man, "up." He sent one more stunning spell right in front of its snout. It was a clear miss, purely intentional.
The dragon heaved a loud angry roar. But instead of diving for the man like she expected, it started flapping its wings, gaining momentum. Y/N held onto the tree trunk tighter so as not to be swayed by the sudden rush of winds the creature was yielding. And then with a strong push off the ground, up it soared, growling low in its throat, and was out of sight.
Y/N's legs felt like jelly slugs, but her arms refused to let go of the tree trunk. What in Merlin's name just happened?
"Y/N."
She gave a short yelp, coughing on her next breath. "Excuse me?"
The man was back, now by the foot of the tree once again. "Come down."
"How do you know my name?" she demanded.
He had a really handsome smile. A really familiar, handsome smile...
"I should be offended," said the man. "Come down." There it was again, that smile. "I'll catch you."
I'll catch you.
I'll catch you....
 "Come on, Y/N, I'll catch you!"
"No you won't!" said Y/N. Her cheeks were wet with tears.
She was perched on the beech tree by the Black lake, her legs dangling above the shallow water. She had attempted to retrieve her Spellman's Syllabry textbook that Cassian Loxias chucked up the branches for fun.
"Yes I will, I promise," consoled Charlie. "I'm a prefect, remember?" he gestured to his badge, "I'll make sure you're safe."
Sniffing up snot that was escaping her nose, she hiccuped softly against the back of her hand. "Our prefect doesn't do that very much."
Charlie chuckled. "I'll make sure to have a word with Professor Sprout about her Hufflepuff prefects."
When he saw the horror on her face, he held up his hands, "It didn't come from you of course. Will you come down now? I swear I'll catch you."
Y/N looked into Charlie Weasley's eyes and saw nothing but pure candor. Biting her lip, she said, "Do cross your heart, or hope to die?"
He traced a cross right above his chest. "Cross my heart, or hope to die."
 "Y/N. Y/N?"
Y/N blinked.
Charlie Weasley. Charlie dragon-tamer Weasley. Charlie the hot brother Weasley—
"Are you still breathing? Do you need me up there?"
Trying to gather her bearings, Y/N extracted herself from her hold on the tree trunk, went down onto a squat, and leaped off, landing on the crunchy grass with a thump.
Charlie raised an eyebrow at her as she dusted her trousers, "I see you don't need catching anymore."
She took in the man before her. "Charlie Weasley."
His grin was dazzling."Caught on, have you?
From up close, Y/N could now see the familiar freckles splattered all over his nose and cheeks. He was towering over her like he always did. She used to be the little second year Hufflepuff always idling by the entrance to the Great Hall hoping to bump into the famous Charlie Weasley. Studying on the Quidditch pitch, watching him behind her textbook, captaining the Gryffindor team. Climbing the beech tree by the lake again and again, hoping Charlie Weasley would somehow walk by once more to offer her a hand...
There were so many things she could've done, seeing him again for the first time after all these years. He was gone as soon as he graduated Hogwarts, flying to Romania to study dragons. Everyone always thought Charlie would be going Quidditch pro, being captain and seeker. He had the build, the skills, and the charm. Hogwarts alone had fan clubs in his name and rumor had it that the Falmouth Falcons were just waiting for him to finish seventh year.
But others didn't see Charlie as Y/N did. They didn't see him hoarding books on care of magical creatures in the library. They didn't notice him sneaking off to Hagrid's on the weekends, taking Fang for walks or feeding the Blast Ended Skrewts in the garden. Nobody paid attention to the copy of Fantastic Beasts And Where to Find Them that Charlie practically glued to his side. Only Y/N did. And now that she thought about it, she didn't like that she knew so much. It made her feel like a creep.
So instead of hugging him in delight like she actually wanted, she took a swipe at his shoulder.
"You git," she hissed. "You scared me to death! How did you do that? I thought taming dragons was impossible."
"It is. Most of the time," Charlie shrugged. "Darius is a Romanian Longhorn. Mostly harmless compared to the others especially when he's full. Not that difficult to send him back to the nest when he can barely stand on his feet."
"Harmless? I could've been dessert!"
Charlie laughed. He was still always laughing. "You look delicious, yes, but I'm not letting Darius have you."
What the fu—Y/N inhaled slowly, cautiously. Then exhaled through her nose. She didn't know how to respond. Seeing him again after so long, without warning or preparation, was messing with her senses
"It's good to see you, Y/N," he said and walked closer. Close enough to tugged at her braid. She didn't know why he did it, but he looked like he just had to. "You look good."
Y/N's heart was beating rapidly once more, but this time, for all the wrong reasons. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"
Charlie gazed back into her eyes as if seeing her for the first time.
"Too long."
Again, she didn't know how long it took her to reply, but she cleared her throat, "How—did you know it was me? The first time?"
Charlie's eyes were still roaming all over her face. "No. Not until you spoke."
Y/N must've held a questioning look because he added, "I'll never forget that voice."
He was saying such strange things. Were they strange? Or was it just because he affected her so?
"Then why didn't you say anything?"
"Well, you wouldn't come down, would you? I see you still have a thing for trees."
Y/N rolled her eyes.
"I didn't know the dragon reservation was in the alps," she said. "Do you know we're camping nearby?"
"'Course I do. You lot are beside dragon territory for a reason."
Excitement and fear raised Y/N's nerves. "What are you talking about?"
Charlie bit his lip. "You'll see."
"Are we digging in the reservation?"
He was walking out into the clearing now, beelining back towards the opening of the gorge.
"Charlie!" Y/N jogged to keep up. "Are we?"
He only smiled, "Patience, darling."
Darling. He used to call her that all the time even when they were back in Hogwarts. She always tried to ignore the fluttering feeling her chest made when he used the endearment, reminding herself that he must've used it on everyone else, not just her.
"Why did no one back at camp tell us anything?"
"I probably should've kept my mouth shut," was his only reply. They were crossing the two mountains flanking the stream, and as soon as they cut through the border, Y/N felt the same sensation she did when she went through the clearing. But this time in reverse, it was as if the raindrop was sucked back up.
She glanced up at the mountains. "Did you feel that?"
"Shield spells," explained Charlie. "To keep the muggles out. Temperature charms as well to regulate the reservation climate. Although the dragons do enough of their warming on their own, it's for precaution."
They walked up the stream, tracing back Y/N's previous path.
"Are you bringing me back to camp?" she asked.
"That, and I have to see Digby. Iron out tomorrow's schedule."
"So we are digging inside the reservation," Y/N didn't know if she was more thrilled or afraid.
Charlie glanced at her, "You heard nothing from me."
Studying his features as they strolled, Y/N couldn't help but admire how much Charlie Weasley grew up to be. He's always been lean and strong, especially with being an athlete back at Hogwarts, but now he seemed so much larger than life. Red tendrils were escaping his low bun and framing his chiseled face, there were a few scars on his nose and one under his lip. She shouldn't have been able to see it but she couldn't stop staring. He was big. Stockier than she'd ever seen him; hands wrapped in gauze and rope slung over a hook on his hip.
Charlie Weasley, dragon-tamer.
And he was staring right back at her.
"You have to take me to see more dragons," Y/N breathed. She didn't know where her voice went. It was all airy and she didn't like it. She hoped he would assume it was because of their walk.
Charlie stopped, deep brown eyes boring into her own. He was panting slightly too. Maybe it was the walk.
"Okay," he exhaled. "Promise."
"Cross your heart?" she almost whispered. Almost.
Two fingers traced a cross over Charlie's chest, his gaze not leaving hers, "Cross my heart."
246 notes · View notes
drabbles-of-writing · 3 years
Text
Electric Love
This is part of my Wing AU
AO3
Masterpost
Summary: In Amity's defense, Luz would've flown into that thunderstorm if she'd agreed to it or not. The least she could do was be there to make sure nothing bad happened. Though, this was Luz she was talking about. Crazy things would happen with or without supervision.
Dry thunderstorms were nothing new to the Isles. They were among the most common storms, really. If there was lightning, then there was a relatively decent chance there’d be no boiling rain. 
Which also led to a rather popular game among the young and reckless known as Thunderdiving. A sport where one would fly into the center of the thunderstorm and spend however long they deemed necessary dodging and flying through strikes of lightning. Flying through a heavily clouded sky is already dangerous enough, what with the possibility of smacking into whatever else was flying or getting lost and crashing. But to fly among conditions such as that plus lightning? It was practically a death sentence. No wonder teenagers liked daring each other to play it.
Now, Amity had never taken interest in it. Her parents would’ve murdered her if they were to find out she tried to Thunderdive. Didn’t stop the twins, though. Amity can name three separate times the twins came back from a dry thunderstorm, shaken up but still whooping and cheering at having survived it with whatever group of equally idiot teens they went with. Only after the third time, when Emira narrowly avoided getting her wing shot like a lightning rod, did they call it quits.
And Amity was fine never knowing anything else about the sport. Even if her siblings hadn’t come back shaken up, she wouldn’t have had any interest in it. Who, pray tell, would be idiotic enough to know the dangers of Thunderdiving and still want to participate? It was absurd!
Unfortunately for her, Amity had a nasty habit of being surrounded by those kinds of people.
,
A clap of thunder roared through the air, making Amity pause. She leaned up from her bed, peering out her window. Sure enough, the ominous clouds from earlier had descended upon Bonesborough in no time. There didn’t appear to be any rain, so Amity simply shrugged and sat back in her bed, continuing with reading the Azura book that Luz had gifted her. She finished it long ago, but rereading it wouldn’t hurt.
And that would’ve been her whole day; reading as the dry thunderstorm passed overhead, with nothing but the occasional lightning out her window to distract her.
If it hadn’t been for her crystal ball to begin ringing.
Amity’s wings twitched at her sides and she sighed. She cast a glance to her bedside table, expecting someone like Boscha. It’d be on-brand for her to call in the middle of a storm when bored.
Instead, she saw the name Luz spread across the crystal ball.
Amity jerked up, wings snapping to her sides as she completely ditched her book in favor of wildly reaching for the crystal ball. She nearly knocked it off her table in her haste, but managed to secure a good hold on it before yanking it back towards her. 
She takes a moment to pause and take in a deep breath, checking her reflection in the crystal ball. She ran a hand through her hair, making sure none of it was sticking up. She hoped her wings were neat enough that, should they be seen through the clear ball, she wouldn’t look as much of a mess as she felt.
With that, and a slow inhale, Amity accepted the call.
“Hi, Amity!” Luz beamed, her face quickly overtaking the ball. She continued speaking before Amity could even think of responding. “So, out of curiosity, did the twins happen to mention anything important to you about dry thunderstorms?”
That caught Amity’s attention. Luz was known for odd questions here and there, but typically not so specific. The mention of the twins immediately put the kestrel on edge.
“Luz,” Amity said, a warning laced into her tone. “What are you doing?”
“Me? Nothing! I’m--I’m not doing anything.” Luz stuttered, her eyes darting everywhere but at Amity. “Just thought that, y’know, since we have a thunderstorm with no rain going on, might as well check to make sure there’s no like, secret about these things that could mangle me.”
“And why would the twins know this?” Amity asked patiently, despite all her internal alarms going off.
“Well, I sorta,” Luz’s hand came into frame, scratching at the back of her neck. Amity could see the faint outline of her wings twitching behind her. “I heard that they, uh, had experience with dry thunderstorms.”
“Only really with--” Amity paused, trailing off as the piece clicked in her mind. “Thunderdiving,” She said blankly. “You mean with Thunderdiving.”
“Oh, is that what they did?” Luz asked in a far-too innocent voice. “Had no idea.”
“Luz,” Amity growled, her ears flicking back as her eyes narrowed. “What,” She repeated, with an edge to her tone. “Are you doing?”
Luz stared back at her, eyes wide and guilty. She could see her wings hunch up to her shoulders, like she could shield herself subtly and avoid getting called out. She mumbled something under her breath.
“Luz,”
“It sounded fun--”
“Oh for the Titan’s sake.” Amity groaned, dragging a hand down her face. “I’m coming over, don’t you even think about flying in this.”
“Maybe I’ll be in the air by the time you get here,” Luz snorted. “Unless, of course, you flew here…” Luz trailed off, her voice taking on a hopeful tone. “But then that would make you a hypocrite, wouldn’t it?” She added teasingly.
“You know, I’m starting to regret learning to fly.” Amity muttered, swinging her legs off the side of her bed and standing up.
“No you don’t.” Luz cheerfully singsonged. 
“Debatable,” Amity shrugged, despite the smile on her face. “Point is, do not fly until I get there.”
“So I can fly after you get here then?” Luz asked excitedly.
“Absolutely no--”
“Too late! No take backs!” Luz crowed. With that, and a fast flourish of feathers through the crystal ball, the call abruptly ended.
Amity, not for the first time, was left wondering why Luz, of all people, just had to be the one she was so fond of.
,
Amity did not fly to the Owl House, thank you very much. She may have, however, simply ‘boosted’ herself along by flapping her wings. She knew Luz said she wouldn’t fly in this storm (for now), but she also knew Luz wasn’t known for patience. 
Lightning flashed, striking some part of the ocean in the distance, causing Amity to flinch for barely a moment. Thunder rolled overhead not long after, almost being mistakable for an earthquake.
She slipped through the trees that surrounded the old house, cursing quietly as he tugged her foot out of a small thicket of brambles. She stumbled, catching herself on the trunk of a tree. Grumbling, she looked around it, trying to judge how far she was from the house.
Turns out, not far at all. Because immediately upon seeing the structure, her vision was quickly enveloped by the bane of her existence.
“Hi, again!” Hooty yelled, or at least sounded as such. He always sounded like he was shouting. “Luz told me not to kick you out, so we can chat now!” He said gleefully.
“Get out of my face,” Amity hissed, her wings flaring behind her as they puffed up. “Before I rip off yours.”
“Hooty! Leave Amity alone!”
Luz’s voice had never been so divine. With great reluctance, Hooty retracted his face and looked back, up to the roof of the Owl House. Amity, with her sight no longer obstructed, could see Luz sitting on the very edge of the roof, her legs dangling off. Her wings were relaxed at her sides, almost draping as she lightly swung her feet.
“I was just saying hi!” Hooty complained.
“And you did a great job, Hooty.” Luz said patiently, if not exasperated. “Go back to the door, please.”
“Hmph! At least someone appreciates me around here.” Hooty grumbled, his weird tube body retracting back into the front door, where he continued to mutter to himself.
“Eugh,” Amity shuttered, her wings lying flat once more. She hated that thing.
“Sorry about him,” Luz said, her voice drifting and faint from the distance between them. “But you should come up here! Views great,” She added happily.
“You're going to get struck by lightning,” Amity sighed.
But even she couldn’t deny the request. Her dyed-green wings spread, creaking in protest at the movement. Even with her flight nearly back to normal, they still weren’t used to being opened completely. She figured (read: hoped) it would get better with time.
Amity stepped out of the trees with a flourish of her wings, rising to the air with minor difficulty as she soared towards the roof. Luz’s grin brightened as she approached, and Amity squandered down the little jump her heart did at the sight. Land first, panic about the cute sparrow later.
Amity folded her wings back as her feet brushed the tile of the roof, holding her arms out to keep her balance as she dropped back down via gravity.
“Personally, I think you could balance better by keeping your wings spread.” Luz said, looking over her shoulder from where she sat as Amity reoriented herself. “Tilts things around better. Though that's more a preference.”
Amity turned, huffing good-naturedly as she let her arms fall.
“I’ll keep that in mind!”
Amity’s sentence was cut off as thunder roared overhead, even managing to make the ground tremble slightly. She stumbled, her hands quickly connecting with Luz’s wing. The human had raised it up to catch Amity, blinking in concern as Amity clung to it for a few moments until the thunder faded out.
“You alright?” Luz asked, a hint of teasing in her tone.
“Fine,” Amity said curtly, quickly letting go of Luz’s wing. Even knowing that Luz wouldn’t have offered it if she didn’t feel Amity had the right to touch her wings, it still put her on edge. 
“I’m not typically out during thunderstorms.” She mumbled, rubbing the back of her neck. “Which you shouldn’t be, either.” She added right after, fixing Luz a pointed look.
“Hey, it's a storm with no boiling rain!” Luz persisted, getting to her feet as she gestured out to the sky. “You expect me to sit inside when I don’t have to?”
“Please note that there is still lightning.” Amity said, pressing the palms of her hands together. The sky flashed white for a brief second, enunciating her point.
“I mean, in the human realm, the chances of getting struck by lightning are pretty slim.” Luz shrugged, her wings mimicking the gesture. “Unless you're at a high point with metal. Which I will not be taking with me up there.” She said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“How much do I have to stress that this is a horrible idea for you to go back inside?” Amity asked, her wings squeezing tighter at her sides. “Just because the twins Thunderdived doesn’t mean that it's a good, or safe, idea. Quite the opposite, actually.”
“Too late, made up my mind.” Luz teased, her wings raising slightly over her back as she looked back to the sky as a less-destructive clap of thunder sounded overhead. “Sounds like it could be fun.”
“Your idea of fun is sitting in the maw of a hungry demon and daring it to eat you.” Amity deadpanned. “Where’s Eda, anyway? Surely she’s at least a little responsible with Thunderdiving?”
“Eda’s out stealing with King, I think.” Luz said, face scrunched up in thought. “She just said it had to do with business and left. Which either means she got a deal on something or felt like pestering the Warden again.”
“It’s a miracle you're still alive.” Amity groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose.
“I’ll say,” Luz agreed, looking down to the ground far below. “Now, since you're here, I believe there’s some lightning that needs to be evaded.” She said, her wings arching and opening up as she crouched on the edge of the roof like a feathery gargoyle.
“Don’t you dare,” Amity growled, reaching for Luz.
In the same movement, Luz pitched over the ledge. She dove up almost instantly, but the sight still gave Amity’s stomach a sharp drop for a solid second. Luz flew just out of reach, spinning around and hovering in the air with a wide grin plastered on her face.
“Tell you what,” Luz said, mocking the impression of being deep in thought. “I won’t Thunderdive, if,” She raised a finger at that, despite Amity not even attempting to interrupt. “You can catch me.” She said, smirking like she’d made the deal of the century.
“...are you seriously gambling with your life on a game of tag?” Amity demanded incrudeously, once again questioning why this was the person she cared a stupid amount for.
“You make it sound so dramatic,” Luz whined, crossing her arms. “Plenty of people survive Thunderdiving.”
“Surviving is not the same as avoiding plummeting into the ocean.” Amity stressed, seconds away from knocking her head against something.
“Guess you’ll have to be fast then.” Luz said with a shrug, her tail flaring out. “Race you!”
With that, Luz shot off into the air, causing a breeze to ruffle Amity’s hair and wings. For a sparrow, she was remarkably quick at how she sped into the air and up towards the looming darkening clouds, thunder booming around them.
“Luz!” Amity snapped, more annoyed than anything. She leapt off the roof as well, taking half a second more to orient herself in the air before shooting off after her.
,
Now, being a kestrel, Amity obviously had the upper hand on speed. No matter how fast Luz boasted she could be, she was still a sparrow. In a straight-line flight, Amity would’ve caught up with little effort, even with her wings limited use.
However, what Luz lacked in speed, she made up for tenfold in agility and tricks. Amity blamed Eda for all of that.
So it was no surprise (albeit it still frustrating) that when Amity found herself surrounded by swaths of storm clouds, Luz was already long hidden. The dark masses providing perfect cover for her duller feathers. And while Amity could scarcely tell up from down, Luz never seemed to be bothered by it in the slightest.
“Luz!” Amity called, deciding it best to glide in a large circle. “I thought this was tag, not hide-and-seek!” She gruffed, eyes scanning the clouds.
Another point to Amity’s team. She had far sharper vision. Meaning that should Luz stray so much as a hair too far out of her cover, Amity would spot her in seconds. Hopefully. 
“But it makes it so much more fun!” Luz crowed, causing Amity to spin around.
Luz flew like a bullet, a mere few meters away, as she ducked and dove through another clump of clouds.
Thunder roared in Amity’s ears as she sighed, tucking in her wings and diving after her. Amity broke from the dark mass and came to a cleared-out section in the sky. Clouds were still all around her, but the storm seemed almost hollowed-out, leaving rolling stretches of clear sight.
And with a strike of lightning in the distance, Amity’s eyes instantly locked onto a distant shape flying right through the middle of it, closer to the lower-level clouds.
Amity took off, keeping high as she began to overtake Luz. The human appeared oblivious to where Amity had gone, her head moving back and forth as she scanned everywhere but up.
Amity squandered the impulse to call out. Instead she took a deep breath, reigning herself in before sharply yanking her wings to her sides, nearly folding them completely.
She dropped like a stone, careening straight down towards Luz. Her wings tensed, ready to flare out and stop her descent at a moment's notice. She wanted to catch Luz, not strike her out of the sky.
Perhaps it was the sound of her diving, or maybe it was simple intuition, but just as Amity was nearly upon Luz, the sparrow spun around. Her eyes widened right as lightning flashed. Amity was close enough she swore she could see it reflect in her gaze.
At a speed Amity would chalk up to magic if she weren’t human, Luz rolled out of the way, her wings whirling as she dropped for a second before darting to the side. Amity flared out her wings as she missed, almost giving herself whiplash at how quick her descent stopped.
“That’s the spirit!” Luz cheered, flying around Amity as she shook her head and steadied herself. 
“Spirit, huh?” Amity parroted, taking the moment to twist around and lunge.
Luz, completely unbothered, simply rolled out of the way again with a laugh, rising a few feet in the air. She gave a happy chirrup, now tauntingly flying in a circle around Amity.
“That's the best you got?” Luz teased, doing a cocky flip in the air.
Thunder rumbled around them. Amity was very aware that Luz was purposefully egging her on, getting both of them caught in Thunderdiving.
She couldn’t find it in her to care right then.
“You wish,” Amity huffed, bolting towards Luz in the same instance.
Luz squealed excitedly, almost getting a wing to the face as she ducked and shot up back into the clouds, Amity close behind. 
Luz twisted and dipped through the sky, trying and failing to give Amity the slip. And despite Amity’s best efforts to treat this seriously, she couldn’t help but laugh alongside her. It was fun, dare she say it. Though never in the proximity of the twins. She’d never hear the end of it.
Luz darted around Amity again before shooting into the air, diving straight up before pausing, her momentum slowing. Amity tilted her head as she watched, admittedly intrigued. 
When Luz hit the peak of her ascent she trilled, tucking in her wings and flipping backwards before diving back down again. She flew right over Amity’s head as she passed, giggling and, though Amity couldn’t be completely sure, a little nervous.
“What are--”
Amity’s amused inquiry was cut off by a roar of thunder, feeling like her brain was rattling in her skull. Luz, unbothered as ever, swung back around in her flight to cuff the tip of Amity’s wing with her own, whooping gleefully.
“Wha--unfair!” Amity shouted, fumbling in the air for a moment before shooting after her.
Luz cackled and flew up again, wings tucked close as she flipped through the air. Lightning struck in the distance, highlighting both girls for mere moments.
Once again, Luz cheerfully chirruped when she reached her peak and dove back down, ruffling Amity’s feathers as she zoomed by.
It was a pattern Amity had seen before from other birds of prey. Usually at some dinner party or get-together her parents hosted. Typically from the other snobby rich kids who wanted to impress the eye of a Blight. It had always been one of the most shoehorned spectacles Amity had the misfortune of witnessing.
And as Luz made a noise similar to a chatter and dove right by Amity, throwing taunts behind her, Amity wondered if she was aware of this. She was quick to dismiss the thought and shook her head, calling back to Luz with a jeering crow. 
Luz did things that sparrows normally never even thought about all the time. The few times anyone had pointed it out, Luz had always stared back blankly. Luz was just, well, Luz. She did whatever she felt like doing with the only reason being because it was fun and she wanted to.
She simply didn’t know.
Didn’t mean Amity was gonna stop her, though.
Amity shook out of her thoughts before beating her wings and soaring after Luz, who had flew around a spiral of clouds with a mischievous grin. 
“And you said this was a bad idea,” Luz teased, ducking to the side as Amity flew right by her.
“It is.” Amity huffed, tilting her wings to glide back around, allowing for their game to pause. Because it was hard to talk while chasing after an uncatchable human, of course, why else?
“You sure?” Luz asked, giving Amity a smug look over her shoulder that did not make her wings falter, that would be ridiculous. “Because I’d almost say you're having fun.” She teased.
“That doesn’t mean this isn’t an awful idea,” Amity reminded, the thunder rumbling around them enunciating her point. “We could go flying any day, but in a thunderstorm is the worst time.” She said, forcing herself to let her wings relax when Luz began flying at a leisurely pace, resisting the urge to chase after her again.
“Hey, we haven’t been struck yet.” Luz pointed out, turning so that she could face Amity while flying backwards (how she managed that so casually, Amity wished she knew). “The twins must’ve taught you enough then, huh?”
“The twins have taught me a total of three things in my life.” Amity said, a bitter tone not going unnoticed. “Don’t trust them with anything of importance, how to sell any absurd lie, and that Thunderdiving is a terrible, Titan-awful idea.” 
“Can really feel the familial love,” Luz said blankly. “Look on the bright side, now that you're here, we both get a learning experience.”
Lighting struck twice in the distance, catching the girls eyes for a brief second.
“How fun,” Amity sighed, slowly tearing her eyes away from where the lightning had been. “I still don’t know why you thought it would be a good idea to ask me for the twins. Even without a dry thunderstorm, that's gotta be the most suspicious thing you could ever ask.”
“Heh, yeah, well, we’re here now.” Luz said, glancing to Amity for a quick second before tilting her wings until she was flying a few feet below and to the left of Amity, her gaze pointed forwards.
Amity narrowed her eyes, positive that Luz knew she was staring at her now and was ignoring her. There was something nagging at the back of Amity’s mind, and from experience, it was probably best to follow thoughts like that.
“Hey,” Amity said, her voice slow as memories were pushed to the front of her mind. The way Luz’s entire body tensed so violently that she almost froze midair was so comical Amity almost lost her train of thought to snort at it.
“Don’t you have the twins' numbers?” She asked, raising a brow.
“Oh, do I?” Luz said, her voice a few octaves higher as she looked sideways towards Amity, her eyes notably wider. 
“Yeah, didn’t you share numbers with them when I was preparing you for Grom because they thought it’d be fun to grab you for some scheme if you survived?” Amity said, not even bothering with a suspicious tone. She could tell from the first tense she had been right.
“Huh,” Luz said, visibly swallowing as she looked away. “Weird. Must’ve forgotten.”
Amity gave Luz possibly one of her best unamused expressions to date, which she had the audacity to refuse to look at.
“You planned this, didn’t you?” Amity deadpanned, the realizations coming to her mere moments before she said them. “You,” Amity blinked, her words coming out as shocked and maybe a little impressed. “You wanted me to come here!”
Luz turned her head to Amity then, looking guiltier than Gus after being caught trying to get petty revenge on Mattholomule for the third time in a week. Her hands fiddled together as her wings looked like they wanted to hunch up, but couldn’t due to them being the only things stopping her from plummeting.
“I mean…” Luz said slowly, her eyes darting this way and that. “It worked, didn’t it?”
Amity, if anything, was far more dismayed that she’d fallen for the most basic trick in the book than the fact Luz had goaded her into doing something as recklessly stupid as Thunderdiving. And that must’ve shown on her face, because Luz looked like she didn’t know if she should laugh or be concerned. 
“You sneak!” Amity cried, taking Luz’s unsure state to tuck into a dive right for her.
Luz yelped and barely managed to dodge, her tail feathers brushing the tips of Amity’s fingers. Luz whirled around from where she escaped a few meters below Amity, fear flashing across her features for a swift moment until she saw the determined smile on Amity’s face. 
“You're just mad that it worked!” Luz laughed, with only a hint of worry in her tone.
“Just for that, I’m going to tell Willow about this.” Amity said, raising her chin defiantly before darting towards Luz once more.
“You wouldn’t!” Luz gasped in playful offense. “Willow would know that you were out here, too!”
“I’m not the one who wanted to fly in a storm!” Amity shot back. “I’m innocent by reason of trying to do the responsible thing.”
“You're still here, though.”
“Because you won’t stay still!”
They went around in circles, making themselves dizzy as they dodged and dove between darkened clouds. The only way to tell up from down was by pausing the beating of their wings and letting gravity overtake them before they went right back to doing loop-de-loops.
Luz shot up through a swath of clouds, wings arched slightly as she rose into the air with the dark, almost black, clouds at her back. Amity tilted her head up, letting her wings pause briefly in the air as she watched, maybe a little entranced. Possibly.
Luz turned, gazing down to grin at Amity as her descend paused.
And lightning lit up practically on top of her.
She swore in that moment that it looked like the lightning had cut right through Luz. She shut her eyes a moment after, the light blinding her momentarily as she jerked back and rubbed at them.
“Luz?” She called, blinking her eyes rapidly a moment later. “Luz! Where--”
The sparrow wasn’t there. Amity whirled around, wings almost failing in keeping her upright due to the speed at how fast she looked all around, not knowing if she should be relieved or not she couldn't see anything plummeting to the ground. Did the clouds swallow her up? Was she already on the ground? Were they over the ocean? She couldn’t see--
“Amity!”
She startled, feathers flaring up as Luz appeared from a cluster of clouds. Shaken, clearly, her eyes were heavily contracted and darting about. But flying, albeit wonkily, and that was the important part.
“Great Isles!” Amity breathed, not even aware of her wings moving until she was right in front of Luz, grabbing at her arms and flicking her eyes over her for any mark that wasn’t there previously. 
“I’m-I’m okay, hey,” Luz shook her head, tail twitching. “Barely even grazed me, I promise.”
“Barely is not the same as didn’t,” Amity stressed, eyes finally landing on her right wing.
Three secondary feathers were gone, instead replaced by smoldering black stumps. The ends of the feathers surrounding it were tipped with ash, too. Lucky it wasn’t any primary feathers, or Luz might have actually begun to fall.
“Oh Titan,” Amity murmured, eyes locked onto the hole through Luz’s wing. She could see now Luz was favoring her right wing.
“You weren’t kidding about lightning being nasty, huh?” Luz said, following her gaze and looking over the blackened feathers. “I mean, I knew it was, but I wasn’t expecting it to, you know, be out for blood.”
“Please don’t joke about being hit by lightning,” Amity said quietly, shoulders hunching.
“Hey, hey,” Luz pulled an arm free of Amity’s grasp, also grabbing at her and getting her to look away from the missing feathers. “I’m fine. Nothing that won’t grow back.” She assured. 
Thunder rumbled through the sky, causing both of them to flinch. Their eyes darted to the sky for a moment, antsy and waiting for the flash of lightning.
It lit up the sky further away, highlighting the two of them before it died out.
“I think I’ve had enough Thunderdiving for today.” Luz eventually said, tearing her gaze away from where the lightning had hit and back to Amity. “Besides,” She added as she rose up her arm, showing Amity was still tightly clinging to her. “You caught me.” She said, giving a small smile.
Amity blinked, staring at where she was hanging onto Luz so tightly her claws looked close to piercing the skin. She jerked her hands back, offering a nervous, apologetic smile.
“Yeah, right, course.” Amity nodded, flying a few paces back. “Gotta get that wing checked out, and...all that.”
“Think I could spin it off that Hooty was the reason for this?” Luz asked, readjusting her wings so she was flying more towards her uninjured side. 
“I’ll be your witness,” Amity agreed, glancing back as thunder rolled through the sky. 
“Cool,” Luz smiled, shaking her head and flickering her distant gaze away from the dark clouds. Amity almost asked if she was alright again before she called out; “Last one to the House has to get in through the window!” 
Luz took that same moment to tuck in her wings and plummet. 
“Wh--don’t dive on a wing with missing feathers!” Amity squawked, feathers fluffing up as she dove right after her.
Luz’s laughs answered her. Leaving Amity wondering, for possibly the fifth time in two weeks, how Luz had lasted things long to begin with.
But hey, if Luz can survive a run-in with lightning, she could probably survive anything.
78 notes · View notes
arcticfoxbear · 3 years
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Okay, so we all had our hearts broken a bit during THAT SCENE.
But if you look closely it is even more heartbreaking than you thought.
So the show has established that the robots talk with both ultrasonic sound and their face lights and communicate a lot with body posture.
We the audience only have two light "words" spelled out for us, that is "Engine" the ellipse shape,
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and "home/family/safe" the broad figure eight that Penny recognizes as a smile.
Which we ses versions of first above when John Robinson first starts to show kindness and welcome to Robot over the card game.
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And a smaller but more intense version here
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When John just rescued Robot from Hastings's brain zapper when John was the only Robinson to thought to actually speak directly to Robot.
So we see this figure eight image twice, both times when John is actively caring for Robot. Either reassuring him or outright saving him.
Way back in 2019 after season 1 dropped I hypothesized that we could figure out the phrase for "I'll keep you safe/I'll protect you/I won't let anyone hurt you"
A single broad, white swath of a spiral starting in the center of the robot's face and filling the entire face with the spiral. I was surfing tumblr for Robot Robinson pictures, as you do, and I found these two gif sets
In the first one John is setting up the fence and Will protests saying that they have Robot to protect them and don't need the fence. John points out that they can't be sure of that. Robot turns his attention from Will long enough to flash this distinctive spiral at John.
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In context Robot could have been saying. "No, the kid's right. I'll protect them." At the very least he might have been saying. "I won't let anything else hurt you."
https://authorbettyadams.tumblr.com/post/618697543203831808
But the scene that gave me this idea was the one just after Robot seals the breach on Will's suit. Will makes the comment to the effect that he knew Robot was still there and Robot makes this face and then gives the 'Friends' line before kicking SAR off the ship.
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https://authorbettyadams.tumblr.com/post/618695359434309632/ahsokatonas-lost-in-space-2018
In the first instance, when Robot seems to be promising to protect the whole family there is also a starburst in the upper left corner of his face.
Then we see this identical spiral with the starburst again when Robot has to bust through the Jupiter door and sees Maureen ready to whack him one on the other side.
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This context really supports the idea that this starburst/spiral means, "You don't need to worry, I will keep the family safe."
So immediately after reassuring everyone that he has this protection thing down, Robot...well doesn't, and instead of trying to comfort him John lashed out at him, and we get this image...
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I tried to capture a better image of it but it was hard. It was like the starburst/spiral was trying to from but couldn't. As if Robot was admitting he failed to protect Will, or was trying to tell John that he wasn't going to retailate if John wanted to keep punching him. But the image is fragmented, broken, almost as if a human was trying to speak clearly while crying.
And then Robots face changes to this image....
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This is much more clearly an attempt at the broad figure eight that means "smile/safety/home/family" The one Robot saves for John, only this time it is broken in two places. Robot has let Will all but die, and John is rejecting him.
And the timing is very, very telling, the broken, "I will keep you safe" turns to the "safety/home/family" word, but as it does Robot turns his head so John can't, or doesn't have to see it, as if Robot is so ashamed and guilty that he won't even claim the safety, the affection, the home that John has represented to him up to this point.
Or, perhaps, even more heartbreakingly, Robot is shown to be very emotionally childlike, this is Robot asking if he is being cast out of the family, but not being able to ask the question directly...
Aaahhhhhhhhhh!
I want so badly  to know this entire story from Robot's perspective!
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fific7 · 3 years
Text
There May Be Trouble Ahead - Part 3
John Whittaker x Reader
A/N: This does not follow canon, it’s all lemon zest 🍋 because the world deserves more of the over-eager puppy that is the handsome Johnny Whittaker. And puppies need discipline.
The song excerpt is from ‘Let’s Face the Music and Dance’ which surely must be John’s life anthem? (It wasn’t released until 1936 but there’s that fiction writer’s licence again.)
Warnings: 18+ NSFW due to sexual content including oral between consenting adults*. Some drinking.
*Irl, please don’t go wild in the country without protection.
(Not my GIF, credit to owner)
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As John followed you out of his bedroom, you asked him if you might use the bathroom and he took your hand once more, guiding you along the corridor and pointing at a door. Once inside, you looked around at the huge roll-top bath and large porcelain sink. You smiled, once again it all seemed very Victorian to your (you liked to think) very modern eye.
Coming back downstairs a little later on, you heard a murmur of voices from below you and paused on the half-landing, tip-toeing to the edge and peeking cautiously over the banister rail.
John and Sarah were standing in the large lobby, and you noticed that John had his arms crossed over his chest in a very defensive stance.
You heard Sarah say in her quiet voice, “I just don’t want you to get hurt again, Johnny.” You grimaced as she said “Johnny” and the familiar way she used it. “I mean I hardly have to remind you what happened the last time you met someone and got carried away, do I? She ran off with your Father!” Your mouth rounded into an ‘O’ as you heard those explosive words. A scowl appeared on John’s face, and he snapped, “Well firstly, you did just remind me! And secondly, at least the old man’s not around this time to run off with my wife!”
“Wife!” exclaimed Sarah, “She’s an acquaintance at best! Hardly appropriate to speak of her as your wife. You met her, what - a week ago?” “Took me less time than that with Larita,” shot back John. Now it was Sarah’s turn to pull a face. “I’m just saying to take it more slowly this time, Johnny, that’s all!” John started striding away from her and you pulled back from the banister in case either of them looked up and spotted you. “Well, thank you for the advice, Sarah. You can rest assured that this time I shall be doing things with less haste and more consideration.”
Through the banister rails you watched Sarah remain standing there for a moment, crestfallen, before following after John.
»»————————————-———- ⚜ ———————————-————-««
John stalked into the sitting room, heading for a cigarette box on one of the low tables and opening it. Thankfully it wasn’t empty, so he took one out, tapped it a couple of times and lit it with the ornate table lighter next to the box. He drew on it before blowing out a long plume of smoke into the air. He heard heels making their way across the large rug behind him and hoped it was his guest, turning with a smile on his face.
Seeing that it was Sarah, his smile faded and he knew she’d noticed that. But why then did she have to keep on at him like some kind of mother hen? He sighed, “What other pearls of wisdom are you here to cast before me, Sarah?”
She tried a tentative smile, “I don’t mean to nag, Johnny. You know I don’t. It’s as I said, I just don’t want you to get hurt again.” He moved over to the large windows, gazing out over the landscape, “I don’t intend to, believe me. And I don’t intend to hurt my new lady friend either,” he replied, still smoking his cigarette and speaking over his shoulder to her, “I’ve met someone I truly like and I’m not about to mess it up.”
He turned back to the window and therefore missed seeing Sarah’s lips tightening into an almost-snarl as she heard his words.
And unbeknownst to him, the ‘someone’ of whom he spoke was currently listening just outside the sitting room.
»»————————————-———- ⚜ ———————————-————-««
A quiet voice behind you made you jump. “Are you lost, madam?” You swung round. Oh, it was the butler, Furber was it?
“Oh no, it’s fine thank you, Mr Furber. I’m just looking for John and I think I’ve found him now.” You pointed theatrically - and somewhat ridiculously - into the sitting room, before giving him an embarrassed smile and disappearing through the door.
You saw that Sarah was now the one adopting the defensive body language, and she and John were staring each other down in what looked like some kind of Mexican Standoff.
Okay, you thought, here I go with my ‘Absolutely Innocent of Eavesdropping’ act.
“Oh, John - there you are! I thought I’d lost you for a moment,” and you gave him a big smile. “Hello, Sarah!” you added, now looking at her and still smiling, but it was a very much smaller one than John had received from you.
John reacted as you’d hoped he would and came rushing over to you immediately, hand going to yours. “Do you want to go, darling? We can, you know.” “Perhaps we should,” you said, “we don’t want to take up the whole of everyone’s afternoon, do we?” He grinned at you, “No, we don’t, darling.”
You hid a smile, thinking that he was perhaps slightly overdoing it with the ‘darling’s’ but you’d take them all. Because you’d caught a look of absolute fury on Sarah’s face for a split-second when she’d heard the first ‘darling’ leave his lips.
That’s more like it, girl! you thought gleefully, let out all that broiling jealousy and sexual tension hiding inside that calm little head!
If she wasn’t going to be honest about her true feelings and instead mess around playing silly mind games, then that really wasn’t your problem. You’d just met John, you liked him (much to your amazement, you had to admit) and you wanted to see where things led.
It had annoyed you, quite frankly, when you’d heard her dripping words of doubt into John’s ear as if she was merely a concerned bystander, instead of being an interested party herself.
And if she was going to play dirty, then you just might have to as well.
»»————————————-———- ⚜ ———————————-————-««
John was feeling immensely relieved as he drove the two of them away from Flintham Hall. His darling (which was how he found himself thinking of her now) didn’t seem to have overheard that silly squabble of his with Sarah and they’d managed to take their leave fairly easily without too many entreaties from his Mother to stay longer.
Although she did seem a little quiet on the drive back to town. He shook off the thought, she was probably just a bit overwhelmed after meeting all of them in one fell swoop. It was quite a task, he acknowledged. He knew his family could be intimidating.
Arriving back and parking outside her flat, he was overjoyed when she asked him if he’d like to come in for either more tea or a small aperitif.
It seemed that he was still in her ‘good books’.
»»————————————-———- ⚜ ———————————-————-««
You poured a pale sherry for each of you and handed a glass to John. He was lounging - entirely at ease - on your large cherry-red sofa, and you sat opposite him on the matching armchair. He looked slightly disappointed at that but took a sip of his sherry, saying “Mmm, that’s a nice Fino.”
You’d spent the whole journey back pondering whether to confess that you’d eavesdropped. Firstly, you felt guilty for doing so. One of your mother’s favourite sayings was ‘eavesdroppers never hear good of themselves’ if she ever caught you and your little brother listening at doors. And secondly, you didn’t want there to be any lies or omissions between you and John.
“Yes, it’s not bad,” you agreed. “Look John, I need to tell you something.” He sat bolt upright, “Oh no - you’re dumping me! Already!” he wailed. You laughed, “No, I’m not! But I do need to discuss something with you.”
He sat back again, still looking anxious, “Tell me!” he demanded. You drew in a deep breath, “I overheard your conversation with Sarah. I’m sorry!” you said quickly, “I really didn’t mean to, I was just coming downstairs… and then you were in the sitting room.” You grinned, “Furber caught me standing outside!” He also grinned, “Yes, he’s got a habit of appearing without warning! I suppose it’s the whole butler thing.” His expression sobered, “So you did hear us squabbling! And also the final scandalous fact about my ill-fated marriage.” He took another sip of sherry. “Yes, the sad fact is, my Father ran off with her. They’re living in sin and penury down in the south of France.”
“I’m sorry, John,” you said sincerely, “that must’ve been hard to bear.” He smiled at you, “It wasn’t the best. And of course Mother went absolutely mad and said it was all my fault. Which it was, of course. By that time, I’d realised that I didn’t love her but yes, it still stung.” You leaned back and looked steadily at him, “I suppose it was for the best. In an awful way. But tell me, what’s with Sarah?” He gave you a puzzled look, “What do you mean, darling?”
“Your relationship with her. Tell me about it.” He sighed, “Mother always wanted me to marry her. She saw it as the joining of two dynasties, nothing romantic about it. I think I told you we had a brother-sister thing between us? We grew up together so that’s just how it was. Then mater started putting pressure on me to get engaged to her and her parents weren’t opposed to it, so it was kind of understood between the two families that that’s what would eventually happen. But then… Larita. As I said.” Another sip of sherry. “When she left, it was obvious that everyone expected me to just pick up with Sarah again from where we left off. But she didn’t seem all that keen - wounded pride, I suppose and I don’t blame her for that - and to be brutally honest, I really wasn’t keen either.”
His dark eyes gazed over at you, “I never felt that spark with her, you know? She’s just like another sister.” You almost felt sorry for Sarah. “So it was just kind of… left on the side and no-one’s mentioned it again.” You nodded, and decided to take the plunge, “You do realise that she’s in love with you? And probably always has been?”
His face was a picture. “Umm.. what?” You nodded again, “Yes, John, believe me. Her indifferent demeanour is all an act. She wants you for herself.” You met his eyes, watching him intensely, “Does that change anything? How you feel about her? Because if it does, then I’ll just take myself off somewhere else.” He shook his head vigorously, “No! It changes nothing. Absolutely nothing.” He put his sherry glass down on the small table next to the sofa and came over to crouch down beside your chair, grasping your arm, “I’m sorry about it if that’s the case, I truly am. But it’s you I want, not Sarah.” He leant in towards you and the two of you gazed into each other’s eyes, then John’s lips softly met yours and you shared a sedate kiss.
Breaking apart, he laughed nervously, “I hope you don’t mind that I kissed you?” Shaking your head and running a finger along his jaw, you were smiling as you replied, “I don’t mind in the slightest, John.”
»»————————————-———- ⚜ ———————————-————-««
John was driving perhaps a little too fast along the country roads, on his way back home in the gathering dusk. He was a very happy man indeed, and he was singing at the top of his voice.
There may be trouble ahead
But while there's moonlight
And music and love and romance
Let's face the music and dance
Before the fiddlers have fled
Before they ask us to pay the bill
And while we still have the chance
Let's face the music and dance
He pulled the car to a grinding halt and leapt out of it, bounding up the steps and into the house. Furber, gliding along with a tray holding a decanter of sherry and four glasses, hid a smile and nodded at him, “Good evening, sir. Shall I bring an additional glass for you?” “Uh.. no, thanks Furber, I’m just going to my room. To.. uh.. lie down for a nap before dinner.”
Furber hid an even bigger smile. He knew the signs only too well. The Master was in love again.
John’s foot was on the first step of the staircase when Veronica’s voice cut through his pleasant thoughts. “John! Please join us!” His shoulders dropped… caught like a rat in a trap! Accepting defeat, he turned on his heel and trotted into the sitting room behind his Mother. The other three ladies were ranged around various sofas and armchairs and in the process of accepting glasses of sherry from Furber, who magically produced a fifth glass and now filled it for John. How does he do that? wondered John, does he keep supplies of spare glasses in his pockets? Hmm, maybe he does, I wouldn’t put it past him.
He took the glass and thanked Furber, settling into one of the squashy old armchairs and facing the four women who were all looking at him expectantly. He looked back at them, until eventually his Mother broke the stalemate, “Well, John? Where did you meet her? At the Art Gallery?” Marion sniggered bitchily, “As if! John’s never been inside an art gallery in his life, Mama!” Shooting her a poisonous look, John replied, “As it happens - no, Mother.” Marion snorted in triumph but John ignored her, continuing, “I nearly hit her in the head with a tennis ball.”
“Johhhhnnn!” wailed his mother, “That’s no way to impress a lady!” He sighed, “I do realise that, mater. I promise you I didn’t do it on purpose. But it was certainly very fortuitous.” He knew that he probably had a dreamy, faraway look in his eyes but he didn’t care. He noticed Sarah’s eyes on him, and he felt a sudden pang of guilt. But what can I do? he thought, the heart wants what the heart wants.
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Monday was dragging by and felt very tedious. You’d begun work on a small canvas by a fairly famous local artist and as you meticulously and gently rubbed at the grime which covered it, your mind drifted to last Saturday evening.
After that first innocent kiss, John had pulled you up off the armchair and slid his arms right around you, holding you close and kissing you in an increasingly passionate fashion. So much so that you eventually had to gently shove him away, smiling and catching your breath.
Most of the (admittedly few) men you had stepped out with had been appalling kissers, all wet lips and slobbering over you in indecent haste.
John might act like an overgrown schoolboy (or puppy, take your pick) but in the kissing stakes, he was well out in front of the rest of the field. His lips had hovered at your ear and you felt little huffs of his breath against it. “Your lips, your mouth, your eyes… you’re driving me insane,” he whispered, and you’d almost fainted at the sensuality of it.
You suddenly heard your supervisor’s sharp voice, and you looked up quickly at the older woman. She was in fact a very good mentor, her bark being worse than her bite as they say. She smirked, “You’re in a world of your own today, dear! I called your name at least twice before now.” Looking more closely at you, she gave a delighted laugh, “Oh my! There’s a man involved, isn’t there?” You blushed furiously and she crowed, “I was right! I knew it. Now, tell me all about him!”
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After spending ten minutes telling your mentor all about John, you were slightly disappointed when she had a bit of a mixed reaction to the details you shared.
“My dear, he does sound very dashing,” she intoned, and you knew there was a ‘but’ coming, “but he also sounds a little bit… risqué.” You opened your mouth to jump to his defence, but she held up a hand, “I know you don’t want to hear this, but you do need to guard against making any impulsive decisions regarding him. He sounds as if he likes impulsive gestures, judging by the sound of the circumstances surrounding his marriage. And then his father running off with his wife! I mean, my dear, that is positively…” “Scandalous,” you supplied, “yes, I do realise that. But I truly believe he’s learned his lesson.”
She looked sceptical, “So you say, but please do bear in mind that he’s still probably inclined towards the impulsive, despite what he says. I’m sure your parents would never forgive me if I didn’t at least try and sound a warning shot across your bows!” You dipped your head and accepted her thoughts, “I am listening to you, honestly,” you assured her.
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John had taken to telephoning you every evening since the Saturday you’d spent together. “I just want to hear your voice,” he’d say say quietly into the phone. “It’s nice to hear yours, too,” you’d reply. When he phoned you on Tuesday evening, you could hear some excitement in his voice. “I’ve got us two stand tickets for the races on Saturday,” he said, his words tumbling over each other, “Oh say you’ll come! It’s not one of the big gold cup meetings but it’ll be so much fun!” You laughed, caught up in his excitement, “Yes, John, I’ll come.”
“Wonderful! Mater keeps telling me not to call you too much or pester you at work but I can’t help it!” “It’s fine, I don’t mind,” you said truthfully, thinking about how you now sat in your flat of an evening waiting for him to call. Not that you’d admit that to him, of course. Your feelings for John were definitely a bit like a runaway train at the moment, and you were trying to keep the brakes on but you were struggling to do so.
About half an hour after you’d hung up, your doorbell rang. Opening the door, you were less than charmed to see your neighbour Euphemia standing on your doorstep clutching a teacup. “Oh hullo,” she greeted you, “I wonder if I can borrow some sugar?” Mentally rolling your eyes, you said, “Of course, step in for a moment.” You took the cup from her and she trailed along your hall after you, following you to the kitchen. You knew exactly why she was here and as you poured out some sugar for her, she said, trying to sound casual, “So you have a new young man, then?”
Your back was to her so you smirked to yourself. “Yes, Euphemia, I do,” you said lightly. “Mmm,” she grunted, “What’s his name, then?” “John.” “John what?” Now she was beginning to annoy rather than amuse you, “John No-one-You’ll-Ever-Have-Heard-Of,” you said sarcastically, handing her the cup of sugar. “There you go, Euphemia! Now, so sorry, I’m right in the middle of something.” In other words, sling your hook. She had a very dissatisfied look on her face as she hadn’t been able to get all the information she wanted out of you. Just then, there was another knock at the door so you headed to it, Euphemia on your heels again. God, that woman!
Upon opening the door this time, you were delighted to see a much more welcome face. John was standing there, a very large bouquet of peonies in his hand. He gave you a big smile then immediately leaned in for a kiss, but pulled back suddenly mid-kiss when his eyes met Euphemia’s over your shoulder. “Oh!” he exclaimed, “I’m so sorry, I didn’t realise you had company.” You looked over your shoulder, saying, “Euphemia was just leaving, weren’t you Euphemia?” you said with a hint of menace in your voice. “Um… yes,” she nodded, “nicer to meet you, Mr… ?” You grabbed John’s arm and squeezed hard, “Bye, Euphemia!” She sulkily brushed past you and John and made her way down your steps.
You dragged John inside and quickly closed the door. “That woman!” you hissed, “She’s just been in here to ‘borrow a cup of sugar’ …in other words, trying to sniff out information about you!” John laughed, “Ah, now I understand! Here, darling… these are for you.” He handed you the bouquet, you exclaiming how pretty they were and beginning to look for a vase. “I remembered you said that peonies were your favourites,” he announced proudly. You were impressed! You two had passed a florists on the evening of your first date and you’d remarked how much you loved the big blowsy pink flowers.
“Anyhow, she’s not very pleased,” you said conversationally as you busied yourself arranging the flowers, “she didn’t get any information out of me at all apart from your first name.” You looked up at him, holding one of the blooms in your hand, “And as much as I’m pleased to see you and these beautiful flowers… what on earth are you doing here, John?”
You saw his face pink up, “I hope you won’t be annoyed but I couldn’t wait until Saturday to see you.” Your stomach filled with butterflies and you put down the peony, going over to where he stood and hugging him, before kissing his cheek. “You’re such a sweet boy,” you smiled at him. You felt his his shoulders relax. “Marion told me you’d get really fed up with me.”
You ghosted a kiss over his lips, “Oh, poor Marion… she’s not a happy bunny, is she?” John smiled a little sadly, “Disappointed in love. Her intended had no intention of marrying her and took off travelling.” “Oh, what a shame,” you sympathised. “It’s given her a slightly skewed view of life,” John shrugged, “she unfortunately tends to revel in other people’s embarrassing situations.”
He leant back from you, your arms still round him, “You’re not fed up with me, are you?” You smiled, “Not yet.” He landed a small kiss on your lips, “I’m pleased to hear that.” “Have you eaten?” “No… I had the sudden impulse to come haring over here to see you.” You stroked his cheek, “Then have a seat,” you waved towards your kitchen table, “and I’ll make you something.”
Your mentor’s words echoed in your head as you went to the pantry and took out some food items for John. “…he’s still probably inclined towards the impulsive…”
You felt a little soupçon of worry. It seems like she had possibly hit the nail right on the head.
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@paracosmenthusiast
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hyperbali · 4 years
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Agatha Harkness Was Right, And Here’s Why
Alright. Finally had to sit down and write my way out of this quiet, internal temper tantrum, and a few people were interested in seeing what I had to say, so I present to you:
Agatha Harkness Was Right, And Here’s Why
Disclaimer: MASSIVE spoilers for the entirety of WandaVision, and I am not nice about it.
I’ll start off by saying that, for all its foibles, WandaVision was genuinely a good example of a property within the MCU/Disney umbrella that stepped out of the usual ‘good guys fight bad guys action extravaganza’ in a way that pushed the envelope. The pseudo-horror aspect of the first few episodes is something I would really love to see engaged with on a more thoughtful basis in future projects.
I would say that it proved to be more than a vehicle to promote toys, but… well…
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Yeah. Anyway.
I’ll assume that you watched WandaVision if you’re reading this, but quick recap: In the aftermath of ‘the Blip,’ Wanda is left broken and alone with no one in her corner. Her biggest mentor willingly abandoned his team to get his own ‘happy’ ending (do not get me started on Steve, that’s a document in and of itself), her other biggest mentor is probably off enjoying his family while ignoring the incredibly racist killing spree he’s been on for the past five years, and her lover is dead. When she goes to claim the body, she’s told nuh-uh, that’s government property, please leave.
So she goes to a plot of land in the middle of some nowhere town in New Jersey, which Vision apparently bought despite the fact they were living a pretty decently comfortable life in Scotland, where she looks at the deed that Vision drew a heart on and wrote ‘To Grow Old In’. Very sweet. Kind of weird, considering nothing of this caliber had ever been suggested for either of their characters and they’d been actively running from specifically the U.S. authorities? But sweet.
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She has a breakdown and, in her grief, contains the entire town of Westview and all 3,892 of the people in it in her own personal paradise, where nothing bad ever happens beyond sitcom hijinks, no one dies, and every problem is tied up and neatly dealt with by the end of an ‘episode’. Except we learn that this is only paradise to Wanda, who apparently shares the aspect of having to relate everything to her favourite pop culture with Tony, because everyone else in Westview is more or less being psychologically tortured by the incredible amount of pain she’s in, forced to be puppeted actors to make her happy.
Bear in mind, Westview might have been bigger at some point - we have no idea how many people survived the Blip, or how many have been brought back to life within the past few weeks of the current setting. Either way, this is a town that has already dealt with a lot of trauma being dragged into yet another awful, much more specific kind of emotional damage, thanks to ‘the heroes’. Nice.
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Agatha Harkness, a witch who’s been up to who-knows-what in the 340 years since she drained the coven that tried to kill her for getting a little too ambitious into jerky, feels the massive expenditure of magical power and decides to investigate. All the while, she carefully uses her own magic to try and peek into Wanda’s psyche, her motivations, all while keeping up appearances and not letting slip that anything is amiss.
I’ll point out that she’s no saint here, either - she specifically keeps one Westview resident at her mercy, and knows what’s happening to the rest of them, but doesn’t attempt to stop it. I’ll chalk that up to her pragmatism; their ‘sacrifice’ was fine to her as long as she could figure out how Wanda could have done something so unheard of in terms of power.
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What we come to learn over the course of the show is that, given everything that happened, Wanda didn’t mean to take over an entire town and tool it into her own personal slice of heaven. She very quickly became aware of it; we know that she knows it’s her own personal bubble as soon as episode three, when she’s confronting Monica about how the latter could possibly know about Ultron. Wanda is made further aware of how much damage this is inflicting on others in episode five, when Vision himself tells her that these people are scared. But still, she has everything handled! It’s okay! The outside world is worse, trust her!
Her handling of the question, ‘where are all the children of Westview,’ is one that bears some thinking - and, y’know, kind of more than a little concern. They’re allowed to walk around as part of the ‘Halloween special,’ but as Vision walks further and further out towards the edges of town where Wanda doesn’t have as much full control, people are just frozen in place, or conducting the same few seconds of action over and over. And fully aware of being trapped.
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How are they being sustained? Eating, sleeping? If someone isn’t part of her storyline, is she just locking them down into a coma? What made Wanda decide that keeping the children ‘out of the way’ was somehow kinder than involving them, especially given her later argument that she’s been trying to keep the entire town safe and happy?
The fact of the matter is, she only actually starts to feel remorse for any of this after she’s confronted with the fact that, after weeks of being at her mercy, the townspeople of Westview would rather be dead than endure another moment of having to play nice for her enjoyment. She finally opens the ‘bubble’ to let them out - which leads to the ‘epic’ finale of three different entities trying to take down Wanda and her happy family: the S.W.O.R.D. military led by Hayward, the White Vision, and Agatha.
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Winding back to how we got here: after Agatha uses her own trapped resident, Ralph Bohner (who, given his casting and the props in place during the last episode, I’m willing to bet is actually the missing witness protection person Jimmy was looking for) in an attempt to lure out Wanda’s reasoning - and fails - she’s pretty much done pretending. She tricks Wanda into her basement, nullifies her powers, and makes her face her own past to get to the truth of the matter.
Not going to lie, favourite moment of the show. Kathryn Hahn killed Agatha’s slightly-amused-slightly-irritated observations about Wanda’s coping mechanisms, and the whole arrangement was extremely meta. I would have paid real money dollars to see her do the same thing to the likes of Tony, Strange, and Loki. Hell, even just having her meet the rest of the Avengers? Augh. If wishes were fishes.
When Agatha comes to the conclusion that Wanda is the vaunted, nigh-indestructible force of nature that she’s literally spent her entire life reading about is the ultimate source of chaos magic and will likely bring about the end of the world, she’s pretty understandably taken aback. To that matter, the fact that Wanda… has very little control over any of it, and is using what she does understand to play housemaker? After how long Agatha has spent learning control, hiding in plain sight, just to be child’s play compared to what Wanda has at her fingertips? I’d be pretty pissed off, too!
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The way that WandaVision handled both of the major ‘fights’ - Vision versus White Vision ending in philosophy, and Wanda ending up beating Agatha at her own game of deception - is excellent. A little grating that they had to go with the beat down angle before they got there, but this is MCU; punches and thrown cars had to get shoved in somewhere. And, given that this series very much played with the idea of grey morality, I was sort of hopeful that Agatha would end up in a not-quite stalemate arrangement with Wanda. She’s not as powerful as the Scarlet Witch, but she has the know-how that Wanda sorely lacks; in recompense for her own deeds, she would be able to teach what she knows while also kind of scheming on her own time.
Y’know, like what they did with rehabilitating Loki?
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Except that Wanda, who has just gone through the entire rigamarole of coming to terms with the fact that she trapped thousands of people into a nightmare scenario against their will, rendering them helpless to her mercy… traps Agatha into a nightmare scenario against her will, rendering her helpless to Wanda’s mercy.
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That moment actually shook me. Oh, my god. We’re supposed to still look at Wanda as a good guy after this?
This isn’t even covering the incredibly awful confrontation with her and Vision where she tries to gaslight him into believing that everything is A-OK, or the fact that the person she gets most violent with (apart from Agatha) is Monica Rambeau, a black woman who spends most of the show bending over backwards trying to say that what Wanda is doing is understandable, justified, and just needs a gentle touch to be dealt with.
That could be its own document, too - how Monica, much as she’s incredible and definitely looks to be a really exciting addition to the MCU roster, more or less gets used as the Good One to absolve and enable Wanda’s actions. One of her last lines to Wanda, after seeing how the people of Westview (rightfully) look at Wanda like she’s monstrous, is “they’ll never know what you sacrificed.”
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Sacrificed what? The fake husband and fake kids she made out of her own compulsion to pretend that everything is okay? None of that would have existed if she’d been given the proper resources to actually cope with how much loss she’s had to deal with. None of that would have existed if she hadn’t caused this problem in the first place.
In the end, Wanda flies off in her fancy new gear before the FBI shows up, avoiding any real consequences to her actions - which has pretty much been the running theme of her character ever since she was introduced to the MCU in Age of Ultron. The worst kind of direct consequence she’s ever gotten was being grounded to her room for a while, then kept in the Raft for, like, maybe a day - and both times, she was broken out post-haste.
Meanwhile, she worsened the issues in Sokovia (which, I will say upfront, was Tony’s fault to begin with), unleashed the Hulk on Johannesburg, got a pretty significant amount of civilians killed as bystanders in Lagos (hey, how come Wanda keeps turning a lot of black people into casualties?), and stood back in Wakanda to let their people try to fight off Thanos from getting to Vision until it was clear that there was no other option than for her to get involved.
Great Power Comes With No Responsibility At All, Actually.
Wanda, in the several years she has maintained her identity as an Avenger, has proven time and time again that she takes on innumerable risks without any full understanding of what they mean, allows others to take on the brunt of the fallout for her, and looks sad until she’s forgiven and moves on to the next problem. She has no business casually throwing around the kind of power that being the Scarlet Witch entails, not until she’s actually made any kind of headway into making reparations for what she’s done and tried, really tried, to get a handle on what she’s capable of.
Which she’s apparently doing in the last post-credits scene, astral reading the literal Book of the Damned on her lonesome in the mountains, but… without anyone to guide her, or give her any kind of boundary?
[I ran out of images I could post, but you know exactly what image I am referring to here]
Agatha Harkness was right. And that should terrify everybody that has to deal with Wanda in the future.
(P.S. Do we know if she actually even killed that dog? We never see her holding anything but a blanket, and characters go in and out of that show all the time. Granted, she wasn’t great with the cicada-turned-bird... hmm.)
Additional Notes:
“Well, you’re a Tony Stan, of course you think Wanda’s a villain”
I like Tony because he’s such an awful mess, and the narrative isn’t exactly kind about telling him what a piece of shit he can be! He reaped a lot of problems, created practically half the villains in the MCU, and ended up dying a martyred hero. Thanks to being the tent pole by which this franchise hoisted itself into a cultural powerhouse, he will always be their golden savior. If you want to read about how he’s the true villain of this entire affair, feel free to look up any number of takedown pieces about him that are out there. He’s a dick. I will never “uwu sad baby who did nothing wrong ever 🥺” him the way people do about Wanda.
“Why are you so pressed about this”
Because something as good in concept as WandaVision could and should have been about anyone other than the whitewashed, antisemitic take on Wanda Maximoff that MCU brought upon us. They put crucifixes on her wall in Civil War, for fuck’s sake!
“Weren’t you mad about them not including Aaron Taylor-Johnson”
At this point, I am almost kind of relieved the real Pietro wasn’t resurrected for this, because god knows they probably would have killed him all over again just to inflict that much more pain on his sister.
“Anything else you’d like to tell us, turbo nerd”
This was literally itching at me all weekend to write, so it’s more or less just to get it off my chest. If you powered your way through it, uh… thanks? Sorry if I yucked your yums, but I tried to be as clear with the disclaimer as I could. 🤷‍♂️
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