#ordered some Greek food

[silasea]

[moonastro]

Juno persona chart

the moon in the house

what is a juno persona chart? looking into juno persona chart gives more detailed insight of how the relationship and marriage overall of you and your spouse will be like. it also describes them in a sense as well. The Greek Goddess Juno is described to rule over love and marriage and hence why the asteroid is looked into for that theme.

the moon rules over emotions, comfort and your most inner feelings. in the juno persona chart, the moon represents emotional connections, intimacy and the nurturing qualities within the marriage.

reminder: this is my interpretation from observations and first hand experiences, so don't take this to heart.

moon in 1st house: this placement gives the impression of needing and having the urge to help and nurture their partner. this placement tends to give their other half a very self aware approach to their emotions, this may cause them to share and express it openly in the relationship. they are conscious about their emotions and this is the type to show how they feel on their face- their facial expressions are very strong. deep down this placement takes pride in their ways of dealing with their emotions and how they show it to their partner. since they have very expressive facials they may expect others to know what they are feeling without the need to talk about them. marriage will be full of affirmations about each others pride and existence.

spouse can have natal moon in aries, 1st house, fire sign.

moon in 2nd house: emotional connections are very common with this placement. seeking for financial security withing the relationships can be a priority here. this placement can definitely cause a couple to have good careers and just overall very career focused and determined- very hardworking. this placement calls for attaching themselves very easily to their partner so be careful not to become possessive over each other. another thing with this placement is that they usually feel that they need to work hard in order to allow themselves to rest and have their comfort, and these individuals love their comfort so they will thrive for it. in marriage as a whole, can be good with nurturing each others emotional states and good at making each other feel better. for example if your partner is having a bad day, you will be the first person they'll come to reassure themselves. both parties love to eat and have a good hearty meal together. i feel like it can bring nostalgia when you have food with your other person and it becomes a staple in your every day routine. it can be a simple snack that changes the days mood for this placement. speaking of moods, the mood of the marriage can fluctuate and can sometimes feel out of the blue when the change does happen without any context.

spouse can have their natal moon in taurus, 2nd house, earth sign.

moon in 3rd house: the moon here give attentive tendencies towards the way the couple communicates with each other. they feel each others sudden moves and are sensitive about the comments the other has to say. i feel like talking can be comforting and just sharing how each others day went and what little errands they did that day and overall making one another think about a question can make the other feel better. this placement may like to vary their way of communicating and sharing their interests. talking about each others trips that they took or about school when they were younger can make one another feel excited and comforted and it can be something one another can relate and ask questions about. like why did you do that, how did that happen? and so on. there can be emotions shared when talked about each others life when you were younger and the neighbourhood that you lived at that time, it may hold some emotional memories from that time.

spouse can have their natal moon in gemini, 3rd house, air sign.

moon in 4th house: family dynamics may play a significant role in shaping the individual's approach to relationships. This placement understands and respects their family values and traditions, and may prioritize building a family of their own. Conversely, this placement may also indicate that the individual themselves are nurturing and caring towards their partner. They may naturally take on the role of providing emotional support and creating a comforting environment within the relationship. security within the marriage is important. this placement is very supporting and empathetic for their other half. if their partner is hurt, they are hurt, they feel what they feel very easily and it can be quite consuming.

spouse can have their natal moon in cancer, 4th house, water sign.

moon in 5th house: Individuals with this placement may express their emotions most strongly within romantic relationships. They may seek partners who appreciate their romantic gestures and who provide them with emotional warmth and affection in return. There is often a strong connection between emotional expression and creativity in relationships. These individuals may find fulfillment in creative pursuits with their partners, such as artistic projects or hobbies they enjoy together. The 5th house also relates to children, so individuals with this placement may have a nurturing and protective instinct toward their own children or those of their partner. They may prioritize creating a loving and supportive environment for their family.

spouse can have their natal moon in leo, 5th house, fire sign.

moon in 6th house: Their sense of emotional well-being may be closely tied to the environment in which they work and the people they interact with on a daily basis. This placement also suggests that the individual may seek partners who share similar values regarding work ethic, service, and daily routines. Additionally, the Moon in the 6th house of the Juno persona chart may indicate that the individual's emotional state can be influenced by their health and overall well-being. They may need to maintain a balanced and healthy lifestyle in order to feel emotionally stable and fulfilled. this placement is a healer, their doings are a work of art and the couple instantly heal each others vibe. this placement has lots of compassion, devotion and empathy.

spouse can have their natal moon in virgo, 6th house, earth sign.

moon in 7th house: emotional balance is important to this placement, the couples emotions can be a projection of one another. this can lead to often getting on each others nerves. like the dramatic arguments that married couples have but make up like after 5 minutes that you see in rom coms. there may be lots of reactions and feedback from your partner when you show your emotional side to them. this placement reminds me of when one person starts crying the other starts crying as well, so you feel and experience the same thing together. there is also lots of freedom on expressing your inner feelings to your partner. overall this is a beautiful placement as your partner is the one to find your emotions beautiful and can just find your flaws mesmerising.

spouse can have their natal moon in libra, 7th house, air sign.

moon in 8th house: this placements duty is to keep the stability of the relationship strong. they may feel like there needs to be certain rules and regulations when it comes to emotions between the marriage. however, feelings and emotions are DEEP and STRONG for one another. so big that it can lead to control. both parties can become a therapist for one another, giving advice on problems, listening very attentively and most importantly giving great advice. talking about the occult and eery topics can cause some sort of comfort to each other. also trauma dumping is big for this placement. like sharing the deepest and most secretive occurrences can occur due to each other trusting one another very well and feeling the need to tell the other what they had been storing forever.

spouse can have their natal moon in scorpio, 8th house, water sign.

moon in 9th house: for this placement, travelling and taking time off from society is very healing for this relationship. constantly learning each others way of dealing with emotions and exploring each others ways of dealing with them is something common here. humour can be something that connects both parties especially when one is feeling down, making each other laugh is healing. comedy and mass media can bring comfort to both parties, being goofy and joking around is common for this placement. spirituality and mindfulness can connect the couple and can bring comfort in the relationship. perhaps its a belief or daily ritual that connects both parties.

spouse can have their natal moon in sagittarius, 9th house, fire sign.

moon in 10th house: this placement like to lead when dealing with their partners emotions. they like to control how the other is feeling and how they feel as well, this may manifest one to not express their emotions for no one which creates this poker face persona. this placement can get very stressed and constantly worry about the financial situations in the relationship however, will most likely keep it to themselves and hardly address the situation and figure it by themselves. emotions within the marriage is controlled when in public. however, your other half's achievements and success can make you feel very happy and it may feel like you succeeded as well.

spouse can have their natal moon in capricorn, 10th house, earth sign.

moon in 11th house: this placement may seek independence in their relationship. this placement feels deeply and is empathetic for those around them, this just reminds me of someone attentively and actively listening to you when you share your emotions to them. this is quite a social attached placement so bonding over friends, acquaintances, social media is common with this placement. they feel like they need to have a social life outside their marriage to find balance between the two. each party sees the beauty in each others emotional state and can make them love them even more or be attracted to them mor after seeing their emotional side. sharing aspirations to one another is a positive aspect to this placement as it can lighten up the mood of each other by feeling proud of each other and overall hyping one another up.

spouse can have their natal moon in aquarius, 11th house, air sign.

moon in 12th house: the relationship may strengthen whenever the couple gives one another space and time to themselves. (i see lots of marriages that each has their own rooms in order to give each other enough space to allow themselves to function properly). however, this placement can cause addictions due to being in a negative state while being in the relationship. nevertheless, couples bond better when they are alone and in peace. mentally, it can feel like your partner is not even there at times (they can isolate or just keep their distance from you) and it may keep you second guessing. there is also high expectations that this placement may have of their partner which can cause disappointments.

spouse can have their natal moon in pisces, 12th house, water sign.

thank you for your time, have a lovely day.

[soov]

KEEP JAZZ A(LiVE)ㅤ. . .ㅤ﹫ park jongseong ★

꒰ 📒 ꒱ ceo ! jay & fem reader, 1500 words. ㅤg ceo au, strangers to lovers, established relationship, fluff, long fic. ㅤw kissing, mentions of food, suggestive.ㅤlibrary

in which you and jay coincidentally go to the same live jazz restaurant, and end up with your dates being at his house after some of his wooing.

Jazz and food — is there a greater combination? You liked to believe that there wasn’t, especially after discovering L'Arôme, a restaurant unexpectedly close to your house hidden by a narrow cobblestone path and many vine branches.

L'Arôme was easily one of the most beautiful places you had ever visited. The dim atmosphere and yellowish lamps managed to make the open interior look cozier than it should. The walls were mostly textured with burnished concrete; the plants that grew on the outside of the restaurant, too, covered the inside of it.

The ambiance was jaw-dropping, the food was delicious, and the live jazz music was equally as perfect. Marcus and Thereza, the old, retired couple who played the saxophone and piano out of love for music, had also gotten a special place in your heart.

You started to love the place even more when a certain man began to frequent it every late Friday as you did.

He was exceptionally charming, white shirt neatly rolled up to his elbows, hair combed back, and a Rolex on his wrist. Despite him looking like the embodiment of luxury, what attracted your attention were his courteous interactions with the employees, and the polite small-talk he had with the musicians to compliment them.

“Men like him still exist?” It seemed that even the people who worked there pondered the same thing. At least, that was what your bartender told you.

The raven-haired man left you intrigued for his next visits; even more so when he pulled out a tiny moleskin and pen out of his pocket, jotting down notes whilst carefully listening to the music, and occasionally stealing a bite of his dish.

You didn’t notice how he gazed back at you until he cracked one of his peaceful smiles, making you immediately look back to your glass of wine sheepishly.

He kept exchanging glances and grins with you before he finally came up to you one night.

“Can I sit here? Don’t worry, I’ll pay for my food.” He pointed to the wooden chair in front of you, and you agreed, of course. Why wouldn’t you?

During that dinner, you found out that his name is Park Jongseong, but he prefers going by Jay. He loves traveling and learning about new cultures, cooking, and sometimes composing songs, hence the notebook. He learned that you enjoy fashion and cats. You two discovered that among your many shared tastes, perfumes and scents were your top ones. Ironic, considering the name of the place where you two met.

Jay did not pay his bill that night, by the way, but rather his and yours when you had a quick restroom break. When it was time for you to leave, he ordered you a cab, making sure you were alright before closing its door.

He did that for the next few weeks, and in a specific one, Jay called you asking if the meetup could be an actual date. And again, you agreed. Why wouldn’t you?

So he showed up with a suit of your favorite color. You didn’t remember that well when you told him what it was, but he still remembered it, just like your favorite flowers in the bouquet he held. Even with all his grand gestures, Jongseong was a simple man — just a kiss on his tan cheek before you hopped in the cab made him weak on his knees.

The pattern kept going on up ‘till he asked you to be his girlfriend, and the next dates moved to his million-dollar penthouse. You didn’t get how crazy money he made in his CEO job until he picked you up in his sleek black Porsche and drove you to one of the best neighborhoods in the city. When he already had such manners and looked like a sculpture manually carved by the Greek gods, his money wasn’t that much of a big deal.

And with all that being said, Jay was ten thousand times happier with having your Friday dates in the coziness and intimacy of his home.

“Jay, baby, I wanna help too...” You mumbled with your arms nestled around his waist, chin on his broad back as you watched him set up the final touches to the seasoned meat to get it to the oven.

“You’re helping already with your hugs,” he said back, chuckling when you whined against his cashmere sweater.

“Doesn’t count,” you huffed, “you already had prepared everything before I arrived. You’re no fun.”

He couldn’t help but laugh again, “I didn’t fill our glasses with wine, though. You can help me with that.” Jay suggested, washing his hands off.

With grumbles of defeat, you made your way to his wine wall, picking up an unopened bottle of your favorite. After you began dating him, you had turned into a somewhat wine expert with all the knowledge he shared.

Popping the bottle open, you poured the drink into two burgundy glasses, taking a sip of yours and leaving it near the charcuterie board on the coffee table.

Jay changed the vinyl playing to a copy of Thereza’s and Marcus’ jazz album that he bought from them, one of their original songs playing smoothly in the background. He soon approached you, hand reached out in reverence. “Can I have this dance?”

You beamed and nodded, wrapping your arms around his neck and allowing him to encircle your waist. “This is nice.” You commented and he nodded in agreement.

“Really nice.”

His thumbs rubbed your sides while your fingertips ran through his strands, meekly massaging his scalp. Jay melted into you, his cheek resting on your shoulder as if wanting to get even closer during the slow dance.

“You’re gonna suffocate me, Jay,” you choked out with a giggle, and he immediately took a step back, though still leaning on your body.

“Sorry.” He mumbled.

When his apology got dismissed, he tugged you to the living room quickly without even bothering to say a word. You let out a quiet laugh when he sat down and pulled you to his lap.

“What’s up with the commotion?” You prodded at his slightly uncommon clinginess and quietude.

Your boyfriend shrugged, his chin on your chest and an impish smile on his lips as he stared up at you, “Just missed you.” Jongseong explained in a gentle tone.

There were multiple reasons for his homesickness, and one of them was the twelve-day business trip that he had to take to Russia, making your date on the weekend prior get canceled. You didn’t blame him for wanting attention.

“You’re cute when you’re all clingy like that,” pointing out, you made sure to leave a peck on his exposed forehead, nose, and lips.

With an uninterested ‘mhm’, he kept you in place by grasping the back of your head with a firm grip. Jay kissed you slowly — and a tad bit messily — to make good use of the short period he’d have with you until his next business trip. His plush lips didn’t leave yours for a second, occasionally nibbling on them up to when he had to pull away for air.

He leaned back on the couch, trying to create distance between you. However, his eyes never left your face, devouring every curve and contour as if you were the last meal he would ever have. “You’re pretty.”

“You sound like you just started to find me pretty.”

Jay huffed in disbelief at your taunt, a toothy grin and a nose wrinkle appearing, “Take a compliment, will you?”

“Alright. Thanks, then.” You shrugged and turned in his lap to grab your glass of wine by the coffee table. Taking a sip, you hummed at the feeling of Jay’s lazy kisses and pecks along your neck. “Needy, huh?”

“You entertain me.” He muttered back with a gentle bite to your skin, mentally patting himself on the back for the little yelp of surprise you let out.

Park kept pampering you during your small snack break, focused on being as doting as he could only until the oven’s timer ticked. His hand cupped your hips as you left his lap, making sure that you were balanced before letting go of you.

You got the tray out of the oven and carefully rested it on the well-decorated dining table. Your boyfriend approached you, chivalrously taking off the protection glove from your hand and pulling out the chair for you.

And as you both suited yourselves and enjoyed his cooking, you once again realized how much of a good cook Jay was.

“S’too good, Jay,” you mumbled with a finger hooked in front of your lips, munching happily on the absurdly good side dishes he made.

“Thank you, I know it is.” Jay proudly admitted, mostly joking around with you, but happy with the outcome of the plates.

You scoffed with a small grin, “No need to get all cocky now.”

“Maybe there is. I have a feeling my girl likes when I’m cocky.” He quipped back, showing that you really entertained him in his playful moments.

He used the dinner to fill you in the details of his trip that he didn’t say through text, feeling bashful whenever you gasped or quipped with a question.

Eventually, the conversation turned to his guitar, and soon he was strumming his favorite songs on the couch while you relaxed against him.

Seemed like it was about time you added Jay to the top of your ranking.

⠀ ⠀ SOOV © 2O24

ㅤ𝗿𝗲𝗶’s notes ⪩⪨ for my biggest inspiration ever since animeblr HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAEL!! @boyfhee

[gyundo]

“A Meeting I’ll Never Forget”

Lee Jeno (Jeno) x Male Reader!!

SMUT! Interact at your own risk!

Plot: Two princes meet fatefully, and fit each other like a long-lost lock and key

Prince L/N Y/N was the oldest son of the king of Escrow. The Escrowian empire had started with the prince’s great-grandfather, who had risen to power as a mercenary that had fallen out of favor of another kingdom and had come to Escrow to establish his own empire.

Y/N, on the other hand, had no desire to rule over his kingdom. He was obviously going to accept his position as his father’s heir, but the duties didn’t particularly strike him as interesting. Y/N always had a preference for tasks such as cooking, baking, and the arts, such as singing and dancing, which earned him many scoldings from his parents.

Y/N’s parents cursed him on many occasions, explaining to him that his preferences were that of commoners, but it fell on deaf ears. Y/N continued to do as he pleased, and he never attended his swordsmanship lessons or any physical training. This, for a prince, Y/N was quite weak. Although, thanks to the nagging of his father, Y/N was stronger than the average person and did have some minor muscle definition.

As young people often do, Y/N neglected his responsibilities, and for a royal, this was intolerable. As Y/N’s father received an invitation for a meeting, he realized this was the perfect opportunity to put his son in order.

“You will be escorted by my personal order to the Kingdom of Travania in order to attend the meeting on the 25th of this month, Y/N” the King spoke with confidence in his throne room.

“B-but that’s so boring father, why should I sit in a carriage for 5 days with no proper food to go meet some random crusty king in a faraway kingdom?” Y/N complained, in a typical young adult fashion.

“King Jeno is an extremely influential man in his area. You mustn’t forget that your grandfather was from Travania himself. It is in our best interests to make relations favorable between our empire and his kingdom, if we wish to avoid any wars for hundreds of years.” the emperor promptly replied.

“B-but father, I don’t wanna go—,” Y/N whined.

“That’s enough out of you. Remember I’m not just your father but the emperor as well. You will go meet King Jeno. Do whatever it takes to curry favor with him,” the emperor bellowed.

Y/N stomped out of the throne room and ordered his servants to pack his things and prepare the carriage. He knew he didn’t have a choice in the matter and before he knew it, he was sitting in the carriage and already left the capital.

Y/N was angry as to why he had to leave his fun in the palace to go meet a random King who was old and would have nothing to talk about with Y/N. Y/N figured that he would just offer some items that were made by the Escrowian Empire that were sure to pave the way for a trade deal. Y/N was even more frustrated that his father had sent him in his stead.

Little did Y/N know, King Jeno was nothing like what he imagined.

The envoy arrived after a long, treacherous journey that saw many bumpy roads, many forests, and many plains. Y/N was more exhausted than he could describe, and he was everything but jumping for joy when he saw the palace of Travania.

Y/N treaded gracefully, in awe of what he was seeing. Sure, his familial palace in Escrow was large, but the Travanian royal family's estate was lavish in another sense of the word, with large fountains adorned with figures of greek worship. Garlands of roses adorned the edge of the roof of the main palace, which stood so grand Y/N had to turn to be able to see it all. The garden was artfully carved and decorated, with each bush and tree pruned in a most detailed fashion.

Y/N realized that the days-long journey to Travania was worth it from the view itself. Remembering almost as an aside that there was a meeting for which he had came, Y/N walked further to the main gate of the palace.

There, a tall figure stood awaiting him. As Y/N drew closer, he observed the elegant rhinestones embedded in the crown of bearer. He paid attention to each stretch in the royal garment, which stuck to each individual muscle on the man's built body. The biceps, large to the point that the seam was stretched, the pecs, which filled out the top, and the pants, fully conforming to the large thighs made Y/N realize he was in the presence of a man truly fit to be king.

"You must be Prince Y/N of Escrow, your highness. I am King Jeno of Travania. It is with great pleasure I welcome you to our empire and our summit this afternoon," the man spoke with a great smile, reflected in the expression of his eyes.

"Your highness, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance and to be the recipient of such great hospitality. Our nations are sure to grow closer relations from this monumental event," Y/N spoke eloquently while shaking the hand of the other man.

Jeno, not blind to the way Y/N had previously stared him up and down, understood the situation very well. As a show of diplomacy, Jeno transitioned the handshake into a bodily embrace common between royalty of different nations to show closeness. From the viewpoint of others, this was completely normal.

The reality of the embrace was known only by Jeno and Y/N, from the way Jeno reached underneath the cape of Y/N and fondled his buttocks in a way not visible to any. He continued kneading the large protrusions of the prince as he increased his pressure.

Y/N, still in shock from the abruptness and how suddenly these developments had occurred, refrained from any immediate movements and let out a small moan that he thought was only audible to him.

Jeno, however, had also heard the moan and understood that his actions were received well. Letting go of the younger, King Jeno continued, "My attendants will give you a tour of Travanian royal palace while I prepare for our summit. They will lead to the room of our summit after the tour, so you shan't worry, Prince Y/N."

"I stromgly appreciate thy kindness and will sincerely revel in the beauties of your artful palace, King Jeno." Y/N gracefully responded.

The attendants continued to show Y/N around the various areas of the palace, which included hanging gardens, exotic flora collections, the royal bathing chamber, the surrounding farms, and the servant quarters that seemed better than the prince's own bedroom. An hour had elapsed before the head attendant spoke, "King Jeno has finished prepared for your meeting. He awaits you inside these doors and has requested that you enter alone. It has been a pleasure giving you a tour, my liege."

Y/N gave a show of his appreciation and opened the grandiose doors that seemed like that of a bedchamber. He stepped inside quietly, closing the door behind him and expecting to see a large round table with artisan-crafted chairs. Instead, he was met with a large, silk sheet draped over a large mattress, lush purple velvet curtains, and most striking of all, King Jeno dressed in a red robe that unveiled his extremely muscular upper body, with a significant bulge in the clothing covering his private area.

"Ah, I see that you've arrived. We can start discussing matters of interest to us once you take a seat here, my prince," Jeno spoke lustfully.

Y/N, absolutely shocked, but being the honest man he was exclaimed,"Never have I seen such a meeting, but I am more than happy to take you up on your offer, my King."

Jeno looked pleased as Y/N sat down on the bed, embracing him the moment he did. Y/N felt the warmth of Jeno's muscular body on his own, while sensing great pressure from his large muscles in his upper body and his bulge that was separated from Y/N's only by cloth.

The king moved his lips closer to that of Y/N's, looking at his with concupiscent eyes that asked for permission. Y/N, without words, gave his approval by moving his face only slightly forward, to which Jeno responded by firmly crashing their lips together, pushing Y/N down onto the sheet, and rubbing his hands under Y/N's tunic.

Y/N reveled in the pleasure of Jeno's masterful techniques that mingled their tongues together with sounds that could only be interpreted as sinful. Their lips met again and again, with short breaks for air, only to be crashed together as violently as when they first met. Suckling sounds and shared strands of saliva spoke to the passion between the two men as their mouths melted in the pleasure of each other.

Jeno pulled away as Y/N motioned, "Hurry, my King, I feel urges and a steady heat rising in my body. Only you can help me."

With a sly smirk, Jeno replied,"Anything for my guest, my prince," while peeling off Y/N's clothes as he went in to resume their lip lock.

Moments later, a fully naked Y/N was below Jeno, still in his robe, with their legs intertwined and lips connected as the younger felt Jeno's arm around his back and his waist. The two continued making out and enjoying the pangs of pleasure released by the meeting between their lips.

"It's time to discuss the foundations for an alliance," Jeno joked while unbuckling the belt holding his robe on. Y/N looked with nothing but desire at Jeno's large pecs, his well-defined abs, his sculpted shoulders, and his large, perfect dick that was fit for a king. Jeno's cock stood proudly in front of Y/N, with veins and a deep red tip that Y/N wanted to break him. The sheer thickness of his cock made Y/N want to take Jeno forever, who would stretch Y/N and surely leave him crying for mercy.

Jeno understood the desires of the younger well, and not being able to control his own, Jeno flipped over Y/N onto his stomach.

Tapping his cock against Y/N's hole, Jeno heard moans of impatience as he began to slap the prince's hole with a thud that spoke to the weight of his penis. His eight inch cock was sure to break in Y/N quite nicely and leave him unable to live without Jeno forever. This experience would give Y/N such a pleasured pain it would unlock new levels of lust in his brain.

"I see you are well-prepared for this new connection between our nations," Jeno spoke as he observed wetness at the Y/N's opening, speaking volumes to the younger's insatiable appetite.

Jeno, unable to control himself any further, roughly plunged his cock into the deep, moist entrance of Y/N's ass, as the younger let out an audible yelp. The corners of his hole began to slightly bleed to accomdate the first-time stretch.

Overwhelmed from the sudden introduction of seven inches, the thickness of the pole inside him, the pain of his hole ripping slighlty, and the new feeling of being filled, Y/N let out large tears that stained the white sheet below him. Jeno, being the diplomat he was, moved his face closer to Y/N's, cooing at him before encapsulating his lips once again.

The pleasure of the kissing distracted Y/N as the radiating pain from his lower body retreated and only a feeling of fullness remained. Jeno experimented with a small thrust, resulting in an audible moan Jeno heard through their connected mouths. He proceeded to pummel his thick rod into Y/N at a faster pace, enjoying the squeals of the former virgin who felt a constant pressure on his prostate and inside all areas of his passage.

Jeno continued further with a rough animalistic pounding that elicited the arching of Prince Y/N's back and moved him back and forth across the bed with each powerful thrust.

The feeling of the all encapsulating walls of Y/N hugging and squeezing Jeno's cock was emphasized through the various groans the older let out. Y/N was addicted to the pleasure of having his walls filled and stretched out fully, as well as the warmth of the large veiny cock inside him that sent waves of pleasure each time Y/N's prostate was brushed by.

Jeno's thrusts grew more greedy as he became less gentle, eliciting almost musical moans from Y/N, that sounded like he was asking for more. HIs manhood stretched out Y/N's hole fully and gave him a good dicking down that showed a king's true power.

The hilt of Jeno's thick cock smacked Y/N's rim with indescribably pleasureful force that Y/N's eyes could do nothing but roll back. The thought of a large, muscular man, such as Jeno, pounding him with a large cock that fit inside him like a key and satisfied the itch of emptiness inside him that arose earlier in the day led Y/N to a seventh heaven he knew he would have to reach again and again.

"Enjoying my large cock squelching in your boyhole, my prince? Petite little princes like you are designed perfectly for taking a large kingly dick that is far too large for any woman. I'll have you bouncing on my cock and asking for mercy through your moans like this for as long as the two of us live. I'll pound you to the point that you become mine and only mine, my cock is what you'll need to live every single day," Jeno proudly whispered.

The wet sounds of Jeno's large cock infiltrating Y/N's passage, along with their skin slapping together, filled the room with auras of sin and desire.

"UHHH, YESSS, fuck me as rough as you can, your highness. I can't get enough of your large dick, my king, I'm so glad you decided to take me and make me yours, that is exactly what I deserve to be, your cocksleeve and whore," Y/N responded with nothing but pleasure filling his head.

The sounds of sex became more unholy as Jeno's large cock released pre-cum that further lubricated Y/N's walls and increased the squelching, making both more horny as Jeno continued to wreck Y/N's hole mercilessly.

Jeno's golf-ball sized testicles slapped Y/N hard with each thrust, reminding Y/N what a true man's dominance was and felt like inside a bratty boy like him. Y/N wanted nothing more than to succumb to and embrace the fact that he was being manhandled by a true man whom he could never compete with. All he wanted was to be done again and again by Jeno's large cock, be subservient to his desires, be creamed and de-masculinated, and to have his slutty whoreish bussy pummeled like it was asking to be.

Y/N's hole began to slowly comform to Jeno's cock and grow used to it as the thrusts increased, sticking to his massive dick and not letting go of each vein as he pulled out prior to each thrust. Y/N's hole was basically becoming like a real pussy that bulged outwards almost like a flower blooming and reflected each action of Jeno's merciless cock.

Jeno bulged Y/N's stomach with each thrust, rearranging his organs in the process and growing his desire to breed the prince with copious amounts of cum deposited in his hole. Jeno continued to ravage and do Y/N with the sheer girth of his cock that entered Y/N's asshole like a lock fitting in a key. Y/N's prostate was being abused greatly with each rubbing of Jeno's cock's veins against it, resulting in waves of pleasure clouding the minds of both.

Jeno lost control and felt his climax nearing as he pulled out to his glans and pushed over six inches back all in one go for his last thrust, that pushed Y/N over the edge and led to his orgasm while Jeno released multiple spurts of thick cum into Y/N's passage, as a sort of signature on the documentation of their alliance. Jeno continued to push his cock further inside Y/N's hole as each spurt hit Y/N's walls more forcefully, overstimulating the younger. Y/N tiny hole remained stretched well by Jeno's fat cock inside of him that the prince begged to let remain inside.

Jeno reveled in his training of the younger prince and being the one pound and cream his greedy boypussy for the first time, knowing that peace between the kingdoms was secured for all eternity.

"This is a meeting I'll never forget," Y/N sighed with satisfaction while staring at Jeno.

[starsinthesky5]

every time i look at you || joe burrow x reader

description: who knew that an unexpected relationship with a guy you never thought you’d be with would be the happiest, healthiest, and most special relationship in your life? you feel like you’re in high school ;)

a/n: in honor of mr quarterback throwing for the first time since November (publicly). so excited to see him ball ;) this may or may not have been inspired by a song i recently fell in love with.. (cough so high school cough)

alot of flashbacks/reflections to certain moments in this fic because of how the song goes! 

word count: 7 k

warnings: smut, language

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

You took a deep breath, taking in the salty aroma of your favorite beach as your feet were covered in sand. You and Joe had rented a beach house on your Hometown beach for a few weeks and had invited all your cousins over for a few days, so you were soaking up the last few moments in the sand before you had to get everything ready. 

“Y/N, they said that they’re about 30 minutes out!” Joe yelled from the patio. “Come inside so we can get everything set up,”. 

“Okay,” you yelled back, looking over at him. His hair was in its ‘post ocean water’ state, slightly messy but perfect at the same time. You both had taken a little dip in the ocean earlier together and he decided to let his hair be, which you approved of since you loved his beach hair. The golden sun was shining right onto him and he was practically glowing. 

You got up off the sand and made your way inside the house, making sure to wipe your feet on the mat outside since you had just cleaned. Joe had his back to you as you walked into the kitchen. He had ordered some food, making sure to ask your cousins what they liked and only getting that, and was getting all of it ready for everyone. 

“I’m just gonna put out the snack-type food for now so the rest doesn’t get cold,” he says. 

“Okayy,” you sing song, admiring your boyfriend for a few moments and taking in all the little details. For starters, the atmosphere. Joe had gotten all the right foods, alcohol, and games for your little beach reunion. You and your older cousins used to go down to the beach for a few weeks every summer, but after everyone got too old and had adult responsibilities, it became very hard to schedule. So, when you told Joe about how you’d spend your previous summers, he was adamant about having your cousins over for a few days during your own beach trip, and that meant the world to you. He had taken the reigns and planned everything out based off of the things you told him, and he did great.

Secondly, Joe himself. Other than the fact that he looked like a Greek God right now, he was being the most perfect boyfriend and lover to you, and making you feel so giddy inside. You had been here for a week already and you felt like you were being transported back to high school. You would go on a beach trip every summer, but usually to Florida or Malibu, but this year Joe wanted to experience the summers you would non-stop talk about. So that’s exactly what you did. You took him to all your favorite spots such as the pier, the arcade, the cute shops, and the restaurants, and made sure he had some of the best boardwalk fries you have ever had. The entire week felt like you were back in high school, doing the same things with your friends, but this time with the most special person in the world and he was enjoying the hell out of it. He felt like he was 17 again and running off to the beach with his friends from sunrise to sunset (even if it was quite a few hours away), just like you would do.

You didn’t realize how long you were staring at him until he playfully threw a chip at your face, causing you to flinch. 

“Did I lose you there?” he laughs while leaning against the oven. 

“Yeah,” you smile. “Sorry, were you saying something?”.

“Oh, I just said we should hit the pier later tonight if we can. I remember you saying that you guys loved going down there at night since the rides would be the most fun in the dark,” he says.

“Oh it is a must,” you emphasize. 

“Mhm. Also, quick question,”.

“Shoot,” you say back, eating the chip he threw at you. 

“Why were you staring at me like that just now? Did you need to say something?” he says before launching off the oven and over to you.

“Oh, nooo reason,” you giggle as he wraps his arms around your waist, and your arms around his neck. 

“Sureee,” he says while rolling his eyes. 

“It was nothing important, I swear,” you say while pressing a kiss onto his nose. 

“If you say so,” he says, repeating the action and kissing your nose. “You look gorgeous by the way,”.

You blushed at his words. You were wearing a pair of jean shorts and a lilac tank top, nothing crazy, but just enough for your boyfriend. 

“Thank you, Joey,” you say as he pulls you in for a kiss. His hand slides up your waist and around to your back as he pushes you deeper into him. Your hands navigate to his hair as you begin to get lost in his embrace. 

“Mm, Joe,” you whimper as you try to pull away, but his lips follow you, pulling you back into the heated kiss, and holding you tighter. He begins to suck on your bottom lip as his hands wander to your ass; you smile into the kiss as you knew exactly what this would lead to. 

He pushes you against the counter and cups your ass to help you up onto the surface. You open up your legs to let him in between and hook them around his waist. Your tongues are tangled in your mouth and his hand moves down to unbutton your shorts. 

“Joe, they’re gonna be here soon,” you say as you get him to break away by cradling his face. “We still have a lot to do,”.

“We can be quick,” he whispers against your lips. 

“Mm, I doubt that. The fastest we’ve done it was probably 30 minutes,” you chuckle. 

He stares into your eyes briefly before sighing, “Fine, but we are finishing this later. I don’t care if your family is under the roof, we’ll go outside if we have to,”.

“Deal,” you giggle, giving him a deep kiss to show your appreciation. 

A few hours later, your cousins–Sydney, James, Bella, and Micheal–get settled into the house, and you all are gathered on the patio drinking and eating. Non-stop laughter echoes through the air as you all catch up and tell funny stories. You take another sip of your drink as you find yourself staring at your boyfriend once again. He was sitting next to you on the loveseat, your free-hands fingers entwined, as he was telling everyone a funny story about the first time he saw you. It was a pretty embarrassing but cute story, one that always showed off Joe’s adorable little crinkles around his eyes whenever he would tell it. 

Flashback to LSU

You were in the library, cramming to finish your research paper on Metaphysics for your Philosophy class, and had completely lost track of time and forgot that you had to be at your best friend’s apartment to help her get ready for her date. Stacks of books were dispersed around your workspace and a big warm cup of coffee was the only thing keeping you sane. You glanced over to the clock and noticed that it was 2:30 and you were supposed to be at her apartment 10 minutes ago.

“Fuck,” you whispered, a feeling of panic washing over you.

You hurried to close your laptop and gathered your books to put them in your bag. You grabbed your cup of coffee and rushed to the stairs to head downstairs, but just your luck, you ran into a book cart on the way and spilled your coffee all over the extremely expensive college textbooks on it. 

“Shit,” you said as you saw the librarian walk over to you, a scowl on her face. 

“What on earth happened here,” the librarian said. The tone in her voice sends chills down your spine. 

“I- I am so sorry,” you said while trying to salvage the textbooks, which was no use since the majority of them had coffee seeping through the pages. 

“You college kids and your coffee. Do you realize how expensive these textbooks are?,” she lectured.

“I didn’t mean to spill my coffee on the books, I swear. I was in a rush because I have somewhere to be and completely missed the bookcart,” you explained. 

“That’s what they all say,” she said as she cleaned up the spilled coffee. “There are at least 4 fully damaged books. You’re going to have to pay for these,”.

Your eyes widen, “That’s like 450 dollars!”.

“Should have thought about that before bringing coffee in here,” she said while pointing over to the big ‘no food or drinks allowed’ sign. 

“Shit,” you mumbled. 

“Come with me, we can get you billed for them at the front desk,” she said, motioning you to follow her.

How the fuck were you supposed to pay for these textbooks? Your paycheck from your job at the School Store doesn’t even hit until next week and it definitely was not enough to cover textbook fees since you had 50 other things to do with that money. You accepted your fate and were about to walk with the librarian until you felt a warm and muscular arm around your waist. 

“That won’t be necessary Ms. Cindy,” he said. “You see, this is my girlfriend and she was on her way to meet me at the FroYo place down the street for our date,” he added. 

“Punctuality was never her strong suit,” he whispered, causing the librarian to chuckle. “Anyways, that’s why she spilled her coffee on these books. It’s pretty much all my fault so if you’re going to charge someone, charge me,”. 

You were too nervous to look up because that voice sounded all too familiar, a voice you had heard on screens across campus many times, and you refused to accept reality. There was no way this was actually happening.

“Oh! That won’t be necessary Joe,”.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. 

“I didn’t know you had a girlfriend,” she smiled. 

“Me either,” you whispered. 

“What was that?” Joe said while gently squeezing your waist, making you look up at him. 

“I- Um,” you stumbled while anxiously searching his eyes for an answer. Something about his eyes calmed you down and you went along with the act. “Yup, he’s my boyfriend,” you said while smiling at the librarian.

“Ahh, Joey finally got a girl,” she teased. 

He laughed at her words and you laughed along. Why was he helping you? You don’t even know each other. 

“I’ll come back later about the books, we’re a little late for our date. Right, Babe?” he said while giving you a wink. 

“Yup! That FroYo is calling my name. Sorry about the books Ms. Cindy,” you say while giving her a sincere smile. 

“Oh, no worries Dear! You both go on ahead and enjoy your date,” she says. 

Joe gives her a nod and tells her goodbye as he leads you down the stairs and out of the library, still gripping your waist. He finally lets go and moves to face you.

“Thank You,” you quickly say, praying that he wouldn’t make fun of you. 

“Anytime…I didn’t catch your name?” he says while putting his hands in the pockets of his purple LSU football shorts. 

“Y/N,” you say. 

“Anytime, Y/N,” he smiles. “You looked like you needed some saving and I am one of Ms. Cindy’s favorites so,” he says with a shrug. 

“Yeah, I was wondering what that was about. She was quick to forget those 450 dollars,” you giggle. 

“Me and Ms. Cindy go waaay back. She really helped me out when I transferred here from Ohio State and had literally no idea what the hell I was doing on Campus. She’s basically my Mom down here. I’m pretty much her favorite college student ever,” he laughed.

“Mmmm, that makes sense. Your charm is pretty hard to beat,” you blush. 

“Thanks,” he replied while bouncing on his feet. Was he nervous? That was something you’d do whenever you’d get nervous. 

“But seriously, thank you for saving my ass back there. How can I repay you?”. 

“Hmm, how about that FroYo date girlfriend?” he smirks. 

Your stomach fluttered at his question. There was no way in hell the quarterback of the LSU Tigers, the QB1, was asking you to get FroYo with him. You? Some random girl he helped at the library that he’d literally never seen before?

“Oh, um. Are you sure? I mean you probably have somewhere to be and-,”.

“Actually, I just got done film study. And I know that you are free too because you’re def late to wherever you were in a rush to go to,” he interrupts. 

You stay silent and look at him for a few seconds. “And, I would love to know how we got to where we are right now,” he adds. 

You think about his offer for a few seconds, contemplating if you should take the risk of doing whatever this was with him, but eventually, you say yes. “Okay, let’s get FroYo boyfriend,”. 

An hour later 

“So you really think aliens are real,” you laugh.

“1000%,” Joe says as he takes another bite of his frozen yogurt. “There is literally no way that we’re the only things in the universe. I refuse to believe it. They’re too advanced to accidentally expose themselves so we probably won’t see them for a while,”.

“Fair point,” you laugh. Joe had been going on about space and aliens for about 10 minutes, and he was absolutely set on convincing you that they existed. You felt high on his interesting thoughts and felt drunk on the feeling that was overcoming you, and it was all because of him. Where were the cameras because you felt like you were living in a teenage rom-com and just had a meet-cute. “Maybe you’re an alien? I mean, I can’t think of any other dude on Campus that would randomly help a random girl at the library like you did,”.

He smiles at you and says, “Maybe I am? I guess we’ll never know,” he shrugs. “What was all that about anyway?”.

“I was caught up writing my essay about Metaphysics and completely forgot that I had to help my friend get ready for her date,”.

“Ah, I see. Did she get ready for her date fine? Ya know, since I stole you away for an impromptu date?”.

“I didn’t know this was actually a date,” you teased. 

“It can be if we want it to be,” he says while giving you a wink. “I know I want it to be,”.

You felt like screaming at that moment. He really was being serious about this being a date. You were pretty unlucky in the college dating pool, most guys you met only want to hook up or be FWB, but Joe wasn’t giving either of those vibes, which was shocking considering he’s a football player. He felt different from the other guys, and you loved the way he was making you feel; so silly, shy, and like you were 16 again and were living out the dream of having a football player boyfriend in high school. But him being a football player was the least interesting thing about him. His nerdiness, charm, and normalness shined through which separated him from most guys. This made the risk of starting something with him less scary.

“I do too,” you say while taking another bite of your custard. 

He was silently praying you would. Even though you just met, he thought you were the most stunning, genuine, and honest girl he had ever come across. This entire date had felt so relaxed and comfortable, something that was uncommon for him when he would go on a date with a girl. Most of them seemingly just wanted bragging rights as the “quarterback’s girl” or to hook up, and he wanted a real girlfriend, and you gave him that vibe. 

“Anyways, she was just fine. I told her why I was skipping out on her and she was more than happy to get ready alone considering why I bailed,”. 

He lets out a soft laugh before asking you about your essay. “So your essay, Metaphysics, that’s…?” he says while trying to recall where he heard that from. 

“Aristotle,” you answer. 

“Right, Philosophy class,” he nods. 

“Mhm. I love anything and everything psychology, sociology, and philosophy related,”. 

“Nerdy, good to know,” he teases. “I think our second date should be at the art and science museum. I heard they have a pretty sick space exhibit right now and an impressive psych one,”. 

Second date? He wanted to spend more time with you. Did he actually like you or was he just being nice?

“Second date?” you questioned. 

“Uhh, Duh,” he said while putting his cup down and resting his arms on the table. “You’re super cool, funny, nerdy, and gorgeous. Why would I not want to do this again?”. 

You blush at his words and your stomach has butterflies in it as he talks. You shake your head and say, “You’re not gonna let me go until I say yes, will you?”.

“Damn straight,” he says while raising his brows.

You let out a dramatic sigh, “Well, I suppose I’m free Friday night,”.

His face falls at your response. “Got a game that night. Quarterback duties,” he sighs. 

You stay silent for a few seconds before he asks another question. “You could come to the game? I can snag you a ticket and one for your friend if you guys wanna sit front row in the stands on our side?”.

Your heart was beating so fast you thought it would pop out of your chest. He wanted you to come to his game and he was being serious. He was serious about all of it; a second date, spending more time with you, and even going to his game. Although you’ve been at LSU for longer than him, you have never attended a football game before. But maybe that should change. 

“Sounds perfect. I would love to see you in action up close Mr. Quarterback. Gotta really make sure you know how to ball and that it’s not all talk,” you flirt. 

“Oh, it’s not just talk,” he flirts back. “But that sounds good. We can do the museum on Saturday,”. 

“Can’t wait,” you say. 

Friday Night – Tiger Stadium 

“Holy Shit, that was a dime!” You screamed while jumping up and down, and bringing your friend Sophia along with you. 

“He is too damn good,” she smiled. 

Joe had just thrown his 4th Touchdown pass of the game, and the entire stadium was electric. You felt adrenaline rushing through your veins as you watched Joe tear it up on the field. He knew how to ball, and he knew how to do it well. You had been screaming and cheering the entire time that you were about to lose your voice. 

“I seriously cannot believe you two are dating,” Sophia said while squeezing your arm.

“Woah, It was 1 date and we’re not even officially official. We’ll see how it goes,” you blushed. 

“Mhmmm. Did you pick a wedding date yet? Ya know, I would like to save the date ahead of time,”. 

“Ha ha,” you said while rolling your eyes at her. 

“Or did you guys already talk about baby names? You would make the cutest babies on the planet,” she teased.

You couldn’t help but smile at her antics and were caught up in teasing each other so you didn’t even realize that Joe was walking over to the barricade where you were seated in front of. The game had ended and he managed to figure out where you were sitting and wanted to talk to you. 

“He’s walking over,” she notices. 

You whip your head back around to the field and catch him jogging over to you, helmet in hand and a big smile on his gorgeous face. 

“I’m gonna go pee, let me know what’s up Mrs. Quarterback,” she winks, quickly exiting the row you were sitting in and leaving you alone.

You shake your head and look back over and Joe is standing right in front of you on the ground below. “Did you have fun?” he panted. 

You leaned down to get closer to him, “Are you fucking kidding me. That was so much fucking fun. I don't think I've ever had this much fun at a sporting event, you killed it,” you smiled. 

“Thank you, and I’m glad,” he said. “You look really pretty, by the way, the LSU purple and ‘9’ looks amazing on you,”.

“I’m glad you like it, I could get used to this. Purple might just be my new favorite color,” you tease.

“I mean, you look absolutely gorgeous in purple,” he nods. “I’ll be wrapped up here in like 30 minutes. If you’re free, we can go get something to eat after,”.

“I’d love to,” you said while reaching down and pressing a kiss on his cheek, causing him to blush. 

A half-hour later, you meet Joe outside the stadium and he has an Uber ready for you both. You texted Sophia to let her know that you and Joe were hanging out so you’d see her tomorrow before your date with him. 

You walk over to him and the car as he opens your door for you, making sure you get inside first. 

“Thank You,” you say at the sweet gesture as you climb into the backseat. 

He climbs in next to you, shutting the door and immediately pushing a button to close off the little window in the car that separates the driver from you both since it was a fancier Uber than you were used to. 

You’re a little confused as to why he did that but before you could ask him, he pulls you closer by your waist, your legs tangled, and he presses his lips against yours. You stay absolutely still for a few seconds before moving your hand to the back of his head, pushing him closer to you. He begins to suck on your lips as you press yourself closer to him. His tongue pushes against your lips, begging for entrance. You open up your mouth and his tongue begins to explore yours and you do the same with him. His grip around you tightens as you feel butterflies flutter in your belly, the kiss turning hotter and messier by the second. Pure electricity between you both. 

“Joe,” you whimper as he begins to kiss down to your neck.

Eventually, he pulls away, leaving both of you a little breathless. 

“I’ve been waiting to do that all week,” he confesses, his lips a little swollen from the kiss. 

“Well, I’m glad you decided to do it,” you whisper, pulling him back to you as you kiss him again, both of you grinning into the fiery kiss. 

End of flashback 

“Oh my god, that was the most embarrassing moment of my life,” you cackled. 

“But, it was also the best. Without that, we wouldn’t be here,” Joe says as he brings your hand to his lips, pressing a soft kiss to it. 

“I mean, who knew that we would end up here? I seriously thought you were going to ditch me after you got drafted to the Bengals,” you joked, only partially though.

“Ditch you for what? I have everything I’ve ever wanted and need right here,” he says as he squeezes your leg. 

Flashback to Draft Night- Athens, Ohio 

It was currently Draft Night, also the night that Joe’s life, and yours, would change forever. He already knew he was going to be the first overall pick, also knowing he was ending up in Cincinnati. Joe had told you before you both graduated that wherever he ended up, he wanted you to go with him. You thought he was just messing around, but he was being so incredibly serious and you were feeling it for real now. 

Flashback to Graduation 

After the graduation ceremony, Joe had decided to take you back to the FroYo place where you both had you first unofficial official date. He had been meaning to talk to you about your future plans for a few weeks, but never found the right time to bring up such an important subject. He thought it would be best to talk to you about it today, and where better to do it than where it all started. 

You had gotten your FroYo and sat down at the same table you usually sat at and started digging in. 

“I want to talk to you about something,” Joe said, his voice a little shaky and nervous.

You notice his demenour, put your cup down, and reached over to grab his hand, stroking his skin for comfort. “What’s up?” You ask. 

“We just graduated,” he says.

“That we did,” you smile. 

“And I declared for the draft,” he adds. Your smile drops a bit at his next sentance. 

“That you did,” you said back. 

He didn’t really know how to approach the subject, so he just decided to let it out. “Come with me,” he said.

“Come with you where?” You giggled. 

“Wherever I end up. Whichever team and city drafts me. Go with me,” he says.

Your stomach does a backflip as you listen to him talk. He wanted you to go with him? You didn’t really know what was going to happen to your relationship after you graduated. You knew he was going to declare for the draft, and knew he was going to get drafted; but what you didn’t know was what was going to happen with you. A thought in the back of your mind was that he would breakup with you, and that thought scared the shit out of you. The thought of that happening was killing you, but he clearly had other plans. 

“Really?” You ask.

“Really.” He says, squeezing your hand. “I need you with me. I love you so much and the thought of us being so far away from each other is bullshit. I can’t do this without you, Y/N,”. 

You stay silent for a few seconds to collect your thoughts. If you went with him, you’d be living together. You’d have to find a Job in whichever city you’d end up in. It didn’t sound so bad. Actually, it sounded like a dream. You’d get to stay with the love of your life and get to embark on this journey together. 

“Okay,” you smile after thinking about his offer for a few moments.

“Seriously?” He asks.

“I’ve never been more serious about anything in my life.” You say while staring into his ocean blue eyes which are filled with promise and love. 

Flashforward back to Draft Night

“Are you excited?” You ask Joe as you sit next to him on the couch. The draft was virtual for the most part this year due to COVID-19, so you were enjoying draft night from the comfort of his parent's house.

“Excited, nervous, and a bit scared,” he laughs. 

“Sounds about right. Your life is about to change,” you say as you press a kiss onto his cheek.

“Our life,” he says.

Butterflies flutter in your belly, “Right, our life,” you say as you get a warm feeling in your stomach. 

“Did you hear back from the job you applied to in Cincy?” He asked.

“Not yet. Should be hearing back tomorrow. Buttt, I talked to one of my connections there and they said to be expecting a positive answer,” you beam.

“That’s amazing, Y/N. I'm so proud of you,” he says as he pulls you in for a hug. 

You let out a laugh as he pulls you in tighter, “I can’t wait,”.

“Me either. It’s starting to feel real,” he says.

“Oh, it will feel realer when we go house hunting in Cincy on Sunday,” you say as you pull away from the hug. 

Joe lets out a sigh, “Mm I can’t wait for the fun experience that’ll be,”.

“It won’t be super fun, but at least we’re doing it together,” you say, gazing lovingly into his eyes. 

“And I’m very glad we are,” he says, pressing a kiss to your soft lips.

End of flashback 

“Aww, you guys are so cute,” Sydney says. 

"Agreed. I’ve never seen Y/N happier and more free like she is with you, Joe,” James adds as he takes a sip of his drink. 

Joe looks over at you with a big smile, “Well, I’m lucky to have her,”. 

You look over at him with so much love and comfort. No one has truly ever had you like he has. He brings out the best in you, and he has since day 1. Everyone can see it, and everyone can feel it too.  

A little later, you all go back inside and go your own ways for a little bit for some guy and girl time. The boys are sitting on the couch and getting the Xbox set up to play Grand Theft Auto, while You, Sydney, and Bella are sitting at the Kitchen Island drinking some wine and having girl talk. 

You look back over to Joe, who seems to be incredibly excited to play GTA with your cousins. 

“So high school,” you giggle as you remember a similar instance from a few years ago. 

Flashback to a few years ago

You had just gotten back from lunch with your friends and were making your way into your and Joe’s house. You walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water and saw Joe sitting on the couch, seemingly playing video games with his high school friends, something he would usually do on weekends. 

You walk over to him and he sees you, so he puts his headset down and mutes himself. “Hey Babe, how was lunch?”.

“It was good, just the usual,” you say as you sit next to him on the couch. 

He looks back over to you, taking in everything about you. You looked absolutely sexy in your white top and flowy pink short skirt; your hair was in two cute braids. “You look beautiful,” he says as he goes back to his game. 

“Thank youuu,” you say as you fall back against the couch cushion, your skirt riding up your legs. You move your hand to his lower back and slip it under his shirt, rubbing the soft golden skin. A smirk graces his face as he leans back against the cushions like you are. His hand moved to your thigh, slowly creeping up to your core. 

“Joe,” you whisper. 

“It’s alright, they can’t hear you. And I owe you for this morning,” he says as he puts his headset back on and unmutes himself. He was referring to the early morning head you gave him before you left for your lunch. He wanted a little more, but that was all you had time for. 

His fingers move under your skirt and hover over your already damp-panties. He slides them over to the side and feels your wetness. You let out a quiet moan as you move your hips closer to his hand. Your wetness allows him to easily slide his finger inside your core, causing you to let out another moan. 

“Joe, shit,” you quietly moan.

He begins to pump his finger in and out of your slick heat as your breaths come out in short gasps. You move your hand to grip his forearm as he picks up the pace of his fingers, eventually adding another which was driving you insane. 

“Oh my god,” you moan as you squirm in your seat. 

You look over at him, a smile on his face and he was so casually talking to his friends through the headset, and had you a complete mess right next to him. He continued to pump his fingers into your core as your grip on his forearm tightened.  

“Ahh,” you quietly moan as you throw your head back into the cushion. Your breathing turned heavier as his thumb grazed your clit and he started to rub your sensitive sweet spot. A few seconds later, you felt your walls clenching around his fingers. 

“I’m gonna cum,” you whimpered. And as if on cue, he pinched your clit with his thumb and pumped another finger into your core, ultimately sending you straight over the edge. 

“Joee,” you moaned as you came around his fingers.

End of flashback 

“Joe’s a really great guy,” Bella says as she takes a sip of her wine, snapping you back to the present. 

“Mhm, he really meshes with everyone so well,” Sydney adds as she pops a chip into her mouth. 

“Yup. Andd he is absolutely amazing to you. He’s like your real-life prince charming that you would dream about in high school,” Bella says. 

A blush creeps up your face as they continue to tell you how amazing he is. “He’s so down to earth and normal even though he’s a millionaire quarterback, it never fails to amaze me. And he is absolutely head over heels in love with you” Sydney says while patting your thigh. 

“Yeah, he really is,” you say as you take a sip of your wine. 

“I mean, it’s been like what, 5 or 6 years?” Sydney asks.

“Yup,” Bella responds.

“5, almost 6 years of that everlasting blush and smile on your face. This is it, Y/N,” Sydney says, referring to what you had been dreaming about since you were little. 

“Here comes the bride,” Bella Sing-Songs as she mimics a slow dance, causing you to break into a laugh. 

“Bella’s right. Any wedding bells in the near future?” Sydney asks. 

A smile creeps up your face as you look back over to Joe who is incredibly focused on the video game and chatting with your other cousins. 

“Yeah actually. We have talked about it,” you say as you look back over to Sydney and Bella, a big smile on both of their faces. 

Flashback to last summer 

You and Joe had been laying out on the pool chairs on the deck, soaking in a bit of the sun and hoping for a nice tan. You were laying there with your eyes closed as you suddenly felt a dip in your pool chair. You opened your eyes and Joe was kneeling on the chair.

“Think you can make some room?” he smiles. 

“Always,” you say as you spread open your legs. Joe lays down in between them, the back of his head resting against your belly and his arms caressing your legs. You move your hands into his soft golden hair and let out a relaxed sigh as you feel so much peace at that moment.  You closed your eyes again, but suddenly opened them at Joe’s question. 

“Do you wanna get married?” he asks so casually. 

“What,” you say, feeling a bit dazed.

“I said, Do you want to get married?” he laughs as he turns around in between your legs, moving a bit higher so that his head is resting on your chest now and his arms around your waist. 

“Is this your way of proposing?” you giggle as you look down at him.

“Well, No. I don’t have a ring yet and when I do propose, it will definitely be more memorable. But would you want to marry me?”.

You stay silent for a few seconds, a million thoughts in your head. Was this really happening? You had dreamt of your wedding since you were 5 years old, and now you had someone who wanted to make that a reality. And it wasn’t just any ‘someone’, it was Joe, your Joe. Your boyfriend, best friend, and favorite human.

“Of course I would,” You smile as he looks back up at you.

“Really?” he asks while raising his eyebrows.

“Really. I couldn’t think of a better person to spend my life with. You are quite literally my dream boy and I am so fucking glad I spilled that coffee on those textbooks in the Library at LSU. It brought me you,” you say as you rub his back.

“I love you,” he says as he presses kisses onto your chest.

“I know things are a bit crazy right now with football and everything and I want you to focus on your goals first, so whenever the time is right and the time comes, I’ll be right here,” you add.

Joe lifts his head off of your chest, moves to your face, and starts to press kisses all over your lips. “I love you so much,” he says in between kisses. 

“I love you too, future husband,” you say.

End of flashback 

“Awwww,” your cousins said in Unison. 

“So yeah,” you breathe out. “It’s gonna happen when it happens,” you shrug.

“Well, I have a feeling it’s gonna happen soon. My intuition has never failed me,” Sydney says. 

“Syd’s right. You remember when her intuition said that the Zipper ride at the pier was going to break down mid-ride and that we shouldn’t go on it? And then 15 minutes later what happened?” 

“You guys are too much,” you giggle as you get off the barstool and put the empty glasses in the sink. 

“Can’t help it. Baby Cousin is gonna be a Wifeyyyy,” Bella teases as she hops off the barstool and grabs your arms, and twirls you around. 

“Shut up,” you laugh as she pulls you in for a hug. 

“Yo, you guys ready to go to the pier?” Micheal asks from the living room. 

You lift your head up and say, “Um, is that even a question,”.

“Joe, you and Y/N can go in your car, we all can take the other one,” Sydney says.

“Sounds good,” he says as he walks over to the counter to grab the keys and then grabbing your hand. He presses a kiss to your forehead as he leads you out to the driveway.

A few minutes later

You and Joe are in the car and on the way to the Boardwalk where the pier is. Joe’s hand rests on your thigh and your hands are playing with his soft fingers. 

“You having fun?” he asks.

“I am,” you smile. “Thank you so much for doing this,”. 

“Hey, they’re my family too,” he says while giving your thigh a soft squeeze. 

You look over at Joe for a few moments. God, your life was perfect. You could not ask for anything more, it couldn’t get better than this. He was truly the best thing that could have ever happened to you. Your family loved him, your friends loved him, you loved him. The way he makes you feel cannot be replicated by anyone else. Truly one of a kind.  

“Y/N, you’re staring at me again,” Joe laughs as he notices you gazing at him. 

“I knoww,” you blush.

“Well… You gonna tell me why this time?” he asks, looking back over at you. 

You let out a content sigh, “I just feel so high school every time I look at you,”.

“I’m gonna pretend like I know what you’re talking about,” he says while parking the car. 

“I feel so high school with you, like I’m 16 again. I’m dating a quarterback who absolutely loves everything about me. I never thought I would be dating him, it was really unexpected. I never would have had the courage to make a move, but he did. You knew what you wanted and boy, you got her” you beam. "I'm living a teen rom-com right now,".

Joe turns off the car and looks at you, his mouth slightly open and his eyes filled with nothing but love. His heart fluttered at your words. You were it for him. He wanted nothing more and he felt at peace knowing you felt the same about him. 

“Y/N,” he whispers as his hand cups your cheek. 

“I love you, Joe. Thank you for making my dream a reality,” you say as you move closer to him. 

He leans over the center console and slowly inches closer to your lips, eventually capturing them in a sweet kiss. The neon lights from the Ferris Wheel reflected onto the car, casting a glow on both of you. This felt like something straight out of high school. You were sitting in the car with the man of your dreams, at the beach where you would spend countless hours of your youth, a memory-filled place, and you were sharing it with your special person. 

You pulled away after a few seconds, a smile bigger than ever before on your face. “You know how that felt?”.

“So High School,” he responded with a smile. 

“So High School,” you nodded as you pulled him back to you for another kiss, both of you smiling into it. 

Suddenly you heard a few smacks on the window and some yelling, causing you and Joe to pull away. 

“What the-” you say.

“Come onnn Love-Birds!” James yells. 

“We don’t have all night!” Bella screams as your Cousins walk over to the pier entrance.

“You guys can make babies later, that rollercoaster is calling our name!” Sydney yells. 

“Let’s goooo,” Micheal adds, pointing to the Ferris Wheel. 

You and Joe look at each other and start laughing at the scene. He gets out of the car and makes his way to your side, opening your door and helping you out of the car. He closes your door, grabs your hand, entwines your fingers, and leads you over to the entrance.

“This is gonna be epic,” Joe says. His cheeks were pink and his eyes twinkled in the light, a bounce present in his step. He looked like a little kid at the boardwalk for the first time.

“Yeah, this is so high school,” you laugh as Joe eagerly leads you to the entrance.

--The End--

[room-surprise]

Laios is terrified of parenthood: Why?

Laios (Λάϊος) is an ancient Greek name. Sometimes it is translated as Laius, but these are both spellings of Λάϊος, which can also be transliterated as Láïos.

Laios comes from λαιϝός, from Proto-Indo-European lehiwos, and can mean left (the opposite of right), and awkward.

There are two mythological figures named Laios, but right now I'm going to focus on one of them: Oedipus' father, Laios the king of Thebes.

This mythical Laios did some particularly vile kidnapping, rape, and violated the laws of hospitality. As a result, he and his entire bloodline was cursed by the gods.

Laios’ sins are primarily focused around the violation of social taboos, engaging in inappropriate relationships, and being unable to restrain himself from hurting others with his actions. He is also depicted as rude and violent.

Laios’ punishment was that his son would someday kill him and marry his wife. In order to avoid this, he pierced his newborn son’s ankles so he would not be able to crawl, and abandoned him in the countryside to die. The child was found by shepherds, who took him to the nearest king, who adopted the boy and named him Oedipus, for his swollen feet.

When Oedipus was told by an oracle that he would kill his father and marry his mother, Oedipus, not knowing that he was adopted, immediately fled his home to avoid harming his beloved parents. While on the road, he encountered king Laios on a narrow road. Laios ordered Oedipus to move out of the way, and Oedipus hesitated too long, so the king nearly ran him over. Furious at Laios’ rudeness, Oedipus dragged him from his chariot and killed him.

The “Laios complex” in psychology is named after the character in the Oedipus myth, and it is described as when a father desires to kill his children, especially his sons, in order to leave behind no successors.

This name is a fascinating choice on Kui's part.

As a low-level nobleman in a historical setting, one of Laios' overarching life responsibilities is to marry a woman, reproduce, and make sure those children grow up to fill his position in society when he dies. Laios in Dungeon Meshi has a very bad relationship with his parents, especially his father, as well as issues with children and parenthood, and when you combine that with the subtext of his name indicating a fear of having children/sons, it paints a very interesting picture of our strange protagonist.

We know that one of Laios’ deepest psychological wounds, attacked by the nightmare clams, is his parents demanding he return home to the village and give them grandchildren. This is a recurring nightmare he has, so it must bother him significantly.

He also becomes so uncomfortable watching a loving father-baby interaction in the living paintings, that he can’t even try to eat food, even though he’s very hungry. This behavior makes no sense without the context of Laios' fear/aversion to father/child relationships.

Finally, in a “what if?” comic about reversing the character’s sexes, the idea that if Laios had been born a woman, he would have never left the village and have birthed children. Female Laios is shown holding a baby, looking miserable, and regular Laios seems quite upset. He says that the current timeline, despite everything that has gone wrong, is “the best one.”

This is speculation, but all of this taken together suggests that Laios may actually feel fear, disgust or revulsion towards the idea of having or raising children.

This could be because he doesn’t feel comfortable acting out the role of husband and father that he feels society demands of him, or because he’s afraid of hurting his children the way he was hurt by his parents, or it may simply be a visceral discomfort at the idea of reproduction, something which some people experience for a number of reasons.

This fear could even be taken as evidence (among other data points) suggesting that Laios might be asexual and/or aromantic, though these sort of fears are of course not unique to people on that spectrum.

Of course, none of this means that Laios could never, or would never have children, but it suggests that this fear is central to his character, and understanding this is important to understanding who Laios is, and why he does the things he does.

(This is an excerpt from Chapter 4 of my essay about the real world cultural and linguistic references in Dungeon Meshi! You can read it here.)

[keeksandgigz]

thinking of eddie helping you braid your hair when you’re getting ready to spend the night

made this about eddie and witchy because i cannot stop thinking about them- this is also for the anon who said they can't stop reading it (thank u hehehe)

fluffy fluff below the cut, witchy being jealous and thinking of hexing his exes <3

He had to drag you into his apartment.

In a hilarious turn of events, due to some kind of San Francisco strike, all metro routes were suspended and there was no way you were going to walk in heeled boots all the way to Twin Peaks.

"Why call an Uber, baby? You can literally come upstairs at mine" Eddie says, watching you huff as you read over the e-mail about the strike.

"No Eddie you don't understand. I need to be home. I have a whole ritual! And silk pillowcases! Why can't you just drive me?" you whine, hoping he'll fold to your requests like he always does.

He grabs you by the shoulders, giving you a tender look.

"Because, my lovely witchy, metro routes being down means there will be absolute pandemonium in the streets. And I'm not trying to stay fifteen minutes stuck in downhill traffic" he laughs as you follow him around the store.

He's still working, you got off an hour before and after walking around the vintage stores for an hour there wasn't much else to do. It's just him in the record shop, working the closing shift. You follow him around trying to convince him to drive you back as he puts back the vinyls in the milk crates, folds band t- shirts, and rearranges patches in the display case.

"C'mon, witchy, just go up. I have Chinese takeout from last night or spaghetti if you wanna cook, I'll stop by the hair place across the block to get you a silk pillowcase. Promise" he says, leaning over the counter to kiss your forehead he opens up the cash till.

"But Ed-" you whine, you've never slept outside of your apartment before.

"No buts, I'm sorry witchy. Now get your cute butt out of here, I've got money out" he says, puckering his lips, ready for a kiss.

You lean over the counter and give him a quick kiss before he hands you the keys to his apartment.

"Don't forget to call Lorraine to get her to feed Circe!" he exclaims before you're out the door. You roll your eyes, of course you'll call Lorraine, your neighbor, if Lorraine existed.

But he doesn't have to know you can feed Circe with a snap of your finger whenever you forget to leave food out in the morning.

So you groan and you go through the backdoor of the store to reach the small, dingy courtyard of his apartment. Second floor, apartment 5C.

This building is so old it doesn't even have an elevator. You reach the door and open it, the rattle of keys falling over the counter is the only sound that can be heard, along with the clack of the short heels of your boots.

You take your shoes off and go through his fridge. Day- old Chinese takeout, a carton of eggs and milk. Three cans of Sierra Nevada, a half- drunk bottle of Coke Zero. You open his freezer.

Honey walnut shrimp and fried rice from Trader Joe's, a bottle of vodka, and a tub of ice cream from the last time you were craving it.

You roll your eyes and pick up the phone.

"Hey Ed, you have jack shit in your fridge. Can you stop by the Greek place down the block? I’ll have a gyro with chicken and falafel on the side” you request, hearing his groan at another chore he has to do post closing.

“Baby the Chinese food in the fridge is pretty good, it’s from the place we always go to” he’s not very convincing, but he’s tired and now lost count of the cash he was counting.

“‘kay i’ll put an online order for it so you just have to go pick it up, sound good?” you ignore him.

“Ugh fine but I better get, like, the biggest kiss in return.“ he groans, but it’s true. He is a weak, weak man when it comes to you. “Get me the pita wrap with lamb and fries, and lemme also get seasoned fries on the side. Thank you witchy, love you gotta go” he says, hanging up the phone.

So you order the food and then sneak in Eddie's bedroom to change into something comfortable. Getting rid of that fine line when clothes felt too much like clothes, the stitching pressing into your skin, the cuffs of your sweater feeling a bit too tight against your wrists, your jeans too tight on your legs.

So you venture in his closet and steal a pair of sweats and a ratty black t- shirt. One of his many. You go to the bathroom and notice there's no mirror. This dude.

So you tie your hair away from your face and use the nice face wash you got him- which you're sure he rarely uses- and wipe the makeup off your face. You go look for a clean towel, 'cause God knows you will not be wiping your face with the hand towel sitting on the rod on the wall.

After your face is clean you plop yourself on the couch and watch TV to pass the time.

Thirty- odd minutes later a rattling of keys startles you. Eddie walks through the door with his arms full of plastic bags. He places them on the counter.

"Hey witchy, I see you've made yourself at home?" he says, as you walk towards him and bury yourself in his arms. At least he smelled nice.

"Hmmm missed you, Ed" you mutter against the fabric of his t- shirt.

"You missed me?" you give a little nod, followed by a hum. His heart beats a bit faster, it's nice knowing you think of him when he's away.

"Aw, witchy. I missed you too, are you hungry?" he says, giving you a sweet kiss on the head as he detaches from your grip and reaches for the bag with the food, taking out the boxes.

"Also stopped by the hair place, got you that silk pillowcase and some shampoo and conditioner to keep here. Doubt you'll wanna use my three in one shit" he snickers, and you blush timidly. He's not sweet in the way that he'll kiss you in the middle of the street, but he is for sure sweet in the way he thinks about you an embarrassing amount of times a day.

"Thanks Ed, you didn't have to do that" you say, and he blushes, the boy tinges himself pink because you appreciate him.

"Y'know, anything for you" he says, giving you a kiss on the forehead as he brings the takeout boxes to the coffee table.

You follow him and plop down on the couch "I was watching 'Sex and the City' while you were gone" you explain, biting into your gyro.

"Was Samantha being her usual crazy self?" he doesn't even know who Samantha is, but he thinks it's funny to ask you every time. You giggle as he puts on a random show for you to watch.

After an episode Eddie stands up and stretches.

"I'm beat, I think it's time for bed" he says "c'mon, witchy"

You rise from the couch and follow him into the master bathroom.

“I have a toothbrush here for you, I kinda uh-“ from his tone you can tell he’s embarrassed “I got one for here the first time you came over, in case you ever, y’know, wanted to sleep over” he says sheepishly, while you wrap your arms around him.

He offers it to you, it’s pink. Your favorite color.

“Aw, Ed. You’re so sweet, thank you” you say and you swear you can see him blush as you place a delicate kiss on his warming cheek.

This slice of domesticity taken away from the mystic vibe of your apartment really makes you wonder. It makes you think about a normal life, with him.

The way he washes his face like a madman (without face wash), letting the water wet his bangs instead of pulling his hair back, the way he ties his hair up before brushing his teeth.

You take the toothbrush out of your mouth "Ah shtill don' undestand why you don' have a mirrah" you sputter, mouth full as you spit the toothpaste in the sink.

"Why I don't have a mirror? Previous tenant broke it and my asshole landlord still won't fix it" he says, taking off his shirt. Your eyes linger on the lines of his back a little too long, bordering the line between looking and staring.

So you turn around and you try to braid your hair without a mirror, but to no avail, every strand seems to be three different sizes.

You groan in frustration as Eddie approaches you.

"Lemme help, witchy" he says, standing behind you and tending an arm out for a hair tie.

He divides the hair into three strands. Your hair is so soft between his fingers.

He wishes he could stall so that he could caress it for longer, but an impatient yawn escapes your mouth as his hands deftly get to work. Over, under, over, under-

"Where did you learn to braid hair?" you ask, feeling the way he softly holds each strand, making sure he's not pulling at your scalp. You don't see him, but a smile forms around his tongue, peeking out of his lips in concentration. Over, under.

"I had girlfriends before you, witchy. They taught me to braid my own hair" he chuckles, as you try to tune out the word girlfriends. Under, over, under.

He can see a pout form on your lips, he smiles.

"Why'd you need to braid your hair?" you huff, thinking of going on a spiraling rampage and hexing every one of his exes. Over.

"Well" he begins "one time, an ex braided my hair and it came out super curly, so I wanted to try it myself. Turns out it needs to stay in the braid for a while for that to happen" he shrugs.

Under, over, tie.

"All done," he announces, placing a kiss on the crown of your head.

"Thanks, Ed" you examine the braid, flinging it over your shoulder "looks really nice" you say, and give him a small kiss at the corner of his mouth.

He gets himself into bed. His bed is oddly comfortable and his sheets smell of laundry detergent.

"I might have been washing my sheets every other day in case you wanted to sleep over" he confesses, blushing, as he lifts his arm, opening the warmth of his chest to you.

"You" you give him a kiss "are literally" another kiss "the sweetest guy" another kiss "in the history of always" last kiss.

He gets flustered when you call him sweet, because under the hardening exterior of black chains and shirts with exploding heads and hooded skeletal figures, there's just a sweet guy who loves you and wants you to like him for being himself.

"Just want you to, you know, have a good experience with me" he says, caressing your head.

"You get an 11/10 Yelp rating, can't recommend to anyone, though. You seem to be preoccupied with a really cool girl, and it seems it's going to go on forever" you giggle, as he smiles and gives you a kiss.

"Go to sleep, cool girl. Goodnight, love you" he says, before turning off his lights.

"Goodnight, Ed" you say, turning over so he can spoon you.

"You have to say it back" he whispers in the quiet of the dark room.

"Right, sorry. I love you too, Ed" you correct yourself and close your eyes, falling into one of the best sleeps you've ever had in your life.

The morning after, Eddie wakes up to his landlord bringing in a new mirror, his hair extra curled and all his exes blocked on his social media. But he doesn't have to know about that last one.

[milkiematcha]

almost 1k words of jaehyun fucking you backstage after a concert

jaehyun always came off the stage high. not high on drugs or sharpies or whatever new drug got passed around idol clubs. no, he always came off the stage high on power.

and it’s completely unsurprising. the cheering crowds and screaming girls and bright lights always left him glowing, like some sort of greek demigod that all the goddesses fought for. he came off stage feeling like he has a million people in the palm of his hand, their actions decided by whether he decided to smirk or wink or roll his hips.

and you we’re the worst of the whole crowd.

you were wrapped around his finger. you were his perfect girl, the one he came to at 3am after practice ended when all the restaurants are closed. the one that giggled at his bad jokes and looked up at him with teary eyes when he wouldn’t let you suck him off.

so when, just minutes after the cheers had gone quiet and the boys had pulled themselves off stage, some of them ordering food and others lounging on floor, shirts tugged off in the much-too-warm backstage rooms, jaehyun was tugging you into a side room, you’d have to be stupid to be surprised. 

before the door had even shut behind you, his lips were on yours, one of his hands tangling in your hair, helping to protect your head from the wall you had found yourself pressed against. his other hand was already tugging at your skirt, the belt keeping him from yanking it off you properly.

“jae, you’re gunna rip the skirt,” you whine, pulling his hand from your waist. “i like this one.”

“i can buy you another.” his words could be mistaken for a breath if his eyes weren’t locked on yours. 

“i like this one.”

the look he gives you makes you want to wither up and die, or maybe just drop to your knees until he forgives you. he tugs his shirt over his head, tossing it somewhere off to the side. his hands return to your skirt, this time crumpling the fabric up around your hips and grinding against your core, face buried in your shoulder. 

“if i wasn’t so fucking hard right now i’d make you suffer for that.” he’s basically growling, the bass of his voice reverberating through your bones. he lifts you like you weigh nothing, pulling at your soaked panties until you hear the fabric snap and see it come apart in his hands.

you’d complain if it wasn’t for his lips on yours again. he’s nipping at your lips, and you know that by the time he’s done, they’ll be swollen enough that nobody will have to guess what you two had been doing. his belt drops to the floor, you didn’t even see him undo it, but by the time you’ve pulled back to say something he’s already pushing into you.

normally, he’d be a stickler for prepping you. on his fingers, with his tongue, anything to make sure he didn’t hurt you. but he knows as well as you do that watching him on stage, shimmering in the golden lights with a smirk dancing across his lips, has gotten you as wet as anything he could possibly do.

and he’s so big. the stretch is usually subtle, with maybe a few moments of adjustment before he can thrust into you comfortably but like this, with him pressing you against the wall, and your legs instinctively wrapping around him for some semblance of stability, he feels so big. and he doesn’t even wait for you to adjust, he just pushed up into you in one fluid motion, a deep groan leaving his lips. 

he doesn’t pause before he pulls out, or before he thrusts back in, making a whine leave your lips as you scramble for anything to hold on to, nails digging into his back. his head tilts back just slightly, and you take the opportunity to press your lips against your neck, marking it faintly before his next thrust has your nails sinking further into his skin. 

“fuck-” his breath is catching the way it does when you kiss the tip of his cock. “shit princess, you’re gunna leave scars.”

you try to respond with a “sorry” or even a “too bad”, but the words are catching in your throat too. the familiar warmth in your stomach is building so quickly it’s halfway given you whiplash, his fingers digging into your hips again to keep you from slipping.

he catches this, of course. and despite his constant movement a cocky smile manages to find his lips. “you’re gunna cum that quickly? already?”

the condescension in his voice has you tightening around him and his smile falters for a moment. his hips are stuttering, and you know that he’s just as close as you. “cum for me. you’re going to do it anyway”

the coil in your stomach snaps at the words and his name leaves your lips like a mantra, like a prayer. like he’s a god and you’re worshipping him, like he has all the power in the world over you. you can barely differentiate the warmth in your stomach from the way he fills your core, his hips stuttering and pressing deeper into you.

you bury your face in his shoulder, breathing heavily, pulling him as close as possible. he’s panting too, his lips pressed against your forehead, breathing some mix of “good girl” and “i love you” against your skin.

when you left the room together, his arm around your waist and your tattered panties in his pocket, he was no longer high on power. he was high on something so much stronger, so much more powerful. he was high on you.

[bethanythebogwitch]

Wet Beast Wednesday: brittle stars

Some animals end up living in the shadows of others. Everyone knows about starfish, the famous branching echinoderms, and a lot of people know about brittle stars, but not as many people know that brittle stars aren't starfish, they're their own thing. But because they look similar, brittle stars are frequently mistaken for a type of starfish, rather than being recognized as their own animal. I aim to help these stars shine and be recognized as their own animal.

(Image ID: a green brittle star on a rock. It consists of a small, round central body with five long, slender arms arms emerging from it at equal distances from each other. Thea rams are lines on either side with small bristles. End ID)

Brittle stars are members of the class Ophiuroidea, which is closely related to Asteroidea, the true starfish. The name comes from the Greek "ophis", meaning "serpent", a reference to their long, skinny arms. Ophiuroidea is divided into two orders, Ophiurida (true brittle stars) and Euryalida (basket stars). As with all echinoderms, brittle stars are radially symmetrical, consisting of multiple body segments that radiate around a point, akin to the slices of a pizza. The majority of brittle star species have five segments, though a few have six or more. Similarly to starfish, brittle stars have their arms radiating out from a central disc. In brittle stars, all the organs are located in the disc and as long as the disc remains intact, the arms can be regrown. The mouth (which also functions as the anus) is located in the center of the disc and each body segment has a single jaw and tooth. Some starfish can regenerate into two animals if the disc is cut in half, but almost no brittle stars can survive being cut in half. That being said, some species can reproduce via fission, where the disc splits in half and each half regenerates into a fully-grown star. In brittle stars, the arms are narrower than the disc, making the disc much more visually distinct than in starfish, where it can be hard to tell where the disc ends and arm begins. The arms of a brittle star are slender and highly flexible. When in danger, a brittle star can sever one of its arms. This is usually done in response to predation, in hopes that a predator will opt to eat the arm while the star makes its escape. This is called autotomy and is the reason why the common name of these animals is brittle star. The arms are formed of multiple calcium carbonate plates called vertebral ossicles due to their resemblance to vertebrae. The ossicles are connected to each other by ball and socket joints, allowing for a great degree of flexibility. Most true brittle stars can flex their arms side to side, but not up and down, while basket stars can flex in all directions. In basket stars, the arms branch multiple times. Unlike starfish, brittle stars use their arms for locomotion. The arms move in a rowing motion to drag the star around. Some species can swim for short distances as well. By contrast, starfish (and urchins) move using tube feet. Tube feet are a common echinoderm trait and consist of small tubes with a sucker on one end that are inflated and moved with water pressure. Most echinoderms use their tube feet for movement and feeding. True brittle stars, by contrast, seem to use their tube feet primarily for sensory reception, though they are also used to help transport food to the mouth. Due to moving with their arms instead of tube feet, brittle stars are capable of much faster movement than starfish, though in short bursts. Like other echinoderms, brittle stars use a water vascular system, where water is drawn into the body and used to inflate and move the tube feet and as a substitute for blood. Brittle star reproduction is fairly standard for echinoderms. The males and females will release their gametes into the water column. Fertilized eggs develop into pluteus larvae, which swim using cilia. In the pluetus stage, echinoderms are bilaterally symmetrical. They become radially symmetrical during metamorphosis into the juvenile form.

(GIF ID. A pale white brittle star swimming by rapidly moving its legs. End ID).

(GIF ID: two white brittle stars (with a third in the background) moving across sand by using their legs to push and drag themselves along. One appears to be carrying a red object in its mouth. End ID)

(Image ID: a basket star on a rock. The central disc in brown and has a pair of arms emerging from each segment. Each arm branches repeatedly and those branches have their own branches, resulting in a vaguely bush-like appearance. End ID)

Brittle stars are eyeless, but can detect light. Most animals, and a lot of non-animals, have some ability to detect the presence or absence of light. True vision, the ability to form images, requires more complex systems than the might-sensing cells most animals have. More specifically, it requires an eye. Or at least that's what we thought until scientists found evidence that the brittle star Ophiomastix wendtii may be able to form imaged without an eye by using its whole body as one big eye (a sea urchin, Diadema africanum) also seems to have this ability). Brittle stars are covered with light-sensing structures called opsins that can detect the presence or absence of light, but vision-forming sight requires the ability to determine how much light is coming from what direction. O. wendtii uses chromatophores to alter its color and these packets of pigment-changing cells are arranged in such a way that they may provide that directionality. In tests, O. wendtii would travel to shelter when exposed to light with a greater than change likelihood while the closely-related O. pumila would move at random when exposed to light. O. pumila lacks the types of pigment that O. wendti has, which could prevent it from being able to form the directionality needed for vision-forming sight. This is reflected in the species' behavior. O. wendtii moved toward shelter when exposed while O. pumila prefers to bury itself. The possibility for vision to exist without eyes means that a lot of animals we previously thought of as blind may actually be able to see, though probably not as well as animals with eyes.

(Image ID: Ophiomastix wendtii, a red brittle star with larger bristles on its legs. Two legs are shorter and blunted, possibly having been damaged. End ID)

There are over 2,000 known species of brittle star that live all over the oceans, from shallow water to the deep sea. Most basket stars are seep-sea animals, though some shallow-water species are known. True brittle stars are mostly detritivores who crawl along sediment and eat bits of organic matter and tiny organisms. This behavior makes them seafloor engineers. Their feeding behavior stirs up the sediment, releasing nutrients and affecting the behavior of other species that rely on the sediment. Because of this, brittle stars are often highly important parts of their ecosystems. Some species follow different lifestyles. Some will target and eat sponges or coral polyps while others are active predators of small animals, filter feeders, or even omnivores that eat plant matter. Brittle stars often live in or on corals or sponges, which provide a source of protection. The relationship between star and coral or sponge may be symbiotic in some species, with the star eating parasites and pests that endanger its host. Basket stars are filter feeders that use their many branching arms to catch plankton. They need to live in places with a current as as such are often foudn on seamounts, where the underwater mountain directs the flow of water into currents. The star anchors itself to a rock, coral, or other surface and extends its arms into the current to make a net. The arms are lined with tiny hooks that catch plankton carried by the flowing water. Once caught, tube feet cover the plankton with mucus and transport it slowly to the mouth. The star will sometimes bring its arms to its mouth to speed up the process. When threatened, basket stars will bring in their legs and form a ball to protect the disc. Basket star arms are less muscular than those of true brittle stars and therefore they are not as fast. Basket stars generally get bigger than true brittle stars, with the largest species, Gorgonocephalus eucnemis, having a disc up to 14 cm (5.5 in) in diameter and an arm length of up to 70 cm (27.5 in).

(Image ID: a pale red brittle star with no bristles on its arms. It is climbing sea fan (type of coral with appearance similar to a fern), with its arms wrapped around the coral for stability. End ID)

(Image ID: a basket star in feeding posture. It is on a rock with some of its arms used to support it. The rest of the arms are extended into the water column, with every branch fully extended. It looks kind of like pale white ferns. End ID).

This basket star living in the St. Lucie County Aquarium in Ft. Pierce, Florida ripped itself in half shortly after being introduced to the exhibit. Esch half survived and regenerated into a full basket star. This is the only time this behavior has been seen in this species (Astrophytum muricatum). Of course, trying to rip yourself in half is a reasonable response to realizing you have to live in Florida.

(Image ID: a white basket star splitting into two halves, each with a portion of the arms. The only thing connecting the halves is a small strip of tissue. End ID)

[cheapshrimpysheep]

First Date - Ignihyde

SUMMARY: What would your first date with Idia be like? I know first dates might not go so well, but let's pretend this is different. ;) In Ortho's case, you are more like his new older sibling because Idia wasn't available. (He didn't want to leave his room -.-) Not a romantic date. Actually, he acts a little like your matchmaker with his older brother.

CHARACTERS: Idia Shroud & Ortho Shroud (Platonic)

TAGS: Fluf; GN Reader; Flirting; Kissing

WARNING: None, I think. I think that in this one I don't give spoilers, so none I can remember.

WORD COUNT: An average of 650 words per character.

Heartslabyul / Savanaclaw / Octavinelle / Scarabia / Pomefiore / Ignihyde / Diasomnia

COMMENTS: The thing is I didn't wanted to just have Idia in here. And i remembered Ortho talking about wanting to go on an amusement park but Idia don't wanting to go and me thinking like "Awww, I would go with you, Ortho."

I hope you enjoy ;)

I hope you don't mind having a nerdy date in Ignihyde. Because a first date outside among the normies is out of the question! Οχι! (No in greek)

However, you will not spend time in his room. For too many reasons, but the main ones are: A) Idia knows spending your first date in the bedroom is the stupidest, most absurd, most insulting idea! I mean, you guys could have dates in his room if the relationship progressed, but for a first date? Absolutely NOT! And B) His room is a total mess. Fortunately: Him being the housewarden + The rest of Ignihyde students being also shut-ins = Him being able to find a good room where nobody bothers you two.

He found an empty room and used technology to decorate it. AKA: Do you remember that magical projector you use on the guest room? Basically the same cause he's a lazy boy. But at least the bean bags and the consoles were real.

He ordered food. Come on, he won't even try to cook, he knows how much he sucks at it. You like pizza right? He asks for your favourite. Ortho told him what it was. He registered all the information about your tastes, preferences, allergies, etc. He also bought your favourite drinks.

It is a really comfy room. The only lights were the RGB around the room. Blue and pink at the moment. And if you smirk at him, like a for a shut-in, you know how to set the mood look,his hair will turn the same colours of the room. But since he knows you have a crush on him too, he's in his confident mode. So he'll smile at you back. And that is going to make your heart skip a beat.

It's probably the chillest first date you could ever have. You two will sink into beanbags and play co-op games while snacking. You'll literally be his player 2. Great chances that you’ll make a mistake or having difficulty at some point in the game and he’ll mess with you and make fun of you. You will pick up one of the cushions around you and throw it at his face. “O-oi! Don't tell me you want to start a pillow fight just because I'm commenting on your lack of ski-” Another hit from you!

“Don't tell me that you're pillow fighting skills are that low you think you can't compete with me." You'd tell him and bring out his proud, competitive side. The flames in his hair get excited, like himself and he starts attacking you with his own pillow. However, he won't use his full strength. The last thing he wants is to hurt you.

But that doesn't stop him from winning the battle with his wits... and foul play. Tickle you! If you say it's foul play, he'll say you sneak attacked him first. He will only stop when you surrender, lying on your beanbag chair with him practically on top of you. When he realizes that, he'll blush, just like the ends of his hair. But since you don't show yourself uncomfortable in that situation, he wouldn't get up either.

“I can't believe you got me into a pillow fight.” He'll tell you, that deep voice of his. “How childish.” But you can see him smile a little. And you feel like teasing him a little more: “I wonder what else can I got you into.” You did it, his hair was all pink now, a bit like his face. But remember, since he knows you like him, he is much more confident. He smirks and bring his face so close to yours that your noses are practically touching. “You would like to know wouldn't you? Go on.” and he speaks in an even deeper voice “Try it.”

If you kiss him, you will feel him return passionately. And you'll feel the two of you sinking into the beanbag.

You ran into Ortho in the courtyard. When he sees you he closes his eyes in a smile, but you had seen his slightly sad expression moments before that. You ask what's going on, but he doesn't want to bother you with it. Then you insist a little more, saying that he can tell you, that he's not bothering you at all.

Then he tells you that a travelling amusement park is coming to Sage's Island and he really wants to go with his older brother, but Idia doesn’t want to leave his room. Instead, he suggested to code up a VR amusement park. But that would defeat the whole purpose! And he says he'd really like to go to that park, because he's never been to one.

“Aww... Would you like me to go with you?” you ask. He looks at you with sparkling big eyes “Really? You would come with me?” Knowing the students at that college, you wonder if he didn't know from the beginning that you would offer to go with him when he told you that story. But honestly, who cares? He is so cute!

You agreed to go pick him at Ignihyde, and then go to the amusement park. But when you arrive, he looks different. His new gear is similar to his Athletic Gear, since he have "normal" feet instead of his regular floating ones. Idia made that new gear, partly because his little brother asked him to go with feet like the other visitors, and because he wanted to make sure Ortho went with a body that could handle the rides.

“You should come with us Onii-san! Are you sure you really don't want to come?” Despite this last attempt, Idia will continue to say no and tell him to have fun with you. “Aww...” Ortho does that smirk with his eyes “Not even knowing that Prefect comes with us? I was pretty sure that would convince you.”

If you ask why he’s saying that, the ends of Idia's hair will start to turn pinker, he’ll say it's nothing, say one last time for you to have fun and hide in the room quickly. Oh well. Ortho is REALLY excited to go, so he practically pulls you along the way.

This boy is so happy to finally go to an amusement park, even though it's not with his brother. If you're not afraid to ride the rides, you're super cool. But if you are afraid of something he wants to ride, he will try to convince you to ride with him. He'll even tell you the low probabilities of you getting hurt. If you agree, he’ll be very grateful. If you're still scared, that's okay, he understands. Also, he is able to read your vital signs and he won't insist you do something you don't want to.

It feels so good to see him so happy. He will ask you if you had fun and that it's a shame Idia didn't go. “He's always so excited to be around you.” he lets it slip, “accidentally”. You ask him to explain it. “Well, I know he always looks scared and uncomfortable but you've seen him smiling, right? One day when he was talking to you, I checked his vitals. His heart beats faster, but not the same way it does when he's anxious, his body temperature rises, his blood pressure drops-” He stops for a moment, and looks at you with that smirk in his eyes “Similar to what's happening to you as I talk about him.”

Even if you don't blush much, he can still read your vitals. “You should take the first step.” He says to you. “Because we both know my brother doesn't have the courage for that. And I'm 97% sure you're not going to regret that. After all, your vitals are almost the same. And according to my research, that can only means one thing.”

If you would like to read more from me, you can find it in my pinned post: INDEX

[antiquitiesandlabyrinths]

. . .Osiris

Osiris (Great and Beautiful is He) is the God of the Underworld; its King and Pharaoh ruling over the Duat. He is pictured here on the far left, His skin green and His body in mummiform. This is commonly how He is depicted; as a green-skinned, mummified man.

Son of Nut, the Sky Goddess, and Geb, the Earth God, Osiris was the first King of Egypt in accordance with Kemetic mythology, although there are stories that recount Geb, His father, being King before Him. There are a great deal of myths and stories that surround and involve Osiris, and I suppose it is important to at least skim over them before discussing hard facts about Him, as it gives some reference as to who He is and what the culture surrounding Him is like.

Osiris Myth

After the world was created, the Demiurge (who changes according to myth, and can be Neith, Ra, Amun, Ptah, or others) produces children; in the most popular form of this creation story, it is usually Ra who births the first Gods. They are Shu and Tefnut, Air and Moisture. Shu and Tefnut then form a union and birth two children of Their own: Nut and Geb, Sky and Earth. Nut and Geb were very much in love and refused to separate from each other, which, of course, caused a problem, because if the sky and the earth are eternally in contact, there is no space for anything to live and walk upon the earth. Ra made it so Nut and Geb were forever separated, by having Shu, air, stand atop Geb and hold Nut up as the sky. But Nut was already pregnant. When Ra discovered this, He was enraged, and forbade Nut from ever giving birth on any day of the year.

Nut cried to Djehuty (Thoth), and Thoth devised a plan. He went to Khonsu, God of the Moon, and set up a gamble, saying that every round of the game Senet Khonsu lost, He would have to give Nut some of His moonlight. Khonsu ended up losing so many times that Nut had enough moonlight for five days––five days that weren't in the calendar. This allowed Her to give birth on those five days, and on each day She had a different child; Ausir (Osiris), Wr-Heru (Horus the Elder), Sutekh (Set, Seth), Auset (Isis), and Nebet-Het (Nephthys). Nut and Geb were still forever separated by atmosphere (Shu), but the five Gods were birthed, and Osiris, as the eldest son, became King of the Living World.

As a side note, all Gods do have ancient Egyptian names which are different from Their Greek and now modern names. For convenience's sake, and to avoid confusion, I will use the names They are most known by; Their Greek/modern names. And as another side note, there are a lot of variations on this story. I will be piecing together a lot of different ideas but I will be leaving some things out for the sake of cohesion.

When Osiris came to Egypt, He found the people there to be chaotic and lawless. As King, He instituted laws and spread ma'at, which is truth, justice, harmony, and order. Egypt flourished under His rule and the people were incredibly happy, as all were equal, and with the fertility of the God-King, the crops were always bountiful and food was plenty. He brought not only law and prosperity, but also the right way to worship, and the teachings of agriculture.

Set, God of chaos, confusion, the desert, and of foreigners, and the youngest brother of the Ennead, grew to be quite jealous of His older brother. There are many variations and the most popular variation of this story comes from the end of the New Kingdom (1550-1070 BC), where Set fashions a fabulous coffin in the perfect measurements of Osiris, throws a party, and tells the party-goers that whomever the coffin fits may have the coffin as a gift. When Osiris fits perfectly, Set quickly shuts and bolts the coffin and throws it in the Nile (this version of the myth gives an origin to the idea that people who drowned in the Nile were holy). His coffin drifts downstream and into the Mediterranean, where it washes ashore in Phoenicia, in Byblos. The coffin wedges itself into a growing tamarisk tree, a tree which envelops the coffin. Eventually the tree is cut down and used as a pillar in the palace in Byblos.

Isis, Osiris' wife and sister, searched far and wide for Her husband, and did eventually find Herself in Byblos. The story is quite long and complicated, but in the end She convinced the King to give Her the pillar, and when she returned to Egypt, She hid Osiris in a swampy area of the Nile delta, and bade Her sister, Nephthys, to watch over Him while She went in search of healing herbs. But Seth heard that Osiris was back, and so after interrogating His sister-wife, Nephthys, He found Osiris, cut His body into pieces, and threw them into the Nile.

Isis was horrified at what transpired in Her absence, but She immediately set to work on finding the many pieces of Her husband with the help of Her sister, Nephthys. They managed to find every piece of His body except His phallus, which had been eaten by an oxyrhyncus fish, a fish that was thus forbidden to eat.

With the pieces of Osiris reassembled, and the healing powers of Isis in full power, Osiris was brought back to life, but incomplete. Isis assumed the form of a kite, and from above drew out the seed of Osiris, impregnating Herself with Their child: Horus the Younger. But Osiris, still incomplete, could not properly rule over the land of the living any longer.

This is why He is the ruler of the dead––He was once the king of the living, was killed, and was resurrected, and this is what every ancient Egyptian expected and hoped would happen to them: that they would die and be resurrected. In tombs and mortuary temples you will always see Pharaohs associating themselves with Osiris.

But this long myth I have just told you is not the only version of the story, and in my opinion, it is definitely the longest version of the story. Back in the Old Kingdom and Middle Kingdom there were several different versions; for example, Set's motive is different, ranging from revenge for Osiris kicking him, to revenge for Nephthys (Seth's sister-wife) sleeping with Osiris (which eventually births Anubis). Some texts claim that Seth took on the form of a wild animal, such as a crocodile or a hippopotamus, and killed Osiris that way. In others, Osiris is drowned. In some, the steps surrounding the coffin are skipped, and Osiris is simply cut up, and His pieces scattered around Egypt; a version which explains the many cult centers of Osiris claiming to be a place where Osiris is buried. Osiris' resurrection is also often helped along by other Gods such as Thoth (God of wisdom) and Anubis (God of embalming). In some versions, Set is killed for His actions. In most He is simply defeated and driven from the land, as chaos is necessary for balance and harmony, and thus cannot be killed. And the story that I have told is from the Late Period, recorded by Plutarch, and does not really go along with many Egyptian accounts, which often find Osiris' penis intact.

So that is the Osiris myth with all of its' intricacies and changing rhythms over the course of 4,000 years of Egyptian history. It embodies a huge amount of cultural practices and religious ideas within ancient Egypt, including the idea of truth, harmony, and justice, as well as resurrection, the afterlife, healing, and the workings of the cosmos. I've decided to leave out the later parts involving Osiris' son, Horus, and His fight with Set, for now because this does not directly involve Osiris, and that is our topic for this post.

Tradition, History, and Culture

Worship of Osiris dates back to the Old Kingdom, but the idea of Osiris is likely older than this. Before Osiris was actually Khentiamenti, an agricultural God centered in Abydos, a city which would later become the cult center of Osiris. Khentiamenti means 'Foremost of the Westerners', a title for the ruler of the dead, as the dead resided in the west, where the sun set each day. But Osiris Himself is not found mentioned in any texts or carvings until the 5th Dynasty, where He is depicted as a man wearing a divine wig. Later on He would take on the form we know Him best in––wrapped in a white mummy shroud, wearing an atef crown with ostrich plumes on the sides.

The mummy shroud He is depicted in forever associates Him with death and with the essential story behind Him, which is why I found it so important to start off with the Osiris Myth. This myth is also why He consumed and took the place of Khentiamenti; the name Khentiamenti, Foremost of the Westerners, instead became a title for Osiris as the King of the blessed dead. Another common epithet/name of Osiris is Wennefer (Omnophris), meaning 'The Beautiful One', 'The Beneficent One', and more archaically, 'One Whose Body Did Not Decay'. Among these names He was also called 'The Lord of Love', 'The King of Living', and 'The Eternal Lord'. From the Early Dynastic Period up until the end of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, when Rome conquered Egypt, Osiris was one of the most highly worshipped and revered Gods of Egypt.

Osiris was associated with the Nile river, with its' renewal and life-giving abilities, as one of Osiris' domains and powers was fertility, as well as rebirth. Another of His duties, evidence of which originates in the New Kingdom, was to act as judge of the dead; being King, He sat on the tribunal with the 42 Judges in the famous Weighing of the Heart ceremony. In this ceremony, which took place in the afterlife, the deceased would have to stand before the court and place their soul up for judgement. If it weighed lighter than the feather of Ma'at, representing all justice, truth, and harmony, then the heart acted well in life and would be allowed eternal happiness in the Field of Reeds. If not, the heart, and thus the person, would be consumed by Ammit and committed to nothingness. So Osiris would sit in on this tribunal and judge who entered His kingdom, as it was His domain. In this role, and in His role as King of the Living, as well, He was the embodiment of harmony, law, and justice.

"Most of his appeal was based on his embodiment of the cosmic harmony. The rising Nile was his insignia, and the moon’s constant state of renewal symbolized his bestowal of eternal happiness in the lands beyond the grave. In this capacity he also became the model of human endeavors and virtues..." (The Complete Gods And Goddesses Of Ancient Egypt, p.307)

As I mentioned earlier, Abydos became His cult center, as it was the cult center of the God who came before Him, whose traits He subsumed. It became a very popular burial site, as legends would say that Abydos was where Osiris was truly buried, and the people wanted to be buried as close as possible to Osiris. At one point they believed an ancient tomb there––which was actually the tomb of an Early Dynastic King––to be the tomb of Osiris, which they much revered, and left so many offerings in clay pots that Arabs would later call the site 'Umm el Qa'ab'; Mother of Pots. But this was not the only burial site of Osiris; since many variations of the myth include Set chopping up and dismembering Osiris into many parts, ranging from 14 to 42 different parts. These parts were scattered across Egypt, so many cities and nomes could claim that they had a part of Osiris buried in their domain. For example, far in the south, the island of Bigah claimed to be the burial site of Osiris' left leg, and thus the source for the yearly Nile inundation.

Going back to the Osiris Myth, after Osiris died and became the ruler of the dead, His son took His place as King of the Living: the falcon God, Horus (Heru the Younger). After the brief bout of chaos brought about under Set's rule, Horus took over (after much deliberation from the Gods) and order was restored. Because of this story, Pharaohs would not only associate themselves with Osiris in death, but with Horus in life. Each Pharaoh, as they came to the throne, would become the living embodiment of Horus on earth, the son of Osiris. In this way, Isis was also the mother of every Pharaoh, and their protector. And, to added extent, each Pharaoh would have a personal name, and then a Horus name granted to them when they ascended to the throne.

"It is for this reason that Osiris is so often depicted as a mummified pharaoh; because pharaohs were mummified to resemble Osiris. The image of the great mummified god preceeded the practice of preparing the royal body to look like Osiris... The king's appearance as modeled after Osiris' extended throughout his reign; the famous flail and shepherd's staff, synonymous with Egyptian pharaohs, were first Osiris' symbols as the flail represented the fertility of his land while the crook symbolized the authority of his rule." (Osiris, World History Encyclopedia, Joshua J. Mark)

Osiris can also be represented by a number of physical symbols, such as the crook and flail that He carries in almost all representations of His earthly form. The crook, which is the striped hook He carries, represents power/authority, and is a symbol of the Pharaoh. The flail, which is the instrument in His other hand, represents the fertility of the Nile, and as an extension, the fertility of Osiris Himself. But the crook and flail, though both seen typically as symbols of Pharaonic power, are actually the tools of a shepherd. There is reasonable evidence, thusly, to suggest that the physical origins of the idea of Osiris may not be that of a great King, but of a ruler of a shepherd tribe in the Nile Delta, whose rule was so beneficent that it led to him being worshipped as a God. For Egyptologists, this theory comes from His association with Andjety, a predynastic God-King worshipped in the Delta who also bore the crook and flail as His symbols. This, however, has not and likely cannot be fully proven. But the postulation is still interesting nonetheless!

Osiris' ba soul had its' own culture of worship, a practice of soul-worship that is prevalent in the cults of several other Gods, such as Hathor (HwtHer). In this form, Osiris was known as Banebdjedet, meaning 'The Ba of the Lord of the Djed,' which in English terms means 'The Soul of the Lord of the Pillar of Continuity', as ba means soul, and djed is the symbol for a pillar, which represented the backbone of Osiris. Interestingly, the name Banebdjedet is feminine, as the letter t denotes a feminine word or name in ancient Egyptian; although there are also variations on this name that exclude the t in favour of the alternative, Banebdjed. Banebdjedet, Osiris' ba soul, was worshipped mainly in Mendes, a city in Lower Egypt, in the Delta.

This leads to an interesting point concerning the androgyny of Osiris, a subject I found while researching for this post. Osiris' fertility comes from His castration and then being healed by the mother Goddess, Isis. Not only that, but both men and women identified themselves with Osiris in death. Then the name for His ba personified as another God is feminine, although representations of Banebdjedet are overwhelmingly male. Before anyone attacks me, I am not claiming that Osiris is a genderless God or King––just that He has some traits of androgyny, which I find interesting and love to study in ancient cultures, and I thought it would be good to mention for anyone else similarly interested.

Worship, Festivals, and Cult Activities

When it comes to the practices surrounding Osiris' cult, we actually know a good deal of information regarding the activities of worshippers and priests. Osiris' cult and worship was so widespread and lasted long enough that it could be recorded by the earliest Greek historians, and remained carved in temple walls for thousands of years. Among the most well-known cultic tradition is the Osiris Bed.

The Osiris Bed is rather well documented, as it was an object placed in tombs. It was not a bed for the deceased to lie in, but instead a box made of wood or clay, moulded into the shape of Osiris, in which the fertile Nile soil was placed and seeds were planted. These boxes were then wrapped in white mummy linens, and the seeds sprouted through, representing the resurrection and fertility of Osiris, and the crops that grew each year in cycles. One of the most famous of these beds was found in King Djer's tomb, a King from the Early Dynastic Period; the 2nd King ever of the unified Egypt. Coincidentally (or, perhaps, not so coincidentally) King Djer's tomb was the tomb which pilgrims believed to be Osiris' burial site.

While the Osiris Bed is far from the only practice and tradition of the Osiris cult, it does show the rich cultural practices and symbolism present in His worship. Let's look at some other examples of the practices of Osiris' cult.

Similar to the Osiris bed were Osiris gardens, which were essentially the same concept; fertile soil was planted inside a vessel shaped into the form of Osiris, and seeds were settled within to grow. These beds were tended to during festivals instead of being buried in a tomb.

There were a great many festivals, and each of them quite popular according to their time period, dedicated to the story and symbolism of Osiris. Some festivals started with recounting the mournings of Isis and Nephthys, Osiris' sister-wife and sister, in the form of a drama acted out in a call-and-response format. Another drama acted out for the glory of Osiris was more in the form of an actual fight that anyone could participate in; it was modelled after The Contendings of Horus and Set, which I briefly mentioned as a long and drawn-out argument between Horus and Set over who deserved Osiris' vacant throne after He had died. On this occasion, people would battle out and reenact the events of the story until the side of Horus finally won and victory was achieved. Afterwards, the celebrations commenced in honoring the restoration of order, and the gold-encased shAwyt-nTr (the Holy Statue) of Osiris would be taken out and lavished with offerings. Osiris, in the form of this statue, would be paraded throughout the city of Abydos before being placed in a shrine outside, where He could participate fully in the festivities, and be admired by the commoners who would usually never behold the face of Osiris. This emergence of Osiris from the dark temple's inner sanctuary to the light of the city resembled and represented His resurrection from death into life again. Although this particular festival was celebrated mainly in Osiris cult center of Abydos, it was also celebrated in other cities such as Bubastis in the Delta, Busiris, Memphis, and Thebes, in Upper Egypt.

The Mysteries of Osiris was a series of plays performed annually, and in dramatic, passionate form. It was one of the most popular observances of worshippers, and it told the story that I first told to you––of Osiris' life, His death at the hands of His brother, His resurrection at the hands of His sister-wife, and His ascension into the role we now know Him for. The roles in this reenactments were often taken up by high-ranking officials, and afterwards, the Contendings of Horus and Set would take place, which I just mentioned. These plays would take place over several days.

One festival was called The Fall of the Nile. During this time, the waters of the Nile would recede, and the worshippers of Osiris would go into mourning. One of Osiris' representation on earth was the Nile, and the Nile represented His fertility and life.

Another festival was celebrated on the 19th day of Pakhons, one of the months in the Egyptian calendar, which is roughly equivalent to May in our Gregorian calendar. On this day, the followers of Osiris would go to the river with shrines containing vessels of gold and metal, and would pour water into the Nile, exclaiming, "Osiris is found!" Mud and spices were mixed and moulded into the shape of Osiris, as well, to celebrate His return. Another festival similar to this one was called The Night of the Tear, and took place during modern-day June.

The last festival pertaining to Osiris that I will mention is the Djed pillar festival, held in modern-day January. The Pharaonic court and family would participate, raising djed pillars to welcome Osiris and the harvests that coincided with His return.

One last and interesting tradition that may seem familiar to Christians, at least in a small way, was the baking of bread in the shape of Osiris; bread as the flesh of the God, a sort of predecessor of communion wafers. But in reality the traditions of the Osiris cakes are completely different, and there were several different ways of going about it, depending on which nome you were from. In Dendera, wheat-paste models were made in the shape of each of the 16 dismembered parts of Osirs, and each model was sent out to the town where each respective part of Osiris was found by Isis. In Mendes, figures of Osiris were made of wheat and paste. On the day of the murder, they were placed in a trough, followed by water being added each day for several days. Afterwards, this mixture was kneaded into a dough, put into a mold of Osiris, and buried on the temple grounds.

Conclusion

This has been a somewhat brief glimpse into the cult, history, and traditions surrounding the Great God, The Beautiful Lord Osiris. If I can clarify anything please let me know and I will do my best!

[just-another-star-47]

Sebastian Sallow

My headcanons for him before Anne's curse.

More headcanons for Slytherin • Gryfindor • Ravenclaw • Hufflepuff

16 September 1873 ♍️ , born 37 minutes before Anne

He speaks English, Scottish Gaelic, Latin, (Ancient) Greek, French and knows some runic alphabets -> if he is interested in a subject or enjoys a particular story, he learns the language in which the work is written so that he can read it in the original version.

Feldcroft borders directly on Goblinland, so he also knows common phrases and words in their language

His favourite thing to read are Greek myths, as his father often read them to him; he knows the myths about the Rape of Europa and Heracles by heart - in English and Greek.

His parents were often busy with their research and experiments, so Sebastian was often left to look after himself and Anne.

His parents travelled a lot and lived in different villages, taking their children with them, so that they were unable to build up any real friendships outside the family and at some point Sebastian gave up trying to make contact with other children.

In Feldcroft, after the death of his parents, he also rarely socialised with his peers, but withdrew even more into himself

The villagers often described him as very mature for his age and often gave him tasks with which he could earn a few coins, food, etc.

Sebastian not only has many of his father's characteristics, but also looks very much like him, which made it difficult for Solomon to treat him fairly and caringly from the start - as Sebastian did not put up with this and often rebelled against it, Solomon eventually gave up trying at all.

Sebastian had the villagers of Feldcroft teach him all about field and garden work in order to provide Anne with the best possible food, but Solomon often used the work as a punishment.

Sebastian has little interest in contact with people and quickly becomes impatient unless the person has something that could benefit him - knowledge, skills, information.

He knows exactly who he should be friendly to and who it makes no difference to.

It is not difficult for him to make someone cry with words alone.

He loves puns.

Sebastian likes to be left alone most of the time (Anne and Ominis are the exception) and so it comes in handy that he has built up a bad reputation at Hogwarts over the years.

Together with Anne, Sebastian is always one of the best in his year.

In most situations, Sebastian manages to find a benefit for himself.

Due to his ability and his intellectual superiority over most people, Sebastian feels very self-confident, but does not believe that anyone could like or even love him just for himself. He therefore constantly tries to prove his worth.

He sees himself as the protector of Anne and Ominis and therefore always appears composed around them - neither of them has ever seen or heard him cry.

Sebastian thinks the world is deeply unfair and it is up to him to find his own way by any means possible.

He idealises his parents, especially his father and, to a certain extent, Anne and Ominis too.

[bitter-bats-cult-of-the-moon]

Energy Explained in Other Systems

There is a lack of measurable evidence because any person that has worked with energies have had different experiences but were able to understand and manipulate energies according to their own will.

Energy has been used in many ways within culture and religion and have set beliefs depending on the system being practiced.

Next, are some given definitions defining energies within diverse philosophies.

Hindu = Prana

Chinese = Qi /Chi

Japanese =Ki

Greek = Pneuma

Hawaiian = Mana

Tibetan Buddhism = Lung

Hindu Philosophy

A Sanskrit word for "life force" or "vital principle" is often referred to as Prana. It is described as first coming down from the Sun and connecting all elements of the Universe. It has been invoked within the Hindu scriptures of the Vedas and Upanishads.

Prana is the belief of vitality surrounding all living beings. This energy is responsible for all bodily functions. There are five types of pranas, collectively known as the five vāyus.

1. Prāṇa:              Beating of the heart and breathing. Prana enters the body through the breath and is sent to every cell through the circulatory system.

2. Apāna:             Elimination of waste products from the body through the lungs and excretory systems.

3.Uḍāna:              Sound production through the vocal apparatus. It represents the conscious energy required to produce the vocal sounds corresponding to the intent.

4. Samāna:          Food digestions, repair or manufacture of new cells and growth, and heat regulations throughout the body.

5. Vyāna:             The energy that is needed for the body to have proper circulation, and the functions for the voluntary muscular system in which there is expansion and contraction processes throughout the body.

Chinese Philosophy

The earliest texts in which Qi or Chi is described was in 'Analects of Confucius' where it could mean "breath" and was combined with the Chinese word for blood.

Xue-qi, "blood and breath."

Living beings are born because of an accumulation of qi, and as the beings live out their lives the qi declines eventually resulting in death. This indicates that xue-qi referred to all living things, but it is believed that qi or chi exists within all things tangible.

For example, the wind is the qi or chi to the Earth, and the cosmic concepts of yin and yang are "the greatest of qi"

Yin and Yang which means "bright-dark," and "positive-negative" are the opposing forces needed in order to complement the concept of balance. There are thoughts that this duality symbolizes contradicting energy forces which manifest as light and dark, fire and water, expansion, and contraction. With this said, Chinese medicine states that the balance of negative and positive forms in the body are believed to be essential for overall satisfactory health.

Japanese Mythology

During the sixth and seventh centuries the Chinese word qi (or chi) was written using the same kanji script for their interpretation for energy being "Ki"

However, the meanings are a tad different.

While the Chinese use chi or qi to describe that energy exists in all things, animate and inanimate objects, the Japanese believe it is the creative flow and expressions used within our daily lives, martial arts, and symbolizes aspects of nature, and thusly the spirits. It is the transfer from living, animate beings in to inanimate which can change and manifest into various forms. It is the necessary intentions one wields.

Greek Mythology

Pneuma, "The breath of life" or "vital spirit" is composed of kinetic energies within the vessel, while Ignis is composed of thermal energies. All human beings need both kinetic and thermal energies in order to properly function.

In Greek medicine, pneuma is the form of circulation throughout the body's vital organs. Due to this the role, pneuma plays within the body to sustain consciousness. Some physiological theories suggest that the pneuma mediates between the heart, and the heart is regarded as the seat of the mind, and the brain.

In similar, Stoic philosophy, pneuma is the active and generative principles that are organized between the individual and the cosmos. The highest forms are the Gods, and the human soul. The human soul is believed to be fragments of the gods given life force in order to be born and given a vessel upon the physical plane. This exists within all animate and inanimate objects as energy transfers and changes.

Hawaiian Mythology

Mana, the spiritual energy of power and strength. This energy exists within places and people; however, it is said that mana is both external and internal concepts.

The Hawaiian people believe that individuals can gain mana or lose it depending on one's actions in everything that they do.

In mythology there were two ways to gain mana, and this was either done sexually or through violence.

To sexually gain mana one must invoke the god, Lono, deity of peace and fertility.

To gain mana through violence one must invoke the god Ku, deity of war and politics.

Tibetan Buddhism

Lung means the wind or breath. Exists as a key concept in Vajrayana traditions. Generally, it's concept relates to the understanding of the subtle body, and Three Vajras. Those three are the body, speech, and mind. Lung relates to the subtle flow of energy and the five elements. (Fire, Water, Earth, Space, and Air) Lung is mostly closely connected to the Air Element.

Lung has also been used to describe the winds or prana being used in conjunction with the subtle body during a time of exercise, but also more importantly everyday functions of the body and its own senses. There are five psychic winds which manifest into mahabhuta. These five relate to the lifeforce that animate the body-mind (namarupa) of all sentient beings.

The Five Root or Major Winds

The root winds support an element and is responsible for a function of the human body.

    The 'life-supporting wind' (Tib. སྲོག་འཛིན་རླུང་, sok dzin lung; Wyl. srog 'dzin rlung). Located in the brain, this lung regulates functions such as swallowing, inhalation, and concentration.

    The 'upward-moving wind' (Tib. གྱེན་རྒྱུ་རླུང་, gyengyu lung; Wyl. gyen rgyu rlung). Located in the chest and thorax, this lung regulates, among other things, speech, the body's energy and vitality, memory, mental endeavour and diligence.

    The 'all-pervading wind' (Tib. ཁྱབ་བྱེད་རླུང་, khyap ché lung; Wyl. khyab byed rlung). Residing in the heart, this lung controls all the motor activities of the body.

    The 'fire-accompanying wind' (Tib. མེ་མཉམ་གནས་རླུང་, me nyam né lung; Wyl. me mnyam gnas rlung). Found in the stomach and abdomen area, the fire-accompanying wind regulates digestion and metabolism.

    The 'downward-clearing wind' (Tib. ཐུར་སེལ་རླུང་, thursel lung; Wyl. thur sel rlung). Located in the rectum, bowels and perineal region, this lung's function is to expel faeces, urine, semen, and menstrual blood. It also regulates uterine contractions during labour.

The Five Branch Winds

The five branch winds enable the senses to operate.

    The naga wind (Tib.ཀླུའི་རླུང་, lu'i lung; Wyl. klu'i rlung). This lung connects with the eyes and sight.

    The tortoise wind (Tib. རུ་སྦལ་གྱི་་རླུང་, rubal gyi lung; Wyl. ru sbal gyi rlung). This wind connects with the heart and the sense of hearing.

    The lizard wind (Tib.རྩངས་པའི་རླུང་, tsangpé lung; Wyl. rtsangs pa'i rlung) associated with the nose and the sense of smell.

    The devadatta wind (Tib.ལྷས་བྱིན་གྱི་རླུང་, lhéjin gyi lung; Wyl. lhas byin gyi rlung) related to the sense of taste.

    The 'king of wealth deities' wind (Tib. ནོར་ལྷ་རྒྱལ་གྱི་རླུང་, nor lha gyal gyi lung; Wyl. nor lha rgyal gyi rlung). This wind connects with the body and the sense of touch.

[growingstories]

Hiding on a Greek island

Eduardo was a successful entrepreneur, running a chain of gyms in the southern part of the country. However, Eduardo had a secret side business involving steroids, which added an element of sketchiness to his otherwise perfect life. Eduardo maintained his physique by working out in his gyms daily, and during the summer, he engaged in various outdoor sports while in winter he indulged in winter sports.

But Eduardo's life took an unexpected turn when his father, a wealthy mafia boss, decided to leave him alone and keep him out of the dangerous mafia business. Despite his father's wishes, Eduardo couldn't help but be drawn to his father's world. Little did he know that fate had something else in store for him.

One day, Eduardo's father warned him to lay low for a couple of weeks, revealing that he was making a tax deal with the government in exchange for some valuable information. He urged Eduardo to hire a bodyguard named Massimo, a former undercover military personnel, to ensure his safety. Following his father's advice, Eduardo hired Massimo to protect him during this uncertain time.

However, things took a dark turn when threatening letters arrived at Eduardo's gyms, warning him that if he didn't pay up, they would come after him instead of his father. A few days later, tragedy struck when his father was killed in a car bombing. Eduardo was devastated by the loss, but he suddenly found himself the main heir to his father's fortune and, reluctantly, the mafia business.

Eduardo made the decision to follow in his father's footsteps but with a twist: he decided to help the government take down criminals instead. As a result, many criminals lost their source of income and were arrested, leaving Eduardo feeling increasingly isolated and vulnerable. The gyms suffered as well, as the steroid trade came to a halt due to fear of police raids.

Eduardo considered hiring more bodyguards to protect himself but Massimo advised against it, warning that it would make his whereabouts known to more people. Instead, Massimo suggested going underground for a few weeks. So Eduardo and Massimo took a private jet and escaped to one of Eduardo's luxurious houses in the south of France.

Life in the French mansion was pleasant, yet monotonous. He would often go for runs with Massimo and enjoy a cup of coffee and a croissant at a small terrace. Despite the tranquility, Eduardo couldn't ignore the fact that his business was suffering, and his gyms were not as profitable due to the halted steroid trade.

As time passed, Eduardo's waistline started to expand, and his jeans became uncomfortably snug. Realizing he needed to make a change, he asked Massimo for a rower to continue his fitness routine. Meanwhile, Massimo took charge of their meals, ordering from local restaurants and ensuring that Eduardo had regular breaks to enjoy delicious food.

However, their peaceful respite didn't last long. Massimo discovered that the manager overseeing Eduardo's real estate was being followed, and in a daring move, he evacuated Eduardo from the French mansion. Unfortunately, during their escape, shots were fired, and Eduardo was wounded in the shoulder and legs. After a month-long hospital stay and a challenging period of rehabilitation, Eduardo was moved to a small Greek island where he owned another property.

On the Greek island, Eduardo's only outside contact was with Stavros, a local fisherman who brought groceries and fresh baked goods to him. Despite their seclusion, Massimo ensured that Eduardo could continue running his business through a secured internet connection. As the months passed, Eduardo's lack of movement, combined with the constant flow of delicious Greek food and pastries, caused his weight to skyrocket.

It wasn't until one Christmas when Eduardo ventured into the village that he encountered Alexios, the attractive son of a local bakery owner. Eduardo was instantly smitten and couldn't bear to be away from Alexios. Massimo facilitated their meetings, ensuring Eduardo's safety, and soon, Alexios became a regular guest at their dinners, often providing decadent desserts.

Eduardo's relationship with Alexios further contributed to his weight gain, as the bakery owner's son constantly showered him with high-calorie treats. Despite the weight gain, Eduardo embraced his new life on the Greek island. He rarely left his house during the summer months, basking in the sun and enjoying his lover's company.

After spending two years in seclusion, Massimo believed it was safe for Eduardo to return to Italy. Although Eduardo had grown accustomed to his isolated life and running his business remotely, he decided to stay on the Greek island, with Alexios joining him.

Not content with idleness, Eduardo proposed a plan to the island's mayor to develop a spa retreat on a prime piece of land. This venture aimed to attract wealthy clientele and infuse a steady stream of income into the local economy. With this project to focus on, Eduardo's life became more fulfilling, and he had a legitimate reason to stay on the island.

And so, Eduardo's life took a different path from what he had imagined. While his waistline had expanded, he had found love and contentment on the tranquil Greek island. His days were now spent attending to his business and enjoying the company and delectable treats provided by Alexios. Despite the challenges he faced, Eduardo had a created new life that truly suited him.

[casuallyimagining]

Doubt || kth.

Kim Taehyung x female!reader

Summary: Taehyung is an eccentric young musician working on a song that he believes will save him. Can it also save the woman he loves?

Genre: Greek Mythology AU, Orpheus AU, Fluff, Angst Word Count: 8,678 Rating: T Warnings: hunger and poverty; manipulation; major character death

Notes: Based on the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. Thanks to @daechwitatamic for beta-ing. Banner by @itaeewon.

It’s so cold out that you can see your breath, a puff of pale steam that quickly disappears into the dull landscape around you. The clouds are starting to lighten, they’re less grey, less dense, and you can tell the sun’s still somewhere up there, at least. But gods, it’s almost mid-May and you can’t remember the last time you’d seen blue sky. Hell, you can’t remember the last time you’d seen the sun.

Growing up, you’d heard stories of the seasons changing on time. Tales of spring coming in late March, bringing rain and flowers and much-needed warmth; that fall would reliably start at the end of September, the land turning to shades of orange and red and yellow. Between that, days got warmer and longer, and then colder and shorter. It was a cycle, and it was predictable, and it was nice, and it was mundane.

That didn’t really happen anymore.

You tug your jacket closer around your body. It’s starting to wear thin and the zipper is broken. You’ll need to find a way to fix it when you get into the next town. There’s no way you’ll be able to afford a new one, but maybe you can trade for some lining and a new zipper. Though that means you’ll have to find something to trade… 

Good-paying jobs are hard to find, especially with the world’s economy in flux the way that it is. Most everyone is more focused on finding food and shelter, and people are much more willing to migrate to find work during the good season if they can. You’d been doing odd-jobs up and down the eastern seaboard for years now, as long as you could take care of yourself. Some cleaning here, accompanying someone to a different town there. You’d even done some childcare near the gulf when you’d been down south. 

Now, you’re following the railroad tracks north.

Eventually, you stumble upon a sleepy town somewhere south of the city you’re trying to get to. There aren’t that many buildings that you can really see, and most of them are still covered in snow. Snow’s piled up along the streets and under the windows–it’s almost touching the sills in some places. None of the buildings look to be taller than three stories. The town is small, but the square in the middle of town is surrounded by lit buildings. You’re freezing. First stop: find a bar or a hotel or an inn.

The bar isn’t hard to find, but it’s dark when you finally push through the door in a swirl of bitter wind and snow flurries. Every head in the bar turns to look as you enter. You slide into a table by the door, a little embarrassed but ultimately just happy to be out of the cold.

“You’re not from around here.” The man who approaches your table is tall and confident, and when he offers you a soft smile, you instantly feel more at ease. He pulls a small pad of paper out of his back pocket and slides into the booth across from you. “I’m Yoongi.”

You tell him your name, and he tells you what’s good on the menu before taking your order. Yoongi leaves you alone with a promise to check on you later to make sure you have a place to stay the night. You allow yourself to relax into the vinyl cushions of the booth, enjoying the atmosphere–significantly less tense now that Yoongi has welcomed you into the establishment–and the warmth of the fireplace across the room.

There’s a house band that sits in the corner playing some jazzy number that reminds you of one of the gulf cities you’d stayed in back when you were passing through the bayous of the south. The pianist is slight, a little too skinny, his dark hair falling into his eyes as he plays. He’s talented, remarkably so, and paired with the saxophone and the upright bass, the music they play is some of the best you’d heard in a very long time.

A plate clattering onto the table in front of you draws your attention from the band. A young man stands in front of you, honeyed eyes wide. He looks to be around your age, his dark hair pushed out of his eyes with a thick cloth headband. He has a kind energy, despite his sharp features, if not a little odd.

“Yoongi said you’re new in town,” he says finally, his voice a little deeper than you were expecting. “Do you have somewhere to stay? Are you going to be here long? You should stay with Yoongi and I.”

You sigh. The man is forward, that’s for sure. You’d been hoping to grab a hot meal here, rest a little, and move on. You’re close to the city–maybe a couple days of walking, less if you can hitch a ride with someone or sneak on the train. But you can tell that this place, and these people, is somewhere you could easily stay in.

You can’t let that happen.

Yoongi appears then, a glass of water in his hands. He places it on the table in front of you, nudging the man out of the way. “Don’t be a pest, Taehyung. Remember what I said about scaring away my customers?”

“Oh, so he’s like this with everyone?” You ask it playfully, but there’s a bit of real questioning in it. You get the sense that maybe this guy–this Taehyung–is a bit of an oddball. Not in a bad way, but you’d like to know what you’re dealing with.

The way Yoongi rolls his eyes tells you that yes, Taehyung is like this with everyone. “He tell you about his song yet?”

You raise your eyebrows. “Oh, he’s a singer.”

Taehyung blushes, a light dusting of pink blossoming across his cheeks. “There’s this contest, and I… The prize is a year’s supply of soup.”

You hum. Any more, money isn’t really a great prize. Bartering is more or less how the economy runs. But soup? Any kind of food in that amount would make someone richer than even the wealthiest city dwellers.

Taehyung is certainly an intriguing fellow.

You can’t say at what point in the night Yoongi slipped away, or when Taehyung slipped into the booth across from you. But you can’t deny that--despite his way too forward introduction--his presence is comfortable.

“What brings you into town?” he asks as you take a bite of your sandwich, watching you expectantly as you chew.

“Job hunting,” you say simply, glancing in the direction of the band as they start to play again.

“What did you do before? Where are you from?”

You shrug. “Bit of everything.”

Taehyung hums and rests his chin in his hand. If he notices that you ignore his second question, he doesn’t mention it. “Hey, maybe Yoongi could give you a job? He’s always saying about needing someone else to wait tables. Apparently I’m ‘unreliable’ and ‘flighty’.” He makes a face, eyes widening almost comically as he wiggles his head.

Then, he sighs dramatically and watches the band for a moment before bursting into a fit of giggles. It’s a little dopey, but it’s endearing how his face scrunches up and he covers his mouth with his hand.

When he calms down, he leans on his hand. “Yoongi really isn’t that bad to work for. He’s just busy is all. He runs the bar, but he’s also station master over at the train station, and he delivers mail sometimes when the post office is short-staffed.”

“That’s… a lot of jobs.”

Taehyung shrugs. “He likes to stay busy.”

Things quiet down, then, and you listen to the band play as you finish your meal. Sometimes, Taehyung speaks, telling you a bit about his life and about the bar, but for the most part, he sits with you in silence. He nods along with the band, and every once in a while, he pulls out a small notebook to jot something down. Even though he isn’t talking as much, he seems happy. You get the sense that he’s just excited you aren’t ignoring him or shooing him away. 

When it’s time for the bar to close, Yoongi comes to collect Taehyung so they can get to work cleaning and closing the establishment.

“Wait for me?” Taehyung whispers to you as you stand from the booth. He tugs the scarf from around his neck and drapes it over yours. The striped fabric is a little thin, but you can feel his body heat radiating off it slightly. “I’ll meet you when we’re done. There’s a park down that way three blocks.” He points east. “It’s just across the street from my apartment. You can wait there if you want.”

He’s gone before you even confirm that you’d wait for him. 

“He’s a good kid,” Yoongi’s voice from behind you makes you jump. “He’s a little naive, but he’s got a big heart.” He holds the door open for you as you leave the bar. He nods at you. “I’ll see you later.”

The night is cold, but nowhere near as bitter as it had been a few nights before. The seasons are starting to change. This year, if you’re lucky, maybe it'll last the correct amount of time. 

You find the park easily, wandering around it for a few minutes before selecting a bench near the center fountain. It’s turned off to prevent the icy spray from getting whipped around in the wind, and you’re grateful. The last thing you need is to be cold and wet.

It’s a surprisingly nice night. The clouds have parted, if only slightly, and you can see stars in the breaks in the gloom. You tug your jacket around your body and wrap Taehyung’s scarf around your neck, closing your eyes and leaning back against the bench. It’s been so long since you’ve gotten to just relax.

You’d started out almost a month ago when the blizzard ended. The town you had been staying in had started to get too small, the people had started to get too friendly. It had all started to chafe at your brain. So you’d left and started walking, catching a ride where you could, always following the train tracks.

You don’t hear the footsteps behind you until a body sliding onto the bench beside you makes you jump.

“Sorry,” Taehyung apologizes, a soft, boxy smile on his lips. “We uh… we finished up early, and you looked so pretty just sitting here. I didn’t want to disturb you.”

It’s not a problem, and you tell him as much, placing a hand on his forearm as he leans sideways against the back of the bench. The flush springs to his cheeks almost immediately, his eyes flashing to where you’re touching him.

“So you’re a singer,” you ask, changing the subject. Taehyung nods sheepishly. “Sing something for me?”

“Oh! I uh… wouldn’t know what to sing.” Taehyung dismisses you with a wave of his hand.

You hum. “Oh come on. You can’t just say you’re working on this song and then not sing.”

He sighs. “I don’t know...”

“At least hum something for me?”

For a moment, he stays silent, and you think he’s going to tell you no again. Which would be fine. You would drop it. You’re curious, and you’re a little stubborn, but you know when to drop something. But when he opens his mouth, he sings.

The tune is beautiful and haunting, despite it being incredibly simple. It’s only a few notes that for the most part move up and down along the scale. You’re mesmerized, and you close your eyes, feeling a warmth spreading through your body. He stops suddenly, and the park grows eerily quiet.

“Taehyung, you’re amazing.”

His smile is brilliant, and he looks beautiful in what little moonlight there is. You don’t know why your stomach is doing flips.

“Oh hey you two,” Yoongi greets, suddenly in front of you. “Ready to go home?”

As it turns out, Taehyung and Yoongi live together. You walk across the street with the two men, pausing in front of a door between the two ground-floor businesses–a bookstore and an empty storefront. 

Yoongi slumps into the sofa, seemingly exhausted, while Taehyung disappears deeper into the apartment. He returns a few minutes later, changed into more comfortable clothes, carrying some blankets and a change of clothes for you, too. 

“You can use these,” he says, handing the bundle to you. Then, he turns to Yoongi. “It would be nice to be able to offer a job, you know…”

“It’s late. We’ll talk more later. It’s past my bedtime, and you kids have to be up early tomorrow. It’s a big day.”

“Wh-” Yoongi waves goodnight, and he’s gone before Taehyung can even finish his sentence.

A few moments pass in silence before Taehyung yawns, stretching his arms above his head. He encourages you to get comfortable and bids you goodnight then, apologizing for not having a proper bed for you to sleep in. His is small, he says, or he’d offer to share. But honestly, the couch doesn’t seem so bad. It looks soft, and it’s better than sleeping on a bench outside. He looks like he wants to leave, but he’s frozen in place.

“Thanks,” you tell him softly. “For everything. You’ve been nothing but kind to me. I appreciate it.”

“Of course.”

“Do you want your scarf back?” You unwind it from around your neck, holding it out slightly for him to take.

“Keep it.” He offers you a shy smile before leaning in and pressing a kiss to your forehead. “Goodnight!” He hurries away, turning off the light as he goes, leaving you standing in the middle of their living room alone and in the dark.

You hadn’t missed the bright blush on his cheeks, or the way your pulse had quickened at his touch.

-----

It’s a beautiful day. You were worried because the past few days, it had been sweltering hot. The kind of oppressive summer heat that saps your energy and makes you want to do nothing but lay in front of a fan all day. But it’s cooled off some, and there’s a nice breeze going. 

You sit on the bank of the river, just close enough to the water where you can feel it lapping at your bare feet, but not close enough to actually get wet. It’s serene sitting there, listening to the birds chirp in the trees and the ducks splashing around in the water. Very different from the seemingly constant chaos that is Yoongi’s bar. Even when it isn’t busy, it’s loud. And while you enjoy the atmosphere, you’re not used to constantly being around that many people. It takes a lot out of you.

Which is why you took the opportunity to come to the river just on the other side of the train tracks to take a break on your day off. Taehyung had followed you, because of course he had. But you don’t mind. You don’t feel the need to entertain him, to constantly be talking with him. You barely have to focus on him. It seems to be enough for him to just exist in each other’s company. It’s nice.

He has his head in your lap, laying perpendicular to you. One of his knees is bent and he has the other one raised and resting against his bent knee, creating a little table for himself as he scribbles in his notebook.

“What are you thinking?” you ask him, reaching down and brushing his hair out of his eyes. It’s grown longer. You wish he would let you give him a haircut.

“Music,” Tae responds simply, his attention flicking to you for the briefest of moments. You can see the playfulness in his eyes, even as he turns his focus back to his notebook. He’s determined to finish that song. “And how I want to marry you.”

He’s been playfully asking you since the second day. At this point, he says it so nonchalantly that you aren’t even phased anymore. You roll your eyes and poke him right in the middle of his forehead.

You brought a book--one of Yoongi’s, he doesn’t mind that you borrow it--and you read while he works, stealing glances at him subtly every once in a while. His concentration face is truly a sight to behold, all focused eyes and set jaw and furrowed brow. Sometimes, he catches you looking and flashes you a confused, boxy grin, which you return. You’re pretty sure he has no idea what he does to you.

“What are you thinking about?” he asks softly. When you look down at him, his full attention is on you, his notebook resting face-down against his chest. He fiddles with his pen.

You hum and lean back against the hill, letting the book fall to the ground gently beside you. “Sing me something?”

So he does. He sits up only to fall to the ground again to lay beside you, his shoulder brushing against yours. He sings of longing, of love lost, and of love yet to be. It’s beautiful and haunting and sad, but there’s a kind of hope in the song, too. When he’s done, he reaches out, hand grasping your own, and the two of you sit in silence for a long while.

Eventually, he shifts beside you and grabs his notebook from where it fell to the ground when he sat up. Smiling, you reach out and brush his hair off his forehead. He glances up at you, eyes sparkling with the reflection of the smile on his lips. His smile is unlike anything you’d ever seen. It’s innocent, and warm, and so unabashedly joyous that it makes you feel like nothing bad can ever happen if he was there.

You’ve never felt like that before.

You’ve been alone for so long--it’s been just you since your parents had passed in your early teens--you barely even recognize how much it sucks. You’ve gotten so used to being alone, you no longer even recognize that you’re lonely. For so long, you’ve forced yourself not to get close to anyone, have focused on taking care of yourself for so long, that you hadn’t even recognized your heart had grown cold. All you’d ever known was how to take care of yourself and get to the next day. And the next one. And the one after that.

You like the warmth he brings you. You like how he makes you feel: as if maybe you don’t have to go it alone. You like that he makes you feel happy.

And you have no idea what to do with that information.

It terrifies you a little. You’ve only known him for a few months, but it feels like you’ve known him for your entire life. 

“What are you thinking about?” Tae’s voice cuts through your thoughts. He reaches over and squeezes your hand, fingers slotting between yours. “You look like you're thinking hard about something.”

You hum. There’s no way you can tell him your exact thoughts, you can barely articulate them to yourself. It’s a lot, and you don’t want to scare him away. You want this--whatever this is--to last. So you sigh, and instead of telling him what you want to, you simply say, “Just thinking.”

“Ah.” He nods sagely. “Big thoughts. I get that.” For a moment, he’s quiet, toying with your fingers in the silence. “Can I tell you something?” All of a sudden, he seems nervous. You can feel the anxious energy practically radiating off him. He can’t seem to look you in the eye. His other hand clutches at his notebook.

“Yeah, of course.”

“I just…” Taehyung swallows hard before taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. “I know I can be a lot. I know I daydream a lot, and I get too into my songs, and I have trouble paying attention sometimes when you tell me things. I know I’m weird. So, I guess, just… thank you for wanting to spend time with me.”

You smile gently, feeling your heart soften even more at his vulnerability. “I like spending time with you, Tae,” you say earnestly. And you do. You’ve never enjoyed someone’s company as much as you enjoy his.

“I really do want to marry you,” he confesses softly, his eyes darting out to the river. “I know that’s dumb, but it’s true.”

Two months ago, you would have dismissed him--you had dismissed him--as just being a man looking for one thing. But now that you know Taehyung, well… things are different. “Let’s get through this winter, then we’ll talk.”

“Really?”

“You would have to promise me things, Tae. We both know how rough the world can be. I need to know you’re willing to weather whatever storms come this way.”

He nods eagerly. “I will. You know I will.”

You wrap your arms around him then and pull him to you, his arms immediately slotting around your waist. He’s warm, and despite the fact that it’s sweltering hot out, you’re certain you could stay wrapped up in his arms until you both turn to dust and scatter to the wind. 

“Tell me you’ll hold me forever. Tell me that things won’t change when the storms get bad. Promise we’ll stay with each other and it will always be like this.”

You feel him nod against you, feel him hold you tighter. “I will. All of it. More. I promise. It’ll always be like this. You and me.”

When you pull away, his dark eyes are warm and inviting, the small smile on his lips inviting, drawing you in until you’re connected. His kiss is soft, tender, and for a moment, he’s frozen, as if his brain short-circuited and he’s trying to reboot. But then he’s kissing you back, slow and measured. You want to memorize what he feels like in this moment, his hair tickling your face in the light breeze, his hands pressed into your lower back. 

His nose brushes against yours as you part. There’s a dusting of pink across his cheeks, and he has the goofiest, most awestruck smile. It makes your stomach do a flip seeing him like that. And in that moment, you know that this adorable man will be the death of you.

-----

You cringe as the door to the apartment slams shut behind you. The wind had kicked up over the past half-hour, and while the door needed some extra force to shut it, you had overestimated just how much extra. Thus, the slam. Normally, Yoongi would have yelled at you, but he’s working double duty at the station because of the storm, making sure that travelers are getting where they want to go in a safe and relatively timely manner.

If Taehyung heard the door slam, he doesn’t seem to care. Though, you doubt that he had heard it at all. Tae had entered a self-imposed sabbatical almost two weeks ago, attempting to finish his song. He seems to have placed an arbitrary deadline on it, and he’s determined to meet that goal.

“How’s it going?” you ask softly, hanging up your coat and scarf on the hook by the door. They were gifts from Yoongi at the start of the winter. Something to help you to survive if you’re going to keep working for him at the bar.

Taehyung doesn’t even look up from his notebook at the sound of your voice. He sits at the small piano in the corner of the living room, brows furrowed, staring at the pages of scribbles he had been working on for the past few days. He’d been in the same place when you’d left for the bar.

You nod, walking into the kitchen and pulling a glass down from the cabinet over the sink. “It’s starting to get bad out there,” you say absently, watching out the window as you fill the glass with water. And it is. You can see the wind blowing snow flurries perpendicular to the ground. Snowing sideways, your mom had called it.

You glance at the cupboards as you walk back into the living room, briefly opening up the refrigerator to check out the situation. “We need food,” you tell Taehyung as you sit the glass of water down beside his piano. “And we’re starting to run low on firewood.” Luckily, Yoongi had stocked the apartment with wood for the fireplace before the storm had gotten too bad, but those supplies are starting to dwindle now that he hardly has time to come home. 

“It’s right there,” he mumbles, and though you suspect he’s talking more to himself than to you, you can’t help but respond.

“What?”

“The melody. It’s right there. It’s like it’s just been… forgotten.” He scribbles something more down into his notebook. “That’s why the seasons are all messed up. But it’s right there, just out of reach. It won’t get better until we remember.”

“Then you’d better finish it quick.” You push his hair back and lean in, placing a delicate kiss to his forehead. He hums briefly and squeezes your hand. “I’m going to run out and get some firewood and maybe swing by the pantry to see if I can get some supplies to hold us over until Yoongi comes back.”

But he’s gone again, his attention back to his notebook and the 88 keys in front of him. You sigh and nod, returning to the hook by the door to grab your coat and scarf. You want to have faith in him. You want to believe he’s right, and that the song he’s working on can fix things.

“Okay, you finish it,” you tell him, knowing full well he isn’t paying attention. “I’ll be back soon.”

And so you step back out into the biting wind and freezing cold. You pull your coat tighter, flipping your collar up to attempt to shield your neck from the snow. The public pantry is further away, so you turn in that direction, going mostly on instinct because it’s nearly impossible to see with all the snow that’s falling. 

You walk for about 20 minutes before stopping. You should have reached the pantry already. But there’s a large open lot beside it. Yoongi said it was an old field for playing sports--an old football field, he had said, and a baseball field beside it. You know the field is to the left of the pantry, so you turn to the right and begin to walk again, the snow getting tougher to trudge through, and the visibility continues to worsen as you go. 

You’re confused. There’s no way you had gotten this far off-track. The town isn’t that difficult to navigate, and you should have come across some building by now, even if it isn’t the communal pantry. Instead, you’re still in the middle of a snow-covered field, the blizzard raging on around you. You turn around in an attempt to follow your steps back in the direction you came.

Unfortunately, your footprints are gone, already covered by the snow.

“You’re resourceful,” a voice behind you says, the howling of the wind calming as if commanded. 

You spin around, coming face to face with a young man. He looks to be Taehyung’s age, maybe slightly older, his dark hair neatly styled and combed back off his forehead. He wears a white collared shirt under a smartly tailored suit jacket and a woollen double-breasted coat, a pair of lined leather gloves on his hands.

“Are you lost, little songbird?” His voice is deep and warm, and you find yourself drawn to him, taking a few steps forward. At your silence, he smirks, and you can see the stars dancing in his eyes as dimples press into his cheeks. “What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?”

“I was trying to get to the pantry,” you manage, taking another step forward. And then another. Until you’re standing directly in front of him.

“You’re going to freeze to death out here.” He pouts, reaching out to rub your arms, creating some friction and heat. His touch isn’t even direct, but you can feel the warmth in him, like he’s made of fire. “You’re going to the pantry? Why?”

“We’re running low on food.”

He hums and nods sagely. “That’s no good. Pretty little songbirds like you don’t deserve to suffer.”

You feel your cheeks heat at his words and pray that if he notices you’re flushed, he assumes it’s from the cold. You have no idea why he’s affecting you like this. Normally, you would walk away by now. But something about this man’s aura draws you in. 

“I’ve seen you around,” he says, adjusting the hat on your head. It’s Taehyung’s beanie. You borrowed it to keep your ears warm. “You have a good head on your shoulders. Smart. Resourceful. You’d do well as a manager. Have you ever thought of working in a factory or a warehouse?”

“No, I… I’ve never really been one to put down roots.” You have no idea why you’re telling him that.

“Shame. I think you’d be good at it. And it’s a good job, you know? Steady income. Guaranteed housing. Meal vouchers provided by the company.”

“Which company?”

“Mine.” He flashes you a wide smile, the corners of his eyes wrinkling. The sight of it warms you from the inside. “Think about it, okay? When you have nothing to lose, you’ll be welcome.” He digs into his pockets and pulls out a slip of paper. “Take the train to the end of the line. I’ll be waiting.”

With that, the snow and wind pick up so harshly you have to shield your face. When it calms down seconds later, you’re standing in front of the public pantry, and the man is gone.

-----

Two days pass, and you can’t get the beautiful man with the captivating aura out of your head. He hadn’t said much, but he was charismatic, and you couldn’t help but hang on his words. He had said you were smart and resourceful. No one had ever complimented you like that before. It threw you off, but you can’t help but admit that it had made your heart soar a little.

It was nice to feel wanted.

Taehyung is still working on his song when you walk into the living room in the morning. It seems like he never moved. He’s always sitting at the piano, staring at his notebook. Sometimes, he’ll move to the couch, but he never leaves the living room, never looks up from his notebook. 

You know his song is important, know he has to finish it to send it off, and truly, you know that when he does, it could save you all, even Yoongi. But at the same time, you have concerns. Things were so different in the summertime. It was supposed to be the two of you: birds of a feather. You were supposed to weather the storms together. 

And yet…

You sigh, looking into the cupboards to try to find something small. You’re starving. The pantry wasn’t able to help nearly as much as you hoped, and it’s hard trying to feed both you and Taehyung on the meagre leftovers in Yoongi’s cabinets. You hoped he would’ve been home by now to help--he always seemed to be able to help find food--but the storm hadn’t let up and he’s still out there making sure mail gets delivered and travelers arrive at their destinations safely.

“We’re going to need food again soon.” You say it loud enough that you know he can hear you, but whether it registers  or not, you have no idea. 

You watch him work, watch as he taps one of the piano keys repeatedly as he thinks, the sharp ‘tink tink tink’ of the note permeating the otherwise silent living room. After a moment, it becomes clear that he didn’t, in fact, heard you, and you feel the annoyance and hurt flare inside you.

You’re angry at yourself most of all. You could have left. You could have gone somewhere else, found a job--a good paying job where the owner wouldn’t forget to pay you because he’s out playing postmaster and barkeep and stationmaster all at the same time--found shelter and food and safety for the winter. But instead, you had followed your heart for once.

And look where that got you.

Your mind drifts once again to the mysterious stranger and his promises. You have no idea if he would keep them, but anything is better than starving to death. You want to stay--it almost physically hurts you to think of leaving--but you can’t ignore the ache in your stomach or the chill in your bones.

“Tae?” you try softly, walking into the living room and stopping in front of the piano. “Taehyung?” Your tone is sharp in an attempt to get his attention. But he doesn’t look up. He simply hums in a brief acknowledgement. “I’m going out.” The words leave your mouth before you even really know what you’re saying. “I don’t know when I’ll be back. Or if.”

He plays another note on the piano.

You turn away, not wanting him to see your heart breaking. As you grab your coat off the hook on the wall, the paper the mysterious stranger had given you flutters to the ground from your pocket. You pick it up and examine it one last time. 

It’s gold, but it doesn’t glitter. The writing on it is neat, if a little smudged, as though placed there by an old-fashioned stamper and inkpad.

No charge. 

One-way.

VIP.

Your fingers tremble as you stuff the ticket back into your pocket. With one last glance at Taehyung scribbling in his notebook, hair falling into his eyes despite his headband, eyes and jaw set in concentration, you’re gone.

-----

The factory floor is quiet. The only sounds come from the machines. You sit at your workstation, your eyes strained from watching the repetitiveness of the assembly line. You tried to talk to some of your coworkers the other day. Or was it yesterday? Last week? You can’t remember. 

It doesn’t matter. None of them answered you, anyway.

Outside, the shift whistle blows, and you stretch your arms above your head, hearing your joints pop and crack from sitting still for the past however many hours. Your shifts always seem to fly, you can hardly remember what you do during them.

However, despite your fast shifts, you aren’t really sure what it is you make. The factory is huge, encompassing at least five huge buildings the lengths of city blocks. The parts you’re responsible for are small, unidentifiable, made out of metal and a bit of plastic. You don’t even know what they are, let alone what they’re used for. But thousands of them pass by you daily as you make sure they sit upright on the conveyor.

You find yourself wandering through the park just outside of your apartment complex. You aren’t quite sure why, but the park always seemed to draw you in. You love the view from the bench in front of the fountain. The way you can see the buildings peeking out over the tops of the trees makes you feel sentimental in the weirdest way, though you can’t quite put your finger on it.

Along the path through the park blooms flowers in the most brilliant shade of red you’ve ever seen. Sometimes, if you look at them too long, you’re overwhelmed by a sense of melancholy, but you have no idea why. You’ve never seen flowers like that in your life. 

There are times where, if you close your eyes, you can almost see yourself somewhere warm and bright. Someone is always at your side. You can never quite make out their face, only how your heart speeds up when they look at you. You’d been in the city for months–you can’t remember how many exactly–and these daydreams don’t look like they happen in the city. Maybe they’re premonitions, or some sort of deja vu.

You hope so. Daydream you always seems so happy.

You’re sitting on your bench in the park after your shift one day when you hear someone speak far off behind you. It makes you jump slightly. You haven’t heard someone speak in… the factory foreman had said something recently, but you hadn’t really paid attention to what he said. So when the voice behind you speaks again and comes closer, you turn to investigate.

The man that approaches you is handsome, if not a little eccentric. His shirt is half-tucked into his pants, and the sweater he’s wearing is too big and very thin. His dark hair bounces as he lightly jogs in your direction. As he gets closer, his smile widens, his dark eyes sparkling with joy. 

He speaks again, baritone voice soft and full of emotion. It’s a name he’s calling. Is that… your name? How does he know your name?

“I can’t believe I found you!” he says excitedly, his hands capturing your own as soon as he’s close enough. “Yoongi said it could take forever, but I’ve only been down here a few days. I… I can’t believe it’s you!”

He pulls you to him then, arms wrapping around your waist tightly. You’re confused, but you find yourself hugging him back. He feels skinny--too skinny--and his face is a little sunken-in and dirty, like he hasn’t eaten in weeks. There’s something about him that’s familiar, but…

“I’m sorry,” you say softly when he pulls away. His eyes dart around your face as he holds you at arm’s length. It’s almost like he’s inspecting you. “I… Do I know you?”

For a moment, his eyes light up and he laughs, a gentle guffaw that pulls at your heartstrings in a way that sets your mind–and pulse–racing. But then, it seems, he realizes you aren’t joking. You watch, unable to do anything as his heart breaks right in front of your eyes.

The way he whispers your name, halfway between a prayer and a plea, convinces you. Even if you don’t know him, he certainly knows you. No one sounds that broken over a complete stranger. 

“Who…”  you try tentatively. There’s no way this won’t be awkward. But you want to know more about him. You’re oddly drawn to him, like you’d known him in some other life. “Who are you?”

“Taehyung.” His voice is barely audible. His fingers twitch, and you get the sense that he wants to pull you in for a hug again and it’s taking a tremendous effort to not.

Why does his name sound so familiar? You’re certain you’ve never seen him before.

“I can’t leave without you.” He sounds determined, confident, like he’d walked halfway through hell to find you. And, well… perhaps he sort of had.

But that’s crazy. You don’t know him.

“Come home with me,” the man–Taehyung–pleads, reaching for your hand. You let him take it.

“I can’t.” For some reason, it makes you sad. You know it in your gut. Even if you do know him, there’s no way you can leave the city. 

“You can, though. I know the way. We just have to go back the way I came down. Yoongi told me about it. I don’t know how he knew, but-”

“You’re not from around here, are you, boy?” You have no idea when the man in front of you appeared. The air smells of ash and sulfur, and all of a sudden, it’s hot.

Immediately, you freeze, and you find yourself squeezing Taehyung’s hand. You haven’t seen the man since you’d signed the contract, but down here, he had a reputation for being no-nonsense. When he’s in a good mood, Namjoon looks harmless. But when he’s angry, he’s downright terrifying. And judging by his set jaw and hard eyes, he’s pretty angry. Beside you, Taehyung stiffens, standing up straighter.

“I don’t know who the hell you are, but the little songbird is a law-abiding citizen. You should go back to where you belong.”

“Taehyung, you should go,” you whisper, dropping his hand and taking a step away.

He turns to you, dark eyes sad when they meet yours. “I’m not leaving without you.”

Namjoon laughs, loud and boisterous and dark. “Who the hell do you think you’re talking to?” he asks, taking a step forward. “Don’t you think she would have left already if she could? She signed on the dotted line. She’s here forever now.”

“What?” Taehyung’s attention darts back and forth between you and Namjoon. “That’s not true. Is it?”

You sigh, avoiding his eyes. “I did what I had to.”

Namjoon’s jaw clenches, and he motions for you to head back into the factory. “Heed my advice, boy. It would be in your best interest to leave. I won’t ask twice.”

A swirl of shadow. The smell of sulfur and ash. And Namjoon is gone.

It takes a few moments, but eventually, the tension leaves your body. Beside you, Taehyung visibly relaxes before he lowers himself to the ground in a defeated huff. For a second, you watch him, unsure of what to do. You still don’t remember him, but he’d come a long way, and for that, you feel bad.

“I’m sorry,” you apologize, voice soft. 

“No, it’s… it’s not your fault.” For the briefest moments, he stares down at his hands, but then he looks at you, dark eyes big and sad. “What happened?”

You shrug, kick at a rock on the ground and watch it skitter across the pavement before you crouch next to him. “I don’t remember,” you admit sadly. “But there’s this contract. I signed it. I… He made such pretty promises.”

You don’t remember what they were, exactly, but you remember the way Namjoon’s eyes glistened as he spoke, the way his dimple pressed into his cheek as he promised you whatever it took to get you here.

Taehyung hums, his head hanging low. “This is my fault.”

Your heart breaks at the sadness in his voice, at how disappointed in himself he sounds. Part of you wants to comfort him, to tell him that no, it’s not his fault. He did his best. This is just a shitty situation and a powerful man chose you to manipulate and deceive. But you don’t. Because you don’t know how true any of that is. 

Something inside of you says that it’s not as true as you’d like.

He grows quiet. All you hear is the factories around you. The next shift has started. You should be in there with them. You wonder if anyone has even noticed that you’re missing. Absently, Taehyung picks at the grass, and something stirs in the back of your mind. A memory, though it feels almost like it belongs to someone else. Taehyung and you laying in the grass on the bank of a river, the sound of a train in the distance.

“Can I show you something?” he asks, and silently, you nod.

He clears his throat and begins to quietly sing. His voice is beautiful, a delicate baritone that nimbly, delicately touches on each note. He’s in full control, eyes closed, hands folded in his lap, a master at work showing you the melody that lives in his mind.

You can’t deny that the song is beautiful, a haunting acapella that moves you the way a psalm might move a priest. You feel it in your heart more than you hear it, his voice so soft that you really aren’t even sure that you’re hearing it properly at all. It wraps you up, gentle cocoon around your broken heart, and you feel it trying to heal what it finds there. You find something swelling within you. Something akin to pride.

You have no idea why you react this way. But you want to. You want to remember.

“That’s beautiful,” you tell Taehyung when he’s finished. And for a second, he looks at you, a hardness in his eyes that you can only describe as determination.

He leans in, lips gently brushing your forehead, before he stands. “Come with me,” he says cryptically, offering you his hand.

You take it without question.

-----

You’re uneasy. The path is dark--you can barely see Taehyung walking in front of you. He’s just far enough that you can’t reach out and touch him, but close enough that you can easily follow behind. But the soft dirt below your feet muffles your steps as you go, so it’s too quiet. Thus, your unease. 

The path is barely wide enough for a person to pass through, and it slopes upward fairly steeply. You have no idea how long you’ve been walking, only that the longer you walk, the lighter you feel. You hadn’t noticed it in the Underworld, but the fog that seems to surround your thoughts and memories parts more and more the closer to the surface you get. By now, you remember almost everything--Yoongi, the bar, your past, everything. 

But most of all, you remember Taehyung. And you remember fully why you left.

You want to call him, to tell him that you forgive him, to tell him that you’re so proud of him for finally finishing his song. But you don’t dare. You refuse to do anything to jeopardize your future. Namjoon has given you one chance. You doubt he’d give you a second.

The stones on either side of the path are damp and oddly shaped, and they’re difficult to use as hand-holds when the path gets too steep. But you hang on anyway because the other option is to stumble and fall flat on your face.

In front of you, Taehyung trudges on. You can tell he isn’t happy about the situation just from the visible tension in his back, but there isn’t anything he can do about it. He walks quickly, but not too quick so as not to lose you. His hands are stuffed in the pockets of his jacket, his broad shoulders set against the chill of the underground path. 

“Go. Before I change my mind,” Namjoon says, turning his back on you.

You have no idea what Taehyung said to change the man’s mind. Maybe it was his persistence. Maybe you caught Namjoon at a good time. Maybe he just liked Tae’s song. A combination of all of the above and more. None of it at all. But you can’t believe what you’re hearing.

“How?” Taehyung asks, his grip on your hand tightening.

Namjoon sighs. “You’ll walk. You know the way well enough to lead, don’t you?” He sounds exhausted. “You lead. She’ll follow. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll keep your eyes on the road ahead. If you don’t, well… maybe it really was her time to go.”

“It’s a trick.” Taehyung sounds angry.

“It’s a trial. One you’ll do well to pass if you want to make it out of here alive.” Namjoon rubs his eyes. “You test my patience. Leave. Or regret it.”

You stumble as the path slopes upwards more steeply, your hand reaching out for the rock. You must have made some sort of noise, because Taehyung pauses. You can see him fighting himself, refusing to turn around.  

“Are you okay?” he calls back. When you don’t answer, he grunts but continues walking. “I hope you’re still back there,” he mumbles. 

That’s the hardest part about this trek. You can hear him talking to himself. Sometimes, he hums his song, and you can hear the soft echoes off the stones in the passage. But mostly, the long stretches of silence are interrupted by Taehyung’s whispers to himself. 

“Only a little further.”

“I hope you’re still back there.”

“Gods, I’m so stupid.”

“Please still be back there.”

Suddenly up ahead, you can see a speck of something bright. It’s only a pin-prick in size, but it grows steadily the more you climb. You find yourself pushing yourself to walk faster, attempting to match Taehyung’s speed as he practically runs up the slope.

And then he stops, and you stop, almost walking straight into his back. The mouth of the cave is just a large hole in the ground, like some gaping maw prepared to swallow someone whole. You recognize the area vaguely as being along the railroad tracks just past the station. 

You breathe deeply. The air is still a little frigid, but it has that smell to it, like it could turn warm at any moment. You try to remember what month it was. March? Maybe April? You had gotten on the train in early September. Has it really been six months?

Before you know it, Taehyung’s arms are around you, catching you mid-step and forcing you to take a step backward. You hold him, allowing yourself to get lost in him for a moment. He’s warm, and he smells like dirt and wood and lavender. 

“I missed you,” he says, pulling you impossibly closer. 

Pulling away slightly, your hands find his face, cupping his jaw tenderly. “I’m sorry,” you say earnestly.

Tae hums, offering you a wide, boxy smile. “You’re safe now.” His hands grip your shirt at your waist. “Plus, I’m the one that should be apologizing. I let you down. I got too focused on my song, I forgot why I was in a hurry to finish it in the first place.”

A tug on your ankle draws your attention, and you try to glance down subtly to see what’s happening. But Taehyung’s grip on you is tight, and he notices you shifting. His eyes fall to your feet, one of which is firmly planted on the frozen ground of the mortal world. Your other foot is still in the soft dirt of the path from the Underworld.

Shadows are already starting to creep up your ankle.

“No,” Taehyung says firmly, trying to tug you forward. “No we made it. That’s not fair.”

You shake your head, your foot not budging. “Apparently not.” The shadows slowly grow, engulfing more of your leg.

Taehyung pulls you to him, then, his arms wrapping tightly around your waist. “I’ll come find you again. I’ll sing my song for Namjoon. He’ll have to let you go.”

You sigh, your hands balling in the fabric of his jacket. “I love you,” you whisper. And you do. You realized it while climbing out of the Underworld. He’s the one who had been in  your daydreams down below, he had been the happiness you had been missing.

He kisses you, then, tenderly but desperately. You let yourself melt into it, one hand finding purchase in his hair. You want to remember him, to commit this moment to your memory so that even when you do inevitably forget him, you’ll remember how he made you feel. The happiness, the joy, the love. Even the frustration. Because of course, that was part of it. You love him so much that you did get frustrated with him. 

Your neck is cold, and you know it’s the shadows, swirling and trying to pull you back down. Taehyung’s eyes are wide when he pulls away, and they glisten in the midday sun. He blinks quickly, and you can tell he’s trying not to cry.

“Wait for me?” he asks softly, brushing your hair back and kissing you lightly on the forehead.

“I always will.”

Taehyung offers you a sad smile just before the shadows overtake you. In a second, he’s standing alone, the smell of ash and sulfur in the air.

[jo-harrington]

Magnificum et Horribillis (Eddie Munson x Reader)

Pairings/Relationships: Older!Eddie Munson/Reader

Warnings/Themes: Angst, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Philosophical Themes, Allusion to Chronic Pain and Depression, Vague Smut, Life and Death as Abstract Themes, Suicidal Ideation, Big Feelings Ahead BEWARE

Note: This started as a poem for @somnambulic-thing but it evolved into fic. Because I kept writing more and of course it did. Will also give a little shout to @deathbecomesthem because they’re always here for my little sad girl writing.

You can find my masterlist here.

Please do not interact if you are not 18+.

Enjoy!

---

There are more bad days than good.

You are more bad than good.

A nidus of wicked thoughts and words and feelings that wrack through you, body and soul.

Pain.

Some ancient angel or large primordial bird put you together one brittle, misshapen twig at a time until, from the abstract, came you. And since then, you were a bitter pill that seemed to poison and infect those around you. It could have been the end for you time and again but the void spat you out, unable to stomach you.

Even Satan rejected you.

Or so it seemed.

The thoughts always weighed heavily on your mind, inescapable. But that's why you were where you were, staring somewhat unseeingly at the person across from you.

A stranger in a waiting room, fiddling with new patient paperwork.

“Edward?” The receptionist called.

“Eddie,” he insisted as he turned toward the little window. “It’s Eddie.”

"I forgot to give you Dr. Bishop's questionnaire."

He’d shot you a tight-lipped smile as he’d stood and you let it bounce off of you, not out of disinterest but from too-slow reflexes. Everything about you was too slow, layered in sludge, and corrupt. You blinked and watched him then, from your perch, waiting for your own name to be called. Watched the heavy way he carried himself. Legs slightly weak, whether his muscles couldn’t support his body or his troubles...you couldn’t be sure.

Possibly both.

Beautiful and broken.

You recognized that in him.

Beautiful because he was broken.

Just like you.

Dr. Crane opened the door and called your name now. You offered Eddie a similar smile as you walked past him.

Offer him a silent kindness.

You didn't know it yet, but this was the reason you were turned away from the gates of hell.

A second chance. For both of you.

It would be alright.

---

You held your hands out over the sticky table beside his. Comparing them. Size, shape, rings, and shakiness.

Yours worse because of your nerves, his because of his pills. Somehow he still can keep his still enough for his job at the sign shop. And you when you’re typing reports or writing up notes during meetings.

“It’s because they have a purpose,” he said sagely. “When we’re doing things they have a purpose so they know they can’t shake.”

“When did you get to be so smart?” You tease.

“Shut up.”

The waitress comes with your lunches and your hands try to retreat to your side of the booth but Eddie grabs one of them and runs his thumb over your knuckles as the plates get dropped and drinks refilled.

She comes with one more dish and begins the pomp and circumstance. You shoot a glare across the table at him; he always had to have some kind of spectacle about him, even now that he was, as he proclaimed, older and “mellowed out.”

You could only imagine how he was as a kid or in high school.

“I ordered flaming saganaki while you were in the bathroom,” he explained.

“I hate you.”

“You know you’ll have some.”

And you did.

These were special times. Cherished times between the two of you, where the dread of the world couldn’t reach you through the buffer of forks clacking on plates and ambient noise of people talking around you at other tables.

Late nights with Eddie at the Greek diner; holier than church.

“You know,” he said tentatively between mouthfuls of food. “You don’t have to have a purpose.”

“No?”

“I thought so for a while after…” he trailed off and you shifted in your seat.

“You don’t need to talk about it.” You told him. “We agreed that we were starting fresh. Together.”

“Yeah but I know how you are in there,” he grinned and tapped the side of his head. “Thinking of how you can be more purposeful, so maybe you’ll forget everything going on. I thought that way too, after everything. Keep busy. Play the guitar. Make the effort to see my friends. Otherwise they’d forget me. And all it did was…make me tired. Did too much, burned myself out.

“To rest is sometimes the greatest purpose you can have.”

Eddie shot a pointed look across the table.

“Ok,” you nodded. He was right. You had been thinking that. Fleetingly.

His brow got tighter.

“What? I said ok?!” You held your hands out. It was more than a fleeting thought. He grabbed fries off your plate and shoveled them into his mouth to distract from the awkward moment.

But he got his point across.

He knew you too well. Even after a few weeks. Two sides of the same coin.

Was it too early to say you loved him?

---

You’re so strong.

It echoes in your head as you lay there, too tired to scream and cry anymore, too much feeling, too much emotion.

You are simply too much for your body.

It was a bad day.

You told that to your mom on the phone and she came over anyway. "You're stronger than anyone realizes, even you." What a slap in the face. You didn’t need to be strong. You needed to be left alone to rot here for a little while. Broken body, broken mind, broken soul.

She didn't understand that, she never did.

And so you screamed it at her.

The culmination of how she could fix your life, you just needed to listen to her, when she refused to listen to you. You had always been this abstract concept. A doll for her to dress up and play pretend with, not a human.

Years of pain you didn't mean to reflect back at her, but you did anyway.

Because you were weak.

Because it was a bad day.

"Something's gotta change," she shook her head as she stormed out. "There's something seriously wrong with you."

You knew that.

But it still hurt.

And then she called Eddie.

"She's just worried about you," he laid down next to you.

"Can she stop?" you asked. "Her obligation to me is over. She's not a mother anymore. She's been released from her sentence."

"Wayne--"

"I don't want to hear about Wayne," you wrenched your eyes shut, squeezed them shut, because you could feel the poison building in you again and you knew that you couldn't control it if the beast deep inside you wanted to attack. You couldn't do that to him. "Wayne is great. And even if he wasn't, it's not the same. So please..."

"I just..."

You turn and stare at him with wide, pleading eyes.

"Please Eddie."

He's never seen you like this; you wanted to hide this part of yourself from him. You wouldn't blame him if he ran away.

And as your body gave up on you again, you expected the bed to shift and the door to squeak open and slam shut.

But it never did.

"Alright," he whispered and shifted closer. Not touching. Just...closer. The heat of him brushing the length of your body. Enough for now. "I get it."

---

If the diner was holy, this was a place of insurmountable divinity.

Whispered words floating over skin and evaporating.

An orgasm secondary to a confession.

The closeness to one another, in body and in spirit, meant more than anything.

“I thought it was going to be over,” he muttered against your cheek. “I wanted it to be over. Finger on the trigger. A friend stopped me. And I hated him for it.”

You’re silent as he uses you, just as you’ve used him a hundred times. You open your mouths and swallow one another’s sorrows. It’s your own form of soothing and healing. Like licking a wound.

A doctor, a therapist, a friend could only hear so much. This was an act of consuming…becoming…

Was it healthy? Probably not.

But neither of you were.

“I’m exactly what they said I am.”

You feel his tears now. Or yours. They’re one in the same here. You are one in the same. Magnificent and horrible, the two of you.

“I’m nothing. I’m a freak. I’m a monster.”

“You’re my monster,” you whisper.

He spilled himself inside of you and all of his sorrow, expelled, warmed you from within.

---

You stared at the casket.

There was no hole in your chest.

No pain, no fear, no anger, no sorrow.

No numbness either.

Simply peace.

Death was peaceful. An old friend. Even if He wasn’t here for you this time.

You and Eddie had joked, the many times when you dragged him and the single time he dragged you to funerals like these, how yours would be.

Everyone mourned in their own way. You both liked to laugh.

“I want the full weekend at Bernie’s treatment,” he whispered conspiratorially. “Call my friends Gareth and Jeff and have them walk me around the room.”

“I want,” you upped the ante then, “you to make a life accurate paper mache model of me for the casket and halfway through the memorial, you beat me with a stick.”

“Can I put candy inside? Like a piñata?”

“You see the vision,” you kissed him proudly, happy that you found someone who found humor in your twisted ideas.

And you both liked to be unapologetically yourselves.

“You know those songs?” He started.

“The ones you think I don’t know about?” You rested your head on his shoulder. “Yeah.”

“Don’t throw em out or anything if I ever…” he shrugged. “Yeah. Make copies of them at the library or something.”

“Maybe I’ll get them published, like poems. The Unfinished Works of Edward J. Munson.”

“Like Mozarts Requiem.”

“So you do listen to my tapes.”

“When you aren’t home and I need to clear the ol’ nog, yeah.”

“Knew it,” you grinned triumphantly. There was a beat.

You wanted to ask him to look through your pictures, to remember you for who you were and not some idealized perfect thing like other people spoke of in a eulogy. You wanted him to remember you for the raw and wild thing that fought and spat and hissed and also loved and loved.

But you didn’t need to say it, because you knew he would.

You saw each other. Honored each other. The good and bad. The beautiful, broken, and incomplete.

He would make sure, if the time came, the world would know exactly who you were. Because he knew.

You took his shaky hand in yours and squeezed.

“You ok?” Eddie asked and pecked a kiss onto your head as you watched the casket be lowered into the ground.

“Yeah,” you smiled.

It was a good day.