#seriously i have heard so many people say the reason why housing is so bad

[awkward-teabag]

So tired of everything being derailed by racists.

Want to talk about jobs? Blame immigrants.

Want to talk about the state of housing? Blame immigrants.

Want to talk about post-secondary education? Blame immigrants.

Want to talk about healthcare? Blame immigrants.

Want to talk about the state of the economy in general? Blame immigrants.

And it's never about the systems in place that lead to immigration or the how companies exploit young workers from elsewhere in the world (by taking advantage of their inexperience, their lack of support network, taking their money, and so on), it's all about how those dastardly non-whites are trying to screw honest Canadians out of everything by taking advantage of us, and they're personally going after you.

You can be talking about something and even be open to talking about the complex issue that is immigration but it immediately gets taken over by THEY TOOK OUR JERBS! assholes.

It's at the point where as soon as immigrants/immigration comes up, I peace out unless I know the person and can expect them to have a point beyond bigotry and fascism.

Because it's never about our systems, decade(s) of neglect, neoliberalism or conservatism, or anything like that, it's about how selfish, rich, and anti-white brown kids are and things would be perfectly fine if not for them.

[kenposting]

New Guy Part 2! Ah!!!

Summary: Ken invites you over for dinner at his house - something you were greatly looking forward to! Until you noticed something was on his mind.

WC: 4.2k

AN: literally so many people asked me to write more and i just wanted to cry wtf .......... i just feel so silly like i just like him!!! and u guys like him too gosh i luv u guys!!!!!! wtf!!!

Read Part 1 here: New Guy

𓈒⠀𓂃⠀⠀˖⠀⋆˚✿˖°⠀˖⠀⠀𓂃⠀𓈒

Ken was off today and you really, really missed him. For some reason. He brought a sort of light to the diner that was just not there before he arrived. Sure, he made zero fucking sense 90% of the time, but he didn’t take himself too seriously, and that was incredibly refreshing. 

The girls you worked with snickered behind him often, though, and you did pick up on his face whenever he saw them laugh at a question he had or an encouraging comment he’d make. He really was trying his best, but it seemed no one took that into consideration. 

Perhaps that’s why he asked you to come over after your shift today. You never laughed at him, you always answered his questions no matter how simple they were, and you actually spoke to him like you respected him. Because you do! 

It was an odd feeling to keep looking up at the clock. You didn’t have class since it was now Summertime (and neither did he, as important as studying Beach was to him) and, upon realizing Summer meant a break from college, he very hurriedly asked if that meant he could “take you out sometime – but, you know, only if you wanted to, I mean, I don’t want to make you feel pressured or anything…” 

He was so cute for whatever reason and you found yourself unable to let that go – it’s like he wasn’t real; like he hadn’t been tainted by the rest of the world. He cried – literally cried – the last time you were late for a shift because he thought something bad had happened to you. You promised you’d make it up to him however he wanted and all he could think of was asking you to teach him how to ride a bike. You didn’t know why he was like… that… and you didn’t worry yourself trying to figure it out. 

The directions he gave you to his apartment were drawn in crayon on the back of a paper placemat from work. He made sure to include a tiny house and tiny diner and lots of arrows. He knew the way well, too; as if he had recited it to himself lots of times. Maybe he was scared to forget where he lived. Now that you thought about it, he never drove, only ever walked, and he did say he was new to town when you met him a few months back. 

His house was tiny and sweet, only six short blocks from where the two of you worked. You could tell he took great care tending to it, even just by observing the front yard. It was blocked off by a metal gate and seemed to be an older home, simple and freshly painted eggshell white. He had planted flowers around the outside beside the front step before the small patch of grass began. 

You couldn’t see it, obviously, but he had been pacing around inside for half an hour, nervous about seeing you. And you seeing him. Did he look okay? Was his house okay? He was just beside himself, which didn’t go away at all when he heard a gentle knock at the door.

“Hey, Ken!” 

He stood meekly in front of you as you opened the door, nervously folding and wringing his hands together, scared to do or say something that would make a bad impression. He was nearly hiding behind the door. This was silly since you worked with him almost every day (and hung out with him almost every evening). You noticed a shift over the last few weeks – like his bubbly demeanor had subsided a little. It was probably your coworkers getting to him. 

“Thanks for having me over. I like it so far!” 

He smiled sheepishly and looked at the ground, a blush arising on his cheeks as he seemed to regain a little bit of himself at your presence. 

“Thanks! I’ll show you the rest of my mo–” 

He stopped himself, brows furrowed, like he was going to say something out of habit, but remembered something and decided against it.

“My house, but it will probably only take, like, five seconds. It’s pretty small.” 

He stepped aside, holding the door open for you (something ‘gentlemanly’ he had learned from observing other couples at the diner – he was proud he noticed this). You saw his hands shaking, but you appreciated the confident gesture anyways. 

You stepped in beside him as he closed the door behind you, taking in the scenery. His house was… definitely… something. 

“My friend Gloria helped me find it and even paid for the deposit so I could live here and work! I paid her back, of course.” 

He was confident in his home, it came across in his tone of voice. He had surely made it his own. It was loud as hell. The walls were a bright pink color, but somehow it kind of worked. 

“They helped me paint it too! Gloria and her groom-husband and their daughter.” 

Brushing past his bizarre choice of words (but what’s new, it’s Ken), you surprisingly felt relief within yourself at hearing she was married. You hadn’t realized you were holding your breath on that one. 

Your eyes glanced around the place, taking in all of the little things that were so… him. It was like a frat house, but way nicer; cozier. He had shelving all around with little trinkets carefully placed everywhere, some of horses, some of small glass fish, and even some of tiny people. He had put so much thought into these scenes of humans just having fun, one shelf showing a scene of a bunch of friends playing beach volleyball and another showing guys in all black posed in various dance positions playing rock-paper-scissors. 

“Ken, this is so sweet. Did you make all this yourself?” 

He looked aside and blushed, shrugging off the compliment. 

The adjacent wall had framed photos of people dressed in what you assumed to be Halloween costumes. A scene of a fierce man in a gold tracksuit posed next to a blonde girl with a sparkly dress on, the framed photo sitting proudly next to a shot of a group of girls (and one boy) in a mock supreme court dressed in all pink jumpsuits. 

He opened his mouth to tell you about the people in the picture, but you watched as he teared up just thinking about them. It must’ve been a sensitive subject, so you thought it better to not ask. 

Above his (ridiculously messy) desk were tacked drawings on the wall. Crayon drawings. You saw him making them on his breaks. There were little doodles of horses, and some of people having fun at the beach, but mainly horses. You sensed a theme. 

“This section is for all the things people gave me when I came to the real world.” 

His voice was trembling a bit, like he missed them very dearly. Ignoring the ‘real world’ thing, you looked where he was gesturing to see a whole lot of unique and incredibly thoughtful gifts. A tiny disco ball, a small pink model car, a gag book called “Backflips for Dummies” where ‘dummies’ had been crossed out with marker and replaced with a handwritten ‘Ken’, a baby blue record player with matching pink headphones, a seashell, a tiny model campfire, a collection of various headbands, a pink first aid kit – it was just endless. He was clearly so very loved by these people. 

“And all of my furniture was made for me by carpenter Barbie!” 

The Barbie thing was ever-present in his descriptions of home. It didn’t bother you, really, but it was just… getting old. You knew it was just some bit, assuming he was calling his ex-girlfriends Barbies since his name was Ken. A classic joke, sure, but he had beaten it to death at this point. 

“Jeez, Ken, how many girls have you dated?” 

You were careful to come off playfully, never wanting to risk hurting his feelings. You got it, really. He was so sweet and charming, but it felt weird to hear about Carpenter Barbie and Lawyer Barbie – even Stereotypical Barbie. It wasn’t like him at all. His entire personality glowed with respect for everyone he's ever met, so why was he reducing his past loves to just their job title? 

“Oh… No, I haven’t ever… dated anyone before. Their names really were all Barbie, their careers were just how we’d all tell the difference when we were talking about them. I know things are different here. Even you – you’re not named Barbie.” 

You blinked at him. He knew you didn’t believe him, and it showed on his face, like he wanted so badly to just take your hand and introduce you to everyone. His genuineness was hard to pass over, but seriously? All of them were named Barbie? It didn’t make sense. And you supposed it didn’t have to. What did it matter – he lived here now, didn’t he?  

“It’s okay, Ken. Maybe I can meet them one day.” 

His ears pricked at that, stuffing that idea aside for later. It was Summertime, after all. Doesn’t everyone go on vacation for Summer? 

“Mmhm, I can take you!”

It was like he was trying not to fist-pump. He was always so animated. It was one of the very first things you noticed about him. “Anyways… I made dinner. I figured you’d be hungry after working so hard.” 

He stepped into his (tiny) dining area and for the first time, you got a good look at him. His house was kind of a lot – so much so that it had sort of overshadowed him, but as he stood there, the golden evening light from the window washing over him, you wondered how it had taken you so long to notice. 

He stood tall in the archway, wearing a gray pullover sweater, one you’d get at a university (but it had the Barbie logo embroidered on it). Light jeans were cuffed enough to show off his socks. He had swapped the usual white crew-style for patterned ones with little jellyfish all over them. His face was glowing in front of you and you felt yourself just wanting to leap towards him. He looked so cozy and soft and kind and handsome and – 

“I’m not sure what you like with it so I just kind of made everything…” 

You looked over his shoulder to see a rather extensive display of food. Still simple, though, nothing too extravagant, but it was clear he had put a lot of thought into everything. 

Most of his dishes were plastic (and heart-shaped) but you found that rather charming. He had made the same lunch your mom had made growing up, the one you had told him about just days before when he asked you what you’d be doing right now if you could be anywhere in the world. 

“Probably back home, but I’ve got rent to pay so I can’t travel for the Summer if it's longer than a day trip.” 

You remembered him looking so sad, like he was going to cry. The two of you were taking your lunch breaks together, as you did most days. You snacked while he drew horses with crayons on a napkin. He said he wasn’t hungry and that his head was hurting (probably because of the alcohol he’d ordered for the first time on your study date the night before). His cheek was squished, resting on his fist as he scribbled away, very focused. 

“What would you do at home?” 

“Have lunch with my mom at the kitchen table, soup and sandwiches. All the best things always happen at the kitchen table.” 

His face furrowed and scrunched as he put his whole heart into his drawing. His tongue even poked out a few times before he proudly showed it off to you. 

“My art teacher wants to put these in the gallery this weekend! She told me that my drawings perfectly capture the nostalgia of childhood, but I don’t know what those words mean.” 

You looked at him now, standing in front of you in his tiny little house, having prepared all of this just for you, remembering and holding on to everything you had passively told him. It was nearly maddening how kind he was – like you were just waiting for the other shoe to drop at any moment. There had to be a catch. There was no way this guy was real. 

He pulled a (baby blue) chair out, allowing you to sit first. You thanked him for putting all this work in, but he shrugged it off like it was nothing. It was like he was created just to serve the people around him. Even the girls at work that were mean to him – he’d pick up their shifts the second they didn’t feel like coming in and he spoke so highly of them, noting how they’d helped him to get the hang of his job. If only you could figure out this whole Barbie real-world thing, maybe you’d understand him a little better, but right now it all just seemed a little ridiculous – both the stories of his hometown and his chivalrous behavior. There was no way he was real. You’d pinch yourself to see if you’re dreaming, but that didn’t work the last twenty times, so really there’s no point. 

Seriously, though. What was his deal? You liked him so much – it just snuck up on you. You weren’t looking to be with anyone but you just couldn’t figure him out, and maybe you didn’t want to. Every guy you’d known had some bizarre at the least or toxic at the worst trait that came up eventually and you so desperately wanted him to be different. Now was as good a time as any to get it over with, rip the bandaid off, and be free of this false hope. 

“Hey, Ken…” 

“Hmm?” 

His mouth was full but he looked up at you immediately with a great intensity, like he was so concerned to make sure you were alright. His eyelashes fluttered as he blinked at you, waiting (literally) on the edge of his seat. The seats were too small for him. He kind of towered over most of the things in his house, actually. It was like this was a little dollhouse and he had barely begun to outgrow it. 

“What’s with all of the Barbie and Ken stuff?” 

He just looked at you, confused at your question. 

You sighed. 

“I mean, you always say Barbies and Kens instead of just saying women and men. And you always talk about how this… place, this world, is different from your own. I really like you and I’m really trying to understand it but I just don’t get it.” 

He blinked at you, brows furrowing as he nearly choked on his food and tried to gather some sort of answer that wouldn’t further confuse you. 

“You… you like me?” 

You realized what you had said just moments before. It came as a shock to the both of you. You did like him. You liked him so much it was starting to annoy you, actually. 

You nodded, frustrated, like you were searching for some sort of explanation that wouldn’t further confuse him. 

“I do, I like you a lot. I think about you all the time, you’re so silly I just love being around you, you’re ridiculously handsome it’s actually absurd, you’re so good at your job and so kind and you try so hard in school, I love your drawings, I love eating lunch with you, I just love… you. All of you” 

You watched as his lip quivered. He had been trying to hold it in all evening but he just couldn't anymore. 

“You like me?!” 

He bit down on the inside of his lip to stop the shaking. 

“I like you! And I’ve been wanting to tell you for so long but I’ve just never felt this way and… And I just feel like I never know what I’m doing. This place is so different than back home and I always want to take some initiative to show you how I feel but I’m just scared I’m going to bother you and that didn’t work back home and it’s so weird having my own house and–” 

He sighed, looking up at you. 

“This world – this place is so hard to live in.” 

You watched the look on his face. It’s the same face he makes when things get a little too overwhelming. You had seen it before, most recently after he walked right in to a sliding glass door, despreately trying to convince you that they just don’t have those where he’s from. Some things like that are just hard for him. 

You nodded, placing a hand on his. 

“This place is hard to live in. I’ve felt that way my whole life. Like I don’t really fit anywhere and everyone around me knows what they’re doing except me.” 

He nodded so desperately, like you were the first person to ever really understand him. 

“But… Ken, if this place is so hard to live in, why did you come here? And why did you stay?” 

“I came here to figure out why I did what I did.” 

There it was. He answered so quickly, like he had been waiting to tell you this since he met you. You knew it was coming sooner or later. There was no way he was as kind as he seemed, and he was about to tell you about some insane or horrible or creepy or despiciable thing he did to some poor girl before skipping town to ‘find himself’. You’d heard it all before. 

“I really liked this girl back home and she didn’t feel the same way. Not even like she didn’t like me, she just… it was like I was a bother to her, and I was. I waited for her to show up everywhere I’d go and I just wanted her to like me too, but not even romantically. Just like me, as a person, respect me, acknowledge me, validate me, reject me even. She didn’t even do that, she just…” 

He took a deep breath, steadying himself. Your jaw tightened, waiting to hear him say something he couldn’t ever take back. 

“Anyways… I didn’t mind that she didn’t like me, truly. I just hadn’t ever really thought about it before. Like we were meant to be together, but not in a good way – like it was planned and I couldn’t escape it. It was Barbie and Ken, there was no Just Ken.” 

Again, as bizarre as this whole Barbie and Ken thing was, his tone of voice was incredibly convincing. 

“But there is just Ken. I am Ken – and that’s it, that's good, but I didn’t know what that meant or who I was without spending my days just pining for her. After all that she came here to the real world and I wanted to as well. I didn’t come for her, I came for me. And I stayed for you.” 

He was crying now, tears slowly falling from his eyes, like he had been waiting for ages to find the words to explain all of this. 

“I mean… I came here to study. The first time I visited I learned about Patriarchy–” 

“The patriarchy.” 

“Right, the patriarchy, and I felt respected and seen, but I didn’t really get it. I tried to figure it out, I really did, but I couldn’t even do beach here and I kept getting arrested and I just... I just felt worse and worse so I…” 

His lower lip was really shaking now, like he had done something unforgivable. 

“I came home without Barbie and I let her get kidnapped by Mattel and I told all the Kens about what I saw and… and–” 

He was holding back actual sobs. 

“And I turned her dream house into a mojo dojo casa house for Kens only and I made Barbieland into Kendom Land Land of the Men and I made her listen to me play the guitar for, like, ever and ever and I just feel so bad about it all.” 

He took a shaky breath in, still clearly upset about everything. 

“But she was so nice to me about it when we finally talked. And then she came here, so I did too. I signed up for school so I could figure out why I did that and how to help other people realize what they’re feeling before they do something like that too. I know it was wrong and really mean, but I can also see that I was sad and I just liked her and I felt invisible and I didn’t even have a house.” 

He didn’t even have a house? 

“But now I do have a house! And I love learning about Beach and horses but what I really want is to do everything I can to help other people understand why this system doesn’t work, no matter who’s in charge. It didn’t work in Barbieland and it surely doesn’t work here either. It’s all ridiculous and it benefits no one, including those in power. It’s not fair, to guys or girls, to you, even. You can’t even go home during Summer because they barely pay you as much as they pay me just because you’re a girl, and I just started! You trained me! It’s absurd!” 

None of this was making any sense logically, but emotionally, all of it tracked. You felt the same way. You came here to understand the unhealthy behaviors in yourself and to try to help fix the system any way you could. 

“I love my house so much. I’m doing everything I can to figure out how I did something so crazy to all of the Barbies, but I won’t let it make me cynical or cold or mean anymore. I love being alive and even though people make fun of me for crying or blushing too much or asking stupid questions, I love being alive. I know it’s silly, but I love it, I love all of it. Every time you compliment me or help me with something or show me something new I just feel like I’m gonna explode. I don’t understand it, but I never even felt this way about Barbie – I don’t even know if I liked her, really, I think I was just programmed to act like it. I love seeing the older people that come in to work, they love each other so much and I just… I want that. That’s real and I want something real. I want more than a long-term long-distance low-commitment casual girlfriend bride-wife – I want what I see every day here. Like my friend Gloria and her groom-husband and everyone we see at work and at school. You know how people come into the diner every day – literally every day! – just to eat together? And hold hands? And look at each other for so long and just talk and laugh? I have no idea what that’s like, but I want to know so bad. I want to have that. And I want you to have that – even if it’s not with me! Even if you don’t feel the same way, you deserve a good groom-husband more than anyone I’ve ever met, it's absurd that no one is taking care of you!” 

He sighed, closing his eyes. 

“Sorry, what I’m, trying to say is, I just… I don’t understand it but all I want to do is spend time with you. I tried to ask some people at school what to do about... this feeling but their answers were so mean, like you were an object I was entitled to just take for myself. I tried to ask our coworkers but they told me you wouldn’t like me anyways and I believed them. I just… I don’t want to be... patriarchal about it and I have no idea what I’m doing.” 

A quiet fell over the place. You watched as little dust bunnies glittered around him. He had soup on his shirt. 

“Ken, I… I don’t know what to say.” 

You smiled, letting out a gentle laugh. He laughed too. You had been holding your breath at everything he was saying, a blush creeping over your ears. He was blushing too, mostly at himself for going off a little, but also at you. He could stare at you for hours. Most days he’s telling himself not to, straining his eyes away from you at work. His heart just ached when you spoke so kindly to customers or your coworkers or him. Gosh, when you spoke to him. He just melted every time, turning away from you as quickly as possible so you wouldn’t see him fall apart, just bashful. 

“I think you know exactly what you’re doing. And you’re damn good at it, too. If you’d asked me I’d say you’re the most experienced human I know.” 

Relief was painted on his face, a sense of calm falling over the two of you like a gentle, quiet snowfall. You really were the only one that understood him, but moreover, he was the only one that understood you. 

“I don’t know what I’m doing either, Ken. I don’t think anyone does. Everyone is just pretending, I promise. I watch the way those same couples spend their days just… existing together. It’s like they don’t have a care in the world when they’re next to each other and I feel that way when I’m with you. I also don’t know what I’m doing, but I can learn. We can learn. We can figure it out. And I don’t really understand the Barbies or Kens or Real World stuff you’re talking about most days, but that doesn’t mean you can’t show me.” 

He looked so simple, sat right in front of you, and you watched as he smiled – like all of a sudden he wasn’t so confused anymore. 

“Do you know how to roller-blade?” 

𓈒⠀𓂃⠀⠀˖⠀⋆˚✿˖°⠀˖⠀⠀𓂃⠀𓈒

[theindependenttrentcrimm]

I want to talk about ace Eddie so I’m going to talk about ace Eddie! this episode was absolutely delicious and I know many many people will tell me that I’m reading too much into this and it is simply what the show said: his catholic guilt. Which is compelling enough already but stick with me.

ace Eddie is so so near and dear to my heart and I enjoy analyzing his arcs and his relationships through that lens. The fact that ABC allows characters to have these candid conversations is !!!

this episode in particular is delicious in terms of ace Eddie (I’m sorry, I’m not wording this wonderfully, it’s been a very bad pain day). He initially says to Buck:

“I got here early to avoid not having sex” and yes, the reason he gives is his catholic guilt. But I also just want to pay attention to the way he was speaking about it after revealing to Buck that he was avoiding being home. He was purposefully using vague, almost immature (in the sense of the way younger people take about sex) language and justifying himself by saying that Christopher was away, so they had time to themselves so naturally… it felt very much like this was how he was supposed to be feeling and what he was supposed to doing because his son was away because they had free time, the natural conclusion to him was that they would have sex.

he also says “Marisol likes to have it in the morning” which, granted, could simply indicate that he prefers it at other times but if we look at it through the perspective of ace!Eddie indicates that they have sex when Marisol wants to rather than when Eddie wants to (if he ever broaches the subject at all). This also lines up with the way he spoke about having sex with Shannon which primarily centered around her desires and his ability to fulfill them rather than his own wants and needs. The discussion with Bobby only further solidified this. He suggests that this is simply Eddie’s reaction to moving too quickly, indicating that there was very little that he had heard about Marisol prior to her moving in. Now, and again I recognize I may be reading too much into it, but for me the way they framed Marisol moving in by opening with them having sex, it reinforces this idea that for Eddie, sex is easy and expected and there’s a natural progression of a relationship that he’s meant to follow (mentioned in his conversation with Bobby). He’s meant to have sex, enjoy sex, ask a girl to move in with him etc.

at any point in time, he could have texted Marisol or gone back to the house and simply told her that he didn’t want to have sex with her just then. If he was seriously concerned that she would be upset or ignore him, that’s a different issue entirely. However, he has so much anxiety over sex and his own role as a man in a relationship that he ignores this idea altogether. He would rather avoid her all day than face the idea of coming home and not being able to provide sex. Sex that he doesn’t even necessarily want. I also think that’s why it’s so important to his character that his restarting with Marisol wasn’t predicated on a sexual encounter but rather on his own terms. It’s the first time that we’ve seen him take the time to say ‘maybe this isn’t necessarily something I’m ready for.’ And it’s WONDERFUL to see that.

Eddie’s relationships and his relationship to sex specifically is something that is incredibly fascinating to me because it screams amatanormativity and over compensating for something you’ve been told you should want and provide. Noted, I don’t necessarily like Eddie and Marisol and I certainly don’t like Marisol’s actress (I truly hope she leaves the series soon). However, I do like what this relationship is teaching Eddie about himself. I like that he’s slowing down and taking the time to think about what he wants rather than what’s expected of him.

[evelhak]

Seen so many bad jokes about autistic people's literal black & white thinking that I wanted to talk about how it might actually look like. Yeah, sure, haha it's very funny if you say you have to turn the place upside down and someone thinks you literally want to turn the house on its roof, but who would actually think that? Sure, that image would pop in my head but I wouldn't think that's what you meant. Like, most people can understand the meaning of common sayings they've heard all their lives, even if they did misunderstand them for the first few times of hearing them. So if you're trying to write an autistic character and you're not autistic, here's some examples that could be helpful.

My mom asked me to empty the dishwasher while she was at the store. Once she came back and went to the kitchen, I wanted to ask her something, don't remember what anymore, but she replied that she was admiring my work in the kitchen. To which I just laughed and continued with my initial question. At this point my mom was suddenly enraged and I didn't understand why, until it became clear that she had wanted me to both empty and fill the dishwasher, which I had not understood, and "admiring my work" was sarcasm because she thought I was just being lazy and did know what she had meant. And her rage came from the fact that she also assumed I had understood her sarcasm and chose to ignore it.

What I want a writer to take away from this is 1) there's an internal logic to my thought process and actions that is just as logical as my mom's. It's not random and once I understood where my mom was coming from there was no longer confusion. 2) I also learned from this and didn't repeat the same mistake ever again.

Once at the doctor's office I was given a list of about a 100 things that one should avoid eating if they have IBS. I took the list and went home, immediately started to follow the list for a month. Next time at the doctor's office I was asked if I had been using the list and which things I had been avoiding. I blinked in confusion. All of them of course. The doctor's eyes widened. "All of them??" I was just like... Yeah. Apparently I should have understood that I could pick and choose.

What I think is important here is that 1) autistic people aren't necessarily "rigid" as if that's negative. We tend to process things very deeply so we assume instructions are to be taken seriously. 2) Again I learned from this and remember to ask specific instructions more these days.

This happened a LOT with my girlfriend: she would say something half heartedly, like, she wanted to go to a movie, and I immediately began to arrange when we could go and when I asked her if that day was good she didn't even remember she had wanted to go to a movie anymore. Because it hadn't been a serious statement, just a thought. But I could not tell the difference between serious and non-serious wishes because the words used for them would be literally the same, and I default to seriousness.

Here I'd like to highlight how 1) this example is more complicated because this dynamic can apply to so many different situations that it's harder to not make the "same" mistake again. 2) The default assumption for me is that all of people's words have the same weight. Sure, I have learned to tell pretty well if people are joking, but when they are not exactly joking it's hard to tell the degree of seriousness.

Obviously I'm giving myself as just an example.

All in all, my point is I want writers to consider the LOGIC, the subjective reasoning behind a character's actions just like they would for any other character. You can't just copy and paste together a bunch of autistic traits with no rhyme or reason because the traits are just the outcome of an internal process. They are just the visible part. And for any individual just being autistic isn't enough of a reason to give them a specific trait you have to figure out why their specific autistic presentation is the way it is. Autism is just the label. It's not the explanation. You have to understand how the individual traits your character has, relate to each other and work together from inside out, if you actually want to create good representation.

Obviously I know this is hard. It's almost like it's difficult to think with a different brain type to your own. But that's something autistic people who are high maskers attempt everyday, and can be quite successful at too. But there are still "leaks". These examples are some of mine.

[starlightbooklove]

I started seeing "Jennifer's body" for the first time Because I had seen many videos talking about how iconic it was and even I who haven't seen it know how impactfull it was, I think that anyone who watches a bit of pop culture in recent years has heard at least once the phrase "I'm going to eat your soul and shit it out" Or have seen Megan Fox walking down the hallway with a smile in slow motion...

Anyway, the point is that I started to see it and the truth was I had A very vague idea (Which is making the experience much more interesting because I don't know anything) of ​​what it was about:

Girl kills boys for some reason, girl is spiraling towards madness and that Amanda Seyfried was in the middle This is based purely on clips from the film and videos analyzing it (From which I also learned that the plot was symbolic of something else) xd, so what a surprise was when the film began with Amanda Seyfried in an asylum kicking people As if it were an anime movie and seeing that she was crazy LMAO.

Among other impressions:

-My friend pushes me against the door like that and laughter is not going to be my reaction

-I was under the impression that Needy's boyfriend (I already forgot his name, I apologize) would be a jerk but the truth is that he looks very cute and decent, (I might have to eat my words)

-Wtf Chris Pratt is here.

-Those band dudes are the ones you always try to get away from, they are my worst nightmare of social anxiety made person. No Jennifer, please no

-GIRL THE PLACE IS ON FIRE SAY OR DO SOMETHING For a moment I seriously thought she was hallucinating him because of how absolutely still she stayed And because of how unbothered people remained in the bar until the fire literally fell on their tables

-In the wise words of the principal of mean girls: SIR TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF THE UNDERAGE GIRL

-Needy there's people that are dying. Sorry, I had to say it lol, speaking seriously I completely understand her concern, and I like how they captured that 'I can't follow her Because I put myself in danger, but I can't stop her either because she doesn't want to come with me' It's a real dilemma

-Amanda acts incredible here, as does Megan, I felt disturbed when I saw the crazy face she had when she showed up at Needy's house. How she appeared out of nowhere in that state made me feel super bad for her because it is quite clear what they want to prove and it is very sad, I repeat GREAT ACTING

-Wtf J.K. Simmons is here.

-My girl killed and her spirit went up lmao.

-I still like the guy. (I imagine he's going to die, right?)

-Needy honey, you're not crazy.

-I understand why they are friends, despite Jennifer's strange and very wtf behavior And leaving out killing people, she seems like a good person, still not such a good friendship, i still don't forget that push.

Anyway, that's all for now, I'll keep saying as I watch

[waitmyturtles]

Like last week, I’ll write up bigger Double Savage thoughts after the airing of tomorrow’s episode, but some quick notes on episode 3:

(Actually, I don’t know if I can do quick notes, because this episode held a lot.)

It’s clear that, along the lines of 10 Years Ticket, the Midnight Series, The Eclipse, and others -- that this show is about Big Commentary on a number of cultural themes that deeply affect Thai/Asian society and families.

How Korn can remain so loyal to his mother and siblings might well be beyond the understanding of many -- especially from where they stood emotionally as Korn’s father kicked Korn out. How Korn can remain so empathic to his friends and family after what’s happened to him -- it’s a little mind-boggling.

When he sees Pea, Korn reveals his internalized imposter syndrome, learned from his father’s treatment towards him: “I don’t want to drag anyone down. I don’t want anyone associated with me. I don’t want to get anyone in trouble.”

When Korn says to Li: “Our family doesn’t need a jinx like me.” He’s internalized the demeaning, destructive feedback that his father gave him. He wants to protect the family that he still loves by getting the fuck outta that house, and giving his father exactly what his father wants, because Korn thinks that that’s what will be good for his family. Good lord.

As I mentioned last week, when trying to understand why Korn shot the gun: it’s this internalized trauma that’s the key and real reason why Korn has ended up where he is. And how the chips continue to fall during that process -- how Li, of all people, ends up holding a gun. It’s a very predictable journey that a family will take, into poverty/crime/other negative socioeconomic impacts, that stem from an origin of family trauma. 

I’ve been reading that young Asians on TikTok, watching Double Savage, are posting about their own experiences being a middle child, a darker-skinned child, a cast-out, a black sheep. It’s REALLY MOVING TO ME (like, I feel my heart in pain) hearing about young Asians relating to this show, because I do, too. I basically lived out my internalized commentary about myself, believing EVERYTHING my family said about me, throughout my twenties, and spent my twenties recovering from that trauma. It wasn’t until a dear friend of mine, someone who I objectively trusted, stopped me mid-sentence in my explaining why my life was a mess, to tell me: dude, you’re doing fine. You can’t believe that shit.

I’d never heard that before, because in my case, my parents and siblings were all telling me that my life was out of control...when in fact, I was just paying rent and working, which they weren’t doing. I was living a normalized paradigm of society that they had actually rejected -- and gaslit me into believing that it WASN’T worth doing.

So this gaslighting that Korn’s father has done unto Korn -- it’s seriously relatable, completely emotionally unintelligible, and the endgame of where Korn has now ended up is totally believable, considering he BELIEVES WHAT HIS FATHER HAS SAID ABOUT HIM.

And yet. He makes his promises to Win that he won’t have feelings for Rung (BAD CHOICE, KORN AND WIN, THAT WILL END BADLY, no no no no nooooooooo, bros). He makes his promise to Li that he won’t do anything illegal. 

Korn, right now, still believes in the dualism of good vs. bad. He believes people are good or bad. He believes he’s a bad person. We see that Win will get into the police academy tomorrow. The police represent good... right?

Not from what Ah and Mek are telling Korn. We see now that that dualistic vision that Korn has in his youthful mind will get blown to pieces -- and he’ll begin to understand the how and why of how people are so complicated as he grows up. 

I see this show getting into Jojo-esque territory about how the people THAT ARE SUPPOSED TO CARE FOR US VERY OFTEN FAIL US -- our parents, our public enforcement, our politicians, etc. Why do families, like Pea’s, need to go to the local mafia/Robin Hood to borrow money? Likely because social structures are failing families. 

Dang it. This show’s gonna get into the shit. Now that Bed Friend is over, I can likely handle it better. But this show’s gonna get into the shit, and I’m hoping will be good about it. I’m finding these episodes to be quite the opposite of a drag -- they’re VERY well done, and Ohm/Perth/Film are kicking ass together. Let’s see about tomorrow.

[demontruth]

Sorry to all my followers. Yes unfortunately I'm going to get harsh, mean, maybe even cruel. I didn't call this Demon truth for no reason. This also why I separated this from my main blog. Politics, particularly politics in the US have become a naughty business. Before for me at least, before Trump become President I was fine to let that naughty business stay in DC and just heard about on the news. But the night of 2016 Presidential election, I with so many others watched in horror as the map of the US turned blood red as state after state went for Trump. A fear I've never felt exploded inside me because I had no idea what was about to happen in our country. I just knew it wouldn't be good. I'm a member of the LGBTQIA+ community and I'm a woman. I remember that night there was a newscaster on national channel that was covering the election results, he was an African-American gentleman when he spoke of the fear he had of the results of a Trump president there was true terror in that man's voice. It's something I never witnessed from a newscaster in my life. It's stuck with to this day.

Because of that and everything that came after. Now the true terror of what the fuck might happen because we're here again. But this time no one seems to taking this shit seriously because so many have forgotten how bad is was when Trump was President. Seen that yes Biden isn't the best-suited, strongest, President we could have or need right now. But he's 1000 times better then a Trump presidency so we, including me have been lulled back to a place of being complacent Americans. Until recently for me because what's happening in Palestine, the fear of Trump getting into the White House again, the war in Ukraine...

So I apologize that any gloves I once had are off I'm bare knuckle boxing here for our democracy, our country, our Constitution, our way of life. Yea our country needs help, but it's not a fascist authoritarian regime under Dictator Trump. I've been telling mostly the void since before 2016 Trump was, is a wannabe Dictator. (He idolizes Dictator all over the world. He fucking love Putin remember!)

The people that support Trump... I've talked to some in real life to try to understand why their on his side. Not the full gone nut jobs, but just normal people. I spoke to this old woman on the bus once. I ask why she supported him, what she told me was insightful for me but also hard to completely understand. Now this woman was in I'd say her late 60s, early 70s so she not pigeonhole under what some think is Trump supporter, she's hispanic, was a teacher (that's how we got to talking actually because she taught at my old elementary school after I went there), had been married, her husband away passed, had 2 sons. I think the only reason she was so forthcoming telling me about her life was that I went to the school she taught at. What she told me was Trump as President for her made her feel safe. And felt he'd make sure older people like herself was taken care of. Just listening to her as we ride the bus, truthfully trying to understand how she could possibly get that from him. In that light I could understand why she'd vote for Trump. But I knew as we all do that it not true not in anyway. There's this complete disconnect from the truth that standing right in front of them. It's so literally like the Wizard of Oz. That MAGA, some Republicans and anyone else that like him and vote for him see him as the Great Wizard, but the rest of have always been able to see the real Trump that's behind the curtain. The con artist, the lair, the criminal, also now the traitor, the wannabe Dictator.

That would ok fine, if Trump hadn't controlled our government and doesn't want to control it again. For me that's where the train goes off the rails. I get angry, I feel the rage coming, I no longer have any, zero patience for anyone that supports him or anyone that has anything to do with him. Because when I say hate Trump I'm not exaggerating in any fashion. I hate him with every fiber of my being!! He could literally destroy democracy as we know it if he get back into the White House!

So yea I'm going to fight and claw and bite and snarl and punch and hit and kick and beat and scream and tear and rip and break noses and be mean and evil and anything if it means Trump loses the election!! I will be as bloody as I need to be (metaphorically).

I will use this to wake people up, to make the undecided, decide because truthfully at this point how can anyone not have decided by now! Make those who shouldn't vote (MAGA) stay the fuck home. Because the Republicans cheat to get votes what does everyone think gerrymandering is about. So about time we do to, by we I mean fucking everyone against Trump. Fuck he bitch enough about the election being rigged anyway.

My point is the time to be nice unfortunately is over. We have to remember how bad the 4 years Trump was President. Yes I thought I could just wipe that from my memories too but nope. The fucking villain in horror movie wasn't dead after all... motherfucker!!!

[m-feline]

To adapt, to survive, to live- ch 23

Silco x Freader

Tags; ACT II, business, tattoos, canon language, mentions of smut, fluff;

Previous ->

Years had passed and things looked very different in the entire Undercity. The place was livelier than ever. The Lanes were now the center of all different and new types of augmentations, entertainment, and chemical mixtures, both good and bad.

“Anything else to report?” I asked as I walked the busy streets of Lanes. Streets, we had freaking streets now. What we had before was barely a road. And now we had cars beside carriages.

“Nothing from the houses, ma’am,” Jolynn said. Jolynn became my personal assistant when I began to run the import business on the other side of the bridge. She was raised on the street like everyone else in Lanes. But she had a brilliant memory when it came to people and who did what. So she was perfect to aid me when it came to the houses, and relaying people to my import business. She was a very solemn person but I didn't need her to be anything else. She knew how to behave if we were with a client or business partner. And when asked she always gave the facts nothing more.

“Anything regarding my new project?” I asked as I kept walking with her.

“Signed said it will be ready in a day or two but I would dare say it will be done later. He was working on other variants of Shimmer again,” Jolynn said and kept her walking phase the same as mine.

“I see,” I said knowing that my project will be delayed for at least two more days. “And my current projects?”

“People are liking the consistency of the new ink for tattoos,” Jolynn said. “We got already several parlors asking for the ink.”

“Give it first to our regulars. And tell them to charge extra. And if the motifs are bigger than an apple charge triple,” I said. “Oh, and never to use it on the face. They look great anywhere else. But someone might go blind if it goes too close to the eye. Some chemicals aren't meant for the face.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Jolynn said. “As for the new eye drops.”

“We will not sell those for the tattoo parlors,” I said. “Only for augmentation parlors and repair shops. Those drops will be beneficial for those who don't have natural eyes.”

“Yes ma’am,” Jolynn said.

“Let's sit at that place, I need a cup of coffee,” I said and pointed to an augments café place. Many places like bars, cafes, and clubs were opening everywhere in the Lanes. Especially since many people from the top had gotten interested in the products. Sure, shimmer was still the biggest thing in the Lanes. But some also came to get a cool tattoo, augmentation, or a look that no one else could give them in normal ways.

My inks, drops, and oils were hit on both sides of the bridge. Jolynn even informed me that Council Medarda was interested in certain products of mine and was asking for a meeting. I was pleased to hear that. With her help, I could boost something else if I could play my cards right.

I had just received my coffee when Jolynn and I heard three guys talking behind us about their last night's happenings.

“I tell ya, the gal was screaming when she came,” One of the guys said a bit too loud. I saw Jolynn's face get dark and other patrons of the place also scowled at the table of the three guys. It was one thing for people to brag about their escapades at other places. But this café was mostly for those who needed to cure their hangover, read in silence, or have a civil conversation with business partners. One reason why Silco and I preferred this place. Mostly me, since Silco stayed in his office for work and left only if needed. But when we had our date nights, we would come to this one if we wanted a quiet after-hours drink.

“Ya sure she didn’t scream for ye face?” Another guy asked. Seriously? This place is for quiet chill, no one cares who they fucked. I saw Jolynn play her fingers with the knife on her table set. Knowing her past she hated guys like the ones behind us. She was raped and almost killed once. Because I know how one feels after such a horrible experience, I gave her a job that should keep her away from all that. And if someone is crazy enough to try it, they are lucky if they live the day after that. Besides Silco's own men, I had two guys who could spar with the twins and still do an all-nighter on the same day. And Jolynn had gotten good with her knife skills. Lace those knives with my paralyzing drug, those guys will sleep for three days straight.

Now I worried that Jolynn might use those knives, on anyone who even looked at me the wrong way. Did she get that from Silco or Jinx, I have no idea. With one glance from me, she stopped touching the knife in front of her. Soon someone else will come and tell those guys to shut up or leave. And by the looks of everyone else, those guys will wish it was the waiter and not one of the patrons.

I didn't pay attention to the three guys anymore, because my eyes spotted someone else in the café. Zain. The same Zain I let live when I had my revenge for my mother. He had a lot of nerve to show up here. If these people know he is an Enforcer he is dead meat.

“Keep the table for me,” I said as I got up and left the place. I barely heard a waiter arrive and tell loudmouths to sush it, when I went through the door outside. I turned to the left and walked some way before an empty alley appeared at my side. I heard steps behind me, but before they reached me, I turned and grabbed the collar of the man and pushed him to the alley and against the wall. With a quick move of the wrist, I made a small blade appear from my sleeve.

“You got a lot of nerve to come here,” I hissed at the man as I brought the blade to his throat. Zain looked even more pathetic than when I saw him on my wedding night. He was so skinny. People here could break him by just snapping their fingers.

“I… I… I'm not here to cause trouble,” Zain stuttered. “I-I'm just here to deliver something.”

“A revenge?” I asked bringing the blade closer to his skin.

“No, no, nothing like that…” Zain said fearfully. He looked at his bag that hung at his side. “It's in the bag.”

I let go of his collar and moved my hand to the bag. I kept the blade pointing at him while I searched the bag. There were some clothes and a package but nothing dangerous like weapons or bombs. Since the package was the only thing that seemed interesting, I pulled it out.

“It was your mother's,” Zain said when he saw me bring out the package. I saw red again and pushed him against the wall with the blade alone.

“Why do you have it?” I asked growling and my snake slithered to my face.

“Her case was closed a couple of days ago. All evidence was released,” Zain quickly explained. “This was among them.”

“Why do YOU have it?” I asked.

“Because there was no one else to collect it,” Zain said quickly. “That book was one of the reasons others went after your mother. Sam tried to get it back, but he too…”

I didn't need to hear the rest. I let go of him. The moment I did he fell to his knees and rubbed the spot where my blade had pinched his throat. While he did that I opened the package. It was a book as Zain said. Unlike my other journal, this one wasn't in code. I could detect Demacian language, old one at that. Some pages had Ionian phrases. My mother taught me Ionian when I was small, but after she died I only learned Piltovan from Sam. Demacian I had to learn from different sources due to my work.

If you looked at the book without knowing any of the languages it did look like a book of witchcraft. With all the little drawings of dragons, snakes, and plants, it looked more and more like a book of horrid black magic stuff. But if you knew the languages and, like me, had a snake as a signia, things written there were very… interesting.

“Who knows of this book?” I asked. “Has anyone tried to read it?”

“No,” Zain said. “The only people who knew about it are gone. Except me. The only one who read it, or I think has read it, were Harris and Sam. I… I took a peek but I don't know Demacian.”

“So you just brought it to me?” I asked suspiciously. “Why?”

“In all honesty, I just want to leave everything behind me,” Zain said. “I'm leaving this evening with an airship to Bilgewater. But I had no idea what to do with this. Sam was determined to get this back even after he quit the forces. I… I sort of wanted to… do the right thing.”

I sighed and closed my eyes. Seeing Zain made my blood boil. But it was thanks to him that I lived that night when my mother died. If he had told others he found me… But he was there with them when they…

“I want nothing to do with you,” I said not looking at him. “So I’ll pretend not to have seen you today. This came to me by an anonymous sender.”

“Alright,” Zain said. I didn't watch as he gathered himself and walked away. I looked at the pages as I went through them. The book may not be about witchcraft but it was definitely about magic. But nothing like Hextech. It was about the signias. My signia and the two legendary ones in particular. I took the book with me back to the café and sat back in my seat. As I drank my coffee I went through the pages. Jolynn didn't ask where I got the book or about what it was. But I could tell she was curious about it. The noisy bunch had left and the café was nice and quiet again. We sat there a good while before we headed back to the Last Drop. We went through a few details regarding the houses and what they needed as we walked. Once we got to the club, Jolynn went to get a drink while I went to the kitchen and prepared dinner for whoever had earned it today, and for my husband.

I didn't get to see him till nighttime as he had a couple of meetings as well. I had to leave the food under a cover on his desk and get back to our room.

I was in bed reading the book I got when he walked to our room. He groaned as he pulled the cravat off and began to undo the vest. I knew by the signs that he didn't have a good day, but it wasn't a bad day either.

“Tough day?” I asked as I set the book down to the nightstand.

“No, just disappointing,” Silco said as he took off the vest.

“Someone screw up?” I asked.

“Yes,” Silco sighed.

I didn't ask more. If he wanted to tell me he would. After several years of marriage, I have come to know how he was after different work days. If he wouldn't tell me he thinks it isn't worth mentioning. If he would tell…

“The shipment didn't get through the bridge this time,” Silco said as he opened the door leading to the bathroom. It was that sort of day then.

I got up from the bed put on a see-through robe and walked to the door but I didn't enter the bathroom. Silco began to do his before-bed routine, he cleaned his face from makeup, brushed his teeth, changed his clothes, and later he would place an eye patch over his scarred eye.

“What stopped it this time?” I asked.

“The idiot didn't do the papers correctly,” Silco grumbled as he dabbed the skin around his scarred eye with a cloth.

“Our idiot or Marcus's?” I asked leaning to the door frame.

“Our idiot. We don't need Marcus for this sort of thing,” Silco said.

“But you will need him to the Hexgates,” I said. Silco had now started to plan to send shipments of Shimmer to other places. But that was becoming harder and harder. I too had trouble with it at first, but after a long process and several checkups later I managed to get three products out of Lanes to the Piltover, and two of those were now on their way to Nexus and Demancia. And if I could get Councilwoman Medarda to invest in my products, I get one more export product and rest can be sold in the Lanes.

Thanks to my import business many companies got products that required odd but unknown ingredients. Thanks to Singed and old notes my mother left in the journal, I knew exactly what to bring in and how. The progress Day was on the way for several weeks, but people were already getting ready for it. And that meant they needed products that only I could provide. With a mix of certain ingredients, many machines and inventions worked without the nasty smell of oils or burning fumes. It was also my products that they could add color to their “advanced” decorations. All and all Piltover made themselves look even more fancy. The irony was that I aided in that. But that's how I got money to do other businesses.

“It is not easy to get something new through the bridge,” I sighed. “You need to do it in small steps first. And get someone from that side to bring it with them first.”

“You know that's not going to happen,” Silco said before he began to brush his teeth.

“Then get it through in small stashes, gather it in one place, set Marcus to keep nosy ones away, and then arrange someone to take them to a ship,” I continued. “Remember how hard it was for me to get the ingredients for the hair dye, across the bridge to this side?” Silco hummed in confirmation.

“It took a while but I did it and without needing you to call Marcus,” I said, Silco gave me a knowing glance. “Though yes, we almost went for that one too. My point is you need patience with this. And to be smart about it. And maybe pass a coin or two for the right people.” Silco finished brushing his teeth and looked at me for a moment.

“How much are you getting across the bridge?” He asked knowing the answer himself.

“On these days? More than they should allow. But that is why some of them come to this side themselves instead of me sending it to them,” I said and moved away from the door. Yeah, I was busy selling the stuff for whoever needed to make something for the Progress day. Some asked for a huge amount of ingredients and I too was having trouble bringing it across the bridge. But when it was someone from their side going through, there was never trouble in transporting the cargo. To think they had these days people to check the bridge and whatever passes from there. But it had gotten easier than before.

I thought about telling Silco what I got from Zain but as I knew his mood, he wasn't going to listen this time. Or if he did he was going to get Zain killed for coming back. No, he had too much on his mind right now. And knowing him he was going to need a way to relax. As I considered telling him about my day, I failed to see him come out of the bathroom in his briefs and walk right behind me before he snaked his arms around my waist.

“I know you are trying to make me feel better, but I rather not talk about work right now,” Silco said as he kissed my neck. “In fact, I rather not talk at all.” Yes, this is how it usually goes after a tough day.

“Surely, not all day was so bad,” I said teasingly. I can't let him have his way every day it gets tough. Which is very often. At this part, Silco usually rips and tears my nightgown off. But today I wanted to spare my clothes from such fate. “Wasn’t there anything good happening today?”

“If you don’t let me have you then no. Nothing today is good,” Silco growled annoyingly.

“So impatient,” I tutted him as I leaned against him. “You could just ask, I will gladly remove my gown instead of you ripping it into pieces like the others.”

“I don’t ask, my dear,” Silco said growling. “Not when I'm in this mood.”

“And what is your mood then?” I teased. “Are you so angry that you carry a knife to our bedroom, or are you just so happy to see me?” I said as I sneaked my hand to feel him.

“You naughty little minx, you know very well what it is,” Silco said trying to sound menacing but it failed as he felt my hand. “Take. That. Dress. Off.”

“Since you asked,” I said and turned to kiss his cheek. While I took off my sleeping gown, I saw in my peripheral that Silco went to his nightstand and put on an eyepatch. He needed that for sleeping. And we both knew that after our salacious activity, he would not get up just for one eyepatch, even if it was for sleeping. But one time I almost poked his eye in the morning so I demanded that he used it every night. But as I had said before I wasn't going to make it easy. I had removed the nightgown but left the robe on. And since it was see-through, Silco had no trouble noticing how my snake went around my hips and the head remained on my stomach.

“What are you doing?” Silco asked his menacing tone coming back.

“I took the nightgown off, just like you asked,” I said innocently.

“Yet why you are still wearing clothes?” Silco asked as he came closer. He sounded menacing but that little quirk on his lips told me he was enjoying this as well.

“It is cold, you don't want me to get sick, do you?” I said pouting as innocently as I could.

“Get that thing off so I can warm you up,” Silco said coming to stand right in front of me. This is the part where I could decide if we get passionate and hard lovemaking before lights out. But I know Silco had a busier day tomorrow and I had also a couple of places to visit, so tonight was going to be the usual.

I lifted myself to my toes and kissed him on the lips while pressing myself against him. In a matter of seconds, Silco had me in the bed towering over me, and soon he was pounding me as he did during our honeymoon. After Jinx moved to her new “room”, if I could call it a room, we had had many nights like this. Silco would have me in our bed, sometimes hard something sensually, but it always ended with both of us satisfied and tired. It also guaranteed that he won't murder anyone the next morning.

We were also a bit free to exploit more into this activity ever since Jinx found her new “room”. I call it room since it is still very close to the Last Drop. Otherwise, I'd call it her “place”. But since it is connected to the Last Drop in a couple of “ways”, I stick to the room concept.

So many things had changed since Silco and I got married. Yet the dream of Zaun still felt too far away. I know because now that the Hexgates got even more popular, the Lanes had more trouble keeping up with the commercials of the other places. I managed to get my own business to squeeze into their spot in the import businesses, but it still didn’t help Silco with his own projects.

“What products did you sell again?” Silco asked me as he lay partly on top of me, his head resting on my chest.

“You know very well what I sell,” I said tiredly after our make-out session. He must be desperate to get the Shinmer to the docks if he brought that topic to our bed.

“I wish to hear it anyway,” Silco said and kissed my collarbone. I sighed and began to list what my products were. As I spoke Silco held me tighter and made himself comfortable on top of me, so his head could lie right between my boobs.

“And how did you get them across the bridge?” Silco asked once I listed all my products. I didn't want to talk about work. Not in our bed. And since I was tired I was also a bit annoyed. The snake was barely at my face when I used my hand to grab some of Silco's hair from the nape of his head and lifted his head up from my chest.

“I don't want work to our bed,” I said with a tired and angry tone. For a very short moment, there was surprise and shock in Silco's eyes but it quickly turned into a knowing smile and his hand came to rest over mine which held his hair.

“Apologies, dear,” He said and slowly removed my hand from his hair. “I simply have no other chance to speak with you while we are both relaxed like this.”

“If it's work we can discuss it in your office,” I said.

“Oh, but we agreed we won't practice certain things in my office,” Silco said and brought my hand to his lips to kiss it tenderly. “Or in the kitchen.”

“You really want to talk about work after sex?” I asked not believing him.

“Sometimes,” Silco said and kissed my hand again. “Sometimes I simply wish to remain in your embrace and fade to sleep.”

“You are impossible to live with sometimes,” I sighed. I tried to move my hand away but Silco kept it tightly in his hand as he kissed my palm and began to move to my wrist. “Not too long ago. You didn't want to talk about work or anything else but now it's you who started the topic.”

“My mood improved, my dear,” Silco said as he kissed my wrist. “You could ask me to shut down one of my factories and take a day off, and I would oblige.”

“Really?” I asked with a hint of amusement. “If I ask for you to stop making Shimmer altogether and take off for us to have some quality time together, you would do it?”

“All in reason, dear,” Silco warned me and graced my wrist with his teeth. “Good sex gets you so far.”

“What about great sex?” I asked still amused.

“With our schedules? I doubt we have that much energy,” Silco said and let go of my hand and resumed to hug my body.

“You maybe,” I giggled and felt him squeeze me in his arms.

“Sometimes I think that signia is giving you too many advantages,” Silco sighed and was slowly falling to sleep.

“And you love it, just admit it,” I giggled and hugged him back. I barely heard a hum of an answer before Silco fell to sleep while holding me. I reached to kiss his head before I too got sleep in his arms.

Next ->

[shy-the-schizophrenic]

Well, I'm finally manic. I've been stuck in a depressive episode for seven months. I couldn't write at all. I was so apathetic. The only thing I could do was complain on my blog about my boyfriend. Well good news guys. Life is looking up in alot of ways and there are some downs. The ups. My relationship is amazing. I stopped splitting on my boyfriend. He really is the best thing to ever happen to me. Even my sister finally said she wants to meet him because she's seen how much I've changed and grown up. Besides that bout of splitting on my boyfriend. Yes that still happened but the way I handled it was way different than how I would have in the past. I don't degrade him, call him names, yell at him. I'm not mean to him just because I've split on him. I'm distant as hell. I don't say things I don't mean anymore because I've lost so many people by doing that. I wrote on here. An anonymous blog. Also my work is improving. I'm taking it seriously. Going in 4-5 days a week. Working an actual shift. In just a week and a half of consistency I've made more in a week than I ever did in a month. It's awesome! In my new place I have a little fridge in my room and for the first time it has food in it. Paid for with my own money. My boyfriend has been helping me with alot of stuff cuz I was struggling financially. But now I'm good again! If I keep doing what I'm doing ill be perfectly fine when it comes to financial struggling. I made a new friend. She's the one helping me with all this. This whole move and meeting her triggered my manic episode and it's great. I feel amazing. Things feel good. It's been 2 weeks and I haven't fully unpacked until today. I started my period and took the day off. So I finally made my room my little home. It looks fucking awesome. I feel comfy here now. It feels like my space. The roommates are really awesome. They are a lesbian Trans couple. Some people would be weird about it but so far they are the best roommates I've ever had. I like it better living with women. Every man I've lived with after leaving my mom's house was a nightmare. I've moved seven times in two years. Every single place was terrible. Not the place, the roommates. So I'm glad to have good roommates now. Okay so now the bad news. My mom might have uterine cancer. I had an episode in the car on the way home after being told that news. Everything just hit me at once when I realized there might be a timer on my mom's life. Something I've kept myself awake at night thinking about. I've heard the prognosis is good but when I freaked I didn't know that. My life with my mom flashed before my eyes. In my head every memory was coming out and playing at once but I can see all of them. Every good thing, bad thing. Then I thought of the fact that our relationship is messed up and so much time has been wasted not being in her life. Then regret that I wasted that time over stupid shit, but it wasn't stupid shit. They were legit reasons to be angry with her. The things she's done wrong were wrong but I forgave her but a tiny percent of me wishes she would take accountability. Only now I can't want that because why would you want to make a dying person, your mom, feel any worse than they already do knowing they are dying. So I have to let it go. Stop expecting that long talk and just let go and be in the moment. Yet it hurts that I no longer can expect it. It's a mess I know. I don't know what to think about it.

[banditchika]

How A Dream Comes True - Ch 1

read here on ao3!

Pearl comes to a decision within two minutes of meeting King Octavio—the first of his name, sole ruler of Octaria, the genius behind Octaria’s military might!

The dude is kind of a dick.

"Ayo, man,” she says, holding up a gauntleted hand. “I’ve heard just about enough.” 

His big, bad royal highness stops mid-rant. It's probably more out of pure shock than actual courtesy, but Pearl will take it. The guards standing in neat rows along the walls mirror Octavio’s sudden silence. They’re all too serious to do something as unprofessional as gasp, but their surprise at her interruption fills the grand, cavernous hall like a miasma—just like her childhood bodyguards, come to think of it. Little squiddy Pearl used to make a game of doing the most outrageous things she could, to see if they would break character and react. Good to see she's still got it. 

King Octavio trembles atop his throne, tentacles curling around his wasabi-shaped scepters. Pearl loves a good accessory, everyone knows that, but seriously—why does he need two? 

"You dare speak as such to a king? You dare!?"

"Uh, yeah?” Pearl makes a show of picking at her fingers, all ten digits safely ensconced in her gauntlets and padded gloves. Her nonchalant act makes Octavio turn an even brighter shade of fuschia. “I've got a grievance, and you’ve as good as admitted it's all your fault! I don’t care what’s going on in your country, your policy decisions are screwin’ me over! You gotta stop kickin’ your citizens out onto my family property. We’re running outta places to house ‘em!”

“Exile is a mercy for traitors to the crown—” 

“You tellin' me you’ve got two hundred wholeass traitors you just had to kick out of your kingdom?” What happened to community service? Picking up trash, walking centennials through the market square—does Octaria not do that? “That's how many we counted before I left. Who knows how many more have moved in since! I don't know what's got y’all all outta whack, but you need to put your house in order. You're throwin' people out of their homes and now they're trespassin' on mine!"

"I will not accept this audacity from an inkling child!" the king roars. His voice echoes through the hall. Pearl swears she sees a small shower of debris fall from the ceilings. She would easily win a shouting match between the two of them, but he's still got quite a set of pipes. "You have no notion of the treachery that has beset this kingdom, none! Indolent, selfish inklings, never looking past your own affairs until you see fit to meddle in things you have no business sticking your beak into—"

"It becomes my business when yours have turned my house into a wholeass refugee camp!" Pearl throws her hands into the air and stomps closer. The royal guards surrounding Octavio’s throne step forward in unison, hands straying to the hilts of their blades. She resists a groan. Seriously? They’re still backing his ass, after everything he’s done?

Pearl’s the good guy here! She’s trying to help the dude’s own people get back to their homes! It’s not like Pearl has anything against the displaced Octarians squatting at her place. But even though she won’t kick out a bunch of desperate people with nowhere to go, even the Houzuki family estate can only hold so many people. How long can they reasonably keep two hundred plus people fed, watered, and most importantly, entertained? 

No. No way. Not even her family’s money can manage that if King Octavio keeps kicking people out of their own land willy nilly. 

Fuming, Pearl jabs a finger at Octavio’s furious octopus face. "And I’m no kid. I’m twenty-one!”

She realizes her mistake as soon as she says it. 

The king leans forward, a bloodshark scenting weakness, his ancient poison-green eyes glinting with malice. "And here I thought I was dealing with a fifteen-year old brat. It wouldn’t be the first time. If there's anything your ridiculous, foolhardy coming-of-age tradition is good for, it's sifting out the scum who can't crack it in your excuse of a society. Why should I entertain someone three years over the age of majority, who hasn't even killed—what are you children doing nowadays, testing yourselves against Salmonids? You hardly look fit enough to fight a Chum. What a waste of time. Guards! Deal with her." 

As one, the guards arranged along the walls and King Octavio’s throne advance toward Pearl with their katanas drawn. She slowly backs away from the ring of encroaching soldiers and their snarling masks. She can't help the way her voice pitches loud with alarm, or the rain of plaster and dust that trickles from the ceiling as her voice fills the hall. 

"Okay, firstly, way to get personal! Secondly—hey, guys, come on. We don't have to do this." Damn, but those masks are intimidating. Cool as shell, too. Pearl kind of wants one. "You know I'm right. All the folks hangin' out at my place, they're your brothers and sisters and shit. You want ‘em back as much as they want to be back, don’tcha? Can’t we talk this out?" 

The guards keep coming. Pearl takes a step back, then another, until she can go no further. 

Her hip bumps into the great banquet table in the center of the hall. Nowhere left to run. 

"Alright, so that's a no?" She reaches behind her, armored hand closing around something nice and heavy. "Fine. At least I tried."

Pearl whips her arm forward, launching—is that a whole roasted Chum?—into the face of the lead guard. "BOOYAH, bitch!"

The thing about Pearl is—she's short. That's undeniable. She's given up on being mad about it. It is what it is, and angsting isn't going to activate Gam-Gam Houzuki's dormant colossal squid genes. But being short doesn't mean being weak, and what Pearl lacks in height she makes up for in mad dirty tactics. 

Yeah, she read Sunfish Tzu. If there's anything Pearl's learned from her travels, it's that squids under five feet need to make do.

The guard who Pearl just introduced to authentic Salmonid cuisine stumbles back into their friends, sending them staggering. Pearl takes full advantage of the confusion and scrambles atop the table. The whole thing is lined with lit candles and far too many plates for one octopus alone. Was Octavio expecting guests?

Pearl doesn’t have time to consider it. She dances out of the way of a guard’s slash, the katana’s edge biting deep into the table’s varnished surface. One hand scoops up an open carafe while the other gropes for a candelabra. Pearl brings the jug to her nose and takes a sniff. Oh, that’s strong. Tip the flame into the jug, and—

"Catch!"

Pearl lobs the flaming bottle at the guards' feet. They scatter, breaking their tight formation to dodge Pearl's boozy little surprise. They probably don't realize that a makeshift fire bomb like Pearl’s burns itself out quickly, and she laughs as they try to stomp out the flames.

(What? It's not like she's trying to seriously hurt anyone.)

A pair of rock-solid arms close around her from behind. Pearl snarls as she's yanked back, pinned against the lacquered armor of an Octarian soldier. Flanked! Like a total chump! 

"Geddoff—" The soldier locks their arms together, throwing Pearl off balance. Her back dangles precariously over their shoulders. The awkward angle doesn’t give her any openings to throw an elbow or a sneaky kick. 

Fine. So what? She's the one in full metal plate. 

Pearl pushes off the table and into the octoling. The soldier, unprepared to take Pearl's full weight, is yanked back by her momentum and tips over, collapsing with a thud. Pearl is nice enough to avoid landing on their prone body, but not nice enough to keep from smacking their masked face as she rolls back onto her feet. They're armored, she's armored, so full contact is a-okay. 

Unfortunately, their scuffle has bought the other guards enough time to regroup. It's hard to tell with their faces hidden behind their headpieces, but she thinks she's managed to intimidate them. Their stances are cautious as they begin to close in on her. 

Four guards break off to the two ends of the table. The remaining four approach head on, cutting off Pearl's chances of jumping back onto the table or sliding under it. She grins at them. It's nice to be taken seriously. 

There's only one thing to do. Pearl grabs the edge of the table and heaves, arms screaming under the weight.

Come on, think angry thoughts. 

Littering. 

People who whip their seahorses. 

Bank bailouts. 

All the people who will never get to come home again if you don't do this right.

"Fuck!" she howls, and flips the enormous banquet table onto the advancing soldiers. Pearl is lucky the damned thing is so long, because the two pairs of Octolings trying to cut off her escape routes haven't even made it out from behind the main length of the table. The entire squadron topples under the weight of wood, steel, and more food than one octopus with no guests needs to eat. 

The noise of shattering cookware and crashing armor is solid, absolute, and so consuming that the grand hall is a vacuum of sound once the last plate has clattered to the floor. 

Pearl stands panting over a pile of groaning octolings. Her fingers twitch with lingering adrenaline, and a huge, unsportsman-like smirk stretches across her face. Her family isn’t going to believe her when she tells them about this.

“Phew. What a workout… Alright, man,” she says, turning to Octavio. “Can we talk like adults now?”

The king stares her down. “Yes, we can.” 

Pearl’s skin prickles. Octavio looks awfully calm for someone whose guards have been dealt with. 

The painted wooden panels behind his throne collapse like falling cards, revealing a fresh troop of soldiers. Each and every one is armed with crossbows. The mechanisms are locked, bolts bristling at their tips, all of them trained at Pearl. 

“Go ahead. What else do you want to say, shark bait?”

Pearl slowly puts her hands up. Her mind races, then stutters. Fuck. Fuck, fuck! 

There’s nowhere to run for cover, and even if she tried, there’s just too many guards with too many arrows. They wouldn’t even need to aim. All they’d need to do is fire, and Pearl would end her life looking like the pincushion from Gam-Gam’s sewing kit. 

"GAH-HAH-HA! Not so mouthy now, are you?" Octavio slams his scepters down on the arms of his throne, leaning from his seat as though he were about to strike her himself. “Typical inkling, always so headstrong, so reckless. You really think I wouldn’t have planned for this!?”

Pearl grinds her beak. For once in her life, she needs to shut up. She won’t be helping anyone if she dies here. 

Silence settles over the hall. Sweat beads on Pearl’s brow, and to her horror, her nose begins to itch. Oh, Cod. Don’t let her die because of a sneeze. She has plans; Pearl refuses to die to anything less awesome than a coddamn giant Salmonid, one big enough to dwarf Deca Tower back home.

Octavio finally twitches a tentacle just before Pearl is about to black out from holding her breath. Half of his soldiers lower their crossbows to stand at attention. The other half stay ready, but even that much is enough to have Pearl heave a dizzying sigh of relief.

“Impudence aside, you aren’t… totally incompetent,” he says, a gruff burr in his voice. “And I would prefer not to alienate my loyal citizens in purging this… cancer from my kingdom. I have a proposition.”

“Well, shoot. I mean, don’t actually shoot, but—yeah, okay, I’m listening.”

It’s incredible how he manages to curl his lip even while in swim form. That there is an expression with decades of experience behind it. “My granddaughter, my heir. Marina. The traitors I’ve exiled from Octaria are using her as a figurehead for their coup. They claim,” he says, voice dripping with so much venom that Pearl swears he’s exhaling flames, “that she will no longer tolerate my ‘tyranny’. That she will depose me and lead Octaria into a golden age.” 

Huh. Pearl winces. Now that she thinks about it, she did hear something about that on her way out of Inkopolis. She feels bad about it now, but she hadn’t been paying too much attention at the time. All she needed to know was ‘king bad, homeless Octarians, Pearl finally has a big quest’, and she was out the door with her travel pack restocked and her sword clattering against her hip.

Octavio’s skin is starting to tremble from the sheer force of feeling. Pearl can see it even from where she’s standing. It’s honestly a little surprising—that’s real emotion in his voice, rage and fear and grief like a fist around his throat. 

“They are holding her hostage in her tower. These traitors have poisoned her mind. I’ve sent my best and brightest to search for Marina, but she is being guarded by a monster of a Salmonid. One the size of your Deca Tower.” Holy squit? For eel!? 

Octavio falls silent. His perpetual glare grows even fiercer as he casts his eyes over his wrecked throne room, at the whimpering guards struggling to drag themselves from under the crushing weight of the overturned banquet table. When he speaks again, it’s with strangled pride. “My soldiers have been unable to retrieve her. I want my granddaughter returned to me. Safely.”

She is starting to see where this is going, and it’s getting hard to think through the confirmation of her wildest dreams coming true. Pearl has been daydreaming about giant rampaging monsters since before she could take a humanoid form. This is Squidmas, New Years, and her birthday, all at once!

But even through her excitement, she has to ask, because again: Octavio is a dick. 

“Are you sure your princess is bein’ held hostage? Maybe she’s doing this coup thing for eel.”

“How dare you!?” Octavio explodes. His scepters impact the sides of his throne with enough force that the metal dents, the head of one wasabi falling clean off with a ringing thunk. “Marina would never. She would never betray her own people—her own family! She’s only a child, she doesn’t know any better!”

Wait, so which is it? The princess has the integrity to not go against her gramps while militant Octarians hold her hostage, or she’s too young and naive to… also not pull a coup? Old man logic; Pearl doesn’t get it.  

“Alright. Okay, sure.” Whatever. She’ll go along with it. “So your granddaughter is being held hostage, and you want me to go rescue her.” Pearl wants to laugh right in his face—mercenary inklings, huh? Everyone always looks down on Inkopolis’ population of wandering, questing youths until they need someone to do something dangerous. “Sure, I can do that. Saving princesses—” So fucking cool—finally, a quest to write home about! “—is what I’m all about. But what do I get out of it? That doesn’t solve the problem of your people squatting on my land.” 

“If you bring Marina back,” Octavio growls, “then we will put this nonsense to rest. Those responsible for orchestrating this plot will be punished accordingly, but I will allow the exiles to be extradited back to Octaria for lesser sentences. Is that good enough for you?” 

Pearl is already salivating at the opportunity to jump on this quest. She also doesn’t want to get shot. But she just can’t help mouthing off. “I mean, it seems like you’re just giving me something to do on top of the real easy problem I asked you to solve in the first place, but sure, sure. I’ll bring your missing granddaughter back.” 

"Unharmed. If she has so much as a bruise—"

"Listen,” Pearl snaps, “I'll wrap her in a frickin' sea sponge so she gets back to you safe and sound. But in return, you gotta promise that you're not going to hurt any of your people when they come back."

"You have the audacity to tell me how to rule my own people?"

"I do, 'cuz you were the one who threw ‘em out in the first place, and I sure don't see anyone else trying to help! That's the deal, Your Majesty. I'm not sendin' those guys back to a situation where they could get hurt. I won't be responsible for it. So take it or leave it! If I’m gonna fetch your missing princess, I want a guarantee that your people are gonna come back and you’re not gonna lay a tentacle on ‘em!”

Octavio glowers. His scepters quiver from the force of his grip. 

There’s almost a hint of offense in his voice when he speaks again. “Very… well. You have my word. I, Octavio Takowasa Villaoctos, King of Octaria, will allow the safe return and fair treatment of all exiles expelled to Inkopolis… if you bring back my granddaughter.”

Pearl points at the guards flanking his throne. “And y’all heard that, right? Legal witnesses.” 

No response. Tough crowd. 

“That having been said… I wouldn’t trust an inkling mercenary farther than I can throw them.” Pearl rolls her eyes as Octavio swivels in his seat. Jeez, right back to insulting her! 

“To ensure that you don’t break your promise… Octavia!”

The freaking black hole of a hideout behind Octavio’s throne spits out yet another octoling—seriously, isn’t that a security hazard? Are there just a bunch of soldiers squatting back there 24/7? Do they get bathroom breaks?—this one without the characteristic snarling mask of the king’s personal guard. 

She’s pretty tall, clad in lacquered black armor, her tentacles loosely framing her face. “Your Majesty,” she says, golden eyes flicking to Pearl, then back. 

Octavio waves her over. “Octavia is one of my most trusted agents, and Marina’s lady-in-waiting. She managed to escape the tower during our first rescue attempt. She will ensure that you keep your end of the bargain and lend legitimacy to your mission. My granddaughter won’t leave her tower for a stranger, but she would recognize her lady-in-waiting.”

“Riiiiiiight,” Pearl says. She squints at Octavia. Something about her seems… fishy. Well, that’s probably just how spies are. At least he’s upfront about foisting one off on her. A little honesty goes a long way. “Just don’t get in the way.”

Octavia smiles. “It’s good to meet you, Pearl. You can call me Eight.”

author’s notes:

oh you better bet that squod gives his strongest muscles to his shortest inklings

Thank you for reading, and we hope you enjoyed the start of this wild ride! This AU is a collaboration between myself (Bandit) and my buddy @wtfoctagon, of great yuri infamy.

While originally written to be released as a humongous one shot for Pearl-day (hilarious that her day is April Fool's by the way), it grew out of control and turned into a multichapter. Please let us know what you think, and see you very soon for the next chapter!

[cruger2984]

THE DESCRIPTION OF THE BETHANY SIBLINGS Feast Day: July 29

Mary, Martha, and their brother, Lazarus, lived together in Bethany, a small town in Judea, near Jerusalem. They were faithful followers of Jesus, and Jesus loved them very much.

One day while Jesus was visiting them, Martha was busy cleaning the house and preparing food. She wanted to be sure that Jesus was well cared for. Instead of helping Martha, Mary sat at Jesus' feet, listening to Him. The harder Martha worked, the more upset she became with Mary.

Finally, Martha complained: 'Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me!'

Jesus understood Martha's feelings, and He answered tenderly: 'Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.'

Jesus wanted Martha to know that it was important for her to care for her home and that He appreciated all she had done for Him. But it was even more important to learn about God and to grow spiritually.

Some time later Lazarus became seriously ill, and Mary and Martha were worried. They knew that Jesus could make Lazarus well, but He was with His disciples in Peraea. They immediately sent Jesus a message: 'Lord, the one you love is sick.'

When Jesus heard that he said: 'This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.'

Jesus stayed in Peraea two more days. Then he said to his disciples: 'Let us go into Judea again.'

The last time Jesus had been in Judea, the people had threatened to stone Him. They were angry with Him because He said He was the Son of God. Jesus' disciples were worried about His returning to Judaea, and they tried to persuade Him not to go.

But Jesus said: 'Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.'

His disciples did not understand what Jesus meant; they thought Lazarus was just resting. Then Jesus said plainly: 'Lazarus is dead.'

When Jesus and his disciples neared Bethany, they discovered that Lazarus had lain in his tomb for four days. Many of Mary and Martha’s friends were visiting the sisters to comfort them.

Hearing the news of Jesus' arrival, Martha ran to meet Him, crying: 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.'

Tenderly Jesus said: 'Your brother will rise again.' Martha replied: 'I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection.'

Then Jesus taught her an important lesson. He said: 'I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?'

Martha answered: 'Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.'

Martha then returned home and told Mary: 'The Teacher is here, and is asking for you.' Mary left quickly, followed by her friends.

When she reached Jesus, she fell down at his feet, and she, too, said: 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.'

Seeing Mary and her friends weeping, Jesus felt sad and troubled. He asked them where the body of Lazarus was.

While they walked to Lazarus's tomb, Jesus wept, and the people said: 'See how he loved him!'

But some of them said: 'Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?'

Many of the people had seen and heard of the miracles Jesus had performed, and they wondered why He had not saved His dear friend from death. They did not know that Jesus had a reason for letting Lazarus die.

A big stone covered the entrance to the tomb. Jesus said: 'Take away the stone.' Martha hesitated, saying: 'But, Lord, by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.'

Jesus turned and said to Martha: 'Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?' So they took away the stone.

Then Jesus looked up and said: 'Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.'

When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice: 'Lazarus, come forth!'

And Lazarus, still wrapped in his grave clothes, came forth.

Jesus asked the people to unwind the cloth that covered Lazarus's face and arms and legs. Lazarus was alive! He could see and feel and walk and talk. The people were amazed. Never had they seen such a demonstration of power over death.

While there is no further mention of Lazarus in the Bible, the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic traditions offer varying accounts of the later events of his life. He is most commonly associated with Cyprus, where he is said to have become the first bishop of Kition (Larnaka), and Provence, where he is said to have been the first bishop of Marseille.

A further legend relates that Martha then went to Tarascon, France, where a monster, the Tarasque, was a constant threat to the population. The Golden Legend describes it as a beast from Galatia; a great dragon, half beast and half fish, greater than an ox, longer than a horse, having teeth sharp as a sword, and horned on either side, head like a lion, tail like a serpent, that dwelt in a certain wood between Arles and Avignon. Holding a cross in her hand, Martha sprinkled the beast with holy water. Placing her sash around its neck, she led the tamed dragon through the village.

Source: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

[loversindevildom]

hello! I'm not that anon but thank you for the other period-related hcs, if it's okay, may I ask for the brothers' reactions to an MC who doesn't have painful ones, but bleeds A Lot and is terrified of getting communal/the brothers' stuff dirty? people with monster uteruses unite

((Definitely!! Currently on my period while writing this and felt it-

((Also would you look at that, the me is posting again-

Masterlist

The boys x MC with heavy flow

Lucifer

It all began when one of your worst nightmares came true.

You woke up early in the morning having bled all over his sheets.

You were panicking. Badly.

Lucifer was still sound asleep on his side of the bed, having noticed nothing.

Without thinking, you immediately get out of bed and go fast towards the wardrobe to grab some sheets.

You had no idea how you were going to change them without waking Lucifer up but one step at a time.

But he was already awake as soon as he felt you get off the bed. "MC?" He mumbled your name quietly before opening his eyes.

You wished a hole could open underneath your feet and the earth would swallow you. You also happened to be wearing white pijamas and so the blood was obvious all over you.

Lucifer had just woken up and was not thinking straight so his first thought was that someone attacked you or that another demon attempted to eat you and immediately rushed to you and pulled you in his arms. "Who?"

"what?"

"Who hurt you?"

"no one... I'm so sorry!!" You cried in dispair and that's when Lucifer started understanding what was going on.

"It's your menstruation? I thought someone attacked you... It's alright. I'll go fill in the bath for you."

Thankfully you changed the sheets before he realized you got them dirty.

Or so you thought. In reality he had noticed but didn't want to embarass you.

Mammon

He knew you were on your period.

You had told him the moment it came.

But it didn't matter to him much. He didn't know many things about it, only that you're in pain.

"Hey, come on, sit with me." He patted the couch beside him in his room.

He knew you were hurting and he wanted to cuddle you and watch some movies with you and spoil you with chocolate he stole from Beel.

When you shook your head in return, his heart shattered. "I'm not really in that mood."

"B-But! It's your favourite!"

"I'll just go to sleep."

"We can sleep together here."

You sighed and he felt the world twist. You didn't want him anymore? That's it? It was over?

"What did I do?"

"nothing! I just don't want to get blood all over your couch!"

"Ohh..." He felt relieved. That was all. Truth be told, this couch was pretty expensive but you were worth ten times that couch...

"Don't you wear that pad thing you talked about?" After you nodded he added. "Then it's fine. Get your stupid pretty human ass here now. You don't wanna miss the beginning."

Leviathan

He wanted you two to cosplay today.

You had been planning to go to that convention for months.

The day had arrived and he had excitedly changed into his costume only for you to come out and say you're not going.

And he's ???? So confused ????

He thought you wanted this as much as he did.

Did you fake your interest?

"look, Levi, I'm sorry. I was really looking forward to the con but I got my period today."

Ohhhhhhh it was because of that thing. That was a relief.

"it's fine! The con is a week long, we'll go by the end of it. And we can wear the costumes inside and cuddle!"

The idea horrified you.

"NO!" The costumes were amazing and Levi had paid of them. You couldn't ruin it.

"why?" He was confused again.

"I'll get blood all over it. I always get things dirty. You should keep me away from your stuff." After all you knew how much he valued his merch.

Leviathan rolled his eyes and walked over to you. He grabbed your wrist and pulled you down with him. He wrapped a TSL blanket over you and proceeded to play games with you all night.

After all, you were more valuable than all these together.

Satan

You two had visited Devildom's public library to get a book he had ordered for you.

He had seen how fascinated you were as soon as you heard it came out and immediately ordered it for you.

You were looking around the shelves with him while the staff was going to bring you your book when you felt an intense pain on your lower parts.

Looking down you realized blood was leaking everywhere.

Panicking, not sure what to do you hid behind a bookshelf.

Satan panicked as soon as he realized you were gone.

What if another demon had fetched you and eaten you?

"MC?" He called out your name. Once, twice, thrice...

"Here..." You said in embarrassement. You had the idea of using a jacket to cover the mess in your pants. But you had accidentally grabbed his...

When he finds you he was relieved. "There you are, I was worried..." Then he scanned you. "My jacket looks good on you."

You weren't sure how to tell him, so you continued and went all the day back to the house of Lamentation when you immediately put it in the washing machine.

Of course, he had noticed. You had been dripping on the floor.

But being aware this was a normal thing, he decided not to embarass you and make a big deal out of it.

Asmodeus

You were screwed.

You were seriously screwed and not in the good way.

This had been a lesson to you to always keep in mind when your period was coming.

Because the one time you had forgotten, you had wore Asmo's clothes to sleep.

He told you you could use them whenever you wanted.

It made him very happy to see you wearing his clothes and it made you feel very comfortable so why not?

This was the reason not to.

Because waking up that morning, you had gotten blood all over his clothes.

"Shit."

Your exclaim and panic woke him up, but he was too focused on your face to notice the blood at first.

"What happened, my love? Are you okay?"

"I'm so sorry, Asmo!!"

It took him a few seconds but then he realized exactly what you were talking about. He took a deep breath. This was a disaster, but you didn't do it on purpose.

"It's fine. It's your time of the month? Come on we should get you changed. Wanna run a bath together? I can give you a massage too." He winked as he got up to get the water running. He prefered to focus on you than his ruined clothing.

And this, my friends, is called love.

Beelzebub

You were always careful when it was your time of the month not to get anything dirty. Always.

However, the unfortunate day had arrived.

You were in his bed, playing on your DDD while Beel was picking up some food from the kitchen.

And then it happened. The major pain. And you realized you had been bleeding all over his sheets. You should change them before Beel-

Speak of the devil....

Beel walked in happily and let the food down on the tray next to the bed. As he leaned down to put them there he noticed the blood and frowned.

You were scared you had disgusted him.

"are you hurting too badly? I'll bring you some medicine."

Cause he's that sweet.

Diavolo

Yes I will say this every single time I write about this one;

He's busy.

So even if you do get blood in his stuff you'll certainly have time to clean it.

However, fate isn't very nice...

When Diavolo is in his study, he likes to work with you sitting on his lap.

When you felt the sharp pain in your stomach you immediately jumped off his lap and fell on the floor.

"MC? What happened!? Are you okay?" He asked worrily.

You didn't answer him, instead you run towards the bathroom.

Yes, you didn't get anything on him but it was big a jumpscare itself.

Diavolo knocked on your door once. "Dear? What happened?"

"nothing! It's fine, my period just came!"

He was silent for a bit. You thought he left but as soon as you opened the door he was standing right there and he hugged you. "I see... Come on, let's go back. I promise we'll cuddle when Im done."

"I'll get blood all over you!" You argued back.

In response he picked you up and walked back to his chair where he made you sit on him again.

Simeon

Simeon is such a sweetheart.

He probably has already noted your circle on his calendar.

He remembers when it's that time of the month always.

Usually, so do you.

Usually.

You had miscalculated this time. You thought it was due for next week and so you had wore a nice white dress for your date with Simeon.

He wasn't sure what to say. He thought you looked gorgeous in that one but...

"Sweetheart, are you sure? I love the way the dress looks at you but I don't want you to feel bad if it gets dirty."

You were so confused. "What?"

"You said you avoid wearing white when it's that time of the month... Unless you're late? Oh my lord, are you late?" His eyes were shining and that's when you realized what he meant.

"shit! No I am not! Wait here!" You rushed back into your room to get changed and indeed found blood between your legs.

You couldn't find yourself feeling bad tho.

All you could thinking about was the way Simeon's eyes had shined at the thought of being a father.

Solomon

As a human like yourself, he treats it much more normal than the others do.

He doesn't treat you any different then really, unless you're in pain.

Then you're getting backrubs.

You were sitting on the couch with him and he was telling you a story about how he first formed a pact.

When he was finished you felt the need to go to the bathroom.

Then you noticed the red stain in your pants.

Shit that was a lot of blood. Had you gotten it on the chair too?

Thankfully, when you returned it was gone.

And thankfully, Solomon knew magic to clean it quicker.

[griffintail]

A Day in the Life (Lost Ones)

Summary: A day with the new parents and how some of their friends reaction to their new bit of joy. 

Pairings: Platonic! Parental! Tommy, Wilbur, Philza, Technoblade, Eret, and Dream x F! Child! Reader

Previous | Next

Warnings : (In Phil’s Specifically) Death, Violence. (Generally) Swearing

A/N: Just so you know (F/L) means First Letter of your first name. Hope you guys enjoy! ♥

Tommy

        Tommy didn’t know what the fuck he was doing.

        Tubbo was even more clueless.

        When Tommy first came onto Tubbo’s doorstep frantically talking about being a father with a crying baby, Tubbo was in a state of great concern for his best friend. Tubbo knew Tommy as a scammer and a very…bold individual, to put it nicely. He did not think his friend had what it took to be any sort of fatherly figure. He was just too young and he was too…outgoing.

        The first day, the pair worked hard to figure out how to make the infant stop crying. They found out she just needed food and a diaper change. Tommy had groaned in relief, sitting on Tubbo’s floor as he held the baby feeding her the milk. From there, Tubbo questioned where he even found a child.

        “She was abandoned in a basket, in a tree. I decided to be a big man about it and take her in.”

        “Are you crazy? Tommy, you didn’t even know her gender until two minutes ago.”

        “Shut up.” Tommy huffed looking at his friend as he stopped giving (Y/N) milk for the moment. “I can figure it out, I’m still new to this Tubbo.”

        “I think maybe we should give her to one of the other guys. We don’t know what to do, we just ran around my house for five minutes trying to make her stop crying for god’s sake.”

        “I’ll figure it out! Even without your help.” Tommy looked back down at the infant, continuing to feed her.

        So, Tubbo went along with it. Tommy was stubborn and to make sure the baby didn’t get hurt, Tubbo said he’d help his friend. To be fair, they didn’t have to do much, it was just a lot of work to do the few things and barely any time to do the same adventures they use to do.

        Tommy was determined to do most of it on his own, only going to Tubbo when he was desperate for help. Which were a few times a week. He got better and better though, learning what (Y/N) needed and when.

        Tommy had managed to make a crib all on his own (with a couple of tries) and he discovered, (Y/N) liked her crib at the end of his bed. She just liked being close to Tommy often and he actually didn’t mind. He was proud to show off his baby.

        When he had shown her off to the others, they had all been in various bits of shock. Of course, when he first introduced her, the first thing he shouted was always;

        “I’m a father now bitch! Meet (Y/N)!”

        As he would, (Y/N) would giggle and babble, his excited energy rubbing off on her. After their various bits of shock (and Bad telling him to watch his language even more now that there was a baby), they would indeed think (Y/N) was cute but give him the same advice as Tubbo. Give her to an adult.

        “None of them! None of them think I can take care of you.” Tommy huffed as (Y/N) finished her milk for the hour. “Isn’t that ridiculous?”

        Tommy did struggle often. He didn’t get as much sleep as he once did, he stayed inside with (Y/N) more. It was a big change, but he was taking it seriously despite all his jokes. Just, no one could see it because they only saw Tommy as a child.

        “Well, they’re all idiots. I know I have this.” Tommy told the infant as he sat back in bed, holding her. “Right Little (F/L)?”

        (Y/N) squirmed slightly, babbling and Tommy smiled.

        “Right! It’s that time.” He grinned as he stood up, going into his chests next to his jukebox.

        As he pulled out one of his discs, Tubbo knocked on the door as he came in.

        “Hey, am I interrupting?” He asked.

        “No, you’re actually in time Big T!” Tommy said as he put the red labeled disc on.

        “For what?” Tubbo questioned confused as Tommy sat down.

        The music started to play and (Y/N) relaxed in Tommy’s arms. Tommy smiled softly, gently rocking her in his arms as he hummed along to the music. Tubbo was staring in amazement from behind Tommy’s seat.

        “Do you…do you do this often?”

        “Of course.” Tommy grinned at his best friend. “She’s got to learn great music. And look, she loves it so much she falls asleep.”

        He was correct as when Tubbo looked, (Y/N) was giving a tiny yawn as she nuzzled into Tommy.

        “Every day after lunch, I play the disc I got when I found her and she takes a nap.” Tommy quieted down; startling Tubbo as Tommy never quieted down. “I want to find more to let her hear more.”

        Tommy put her down in her crib once she was fully asleep, motioning to the door. They both left as the music kept playing.

        “We should go get more discs tomorrow.” Tommy declared, keeping his voice level as he went through his chests. “(Y/N) needs to hear them all and I want to have them all.”

        “You…do that every day?” Tubbo said, still caught up on Tommy’s gentleness.

        Tommy rolled his eyes. “Of course, I do. (Y/N) likes it and I like it so that’s our routine Tubbo. Sometimes it takes a while though and I have to move around the room.”

        He didn’t mention that he danced to the music with her though, laughing with her as she would giggle, slightly embarrassed about the cute routine.

        “So, are we going to go out tomorrow and get some discs or not?” Tommy grinned at his friend.

        Tubbo stood there, thinking over what he had just seen. He thought about how he was actually wrong about Tommy. His best friend really cared about the girl; his own little girl. Tommy had acted drastically different than what he usually did to make sure she was well and happy. The taller boy was actually taking this very seriously and Tubbo couldn’t help but be proud of his friend.

        “Tubbo.” Tommy snapped his fingers, looking at him disapprovingly.

        “Oh, yeah. Let’s get some discs tomorrow. It’s been forever since we’ve gone on an adventure.” Tubbo smiled.

        He thought Tommy could do this whole dad thing right.

        …

        Then he slightly regretted his words in the morning when Tommy showed up with the little girl and his adventuring gear.

        “We are not taking (Y/N). It’s dangerous Tommy!” Tubbo protested.

        “Nothing will happen to her; I wouldn’t let it. Neither would you. And try and say no to this face.” Tommy showed her off, grinning. “Come on now Uncle Tubbo.”

        Tubbo paused, getting slightly giddy. “Uncle Tubbo?”

        “Of course! Now! Let’s go get some discs!” Tommy took lead.

        “…Wait! You distracted me!” Tubbo called exasperated as he followed his best friend.

        (Y/N) giggled as Tommy grinned wider. Tommy was stubborn but in the case of being a father, it was a good thing as it meant his baby would grow up healthy and happy and he could care less about what others would say.

          Wilbur

        L’Manberg didn’t have many secrets but it had one well-guarded one. That would be the simple fact that (Y/N) existed.

        After the first night with the new baby, Wilbur had gathered all the men inside the van.

        “Time to greet the people little one.” He smiled as he heard the commotion of Tommy trying to command the others.

        Coming out, he put on a serious face as everyone went quiet. Of course, Eret and Fundy already knew. The teenager had his arms crossed, looking away from his father and new sister, as Eret gave a small smile. The other two of L’Manberg…

        “Did you fuck another fish?!” Tommy shouted in exasperation to his brother.

        Fundy gave Tommy an offended glare as (Y/N) squirmed at the sudden loud noise.

        “Tommy, quiet down now,” Wilbur told him as he gently rocked the little girl, Tubbo awing at how adorable she was. “Eret found her left outside the walls last night. I’m taking her in as she was obviously abandoned. So, meet the first woman of L’Manberg, (Y/N).”

        “(Y/N) is a wonderful name.” Eret smiled a bit wider.

        “She’s so cute and small,” Tubbo said, taking a step closer to get a better look at her.

        Tommy huffed, already bored as Fundy simply stayed quiet.

        “That being said, we are in the middle of a war.”

        The weight of everything came back to rest on their shoulders as everyone with a smile stopped holding one. It was a dangerous time for all of them, no one able to leave the walls without a friend. Walls that were supposed to mean their freedom.

        “That’s why no one must know (Y/N) exists. She must be a secret from all of the Dream SMP. They’ve shown how ruthless they can be and I don’t want to think about what they’d do if they knew about her. So, beyond these walls, (Y/N) doesn’t exist.”

        Everyone gave a nod at the same time as (Y/N) had started to play with the ruffles on Wilbur’s uniform. He smiled gently as her as he took her hand, letting her play with his finger instead before looking dead serious at his men again.

        “I can’t have just a nod. I need you to be verbal. This will not be taken lightly.”

        Tommy spoke first as he gave a salute. “You have my word, Wilbur!”

        Wilbur cracked a small smile; he could always rely on his little brother. “Good, now quiet down a bit.”

        From there, it was a chorus of promises and she was their biggest secret that united them. Not even a traitor would dare breath word of her place in their walls.

        The men could see a difference in their leader every day since then.

        He left the van more often, actually going to his own home in the walls. Daily, everyone would see him carrying (Y/N) with him in her own little uniform he made on a walk within the walls. He sang more often like he used to before the declaration of war was made in order to soothe the little girl or simply to make her smile. There was a reason for him to relax and be soft and everyone was rather glad after all the weight he had been forced to hold.

        Wilbur also saw the change in his men as the days went on.

        Tubbo found joy with such an adorable new addition. He would sometimes join Wilbur on his daily walks within the walls to have a chance to hold the small girl. The young boy loved to also give her little gifts, usually toys he thought she’d like. He was very excited when Wilbur told him that she slept with a bee plushie he had gotten her.

        Tommy was curious about her. Such a small thing, he was certain he was way bigger than her when he was that young. Wilbur let him hold her on the occasion if Tommy asked, but wouldn’t wonder if Tommy was holding her. He had faith in his little brother, but his eccentric energy just put Wilbur a little on edge. Often, Tommy would brag to the little girl that he’d be the coolest uncle and teach her many swear words when she got older, much to Wilbur’s dismay.

        Eret did like the little girl, he really did as she was such a precious little thing, but he tried not to put too much attachment to her. He had begun…he had begun a different path and he didn’t want to also betray the little girl. And, the more separation he felt from her, the easier it was to lie about her existence. Though, there was the occasion he would do the same as Tubbo and gave her a toy or two, unable to help it as it put a smile on his face.

        Fundy was different. He had been an only child for most of his life and now he had a little sister? It was only natural that he was jealous and sulked at all the attention she got from their father. Their father did try to include Fundy though; inviting every day on their walks, offering to let her feed instead, asking to play his piano while Wilbur sang. Unfortunately, Fundy wanted nothing to do with his little sister, often saying he hated her, which repeatedly broke Wilbur’s heart but he had faith; he’d change his son’s mind.

        “I’m trying to have a peace talk with Dream today,” Wilbur told Fundy as he shrugged on his jacket while Fundy was sitting in the front seat of the van.

        “Ok, and?” Fundy looked up at him.

        “I’m taking Tubbo and Eret, Tommy’s staying guard and you.” Wilbur handed him a piece of paper. “And you are taking care of your sister.”

        “What?! What the hell?” Fundy exclaimed, jumping up.

        Wilbur put the paper in Fundy’s hand. “I have to go and try and make peace. I have faith in you son. (Y/N) would love to spend time with you anyways. Take good care of her alright? I don’t trust Tommy to watch her for so long but if you really need help, get him.”

        “What…Why do I have to watch the brat?”

        Wilbur gave him a stern look. “Fundy, she is your little sister. She is a part of our family. And family takes care of each other. Now, I want you to be nice to her and take care of her. Understood?”

        Fundy clenched his jaw, shoving his hands in pockets. “Yeah, yeah.”

        “Good.” Wilbur smiled at him now. “She’s still sleeping in my room. That paper is what she needs and when. You can do anything with her in-between. I’ll see you in a few hours my son.”

         Wilbur left; his heart heavy as this was the first time he’d leave (Y/N) alone but hope helping it float as he hoped Fundy could love his sister as Wilbur loved her.

        Fundy went into his father’s bedroom and saw the little girl already waking up slightly. He gave a heavy sigh as he picked her up carefully, holding her close.

        “I hate you.” He muttered as she looked up at him.

        The little girl giggled and he lowered his head. She gave pet to his face to feel the soft fur.

        “I hate you’re too fucking adorable to hate.” He huffed. “Just don’t tell dad. Now, come on dipshit, time to eat.”

        Fundy was jealous, yes. But he could never actually hate his adorable little sister. He’d keep her safe and make her happy too.

        Wilbur got back later than he expected as Dream and his goons had chased their peaceful band like sport but they managed out relatively unscathed. The moon was already up and Wilbur was worried as he hadn’t written instructions for this long in the night for Fundy. After Tommy reported no incidents along the walls, Wilbur rushed home but froze, his heart-melting. In the living room, there was a long finished playing record on the jukebox and on the couch, Fundy laid with his arm over (Y/N) securely as she laid on his chest, both of them asleep.

        “Thank you, my little champion,” Wilbur muttered with a smile, gently picking (Y/N) up before putting a blanket over Fundy. “I’m proud of you.”

        Wilbur held (Y/N) close to him as he walked to his bedroom.

        “And you, my little star, a day won’t go by where you won’t be loved. You’re our little star of hope in L’Manberg. You remind everyone what we fight for and you bring everyone smiles. We will bring peace, just so you can see how bright you shine my little star.” He kissed her forehead before putting her in her crib. “Sleep well love.”

          Philza

        Walking took longer than flying but it was definitely safer for his new little angel. He had tried to find her parents, asking around with the survivors but they weren’t there. So, Phil took her with him to meet his sons. When he started this journey, of the list of things he’d thought would happen, he didn’t think he’d gain a new child. Yet, there she slept peacefully in the sash Phil had made to carry her and keep her warm rather than carrying her in his arms the entire walk.

        She most certainly quieter than most of his other children had been when they were this small, which Phil did not mind one bit. When she was awake, he would talk to her to fill her world though. He’d tell her about her new brothers and how he was sure they’d all love her in their own way.

        “Techno will take a little convincing, he has a thing about orphans.” Phil scrunched up his nose. “But he’ll learn to you like you (Y/N).”

        He hadn’t been able to find a name either for the new baby so he gave her one on his own.

        Finally, after days of travel, Phil reached a crest of a hill and was able to see a beautiful town laid before him. From the looks of some decorations, they had some sort of festival recently. The worrying part was the people in armor down below, but, a large portion of them were celebrating. Phil scanned them over then he grew a large smile. Wilbur was patting Tommy’s shoulder as the younger boy was screaming with one of those celebrating, Techno to the side smirking.

        His sons had managed to figure it all out.

        “Looks like we were a little late angel. Your brothers can be smart when they choose to be.” He chuckled. “We’ll wait here and let them have their moment of victory.”

        He sat on the edge of the hill, giving (Y/N) her afternoon milk as he watched the crowd below and listened to the start of celebratory speeches. As he quickly burped the infant, he frowned as Wilbur left his seat in the crowd, walking away as Tubbo was getting on stage.

        “Let’s go see what he’s up to.” He muttered to the little girl, putting her in his sash securely before carefully flying over.

        He landed as Wilbur walked into a room in a hill behind the stage. His eyes went wide as he remembered one of Tommy’s letters.

        Will keeps saying if he can’t have L’Manberg, no one can. He made a room rigged to TNT under our nation. I’m hoping to talk him down but I don’t know if I can.

        “Shit.” Phil sprinted over, walking into the room after his son.

        Inside were mad scribblings as Wilbur stood with his hand on the wall next to a button.

        “What are you doing?” Phil asked him.

        Wilbur jumped, whirling around to see his father standing there, wearing a sash, unable to see the child it was holding.

        “Phil…?”

        “What are you doing?” Phil repeated.

        Wilbur ran his hands through his hair as he looked back at the button then his father.

        “How’d you…do you know what this is?” He motioned to the room around him.

        “I do.” Phil nodded, stepping carefully forward.

        “Have heard the songs on the walls?” Wilbur asked in turn as he ran his hand over a few of the words. “I was just saying to myself, there was a special place where men can go, but there’s not anymore! It’s not…” Wilbur sighed as he looked back at the button.

        “It is there,” Phil told him as he put a hand on the side of the child to calm her down as she squirmed. “You just, you’ve just won it back.”

        “Phil! I’m always so close to pressing this button, Phil! I’ve been—I’ve been here like seven or eight times I’ve been here.” Wilbur threw up his arms as Phil stood his ground when he saw the crazed look in his son’s eyes.

        The little girl tried to give an uncomfortable babble at the loud shouting but Wilbur talked over her, having yet to notice the extra body in the room. In comfort, Phil put a hand over one of her ears as he pressed her close to him.

        “Phil I-I’ve been here so many times.” Outside of the room, they all could hear the sound of fireworks going off. “They’re fighting. They’re fighting.”

        “And you want to just blow it all up?” Phil questioned.

        “I do I think I—”

        “You fought so hard to get this land back.” Phil tried to discourage one of his older sons. “So hard.”

        “I don’t even, I don’t even know if works anymore Phil,” Wilbur said, his hand hovering over the button, making Phil take a step forward. “I don’t even know if the button works I could, I could press it and might not…”

        Wilbur looked back, grinning like a mad man and Phil squeezed the young girl lightly.

        “Do you really want to take that risk? Wilbur…” He went to continue to say, hoping to bring up his new little sister to discourage the man but Wilbur looked away, staring at the button.

        “There was a saying Phil, by a traitor. It was never meant to be.” Wilbur pressed the button, grinning at Phil as the hiss went off.

        “No!” Phil shouted, quickly pulling his son close as he covered the three of them his wings as the blast went off.

        He winced as the blast and the heat singed and damaged his feathers but he didn’t move as he held his two children close. He wouldn’t let them get harmed.

        The sound of white noise rang in their ears as the explosions slowly stopped. Phil raised his wings slightly to look in horror at the destruction before them. Outside their half-destroyed room, Phil slowly started to hear the voices crying with terror at what they just witnessed as Wilbur stood before the hole holding his arms out as he grinned.

        “My L’Manberg Phil! My unfinished symphony forever unfinished! If I can’t have this no one can Phil!”

        “Oh my god.” Phil breathed, the ringing dying down enough for him to be startled at the cries closest to him.

        (Y/N) screamed out cries in the aftermath of the loud explosions and shouting, her own ears ringing. Phil held her close, trying to calm her down despite his horror and disappointment. Wilbur finally heard the cries himself and looked over to finally notice the little girl. For a moment, he could see through his madness.

        “Who’s…who’s this?” Wilbur muttered.

        “She’s (Y/N),” Phil told him as he put his forehead on the little girl’s. “I came to help you and found her. I brought her to show her what her new brothers made. What great work you’ve done.”

        “What great…” Wilbur looked over at what he had done.

        Behind him, he could hear the cries of his new tiny sister he hadn’t been aware he had. Phil had brought her to show her a place of peace and beauty, but instead, Wilbur showed her terror and destruction. Across the explosion, he could see Tommy’s horror-struck face at the sight of their once great nation gone. This was his fault…

        He pulled his sword, holding the handle to Will. “Kill me, Phil.”

        “What?!” Phil looked at his son shocked, still clutching onto the crying girl.

        “Stab me with the sword. Murder me now. Kill me!” Will demanded as he motioned to the crowd. “Look, they all want you to!”

        Phil was stood in shock as he held a crying child in one arm while looking over at the crowd of terrified and horror-filled faces.

        “Kill me, Phil!” Wilbur shouted.

        “I—You’re my son!” Phil yelled. “No matter what you do—I can’t—”

        “Phil!” Wilbur shouted, shoving the sword handle into his hand. “This isn’t—! Look! Look! How much work went into this and it’s gone! Do it.”

        Phil looked from his son to the crowd, to the child in his arms. He couldn’t…why’d…(Y/N) should get a chance to meet her own brother! L’Manberg had ruined his son. He had gone mad…

        “I’m sorry.” He whispered under his breath before plunging the sword.

        Tears filled Phil’s eyes as he let go of the sword and held his son. (Y/N)’s wails only got louder and Phil cried with her.

        “I’m sorry, I’m sorry both of you.” He muttered

        He wished everything could be different…

        …

        Phil sat by the fire with the L’Manberg citizens, one of his hands shaking slightly as the other gently rocked the no longer crying child.

        Tommy had been speechless since the betrayal he received from both of his brothers, but looking up at his father across from him, he stood and spoke.

        “Who’s she?” He asked.

        Phil looked at him as the others looked over as well.

        “This is your new little sister (Y/N). I found her when the village I was staying at was raided and I saved her. Would you like to hold her?”

        Tommy came over and sat in front of his father. Phil helped him before letting his now second youngest hold her on his own. Tommy’s face had held no emotion after everything today but now it softened as the little girl met his eyes. He hugged her lightly as Phil held onto his shaking hand with his other to stop it.

        “I wish you could have seen what L’Manberg looked like (Y/N),” Tommy mumbled to her. “Wilbur and Techno betrayed me but I promise. I won’t betray you. I never will do that to you.”

        Phil looked at his son sadly as Tommy put his forehead on hers softly. At least Phil knew that she’d be well-loved by the brother she got to meet properly.

        From there, the next few days were made for rebuilding. Phil helped the group as best he could but he had to rest to let his wings heal and he also had to take care of his little angel. Tommy made sure the others built Phil one of the first houses so his sister could be in a proper bed.

        It warmed Phil’s heart that Tommy cared so much about his new little sister. Tommy would visit the pair occasionally just to see her, Phil giving him a little bit of trust to take care of her. Of course, Tommy used that trust to be his usual self and brag about how cute his little sister was to anyone that would listen to the boy’s antics. Though many couldn’t deny the boy, she was a very cute little girl and often brought smiles to other’s faces.

        Phil was glad that his quiet little girl could bring joy to people that had been through so much. He just wished that she had had a chance to bring smiles to those that didn’t walk beside them any more…

          Technoblade

        “Phil,” Techno called on his walkie, trying to quiet down the girl crying in his arms.

        “Yes?” Phil answered.

        “She won’t stop crying,” Techno told him, Phil, able to hear the girl, chuckling quietly to himself. “Don’t laugh at this!”

        “Sorry, sorry. Alright, you feed and changed her right?” The older man listed.

        “Yes.” He had done it a few minutes ago, on his usual schedule to do so.

        “Did you burp her after she ate?”

        Techno paused and huffed before burping the child, the cries dying down after she released the gas that had built up.

        “I forgot, she stopped.”

        “Good. Just relax now, alright Techno?”

        “Yeah.” Techno sighed as he put his walkie away, looking down at the little girl. “What now brat?”

        It was often that Techno called his father to ask what to do. To put it simply, he was worried he’d fuck this all up. He had never exactly taken care of a child before; it had been all anarchy and blood before he decided on retirement. Hell, he barely ever took care of Tommy when he was a child, that was usually Wilbur’s thing.

        He didn’t know the first thing he was doing nor did the voices. They always threw out different ideas contradicting each other. So, Techno always did his best and when it didn’t seem like enough, he went immediately to Phil.

        When he did have things under control though, it was just any other day. Brew some potions out of habit, take care of the animals before collecting food for himself and milk for (Y/N), and trade with some of the villagers close by. The only difference was that he brought (Y/N) with him while he did anything.

        To his relief, she was a quiet child and didn’t mind his quiet nature. She didn’t need pointless noise to be happy so he could just simply work. Techno did get Phil to make her a warmer outfit and Phil took it seriously but also made it a joke. He made her a pink outfit from wool and leather and with a bit extra, put fake pig ears on the hood of the outfit, which Techno would never admit looked adorable on her out loud.

        He most certainly didn’t put it on her even if they weren’t going out that day, why would anyone think that?

        Phil most certainly did spoil her though when he would come over. He’d always have something new for the little girl, clothes, and toys. His father also often tried to discourage Techno from using some of his nicknames for his child when the older man was over, such as brat.

        (Y/N) yawned quietly and Techno chuckled, a small smile cracking on his face.

        “Tired early huh? Yeah, ok, I can use a nap.” He nodded as he went up to his bedroom.

        He sat on his bed, leaning back on the headboard as he racked his brain for their daily ritual.

        “I got a good one today.” He laughed quietly. “Let me tell you about the story of Theseus.”

        Every nap and bedtime, there was always a story for Techno to tell. Sometimes he’d tell her about his adventures around the world, about the places he conquered. There were other days when he’d tell her about myths he had memorized. It was when he’d talk the most to the little girl and he rather enjoyed these moments in his day.

        It was their special little thing and he wouldn’t ever want to miss them.

        Close to the end of the story, he stopped as he noticed (Y/N) was asleep. He nodded as he laid back, resting her carefully on his chest.

        A crib was one thing Techno had not invested his time in. He didn’t move in his sleep and it was rare for the little girl to move in hers. So, he slept with her on his chest, giving him and the voices a better piece of mind. No one knew where he was, but he was still paranoid. This was the safest place for her.

        “Sleep well little goddess,” Techno muttered, a hand on her back.

        Despite the trials, he didn’t mind being a father.

          Eret

        Eret put a small flower crown on the infant’s head that matched the one he was wearing, smiling as she giggled, before picking her up, continuing on their daily walk through the SMP.

        It was a lot of trial and error with the pair but Eret was a quick learner and adapted to the needs of his new child. He didn’t do as much as he once did with his friends, fewer prank wars with Fundy, and less involvement with Tommy’s antics, but he didn’t mind. He spent those hours with his little princess now; taking walks with her, playing with her along the way and in the castle, and making clothes that made her the adorable princess that she.

        Of course, he did still sometimes get involved.

        “Eret!” Tommy yelled on the walkie.

        Eret chuckled as he took it from his pocket. “It seems Tommy is having troubles again princess.” She gave a babble and Eret nodded. “You’re very right. Let’s see what he needs. Yes, Tommy?”

        “I need your help at my base ASAP!” Tommy demanded.

        “It’s nothing dangerous right?” He asked.

        “Of course not, now if you could hurry.”

        He shook his head chuckling. “Alright, I’m on my way.”

        Putting the walkie away, he hugged his little girl lightly as he changed direction.

        “Sorry princess, we need to go check on Tommy. I know you won’t mind though.”

        There were other times that had happened similarly and Eret would take (Y/N) with him to meet the younger boy. The younger boy’s energy would rub off on the infant and she would get excited as well, babbling and giggling constantly. As long as nothing dangerous was going on, Eret was glad to bring (Y/N) over as it always brought a smile to his face at how adorable she’d get.

        Walking onto Tommy's property, he saw the young boy waiting impatiently outside his dirt home.

        “There you are! You brought the brat?” He huffed.

        “Come now, Tommy. (Y/N) loves being around you, at least be kind to her.” Eret smiled, knowing the boy meant no ill will.

        “Right, now!” Tommy said dramatically as he opened the door to his base. “I need to make a plan!”

        Following him in, he saw Tubbo was also there looking over a paper with Tommy’s handwriting on it. Tubbo looked up as they came in and grinned seeing the little girl in Eret’s arms.

        “You brought (Y/N)!” Tubbo exclaimed excitedly as he came over. “Can I hold her?”

        Eret laughed as he nodded, helping the other boy hold her. Tubbo enjoyed seeing the little girl, loving to play with her and spend time with her. There were times when Eret would let Tubbo babysit his princess so he could do a few more dangerous tasks.

        “You got a little crown, you’re really a princess now.” Tubbo grinned as the girl babbled at him.

        “We’re not here for (Y/N), we’re here to plan!” Tommy protested now.

        Tommy didn’t mind the small child, he just got annoyed when the focus would come off him.

        Focus went back on Tommy but Eret left after a little while to give (Y/N) her lunch for the day. She had gotten energetic after seeing the two boys, babbling and giggling as Eret played with her on the walk back. As they got back to his castle, he saw a wrapped package and note at the main door. Picking it up, he saw it was Fundy’s handwriting.

        You stand no chance, it’s for (Y/N)

        He raised an eyebrow, opening the package then laughed.

        “It seems Fundy wishes to make you love him more than me.” Eret showed her the fox plushy, making her eyes sparkle as he gave it to her. “But I know that you’ll always love me, princess.” He booped her nose, (Y/N) looking at his sunglasses, babbling. “That’s right. I think this prank was an automatic failure. I love you princess.”

          Dream

        “Come on (Y/N), you just got to hold out your hands to me,” Sapnap told the infant in the crib at the community house.

        “No, she’s going to me,” George argued.

        The little girl looked between the two as they went between bickering and encouraging her to hold her hands out to them. Then she looked directly between them and held her arms out giggling.

        “What?” George looked behind them and yelped seeing Dream.

        “What are you idiots doing?” Dream laughed as he picked up his daughter.

        “We were trying to get (Y/N) to choose her favorite uncle, but then you ruined it.” Sapnap huffed, crossing his arms.

        “Well, I am her favorite person.” Dream bragged as he pulled his mask up while looking at the little girl. “Peek-a-boo.”

        The girl gave a little squeal of laughter and Dream chuckled rubbing his nose against hers.

        “She loves both of you idiots.” Dream told them, put his mask back on. “You’re her uncles.”

        “Yeah, but I got to prove Uncle Sapnap is the best.” Sapnap pointed to himself.

        “No! I’m better than you of course.”

        The two bickered and Dream shook his head at his friends before leaving the community house.

        “Your uncles are stupid.” Dream whispered to the little girl, tickling her stomach making her giggle. “Why don’t we go look at what the new people have built today, sound good sweetheart?”

        After Dream had taken in the little girl, his life had most certainly brightened more as their world around them grew. She was a constant ball of happiness that always made Dream and his friends smile. Of course, they had to power through learning how to take care of a baby, a lot of screaming coming from all parties the first night they had the child. But they were starting to get the hang of it.

        One thing Dream loved to do that always seemed to please the little girl was taking her around to see the new buildings that were slowly starting to appear as more people joined their land of the SMP. She seemed to like taking in the new sights so Dream took her whenever someone new came or a new build appeared.

        “I don’t know what I’m going to do with your uncles when you get older. They’re going to be falling over each other to get your attention.” Dream told her as he walked. “I think they think I’ll like whoever wins. You’re my special little girl after all. But what they don’t know, is I don’t care as long as you’re happy.”

        It was very true that Dream’s two best friends were always falling each other to get the attention of the infant already. They got her many things to win her over, having similar competitions when Dream wasn’t looking. Right now, the score was even.

        To try and balance the two-out, Dream would alternate on who he took out for dangerous adventures and who would stay with his little girl. He couldn’t send the both of them on their own, unfortunately, least one of them “trips” into a lava pool.

        Dream stopped on the edge of the new property, (Y/N) looking at the colorful flowers decorating it.

        He was a bit hesitant to show her off to others as he wasn’t the most trusting but if they were going to be part of his land, he would introduce her out principle. He did say she was going to be the princess of his land.

        “No new faces today doesn’t seem Tommy is around.” Dream said to her. “We’ll see him later I’m sure. How about we go visit Punz for a bit?”

        He walked away from the property. There were so many people on his land now, he was sure it would become a bright place where his little princess could always be happy.

Lost Ones Taglist: @kakamihasatmblr​ @ialexabsuniverse​ @teaguecosmos​ @chaosofsmarty​

A/N: If you want to be in this taglist I have a post on my page you can reply on or just send me an ask :)

[strawberrymilkgeorge]

Part Nine. Minecraft Dating 101

warnings: swearing, mostly super freaking fluffy but some oopsies at the end (which is the barely-there angst that i mentioned before!!), pet names?? if that bothers you??? (like...... one or both of them might use baby.........) word count: 5.3k (not including pictures)

behind the screen (irl dream x f!reader) series masterlist ultimate masterlist

A/N: HEHEH SORRY ITS SO LONG SORRY hope you guys like it!!!! hope it lives up to your standards of minecraft dates lol also thank you guys all for all your suggestions!!! i loved all of them so much!!!! i would have added every idea except this was already 5k words so its much less “flirting” and more so “oh gosh im so nervous what am i supposed to do” from both of them so hehe i think thats more endearing anyway

**********

The familiar sound of a FaceTime call connecting rang in Y/n's ears and she held her phone up to her face. "Hi, Karl," she sighed.

"Y/N!!" he said with a cackle. "ARE YOU READY FOR YOUR DATE?!"

"Shut up, I'm doing this for you."

"I already gave you the tour though so really you could back out. You're choosing to stay." His voice was teasing and giddy. "Why's that, hmm?"

Heat rose instantly to Y/n's face. "Because I'm a woman of my word?"

"OkaAaAyy," he sang. "Or because you liiiiikeee himmm."

"Shhhut up, Karl. No, I don't."

"Suuuure."

"Is this why you called me?"

He giggled. "Yeah, but—"

Y/n disconnected the call and set her phone down with a small laugh and a shake of her head.

With her stream started and her chat greeted, the donation limit raised to $100 (both because she didn't want to be flooded with questions on the date and because she didn't want people to donate their hard-earned money), Y/n logged onto Dream's SMP and found the voice call Dream was in, George's name right under his.

After she clicked it to join, a small gasp emitted from her headphones before she heard Dream mutter something. "Get out, get out, leave."

George's voice was normal. "But I wanna—"

"GEORGE!" Dream yelled, making Y/n giggle.

"Fine!" George yelled back. "Have fun you two," he sang like Karl did before a sound from Discord told them that he left.

It was silent for a second before, "Hi."

"Hi." She giggled. "What was that about?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing. Just some last minute, uh, setting up."

She hummed, amused at the sound of his frantic voice.

"So, um... are you ready for our date?"

"I don't even know where you are. I'm still in my house."

"Knock, knock," he said with a laugh. Y/n turned to see green peeking through the cutouts on her oak door and she laughed.

She ran to the door and opened it for him, revealing Dream in a slightly altered version of his Minecraft skin. He looked the same, except the white blob appeared to be wearing a necktie of some sort. "You look ridiculous," she admitted with a smile. "Wait, is this a fancy date? Should I change my skin?"

"It's not fancy, I just wanted to look my best for the prettiest girl in the world."

"Ohmygosh," she muttered to herself, hoping that writing off his charming words and actions as annoying would make her face not heat up as much. So far, it hadn't worked. Two minutes in and she was already blushing like a schoolgirl whose crush asked her to play tag at recess. "So, I'm not underdressed?"

"No, you're always perfect."

She didn't comment, opting for an eye-roll instead. Truthfully, she wanted to flirt back with him, try to make his heart beat fast like hers already was, but she was worried her words wouldn't come off joking and that the true intention would be obvious, that he'd be able to breeze right past the jovial tone and hear the sincerity in her words. Wait, true intention? What was her true intention? Her true intention should obviously be to just joke around and have some fun, but deep down she knew the motivation for teasing him came from somewhere different, somewhere more meaningful.

She wanted to tease him because she wanted to be the one to make him blush, to make him trip over his words and not know what to do with his hands.

Why? Well, she was still figuring that out.

"If you're ready, follow me, ma'am."

"Where are you taking me?" she asked as she followed his character down prime path.

"Hmmm..." he mused. "A secret, obviously."

"Obviously," she scoffed. She noticed that he was several blocks ahead of her and she smiled to herself. "Hey, Dream?"

"Hm?" he asked, spinning to face her as he ran backward.

"I don't know how many dates you've been on, but usually people walk together. You know, gives them an excuse to maybe hold hands or at least enjoy each other's company?" She made sure her voice had just the right balance of teasing and seriousness, curious as to how he would respond.

"I, uh... oh."

"Unless you want me to just meet you there. I mean, you're practically running away from me."

"I'm just excited!" he excused, stopping briefly so she could catch up with him.

"But look at how many beautiful things there around us to look at while we get to where we're going!" she told him. "Well, maybe not that," she said with a laugh as she punched her fist towards Tommy's dirt house. "But other things."

Dream laughed and continued to walk next to her like she requested, pausing if he ever got too far ahead. "How can I look at all those when the most beautiful thing is walking right next to me?"

She's never rolled her eyes so hard in her life. "Shut up," she mumbled as she punched him.

"OW! BUG!"

"That was supposed to be a pat on the arm but Minecraft only has one level of hitting and it's a punch. Sorry."

Dream wheezed briefly before containing his laughter. "This way," he instructed, getting off the path and starting into the woods.

"Oh, really you're trying to kill me. That's why you didn't want me to wear anything nice. Didn't want me to ruin any of my fancy stuff."

"Foiled my plans," he joked lightly. "Okay but really, um, I was thinking—well, so you already have a house but I was thinking we could build one together. Or build something, I don't know. But you're really good at building and I know you really enjoy it so I thought maybe you could show—like, teach me and then later I'll teach you something and then we can have a little picnic dinner."

Y/n smiled at her nervousness. "Hey, that actually sounds really fun!"

"What? What do you mean actually?" He laughed. "What, did you expect me to plan something boring?"

She laughed over his dramatic pouting. "No, but I mean, I didn't know what to expect," she said shyly. "I do have to say, though, I'm not sure what you plan on teaching me. I'm pretty much a master at all possible Minecraft skills, so..."

"Oh, really?" he taunted. "Everything?"

"Mhm," she hummed, her confidence wavering at his smooth voice.

"We'll see about that..."

"Unless you mean you're gonna teach me how to code Minecraft. That's a Minecraft skill I will admit I know nothing about."

"No, no, nothing like that," he said with a laugh.

"Good, save the programming talk for later."

"For laaater, hmmm?" he sang flirtatiously.

"Oh my gosh," she said through a laugh. "You would think that's what I meant."

"Hey, you're the one that said you think it's cute when I talk about coding. Maybe you're into that."

"I was saying it's sweet hearing you talk about stuff you like, you nerd. Why did you immediately think—what, is your idea of dirty talk talking about... like... computer viruses?"

"WhAT?"

"Hey girl, lemme clean out your motherboard," she mocked in a deep voice. "You overclock my processor. Lemme program your, uh—uh...hAHA, nevermind, ew, no."

"BUG?! WHAAAT? What is wrong with you?" His gasps for breath between wheezes made her laugh with him. "Don't ever talk like that again, pleASE."

"I won't, I won't, I'm sorry. Oh my gosh."

"Is that your idea of flirting? You are bad!"

"No, no, no!" She laughed. "I was making fun of you. No, I'm actually really good."

She couldn't stop giggling to herself for a few minutes, embarrassed but also proud of the reaction she got from Dream. She loved hearing him laugh as if he would never stop, it made her heart so happy to hear, especially when she was the one who caused it.

Though she feared her horrible pickup lines, if you could even call them that, were already clipped, ready to be used against her for the rest of her life. Worth it. Probably.

They approached a cleared-out area in the woods and Dream stopped and turned to Y/n. "So, we're here. What should we build?"

"Oh, so now I have to plan? Wow, you are so underprepared," she joked.

"What, no! I originally... I wanted to build a, like, a house together because I didn't— I forgot you made your—your house already and—but since you already have one—"

"We can still build a house," she interrupted with a soft voice. Him fumbling over his words was very endearing but also very confusing. How serious was he taking this bit? Or was he... actually nervous? She was actually nervous but she had reasons to be: a huge live audience to entertain and not ignore, and the weird staticky, itchy feeling in her tummy every time Dream spoke to her. Both valid reasons to be nervous. What was his excuse?

"Really? You wanna build a home together?"

Heat rose to her cheeks at his wording and she hummed. "Mhm. You can be my secret lover I hide in my vacation home. Like a second life kinda deal."

He scoffed. "Oh, now I'm just your side piece, Bug?"

"Nah, you're my main bitch, baby. I just wanna hide you away to keep you for myself because I'm selfish."

There was silence on his end for a few moments, making Y/n's face practically catch fire as she thought about her words. Why did she say that?? How can he flirt all the time but as soon as she says something: dead silence.

"Well.... shhhhhit," he finally mumbled definitively.

"You wanted me to flirt with you, Dream. You literally asked me too!" She laughed, trying to cover up her embarrassment. It had been less than 20 minutes and she already made a fool of herself.

"I did, I did, I just—wow. Come on, that was... I didn't expect you to go from never flirting to calling me baby!"

"Too much?" she bit her lip as she waited for him to explain if it was a good or bad thing.

He paused again. "....no."

She laughed loudly, pulling her hoodie collar up to her face in an attempt to rid herself of the giddiness and heat on her face. Like anyone could see anyway.

"So, a house?"

"A house."

"What kind of house do you think we should build together, Dream?"

"Maybe...." he thought as he ran around the area. "Maybe, like, a log cabin? Since we're in a forest. It's fitting..."

"Very true, very true..." she thought. "I was thinking a castle was more suited for you, king, but a cabin works too."

"Bug!" he yelled, laughter bubbling up in his voice. "What is wrong with you?"

"What?" she said defensively, giggling.

"You're a handful today," he groaned under his breath and she smiled. Though his words said one thing, Y/n could tell he was enjoying her energy.

"So, a dinky, old cabin, or what?"

"Whatever you want to build," he sighed.

"You always this agreeable?"

"Only to you."

"Well, I honestly don't have much practice with building cabins and since I want to show off my skills, I mean, that's the whole point of this, right? For me to impress you with my skills?"

Dream laughed so she continued.

"I think we should build a treehouse."

"A treehouse?"

"Mhm. What do you think? I make a pretty bomb treehouse."

"That sounds awesome!" he agreed. "Oh, and it could go from, like, one tree to another and, like, connect with a bridge! Like, the living room on one and the bedroom on another."

"Yeah, exactly! Okay, it's settled."

"What do we need? What do you want me to do?"

"I'm thinking.... we use cobblestone?"

Dead silent. Literally no noise until a few moments later, ".......Bug. This might be a deal-breaker."

"I'm joooking! You think I'd build something out of cobblestone? Who am I, Tommy? No, what's your favorite wood?"

"Dark oak."

"GOOD. Me too. So.... we need dark oak. Or, wait! Okay, hear me out."

"I'm hearing..." Dream prompted as he pressed A and D on his keyboard back and forth, earning a giggle from Y/n. He character was bouncing left and right is excitement.

"Dark oak planks..." she started.

"Mhm."

"Stone bricks..."

"Go on."

"And green wool for accents."

"Well, now you're just pandering."

"No!" she laughed. "Not, like, lime wool. Green wool. It's close to you but not as... obnoxiously blinding."

"I trust your vision. I'll go get materials."

"Perfect, you're the best, Dweam."

"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled before laughing. "You pick out a tree you think would be best for the main part."

40 minutes later, they were nowhere near being done. Y/n had shown him how to make a good house layout after he placed the floor in the shape of a square. She had yelled at him for it first, of course. They also had the frame of the walls and one bridge but nothing on the other side of said bridge. Not wanting the stream to last six hours since this was only the first part of the date, Y/n made a suggestion.

"What if...."

"What if what?" Dream asked, pausing to look at her character, who had stopped fixing his mistakes. "Did I mess something up?"

"No, I was just thinking. What if we make this the whole house and do a little garden on the other side of the bridge? Or like a little cute thing."

"A little cute thing?" Dream laughed.

"You know, like a thing," she said, knowing she hadn't clarified anything. "I forgot this is only date one, you can't read my mind yet."

"Oh, so there are gonna be future dates? I thought this was just to pay off your debt?"

She paused, playing with her hoodie strings between her left hand. "Well, I guess we'll see."

Dream laughed. "So, what little cute thing did you want to make?"

"We could put a bench facing the sunset and have some potted flowers and hang lanterns and stuff."

"Oh, like a romantic spot?"

"I guess if you wanna think of it like that."

"Sounds cute," he said. "So, we have to change the layout in here then?"

"Nah, I mean, we can just not add a kitchen, we obviously don't need one anyway."

"True. Then all we need is to put our bed down, right?"

"Beds," Y/n corrected.

"Well, when they're together it looks like one big bed."

"Who said we're putting out beds together?"

"Buuuuggg..." he whined. "Come on... lemme put my bed next to yours."

She giggled again. What was with all the giggling, sheesh. "No. There's plenty of space, put it somewhere else." She placed her white bed down in the corner and went across the bridge to bring her idea to life, or, to Minecraft.

It only took about ten minutes and she finished when Dream spoke again. "I think I'm done."

"I am too! Let's take one final look around." She went back inside and immediately noticed his bed right next to hers. She stared at his character and he laughed.

"Whaaat?" he asked shyly and she just sighed, letting it happen. They took a look around and agreed that it was basically the best treehouse in the entire universe, both in Minecraft and real life.

"Bug, you're so good at building," Dream complimented as he ran around the house. "What's your favorite part?"

"Ummm...." She looked around before deciding on the bridge. "I like how you made the bridge. And I like the little touches you added to it. It's nice."

"Thanks! I think the 'little cute thing' you did is the best part."

"Shut up, I can't stand you," she scoffed. "But thanks."

"Hey, Bug?" Dream asked, leading her back into the house. He faced the two beds placed together and she prepared herself for the worst joke of all time. "Is this where all the programming talk happens?"

"I knew it! I knew you were gonna say that! Shut up!" She punched Dream as he laughed loudly and she couldn't stop smiling. "You're such a nerd. You're so annoying."

"OH! I have an idea, wait here."

***

It had been a solid eight and a half minutes of Y/n waiting for Dream and he showed no signs of returning. He was silent too, so she resorted to saying random things to get him to crack.

"When will my husband return from war?" she joked, her voice laced with sadness and longing.

There was a small suppressed laugh from his mic, but still no words.

"Sometimes I think I can still hear him laughing at me."

He must have gotten reeeaaalll close to his mic, because his next words, the first ones he had spoken in almost ten minutes, were whispered but she felt like he was in her ear. "I'll be home soon, baby."

Once again, she was so glad her chat couldn't see her because she literally shivered and her face was so warm she felt like she was glowing.

For the first time all stream, her eyes betrayed her and she looked at her chat as she pulled her hoodie collar up to her face.

user18: BUGSY BEIN REEEAL QUIET

user4: i think i just passed out

user11: wHAT ON EARTH DREAM ADKXKH

user7: BUGSY ON GOD BE REAL WITH US WTF IS GOING ON RN

user2: hey bestie i cant do this rn

user9: they can't talk to each other like that and say they're just friends pleASE

Also for the first time all stream, someone dared to donate at her limit (which, again, was ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS).

karakatara donated $100 I had to donate bc I just HAD to tell you how cute you and dream are! honestly my favorite couple ever and I was just wondering how long you've been dating??? love you and your videos!!!!!

It was $100. She had to answer it. Meaning, she had to use words after Dream said that like that and she wasn't sure that was physically possible right now.

"Aren't you going to answer?" Dream taunted.

"Wha—what, are you—you stream watching, you weirdo?" she forced out. "Why?"

"I wanted to read your chat, they're really funny."

"I haven't been reading it."

"What, why? They've been so funny this whole time."

"I've been too scared to."

"Too scared? Of what?"

Of the jokes that she wanted to be real? Of seeing something so cute only to break her heart when she remembers it's all a joke? Of seeing someone hate her for being so close to Dream? Many things.

"Of seeing something... that boosts your ego."

"What? Oh, come on. Hey, answer the dono. Someone gave you their hard earned money for that."

"Yeah, wait, chat, I had the limit that high so you DON'T donate! Why on earth would you—"

"You're avoiding the question."

"We aren't actually dating! Not actually a couple!" she said with a laugh, though something in her heart was very much against laughing at that fact. "Obviously not."

"Well, it's only the first date, so, we'll see I guess, but..."

"I cannot stand you. Thank you so much for the dono, though, Karakatara. You're insane for... yeah. Thank you so much." She turned her attention back to Dream. "Actually though are you ever coming back?"

"Yeah, what, I'm almost there. I see the you staring out the window. ."

When he got inside, he dropped a blue cornflower for Y/n and stepped back. "Okay, now, give that to me."

She followed, not understanding. "For you, Dream." She dropped the flower.

"Aw, Bug! That's so kind! Aw! Thank you! Here's a flower for you, too!" He dropped her a red poppy and then put two item frames on the wall above their beds. He put the blue cornflower above his bed and she followed by putting the red one above hers. "Now that's my favorite part of the house."

"You didn't want to use the real ones? What, did you lose my flower or something?"

"Hell no!" he defended loudly. "No, I just don't want someone to steal that one. It's in my enderchest for safe-keeping."

He said it so casually like it was no big deal, but her heart soared. She too had his flower in her enderchest.

"This," she said dramatically with a sigh, "is now a treehome."

***

"I already told you I'm the best PVP player out there."

"Bug, honey, I've seen you play Bedwars. You're trash."

"Hey!" Hehe, honey. Shut up brain.

"But that's okay! I'm here to teach you."

Y/n's character stood across a makeshift battlefield from Dream's, an axe in hand and armor that was definitely donated by DreamXD on her body. "This is kinda sexist of you. Assuming I know how to name a cute house but not fight."

"Oh no, that's not—crap. Bug, I'm only basing this off of your streams, which I watch all the time—"

Once again, he said something so casual and yet it still made her heart skip three beats and once again, she grabbed the collar of her hoodie and pulled it up to hide her face. This thing had to be stretched by now from how often it was yanked on in this stream alone.

"—and don't get me wrong, you're great! But you're also good at a lot of stuff and—"

"Dream!" she giggled out. "I'm teasing. I admit you're much better than me."

"I wouldn't say much better but... it's the only thing I could possibly teach you anything about because you're just so good at Minecraft." His tone was sarcastic at this point but she knew he was meaning what he said.

"Whatever. Come on, Dream, show me how it's done."

He actually had a lot of very useful tips that Y/n otherwise would have never thought about. I guess when you tryhard Minecraft, she thought, you learn a thing or two about pvp. It was a complete joke, but she still kept it to herself.

"I could basically beat anyone now," she said confidently.

"Yeah, basically. Except maybe Technoblade."

"Nah, even him."

"Let's see how good you really are. To the death."

"What?" She laughed. "You're gonna try to kill me on our date?"

"Yeah, scared?" Seconds later, a creeper exploded near Dream and he screeched, jumping back. Y/n lost it. She laughed loudly, clutching her stomach.

"Dr-Dream!" She laughed. "What the hell was that?"

"It scared me!" he argued. "Here, I'll protect you," he offered, running past her and killing a skeleton that was shooting towards her.

"I don't need protecting, especially from you! Besides, if you're trying to kill me, you'd let the mobs get me."

"No," he decided. "No one's allowed to kill my Bug."

She was literally going to explode. "Wh—"

"Only I get to."

"Dream!" she scoffed, running to kill the skeleton first. She succeeded and he pouted.

"Hey—I did more damage than you, you just had the final hit."

"Really? Cause to me it looks like I'm your knight in shining armor."

"Nuh-uh," he spat.

"Dream. F5 right now, you're covered in arrows."

There was a pause. "Oh whatever." He hit her once and that's all it took for them to start fighting, throwing jokes and taunts at each other the whole time, eventually resulting in a satisfying win for her.

Dream was slain by Bugsy

"WHAT?! HOW?"

<Tubbo> i thogt you were on a date <Ranboo> well definitley not anymore <Ranboo> is that canon <JackManifoldTV> WOMEN

"What was that about you being better than me?" Y/n teased.

"Oh, come ON! I still had damage from the skeleton, and besides, I taught you everything you know!"

"That just makes you a very good teacher, Dream," she said sincerely and he paused, probably expecting her to insult him instead of compliment him.

"Yeah, suck up now that you've murdered me."

***

They were finally at their final stop, three hours into the stream. Not too bad on time, though this was probably the longest Minecraft date in the history of Minecraft dates. Also the best, but maybe Y/n was biased.

There was a huge tree, obviously built instead of naturally generated, with lanterns hanging down and lighting areas of the dark world around them. Under that was a checkered pattern of carpet, a single chest in the center with a potted plant sitting next to it.

"The carpet is supposed to look like a, uh, what's it called... picnic blanket?" Dream explained as they approached the scene, clearly not happy with how it turned out. "It looks weird. Nothing compared to the treehouse you built."

"We built," she corrected. "And this looks awesome, Dream," Y/n complimented. "It's is also my favorite colors."

"Yeah, I had some help from Karl on that one."

She leaned back in her chair in real life and pressed her hands to her face. Oh, it was so unfair how cute he was when he was shy like this. She glanced at chat, which only made her face go from the temperature of molten lava to basically the sun. She was going to explode.

She hummed, a little giggle coming out as well. "That's cute."

She sat (crouched) on the picnic blanket (piece of carpet) while Dream put a disc in the jukebox off to the side.

"Is that a Tommy disc?" she giggled and Dream laughed.

"No, no, no, don't worry. There shouldn't be any continuations of wars interrupting our date."

"Shouldn't be," she emphasized, noticing someone approaching them from the distance.

Dream was about to speak when Quackity reached them and quickly joined the voice channel.

"Oh no," Dream sighed. "We've come so far."

"AYYEEE WHAT'S GOING ON, MAN?!" Quackity yelled in his Mexican Dream voice, his voice bubbling with laughter. "IS THIS A DATE OR SOMETHING, MAN?"

"Quackity, go AWAY!" Dream ordered, punching the character who had stripped to his underwear. "YOU'RE INDECENT! THERE IS A LADY HERE!"

Y/n laughed, enjoying the scene of fancy Dream hitting naked Quackity away from their picnic dinner.

"I'm your waiter, I'm your waiter!" Quackity said in his normal voice, still laughing. "DREAM! WILL YOU STO— QUIT HITTING ME!"

This had turned chaotic very quickly.

"We don't need a waiter," Dream informed him.

"Then I'm the singing gram you ordered." He started singing a song and Dream groaned. "HEY THERE DELILAH WHAT'S IT LIKE IN NEW YORK CITY—"

"No! You're being a clout chaser, go away!"

"I'm honestly impressed we made it this far without anyone coming into the voice channel," Y/n admitted.

"I paid them," Dream joked.

"You did not!" Karl's voice suddenly came through and Y/n laughed. "We were all just being polite and staying away but we're getting bored! We've been so patient!"

"Yeah, hurry up! We wanna play!!!" Sapnap whined. "Dream, it's not fair for you to steal Bugsy from us for so long."

"Oh my gosh!" she exclaimed with a laugh as Dream laughed along.

"Just ten minutes! Ten more minutes!" Dream bargained but none of them would have it. "Just so I can say goodbye!"

"No!" George insisted. "Right now!"

"Look, wait, wait, hold on—"

<Sapnap joined the game> <GeorgeNotFound joined the game> <KarlJacobs joined the game>

"—hold ON!" Dream begged, watching as the three boys ran and joined Quackity by the picnic blanket.

Y/n could not stop laughing at all the avatars around them. The date had been so peaceful and cute but all good things must come to a chaotic end.

"Wait, come on, Karl, Karl, Karl," Dream said quickly. "Come here. Bug, just a sec, please. Stay right there."

"Okay," she agreed, curious to see his plan.

Karl followed him and of course Sapnap couldn't help but also join them.

"Okay," Dream whispered loudly, clearly wanting everyone to hear his offer. He crouched and the other two copied. "Just give me ten minutes—"

"Ten?" Sapnap asked loudly.

"Shhh!!! Yes, ten minutes, to say goodbye and, you know, end the date."

There was a long, thick pause. "What exactly are your intentions with Bugsy Games," Karl asked seriously, matching Dream's whisper.

"Well, I wanna make sure she gets home safe, you know, so I'm gonna drop her off and, I don't know, see if maybe.... maybe she'll give me a hug?"

Karl and Sapnap both gasped dramatically and Y/n giggled, sparing a glance at her chat who were all freaking out.

"What the hell?" Quackity said while laughing. He and George were still standing near Y/n so they were just watching the goons with her.

"Bugsy is not that kind of girl!" Sapnap protested. "You think she's just gonna give you a hug?"

"Sapnap! Do you not know how to whisper???"

George let a loud laugh slip before slapping his hand over his mouth, which his mic picked up.

"Okay, Dream, wait, so you're gonna try to... hug her?" Karl clarified. "She won't even let me hug her. Good luck."

"Well, I'm not going to force her into anything but, I don't know, she said something about holding my hand earlier so I just thought maybe there's a possibility—"

"WHAT?" Karl yelled before going back to the whisper. "Okay, okay, don't panic, but that's huge. Dadnap, a word?"

He and Sapnap broke off from Dream and formed their own huddle, except their whispers were incoherent mumblings that weren't even English.

"Oh my gosh," Y/n groaned loudly, an unmistakable laugh behind her words.

"Okay," Sapnap said, rejoining Dream. "We'll give you five minutes but if you take any longer, we're barging in and killing you."

"Yes, sir!" Dream said. "Thank you, sirs."

"Mhm. Okay, break!"

They all uncrouched in sync before Dream ran back to Y/n.

"How did it go?" she asked as if she didn't hear the entire conversation.

"Bad news," he started. "Your dad's want you home."

"Shame, I was quite enjoying my time."

Dream slowly turned towards the boys as if to glare at them for ending the date before turning back to her. "Then, maybe, I don't know, we could do this again sometime?"

"I.... think I'd like that," she said slowly, trying to tease him.

He giggled and told her he was going to drop her off at her house, even though when the date was over, they were all probably gonna mess around together anyway so there was no point in them leaving the group. But it was the thought that counted.

He ended up taking her back to the treehouse, which warmed her heart. She also noticed when they faced each other at front of the door, she could see the four other boys watching them.

"Goodnight, my sweet Bug," he said poshly.

"Goodnight, Dream." He turned away but she stopped him. "Wait!" She moved to his side and made a loud, MUAH, sound before stepping back in front of him. "A kiss on the cheek," she clarified, not wanting him to think she gave him a real kiss.

"Cute," he said under his breath, almost like he didn't mean to say it out loud. "Night night." He turned away and ran down to the others, screaming the whole way. "GUYS, DID YOU SEE THAT? BUG GAVE ME A KISS ON THE CHEEK!! OMG DID YOU SEE, DID YOU SEE?"

Chat was gonna have a field day with that. Actually, with a lot of things that had happened. Oh, she could see the clips and edits now.... oh boy.

**********

PREVIOUS | NEXT

**********

Taglist: OPEN (at the time) (bold = couldnt tag)

@theboywhocriedlupin​ @hydrate-tion​ @loraleiix​ @tinaswagbd​ @charsdummb​​ @smileyyuta​​ @1ghoste1​ @cerberus-hellhound @gaysludge​ @queestionmark​ @carnations-red​ @letsloveimagines​ @the-fictionwriters-hairdo​ @boiled-onionrings​ @a-cryptic​ @fee-btheweeb​ @erwinss​ @just-a-stan​ @axths​ @kayleigh2703 @furiouspockettoad​ @sometimeseverythingsucks​ @powerpuffyn​ @itshaileyn​ @millavalntyne​ @automaticcomputerpaper​ @nikkineeky​ @fivedicksinatrenchcoat​ @sprucekot​ @bellomi-clarke​ @possiblyanxioushuman​ @jabby16​ @mae-musicbitch​ @hungoverhellhound​ @dreamyteam​ @kuroo-icedtea​ @stuffforreferences @menacingaesthetic @sapphic-soot​ @fangeekkk​ @haseulreturns​ @queenwastaken​ @peteysgf​ @losingvienna​ @bi-narystars​ @zero-nightshade​ @erinitoburrito @sparklykeylime​ @youhyakuya​ @danny-devitowo​ @clubfairy​ @loser-keiji​ @oi-itsemily​ @alm334​ @the-katastrophe​ @wreny24​ @applecakeradio @unicornblood4ever @brendalopez99​ @spacecluster​ @justonemoreepisode​ @strawbrinkofdeath​ @aikochan4859​ @chaotic-tieflings​ @dreamsofficialwife​ @where-thesundoesntshine​ @jamiealenaa​ @unstableye​ @kageyamama-hinatatata​​ @officiallyunofficialperson​​ @secretly-a-weeb​​ @localsimp​​ @loxbbg​​ @rhymeorreason1​​

[skinnyducky]

lullaby (pt. 2 to cherry) // v.h.

This part went through so many changes. Originally, they weren't getting back together but I ultimately decided for Y/n to take Vinnie back because I'm a sucker for happy endings and second chances. Kinda came out longer than I wanted it too, but meh. This part is heavily inspired by the song "Lullaby" by Mariah Carey. Other than that, I hope you enjoy!

link to part 1

Word Count: 2219, unedited

WARNING: language, mentions of partying, alcohol, drugs, and a very fluffy yet cheesy ending.

---------

It had been a few months since you and Vinnie had bid your goodbyes. Within those months, you were doing great. You had aced your first semester classes, you just moved into your apartment, and you were at the highlight of your life. The only thing you lacked was someone to bask in the happiness with. To say you missed Vinnie was an understatement, but you were too prideful to actually tell yourself that.

You tried dating again, but no one could hold a candle to your Vinnie. Plus, you hadn’t been keeping up with him on social media or anything, so you didn’t know if he had moved on and forgotten you. You didn’t want to reopen old wounds, so you refrained from contacting him.

But little did you know, not a day went by that Vinnie didn’t think about you. He constantly thought about what he did, beating himself up for even having the thought of another girl while he was with you. But he didn’t know what to do. Your relationship was dying, and none of you bothered to even talk about it. So, to him, he thought there was nothing that he could do…thus causing him to do what he did. Thankfully, he didn’t go too far with the girl, but still…he knew what he did was terrible.

Dating for him was pretty much impossible. Much similar to your situation, there was no one who could fill your shoes. The way you danced around in his head during the day and ruled his dreams at night…no one could do that for him. You were one of a kind, and with as many offers he got, he was torn that none of them were from you. He was a funk…a really bad one.

His friends and housemates took notice of this and being the best friends they were, they decided to drag him out of the house and to a party at Triller Compound because that’s what every heartbroken friend needed when they’re down. To be surrounded by booze, loud music, and sweaty people…oh yeah, that’s what he definitely needed right at this moment.

“C’mon, at least smile a little bit.” Alex said, looking back the upset boy through the rearview mirror.

“Smile about what? Going to some party that I didn’t even want to go to.”

“You seriously need to get over, Y/n.” Thomas sighed, turning to Vinnie from the passenger seat. “What happened between to you two happened for a reason. You just gotta let it go.”

Mia scoffed from beside Vinnie and slapped Thomas on the shoulder. “Thomas, it’s not that easy!”

“I’m just saying, if it were me, I wouldn’t be all upset and everything.”

“So, you’re saying if we broke up…you wouldn’t be sad?” Mia responded sharply, obviously joking.

Thomas nearly choked, looking back at his girlfriend. “I-I’m not saying that. I mean, if…it’s just that…it’s different, okay. He cheated.”

“Did you have to bring that up?” Mia rolled her eyes and turned to Vinnie. “Don’t listen to him, okay. It was your relationship, and sure you messed it up, but…you still can be sad about it. I think.”

Vinnie huffed and stayed silent, no bothering to listen to anyone. He didn’t need people reminding him of his mistakes, that was the whole reason why he was being a downer. He just couldn’t forgive himself. There were no ounce of words or speeches that anyone could give him that would make him feel better. This was just something that he’d have to get over with time.

It was only minutes before they pulled up to the packed mansion and stumbled out of Alex’s car, Vinnie being the last out. He watched as his friends rushed to the house before heading inside. Upon entering the house, scenes of people grinding and drinking came into his sights. The sound of trap music filled his ears as the strong stench of weed brushed across his nose. He sneered before walking to the backyard. He scanned the area for any sober person he knew, hoping to find someone to complain about his situation to.

As he searched, his eyes landed on a familiar head of y/h/c hair. He furrowed his brows, trying to get a better view of the person. “That can’t be who I think it is,” he thought to himself as he moved in closer.

That was when you looked to side, and he caught a glimpse of your profile. His heart nearly stopped beating the minute he saw your face. He breathed hitched in his threat as he tried to keep himself from hyperventilating. He never thought he’d see you again, yet here you were…just a few feet away from him. He had forgotten the fact that you two had mutual acquaintances, so it came to no surprise that you’d come to this party.

Vinnie watched as you threw you head back in laughter at something one of your friend’s said. There wasn’t much he could do but stare at you. He didn’t know what to do. It’d be risky to even think you’d want to talk to him, so he refrained from walking up to you. He didn’t want to bring up painful memories. It was a good thing you hadn’t seen him yet.

---------

“You’re joking!” You smiled. “Come to think of it though, Bryce would be the one to try and drink tequila off your tits.”

Your friend, Y/bff/n snorted, “I know right!? I was like…sir, I am not that kind of a girl. Please have a good night.”

The two of you continued to laugh at her situation before you heard her go silent. You calmed yourself down, looking at her shocked face. Confused, you followed her eyes and turned around to see what had her so shook up. At that moment, your eyes met the very person you had least expected to see tonight…

Vinnie.

He was staring right back at you. The minute he realized you were looking back at him, he nearly freaked out. He attempted to look around, playing as if he hadn’t been eyeing you, but you had already caught him in the act.

“Is that…?”

“Vinnie, yep. That’s him.” You said, placing a hand on your hip. “I wonder what he’s doing here.”

Y/bff/n snickered. “It’s a party, Y/n.”

“I know that, but I honestly didn’t expect him to be here tonight.”

You two watched the boy look around frantically and you couldn’t help but smile a bit. You missed him and judging from the sight in front of you…it seemed as if he did too. But still, you were a bit out of the loop. Who’s to say he hasn’t already moved on. You couldn’t intrude on his happiness, that wouldn’t be fair.

“You should go talk to him.” Y/bff/n said.

You looked at her with your eyebrows raised. “You really think so?”

“It’s obvious he’s still into you, babes. And considering the fact you’ve been looking at him with those goo-goo eyes, I think you’re still into him too.”

“I don’t know, Y/bff/n. I mean…what if he’s seeing someone else.”

“There’s no way. If he’s trying that hard to pretend that he wasn’t just staring at you, he’s still hung up on you. And, even if he is seeing someone, that doesn’t mean you can’t just go and talk to him.”

You shrugged. “I guess you’re right.”

“Atta girl. Oh, and on your way back, make sure you grab me one of those little mini cakes. I’ve been craving one since we got here.”

Rolling your eyes at the foolish girl, you proceeded to leave her side and head over to Vinnie. The moment he saw you, he practically froze. You could tell he was nervous; his awkward stance and wide eyes told it all.

Within seconds, you stood before the boy, a slight grin on your face.

“Hey, Vinnie.” You greeted, placing your arms behind your back.

“Y/n, didn’t see you there!” He laughed. “Well, I did see you there but like, I wasn’t watching you or anything…yeah, totally wasn’t watching you.”

Your smile grew wider. “Yeah, sure. So, how’ve you been?”

“Good, uh…definitely good. You?”

“Um, my classes are going well, and I just got a new place…so, can’t complain.”

“That’s dope, Y/n. Glad to hear you’re doing good.”

You nodded, looking down at your feet. “Same to you. I’m sure you’re, y’know…enjoying everything with your girlfriend.”

Vinnie looked at you with a puzzled expression, your statement taking him back a bit. To be honest, he couldn’t be surprised that you thought he’d be taken by now because he thought the same about you. However, at the same time, with the way he was acting right now, he was shocked you didn’t realize he was still head-over-heels for you.

“I don’t, um…I’m not seeing anyone.”

You grinned to yourself, trying to keep your cool as you tilted your head at him. “I’m sorry, I just thought you’d be with someone.”

“It’s fine. I definitely get it. To be honest, I thought you’d be here with someone.”

“Technically, I am.” You replied.

It was at that moment Vinnie felt his heart explode and despair run through his system. He weakly put on a happy face, shooting you a thumbs up.

“That’s g-great.”

“Yeah, Y/bff/n just was dying to come with me. She’s been begging to go to one of these parties, so I thought why not?”

“Oh,” Vinnie breathed, feeling his heart piece itself back together. “So, you’re not seeing anyone?”

You shook your head. “Not right now. I’ve been on a few dates and stuff, but no one has ever made me feel like y-”

You stopped yourself, locking your lips together to keep that last word from leaving your mouth. You didn’t know why, but something in you didn’t want you sharing your feelings with Vinnie. Maybe it was the small ounce of hurt that clung to your heart like a child from Vinnie’s infidelity. Or maybe it was the slight fear that he may not want to get back together. There were so many thoughts in your head, all speaking at once. It was so loud, that you didn’t even catch what Vinnie had said to you.

“…and-…Y/n? You listening?” He tapped you gently, bringing you out of your head.

“Sorry about that. I was in my head for a moment. What were you saying?”

“I was just saying that I’m sorry for what I did. I was just so confused on where we stood in our relationship, not saying that it justifies my actions, but instead of coming to talk to you, I went and…well, did what I did. Believe me, I never meant to hurt you, and I totally understand if you don’t forgive me.”

You sighed, “I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t know where our relationship was headed either. Honestly, I was planning to break up with you that night.”

“And I ended up giving you even more of a reason to do so.”

You both laughed before meeting each other’s eyes.

“I wish we had talked about it, y’know? Communicated and all of that suff. It would’ve saved us both a heap of heartache.” You continued. “I can’t lie, even though life has been good, it sucks not being able to share it with you.”

Vinnie smirked, taking your hands in his. “Y/n, ever since we broke up…I haven’t been able to think about anything but you. I hadn’t streamed, I barely left the house…I couldn’t do anything. I just didn’t know how to function without you. You have such a hold over me…I didn’t know how to get over you.”

“I guess this whole goodbye thing really wasn’t a good idea after all.”

“No, I think it was. I think it happened for a reason. That reason being, so we can fall in love all over again.”

At this point, you were a smiling mess and there was nothing you could do to hide it. Vinnie wasn’t any better, you could tell he was in pain by the way he hadn’t stopped showing his pearly whites. It clear to both of you now that you two were still in love, if not more than before.

“That’s so sweet, Vin.” You said. “But also, cheesy. You were always the sappy one in the relationship.”

“As if, Miss Hopeless Romantic. I’m not the one who freaks out over Valentine’s Day.”

“Mmhm, sure you don’t.”

The two of you stood there for minute in silence, your hands entangled, and your gazes planted on each other. It felt good, and it was almost as if all that hurt…that fear…it was completely gone and now replaced with passion and security.

“Y/n, I know you probably have some resentment towards me, but I love you too much to care. So, if you’re willing and there’s enough forgiveness in your heart…I wanna restart, right from the beginning.”

Without much thought or hesitation, you said, “We can restart. For sure.”

“Well, in that case…Hi, I’m Vinnie.”

You smiled as the feeling of love washed over you. To say you were happy was an understatement, you were in paradise. Life was great, and now you had your boy back to share it with.

“Nice to meet you, Vinnie. I’m Y/n.”

[maemelany]

Fixing the Broken (Part 2)

Summary: 

People say that time heals all wounds. In your case, time made it worse.

You’ve been married to Chris for five years, but his absence spoke louder than his words. After 5 years of trying, you’ve decided that you’ve had enough, and you left him. But Chris doesn’t want to let you go; he doesn’t want to give up on your marriage.

Would he be able to fix what you consider irretrievably broken

Warnings: some serious Angst, a little bit of language  

Word Count: 1,391 

Pairing: Chris Evans x reader 

A/N: OMG guys! I can’t believe my eyes right now… your reactions are just AMAZING. I am so happy you love it so far. Some of you even asked to be added to the tag list! (I didn’t even have a tag list because I never imagined you would love it so much) But the aim is to please, so I’m adding a tag list. Please let me know in the comments or DM me if you want to be tagged as well. 

Love you all ❤️

Prologue , Part 1 , Part 2  

Masterlist 

“Would 'sorry' have made any difference? Does it ever? It's just a word. One word against a thousand actions.” - Sarah Ockler

It took him two days. Two days before all hell broke loose. Two days after Carly called you and told you what happened. It broke your heart even more, to hear your sister-in-law telling you how Chris took it. Your first instinct was to go home to see him, not knowing if Chris was okay killed you.

But you knew Chris. You knew what he was going through right now; you’ve seen him in the past taking in bad news. He needed time to be angry, time to process what was happening.

And because you knew him so well, you weren’t surprised when you heard his agitated voice downstairs. You knew how obstinate he could be. You knew he would never accept it was over without confronting you first. You chose to stay at your best friend’s place so that he knew where to find you when he was ready to talk.

You were ready to talk. You had weeks to perfect your pitch. You were going to be composed and calm. You left Chris because it wasn’t working. That didn’t mean Chris was your enemy. He hurt you but deep down, you knew it wasn’t on purpose.

“I need to talk to my wife.”

He was in the living room, your best friend trying to calm him down. There he was, your handsome soon-to-be ex-husband. He was wearing one of his Patriots t-shirts. It made you smile. It brought you back to happier times when you two would watch football matches together in front of the TV, him trying desperately to explain the rules to you.

Your smile vanished when your eyes met. The sadness you saw in Chris’s eyes made you want to run and hug it away. In an ideal world, he would tell you that he loved you, that he’s sorry, and you would come back. But in the world in which you lived, more than often, sorry wasn’t enough.

So, you crossed your arms, trying to gather all the courage you had left.

“Let’s talk,” you said

You gave your best friend a small smile, assuring her that everything will be fine. Deep down, though, you weren’t sure it would be the case.

You sat in the backyard, but none of you two said a word. You tried to look at everything but your husband. The speech you prepared, the reassuring words, everything disappeared. Now that he was close to you, the only thing you wanted to do was be in his arms. Your heart was being treacherous, but your mind also knew your heart wouldn’t be able to handle the next time he will leave for another movie.

“Why?” Chris whispered

You almost didn’t hear him. You wished you didn’t hear him. That small word, that innocent, simple ‘why’ made you feel all sorts of things.

It broke you, and it made you wonder how much hurt your heart could take. But it also made you so angry. Anger you didn’t even know you had in you.

“Why did you leave?” Chris asked again

You gave him a sad smile because you honestly didn’t know what made you take the decision to leave. It was the accumulation of many things, some of them you weren’t ready to share, at least not yet.

“I had to,” you finally said because, in the end, it summarized it all.

Chris looked at you with confused eyes. “You had to ?” he repeated. “What do you mean you had to? You had to leave me without even notifying me?”

You blinked. Apparently, you weren’t the only one with repressed anger.

“Do you know how it feels to come back to an empty home? To hear your sister tell you that your wife left you. How could you be so…”

“So what?” you stood up. “So what, Chris?” You cut him off

He didn’t answer. Instead, he stared at you, and you stared back. It was a silent battle you weren’t ready to lose. You’d lost too much already.

But then he said it, the one thing that made you angrier than you’ve ever been at him.

“Selfish. How could you be so selfish, Y/N.”

You laughed. But it wasn’t a happy one; it was a dry laugh that even scared yourself.  

“Oh, I’m sorry, Chris. I’m sorry you had to come back to an empty house. I’m so sorry you had to hear it from Carly. I’m so sorry you had to deal with my selfishness because, of course, it’s all about you.”

There was this voice in your head, telling you to calm down. You started to walk away, trying to compose yourself. This was supposed to be a calm, adult-to-adult conversation. But it echoed in your head, the way he called you selfish, and it didn’t seat well. You walked right back to him. He wanted selfish; you were going to give him selfish.

“You had to come to an empty house once, once, Chris. I had to do it every single fucking night.”

He opened his mouth, but you cut him off again. “Selfish Y/N is not done. I didn’t ask Carly to tell you. Why didn’t you notice I was gone when you first came back? It’s not my fault it takes you one fucking day to realize your wife was gone!” you shouted.

You had trouble catching your breath. You didn’t even notice your tears while you were speaking, and you angrily washed them away.

“I’ve been coming back to an empty house for years, Chris. Two days and you’re done? Now tell me who’s selfish.”

You could read guilt all over Chris’s face. It wasn’t supposed to go that far. This was why you hated confrontations. You preferred to leave things inside because when you expressed your feelings, and they weren’t heard, it pissed you off and made you say things you wished you had kept inside.

You never wanted him to feel guilty. You didn’t leave him for revenge. You left because it didn’t make sense to stay.

“I didn’t know you were feeling … all these things...” Chris said

“Well… I am. You say I’m selfish, but I’m just doing what’s best for us.”

Chris stood up and cupped your face with his hands. “I didn’t mean it… you’re not selfish, Y/N.”

You closed your eyes and enjoyed the contact of his hands. You’d missed it so much.

“We can fix it, baby. It’s us… I love you…” Chris whispered

You were seriously starting to wonder how much breaking your heart could handle.

You looked at his beautiful green eyes. “And I love you, but I can’t do this anymore, Chris. I… I just can’t.”

Chris looked at you, trying to read your eyes. You took a step back, trying to compose yourself once again.

“I’m not giving up on us, Y/N. I took vows, and I’m not breaking them,” Chris said to you.

“Chris, you broke them a long time ago. Can you even remember the last time we’ve been together for more than a month without interruption?” you asked him.

“You knew who you were marrying, Y/N, don’t act as if I didn’t warn you.”

“I married the man I loved, the one I was ready to start a family with. I didn’t marry the busy actor from Hollywood.”

Chris chuckled. “Too bad they’re part of the same package.”

“And yet I only got the actor who seems to be everywhere but with me.”

Chris looked away, reflecting on what you just said.

You finally understood that this conversation was not going to get anywhere. You were both too angry, and the emotions were still too raw. You couldn’t even imagine what would happen if you presented the divorce papers to Chris right now.

“You should go…” you finally said

“Come home with me, Y/N. It’s our home…”

“I can’t. We’ll talk soon, I promise. But not now, we’re not objective right now” you tried to reason with him.

He closed his eyes and ran his hand through his hair. He knew you were right; you would keep hurting each other if you continue talking right now.

“We’re not done. We can save this marriage,” Chris told you before leaving.

You closed your eyes, silent tears rolling down your face. You wished you were as confident as Chris was… 

Tag List (tell me in the comments if you want to be tagged)

 @90girlgolden ,  @jennamarieee623 , @spookyparadisesheep , @coffeebooksandfandom , @calirindo  @jessyballet , @janeyboo , @killerstyles , @patzammit , @inlovewith3 , @katelyneann , @evatia​