#she hasn't fully registered the rest yet

[nocturnalazure]

[sansxfuckyou]

karma's the judge

Summary: Clay learns that Viva is pink down to her very core- well, more of a magenta color right under her skin, the deeper into her flesh the more purple it gets.

Warnings: gore, near death, hospitals, agony, i cannot stress enough that this is not romantic, check Ao3 port for full tags

Authors Note: me and @ohposhers got talking, I'm legally not allowed to say anything else about the convo aside from the fact it inspired this fic. title from FØØL, specifically the INHUMAN remix. hope ya'll enjoy and if ya do consider dropping a like or reblog, or checkin' the Ao3 port.

It's only a mildly horrific sight for Clay to see.

He's lying actually.

The sound of the predator running off into the underbrush is still heavy in the air with cracking branches and rustling leaves. It echoes in his ears; that and the sound of Viva's laboured breathing. Her breath stutters as she wheezes, paw hovering over the bright blue shards in her chest and stomach. She's shredded in every sense including literal.

"C-Clay," Viva barely manages to get out, fat tears rolling down her face as agony surges through her. Neon magenta oozes out of rended flesh and seeps into fabric and slides down from her nose. Ears downturned and claws detracted, she's still in fight mode even though she should've ran with the rest of them.

Words are failing to form for Clay as he takes hasty, yet tentative, steps closer to his companion. Then she coughs, she sounds like death incarnate. Wet and shaky; phlegmy blood spills past her teeth and the gouges in her torso bubble up with her blood, the glass sinks deeper into her flesh. She's curling in on herself as she shudders and shakes and loose flesh trails on the dirt in stringy tendons. She grips for the shards to pull them out but even with adrenaline she's still fading fast. Her eyes flutter shut as the sharp edges slice her hands open to match the rest of her torn up body.

Viva falls limp and Clay is just frozen as he stares at their leader. Her chest rises and falls impossibly slow, she should be dead but she isn't and that gives just enough kick to get Clay to move and save her. Try to at least.

Clay drops down beside her and runs a paw across her wounds, checking the depth and the intensity aside from looking so bad it makes him feel nauseated. She shudders in her passed out state, tensing and flexing her claws against the unknown. The blood on his paws contrasts his own fur so much it makes him gag, the slimy texture of coalescing and cooling Pop Troll blood; it's lukewarm and drips but it's thick with bits of flesh. He wants to hurl as he shuffles Viva around a bit, she curls and shifts and hisses in her restless and forced state of sleep as he tries to help her.

Her cape is slowly wrapped around her body and her blood clings to the tufts of fur on the bottom and collar of the cape. The capes exterior doesn't hold in the blood, at all. Instead the magenta substance just slides off it, seeping through the fabric interior and slowly dripping down pieces of faux grass. Her breath heaves and her body is near entirely limp as it's restricted, Clay has to keep her head from hanging awkwardly and further straining her body as he carries her.

-/-/-/-

Viva jolts awake, body tingling with anesthetic that hasn't fully worn off. And as fast as she's shocked herself upright she's buckling in half due to an agonizing pain shooting up from her abdomen to her sternum. She clutches desperately only to find a similar pain resting heavy in her arm. Only then does she let her vision register as a train of thought in her head instead of bouncing from reflex to reflex.

White bandages wrap her arm and she isn't wearing a shirt, her entire torso is wound up in gauze that's a blend of magenta and almost purple with the darkness. She uses her other paw to touch it, and it's almost damp, that makes her stomach turn. She presses a bit more, higher up, and then she hits stitches left uncovered almost at her clavicles.

She glances down further and finds her leg covered in a thick layer of gauze, she can barely move her toes with how tight it is. And the magenta. She feels ill as the scent of drying and gelatinizing blood really sets in as hers instead of some other Troll in the medical ward.

Viva tries to move again, get off the bed and walk purely to spite the agony ripping through every wound on her (some unstitched but she can't tell with how much gauze she's wearing). Her paws rest shakily on the cot and so little effort leaves her winded, struggling to breath instead of cry out in pain. She's the leader. She has to be strong.

The second her toes hit the floor she swears she can hear something snap and she screams. Every torn tendon and string of muscle in her leg tries to fire all at once, preemptively activating to hold her weight, and the rush of blood darkens her gauze. It hurts enough to push her to tears as she falls back on the bed and clutches her leg. The agony in her arms and torso doesn't do much to deter her from holding the wound even as the sheets below her start to turn pink.

"Viva!"

Clay, it's Clay whose coming and closing the door behind him and rushing over. She bites back sniffles and pathetic little sounds as she lets go of her leg and relaxes just a bit. Her body lays prone on the cot, arms at her side and legs loose as Clay comes to her side.

"You were supposed to be out cold for fifteen more minutes," Clay said quietly. Then he laughs a little bit, awkward and forced, "I should've known you'd fight through the anesthetic though."

Viva laughs too even though there's nothing funny, "What happened?"

"You don't remember?" Horror rests heavy on Clay's voice as he speaks.

Viva rephrases, "How am I still alive?"

"Look, all I can't find any logical reason as to why considering how wrecked you were. But let's just take it and run." Clay's eyes linger on the darkness of Viva's terribly done excuse of a cast. He should've added more layers of gauze, or made actual casting materials.

"Did anyone else get hurt?" Viva asked, trying to sit up but pushed back down by Clay. She reluctantly stays still.

"No one else got hurt, the tribes really, really worried though," Clay said quietly, "But I have everything under control, just stay in bed till you're healed up."

Viva's blood goes cold at the notions of being bedridden for music knows how long. Her eyes widen a little bit and she stares at Clay, "What are you planning, Clay?"

Clay laughs nervously, "Nothing much, ya know, just taking reign until you're better."

"What."

"For your own health! It'll be fine!"

Viva gives a long sigh as she closes her eyes, "Don't mess it up, Clay."

"I won't! Besides, I've been doing the legal stuff, it'll be fine."

"Have fun socializing and being the funboy again."

Clay swallows hard. Right. Funboy. He'll have to be the funboy again. It makes hims stomach knot but he nods along because he knows. Being the funboy, he's pretty sure the notions alone make his mind flood with dysphoria.

But for Viva's sake?

He'll manage.

[heartilywrites]

hello!! can I request a kuvira x fem!r where reader worked for kuvira but was apart of team avatar like bolin and a prompt "I know that this is not what you want to hear..." thank you!!

،، 𝓐lways Forever ; Kuvira

resume: where you were Kuvira's right hand but... are you really?

content warning: Kuvira x metalbender and fem!reader ; s4 set ; baatar jr jumpscare (i don't like him, sorry-) ; no use of y/n

wc: 3.2k

a/n: HI HELLO 👋🏼 i feel that I'm missing stuff in here, but at the same time i think it's good how it is??? HOPE YOU ENJOY :D

“ Don't make me cry, though I still got love for you and haven't got over you yet.

Hands covered with white gloves moved around the map to corroborate your binnacle.

Northwest, near Zigan Village... wait, didn't the military already helped that village...? No, you would've registered it when—

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “HEY, MISS GEOGRAPHY!” Bolin screamed walking to you, giving you a tiny heart attack. “Watcha doin'?”

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Fucking spirits, Bolin...” you said out of breath, turning fully his way. “Do you need something?”

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ "The boss wants us all reunited, we are close to the town." your friend let his arm rest on your shoulders. "Should we go reunite with Mako and Asami while we are there?"

A sound of consideration vibrated in your throat while your face made an expression of thinking. “I don't think they can, Bo, Mako is occupied being a detective and Asami has a whole company to run, remember?”

You felt how your friend got discouraged after that, a small sigh left his lips.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Maybe you're right..” he said in a small voice.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “But maybe we can reunite with them after the coronation. Who knows? Korra could be back in the city by now too.” you tried to encourage the lavabender back, poking his side. He smiled.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Oh! I wish! She hasn't answer any of my letters to her, you know? And I wrote to her with dedication.” Bolin ranted making you laugh.

After the avatar left Republic City to heal in the Southern Water Tribe, Bolin had found out Kuvira's plan to save the Earth Kingdom from chaos herself and he decided to walk in the team as he really wanted to have his and his father's nation back to peace. One week later, he came to you talking you into joining too, assuring it would be to have the nation united until the new king took possession of his place.

You did take a couple days to consider his proposal and ended up showing to the train with your stuff, being met with a big hug from your friend and a welcome speech from the leader.

The team was small when you joined, so you had the honor to see Kuvira recruit more people for the good cause... At least that was what she made everyone believe, even you.

You were able to take a good position in Kuvira's circle, you managed the villages reports for her and that made you be close to her. She remembered you from the team's visit to Zaofu where you would be kind to everyone, she taught you some new metalbending moves you didn't know and that was also part of the reason you joined: Kuvira herself.

Having to be almost every single hour of the day by her side gave you the opportunity to meet her in more depth than how it happened back in the metal clan's city and in a blink of an eye, there wasn't a way anyone could see one without the other. Everyone started to notice how important you began to be for the young leader. Unofficially, you were her right hand, but even with such a high rank there were stuff Kuvira kept from you.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Everyone has a room assigned, we'll take the presidential suite.” Kuvira informed, pointing at you and then back at her. “We'll meet outside before the event.”

Baatar looked at you with narrow eyes before walking behind his new roommate Bolin. The metalbender and you made your way to the suite and began to settle; since the presidential suite had two connecting rooms she took the principal one and you the small one.

After leaving your stuff, you walked to her room and sat on the bed while she was getting ready for the coronation.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Are you sure to go on with your plan?” you asked after a small talk took place about the room being pretty, her sharp eyes looked at you from the mirror.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Of course, this new little king they want on the throne is nothing but a buffoon.” she answered, her eyes went back to her reflection. “And the Kingdom needs someone strong and respected to keep it together.”

You sighed and nodded with a little 'I guess' coming out of your mouth. The black haired walked to you, sitting by your side she took one of your hands.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Trust me, this is for the best. The new Empire will be stronger and far better than the previous Earth Kingdom.” her eyes searched for yours and when they met, her gaze softened. “You trust me, don't you?”

A sweet smile began to creep in your face, your head nodded once more. “I do, I trust you blindly.” your free hand reached for her cheek to leave caresses on it.

The door opened without any warning and the engineer walked, freezing after seeing you two close. He cleared his throat making the two sets of eyes turn his way. “All set, we need to go.” and he left.

You looked back at Kuvira with a funny smile, she shook her head. “Let's go, new leader.” A quick kiss on her cheek was left before distancing from the girl and walking to the exit.

At the coronation, everything went like you thought it would: People opposing, people showing support and Wu looking defeated at the border of a tantrum.

Bolin looked at you confused and you shrugged a little bit, like saying he needed to talk to her directly about it and that's what he planned to do after the ceremony.

When you came back to the room after having lunch with some of the soldiers to make time, you saw Suyin leaving the same, she looked at you and shook her head almost with disappointment before continuing her way.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Hey, what happened? I saw Suyin leave.” you asked directly coming in, Kuvira was standing with her arms crossed.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “We are leaving to Zaofu.” she limited to say, going to her room for her stuff.

You knew what was going to happen, she have been thinking about getting Zaofu into the new Empire for quite some time now, it was almost all she spoke about while talking about not letting the king rule.

Near the city, Bolin was called and told to be of company to both her and Bataar in a negotiation reunion with the matriarch of the city and her family, you were requested to stay on camp to keep working and that's what you did.

While looking through some paperwork that you knew got mixed up with Bataar's in his tent, you found blueprints for weapons you've never seen before, notes on the weapons about them being deadly and how each one could help in different areas. Your brow frowned and then, the dots connected.

Trying to look calmed you took your papers and walked back out like nothing. Bolin was also walking out of Kuvira's tent with a pale face, when he spotted you his feet almost ran your direction and took you by the shoulders.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Kuvira is not what we think she is!” he screamed in a whisper, your eyebrows raised, he knew too.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “What? Why–” he pulled you to your tent so you could talk. “What are you talking about, Bolin?”

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “She just threatened me,” your eyes widened. “She wants to take the city by force, that's what we have been doing all this time! Taking cities by force and apparently making them work like slaves too!”

You blinked to all of the information. “Holy fuck, so that's why...” your sentence stopped, now you understood why there were documents with censored information being delivered to you instead of the official ones.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Yeah, holy fuck that's why!” he backed up, pulling down his face. “We need to do something, there's no way we'll leave it like this.”

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Let me... Let me talk to her, you need to go for Varrick, I know he can help us, he was captured because of the vines I heard.” you said, spaced out on your spot, you looked back at him. “Try to get out of here with him and talk to the team, I know they can help us, Korra will help us.”

The guy nodded before going out like a man on a mission, you stayed to clear your thoughts and try to come with a way to persuade her. After collecting a couple of documents that needed approval, you made your way to her tent, Baatar was there.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “You can leave.” she said to him, the man left with a grimace, you rolled your eyes at him. “Hey, I was about to look for you, want to eat dinner?”

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Oh, sure.” you smiled, standing still with your folder, Kuvira raised an eyebrow.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Is... something wrong? Something happened with the reports?” she asked meticulously, almost like fearing any discoveries you had made.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ "No, sorry, I just... I feel tired." you walked to her and handed the folder. "I need your approvals here so I can send these."

The girl nodded and took the paperwork to start the process, you bit your bottom lip before breathing in deep.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ "Listen, I talked to Bolin..." her hand stopped and she froze. "Kuvira, I know you want to have the whole Kingdom united, but taking the city by force is not a good idea."

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ "Sometimes you need to do whatever it takes to make a greater good." her response left a bad mouth taste, she looked back up at you. "I know this is something you don't want to hear, but we need to make them join to our cause so we can move forward as a nation together. I'm doing this for us."

You stood in silence, that was definitely a different Kuvira talking and it scared you a little bit.

It took you that conversation to come up with a plan, you'd stay with her to try and stop everything from the inside and fortunately you weren't alone. Zhu Li had a similar idea with the canyon they were building and so you relied on her, both had meetings from time to time to discuss progress, but it was until the Beifongs were freed and she left with them for her safety that you were all alone. You trusted she would tell everything to the team.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ "Okay, you can look now." your own hands moved from your eyes, confused you looked up to see a giant robot and now both eyes were wide open. "Do you like it? It's to take Republic City back."

Your blood froze in your veins at the view you were having, it was not only the giant robot, it was the fact that you could see a canyon on its right arm. "I thought... I thought we were going to do a big canyon."

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ "That was the first plan, but Baatar came up with this new model and it would be easier to mobilize around the city." you nodded still hypnotized by the weapon.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ "I think this is going to be such a great idea." you said what she wanted to hear, Kuvira smiled satisfied. "What will I do?"

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ "You will be with me on the main control room." your mind was running miles trying to devise a plan to let the team know.

With the luck against you, you found yourself at the control room without being able to warn anyone about anything. Horrified at the sight of the canyon destroying everything in just seconds, you were grieving silently what had been your home for all those years alive.  When the president surrendered the city, you felt your soul fall to your feet, but her instructions to them gave you an idea.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ "I'll go!" you almost screamed at her, she turned your way confused. "With Baatar, Korra is my friend, she trusts me, I know she won't try anything with me there. You'll have the city, the army and the avatar." You nervousness made your hands twitch a little bit, you hid them in your back.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ "Okay," she said after a few seconds of silence, Kuvira walked up to you and cupped your face in her hands.‍ "Be careful, I'll wait for you so we can rule together." She left a kiss close to the corner of your lips.

A soft smile was your response while your eyes scanned her face one last time, trying to burn the image of her in your brain and after that, you left to meet the engineer.

The first half of the journey was quiet, both of you were walking towards his office, but with healthy distance between the two.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ "She likes you, you know?" he spoke out of the blue, catching your attention, you looked up from the floor and back at him for a second.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ "What...?"

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ "Kuvira, she likes you." he continued, you stopped a second in your steps, confused.‍ "We were trying something at the beginning of all of this, but after Bolin got you on the team she had been distant to me and this morning she said we needed to talk after this is over, I know she likes you, I've seen the way she looks at you."

You blinked in awe to what was said, that explained why he always looked at you with some type of resentment, you laughed a little bit to the thought of him hating you for ruinning his 'chance' with the leader.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ "The destiny is such a funny thing." you murmured, it was almost relieving to know that maybe you did had your chance with the metalbender, you wished the situation was different so you could maybe be with her dispite all, but now you had one mission: stop her.

Once at the door, you unlocked it and walked in, as soon as Baatar walked you heard him grumble. In an automatic way, you adopted a defensive position, however when the avatar looked at you, a smile as big appeared on your face.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ "Korra!" you exclaimed walking towards her to embrace a hug, she giggled.‍ "I'm so glad to see you here."

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ "I'm glad to see you too," she said smiling, a couple seconds later, she distanced herself.‍ "Zhu Li told us everything, we're taking Baatar, are you coming with us?"

Without a second thought you nodded and followed the girl out of the airship.

Once at Asami's factory you greeted everyone with joy, feeling like a weight was lifted up your shoulders and when you saw Bolin your eyes watered a little bit.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ "I thought you did die!" you said while hugging him with a little strength, he was giggling with pauses.‍ "I didn't have any way to communicate and then Zhu Li left and I was all alone."

The older woman patted your back with a comprehensive smile, while everything went down you stood at the back with your friend, waiting for a conclusion. When the engineer talked to her, your stomach felt fumbling and it didn't get better listening to her answer him. She asked for you and the man told her that you were with him, they had taken you too.

Seeing how the leader shoot at the factory without considering if any of you two would make it out alive somehow made you feel sad, but there wasn't time for any of that as everyone got to action trying to stop her. Lin had given metal string for you to move around and a quick tutorial on how to use it, it took you a couple of falls for you to have the transportation managed.

The fight was intense, there were times were you thought you would not make it alive in one piece. All your muscles were aching in pain at the overwork with your bending, sweat was dripping off your face, but when everyone got into the suit you took the time to rest a little bit with Asami by your side when you went to look for her after she was ejected from the hummingbird suit. Your arms were around her, giving her comfort in her now grieving time.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ "I hope they can defeat her." she said, resting her head in your shoulder. You looked to the robot's way and saw fire reflecting, a tiny smile appear.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ "I'm sure they will." you said back.‍ "I just wish things were different... I don't recognize Kuvira anymore."

Asami was attentive to you, she gave you a comprehensive gaze.‍ "Things happen for a reason."

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ "I know that, but-" your talk was interrupted by an explosion, Asami and you covered your head with your hands and looked up afterwards.

The giant robot was halved by the vines power, with no time to waste, you ran to the scene. Before you both arrived, another explosion took place, Asami was quick to pull you to a train entrance for cover. When that one settle, your eyes shined with the new spirit portal in the heart of the city.

A small call for Kuvira left your mouth unconsciously, so you joined the rest of the group to look for the avatar while also you looked for the leader. Your mind was going a thousand per second until you saw the southerner walk out of the portal with the metalbender by her side, you sighed.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ "Wait," you called to the Beifongs before they could take her farther.‍ "Can I... talk to her? It will be quick."

Lin and Suyin took just a step back, always vigilant to the leader.‍ "I'm sorry," she started, not allowing you to say anything.‍ "For everything, I'm so sorry for making you go through all of this."

One of your hands look to get one of hers, a melancholic smile was drawn in your face. "You'll do better from now on, I can feel it."

Kuvira let a couple of tears fall from her eyes, you took a step closer to her and your lips met hers in a delicate kiss. The leader was shocked, but tried to reciprocate as fast as she could. You could hear a couple of gasps at your back, but that wasn't your main focus at the moment.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ "I'll wait for you." you told her, trying to sound calm. Kuvira's eyes shined with concern.‍ "Just know, I have always loved you... Always."

She smile a little bit and murmur a little 'I love you too' before she was taken away. Turning around to your friends, they all had a shocked face.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ "So! Korra saved the city!" you tried to sound as happy as possible for your friend, Bolin gave you back up and cheered for the avatar.

The whole team did a group hug as a celebration, knowing you could also need a hug from them, things will get better with time.

[aetherphobia]

NRC Oc #1: Spirit Auraveil

(Drawing by my buddy Howl @thesunshineriptide. And yes they drew her with a gun. They said it was mandatory /j)

Basics

Spirit Auraveil (She/her) is my very first twst oc, originally intended to be my Yuu but ultimately decided against. She is twisted from Medusa (Hercules exists as a movie and therefore she's canon to Disney. Leave me alone /j/lh). She is a gorgon Ramshackle student with a fear of men, an appetite for concerning things, and a love for the color red. She is not the prefect, as the prefect in her universe is @elysia-nsimp's Yuu, Comet Yuusonya/Morningstar (depending on the universe). Spirit is just another unfortunate soul(less) that got put in that dorm due to being accepted into NRC out of a mistake on Crowley's end, not reading her file correctly and assuming that she was a boy. She doesn't show up until sometime after Azul's OB in the canon of this universe. She's basically just another npc for Comet to deal with. She's one of many.

The Quirks of Spirit (Personality n stuff)

Spirit is written to be constantly walking around with a resting bitch face. Everything that comes out of her mouth sounds blunt, rude, and generally uninterested without meaning to. Her first comment upon entering Ramshackle was a blatant insult to Yuu's (Comet's) decorations. She tends to be very similar to that of a beastman, being alert and a relatively good hunter. So good, in fact, that she is actively named "Ramshackle's pest control" for being the one to capture all of the rats and mice that skitter around the dorm. She eats most of the rodents she finds, but it's still pretty helpful! The downside is the simple fact that Spirit is not all that above the idea of attempting to eat Grim. She hasn't tried to yet, but who knows if she will or not?

But over time Spirit does soften up a bit, trying to be a little(?) nicer. This is rather difficult because at times she genuinely cannot tell whether or not she's being rude to someone and will not notice until you point it out directly. She's the equivalent of a baby non-venomous snake trying to bite you. She's not actually trying to hurt you, it's just instincts.

She also doesn't have the best memory. Every week, Malleus comes to visit Yuu for tea and a talk. And every week Spirit forgets who Malleus is. It's rather frustrating to have to remind her every time he comes around, but she doesn't mean any harm to it. She kinda just doesn't register him as someone important enough to actively try to remember. She's not scared of him, just confused as to why this tall lizard man keeps showing up at her doorstep. Generally, Spirit doesn't remember people unless she wants to remember them.

Funky party tricks (Talents and abilities)

For starters, her signature spell. Despite being soulless, unlike the canon Yuu, she is fully capable of doing magic. And her exceptional magical ability is what ended up overshining the fact that her file was labeled as female. Her signature spell is called "Serpent's Monolith." She can basically encase people into a cold, stone statue when she looks them in the eye, basically stunning her opponent for a temporary period of time. She cannot leave them as statues for too long without straining herself. So this spell is basically used to do things like flee from an awkward encounter or temporarily stun an enemy to buy her party some time to strategize. However, the whole needing to look into their eyes thing only applies when she's stoning a sentient being. She can also use her magic to turn smaller objects into stone, only she doesn't have much of a limit to how long she can leave them like that, as the smaller the thing, the less magical energy she needs to use to maintain the stone. When something or someone is turned to stone, they are basically frozen in time in a way. So she often likes to stone some of her soda cans and energy drinks to preserve their state so they can be just as cold by the time she actually wants to drink them. Grade A magic use I know (/j).

Another magical thing about Spirit that even I as her creator often forget about is the fact that Spirit is a psychic medium. Ever since birth, seeing and communicating with the dead was about as natural to her as breathing. This power of hers was a strange phenomenon to her family, as there are no traces or history of anyone who can speak to ghosts on either side of her family. It all sorta just came out of the blue somehow and no one knows why. Spirit isn't even the name she was given at birth. She changed her name to Spirit out of her strong connection with the spirits around her. In a way, it's both a blessing and a curse. She often cannot tell the difference between the living and the dead. Not to mention that even when ghosts don't present themselves as a visible form, she can still see them no matter what. She sees and hears more ghosts than a lot of her dormmates on the daily and it can get annoying fast.

As for talents, she's actually a surprisingly good poet. On the side she has the habit of writing poetry to outwardly express how she feels, something she often struggles to do with words and her facial expressions. This talent is something that a lot of students know her for, as she once infamously wrote Kalim an anonymous love poem and all hell broke loose when he became DESPERATE to find the author of that poem and wouldn't shut up about it until he eventually found her (via recognizing her fucking handwriting). But clearly the embarrassment of this incident didn't have a hard enough kick on Spirit, as she proceeded to make the same mistake again but this time directed towards Idia and was executed a little differently. Both incidents resulted in the same suffering from success story, just in different fonts.

Trauma /j (Backstory, life back home)

Spirit grew up with 13 older brothers, parents who desperately needed a divorce but never did, and severe money problems. She spent many nights trying to evade getting eaten by her brothers in her sleep and ignore her parent's screaming competitions. She never got to have anything that was just her own that she didn't have to share. And her worst nights were having to listen to her mother cry about financial issues through the walls after being given one nice thing. Because of this, With her accidental attitude, she is also incredibly stubborn. She does not know how to accept a gift and hates leaving loose ends. It doesn't seem to go through her head that people can just give her things without malicious intent or wanting it back later. But for some reason, she has the habit of accidentally befriending rich people who keep trying to shove kind gestures down her throat. None of those gestures are ever accepted without a fuss from Spirit not wanting to somehow subconsciously manipulate them for her own gain despite not asking for any of it in the first place. She's often not mean on purpose. And she certainly doesn't enjoy making people cry without meaning to. It's often hard for her to accept that allowing someone to give her gifts won't harshly impact their financial situation in some kind of way.

Basically, she's the total opposite of Ruggie. Grew up poor, but her spender's guilt bites her too hard in the ass to be a moocher.

Relationships (Philia, Storge, Eros, etcetc)

Comet Morningstar/Yuu - Philia

Spirit is fond of her housewarden, even if she's bad at showing it. She believes that the dorm just wouldn't be the same without Yuu. Even if it started out rocky, she does have great respect for this individual.

Alice - Eros??? Philia

Alice can be a pain in the ass sometimes, but she does still care for Alice. Alice is a good ally who helps her with research on a certain disappearance. Spirit doesn't fully realize that the two of them are friends, only referring to Alice as an acquaintance. But with how they are often seen together, even if Alice is teasing her, they might as well be.

Grim - run

She still wants to eat this cat.

Floyd Leech - Eros

She initially didn't trust Floyd. All she heard was that Octavinelle is shifty. She often tried to distance herself from the Octavinelle members to stay out of shady business. This proved to be rather difficult as Floyd kept showing up to bother Yuu. This lead to Spirit being subjected to him. Over time, her fears of him lessened (somehow). And at some point, she offers him a shell bracelet she made as an act of attempting friendship. Floyd misinterpreted this as her asking him out. And Spirit spent a whole three days unaware she was in a relationship at all. It worked out in the end though.

Jade Leech - positively acquainted(?)

Spirit spends more time with Floyd than Jade. And she's unsure of him. But she gives him the benefit of the doubt out of respect for Floyd. He's strangely nice to her. But Spirit cannot read tone. So she often genuinely cannot tell if he's being nice because he wants to or because he has alterior motives. She's too afraid to ask.

Kalim Al Asim - Eros

She used to think that Kalim was annoying and unnecessarily obnoxious. But her opinions were changed over time when she actually bothered to spend time with him. He gifted her a bracelet and a parasol to shield her from the harsh sunlight so he could show her around his dorm. Eventually, this leads to a crush. And then the letter incident happened where she sent him an anonymous love poem to get those feelings off her chest and then it backfired tremendously. To this day she is still embarrassed by this whole ordeal. Especially since Kalim still has that poem framed in his room.

Jamil Viper - fear

Spirit has this feeling of fear towards Jamil. A part of her has no idea why. Spirit is not an active participant in book 4 so she is only informed of that incident much later down the line. Generally, Jamil reminds her of a snake in a very literal sense. As a gorgon, she half expects him to be hostile out of instinct alone. And so she acts accordingly.

Howl Pendragon - Philia

Spirit found Howl to be interesting at first, although mildly intimidating with them being an Octavinelle student. But once they showed they were not a threat, she softened up a little to them. Similarly to Alice, Spirit also doesn't entirely realize that Howl is her friend either. But they still get along pretty well. She knows that they're a good person to turn to if she ever needs a shoulder to lean on. Not that she would out of her own paranoia, but the thought has indeed crossed her mind a few times. Howl is one of the few people she would actually care about if they died.

Malleus Draconia - Who the fuck are you?

As stated previously, Spirit struggles to actively remember who Malleus is. Not out of any malice (hehe), but it's rather amusing for Spirit to have to be re-introduced to him every time he passes by Ramshackle. Even when she is reminded that he's a regular visitor, she's not all that intimidated by him. She doesn't really care for his status or how important he seems to be. She's honestly more curious about what reptile he's supposed to be.

Idia Shroud - Eros

They never really acknowledged eachother much until the events of Glorious Masquerade, where Spirit encouraged him to go up the stairs to the belltower in a way that he would understand (gamer lingo) and bribed him with little snack cakes she had in her pocket. And they sorta just clicked from there. After that whole fiasco he attempted to repay her for the snack cakes by offering her two fresh boxes of them (they were really cheap). She ended up panicking and trying to refuse. He panicked in response and didn't know what to do. Spirit cried, he fled, Ortho forcefully dragged him back upstairs kicking and screaming to resolve the issue, blah blah friendship. Spirit actually finds Idia to be an enjoyable presence even if he's not much of a people person. She gifted him a red tamagotchi as a way to basically remind him that she exists without explicitly being in his line of sight. It felt strange to actually want someone to know her, but she doesn't register this as a bad feeling. This feeling ended up evolving into something more and resulted in another backfired poem incident.

Venus - minor inconvenience

Venus is a ghost that bothers her often. She's sorta like the Grim to Spirit's Yuu. Annoying, breaks into weird pirate vocabulary, and doesn't shut up about her missing daughter. Spirit genuinely doesn't know what Venus' deal is. But she's been trying to find a way to help her move on. And hopefully soon, as the times Venus disappears for too long never get any less concerning.

Media (Drawings, Picrews, friend art and other stuff)

A good chunk of the friend art are from my buddy Howl. A lot of these pictures depict her without her snakes. This is either because I can't find picrews that have gorgon snakes, or because some of these were made before she grew in her snakes at all (late bloomer).

Spirit's official Tumblr account: @definitelynotspirit

Conclusion

And that's pretty much it. I may update this from time to time for any new information or stuff that I forgot. But I will leave it at this for now so I can move on to the others. Thx 4 reading!

[louwhose]

Congratulations on 100 followers, sweet friend! You deserve it! 💜 How about a little one-shot of Link and Zelda playing truth or dare with a group of college friends? Context: Link has been trying to muster the courage to ask her out but hasn't yet.

Ahhh!!! Thank you so much!!! This was really fun to write! I hope you like it!

“Truth or Dare?”

“Dare!”

Link glanced over at Zelda, before choosing the safer option. “Truth.”

Daruk gave Link his signature large, wide smile. As a counterpoint, he thought Purah’s grin was downright terrifying as she looked at Zelda. He was glad he didn’t have to deal with her.

Daruk was the one challenging him. And the gentle giant of a Goron would be perfectly harmless, he was sure.

“Who’s your crush?”

…Or maybe not. How had he gotten into this situation again?

The group of friends had started playing truth or dare— surprisingly not at the suggestion of Purah, but rather Robbie. After a couple of rounds, however, Purah declared it too boring and convinced everyone else to spice it up and do “boys vs. girls,” whoever completed it first won that round for their team.

And it just so happened to be Link vs. Zelda that time.

And Daruk just had to ask about his crush. He was perfectly harmless, but he was more than a little oblivious.

Because Link was down far worse than merely having a crush, but fully and undeniably in love with Zelda. And he had been trying to figure out how to ask her out for the past month.

Well, at least it gave her a chance to win more than a typical pair up of one truth and one dare would allow for, since while he was going to try, it would certainly take a while to muster his courage to do so. There was a reason he hadn’t managed to actually tell her yet. Though this was far from his ideal situation to confess to her in.

Though, of course, Purah managed to make the whole situation even worse with the dare she gave Zelda. "I dare you to… kiss Link."

Link barely had a chance to jerk his head towards them with a wide-eyed expression before Zelda, confident and daring and competitive as always, turned towards him.

Oh no.

He took a couple of steps back away from the rest of the group. Unsurprisingly, Zelda was quick to follow him, grabbing the side of his head and starting to lean in.

Link was far from emotionally prepared to kiss Zelda. Of course he did want to kiss her, but at the right time, in the right way. Not in front of all of their friends because Purah was being her typical self and had dared them to.

So he brought his hands up to the sides of her head and pressed them tight enough so that she couldn't move her head any closer to his.

So there they stood, noses centimeters apart, Zelda trying to close that gap and Link refusing to let her do so.

He was sure his face resembled an apple at this point.

Everyone else, with their view blocked by Zelda's head, clearly thinking they were locking lips, began to cheer and wolf whistle at them.

"I haven't won yet!" Zelda shouted back at them. "He's not letting me kiss him!"

"Well…" someone said, Link wasn't sure who without seeing, "I guess we didn't make any rules against stopping the other person from winning. Maybe he just wants to win."

He saw Zelda narrow her eyes at him, only a few inches from his own. She knew him well enough to know that wasn't it, because he easily would have answered already.

"Why won't you let me kiss you?" she hissed.

"Because I love you!" The words tumbled from his lips before Link could even really register them. "So I don't want to kiss you in such a meaningless way! I've been trying to figure out how to ask out my gorgeous and smart and passionate friend for the past month but haven’t figured out how to do it. But if it were genuine I would love to kiss you."

Zelda's expression was understandably dumb struck as she took in what he said, and Link felt his face matching her expression as he realized that he had just confessed to Zelda.

"Well. Then." She cleared her throat, recovering a little bit. "How does six on Friday, dinner and a walk in the park sound?"

He blinked. Had Zelda just asked him on a date? "Um. Grea!. That sounds great!"

She gave him a shy smile. And as much as he loved her radiant, beaming one, he also liked how this looked on her.

Link didn't even resist it when she leaned forward and kissed him.

It was everything he had ever imagined it would be.

He barely registered the others whooping and cheering again, much louder this time.

"Which one of them won?"

"I think both the lovebirds won. Link got a date and Zelda got a kiss."

Link pulled back from the kiss. "It wasn't just for the dare, was it?"

Zelda raised an eyebrow. "What do you think?"

In response, he pulled her in for another kiss.

[twistedtangledfate]

//So, I did a fourth wing thing cause I finished last night and it's dwelling in my mind. Put it under the cut and tagged as spoilers so I don't ruin anything for anyone else who hasn't read it yet.

It had been worth it, it had all been worth it, and he had to remind himself of that and yet the words were hollow. He had known they had been handed a death sentence and yet his mind hadn't fully processed it. Soleil had been too quick and the information had barely registered in the heat and flurry of the battle but Liam had been different. He had heard it all and it had been slow and agonising. There were many things that haunted Xaden Riorson and now, he had one more thing to add to the list. There was a myriad of ways to die but that was the one that every rider feared. It had been awful and heroic all at once and not a single fucking one of them would know or care about it, just another traitors son gone and what a shame the rest had made it out.

Xaden clenched his fists and tried to push the flare of anger down. He had more control than that, he had worked hard to gain that control and it was slipping from his fingers like mist.

He was one of you.

Sgaeyl's voice was a surprisingly gentle intrusion and he could hear Tairn's rumble of agreement in the background. Xaden was tired, so very tired, but there would be no rest for him, not till Violet opened her eyes, even if it was just to glare hatefully at him and snap at him with venom in her voice. Better in her voice than in her blood. If she died, then his heart would die too because she was such an intrinsic part of him now, and hadn't he known that for weeks? Yes. He'd felt it in the core of him. No theory yet to be tested; pure, painful truth.

"Anytime Violence, anytime." He whispered to her, to the empty room as he crossed his ankles, gaze fixed firmly on her, waiting and praying to the God's he barely believed in to bring her back home to him.

[tu-sugar-mami]

Tales of the side of the road #8: The nightmare is over...?

You can read part 7 here

You can read part 1 here

TW: CAR CRASH, CHARACTER DEATH

___________________________________

There's a puddle of gray thick goo on the floor. It looks gross and the stickiness of it has stuck on the mop like glue. You sigh, the next option is one you were hoping not to come to. The goo along with the smell makes you icky, but keeping the floor clean is part of your job and you have no other choice but to put on some rubber gloves, get on your knees and start scrubbing the floorboards by hand.

The day is just starting and you already feel like crap. Your last dream was shocking. Although, by this point you know very well it's not a dream, but a memory. Yet another part of the fragmented story that your brain has been fighting to restore as of late. You recall reading something about how a person's brain can block some memories as a coping mechanism to traumatic events, and now you know why.

There was chaos in the dream. It felt so real, as if you were once again living the crash in the flesh… reliving it.

A loud ringing in your ears accompanied the blurriness of your vision, making it hard for you to focus on your unconscious partner hanging from the passenger seat. The scene unfolded in slow motion, and you watched blood drip along the curve of their forehead from the destroyed and upside-down car.

Your companion was limp. The back of their hands rested on the roof of the vehicle, but their body was held back by the security belt. It took your eyes a moment to notice the antler-like thing impaling together their chest and the shattered windshield. 

For a few moments your brain didn’t register the pain in its entirety, instead making everything feel numb, but as you became aware of your surroundings, the adrenaline lowered and the aching of your injuries finally returned in full force. Moving even an inch of your own body proved difficult; something as simple as blinking felt almost impossible.

Then the footsteps came…

Many of them, actually. 

With a –quite painful– look at your surroundings, the corner of your eye spotted the quickly approaching people. All of them seemed to wear the same clothes as if it was some form of formal uniform. Quite the odd dressing etiquette in the middle of nowhere, but in your state you didn’t think much of them at the moment, instead your focus invested fully on the nonexistent breathing of your companion…

“She’s alive!” A man knelt next to you and through the shattered window began to cut the seatbelt with a pocket knife, making you fall unceremoniously onto the car's roof. Even though his arms helped your body to not fall so harshly, your mauled body resented the sudden hit. The man's face was obscured thanks to the blinding light of the sun behind him as he dragged you out of the vehicle, but you could make out a charming smile gracing his lips. “Hey girl…”.

Huffing, you stand up and yank the gloves from your hands with a quick movement. The goo puddle is mostly gone now, but you'll wait  for the cleaning solution you left over it to take effect before cleaning the thing completely.

Downing yet another 5 shots of espresso, you think of the things you need to do today and sigh tiredly.

Your head is still throbbing, as it always happens after Eiddelte has taken over your body, but it's been hours since you woke up and the pain hasn't diminished. Everything is sore, and the bandage that covers the burn mark on your right arm is wet from all the scrubbing earlier. The tingling is still there, inexistent needles pricking your skin from your fingertips all the way to your shoulder, but at least you can move the arm normally. 

Usually, when the bitchy goddess takes over, you let her do as she pleases since it's always quicker that way. You had learned since very early that fighting her control ended up in you being exhausted physically and mentally, and not even all the concentrated coffee in the world could make you feel better, but at least it was worth a shot.

When you woke up a few hours ago, it took a moment for your brain to catch up to the fact that you had been out for damn too long. The day already looked like it was going to be another colorful pain in the ass by the prospect of having to deal with all the mess of leaving the shop unattended. It was stressful, and you hated it when it happened. Last time the shop was left unattended for an hour it took you three days and respective nights to have everything under control again, but it was no use to cry. You can’t do it anymore anyway, even if you wanted to.

Needless to say, you were thankful to find Mark busy already taking care of the schedule. He truly is a lifesaver. Quite literally. 

Mark then recounted with great detail everything that happened since your inevitable fainting. 

Apparently, something felt off to the oldest daughter, and the ladies along with a, in Mark's words, 'kinda handsome but not that much honestly' bearded man, still shocked after witnessing the whole Eiddelte episode, decided it was best to depart. Although the grumpy man mentioned something about Alcina wanting to check on you later. 

You'd be lying if you said you didn't blush at the thought of the tall Lady worrying about you. If she could swing by the shop again you certainly wouldn't complain.

The smell of burnt wood reaches your nostrils, and the rag you're using to wipe the counter finds itself being thrown over the cleaning substance you poured on the goo remains earlier in a feeble attempt to suck the liquid. 

Good god, the chemicals might have been a little too strong. Welp, what's a few imported custom floorboards to your paycheck anyway, right?

Even after Mark's help, there is still so much more work to do in the shop, and you can barely handle it by yourself. Alas, you've been here for a while now and each time you find a way to overcome challenges. It won't be different this time. 

As long as you don't have customers to distract you, everything should be ready by the time the water clock reaches the red lin–

"Hello?" A squeaky, muffled yell disrupts the comfortable silence.

Maybe you spoke too soon. 

Outside of the glass doors stands a kid no older than four. You've witnessed horrors after horrors while working at Itsy Bitchy Spider, but this time the fright comes from a more reasonable place; seeing a toddler all alone in the middle of nowhere.

The little girl spots you through the glass. Her big shiny eyes are completely normal and there’s absolutely nothing off with her. Her lips pose a tranquil smile, and her rosy cheeks appear chubby as she presses her face to the glass. She waves at you and giggles as she takes one of the many papers under her arm and slides it through the slit of the twin doors before she retreats without another word. The lack of a shadow on the floor she steps on is odd, and a prick between your shoulder blades alerts you that whatever the girl is, it’s one of Eiddelte’s friends.

Wearily, you approach the paper on the floor and reach for it. 

A bead of sweat rolls down your temple. Your eyes widen with a mix of emotions as you read the scribbly bright red writing and… 

…a relieved huff comes from you as you read the big bold letters:

"AUNT BANGE'S FOOD TRUCK OPENING TODAY! COME TRY OUR FAMOUS QUESADILLAS!"

[xfindingtrouble]

" you never talk about your past... why? " [ Vex @ Percy ]

It takes a moment for Percy to fully register the observation. He's mid-sip of an mystery drink that had been abandoned by another member of Vox Machina. ( waste not, want not ) The rest of their team was scattered about the tavern, each conducting their own business... except for vex & percy. He peers over the rim of his mug, making a face at the bitter taste before opting to drink the rest while avoiding the implied question. it was a fair one, despite his discomfort.

Percy had yet to share much of his past with vox machina. they were chaotic, infuriating & often endearing... but they were full of unknowns. percy supposed he was as well. it's what made him feel so terribly at home with this motley crew, the patchwork of people that had come together by fate's design. it was a fair observation, regardless of his discomfort facing it. it was easy to know & be known at face value, but the longer they traveled together the more all of them saw. face value wasn't cutting it anymore.

" It hasn't been relevant, " he rationalizes, watching for a reaction but failing to elaborate. maybe he shouldn't be so dismissive, despite the urge. Sometimes, Percy was compelled to leave entirely. But he had handed all of his funds to vex'ahlia herself in order to prevent that, among other things. in the presence of his new companions, he felt entirely too much like a person. it was nice not to have to fight on his own, it felt less like survival & more like life. but there were complications in the concept, one of which he was facing now.

percy has no doubt that vex could find out anything she wanted to on her own accord. asking was a pleasantry, a social nicety. perhaps this is why he sinks into himself. maybe he's afraid of laying his past before her, who he has no doubt will be left unsatisfied by any half-truths. he chews the tip of his tongue, thinking. a lie wouldn't do, but the truth was... unbelievable, at best.

" Some things are better left unsaid." this is a truth. he probably seems half-mad as it was, they didn't need him spewing tales of betrayal & gore in a crowded tavern. he leans back in his chair, offering a smile that follows this tentative trend of honesty, " Vox Machina seems a bit better at living in the present, don't you think? "

[andvys]

Fine line part eight

warnings: fluff, angst, violence

pairing: ellie williams x reader

Ellie didn’t even register the sound of thunder rumbling or the rain pattering against the window in the early morning hours.

The first thing she noticed was the comforting feeling of you clinging to her as her arms were wrapped safely around you. You were laying on top of her, with your head on her chest.

This wasn’t the position you were in last night, no, this was much more intimate but Ellie wasn’t complaining, she liked the feeling of having you in her arms, the urge to protect you was big, to give you comfort and warmth.

Looking down at you, she wondered how she could ever hate you, you looked so sweet and precious, as if anyone could actually hate you.

But you didn’t just look that way, you were sweet and precious. You always helped everyone around you, you cared for other people more than you cared about yourself, you always put the needs of others first. You didn’t care about yourself and that worried her, she knew you would sacrifice yourself to save others. You were always out there, looking for supplies, looking out for people who needed saving but you always neglected yourself, you wanted to do good for others. You always had to be the hero.

Maybe that’s why she tried to convince herself that she hated you when in actuality she cared deeply about you and she knew this would get her heart broken because you were gonna get yourself killed sooner or later.

So she thought, pushing you away and hating you to get rid of her feelings was the only way not to get her heart broken but she was wrong, so wrong. The more she pushed you away, the more she tried to hate you, the more intense her real feelings have gotten. 

Ellie was snapped out of her thoughts when you began to stir in your sleep. Her heart began to race under your palm, this time you were gonna wake up together. The few times you ended up cuddling in your sleep, one of you would always be up first, so it was never weird or uncomfortable between you but this time there was no running away from it.

“morning Ellie.” she heard you whisper softly as you stayed in that position.

“morning y/n.” Ellie whispered back, nervously.

‘that’s not what friends do right?’ Ellie thought to herself.

‘we weren’t even friends and we cuddled already..’

“it’s still storming.” you pointed out when you heard thunder crashing.

“yeah.. we’re still gonna be here today.” Ellie said.

You didn’t know what it was about her but she made you feel safe and warm like no one else did before. You weren’t one for cuddling or hugging but when you woke up in her arms for the first time, it felt like the most comfortable place in the world.

You never thought you’d end up in the arms of your enemy and yet here you were and you wouldn't want it any other way.

Well, you weren’t enemies anymore you were friends now but still.

-

Two days later you were on the way back home to Jackson, the storm hasn't fully passed yet but just enough to drive, luckily it wasn't raining too heavily.

You and Ellie spent the past two days playing cards and talking about everything and nothing. You thought it would be boring and dreadful being around her for this long but you were surprised to find out that you actually liked talking to her and spending time with her. Maybe you even liked it a little too much.

“so.. you excited to go home?” you asked. 

“uh yeah.. I guess.” Ellie said “what about you?” she asked.

“not like I'm gonna stay for long.” you shrugged, looking out of the car window.

Ellie furrowed her brows, a dreading feeling set in her stomach.

“what do you mean?” she asked.

“I mean.. I’ll probably rest for a few days before Maria sends me off again.” you told her, looking at her you noticed she had a frown on her face.

“we found the supplies though, it’s enough, you don't have to go out there anymore y/n.” she stated anxiously. She didn't want you to go. Especially not alone.

“it’s never enough, Ellie.” you said “besides.. I don’t really have a home anymore and it’s not like anyone is waiting there for me.” you shrugged. Just thinking about being back in Jackson made you feel alone and miserable. 

You were surrounded by a lot of people in Jackson and yet you felt more alone in there than out here. 

Outside of Jackson, you knew there wasn't anyone but you, so it was okay to be alone, it’s what you chose for yourself but you had no one in Jackson.

No friends, no family, nothing.

Sure you got along with Dina and Jesse but they were Ellie’s friends and you only went on patrols with them. 

You were alone. 

No one would mourn you if you would ever die out here and no one would come looking for you if you went missing.

“that’s not true y/n.” Ellie sighed, looking over at you she noted the sad expression on your face. “there are people waiting for you.” 

You knew she was just trying to make you feel better but it was okay. You have made peace with the thought of being alone and dying alone.

“it’s okay Ellie.” you assured her. 

‘it’s not okay.’ Ellie thought to herself, she hated that you felt this way.

“y/n it’s- oh no fuck.. you gotta be kidding me.” she mumbled in anger, when the car began to slow down, indicating that you ran out of gas.

“shit.” you mumbled, looking out of the window, you realized you were in the middle of nowhere, it was a wooded area and you had no gas left. Great.

“that’s just great.” Ellie muttered under her breath.

Ellie grabbed the map, looking at it in concentration. 

It was raining outside and didn't look like there were any towns nearby or a gas station or something.

“there's a cabin close by and the next town is a few miles away from where we are right now.” she told you, showing the marked up area in the woods where the cabin was. “i bet we’ll find some gas there.”

“can we leave the car here?” you asked, worried about the supplies. 

You haven't run into anyone in the past few days but you could never know, people are everywhere. 

“we have no choice, staying in here isn't an option, we gotta go get some gas anyways, if we’re lucky we’ll make it back by tonight and if not then we stay in that cabin overnight and then come back here.” she said, eying you, she noticed that you were worried. 

“okay..” you sighed before you opened the car door, to get out. Luckily the rain wasn’t too heavy but you’d still be drenched by the time you’d come back.

Ellie opened the trunk and started to put some supplies into her backpack.

You came up next to her and started doing the same.

“here..” she offered you a switchblade, it was a black one. You looked up at her before you accepted it, eying it. You talked about needing a new one a few days ago.

It warmed your heart that she remembered it.

“thank you.” you smiled at her, noticing the blush on her face.

“it’s nothing.” she said, smiling back at you.

-

You were walking for an hour now, your clothes were wet, water ran down your hair and your face and you just felt very uncomfortable. Luckily it stopped raining a few minutes ago but you were sure it wouldn’t be long until it would start raining again.

You managed to find the cabin and checked it out to make sure that it was safe for later before you kept walking towards the town.

You were finally getting closer when you saw the first buildings up ahead.

“look..” Ellie said, pointing to the first store. It was a clothing store or at least it used to be one.

Sighing out in relief, a small smile appeared on your face “we should get rid of these clothes and get some new ones.” you said, walking inside the store.

“yeah..” Ellie mumbled, following you inside.

After you made sure the store was safe, you started looking at the different types of clothes. A dress managed to catch your attention, a smile broke out on your face before you started chuckling to yourself. The thought of wearing a dress in this world, while killing some infected seemed ridiculous to you.

“you okay?” Ellie chuckled, when she saw you laughing while holding a dress in your hands.

Looking over at her, you noticed she had a slight smile on her face.

“yeah it’s just..” a smirk appeared on your face “i’m trying to imagine you in this dress right now.” you said as you began laughing when a disgusted expression appeared on her face.

“please don’t.” she groaned as she rolled her eyes.

You chuckled at her before you put the dress back and started looking for something useful.

You managed to find some suitable clothes, you were about to ask Ellie if she was done when something else caught your attention.

You picked the items up and held them up in front of you.

“hey Ellie.”

“yeah?” she asked, turning around to face you, her eyes widened when she saw the lacy underwear in your hands.

“the black ones or the blue ones?” you asked, smirking at her when a blush appeared on her face.

“uhhh-“ she started, scratching the back of her neck “black.” she mumbled before she turned around again, closing her eyes, she took a deep breath.

Now she couldn’t get the picture of your half naked body out of her head.

You chuckled to yourself at how flustered she’d gotten. You never thought you’d see a blushing Ellie someday, let alone you being the reason for it.

You put your backpack down and took your wet flannel off, cringing at the feeling of wet clothes against your skin.

“ugh.. i’m so wet.” you mumbled as you grabbed the hem of your shirt, pulling it over your head, leaving you in a black bra.

A smirk appeared on Ellie’s face at your words “are you now?” she chuckled turning around to look at you, her eyes widened once again when she saw you pulling your shirt off.

She couldn’t help but stare at you, at your soft, beautiful skin. Eying you up and down, she gripped the shirt tightly that she held in her hands.

Your eyes widened as well, when you saw the way she was looking at you. A weird feeling shot through your body.

But for some reason you didn’t mind having her stare at you.

“we uh- we should-..”

“yeah..” Ellie mumbled, turning around again.

-

Leaving the store, there was a weird tension between you and Ellie, something that hasn’t been there before.

You tried to ignore it and rather focused on trying to find gas but you weren’t that lucky this time. You tried to siphon some gas from the cars that were left standing around but they were all empty.

You were beginning to get frustrated, if you wouldn’t find any gas you would have to keep going into the next towns and you weren’t sure if there was any gas.

Ellie was about to say something when you heard the sound of car coming closer.

You and Ellie looked at each other wide eyed before she grabbed your hand pulling you behind a car. You crouched down and gripped your shotgun tightly in your hands.

You hoped whoever was coming your way would drive by but you weren’t as lucky as you hoped you would be, the car stopped close to where you and Ellie were.

Peeking out from behind the car, you could see four men getting out of the car, a dreading feeling set in your stomach. Running into a group of men never ended good. 

“shit..” you mumbled, you felt your heart beginning to raise, this reminded you to a similar setting when you and Ellie ran into a larger group back in Colorado when you were on your way to Texas. You almost got yourself killed trying to keep one of the guys off Ellie when he tried to throw his knife at her and instead threw at you when you moved in front of her, the blade pierced through your shoulder. The wound was still healing and you knew it would leave a big scar.

“it’s just four y/n.. we fought more before.” Ellie whispered behind you as she put her hand on top of yours, squeezing it.

You nodded, trying to calm your racing heart. 

It’s not that you were scared to fight them or kill them, you’ve done this a dozen times before. You were worried that things would go sideways and they’d manage to hurt Ellie or worse. You knew she could handle herself but still.

That’s why you liked doing these things alone, you didn't have to worry about anyone else, you could just focus on yourself and get it over with.

“spread out.” a voice shouted “find them.” 

You and Ellie glanced at each other in curiosity. Who were they looking for? They couldn’t be looking for you could they? As far as you knew, no one was after you. But something told you these men didn’t have good intentions.

You saw all the men, going off into different directions, this would make it easier for you to kill them.

You and Ellie nodded at each other before you went to get up but Ellie put her hand around your wrist and pulled you back making you look at her “be careful, please.” she whispered, looking at you with a worried expression. 

You nodded, “you too Ellie.” you whispered, smiling at her before you got up to follow one of the men who went into the gas station. 

You saw him going into the backroom so you went inside hiding behind the large shelves to avoid being seen, pulling your shotgun back by the sling you grabbed the new switchblade Ellie gave you earlier. 

You walked towards the backroom slowly, you could hear the guy opening the drawers in the room, clearly searching for something. 

Taking a deep breath, you looked inside but you couldn't find him, furrowing your brows you turned around only to run into a hard chest, startled you stepped back and looked up to see the tall man in front of you.

“looking for me?” he smirked at you. 

You didn't even hesitate before you tried to stab him but he managed to catch your wrist, gripping it tightly, you tried to pull your hand back but he overpowered you in strength. He put his other hand around your throat and pushed you into the room harshly, throwing you over the table. 

You fell off the table, down to your knees, you grabbed your shotgun quickly and turned around, falling back against the floor the man was about to shot you but you beat him to it, the loud shot went off, throwing him back against the wall as blood splattered everywhere.

“fuck..” you mumbled, this alerted the others. 

You quickly got up and grabbed the man’s gun before you ran towards the entrance of the store, you peeked out to see one of the men running towards the gas station. 

You didn't hesitate to get up and aim your gun at his head, he looked at you with eyes, clearly not expecting that but before he could react you already shot him.

His body dropped to the floor.

You heard a shot go off not too far from you. Your heart began to race at the thought that it might be Ellie that got shot instead of one of the men. 

You ran out and hid behind one of the cars, trying to find the rest and Ellie. You looked around but you couldn't see anyone. 

Your hands started shaking and your breathing got heavier by the second. For some reason you felt the deep fear of losing her all of the sudden. All sorts of pictures started running through your mind.

This moment reminded you of when you lost your mom, it happened in a similar setting, you were looking for her but couldn’t find her until you heard that gunshot.

“calm down y/n.” you whispered to yourself, trying to take deep breaths. 

You heard glass smashing in one of the old stores on the other side of the street, you got up and ran towards it. 

You ran inside to find Ellie standing over the dead body of one of the men, looking into the corner of the room you found another dead body with a bullet in his head. 

You felt relieved to see that she was alright but you had to make sure.

You didn’t know what came over you but you couldn’t help but run towards her, hugging her from behind.

She stiffened at first but relaxed once she realized it was you. Warmth engulfed, feeling your arms wrapped around you but she asked herself what caused you to hug her, you were never the one initiating the hugs, she was the one that pulled you in at night.

“y/n?” she whispered, putting her hand on top of yours that were resting on her stomach, she grabbed them and turned around to face you, looking at you in worry as she noted the anxious look on your face.

She grabbed your face gently “are you okay?”

You were about to respond when you noticed the fresh cut on her face, blood was running down her cheek. Anger and worry filled you at the thought that one of them managed to get this close to her.

You put your palm against her cheek, eying the wound. “Ellie..” you whispered.

“it’s fine y/n.. it doesn’t hurt.” she assured you “are you okay?”

You didn’t respond and instead pulled her into a hug, hiding your face in the crook of her neck. She put her arms around you, holding you tightly against her.

You calmed down when she held you, she gave you the warmth and the comfort that you so desperately craved all these years, to think that it was her who made you feel this way overwhelmed you, you could’ve had this a long time ago and yet you decided to waste all these years.

You decided that you wouldn’t waste them anymore with acting like you hated her or with trying to push away your true feelings.

“come on, let’s get out of here.” Ellie whispered, rubbing your back softly.

You nodded before you pulled away from her, she grabbed your hand and pulled you out of the store, leading you towards the car the man came with.

You looked up at the sky, noticing the dark clouds, it was about to start raining again. This day just kept getting worse.

Ellie opened the trunk and sighed in relief when she saw a two gallons of gas standing there.

“fuck yeah.” she breathed grabbed one of them handing one to you before she grabbed the other one.

You siphoned the rest of the gas out of the car, you needed all you could find. Before you left to get back to the cabin.

-

Once again your clothes were drenched from the rain as you ran inside the cabin. Ellie shut the door and locked it. Darkness engulfed the room, the only source of light were the bolts of lightening.

Both of you were shaking from the cold rain and you didn’t have any spare clothes with you.

Ellie walked towards the fireplace and crouched down to start a fire.

Light appeared in the room after a few moments. The flames in the fireplace made the room appear warm and cozy unlike how you were feeling right now. You were shaking, water was dripping from your clothes and hair.

Ellie noticed the state you were in, she wasn’t feeling any better but you were out of clothes but she knew you’d get sick if you didn’t get rid of the wet clothes.

“take your clothes off.” Ellie told you.

You looked up at her, a surprised expression appeared on your face “huh?”

“take them off, we’re gonna get sick.” she said before she started taking her clothes off.

You looked at her with wide eyes as she took off her shirt, showing off her toned stomach and her strong arms before she started taking off her shoes and her pants.

She looked so beautiful, the light from the flame highlighted her beauty even more.

The rumble of thunder snapped you out of your thoughts, shaking your head at yourself, you looked down, hoping she didn’t catch you staring at her.

You bend down to take your shoes off before you started taking your clothes off as well.

You could feel Ellie’s eyes on you but you didn’t mind. You looked up at her, noticing that she was staring at you.

You looked at the open cut on her cheek, remembering that you still had to take care of it.

You grabbed your backpack and two blankets from the couch, handing one to Ellie. You sat down on the soft carpet in front of the fireplace and looked up at Ellie, motioning for her to sit down in front of you.

She sat down and put the blanket around her shoulders, still shaking from the cold rain. She eyed you as you poured some alcohol on a cloth. She couldn’t help but stare at your beautiful face, the way you hugged her earlier made her want to feel you even more. Her eyes fell to your lips.

You grabbed her chin softly and started to clean the wound on her cheek, making sure to be gentle.

Your heart began to race when you felt her hand on your thigh, biting down on your lip you looked at her to find her staring at your lips.

“all done.” you whispered, glancing at her lips.

She moved closer and grabbed your face gently.

You gazed into each other’s eyes before you both leaned in, smashing your lips together.

You were overwhelmed with emotions the moment you felt her lips moving against yours. The kiss was passionate yet gentle, her lips were so soft and the feeling she left you with was unlike anything you have ever felt before.

She deepened the kiss and pulled you into her even closer. Caressing your cheek with her thumb.

You pulled away from her, the kiss left you breathless.

Leaning your forehead against hers you opened your eyes to look at her, you didn’t even know what to say, the kiss left you speechless and by the way she was looking at you, you knew she felt the same way.

You didn’t need to say anything to know what the other felt, right at this moment.

Looking at each other was enough.

[madeleine-bo]

Pumpkin is home!

She's so small and young, but so full of personality already. She's absolutely just a chill kitten, happy to eat and play with everyone and everything, and nothing seems to bother her much at all.

It's such a big difference compared to our older kitty Spice. As a kitten, he was very brave but equally very skittish: he'd run and hide at every noise only to come out a second later to continue exploring.

I think it really shows just how much of an impact the first few weeks of a kitten's life can have on the cat for the rest of their life.

For context: Spice was born of a stray cat and lived as a stray with his mum and his brother until they were found by a shelter when the kittens were around two/three months old. We have no idea of the conditions they lived in for those months, whether the area they were in was at least mostly safe or not, etc.

As a kitten, Spice got close to my partner and I quickly, but he continued to be scared of other people for quite some time. Nowadays, (he's two and a bit years old) while he isn't out right scared of other humans, it still takes him a while to warm up to people (even those who regularly come visit us!).

Personality wise, he's a very brave and curious cat. We trained him to walk on a lead and he enjoys our walks together, yet despite that, he still hasn't gotten over his knee-jerk reaction to loud noises. He doesn't go and hide anymore, but he'll still instantly go into "alert mode" at the noise. If nothing happens following the noise, he'll relax right away.

On the opposite side of things, Pumpkin was born to a house cat and has only known love and comfort for her entire life. She had three litter mates to play with, and was around and handled by humans from the very day she was born.

When there's a loud noise, she doesn't even register it. Upon seeing Spice the first time (we're talking about seeing a grown adult cat that's pretty much four to five times her size given she's a literal baby and he's a big cat even by adult cat standards), she just trotted over to him and I had to slow her down so Spice wouldn't get spooked.

It's such a huge difference in behaviour, and it gives me many feelings. There's something about knowing that, no matter how loved and safe and secure Spice is right now, he'll probably never fully let go of his primal fear reaction because, at the beginning of his life, that fear is all he knew and all that kept him alive.

Anyway, if you're wondering how the introduction between the two is going: we're taking it very slow but it's looking good already.

Pumpkin is in a separate room at the moment, and Spice is so curious about her, he's taken to just hanging out in front of her door. He was a bit guarded at first (tail tucked, sitting low on the ground), but after a day he's now much more confident whenever he sits by the door (both ears and tail relaxed).

Pumpkin just wants to be able to hang out with her big brother, like, now!, and she keeps trying to sneak out of the door every time we go in.

They've had a very successful together-but-separate play session with the door open too, and Spice has started eating his food by Pumpkin's door.

Keep tuned for more kitten updates in the future!