#so far she doesnt seem like shes spent much thought on any of these things

[sirenofthegreenbanks]

mongwoo playing baduk against the qing ambassador is . very symbolic. THEYRE GONNA TEAM UP IM CALLING IT. (she and the king.) they compliment each other incredibly well, were one has a weakness the other is strong. mongwoo is frankly shit at schemes when real people are involved, and the king is too laden by real-people events and a certain kind of viewpoint when playing baduk. he cant entirely free himself from the strategist he needs to be as the king of a court of vipers, making him worse at baduk than mongwoo. meanwhile mongwoo has the mental flexibility and freedom to see things from unsuspecting angles; she seems to have ingraved the baduk rules in her heart and is now applying them expertly. but a baduk board is different from a real country with real people; her stakes when playing were never big enough to carry that burden. but should they team up they could compliment each other‘s strengths and weaknesses and they could take advantage of mongwoo‘s unique position as a woman crossdressing as the king‘s favourite official. she can go to places the king cant. she has access to the common people, his countrypeople, in a way he hasnt and never will. if they apply their combined smarts, cunning, and good heartedness to handle the precarious situation with the qing things would start to take a turn

[lyss-sketchbox]

(To start, I've been enjoying reading your and folks' various perspectives on Natlan, it's interesting to see different breakdowns/thoughts)

I do have a theory on the flippancy though, and I may very well be horribly wrong, but I suspect it's intentional. The whole nation is being taught, more or less, that this war they're fighting is a game. It's fine if you die, we'll bring you back. It's fine if you fight the Abyss, we do it all the time. And yet. We see that folks' Ancient Names can be lost and not recovered, that you can't fully recover from Abyssal corrosion, and that hey, actually, Kachina is a terrified kid when we see that projection of her. It may even be part of why the nation is struggling so much with creating their Contending Fire. I also think Mavuika plays into this narrative.

Primarily, I think (or maybe just hope) her overconfidence is going to be her hubris. Traveller expresses concern about the time she has to gather the warriors and she's non-plussed, "eh, I trust the Wyob". She's got A Plan and it's going to work, according to her. But I dunno about that ma'am. She also says weirdly definitive statements that I don't think are fully accurate like "humans can't know their fate" and "the only thing that unites the Fatui are collecting the gnoses" that lead me to believe she puts full stock in her conclusions as soon as she feels she has an answer and doesn't exactly question any further.

Honestly? It would be nice if they set up this whole thing of the nation being so casual and Traveler buying into it only to tear it, crashing down, around everyone. How long can the nation avoid taking things seriously before everything comes to a head? (Perhaps why Capitano isn't interested in brute-forcing things overall? Or maybe I'm giving him too much credit, lol)

What an interesting take, genuinely

So Mavuika

It would definitely play the part of being a pyro archon and how pyro vision holders are often extremely confident and high spirited. It would make sense if the pyro archon embodies that kind of value.

This also lines up with what the previous anon said about how she wanted to be reincarnated because its HER plan and she wanted to see it through even if it means offing herself early.

(I dont remember the ending dialogue was i did it all at like 4 am so yeah please fight me on my takes)

She also seems very quick to make MASSIVE decisions like using a good chunk of her power to keep the Contending Flame alive right then and there even with the concerns of some people. Then she was just as quick to burn all the mementos gathered for centuries when the group sent to find Kachina didnt make it.

I feel like maybe she couldve waited before keeping the Contending Flame alive. And while the Contending Flame IS more importang than a single girl, based on the time we spent in the Night Kingdom. It doesnt... feel all that long. She couldve waited. Use her power to save us. Rest for a while then fan the Contending Flame. Saving us from the Night Kingdom didnt feel like a permanent loss of power while keeping the Contending Flame alive does.

To be honest, she IS human, WAS human before archonhood. Shes been human TWICE now due to her reincarnation. I can understand humans wanting to prove to higher powers and beings such as fate that they CAN hold power over themselves. But being human, being NATLANIAN means she has worshipped to Wayob as well at some point. Hence putting her faith more into them and their ancient names.

The Plot of Natlan

I will admit here that i am biased and there is only 2 acts so far. For all i know theyre still setting up the chekovs guns and they may pop oh so beautifully in late acts and i am too harsh on the set up acts.

But i can understand if the people of natlan has been trained their entire life to numb themselves of the true horrors of war. Because they live constantly in it, if they are in constant fear, it is not good for morales or the ancient name holders either.

And if they were written to be so chill so that hoyoverse can pull the rug under us even harder then well good on them because i will be COMPLETELY honest.

I cannot see them pulling this without making it cliche or shallow.

Because we all already know SOMETHING is gonna go wrong. The abyss will reach natlan. The contending flame will die. The 6 heroes will reawaken and help Mavuika fight off the abyss for good. We know it will happen. The only issue is how to get there and how to not make it cliche as fuck.

Because for one they pulled the anime training montage for Kachina where we get told she is actually really good, she has been training so hard with Mualani but we literally dont get to see or feel it. But oop she defeated mualani.

They pulled the power of friendship when Mualani talked back to lector in the night kingdom.

They already spoiled how Ororon was the traitor because HE WAS STANDING NEXT TO CAPITANO IN THE TRAILER.

It feels way too messy for me, way too unserious and uncoordinated both in game and advertisement materials. I almost feel like capitano, 1st of the fatui harbinger, probably shouldnt have been responsible for natlan because dude can out espionage them (or maybe natlan and capitano are both as equally uncoordinated who knows).

Well for NOW i think they have a generic base plot. I would be very willing to declare how wrong i was about natlan if act 3-5 managed to fucking mindblow me. But yeah as you can see i am not hopeful that hyv have half the brain you have about the plot.

[czenzo]

Pretty Boy

[ao3] Skullyle Internet Friends Series: [1 – Pretty Boy] [2 – Missed Call]

summary:

[Skull] any updates on Pretty Boy? [Joan] I told you to stop calling him that

Lucy, a barista, finds herself drawn to the regular with long legs and perfect hair. Her internet friend – a snarky guy only known by the nickname Skull – finds her silly little crush hilarious (and may be a little bit jealous).

words: 2085 rating: T

notes: I have genuinely never considered Skullyle before, but I scrolled by this post by @lucy-lockwood and immediately opened Scrivener. I've also never seen Skull as anything but a cat in modern AUs before, but the thought of him being Lucy's internet friend with far too much time on his hands and the burning desire to blow up Lucy's phone with his abundance of sarcastic notifications was too much for me to resist

edit: now with a sequel!

Lucy’s phone buzzed, and she knew who it was before she picked it up.

[Skull] any updates on Pretty Boy?

[Joan] I told you to stop calling him that

[Skull] + i never agreed [Skull] ur avoiding the question.

She glanced up at her surroundings. They were in the lull between the morning and lunch rush; the only occupants besides herself and Holly were the bespectacled boy tapping away at his laptop in the corner, and the man with the oddly impressive moustache sipping tea by the window. There was nothing or no one stopping her from texting back, which wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

[Joan] I haven’t seen him today. there’s nothing to update you on

[Skull] bullshit [Skull] doesnt need 2 b a concrete physical update [Skull] ik u have already spent a minimum of 2 hours thinking abt him this morning [Skull] his hair. his lanky fucking legs. [Skull] penny for ur sickeningly sappy thoughts ma’am

[Joan] why are you concerning yourself with my thoughts about him [Joan] jealous much?

It took a strange amount of time for a reply to come through.

[Skull] HAHAHAHA [Skull] HAHAHAHAHAHAHA [Skull] that was so funny! real knee slapper!! have u considered ditching the coffee + pursuing comedy

[Joan] maybe I will. [Joan] wait shit hold on he’s just come in

She shoved her phone in her apron and immediately it began buzzing with message notifications, each one presumably more sarcastic than the last. Lucy was far too distracted to care; Lockwood had just walked in.

Lockwood. First name unknown, amount of patterned ties owned unknown (but it was at least twelve), regular orderer of one Earl Grey tea with milk and a ginger biscuit to go. He normally showed up during the morning rush which never left Lucy any time to talk to him outside of the standard cash register exchange, but today was different – he was running late. How interesting, Lucy thought, as she ignored her phone buzzing for the hundredth time. She ought to put it on silent.

“Morning,” Lockwood said as he approached the counter. “One Earl—”

“Grey tea with milk, ooh, and a ginger biscuit too, please?” Lucy said without fully intending to. She froze. Lockwood stared for an excruciating moment until the corner of his mouth quirked up.

“Do I really order that every time?”

“Pretty much every morning, yes.” She occupied herself with entering the order in the till, if only to avoid having to make eye contact. “Will that be everything?”

Of course, it was, and of course, the name for the cup was Lockwood, though Lucy only asked him to not seem like a complete creep with her memory.

Lockwood idled by the counter, scrolling through his phone as Lucy went to work putting his order together. Holly was in the back. The bespectacled kid didn’t make a noise, aside from the clacking of his keyboard. The moustached man quietly sipped his tea. It almost felt as if she and Lockwood were alone, and Lucy wasn’t sure how that made her feel.

She steeled her nerves to say something new. Now or never. “Running late today, are we?”

“I was, up until a few minutes ago. My morning meeting’s been cancelled, so I’m now free until eleven, which is certainly an odd feeling.”

Morning meeting? Lucy thought he was around her age – early twenties – and here she was, working a 9–5 making coffee, while he probably made double her wage in some swanky office. How lovely to think about.

“Yet you still came for your tea and biscuit.”

“Of course. I can barely function without it. Thank you,” he said as she slid his order towards him. He picked it up, hesitated, and looked around the room. When his eyes fell on the bespectacled boy, his face lit up.

“George! I didn’t realise you’d be here.” He strode over to the corner table and made himself comfortable opposite the boy and his laptop. Lucy watched them for a moment or two before realising she probably looked incredibly creepy again, and opted instead to lean against the counter and make sure Skull hadn’t collapsed in her absence.

Thirty-two unread messages. Half of them described Lucy batting her eyes and pouting her lips while Pretty Boy smouldered and sipped his ‘stupidly pretentious earl grey tea, who even fucking drinks that? just drink bog standard english breakfast like any normal self respecting brit’. The other half consisted of incoherent babbling which probably only made sense to Skull himself.

[Joan] you really missed me in those ten minutes I was gone, didn’t you?

[Skull] u flatter urself joanie [Skull] those 10 mins were the best of my entire life actually [Skull] peaceful bliss. pure unadulterated zen [Skull] so did u just run through ur normal coffee shop script like a coward or did u actually make a move

[Joan] I pointed out that he was running late, and he said a cancellation had changed his morning schedule

[Skull] god damn its straight from a film. so romantic!! [Skull] if u cant tell im currently blushing + swinging my feet back n forth in the air [Skull] eee tell me MORE!!

[Joan] I’m immune to your sarcasm. I diverted from my usual script! that’s better than nothing

[Skull] u talked about his morning. schedule. talk of google calendar will not segue into sloppy making out

[Joan] don’t say that. don’t be gross.

[Skull] it comes naturally 2 me [Skull] just like being romantically incompetent comes naturally 2 u

[Joan] he’s still here. I could still say something else

[Skull] rip the coffee machine from its fixings + do a back handspring off the counter, thatll 100% get his attention [Skull] try screeching like a banshee too. rlly turns a guy on

[Joan] noted. thank you for your wisdom.

[Skull] anytime B)

Across the room, Lockwood was talking animatedly to George, who listened yet continued typing. Lucy checked her watch: half past ten. Thirty minutes until Lockwood was busy again. She was so focused on working out what to do to catch his attention and make an impression that when Holly approached from behind with a soft hey, Lucy practically shot ten feet into the air.

“Hol,” she said, one hand on her chest. She’d almost flung her phone into the glass display case.

“Ooh, I’m so sorry. Didn’t mean to frighten you!” Holly beamed. Her usual cheer could never be dampened by the chaotic mornings on the job. “What’s gotten you so distrac— ah. He seems rather relaxed for someone running late, doesn’t he?”

“Schedule change,” Lucy murmured. “Cancelled meeting.”

“Lucky him. What I wouldn’t give for the morning rush to be cancelled for a day.” Holly nodded to the phone in Lucy’s hand. It buzzed once, as if reminding her it was still there. “Skull boy?”

Lucy nodded. She and Skull had been friends – acquaintances, as he often corrected – for nearly half a year. They’d frequented the same paranormal forums, and after finding themselves in an intense debate over whether ghosts would be able to talk coherently and being berated by mods for spamming the entire place out, had taken it to private messages instead. In six months they still hadn’t settled the dispute, but somehow managed to form something akin to a friendship.

Exchanging personal info was, they had silently agreed, a complete No. From the way he spoke (or rather typed), she guessed he wasn’t far off her age, but besides that only knew him by his skull icon. In turn, he only knew her by her vinyl icon and the choice to go by her middle name online. It was an admittedly dodgy setup – he could be anyone, could be capable of anything – but Lucy had grown accustomed to his sarcastic commentary and brashness, and would be hesitant to let it go.

She’d told Holly about him after being caught texting on the job one too many times.

“Yeah,” she said, tucking her phone back into her pocket. “Being his usual self.”

“No surprise there. But hey, I need your help prepping for the lunch rush. How about you clear Moustache’s table – which, may I point out, is conveniently near the corner – and then come join me in the back. Alright?”

Lucy followed her pointed, neatly manicured finger. Moustache man was gone and Holly was right, his table was close enough to Lockwood’s that clearing it would give her a second shot at conversation. She made a mental note to buy Hol a slice of carrot cake after their shift, and beelined to the table adorned with empty cups and plates.

From here, she could pick up on snatches of their conversation. It all seemed to be business stuff, and it gave her the impression that Lockwood and this George worked together, but their senses of dress were so starkly different that there was no way it was possible. A suit and tie and a graphic tee didn’t belong in the same office.

She stacked the dishes. Wiped the table. Realised she had absolutely no clue what she could talk about. If her hands were free she would have instinctively asked Skull, despite knowing he’d provide a stupid answer.

“Can we help you?” George said over Lockwood’s shoulder.

Lucy blinked.

Shit. She’d been staring again.

She could practically see the taunting messages Skull would send.

“Er,” she said eloquently. “Sorry. Was just wondering if you two needed anything? Cutlery? Sugar?”

Lucy worked hard to not drop the dishes in her hands when Lockwood turned around with a gleaming smile. “Oh, no, thank you. But – do you need any help with that? That all seems quite heavy.”

Moustache man tended to order multiple things requiring multiple plates and a variety of cutlery, and today was no exception. Yes, it was heavy, however no amount of silly infatuation was going to get Lucy to admit it.

She shook her head. “I’m fine, thank you. Could do this in my sleep.”

Lockwood continued to smile. It looked effortless. “Impressive. I’m sure you could take my order asleep, too.”

“Oh, any trained monkey could do that.”

“I ought to start changing my routine, if I’m that known for ordering the same thing every day.”

“It’s like you want me to mess up. No matter what you ask for, I’ll be sliding that Earl Grey and ginger biscuit over to you. It’s just muscle memory.”

“It could be fun to test you,” he said, eyebrows raising. “Up for a challenge?”

“A challenge? Pressing some new buttons and putting slightly different things into a cup? You underestimate me.”

“My apologies—” Here Lockwood squinted and leant forward ever so slightly. It took Lucy a second to realise he was checking her name tag. “—Lucy. I never meant to insult your barista expertise.”

“That’s more like it, Lockwood.”

“Feisty, this one,” George mused from behind his laptop.

“Lucy!” came Holly’s voice from the back. Lucy jolted and only just kept her grip on the plates. Awkwardly, she flashed a smile at the two boys and scurried back to the safety of being behind the counter.

With the dirty dishes deposited in the sink and officially Future Lucy’s problem, she followed the sound of Holly’s voice into the back, but made sure to check her phone along the way.

[Skull] god, hes bloody gone and done you in, hasnt he [Skull] i can see the headlines now: SAD LITTLE BARISTA MURDERED IN COLD BLOOD AT CAFE BY BLOKE WITH FREAKISHLY LONG LEGS AND A SHIT TASTE IN TEA

[Joan] I’m still alive. you’re very dramatic [Joan] I can’t always be on my phone, I surprisingly have things to do at work

[Skull] how dare u prioritise money over me, ur dearest most precious acquaintance [Skull] so he didnt kill u. [Skull] u definitely chickened out

[Joan] as a matter of fact, I didn’t!

[Skull] bullshit

[Joan] had almost a whole conversation, actually. proud?

[Skull] gobsmacked. [Skull] are u sure u didn’t get kidnapped and replaced by a clone with more confidence + better social skills

[Joan] har har. [Joan] talk later. we’re about to get busy again.

[Skull] you can store me in ur pocket all u like but i refuse to be silenced

Lucy turned on silent mode and slid her phone into her back pocket. Skull could wait. She had a lunch rush to prepare for, but the thrill of finally properly talking to Lockwood was enough to keep a smile on her face the whole way through it.

[purpleandstarlight]

I feel like chapter two of the Kuroshitsuji manga does a horrible job of introducing Lizzy and her relationship with o!Ciel?

I love them both to death and (although I don't ship them bc they're literally cousins) I am very fond of their interactions most of the time.

But that one chapter really wasn't it. Maybe it was Yana's intention, like a fake out, or maybe it was just that she didn't have all of the details about them straight yet, but compared to any other interaction they have, it's off character for both of them.

In that chapter, o!Ciel acts like Lizzie's presence is a bother he's just putting up with, almost slaps her (in a justified fit of anger, but it's not the best move nonetheless) and at the end, while he does end up making her happy, it doesn't give me the good vibes it usually gives me, since this one time he had a right with being upset and he was just putting on a mask for her sake.

Lizzie appears much more selfish than she usually is. Lizzy's whole deal is that she wants to protect "Ciel" and be there for him to support him and make him happy. Even if he's different from when they were kids because of his trauma she knows nothing about (and the fact that he isn't the same person in the first place, but she didn't know that yet), she never makes it a fault of him and she still loves him. This is very mature, and something shes been doing since she was literally eleven. She can go a bit overboard sometimes when trying to cheer him up, as she herself states in the birthday chapter, and ending up making things worse (Because she's literally a kid, no one can fault her for that) but she's doesn't get into his business too much. She never brings up his past in front of him. She's also observant enough to notice that he wears high heels to feel taller and genuinely goes out of her way to make him less self conscious about his height, so I find it hard to believe that she would be so insistent on taking off his Family Ring and even going as far as breaking in because "she didn't know it was important.".

Sure, she can notice something as minimal and unspoken as him wearing heels to look less like a tiny child when working in an adult world, but not think that 'Hey, maybe the family ring (you know, the family who died in very traumatic circumstances only a few years ago) could be kind of important to him"? I find that hard to believe.

Also the thing that Mei-Rin, Finny and Bard didn't know who she was, even though they've been working there for AT LEAST a year. I know Yana probably just wanted a way to introduce her as his fiance and cousin to the readers, but she could have done it in a way that doesnt make it seem like Lizzie's never around when, actually, she's frequently shown coming into the Manor from that point onward during the entirety of the manga. The Phantomhive Manor is home as much as her own house is. She spent a lot of time there with R!Ciel, Angelina and Rachel. It is also the house of his fiance, and she's canonically shown to not give a shit and show up completely by surprise there often (Her first introduction. The Circus arc when o!Ciel wasn't even home. That time where she came into the Manor to tell him about her trip on the Campania at the beginning of the arc). So forgive me for finding it hard to believe that they wouldn't know her.

Anyway yeah these are just my thoughts. Live love laugh Ciel and Lizzie

[sh4tt3rg1rl]

sun -🍩🥞🌙🪤👑🎡❄️💖 mix -👻🍧🍁🌏🍼🔫🌈💔 pharaoh - 💥🌺🙊✂️🔪🚆💧💙 taika - 👊🍓🕷️📣⏳🚲☄️ hex - 🍓☀️🌌📖🎨❇️🌩️ vamp - 😭💐⚾💎👖📏🌩️💓 paper - 💢🍟🌹🎭🎷📦☁️💚 pen - 💤🍰🙈💡📚🔧🔥💗 umbra - 👁️🎂🍃🏊🎤🎀🌟💌 blaze - 🤥🥞🌋📸🎁⚙️🌠💙 dialtone - 👪☕️🙉🍀🎵🖍️🌪️❤️ sisu - 😨 🍧🕷🌱✏️📎💘

note. on my screen 🪤 is. a square. 🪤 is meant to be a mouse trap.

good luck. i Apologize

answers below cut vvvvvvv >wo

Sun!

🍩 - Favorite sweet treat? - Lychee jelly, probably

🥞 - What is their comfort breakfast? - bacon n eggs

🌙 - What is Sun's greatest wish? How far are they willing to go for it? - To have a happy, healthy family. Very far, but fucks up so many times that it seems like she doesnt even try

🪤 - What will always lure them into a certain danger? A loved one in danger? A promise of something they are always searching for? - Of COURSE a loved one in danger! She'll fight tooth and nail for her kids and her husband. Maybe not that much for the second one tho. Dont want Kyubey seeing that /silly

👑 - What does Sun want to be remembered as? Why? - A loving goddess who was there for everyone. She's not very good at upholding that legacy, but yeah... She just wants to be loved qwq

🎡 - Are they someone who wants to kiss at the top of the ferris wheel? - LMFAOOOO ON THE FERRIS WHEEL????.... IN THE CIRCUS??....... NOT ANYMORE HUN TOO MANY DEATHS

❄️ - Do people consider them cold? If so, what made them this way? - Outside of her family, whose seen her good side? Yeah. Other than that many people probably see her as rather a brutal murderer or an unfeeling monster or a tired tour guide depending on how long theyve lived in the Circus

💖 - Are they a subtle or showy lover? - Showy because she probably wouldnt give a shit abt what others would think of it, though she'd conform to whatever Sigil would want.

Mix!

👻 - Do they believe in ghosts? What are their "ghostly experiences", if any? - YOU KNOW WHAT YOU WERE DOING SENDING THIS ASK. Absolutely, btw. And also his closest ghostly experience was seeing Bob LOL despite how much he wishes Elida would visit him

🍧 - Do they still have any objects from their childhood? What significance does it have to them? What would their reaction be if they lost it? - Not much. Maybe a toy, or a plush or two. Circus does some shit 2 ya yk... But probably not a lot of significance, and they wouldnt really care past a bit of nostalgic sadness if they lost anything. Already lost quite abit of things and people anyway, right? Growing up as a trans child in a transphobic environment kinda fucks u up too so the main stuff would be dresses and dolls he doesnt even want

🍁 - What is their favorite season? Why? - Mix doesn't have one. All seasons kind of suck for him... If he had to pick, then summer because it's warm and inviting and theres no allergies

🌏 - Will they give up the world for someone they love? Is this decision easy for them? - ABSOLUTELY. and ABSOLUTELY NOT.

🍼 - What are their thoughts on children? - GODDAMNIT SOUP. HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HAVE TO TEACH YOU THIS LESSON OLD MAN /REF /SILLY

🔫 - Do they trust people easily? How easily will they turn their back to someone? Have they been backstabbed before? Will they betray someone if given an ultimatum? - Yes. It would be extremely difficult for them to turn their back to someone. Something something he probably considers Simon shooting Zachariah a betrayal... And he cant count the amount of times Drunkie's done some horrible shit to him. And also... if given the most DEFINITIVE ultimatum ever, then, with extreme difficulty and reluctance, yes.

🌈 - What advice would they give to their younger self? - "Fight back."

💔 - What could their partner do that would absolutely break them? - He's already broken loooollllllllllllllll we all saw drunkie we already know

Pharaoh!

💥 - What emotions do they have trouble dealing with? - Love. And rejection. Half sure he would have spent the next few days screaming incessantly into a pillow if Abayomi said no... and also will spend the next few days screaming incessantly into a pillow because Abayomi said yes.

🌺 - Do they have any allergies? - touching grass. and people /silly (no allergies)

🙊 - What is something Pharaoh will refuse to stay quiet about? - 20 DOLLARS

✂️ - What is the "last straw" for them to cut someone out of their life? How easily do they let go of people? - Handing him an $100 bill for $1.53 purchase /silly... In actuality it would depend on the situations. And likely VERY easily if they were anyone but a very close loved one.

🔪 - How do they react to injury/misfortune befalling their loved ones (significant other, family, friends)? Do they put themselves at blame? - ANGER. PURE BURNING RAGE. It may not seem like him, but inside that tiny internal cashier is a black hole of fury. They likely dont put themselves at blame tho

🚆 - What is their answer to the trolley problem? - "Kill the five people. One of them has GOT to be a capitalist."

💧 - Random angst headcanon? - Pharaoh used to be addicted to smoking. More specifically, he probably smoked the entire time he was in the real world and only stopped bc he didnt have direct access to smoking in the Circus/didnt remember

💙 - Do they miss their S/O easily? How do they act when their S/O isn't around? - Oh, SO easily. And probably is slightly more irritable. "What the fuck do you want?" turns to a polite "Hello" the instant Abayomi walks in

Taika!

👊 - Are they quick to violence? - Depends on what you consider "violence". A little fun skirmish? Yeah. A full on rage-induced angsty battle? No.

🍓 - Do they eat their fruit and vegetables? What is their favorite fruit or vegetable? - Reluctantly, yes. I think they'd really like cauliflower though. Don't ask me why cause I don't know

🕷️ - What is their biggest fear? Do they have any irrational, mundane fears? - Getting lost. They'll play and explore all they want, but as soon as they realize they don't know where the orphanage is or where they are, they're petrified. Could that be considered "mundane"????

📣 - How loud are they? What do they speak like? Got a voice claim? - VERY loud. I don't know how to deacribe their voice, but their VC is The Collector from TOH.

⏳ - Are they usually late or on-time? - Fashionably late.

🚲 - Can they ride a bike? What do they remember from learning to ride a bicycle? - They can ride a bike easily!... with training wheels.

☄️ - What do people assume about them? Are they right? - "That thing is a fucking gremlin and would bite me. GET YO DOG BITCH! /ref" They are right.

Hex!

🍓 - Do they eat their fruit and vegetables? What is their favorite fruit or vegetable? - Yes! I think they'd love blueberries. "They're blue like me!"

☀️ - Are they a morning person? What's the first thing they do in the morning? - Yes!! They probably go brush their teeth and get clothed like the good kid they are

🌌 - What was the inspiration behind your OC? What was the first thing you decided about them? - Sparklers! and i wanted them to be a little upbeat kid. The original milo, but can still be traumatized /silly

📖 - Do they like reading? What's their favorite genre? - Yes!!!!! theyd love fantasy and fun fiction!

🎨 - Can they draw? What do they like to draw? - Well, yeah :3 They like drawing people the most! Their family!!!..... you saw that one mockup

❇️ - What is their most prized possession? What do they value? - Their art! And they value their family and friends above everything.

🌩️ - Are they scared of lightning? - Nope :3

Vamp!

😭 - What makes them cry? Do they cry easily? - Life. And... Sort of? They'll hold back tears with all of their might in front of other people but she will GLADLY cry all night if no one's with her

💐 - Create a bouquet for them! What do those flowers mean? Are any of the flowers their particular favorite? - orange lily. completely orange lily. immediately came to mind. literally just means "ur a stupid bitch" and i love her so much i give her orange lily bouquet

⚾ - Can they play sports? What is their best position if they play a team sport? What's their strong suit (speed, power, etc.)? - Scrawny ass bat cant do shit, so not WELL but... She'd like tennis a lot methinks. Just cause speed. Become a bat between hits or something. Speed!!!

💎 - How rich are they? Can they live the lifestyle they want to? - VERY, VERY, VERY rich. They're also a part of a cult (technically escaped, but still follows some of the values and has NOT recovered) so Absolutely Not

👖 - What is their go-to outfit? - Their cult robes

📏 - Is Vamp well educated? Where did they get their learning from? - Sort of? Depends on what you mean by that. Socially? No. Mathematically? No. Ask her about every section of the fragile, warm, WEAK human body, though, and she'll answer like a trained anatomical scientist of 60 years.

🌩️ - Are they scared of lightning? - WITHOUT A SHADOW OF A DOUBT, YES-

💓 - If they have a crush, is it noticable? What changes when they're in love? - They're the playground bully your mom says just has a crush on you. Bite bite bite bite. She's just being friendly

(NOTE: FUCK I MISTOOK THIS FOR THE BEATING HEART SO I GUESS YOU GET AN EXTRA FACT TOO!!

💓 - What gets their heart racing? - Tanya.)

Paper!

💢 - What are some habits they have that will take some getting used to? - They have a habit for reaching for Pen even when they aren't there. This has caused many occurrences if them falling off chairs.

🍟 - Do they order food often? Or do they prefer to cook their own food? - Pizza every damn night bro. Pen doesn't complain it hates doing dishes too

🌹 - Do they like Valentines' Day? Have they been confessed to before? Have they confessed to anyone before? - "Just another day to spoil my beloved partner, what's not to love?" I think Paper confessed to Pen first. No exes.

🎭 - Do they act differently around certain people? What's different between the way they act around friends, family, strangers, etc.? - Pen is the only person they are nice to. Everyone else they can and will bite the hands off of.

🎷 - Do they play any instruments? Are they any good at it? - They can play anything at all! Paper is sort of a shapeshifter, so whatever Pen can draw for them, they can play. Pen draws Paper as a talented guitarist and hands them one and they'll play just fine.

📦 - What are some "most likely to..." that can apply to them? - "Most likely to shoplift" and "most likely to lie horribly on their resume and STILL not get the job".

☁️ - A soft headcanon? - Paper loves watching Pen draw more than anything. It especially loves when Pen draws for it <3

💚 - What things make Paper feel comforted? Hugs, kisses, food? - Getting wrapped up in a blanket and sleeping in Pen's arms SPECIFICALLY. No one else.

Pen!

💤 - Do they fall asleep easily? What helps them sleep? - No. They like staying up allllll night long, but eventually Paper will SOMETIMES get them to just fucking sleep. Warm milk does the trick.

🍰 - When is their birthday? Do they like celebrating it? - November 1. And... Yes. They LOVE the attention-

🙈 - What's a side of Pen that they don't want to show to other people? - Their loving, caring side. It's easy for them to get wrapped up in being some scary unfeeling mysterious little guy (they fail at this btw). But Paper knows

💡 - Is Pen a planner? Do they write down every small detail or just wing it? - EVERY LAST DETAIL.

📚 - How were they at school? What is their best subject? What is their worst subject? Do they have a favorite subject? - They were fine at their studies. Their favorite and best subject, is, unsurprisingly, art, while their worst subject was history. Me too buddy me too

🔧 - Are they good at fixing relationships? Or do they tend to avoid doing so? - They're HORRIBLE at it and don't bother unless they really, really like the person.

🔥 - Do they have any self-destructive tendencies? What habits do they have that hinder them from becoming their best self? - They like to pick at their skin and scabs. They also don't care for food- not out of any ED, just don't care for it. It'll eat when Paper tells it to eat. (which is often)

💗 - If they have a crush, is it noticable? What changes when they're in love? - Unnoticable. Absolutely nothing changes- Until they're in a relationship. The moment it's official it's all snuggling and kisses.

Umbra!

👁️ - What color are their eyes? Do people notice their eyes? Is there anything special about them (shows emotion easily, literally magical, etc.)? - Their eyes are brown! She likes to cover her eyes with her hair, so not really. And,, other than them pretty much having infinite tears, no

🎂 - When is their birthday? Do they like celebrating it? - July 29! And, no. They hate celebrating it. They hate the attention it comes with and they never know what to say when getting gifts or compliments

🍃 - Do they enjoy being in nature? What is their favorite outdoor activity? - she Loves nature! with a capital L. She just likes taking walks or sitting around. She isnt much of an explorer but she'll go on a nice path or two

🏊 - Can they swim? Or are they afraid of water? How well do they swim? How do they feel about swimming in the ocean? - I think she could swim. She'd be okay with water because... yk... Kind of always falling around her eheh- I think she would be able to swim better than most people, and would think it would be fun (but a little scary) to swim in the ocean

🎤 - Are they good at singing? What is their go-to karaoke song? - Yes... i think she would have a really wind-chimey voice. She'd like New York by Fog Lake GO LISTEN TO THAT SONG RN

🎀 - How would they fit into other worlds/AUs? What AUs would you like to try out? What fictional world would they fit/not fit into? - AAAGH this is a hard one. She'd be the most PATHETIC villain in the villain au EVER. I also think that she'd be some sort of creature entirely of water in the weirdcore au idk, ,,,, They would fit well in Undertale as a waterfall creature methinks,, and she'd suck if you dropped her in Aperture Labs

🌟 - What do they think about when they look at the night sky? Is there someone they want to stargaze with? - Sarah <3 and also Sarah <3 She'd never ask though, too embarrassed

💌 - Do they like love letters? What kind of messages do they leave for their partner? - I think she would find them sweet but, once again, wouldn't know how to respond- She'd probably leave tiny notes for Sarah, but it would never go anything beyond a really gentle reminder with a heart

Blaze!

🤥 - Is he a good liar? Does he have "tells" to show he's lying? - A HORRIBLE liar. I think he'd tug at the neckline of his bandana while sweating or comically look away and roll on the balls of his feet

🥞 - What is their comfort breakfast? - hash browns

🌋 - How bad is their temper? Is it a slow boil, or an instant explosion? - I think it would be slow unless it was an extremely grave situation. Most of the time he'd be the "Okay, guys, let's not fight, I broke it, let me pay for it, it's fine" /ref (or not notice anyone was fighting at all-)

📸 - Do they enjoy having their picture taken? What's their go-to pose? Do they like taking photos? What do they take photos of? - I don't think they'd mind it :) He'd give a blank thumbs up every time. Once again I don't think he'd mind taking photos, he'd probably take photos of crops or wheat (tfw wheat field) or smth

🎁 - What types of presents would they be most happy to recieve? Are they good at gift-giving? - He'd love being given literally any food or anything handmade. Probably not good at gifting lol

⚙️ - What is Blaze's thoughts on science and art? Which do they give more importance to? How much value do they place on each? - Blaze would LOVE BOTH!! He'd probably think they're equally as important as one another. He'd value science more though cause he would probably say he's not creative

🌠 - If they could make any wish with no repercussions, what wish would they make? - "I wish I could be a cob o' corn. What d'ya mean, 'why'? I thought every'un wanted t' be a cob o' corn." Don't let Kyubey see this pt2

💙 - Do they miss their S/O easily? How do they act when their S/O isn't around? - Yeah <3 lovesick little man. He'd probably act the same with a bit more heart eyed cheek-in-their-hand swooning.

Dialtone!

👪 - What is their family like? What is Dialtone's relationship to them? Does Dialtone have any siblings? - Their family is rich. The rest? You'll have to wait and see

☕️ - Do they prefer hot or cold drinks? What is their favorite drink? - Hot! He likes bitter tea or black coffee

🙉 - What is the worst thing Dialtone could hear from someone? - Anything out of Ilas's fucking mouth

🍀 - Do they believe in luck? Are they lucky? - I don't think they believe in luck other than when trying to delusionally stop blaming themself for... Mmm maybe I should stop talking

🎵 - What is their playlist like? Their favorite artists? Do you associate a particular song with them? - They'd like sundots and Sparklehorse. Specifically Hello Lord by Sparklehorse. I have no other notes on this

🖍️ - What advice would you give to them? - "JUST FUCKING KICK ILAS OUT OKAY"

🌪️ - What is the biggest change you have ever made to them? How have they changed from their original version? - ...SOUP. SOUP I SWEAR TO G

❤️ - Their love language(s)? - Physical touch

Sisu!

😨 - When scared, do they go into "fight" or "flight"? - Freeze. Just do nothing. Can't do anything. Brain frozen up

🍧 - Do they still have any objects from their childhood? What significance does it have to them? What would their reaction be if they lost it? - Similar to Mix's answer to this. Not really

🕷 - What is their biggest fear? Do they have any irrational/mundane fears? - She is terrified of any and all medical things. She would scream louder if someone had a twisted ankle around her than if someone peacefully died in front of her

🌱 - What is their most vivid memory from childhood? - The white walls of the hospital.

✏️ - Is there a particular quote/lyric you associate with them? - SEEMS IT NEEEVER RAAINS IN SOOUTTHEERRN CALIIFORRNIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

📎 - A random fact? - She loves facing her fears! She used to be afraid of heights before she actually went out and explored them

💘 - What traits do they look for in a relationship? Do they believe in love at first sight? - Anyone who will actually listen to her. And, yes

This took three days

[messycunt]

hello there!! ive actually been thinking of an obsessive, yandere Arashi narukami x f!reader where arashi basically drugged s/o and forced s/o to be with her, its a pretty typical scenario but ive rarely ever seen it with arashi, and i also wanna see Arashi taking advantage of s/o's naivety, slowly manipulating her ever since Arashi's taken interest towards s/o. i picture s/o suddenly waking up in some kind of odd room where she's tied up and s/o is only wearing undergarments by that point. after freaking out, Arashi slowly and steadily approaches s/o and threatens her to stay put if she doesnt want things to go corrupt. s/o was crying because she thought of Arashi as an older sister figure whom s/o have dearly trusted, from there on, Arashi starts to kiss s/o and marking her up, telling s/o that things are going to be fine as long as she listens to her(Arashi.) That's it for my request, i hope im not asking for too much lol, this can be considered as noncon, so i hope that this much is fine, thanks!! goodluck on your blog!!

You’re not asking for too much! sorry this took so long and ty for the well wishes!!! i might write out a full fic w this concept if you feel these r too short TwT

cw: noncon(touching), yandere, drugging, dollification(kinda), maybe ooc srry, not proof read

Naru is your closest girl bestie!

The two of you go to different schools and you really only ever see much of her on weekends but it’s not like you have anyone else to get closer to…

Girls nights that turn into sleep overs and shopping trips that could easily pass as dates are normal for you two but it seems to go right over your head.

Her lingering gazes and too tight back hugs where her hands linger on your chest just a little too long must mean nothing to you. 

You’d never look at her that way; she's like a sister to you! 

Maybe your air headedness is for the better. This way she can get away with much more without you even noticing. 

It’s a shame it had to come to this though

Not as if this was the first time she had slipped you something, far from it, this was just the first time it was something so strong and long lasting. 

Before it was just sleeping pills here and there to keep you knocked out long enough to give her a chance to feel you up a little. But this time it was more permanent. 

It had just become harder and harder to enjoy any of the time she spent with you knowing it would inevitably come to an end. Can you blame her????

Sure your jaw was too numb for you to speak and you only kept the muscles you could feel still under the blanket of her vague promise of making you regret it if you didn’t but you were hers now! For ever and ever.

Hers to play with hers to dress up and hers to kiss and cherish.

You just look so cute with glazed over eyes, covered in lipstick stains and almost lifelessly limp <3

12.4.22 - more

[sflksjlksflksj]

personal diary

day 3 of remembering to write. things at home seem to be doing better. I tell my husband alot of whats on my mind when i am struggling and he always does his best to help me. He’s a huge workaholic. If he doesnt have work he is doing things around the house, doing yard work or helping me clean and upkeep the house. He only gets like at most 2 days off a week and his past 3 days off he has spent it mostly with me and just being there for me instead of doing stuff and it has helped me alot. Sometimes i need days where we are just cuddling and going with the flow. I think alot of my issues with newer/younger couples is that i feel like me and him will never have those same moments again and that makes me envious and feel like we arent soulmates. I know we are soulmates. i just lose myself in family life sometimes and need him to breathe fresh air into me so i can focus on myslef and not my surroundings. I hate his brother and i wish i didnt as much as i do. I hate him so much that seeing him be a 19 year old drop out isnt good enough for me. I hate that his mother got him a car. i hate that he has never held down a job longer than a few weeks. I hate that he dates around like crazy and brings these girls home for days to even weeks at a time. it feels like for me at least, me and his brother got the shit end of the stick when it comes to when we first started dating. His mother was always shaming us or critisizing us and we had jobs and were doing shit. But his brother is smoking weed and ditching school and she is buying him dinner everynight and...well at least thats how i feel. i know my feelings are exaggerated more than 86 percent of the time so i need to get over it. talking things out with my husband helps a load but it helps alot to write it down too and see how far ive matured and far ive come. I have kept multiple diarys before on laptops and computers but it was always private and i always lost them when i sold/broke the computers so itll be nice to have sometjhing thatll be online forever and i can look back on. i know i have matured alot but i also have gone downhill in some other aspects. for instance i have been drinking alot more, like 4-5 days out of the week i mix vodka into juice and drink like 7-10 cups. Not good at all. i have never gotten drunk and thats what started this drinking was that i wanted to get drunk once and it didnt work so every night ive been drinking here and there and now its becoming a destress thing and i hate it. i dont need alchohol but im feeling like i am starting down that road and i dont know how to stop exactly. Ill set out not to buy any and then ill just ask my husband to pick some up and he always is up for it. i dont know. when i drink i do care alot less about those thoughts in my head. I was able to acutally sit on the couch and talk and vibe with my mother in law while i was drunk. i know i am being stupid. my mother in laws ex husband was a alchohlic and i am sure she can see any signs of someone intoxicated. she hasnt said anything to me and we have been getting along great since then. i love my kids so much and i am so unhealthy currently. the worst i have ever been. and not only am i the fattest i have ever been but now i am drinking and i am so scared of now being able to do better. ive been talking for weeks about going on a diet but i have no fucking self control or discipline to do it and i hate so much how good i am at dissasociating with my problems. i hope i can get better with time man. i am hoping that as i grow and mature ill get some fucking self control. ive been able to reign myself in mentally sometimes when i find myself going off on unhealthy tangents in my head but again, it doesnt work for long and i always end up thinking the same way within minutes. i am going for a week to visit my dad and my step mum and let them see the boys and i am hoping there i can quit this drinking and possibly not binge eat shit and that can be my little taste of being the responsible adult i hope to be soon.

[mercy-burning]

Move This Along

Part of Mercy’s 1k Celebration: A collection of Spencer Reid x Reader requests to celebrate 1,000 followers.

Pairing: Spencer Reid x fem!Reader Summary: After months of waiting, Spencer decides he finally wants to have sex with Reader. Category: SMUT (18+) Warnings: Language, sex (oral sex- female receiving, virgin!Spence, penetrative sex, unprotected sex, creampie) Word Count: 5.6k

Full Request: “...so a smutty oneshot with like virgin!spencer but im talkling like baby spence. and hes super blushy and cute but then when it happens its rlly raunchy and therws a lot of dirty talk. and like reader doesnt work at the bau but theyre close friends. and like she goes out to a bar with him and the team and they tease him so then she takes him home and literally fucks him after a movie or smth idk...” — @mggscumrag

MASTERLIST | 1K MASTERLIST

NOTE: It took me forever to figure out how I wanted to do this, but once I did, it came out so quickly! I hope it’s to your liking 🥰

***

The first time she went out to meet Elle's friends from work, Y/N found herself absolutely nervous, and she wasn't sure why. She was always great with meeting new people, but for some reason, the prospect of meeting her next-door neighbor's co-workers seemed to really do a number on her.

She remembers how anxious she'd been, constantly worrying that they wouldn't like her, not to mention they were all probably super smart and strong and intimidating, just like Elle. Anyone who aided in putting away serial killers, rapists, and other monsters had to be just about the most intimidating personality there ever was.

But as Y/N soon learned, that wasn't quite the case at all.

To be fair, they were all intimidating in their own little ways, though it was really easy to forget about that when she was laughing with them, sharing drinks and stories, and exchanging phone numbers to stay in touch.

That's how she and Spencer had come to be good friends. Despite how obviously shy he was whenever they saw each other, the two of them managed to have conversations on just about everything. It usually happened that he talked and she listened to whatever he was teaching her, but she'd always add on the occasional, "Wow, I didn't know that," or "That's really fascinating." All of which she could tell he was surprised at and appreciated.

And since the first time they met at Elle's birthday party, the night she met the whole team for the first time, they'd been practically inseparable. While Y/N was good friends with the whole team, save for Gideon, who always seemed to like it better by himself, her relationship with Spencer seemed to even surpass the bond she'd built with her neighbor-slash-best friend.

Elle even told her as much one Saturday night, as the two of them were driving to the bar to meet up with everyone for a few drinks.

She'd mentioned it as a joke, but Y/N was instantly apologetic.

Elle only laughed. "Don't apologize. Actually, I think it's good that Reid has another friend outside of work. You're good for him. And you know, I think he has a little crush on you."

Warmth rushed to Y/N's cheeks, and she tried to hide it but failed miserably, causing Elle to give her a knowing smile. "Y—You don't know what you're talking about, Elle, it's not like that."

"Oh come on, it totally is. You give him the light of day when no one else does, he talks about you all the time, and everyone at work knows it."

She paused. "They... do?"

"Of course they do, we're all profilers, but it doesn't take one to see how obsessed that boy is with you. I think you should go for it."

Y/N would have been lying if she said she hadn't thought about asking him out. But in the end she had always figured it was a little weird, being that she was friends with all his and Elle's co-workers and she'd kinda been adopted into their family of sorts. But hearing what her neighbor was saying... She started to think differently about it.

"You really think so?"

Elle nodded. "Absolutely."'

"Okay," she replied with an excited smile. "Maybe I will, then."

A week later and the two of them started dating. Y/N always thinks back to the first few weeks of their relationship, how adorably shy and blush-prone Spencer was, even after they'd been together for some time. They spent almost all their free time together, and it still seemed like he was nervous to be around her. He'd assured her on multiple occasions that that wasn't the case, but Y/N still wondered why he hadn't fully warmed up to being around her.

Especially in public. Oh, in public it was worse. Y/N clung to his arm, and his face immediately got red. What confused her the most, though, was that every time she pulled away to make him more comfortable, he pulled her back in, seemingly desperate to feel her warmth.

In the end she and Spencer had grown to develop their own little communication system for public settings, something to let the other know when something was really wrong, and when to ask if the other was comfortable.

One night everyone was meeting after a rough case somewhere in Denver, and Y/N offered to buy everyone drinks once Spencer had called to tell her they were all back. It wasn't out of the ordinary for her to do that, but it had been a while, so everyone was quick to except. Well, mostly everyone— Gideon as per usual went his separate way, and Hotch was eager to get home and see his family.

Y/N was waiting for them at their favorite bar downtown when she heard a loud squeal that sounded a lot like her name. Sure enough, it was easy to spot a very yellow-clad Penelope Garcia headed straight towards her with her arms stretched out for a hug when she turned around. The smile she adorned was instantaneous as her arms came out a well, embracing Penelope with a large hug that almost knocked the wind out of her.

"I missed you!" she exclaimed, still hugging Y/N and swaying them back and forth a little. "I mean, I know I don't ever travel with the team, but because of that we should hang out more."

"Next time I need some company, I know who to call."

Y/N spotted Spencer then, behind Penelope and patiently waiting for a greeting. She smiled at him and whispered, "Hi," to which Penelope must have heard.

She quickly released her from their embrace and stepped out of the way. "Oh! I'm sorry, I'm keeping you from your boy wonder."

She laughed as she transferred from Penelope's arms to Spencer's. He muttered a little, "Hi," into her hair as she squeezed him and shoved her face into his neck. If she had to bet, he was probably red as a tomato right now with how close her mouth was to his neck—it was his weakness and she knew it. And just to tease him a little bit she quickly kissed up his neck, his jaw, and placed a decent peck on his lips before pulling away and grabbing his hand.

Despite the shy smile and the blush adorning his cheeks, he squeezed her hand tight and kept her at his side like they would die if they weren't touching at all times.

Everyone gave little greetings to Y/N as they all made their way to a large booth near the back. Y/N was sitting on one side with Elle to her right and Spencer to her left, while Derek, Penelope, and JJ sat across from them. Y/N got them all their preferred drinks, and a beer for herself, which Spencer couldn't help but find oddly attractive.

He glanced over at her as she took swigs from the bottle as the night progressed, and for whatever reason the sight made his insides all warm and tingly. And when she used her unoccupied hand to grab his under the table, rubbing gentle circles over the inside of his palm with her thumb, he'd never felt more in love with another person. He wasn't even drinking any alcohol, yet his head swam and his heart soared all the same, every bone in his body humming with euphoria at just the mere thought of her.

He must have been staring a little too obviously, because Derek kicked his leg under the table, pulling him from the lovesick daydream he never wanted to leave.

"I can't tell if those are cute ol' puppy dog eyes or bedroom eyes," Derek laughed, and everyone laughed right alongside him.

"Oh, stop it," Penelope said, swatting his arm. "He's obviously just very in love with her, what more could you need to know?"

"Oh, come on, tell me you're not curious to know how they... operate."

She smacked him harder this time, and everyone laughed.

Knowing her boyfriend didn't really care for the spotlight, especially when it came to their relationship, Y/N squeezed Spencer's hand under the table in reassurance. She drew a question mark in his palm, their signal for, "Are you uncomfortable?" And he responded by drawing an "X" in her palm, their answer for, "No." She laced their fingers together then, and set her beer down.

"Morgan, our sex life isn't any of your business," she stated simply.

Spencer felt his stomach churn at the sentence, if only because said sex life was, as of late, non-existent.

He and Y/N had made out a lot, sure, but the one time they did try having sex, he made it about ten seconds being inside of her before he finished, and since then he'd been kind of embarrassed about it. They only ever made out since then, because before it ever got that far he stopped it, nervous that he'd disappoint her.

And now his non-existent sex life was the topic of conversation, and if anyone picked up on it, he would have felt worse about the whole thing.

So, he didn't stop himself from speaking. "But if you must know, it's great."

Y/N's hand tensed up in his, and she looked over at him, shock marinating in her eyes. To anyone else it would have looked like she was surprised he'd even bring it up, but he knew she was most likely more curious to know why he'd lied about it.

Their friends laughed regardless, Elle adding a curious and joking, "Care to elaborate?"

Ready to change the subject, Spencer shook his head. "Nope."

"Yeah, actually I think we're gonna head out early," Y/N added. Spencer was suddenly worried he'd made her upset, but she rubbed gentle circles into his hand that reassured him everything was okay.

He got out of the booth and Y/N followed, as their friends grumbled.

"Oh, come on, we didn't mean to embarrass you guys," Derek said.

"No, that's not it," Y/N said as she threw on a light jacket. "You just reminded me how much I'd like to operate with my boyfriend since I haven't seen him in a few days, so we're leaving. Have a good night."

Spencer felt searing heat rise to his cheeks as he turned around and ushered Y/N out the door, accompanied by low whistles and claps from their friends.

***

The two of them were sitting on the couch now, Y/N having just set down a couple classes of water.

"Sorry if you wanted to stay," she said quietly, playing with her thumbs. "You know we don't... actually have to operate if you don't want, obviously, I was just looking for something to say..."

"Oh, Y/N, I know. Don't worry about it. Really, I... I was the one who even brought it up, I should have just let you handle it."

She looked up at him with a small smile. "Why.. did you bring it up anyway?"

"Well, I... I guess I just felt embarrassed. And I know what we do together isn't any of their business, but I was just... I really was thinking about how much I love you, and when Morgan brought it up, I felt like I wasn't... living up? To your expectations? I don't..." He sighed, unsure how to properly articulate how he was feeling. "I don't know. I just thought about the last time we tried having sex, and I felt embarrassed about it, that's all."

"Oh, honey," Y/N cooed, scooting closer to him and bringing her hand up to brush some of the hair from his face. "You know, you... don't have anything to prove, right? I know how much you love me, and you don't need to be having sex with me to show me, I hope you know that."

Still, he couldn't bring himself to look at her face. "I do," he choked out, pulling at the hem of his shirt. "I'm... I'm sorry."

Y/N's tongue clicked, and she leaned into him, wrapping one of her arms around his neck and placing the other across his lap. She held him tight and kissed the side of his head. "Don't you ever be sorry, unless you cheat on me. Then there will be something to be sorry about."

He laughed at her joke, turning his head to brush his nose against hers. "I love you."

"I love you, too," she whispered, giving him the lightest of kisses on the lips.

When she pulled away, he leaned in again, kissing her a little harder, and she gladly reciprocated. With every passing second, all of his worries started to melt away like the snow to her sunshine. Within every kiss was an emanation of outpouring love and comfort that warmed his soul and gave him the confidence to try something bold.

His hands threaded through her hair as he drew her in closer, and instinctively, she climbed over his lap, resting her hands on his shoulders as he gently probed her mouth with his tongue. The sound of her sigh as she opened up to him and allowed him to fully explore her mouth with his made his stomach bubble and tense.

This would be about the time where he'd stop, telling Y/N that they should slow down, and she'd sweetly oblige and stay cuddled into his side as they drifted off to sleep.

But tonight he didn't want that.

Tonight he wanted more.

While one of his hands remained in her hair, gently massaging her scalp, the other snaked down to her lower back. He gently slid his fingers under the fabric of her shirt and pressed his palm flat against her, pulling her closer to him with a desperation that both shocked and excited her.

Deciding to test the waters, Y/N rolled her hips, feeling him jump slightly underneath her, followed by a whine that vibrated her mouth and sent a low hum of pressure through her stomach.

Still, she pulled away.

Well... She tried to.

When she pulled her face away from him, Spencer used the hand in her hair to bring her back, tilting his head in the other direction and continuing to kiss her with enough passion for the both of them. And it didn't help that the sound she made when he did it spurred him on. She whimpered loudly into his mouth, and the hand on her back involuntarily slid down to grab her ass.

"Hey," she managed to get out when he pulled away momentarily for air. "Hey, you don't... We don't have to really do this if you don't want. I—I don't want you to think that what happened earlier means we have to have sex."

"Y/N..." His hand gently kneaded her ass, and against her better judgement, she rolled her hips again, sighing out against his lips. "I don't want to put it off any longer... Really, I... I want to. I want to show you how much I love you."

She kissed him softly again, bringing both of her hands up to cradle his face. "You already do. Every day."

She was giving him an out, and Spencer appreciated it. But with the way his insides were practically melting away at her presence, he knew more than anything that this was what he wanted.

"I know," he said. "But if you don't mind, today I'd like to show you a little extra." And then he kissed her deeply again.

Her hands tightened on his face, right before they slid up and through his hair. She gently tugged at it, and he let out one of the most delicious sounds she'd ever heard. For future reference, she relished in that sound, in that feeling, and made a mental note to try it out some more when they got further along in their sexual path.

But tonight, she would let him call the shots. He was finally ready to try it again, and seeing how confident he grew in his touches and kisses when she submitted to him, it was the simplest decision.

So she remained on his lap until he made another move, encouraging him with whimpers and languid rolls of her hips against his. Her hands grew frenzied in his hair when he dipped his hand past the waistband of her jeans and underwear, sticking his fingers in only about a knuckle deep. The warmth of his hands against her bare skin sent shivers down her spine, which she let show by involuntarily grinding down on his lap.

Spencer groaned deeply more than whined this time, his grip on her hands gripping tighter to her backside. He forced himself to remove his mouth from hers long enough to breathe out, "Bedroom. Please."

As much as Y/N didn't want to get off of his lap, she knew that what waited for her in the bedroom would be worth the momentary loss of complete physical contact. So she peeled herself away from her boyfriend, grabbing him by the hand, and lead him to her bedroom.

Once the door was closed, he was on her again, caging her face between his large hands and capturing her lips in another heated kiss. They moved backwards until she hit her back against the door, and the second their movement stopped, Spencer used their standing position to press his full body weight into her, their legs tangling together.

Meanwhile, Y/N was trying to figure out where to put her hands. She wanted to brace them on his chest, but it was pressed tightly against hers. So they wandered over his back, but she couldn't decide whether to place them under his shirt or on his butt. Or maybe she wanted to grip his arms to feel the veins as they strained against his skin from holding her face. The possibilities were quite endless.

So endless that they were even surprising—Spencer noticed her wandering hands and promptly decided to place them where he wanted, which was apparently above her head. He removed his hands from her face and pinned her wrists to the door above her head, and she huffed a breath as he pulled away to speak.

"Is this okay? I wasn't too... too rough?"

The concern swimming in his lust-filled eyes drew a little whimper from her throat as she struggled to find the right words. But finally, she settled on, "That was so fucking hot..."

Relief flashed over his gaze right before he grinned. His fingers flexed against her wrists, and even though she couldn't see them, she could imagine how it looked. And it really was fucking hot.

Seeing the expression on her face, Spencer leaned forward again and kissed her one last time. Their lips moved together hungrily, dancing in perfect synchronization, the music being the frantic beating of their hearts.

And then he started to trail his kisses down her jaw and neck, keeping her hands firmly pinned to the door. Usually she was the one to explore his neck with her tongue and teeth, but this time he wanted to try it for himself. Mirroring what he'd felt her do to him hundreds of times over, he soaked in every single sound she made, from the little whimpers of pleasure to the soft, choked whispers of his name dancing over her lips. And when her hips canted forward, searching for any kind of friction, he decided to grant it to her.

As his kisses moved down along her collarbone, his hands gently slid down with him, over her arms and then down to the bottom of her shirt as he kneeled in front of her. He lifted the shirt slowly, each new inch of exposed skin being met with soft kisses until it reached her breasts. He reached up to palm them over her bra while he trailed his kisses downward again.

Even though she was wearing jeans, he pressed kisses to her legs anyway. She squirmed under his touch, and the feeling made his heart soar.

"Please, Spence," she huffed, bringing her hands down to lay overtop of his. She felt the tendons and veins in his hands as they squeezed her, and with everything she had, she tried not to beg him to use them in more interesting places. She wanted to let him take his time, to be a vessel for his exploration, but it was growing harder every second to be patient.

Thankfully he seemed to get what she was feeling, because his hands slid out from under her shirt and rested at her jeans. "Can I take these off?"

The fact that he even asked when she so clearly begged him to do it made her heart swell. "Please do," she chuckled, though it turned into a choked sigh when his fingers actually started undoing the button. And at the sound of her zipper going down, she could have come undone right there.

He pulled her jeans down slowly and helped her step out of them. And she thought maybe he'd take the next step and do the same with her underwear, but he opted to use his mouth instead.

With gentle kisses, he traced the hem of the fabric all the way to either side of her waist. And then he looked up at her with curious eyes and shifted his face, pressing his nose right up against where her clit would be. Her hands immediately went to his hair, but he grabbed her wrists again and laid them at her sides. "Do you want me to move this along?" His voice wasn't teasing as much as it was genuine curiosity.

Still, Y/N resisted the urge to tell him yes. "I—I want you to do whatever feels right. Tonight's... about you. What you want."

"Well, what I want is to make you feel good. So, again... Do you want me to move this along?"

Every time his lips moved, they brushed up against where she desperately wanted him. And it was killing her. So, she nodded vigorously. "Yes, please," she whispered.

And with that, Spencer released her hands and used his fingers to gently rub her over the fabric. The contact made her shiver visibly, and he took that as a good sign. So he wasted no more time and replaced his fingers with his tongue, fluttering his eyes closed at the taste of her. And he knew that once the thin fabric was gone it would be stronger, but even then he was thoroughly wrecked.

He kept lapping his tongue over her, feeling her panties get wetter with ever second, and he only finally removed them when she started grinding her hips closer to his face, desperate for more.

When he did finally bring his tongue to fully taste her for the first time, they both let out the filthiest sounds, months and months of build-up starting to come to a head. He tasted her like he would an ice cream cone, and for the first few moments his eyes remained closed, all his focus on this brand new sensation. But he wanted nothing more than to see her react to him. So he opened his eyes and continued his ministrations, pupils blowing wide at the sight of her above him.

She was panting, her mouth hung open and her tongue just barely peeking out over her bottom lip. Her eyes remained shut, though Spencer could tell she was struggling to open them. With a tentative flick of his tongue over her clit, he took notice of the little gasp she made, and he knew he'd found it. So he repeated his action, providing small kitten licks to her clit as she picked up her breathing and clenched her hands at her sides.

He picked up the pace then, taking note of every little thing that made her cry out or jump with pleasure until she was clutching his hair. He was sucking on her clit now, his middle finger gently sliding in and out of her when she spoke.

"Oh, fuck, keep doing that. I'm... I'm almost..."

He felt her tighten around his finger as she started careening off the edge, and he did his best to keep his eyes on her face, because it had practically been haunting him, wondering what it would be like to see her come undone at his mercy.

To say it was better than he could have ever dreamed was a severe understatement.

Y/N's head leaned back against the door, her chin jutted out so he could see the beautiful contours of her chin and neck. He saw her throat contract as she moaned out his name, saw her chest heave as she struggled to catch her breath, and best of all, he felt her flutter around his finger and mouth. And if that was high inducing, he couldn't wait to feel wat it would be like to replace them with something else.

The mere thought had him trembling.

He pulled back when she huffed out an over-stimulated, "Okay, please, please stop, oh..."

Though it could just as easily have been a painful sentiment, the hungry, dazed look in her eye suggested otherwise.

Spencer stood up and brought his finger to his mouth, still caught up in her taste before she ripped his wrist away and kissed him, threading her fingers through his hair and moaning into his mouth.

Before he could get lost in it, though, she pulled away and nodded. "Okay. I think you're wearing too many clothes."

He tilted his head down in a little flush, and with the help of Y/N, his shirt peeled away from his body and joined her pants and underwear on the floor.

Y/N mirrored his actions, kissing gently down his jaw, neck, and then down his torso. Her hands wandered his bare back as she sunk to her knees. But when her hands moved to his belt, he stopped her.

"W—wait."

She peeled her hands away and looked up at him. "Are you okay? Do you want to slow down?"

He visibly swallowed, and she could read that look on his face that he got whenever he was embarrassed to tell her something. "N—no, I... I want... the opposite, actually."

"I don't follow..."

"Well, I know that... if you return the favor, I won't last very long, a—and I... I don't want to wait anymore."

Y/N smiled, standing again and bringing her hands to rest on his shoulders. "So you're saying you... want me to move this along?"

Spencer smiled at her recollection of his words. "Yes, please."

They travelled to the bed then, Y/N taking off her shirt and bra when they got there, and leaving her completely bare to him. She sat down and reached for his belt, looking up at him as he stood.

"I'm clean and on birth control, do you still want to use a condom? I have some in my table drawer."

He thought about it for a moment before shaking his head. "As long as you're sure."

Y/N undid his belt quickly and threw it to the side, making work of his button and zipper with a smile. "Oh I'm so sure..."

The way she said it made his dick twitch, images running through his mind of how it would look seeing her filled and dripping with—

Her hand was palming him through his underwear now, and it was all he could think about. He had already been hard before, but now it was tilting on the precipice of painful pleasure. So he stopped her, taking a deep breath.

"Lay down?"

"However you want me," Y/N answered, positioning herself on the bed so she was leaning back, her head nicely laid out on the pillows.

Spencer swallowed and removed his underwear before climbing on the bed and kneeling over her. Her legs were already wide, feet flat on either side of him as he positioned himself and got ready.

She reached out and gently grabbed his forearm, a gentle smile on her face. "You ready?"

"Mhm," he answered with a curt nod, bringing himself forward to run the head of his dick through her wetness. They both sighed at the feeling, and Spencer knew he was in trouble.

It was finally happening, he was getting another chance to have sex with her, and if he didn't last long again, he was going to—

"I love you," Y/N said reassuringly, rubbing circles into the hand that rested on the inside of her thigh.

He looked into her eyes and saw that love radiating from them. It warmed his insides and gave him the confidence he needed to finally, slowly push into her as he whispered, "I love you, too."

Once he was fully sheathed inside her, he let out a large breath, leaning down to brace his arms on either side of her head. The pressure of her clenched around him was overwhelming in the best way possible, and he never wanted to move.

But he had to.

She stroked his hair, pressing soft kisses all over his face, and whispered, "I love you."

With those three words, Spencer had the courage to pull back and then forward again, testing the waters and more accurately, his limits. He picked up a slow pace that burned him from the inside out, every muscle and vein in his body on fire with the knowledge that he was finally, properly making love to the woman he was pretty sure he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

But he was holding back. Y/N could tell. He glided through her with ease, sure, but his eyes were squeezed shut like he was concentrating, like he was pacing himself and trying to hold on to this feeling.

She moved her hands down to his back and lightly ran her fingernails over the skin, feeling him tremble under her touch.

"You feel so good, Spence," she whispered. "So perfect for me..."

The words made his hips stutter just a little, and Y/N knew then what the hesitation was.

He wanted to go faster.

So she moved her fingers lower, cupping his ass and scratching featherlight circles into the skin as she moaned. "You like when I talk to you, baby? Does hearing my voice help you out?"

Spencer choked out a groan as he opened his eyes and saw how feral she looked. Her pupils were blown wide, her mouth was pouted cutely, and she smiled as soon as she saw him bite his lip.

"You wanna go faster?" she cooed, digging her fingernails a little harder into the flesh of his ass. "Hmm?"

"F—fuck, Y/N... I..."

"You fuck me however you need to, baby. Don't hold back. Just let it all out."

He groaned out then, his hips picking up speed. She felt the relief and the tension rolling off his body as he finally gave into his urges, and it was just about the sexiest thing she'd ever witnessed.

"That's it, baby... Don't stop... Give it to me, let me feel you..."

He leaned down and kissed her then, pumping into her harder and harder with every second. She moaned out against his mouth, swallowing all his breaths and grunts. Meanwhile her fingers gripped his ass harder, relishing in the feeling of his muscles as they aided in fucking her.

His mouth pulled away as he shoved his face into her neck, and she sighed. "You're doing so good, baby. Fuck... " His hips kept moving, and she clenched around him hard, hoping to gauge his reaction.

Sure enough, he groaned against her neck and canted his hips harder. Every thrust forward now was so deep he hit her g-spot, and the sensation made her sigh with a smile. "That's fucking right, baby... Just like that, don't stop, don't stop. You fe—el so... ohhh."

Her words lit this fire in him that was impossible to put out. His body was hers for the taking, and so he'd give her everything he had. Which is why he picked up the pace and fucked into her as hard as he could, dangerously close to finishing.

"Fuck, Spence, I'm gonna... —na..."

Y/n's moans turned into a quiet scream as she came, clenching tightly around his dick and digging her fingernails into his ass. Her eyes squeezed shut with the swirling patterns of fireworks exploding behind them, meanwhile he twitched inside of her and lost it at last. As she came down, she helped him hold himself there, deep inside her as his cum spilled over in warm increments. They both moaned out at the feeling, all their tension easing and dissipating.

By the end, all that was left between the both of them was a thin sheen of sweat and murmured promises of "I love you."

They could have fallen asleep right there. Y/N's hands slid up his backside, over his arms, and then to the back of his head, combing gently through his disheveled hair as he pressed loving kisses to the patch of skin where her neck met her collarbone. He was still inside her, unwilling to leave the warmth she provided, and she did nothing to object.

"How are you feeling?" she finally asked, opening her eyes.

Spencer tilted his head up to look at her, his heart once again swelling at the adoring look in her eyes. "I'm great."

She laughed, and he laughed with her. And they were silent for a few moments before he spoke again.

"So, uh... What we just did is what we're counting as our real first time together, right? Like, the other time doesn't count?"

Y/N laughed again, pressing a kiss to his forehead. "If you want to count this as our first time, then yes. I'd be more than happy to agree with you."

"Good. This was much better."

Even though she would never hold their first first time together against him, she was inclined to agree.

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[bridgyrose]

Alright, time for the post that no one asked for! Which ship had more development between Bmblby and Blacksun!

Gonna preface a few things first: I dont particularly ship either ship, so I'm going to do this with as little bias as possible.

This is only over the first 3 volumes, so anything after the fall of Beacon isnt taken into consideration right now.

And the rules are as follows:

First, winking will not be considered. Since people keep saying a wink isnt inherently confirming of a relationship, I'll ignore any winks and judge the scenes based on the content.

Second, scenes will be judged by whether or not you could replace any character and still get the same effect. (the more you can replace, the better in my opinion)

And lastly, since I keep seeing this coming up as well, the only evidence I will consider for absolute confirmation is of any sort of kiss in the first 3 volumes. Although, its going to feel a bit rushed and out of nowhere since the first 3 volumes takes place over 4-6 months at best.

Without further ado... everything will be under the cut.

Starting with Vol 1, after re-watching, there really wasn't any build up to either ship. Which, doesnt surprise me considering that Sun doesnt show up until the end of Vol 1 and the entirety of that volume is centered around introducing the characters, the world in which they live, and just general ideas on what it's like being a huntsman academy. But there are still a few scenes to note in vol 1:

Initiation: Its a quick blur, but you can see Blake rush across the screen once we see Yang walking through the forest. At that point, its safe to assume that Blake had already made her choice on who she wanted, which is further implemented with Blake helping Yang out with an Ursa.

Its safe to assume that between talking with Ruby the night before and seeing hearing how what she thought of Yang didn't quite match her thoughts.

Our next scene comes to Sun and his infamous "slow-mo wink introduction." As per the rules, I'm ignoring the wink and going straight off the content of the scene itself. Which, doesnt leave much. We know he pinpoints Blake as a faunus very quickly and he has some sort of infatuation with her, but the scene alone doesnt give us much.

However, that one does lead into the end of the Vol: Blake runs off from her friends and takes her bow off to finally show us her ears. At which point, Sun comments that he knew she'd look better without it. So that already shows that 1) Sun definitely pinpointed Blake being a faunus early on, and 2) he wanted to talk to her and this provided the right opportunity. Or... so he thought. Especially since the next scene opens up with him half complaining that they've spent 2 days together and all she's done is make small talk.

Which is all pretty on par for Blake. She then spends the next bit talking about her past, how she was pretty much born into the White Fang, stayed with it after it went from peaceful protests to more anger filled, until leaving Adam just a few months ago. After all of this, Sun asks if she's told her friends, to which we can assume she answers no to, you know, since she ran. Overall, it ends up leading Sun into going a bit gung-ho about helping Blake with the White fang.

Overall, Vol 1 did well to start putting together dynamics between Blake and her friends. Sun and Yang both make different impressions on Blake, both of which she ends up seeing as friends... for now.

Vol 2, is a bit of a strange one. Our first introduction to Beacon is Sun basically telling Neptune how cool team RWBY is, emphasizing a bit on Blake. Which does end up bringing us to the meat of the first half of vol 2: Blake worrying over the White Fang. Now, because of this, we dont see any build up between Blake and Sun or Blake and Yang while they go around town to figure out what the White Fang and Torchwick are up to. Sun makes a good point that Blake shouldnt go to the rally alone, and the two pair off while Yang goes to the club with Neptune.

Once the dance arc comes along, that's where things take an interesting turn. Sun immediately asks a sleep deprived Blake to the dance, in probably the most awkward way since he's trying to say the dance is lame, but would be less lame if the two of them went together.

Sun definitely cares about Blake and actively tried to help her calm down a bit. Which, ultimately, she never says no, just that she doesnt have time for a dance. So, I give this one a +1 in points for build up.

Then, we get to the burning the candle speech. Which, a lot of people seem to write off as either pointless or not build up. Personally, it gets a +1 in points on build up for me on this. First, Yang is absolutely worried about her partner, seeing her go down the same path she did when she was much younger. She immediately starts by telling Blake that she doesnt want her to stop, just to slow down and take a breather. And she ultimately makes a strong point: slowing down isnt a luxury, its a necessity.

This also end s up being the first time we see Yang open up and drop the party girl demeanor that she's had. She talks about her mother, someone that she doesnt talk to many people about, and just how much it hurt her to find out that Raven left shortly after she was born.

After an emotionally charged discussion, we finally see the point that Yang had been trying to get Blake to see:

And it finally does work. Blake slows down, takes a rest, and ultimately enjoys herself at the dance. Which, in her own words, she technically goes with Sun.

Overall, the dance arc in general gives great build up to both ships. Which ultimately is the end for the Black Sun build up.

Bmblby doesnt get much more build up in vol 2, the only other notable scene being the campfire where Yang, Blake, and Weiss start opening up a bit more to each other to figure out why each of them are becoming huntresses. Which absolutely gives a bit more foundation to the friendships they have.

Vol 3 ends up having most of the build up between Blake and Yang. The first major scene being after Yang was disqualified for breaking Mercury's leg. When Yang finally asked her team if they trust her, Blake is the only one who doesnt immediately say yes, instead, saying she wants to. Leading us to this face from Yang:

(yes, I know, captions are a bit off, deal with it.)

But Yang ends up being distressed by her own partner saying that she wants to trust, but doesnt yet. Blake ultimately ends up opening up about Adam, telling us how she used to trust him... until accidents started piling up. Eventually, she looks at Yang and asks her to look her in the eye and tell her she didnt do anything wrong. When Yang does, Blake allows herself to trust Yang.

Which then brings us to the biggest piece of buildup between the two: Adam. When Adam shows up, he starts using words like "my darling", hammering in that at one point, the two had something going on. He decides immediately he wants to hurt Blake just like she hurt him by leaving. But what really hammers in Blake's feelings for Yang, is the fear she had on her face when she heard Yang's voice not so far away... and right where Adam can hear her. It doesnt take long for Adam to look down at Blake, notice the fear, and then look in the direction of Yang, ultimately stating that he'll destroy everything Blake loves, starting with her.

Now, I know a lot of people will dismiss that as "it could've been anyone. If Sun had shown up, it would've been the same." And honestly, yes, it would've. This moment here is what solidifies who Blake ultimately cares about. Had it been Sun to come around, no doubt she'd show the same fear. But it wasnt him. Instead, it was Yang, who immediately found Weiss and asked where Blake had gone. And we further see her feelings for Yang cemented by the way she blames herself that Yang got hurt. The way she stays close, gently reaches for Yang's hand, the emotion of the entire scene after they get to safety.

Sun does ultimately care about Blake, and helps out where he can, but at least in vol 3, he had his own priorities of making sure everyone could make it to safety.

TL;DR: Both ships had a bit of build up in vol 2 and 3, although, the build up that Bmblby had outweighs the buildup that Blacksun has. Blake definitely had feelings for both, but ultimately, it took until Adam was a threat for her to realize the feelings that she had for Yang, and even then, she still wasnt entirely sure what they were until later in the series. At this point, the only reason anyone can say that Bmblby has little build up is due to either a higher bar for f/f ships (because, lets face it, everyone takes the wink from vol 1 as absolute confirmation for blacksun because its m/f) or they continue to deny that sometimes, there are multiple ways to show buildup between two people for a relationship and the slowburn route usually takes an emotional route over a physical route. And look, Blake has two hands. Take that as you will.

[moxfirefly]

I!! Have an request!! If you want, thats up to you! But how about the turtles have a friend (the reader) and no matter what they see hints of or how it seems she just doesnt seem to be in a relationship ever and then leo starts acting "odd" (in love) and one day michelangelo of all people catches leo and the reader in a romantic (or heated) moment! What do you think would happen? How would they handle their older brother in love? 😂 i just thought itd be a funny one-shot

Ok I’ve been wanting to tackle this for a while now and ima do my best for you friend, also I hope this reaches cause I know it’s been tough so I send you lots of love💕

Blue boi all in lovey dovey

Rated Mature (Romance but will a little sprinkle of smut) 18+ Only

Raphael squinted his eyes.

For the past twenty-two minutes he’d been wondering what was wrong with this picture. His breakfast was getting cold and he’d even neglected to smack Mikey’s hand away when he stole a piece of bacon off his place.

Raphael took pride in his observation skills, often he noticed plenty of things in his environment but while Donatello ran commentary on it he usually kept the information to himself. He shared a room with his youngest brother so he knew any odd shift when it came to Mikey. He is very close with Donnie, spending a few sleepless nights by his side while the genius tinkered away at projects, even lending a hand here and there.

Leonardo for all of his hard headed ways and their personality clashes, he felt he knew him well enough too. The leader though, was much more guarded in his emotions which made for some difficult moments to completely gage his older brother.

You on the other hand were an open book, plenty of times he’d spent time with you, getting to know plenty of your ticks and thoughts. Raph considered you a close friend, a confidant he could turn to.

But as you all sat together for a late breakfast. Mikey inhaling his while Donnie’s overworked eyes looked into his coffee cup as if lifes answers laid there, Leo and you were just sitting there, suspiciously.

You were still in your sleep wear, Leo’s groggy movements mechanical as he ate on autopilot. You yawned reaching for a coffee refill and without command or hesitation Leo had pushed the creamer and sugar towards you, going so far to place the exact amount of both in your mug. You had given him a sweet smile, reaching a hand to thumb a crumb away from the corner of his mouth.

Raphael raised a brow ridge, well naturally that could translate to common kindness. You all knew each other, often April had in some form or shape probably done something similar. He poked a few pieces of eggs into his mouth, now he was intrigued.

He picked up a few more instances where his curiosities got the better of him.

For instance one afternoon while you were over he had decided to gather info. Raphael had kitchen duty and you had stuck around to help him out. “What’s up with you?” A common not so invasive question, you shrugged. “Same old, same old” You gathered plates to set the table. Raphael kept his gaze at the task at hand, cutting tomatoes for the sauce he was preparing. “Yeah but have you done anything? Gone out with friends? Maybe found your future husband?” He chuckled even more so when you nudged him with an elbow. “A forget you have a sense humor under all that angst” Raph smiled, the two of you often bickered Iike this.

Truth be told you had never mentioned a boyfriend or a girlfriend, the subject was never really breached. With the amount of time you spent in the sewers with them it never came up if you had some partner or if you even were dating. Raphael added the tomatoes into a pot, you joined his side ready to help with more cutting of condiments.

Then Leo arrived and he felt the air shift, he peaked a glance at you, a small smile playing on your lips. Leo in turn greeting the two of you before he made his way towards the fridge to retrieve something to drink. “Want something?” He asked from the fridge and honest to God Raph was very sure he wasn’t asking him. You nodded extending a hand for the soda he gave you, he leaned against the fridge and chatted you up as nonchalant as ever.

Nothing in the small chat raised any flags, Raph’s sauce almost burning from how intently he was concentrating of quite literally eavesdropping on you two. You laughed at something he mentioned, that was bizarre because Leo was seriously not even funny but he could be biased on that end.

“Your hair looks pretty that way” Leo spoke, a tad bit shyly. Raph stirred the sauce, brow ridges shooting up, ‘real smooth big bro’ he couldn’t help but think. Then again he had probably at some point told April the same thing, well they all had commented on April being pretty in all manners of ways.

But this felt just the taddest bit different?

He excused himself having to get back to whatever he was doing. Raph squatted to get something from the bottom cupboards, he didn’t miss the blush on your cheeks.

“Yer hair does look nice like that” He tested, you beamed brightly at him. “Thank you, you’re very sweet when you put your heart into it” She teased smacking a hand towel at him.

Inconclusive results.

For now.

This stupid notion continued to bother Raphael, curiosity would kill the turtle in this case. He wanted to know if truly something was amiss there and you both being friends he wondered why you just hadn’t flat out told him what was up. Nevertheless he couldn’t drop the bomb on you, you could be motorfide or maybe deny it to high hell. Asking Leonardo was out of the question, he sure as hell wouldn’t say a thing.

So Raphael kept his gaze glued as you parted ways for the night. You gave a hug and kiss to everybody, quite normal for your loving nature. He got his hug and kiss, so did Donnie, April and Mikey. Once you landed on Leo you did the same.

He could’ve sworn you lingered a little more, going so far as to whisper something to him because Leo gave a little huff of a laughter and smiled. He definitely slid his hand away from your lower back quite slowly.

Maybe, just maybe...

One patrol night he got stuck with Leo while Mikey and Donnie were doing rounds on the truck. They were scouting out a bank that was rumored to be hit soon by a group of robbers. Raph didn’t mention you, in fact he patiently waited for these robbers to possibly show up.

Something vibrated and his gaze landed on Leo who was reaching a hand into his pocket to pull out his phone. His concentrated and serious featured softening with whatever he read on the screen. He typed back something quick, shaking his head from whatever image or words or whatever had been provoked out of him. “Everything good?” Raphael asked, Leo nodded as if back to ‘normal’ and that absolutely was suspicious in his book.

That night didn’t yield any resolution and honestly it’s around this time that Raph regrets this little task that had occupied his time. He had originally decided to leave it as inconclusive, at some point You two dummies had to say or do something. He had been rummaging his room for his hand wraps, more than ready to get his nightly workout in order. When he had come up empty handed he exited towards Leo’s room, he always had them which annoyed the red banded brute.

His first mistake was not knocking or making his incoming presence known. A rookie mistake considering he lived with three young adult brothers.

His second mistake was just barging in like he owned the place. An annoyed “Jesus Leo quick taking my shit” spewing out of him.

If mistakes One and Two had been adverted he wouldn’t be standing here, wide eyed and frozen.

Because he really didn’t need to see his brother stark ass naked on top of his best friend who he basically considered a little sister, equally naked to boot. There was a solid fifteen seconds where Raphael didn’t know if he running out was the best option, mumbling a ‘shit my bad’ was better or if covering his eyes and screaming at his brother that he better be a gentlemen to you cause you’re a great gal.

Leonardo’s hands cupped your exposed breast for modesty sake, the need for the ground to dramatically open up and swallow him whole heavy in his mind. You had squeaked when Raph barged in, hands super glued to Leo’s rear and god why couldn’t you scream and let go and scream some more.

Raphael finally turned around, an embarrassed heat breaking over his body as he groaned in disgust. “Shit fuck, sorry sorry! I didn’t see shit!” Oh but he did and oh did he crave bleach. “Raph get out! This is why you knock!” Leo chucked a pillow at his brothers shell. You had finally let go of Leo’s rear, covering your face in mortification. “Hang a sock or something outside then!! I can’t read minds!” Raph bellowed.

Mistake number 3 happened because Raphael was a drama Queen through and through and the shouting only helped to alert his brothers towards the room.

“Can you two not fight for five whole minu-OH GOD SORRY!” Donatalleo had exited as quickly as he had approached the room. Mikey thankfully barely saw anything since Raph and Donnie yanked him out which Leo was thankful, he knew Mikey would never let this situation go.

A very quiet hour passed by.

Nobody wanting to say anything. Mikey had left for the tunnels to skateboard for a while. Donnie had thrown himself into truck repairs not even wanting to discuss what his eyes had briefly seen.

And Raphael had sat on the couch, every few minutes making a face whenever his brain decided to bring back the nights events. He heard movement from Leo’s room, the small pitter patter that belonged to your feet. Raph kept his gaze down, whatever playing on the tv long forgotten, he saw your feet when they tentatively approached the couch.

“Um Raph” Your tone was hushed.

“Didn’t see anything, matter of fact nothing happened” Raph grabbed the remote, you sat down and sighed. “Listen you weren’t the one with your tits out here” You crossed your arms grumbling, Raph almost chortled but then he remembered Leo and simply made a face.

“Why didn’t you tell me you and him were a thing? We’re friends, I mean you can do better but you know” He smiled when he felt your elbow smack his arm. “He’s really nice don’t be so mean” You sat back on the corner, Raph looked at you, you were wearing an oversized shirt clearly spending the night.

“Sorry for ah, not knocking” Raph spoke softly.

“Sorry for no telling you I had it bad for your brother” You smirked, enjoying Raph’s disgruntled expression.

You scooted close and hugged his massive arm, Raph smiled. “He better be good to ya... and well, don’t break his heart, he’s an ass but he’s my big brother” You nodded against his arm.

You had stayed for a little before returning back to Leo’s room, the leader was reading on his bed but quickly looked up when you came in. “Everything alright?” He asked tentatively. You nodded climbing into bed and in between his legs to lay on him. “We could’ve so gone a better way telling everybody, at least it’s out and we can just be ourselves” You rested against him, Leo’s chin a top your head.

He wrapped his arms tightly around you and smiled. “I’m never living this down but I’m happy we can just be ourselves” He poked your sides earning an earnest squeal from you.

Outside Raphael could hear the quiet giggling and laughter. He was happy for the two of you, it made sense.

Mikey walked in, board in hand and sweaty from skating for hours.

“So Leo loses his V card first, huh brah?”

Raphael groaned.

[buttybarnes1917]

An Unexpected Party

AN: There probably wont be any smut in this story, it just doesnt feel right; however, I am PROBABLY going to make this an AU because nerdy!bucky has my whole heart and I am OBSESSED with the characters that are creating themselves out of this whole story.  

Chapter 4

Honestly?  Bucky was REALLY fun.

You went to dinner on Monday, lunch on Tuesday, and bowling with Wanda, Vis, and Yelena on Wednesday night.  He surprised you with coffee before work on Thursday, and that night, you had plans to watch a movie. Bucky was very excited to show you a cult classic, The Room.  You were a little confused on the premise, but Bucky promised you it was supposed to be bad. For people that were fake dating, you spent a hell of a lot of time together.  You were actually happy with him, and were perfectly fine ignoring your growing feelings for the man.

That was, of course, until you got a call from Tony.

“Heya kid, you busy?” you heard as soon as you picked up your phone. “Just kidding, I don’t care.  When am I meeting this new boyfriend of yours?  He’s been all over your Instagram.  I’m assuming you’re bringing him to my wedding.”

“You mean Pepper is still marrying you? God, I would have thought she had been sick of you by now,” you sighed as you loaded the dishwasher.  “Why do you need to meet him, anyway?  Does it matter to you?”

“Matters to me if there’s gonna be drama at my wedding, seeing as my best man is your ex-boyfriend.”

“Your best man broke up with me for no damn reason, and I have every right to date someone new, just like he’s doing,” you snapped, not able to hold yourself back, and Tony was quiet for a minute.

“So you know, I reamed his ass for that,” he said quietly.  “I have your back on that one.  What Steve did was wrong.  One hundred percent.  I just wanna make sure that Pep has the best day she can.  I know she’s nervous about… people seeing people together.”

“I understand that, Ton, but I am not gonna start anything.  Promise.”  You pulled out the cookies you were baking from the oven.  “Plus, Bucky is just a friend.”

“What kinda guy goes by the name ‘Bucky’?” Tony grumbled.

“A very sweet guy,” you say, unable to stop your voice from going a little softer.  Tony definitely noticed—you could tell by the silence—but thankfully he didn’t say anything.

“Well, I’m glad you’re happy,” he said softly.  

“Thanks Tony.” You said softly. “Anyway, the wedding is almost here,” you changed the subject, and Tony knew better than to push you.

“Sure is.  Only one more night,” he chuckled softly.  “Dad’s not coming,” he added quietly and you sighed softly.

“Can you blame him, Tony? You remember Christmas—”

“He insulted Pepper—”

“Because you kept pushing about the government contracts and upsetting mom, and you know it, Tony.” You said quietly.  “Both of you took things too far.” Tony grumbled on the other end of the line.  “Have you tried calling him?”

“I’m the one getting married,” he pointed out, and you stayed quiet.  Tony heavy sighed. “Fine.  I’ll call him.”

“And apologize?”

“I said I’d call him.”

“And apologize.”

“Y/N.”

“Tony.”

“…fine. And apologize that he’s such a self-righteous dick—”

“Anthony Edward Stark—”

“And I’ll apologize for being a bitch, okay?” Tony sighed. “God.”  There was a shuffling on the other end and you heard Pepper’s soft voice calling Tony to bed. “Ball and chain is calling.” He said teasingly and you heard Pepper snap at him giggling

“Call her that again and I’ll slap you during the ceremony,” you retorted laughing.

“Yeah yeah.  I’ll see you at the rehearsal tomorrow, kiddo.  Feel free to bring your… friend to the dinner.”

“Thanks, Tony.  I’ll see if he wants to go.  Sleep well.”

Tony hung up and you leaned on the counter, looking at your phone.  You heard a knock at your door, then the door swung open.

“Babe, you gotta make sure to lock the door,” Bucky laughed as he walked in, carrying a bottle of wine and a thin wide box.  “Anyone could just walk in here.”

“Sorry,” you giggled a little.  “Force of habit.  My ex always forgot his key.” You smiled as he pressed a kiss to your cheek, placing the wine in the fridge.  “Hey, I have the rehearsal tomorrow… my brother wants to know if you want to come to the rehearsal dinner afterwards.”

“Do I have to wear a suit?” he sighed dramatically.

“Mmhmm,” you giggled softly and wrapped your arms around his waist.  “But I’ll have to wear a dress, so it’s even.”

“Well, can’t say no to free food.” He chuckled softly.  “Anyway, I made your brother a wedding present,” he said a little nervously.

“Oh?” you asked in surprise.

“Yeah, you mentioned that you, and your brother and your parents would go upstate,” he said. “Ya know, before school started again?  Well, you kept talking about how pretty it was and… I guess I thought it would be nice for you to give your brother something that reminded you both of a happier time,” he said a little sheepishly, and pushed the bigger thin box he had brought in across the bar.  You glanced at him, then slipped it open.  Inside was a canvas with a beautiful dark wood frame. Painted on the canvas was a beautiful scene of a family of four, canoeing across a lake, the trees a gorgeous mixture of red, yellow, orange, and brown.  You covered your mouth, your breath catching in your throat.

Somehow, Bucky had gotten the exact memory you had described to him.

“Bucky this is…” you breathed out, tears pricking your eyes.  

“Fuck I'm sorry,” he mumbled, reaching for the box. “I’m sorry, it’s not good enough, I shouldn’t have caught you off guard, you don’t have to give it to him—"

You cut him off by rounding the side of the counter, cradling his cheeks in your hands, and kissing him deeply, pressing your body against his.  He groaned in surprise, stepping back a bit, his hands on your hips to steady himself.  You felt your eyes drift shut as he kissed you back, his lips working against yours, and for a second, time seemed to stop.

It never felt like this with Steve.

You slowly pulled away and he opened his eyes, looking down at you, his cheeks flushed pink.  “What did I do?” he asked chuckling a little.  “So I can be sure to do it again?”

“That was… the sweetest thing anyone’s ever done for me,” you said softly. “Or for a family member they’ve never met.” You touched his cheek.

“I…Really?” he said softly. “You don’t think it’s too much?”

“I think it’s perfect,” you said softly.  “You painted it yourself?”

“And made the frame,” he blushed, and you kissed him again, pulling him closer, your fingers slipping through his hair.  He shivered almost immediately and panted a little as you pulled away.  “Okay so, making things equals kisses.  Got it.” He chuckled a little. “I’ll furnish your whole apartment if you’re not careful.”

“I don’t want you to come to the wedding as my fake boyfriend,” you said quietly and he nodded, after a second’s hesitation.

“How about… as your real boyfriend?” he asked hopefully and you nodded, grinning. His face lit up and he kissed you again, pulling away, then pressing kisses all over your face as you giggled.

“Real boyfriend sounds much better to me.” You whispered.  

TAGLIST: 

@ceeellewrites​ @anna-kaye​ @toothhurtyam​

[vore-scientist]

Return of the Dragon King pt 1: Prison Break

[A non-sexual high fantasy GT/vore story with both hard/fatal+ other fantasy violence and safe/soft]

This story is a prose adaptation of an RP between @vixen525 and I. It takes place in one of her worlds and features mostly her characters.

Summary/Pitch: Separated from Sophia by the evil (and illegitimate) Prince Nero, Yonah must rescue his princess from Nero's devious clutches. With a collection of quirky fantasy characters as allies, Yonah aims to bring an end to Nero's reign and return the rightful heir to the throne.

But before that, he must escape from one of Nero’s prisons.

Story General Warnings: Return of the Dragon King overall will contain hard/fatal vore (in an intense fantasy violence style) along with soft/safe (the good stuff). Themes of abuse and torture as well. (There may be one instance of soft fatal that if I ever get that far I’ll warn for that specifically but it’s so far off from this it may never get written down)

Chapter Specific Warnings: This chapter contains all the story general warnings. This is NOT the chapter with soft/fatal. It’s hard only. It very much treads the line between hard vore and just standard fantasy violence. This part contains a very brief mention of attempted (and failed) sexual assault.

Onto the story:

----

For the 20th night in a row Yonah was replaying the moment in his mind, and like the 19 times before, this time was slightly worse than before.

It started with merriment, feasting, dancing, joking. Then transitioned to screaming, to blood, to Sophia being dragged away and him unable to stop it. And finally ended with waking up here, on a hard stone floor, in a room with no windows, with cold metal around his ankles and a chain attached to a back corner. With a terrible pounding in his head and an indescribable weight upon his core.

While he wondered why it had happened. Why this diplomatic mission to another world had been under false pretenses, however it wasn’t really worth dwelling on. He wasn't going to get answers here. All that he knew was he had failed. He had failed to protect Sophia. His charge. His friend. His princess. She was taken and he had let it happen!

After his 5th day in the prison cell he had given up trying to escape. Whatever that pressure was, pushing on his core, it stopped his magic. He had woken up without his robe, staff, and hat. For a normal wizard that would be a problem, but Yonah HaEsh was half FireWitch in addition to half giant. He had his own natural magic! Surely he could melt the cuffs and bars.

Nope. He could see the air shimmer with heat around his hands. He was generating magic, but it seemed to be… negated as soon as he tried to release it. All it succeeded in doing was make him tired. And hungry.

He was so hungry. The prison guards were giving him just enough food and water to stay alive for reasons that were beyond him. So he spent most of his time laying on the floor. Conserving his energy. For what purpose? For what event? None at all. He just hoped. And cried. Or at least tried to. His tears had long since dried up.

The screech of the prison bars sliding open grated upon his ears and he drew a harsh breath but did not give the guards the satisfaction of interacting with him. He had tried to rush at them a few times, just to have a little fun. But the chains weren’t long enough to let him reach the bars. All his antics got him was humiliation.

“Oy! Halfbreed Thing, you’re in luck,” came the voice of a nameless guard, “the warden decided to give you a treat tonight!”

Yonah didn’t respond. It was clearly sarcasm.

“He also said if you don’t eat up, you get nothing for a week!” And the door was closed again.

He still did not look. He had decided he wasn’t going to even touch what they had assumedly given him. It was probably poisoned, or drugged. Or both. He drew another breath.

That smell.

He finally looked. His heart racing. They wouldn’t… would they?

Standing with her back against the bars was a young woman with straight black hair, wearing a similar tattered outfit as himself. She must have been cold, and scared, but she was not shaking. Instead she stared right into his eyes. The fear in them was evident.

Now that his ears were no longer ringing he could hear her breathing. She was trying to calm down.

Apparently she succeeded. As she talked first.

"So... I guess they put you in here because you use magic too?" her voice was weak, and her accent thick upon his ears but he understood her well enough.

Yonah did not respond right away. Carefully he sat up, leaning against the back wall where his chains were connected, rattling them as they piled up.

“Well they certainly didn’t throw you in here so you could be my pet.” he snorted steam with his words, happy he could still do that much, and pleased him to see her concern at this display. So perhaps he could have some fun, even as her scent started to permeate his cell, leading his thoughts in another direction.

“No…” she answered, not moving any closer. “I doubt they’ve been feeding you well. I suspect they threw me in here in hope that you’d eat me.”

Yeah no shit. Had she heard the guard? Or was she too scared to listen. He had listened, even if he pretended otherwise.

“Being tossed a person to eat. How barbaric. Do they think I am some sort of feral animal?” His voice was hoarse with dehydration, and conflict. For he was considering eating her. Yonah HaEsh, despite being half giant, was not above eating smallfolk, if necessary. And she certainly smelled…delectable.

She shook her head “Many giants wouldn't hesitate if hungry enough… They may be normally polite to smaller folk but when half starved? All bets are off”

Yonah nodded, “I suppose so… Though I am only half giant.” He couldn't do more than suppose, as he did not know anything about giants of this world, though he remembered seeing one at Prince Nero’s castle. A little less than twice as tall as his own mother, and his mother was over 40ft tall! What he did know was that giants in his world would be tempted just like him, and while they were also normally polite… ish… their own survival was more important than the life of someone they did not know.

So why was he holding back? Well for one thing, she was out of reach. For another… He did not like the idea of being fed a person, it was insulting. The idea was nearly offensive enough to scare his hunger away. Nearly.

“Why you?” he hissed. Trying to chase away the remaining offensive thoughts. The mental images of grabbing her, sinking his fangs into her soft tasty flesh, and using his jaws and hands to rip her apart. The thoughts of how delicious it would be to finally satiate his hunger properly for the first time in weeks.

It took her a long minute to answer “I… keep escaping. I got out the door this time, nearly made it to the outer wall.”

“Ohhhh, curious” he breathed out, glad his ‘treat’ turned out to be interesting enough to distract his thoughts with. “You do not look like an escape artist. Or are you of hidden talents?”

She shook her head “The magic they use to… nullify the magic of others… doesn’t work on me. And my own magic doesnt like that im captive and kept… helping me escape”

Ohhhhh fascinating. He did not say out loud this time. “Sounds like you are a handful. Though perhaps you are rather, a mouthful. Or two in my case.” he smiled with all his fangs.

She swallowed nervously “Y-yes”

“Why don’t they just kill you? Are you important?”

She shook her head again “They are waiting for the execution order. That’s… why I’m here.”

“What do you mean by that?”

She took a breath. “If another prisoner kills me… they don’t lose their capital funding for executing a prisoner without the proper paperwork…”

“That’s where I come in” and he snarled “I don’t like being used as a tool. And I don't really want to eat you”

She nodded “That’s… good”

“But I am hungry.”

“Oh…”

“Why are you in this prison?”

She looked away. “I… killed someone. With magic.”

More fascinating by the second. “Why, would you do that.”

It was an obvious struggle for her to answer “It wasn’t… it wasn’t intentional. He pinned me up against a wall and started tearing off my clothes. My magic just... reacted. The next thing I knew he was dead”

Yonah snorted again “Should have been intentional!”

“I haven't had any formal training! My magic just happens!”

“Shame” he sighed. “Do you know why I am here?” he asked, changing the subject.

“You’re… a mage. A rogue one. Like I am.”

That was new to him, “A rogue mage?”

“Practicing magic is highly regulated, don’t you know?”

“No.” Yonah saw that made her very confused “I am not of this world”

She seemed to accept this easily. This world seemed to be more comfortable with the idea of other worlds than his own, which had only started to make contact with new realities. He had also decided she didnt need to know his story yet. For he had not made up his mind on keeping her alive, or eating her. If he ate her, then it would have been a waste of breath to tell his own tale of woe.

He tugged on his chains to pile them up and keep them from getting tangled. And for the next few minutes he occupied himself with this task.

“They stop-”

Yonah looked at her so fast his neck cricked. She started again.

“They stopped using shackles on me because the chains kept breaking. Perhaps I could” she took a single step forward, and seeing that Yonah did not react, took another. “I’m sure you would appreciate more freedom of movement.” She took another step.

“Well not all of us are so damn talented now are we?!” he growled. She took two steps back.

“Im trying to help you! Maybe I can figure out how to get it to work on you too!”

“A self proclaimed untrained mage!” he spat “and why would you help a monster like me?”

For as much as he wanted to be civil, he was also a monster. And as much as he tried to fight the temptation to be monstrous, he did not know if he could succeed.

“It wasn’t being a monster that got you in trouble! It was magic.”

She sounded very sure of that.

Yonah snorted “That is your own assumption”, and turned around to lay his head on the chains, facing the corner.

After a few minutes he heard her soft footsteps, and he craned his neck to look. She had gotten a lot closer than he expected and was reaching for his chains. She was clearly in the mood to help him. Unfortunately he was in a mood to play with his would be treat instead, and he did not have any confidence that she could help, so why not have fun.

“Are you sure that’s wise little morsel?” he sighed with a fanged smile.

Amazingly she did not back up but touched chains by his ankles.

“No. But sooner or later they will get the execution order signed. So my odds of survival are shit. But they are better if I free you.”

Yonah made his eyes glow with what fire he had left “Are they better? You said you were untrained.”

She looked embarrassed, “I’m hoping I can practice on these chains of yours. My magic does disable the nullification. We can work together to get out.”

“Untested magic is dangerous” yonah growled “Maybe I should just eat you!” he snapped his teeth.

Still she did not leave. Instead she stood up and glared at him “So what? I die and you survive another week until the next council meeting and your execution is approved?”

Yonah narrowed his eyes “Maybe I dont care about that anymore.” but he does not move either. “You dont know why im truly here. Maybe I deserve this!”

His fiery eyes still on hers, she retaliated “I dont care if you do! I need to get free, and I cant on my own. You want to be free to dont you? If I can use my magic, I can break these chains, disable the anti-magic on this room, save us both!”

Yonah rolled his eyes, losing their staring contest. He did not stop her from continuing her investigations of the chains. But his mind wandered, until he exclaimed.

“Maybe you’re a plant! Instead of using me to kill you, you’re here to kill me!” he jerked the chains away from her.

“I’m unarmed!” she insisted and scrambled forwards to maintain contact with the metal.

“You said they cannot chain you, that their anti-magic shit doesnt work on you, so yours does work, and it’s killed someone before!” He knew that this new panic was not helping him in the slightest, and yet he did not care.

“Most of my magic isn’t working! I just somehow break chains and disable the magic nullification! I don’t know how it works or how to activate it! But the fact I can means they want me dead so they stop having to catch me! And magic isn’t allowed and I definitely don’t have the indicator that I have special permission, those are super obvious.”

Yonah blinked “Could be lies! You could be spitting lies! Permission to use magic. How ridiculous”

“Everyone knows that the few legal mages have face tattoos to make them obvious”

Yonah breathed steam again and finally she backed away from the painful heat. “I dont! I don’t know anything about this world! You could say anything and I wouldn’t know if it was truth or lies!”

“Oh… right” she looked at her feet “You aren't from this world. That must suck as much as my own problems with my memory…”

She rambled a little more about how she was definitely a prisoner, it was obvious from her malnutrition, and that despite not being able to be kept in chains she had marks on her wrists and ankles from the failed attempts.

But Yonah was not listening anymore. Once again he turned away and was trying to cry himself to sleep.

So she took the opportunity to touch the chains near his ankles again.

“Careful now!” he hissed without looking at her. “You don’t want to get burned” Hearing her yelp as she touched the chains, which he had put his mind to pumping his fire into. Maybe he couldn’t melt them, but he could make them painful to touch.

He heard her curse, and then the chains rustled again as she grit her teeth and grasped the half giant sized links, whining in pain and holding back tears. 3 seconds were all she could manage before she had to stumble back, sitting on the ground and blowing on her burnt hands.

Yonah sat up and looked at the chains. He did not let his face show any surprise as he found rust and cracks that had not been there before.

“Wow. It didnt work. Big fucking surprise, some help you were, but I guess you were telling the truth about being being put here for me to eat.” he lay back down. “Maybe I’ll do that in the morning.”

Suddenly the pain in her hands was not as important as what the half giant had said.

“It started to work! But I couldnt hold on long enough!” she wailed, “I tried! I really tried, to help you’re sorry ass!”

“And you FAILED” he snorted back.

“Only temporarily!” she insisted

“And look where it got me. Nowhere. I’m going to sleep”

“If the chains were just a little cooler! Then maybe-”

“I told you to be careful. You have only yourself to blame for your failures and your injuries” he stated, fully aware it was his fault. And that he was sabotaging himself. And yet he couldn't stop himself.

“I was trying to help you. You don’t have to be so rude. We are stuck in the same situation and I am trying to make a difference.”

“I dont have to be polite either. Now you’re the one being rude, keeping me awake”

She crossed her arms in defiance of her own fear “You’re kind of an asshole. I thought maybe we could work together to escape but apparently you’d rather stay and be executed.” She stood up, glancing at her hands, “Guess I’ll just try to figure out how to disable the nullification and escape without you if you really are that opposed to working together.” She turned and walked back to the cell bars before sitting down again.

Yonah looked away, no longer amused by her company, for he was too tired, and too hungry, too angry. Mostly at himself for heating up the chains.

Of course, he couldn't sleep, even though he wanted to do so. After about 10 minutes he glanced at the human, who was making hand motions at the bars. He could just barely feel the sparks of magic failing to become embers at her will.

That got boring really quickly, and he noticed that, unlike earlier, she was shivering. Not with fear…

“You’re wasting your time, little one”

She gasped and jumped from her sitting position, nearly toppling over. He was not asleep like she had assumed. And now he was staring at her with those glowing eyes again, full of fire and hunger.

“I am not giving up” she yawned and shook even worse, “I have no desire to be executed, not by the prince, and not by you!”

Yonah’s eyes dimmed with compassion, “You can try again in the morning. You keep this up and you’re going to freeze to death”

To his surprise she snarled at him, “What do you care!? You obviously arent worried about execution, and I dont have much else to do at the moment!”

Yonah rolled his eyes “Do you want a warm place to sleep or not? I’m only offering once. Can’t imagine you’ve had a warm bed in a while”

“I- what?” she paused, processing what he said, “Warmth… sounds wonderful… But you talked about eating me in the morning!” so she did not step near him.

“I said maybe. So you don't have to worry about it until then” He considers for a moment “I’m still making up my mind. I dont want to be used as an execution method, but I am starving. However” he yawned, his fangs looking larger than before, “I promise not to eat you tonight, and I am very warm if you want to sleep in my arms.”

“This room is absolutely freezing…” she admitted, “But I dont like the idea of you waking up before me to have a snack!”

She still looked hesitant so he added “Tiddles won’t be able to bring anything with you still visibly uneaten”

Now her fear was replaced almost entirely with confusion “Tiddles?”

“One of the little guards who did this to us. Sneaks me food most nights. If he comes tonight, I promise that I will let you try again, in the morning, to break the chains, before I resume considering whether or not to eat you. How does that sound?”

“How… likely is this Tiddles to show up?”

“He appears most nights, but not the last, and he never skips more than one night in a row.”

“How about you promise to let me try again, regardless of if Tiddles shows up!” she was not about to take such a chance.

Yonah scrunched up his face “Fine.”

“Alright, that’s much better.” she took a step towards him again “It means you have to let me go, and you wont think about eating me until after I get to genuinely try to free us”

“If you’re not tucked out of sight soon, I dont get fed, and I’ll have have a much harder time not thinking about it” he threatened “Tiddles can’t claim he thought I ate you if you’re standing alive at the front of the cage!”

A few more steps, she was almost within reach… “Fine… I guess… I just want to try a couple more times, it will be quick”

His patience waring thin he made his eyes flash “but I want to sleep, and to get fed”

“It will only take a moment!” she stopped just out of reach.

“Tiddles often manages to get me an entire barrel of crap! I’ll be willing to share” his mind now on the food, he couldnt think of much else.

“Im starting to figure it out though”

Why was she so insistent! This was not the time! “You’re tired, and cold, and hungry. You try any more magic and you’ll just pass out.”

He had gotten to his knees but he deflated a bit, lowering down into a position not unlike a crouching dragon “So I offer one more time than I said I would. A warm place to sleep. A proper meal. Or you refuse, and I get angrier, I get hungrier, and you stay cold and my only option for dinner”

She hesitated and finally sighs, “You are probably right... I just got so close to escaping today... I was gonna use a wind spell to blast open all the doors when one of them tackled me...” She took the step forward that got her within reach, and Yonah slowly reached around her, stopping her rambles. “But maybe after a rest I’ll have better success”

Having held back long enough, yonah scooped her up and returned to his corner to curl around his new teddy bear, thin and cold as it was. In contrast, his own embrace is soft, pillow-like even. And warm. So very very warm. She tensed in his grip for only a moment before calming down and closing her eyes with a deep sigh.

“By the way, I didnt introduce myself. My name is Savina”

Not resisting the urge, Yonah nuzzled her with his face, his normally neatly trimed facial hair overgrown and tangled and in need of a wash. He was drinking in her scent, even if he was resisting getting a taste, “I didn’t introduce myself either. Now shut up or I’ll put your head in my mouth to shut you up. I hear Tiddles”

As he was facing the back wall, it appeared as if he was alone in his cell, as the footsteps got closer, along with scraping noise and soon, a jingling of keys. Unlike earlier, the screech of the door opening was not so bad, knowing what it meant.

“You awake big guy? Damn this thing is so heavy… I managed to get a lot of scraps so it’s not mostly water this time! Probably tastes just as bad as all the rest, worse since I couldn’t sneak any salt in... but better than nothing right?”

The only response Tiddles got was a slight movement of Yonah’s head. His bushy mane of unkempt black hair shifting. Then two orange lights appeared. The giant's eyes locked on him with anticipation and hatred.

The guard, Tiddles, who couldn't have been older than 20, dragged a barrel within reach of Yonah, though the prisoner did not make any move.

“The others were laughing earlier about how you got a decent meal tonight… but I dont see any plate. Not surprised it was a lie. Im sorry again that this is not seasoned. But…” He left and returned before Yonah could investigate the food. Holding a large sack, the smell coming from which made yonah take a very intense breath.

“I did bring these… They were going to be used to torture other prisoners. Tested them on me. Just one bite and I thought my tongue would burn up in my own mouth, I drank so much water I thought I would throw up. But maybe it’s not as intense for giants!”

Through his dehydration Yonah started to drool, the spicy smell of the hot peppers filling his half FireWitch brain.

The display of hunger caused Tiddles to freeze up a moment “Um… I’ll take that as a yes to these. Great Goddess they make my eyes water!” he set the sack down and went to the other back corner where an empty barrel was on it’s side.

“I’ll take this one, yes?” Tiddles didn’t wait for an answer but said “you’re… not as talkative tonight. Usually you threaten-joke about eating me along with the slop. You alright?”

As soon as Tiddles had moved away from the full Barrel and sack of peppers, Yonah Sat up and scooted over with one hand. Revealing the reason he was not talking. Savina was tucked into his elbow, having fallen asleep.

Tiddles seemed briefly transfixed by the woman. If yonah had to describe the expression the closest would be reverence. Before cringing away.

“That’s what they meant by a good meal!?” He shook off his surprise “what a load of dragon crap. You’re not some feral animal”

Yonah didnt respond to this continued attempt to bond with him as he dragged the barrel back to his corner and stuck his finger in, building up his fire to warm up the cold scraps and water. Tiddles made no more small talk and left him to his pitiful “meal”.

Once the contents of the barrel started to steam, Yonah nudged Savina awake. She was not happy about that.

“I was actually sleeping well, what the fuck”

Yonah set her on his lap, the barrel in front of them both. “If you dont eat some of this now, I’ll eat all of it. You wont get a single drop, but if you eat now, you wont make a dent in it noticeable to me”

She nodded, understanding, and put her hands into the barrel. Yelping in pain as the hot slop made contact with her burnt hands.

Grumbling about how she was an idiot, yonah rummaged around in his chain pile for a flat piece of metal. It was a band from a previous barrel that he had broken. That was the only time he had gotten an earful from Tiddles about how if he continued to do that, Tiddles wouldnt be able to sneak him more food. He was able, with some effort, to heat it, pinch it, and bite it into a sort of ladle, which he used to scoop up the scrap soup and hold it to Savina who was very grateful.

Even with his encouragement she ate very little. Yonah had no idea how long she’d been here, but it was likely longer than himself, and it was very probable that her stomach had shrunken, so he eventually gave into his own hunger and stopped trying to get her to eat more and let her slump against his middle and fall back to sleep.

But before he ate any of it he took the peppers out of the sack and crushed them into the prison soup. It took all his self control not to just eat the peppers straight up. So he rewarded himself by licking the juice from his fingers.

He would have downed the contents of the barrel like a shot but resisted as it would have wasted all his patience preparing it for better taste. And even if it was literal scraps in unsalted water, hunger was the best seasoning. And the peppers, made this the best thing he’d tasted in the time since he woke up in this cell.

It made it much easier to not think about eating the woman in his lap as he too lay down to fall asleep.

---

He woke first, and during the hours of the night his stomach had become rather empty again. Though he kept his promise and resisted thinking about eating her. He did not, however, resist tasting her; he never made a promise involving tasting.

“NO!” she yelped and sputtered as he licked her face like a very large dog waking up it’s owner, clearly convinced he was going to eat her, panicking.

He stopped licking her, But he was not listening to her protests. The moment she yelled the world felt lighter. He felt… no, no time to dwell. He tossed Savina aside and focused on generating a lot of fire into his ankle cuffs. It wasnt enough to melt them, but it was enough to make them soft. Soft enough that he could pull and stretch them and get free.

And then the feeling was gone. Back to that soul crushing feeling that had been ever present, as if it was never gone.

“What did you DO?” he snarled as he rubbed his freed ankles, which were red and raw from the previously tight metal cuffs.

Savina got up, looking frazzled with one side of her hair sticking up and out at odd angles due to half-giant spit. “What I was trying to do last night! Hey!”

Yonah crawled to her and picked her up, putting his face close to hers to demand, rather loudly “Do it AGAIN”

Defiantly she took his gaze and his rank breath “I wish I could! Like I said before, and like you just saw, I can’t do this on purpose! It just happens!”

In a rage his eyes flash and he bares his teeth “Fucking useless!”. His urge to throw her against the wall lost out to his being touch starved and instead he sat back down to hold her just a little too tight.

He did not fail to notice that a small hint of the relief of pressure occurred when she gasped at his moment of rage.

“So. Did that count as your morning try? Should I start considering whether or not to eat you again?”

She stiffened in his grasp “that wasn’t intentional! But doesn’t it prove what I was saying, that I am too useful to consider eating, that with practice I can succeed?”

“I already got my legs free. I can reach the bars now. Reckon i can try smashing them… and if I eat you i may have the strength to do it” he huffed. With a small amount of food and a night’s sleep, what he had was the energy to be a massive dickhead again. “So you would be helping me.”

“Those bars are heavily reinforced with the prison magic! They’ve kept giants bigger than you in this prison!”

“I’d still like to try, so you’re lucky I want company more than a proper meal right now,” he chuckled against her. She was so skinny she wouldn't even be a proper meal, maybe half of one.

“Please let me try again later to disable the nullification. Then we can both get out and get decent food” she sounded both desperate and angry.

“I know exactly what I’m eating if I get out” his eyes flashed again and he licked his lips.

Savina shuddered but did not sound disgusted when she said “i think i have an idea of what… or who… that might be”

“So, are you going to try again or what?” Yonah was getting impatient.

“Will you be ready to break down the bars when the magic reinforcement is gone?” she asked.

Yonah backed up against the wall, bracing himself so he could charge. If she succeeded.

Savina went to the front of the cell, grasped the bars and closed her eyes, muttering. Occasionally she let go and made hand gestures.

Nothing.

Maybe she needed encouragement. Yonah growled at her. Low and threatening. Savina stiffened and he felt the pressure lift, very slightly, very briefly.

“Get on with it!” he hissed.

“I’m trying!” she shot back, walking to the center of the cell, it didnt seem to matter where she was.

Then she screamed, her whole body hitting the ground as suddenly Yonah was on top of her, having pinned her under a hand. He snarled in her face “Maybe I should just eat you then! At least my last meal will be a tasty one!”

This succeeded in having the desired effect. Whatever the nullification was, it lifted. However he could feel it coming back.

“NO! I’m trying, give me one more chance, I know I can do it!”

He was not listening to her. He had confirmed his theory. Without hesitation he took her left arm in his jaws. She started crying and screaming, Pushing at his face to pull away. “Stop Stop! You’re hurting me!” Her voice was shrill.

/That’s the idea/ he thought.

With a sickening CRUNCH and a shriek, it was Yonah’s turn to be thrown, against the wall.

Not that he cared. Not one bit.

The magical nullification was gone.

From the entire prison. With no signs of coming back.

Keeping his promise not to eat her, and extending that promise to any part of her, Yonah crawled over to Savina and opened his jaws to release the nearly severed arm, along with at least a gallon of bloody drool. Savina just sobbed. Hmmm she could bleed out. That would also be counter to his promise, in spirit, if not in word. He rubbed a thumb and finger together until they were red hot and pressed the tip of the finger to her shoulder.

The scent of burning flesh filled the air as he cauterized her wound. But there were more important things to take care of now.

Fueled by adrenaline, hunger, and literal fire in his veins, yonah gripped his prison bars, making them red hot. In a few moments he wrenched them apart and he was out. He barely noticed the flash of light behind him as he stepped out of his cage.

The alarms hadn't even started ringing by the time he ran into the first unfortunate guard.

----

It was the alarm bells that brought Savina back to earth. She sat up, and blanched as a sticky arm rolled off her chest and into her lap. She was still covered in blood but the wound had sealed. For all her lost memory she did recall something very important. She should keep her arm. Holding it kept her from trying to touch her shoulder. She had never experienced anything so painful in her life-

No… wait. She had experienced something more painful… Now her head throbbed too! Nevermind any of this! She had to find the half giant mage, he was her ticket out. Even with the magic nullification gone, she wouldn’t get far drained of her own magic and severely injured.

It wasn’t hard to find him. All she had to do was follow the trail of carnage and busted cell doors.

The first guard she found had no head, and a chunk of a shoulder missing. Blood pooled on the ground from the massive bite. Hmmmm. He had a nice sword. Putting her arm down momentarily, She took the sword and a belt to sheath it. It was a bit tricky to get the belt off the person and onto herself but she managed. Before she took her arm off the ground and continued on, not caring to avoid stepping in the blood. .

More dead guards lined the halls as she progressed. Most of them were missing their heads, some of them burned to a crisp. But many were only missing their limbs, or had a bite taken out of the side. Some of those were still living. One in particular had been bitten from the hips down, their guts spilling out onto the floor. She decided not to use her sword to put them out of their misery. Her excuse being that it would be too much effort to put her arm down every time.

Finally she caught up to the large mage. He was in one of the storage rooms where the more dangerous items confiscated from mages were kept. He was ransacking it, shoveling items into something, but finished as she entered and stood up, putting a hat on his head. If he wasn’t so large and didn’t have such a distinct physique, she might not have recognized him.

Dressed in a stunning outfit of mostly blues and golds, with a massive wide brimmed pointed hat to match, his hair now shining and tied back in a segmented pony tail, standing up to his full height and holding a majestic wooden staff, the once brutish creature from the cell was looking more like a person. Except for the fire in his eyes and blood and viscera hanging from his jaws.

With misplaced confidence she walked right up to Yonah and holding the shoulder end of the severed arm she swung to smack him in the ankle. He had on boots now and she wasnt sure he felt that until he looked down at her.

“You FUCKING ASSHOLE!” She bellowed “You TORE my arm off! Why would you do that?!”

He looked at her angry and quizzically “The anti-magic field is gone. It worked.”

She did not back away from his gaze, since he was not currently trying to eat her she figured he wasn’t going to. Clearly he had not hesitated with the guards. She waved the arm around in frustration "you didnt have to BITE IT OFF"

Yonah crouched down to snarl “Clearly I did. You weren’t in enough… danger to disable the field. I’m rather clever you know.” Without asking he scooped her up to hold her up to his face with a cheeky, blood stained grin, “After you told the story of your assault, I started to put the pieces together. Mortal peril seems to do the trick nicely”

“I still dont think you needed TO BITE MY ARM OFF,” she repeated.

Once again she used the severed arm to slap him, now in the face.

He blinked in a kind of shock and then bared his teeth “I think you’ve lost your arm privileges”

His first instinct was to get the wrist between his teeth and gulp the arm down. But… he still felt like he should keep his promise. And now that his belly was half filled with chunks of prison guard he could think clearer.

“WHAT THE FUCK YOU BASTARD!”

Savina shrieked as the giant man pinched her arm, the severed arm, plucking it from her weak grasp. His eyes flashed and it was lit up like a match.

Lost for words she watched as her arm burned into ash before her very eyes, the giant man grinning once again.

Now she was shaking with rage “I COULD HAVE RE-ATTACHED THAT”

His grin became a scowl “How in this reality was I supposed to know that?”

“Weren't you listening, you didnt even need to bite it off in the first place! My magic was starting to work!”

He talked as he placed her onto his shoulder, securing her to the harness he had found with his belongings.

“Didn’t I? We dont know that. Guess we will have to experiment later” he smiled wickedly, marching out of the room “But right now, I’m still hungry and there’s still more guards left alive.”

As he said this a guard rushed around the corner with a crossbow and fired. Yonah, having heard the footsteps just jerked his staff and the bolt exploded. He snatched up the guard, put the poor fucker’s head in his mouth and bit down, while pulling the body away. The sound was similar to when he’d bitten her arm, and blood spurted from the neck onto his face, and Savina’s entire person.

Yonah swallowed the head and tossed the body aside “I can’t eat them all at my size even if I only eat pieces. I can burn them, or crush them” he explained as yet another guard appeared which he simply squashed by slamming his staff down upon, “but I think we need some help. The human prisoners do not seem so eager to get back at their tormentors as I had thought.”

“They are running away from you. If you weren’t on a massacre they would probably be taking the advantage to riot and get revenge.”

“So we need more monsters.”

As he continued through the prison he broke every occupied cell, letting the prisoners run, and killing every guard with an intense savagery. But the most horrific thing, in Savina’s opinion, was when he picked up whole and alive guards and tossed them into his hat.

Eventually he broke into a cell and the prisoner inside did not immediately cower or run, but stood up, eyes reflecting in the darkness. A tall pale man with dark hair smiled with sharp fangs.

“That’s a vampire!” Savina informed him. The vampire bowed.

“A very blood starved vampire, and I could smell the flood coming from the other side of the prison, yet I was too weak to break myself free once I felt the magic nullification just, go away. Was that you?” he stared at Savina, not Yonah.

Savina gingerly touched the raw, burned flesh of her shoulder and looked very annoyed, “Yes. it was me.”

“I’m going to feast now, as I see you have been doing, mysteriously small giant”

“Don’t fill up on the ones I’ve killed, take out the ones still alive” Yonah instructed.

“Wise words,” said the vampire, “though I will take a little of this one, just to gain back my strength.”

Before leaving yonah sniffed at the vampire. Then reached up into his hat and pulled out a fancy, though sadly wrinkled and dirtied, suit. And tossed it at the vampire.

“Smells like you”

The vampire stood up from taking a drink of blood from the guard who Yonah had decided to merely kick against a wall.

“My clothes! You are a gentleman monster!” And with a snap of his fingers swapped out his prison outfit for his old one. “I feel more like myself already!”

Done with the small talk, Yonah moved on. It was time to get out of this place, with hopefully minimal distractions. He would still make a snack, a charred corpse, or a bloody pulp out of any guard he came across.

But it was only a few cells later that again, the prisoner did not immediately scream or flee. Yonah could sense a very eerie magical aura from her, she was pale like the vampire but he suspected she was not one. She smiled at him like the vampire but her teeth were flat.

“My dear emancipator, did you come across a spider necklace during your rampage? I would very much like to have it back.”

That was odd enough that Yonah decided not to ignore it and instead reach into his hat. He did not recall a spider necklace so he could only think the words. An object indeed fell into his hand. Which he tossed to the woman who squealed like a giddy teenager as she caught it.

Putting it on she rubbed the shining black thorax of the obsidian spider inlaid on the silver medallion.

That eerie aura from before increased 100 fold, followed by the chittering, skittering, buzzing of millions of tiny legs and wings. Unlike Yonah’s cell, this woman’s had a window. And through it marched or flew an unimaginable number of insects and arachnids.

Yonah took a step back. But the plaque of bugs was swarming into the prison from every window, every crevice, every crack in the wall, every broken pipe.

“My children will clean out this place” she giggled, though it was closer to a witch’s cackle.

Yonah backed away from her. Deciding that it was now time to leave this wretched place, confident the bugs could take care of the rest. It was by her merciful magic that the bugs avoided him entirely, and seemed to be able to scramble away from his footsteps even as he started down the corridor.

Ah, another guard, coming out of a nearby door, a good distraction from the creepy crawlies. He rushed and shoved the guard up to their torso into his mouth and got ready to bite down. As the ribs started to crack between his teeth the taste of this guard matched up to a familiar smell.

Releasing his jaws he held a gasping, screaming Tiddles.

“If you dont want that one, my babies will happily take him!” The bug witch called from behind him.

Ignoring the creepy aura yonah wheeled around snarling “He’s MINE” and he secured the flailing young man to his shoulder.

“Suit yourself” said the witch, “but he seems to not like you very much, and I am not overly fond of him myself”

Tiddles was indeed trying to free himself, earning him a swift flick to the head. “Probably hurts with those broken ribs to struggle like that, little one. I will keep you safe.”

Without another word Yonah turned back. Enough of this. He pointed his staff at the wall and blasted a hole through, stepping outside. Still in the walled compound he did not take a fresh breath of freedom just yet. He ran for the walls.

Arrows and crossbow bolts rained down at him. Fine. It was time for some big magic. Yonah stopped and took his staff, raising it into the air he found in it the perfect spell. He swirled it around and chanted. The morning sky, which was clear, crackled, and a swirling storm cloud gathered overhead.

The guards on the ramparts screamed as bolts of lightning struck them, leaving Yonah free to take down a section of wall and flee into the forested mountains.

It was after he had been half running half jogging for 15 minutes that he stopped and sat down against a cool boulder shaded by the trees. Or rather he nearly collapsed. One big gorey feast after weeks of starvation would not immediately restore him. That would take time. He had been running on the reserves of his magic, adrenaline, and a bloodlust.

The moment he closed his eyes to rest however, he felt Tiddles renew his struggling.

“Why do you keep this up” Yonah mumbled, not looking at Tiddles, but feeling him freeze.

“I dont want to die!” the young man squeaked. “I saw you eat the other guards!”

“Well then aren’t you in luck that I filled up on them? I had enough to be satisfied for a while.”

That did not calm Tiddles down any more, the struggling was back “You kept me as leftovers!” he shrieked.

“Naw” Yonah said and reached into his hat to draw out an intact, but dead, guard, “I already did that.”

He felt Tiddles faint at that declaration. This did not bring Yonah any joy, as Tiddles’ terror had done before. Being so full Yonah just returned the corpse to the pocket space that was his wizard hat.

“So, where to now?” Savina said after five minutes “We need to get going, surely someone will try to follow! There is more than one shift of guards and they will be looking for all the escaped prisoners, especially you, who was responsible!”

“I think the bug witch will make sure no one does” yonah said, though it was more likely that at least one idiot would manage to slip away. “But I am tired, We need to find a cave or something to hide out in to recoup my… I mean our strength”

“I can help with that”

As if on cue the bug witch stepped out from behind a tree. Yonah eyed her suspiciously. Savina was too hurt and too exhausted to do the same.

“Oh really? And why would you?”

She just laughed “You saved me? And you returned my amulet to me! I owe you big time. By the way, you look just awful. Would you like my children to clean you up?”

“What do you mean?”

Before she answered there was more buzzing in the air as wasps swarmed around her “these little gals are very efficient! I promise they will not sting”

“They cannot hurt my humans either!” he said, nervous about what was about to happen.

“Of course”

He still held his breath as the wasped charged at him and his companions. Savina screamed as well before she smartly held her breath too. Tiddles was the luckiest, unconscious for the whole thing.

It was over in just a minute, thank the gods, as Yonah would have to take a breath. Still, he sneezed and a few bugs flew out. Savina was breathing heavily.

“So, bug witch,”

“Cait!”

“Cait… What’s a nearby place for a big monster to get some rest?”

The woman considered “Hmm… The woods that way are decent. Bears will be scared off by you. Humans should leave you alone. There’s a cave in those woods if you want extra shelter. I want to get back to my home but I can have one of my babies guide you there”

“That would be much appreciated” Yonah focused and gathered up more strength to stand up. And then froze in place as the largest drider he had ever seen came into sight.

“Babe!” he called, ignoring yonah and scooping up the witch into a hug that transitioned into messy kisses.

“I got out of the prison!” she declared, “this nice big fellow helped me! Got my amulet!”

The Drider was a full head taller than Yonah and eyed him over with all 8 eyes before nodding. From between all of his feet a smaller, but large dog sized tarantula, scampered up to Yonah.

“Charlie here will lead you to shelter!” said Cait, “Now I haven't been home in a long time”

And with that, the witch and the drider left.

Charlie made a hissing sound while scraping her feet on a rock to get Yonah’s attention. She led Yonah to a large rocky incline and eventually to the mouth of a cave.It was large enough that if he crawled, he could get in. Which he did without hesitating.

The cave was larger in the inside and he probably could have stood up but he stayed sitting.

The spider stayed at the entrance of the cave, made a little dance, and then disappeared.

“Seems safe enough…” Yonah said. He unharnessed Savina so she could sit in his lap. “Guess what, I was lucid enough during my rampage that I picked up food that wasn’t dead guards!” and from his hat he got out some bread and cheese, and even a barrel of water.

“Um… no thanks” she said.

“You must eat, Savina”

“Im too nauseated from the pain.”

She did look a little green now that she said it.

“I have a healing potion… it should numb the pain a bit.” This he took from a sleeve. A small vial. Just a single ounce. It was like a grain of rice in his palm “It will even help with your shoulder, to at least regrow the flesh around it and stop infection”

She took it, and still looking like putting anything in her mouth would make her vomit, she downed it like a shot.

30 seconds later she felt much better. Or at least, felt less pain… She still felt like complete shit. But took the food with her good arm and started eating.

“I dont know why you brought him along…” she said, referring to Tiddles through a mouthful of bread.

“I doubt someone as kind as him works at an evil prison if he has a happy home to return to. Plus if i had let him go.. The other prisoners might not have been so kind to him. He was still a guard.” Yonah yawned, “Fuck. Im tired. Didnt we just wake up like, an hour ago?” he asked.

“Sure but you just broke a prison” Savina pointed out.

“I did… didn’t I…” Yonah tried to lay down but found that didn’t work with Tiddles on his shoulder. So he resigned himself to sleeping upright for now.

Still half starved, Savina did not manage to eat much. So yonah put the food back. He found a outcrop of rock that he could lean against and put an arm protectively in front of Savina. She put her own remaining arm over his. And they both fell asleep at the same time.

Even through the exhaustion of his over half a month in prison, and the torpor his kind got from a full belly, Yonah HaEsh heard the quiet footsteps of someone entering the cave.

Yet his brain was still slow to react. He opened his eyes and stared down.

Kneeling in his lap, holding Savina’s arm to his fanged mouth, moments away from biting down, was the vampire.

----

[FIN]

UHHHH thanks for reading. If you liked this please let me know. If this fits your blog theme please reblog it!

I hope you enjoyed this. and I hope to have more of it for you in the future. lots more adventure to come!

[ghostofadragon]

ok this is out of the blue but this fandom is super small so theres no one to talk to about it and also I just wanna know: do you have any thoughts on the knife scene in Batman Unburied? because I've been thinking about the podcast and that scene is one of the more stand out character moments imo because on the one hand you have Babs being noticeably scared and on edge during that part implying that despite how nonchalant she seems she (reasonably) must've been on edge like this the whole time she's been around Eddie and that her whole (more or less) cool and collected demeanor is at least in part just a brave face she puts on and on the other hand you have Eddie just straight up not getting that Babs is scared of him in that moment, instead thinking that she is worried he's contaminating evidence and only realizing she's threatened by him after being told to put down the knife thrice which implies he genuinely didn't even consider hurting Babs/Babs thinking he might hurt her an option and that's just kinda interesting imo considering he's a whole professional criminal and possibly even a murderer. aaand this implied difference in how they perceive the whole teamup situation (Babs being constantly on edge while Eddie's just having a relatively normal time mystery-solving) would also fit with how he keeps talking about them as a 'we' later while Barbara keeps telling him off that 'there is no we' (which we know can't quite be true cause earlier she kept referring to them as 'we' too as Bruce points out when they find him). But anyways...what's your thoughts on this scene or their 'team' dynamic?

hmmmm that's a good one! id have to relisten to the scene to really think about it comprehensively but from what i recall i didn't really personally interpret it as eddie straight up not realizing that barbara was afraid of him/concerned what he might do/or etc (like, after the initial misunderstanding anyway) but more that he was kind of in disbelief/maybe mildly amused and maybe also somewhat hurt by it & trying to hide it but like, in an expected way? like, 'oh yeah of course shes going to be weird about it she's A Cop and Has History With Me (Technically) why would she put any regular amount of trust in me to not be a risk with a bladed weapon and i shouldnt get my hopes up for her to not think of me that way' especially since barbara has spent like the past six(?) years basing pretty much her entire opinion of edward purely on his criminal record and specifically that he stabbed her dad With a bladed weapon so like i think its fair to say it was a little bit of a trauma moment on her part lol i definitely agree with you abt barbara being kind of obviously on edge the whole time, i can't really claim to know if this is accurate to canon or not but i like to believe that part of her unease directly stems from the fact that edward makes like, a lot more sense to her than she wants to think about. like she showed up determined to hate him and he does annoy her to some degree for sure but he is making it really hard for her to not sympathize with him and she doesnt really want to consciously confront that. i'm probably biased bc i love that kind of character dynamic but i really am a sucker for characters not wanting to confront that they are starting to enjoy being around someone who doesn't align with like, their personal image of who they are Supposed to like being around. idk i actually have quite a lot of thoughts about how barbara interacts with most of the other characters we see her with vs how she interacts with edward with respects to like, how people routinely worry about or judge the way barbara tends to do things when left to her own devices vs how (as far as i recall) most or all of edward's criticism of what shes doing comes from when shes thinking too far in the box as opposed to too far out of it. idk! they are interesting to me

[maschotch]

the stranger for hotch reid and derek

the stranger: has your character ever thought they knew someone, and then found out they were completely wrong about them? have they ever felt betrayed?

oh my god i was typing up my response to this ask in the notes app of my phone while making dinner.. got to my laptop all excited to answer ur ask and i realized u didnt just ask for hotch aksdgljd so they uh. got kinda long. i felt bad if hotchs was like 5 paragraphs and everyone else got two sentences but i think i overdid it

its all getting a little much, may have to put this under a read more

hotch:

a full on betrayal? no. if only because he’s skeptical, good at reading people, and doesnt give his trust easily. between those three things, he’s avoided being completely blindsided by someone other than my love and human remains college fic i’ll never write. but he’s been lied to, and he realized he may have trusted someone more than he should have.

emily obviously comes to mind. she’s been lying to him—to all of them—since the day she stepped into his office. there was an entire part of her life that she kept secret. she’d been places, done things, knew people he never would've expected. but it wasn’t quite a full on betrayal, because his trust in her was never broken.

sure he was angry about her deception. of course he was, they all were. but i firmly believe that what went on between them “in name and blood” cemented their trust in each other. nothing was going to change that, not even keeping an entire world hidden. whatever happened, whatever was going on, there had to be a reason. he never lost faith in the person he knew she was. he knows she would do anything to protect the team, and so he tries to do everything to protect her.

ok this one may not necessarily be a betrayal, but it definitely had hotch questioning himself and who he’s chosen to follow. gideon trying to alleviate his guilt by attempting to justify his rash decisions that ended with elle getting shot was something that seemed to take hotch by surprise. he had to reassess the man he’d spent the last decade looking up to.

out of all the former bau members, gideon was somehow the chillest and, even though he certainly had his quirks, he earned everyone’s respect with his unparalleled profiling skills and keen insight into the human mind. hotch held gideon in high esteem. we see him in season one bending over backwards trying to protect gideon, defending him with a ferocity that we don’t often see in hotch. he saw him as a sort of father figure—less so than reid, but hotch had been with gideon far longer. he looked up to him. and when elle gets shot and the only thing he can think of is trying to excuse himself from any blame, hotch was hit with the brunt of reality: gideon’s flaws ran deeper than hotch had imagined.

we know how personally hotch takes it when one of the team gets hurt and how he holds himself accountable for anything bad that happens to them, even when its not his fault. he values responsibility. hotch has only been unit chief for a short while and, even though he’d undoubtedly been handling many unit chief tasks on gideon’s behalf, he’s still new at being a leader. he’s figuring out his style and the principles he intends to uphold as the head of the team. i think witnessing gideon manuevering around any culpability for elle’s trauma and hotch’s personal mentality of the obligation he has to others, solidifies in hotch’s mind the importance of accountability. he looked at gideon and said this isn’t who i want to be as a leader. its the first time he’s had to disagree with gideon on a fundamental level, and it catches him off guard. the man he loved may not be a good man.

morgan:

emily’s past resurfacing hit morgan the hardest. he’s far less trusting than hotch (which is saying something), so anytime he does decide to let someone into the fold, it means a lot. he allows himself to be vulnerable around very very few people: not even everyone on the team—probably not anyone outside the team either. so to discover that he’s been lied to the whole time is damn near apocalyptic.

we see him wrestle with that in "lauren" and we see him struggle with coming to terms with his anger after her death. in their final moments, he holds her hands and tells her that she’s his partner and how much she means to him—that’s not something that just goes away. especially when the reason she did all of this was something that’s so in character for her.. even though she lied to them, she was protecting a child. and when her past resurfaces, she lies to protect them. it’s so emily prentiss that he questions if he has to doubt her at all.

he barely processes all of this as she’s dying in his arms and when she comes back, its the same thing all over again. she’d lied. morgan still loves her and trusts her with some things, but he’s not as open as he once was. he can’t. after a betrayal like that, it affirms his skepticism, even if it’s not as black and white as he may think. he doesnt blame her for it. he understands why she had to do it. but that unease stays with him and never quite leaves.

morgan probably felt more betrayed by hotch when emily returns. a man he’s trusted for at least eight years. a man he’s looked up to, respected, confided in. probably the only one morgan trusted more than emily was hotch, so losing two of them at once… he’s too tired for anger. because there are reasons and justifications and layers to their decision—and it clearly wasn’t one either of them took lightly—it makes everything convoluted in a way that he doesn’t want to bother untangling. he’s quicker to reestablish trust with hotch (he's not the one who's been lying to him from day one) but it cut the deepest because it came from someone he least suspected.

morgan doesn’t trust readily. in general he’s not easily fooled and his careful guard he maintains around others keeps him from the betrayals he anticipates. he’s quick to make judgements of people. even though they’re rarely wrong—he is a profiler after all—he’s surprised when he realizes they’re not who he thought they were. ultimately he’s too cautious to allow for genuine betrayals, which is why hes so wounded when it happens anyway.

spencer:

reid.. for lack of a better word… is rather petulant. he got so used to being mocked and ridiculed by others when he was a kid, and joined the bau so soon after it all, that he carries that suspicion with him in the initial seasons. but he’s also a hopeful, almost naive, kind of guy. he wants to have faith in others, which is why he’s so quick to snap at someone who he feels has wronged him. thinking specifically of “the popular kids” where he accuses derek of betraying him by telling hotch and gideon about what he’s going through. he’s so used to humiliation that he hasn’t figured out that there’s a distinction between humiliating someone for the sake of it and doing something painful because its best for somebody. he’s so used to being demeaned by his peers that he hasn’t yet discovered that there’s a difference between being humiliated by malicious bullies and feeling humiliated by someone trying to do what’s best for you. essentially, he’s felt many betrayals, even if thats not the reality of the situation.

by season 5 he’s shaken off a lot of that immaturity. he may still grumble about being pushed to grow in ways that would be inevitably uncomfortable, but overall he has a better sense of genuine betrayals. he’s not as easily offended. he’s more willing to open up to others—certain people about certain things, knowing how likely they are to just listen and talk him through it or get the others involved—and that settles him down.

the issue is that when he trusts, he trusts completely. again, his optimistic nature leads him to only pay attention to the traits he admires and ignore their flaws (its not like garcia where she actively tries to focus on the good in everyone). put simply: when he trusts someone, he lets his guard down. like all the way down.

reid wasn’t as bothered as emily’s secrets as the others. but his faith in jj was clearly shaken. it just didnt occur to him that she would do something like that because he hadn’t even considered it before.

i think its more interesting that reid believes he betrayed his mother by putting her in a hospital. diana accuses him of betrayal and he takes it to heart. he does feel guilty for sending her away—so much so that it takes him years to comfortably visit regularly. its something that needed to be done; she needed help and care that a hospital provides, even if she’s initially reluctant. ultimately its for her benefit. but for a long time he was scared he would have to face her resentment. his initial misconception of betrayals was probably fueled by this. and even though he’s a genius, there are still things that he has trouble learning.

[turtle-steverogers]

Team Bonding

fr when was the last time i posted like,,, a fic on here. like a tumblr fic. damn. anyway. ummmmmmmm this is just your.... typical steve freaks out and the avengers are awesome um yah ok ok 

warnings: panic attack, vomiting (basically steve watches the titanic and doesnt have a very fun time)

word count: 2575

-

If Steve was being brutally honest with himself, he was fucking tired of hearing about “the classics”. Irrelevant people butting their noses into his business, tipping him off to what movies were, “the best of the best!” and “absolute must sees!” He appreciated what they were trying to do, but after a while, it felt like people were more or less just trying to garner a slice of his 21st century experience, and quite frankly, he liked doing things better by himself. It was much more appealing to park himself in front of his laptop, nothing but his own quietude to keep him company as he combed through different wikipedia rabbit holes and caught up on movies and TV shows that were apparently crucial to his very existence.

Most were subpar and honestly, he preferred the copious amounts of popcorn he treated himself to on these solo date nights, but some things surprised him. Like Indiana Jones. He liked Indiana Jones. He was neat, and Marion reminded him vaguely of Peggy. 

Still, he supposed he should have seen it coming when Clint came to collect him from his floor one evening, that sort of eager-puppy energy he carried around with him vaguely prickling the back of Steve’s neck.

“C’mon, man,” he was saying. Steve leaned against the door jamb, tired. He was going to concede, but Clint was rambling and Steve knew better than to interrupt him. “It’s, like, certifiably the best love story ever. You need to watch it--”

And there it was again. That fucking claim. You need to watch this! You haven’t seen that? 

No. He hadn’t. He’d been a little busy, you know, being dead.

“--And the acting is all so raw and it’s just-- Leo DiCaprio-- you know who that--”

“--Yes. I saw Blood Diamond--”

“--Oh, you did? Well, anyway, he rocks in this and--”

“Clint,” Steve cut him off smoothly. “I’ll come, don’t sweat it too hard.”

Clint looked positively elated. “You will?” he exclaimed. “Awesome, yeah, it’s gonna be the whole team. I mean, that’s good right? You’re cool with that? You gotta be, you’re the one who mentioned team bonding that one time--”

“Yes,” Steve cut in again. “I’m alright with that. Give me a minute to change, and I’ll be right down?” He was still in his gym clothes from two hours ago. He meant to take a shower, but he’d sort of… ran out of energy. The sweat had cooled by now anyway. He smelled fine.

“Oh! Yeah, no problem.”

Which was how Steve found himself in a pair of sweatpants and an old SHIELD t-shirt, squashed in between Natasha and Bruce on the communal couch. Someone had handed him a huge bowl of popcorn and Steve was pleasantly surprised to find that it was flavored with some sort of cheese powder.

“White cheddar,” Bruce said, holding up a little blue shaker bottle when he heard Steve’s appreciative hum. “They’re, uh, sort of like seasoning, but for popcorn specifically. They come in all different kinds of flavors.”

“Oh, neat,” Steve said, around another handful of popcorn. He liked Bruce. He seemed to get Steve in that quiet, brutally raw sort of way. A quiet kinship. They didn’t talk about it, but he never made him feel condescended, so Steve decided that was okay.

“I think I fixed it!” Tony said, stepping out from behind the ginormous movie screen where, presumably, he’d been fixing a volume problem. The screen had been frozen on the first frame of the movie for nearly ten minutes. “Okay, okay, let’s see…” he pressed play. Music poured through the speakers on either side of the TV, loud enough so that everyone cringed and Steve nearly dropped the popcorn bowl in his haste to cover his ears. He always managed to forget how damn loud the world could be when he let himself get comfortable.

“Sorry, sorry!” Tony hissed, turning the volume down to a much more tolerable level. “Okay, there. Okay, shh everyone. Gotta let Capsicle--”

“--Just Steve, Tony--”

“--Gotta let Just Steve get the full experience.”

Steve rolled his eyes, but settled in to watch.

The film was honestly better than Steve had been expecting, if not a little… itchy in that way period films tended to be for him. The themes of poverty and love were pretty well-rounded, but they hit just close enough that he almost cringed at the far-fetch’d beauty of it. 

Still, his fingers itched for a pencil as Jack guided a pencil over the worn sheaf of paper. The dim light, the faint scratch of the pencil, the forbidden love. It was familiar. Steve could almost smell the salty City air, afternoons spent under the dim lights of candles so they could see even with the curtains drawn-- a semblance of privacy amongst the compact vulnerability of his and Bucky’s shitty little tenement. 

Draw me like one of your french girls, Rose had said, and Steve’s eyes drifted towards the wall, Bucky’s voice echoing through his head.

“‘Course I want you to draw me. I ain’t denying my vanity, Stevie,” he teased, but his eyes were soft. “Pal, you could draw a stick of butter and I’d still wanna watch. It ain’t about me here.”

There was a soft touch to his arm and Steve blinked out of his reverie. Natasha was watching him, a neutral look on her face that Steve had finally learned to recognize as concern. He shook his head minutely, offering her a smile. She nodded and looked back at the TV.

The rest of the movie passed without much excitement. The acting was pretty good and Steve had even gotten to a point where he could recognize the filmmaking as something like revolutionary for the time it came out. He was quicker on the cultural uptake than people gave him credit for, but that was neither here nor there. He laughed with everyone else, let himself grow somber when the atmosphere lent that mood, and generally, it was a nice time. He hadn’t gone to any movie nights before this, but he thought maybe he’d start going to more.

And then the ship hit the iceberg.

Steve wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting. Obviously, he knew of the Titanic-- he knew, historically, what happened to it. But for some reason, it hadn’t quite hit him while watching the movie that he was going to have to see the catastrophe go down.

There was a loud creaking of ice on metal as the collision occurred on screen and Steve felt himself go still-- body rigid and tense as the deafening noise played through the speakers. His heart slammed in his chest and he felt his palms start to sweat. He knew that sound-- he knew that--

--He blinked, shaking his head. Movie. Watch the movie. There was a panicked scramble on screen. Characters rushing to amend the situation, more metal creaking and groaning and breaking as dark, foamy water broke through the sides of the ship and Steve could taste it, he could taste the water flooding into the cabin, hitting him from the left as it took the plane down in a harsh--

--He twitched, shaking his head. He was being silly. There were moments of reconciliation as the scenes rapidly flashed between water flooding the ships cabins and peaceful moments of civility. A calm before the storm. A final dance before death.

I’m gonna need a raincheck on that dance…

There was a sudden crash as water blasted through into the work quarters and Steve jumped, watching transfixed as unforgiving torrents pushed workers over, flooding them, drowning them, and they were falling, slipping, sliding, panicking as certain death met them at the halfway point, and Steve knew it must be cold. So cold. Suffocating and unforgiving as it flooded their lungs, saltier than they probably imagined, heavy and awful and--

“Stark, turn the movie off.”

The room went abruptly silent. Steve realized his eyes were closed, chest heaving as he sat, hunched over his lap, hands fisted in his hair.

The popcorn wasn’t on his lap anymore. When had he moved? He couldn’t breathe and he was so cold and someone needed to save those guys, someone needed to--

“Steve,” a gentle voice cut into the roaring waves crashing in his head. Bruce. That was Bruce speaking. “Can you hear me, Steve?” 

Steve nodded, pulling his hair harder. He couldn’t breathe. Was he drowning again? Surely that was impossible. If Bruce was talking to him, he couldn’t be drowning again, but-- but the water-- and-- and the cold--

“Good, that’s good, Steve,” Bruce. Bruce again. It was Bruce. “Can I touch you?”

Touch. Touch. No touch. He was so cold. He wanted to stop being cold, but he was certain if someone touched him right now, he would lose his goddamn mind. More so than he already had.

“That’s alright,” Bruce sounded steady. Calm. So calm. Why couldn’t Steve calm down? “That’s okay. You think you can do something for me?”

Something… for Bruce? Could he? Could he do anything right then? If he couldn’t breathe, how could he do anything-- and he-- he felt sick--

He opened his mouth to answer and vomited between his feet, straight onto the carpet. Someone in the room hissed sympathetically. Steve wanted to crawl somewhere and die.

“Oh, Steve,” Bruce seemed to be talking mostly to himself, but Steve felt his shoulders climb higher towards his ears. “Okay, Steve, I need you to listen to my voice. Just listen. I’m going to count and you’re going to breathe in time with my instruction, okay? Can you do that for me?”

Steve shook his head, choking on a sob. His chest hurt. Like someone had taken all of his ribs and replaced them with weights, flooding his lungs with-- with water-- and fuck, now he was thinking about the plane again. He felt his breathing tick up higher.

“I want you to try,” Bruce said. “With me. In,” he sucked in a breath. “One… two… three… four…”

Steve tried to suck in a breath, but all he managed to do was send himself into a coughing fit. Bruce kept counting. Steve wanted to tell him to wait-- slow down-- shut up--

He braced a hand over his chest. 

Bruce was still counting.

He wasn’t sure how much time passed, but eventually he found himself matching Bruce’s counts, eyes closed and the heels of his palms braced on his temples as he sucked in greedy, measured breaths. His heart was still slamming hard enough to make him tremble and he could smell his own sick wafting up from the ground, but at least he was breathing on his own.

Bruce trailed off. Silence hung thick in the air, the only noise Steve’s slow, shaking breaths. Shame burned around his ears. He didn’t dare look up.

Tony, predictably, was the one to break the silence. “I’m sorry, Steve,” he said, and Steve was surprised to hear honest regret in his voice. “I was the one who suggested we watch Titanic. I should have thought for more than two seconds about that…”

Steve shrugged. Embarrassment climbed from his stomach to his throat, threatening to choke him. 

Natasha spoke next. “Why don’t you go wash up?” It was an escape-- a way out-- and Steve took it graciously, keeping his head ducked down as he stood on shaking legs and rushed to the communal bathroom.

Inside, he locked the door and braced himself over the sink, splashing warm water on his face. He drank greedily from the tap. His reflection looked like shit-- he’d burst some blood vessels in his eyes, probably while vomiting, and his skin looked sallow and pale. He was trembling, sweat matting his hair to his forehead. He looked how he looked after a nightmare. This, he supposed, had kind of been like a nightmare. Though, he hadn’t been asleep.

Nightmares, he was finding, weren’t strictly exclusive to the nighttime. 

He supposed he’d always known that, though. 

He closed his eyes, bowing his head again. 

His emotions had been fucked to high hell since waking up from the ice. This hadn’t been the first of those awful… fits, and he was certain it wouldn’t be the last, but to have something like that happen in front of the team was a whole new level of mortifying. Fuck. He’d gotten sick. And he’d left it.

He felt the ceramic counter straining under his grip. Scowling, he let go.

He could slip off to his room, lock himself away until he could find some way to sneak out of the Tower and never talk to any of the others ever again. Even in this state, Steve knew that wasn’t viable in any sense. He sighed. Besides, he couldn’t just damn the others to clean up his mess. 

Stowing his pride, he dug some spare mouthwash out from behind the mirror and chugged some straight down, keeping a mouthful and swishing it around before spitting it in the sink. He still felt and looked like shit, but at least his breath would smell like wintergreen. 

The others were still gathered in the communal living room, watching what looked like a kid’s cartoon on TV. There was a distinct smell of cleaner in the air and Steve’s eyes landed on the ground where he’d gotten sick. It was clean. He let his eyes drop to the ground, ashamed.

“I’m sorry,” he said. The cartoon paused. He didn’t look at any of them. “I was going to clean up.”

“Nah, man, the only thing worse than freaking out is having to clean up after yourself while you still feel shitty,” Clint said, and Steve looked up. There was no pity in his gaze, only understanding. 

“Yeah, we’ve all been there,” Tony said. “Sucks, but hey, least we know now that Titanic is a no-no for you.”

Steve flushed, swallowing a few times. “Um, I guess,” he looked at Bruce. “Thank you.”

Bruce smiled. “No problem,” he said gently. “We’re watching Phineas and Ferb if you’d like to join us, but we understand if you’d like to go rest.”

“Phineas and Ferb?” Steve asked, guilt replaced with genuine confusion.

“Yeah,” Clint said, shoving a handful of popcorn in his mouth. “It’s my go-to when I have a bad day. Nothing like some good old platypus drama to cure life’s woes.”

Steve blinked. “I genuinely don’t know what to say to that.”

Clint barked out a laugh. “Join us, man! Don’t gotta talk if you’re not feeling it, but being alone after shit like that sucks.”

And Steve hadn’t had someone there for him after a breakdown-- not since the war. Not since Bucky. Every ounce of him wanted to run. Hide. Smooth out his face and slip on that mask of stoicism. But maybe… maybe he didn’t have to. Maybe he could let himself have this, if only this once.

“Sure,” he said, voice a little hoarse. He awkwardly sat back in between Natasha and Bruce.

Tony pressed play again and Steve smoothed his hands over his thighs, feeling out of place and a little cramped and--

Natasha settled, casually letting her feet rest on his lap. On his other side, Bruce leaned into his shoulder, a subtle, grounding pressure. Clint caught his eye and offered him some more popcorn.

Steve relaxed.

Yeah. He could let himself have this.

-

thanks for reading, chiefs

yeah this was chatted about in one of the awesome discord groups im in so thanks guyysss lol

[ginwhitlock]

In your twilight remake, how is Bella as a vampire? Are there any changes to her canon self? (Minus the obvious things *stares at renesmee*) like, wdyt she'd look like or act like as a vampire w/ jasper as opposed to Edward.

(also, good morning or afternoon.)

I've been thinking over this ask for a little bit to get my thoughts straight, so pardon me for the time delay (happy afternoon to you too)

In my remakes of the canon series, Bella is almost never already a vampire, I write her as human 99% of the time because I find it much more rich in terms of internal struggle and logistics than the flip side. If I had to write for her as a vamp it would most likely go like this:

Bella is an independent woman, on the outside (see her basically raising her own mother). She does not believe herself weak, but as a human she understands that she couldn't protect her new found family. When she gets changed, something I'm sure canon jasper would like to do as soon as possible, she has this newfound confidence in her strength-- but I don't think its some sort of fantastic independence.

To start off this whole thing, Jasper doesn't seem one for weddings, at least in the occasion itself, he'd want bella to be tied to him in one way or another. There would be a ring and promises of futures but he never went for a wedding. This is obviously until his entire family steps in, BUT I dont think it would be anything close to what Edward let Alice do. But I do think this would be done while Bella was still human as I dont think she would've have the same thoughts of not being enough for him as she did with edward, yet I cannot act as if that doesnt mostly stem from her childhood, but I digress.

So there would be time spent far away from the cullens after the wedding. Maybe for months or a year. Somewhere remote, secluded, without human or vampire interference. I'm thinking the southwestern US since you know,,,, Jasper. This is where Bella would get to see that she needs to fully think out her immortality, greieve her humanity while she still has it. Jasper is the least human vampire the cullens had in their mix, there would be no false ideas of humanity from him.

After that, she'd be changed there. Hot and dry and surrounded by nothing but animal blood. Jasper would've tried to train her in human blood if she wished, but I dont think she'd ever want to drink human blood in any real capacity. So yellow eyes for the foreseeable future, no baby ripping itself from her abdomen, no huge battle looming over them.

She wouldn't have perfect self control or the idea to develop her shield, as Jasper's gift works through it, there would be no need to discover Bella's talent for a while.

I actually think she'd be the perfect newborn, at least in the vein of being uncontrollable and animal-like. Jasper is the newborn wrangler after all, he'd expect it out of the gate.

I also think she'd be having 10x more sex but thats just because you know Jasper is way not a virgin like Edwin is and wouldn't be afraid to damage her in any way. haha...

As she grows into her vampire maturity after the year of newborn-ness I expect her to be less full of humanity than when she was with Edward. I mean, yes, Bella Swan is the picture of humanity as a human but the change took more from her than it did in canon. It had too. She doesnt get a free pass. She'd be colder to the outside world, more reserved in her meddling of human affairs.

But I do think, no matter the talks she has with her husband, you wouldnt be able to keep her out of the sun