#sometimes when i figure out what the animal is in a practice round with a large number of guesses remaining

[girlwarlock]

slight pet peeve about the metazooa game--it has eumetazoa as a clade, in the sense that the game can say ''the answer isn't a wolf, but a wolf and the answer animal are both in eumetazoa!!'' but doesn't have any guessable animals outside of it. I know that--from a normal person's body of animal knowledge--there's only one animal outside eumetazoa (even though there are a lot of different varieties of sponges) but it would be nice to be *able* to guess that

[olsenmyolsen]

You Got A Star!

master list

dark master list

No Powers AU (Female Reader X Yelena Belova)

Summary: You and your roommate, Yelena Belova, invite some friends over for Mario Party; however, Yelena has no idea about your feelings for her.

Word Count: 4K

Content: Feelings, Crushes, Mario Party, Friendship, Comfort/Hurt

Your roommate, Yelena Belova, was one of a kind.

Truly, you had never meant anyone like her. From the way she talked to how she made babies cry with one look. Or how the one thing she knew how to cook was Mac and Cheese.

You knew there would never be anyone else like her.

Which is maybe why you started to feel different around here... what began as two strangers needing a place to live slowly morphed into something else.

At least for you.

Yelena's asexual identification didn't make it impossible for her to find someone she could share a life with. It was just that you had never seen her with anyone since knowing her. So, IF Yelena were attracted to you, you would have no idea.

Regardless, your tiny crush was making itself known tonight as you waited for a few friends to come over. It was Saturday night, and after a shit week at work, you, Yelena, and your friends decided to have an impromptu game night.

"So what is it?" Yelena asked you again as you set an assortment of snacks on the hardwood coffee table. "It's called Mario Party. Each person chooses a character, and then you hit dice, play minigames, get coins, and you have to purchase stars." You looked up from the candies and savory snacks to a confused-looking blonde. "Whoever has the most wins." You said.

"Is it easy?" She asked after staring at you. You shrugged. "It can be a little challenging sometimes." Yelena hummed. "So it's not like that animal island game?" She asked with her eyes precious and wide.

A fluttering was happening in your stomach.

You cleared your throat with a smile. "No, Lena, it's not like Animal Crossing." Yelena pouted. She loved Animal Crossing no matter how much she hated Tom Crook, as she called him. Yelena opened her mouth to ask if the two of you could practice a round of this Mario Party, but a knock on the apartment door followed by its slowly opening stopped her.

"I got pizza!" Kate Bishop yelled as she entered through the small hallway. You walked past Yelena after your eyes fell to her lips without noticing. She was too busy looking at the game icon on the switch home screen. "You didn't bring Lucky?" You asked as you took the pizza boxes from your childhood friend.

Kate shook her head. "Figured it might get hectic." You nodded to her reasoning. Kate had followed you into the kitchen as you set the pizzas down. Pulling out some plates and dipping sauces.

Ranch and hot sauce for you and Yelena.

You turned around to find your friend eyeing Yelena. You looked between the two and raised an eyebrow to yourself.

"So..." You started pulling Kate's attention to you. You could see Yelena grab her special Joy-Con from the corner of your eye.

It was just the plain blue one, but she loved it.

Yelena clicked on the game as she pulled up a Let's Play on her phone of the game. You hide a laugh.

"How's your mom and her new man." Kate rolled her eyes. "He's so annoying, and he's doing things where he wants us to be like a family. It's just weird..." She shook her body as if she had a cold chill. "Plus, he has one of those old man smiles that could be threatening when all he's doing is asking for ice cream." Her voice was unhappy. She did not like this Jack guy at all.

"Y/n!" Yelena called out from the couch, making you and Kate leave the kitchen. "Yes?" You smiled and kept your voice level as you approached Yelena's side. Standing as she sat.

Yelena lifted her eyes to you before doing a double take at Kate. "Kate Bishop!? When did you get here?" Kate smiled awkwardly before licking her lips and speaking. "About five minutes ago." Yelena tilted her head. "Hmm. I did not know. You're sometimes too quiet." Kate did what she did best and chuckled lightly with a nervous laugh. "Yeah, like a mouse."

Yelena nodded before looking back at you and her phone. "Who is this?" She pointed to a Mario Party character on her tiny screen. "Oh, that's Wario." You replied. Yelena looked at you with all the seriousness in her voice. "Can I play as them?"

You nodded. "If you want."

"I want to." With one look into her eyes, you would go through hell to make sure she played as that little idiot.

"Okay, then you will." You smiled, and her face morphed into pure happiness. Like a puppy in the sun. "He reminds me of that fat short guy from that one show with the horrible people." She said as her attention moved back to the phone. You thought for a few seconds. "Are you talking about Danny Devito?!" Yelena smiled wide and bright. "Yeah, from the Sunny show!"

You couldn't help but laugh.

"That's a great character, Yelena!" Kate spoke up from behind you before not so subtly moving past you to sit next to Yelena on the couch. Her gaze was on Yelena's phone as well.

Were her cheeks pink?

"That character is like best friends with my character," Kate said, raising Yelena's eyebrows. "Really?!" You couldn't recall a time when Kate played as Walugi, but her favorite color was purple, so it probably happened at some point, and you just didn't remember.

Seconds later, a knock came to the door before YOU could explain how different Wario's dice block was from the other characters.

"Wanda! Pietro! Nice of you to join!" The twins were too busy bickering with one another to return your niceties. But Wanda did make sure to place the wine bottle in your arms.

"Y/n, did we have to knock, or could we have just let ourselves in?!" Pietro turned and looked at you with intensity. Wanda was doing the same. "Uhhh..." You looked between the siblings. "You could have just come in." You said with caution. "See!" Pietro threw his arms up while Wanda rolled her eyes. "But that's not how Mama raised us!" Wanda yelled as the two of them stormed into the kitchen.

Pietro had his nose leading him to the pizza. Wanda followed to grab glasses for the wine.

"But it's like the sitcoms you love so much. We're the friends that can come right into the apartment and join the shenanigans!"

Wanda groaned because her brother was right, and she hated it.

"Shut up!" Wanda replied before joining you in the living room, taking the wine from your hand. "Sorry. I need this NOW."

Wanda would be two and a half glasses in by the end of the night. All because of her lovely, annoying brother.

"Hey, Wanda! Hi Pietro!" Kate waved to the twins, who sent smiles and waves back. Yelena looked up and to them and gave them a nod. "Okay, so now if you land on a red monster face, you get in trouble?" Yelena asked Kate. Kate nodded and briefly explained who Boswer was.

Your eyes caught Yelena's briefly when she glanced your way. You could've sworn you saw her lip twitch upwards before she looked back to Kate.

"Here, Kate, it'll be easier to explain some of the mini-games once we're actually in the game." Kate looked up to you and your regent words sheepishly. She nodded after fumbling with her words. "Okay."

A moment later, when Kate left to grab the three of you slices of pizza, you took her spot next to Yelena. "I'll help you out if you need it." You said, which Yelena appreciated greatly but shook her head. "I shall win this game on my own!"

Your lips curled upwards with a laugh. "Oh, is that right, Lena!?" Yelena smirked and took a big sip of the wine Wanda dropped off. "Prepare to lose Y/n Y/l/n."

You took a sip of your wine as well. "We'll see Lena. We'll see."

About fifteen minutes later, You, Yelena, Kate, and Wanda were ready to start the night's first game. The disappointed look of Kate having to sit in her own chair was missed by you.

"How come there's five of us for a four-person game!" Pietro whined as you let Wanda select the level. "I asked Sam to come by, but he's busy with his test and all that." You said while waving your hand. Your friend Sam Wilson was training to become a pilot. Pietro huffed. "Fine."

"Also you fairly lost at rock papart scissors so sorry dude." You added on like rubbing salt in the wound. Wanda turned around and stuck her tongue out to her brother. Pietro angrily bit into his third slice of pizza and flipped her off.

The game was underway, and the order was set. Kate went first, followed by you and then Wanda. Yelena rolled a 3 and had to go last.

"Hey, that might be good; you can make your moves based on where other people are. Not where they might be." You said, cheering Yelena up slightly.

Kate and Wanda dominated the first few turns and minigames as you and Yelena struggled to move more than 4 per turn. You knew it was bad luck, but Yelena was about one more 1 v 3 mini-game from switching her joy-con until Kate got the first star.

"Who is that again?" Yelena asked as Toad started moving to a new spot on the map. "Toad. He's like a mushroom guy." Kate answered before you could. "Fuck! It's farther from me!" Wanda exclaimed as you turned towards the TV. Your eyes moving away from Yelena's side profile.

Toad landed seven spots in front of Yelena.

She could make it to him but she didn't have enough coins.

Luckily, when it was Yelena's turn, she rolled a five and landed on a blue space. Yet she was still short in terms of payment.

"Oh great, it's this one!" Wanda groaned. "Y/n's the be-" "Who wants to practice!?" You cut Wanda off and gave her a quiet glare; the other two people playing didn't seem to notice.

When everyone loaded into the practice mode, Wanda just gave you a confused look before forgetting about it.

Surprisingly, Yelena was just as good as you at rapidly clicking the button to send the little shy guy flying. But still, you won the practice mode. "Oh, come on, Y/n!" Yelena whined. "How did you do that?"

"What happened to winning the game on your own?" You said with your teasing voice dripping. Yelena loved that attitude and smirked. "Okay, Y/l/n, watch this." You turned towards the TV just before the mini-game started properly.

But not before you saw Kate's eyes on your blonde roommate.

"Come on!" Wanda yelled as her fingers smashed the button repeatedly. Kate groaned and held her breath as she did the same. You kept your technique unchanged, and Yelena did her best to copy you.

However, you knew from the practice round and every other game prior that you could do this with one with your eyes closed. But you had a crush on the blonde sitting next to you who cursed at her little yellow piece of shit character. Her words. So, without anyone realizing it, you stop mashing your button a few seconds before the timer ran out.

"Fuck that hurts!" Kate waved her hand around as the four shuguys began to take off.

Wanda's was the first to hit the ground. A laugh from her brother earned him a slap on the arm. Kate's followed the same destiny not long after, and to everyone's surprise, yours was the next to fail.

Wanda turned to you, shocked, but once Yelena realized she had won, Wanda put the pieces together and joined in the celebration of your defeat.

You were more than fine with it. Because now Yelena had enough coins to get her first-ever star.

She would never know it was really because of you.

"I'm taking a picture of this moment," Pietro said, making everyone laugh as Yelena hit the button to accept the Star from Toad.

"You Got A Star!" The game applauded! "I did it!" Yelena cheered and clapped to herself before you wrapped an arm around her and smiled at Pietro's dad's pose with the camera.

You thought Pietro had taken the picture when you shifted your face to take in Yelena's happiness.

Except, that was the picture that was taken.

Wanda made sure to show the one that followed where it looked like you were looking at the corner of the room.

After that, Yelena's luck turned for the better. She was on a roll. A few turns later, she earned another shiny star from a hidden block that left Kate flummoxed. "All I ever get is coins from those! Are you serious?!" Yelena laughed loudly at Kate.

Yelens then landed on Toad's space again after using a triple dice, and not even the prediction that you would win the game could stop Yelena.

Which left you, Kate, and Wanda struggling to do as much damage as possible to each other in the final turns of the first game.

"Yes!" Kate cheered when she got the last star next, making her and Yelena tied going into the Bonus Stars.

"Well, this sucks." Wanda sighed as she fell back against the couch. "There's no way I'm going to catch up!"

"What's happening?" Yelena asked no one in particular, but you still spoke up. "Bonus Stars. So once the game ends, it will still award additional stars to people. It makes it more exciting. Usually, it's like whoever landed on the most green spaces or landed on Bowser the most. Stuff like that." You explained, and you smiled when the blonde shifted her face to look at you.

However, your smile faltered a bit when you saw her eyes and the pout she wore. "So I might not win?"

"You can still win." You said with your voice soft. Yelena looked over your face as the moment became more intimate.

At least to you. You felt Wanda's gaze on you but moved your eyes to the TV.

"Yelena, look!" Kate pulled Yelena's attention away as the bonus star for the most distance traveled was being awarded.

It went to Wario.

And so did the next Bonus Star, which left Yelena jumping off the couch and into your arms when you stood up. "You did it!" You exclaimed loudly.

"I won the Mario Party!"

Your eyes shined as you looked at the way Yelena, how she couldn't control her excitement. It reminded you of the time you had won $200 on a lottery ticket, and you and Yelena went shopping. She bought a fur coat and wears it every time it hits below 45 degrees. (Fahrenheit)

You would always wanted her to be happy.

With the first round of Mario Party over, Wanda switched out with Pietro, and you did your best not to get competitive over the next game on the map in space. Yelena tried her hardest but found herself struggling. Pietro was just as fast in the game as he was in real life. Zooming from star to star, leaving you and Kate reeling.

"Y/l/n third place again!" Yelena teased as she landed herself in a solid second place behind Pietro. You went to jokingly retaliate, but Kate stole Yelena's attention and challenged her to a different Mario game.

Mario Kart.

Yelena's eyes went wide with fear before you slowly watched how they shifted.

Determined Yelena would be.

However, that would have to wait for another night as you looked at your phone, seeing how late it had gotten. Everyone agreed and helped you and the blonde clean up.

Pietro helped by eating two more slices.

"Oh hey, Y/n, before I leave, do you still have that red jacket? I wanted to borrow it for a party Lorna is throwing next week. It would fit the theme." Wanda said, shrugging her arms. You nodded and let her follow you to your bedroom.

"Here." You said, pulling the jacket off the hanger and holding your arm back. "Oh, thanks!" Wanda said as she grabbed it, and you turned around. Your eyes immediately noticed how your door had been shut.

"Wanda?" Sure, the two of you kissed when the clock struck midnight on New Year two years ago, but Wanda didn't have feelings. Did she? "Okay, spill!" Wanda said as she was closer than before—her voice above a whisper.

"Spill?"

"You and Yelena! What's going on there?" Ah! "Did you need this?" You said, picking up the arm of the jacket. Wanda shook her head. "I saw how you were looking at her! I take it she doesn't know?" You sighed. If there was anyone, you could count on sharing your newfound crush with, it was Wanda. "No, she doesn't know." You sighed again as you sat on your bed.

"Are you gonna tell her? Tonight?" Wanda asked, joining you by your side with her arms clutching the jacket. "I don't know... I want to... But."

"But it's Yelena." You nodded to Wanda's words. "I would also just hate to ruin our friendship." Wanda could understand. "Well, sometimes the biggest risks have the best rewards." You hated her cat poster-like words of wisdom, but she wasn't necessarily wrong. "Plus." You lifted your head to Wanda's green eyes before she continued. "At the end of the day, it's Yelena. Even if she didn't reciprocate those feelings with you, you know she wouldn't want anything to change between the two of you. You're best friends. She'll always be in your life. I'm sure it might be hard if she doesn't like you like you. But-"

"But I'd want her around." You finished Wanda's sentence. Wanda nodded, put her arm around you before her hand moved, and rubbed your back. "You're a big girl. You got this."

"You had to ruin it."

Wanda laughed loudly and let you rise from the bed. Before you helped her up. You definitely needed a new box spring.

Opening the door to your bedroom, your eyes caught Yelena's as she exited a hug from Kate. Her eyes quickly moved away from you and Wanda as she confirmed her plans to practice Mario Kart for the next game night, whenever that would be.

"Got the jacket. Let's go!" Wanda yelled to her brother, who was helping out and putting the leftover pizza in foil for you. Oh, no, wait. He was grabbing some to go.

Kate noticed where your eyesight had gone and laughed at Pietro's actions before giving you a tight hug. "Tonight was so much fun, thank you!" You hugged your childhood friend just as tight. "Thanks for coming."

Kate then moved to Yelena and was awkward as she accidentally punched Yelena in the boob as she lifted her arm to hug the blonde. Again. Yelena laughed loudly as Kate blushed before they hugged. Kate left with a cloud of smoke after that.

"Bye, Y/n. Bye, Yelena!" Pietro said his goodbye first with a quick wave to you and a side hug to Yelena. Wanda turned around and hugged you before turning and doing the same to the blonde. You smiled as you walked closer to the door at the end of the apartment hallway. "Bye, guys!" You waved as you shut the door to Wanda, mouthing, "Talk to her."

With a click, the door was locked, and it was just you and Yelena. "That was a good time, Y/n!" Your cheeks wore a light pink as you moved away from the door. Following Yelena in the living room area. "I'm glad you had fun, Lena."

Yelena moved to the couch and grabbed the remote as you entered the kitchen to grab some water. Your mind racing with a way to bring up you're feelings. "I'm not tired yet. Do you want to watch a movie?" Yelena called out from the living room. "Uh, sure! Just pick whatever!" You called out with your voice jumping from your nerves.

You took longer than one would need to fill out their water bottle. Thankfully, Yelena didn't seem to notice as she swiped through hundreds of different options.

She was trying to find something specifically tailored to you.

"You like this one, no?" Yelena asked as you finally sat down. The movie was Legally Blonde, and Yelena knew you loved it, so why was she questioning it? One look and you could see her mind had been racing too.

And for some reason, that calmed your nerves just a bit. What if she felt the same way you did?

You hid a smile and scooted closer to Yelena, who tensed up slightly before pulling you in and dropping an arm around you. "Should I have made popcorn?" You asked. Yelena shook her head. "Still full."

You were, too.

As Elle Woods began to wake up on the screen, you bit your lip. Would during or after the movie be an appropriate time to talk to Yelena?

"Y/n?" Yelena's voice broke you from your thoughts as you lifted your eyes to her. Yelena was chewing on her lip. "Yeah?"

"I have something to say, and I don't know how you're going to take it." Your heart started beating faster than you ever thought possible. "Okay." You said as the movie fell into a black hole behind you. Your body lifts off Yelena to give her your entire attention.

Could this be it?

Yelena sighed before her eyes fell on you. They were gentle. "Tonight, I discovered something... and I'm unsure how to move forward."

You knew the feeling.

"Okay..." Yelena moved her leg below her and turned more towards you. "I... I-" You had never seen Yelena so nervous and flustered. Not even when she booked a trip to Paris, Texas, and not Paris, France. "Yelena." You reached for her hand and took it. "Whatever it is. I'm here for you. I can help."

Yelena knew this, yet she was anxious. "I think I might have a crush on-" "Oh wow! Okay! Tha-"

"On Kate," Yelena said with the words flying out of her. She needed to get this off her chest. She needed you to know. She didn't like this feeling inside of her as she was keeping this to herself. Plus, Kate Bishop was your childhood best friend. Yelena didn't want to make that uncomfortable for you.

"Now! I know this might be weird! But I-" Yelena stopped and quickly gathered her words—enough time for you to process what just happened and to hear your heart become shattered glass.

"There is just something about her. I'm drawn in. She's clumsy but beautiful. Funny!" Yelena laughed to herself as a fake smile finally appeared on your face. "But!" Yelena gripped your hand, and you still felt butterflies in your stomach due to the touch of her soft fingers. "If you have a problem with this or feel uncomfortable, let me know!"

Yelena was dead serious. If you told her that it would make things... unbearable she wouldn't pursue any bit of this with Kate. But you couldn't do that to her. You wouldn't put her own happiness in jeopardy. "It's okay." You said with a smile—another fake one.

You had to fake it now. You could cry later.

"Are you sure?" You nodded. "Absolutely!" You said. Yelena nodded a tad. "It's just she's your childhood friend, and I'm your best friend-"

"Yeah. You're my best friend, Yelena, so of course I want you to be happy."

You said with an enthusiasm you didn't know you could muster. But it finally convinced Yelena, who pulled you in for a hug. "Oh, thank you, Y/n Y/l/n!" She said into your neck. You closed your eyes and let the moment happen. "I love you, Y/n!" Yelena said with a loud cheeriness in her voice.

"I love you too, Yelena!" You whispered back.

By the time the next game night rolled around, Yelena and Kate were dating.

You hated Mario Kart after that.

dividers by @/benkeibear

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting Plan

So the poll is still running, but I think I'm safe in saying there's sufficient interest, so I'm going ahead and typing up a "how we're going to do this" thing, which I will schedule to post after the poll ends properly. As of the time I'm writing this, over 500 people have voted for the "yes I want to draw things" option, and I had been expecting to get maybe a dozen, so we definitely have enough participants. Let's get started then:

Our Source

I had originally planned to translate an Old or Middle English bestiary, but haven't been able to find a good one -- the best option I was able to dig up only has thirteen critters, which I feel like isn't enough to really have fun with. I was debating the idea of translating a Latin one -- this would have been far more time-consuming since my Latin is terrible, but also I do need to practice it, so I figured it evens out -- when I found a solution that doesn't involve me spending hours and hours on translating.

It seems that when Aberdeen University created their digitized version of the famous Aberdeen Bestiary, they released it under a Creative Commons license. (Assuming I'm reading their copyright policy correctly; I'm not a lawyer.) It does not seem to specify whether the transcriptions and translations they attach to the scanned images are also covered by Creative Commons, but since all of those are already freely available online through their website, I can't imagine they would have a problem with me posting them here as long as I provide attribution (which I am hereby doing right here on this post) and am not using it for commercial purposes (which I am not).

The Aberdeen Bestiary is missing a few pages, but there exists a very similar manuscript, the Ashmole Bestiary (they're sometimes called "sister" manuscripts), which is not missing those pages. And I happen to have a translation of the Ashmole Bestiary in hardcopy on my bookshelf, so I can just use it to fill in the gaps. Edit: whoops, the one I have is the Bodley Bestiary. They are in the same bestiary "family", though, so it still works well enough. (I think that should qualify as "fair use", since I'm only taking excerpts and not using them commercially.)

The upside of using the Aberdeen Bestiary is that it means when I round up all the art of each critter, I can include their very nice illustrations alongside the reveal of what animal was being described.

The downside of using the Aberdeen Bestiary is that since it already is free online, people might be tempted to "cheat" by looking up the entries and finding out what animal they describe. For that, please see the next section...

Guessing the Animal

Guessing what animal is being described is not the point of the exercise. (Feel free to have theories and whatnot, but please keep them to yourself so as not to influence the artists.) If you see an entry and think, e.g., "oh that's describing a raccoon"*, and then you create a picture of a raccoon... well, you could have done a perfectly good raccoon at any point and didn't need this framework to do it. So just don't worry about what animal is meant, and do your best to draw (or paint or stitch or whatever else) based on the description! You're not getting ranked on accuracy and there are no prizes forthcoming, so... just have fun with it.

*Example chosen as something that will, for obvious reasons, definitely not be in a 13th-century European bestiary.

Edit after starting to type these things up: some of these are going to be super easy to guess, though, to the point where I don't know how possible it'll be to block out prior knowledge. Sorry about that.

General Procedure

I'm going to schedule a post every Monday (I'm thinking of queuing them for 6pm Eastern Time) with a new entry. It will be the translation of an entry from the Aberdeen Bestiary with all references to the animal's name replaced by a randomly-generated nonsense word. (Henceforth to be referred to as "nonsense-names". I'm Googling* each one before using them so I don't accidentally generate one that actually means something.) These posts will all be tagged maniculum bestiaryposting, so you can follow that tag if you want to make sure you see them.'

*Later Note: Did you know that if you search dozens of nonsense words within a short span of time, Google makes you prove you're not a robot? Repeatedly?

Anyone who wants to draw the critter being described should do so. (You are encouraged to describe your thought process re: why you've depicted it the way you have.) You can put it in its own post, or reblog the description with an image, or however you want to do it. Then tag your art with the nonsense-name I've given to the animal.This will let me and others find it. (You should probably employ copy/paste there to make sure the spelling is the same, since nonsense words are hard to spellcheck.)

A week after posting the bestiary entry, I'll go through that tag and round up all of the art contributed. Then I'll put the images in a big post (or series thereof, considering how many people might participate), along with an @ and a link to your original post.

If you want...

to not have your work included in the round-up post

to have only a link to your post included and not an image

to have me include a link to your website / other social media / etsy shop in addition to or instead of your tumblr

to have other information included alongside your work

anything else along those lines

... then just say so in your post and I will follow your instructions to the best of my ability.

I will also include, at the end of the round-up post, an image of the creature as depicted in the Aberdeen Bestiary and what it is actually called.

All posts I make on this will be collected at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting so that people can look at previous ones without scrolling through the tag.

Various Notes

I'm going to trim out any religious digressions in the original entries -- bestiary authors had a habit of adding stuff like "and the raccoon is symbolic of god in such-and-such fashion, which teaches us...", and I just don't think that's relevant here.

The entries will also be presented in a random order. This is because they're sorted into categories in the original text, so if I don't change the order we're going to get stuck with, e.g., a few months of All Birds All The Time.

You should all be aware that the animals described are not guaranteed to be, you know, real. There are several entries describing animals that straight up do not exist -- some of which are mythical creatures familiar to most people, others of which are extremely obscure.

Explanations of the animal's name within the entries will be redacted.

If other animals are mentioned within the entries, they will not get replaced with nonsense-names. Originally, I was going to make the switch globally, so that if, e.g., the entry for "raccoon" read "a raccoon is about the size of a possum", and the random generator had decided that a raccoon was a balzikhear and a possum was a flunggrish, the "raccoon" entry would now read "a balzikhear is about the size of a flunggrish". However, I decided that it will cause more problems than it solves to obscure any comparisons to other animals -- so the name-switch is now localized only to the specific entry. A possum is a flunggrish only in its own entry, and remains a possum everywhere else.

I was originally going to do one post for every single entry, but there are a lot of them and they vary wildly in length & quality. So I've cut it down to exactly 52 posts, meaning that if I queue them up for once a week, this will run for roughly a full year.

Most of that cutting-down mentioned above was done by combining a bunch of the really short entries into categories -- the last half-dozen posts in this series will be group entries. You can choose to make art of any of them that strike your fancy, or do a group portrait, or just ignore them --I dunno, I'm not a cop, do what you want.

I did also directly cut some, mostly domesticated animals because there's a somewhat different approach to them based on author and audience familiarity.

So yeah, that should cover everything.

[demonslayedher]

Things that went through my mind while watching this episode: --Gotouge must had been in A Mood when writing these chapters, and the animators were probably like, "sweeeet! I love weeks like this!" with those silly and simple scenes of Tanjiro Being a Dork feat. Kotetsu, feat. Kotetsu/Haganezuka/Kanamori, feat. Genya, feat. Nezuko, feat. Nezuko/Muichiro.

--but then partway through they probably dragged themselves back to more detailed serious work like Hantengu dragging himself to work. Sniffle, sniffle, fine, they expect so much out of us, fine, here's all the bone and muscle fibers of Karaku taking shape from a head still falling through the air.

--Speaking of animation details--the glow on Muichiro's eyes as he runs through the dark forest? Nice. So nice to see him using a sword modeled after the one which his "ancestor" used, even if he did steal it off a doll modeled off his "ancestor." (Side note--wouldn't it be fun to see the Tokitou twins with inherited memories?)

--Also, I am pretty forgiving of the CG fish (of anything, I was impressed). They didn't totally meld with the 2D environment, but for what Gotouge gave them to work with, they moved them around in a pretty satisfyingly believable way.

--So anyway, back to this first round of Tanjiro being a dork, I love the range of emotion we get him in this episode, when he gets to relax and just be a teenage boy. SWORD, COOL!! I can has it? I no can has it. Panic-and-protect-the-child mode. Haganezuka-san was working hard for meeee? Panic-and-protect-the-child mode. Haganezuka-san said not to peek. You think I can go peek? Friendship senbei! Tooth. I'll bet I can figure out how to braid Nezuko's hair like Kanroji-san's! Zzzzz. Oh, hahaha, Tokitou-kun, surely you'd never attack me in my sleep! Now I can go peek on Haganezuka-san like I was totally going to anyway even though he told me not to. Hmmmm. Oh, wait, what, that's a demon, nevermind--

--It's just so nice seeing him be some annoying random guy sometimes instead of just The Eldest Son.

--So, Haganezuka-san. It's not just that he was physically training himself to smith a better sword for Tanjiro, but he in fact had already made a new one, but he didn't feel it was good enough. Perhaps he spent some of those nasty letters in his initial outrage at seeing the chipped sword, but then after being scolded for making something that would chip so bad in the first place, he felt dissatisfied with the sword he tried to make better, and maybe some of those "I have no sword for you" letters were just a way of expressing "I suck at this (because I am a perfectionist)"?

--More Haganezuka-san: He was essentially raised by Tecchin because his parents couldn't handle his fits when he was a child (which is very, very sad), but he practices a sword polishing technique that has been handed down through the Haganezuka family (and in real life, sword polishing is recognized as a skill totally separate from smithing (though smithing does involve some preliminary polishing stages), so I love that a later Taisho Secret shows him doing finger push-ups because yeah, he's gonna need those fingers ready for a lot of the detail work in the polishing process). While I would also love to see "inherited memories" explored more in Haganezuka, this more likely means that he learned from the father who essentially abandoned him. Oh, to be a fly on the wall in that workshop.

--But also... this three day polishing process which has killed people for how extreme it is. Tanjiro, if he says not to bother him, please, don't both him. Have you learned nothing about the risks of upsetting Haganezuka-san? And this is of course not endearing you to Genya, who at this point still has every reason to find you annoying. You keep giving him reasons to dislike you, too.

--Classic Muichiro-Nezuko Head Tilt

--I wonder if Kotetsu lured Nezuko away with toys so that she wouldn't interfere with Kotetsu nearly killing her brother

--But also, mad respect to Kotetsu, he really was doing his best against that fish

--Might I just say, that little gasp Muichiro has when he remembers Tanjiro's words? So elegantly subtle in the sound design. --Interesting that Gyokko does not appreciate the flesh of the swordsmiths, even though eating strong people would presumably be nutritious. Hard to digest? Maybe not as nutritious as a Breath-using Pillar? But also, what with "Kakushaku-no-Ko" culture among those who use fire, perhaps all their work with fire (which demons show a distinct dislike of), or more directly with the metal of Nichirin blades is part of what makes them distasteful?

--My favorite Hantengu form is his basic sniveling "woe is me, I'm so weak" old dude form, because it's so ironic. He is the Zenitsu of demons.

--And bam, we already have his full set of four! That didn't take long at all. Also, Tanjiro is now back in The Eldest Son mode and Nezuko is in oh-yeah-she-is-A-DEMON mode, that didn't take long either. Oh, and Genya has already sustained what should be a fatal injury. That also did not take long.

[whirligig-girl]

Eaurp E.W. Guz's Personal Log, O27/Y20/M3/D14. (2375 A.D.)

I'm writing this entry in my locked diary personal log, because I do not want anyone else seeing this. If you see this, no you didn't. The idea of this getting out, transmitted through the inter-library network for everyone to see, is so scary that I think I'd rather boil alive.

It's getting harder and harder to avoid thinking about gender and sex. I just don't get it! It's basic biology. Mellanoid Slimes reproduce asexually and so have no sex... and so therefore we have no gender. That's the territory of strictly animals and aliens. It's scientific fact, and if I want to keep my internship at the Space Program it is adherence to scientific fact that I must uphold.

But I've known for a long time that Slamtha isn't lying about her experience. She really is a woman, the same way that a Zaldan or a Human might be. When I first met her when we were little, all our teachers and mentors and parents were convinced this was just a fad, or a phase. When she got older and started shapeshifting and buying her own clothes, they said the same thing. But I've known her for half an Omicycle. This is not a phase. Slamtha is a woman.

I accept that. I always have. It doesn't have to be scientific, minds are weird and strange and I don't care what Eurgus and Dr. Worm say, any kind of diversity of form and thought can be beautiful.

But not for me. No no no. I'm training as a scientist and an engineer. I have to stay objective about these things.

But sometimes I look into the mirror, and I just can't find myself swimming around in the green ocean staring back at me. I have known this face my whole life, it's familiar enough, but it looks dead, or like some kind of puppet, and the older I get the deader it looks.

I made the mistake of telling Slamtha about this in passing. She got kinda quiet, and told me she wanted to show me something at the library next time we went.

We never got that far. Instead, I [eraser marks, green splotchy stains, ripped paper.]

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

Slamtha Uzgoel returned to the cylindrical dorm complex from her history class. She left her bag behind, so she carried her books in her arms. As she walked up to the glass doors she saw herself in the reflection and she smiled. Three bright, cheery eyes facing the glass, a smiling mouth in profile on one side, and a strong, precision-crafted nose on the other side. Her pony tail was a little rough, the naturally blobby slime upon her scalp had once again defeated her attempts to keep it fully smooth, but it wasn't a big deal. Her figure was tall and slim as always, but had all the curves and proportions you'd expect of a human female.

She only had a moment to study her form in the glass before she entered the dorm lobby, but in that moment, she was again satisfied that things were way better than they had once been.

She found her and Eaurp's dorm, and put her hand inside the latch, and dropped her books in shock.

Eaurp was sitting at Slamtha's vanity with their shirt off, trying to shapeshift their chest, pulling round protrusions of slime out with their hands. They didn't notice Slamtha at first, but when the books hit the floor, it startled Eaurp enough that they rapidly covered their chest with their arms and swivelled around in their desk chair looking as if they were going to melt.

"Slamtha! Hi. I was. just. uh. Practicing my impression of you!" Eaurp said, haphazardly shoving their mouth off to the side of their face, and blinking a false eye into existence on top of their nose.

"Eaurp... cut the gack," Slamtha said, narrowing her eyes. She closed the door behind her, which let Eaurp relax slightly, and then picked up her books and put them on a shelf.

"I was just curious, that's all! Those slime blobs you put on your chest just seem like they'd get in the way, you know? I was wondering what the point was."

"And you didn't think to just ask me?" Slamtha said.

"Well," Eaurp said, "I'm an experimentalist."

Slamtha put her hand on her face, covering up her eyes, but her mouth was smiling. "You're such a dork nerd."

"The 'blobs' are there because they're there on the majority of female convergent bipeds in the galaxy. They serve all different kinds of evolutionary purposes. For Humans, it's secretion of a nursing-slime-like fluid called 'milk.' For Vulcans, it's a fat and water storage structure. For Zaldans, it's thought to have evolved as a floatation device. In most cases sexual dimorphism of breast size corresponds to evolutionary development of the convergent biped face and body plan, in accordance with Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planetary Development."

"That doesn't make sense. That's not how evolution works, and anyway, what purpose would they serve for Mellanoids then?" Eaurp said.

"Haven't you ever seen a fat person?"

"N-not without their shirt on!" Eaurp said.

"We really need to get you out of the dorm more..." Slamtha said. "It's the same as our hair. Just storage of despecialized slime. That's probably why you were struggling so much, you were trying to pull out your actual skeletal gelatin and viscera, when you need to treat it more like hairstyling."

"But you're not fat, and I'm only a little bit fat, so why do you have them?"

"Again, I'm going for sexual dimorphism. And it kinda seems like you are too."

Eaurp blushed and their hair dripped down their face.

"Eaurp..." Slamtha said. "is there something you want to tell me?"

Eaurp carefully adjusted their arm to still cover their chest, while their other arm went to cover their face.

"I..." Eaurp said, but then they made a gurgling noise. "It's really hard to say."

"Take your time," Slamtha said. "I'm going to do some reading. If I can have my desk back."

Eaurp perked up, looked around, saw she was still at Slamtha's vanity, and then carefully stood up, only to reveal that she was wearing one of Slamtha's skirts.

"Eaurp. What is that."

"It's a... skirt?"

"But you don't own any skirts," Slamtha said.

"And you only wear skirts, I just wanted to figure out why?"

Slamtha rolled her three eyes. "Well did you figure it out?"

Eaurp's eyes teared up. "They're really flowy and spinny... I'm sorry. I'll... I'll take it off."

Slamtha sighed. "Don't worry about it."

Again, Eaurp's anxious, tense body relaxed. They sat down at their own desk and pulled out their journal. After a moment, they started writing in their locked diary.

Slamtha pulled out a binary calculus book from the shelf and put it down on the desk, then opened it. She worked out some problems, slowly. She could have really used Eaurp's help here, but now was probably not the right time.

Eaurp made a frustrated gargle and furiously erased whatever they had just written, then crumpled the paper, then shouted.

Slamtha looked over her shoulder to see the strange sight. Eaurp's naked back, rising and falling with each frustrated breath.

"Slamtha," Eaurp said, muffled, their head in their arms on their desk.

Slamtha turned around from her desk and knelt down next to Guz.

"Eaurp," Slamtha said. She put her hand on Eaurp's back, and an electric tingling sensation sparked between them. Eaurp let out a small gasp.

"I think you're so gorgeous, and so pretty, and you're so much happier now than you were when we were kids, but I'm more miserable than ever. I want to be like you. I don't know anything about women, you're the only one I've ever met."

"You've definitely met other women here at Gooniversity," Slamtha said. "and um. I know you've seen the USS Voyager mission report tapes enough times. There's lots of women in those tapes. Voyager's captain is even a woman. And also I've told you all about xenofemininity at the library!"

Slamtha's mouth tilted into a soft smile, but Eaurp couldn't see it.

"I... don't think I like not having a gender. And I don't know what that gender is supposed to be... but I'm pretty sure I like the one you do better than the uh... the other one?"

"Show me your breasts," Slamtha said.

Eaurp shot up from their desk in shock. "WHAT?"

They forgot to cover their chest. When they saw Slamtha staring at their chest, they quickly covered it.

"Hmm. No, no, the shape is all wrong. It's like you've just put tiny little hemispheres on your chest. Here, hold on," Slamtha said.

She dug around the bookshelf until she finally found what she was looking for, a Zaldan anatomy textbook. She flipped it open to a page that was clearly more worn than the others. It was a picture of a Zaldan woman's breasts, as well as an illustration of tricorder scans of the interior structure.

"That's what I did, though," Eaurp said.

"No, no," Slamtha said, "The breasts hang from the chest and armpits, like this. They don't just pop out of nowhere. It's like, imagine a fat mellanoid slime's chest, then make it rounder and larger."

Eaurp stared, unthinkingly and unblinkingly.

Slamtha rolled her eyes and grabbed the bottom of her shirt, then pulled it up.

Eaurp closed her eyes and looked away, holding her hands in front of her face.

"Do you want to learn how these things work or what?" Slamtha said.

Eaurp peeked, then closed her eyes and turned around, making a high pitched whine.

"Ok ok. We'll. Build up to that, I guess?" Slamtha said.

"Let's just put our clothes on and not show eachother our skeletons and vital organs or chest blobs, and we can just talk like... like normal mellanoids."

"Oh, Eaurp... Neither of us are normal Mellanoids." ------

A few months later

Eaurp Guz stood in the common room of her parent, Dr. Worm's, house. She wore a blouse and a skirt, which would not have raised any particular suspicion if not for the fact that she never used to wear anything other than T-shirts and sweatpants or shorts.

"I've, um, gathered you all here--my friends and family, to uh, to tell you... something important." Eaurp said. She looked to Slamtha, who was sitting off to the side of the group. She gave a thumbs up.

"This is. Um. Something I've been thinking about for a while," Eaurp continued, "I am uh. Oh globs..."

Eaurp's parents shared a confused glance between them. Her friends just watched expectantly.

"I'm a girl. I'm a woman. A female. A-and I want you to use the Federate pronoun 'she' and 'her' when referring to me in the third person."

Eaurp's rocketry club friend just stood up, shook their head, and left.

Her friend from the astronomy club just laughed. "That's uh, pretty funny, Guz. But for real why did you bring us here?"

Slamtha glared at them.

The fellow astronomer gurgled and dripped. "Guz, you're joking right?"

Eaurp looked almost like she was going to cry, frozen in place, her new longer hair drizzling down the front of her blouse, her legs bowing under her own weight.

"I don't think I get the joke," Dr. Worm said.

"No no, I think it's great," Eaurp's other parent, Waral Slaup, said. "Every celebrity needs a gimmick, this can be theirs!"

"Celebrity?" Dr. Worm said.

"Yeah, you know, when they become an astronaut," Waral Slaup, "and they're the first mellanoid to set foot on, I dunno, Glerbuh."

"Isn't Glerbuh made of gas?" Dr. Worm said.

"Hey Eurgus? Glerbuh, made of gas or what? Eurgus?"

Eurgus Fleud, Eaurp's other other parent, narrowed their eyes and stared at her. "I'm not sure why you feel the need to inform your parents about your gross fetish."

Eaurp stared in disbelief. "No, no, I, what?"

Slamtha shot up. "It's NOT a joke, and it's NOT a mucking fetish!"

Eurgus shot up. Waral reached up to try to hold them back.

"I don't wanna hear another word from you. If I had my way you and Eaurp would never have seen eachother again after I found out what you were."

Eaurp ran out of the room. Waral and Dr. Worm ran after her.

"It was all you!" Eurgus shouted, "corrupted! Corrupted by these, these, these FEDERATION values. I knew you were no good. When you were kids I thought oh well, just playing pretend as an animal. I should have KNOWN."

"Hey! This isn't all on me!" Slamtha said.

"You gunking xenos ruin everything. Not even my children are safe from your disease!"

"Fuck you! Fuck off! This is not a disease! This is who I am. And it's who your daughter is too!"

"MELLANOIDS DON'T HAVE DAUGHTERS! ANIMALS DO!" Eurgus screamed.

"Call me an animal again! I swear to the globs!"

"Oh! You wanna go?"

Eurgus started to step forward, when the astronomy club member, still sitting down, put their hand up. "Fleud. Please."

"This doesn't concern you, Jenry!"

"Slapping the slime out of eachother isn't gonna solve anything," Jenry said.

"I want my child back," Eurgus said.

"Well too bad," Slamtha said. "My parent doesn't own me, no matter how hard they try, and you three don't own Eaurp either. And now that we're grown, you can't control us so easily."

"You did this to them. You fix it."

"I did not do this to her. I helped her do this to herself. Because she wanted to. Because this is a free planet."

"Federation bootlicker," Eurgus said.

"I've heard that 'insult' my whole life. Well, maybe the Federation is bad, or maybe it's not. But I was miserable before I found out about women, and Eaurp was miserable before she decided she was one too."

"They seem pretty miserable as it is!"

"And why shouldn't they be, with how we all treated them!" Jenry said.

"Jenry, I'm giving you an F on your next intern report," Eurgus said, "If you don't shut up."

"Fine. I'm going to go apologize. Uzgoel, please help me," Jenry said.

"Unbelievable," Eurgus said, to themself in the now empty room. "I knew it. I KNEW it. I knew if I wasn't careful, that yellow stain was gonna turn my babyguz xeno." -----

Without Slamtha there with her, Eaurp Guz sometimes felt that she had stagnated in her gender experimentation. Oh yes, she had trained her body into a soft, curvy figure, her hair voluminous and styled, and now she actually cared to have her clothing fitted to her body properly rather than loosely hanging on her, but since leaving Mellanus she'd spent most of her time in various Starfleet uniforms.

Well, at least there was still some room for experimentation.

Guz looked around to be sure no one was there, then faced the replicator.

"Computer. Engineering skant, fitted to specification Guz-Alpha-Nine, short skirt, duty version."

The replicator whirred, and then Guz pulled out a minidress version of the uniform she was presently wearing, and took it away to the privacy of her bunk.

"The only slime that's gonna trans my gender from now on, is me."

[givemethesleep]

idk if i should have put this on the post butt i figured it could get kind of long lol… are the people being experimented on just humans or other creatures(idk if that’s the word you would use) too? if it’s other creatures, do you have any idea if you’re wanting different races to react differently to the testing or have different end results?

also for the immersive things: idk if they’re neglected in other places but i love it when there’s fantasy foods and like holidays discussed, or i guess culture in general. i can’t remember what i read but it had like a little encyclopedia at the end that explained more about foods mentioned and the history of holidays that were mentioned! i really enjoyed being able to read more about it. i think that sort of thing would be great, especially if you’re putting little snippets up just to give things more context.

you're amazing thankyou for the asks i'm feral about you!! Not gonna go too deep into anything too nasty but under the cut there's vague gore mentions and cannibalism mentions below!

The experiments are all sorts!! Humans, such as Fio's partner Adam, are the main focus of the trials involving the removal of body parts to create realistic synthetics, hoping to eventually create what are basically fantasy androids to act as spies and soldiers. But elves, orcs, the iilae/amrat/evira (sometimes collectively called 'beastfolk' or beastmen' to various levels of displeasure) and miscellanous animals are also being subject to these treatments!! If an uncanny human gets spotted, well, that's fair - humans are aware, for the most part, of their behavioral patterns. But a bird, or a rabbit? They (hypothetically, at least) would be much harder to spot.

The the thinnest upper crust of the human countries and a majority of the Sterkyyn (or Mana Elves) display excitement about these experiments, and the ability to spy on yout enemies without putting yourself in harms way without the blood on their concience of a living spy killed in action, though paranoia in these ranks is also increasing. For the Sterkyyn, they think it their right to understand the ways of magic and mechanics and, due to their extensive legislation and powerful position of the map, they are able to hoard knowledge and advancements from the further reaches of elven civilisation while keeping these horrendous experiments hidden. Of course, rumors get around, but by the beginning of the stories very little is truly known about what is going on in the Inner Sanctum, and whether or not these godless creations are already leaking into the world.

Fantasy foods and holidays!!! This is such a good idea - I haven't read a book with a feature like that in some time but I totally know what you're talking about!! If there's interest I'd love to talk about some of the holidays, especially around the times when they would occur! The one's I'm working on at the moment are the Kyyn-specific festivities, tied into the elven creation myths!! Each sub-species of elf are descended from one of the mother godess' children, who all left her overbearing presence and changed the world around them to make a life for themselves and their descendants. Each group celebrates separately with different traditions, though most species practice some form of ritualistic cannibalism on these days!! Givokyyn and Dravkyyn practice this year round with some specific rules about who, when and how flesh should be prepared and eaten, though the practice isn't looked down upon by anyone but a select group of Sterkyyn and the humans - and even then, the sacred rites are rarely witnessed by humans.

While I'm certain there'll be some fantastic harvest festivals to talk about and even a handful of recipies to try out at home, no one quite does an "independance day" like a rural Givo village... I'm adding a sort of Traveller's Guide to my worldbuilding bible for stuff like this, as well as plants and their properties that don't exist here on Earth for future posts and to slap on the end of the stories!!

Thankyou again so so much for the ask I'm loving this <3333

[the-sleepysiren]

How are you so good at art, besides practice, practice, practice, what tips do you have?

With my paranoia of a mess it means so much when people actually like my art,,,

Well yes you do have to practice practice practice but this is what I used/use: So for starters I use clip studio and it sometimes has stuff that helps out while drawing like 3d models but I very rarely use them, For studying/sketching anatomy I used:

http://reference.sketchdaily.net/en

https://line-of-action.com/

They have different type of body types and also have access on animals you can sketch

-

Pose maniacs has more muscle definition so it sort of helps with whole anatomy study

-

This is also very useful because you move the skull round and it finds pictures of animals in that way https://x6ud.github.io/#/

-

I also use pinterest on most stuff I look up, scenery/colors and all that its very useful, it can also have poses and models for figure drawing

[tawakkull]

ISLAM 101: SPIRITUALITY IN ISLAM: PART 102

One of the most common plaints about Sufism is that it is remarkably open to women’s public performance of worship. There are famous female Sufis, whose careers and hagiographies date to as early as the late 8th- and early 9th-century C.E. Rabia al-‘Adawiyya (d. 801) was famous for her desire to worship God neither for fear of hell nor desire for paradise but out of love. In certain stories associating her with another great early figure of Sufism, Al-Hasan al-Basri, she is seen to surpass him in both wisdom and piety.

Perhaps due to a readiness to integrate local culture, in some Sufi circles women and men participate in ceremonies together. In other cases, orders are comprised entirely of women, with women teachers, called shaykhas. The Qubaysiyyat in Syria and Lebanon are among the most popular and populous female orders in the Middle East today.

But women’s participation in teaching and learning among Sufis is not limited to the modern period. Ibn Arabi (d. 1240 C.E.) listed two female Sufis among his teachers, Shams and Fatimah. He referred to Fatimah as a Gnostic whom he served for several years. Another famous Fatimah, Fatimah Nishapuri, lived in Mecca in the 9th century, and was regarded among the greatest of Sufis by her male contemporaries.

In terms of sexuality, Sufism has occasionally been controversial in one respect: its use of the language of eroticism and passion to describe the relationship with God, the Beloved. As in all branches of Islam, Sufism does not prescribe celibacy. Many famous Sufis were married and had children, though others were indeed celibate. Al-Ghazzali actually wrote on the virtue of sexuality and marriage when practiced properly and when inclusive of the desire to procreate.

Overall, therefore, an aversion to sexuality itself is not a major issue for Sufis any more than other desires. It does not stand out among other physical desires, such as the need for food or sleep. Yet the language of love and passion is an enormously important aspect of Sufi literature in discussing a relationship with God.

Love imagery is expressed in the following poem by Rumi, entitled “Love is the Master”:

Love is the One who masters all things;

I am mastered totally by Love.

By my passion of love for Love

I have ground sweet as sugar.

O furious Wind, I am only a straw before you;

How could I know where I will be blown next?

Whoever claims to have made a pact with Destiny

Reveals himself a liar and a fool;

What is any of us but a straw in a storm?

How could anyone make a pact with a hurricane?

God is working everywhere his massive Resurrection;

How can we pretend to act on our own?

In the hand of Love I am like a cat in a sack;

Sometimes Love hoists me into the air,

Sometimes Love flings me into the air,

Love swings me round and round His head;

I have no peace, in this world or any other.

The lovers of God have fallen in a furious river;

They have surrendered themselves to Love’s commands.

Like mill wheels they turn, day and night, day and night,

Constantly turning and turning, and crying out.

In this poem, Rumi, the lover, is completely helpless, like a piece of straw blown about by a hurricane, or a helpless animal tossed into the air. Elsewhere, love is an all-consuming fire, in which the Sufi is consumed as by a fire:

Should Love’s heart rejoice unless I burn?

For my heart is Love’s dwelling.

If You will burn Your house, burn it, Love!

Who will say, 'It’s not allowed’?

Burn this house thoroughly!

The lover’s house improves with fire.

From now on I will make burning my aim,

From now on I will make burning my aim, for I am like the candle: burning only makes me brighter.

Abandon sleep tonight; traverse for one night the region of the sleepless.

Look upon these lovers who have become distraught and like moths have died in union with the One Beloved.

Look upon this ship of God’s creatures and see how it is sunk in Love.

[amateurd18]

Hii Ami!! Secret Santa here!! Wishing you a relaxing Sunday before the start of another week!!✨

My weekend has be good so far. Just getting last minute preparations in order since we leave for Puerto Rico later this week!! I’m so excited to get out of the cold for a little bit, feel the tropical air!!

That’s definitely something!! I bid you good luck on the rest of your semester(s) in college and all your future endeavors!! You got this, hun!!

That’s so valid!! I remember having a Lego fire truck when I was younger!! I loved that thing to bits!! Don’t know what happened to it, though. Must have gotten lost over the years. But, nonetheless, I’m rooting for you to have that collection!!

Uno is always the way to go!! I’m not a big board game person, I would say. When I was younger, me and my brother would play Mouse Trap and Operation, so I’d probably say those. Sometimes a good game of cards against humanity goes a long way as well, especially when you play it with good friends lol.

Speed round answers!! Learn another language? I do speak Spanish, but not as well as I would like to. I understand it and read it more than I can speak it, so I would love to be able to improve on that! In terms of another language, I would probably say sign language or German!! Celeb crush? Okay, so this is gonna be a little far out!! On thanksgiving weekend, my brother had on wwe wrestling on the tv. I wasn’t really paying attention to it that much at first. But then there was this one particular female wrestler that came on the screen! I had seen her before, but never caught her name!! I was just absolutely mesmerized by her as a person!! Her name is Rhea Ripley. I’d say at the moment, it would be her! Comfort movie? Either the first/second Toy Story movie or Spider-Man: Far From Home. I remember one semester in college, I couldn’t really fall asleep and it was about 3 in the morning, so I just put on the Spider-Man movie just cause lol. Fav. Christmas food? There’s not really a particular food I enjoy cause I love all of it!! I’d probably say there’s this one dish called “pasteles”; don’t really know how to describe it, but it’s a Puerto Rican dish where it’s like meat that’s wrapped in banana tree leaves along with a lot of other things! We tend to only have those on holidays so when it does come around, I appreciate it even more. I find it ironic cause I didn’t really like them when I was younger, but now I can’t get enough!!

More speed round questions!! Do you have a fav. Animal? What is your guilty pleasure? Since 2023 is approaching, what’s one thing you would like to do once the new year hits!? Is there something that never fails to make you laugh? 🎄✨

Ooh going back must be so exciting. Is it summer there this time of year?

I love cards against humanity, i need to find more friends to play it with again soon.

Do you wanna practice Spanish with me? Once you're off anon? I'm at the basics (tea, coffee, wine, beer, bread. Priorities amirite) as far as speaking goes but like you it's a bit easier to understand.

I love the celeb crush, its so not what someone would normally say and I'm all for it. Also, I'm so curious about pasteles. Here they mostly use it to talk about cakes /pastries, basically sweet stuff, so to hear about yours which seems so different is fun.

Fav animal: horses! I was the kid who wanted a pet horse 😂. No more guilty pleasures, only pleasures that I'm unashamed of. Ooh i haven't figured out yet what new things i want to do. The one thing I'm most looking forward to is graduating! 🎉 Things that make me laugh: stand up comedy!

News I'm excited about: I watched the livestream for Louis show yesterday and jammed out with him in my PJs. So much fun 😁

Did your week start out well? Do you have any plans coming up soon (before or after you're in PR) that you're excited for?

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I would like to wish you an amazing new year Raven ! And I would also like to start it by requesting headcanons. Could you write about Idia and Azul homeschooling their kids (who are elementary schoolers)?

Curiouser and Curiouser...

Idia’s initially kind of awful at homeschooling. The thing with him is, he thinks so highly of himself and his own intellect that he doesn’t think others can “get on his level” and, as a result, he puts little effort into properly explaining things. Idia’s mindset going in is, “I already understand it, so you need to get it easily too. If you don’t, then that’s your problem, not mine.”

He eventually wises up and resorts to using what he knows best--technology--to assist in teaching his child. It’s easy for Idia to whip up an algorithm that will write the perfect, well-rounded curriculum and recommend the optimal lesson structure to suit their needs.

Idia doesn’t really like to lecture, he usually just lets his kid do self-directed studying based on whatever material is appropriate for their age and general IQ and skill. (... You’ll find Idia lurking by the doorway and nervously watching his child to make sure they’re doing alright on their own.)

He often supplements their learning with additional materials (and by “additional materials”, I mean Idia recommends anime and manga that are somewhat related to what they’re learning. Here’s a light novel about wolf girl and a merchant teaching commerce and economics!! And here’s an anime about famous historical figures fighting each other for a holy grail!)

Sometimes Idia will plop down with an educational CD rom for his child for play. It could be a typing game to show them how to type in home row, or maybe it’s a trivia hunt where the player explores a virtual Twisted Wonderland to learn about its geography and various cultures! Idia used to play these games himself when he was their age, and he feels proud in knowing that he’s passing on such great works of art to future generations to appreciate.

The greatest downfall of Idia’s homeschooling is the lack of real-world experiences. Idia himself doesn’t see the point in going out into the world and interacting with it or socializing with other people, so he doesn’t ever take his lessons outside of the home. Instead, he focuses on showing his kid how to do as many things as possible on a computer—navigating the web, staying safe on social media, gaming, coding, shopping, hacking, etc.

“Hihihi!! Everything these days can easily be done online! The world and all its information is at your fingertips if you know how to play with it. Pretty OP, right? ... Y-You may be a level 1 novice now, but if you keep accumulating EXP, you’ll be able to evolve into your final form and join me in the Leader Boards before you know it.”

While Azul believes there is value in every subject, his teaching places a particular emphasis is both on practical life skills and critical thinking. After all, “Knowledge has no purpose if you don’t understand how to properly wield it,” as he often tells his child.

He’s a firm advocate in keeping one’s skills sharp--and that means plenty of studying, practice, and homework to apply what they’ve learned in the classroom to real scenarios! There will be space for his kid to breathe of course, but there won’t be a day where they won’t be challenged. How else are they going to learn and improve? Certainly not by being handed easy questions or busywork!

Azul puts forth the effort to throw together structured lessons and reference materials (study guides included!), sometimes working late into the night, long after work hours. If they’re in need of his personal assistance, he’ll sit and walk them through a chapter point by point. There are, however, times when Azul outright refuses to help (particularly if he believes they’re close to solving the problem by themselves). He doesn’t want his child to become completely reliant on him; they should have the confidence to think and act for themselves.

Azul’s exams and quizzes never lift questions directly from textbooks or ask for simple facts to be recalled; they tend to ask for already existing information to be used to synthesize an answer or to come to a new conclusion. He may even ask his kid to defend their response for bonus points--because knowing how to keep cool under pressure and how to locate loopholes in logic are essential skills.

Azul stresses the benefits of self-care. When you study hard, you should also take the time to take care of yourself. Have a healthy snack, count some cash, play or listen to a song, wade in the water... Whatever will calm your mind! Nothing good can come out of acting out of stress--and what’s more, you’re much more likely to make a faulty call.

Knowing how to socialize is just as important as being book smart! Besides teaching them basic manners, Azul will demonstrate how to barter and worm out of sticky situations--then he’ll take his child by the hand and take them for an outing to see if they can do the same.

“Remember now, little one: play dirty with others if you wish, but you must be honest in bettering yourself. An arsenal of spells, a repertoire of tricks and knowledge... Those are things that you and you alone can hone. No amount of cheating will lead to results if you lie to yourself.”

[writingwithcolor]

Blending Mythos Respectfully

@sapphicq submitted:

Hi all! I’m trying to write an urban fantasy that explores oppression in a world that is basically the same as ours, except with magic, while incorporating magical systems and mythologies of multiple cultures. I’ve done an okay amount of research on each one that I’d like to include (still need to do more for sure, especially considering how colonization has effected mythologies). However, I’m struggling a bit on how they should coexist, since in the world I’m writing about they’re present and tangible. One example of this is fox spirits in East Asian mythology. Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Chinese mythologies each have a nine-tailed fox, and though my research says that the myth originates from Chinese mythology, it also says that each of the fox spirits carry different connotations of malevolence, benevolence, and how widespread they are, depending on which culture’s mythology is being referred to. 

The same sort of thing has been popping up quite a lot in a lot of my research. I started to wonder if I could explain these similarities within world as “different cultures have come up with different names and customs surrounding the ‘same’ thing,” considering mythology in the real world from an anthropological perspective. However I don’t want to overgeneralize, especially considering that these different mythological figures are meant to be present and tangible. If I went that route, I wouldn’t want to say something like ‘actually, benevolent fox spirits do exist, and Korean mythology about fox spirits is wrong since Kumiho are pretty strictly malevolent,’ which would obviously be an implication. All this to say: do you have any tips for multiple mythos coexisting in a way that respects the various cultures they come from?

Avoid Round Pegs in Square Holes

A mistake you sometimes see Western authors make when dealing with mythology in urban fantasy settings is to confine the universe’s worldbuilding to a particular mythology or force the rules of a single culture’s folklore onto other cultures. For instance, here at WWC, we get a lot of questions asking how to represent supernatural creatures from multiple cultures respectfully alongside fae from Western Europe, and it's fairly obvious that the author plans to treat all supernatural creatures as fae. Urban fantasy based on Greek mythology or Christian mythology often falls into the same trap. 

I think a writer can demonstrate greater creativity by embracing these differences. I think a potential way to deal with contradicting mythos between cultures is to come up with compelling reasons why differences exist. What world-building systems, philosophies and real-life phenomena allow for a framework that explains the simultaneous existence of commonalities and differences? As you know, in anthropology, there are theories that emphasize cultural diffusion as a way to explain similar customs within the same region, but there are also theories that hold that multiple cultures can develop the same traditions and principles independent of each other (See: existence of 0, lost-wax bronze casting, astronomical calendars and the use of wheels). The answers I’ve given are mostly technological. However myths and belief systems serve very real social functions as ways to keep people together and cultivate norms and mores. Lesya expands on the utility of intentional cultural diffusion below.

Similarly, within evolution, there are instances of species having common features because of a shared ancestor, but also instances where species without shared ancestors evolve to have similar features because they exist in the same environment. I believe flippers are examples of both types of evolution in marine animals.  Thus, I think you need to question your assumption that “different cultures have come up with different names and customs surrounding the ‘same’ thing.” As the world is daily proof, they sometimes do, but they also sometimes don’t. 

-Marika

First, props to you for sending us this ask. You have been thinking about this a lot and have done research into building an urban fantasy that doesn’t do the thing of putting all Asians under one umbrella. 

Second, I’m going to agree with Marika here. Rather than go for the generalization route, revel in everyone's differences. It's a way for you to acknowledge the variations in the mythology, that not all have the same origins though there may be some similarities. Instead, they may have reached the same conclusions. My advice for blending mythologies is to lean into it, and not create a homogeneous umbrella. You can make something amazing with that. 

-Jaya

Hybridity Through Diffusion

So a myth originated in China. This does not mean Chinese tellings have the monopoly on what a telling is. Marika and Jaya have gone into a possible solution, here, but what I’m going to examine here is a mental framework that a lot of people get stuck in that is actually ahistorical.

Cultural appropriation as we know it is shockingly recent when it comes to history. In the modern day, ownership boundaries of myths have become very strict because of primarily European colonialism picking and choosing everything it likes about a mythos, and, this is important: not letting up on the oppression of those peoples. There’s also a strong preference to kill those colonialism deems “wrong”, instead of creating a hybrid culture.

Historically, this got a lot more fluid.

What happened historically was primarily cultural diffusion, wherein open trade, intermarriage, and shared borders made it that myths, customs, and cultural practices were (mostly) freely exchanged without massive power imbalances happening, and then modified to fit local beliefs.

Key word: mostly. Because yes sometimes it happened that one place took over another place and imported all of its customs (see: China, Rome, the Mughals), but… often* the ruling power either backed off, was fought of, or otherwise left the region, leaving the common people to do whatever they wanted with the carcass of what had been imposed on them. Or sometimes, even, the imperial forces would actively create a hybridized culture in order to better rule others.

* in places where the ruling power has NOT backed off on oppression and assimilation, even if the colonialism is very old, then this is invalid and the power dynamics of appropriation are still at play.

Because, historically, there was a lot less incentive to simply genocide the peoples you took over (which is what made armies that did destroy all they took over so noteworthy). People were needed to keep providing food and materials, even if the new person got the resulting taxes. 

This meant there were a lot more common people to play with the stuff imported by the imperial culture. And there was a lot more incentive to hybridize your customs to the common people’s customs, leading to the sometimes-hilarious situations like “Rome assigns an equivalence in their pantheon for literally every mythology they encountered, which was a lot.” 

This also explains early Christianization, because it was a lot safer to simply adapt what you already had to make it better for your own ends than curbstomp everything that was “wrong” to your worldview. Ireland’s mythology survives in huge swaths, because it was either Christianized wholesale, or it was about “historical humans” and not fae. Norse mythology was similarly adapted for Christian worldviews, which means we unfortunately have no idea what the pre-Christian myths were.

So instead of thinking in terms of ownership, think instead in terms of diffusion. 

Myths get imported along with food, cloth, or anything else necessary for life. Myths were, historically, a way for people to explain the world around them, both in place of and alongside science. “Ghost marches” are really common, globally, because if you have wind howling in the forest, it’s going to sound like predators, and predators mean go inside and lock the door. Weaving goddesses are also common, because weaving was so necessary to survive the elements.

Sometimes trade relationships soured, and you get bad associations with the imported stuff. Sometimes the relationship stayed great for long enough it got completely adapted. This doesn’t mean any one myth is “right”, nor does it mean you have to erase historical trade links. It just means you look at the historical context, understand that cultural exchange often used to be a lot more two-way than it is in modern appropriation times, and figure out what that means for your worldbuilding.

~ Mod Lesya

[helnjk]

A Brief Glimpse - C.W.

Charlie Weasley x fem!reader

Word count: 2.5k

Summary: there’s nothing like the rumors that students can come up with about their favorite teachers. especially when one of them is adamant on keeping her private life, well, private. 

Warnings: brief mentions of meals, one curse word but that’s it

A/N: a purely self-indulgent, fluffy fic inspired by this ask from kendall ( @lupinsclassroom ) who said that if i taught at hogwarts, i’d be the COMC professor! and i love me some good charlie content. this is also kind of a different style that i’m used to, i hope you guys like it! x

–

The top three favorite professors at Hogwarts were as follows: Headmistress McGonagall, Professor Longbottom, and Professor L/N. 

While most students would argue that Professor L/N could potentially overtake Professor Longbottom on that list, there was just so much they didn’t know about her. She was practically the perfect professor; she loved what she taught (Care of Magical Creatures), she was considerate and understanding with students who were struggling with the subject, and her office doors were always open to anyone who wanted to chat. 

Still, she kept her personal life very private and of course, the more she refused to answer their prying questions, the more intrigued the students became. All they knew was that she was one of the top students of her year, she was a Ravenclaw, and she fought at the Battle of Hogwarts years prior. 

There were many rumors going around the student body of Hogwarts about who Y/N L/N was. The most popular ones were that she was actually Headmistress McGonagall’s secret daughter, because of how close the two seemed to be. In reality, Y/N was just one of Minnie’s favorite students. The headmistress often joked how she should’ve been in her house instead of Filius’. 

Meanwhile, Neville was always open with the students, answering whatever questions they had for him, as long as they weren’t crossing the line between professional and personal. They often loved to ask him questions about his friendship with the Golden Trio or his stories of the war. 

“They’re getting more creative with the questions they ask me,” he shook his head, smiling slightly one dinner, “They’re trying to see if I’ll slip up and mention anything juicy about you.”

Y/N laughed slightly, eyes glimmering, “What sort of questions have they come up with now?” 

“Today Chapman asked me if I’d ever spent the holidays with other professors around my age,” Neville mused, “Or if Hannah was ever jealous that I was working with a girl so close to my age.”  

“Oh please, Longbottom,” Minerva tutted, and the two younger professors turned their heads in her direction, “At least your questions still have some sort of delicacy. Griffiths has actually asked me, point blank, if Y/N’s spent her summers with me.” 

The collective guffaw of the professors at the head table caused the majority of the student body to shift their attention to them. Of course, the authoritative looks that they sent at the house tables were able to convince them to get back to their own conversations, but now the Great Hall was abuzz with trying to figure out what made the professors laugh so loud. 

“I wonder when they’ll stop trying,” Y/N mused as the crowd of students began to slowly shuffle out of the Hall.

“Don’t count on it, L/N,” Minerva smirked. 

–

“Professor L/N?” a meek voice sounded from the door to Y/N’s office on Wednesday afternoon. 

The middle of the week was rather free for her, therefore she used it to catch up on grading and, if she had time, a little light reading. This afternoon, though, she was in the middle of writing an important letter. 

Her owl, Athena, perched at the edge of her desk and her scrutinizing eyes darted towards the fourth year Hufflepuff who stood by the door. Eloise Abbott, a shy young thing with a penchant for Care of Magical Creatures and one of Y/N’s best students, sent the intimidating owl an uneasy glance.

“Come on in, Eloise,” Y/N smiled as she slipped the ink and parchment she was using into one of the empty drawers of her table, “Don’t mind Athena, she’s just impatient to get this letter out.” 

The young girl shuffled towards the professor as Y/N asked, “Is there anything you needed?” 

“Erm, I was just wondering if you could check my Defense paper,” she mumbled, pulling out a parchment from her school bag, “It’s on Grindylows and other creatures we could encounter in the Forbidden Forest, and I know it’s not really part of your syllabus, but I just wanted to make sure I didn’t get anything very wrong.” 

Y/N smiled and held her hand out for Eloise to place the essay. It was silent as she read over what was written, that silence only broken when Athena let out soft hoots or ruffled her feathers. 

“Erm, professor,” muttered Eloise after a while, Y/N’s eyes glanced up from the parchment, “I don’t mean to pry, but why does your owl want so badly for you to finish that letter?” 

A soft chuckle came from Y/N’s mouth before she answered, “She just loves the person I’m writing to, and I honestly think she would rather be in his care than mine. Even if it were just for a few nights.” 

“But you’re wonderful with animals!”

“And he is too, I assure you. Maybe even more so than me.” 

Eloise nodded her head slowly, and Y/N could see the gears turning in her head. It perplexed the young student, who could ever be better with animals than her professor? She knew it couldn’t have been Hagrid, as he still lived on the grounds and Athena could visit him any time she wished. 

Maybe her favorite professor was friends with the Scamander family. Rolf Scamander definitely had ties to Hogwarts and seemed about her age. 

Before her thoughts could go any further with hypothesizing, Professor L/N handed her essay back, “It looks great, Eloise. I have no doubt you’ll get high marks on this essay.” 

Eloise could spot a professor’s dismissal anywhere, so she merely nodded as she took the parchment back. As she hurried out the room, she expressed her gratitude over her shoulder, catching Y/N pull out the letter she was writing with a soft smile on her face. 

–

The end of the school week came with a surprise visitor to the castle. The students could not stop discussing the presence of a dragon tamer on the school grounds. He had arrived later in the morning, trudging up the pathway from Hogsmeade and making his rounds around the school.

Headmistress McGonagall greeted him at the gates with a smile and a hug before she took his arm and the two of them had tea in her office. Of course, as the students weren’t used to seeing an adult that wasn’t the faculty or the staff in the castle, his presence sparked many conversations.  

“I saw him knock on Hagrid’s door!” said Neil Chapman to anyone who would listen to him at lunch, “He had some burn scars all over his arms and really bright red hair. He seemed really cool.” 

It was as if the whole Gryffindor table was gathered around him as he told and retold how Hagrid’s booming voice announced that Hogwarts’ resident dragon tamer was back. Rumors floated around the school for the rest of the day, each student having something to say about the mysterious man. 

“He’s gorgeous though, isn’t he?” sighed Daphne Griffiths, as she and her best friend roamed the hallways on the way to their next class, “All rugged and handsome. I caught sight of him walking towards the quidditch pitch after Transfiguration.” 

All the professors had to stop themselves from full-on grinning at the different things they had heard about Charlie Weasley gallivanting around the grounds, but none of them as amused as Professor L/N. 

“Hurry along then!” 

Y/N stood next to a small paddock at the edge of the forest, next to its open gate. At the center of it, a cluster of fluffy creatures rolled around and play fought with each other. 

“Alright class,” she clapped her hands together, “We’re having a little bit more of a relaxed class to end the week. A crup of one of the Hogsmeade villagers just gave birth about a month ago and her owner’s graciously allowed us to spend an afternoon with the puppies.”

The second year students cooed at the litter of small dog-like creatures with two tails. As soon as she finished her sentence, the group of them rushed to get inside the paddock, each one wanting a turn with the small puppy-like things. Once all the students were inside, she shut the gate and joined them as they congregated around the tiny crups. 

Y/N was grateful that her last class of the week was with younger students. They were much easier to please and sometimes more eager to learn. Of course, almost anyone would be enamoured by the litter of puppies running around.

With her wand pointed at her jugular, she began the small spiel she had prepared for the lesson, “Now, as most of you might know, crups are basically magical dogs…” 

Most students weren’t really paying any attention to her little lecture, but she told herself that at least she tried. She understood the need to coo over cute little puppies, she could let it slide just this once. 

From where she stood towards the other end of the paddock from the gate, she had a panoramic view of the class, just in case anything happened. She doubted anything would, but at least that way she could keep everyone in sight. 

“Of all the magical creatures in the world, you chose to teach about crups?” 

A strong voice rang through the open space and caused many of the students to turn their heads at the sound. Somehow, Charlie Weasley had made it to the gate of the paddock without Y/N noticing. Upon seeing the redheaded dragon tamer so close to them, murmurs spread among the young students.

Y/N rolled her eyes, taking in the sight of him with his arms crossed and a smug smile on his face. 

“Oh wipe that smile off your face, Weasley, you try teaching these kids all week,” she replied, raising her voice slightly so that he could hear what she had said. 

“I guess they are quite adorable,” he caved, leaning his forearms against the paddock and seeming as if he was going to observe them their whole class. 

The students observed their playful and easy banter, in awe that their professor knew the ever mysterious man. 

As her wards were still distracted by him, she said, “Pay him no mind class, he’s harmless. The crup puppies need your undivided attention!” 

As soon as the prying eyes were off of him, Charlie sent Y/N a cheeky wink. She couldn’t stop a smile from growing on her face at the gesture, but she shook her head to indicate that they could talk after her class was over. 

“Professor L/N?” a young girl walked up to her, sending a furtive glance over her shoulder to where her friends were gathered. 

The group of them gestured to her to carry on and Y/N’s eyes lit with amusement, “What’s up?” 

“I-er, we wanted to know how you know the dragon tamer guy? The other professors haven’t said much about him when asked.” 

The young student fidgeted nervously, picking at the hem of her sweater as she glanced up at Y/N. Despite being in the rather early years of her journey at Hogwarts, she knew that Professor L/N enjoyed her privacy. She didn’t want to overstep. 

Y/N sensed this apprehension and gave her a soft smile, “We were in the same year at Hogwarts. He was a Gryffindor and I was a Ravenclaw, but we managed to have a few common classes.” 

“Cool!” 

Before anything else could be said, the girl scurried off to meet her friends with the small tidbit of information she was able to gather from the otherwise close-lipped professor. 

Thankfully, the rest of the hour passed by rather quickly. 

As soon as the bell rang, it was obvious to Y/N that the students were stalling. She had dismissed them fairly quickly and had already begun her process of cleaning up. Meanwhile, the majority of the class was still situated inside the paddock, shuffling around in groups. 

Inwardly, she sighed, knowing that there was nothing she could do about it, it was the end of the school week and they were free to roam (or stay) in any part of the grounds and the castle they wanted. 

Inevitably, Charlie had gotten impatient waiting for them to clear out. Instead, he strode confidently through the gate and towards where Y/N was directing the puppies to stay. 

“Charlie? What are you–”

The remaining students, who had been not-so slyly watching the redhead stride through the paddock, all collectively gasped as he pressed his lips firmly on their professor’s. 

Y/N began to weakly protest, the logical side of her brain screaming at her that this was definitely unprofessional, but the emotional side took over as she was surrounded by the scent and the presence of her boyfriend. Her boyfriend whom she hadn’t seen in months and made a special trip to Hogwarts just to see her in her element. 

Thankfully, Charlie pulled away fairly quickly, his arms still firmly wrapped around her body, a dopey smile on his face. 

Once Y/N gained her bearings, she slapped his chest, “Charles Weasley!” 

“What?” he grinned. 

“You’ve just kissed me in front of my students!” 

–

Despite the–shall we say scandalous?–first encounter between the couple, the rest of the afternoon was quite lovely. Y/N showed him all of the creatures under her care and in the section of the forest that was relatively safe. They also borrowed some old brooms from the shed and raced each other out on the pitch until their cheeks were painful from laughter and their noses were red from the cold. 

By the time dinner rolled around, of course the whole student body was aware of what transpired between the handsome dragon tamer and their favorite Care of Magical Creatures professor. 

This was the first piece of juicy information that they had gotten on Professor L/N, and while they were highly amused at what had happened, they were also not surprised that she was dating someone who worked with dragons on a daily basis. 

They also couldn’t deny the fact that she practically lit up in his presence. They had never seen her so at peace and so happy as when she was with Charlie. Anyone with eyes could tell that the pair of them were in love. 

Minerva had also graciously allowed Charlie to sit at the Head Table with the rest of the faculty at dinner, which caused quite the stir. 

Practically all sets of eyes were trained towards the couple as they ate their dinner fairly normally. 

“You two seem to be the talk of the whole school,” the headmistress teased. 

Charlie sent his favorite teacher a shit-eating grin, “Must be my dashing looks that’s got them all interested.” 

“Please, Weasley,” Y/N tutted, “They’ve just gotten a huge piece of information about me. This is basically their Christmas.” 

“Maybe they’ll finally stop hounding me with insane questions now!” Neville chirped happily, and the table erupted in laughter. 

–

General taglist: @expectoevans​ @george-fabian-weasley​ @gxthsanrio​ @slytherinscribbles​ @harpyloon​ @nuttytani​ @mesmerisedangel​ @amourtentiaa​ @sarcasticallywitty15​ 

Charlie taglist: @pinkypurplemagic​

[devildomimagines]

Request: How the Demon Brothers React to a Very Competent Caretaker MC

The prompt: MC has to take care of lots of siblings back in the human world. Not, like, 6 or 7 siblings, but TWENTY-FOUR!! MC can multitask like no one’s business and can easily take care of any problem that might arise with their siblings. MC is great at taking care of others and enjoys it. The hang-up is that when they come to Devildom, they suddenly find themselves with a lot of free time and aren’t really sure how to fill in those gaps since they were always dedicating themselves to others.

Anon! Your message was so sweet but I was having technical difficulties writing the post as an answer so I decided to just make a separate text post. Btw, your great-grandmother sounds like a total badass, what an inspiration! I hope you don’t mind my work around for the technical issues and I hope this lives up to what you were looking for!

Edit: I wrote this for the formerly Undateables as well, check it out here.

Belphegor

As the youngest he doesn’t completely understand but he does love his family (even if he doesn’t always show it).

He is kind of amazed with how competent MC is and how easily adaptable to the needs of him and his brothers.

He’s kind of selfish so oftentimes he abuses your nurturing nature.

After the events in the attic, Belphie does worry you’ll hold it against him, even subconsciously. You cut the tension one night by saying, "You can't kill me, I've survived my little sibling trying to play violin with a chainsaw!" The mental image makes him laugh.

Belphie would be the best brother to consult with if you want to learn to be a little selfish yourself. It doesn’t have to be a complete personality overhaul but there is value in knowing what you want and making those wants known to others.

While taking care of so many siblings, you never had the opportunity to take naps and he is offended! But secretly loves that he gets to show you the joys of a nap.

Beelzebub

Beel loves taking care of others, just a very loving boy. The two of you get along like peas in a pod. 

It’s very easy to fall into old habits around him because he has a personality that makes you want to care for him.

Since he’s so strong, he does fear hurting you by accident. You let him know, “I don't fear pain, I do my school homework upside-down while on a ladder changing the lamp." While it doesn’t totally extinguish his fears, the thought of that total body workout intrigues him enough to distract him.

If you want to fill some time, he would love to have you join him at the gym or come see his games.

Physical fitness and nutrition are fundamental to taking care of yourself and Beel would be the demon to go to to learn more if you’re interested. 

Also, I’m sure you would agree but cooking is a form of love so if you enjoy spending your free time baking and cooking, Beel will follow you around (for the treats lol). He’s said it before, if you know how to cook then he wants you to stay by his side.

Asmodeus

“Treat yo self” is his guiding principle. He is your demon to teach self-care.

If you’re looking for something to do, part of your time can be filled with his routines for skin care, hair care and mental health checks.

Casually you mentioned one day, “"Me, go to sleep? I'm the oldest sibling, I don't sleep, I worry with my eyes closed!"

“MC! You need to get your beauty rest!” He countered. I can imagine that he basically drags you to Belphie to figure out how to sleep better.

Although he has a lot of knowledge to offer, you are quick to pick it up and help him in braiding his hair out of his face or gently applying a face mask.

The fun part of learning from Asmo is that there’s always some new beauty product to try and he loves having a buddy to try it with. 

Satan

He’s amazed with everything you can do. He asks you to teach him how to do things he watches you do flawlessly.

He’s definitely curious to hear about what it’s like living with so many siblings, 6 seems like too many sometimes so 4 times that is completely unknown to him.

Satan was helping with some homework and suggested tackling an easier assignment first, you challenged him with, "Don't underestimate me, I managed to make a toddler spell pneumoultramicroscopicssilicovulcanoconiosis!"

He laughs as he confirms he wasn’t underestimating you, just trying to offer some guidance for efficiency.

You need something to pass time? Satan has enough books in his room to literally last your lifetime.

He can help you find any kind of book, simply let him know what you would be interested in and he probably has a suggestion.

Leviathan

He’s drawn to you and at first he doesn’t know why. Later he realizes it’s because you’re so good at listening where his brothers usually just ignore him.

Games and anime are a great time filler if you’re interested, he’s got all the best recommendations.

It might be tough to get into first if you’re not used to binge watching a series or gaming for hours on end.

When he apologizes for possibly annoying you with his rants you assure, "You can't annoy me, I've endured eight rebellious teenagers!"

I could imagine that you’d resonate with slice of life animes as an introduction to the genre and possibly adventure games with a good story would catch your attention.

Even if you’re not totally invested, he enjoys your presence since you’re not dismissing his interest.

Mammon

Listen, he’s a good older brother! Some of his personal decisions are questionable but he’s dependable when needed.

Definitely king of random interests so your well-rounded abilities are actually well suited to keeping up with whatever past time has piqued his interest this week.

Mammon would probably be confused when you see something during one of his shopping trips that you clearly want but refuse to buy. Eventually he builds it up enough (like the demon on your shoulder whispering in your ear lol) that you do end up getting it.

What you had first dismissed as Mammon being materialistic, you slowly come to realize because of him that you can surround yourself with things that bring you joy and so your days are filled with happiness.

He can get reckless so he appreciates your protection from Lucifer’s punishments and hides behind you like some of your siblings did at home.

He protects you too though! He stands up for you and points out things that are unfair to make you aware. 

Lucifer

Oldest sibling comradery from the get-go.

You’re both very responsible individuals and when you join forces, it’s like nothing is impossible.

He’s the one you go to the first couple weeks when you find yourself with free time. He’s sure to have something to be done to help fill the newfound free time.

Over time he comes to rely on you but he’s worried he’s overworking you with the tougher assignments. You made sure to remind him, "I have no difficulty with this task, I'm the oldest of twenty-four siblings!"

Lucifer recognizes your competence and he excels at boosting confidence and pride so don’t think you are not immune to that.

The more time you spend with him, the more you develop a stronger sense of self-worth and self-determination. He practically gushes pride at the sight of you defending yourself and claiming the value of your time near the end of the exchange program.

[realcube]

haikyuu!! boys’ reactions to you speaking 💗 uwu💗

characters: tsukishima, ushijima, yaku, kenma & iwazumi

thank you anon for this cute request 💕 idk what i just wrote but i had fun 👍

IWAIZUMI & KENMA’S ARE AGED UP! MUTURE THEMES - MINORS DNI

tw// fluff, swearing, uwu language, cwinge

kenma’s hcs tw// sexual themes, implied switch!reader, phone sex(?), mentions of a blowjob, mentions of punishment

iwaizumi’s hcs tw// breeding kink, fem!reader, orgasm denial

Kei Tsukishima

you realised he didn’t like it so you did it just to annoy him LMFAO

he was scrolling through tiktok and a girl popped up on his fyp talking like that, so he snarled and immediately flicked it away, muttering something along the lines of ‘why do people speak like that? do they think it’s cute? ‘cause it’s really not; it’s just embarrassing.’

so you wasted no time in responding, ‘sowwy? what was that?’

HELL 👏 FIRE

his blood literally ran cold, he was aware that you liked taking the piss but he didn’t expect you to do it to this extent

 ‘what did you just say?’ he murmured, silently praying that he had just misheard you

you rolled your eyes before scoffing ‘nothing.’ you deepened your voice, just playing around at this point tbh

tsukishima hummed in agreement, deciding not to inquire further as he figured that he must’ve heard the echo of the girl’s voice in his head rather than yours

so he was just about go back to scrolling until he heard you coo in a high-pitched from behind him, ‘tsukishima is a lil’ bitch.’

‘(Y/N), FUCKING STOP!’ he let a throaty scream at you

‘you’re so boring, tsukki-’ you spoke, quickly cutting yourself off so you could switch to your uwu voice, ‘or should I say; bowing.’

you said, hopeful that your voice would make it clearing that you meant ‘boring’ rather than the act of playing an instrument with a bow

‘go to hell.’ he grumbled, trying his best to tune you out by pulling his headphones over his ears 

‘babe~’ you purred, shuffling over to him and peppering kisses along the nape of his neck as you were feeling extra evil today, ‘wuv you~’

‘jail.’  tsukishima simply stated as he switched over to Spotify so he could blare some Mother Mother to drown out the sound of your voice

the worst part was that he couldn’t even tell if he liked it or not PFFT

like it was cute but the fact you weaponised it against him annoyed him

but you were also giving him kithes so he couldn’t exactly complain 💞

Morisuke Yaku 

ok don’t even lie yaku does a variant of the uwu voice whenever he’s trying to insult kuroo IUGBEIGVA

it’s something like ‘aww, kuwoo, does your lil’ undewdeveloped bwain not undewstand algebwa?’ but in a mocking way yk?

so when a he watches a lil’ tabby cat approach you on the street, then you busted out the uwu voice that he had never heard before- he was taken aback

at first he was like ‘woah why are you making fun of that cat?’ bc he always associated that voice with ridicule LMFAO

but when he processed all the nice things you were saying he realised that you were being nice lol

so then he was like ‘awwww 🥺 (y/n) + cat = SO FKN CUTE!! 💕💗💖’ *click click* and he just starts taking photos

he probably puts them on his private story with the caption ‘their an angel 😍’

(then kuroo probably replies with ‘they’re*’) (don’t ask why yaku put him on his private story ✋)

anyway, he’s probably so fond of the voice too like ofc he thinks it’s cute

bc it’s a lil’ kitten and you’re talking to it in a high-pitched voice as if it can understand you SO FKN CUTE

he’s not too effected by it tho- it’s mostly how well you get on with the cat that he really admires

then he couched down beside you to talk to the cat too and y’all had a whole conversation with it in uwu

‘aww, look! are you hungwy, baby?’ you asked the cat as it licked the back of it’s paw

‘i think, it is!’ yaku continued, aware that if anybody from school caught him doing this, he’d pass away on the spot but what can he say? he’s soft for you (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)

 ‘i have some blueberries in my bag, you can have some if you say please.’ he told the cat

you were both met by the cat’s blank - but adorable - stare, accompanied by silence until the kitten let out a faint, ‘mew’

‘AWWWWWW!!! 💞💕💖🥺👏 ’ you both squealed in unison, impressed by the kitten’s response 

‘it understands us!’ you gasped while applauding the cat for it’s excellent communication skills

‘the voice must work!’ yaku concluded as he scrambled to throw his bag off his back and rummage through it in search of the tub of blueberries

you nodded, watching in awe as yaku pulled out the tub to carefully pick out the plumpest berries and feed them to the cat

yaku noticed your expression out of the corner of his eye and chuckled, ‘what?’

‘you’re so cute.’ you snickered, lighting bopping his nose with your index finger as he continued to allow the cat to feed out of the palm of his hand

a furious blush immediately covered his cheeks as he hastily turned his head away to hide it - in a typical anime fashion, ‘be quiet.’

Kenma Kuzome

it’s a sex thing-- it’s 100% a sex thing

a kink perhaps?

ngl he loves it when you do the voice in bed 

like don’t ask why it turns him on so much

he’s weak for you whenever you do the voice tbh

BUT it’s only hot when you do it 

when any other person does it - especially if it’s over text - he literally gags 🤢🤢🤢

when a streamer he watches does the voice, he’s just thinks ‘ew ✋ that isn’t cute. pls stop.’

but when you do it- boner alert pfft

especially when you moan in that voice yES HE LOVES THAT

you just execute it in a way these other bitches just can’t, okay? 💅 IUERBGFERIBG

he doesn’t mind putting the voice on sometimes if you like it when he does it but he’s really embarrassed by it 🙈

he’ll try to say something in the voice while you’re rearranging his guts for a change and you’re praising him like 👏👏👏 ‘awh, precious kenma bb.i love that voice on you, i might just let you cum early--’

and he’s fucking groaning from pain, pleasure and humiliation 

‘never again.’ was the single coherent thought he could form

you’re only giving like 20% of the time but if you happen to giving on a day that you’re feeling especially evil, you might make him do the voice in exchange for orgasm privileges

but he gets you back for it though 

you’d call him, whining and pleading for him to help you with the throbbing between your legs or at the very least, give you permission to touch yourself

but considering that the day prior, you had tortured his ass to the point were he was now struggling to sit down, ofc he was just like ‘no ❤’ when you ask for his assistance 

even after your continuous begging, he didn’t budge 

‘don’t you dare put your hands on yourself until i get home. i’m leaving right now so i should be back in half an hour but if you keep pestering me like a little bitch, then i’ll be sure to go extra slow on the highway.’

although, for kenma ‘extra slow’ is probably the speed limit lmao

(istg he drives like he’s in mario kart)

however, half an hour was just too long 😩 i mean, you had probably been on call with him for 5 minutes already and it took you 20 minutes to get him to pick up the phone so by now, you were clearly on the brink of madness

‘kitten~’ you whined, desperately trying to think of a way to convince kenma to aid you 

then you remembered; his weak spot

‘pwease, baby?’ you softened and raised the pitch of your voice

kenma perked up as he realised what you were trying to do, the tips of his ears burning, ‘don’t bother to try that with me, (y/--’

‘i’ll suck you off when you come back.’ you promised, keeping the voice on, the aching getting worse and worse by the second

kenma was now partially able to relate to your circumstance as he began to feel a straining of his own, between his legs at your cutesy tone along with the image of the last time you blew him tormenting his mind

‘whatever. but only use your hands. i can tell when you use a toy so don’t even try; or else i’ll dick you down ‘til the sun rises- okay bye.’

atm the moment, that hardly sounded like a punishment but then you reflected back on how you’d be crying for a mercy after the fourth round with kenma so- yeah

anyway, moral of the story, if you perform the voice well enough, it’s basically kenma’s weakness so use it wisely 

Hajime Iwaizumi

you first did the voice in front of him while you had a friend’s baby in your arms and you were trying to communicate with it 

it kinda looked like 

you: hewwo babyy~ who’s the most precious thing? you are! 

the baby: 🤠

the parent: 🙂

iwa: 😶

iwa ON THE INSIDE: breeding kink go brrrr 😩 i want to put a baby in her so bad- she’ll scream my name in that fucking voice tonight

and he was right

cut to him pounding you while demanding that you say his name in ✨the voice✨ or else you won’t be allowed to cum

ofc you had too much pride for that so you just let him dick you down and cum whether he likes it or not but he could tell that was the plan you had in mind so he suddenly pulled out just as you were about to reach your high

he looked at you with a mean scowl, ‘fucking say it or i’ll stop right now.’

if he were to stop, it would kinda be a punishment for him too but he didn’t care- anything to see his lovely gf suffer tbh 😇

also he could get off to you fingering yourself, struggling to orgasm- he’s done it before and he’ll gladly do it again if you don’t say his damn name 

‘iwa..’ you groaned, gripping at the sheets as you anticipated him sliding his cock back into you 

‘in the voice.’ iwaizumi reiterated, delivering a hard smack to the side of your thigh out of annoyance

you hissed at the sharp impact , gulping to lubricate your dry throat before choking out in your best imitation of the voice he desired, ‘iwa~’

he was only half-satisfied with what you uttered but i mean, it got the job done

his dick was throbbing, practically begging for the comfort of your warm cunt once again so he hastily slipped back in, letting out a low groan as he did so

so he’d continue hammer you from behind, probably muttering incoherent things about your babies and your voice while doing so but you chose to pay little attention to it as you couldn’t help but focus on your own intense pleasure

once he finally climaxed, he did it inside you which you wasn’t surprising as y’all had already established that you love being being filled up and he loves filling you up 💕

but then he insisted that y’all go for another few rounds to increase the chance of pregnancy 

like- sir-

you didn’t have the heart to tell him that you were on birth control 

bc surely......he would’ve known

but he didn’t

you eventually told him that you had no interest in coming off birth control and he wasn’t mad LMAO he didn’t even want a baby tbh he was just caught up in the moment 

yeah no but if you do the voice again, the cycle will continue

Wakatoshi Ushijima

you were both hanging out in your bedroom, doing your own things, and you were sending your friend a (video) snap so you ironically used the uwu voice

ofc this caught his attention so he shifted his gaze off of his revision sheets and onto you, shooting you a weird look

you couldn’t help but snicker, turning to him and continuing with your little impression, ‘can i hewp you?’ you tried to ask in all seriousness but you couldn’t suppress the smile that was tugging on the corners of your lip

were you a little high? yes

ushijima just blinked rapidly, wondering why you sound like a cuter version of mickey mouse all of a sudden

was it a trend?

or maybe it was for one of those ‘tiktoks’?

either way, ushijima couldn’t help what he said next

‘no. i’m fiwne.’

IUERSBGTOHAROHSGBGFRO

HE SAID IT LIKE ‘fi - whine’ THO

you passed away 💀⚰

‘TOSHI!!!’ you screamed, feeling your soul leave your body

ushijima gasped, thinking that you had just been possessed or sumn, ‘hm?’

once he realised that you were in fact sane, he figured that your reaction must have something to do with his response 

‘did i say something wrong?’ his lips curling into the tiniest of smiles, simply because you looked so joyous so ofc he was he was happy seeing you happy

‘nope! please say it again, toshi! i’m beggin’ ya’

‘no.’

although he loved hearing you laugh more than anything, the man had his limits

ngl he doesn’t mind when you do it - it just doesn’t especially effect him, that’s all

you could just randomly start talking like that during a conversation and he’ll just go from 😐 to 😐

but he gets butterflies when you call him ‘baby’ which is something you usually pickup whenever you put on the voice lol <3

pls call him ‘baby’ or ‘babe’ more he just wants to feel cared for and loved for a change instead of always having to constantly put on a front of ‘big, stoic man with no feeling that you can push around to your hearts content’  around literally everyone. sometimes he just wants to come home and feel like he can actually express himself and be soft without getting ridiculed  

[deepdarkdelights]

10 Years (Jungkook x Reader) (10 Seconds Part 3)

Pairing: Jungkook x Reader

Word Count: 14.4k

Warnings: 18+, Yandere, Stalking, Obsession, Manipulation, Murder, scenes of Domestic Abuse, Mentions of Past Trauma, Mentions of Past Domestic Abuse, Mentions of Torture (not depicted), Cult Like Activity, Forced Relationships, Smut, Blood (lots of it), Fear, Contraception 

I do not condone the acts displayed in this story nor do I believe any members of BTS would actually engage in this type of behavior. This is simply written for entertainment purposes and should not be taken as a reflection of my own values, opinions, or morals. 

Preview:  He was made for sunset, his skin was practically glowing in the golden filter of light. You had never wished more in your life that he hadn’t met you the way he did. The more time you spent with him the more you wondered what it would have been like if he had talked to you that first day of classes. Would he have still gone this far? Those were dangerous thoughts to be thinking, but when he was this gentle with you it was hard to stop the prick of tears at the corners of your eyes. He confused you so much, and you knew what this was. Acting can sometimes feel more real than it truly is.

A/N: SURPRISE! HAPPY HALLOWEEN BABIES! Just for you, here is part three! I spent a whole week dedicating hours to write it so I could have a treat ready for you this Halloween! To date, this is my favorite chapter and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did!

Read Part Here (1) // Read Part Here (2) // Read Part Here (4)

You had pissed him off, that much was obvious. His fingers were still curled into the fabric of your underwear, one flex away from ripping them off. His jaw was tense and his cheeks hallowed in irritation as he fixed you with his intense glare. Jungkook was many things to you, the number one being your source of immeasurable fear. In that moment though, your glare was just as harsh; you were just as angry as he was but for far different reasons. 

You were angry, but you also weren’t stupid. You knew that this could go one of two ways. You could fight back and piss him off further resulting in another punishment or him taking you anyways. Or you could play his game. 

For once, you thanked God that you were such a fucking crybaby because letting all your pent up feelings out was going to be good for what you were going to do next. Your lips trembled as your eyes watered, brimming with tears that threatened to wet your flushed cheeks. You clenched your eyes shut as a choked cry left your lips, your hand coming up to harshly smack his chest. 

“You don’t really love me!” You cried, trying to roll onto your side and away from him while curling your hands into your near naked chest. 

There was a pause of silence between the two of you, his confusion palpable. You pulled your legs free from him and curled up into a ball, loud sobs leaving your chest that sounded more animal than human. As your cries grew louder he finally snapped out of shock, his hands desperately reaching for you as you shrunk away from his touch. 

“Baby, baby!” He called, his voice sounding more hurt each time you rejected him; shrinking into yourself further. “Of course I love you, how couldn’t I?”

“No!” You yelled, sounding more like a petulant child than a scorned lover. “All you want is to use me, you don’t care about me!” You cried dramatically, turning onto your stomach so you could bury your face in your forearms. 

It was like all of the events you had endured were becoming fuel for you, each horrible thing he had done to you spurring tears upon tears to help your performance. You would make him believe you, you had to if it would buy you some time. 

“That’s not true! I love you more than anything, I just wanted to show you how much I love you, baby.” He said, his hands sliding over your waist and under your stomach to turn you over to face him. Your eyes remained clenched shut as he rolled you over, your face wet and hot from the tantrum you had thrown. You almost had him, you could feel him walking straight into your trap. You had him right where you wanted him. 

“You don’t care,” You sobbed, shaking your head. “You only want to have sex with me. You don’t even care about what I want.” You sniffled, bringing your shaking hands up to cover your tear streaked face.

“Fuck, that’s far from the truth. Please tell me what you want, baby. Please, I’ll do anything for you.” He whispered, his much lager hands gently curling around your smaller wrists and prying them from your face so he could catch a glimpse of you. 

Your heart pounded harder at his words, your first thoughts heading towards your freedom. But you quickly stunted that thought, you knew when he said “anything” he meant “anything but that.” You would have to make do with what you had, and your first mission was to keep yourself untouched by him. 

He brought your hand up to his face, pressing light kisses to each finger as soft pleas fell from his lips. He really was at your mercy, intoxicated by your scent, touch, and doe eyes. All it took was a few tears to have him like this for you. But you still knew better, you knew there was a beast lurking beneath the surface of those innocent round eyes and bunny-like smiles. You wouldn’t be fooled by him.

“I-” You began, a hiccup breaking your voice. “I want to save myself for marriage, I always have.” You said, forcing yourself to remain still as he ceased pressing kisses to your knuckles only stopping to raise your hand to cup the smooth flesh of his cheek. His eyes fluttered shut as leaned into your palm, breathing in your scent just by your pulse.

“So, you’re my good girl then? No one else has touched you?” He asked, long lashes still grazing the dips beneath his eyes. 

You nodded in affirmation only to realize he still couldn’t see you. “Yes, no one has.” You agreed.

A sigh of relief had him falling limp against you, removing your hand from his cheek so he could press a kiss to the center of your palm. His demeanor had shifted so quickly even you were surprised. He gently looped his arms beneath your waist and dragged the two of you up into a sitting position, sliding you onto his lap with ease and pressing your chest to his own. It was horrifyingly intimate, the feeling of his bare chest flush against your barely clothed one. He was warm and strong and would have been comforting had the circumstances been different.

That was something you thought often: had the circumstances been different. But they weren’t. Jungkook was as selfish as he was lonely, and because of that he was delusional and overbearing. Sometimes his presence closed in so tightly on your own you felt as if you couldn’t get a single breath in. And because of that, you longed to be miles away from him. He was suffocating you so slowly and ever so painfully. 

His fingers wove themselves into your hair, guiding you to rest your head on his shoulder as he held you close. “I'll wait for you, and only for you.”

Hook, line, and sinker. 

He held you to his chest for a while and nothing was said between the two of you. There was only the steady rise and fall of your chests against one another while his fingers carded through your hair. Your eyes had fluttered shut yet your body was still tense, you couldn’t deny how good it felt to be touched in this way. But you knew you could never fully let your guard down around him, he was far too unpredictable. But all that time spent with him had been in your favor, now you knew what made him tick. And you were going to exploit that.

Jungkook pulled you away from his body, his eyes tracing your face. He gently cupped your face in his hands and pressed a delicate kiss, so light it was barely there, to your lips. You could feel him sigh against your lower lip before he reluctantly pulled away. He had to prove to you now that he wasn’t solely after your body, although that was an added benefit for him. He could wait, just for a little while longer.

He leaned over the side of the bed and scooped up his previously abandoned shirt, guiding your arms through the sleeves and pulling the collar down over your head. He couldn’t help but giggle at the sight of your head popping up and out of the shirt, your figure drowning in his clothes. His eyes strayed, following where the hem of his shirt laid at the tops of your thighs. You were so tempting, it was no wonder you thought he was only after your body.

Before he could get too distracted he leaned over you and yanked the chain of the lamp, effectively drowning the two of you in a deep pool of darkness. You froze for a moment, your heart thudding as you lost sight of him and what he was doing. You couldn’t see him, but you could still definitely feel him. His strong arms had already curled around your waist, yanking you down on top of him. You yelped in fear as you once more collided with his chest. The man was like a fucking brick wall. You could feel the ginger brush of his fingers around your wrist, guiding your hand to rest on his bare chest as he tucked your head into the crook of his neck. You were sure if anyone were to walk in you would look like lovers. How far from the truth they would be.

You were shaking now, the reality of what has almost happened finding you in the seclusion of the dark. But you had to remind yourself, you had outsmarted him this time. You were finally beginning to understand the game: fake it til you make it. If you could play along for long enough then you could find your way out of here. And you were more determined than ever. 

“You cold, baby?” Jungkook asked, breaking the silence first. He must have felt you shaking. 

You nodded in response, trying to play off what you were actually feeling. Fear. Jungkook grasped the edge of the blanket and pulled it up higher, pressing the two of you together beneath the warmth of the covers. You closed your eyes once more, and this time you tried to pretend he was someone else. Anyone else. It was much harder than anticipated, you knew his scent, his touch, and his form. No matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t get rid of him. 

But you would try. 

You could feel sleep coming for you, the crash of emotions you had survived finally taking their toll on you once more. 

You had made it 10 days, how much longer would you have to last? 

“Baby,” Jungkook hummed, pressing a kiss to your forehead. “I love you.”

Long enough to escape, that was for sure. 

~~~~~~~

The next day, things already seemed to be so different. To say you were surprised was an understatement. The ten days of hell you had endured with Jungkook could have been a dream for all you knew. He still was the same way you remembered him to be, clingy, whiny, and overbearingly affectionate. But for the duration of that day, nothing he did had the same sexual undertone you had dealt with for the past ten days.

You were relieved, it seemed like you were finally getting a hold of your horrible situation. Well, for now at least. Jungkook was going to be far easier to fool than his father. And you couldn’t lie, his father terrified you to no end. He had trained Jungkook’s mother into absolute obedience with his unrelenting and ruthless nature. You were sure that if anyone was going to be able to spot your fakery from a mile away, it was going to be him without a doubt. So you had one choice, you were going to have to sell it good. 

And that meant having to do things you really didn’t want to do. 

Very quickly, you found yourself taking on the role of a traditional housewife. Jungkook had made it clear before that that was something he didn’t expect from you. All he wanted was you, or so he claimed. He said that he liked doing things together, he didn’t want you being forced into the traditional role you never truly wanted. But you knew what his father expected, and if you were going to win this game you were going to have to sacrifice a few of your pieces.

And you also knew that if you could keep this charade up for long enough, you could fool them all. It was only a matter of time, and you were willing to give up a few days, weeks, or months to find your freedom again. And if that meant making meals with Jungkook’s mother, cleaning the house, and folding fucking laundry you would do it all with a smile.

Days were passing faster and melting into weeks, and at this point you couldn’t really tell how long you had been missing. You wondered if your family was looking for you, if your friends missed you, or if everyone assumed you were dead in a ditch at this point, your flesh melting away and returning to the earth from which it came from. Sometimes, you even wondered if that would have been better. To have been discarded and left to disappear if it meant you didn’t have to pretend to be something you weren’t and if it meant that you wouldn’t have to live in fear of being punished for a misstep or cower under the sharp glare of Jungkook’s father. But you were determined, fucking terrified but so determined to make it out of this alive. 

The call of your name pulled you from the lull of your thoughts. You shook your head to clear you from your daze. Your hands were plunged under warm soapy water, a plate held in your motionless hands. 

“There you are, I thought I lost you for a moment.” Jungkook’s mother giggled, her small hands delicately drying the plate in her grasp. 

You gave her a gentle smile in response, lifting the plate from the water and giving it one more rinse before handing it over to her. There was one upside to this endeavor, you had someone you could call a friend. You liked her, it was hard not to with all of the time you spent together. Her warm, motherly nature was comforting in a place like this. And it made you miss your own mom even more.

“Jungkook seems happier lately.” She mused, gazing out of the window above the sink. You followed her line of sight, seeing Jungkook and his father outside on the back deck with the red flare of a cigarette tucked between his father’s lips. 

She wasn’t wrong, ever since you had started playing along he seemed more relaxed, happier even. Even now a smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he listened to whatever his father was saying. But you could tell he wasn’t really listening, his eyes had that far off look to them like he was somewhere else entirely.

“I guess I have you to thank for that,” She said softly, setting down the freshly dried plate to turn and look at you. “I’ve never seen him so happy before. Jungkook was always a quiet child, he kept to himself for the most part. But you bring out parts of him I rarely got to see.” She smiled.

Yeah, the depraved parts are what you brought out. You let out a gentle sigh, welcoming the faux smile you had grown accustomed to to settle on your lips. “I wish we could have met on different terms.”

That wasn’t a total lie. 

“I know, sweetie. The first couple years are always the hardest.” She replied, lightly resting her hands on the tops of your shoulders with a tender smile. “It just takes some time for people like us, outsiders, to get used to their way of life.”

This wasn’t the first time she had told you this and it most definitely wouldn’t be the last. Sometimes you forgot she wasn’t just a mother, she was a person who has been brainwashed so meticulously you had no doubt all of the work that had been done on her had no way of coming unraveled. And you would be damned if you were going to let that happen to you too. You liked her a lot, and she liked you too. But you had no doubt in your mind that if it came down to it, she would never help you escape. Most likely, she would turn you over to her husband and son. You couldn’t trust anyone, not even the person who had once been like you.

“I hope so.” You lied through your smile, gently squeezing her wrist in affirmation. Ever since you had stopped crying, it had become easier to lie. 

The sliding glass door off of the kitchen slid open with a click, the scent of cigarette smoke wafting into the kitchen. Jungkook’s father stood in the doorframe, peering into the kitchen and settling his gaze on you and his wife. He fixed you with a stern look, the look in his eyes practically freezing you to your spot like a deer in headlights. 

The only ones you were fooling were Jungkook and his mother. That much was obvious. 

“Baby!” Jungkook called, his bunny smile and doe eyes catching your attention from behind his father's shoulder where he was standing on the porch. 

He looked so relaxed compared to the first few weeks you had spent with him. Had you already lulled him into the belief that you were finally becoming compliant to his demands? You couldn’t be too sure. He was leaned back against the deck fencing, his elbows propped up behind him on the top of the fence. His one leg was a little stretched out in front of the other one as he looked at you, the golden cast of the setting sun bathing his lithe form. He looked like any other normal guy on vacation at the lake: a pair of ripped jeans tucked into thick boots and an open flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Your eyes lingered over the tattoos that decorated his arm, he really would have been any girl’s dream guy. It was a shame that he had to warp that into a nightmare.

Jungkook’s smile widened eagerly as he motioned for you to join him. Outside. 

Your heart began to flutter in your chest, it felt like the wings of a hummingbird thrumming in anticipation as the latch of its cage was lifted. You tried your best to calm yourself, you remembered what happened the last time you had fled into the woods, it had only taken mere moments for him to find you once again. You had not a doubt in your mind that Jungkook knew these forests better than anyone. You couldn’t run, not just yet. You hadn’t fooled everyone. You were sure that a better opportunity would arise. 

You took a calming breath and quickly dried your hands off before approaching the door. Jungkook’s father remained in the doorframe, his presence casting a shadow over you. He scared you far more than Jungkook did, and for the first time in your life you were willing to run into the arms of your captor if it meant he would keep you out of the way of his father’s wrath. That was the one thing you were sure of when it came down to it - Jungkook would protect you if he was in love with you like he claimed to be.

Your head was bowed low, your eyes fixed to your bare feet and the tile beneath them. You looked like a rabbit - you remained still like it would stop the curious predator from approaching. 

“Don’t try anything if you know what’s good for you.” He whispered lowly, his voice was gravelly and deep in his chest. The smell of smoke wafted under your nose as he stepped to the side, allowing you access to the deck. You flinched from his sudden movement before hurriedly rushing past him and outside. 

The fleeting sun felt so good against your skin, your chest heaved as you took in a deep inhale of the fresh air. It felt like layers of clothes and weights had been removed from your body and the oppressive weight of Jungkook’s father’s stare was confined to the inside of the lake house. This was the freest you had felt in weeks, or what had most likely turned into months. Time was escaping you faster and faster every day.

You jolted in surprise, your eyes fluttering open as Jungkook’s fingers grazed the smooth skin of your hand. You hadn’t heard him approach in your moment of euphoria. He looked down at you with a gentle smile and a gleam to his chocolate brown eyes. He was made for sunset, his skin was practically glowing in the golden filter of light. You had never wished more in your life that he hadn’t met you the way he did. The more time you spent with him the more you wondered what it would have been like if he had talked to you that first day of classes. Would he have still gone this far? Those were dangerous thoughts to be thinking, but when he was this gentle with you it was hard to stop the prick of tears at the corners of your eyes. He confused you so much, and you knew what this was. Acting can sometimes feel more real than it truly is. The last thing you wanted was to fall victim to Stockholm syndrome. And you knew you weren’t, he still made you uncomfortable and he had done awful things to you. Thoughts like those could override any one of his sweet, innocent looks. For now. If you didn’t act faster, time would grasp you in it’s clutches. 

Jungkook raised his hand to cup your face, his thumb gently stroking the flesh of your cheek as his other hand came to rest on your waist. He looked at you like you were the center of the universe, like nothing else mattered to him anymore. His touch was warm but his gaze was uncomfortable. You didn’t want him to look at you like that, like he was in love with you. Not after everything he had done. 

But you also couldn’t deny that there was a part of you that understood him. His father was fucking horrible and he had you, his wife, and his son all under his thumb. Jungkook and his mother were captives just as much as you were. That was the only sympathy you had ever felt for him.

Jungkook’s eyes had slid shut, his large hand encircling your wrist and raising your open palm to his lips to press a light kiss to the center of your hand. That was something he had started doing, but you never dared to ask him about it. You had assumed it was his way of keeping himself together, like he was taking a small hit instead of drowning himself in ecstacy. It was like he was pacing himself with you.

“Walk with me?” He whispered, his eyes slid closed as he breathed in your scent, the two of you encompassed by the light of the setting sun. 

“Okay.” You answered softly, trying to keep your legs cemented to where they were before they took flight and had you fleeing the lake house once again. 

Jungkook smiled at you again, his fingers hastily lacing yours with his own. His tight grip would be enough to keep you grounded for now. 

He led you down the steps until your feet met the soft grass once more. The cuts to your feet had healed and the feeling of the grass between your toes was soothing and comforting. Jungkook’s grip was loosening and  allowing him to gently tug you in the direction of the lake. You had only seen it from the windows of the house and just barely when it was illuminated by the moon that night you had tried to flee for the first time. You pushed down the thoughts of escape as your pace began to match his, your hands hanging between the two of you and swaying gently as you approached the little beach at the edge of the large, blue lake.

Your eyebrows began to knit together in confusion as you caught sight of the full stretch of the beach. There looked to be a little porch that began on the grass and stretched over the sandy beach. It had a wooden terrace stretching overtop decorated with fairy lights and was exposed to the sky above. You could see there was a thin air mattress set on top of the deck area covered in various pillows and blankets with a cooler set aside. It was insanely intimate and bordered on romantic. Had he set this up for the two of you?

You shivered in discomfort, unsure of what to do. Maybe you should suggest walking down by the water, you really didn’t want to go over to that “love nest.”

“Arms out.” Jungkook suddenly said, sliding in front of you. You looked at him in confusion until he set his hands on your arms and raised them up by your sides. He wordlessly slid the flannel off his shoulders and began to help you slip the sleeves onto your bare arms. He thought you were cold again. At least you could use that as an excuse during your ploy.

The shirt was big on you which was no surprise at this point. All of his clothes were baggy on you, most of them were baggy on him too. You looked like a child who had gotten into their parents closet. But the look in Jungkook’s eyes spoke volumes. It was a possessive thing, he liked seeing you in his clothes, he liked it when his scent lingered on you. He liked that he had you where he wanted you. Little did he know, you had him where you wanted him as well. 

Once he was done fixing his shirt around you he smoothed the collar down and sent a smile your way. “Come on.”

Jungkook tried to walk forward, your grip on his hand stopping him short. He pivoted on his heel, the sand kicking up slightly. “Baby? What’s wrong?”

Your teeth sunk into the flesh of your lower lip as your eyes focused on the sight of a little crab crawling quickly across the surface of the sand. “Can we go over there?” You asked, jerking your head in the direction of the lake. 

Jungkook turned, his dark eyes settling on the waves rushing over the shallow drop off of sand. “Hm, not today. It’s pretty cold, I don’t want you to get sick sweetheart.”

“I won't,” You tried once more, your eyes wide and pleading. “Jungkook-”

“We’ll go tomorrow.” He cut you off, his eyes boring into your own. He didn’t have to say anything for you to know that this wasn’t up for debate. If he wanted to do something that badly, he was going to do it. He gave your hand a firm tug and pulled you into him, his arm coming up to wrap around your shoulders and tuck you into his side.

You didn’t look at him as you walked, your eyes fixed to the sight of your toes turning over the sand as you walked. But you could feel his stare burning into the side of your head like it always was. Every time you thought just maybe he couldn’t be that bad, he reminded you quickly of what your situation was like. He has the final say in everything, whether he agreed or disagreed with you. 

The two of you stepped up onto the little wooden terrace, Jungkook taking a seat on the mattress and pulling you down in between his legs allowing your back to lean up against his chest. He wrapped his arms around your shoulders and set his chin on the top of your head. The sun was just beginning to sink below the horizon of the lake casting an ethereal glow over the water. 

You were glad you didn’t miss this sight, you supposed. It was probably the most uplifting thing you had seen in a long while. It wouldn’t be long now before the sun disappeared and it would be dark across the lake. Already the lights strung up above you seemed to be growing stronger as the sun faded away. 

You could feel Jungkook’s hand coming up to play with your hair, his touch the most delicate it had ever been. It was so gentle that if you closed your eyes you could pretend it was just the wind ruffling your hair. He spoke your name softly, the hand that had occupied your tresses caressed the length of your arm and settled on the top of your hand. Your brows knitted together in confusion as you felt his other hand flip yours over and settle something in the center of your palm. It was smooth, cold, and metallic to the touch with hard edges. 

You dropped your chin and searched for whatever it was he had just given you. He laughed softly, cupping your palm shut so that you couldn’t see.

“Ask me.” He simply said, his eyes aglow with mischief.

“Let me see.” You said, trying to pry your fingers open beneath his hold. It was no use.

“Try again, maybe a little nicer this time.” He teased.

 You huffed in frustration, already over whatever he was up too. “Jungkook, give me back my hand, please.” You said, adding more emphasis than needed on the “please.”

He chuckled low in his chest and released his grip on your hand. Without thinking you uncurled your fingers and looked at what he had given you. On sight you felt a wave of nausea roll through your stomach, your heart dropping in your chest. 

Sitting delicately on the smooth skin of your palm was an engagement ring. 

You couldn’t move, you were frozen in absolute fear. The only thing you could feel was the violent thudding of your heart in your chest and the beginnings of a cold sweat on your neck. You had either played your part too well, or Jungkook was more than aware of what you had been doing. You couldn’t rule out his father either, he was just as likely as having a hand in this. 

“I’ve waited for ten years to ask you to marry me, and I can’t imagine a better time than now to finally ask you.”

You were spiralling, you could feel the beginnings of a panic attack coming. Your vision was focusing and unfocusing, the sound of your rapid heartbeats pounding in your eardrums. Were you having a heart attack? It felt like you were having a heart attack. You felt like you couldn’t breathe, like your lungs were swelling and cutting off any oxygen that tried to slip into your mouth. 

But there was one thing you could focus on, he said ten years. That math didn’t make sense, when the two of you had first met in highschool and that was only four years ago. 

“Ten years?” You echoed, the panic clear in your voice. How many more secrets was he harboring?

He hummed in response, his slender fingers picking up the diamond embedded ring from your grasp. You hadn’t realized how tightly you had been holding it until he took it from you, the diamond had made little incisions in your palm that were running with specks of blood. 

“I first met you when we were freshmen, but I first saw you when we were little.” He reminisced, a far off look in his eyes as he toyed with the ring. “I just caught a glimpse of you, but that was enough. You were wearing a white sundress and the cutest little butterfly sandals. I remember I asked my mom if you were an angel. She told me no, but I told her that I was going to marry you anyways because you were so pretty. And I kept my promise, didn’t I? 

You could feel yourself fading faster than the sun, you were so confused and panicked your body was on the brink of shutting down. You could feel the burn of bile rising up your throat as he lifted your left hand and gently slid the ring down your ring finger.

“You don’t have to say yes, but you can’t say no.” He whispered against the shell of your ear. “That’s how it works in my family.”

~~~~~~~

You don’t remember much of what happened before you passed out, but you did wake up wrapped in Jungkook’s arms in his bed under the blankets. And that goddamn ring was still on your finger. And if things weren’t already bad enough, then they were bound to get worse. You were getting “married” in only a few days. 

To say that was jarring didn’t even cover half of what you were feeling. Not only was Jungkook trying to keep you bound to him in every way possible, but it was going to happen and fast. You tried to calm yourself by remembering whatever ceremony you were going to go through would not be legally binding. You wouldn’t actually be married in the eyes of the law. The two of you would have to get a marriage license and have it approved with witnesses, and there was no way you wouldn’t get help if you were dragged to a courthouse. Jungkook was persistant but he wasn’t stupid. This would be purely symbolic, and nothing more. But that thought did not drive away your stress or the butterflies in your stomach. 

And of course your short days full of trying on various dresses and hairstyles did not help one bit. Jungkook’s mom was excited, her face aglow with pure happiness as she chose dresses on your behalf and made even more decisions regarding  the ceremony on your behalf. Apparently, that was tradition. The “outsider” was rarely involved in situations like these, the mother in law and the prospective spouse took care of everything. You were too sick to your stomach to do anything, no matter what you said you knew that Jungkook wouldn’t listen to you. He had waited ten years to propose he said, there was nothing that would stop him from finally getting what he wanted. And once the two of you were “married” you were out of excuses to deny his advances. You were so fucked. 

Maybe you should have ran into the woods again when he had taken you out of the house. You should have just thrown caution to the wind and tried again. No, Jungkook would have caught you. You knew that. Maybe it would have been better to lay yourself in the lake and float away into nothingness. But you knew, no matter what you did or where you went Jungkook would follow you to the ends of the earth. He was inescapable, and the thought of that left you with an intense feeling of claustrophobia. Much like the prey you were, he would hunt you down and corner you with no possibilities of escape before going in for the kill. 

It still wasn’t time to run yet, you had convinced yourself of that. Now really would be the worst time to flee with the influx of members of Jungkook’s family arriving for the “wedding” that was to take place. Just the thought of that word had your stomach churning in unease.

His family was much larger than you expected and, to your horror, they all were just like him. Every single one of them knew about your predicament, and in fact amongst them were people like you who had been dragged into this life. Amongst the supposed wedding party were kidnappers and victims who were all coming to celebrate another successful hunt and capture of a prize. 

It only took five days to gather everyone and everything for the ceremony. It had all been rushed in order to get you to this point where you were once again in the room you had first woken in when Jungkook had taken you. Or, as his mother liked to call it, the bridal suite. The room itself hadn’t changed though, the walls were still that off white color, the barred windows still surrounded my lacy, gauze curtains, and the bedspread was still baby pink, white, and frilly. The only difference was the wedding gown hanging from a hook on the bedroom door.

You ran your fingers through your freshly washed hair, knotting the tresses in your hold and tugging in anxiety. Your leg was bouncing rapidly, how had it gotten to this point? How were you supposed to go out there and do this? You couldn’t. Not when you were about to be surrounded by kidnappers and their pets kept closely to their side. 

A knock to the door had you rocking back in surprise, your head jerking up to see who was there. The door remained shut and silence followed suit. You looked on in curiosity until a voice called your name through the door. 

“Are you decent, sweetheart?” It was Mrs. Jeon. 

“Yes.” You replied, your voice cracking. The shower you had just taken wasn’t enough to hide all of the crying you had been doing all morning. But at least you didn’t have to see Jungkook, that was one upside. He refused to come near you until the ceremony, he was a firm believer that it was bad luck to see you beforehand.

You were grateful. 

You heard the click of the lock being undone before you saw the door swing open and Mrs. Jeon pocket the key she held in her hand. She looked happy, far more excited than you had anticipated. She was already done up for the ceremony, a formal dress laid over her figure and her hair twisted into an updo. She was naturally pretty and you could see what resemblance she had to her son. It sent a chill down your spine.

Not much was said between the two of you as she ushered you over to the vanity, gently gripping the tops of your shoulders and guiding you down onto the stool. Her work was done quietly and delicately. And you were so out of it, you didn’t pay much attention. Your eyes were dull and unfocused, staring into the mirror but not processing what you were seeing in the slightest. 

“Sweetheart, what I’m going to tell you will be very important so I need you to listen closely.” She hummed, her hands fluttering around your face as she began to lightly apply makeup. “Have you ever been to a wedding?”

Your eyes fluttered closed as she gently applied eyeshadow to your lids. “Yes.”

“Good, then you already know what to expect. But, there are going to be some changes.” She said, tilting your head back with a feather light touch. “During the ceremony, don’t say anything.”

“What?” You asked, your face tensing in confusion. You felt her hands gently tap your cheeks, a silent way of signaling you needed to relax the muscles of your face. 

“Jungkook will take care of everything, vows and all. You just need to be there as he does so.” She explained. That made sense in some twisted way. If no part of the ceremony involved you talking, then you couldn’t exactly say no. “The objections will be left out as well.”

How ironic. 

“Other than that, things will go exactly how you expect them too. As long as you do your part, everything will be just fine.” She smiled as you opened your eyes once more. 

You felt her hands lightly smoothe your freshly styled hair, a fond look gracing her kind features. You felt a strange connection to her, you supposed it had to do with your shared experiences. She was taking on the role of a twisted mentor, imparting some of her “wisdom” onto you to help you as best she could.

The part you were most scared of came next, the dress. You tried your best not to look at yourself as the chiffon and lace slid smoothly over your bare skin. It was cool to the touch, light and airy unlike most dresses you had seen brides wear. By all rights it was stunning, you only wished you didn’t have to wear it if it meant that you would be walking down the aisle towards a man you never dreamt of being yours.

You wore no veil, and for that you were thankful. You couldn’t stand the thought of Jungkook having to lift it from your face like you had seen done before time and time again. Instead, a halo of white carnations and fabric butterflies graced the crown of your head. They were real, their scent fresh and welcoming. A part of you ached at the thought of them withering away, their stems having been sliced apart. They were beautiful, but would only be that way for a fraction of time.

You seated yourself on the edge of the bed, your bare feet gently grazing the silk of the comforter. Your heart was pounding wildly, this was a different type of fear you had never felt before. It was the anxiety of having to provide a performance for all of Jungkook’s family and the knowledge that you couldn’t run. 

Mrs. Jeon knelt down to the floor, a soft groan falling from her painted lips as she felt the ache in her knees. She reached a slender arm out underneath the bed, retrieving a white box tied closed with a satin ribbon. You looked on in curiosity as she carefully untied the bow and set the ribbon on the mattress.

“I wore these, Jungkook’s grandmother wore them, and the women before her.” She explained as she tugged the lid of the box free.

Upon seeing what laid inside the box, tears immediately began to prick at the corners of your eyes, your heart pounding wildly against your ribcage. Your shaky hand came up to cup your mouth to stifle any cries that attempted to escape. Held between the soft hands of your captor’s mother was a set of leg cuffs, each cuff meant to be sealed around your ankles that were held together by a length of chain that would prevent you from taking the strides you would need to run. They were treating you like a prisoner. 

“I-I can’t put those on,” You choked, “Please, please don’t make me do it.” You sobbed, shuffling away from her as best you could. 

“Oh, sweetie.” She cooed, setting them back down into the box and bringing you into her motherly embrace. “It’s only for a short while, I promise they’ll be off by your first dance. And they’re not as heavy as they look and no one will see them under your dress.”

“I don’t want to.” You sniffled as her fingers gently tapped away the tears in an attempt to stop your makeup from running. 

“I know, neither did I.” She sighed, pressing a kiss to your hair. “Jungkook thought you didn’t need them but my husband thought it would be for the best.”

You froze at what she said. His father wanted this. 

“He’s a man of tradition for sure.” She giggled, rubbing your shoulders in an attempt to relax you. “It’ll be quicker than you think, trust me.”

There was no room for debate, you had learned that quickly with the Jeon family. They always got their way and never took no for an answer. You experienced that first hand. So, all you could do was close your eyes, clench your fists, and tense your jaw as she snapped the cold metal cuffs around each of your ankles. 

“See? Not so bad.” She hummed before taking your hand and helping you to stand. “Everyone is waiting on us, it’s best we don’t keep them waiting any longer.”

She guided you out of the room, the sound of the chain connecting your anklets dragging over the wood of the floor sent a cringe to your face. They were loud. From what you knew, the ceremony was to take place outside right in the fringe of the forest. At least there would be grass and maybe then they wouldn’t be as distracting or cacophonous as they were now. At least that was what you hoped, it was like if you pretended they weren’t there maybe they would actually disappear. 

You didn’t make it far before you felt that familiar, sharp glare digging into you. His father was already here. 

“Now, since your father won’t be able to give you away we’re going to. Isn’t that nice?” Mrs. Jeon smiled, a sharp contrast to the stoic face of her husband. 

The thought of having to wrap your arm around his own nauseated you more than anything. Being with Jungkook was like heaven compared to his father. You feared his hold and gaze to the point that you craved Jungkook’s touch. Anything was better than having to be that close to a man so evil. 

You didn’t respond, fear having paralyzed your throat. It didn’t matter what you said, it was going to happen anyways. That much you knew to be true. 

The three of you linked arms, you in the middle of the parents of your kidnapper. Mrs. Jeon held your left arm gently, rubbing soothing circles into the flesh of your forearm. Mr. Jeon gripped you tightly, his hold unrelenting and harboring a warning. You wouldn’t be surprised if once he released you his fingerprints would be left behind as purple marks to your skin. 

As the three of you began to walk and exit the lake house, your inescapability became far more apparent. You could see the large crowd of people waiting for you, their eyes burning into you. From the large group, everyone was lining the aisle with their arms linked like they were creating a chain of people in preparation for you. With a horrifying realization you came to understand what they were doing. They were forming a wall on either side of you, creating a tunnel to walk through that would prevent you from escaping. 

They had planned everything out perfectly, years of trial and error and countless “weddings” allowing them to perfect their formula. They knew what they were doing and had no intention of letting you go. They were all sick every single one of them. 

And what was most likely the most upsetting sight was the children in the group, even they  

joined in on the human paper chain. They were little blank slates, perfect models that were trained from day one on what their way of life would be. You couldn’t help but see Jungkook reflected in their gaze. In your mind you could picture him as a small boy, large brown doe eyes watching a bound bride floating down the aisle in her white dress. It was no wonder he was so fucked up, and evidently those children would grow up just like he did. 

This was the first time you thought about fixing Jungkook, as you were walking through the tunnel of people, white petals crushing beneath your feet, and the drag of the chain between your legs like a snake slithering through grass. This was the first time you had even considered that to be a possibility. 

Your head lifted as the thought entered your mind, your gaze flicking around until it settled on him at the end of the aisle under an arch of moss and carnations. He was dressed nicely, but not in a tux like many grooms had been. He wore dress pants, held up by a set of suspenders over his shoulders. The top few buttons of his shirt had been left undone and exposed some of the smooth, tan flesh hiding beneath the fabric. He had also rolled his sleeves up to his elbows, his arm of tattoos proudly on display. He looked relaxed despite the excited smile that lit up his face and the gleam of adoration in those dark eyes. Even you couldn’t deny how attractive he looked like that.

A firm squeeze to your arm had your teeth sinking into your lip as the three of you ceased walking, Jungkook mere steps away from you. This was the first time you wanted to run towards him instead of away from him because it meant you would be able to escape his father. 

“Behave.” His father whispered just beside your ear, his voice deep in his chest and laced with warning. 

Without another word, his hand slipped down your wrist and guided your hand into his sons. And just like that, he and his wife turned and took their seat. And you could finally breathe again. For now. 

Jungkook was smiling at you, that familiar bunny like grin gracing his lips. His hands cradled your own, holding them between the two of you. You were sure he thought all of his dreams were coming true. He tense his fingers, giving your hands a firm squeeze of excitement. You had never seen him happier.

You could see an older gentleman beneath the makeshift altar, you assumed he was there to “officiate” the proceedings. You couldn’t help but zone out, the sight before you was distracting. The makeshift wedding his family had created would have been something out of a dream had this all been voluntary on your part. Forest weddings had always appeared to be so beautiful, and now that you were here you couldn’t help but agree. Strands of green moss formed a canopy above the wedding party, delicate vines of white flowers hanging from above and all around you. The aisle you had walked down had been made of moss, grass, ferns, and flat stones littered with white flowers and petals. 

It was absolutely breathtaking, and you knew once the sun went down and the fairy lights flickered to life it would be even more stunning. 

You were suddenly snapped out of your daze as you felt Jungkook's hand cup the side of your face before leaning down to you and pressing his lips tightly to your own. 

You had missed the entire thing. 

You could vaguely hear the cheers of his family behind you as he held you close, kissing you surprisingly hard in front of his entire family. You could feel your stomach tightening in anxiety and your face flushing with heat in embarrassment. You felt him pull back for a moment, hot air brushing over your lips before he reconnected with you again, and again, and again until you grasped the fabric of his shirt and pulled him away. 

He smiled at you in satisfaction as his tongue darted out to wet his lower lip. He was showing off, letting everyone know that you were his and that there was nothing you could do about. 

Your heart was in your stomach, the dread piling up as you felt him tugging you back down the aisle. He giggled as you almost tripped, his strides too long for you to keep up with when your gate was impaired by the length of chain connecting your ankles. Without a word he turned and scooped you up in his arms, ironically carrying you bridal style back towards the lake house where the “reception” was to be held. 

You turned your head to look over his shoulder, your eyes widening as you watched his family rushing after the two of you in what could have very well been a stampede. Your eyes lingered on a few of the people coming after you, it wasn’t hard to see who was an “outsider” like you. They had that same hopeless hollowness to their eyes, their will having dried up a long time ago. You could feel your heartbeat quickening as you caught sight of one woman. She walked quickly, trying to keep up with the man beside her as she adjusted the infant in her arms. She looked tired and depressed beneath her layer of makeup. You could see the strain of her smile smooth away when her eyes connected with yours. You could see the message she was sending you clear as day without saying a word. 

“I’m sorry.” 

~~~~~~~

The reception was the most normal part of the wedding and something you were more familiar with. The only change was instead of the garter removal, your leg cuffs were removed. There was a part of you that was glad you were spared the mortifying experience of watching Jungkook’s head disappear under the chiffon of your skirt and feeling his lips drag across the length of your leg as his teeth pulled the garter free from you. 

Although, the leg cuffs were just as horrible and embarrassing. You were certain if you didn’t calm yourself down you would be throwing up all over the pristine white dress you wore. You could visualize the pure horror that would spread across Mrs. Jeon’s face.

You were sure that that wouldn’t be the first time something like that had happened though. But tonight you had been doing your very best to hide your disdain for everyone there, you still had a part to play regardless of the situation you had been put in. You didn’t have to look happy, you just had to hide your fear to the best of your ability. 

That was easier said than done. 

It was when Jungkook left you alone with his sister that your facade began to crumble away. 

“Jimin, Taehyung!” He yelled, his eyes lighting up as he darted away from the table you were seated at in excitement. You watched him race across the room to the two men he had called for, locking them into a tight embrace. 

Your legs twitched, the thought of fleeing always at the back of your mind. Now would be the worst time of all times, who wouldn’t be able to see the only one dressed all in white sprinting into the woods. The last thing you wanted to do was start a hunting trip.

The soft delicate call of your name reminded you that you were still in company. The empty seat that Jungkook once occupied has been filled by the slender form of his sister. She looked just like him, but softer and feminine. She had a gentle smile fixed to her lips that reminded you exactly of her mother. There was not a single bit of her father in her, genetic wise.

“It’s nice to meet you,” She grinned. “All of these years Jungkook wouldn’t shut up about you and he only lets me meet you once you’re getting married, that little punk.”

You bit your lip before you could spit anything back. You could feel the blood leave your face as she spoke. It always disturbed you when you remembered for just how long Jungkook had been waiting for you, watching you, longing for you. 

“Hell, he was the first person I introduced to my boyfriend.” She said with a roll of her eyes, “I mean of course I couldn’t take him on my own, he was much too heavy for just me alone.”

Your heart stilled as you slowly turned your head to face her. “Too heavy?” You echoed, hoping she didn’t mean what you thought she did. 

“Mhmm, the first time I saw him was at the gym. He was just so much bigger than me I knew I couldn’t take him home on my own. So, I called Jungkook. He made things so much easier, he really is such a good brother to me.” She said with a fond smile, her eyes seeming to glaze as she reminisced. 

All this time, you had assumed it was only the men of the family that partook in the kidnappings. But no, it was anyone who was an “insider.” Anyone who was born into the family. That explained how Jungkook had made no mistakes when he took you, he had practice with someone much bigger than you were. You quickly reached for your glass of wine, chugging back as much of it as you could to calm yourself before you slipped into another attack. 

“He’s right over there,” She sighed, nodding in his direction. “Jackson and I have been together for about six months now, he’s a tough one to train that's for sure.”

You followed her gaze, your eyes settling on the man that stood mere inches away from her father. He was undeniably handsome, but you could still see the fear etched deep into his face as he stood next to Mr. Jeon. You were confused why he was still there, he was strong so he had to be capable of escape. In fact, you were sure he could take down Jungkook’s father quite easily. That was of course until you realized what his handicap was. You were confused for a moment, it looked like he was wearing a choker perhaps. But, upon further inspection you realized what it was. A collar. 

Jungkook’s sister hummed to herself, setting her clutch down on the table next to you before she undid it and pulled out a small remote. “It’s harder for women like us in this family. Subduing guys like Jackson isn’t easy. But one controlled shock works wonders.” She laughed, a sadistic smile curling into her mouth as she stroked the remote. 

So, that was the part of her father she inherited. 

You could see the horror on Jackson’s face as his dark eyes connected with the remote she held between her dainty fingers. Without her even saying a word he was rushing to her side in fear of her even thinking about pressing a single button on that remote.

You were light headed, the sudden realization of just how horrible this family was allowed the glass of wine to slip from your fingers, the dark red liquid spilling over some of the white carnations that rested in front of you decorating them in jagged, red stripes.

“Baby?” Jungkook’s voice called to you, and for the first time that word was comforting to your ears. In comparison to his sister, you had lucked out when it came to the Jeon siblings.

You sent him a strained smile as you lifted the stem of the wine glass and set it back up right. Your gaze lingered on the stained carnations, a sour thought entering your mind as you realized their purity had been stained, and no amount of cleansing would ever get it back. 

“Don’t worry, Jungkook. Your wife and I are going to be best friends.” His sister smiled as her hand curled around Jackson’s.

The two of you looked at one another momentarily, and in his eyes you saw a mutual message. 

“Please, help me.” 

~~~~~~~

You didn’t know how much more you could take, that was for sure. Everyone there was beyond messed up and sent your heart racing just at the sight of them. You were relieved when the crowd began to drain, leaving only a few people loitering around as the night dragged on. 

You had tackled so much in one day, but you knew there was still more to come. 

As the last people headed to their cars, Jungkook’s mother grabbed you by your hand and led you into the house, leaving Jungkook and his father and his two friends outside.

You stumbled after her in confusion, shaken up by the pace she had set. She led you back into what had originally been your room and shut the door tightly behind the two of you. She leaned against it with a gentle smile to her face, but you could see something else in her eyes. She was concerned. 

“I wanted to give you your wedding present here.” She said softly, crossing the room to the dresser pushed up against the wall. 

“I don’t need any presents.” You replied, your teeth gnawing at your lower lip in stress as you thought of what was to come. You knew you couldn’t hold Jungkook back any longer now that you had run out of excuses.

“I think you’ll need this one.” She said, her voice cracking as she slid her hand behind the dresser and pulled something free. She hid the gift behind her back in both hands as she made her way back to you in complete silence. 

Without a word, she raised your hand palm facing the ceiling and set a container in your hand. On sight you immediately recognized what it was. 

It was birth control. 

“What?” You whispered in pure shock, popping it open to make sure it actually was what it appeared to be. 

You raised your head and your eyes connected with hers. She wore no smile like you had seen her with so many times. Her face looked tired and her eyes were clearer than you had ever seen them before. For a moment, she seemed normal. She seemed to be just like you. No words passed between the two of you, all you needed was to see the expression you had witnessed twice earlier that day.

“I’m sorry.”

“Please, help me.”

And now, “I understand.”

The four of you were all the same, people who were suffering and couldn’t escape. She understood better than anyone what you were going through, and she wasn’t as broken as she had originally let on. Some of the original her was still there, a soft ember of a fire that had been snuffed out years ago.

No words passed between the two of you, none needed to be.

~~~~~~~

You heard Jungkook enter before you saw him, your back facing him as you were settled on the edge of the bed. You could feel the bed dip as he climbed on, crawling over to you until his arms could wrap around your waist and his chin could rest on your shoulder. You could smell the wine on his breath as he chuckled.

“Hello, Mrs. Jeon.” He mumbled, pressing his face into the juncture of your neck and shoulder with a hum.

A chill ran down your spine at his words, they were foreign to you, they just didn’t seem right because you knew them to be false. He raised his head, his hand coming up to cradle your jaw and turn your head to face him. His fingers lightly stroked the skin of your cheek as he leaned in uncomfortably close. You could tell he was buzzed, a lazy smile stretching across his face as his eyes traced every curve and detail of your face. He looked positively enamored. 

Without any warning he leaned forward and pressed his lips to your own for a moment before pulling back for a breath and leaning in again, and again, and again. 

“I love you.” He whispered against the shape of your lips, his fingers gingerly stroking your cheek as his chest shook with each inhale. It seemed like he could never get used to the feeling of your lips, so warm, soft and wet. How could he not be intoxicated by you?

His tongue gently stroked your lower lip, a whine breaking free from his throat as you kept your lips together, refusing to let him in. Instead of growing frustrated, he let out a soft sigh and pressed another brief kiss to the corner of your mouth, laying a trail of kisses down your cheek and jaw before settling on your neck.

You clenched your jaw, your fingers twisting into his shirt as he began to leave hot, open mouthed kiss to the sensitive skin of your neck, low groans bubbling in his chest from the mere taste of your skin. You could tell how needy he was from the way he harshly sucked purple bruises into your neck, his tongue swiping over each fresh mark with a sweet moan at the end. 

“Love you so, so, so much.” He whispered, his fingers trailing behind your back to pluck at the tiny pearl buttons holding your dress together. You tensed up, but you didn’t push him away. He didn’t stop his assault on your neck as you felt each button springing free, the front of your dress becoming looser and looser with each motion. 

A soft gasp escaped your lips at one particularly harder suck to your throat causing Jungkook to shudder against you as he heard your light cry. He pressed his forehead against your own for a moment, collecting himself while his hands still tried to unloop the back of your dress.

“I wanted you the moment I saw you walking towards me, you looked so perfect, so beautiful. Just like an angel.” He said, his voice shaking as his lips trembled. “I’ve been waiting all day to have you like this, and it was worth the wait.” 

His fingers trailed up the exposed skin of your back, goosebumps raising in their wake. He gently traced the lace of your straps before pulling them down, shimming the delicate fabric free from your torso. His breath caught in chest at the first sight of your bare breasts, the cut of the dress in the back being too low to allow you to wear a bra. 

“Oh, fuck.” He groaned, the tips of his fingers ever so lightly tracing the tops of your breasts. He was pacing himself for your sake, but it was becoming harder and harder for him to keep a hold of himself, especially with the ever present tightening of his pants at the back of his mind. 

He suddenly pressed his lips back to yours once again, this time more frantically and harder than before. His hands came up to your shoulders, pushing you back down into the mattress beneath you. He was breathing much heavier now, unwilling to part from your lips as he tried to roll the fabric of your dress down your hips without leaving you. 

He groaned in frustration against your mouth, pulling back to roughly pull the dress down your body and toss it over his shoulder into the recesses of the room. He sat on his knees, towering above you and staring down at you with a carnal look in his eyes. He hastily began removing his own shirt, his irritation growing as he struggled with each button in his haste.

With a final grunt, he pulled his shirt free and tossed it to join your discarded dress. You froze as your eyes trailed over his naked torso, your heart thundering as your eyes settled on his chest. A fresh clear wrap was sealed against his chest over his heart. You could feel your body tense up as you took in the new ink that had been etched into his skin. He had tattooed your name on his chest. 

Jungkook looked back at you in confusion, unsure as to what caused the look of pure fear to seep into the once passive and smooth features of your face. He followed your line of sight ending on the new piece he had.

 “Do you like it?” He suddenly smiled. 

“I got it as my gift to you. You’ll always be right here,” He said, interlacing your fingers once more and resting your joined hands on top of his heart. “I’ll always love you, my good girl.”

All you could do was clench your eyes shut, it was your only way of taking yourself out of this situation. You could feel his bare chest press against yours, his long fingers tracing over every curve of your body as he shook in excitement. How long he had waited for this moment. To have you in every way possible. 

“It’s alright, I know what to do.” He whispered as you jolted from the feeling of his hand grazing the hem of your underwear, “Let me take care of you, sweet girl.”

You shuddered as he slid them down your legs, another article of clothing that was meant to join the floor. You were tensed up tight, your legs clenched shut in anxiety as you felt his gaze burn into every feature of your naked body. 

“So perfect,” He hummed, “So beautiful.” He cooed, resting his head on your chest as he rubbed slow circles in your thigh, each stroke sending him closer and closer to the juncture of your thighs. 

“Jungkook!” You cried as you felt him force your legs open in one strong pull. 

“Relax, sweetheart. I don’t want to hurt you.” He replied before quickly reaching down and stroking the length of your untouched cored. You shrieked at the unfamiliar feeling, clamping your legs closed around his intruding hand. 

“Come on, baby.” He said, coaxing your legs open. “I need to get you ready.”

All you could do was lean your head back into the pillows, squeezing your eyes shut and clenching your jaw as he continued, his fingers ever so lightly coming up to rub firm circles into your clit. You choked a moan back, thighs trembling as you tried your best not to snap them shut once more. 

“So good for me,” He cooed, sucking hickies into the hollow of your collar bone as he pressed his fingers down harder, your hips jerking instinctively up towards the pressure. “So pretty, my wife. Mine.”

He was unrelenting, his tight grip on you sure to reappear as bruises tomorrow morning. He didn’t allow you to hide your desperate whines or shocked gasps from him as he continued to pleasure you, the feeling sending tingles straight from your core all throughout your body. As much as you didn’t want to be with Junhkook, you could admit you were happy he at least knew what a clit was and made this a lot less horrible for you. 

You winced at the feeling of his finger gently prodding at your entrance, a thin layer of wetness coating his finger as he pushed in. You jerked and tensed your muscles at the foreign feeling, trying to pull back and away. 

“Relax. I need to stretch you out.” He said firmly before leaning down and wrapping his lips around one of your sensitive nipples, your tight walls relaxing at the new feeling. And, without warning, he slipped his finger in and began to stroke deep inside you, parts that your own fingers would not be capable of reaching. 

“Fuck!” You cried, tossing your head back as he quickly found that part that made you feel incredibly hot.

“That’s my good girl, fuck.” He groaned into your blushing skin as he thrusted his finger in, grazing that spot that made a new wave of wetness come gushing out. 

“Jungkook!” You groaned, your hand coming between the two of you to lay limply at his chest as you twitched in pleasure. 

He groaned in response, sucking the hardened peak of your chest harder as he continued pumping his fingers, slowly pressing in a second. You whine at the stretch, shaking as you felt his hips begin rutting against your leg, his mouth popping free from you as a needy whimper leaves his throat. 

“I need you so bad, baby.” He whined into your skin, choked groans shaking his chest as he quickened the pace of his hips against your leg and the pace of his fingers strumming against your walls. 

He easily, and embarrassingly, slid his fingers free from your heat, a string of your desire following his retreating digits. Without saying anything he quickly brought his fingers to his mouth and began to suck them clean with enthusiasm, his body shaking like he was in ecstasy just from the mere taste.  

“So fucking sweet.” He moaned, his hands frantically grasping the hem of his pants, shuffling them and his underwear down in one motion. 

You could feel the heat rising to your face at the sight of him, your eyes falling shut once more as your thighs fell closed. He was fucking huge and you didn’t think you could take him. That didn’t really matter now though, did it?

His hands slid down your hips, rubbing small circles in the hallows before he gripped each leg and forced them open and around his slender waist. You kept your eyes clenched shut as you felt him reach in between the two of you, the head of his length brushing against your slick entrance. You were tensing again, anxious for what was to come. You were sure it was going to hurt. You felt his hips push forward and the head of dick just barely slip in as you bared down in fear. 

A soft groan escaped him, his head dropping to your throat. “Baby, you gotta relax for me.”

You whined in response, your body still wound up tight. You could feel him sigh into your throat before his hand lightly caressed your leg and made its way back to your core, his fingers returning to rubbing those firm circles into your throbbing clit. Almost immediately, your walls began to flutter around nothing at the sensual touch, your lips parting as you trembled in pleasure.  And, before you knew it, he forced himself all the way in in one motion. A sharp cry left your mouth as you flung your arms around his neck, tears pricking in your eyes at the sudden flash of pain that invaded your senses. 

Jungkook was shaking above you, his eyes screwed shut in pure ecstasy as he forced his hips to remain still. 

Your teeth sunk into your bottom lip so hard you could taste your own blood on your tongue. You groaned in discomfort, your cheeks feeling wet as a few tears escaped. You felt incredibly full, so full that it hurt. 

Jungkook’s eyes fluttered open, and upon seeing the tears streaked down your face he quickly tried to calm you. “It’s okay sweetheart, it’s okay.” He whispered, pressing kisses to each streak of tears. 

“Doing so well for me,” He cooed, his fingers quickly circling around your clit once more to work you through your discomfort with pleasure. “Such a good girl.”

As soon as he felt you begin to relax around him, your hips jerking up into his touch, he began to pull his hips back and slowly slide back in at a frustratingly slow pace. His jaw clenched as he kept himself under control, restraining himself from abandoning all restraint and just railing you like he wanted to.

But, once he felt your hips rolling up into his with that sweet whine of your voice he couldn’t help himself. Before you knew it, his hands were laced with your own and pinned down to the mattress, his pace quickening as higher, breathy moans left his chest, his lips leaving hot, wet, kisses to your neck before he rose his head and connected your lips again. 

You moaned into his mouth, surprising yourself at the sounds you were making. His tongue rolled over your lips and without restraint you parted your lips for him. A deep groan left his mouth as he curled his tongue against your own and pumped his length deep into you with a smooth pace. The only sounds filling the room were choked moans and the slap of skin against skin. 

You were already getting closer, the prepping he had done earlier bringing you to this point, the knot in your stomach tightening with each brush of the head of his dick against that spot deep inside you. Your legs tightened around his waist, your fingers gripping his own tightly as he filled you so good. Your walls were clamping down tightly around him, the feeling just far better than you had expected it to be. 

You could do this, you could use this to your advantage. 

One particularly hard thrust had you crying out against the wet, puffy flesh of his lips. You were sure tomorrow both of you would look like a wreck. Jungkook freed his hand from yours, returning to the soft bundle of nerves that begged for his touch. You cried out at the feeling of his length thrusting in and out of your wet core and his dexterous fingers rubbing firmly into you.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” He rambled, snapping into you harder and harder as he felt your warm walls begin to tremble around him. You were going to cum, he could tell. 

“Come on, sweetheart. Show me how good I was, cum all over my cock for me like the good girl I know you are.” He panted into the shell of ear, pressing down harder and fucking into your pliant body faster than before, drawing sharp cries of pleasure from you that you couldn’t keep in any longer.

“Cum for me, please cum for me.” He was practically begging you, you could feel his length twitch inside of you. He was on the edge just like you were, but he wanted you to let go before he did. 

And you did. With a loud cry your back arched, pressing your chest up into his own as you wrapped your legs tightly around his waist. Pleasure shot straight from your core and all throughout every nerve of your body, your walls fluttering helplessly around him. You could feel his thrusts become less paced and more frantic, his eyes clenched shut as he chased his release. And the feeling of you tightening so painfully around him was enough to do him in. With a loud moan he sunk his teeth into your shoulder, his hips working himself into you as he came in spurts, your body flinching at the unfamiliar feeling as you tried to catch your breath. 

He whined as he continued to come, filling you up with each pump of his cock. His hips were shuddering with each thrust until he finally fell limp against you. 

“Thank you, thank you, thank you.” He mumbled, pressing lazy, wet kisses to your already marked up skin. He still hadn’t removed himself from you and you twitched still from the aftershocks of your orgasm. You feel his cum and his cock still inside you, like he was trying to stop any of it from dripping out. 

“I love you, baby.”

~~~~~~~

When you woke up the next day you were incredibly sore and wrapped up in Jungkook’s embrace. You were sweating, you noticed. Even in his sleep his grip was unrelenting, strong, and inescapable. 

You had hoped after the wedding his parent’s would have finally left, but that was far from the truth. They were still there, and each week you waited for them to come and tell you and Jungkook that they were ready to go home. You wanted them to leave, but another part of you was still deeply worried for his mother. Her behavior had returned to what you knew, she smiled often, she gushed over her husband, and she coddled her son. There was no sight of the woman you had seen the night of your wedding. 

The only reminder you had of your encounter, was the birth control stashed safely behind the dresser in the room that was never used. You snuck in there every day at the same time to take them in secret.

When your period came a few short weeks after your wedding, Jungkook was visibly upset. He didn’t say anything but you knew what he was thinking. He was hoping the various times you had sex between the wedding and your period would have you fall pregnant. He pouted about it, but simply remarked that the two of you would have to try more. He took care of you, bringing you chocolate snacks, heating pads, and plenty of cuddling. Although you never asked for that last part.

You thought you were going to be safe, that this was the one thing you could get away with this time. It only took a few weeks for everything to fall apart.

You were in the shower when the shouting started. You paused for a moment, tilting your head in the direction of the bathroom door. It was a male who was shouting, but over the sound of the water you couldn’t tell who it was. It was the loud shattering that spurred you into action. In seconds you turned the water off and frantically dried your body, throwing on a hoodie and some sweatpants. 

You swung the door open and walked and quietly as you could down the hallway. The yelling was coming from the kitchen. You pressed yourself against the wall and peered into the room.

It was Jungkook’s father screaming at his mother. It looked like she had been making dinner, various pots settled on the stove as well as a kettle. There were ceramic shards littering the floor, you could only assume a plate had been thrown. 

“Don’t you fucking lie to me, you are the only person in this house who could have done this!” He screamed, slamming down a container onto the counter causing his wife to flinch back in fear. 

It was your birth control. 

“You really thought I wouldn’t figure it out? It was a little strange that she was going in there every day at the same time wasn’t it?” He asked, his voice deathly calm. His wife didn’t respond, her gaze pinned to the floor. 

“Fucking answer me!” He screamed, whipping another plate at the wall right beside her head and shattering it into pieces. 

“It was strange.” She echoed, her eyes glazing over. 

“Don’t play games with me, I know damn well she didn’t get them, Jungkook didn’t, and neither did I. If you want your punishment to be easier than tell me the goddamn truth right now.” He snapped.

She was already gone, her mind somewhere else as he screamed at her. You couldn’t stop the torrent of tears from rushing down your face as you witnessed her shutting herself off. Years of toture had made her good at dissociating.

The first hit is what broke you. Without thinking you ran right in between the two of them, wrapping your arms around her as the two of you fell to the ground, cries of pain bursting from your mouth at each hit you endured. He was ruthless, his anger quickly being directed at you. Each punch and kick to your body bringing new blossoms of pain. You stayed firm, your body wrapping around hers to stop the torrent of attacks from reaching her. You could do it for her. 

You felt fingers weave into your hair, pulling you sharply to the ground and causing you to cry out. You struggled as he began to drag you away from Jungkook’s mother by your wet tresses, he was heading to the deck. You had no doubt in your mind he was going to take you outside, torture you, murder you, and dipose of you. 

“Jungkook!” You screamed, thrashing around desperately. “Jungkook! Help!”

You never called out to him for help, never. And that was why he came so quickly. The minute he entered the kitchen his demeanor completely flipped. His eyes settled on his mother, her body laid limp to the floor as she gazed off into nothing. And then he found you, your body being dragged and his father's hand knotted in your hair with marks littering your face. He suddenly reminded you of the Jungkook that took you the first night. His eyes were pitch black and the anger was bubbling just under the surface. 

Your head fell as his father released your hair and you quickly began to scoot back and away from him. You settled yourself in the corner, lifted Jungkook’s mother into your embrace and held her tight. 

As soon as the two of you were safe, he snapped. He grabbed his father by the neck and threw him to the ground, the two of them devolving into a writhing mass of punches and kicks. You could see instantly that Jungkook was going to win, there were no doubts in your mind about that. He had his father pinned quickly and was beating the ever loving shit out of him.

“How fucking dare you!” He was yelling, his face red as he repeatedly laid into him, each hit becoming more brutal than the one before. “How dare you hit my wife! My mother! Fuck you!” He screamed, letting out every ounce of rage he had been holding in. 

You could hear the kettle begin to whistle in the background, the pitch slowly rising as your pulse thrummed strongly. You couldn’t take your eyes away from the sight before you, you didn’t know if Jungkook was going to be able to calm down. He was enraged. 

His father was laying still underneath him, his face bloodied and the only sign of him being alive the rise and fall of his chest. Jungkook finally stopped, sniffing as he rolled off of his father, his knuckles split and covered in blood. But he had stopped far too soon. His father suddenly lurched, dragging him to the ground and wrapping his hands tightly around his son’s throat. 

You watched in shock, Jungkook’s body squirming as he tried to escape, his eyes darting around to try and find you. And, for some reason you don’t exactly know, you reached onto the counter, wrapped your fingers around a knife and slid it across the floor into his waiting hand.  

You snapped your eyes shut as you began to hear the loud grunts of pain from his father each time the knife struck his body. You held Jungkook’s mother close, your hands covering her eyes so there would be no chance of her seeing. The kettle was whistling painfully loud, your heart beating violently as you listened to what was happening. 

And soon, silence fell over the room. You opened your eyes and watched as Jungkook pushed the lifeless corpse of his father to the floor. He rolled over and looked at you, his face, neck, and hands coated in thick, wet, blood. He was shaking as he came down from his adrenaline high. He dropped the knife from his grip, tears suddenly pouring from his doe eyes as he crawled across the floor to you and his mother. 

Loud, pained sobs wracked his chest as he threw himself at you, crying into your neck as he held you tightly.The scent of blood was thick in the air, the sticky, crimson fluid staining your skin as he gripped you tightly to him. He was inconsolable, sobbing like a child as he refused to let you move. 

There was a corpse in the room, copious amounts of blood, Jungkook, you, and his mother. 

You raised your hand and gently began to stroke his hair, curling your arms around his shaking, blood soaked body. You lightly pressed a kiss to the top of his head in an attempt to soothe him, rocking him back and forth. 

“It’s okay, Jungkook. It’s okay.”

[guqin-and-flute]

nieyao or 3zun + prompt 64 with cat!baxia

64. “I think your cat wants to kill me.” [This got way away from me WHOOPS]

“So. This date is going fantastically. Do I make top 10?”

Meng Yao huffed a short, polite laugh through his nose at Mingjue’s rueful question. “Being nursed back to health by a handsome man is certainly adding back points lost in the cat attack,” he replied, and some of the frustrated dread bled from the ball in Mingjue’s chest. “I really could do this myself, you know,” he added.  

Mingjue sighed. “Yeah, well, since it was my cat attack, I feel like I need to make reparations. I’ve also taken First Aid more times than I can count and cat scratches can get really nasty.” 

If this were a one of the sappy romcoms Huaisang loved so much, standing at the sink together as he tended to the 2 gashes scoring down Meng Yao’s forearm with several antiseptic soaked cotton balls had the potential to be romantic. Except Mingjue had never liked those movies and he just felt like a fucking asshole who owned an unruly animal.

He had met Meng Yao at the grocery store. Mingjue had looked up from his phone at the sound of a sharp voice--a middle aged business man was snapping at a young man in front of him in line; "Fucking Christ, you're going to hold up everyone."

"You can go ahead of me if you'd like--"

"There's a whole line of people here! We all have places to go!"

The man being yelled at--(the very attractive man with round, dark eyes, he noted)--had grimaced placatingly, as the cashier was saying, "We can hold his groceries while he goes out, sir, you won't have to wait."

A the business man threw his hands into the air in disgust, Mingjue had slid his phone into his back pocket and interrupted in his 'is this guy bothering you' voice; "What's the problem?"

3 pairs of eyes had darted to him immediately and gone wide. The very good looking man had tensed completely, eyes darting to the door in a way that looked involuntary--and well, Mingjue had been struck by the completely overwhelming urge to tuck him back behind him and make this asshole between them shit his pants in fear. And anyone else that made him look that scared, for that matter. "I'm sorry," the scared, attractive, adorable, fragile-looking, harassed young man had said a tight smile, "I forgot my wallet in my car, we can just--"

"Here," Mingjue slid out his credit card handed it--pointedly--over Mr. Business-Asshole's head to the cashier. "I'll cover it. You know what," he had added, fixing the quickly wilting dickhead with his best 'I-can-bench-press-you-and-then-feed-you-your-own-esophagus-no-problem' stare, "Why don't you get the nice lady behind me, too. Once this guy is done running for the biggest jackass award. I'll wait."

And, you know, weirdly enough, Mr. Asshole had actually left the line, red faced and without his shitty little protein shakes. As the cashier bit back a grin and rung up the card, the harassed young man--who was even prettier up close, holy hell, it made his lower back sweat--had tried to insist that it wasn't necessary, that really, he had the money, he could just go get it, he appreciated it but didn't need Mingjue to put himself out. Mingjue had just shrugged and held out his hand. "It's the principle of the thing. Nie Mingjue."

The man had opened his mouth, looked down at his hand; then, he had smiled and holy goddamn fucking shitballs he had dimples. Shaking it firmly in a hand that was soft and cool and slim, he had said, "Then...thank you. Meng Yao. I'll have to pay you back. Do you have a cash app?"

"Don't bother."

"I insist."

"You can buy me dinner sometime, then," Mingjue's mouth had decided to say without permission, but luckily he agreed with the idea and so had been quite pleased to see Meng Yao's ears go pink.

"...That sounds fair," he replied, finally, those lovely dimples returning.

The cashier had cleared their throat, brightly. "Do you by chance have our loyalty card?"

They agreed on a first date in a public restaurant where they could verify that the other wasn’t some sort of serial killer. It had even been a nice one that Meng Yao had insisted on where they had also shared a bottle of wine and interesting conversation. Meng Yao was exceedingly smart and easy to talk to--the perfect conversational partner with a knack for solving many of the problems that Mingjue hadn't even realized he complained about. In return, he had made his attraction quite clear and Meng Yao had ducked his head.

"I'll have you know that I don't go home with anyone on the first date," he had said carefully, eyes on his fingertip as he ran it around the rim of his wineglass. "It's a personal rule of mine. I wouldn't want you to get the wrong impression."

"That's fine with me," Mingjue shrugged. "If you're up for it, I'll wait for as many dates outlasts your rule, 'cause I grill a mean steak."

Those dimples came back and he had sat back in his chair, voice light as he asked, "Oh? Won't you get bored?"

Mingjue had snorted and finished off his glass. "Just because I'd like to sleep with you doesn't mean I don't also want to get to know you, you know."

Mingjue was just getting to know the guy, so he couldn't be sure, but that answer seemed to please him.

The night of the cat disaster was the 4th on their run of dates--Mingjue had shooed Huaisang over to Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng’s house for the night and invited Meng Yao over via text for dinner and a movie and also the option of sex, if he wanted. 

Apparently, the bluntness had made Meng Yao laugh. Mingjue had texted back that he preferred honesty in all things and could handle a ‘no, thanks’ with plenty maturity. Meng Yao had replied, ‘I’m sure you can,’ which, he had very keenly noticed, was not a ‘no, thanks.’

Dinner had gone great--homemade meals always seemed to impress--and they had been preparing to split a chocolate lava cake in front of a shitty action movie they had both agreed on with the understanding that neither of them minded missing anything if they decided fooling around was more interesting.

But now, there was blood everywhere--on the dishes in the sink, on the towel they had hastily staunched it with, on the countertop and the mood was ruined because his giant, grumpy ass cat had decided to savage his date as they were cleaning up the table. Baxia had sniffed his leg suspiciously when he first came in, flinching away as he knelt down to offer his fingers. Then, she had fixed him with a glare, hissed, and turned around and stalked away, fluffy gray tail held high--which, for her, was practically a warm welcome. She had her boys--Huaisang and Mingjue--and hated pretty much everyone else (except for Wei Wuxian's older sister Jiang Yanli when she had dropped him off to hang out with Huaisang when his license got suspended. Which had happened a few times, now).

Everything had been fine with her while they ate--she had even spent it under the table, rubbing up against Mingjue's legs, staring up at Meng Yao without making so much as a peep. It was when they had risen that disaster struck. She had hopped up onto Meng Yao's chair and decided to take personal offense to his existence with absolutely no warning at all when he passed by with his hands full of silverware.

Now, Meng Yao’s long fingers curled into a fist as the cotton passed over a particularly deep part of the slice, though his face remained calm, so Mingjue winced for him. "Sorry. I swear, she's never done this before, I don't know what the hell her problem is."

Meng Yao shook his head, smile pressed and polite as he said, "Really, it's fine." He shifted on his feet to lean his hip against the cupboards and, immediately, Mingjue seized his elbows. 

“Are you dizzy?”

The other man had stiffened at the sudden movement, staring up at him. Then, he blinked and smiled, shaking his head. “No, I'm alright.”

Mingjue eyed him suspiciously. “You’re sure?”

He laughed. “I’m not going into shock, if that’s what you’re worried about. I’ve had much worse, trust me. I’m not going to pass out.”

Mingjue remained unconvinced. Instead of arguing further, he simply lifted him by the waist to sit on the island across from the sink for lack of a chair. Meng Yao let out the beginning of a squeak, hands automatically flashing up to bunch in the front of his shirt for balance. He blinked down at Mingjue, then the ground, then back at him, eyes wide and nostrils flared. Mingjue couldn't tell if it was annoyance, horniness, or a combination of both--and that was all well and good except that he was still bleeding and he knew from experience what a bitch blood was to get out of clothing. So he just pulled Meng Yao's arm out again and went back to work, asking, "So what was the 'much worse'?"

"Pardon?"

"You said you knew you're not going to pass out because you've had 'much worse'. What's the story there?"

"Ah. No story. I broke my arm. Compound fracture. I stayed awake the whole time, so a cat scratch is fairly minor, in comparison."

Mingjue hissed in through his teeth reflexively in sympathy and scanned him. Either he healed fantastically or the scar was higher up on his arms, under the soft cream sweater sleeves that were rolled up to his elbows--luckily, they had been rolled up before the attack and had escaped blood thus far. "Fuck. How'd that happen?"

"Fell down some stairs."

Mingjue raised an eyebrow at the stark explanation. "Well, maybe you shouldn't fall down stairs. Ever thought of that?"

Meng Yao smiled thinly down at him, dark eyes glinting in the fluorescent lights. "Mm. I'll have to keep that in mind." The dimples he searched for avidly were there, faintly, and Mingjue found himself wanting to nibble on them.

They hadn't done much else besides a kiss goodnight in the shadows near the entrance to the parking garages of their dates, because Mingjue was being good and keeping his hands above the belt. And he should probably figure out whether or not this date was going to have the eject button pressed, first. There was blood everywhere, still.

"Why all the First Aid classes?" Meng Yao asked suddenly, keeping his arm extended out even as Mingjue released him to rummage for the antibacterial spray. "Was it because your demon cat kept attacking people?"

Mingjue barked out a laugh and sprayed down his arm--Meng Yao didn't flinch. "At first, it was for lifeguarding, every summer since I was 16 until I graduated college. Now, I take refresher courses because I run a martial arts studio and shit can get real real fast, especially with newbies who try to fuck around." Tearing open the packet of sterilized gauze with his teeth so he could still hold his arm, he situated it and held it with a gentle thumb. "Tape or gauze wrap?"

Meng Yao shrugged. "I have no preference. Surprise me."

Gauze wrap it was. It would hurt less than pulling tape off his arm later. Meng Yao watched him finish up quietly, ankles linked, posture straight and proper even sitting on a kitchen counter. On impulse, Mingjue lifted his now bandaged arm and kissed the skin of his wrist, just below where the gauze stopped and got a slight shiver for his trouble. He looked up at him, then, an angle he was not used to but was definitely enjoying. "This has been a piss poor date. I really am sorry."

"The dinner was lovely before it ended in bloodshed, I promise," Meng Yao assured him, smiling. Then, it grew a little sly and he leaned in, slowly, stretching his arms out over Mingjue's shoulders to link behind his neck. "Although, you could always kiss it better."

Well, there was no possible way to misinterpret that particular invitation and he heartily took it, snugging Meng Yao up against him with hands on his hips and devouring him just as indulgently as he would the forgotten lava cake cooling on the stove top. He hummed in appreciation as Meng Yao's arms wrapped tighter, his thighs squeezing around his hips as he kissed back with just as much enthusiasm. He tasted like the dry wine they had finished the meal with.

All at once, though, Meng Yao froze, hands stilling in his hair. Before Mingjue had time to be confused, he whispered against his mouth, "I think your cat wants to kill me," eyes fixed on something over Mingjue's shoulder.

Mingjue craned his neck around to find Baxia perched on the counter next to the sink, tail swishing, gaze locked with Meng Yao, ears flicked out to the sides. She let out a low, quiet growl.

"Oh, for fucks sake," Mingjue growled back. "That's it. You're going in Huaisang's room for the night."