#then that means A has to keep B around as something close to a prisoner or minion

[bigwhitewall]

They're sworn enemies, A and B.

For years they've played the games of great minds, and they've found they think alike.

All that long time, the two obsessed over each other, often putting their competition before everything else: at first they thought this was because of the high stakes, but soon viciously competed for the smallest of things. Snarky remarks, mind games, deceptions, surprises. Yes, they were always able to surprise each other, somehow.

But then, one day, finally, after the longest and most climatic of wars - A had planned so carefully, blocked every exit and laid every trap -

A had won.

And A had waited for the euphoria, the joy, the glory as they watched B fall to their knees, except

it never comes. Instead,

the feeling that something is very, very wrong, no, this shouldn't be like this, defeat isn't something that should fill B's eyes

and A keeps waiting for B to grin their infuriating grin and jump back into action, there must be something A missed that B had taken advantage of, something flashy and sly, just like them, that will flip the table yet again to leave A shaking with rage, not.. this.

Yet B still sits there. In defeat and brokenhearted. And there's no way out. There's no way that B would ever rise to the same height they were before. This was the end.

How were they supposed to fix this?

[writingquestionsanswered]

Tips on writing non-verbal communication between characters who know each other really well? Particularly in an emergency situation where other forms of communication aren't possible. Specifically I would like advice on how to portray certain gestures/facial expressions as meaning something specific to these characters that wouldn't be obvious to anyone else.

Body Language Has Special Meaning for Characters

There are two ways you can portray certain body language (gestures, facial expressions, body movement, and posture) as having special meaning to specific characters:

1 - Build Meaning in Ahead of Time - The best way to portray certain body language as having special meaning to your characters is to build that special meaning in ahead of time. For example, let's say Character A needs to convey to Character B that they shouldn't speak, and they do this by sucking in their upper lip. At some point earlier in the story, you would establish that Character A does this when they feel like they're talking too much. You can have Character B or another character notice, and then Character A or another character can explain why they do that. Then, have it happen a couple or few times at relevant points so the reader learns what this facial expression means. Then, when the characters are in the emergency situation, when Character B notices Character A is sucking in their upper lip while making urgent eye contact with them, Character B (as well as the reader) can draw the conclusion that Character A is saying "close your mouth... don't talk."

2 - Explain Meaning in the Moment - Although it's ideal to build the meaning in ahead of time, if you absolutely have to, you can explain the meaning in the moment. For example:

Another man walked into the room, and from the way the other lackeys looked at him, it was obvious he was their leader. He looked from me to Ted and back again, then he approached me.

"My guys tell me you were snooping around in our warehouse. Care to tell me who you are and what you were up to?"

I drew in a breath through my nose, ready to answer, but Ted's urgent gaze crossed with mine. He sucked in his upper lip--something he had a habit of doing when he knew he needed to stay quiet--and I knew I needed to keep my mouth shut.

Out-of-the-Loop Character C Witnessing This Moment

Now, let's say Character C is the POV character here, and they don't know that Character A sucks in their upper lip when they need to stop talking. In this case, even if you were able to build in the meaning ahead of time through A or B's POV chapters (if they had any), it still doesn't help Character C know about it in the moment. And if Character C is the only POV character, then you obviously can't build that meaning in ahead of time. In either case, you could do it like this:

Brod and the other lackeys stood over the captives until the boss man arrived. Everyone shrunk back from the middle of the room, giving Boss room to inspect the captives. He looked from one to the other, approaching the one whose expression held the most bravado.

"My guys tell me you were snooping around in our warehouse. Care to tell me who you are and what you were up to?"

The brave one drew in a breath through their nose, ready to answer, but then their eyes flickered to the urgent gaze of the other prisoner, who sucked in their upper lip. Almost immediately, the brave one pressed their lips shut. Whatever it was they'd been about to say, they'd apparently changed their mind.

The hidden meaning of the gesture is obviously not explicit here, but it's clear enough in context that it's reasonable for the reader to assume the sucked in upper lip was a signal of some kind. And it would be reasonable for the unknowing witness to make that assumption, too.

I hope that helps!

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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[athanasius-symposium-of-writings]

Spring Birth, Winter Birthday

Happy Birthday to the man my friend plays very scary well lol

Rated Explicit | Warning: reader is gn but wears lingerie

A birthday. A birthday is the anniversary of the day on which a person was born, typically treated as an occasion for celebration and the giving of gifts. Something very human, and in his eyes useless.

The concept is not one he participated in, however, he has seen a pattern of spikes of contrabands around times matching the dates of the prisoners. The contrabands vary from food, items, or sexual products; it was advised to him to be lenient when it comes to these things. Warden believes it is a vice and should be treated accordingly.

Yet, looking at you in this cell where he has you taken when he has bodily needs due to him mating with you. The outfit is unnecessary and he worries about your body temperature, though you shiver when his gloves touch your bare stomach and travel up before hooking a finger under the strange piece of clothing you wear.

The solitary confinement cell, one he kept and consummated with you, has changed as the months went on. You still live in your other cell but you are escorted here, the Warden has made sure to make it more accommodating for you.

“This is…” The fabric is blue, laced, thin, “Unnecessary.” Yet, he is fascinated by it. His eyes traced both patterns and how they accentuated the private parts only he knew. All of you, every part of your flesh, is known only to him. His finger pulls up to expose your chest and his palm pushes you on the nest of blankets and a few of his spare shirts. “Being naked would have been more effective.”

“But a gift should be wrapped.” Laying on the nest before fixing your top back down, “I want to keep it on a bit longer.”

“For what purpose?” His tone hints at annoyance as he removes his cloak, “It will only become bothersome as we couple.” His hands then remove the mask as the cloak means the floor and the mask follows revealing his mouth. The Warden is not human, this you learned throughout the time he has claimed you as a mate, a term you only heard when it comes to animals and their partners.

His sharp teeth are bare as he crawls down on all fours hovering above you, your hand touching his face, his face drawn close enough for you to kiss him. The Warden has gotten better at kissing as you tried showing him the use of it, as you are showing him the use of lace lingerie.

The suggestion was something you overhead between other inmates, a gift used for their partner when they are more in the… Mood. Something you noticed the Warden has been more in need of you. For a week, you had to stay in this cell because he needed easy access to you. The biggest worry you had was when he had growled when he smelled another person on you. Mind you, you only smelled that way because you were working with someone in close quarters. Even as he had you multiple times, he was obsessed with leaving as much of his mark on you as possible.

“I suppose there is a use for this.” The fabric is nice upon his bare hands and the blue color stands out on your skin, it's like the more he touched the more he wanted to savor you. “Explain to me however the reason for this?”

You are nearly breathless as you lay under him now letting him enjoy himself, or you hope he is, touching your body. “A gift for your birthday.” Gasping as he plays with your nipples through the fabric.

“I have no birthday.” Stating a fact.

“I know,” Trying to speak, “So… I picked… When you… Fuck.. You b-became Warden!” Arching your back as you moan and squirm as he starts biting and sucking on your neck and chest. “Please, be… Oh!” His thigh is between your legs to allow you to grind on it.“How charitable of you. Unnecessary but charitable nonetheless.”

[kadextra]

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about current lore, so it’s time to ramble my thoughts/theories/analysis whatever you wanna call it >:D

(long post get ready)

Alright, let’s talk about q!Cellbit… there is a lot happening with him rn. It’s been so crazy keeping up with all the enigmas lately

(these next thoughts about the character will all be centered on the idea that this is indeed him doing the worker murders, and he’s not being framed.)

His emotional state is unrestrained, and returning to past ways of violent behavior from the days of war and prison. he’s not repressing his feelings anymore, no more holding back. I could go on about these emotions and what they mean for him, but instead I’m gonna talk about the strategic reason I think q!Cellbit would want to kill the workers to begin with. I strongly believe that even if he’s in madness, no way is he mindless. his intelligence is sharp like the point of a dagger, and aimed straight at the federation. this is a plot of revenge on the “little bear” after all. “his toys will keep falling until he pays for everything.”

This is a guy that’s always careful about not leaving traces in all the investigative work he does, but here q!Cellbit is choosing to leave the bodies around the main spawn area where everyone can see, complete with encrypted messages next to them meant for Cucurucho to read (intercepted by q!Bagi) that so obviously leads right back to him. an intentional move, he stated in one of the messages that it’s a show and he wants people to watch- wants Cucurucho to watch, and hopes for the hunt to continue. though I think by being so obvious, he ultimately intends to get caught. ofc it’s not turning out the way he wants because q!Bagi is getting there first, but he is still set on a self-destructive path that I can only see ending up with him going down in a fight… but only after damaging the federation to a degree they can hopefully not recover from. which we know is his goal, he said as much in his last conversation with q!Bad.

Back then, q!Cellbit talked about how he realized that since q!Bad kidnapped Ron, it caused the federation to get into a lot of problems, he saw how going after the workers could cause some big damage. in the federation’s reports it’s shown how they had to put vital resources that would’ve gone to finding the eggs & pacifying the chaotic islanders into their own internal affairs, because all the workers were freaking out over the kidnapping. it was bad enough to make them need to hire psychological professionals to give therapy, send out people to search for Ron, and assign guards to the A-ranks so they could move safely around the island.

All the employees were already in constant fear over the past several weeks that they’d be the next one to disappear… and now here comes q!Cellbit turning the fears into a living nightmare.

Fast forward to today with workers being targeted left and right. as for why it’s only B-ranks? maybe because the A-ranks are too hard to catch alone right now (Bad also had trouble) but B’s are still a high level and can cause some major chaos as seen by Ron. and they just keep on dropping.

q!Cellbit’s building on this snowball of terror that q!Bad set off, all to crash into the federation and send it into even more disarray. it’s working. which gets even more chaotic when you factor in how he’s not even the only one doing something like this right now. q!Etoiles is unintentionally adding to it by breaking into federation facilities on behalf of the resistance and mercilessly taking out more workers. plus how the federation doesn’t even know q!Quackity has A-rank Fred locked in a jail. (or maybe the higher-ups know. tbh I still don’t know how qQ did this and still think the situation is sus. I have the theory that the federation let it happen as fred’s punishment for getting close to an islander)

Agent 18 told q!Foolish that all the employees are scared out of their minds right now with the danger of kidnapping + getting assassinated by the killer. they are staying shut inside the office cubicles and are too afraid to go outside alone. Agent 18 literally stepped out for 5 minutes, heard a small noise and it was enough to send them running back to hide

it’s clear that the federation workforce is now in shambles, and honestly I wonder how many might be getting disillusioned with the federation’s ability to protect them…. because yeah they are very weak right now. which is why I believe the federation has been introducing all this new tech to cut the losses: Minimes to give the workers an army as protection (failed because it was stolen by the islanders) and Cucuruchito placed at spawn, one of the main islander meeting points, and where it just so happens the worker murders are

Cucurchito is intended to passively gather intel for the federation, which I think they’re in dire need of because I am seriously doubting in the federation’s ability to know anything about what’s happening in these current events. they are in a rough state, just as confused as we are about where the eggs disappeared to, the islanders are all going crazy. they don’t know what the dark matter is and also somehow lost the president in the nether, there’s an obvious egg who’s supposed to be dead running around which they aren’t doing anything about. they got distracted from Ron’s case, don’t know Fred is missing, who the culprits behind both that and who is doing the worker murders are. employee morale is below negative.

but everything is a-okay because they have this little creature now!!! he’s the perfect solution :3

okay that’s the end of my rambles :D

I love the lore and as always, hope for future events to be unexpected and surprise me!! it’s really nice to have theories confirmed, though I also enjoy getting proven wrong ^^ excited to see what happens next, it be chaos on these quesadilla island streets

[olympeline]

Carrying on from this ask and post, let’s talk about omegaverse Arthur’s often lamentable love life. 😳 I’ll start with FrUK and maybe do USUK and some others later if people are interested. The OTP must always be first

I go back and forth on whether I like Francis as a beta or an alpha. In the ScotFrUK variant, I make him a beta so the OT3 can have a nice a/b/o mix. Since I’ve already written about beta Francis there, here I’ll make him alpha for some variety. He’d be a non-traditional one the same way Arthur is a non-traditional omega. Less open aggression and bared teeth, more refinement and poise. Still deadly, though. France was always a naked steel epee under perfumed silk. A sleek hunting dog to other alphas’ snarling wolves.

Francis and Arthur grew up together just like they do in canon. Francis was older and presented first, neatly ticking the alpha box his people hoped and prayed for. Arthur was in childish awe and obviously jelly, something a smug Francis was very aware of. When Arthur presented beta (cough) after loudly insisting he would also be an alpha when his time came, Francis went beyond smug to full blown schadenfreude ecstasy. Here was yet more proof that he was the superior nation. Suck it, little beta Angleterre! You will never be an alpha. Hon hon hon.

Anyhoo, afterwards the two carried on in their normal merry, cross-channel rivalry way. Until the time came for their first truly epic clash: the Hundred Years War. Our scene is set just as the French have found their second wind (here “second wind” means “guns”) and started pushing the English back. Francis meets Arthur on the battlefield and they have their usual duel. Except, even with his newly found advantage, Francis can’t help but notice Arthur is seriously off his game. In fact he fights so badly that Francis not only wins but actually manages to take him prisoner(!) when the English retreat. Something that’s possible but unusual for their kind. As if things weren’t going crap enough for Team Anglo. Now they’ve lost more land and their national personification has been captured. Bloody hell, mate. Bit harsh, all in all.

As much as he’s loving all this, Francis is itching with curiosity as to how it happened. Arthur has proven himself a ferocious opponent over the years but in their last battle he was a joke. Flushed and unsteady, Arthur spent their bout stumbling around like a newborn foal and swinging his sword like a concussed drunk. Francis ran rings around him and it barely took any effort to knock his rival down and pin him. Truly a pitiful display. Francis knows Arthur is many things but a bad fighter isn’t one of them. So he goes to Arthur’s cell to see what’s up. And hopefully get a little more gloating in while he’s at it. Hon hon hon.

Once there, he finds Arthur in a terrible state: collapsed on the floor, delirious, and burning with fever. Francis sends word to his boss, who orders their prisoner transferred to a proper room and treated. If it seems weird he would do this, remember that if Arthur died he’d “regenerate” back in England and the French would lose a very valuable hostage. Arthur ends up in Francis’s bed so Francis can both nurse and keep an eye on him. If Arthur suddenly rallied, no way ordinary French guards could stop him escaping by themselves. Nation-people are strong, yo. Not that Arthur was very strong at that particular moment in time. It’s very odd he’s this sick when - as far as Francis knows - nothing is happening in England to cause it. No plagues, economic disasters, or the like. Arthur’s illness is a real mystery. That is, until Francis gets close enough to scent him. It happens when he climbs into bed for a cuddle. You know our FrUK pair: no matter how spiteful their rivalry, when one of them is really badly off they’ll always band together for support. Arthur is suffering with this fever and so Francis, moved but unable to help in any other way, does the only thing he can and holds him like when they were young.

That’s when he notices the unmistakable scent of pre-heat of a late bloomer. Yeeep, we all saw this coming a mile away, lol. Arthur’s long delayed second sex presentation happened in the worst place possible: the battlefield of an enemy country. Because he’s Arthur Bloody Kirkland and no matter what the universe, he’ll always have the luck of someone who ran over a gypsy every day for the last ten years. He’s still out of it so the classic “You’re an omega!/No, I’m a beta!” convo is even less coherent than you’d expect. The pre-heat moves on to full blown and Francis has to deal with his burning, slicking, still delirious rival trying to kiss his face off and begging to be fucked. His still delirious rival who suddenly has a scent like pure, uncut sex which tests Francis’s self-control like nothing ever has. Fortunately Francis is someone who not only believes that real love only comes with full, sexy consent, but also has a soft spot for omegas and Arthur. It’s tough and every kiss makes his dick feel like it’s going to tear right off his loins, but Francis still refuses to give into his worse urges and take advantage of Arthur when he’s defenceless. It’s a truly ass time for them both (no pun intended) but eventually the heat ebbs and they’re left to deal with the aftermath. Arthur is still weak and disoriented but now he can also add “mortified” and “devastated” to the list. A beta presentation was disappointing, omega is a disaster. Not only that but the frog knows! The frog, who he’s currently losing a war to. The frog, whose bed he’s nesting in. The frog, who Arthur just spent days and nights begging to fuck him. Just kill him now. There’s no coming back from this. Just throw the whole of the British Isles away.

Arthur expects Francis to rake him across the coals for some truly epic blackmail. Only to be shocked when Francis instead is…kind? Kind and…actually reassuring? Promising he won’t tell anyone else if Arthur doesn’t want him to. Arthur can’t believe it. Tries (and fails) to sit up and intimidate Francis into revealing what he’s really up to. But Francis only soothes him again. His soft spot for omegas and the hard life they lead is genuine. He assures Arthur that, rivals though they may be, Francis would never use Arthur’s second sex against him. Such a detestable thing would be below him as the country of love and beauty. Not only is Arthur’s secret safe with Francis, but Francis swears he can always come to him for help if need be. Whatever help he likes, no strings attached. Then Francis presses a soft kiss to Arthur’s forehead and oh dear, oh dear, is some of his heat still clinging on? It must be since Arthur is suddenly hot and dizzy again. Francis is very close and very handsome. Git. Stupid git. Stupid sexy frog git…

Arthur gets back on his feet thanks to Francis’s care and manages to slip away and escape. Yeah, Francis didn’t try very hard to stop him. But, you know, shit’s been tough. Let Arthur have this. A nation-person can’t disobey their boss and Arthur has to come clean when his king asks where the hell he’s been. Resulting in much fury, disgust, and “so that’s why we’re losing this damn war!” leaps of logic from the English rulers. Not much fun for poor Arthur. Ever the disappointment to a royal family who don’t even bother to hide their contempt for what fate has given them. They swear their national personification to secrecy and Arthur starts his long period of faking the second sex they thought he had before. Life goes back to normal, Anglo-French rivalry included, with one notable exception: Arthur takes Francis up on his offer of “help” with his new heats. They’re still Arthur and Francis - still enemies and rivals trying to one-up each other all over the world - but Francis is true to his word. When Arthur needs relief from a bad heat, they meet and Francis takes care of him. They’re nations so no risk of accidental pregnancy. Just good sex and then sprawling, sweaty and sated, in a nest for cuddles and afterglow. Arthur always slips away before Francis wakes up. They never discuss it in their day-to-day rivalry (“The first rule of heat club…”) but the odd truce holds strong for centuries. Only to finally unravel when Francis supports Alfred against Arthur in 1776. The resulting bitterness he feels is so great that Arthur would rather suffer through his heats alone than find relief in Francis’s arms. Things only get worse between them when the Napoleonic Wars roll around. When Arthur brings Francis’s dreams of superpower crashing down, Francis - raging and bitter in turn - lets his thirst for revenge get the better of him. He breaks his word and spitefully reveals Arthur’s secret to the rest of the European powers. The absolute nadir of the FrUK enemies-to-lovers journey? Right here. They never hated each other as much as they did in that moment.

Arthur is mortified, betrayed, and even more driven to prove himself and regain respect on the world stage. Francis’s fury takes a long time to cool and it’s only afterwards that guilt begins to gnaw at him. Vengeful as he was, that blow was still beneath him. He tries to apologise but Arthur brusquely rebuffs every attempt at contact. Things are strained between them even when they become allies during the Crimean War. They work together out of necessity but it takes years, and the rights and standing of omegas starting to improve at last, before the break begins to heal. In the late nineteenth century, Francis happens to be in London when Arthur’s heat comes calling. It’s a bad one made worse by the abuse of newly invented hard suppressants. Arthur had been popping pills like candy because it’s the Victorian Age and medical regulations are still “gentle suggestions” at best. They sold cocaine for headaches bro, lol. Francis sees Arthur once again in a bad state and pounces on his estranged lover/rival. He drags Arthur home and makes him stop taking the suppressants so his body can heal. Arthur feels bad enough in heat and coming down that he agrees to let Francis help him again like he used to. Afterwards, nesting together for the first time in nearly a century, they actually talk. Yes, really. Finally, they talk. About their relationship, their history, their falling out, complicated feelings, and where they go from there. It’s a slow start but a start nonetheless. They make enough progress that Francis goes back to helping Arthur with his heats again. Years pass, things continue to get better, old wounds close and fade, then comes Entente Cordiale, then two world wars, and everything after. Omegas finally win the equality they’ve always been denied. Francis by his side, Arthur makes peace with his second sex at last. At some point, even though it’s Summer, Arthur starts wearing one of his hand knitted scarves. Still his tsundere, embarrassed, self, he wants to hide the mating bite Francis gave him until it heals to a “respectable” scar. Francis wants him to show it off but you know Arthur. Stubborn till the end. Francis loves him anyway. Happily, the feeling is mutual. ❤️

There you have it! My thoughts on how FrUK could work out in Hetalia omegaverse. Hope you enjoyed reading ^^ I wrote so much aaahhhhh I’m embarrassed. This OTP makes me so silly

[pynkgothicka]

I see the request is open. Hoseok's portfolio "me myself and jhope all new hope", the one he wore all black with fire behind him really gives an evil villain. So can you write yandere villain Hoseok? Thank you.

Ｅ.Ｖ.Ｏ.Ｌ ＪＨＳ

Synopsis - You meet a man whose stuck in prison and start a relationship with him.

Pairing - Villain! Yandere! Dark! Jung Hoseok x Fem! Reader

Featuring - Alexa Demie

Tags and Warnings - Violence, Violence against MC, Manipulation, Smut, Fire

Authors Note - I HAD TO USE Y/N….. MY LIFE …… IS OVER

A friendly reminder that all my works are dark fanfiction! Please if you do not like that do not read them! This is your final warning before hitting the keep reading button!!

“Meet a inmate?” You looked back at your friend Alexa as you say at her computer. She invited you over under the pretense of needing help cleaning up. But instead she was playing matchmaker. “Girl why?”

“Because, your lonely so why not go for a guy who is actually looking for love? Plus I already got a guy lined up.” She took the mouse from your hand and switched tabs. There showed a remotely attractive guy, slicked back black hair, and dark black eyes. You continued to read his profile, almost as if you weren't already won over by his good looks.

Hi I'm Jung Hoseok! I'm pretty much stuck in here for a bit :( but it would be way better if I had someone to talk too while in here! Trust me I make a amazing boyfriend both in and outside of jail. Please send me a letter!!!

“I mean… he's not ugly…” You say looking at the other pictures he had up. “Wait a minute aren't you a lawyer?? Do you know this guy?”

“First of all, I can't divulge information about my clients. Second of all this conversation is off the books. Third of all yes??” Alexa shrugged smiling at you. “Give him a chance, trust me he's a sweet guy. He just got delt the wrong hand in life. And trust me a small bonus is that he's nearby!” She said rubbing at your shoulder fondly. You thought about it for a moment. Alexa had just gotten into your life and she already saw how lonely you were. Maybe that says something. It's not like you had something to lose if things don't work out…

“Fine… but first mere second I'm creeped out I'm cutting off contact!” You begrudgingly said. Alexa squealed before hugging you close.

“Trust me. You will not regret this.”

🖤

“You have a letter!” Hoseoks head whipped at the sound of a voice. He looked at the man snidely, before getting up and grabbing the letter. It wasn't his lawyers pristine yellowish tinted letters. So who in god's name would've sent him a letter?

He went back to his on the bed spot and opened it up. It was filled with stickers and polaroids. As he looked closer he saw it was pictures of his lawyer Alexa and another woman.

And she was gorgeous.

The stickers were of things he mentioned he liked, like music notes and album covers. Then a letter flew out, and of course it intrigued him. So he opened the letter and began to read.

Hi Hoseok,

I got your contact information from my friend Alexa. Apparently she's your Lawyer?? She maybe lied to me but it's whatever!!

I'm (Y/N), and she told me you we're looking for a friend or maybe even a lover ;)…

This caught his interest greatly and as he continued reading, Hoseok couldn't have been more excited. He was always somewhat lonely so for this to happen when he was at his worst.

It had to be fate.

🖤

It has been a couple of months and Hoseok finally convinced you to come and visit him. So you did, and the jail he was in was huge. It was considerably a supermax prison, so maybe that correlated to it's size. You had to wear jeans and a t-shirt, nothing too revealing and you could only go in with a traditional watch.

Another thing was that they had to make the visit private. Unlike the other women you talked too in the office, they had they're visits with others around in a large room.

This should've been the first sign of what you got into.

A guard led you past a door towards the back of the facility. Alexa stood by the door in the back, and once she saw you she gave you a smile. She walked up too you giving you a close hug. “Okay so, he may seem a bit intimating in person but I swear he's not actually like that.”

“I've literally been talking to him, how could he change that much?”

“Hey I'm just warning you. But I'll be on the other side of that door just in case you want to opp out.” But you nodded and jokingly rolled your eyes. Alexa let out a laugh and then she left signalling some guys down the hall. The door closed and you looked at your watch nervously.

And that anxiousness only increased once the man of the hour walked in.

He had on a set of cuffs on both hands and ankles. The guards with him undid his cuffs. Once he saw you his entire mood changed. He waited for the guards to leave and the door to close before he hurried close to you and gave you a suffocating hug. He then connected your lips, suffocating you some more. Once he pulled away he gave a sheepish smile. “Go ahead and sit down, Alexa gonna get us some privacy.”

“But she told me men were gonna stand there wh-”

“Well things change baby. Listen, I just want to spend all the time we have together, alone.” Hoseok said his mood becoming serious all of a sudden.

You just finally nodded while the two of you sat there for about a minute or two. You could feel Hoseoks eyes trail over you. And you just kept looking away. But then he spoke. “You've really made my life better you know that?”

Finally.

There he was.

The sweet man who'd been talking to you for the last 4 months.

“Aww you don't mean that….”

“I do. I really do. I enjoy talking to you, and just thinking about you, god you plague my mind.” Hoseok said rambling.“Also you look even gorgeous in person.”

“Aww I'd say the same for you. You look really good.” You said trying to at least give him some compliments.

“Well you know I've been working out!” Hoseok said flexing his arms jokingly. You of course laughed, loving his sense of humor.

“I'm actually kind of nervous...”

“Why is that?”

“It's just that, I've never done this! The whole dating a inmate thing, I mean so far it's amazing. But it's just weird, you know?”

“Well, I say it's no different then us meeting on a dating site.” Hoseok says smiling even more at you. He grabs the back of your chair and pulls you closer to his own. “They should be gone at this point, so come on I want to feel you.”

Hoseoks hand rests on your thigh,his hands slowly rubbing at them, bringing you comfort.

“So you never told me what you did to get in here.” You ask looking at Hoseok, as his expression drops. He looks down at the table.

“Well, It was something… I really don't want to talk about it.” You instantly feel bad for even considering asking about it.

“Well we don't have to talk about it… We could do something else. I'm willing to do or talk about anything you want.” You say reaching a hand to touch his arm.

“If you only knew what I wanted to do to you…”

🖤

“God you're so fucking tight!”

Hoseok had you bent over the table in the room as he pounded into you. What turned into a playful conversation with some flirting in-between, turned into Hoseok fucking you like a starved man.

“God you're so beautiful…” Hoseok groans into your ear bringing you back too reality. Your nails dig into the table as Hoseok pushes the small of your back into the table.

His other hand spread your ass cheeks, as he let spit dribble onto your pussy. This only increased the sound of his quick and rough thrusts.

But you begin to feel the hand on your back get hot, and not just a bodily overworking hot, but unreasonably hot. It burned. It burned like all hell.

“Shit cum on my dick baby, I need to feel it…” Hoseok groaned out. You began to try and reach for Hoseoks hand to get it off of you. But that did nothing for you as you cum from Hoseok intense fucking, so does he.

And that's what it takes for Hoseoks to finally let go. He pulls out, taking two fingers and stuffing any cum that dared to come from your hole back in.

“What was that??” You ask trying to catch your breath, as you fix your clothes. “Like it felt like your hand was going to burn through me.”

“Oh I don't know. Maybe you lost your mind from how good I was.” Hoseok joked, fixing his own clothes. His brown jumpsuit is just about drenched with sweat. You laughed with him awkwardly.

Did you really just imagine the sudden rise in temperature coming from Hoseok?

Maybe…

But you're interrupted by a loud bang on the door. “Jung! You got two minutes!” A voice booms outside. You quickly fix your appearance and hair, just as Hoseok does.

“Wait!” He say before quickly digging into his pocket and giving you a paper frog. It's folded using your favorite color of construction paper.“I made it for you! I hope you like it…” Hoseok said looking away for a quick second. He teetered from left and right, his nervousness showing more than ever right now.

You then quickly go to give him a hug and kissing his cheek affectionately. Hoseok smiles, turning to kiss you on the lips quickly. “Hoseok… I love it! Now let's get out of here before they come in and see what we did.”

“Okay Okay! You promise to come see me again?” His tone dropped to a serious level.

“Of course I will.” You said following him out. This was easily the best day of your life.

🖤

Around a week passes and without a single letter or call from Hoseok. It hurts, you really thought the two of you bonded when you finally did visit him. Maybe you creeped him out? Or maybe you were just dumb and he played you for just a quick fuck.

You couldn't figure it out and honestly you'd just stare at the frog he gave you. It seemingly mocked you in the worst way possible.

You get up and head to your small living room, trying to distract yourself you turned on your television.

“Breaking News, Super Villain Jay has broken out of prison and the police are on high alert. If y-” You turn off the television quickly. That's far too harrowing for the moment. That would only make you worry more.

So you go the bathroom and wash your face with some water.

When you walk out of your bathroom you could feel your apartment becoming hotter. Then you see your doorknob, physically turning red and emitting a large amount of heat.

You wouldn't dare touch it. And you watched as it popped out. This was the sign to get away from the door as it opened slowly. You hid behind your small kitchenette, the island hiding your body perfectly. The person wore leather and smelled like smoke and a active fire.

“I know you're here…” A voice taunts as they walked into your living room.

“Where are you…?”

You took this as a time to slowly make your way too the front door and slide your way to the hallway. You could easily point this to being Jay. But what would Jay have anything to do with you?

You called Alexa as you hid under the stairs. But she didn't pick up.

So you tried again.

She didn't pick up.

But you couldn't figure that out as a figure stood over you.

“Hello.~” He said smiling at you. But you didn't stay as you crawled past him and got up going upstairs.

“Fuck! No! No!” You said considering the fact that you couldn't go down and have probably trapped yourself. But hearing someone else's feet quickly behind you, brought you back to at least getting away from Jay.

You made your way upwards towards the roof. You closed the door behind you and locked it with the metal barre connected to the door.

But that didn't hold your assailant.

The door began to melt, a large hole forming in the center. Jay laughed at seemingly your attempt to stop him as he ducked into the hole and came out.

“Why did you run away from me baby?”

You knew that voice… you finally to think deeper than the surface when it came to Jay.

Then it hit you.

Your boyfriend.

This was your boyfriend.

“Hoseok?? You…. you're Jay?!” You said genuinely dumbfounded.

“Yup. Surprise!!” He said coming close to you.

“B-But why?!” You yell moving back towards the edge of the building.

“I've been watching you… always just waiting. Then when Alexa got into contact with you I just knew this would be so easy.” He said approaching you, His hand made is way to your waist, holding you close to him. So Alexa was never your friend… she just used you and led you to getting with him.

“Aww are you upset at her. Don't be, she stuck with me even after I got into jail. That part wasn't planned at all. Then after you visited me, and then allowed me to fuck you. I just knew you were the one. You'd always been the one…” Hoseok touched your forehead with his own, the heat radiating off of him making you sweat profusely

“So… when I felt your hands…”

“Just a little experiment gone wrong. Made me who I am now…” He said raising a hand a flame forming in it. With that flame he showed you a silhouette of the two of you together. You were kissing him… something for sure you'd never do again after finding all of this out. “Look at how happy we could be…. All you have to do is agree to this.”

“Agree to what?”

“To me. To this. To us.” Hoseok said his eyes going wide. They were filled with insanity and all you could do was shake your head no.

“No. No no… Hoseok, Jay I don't fucking know but let me make this clear. I don't want this! I don't want you anymore.” You said jerking away from him. You had no where to go.

“Who said you have a choice? You either come with me… or I burn this entire fucking unit to the ground. Id kill everyone inside. Starting with you.” Hoseok let your waist go as you lost your footing. He grabbed your wrist as you dangled off the side of the 8 floored apartment unit.

“Fine! I'll go with you just please don't hurt me… I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.” You said beginning to cry, tears cascading down your cheeks. Hoseok smiles at you wickedly as he pulled you up quickly connecting the both of your lips.

“I knew you'd make the right decision…”

[sour-ggrapess]

ILL SHOW YOU

switc jungkook x sub fem reader

warnings; oral, praise kink, over stimulation, multiple orgasms, mean names (ig), b!d jk, cum eating, teasing, unprotected sex.

A\N; WHEN DID BTS GET A STAR ON THE HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME?! nvmmm it was fake

Jungkook had always been shy during sex because he was never sure what could please you but this time you take control but he has other plans

¨ I want to make tonight last for you baby¨ y\n groaned as you rolled over causing Jungkook to be on the bottom as your boobs hovered over his vision. His eyes grew out of shock when you started sucking and kissing on his pecks. Soft groans escaped past his lips and his cock grew in his tight black jeans.

You moved down to his lower belly button as you undid his pants. Your touch on his erection makes his hips shutter and his mouth grow dry out of pleasure and desperation. Desperate for you to just stroke it or suck it, silently pleading for you to give him real pleasure.

Sliding down his pants but only keeping his calvin klein boxers on. palming his hard length as your thumb ran across the wet part feeling his sticky tip through the cloth prison. ¨ p-please y\n, touch me. pl-please.¨

“No, I want this cunt on your face.¨ you state out as you take your hands off of his hard cock. His body jerks in desperation and pain, he felt as if his heart were to stop any second if he didnt get a feel of your body. You climb up to get to his face but as soon as you reach jk snaps and grabs your soft waste. He placed you on his face as he regains his grip on your hips and it's even more forceful and harder than before

Jungkooks tongue dived into your slit making hard contact with your clit making your back arch up and your cunt spill wetness all over his chin leaking down his chest and neck. Pornographic moans escaping your lips as he makes out with your clit. A new side of your boyfriend nobody has ever seen before. This Jungkook makes your pussy clench, it's just something about dom jk that makes you wild.

¨ m´gonna cum, koogie.¨ Slips past your lips as the knot in your stomach gets tighter. Jungkook´s big warm hands push you off his face and onto your back. Flipping you over as he groans ¨ Only good girls can cum on this face. Without a warning he shoves his whole length in your throbbing pussy. Every single vein on his cock was rubbing along your wet walls as he ripped your hole wide open making a familiar burning feel in your pussy.

His cock was the biggest you ever felt and seen through all of fucking and sucking. You knew he would just rip you straight open and he does every time. Ramming his giant cock into you, balls deep making loud porn star moans leap from your vocal cords every damn time. Your clit tingling then a sudden burst of cum seeping onto his cock and down your legs.

¨ My good cum slut.¨He growls as he pulls out and gets on his knees to clean the mess off your womanhood. Kitty licks on your clit then moving down to your hole licking you all clean as if you were a plate in the hands of a homeless man. Sticking his tongue insied to clean your inner walls so none drips out but that suddden action making you release all over his tongue as you intended to the first time. ¨such a good girl can you come for me again? Jungkook asked in such a slutty tone you could never say no to.

At this point you were fucked out already just nodding so he could wrap his big buff arms around you. Big hands flip you over to your back so he could slide his length into your pussy for the last time tonight. His cock filling your cunt up making you feel like a slut as he rams into you like one too. His creamy tip kisses your cervix every time making you and him even more close.

He bucks his hips and starts getting even sloppier as his high approaches. Dick sliding out just to crash into your cervix 2x harder ¨FUCK KOOKIEE, AUGH!¨ A scream rips from your throat. You squirt all over his sheets and balls.

[noroi1000]

Little Monkey, My Sweetheart 5

Request on wattpad

There was one person in the bed. Even if everything said there should be two people here.

His hands moved over the soft mattress, searching for your body.

His fingers caught the folds of the pillows, the folds of the sheets, and the quilt that lay on top of him.

His back was bare. Because he always tried to wrap you with as many blankets as possible.

That's why you were wrapped in a duvet and he slept next to you, sometimes uncovered.

Not that it bothered him.

He just liked to know that you were thoroughly hidden from the cold.

He knew that sometimes you were too hot, so sometimes he gave it up.

But most of the time he could sleep next to you just hugging you. And the only source of warmth he has is your body.

He didn't like sleeping in the heat. Therefore, he did not mind the cool environment.

But sometimes he desperately sought your warmth so he could hold you.

It was a desire. It was a compulsion to hug you.

Because you were still an ordinary person, he couldn't admit that you were the closest person to him.

Still, you were.

He loved you the most in the world.

He always thought he'd keep you as a pet.

However, he cannot.

His kindness shines through him. Anyway, he's very caring.

His fingers reached out slowly.

His soul told him straight that you were his mascot. His pet whom he caresses. But his behavior doesn't show it. You are in his heart. You have an important place there.

People who know his opinion of non-sorcerers will think you're a prison there. That you are his closed pet that he plays with.

But people like Mimiko and Nanako know the truth.

You live with them and are part of the family.

They treat you like a friend.

They know you're Geto's partner.

You are with them and you will stay with them.

Maybe they still treat you like you're his most important pet and say you're cute or beautiful, but you don't mind. Because they don't mean that you are less important than them.

For all the time you've been with them, they've become very attached to you.

Half a year with them...

Every morning his fingers search for yours. To grab your body and hug you.

He's been waking up next to you for over six months.

Only to find you there that day.

If you hadn't built his trust so much, he'd immediately think you ran away, and he'd send hex groups after you.

For them to find you and bring you home again.

However, you gave him reasons that he can trust you.

After all, he's already allowed you to leave the temple through the back door.

Where is the forest.

Besides, if you were out there alone, running away, his curses would have told him so.

He trusted you. But he was afraid that you might change your mind after all, and you'd want to leave.

And if you left, he would force you back here.

Unfortunately. That would mean you'd feel bad. Because that will literally mean he has to carry you here against your will.

It may even hurt you. And he didn't want it.

You weren't here with him right now, so you must have been around somewhere.

He stood up quickly, throwing on only a yukata, which he tied clumsily.

He was running around the temple looking for you with his hair down.

It's not about you being able to escape anymore.

He was too worried about your condition.

That something might have happened to you.

He just wanted to care too much about what was going on.

Since you let him make you pregnant.

Nothing has changed between you.

Everything was still the same.

You were probably pregnant.

Morning sickness, lack of appetite or cravings for something to eat. Water retention in the body.

Even if it wasn't that, he was worried. Because if you're not pregnant, you might be sick.

So he's worried about your health anyway.

Unfortunately, he has become overprotective.

He circled the entire temple, but you were nowhere to be found.

And you never went anywhere without telling someone.

After all, it wasn't supposed to be like this.

The ultimate finality appeared in his mind. Check Mimiko and Nanako's room.

But when he went in, there was no one there either.

So his last idea was that he could call them.

And maybe there's a chance you were with them.

But if you guys went to town, he'll be so pissed...

He grabbed his phone and quickly called the blonde.

Just as he was thinking of hanging up because she wasn't answering, he heard her voice on the phone.

What he heard did not scare him. It interested him more.

Because he never thought you'd go out with them without asking his permission.

However, your agreement was that you were to tell anyone who lived in this temple that you were going out for a walk or going somewhere where you would stay longer. You basically told him that.

You didn't have to say it this time because you went with someone close to him.

He left quickly through the back door, straight into the winding path in the woods.

Just to go higher and higher.

Until he came out from behind trees and bushes, avoiding stones, only to see a small lake with warm water stretching out.

Hot Springs.

How could he never bring you here...

Every time your body ached. When you felt bad. Instead of offering you a bed or a bath, he could have brought you here.

And now the girls beat him to it.

He saw three figures in the water.

"Geto-sama!" Nanako screamed getting up from the water when she saw him.

He immediately turned away so as not to see her without her clothes on. For God's sake, he'd raised them since they were a few years old.

"Geto-sama, All right. We have bathing suits." She said, laughing at the adult's sudden reaction.

He smiled softly and slowly turned around.

"I couldn't have known that until you said it. I do not want to bother you. I'm just here to check (y/n)." He said and suddenly looked to the side. To see your head resting against the folded towel on the edge while you lay in the water with your eyes closed.

A slight panic seized him when he saw you.

did you sleep? Or has something happened?

He walked over to you rather quickly and patted your head.

Mimiko stopped him from pulling you out of the water at the last moment.

"Geto-sama, she has recently fallen asleep. Please don't take her out of the water because she might catch a cold. All she brought with her were the clothes she was wearing." Said the dark-haired girl pointing to the folded kimono and shoes. Also with underwear.

You didn't have a bathing suit. Among your clothes, it's not in the closet either. Suguru just didn't buy it for you. Because you weren't supposed to go anywhere.

You basically sit naked in the hot springs. So that wasn't a bad thing. And there's never been anyone else in this place except you, because it's deep in the forest. In the mountains. In a forest with curses. This makes people afraid to come here just to swim in the hot springs.

"We've been here for two hours. We wanted to leave and go home, but we didn't have the heart to wake her up. Her head hurt, and now it's gone."

"Nanako, you can go if you want. I'll stay here with her." He said and started to untie the strap from his Yukata.

They both turned their backs so that he could calmly undress and enter the water. Only when he had done so did they turn around.

He took the towel from under your head and sat you on his lap. Letting you sleep on his chest.

After all, the water will not get cold.

You can sit here as long as you like.

If you're not really running, he has nothing to fear.

"Suguru..." you muttered quietly as you woke up half an hour later.

When you were alone here.

"You can sleep baby." He said, brushing your damp hair back.

"You will be here?"

The question shocked him a bit.

Because you always ran away from his touch. To practically beg for him to be next to you right now.

He smiled gently.

"Don't worry. I'll be here with you as long as you want. And I'm not leaving without you."

[theradicalkanji]

I want to share something absolutely wild that went down in the latest episode of the DND campaign I joined.

So my character is a little storm fairy named Lumen. He's a smol boi who doesn't speak much and when he does he's hard to hear. He's able to communicate with the larger races by using telepathy.

This campaign had been going on for years and so there's a lot I as a player and Lumen as a fairy from the plane of air who just found himself trapped on the material plane don't know about the world at large. Today I was introduced to an NPC that has apparently been held prisoner(?) Since the beginning of the campaign. The story goes that this half orc was the front for a shady business set up by The Evil Empire. After busting up the operation and rescuing people who were captured and effectively being prepped to be shipped off as slaves, the party took this half orc into custody.

The party's paladin, sunny. Wanted to rehabilitate this half orc since he did not believe the half orc to be evil. However, the party couldn't risk letting him go free until they were sure that he wouldn't go running back to the rival kingdom. So, the half orc had been effectively under house arrest for the past few years.

A few things I quickly learned upon meeting this guy for the first time.

a) he shows little to no reactions to anything that goes on around him. Everything is met with a bemused smirk and a squirt gaze.

b) the half orc has no real name. He has a serial number given to him by the empire and the nickname of Cabbage given to him by the crew. (ostensibly because he's green?)

c) cabbage seemingly doesn't interact with any of the other people in the place he's under observation and doesn't seem to do much of anything other than eat and maybe sleep.

Sunny wanted to interrogate cabbage and see if he could finally break through the facade and maybe get somewhere on determining if the guy was a threat to everyone or if he could be safely rehabilitated back into society. Lumen offered to go along seeing as he had telepathic abilities and may be able to pick up something other than what conventional words couldn't.

The interrogation starts. Lumen is hanging back and is perched on Sunny's shoulder like a pirates parrot and just quietly observing the conversation. Cabbage is showing no emotions other than slight boredom and his default bemused smirk. Lumen silently casts detect thoughts. (subtle spell is a ton of fun, yo) and the thoughts he picks up? A fat lot of nothing. There's literal static going on in this boy's brain.

Lumen continues to observe as Sunny puts up a zone of truth. As the conversation continues, Lumen is able to telepathically communicate with other party members outside of the interrogation room and get bits of info to fill in the blanks that he doesn't already know.

Throughout the interrogation Cabbage continues to answer in noncommittal ways which pisses off the paladin since he thinks cabbage is dodging the question, but Lumen (nat 20 insight boyos) realizes that cabbage literally has no opinions on the matter.

At this point Lumen decides to push things as uses his telepathic powers to pull a deep dive into cabbage's psyche. He's able to pull fragments of cabbage's memory and thoughts and what he finds is a life devoid of emotion or desire.

As this is happening he is asking other party members about his finding. Cabbage doesn't seem dangerous? He doesn't seem to have any interest in returning to the empire... In fact he doesn't seem to have any interest in doing anything?

At which point one of the other party members mentioning that the reason they are keeping such a close eye on this guy was that he was working directly for one of The Mystics, an order of powerful mages in the empire.

This piques Lumen's curiosity and he pushes deeper into Cabbage's memories trying to find out when he started working with this Mystic. Lumen discovers thoughts all the way back to Cabbage's childhood and beyond. Cabbage was born and raised in captivity. All semblance is self identity stifled in him since infancy.

While he's poking around inside Cabbage's psyche, Lumen goes digging specifically for mental manipulation of a magical origin, and finds a rune etched into Cabbage's very psyche since infancy. (Nat 20 arcana boyo)

This glyph stifles the development of a personality. The person feels no desire or emotions outside of the bare minimum needed to function. Deciding it's time to go big or go home, Lumen fires of a dispell magic unranked to the max. Level 7 dispell targeted at this half orc's emotional inhibitor.

The glyph shatters and Cabbage opens his eyes for real for the first time in his life. For the first time since he was born he is able to feel things and express his own desires. He's able to have actual opinions!

And his very first opinion that he ever had was

The name Cabbage fucking SUCKS

[weirdowithaquill]

Can you do Duncan x Cody headcanons

I did some of those a little while back (you can find those here) but I get the feeling you mean less about how they got there and more about how they act once within the relationship. In which case, I've got a few ideas!

1: Duncan secretly loves reading, but only certain books, especially those that criticize the government or question society through philosophy. This can range from something like 1984 through to All Quiet on the Western Front and even into longer novels like Crime and Punishment. It's this weird idea in his mind of rebelling against his parents, by reading these books that question a lot of the values his parents tried to instill in him. Cody is less fond of these deeper, psychological books - but he does enjoy curling up with Duncan to read his own books alongside the punk. They have a rather massive bookshelf in their apartment which is filled with books and has their favourite reading couch beside it.

2: Cody hates jump-scare horror films, but he watches them with Duncan anyway, even if it means burying his head in Duncan's chest throughout most of the film and trying to ignore the film. Duncan keeps taking Cody to watch these films because he likes the feeling of having Cody in his arms. He does like the really shitty B-list horror movies though, having watched way too many of them with Gwen - but only if he can dissect them loudly and spend the film lambasting the characters' mistakes.

3: Duncan is a very, very light sleeper. It comes from his juvie (and later prison) days, when the worst things happened at night, and has transferred over to his return to normal life. It also means that Duncan likes to sleep as close to a wall as possible - another hold over from his prison days - and their bed is shoved right up against the walls of their bedroom. Duncan sleeps next to the wall and Cody sleeps beside/on top of him.

4: Cody still makes money from his time with the Drama Brothers, and this makes Duncan feel a little... inferior. Cody, after all, is a successful musician, not to mention he likely goes to a good university and has some sort of degree. Duncan has none of these things - what he does have is a police record, and it makes him feel almost like he doesn't deserve Cody. When Cody finds out about this, he does try and help Duncan with these feelings - but it takes some time for those feelings to fade.

5: Duncan still talks to Gwen, which makes Cody a little jealous. He's not worried about Duncan cheating - Gwen burnt that bridge to the ground and then tossed the ashes off a cliff - but he does envy how naturally they click. Cody had to work to gain anything resembling their easy friendship with anyone who isn't an insane superfan, and it leads to a similar situation as Duncan's inferiority worries, where they have to work on it.

6: Sierra and Courtney are not allowed anywhere near their apartment. Sierra has a restraining order placed against her by Cody (one which Cody's friends helped finalise) while Courtney was never given their address by anyone because of how uncomfortable she makes both of them. This does get a bit awkward as Courtney enters into a relationship with Gwen, but the three can spend time around each other in neutral settings without kicking off so it's less of a problem.

7: Speaking of people that our main men don't like, Alejandro ranks high on the list. After Heather ditched him for the final time, he is quietly removed from their contacts list and faded out of their lives. It's not for quite the same reasons as Sierra, but more because of how untrustworthy he is. There's a real fear that he'll reveal their address to Sierra, or worse yet Chris, and moreover he just exudes a toxicity that they're trying to move beyond.

8: Duncan and Cody both, however, like Heather. It's a bit of a surprise to a lot of cast members, but the pair really do get along with the Queen Bee. Duncan likes her brutal honesty and sharp wit, while Cody likes how much she evolved and really tried her best to help him get away from Sierra. She's one of the first people to accept them, and they end up loaning her their spare bedroom when she breaks up with Alejandro for the last time.

9: Speaking of, they own an apartment in Montreal. It's where a good chunk of the cast settle after TD, being outside of Ontario (where Camp Wawanakwa is) but also still a pretty central part of Canada. It's close to Ottawa, the US border and Quebec City, and a lot of the cast just sort of gravitates towards it. It's a nice apartment in a nice area, with an open-plan kitchen/living room, two bedrooms, a bathroom and an en-suite, a study and a balcony from which they can see the St Lawrence River. It's also got a lot of white noise, which they both really appreciate after TD, prison and Cody's childhood estate of a home.

10: Cody and Duncan both end up going to university after they settle in. Cody goes first - he's most of the way through his degree or even finished by the end of Season 5 of TD, and I feel like he'd either study music or journalism after breaking from his parents' expectations for him to pursue law. Duncan has to wait a little longer - he takes a few low-skill labour jobs to make some money first - but then he goes to Uni and startles everyone by doing psychology and philosophy. Duncan just really wants to understand the mindsets behind people's decisions and also just enjoys questioning everything in society and driving his professors up the wall.

No pictures this time - mostly cause I exhausted them all last time. Whoops.

[aita-blorbos]

AITA for abandoning the guy (20M) that got me (16M) out of prison and gave me something to do with my life?

The opening sentence surely makes me sound like the asshole but listen, there's a lot that's happened in the past week. So I've always had a short fuse and when I snap I tend to lash out to those around me. It's not something I'm proud of, but I've grown to live with it and the consequences it brings.

One of those consequences was ending up in jail due to an altercation I'd had with one of my professors (I was advanced to a collegiate education at a young age but was forced to drop out due to the aforementioned violent acts). My family disowned me because of this and because of that there was nobody coming to free me from jail. Until I met him. He invited me to join him in working as a soldato, a mafia foot soldier. I agreed as it was clear there was no place for me in the normal man's world anymore.

All that's well and good, our team grows to five people, we get on fine, but then things start going south. See, our team is all very anti-drug, they only bring bad things, and we thought our Boss (???M) was too, but there's been evidence of a drug trade continuing to happen in our territory despite all routes it could come in from being closely monitored and none showing evidence of that stuff or anything out of the ordinary for that matter.

Now that's bad, but things continue to take a dive. Going to start referring to people by letters here to make things more concise than just saying "that guy", so the man who got me out of prison and leads our group (B), brings on in a new guy (calling him G, 15M). He passed our Capo's test so I can't complain, but this kid has something about him that puts me off, a confidence I don't think I've seen in anyone before.

Not long after he joins word gets out our Capo has apparently killed himself, and B gives us all a mission: Recover our fallen capo's fortune. Simple enough right? We get attacked on our way there, just some thugs after the treasure, nothing huge. Once we reach our destination, we receive more information, a mission straight from the Boss and B getting promoted to Capo.

The mission was to deliver the Boss's daughter to him, lay down our lives should we have to as long as it means she makes it to him in one piece. The girl's fine, whatever, she's a little snotty but we gotta follow Boss's orders, right?

So we begin our several day journey, following random clues left out for us, like a treasure hunt except there's an assassin squad out for the girl's head and we just keep managing to run into them at every turn. A few close calls with death later, we wind up at the final location. Only one of us was allowed to bring the girl to her dad, the rest of us were to stay in one spot, I assume for privacy reasons. G offered to go but B ended up being the one to go with her.

At this point I'd thought we were finally done with all this, it had been a very VERY long week and I was tired of having to deal with the threats lurking on every corner all for this girl we barely knew. So imagine my confusion and annoyance when B comes back to us, battered and beaten, with the girl unconscious by his side.

Something had clearly gone wrong, but when I learned it was B who had caused it to go south I was. God I don't even know. He's always been a smart man, always sure in his ways, it's why I went with him when we first met. It's why I stayed by his side for so long. But he betrayed the Boss. It was, still is, utterly unthinkable to me.

Apparently Boss wanted the girl delivered to him to kill her himself, something about someone with his image running around rubbed him the wrong way. B had decided to save her and rebel, going on his own mission to take down the Boss. He made it very clear how dangerous what he had just done was, and that should we continue to follow him we would be putting ourselves in the path of a warhead.

I tried, so hard, to reason with him, convince him to give the girl back and apologize, to see how foolish he was acting. One of the other members agreed that what he was doing was insane, but.. He followed it up by walking over to him and joining him in the boat we came in on. One by one the team all joined B in that boat that would take them on a path to fight one of the most powerful men of the modern day and surely die because of it.

They left me and one other member (17M) standing by the water. The kid had asked B if he should join, B had strictly advised against it for our own safety, but the kid went and joined them anyway, even after they left him in his moment of hesitation. I know I was right in my choice, I can't just betray the organization like that for someone I barely know, and B had said to not come, right? But I'm not sure what exactly to feel about it. I feel betrayed despite making that choice myself... So, AITA?

[dinhlnce]

something something dctv dinah (i rewrote it so that i would like it better thanks!!):

born in gotham city, new jersey, dinah grew up in a tiny two bedroom apartment under the eye of her single mother, dinah drake senior. by day, dinah senior worked in a floral shop, and by night, she was a crimefighter working unofficially alongside the gcpd. drake was murdered by brian durlin/savant when dinah was nine years old, resulting in dinah being tossed around different foster homes, relatives' houses, and abusive situations for about two years before she landed under the care of quentin lance, the father who didn't know she existed until shortly after dinah senior's death.

traumatized and exhausted, dinah took a long while to open up, and had a tendency to avoid causing trouble as a means of making sure she was always good enough to be loved. something something, dinah is who she is, laurel is more of the person she makes herself into. the only times she ever really loosened up were in her close friendships she made in school, and under the tutelage of ted grant, a close friend of dinah senior's. years prior to dinah's birth, ted had moved to starling to be closer to his own children and open up a gym; the gym would prove to be a safe place for dinah to express her anger/hurt/innermost shit feelings and learn how to defend herself effectively.

something something, oliver and sara die on the gambit, something something law school, something something occasionally street fighting people. something something, dinah getting fired from her job at the da's office leads to a temporary singing gig in a seedy club where she gets another up close and personal view into how working for the law doesn't always mean that the right people get punished. something something rise of the black canary coming from sara's re-death, dinah senior's death, everything she's ever learned at ted's gym, who she is as a person etc etc etc--

points that matter to me personally are as follows:

the struggle in becoming black canary comes not from a lack of skill (she's always been able to handle herself in a fight), but from a lack of experience in applying said skill to a completely uncontrolled environment. everyone she's ever thrown hands with has always been a) in a gym, or b) drunk frat boys and would-be muggers. at no point does she need to be taught how to throw a proper punch, but there is still a learning curve in terms of transferring what she knows to a vigilante-type environment, where people carry guns and bows, and things she generally hasn't needed to factor prior to picking up the mask.

she's not a shorts and fishnets girlie, so she adopts the injustice suit. she also tends to prefer her own two fists over the baton, but does carry it along with a sidearm because she recognizes going out night after night will wear down on her hands after a while.

the canary cry is inherited from dinah senior, but was dormant at the time of d's birth, leading dinah senior and her vigilante friends to believe that dinah just hadn't inherited it. it's activated...at some point in season 3 (like idk whenever she gets dosed with the vertigo) as a result of severe distress. she manages to keep it under wraps for a while, and only reveals it to the besties over in central city when she's worried it's about to start getting out of control.

regardless of whether or not she's working in the da's office, or at cnri, or as a florist/club singer/whatever, dinah maintains her bar membership. she likes to use it to take on pro bono cases from time to time, and it tends to be helpful when her friends get into legal trouble.

girlie does "die" in s4, but nothing is permanent (argus or what have u idk). she winds up healing and then training in a loa-type environment for a year in vietnam, before getting a bead on brian durlin being in gotham city and heading there to kill him (she actually puts him in prison, but u kno)

[prettylittlehoard]

Looks Can Be Deceiving

Fandom: Criminal Minds Pairing: Luke Alvez/Spencer Reid Rating: T Summary: A beta at the park makes assumptions about Spencer's family and his role in it. Warnings and Additional Tags: No Warnings Apply; Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Mistaken for Wrong Gender, Self-Consciousness, Post-prison!Spencer, alpha!Luke, omega!Spencer Author's Notes: It's implied that Luke and Spencer's kid refers to Spencer as "Mama". Also, the "Mistaken for Wrong Gender" tag is purely in an omegaverse context. If anything about that displeases you, please hit the Back button/close the tab. Read it on Ao3 here

Despite it being a few weeks into fall, the weather is still on the warm side. Perfect for taking cute little daughters for a walk in the park.

Spencer pushes Molly's stroller down one of the walking paths at a leisurely pace until he finds a spot to sit. He points out all sorts of shapes and colors to her the whole way there. At this stage, she can only manage "Mama" and a few other words, but that doesn't rule out learning other things. It certainly won't hurt her brain development.

Once he arrives at the shiny red bench, he sits down, locking the stroller's wheels. Gently, he lifts Molly out and puts her in his lap. He knows he could interact with her while she's in the stroller just fine, but as long as she's still small enough to hold, he's going to indulge. He whiles the time away by pointing out more things to her and explaining them, which he knows she doesn't understand. He and Luke agreed to meet at the park after work and spend time with Molly before going home. By Spencer's watch, it won't be long before Luke gets out.

Spencer is explaining the history of Golden Retrievers when a lady sits down at the other end of the bench. Without pausing, Spencer looks up instinctually. The woman looks to be in her mid-50s. She's got on a red tracksuit with a wide stripe of zebra-print fabric across the middle of the jacket and a zebra-print headband in her chestnut hair to match. The woman has her phone with her and a tall tumbler of something hot, judging by the smoke drifting from the lid. She sets the tumbler down in the empty space on the bench and fishes her earbuds out from her pants pocket. He refocuses on Molly, now entertaining her by making funny faces and tickling her.

He doesn’t catch what the woman says to him. “I’m sorry?”

She smiles at him, not bothered by his inattention. "I was saying how nice it is to see an alpha spending time with their kids for a change." The look of confusion on Spencer's face prompts her to elaborate. "Not that I have any strong feelings on the subject or anything. I'm a beta and the whole alpha/omega thing goes over my head sometimes. It just seemed a shame for only one parent to b around the baby all the time or be responsible for most of the childrearing while the other does whatever they want, you know? I mean, just look at you." The chatty woman gestures at Spencer, who stares back in wide-eyed shock. "You're out here with your daughter, taking perfectly good care of her while your omega's out doing whatever, and you don't look silly or weird at all!"

Spencer can only blink at the woman while she fiddles with something on her phone. She probably thinks there was nothing odd about what she just said. She has no clue about the turmoil she's sparked in her bench partner. Aside from the way she said "your omega" not sitting right with him, Spencer is uncomfortably aware of the fact that she believes he's an alpha.

Inwardly, he sighs. Spencer is well-aware of how he looks to most people. Prison saw to that; between the radical changes to his cleanliness routines and the need to guard any weaknesses that might get taken advantage of, he practically re-invented himself as an alpha behind bars. Nothing too drastic, and it was only skin-deep, enough to keep the other prisoners (and some of the guards, he hated to admit) off his back. It was amazing how much a person could change in so little time, how those changes could last.

Assuming and hoping the one-sided conversation is over, he goes back to entertaining his daughter, though Molly's no longer the only thing on his mind. He wonders to himself if it is his face that threw her off. Omegas tend to go clean-shaven, a habit Spencer was forced to drop in prison out of necessity and never quite picked back up on the outside. Or it could have been his figure, something else he had to change. He's been tall for an omega since puberty, but his soft features and awkward mannerisms had helped smooth things over. He wasn't an attractive omega, but at least people figured he was an omega. Not now, apparently.

He's so preoccupied that he doesn't even realize Luke's arrived at the park. It's not until Luke's a few yards away, having come from the other entrance, that Spencer looks up and spots him. Once he sees Luke, though, he resettles Molly on his lap to point Luke out to her.

“You see Daddy?” Molly starts babbling excitedly and making grabby hands once she sees her father coming. “Yeah, Daddy’s here!”

Luke’s eyes light up as soon as he sees his two favorite people in the world. He picks up the pace, opening his arms when he gets close. “Hey, guys, I missed you!” Spencer passes Molly over for Luke to hold, then lets himself be swept into a hug. He pecks his husband on the cheek and quietly says, “We missed you, too. I kept her entertained with plenty of people watching, though.”

They pull away from each other, Luke still holding their daughter. Spencer thinks they're about to go on their walk and starts turning toward the stroller but is stopped by the drastic change in Luke's expression.

"Speaking of people watching," Luke says under his breath. Spencer turns around, following Luke's line of sight, and catches the woman in the tracksuit hastily looking away, messing with her phone again like she hadn't just been staring at them. And Spencer had practically forgotten about her, too.

Before Spencer can warn him off, Luke calmly puts Molly in her stroller. He also isn't immune to playing with her at every opportunity, and Spencer fondly watches him tickle her and sing a Spanish nursery rhyme to her while securing her in the seat.

“Can I help you, Ma’am?” Luke asks, suddenly standing up. Spencer doesn’t know what’s going on until he sees the horrified look on the woman’s face. Luke must have caught her staring again, and he’s about to make it her problem.

She puts her hands in front of her, warding off Luke’s anger. “I am so sorry. I wasn’t trying to creep on you and your family, I swear! I was just taken aback because I’ve never seen an omega as…handsome as you before!” Her nervous laughter does nothing to help the situation.

When Luke throws him a look of confusion, Spencer shrugs at him. Internally, he cringes, not wanting to explain why this stranger assumes he’s an omega. Luke shakes his head and goes back to settling Molly in her stroller seat. “Well, I’m flattered, lady, but I’m not an omega,” he responds neutrally. Pinging her as an omega is taking a back seat to the rest of her behavior.

"Oh! Well, that's wonderful. People say so many terrible things about same-dynamic couples, but you two are doing perfectly fine raising your little girl. As a matter of fact, there's a couple like that on my block!"

Spencer can tell this woman is gearing up for a likely long and possibly embarrassing story, and the look on Luke's face tells him his husband is not having it. Tired of feeling like a battle's being fought for him and not wanting the situation to escalate, Spencer finally speaks up. "I'm an omega, actually. I know you probably think you know what one looks like but, surprisingly, there's no single standard for an omega's appearance, or any dynamic's for that matter." Before he has the chance to think about what he just said, he starts fussing around with the stroller, making sure everything is in place, re-situation things, anything to keep himself from cringing into a black hole of embarrassment. He didn't say one thing that wasn't true, he knows this, but he still can't help wondering if he overreacted. Her staring had been rude, but her assumptions, while clearly ignorant, didn't carry any malice. Sue him for wanting to give people the benefit of the doubt.

Luke gently places his hands over Spencer's, easing his nerves. He gets behind the stroller and starts to push off. "Anyway, Ma'am, we're leaving. And next time, maybe you should open your mind up a bit before you open your mouth." Luke doesn't bother looking to see what effect his words have, and neither does Spencer.

"I should probably shave more," Spencer says absentmindedly. They're a reasonable distance away from the woman by now. Luke looks at him.

“What?”

"My face," Spencer says, gesturing to the stubble there. "I had to let it get like this while I was…" He trails off, and Luke has a good idea of what he would have said. "But I'm not anymore; I don't have any excuse." He stares out ahead, lost in thought. "Maybe then–"

"Okay, first of all," Luke says, cutting off Spencer's train of thought. "You don't have to do anything to your face if you don't want to. And I know you know this. You're a genius; you know everything."

“I do not!” There’s a smile on Spencer’s face as he remembers a conversation involving him and Derek years ago.

Luke grins, too. "I know you don't, but that is one of the things you know." They walk for a bit, taking in the sight of the beautiful trees and the feel of the warm air. When it seems like the conversation has died off, Luke picks it back up. "And secondly," he says before leaning over to plant a kiss on Spencer's rough cheek, "your face is perfect the way it is. That's my completely correct and totally unbiased opinion, so you can't argue with it."

Spencer's about to do just that, but when he looks over at Luke, he gets utterly distracted. The light of the setting sun is coming at just the right angle to illuminate Luke around the edges like he's lit from within. He looks so happy, like there's nothing in the world he'd rather be doing than strolling through the park with him and their daughter, leisurely ambling toward their shared home. "I wouldn't dream of it," Spencer says instead.

[the-firebird69]

Workers nervous after Harley-Davidson moves work from Wisconsin to Thailand

He did speak to one person and he said you'll start selling these they can trikes and rev trike and quads the guy started doing it no it was the other day they've seen a lot of that and it didn't take he said they could use a dirt bike and they didn't try that much and the sport bike in the Enduro are going to go overseas it's kind of almost the same motorcycle cuz it is the trim it down and it's the cross country bike but really that's like the only bike they sell here and they know it so the guys pissed off and he's kind of laughing so it's like losing a job and her sense is so what you f****** don't have me in any work keeps threatening my life and have a nice f****** day don't let the door hit you in the ass and get out of my area. So :-) the guy is smiling so he's they've overdone their welcome and they're trying to sabotage the Harley-Davidson place. And these are some real winners they know the code and stuff so he gets out as hammer and starts hitting things for real and he got fired. And it was Trump and he was arrested and he was held for terrorism and he is getting his arrested out of all of the Harley-Davidson places and they're going after them for information. This is our businesses are going to be closed and Wisconsin is the upper Midwest and this guy Trump is a failure in a fool he keeps getting kills and doing this and he can't figure out he's getting shot it is very dumb and he spent and we're doing what we want because nobody allowing us to move him. This place will probably sit and do nothing for quite a while it's trapped up there with you idiots and you're going to fight over it and just particular area this world famous it made the dirt bike and made the Pan America first and it has the first Pan American off the line the prototype was made in Michigan and that's another plant it doesn't produce the Pan American it used to it was second in production but it made the prototype hello kind of fighting over it and not that bad that Michigan plant is going to shut down shortly and it still make some like 45,000 a week but that's really nothing and it's not that many employees left and they're kind of stupid people so our son wants so when I get up there like Jason to do the movie before they all leave and say there's a plant closing in like 20 of them walk out kind of moping in their coveralls part of the scary monster movie. What's funny is this nobody b****** in and nobody's helping each other and that's all you preached in westborough and none of you are doing it and nothing is working for you so I might as well try and get this into a movie the plant the plants was finally closing the southern parking lot which is huge with like 200 out of 5,000 spots and not everyone will pick it up but

Thor Freya

They also act like you were in prison or something and they come around hanging things that you left in your locker they're really weird and a friend has seen it and he's got to look at his face like come on give me a break and that's what he's thinking all the time we wouldn't want you to forget this it's all that we have of you I mean they're weird and the people working there are strange and make the guy feel like his a slave master you kept them around and he did his job and it's a weird relationship he's a little bit more sensitive like a father and a son and the people know it but right there that plant LOL they've been leaving for years I said John Riva learned and they said f*** you you idiot we already have already have any hardly anything left is that they said oh we could beat him up and take his stuff so it's starting to do it

Mac daddy

Olympus

[theghostofblackbunnymask]

TW: death, angst. Hi, can I please request quackity’s reaction if his romantic obsession died to protect him (like body blocked a deadly arrow or stab when quackity is on half hearts because they know he only has a canon life left) during an invasion of Las Nevadas? Maybe include the reaction of rest of the Las Nevadas crew that also cared about her if it not too much for you but thanks a lot either way.

Author's note- of course Love!

Warnings- Death, Toxic Relationship, implied past abuse, sad boy hours,

Quackity's Darling's death (Quackity +Las Nevadas Crew's Reaction)

He saw Y/N in front of him with the blade through their chest, their eyes being almost completely dead. Quackity would freeze in shock as he saw you fall forward.

"No... No no no no! Shit!"

Quackity would look at you until his legs just gave up, Quackity couldn't feel it but, he was crying. After everything he did to you, after all the trauma he gave you, you still protected him and gave up your last canon life to save him.

Quackity would never be able to forgive himself and he would kill and rein hell upon the people who invaded Las Nevadas, and kill the person who killed you.

Quackity would be depressed and wouldn't even leave his penthouse, and it gets so bad that the others have to motivate him to leave his penthouse and do his daily task.

Quackity gambling addiction would become so much worse and may even start to use alcohol as a coping mechanism.

Quackity would keep a picture of you and him in his pocket and would look at it whenever he missed you.

If you were to come back as a ghost, Quackity would be happy yet upset. Upset because it was just an empty shell of who you once were. And happy because you were back. So this would cause Quackity to toture Dream more often so he could get two revival books, one for Schlatt and one for you.

When Charlie found out about your death he would feel a emotion he never felt before, despair.

He promised you and Quackity that he would never let you turn to dust, so you and Quackity can be together forever but, he broke that promise.

Charlie would cry for the first time, surprising the entire crew and even himself.

Charlie wouldn't really be the same after that, and would cry everytime you were mentioned. And I can see him helping Quackity destroy the people who invaded Las Nevadas, the others would do the same too.

If you were to come back as a ghost, Charlie would be confused, you died, were you not on your last life? Then Quackity would say that it wasn't Y/N and it was their ghost, so they were still dead. Charlie would still be upset but would find comfort in your ghost.

Fundy knew it was going to happen sooner or later, but that doesn't mean he isn't upset about it.

Even if you and Fundy weren't close, he still genuinely cared about you and you cared about him, so seeing you die just hurt, you were like an older sibling to him.

Fundy cry once he's alone, and wouldn't go to work the next time Las Nevadas was open, just so he can process all of it.

Fundy would visit your grave and just talk to it when he needed to get something off of his chest.

If you were to come back as a ghost, Fundy would want nothing to do with it, he wants the real Y/N back, not some fucking ghost! Fundy would ignore and be very passive aggressive with your ghost and would do this until A, he just ignores your ghost all together or B, until you get revived.

Foolish would try to stay positive but it'd be really, really hard. You two were good friends, and just to have you die in that way would make him depressed

He'd make a tiny hand help statute of you and keep it on him, it's really comforting to him, and he'd make on for the others if they asked

He'd make your grave and funeral look really nice, and he'd make your grave stone out of diamond, emerald or gold, or your favorite block, and cover it with things you liked, such as your favorite flowers or any childhood stuff you had

If you came back as a ghost, he'd be over joyed.

Sam would find out when Quackity told him when he went to torture Dream.

Sam enjoyed your company and you make his work a bit easier, but, with you gone the prison was so quiet, it was to the point the slightest noise would make him flinch and look around

Sam would cry sometimes and Dream would hear it, if he ever asked what was wrong, he'd get aggressive and threaten to call Quackity

If you came back as a ghost, you're not coming to the prison, he can't have another Ghostbur case

Purpled would just be eerily quiet when Quackity told him. He'd just stare, hands in his hoodie as he picked at his fingers

He'd sit in his new UFO and just remember and think about all the conversations and times you helped him, Reuther that was his builds.or helping him with his issues, he'd remember it

He wouldn't show up to Las Nevadas for a while, to the point Quackity got genuinely concerned on if he committed suicide, so he'd send Charlie to look for him, and Charlie would just see Purpled lying down on the floor of his UFO, standing at the ceiling as he thought of the memories y'all shared.

[witch-hazels-musings]

Until you are safe

Warning: Vision Hunt Decree still in effect, kidnapped themes, reader grabbed by hair (Thoma), possessive themes (scara)

Character X GN Reader | Anthology 

Includes: Albedo, Scara, Thoma, Zhongli

Albedo

The frosty chill of the mountain side was more than you could bear. Every time you thought you gained warmth it was ripped from your body by icy hands threatening to drive you insane. You shivered and wrapped your coat further around your body while you scowled against the frigid cold. 

Ahead of you stood Albedo who seemed indifferent to the temperature and while you were impressed that he knew how to handle this without any complaints, you were also irritated by the fact. He was barely wearing anything and here you were shivering under countless layers of cloth. 

He turned to tell you something but with the turbulent winds and nibbling frost against your ears, you didn’t understand a single word he said. Quickly, you forced your legs to move as you made your way to his side.

“W-w-what di-did you s-say?” Your chattering teeth made it hard, and painful, to speak but you did your best anyway. 

“We are nearly there, can you keep going?” He narrowed his eyes at you but you knew that was a common thing he did. It was unlikely to have any additional meaning behind it. 

“H-how f-f-f-ar?” 

“Just around the bend.” He rested the back of his hand against your cheek and somehow that made you shiver even more than the touch of frost. When you nodded and began to walk forward, he took up position behind you and directed you toward the camp. 

With the cave blocking out the wind, and several warming mechanisms already glowing, you stumbled your way in between them an the fire. Trembling hands extended toward the orange and yellow light while you watched the snow drip from your clothes. 

“I always h-hat-te this p-p-part.” You complained, shaking your head and shoulders to warm up the muscles. This wasn’t the first time you traveled to Dragonspine with Albedo, but each time you braved the conditions you recalled the promise you made yourself last time. Never again, well ... I guess that promise was made to be broken. 

“Here, this will help warm you.” He handed you a cup and immediately you caught the scent of fresh and soothing tea. The aroma itself perked you up and even though your fingers were still stiff, you graciously took the offering. Warmth seeped into your throat as the liquid carved a path down your esophagus and into the pit of your baron stomach. With a refreshing hum you smiled through the steam.  

“P-p-perfect. Thank-k y-you.” Another sip warmed your lips and tickled your nose but you didn’t dare stop. 

“This trip should be less strenuous than last time.” Albedo began, his back turned to you as he rummaged through the stacks of books. “Where did I place that ... perhaps it got caught in the wind, that would be unfortunate.” 

You giggled, eyes watching him meander and speak to himself all at the same time. He had a habit of doing it but it never bothered you, in fact it was comforting to hear his voice, stabilizing, grounding. 

“You ca-can head out. I’ll b-be fine here after I w-warm up-p.” The shivering had eased, but you still succumbed to the residual affects as your body began to shift from frozen to thawed. 

“No need, I can wait here for a while.” 

“Haha, that’s silly, g-go on ahead.” You took another sip of the cup and found yourself sad at the emptiness of it. That’s when a hand entered your field of vision and you watched Albedo walk toward a table, refill your drink, and return to your side. He offered it to you and when your fingers found the circumference his nestled against them.

“Until I know you are safe, I will be here.” His eyes held your own for a while as if waiting for your reaction, your response, and when you nodded he mimicked your action before slipping back toward the bookshelves and research table. 

You were glad he left you, because if he hadn’t you were sure the only way to cool down was to step beyond the barrier of the cave and into the never-ending snowstorm that protected Dragonspine. 

Scara

Being at the side of a Harbinger had it’s own trials. If it wasn’t the constant movement between assignments or the threats against your life, it was the loneliness which creeped in every single day. There were some Harbingers who left the life of love far outside of their reach: Signora, who vowed to never love again and instead put all her attention into fulfilling her duty, Childe, found love a difficult thing to ignore and did his best to keep what he cherished hidden behind closed doors. 

Scara, he never understood the meaning of the word until it crashed around him like a house crumbles into itself, and the way he kept his belongings safe was to have them near him at all times. It was far better to be under the watchful eyes of his competence than leave something so valuable in the hands of another. So, here you were, following him around and staying hidden until he called for you. 

-- 

The room was empty, absent of all the things you would have normally kept to make this place more homey. If you could get away with it, you’d have made some changes to the décor, but the problem with never settling in one place for long made this desire of yours difficult to accomplish. It wasn’t feasible, you thought to yourself  but that didn’t stop you from adding a bit of comfort when you could. 

The night came and went without issue and after you prepared yourself for bed you wondered where your lover was. Was he succeeding, was he accomplishing his goals, would he return to you tonight or would you wake up alone yet again. Luckily for you, you had learn to be patient. 

Your dreams kept you occupied but there seemed to be something about them that pulled you toward consciousness, a subtle wish drifting across your imagines to wake up. 

Something brushed across your cheek, but was it the dream or reality, you couldn’t tell. Gravity pulled you close to something sturdy, but was it a creation of your imagination or the real thing - why was this so challenging. When your eyes finally opened and adjusted to the light of the room, you realized what had been calling to you. 

“Scara?” You pulled your hand down from behind the pillow, the muscles tense from being locked into that position for so long. “What has-” 

“Go back to sleep.” He spoke and the sound of his voice pulled you closer to him. 

“Is everything okay?” You continued your question as if what he said was never uttered, your eyes trying to find the outline of his frame while your skin adjusted to his touch. 

“Nothing to concern yourself with, just sleep.” 

“But, why are you here?

“I don’t recall needing your permission to do anything.” His words may have been direct, but you could sense there was something else behind them. 

“... would you ... like to come to bed?” 

“I can’t.” He adjusted and you felt the warmth of the blankets cover more of your exposed skin. The chill of the evening became blocked by the sheets and you hummed in response. You were confused, but the feeling of his hand running along your neck, your jaw, and into your hair made all the questions you had disappear. Moments like these brought out something completely different in the Harbinger and you wondered why he treated you so differently. 

With a yawn, you turned into his touch, lips finding the palm of his hand easily and placing a tender kiss against his skin. “You don’t need to stay if you have work to do. I’ll be fine.” You hummed again as he thumb ran over your lips and the gentle pull of sleep began to find you. It was quiet for a while and you focused on the warmth, the closeness, the comfort he provided until you practically melted into the bed. 

“I can’t do that either.” Scara whispered, hand pressing into the mattress as he leaned closer to your face. “Not until you are safe,” He breathed in your scent, gazing down at your trusting form beneath him. “Even from me.” He spoke as his fingers curled into the sheets and before he lost himself in you, he slipped from your bedroom and made his way down the hall. 

Thoma

He ran so fast as soon as the news reached him. The weight of his feet as he dashed through the countryside grew with every passing second but there was nothing more painful than his clenching heart and anxious thoughts. 

What have they done, am I to late, please don’t be too late. He wracked his brain over and over again, blamed himself for the stupidity of leaving you. If he had been there would the outcome be different? If he had stayed, would he have been able to fend off their attack enough to get you to safety. How foolish of him for thinking they wouldn’t use dirty tricks like this to accomplish their goals. 

Rumors and intel began to swirl like wildfire and at this point he couldn’t differentiate the accuracy of it all. There was one thing he knew for certain, the vision hunters had you and he was going to get you back. 

-- 

Their campsite was simple and you wondered if they would really be able to escort all of these prisoners back to the city on their own. They were intimidating enough to keep most insurrection at bay, but you were not about to let them get away with this. After a quick analysis of your surroundings, you found a few potential options worth trying, now it was only a matter of timing. 

“You won’t get away with this!” Someone shouted next to you and you patiently waited for an opportunity. 

“Shut up.” A soldier barked, his dismissive attitude apparent from the lack of eye contact and the wave of his hand. 

“This is wrong and you know it! Do you think you’re immune to the decree, when the day come to hand over your vision will you?!” 

The soldier turned and made his way through the trembling captured, you used the scuffling of those trying to get out of his way as an excuse to move closer to your escape. The dirt scraped against your bound hands and pulled at your clothes, but you didn’t care because each inch you gained the closer you got to freedom. 

You watched the soldier lift the woman from the ground, his impressive height apparent as she dangled above the well worn soil. “I will do what is necessary for the Raiden Shogun. I am bound by honor, unlike the resistance.” 

“Honor! You know nothing of it. Put me down you brute.” She spat in his face and he reacted in kind. You hated the fact that you were using her as your distraction, but hopefully if this all worked out in the end freedom would be enough compensation for her bruised face. Your fingers brushed against a metal handle, the sword you were aiming for had been reached and you quickly worked to get yourself free from the bindings.

The loosening rope told you of your success but when your hand wrapped around the hilt of the weapon and you moved to stand, a sudden pain against your head made your vision go blurry. 

“What do you think you are doing?!” Shouted a voice near your ear. They were so loud that you shrunk away from it only to be yanked right back. “You think you could take on all of us? Are you stupid.” 

“I didn’t think so.” You wheezed, blinking harshly to try and bring your vision back to clarity. 

“Well let me help you understand.” He drug you away from the group but before you could take but a few steps, an intense groan blasted it’s way near you and the hand that held your hair fell away in an instant. 

“Are you alright?” A familiar voice asked, hands finding your waist to steady you. It was like your eyes snapped back on because as soon as you turned your head, you found Thoma standing their with an expression you’d never seen before: fury. 

“I’m - ouch - okay.” You whispered and then you realized the implications of him being there. Turning, you pressed your hands against his chest and pushed against him, your voice turned tense as you shouted. “Ge-get out of here! What if they catch you!?” 

“I’m not leaving.” 

“Thoma!” 

He looked down at you, his arm tightening around you and you swore the world shifted red and the screaming soldiers shouts became muffled. “Until I know you are safe, I’m not leaving.” He looked forward and the glint of his polearm caught your attention. “Now hold on, okay.” 

The dry landscape turned into a wildfire until only what Thoma wanted to remain, remained. 

Zhongli

“This is very kind of you, Zhongli. To walk me home.” You chuckled, gazing up at him as you made your way down the path and toward the city. It wasn’t uncommon for Zhongli to escort you from place to place, but tonight you would have assumed he would stay on the Pearl and continue his lively conversation. 

“It is no trouble at all, to allow you to walk by yourself would not sit well with me.” Zhongli commented matter-of-factly, his eyes closing as he nodded his head and gazed up toward the stars. 

“You were having such a nice time, know that I didn’t mean to bring that too a close.” You scratched your forehead and adjusted your clothes after climbing the stairs from the docks. It was a rather pleasant night, but it usually was in Liyue this time of year. 

“I would never insinuate you had ill intentions. I made this decision on my own, to escort you is no trouble at all.” 

“Yes, well, that’s very kind of you Zhongli.” The lights of the festival swayed in the wind. To you they looked like fireflies in the sky, but that was such a silly thought you kept it to yourself. “I think I can manage on my own, if you want to go back?” 

“Nonsense, I will stay until I know you are safe.” He glanced down at you and offered you a smile, one that spoke true and gave you the impression of ‘I will not be swayed.’ 

“Well, thank you.” You turned away from him in hopes that he wouldn’t notice the embarrassment you were sure shined in your eyes and flashed across your expression. How can someone so regal find your company enjoyable at all - but Zhongli was so kind to anyone you fought against your better judgement to believe this gesture was more than common courtesy of a gentleman.

“It is my pleasure. Did you have an enjoyable time?” He asked, head examining the city streets and decorations as you had earlier. 

“Oh yes! Thank you for inviting me, I’ve never attended something so high class.” You fussed at your outfit again, it was apparent you weren’t used to wearing something like this but you did your best to fit in and not insult the guest who invited you to join him. 

“I am delighted to hear. It is far better to enjoy ones time when in company you relish, don’t you agree?” 

“Absolutely!” For a while, the two of you discussed the highlights and lowlights of the gathering. The sound of your laughter and excitement caught the attention of late night patrons, but you didn’t mind because it also caught the attention of the one you wanted the most. 

It wasn’t until you neared your home that the conversation began to drift. Your heart was sad that the night was coming to a close but responsibilities held you to a tight schedule, even if you felt the itch to break them. 

“Thank you again, Zhongli. This night will be one I remember for a while.” Your nails had received a break all evening, but, now that you were about to be alone, they felt the dig of your nervous habits once again. 

“It was my pleasure, it is always a gift to spend the evening with you.” He bowed, his long hair slipping over his shoulder at the motion. 

“I tend to agree with you.” Chuckling, you moved to unlock your door and when you looked back to Zhongli, his face was illuminated by the sparkling lanterns and yellow glow of the city. No matter what he did he radiated colors you’d never fully understand. 

“Liyue has many festivals,” He began, his tone wistful, “though I must say the ones where lanterns adorn the city are my favorite. Do you not think they look like fireflies in the distance?” He asked, gazing up at a few that dangled across the bridges and walkways that lined the city. 

“Yeah, actually I do.” You whispered as your eyes fell onto the man you loved so much it hurt to look at him, but, if it meant you could capture even a hint of his existence in your memory, you would happily suffer this pain.