#this hc is available to anyone btw

[lovelybee666]

Viciously need smiling critters (especially catnap) and how they'd cuddle with reader 🙏 I love the idea of them having a plush form that's NOT messed up and just snuggling like that [platonic or romantic]

Autor's note: Sooooo.....I made a small change to it (AND I'M VERY SORRY ABOUT THAT) and their S/O is snuggled with their stuffed animals (IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, I WILL GLADLY DO IT AGAIN😭😭😭)

SNUGGLING WITH THE PLUSHIES OF THE SMILING CRITTERS

DOGDAY

• Dogday entered his hut saying goodbye to Hoppy, he went to his room and the first thing he saw was you resting with his stuffed animal in your arms.

• He went completely silent and his heart melted (I guess he has one O_o)

• He silently stood behind you and hugged you as he fell asleep.

KICKINCHIKEN

• you and Kickin had made a little base made of chairs and blankets.

• They wanted to have a movie night, Kickin had left a few moments away looking for snacks for both of them.

• Kickin spent a long time looking for snacks, he returned with two trays FULL of snacks.

• he leave them aside and enter the base only to find you curled up with his stuffed animal.

• he arrange the snacks and put the stuffed animal aside, putting his head in your arms.

BOBBY BEARHUG

• The night before you couldn't sleep so now you were TOO sleepy, Bobby told you that she would come to your house to visit you in a while.

• When Bobby arrived she heard only your snoring, when she approached the living room she saw you sleeping with her stuffed animal.

• You woke up slowly and saw Bobby next to you smiling.

HOPPY HOPSCOTCH

• Hoppy was talking to you on a bench, you had put on a blanket because you were cold.

• Hoppy went out for a walk for a while, when she came back, she looked at you and noticed that you were resting with one of her stuffed animals in your hands.

• She sat on the bench and woke you up by gently moving your shoulder.

"If you wanted to sleep with me so much, you could have said it before...!"

CRAFTYCORN

• Crafty had gone out to draw with Bobby, she had come to your shack to show you the drawing she made.

• she didn't find you anywhere until she went to your room and saw that you were nestled like a ball inside the sheets.

• she tried to wake you up but to no avail so she left her drawing aside and put her head inside the sheets. She noticed that you had been reading a book and with one of her stuffed animals in your hands.

• she look for a few seconds and take out the book so it doesn't bother you and then take her drawing and leave your hut with a smile on her face.

PICKYPIGGY

• You had been sleeping all day and Hoppy asked Picky if she could come wake you up, She reluctantly agreed and went to your hut.

• Picky was next to you moving your shoulder trying to wake you up.

"Hey, S/O wake up...!"

• He saw that you had something in your hands, when he looked closer he saw that you had one of his stuffed animals.

"....well five minutes doesn't hurt anyone...."

• Picky gave you a little pat on the head as she left (btw she borrowed your food)

BUBBA BUBAPHANT

• Bubba was talking to you sitting on the floor, he was talking to you about different types of animals.

• You got up and went to the room for something, he stared at the door of the room and went to look for some fruit for him.

• He came back and saw you with a blanket, he sat down again and continued talking while eating a sliced ​​peach.

• He didn't notice that you were sleeping, while he was talking he heard you snoring and turned around.

• He saw that you were resting and with one of his stuffed animals, he noticed that your blanket was falling off so he placed it on your shoulders.

I'm thinking of doing hcs of Huggy, Kissy, Bobby and Kickin of who is the big and small spoon

[sotwk]

Nana! I need your guidance!

But how are you btw? 🤭💙

I need your headcanon, where Thranduil and Elrond is a bestie, but Thranduil is to arrogant to admit that he is cared for Elrond. And one day Elrond got abducted by some random dude.

What he would do?!

Love you btw! 💙

Hello, my dear @thranduilswifesblog!

I hope you're enjoying your little "period break"! We've missed you, so it's nice to see you back on here for a while. I was sick with a very nasty cold virus through most of your absence, so you haven't missed much from my blog at least!

Now regarding your headcanon request regarding our favorite "odd couple" besties, Thranduil and Elrond:

What would Thranduil do if Elrond were abducted or in danger?

I share your headcanon of Thranduil being fonder of Elrond than of any Noldor in all of Middle-earth history--with the exception of his wife (Queen Maereth). Proud and stubborn Thranduil never admits his affection outright, but it shows subtly in his actions around the Lord of Imladris, and the fact that he seems to enjoy spending time around him.

In SotWK-verse, Thranduil first met Elrond in the kingdom of Lindon, very early in the Second Age and not long after the War of Wrath. However, they barely interacted with each other because of the lingering hostility between the Noldor and the Sindar. Oropher and his people were not big fans of High King Gil-galad, despite being residents of his realm.

Thranduil and Elrond finally got to know each other better towards the middle of the Second Age. Their early bond was encouraged by Lady Maereth, who shares family history with Elrond and became a close friend of his while she lived in Eregion.

Before fighting side-by-side in the War of the Last Alliance, Thranduil and Elrond fought together for the first time during the War of the Elves and Sauron (SA 1693), which initiated their status as lifelong allies.

I have many more HCs about the friendship between these two elf-lords, but I'm going to skip all that to actually answer your question!

It would take an incredibly powerful foe to abduct Lord Elrond, so it would obviously be a serious crisis that will force Rivendell to summon every available ally for aid.

The King of Mirkwood and his family would be considered Elrond's most loyal and strongest Elven ally military-wise, and I would gladly debate anyone on this opinion.

Thranduil would drop everything to answer the call, initiating emergency protocols normally reserved only for members of his own immediate family.

Assuming this event occurs at a time when his family is still intact, Thranduil will rally all five of his sons to come with him and lead their army to Elrond's rescue.

I cannot stress enough how sending ALL FIVE Thranduilion princes along with the King into battle is a huge deal, and actually unnecessary. These Elven warriors are so skilled and powerful, it is overkill to have them on the same battlefield all at once. It has never happened in the entire history of their family. (You know how Legolas can kick serious orc-ass? Well, he's the "rookie" of this team. Imagine his older brothers and their Ada unleashed.)

In normal cases, only three princes at most are sent to battle at the same time. If Thranduil chooses to muster his entire lineup of sons, then he just wants to prove a simple, angry point: you've fucked with the wrong guy and now I will make you pay to the greatest possible extent.

Elrond in danger is definitely not considered a "normal case", so yes: Thranduil would deploy all his sons for the Lord of Imladris. There is no greater sign of love and friendship from the Elvenking than this.

Unless Elrond gives him a very good reason not to, Thranduil will insist on having the head (literally) of whoever dared to abduct or harm his (not-so-secret) best friend.

Thranduil will still never tell Elrond how much he cares for him. But the message will be received and seen loud and clear by everyone.

Tolkien Headcanon tag list: @quickslvxr @laneynoir @auttumnsayshi @achromaticerebus @tamryniel @friendofthefellowshipsnerdblog @blueberryrock @aduialel @glassgulls @ladyweaslette @asianbutnotjapanese @ratsys @conversacomsmaug @lemonivall @lathalea

For more Tolkien/Thranduil headcanons: SotWK Headcanon Masterlist

[random-tickle-stuff]

I humbly request some more Matt tickles, please. Preferably some ticklepire/tickle vampire Matt from that one concept you did. But any version is fine!

Ofc! I've been meaning to make some content of this silly vampire boio >:]

I haven't written him getting Tord yet so I decided to go with that-

This takes place during THE END when Tord comes back btw

Also Matt is technically only partly still a vampire in my hc, but he still has fangs and can taste laughs and stuff

A warm welcome

Lee: Tord

Ler: Ticklepire/Tickle Vampire!Matt

Warnings: some cussing, lots of fluff, matt being a little shit >:3

｡☆✼★━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━★✼☆｡

Everyone was happy to have Tord back.

Well, except Tom of course, but that's not important right now.

Matt was especially excited(even if he couldn't remember him at first)!

With Tord having left before the whole Matt becoming a vampire thing, Matt never go to taste his laugh!

So, that's what he was going to do!

Matt waited until it was just him and Tord before sneaking up behind where Tord was sitting on the couch.

He crept slowly, not making a sound...

Tord wasn't paying attention, just reading his hentai while thinking of how to get to his giant robot without anyone noticing.

Slowly Matt crept up on him..

Slowly...

Then, he pounced!!

Tord could barley blink before he was pinned down.

He tried to struggle, but Matt was much taller than him, so his attempts failed.

"Matt-! What the fuck are you doing?!" Tord asked with a scowl. Matt simply smirked.

Matt began spidering all over Tord's sides and belly, making the norski immediately burst out into delicious giggles.

"Mahahahatt you ahahasshole! Lehet me go!" Tord demanded, his cheeks flushed redder than his hoodie.

But Matt had no intention of stopping. He smiled warmly and started using his fangs to gently nibble at Tord's neck, causing the smaller man's giggles to increase in pitch.

Tord's laugh was absolutely delicious! Matt was loving it!

Tord was enjoying the too despite his embarrassment.

"Mahahahahatt! Quihihit it!" Tord tried to struggle again, but once again to no avail.

"Never!" Matt giggled, continuing to tickle poor Tord.

Without warning Matt shot for Tord's hips, sending the poor norski into hysterics.

"MAHAHAHAAHATT NOO YOU AHAHAHAHASSSHOLE! STAHAHAP PLEAHAHASE!" That's all it took for Tord to start pleading, and Matt loved it.

Matt just smirked and kept going as tears of mirth started to peak out of Tord's eyes.

Tord's laugh was absolutely delicious! Mett wanted as much as he could!

Eventually he did stop, letting Tord take a moment to breath.

Tord was bright red from laughing so much, even his ears were red!

"Sorry-" Matt said with a small chuckle, rubbing Tord's back a bit to comfort him.

"Asshole.." Tord grumbled, but the little grin on his face made it clear he enjoyed it nonetheless.

Both had enjoyed the moment. Matt got to taste Tord's sweet laughter and Tord got probably the most warm welcome he's ever been given.

[neverfearforiamhere]

PSA ABOUT TUMBLR TIPPING AND POST+ SUBSCRIPTIONS ON IOS DEVICES!!

This isn’t my usual content. I just wanted to leave a tip to anyone wanting to make a tip or a Post+ subscription to ANY creators on Tumblr…

The following post is in USD.

DO NOT DO SO THROUGH THE IOS TUMBLR APP!! If you have an iPhone, do not make a purchase through it. Apple will eat 30% of the tip you leave, or of what you pay for the subscription. You can read about it through the Tumblr FAQ, the link I’m getting my information from is at the bottom. While the article doesn’t give an example of a tip from an IOS device through reading it, it gives an example between a Post+ subscription between an Android phone and an IOS phone.

Spending $3.99 on a Post+ Subscription through the IOS app —> Creator getting $2.22

Spending $3.99 on a Post+ Subscription through the Android phone or web browser —> Creator getting $3.37

That is a MAJOR DIFFERENCE. Apple is ridiculous with this 30% cut they take from purchases. It’s why Fortnite is no longer available on IOS, they wouldn’t let Apple charge 30% more or take 30% of their money from purchases APPLE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH!!! WHY ARE CREATORS HAVING MONEY TAKEN FROM THEM BECAUSE THEIR FOLLOWERS HAPPEN TO HAVE A CERTAIN TYPE OF PHONE!!

Following up with the Post+ Subscription, the creator will only get paid their money once a month from Apple, but once a week with anything else. (It’s once a week regardless of platform for tipping.)

Someone tipping $9.99 through the Android App leaves the creator getting $9.40 of that tip.

Apple will only give Tumblr $7.00 of that $9.99 tip. If we then apply the same fees that Tumblr takes… that would be the creator receiving $6.41 from the same amount of money being spent by the tipper. There is nothing that Tumblr can do about this BTW, this is simply Apple feeling entitled to even more of your money. Capitalism at its finest. Ugh.

(Disclaimer on the math: I am unsure if the percentages they use with an Apple tip are taken from the $7.00 or the $9.99. It’s possible that it’s $6.50, which isn’t much better…)

So anyways! If you’re going to support a creator and have apple devices- I don’t know if the above applies to Macbooks, but would assume so- do so through a web browser instead. Don’t throw more money at Apple.

Sorry this was all over the place, I went to give a little tip to a creator and had a weird feeling about it when seeing that link with questions, so decided to just read through it before I tipped… and I sure am glad that I did! I want everyone else to know about this as well, as it’s screwed up. You make a tip or pay for Post+ to support creators, not Apple.

Here’s the link in question: https://help.tumblr.com/hc/en-us/articles/4418113451671#united-states

I would also assume that everything mentioned here goes for any other platform that may have similar tipping processes? I’m not quite sure, but you bet your bucks I’m gonna look into it now.

[fandom-hoarder]

Normally i don't do AU that isn't at least canon adjacent, but I started daydreaming for a few minutes about an rpg-style au Sastiel with witch!Samantha and beekeeper!Cas. @birdgirl1772 idk if this fully fits with your headcanon but tagging jic it catches your fancy.

Samantha has a little shop in the village where she sells charms and spells and does fortune telling.

🌌🔮✨

She gets her herbs and flowers from Cas, who has a stone cottage outside the village that's engulfed in vines and wildflowers.

🌷🌻🌼⚘🌿

Castiel brings their wares into the village and sells honey and healing salves off a cart outside Sam's shop twice a week. Samantha brews tea and Castiel adds honey and they get into discussions of interspecies politics and customs and the benefits of different magics in between customers.

🌿💐🍯🍵🧝‍♀️🧞‍♂️🧚‍♀️🧜‍♂️🧙‍♀️💎

Castiel can talk to animals, but has a particular soft spot for bees and other pollinators because they help his garden.

🐝🐞🦋🐦

Sam gets visions and has a knack for spellwork and knows most of the languages they encounter from outside the village. Castiel reads a lot of ancient languages and has a collection of books from all over that they enjoy sharing with Sam. (Part of the collection is smuggled from the celestial family Castiel renounced, but she doesn't like to talk about that.)

📜✒🔮🌟🌌

Dean is village blacksmith, but used to be a full-time adventurer with Sam when they were younger. He and Sam still take adventurer jobs from the village board sometimes to get supplies.

⚒⚔🛡🏹💎

They often overnight at Castiel's cottage on the way to and from the village. Sam also overnights there when it's harvesting time for certain herbs.

🛏😴🌘🌕🌒🌑🌿

Cas knits Sam a flower crown and blushes when Sam kisses their nose and flowers bloom around them.

💋💐🌹☺️

Castiel starts watching Samantha's shop while Sam and Dean are gone -- until she returns with a nasty wound one too many times and Cas is soothing a headwound away with shining fingers when they insist on joining their party as healer. 🥰

[mars-writes-yandere]

Hihi!! Can I request jealousy hcs for Ciel, Alois, Claude, Sebastian, and Ash? :0 only if you want to of course!! I love your work btw, you have all them very in character <3

Thank you so much!!! I really hope you like this!

Warning: Yandere Themes, mentions of murder, mentions of torture

Ciel Phantomhive

Ciel is very silent when it comes to being jealous. That doesn’t mean that he won’t do anything about it after, He just won’t say much about him being jealous.

He will Intervene when someone starts hitting on you but then he’ll quietly order Sebastian to bring the person that was flirting with you to the manor later.

Now normally Ciel doesn’t like to get his hands dirty but when it comes to someone flirting with you then he doesn’t mind getting a little blood on his hands.

Sebastian Michaelis

Sebastian just silently laughs at the person flirting with you but that doesn’t mean he isn’t jealous. He gets extremely jealous but he’s just good at hiding it.

Sebastian won’t intervene unless the person that’s flirting with you starts to get touchy or you start looking uncomfortable.

Sebastian will memorize the person's face so he can sneak away later and make sure that they don’t flirt with you or anyone else again.

Alois Trancy

Alois gets jealous easily. The person doesn’t even have to be flirting with you and he’ll get jealous.

He will intervene as soon as he thinks the person is flirting with you. He’ll pull you away and start yelling at the other person. Then Alois will drag you away back to the manor but make sure to let Claude know to bring the person to the manor after you go to sleep.

Alois doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty for you so he certainly doesn’t mind now. He’ll let the person live but they may have to live without a few of their teeth.

Claude Faustus

Claude is the more jealous demon out of the two. He always has that stone cold look on his face when you two are out so it’s hard to tell what he feels.

He will intervene as soon as the person starts flirting with you, letting the person know that you aren’t available. Just because he was polite doesn’t mean that he isn’t completely fuming on the inside.

Claude will visit the person who flirted with you later and make sure that they can’t even look at you again

Ash landers

Ash is the most jealous out of all the black butler characters. He sees you as pure and anyone that tries to ruin that purity is going to be punished.

He will immediately intervene when someone starts flirting with you. Ash doesn’t even like the idea of them looking at you so there’s no way he will let this person talk to you.

Ash will make sure to take care of the person later. He will make sure that they don’t see the light of day ever again my

[fairestwriting]

So...heard you like writing pain 👀 can I request some hcs for the dorm leaders reacting to their s/o overblotting due to all their negative emotions just overflowing and having to take them down otherwise they’ll probably end up causing major property damage or yknow,..maybe kill someone in their rampage? God I love this blog sm btw!! ✨💖

assuming overblot!s/o’s magical power is evenly matched with the boys, for maximum pain~ its no fun if they can just take them down with one hit after all

Riddle Rosehearts

Gets a feeling of dread as soon as he sees the first hints of darkness building up around you, for a second he gets this flash of a thought -- Is this how people felt when this was happening to him? At his core, Riddle is terrified.

He’s not sure if he trusts his ability to talk them down, so he has Off With Your Head at the tip of his pen already, even as he tries to calm you down to no avail. When the worst eventually happens, Riddle uses the spell, completely at the edge of panic... and then completely falling into it when it breaks in a couple seconds, and you won’t listen to him at all.

The overblot settles in fully, that dark figure appearing behind you, and Riddle is in complete despair as he does what he can to take you down, with a franticness no one’s ever seen on him before -- He’s crying and apologizing at every spell, just praying that eventually you come to your senses, that this nightmare comes to an end. He’ll do what he has to do, but he feels awful about it, he’s terrified it’ll actually just hurt you.

Leona Kingscholar

Slips half into aggression, half into denial when your breakdown starts reaching greater heights, he can feel there’s something seriously wrong about this with how it seems the sky had darkened so quickly. He keeps telling you to snap out of it out of panic.

When the overblot really does start, he almost freezes. What is he supposed to do? He’s calling out to you and asking you to snap out of it again, but he knows how useless that is. He’d been there after all. Leona swears under his breath and calls out to Ruggie, Jack, anyone who’s around to get some support to deal with this.

He refuses to use King’s Roar on you. Obviously. And he doesn’t want to hurt you in any way, just the thought of it kills him, but while other people look for support, Leona will try to keep you from ruining your surroundings or harming anyone. He grits his teeth as he attacks you, hoping you’ll both live for him to apologize for this -- And he truly will if you do.

Azul Ashengrotto

The panic is internal until it’s not. He’s trying to help you through your breakdown in that soothing voice he uses for situations like these and it’s not working, you’re snapping at him even. Azul knows something is wrong when his intuiton tells him he’s in danger. He’s getting Jade and Floyd immediately.

The thought of you overblotting may have crossed his mind once. When he thinks about what happened to him, it’s difficult to not be scared it’ll happen to someone he loves too, and now his fear is becoming a reality -- And there’s only so much he can do about it, he tries It’s a Deal on you but it barely does anything, it’s like you’re creating new magic from scratch.

His eyes fill with tears and they stream down, with Jade and Floyd’s help he’ll try to take you down. He’s barely thinking about any of the surroundings, really, whoever you harm be damned, he just wants his darling back safe. If he gets it, he hugs you tight while he’s crying, telling you about how scary everything was and how glad he is that you’re okay.

Kalim Al-Asim

Jamil’s overblot immediately comes to mind, before it even begins to happen. Kalim is frequently there to comfort you through any breakdowns, but this one doesn’t seem to end, and you’re pushing him away, and the air around you feels weird -- He’s terrified.

Kalim refuses to raise a hand against you. There isn’t even much he can do, magic wise, but even if he could, he wouldn’t be able to get over his hesitation. He tries to talk to you through it, even if you end up hurting him or others, he’s hoping you are still there somewhere.

He’ll call on Jamil to try to take you down, or anyone else who’s around, but he still won’t attack you. Even then he’s at the front line of the battle, calling out to you, begging you to come to your senses, telling you he believes you can fight whatever is taking over you now with tears in his eyes.

Vil Schoenheit

Vil knew you weren’t doing well today. From the beginning to the end, you’d been acting more and more off, he gets a bad feeling he can’t get rid of. He wants to give you space so you can breathe, but the moment you’re breaking down he can’t leave you alone. When the dark clouds start forming, he can already tell what it is.

His heart feels like it’s about to beat out of his chest, but he’ll try to talk you out of it first. Firmly setting hands on your shoulders, trying to find a balance of validating your emotions and grounding you -- An attempt that seems to fail more upon each second, until you strike him and he knows there’s no use doing that anymore.

Vil is another one who just does what he has to do. Grits his teeth and does his best to take you down, even if it hurts, if he just cried and gave up now you could just die, and he can’t bear the thought of losing you. Calling for help is something he almost forgets in his panic, but he’ll still do it. Anything to just put an end to this. He promises to himself that he’ll be able to apologize to you later.

Idia Shroud

Completely panicking. This can’t be happening, this can’t be happening, he wants to deny this reality. He wants it to just be a nightmare he can wake up from. He recognizes overblot almost instantly, maybe before you even realize your breakdown escalating, and he can’t handle it.

Idia is clearly terrified to have to attack you. He’s hopeless with trying to talk you down so he knows he can’t stop you without taking you down, but he can’t bring himself to do it at all. Everytime he raises his hand it freezes.

He ends up just getting help, counting the seconds and praying that nothing bad happens to you -- Another one who doesn’t care about any property damage, or what happens to others, he just wants you safe. If he gets you back, he apologizes so profusely for being unable to do anything to help.

Malleus Draconia

Malleus knows how powerful he is. He knows all the things he’s capable of, and yet, seeing you like this makes him feel so completely hopeless -- He knows what’s going on so quickly, and he somehow doesn’t know what to do to fix it, no matter how much he theoretically knows about overblots.

But he’s sworn he’d protect you, and this meant he’d have to save you now too, no matter how much it hurted. He tries to think positively, assuring himself he could take you down and save you, no matter what he needed to do, but even then he feels hopeless.

He puts every ounce of his strength into it. Attacking you, but still trying to keep you unharmed. The very idea of it has him apologizing to you under his breath, but there’s nothing else he can do. He won’t waste time trying to get others to help, somehow he knows he’s the only one who could do anything to stop you at all.

if you wanna support my work, you can buy me a ko-fi or commission me!  

[dreamwritesimagines]

Okay so for that HC, i feel like Alex was kinda lying and was actually in bed by the time she called, and once she hung up he sorta got tangled in his bedsheets scrambling to get out of them and he fell on his face, so he had a busted lip.

Also, while she was pretty straightforward with it, I feel like he wouldn't take any condoms with him because: 1- He doesn't have any. He's been pining away for this girl for like a year and hooking up with anyone else while doing that just feels wrong.

2- He thinks she might actually change her mind on his way there so it's like a show of good faith? Because he really wants ger but he also doesn't expect anything, he'd be actually happy to go to her place ay midnight just to watch a movie.

But he does take Ice cream he picked up from the 24/7 mini Market by his place because his mother taught him not to show up empty handed to anyone's house.

So there's that, happy and excited but kinda cautious Alex hesitantly knocking at her door.

Peaches on the other hand is just horny and this motherfucker is not only available but his friends uploaded a really good picture of him on Instagram with his shirt off and tagged him and she's only human okay?

Also I feel like I wrote headcanons about how Bucky and Alex are in bed but none about Peaches and I should fix that, but anyways. She looks amazing, like this girl knows how to dress for a sneaky link, and she smells amazing, everything is set

She opens the door. "Hi!"

"Hey"

"I brought Ice Cream, I didn't know what kind you liked so I just went with the safe choices, so unless you're a psycopath who hates chocolate-"

"Jesus Christ, Alex."

She pulls him in and kisses him before dragging him inside; he recovers very quickly. Another thing about Alex? This man knows how to French Kiss, like really knows how. Coincidently, so does she. There are hands in her hair and her nails scraping his abds under his shirt and he sorta hisses when she bites down on his busted lip.

"Uhm, I'm sorry. Did that hurt? We can stop if you-"

"Fuck...no. Do it again. Do whatever you want."

So the Ice Cream is forgotten on her foyer while they make out, his heart is beating so fast and she's so beautiful and obviously wants him, Alex's shirt is halfway off when he feels her running her palm over him before starting to work on his belt.

"Shit, fuck. Shit."

"What," she mumbles against his lips before slipping her hand inside his trousers.

"Oh God, fuck me. I- I don't have anything. I didn't bring-"

She laughs, "you brought ice cream but not condoms to a booty call?"

"Is that what this is? I was trying to be a gentleman, thank you. Fuck, don't stop. I can still get you off-"

"I'll take you up on that teach, but I think i have some on my bedroom. Have I shown you that before?"

He kisses her again, deeper and hotter this time, before picking her up, her legs wrapping around him, and he isn't really a religious man, but he thinks Heaven feels alot like her.

Once they're done, and it is like almost two hours later because my boy takes his time, they're lying in her bed, (Though they certainly didn't start there) and he is sorta propped up against her headboard, playing with her hair because her head is against his chest, and she looks up at him and goes "Do you think the Ice Cream is all melted now?"

"No. I put it on your fridge when I went to the bathroom. Why?"

"Good boy. I know I gave you shit about it but I really am hungry. How opposed are you to eating in bed?"

"I think you of all people should know considering-"

"God, not like that."

"I'm okay with it. Do you want me to bring it?"

"Yes, please."

Oh my God-

Ooooh my God darling YOU'RE SO TALENTED!? HOW!? HOW ARE YOU SO TALENTED!? 😍❤

This is so good!? Like I've read it three times by now and I'm legit staring and smiling at my screen, IT'S SO GOOD!? 😍❤

Him being a gentleman and bringing ice cream instead of condoms? 😂

Heaven feels a lot like her I AM MELTING😍

Btw his joke about eating in bed...😂😂❤

I can't thank you enough for this darling!😍😍❤ I love you and I love your work so much, THANK YOU 😍❤❤

[lordkambe]

Hey 💕 I literally discovered balance: unlimited because of ur page lol so in honor of my new obsession with rich boy detective can we please get hcs for sugar daddy kambe and Silva from hxh they fit the part, sorry if it’s a bit much it’s not mentioned in ur rules if it’s okay to ask for different characters from different things in the same request if it makes u uncomfortable please ignore this, love ur page btw ❤️

💸   title, type: daisuke as your sugar daddy headcanons , request.

💸   character, fandom, type of reader: daisuke kambe, balance unlimited: millionaire detective, gender neutral / woman reader. 

💸   genre, rating: -

💸   themes, triggers: brief nsfw headcanon

💸   author’s note:  hello ~ i’m only going to including daisuke if that’s alright ! idk i just don’t vibe enough with silva to write for him just yet. i apologize for that but i hope the rich boy detective is up to your expectations ! thank you for requesting as well as your kind words i appreciate it so much. ( also i’m so flattered that you got into balance unlimited because of my acct like my heart is all fidhihodgh lmaoo )

+  daisuke as your sugar daddy puts every other sugar daddy to shame. he’s got an unlimited balance. you name it. you got it. but the great thing about daisuke is that ... he doesn’t wait for you to ask. he simply provides.

+  let’s say he’s bored one day. expect a few grand in your account in seconds. it’s followed by a simple not “get yourself something cute” he’s probably hinting for you to buy a sexy piece of clothing / lingerie. of course you send him pictures afterwards. 

+  just loves it when you brag about him to your friends ... or literally anyone. he feels so proud that he plays such an important role in your life. he brags about you too. some people might give him shit for having a sugar baby, but he’s quick to remind them that you’re loyal and you give him gifts that money just can’t buy. wink, wink.

+  likes to be annoying and say “my balance is... limited.” but all you have to do is give him a pouty face and go “please daddy.” and he’s telling heusc to buy you a new car. 

+  nsfw | you’re joking if you don’t think he fucks you on silk sheets covered in money. you get to keep whatever he throws down on that bed too. it adds up to a few grand, you’re both happy about it. | nsfw end.

+  yeah buying you stuff that’s already available is cool and all but he wants to give you the best and nothing but the best. expect custom items, limited items, all of which are made for you and only for you. 

+  most likely gives you a piece of jewelry to symbolize what role you play in his life and what role he plays in yours. it’s not necessarily an engagement ring or a couple ring but it sure does look like one.

+  gets mad as hell when people refuse to accommodate to you. does anything in his power ( or makes it his power ) to make sure you’re treated with nothing but the best service. 

+  closes down a store or an entire shopping center so you can shop easily without distraction. maybe he’ll buy you the whole store, if you’re up for it. 

+  trips to luxurious locations are a frequent thing. he has his own private jet plane and he’ll get you you’re own too. 

+  the two of you are powerful together. when you walk in a room every head turns to look at you two. 

+   having a bad day? he’ll buy you an entire garden just to see your face light up at the beautiful flowers. “they bloom just for you.” he compliments. 

+   he’s loyal to you. if you’re his sugar baby, you’re the only one. so all that love, affection, and money ? it’s all just for you. 

[silverpsychedelic]

BALAN HEADCANONS LETS GO

These have been collaborated with one of my good friends through some general chats! I’ve also put some of these on my personal BWW Discord (ask me for a link if you’d like to join!) but I wanted to share some of them in a big masterpost for fun. I may do Lance after if this gets enough traction too. Enjoy!

(BTW I def see Balan/Lance as nonbinary, I usually just default to he/him pronouns for Balan and they/them for Lance!) Added HC’s under the cut cause there’s a few of them

- Balan has NO concept of personal space (as we can see from the trailers). Unless you specifically state otherwise he’ll constantly be all up in your business -petting your head, touching your arms/shoulders etc! 

- Balan is calm and composed at all times in front of visitors, he’s a grand actor after all! He never breaks the smile he has in front of people, his emotions are expressed more in his eyes and body language! To people who know him more personally (Lance, theatre staff) it’s easier to tell his mood beyond the smile by reading into his small cues.

- He dresses to impress! It’s imperative to him that his suit is always clean, pressed and flashy of course. THAT BEING SAID, if heaven forbid there’s something wrong with his suit (loose thread, frayed edge) this man will fucking unravel. I’m talking full on drama queen meltdown until it can be repaired. Lance once found him sobbing on the floor because his vest had lost a button.

- He plays piano and writes his own musical numbers in his spare time (he is called a Maestro after all!). It’s often that the staff will hear him singing and playing a tune on one of the grand pianos they have around the place. It’s a nice thing to hear while the staff are doing jobs around the theatre, considering he has a knockout voice.

- Balan considers being seen without his signature hat as a form of indecency, and will only allow select people to witness it (Lance being one of the only people who has seen it on occasion, but even then Balan can be weird about it). He’s also not a fan of showing skin, he’s wearing several layers after all.

- Balan is always working at the theatre, I’m talking from dawn til dusk and then some. And he does so simply because he loves it! When not attending to a visitor, you can find him around the theatre organizing stuff, moving furniture, cleaning, talking to the inhabitants of Wonderworld and everything under the sun. He considers paperwork a holiday, seriously.

- Balan has tentacles just like Lance, but he keeps them hidden because he considers them obscene. Especially due to the fact they can easily frighten visitors, he will only resort to using them in dire situations  (that’s assuming he and Lance are the same type of entity)

- His doubles are unable to speak, but he speaks to them frequently as if separate entities. Sometimes when he needs to talk to someone and nobody else is readily available, he will conjure up a double to vent at.

- I also like the idea that he learned how to use sign language after once encountering a deaf visitor! He made it his life’s mission to learn after not wanting any other hearing impaired visitor to be left out! His doubles also resort to using sign language if they need to convey a message to anyone else.

- Apparently, he doesn’t make any of his furniture to scale for his lanky ass so he looks a little ridiculous trying to sit in chairs. You’d think being so tall and some powerful, omnipotent theatre entity he would make to scale furniture to accommodate that?? Absolutely not.

- He’s constantly moving! I’ve noticed in a lot of the trailers and the opening movie, there’s tiny flourishes and extra movement to everything he does. Having lots of energy will do that, and it’s especially evident when there’s a slow day in the theatre. He’ll constantly flex his hands or tap his fingers against things, bounce his leg, pace back and forth to use up that excess energy. This also means when showtime rolls around he will completely throw his all into a performance (obv, from what we’ve seen). 

[frozensriracha]

What are your Proxy hcs?

(these are just hcs for the classic proxy trio. if you want any of the others on my list, don’t hesitate to send another ask!)

Hoodie

the strong, silent type

comes off as stoic and sometimes unfeeling, but he’s a sweetheart!

he’s a really chill guy and patient with the others

but don’t piss him off

he’d never hurt anyone physically without being attacked first, but he will rain clapbacks and sarcastic remarks galore upon them like fire and brimstone

but it’s really, really, really hard to get him to that point

especially if you’re a pasta because he is highkey overprotective of the other cpps

although he’s the best of the proxies at medical care (having been a nursing student and all), he doesn’t often get to use his skills because opponents usually go after him first, since he’s the tallest of the proxy trio (6’3)

he does, however, help out ej in his office whenever he can, and they sometimes get together after work to have a drink or play cards or sometimes just talk

he and masky are decent cooks, and sometimes slender lets them make dinner for a night

even though his major was nursing, he’s a pretty decent writer too!

so, in my headcanons, the proxies have a separate cabin that slender gave them so the pastas don’t distract them, however, they only really use it to hide from the other pastas when they get too annoying

hoodie is the only one who cleans this cabin. he’s tried to get masky and toby to do some cleaning too but they obstinately refuse (toby more so than masky) so he just kinda,,, gave up

he really loves spooning! he’s usually the big spoon, but he doesn’t mind being the little spoon

he’s such a cat person, he discovered a colony of feral cats outside, and he’s been feeding (and snuggling!!) them ever since then

his music taste is a little unusual to say the least. his playlist consists of a combination of lo-fi hip hop and 90’s punk rock (a bit like what @lovestruck-lasagna said he listens to, please check them out btw, they’re amazing!)

you guys,,, hoodie has the deepest, hottest voice ever. so it’s no surprise that his singing voice is phenomenal

he chews mint gum a lot

he has a tooth gap, change my mind

god he’s so gorgeous; i love him

Masky

the dad friend of the group

listens to old 60s-70s bands and criticizes any music made after that time

even if he wasn’t dragged into the woods by slender, he’d probably still live there anyway! he’d get like a little ranch by a lake and go on walks every day, maybe hike and fish on the weekends

the one who owns the slender proxy cabin and pays the bills and puts his feet up on the coffee table

has tried to charge other proxies rent with varying degrees of success until slender stepped in

steals traffic signs

surprisingly good at first aid!

if hoodie or toby gets knocked down during a mission he’ll do as much as he can for them before hauling them off to ej

ej appreciates it since it’s less work for him

ok,,, hear me out,,, he has a southern accent

he’d never admit it but he’s a total country boi

wants to be a dog dad, he really wants a couple of german shepherds

he’s trying to convince slender to get a couple by saying he’ll train them as proxy attack dogs, but let’s be real, they’d be his babies

gives really great hugs

they feel like eating warm cookies fresh from the oven or waking up thinking you’ve got five minutes until your alarm rings only to see that you’ve got three more hours

he’s very selective who he gives them to, so if you receive one, it’s like receiving an amazing person award

he gets exasperated and annoyed with everypasta very easily, but he’d take a bullet for them (and his friends and s/o too ofc!) any day

he knows he’s a bit short-tempered, and hoodie’s been helping him work through that

to destress, he grows a garden behind the proxy cabin! toby has given all the plants increasingly ridiculous names, like “bertram,” “ebeneezer,” and “sebastian squire senator.” masky thinks it’s kind of funny

please love him, he needs more of it

Toby

an odd mix of good boi and crackhead

sees hoodie and masky as his better replacement fathers (which makes them so happy)

gives names to any living thing he finds

likes cats and dogs both! he loves feeding and snuggling with hoodie’s colony but also joins masky in begging slender for dogs

cracks a lot of bad jokes, some of them pretty dark

hot take: toby boi has braces and freckles

he really likes pop music and sings in the shower a lot! he’s not great at it, but he’s putting himself out there!

he stims!! he usually plays with his hair, pets a random animal he met, or chews on stuff. he recently got some chewy necklaces so he doesn’t chew on his flesh

speaks almost exclusively in gen-z slang

he loves,,, not like horror movies, but halloween movies like the nightmare before christmas, hocus pocus, etc.

loves spending his holidays with the other pastas, he just wants a family so badly-

will cuddle with ANYONE who’s available and will let him

on my blog, he and clockwork are not a couple, but they are very good friends

usually, when one gets dragged back to the mansion by a pissed off slender for stealing a walmart shopping cart to ride down a hill or snorting ramen or some shit, the other is too

similar to doby, he’s a people-pleaser, but luckily, brian, tim, cody, and clockwork are here to help him be assertive

toby is basically a disney princess

something about him just seems to attract animals, and who is he to discourage them?

hoodie and masky are okay with it on most occasions, but when he starts bringing rats, pigeons, and the occasional possum into the house, they draw the line

that and toby can and will rock a dress and get his dads to slaughter anyone who’s a dick about it

that being said, he can be a dumbass sometimes and is not above doing,,, pretty much anything,,, and relaying the whole tale that led up to his decision during the subsequent visit to ej’s office

he’s trying his best you guys

please appreciate him

[purplesunrisefanfic]

Would you be willing to share a couple of YOUR Abby fantasies with us, your adoring, always horny, Abby simping fans?

Sure! And thank you, this was a fun ask ❤️��💪

Abby Sexual Fantasties

(Abby/reader OR a mixture of Abby/author and Abby/GN!reader)

Fair warning, my fantasies are even more high-key kinky than my fics so major warning for very graphic and explicit sexual content, hardcore BDSM and arguable edgeplay. Also, as far I’m concerned Abby switches, don’t @ me about your HCs that she’s a rigid “top” or whatever else, @ me about your graphic sexual fantasies of Abby instead. 😈

I don’t want to warn in detail and thereby effectively imply I have caught everything that might need a warning because I fear I will miss something, so anyone who has specific triggers, please inbox me the specifics (Anon is on) and I’ll reply either saying this post is fine or with a redacted version suitable for you personally. And please do ask, I’m happy to help with this stuff. 💛

Gender and Bodies Note: I have written this in two different formats. The first was using “you” so it’s easier to reader-insert but the “you” is based on my fantasies, ie me and the body I have. I’m AFAB (and not knowingly intersex) with my original layout/plumbing and am comfortable with all the sex options my body has available. As far as I’m aware I don’t reference anything that couldn’t work the same for someone who has had a vaginoplasty, except that I talk about getting extremely wet beyond what might be possible for many vagina-havers. Maybe even most other vagina-havers tbh, bc I have a noted ability to get soaked way beyond what most people who self-lubricate can. It’s actually partly a coping thing that it so regularly features in my fantasies tbh because it helps to think of it in sexy way when the actual reality is that trying to get off is often like trying to build up friction on a freakin’ slip n’ slide! 😂

If you don’t want to read a “you” with such characteristics, scroll down and I’ll rewrite the necessary sections with an “I” so you can read these with an author-insert instead of a reader-insert. Look for a line made of emojis.

Reminder: App/mobile site = no read more breaks, don’t @ me, @ Tumblr bc it annoys the eff outta me too! (Tumblr, if you’re listening, please please fix this shite ASAP.)

Abby/Reader version (Warning: This version is body-specific):

Assuming, which I do, that @pinkchubbiebunnie is correct that Abby cannon has a hairpulling kink, (well spotted and much appreciated detail btw, thank you, Tanisha! Hope you enjoy these as well they seem like your sort of thing too 😍) Tying up Abby’s wrists with rope then braiding the rope into her hair and tying the rope onto her braid so that every time she’s overwhelmed with desire and starts to struggle against the rope it pulls her hair and teases her some more. Edging her like that until she breaks, her face covered in sweat while she pleads for release. Once you give it to her, you don’t stop and she struggles again when she becomes overwhelmed with pleasure, but struggling pulls on her hair again which intensifies the overstimulation. Tears in her eyes, she pleads for you to stop (but doesn’t actually safeword) so you offer/remind her that she can safeword. She breaks eye contact, her already flushed face starts burning and she shakes her head. You tilt her head back up, forcing eye contact. “So you don’t really want me to stop?” you question her evilly, just to make her say that she does want you to stop, but she doesn’t want you to have to do what she wants, she wants you free to ignore her. Her lip trembles when she tells you to use her how you please, breaking off mid-sentence to whimper, utterly overwhelmed because you haven’t let up on her clit this whole time. You make her come once more, and she finishes up an absolute mess. You think you ought to stop there, and lay off touching her further, until she softly asks you, in a small voice with pleasing eyes, to put on her strap and fuck her with that because she feels desperately empty after all that stimulation.

Flip-side: Her and Manny are ultimate bros and ultimate dom bros. You’re in a lifestyle BDSM situation with her and have to get yourself used to the fact that she’ll spank you in her shared apartment whenever you deserve it, whether Manny is around or not. Equally, you see some of Manny’s poly rotation facing the same from time-to-time. You don’t have orgies or even have sex when Manny is there (or vice versa) but they both feel discipline can’t wait. He’s respectful and super discreet about it, which low-key feels nice/destigmatising but high-key feels embarrassing as hell that he sees this stuff without ever bringing it up in conversation with you. You always wonder if part of his charismatic grin is teasing you that he knows what the “special necklace” you always wear really means. Oh, and between her muscles and her hands which are calloused from all the physical and soldier work, she can spank you hard and long without needing a paddle.

She’s figured out how to pack discreetly with something firm enough to fuck you with, and when you patrol together she’ll take any opportunity to give you a taste. She never lets you orgasm while you’re out and makes sure you’re always walking around soaked through your clothes and grateful your trousers don’t show an obvious colour difference. She always eats her supper (“supper” = British for evening meal.*) super slowly on those days. Anytime you seem like you might be relaxing during the meal or becoming less needy, she makes suggestive eye contact and squeezes one of your thighs between hers under the table, letting you feel the toy between her legs so she’s sure you don’t get a break from feeling desperate for her. You end up having all your patrol group believing your old minor knee injury (which doesn’t really cause you any proper trouble) always gets painful towards the end of patrol days because you always blame that for why you get noticeably quiet and jumpy by the end of a patrol day.

She’ll play really sadistically if you ask her to. (Content warning: this is about to get into the details of that). With that, she won’t use any bondage, just her raw ability to overpower you without even breaking out in a sweat. She’ll pinch and pull at your nipples, grab you by your hair and drag you around. She’ll absolutely cover your thighs in hickeys (and you tend to have to bite hard to leave a mark on a thigh) on the way to going down on you. She keeps her nails short for practical reasons, but she knows how to grab you and angle her fingers so you feel her nails sink into anyway. She picked up enough medical knowledge that she knows where and how she can safely hurt you. Abby can control herself and her voice so you get her steeliest tone and expression while she makes you scream and cry. That type of treatment makes your clit swell like hell and you get so wet from it that it’s obvious and embarrassing. And Abby loves to make that worse by drawing attention to how wet it makes you, taunting you about how much you like her brutal treatment. She’ll sometimes slip her fingers inside just to be able to coat them in your juices so she can smear them over your body. Smirking, she’ll coo about how you’ll let her do whatever the fuck she wants with you. If she feels like using her strap on, she’ll slip it inside you briefly at first, only to pull it out, shove you to your knees and make you suck it spotlessly clean of your own taste before she’ll consider actually fucking you with it. Afterwards, she cleans you up gently and tends to any little injuries (she never does anything dangerous). She’s takes hold of you a little possessively, reminding you that no one but her gets to treat you like that, and she’d kill anyone who tried. Then she showers you with love and praise, holding you protectively until you fall asleep.

💜💪💜💪💜💪💜💪💜💪💜💪💜💪💜💪💜💪💜💪💜💪💜💪

Abby/GN! Reader & Abby/Author version:

(Still uses “you” with one alteration to the original) Assuming, which I do that @pinkchubbiebunnie is correct that Abby cannon has a hairpulling kink, (well spotted and much appreciated detail btw, thank you, Tanisha!) Tying up Abby’s wrists with rope then braiding the rope into her hair and tying the rope onto her braid so that every time she’s overwhelmed with desire and starts to struggle against the rope it pulls her hair and teases her some more. Edging her like that until she breaks, her face covered in sweat while she pleads for release. Once you give it to her, you don’t stop and she struggles again when she becomes overwhelmed with pleasure, but struggling pulls on her hair again which intensifies the overstimulation. Tears in her eyes, she pleads for you to stop (but doesn’t actually safeword) so you offer/remind her that she can safeword. She breaks eye contact, her already flushed face starts burning and she shakes her head. You tilt her head back up, forcing eye contact. “So you don’t really want me to stop?” you question her evilly, just to make her say that she does want you to stop, but she doesn’t want you to have to do what she wants, she wants you free to ignore her. Her lip trembles when she tells you to use her how you please, breaking off mid-sentence to whimper, utterly overwhelmed because you haven’t let up on her clit this whole time. You make her come once more, and she finishes up an absolute mess. You think you ought to stop there, and lay off touching her further, until she softly asks you, in a small voice with pleasing eyes, to please use your fingers or whatever else you want to penetrate her because she feels desperately empty after all that stimulation.

(Unaltered from “you”/reader-insert bc no body-specifics) Flip-side: Her and Manny are ultimate bros and ultimate dom bros. You’re in a lifestyle BDSM situation with her and have to get yourself used to the fact that she’ll spank you in her shared apartment whenever you deserve it, whether Manny is around or not. Equally, you see some of Manny’s poly rotation facing the same from time-to-time. You don’t have orgies or even have sex when Manny is there (or vice versa) but they both feel discipline can’t wait. He’s respectful and super discreet about it, which low-key feels nice/destigmatising but high-key feels embarrassing as hell that he sees this stuff without ever bringing it up in conversation with you. You always wonder if part of his charismatic grin is teasing you that he knows what the “special necklace” you always wear really means. Oh, and between her muscles and her hands which are calloused from all the physical and soldier work, she can spank hard and long without needing a paddle.

She’s figured out how to pack discreetly with something firm enough to fuck me with, and when we patrol together she’ll take any opportunity to give me a taste. She never lets me orgasm while we’re out and makes sure I’m always walking around soaked through my clothes and grateful my trousers don’t show an obvious colour difference. She always eats her supper (“supper” = British for evening meal.*) super slowly on those days. Anytime I seem like I might be relaxing during the meal or becoming less needy, she makes suggestive eye contact and squeezes one of my thighs between hers under the table, letting me feel the toy between her legs so she’s sure I don’t get a break from feeling desperate for her. I end up having all our patrol group believing my old minor knee injury (which doesn’t really cause me any proper trouble) always gets painful towards the end of patrol days because I always blame that for why I get noticeably quiet and jumpy by the end of a patrol day.

She’ll play really sadistically if I ask her to. (Content warning: this is about to get into the details of that). With that, she won’t use any bondage, just her raw ability to overpower me without even breaking out in a sweat. She’ll pinch and pull at my nipples, grab me by my hair and drag my around. She’ll absolutely cover my thighs in hickeys (and you tend to have to bite hard to leave a mark on a thigh) on the way to going down on me. She keeps her nails short for practical reasons, but she knows how to grab me and angle her fingers so I feel her nails sink into anyway. She picked up enough medical knowledge that she knows where and how she can safely hurt me. Abby can control herself and her voice so I get her steeliest tone and expression while she makes me scream and cry. That type of treatment makes my clit swell like hell and I get so wet from it that it’s obvious and embarrassing. And Abby loves to make that worse by drawing attention to how wet it makes me, taunting me about how much I like her brutal treatment. She’ll sometimes slip her fingers inside just to be able to coat them in my juices so she can smear them over my body. Smirking, she’ll coo about how I’ll let her do whatever the fuck she wants with me. If she feels like using her strap on, she’ll slip it inside me briefly at first, only to pull it out, shove me to my knees and make me suck it spotlessly clean of my own taste before she’ll consider actually fucking me with it. Afterwards, she cleans me up gently and tends to any little injuries (she never does anything dangerous). She takes hold of me a little possessively, reminding me that no one but her gets to treat me like that, and she’d kill anyone who tried. Then she showers me with love and praise, holding me protectively until I fall asleep.

*While we’re on this subject, beware using the term “dinner” with Brits bc it’s a different meal in different regions. Somewhere like Newcastle, dinner = lunch whereas in London dinner = evening meal. 🤷‍♀️ We’re a weird country on many counts, that’s the tip of the iceberg.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

ok-yikes replied to your post: diefordarkseid replied to your post: ...

ok but like thank u sm for the link i’ve been vaguely following your winston/billions content and ive been trying to find the context without having to watch the whole thing lmao so now i can fully understand ur analysis and art that i already enjoy!!

oh first of aw!!!! that’s such a compliment lol ty and yes s/o to @winstonthequant for posting that compilation for 5.5k+ people to partake in, it’s super useful

yeah we Jest that all anyone needs to know to understand the Spirit Of Wynnstanning is to have seen those scenes with winston and taylor from kompenso, ep 3x11 lol.....i mean it’s partially a joke but it’s also partially true, that’s pretty much the Cause of the group of us going “oh my god” and becoming Invested in all of this. winnie n tay baby.......their Dynamique...they are way too good Ugh

and yeah the Broadest Of Strokes of this series overall is that the Central Theme is "insufferable bastard hedge fund ceo damian lewis [aka axe] man Versus insufferable bastard attorney general paul giamatti man [aka chuck],” just these corrupt assholes having a back and forth slapfight power struggle every season. nobody cares what happens in season 1 but taylor is introduced at the start of season 2 as a just-out-of-undergrad intern at axe’s hedge fund. turns out they’re amazing at hedge funding (they have some goddamn sense and strategy and awareness, whereas axe is 100% beholden to the whims of his own Delicate Temper and Ego and is a continually self-sabotaging idiot, nbd) and by season 3, while axe is doing a bit of jail time over insider trading (see: previous parenthetical) taylor is left effectively in charge of axe’s hedge fund, which btw is called axe capital

Our Beloved Quant Winston enters the picture 3 eps into this situation, where taylor is attempting to start a quant team at axe cap, hence interviewing him, then only known as “quant kid 2″ in the credits. [not-that-informed explanation of What Is A Quant: where the Traditional Financial Analysts in a hedge fund try to make profitable stonk trades just via like, reacting to The News and other publically available info / whipping up Strategies / intuiting shit and making judgment calls or whatever the hell they do, a Quantitative Analyst (a more recent development in the high finance world) is taking a more mathematical approach to the whole legal gambling operation which is The Stock Market and might, as winston does, use An Algorithm to analyze finance info and make trades in response. is the vague idea here] Quant Kid 2 was not Originally meant to ever reappear, hence him just messing up the interview and getting sent off after like 30 seconds, but they wrote him in further when William Roland showed up and actually filmed the scene. 

when “i’m a shitty bastard driven by my shitty ego and will self-sabotage if my Pride asks for it on a whim” axe shows back up, tl;dr, he spends the rest of s3 being terrible and unappreciative to taylor, who you might imagine is Threatening That Delicate Ego of his by capably taking care of his hedge fund while he was indisposed. for example, he needlessly wrecks taylor’s relationship with a guy they were having a nice time dating (and will, we’re pretty sure, talk to again in s5ep2!! hoorayy) and does basically the opposite of apologizing, sweeps taylor’s Quant Project into the trash, gets mad at them for failing to land a certain investor which he said they did on purpose which idk they May Have lol i think this was later in the season, and won’t give them the raise they want, and that’s just A Few of the bullet points in this topic. but oops, turns out that taylor has been secretly taking steps to put together their own entirely separate hedge fund! which is where winston comes back in, aka their meeting him in that empty classroom only to summon him to a random basement. that algorithm he ends up creating for them (which he’d Assumed was for axe cap purposes) was used by taylor to entice a Big Investor at axe cap to invest in their own hedge fund, taylor mason capital, which exists by the end of season 3, which obviously axe is not happy about and of course it’s a whole ~betrayal~ even though he did it to himself but no, he decides taylor is his Nemesis, b/c in so many ways he is a dumbass. god

season 4 has winston as taylor’s Main Quant (the one time we hear his name spoken aloud is taylor saying “winston and the quant team). taylor spends the season dealing with all the problems of having a Brand New Hedge Fund and having a Well Established Hedge Fund With An Asshole At The Helm constantly trying to sabotage their fund, which we also call tmc / mase cap for short, just for reference lmao, the latter being how they shorten it in the show’s actual dialogue. the Front Running mentioned in that one clip was an instance of such sabotage. and by the time winston shows up 5 eps later, that Fracking Subplot (lmao...this fucking show) was about taylor being reeeeal sick of axe cap’s sabotage b/c they kinda made it personal, and thus spending the whole episode Completely playing axe for a fool, which was kinda fun, b/c it’s not that hard and he has it coming. it gets a little involved with what’s going on in ep 4x11 with the bonuses lmfao but it's nbd, just know that winston was right, we went frantic about him being Bullied and are still indignant about it, and taylor talking to Everyone in that 4x12 clip does seem to address what winston had said, compare and contrast 4 yourselves, even if this apparently went totally over the heads of any Regular Billions Viewers lmao. and then in 4x12 A Lot Happens b/c it’s the finale but axe manages to self-sabotage himself in a way that does a lot of damage for mase cap though, and axe thinks that he’s successfully blackmailed taylor into returning to axe cap with mase cap as a Supposedly Temporary subsidiary of axe cap, which sucks, but taylor is not as blackmailed as he thinks, which is a secret, Drama and Twists and Shifting / Dubious Loyalties and Stonks are just constant themes here and who cares. we are here for the quant, who is there with taylor

We Have Many Ideas / wise concepts and headcanons, seeing as canon is a nightmare and there’s not That much material re: winston and precious few details about him / he spends sooo much time offscreen and unmentioned and it leaves us plenty of blanks to fill in. for example, maybe u noticed we think he should kiss taylor and also get railed by them, there are extensive ideas about that relationship wherein we happily ignore Finance. also, there is an unusually kind and reasonable analyst over at axe cap named ben kim who we also think should kiss winston, so yeah That idea is sure around as well lol, they have enough Parallels and complementary Similarities and Contrasts and also just like, a normal nice person is a rarity on this show, so ben does Not have a world of competition in our [list of people who’d be Okay to kiss winston, b/c someone should, b/c he deserves that cuz we love him]

yeah that’s my Quick Basic Context summary lmao we hate it here but also we have fun, and really at any time (extending this to anyone lol) feel free to Send An Ask about anything at all b/c i am Not annoyed by random / unprompted asks from anybody, i love interaction! who knows if i’ll answer promptly (for example: sorry @ the person who’s asked for deh/bmc hcs who i havent answered yet lol) but yeah. it’s totally nice that you were already interested even without any Context lmao like. i mean yeah basically the joke still stands that the only context u truly need is that one scene from Kompenso but. yeah #Stonks

[a-very-fond-farewell]

The forbidden crack! Untamed prompts: 24/?

CLAMP AU n.3 [chengyu? yucheng? (JC/MXY) edition. don’t...question my taste bruh]: “Somewhere, sometime.”

[tw eating disorders mentioned + tw suicide mention (body sacrifice)]

[ok fam. ok. I get it. I would basically ship JC with a rock if it meant I could play with my crack AUs. but I have solid evidence for this one. I promise you.]

[so, “Kobato” from CLAMP is possibly my favorite series from them. it’s 6 volumes long, roughly 40 chapters (and I only recently found out there was an epilogue...even though it was not there in my published version of the series. bc your local cryptid did in fact buy the entire thing in the flesh, that’s how much I love it)]

[in this AU I’ll change some things for the sake of consistency, but I suggest you read it bc the hurt/comfort and pining is enjoyable...so...if you read my silly AU I’m afraid I will spoil the plot for u :( and that’s the last thing I want to do...I understand if you decide to go read the manga and skip my prompt. it’s ok, I’m fine, go and have fun ;-;]

[if you kept reading, hi :D]

[now. am I uncomfortable with certain common tropes in CLAMP’s work in general? yes. especially the age gaps between some of the characters, some of which are not adults. hence the reason behind the changes in this AU. but! the aesthetics fam. the beautiful drawings. the cute outfits. (*ﾉ▽ﾉ)

do you see these?? how cute would Mo XuanYu look in these fam?? I honestly hc him enjoying skirts and feminine outfits a whole lot, but you can imagine him with pants and they would be just as cute. my favorite one is the second from the left btw.]

(imagine Mo XuanYu like this btw and check out the fancomic by the same op! an anon suggested it to me a while ago and now I’m hooked!)

[other mangacaps bc you need visuals:

yeah. angry boy meets bby with a mission to accomplish, bonding over their inferiority complex. yep. I only love the nicest things in life. that’s me.

also look at my baby girl ;-; so cuTe]

[the title is from the ost from the anime series, “Itsuka dokoka de” (check it out!). the anime feels more cohesive than the original manga, possibly bc the pacing is handled a little bit better (since the manga was cut short and the end felt a bit sloppy, but the emotional engagement was still good). and I remember being 17 and crying like a baby when this song came in. if you don’t have time for the manga binge the anime instead! there are plot holes in both of them and the stories are different but still both very enjoyable if you like soft things and angsty vibes.]

[enjoy!]

*

*

When YanLi saw him for the first time in front of her door, at the beginning of spring, she thought XuanYu was too pretty and too young for his own good. Sitting across her on the floor, a tea set between them as he politely answered her questions, the boy couldn’t have looked older than sixteen yet he assured her he was of age and well into adulthood. Which seemed pretty difficult to assess, not with the way he dressed: cute button down, beret slightly askew on top of his pretty head and an old-looking suitcases in hand. She didn’t mention the stuffed black rabbit poking out from the front pocket of his luggage, which seemed more of a comfort thing than a reliable source of company.

Moreover, Jin Ling seemed transfixed by him, toddling his way towards their guest asking for cuddles... something her son had never done in front of strangers.

XuanYu refused to give his last name, nor did he have an ID he could show her, nor did he seem worried about how strange that was. And YanLi knew ZiXuan would have been against it, but she couldn’t leave the kid looking all over Lanling for a place to stay... so she gave him the only available room in their rundown pension.

She only hoped Jiang Cheng would be a nice neighbor and leave the kid alone. Who knew what horrors XuanYu was running away from, after all.

*

When XiChen heard from YanLi of her new tenant, he would have never guessed the kid to look so naive. Not in a bad way, mind you. But his smiles, for how genuine they seemed to be, looked a little bit too big. A little bit too strained not to be a distraction tactic from his part. Or maybe XiChen had lived too long surrounded by fake smiles and closed off people to not worry.

That’s probably why he gave XuanYu a job when YanLi asked him to look over the kid. More to prove himself there were still trustworthy people in the world than to give the younger man a chance. He couldn’t even pay him a full salary, not with the debt collectors breathing on his neck as he tried to run his late mother’s kindergarten.

But maybe that would have been enough for now. A starting point for something better, something new.

*

A-Yuan had always known the kindergarten used to be an orphanage back in the days, but now he had reached an age where doubts stuck to his head instead of being forgotten with the passing of time. Wen Qing and A-Ning were always busy -be it in the hospital or in university- and A-Yuan didn’t know if they loved him enough to keep him. Ever since granny had passed away he had wondered, day after day, when his cousins would have left him behind for good.

He was thinking about such things when he first met XuanYu, on the man’s first day on the job as a teaching assistant. A-Yuan was mulling over his sadness when XuanYu had come to his rescue, asking him what was wrong... before enthusiastically praising his cousins for working so hard after hearing they were late to take A-Yuan home. XuanYu stayed with him and they played on the swings as they waited for A-Ning to come pick him up, apologizing profusely.

On the way home, his cousin held him close and kissed his forehead as he asked him if he had had fun with the new teacher. And A-Yuan felt less doubtful afterwards.

*

After hearing the story from her brother, Wen Qing had made it her job to look into XuanYu and his weird approach to life in general. She took every opportunity she could grasp to spy on the younger man, lunch breaks be damned. She needed to confirm if the kid was a trust worthy person or a runaway child pretending to be older than what he actually was. Well, maybe tailing an unsuspecting young man on the streets of Lanling in scrubs and sunglasses would be considered a bit much, she could admit as much. But it was the thought that counted, no?

Her friend MianMian told her to knock it off and talk to the kid like a normal human being, but the truth was that... well, XuanYu was really too weird to be considered normal. He seldom put himself in dangerous situations without much care, such as picking up a random (and still lit) cigarette from the ground just to give it back to the person who had “accidentally dropped it”. Other times he would cross a road without looking left and right first, risking to be run over by cars at every corner. He never, never, fumbled with a phone and he frequently talked to himself... sometimes even directing his words to that creepy stuffed rabbit of his.

No thank you, Wen Qing felt safer behind light poles and crumpled newspapers held upside down. Even if that made her look sketchy as fuck.

*

Wen Ning made sure to arrive on time to pick A-Yuan up after that time, often chatting with XuanYu as they waited for his baby cousin to retrieve his backpack and raincoat. It was refreshing to speak with the younger man, no matter how weird he acted sometimes. Like that time A-Yuan asked him to tie his shoe-laces for him and XuanYu didn’t know how to do it. Or that time they caught the man taking a nap on the floor in the middle of the school hall. Or that time XiChen had ordered a cake for one of the kids’ birthday and XuanYu didn’t seem to know how to sing the birthday song.

Wen Ning had no place to judge, after all. But XuanYu’s smiles felt like balm on his heart. And if his sweet voice followed Wen Ning home as he bounced A-Yuan in his arms, well. Nobody needed to know that.

*

The last thing Meng Yao would have expected to hear that summer day when he called the kindergarten was a voice so different from XiChen’s. Startled, he had confusedly asked if the kid worked there and how so, given that the school definitely couldn’t afford to hire anyone. He ought to know. He was the debt collector.

But the kid apologized, introduced himself, and then explained XiChen had offered him a part-time job out of kindness more than out of need. The idiot. XiChen should have remembered who his money belonged to instead of taking charity cases left and right.

But when Meng Yao said as much to naive XuanYu, the other vehemently protested, surprising the debt collector with strong opinions on how he shouldn’t underestimate other people’s intelligence and kindness in the first place.

Meng Yao laughed out at that, genuinely so.

There was more to that kid XuanYu than what one would have expected.

*

Nie HuaiSang caught a first glimpse of the mystery man only in late summer, when XuanYu stepped into his cake shop to look at the display. His coworker MianMian seemed to recognize the younger man immediately, greeting him by saying they had a friend in common, namely Wen Qing. The kid merely tilted his head and answered he had never formerly met “Miss. Wen” and that he only knew who she was from what the woman’s younger brother had told him about her.

MianMian shrugged and smiled at him.

To which HuaiSang asked him what they could do for him and XuanYu... just... stopped working. Saying that he had wondered if he could do something for them instead. Apparently, Wen Ning had let it slip they were currently understaffed and needed a hand to deliver their sweets.

Delighted, MianMian set him to work, no matter how many times HuaiSang assured her they didn’t need to force the kid to help them... also because they didn’t actually have the means to pay him in kind. But XuanYu refused money altogether, simply asking them to let him help.

To their amusement (and horror) XuanYu didn’t know how to ride a bicycle, so he insisted on covering the deliveries by foot in the neighborhood instead.

HuaiSang called XiChen on the phone that same evening, asking him to give the kid some slack the following day. And maybe buy him some balm for blisters as well.

*

Jin Ling was young but he wasn’t stupid. Turning three had made him wiser, he knew as much. So he knew XuanYu was magical. He just did.

His pretty-gege talked with stuffed animals, always wore nice things, and kept in his satchel bag a vial filling up with magical candies every time he did something nice for others. A-Ling had seen it with his own eyes, that time XuanYu had put a plaster on his scrapped knee and blew on it to make the pain go away: the golden candy had appeared in the bottle out of nowhere and XuanYu had asked him to keep the secret.

And A-Ling may have been young, but he wasn’t a snitch.

No sir.

*

ZiXuan eventually stumbled upon their new tenant even though YanLi had tried everything in her power to prevent it. He was very displeased with her: taking a scrawny kid in, cutting his rent in half merely because he couldn’t afford to pay the room in full. Utter nonsense.

No matter how much this kid XuanYu praised A-Ling’s personality or YanLi’s cooking, no matter how much he smiled and made himself look accommodating and unthreatening. ZiXuan didn’t work pro bono even at the firm, let alone for his wife’s business.

Yet, when he asked to be let inside the kid’s room to formally discuss the terms of his contract (and tell him to pack his things and leave at the end of summer), ZiXuan was left speechless. There was no bed, no table or chairs. The fridge wasn’t humming and the AC wasn’t working. The only things he could see were the younger man’s clothes neatly folded in his open suitcase or hanging by the window to dry. No books, no snacks, no nothing.

Usually tenants brought their things in right off the bat, their stuff mailed in within a week after moving in. YanLi was very particular about it, she would have not overlooked something like that. But maybe she had been too busy with A-Ling these past few months and hadn’t noticed the kid was actually too poor to even breathe.

And now that he looked at him, XuanYu looked suspiciously skinny.

Was he sleeping on the floor? Didn’t he have covers for the colder season? Was his fridge broken, empty, or -gods forbid- purposely left with no power because the kid couldn’t afford the electricity bill?

“Do you actually live like this?”

XuanYu didn’t answer to that, but smiled anyway. It looked sinister in a way ZiXuan couldn’t explain, afraid of the things such a young man may or may not have endured in the past. And was maybe still enduring now.

The following day ZiXuan gave the kid their spare futon they bought in Japan on their honeymoon. They never had guests anyway and they could afford to pay for a tenant’s electricity bill every now and then, they weren’t poor.

Certainly YanLi would have agreed with him on the matter.

*

JinGy saw it. He did! He wasn’t lying! Xuan-ge was there, surrounded by darkness and shadows, looking over the children during their nap time, only a sliver of light coming from the door left ajar... casting shadows on half of his pretty face.

And he saw him reviving that stuffed black rabbit he always had on him.

The rabbit just rose on his hind legs and turned his head up and started whispering things to Xuan-ge, who nodded every now and then in deep though.

JinGyi had read about how paper-man talismans had been stuff of legends in the past. His books spoke of ancient times in which even corpses could be brought back to life. How even animals could turn into godly beasts if enough resentful energy polluted them. But he would have never thought magic could actually be real and so easy to play with.

And Xuan-ge had looked nothing but beautiful as he was talking to the stuffed animal, humming softly under his breath.

*

When Jiang Cheng dropped out of university for the second time, YanLi didn’t say anything and instead welcomed him back in his old room. So much for enrolling in law school at twenty-three, uh? ZiXuan would have been disappointed in him like the first time that had happened in his bachelor anyway, no point in avoiding the man. It was autumn anyway: it was either going back to the apartment complex or look for a new flatmate. But the school housing had rightfully kicked him out after dropping out in the middle of the academic year, so there would have been little hope for him to find a new place anytime soon.

What he did not expect to find was a new tenant living next door.

Sleeping in front of the door, clutching a satchel bag and a fucking stuffed animal on his lap.

Jiang Cheng jolted him awake and took in the sight of his shoulder length hair, his long lashes and sleepy eyes and thought he looked ridiculous. Wearing a silly hat and moccasins, purple shadows under his eyes, a confused expression on his worn out face. When asked what the hell he was doing there, sleeping out of his room instead of inside of it, the younger man said he had forgotten his keys inside that morning.

He was clearly an idiot, so Jiang Cheng walked away and returned to his room after more than a year away. If someone asked him who had rung YanLi to bring the spare keys to help the idiot he would have shrugged at them and shut the door in their face.

He didn’t have time for that, he had to think how to ask XiChen to let him back to work at the school the following day.

*

A-Qing had seen many things in life, met many horrible people, dealt with the scum of the scum... but she had yet to meet XuanYu. 

A menace. A hurricane. A fool. The amount of times she had had to scoop him up from the ground after he had clumsily slipped on invisible bananas and such should have earned her a honorary title for outstanding citizen. It’s been months since his arrival and the kids had already learned to make way whenever they saw him. He inspired fear even in their tiny heads, honestly. What a fellow teaching assistant, really.

She was just there to score brownie points for his electives and internship program to become a social service worker, that was true. But she cared about the kids enough to know she had to do something about that. The children loved XuanYu and they were this fucking close to either worship him like a small deity or criminal and something ought to be done.

The last thing she would have expected to see, however, was Jiang Cheng coming back so soon. Crawling back from university to ask to work there, wagging his tail like the lovesick dog he was. She could easily imagine what the older student would have said to XiChen, something on the line of “you know goddamn well I’m not doing it for the money. I grew up here, I don’t want to see this place crumbling down. I’m definitely not doing it because I’m in love with you and seeing you sad makes me want to gag.”

Well, maybe the last part could be considered artistic license from her part, but judging by what she could overhear behind XiChen’s office door... yep. She had definitely nailed the part about being fond of the ex-orphanage and for the rest... the sentiment was there. The pining bastard.

“Do you need anything, A-Qing?”, XuanYu asked her out of no-fucking-where, startling her as she pretended to dust off the floor very close to a door. Cheek-plastered-on-it kind of close.

“Nothing. Mind your business,” she answered, flustered as fuck.

XuanYu couldn’t be that naive, he knew what he was fucking doing. His creepy little smile so similar to the one the debt collect always had on his face. No wonder XiChen had fallen for such a tricky bitch.

“Then will you help me find JinGyi? He doesn’t want me to help him with his project for the festival and went into hiding again.”

There, that smile and knowing gaze. Judging poser. He looked much older than his alleged twenty years. He knew what he was fucking doi...

“You?!”

Jiang Cheng’s honest-to-gods screech pulled A-Qing out of her thoughts. She turned and had to witness XiChen amiably patting Jiang Cheng on the head as their boss explained him how XuanYu worked there. 

“It’s been almost six months now, he’s a very valuable kid and helped out around here while you were studying.”

Jiang Cheng was both livid and red with longing, because his touch-starved ass was all over that hand patting him platonically on the head. He was also angry, which was default for him... but there was something else underneath. Something promising in the way he stared XuanYu down.

Maybe A-Qing could win some candy by betting with the kids about such unexpected turn of events.

*

ZiZhen believed A-Yi. If his friend had told him the new teacher assistant was a witch then he was right. So they had started researching witches at the school, but only found a couple of colored books on the matter, mostly useless. All but one, telling the story of a nanny called Mary Poppins... some western thing.

But everything checked for the most part. The hat was there, every day a different one, but ultimately never leaving XuanYu’s head. The umbrella was not, but both him and A-Yuan had seen their gege with a parasol once and that was enough. His satchel contained infinite amount of things, from sweets to possessed stuffed animals, like a qiankun bag from the legends! He talked with things as if he could control them.

Well, even the teacher sometimes tried to convince the printer to work with sweet words, gently coaxing it back to life... maybe that was just how adults functioned. Even his dad would ask the fridge where his favorite cake had disappeared sometimes. Adults were weird.

*

Fuck Lanling. Rain day and night, autumn planning everyone’s demise by flooding every bloody year. Xue Yang was over it.

He took a random umbrella from the rack by the door of the convenience store and left without a second thought, already wondering what he could say to convince XingChen to offer him dinner somewhere new. The man wasn’t married anymore after all, so Xue Yang could technically have his way with him now, right?

“Excuse me!”

Xue Yang was not in the mood for people calling him out on his bullshit that night, but he turned anyway and saw the weirdest thing. A young man roughly his age, maybe a year or so younger, drenched from head to toe after rushing to him. He was panting, clutching a plastic bag full of cleaning supplies from the convenience store Xue Yang had just left.

“I believe you mistakenly took my umbrella,” the other said, pretty face framed by wet hair sticking to his forehead and cheeks.

Amused, Xue Yang shut the clear plastic umbrella he had “mistakenly taken” and held it at arm’s length by the handle, directing the pointy edge to the other like a sword. Hell if he was going to get wet himself, he needed to prove something to the idiot. He could handle a bit of rain for the sake of being dramatic.

“You want it back?” Xue Yang asked, rising his chin and arching an eyebrow at the other. The man nodded, holding his now wet beret in place on top of his head as if he was more worried about it falling on the ground than keeping his crown dry.

“I knew it was someone else’s when I took it.”

“But...?”

“And what’ll you give me back for it? What are you gonna do about it?”

This should have taught him not to mess with him: he didn’t even have to use his business tone to make the other take a step back. Meng Yao, the bastard, had taught him smiles went a long way in dealing with stupid people after all.

“Right, if I take it from you... you won’t have one to go back home with.”

Uh?

“Wait here. I’ll go buy you one at the convenience store. I’ll be back.”

Uh??

The idiot actually run back to the store and purchased him a fucking umbrella. And Xue Yang was twice as stupid because he waited for him to come back, startled as he was. The idiot was smiling megawatt bright when he came back as well, what the fuck?

The sick bastard extended the clear plastic umbrella to him like Xue Yang had done earlier, but he held it by the middle, as if surrendering his weapon. It was fairly similar to the one Xue Yang had stolen anyway, why bother asking for his umbrella back?

“Did your dead mother give this particular one to you or something?”

The bite in his words only mildly deterred the other man, who pressed his lips together before forcing an even bigger smile on his face.

“No. It’s pretty cheap. But it’s mine. It’s the first thing I bought with my money.”

Xue Yang left after that. With the stolen umbrella. Because he was still a scumbag and not a sentimental asshole. But he was very quiet that evening when XingChen treated him to some fancy takeout on his couch while lovingly drying Xue Yang’s hair with a towel.

Nothing made sense anymore.

*

Qin Su worried over Jiang Cheng. He was her best worker, but she knew for a fact that he had a million part-time jobs in town and she didn’t want to overwork him. She also knew he would give all of his hard-earned money to XiChen anyway. All to pay a stupid debt. The huge lovesick idiot.

Was he the fastest delivery driver? Yes. Was he the most well behaved of his staff? Not even close. But he was respectful enough to work over his issues and she trusted him with doing his job at the end of the day.

So when she found a young man in a frilly outfit waiting for her on the lobby of her shop asking for Jiang Cheng... well, she was pleasantly surprised.

He introduced himself as XuanYu and held a lunch box in his hands, saying Jiang Cheng had forgotten it at home. Which left A-Su properly impressed. How could a man as angry as Jiang Cheng secure himself such a lovely person was beyond her comprehension, honestly.

He was adorable and she wanted to be his sister like, yesterday.

But when Jiang Cheng came back from a delivery, entering the dumpling shop with his helmet still on, he stared XuanYu down and told him off right off the bat.

“Not you again,” he said, to A-Su’s utter confusion, “Can’t you take a fucking hint? I’m already avoiding you at work. I don’t want to be your friend.”

Something akin to hurt painted XuanYu’s feature for a fraction of a second before he could retrieve his smile and point at the lunch box.

“Your sister asked me to give this to you on my way out. A-Ling helped making rice cakes this time and wanted to hear from you if you liked them or not.”

Qin Su could have easily missed the change in XuanYu’s voice at that, that’s how much of a good actor he was. But Jiang Cheng had no face even to feel ashamed for lashing out at the kid like that. How much older could he be from XuanYu, three years? Two? Had nobody taught him some respect?

“XuanYu, if he bullies you again you come here. Am I understood?”

Like hell she was gonna let this gem of a child slip away from Jiang Cheng’s hands.

Not in a million years.

*

Song Lan breathed in and out. In and out. The clear morning air surrounded him like an old friend, hugging him closely as he clutched the papers for his divorce.

XingChen had signed them in the end. Five years together were now in the past for him.

Maybe they had been too young back then, when they had taken the chance to get married the moment the government announced the change in the law for people like them. How old have they been, twenty-three? Twenty-four? Another lifetime. An existence away.

He wished he could cry. It would have been easier.

But, as he turned a corner, someone stumbled into him and sent the papers scattering on the sidewalk. Song Lan tried to save them from being dirtied on a puddle but was unsuccessful. He didn’t know why he bothered anymore. It felt like the last piece of his lover had left and Song Lan couldn’t even prevent something as simple as that. XingChen’s signature dirtied in a pool, but not enough to be washed away. What a joke.

The young man in front him bowed down, apologizing profusely, trying to save the documents at the best of his abilities. He even suggested finding a public toilet to dry the sheets under the hot air blowing machine, the silly man.

Song Lan smiled instead, reassuring him it was fine.

He was fine.

But the kid accidentally read the first few lines of the agreement before looking up at Song Lan. And where he would have expected pity, Song Lan only saw consternation instead on his pale face. It was so startling to see it, that he had to crouch back down on the ground next to the kid and reassure him everything was fine. It was just paper, it wasn’t important, he didn’t have to feel so guilty about...

“It is important. Your life is important.”

Such a dramatic sentence, uttered so vehemently, should have sounded weird to Song Lan. Especially because he disapproved of such antics in the first place. But it sounded so sincere, so earnest that he felt touched for a moment.

So he helped the kid up on his feet and asked him to walk a bit with him, to keep him company. Reserved as he was, he would have never thought possible opening up to a stranger the way he did that day. But there was something calming about the kid, almost as if he had been put on earth to soothe other people’s existence.

So he told him how his husband had fallen in love with someone else, someone much younger than them. How this had strained their marriage even if Song Lan had known all along his husband had the ability to fall in love with more than one person at a time. But Song Lan was monogamous and would have never justified forcing his lover to suppress his feelings just to please him. So it had been Song Lan himself to call it quits and wish him all the luck in the world.

The kid had started crying at some point, without Song Lan even noticing at first.

“Why are you crying? Please no, I didn’t wan to upset you.”

“So much love. In different ways but... it’s too much. There’s so much of it, of course I’m crying for you and your loved one.”

Song Lan was many things. Too stern, too rigid, too peculiar about who could touch him or not, too cold in expressing his emotions. But he felt warm then, in front of a kid crying for him in the middle of the street, one day of late autumn.

“Thank you.”

***

XuanYu let it slip once with Mrs. Jin how little he remembered of his past. 

It wasn’t a lie, he really didn’t remember what it had been of him before he had met her, asking for a room. But the kind woman just assumed he was talking about his past or youth, so he didn’t correct her on the matter.

Knowing the truth would have scared her, after all.

But he still let himself trust her that day as they sat in front of a pot of tea and he pretended to drink and eat the pastries on the low table. He didn’t need to eat or drink. He wasn’t even sure he had a digestive system.

“I only remember... a song.”

“A song?”

“Yes. Someone singing every night before falling asleep. I don’t think it was meant for me to hear... but my body remembers the shivers. The feeling of being loved.”

“The body remembers the weirdest things, XuanYu. You should trust it more.”

He smiled at that, wriggling his hands on the handkerchief where he had hidden the pastries from sight.

“I’m pretty sure that song wasn’t for me. My body was merely there to listen.”

YanLi looked uncomfortable at that, something scary painting her features.

“Maybe I was eavesdropping,” he reassured her with a self-deprecating joke, not sure if that would have made her feel more at ease or not, “Maybe I was listening in, hoping such lovely words could be directed at me for once.”

Mrs. Jin sipped her tea for a long while afterwards, before finding the resolution to look up and stare him down with a serious expression.

“Unrequited feelings hurt, don’t they?”

XuanYu didn’t know what she meant by that, but he nodded anyway.

He heard something rustling in his bag and hid the sweets inside of it the moment YanLi turned to clear the table. If A-Ling heard someone munching their protests away from inside of the bag, he didn’t snitch on XuanYu and retrieved playing with Fairy on the carpeted floor next to him instead.

*

Lan Zhan was disappointed in him, XuanYu knew that much. They were admiring the sunset from the small balcony in their room, folding laundry.

XuanYu always wondered why Lan Zhan assumed the form of a black stuffed rabbit, of all things, but he didn’t want to pry. He didn’t even know his real name. The other had told him he used to be a human in his past life and that he hadn’t technically reincarnated in this lifetime. That his current form was just a mean to a goal, that he could use it to guide XuanYu and help him better that way without expending much spiritual energy.

He told him someone dear to him taught him how to manipulate paper-man talismans in his previous life. How similar the process had been to move around in a stuffed animal’s body. How convenient.

XuanYu believed he secretly loved it, even if Lan Zhan would have never said as much. He already talked very little to begin with.

“You told her you don’t remember your past.”

“That I did.”

“Don’t do it again”

XuanYu folded the last towel on his lap and then let Lan Zhan take a nap on it. He felt silly having to take showers and pretend to be a normal human being. He hated inconveniencing the Jins with him, accepting their bedding and paid kitchen appliances and so on. But if he wanted to accomplish his mission he had to make an effort to look normal... instead of spirited away from another world or maybe simply another era.

“I won’t do it again, don’t worry Lan Zhan.”

*

Lan Zhan was disappointed, but he was also patient to a fault.

Sure, it would have been much appreciated if Mo XuanYu didn’t lose him around every other day. This time the younger man had forgotten to pick him up from the floor where he had been reading stories to the children at the kindergarten.

But Lan Zhan was also a stuffed animal now, so it wasn’t like he could move around and risk being seeing by normal humans. His body was a vessel and any damage would have had repercussions on his soul as well. 

What to do.

He tried not to panic when he felt someone picking him up from the floor after an hour or so. He silently prayed for them not to be A-Qing: even in this life she was too smart for her own good and he couldn’t risk being found out so soon. Mo XuanYu wasn’t even halfway to complete his mission and Lan Zhan couldn’t...

“I’m sure A-Yu is looking for you, little guy. What are doing all the way back here?”

It was always difficult to hear his older brother’s voice in this life. To see his face, to notice how sad he was even in this new reincarnation of his.

Lan Zhan didn’t move a single muscle as XiChen dusted him off and put him in his apron front pocket as he looked for “A-Yu”.

In order to give a second chance to Mo XuanYu, Lan Zhan had sacrificed any possibility to ever reincarnate until his mission was accomplished. So XiChen didn’t have a younger brother in this lifetime and he would have not had one for a while. Lan Zhan missed him, but they had to wait for a bit more.

They still had three months to fill the bottle the King of Hell had entrusted Mo XuanYu with. Then he would have entered the list for reincarnation once more and everything will have been fine in the end.

Lan Zhan owed the kid his life, so he trusted him.

No matter what.

*

XuanYu remembered the boy who had stolen his umbrella. He remembered him well enough to recognize him when he found him crawling on the floor, a stab wound in his belly, one winter night.

Panicked, he asked Lan Zhan what they could do as he instinctively pressed the wound with his bare hands. Lan Zhan didn’t dare move not to attract attention on himself. The other man snarled out at XuanYu, asking him why did he even bother, seemingly recognizing him.

“I took your fucking umbrella. Hate me and leave me alone.”

“Ridiculous.”

Lan Zhan would have been proud of him for that remark, but XuanYu was too scared to think about it. He didn’t have a phone and he didn’t even know the number for emergencies. He wasn’t even qualified to be a teacher. How had he survived until then. He was useless and stupid and...

“What the fuck?” Jiang Cheng’s voice came in a whisper behind him.

What a sorry view the older man had to take in that night: a pool of blood staining otherwise clean clothes, a moaning boy on the ground in restless pain, a crying mess of a sad excuse of a human pressing on a throbbing wound next to him.

Jiang Cheng muttered something about the boy being one of Meng Yao’s men, that they should leave him there to die for all he cared.

The man under XuanYu barked back, telling him he had tried to “convince the idiot of the same”. But XuanYu was horrified by what he had just heard.

“People die for nothing. People die for fucking nothing. You don’t leave someone behind just because you fucking hate them.”

XuanYu has never cursed in this brief, borrowed life of his. Maybe spending so much time with Jiang Cheng had rubbed some of his habits off on him in the end.

Startled, Jiang Cheng seemed to agree with him because he fished out his phone and called an ambulance right away.

The stabbed man laughed at that.

*

Lan Zhan was clutched in XuanYu’s hands as they waited in the corridor of a badly lit hospital. The kid was crying, hard. He must have remembered how his family in Mo Manor had mistreated him in the past, how easily his own relatives had starved him off just out of spite. How already impossibly emaciated he had been when he had sacrificed his body for Wei Ying, to bring him back in a weakened vessel just to seek revenge. Just to let his hatred run free.

Such cruelty had earned him nothing but distrust from the hell judges, who sentenced him to never be reincarnated again. Only when Lan Zhan had ascended to heaven -many centuries after reaching immortality- he had been able to make them relent.

If Mo XuanYu could prove to be a good human being during a trial time of one year on planet earth, filling a vial with good actions in the form of golden gems, then they would have considered Lan Zhan’s proposal. Mo XuanYu would have atoned his sin and be granted a new life, a clean record, and a second chance at happiness.

Seeing someone almost die in front of him must have awaken something ugly in him. His stained hands, the iron stench in the air. All that blood... like the last thing he had most probably seen in his previous life before his body sacrifice. A scarlet array under his feet, another soul replacing his in his own body.

Lan Zhan let himself be held tightly in Mo XuanYu’s hands that night at the hospital.

And hugged back without anyone else noticing.

*

Xiao XingChen. That was the name of the man showing up at the kindergarten one week later. XuanYu had never seen him before, but the man hugged him in front of the kids, alerting both XiChen and Jiang Cheng.

“Thank you,” the tall man said in between tears, holding him tight.

“I don’t understand. I...”

“You saved A-Yang. Thank you.”

XuanYu pressed his lips together tightly at that, so overwhelmed he didn’t know what to say. His fingertips hurting with sometimes akin to electricity the more he let himself be held so fiercely by the other man.

He started crying in earnest only after the man had left, surrounded by the children who worried and fussed over him. He fell asleep with them during nap time and when he woke up he found Jiang Cheng placing a quilt over him.

Caught red handed, the older man feigned disinterest in the beginning... but then he sat down next to him. Just like he had done in the hospital one week ago.

“Did you see someone die before?” Jiang Cheng asked then, awkwardly scratching the back of his head, “You had such a strong... reaction to my words. It was insensitive of me. I apologize for angering you. I’ll better myself.”

XuanYu didn’t answer at that. 

Jiang Cheng would have never understood what it meant to sacrifice yourself to hatred and revenge. How much it had scarred him to be brought back to life, but only as a worn out set of robes on top of someone else’s soul. How distant he had felt when the Yiling Patriarch had inhabited his body and had let himself be touched by someone else.

Jiang Cheng would have never understood what it meant to be touched in the flesh but be utterly unreachable as a soul. Or how much it hurt to become an empty body filled by someone foreign and new. Someone who could wear his skin better than him.

Jiang Cheng would have never understood. And thank all the gods for that.

So XuanYu... Mo XuanYu kept quiet and smiled instead.

*

Lan Zhan didn’t trust Jiang Cheng. He hadn’t in the past and he wasn’t gonna start now. Wei Ying would have been so disappointed in him for thinking badly of his baby brother, but there was little Lan Zhan could do about that.

Wei Ying wasn’t there to judge him for it.

Mo XuanYu would wake up every morning and wash himself, get dressed and tidy up the room before leaving. He would fix his appearance in a mirror Young Lady Jiang had gifted him in autumn, making sure his hat was still in place.

“What would happen if I were to...?”

“You must keep your hat on... even when you sleep. You know this much.”

“I wear a headband to bed.”

“And what of it?”

“It’s... silly.”

“Nobody can see you in your sleep. Why the sudden worry?”

Mo XuanYu said nothing in response to that, but Lan Zhan knew. The kid had never worried too much about his appearance aside from looking proper and well dressed. He had never fussed over his features, but recently he had taken the habit to walk dangerously close to makeup stores and check various displays at the convenience store close by. Lan Zhan knew Mo XuanYu had remembered his past... how he had quickly realized he was already an adult. With needs and desires.

But now a brand new reincarnation of Jiang WanYin would wait for him every morning to walk to work together. Now Jiang Cheng acted pleasantly enough to be considered kind and doting to someone starved of affection like Mo XuanYu had always been. Which wasn’t planned, it had never been.

Lan Zhan didn’t like where this was going.

He didn’t like it at all.

*

Nie HuaiSang came to bring a cake for XuanYu one day or so before the end of the year, snow sticking to his hair and flushed cheeks.

“I don’t know when your birthday is... so I’m pretty sure I’m late to the game. But I wanted to thank you for helping me and MianMian that one time. So I made a cake for you. I hope you like strawberries.”

Mo XuanYu had no idea if he liked them or not. He couldn’t even eat.

He started crying in the middle of his room, where HuaiSang had placed the boxed cake on top of his low table.

Panicked, HuaiSang jumped up and out of the room to alert Jiang Cheng next door. But upon seeing the other man’s worried expression XuanYu cried even harder.

“What did you do to him, you bastard?”

“I’m not the one who used to prank people all the time. Grow up!”

“You clearly did something horrible to him for...”

“A-Cheng we’re not twelve anymore. Who do you take me for?”

XuanYu took his chance to stuff his face with cake, gulping it down bit by bit even if he knew he didn’t have the necessary organs to process it without vomiting it all out in an hour or so. He had tried many times to hold food down to no avail. His body rejecting it as if it was poisonous and dangerous.

He had tried so many times... to practice. To be able to appreciate YanLi’s generous cooking, to help A-Ling and the children at school prep their lunches and maybe... maybe to eat with Jiang Cheng every now and then.

Nie HuaiSang hugged him and patted his head, confused but too scared to ask for an explanation. Mo XuanYu smiled at him and lied, saying his cake was the best he had ever eaten. It wasn’t the best. It was simply the first.

He had no way to compare it with anything else, really.

*

Wen Ning had heard about his “stomachache” from XiChen, who had known all about it from YanLi and Jiang Cheng. So it shouldn’t have been a surprise for XuanYu when he saw the older boy in front of his apartment complex the last day of the year.

But it was a surprise.

“Can we talk for a bit?” Wen Ning asked, holding his umbrella up for XuanYu to walk beside him, protecting him from the icy snow.

They walked to the nearest park, sitting under the gazebo to watch the snow falling down. Their heavy coats keeping them warm, despite the cold.

They used to take long walks back from the kindergarten with A-Yuan after school, since the Wens lived close to XuanYu. Before Jiang Cheng came back anyway.

Wen Ning looked uncomfortable, fidgeting with his fingers as he tried to find the right words. He surprised XuanYu by telling him how, in the past, he had suffered from an eating disorder and had been hospitalized for a while in his teens. How worried his sister and their grandma had been for him, how much they helped him in his recovery. How alone he had felt for years still, no matter how loved he was.

“A-Yuan told me he never saw you eat. So I was wondering if you needed help.”

It wasn’t the case, but XuanYu knew he meant well. Telling him everything was fine would have only worried him more, so he tried to explain an half-truth that could satisfy him. Saying it was difficult for him to process food, that in the past he had suffered from malnutrition and now he had digestive issues.

He was talking about his past life, but he figured that could work as well.

When they parted ways in front of the apartment complex, Wen Ning asked to hold XuanYu’s hands for a bit. He cradled them carefully, as if they were precious. His slender fingers cupping XuanYu’s smaller palms almost reverently.

“I know you don’t feel the same about me. But I’ll ask you to look after yourself anyway. Not out of obligation for me... but out of respect for yourself, if nothing else.”

The moment Wen Ning let go of his hands, Jiang Cheng stepped out of the front door of the building and saw them.

He said nothing and walked away after stepping out of the gate.

*

Lan Zhan would have very much liked to flip a finger at Jiang WanYin’s forehead. Hard. Wei Ying would have done the same, he was sure.

Wei Ying would have also smacked some sense in his baby brother, forcing him to face his feelings and take responsibility for what he was doing to poor Mo XuanYu.

Who was currently waiting for the other man’s return like a dog by his room balcony, surveying the front courtyard like a bird of prey from above.

Lan Zhan tried to coax the kid inside, reminding him snow was still falling down and that his beanie was slipping away. He tried to be gentle about it, knowing how much XuanYu had grown resentful of the hats he had to constantly wear.

But the younger man simply shrugged, saying he wanted to wait for another five minutes. Just one more. Just to make sure.

Jiang Cheng didn’t come back that night.

And Mo XuanYu cried in his sleep clutching the half-empty vial to his chest.

Lan Zhan spent the night watching over him, singing to him the song he had written for Wei Ying. He snuggled close to XuanYu and made sure his wide headband was covering the crown of his head, before pressing himself to the other’s forehead.

He never stopped singing.

Wishing he could take all the pain away.

*

YanLi, A-Yuan and even ZiXuan knocked on his door to greet him into the new year, despite how XuanYu should have been the one to pay his respects to his landlords.

But they asked him to visit the funeral home with them instead, to say their thanks to YanLi’s parents with offers and flowers.

He dressed in his best clothes, having never been in what seemed to be a modern version of the ancestral halls of his childhood in a past life. The establishment was fairly sterile, with shelves filled with plaques and pictures instead of wooden inscriptions on an altar. The lot of them bowed and said their thanks, chatting with the late Jiangs almost as if they had never left. YanLi apologized to her mother for Jiang Cheng’s absence that year like any other year, while ZiXuan told his father-in-law how they would have visited the Jin ancestors during Chūnjié to make it fair.

XuanYu looked at them and barely kept himself from crying.

On their way back, YanLi explained her parents had died when she was still twelve and Jiang Cheng was merely six. How they had lived in the orphanage run by XiChen’s mother and made friends with the boy, who was YanLi’s classmate. How the siblings stayed there until YanLi came of age and got custody of her baby brother. ZiXuan’s family of lawyers had helped her pro bono and that was how she had met the man and fallen in love with him. Even if it had taken a while for ZiXuan to notice her at first, preoccupied with university and law school as he had been at the time. But the Jins helped her with the inheritance left by the late Madame Yu: the apartment complex where they currently lived.

Watching them explaining their past in such detail moved XuanYu deeply. Feeling as if they wanted to make him part of their family by filling in the gaps for him.

That was still his older brother after all and those were still his sister-in-law and his beloved nephew and he... he loved them. He had missed them so, so much.

And he was about to leave them again soon.

*

Wen Qing finally showed herself up one day at the park, when Mo XuanYu was taking Fairy out for an evening walk. She approached him by telling the younger man she had assisted in the surgery Xue Yang had undergone some time back.

Lan Zhan (hiding in the kid’s coat pocket) could see how startled the kid was at the mention of the criminal, but he decided to trust this version of Lady Wen as he would have done in the past.

Wei Ying cared deeply for her, after all.

Whatever truths she was about to entrust Mo XuanYu with, Lan Zhan knew the kid could take it.

He hoped as much, at least.

*

Jiang Cheng came back only for Chinese New Year. Saying he had stayed at XiChen’s since the winter break allowed them to take it easy and figure some stuff out for the following school year.

It hurt to know where he had been all along, but XuanYu braved a smile anyway. He knew how much Jiang Cheng cared for the older man, how much he wanted to save the school from the debt collector. How much he didn’t love XuanYu back.

So he let himself cry one last time before waking up one morning and deciding he had had enough.

He talked with Lan Zhan, asking him to tell him all about Wei WuXian and their love. If XuanYu’s sacrifice had allowed them to be happy as they deserved in the end. If Lan Zhan hated him now, for forcing him away from his loved one, who was currently waiting for him to come back to heaven.

Mo XuanYu knew the couple had sacrificed their chance at reincarnation to allow him to seek a second lifetime for himself. He knew Wei Ying watched over them from up above, waiting for Lan Zhan to secure a new life for the kid.

They talked all day and then well into the night.

By dawn Mo XuanYu had decided what to do.

*

XuanYu properly met Meng Yao one day of early spring, when flowers weren’t yet brave enough to poke their way out and greet the sun. The man was dressed in black, his hair cut short, a sigarette between his lips as he waited patiently for the kindergarten to open.

It was XuanYu’s duty to open that morning, so he was the one to greet the man.

Upon hearing his voice, Meng Yao immediately recognized him.

“There you are. I was waiting for you.”

“Me?”

“You’re the kid who answered the phone. And the one who helped my subordinate back in winter, right?”

His dimples were so deep, his face so pleasant.

Mo XuanYu remembered him from another lifetime. He remembered how much he had cared for his older brother Jin GuangYao. How hurt he had felt when the other had lied and accused him of harassment just to get rid of him.

But this was a new life and Meng Yao was just a man.

Who happened to have been married with XiChen for a while before turning to a life filled with crime and gang violence.

Wen Qing had told him Meng Yao had initially tried to live far away from his adoptive father Wen RuoHan. All for the sake of marrying XiChen and keep him safe. But XiChen’s mother still had had a debt to pay for the construction of the orphanage, a price too high for her to pay with her poor health and delicate disposition. A debt that XiChen had inherited from her when she had died.

That was why Meng Yao had left him: to go back to his father and ask him to handle the debt himself, supplicating him to overlook such small issue and let him dry XiChen out of every penny and cent instead.

Wen Qing may have learned this only from the gossiping running in her family, with the Wen Clan being as big as it was, but she was pretty sure of what she had told XuanYu. That Meng Yao had simply faked having fallen out of love with XiChen to protect him from his adoptive father and his cruelty. That XiChen still loved him and was waiting for him to fight alongside him instead.

Mo XuanYu knew all of this.

So now he could act and fulfill his mission.

*

“I want to pay the debt XiChen owes you.”

“You are full of surprises, XuanYu. And how do you plan to do that?”

“I can do many things.”

“You’re very pretty, you can make good money out of it.”

XuanYu considered his words before shaking his head.

“It’s not something I can do.”

“Then what can you do?”

“I’ll solve everything.”

“I’m all ears.”

“But you’ll have to stop making XiChen worry so much.”

“That’s not how business work...”

“Lie to me. Give your word and I’ll... I will solve everything.”

Meng Yao humored him and nodded.

Then and only then, Mo XuanYu took his hat off.

*

Lan Zhan had watched the entire scene unfold before his eyes without intervening, trusting Mo XuanYu with such an important choice. He took in the sight of the beautiful spiritual light shining brightly on top of XuanYu’s head like a crown.

His soul in full display, its energy so raw it had slowed down time all around them.

Lan Zhan turned around and looked at XiChen, who had just turned a corner and had been walking towards XuanYu to greet him good morning. Frozen in time, his older brother’s face still looked peaceful... simply because he had had no time to notice Meng Yao’s presence quite yet.

Lan Zhan turned once more and saw Jiang WanYin making his way in a rush towards them, surely to protect XuanYu from Meng Yao. When did he arrive? His features trapped in a perpetual frown, scared for the one he truly loved in this lifetime.

Then, Lan Zhan looked up at Mo XuanYu and saw him taking the bottle only half filled with gold... which symbolized his goodwill and generous spirit.

“Will this be enough to grant a wish, Lan Zhan?”

When XuanYu said his name like that he sounded so much like his Wei Ying, full of hope and love.

“It depends on the wish, A-Yu.”

“I reckon it’s not enough for a new reincarnation, eh?”

“It’s enough to save a life... but not yours.”

XuanYu looked crestfallen, but he persevered still.

The bottle transformed into a bag filled with money and XuanYu made his way to XiChen and left it at his feet before smiling up at his mentor and employer.

“I cannot rewrite the past, but maybe I can plan a better future for you.”

Still smiling, XuanYu slowly walked over to Jiang Cheng and said his farewells.

Then he crouched down and took Lan Zhan in his hands, kissing him goodbye on the head affectionately.

“Erase me well, Lan Zhan,” he whispered then.

Before disappearing into thin air.

***

Wei Ying had agreed with him, suggesting the idea himself.

In the end the King of Hell had granted Lan Zhan’s request and offered Mo XuanYu a second chance anyway. Since this new self-sacrifice had been fueled by positive emotions instead of anger and despair, the hell judges had considered the atonement fulfilled and put the kid’s name back on the reincarnation list.

Twenty years had past and many things had changed.

For starters, the kid’s last name wasn’t Mo anymore, but Nie. The boy had, in fact, born into Nie MingJue’s family and had lived overseas in Japan for a while before moving back to Lanling when XuanYu turned twenty. Nie HuaiSang had met him many times during summer vacations and other festivities, visiting his brother and his wife every chance he had gotten to dote on his cute nephew XuanYu.

Nie MingJue had done a remarkable job in protecting him from harm. So, by the time their little family had decided to move close to HuaiSang, XuanYu had become a well adjusted adult with a brilliant future ahead of him.

Nobody remembered him.

Or so Lan Zhan had thought.

Apparently, he had forgotten to wipe Jin Ling’s memories thoroughly. So, when The Nie family had come to greet HuaiSang’s friends YanLi and ZiXuan, A-Ling almost had a stroke out of incredulity and happiness for being reunited with his “A-Yu”. Even if Jin Ling was now older than the pretty-gege from his memories. Even if he had spent years trying to figure out why nobody seemed to remember the weird uncle living next door to his Jiujiu years back.

XiChen and Meng Yao had solved their problems and had started running the school together right after Wen RuoHan sudden and mysterious disappearance. The man had many enemies after all. 

A-Yuan had grown up into a fine young man, someone Wei Ying would have certainly been proud of, working with his cousin Wen Ning at the local botanical garden while his friends still studied in university. 

Nie HuaiSang had married Qin Su and opened a restaurant with her. 

MianMian and Wen Qing had decided to live together and adopt a bunch of dogs just because. 

Xiao XingChen and Xue Yang still lived together while Song Lan had found his way back to them after talking it out with the couple. 

A-Qing was probably running some sketchy business in social services to protect kids from horrible families.

Lan Zhan was still, unfortunately, a stuffed rabbit. Following XuanYu in his new life in the most unexpected of ways. In the form of the first present the boy’s uncle had gifted him in childhood. If Wei Ying had pulled a string or two from heaven to make that happen, well, Lan Zhan himself was none the wiser. The only thing he knew was that XuanYu had always taken him with him in all his travels even if he didn’t know he could speak. Lan Zhan had preferred not to reveal his nature and let the kid have a normal childhood. Especially since he had no memories of his past as a tenant in Jiang YanLi’s house. Nor of his life as a cultivator.

Wei Ying had agreed they could wait to be reunited again. The both of them wanting to look over XuanYu for a little longer before getting their own chance at reincarnation. They had all eternity to be together again... they could definitely wait a bit more for the kid.

All was well.

Aside from the other person whose mind Lan Zhan had conveniently forgot to wipe clean of any memory of XuanYu.

In his defense, Lan Zhan had tried to make Jiang Cheng forget. But something about XuanYu must have touched him so deeply... that Lan Zhan had not been able to do much about it. The kid’s smiles and clumsy antics would always linger in the back of the other’s mind no matter how much he tried to ignore them.

Coming back from his job at ZiXuan’s firm, exhausted and vulnerable, Jiang Cheng decided to visit his sister the same day Nie MingJue had brought his family there. So he was particularly weak to the sight of a bright, soft XuanYu when YanLi introduced her younger brother to their guests.

To Lan Zhan’s absolute delight, Jiang Cheng immediately bowed down to a scary looking Nie MingJue and asked his son’s hand in marriage.

Yes, grovel to this precious boy and learn your place.

XuanYu only tilted his head at that weird man bowing to his parents and smiled.

His laughter ringing up to the sky, where Wei Ying was still listening.

From where he would have kept watching.

*

[I worked so hard on this please reblog]

*

[kobato means “little dove” I thought it was cute since XuanYu is a magpie! + I wanted MXY a chance at life and for once this is a reversal-sacrifice from WWX’s part and I think it’s neat.]

[JC would be 43 or so... which yikes. but this is all I could do. I don’t like huge age gaps but at least everyone is a consenting adult, okay?]

[the thing that started this was like “what if LXC was an only child and LWJ did not reincarnate bc he’s still in the afterlife or something? then the entire thing escalated so...yeah.]

now I will cry for ages. I worked so hard on this good god D:

[seven-oomen]

I’m sorry you’re still feeling exhausted.  I hope work wasn’t too terrible today, and that the weekend lets you rest up a bit (if you get normal weekends.  working in retail I try not to assume.)  Also, this is likely to just be a short(-ish) collection of unconnected musings, but I felt like sharing them anyway, and really you should be used to that from me at this point.  XD  So, first off that tree painting is GORGEOUS.  I mean, I tend to be kinda partial to that whole tree silhouette type aesthetic, so I’m probably slightly biased.  But still.  (And the background shading… <3 )  Also, ngl, the backlit keyboard keeps making me think of that video of Henry Cavill assembling his new computer that’s making the rounds.  That is not meant as a complaint of any sort, mind you, merely an observation.

Speaking of hot scruffy dudes who are actually massive dorks, did you SEE Ian’s most recent Insta pic?!  (the non-cowboy hat one)  Omg, I don’t know why he keeps complaining about how it’s starting to look like TW Season One hair like it’s some sort of bad thing.  (The longer the hair, the better the grip you can get. […uh…wait, what?… ’>.> ])  That pic just screams OUAT sequel to me.  Out here looking all shaggy and windblown and peaceful and content.  Proud Alpha Dad Peter spending quality time with his family/pack.  How very dare he spring this on an unsuspecting public with no warning?  I was not prepared.  (Also, Sinqua and Holland commenting on it just ups the adorable factor that much more.)

Also, was looking at a few sites lately in consideration of ordering a few more masks for work, found this print on one of them and almost laughed myself absolutely stupid.  I don’t know why it was just so funny to me, but I hope it cheers you as much as it did me.  Btw, it’s available on an impressive variety of items, including two types of notebooks, t-shirts, mugs, blankets, pillows, beach towels, shower curtains, rugs, bath mats, several styles of bags, phone cases, and assorted types of wall art (sadly not on a mask, however.  I was deeply disappointed.)  I can see any number of items ending up in the Haleargentski household, bought by assorted non-wolf members for assorted wolf members, because they are a family of assholes.  (I feel like the first gift was a travel mug to Peter from his darling husbands, then a t-shirt [on black ofc] from Peter to Derek, and then it just all snowballed from there.)

Today’s literally-just-appeared-out-of-nowhere-wtf-brain thought is (much like the French maid thing) definitely of the nsfw variety, so consider yourself duly warned if you have a shift today.  Because I mean we talked about Chris and Noah using toys on each other, but why should Peter get left out of the fun?  There are plenty of ways for him to enjoy them, too.  Like, pretty much the initial spontaneous thought was “Peter getting pulled into someone’s lap and being pegged within an inch of his life until he comes screaming down the throat of whichever one is going down on him at the same time."  And I was just like "not sure what this has to do with this video of how to make a ukelele out of colored pencils, but continue."  But like, no really.  Peter being knotted in one of them while the other uses beads or a (vibrating) plug on him?  (Which one is the asshole who momentarily turns the vibration up high enough that they BOTH can feel it?)  Or using those, or some kind of prostate massager, while he’s tied up and watching them with each other?  Bonus points in that situation for anything remote controlled.  See just how good his control really is.  Equal opportunity toy usage is what I’m saying, basically.

Also had a thought inspired by a pregnant friend and her fiance raving about a local pizza place’s monthly special, which is a pickle pizza (no really).  I may or may not have asked her if she had it with ice cream (I totally did, but apparently she’s past that point.)  So I was wondering about any weird or specific cravings the boys have while pregnant.  I remember Chris having a thing about chocolate pudding in the flashbacks.  Was it only a certain type of pudding, or would any kind do?  Were there any others he had?  Did he have the same ones with Ben or different?  What about Noah?  What sort of cravings did he get, if any?  And did they vary between sets of twins?  Did anybody go the aforementioned pickles and ice cream route?  Anybody dipping fries in Nutella?  Onion straws in peanut butter?  Doritos in cottage cheese?  Anybody eat salsa straight out of the jar?  Did anybody get any sudden absolute need for a specific fast food at two in the morning?  Or suddenly want a type of snack food only carried at one truck stop halfway past the next town?  Anybody spend several days eating nothing but veggie trays, including ones they normally can’t stand?  Anybody develop a temporary aversion to certain things, like coffee (feels like it would be a terrible thing for either of them)?  Did Peter cater to their every whim in any and all of these situations?  (I already know that answer.)  Did either one ever get demanding about it, or did they go the more passively-wistful-won’t-stop-mentioning-it route?  Side note; did anyone (not family) ever catch the wrong end of hormones now backed by even more combat and/or magical ability?  (Debbie at the bake sale best step off or she gonna regret a number of her life choices.)

Uh…I think that was the last of the random swirling questions/musings/headcanons for now…  I hope you feel a bit better today, and that the time off (I think you mentioned some time off?) is helpful.  Enjoy your time with your friend (that was this weekend, right?).  If you’ve got ideas for writing stuff, but are having trouble getting them down, would making quick notes/reminders, or voice recordings, for later help?  Like, so you don’t worry about losing them, but aren’t forcing yourself to do something you don’t feel up for at the time?  Either way, congrats on keeping up with the journaling (and the pretty, pretty art), and I hope tracking everything proves helpful.  And remember, other people’s bullshit issues and hang-ups are in no way your fault (no matter what they try to tell you), and you deserve all the good things.  Take care!  *Hugs to both of you!* 

Yeah, honestly I think I hit that point in my life again where my battery is drained and I can’t restart it. Which is how I got my burn out at first and working towards another one. Heh but I also don’t want to give up now and just keep working for a little longer because my contract expires at the end of September and yeah.. 

Stress.

Aww gosh thank you, yeah I really like how that one turned out! It was better than expected.

Btw if you’re into Zombie apocalypse stories (I am) you should definitely check out The girl with all the gifts. It’s so brutal but also interesting, I definitely enjoyed that. (And it was research for my own book)

Lol I love this keyboard and this laptop, really, it was the most expensive thing I ever bought but it’s so worth it. Still runs super smooth after 2 years. I don’t think I’ve seen that video of Henry though. 

And omg yes I did and it’s the best thing. he looks so SOFT omg. I def got  OUAT S2 vibes from that. And OUAT vibes. Also that pic of him with Colton, omg. Those were the best!

THAT PRINT!!!! I nearly snorted coffee out of my nose this morning but managed to swallow it down just in time. My work computer would have suffered caffeine damage otherwise XD.

But yeah, that becomes a running gag for sure!

Because I mean we talked about Chris and Noah using toys on each other, but why should Peter get left out of the fun?  There are plenty of ways for him to enjoy them, too.  Like, pretty much the initial spontaneous thought was “Peter getting pulled into someone’s lap and being pegged within an inch of his life until he comes screaming down the throat of whichever one is going down on him at the same time."

*cheff’s kiss* 

Yes.

Oh the images are so good. Remind me to write them out in detail tomorrow after the zoo trip.

Also parking the pregnancy cravings to answer tomorrow since it’s past midnight and I should catch some sleep before I need to be up again. But I will definitely type that HC out.

Side note; did anyone (not family) ever catch the wrong end of hormones now backed by even more combat and/or magical ability?  (Debbie at the bake sale best step off or she gonna regret a number of her life choices.)

Ohhh Debbie’s toast. Because yes, Noah’s magic is that much stronger when it’s fueled by pregnancy hormones and Chris turns into a very protective hormonal fighting machine. Low center of gravity has advantages when you’re in a squabble with the Karens.

And yeah, I have four days off right now. Which means I don’t have to work until Thursday again. Which is awesome!

But yeah work wasn’t too bad, I had to do one bad news conversation which fucking sucked since there was nothing I could do and nobody I could get a hold off to fix the problem for that customer and it was just a waiting game. I hate those conversations. I honestly do.

Most of it was quiet though and I got to leave an hour earlier due to the quiet day. So that was good. And I watched a movie while being paid (The girl with all the gifts) so that was pretty fun too XD

I actually voice record a lot already. I find it really helps with clearing my mind and I write a lot of stuff down. But I appreciate the tip!

Lots of cuddles from me and Mo and I hope your day went by well. <3

[sugarbubbleslove]

Current run through of ME2

After doing 4 run throughs of ME1 (two different consoles, same characters, different classes - all romancing Kaidan), I'm kind of doing a speed-run of ME2 (So I can get Kaidan back quickly).

And I have a few thoughts.

One - I really don't like that all your powers go into cooldown when you use one. I liked ME1 where you could spam your powers. I kind of get where Bioware was coming from but I do feel like that was a step - back from ME1 (Though thankfully no Mako. Drop the damn thing)

Two - Ever since I had this stray thought of The Illusive Man being a Sugar Dad who is expecting gratitude from my Fem!Shepard for sinking over 4 Billion Dollars to bring her back, it takes his whole annoyed attitude with her refusing to trust Cerberus to a whole new level (And makes me side-eye him when he asks her if her personal issues with Kaidan has been dealt with. Creepy right? LOL)

Three - I've been reading the message from Kaidan every chance I go up to the quarter (which is after every mission - even though I have Kelly looking after my fish - no need to flirt with her, just be friendly), I haven't clicked archive on the message yet so I ended up HC that Kaidan is waiting for that notification she's read it LOL.

Four - it took replaying this after a while - but I really miss the Hanar, the Elcor and the Volus. I liked talking to them in ME1. Getting to them. I liked that they were the merchants and having their quirky way of selling Shepard stuff. It feels like they're really underused in ME2. I would have loved some interactions with Thane and the Hanar - to see how they would have reacted to him.

Five - I really wished there was a missionor DLC where you had Kaidan. I'd love to hear his interactions with Thane and Samara the most (I think he'd like Samara LOL) and to have him and Tali dork each other out when it comes to omni-tools. The two of them are such geeks.

Oh well. (That's it so far)

Ooh - BTW - does anyone know why Flashbang bonus power was available at the beginning of ME2 without completing the game? (For the Xbox S). I loaded my Character over from ME1 and was given the option to have it as a bonus power for some reason (I don't remember it being an option in the PS4 version)

And I can get barrier back!! I really missed Barrier. At least I get to keep singularity.