#which as much as i like long chapters is probs still a little much

[wannabehockeygf]

You All Over Me - Auston Matthews

“‘Cause no amount of freedom gets you clean,

I’ve still got You All Over Me.”

Pairing: Auston Matthews x fem! oc Word Count: Currently 8.2k

Pairing: AM34 x Social Media Manager fem!oc

Warnings: alcohol, smut later on

Notes: (***) indicate chapter change, (---) time skip within chapter, or a seperation from a post or messages. Italics at the beginning of the chapter indicate who's 'pov'(not really cuz we're in third person) we're looking at. BOLD LETTERS LIKE THIS during chapters (excluding posts/the first word of the entire book) indicate location. Locations within Toronto will be more specific, outside of Toronto will be vague.

Story will be continued on my wattpad (same handle) and here, but should prob follow my wattpad because I won't announce new chaps here lol.

***

Toronto.

A place of endless opportunity – bright lights everywhere, bustling city streets, and the sinking feeling in one's stomach when realizing each of the 6 million people in the GTA have their own lives.

It's humbling, truly. Sitting on the subway, heading to a destination, one can't help but wonder about the people around them.

Thoughts don't often dwell on it, but that girl with the pink hair and the septum piercing? She just found out her dad is sick. The guy with the navy blue baseball cap? He just got promoted at work.

Sometimes she wondered if people look at her and wonder what her story is. What brought her to that moment, being in the same place as them.

She doesn't know if they do, but it brings her a sense of normalcy. Weirdly enough, it's one of the only things that makes her feel human when in doubt. Everyone is just trying to get by, right?

And sometimes, that can be especially hard - at least in her case right now.

Moving across the country had never been on Blair's radar until about 4 months ago. She had just finished her first year of law school after sustaining a season-ending, and career-ending, hip injury competing in figure skating last year.

As a little kid, she always wanted to play hockey, but her mom pushed figure skating on her, saying it was more 'feminine.' She didn't like it all that much, but it consumed her life so much that when she lost it, she didn't know what to do with herself.

So, when it blew up in her face, she decided to deny it and work towards making her communications bachelor's degree worth something in law school. Problem was, she hated it.

It drove her mental health into a ditch, and by the time she was finished, she was a shell of who she used to be - and who she used to be was broken too.

She didn't want to live like that anymore.

So, she finally broke things off with her long-term boyfriend, which she probably should've done earlier, and left. Left Vancouver behind to start a new life across the country - in Toronto.

Her music boomed in her headphones as she looked up, seeing that they were at the station she needed to get off at. Standing up, walking off the subway, she climbed up the stairs and faced the unfamiliar streets once again.

She had just come back from a job interview and was heading home to her tiny studio apartment in Trinity-Bellwoods. The job, which required navigating the trenches of Toronto public transit, was at Scotiabank Arena - working for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Coming from a fan perspective, she had been a Canucks girl her whole life, growing up in Vancouver. But this position of social media manager paid really well, and she wasn't letting team bias get in the way of putting some weight in her pockets.

Seeing the ice could be a little irking for her, sure, but it's not like she was being put out there with a puck and a stick and nothing else other than a pat on the back. She'd just be responsible for the social media platforms. Can't be that hard, right?

They said they'd get back to her within two weeks, and now the waiting starts.

***

Blair

SCOTIABANK ARENA

Blair shoved her face into the badly drawn map the information desk attendant had given her for directions. It really wasn't helping.

"Right... here?" she mumbled, taking a sharp turn without looking up and bumping straight into a firm chest, dropping the paper.

Startled, she let out a little squeal before stepping back to see who she had just run into. "Sorry!" she said, meeting the gaze of a blue-eyed man.

He smiled brightly at her. "All good," he replied, crouching down to pick up the paper and furrowing his brow at it. "What even is this?"

Blair let out an awkward chuckle, moving a lock of dark brown hair away from her face. "A... map? Sorry, I'm just so turned around here." She paused, swallowing hard. "Do you happen to know where I could find a... Brad Treliving?"

"Sure do," the man said, folding up the paper. He seemed about to give it back to her before he held out his other hand for a handshake. "And you are?"

"Blair Hanson," she replied, shaking his hand firmly. This guy must be the happiest man on earth, holding a full-on goofy grin for the entire interaction.

"Nice to meet you, Blair. I'm Mitch," he remarked, freeing her from the handshake and handing her the paper at last.

"Mitch...?" she questioned. As little as she knew about professional settings, she thought you were supposed to introduce yourself with your full name, which 'Mitch' didn't do, if that's even his name.

Mitch laughed, surveying the skeptical look on Blair's face. "You don't know who I am?"

Who did this guy think he was? Blair blinked a couple of times, then pushed her glasses up her nose. "Should I?"

Mitch chuckled again, clearly amused by her confusion. "How new are you here, exactly?"

"Well," she started, crossing her arms, "Does it matter? Maybe you should stop expecting people to recognize you on sight. I mean, what are you, Mark, like, a fitness trainer or something?"

Mitch furrowed his eyebrows, his friendly smile fading slightly. "It's Mitch," he paused, running a hand through his dirty blond hair. "Mitch Marner. I play for the team."

Oh. Oh. Blair should have known that, shouldn't she? She felt her face burn up as she started to apologize profusely. "I'm so sorry! I'm just... very new," she admitted, her guard wearing down.

Mitch waved it off, his smile returning. "No worries. So, you were looking for Brad, huh? Big day for you?"

"Yeah," Blair said, feeling a bit nervous under his gaze. "I'm starting as the new social media manager."

Mitch's eyes lit up. "Oh, that's awesome! You'll be handling all the behind-the-scenes stuff, right? Making us look good on Instagram and all that?"

"Pretty much," she laughed, starting to feel more at ease. "I'm still figuring out how I'm going to make a bunch of sweaty hockey players look good, though."

Mitch grinned. "Good luck with that. But seriously, welcome aboard. You'll do great." He gestured down the hallway. "Brad's just around the corner, I'll take you."

"Thank you, Mitch. I appreciate it," she said, falling into step beside him.

"No problem," Mitch replied, walking with an easy confidence that made Blair envious. "You'll find that everyone here is pretty welcoming. It can feel like a big family, especially once you get to know the guys."

Blair laughed. "Oh, sure. I'm sure I'll fit right... in." She trailed off, her eyes widening as Mitch pushed open a big double door. She first spotted the man she was looking for, Brad Treliving, standing at the head of a big conference table, along with the entire Maple Leafs roster seated around it.

She swallowed hard, standing frozen in place while everyone's heads turned towards her. Mitch placed a friendly hand on her shoulder, "This her?"

Brad Treliving looked up from the papers he was holding, a welcoming smile spreading across his face. "Yes, it is. Come on in, Blair."

Blair forced her feet to move, taking tentative steps into the room. If she wasn't nervous before, she was now, with every pair of eyes scrutinizing her. She offered a polite smile, trying to hide her nerves. "Um... Hi," she said, approaching Brad and standing beside him. "Is this... are we doing this here?"

Brad chuckled softly, his eyes crinkling at the corners. "Yes, Blair. I thought it might be good for you to meet everyone right away. This is the team you'll be working with closely, after all."

She swallowed again, feeling the weight of the moment pressing down on her. "Okay, sure. Hi, everyone."

The players nodded and mumbled their greetings, some offering small smiles. Blair could feel her heart pounding in her chest, but she forced herself to stay calm. This was what she came here for. This was her new beginning.

Brad gestured to a seat at the table, and Blair sat down, her back straight and her hands clasped in her lap. "So, Blair," he began, "We're thrilled to have you on board. Should we start with some introductions?"

She nodded, attempting to steady her breath as she glanced around the table. "Well, I'm Blair, as Mr. Treliving said, um..." She paused, fumbling with her fingers under the table. "I moved here from Vancouver a couple of weeks ago. I went to law school for a bit, and I used to figure skate competitively."

A chuckle came from somewhere across the table, and Blair's gaze shot in that direction. Her eyes met those of a tall, muscular, brown-eyed man as he stifled another laugh. "Figure skating, huh? No offense, but what do you know about hockey?"

Blair forced a polite smile, trying not to show her frustration. "None taken. I've been a Canucks fan my whole life, so, a lot more than you'd think."

A lot taken. It was like she had walked into a room with egos inflated to the max.

"Yeah, okay," he replied, his voice carrying a hint of sarcasm as he adjusted his Maple Leafs branded ball cap. "Nice glasses, by the way."

Blair pushed her glasses up her nose, feeling a little self-conscious at this point, and she was about to respond before another man she didn't recognize spoke up. "Auston, lay off. It's not like she's getting on the ice with us."

Auston. That name rang a bell, she thought. Of course, Auston Matthews. Blair made a mental note to remember the faces and names, but for now, she just needed to get through this. Auston rolled his eyes, leaning back as he replied, "Says the one whose wife is a figure skater."

The other man, with strawberry blond hair, tensed up, gaining his composure before he met Auston's gaze. "And how many Olympic gold medals do you have?"

Auston smirked but didn't respond. The tension in the room was palpable, and Blair could feel her anxiety rising again. She took a deep breath, reminding herself that she needed to stay professional. This was her chance to prove herself, and she wouldn't let an arrogant hockey player get to her.

Brad cleared his throat, bringing the attention back to him. "Alright, let's focus, everyone. Blair is here to help us elevate our social media presence, and I expect all of you to cooperate and make her job easier."

The fact that the general manager was talking to the players like they were literal children made Blair tense up even further. This was going to be a long day.

--- 436 TRINITY-BELLWOODS

Blair's phone rang as she shut the door to her apartment. She fished through her bag and pulled it out, seeing her brother's name, and slid to pick up the FaceTime.

She was met with the face of her baby niece, and it instantly warmed her heart. Sometimes, she thought she regretted choosing this type of life instead of settling down and starting a family, but she always brushed those thoughts away. She wasn't ready to be a mother—being the hot, cool aunt was enough for her.

"Hey, munchkin!" she greeted her niece, her voice softening. "Where's your dad?"

Her niece giggled, the camera shaking as she toddled around. "Da-da!" she called, and Blair heard her brother, Sam's, voice in the background.

"Hey, Blair," he said, taking the phone from his daughter and giving her a friendly smile. "How are you? How's the city?"

The stress of the day slowly dissipated as Blair saw the familiar face that brought her comfort. "Yeah, it's... different. Bigger, for sure, but nothing a little walking around can't fix. How's everything back home?"

Sam laughed, adjusting Blair's niece on his lap. "Same old, same old. Lila just started walking, so that's been fun." His face lit up with pride as he talked about his daughter, and Blair couldn't help but smile. Someday, she hoped she had that too.

"She's getting so big!" Blair said, watching as Lila reached for the phone, her chubby fingers grasping at the screen. "And walking already? Wow."

"Yeah, she's a little terror now," Sam joked, tickling Lila's side and making her squeal with laughter. He turned back to the camera, and his smile slowly got replaced with a frown as he looked at Blair's disheveled state. "We miss you, little sis."

Blair took a deep breath, feeling a wave of homesickness wash over her. "I miss you guys too. It's been a crazy day. I'm just trying to adjust, you know?"

Sam chuckled, attempting to lighten the mood. "Hey, you've dealt with worse, right? Remember when that one coach at nationals—"

"Sam! Don't!" Blair squealed, not wanting to be reminded of that. Figure skating might have been her entire life, but it was also the most traumatizing thing she had ever gone through.

Sam waved it off, returning the conversation to safer waters. "Whatever. But you got through that, right? You can get through anything, Blair. Toronto ain't nothing." He joked, trying to offer her more comfort.

Blair honestly felt bad for people who hadn't experienced having a big brother because they were literally the best. He was her only one, yet his words could always bring a smile to her face. "Yeah, you're right. Thanks, Sam. I needed that," she replied, smiling back at him.

"Anytime," Sam said, giving Lila a kiss on the forehead. "Hey, if you ever need to talk, you know we're just a phone call away. Don't be a stranger, okay?"

"I won't," Blair promised, feeling a bit lighter. "Give Lila a big hug from me."

"Will do," Sam said, waving as Lila babbled in the background. "Take care, sis."

"You too," Blair said, ending the call and setting her phone down on the coffee table. She took a deep breath, looking around her tiny studio apartment. The walls were still bare, and the only furniture she had was a small bed and a desk. It wasn't much, but it was a start.

A new start. Her new start.

***

Auston

SCOTIABANK ARENA

Auston Matthews was always straightforward with people. He thought that was a good quality, but recently, it seemed quite the opposite. His friends liked him, though, even though they butted heads sometimes. That made him not an asshole, right?

Through some light stalking, Auston had found Blair's Instagram the next day, and was actively scrolling through it, hunched over and everything while in the locker room. He didn't have shame doing it, because they might not have liked each other, but damn she was hot.

It started innocently, perhaps curious, when he searched her name at the gym the night before and saw that Mitch had already followed her. He even looked around before he tapped on it to make sure no one was looking, even though he was the only one there, and he'd been hooked ever since.

It was surprising that he wasn't drooling currently, as he was elbow-deep in her feed fifteen minutes before warmups. Mitch, who had been trying to hype the whole team up for their season home opener, frowned when he saw Auston didn't even glance up from his phone.

"Yo, Matthews!" Mitch exclaimed, trying to get Auston's attention. Auston glanced up, trying to find the source of the noise. His eyes scanned the room until they met Mitch's, whose eyes narrowed at Auston. "What?" Auston said, his tone annoyed.

"What?" Mitch mimicked Auston, mocking him as he rolled his eyes, "We have a game in fifteen minutes and you're glued to your phone. What's so interesting, anyway?"

Auston put his phone down on the bench as he started to put a glove on. "Nothing. I mean, nothing important. It can wait." He stated.

William Nylander, another one of their teammates, took the opportunity to snatch Auston's phone on the bench. He thought it would be an innocent prank to get him to flinch, but his face lit up when he saw it was still unlocked.

"Aw, you guys gotta see this," William said, quickly standing up and holding the phone out of Auston's reach.

Auston lunged for his phone, but with his gloves on, it was a futile effort. "Willy, fuck off and give it back." he snapped, his annoyance evident.

William grinned mischievously and darted away, holding the phone high. "What are you so worried about, Auston? Is it your secret mistress?" he joked, drawing the attention of a few other players in the locker room.

Mitch stepped forward, grinning at William's antics. "Let's see what's got our boy so hooked," he said, grabbing the phone from William's hand before Auston could protest.

The room fell silent as the players gathered around Mitch. Auston could only watch in horror as his teammates stared at Blair's Instagram feed. A few chuckles broke out, and Auston's face flushed with embarrassment.

"Man, she's cute," William remarked, nudging Auston playfully as he handed his phone back. "No wonder you've been glued to your phone."

Auston felt his frustration bubbling within him as he finally snatched the phone from William's hand. "I know she's cute, that's why I was looking at it, genius. No other reason."

"Whatever you say, buddy," Mitch said, rolling his eyes as he put his own gloves on, "No harm in trying anything, right? I mean, no rules are saying that we can't–"

Auston sat up from the bench quickly in his defense. "I'm not–" He paused, looking around to see that everyone's eyes were on him which made him decide to sit back down, "I'm not going to try anything, okay? I can do way better than some figure skater media manager or whatever."

The locker room fell into an awkward silence after Auston's defensive outburst. Mitch exchanged a glance with William before deciding to break the tension.

"Alright, let's get our heads in the game," Mitch said, clapping his hands to grab everyone's attention. "We have a season opener to win."

Auston kept his head down, focusing on putting on the rest of his gear. The other players started to shift their attention back to the game, the momentary distraction fading away. Auston could feel the weight of their looks, though, and he knew he'd have to find a way to get everyone to forget about it.

And he knew how to do that, precisely. He had to push away the subject – Blair – as much as possible, and that's exactly what he was going to do.

Tagged Location: Toronto, Ontario

austonmatthews: Thanks for the awesome home opener 💙🤍💙 @/morganrielly @/marner_93

♥ Liked by marner_93, williamnylander, and 73297 others.

Comments: marner_93: 🔥🐐💯

mapleleafs: Leafs nation has the PASSION

random: Auston one chance please

matthewknies: Arizona boys doing what they do best ↳ williamnylander: ice hockey...? ↳↳matthewknies: shhhhh

random: cup this ssn!? ↳ random: 1967

---

BAR DEM

"Another round?" William cheered loudly, urging his teammates on as he flipped his head of sweaty blond hair back. He was drunk – quite literally the entire team was as they celebrated their season opener win, and had what seemed like too many rounds of shots in the upscale bar downtown. Another one couldn't hurt, right?

Auston nodded towards William, approaching the bartender and placing his forearm on the sticky bartop, his credit card placed deliberately between his fingers. He waved over the young woman manning the bar until she noticed him, brushing her hair over her shoulder as she stood infront of him. "What can I get ya?"

Auston smirked, his eyes scanning the bartender head to toe. "Another round of shots for the best puck players in the league," he said, his words slightly slurring together at the end. He gave the bartender a wink before handing over his credit card.

Auston's inner dialogue, although absolutely plastered, was screaming at him to not do something he'd regret, but he decided to ignore it. The bartender flushed as she quickly pulled out the shot glasses from under the bar, then bent over slightly to grab the team's choice of tequila from the wall of alcohol. Auston's eyes, unfortunately, betrayed him at the moment but eventually found hers again. "What's your name, baby?"

The bartender's cheeks turned a light shade of pink as she glanced up at Auston, her movements slowing as she poured the shots. "It's Natalie," she replied, avoiding his gaze momentarily before meeting his eyes again with a shy smile.

Auston grinned, unapologetically eye-fucking the bartender once again. "Nice to meet you, Natalie. I'm Auston."

"I know who you are," she said, her voice barely audible over the noise of the bar. Auston raised a brow, leaning closer to Natalie, "Really? Then who am I?"

Natalie's blush deepened as she filled the last shot glass. "You're Auston Matthews. Everyone here knows who you are," she replied, her voice steady despite her shyness.

Auston adjusted his ball cap, which he was wearing backward before he focused on Natalie again. Even while wasted, he couldn't lie – he loved the attention. "Well, it's nice to know I'm famous," he joked, his words still slurred. "When do you get off tonight?"

Natalie hesitated, glancing around to see if anyone was watching her too closely. She met Auston's gaze again, her blush deepening. "Couple of hours," she said quietly, trying to maintain a professional demeanor despite her flustered state.

Auston grinned wider, sensing her interest. "Maybe you can join us for a drink later," He said, his gaze flickering to her lips for a split second, "We could... get to know each other."

Natalie bit her lip before rolling her eyes, "We'll see," She said, swiping Auston's card through the machine and turning the tablet around for his signature. He frowned slightly, scribbling on the screen before Natalie slid the tray of shots toward him, "Have a good night, Mr. Matthews."

Auston opened his mouth to reply to her, but before he could, Mitch yelled from their booth and waved Auston over. "Auston, stop hitting on the bartender and bring us those shots, would you?"

Auston rolled his eyes at Mitch's interruption but grabbed the tray of shots and made his way back to their booth. The rest of the team cheered as he approached, slapping him on the back and grabbing their glasses.

"I had this grreatt idea, Auston," Mitch started, right after he downed the shot the second he got it, "You've got the hots for our new media manager right? Well... I have her number!" He slurred, the alcohol clearly hitting him as much as anybody else.

"Okay?" Auston replied without missing a beat. He had an uncanny ability of being able to look like he didn't care about things, even if he did, and this was one of those times. "Why? And... how does this affect me?"

"I'm a nice guy, I make it my personal duty to get to know everyone on staff," Mitch leaned in closer, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper despite the loud music and chatter around them, "And, how does this affect you? Come on, you were looking at her pictures with more passion than you play our game, Tone."

Auston's jaw tightened as he sat back on one of the worn-out leather sofas, "I don't want anything to do with that prissy 'businesswoman'" He scoffed, using his fingers to make mock quotations.

Mitch rolled his eyes, talking louder this time. "Well, here's your one chance then. I've got Blair's number right here," he said, pulling out his phone and waving it teasingly in front of Auston.

Auston hesitated for a moment before snatching the phone out of Mitch's hand, his fingers fumbling on his own phone screen as he copied the number down. Yeah, okay, he might've absolutely detested the thought of actually being with someone like Blair, but casual, no-strings affairs were his specialty.

After he was done, he slipped his phone back into his pocket and handed Mitch's back. "There. Now fuck off and let's have fun, yeah?" He said, to which Mitch gave him a smirk back.

***

Blair

PRIVATE MESSAGES 2:43 AM

???: I got your number babe Cnt fuckin believe he gotb to yous before meeee Gna tell his wife lmaoooo Im sooooo fuckshng wastped rnight nkowww I took thnis grl hime Can't stolp thisnkinf aboust u thouglh Need a girl likes u in my lifne

8:01 AM

Blair: What? I think you have the wrong number And, word of advice, never drunk text someone ever again.

436 TRINITY-BELLWOODS

Blair woke up to her alarm. She squinted at the bright screen and saw several messages from an unknown number. Rubbing her eyes, she tried to make sense of the jumbled text, feeling a mix of confusion and annoyance. Who would send something like this at such an ungodly hour?

Setting her phone back on her nightstand, Blair groaned and rolled out of bed. The small studio apartment felt even tinier in the morning light, but she had no time to dwell on that. She had her first full day at work ahead of her, and she was determined to make a good impression despite the rocky start with the team. Or, atleast, with a certain person.

She had been in Toronto for about a month now, and it felt as if she hadn't gotten a good nights sleep since. The sooner she got more comfortable with her new place, the sooner she'd be comfortable in her new life.

She quickly showered, dressed in a professional yet comfortable outfit, and made herself a quick breakfast. Her phone buzzed again, and she reluctantly picked it up.

PRIVATE MESSAGES 8:32 AM

???: Oh fuck My bad Right number tho This is Auston Matthews

Blair: Did you even read what you texted me? Completely inappropriate. Who gave you my number?

Fivehead: Look, I'm sorry. Was pretty wasted last night. Didn't mean to make you uncomfortable Or whatever Read 8:34 AM

Fivehead: Mitch did. He was also pretty drunk

Blair: Asshole.

Fivehead: What?

Blair: What?

Fivehead: Me or him?

Blair: Him.

Fivehead: Oh, so I'm not an asshole?

Blair: No, you too.

Fivehead: You can't just call me an asshole

Blair: Who's stopping me?

Fivehead: I could get you fired.

Blair: You wouldn't do that. I thought you said you needed a girl like me in your life?

Fivehead: Better stop talking before I actually do it.

Blair: Make me.

Auston's typing bubble came up for a few moments, then stopped, but his reply came a couple of minutes later.

Fivehead: Whatever you say Cya in a few, princess Or would you prefer "your majesty" ? Read 8:42 AM

--- SCOTIABANK ARENA

Blair hunched forward in her office chair, the clacking of keyboards around her becoming more irritating by the second. She was told she would have her own office, but today, since renovations were going on, the general manager sent another woman to share the space with Blair.

The red-headed woman who went by the name of Jess was nice enough, but she was so focused that it drove Blair nuts. I mean, seriously, in the three hours they'd been at work, she hadn't stopped typing - other than when she would take sips of her strong-smelling herbal tea.

That's why when someone knocked on the door, Blair immediately shot up, thankful for a sound other than that goddamn keyboard. She quickly scurried to the door, passing by Jess who was unbothered by the distraction.

Blair opened the door to see Auston Matthews standing there, leaning against the doorframe with a smug grin on his face. She fought the urge to roll her eyes as she took a step back, crossing her arms, "Can I help you?"

Auston's grin widened as he took a step into the office, closer to Blair. "Thought I'd come say hi. You know, our last interaction wasn't all that great."

Blair raised an eyebrow, her arms still crossed. "And texting me at 2 am drunk off your ass, trying to fuck me is what you consider 'not all that great?'" She replied, using her fingers to make mock quotations.

Auston's grin faltered for a moment, but he quickly recovered, adopting a more serious expression. "Okay, I get it. I was an asshole, and I'm sorry. Can we start over?"

Blair rolled her eyes, "I don't think I can after that string of texts," She said, walking forward to back Auston out into the hallway. She shut the door halfway before continuing, "Do you need anything? Or are you just here to distract me."

Auston chuckled and rolled his eyes back. "Yeah, actually. We need you downstairs. Something about an on-ice interview for TikTok?"

"Are you serious? I have to get on the ice? I don't even have skates." Blair remarked, slightly panicked. Auston, oblivious to the discomfort he had caused, motioned for her to follow him. "We're a hockey team. We have extra skates for everyone, come on."

Blair reluctantly followed Auston downstairs to the ice. There, she found no other players or people at all, just a selfie stick with a company phone lying by it on a bench. She turned to Auston, quite practically fuming at this point, "Small budget, huh? And I have to interview you?" She said, to which he nodded, "You didn't mention that! You said-"

"These should fit, ma'am." An equipment person interrupted, holding out a pair of white hockey skates.

Blair forced a smile as she took them and thanked the employee before turning back to Auston, "You really should work on your communication skills," she muttered, sitting down on a bench to put the skates on.

Auston smirked, leaning against the wall. "You're a fast learner. You'll be fine."

Blair rolled her eyes, trying to focus on lacing the skates, but she very quickly realized that these were very different to figure skates. She swallowed hard, not looking up as she struggled to figure out a way to make sure they stayed on.

Seeing her struggle, Auston sighed and walked over. "Let me help," he said, kneeling down in front of her.

"I don't need your help." Blair muttered, quickly angling herself away from where Auston had knelt down.

Auston chuckled softly. "You're not going to get far if you can't tie them properly," he said, his tone surprisingly gentle. Blair huffed, realizing he was right but still not wanting to be in this situation in the first place. Reluctantly, she turned back towards him, allowing him to help.

Auston expertly laced the skates, his fingers moving with practiced ease. Blair watched him silently, feeling a mix of frustration and just straight up hatred. Once he finished, he stood up and offered her a hand. "Ready to go?" he asked, a hint of a smile playing on his lips.

Blair looked at his hand, and then back up at him before completely disregarding his help and getting up on her own, although it wasn't easy in the new bulky skates.

"Always so independent, huh, princess?" Auston said, trying to hold back his laughter as Blair wobbled trying to walk out to the ice.

Blair managed to steady herself, her annoyance bubbling just beneath the surface. "Whatever, let's just get this over with."

***

Auston

YYZ - TORONTO PEARSON INTL. AIRPORT

Roadies - an inevitable event for a hockey player.

Usually, the Leafs schedule tried to make it so that they'd visit multiple cities during a roadie, getting it all over with and rewarding them with a long homestand, which is the way most of the players liked it. Today, though, they had a one-off trip down to Raleigh, just to fly back the same day.

Auston had decided to engross himself with his teammates today and pretend to be humble, flying on the team plane instead of his own private jet. He trudged on, a backpack slung over his shoulder and his dark hair sticking out of the beanie he was wearing.

Since he was running late, no one saw him at the terminal or even expected him to fly with them, so when he walked on everyone turned their heads. Mitch even shot to his feet, tilted his head in confusion, then finally waved him over.

Auston took a deep breath, hoping they would just talk normally, about the game or something, but braced himself for the inevitable other conversation as he walked down the aisle.

Mitch grinned widely as Auston approached, clearly eager to tease him. "Look who decided to slum it with the rest of us," he said, playfully nudging Auston's shoulder as he took a seat next to him.

Auston chuckled, shoving his backpack into the overhead bin and plopping down in the seat. "Yeah, yeah, I figured I'd give you guys the pleasure of my company for once."

Mitch's grin widened as he leaned back in his seat, rolling his eyes. "Pleasure, huh? More like a rare sighting of the famous Auston Matthews. What's next, you actually sitting with us on the bus?"

Auston rolled his eyes, adjusting his beanie. "Don't push it, Marner."

William leaned over the aisle, holding out his phone with a grin as wide as Mitch's. "This you?" He said, gesturing to the screen. Auston furrowed a brow as he leaned closer, but when he saw the Maple Leafs TikTok and a nicely manicured hand in frame along with Auston himself, he immediately looked the other way.

Auston groaned inwardly, realizing that the infamous TikTok interview had made its rounds. "Yeah, that's me," he said, pretending to not care as he slouched in his seat. "What's your point?"

William chuckled, pulling his phone back. "What's my point? Dude, are those hockey boots she's wearing? How'd you get Blair to do that?"

"Crazy thing, Willy, normal people don't carry skates around with them," Auston replied, his tone slightly annoyed, "She had to borrow them from equipment. No big deal."

William raised his hands in mock surrender, "Alright, don't kill me, but damn, I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little scared of her."

Auston scoffed, scratching his cheek. "Scared of her? What's there to be scared of, Willy?" He remarked with a passion. Auston, if asked, would describe Blair as many things, but 'scary' was not one of them."

William leaned back in his seat, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Oh, I don't know, maybe the fact that she seems to have no problem putting you in your place?" he teased, drumming his fingers on the tray table, "I mean, seriously, who ever tries to put you in your place? I don't know why we haven't started calling you Mr. Ego yet."

Auston shook his head defensively, "First of all, ouch, and second of all, there's a difference between 'putting me in my place' and just being annoying and bitchy," He sat up slightly, his posture straightening, "And which one is she, again?"

William chuckled, clearly enjoying Auston's discomfort. He folded his arms casually. "Come on, Auston. You've got to admit, she's got you wrapped around her finger."

Auston scowled, his annoyance growing. "I am not wrapped around anyone's finger, Willy. She's just...holy shit." He suddenly said, catching a glimpse of Mitch's phone beside him.

Tagged Location: Toronto, Ontario

blairhanson_: last warm day ever :(

♥ Liked by han.samwich, marner_93, and 1072 others.

Comments:

random: holy

han.samwich: Come back to van pls, it may be rainy but atleast it doesn't snow

↳ blairhanson_: It's also a complete ripoff of a city I fear

↳↳han.samwich: Fair point, Canucks better though

↳↳↳ marner_93: Ouch

↳↳↳↳ han.samwich: MITCH MARNER ????

random: what a hottie, age?

williamnylander: make me look this good on the ice please

↳ blairhanson_: I will try <3

---

"Hmm?" Mitch said, straightening his head up from his phone, seemingly inconspicuous to Auston's reaction.

"Give that to me." Auston muttered, ripping the phone from Mitch's hand and holding it up to his own face. It was a simple Instagram post from Blair, nothing overly special, but Auston found himself unable to rip his eyes off of it.

It only took a few moments of Auston gawking at Mitch's phone before everyone burst into laughter, including other members of the team around them. "See something you like?" Mitch teased.

Auston felt his face heat up, but he quickly regained his composure, throwing the phone back at Mitch. "Whatever, man. Just checking her out. Nothing wrong with that."

Mitch caught his phone, grinning ear to ear. "Sure, Tone, sure. You're just checking her out for work purposes, right?"

Auston rolled his eyes again, slouching further into his seat. "You guys got me fucked up if you think I've never seen you checking out a pretty girl before."

"Yeah, but I think her eyes are up there," William remarked, looking over at Mitch's phone where the photo was still pulled up. He looked at Auston, then at the photo, then back before smiling. "You think she's pretty?"

"Fuck, I..." Auston facepalmed, running his hands down his face. He couldn't believe he was in a situation where his teammates were bugging him about a girl, at their big age. "She's not bad to look at, okay? Can we drop it?"

The laughter from his teammates finally began to die down as everyone took their seats. "Okay, we'll stop... for now." Mitch conceded.

---

RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA

The Leafs took a tight victory against the Hurricanes that night in Raleigh, with a final score of 5-4 in overtime and a surprising Auston Matthews hat trick.

Fans in the arena booed him as he left the ice, but he didn't care. Drenched in sweat, he trudged into the visiting locker room with a big smile on his face, his glove out to fist bump anyone who wanted.

Auston pulled his jersey off, and left in only his compression shirt and chest protector was given the belt by last game's MVP, Matthew Knies. "Good shit, Tone, let's keep it going back home," Matt said, giving Auston a firm pat on the back.

With a smile just as wide, Auston sat in his stall, belt thrown over his shoulder and the three pucks from his hat trick in his other hand as he posed for a photo. William, as the second star of the game, posed with him, putting an arm around Auston.

Later that night, on the team bus to the airport, Auston leaned his head against the window, watching the city lights blur by as he tried not to fall asleep. All he wanted to do at the moment was collapse on his bed and have his dog cuddle up next to him, but he'd have to wait a few more hours.

As his eyelids got heavier and heavier, he felt his phone buzz in his pocket and he shook the sleep out of him as he fished it out and brought it to his face.

PRIVATE MESSAGES 10:07 PM

Princess: No fucking way.

Auston: ?

Princess: Do I really have to post that?

Auston: What are you talking about?

Princess: *insert MVP photo*

Auston: Wow! Who are those handsome guys?

Princess: Is there one without the egoist on the right?

Auston: Sure But he wasn't the MVP Was he, princess? See the game?

Princess: I did. Can I have his number?

Auston: Willy's? Why?

Princess: He's cute.

Auston: You're cute.

Princess: What?

Auston: You can read, right? Plus I know you're just asking that to make me jealous

Princess: Not everyone's obsessed with you.

Auston: Sure. See you tomorrow Read: 10:12 PM ***

Blair TORONTO TRANSIT COMMISION - DUNDAS ST. WEST at OSSINGTON AVE

“I’m just wondering why he has your personal Instagram. I mean, isn’t he basically your client?” Sam asked, holding his phone up to his face while he sipped a frozen margarita. Blair’s entire family had decided to go on an impromptu trip to Cancun, and when she realized her work schedule interfered heavily she was devastated. So, instead of tan lines and sun-bleached hair, she was doomed to a gloomy November in Toronto. 

Blair was looking up at the directional signs as she tried to navigate her way through the busy subway station while her brother was on FaceTime. The 8 a.m. rush was definitely a real thing, and being in a new city turned her around even further, “You know he’s a human too, right?” Blair remarked, her eyes darting wildly around at the multitude of directions she could go.

Blair heard Sam chuckle through the one Airpod she was wearing, “Sure, but commenting on your posts? Doesn’t he have a wife?” He replied, his words barely audible over the rush of the station.

Blair sighed, glancing down at her phone for a moment before finding the right platform and walking towards it, “Yes, Mitch has a wife, but I don’t see the point. He’s trying to be nice, and he’s a lot nicer than some of the other assholes there.”

"Okay, okay," Sam relented with a chuckle. "But what about the other players? Are they really that bad?”

Blair adjusted her bag as she stepped onto the train, glancing around for a seat before giving up and holding onto one of the poles. “Most of them are fine. I’m talking about Mr. Rocket Richard every year.” She replied, her tone annoyed.

 Sam's voice crackled through the earbud in her ear, his curiosity unabated. “Who? Oh, Auston Matthews?” He asked with a chuckle, “I thought he seemed like a pretty nice guy, through interviews I’ve seen anyway.”

“Yeah, well, the dude puts on a real good media face. I would know.” Blair scoffed, shuffling in her purse to find a pack of gum, “I mean, seriously, I wish he could be genuinely nice for one moment in his sad-”

Suddenly, Blair felt a hand tug at her sleeve, and she quickly turned on the balls of her feet to, most likely, tell whoever it is who just touched her to fuck off. Blair was undoubtedly more bark than bite, but being skittish by nature didn’t help that fact. “Hey, how about you-” She started, quieting down as she met the eyes of the man who looked up at her from his seat.

The blond cracked a smile, then laughed. And what an addicting laugh it was because Blair’s heart immediately skipped a beat at the sound and found herself smiling back. “Rough morning?” William asked, sliding his bag off the seat beside him.

Blair felt a flush rise to her cheeks, partly from the surprise and partly from embarrassment at her earlier irritation. She quickly composed herself, sliding into the now-open seat next to William Nylander. "Yeah, you could say that," she replied with a small smile, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "What are you doing here?"

Sam’s voice came through suddenly. “Blair? What’s happening? Who is that?” He questioned, which caused Blair to not hear whatever William said next. “Sam, I gotta go,” Blair mumbled, her fingers fumbling against her phone for the hang-up button. She looked back at the blue-eyed man, leaning slightly closer to him, “Sorry, what was that?”

William laughed, once again, which Blair simply could not get enough of. “I always take the subway to practice. I like to blend in, plus, beats dealing with traffic.” He repeated as the train began to move.

Blair found herself more intrigued by William than she expected. She wasn’t actually going to try to get to know him unless it was to purposefully get on Auston’s nerves, but she immediately saw this as an opportunity to make a friend, and maybe get some actual action later on. “You never get noticed?” She questioned.

William shrugged as he scratched his cheek, which was already too stubbly for his liking. “Nah, not really,” He started, surveying Blair as she crossed her legs, “Who was that?” 

Blair quickly dropped her phone into her bag, not wanting any further distraction. “Oh, my brother. He was just… curious about how the job is going.” She said, knowing that it wasn’t the full truth but wanting to move on from the topic.

Unfortunately, William didn’t budge. “Ohhh,” He chuckled in realization, “You told him about Tone?”

Blair shifted uncomfortably in her seat at the question. She knew that they were friends and she couldn’t reveal much about her very strong feelings about Auston without offending William, so she offered something simple. “Oh, yeah. He’s been… difficult to work with.”

William snorted, outstretching his arm so it rested on top of the seat Blair was sitting on. “You can just say he’s an ass, no judgment.” He said, casually.

Blair’s eyes widened at William's straightforward comment. She hadn't expected him to be so blunt about Auston, especially considering they were teammates. Despite her own frustrations with Auston, she didn't want to badmouth him to someone who knew him personally.

"Well, yeah," Blair replied carefully, choosing her words. "He can be... challenging at times."

William chuckled, shaking his head. "Challenging, huh? That's one way to put it. Auston has a way of rubbing people the wrong way."

Blair nodded, relieved that William seemed to understand without her having to elaborate further. She shuffled in her bag for her water bottle, finding it and unscrewing the cap. "Yeah, you could say that. But he's not all bad. I think he means well... sometimes."

William raised an eyebrow, his expression curious. "You think so? I think he’s just into you.”

Blair was in the middle of taking a sip of water as William spoke, and when the words hit her, she choked on it, a small amount of it coming out of her nose as she tried to catch her breath. 

“Woah, Blair, you okay?” William questioned, sitting up and placing a firm hand on her back. People around them in the subway stared as Blair wiped the wetness off her nose with her sleeve.

Blair coughed and cleared her throat, trying to regain her composure after choking on her water. William's concern was evident as he patted her back gently. She straightened up, angling her body towards William as she furrowed her eyebrows. “What do you mean he’s into me?” She said through gritted teeth.

William pulled his hand back, realizing his comment had caught Blair off guard. He glanced around at the other passengers on the subway, who were surreptitiously watching the exchange with curiosity.

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you," William said softly, his voice tinged with concern. "I just… Nevermind.”

The crease inbetween Blair’s eyebrows deepened as she leaned into William further, “Nevermind? You can’t just say that and say ‘nevermind’” She remarked, trying to keep her composure

William, once again laughed like he always did when he was uncomfortable and put his hands up in a mock surrender. “Hey, Bro code, I can’t tell you anything else.”

Blair stared at William, her mind racing with questions. She hadn't expected him to suggest that Auston might have interest in her, whether that be sexual or romantic or some other way - It was a notion that caught her completely off guard, and she struggled to process it.

"Bro code?" Blair repeated, her voice incredulous. "What does that even mean?"

William chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his neck. "Look, I probably shouldn't have said anything. It's just... Auston can be hard to read sometimes, but I've seen the way he acts around you."

Blair frowned, crossing her arms defensively. "And what exactly does that mean?"

William hesitated, glancing around at the other passengers who were still discreetly watching their conversation. Outstretching his arm once again, he looked forward at the wall as he responded. “Okay, well, he looks at your pictures.”

Blair's mind raced as she processed William's words. Auston looking at her pictures? She hadn't even considered the possibility that he might view her differently than their professional interactions suggested.

"He looks at my pictures?" Blair repeated, her voice a mix of surprise and skepticism.

William nodded slowly, his expression serious. "Yeah. I mean, I've caught him a few times scrolling through your Instagram,” He laughed, the words keeping flowing without him noticing, “Like the other day, on the way to Raleigh, I was talking to him and Mitchy was scrolling his phone and saw your post. Auston grabbed that phone so fast, it was like-”

He abruptly stopped, swallowing hard as he turned toward Blair with a realization that he definitely overshared. “I… that didn’t happen. I just made it all up. April… fools?” He tried to lie, shrugging jokingly.

Blair stared at William, wide-eyed with her jaw dropped for a few moments before she took a breath, composing herself. “It’s November, Will,” She said, nudging him, “What the fuck? Auston Matthews? Really?” She said, more to herself than to William, but it was audible.

“Blair, please don’t tell…” William started, reaching out to place a hand on her shoulder, steadying her. Right then, the train stopped at a station, and Blair abruptly shot up, William’s arm falling limply to his side. “I gotta go.” She murmured, quickly stepping off at the nearest door before William could get another word out. 

As Blair stepped off the subway platform, she felt a rush of conflicting emotions swirling inside her. William's unexpected revelation about Auston had caught her completely off guard, leaving her reeling with disbelief and confusion.

She walked briskly through the bustling station, one she didn’t know at all, at that, her mind racing as she tried to make sense of what William had said. Auston Matthews, looking at her pictures? Could it really be true? And if so, what did it mean?

Blair shook her head, trying to push aside the thoughts that threatened to overwhelm her. It didn’t matter. Auston Matthews was the most rude, full of himself, selfish man and she would be damned if she let herself-

And then, she felt her phone buzz. As she kept her pace, walking in who-knows-what direction, she pulled it out of her purse, and it felt like her eyes were about to pop out of her head at the notification.

New Follower: austonmatthews

***

SCOTIABANK ARENA

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Auston demanded, his hands gripping the smooth, polished leather of the chair's armrests. He took a deep breath, the scent of the office's faint cologne and clean air mingling in his nose as he exhaled. Meeting the eyes of his general manager, he added, "Sorry, language."

"Look, Auston," Brad began, his tone measured, "We're not asking you to do anything outrageous."

Auston furrowed his eyebrows, his glare piercing straight into Brad's soul. "Last time I checked, I'm an adult and I can be involved with anyone I want to. Surely you can't actually ask me to do this, right?"

Brad placed his hands on the mahogany desk, the rich grain reflecting the dim light of the office. He met Auston's intense gaze with equal resolve. "Actually, we can. This is an important event for our sponsors, and it's a 'bring your significant other' type of thing. We can't have you show up alone and hit on every breathing human woman there."

Auston gritted his teeth, feeling his frustration bubbling like molten lava ready to erupt. He leaned back in the chair, crossing his arms defensively, the leather creaking under his weight. "So, what, you want me to find someone to bring along as arm candy for the night? Just to make you and the sponsors happy?"

Brad sighed, his expression weary as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "I know this isn't your idea of fun, but it's important for the team and our image."

Auston scoffed, his gaze darting around the room as if searching for an escape route. "What makes you think that? Am I just some piece of meat?"

Brad sighed again, the sound heavy with exasperation. He picked up his phone, which had been sitting face-down on his desk, and scrolled for a few seconds before turning it around to show Auston. It was a video of him and a bartender from their post-season opener night out, sloppily making out outside of the bar.

Auston blinked, glaring at the video posted on Twitter by a fan. "Fucking hell, why did no one tell me that existed?" His cheeks burned with embarrassment, the heat spreading up to his ears. The truth was that he regretted that night, but no one knew that but him.

"You have really good publicists, Auston. Most of it is deleted; this is just something they haven't gotten to yet," Brad replied, putting his phone back down with a heavy thud. "Do you see what I mean, though? We can't have something like that surface after such an important event."

Auston stared at Brad, a storm of frustration and resignation swirling in his eyes. The video on Brad's phone was a stark reminder of the consequences of his actions, even those moments he thought were private. He rubbed his temples, the pressure building like a headache.

"Fine," Auston finally relented, his tone begrudging. "But I'm not promising anything. This is just for the team's sake, not because I actually want to be there."

Brad nodded, his expression softening slightly at Auston's reluctant agreement. "I understand, Auston. Just find someone who can handle the spotlight and won't cause any drama."

Auston rolled his eyes, leaning back further in the chair and crossing his arms tighter. "Right. Because that's so easy to find."

Brad chuckled, though the tension in the room remained thick as fog. "You're Auston Matthews. I'm sure you'll manage."

With a dismissive wave of his hand, Auston stood up from his chair. "Yeah, yeah. I'll figure it out." He turned and left Brad's office, the door clicking shut behind him with a finality that matched his mood. Pulling out his phone, he scrolled through his contacts, contemplating who he could ask to accompany him to the event. As he turned a corner in the hallway, his eyes still on his phone, disaster struck.

Out of nowhere, hot coffee splashed over Auston, soaking his shirt and causing him to yelp in surprise. He heard a squeak and then a thud as his phone hit the floor. "Shit, sorry, I didn't see you... there."

Blair looked up at Auston, her eyes wide with a mixture of bewilderment and anger. "What the fuck, Auston, watch where you're going?" she exclaimed, her voice echoing in the empty hallway.

Auston grimaced, his eyes unintentionally drawn to the lacy red bra now visible beneath her coffee-stained white blouse. He didn't say anything else, only glanced around to make sure no one else was watching before opening the door to a random closet and pulling them both inside.

Inside the cramped, dark closet, Blair immediately yanked her arm free from Auston's grip, glaring at him with a mix of confusion and frustration. "What the hell are we doing in here?"

Auston glanced around their tiny, dimly lit surroundings, the smell of cleaning supplies and dust filling his nostrils. "Look down, Blair," he hissed.

She followed his instruction, looking down at her stained blouse and realizing her bra was completely visible. "Oh fuck, holy shit!" she exclaimed, her voice too loud for comfort.

Auston glanced at the door, then back at Blair, his discomfort clear. And even though he tried to resist, the sight of Blair’s wet shirt clinging to her curves did nothing less than make him adjust himself awkwardly. "Look, I'm sorry, okay? It was an accident. Do you have like, a jacket or something in your bag?"

"Close your eyes!" she squealed, feeling his gaze on her chest. "And, no, of course I don't today."

Auston squeezed his eyes shut, turning his head away to give Blair some semblance of privacy in the tiny, dark closet. He could hear her rummaging through her bag, cursing under her breath. "Seriously, Blair, I'm sorry," Auston said, his voice muffled as he spoke through clenched teeth. "I didn't mean to—"

"Save it," Blair snapped, finding a tissue in her bag and trying to dab at the stain, which did little to help. "Just my luck. Of all people to bump into—"

Suddenly, Auston put a finger to Blair's lips, stopping her from talking as he heard a noise in the hallway. "Shh, shut up for a second." He hissed, listening intently.

"Auston?" Mitch called, his voice getting closer. He crouched down to pick up Auston's phone from the floor, recognizing it from the distinctive case. He figured Auston must be around somewhere if he had dropped his phone.

Blair's breath hitched as Auston's finger rested against her lips. Her irritation was still bubbling just beneath the surface, but she kept silent, listening to the footsteps approaching the closet door. Auston kept his eyes squeezed shut, clearly aware of her presence as well.

Auston finally spoke, his whisper barely audible. "Ok, you've gotta have something to cover up with, right? Maybe—"

"Give me your hoodie." Blair said suddenly, so casually that Auston did a double take. "What?" he echoed, quietly.

"Your hoodie," Blair insisted, her tone firm. "Unless you want me walking around like this."

Auston blinked, his eyes now open despite the darkness of the closet. He didn't want that, eyes on Blair and her see-through shirt even though he had no right to say so. "I'm not—I'm not wearing anything underneath it," he tried to reason.

Blair's glare intensified. "Auston, I don't care. Just give me it," she hissed, tugging at his sleeve.

Auston hesitated for a moment, realizing the predicament he was in. He couldn't exactly walk around shirtless without drawing attention, but leaving Blair in her current state wasn't an option either. With a resigned sigh, he began to pull off his hoodie, the fabric rustling in the confined space. He handed it to her, trying to avoid making eye contact. "Here," Auston said, his voice gruff and his eyes still closed. "Just make it quick."

Blair took the hoodie, her frustration still simmering but appreciating the gesture nonetheless. She turned her back to him, slipping off her stained blouse and quickly pulling on Auston's hoodie. The fabric was warm, still wet from the coffee stain, and besides smelling like it, smelled faintly of his cologne, a detail she tried to ignore as she adjusted the sleeves.

"Auston?" Mitch called out again, his footsteps echoing in the hallway. Auston knew that Mitch wouldn't leave until he found him, and that made their predicament even worse. "Alright, Blair, just think," Auston hissed, "We've gotta figure something out. He's not going to leave."

Blair, now clad in Auston's hoodie, took a deep breath, trying to steady her racing thoughts. They were in a tight spot, literally and figuratively, and the urgency of their situation was growing by the second. She crossed her arms, looking up at him, "Well, go out there then."

"Yeah, right," Auston chuckled quietly, waving a hand as if it was a joke, but when he met Blair's gaze he knew she was serious. "You can't be serious, right?"

Blair stared back at Auston with a determined expression. "Dead serious. I need to get out of here unnoticed, Mitch is not leaving until he finds you, and the longer we stay in here, the worse it looks."

Auston sighed, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "But you're... you're in my hoodie, Blair. If I walk out there shirtless, people will talk."

Blair rolled her eyes, though there was a hint of amusement in her voice. "Let them talk. It's not like they haven't seen you shirtless before," She paused, shuddering from the now cold stain on her shirt underneath. "What, you'd rather me go out there wearing your clothes?"

"No, of course not, I just-" Auston started, but he was cut off as Blair swiftly opened the door a crack big enough for him, hiding herself behind it, and pushing him out into the hallway before shutting the door again.

Auston stumbled slightly as Blair pushed him out into the hallway, his bare chest exposed to the cool air. Mitch quickly turned around from the noise, raising an eyebrow as he glared at the shirtless Auston that had just appeared. "Uh, hey, man, where did you come from? And why do you have no shirt on?"

Auston stood awkwardly in the hallway, his bare chest feeling uncomfortably exposed. Mitch's incredulous stare didn't help the situation either. "Uh, long story," Auston muttered, trying to maintain some semblance of composure. "Just... spilled coffee and went to clean up."

Mitch's eyes narrowed, his skepticism evident. He crouched down, picking up the now-empty Starbucks cup from the ground. "This one? I didn't know you were one for sugar cookie oat lattes."

Auston glanced at the cup Mitch held, trying to formulate a response that wouldn't raise more suspicion. "Yeah, well, I was in the mood for something different," he replied vaguely, shifting uncomfortably under Mitch's scrutiny.

Mitch raised an eyebrow, clearly not buying Auston's explanation. "Right. Well, you dropped your phone." He said, stretching out his arm to hand Auston his phone back.

Auston took his phone from Mitch, offering a tight-lipped smile. "Thanks, Mitch. I've been looking for it" He tucked the phone into his pocket, glancing down the hallway as if considering his next move.

Mitch crossed his arms, still eyeing Auston suspiciously. "You sure you're okay, man? You seem... off."

Auston shrugged nonchalantly, trying to play it cool despite the uncomfortable situation. "Yeah, just one of those days, you know?"

Mitch nodded slowly, clearly not convinced but deciding not to press further. "Alright, well, see you around, I guess."

Auston's eyes widened as he saw Mitch take a step in the direction of the closet. "Mitch!" he blurted out, "Let's go get a coffee, yeah?" he suggested awkwardly, nodding his head in the opposite direction. "Spilled mine anyway."

Mitch raised an eyebrow, clearly still suspicious, but he decided to go along with Auston's suggestion. "Alright, sure. Let's go," he replied, turning away from the closet and heading down the hallway with Auston.

As they walked, Auston kept glancing over his shoulder, hoping that Blair made it out without anyone seeing her.

to be continued!

[yougavemeyourheartyouknow]

On thin ice (Hockey player! Miguel O’Hara x Figure skater! Fem! Reader)

A/N: Hiii Im back from my mini break :) I wanted to write more, but I wanted the next chapter to begin a certain way so I’m making this one short hehe. Excuse any typos and grammatical errors. Miguel probs being ooc

(Y/N)- Your Name

Cursing, funny little hehe drama, Miguel being Jealous, ansty (?) (Like, If you squint)

Word count: 1k

Series Masterlist

Chapter 9: Until I fall asleep, spilling drinks on my settee.

—

It’s been 3 weeks.

It’s been 3 weeks since you were in that practice room with Miguel O’Hara.

It’s been 3 weeks since you kissed Miguel O’Hara.

It’s been 3 weeks since you started to avoid Miguel O’Hara.

You didn’t do it on purpose, at least not at first. The day after the very overdue make out session, you told yourself that you would wait a day or two before you talked to him about it, in an attempt to get all your thought in order. Then, that day or two turned into three… then four, then a week, then 3… and at this point, it would be too awkward if you finally decided to face him. What were you even supposed to say after ignoring him for 3 weeks? “Hey Miguel, sorry I basically ghosted you after we made out, even though I said I’ll talk to you afterwards.” You’d rather die of embarrassment. So now you found yourself purposely avoiding him, and although your boy problems should be the last of your problems, they wouldn’t leave your mind.

As you came out of the bathroom, tossing your hairbrush onto your semi-messy bed, you let out a heavy sigh as you saw Kate finish fixing the whiteboard calendar that hung in your dorm room for the new month of October, on the third Friday, she had wrote “MIDTERMS,” in big red Expo marker, and on the following Friday she had written “REGIONALS” in the same way. The two words made your stomach twisted, and for once in the past three weeks, your mind was finally off the topic of the hockey player you had kissed.

“You know staring at the board won’t make those words go away.” Kate said, snapping you out of your thoughts as she capped the Expo marker, you let out lips curl down into a frown and your thumb’s fingernail started to tap repeatly on the surface on your ringer finger’s nail, a habit you've developed when you're nervous, because you knew she was right.

“Can’t you let me pretend at least?” You were joking of course, before making your way over to where you had your gym back half-hazardly thrown at the foot of your bed, zipping it open and checking of all your skating gear was in the bag.

“You’re overly stressed, what is it? Midterms, Regionals, or Miguel?” She asked with a head tilt, hey eyebrow going up with the question.

“All the above…” you mumbled under your breath as you finish rummaging through your bag before zipping it close and throwing it over you shoulder.

“You’ve got this.” Kate sent you a sympathetic smile, which you returned before leaving your shared dorm.

—

You told yourself no skating on the weekends as an attempt to keep yourself from over stressing yourself, but here you were, in the middle of the rink on the first of October, on a Sunday. To be fair, you weren’t practicing, you were just going to practice some jumps and spins, holding to get your mind off everything that’s been transpiring in your messy life. It was honestly a miracle that when you arrived that the rink was empty. You were in the middle of going over your triple lutz, each time you came back down on the ice your landing was wobbly, that is if you landed it. Most of the time you couldn't land it at all, it’s a move you’ve been trying to perfect for months now. Hoping to have it down before coach Kavinsky could have choreographed the long program in hopes to get more points from the judges, but unfortunately you still had too much trouble with it. It would have been a risky move to put it in the program.

“You should probably take a break from that move before you end up black and blue.” The voice rang out through the empty rink, causing you to lose concentration and fumbling the move again.

“Fucking hell, Logan. You should know you can’t do that shit…” you groaned as you slowly gathered yourself to get your body off the ice after falling. Logan chuckled and shook his head, his hands going into his pockets as he walked towards the entrance of the rink, taking the guards off his skates.

“Sorry, sorry, you’re right…” He mumbled with a small smile as he helped you up, “I just wanted to check on you. I know you like to come here when you’re stressed.” He added in a more serious tone.

“Yeah I’m…” your words trail off, a heavy sigh leaving through your nose instead. Logan, already knowing your answer just gave you a sympathetic frown, rubbing your shoulder before pulling you into a hug.

—

“She’s already told you that she’s not dating Logan-“

“I don’t care Peter.” Miguel growled, leaving the stadium, shoving past the front doors and angry stomped to his car in the parking lot. Peter followed behind him. While you and Logan were in the middle of your beautiful friendship moment of reassurance, neither of you noticed Miguel nor Peter making their way to the ice with their gear on and hockey sticks in hand. But upon seeing you embracing your skating partner, he quickly turned back around and made his way back into the locker room, changed back into his regular clothes, then (quietly) storming off and out of the building. “You expect me to believe that bullshit!? She’s all over him, like she wasn’t all over me 3 weeks ago!” He yelled as he throws open his back car door and angrily throws his bag and hockey stick into the back seat, Peter also putting his stuff in the back, but in a more calm manner.

“Miguel, that’s her skating partner. Not to mention her best friend.” Peter tries to reason with his friend as they both go into the car. “Obviously they’re gonna be close. If she was dating Logan, do you really think she would have let you kiss her? Let alone return the kiss?”

Miguel didn’t respond to Peter’s question, instead just letting out a small huff of air and a grunt. His hands gripping onto the steering wheel so tight that his knuckles began to turn white.

If you wanted to play that kind of game, then fine. He’ll play. He’s the best player on the team after all, this little cat and mouse will be easy for him.

—

Taglist: @tayleighuh @cowboylikeevie @coralineyouareinterribledanger @jukioku @loser-alert @migueloharaspookiebear @serpentstarr @littlexscarletxwitch @darksidescorner @sukioyakio

[fumifooms]

Marchil crumbs Part 4

Part 1 - Part 2 - part 3 - part 5 - part 6 - part 7

Broskis remember when while madly blushing Chilchuck said he’d introduce his family to Marcille, and she madly blushed back thinking she really really wanted to meet them. Marchil W today

Dreams do come true girl!!

The full double page spread has the rest of the Laios party at the table too but i think having the whole picture distracts from the one just this section tells. Marcille is so happy to finally meet them!! Flushing with joy and awe! And chilchuck flushing right back with self-consciousness!!! Desperately trying to keep it casual. Tsundere man probably going "Ok so... This is Marcille my ex-coworker, and here are my daughters... She was really looking forward to meeting you guys but don’t read too much into it girls". The daughters being all dressed up and Puckpatti even bringing flowers and correcting Meijack hehe <3 I know it's because they're at the castle but omg, meeting the extended family energy. You knowww Marcille is gonna ask them so many questions, and try and get to know them…

Also I have remembered TODAY that Marcille has a stepdad… She prob has so many thoughts on being a stepmom then. Leaving it open as to what that could mean for marchil. She certainly acts enthusiastic about families and kids so doesn’t seem like there’s a complex there at least~

How it all started… Not very shippy I just think it’s funny and easy to miss. Her curiosity is PIQUED and what she thought she knew about Chilchuck is shattered. The bicorn chapter is really not long after this one so she must have thought so hard about how his home dynamic was like if she cooked up that ‘if I was Chilchuck’s wife’ rp so soon after & so effortlessly

Hm, you know how snooping into ppl’s personal lives is Marcille’s thing?? Isn’t that like… Not that true outside of Chilchuck though? Like, she never asked about Senshi’s backstory or really asked much of Laios either. We do see her asking their types in romance for example, but from remembrance that’s sort of where it ends. So she concentrates her focus on the nut toughest to crack, the most private and mysterious party member huh (no not Senshi obviously, Chilchuck!!)… Little ‘puzzle to crack’ guy, ‘resistant to being known deeper’ guy. I’m not over how she was salty that he opened up to Senshi more than with her lol

I think I’ve talked about it in the previous crumbs part but I think the bircorn chapter truly is the marchil chapter, and I wanna point out how Chilchuck reallyyyy fell from her esteem because "he cheated on his wife", leading to her being snippy with him during the chapter, BUT when push comes to shove she still hurried to his aid and worried for him and all. This might sound surprising, but I really like this! I think it’s great that Marcille wouldn’t coddle him if he fucked up and showed him a taste of consequences™️, but also not dropping him fully y’know, sticking through thick and thin even if she would not let shit fly. Seems like a healthy sort of devotion or companionship to me! Also her arc through the manga with Chilchuck is warping who he really is with idealization or preconceived notions mostly with his age and whatnot, so this feels like an important turning point of assessing him coldly as an adult who is not innocent at all… Before going right back to seeing him favorably and idealizing him as a great virtuous husband heh. It’s ok he’s harsh on himself he needs at least one person that believes in him hardcore let’s go <3 I’m going into really debatable grounds about morality and healthy vs unhealthy behavior lmao but yeah!! He recovered in her esteem, but she will not just give up on and leave behind this cringefail ass of a man even if he digs his hole so deep and so hard. He already got divorced once his partner would need some… Strong determination~ More on that right away

Which, what is this "I don’t want to look incompetent and I’ll even claim I’ve done things that make me look terrible to avoid it" because uuuuh, they both do it

Let's finally dig into the shapeshifters chapter! Lots of fun stuff to observe in there. Let's start with Marcille's side. There’s how, of course, Chilchuck's shapeshifter of her has her with sparkly hair with detailled shading, and how the reason she got eleminated was because of the spells in her spellbook don't match at all; Which means that personality wise, she was pretty convincing! We don't see just how well Chilchuck's vision of her match though since it didn't get much far. As we see with Laios’ shapeshifter clones, having an accurate shapeshifter is harder than one could think!

Easier to miss and more interesting though!! "It seems like Marcille B has awfully weak determination hmmm" implying Chilchuck thinks Marcille has a strong will. I think it’s especially telling when hand in hand with Chilchuck in an early chapter going "Oops not good I missed [that taking dead Kabru’s party’s wet food wasn’t the best moral decision], that’s Marcille for you." and such, where it seems like Chil sees her as someone who has strong convictions and admires/relies on her for it in some ways.

Funnily enough Chilchuck’s not the only one being flattering about the other's hair, because Marcille's shapeshifter of him's hair is... Fluffier? Throughout the whole chapter too so not just a one-off or a coincidence. Tempting to pat and carress perhaps? It's confirmed to be her shapeshifter of him with the page about it in the adventurer's bible, and it's the one that gets the furthest in the elimination! The lockpicking tools are, surprisingly, convincing enough, and the attitude is also convincing if not for the true Chilchuck being "nastier" lmao. It's idealization due to the fact she has a hard time stopping thinking of him as young, but in a way she both knows him well enough to be very convincing and idealizes him as being nicer than he actually is, not the worst I’ll take it. "Our Chilchuck is a lot nicer! 🥰" help

Have some more of Marcille praising Chilchuck

Defending her honor part 2

Ok now look at the Nightmares extra… Chilchuck would watch her series with her!! He enjoys her type of stories!! They’re on the same page even about plot points and the emotions each scenes inspire!! They would chat during watch parties!! Also this is something Marcille conjured up in her dreams so like, tbh very impressive. Chilchuck enjoying Marcille’s dream fiction isn’t something I ever expected but it sure happened

This is what a movie date would look like

I now declare lasagna the marchil dish. Seriously though I’m so curious as to what else Chilchuck’s pastas could be here. She’s fantasy italian it works out

What is that look Chilchuck… Is this life advice, love advice or what. Like it’s not just me he’s being a little suggestive right, he’s drawing a comparison to womanizers right- Okok so you, Chilchuck, say exactly what reward you want, so that makes you trustworthy ok got it. Lesson learned and she respects his professional boundaries & reassures him so he doesn’t feel as self-conscious/judged from then on.

Being on the same page and acting in perfect synchrony part 566

Looking out for the other part 307, featuring them panicking out of their minds lol (Chil is better at stress management it seems)

& Keeping the other in check part 255

I truly love how casually they treat dungeon lord Marcille. You may be under mind corruption magic and a boundless beacon of destruction at your whims right not but you’re still our cringefail Marcille and we need to look after you

Look at his smug-ass face at having successfully comforted and soothed her in the team effort

What’chu looking at loverboy. What’s up, is her face too close to you for your comfort?

Alright part 5 presumably NOT coming soon, i finally ran out of stuff to put on these hehe. Maybe the anime is gonna change that though

… And then the anime arrived and I already have stuff for a part 5. See you soon!!

part 5 is here broskis

[pitter-patt-art]

Ace Attorney AU August (halfway progress update!)

Okay technically it's the 16th (lol, 17th by the time this is done) so a little over halfway actually, but still I thought since I haven't had anything finished to post the past few days this would be a fun alternative!

I've been going a little nuts (affectionate) over @augustwritingchallenge's AU-gust prompts list this year so August has been a wild ride (about 40k words of one, in fact. so far.) but seeing as I will get attached to even the jokiest of AU ideas instantly, I've completed* a whopping 5 whole fics of 16, lol. Considering the shortest of those is over 3k and the longest is over 12k, I think the problem with not finishing these in a timely manner is entirely on my verbose foolish thick skull, haha, but I'm still having a blast with it.

Here is my ao3 series where I'm posting!

And a rundown / progress report / quick teaser of all the AUs including those I've yet to finish, if anyone's interested:

(*by "completed" I should note two of the already posted fics are basically assuredly going to be continued past the challenge, but let's say "completed enough to post and be on theme")

1. Canon Divergence - complete - 4.5k words ("For the Murder of Mr. Wrong" link)

Mia POV, gen. What if Dahlia succeeded in poisoning Phoenix and framed Doug Swallow instead (and then Mia defended him in court)? Basically a 3-1 rewrite. Fun Fact: I only came up with this AU because before I even remembered AU-gust existed at all, I'd come up with like 4 totally separate AUs in which I poison Phoenix in various ways With Real Consequences because it amuses me, lol, but he survives all those other ones and I eventually realized I hadn't even considered straight up killing him off yet so I figured I should try it at least once, haha.

2. Colorless - complete 1st chapter - 3.2k words ("Grey Matters" link)

Phoenix POV (for 1st ch --prob alternating after), wrightworth. "You can't see color until the first time you touch your soulmate"-soulmate AU. 1st chapter is their first meeting as kids (skipping the class trial itself). Fun Fact(s): I really love a color soulmate AU! Big fan of the "only see the color of their eyes" type of one too but uhhh on top of that working better for things that have wild anime eye colors, you could not pay me enough to try to figure out what the HELL is going on with Ace Attorney eye colors at any given time lmfao. (Also--spoilers for what i haven't written yet but hey if you're here you earned it--this IS one of my very many "teehee what if i poison Phoenix just a smidge as a treat for me" fics. NOT my fault the man ATE GLASS. That's on him.)

3. Dark Academia - complete "1st chapter" - 4.4k words ("The Spirit of the Laws of Magic" link)

Mia POV, lanamia. Magical boarding school setting featuring corruption and missing-student conspiracies and a most likely overthought system of magic with hierarchies and prejudices in societal views of academic/formulaic vs folk/innate magic. Fun Fact: I really thought for SURE i was going to skip this day entirely, lol. (foolish.) I don't think i've actually ever personally read anything "dark academia", technically--so if this doesn't read EXACTLY that way, there you go, but i did my best. I also then thought I could live with keeping this vague but I accidentally thought about it too long so... plus at least two people on top of myself at this point have expressed interest in more of this and so I have some semi-concrete Plans™ now.

4. Zombie Apocalypse - conceptualized (but not started)

Concept: probably gen and Phoenix POV, but also because I'm me and they're them, at least a little bit wrightworth even if it isn't necessarily explicit in any meaningful way bc they are Not Normal about each other lol. A little sketchy on how much of an "AU" this counts for, since it could probably be argued to be canon compliant somehow, but basically just: Universe where they make a Pride and Prejudice and Zombies-type Steel Samurai reboot movie thing (featuring, you guessed it, zombies), and Miles comes over and forces Phoenix to watch it with him just to have someone to bitch about it at, and then during that time Maya blows her way into Phoenix's apartment as well with the exact same intentions except her "day job" isn't quite as time-sensitive-strict so she's already finished watching it earlier and knows all the spoilers. Honestly a good chance Phoenix and Pearl (who came with Maya) end up hiding out in the kitchen together to let Maya and Miles rile each other up in front of the TV, but I'm never exactly sure where they'll take me once I wind them up and set them loose on the page, so who knows. I also hadn't necessarily determined the exact time frame yet but for it to make sense as a reboot-type movie/special episode/whatever it probably should be 7yg-or-later so Trucy may or may not be there as well. (That said, in my struggles to complete an actually short one-shot, I probably shouldn't even include Pearl let alone Trucy, lol.) Fun Fact: I also thought I'd skip this day bc I'm not the biggest zombie guy in the world, and to be fair, I managed to do Way Less with it than the dark academia prompt so, yippie?

5. Chess Players - incomplete (currently 3k word WIP)

Miles POV, wrightworth. Miles is a chess grandmaster and back in Japanifornia for the upcoming world cup tournament, but his greatest challenge is actually to FINALLY best Franziska in their annual who-can-get-the-best-Christmas-gift competition. Luckily, he just so happened to hear of an artist who makes bespoke chess sets, so the plan is to get a custom board made for Franziska without her finding out. The plan is not to get trapped in a weird art collective labyrinth with some model-photographer named Cindy who keeps hitting on him but also happens to be protective of the artist he's there to see because "she and her boyfriend kinda-sorta owe him big time", but this is what he gets for coming here without doing any extra research into the artist besides seeing his work and hearing only "his name is White, or, eh, something like that, you know how those artist types are" from Mr. Amano. (AU where we replace law with chess and no I don't think Phoenix could necessarily hack it in the top-world-grandmasters-level of chess tournaments HOWEVER have you considered he DID go to art school so what if he just tries selling custom chess sets until somehow that reconnects him with Miles. Is that somehow a more insane plan than studying law? Maybe. Did Manfred still shoot Gregory but now it was over fucking chess? Maybe. Idk. But I did let Greg live this time at least!) Fun Fact: we can all DEFINITIVELY blame my lovely, terrible, very wonderful friend Ben (shameless friend plug! she's an outstanding writer and has some AA fics of her own too!! @kindlystrawberry on tumblr!!) for making a total joke about "well what about au where they make chess pieces instead" while i lamented not knowing enough about chess to write an actual match and spawning this ENTIRE concept. It is her fault. 100%. She is the guilty party. (I want to finish this one VERY BADLY. Save me.)

EVIDENCE!!!!! Guilty.

6. Reality Show - incomplete (currently 700 word WIP)

Phoenix (& Franziska) POV(s), background wrightworth wedding planning going on as set up but it's also definitely just one of my many excuses to set Phoenix and Franziska up as bitchy worsties who can't admit they enjoy each other's company and will cut you down if you suggest it as such. So far I've only written the quote "set-up" section which is in Phoenix's POV, but that was SUPPOSED to be like 5 paragraphs and cut away and then lead into my actual plan for the main body, which was to be in Franz's instead, so. This is very similar to the zombie one in that it's them watching reality tv instead of being contestants on a show (I don't personally like or watch a lot of reality tv so my creative well was somewhat dry on how to make that work) and then I accidentally thought about Phoenix and Franziska watching something just to judge and tear apart the decisions of every person on it and that was too fun to not consider further, haha. Basically the plan is just they get left alone together and don't know what to do with that and end up wine-drunk and making fun of some reality dating show of some kind and Miles and Trucy come back to them losing it together over something stupid and are like "......uh. what's happening." Fun Facts: I really love the thought experiment of Franziska somehow discovering how often Phoenix's internal dialogue/reads on situations and especially people can be So Bitchy And Judgey despite his affable complexion, and her unfortunately finding his opinions to SOMETIMES be somehow slightly okay. Moderately correct, even--occasionally. I know the section she follows you-as-Phoenix around in T&T is really not long at ALL, but I adore it. There's something about it that so badly makes me want to force them into proximity more (to both their chagrin, I'm sure).

7. Farm/Ranch - complete - 12k words ("Two Little Dickey Byrdes" link)

Gumshoe POV, gumbyrde (tho i still think dickeybyrde is a funnier ship name). 5+1 things--except more like maybe 7-or-8+1 to be honest--so it's more: over 5 times Dick and Maggey sit on a wall together and 1 time they find someone else there instead. AKA: Dick runs his family's small farm (think fantasy farm like in a farming sim or maybe horse girl novel type of thing that has nothing to do with what a real farm is like lol don't worry about it) and Maggey starts working at the next farm over as the latest of her many odd jobs. Fun Fact: oh god this one got so far away from me. it was not supposed to be this long lmao. it's literally the elaborate set-up to a very silly Nursery-Rhyme-I-Didn't-Even-Know-About-Prior-To-This -based punchline!?! still, i was pleasantly surprised by how happy i was with this once it was done... two sittings and about 16 total hours later. haha).

8. Nomad - incomplete (planned/outlined)

Apollo (or possibly Klavier) POV, klapollo. Sort of Jove-Thalassa swap adjacent, but basically: AU where Jove survives the Khura'in fire but loses his memories for [contrived convince sake reasons]. (And also possibly loses some or all of his eyesight just to really go for the parallels?) Therefore: Jove and Apollo stay with Dhurke and Nahyuta and the Defiant Dragons for a time, while Jove recovers, but eventually they leave and head out on their own, just the two of them, and do the traveling musician thing, both because it's dangerous in Khura'in and Dhurke already canonically didn't want Apollo to get caught up in it and potentially get hurt to begin with and because with a functioning actual parent Apollo doesn't need to be taken in by him--and also Jove from what little we know seems like he prefers to be on the move and was already a world traveler anyhow, so even amnesiac maybe he gets a little antsy stuck in one place too long. And so like amnesiac Thalassa, Jove thusly becoming a renowned mysterious musician--and then Apollo, sweet tone deaf Apollo, becoming the sonager of all time (like a momager but...you get it) because he's not that into music but he IS into arguing for better conditions/making deals (contracts!! international legalese!! woohoo!!) with venues and promoters and stuff. And then--oops dang Lamioir still exists and now they have a meet-cute (2 electric bugaloo) (but by then it's later enough Trucy still exists because it will be a cold day in hell when I don't find a way to make her work) and they do music collabs or join up to form a group or whatever and OOPS this means now that Apollo and Jove are with Lamioir when The Gavinners / Klavier specifically meet her and get her to come to do the Guitar's Serenade concert eventually. And Apollo and Klavier ofc thusly also have a meet-cute and then talk and bond etc etc. AND THEN the au STOPS THERE and I DON'T think about how without Apollo Phoenix is totally getting convicted of Zak's murder because there's no way that trial works out as well for him with some other attorney and I also don't think about how reasonable it would then be that maybe Trucy ends up helping Valant with his work setting up the trick for the concert afterward on account of the one father in prison and the other being dead and having left behind a notarized confession clearing Valant's name of suspicion, etc. AND I DEFINITELY do not think about how i could then still so easily get everyone in one place at the concert for Turnabout Serenade and/or any possible funny Sibling (And Thalassa) Reveal that could happen i dont i dont i do not--

9. Accidental Baby Acquisition - conceptualized (not started)

Gen, possibly my weakest / least defined idea on this list, but basically: Phoenix kind of already lives this in canon, lol (insomuch as an 8yo counts as a baby) so I thought, well, how to take it a different direction, then? And I thought, I don't usually go for a Phoenix Fey kind of au because I personally really love the relationships he has with all the Feys as-is in canon and so it's not quite as funny to me as, say, a Miles Fey AU where like Misty and Gregory are married, or any of the ones in that bent, because I'm sorry but that's just SO funny (and sad, but mostly funny) any way you slice it--plus his NAME is RIGHT THERE mia-miles-maya he FITS--anyhow, that completely aside, there are just a lot of reasons I really love the platonic relationships the Feys already have with Phoenix and I don't think it NEEDS to be made specifically familial to still be so very important, y'know? BUT. That said. AU where Phoenix is idk abandoned as a baby or maybe his parents die young or something and it's like a Thing to leave babies at temples or churches or whatever, right? So like--Phoenix adopted by the Feys AU but only because the more i considered it the more i thought it would be WILD for him to literally know Maya her entire life, and it's fascinating to me to consider a Maya who ISN'T basically left all alone to her own devices (and Morgan's) and who has someone absolutely in her corner in the village the entire time even after Mia leaves (who isn't a baby when Mia leaves, love you tho Pearls), AND also and perhaps more importantly, the ships-passing-in-the-night-ness of a scene where, like: Morgan does something sketchy or whatever and Phoenix wants to keep Mia updated but for whatever reason decides to go down to the city and actually tell her in person and so he's waiting outside the courthouse or something (possibly part of or perhaps Most Of the reason he goes in person is because he knows her first courtroom trial is that day and he wants to see her + hear how it went) and when he gets there she's in a heated argument with some asshole in a fancy over-embellished jacket and once that guy leaves Phoenix is like "Sheesh, what's his problem?" You know???? And maybe he really would never even know!!!! Bc he grew up in Kurain!!!! And has no reason to care!!! About some random prosecutor who was mean to Mia!! Aaaah!!! So that, and on top of that, Diego would be there too ofc at that point, and I feel like he would ALSO be quite a funny interaction in this scenario. ("Wow, someone's popular, kitten, you have all sorts of guys waiting on a chance to talk to you, heh?" "Uh.--I'm sorry, WHAT did you just call her")

10. Enemies-to-Allies - incomplete (currently 370 word WIP)

Ema POV, faraskye. Cyberpunk AU where Lana is still under Gant's thumb and Ema, with no other way to stay close to her and getting rejected from any of the sorts of jobs she really wants to do, decides to just join the security force (or cyber police or w/e I decide to call it) and is tasked with hunting down the Yatagarasu, guerilla hacker supreme who is threatening the sanctity of the capitalist overlords. Except Ema's squad gets ambushed and she's captured and tied to a pole, and with her useless fop partner seemingly not coming to rescue her (if he even noticed her absence), she does some quick cost-benefit analysis and decides she didn't really like that job anyway and maybe there's another way she can get her sister back in her life. So she breaks free of her own handcuffs (which she definitely didn't modify into incidental ineffectiveness she's still testing for bugs) and helps fix the "Little Thief" device her captor seems to have broken despite how obviously valuable and impressive the tech is, and they eventually come to something of an agreement. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, and all that. Either Ema as the hardware-engineer one and Kay as the software-programming one as the two sides of the tech coin, or else Kay can just be like doing the physical sneaking kind of spy stuff only--or maybe she knows a little about software but not so much she's a pro the way she is with infiltration and such. Possibly toying with the idea Kay herself is just completely an android, but if not, I think she has some cybernetic cyborg things going on regardless. Possibly from or inspired by her father? I also like the idea that Gant did something maybe more drastic with regards to having dirt on Ema to get Lana to do his bidding--like maybe Ema has a whole cybernetic hand because instead of just her handprint on a leather jacket, Gant has some sicko jar with her entire hand in it in his office safe, or something. I don't know why this would be useful to him but it is certainly an image. I also find it funny if Miss Fingerprint Powder Enthusiast doesn't actually have any fingerprints of her own anymore somehow in this AU, lol.

11. Retail Worker - complete - 6.7k words ("The Bake Anything Boulangerie" link)

Apollo POV, gen. Phoenix gets a job at a bakery instead of the Borscht Bowl Club during the 7 year gap, and Apollo happens to stumble across it and ends up meeting the Wrights while he's still in high school. He becomes a regular at the bakery and is already close to them by the time "Shadi Smith's" murder comes around. And also, yes, sibling reveal right away--at least as soon as Phoenix realizes and can reveal it. As a treat. (Other reveals, though, I might put poor Apollo through on a delayed basis. Also as a treat, lmao, just not one for him.) Fun Fact: I'm being redundant bc this is also in my a/n, but, Baker Phoenix lives rent-free in my brain because Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright was in fact the very first Ace Attorney game I ever played, technically, and Maya and Phoenix semi-brainwashed in that bakery was literally one of my first impressions of them. ........followed immediately by starting a let's play of Justice for All (which i watched through the first case, after which I was like oKAY fine maybe i DO need more context here, i should probably figure out what the actual first game is, and went back to start the series properly at the beginning hahaha). What do you MEAN i have a disproportionate fascination with amnesiac Phoenix, even if I have yet to finish and publish one of my myriad AUs that utilize stupid, unrealistic, plot convenient re-temporary amnesia?? Hm???? Idk what you're talking about. Also everyone who complains about 2-1 is wrong lmao it's objectively (okay subjectively is what i'm saying yes BUT objectively) such a funny place to start without knowing broad plot strokes, it's great. I both knew so much and absolutely shit-all nothing about Maya after PLvPW and 2-1, LMAO. god.

12. Animagus Wings (Joker) - incomplete (planned/outlined)

Miles POV, wrightworth. Angel/Demon AU, except I'm playing super fast and loose with the rules on that because all my knowledge of Christian-mythos comes from firstly and unknowingly the Chronicles of Narnia and more recently and cognizantly Lucifer (Netflix) and Good Omens. I know that's probably more or less what we're all doing with this kind of AU but still, I'm not even sure I want to refer to Heaven and Hell here, I'm kinda on the fence about maybe just keeping it all very vague? I also accidentally semi-worldbuilt more than i intended incidentally on account of "But Then How-Why Names If Angelic Creatures?" Format-wise it would semi-follow gomens s1 where it's hopping through some meetings between long stretches but also a kind of pre- and post- Fall type of thing? And potentially à la Lucifer becoming, like, these are My Mortal Humans and i will be Spending Time With Them, screw you celestial duties, I'm making my own Free Will, etc. And i mean i guess Lucifer is also a crime procedural lmao maybe they still solve crimes in the end too. Fun Fact: I didn't want to do the original prompt for several reasons, and sure fuck jkr is one of them but even before I knew about her I still wasn't really the biggest hp person in the first place? So i wouldn't know/don't remember at all the way it works without having to do the specific research and i...don't want to haha. Hence. And I know the prompt seems to be using it loosely / might just be borrowing the word and not actually referencing hp specifically but tbh either way human-animal shifter things just in general I can be somewhat picky about haha. (Okay okay plus full disclosure the ONLY idea I have for this sort of thing actually ties into my day-3-dark-academia-extended-au-verse and i COULD make my life simpler by just connecting the two days but Heh who would I be if I simplified things for myself... *sigh*) All that to say: I saw "wings" on the wild card list and I thought, ooh, well that's still sort of a related concept! Let's tag that one in! So it's still kind of day 12 prompt-adjacent, if you squint.

13. Found Footage - incomplete (planned/outlined)

Video Transcript POV? Is that a thing? Possibly capped by a little Phoenix POV (but i don't want that to get too long), wrightworth. Larry's new girlfriend of the month bakes weed brownies and Larry does not realize this and swings by the Wrights' apartment to beg some kind of help off Phoenix and forgets the whole tray there somehow (because it's Larry) and they leave to deal with Larry's thing and by the time they figure the brownies out, in some twist of fate Miles and Trucy have been hanging out (last minute babysitter/adult supervision? but she's at the very very least 14 or 15 here and most likely older, and Nick clearly isn't the most strict about like uhhh supervision in general lol sooo idk. he's helping her with a project or smth. it doesn't really actually matter; he's THERE, that's the important thing.) The point I'm very clearly getting at is they accidentally get incredibly high (not dangerously so because I'm not going that far haha but also, neither of them has actually been high before, so they are Affected) before Phoenix finds out what was in the brownies and tries to warn Trucy and hurry home to like, dispose of them or at least put a warning label on them or whatever, but he is too late lol. By a lot. Definitely an underage drugs tag on this bad boy because it's definitely sometime 18-or-earlier for Trucy, let alone 21. (idk about other places but as a Californian I can tell you Japanifornia "LA" could theoretically have it legalized at 21 for anyone (like alcohol) and 18 with Dr's permission--which Trucy definitely does not have in this AU lol.) Basically, Phoenix grabs Trucy's phone to get photo evidence so he can let them never live this down (after making sure they're okay lmao), but he ofc doesn't get technology so he doesn't realize he leaves the phone still recording when Trucy asks him for something / needs his help, so the recording just keeps going and captures a lot of tomfoolery and eventually some inebriated-to-Extremely-sober Feelings-Adjacent confessions (or maybe more like allusions). Idk, this was actually a fic I thought of before August and wanted to use as an excuse to try a Weird Format for fun, but then i saw this was a prompt on the list and...well. Fun Fact: Cannabis was legalized in California on November 8, 2016 (the first election I could vote in!!! ......uh, rip. lol. but yeah babey I helped legalize weed at least!! gotta remember the positives), which means it was legal right in time for Miles' case(s) / Turnabout Goodbyes!!! Yay!! I mean, I suppose that's genuinely seriously one way to try to mitigate nightmares and manage insomnia--not that I think Miles Edgeworth would ever deign stoop so low as to use an aid to manage his severe PTSD and trauma symptoms, psshaw, who do you take him for? (Get these people some help lol. They all need so much therapy.)

14. Princes & Princesses - conceptualized (not started)

So I've been reading a lot (a LOT) of isekai and/or revenge reincarnation romance fantasy manhwas lately (like, oh, too many, hahaha. they're quite good and they're VERY popular in webcomics at the moment.) Soooo. Soft pitch: Apollo already gets slapped into so many wild backstories he's constantly trying to dodge in an effort to be just a Normal Guy, he's honestly, like, the PERFECT protagonist for one of these lmao. And tell me Kristoph doesn't make a perfect "Upstanding Duke" kind of persona, and Klavier couldn't be the "wild rake" younger brother no one expects much from, and all I'm saying is it wouldn't be that hard to contrive a reason Apollo tries to get Klavier to agree to a contract marriage the way all these stories go, lol. And also, something something, Apollo from the "real world" is an orphan/has an absent family (also like so many of these manhwa protagonists, lol) but then he gets to actually have one in his second life!! I'm such a sucker for that shit. Slightly harder pitch, and the reason I did not let myself actually start writing anything (...yet): so what if the actual plot of the "original romance novel" Apollo is familiar with from the "real world (Earth)" is actually about the slightly older generation and something something instead of admiring Phoenix as a defense attorney, it's just that he instead was Apollo's favorite "love interest" character (not, like, for himself, just the one he most liked to read about) in every way except what a blithering idiot he became when the author had him fall for the female lead--but BEFORE that, he's a cool information guild leader guy who seems like he's trying to work toward some way to improve conditions for commoners in the kingdom (but abruptly there are no more mentions of this after he gets involved with the lead, which is annoying). Aaaand... I guess what I'm saying is, Dahlia is the original female lead because she REALLY fits the whole White Lotus trope, and I'm thinking Klavier is the original male lead because A) hilarious, B) fits in with the idea there's more going on in the ACTUAL world Apollo ends up in that is written in such a way as to make things seem different in the novel (like, that Dahlia and Klavier are actually as nice as they seem and that the terrible things that happen around them are just the trials and tribulations of being main characters and not anything they're directly involved in). And Apollo, the character in the novel Apollo, is an adopted prince of Khura'in, but he's the sickly younger prince and of course not actually of the royal bloodline (and also a man, considering Khura'in is matrilineal), so Rayfa and Nahyuta are the ones the public and other nobles actually know and care about and deal with. But wait! As it so turns out, The Wright Anything Information Guild (I feel like the actual guild name CAN'T have their freaking name on it front and center lol but you get the idea) happens to know some other things that aren't really expanded on in the original novel, and might be key to preventing Apollo's death so he doesn't follow the path of the original story, and also idk maybe Apollo and Trucy are half-fae or something like that and instead of like Aw Yay Bracelet in this AU it's more of a secret Iron Shackle Tool That Will Hurt I Mean Totally-Definitely-Help Us Later (still, in a way, passed down to him by Thalassa, but more as, like... she's kind of a secret hostage and does not manage to hide pregnancy number one so Apollo's now also a secret hostage, but she manages to escape so they don't know about Trucy, only she didn't tell Apollo basically anything to "keep him as safe as possible" or w/e, and......) Well, anyway. It got away from me before I even really wrote anything, that's all.

15. Secretly Alien - unfinished (currently 2.6k WIP)

Trucy POV, gen. Apollo gets sick of very consistently always losing the card games they play at the Wright Anything Agency (usually and in the specific instance the fic starts, Bullshit/BS) and in a stroke of inspiration somehow ropes everyone into playing Among Us instead. ("What! It's still a game of trying to lie/trick everyone else--like you like!--but I actually stand a freaking chance, so we're playing this or I'm going home.") Yes. This is my Among Us AU. Hi. They play Among Us. I'm justifying this one as prime AU territory however because A) Among Us has to exist in this universe, and even more pressingly, B) I found a way to force Phoenix to have--for at least a period of time if not moving forward in perpetuity--an actual smartphone instead of a Nokia-type brick cellphone. Which even under the wild but somehow plausible considering Ace Attorney circumstances I contrived, is just automatically a complete AU lmao. Fun Fact: I am so mad this one wasn't just totally finished day-of, lol. Why I ever thought I could give myself run of an entire WAA 4-person conversation and NOT get instantly derailed is beyond me. (And I want to get the prosecutors there, too?? Someone take the characters away from me.) Anyway. No, I have not written ANY of the actual Among Us part yet. Sigh. Also I haven't personally played amogus since like, 2021? maybe? And I know (now) that it's been pretty updated since then, but, ehhh, I'm just gonna run off like, lockdown-era amogus rules and vibes, lol. If I can get to the game part.

16 - Hobby Drama - conceptualized

I'm going to go out of order this time to say: Fun Fact: I have ALWAYS wanted to write a Reddit-style fic!!! I absolutely love them and I've read some REALLY, really good ones, so I've always wanted to try my hand at it. So theoretically this is the perfect time to make that a reality and write a r/HobbyDrama subreddit fic, buuut I got stuck before starting because I'm torn on two possible routes to take it (I can easily foresee myself caving and just doing both lol). - Option 1: Steel Samurai fandom discourse, always a fun/funny thing to think about, definitely would enjoy having Maya and Miles post some stuff for that. - Option 2: courtroom law fandom discourse, because come ON, how are those galleries ALWAYS SO FULL. The little wiggling rabba-rabba onlookers have GOT to have investment in this shit. And why WOULDN'T they, honestly. I've seen those trials and I have, in fact, spent a Lot of time thinking about them, not that any posts I've made lately would reflect that in any way or anything. Like I know it's hard to tell, but if I can be invested in the Lawyers Fandom, who's to say the people in the courtrooms aren't????? And I LOVE an outsider POV fic actually, I think they're so fun. So anyway. Reddit fic. You will be mine. Just as soon as I can hone my energy

And, what the hell, since it's so late now by the time I complete this "Heh This'll Be So Quick To Throw Together" post, I'll include today's, too:

17 - Flower Shop - conceptualized (at work earlier today. lol)

AU where Daddy Hawthorne is like, 97% less shitty. And the Hawthornes have a flower shop instead of like a gemstone industry or whatever. And he takes both Dahlia and Iris with him instead of dumping one of his daughters at a fucking secluded mountain temple and seemingly forgetting about her forever. On second thought, maybe what I actually mean is he's like 999% less shitty, lmfao. Anyway, Iris POV, but Dahlia (while not a "nice" person by any stretch) is not pushed to such extremes or nearly as desperate as canon, so Valerie lives, Terry Fawles lives, Doug Swallow lives, and Dahlia gets to live a good life overall--because as much fun as I love using her as a villain, she's really such a product of the absolute worst circumstances and I really do find her interesting so I've been kind of wanting to explore her in a less cartoonishly evil light, haha. (Don't get me wrong, I do love the cartoonishly evil light too, but I like spicing things up sometimes.) Like, she does (more) normal teen rebellion things ("Look at my inappropriately older boyfriend, Dad" "I'm going to talk my way out of speeding tickets and petty shoplifting as a bid for attention" etc.) and she still totally orders Iris around and Iris still totally does whatever she asks very much to her own detriment and has to learn to break away and be her own person. Fun Fact: I have a very passionate love for Iris/Adrian Andrews. Is that. Um. Is that a ship anyone else has ever considered before? Is that just me? I'm not sure but very possibly I'll just make this a rarepair fic as a treat, for me alone, teehee. (Like... it's about the becoming the master of your own destiny it's about breaking out of codependent cycles it's about how I genuinely honestly think they'd be each other's type and have chemistry even though they've obviously never interacted lmao... idk what to tell you.)

AND THATS MY AU-GUST UPDATE POST!!!

If you made it this far, take a sprinkle of my undying affection, and may you be blessed with AU inspiration if you so desire it!! (If you do not desire it, hopefully you are not cursed with it. I do not take refunds if you are. Sorry.)

Wish me luck with completing some more fics soon!!! Unfortunately weekends are actually my least free time because I work the most and the earliest hours so I have less time and am more tired, but also on Wednesday I'm leaving for a family vacation, which will either be the BEST thing to happen in regards to AU-gust or the WORST thing lmfao. If nothing else I have 2 flights, and I actually Love writing on an airplane, so fingers crossed for it being Good. <3

EDIT: Now with part 2 for the rest of the month here!

[porcelain-thyme]

The Herbalist (Tree Sentinel x fem!OC) - Chapter One

(I put it as OC but tbh it could be a reader insert since I leave the character description light and also she just goes by one name Morte)

My first ever fanfic lol, I saw someone on here lament the fact that there was no Tree Sentinel fanfic and I agree, so I decided to write one lol, this is the first chapter and I will probs be updating every week or so lol. I might write for other characters too. Added a read more so it didn't take up the entire feed cause its long lol

You heaved against the solid wood, the crisp morning mist embraced you. Limegrave's fair beauty, covered with a veil of golden rays, held you still as your eyes scanned the vast field of grass waltzing with wisps of wind. The hushing of the trees lulled the falling Erd leaves to the ground as you hesitantly stepped away from the door.

In the distance you could hear the songs of birds echo and the salty waves crash against fine sand. 

‘It feels too good to be true compared to what they prepared me for.’ you thought.

Scanning your surroundings you noticed the cute little critters hopping around and on the edges of rocks perched some proud birds, both animals you had never seen before. Your own town was too dimmed in an everlasting mist for anything cute to survive, like the gloom sucked out all the fun of living. The shadow of the ruined building covered the left. Bushes and trees scattered around. Beside you, a few steps away, a flower glowing softly stood, swaying in the sea breeze which hit your sinuses, dry and pungent with salt. You crouched down, putting your weight on the balls of your feet. You were enraptured by its beauty,  your gloved hand reaching out to caress the delicate petals. This wasn't enough, so you peel the fabric from your hand to freely examine it. 

It's soft and full of life, nothing like the plants you have back at home, where the endless dull skies leaves the ground barren of flowers. But here is different, you have never felt such a lively and soft material, the small  indents of the veins running the white velvet flesh leaves you giddy with wonder.

Your  head swivelled for more wonderment, finally landing on a group of vermillion star-petalled flowers. You rushed over, breathless with awe, the joy vibrating in your chest, as you once again examined a new specimen.

“I was waiting for you to approach me. Seems like you didn't  even notice, strange considering I'm the only other person here.” A voice from behind you greeted, full of mirth and sass.

You startled so much that as the breath finishes its course out your mouth, you already had your sword ready.

“I would suggest against striking me, Tarnished. It will certainly not end well for you.” His voice lilted with a slightly gravelled tone.

You turned red and heated with embarrassment, this was not how you wanted to greet what you presume to be a fellow human.

“My apologies, Sir. You startled me.”

He huffed lightly, though you couldn't see his face you could see his chest rise and fall. Which relieved you. At least you were not completely alone.

‘You seem to take a while to think, Tarnished. Should I take a seat and wait.”

You eyed this stranger with suspicion, as he took  a seat on the soft grass. There was no harm in keeping your guard up around here.

“Might I ask who you are, Sir?”

“I will once you put down that sword. I have no intention of harming you. In fact, I am here to guide you.” You saw the crinkles around his eyes as he smiled. He sat there, leisurely with no care in the world. You decided to heed his request, awkward and overwhelmed by everything.

“You certainly look different from the other Tarnished that come here. Have you any training at all?” He was looking  at you with  what seemed to be concern, like he can see right through the bulky armour and linen cloth.

“I have been trained, thank you very much. What’s more of a concern right now is that fact that you still haven't answered my question.”

He huffed out another chuckle. The sun had now warmed your skin in comfort at this point, as it climbed to midday.

“Varre. My name is Varre and I'm your one shining hope in this land, despite the fact that you are maidenless.”

‘Maidenless?”

His head tilted towards the Erd tree, eyes distant as if this was nothing new.

“Yes, well, you need a  maiden to help you on your journey. A patroness of sorts.”

Your head whirled in confusion as you sifted through your memories. You had heard nothing of maidens from the high priests who taught you.

“You're thinking again, Tarnished. It seems to be a bad habit.” There he goes again. Like the  matter was some joke, like you were a joke.

“I have a name too, Varre.” You were sharp with your retort.

“Oh, yes? And what would that be?” He seemed to have been mocking you still.

“Morte.”

“Morte. Seems fitting considering your chosen vocation.” Hazel eyes piercing right through  your armour.

“I… I didn't choose this path. It was chosen for me.” You said heavily, eyes downturned in shame with your  heart layed on top of your guts.

“Oh? And here I  thought all Tarnished  were here for their own selfish reasons.” He seemed surprised.

The sun was past its throne, starting its journey back to his chamber. Like he could feel the ensuing uncomfortable talk.

“The High Priest from my town said it has been my duty since birth to find the Elden Ring. I never wanted this life and frankly I'm too physically weak to even fight a wolf off. But they seemed to have insisted that since it is my duty, that I will find a way.”

He was silent, listening intently with the still physique of a statue.

“If I am to be completely honest, after hearing that I am not the first nor the last I feel as though this path is moot to me now. Surely, there are people more fit  for the task than I.”

He seemed to be in thought for a while, like the cogs in his head were turning.

“It seems that I am not the only one who’s a slow thinker.” 

He let out a small chuckle, mercifully moving his gaze to the ground.

“This situation does seem to need more thought than I expected.” He has straightened his posture, his legs crossed.

“Aha!  Now you know how I feel.”

Things go quiet after that. It wasn't awkward silence but more of a perplexing one.  Around us the world kept its cycle. The moon had started to tuck the sun into bed with blankets of dusk clouds. The shadows were more prominent as they covered the rolling fields and in the distance ruins glowed with slight warmth  from what seemed to be a fire. Still even with the golden veil gone the land before you held its beauty with pride.

“You know… all throughout my life people have directed me, never left me alone. Now that I'm here, I feel lost, even though they gave me instructions. I need to find the Elden Ring, but I just want to explore this place now. It's not like they can find out what I'm doing, but I still fear that they will.”

He was back to staring at you now. our legs were crossed and hands held your head, like a saddened child.

Suddenly he got up, stretched his popping spine and then let out a groaning exhale.

“Follow me. I might know a way to help.”

He's  held out his hand now, keeping a respectful distance as you use his arm to pull yourself up. His hand was warm and his grip firm compared to yours.

The back of your legs slowly forced themselves to straighten after lack of use while you stretched your arms out above your head in a Y shape. Bones and muscles expanded and settled back with a similar exhale. 

He turned around and headed down the slight hill, his footsteps were heavy and his clothing swayed slightly with his confident movements. You followed behind, timid and on edge. Following a stranger could be very detrimental, but that was your best option so far. The further you walked down the more you could see the fields, to the left were ruins of what seemed to be a rounded coliseum. 

To the centre was a path that led to the lit church, which seemed to be guarded by a large armoured man on an even larger horse. You were surprised that you did not hear the thudding hoofs of this majestic beast nor the scrape of metal against metal. 

“It's best to keep your distance from the Tree Sentinels, let them do their jobs and they will let you do yours.” His voice level as though this sight is normal in these parts, and for all you knew, it was.

You continued down the hill to a glowing pile. Wisps of gold gilded around it like a campfire, as you stand next to it. It’s pretty and it illuminated the surrounding environment  and you had this pull to touch it and to know if this light is warm and if it felt like the wind softly caressing your hair.

“Go ahead. Raise your hand towards it and let's see what it does.”

“What happens when I do?”

“It's a site of grace, it will; be able to tell you where you need to go. For most of you Tarnished, if not all that I've met so far, it leads you to Stormviele castle.” He had this tone of excitement, like a child anticipating a treat.

“It won't hurt me, will it?”

“Not in the slightest, Morte. If anything it will feel pleasant.”

So you heeded his wishes and crouched down. This must have been the magic that the high priest talked about. It held warmth to it and in the centre, levitating, was a tear shaped orb. You reached your hand out towards it, not knowing what exactly you were doing. The warmth from the grace site passed through the material of the glove with ease to finally touch your skin. It was like you could feel every particle of grace fit into the imprint of your skin, like gold filling cracks of pottery.

Like wading your hand in a pool of water, you could feel the movement of the grace as your hand shook still.  It was textured like fine sand, almost powdery but the coarseness still gritted slightly against the fingerprints and dried valleys of your hand. 

You focused on the feeling and all of a sudden you felt something shift, like movement in water. Opening your eyes you look over to see Varre staring at you intently.

“It does feel pleasant.” You were breathless, the awe of the situation holting your mind.

He still didn’t answer, but he leaned close to the site, like he was looking for something. Through the grains of grace you felt something, like uneasiness embodied. It felt like the grace of wavering slightly, like his pulsing heart's increased rate was felt by it. You felt nervous now, something was wrong. You realised that he said this would help guide you but you can’t feel nor see anything to suggest a path. If anything it just swirled like usual, only glowing brighter with you connected to it. It felt homely and warm, it was a comfort you never wanted to let go of.

He finally spoke, though there was hesitance and confusion tinting his usual teasing tone.

“I haven’t seen something like this before. How do you feel?”

He was looking at you now. His eyes were intimidating even with the concern behind them. You felt like he should have the answer to this, but seeing someone who has supposedly been doing this for quite a long time look at you like a lost pup had you in a bit of panic. The thumps of muscle against your sternum became more noticeable by the second. You look down at your hand then back up at Varre, then repeat swiftly while you conjure up your answer.

“Great? I’m not in any pain. Isn’t this supposed to happen?” Laced through your answer was confusion and a drop of fear.

“Move aside for a bit, dear.” you were taken aback by the pet name but still did so.

He degloved himself and moved his hand towards the grace. It did exactly what it did to you, only next came a glowing string that danced towards you with, well, grace. It circled around you and when you lifted your hand toward it you could still feel the grains of grace against your skin.

“You're supposed to see something like this, the grace is supposed to guide you on your path. This is different, it was static like you have no path to take.”

You froze when he said this. Though the thread of grace still warmed you, the shivers of anxiety began to wracked your body. This could not be happening, you need guidance. You’ve needed it ever since you were born and now you're being told that there was no guidance left for you. As though it was possible to run out, you used it all up during childhood and now your bank was drained. You took a tiny step back, tears birthing from your wide eyes as you start to feel the air crawl from your lungs.

“No… that can’t be.” 

It came out as a pathetic whimper and the sobbing began. Your frame was shuddering, bones and flesh unsynced as you panicked right in front of a stranger. You felt the grace leave as he got up to move towards you. The hand that was once outstretched towards grace was now stretching towards you.

“Don’t panic, we will sort this out. There is certainly a reason for this, grace sites can not make mistakes.”

He closed the distance with his hand moulding to your shoulder, he had bent slightly to try and catch your pathetic eyes. You were in hysterics, the very reason for your existence was denied from you. How could you ever face your town now? You were to be the high priestess once you acquired the ring and now you will be nothing more than a pariah. You did not know what to do with yourself, you felt drenched in cold water, hands stretched out to your sides slightly, you shook from the very core of your being. Your muscles had already become stiff and crowded, the clothes and armour you wore felt constricted, the very hemming of your collar felt like it was strangling you.

“You still have grace, dear. It just seems to be wanting you to do something different with yourself. It’s telling you that your destiny is not the Elden Ring. Shouldn’t this be good news to you considering your hesitance?”

He was logical, and finding the Elden Ring certainly wasn’t something you wanted.

“But I need to do it. My very existence was created on that fact.”

You were still shaking, but the embers of anguish and wrath had started to glow. It felt unjust to you, that this would happen so late in your journey. All that training since birth, gone to waste.

“Oh Lambkin, It will be okay. Why don’t we talk to a friend? They might know something of this.”

“But I have none.”

“Ah, but I do. Come now, it’s only a short distance. Just down to the church of Elleh.”

You could tell he was panicking slightly, but he tried to keep it in for your comfort. You were a spirit in limbo, all directions felt too far for you, but you still crawled your way out of that burrow of self-pity to take the hand of Varre.

You both trudged down the hill towards the glowing church, the closer you got the more you saw the ruins it was in and the site of grace. But that was not the only thing illuminating it. The warm glow of fire encompassed the back wall of the ruin dancing ever so slightly. It was easy to see in the darkness of the night. Looking up you realised that this is the first time you’ve seen stars. The fog surrounding your home town only allowed for the moon to shine through, but tonight you realised that there was more than just the moon up there. It was close to distracting you from the contortions of your heart and the headache that throbbed at your crown.

You glanced over at the Sentinel making his rounds, you were walking closer to him. This prickled your skin especially with his foreboding helmet of gold following you as you went past. The horse he sat upon was well behaved and only flicked its head slightly to shake away a glowing bug that landed on its nose. You looked around the land, to find specks of glowing bugs everywhere and the soft caress of the moon shining on every surface. The air was chilled, but that was comforting against the heat of your distress. The air filled your lungs with renewal, it woke your mind up from the maorose sea of sludged guilt and bleakness. 

Even with the current circumstances, you had not felt this alive in a while. In fact you never had felt so much in your lifetime. It was like something inside of you was awoken in this land. Like it was breathing with you, and moved with you. You were like a stormy planet, violent swirls of rain and rocks moving across your surface while your core stayed unchanging.

You were now just hiccupping and the cold air of the night had dried your tears for you. The soft cling of grass grounded you and the warm grip of Varre led you to the entrance of the ruins.

Inside was a grace site in the centre and to the very back right corner camped a man and a mule. He stared at you two as you made your way over, timidly you hid behind Varre.

Once you reached the grace site, Varre told you to wait there and play around with it. He continued on to greet the stranger, standing together and talking in hushed whispers.

You crouched down to take off your glove only to realise you left it behind. It stung your heart a bit to have done so but you continued on and reached towards the illuminated wisp. Once again connecting to the pool of grained grace, you felt calmed and comforted. It was like it felt your sorrows and held you close. You tried something different this time, you tried to empty your mind, like the monks back in your hometown. It was hard to untangle your mind from the self-pity and thorns of wrath that caught you, but once you had somewhat cleared your mind it happened.

You felt the pool increase around you, you could feel the boundaries of the walls and the movements of all the livin things around you. In the distance the rocking of the large horse caught your attention, then the slight movements of Varre and the stranger in the corner. You could feel one of the hopping creatures stir in its sleep in the burrow by the ruin. The grass danced in waves and the cool air complimented the warmth of grace. Everything felt alright.

You then felt Varre and the stranger walk towards you, you focused on that movement of grace. It was like you could feel their curiosity, the tilt of their heads and the glances between them.

“I have not seen this before.” It came from the stranger. Just a quiet whisper but it was like the grains were moving his voice closer to you. You opened your eyes to see them just a few feet away staring at the glowing of your arm.

Your arm should not be glowing like that, like the very flesh and bone had been replaced by the ethereal. Disconnecting from the grace site did not stop it either, for it kept glowing slightly, whorls of grace making up your skin and pure gold your bones. The sensations were still there as you tried wiping it off with the linen cloth of your skirt, but nothing came off except for the ever-present glow.

Varre moved closer towards you, you could feel his movements and went to examine your arm. The stranger stood close to him. Varre turned your arm this way and that, he then gave you a pinch.

“How did that feel?”

“Fine, I guess. It didn’t hurt, if that was what you meant.”

“I pinched your arm pretty hard.”

“I felt the force, just not the pain.”

“Hmmm…”

He seemed deep in thought as the stranger went up to have a look. He was gaunt and covered half his face with a cloth. His clothing was strange, red with tufts of white fluff around the borders. His skin was ashen grey dry from the sun, joints and ligaments showing through as he moved his hands.

“This is Kale, he’s a merchant that wonders these parts. I thought that he might have some information to help us, but it seems as though I was wrong.”

“You are certainly a peculiar Tarnished.” His voice was soft and pleasant.

“Her name is Morte. She doesn’t like being called Tarnished, and at this point I don’t think she is.”

“You’re right, Tarnished aren’t usually blessed with powers like this. I heard whispers that near the Erd tree there used to be maidens with similar powers. They would dance around at night and by day they care for the surroundings of the tree.”

“But she’s not from here, so how could she have acquired something like this.”

Kale took a while to think.

“I don’t know, maybe that’s her path.”

“If it was then she would have been led to the Erd tree by a path. It just keeps her there at the sites.”

“Maybe that is the path? Maybe her’s is the land she’s on.”

You were standing there, letting them discuss amongst themselves while you examined your arm. You felt more assured now that you have two people trying to aid you, but at this point you just wanted to focus on something more elating than the point of your existence. So you started to rock side-to-side as you thought of the Erd tree maidens. Their life seemed so joyful and simple, much more simple than finding the Elden Ring. You started to wish that you were born an Erd tree maiden instead of some small girl from a fogged land. To be with sisters with the same goal, dancing around with fits of laughter and murph while by day you took care of the grounds of your home in contemplation and ease.

“Can we continue this some other time? I feel tired.” Your voice was small but they still heard your plea.

“Certainly, Lambkin. Let’s get you some rest.” His voice was soft and warm and you realised that you can still feel everything in grace. It was pleasant.

They wanted to set you up by the fire where you could be kept warm, but you insisted on staying by the grace site to play around with it more. So there you were, sitting cross-legged with your grace arm outstretched. Focused once again. You can feel the familiarity of Varre and Kale’s conversion as they sat by the fire, the very shifting of their bodies could be detected through the grace. You could perceive everything but it was not overwhelming, nor was it confusing. You just could and it felt right.

Just maybe you could exist like this, instead of a high priestess with the Elden Ring. After-all, power never excited you.

You lay down, curled on your side by the site. Eyes fixed on its glow as you felt true peace. The anguish was replaced with assurance and you were fortified with the knowledge that there were people similar to you. Your face relaxed and so did your body as you reached your hand towards the site, playing around with the wisps of grace as you dozed off. Turning your head towards the sky, the stars held your eyes in their celestial hands as the Earth cradled your drifting form.

…

You woke from your slumber with the tickle of dew covered grass and the light of the waking sun. You still faced the sky and clouds clothed in dawn greet you with a good morning. The birds were chirping and through the tree the wind rushed. The crackling of the fire behind you told you that last night was real. Usually the morning after you cried there would come a headache, but you felt the opposite this time. You felt like you were made anew. Stretching as you sat up, you let out a sigh and looked around. The ruins were just as beautiful in the light. Reaching your new hand to the site you connected with it once again, it felt comforting to do so. You felt the land around you move as you breathed in and out, it felt nice just being able to exist for once. Even though you panicked last night about the lack of a path, you felt better  now and more assured. 

Varre and Kale were snoozing by the fire, you could sense their chests rising and falling. The mule was laying there with his head on Kale’s lap, ear flicking every once and a while. The morning air was fresh and the sunrise warmed your back. You were now under his veil too.

You decided to get up to look around by yourself. You made your way out of the church, running your new hand along the cool stone. Grass covered the ground in clumps that had you walking carefully, the sun had fully emerged from the horizon, its golden rays glittered in the dew drops covering everything. It looked like everything was covered in grace. The sky was clear with fluffy clouds sparse in its field, coloured in pastels that you had never seen before.

There was a rising deep inside of you, as though a metamorphosis ws taking place. The muscles of your heart snuggled together. Your whole body felt the exhilaration of finally understanding what a new day was.

You started to giggle, legs giddy as you pranced around. You grabbed your skirt in your hands and began to sway. Slightly to your right lay the colosseum ruins and before you was the ruins you came from. The wind twirled the locks of your hair between their fingers as you floated around Limgrave.

You felt like you belonged with the roots of the trees and the dancing grass, it felt like you were home.

You pranced around a bit more when you felt a presence behind you, one that was very familiar. Stiffening up you slowly turned around to face the Sentinel. He was even more intimidating up close. He towered over you, armour glistening in the morning sun. His horse was by his side and let out a huff of curiosity, staring and your small form. You did not move a muscle, as if he would not perceive you. It was sickening, the fear you felt, the way your gut contorted and your heart pressed itself against your spine. The horse stretched its head towards you, snuffling the air for your scent. It was gentle as its nose grazed your arms with huffs of air. 

Your eyes were tearing up, you could not die this early. The Sentinel had not moved, but you knew he was staring right at you while his horse investigated. Finally he huffs and a fog of air escapes his helmet. Tugging the lead of his horse, he moved past you. You fell to the ground with relief, the Sentinel seemed to have not been interested in you, a small victory for the morning.

[abitohoney]

WEREWOLF SEVIKA WITH HER MECH ARMMMMM!!!!

Does her werewolf form have a tail? Does it wag when she's happy or excited? DOES SHE LIKE RECEIVING BELLY RUBS???

I'd be the idiot who would get a squeaky tennis ball to torment her with, and she'd eviscerate me for it, and it's be so worth it XD

This is fun and silly and I love it! Also, gonna paste a screenshot of your other ask here because a) it's related and b) I already started technically answering part of your second ask before you even asked it!

Side note: this is my first... HCs? Imagines? IDK WTF this is even called. Let's just say here's my chaotic dumpster fire of unorganized thoughts on this. Enjoy! (No refunds)

Also, probably won't have the next chapter of my werewolf!Sevika fic out tonight so y'all get this instead. 😭

Should probs throw in a warning too. Some NSFW at the very end. MDNI, 18+

Hell yes werewolf Sevika with her mech arm!

I mean, how could she not have it?!

It's cool as hell and would make her unique and give her an advantage over the other werewolves

It's not organic so it wouldn't make sense for it to change with the rest of her body

How much would that suck if the nerves and tethers to the flesh were separated each time she transformed? Poor woman would have to reattach the damn thing everytime. Sounds far more painful than just the transformation alone! I could not do that to our babygirl. 😭

She could play fetch with herself so much easier!

She could still choke us in her werewolf form

OFC she has a tail!

How cute would that be? Now Sevika is a stubborn, prideful and grumpy lady and that applies to her werewolf form as well. She won't admit to enjoying anything other than killing, and she's going to try her damnedest not to wag that tail or let you even do anything that might trigger that response. But she is a woman, er... werewolf, with urges and instincts. Will power and stubbornness can only go so far before it's overpowered by the more natural responses. So if you know some of her secret weaknesses, and you can get close enough to exploit those, you better believe you're gonna see that tail do a little dance.

Belly rubs? Oh she LOVES those!

Again, you're gonna have to be sneaky to get close to that fuzzy belly. She's got sharp canines and is not against giving you a warning bite if you get too close to her soft spots.

You're best bet is to catch her while she's napping in her gigantic doggy bed at the foot of your shared bed. (You've forbade her from sleeping on your bed while in her werewolf form. She sheds profusely and has an annoying tendency to kick you with her hind legs when she dreams about chasing prey, which is probably you considering all the annoying things you do to her. Not to mention the one time you were rudely awaken to the mortifying realization that she was humping the back of your leg like a bitch in heat. Not that you have any right to complain when you take into account how much you like to grind on her thigh when she's in her human form.)

She's snoring deeply, belly fully exposed, as she sleeps in her plush doggy bed when you cautiously sneak closer. You sit cross-legged in front of her and ever so slowly reach a hand out. Your palm rests on her soft, warm belly and your eyes flit to hers. They're still closed, so you start making, slow sweeping circles. Her breathing shifts and a hind leg twitches. Before long, the bushy tail that hangs over the edge of her bed starts swaying. The moment you add some light scratching to the belly rubs her tail really starts wagging. You can't hide your adoring smile, even as her eyes suddenly shoot open, purple glowing orbs locking onto yours immediately. Her struggle to react in anger is apparent by how her upper lip twitches as if she's trying to snarl, but she just can't fight how fucking good the tummy rubs and scratches feel. Slip your other hand behind an ear to give it a nice scratch and she's good as yours, tail swinging so hard it's smacking your knee. You might even get a little kiss on your arm from a big ol slobbery tongue.

Fetch? She can't resist.

You're not the only fool who would buy their sexy werewolf GF a nice, loud, squeaky ball to play fetch with. We all would, cause that tail wags so damn hard her back end shakes with it. This, however, is the one she's least happy to admit to enjoying, but all it really takes is throwing the damn ball. Just know that you'll pay for it later (You'll be her pet, on all fours wearing a collar and leash, for at least a day. But don't worry, she'll feed you real well).

Flea collar, or any collar for that matter? Hard nope

Don't even bother trying. You'll be the one in the collar if you do. She doesn't do flea baths either, so you better just get used to your hundreds of new insect buddies.

Good girl? Hahahaha... Nope!

Whatever you do, do not, I repeat do NOT call her "good girl", or you'll be the one in the dog house!

"Hey, babygirl, c'mere!" Sevika calls from the bedroom while you're finishing drying off after showering and you freeze in terror. You know that tone. That condescending, slow sneer. You know you're in trouble. "Need to talk to you about something."

Maybe if you go out there naked, you can make her forget whatever you'd done wrong, which you admittedly have forgotten yourself. Swallowing the lump that formed in your throat, you cautiously step past the doorway and into the bedroom. Sevika, in her human form, sits on the edge of the bed, glowing purple eyes on you and sharp canines poking out from her wide, devious smirk.

"Yes?" You ask sweetly albeit shakily, with false innocence as you step further into the room so she can see your nude form. Your eyes drop to her lap where you find she's already packing her fav strap. Thick, ribbed and curved for your pleasure. Heat rises to your cheeks.

"Do you recall what you called me last night?"

Too distracted by the thought of what she has planned, you shake your head. A movement catches your eye and you realize she's swinging a pair of handcuffs from one thick finger. Heat drops between your thighs.

"When you were petting me in my werewolf form?" She reminds you, tone noticably sharper when she mentions that particular act which was also one of her no-go rules.

Oh. Oh fuck. That.

In the same moment you recall what you'd said, you see the spreader bar, collar and leash lying on the bed beside her. Your doe eyes flit to hers, realizing just what you were in for.

"Good girl?" You squeak out.

"Mhmm. And are you supposed to call me that?"

"No!" You answer quickly, shaking your head profusely. "I'm sorry Sev-"

"On the bed sweetheart. Head down, hands behind your back and on your knees. Oh, and spread them real wide for me. Let's see who's the good girl."

[goo-dripley-art]

whered you get your ideas for your ocs? all of them are so silly and abstract (/pos)

inspo is always a mixed bag most of the time, mostly just whatever im interested in at the time!

this is prob gonna be a long one, so i'll put it utc

OKAY SO!

I'll start with the deltarune ones since those are the Easiest to explain, then ill talk about my actual Original guys lol

Cabelle is based around conspiracies and more out-there gaster theories obv, but her main inspo also comes from a tweet i saw like eons back that was essentially just: "mark my words the chapter 3 boss is gonna be like the history channel or smth". that always stuck with me, wanted to do smth with it!

Hero was based around a hyperfixation at the time, that being Murder Miners, this old xbox craft shooter my friend got me into. always loved those offbrand minecraft things, little me would be playing Survivalcraft and Eden all the time on my old busted ipad.

other ones aren't as clever or deep, like blanca being based off that berdly dialog, or peann and dexter just. being objects without much else lol

Outside of those, a lot of my characters are mishmashes of games and character's that've stuck with me through the years! for example, heres some sonas/dudes from a story/website thing im still workin on: mlmty

I didnt start with these character inspo templates, but they help organize how i wanna write em and whatnot fghjk

Sometimes the inspo will come from art as well, like my weird interdimensional private eye dude Ampersand here! He's directly inspired by a specific painting, which is next to him here

(Kazimir Malevich's Suprematism, 1916–17, Krasnodar Museum of Art)

A lotta the times though, I'll just end up doing a quick doodle and. by some cosmic force of the universe. will just end up sticking around??? like Jungo and Gren for example, they BOTH started off as dumb lil joke doodles

+old bonus progression thing

and now they're just actual dudes

basically, fuckton of varied inspo throughout the years

That, and also getting a lot of inspiration from my friends and what they do... that's the biggest inspo of all!

thats basically it??? dunno, was never too good at explaining this kinda stuff dfghjkl

[backtothestart02]

FANFIC TAGGING GAME

I got (honorable) tagged by the wonderful @theartofdreaming1- thanks!

1. How many works do you have on AO3? - 321

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

1,322,068 words (at the moment)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Still writing for The Flash, but every once in a while a new show/movie grabs my fancy and I write a few fics for that.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

An unimpressive bunch but here goes: Muse (456), Replacement Scrunchie (393), Fallen Star (357), Inconvenient Inspiration (343), and Drabbles (277). Muse is a handful of one-shots based solely off spoilers before I saw the eps they were for. Replacement Scrunchie is my sole fic for the TATBILB fandom about Peter & LJ's first date (which was way less impressive than what the sequel movie gave us, WOW). Fallen Star is my most popular westallen fic to date, so that one's actually not too surprising. But both Inconvenient Inspiration and Drabbles are requested (the latter) and spontaneous (the former) brainstorming ficlets and snippets for The Flash/WA. Bo-ring.

5. Do you respond to comments?

Eventually.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Oh, gosh, I have so many unfinished fics that it's hard to remember the complete ones that I finished that didn't end so happy, of which there aren't many. Maybe...Breaking Point though.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

All the others have happy endings. Go read them. Lol.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

When I wrote for another fandom I did, but not really in The Flash fandom, which is nice.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yep. And uh...descriptive, I guess? I'm def not the best out there, but I do my best and for the most part smut-lovers seem to enjoy.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I've attempted a couple crossovers, but I haven't completed any or gotten far with them, usually because there wasn't an audience for it.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yeah, I discovered a whole bunch on another website years ago.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

In the process of it!

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Stuck on Westallen atm, but I used to write Chair, and I was highly obsessed with them as well.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Oh god, I have SO MANY WIPs. One that I really want to finish but fear I won't though has got to be He's MY Barry Allen. I'm just stuck on what the next chapter will look like, and as of yet no one has come forward with a solution. Lol. The Problem is Tony Woodward is another one like that.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I'd like to think I can hook people into my fics fairly well and drop enough cliffies to keep them coming back for more. But ofc the smut helps too. Most of my fics include at least some smut, even a single scene.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Sometimes I have trouble making a chapter (or a scene for that matter) all that long. I've seen people write like 10k+ for a chap, and unless I'm crazy inspired, roughly 1-3k is what you're getting.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I actually dabbled in this a little bit for a westallen fic where Iris was learning Italian, I think? I did some research and managed to sift in enough for that one-shot, but I can't imagine I'd do it repeatedly or for a multi-chap.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

I believe it was the STAR WARS prequels, but it might've been The Day After Tomorrow.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

It's unfinished, but there's so much untapped potential in my Flashpoint fic. Lots of world-building that's present as it rides the line between canon divergent and AU. Hopefully one day I'll get back to it.

...

As much as I'd love to tag a bunch of people, I can't recall anyone who still writes fic that I follow on here, so I'll just shout out my bestie @simplylove101 who is prob done with writing but may want to answer these questions either way!

[maknaesdancersrappers]

hehe hi ^-^ i haven’t done this in so long ohmy but side note, i usually write these in my notes app before sending and i searched up devoted and i have a bunch of different notes just about this story i think i’m obsessed 😭 but anywho!!!

going back to 16 real quick!! idk if anyone has brought it up yet but y/n recalled a memory with jaehyun??? is she hallucinating or did they actually interact and she forgot all about it, this gave me a sliver of hope that there’s a redemption arch 😭

also i knew [redacted] was guilty! but i feel like he isn’t working alone, and y/n is saur pregnant! girl you’re not fooling anyone. but it gets me thinking, if she actually is what does this mean for her and jae? will jae still let her go like he says if she’s pregnant? ohmy.

on the topic of pregnancy i think the girl yuta got pregnant is minkyung’s missing cousin! i haven’t forgotten about her ! but i can’t remember if she went missing before kun came or after, if it’s before then i think it might be kyungwon. ngl i’m a little on the fence about that though bc if it was her why would she still be sleeping with him + wouldn’t she be showing?

this is hard idk who it was😭 unless someone in the friend group was secretly banging him idkkkk. also i was curious as to why [redacted] took mina and went back to reader chapter 7 and it started to make sense. 1/4

i feel like [redacted] and jae are twinsies 👬🏻 he said: “I didn’t have the most… respectable past. I was spoiled; I wanted to party, not study. I slept around, refused to be set up for arranged marriages. Eventually, my father grew tired of my nonsense and kicked me out. I was essentially disowned by my family about 5 years ago.” and if you think about it jae was kinda the same, his father spoiled him which gave him the resources to stalk y/n, he was forced to party bc of his friend group, idk if he did much studying but assuming he didn’t bc of his friends he probs would have been let off the hook due to his money, he didn’t sleep around but he did stalk y/n and did morally wrong things😭.

the only difference is that jae chose who he wanted to marry (by manipulating) and wasn’t disowned by his father. maybe that’s why [redacted] is doing this? bc he knows they’re so alike but there’s some jealousy that jae got away with everything while he was stripped of everything? idk but it’s like okay why drag the other girls into it? what’s the end goal? kill jae and get himself killed? then what’s the point?😭 2/4

but moving on,,,,doyoung knowing about jae being the stalker gaged me 😭😭 i honestly didn’t consider him knowing but it only makes sense he knew the tea 🍵 doyoung also telling jae “But you’re good to her and that was enough for her.” is giving me hope!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! pls ik he’s done bad things but i need jaey/n to be endgame 😭😭

i was also debating if jaehyun is a monster like [redacted] said at the end of the chapter. yes he has done horrible things there’s no contesting that but i feel like we also have to take into account that he was raised to think what he did when he was younger was normal. he grew up knowing that’s what his father did, jaegun enabled him and didn’t get him help until it was quite literally too late. from what we’ve seen we also know his dad is abusive, i’m sure that didn’t help with the anger he had growing up too. 3/4

classic case of nature v. nurture. both of them screwed him over. he was already at a disadvantage with his (undiagnosed) bpd but the fact that his parents demanded him to always be perfect and essentially forced him into his old friend group and punished him for doing what they asked did a lot of harm. i don’t know why he specifically chose to focus on y/n, it makes sense that she was an escape but legit why her out of everyone? maybe bc she didn’t know him and was a clean slate? idk but he was doomed from the start.

i’m ranting sawry. but my point i guess is i don’t think he’s a monster. ofc he should take accountability for what he’s done, but i don’t think it was entirely on him. i’m at least taking into account the fact that he was at a disadvantage from the start. by the time his parents got him help he was already depressed and anxious, then they put him on drugs that messed with his head even more and made him suicidal before (assuming) putting him in therapy. idk but if i were in his shoes i’d be pretty pissed too😭. but even despite that he continued to get help and tried to be a better person for y/n following her giving him a second chance. he’s grown up thinking he’s a monster and that’s actually upsetting when you consider the cards were stacked against him. i also feel like he was starting to mature and be better with his bpd but then the rug was pulled from under him :( ughhh it’s so hard bc i don’t condone what he did but when i think about the factors that led to it i sympathize :/ either way you’re doing a great job because the fact that i feel so much for one character shows he’s not one dimensional and is a testament to how great your writing is that i can feel sympathy for someone so complex !!! 4/4

it's the way i got this and read it in the middle of a ranked valorant game and started internalizing it during a TFT match

but okay.

other points of this... theory?? will be addressed throughout the next chapters.

what i can say tho, regarding the high school flashbacks, yes, they are from y/n's memories - like the event itself wasnt significant in her life for her to remember clearly, but homegurl has time and she's in constant overthinking and reflection mode

unfortunately for yebin, yuta has definitely procreated -- i can spoil as much that yuta jr (not official name) is alive. does he know? does he care? 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

that analysis on jaehyun's upbringing is so *chefs kiss* yOU GET IT uGH but again, as for the reason why he locked in on y/n, we'll find out soooooon ish?

that is all

[serendipnpipity]

So sorry ser, im gonna rant like crazy about these fics! I recently made a little art for an astronaut au called "Never Fade Away" by @parentaladvisorybullshitcontent, which I described a little bit but I'll talk some more about it here. Phil's on a pod in outer space, and dan is a ground control agent, who watches Phil's mission log videos and develops a crush! I reallyyy liked this concept because it reminds me of how dnp actually met, where dan watches phil through a screen and becomes fond that way, then he reaches out with messages online to get his attention, and then they videocall each other and get to know each other like that! But with a spacey twist lol. But it was super fun (pj's there too!). Aside from that one, last month I wanna say, I read a fic called "The Body Electric" by @adorkablephil. This was while I was super obsessed with a cyber punk dnp au, which I think I've talked to you about before, haha! I wouldn't classify this as cyber punk tho, because it takes place in the modern world, but it still has some of those computer vibes. The premise is that phil, a filmmaker, accidently downloads a virus that calls itself Dan, and an intrigued phil leaves the virus on the computer and they bond. I got attached to virus dan, he's like a curious computer program that doesn't understand human things all the way, but clearly feels emotions, and wants to understand love. This one has a smut heavy chapter, but it's skippable, which I believe you said you tend to do (I don't personally read a lot of smut either, its just not my thing so I cant speak for that part too much). It genuinely tugs at your Heartstrings so much at the end, but it resolves in a hopeful way :) other than those two, I've really just been going off your recs lol! So thank you for sharing those. I'll let you know if I find any more that aren't on the list though!

Have a good rest of your night(?) Ser!!

Please never apologize for your long asks, Manda, I love reading them! Loving the sci fi vibes of these selections, and I definitely remember the astronaut Phil sketch you shared earlier. Honestly, it makes me want to draw astronaut!Phil too bc you made the whole thing so so cute. Maybe I should read the fic first.

Yayyy I'm glad somebody's enjoying the fic rec masterlist!! I'll very likely update it soon, prob whenever I read these two. I hope you also have a great rest of your night!! (btw I'm 87% sure we're in the same time zone bc of some other post way back lol)

[robthegoodfellow]

summer retrospective time because i'm feeling down about term starting up and not writing as much as i wanted to but I KNOW this is ridiculous and my goals were unreasonable.

so totally unasked for and unprompted here's what i got:

Chapters 8 and 9 of Upside-Down - 32k (total wip 118k) - E - Harringrove - Crazy long March chapter wherein an ominous phone rings and rings, Billy experiences some firsts (first time playing D&D against his will! first time fucking Steve! first time enduring a birthday party!), and Eddie drags Billy to a thrash metal concert. In Flayedville, the kids rally the troops to save Billy, he and Steve share body heat, and plans don't go as planned.

Two fics written for upcoming @strangerthingscharityzine totaling 4k words in their original state, trimmed down to 1.5k words each for the zine edition. Idk if I'm allowed to summarize but one of them made Remy cry!

That Bartender Sure is Something - 1k - G - Harringrove - Sideways scene rewrite from alt character's POV wherein I try to lay groundwork for why Steve's parents are out of town so often (aside from my need to give boys safe space to fuck and be super freaking domestic).

Chapters 11 and 12 of Only One Bed - 13k (total wip 59k) - E - Harringrovesoningham or whatever Steve/Billy/Eddie/Chrissy is called - Chrissy POV and Eddie POV chapters wherein Chrissy and Billy bond and then Billy/Eddie/Chrissy navigate their dynamic as asymmetrical polyamorous triad. Mostly cute!! Minimal angst!!

¿Por qué no los dos? - 18k - E - Harringroveson/Metalsandwich - What was supposed to be an excuse to make Steve and Eddie thirst over Billy in space buns becomes unexpectedly harrowing exploration of aromantic experience for me and apparently others, some of whom may be entitled to compensation. But there's smut... at the end?

Drafted aaalmost first half (7k) of @bigbangharringrove fic wherein Steve flirts with necromancy and necrophilia and NO STOP where are you going it's all gonna be fine!!! See, Billy died in this contemporary fantasy version of Hawkins where magic and supernatural creatures are just kinda there and so Steve tries to revive him but he imports the wrong file. The wrong Billy. Because there happens to be a lust demon that goes by the same name as Steve's dearly departed husband and let me tell ya he is NOT jazzed to be here. Working with @LucaDoodleDoo who is awesome AND so far has not run away!

Drafted 1.5k of fic for upcoming @harringrovezine. Still on track to be way too long but I WILL trim it down. Not sure what else I'm free to say but I'm excited how it's shaping up?

what follows is me convincing myself i did a good job

And that's... that's it. About 76.5k in all. Which is more than I realized (and also according to haphazard math is more than last summer by maybe 10k?)

I'm not usually fixated on word count much (aside from like laugh-crying when a fic just balloons way bigger than anticipated), and more words does not equal better words by ANY means, but I think this gives me a reality check about getting down on myself. I didn't finish the major things I originally set out to finish but... yeah, such is life when you have more than one WIP in which you are painfully invested 😅

And it's not like I won't EVER finish them which is prob my biggest fear because i had a rep growing up for all my grand plans and projects just losing steam and going nowhere. But I am capable of finishing fics because look ma, there's 3 whole multi-chap fics with the little green check mark (please actually DON'T look, ma).

I'm just babbling now. When work starts I'll be back to writing in random libraries after last bell and my output will slow, and I'm sad about it. But wow you know what I did shit out a bunch of words in like 2.5 months so at least there's that.

(Hesitant to post this because I'm sure it looks like flexing or fishing or something? Or like I'm implying that unless you too are shitting out words you suck? Which uhh I am not! The intent is more for Present Me to flex on Past Me, maybe? And fish some reassurance out of cold hard numbers to more easily put things in perspective.)

Mostly this did work, though! I feel better about the summer. If you need a boost, look over what you've done across a certain span of time using whatever measurement suits you and talk yourself into a pat on the back.

Pat, pat.

[angel-fics]

Darkness Within the Light

Chapter 1 of my A Dwayne Stephens x Latina!Pregnant!Witch!OC story

Warnings: descriptions of gore/violence, violence, blood, sex, crude language, language, toxic mentalities, toxic relationships

Summary: this first chapter doesn’t actually have any warnings besides what can maybe be interpreted as stockholm syndrome. Anyway, we start off with a meeting between the vampires about Max possibly creating a new mother for his lost boys (plus Star)

“Now, young boys need a mother. A kind, nurturing and loving mother,” their powerful leader spoke, his chiding voice echoing off the walls of the sunken hotel.

“No offense, Father, but we aren’t exactly ‘young boys’,” the youngest, Paul, jokingly pointed out, the firelight reflecting off of his bloodstained teeth. Marko, who was lazily lounging beside him, chuckled in agreement.

David sighed slowly, coolly as he was ought to do, considering both his father’s words and his brother’s argument. Star and Laddie idled by in their room, watching the exchange curiously, but silently. He had to take them into consideration, Max did as well. Max was the sire to six vampires, two of which were mere fledglings. It was a curious amount of children to have without a mother in the picture. Especially when the family resemblance was all over the place. Still, it would be hard to explain such conditions to a new woman, vampire or not. Vampires were territorial by nature - Max’s lost boys plus two would always be his, solely his.

A human woman would be easier to indoctrinate into their merry little clan, especially if she were Max’s mate, but the odds of finding such as woman as Max was describing were next to zero. At the same time, David knew that Max wasn’t truly proposing the idea to them. They weren’t that type of clan. He’d made up his mind already, and used their latest delinquent endeavors - this time, a particularly messy feeding - to inform them of his decision. In any case, as a father, because he wasn’t just their sire, he would want his children’s input.

Paul and Marko, only 10 years into their immortality, weren’t looking for yet another source of authority like Max to keep them in line. David didn’t care either way; Max knew of their approach to the lifestyle he granted them and let them be so long as they stayed within certain lines. Star and Laddie hadn’t been around long enough for their opinions to matter much, neither had even taken the multiple chances they had to feed, yet. Until they did so, their chances of speaking up at these “meetings” were limited.

David looked to Dwayne, to prob his mind for a hint on his position in this matter. Since returning to their “home”, Dwayne has remained silent. Even now, his dark eyes never strayed from Max’s pacing form. Usually jovial after feeding, attending to Laddie and Star or joking with Paul, Dwayne’s reflective demeanor told David what he needed to know. Dwayne had come to the same solution he had, and was curious to what Max’s response would be to Paul.

“Now, now, son, we ought to look at this a bit more openly. Our kind doesn’t change much and you still are very young in many aspects, especially in comparison to your older brothers. A mother might be just what you six need to tame out your roughness,” Max dismissed easily. David raised an eyebrow at the inclusion of Star and Laddie in Max’s statement, but continued to say nothing. The two new comers had been with them a few months now and had refused to turn to their way of life, David hadn’t truly known how Max had taken that rejection until now. Fledgling or not, anyone who had ingested Max’s blood belonged to him on a certain level.

Star had joined them first, several months ago. Drawn in by their dark natures, so different from her light and laidback lifestyle, she was fascinated and attracted to their dangerous intensity. It hadn’t taken much effort or persuasion to get her to drink Max’s blood, but once she’d realized their deception, she was appalled. It wasn’t as though there was much she could do at that point however, and she didn’t have any opportunities besides joining them. And join them she did, albeit begrudgingly, as there was a large part of her human life that she outright refused to leave behind.

She didn’t have parents or a particularly rewarding job, but she had a brother. A young boy who would be left alone in the world without her. He needed her and she needed him. There would be no way to get her to accept her new life with them without that child. Though Paul and Marko were heavily against the idea, not wanting to be eternal babysitters to someone’s brother, Max had developed a soft spot for his only daughter, as resistant as she was. So he turned Laddie, too. While is wasn’t what Star had in mind, nor what she wanted for the boy, it was better than them being separated forever and him being alone.

Now, months later, she’d refused to kill and forbid Laddie from doing so as well. Max, for the most part, took a “laissez faire” approach to them. He didn’t really interact with them much and left them to their own devices as he did with his other children. The boys had all taken numerous attempts to include them or convince them to feed. Dwayne and Paul especially. Since Max’s role in Santa Carla was to be absent from them as an entity, Dwayne had taken over the fatherly role towards Laddie, with the younger boy clearly looking up to him as such. Out of all of them, Paul’s light-heartedness and good humor defrosted Star’s icy demeanor enough that she could tolerate being in the same room as them and trust them enough to care for Laddie in ways she couldn’t. If David knew of how things would turn out when he asked Max to change her, he still would’ve done it.

While he couldn’t quite put a finger on how he felt about Star, hell, how any of them truly felt about her, there was a sense of rightness when she and Laddie were around. So it didn’t matter to him whether how he felt about her was romantic or not, she was theirs and they were hers. And they’d have eternity to figure out all the smaller details. No matter the circumstances, Star and Laddie drank Max’s blood and joined his clan. Making their odd family a bit more complete.

Despite all this, she rarely spoke aloud in front of Max. Whether it was because of fear, or because of her lack of willingness to kill, she was too intimidated to regularly give her opinions where he was concerned. Laddie didn’t have the same problem, but he always remained glued to his sister’s side when in a room with Max. The siblings were very clearly intimidated by their creator.

“And what would you make of this, my dear Star? You’re much too young to deal with the burdens of true motherhood, especially where these four are concerned. Do you share in Paul’s opinion?” Max implored, pausing in his thoughtful pacing and securing his full attention on Star. Unlike with Paul, this was leagues more genuine a question. It was the most patient and fatherly he’d been since turning Laddie. When you spend months getting verbally rejected by your father in front of strangers to put up a convincing front, it was hard to separate the act from what was true, no matter how many times the routine was played.

Star startled from her position on her bed, jostling Laddie who was fiddling with some sort of odd gimmick Marko had stolen for him. She blinked owlishly at Max, lips parted for words she hadn’t been prepared to speak. Max waited for her response patiently and Dwayne turned to watch her quizzically, the most expressive he’d been in an hour.

Tucking a curly section of her long, dark locks behind her ear, she nodded jerkily before clearing her throat. “I agree with you. It would be nice to have another girl around. And it would be nice for you to have a mate, sir.”

Max smiled and hummed in a mock questioning tone, pleased with her input. He sighed, much in the same matter David had, and resumed pacing. David himself was shocked at the exchange. He was able to count all the times Star and Max had interacted on one hand and still have a finger or two left over. Still, he remained in his silent game of sorts with Dwayne, who also hadn’t said a single word.

Laddie, emboldened by Star’s exchange with Max, scampered onto Marko’s lap so that he and Paul could show him how to figure out the toy. Star gazed after him longingly, obviously preferring for her brother to stay with her, both to protect him and use him as a buffer from the others. Still, David could tell that it warmed her heart to see her brother so relaxed and happy, chattering away with the blonde duo.

He caught Dwayne’s eye after a few moments of the pseudo-domestic scene, with Max ceasing his pacing to sit and observe the scene of his three youngest sons’ interaction with one another. It was a perfect few minutes, but as far as David and Dwayne were concerned, the prior conversation was far from over. One glance at Star’s tense form, waiting with bated breath, she knew that, too.

Dwayne, taking the ever-rare lead as oldest of Max’s children, adjusted his position to mirror that of his father’s. Max was temporarily distracted from his musing by the change and focused on the brunette.

“Addition aside, where exactly are you planning on finding this woman, father? A vampire would never accept us, she wouldn’t accept being mated to a clan that isn’t hers,” Dwayne reasoned, raising an eyebrow at Max.

The benevolent babbling of the chaotic trio dropped off suddenly, watching the two oldest members of the clan in rapt attention. It wasn’t often that Dwayne spoke in length and for all of the clan, besides David and Max, of course, they’d never heard him say so much without provocation. Hell, they didn’t even know that Dwayne was the oldest. For all of his seriousness and intensity, David was simply better in-tuned to a leadership role among Max’s creations. Nonetheless, if Dwayne ever needed to get a point across, David would defer to him.

Dwayne was as much of a wild child as any of them. Always up for causing trouble and making mischief with his brothers. Unlike the others, though, he preferred to hang back most of the time, observant and reserved. Out of all of them, he hardly ever got into trouble with Max or human authorities. Not because he was a goody-two-shoes, but because he wasn’t a loudmouth and didn’t get caught. (Marko and Paul) But on occasions such as these, David knew Dwayne could pull through to their father in ways he couldn’t. Max wasn’t one to cast favoritism on his children, but as his first son, Dwayne was often considered his right hand on more serious topics.

“Yes, a female vampire wouldn’t suit us, we’d have to find a mortal woman to suit us. One who is mature, warm, and accepting to having such a large brood,” Max agreed easily, the picture of relaxation in comparison to the large young man who sat hunched before him on a downtrodden velvet couch.

“As well as completely accepting of our true forms and willing to be turned herself. She couldn’t truly be your mate if she didn’t turn herself. It’s a lot to ask for,” Dwayne added, brows furrowed and shoulders tense.

David sucked in a breath at Dwayne’s last statement. David was, by nature, defiant and rude. But never to his father, his sire. Though polite and monotone, Dwayne’s words were a clear criticism of Max’s expectations, which David - nor Paul, Marko, Star or Laddie - would never dream of saying aloud. Even if he did agree. (He does.)

Max nodded absently, not offended by Dwayne’s defiance in the slightest. “Yes, it would be quite difficult, near impossible, to find such a woman. Especially one without burdens of her own to deal with,” Max bemused, still nodding, looking nowhere in particular.

Dwayne’s eyebrows launched to near his hairline in shock as some sort of realization struck him. He sat up, lips parted in incredulity. From their position of the larger couch across the room, Marko and Paul tore their gazes from their game with Laddie to watch their brother and father’s interaction end suddenly. Star wandered over to stand behind Marko, laying a hand on his shoulder. They all tried to figure out the startling information that had stunned Dwayne so much.

“You aren’t looking for a woman to change into being our mother,” Dwayne explained aloud for them, leaning away from Max, fists clenched on his denim clad thighs. “You’re looking to change a woman who’s already a mother herself”

The atmosphere within their poorly lit dwelling stilled, as if Dwayne himself had paralyzed the air itself with his words. No one moved or spoke as Max’s implications swirled through their minds. It gave David a headache, but he didn’t dare speak. Star grabbed a hold of Laddie, her other hand fisting into the leather shoulder of Marko’s jacket. Paul lifted a hand to stroke her waist comfortingly, but he didn’t look away from his sire.

Marko breaks the intense silence first. “Dad? What does that mean for us? Our clan is large enough as is. Adding your mate is fine, but her potential children, too? That’s wicked risky,” Marko reasoned, laying his own hand on top of Star’s clenched fist, still on his shoulder.

Max focused his aimless state onto the curly-haired blonde, fingers drumming into the armrest of the leather recliner he was sitting in. His claws extended slightly, shredding the worn material beneath his pale fingertips. He gave no other indications that he was anything other than perfectly at ease. Still, he said nothing, his light eyes fixated on the chaotic trio huddled together, with Star carding her fingers through Laddie’s hair to ease his obvious discomfort.

David knew Max wasn’t truly frustrated at them, he was simply responding to their tension. As their sire, and father, he was loathe to accept any discomfort his children might have. He might’ve made this decision already, but it genuinely mattered to him that his lost children were all comfortable with the changes.

“A larger clan could be a good thing, my boy. Rogue vampires and small clans would be foolish to try and penetrate our forces. We’d also have a larger feeding ground. Meaning, that we wouldn’t be forced to leave as often, maybe not at all,” Max drawled, eager to put them at ease.

What he was saying was true, of course. Other vampires would steer clear of larger clans, they had at one point. Even with the five of them, they weren’t a large clan. Star and Laddie wouldn’t truly count to the larger population until they fed, no matter how attached they were to them. Most large clans did find a low maintenance location to settle permanently, using the advantage of larger areas to feed on outer human communities instead of locally. Santa Carla wasn’t like most places, though. There were many instances of murder and disappearances long before they had arrived, Max had made sure of it when moving them. Logistically, adding more members would provide an advantage to them. And Max was at a point where he needed a mate, instead of companions and children. Not that they were truly children, but they were his and he was theirs.

“Still, like Dwayne said, someone like that would be hard to find. The biggest problem would be to accept what we are and to agree to the change,” Star spoke up, more at ease since being asked previously. Dwayne eyed her at the mention of his name before refocusing on Max.

“Yes, of course, but remember that stranger things have happened, darling,” Max advised, encouraging her - all of them - to be more open minded and optimistic.

“Yeah, no offense, Pops, but where are you planning on finding this wonder woman of a mom? The woman here don’t tend to do the best job at caring for themselves, not to mention their own kids,” Paul joked, lightening the mood considerably. He reached across Marko to where Laddie sat on his other side and gently jabbed a finger into his ribs, causing the younger boy to squeal slightly and curl around Marko’s lithe form. Star giggled at his antics, finally letting go of Marko to ruffle his hair.

“That’s for sure,” David agreed, forcing himself to relax into his usual good-humored self. Dwayne followed his lead and spread out on his end of the couch, arms rested along the back end and long legs stretched out completely. His massive form took up most of the limited space.

“There are five billion people on this planet and women make up for more than half of them, I’m quite certain that we can find the one woman who fits into our family, along with her own,” Max conceded, enjoying the domestic scene in front of him immensely. With David’s gift of telepathy, it was hard to resist truly relaxing while within Max’s mind. He agreed to go along with it easily enough, though he didn’t look forward to babysitting even more baby fledglings, the idea truly didn’t seem like a bad one. So long as she didn’t interfere with their fun.

“Hmmm, stranger things have happened,” Dwayne repeated, closing his eyes and lolling his head to the side, chest rising and falling slowly.

“Yes, and who knows, our clan would be growing further as you all find your own mates,” Max added lightly, smiling with a happy twinkle in his eye.

David smiled warmly at the life inside the dark and dead hotel as the sounds of Marko and Paul’s loud jesting with Laddie and Star’s giggles bounced off the walls. The dull candlelight danced across everyone’s smiling and peaceful faces, even the sleeping Dwayne looked happy. He considered his father’s words thoughtfully, and secretly began to become enthused at the coming changes in his life.

~*~*~ Meanwhile, on the coastal highway just outside of Santa Carla ~*~*~

As the full moon reached its brightest and highest point in the night sky and the stars sparkles brilliantly in the endless dark expanse of the night sky, an old Volkswagen bus sputtered along the old road. Tires sending swirls of dirt, sand and dust dancing into the warm air before settling back to the ground. The ocean waves roared above the congested sounds of an old engine, and drowned out the sleepy singing from within the cab.

“Sleep, pretty darling, do not cry

And I will sing a lullaby

Golden slumbers fill your eyes

Smiles awake when you rise

Sleep, pretty darling, do not cry

And I will sing a lullaby

Once there was a way

To get back homeward

Once there was a way

To get back home

Sleep, pretty darling, do not cry

And I will sing a lullaby”

The young woman yawned at the end of the song, exhaustion clouding her vision slightly. She was very thankful that there didn’t seem to be anyone on the road at the time and tried to clear her mind of the sleepiness. She hummed thoughtlessly for something to do and resisted the urge to tap her legs, which felt very heavy.

Running a hand through her hair and tugging on a few strands, she harshly blinking her eyes to combat her bleary vision, she remained determined to finish her week-long drive instead of parking on the side of the highway for a nap. Her destination was so close, she wouldn’t be able to bear not ending it ahead of time. She also had to take into account that her old lemon of a van probably wouldn’t start again if she stopped right now. And she was in no position to push the behemoth of an eyesore for a vehicle the last two miles it took to reach Santa Carla.

Less than two miles, she cheered inwardly when she saw the Welcome to Santa Carla sign that stood tall up ahead. Suddenly rejuvenated, she anxiously watched ahead for any life inside the beach town. Just across the way lay the board walk, smaller waves crashing into the pillars that held up the structure teeming with life. Everywhere she cast her eyes held signs of joy and exuberance. Small shops and kiosks practically sat on top of each other with large groups of people steaming in and out of them. Large rollercoasters sent screaming carts into the air, zipping to and from, end to end. Long lines stood waiting impatiently for the chance to play a game for cheap prizes.

She sighed contently, relieved to have arrived to her new home, absorbing the energy that was just out of reach. She could practically hear and smell and feel it all, even from so far away. There was something else, something less lively and a bit darker, but still extremely potent to her unnatural senses. It was familiar and welcome, very similar to her own energy. It tingled within her pleasantly and helped her feel even more at ease within her new sanctuary.

Sliding a hand down to the plump fat of her belly, where a clump of cells was growing within her womb, she rubbed comfortingly and enthusiastically. As if trying to wake her unborn child so that they might experience the atmosphere along with her.

“Can you feel that, lovey, this is where we are meant to be, this is our home.”

————————————————————————————————————————

end of chapter 1, hope y’all like it, lemme know

so like, i realize that both referencing Max’s mate with the OC being pregnant AND having the chapter primarily be in David’s POV can be misleading, but i promise it’ll get back on track. this story will have Max and Lucy together and i need help with David

I don’t know if David should end up with Star or Michael. Or if Michael and Star should be together? Or if Michael and Star and David should be together. Or if i should just make more OCs for the other boys?

Also, lemme know if you guys have any OCs for the other characters!

Currently available characters are

*Paul

*Marko

*Sam

*Alan

*Edgar

*(maybe) David

this chapter is dedicated @poisonprincess82

thank you for being my first follower on my new account, very much appreciated

[lancestrollsgf]

NEW KIDS IN TOWN ! WELCOME

introduction master list series master list

— summary ! a new family was coming to the small town called stars hollow. they were moving into a new house. it was rumored they have four kids and filthy rich. victoria still going to stars hollow, she saw them moving in and saw their older kids moving boxes. she passed their house and waved. victoria became friends with them, because it was a small town.

— authors note ! change of pov (not often) ill try working on the next chapter as soon as possible... i probably won’t be able to get one out for a while since i just finished my spring break and won’t have a break until summer, but i’ll try my best to update. english is not my first language, i’m using grammarly. i don’t know how pagers work and if they’re the same thing as a phone so don’t get confused if i describe the electronics badly, this is a long author note sorry. rory won’t be mentioned as much, since you’re (the reader) the main character she’ll be envious though. and she doesn’t go to chilton. pretend that aonoung would go to chilton. this is a long chapter. sorry i haven’t posted in awhile, my tumblr was messed up i couldn’t see what i was writing. anyways this is probs the last post for awhile since i have state testing soon. links applied are optional.

— word count ! 6449

you woke up to your alarm clock yelling at you. you groaned and decided to stretch before actually getting ready. staring at yourself in the mirror before exiting your room. heading to the kitchen with pajamas still on. you started making some coffee and realized there was nothing in the fridge, as always. you groaned and turned off the coffee maker, not wanting to make coffee if there was no food. you grabbed a sticky note from the junk drawer and wrote. “luke’s?” you jogged upstairs and decided to get ready. you put on the slightest amount of makeup your mom let you borrow. you smiled and put on some lip gloss. you headed to your small wardrobe and got a simple outfit. you finished getting changed and looked over at the alarm clock.

you called tsiyera wanting to see if she was awake this early. she didn’t answer. you groaned not wanting to wait for your mother and twin to wake up. you decided to fix your hair. putting it into a hair clip. you decided you’d just walk around town until 8 am which is usually when your sister and mother woke up. you were also waiting for tsiyera to wake up.

you headed out the door and just walked around town. you got to the front of the newspaper stand. seeing babette and miss patty. “did you hear? there’s a new family in town.” babette said and you walked up to them. “victoria, oh my goodness. you get prettier by the day!” miss patty said holding your face in her hands adoring your features. “how do you not have a boyfriend? when i was your age i had too many to count,” miss patty smiled. you smiled as well. “do you want me to set you up with someone? there are some fine young boys for you at my studio,” miss patty let out. you shook your head. “i’ll find the right one soon,” you replied. they both beamed. “i have to go to luke’s, i’ll see you both later,” you spoke up.

you waved at them and walked away but stared at the new house for a little bit longer. you saw three older kids and a smaller girl walking around whining. you smiled and saw a what looked like the oldest sibling looking around and caught sight of you. you both waved at each other. you smiled and walked to luke’s.

neteyam’s point of view;

we arrived at our new house after traveling for an extended duration. i exited the truck and grabbed the two boxes i had from our previous house. “neteyam you get the second biggest room, loak your room is next to his. kiri and tuk you can decide.” my dad said while gathering other boxes. i nodded and headed inside the house. i looked around and immediately headed up stairs to see my new room. i smiled seeing the view and how spacious it was. i placed my two boxes down smiling.

i headed back outside to help my siblings inside. i help loak move his boxes even though he had more than me. “how do you have this much stuff.” i said, placing the boxes onto the cement. tuktirey started to whine. “mom!! these boxes are too heavy.” she whine and sat down on the cement drive way. “tuk, go inside. we’ll care your box.” i said. she smiled, skipping along, walking inside. i started look around the town. wanting to see the people. i saw a beautiful girl walking on the sidewalk. i smiled and waved, not wanting to just say stare at her. she waved back and smiled. she continued walking. i smiled and loak snickered. i rolled my eyes. “she was cute,” loak commented. i again roll my eyes. “i’m not gonna help you with your boxes,” i said and walked into the house with tuk’s boxes instead of loak’s. i could hear loak yelling my name but i continued walking where tuk was staying.

back to your point of view:

lorelai gasps as you and rory walk in. “my two favorite people in the world!” you smiled. “hey. it’s freezing.” rory said and you both sat down, in front of two coffee mugs. “oh, what do you need? hot tea, coffee?” lorelai said with a smile looking at you and rory. “lip gloss.” “aha! i have vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and toasted marshmallow.” lorelai said placing down the makeup bag. “anything in there not resembling a breakfast cereal?” you asked and rory smiled knowing she was about to say the same thing. “yes. it has no smell but it changes with your mood.” lorelai said and placed another bag of makeup down. “god. RuPaul doesn’t need this much makeup.” you remarked, while rory got a lip gloss. “you both are crabby this morning?” “i’m sorry i woke up early and found out we didn’t have food in the fridge at all.” you said with a frown. “well im sorry, i lost my macy gray cd and i need caffeine.” rory said finishing up the lipgloss. “oo i have your cd. we never have food vick.” lorelai said and gave rory the cd while smiling at you. “thief.” rory sounded. “sorry, i’ll get you both some coffee.” lorelai said and grabbed the mugs. she stood up and went up to luke.

a guy that once sitting at the counter came up to you and rory. you frowned wondering what the older man wanted from you and rory. he chatted with us for a bit until lorelai came to the table. “yeah, i’ve never been through here before.” he said mostly looking at rory. “oh, you have, too.” lorelai said with a tone and he turned around slowly. “oh, hi.” he said. “oh, hi. you really like my table, don’t you?” lorelai asked, you looked at rory laughing together. “i was just, uh..” he spoke trying to make an excuse. “getting to know my daughters.” lorelai said and placed her hand on your shoulder, standing next to me. “your..” he said not finishing his sentence. “are you my new daddy?” you asked with a grin. “wow. you do not look old enough to have a daughter. no, i mean it. and you do not look like a daughter.” he said directing the last part to you. “that’s possibly very sweet of you. thanks.” lorelai said with a mocking tone. “so…daughter? daughters.” he said correcting him self at the last second, lorelai nodded. “you know, i am traveling with two friends.” he said pointing behind him at the two guys at the counter where he was sitting previously, they turned around and waved. “they’re both sixteen.” lorelai said with a grin. “bye.” the guy standing up say and left with his friends follwing behind him. “drive safe.” lorelai spoke. once they left she bent down and laughed with you and rory.

your point of view, at the inn

you entered the inn with papers in hand. you walked up the counter where michel and your mother were, your mother being on a call. “kiss.” she whispered as she was on the phone with marco the plumber. “uh-huh? i thought you replaced that already. well, because you told me you did and i never forget anything.” she spoke at marco. you looked into one of the drawers at the counter, with michel peeking at you. “what is your offspring doing?” michel asked annoyingly. “i need stamps. can i have these?” you asked taking stamps out of the drawer. michel disagreed. “take them. what’s with the muumuu?” lorelai said pointing at your white sweater. “stop,” you muttered. “i’m just saying, you couldn’t find one made of metal in case anyone has x-ray eyes?” lorelai asked joking. “and now we say goodbye.” you said tilting your head and going around to the front of the counter. “hey, have michel look at your french paper before you go.” lorelai said since you talked about your french paper the night before. “excuse me?” michel asked looking at other papers. “that’d be great.” you said with a smile. he shook his head. “come on, michel. i’ll tell all the ladies what a stud you are.” you said holding onto your paper. “hm. i believe that memo had already been sent.” he said tilting his head. “oh, please, michel. pretty please with sucre on top. i will stop talking like this.” lorelai said trying to convice him with an annoying french accent. “leave it. i’ll look at it if i get a chance.” he said not looking up from his other pile of papers. “it’s due tomorrow. and pay special attention to the grammar.” you said pointing at the paper leaving it near his pile of papers. you walked away smiling at your mother.

you were nearing the school when someone jumped on your back. you immediately knew it was tsiyera, and you groaned. “tsiyera, ima flip you over.” you threatened and she smiled, getting off, and walking beside you. “you didn’t answer my call nor texts in the morning.” you frowned. “sorry, aonoung woke up early for practice and i woke up as well but ended up falling back asleep. you wake up too early either way, i do not want to be waking up at the crack of dawn.” tisyera complained. you frowned. we passed by the “teen hayride 9:00 pm thursday” sign. “my mom is forcing me to go to the hayride” she said and looks at the sign. “the hayride? you’re kidding.” you asked. “my parents want me to get with someone, so they set me up with my mom's best friend's son.” tsiyera complained. “you’re only sixteen?” you replied and you both started walking across the street. “well, my parents like to plan ahead.” tsiyera replied. “god, you have to go to the hayride with him?” you said slightly laughing. “and his older brother.” “oh, now you’re kidding.” “my parents said they don’t want me to end up alone, which frankly is kind of sad.” tsiyera spoke. “so, i guess you’re not going, huh?” tsiyera assumed, we walked by the cheerleaders. “no, i’m still fuzzy on what’s fun about sitting in the cold for two hours with some sticks up your butt,” you replied laughing. you both went up the steps and into the school, passing by two new boys you assumed. “don’t expect me to clear it up for you.” tsiyera spoke.

“for those of you who have not finished the final chapters of huckleberry finn ‘you may use this time do so. for those of you who have, you can start on your essay now. whichever task you choose, do it silently..” your teacher spoke out, sitting down at her desk at the front of the class. you started to write onto your paper while the girls in-front of you painted their nails, passing the nail polish around the four of them. they made a gesture towards you among them and three of them looked at you while you were still writing. “maybe it’s a love letter.” “or her diary.” “could be a slam book.” the whispered among themselves. the closet one to you peeked over, putting pressure on the seat making it noisy. you continued writing. she sat back down. “it’s the assignment.” she whispered with a disappointed tone. they frowned and continued to pass around the nail polish. you smiled, aware of what they were saying.

you and tsiyera starting walking towards her house. tsiyera’s mother, ronal owns a small flower shop near luke’s. but she’s only open in the mornings. you and tsiyera were talking about school and the subjects you both dislike. you even told her about what happened in english. “really? that makes sense, amelia is always in everyone’s business.” tsiyera spoke. you nodded. you both entered the home. “mother! i’m home, i’m with victoria.” tsiyera said and took off her shoes and changed into her slippers. you also did the same, since you have came over to her house for many years, but you only took of your shoes, leaving your pink socks, not putting on your sandals. ronal came out of the kitchen with her navy apron with a pleated puffed ruffled skirt and lace detail. “so how was school? none of the girls get pregnant, drop out?” she asked curious. “not that we know of.” “come to think of it, joanna ponser was glowing a little.” you teased. “what?” ronal asked confused. “nothing mama, she’s just kidding.” tsiyera quickly defended you in a teasing manner. ronal shook her head slightly smiling.

“mom?” you and rory spoke out entering the kitchen. the both gasped. you both walked up to them, confused. “you’re happy.” rory said. “yeah.” lorelai said smiling and nodded her head. “did you do something slutty?” you asked teasing. “i’m not that happy.” lorelai said and she chuckled. “here.” she said and passed you the bag. “what’s going on?” rory asked and peeked over at the bag. “open it.” lorelai said enthusiastically. you looked into the bag. it was a skirt, blue squared pattern. “i’m gonna be in a britney spears video?” you asked confused. “you’re going to chilton! oh sorry.” sookie said unexpectedly, lorelai hit her shoulder. “mom?” you asked. “you did it, babe. you got in.” lorelai said with the biggest smile on her face. “how did this happen? you didn’t, with the principal, did you?” you asked worried almost. “no, honey. that was a joke. the have an open spot. you’re gonna start on monday.” lorelai enunciates still smiling. “really?” “really.” lorelai said. “i don’t believe this. oh my god, im going to chilton!” you said enthusiastically and hugged your mother. “yeah.” lorelai said hugging you back. “sookie, im going to chilton.” you said and hugged her as well. “i’ll make cookies.” sookie said. “protestants love oatmeal.” sookie let out. “i have to call tsiyera.” you said and walked away but immediately turned back around and looked at rory and lorelai. you smiled and hugged them both. “i love you.” you spoke softly at them both. “i love you.” they both said. your headed outside of the kitchen. “my daughter is going to chilton.” lorelai said. “yeah. victoria is going to chilton!” sookie said.

time skip, the next day, your point of view

you got home from school and decided to be on call with tsiyera just for a bit and you wanted to try on your skirt. tsiyera had to hang up because of aonoung bothering her. you went downstairs and outside where lorelai and sookie were. “mom?” you said and walked out and showcased your skirt. “so what do you think?” you asked. “wow, it makes you look smart.” sookie speaking one's mind. “okay, no more wine for you. mom?” you asked smiling. “you look like you were swallowed by a kilt.” lorelai teased. “fine, you can hem it. a little. only a little.” you said, not wanting to ruin the skirt. lorelai ‘ooh’ed. “or i could hem it a lot.” she said trying to convince you. “no. i don’t want it to be too short.” you let out, and your mother put her arm around your shoulder, walking into the house with sookie falling behind. “i can’t believe tomorrow’s my last day at stars hollow high.” you said not even believing yourself. “i know.” lorelai said enthusiastically. “today i was so excited, i dressed up for gym.” you said surprised. “you’re kidding!” “and i played volleyball.” “with other people?”lorelai asked surprised. rory was sitting on the couch reading a book kind of listening to the conversation you were having with your mother. you stepped onto the stool and let lorelai hem your skirt. “and i learned all this time, i was avoiding group sports.” “yeah?” “was very smart ‘cause i suck.” you said slightly proud. “well, yeah, you and your twin got that from me.” lorelai said smiling at you and then at rory. “where’s your pate?” sookie asked coming from the kitchen. “at zsa zsa gabor’s house.” lorelai said continuing with your skirt. “right. i’m going to the store because you have nothing. you feel like a duck?” sookie asks and puts on her purse. if it’s made with chicken, absolutely.” “i’ll be back.” “bye.” lorelai said and finished with your skirt. “alright. this will give you an idea,” she said looking closely and patting your knees where your skirt ended making sure it would be even. “go see how you like it.” “okay.” you said and smiled stepping off the stool. you swung on the staircase. “i love being a private school girl.” you said and turned around to head to your room to check out your outfit, your hair flipping from behind you. lorelai smiled but her smile faded, she stared at the photos of you with rory and pictures of the three of you.

“and we get to wear uniforms. no more having people check you out to see what jeans you’re wearing ‘cause everyone’s dressed alike in boring clothes and just there to learn.” you said excited and finished putting things into your box, closing your locker. “okay, there’s academic-minded and then there’s amish.” tsiyera stated. “funny.” “thank you! so, i told my mom you’re changing schools.” “was she thrilled?” you asked teasing. “the party’s on friday. i go to go. i have to have a pre-hayride cup of tea with my ‘future husband’. how do i look? presentable?” tsiyera said and placed the book she was holding previously onto your box, you nodded. “good, bye.” tsiyera said and basically jogged outside of the school. your book fell, while you were looking at her. you squated down placing your box onto the floor and grabbing the book, there was some other small things that fell out as well, while turning you saw long legs and shoes. “god! you’re like ruth gordon just standing there with a tannis root. make a noise.” you let out, finished picking up the things. “rosemary’s baby.” the long legged boy said. you lifted your head and saw the boy, you stood up. “yeah.” you said still staring at his face. “well, that’s a great movie.” he says. “you’ve got good taste.” he continued. you smiled and looked down for a second. “are you moving?” he asked. “no, just my books are.” you replied. “well my family just moved here from chicago.” he said. “chicago. windy. oprah.” you let out of what you remembered of chicago. “yeah. yeah, that’s the place. i’m neteyam.” he said and leaned down a bit. “hi.” you said smiling, didn’t reply though. he made a gesture for you to say your name. “oh, tori. me. that’s-that’s me.” you said. “tori,” he repeated your name. “well, victoria technically. i have a lot of nicknames.” you replied. “victoria, i like that.” he sounded. “it’s my mothers middle name. my twin took her first name.” you said. “she was lying in the hospital bed, thinking about how men name boys after themselves. so why couldn’t woman? so she used both of her names on my twin and i. she says her feminism just kind of took over. though personally, i think a lot of demerol also went into that decision.” you let out. “i never talk this much.” you said in a panicked way for a moment, looking up at him. he smiled and turned his head to the side for a moment. “well, i better go.” “oh, sure.” you replied realizing he probably has things to do, better than hearing you babble about useless things. “i have to go look for a job.” “okay, good.” you said, a bit too loud. he said and laughed a bit. he started walking away. “you should check with miss patty.” you said suddenly, turned around facing his back. he turned around. “what?” “about the job. you should check with miss patty. she teaches dance. she was actually on broadway once.” you said. “i-i don’t really dance much.” he said and gestured with his hand while speaking. “no, no, she just kind of knows everything that is going on in this town. she’ll know if someone’s looking.” you replied. “oh, great. uh, thanks.” he said with one hand in his pocket, shrugging a bit with a laugh. you looked down at your books. “hey, what are you doing now?” neteyam said and walked closer to you. “nothing…much” you said. “i should throw this away at some point.” you said and held on the yellow lined paper. “well maybe you could show me where this miss patty’s place is.” he said, asking. “yeah, i guess so. i really don’t have anything important to— let’s go.” you said not wanting to speak more than you already did. he picked up your box. you both walked out of the school. “so, have you lived here all your life?” he asked. “yes. well, pretty much. i was actually born in hartford.” you stated. “well that’s not far.” he said. “thirty minutes with no traffic.” you stated. “really?” “i timed it.” you said, he laughed. “okay, then.” he said.

“so, do you like cake?” you asked while you both were passing by stores. “what?” he asked, confused why you were asking. “they make really good cakes here. they’re very… round.” you said and pointed at the store. “okay. i’ll remember that.” he spoke. “good, make a note. you wouldn’t want to forget where the round cakes are.” you said, slightly embarrassed. “so, how are you liking moby dick?” he asked and looked at you. “oh it’s really good.” you said with a grin. “yeah?” “yeah, it’s my first melville.” you said. “cool,” he spoke out. “i mean, i know it’s kind of cliche to pick moby dick as your first melville but… hey, how did you know i was reading moby dick?” you asked and you both stopped. “uh- well i’ve been watching you.” he uttered. “watching me?” “i mean; not in a creepy, like, “i’m watching you” sort of way. i just, I’ve noticed you,” he let out. “me?” you said and looked at yourself for a second. he nodded. “when?” you asked. “every day. well since i’ve moved here. after school you come or and sit under that tree there and you read. last week it was madame bovary.” he said and slighly gestured his head to the tree. “this week it’s moby dick.” he said. “but why would you-” you said and he interrupted you. “because you’re nice to look at.” he said slightly shrugging. “and because you’ve got unbelievable concentration.” he let out. “what?” you asked clearly confused about what he’s talking about. “last friday these two guys were tossing around a ball and one guy nailed the other in the face. i mean, it was a mess, blood everywhere, the nurse came out. the place was on chaos, his girlfriend was all freaking out and you just sat there and read. i mean, you never even looked up. i thought, i have never seen anyone read so intensely before in my life. i have to meet that girl.” he finished speaking. “maybe, i just didn’t look up because i’m unbelievably self-centered.” you said trying to reason. “maybe, but i doubt it.” he said. you smiled and he smiled. you both started walking. “so, did i ask if you like cake?” “yeah, you did.” “oh, ‘cause they have really good cake back there.” you said once again, he laughed.

the three of you just stared at the plates, not speaking. “uh, i forgot to tell you were having dinner with your grandparents tomorrow night.” your mother spoke quickly and took a sip of coffee from her light green mug. “we are?” you and rory asked. “mm-hmm.” she said still drinking her coffee. “but it’s september?” rory asked. “so?” your mother asked, oblivious almost. “so what holiday’s in september?” you asked. “oh look, it’s not a holiday thing. it’s just dinner, okay?” your mother spoke sternly. you and rory glanced at each other, confused almost why she spoke like that. “fine, sorry,” you said and continued eating, so did rory. luke came up to the table. he placed down the food. “red meat can kill you. enjoy.” he said and ripped the check off of his checkbook. lorelai laughed, but the two of you didn’t react. she quietly cleared her throat, swapping her salad with her food. “so, i finished hemming your skirt today.” your mother spoke and smiled at you. you were about to speak but didn’t and just looked at your food again. “a grunt of acknowledgment might be nice. “i don’t understand why we’re going to dinner tomorrow night. i mean, what if i had plans? you didn’t even ask me.” you uttered. “well, if you had plans, i would’ve known.” she spoke out. “how?” you asked genuinely. “well, you would have told me.” she said. “i don’t tell you everything. neither does rory. i have my own things.” you said with a tone almost. “fine, you have things” “that’s right. i have things.” you said sternly. “hey, i had dibs on being the bitch tonight,” she said. you looked at your salad again, rory felt uncomfortable, but knowing how you felt. “just tonight?” you uttered. “what’s wrong with you?” your mother asked. you sighed. “i’m not sure i want to go to chilton.” you spoke out all of a sudden. “what?” your mother and twin asked, knowing you’ve been wanting to get into chilton, forever. “the timing is just really bad.” you spoke. “the timing is bad?” your mother asked genuinely confused. “and the bus ride to and from hartford it’s like thirty minutes each way.” you complained. “i can’t believe what i’m hearing.” your mother said shocked. “plus, i don’t think we should be spending that money right now. i mean, i know chilton’e got to be costing you a lot. all of that money should be going towards to you buying an inn with sookie,” you tried to reason with her. rory was eating her burger listening into the conversation, making sure nothing would get bad. “what about college? what about harvard?” you mother asked knowing since you were a baby you’ve wanted to go to havard. “we dunno that i can’t get into harvard if i stay where i am.” you said. “okay, enough. enough of the crazy talk, okay? i appreciate your concern but i have this covered.” your mother spoke. “i still don’t want to go.” “why?” “because i don’t.” you said. “i have to get out of here.” your mother said, picking up her bag and getting off of her seat. you and rory stared. “we have to pay first.” rory said. your mother took out some cash she had in her back pocket, placing them onto the table. you and rory stood up. your mother opened the door first, leaving you and your sister behind. you caught up to her and walked beside your mother, with your twin on the opposite side. horses passed by, with music playing. at the back of the hayride was tsiyera with her so called date and her date’s brother. the three of you walking by miss patty’s dance studio. “one, two, three. it’s a waltz, ladies. susie, do you have to tinkle? then uncross your legs, darling. oh, tori, good. i think i found a job for your male friend.” miss patty said stepping a step down the steps. the three of you stopped infront of her. “what male friend?” your mother asked. “they need a stock boy at the supermarket. i already talked to taylor doode about him. you just send him around tomorrow.” miss patty said and smoked her cigar. “okay, thanks.” you said. “what male friend?” your mother asked once again. “oh, he’s very cute. you have good taste. you got yourself a good one, maybe he’s the one you need.”

“hands in the air, not in the nose. ‘one, two, three, one, two, three.’ “ miss patty said to her students. you started walking away, heading home with your mother and twin following behind you. your mother laughed. “oh ho. you’re gonna have to walk faster than that. you’re gonna have to turn into flo-jo to get away from me.” she said and followed behind you. rory was sprinting behind the two of you not wanting to be left behind. you quickly opened the door, almost closing it behind you but your mother caught it, she made sure rory go in as well though. “this is about a boy. of course, can’t believe, i didn’t see it. all this talk about money and bus rides, you got a thing going on with a guy, you don’t wanna leave school.” your mother said. rory entered her room already heading to bed. “i’m going to bed.” you said and placed things onto the table near the couch. “god, i’m so dense. that should’ve been my first thought. after all, you’re me.” your mother let out. you grabbed your backpack. “i’m not you.” you said. “really? someone willing to throw important life experiences outta the window to be with a guy. it sounds like me to me.” she said sternly. “whatever.” you said and headed upstairs. “so, who is he?” she asked. “there’s no guy.” you said, starting to get upset. “dark hair, tan skin, romantic guy, looks a little dangerous.” she said. “this conversation is over.” you spoke out. “tattoos are good too.” she said while you both started getting up the stairs. you turned around holding onto your school supplies, your backpack hanging on one shoulder. “i don’t wanna change schools because of all the reasons i’ve told you a thousand times. if you don’t wanna believe me, that’s fine. goodnight.” you said going fully upstairs. lorelai stood at the same step. “does he have a motorcycle? ‘cause if you’re gonna throw your life away, he better have a motorcycle.” she said and you slammed your door. silence, is what the house was filled with. she sighed. she opened your door, while you were taking off your sweater with your backpack on your bed. “i think that went pretty well, don’t you?” lorelai asked. you threw your sweater on the bed. “thanks for the knock.” you said, sarcastically. “listen, can we just start all over? ‘kay? you tell me about the guy, i promise i not to let my head explode, huh?” your mother asked trying to convince you. “tori. please talk to me. okay, i’ll talk.” your mother sighed. “don’t get me wrong. guys are great. i am a huge fan of guys. you don’t get knocked up at sixteen with twins being indifferent to guys. babes guys are always going to be there. this school isn’t. it’s more important. it has to be more important.” lorelai states. “i’m going to sleep,” you said and reached over at your nightstand to get a book. you sighed and fixed your hair. “tori. you’ve always been the sensible one in this house, huh? i need you to remember that feeling now. you will kick your butt later if you blow this.” lorelai says still trying to convince you. you closed your book, still keeping the bookmark inside. you fixed your pillows leaning more into them. “well, it’s my butt.” you said. “good comeback.” your mother said. “thank you,” “you’re welcome. vick, come on.” “i don’t wanna talk about this. could you please, please just leave me alone?” you asked. your mother stared. “okay, fine. we always had a democracy in this house. we never did anything unless the three of us agreed. but now i’m going to have to play the mom card. you’re going to chilton whether you want to or not. monday morning, you will be there, end of story.” your mother said and started walking to the door. “we’ll see.” you said and your mother slammed your bedroom door. “yeah, we will.” your mom yelled. you sighed, turning on your radio. ‘i try’ by macy gray played in your room. you fell asleep with the song playing, filling the emptiness of your room.

you sat down on michel’s chair, while he left to go tell your mother about you being here. “hey, no muumuu today? you know what’s weird, i know of miss it.” she said tilting her head, coming up to you and standing next to you behind the counter. “you left a note to meet here.” you stated, holding onto your book. she walked to the other side of the register desk. “yeah. thought you might wanna work a couple hours. make a little extra cash.” she said and grabbed a notebook. “fine.” you said and looked at you book once again. “aww. you’re not giving the ‘mommy dearest’ treatment forever, are ya?” she asked. “you wanted me here, i’m here. should i do something or what?” you asked. “yeah, go home. dinners at seven. be ready to go.” she said and slammed her binder onto her desk. “fine.” “fine.” your mother sighed. you walked out of the inn.

the three of you stood outside the grand doors, staring at the doors. your mother holding onto her coffee cup, you and rory glancing at each other. “so, do we go in or do we just stand here reenacting ‘the little match girl’?” you asked, your mother sighed, she turned her head towards you. “okay, look, i know you and me are having a thing here and i know you hate me but i need you to be civil. at least through dinner, on the way home you can menendez. deal?” your mother said sternly. “fine.” you said and turned to look at her too, rory just stood behind you knowing what happened between you two. the three of you stepped up more closer to the door, your mother rang the door bell dramatically with her heels clicking obnoxiously. your grandmother opened the door. “hi, grandma.” you and rory uttered. “well? you’re right on time.” your grandmother spoke. “yeah, yeah no traffic at all.” your mother said and the three of you walked in. you and rory took of your coats. “i can’t tell you what a treat it is to have you girls here,” your grandmother said, taking the coats and hanging them on the dark rack. “oh, well, we’re excited, too.” lorelai said, still holding onto her cup. “is that a collector’s cup or can i throw it away for you?” emily asked. your mother uttered an apology, heading to the small trash can next to the door. “in the kitchen, the please.” emily stated. “sorry,” lorelai said, walking back. “so, i want to hear all about chilton.” emily said and grabbed her hands into hers and walked with you to the living room. “well, i haven’t actually started yet. your mother and rory stood near the coat rack, and glanced at each other before walking behind the two of you. “richard, look who’s here.” your grandmother said, showing you off to your grandfather. “victoria. you’re tall.” your grandfather said, looking at you closely. “i guess.” you uttered. “what’s your height?” he asked. “five-seven.” you stated. “that’s tall. she’s tall.” he said and glanced behind him at your grandmother. “hi dad.” your mother said walking into the room with your twin sister following behind closely. “lorelai, victoria is tall.” lorelai spoke. “oh, i know. it’s freakish. we’re thinking of having her studied at m.i.t .” lorelai spoke, joking. “huh.” your grandfather spoke, putting his glasses back on, looking at his newspaper. “champagne, anyone?” emily asked. the three of you grabbed one. “oh that’s fancy.” lorelai stated. “well, it’s not everyday that i have my girls here for the dinner on a day the banks are open.” emily said and placed down the champagne. lorelai hummed. “a toast. to victoria entering chilton and an exciting new phase in her life.” emily said and raised her glass. “here, here.” richard said, though not raising his head up from the newspaper. the five you drank the champagne. emily hummed. “mmm. well, let’s sit everyone.” emily said and sat down. rory sat in between your grandmother and mother though your mother hadn’t quite sat down yet. you sat next to your grandfather. “this is just wonderful. and education is the most important thing, next to family.” emily spoke out. “and pie.” your mother added, you stifled a laugh, though everyone was awkwardly quite. your mother sat down, emily glanced at her, her body facing the opposite direction. “joke, joke.” your mother spoke awkwardly, crossing her legs. “ah.” your grandmother let out. the two sipped on their champagne. rory awkwardly sitting there. your grandfather subtly gave you a newspaper he had next to him. you glanced at him and opened the newspaper, quite intrigued.

everyone was sitting in their designated spots. lorelai and you sitting next to each other with rory on the opposite side and your grandfather and grandmother at opposite sides of each other. “victoria, rory, how do you like the lamb?” your grandmother spoke. “it’s good,” you and rory spoke. “too dry?” your grandmother asked. “no, it’s perfect,” you both voiced, your grandmother continued eating until lorelai spoke up. “potatoes could use a little salt, though.” lorelai said with a quite laugh. “excuse me?” your grandmother asked. “so, grandpa, how’s the insurance biz?” you asked, trying to get away from the awkward conversation. “oh, people die, we pay. people crash cars, we pay. people lose a foot, we pay.” your grandfather said before stuffing his face. “well, at least you have your new slogan.” lorelai voiced, you glanced at her. “and how are things at the motel?” your grandfather asked. “the inn? they’re great.” lorelai said before sipping on her wine. “lorelai’s the executive manager now. isn’t that wonderful?” your grandmother said. “speaking of which, christopher called yesterday.” your grandfather spoke. “speaking of which? how is that a speaking of which?” lorelai asked, almost in a mocking tone. “he’s doing very well in california. his internet start-up goes public next month. this could mean big things. very talented man, your father.” you grandfather added, speaking to you. lorelai looked at you. “she knows.” your mother spoke. “he always was a smart one, that boy. you must take after him.” you grandpa said. “speaking of which, i’m gonna get a coke. or a knife.” your mother said, speaking higher at the last sentence. your eyes wandered to your grandpa and grandma. rory looked at you, you shrugged. a while has passed by, just looking at your food. “i think i’m gonna go talk—“ you spoke but got interrupted. “no, i’ll go. you stay and keep your grandfather company.” your grandmother said and rubbed her hand and your shoulder passing by. ‘keep your voice down.’ ‘no, i can’t take it anymore.’ ‘tonight just seems like a nightmare’ ‘you’re dripping all over the floor.’ ‘why do you pounce on every single thing i say?’ mutters were spoken from the kitchen. the three of you at the table glanced at each other for a second, but continued to eat. ‘well, i wasn’t too proud to come here to you two begging for money for my daughter’s school, was i?’ your mother spoke from the kitchen, you glanced at the kitchen door, confused. ‘no! you certainly weren’t.—’ you heard from the kitchen. you looked at your plate, confused. you heard snoring from next to you and it was your grandfather.

the three of you exited the house, coats on. you closed the door behind you. lorelai leaned against the wall, sighing with her hands in her pockets. “mom?” you asked. “i’m okay. i just… do i look shorter? ‘cause i feel shorter.” lorelai said, with a tone almost. “hey, how about i buy you and rory a cup of coffee?” you convinced them. “aw. yeah.” she said and got up from leaning against the wall to wrapping her hand around you and your sisters shoulder. “vic, you drive, though, ‘cause i don’t think my feet will reach the pedals.” your mother jokingly complained. the three of you laughed.

“so, nice dinner at the grandparents’ house,” rory spoke one's mind. the three of you stepped onto the steps of luke’s.“oh yeah, her dishes have never been cleaner.” lorelai complained. “you and grandma seemed to have a nice talk.” you let out. “how much did you hear?” lorelai asked. “not much. you know, snippets.” you replied. “snippets?” lorelai raised a question. “little snippets?” you answered back quickly. “so basically everything?” lorelai requested. “basically, yes.” you replied. “well, the best-laid plans.” lorelai said and opened the diner door to luke’s. lorelai sighs and sets her bag down at the designated spot in the diner. the three of you sit down, setting your coats down. “i think it was really brave of you to ask them for money.” you spoke up. “oh, i so do not want to talk about it.” lorelai utters. “so, how many meals is it gonna take till we’re off the hook?” rory questioned. “i think the deli spread at my funeral will be the last one. hey.” lorelai said, looking at your face. “wait does that mean?” lorelai asked. you smiled. “can’t let a perfectly plaid skirt go to waste.” you said smiling. “aww, honey. you won’t be sorry.” lorelai said. luke came up to the table. wearing light blue button up dress shirt, with dress pants, and his hair-styled. he had his note pad ready and a pen. “wow! you-you look nice. really nice.” lorelai noted and smiled. “i… had a meeting earlier at the bank. they-they like collars. you look nice, too.” luke replied. you and rory look at each other smiling. “i had a event to go to,” lorelai replied. “so, what will you have?” luke asked. “coffee, in a vat.” lorelai replied, luke looked over at you and rory. “we’ll both have coffee also. and chili fries.” you answered. “that’s quite a refined palate you got there.” luke said and sighed, writing down the orders and walking away. lorelai looked at him walking away and turned back. “behold the healing powers of a bath. so, tell me about the guy.” lorelai let out. rory nodded at the last thing lorelai said, wanting to know about ‘the guy’ as well. “you know what’s really special about our relationship? the total understanding about the need for one’s privacy. i mean, you really understand boundaries.” you declared. “so tell us about the guy.” lorelai said and rory smiled. “mom!” you quitely yelled out. “is he dreamy?” she asked. “ugh that’s so ‘nick at night’. ” you groaned. “i’m gonna find out anyway.” lorelai said “really? how?” you genuinely asked. “uh, i’ll spy.” lorelai said with a sarcastic tone. luke came to the table with the food. “coffee, fries.” luke said placing down the food. you grabbed your coffee and about to take a sip until luke speaks up. “i can’t stand it. this is so unhealthy. victoria, rory ‘please, put down that cup of coffee. you do not wanna grow up to be like your mom.” luke spoke up. “sorry, too late.” you said and smiled at your mom. lorelai smiled at luke. he shook his head and walked away. lorelai looked at you and rory and had the biggest smile on her face.

[tantai-jin]

fic writer meme!

thank u rachel @fruitdaze for the tag!!! <3333333

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

23 since 2016 lmao,, i don't remember exactly how many i posted on lj from 2012-2015 but it wasn't a ton, probably 10-15 that were like 50k altogether

2. What's your total Ao3 word count?

124,765

3. What fandoms do you write for?

it's been all over the place since 2020 lol but p much only chinese media like danmei novels, movies, cdramas. used to write kpop rpf but prob won't return to that even tho i still like and follow many groups

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

给你给你 (yunfei)

换一世身份姓名; heaven to myself (canglan)

not-that-small talk (tell me honestly) (bts yoonkook LOL)

새벽 rush hour (yellow light, slow) (bts taegi LOL)

捡一个梦; reach for a dream (canglan)

5. Do you respond to comments?

i usually do, although i'm often quite late LOL i have a couple fics where i didn't reply to all the comments after a certain point and then i just stopped 😭 or if they are a guest user or only leave emojis as a comment then i don't reply? but ofc i see every comment

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

uhh i feel like the only thing i wrote that is complete and has an angsty ending is 捡一个梦; reach for a dream bc it was a missing scene from an angsty arc of the show. or lol jk same scenario applies to 余光 (remnants of light) bc it takes place before the end of yuwu and not in one of the happier moments

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

either 给你给你 or 换一世身份姓名; heaven to myself bc they're both disgustingly sweet and affectionate at the end

8. Do you get hate on fics?

nope! either i am writing for tiny ass fandoms or like, my fics don't get enough traction to attract haters LMAO

9. Do you write smut?

not a lot... the incomplete bingqiu au i posted has the most explicit scenes so far but i am still too shy writing it. i have to practice so that i can write more than 3 sentences of sex in a single day and actually finish the wips i started 😭

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you have written?

i have before! nothing crazy tho bc it was just kpop rpf and it would be like, two idols from the same company that have interacted multiple times! lmao. sometimes i think abt crossovers for cdramas that are relatively tame such as: two actors that have been in the same drama multiple times are reincaranted and those 2+ dramas are their different lives... but it's so niche in eng speaking fandom and i haven't fully written one out yet. also does it count as a crossover if u put characters from story A into the setting/setup for story B bc i do that a lot but i think that is fairly common at least for ppl to imagine

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

i don't think so... again, my fics do not get a lot of traction so i don't think it's likely lmaooo

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

i think there was an exo one translated into russian a long time ago but i don't even remember which one lolllll it might have been on my livejournal

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

not a whole fic yet but ive brainrotted a plethora of aus with friends before such as but not limited to mingqian actors au with lianzi (very intricate with multiple variations) and a Bunch of cdrama and yuwu stuff with another friend :')

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

i cannotttttt pick only one but ummm in the last yr-ish it's been a rotation of tantai jin/li susu + mingye/sang jiu from cyjm, mingqian from liu yao, xilian from yuwu (🤪)..... bingqiu from sv (always).... i should stop for now that's Tew Many. but i think once i finish spl, changgu will also be up there

15. What is a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

i feel like i'm cursing myself by typing this out but perhaps the bingqiu i posted one chapter of..... even if i could write all the p With p parts that i wanted to include, i was also a little stuck on the ending and idk if i would be able to write it in a way that doesn't feel like a cop out or just weak in general 😢 but i do like that au and i think my writing for it so far was p decent... so who knows...!

16. What are your writing strengths?

i think i am pretty good at dialogue that sounds 1. natural and 2. true to the characters! i try really hard to make imagery sound original(ish) and evocative, and to make a character's Yearning palpable

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

intricate plot, action, sex (takes me forever to write and haven't done it in as much detail as i would like to tbh)

18. Thoughts of writing dialogue in another language in fics?

i love it! i did it a little in my yunfei fic and instead of directly translating the line of chinese right there i just included the meaning in the next line of dialogue, like "what do you mean [thing they just said]" + i did it like that bc the tone of it just felt so much more natural to me in mandarin for that specific convo. not that it was something untranslatable (it wasn't) but it just felt comfier to me. i also like the thing ppl do where you can hover over the text and it will show the translation but idk how that html works HAHA someday i would like to give it a go

19. First fandom you wrote for?

exo.......... lmao

20. Favorite fic you have written?

overall i think it would be typhoon season (my incomplete but not abandoned cisswap girls ximang in hk) ! i had it fermenting in my brain for like 8 months before i wrote it, which meant i had figured a lot of the stuff for the beginning out and it was much easier to write than normal since i was not deliberating so much in the moment. i think the pacing for it was good and the reveals of backstory were placed well, and i think i adapted the characters well too even if it's only a first chapter and they haven't done a lot yet. i wanna write them again but it's been rly hard for me to think abt that specific au for many months lol. i also think my recent yzy gegedidi fic had a lot of yummy scenes even if i see some flaws in some parts of the fic's progression... but i spent enough time on it already so i will not go and fix it anymore 😌 peace

i think all my writer friends were tagged already...... this tagline (like a bloodline) will end with me

[astudyincontrasts]

Here’s a little confession for you, study <3

I used to read x reader fics as a kid (probs at 10-12?) but since it isn’t very acceptable even in some fandom spaces, I stopped. When I found your writing, I still felt a little weird about it and almost ashamed? But your writing has given me back the joy I felt as a kid reading silly x reader Naruto fics in the best of ways???

Like. I remember reading Penance for the first time, and pressing to get notifications whenever you post to keep track of your writing? And seeing the “study has posted ‘Penance - Chapter 10’” gave me so much joy. I can’t even express it with words. Seeing you post anything, writing or not, just makes me so happy. <3

And today I was rereading some old Penance asks, and my dad asked what I was grinning about and I just dismissed him but he said something along the lines of “it’s nice to see you smile, anyway.” I know your writing isn’t, like, the cure to depression (actually it might be), but. Just. Finding such joy in reading again after years of not doing so, and after years of depression,,,,,,,,,,,,,, girl (gender neutral) do you understand the power you hold?

I’m just rambling but I wanted you to know that your writing literally changed my life for the better. <3 I hope you’re well and I’m sending you all the best <3

you come to my house, you make me cry my own tears?? ?

wh

No sorry you get back here RIGHT NOW and get hugged for like three straight hours. IMMEDIATELY RIGHT NOW GET BETWEEN THESE ARMS OR SO HELP ME

Fuck. You got me good, fam. I’m a little shaky-handed emotional rn. This is such a sweet thing to come tell me, and more than feeling proud that you liked my work, I’m proud of you for finding that spark of joy in your life again, for smiling and being excited and sharing in the world. Thank you for this and for being so incredibly lovely 🖤

When it comes to x reader fics I’ll be honest with you, I never wrote a single one in the many many years I’ve been writing. I took a very long hiatus from tumblr and writing after the porn ban gutted my friend group on here and Arcane kinda dragged me back to tumblr after I fell in love with it. I wanted to start writing again after devouring Gaybybirth’s entire Viktor library and when I took a look at the landscape of fic writing, x readers were literally all I saw, so I figured what the hell, that’s the popular format now I might as well. I get the appeal of it too; you can more easily slip yourself into the story and enjoy the canon character you want to bang without having to wrestle with someone else’s OC standing between you and your beloved blorbo. I’m not sure it’s the best format for my work but I enjoy it and so far it’s been loads of fun to play with. I’m definitely shifting slowly, moving away from y/n use which tbh feels kind of childish and awkward and interrupts the flow, and more toward first person perspective OC vibes that people can still feel comfortable reading as themselves.

None of that matters though. What matters is how I’m going to be thinking about this sweet, wonderful message for a very long time, and how happy I am that something I made could mean so much to you. “It’s nice to see you smile” … that’s a pretty awesome power, but I think it also belongs to you 🖤🖤🖤🖤

[fbfh]

oh also brief blog update /pos (tldr at the bottom)

so as you may have noticed from my recent poll I'm working on a descendants fic that's probably going to be around 19/20 ish chapters, which obviously will take some time to write, so my next handfull of posts that I write and schedule will probs be headcanons or shorter one shots that don't take me as long to write so my queue stays fed and happy. I am still going to write part 2s/continuations to rocks, roddy x hyperfeminine reader hcs, prolonged bisexual panic, and whatever else I said I was gonna make a part 2 for that idr off the top of my head, I also am going to answer every ask in my ask box (at some point) and finish all the one shots in my drafts, but those won't be as immediate. I also am working on original content which is taking its time bc there's no rush and it needs to finish cooking yk. bc of recovering from top surgery I'm sort of in semi hiatus mode (which is why I have my queue set up the way I do, so if life stuff happens my blog is still active yk) but it's understandably been taking me a little longer to write so just uh... pls be patient ig??? ALSO THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR LOVE AND SUPPORT <333

tldr:

immediate upcoming fics: descendants multichapter, various headcanons and shorter one shots

other fics I'm working on and haven't forgotten about: roddy and hyperfem reader, rocks 2, prolonged bisexual panic 2

original content is also (not immediately) coming!!! it's slow cooking on the creativity grill to get delicious

everything in my ask box and all my drafts will eventually get finished too

if I'm less active it's just cause i'm napping and recovering lol

I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!!! THANK YOU ALL FOR BEING SO SWEET AND INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!! KISSES YOUR FOREHEAD LIKE A LITTLE KITTY CAT!!!!!!!!! <333