#you gave me the opportunity so i took it my bad lol

[dollyhao]

Can we bring back Loser Ellie x Bully reader? Please and thank you ❤️ but take your time and take care 🫶

cw; nsfw, tribbing i got y’all :) yall i ain’t never wrote about tribbing before (or tried it lol)

you anxiously look down at your phone while biting your nail. your stressing over the fact that ellie isn’t texting you back. by now you would be at her place banging on her door but… you might’ve taken it too far.

you took your anger out on ellie when she didn’t deserve it at all and she was understanding at first, you were having a bad day and you were pent up, so she gave you a chance to apologize. but you refused and decided ignoring her was the better option.

ellie looked really hurt before she grabbed her things and left your place. that was 5 days ago and ellie never goes this long without talking to you. shes been avoiding you, declining your calls, and ignoring your texts.

which is understandable given you still haven’t apologized in any of your messages, just a bunch of “let’s meet.” and “where are you?” texts. but when day 7 hits, your ready to get on your knees and beg for forgiveness. so that’s what you do.

“i’m sorry baby, i didn’t mean what i said.” your on your knees in front of ellie’s desk chair that she’s sitting in, grasping her hands, tears welling up in your eyes as you ask for her forgiveness.

ellie is staring at you wide eyed, she’s never seen you act like this. you never apologize or beg for anything, from anyone. but ellie can’t help but feel kinda… good when she sees the tears in your eyes. this obviously means you care and that you missed her.

she already ready to kiss your pout away before you start rambling about how you would do ‘anything’ for her to talk to you again. and who is she to pass up such a opportunity, “what are you gonna do? you really hurt my feelings…” ellie mumbles putting on a soft, sad tone as she looks down at the hands that are holding yours.

“what do you want me to do?”

‧₊˚✩彡

“i love you so so much ellie!” you are panting as you grind against your gf, bodies sweaty, pussies making the most lewd sounds as they rub against each other. you have her cute little nipples in between your fingers, twisting them and pulling as ellie holds on to your hips grinding against yours.

ellie has been wanting to try tribbing with you forever now but never had the confidence to ask but you seemed happy at the idea and more than willing to do it with her. but of course you can’t do this for long because your truly a pillow princess at heart so you collapse backwards on the bed, panting as ellie has to put in all the work.

ellie is not complaining as she lifts one of your legs next to your head as she frantically fucks herself against you causing sweet mewls to fall past your lips. ellie grips and slaps on your tits, “you sorry baby?” ellie asks you throwing her head back in ecstasy.

“i’m so so sorry els. i love you. you forgive me?” you trail your fingers in between your bodies rubbing at ellie’s clit. “a-always baby, always.”

[harrypotterandthefandomaccount]

worthy of trust

pairing: sebastian sallow x fem!reader

warnings: sebastian being a jerk & calling you ignorant, angst, feeling like you lost a friend but he makes it up to you with a lil kiss

note: i've been obsessed with hogwarts legacy and the gameplay itself is just phenomenal. 39 hours into the game lol and still so much to do, so enjoy this sebastian oneshot. based on his questline, in the shadow of the mine i think?

important note: i do NOT support hate towards the transgender or LGBTQ+ community. JKR has made her stance very clear and i could not disagree and be disgusted with her more. this fic and future ones merely pertain to the character(s) in hogwarts legacy and to my knowledge, JKR had no part in the game. if you are still mad i play the game/write fics for hogwarts legacy, you can scroll past this. thank you!

you had no qualms about trusting lodgok since sirona ryan had known him for years, along with miriam. while the both of you had been albeit hesitant at first towards one another, he had proven his loyalty to stopping ranrok and was actively trying to be one step ahead of him - which is exactly what you, sebastian, and the others wanted.

however, when the opportunity arose to tell sebastian about lodgok, it all came flooding back to you - anne.

you and sebastian had just finished clearing out a cavern of arachnids, which quite honestly, was pretty exciting. you had even reminded him that well, spiders aren't insects.

"don't you start," he had responded, a small smirk on his face.

after finding the last piece to the tryptich and hoping to solve the mystery concerning isidora morganach, returning to the undercroft was the last step. you both were eager to see if the portrait piece would fit, and once it had been placed, you were able to breathe.

"please tell me you recognize the location in this bit of canvas," you said, turning around to face your slytherin partner in crime.

he sighed, "the good news is, i do, in fact."

your shoulders dropped, "and the bad news?"

sebastian turned to look at you, "we're in for more trouble."

you groaned, leaning your head back as Sebastian's eyes seemed to darken; gluing your attention back to your slytherin friend, he continued, "i know that coast. Ranrok has taken over a huge mine and the surrounding area. Marunweem has suffered for it. It's as bad as Feldcroft's become."

with a sigh, your eyebrows knitted together and you looked at the triptych once more. sebastian glanced towards you, "should we head there now?

you shook your head, "no, we should wait."

sebastian immediately questioned you, "why?

you gave a grimanced look, "all this time, we've been a step behind ranrok. I may know someone who could help us get head."

sebastian raised an eyebrow, "who is that?"

before you could even think about formulating your answer a different way, the words slipped out, "a friendly goblin named lodgok. he wants no part in ranrok's fight."

sebastian immediately became disgusted, angry, even. "a friendly goblin?" he started, "you know goblins cursed my sister to shut her up! said she should 'be seen and not heard.'"

you took a step towards sebastian as he stepped back. taking a breath, you nodded, " i do, but not all goblins-"

he glared towards you, "not all goblins what? have you forgotten feldcroft? have you forgotten the mine we just went through?"

you sympathized with him, no doubt. you knew how close the twins were, how much Sebastian loved anne and cared for her - but this fight against ranrok was against all wizardkind, not just anne. and you knew she would understand.

shaking your head, you tried to reason with Sebastian, "no, sebastian, i haven't. you're not listening to me."

sebastian scoffed, "why would i listen to someone so ignorant?"

ouch.

you knew sebastian could be mean, cruel, but throughout these months of knowing him, he has only been so kind, sweet and soft with you. there was never any malice towards you, no anger or disgust. towards the goblins and ranrok in conversations with you, but it was never directed. it was understandable that what happened to anne was hurting Sebastian as well, but this anger was now at you, and he was changing.

you already had reservations working with lodgok before sirona ryan said you could trust him, but there was something he wasn't telling you. but it wasn't a secret that jeopardized your working relationship with him, no. if it had been, you would have turned your back and not worked with him another day.

it wasn't ignorant at all, you knew that. a bit sketchy at first, sure, but not ignorant. lodgok had proven himself trustworthy and has helped you in being one step ahead.

you stepped back in surprise, "that was cruel. perhaps your uncle was right about you - you don't know when to stop."

sebastian glowered over you, stepping forward as his words were laced with venom, "oh, i do know when to stop. unbelievable."

taking a deep breath, you turned and walked out of the undercroft, ready to scream. you understood where Sebastian was coming from but the way he talked to you was so...angering. maybe you should have lied about who it was, about what lodgok was.

but calling you ignorant? okay, yes, this was your first year learning about magic and catching up to the rest of your peers, but you earned respect and knew - for the most part - what you were doing. you would never intentionally put Sebastian, anne, ominis, whoever in danger if you were not confident.

with a sniffle, you made your way through the dark arts tower to your common room, ready to just cry about how upset and angry Sebastian was. but before you could, ominis's voice stopped you, "coming from the undercroft, are we?"

you turned around, eyes glassy with unshed tears - albeit glad that ominis couldn't see them. you gave a small smile, "oh, yes. we were just discussing a painting we found."

ominis hummed, not entirely satisfied with your answer, "your voice is shaky. what happened?"

you let out a breath, "i - we can't talk about it here, ominis. too open."

he sighed, and with his free hand, he grabbed your arm, pulling you towards an owl statue inside a small window, before it turned around and you found yourself...well, inside a wall at hogwarts.

before you had time to question ominis of where you were, he asked once more, "what happened?"

you explained everything, just leaving out the parts where Sebastian was intent on not stopping to find a cure for anne, but moreso focused on the triptych. when you revealed who lodgok was, ominis cringed.

"oh, that's not the worst part," you said, wiping a stray tear, "he asked why he should listen to someone so ignorant."

ominis winced once more, "yikes."

you grumbled, "tell me about it. i want to cry because, well, i understand why he is upset but lodgok is a lead to stopping ranrok, to being one step ahead."

your blind friend nodded, "agreed, and if sirona trusts him, that's saying something."

you both stood in silence, the occasional sniffle from your nose giving ominis hints of how much this bothered you.

"give him time to cool off," he began. "anne is a sore spot for him, but he needs to understand that she won't be the only one cursed without your goblin friend's help. you made your way into his heart, those that he cares about. you'll be fine."

you nodded, trying to formulate your words, "thank you, ominis. i apologize for putting you in the middle of this, but it was nice to have someone listen."

ominis smiled softly, "of course, y/n. meet you at dinner?"

with a quiet, "yeah," you watched ominis make his way out of the secret room, and once again, you were left with screaming thoughts. sobs immediately racked your body, regret aching from your tears and sore throat. there was nothing left by the time you were done, face dried with tears as you composed yourself.

taking a breath, you left the room and immediately looked down, seeing a letter by the 'door.' on the top left was ominis's handwriting, but the letter itself was unopened: told you he's gone soft for you.

with a pained sigh, you picked up the letter and opened it, reading the words:

we need to talk. undercroft after dinner?

"merlin's beard."

dinner was not something you could stomach at the moment, and to be honest with yourself, you were sure it could come right back up as you made your way to the undercroft. with a wave of your wand, you opened up the clock-looking door and headed inside, anxiety eating you up like a full-course meal.

sebastian had his back to you, staring intently at the triptych until he heard the door open. his eyes met yours immediately, and he softened.

"hi," he said, biting his lip nervously as you made your way over to him.

"sebastian, i-" you began, but he shook his head. with a small smile, he grabbed your hands and held them against his chest, "it's ok."

your eyes welled up with tears, "but it's not, seb. i should've been honest with you and i wasn't. I'm sorry, you have every right to hate me."

sebastian was silent as the tears fell down your cheeks until he wiped them away with his thumb. you sniffled, looking up at him. he grasped onto your hands once more, "you were hesitant to tell me because you know how much i care for anne, for my sister. you listen to me and want what is best - that has always been you. I'm not mad at you, dove. I'm mad at merlin for making that our last option."

you gave a sad excuse for a chuckle as he smiled at you. he continued, "dove, listen to me. I'm sorry for what i said. i know you aren't ignorant; i reacted harshly about your goblin friend, but you understand why?"

you immediately nodded, squeezing his hands, "of course, seb. i know how important it is for you to find a cure for anne, and i would never jeopardize that if there was a chance lodgok could betray us. but he's good, honest."

sebastian grinned, and you continued, "i'm not mad at you either, y'know. you're good to me, seb, and i was just scared i lost you."

he held your face between his hands, thumbs softly rubbing over your cheeks as he adored you, "you could never lose me, dove. you are one of the few good things left in my life and i'd be an idiot to let you go."

you swallowed a sob as tears clouded your vision, but Sebastian hushed you, "it's okay, sweetheart. we're okay - i trust you. promise."

you nodded and gave a small smile, "i trust you too, seb. promise."

leaning forward, sebastian nudged his nose with yours, and you giggled as he mumbled, "there's my pretty dove." and with that, Sebastian sealed your lips in a kiss, your hands wrapping around his neck as he grounded himself on your hips.

maybe you should send lodgok a thank you card.

[juyeonszn]

SWEET

PAIRING lee juyeon x f!reader

WORD COUNT 4.61k

GENRES fluff ﹒ smut ﹒ minuscule bit of angst

WARNINGS 18+ MINORS DO NOT INTERACT, mature language, boy next door/neighbor au, reader was in a toxic-ish relationship, juyo is so cute and so sweet, until he’s kinda 😵‍💫 yk?, um kevin and changmin appearances, reader being absolutely irrevocably impossibly down bad for juyeon’s hands, so hand kink lol, making out, vaginal fingering, cum eating…. lol, they get a little sappy at the end

SUMMARY maybe this was for the better. maybe it was okay to let your guard down every once in a while, so long as it was always for your flirty neighbor.

MORE i would like to apologize for putting this out a day late… um i was really busy preparing for my enhypen concert so 😭 not a lot of writing was happening since there wasn’t enough brain juice flowing. anyways. ENJOY <3 pls rb if u did! (ALSO THANK U REESE AND @sungbeam FOR BETAING AND EDITING <<<3 i love y’all sm)

PERM TAGLIST @winterchimez @maessseongs @itsbeeble @zzoguri

If there was one thing you took pride in, it was your keen sense of hospitality.

You’d been raised as the type of girl to always be welcoming when a new face arrived, to be that guiding light for them as they adjusted to all the changes in their life. When you were little, your mother taught you to introduce yourself first, because you never knew if that person was shy or not. Of course, there was the usual ‘Stranger Danger’ pep talk, but it differed greatly from the new friend pep talk.

The first time you exhibited this wonderful trait of yours was in middle school when the foreign student in your class was forced to stand at the front of the room. He wasn’t necessarily shy, but you could tell he didn’t really enjoy being put on the spot, hands behind his back as he said his name and where he was from.

Kevin Moon. Age 13. Vancouver, Canada.

The only empty desk in the classroom was the one beside yours, and that was the golden opportunity to become best friends with the new kid. As soon as he settled into his seat and class had resumed as normal, you leaned over slightly and cupped a hand over your mouth to whisper loud enough that he could hear.

“Hi! I’m Y/N!”

He gave you a small smile in return and from then on, you and Kevin Moon were the best of friends.

The second time you proved your kindness was your freshman year of college. It was still syllabus week, but your professor had sent out an email over the weekend with papers that needed to be printed and brought to class. The guy next to you didn’t get the memo, freaking out over already messing things up on the first day.

You didn’t know him at all, but you felt bad that he was so stressed. In turn, you decided to rip up your own papers. He looked at you like you were crazy, maybe because you were. What idiot does something like that?

You give him a warm smile. “There. Now we’re both missing it.”

All he can do is laugh, shaking his head in disbelief. “I’m Changmin.”

“Y/N.”

After that, Ji Changmin came to be another one of your closest friends. It was kind of silly that something your mother instilled in you at a young age had become such a big part of your life. It brought you people who you’d cherish forever. But it also brought people you wish you’d never met.

“Get the fuck out.”

“Y/N, babe, we can work through this—”

“Are you deaf?” Your tone raises and your feet carry you to the front door, swinging it open. “I said to get out of my apartment.”

“We’ve been together for three years. You’re not gonna fight for us?” He pleads, clasping his hands as he stands in front of you.

“Why would I? Why should I stay with someone who doesn’t value me enough to stay loyal?” You seethe, your anger growing in size the longer you glare at his pathetic face. The face of a man you thought would love you until death did you part.

“She meant nothing to me!” He tries to rationalize with you, but you won’t have any of it. You weren’t stupid and you sure as hell weren’t blind.

“Do you take me as a fucking fool, Daehyun? I’ve known for months that you weren’t ‘working late at the office’. She even DMed me and showed me screenshots of your messages. Now get out before I call the cops.” You’re so pissed off that you don’t even realize you’re crying, fat tears trickling down your hot cheeks.

“After all I’ve done for you and all I’ve given you? You’re gonna act like a bitch?” He drops the innocent boyfriend act, backing you into the doorframe.

“Leave, Daehyun.” You say flatly. You’re not gonna give him the satisfaction of crumbling beneath the weight of his words. You knew the truth, you knew what kind of person he truly was after all this time.

He scoffs, grabbing his jacket off the hook beside him and finally storming out of your apartment. You cover your mouth with your hand to muffle the sobs that so badly want to escape. You watch as he bumps shoulders with a stranger holding a box, thankfully not looking back at you.

You make eye contact with said stranger, eyes wide like a child who’d just gotten caught with their hands in a cookie jar. His eyes resemble those of your friends’ when you told them you’d found out about your boyfriend’s infidelity. You both stand there for a moment, an impromptu staring contest ensuing.

Quickly, you snap out of your trance, cowering into your apartment. You vaguely remember the elderly woman across the hall mentioning that someone was moving into the unit beside yours. She had never told you a specific date, though. Had you known it was today, you might’ve expedited the dramatic break-up with Daehyun.

How could you possibly introduce yourself to him after he witnessed that? And in your current state; snot-nosed and teary-eyed? There was no way. You’d just have to postpone that for another day. Hopefully he didn’t mind too much.

“Was he cute?”

“Kevin, why is that what you’re worried about?” Changmin’s mouth pulls into a thin line, smacking the slightly older male over the back of the head. He winces, caressing the spot to ease the pain.

“I wasn’t really paying attention to that when I had just shoved my cheating ex boyfriend out of my apartment,” you push around the ramyeon on your plate with your chopsticks. “I do feel terrible that he had to see that though. But how can I face him after that?”

Kevin taps his chin with his index finger, lips pursed in thought. “Why don’t you bake for him? Welcome him to the complex like the hospitable neighbor you are.”

“That’s not a half bad idea, actually.” Changmin nods, shoveling some rice onto his spoon. The Pisces deadpans and reclines in his chair.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Okay, enough bickering you two. I need you to finish eating so I can start planning what to bake.”

The third time you practice your mother’s life lesson, is the next evening when you’re face-to-face with your neighbor’s door.

Your hands have begun to clam up beneath the warm tupperware of cookies you were holding. Were you supposed to just knock on his door like everything was fine and dandy? What if he wasn’t even home? Maybe you should just leave the baked goods with a note and—

The door swings open to reveal the stranger from a few days ago. However, this time he also wears that expression of shock, cat-like eyes widened. Your mouth moves like fish out of water, not sure what you should say or how you should say it. So you don’t think and you just act, extending the tupperware towards him.

“H-Hi, I’m Y/N, I’m your neighbor,” your speech is a little shaky, but you’re too nervous to focus on that. “I— um— I baked these for you as a housewarming gift to welcome you to the complex. As well as an apology for making you a bystander in my messy breakup.”

His features relax as a smile inches its way onto his face, graciously accepting the treats you made for him. “Thank you, you didn’t have to do that. And don’t even worry about it, I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“N-No, you’re fine, I swear! We shouldn’t have aired our dirty laundry so publicly like that. You did nothing wrong.” You wave your hands as if physically dismissing his words. He lets out a little chuckle that warms your chest.

“If it’s any consolation, I’m glad that you left the dude. He sounded like a total asshole,” your neighbor tucks the tupperware under his arm, leaning against the threshold of his apartment. “You seem too nice to settle for somebody like that. From what I’ve seen, of course.”

You don’t know why that has your heart skipping a beat like a high school girl. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that he really was cute. He had a boyish charm to him, but not so much so that it overpowered how handsome he was. Kevin was going to have a field day with this information.

“Uh, thank you. I should be getting back to my place now. I have an early day at work tomorrow. Have a good night!” You clear your throat to kick yourself out of whatever stupor you were about to fall into, bowing. As you’re turning on your heel to make the ten foot trip to your own apartment, he calls out your name.

“I’m Juyeon, by the way.” He grins, waving as you push open your door.

“Now that is quite the interesting development.” Kevin snorts, helping himself to one of the raspberry filled donuts you’d just finished baking.

“If you keep eating my product, I’m gonna have to kick you out of the kitchen and out of my bakery,” you chide, swatting his hands away from the baker’s rack. “And how is that interesting in the slightest? I literally gave him the cookies, apologized, and that was that.”

“He was literally flirting with you, Y/N. Changmin, tell her I’m right. Apparently I’m no longer a voice of reason here.” He says through a full mouth.

“I mean, yeah? Kinda? Calling a girl nice is usually guy code for ‘I think you’re attractive and I could see myself sleeping with you’,” Changmin shrugs, tearing off a piece of Kevin’s donut. “But I also see where you’re coming from. You did just meet each other. He could’ve just been trying to console you in a way.”

“Why am I even friends with men when they’re useless?” You throw your head back, speaking to no one in particular.

Perhaps Kevin truly was overthinking the situation. Juyeon seemed to be a kind person who probably didn’t want any problems with his neighbors. It made sense why he’d side with you after witnessing your break up. Besides, the wounds were still too fresh to even consider thinking of anyone else in such a way. No matter how hot they may be…

You’d just have to wait and see for yourself. Only time could tell what would become of the nature of your relationship with your cute new neighbor.

You look insane with everything in your cart, filled to the brim with baking ingredients. It was around 10 PM and here you were, at the grocery store buying the things needed to make cinnamon rolls. Being a baker with a bit of a sweet tooth meant your cravings got a little out of hand at times, forcing you to make drastic decisions. (I.E. grocery shopping so late at night.)

Even your clothing choice was silly: flimsy pajama shorts with Care Bears patterned on them, a baggy t-shirt, and matching slippers. It’s not like anyone cared anyway. And it wasn’t like you were trying to impress anybody either.

But as you’re walking towards the registers, you start to regret your outfit. You very quickly spot your neighbor with a basket on his arm, waiting in line for self-checkout. You feel all the color drain from your face as you stand there, staring like an absolute idiot.

He’s dressed in a pair of grey sweatpants, a hoodie swallowing his figure. He looks so effortlessly good, it kind of makes you upset. Because how are you just now meeting a guy who’s both kind and attractive? As far as you were concerned, they didn’t exist in real life— they only existed in fairytales.

Juyeon looks up from his phone and catches your eye, his hand coming up to give you a little wave and one of those crinkly eye smiles that he does when you pass each other in the hall.

As the weeks have passed, you’ve seen him more and more than you deemed normal. You’d bump into each other on the way to or from picking up your mail, you’d hold the elevator for the other in record time, and you’d even leave your apartments at the same time. Now it appears you’re running into the guy at the supermarket, too. You tried to chalk it all up to coincidence, that you just both happened to be thinking on the same wavelength.

But shyly waving back to him right now reminds you that divine intervention had crazy ways of working its magic. Perhaps those had all just been openings for you to engage in something more with your cute neighbor. And there was only one way to find out.

You psych yourself up as you walk towards him, tucking a loose strand of hair behind your ear. Juyeon’s smile grows wider as he notices you approaching. “Hey, stranger. What are you up to tonight?”

“Some late baking,” you giggle, wanting to punch yourself in the face for sounding like a goddamn school girl. “I was actually wondering if you’d like to come over and keep me company? Totally up to you of course! I just thought it might be nice to get to know each other properly.”

Your suggestion is what leads the two of you to meet back up at your apartment after purchasing your respective groceries. You attempt to tidy up as best you can while you wait for the knock at your door, setting out all the ingredients on the counter and preheating your oven.

The soft knock comes moments later and you find yourself practically running to open the door, grinning at the sheepish expression on Juyeon’s face. You allow him inside of your apartment, trailing after him into the kitchen. Part of you felt like you were moving on too fast after Daehyun. As a baker, your kitchen was your safe space. It was where you went when you needed to be alone and in the comfort of what you knew best. Kevin and Changmin were the only ones you trusted to be within that element. For you to let Juyeon in— to let him permeate the walls you’ve never let down before, not even with your ex— was brand new territory.

“I almost forgot you own a bakery,” Juyeon speaks up, fingers tracing along the stand mixer. “But seeing all this expensive equipment reminded me of that. It only makes sense that someone as sweet as you would constantly be around sweet treats.”

You fail to bite back your smile. Maybe this was for the better. Maybe it was okay to let your guard down every once in a while, so long as it was always for your flirty neighbor. He laughs when you nudge his shoulder, grabbing all the dry ingredients for the dough.

“On a scale of one to ten, how patient are you?” You ask, avoiding his eyes as you open the flour. The question was in regards to several things.

“I’d say about an eight or nine. Patience is a virtue, you know. It comes easily if you practice hard enough.” He answers, leaning against the counter and watching you.

You let out a breath you didn’t even know you were holding in, searching for your measuring cups. Both you and Juyeon begin to measure out the dry ingredients, dumping them into the mixing bowl. You decide to let him take some of the reins, folding in the mixture of milk, egg, butter, and yeast. While he does that, you prepare the cinnamon sugar.

“I think I’m done. What do I do next?” He turns to you, head cocked to the side slightly. You might actually die of cuteness aggression. The duality of man would one day drive you to the brink of insanity.

“Now you just knead it until it’s smooth.” Your back is to him as you say this, putting away any refrigerated items so they don’t go bad. But as you face him again, you wish you hadn’t.

Your eyes zero in on his hands, kneading the dough with careful, nimble fingers. You feel light-headed as you slip into a spell, gawking at how long and slender they are, massaging the dough like an expert. How had you never noticed how big and pretty his hands were?

Maybe baking with Juyeon was a bad idea. You could barely focus on anything but his fingers pressing the under-construction-cinnamon rolls into the counter. Oh how badly you wanted to be that dough— his hands all over you, groping and massaging and kneading and caressing everywhere they could reach.

The veins running up his arms weren’t helping either, instead fueling the fire burning in the pit of your stomach. You feel your lips part, eyes glossed over with that all too familiar lustful intensity. You wouldn’t be surprised if you had to wipe away drool after this.

“Y/N?” Juyeon glances up from the dough, a little taken aback by your reverie. He follows your line of sight, grinning to himself smugly when he realizes what has you so transfixed. He’s finally found your weakness, and he couldn’t wait to dangle it over your head. Patience was a virtue, but perhaps it would be okay for him to dabble with a vice for once.

He pushes out the dough, using his thumbs to spread it into a rectangular shape. He feels his blood pressure rising the darker your eyes get. However, he’s aware that you just recently got out of a relationship. He wants to move at a pace you’re comfortable with. So he won’t take the first step. He has to leave that up to you.

It’s at a certain point that you come to, blinking to force away the dirty thoughts plaguing your mind. You travel your field of vision to his face, where you find him already looking at you. Your cheeks heat up in mortification from being caught red-handed. You were just gawking at the poor guy’s like they were a piece of fresh meat. This was terrible.

You swallow thickly, averting eye contact to grab the bowl of cinnamon sugar. “Uh, we can start forming the rolls now so they can rise. And then— um— and then we can make the glaze.”

The burn of his gaze on your profile has you tripping over your words, cinnamon sugar sprinkling onto the counter space surrounding and the knife almost slipping from your grip when you go to cut the dough. Juyeon catches it for you, wrapping his fingers around yours to guide your movements and keep them steady.

You feel his breath behind your ear, his chest pressed to your back. His hand is so much larger than your own, nearly covering it entirely. He doesn’t make an effort to move either, rolling the dough into swirl shapes along with you. The whole time this is happening, neither of you are saying a word, letting the silence consume you and the air around you.

As the rolls are rising/baking, you set up everything necessary for making the icing. Juyeon watches with hearts in his eyes as you whisk the sugar, cream cheese, vanilla, and butter in a separate bowl. He wonders how many other people you let see you in this setting. How many people get to see you do the thing you love so dearly?

“I’d like to visit your bakery sometime, if you wouldn’t mind,” Juyeon suddenly says, resting his elbows on the counter as you taste test the icing. “I wanna try all of the desserts you bake.”

“I’m opening later tomorrow morning actually,” you smile, humming in appreciation when the sweetness of the glaze hits your taste buds. “You can come with me to try the fresh batches before I put them out? I’ll warn you though, I get there at like six.”

“AM?” His eyes practically pop out of their sockets.

“Yes, AM.” You laugh, lightly shoving him backwards.

“I’ll put like ten alarms so I can make sure I’m up in time, then.” He pokes his cheek with his tongue, tipping his head to the side. The goofy smile on your face remains even after minutes have passed and the two of you are just waiting for the cinnamon rolls to finish baking.

It feels like hours have gone by with the two of you standing there when they’re finally ready. The ding of the oven has you springing into action, putting on some oven mitts and taking out the baking sheet. Juyeon's eyes light up and even though you’d just been losing your mind over how insane he was making you, you find yourself cooing at him.

He laughs as you grab a couple spare icing bags for the cinnamon roll glaze, filling them generously. You hand one over to him and decide to split the rolls evenly, icing one half yourself while he does the other. And for once, you think that tonight might end normally. You think that nothing eventful will happen and you’ll just ice the cinnamon rolls without problems.

But you were wrong, like always.

“Ah, shit—”

You glance up from the roll you were glazing to see what the fuss was about. Juyeon’s icing bag tore somehow, the sticky topping getting all over his hand. Truly, you were no better than a man, with the filthy thoughts inhabiting your brain almost instantaneously.

He brings his hand up to his mouth, licking the glaze off the back of his hand and wrapping his lips around his thumb. You felt dizzy, drunk on the sight of your extremely attractive neighbor doing something so sensual without even trying to. You bite your lip, accidentally dropping your own icing bag due to lack of attention.

Juyeon smirks slightly, relishing in the way it takes absolutely nothing to hypnotize you with his hands alone. He really tried to keep himself contained. He really wanted you to extend the first olive branch, but he knows you’re apprehensive. So just this once, he tells himself that it’s okay to initiate, to give you a little push in the right direction.

He takes a step closer to you, caging you against the counter. You stare up at him with wide, doe eyes, as if you were completely innocent despite the naughty images flashing behind them. Juyeon brings his thumb up to your lips, the pad of it still covered in icing.

“Think you could clean this up for me?” He asks, voice low and husky. You could actually combust with that all on its own.

Just like your formal introduction, you don’t give yourself the time to think, and act, instead, running your tongue along the length of his thumb. Juyeon doesn’t restrain the groan in the back of his throat, holding your face in his hands and pulling you in for a kiss.

You reciprocate immediately, fisting his hoodie like it was the only thing capable of stabilizing you. Maybe it was, with the way Juyeon’s lips synchronized with yours and his fingers tangled in your hair. You thought the ground would swallow you whole and wake you up from this dream. On what planet did someone like Lee Juyeon like a girl like you?

His hands slide down your body, groping everything in their path desperately before cupping under your thighs and lifting you onto the counter. He knocks the baking sheet of cinnamon rolls out of the way, palms rubbing up and down the sides of your legs. You want more, so much more, but you’re afraid to ask. You’re afraid to start something you’re not even sure you can emotionally handle.

Juyeon senses your hesitation, detaching from you momentarily. “We don’t have to do anything if you don’t want. I understand if you still need time.”

“N-No, I want this— I want you— I'm just… scared.” You breathe, your forehead using his shoulder for support.

“I'm not him, Y/N. I can give you the world if you’d let me. I’d never do what he did to you, that’s a promise.” He holds your chin between his thumb and forefinger, kissing the crown of your head.

“Okay,” you nod, smiling up at him. “I trust you, Juyeon.”

You reconnect your lips as his fingers slip beneath your pajama shorts, toying with the waistband of your panties. His lips curl up when he feels you squirm, legs parting to make more room for him in the middle of them. You sigh, body shuddering when he drags his knuckle down your clothed slit.

Juyeon hooks his fingers into your shorts and underwear, hauling them down your legs. You place your hands behind you to brace yourself, a shiver trailing your spine when the cool air of your apartment hits your warm core. He groans again at the sight of you bare for him, using two fingers to spread your lower lips.

“Fuck, you’re so pretty,” he swears, his thumb slowly circling your clit.

You whine, tossing your head back as he applies more pressure. Bit by bit, you begin to lose yourself to the pleasure of Juyeon’s gorgeous hands. Soon the stimulation on your clit amplifies when he adds another finger, thrusting it in and out of your entrance. He curls deep inside of you, like he was reaching for something he’d left.

One finger turns to two, and before you know it, Juyeon’s openly finger fucking you on the counter. He leans over your body to keep your lips together, kissing you sloppily while all his focus is on drawing you to the edge. You can almost taste it, your saccharine release in your field of vision now.

It’s a little embarrassing how quickly he was able to wind you up and trip you over the edge, but you feel too euphoric to care. You pause in your kiss to look down at his handy work. (No pun intended.) It makes your head feel foggy and your vision blurry to see his deft fingers fucking you open, veins bulging, like he’d done this many times before. Your hooded eyes follow them up his forearms, a whine escaping your lips.

A particular curl of his fingers and circle of his thumb have you clenching around him, creaming like you’d never had an orgasm in your life. He doesn’t slow his assault, bringing you down just to put you back up on that summit once again. The overstimulation has you cumming a second time in a matter of what felt like seconds, whimpers becoming voluminous moans.

Juyeon kisses you softly, gently pulling out his fingers to lick them clean like he did with the cinnamon roll glaze. A choked groan bubbles past your mouth, tossing an arm over your eyes. He laughs, towing you to the edge of the counter.

He brushes some stray hairs out of your face, moving your arm to smile dopily at you. “I hope you know I was being serious about the whole treating you better thing. If you’ll give me the chance.”

“I know. I told you I trust you, remember?” You nip at the inside of your cheek. His eyes crinkle up like they tend to do when he’s smiling so genuinely. It forces the wind out of you, because how could you ever get used to a sight so stunning?

“You’re so cute.” He laughs, kissing all around your face and smushing your cheeks together.

“Juyeon,” you mumble. “I’m half naked…”

“Even better,” he grins, pecking the tip of your nose. “Makes it that much easier to do all of the other things I wanna do to you.”

© juyeonszn. do not steal, claim, or repost.

[pumpkinbxtch]

Hi, I just saw that you said that Jason is a little possessive, so I was wondering can you do a request with Jason and reader in that scenario, where he is a little jealous and possessive boyfriend?

he wrote 'mine' on my upper thigh

— jason grace x fem!reader

warnings: jealousy, language, jealous jason

a/n: I live for this face of everyone, it makes me very irresistible, lol.

— Want to die? — Jason asked, his expression completely changed. As if his pale skin wasn't enough, the way his face turned into a deadly calmness gave them enough reason to doubt every decision they had made in the last two miserable years of their lives. When they felt a cold breeze run down their spine, confirmed they had definitely messed with the wrong guy. What Jason didn't know was that normal mortals didn't find it hard to play that game because, well, those threats were never as real as he was used to.

— It's just a woman, no big deal, buddy — maybe was the brown-haired guy said it in a disdainful tone, or maybe was the last word that made Jason's stomach churn, but he remembered he was still in public, so he tried not to incinerate them with a snap or at least not to keep gritting his teeth the way he was because he swore he was about to shatter them.

— Just a woman — he repeated the words, dragging each one with hatred and disgust. The guy with the red hair looked more nervous than his other friend, so he tried to make peace, but that was something Jason had already left behind as an alternative to that argument. He wouldn't forgive any disrespect to you, because you were his best friend, his girlfriend, the person he would die for without a second thought, and if they wanted to see him that way, then you weren't just a woman, you were his woman.

He glanced to make sure you weren't anywhere near the checkout and took a few steps toward the pair. The redhead was close to wetting his pants, but his friend still had that stubborn look, pretending to downplay the significant difference in height and muscle mass between them.

For a moment, Jason struggled with his morality, because it was stupid to fight with his clearly abnormal strength for something that was easy to ignore because they would never be able to lay a finger on you while he was alive. However, he couldn't help but notice the way their eyes had been roaming over your body or the way they looked at you while you smiled at him. It made his blood boil and awakened the most primitive part of his being causing his logical side to drown and disappear, almost like those days when he was with the wolves. Besides, if he thought about it, it wasn't just them, it was every damn man and woman who dared to smile at you in a way that suggested more than just kindness, especially if they were the ones making you laugh. That's when he always felt on the edge of losing control.

Jason could feel shame somewhere in his conscience for his behavior, but this was also too real to hide for a little longer. That moment alone with those idiots had only given him the golden opportunity to unleash those piled-up frustrations.

— Yeah, just a woman — it was stupid, the conversation didn't go beyond that, but the retort was enough for the air to smell metallic and their hair to stand on end warning of the electricity beginning to fill their surroundings. How bad would it be if two mortals were struck by lightning for earning the title of the biggest idiots of the month? The answer was obvious to Jason: very bad, useless, in fact. So he took a deep breath and watched their hair return to normal.

— She's mine — he said, starting to turn around to go help you, but he stopped when he heard the other mocking him.

— Who says? —Jason was fed up with the irreverence and turned back to them, his fingertips sparking again.

— Beat it —he said as he sent a small electric shock to both of them. Mild enough not to cause harm but enough to make them scream. His eyes literally sparkled, making them doubt what they were seeing, scaring them, and confirming that the Mist hadn't helped when he saw them run. He wondered if he had gone too far, if he had let himself be carried away too much by that part of him that didn't make him proud but that he knew was part of him. In the end, he decided he didn't care, remembering that someone had once told him he had to stop holding back. So, with that philosophy in mind, he decided to go look for you.

The picnic tables weren't as crowded as you expected, in fact, there was hardly anyone around you, and you wondered if it was because for a moment there was a hint of rain or because of the heavy aura that Jason had been carrying since you left the grocery store, and now that you thought about it, you considered that both reasons were possibly related.

— Jason Grace — you called him sweetly as you opened the picnic basket, and he immediately softened his frown and looked in your direction. He was struck by the gentle way the breeze swayed your hair, it was an almost imperceptible movement but it highlighted how beautiful you were. He knew why you were calling him by his full name, his behavior couldn't be more obvious, but those words echoed in his mind.

»Who says?«

He slid along the bench to get closer to you as he watched you set things on the table. He wrapped his hand around your waist, and although you smiled in that way that was like oxygen to him, it wasn't enough for him. So, taking you by the hips, he forced you to stand up.

— C'mon, let's eat, baby — you said giggling, and he sat you on that old wooden table while he returned to the bench.

He looked up at you with his blue eyes, and seeing you from that perspective that made you look majestic. he rejected the idea of letting anyone else be the person who hugged you or who was close enough to smell your sweet scent. The idea of someone else other than him being able to kiss your lips, which were so perfect and soft, drove him crazy, he couldn't handle it.

»Who says?«

With that thought, he started searching in your bag that was lying next to you, you never stopped him, but you wondered about that change in attitude because he seemed a little rougher and severe, his eyes were even a little darker, but you couldn't deny that he looked handsome, that you even liked it.

When Jason found what he wanted, he stood up supporting only his right knee on the bench as support and he enjoyed the way that velvet skirt rose, leaving your thighs in his view. Before leaning towards them, he searched your eyes for any kind of disapproval because for him, the most important thing was how you felt, and not finding anything like that, gave him enough confidence to continue.

He felt your muscles tense and tried to undo it by caressing your leg, but failing that, his lips kissed a bit above your knee, which made you swallow saliva, what the hell was he trying to do and why now? Jason was never too public, any major display of affection was always in a more intimate place. When he straightened up, in his hand you finally saw what he had taken from your bag: your eyeliner.

Dazed, you reached out to try to take it, but he quickly caught his hand with yours on the table and before you could do the same with the other, he placed the open eyeliner between his lips and trapped your other hand in the same way.

He raised his gaze above his glasses and slowly shook his head, sending a silent warning before leaning towards you again, exactly on your upper thigh. You felt the moisture of the pen on your skin and with a given precision, you started to see that he was writing, but it wasn't until he finished that you could barely read it. The air left your lungs when you deciphered it and you didn't understand how after doing that, he had sat back down with the same serene smile as always, his hands spreading the tablecloth for you to eat while he hummed a familiar song.

Had you missed something? It was definitely something new in him to behave openly in that way, but you didn't dislike it. After all, what it said there wasn't a lie.

— Do you have any objections? — His demanding question didn't match the sweet tone in which he had said it, and you got off the table to put both hands on his shoulders.

— No, sir — you confirmed with the same tone and kissed the line of his jaw before taking a seat beside him.

Jason continued to arrange things, he seemed peculiarly focused, so you took the opportunity to discreetly look down once more, but your skirt had covered the word. Slowly with your hand, you lifted the fabric until it was visible again:

"Mine"

You felt a warmth spread through your body and crossed your legs on purpose to make it visible. That action drew a smile on your boyfriend's face, and not long after, he kissed you. No, it wasn't a lie, but as you was his, he was yours.

[wings-of-ink]

Update!

Hey everyone, just wanted to check in with you. I hope you all doing well!

Right now, I am feeling good about getting chapter 3 out by 4/30. It's a crunch for sure, but barring any disasters in the work itself or my personal life, I feel like it is doable. My aim is to get it to a point where it is release-worthy but will still need fine tuning after the fact. I generally like to edit things a couple times at least and have it play-tested, but I won't have time for all that. But, this is a work in progress, and I can always make improvements as I go. There are also a couple segments that I did not have time to add, but they're not pivotal to the story. I will add them if I find the time before the 30th (sorry to those who wanted to make a tasty cake for someone).

So far, I have gone through chapters 1 and 2 again and made some corrections to typos and grammar. I added a white hair option with some flavor text, and some other flavor text for purple eyes. The option to have your MC's hair turn grey (streaked or fully grey) from stress/illness was added, but I did not do it in the way I needed to, so if I have time, I'm going to fix that before release. I also updated some of the variable values of certain choices. A name bank was added for anyone who might struggle to come up with a name for their MC. I made all but one of them correspond to the marks. There's a wild card in there for the adventurous, lol. The codex was also updated.

Today, I am editing chapter 3. My very gracious boss encouraged me to take the day off, and I'm feeling pretty good, so I'm using this as an opportunity to get some serious work done.

If you're curious and don't mind my rambling about my life, you can read about my ordeal below!

I am feeling much better. I had a couple rough days in the past week, but mostly brought on by medication my dentist wanted me to take to stave off possible infection in a broken tooth. I had a less-than-stellar reaction to it, and it gave me insomnia and anxiety. Simply fantastic.

But, I had the root canal yesterday (got lucky and they had a cancelation so I was able to go in 5 days early). I am happy to report it was not bad at all. In fact, it may have been the easiest dental procedure aside from cleanings that I've ever had, lol. I was in and out within half an hour, and the endodontist numbed the fuck out of my mouth. The biggest pain was the drive there and back since I live so far away.

I chilled the whole day and took a glorious 2 hour nap, and have been sore but totally good. I even watched one of my favorite comfort-animes, Natsume Yuujinchou. If you are ever feeling poorly and down in the dumps or just need to relax, it is cute, a bit funny, and lighthearted - so I highly recommend it. So, all in all, I feel recharged and more than ready to see chapter 3 with fresh eyes!

Thank you to everyone who sent me encouraging messaging about the root canal. It really truly helped me show up for that appointment without feeling completely vulnerable. I was still anxious, because that is just what my brain do - I can't even see my GP without my hands shaking, lol. But, going into it knowing what your experiences have been helped so much.

Anyway, sorry for prattling! I'm going to get back to it now! ^_^

[scoonsalicious]

Unwanted: Chapter 26, Unsurprising - Pt. 2

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Avenger!Fem!Reader

Summary: When your FWB relationship with your best friend Bucky Barnes turns into something more, you couldn’t be happier. That is, however, until a new Avenger sets her sights on your super soldier and he inadvertently breaks your heart. You take on a mission you might not be prepared for to put some distance between the two of you and open yourself up to past traumas. Too bad the only one who can help you heal is the one person you can no longer trust.

Warnings: (For this part only; see Story Masterlist for general Warnings) Language, mentions of sex trafficking, drug use, jealousy

Word Count: 890

Previously On...: You and Bucky had a good discussion about how to forgive.

A/N: "Brother?" Yeah, that's a whole different kind of fic... lol

NOTE! The tag list is a fickle bitch, so I'm not really going to be dealing with it anymore. If you want to be notified when new story parts drop, please follow @scoonsaliciousupdates

Banner By: The absolutely amazing @mrsbuckybarnes1917!

Thank you to all those who have been reading; if you like what you've read, likes, comments, and reblogs give me life, and I truly appreciate them, and you!

Taglist: (Sadly, tag list is closed; Tumblr will not let me add anyone new. If you want to be notified when I update, please Follow me for Notifications!) @jmeelee @cazellen @mrsbuckybarnes1917 @blackhawkfanatic @buckybarnessimpp @hayjat @capswife @itsteambarnes @marygoddessofmischief @sebastians-love @learisa @lethallyprotected @rabbitrabbit12321 @buckybarnesandmarvel @fanfictiongirl77 @calwitch @fantasyfootballchampion @selella @jackiehollanderr @wintercrows @sashaisready @missvelvetsstuff @angelbabyyy99 @keylimebeag @maybefoxysouls @vicmc624 @j23r23 @wintercrows @crist1216 @cjand10 @pattiemac1@les-sel @dottirose @winterslove1917 @harperkenobi @ivet4 @casey1-2007 @mrsevans90 @steeph-aniie @bean-bean2000 @beanbagbitch @peachiestevie @wintrsoldrluvr @shadowzena43

Tumblr will not let me directly tag the following: @marcswife21 @erelierraceala @jupiter-107 @doublejeon @hiqhkey @unaxv @brookeleclerc

The two of you fell into an easy rhythm after that. Working together came as naturally as breathing, and you almost wished you had had the opportunity to do it long before now, before everything had gone to shit between the two of you.

Though you were feeling better, Bucky insisted you call in for that night’s shift at the Wiggle Room. “You just experienced a major trauma,” he’d told you. “Give yourself a night to heal, please.” You really couldn’t argue with that, so you called the club, putting it on speaker.

“Viggle Room,” a heavily accented voice said on the other end of the line, “vhere every viggle haz a purpose, every giggle iz magic. Ziz is Dimitri speaking.”

You stifled a laugh at the clubs heretofore unknown tagline. “Uh, hey, Dimitri; it’s Cherry.”

“Ah, little dove!” the big man bellowed across the line, “you are to be coming in soon to see Dimitri tonight, yes?”

“Uh, yeah, about that.” You nibbled nervously on the skin of your thumb. “Listen, Dimitri, I’m not going to be able to make my shift. I, uh, had a bad reaction to some pills I took last night,” you offered, hoping he would buy your fib. “Ended up having to go to the hospital.”

“Little dove, no!” Dimitri sounded genuinely concerned. “And zat durak boyfriend of yourz haz left you alone. Does little dove need Dimitri to come take care of her?” 

Oh, fuck. You’d forgotten that you’d used the excuse that you and your ‘boyfriend,’ Sam, had broken up, and that’s why he wasn’t going to be around anymore. You’d have to make sure to tell him that Dimitri thought he was an idiot.

“Um, no, Dimitri,” you said quickly, “I’m alright. My, uh…” You paused, trying to think of some excuse to keep him from trying to come over to the safehouse. “My brother’s here with me,” you finished lamely.

“‘Brother’?” Bucky mouthed with a smirk and a quirk of his eyebrow. You gave him a panicked look and shrugged; it was the best you could come up with on the spot.

“But thank you so much for offering, Dimitri,” you added, wanting to keep Kozlov’s right hand man on your side in case you ended up needing more from him in the future. “It’s just so sweet of you to offer. Really.”

Dimitri chuckled on the other end of the phone. “Tell no one, but little dove iz Dimitri’s favorite of all Kozlov’s girls. Only little dove iz so kind as to take time to speak to Dimitri, ask about hiz day. Little dove haz good heart. Dimitri not forget zat.”

You were momentarily at a loss for words. Sure, the man had ties to a sex trafficking operation, but you didn’t know the extent to which he was actually involved, and he had always been kind to you. It made you a little sad to think about how you’d only been manipulating him this entire time.

“Thanks, Dimitri,” you said, needing to end the call before you said something stupid. “You’re my favorite of all Kozlov’s guys, too, you know.” That wasn’t even a lie. The bar was just really, really low. 

“Ah, little dove make Dimitiri blush!” he laughed. “Now, go get rest, Dimitri will tell Kozlov little dove is sick. Oh, and little dove?” he added. “Zis iz vhy you should not be taking all Kozlov’s drugz, yes? Iz not safe.”

You assured him you’d learned your lesson about illegal substances (that was the truth, at least) and, thanking him, disconnected the call. You looked up to see Bucky scrutinizing you, an unreadable expression on his face.

“What?” you asked, moving past him to place your phone on its charger in your room.

“Nothing, little dove,” he said, mouth turning up into a smirk. “Just hadn’t realized you were… fraternizin’ with the targets, is all.”

“Stop,” you warned, turning around to face him again. “It’s not like that.”

“Oh, it’s not?” Bucky asked, and this time you noticed a hard edge to his teasing. “Tell me, little dove,” he said, giving the words every bit of the same accented inflection Dimitiri had, yet somehow making them sound so much fucking hotter, “how was dear old Dimitiri planning on taking care of you, then? He one of your twenty-eight?” 

Holy shit, you thought with some sick satisfaction and sense of pride, was he actually… jealous? A part of you wanted to play into it, see how far you could push him, get him riled up, but the part of you that had had her insides scraped out last night honestly wasn’t in the mood.

“Don’t be gross,” you said instead. “He’s decent. Honestly, the only guy in that entire damned place who’s been remotely kind to me.”

“Decent?” Bucky asked, clearly not buying your assessment of the Russian henchman.

“Yeah, well, you know,” you defended, “as decent as a guy whose boss is on the Hydra payroll probably can be. He’s never been inappropriate, or creepy. Or even stared at me too long when I danced. Not once. And he’s been on my ass about the drugs.”

“Yeah, alright,” said Bucky with a chuckle. “This Dimitri’s a saint.”

“Not a saint,” you countered. “Just, you know, not evil.”

Bucky shrugged a shoulder and waved a hand. “Semantics.”

<- Previous Part / Next Part ->

[perenial]

gene im so glad you said this cause I haven't seen anyone else comparing it to the book as source material for like character and tone but i am So sure that if terry was alive the season would not be like this but i fear good omens fans dont realise how big a factor the lack of terry's influence is?? or like they forget that good omens was never just neilman???

ok before i go any further: i rly don't want to detract from anyone's enjoyment of the season and everything im going to say comes from a place of love for a) the original novel (& season 1 to a certain extent bc it got me back into it lol) and b) tv as a medium so like peace and love on planet let people enjoy things etc etc

but

like u said, terry's influence on the book was enormous – what makes gomens gomens is the balance of his genuine warmth and precise understanding of humanity tempered with neilman's sardonic voice and general like.....savvy approach to storytelling? i guess u could call it? anyway what rly helps the book is that it took them years to write it, passing ideas back and forth and rewriting each other's work until their voices blended seamlessly and a well structured capital-s Story was created. when i praise the book for being self-contained i think a huge part of that comes from the circumstances in which it emerged: two authors with complementary styles writing in a v particular time period where they had both the space to play with their ideas and the constraints of the novel as a storytelling format from which to craft something extremely specific.

adaptations are a tricky business and a tv version of gomens produced literal decades after the book was always going to have some unique challenges, but i don't think that's a bad thing bc the challenges could prove to be creative opportunities to take both the established audience and those new to the story by surprise. my biggest hot take here is that i don't think translating a story into a different medium means it has to follow the original narrative exactly, bc each medium has its own ways of communicating information and these structures, rules and traditions in turn inform what that story is. what matters more than following a story beat-by-beat is capturing what that story is about at its core, what themes and messages and ideas it works through and how.

all this is to say i never expected tv gomens to be a perfect reproduction of the book and if it had it been, it probably would have been worse off for it. that being said, there are parts of the book – like u said, its tone and character – that needed to have some fidelity in order to pull it off, and for the most part s1 did that bc it was still working predominantly within the bounds of the novel & its core ideas. while i did have some issues w how neilman & amazon adapted some details and characterisations, i generally rly liked s1 – it reminded me of why i loved the book and it was just generally fun to watch.

s2 was. not that fun to watch

a few positives before i go ham w the critiques:

the hair & makeup + costumes were fantastic (although i feel like s1 was slightly better re: makeup?)

the sound design & score made some of the more awkward scenes bearable and thats no mean feat imo

david & michael gave incredible performances w what they were given – michael especially managed to salvage aziraphale enough that his complete 180 didnt feel completely tonally dissonant (more on this later)

the detail of the sets is NUTS and i genuinely want to see more of hell bc of how intricate and fun the props look

i actually like gabriel/beelzebub!! their getting together montage worked for me, although they could have spent sliiiightly more time establishing what it is they like abt each other so much + why gabriel wanted to stop armageddon 2.0 so suddenly

the opening scene, although not on par w the novel's & s1's, was visually gorgeous and thematically resonant (although neilman owes me royalties for ripping it off from this shitty fic i wrote back when raphael!crowley was all the rage lol)

now w THAT being said:

like i said yesterday, the pacing was fucking awful. flashbacks are hard to work w at the best of times and the way they were used in this season felt so needless, especially the 40s one in ep 4 that takes up like 90% of the episode. in both flashbacks + present day there were scenes that dragged for no real reason, dialogue that looped back around on itself to stretch out the runtime, and weirdly enough places where there should have been character & plot work where there just,, wasn't any?? for example, maggie & nina's night locked in the café – some parts of the dialogue in later episodes made out that they'd had some rly deep conversation abt how they feel about each other or even that they'd had an affair, but that isn't clear from those scenes in the café. i'm not saying we had to see that conversation in its entirety but that there needed to be more connective details – either in dialogue or direction – that gave that part of the story coherence.

(there were pacing issues w the editing too but i don't want to jump down the editor's throats on this one bc im more focused on writing & direction issues)

the second major problem that i mentioned in my tags yesterday is the protagonist shift, which is an issue that started in s1. aziraphale & crowley are side characters in book gomens – significant ones, yeah, but still somewhat peripheral to adam (& anathema who counts as a deuteragonist imo). this works incredibly well w who they are as characters: they're Just Some Guys who happen to be involved in this epic biblical-level bureaucratic nightmare and importantly, they don't want to be in the spotlight. the arrangement was created so that they could explore what it meant to be themselves away from the Big Narrative; literally any time they get involved in larger affairs is bc the plot is alive and caught them unionising on company time. the last fucking chapter is adam (& god) being like haha u guys are alright keep it sleezy and letting them go. like. hello. neil u let them go.

but then!! tv gomens s1 does something interesting at the end w the body swapping addition that i dont totally hate – it gives aziraphale & crowley the extra bit of character work that brings them slightly more adjacent to their book selves. see i kinda view tv a/c as the younger, less settled versions of book a/c; they're still caught up in the immediacy of being key players and haven't fully realised that earth is their home. i haven't watched s1 in a while but one scene i remember rly clearly is crowley throwing all those astronomy texts in the air and angsting abt when he was an angel; i remember it bc his anguish in that scene feels a lot newer and rawer than book crowley's feelings about falling. when tv a/c do their bodyswap, it gives them the chance to land a blow against heaven/hell in a way that solidifies their allegiance to earth in a way that more closely resembles what book a/c have been abt the entire time (still adjacent, though. not parallel).

the reason why this works is that it does one final pivot to orient aziraphale and crowley as almost-main characters in a manner that makes sense in relation to a) their book selves and b) the position the tv show has placed them in. a combination of factors made tv a/c feel a lot less mature than their book counterparts but at the end of s1 they're sort of facing the same direction the book ended in, albeit through their own flashy late 2010s means.

when s2 was announced i was.......apprehensive bc to me, that felt like a satisfactory ending. i get the impression that amazon saw how wildly successful the adaptation was and was like oh shit we could make way more money out of this and neilman, having all those undead darlings that he and terry killed in the process of whittling the book into a workable novel, jumped at the chance to resurrect all those half-realised ideas. but not only were those ideas probably discarded for a reason, they've either been laying in wait for years unworked or they're new inventions, which means they weren't molded in the way that the book had been. like i said before, book gomens underwent years of rewrites and creative collaboration, and i think that process was what made it so good; s2 didn't have that. even if some of terry's ideas made it into s2, his influence is still missing bc he and neilman weren't in dialogue the same way they were in the book (and in some ways s1 bc i know terry was involved in the process of adapting gomens to screen before his death).

i don't think it's a case of newer fans forgetting terry so much as it is the context of terry's involvement being so removed from the current circumstances that certain aspects & discourses (i.e. is the s2 finale queerbaiting (no), does binge watching change the viewership experience (yes), etc etc) about the show overshadow other discussions that would usually be taking place. and before anyone says it's a case of neilman forgetting terry, i definitely don't think it's that either bc thats. yknow. wildly disrespectful. but also there are larger systems and structures at play than one writer no matter how much beef i have w him and his decisions, bc ultimately he's just one guy (a powerful and wealthy guy, but just a guy) and there's a wider cultural shift happening rn towards rehashing old stories without understanding what made them successful in the first place, and that same culture just doesn't allow for much, if any, constructive discourse analysis

so yeah

[jackharloww]

Maybe Gracie is in that phase where she follows Jack around everywhere, when he’s brushing his teeth, shaving his nose hairs, like everything. So one day he falls asleep on the couch and she hasn’t seen him so these things yet so she goes and gets tweezers and she pulls his nose hair out while he’s sleeping and he wakes up like in shock and she starts crying because she thinks he’s mad but he isn’t

I changed it a little bit, I hope that's fine!!!

Tweezers and ouchies

Grace has always been a daddy's girl, but this period she's been a little extra attached to him. She's been following him all around the house, never leaving him alone.

"Babe, Can you help me pick some hair in between my eyebrows?" Jack asked as he walked into the kitchen with the tweezers, Grace standing behind him.

"Sure, let me just finish cleaning up the kitchen" You smiled at him and put the dishes in the dishwasher. Nathaniel had just fallen asleep so you took the opportunity to clean up a bit.

"You need help?" Jack asked before giving you a kiss.

"No it's fine, go chill, I won't be long" you told him. And he and Grace went to the living room and sat down in front of the TV. You took longer time than you had planned and Jack accidentally fell asleep on the couch. Grace on the other hand was eyeing the tweezers and her dad's eyebrows. She had seen you do it multiple times and she was very curious to try for herself.

So she reached out for the tweezer on the table and scooted closer to Jack on the couch before she went in for it. She of course didn't think about being gentle, so while reaching for a hair she accidentally took a little bit too much and pinched Jack's skin before dragging away.

This resulted in Jack waking up in shock, "Ouch What the fuck" he yelled, not even thinking about the fact that Grace was sitting next to him. You ran into the living room to see what happened and saw Jack sitting with his hand on his face and Grace sitting next to him with the tweezer in her hand.

You noticed Grace's lower lip sticking out and not even 3 seconds later she busted out in loud tears, dropping the tweezer from her hand and walking over to you. You picked her up and she laid her head in the crook of your neck, sobbing into your arms.

Jack stood up and walked up to the both of you, putting his hand on Grace's back.

"Hey, talk to me, why are you crying, did me yelling scare you?" He asked her, you could tell that he felt bad about the situation.

Grace shook her head before looking up at him, "I gave you an ouchie" she mumbled before sobbing again, tears streaming down her chubby cheeks.

"Oh no, I promise I'm okay, I was just shocked" Jack held his arms out for her and she leaned into his arms as he picked her up. He walked back to the couch and sat her down on his lap, hugging her tightly.

"I'm not angry at you and I didn't mean to yell okay?" He assured her while she kept crying in his arms.

"okay," she nodded and wiped her hand under her nose, taking deep breaths and trying to calm down.

"How about we let Mommy handle the tweezers next time?" you gave her a gentle smile, receiving nods. She cuddled into Jack, hugging him tightly.

"come on, let's go play princess" Jack got up and they walked to her playroom, trying to make her feel better. You quickly finished the cleaning before joining their princess party.

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

This one has been in my draft for ages!!!! lol

Taglist: @harlowsbby , @harlowcomehome , @middlechild404 , @heavyhitterheaux , @itsyagirljaz , @neon-lights-and-glitter , @hoodharlow , @mortirolo , @nattinatalia

[cookiesupplier]

Hell Ain't So Bad - Part Two

pairing: Noah Sebastian x ofc (Ellie) 

warnings/tropes: slow burn, smut (eventually), angst, fluff, mentions of death, mentions of torture, thoughts of religious ideology, and swearing. – potential more to be added at stories progression

summary: Ellie is lost in the world, homeless and has been out of the world for so long in her mind she has no idea what to do and nowhere to go.. When the perfect opportunity falls into her lap, she doesn’t want to pass it up.. Turns out though, it might be a little bit stranger than she ever expected. Who would have thought that one day, she’d end up working in hell itself.. And what does this even mean?

author’s note: Unbetaed, readers beware.. if you want to chat with me about ideas for this story I'm open to it, my asks are always open as well. I threw you a bone, Noah is there.. but not with Ellie lol

ALL COMMENTS ARE WELCOME. (my replies are broken I will reply via reblog to yours)

tags: Tags are open if anyone is interested.

Ellie offered Steven a smile in thanks before she moved past the door into the small office that he’d pointed her towards. It wasn’t anything special, not that she’d expected it to be. Places like this either went one of two ways. They were either simple down to earth, got the job done, or tried to show their accolades for every person and success story they’d had, and every person they’d managed to save. 

She didn’t trust those people.

The office was empty though. Too Empty. It was Eerie.

Nicholas Ruffilo, he’d said. Okay.

Ellie glanced around, the office was pretty much the barest of bones, not even a photo to show anything other than a computer on his desk, a notepad and pen.. It gave the impression he’d walked in this morning, plonked it down this morning and said, this was good, let's work from here today, and yet.. Right there was a name plate.. But anyone could get one of those made, cheap. It was weird.

It made her nervous. How did she never notice this place before, right across from the clinic. Today had been so strange, so unnerving all around, and she couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right.

A feeling she’d had since she’d yesterday.

Just when she was thinking that maybe she should listen to that feeling, when she turned to go, a coughing fit hit her, and she almost doubled over. She almost collapsed to the floor before a pair of arms caught her decent and guided her to sit in the chair across from the barely used desk. While she was hunched over trying to breathe, he moved to the side of the room, doing something, she was too focused on attempting to get air into her lungs to pay any mind until he was coming back to her, and gently pressing a cup of hot tea into her hand.

“Here, sip this tea, it should help with that cough, it’s a special blend. Just don’t ask me what's in it, my mother swore me to secrecy.”

Ellie lifted the mug to her lips grateful for the kindness, sipping at the warm liquid, and letting the tiny, tiny sips soothe her throat. She knew better than to take more, especially at first. She could barely swallow with how sore her throat was with the coughing was right now, and, oh, that warning he gave her for not asking, fuck, whatever was in it, his mother was a miracle worker. All it took was a few sips, whether from the warmth, or the herbs of the tea mix, but the irritation calmed down and soothed her throat something blissfully.

It felt like she could actually take in a breath for a moment.

“Better?”

Lifting the mug back to her lips to take another life saving sip, that’s what it felt like, how it felt with each sip of the tea right then easing her throat just for a moment. Part of her considered how long she could draw out this cup, wondering if the effects would allow her to get a decent sleep tonight. She knew better though, she knew better than to wonder, because even if she walked out of this building with a new job, she would still be going back to the overpass. She would still be wearing these overworn threadbare clothes that didn’t keep her warm. She still wouldn’t be able to breathe properly tonight.

Ellie would still be back tomorrow morning to go to the clinic again, this time, hopefully, she’d get in.

“Yes, thank you.”

She smiled at the man as she took his appearance. Instead of moving around the desk to sit behind it with his notepad and computer, he pulled up the other random chair in the room and sat this side with her. His hair was long, dark, but it wasn’t down, he had it piled up on his head, in a sort of messy knot, gauges in his ears, and he was covered in tattoos.

Ellie couldn’t help but think of all the stories he might have to go along with them. She had a few herself, back from before she’d had to drop out of college.. When she could afford to rub a couple of pennies together. Then again, maybe he had no stories, maybe he was one of those guys that just wanted to look cool naked, nothing wrong with aesthetics, she loved seeing beautiful artwork. Ellie also just loved how it made her feel though, and that in itself was a story for her.

“Alright, so, before we get started, I’m going to need you to sign this waiver allowing me access to your records so we can find you the best placement possible.”

Reaching across his desk, he plucked up his notebook, and sure enough, underneath there was the waver, and he snagged the pen from his notebook that he held out from her,

“Just sign away at the bottom and we can get started.”

He said best placement, but really, she just needed any placement, she’d take any job, she needed a job to fill her belly, to get somewhere to live. Ellie was tired of merely existing, she wanted to live again.

Setting the waiver down so she could sign it without giving up her mug of tea, she handed the pen back with a sigh.

“Alright then.”

Standing from his chair, he moved back around the desk with the pen and waiver, and started to click away at his laptop,

“We actually have a prime entry level position opened up just this morning that might be perfect for you Ellis if-”

“Ellie.”

Nicholas looked up from the screen when her quiet voice interrupted him, and to her surprise, it was almost as soft as it used to be. It wasn’t the rough wheezing hack she’d felt like she’d had ever since the cough had started coming and abusing her throat back and forth.

“I prefer to be called Ellie.”

Nicholas just smiled softly, nodding lightly, and glanced back to his screen.

“Well, there is a particular position that seems to have come up that looks to be perfect for you, its entry level, a postal worker placement, making sure goods get from A to B. It will involve a bit of relocation on your part, but the company in question will provide you with travel and lodging entirely free of charge for the entirety of your employment with them.”

He listed off information for the job details as he clicked away at the computer. Her eyes went wide, oh, that sounded both like a gift and a horror. Going somewhere she had never been, but also they would just be giving her a place to live as long as she was working for them. Where was it though?

“Nice warm climate too, so it’ll help take care of that cough, I might even throw in some tea for you, we won’t tell my mom, Ruffilo secret.”

Winking to her, Ellie couldn’t help but smile.. Was this.. Was this just too good to be true? After everything feeling so strange all day, and everything just slotting into place, why did this feel so… odd?

“Now one caveat listed here, is that you must note that you will need to be capable of handling the packages with care.”

She was curious how he said that, with care, because how he said it sounded quite specific, but at the same time, she really didn’t want to ruin this chance, even if there was something screaming that this might be too good.. She needed this. Ellie needed this.

“Oh, thats not problem for me at all.”

Smiling, it really wasn’t.

“I ah, I used to volunteer as an ‘Angel’ at my local hospital in the children’s oncology wing. Unfortunately I started college, and..”

She sighed.. Her boyfriend and classes had taken up a lot of her time. She had a lot of regrets.

Swallowing, the smile Nicholas got though as he nodded, with a knowing look in his eye as if he heard it all before.. Sighing, she knew that look. He probably thought she was just trying to talk herself up, make herself sound good, because she used to volunteer to look after sick kids. Didn’t matter, she just regretted that she stopped.

“Alright, well then, in that case, I have a few more forms I need you to sign once I have printed them out for you.”

Nicholas watched Ellie walk out from his office with Steven with the promise of some more sandwiches, and a place to sleep tonight. They were not going to let her go back to the overpass where Steven had found her yesterday, and her transport wouldn’t arrive until the morning, he was sending word for it now. Clicking away at his computer, it wouldn’t take long, but even for them sometimes paperwork could be tedious.. Everyone had to dot their I’s and cross their T’s though. Got to make the world go around.

All the world.

Just as he was hitting send on the email to Folio letting him know the time to pick her up in the morning, his phone started to ring, and sure enough, a familiar name flashed across his screen, coupled with a familiar pair of dark eyes that flashed with fire when annoyed.

Swiping the green circle to accept the call,

“What do you want, asshole?”

The chuckle from the voice on the other end had Nicholas shaking his head with a knowing smile,

“Is that anyway to greet your best friend Nicholas Ruffilo, what will your mother say?”

“My mother knows you Noah Sebastian, as much as she’d clip me around the ear, but still ask me what her sweet darling angel did to annoy me this time. She knows.”

The answering laughter on the other end of the line as Nicholas rolled his eyes said it all. Still, he just continued to click away at the laptop on his desk, looking over at the information on Ellie’s file, this was so much easier now that they could download information rather than just use paper hardcopies all the time, it could be so tedious.

“You want me to say hello like a normal person asshole, don’t eat all my fucking food.. like always.”

You’d think he’d learn, you really did, but he didn’t, Nicholas always had left overs that just disappeared whenever Noah came over to his apartment to hangout, which was, always. The man practically lived there more than he did at his own place. Not that he was complaining.

“We have a new one by the way, this one might take some time though, she’s going to be an interesting transition. Not sure how she’ll take it.”

A rumble of a humm was all he got from his best friend on the other end of the line.. And Nicholas paused at his typing as he looked suspiciously at his phone sitting on the desk. His best friends goofy face looking up at him from the screen, back from when they were younger, still kids and Noah was nothing but a fucking giant string bean. The noises in the background of the call made his eyes narrow..

“Oh you fucker, you’re at my place right now aren't you?! Step away from the pizza right now you jackass!”

All he got in response was cackle in response before the call cut off.

Noah ‘Fucking’ Sebastian, the food thief, his days were numbered.

Dividers by @saradika-graphics

[arealphrooblem]

Terms of Surrender -- The End!

So I already had the ending written a long time ago and decided to finish it up since I left you guys on such a bad cliffhanger lol. Thank you for all the enthusiasm for this fic, I really did not think anyone would read it lol.

Summary: The queen of a doomed city makes the deal her husband refused to make with the conquering warlord outside her city's gates

Part one here

Part five here

The Queen leaned back against the molded, damp walls of the cell and tried to find the relief. She had always expected to be here and now she finally was. Away from sunlight, time passed and did not pass. Time did not exist. She could not say if she had sat there for a day or a week.

The cut on her neck stung each time she swallowed. The urge to pick at the scab felt overwhelming at times, and only the fear of infection in this filthy cell kept her from touching it.

Eventually someone would come to torture her for information on whatever scheme her husband’s friend had planned. She had no information to give and she wondered idly if they would kill her for her perceived stubbornness or if she would make up an elaborate lie in order to broker for any relief.

The fear of it glowed dully through the fog of her apathy, so faint she barely acknowledged it. In fact, she almost welcomed the opportunity to get it over with. She did not blame the Warlord for not believing her. As the last remaining heir to her family’s name, she was a beacon for anyone resisting his rule. Just as she thought her lush captivity too good to be true, he must have thought her surrender and cooperation too good to believe. How easy would it have been for her to merely bide her time and lure him into false security?

She had no way to explain herself that did not sound like a desperate, self-serving lie. That felt more unbearable than her impending execution: that she would die with the Warlord thinking she was nothing more than a manipulative snake, that their strange but beautiful connection was all in his head.

And yet she could do nothing about it. Except wait.

His guards collected her at dusk. She knew it was dusk because they took her out of the cell, out of the dungeon, and to her old rooms. A bath was run for her, two foreign maids (or perhaps not foreign anymore now that their two countries were joined) scrubbed her without mercy.

This felt crueler than actual torture. What was the game here? Did the Warlord want to lure her into false security before he ripped it from her again? Would she be shuttled from cell to room over and over again until she lost her sanity?

Once they bathed and dressed her in her old, simple linen gowns, the Queen was instructed to wait.

The Warlord joined her soon after. He looked at her with guarded suspicion, his eyes as impenetrable as the city walls. She looked away.

“My men have committed a full investigation,” he announced quietly, sitting across from her. “The guard you conspired with had not appeared in the castle before the day he left with you. You had received no communication, no visitors, and you had not left your rooms. If you conspired with this enemy, you were very sneaky about it.”

If. Not when. It gave her hope, and the hope terrified her more than anything else. She said nothing, afraid to ruin it.

“Of course, you know this palace better than any of my men. You are intelligent and quiet and cooperative enough to have earned their trust and mine. It’s not impossible for you to help plan a rebellion under my nose.”

“No, it is not impossible,” she admitted, daring another look at him. “But I did not do it.”

He looked at her for a long moment, with that unnervingly penetrating gaze. She struggled not to shy away from it.

“When you came to me that night for surrender, what was your worst fear?”

The question surprised her. She could not guess his angle, but answered honestly regardless. “That you would execute me on the spot and then murder my people in their homes come morning.”

“And yet you came anyway. You gave your city to me regardless. Why? If death was inevitable, why not fight until the bitter end? Or join your husband and avoid it all together?”

A small, desperate hope had driven her actions that night. A reckless hope that inspired an insane decision she would never have made under any other circumstances.

“When I first heard your terms for our surrender they sounded very generous to me,” she answered slowly. “They did not sound like the ideas of a man bent on our destruction. I had a hope that, despite what followed, you could still be that man.”

“A leap of faith,” he said softly. “You risked everything on the small hope that you could trust me.”

This time she tried to give him a penetrating look of her own. It felt like trying to find the bottom of a murky river. He was much more skilled at hiding his thoughts than she was with hers.

“Why are you asking me questions you already know the answers to?”

He took a measured pause before answering. “I am trying to remind myself of what I know you have done. Of what it took from you.”

“I do not regret it.”

“Even now?” His eyebrow quirked upwards.

“Even now.”

She meant those words deeply. The Warlord had done more for her city and her people in two months than her husband did in his entire reign. She did not fault him for his lack of trust in her because only a fool would blindly trust their former enemy and captive. But she had no idea how to make herself believable.

“No matter how short our acquaintance may be, you have given to me far more than you have taken,” she said. If he believed anything she said, please let it be this.

The wall of his gaze cracked just a little to reveal a hint of pain, of longing. “I don’t understand how you can say that.”

“You don’t know what my life was like before you,” she said simply.

Such a statement stunned him into silence. He looked at her as if she’s a battle ground he can’t figure out.

“Why did you bring me back here?” she asked, wondering if he would lie to her. “Is this some mind game you’re playing before you have me tortured?”

He looked at her in surprise. “How underhandedly cruel you must think me to come to that conclusion.”

He sounded almost offended.

“No other conclusion makes sense. You are convinced of my guilt, regardless of the truth. I should have been tortured for information by now, and slated for a morning hanging.”

“I should have done that,” he agreed, and something in her gut curdled at the sound of it. “If you were anyone else, I would have done that. But . . .you took a leap of faith for me. I feel I owe you the same.”

“A leap of faith?”

“I will take us back to our original arrangement — with extra precautions — as a show of trust. Just like the one you gave me when you surrendered. You will not return to your cell. You certainly will not be tortured. But know this: even a whiff of suspicion will be enough for me to gut you myself. I cannot have my reign threatened. Not even by you.”

The only thing that kept her knees from buckling in relief is the rigid disbelief that tightens her insides like a bow string. The risk of believing him could cost her much indeed, in both body and heart. And she was very tired.

“You don’t believe me,” he said with that knowing glint.

“It doesn’t sound very believable.”

He stepped towards her until he was close enough to take her hands in his. His long, rough fingers closed around her wrists.

“I’m still not completely convinced of your innocence. But your company is worth the risk of my trust. Whatever has happened . . I very much enjoy your presence.”

He squeezed her wrists, as if in reassurance, and she could not hide the wince of pain. And of course it did not escape his gaze.

“Did I hurt you?”

“No,” she said quickly — too quickly by the way his eyes narrowed. “It’s just . . .a bruise.”

“A bruise? You were not in chains.”

He held up her arm and pulled the sleeve down to reach the delicate skin of her wrist, still mottled purple and yellow.

The temperature in the room seemed to drop.

“How did you get this?” He asked softly, dangerously.

The Queen swallowed tightly. She feared how much this reminder would erode what little camaraderie they’d gained back. “A bruise,” she said. “ . . .from when they took me.”

His gaze roved up her arms to her collarbone, her face, scrutinizing every inch of her. It caught on the small, scabbed cut on her neck and all the breath in her lungs froze. On instinct she tried to cover it with her hand but he batted it away.

“What gave you this?”

“A knife.”

“A knife,” he repeated flatly. “Held at your throat.”

Anger fell over his features like a storm, crackled like lightning in his eyes. He looked more terrifying than she had ever seen him, even when he gutted his own guard. She braced herself for his sword or even his hands around her throat. Instead, he turned around and walked briskly to the window, hands in tight, shaking fists at his side.

The Queen’s heart and her hope disintegrated to ash in her chest. For the second time, tears fell in the Warlord’s presence. She could not stop them even if she wanted to.

Even a whiff of suspicion will be enough for me to gut you myself.

“Will you please just kill me,” she whispered, begging. “You will never trust me and I cannot live with  your fear hanging over my head like a sword, waiting for the moment it will finally fall. If any respect for me remains, you would —“

“Stop.” He did not need to shout for his voice to echo like thunder. She felt it in her chest.

The Queen clenched her jaw tightly closed, body trembling, crying as she had not done since she was a little girl. It humiliated her. She covered her face with her hands, biting her lip to muffle herself. How weak and pathetic he must think of her. How stupid she was to fall in love with someone who could only ever think of her as their enemy.

Suddenly his hands were upon hers, pulling them gently away from her face. She had not even heard his approach. The Queen did not dare look him in the eye.

“I am not angry at you,” he said softly.

He tipped her chin up and forced their eyes to meet. The anger in his gaze had melted into deep, derisive shame.

“I am angry at myself. You would not have those wounds unless you resisted your own capture. And if you gave them to yourself on purpose you would not have try to hide them from me.”

His thumb brushed over the pulse of her wrist, as delicate as a puff of air. “I have been a fool. I have treated you with cruelty and dishonor.” He snorted with derision. “I offered you my forgiveness, thinking myself so magnanimous, when I should be begging for yours on my knees. I would now, if I thought I was worthy of it. But what I have done to you is unforgivable.”

He released his gentle hold on her and stepped back. The raw emotion on his face slipped back behind a calm, diplomatic mask. “Where would you like to go? I will send you anywhere, and make sure you want for nothing, and you will never have to worry about the sword of my fear hanging over your head again.”

He could not have offered her a more undesirable outcome. She swallowed back tears, trying to compose herself.                                                                                               

“If I had a choice,” she said shakily, “then I would stay here. With you.”

He gave her a pained look. “You do not have to be afraid to leave. I know I have broken your trust, but I do promise with all the honor I have left that nothing would happen to you.”

“I’m not afraid to leave,” she told him. “I just don’t want to. This is my home. And . . .”

“And?” he prompted.

She hesitated at the thought of revealing her final secret. But the worst had already happened between them. What else did she have to lose?

“And I love you.”

The confession horrified him. He flinched.

“You are my prisoner,” he said. “Ten minutes ago you were begging me to kill you. I put you in a dungeon cell.”

“I have had a happier time as your prisoner than I ever did in my marriage,” she pointed out.

He winced. “I hate it when you say things like that. It makes me furious that I did not have the pleasure of murdering your husband with my bare hands.”

“My apologies,” she said without meaning it. “I harbor no expectations that you could return my feelings. I just . . .thought you should know —“

“Marry me.”

This threw her. “ . . . What?”

To her utter shock, the Warlord sank to his knees, looking up at her beseechingly.

“Marry me. . . .please.”

“Why?” she faltered. “Why would you want me? Wouldn’t you marry someone of your own court?”

“There is no one better suited than you and I would have no other. You are careful, intelligent, and kind. You know this city and its needs. You have helped me immensely thus far even in your limited capacity. And . . .I love you.”

Now this felt too good to believe. Never before had someone expressed love to her with such raw sincerity, such simplistic purity. She wanted so badly to believe it.

The Queen knelt in front of him, searching the beloved features of his face.

“Not an hour ago you thought I had conspired to overthrow you,” she said softly. “Now you want to marry me. I do not understand it.”

“You do not trust it,” he corrected, again seeing the heart of her.

“I want to.”

“An hour ago I was a fool and a coward,” he said, not shying away from her gaze despite the disgust in his own eyes. “I am unworthy of you, I fully admit it. But if you will stay with me, then you will be my equal. No more of this captivity. You have put your life in my hands and now I will gladly put my life in yours.”

He reached out and delicately traced the line of her jaw. “I am not a man who makes the same mistake twice,” he murmured. “But if you will not have me, the offer stands to care for you anywhere in the world.”

Though she understood it, his distrust of her cut her deeply. Part of her hesitated, afraid the rug of their relationship might be pulled out from under her yet again. But the Warlord had always kept his word, and she would rather have a life cut short with him than a long one without him.

“I will have you,” she said.

A smile of soft, pure joy bloomed across his face, the sight as stunning as the sunrise. He leaned forward, capturing her face in his hands, and pressed his forehead against hers. Breathing her air.

“We will make this world a place where we can be happy,” he promises.

And they did.

If anyone is curious, I was heavily inspired by Netflix's Rise of Empires: Ottoman season 1. I loved the actor who played Mehmed II and he was in my head as the warlord this whole time. It's a great series!

Taglist:

@cesspitoflove @aprilraine @talesofurbania1 @sarcasticlittlebook @hasel-anne @weaverofbrokenthreads @prismaticpizza @tantive404 @newfangled-artistry

[swiftllama]

August Compliments ☀️🔍

[Compliments Masterlist]

Hello everyone! So this is the continuation of the first Compliments Post I made and a round up of the compliments from August 2023.

So let’s jump in shall we!

August 2023

Starting off the month we got a double dose 4 days into the month. And it actually comes from Ian!

What Would Our Warning Labels Say? | Let’s Get Talking

Ian, Shayne, Courtney, and Angela all played a Q&A style game where Ian gave some answers relating to and complimenting Anthony :-

I should also say the time stamp title for this question in the video is ‘Who Are Our Fave People’ 🥹

Q: “Who do you admire the most?”

Originally Ian agreed with Courtney’s answer of Amanda but never expanded on why and gave a very Ian answer of “things like that [what Courtney said]”, before changing his answer :-

Ian: “I have a different answer actually - Anthony.”

Courtney: “Awwww!”

Courtney being the resident Ianthony fangirl once again and representing us all 😌

Ian: “I think because he was always - until towards the end of his time at Defy he wasn’t a hundred percent in it, but before that with the sketches and now that he’s back, whenever he’s doing something, he’s a hundred percent into it. He’s fully committed. He’s willing to do whatever it takes to make sure it’s the best it can be.”

I know we don’t get it as often from Ian, but these little tidbits that we do show that the appreciation for Anthony is there just as much as Anthony’s is there for him. Ian just expresses himself in different ways. He actually mentions similar thing when it comes to himself and showing outward excitement even when he is excited and Courtney chimes in with how she has seen him showing his excitement outward and how she’s seen it “especially lately” 🥲 I made a post with the clip at the time which you can find here.

Another little moment from the video that is compliment-adjacent I’d say since I think it says a lot about who someone chooses as their answer to the question :-

Q: “If you had to be handcuffed to a person for a week, who would it be and why?”

Ian: “I guess I would say Anthony, because I feel a lot of the video ideas that we came up with back in the day was just out of boredom of being around each other a lot and we’d just come up with a video idea. So I feel like being handcuffed to him for a week would give us an opportunity to come up with a lot of ideas for sketches.”

Okay, so again in typical Ian fashion we gotta read between the lines a little on this one 😅 Ian doesn’t like to get mushy as we know so his reasoning being “coming up with video ideas” doesn’t surprise me lol. But I think the first part of his answer gives a lot away - having someone you can be bored with says a lot. That’s a very specific level of comfort with another person. Not to let my swiftie side show on this post lol but there’s a lyric Taylor has from her song Peace that perfectly sums up what I mean by this

“Give you the silence that only comes when two people understand each other.”

That’s what I mean. Someone you can be bored with and it’s still a good time, there’s no awkwardness, you can sit in silence because it’s enough to just be existing in the same space that they are.

Moving on from the Games video.

Variety Article (aka Blue Dot Gate)

On the same day, Variety dropped an article with Ian and Anthony, and for some reason Ian had blue dot on his face in the photo that was used for it 🤷‍♀️ Ian was just as confused and so took to his Instagram Story :-

And Twitter :-

But Anthony was quick to show his support 🫡 :-

SLEEPWALKING DISASTER! Watch Party

So during the livestream someone in the chat says that Ian should change his profile picture in the Smosh Royalty discord server to the one of him with all his cross-country medals from his high school senior portraits. He’s got a really terrible haircut in it 🙈 He does find it funny but I’m not going to share it because I know part of him hates it and I feel bad, but it is out there so you should be able to find it if you’re curious.

Anyways, they’re joking around about it and Anthony’s (affectionately) taking the piss out of him for it.

Ian: [explaining the photo] “So I was posing with all my cross-country medals; Cause your boy is a freakin’ champion. No, not really.”

Anthony: [in cutesy voice] “Yeah you arrree.”

Ian don’t you know by now that Anthony will not allow you to downplay your accomplishments! 😤

Anthony: [finds and shows the photo to the camera] “Why did you take a photo with all your medals?”

Ian: “Cause I didn’t accomplish much else [in high school]...”

Anthony: “Awwwww no, yeah you did!”

IAN STOP BEING MEAN TO YOURSELF THATS SO SAD 😩

Glad Bestie Anthony is on hand 🥺

Assassin’s Creed 3 Song - Flashback w/ Smosh Ep 1

First episode of their new podcast brought forth a few little complimentary moments :-

Ian: “I look so adorable here [the screencap above].”

Anthony: “Yeah, you look so cute.”

Anthony: “Awww, Ian being a soft boi”

Plus the little hint of a smile on Anthony’s face seeing baby-face Ian ☺️

That Smosh Guy - Ian Hecox Interview | How Famous Is Jirard?

Another little compliment from Ian sprinkled in the month. Nothing major, just wanted to include it. He went on this podcast and talked about Defy and how what Smosh became ultimately led to Anthony leaving.

Ian: “So after the years of doing all this extra stuff that Anthony felt like wasn’t really core, I think it just really wore him out, and the thing with Anthony is that - if he has a project, he’ll put his whole heart into it.”

Just thought this was nice little one to include since we’ve had a lot of Anthony recognising Ian’s work ethic, so why not the other way round for a change? I think it’s also another example of why their dynamic works well, especially since Ian goes on to say that he’s not like that, and that if he’s not feeling a project he won’t put all his efforts into it. I feel that must balance them out well - that if Ian isn’t really feeling something but Anthony is he can encourage Ian to see the potential in it, and same goes for if Anthony’s putting too much pressure on himself to create something perfect when he doesn’t necessarily need to, Ian is able to pull him back and recognise that he doesn’t need to burn himself out.

Roasting Each Other’s Cringey Tweets (You Posted That)

They brought up the ‘baby more like daddy’ tweet that I included in the first compliments post. And what did I say about how the period of time when Anthony kept complimenting Ian on social media before their reunion stood out to me. Now we have confirmation that, as Erin dubbed it in have video, they were “soft launching” the fact they were talking/friends again.

Ian: [tweet shows on screen] “So I said ‘Baby’s first chain’. Ha ha [fiddles with necklace] now I’m a chain boi.”

Anthony: “Awww.”

Not really a compliment, just thought it was cute lol.

Anthony: “I remember this was my first time ever publicly supporting you.”

Ian: [smiles] “Noooo, that’s not true.”

Oh 🥺 I don’t know what to call this moment exactly? Almost like the shoe is on the other foot? Ian not allowing Anthony to paint himself in a bad light by saying this was the first time he ever showed support to Ian publicly. I agree with Ian that it definitely isn’t the first time over the years but obviously the ‘between years’ caused a big gap and the years before I think it’s clear from what Anthony said in the journal video about not praising Ian enough in the past that he feels bad about that and it’s why he’s so vocal now in supporting him - to make up for that.

Anthony: “It’s [the tweet] something like ‘daddy likey the blingy’.”

Not Anthony lying to try and save face 🤭 he knows exactly what he said! That man remembers the most random, minuet details about things - especially when it comes to Ian. He just doesn’t want to admit he has a thing for calling Ian ‘daddy’ 😏 it’s okay Anthony, you can embrace it, we get it.

EVIL AI TRIED TO KILL ME! Watch Party

Someone in chat congratulations Anthony for being nominated for a Streamy and the boys talk about how they’ve got suits for it and then proceed to go back and forth saying how ‘good’ and ‘hot’ they’re going to look - Which indeed they did 😍

Someone in chat then asks if their suits are matching.

Anthony: “Matching suits? No they’re not matching. But they do look really good together though. They vibe well together.

I don’t think that’s the suits Anthony, I mean they help, but that’s all Ian and you. They look good and they vibe well together 😌

Anways, that was just a fun little one!

Moving on…

Ian ‘Cupid Shuffle’ Hecox

Ian blessed us with this Instagram post of him busting a move and looking 🔥 at Kimmy’s wedding :-

And of course Anthony couldn’t help himself :-

Streamys 2023

We didn’t really get much from the Streamys (not even Anthony winning 😤) but there was one little moment that happened early on in the show where they mentioned OG YouTubers and a clip of Ian from Food Battle 2012 where it looks like he’s doing ‘questionable things’ to a doughnut plays on screen.

Now obviously I don’t know how Ian felt in that moment having that play, but I think anyone would feel a little under the spotlight, especially given the context of the clip and how for people who’ve never seen FB or Smosh it must have been fairly confusing lol.

But no worry, because Ian’s no1 fan was sitting right there next to him. From the audience, over the people laughing and a few claps, you just hear Anthony’s voice yell “YEAH!” with his hand raised in the air :-

Always there to be Ian’s cheerleader 🥹

Anthony Plays Smosh Hide and Seek

So this was just a silly little moment, that again is more compliment-adjacent but still thought it deserved a little shoutout to close out the month.

In the hide and seek video Anthony and Ian are down to the last remaining few people to try and find - one of those being Chanse. Earlier in the video Anthony had checked the clothing racks and not found anyone - Ian wanted to allow him to seek his own as it was his game, but since they were having to re-check where they’d already been Ian decided to help him out, and low and behold, he found Chanse 😆

Anthony couldn’t believe he’d missed him!

Anthony: “That was such a good spot, holy shit! And your feet being in this bucket - holy shit! I would have never found you. Ian, damn, you found him!”

Literally just thought this was cute of Anthony giving Ian the recognition of finding him and that he wouldn’t have been able to without him. That’s all. Have no more thoughts on this one lol.

And so August slipped away into a moment in time…

Hope you enjoyed reading and I shall see you next time!

[hugmekenobi]

S2: The Bad Batch (6)

Chapter Six: Tribe

Gif by @dreamswithghosts

Hunter x femaleJedi!reader

Series Summary: Some time has passed since everything that happened at Kamino and you and the Batch are trying to figure out your place in the rapidly changing Imperial galaxy. And you're having to do all this whilst figuring out where your relationship with Hunter fits into it.

Chapter Summary: A mission from Cid sees you and the Batch dealing with something much bigger than what you had originally been expecting.

Masterlist for S1

<Previous Chapter

Genre: Friends (idiots) to Lovers (we're in the lovers stage now)

Chapter Warnings: Canon-typical violence, mild angst, fluff, my own fear of spiders being projected

Word Count: 6.4K

Author's notes: When this episode first aired, I got very excited for what it meant to my writing for this season so hope you enjoy! Also, I have arranged a cry for help with regards to Ch7 lol cause I have too many ideas so any assistance would be appreciated! xx

You’d been back on the Cid assigned missions for a while now, each one never quite the same so as the ship pulled into the most recent mission location, you couldn’t help but wonder what this one would have in store.

The ship touched down and you all left the ship, coverings, and helmets on.

“Cid said the Vanguard Axis is notorious for illegal smuggling. So be ready for anything.” Hunter advised. “Wrecker, Tech, and I will make the delivery. Echo, (Y/N), and Omega. Guard the ship.” He directed.

The three of you waited as the others made their way through.

--

You and Omega were sat on the steps whilst Echo stayed standing next to you. All three of you were observing the droid activates around you.

“There’s something off about this place. I don’t like it.” Omega said uneasily.

“Yeah, me neither.” Echo concurred. “But we’re not staying for long. I’ll prep the ship.” He began to walk up the stairs.

You shuffled out the way and gave a distracted nod of agreement. There was a tingling in your spine you couldn’t quite shake. You clued into the Force around you and there was something almost… familiar in it. A presence you hadn’t felt since you’d been around your fellow Jedi. That alone was making you a bit jumpy. You didn’t know where that optimism or wishful thinking had come from.

Your head shot up, along with Omega’s at the sound of a howl and clattering in the distance. You both stood up. Omega looked to you.

You nodded your permission and together, you both set off to see what was making the noise.

--

As you moved the maze of shipping containers in the direction of the commotion, you found that whatever it was you were sensing earlier on grew stronger and you couldn’t understand why, and it was driving you up the wall. It was only when you felt Omega tug on your arm that you realised that you’d stopped moving. You shook your shoulders and the two of you hid by some of the crates and watched in horror as you saw an adolescent Wookiee being jabbed with electro-staffs by two of the droids.

“Stop! You’re hurting him!” Omega yelled as she ran over.

Since you couldn’t and wouldn’t want to stop her, you followed.

“Halt, humanoids.” The droid ordered. “Do not interfere with Vanguard Axis business.”

Any retort died on your lips as you stared at the Wookiee. What you were feeling was coming from him but that didn’t make any sense. It couldn’t make sense… You didn’t have the chance to think about it for long since the Wookiee took the opportunity of the droids being distracted to leap up and disarm one of the droids. He knocked it down and then swiftly stabbed the second one with the staff. But his shoulders slumped with exhaustion, and it was then you saw with the droid he’d originally forced to the ground make a move to grab him. You and Omega each fired a shot, and the droid was destroyed.

The Wookiee turned and stared at the two of you.

You didn’t have time to stick around as you heard the door behind you whirr open. “More are coming. Hurry!” You said and the three of darted back into the rows of cargo.

--

In all the sneaking around, the young Wookiee had separated from the two of you. You turned the corner but were greeted by one of the droids.

“Halt-” It didn’t get to finish the command due to the electro-staff that came down on its head.

You and Omega watched as the Wookiee jumped down from the droid and made his way past you.

“Not that way.” Omega hissed.

You both followed to find him urgently searching through one of the containers.

“What are you doing? You need to go before they find you.” You warned.

“Omega, (Y/N), let’s get back to the ship.” Echo said as he walked through the door.

The Wookiee snarled in the direction of the newcomer.

Echo took half a step back.

“It’s okay. He’s a friend.” Omega comforted. It had little effect; the Wookiee just turned and ran back the way you all had come from. “Wait!” Omega called, getting ready to go.

Echo put his mechanical arm in front of the young girl and turned to you.

His helmeted gaze just screamed ‘the two of you couldn’t stay out of trouble for two minutes?’. “Those droids are after him.” You explained. You omitted your personal conundrum for the moment.

“Come on!” Omega said before she ran after the Wookiee.

You titled your head and Echo who merely sighed before he started to run too.

--

The other three were nearly done securing the deal when the main droid’s comm beeped and the sound of blaster fire echoed through before the droid on the other end spoke.

“We have a situation.”

“Problem?” Hunter asked innocently as the message ended, knowing full well that whatever was happening had something to do with his remaining team.

The droid said nothing. He walked away and took the rest of the droids in the room to assess what the issue was.

“The cause of that blaster fire is from one of the other three. I’d say it’s most likely (Y/N) or Omega.” Tech hypothesised. Just as he said that their comms chirped, and it was Echo’s voice that came through.

“Hunter, we need backup now.”

--

The four of you took cover behind a box and looked at the group of Axis droids ahead of you.

“What sort of treachery is this?” The lead droid demanded as he saw his prize with the smuggling group.

“Stay back!” Omega ordered as she drew her bow.

You, Echo, and the Wookiee raised your blasters.

The lead droid wasn’t put off. He waved his droids forward, but any advance was cut off as a shot came in from the right and the leader of the group, he had been dealing with had disarmed one of his droids.

“They’re with us.” Hunter said coolly.

The lead droid turned to him. “I would advise you to take your soldiers and extricate yourselves from the situation.”

“No! They’re going to hurt him.” Omega said.

The droid faced the young girl. “Oh, on the contrary. The Wookiee is worth a great deal to our buyer. Alive.”

“You can’t smuggle living beings.” You said, voice filled with disgust.

“For the right price, I can do whatever I want. Now stand down or be destroyed.”

Your reply didn’t come. Instead, whatever you had been sensing around that Wookie grew tenfold and your blaster arm lowered slightly as you stared at him. You weren’t alone either. Both you and Omega were looking at him as he raised his hands towards the lead droid.

What you saw next filled you with what you could only describe as pure, unadulterated joy with a bit of shock on the side. You’d never thought you’d see that weapon again, let alone see a Jedi holding one.

The Wookiee let out a roar and stood tall and ignited the lightsaber the head droid had stolen from him. The green blade shone brightly.

All hell broke loose, shots were being fired in all directions, but you didn’t care. You could barely think straight. You were frozen in place. All you cared about was what was happening in front of you. You’d been so sure they were all dead. You watched as he deflected bolts of blaster fire with ease, albeit his form was slightly unrefined but that was to be expected. He’d probably barely scratched the surface of his training before Order 66 happened.

Hunter watched your reaction, or lack thereof. You had made no moves to take cover or even fire back. He understood why, whatever surprise he and the others would be feeling, you would be experiencing it far more intensely, but it was stressing him out.

He and Tech pushed a repulsorcraft over to Wrecker who picked it up and used it as cover before throwing it into the ranks of the droids. Hunter jumped over it and used his vibroblade to stab another droid. He quickly made his way over to you and pulled you out of the line of fire. “Focus, stay with me, alright? You get killed here, everything you want to know goes unanswered, not to mention I’ll be severely pissed off, okay?”

You nodded and made yourself concentrate on getting out of here alive. There would be time for everything else later. You and Hunter started to provide cover fire so Omega and the Wookiee could get clear.

“Get to the ship.” Hunter instructed Omega.

“Come on!” She shouted to the Wookiee over the blaster fire.

The Wookiee grunted before he followed the girl out.

You and Hunter went next and all of you managed to get back to the ship hangar, but you saw the Wookiee hesitate as the rest of you boarded the ship.

“Hurry!” You encouraged as much as you could despite the continuous onslaught of blaster fire.

The Wookiee considered his options for a moment. He was unsure about this, but anything was better that whatever fate those droids had planned for him and there was something about you that made him trust you on instinct. He boarded the ship.

Tech got the ship in the air and managed to get out of range. He put the ship into the safety of hyperspace.

--

The others kept their eyes on you as you paced up and down the cockpit, mumbling to yourself and occasionally glancing to the Wookiee huddled in a corner by the steps to the Omega’s room.

“Are you gonna talk to him?” Wrecker asked you, his voice as quiet as he could manage.

“I don’t know.” You replied, still pacing, and wringing your hand anxiously.

“Well, don’t you want to tell him that he’s not the sole survivor?” Tech said, not fully grasping why you were so nervous to talk to him.

Hunter caught the upper part of your arm as you turned to continue walking. He spoke softly as he addressed you. “What’s on your mind?”

You released a long breath. “I don’t know how to start.”

Hunter waited for you to go on.

You started pacing again and your hands gripped the roots of your hair. ‘Hey kid, guess what, you’re not the only Jedi to have survived Order 66. Oh no, I wasn’t personally attacked, I actually left the Jedi Order way before it happened. Oh, things turned out okay for me in the grand scheme of things. I forgot all the rules of attachment, got a new family, and fell in love. How’d you survive? How long have you been on your own and where were you being smuggled to?” You rambled, your voice growing more and more distressed. You paused for a brief moment before continuing, “He’s been through so much and I… I got lucky and right now… right now that feels so wrong.” You said quietly as you ceased your stride once more.

They all looked at you with sympathetic eyes.

Hunter rested a hand on your shoulder. “You getting away and finding a new path isn’t something to feel guilty about. What’s important is he’s here now but he’s scared could probably use some good news.”

Omega picked up the ration box. “He also needs to eat. Why don’t I go first, and you can follow and go from there?”

You took another deep breath and nodded.

Omega walked up to the young Wookiee and placed the box down along with a water cannister. “Here. You look hungry.”

You sat down next to her and smiled at him. You noticed that he seemed to look at you a second longer than he did Omega which would make sense given the circumstances.

The Wookiee roared aggressively as he saw the clones appear behind the two of you.

Hunter and the other recoiled.

“What’s wrong?” Omega asked.

“He doesn’t trust us.” Hunter replied.

“Well, seeing how all clones were given an order to execute the Jedi, he has good reason to be cautious.”

Hunter took a small step forward and raised his hand to signify he meant no threat. “I’m sorry about what happened. But we are not like the other clones. We did not follow that order.” He sat in the chair across from one of the control panels. “And we don’t work for the Empire either.”

“Hunter’s telling the truth.” You reassured the Wookiee. “I-” You coughed and started again. “I wouldn’t be here if they had anything to do with the Empire or that Order.” You noticed the slight head tilt the Wookiee gave you. You inhaled deeply and channelled the Force and lifted the water cannister and put it into his paw.

The Wookie released a series of excited roars and launched himself at you.

You fell back with a laugh and patted his head.

“See, you don’t have to be afraid of us.” Omega said as the Wookie sat back again. She nudged the food back in front of his. “It’s okay, eat.”

The Wookiee looked to you.

You nodded reassuringly.

He dived into the food and water.

“I’m Omega. What’s you name?” She asked as she hopped up onto a bunk.

You all looked to Tech as the Wookiee replied but clearly it was a day to be filled with surprises because it wasn’t Tech who answered.

“My Wookiee is a little rusty, but I think he says his name is Gungi.” Hunter revealed.

You angled to face him; eyes wide. “You speak Wookiee?? How did I not know this?”

Hunter merely shrugged. “Never really came up in conversation.”

Well, you being bilingual has just increased your attractiveness and I didn’t think that was possible.

Hunter grunted a quiet laugh before Gungi started to speak again but he couldn’t quite get all the words. “You catch that?” He asked Tech.

Tech, being the only one with his helmet still on so he could translate, replied, “He’s been on the run since Order 66, and was attempting to reach the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk before he was captured by those smuggling droids.”

“I’m not sure how you survived this long on your own, but it’s impressive.” Hunter admired.

Omega jumped back down. “If he’s trying to get to his homeworld, we can take him.”

“Been a while since we’ve been to Kashyyyk.” Wrecker said.

Hunter stood up and walked back to where Echo was standing in the hallway.

“The Empire could have outposts there by now.” Echo cautioned. “We don’t know if it’s safe for him there. If it’s safe for either of them.” He added as he looked towards you and Gungi.

Hunter sighed and laid a hand on his brother’s shoulder and looked back too. He saw you and Gungi playing a form of Force catch with Omega using the now empty water cannister. “They’re Jedi. They’re not safe anywhere.”

--

“Hunter, can you come back here please?” You called as Gungi had started to speak to you.

Hunter stood behind you and leaned against the wall.

“Okay, Gungi, can you repeat that please?” You requested.

Gungi did so and pushed the water cannister back into your hand.

“He wants to know your name and how you managed to escape the Order 66.” Hunter explained.

You told Gungi your name but saw his face frown. “Yeah, you probably wouldn’t have heard of me. I actually um left the Jedi Order a long time ago…. I left that life behind me a long time ago. I didn’t always get on with the members of the Order but what happened that day…” You placed your hand on Gungi’s paw. “No matter my feelings towards them, nobody deserved that. I’m- I’m so sorry.” It sounded like such a lame thing to say but you didn’t really know what else would make sense.

Gungi grumbled appreciatively and waited for you to carry on with your explanation.

You huffed out a quick breath. “Fast forward and I’ve met this group. That’s how I survived Order 66, I kept my previous life and identity pretty quiet. They only found out due to someone’s keen observations.” You added with a cheeky grin in Omega’s direction who smiled back at you and grabbed the water as it moved in the air towards her.

Gungi spoke again as he caught the cannister from Omega.

“He wants to know when you left.” Hunter translated.

“Umm…” You thought back. “Probably coming up on three years ago now. I don’t know how old you were or how much you knew her or the situation, but I left pretty soon after a Jedi called Ahsoka did.”

Gungi nodded his head and let out some happy roars.

“You knew her?” You asked with a smile as you received the water.

Gungi nodded again and grunted in your direction.

Hunter took a moment to make sure he understood everything before he told you what Gungi said, “He’s wondering if you know what’s happened to her since she left… if she also survived.”

You shook your head regretfully before you touched his arm as you saw his head hang. “But hey, you never know. I thought all the Jedi were gone and then you turned up.” That seemed to lift his spirits a little bit. He released another series of rumbles in your direction.

“I missed some of that, but I think he’s asking about how you ended up with us.” Hunter provided.

“I was on my own for a while when I came across them needing a bit of help. I was offered a place and didn’t look back.”

Gungi glanced between you and Hunter and mumbled some soft roars.

You didn’t need Hunter for this. You knew what he was asking. “Your instincts are pretty spot on. I didn’t gel with the Order and that part of things anyway.” You gave Hunter a warm smile which he returned.

“They’re very sweet. Sometimes too sweet the others think.” Omega whispered to Gungi.

“We heard that.” You and Hunter said in sync to the young girl who only laughed in response.

Gungi studied you for a minute as you looked back at Hunter. At the most, he could sense some fire, a sense of fierce protectiveness within you that was not solely limited to Hunter, it radiated through to the others, but your attachments for them all didn’t extend into channelling the darkside, nor any of the negative things he’s been taught if someone was to allow that attachment in their life. No, you seemed happy, content. Maybe things worked differently for you.

“We are coming up on Kashyyyk.” Tech called out.

The four of you made your way towards the cockpit.

Gungi walked over to the big clone and stared longingly at the ration bar in his hand.

Wrecker handed it to him.

You and Hunter took up opposite sides of the wall frame. Both your poses the same- arms crossed and keeping an eye on Gungi.

“We’re heading to a village we know of.” Hunter said before he walked over and laid a hand on Gungi’s back, so he was now facing him. “The Wookiees there should be able to help you.”

“I’ve locked into the coordinates.” Echo stated. “But I’m picking up heavy smoke and deforestation.”

“Keep an eye out for Imperial outposts.” Hunter said. “Oh, and kid. Keep that laser sword hidden. It, uh, draws attention we don’t want.”

Gungi put his lighsaber in his satchel.

You walked over to where Hunter was now standing in the cockpit. You bumped your hip against his. “Laser sword?”

“What was so wrong about that?” Hunter asked with a smile.

“No, nothing. It’s cute.” You teased. “We just call them lightsabers but I like laser sword. It has a fun ring to it.” You pushed your hood and mask up as the ship entered the atmosphere.

--

The ship touched down and you all walked out.

You took in the beautiful forest around you. You’d never had the opportunity of going to Kashyyyk but the descriptions you’d heard were not wrong. The forests were dense, filled with thick trunked trees which were covered in vibrant green leaves and the other plant life was also plentiful.

You all walked into the forest were rays of sunlight managed to peak through the gaps in the branches. The grass was lush beneath your feet. Things felt peaceful.

“Do you remember anything about this planet?” Omega asked Gungi. “What did he say?” Omega asked Hunter as Gungi replied.

“From his dreams.” Hunter answered.

Wildlife chittered around you all as you moved deeper into the forest and you weren’t thrilled with what greeted you. An unhappy groan left your throat.

“What is it?” Hunter queried.

You indicated ahead of you. Webs. You replied dully and you felt your skin start to crawl with the thought of what could be lurking above you.

“It’ll be fine.” Hunter comforted quietly.

“Here, I’ll take care of it.” Wrecker said as he grabbed his longer vibroblade and took the lead, cutting through the web to clear a path.

A shriek above you made you all stop, and you couldn’t help the way you jumped back. You had no control over it. Why of all the wildlife to encounter did it have to be spider-esque appearing ones. More descended from the trees and it was like a nightmare coming true for you.

“They’re swarming us.” Echo said agitatedly.

You were fully prepared to just stay frozen and let the creatures win but that wouldn’t be very productive. Your hand hovered over your blaster just in case.

Wrecker raised his but Gungi pushed it back down.

“Hold your fire.” Hunter commanded.

Gungi spoke to Hunter.

“He says, ‘They will not attack unless we pose a threat.” Tech translated.

 Gungi reached out into the Force around him and the creatures. He assured them that they meant no harm, that they were simply passing through.

The creatures ascended back towards the treetops.

Behind your mask, you huffed out a relieved sigh. “You got that down quicker than I ever did. I’m still practicing.” You praised Gungi. “Certainly explains the green blade.”

Gungi let out an appreciative rumble and pointed to his bag and then to you.

“Mine was blue.” You said.

Gungi nodded his understanding before he led the way.

--

“Arachnophobia?” Tech observed as the two of you walked behind Gungi and Hunter. Each touch of a web and animal chitter had you twitching.

“We don’t have to talk about it.” You mumbled.

“Experiencing fear is perfectly natural.” Tech provided as a means of comfort. “We all have something we worry more irrationally about than others.”

“And what’s your fear, Tech? Being wrong?” You kidded.

“In a way. Being wrong when it truly matters and someone getting hurt because of it.”

You hadn’t expected that. It wasn’t often you got a glimpse into the more vulnerable and emotional side of him. You glanced at him. “Thank you for sharing that.” You said, your voice gentle.

Tech simply nodded and the two of you kept walking.

--

You all emerged at the top of the hillside and stared at the vast space ahead.

“According to my telemetry, the village is straight ahead.” Tech pointed from his datapad.

The seven of you started the climb down.

--

Except the village wasn’t there. It had been destroyed. Smoke and dying embers surrounded the area. The trees had been cut and burned down. There was nothing left.

Hunter kneeled down and examined the ground. “Tanks came through here.” He let out a regretful sigh. “The Empire incinerated the entire village.”

Your heart ached for Gungi as you watched him fall to his knees. All this Empire knew how to do was take and destroy and it disgusted you.

Omega walked up to Gungi and crouched next to him. “The Empire destroyed our home too. Don’t worry. We’ll find your people.” She helped him back up.

The sound of machinery put you all on guard and you retreated into the forest and hunkered down behind the grass.

Tech brought out his macrobinoculars.

“What do you see?” Hunter asked him.

“Trandoshans. And they have a Wookiee hostage.”

“How did they get their hands on Imperial tanks?” You questioned. Your blood boiled as you saw the Trandoshans set fire to the surrounding area.

It was then Omega noticed Gungi was no longer next to her. “Hunter, Gungi.” She whispered urgently.

Hunter parted the tall grass and saw the young Wookiee making a beeline for the scene ahead. “Oh, no.”

Now, that’s a Padawan learner. You thought to yourself with a smile. You couldn’t really blame him for the slightly reckless act, but he wouldn’t be able to handle this on his own. You all ran to assist him.

--

Gungi ignited his lightsaber as he stared down the Trandoshan in front of him. He deflected the blaster fire with ease as he ran over to free his fellow Wookiee.

Echo, Wrecker and Tech provided cover fire whilst you, Omega and Hunter moved in to help Gungi take care of the tanks.

It was over rather quickly but you’d wished you’d gotten here sooner. There was no saving this area from the destruction the Trandoshans had caused but you could stop it from going any further. You and Omega both touched the upper part of Gungi’s arm to soothe him.

“We need to stop the flames from spreading. Start digging.” Hunter directed as he handed out the shovels the Trandoshans had been using.

--

It took a while, but the combined team effort meant you managed to stop the fire and prevent it from spreading. You all regrouped by one of the tanks only to get a brief moment of reprieve before the sounds of growling filled the forests. You all reached for your weapons.

“More Trandoshans?” Echo asked.

“No. Something bigger.” Hunter replied.

Your eyes widened as more Wookiees arrived from the treetops on the backs of large, cat-like creatures.

The Wookiees signalled for you all to climb on and once you all were secured, they took you into the trees to their safe haven.

--

You patted the side of the creature as you departed it and took in the scene in front of you. The Wookiee Gungi had rescued from the Trandoshan ran up to the older looking female Wookie who angled her forehead to press against his. After she did this, she turned her attention on you all.

“Her name is Yanna. She appears to be leading them.” Tech interpreted after she finished speaking.

“We are returning him to his homeworld.” Hunter explained. “But he doesn’t know what village he’s from.”

Gungi made his way through the group and awaited the answer from Yanna.

You watched as Yanna kneeled in front of him and brought him into the same familial touch that she had greeted the first Wookiee with. It seemed like Gungi was to be given a place amongst them.

Yanna studied you all for a moment before she addressed who she assumed was the leader.

“We were soldiers of the Republic.” Hunter answered before he took of his helmet. “But let’s just say we don’t see eye-to-eye with the Empire.”

Yanna continued to speak to him.

“We came because Gungi was in trouble. Jedi or not, he’s still a child. He needs his people.”

The sincerity of his words made you smile behind your mask. Whether he knew it or not, he had a paternal instinct within him that wasn’t just limited to Omega. He didn’t need to answer in that particular way, yet he did, and it warmed your heart. You threaded your fingers through his as Yanna beckoned you all to follow her into the hut.

--

You had to fight to keep back the laugh that threatened to spill from your lips as you watched the scene across the table. It was a tale of opposites. Wrecker eagerly awaited a taste of whatever it was the Wookiee was drinking whilst Echo was looking on in utter disgust.

The Wookiee noticed the two men in front of him were without food, so he offered some over.

“Uh, no, thanks.” Echo declined with a grimace.

“You don’t know what you’re missing.” Wrecker said happily as he decided against the spoon and just drank from the bowl.

Not even going to try some? You taunted.

Echo just wrinkled his nose and shook his head.

“Yanna’s agreed to let Gungi stay with them.” Omega said as she, Hunter and Gungi walked over to the table.

“What about the Trandoshans?” You asked.

Hunter came to sit next to you. “The Empire’s been using them to strip the planet’s resources. Many of the villagers have fled deeper into the jungle.”

“Yanna’s scouts are reporting a large convoy in this direction. She says to leave.” Tech stated as he came over with Yanna.

“Hunter, the Wookiees were our allies for years. We have to do something.” Echo implored.

“Yeah, they can’t be allowed to get away with this.” You concurred.

Gungi also released a determined roar of agreement.

Hunter faced Yanna. “We’ll stay and help you fight them.”

Yanna spoke softly.

“You don’t have to do this alone.” Hunter reassured her.

Yanna said something to her fellow Wookiees.

You all watched as they, along with Gungi, followed her outside. They all walked over to the base of the trunk of one of the trees and placed a hand on the roots and kneeled.

“What are they doing?” Omega asked.

“They’re asking the trees for help.” Hunter replied.

“They’re talking to the trees?” Omega said, a tad bewildered but also fascinated, as she looked at them.

“They believe this planet belongs to the trees. And they are allies in this fight.” Tech further explained.

“We’ll take all the allies we can get.” You murmured.

--

Dawn came and it had been Wrecker and Echo’s turn to take up position at the hut and keep an eye out for any Trandoshan or Imperial activity.

Echo peered through his binoculars, and it was then he saw fresh fire and smoke. “Wrecker, found em.” Together, they dashed over to the main doorway where the rest of you were. “The Trandoshan convoy’s closing in.”

Whilst Hunter had remained standing behind Omega, you had been sat next to Tech, his datapad keeping you both occupied but you stopped and stood up when Echo and Wrecker approached.

The other Wookiees had finished their ritual and Gungi ran up to Hunter to fill him in.

“The trees have a plan?” He repeated, flummoxed as this was not a military strategy he was aware of, but he was willing to run with it. “Alright.” He put his helmet on. “Whatever they say.”

You came up beside him, hood already up. See, you’re becoming more open-minded every day.

“Somehow this is less taxing.” He muttered to you.

You grinned at him before you pushed your mask up. “Fill us in on the plan, Gungi.”

--

You were hidden from view and patiently waited for the oncoming Imperial tanks and soldiers and Trandoshans to get in range.

“The tracks have broken off. There’s no trace of them.” The clone commed through to the lead Trandoshan.

“They can’t run far.” The Trandoshan hissed in reply. As soon as he said that, sounded ahead and a tank suddenly exploded.

“Ambush!” The clone sounded the alarm.

You all fired shots towards them, the natural cover the jungle provided made it difficult for your foe to return fire accurately.

After the initial disruption your group caused, it was time for the second phase. A squad of Wookiees came down on backs of their cat companions and met the tanks and soldiers head on. When they had successfully drawn the forces closer, they retreated into the forest to lure the Empire towards them, and it was time for phase three.

“Stick to the plan. Draw them into the nest.” Hunter directed.

You all fell back for your least favourite part of this plan as you retreated a bit further back into the webbed part of the woodland. You just had to keep reminding yourself that they were going to be useful and there wasn’t a need to feel terrified of them. The fact that you were never one to shy away from a fight and could face death practically every day, but any eight-legged or similar looking things sent your heart pounding a mile a minute completely baffled you.

You and the others held your ground once more and continued the barrage of fire whilst Wrecker and another Wookiee ensured the tanks that followed were out of commission.

Gungi decided to speed things along and help out. He activated his lightsaber and cut the gun from one of the tanks before he focused his attention on the last tank with the lead Trandoshan in it. He leapt towards him and swiftly dodged the burning hot flame that appeared from the flamethrower the lizard was now holding. He jumped down from the tank and ran back into the jungle, sensing that the leader’s greed would make him follow without thinking things through.

Omega saw Gungi run in a direction away from the rest of you and decided to follow.

--

Meanwhile, the rest of you had started to hit against the bottom of the trees, hoping the resulting vibrations would draw the animals above out and down towards your enemies. The growing eery chittering and howling indicated that the plan was going to work.

You watched on with both glee and mild nausea at the scene unfolding. It was a nightmare coming true, but the plan had gone exactly how the Wookiees predicted it would go. The creatures unleashed themselves upon the Imperials, cutting them down and forcing them to withdraw.

“Guess the trees knew what they were doing.” Wrecker stated in a satisfied manner.

It was then Hunter realised two members of the group were missing and he had to keep his panic at bay. “Where did the kids go?”

You and Echo fell in line behind Hunter as he started to track their recent steps.

--

Hunter paused and examined the ground below. It was then he heard a rustling up ahead and he lifted his head to the sounds of footsteps approaching but felt nothing but relief as he saw Omega and Gungi appear.

You also breathed out in relief but that was short-lived due to the news that Omega brought.

“The fire! It’s spreading too fast!” She panted as she and Gungi sprinted to the group.

“Tech, gather all the Wookiees.” Hunter said through the comm channel.

You holstered your blaster and walked up to the two children. “You two okay?”

Omega nodded.

Gungi let out an agreeing grunt.

“Gungi took care of the head Trandoshan.” Omega said as she got her breath back.

You faced the young Wookiee. “Nice job.”

Gungi chuffed out a pleased growl.

It was a few minutes before Tech arrived with the shovels and the other Wookiees and you all got to work.

--

With the fire safely handled, you all went back to the treetop village.

Wrecker enjoyed the food once more and had even delved into learning the language. He tried out some of it on his Wookiee friend before he took another mouthful of food. He wiped his mouth. “You know, I could get used to this.” He said with a chuckle.

Echo decided to be brave. He dipped his bowl into the soup in front of him and took a sip. A sip that left him pleasantly surprised. “Hmm. Not bad.” He clinked bowls with the Wookiee next to him.

Yanna looked on warmly before she noticed you and the lead clone standing in the doorway. She’d felt the bond between the two of you since you’d arrived and the secure and comforting arm he’d put around your waist and the way your head laid tenderly on his shoulder served to prove she’d been right.

Tech put on his helmet and followed her out.

You and Hunter watched on as Gungi and Omega kneeled by the tree. The young girl mirroring what the Wookiees had done earlier. They looked completely at ease.

Yanna let out a gentle roar as she approached your side.

You lifted your head from Hunter’s armoured shoulder and greeted the Wookiee with a respectful tilt of your head.

“They’re both just kids. But they don’t get to be.” Hunter told her. He let out a rueful sigh. “Not in this galaxy.”

You could see the flash of regret on his face. You reached down and squeezed his hand.

Yanna started to speak.

Tech translated as she went. “When a young one leaves, the trees weep. But when they return, the trees sing. As this child has found his new home, perhaps, one day, we all will find a new path.”

Her words were beautiful, and they left you feeling more hopeful than you had in a long time.

“Hopefully…” Hunter said with a sigh… “one far away from war.” The thought itself felt so inconceivable but he wished for it, nonetheless.

--

“How are you feeling after all this?” Hunter whispered as the others slept as the ship flew through hyperspace. His fingers slowly playing with your hair.

You kept your eyes closed. “Optimistic. There may be others out there who got away.”

Hunter maintained his ministrations but paused for a second before he asked you this next question. He wasn’t sure how sensitive a topic this would be but being around Gungi and Kashyyyk had him thinking about it and it was something you hadn’t talked about before. “Do you remember much about your home?”

“Nope.” You replied, brief and to the point.

Hunter wasn’t quite satisfied with that. His lips placed delicate kisses to the back of your neck, imploring you do give him more than that.

You let out a deep and content sigh as you turned on your other side to face him. “I don’t even have dreams to remember it by. I just have flashes of what I picture it was like, but I know they’re not based on anything other than my imagination, I felt nothing when I thought of it. Eventually, I just stopped.”

Hunter’s brow furrowed slightly.

You saw the concern growing behind his eyes, so you cupped the side of his face. “I have my home right here. I don’t need to think or wonder about another one.” You kissed him tenderly before you turned back around and let him pull you close to his chest.

Next Chapter>

Tagging: @noeasyisnoisy, @fuckoffthanos, @tpwkcalli, @arctrooper69, @graciexmarvel, @flyingkangaroo, @nightmonkeysstuff, @brujaporfavor, @sunkissedclones, @ladytano420, @keep-calm-and-drink-caf, @yyourmotherr, @xxeiraxx

[im-in-love-with-99-demons-again]

HELLO!! hi uh can I request something? I see you have it open so..... Could do some Genshin impact x reader, how they would react if s/o prank them by saying she was pregnant?? Of Scaramouche, Childe, Venti, Xiao, Aether Diluc, Albedo, .....plz

you also don't have to do all of them! But i would really want Scaramouche if possible?

hope you have a wonderful day/night <3

Hello!! YES!! of course, i'll do them all don't worry! like said, i'll literally write anything..... Okay so....uhh...yea some may be longer then others.

I see that you have DMed me that you wanted some drama on some....i'll try and if you don't like it tell me so that i can make it better!! it will not hurt my feelings.

T/w: Cursing, some sexual themed stuff...not too bad actually.

Scaramouche

Okay....so first off is how the hell did you even get in a relationship with this narcissistic ass-

you planned this prank with Childe cuz you both epic 😎 sorry I meant only you are epic. You slowly walked over to Scaramouche as he was getting ready to leave (cuz he had some important stuff to take care of🫠) "Scara!"

You called out to your partner as he only gave a side glare before responding with an irritated tone "What now?" you smiled and looked down trying not to laugh as you pretended to be shy.....wait you actually were but still you continued. "i....I'm....uhh.....remember two weeks ago we had.......uhh-" He interrupted you with a eyebrow raised

"Sex? yeah, I remember. Now hurry up, what about it?I have to go soon." 'OMG He's blunt!!' you thought to yourself, meanwhile Childe in the background being ignored. "Y-Yeah..."

"Yeah?" he repeated but he looked away this time because he was losing interest in the conversation. "I'm pregnant...and your the father"....silence was in the air, he even stooped moving well until he turned his head to the side to look you in the eye.

"Well no shit i'll be the father unless you're cheating on me? but I highly doubt that...because if you did you'll only have a chance with Childe..bwahaha your kid would be dumber then a rock let alone-" You cut him off before he went on a complete different subject.

"So i'm keeping it" his glare got even more angrier not only did you interrupt him....but you are now pregnant and he doesn't want it "Then you can leave, I don't want anything to do with that baby of yours, goodbye-"

With that he started to walk away, surprised but not really because you kinda expected him to respond like that. "It's a prank you dumbass!!"

"Well then you can stay." He said not looking back but a tiny part of him kinda did want you to be pregnant....seeing you all plumped up with the baby he put in you knowing he did a damn good job at it too, just made him a little 😏 he may have a breeding kink and also a get the fuck out and don't pay child support kink too 😭

----------- next----------------------------------------------------------<3-

Childe

He was out in about saving the traveler from Zhongli spending all their mora but as he was once again done with him randomly appearing and disappearing from the traveler he sat near the edge of a rock looking down at Liyue, you slowly came behind him and took a seat next to him. He glanced over before looking back down at Liyue. "Um..I have something to tell you" you stared, he gave a hmm sound as a response which you took the opportunity to go on with your prank. "I'm...I'm pregnant..." he froze as if he had seen a ghost, slowly he turned his head to you "You're telling the truth right?" You smiled and responded with a yes wanting to see what he'll say.

He lips curved into a big smile before he got up and pulled you with him, spinning you in the air not to harsh tho (gently) before softly placing you down and giving a BIG hug (then a small kiss, lol) "I'm so happy to hear that!! I wonder what we are gonna name them??!! Is it a girl?? a boy?? Will they look like me?? or you?? Oh I hope if they are a girl they look like you!! and if they are a bo-" You had to stop him from continuing (cuz it was too far now lol) and blurted the first words that came out of your mouth "It's not yours....." he stopped almost immediately.

You just then realized what you have said and tried to talk before he so rudely left you 🤓 later that day you found him trying to pick a fight with Scaramouche saying why he got u pregnant, Scaramouche was super annoyed and didn't really give a flying damn what he was saying but remember kids...he's an ass so he played along

"So what? you got so worked up for a girl who wasn't even faithful to you and now you're mad at me all cuz s/o liked me better...you had all the chances to make that child yours or is my seed better then yours too?" LMAO anywho Childe, he saw you and glared as he left once again. Scaramouche glared at you and also left (uhh yeah he likes you now....but you got a traumatized Childe 🩷) You ended up finding Childe sitting in a dark ally (LOL) "Get over it! It was a damn prank!!"

"How can I know that for sure" You looked at him and sighed. "You can wait 9 mouth and see that no baby and no baby bump?" He looked at you and said "nah...I'm gonna prove my seed is better!!" You backed away as he started to get up and run to you (YUP have fun!!)

...........----------.............------------.........----0-0.......(0_0)/ ----------------

Albedo

He was up at dragonspine doing some weird shit you were just sitting there watching him and also planning something....yes planning something but not alone!

Klee was there right next to you! (LOL) anywho you got the courage to go up and do it with Klee as your support. "We have important news!" Klee says before you take over seeing as Albedo looked at both of you before looking back at his projects "Well it's good news for us all.....i'm pregnant!"

you said with a big smile and Klee was jumping saying she was so happy that she was gonna be a big sister (Cute) he stooped his movement exactly what you wanted but what happened next you did not expect.

"Oh so you do know? huh strange...I was able to find out easily but still...how? I was sure I couldn't impregnate you but I did...(he looked your way and smiled) I'm extremely happy" Shock....that was all.....you...were actually...pregnant?!

on cue both you and Klee screamed "WHAT!?" he laughed.

"What did you think I was working on? I did take some blood samples and stuff because I was shock that you were pregnant, at first I thought you may have cheated on me but I know you wouldn't....i'll run more tests once the baby is born"

Still in shock you nodded but you were somewhat happy to hear that...finally your guys family will have another member! He ended up asking you a lot of questions but not too much so you don't stress out, but once the baby was born (It was a boy 🫶lol)

you named him (son's name) he had Albedo's eyes and your hair and a fair mix between yours and his skin, the baby had his nose and your lips (CUTE) Albedo ran one more test but on the baby, you and him and there it was....his DNA was flowing in (son's name) Some tears fell down his face(Happy btw) he was so happy yet surprised but he still doesn't know how it happened....maybe you guys are just destined to be (FR)

(does he have DNA...yes..)

-------------------------------------(U_U)/-------------------------------<3

Aether

Aether just came back from one of his missions and he planned to cook something for Paimon and you (and of course himself) You and Paimon where sitting together under a tree and talking as Aether was cooking and a thought popped in your head as you gasped (So did Paimon)

"Did you just think what I thought?" you said looking at Paimon she smiled and responded "To prank Aether!-" She yelled you covered her mouth as Aether turned around seeing as he heard his name be called out "Yeah?" "Oh nothing, go on keep cooking! it smells delicious😅"

he smiled awkwardly and went back to cooking. You turned back to Paimon, "Keep it down or i'll turn you into emergency food right now!!" You whisper yelled as you remove your hand from her mouth. "You're so mean🤧" she pouted, You laughed a little as you continued. "Okay, I was thinking on pranking him by saying I'm pregnant? what do you think about it?" she didn't look satisfied with that.

"Hmm it doesn't sound like a good prank...it sounds lame" She said crossing her arms, but you knew she'd react like this so you smirked and said. "Well look at it this way, If he believes me we would get more delicious food, and you like food right?? so..." she looked up to think then looked back at you. "Okay but I wanna chose the food!" "Okay"

You said as you laughed. Getting up from the floor you headed to your boyfriend and tapped his shoulder, he looked at you with a confused face.

"Yes?"

"I have something to tell you" You said as you tried to look more serious, he saw that and stood up straight as he faced you completely seeing as you had something important to say "..I'm...pregnant...and you're the father.." Shock took over, he was frozen with his mouth a gap and staring at you as if you had just vanished. "Aether?....You there-?"

"You're pregnant??!!" he randomly shouted still pretty shocked, you wanting to continue this so you responded. "Yes" He closes his eyes for a bit as he put his head down a bit and put his hand on his chin in a thinking position.

"......"-Aether,

"......."-you.

Aether took his sweet time thinking about something when out of nowhere he says

"Then who's the father?" You were token aback but answered nonetheless. "You, who else would be the father?...I already told you" He looked at you straight in the eyes.

"But we hadn't had...intercourse for a while now....and I mean like a couple of mouths.....you couldn't have just found out now without it already being visible....and you don't look pregnant....yet" Shit you should have thought this threw!!!!!

"I...uh.....umm...we did...you were just....drunk! yeah you were drunk" "Hmmm I don't recall being drunk or even having any...?.....are...you..cheating on me?" Welp guess you had to tell him now.....or he would think you were unfaithful to him🤦 should have thought this plan threw.

"Okay looks like you caught me, this was suppose to be a joke that I trick you that i'm pregnant but I didn't think it threw. Plus I would never cheat!" He laughs awkwardly "Well uhh that good to hear that you didn't cheat.....but I think it would be nice to have a mini us😁...Would you like to tr-"

"Oh no look!!! the FOOD!!!" Paimon says as the pot of food overflows and burns into the fire below. "Noooo My food!!!😭" You cried out with Paimon as Aether tried to fix it, a little part of him might wanna spend more time with you in a different way 😏 so that next time you tell him it won't have to be a prank nor will he think you cheated (He wouldn't truly believe that you would cheat on him tho)

------------> \(C_C)/ <----------------> <----> <-------> <----------> <------>

Venti

You where walking Venti home after his drinking party when you suddenly came up with an idea. The Idea was that you were going to tell him that you have became pregnant and that you would like if he could spend more time with you as well with try and not spend all your mora on wine!! like sure he could still drink it but not literally get you in debt!!!.

You got inside your home as Venti kept hiccuping talking random stuff, you laid him down on the couch and went to get a glass of water and went back to set it on the coffee table that was next to the couch that he was laid on. "Venti...I have to tell you something important and that is that I am....Pregnant.."

right as you said that the whole room fell silent, even his hiccups stopped as if he got scared (LOL) "Is that true, love..." that was what broke the silence you nodded as you looked down at the glass of water on the table. "I'M SO HAPPY!!!! COME HERE!!" He said as he ran to you and wrapped his arms around you tight but gentle.

you kinda felt bad that this was a prank but you went along with it......little did you know that you were gonna actually be pregnant (LOL) I mean once you found out as your tummy (Yes I used tummy...It's cute, lol) was getting bigger and you where feeling sick as well kicks from inside.

Venti was over the moon and would not stop talking to them and would always want to have his hand on your stomach because it makes him feel happy .. but before you knew you were pregnant you ended up telling Venti right after he was done hugging you that it was a prank.

His smile left so fast but he managed to smile again as an idea popped in his head.....yeah that's why you later found out you were pregnant.....he def did that nasty with ya (LOL😅)

-------------(^o^)--r ' ' ' <-----------------------------------> <------------->

Diluc

Diluc was about finished with drying some of the wine glasses and you were getting bored, well that was until Kaeya came up with a stupid prank (🤡) The prank was that you tell Diluc that you were pregnant but he wasn't the father but instead it was Kaeya.

(Stupid right) Well you decided to do it and the fact that you guys have been doing the nasty a bit more often (Idk why..make a reason why) which made it much more likely for you to be pregnant ...right? Well anyway you called Diluc over and started the prank as Kaeya watched from a bit away.

"I have something important to tell you...." Diluc looked your way as he placed a wine glass down and made eye contact giving you his full attention to you.

"Well, to put it out bluntly...i'm pregnant..." you said taking a quick look at Kaeya to which he moved his hand in a swaying way gesturing for you to continue on with the prank, you looked back at Diluc who was wide eyed and frozen like a statue. "When did...you find out?..." Diluc's voice was soft and quite.

"Not to long ago.....but there something else that you need to know....." Kaeya smirking in the background waiting patently for the surprise, Diluc raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms looking at you and completely forgetting his brothers presence. He was a bit shocked but he had to have seen it coming from all the intimacy you guys have been doing but you had something else to say...did you not want the unborn child?

Did you want to leave him and keep the child?....Or.......was the child.....not his.

That was something he did not want, nor did he want to lose you, of course he'd respect your decisions about the child but....."You are not the father.."

Those words seem to replay over a thousand times in his head before anger took over then sadness. "th-then who is" He forced himself to ask a question he might have not wanted to know..but still he feels like he has some rights to know..right?

You looked over at Kaeya once more not really wanting to continue, all he did was smile and wave you to continue. "....it's someone you know....." You wanted to just get it over with but you couldn't say his name. Diluc was now anxious, it was someone he knew...but who would do something like that- "Someone I know...who?" He asked again this time wanting the answer clear and hoping that it was just a prank...tho he would scold you about this one if it was a prank(which it is) "It's.....Kaeya..."

Diluc was angry but did not show it, he didn't want to do anything in front of you but.....it was a bad time for Kaeya to be right behind him. He turned and was met with a smirking Kaeya (Btw background, they both liked you and ended up competing for your love and you ended up choosing Diluc) Diluc stared at him for a while before he said. "Step outside....we need to talk..."

was all he said before he started to head to the doors but before he got outside you grabbed his arm and told him the truth. "HAHA you fell for it!! I'm not pregnant and I wouldn't cheat on you with some one eye'd flirt boy!! how rude of you to think i'll go out with him!😅" You said trying to sound happy funny tone, you saw that Diluc let out a sigh of relief.

He was happy to know that it was just a prank but he ended up telling you how that wasn't very funny and whoever came up with it must have been as dumb as Kaeya (Oh wait..it was Kaeya...no hate to him, lol)

Oh yeah Kaeya def got offended by the nickname you gave him.

<----------> <--------->(~_~;)/no good <-------> <--------> <----------> <-->

Xiao

You were cooking one of your boyfriends favorite foods and you were also thinking on how to prank him, something that would make him shocked and hopefully not angry. As you grabbed a plate to put the food in an idea popped in your head as you said "Perfect".

How about you prank him by faking that you're pregnant, smirking at your prank you quickly made a plate of the food and sat it down on the table. After setting the plate of food down you walked over to the balcony that overlooked Liyue, breathing in the fresh air you softly smiled before you spoke his name.

"Xiao you little bitc-" (JK u just called his name🙏) after you said that only moments later he arrived right in front of you, he just stared at you for a bit before he smelled the food, you noticed that and said. "Oh yeah I cooked some of your favorite....it's on the table"

He nodded and started to head in you fallowed behind him. His eyes lit up once he saw what you had made for him, he sat down and thanked you before he started eating.

"I have something to tell you......i'm pregnant.."

He stopped eating and almost chocked, his eyes wide and his mouth full of food. He slightly looked over at you before he chewed the food in his mouth and swallowed it. "what do you mean?..."

you smiled seeing as your plan is working out, you went over to him and grabbed one of his hands and placed it on you stomach and placing yours on top of his, a slight shade of red covered his face...."I...I...I have to go.."

he said before he vanished....surprised and kinda disappointed that you didn't even get to say sike and that it was all a prank.....You sighed walking back to the balcony.

"It was a prank....i'm not pregna-" he reappeared but this time he just picked you up and took you to your shared bedroom........UM!!!....yes he was kinda disappointed that you were lying but he was also kinda token aback and didn't know if he was ready or not, he didn't want anything bad to happen to you and the baby if you were pregnant......but now he made his mind up 😏..(yes and quick)

(JKJK PLZ DON'T KILL ME)

----------------------------------------(UvU)// yay--------------------------

YESIR PLZ you were the first person to ask!!😭 THANK YOU!!! SO MUCH!! I'll literally write anything 😎

[luminecent-sky]

How my team would in sagau: Zeph national

Had way too much fun making the first one sooo here's the second one!

Ok so: Scara is main dps, Bennett is healer, Xingqiu and Xiangling are sub dps.

Now interactions and voicelines ahead!

A/n i think you guys know who i like the most out of this team ahahha, been writing this for hours lol.

Tw: Yandere

》 Zephyrus - The Wanderer

The 10th to be bestowed a golden star.

He's cordial with them all, although quite displeased at how Bennett's bad luck happens to get them into some form of trouble, Xiangling's insistence at finding a new creature to cook with her... eccentric methods and Xingqiu's ravings about how this book series hes been reading for weeks keep ending in clifhangers. He knows that they are all blessed by the creator so he should be nice to them.

One of the few golden blessed to have a star in his constellation be illuminated in the sky.

Ah yes the boy who took my al haitham guarantee..... he is such a menace... his flight ability is quite useful though. Got his c1 trying to lose the 50/50 like bro i love you but???.

Voicelines:

》About the creator: In the arms of the divine

Hah. You want to know about my connection with her? Fine then, her grace gave me a new life through The Traveller and Lesser Lord Kusanali. Even chose the name i now use. She's one of the only gods to be so kind to me... What are you clapping about? Everyone here is a devotee of their grace, i'm no different.

》About the creator: Abandonment

Having gone through what i have, you think i would let this opportunity go to waste? If her grace willed it so that i had to suffer for her blessing, i would go through it all over again. To be abandoned by a god only to be taken in by the creator herself... Wow you've got some audacity, to even ask that question, do you want to die? My answer is simple if their grace decides to abandon me then i would make sure that she would find me worthy of her again, any way possible. She took me into her arms and moulded me into this, i am hers and hers alone.

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

》Bennett

Blessed by the creator,

He gets along with the other teens however keeps his distance with Zeph, he knows that his bad luck causes them to get into a lot of trouble. Keeps his distance but is always ready to help his team through everything.

Ah yes my boy, my son. I only got him during the 2.8 yoimiya re-run, yoi came home before he did.

》About the creator: Fortune of the divine

Hey! Care to join me on an adventure? Don't look so worried, ever since their grace blessed me my bad luck seems to be lessening! Sure there's the occasional lightning strike and stuff but her grace is always there to heal me up!

》About the creator: Worry

You know, i owe the creator so much, without them i probably would have gotten myself injured way more. I want to be useful to their grace. I don't want to be traded away because of my bad luck. I'll make sure their grace is safe when she decends- is that what the nuns said? Oh right!- into teyvat.

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

》Xiangling

One of the original blessed, was once put aside by the creator and now basks in their light.

She gets along well with Xingqiu but thats to be expected since their friends. She usually helps tend to Bennett when he gets injured, and as always Zeph keeps his distance and only interacts once the creator is included.

Ah yes my old sub dps until i got diluc... shes still good for someone i haven't really used until getting scara.

》About the creator: Food for the divine

I only need a few more ingredients and- oh what's up? This is a new dish im making based on what her grace was talking about earlier. I'll make sure that i can recreate that until their grace is satisfied.

》About the creator: Satiafaction

Being abandoned by her grace made me sad for a long while, but she gave me another chance! I'll make sure to use this chance nicely, when their grace decends i will serve them only the best. If she’s not satisfied by it then I'll keep trying harder until their grace is happy.

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

》Xingqiu

Blessed by the creator,

As a member of the guhua clan he upholds his values and make sure to keep them. Gets along with the other teens and is cordial with Zeph.

Got his cons for the lantern rite instead of yaoyao... he does great damage sometimes but hes there for vaporize.

》About the creator: Values of the divine

Did you know that the values of the guha clan match those of the creator? Ever since i found out about this I've been making sure that those values are ingrained into my head

》About the creator: Chivalry

To be blessed by her grace is one thing, but to embrace and live by the virtues they have set out is another. Everyday i train to make sure i uphold these ideals. To defy their values would be blasphemy. Their writing is law.

Tagging:

@meimeimeirin

[yulin-pop]

⤷ ✧ My Pearl

Female reader (she/her pronouns used)

- order 78 | one-shot | Silver

Note: Happy one year anniversary!! I can’t believe it’s been a year. This is actually one of my earliest works and I decided to fix it up and post it. I can’t tell if I’ve gotten worse or better at writing lol

Why exactly was there a drama class in Night Raven? It seemed so out of place for a magic academy. But no one else thought the same.

“It is an academy after all.”

“Just cause it’s magic doesn’t mean every class has to revolve around it.”

Maybe it’s just because you’re an outsider? Nonetheless, you just to happened to have it as an elective. Since you were lumped in as a first year, you had classes with only first years. But electives had people of all different grades and classes.

Despite your attempts of finding a first year friend in one of your other classes, there appeared to be none amongst this group of 24 people. Only people from other grades and other classes. You were just about to submit to loneliness before you saw a glimpse of grey hair and a thud.

You looked to the entrance to the class and see someone dropped a box of supplies, some of it happened to roll underneath you. You immediately crouched down and gathered up the random items off the floor and handed it to him.

His eyes widened at you. “Thank you..”

“Your welcome, Silver!”

He seemed taken aback when you said his name which made you nervous. “Forgive me. Erm… What's your name?”

Ah… He completely forgot you. At least he recognized you?

“It’s MC…”

“I’ll make sure to remember that.” He said sincerely.

Being in the same class, you figured you should stay around him. You never had many opportunities to talk to upperclassmen or even befriend them. Maybe this is your chance?

“Do you have this class too?”

“Yes..”

You invited silver to sit beside you for this class. It was open sitting since it is a drama class. You stared at him for a moment before speaking up again. “So Silver, did you choose this elective?”

It took him a tap on the shoulder but he responded.

“No.”

“O-Oh… Then how did you end up here?”

“I allowed a… friend… to pick what classes I take.“ He responded with a distant tone. You tried to hide your disappointment in every response he gave. He seemed so indifferent to you. He didn’t seem to like you in the slightest.

Suddenly the whole class went silent which didn’t go unnoticed by either of you. You heard the clicking of heels and suddenly a bright light, or maybe that was just for imagination?

“Vil Schoenheit…”

“W-Wait he’s in this class?!”

Whispers of him echoed throughout the classroom and you turned to see Silver's reaction. He seems rather unphased but weary.

After the teacher moved away from the teacher’s podium, he stepped up and cleared his throat.

“Allow me to be frank, if you expect an easy class to goof around in everyday, go drop out. Whether you like it or not, you’re all going to be pushed out of your comfort zones.”

The mood in the class dropped in an instant and Vil seemed to enjoy that reaction.

—

“A play? Between a prince and a princess.”

“Yes, and we’re having a discussion on who should be who. Sit up, Silver.”

You felt like a nuisance and a pest judging by how tired and annoyed he seemed with you every day.

Though, he should be considered lucky with how Vil Schoenheit didn’t personally wake him up like he did with another student.

Silver turned his chair around and faced in the same direction as everyone else.

“Princess Ava seems hella sensitive. You know, that one scene where she starts crying.”

“Then Prince Ethan skips sword practice to comfort her. That’s a little dramatic…”

You glanced at Silver every so often. He seemed disinterested in this whole class and felt bad. What if he would have a better experience of you just didn’t talk to him? Maybe you’re making him look bad?

“Well no offense but I don’t think anyone wants to play a girl, Schoenheit.” Some guy said. Before Vil could interject, someone else spoke up.

“Yeah, if anything, then an actual girl should play it.” Another guy pointed at you.

“Wait a minute. Me?”

“Well yeah. You’re a girl.”

“Besides, doesn’t she kinda fit the descriptions of Ava already? The hair, the eyes, and a princess-ish face.”

“Wait, that's a far-fetched statement there!”

“I vote for MC to be Ava!” Someone stood up and shouted. A few cheers of agreements sprouted up until there was no denying the role anymore. You were now being one of the main leads in a play. You put your head down in defeat and tried to drown out the rest of the discussion.

“Now that the role for Ava is decided. We’re moving onto Ethan.” Vil declared. In total, that role has 143 lines to memorize. While your role had 128 lines. So whoever would play Ethan would get the most lines.

“Isn’t Ethan supposed to be quiet…? Why the hell does he have so many lines?”

“He’s also a good sword fighter supposedly. Hey wait, Raymond, aren’t you good at sword fighting?”

“Wait a damn minute! Don’t you try to force that role onto me! Silver is way better than me!”

Everyone’s head turned in his direction and Silver nearly jumped back. “For real?” Someone asked. “Yeah, Silver really could kill me if he wanted to. He also has a close enough resemblance to Ethan, don’t you guys agree?” The guy said urgently.

“Wait what do you mean—?”

“Silver should be Ethan!”

“Agreed!”

People chimed in to agree with the statement. Silver’s protests were drowned out quickly and before he knew it, his name was written down, officially casting him as Ethan.

You slowly turned your head towards Silver. He grimaced and begrudgingly picked up his script as if it were infected with a virus.

Oh god, would Crowley let you drop out?

❥

The moment he took a step through the door. His whole body nearly shut down in pure shock. You stood there with a sheepish smile and helped him with his mess. What were you doing here?

He accepted the fact he most likely would never come close to you ever again. He knew Sebek would have many opportunities but his chances were little to none. He kept it all in. How he felt about you.

You were simply amazing. You were rambunctious but just enough so it’s not over the top. You had guts. You were suddenly thrown into a world and adapted quicker than he ever could.

Not only that, you were undeniably charming. You didn’t even realize how you completely captured his respect during Leona’s overblot.

He didn’t know when the fight would end. He was a human and compared to Sebek, his stamina runs short. Leona sent another attack, sand and dirt flying everywhere and for a moment he couldn’t see. He stumbled back, dropping his pen onto the floor, trying to get rid of the sand in his eyes.

A figure from the sand cloud sprinted out and yelled in urgency. “Silver!” You quickly swept up his fallen pen and shoved him out the way from Leona’s attack. He opened his eyes to see you shield him from the flying debris.

“Be careful.” You said out of breath, shoving his pen back into his hands.

Seeing you made him realize. He didn’t even learn your name.

He, by all means, respects you for what you did.

Though, he wished to be closer to you. He really wished things would go slower and maybe not close in this way..?!

He awkwardly wrapped his arm around you as you put your forehead against his shoulder. “I’m sorry… You don’t need to bother yourself with me. I know I’m nothing but a nuisance.”

“W-What are you saying?”

“I know, I’m too sensitive. I’m not beautiful like my sisters. I’m not as social as them either… I-I!” Your eyes squeezed shut. “Forgot my next line…”

Everyone around you groaned as you sighed and shrugged. “Really, you can’t remember your lines?!” A guy yelled at you as he handed you your script. “Try having to memorize and act out all these things. Maybe then you’d understand.”

Silver went to your side and looked at his own script. “My Pearl” is a play about a talented prince and a young, anti-social princess from another kingdom. The princess, Ava, is the youngest of all her sisters. She grew up feeling inferior to her sisters due to being the youngest and being less attractive than her three other siblings.

The prince, Ethan, was a gifted child. He received three gifts. Mastery in swordsmanship, silver hair that sparkles in the light, and the ability to see the beauty in people's hearts.

A marriage is arranged between Princess Ava and Prince Ethan. It sprouts in a seemingly one-sided love, Prince Ethan trying his hardest to show her his true feelings.

Cute story.

But not when you have to act it out with someone you deeply admire.

Despite often being so close, you never seemed to catch on to his fast heart beat and his stiff gestures.

“Both of you need to really focus on what the characters say and why they say it! The script isn’t just lines to memorize, it’s responses to the situation.”

“What do you mean?!”

“If you don’t know then you need to reevaluate your skills as an actor.”

“I never intended to be an actor in the beginning…”

“You’re such a child.” Vil scoffed “Silver, you need to connect with the story more.”

Silver raised an eyebrow at the comment. “You seem to be dazing off. It’s bothersome. You’re here, and you’re Prince Ethan.” Vil firmly said as he turned around and went to scold the rest of the members.

You regretted ever taking the suggestion to choose theater as an elective. “Cater made this sound easy…” You said to yourself as you looked down at your lines.

❥

“Silver? Is that you?” You asked out loud in a dimly lit room. You soon realized it www though he was in no condition to speak.

“He’s sleeping at this hour? That’s a bit early.”

You intended to leave but you noticed something white laying around his head.

Sorry Silver, hope you don’t mind.

You entered his room and knelt down to inspect what it was.

You scanned the words across the paper and soon came to recognize the words. “He was practicing the script…?” You said quietly to yourself. A smile played across your face as you stared at his sleeping expression.

“Ow!”

“W-Wait..?! MC is that you?”

You held your face and rolled on the side. Kudos to him for his quick reaction. You should’ve never let your guard down. You sat yourself up as Silver grabbed your wrists and went to check if your face was ok.

“A-Are you ok?!”

“I don’t know… What do you think?” You begrudgingly removed your hands off your face, your face retorted with pain and small tears at the corners of your eyes.

He immediately lifted you up and sat you down on the bed. “Where did I hit you?” He shakily asked.

Your small groans in pain suddenly stopped for a short moment. As you moved one of your hands down, you opened your mouth to speak.

“Will you still think I’m pretty… even after this?”

You squeezed your eyes shut.

Why did I say that?! Ahh… I better tell him so he—

“I could never think that.”

He didn’t seem to even bat an eye at the random response, incidentally he responded right in character.

“How could I ever think that of you?” He asked with a tilt in his head. You breathed out and put your hand down on your lap.

“People say your hair is as beautiful as silver, you have a golden heart, and you're more graceful than any prince I’ve seen. I know it’s all true because I’ve experienced myself. Then there’s me, your soiled fiancé, after I’ve been thrown away by another, we married solely to keep peace between kingdoms. Married to a woman like me, it’s ruining your public—“

“MC.”

Eh? He said my name?

He harshly yet tenderly wrapped his arms around you. His neck nestled into your neck, chills ran down your arms.

“I’m sorry.” He sharply said.

“Wow, talk about soap operas. That isn’t nothing compared to these two! Isn’t that right, Sebek?”

“How dare you do this in the presence of other people?!”

“W-Wait this isn’t what it looks like!!”

“Apologies , it is so, so late and I believe I should be heading back Ramshackle!”

“Absolutely! Leave immediately! How would the young master react to seeing such shameless actions?”

You quickly scrambled away from his room and nearly tripped on your way out. Silver closed his eyes and turned the other way.

“Silver. What was that?”

“Script. F-For class. We were rehearsing, I swear.”

“Is it now? Hehehehe..”

❥

“Silver, MC, it’s almost time for you two.”

“Alright, thank you.”

You let out a sigh then sat down on a chair. Your legs were shaking and it struggled to contain your deep breathing.

“MC, you look unwell.” Silver said as he spotted you. He wasted no time kneeling down in front of you and attempted to get a look at your face.

“You look pale.” He muttered under his breath. “Are you really this nervous?” He asked with concern in his tone.

“Erm… I’ve never ever done something like this before. Stepped up in front of a big audience and performed or presented… I never had to do that.”

“Never?”

It made him wonder about your past, though it was no time to ask about that. He thought about the times he was like this.

What would Lilia do…?

“Close your eyes, MC.” Silver commanded. You reluctantly complied and closed your eyes. You heard a bit of shuffling around before you felt a tap on your forehead.

Suddenly, you were in control of your whole body again. There was no longer a pit in your stomach or were your legs trembling.

“What did you do?” You asked in amazement.

“Ah… Back then when I was a boy and got hurt, Old Man— Lilia, used a spell on me. It works well, doesn’t it?” He confessed with a smile.

You put your hand against your chest and stared in gratitude. “Now come on, we need to get on stage about now.” Silver beckoned as he stood up from his kneeling position and held his hand out to you.

He really does look like a prince like this…

You couldn’t help but naturally gravitate towards him. “Yes, I’m ready!”

“Excellent.” He led you to the side and bowed. He was about to go to the right wing but before he could, you shouted.

“Meet you on stage!”

“Yeah, meet you on stage.”

[williamaltman]

Life is Strange 2 thoughts/feelings/review

So, Life is Strange 2. I finished the game yesterday and watched the other endings today. Things are not as fresh in my mind as if I had just finished and I talked a bit about it in other places so this feels a bit hard, but I'll try to lay down all my thoughts...

First of all... All my homies love LIS2, fuck you if you don't like LIS2! Seriously though, for years I've seen people say that the game wasn't good, that the characters weren't as good as the ones from the first one, that the Sean/Daniel relationship wasn't that interesting... I kinda did suspect it was just nostalgia goggles or whatever, but now I know for sure. I don't think there's anything wrong with connecting more with LIS1 and having a deeper relationship with it, but in this case I think you shouldn't even be comparing them and expecting the game to live up to that to you in the first place.

Now, onto the actual game. God, this was so fucking heartbreaking. I think I cried in every single episode. The very core premise of the story is just so sad, so unfair, and despite the powers so rooted in reality that it left me legit feeling uncomfortable with how fucked up their whole situation was. There are good moments, sure, but honestly every single thing that happens from the moment their dad is shot is just... Not how their life should've had to be.

Sure, LIS1 and BTS had dark themes too. But here, it's like, they lose everything from the beginning. Sean doesn't get to go to his party, to hang out with Lyla, to continue his normal life in any way. Daniel loses a part of his childhood. They're both forced to grow up so much faster than they should. There's a line Sean says in episode 3, and it's just a little idle VO, but it fucking crushed me, "Stop overthinking. You're not a teenager anymore". Even though he's fucking 16... He's 16 and he has to essentially become a parent. I knew what the game was about and lowkey followed it a bit when it was releasing, knew a few spoilers, but that didn't make anything any less heartbreaking.

I thought it was beautiful how the game took the opportunity to showcase and celebrate alternate lifestyles. The "family", Away, their freedom and how they interacted with society brings so much into perspective. I'm still a bit conflicted about Karen tbh, but I'm glad that at least they did show something beautiful through her story.

My biggest problem overall is probably how they handled the Finn romance route... I knew back when the game was releasing that despite adding a male LI, they pushed the female one more onto you and gave her more content, while locking the option to kiss him with a "bad choice" (I didn't know what exactly it was). And yeah, that is still true. I still think it was a mistake to lock the kiss with accepting the heist, and while I kinda understand the writer's explanation for that, I still think it could've been handled in another way, or they could've just let him kiss you and "betray" you by doing the heist anyway, since he still does that when you're friends lol.

I see people complaining that because they moved from place to place each episode, there wasn't enough time to connect with the characters... Idk if I'd say I disagree, but it just wasn't really the case for me. I was very invested in all the relationships, in Finn, Cassidy, Jacob, Chris, Karen. Everyone at the farm was cool and everyone in Away too. Lyla. You get so many tidbits about the characters even when they're not there on screen. The only thing I have to say which is kinda related to that, is that I think the time jumps were maybe a bit too big, and that the way they handled Mushroom was... weird.

I got the Parting Ways ending, and I'm satisfied with it. I kinda planned to get it, but only in the sense that I was spoiled that you get with Finn there. I didn't know that the whole morality thing had anything to do with it, and I played the first two episodes without even knowing that there was a points system about that and about brotherhood. I just made all the choices that were high morality (besides killing the cougar and the heist) because it was what I would do, and tried to be a good brother for Daniel. I figured that choosing to cross the border would most likely give me that one, but I just couldn't accept Sean having to go to prison for 15 years for something he didn't even do. If we were able to choose between Parting Ways and Blood Brothers, then I would actually be conflicted about which I wanted.

With the way the game's system works though, where you need to have low morality to get Blood Brothers, I couldn't really do it. I can't imagine myself teaching Daniel to be selfish and not care about killing people. I actually think it's super cool to watch Daniel use his power offensively and fuck shit up, but it just wouldn't be my version of the story. It's funny because, if we just played as Daniel, I wouldn't mind going that route. But since we play as Sean, with it being our job to raise Daniel, I feel a different kind of responsability towards leading him to become a good person. I also think it's beautiful that he gets to have the rest of his childhood, teenagehood, and live a "normal" healthy life with his grandparents. He does it in the redemption one too, but as I said, that just screws up Sean too much.

So, I'm a little disappointed that they're separated (and maybe can't ever see each other again? I'm a bit confused about Daniel's situation and whether he could visit), and that it's a bit shorter than the others (at least than the redemption one), but it IS the ending my playthrough led to and in that I'm satisfied.

I think this story is just incredible. It touched me so much, and the fact that some people can't see it genuinely frustrates me. The people complaining it's too political in particular can just go fuck themselves. It might not be perfect, but like with all things I appreciate, I'm just so glad it exists.