#let's hope the human knows English too lol

[callaeidae3]

Whumptober2023 Day 23/24: "Who's there?" | Goodbye note

The human he helped is now on a safe shore, recovering. But it's not safe anymore.

#whumptober2023 #no.23 #who's there? #no.24 #goodbye note #OC #art #blood tw #bandages #non human whumpee #whump art #what is the danger? a sea creature? a ship full of bad people? angry fellow mermen? #at least the mer knows English #let's hope the human knows English too lol #based off my OCs #kyle kindall #yuuki takahashi #mer whump

[walpu]

hii, first of all, sorry for my bad english

this may sound weird, but lately i've been thinking of aventurine turning in a cat. like, for some strange reason (maybe during a mission), he turned in a cute little cat. and since reader doesn't know he's a cat, he feels free to enjoy all reader's affection, and maybe to let his emotions win and cry while being caressed. and then he turns human and he's crying enough to fill a swimming pool. idk if i explained well :(

tysm, i love love love your works!! ❤︎

AWWW THIS IS SUCH A CUTE REQUEST and don't worry your English is perfectly fine! It's not my native language as well so I get the struggle tho

I love making my faves cry so there's a possibility that I've got a bit carried away lol

taking care of cat!Aventurine

edits by @keisieudeptry on twitter

characters - Aventurine notes - gn!reader, a bit of angst, hurt/comfort, a lot of cuddles, n̷̳͙͊͛õ̵̩͓ ̸̧͉̓b̶̳́̎e̵̖͋͊ṭ̴̩̔ȧ̵̪͚̕

Aventurine

Listen, he's always on alert okay. This man rarely allows himself to relax, especially when he's on another one of his business trips.

And he knows what to expect. Lies, attempts on his life, threats etc. He has seen it all.

But this. This. This is something new. Of course anything can happen when you're dealing with The Masked fools but this? Being turned into a cat? In what place this is even funny? It is kinda funny tho just not for Aven

He knows better than to panic. Yes, being turned into a tiny orange cat was not a part of his plans. Yes, this is probably the most defenseless and vulnerable state he's been in since his childhood. Yes, this sucks. But hey not like panicking will change anything.

Instead he just sits in the corner, feeling incredibly anxious and dreadful. His only hope is that this shapeshifting trick won't last for long.

A huge wave of relief washes over him when he sees a familiar person. And not just any person but you. The only person who can put his restless mind at ease, at least for a short time. He wouldn't mind seeing Topaz or Ratio too but it's much better when it's you.

He quickly realizes, however, that his joy was premature. He can't communicate with you! And you don't know that this is him! So the only thing poor Aven can do is follow you around and... meow. It's almost humiliating. Too bad he doesn't have time to care.

Soon enough you give up at finally pick up the oddly familiar cat. Every time you try to put the cat down it starts meowing and running after you so the only thing you can do is pick it up and carry around like a potato.

And you know how it is with cats, once you put your hands on one you can't stop petting it. You run your fingers through the cat's fur absently, while checking you phone for any messages from Aventurine. Hugging the cat, pressing your face to it's soft fur. Something about it surely reminds you of Aven. The thought, no matter how childish it is, brings a small smile on your face.

And poor, poor Aven. For so long he's been longing for your touch while laying awake at night, his poor heart flattered every time your fingers brushed against his. He wants wants wants to melt into your embrace yet this is not allowed for him.

How can he ask for it without exposing the deepest and darkest parts of his soul. How can he open his heart to you without reveling all the ugly, fragile parts.

He wants to be open with you, he really does. Yet it's so unreasonably hard. Would you kiss his head like you do now if you would know how empty he is inside? Would he be able to press his forehead into you palm, asking for more more more without feeling exposed?

In a way, it's good that right now he's in this form. He doesn't really have to think about anything, doesn't have to feel anxious about revealing too much. He can just enjoy in.

You two fall asleep just like that and he doesn't have to overthink, he can just crawl to you side, nuzzling up to you.

You can't help but notice that the kitten in your arms is trembling slightly. And when you pull it closer in order to provide some warmth and comfort it just purrs and meows pitifully. Almost like it's… crying.

Now listen. I'm 100% sure Aven is a light sleeper. So there's no way he won't wake up from a loud gasp and a lot of movements near him.

Well. Seems like the shapeshifting trick the masked fool pulled on him lasted only for 12 hours. And now he lays on the couch in his human form while you look at him with the wide eyes.

Awkward.

His initial reaction is to laugh it off. "Surprised, dear? It's a shame you can't see your own face right now ha ha". Would explain the whole situation, trying to make it seem like it was not a big deal. No mention of you cuddling session tho. Max he would say is "my, my, didn't know you where such a cat person".

However, his smile freezes immediately when you wrap your arms around him, pulling him into a hug. Well. Here goes all of his feigned confidence.

Here is this feeling again. Your warmth, you scent, the comfort your touch brings. You telling how you started to get worried and how relieved you are that he didn't get hurt. It cuts so deep, makes him feel so exposed yet so needed. Loved even.

At first he doesn't even get it why your eyes get even wider, why a look so lost and worried all of the sudden. Only when your hands hesitantly cup his cheeks and you ask him what's wrong he realizes that there are tears in his eyes.

You know those tears when they just drop from your eyes and it's not like you're hysterical or crying uncontrollably but the tears just keep coming and coming and the more you try to calm down , the worse it gets? Yeah, him.

Would almost automatically tell you that everything is fine. When you confront him, pointing out that he's literally crying, will get even more confused than you. "Hah, seems like you're right, dear" he says with a small smile, giving up on the idea of hiding it from you. After all, it's too late for that anyway.

It feels... not even humiliating, no. It's weird, scary even, to be so open around someone. To be stripped of his mask so suddenly.

And yet he doesn't have time to care when your hands hold him oh so tenderly, when you cup his face and ask him what's wrong.

"Nothing, nothing, really. Just getting a bit sentimental here. Just... hold me like that for a bit more, 'kay?" he manages to whisper with a faint smile before pressing his face in the crook of your neck.

God feeling his tears on your skin feels so surreal. And heartbreaking too.

With each tender touch he gets even more emotional, to the point when he literally chokes on his own tears. Please hold him, run your fingers through his hair, kiss the top of his head.

He just doesn't get it, it feels so good to be held by you, why does his stupid heart hurts so much then?

Honestly he didn't cry for so long and there are so many repressed feelings, just let him let it all out.

He'll probably fall asleep in your arms, feeling very exhausted after the sudden emotional outburst. In the morning would act like nothing has happened, making some dismissing comments about him being a bit overdramatic last night. Don't let him withdraw into himself but don't push him to open up too much as well.

Just touch him more often from now on, especially when he looks like he had a bad day. And eventually he'll turn into your lap cat, reaching out for your warmth himself with or without reason.

"You're being clingy again" "Am not <З" all while sitting on your lap.

You've domesticated him so good luck.

#honkai star rail #hsr #hsr aventurine #aventurine #aventurine x reader #walp's writing #fell in love with this request the moment i saw it

[yorshie]

hi sweetheart!

how do you think the turtles would feel with a really petite reader? I mean, we are all small for them, but what if the reader is below average even by human standards like 5.0 f. t? will it bring something animalistic in them?

(I want to hear that reader will be carried on their hands 👏constantly👏 and treated like doll, I crave for that kind of comfort ty and sorry for my poor english 😭✋)

Whelp. I wanna start this by saying nonnie I’m so sorry, I plugged that height into a comparison generator with my head canons heights and I’m a little cursed by the image so someone else has to see it.

Like. Damn. I’d run from Donnie. Straight up yeeerrrrm like *thats a runner* probably run from raph too like. Yikes. Tiddie height to him is terrifying.

Literally everyone but Mikey is terrified that they’ll accidentally bump you and break something. They all get onto Mikey even more for swinging you around or grabbing you to toss up into the air.

Raph carries you anytime he can get away with it. In his mind, your legs are so short, they must get so tired, he’s really doing you a favor. Hope you don’t get too mad over being carried like the short stack you are, because he absolutely cannot get it through his thick skull that you would rather hurt your neck craning to look up at him than be carried

Leo so badly wants to teach you self defense, but he finds it so comical when you try to hit him while only coming up to his pec that he struggles to breathe. Yes he knows this is serious yes he’s trying but the poor turtle is also dying inside cut him some slack and maybe squish his cheeks when he dramatically leans over to talk to you.

Donnie sometimes feels like he should sit down when talking to you. He definitely has a spot in his lab that is your spot so he knows where you are at all times so he doesn’t accidentally hit you with his shell.

Cuddling them is super easy now at least. Normally they don’t even strain to lift someone but with you it’s more like they forget they’re holding you. They get hyper aware of where you are exactly in relation to them when it comes to turtle piles or relaxing no the couch though. It only took one almost squishing accident to bring them all on the same page of no rough housing when you’re around.

Mikey sometimes puts you on his shoulders while running around the lair, or scoops you up in his arms while doing parkour stunts just to get you to squeal in surprised delight/terror. It drives Leo up the wall.

They are all four hella protective, to the point that if you don’t catch on and tell them to stop, they’ll shadow you every time you head to/from the lair, if they can’t convince you to let one of them give you a lift.

If you told them you could “take care of yourself” I’m sorry but they are bro dudes they would straight up laugh like maybe Donnie would be self aware enough to try and hide it at first but if the other three break he’s gonna giggle too.

At the end of the day I just imagine it getting obnoxious like I’m pretty sure I’d kick them in the knees repeatedly, but as long as you like being treated like you’re fine china you’ll be heaven lol.

#TMNT bayverse #tmnt bayverse x reader #TMNT bayverse headcanons #TMNT leonardo #TMNT raphael #TMNT donatello #TMNT michelangelo #bayverse leonardo #bayverse raphael #bayverse donatello #bayverse michelangelo #bayverse leo x reader #bayverse raph x reader #bayverse donnie x reader #bayverse mikey x reader #my writing requests

[femd-archive]

HIII omg I love your sub satan fic it's so hot 😩 do you accept a request for sub Lucifer who loves being praised?? With Fem reader as well🙏

sorry for taking too long to reply! i've been busy with collage and so, but here it is!

PRETTY BOY

pairing: obey me! shall we date? — lucifer x fem!reader

word count: 1.2k

content warning: praise kink | masturbation | slight chest-play | unconscious use of pact mark | lots of kisses lol | lucifer is whipped for mc

📎 side note: english is not my first language, so sorry in advance for any grammar mistakes.

The only thing praises do to Lucifer is fulfill his ego. Makes him act more gracious that he already is as he gives a simple smirk as a response.

But your praise? His cheeks grow red before he even realize, his body starts to tremble and grows hot. «When did he start acting this way because of a human?» He asks himself everytime, but he already knows the answer, and it's because it's you.

Lucifer lets out a sigh as he puts the last archieve of the day in the pile with the others. You look up from your book, smiling as you see him relax back in his chair.

"Are you done?" standing up from the couch, you ask as you walk over to him.

"Yeah, finally" he answers with another sigh as one of his hands starts to undo his tie.

Without even asking ᅳbecause it wasn't necessaryᅳ you take a seat on Lucifer's lap, wrapping your arms around his neck as you leaves a kiss on his cheek, close to his lips.

"Good job, Luci. I'm proud of you and your hard work" you coo softly as you start combing his soft hair with your hands.

His face stays unreadable for a few seconds, before it melts into a soft scowl as he moves to hide in the crock of your neck

"Please love, don't do that" he whispers, yet, with his arms, he pulls you closer to him as to indulge you to keep caressing him.

"Don't do what?" you ask between giggles.

"Saying those sweet words to me" he simply answers, his thumb starting little ministrations in the skin of your hip.

"Why? You deserve to know that you're doing great" you left another kiss on your boyfriend's forehead. "If you need reassurance I'll remind you everyday"

Lucifer stays quiet for a few seconds before speaking again from his hiding spot. "Actually, I think that's gonna make it hard"

You frown. "Make what hard?" you ask, genuinly confused. You move around, trying to pull him away to face you, but in the motion you feel what's hard.

His hard dick pokes the side of your thigh as he thightens the grip of his arms around you, still hiding his embarrassed face from you.

"Luci…did you get hard because of my praise?" you ask, stating the obvious. He didn't need to answer verbally, since his silence already did it for you. You laugh again, embracing him back. "Aww, Luci ~ that's so cute" you coo.

"It's embarrassing" he mutters, pulling away just as much so he can rest his cheek on your chest.

"Well, I think is the cutest thing ever" you leave a kiss on his head. "You're the cutest" you add.

Lucifer slowly pulls apart from you, looking up with cute teary eyes and blushing cheeks. He pouts his lips a little, and you know that's a sing that he wants a kiss.

Taking his face in between your hands, you push your lips against his on a soft kiss. At least, that's how it started. With every second passing by, Lucifer grows more needy and by his state of lust he can't even think of hidding it.

His gloved hands run all over you body, yet doesn't make any further moves, waiting for you to give the first step.

Pulling apart, you say the next words as if you read his mind. "Want me to help you out with your little problem, pretty boy?" you ask as you take his gloves out, followed by his tie.

"Please…" he whispers, black eyes following suit your every move.

"Good boy" you whisper, leaving another kiss on his cheek as your hand travels from his chest to the bulge in his pants.

He hisses softly as you caress his swollen cock over his dressing pants, looking up at you in hopes he gets another kiss. He's not that lucky, since you're busy teasing him where he's more vulnerable now.

"Such a hardworking man, always busy to even take care of himself" you coo softly as you undo his belt, followed by the buttons and the zipper.

Moving his underwear a little, his hard dick finally gets freed, making him gasp at the cold air. "Look at that, all pent up. Poor baby" you whisper, starting to caress him slowly.

Lucifer rests his head on your shoulder as you keep your ministrations slow, moving your hand along his length. He grews impatient, though does nothing about it since he wants to be your good boy.

"Do you always wait for me to take care of you, baby? Bacause you're too tired to do it yourself?" you ask softly, resting your cheek upong his head, your free hand caressing his cheek lovingly.

"Yes…want you to touch me. I love your touch" he whispers back, closing his eyes as he melts in your hands.

"Yeah baby, I know you do" you leave another kiss on his forehead as you start picking your pace. The Avatar of Pride throws his head back, moaning softly as his precum quickly becomes some kind of lube that makes the job easier.

Lucifer's office quickly fills with the wet squelching sounds of his cock and his soft moans that he tries so hard to muffle.

"Keep making those sounds baby. I love how you sound for me" leaving another kiss on his cheek, you chuckle at his embarrassed face and his attempts to hide his moans. "Come on baby, be the good boy you are for me and tell me how good I'm making you feel" besides your praises, your soft command affects his pact mark, and he speaks before he can even think about it.

"You make me feel so good, my love…I've never felt this good in decades. O-only you can make me feel this way" he confesses non-stop.

"Yeah? Only me?" you whisper.

"Only you" he whispers back.

You attack his lips again, finally picking a rather fast pace as your free hands moves under his shirt and starts toying with his chest.

His moans dies on your lips as he pathetically humps your fist, trying to get even more friction that you're giving him, feeling the pleasure in his low stomach as he's about to cum.

"Please darling…" he whines, erratic breathing because of the kiss. "Can I cum? Please, please…" he begs again and again, and you wish anybody could see Lucifer Morningstar in this state, but that's a sight for your eyes only.

"Go ahead love, make a mess for me" you allow along a kiss to his nose.

He spruts ropes of thick cum as you keep whispering in his ear how good he is for you and how well he takes it, making him shout even more embarrassing moans as he hugs you closer, feeling his legs starting to shake.

You stroke him through it until he's finally done, slowly taking away your cum covered hand to hug him back as he calms down.

"Are you okay?" you ask once you notice he's breathing normally again.

"Yeah…" he replies softly, still lightheaded after that strong orgasm.

"Do you want to take a shower and go to sleep, pretty boy?" you question once again as you kiss his forehead lovingly. He looks up at you with tired eyes and a soft smile.

"Yes please"

"Good boy ~"

#obey me! shall we date? #lucifer #lucifer x reader #dom!reader #sub!character #dom reader #sub character #sub!lucifer #sub lucifer #sub!obey me #sub obey me

[koolades-world]

Hello, I hope this is not a bother, but can you make the brothers react to a Mc that is half demon and half human? Or that Mc is like Michael's child and the brothers react to that?I know they are strange ideas (especially the last one) but I hope you like them.

But the way english is not my fiesta language so i'm sorry for any mistakes.

Have a nice day/night ♥️

hi!! omg both of those concepts are so interesting so I had a hard time choosing which one to write ahhhh

your english is pretty good so no worries! I'm always so impressed by non-native english speakers because english is such a difficult language to learn

if you want, I can write both just in separate posts. hope you didn't mind that I picked just one, so just let me know

please enjoy :)

Half demon half human Mc

Lucifer

quick to ask who your demon parent is so he could find out more about you and them to better accommodate you

he's a little relieved because he knows he'll be able to meet your needs better since he didn't know shit about humans before the exchange program

he would never say anything about it, but was pondered your mortality a few times

do you have the demon lifespan, a human lifespan, or somewhere between? does which parent is which affect that in any way? he doesn't like to dwell on that

Mammon

thinks that you're so cool since you can have the best of both worlds

you know all the human stuff AND you can do cool demon stuff?? AWESOME

asks all sorts of questions, even dumb ones that he should know the answer to

smack him with your tail or wings if he ever asks how you were born or something like that

Levi

unironically refers to you as the main character

both of you giggle over the fact that you're just like the gacha life youtube protagonists

henry? more like the half demon half human alpha wolf abandoned genius princess

but in all seriousness, he thinks you're so cool but he would never admit that because he would keel over and die afterwards

Satan

since he's the only true demon, the two of you can bond a little over that

finds it very interesting to see where your demonic heritage comes in

helps you out with learning to control and maintain whatever power you inherited

tries to find other half demon half humans to set you up on "playdate" lol

Asmo

asks all sorts of questions to see if he's ever gotten down with your parent (lol)

loves to talk with you about wing/tail and horn care

exchange all sorts of tips for party tricks that both of you love

since he knows you're a little stronger than a full human would be, he's willing to take you out to more places and do more fun stuff

Beel

one of the only brothers who's also interested in your human side

while wanting to meet your demon parent, he also wants to get to know your human parent

your human parent loves him <3

however, he does take this chance to introduce you to some demon exclusive foods or experiences that he's like 75% sure won't kill you

Belphie

he doesn't care too much but he knows he doesn't have to be as careful with his antics around you

your strength always amazes him since sometimes you pick him up with one hand since sometimes he forgets

often has you help out with his anti-lucifer league pranks since he's not as afraid of you getting strung up

less afraid of you being alone in the devildom since he knows you can protect yourself <3

#obey me #obey me! #obey me satan #obey me x reader #obey me asmo #obey me beel #obey me mammon #obey me levi #obey me lucifer #obey me belphie #obey me shall we date #omswd #obey me mc

[adokyoguen]

How would JJK characters react when you smack their cake?

read this first!

I had to ask a friend of mine for help to research what "smack their cake" means, lol

I don't know if what I wrote is exactly what is in the request, since my native language is Portuguese and not English.

So I hope that's really what I wrote.

AND PLEASE, if something is written wrong, my English isn't very good these days and I needed the translator's help, so I ask you to ignore it.

I hope you like it ;)

Suguru Geto

He would be a little uncomfortable being caught off guard, like, it's not normal for someone to slap your ass out of nowhere while you're walking down the street distracted.

Geto would turn to look at your face, in disbelief as he places his hand on the spot abused by your hand.

He would automatically have an existential crisis, but in the end, he would end up returning the slap.

Satoru Gojo

You forced Gojo to cook dinner while you showered and changed into comfortable clothes after your last mission. But when you walked past the room and saw Gojo on his back washing the dishes... you lost all your control and slapped Gojo's ass. The man knew you were approaching him from behind, but he didn't imagine you would hit his ass, making him take a few seconds to understand why his ass was burning.

When his system (his brain lol) kicks back in, he'd smirk and say, "Equal rights."

Now you were both sore, but he went harder on you.

Megumi Fushiguro

I don't see Megumi being comfortable with this, like, even if you're his girlfriend, I think it would be a little uncomfortable for him. If you were in a public place, he would be 100% sulky (looking like a 5 year old) and would be annoyed that you embarrassed him. If you were in a more private place, he would still be uncomfortable but it would be much less so than in public.

In both scenarios, you would have to go and apologize to him and after lots of kisses and affection, he would accept your apology and ask you to never do that again.

Yuji Itadori

There's no way around it, this boy would literally return the slap twice as hard as you imagined. If you had the freedom to spank his ass, he had that freedom too, right? But you didn't think he would hit you so hard, like... you could swear his handprint was left on your skin. No matter if you were in a public or private place, you would receive instant karma from Yuji.

Sukuna would be disgusted by the actions of the two of you. "How did humans become so disgusting to this level?" It would be one of the doubts that would cross Ryomen's mind.

Kento Nanami

If you did that in public, he might be uncomfortable and ask you not to do that again, not when there are people around. In private, he would probably let you spank his ass to see his smile, but he wouldn't feel good if it became recurrent.

Long talk about this, lol.

Yuta Okkotsu

Okay, this boy would panic. First he would think he had done something wrong to receive a slap from you, but then he would notice your laugh and his penny would drop and his cheeks would automatically turn red. (Rika probably wouldn't be happy about that lol)

He would never, I repeat, NEVER slap you back, he would never lay a finger on you, regardless if it was a joke or not. But he likes to see you happy, so he would do anything to see you smile.

Toji Fushiguro

Depending on his mood, he would just return the slap, or he would simply take it as an invitation for the two of you to be alone and automatically take you to the first room he found. But if you prefer the second option, know that you'll probably get more slaps than bread dough or something.

#jujutsu kaisen #gojo x reader #jjk nanami #jujutsu gojo #jujutsu itadori #nanami kento #geto suguru x reader #gojo satoru #gojou satoru x reader #jjk x you #jjk gojo #jjk satoru #satorugojo #geto x reader #geto suguru #jujutsu geto #jjk geto #nanami x reader #jujutsu nanami #yuta okkotsu #yuta x reader #jjk toji #toji fushiguro #toji x reader #jjk megumi #jujutsu megumi #megumi x reader #megumi fushiguro #jjk itadori #itadori x reader

[edenfenixblogs]

hey, gentile here. just came across this post of yours and, first of all- it's SUPERB. it showed me a perspective on being a jewish ally that i really wouldn't ever have considered by myself, made me more confident in my choice to put combating jew-hatred above the friendships I've recently lost, and gave me a really useful direction on where to go as an ally to jewish people onwards. that being said, there's a few details about it I'd like to press you about, if it's not too much trouble.

this point is probably worthy of an eyeroll as i'm a culturally christian atheist (making a concious effort to not be *that* kind of atheist), but: when you refer to G-d as the creator of all things, you stress that that includes evil- but that, in so doing, G-d is not evil themself. now, I'm asking this with the express purpose of you correcting me, so: why does this G-d- as a G-d fundamentally distinct from the Christian conception of God as a Super-Mega-Ultra-Perfect God Who Can Do No Wrong Ever- create evil? i, personally, have been led to believe by @/spacelazarwolf that it is simply because G-d, too, makes mistakes just like any human being, but the way you worded it in this paragraph (which I've included as a screenshot below) had me interpret G-d creating evil as a concious, intentional action. did i just not read it correctly? and, if i didn't, then is the reason G-d creates evil part of this central struggle you went in detail into in the same paragraph, and as such, a very individual part of Jewish belief that no two jews agree on? and if that is so, would you be comfortable with sharing your version of it?

a few paragraphs after that one, you dedicated many words to make it absolutely crystal clear that, in the process of unlearning and combating jew-hatred in the society around me, i should, in spite of the vitriol that they propagate, love the former friends i lost to antisemitism. how- and *why* should i love the people who, on an early october 8th morning, actively celebrated the news of a massacre of Israeli civilians? who mocked- and still mock- the survivors and the families of hostages? who wield the memory of the holocaust as a baton against Jewish people's right to self defense? who deify terror groups who are up to their necks in atrocities? who make an active effort to spit on the face of *reality?* How could i possibly look at the face of a friend who chose allegiance to a terrorist group she did not even know existed four months ago over me- who she had actively interacted with for much longer?

would you rather we called ourselves "gentiles" or "goyim?" I've been calling myself a gentile for the longest time because i see jamming a word from a language i don't speak at all in an otherwise english sentence to be disrespectful and constitute appropriation, but you and other jumblr blogs have given me the impression that that is not the case. furthermore- i believe it was @/bambahalva who pointed out the usage of the word "gentile" in antisemitic segregation policies.

that is all- i hope this message finds you well. oh, yeah one more thing- what do you think of The Forward news network? i came across them by chance and next thing i knew I'd gotten into their newsletter.

WARNING: I HAVE FINISHED WRITING THIS AND IT'S LONGER THAN I EXPECTED AND ALSO MORE JEWISH THAN I EXPECTED LOL! I have done the most Jewish possible thing I could do and answered all of your questions with questions. I'm sorrryyyyyy! This is what happens when you grow up surrounded by rabbis and future rabbis! LMAOO

Oooh! What a good ask! I love this ask. OK, so! Let's go in order.

First of all, thank you so much for your kind words. And thanking you for backing your words with the action of prioritizing kindness over hatred. It matters. More than I can ever explain. Thank you.

You know, it's funny. People ask me a lot of questions about i/p that they think will have simple and straightforward answers that just don't. And I end up writing a lot of essays because of this. The questions you wrote me seem like they should be complex, but feel relatively straightforward to me.

Now, to your first bullet point: I don't know. I truly do not know. I think that G-d is fundamentally just...G-d, and in so being, G-d is truly unknowable to me. I think many Jews have many different interpretations on why G-d creates evil. I'm no rabbi, but one of my BFFs is and so is her mother and great grandfather. That doesn't give me any kind of authority. It just means I've spent a lot of time thinking about theological questions like this. As for my perspective, I'm a progressive/reform Jew, not a humanistic Jew. I do actually believe in G-d, but I vibe with the community philosophies of Humanistic Judaism a lot. So that's the perspective I'm coming from here:

I'm not a particular fan of the Book of Job, because I think it gets twisted and interpreted in Christian ways more than most Hebrew books and it can too easily be twisted into a "Don't question G-d, because G-d is perfect" narrative that I find to be fundamentally at odds with how I practice Judaism. Also, it's just a very sad story about how a good and kind man lost everything, and it makes me sad to think about. HOWEVER, that traditional "Don't question G-d" narrative is not how I learned to think about that book. The way I learned it, I believe the Book of Job describes this issue most explicitly. After Job loses everything he holds dear and talks to all his friends and begs again and again "Why? Why did G-d do this to me? Why would G-d do this to me when I'm a good person?" And basically G-d hears everyone answering for G-d with various reasons, "Maybe you were bad." "Maybe you should make an offering" Maybe this. Maybe that. And eventually G-d responds from within a storm (paraphrased of course) 'Why the fuck do you think it's your business to know? I made the whole universe! I made everything you see. I made the world that gave you your family in your first place. Why do you think you get to question my motives?'

The way I always interpreted that is: I don't fricking know! It's not really my business. What am I gonna do? Stop G-d? How does my knowing why G-d creates evil help anything? It doesn't mean we don't question G-d. It means we should instead focus on what we CAN control. I can't make 10/7/2023 not happen any more than I could stop The Holocaust or form an ocean. That's divine business, not human business. What I CAN do is make the world better now. What use is it challenging things that we cannot change? Things that are in the past? What's the point of asking why bad things happen when we can instead focus on stopping more bad things from happening. G-d named us his people when Abraham fought with G-d to stop the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham repeatedly asked, "But are you sure? But what if there are 100 good people? 50 good people? 10 good people?" And G-d kept responding, basically, 'I mean, there aren't. I know this cuz of how I'm G-d and know all the things. But knock yourself out looking.' My interpretation of this was that G-d doesn't get mad when we do our utmost to help our fellow human beings. G-d gets mad when we waste our energy that we could be using to help our fellow man to instead be angry and rage futilely against the past. I say this as someone with PTSD as someone who attempted to stop a tragedy from occuring and failed and can never understand why. What informs my trauma and what makes it so hard to get past isn't that G-d allowed it to happen. It's that people did. It's that I begged for help before it happened--over and over and over to dozens of adults in various positions of authority in order to prevent this terrible thing from happening (no, I will not now or ever disclose what that thing is). And all the people who could have helped failed me, and now two people are dead. Because someone did an evil, evil thing. And a bunch of other people let it happen. I'm not mad at G-d. I'm mad at people. And yet, I also know that hating people and finding reasons to dismiss them and despise them is what leads to more tragedies like that happening. So, despite my rage, truly the only thing to do is to love people. It's the only that helps. It's the only thing that repairs the world. It's the only thing that we can control. So, in short, my answer to "Why does G-d create evil?" is "Why should I spend my valuable time on earth trying to answer that question when, instead, I can spend that same exact amount of time asking millions of people, 'How can I help? What's wrong, and how can I help make any part of it better?'?" We don't need to understand G-d to make the world a better place. I'm fine leaving G-d stuff to G-d and spending my time on the human stuff.

Now, your second bullet point. Love their souls. You don't have to love what they've done. But they are human beings, as are we all. I think this can also easily be twisted into the Christian framework of "Hate the sin, love the sinner," but that's not what I mean at all. People's evil deeds are a part of them. They need to take responsibility. There is no divine absolution for crimes that people do unto each other in Judaism. If you harm a person, G-d cannot forgive you for that. Only the person or people you harmed can forgive you. And to a certain degree, we are all defined by our actions toward others. And so, no. I do not forgive the terrorists who woke up and decided to kill a bunch of Israelis and Israeli-adjacent humans. I do not forgive those who celebrate the deaths of Israelis because of some misguided sense of justice. I do not forgive the people who continue to send me hatred and death threats day after day after day after day. And I do not love the parts of them that did and do those horrible, unforgivable things. But my goodness. They were babies once. They either had parents who love(d) them, which is so sad, because they have this life of love and they chose instead to fill it with so much hate. Or they didn't have any parents or loved ones or anyone to guide them and, my goodness. That is so sad. How terrifying and alone that must feel. Maybe they have friends and family who love them and are instead wasting their precious time on this planet directing their energy at raging against me and 15 million other Jews they've never met. Or maybe they don't have anyone who loves them and they think that hating me and harming me will bring them some sense of purpose and joy. What a horrid way to live.

My Grandpa died last year. I have a wonderful family for whom I'm very grateful, and I even have good memories with my Grandpa. But he was not a good person. He came from an abusive home, and weaponized that abuse on his loved ones until he drove them all away. He was a narcissist. Not in the pop psychology sense. But in the actual clinical sense. He ruined every relationship that ever mattered to him--personal and professional. And in the end, because of his own actions, he died alone. He had pushed everyone so far (often with legal threats and action) that when he died, he laid on a slab for weeks because nobody could figure out who to call, because he had no one left. (For reference, Jewish burials are supposed to happen rather quickly and two weeks is...not good.) He was the only person in his generation who was not born in Israel--my family on his side has lived in Israel since looooong before even the British Mandate and he was the only person in his family born and raised in the US. As far as we can tell, the family on that side has been in Israel for as long as Jews have existed. He was religious. And while I've never been to Israel or met any of my family there, he did go. And he kept in touch with his relatives there before driving them away too. He was a wealthy man, but convinced himself that everyone only wanted him for his money and then decided to horde it instead. He left nothing to his children or to me. He left all his money in an endowment to his university--a place that uses that money to fund anti-Israel organizations now. He died alone, without his family that lived nearby, and with a legacy that will now cause active harm to the family that lived far away. He could have died surrounded by the loved ones from around the world who wanted nothing more than to be near him and loved by him. His story is a tragedy. The story of every person who chooses hatred over love is a tragedy. The story of someone who woke up and chose to murder others or to delight in the death of others is a tragedy. I love the soul in the center of these people. I loved my grandfather. I could not be around him. I cannot forgive some of the things he said and did. But I love the person he could have been. I love the part of him that gave me some good memories. I love the family he gave to me.

No, we do not all need to love or forgive those who have wronged us or terrorized us or murdered our loved ones. But that is different from mourning a human soul. From loving the potential of a human soul to do good in the world, and mourning the loss of that soul and its potential. Every human being--every single one no matter what they have done in their lives--has the potential to create goodness and make the world a better place. Every moment of every single day is a new chance to meet that challenge and do our best. Sure, not all of us have it in us to try our best every single moment. Sometimes life is hard and we're sad and tired and hungry and angry. And that's ok, because we have tomorrow, and an hour from now, and a minute from now. But the moment someone chooses to take action and decides that action should be to cause another harm or celebrate the harm that was caused? That's a tragedy. And when a life is extinguished, that is a life that loses its potential to try again and do better. We shouldn't love people because we deem them worthy of love. We should love people because they are people. And so are we. And how wonderful is that? I could choose to hate them. It would be so easy! But why should I do that? What do I gain? What do they gain? And isn't it so wonderful that I chose to love instead? And isn't it so wonderful that you can, too?

As for your final bullet point: I have no preference. I say goyim cuz it's easier for me. Goy/gentile/non-Jew are all fine to me. I have some icky feelings about the word gentile for a variety of linguistic reasons I won't bore you with. But some other people don't like when non-Jews appropriate Yiddish words. Others (including me) find it wonderful when non-Jews call themselves goyim. All my closest non-Jewish people call themselves goyim, including my sister! Non-jew is the most neutral in English and least likely to offend anyone. But it still separates Jews as an other whereas "goy" is a way to distinguishing yourself from Jews while also being an acknowledgment of our culture. As far as I'm concerned as long as a goy is being a goy (ally, positive) rather than a goy (derogatory) I don't mind that they call themselves goyim. LOL! Idk, friend. Do what makes you happy! What do you prefer?!

Regarding The Forward news network: They are a reliable Left-Center source with a high credibility and reporting rating and only one failed fact check in the past five years for which they issued a correction. I would consider them a reliable source. They cover legitimate issues of people who support Palestinan self-determination ostensibly being punished for their stances. They publish Op-eds critical of Netanyahu, who is terrible. And they address how antisemitism is harming diaspora Jews. They seem to consistently emphasize the humanity of everyone, which you can tell based on the rest of my post is very important to me, but they also avoid over-editorializing on news that is not in the Op-Ed section. I'll never endorse any source as perfect or guaranteed to be free of problems or harm or bad takes, but they do seem to make a genuine effort to be factual, clear, and wholly truthful. Note: I highly recommend that everyone installs the Media Bias/Fact Check extension on their web browsers. Get in the habit of checking and evaluating sources critically. It's a skill that will serve you your whole life.

@clawdia-houyhnhnm I hope this helps. And thank you for your thoughtful ask and commitment to intercultural understanding. <3

#ask me stuff #clawdia-houyhnhnm #leftist antisemitism #antisemitism #jewish muslim solidarity #jewish goyim solidarity #Judaism #jewish culture #jumblr #how to help #allyship #media literacy

[corinthianism]

DON'T THEY KNOW? (IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD) || BENEDICT BRIDGERTON (1)

pairing: benedict bridgerton/fem!reader additional tags: zombie apocalypse au, graphic depictions of gore/violence, fluff, angst, biology stuff i just made up so it's probs super inaccurate lol, slow burn, friends to lovers summary: ravaged by a relentless virus, the world as you knew it falls into ruin. survivors are hardened by the blood on their hands and the horrors in their minds. amidst the end of everything, benedict proves that there is still hope, and perhaps something more, for the two of you. word count: 6.4k

author's note: welcome to the first part of my new zombie au series with our boy benedict! for those who don't know, this is based entirely on the fic "i'll be seeing you" by @eleanor-bradstreet! thanks again to them for letting me vomit up this fic based on their incredible one <333 anyway, this chapter is mostly exposition, so most of the benedict/you romance will really start in the succeeding parts. hopefully, you find this chapter interesting enough to stick around! (+for readers of my dean winchester series, don't worry! chapter 3 will come out soon!)

masterlist | series masterlist | ao3 | next chapter

CHAPTER ONE: HERE, IN THE END

The world had been so loud before.

The droning noise of traffic. Of the intermingling of a thousand phone calls, nestled in between cheeks and shoulders. Of people talking at each other, screaming over each other, fighting to get the final say in even the tiniest little thing. Everything blurred together into one great ocean of sound. You could drown in it, especially in the big cities.

You were right in the middle of it all: a drifter. It took a while but eventually, that ocean of sound became your home. You struggled to recall what it was like before that. That too, was blurry now along with everything else from Before. All you had now were fading fragments of a dream to be someone. Anyone.

That was how you met him, just before the beginning of the end. You still weren’t convinced that Benedict Bridgerton wasn’t some kind of romance novel character come to life; a talented artist from a long line of English nobility, and the first friend you ever made in New York. It was like something out of a crappy Hallmark movie. He laughed at your reaction upon learning that his brother was an actual viscount and that Benedict himself technically should be referred to as “the Honourable Benedict Bridgerton”, but despite all the grandeur that came with his heritage, Benedict was still… Benedict. In time, he became just Ben. He’d paint while you ranted about your borderline dangerous work hours or how your parents were bugging you to settle down. In turn, he shared with you his frustrations as an artist trying to make it in the world, without his family name, and how at the same time he missed his mother’s cooking. Conversations with him were always lovely, like breathing in the air in the middle of a field of flowers after a decade of being locked inside a dark, stuffy room. He was just like you. Just trying to be someone.

But those conversations all seemed so far away now. If you had known then what would become of your life, of those dreams to be someone, maybe you would’ve just let yourself drown in that ocean of sound. 

It only took two weeks for the world to fall into ruin. Only fourteen days for everything to go up in flames. 

The virus was ruthless. The most efficient killer the likes of which no one had ever seen. A terrifying force of nature seemingly tailored for the extinction of humanity. You were right in the middle of it all. You saw it with your own eyes, a cluster of people beginning to form in Times Square. With New York being New York, you thought nothing of it. You walked away none the wiser.

Until you heard someone scream, a gut-wrenching, visceral scream, followed by a sound you would never forget. A sound you’d have to hear over and over again for the better part of the next ten years, though you didn’t know it yet at the time: teeth ripping flesh from bone and the primal snarls accompanying it that couldn’t have been anything except inhuman. Monstrous, even. It sent ripples into the great big ocean you called home, altering it so permanently just seconds before you even realized what was happening. 

Sound, quickly followed by sight. 

The people huddled on the outer edges of the crowd ran off in terror, revealing the gruesome remains of what used to be a person. Even that was something you barely registered at first, eyes too focused on the bloody mouths feasting on it and white, foggy eyes. One of those things stopped its chewing, head snapping up suddenly. It sniffed the air for a while, as if sensing your fear even from twenty feet away. Those white eyes were looking at you now. Staring you down. Seconds later, the corpse being eaten started writhing back to life, or a perverted version of it. Its jaw was skewed, perpetually stuck wide open as drool and blood ran down its chin. You weren’t someone then. If your body hadn’t gone into autopilot, legs taking you as far away as they could, you would’ve been one of them. That was the very first day of what would be the longest two weeks of your life. You remembered it well.

There was no time to think or breathe. Even when your chest hurt from overexerting yourself and your lungs screamed for a break, you ran. You ran as fast as you could, crashing into people, some of which were still unaware of the horrors spreading just a block away from them. In the corner of your eyes, you knew that there were others like you, scrambling to go home, to go anywhere but here. Cars stopped in the middle of the road, curiosity killing the cat as drivers left their vehicles to see what was going on, only to be met with the same sight you were: death. In only a few minutes, nearly a third of the people on the streets were running, too. 

A little girl cried in her father’s arms, a teddy bear left behind and forgotten on the cement road as they also tried to get away. The realization dawning on the faces of onlookers that they should be doing the same. 

You reached your apartment building, not really knowing what you would do next, just that you needed to get away. The hallways were empty. A part of you hoped Ben was far, far away from here. A more selfish part of you hoped otherwise.

Supplies. You needed supplies. Food, clothes, water. Emergency kit, tools, weapons. Weapons. You had no fucking idea what to do with any of this! Just yesterday, you held a steady, if not miserable, office job. Today, you had to survive against whatever-the-hell those things were and perhaps even other people. The weight of that sudden realization twisted your guts in a sickening way, enough to make you almost throw up.

Peeking through your blinds, there were already three or four ambulances rushing to the direction of Times Square.Those things were not here yet and still, you naively hoped that help would come and dispatch of them before it got out of control. 

You barely noticed the sweat that began to trickle down your forehead and back, hairs raising out of instinct. Your whole body was going into overdrive, hyper-aware of the fact that you were in danger. 

The rapid knocking on your door nearly frightened you to death, until you heard Ben’s desperate calls of your name. Out of breath and scared… much like you. You wondered if he had seen it, too. When you confirmed through the peephole that it was, in fact, him, you dragged him inside your apartment. Your hands were on his face as soon as he was inside, needing to know that he was here, he was with you, he was alive. It seemed he had the same need, icy blue eyes taking you in with such an intensity you’d only ever seen when he was painting. It was easy to feel small under his gaze.

“Are you alright?” he breathed heavily, larger hands covering your own. 

You could only nod, the words stuck in your throat, “Did you- did you see-”

“I saw them,” he said, his composure faltering for a split second. “I saw them.”

You could hear more sirens outside, one after another, disrupting the ocean you had grown so familiar with. Louder and louder. 

“We need to leave, get out of New York,” he ran a hand through his hair, eyes moving wildly as he tried to come up with a plan. It was the Bridgerton in him: the bravery of his father, the gentleness of his mother. It didn’t need to be said out loud that the moment he saw those things, all he could think of was you. Getting to you and getting you safe. His only true friend in this city. It took all of fifteen minutes before you were out the door, nearly overwhelmed by the swarm of people all running away from Times Square. Ben held your hand tightly, and you did your best not to look behind you.

The sun was beginning to set, wrapping the city in a bright orange light. It felt ominous somehow, so unlike every other time you’d seen it. Like this was some form of judgment. As if at any moment, you’d hear the seven trumpets telling you that this was the end. You learned later on that you weren’t the only one that thought that. Bile threatened to rise in your throat when the shadows of night grew with each passing second. It felt like it was going to swallow you alive.

The road was packed full of people, crying and yelling and praying for salvation. Ants begging to get away from the magnifying glass only to be burned anyway.

The screams grew louder and against your better judgment, you looked back. You were too far away to see everything clearly, and because Ben was constantly pulling you forward, but you could make out the smaller swarm of walking corpses slowly coming into view. The poor souls who weren’t able to keep up with the main crowd were dragged away to be bitten, spreading the godforsaken disease. More and more bodies littered the streets, staining the concrete with the blood of dozens. Then, not even a minute later, they would rise with jaws gnashing and wide white eyes, their humanity lost forever.

Your legs felt so heavy, as did the rest of you. If it weren’t for Ben’s ferocious determination to get out of the city and to keep the both of you safe, you wouldn’t have survived that first day at all. Helicopters flew above and across the city, the whooshing of its blades mingling with the screams. The ocean of sound was threatening to drown you. You didn’t look up anymore. It would’ve shattered you if you had, because you knew there weren’t nearly enough choppers to save everyone in the city. It was impossible. Your heart broke for all the people, all the someones, who were dead long before they could even fight for the chance to live.

The sky was dark now.

By some miracle, you reached the army’s barricade. Soldiers ushered people to safety, including you and Ben. You squeezed his hand, causing him to look at you for a moment. A temporary reprieve from that day’s horrors. His fair skin was shiny with sweat, his hair sticking to his forehead like black tendrils. It was like everything slowed down, but maybe it was all just in your head. His chest rose and fell, rose and fell, rose and fell. The moment was cut short when you heard an explosion from behind you. Your head snapped to the direction of the noise, so did Ben’s, and the “small swarm” of the undead from before had multiplied to thrice its size in the short few minutes you spent running away. 

Gunfire rang in your ears once the monsters got a little too close for the army’s liking, but the crowds of the living and the undead had already begun to mix by that point. Bullets meant to pierce rotting flesh ended up killing people who were very much alive and uninfected. You could only watch, from behind the barricade of soldiers, the people in the perpetually moving crowd who would stop once they realized their loved ones were no longer beside them. You could only watch when the body of a child (belonging to the same little girl you saw earlier that day, you realized grimly) was forcefully torn from the arms of her father when a soldier spotted the bite mark on her leg, bleeding and angry. Her plump, tear-stained cheeks that were once symbols of her youth and innocence were ruined by a sickly green that rose to the surface, emphasizing violet veins that always looked like it was crawling, spreading just underneath the skin. Then, she was one of them. Writhing, bones cracking. There was no recognition in her cloudy eyes when her father begged for his baby girl to come back to him. 

Ben held you tighter, his hand cradling your head as the other soldiers evacuated as many people as they could.

“We need to go,” he pleaded, still firmly holding on to you as you were both pushed around by the crowd. “Please, love, just look at me.”

So you did. Those eyes, brilliant and blue and full of worry, were the only things that pulled you back down to Earth. Tears were shed and prayers were whispered on the chopper that whisked you away from New York. A couple hundred feet into the air, you could see the city crumble. You remembered briefly wondering how many bodies were left behind or how many turned into one of those things.  

Everything changed in those first fourteen days of the Outbreak. Eighty percent of the world’s population had been wiped out, unprepared to face a force so vicious. That was how effective the virus was, which was later dubbed the “Gaia Virus”. Mother Nature’s wrath.

The survivors in the States were brought to “safe zones” all over the country, areas barren and isolated enough that the Infected, which mostly stayed in the previously overpopulated cities and towns, were unlikely to get to them. The first few months after the Outbreak were spent being transferred to different safe zones, never staying for more than a week at a time.  

At first, the safe zones were supposed to be a temporary refuge for survivors. The government, or what was left of it, promised to reclaim the cities within a year and make them habitable again. Then a year passed, and they said it would take them another year. So another year passed and they said the same thing. Over and over until… radio silence. No one brought it up again. The few who did were not treated kindly by the rest of the survivors. 

Most people caught onto the memo fairly quickly, with soldiers and generals making up the new leadership hierarchy of the safe zones in place of politicians and peacemakers: you keep your head down, you do as you’re told, and you’ll get food and water and blankets.

The people brave (or stupid) enough to make a scene were never heard from again by the next week.

So there you were, moving across the country, going from state to state and living off of food rations and hope. Both were two resources that were steadily depleting. Benedict was there with you through it all, your steadfast companion. Conversations about surrealism and horrible bosses turned into questions about whether or not your friends and families were safe, if they had made it to the safe zones. That was the first time you saw him cry, not able to withstand the possibility that his beloved mother and siblings were gone, perhaps now part of the Infected. Even if they survived, he knew there was a slim chance he would ever see them again. He cursed himself sometimes, him and his foolish need to be someone. If he had stayed in Kent, if he just settled down like his brothers, perhaps he would still be with them today. But his mother was the kindest woman he had ever known and he knew deep down that she forgave him long before he realized what he’d done. He knew they all did.

Grief was your (and Ben’s) constant state of being. It weighed you down on most days, making your feet dig deeper into the dirt when you walked. On some days, it was all-consuming. It was the only reason most survivors rarely caused any trouble. As horrible as humans could be to each other, this shared grief that echoed through the hearts of everyone was translated into little acts of kindness that, at the best of times, were life-saving. To be given a drop of water by a woman dying of thirst. To be offered a piece of bread by a man whose stomach rumbled louder than his voice. More often than not, it was always the eldest survivors that did this. Perhaps it was because they knew that they had already lived long, fulfilling lives. Perhaps it was because they knew Death was already at their door, so they might as well help someone else live.

Of course, there would always be people looking out for themselves, you and Ben had expected that from the get go, but it still surprised you how much compassion a person could still have at the end of the world. It didn’t happen too often though, but the times that it did were memories you held close to your heart.

The days went by, often cruel and unforgiving to those who couldn’t adjust to the new reality, but Ben still found ways to make you smile. 

“It’s the artist in me,” he said to you one night, three years after the Outbreak, when you had asked him how he could bear to still be so… him. There was a secluded spot you two often escaped to whenever there was a need for it, a small cliff at the edge of the safe zone. You were both slightly tipsy from whiskey you traded some radio parts for. “The whole world’s gone to shit and I can’t help but still find it somewhat beautiful. It’s like a movie, isn’t it? Two friends at the end of the world— and besides, what else are we supposed to do? Wallow in self-pity? I think you and I do enough of that.”

The sun was beginning to set, something you had grown to dislike since that first day. You decided to lie down for a moment, uncaring if bits of soil got in your hair. You closed your eyes, trying to just be. You didn’t always get the opportunity to do that anymore.

“Look,” he nudged your side after a while, his accent slurring a little as he pointed at something. You raised a brow at him, now-open eyes following what his finger was pointing at. The sky. It was pitch black, but a splash of stars covered the heavens like a mural. You had never seen that many stars before, certainly not in the cities you’d lived in your whole life. Ben sighed and your attention was back on him. “You couldn’t see them as clearly back home, but I used to stargaze often with my siblings.”

“That sounds lovely,” you whispered.

“It was.”

The two of you were silent for a while, just sitting on that patch of dirt, overlooking the vast lands that spread as far as the eye can see. That was how isolated these safe zones were. The gentle night breeze tickled your skin. 

“I haven’t really looked at the sky properly since the Outbreak,” you confessed, slumping in your seat. “I think it makes me feel small. And sad. Look at us. Our tiny little planet, how fucked up everything is. Look at us. And there’s a whole universe out there that’s completely indifferent to everything that goes on down here.”

“It’s humbling,” he hummed in understanding. “To be a speck in a great big universe yet feeling a whole universe worth of emotion.”

“That’s good,” you chuckled. “Very poetic.”

He grinned at you, cheeks flushed slightly, “I try.”

Another bout of silence.

“Thank you, by the way.” 

“Whatever for, love?” he raised a brow in curiosity, his tone soft. It always was.

“For being here,” you took a deep breath. “For sticking around.”

His smile shone brighter when he heard this, his hand finding its way around yours. “You’d be mad to think I’d ever leave you here. If anything, you’re stuck with me. I’m just—” he cleared his throat. “I’m just sorry that… that it has to be like this. Drifting, never staying too long in one place to be able to call it a home. You deserve more. You deserve better.”

“You say that like it’s your fault,” your hand squeezed his in hopes of bringing him some comfort. “I’m not gonna lie and say we’re doing alright because we honestly look like shit”—that earned you a hearty chuckle from him—”but we’re doing better than most. And that’s because we’ve had each other all this time. That’s one of the things I was thanking you for. None of this on you, Ben. You deserve more, too. You hear me?”

He straightened his back and flashed you a soft smile, “I hear you.”

The two of you looked back up at the sky, admiring the twinkling of millions of stars. You were somewhere in Arizona, according to the other survivors. Soldiers kept the exact location under lock and key to dissuade survivors from sharing it with others who were still out in the open world. There just wasn’t enough room. But you had a feeling that it had more to do with the risk of attracting Infected. Limited armada and manpower meant the military was just unable to handle that kind of scenario.

You learned more about the Infected over time, having worked odd jobs for the military for more food, water, or supplies. Even something as simple as filtration duty on Tuesdays earned you tidbits of information.

From what you could piece together in the past couple of years, the Gaia Virus most likely came from melting glaciers and ice caps, triggered by global warming. It polluted bodies of water across the world, eventually making its way into reservoirs undetected. It was the perfect way to spread. Nobody can last more than three days without water, so the virus made sure no one would last at all. Once fully turned, Infected were nearly perfect killers. Soldiers sometimes told stories of their encounters with them. They were completely blind, though that much was obvious from the milkiness of their eyes. Infected also didn’t react to any physical damage done to them. Whether or not they felt it was a different story. With possibly two of their senses out of the picture, the rest were heightened. They could hear and smell better than people. If prey were close enough, all those things had to do was follow the scent trail. The fact that these monsters could perceive things humans could barely register was a terrifying thought.

Bodies of Infected retrieved from the destroyed cities were studied, Ben himself had seen this on one such odd job. The virus kills its host before taking over the body, this much was known. However, the brain was shown to endure, preventing the more advanced stages of decomposition. It raised questions about whether or not hosts really died, or if a tiny part of them still lived on even as they transformed into flesh-eating beasts. You’ve heard whispers that it was more like the brain sent constant streams of adrenaline even after death, keeping the body going long after it was supposed to fall apart and rot. True or not, it was the only explanation you had.

You’d seen your fair share of people who’ve fallen victim to a bite; doomed to have their life snuffed out as soon as that was discovered, whether that was by execution or dying to the virus. 

The time it took to die after being bitten was different for everyone. Some died within minutes, others within hours. The longest one you’d seen was a soldier brought back to the Detroit safe zone after a patrol gone wrong. A stray Infected had sensed him and attacked him during the night, leaving a massive bite on his shoulder. He fought so fiercely against the symptoms of the fever, hovering between life and death for nearly an entire day before finally succumbing to the virus. You couldn’t forget how pale he was when he was wheeled into the makeshift camp on a gurney, watching the life be drained out of him in real time. He was shot in the head by his comrades as soon as he turned. The event shook everyone. The disappearances began shortly after that.

The people who spoke up against the military drew the ire of everyone: the military didn’t tolerate people who questioned their authority and everyone else just wanted to mind their own business. When these undesirables began to disappear, everyone chalked it up to them just being hard-headed. The popular theory was they got sick of the military’s iron grip and decided to leave the safe zone, and then probably died. Nobody took it too seriously. Nobody could have done anything about it anyway. Everyone was just focused on staying alive. 

Cooper was another survivor in the Arizona safe zone. You and Ben had been there for a month, and he was the first and only person to welcome you with open arms. He was a lanky man, and had blond hair and kind, brown eyes. Only a few years younger than you. He was the jovial type, often inviting you and Ben to tag along with him on whatever job he found earlier that day. His Boston accent was unmistakable, often getting stronger when offered liquor. 

He was also in strong opposition to the militant lifestyle in the safe zones, though he knew better than to broadcast his distaste. Cooper joined you and Ben on the night the two of you were stargazing, eyes wide in terror. You had never seen him like that before. He was always one to stay optimistic, which was a wonder considering the state of the world. Cooper looked like he ran to get to you, his damp tattered shirt sticking to his body.

He grabbed you by your shoulders, fingertips digging into your skin deep enough to make you wince all while a jumble of words were frantically spewing out of his mouth. Ben immediately got up, nearly growling at Cooper for hurting you, “Get your hands off them.”

It seemed as though Ben’s warning briefly snapped Cooper back to reality, because the man did pull away but his hands still trembled violently.

“What’s wrong?” you furrowed your brows in worry, unused to seeing Cooper in such a state.

“You need to get out of here,” it felt like there was something darker lingering behind his words. He looked at Ben. “You need to go.”

“Hold on, hold on,” Ben cut him off, his protectiveness from before calming down when he finally noticed the genuine panic and fear in Cooper’s eyes. “Tell us what’s happening.”

The poor man looked like he was ready to explode right then and there. He was practically soaked in his own sweat, both from the exhaustion of running to get to you and Ben, and the shock of the news he brought, it seemed.

“They were taking them,” he choked back tears, his feet stuck to the ground. His nostrils were flaring from how hard he was breathing.

“Who, Coop? Who’s taking who?” this time it was your hands on his shoulders, though your touch was gentle, trying to keep him grounded. 

“The soldiers,” he whispered, his voice grim. “We- we thought they were executing them for questioning the army but I saw them! I saw them. In the big tent. They’re trying… they’re trying to make a vaccine.”

The severity of his tone reminded you all too much of Ben at your doorstep on that very first day of the Outbreak.

Ben’s surprise was palpable, “What?”

“A vaccine,” Cooper stressed, each breath he drew was ragged (you could hear it from how close he was standing to you), “but it’s not working. I saw the bodies. Whatever they’re doing, it’s torture— you should’ve seen them. They infected them on purpose.”

Your blood went cold, like liquid nitrogen shocking your system. That’s what the army had been doing all this time?  It made perfect sense, but the new information flooded your brain with images of those people who went missing, strapped to a table, and being injected with the virus. If they were trying to make a vaccine, they—the test subjects—would have to have been kept alive for as long as possible, conscious of the parasite invading their body. It made your stomach churn, forcing you to step back and look away. Ben was similarly devastated, jaw clenched as he stared at Cooper. He zeroed in on a different piece of information.

There were Infected in the safe zone.

“That’s… they can’t just keep taking people,” he gritted his teeth. Cooper stayed silent. Ben spoke again, firmer and more desperate this time, “...can they?”

“Nobody’s gonna come looking for you even if they did,” Cooper said, defeated. Still breathing hard. “We’re too far away. And if the rest of the safe zones aren’t already in the same situation then they aren’t gonna waste gas to go all the way here. The soldiers here can just make up something and no one would know.”

An “oh, God” left your lips, your hands shaking, mirroring Cooper’s. From where you stood, you could see the main camp and the largest tent, the main military tent, in the middle of it. You’ve walked past it, stared at it a hundred times, and never knew what was going on inside. You found yourself asking if there was a time when you stared at that tent, and just on the other side was someone just like you being experimented on with the deadliest virus known to mankind.Your eyes stung with tears when your treacherous mind thought of Ben in that position, bruised by different needles and tubes protruding from him.

“Please, you need to go,” Cooper pleaded with the two of you desperately, his head hanging low.

“Shit,” Ben cursed under his breath, rubbing his eyes with one hand in frustration. “All of our supplies are back in the main camp.” 

“You can’t go back!”

“We’ll die out there if we don’t get those supplies,” you pointed out to the blond. “We wouldn’t last a week.”

Ben had already begun to walk back to camp, masking his anxieties to the best of his abilities if what Cooper was saying was true. You weren’t that far behind, ears ringing with Cooper’s pleas not to go back. He didn’t chase after you anymore, falling silent once he realized there was nothing he could do to change your mind. It was only a short trek from the cliff back to the main camp. The outer perimeter of the safe zone was always being patrolled by soldiers which meant, without any weapons, you would’ve been dead if you tried to escape right away. A checkpoint came into view along with the two guards, Paul and Walter, holding rifles on either side of the path. You were familiar with each other from how often you passed through this checkpoint to get to the cliff.

“Paul, Walter,” Ben smiled coolly at the guards once you were finally standing in front of them. “Late shift? I thought you’d have switched with Reese by now.”

“Higher-ups needed more men in other places, so here we are,” Paul sighed, before turning his attention to you. “You guys back at the cliff again?”

“Yeah,” you mimicked Ben, feigning a smile of your own. You still weren’t completely sure if Cooper had been telling the truth, but interacting with Paul felt different now that you knew what could’ve been happening behind closed doors. “Camp can be a little too much sometimes, y’know? No offense. Just… needed to get away for a while.”

Paul nodded in understanding. 

“Okay, you know the routine,” Walter shrugged, handing you and Ben a bloodchecker each. It was a small vial full of a blue solution, connected to a thin, replaceable tube ending with a needle. The solution would turn clear if mixed with Gaia-infected blood, and a dark muddy brown if the blood was clean. You pierced your arm with the needle, watching your blood travel through the tube and drip down into the solution, turning it brown as you had expected. Glancing over at Ben’s bloodchecker, you found that his was the same. Thankfully.

You were about to pass through the checkpoint when Walter pulled Ben aside, muttering something you couldn’t quite make out, but you saw Ben’s reaction. To anyone else, it would have seemed like he didn’t react at all. Most people only would’ve noticed his polite smile and hushed ‘thank you” to the guard before returning to your side, but you saw through it: the slightest twitch of his hand and the way his lips tightened at what Walter told him. It was so clear to you that he was bothered by it, whatever it was. 

“What was that?” you asked him, trying to keep up with his fast-paced stride.

He only spared you a single glance, only a single moment of softness, but now you were inside the central safe zone. Soldiers were standing guard in every direction. There seemed to be more of them than usual. Ben continued forward to the direction of your tent which was a bit farther from everyone else’s. He kept his voice low, “Not here.”

Your shared tent with Ben was bare. The apocalypse didn’t exactly grant you a life of luxury, but that tent was yours. It stayed the same after every new safe zone you were transferred to. Next to the two worn down single mattresses were your backpacks, one of the only things you still had from before the Outbreak besides each other. While you double-checked your supplies, making sure nothing was missing while you were gone, Ben slid one of the mattresses to the side, which was sitting on top of an old rug. He pulled that aside too, his hands digging into the soil, digging and digging until finally, you could see the lid of a crate you had buried.

The crate was filled with jugs of water. Clean, pure, uninfected water. The result of three years of patiently collecting rainwater and saving up whatever the army gave you, carefully filtering each drop throughout the night when you knew no one else would be bothering you. This water was precious. It was gold. And it was a pain to move from safe zone to safe zone. You and Ben had had to resort to bribing and lying for the past three years to make sure it was safe. 

Once you were done checking over the supplies, you knelt by Ben’s side. “So… are you gonna tell me what Walter said to you or are you gonna keep being mysterious?” you tried to keep your tone light.

“They were looking for Cooper,” his gaze didn’t leave the jugs of water. His hands, once always covered in paint, were now caked in dirt. “Said we should report him if we did.”

“What?” you questioned. “That doesn’t make any sense, everyone has to go in and out of that checkpoint to get to the cliff. There’s no way Paul and Walter didn’t see him.”

“So how could he have seen all of those supposed experiments in the main tent?” he turned to face you, his expression severe. “That tent is the most heavily guarded thing in this camp. If what he said is true, then there was no way he could’ve left and not be spotted and then somehow manage to get to us without going through the checkpoint.” 

The two of you sat in silence for a while, racking your brains for any sort of information that could help you get closer to solving this mystery. It was entirely plausible that Cooper had been lying about the experimentations and the vaccines but despite having only known him for a short while, you knew he wasn’t the type to do something like that. He wouldn’t lie about something like that. Hell, he was the kind of person that worked overtime during the apocalypse. He was an honest man.

Then you remembered something.

“It’s Tuesday today.”

Ben looked at you, puzzled, “Yes, it is… What’s going through your head, love?”

“Filtration duty,” you answered. “They filter out the water in the main tent…”

“...then dump the waste outside of camp,” Ben finished for you, eyes widening. “You think Cooper was in the main tent on purpose?”

“I mean, that’s the only explanation, right? Nothing else has left camp since last week and nobody checks a truck carrying waste. Maybe Cooper was on one of those trucks,” you said before looking back at Ben. “I… I thought I was just seeing things. Did you notice how he was earlier?”

“Out of breath from running…?” Ben frowned, not quite following your train of thought as easily as he usually did.

“He wasn’t just out of breath. He was smelling me.” 

You could practically hear the cogs turning in his head as he put the pieces together. He couldn’t quite believe the conclusion he arrived at, that much you could tell, but the disbelief washed away when no other possible explanation presented itself to him.

“How?” his voice was shaky, a quiet sort of devastation clouding his features. Cooper was likely already infected earlier, though you couldn’t tell which stage of infection he was at. The signs pointed to a peculiar middleground between the fever that occurred right before death, and the grotesque reanimation once the virus had complete control over the body.

“Maybe he was telling the truth. Part of it, at least.”

You both looked back at the jugs of water, taking out a few of the smaller containers before hurriedly placing the lid back on the crate. With the crate concealed by the soil and rug, you and Ben made quick work of gathering your things, hiding the small jugs of water underneath clothes, foods, and whatever else were in your bags. 

You always made sure to have a plan in case you ever needed to leave a safe zone. The water you collected was too valuable; you had to be able to move it whenever and wherever you needed, but with all the soldiers standing guard outside, you knew this would be impossible even with all of your planning. You just had to bring what you could.

Without uttering a word, you and Ben both knew this was the last night you were ever going to spend in this place. 

-

series taglist: comment down below if you'd like to be added!

#benedict bridgerton #benedict bridgerton x reader #bridgerton x reader #reader insert #bridgerton fanfic #bridgerton au #luke thompson

[alliumnightmare]

Cigarettes After Sex

Pairing: han jisung x fem!reader

WC: ~2.1k

Tags: smut! angst if you squint? no use of y/n

Warnings: jisungs kinda subby, reader is lowkey selfish and toxic, dub-con (tagging it to be safe), semi-public sex, car sex, unprotected sex, overstimulation (male receiving), mentions and describtion of smoking

Synopsis: reader uses jisung for sex

[a/n: i haven't written anything in like four years but i had this idea. also forgive me for potential grammar mistakes and especially for the fucking tenses(?) i was struggling hard - english isnt my first language lol]

You were standing outside waiting for your ride, you could smell the rain in the night air and hear the loud music from inside the house, you just stepped out of.

A car you knew too well came to a stop a few feet away from you.

Picking up your bag from the ground, you walked towards the passenger side and opened the door with a wide smile.

"What happened?" your best friend, behind the steering wheel tilts his head to the side as he asks. You dismiss him with a hand gesture, signaling him to just start the car and drive.

Your phone screen lights up the car. It's awfully silent, the only thing you can hear is the engine and the cars driving past you and you try to distract yourself from the awkward silence.

It's not the first time Jisung picks you up after a situation like this but it gets more awkward after happening so many times.

You can feel Jisung's occasional glance towards you, you know damn well you have to tell him why he had to pick you up again, but you hoped you could delay it for a bit longer.

Jisung finally comes to a halt in an empty parking lot, he unbuckles himself and turns his body slightly your way "So?".

You don't look up, trying to ignore his piercing gaze.

He coughs to get your attention, you look up "It's so dumb." you chuckle and search for the pack of cigarettes in your pocket, "You know, just the usual." Putting the paper between your lips and cupping the flame of the lighter to burn the tip of your cigarette.

You inhale the smoke into your lungs, the taste of tobacco filling your mouth.

Cigarettes stopped giving you the effects you so desperately need ages ago. At this point, it's just an addiction, but you're still trying to chase that feeling of ecstasy and relief you got when you started to smoke.

Jisung's face showed open disgust. He didn't mind you smoking in his car but he also didn't approve of it. He hates that you smoke, he didn't want you destroying your body but he also knew he had no right to tell you off.

His fingers moved to the little latch on the door, to open the window slightly to at least let some fresh air in.

He so desperately wants to just take the deadly stick from your lips and throw it out the window. He wants to tell you that you should stop and search for other coping mechanisms and that he's there to help you through all of it. But instead, he just sits next to you every time and observes how you exhale the smoke from your gorgeous lips.

"Listen, you wanted me to pick you up, and you're obviously hurt" Jisung was looking at the mascara streaks running down your face, exposing you were crying, "so just tell me what he did this time."

You exhale another cloud of the toxic smoke before speaking "It's just, we were making out, about to-" You pause and look away in embarrassment, "You know... anyway, he basically broke up with me and walked away again"

The brunette looks in the opposite direction, trying to hide the annoyed roll of his eyes. He takes your hand in his and locks eyes with you: "You need to let him go for good. He's not worth your time. He broke up with you over seven times in the past three months"

You know Jisung was right, he always is. But you're only human, with needs. And your boyfriend, now ex-boyfriend, makes you feel wanted, at least most of the time.

"You deserve someone who treats you better, who knows your worth, who treats you like a princess" Your best friend's eyes are filled with so much concern and love for you. You've seen him look at you this way so many times. You know he has feelings for you. You know you shouldn't play with him and give him hope, yet here you are crawling over the center console onto his lap.

Your legs on either side of his, the steering wheel almost painfully digging in your back, your skirt hitching up ever so slightly. It's not comfortable but it'll do the job.

He looks extremely surprised by your action but places his hands on the outside of your thighs anyway, his thumbs draw small circles on them.

Both of you aren't used to each other's body in such close proximity. Yes, you two had been best friends for years now, but you didn't do cuddling, or skinship in general, you barely even hugged each other. So being this close, in this position was new for the both of you.

You grin at him, almost teasingly "Someone who treats me like a princess, hm?"

You could see him swallow, his eyes scanning every part of your face but returning to your lips every time.

The smell of old smoke mixed with your perfume on you, made him lightheaded in all the right ways. He always wanted you this close, he always wants to smell exactly what he's smelling right now, never wants to get rid of you on top of him.

"yes." he tried to make his voice seem strong and dominant, but you could tell he was extremely nervous by your action.

Slowly, you lean forward pushing your lips on his. Not wasting any time, you cup his face with both your hands and straighten your posture, almost hovering over him at this point to deepen the kiss.

You bite his lower lip, sliding your tongue past them. He lets out a noise of surprise but moves his lips and tongue against yours. You give him some time to explore your mouth – tongues dancing against each other.

He could taste the tobacco and alcohol you had earlier. Normally he would pull away, not kiss you again, Normally he didn't like the taste. But it was you, the one he wanted to kiss for years. From your lips it tastes so different. It tastes like you. He can't get enough.

Jisung squirms under you, more or less accidentally moving his core against yours. He bites your lower lip, trying to hide a moan. Knowingly you smirk against his lips, rocking your hips on his. You could feel him grow inside his pants. His hands move from your thighs to your hips, helping you slightly move back and forth on him.

Breaking the kiss and stopping your movements, you travel your hands down his chest to the waistband of his pants, without wasting time to open them and reach inside his boxers. Moving your hands over his painfully hard cock. He hisses when your hand comes in contact with him.

You take him out in a swift motion, his tip wet from pre cum. You almost start salivating at the sight beneath you, only wanting to taste him. You take your finger and gather some of the pre cum on it, bringing it to your mouth. Eyes never leave his, as you suck it off your finger and hum.

Jisung lets out a light moan at the sight. His eyes are heavy, his lids only half open from all the excitement and arousal and the next thing he knows is your folds moving up and down on his length.

He hasn't even noticed that you took your panties off, but what he didn't know was, you left your underwear accidentally back at your ex-boyfriend's house after he left you desperate for his cock on the bathroom floor.

The feeling of his cock between your wet folds and his tip poking your clit every time you were sliding down is almost heavenly – sending jolts of pleasure down your spine, straight to your core.

"f-fuck", Jisung was almost whimpering.

He would think about how your cunt would feel around him every night, the real thing was so much better than everything he could've ever imagined.

Lips on his neck, his mouth slightly open. As you continue to rock your hips on his dick, you were sucking and biting his neck, leaving your marks on his soft skin – A little souvenir for him.

You couldn't take it anymore, you needed to be filled badly, you don't care who or what it was, as long as it would fill you nicely and Jisungs cock looked perfect for this job.

Slightly raising your hips you teased yourself with his red tip, before pushing it against your entrance and lowering yourself onto him.

The delicious stretch had you rolling your eyes to the back of your head. Jisung inclines the backrest of his seat to give you more space to move and him a more comfortable position, but as he does his cock slips deeper inside of you. Both of you caught off guard, moan in unison

You had better cock in your life but he felt like heaven inside you at this very moment.

You don't wanna be too mean, so you give him time to ground himself inside of you. Only circling your hips ever so slightly to get some friction.

The moment he reaches up to grop your clothed tits, is your sign to move.

You lift your hips, until only his tip is inside you and let yourself fall onto him. Jisung whines, grabbing your tit harder, just trying not to cum too early.

Your hard nipple caught between two of his fingers, trying to give you some pleasure in return, but he's gone already. He was drooling the moment your wet cunt made contact with his cock.

The only things leaving Jisungs mouth are choked noises and pretty whines and whimpers. You are now full-on fucking yourself on his cock, only looking out for your pleasure.

Both your heads are thrown back as you continuously fall on his cock. The only sound filling the car is your squelching cunt and the sounds of Jisungs choked-out moans.

The slight curve of his cock hits the spongy, sensitive spot within you so perfectly, feeling the pleasure at the tip of your toes. Your breathing starts to pick up as well, you're coming so close to your long-awaited release.

"shit, I'm cumming", Jisung warns you with a whiny whisper. You grin and continue your movements, speeding up. "P- Please, get down. I'm cumming" he repeats, this time his whine is louder.

You heard him, of course you did. Who could ignore all these cute sounds coming from him? But you want him to fill you, you need to be filled by his cum.

You start to suck and bite his earlobe, your heavy breaths directly on Jisungs ear. This gives him the rest and he shudders under you, painting your insides white. He holds onto you tight, trying to come down from his high.

Slowing your movements slightly, you fuck him through his orgasm. But after he's done, you don't stop. You continue seeking your own high. Jisung tries desperately to halt your hips, "Please stop - fuck, can't take more" his voice is weak and only a whimper. Still, you continue fucking yourself on his oversensitive dick, fucking his cum deeper into you.

You reach down to your clit, rubbing it vigorously. The contact with the sensitive bundle of nerves mixed with his cock hitting your deepest spots made you let out a loud noise from your throat.

The poor man under you is tossing and turning his head as you torture him with your soaking cunt. "You can take it. Only a bit more" you moan into his ear.

His eyes closed tightly, tears streaming down his face from the overstimulation you're putting him through. He looks so pretty all fucked out and crying.

After a few more plunges, your walls squeeze around his cock and you cum. halting your hips down, you rub your clit through your orgasm.

Your cunt squeezing and pulsing around him, before you finally lift yourself off of him, letting his poor abused cock fall out of you.

You crawl back to the passenger side, his cum trickling out of you onto the seat.

Minutes pass, Jisungs doesn't open his eyes. You give him some time to come down, his breathing still heavy.

Shortly after he opens his eyes, you lean over giving him a quick peck on the cheek, "Thanks for that, Ji". You open the door and get out "But I think I'm going back to his house".

Jisungs heavy eyes follow you as you light a new cigarette and vanish around the corner.

#stray kids #stray kids x reader #stray kids smut #han jisung #jisung x reader #han jisung x reader #han jisung x you #stray kids x you #jisung smut #han jisung smut #stray kids hard thoughts #jisung hard thoughts #skz smut #skz hard thoughts #han jisung fanfic #han jisung scenarios

[nientedal]

Hello, I binged a bunch of your Megamind fics last night (best mistake of my life 🥲). But since I'm not an old Megamind fan, or even an old fan of yours, I don't really know how did you come up with the bird-like singsong language headcanon and not sure where to look for answers either. Megamind with gills headcanon is pretty intuitive, but this? Tell me more, please ~

Thank you for your work. Megamind is a masterpiece, but even DreamWorks couldn't begin to explore all the implications of the story.

Omg I love this question, thank you for asking! And I'm so happy to hear you enjoyed my writing 💙👽💙 I hope you can nap today!

The short explanation is simply that the way I see it, if Megamind's species can live underwater, the language spoken in his culture of origin cannot work the same way our languages do. The primary mechanics of human languages, air flowing out through our mouths, will not work for an aquatic species unless their language is bubbles. So I needed something else, and...I like birds a lot. When I wrote Swansong (I think Swansong was my first fic in which Megamind speaks any Punktsyk), I honestly wasn't thinking about it very much, except "birds whistle and chirp, and so do dolphins and whales, so Megamind sounds like birds and dolphins and whales."

The long explanation of how I got to the fully-developed headcanon for his language as I currently write it is below:

The long explanation is that Megamind's specific combination of birdsong+whalesong was developed over a long period of time. I like birds a LOT, lol. I've also always loved the idea of a Megamind who looks more or less human-shaped, but is otherwise very very alien. So (years & years before I started writing him with gills) I wrote him as making some bird-like sounds very early on in my writing. 2012, 2013 or so, I think. I also wrote him mentioning a syrinx, which is a vocal structure some birds have. Just for fun, because at that time I was avoiding writing very much about his homeworld. And I wrote Swansong, which...as far as I know is the first appearance of Megamind with gills, so I didn't have much inspiration other than "I like birds" lmao. But I needed him to speak to Minion underwater, and I have no idea how Minion manages aquatic English, so I gave Megamind a different voice and leaned into those bird noises I had mentioned in passing before, in other stories.

Aaaand then I got depression and didn't publish anything for a couple years... and THEN I got on new meds and came roaring back to life with new inspiration, thinking, Fuck it! We've had no new information in years! I'm gonna do what I want! Gills! A new language! Let's go let's go let's go!

First, I needed a reason for Megamind to actually be fully fluent in his parents' language, so I gave Minion inherited memories. With the way I was writing Minion's biology, it made sense that his species might be able to do something like that. I thought, okay, Minion lives in an orb underwater, how long would it have taken him to learn any human languages? So Megamind is fully fluent in his parents' language because Minion could really ONLY speak that for a long time.

And THEN I sat down and started trying to actually figure out the language itself. I had already had the thought (several times, over the years) that if those bird noises I gave him are natural for him, there was no reason any of the languages on Megamind's homeworld would sound even remotely human. I was really sad about this, because I had hoped to write something Roxanne could eventually learn to speak, but...it just wouldn't work in my head. I was writing Dive and fully committing to Megamind as a fish-man, so his language needed to make equal sense in water and air, and for that, it needed to be something truly alien.

Like I said, I had written him singing already. This was just his language from Swansong, but more developed. I wanted a deeper song for him, too, like a whale, so I wrote long chambers along his spine, to run air back and forth and sing the emotion underlying the birdsong "words." I also gave him a kind of rolling "vocal loop" to keep air flowing through his syrinx without letting go of it through his nose or mouth, so he can sing underwater as well as in air. I think he probably also has structures he can work behind his nose, for clicking. He can make a LOT of noises, lol.

If I'm remembering correctly, I was still thinking maybe he had a different language out of the water while I was writing Dive. It wasn't until a couple months later when I wrote Wake Your Sleepy Soul that I decided it was a single language. I imagine it sounds a bit different underwater than in air, but the language itself is the same.

There is more I can tell you about Megamind's voice, but I think that's everything for why I wrote his language the way I do! and I must sleep. Thank you again!! If you (or anyone else reading this) have any other questions, please ask away, I LOVE talking about this stuff.

(Oh and go watch Megamind Rules if you haven't seen it yet! I think it is actually very cute and earnest. Wonderful show for kids, I really enjoyed it and hope they release the second half soon.)

#askbasket #megamind #dal is a fanfic #anitaofsamothrace

[mcfallen-god]

Tagged by @zaegreus thanks bestie ✨💜

Do you make your bed?

I often make the bed when I leave for a couple of days, or for a night over, so when I come back home I feel comfy and all hehe.

What’s your favourite number?

Yub, 3

But why? Eh.. The shape? The 'color'? The vibe? Occurrences in my life liked to the three? Idk, just 3 and all the 3 related numbers (33, 333 etc)

What is your job?

Student is not a job, because I am the one losing money, but yeah

If you could go back to school would you?

Probably, I'd like pre-school/middle-school, when I could learn new but easy things lol and I loved the smell and things at my school back then. I'd like to go back in whatever you call that period between 15-18 yo school time, but not for all aspect, let's say I was in a school specialized in art and it was a lot of fun to have a class like that. And for some reason too (but definitely NOT ALL ASPECTS) I'd like to be back to study literature, a part of it...

Can you parallel park?

Yub kinda but I don't like it, and I think it is easier to park on the left part of the road than the right (note: my country drives with wheel on left and road on right)

A job you had that would surprise people?

I didn't had any real job, but maybe the fact I study English literature... Because when I was a kid, until hmm 13/14? I had a deep hatred for English language xD don't ask me why, it is just a fact... This, and me studying literature to begin with, when I barely ever read.. (note: I love to read, but due to other reasons I have a very, very hard time to read even things I really really wanna read :( sed)

Do you think aliens are real?

Sure, but not in the sci-fi kind of way. I think it is absurd to think Earth is the only planet in the infinity of space that met the right conditions for life to develop. But I doubt these forms looks like... humanoid-green/grey skin beings or that they look anything as we know on Earth. I don't even know if there's any 'developed' (in human's terms) form of life, but definitely things that feed and live. (Once again, I doubt they come on Earth with super technology and such... if they do, I really hope they see their mistakes before making first contact and go far far away, before getting involved with the toxic humanity...)

Can you drive a manual car?

Lol of course I can (this question sounds very American oriented question(?) but in my country, manual car is base, we have many non-manuel, but majority is manual) but yeah, I can drive it

What’s your guilty pleasure?

Uh... I don't really know... Some shows? Some I don't even 'like' but more because it reminds me of my youth? (Glee, Ugly Betty, Bones, etc) Idk if it is count as guilty pleasure... If anything else... uh I have unspeakable kinks (only in fictional/role play dimensions, nothing sicko irl), collecting PopMarts figurines? Fried chicken with spicy sauce?? Chocolate biscuit with chips??? I DONT KNOW

Tattoos?

Not yet, I wish to have some one day, but first I need to find *the one* I have many artists/kind of tattoos I like, but eh

Favourite colour?

Green and Purple (mostly all the hues) but also: pale mint, pale yellow, pale peach, pale pink, pale bleu, pale lavender, black, white and orange...)

Favourite type of music?

I literally can enjoy anything, from rock, pop, electronic, classical, ethnic/traditional, etc... I have some issues sometimes with some form of Jazz or RnB, but I still enjoy songs from these genres, so I can't say I hate it... I would say rock is always a go-to?

Do you like puzzles?

Most of the time yeah, if it is like puzzle board game 🧩 or puzzle video games 🎮 or riddle games ❓I love it all (Im not saying I am good at it, I say I like it)

Any phobias?

Won't say it is phobia? But I feel grossed at any .. milling bugs? Like colonies of ants or when baby spiders get out of mother spider 🤢 This and I'd say it is more anxiety, but I have a hard time being in crowded place/windowless places (a bit agoraphobic/ claustrophobic but since I can manage to deal with these situations sometimes, I won't call it phobia)

Favourite childhood sport?

Maybe archery🏹 ? Or hmm basketball 🏀 and badminton🏸 ... And I kinda like to play football ⚽ but the toxicity around that sport is making it annoying and boring

Do you talk to yourself?

Rarely out loud, but pretty often in my own head. I feel dumb when I hear my own voice/sometimes it is even stressful because I grow aware of silence around me after I spoke....

What movie(s) do you adore?

Hmm tough question... Many for many different reasons.. But let's say: Legally Blonde (the vibe and the topic, go girls, can be barbie and have a brain), Princess Mononoke (base), FFVII: Advent Children (thirst), Nanny McPhee (chiiill), Crazy Kung Fu (top tier), Ne Zha (2019) (bery nice), ... That's it for TODAY's pick, what about tomorrow..?

Coffee or tea?

Both but ✨☕C O F F E E☕✨(even if Earl Grey Yin Zhen is honestly DOPE)

First thing you wanted to be growing up?

🤔 Idk which come first, but I remember I had the mad project to do "all my dream jobs at once", so I'd have been: a painter, going around the world with a circus where I'd be acrobat and magician, and yet, using the world-travelling to heal any animals I find on my way 😂🤣

A forever go-to @davi-doo

I tag... *go through mutuals*

@beardedladyqueen @kales09 @chinchilla-7 @astraluxe @general-kalani @alladeline @chromium-siren

PLEASE LEMME KNOW IF I AM PESTERING YOU! I WILL STOP!

#taggie tagged #tag

[kiwibirb1]

Crashing into You AU

Now that the mystery anon chaos has calmed down we have new AU! And I actually have. A lot of content for this one already kinda. Turns out I get incredibly productive after exams with nothing to do. So! Lets get into SPACE PIRATES AU WOOOO!

Disclaimer: This got really long so uh beware that read more. Might be scrolling for a bit.

Okay so just gonna post this the way I took notes on it so its not very organized lol. The first section it seems I entitled Marcy (+Anne) so take that as you will lol

OH WAIT I SHOULD DO LIKE. AN OVERVIEW FIRST. LOL. OKAY HERES THAT. its very skimpy but its really all you need to know immdeitily

Overview

Marcy and Sasha are space pirates together! As such, they are aliens. Anne is not an alien, she is but a simple human. Sasharcy is doing a thing that neither will acknowledge so they're doing absolutely great :). Marcanne is well... you'll see. Sashannarcy endgame ofc

Marcy (+Anne)

Marcy crashed into Earth, destroying her ship and getting pretty injured in the process. Of course, she is very smart, and leaves the ship in cloaking mode (invis) and hobbles her way out into the surrounding woodland to figure out where tf she crashed. Anne heard a loud noise in the woods next to her house, accompanied by a flash of light that looks suspiciously like fire. She of course goes out into the woods at night because no matter what she does these teenagers just will not learn proper fire safety. Anne finds no teenagers, but she does find an injured [insert animal. i haven't decided yet please give suggestions TwT]! Of course, since she is a good person and also educated, she takes this injured animal home and cares for it. Marcy hears footsteps approaching, so, of course, she does the only appropriate thing. Shapeshift into the first native creature she sees. Oh yeah btw Marcy's a shapeshifter. It seems she is now being cared for by a native species of this planet who goes by the name of "Anne". She supposes there are worse names than "Marshmallow" to be called.

Side note: Marcy does not know English and vice versa, there was a week of confusion on Marcy's side until she picked it up because she's just that smart. They normally have translators but y'know crash.

next section woo!

Sashaaaaaaaa~

She is extremely worried because her not-my-girlfriend-what-are-you-talking-about-grime went missing after her most recent solo mission! But look at this, they've managed to find where her ship crashed! Of course, Sasha goes down alone, because who knows what sort of dangers await them and she will not endanger anyone else. She quickly picks up Marcy's trail and soon finds Anne's house, where she sees Marcy chilling in a window living her best life. But Sasha does not know this and of course assumes Marcy has been kidnapped and is being held against her will by Anne. So Sasha stakes out the house for a week or so, waiting for her time to strike. This time comes in ✨The Confrontation✨.

✨The Confrontation✨

Marshmallow (Marcy but she doesnt know that) has finally healed! Anne has been caring for this strange little creature for roughly a month now, and it's time for the release process! Yadada conservation stuff about injured animals and non-releasable but Anne is hopeful that this little animal she's maybeee gotten attached too will be able to survive! So, test run time! She goes outside with Marshmallow, sets her on the grass, sits down, urges her forward. She notices that Marshmallow's attention seems to be stuck on something on the tree line. She looks up and OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT AHH ITS COMING RIGHT FOR ME. (Its an angry sasha lol) She gets tackled to the ground by this thing, and is fighting for her life when Marshmallow starts chittering loudly. The thing stops, looking right at the little animal. It vocalizes back, and eventually gets off Anne, who is scrambling backwards frantically when she really takes in what attacked her. A giant, horned, seemingly humanoid alien, arguing with her [insert animal]. ALIEN! She screams again, and both creatures turn toward her. The bigger one steps forward menacingly, but it is stopped by Marshmallow, who suddenly has wings and ITS ANOTHER ALIEN OH DEAR LORD WHY IS HER [animal] AN ALIEN and Anne promptly faints.

Aftershocks

(aka real meeting)

Anne wakes up in her own bed with a splitting headache. She gets up, drearily noticing that Marshmallow isn't in her normal spot on the bed. She faintly remembers some dream where Marshmallow grew wings. Ha, wouldn't that be funny? She makes her way to the kitchen, ignoring the two aliens on her couch while she grabs an ibuprofen and downs it. Wait- she whirls around to face the two aliens on her couch, one smiling warmly and the other glaring at her. The angry one starts to talk, but she doesn't understand it, and is also in the middle of panicking so says the only thing she cant think of: "So that wasn't a dream." The angry one seems shocked, but the nicer one (the one that used to be Marshmallow, she realizes.) laughs. "Nope. Pleased to make your proper acquaintance, Anne. I'm Marcy, and this is Sasha." Sasha grunts and starts talking again but Marcy elbows her in the side. "Sasha! Be nice! And also she can't understand you, she doesn't have a translator. Here Anne, take this." Anne, who has now moved on to the stage of pure and utter shock and is currently processing that aliens are real takes the device, and follows Marsh- Marcy's instructions to put it on. The second she does, Sasha starts her spiel for the third time. "I'm going to kill you creature you kidnapped my Marcy and-" She doesn't get far before she is silenced by Marcy again. "Nope you are not doing this. Anne, lets get the basics down. Yes, we are not of your planet, I believe your language uses the term "alien." Yes, I am the same animal you have been caring for the past month, thank you for that by the way. Apoligies for not revealing my true nature, but it never seemed quite the right time." Anne nods, going along, waiting to wake up from this second dream.

OKAY WAIT THIS JUST TURNED INTO FANFIC AGAIN DANGIT okay but yeah thats the basics of this au! Anne eventaully joins Marcy and Sasha its a whole thing but this is what I have for now so yeah.

#this is so long im so sorry #crashing into you au #amphibia au #amphibia #anne boonchuy #marcy wu #sasha waybright #space pirates au

[rassvetsky]

there's bucky on your masterlist so here i go, bucky hiding and taking care of reader when the reader is being searched for? maybe the reader is a former enhanced soldier or something like that too. i hope i made myself clear lol thanks!

tysm for the request!! im actually so happy that i got a bucky barnes request hehe (and this specific anon sent me another ask with a pt. 2 idea are they perhaps an angel.)

Lost & Found

bucky barnes x gn!reader

it takes one brainwashed soldier to find another.

[3.6k] | ex hydra!reader, mentions of torture, mentions of brainwashing, mentions of murder, being chased, trust issues, traumatized reader, my poor english skills & bucky being a sweetheart. pt. 2 later maybe??

reblog and/or like for a kiss, feedback much appreciated! not proofread.

Your legs felt like they could give out any minute, your lungs burning with the lack of oxygen. You didn't feel like you had enough time for a deep breath as your feet carried you forward, making you feel a bit dizzy and disconnected. The relief of knowing kept you sane, however. Knowing where you were, what you were doing, who you were.

God, you missed knowing who you were.

Before it all, you were an excellent Intelligence Officer, under SHIELD's wing. Kept your personal life and job far away from one another, divided by a three-meter long rampier. Came back from work to a quiet, warm apartment where you could finally relax and unwind.

That was until during one mission, everything went downhill and you lost contact with the rest of your team- your tracker was broken to pieces after the fall, your body covered in debris. And even though you expected to see familiar faces when you finally opened your eyes with a pained grunt, you only saw the muzzles of a few guns pointed at you, before you blacked out again.

That's where a brand new chapter in your life started, erasing each and every single one behind.

Memories of the past few years were reduced to snippets of gore. Your blood, mixed against someone else's. Torture, inflicted by you, or to you. Information that didn't belong to you instilled in your brain. You didn't have a say in it. You couldn't, because how could anyone stand their ground against scary men with weapons bigger than themselves?

It took them a long while to trust you with missions. Your mind refused to let them in at first, knowing exactly what was to come. Exactly what they were trying to create out of you. You held on for as long as you could, no matter how painful it was because you still knew that even if you cooperated, they'd still hurt you, just to break into the barriers of the human mind.

When they started making progress with the brainwashing period, the training period started. That part was a bit rushed, you were a needed asset and you couldn't be kept in a base forever. Certain missions were supposed to be completed, and most of the time, they weren't that hard on you. Even though they didn't let you go on every single mission, the ones you went on were exactly what you were trained for. Infiltrate, execute, abandon. Nothing big. Get back to the base, and wait. Until next time that they'd need you.

You didn't plan on going back. Not anymore.

And that's why when the base got raided down, you didn't stay to help. You didn't stay to be rescued, even though you knew exactly who was behind the raid and they could definitely help. Through the sound of bullets shooting through, walls being broken down, and screams of pure agony, you still ran, far away from anyone that could recognize you.

But Bucky did.

You gave him the push to escape after the Battle of Triskelion, and still, let him go. Told him to never come back, no matter what. Didn't tell anyone.

He wanted to come back for you, he tried to; but you were moved away before he could get to you. And with that, you were a ghost again. Untraceable. Back to square one, former intelligence officer of SHIELD that got 'killed' after a certain job. Someone who knew too much, someone nobody dared to look for.

He tried to get his hands on everything he could find about you. The school you went to, your late family, former co-workers; everything. Intervention after intervention, at some point, he finally stopped chasing after a ghost, taking Steve's advice. But even when nobody saw you run, he did, and he would recognize you anywhere. Just like you did for him years ago, he let you go, and didn't tell anyone.

It took you a while to get back to your senses. Your brain desperately wanted you to go back to the base, just because you got used to it all. It was a constant battle between knowing you should never go back to that hell, and feeling worthless unless you do.

You knew that couldn't just resurface after all those years, after everything you've done. After everything they made you do. Even though you didn't have a say in anything, you were still the one who pulled the trigger, and you wouldn't exactly blame anyone for thinking that you changed your side on purpose, brainwashed or not.

And back to the moment, as everything you've been through flashed before your eyes, you kept running. It was the desire to stay alive that kept you up on your feet, that let you run even faster than you thought you could.

Out of all the other places, you didn't expect to be found in Slovakia, and honestly, you weren't even sure who it was behind you, but you still ran through the empty streets in the night, footsteps as quiet as they could get as you pushed yourself forward with every ounce of power left in your body.

But the sound of the motorcycle engine kept drawing closer and closer, as you held onto the straps of your backpack tighter and kept going. The pads of your feet, your calves, they all hurt but you weren't going to stop now. Not that easy. And when you finally saw your figure shadowing the motorcycle's headlight, you reached for your pistol, silencer worn.

The engine stopped. You stopped. And for a moment, nobody dared to make a move. Not even a sound was spared through the quiet nature of the night before you slowly turned around, pistol pointed towards the driver. Tactical outfit, fully black as if he wanted to blend in with the shadows, just like you. He seemed muscular, biceps visible through the thick material. And he just stood there, not even daring to draw a weapon. Just stared, you assumed, behind the helmet.

"I'm going to ask this once," you spoke up, voice raspy and a bit out of breath. "and you're not getting more than ten seconds to answer. Make a move, you're dead." you took a few steps towards him, shaky hand clutching the cold metal weapon so tight that you felt like it wasn't even shaking anymore. "Who are you?"

He didn't answer at first. Just reached for his helmet, as slowly as he could, before lifting it off his head. Brown, medium-length hair fell against his face before he pushed them behind, and a pair of eyes locked gaze with yours. You could see him with the street light's contribution, and the face was way too familiar, so you figured he was one of the-

Oh.

Of course.

Those steel blue eyes. You'd recognize them anywhere. "Got your answer?" he spoke, for the first time, and his voice erased every single one of your suspicions. It was him. The one and only, Winter Soldier, most important asset of HYDRA. The one you were sent a hundred times to clean up after, to protect, to report to. Only he could be dumb enough to come back for you, even when you specifically told him not to.

"Asset."

The long motorcycle ride didn't help with your exhaustion, it only added to the fuel in the end. No words were spared until he led you to an empty apartment and locked the door behind the two of you, as you dropped your backpack on the couch before sitting down with a grunt. The place seemed quite rundown and empty, it was even cold. You didn't let your attention linger for any longer though, as your gaze fell to the hardwood ground beneath your feet.

Feeling his eyes on you, you decided to keep asking your questions until you could feel satisfied. Until you could feel trust forming. "How'd you find me?" you asked, watching him as he handed you a bottle of water, which he took from the console by the side of the room. He didn't speak until you took a few sips -which kind of made your throat hurt after all those hours of endless running and gasping for air-, taking a seat on the couch right by the side of yours, leaning back with a sigh of comfort.

"Let's just say I know the path a brainwashed soldier would follow," his tone was soft, almost as if he was trying to assure you that he wasn't posing as a threat here. He was on your side, his eyes desperately tried to tell you that. They held a glint of sympathy and understanding that you haven't seen from him before, back then you only knew him as HYDRA's fucktoy, held up to a certain importance which didn't keep him off from torture by any means. "You weren't easy to find, I'll give you that-"

"Why?" you blurted out, elbows against your knees as you buried your face in your palms. It all hurt- your brain felt like it was way bigger than your skull and you swore you could feel the pressure against the bone. Your throat was still sore, your legs felt numb and you just wanted to keep your eyes closed for a week straight. And through it all, you knew it wasn't worth it to go through all of that trouble, just to find you. You couldn't help but wonder if he had other plans with you, but for some reason, a voice in your head kept telling you to trust him. "Why would you even fucking bother?"

"Why did you bother?" he snapped back, one side of his lips tugged upward in a cheshire-like grin, just a bit more friendly than that. "I'm just paying you back." you didn't answer that, not exactly knowing what to say. You just exhaled through your mouth, looking up at him after a while of contemplating everything.

"I don't even know your name. You're just- Winter Soldier. The Asset, for me."

"I know yours."

"That's just creepy." and he chuckled at that, amused.

"It's Barnes. Bucky Barnes. Kind of surprised I wasn't the first thing you looked up after escaping." you shook your head, only able to offer a poor excuse of a smile as you rose up to your feet, all-tactical outfit not comfortable in the slightest bit.

You didn't tell him that you barely had an hour to sit down, the paranoia of being found eating you alive as you kept yourself in the shadows.

"I'm going to take a shower. And go to sleep. Don't make me regret trusting you, Barnes."

Let's just say, he didn't make you regret trusting him one bit. The two of you remained hidden for a couple of days in Slovakia, before escaping to Romania through the Hungarian border. It was an almost an eight-hour drive including your stops and the detours -and God, it made you hate motorcycles- before you two reached a safer spot -in his words-, to plan what to do next.

Bucky knew that the Avengers wouldn't trust you at first. For all the right reasons, obviously, he wasn't even sure why he trusted you in the first place. You just had something about you, a light in your eyes that still persisted, gentleness in your movement. He saw himself in you.

You weren't exactly in a condition where you could trust anyone either, you knew that the Avengers weren't the bad guys, not in the slightest, but you knew what kind of judgment you were going to face. The man helping you hide told you all about the judgment he went through. The fight between Stark and Rogers, how things that happened outside of his control caused a turmoil of events which eventually led to almost being killed by an Avenger. Not that Stark was wrong whatsoever, but you both knew that if HYDRA wanted you to do something, you would do it. Because the consequences would be far more horrendous.

And honestly, after all of that trauma, you weren't sure you could go through another set of people telling you that you're a disgusting murderer, nothing above an asset, nothing more than a toy. An evil being by choice.

And sure, you weren't former best friends with Steve fucking Rogers, you and Bucky barely knew one another. It only made sense for you to fear whatever it is that could come from the Avengers. "You know, you can't be on the run forever," Bucky absent-mindedly mumbled when you two were relaxing by the couch one day, while snacking on the leftover fries you ignored earlier, as you kept your eyes on the cartoon playing on the screen.

"Nothing else that I can do," you shrugged, reaching for his lap to steal a piece of food. He kept looking at you, this couldn't be kept up forever. The Avengers kept asking him where he was and what he was doing, and just for the sake of you, he had been lying to his friends for weeks now.

"Look, even if nobody else does, Sam and Steve would trust you," he huffed out, trying to reason with you. He understood the paranoia that kept you on the edge, but it wasn't like you were completely helpless. "Can't we give it a try?"

"If you want to leave so bad, Barnes, just go. You don't have to drag me along." you sighed, tucking your feet under your body to keep them warm. "I'm so grateful for everything you've done but please, I won't need your protection forever."

"And I know you don't, sweetheart," he wasn't giving it up, not that easy. Getting a hold of your wrist, he tried to tug you a bit closer. "But you need to trust me, yeah? Nobody's going to judge you while I'm here, not like they judged me. I'll make sure of that."

At that, you finally looked at him, heaving yet another sigh before reaching in to wrap your arms around his neck.

That was new.

You buried your head on his shoulder, eyes closed as you felt his arms wrap around your figure, too. His embrace was warm, humane, and so foreign that it made you flinch against his figure at first. Even though you fought against the trauma, it had still been years since you've had anyone touch you in a friendly way. "It's not that I don't trust you," you whispered. "I'm just afraid of everything going downhill again and- and ending up exactly where I started."

Bucky felt your pain in his chest, too. "That's not going to happen," he whispered back, reassuringly patting your back. "Not while you got me by your side. And if you'll only let me, Sam and Steve, too. Nothing you've done is unredeemable, there's nothing to be ashamed of." he pulled you away a bit, just to have you looking at him. "This isn't nearly as safe as where I want us both to be. Nobody can hurt you there. We'll- we'll find a way to get rid of the nightmares, the guilt- everything."

You could only nod as an answer, already -mentally- exhausted by everything that had been going on. You leaned on him for a while longer as he held you, whispering things in your ear that felt just right to hear. Some way, somehow; he knew exactly how to keep your mind at the moment, rather than in the past. He knew exactly how to remind you that it was all behind you now, and you only had the moment and the future coming after.

A few more days passed until you gave in and let him give the infamous Captain America and the Falcon a call, you specifically waited in your room until his conversation with them would be over because you didn't feel like you could handle the slightest bit of distress on his face at that moment. Your worries proved themselves to be unnecessary though, as Bucky burst into the room after a few minutes, relief clear on his face.

"Steve said he'll talk to Tony," he hummed, settling down on the bed right next to you. "Tony can be a bit suspicious of literally anything, but he means well. Hopefully, they'll arrange a ride for us and we'll be on our way, alright?"

"Right," you noted, a timid smile on your lips as you reached for his hand, holding it between both of your palms. "Thank you, Bucky."

"Anything for you."

You noticed how time would pass a bit faster in the Avengers Compound, as you were surrounded by things to spend your day with. You often found yourself in the training room, taking your frustrations out from a poor punching bag -which you started to feel bad for, even though it was clearly inanimate- or watching whatever movie you could find.

You didn't really talk to anyone else other than Bucky, and they didn't push it. After a few interrogation sessions -which Steve assured you that they were done just to learn more about what HYDRA did to you-, you were finally left alone -at least a little bit-, deciding to spend your time trying to get to know these people. You knew they used to work for SHIELD as well, but you never personally worked with them.

You found it easy to be comfortable with Natasha, she wasn't the most emotionally available person ever but she understood what you went through.

She'd try to drag you along to get-togethers, brush out your hair when you felt too out-of-it to do so, and sometimes even sit with you through a movie.

Sam was a bit harder to be around, but he was way too sweet for his own good. He did almost everything in his power to get you to play table tennis with him and to make it a usual "Y/N and Sam time" event, and it meant the world if he could get a smile out of your mostly-neutral expressions.

Steve was patient. He was easy to talk to, and easy to be around. And you knew that it was him who trusted you the most, after Bucky. He made sure you didn't skip any meals and kept your training up just so you wouldn't fall behind.

"If you want to redeem yourself," he said one day, after a particularly exhausting session, "You could help around in the Compound, or with missions. Not saying you have to, but if you ever wanted to, I'd love for you to tag along."

You were forever grateful.

The rest took a bit longer to give you the benefit of the doubt, but your fears diminished with time. There were certain ground rules -such as an alert system going off whenever you left your room, and of course, any sharp objects were kept far, far away from you- but finally, you were above a freak. A murderer.

After one long day, while everyone was huddled up in a room to watch a basketball game -which, according to Sam, was the most important thing to happen in the past few years-, you decided to get some fresh air and join them later.

Stepping out of the compound building, you sighed contently, the late night breeze waking your entire being up successfully. You paced around by yourself for a small while, before hearing the sliding door open, a smile making its way to your face almost immediately when you noticed it was Bucky. "Hey, you," he walked towards you, hands tucked tight in his jeans pockets.

You kept your eyes on him, expression soft and relaxed -which, Bucky wasn't used to seeing, but he could admit that it was one of the most beautiful sights he laid his eyes on-. "Aren't you gonna watch the game?"

"You weren't there, so," he shrugged, earning a subtle chuckle from you. It was then, that he reached for you and wrapped his flesh arm around your shoulder, tucking you close to his chest. "I'm glad you're here, you know?"

"Me too," you leaned against him, wrapping your own arms around his waist loosely as you looked up at the stars, at the moon. You were sure Bucky was the one to hang it there. "I'll- I'll get back on my feet as quickly as I can. And then I'll be of use, I promise."

"You don't have to rush," he snickered against your hair. "Let yourself heal. It's just nice to know that you're safe."

You slightly pulled away from him, hand against his chest as you looked up at his eyes. They were shining in all the right ways, reminding you where home was. By his side.

Now or never, you thought, before raising yourself a bit on your feet and planting your lips against his, unable to break away from the tentative kiss even after a few moments as he held you there. As he kissed you back. And he was so gentle as if you were made out of porcelain; soft lips brushing against yours with a meek passion. Each and every touch of his lips added fuel to the wildfire burning through your insides, keeping you warm through the breeze. You held his face in your palms as he tucked you closer to his body, both of you smiling against the kiss until it broke away.

"I've been planning on doing that for weeks." he breathed out, chuckling to himself in disbelief as he shook his head. "So thanks, for stealing my idea."

"Oh shush."

#bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x y/n #bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes fluff #bucky barnes drabble #bucky barnes blurb #bucky barnes fic #marvel x reader #marvel fic

[vidavalor]

Hi! I love your language metas! I would like to request one of your dives on your favorite bit of innuendo if it's not something you've already written about? Or just one you think is underrated? :D

Hi there! Thank you. Hope you're having a great day. Fun question! Please help yourself to some tea and blueberry pie. 💕

Choosing one bit would be tough but one I love and also think is underrated is Crowley's joke after Warlock's birthday party in S1 that Aziraphale has gotten a bit too friendly with his bird. It's just the one line but there's several layers happening at once, like there is with so much of this show.

Crowley knows that the "it" that Aziraphale is referring to is The Hell Hound but he responds as if Aziraphale is referring to the prone bird that Aziraphale is tapping near where it would carry baby birds. In the midst of it, the bird is close to death while a joke about it having had sex with Aziraphale is being made is-- a reference to orgasm as "the little death" and its contrast with actual death that recurs throughout the series.

Birds, though, obviously don't have menstrual cycles the way that some humans who can become pregnant do so you wouldn't say a bird is "late" to refer to it is as pregnant but you would say that about a human. Also in here is the English slang of referring to women as "birds"-- so, Crowley's playing with human language that doesn't know how close it is to reality. The joke here being that Aziraphale is an angel, which is both kind of a bird and a human being at once, and that, as a human being, he's not know as a great seducer of women not named Crowley lol so Crowley's jokingly explaining the birds and the bees of bird sex to the bird-and-human-like angel with whom he has human sex on the regular. The bird getting pregnant is what "comes of putting it up your sleeve" and letting it neck him when, as even though Aziraphale is fully in his human corporation, he's also kind of a bird as an angel. Crowley obviously knows that Aziraphale has no such intentions where this bird is concerned but the humor relating to the bizarreness of their existence is too good to pass up.

The bird is a dove, in the pigeon family, and they mate by the female selecting a mate from the male birds, who all preen themselves and puff out their chests and angle themselves in an effort to look good and be selected. Once the female chooses, the two birds preen and nuzzle one another by kind of tapping their beaks around the shoulder/breast/neck areas of one another. This the dove foreplay here that leads into bird sex and is what Crowley is referencing by saying that Aziraphale let the bird in his clothes enough to get all up on him.

Additionally, the phrase "up your sleeve" is a funny choice because of Aziraphale as a magician literally putting things up his sleeves as part of his magic tricks but the phrase also meaning to hold something back and keep it secret-- as if Aziraphale has been hiding a torrid affair with this bird from him.

What's very cute in here is that Crowley's quip is, on one level, just about the bird mating dance and less about the actual mating. The joke is designed to sound in tone on one level like well, that's what happens when you have unprotected bird sex with your magic trick dove, Aziraphale... but since the bit he's referencing is more the bird mating dance foreplay thing, it's actually also really just calling Aziraphale hot-- as in, the bird got pregnant just by being let up Aziraphale's sleeve. The angel's so hot that's all it took.

This is made funnier after S2 by the fact that Aziraphale's magician's assistant in 1941 was Crowley himself, who is then, in 2019, jokingly faux-jealous about being replaced in the magic show by another bird who is getting far too friendly with Aziraphale for Crowley's comfort. The one thing Crowley's going to get possessive about are the nuzzly Aziraphale snuggles. The joke really also has a light air of: That bloody pigeon is getting more of a canoodle than I am today, angel... the number of snake babies I've nearly had slithering around your vest and here you are, letting any old dove off the street cop a feel, you shameless tart.

Also might be why the S2 dance has so much shoulder and preening on Aziraphale's part here. 😂 Tongue-in-cheek mating dance with Aziraphale's preferred bird, who chose him ages ago, and who is just grateful this already stressful party doesn't also include another bird groping his husband.

#ineffable husbands #good omens #crowley #aziraphale #good omens meta #aziracrow #spicy omens

[littlexscarletxwitch]

hii! can i request a florence pugh x reader where florence has a nightmare and reader comforts her? thanks!!

── ༊*·˚⋆ 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗯𝗲𝗮𝘁

paring: florence pugh x fem!reader

tag(s): fluff, comfort fic, flo has a nightmare a r is really sweet to her, billie is here too lol, established relationship, flo's baby, she needs lots of love

warning(s): nightmare (?), allusions to r dying but not really, crying flo (🥺), grammatical errors, unedited

word count: 0.8k

note: Was this supposed to be the Wandanat fic? Yes. But fuck it, it's my blog, I decide what to post. Lol jk. The thing is I was going through a writers block and this request got me out of it, so thank you, nonnie. I loved this idea so much, I hope it's somehow what you had in mind. And I'm sorry it's kinda short. I'm not a native english speaker, so please let me know about any sort of mistake. Love y'all, M <3

requests are open! + check my rules here + masterlist <3

You felt her turning around in her sleep, there was something about her unstillnes that unsettled you.

Florence always moved around in her sleep, sometimes she would bring you into her chest, seeking the warmness and comfort of your body next to hers. Sometimes she would take the sheets from you, leaving you to freeze in the cold night. But this time it was different, something was troubling her in her sleep.

“Flossie?” you whispered in the darkness, gently shaking her awake.

She kept on tossing around, shaking her head in her sleep as if not wanting to look at whatever her brain was picturing in her mind. Her brows were furrowed, her breathing was uneven and she was mumbling incoherent words. You began to panic, she was having a nightmare.

“Flossie, wake up,” you tried again, this time shaking her a bit harder.

“No, no, no,” she kept on mumbling and soon it became sobs.

“Baby, you need to wake up,” you tried once again.

As you turned on the light on your nightable you noticed that her lips were trembling, a thin layer of sweat was covering her forehead, and you could already see the tears forming in the corner of her eyes.

“Florence, baby, wake up!”

Billie who was sleeping at your feet was now sitting right beside you. It was af if she could feel your worry and Florence’s fear.

“It’s okay, Billie dear. Momma is having a bad dream,” you reassured the dog. “Florence, wake up!”

The dog started barking beside you, also wanting to get her human’s attention. And as if on cue Florence jumped awake, her right hand clutching onto her fast-beating heart.

It took her a full minute to realise what she had experienced was just a dream, a really bad dream that her mind had created for some twisted reason she had yet to understand. She sighed in relief as she realised that the whole thing was a product of her imagination.

“Flossie, baby, are you okay?” you whispered, not wanting to scare her even more.

“Oh, Y/n,” the moment her eyes landed on your soft ones she felt as if she could finally breathe properly, the oxygen filling her lungs and reaching out to her brain, letting her know the both of you were okay.

She practically threw herself at you, engulfing you in a tight hug, not wanting to let you go, ever.

“I was so scared, Y/n,” she said in your ear. “You… you…,” she couldn’t find the strength to finish her sentence, not wanting to let her thoughts out in the world. “And then I… I was just…”

“It’s okay, Flossie. It’s okay, I’m here, we are here, and we are okay,” you reassured her, caressing her hair, trying to comfort her.

“It was so bad, Y/n. I don’t know what I would do without you, I don’t…,” you could feel her teardrops staining your shirt, it broke your heart seeing her like this.

Against your wishes, you pulled her away from you. Your hands gently cupped her cheeks forcing her to look at you. Her eyes were a bit swollen from the crying, a soft red hue around them making them look like bright emeralds.

“Hey,” you whispered, trying to be as gentle as you could, offering her a smile.

One of your hands reached out to one of hers and placed them on top of your beating heart.

“You feel that?” she only nodded, as if getting lost in the rhythm of your heartbeat. “I’m alright, I’m here, we are here and everything will be alright. I promise,” you placed a soft kiss on her forehead.

She leaned into you, resting her head on your chest, listening to your steady heartbeat, feeling her body finally relax into your arms. But not enough to drift off to sleep again.

“I don’t think I will be able to go back to sleep,” she confessed.

“That’s okay, you don’t have to,” she looked up at you and you smiled at her. “Why don’t I make us some Yorkshire tea and watch a film?”

“I love Yorkshire,” she giggled.

“Yeah, I know you do,” you kiss her on the cheek. “I’ll be right back,” you tried to get up from the bed but she wouldn’t let you.

“Don’t leave me alone, please,” she pouted, her eyes getting watery in a second.

“It’s okay, Flo. Come with me, you are the expert on making tea after all,” you joked.

“Yeah, you have a point,” she smiled at you, blinking her tears away, and you could feel your heart getting warmer at the simple action.

“Oh, we should totally watch ‘Little Women’.”

She playfully rolled her eyes at you, “You only like that one because I’m in it.”

“Pff, don’t flatter yourself. Timothée Chalamet is in it, that’s why I like it;” you teased her, knowing that it would hit a nerve.

“You did not just say that,” she looked at you in disbelief.

“It’s a shame you got to kiss him really,” you sighed in fake discontent.

“Y/n!” you heard her said before getting hit by a pillow, giggles filing the room soon after.

Likes, comments and reblogs are appreciated! <3

-M

#florence pugh #florence pugh x reader #florence pugh x fem reader #florence pugh x you #florence pugh x y/n #florence pugh fluff #florence pugh imagine #littlexscarletxwitch's fic #requests by lovely anons ‘๑’

[moonliched]

I just got around to reading the newest chapter and as I’m giddy as always about the celestial fish <3. I am also fighting for my life over here with the Eclipse crumbs :’)

I have a few questions, though, and a lot of thoughts (and feel free to just not answer them if it’s lore or gonna be revealed sometime).

1: Sun is using distinctly British English terms.... why? (Not a bad thing!! Just weird for me bc I hear it so much irl but have never actually seen someone write with it so it stood out more and I’m curious)

2: Is Y/N actually infected with something?? The weird glowing dust on their bed reminded me of like,, spores and the like. And follow up:

2.5: Chica scanning them “secretly”. Freddy and Chica seem to know a bit more than they’re letting on, and there’s been a lot of talk about sickness and infections (I think. If my terrible memory isn’t making stuff up again). Was Chica actually telling the truth about looking for a temperature and the lie was actually by omission (because she’s also looking for something more than that, but a temperature is just a symptom)?

3: Does Y/N have the same body temperature as a human, and if not, would Chica know that?

!!Rambling incoming!!

Related to the potential spores and possible illness, there are lots of things that need a higher temperature to start growing, and the base has been at Y/N’s preferred cooler temperatures for a while until the Glamrocks showed up. Also if their recent behaviour (poor sleep, anxiety, shorter temper(?)) can be attributed to some kind of infection, Vanessa seems to be suffering from that kind of stuff too. Maybe she has it??? Also also, something had to wipe out all the mers, and a dangerous illness that spread through them fast and was able to grow quicker in warmer waters, leaving only a few with a built up immunity, would’ve definitely been enough to reduce a population.

Sorry. I’m just loving this fic so much. It’s a lot of fun, and I really appreciate you taking the time to read this, and, if possible, respond :)

:))))))) i'm happy you're enjoying💗💗💗 [offers you a handful of celestial fish arranged like a bouquet]

1: i live in the UK lol so i guess that'll come across in my writing😋 i can't say much without getting into spoilers territory, but the main factors of Sun and Moon speaking 'ancient English' is that it's English from our time period-ish give or take several decades, and they have American accents. though i haven't stated either explicitly. so why not a little British vocab sprinkled in there?

2: Y/N is infected😣

2.5: yes, exactly! Chica likely would have tried to get more in-depth data on Y/N's health if she wasn't avoiding catching their attention at the time. she was trying to be sneaky... which didn't work

3: spoilers :3

ahskdjshjsdhjss kicks my feet☺️💕 LOVING the rambling and theorising, thank you for the thoughtful ask! i hope you enjoy everything else to come💕

#ask #There Are Many Benefits