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starlightsearches · 20 days

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track 8 with eddie!

all i ask is that it’s sub!eddie 🤞

Brat

So I lied earlier about deleting all of the requests for the mixtape milestone 😬 i did get rid of the some of the requests i hadn't started, but i couldn't let go of the ones i drafted, which is good news, because inspiration struck for this one!

Ex-boyfriend! Eddie Munson x Fem! Reader

Warnings: NSFW 18+, pussy eating, bratty eddie but he gets put in his place super quick, bondage, not a happy ending if you want them to get back together, language, and i think that's it!

You never thought you'd be back on Eddie Munson's doorstep.

Hands hanging heavy at your sides, a little taste of a summer breeze teasing at the hem of your skirt. You'd been full of a strange mixture of righteous fury and sick anticipation on the drive over but it's all gone now, a choking feeling in your throat when you lift up your hand to knock.

And you still can't do it.

Your eyes rake over his completely uninteresting door (are there even interesting doors?)— pockmarked with random dents and dings and sticky residue from long gone flyers—but you study it like it's the Mona Lisa, like it's got the meaning of life hidden somewhere in its peeling paint.

Fuck that. You didn't come here for the meaning of life.

Your knuckles meet the cool metal, once, then twice. The door flies open before you get a chance to drop your hand.

Eddie was waiting for you on the other side.

Heat floods through your entire body—and not the good kind—the oily feeling of embarrassment creeping up your neck. Had he been watching you through the peep hole?

He leans casually up in the door frame, arm stretched long above his mess of curls. The smile on his lips is so familiar it makes you ache.

"Hey, sweetheart."

Eddie looks good. Better than the last time you saw him—a little over a month ago, although not much as changed. Kind of stubbly, kind of toned. Still very, very hot.

There's no need to feel guilty for thinking it, but that doesn't stop your stomach from sinking as you drag your eyes down the white t-shirt he wears, band logo faded and the sleeves cut off, knees poking out of the rips in his jeans.

It should be ridiculous—a fucking caricature of a cool guy with his artful rips and the tats littering his arms. A Halloween costume on anybody else. But not on Eddie.

You push past him, like you push past the thought about how tight he wears his jeans. "Don't call me that."

He follows you into the living room of his shitty little apartment, kicking the door closed behind him. "What can I call you, then? Sugar tits?"

He doesn't even pretend to whither under your stare, although you feel like you cut glass with the look you give him.

"I thought I told you not to call me at all. Where is it?"

He's standing too close, looming over you with a little smirk. You can feel how hot his skin is. Feel the warm puff of breath from his nose on your cheeks. "Where's what, gorgeous?"

He never called stuff like that when you were together. Baby was his favorite. Princess when he was feeling sassy. Honey, but only on the rarest occasions, the sweetest mornings. That one always made you weak at the knees.

"The box of my stuff," —you're mad at him, at this, and it hits you hard, has you jamming a finger into his sternum, feeling the wiry muscle of his chest underneath the tee—"the one you left me three desperate messages about."

That humbles him a little bit. A very little bit, but enough to make Eddie shut his mouth for once. He points down the hall behind you.

"Bedroom."

You know the way, but let him lead. It's colder in his apartment than it was outside, the hair on your arms standing up, and you hold yourself a little tighter, cussing yourself out for leaving your jacket in the car.

"You look good," he calls back without turning in your direction, eyes on the clutter covering every inch of the floor, maybe hoping you won't notice the edge in his voice, “going out tonight?"

That was the plan—before this. "Yeah."

"Who with?"

Eddie doesn't even have enough shame in him to look embarrassed about asking, staring at you openly, like he has any right to know anything about your life now that he's not in it.

"You don't know them," you answer, and he laughs.

"Come on, sweetheart. Your friends are my friends."

And yeah, that used to be the case. Robin still called you up some weekends, inviting you out to girls' nights in a sad little tone. You made up excuses every time, but she still called.

Whatever. They were Eddie's friends first.

"Well, I made new ones."

Eddie runs his tongue over his bottom lip, crossing his arms across his chest.

“What’re their names?”

Jesus, he's such an ass.

"Just a bunch of guys I met outside a liquor store. Said they'd buy me shots tonight if I let them motorboat me in the parking lot."

"Har-har," Eddie rolls his eyes, but you didn't miss the look. His concern for you makes you itch. "Seriously, princess, just wanna know if you're keeping good company."

"Well, I'm not. Can I get my stuff now?"

And maybe you feel kind of bad for lying to him, but you can't let him know the truth—that it'll just be you and a couple girls from work. A few glasses of wine and some gossip. Hell, you'll probably be in bed before midnight.

Eddie digs around at the bottom of his closet, producing a cardboard box littered with garbage—a stack of magazines, some stupid teddy bear he won for you at an arcade, and a couple of bras you'd never be able to wear anymore with the way Eddie's spit is probably permanently fused in the fabric.

A wasted trip.

You try to take the box from him, but Eddie's grip doesn't budge.

"I can carry it out to your car, sweetheart," he says, standing up tall, "unless those biker guys are out there waitin' for you."

"I never said they were bikers," you respond, adjusting your grip on the box, pulling it tighter to your chest. It just has Eddie taking another step closer, big, warm hands sliding over yours.

"Good, 'cause I don't think bikers are your type."

He's whispering a little, lowering his voice all sexy in the way that always used to get you into bed with him.

Not this time.

"Oh fuck you, Eddie. What would you know about my type?"

"Uh, at least a little, honey," he laughs, smiling wide and boyish—so confident, self-assured.

"Don't—" you snatch the box out of his hands, "call me honey."

That's the landmine he's been waiting for you to step on. Eddie looks at you, ready to mash all your buttons until he figures out which ones will have you on him. You wish he wasn't so close to the right combination.

He stalks closer, trapping you up against the closet door, both hands planted above your head. You can't feel anything below your knees.

Voice low, breath wet up against your ear, Eddie says, "what are you gonna do about it, honey?"

The box falls with a whump, spilling all your shit across Eddie's bedroom floor. It's nothing compared sound of your body slammed against the door when your lips finally meet his.

You don't know who started it—whether it was your hands tangled up in his hair or him pinning you in place with his hips. You just know you don't want it to stop.

Eddie's running hot—hot hands at your waist and stubbly skin scratching up your jaw and his whole, hot body pressing up against you, moving just the way you like.

Liked.

You push his hands away with both of yours, trapping them against his sides, but it's not enough to stop him, his mouth at your neck.

"Come on, honey," he whispers, "I said I was sorry."

"I don't want an apology, Eddie."

He tries again, fingertips just brushing against your hips. He looks at you, eyes a little sad, a little too honest.

"Then what can I do to get you back?"

Fuck him. You didn't come here for that either. There's only one thing you want from Eddie Munson, and it's not a box full of bras.

"Get on your knees."

You're surprised his bones don't break with the speed he falls to the floor, thumping against the carpet. Hands already pushing up the hem of your skirt, face pressed low against your stomach. Maybe he's missed this as much as you.

"God, baby," he whispers against your thighs, fingers snaking under the hip of your lacy underwear, "knew you couldn't stay away."

Your knee juts out against his sternum, pushing him back.

"Stop that."

The look on his face is a little stupid, jaw dropped open and his brows furrowed. You were never like this when you were together, always deferring to him in one way or another. But you’re not together anymore.

You crouch down to his level, tracing the tips of your nails over the distended veins in his neck. Eddie's lids flutter, and then fall closed when your lips run over the same path, hand stroking faintly down his arm.

"You don't get to touch me, Eddie," you tell him, and he starts to nod, until his eyes flicker open again and he gets a good look at you, zeroed in on your tits and the low-cut of your dress.

"I- I don't, I mean . . . how?"

You slip the black bandana from his back pocket, give his ass a little squeeze. "Don't worry, honey, I'll help you out."

Eddie doesn't fight you when you push his wrists together, wrapping the cloth around them. He just stares, like he's trying to make sure this isn't a dream, his throat trembling when you pull the knot tight, letting the coarse fabric bite into his skin. You can almost hear a moan on his lips. But maybe you just imagined that.

Besides, you're not worried about what he likes right now.

Back on your feet, you rest your shoulders against the door, jutting your hips out toward him. Eddie looks up at you, big eyes wider than you've ever seen them, wiggling his wrists a little to see if there's any give.

You raise a brow, nudging at the ripped knee of his jeans with your bare toes. "Well?"

Whatever doubts Eddie may have had, they're out the window the second he sees you lifting up your skirt, revealing more and more of the soft skin of your thighs, the black lace you're wearing underneath it.

"Jesus, honey," he shuffles forward until his face is sandwiched between your thighs again, "you wear these for me?"

There's a little laugh on your lips, if only to cover up the way your breath hitches at the way he kisses at your skin, squeezing you between his teeth.

Even without his hands, Eddie Munson is dangerous.

You shift your legs wider so he can fit better, plant a hand in his hair and pull him closer to wear you want him.

"Not a chance, Munson. You think the next guy will like them?"

Eddie can't answer. Not vocally at least. His mouth is busy, tongue splitting your lips, before he stops to rub slow circles over your clit through the fabric. Like he's trying to tell you that there's not gonna be a next guy.

Fuck. You thought you were stronger than that, but maybe he's right.

Because, for all his faults, Eddie really knows how to eat pussy. Even without the use of his hands he's got you shaking—better than the feel of his fingers splitting you open, maybe even better than when he'd rip your underwear off you and dive in, nothing to separate you from the pleasure Eddie loved to give.

You're underwear are soaked, and not just from his spit, the sloppy way Eddie devours you, big eyes dark, looking up at you past the bunched up hem of your skirt. He's got you dripping, a little desperate.

Or more than a little.

Eddie's whispering when he pulls back enough he can speak, and you're shocked you can even hear him with the way he's talking directly into your pussy, and through the buzzing in your ears.

"Come on, princess. Let me taste you."

You snake your free hand down—because you want to, not because he asked, pulling the sticky wet fabric to the side. Eddie whistles low and soft when he sees your glistening cunt, the breeze sending a shiver up your spine when it meets your feverish skin.

He moves back in, slower this time, savoring the taste of you, his tongue peeking into your dripping hole and circling the edges, collecting your cum, drinking you up.

You press tighter against him to improve the angle, one leg coming up to rest on his broad shoulder. Eddie groans and the vibrations go straight to your clit.

Fuck, you're close. Close in a way you haven't been since you slammed the door to this apartment all those weeks ago—the kind of close you'd been looking for with your hand between your legs ever since, losing the feeling every time you were reminded that you should be thinking about anyone but Eddie.

But how could you manage? Head like this was hard to find.

Eddie knows that, the fucker, lips circled around your clit, sucking at you like his life depends on it. Your vision goes dark, eyes rolling back of their own accord. The only thing louder than your moans is the sound of Eddie's sloppy most working at your core.

You grind your hips down against his face, riding his mouth when the feeling overtakes you, body buzzing as those little uh uh uhs spill from your lips. Shock waves like fireworks traveling through you with each stroke of his tongue.

Fuck.

Eddie doesn't slow down, still abusing your poor clit, sucking at your puffy lips, trying to drain you of all those moans from you until you've got to drag him away by his hair or else he's gonna make you cum again.

And then you'll never want to leave.

Eddie looks up at you, face shiny, and he smiles.

"How was that?"

And it's almost as thrilling as that orgasm, the way his brain so clearly shuts down and stalls when you shift your clothes back to where they were, unphased, patting his cheek with a patronizing little look.

"Passable. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have plans."

Eddie doesn't have quite enough balance to get back on his feet with his wrists still tied, so he shuffles after you on his knees, tripping on clutter and knocking shit over.

"Wait a second, what about me?"

He waves his hands in front of his face, like you might have forgotten that you tied him up, like it wasn’t the highlight of your day.

"I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out, princess."

You don't even bother to look back, and the satisfaction that washes over you probably feels better than heroin.

You're in the living room before you hear Eddie call out again.

"Hey! You forgot all your stuff!"

He doesn't get a response to that one, either. The last Eddie hears from you is the slamming of his front door.

#eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x you #eddie munson smut #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson #my writing

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fabuloustrash05 · 6 months

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TMNT 2012: Monster AU

Remember that 2012 Halloween toy line where the Turtles were monsters? So I made a little AU based around that where the Turtles and all their friends are monsters or something else...

Leonardo - Mummy, was a royal that was given new life thanks to the Egyptian gods. Often bickers with Raph over who’s the superior royal (Leo’s actual royalty, Raph just claims he is causs ego)

Raphael - Vampire, calls himself the Prince of Darkness. Massive ego. He’s in love with the vampire slayer who’s hunting him down and wants to drink her blood to make her his vampire queen.

Donatello - Frankenstein’s Monster, created by Casey and very intelligent despite just been created and given life. Struggles to speak. Has a special connection and bond with April who uses to her powers to mentally communicate with him so she can hear him speak fully.

Michelangelo - Werewolf, his wolf transformation only comes out at a full moon so he’s his regular self the rest of the time but people think he’s more fun when transformed

April - Basically Carrie minus the abusive parent. Her father worries for her and her powers losing control and hurting those she loves, she feels like a freak but then she meets the Turtles and feels at home and slowly learns to control her powers.

Casey - Dr Frankenstein. A mediocre scientist, he created Donnie to prove he’s the best but turns out his creation is smarter than him and he hates it.

Karai - Gorgon (basically Medusa) and yes she can turn peoples into stone if you look into her eyes. Often wears shades or a blind fold to avoid eye contact.

Splinter - Ghost, a wise spirit who’s haunts the Turtles and friends.

Shinigami - Witch (shocker), usually everyone ago to for spells to solve their problems (Ex: Raph once went to her to make him a love potion, and once Slash asked her to help cure his “condition”), but she just messes with them and makes spells that just make their situation even worse.

Mona Lisa - Vampire Hunter. A Van Helsing and is hunting Raph down. Refuses to fall for his tactics and tricks (no matter how charming he is!)

Leatherhead - A sea monster like creature (like the creature of the black lagoon). Was an outsider and loner, bad social skills, but then met and befriended Mikey. He’s slowly opening up more and more when with him.

Slash - Something similar to Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, he’s got two personalities that clash (Spike and Slash), he hates it and wishes to be freed from this “cruse”.

Renet - Average human, she’s dating Mikey and he desperately tries to hide the fact he’s a werewolf from her. She already knows.

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pancakewithsprinkles · 13 days

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Sam And Max Headcannons <3

WARNING!!!! THESE ARE ALL BASED ON LITERALLY NOTHING. NONE OF THESE HAVE ANY CANNON BACKING THEM UP

Max loves to draw, though he's on the artistic level of a kindergartener. He likes using crayons the most :)

Sam and Max are both autistic. In fact, the whole reason they got into this business is Sam's never ending hyperfixation on black and white detective films.

They always get icecream after a job to celebrate :)

The commissioner is literally just Steve Purcell

On halloween, they always go as themselves and see how many people they can trick into thinking they're just in costumes. It's always fun

Max likes babies :)

Sam could be making thousands selling his artwork, but he doesn't think its good. (its basically on par with the mona lisa I have no idea where he gets that idea from)

Their favorite icecream is orange dreamsicles :)

Max loves using slang in front of sam to watch him panic because he has No Idea what his little buddy is saying

Max is the top

They like M night Shyamalan movies

Max isn't allowed to listen to Caramel Dansen anymore because last time he did he got so hyper he nearly broke everything in the office

they own multiple of eachother's plushies

They love interacting with kids!! Sam always has police badge stickers in his pocket in case of a Child Spotting. Max also has pixiesticks on hand for the same reason. Sam has no idea if they're actually pixie sticks or if he's just giving kids hard drugs and he's too afraid to ask

Sam is terrified of the Vet. Its a whole day ordeal of Max having to trap, trick, and manipulate his way into forcing sam into the vet's doors. He always gets a chewtoy afterwards though cus he's a brave lil pup :)

Max likes going to the vet because he steals all the equipment

Sam is a giant frank Sinatra fan, listens to him All The Time. This has led to max hating frank sinatra.

Sometimes max will just latch onto sam like a damn parasite and Sam wont even know he's been latched onto him until Max says something. Its nearly given Sam a heart attack on occasions

Sam has a dog bed, and Max sleeps where ever he wants. Spots Sam has found him sleeping in include: The Fridge, On the roof, On his head (suffocating him), In the microwave, and in the fishbowl.

When max dries off after getting wet he looks like a gigantic puff ball. He hates it, and Sam always makes fun of him for it

Sam does the Snoopy Happy dance :)

Max loves being thrown around. Down the stairs, through a window, being spun until he's violently ill... you name it, he adores it.

Max cant swim, but he will lie till the end of time that he can, since he finds wearing floaties embarrassing. He usually drowns at least two times at pool parties

Max's idol is the shark from Jaws

Max loves putting stickers on things he loves! Which usually means himself and Sam are covered in them

If you ask either of them how old they are, they'll reply with "time is a concept" because they've honestly forgotten what age they are

Sam and Max both believe in santa (I guess this isn't a headcannon since they did see/kill him once but still I like it)

Max has the uncanny ability to sleep anywhere anytime he wants, including sleeping standing up.

Sam and Max met eachother at a playground because Max bit sam and said he wouldn't let go till they were best friends. I think you all know how the rest of the story goes

#freelance husbands #freelance police #sam #sam and max #sam and max freelance husbands #sam and max fanart #sam and max freelance police #sam & max #headcannons #headcanon #sam and max headcannons #fandom #fandom things #fandom culture #fandom community #sam and max community #sam and max fandom

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tagedeszorns · 2 years

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It's the Imperial Palace-Halloween-Party and Alpharius/Omegon have just arrived!

Nobody knows what their costumes are referencing (the ancient terran texts they are based on are very obscure), but that's exactly how they like it: Being their own meme suits them very well.

Fulgrim is pissed, because he wanted to do a cool couple's costume with Ferrus, but being the piece of slag the Lord of the tenth is, he went with a boring "Error 404 costume not found"-shirt. So Fulgrim latched onto Perturabo, who, of course, dressed up as daVinci. So now there's daVinci and the phoenician-Mona Lisa.

Russ read an ancient terran text, too, but mixed it up. He is dressed up as "Riding Hood the Killer of the forest" accompanied by his Lumberjack- and Granny-wolf. Both wolves ate their costumes within minutes. Bjorn flatly refused to dress up as sidekick "kid" and therefore had to stay outside.

Since Lorgar already looks like the Emperor, he dressed up as their father and now is patronizing everybody just like the original. He forced Kor Phaeron to wear a Malcador-costume, too. No one would have thought it, but they are actually hilarious and very amusing in their roles. Amusing enough that the real Malcador can only with difficulty stop the real Emperor from angrily throwing papier-mâché pumpkins at his seventeenth son.

Vulkan loves his Godzilla-costume, because this pre-unification terran god (it had to be a god, since there were so many little statues!) is so damn cute! And kind of a dragon!

Then he spots Mortarion as Mothra and tackles him in a hug, since they both chose that ancient myth, oh glory day!

Magnus decided on a stage magician-costume, but every time he asks one of his brothers to "think of a number, I'll tell you which one you thought of!" or "pick a card and put it back into the pile!", they just go "Bro, you're a Psyker, that's nothing special!".

Curze is sulking beneath the buffet-table, because all the comments he gets on his very authentic "toatally normal imperial writing clerk"-costume are "Serial killer! They look just like everybody else, don't they!".

There he's joined by Stormseer Targutai, who brought a big plate of everything down under the table with him. Jaghatai wanted to dress up as one of the most famous race horses in terran history, Nijinsky, and so he needed two more legs. Since Targutai is way too good-natured to refuse, he humoured his Khan - at least for about ten minutes. Then he wandered off, spotting the buffet table. Now the back-half of a horse is happily munching on fingerfood, sharing it with a sweater-vest-clad Night Haunter.

About an hour into the party, the two are getting more company, as Corvus appears under the table as well. He shares Curze's fate, since everybody is mistaking his thoughtfully build (yet horribly sewn) Rosa Luxemburg-costume for Mary Poppins. How can it be nobody is recognizing one of the most courageous revolutionaries terra ever produced? It can't be because Raven Guard suck at anything artsy-crafty. No.

The only one of the brothers wo bothered himself with reading about classic terran Halloween-customs is, of course, Guilliman. But unfortunately for him, the texts are very old and very fragmented, so all he could take away was "scary things, but make it slutty". His zombie-make-up and fishnet-stockings are still getting him quite a few admiring (it has to be meant admiring!) comments, though.

It's a little bit frustrating for Dorn, that he really did his best with a "very dangerous inwittian predatory cat-like monster"-costume, but all of his brothers just want to cuddle the incredibly adorable furry-thing that's sweating like hell next to any open window he can find.

Sanguinius has plastered himself with about a hundred goggly eyes of all sizes, because he wanted to look like an angel. Surprisingly it isn't working. But Magnus is squinting at him, muttering "You look like someone I know, but I can't remember for the life of me ...."

Horus employed three of the mournival for a clever group-costume (he thinks it's clever). They are impersonating one of the most famous para-military strike-teams of ancient Terra. Now the Warmaster is sporting a big grin and a cigar, while Abaddon is visibly seething, because he wanted to be "the pretty one", but instead has to wear about a ton of gold chains, while Aximand is constantly telling him, having to wear a blonde wig is not that funny, either. Loken and Tarik played rock-paper-scissors for the remaining spot, Gavriel lost (on purpose) and now Torgaddon is very happy with a baseball hat and the license to behave crazy (within limits).

Angron is running around naked, bodypainted very green, yelling at everybody "I'M SHREK, GOD OF ORK!!!! WAAAAHHHG!!". The palace serving staff is now hiding from him. He counts this as a win. He makes no effort to explain why he is naked.

The Lion is pondering joining team "under the table", since Vulkan has spotted his very authentic Saint George-costume and continues to pounce at him, happily exclaiming "I'm a dragon, fight me!".

Now I have written an incredibly long text, although I only had the idea of drawing Alpharius and Omegon as Spy vs Spy. But that was fun! The Imperial Halloween Party is sure to be a great success.

Also, it seems Horus' costume isn't that obvious. Well ... 😊

#Warhammer #Spy vs Spy #Mad Magazine #Alpha Legion #Halloween #Primarchs #Imperial Palace #Horus Heresy #Alpharius #Omegon #All the Primarchs

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love-and-monsters · 2 years

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The Warlord and His Lady pt. 2

M dragonkin X F human, first person, 11,831 words

Happy Halloween! This story is, uh. Getting longer than I expected, so this chapter took me a while to write. I’ve always been one for longer stories, I suppose. Let me know what you all think! I’ve had fun writing it, and all your comments are really fueling me. Enjoy!

Part 1 is here.

Rastek keeps tracing his thumb back and forth over my knuckles absently. I’m not sure he even realizes he’s doing it. I’m… not sure how I feel about it. The touch is nice but it’s making my stomach do some weird flips and I can’t stop looking sideways at him. He looks less exhausted, with a healthy color back in his skin and the tiredness in his face less obvious. But his gaze is still sharp, piercing. I feel like if he looks at me, he can see right through me. I can’t help but worry about what exactly he sees.

“You’re staring at me.” Rastek cuts his gaze sideways at me and I quail under the weight of it. “Something wrong?”

“No, I just- I was just… trying to remember.” It’s not exactly true, but it’s not a lie, either. Whenever I look at his face, I feel like I should remember something. Like if I look long enough, it’ll come back to me. But it never does.

Rastek’s expression shifts a little. “Hm.” He turns his gaze to look ahead again. “You really can’t remember anything.”

“No.” My stomach twists. There’s no accusation in his voice, but I can’t help but feel worried he doesn’t believe me. I don’t know how to prove my ignorance to him. If he suddenly decides I’m lying- or decides he doesn’t want to bother with me since I can’t remember- I’m screwed. So, so screwed.

“What’s the matter?” Rastek tugs at my arm and I realize he’s stopped moving. He’s staring down at me. “Are you not feeling well? You seem…” He gestures vaguely toward my face. “…Unsettled.”

“It’s just- hard to remember,” I mutter.

“Don’t push yourself. You’re still recovering and you need to rest. The memories will return in time.”

Or they won’t, I think, but I don’t say it. He looks like he’s trying to convince himself more than me. “Sorry, my head’s just… weird right now. I’m all right.”

“Hmm.” I can’t tell if he believes me or not. His face is pretty unexpressive. After a moment of staring, he turns and continues down the hallway. It let out a breath and follow him.

The kitchen is small and warm. There are a few people milling around, but all of them snap to attention as soon as Rastek and I enter the room. There’s an older woman holding a fire poker and a younger man with his hair wrapped up into a bun. The third person looks about my age, but with about twenty pounds of muscle on me and with her hair done in an undercut style.

“Mona.” Rastek dips his head at her. “Any news?”

“Haven’t heard anything from one group. The other one reported in early this morning. There was rain heading toward their group, so it may have delayed them.”

Rastek sighs. “The instant you get news, alert me. If they’ve been waylaid, I want to know.”

“Of course.” Mona gives a salute and marches out of the room, snagging a handful of pastries on the way out. Even when she’s just walking, she looks graceful as a big cat. It’s kind of impressive.

The older woman turns back to the fire and fusses with it for a moment before turning to the younger man. “Ethan. You gonna stand around all day?”

He jumps a little and yanks himself into a weird little half-bow. “My lord, my lady! Welcome. What can I do for you?”

“Breakfast,” Rastek says.

“Ahh.” Ethan glances over at the woman before hurriedly looking back at us. “Of course! We just might need a few minutes to-”

The older woman straightens up, cutting him off. “We’ve been trying to feed the people who’ve been up overnight, so we’re a bit behind at the moment. I can try to make you something quick, but it’ll still take a few minutes.”

“Oh, that’s fine!” I say hurriedly. I remember spending one summer working at a breakfast and lunch café. The only thing worse than having to get up at the ass-crack of dawn was how crabby people got when their food or coffee was late. I don’t expect trying to serve a bunch of sleep-deprived people here is much easier, nor do I want to piss off the person who’s cooking my food. “I can wait, it’s no problem.” The older woman gives me a look that seems slightly surprised, but pleased. Was I less considerate when I remembered everything? I hope not.

“That’s why Mona was here, I assume. Trying to get some of her lot fed,” Rastek says.

“Yes. Though I told her, yelling at us won’t make the fire burn any hotter or the food cook any quicker. She took it all right. But we’ll need more food soon, my lord. Can’t keep this place running with empty stomachs.”

“Of course. We have a transport schedule set up from home- ask Jacobs about it, he can tell you when it’s coming. Should be by the end of the day. We’re trying not to risk too many big transports, lest the magic signature give us away, but a handful of smaller ones should be relatively unnoticeable. And hopefully we won’t be out here long anyway.”

“I’ll talk to him later, then,” the older woman says. “In the meantime, we’ve got some leftover bread, cheese, pastries and fruit. You can have some of that while I cook up an actual breakfast.”

Fruit and pastries sound like an actual breakfast to me, but I nod anyway. I’m hardly going to say no to more food. Rastek and I both grab pastries and, with a quick word of thanks, we head out to the dining room.

The dining room is small, with a fireplace inset on one of the walls and a dark, wooden dinner table taking up most of the space. I sit down, wincing when my muscles protest. I didn’t feel great when I woke up, but it seems to be getting steadily worse. Both my legs and back are protesting strenuously.

Rastek’s enormous yawn draws me out of my malaise. He barely manages to cover it with his wrist and blinks blearily a few times. “Mn. My apologies. My sleep last night wasn’t particularly restful.”

“I’m sorry you slept on the floor,” I say.

“It isn’t your fault. I suppose they were expecting us to sleep together, and didn’t bother to prepare other beds. But as I said, I have slept under far worse conditions.” He yawns again. “Eat, dear one.”

I pick up the pastry. It’s very buttery, almost too much. The jam in the middle helps a little, though. It’s good, if not very filling. Rastek both of his in two bites each and makes eyes at my second one.

“Do you want it?” I ask, nudging it toward him. He turns his head away, though his eyes flicker to it a couple times.

“You still need to eat,” he says. “Go on.” He nudges the plate with his knuckles. “You’ll be nauseous if you don’t.”

I pick up the pastry, rotating it in my hands for a moment. “What am I taking the medicine for?”

Rastek blinks a few times before understanding crosses his face. “Ah. You don’t remember.” He rubs his forehead. “I know you can’t remember anything, but it still surprises me sometimes.”

His voice catches a little oddly, but his expression is stiff enough that I can’t read it. He’s continuing too quickly for me to dwell on it anyway. “It’s a muscular condition. I can’t quite remember what you call it- it has a different name where I come from. Serchen’s Disease. It’s a muscular condition. It causes progressive degeneration of the muscles.” He pauses. I can see his throat bob when he swallows. “You’ve had it since you were young.”

I worry my lower lip in my teeth, pastry forgotten in my hand. “The medicine is to prevent the atrophy?”

“A combination of medicine and magic,” Rastek says. “I wish medicinal magic was more effective, but it’s never been good for conditions like yours.”

“Can magic not heal?”

“It… can. Cuts, broken bones, those such things. But a progressive condition like yours, well. All magic has a price. Theoretically, magic could be used to prevent your condition getting worse. But it can’t be maintained forever, and once the spell wears off, your condition would worsen quickly. A combination of medications, enhanced by small amounts of magic is safer and more effective in the long-term.” Rastek draws a finger along the table, his claw scraping delicately against the wood. “Not that it doesn’t have its own side effects. You’re often tired, weaker than you should be. Your immune system is often poor, so you catch colds easily. It can suppress your appetite at times. But it should hold off the degradation, at least for a long time.”

I stare down at the pasty. I don’t feel particularly hungry anymore. “It’s not fatal, then.”

Rastek is silent for just a little too long. “It shouldn’t be. Not for a long time, anyway.”

We don’t speak. Rastek shifts his weight a little, adjusting his sleeves. I’m not sure what to say to that. I’m not even sure I understood most of his explanation- he was speaking sort of fast. My head throbs and I knead at my forehead with the heel of my hand.

Fortunately, Ethan walks into the serving room, balancing a couple of plates of eggs, sausage, and what appeared to be a combination between a tortilla and a pancake. He sets them in front of Rastek and me with a hasty bow, then hurries back out of the room. I watch him go. I’ve never seen anyone so blatantly anxious about interacting with me.

“Sooner than I expected,” Rastek says. I think he’s pleased, though it’s hard to tell. He digs in at speed, practically inhaling his food. How long has it been since he’s eaten, I wonder. I can’t remember seeing him eat since… well, since we’ve met. Which was yesterday. God, that’s sort of dizzying. It feels a lot longer than that.

Rastek looks up and very nearly catches me staring at him before I hurriedly lower my head, pretending to be interested in my plate. It does smell good, and I can use the pancake-tortilla-crepe thing to eat the eggs and sausage in a sort of breakfast taco. The whole thing is a little under seasoned (I would really like some hot sauce) but not bad.

Rastek finishes his breakfast with time to spare before I’m even a third of my way through mine. He settles back in his seat, eyes partially closed. Even though I can’t see where he’s looking under his lashes, I can feel his gaze on me. It makes the hair on the back of my neck prickle, though it’s not entirely unpleasant.

I wouldn’t consider the portion of food I received to be that big (it’s certainly smaller than what Rastek got) but I can’t finish the last quarter of it. The food’s sort of unappetizing by the midway point, but I keep eating until my stomach is actually starting to protest. No one in my family’s fond of wasting food. I’m not used to leaving stuff on my plate but, I can’t quite bring myself to eat it. I push a few mouthfuls around with my fork, wondering if I can get another bite down.

“Are you done?” Rastek asks, leaning a little toward me. I hesitate, then nod, slouching back in my seat. I’m half expecting irritation, but he just nods and stands up. “Good job.” One of his hands rests on my head for a second, petting my hair. “Your medication should be in your room. But first…” He shifts around me, hands casually resting on my shoulders for just a moment before he slides behind my chair and heads into the kitchen. I wait for a moment, but I don’t like sitting alone in the dining room, so I just pick up my plate and follow him.

He’s taking something wrapped in cloth from the older woman when I enter. I’m pretty quiet, but Rastek’s head snaps around as soon as I take a step past the threshold.

“You could have left it,” he says as I move across the kitchen to place my plate in the sink.

“It’s no trouble to bring it in here. I needed to wait for you anyway.” Rastek seems to consider that, but he has no apparent complaints, because he just thanks the woman for whatever she handed over, grabs a flask from the counter and heads over to me.

We head back to my room, where Rastek ushers me over to the bed. He picks up the suitcase he took from my room at the manor, before we left, and flips it open. From inside it, he withdraws a box cushioned in paper. There’s something delicate about the way he cradles it to his chest, like he’s holding a baby. I can hear the gentle clinking of glass vials rattling against each other.

Rastek sits next to me and carefully opens the box. The lid slides off, then he lifts the upper portion of the box to reveal a second container hidden underneath. The upper box is full of vials while the lower box has a few vials and a whole bunch of plants, berries, and rocks wrapped in cloth. The bottles aren’t labeled, but they have little markings on the caps. I can’t tell what they are, but Rastek clearly understands it, because he picks out all the bottles with circles on them.

I’m sort of expecting them to be liquid, but the bottles have little capsules in them, albeit all various shades of unappealing brown or green. Rastek shakes out one or two of each, replacing the bottles in the box once he’s done with them. Once he’s done, he has a substantial handful of pills.

“Take them slowly,” he says, tipping them into my hand. There’s a disapproving note to his voice that makes me think he’s saying this from experience- to be fair, attempting to take a handful of pills in one gulp does seem like something I would do.

The pills aren’t as pleasant as some of the drugs I’ve taken back home. They dissolve the instant they touch water and they taste, at best, like chalk, and at worst, like acidic dirt. Mixing them together makes me feel like I’m drinking swamp water. I get them all down, but my stomach turns dangerously and I swallow hard against a gag.

“Keep drinking.” Rastek nudges the cup of water toward me again. I manage a couple of swallows before my stomach rolls again. I heave a little, a sour taste building in the back of my throat. “You need to keep it down.” Rastek rubs my back in a downward motion. “Breathe through your nose and swallow hard.”

The deep breaths help, and swallowing is at least enough to keep the bile from rising. I take another cautious sip of water. This time, despite another flip from my stomach, everything seems to be staying where it’s supposed to. My mouth still tastes like I just licked a swamp rock, though.

“Here.” Rastek nudges something into my hand. It’s the cloth-covered thing that he was taking from the kitchen earlier. “Take a bit.”

I unwrap it, half-expecting to see another pastry. Instead, there’s a dark brown candy, a bit smaller than my palm and shaped into a crown. I break off a part and place it on my tongue. It starts to melt immediately, filling my mouth with maple flavor, like hardened maple syrup.

Rastek re-wraps the treat and slides it into the medicine box before closing and putting the box away. “Feel better?”

“Yes.” The last of the maple candy melts, leaving only a lingering sweetness in my mouth. At the very least, it helped to settle my stomach. “I hate medicine.”

Rastek’s mouth squishes sideways and a little bit up before falling back into its neutral position. “Hm. So you’ve said.” Something like a shadow crosses his expression, but it’s gone so fast I can’t be sure if I’m imagining it or not. He clears his throat and busies himself with tidying away the medicine box, fussing over tucking it away in just the right spot. I feel vaguely awkward, like I’m intruding, even though this is supposed to be my room. Then again, I aways feel like I’ve somehow intruded here. Like whatever relationship he had with me before, or the person I was, or whoever inhabited this body before me is gone and I’m just in its place, intruding on a life that isn’t mine and isn’t supposed to be.

I want, very much, to go home.

I don’t start crying so much as I realize that there are warm tears on my cheeks and my breath is doing the pathetic little hiccupping catches that happen when you’re upset. There’s no slow build to it- suddenly I’m just silently melting down, shaking all over and dripping a mess of snot and tears down my face. I’m not even entirely sure what I’m crying about- missing home? Begin lonely? Being sick? All of the above? Maybe it’s just the crawling sense of unease here- everyone’s being nice to me because of who they think I am, but I can’t even remember being that person. How long until they get sick of pretending the person I was is still around? I don’t even know how to survive here- I don’t even know if it’s possible. I don’t want to survive here. I want to go home, where at least things made sense.

Rastek makes a strange noise, like a strangled, ‘oh.’ I hear him move closet to me, feel the mattress shift as he leans over the bed. “Are you all right?” I feel his hand come within an inch of my shoulder, then rapidly retreat. “Tell me what’s wrong. I’ll fix it.”

I press my lips together and try to stop crying. It doesn’t help. My entire body shakes and tiny noises sputter from me no matter how much I try to stop them. I curl on my side, trying to cover my face and hide myself away as much as possible, as if maybe if I can shrink myself small enough, he’ll forget about me and leave me alone.

The bed sinks a little as Rastek sits down next to me. His hand touches my back for just a moment, leaving a tingling warmth in its wake. For a moment, he just sits there while I bury my face in my hands and try to stifle the sobs. Then his hand comes out again and he rests it lightly on the top of my head. He doesn’t say anything. His hand just traces lightly along my scalp, petting me as I cry.

Finally, the sobs fade to whimpers, then peter out altogether so I’m just lying on the bed, shaking. Rastek’s hand rests on my head, unmoving except for the slightest twitching of his fingers. I snuffle a little, scrub at my face with the back of my hand. Hot humiliation washes over me- now that I’m not actively crying, it seems stupid that I ever did so in the first place. Rastek’s hand slips off my head and the bed groans as he stands up. I track his movements by hearing as he walks around the bed so he’s in front of me again.

“Sit up a little.” One of his hands nudges lightly at me, coaxing me into a half-sitting position. “Drink.” He offers me the water glass and I sip at it. “Good.” He shifts so he’s kneeling in front of me. “I’m going to touch your face. Are you okay with that?”

I can’t quite look him in the eyes, but I manage a nod. His fingers gently touch under my chin, raising my head. I keep my eyes downcast, but he doesn’t comment. He just carefully fists a piece of cloth and starts to wipe my face off.

The touch is so gentle it triggers a fresh wave of tears. Rastek doesn’t comment on them. He just dabs them away as they fall. The tears taper off quickly, leaving me sniffling and shaking again as he finishes cleaning me off.

“I’m sorry,” I say as soon as my voice is clear enough. Rastek lifts a brow. “For… everything."

“I’m not certain what you’re apologizing for,” he says, climbing to his feet. “You’re ill, you’re completely exhausted, and your mind is…” He stumbles over his word for a second. “Your mind is struggling, at the moment. You don’t need to apologize for crying. I should think it’s a normal reaction in these circumstances.”

“You’ve been doing all right,” I say.

“Hmph,” Rastek says. He bends to scrub at my face a little more before sitting on the bed next to me. “Is it all right if I touch you?”

I give him a cautious look, but nod. He rests a hand on my back, running his fingers along my spine. The touch is feather light, but when I don’t move away, it deepens. He pauses the stroking occasionally to dig his thumb into my back, kneading gently. There’s one particular spot that’s been tense since I’ve come here and when he presses on that spot, I groan. Loudly. He pauses and I have the opportunity to feel extremely embarrassed. “Did that hurt too much?”

“No, it was, um, nice. My back’s been sore.” My thighs are also sore, but the idea of him touching me there makes me feel like I’m on fire.

“I tell you not to lean over your desk,” Rastek says, “but you never listen.” There’s fond exasperation in his voice, but beneath that, he sounds… mournful. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that as much as I’ve lost, he’s lost something too. His wife can’t remember him.

My stomach hurts in a way that has nothing to do with the medicine I took. I want to say something, but what am I supposed to say? Everything I can think of feels like it would make things worse. Rastek folds his hands in his lap, staring fixedly at a spot on the floor.

Finally, I open my mouth to say something (I’m not sure what, but anything would be better than the awkward silence), but my jaw creaks with a massive yawn. Right. I barely slept. It all seems to be catching up to me at once.

“You can’t fall asleep,” Rastek says. I focus on him blearily. “Remember what the thaumatist said? You must stay awake until he can get you the charm.”

“Oh, right.” I blink a few times, trying to clear the sleep. It doesn’t help. My head is swimming. I feel like I’ve been running on fumes and now I’ve crapped out. Another yawn hits me and I have to muffle it into my sleeve.

Rastek stands up, brushing absently at his front. “This place has a lovely garden. We should go for a walk.”

My legs are protesting just the thought of walking around, but if I sit here any longer, I’m going to fall asleep. I stand, doing my best to shake the sleep from my head. Rastek offers me his elbow. I slip my hand into it, trying not to feel the strange fluttering in my chest.

We head out of my room together and Rastek tugs me along toward the back of the house. A few people cross our paths, bowing or nodding respectfully when they see us. It’s a weird sensation, especially because I can feel people looking at me curiously. I’m not sure what to do in response; I just sort of awkwardly nod my head when they address me. It’s mostly well-wishing, anyway, and they seem pleased that I’m showing any kind of gratitude.

Rastek either notices my discomfort or he just wants to get outside already, because he dismisses them with a wave and pulls me along with him toward the back door. “I’ve told them to let you get your rest, but they are curious,” he murmurs once we’re out of earshot.

“How much do they know?” I ask.

Rastek hesitates. “They know you were attacked with magic, and we came here so you could be safe while you recover.”

“Do they know about the memory loss?” I press.

“A few know. Obviously, the thaumatist and the physician know. And a couple of the head servants. But most of them… no. We’ve been deliberately vague. The less information that gets out, the better.” He glances down at me, and our eyes meet. My stomach does a weird little flip at the intensity in his golden eyes. “And I thought it might be better for your recovery if your condition wasn’t widely known. Just to avoid any questions or poking around.”

“Thank you.” Though I suppose I’ll have to be careful what I say in front of others now.

“Don’t trouble yourself over it,” Rastek says. He places his hand over mine where it’s still resting on his arm. “You just need to rest and heal.”

He opens the door to the outside and we step into the sunlight. It’s warm, and there’s a faintly sweet scent in the air, like honey. Stretching out beyond the doorway is a stone path that splits into three concentric circles. Small trees and flowering plants sprout between each of the circles.

“It’s not quite as impressive as the gardens back home,” Rastek says in a tone I can only describe as apologetic. “It’s a bit overgrown, and there aren’t as many exotic plants, but it’s charming in its own way.”

“That’s all right. I can’t remember it anyway,” I say, only half listening. “Those are lilies.”

Rastek follows my gaze to a patch of nearby white lilies. “Yes.” He pauses, giving me a cautious look. “You like lilies.” He says it like he’s trying to remind me, not like he’s stating a fact.

“I do,” I say. “And those are violets, right?”

“I’m not sure. You were always better at identifying plants than I am,” Rastek says. He allows me to tug on him as I move to examine more flowers.

“They’ve got cherry trees over here… And I think these are poppies. And those… are…” I squint, trying to pry the memory loose. “Sage?” I pluck a leaf and bit down on it. Rastek makes a startled noise. “Yeah, that’s sage.”

“Please,” Rastek says in a tone of weary exasperation. “Stop putting random leaves in your mouth.”

“I don’t always do that. Anyway, I knew they were edible.” I sweep my gaze around the garden. “Huh. There’s sage and chamomile and feverfew here… but there’s some over there, too.” At least, there was chamomile and sage- I wasn’t sure about the feverfew.

“They’re probably growing their medicinal plants and edible plants separately, so they can infuse the magic differently,” Rastek says. “Your garden back home separated them, too. That’s why- are you all right?”

At the mention of my garden, my head throbs like someone’s driven an icepick into it. I sway, pressing my palms to my temples. “Headache. It just started.” I blink my eyes, trying to focus on the garden. There’s a weird sense of déjà vu. I know these plants- I’ve worked with them before. I’ve worked with them doing… doing… what?

“Do you want to see the physician?” Rastek presses a hand to my back and the déjà vu retreats, leaving nothing helpful in its wake. I have a feeling I was on the edge of something. I’m just not sure what it was.

“I think I’m okay. Just a headache.” Already, the pain is fading away, growing less intense with each throb. I shake my head, which helps clear it. “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize,” Rastek huffs. “It’s not something you need to be sorry for.” He holds onto my arm as I straighten up, though I don’t think I really need the help. It seems to be reassuring him more than anything else.

We walk slowly around the garden, with Rastek occasionally noting a particularly interesting plant. That itching sense of déjà vu comes back a few times. It’s like seeing something out of the corner of your eye- I can feel the familiarity creeping up on me, but when I try to face it head-on, it vanishes. The sensation is disorienting and frustrating, and it leaves me more exhausted and annoyed than ever. Rastek must have noticed, because he steers me back toward the house before we’ve seen even half of the garden.

“Sir!” As soon as we exit the garden, a couple of lightly armored guards start jogging in our direction. They both stop and salute before one of them continues speaking. “News from the westernmost border. A spy was located in the Amaranth encampment sending messages to the opposing warlord. They’ve been captured, but we’re waiting on orders for interrogation and they indicated they might have some news related to-” The speaker cuts herself off, glancing in my direction. “To, um. What happened.”

Rastek draws himself up stiff. He wasn’t exactly relaxed earlier, but the difference is striking. It’s like very muscle in his body goes rigid at once. “Give me a moment,” he murmurs to me, then he ushers the guards a short distance away so they can begin talking in hushed voices.

I’m a little miffed he’s not willing to let me at least listen. I’d like to know who tried to assassinate me. If that’s actually what happened- there’s a least a part of me that thinks, or maybe hopes, that this is all a very weird dream and I’m going to wake up sooner or later. I assume he’s trying not to stress me out more, but I’m not sure that locking me out is going to help with that.

Their whispering carries, Rastek’s voice more than the others. I can’t make out words, but I can get his tone. He doesn’t sound happy. He sounds annoyed, verging on being pissed off. I try to pick out words, but it’s hard to focus on it and my mind starts wandering after a couple of tries.

I’m calm right now, which feels… weird? Or maybe wrong. I think I should still be freaking out, but I’m… not. It’s like I’ve found a temporary island of calm. I’m going to panic later. But right now, I’m okay. Maybe I should be more upset. But I’m at least temporarily safe and fed and will be for the foreseeable future. I’m too exhausted to bother with being upset right now.

My mind feels floaty. I’m tired. Everything feels distant. The heaviness of my body, the swirling mass of my emotions, even the sound of Rastek’s voice. It all seems to be floating away. I feel like I’m falling asleep standing up, except my eyes are open. It’s a weird feeling. I’m still seeing things and hearing things, but they don’t make sense. Just a blur of colors and nonsensical noises. My head is swimming. I’m floating in the sea, buffeted by currents. It’s pleasant. The tide is carrying me and I’m just resting-

“Come back. I need you to wake up. Wake up!” My body shakes, a rattling feeling that sends my head lolling and my pleasant floatiness dissolving. I blink rapidly. The world is just shapes and colors until something in my brain clicks and they resolve into meaning. Rastek is bending to look into my face, golden eyes blazing and intense. His hands are on my shoulders so tight my fingers are digging in. He gives me another shake. “Can you hear me?”

It takes me a second to find my tongue. “Y-yes! I can-”

I don’t get to finish the sentence before Rastek is turning away from me. “Get the thaumatist! Now!” His voice is a roar and the two soldiers trip over themselves in their haste to obey. As soon as he sees them moving, he whips back to me. I freeze. His eyes are blazing over the stern set of his mouth and jaw. I thought he looked stern before. Now his expression is made of stone.

“Sit.” He half drags me over to the nearest bench and pushes me down onto it. I don’t protest. Part of it is that that I still feel a little out of it, but the other fact is that I can’t imagine disobeying him. His presence itself demands obedience, like a force coming from his very soul. “Can you hear me?”

“I can hear you.” The words come out a bit jumbled. Rastek watches me like a hawk, eyes quickly and clinically darting over my form. “I feel a little weird, but I’m okay.” These words are clearer. I feel like I just woke up and I need a little bit to relearn my body. I watch Rastek’s tail swish violently back and forth. “Are you okay?”

He doesn’t answer, just turns back toward the building. A second later, one of the guards reemerges, followed by the thaumatist. He’s actually running instead of just sort of dreamily drifting about, though the urgency doesn’t seem to have spread to his face. He just looks sort of mildly concerned.

“You called?” the thaumatist says as he approaches. Aside from the panting from the run, he still sounds unconcerned.

“Something happened.” Rastek’s voice is tight in his throat, almost a growl. “She was standing and her eyes were open but she wasn’t responding- she was barely breathing.”

“Hm.” The thaumatist bends to look into my eyes. “Give me a moment.” His hands come to either side of his face and I feel the slight tingle of his magic.

“She drifted,” he says eventually. His fingers come away from my face and he rocks back on his heels. “I did say it would likely happen.”

“Her soul drifted, you mean,” Rastek says. His entire body is a line of tension, arms folded, tail lashing like an angry cat’s.

“That’s what I said,” the thaumatist agrees. “Her soul’s settled back in by now. You woke her up, I assume?”

“I yelled and grabbed her and she seemed to come back after a few moments,” Rastek says. The tension is maybe a little less now, and there’s maybe a hint of shame in his voice.

“Mm. Yes, a bit of a shock will do it. Though the more it drifts, the more difficult it can get to bring the soul back right away.” The thaumatist shrugs. “She is fine. I will be finished with the detector by the end of the day. If you will excuse me.” He rises and drifts back toward the house.

Rastek pinches his brow. “If he wasn’t one of the most skilled…” He trails off, tension pulling his shoulders up toward his ears. The guard looks at him, uncertain, until he waves her off. She takes the excuse and hightails it out of there.

We remain in silence for a bit. Rastek doesn’t say anything, and I’m not sure what to say. He’s upset, clearly. But I don’t know how to make it better. The intensity of his expression keeps burning its way into my mind. It feels like it did when I first woke up here- like the little distance we’d closed between us is looming like a great cavern.

“We should go back inside,” Rastek says. He gestures for me to follow him. “Come on.”

I follow him as he silently leads me back to his room. His expression his neutral, his posture rigid and unrelenting. I can’t tell what he’s thinking at all, and it’s freaking me out. Is he upset at me? Angry? Am I supposed to be doing something? My stomach roils with anxiety.

“I need to take care of a few things,” Rastek says as we approach the doorway. “Feel free to look around the house, and ask the servants if you need anything. And don’t sleep.” I nod, though I can’t tell if he notices. He’s not looking at me. He just gives his own little nod and sets off down the hallway. Within a moment, he turns a corner and vanishes.

My room’s still pretty small, but it feels cavernous and empty now. I cautiously sit on my bed. What now? My hand automatically goes to my pocket, but, obviously, there’s no phone. I just hold my hand awkwardly in my lap. What did people do in awkward moments before phones?

Bereft of anything else to do, I wander around the room. There’s not much to explore. There’s not even a window. The bathroom is similarly boring- just the tub, toilet, and the soap I used last night. It definitely gives hotel room vibes- that impersonal, utilitarian feel of a place that exists to supply the bare essentials needed for living. No books, no knickknacks. No way to learn about who I used to be- who Rastek thinks I am.

I want to know about that, at least. How different was this person? Are they- were they- like me? Rastek and the thaumatist seem to think that we’re the same, but I don’t feel the same- how can we be the same if we have different memories? But if I’m not the same, then why should Rastek bother to keep me around? I’m not his wife. I’m like a stranger who’s taken her place. I don’t want him to toss me out- but isn’t it wrong if I’m stringing him along, like I am actually his wife? Am I his wife? Should I want my memories, if they are my memories, to come back? What would that mean for the memories I have now? Would this person I am, with these memories, survive regaining other memories? If I don’t regain them, is it immoral to keep going along with what Rastek is doing?

My head throbs and I drop my face into my hands. I wish I could sleep. Then again, given the thoughts whirling around my head, I might not be able to, even if I wanted to try.

As I move to sit on my bed, my foot catches on my suitcase. I manage to catch myself on the bed, instead of falling. “God dammit!” I throw a kick at the suitcase, glad for something to take out my frustrations on. I end up with a sore foot for my trouble, but the suitcase pops fully open. It’s been partially unpacked, but there are still some clothes at the bottom. And half-buried beneath the clothes is a brown book.

I pick it up. My first hope is that it’s a history book or a nature guide, or something that will give me a better understanding of the world. But once I pick it up, I realize that it’s clearly a journal- there’s no title and the pages stick out wonkily in some areas where extra notes or pictures have been jammed in. I flip open the first few pages and am struck with an intense sense of déjà vu. Because it’s my journal.

Not a journal I remember writing, of course. But even just skimming, I recognize the handwriting and writing style. Even the drawings in the margins look familiar. It’s a weird sensation, reading something that’s clearly my writing, but not something I remember writing.

I sink back onto the bed, flipping through pages at random. It’s a little hard to read- nothing is dated, there isn’t a lot of explanation going on, and several of the entries seem to be recipes, as far as I can tell, but they’re just numbers written next to ingredients with no measurements. It’s definitely written more as a series of notes-to-self, where the reader is expected to have a lot of context, instead of one of the more properly written journals in fiction.

As confusing as it is, there’s something comforting about it. It’s familiar. This is how I journal. No full sentences, no clear notations, entries written in at random with the expectation that I’ll know what it means when I come back to it. I understand the style, if not the actual content.

Most of the journal means nothing to me, but I can pick up on a few similar themes- recipes litter the book, often with several items crossed off and replaced or numbers scribbled out and changed. There are short lists in some areas, detailed drawings of plants, and even some pretty, though abstract, patterns. It’s more like taking a glance into someone’s brain rather than reading a linear journal, but the familiarity of it is comforting. I would write something like this. This person who wrote it, even if I can’t remember them, is like me.

It’s a bit overwhelming all at once, and I’m so absorbing in thinking about it that I only notice Rastek opening the door when it hits the wall with a loud BANG!

I scream and the book jolts out of my hands and lands somewhere among the bedsheets. Rastek stares at me as I scramble after it. “Are you all right?”

“You scared me,” I pant, seizing the journal and tucking it against my chest.

“I did not mean to.” He shifts his gaze to the journal. “What’s that?”

“It’s a journal,” I say, unfolding my arms so the journal lays in them. “I think it’s… my journal?”

Rastek crosses the room and holds out a hand. I place the journal in it. He flips through a few pages, then hands it back to me. “Yes.” He stands there for a moment longer. “Do you remember anything?”

“I mean…” I flip idly through the journal. What do I say to that? “I don’t really remember any of these. Some of them, I’m not even sure what they mean. I pause over a particularly esoteric list- I can’t tell if it’s written in code or if my handwriting was just unusually bad that day. “But it looks like something I would write.”

“That’s something,” Rastek decides. “How are you feeling?”

I muse over the answer for a little bit, then shrug. “I’m… not sure. Fine, I guess.” For an adjusted measure of fine, anyway. “My legs still hurt.”

Rastek perks up a little, like I’ve given him something concrete that he can finally focus on. “Where?”

“Uh. Just muscle aches. I think from riding the horse.” I gesture broadly at my legs and Rastek lifts one of them, moving his hands gingerly along my calf and squeezing every now and then. When one area makes me hiss in pain, he pauses and takes his time there, rubbing his thumb in slow circles.

“Your condition makes it hard to develop strength in your muscles,” he says. “We’ll need to start your regimen again. You haven’t been keeping up with it while I was-” He stops himself abruptly and presses his lips together. “I can have the physician teach it to you. He’s the one who came up with it in the first place.”

My chest constricts strangely. “Okay.” Rastek glances at me briefly, then returns to the leg massage with twice the intensity.

I’m just starting to relax when his hands move up past my knee and onto my thigh, underneath my dress. I freeze. “Does it hurt here?” Rastek asks, hands stopping. He presses down a little and it does hurt, but there is also the fact that his hands are at my thighs, his thumb rubbing almost against my skin- there’s some fabric in the way, thank goodness for the underwear-pants thing, but his hands are still under my skirt. He squeezes a little, testing the muscle. “Is it sore? You’re very tense-” He glances up at that moment and makes eye contact with me. Actually looks at my mortified face. His hands go very still.

And then they’re gone and he’s recoiling, standing up in one smooth motion. His jaw twitches and sets strangely, like he wants to say something but isn’t sure how. Finally, he manages, “I apologize. Profusely.”

“It’s okay,” I say automatically. I can still feel the phantom touch of his hand. I sort of want to pat it away, but I feel like that would make things more awkward. Rastek looks either mortified or ashamed or angry or some combination of all three. He’s not quite looking at me and his tail is swishing back and forth.

“I wasn’t thinking,” he says. “When you did your exercises, I would help. I suppose I just forgot myself.”

“You’re not the only one who’s forgotten yourself,” I joke. I’m trying to make the mood lighter, but Rastek just stares at me. “S-sorry. But I’m okay! You didn’t hurt me or anything. I know it was a mistake.”

“As long as you’re not uncomfortable,” Rastek says. He looks scrutinizingly at me for a moment. “I came to see if you were feeling hungry. It’s lunchtime.”

“I guess I could eat,” I say. I’m not feeling hungry, which is a little unusual for me, but if I miss lunch, I’ll be starving later. Rastek looks… pleased? His expression doesn’t change much, but his tail stops twitching.

“Good.” He waits for me to get up, then leads me out into the hall. This time, I mostly remember the way to the kitchen and there’s already food on the table when we arrive. It’s what I would consider a slightly extravagant lunch, with a game hen, a basket of rolls, several plates of assorted vegetables, and a few other side dishes that I can’t identify at first glance. Usually, I consider having a subway sandwich to be a bit of a treat.

“Are we supposed to eat all this?” I ask. It certainly can’t manage all of it. “No. We eat first, then the soldiers will come in and eat second. The servants have separate mealtimes.”

“Oh.” I feel sort of awkward getting to eat first- why not just all eat together? Or make separate meals for us, if we really can’t eat with the soldiers or servants for whatever reason? Having other people getting my leftovers feels… weird.

“Are you not going to eat?” Rastek’s voice jolts me a little. He’s looking at me with a little furrow between his brows.

“Um.” I don’t feel confident enough to mention what I’m thinking, so I just sit a little awkwardly in my seat. “Yes, I’ll eat.”

Rastek gives me a bit of a peculiar look when I start serving myself, but he waits until I’m done before he takes anything for himself. The food’s good, but I find myself picking at it pretty quickly. Maybe I was ambitious when I served myself, because I’ve only gotten through about a third of my plate.

“Not hungry?” Rastek asks. His plate is mostly full of meat, but he’s gotten a pretty decent portion of vegetables along with it. He’s also made far more of a dent in it than I have.”

“I don’t know. The food’s good.” I chew on another bite, but swallowing it is difficult. I wasn’t really hungry before the meal started, but now I’ve moved into ‘definitely not hungry’ territory. If I keep going, I’m going to end up in ‘way too full’ land.

“If it’s making you feel sick, you can stop,” Rastek says. “Or take some of it back to your room to eat later- maybe you’ll feel better then?”

“Maybe.” I glare at the remainder of food on my plate. “You mentioned earlier that the medicine can suppress my appetite?”

Rastek twists his fork in his fingers. “Yes. Several of the enhanced ones that slow the atrophy also affect certain metabolic processes and act as appetite suppressants. And the atrophy itself can affect your digestion, which can make it harder to eat.”

It feels like I have rocks sitting in my stomach. I set my utensils down and breathe slowly. Rastek watches me keenly, though his expression is unreadable. “It usually helps if you eat more slowly. And take smaller portions.”

“Good to know.” My stomach rolls and I swallow thickly.

“I would have mentioned,” Rastek says. “I forget that you don’t know what you usually know.” He peers carefully into my face. “You have an anti-nauseant. I can go get it for you.”

“I’m okay.” I take another deep breath, trying to get my stomach to settle. My eyes are starting to prickle with tears again (I hate feeling sick to my stomach), but I fight them back. I’m so sick and tired of crying. I feel like I’ve done nothing but since I came here. Maybe it’s understandable, but it doesn’t make it any less annoying.

I stand up before I realize I’ve decided to do it. Rastek pauses in his eating. “I’m going for a walk,” I say. “It might help.”

Rastek starts to stand. “I can come with you-”

“No, I can go by myself. I think it’ll be a good opportunity for me to get to know the place,” I say, not quite looking at him. He stares at me for a moment. I can see the tension along his shoulders, but he sinks back into his seat.

“If you need anything, you can ask the servants,” he says. I can’t tell what he’s feeling- his face is giving absolutely nothing away. “Don’t strain yourself.”

“I won’t,” I say, and I turn and leave the dining room.

For the first few minutes, I wander aimlessly down the halls, trying to look like I know where I’m going. A few servants give me looks as I walk past them, but I try not to pay it too much mind. It’s not easy when I can feel their lingering stares on my back until I turn the corner of the hall.

It’s not the biggest house I’ve ever been in, but it’s bigger than mine- or, at least, bigger than mine was. Based on the outside view I got of the house that Rastek and I left, the one we currently own is bordering on castle size. It’s impressive, I suppose. It’s also a lot of space for me to get lost in. I’ve never been all that good with directions.

This house, in fact, is sufficient size for me to get lost. It’s at least partially not my fault- there are a lot of hallways with a lot of branching paths that all turn corners at random intervals. Nothing is particularly decorated, either, so there aren’t any distinguishing features. Still, it’s nice to wander around. Most rooms are kind of dusty, but I find some interesting places. Like a small room where basically every flat surface is covered in books, a room that seems to be just for strange, metallic sculptures, and another that’s covered in swords, knives, and other interesting weaponry.

There's no one really around, so when I push open the door to another room and find someone sitting inside it, I startle. He’s sitting with his back to me, golden hair tied up in a tight knot at the back of his head, bent over something on a desk. The room itself is kind of dim and cluttered- like someone walked in, cleared off a surface as quickly as possible and just got to work. There are several partially unpacked bags strewn around the room.

“Hello, my lady,” he says without taking his eyes away from the table in front of him. The voice, I can recognize.

“Hello, um.” I don’t know how to address him. Rastek always just said ‘the thaumatist.’

“You may refer to me as thaumatist, as your husband does,” he says, picking right up on my discomfort. “I rarely give away my name. Powerfully magic, you know.”

“Er. Okay. Thaumatist.” I hesitate for a moment. “I don’t want to bother you, so please, if you need to concentrate, you can tell me to go away, but what exactly is a thaumatist?”

He turns to look at me over his shoulder. “I wouldn’t dare tell my lady to go away. Not only would it be horrifically rude to my employer, but I shudder to think what your husband would do if he found I was rude to you. He’s quite a fearsome warlord, after all.”

My expression must be quite a sight, because the thaumatist only manages to keep a straight face for a moment before he bursts into breathy laughter. “I am teasing. His bark, or perhaps his roar, is more fearsome to me than his bite. I am not bothered by your question.” He turns back to the table. “Thaumatists work with the energy of thaumaturgy- magic, to a layperson. The force that makes up the soul, the life energy, the intangible fabric of the living universe. I am currently working thaumatic energy into an armor and container, of sorts, one that will keep your soul firmly in your body.” He reaches across the table and grabs something that looks like a flat white rock with strange, circular drawing on it. It’s attached to a chain, like a necklace, though the pendant is a bit too clunky to be fashionable. “This one detects if your soul is drifting.”

“The alarm system you said you were going to make.” I reach for it, hesitant, and he allows me to take it in my palm.

“It is incomplete. The actual alarm part is still not functional. Currently, it can detect your soul drifting away, but the only person who would know is me, since I laid the spell.” The thaumatist removes the pendant from my hand. “Your husband would prefer a spell that can alert him, as well. Which I think would be best. Some of my work is delicate, and I would hate to have to leave to alert you every time you drift.”

I fidget with my fingers. “My, uh. My husband. What’s he like?”

“I’m not a good person to ask that. Our relationship is strictly professional.” Makes sense. I’m not sure why I asked. I’m not sure who else I have to ask, though. The thaumatist glances up from his work. “In my estimation, he’s a good boss. Lots of creative freedom. Generally not too much oversight. Treats his workers well. But I suspect it’s not the sort of information you’re looking for in regard to your husband.”

“Not really.” I hesitate for another moment. “You don’t happen to know anything about what our relationship was like, do you?”

The thaumatist makes several marks on a piece of paper and squints at them. “No. I was hired after you met, and when we spoke, we had more interesting things to discuss than your relationship.”

I perk up with interest. “We spoke? What did we speak about?”

“Experimental magical properties with plants, potioneering, poisons. You had a keen interest in cutting a person off from magic using natural properties at once point- an interesting idea, though every time we spoke, it was strictly theoretical.”

I don’t really understand what he’s saying, but the words sound familiar nonetheless. “But nothing personal.”

“No.” The thaumatist glances over his shoulder at me. “If you are looking for more information about your relationship, why not ask your husband? He would know more than anyone else."

The suggestion is logical, but I can’t imagine how unbearably awkward the conversation would be. It’s probably one we’ll have to have sooner or later, but I’m going to put it off as much as I possibly can. “Well, thank you anyway, for telling me a little about myself. I’ll leave you alone.”

The thaumatist gives a vague wave and mumbles something about shutting the door after I leave. I do so, closing him back inside his little workshop.

I end up wandering back to the room jam-packed with books. Some of them (like A Natural Study of Avians) seem pretty similar to books I’d find at home, while others (like The History and Government of Ethoria) are completely unrecognizable. Eventually, a select one of the more slender and generalist history books (A Brief History of the Western Continent) and sit down on the floor to read.

The book’s mostly a long, tedious description of battles and rulers and people either being conquered or conquering. There are maps, but they’re all pretty much unhelpful, considering that I have no idea where I am. The political stuff is intriguing, at least, and gives me some context. Rastek is a warlord, granted a portion of the army by the Lord Ruler to command on the battlefield. He’s required to both manage his section of the army as well as care for any lands under his control. More lands means more power, though I’m not sure which of the mapped territories Rastek owns, nor if the map is even accurate. The only reason I even know I’m looking at the right country is because I remember briefly seeing Rastek looking at a similar map when we were traveling.

My next investigation of the books leads me to several on the topic of magic. I flip through a few of them, but the results are comparable to trying to understand chemistry through reading academic papers- clearly, you’re expected to have a lot of background knowledge that I just don’t. I give up around the point where the book suggests using the warp and weft method of combining energy to reduce friction in the spectral grid.

I’m skimming the titles looking for something that would be both informative and understandable when a green and gold volume catches my eye. The title’s pretty simple: Draconids, written in an elegant gold script.

I slip the book from the shelf and sit back down, flipping through the first few pages. There are sketches, mostly anatomical ones, of people who look a lot like Rastek. Mostly humanoid, with a tail, though closeups of their skulls show sharper canines than humans have. And judging by some of the other anatomical sketches, they’ve got patches of scales along their backs and legs- I’ve never seen Rastek show enough skin to confirm that. And there are some… interesting differences in their reproductive organs. I skip most of that part- though it does raise some questions about our married life.

The book answers some questions- apparently, draconids are supposed to be distantly related to dragons (which used to be real and are now extinct), shifting into more human forms through careful magic. They seem, otherwise, pretty similar to humans, but more carnivorous and, on average, a little bigger.

I skim most of it, trying to find something useful. There are a few sections that mention cultural norms, but they still seem pretty close to humans. A couple of interesting facts catch my eye- marriage proposals are supposed to incorporate scales from both parties, and there are several species of snakes that are considered common pets. But there’s not a lot of information about how humans and draconids interact. In fact, Rastek is the only draconid I can remember seeing in since I got here. Do humans and draconids not live together? Then why is Rastek here? And how did we end up together?

Unfortunately, I don’t think most of my questions are going to be answered by books. The solution is boiling down more and more to the one thing I was trying to avoid: Ask Rastek.

I heave myself off the ground and my legs instantly give out. I can’t quite manage to catch myself with my arms, which leads to me being awkwardly sprawled on the floor. My chin bounces off the ground, making my jaw click. “Ow, shit!” I push myself awkwardly back up, trying to stretch some feeling back into my legs. I’m starving. How long have I been sitting on the floor? Long enough to lose feeling in my legs, at least. There’s no window, and I have no other way to tell the time. God, I miss my phone.

It takes me a few minutes of wandering, but I do come across a window. The light is the deep orange color of a sunset. I’ve been in there all afternoon. No wonder I’m hungry.

I retrace my steps as best I can, trying to work my way back to the kitchen. It takes a few missteps along the way, but I manage it eventually. There’s a warm fire rolling in the oven, ingredients piled on one of the counters, and a servant, Ethan, frantically attempting to chop up what I think is a shallot.

He glances up and nearly jumps out of his skin when he sees me standing there. “My lady!” He attempts a bow, still holding the knife, and realizes that might be a bad idea. “His lordship was here a few minutes ago, looking for you.”

“Oh.” Right. Rastek didn’t know where I’d been, and I’d been gone for hours. He was probably worried. “Did you see which way he went? I should probably go after him.”

“No, no, I can grab him. Just sit here for a minute, I’ll be right back!” Ethan tugs off his apron and all but flees from the room. I watch him go, feeling slightly bemused. Was I scary? Were people just going to be uncomfortable with me now, because I was married to a warlord? That was kind of depressing.

I meander over to the ingredients- There are quite a few neatly-arranged vegetables, but there’s also some heavily-salted meat, a container of bread dough, and a freezing cold container of ice cream. Next to that are a few bundles of herbs. Some of them are cooking herbs, but some of them… looking at them makes my brain itch. A weird, tingling feeling like an idea unfurling in my skull. Without thinking, I pick up the three-pointed leaves and bite down.

There’s a peppermint-like flavor that leaves a trail of numbness in its wake- an analgesic. Not as effective as opium, but with more applications- if consumed in high amounts, it causes temporary nerve dysfunction and when concentrated, it can create paralysis and sleep, sometimes beneficial for surgeries-

I spit the leaf back out. The numbness remains in my mouth. It won’t hurt me, but this is a strong bunch. I know that, but I don’t know how I know it. I don’t even know the name of the plant. I’ve never seen it before.

There’s a bundle of berries next to the three-pointed leaves. Dark blue, with brownish-green stems. Those are interesting- another paralytic. Combined with the first one, that’s a peaceful, dreamless sleep that gradually transitions into a peaceful, dreamless death. You have to crush the berries finely first, and it needs to be concentrated for hours to-

“My lady, I brought him.” I look up in time to see Ethan jogging back into the room, Rastek right behind him.

“There you are,” Rastek breathes when he sees me. There’s a slight tension to his facial features that fades when he looks at me. Then his gaze drops a little more to the counter and the tension returns. “Did you eat the velaris?” Alarm crosses his face. “Did you swallow any?”

“I wouldn’t swallow that,” I say automatically. “It wouldn’t kill me, but the interactions with my meds would suck, and it’s not generally good to ingest any-”

I stop. Rastek stares at me. I stare back at him. My head feels weird and floaty, like I’ve been shoved underwater. “I’m not sure where that came from,” I say.

“You knew that before.” Rastek puts one hand on the counter, as if to steady himself. He keeps looking at me, eyes fixed. “What do you remember?”

That swimming feeling is getting worse. “If I mix these-” I tap the leaves and berries in turn “-and concentrate it, it makes a poison. But they’re good for medicine on their own and they, um. Can…” Everything is swaying now. “Rastek, I feel weird.”

He jolts forward, reaching a hand out to steady me. I fist my fingers in his shirt to keep myself upright as one of his arms rests around my shoulders. “Here, there’s a chair if you can back up just a little.” He guides me to the seat and crouches next to me as I sit. One of his hands rests alongside my face, fingers brushing over my skin. “Talk to me. Tell me what you’re feeling."

"Dizzy.” Sitting helps. The swimming feeling fades, though my limbs are leaden with tiredness. “I think it’s passing. I’m okay.”

Rastek’s hand remains on my shoulder as he peers carefully into my face. I life my head a little to meet his gaze. His eyes are piercing gold, a rich color that warms me to look at. “Just lightheadedness?”

“Yeah. It was weird.”

“Do you want me to call the physician?” Rastek asks. He’s still looking at me in that searching, careful way again. A weird tingling feeling runs up the length of my spine. I take a deep breath.

“I don’t think so. I’m just tired.” I rub my forehead. “If it keeps happening, maybe.”

Rastek nods. “All right.” He pauses, then hesitantly adds, “You remembered those plants.”

“I did.” I can’t quite meet his eyes, but I can still make out the unasked question written all over his face. “I don’t… remember anything else. I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to apologize. It’s not your fault. It’s good that you remembered anything at all. That’s a good sign.” Rastek’s voice is hopeful. Almost painfully so. I just feel strange, tired, and like I want to go to bed for a very long time. The exhaustion comes over me in a wave and I slouch forward.

“Oh.” Rastek takes hold of my shoulders, pushing me back upright. I blink blearily at him. “I know you’re tired. Do you want to take dinner in your room?”

I shake my head. “No. If I lie down right now, I’m going to fall asleep.”

“You look as though you’re about to fall asleep sitting up,” Rastek says.

“Well, at least if I fall forward, the shock will wake me up.” I smother a yawn.

“After dinner, we’ll go see the thaumatist and see if the pendant is done. You need a rest,” Rastek says. He rubs my shoulder. “Do you need help getting into the dining room?”

“No, I’m fine.” The world tilts a little when I stand, but I manage to walk in a more or less straight line. Rastek keeps a hand hovering just above my back, ready to catch me if I tilt backward.

I sit down and Rastek slides into the seat next to me. “Where have you been all day?” he asks. “I know you stated you wanted to go for a walk, but I was concerned when I couldn’t find you.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you.” I smother another yawn. “I was reading.”

Rastek gives me an odd look. “I checked the reading room. You weren’t there.”

“No, it wasn’t there. It was in this sort of little closet that had a bunch of different books. I was trying to read about…” I wave my hand vaguely. “This world, I guess.”

Rastek nods slowly. “That must be an old storage area. Did it help? The reading?” He perks up a little. “Perhaps it was what jogged your memory.”

“Maybe,” I say. I suppose it’s possible. “I didn’t realize how much time had passed.”

“Be careful wandering off. If your soul’s still detached, it’s not safe for you to be on your own for a long time.” He drags a claw over the tablecloth. “I don’t want a repeat of what happened this morning.”

His face is stoic and unexpressive, but there’s a slightly choked quality to his voice. “I’ll try to be safer,” I say.

That makes him crack a tiny half smile. “You always say that. You’ve never been very good at it.” His gaze is fond and my stomach does a weird fluttery tingling thing. I swallow.

Fortunately, Ethan takes that minute to show up with some food- it’s some kind of meat pie. It’s delicious, but heavy enough that I can only manage a few bites. It sits in my stomach like a rock, and I can already feel the food coma coming on.

“Stay awake,” Rastek says. He shakes me until my eyes drift fully open again. “You need to stay awake. I know you’re tired, but-”

He’s cut off by the sudden arrival of the thaumatist. “It’s complete,” he says, drifting into the room with the same unhurried gait as always. His gaze wanders over to me and he gives a faint smile. “Lovely to see you again, my lady.”

Rastek stands. “Is it done?”

The thaumatist’s gaze drifts over to him. “Oh. Yes, it’s complete.” He holds out the oversized white pendant I saw with him earlier. “It will whine at an increasing pitch the further her soul drifts from her body. A shock to bring her back to attention should be sufficient. However, should that be insufficient, pressing on the indent in the center will force her soul back into her body. It can be strenuous, however, so I would suggest not doing so unless it is necessary.”

I take the pendant in my hands as the thaumatist offers it. It’s cool to the touch, and doesn’t warm even after holding it for a bit. “Thank you.”

“Yes. We are greatly indebted to you,” Rastek says. The thaumatist waves him off.

“It was an interesting challenge. I will continue to work on the stabilizing mechanism.” He spins on his heel and walks off without another word.

“He’s not great at ending conversations, is he?” I ask, fighting off another yawn.

“He’s not good at conversations in general,” Rastek says. “Put it on.” I slide the pendant over my neck.

“It feels different.” There’s a crackling feeling in the air for a moment, like static.

“A magic field,” Rastek says. “I assume if your soul starts to drift beyond it, that will trigger the alarm.” I stand up and wobble a little, leaning against the table. “All right. Now let’s get you to bed.”

Before I can process what he’s doing, he’s scooped me up in his arms. His touch is gentle and warm and enveloping me and I can’t keep my eyes open any longer. I nestle my head into his shoulder. I can’t open my eyes. They’re basically sealed shut. I can feel Rastek’s chest shift under me with his breath.

“It’s all right. Get some rest.” I try to reply, but my mouth won’t move. Just before I drift off, I think I hear, “I love you,” but I can’t tell if I’ve started dreaming or not.

Part 3

#exophilia #dragon husband #dragon boyfriend #dragon lover #male monster #monster romance #monster lover #male dragon #Rastek #the warlord and his lady

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definitelynotafurinasimp · 2 years

Text

Spending Halloween together

Characters: Ayaka/Yae Miko/Hu Tao/Ganyu/Mona x gn!reader

Warnings: Yae being Yae, other than that, just fluff

a/n: It’s September, which means that it’s basically October already, which means that it’s almost Halloween. And as an average Halloween enjoyer it is my duty to remind everyone about it.

Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Ayaka

Ayaka always heard about people dressing up as all kinds of monsters, ghouls, and magical beings for Halloween, but her status as the eldest daughter of the Kamisato clan always became a hindrance, stopping her from joining in, leaving her to simply watch as others had fun whenever her schedule gave her a moment to spare. And while she had already come at peace with the thought of never being able to dress up herself, after meeting you, her fortunes seemed to turn.

While Ayaka felt bad for sneaking off without telling anyone else, whenever you noticed and shot her a re-assuring smile, her worries would vanish within an instance. And even though the costume you had put together for her wasn’t the most amazing thing, the fact that you got her one in the first place was enough to make butterflies appear in her stomach.

Over the next couple of hours, Ayaka had the time of her life. While she had often imagined being on one of the many festivals for Halloween herself, reality surpassed her expectations tenfold. And while seeing other’s costumes, playing the different games, and visiting all kinds of shops was exciting, before Ayaka knew it, she began spacing out while staring at you whenever the two of you stood still.

“Liking my costume, aren’t you?”, your joking voice suddenly snapped her out of her thoughts, and while the mask she wore did a great job at hiding her face, you still knew that her face was turning red at your sudden call out.

“I- Sorry, I was spacing out”, she admitted before letting her head hang in embarrassment, only for you to give her hand a small squeeze and shooting her a quick smile once again.

“Don’t worry Aya-”, you stopped yourself from speaking her name when you remembered that you were surrounded by countless of people, “my dear, I was only teasing you.”

While it was obvious that you were only using the pet name to not blow her cover, it still caused her face to turn even redder, not being used to it but definitely not disliking it either.

“Understood… my dear.”

Yae Miko

The time before Halloween was one filled to the brim with people anticipating the day to come. People would buy costumes, decorations, and horror novels, and Yae, being the businesswoman that she was, wouldn’t let such an opportunity pass.

So, while others would go around collecting candies, tell each other horror stories and overall have a great time, you were stuck behind a counter, having been “asked” by Miko to help with the publishing house for the day. Only to find yourself bored pretty quickly.

“Was it that necessary to ask me to help out? There barely are any customers. Anyone wishing to read a horror novel on Halloween already bought one”, you complained to Yae, seeing her relaxing on a comfortable looking chair while reading the book in her hands, leaving you to do all the actual work.

“Oh my, was it such a cruel thing of me to ask you to spend some time with me?”, she was quick to twist your words, something that, while usually leaving you to scramble for an answer, only got a sigh out of you this time.

“No, but couldn’t we do something else? I don’t know what, but something less boring than sitting here and waiting for anyone to be interested in purchasing a novel”, you suggested while leaning back in your own seat, feeling utterly bored, only for the Guuji to let out a small laugh.

“Fufu, so you want to do something else with me, don’t you? I didn’t expect you to be that nau-”

“STOP IT!”, you screamed out while your face turned all kinds of red, causing Yae to amuse herself even more, before you finally managed to somewhat regain your composure. “Y-You know exactly what I meant, so don’t try to make this sound weird”, you tried scolding her, only for be interrupted by the sound of the front door opening, leaving Miko to give you a smug face.

“Looks like you won’t be bored for much longer.”

Hu Tao

Even if you tried to, it would have been impossible for you to forget that Halloween was just around the corner, with Hu Tao reminding you whenever she had the possibility to, acting more and more happy with each day closer while refusing to tell you what it was that the two of you would do.

When the day actually arrived, only for Hu Tao to start dragging you from door to door in attempts of collecting candy, something you hadn’t exactly expected to do as an adult, you had to say that you were positively surprised by her decision to do something so-… normal. You had fully expected her to set Liyue harbour ablaze in one final “epic prank”, so you definitely weren’t complaining about asking its residence for candy instead.

Although you couldn’t wholeheartedly call what she was doing “asking”, Hu Tao almost acting like a debt collector at times.

“Trick or Treat!”, Hu Tao said her lines the moment she saw the door open, only for the person on the other side to shut it in a panic once they heard her voice, causing her to march up to the door and knock once again. “Sir, it appears like your door might have accidentally get closed by a strong wind current, but don’t worry. We are only here for sweets”, she stated loud enough to make sure the person on the other side could hear her, only for you to put your hand on her shoulder, hoping to convince her to leave the poor soul alone.

“We should just leave them alone, I doubt we’ll get anything from them”, you reasoned, only for Hu Tao to quickly turn around, shoot you a wide smile and nod, not before looking at the door number though, seemingly taking a mental note to bless them with one of her “funny” pranks the next time she had the time.

“Alright, we are leaving. But feel free to check out the Wangsheng Funeral Parlour, we are having a special Halloween sale at the moment!”, she shouted her goodbyes before grabbing you hand and dragging you to the next door, making you silently wonder how many complaints you’d have to deal with the next morning.

Ganyu

It took quite a lot of convincing to make Ganyu decide to stay at home on Halloween instead of going to work like she always used to do. And while she at first had her doubts if it was alright for her to participate in an exclusively human tradition, she quickly found herself enjoying the process of decorating your home, putting up one décor after another until there were none left.

But no matter how much she enjoyed the day so far, the real challenge was yet to come. And while you re-assured you over and over again, that the children going from door to door wouldn’t care one bit if they got their sweets from someone fully human or half-human, she couldn’t help but continue feeling nervous.

“Wow, Miss your horns look great!”, one of the children at the door said in awe, leaving Ganyu to somewhat freeze up. But before she could respond and lie about them being props, another one spoke up, “Yeah, they almost look real. Where did you get them?”

“O-Oh, I made them myself”, she decided to use the chance to play along, only for the children’s’ eyes to light up.

“Oooooh. Can I touch them?”, the third one excitedly asked.

“What?”, Ganyu couldn’t help but feel taken by surprise, not knowing how to respond, and almost agreeing to their requests simply to not disappoint them. Only for you to come out of nowhere and help her out.

“Sorry, but it took us quite some effort to make them look so real. So, we don’t want to take any risks and accidentally destroy the costume. We want to preserve it for the other guests, after all”, you explained before giving each of them their share of candies, causing them to nod before saying their goodbyes and leaving.

“See? They didn’t seemed bothered a bit.”

Mona

Mona wasn’t that interested in Halloween, while she understood why children liked it, as an adult it seemed more like a chore like something that could be considered fun. Having to buy sweets for the children or risk getting your home bombarded with eggs definitely wasn’t what she expected to spend her already limited funds on, while dressing up as monsters or other “spooky” stuff seemed a bit too childish for her.

That being said, your thoughts on Halloween slightly differed from hers.

“How often do I have to tell you, I’m not dressing up as a witch”, Mona stated before letting out a frustrated sigh. “It’s childish”, she added, only for you to jokingly gasp.

“I think it’s not. I mean, I’m wearing a costume myself, do you think I am childish for it?”, you asked, only for her to respond by not responding at all. “Actually, don’t answer that.”

“I have to uphold my dignity, dressing up doesn’t exactly fit the image of a great astrologer”, she eventually said, only for you to look at the giant hat in your hand before glancing at the giant hat on her head.

“Sorry to tell you, but you already walk around in a giant hat, I don’t even think anyone would realise that you were dressing up if you donned another giant hat”, you countered, only for the two of you to continue arguing for what felt like hours.

“I’ll treat you to a nice dinner if you do it”, you eventually offered, instantly shutting Mona up as she stared at you with a confused look.

“Are you… trying to bribe me with dinner?”, she asked, only for you to shamelessly nod your head, causing her let out another sigh. “Why are you so insistent on me dressing up?”

“Because today’s Halloween and dressing up is part of the experience, no matter if child or adult. It’s about the most fun tradition one can participate, and I think you would look really cute dressed up as a witch”, you muttered the second part just loud enough for her to hear it, and while she’d normally reprimand you for saying something like that, Mona knew well enough that it had no affect on you. And so, the astrologer let out one last sigh before finally conceding defeat.

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deus-ex-mona · 1 year

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If You Don’t Give Me Some Treats, I’ll Fanservice You: Epilogue

happy birthday to tojo sara! ...and happy halloween, i guess?

previous part (chapter 7)

Yujiro: Hey, guys. Check out the online articles.

Minami: Eh? What are they about?

Minami: …Whoa, it’s amazing!

On a later day—

mona found herself co-starring with LIPxLIP and Minami on another music programme, and they had begun to converse about the Halloween live they had performed at.

Aizo: “Fans Rejoice at the Idol mona’s Godly Response”, “The Burning Friendship Among Fellow Idols”... they say.

Aizo: What the heck? They keep going on and on about no one but mona.

Yujiro: It kinda ticks me off that they call the thing between us “friendship”.

mona: That’s my line.

mona: (It’d be misleading… to call it “friendship”. But…)

mona: I’m really grateful… for your help that day.

mona: I’d been really stressing out about what I was going to do if I couldn’t make it in time.

Aizo: We didn’t do it for you or anything, stupid.

Yujiro: Exactly. We didn’t do it for you, mona. We did it for the fans. Don’t misunderstand, okay?

mona: …

mona: (They’re saying way too much, just like they always do!)

mona: In any case! I owe you one for this! I’ll pay you back in any way you wish!

mona: I don’t wanna be indebted to you!

Aizo: Hmm, you wanna do something for us? Isn’t it a hundred years too early for that?

Yujiro: Nah, make it ten thousand years.

mona: (Geez!)

mona: You too, Minami! I owe you one, so I’ll repay you as soon as possible!

Minami: Aah, me too?

Minami: I had a blast singing a song that wasn’t on my setlist, so all’s good with me.

Minami: But in the end, the outcome of our candy collection showdown was pretty vague! I guess I really don’t like competitions after all.

Aizo: Aah, speaking of that, you’re the one who managed to collect more sweets. Right, Minami?

Minami: It’s only because mona decided to play that trick at the end.

Yujiro: How did the on-site filming go, though? We weren’t able to watch your livestream at all.

Minami: Hmm, the filming, huh…

Minami: I spoke to kids and elderly people way more often than I was expecting—.

Minami: If, “If you don’t give me some treats, I’ll play a trick on you”!

Old Lady: Well, well, is that so? What should I give you, then?

Minami: “If you don’t give me some treats, I’ll play a…”

Old Man: Here you go! Freshly made taiyaki, straight from that store over there! It’s really good!

Minami: “If you…”

Child: Wow! You’re a celeb! Gimme some sweets! Please?!

Minami: Ah… You want some sweets? Sure, go ahead and pick out anything you’d like.

Child: Thanks!

Minami: (It’s just stuff that was given to me, but… the kid’s happy about it, so it’s fine, right…?)

Minami: Everyone was so warm and friendly to me, even if they didn’t know who I was. It was a really nice experience.

Yujiro: Is that so?

Aizo: Ah, there’s an article about you too, Minami.

Yujiro: …Hmm? You helped an elderly lady carry her stuff? The article says that you helped her to cross the street too.

Minami: Yeah, that happened too.

Minami: But that old lady was really nice to me. She even gave me tons of sweets at the end too, you know?

Minami: Wow! Is it really okay for me to get so many?!

Old Lady: It’s fine, it’s fine. Take it as my thanks for being so kind to me today.

Old Lady: It reassures me to know that there are still kindhearted youngsters out there, just like you.

Minami: I think that it was a really great programme that allowed us to get closer to the people around us. Wanna try it next year, LIPxLIP?

Yujiro: Well, I’ll do it if we have to, I guess.

Aizo: I’ll think about it.

Minami: I-I see.

mona: (Somehow… At one point, I’d been a little worried about how things would go. But this Halloween unexpectedly ended up being better than I thought it would be, I guess?)

mona: Ah! Speaking of that, the staff allowed me to bring the sweets I was given home.

mona: I brought some of them with me today. Wanna have some?

Aizo: Oh, sure.

Yujiro: Did you bring any sweet ones?

The four of them had an exciting tea party for just a little while. During that short moment, mona had been able to forget that those guys were her rivals… or something—.

#all i want for halloween is mona~#just honeypre things #ngl even though it's already the final chapter i still have to refer to the previous parts to check the title of this event #it's too long!!!!!!!!! still too long!!!!!!!#also see you tomorrow for the yuuai-ivyui ramen double date event lol #the event title of that one's gonna be a nightmare too. can't wait!!!!!

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running-tweezers · 2 months

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Music Tag Game!💕

Very late I am so sorry

Tagged by @autisticempathydaemon (so happy to have infected you with the Killing Kind Marianas Trench virus, btw)

Rules: On Repeat playlist, shuffle post the first 10 songs

Disclaimer: I’m currently making playlists for an 80’s AU I’m writing with my OCs, and that is skewing this playlist heavily lol

A song for my #1 specialest little blorbo OC Zephyr’s 80’s playlist. I love my weird freaky goth child more than I love to breathe.

A song from my other special little OC Nate’s 80’s playlist. Technically he belongs to the bestie but him and Zephyr are a package deal now and I have joint custody.

I spent a lot of the beginning of this month sick and unable to sing, and the SECOND my voice was back I was belting this in my kitchen

Is it even one of my playlists if this album isn’t present somehow?

I am a Carly Rae Jepsen stan first and a human being second

Literally one of my favorite songs of all time, has not left my top songs in 4 years

Once again, a song for my Nate’s playlist (but if you wanna hear me doing a very unprofessional impromptu karaoke style rendition of this song you can hear that here)

Yet another song for Nate, what can I say, the boy has taste

Pls listen to Chappell Roan, I saw her live on Halloween last year and it was such a great show. Her music is very fun and very gay, she’s fantastic

Morgan Redacted Audio is a Talking Heads fan, pass it on

No Pressure Tags: @redactedbloop @floofdeloop @your-local-mom-whore @zeerohpunk @batch-of-pengwings @4letteraroace @angelicaether @pinksparkl and whoever else wants an excuse to share their music 💕

#Spotify #tag game #marisa speaks #I’m like balls deep in writing this AU rn it’s all I can think about #it is seeping into all aspects of my life #including my Spotify #pls forgive me

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smolwritingchick · 3 months

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The Bangtan Gal Chapter 63- RUN

Chapter Summary: BTS Film Run. Jungkook's secret is almost revealed. Jennie and Jungkook help the members when they get drunk at the dorm.

Words: 8,000+

Author's Note: Just some angst regarding Run filming because of Jen's dark storyline! So just giving a warning! Other than that, should be a fluff fest! Jungkook fluff!!

-----

To celebrate Halloween, the members had a Halloween Party for ARMY on a live stream on V-Live. Suga was dressed up as Naruto, J-Hope as Darth Vader, Jimin as Mickey Mouse, Jungkook as Konan, Jin as a Pumpkin, V as a vampire and Rap Monster as Gudetama. Jennie had chosen to be Janelle Monae during her Electric Lady era.

Jennie loved the Electric Lady era. Janelle Monae is someone that she adores a lot thanks to her uplifting lyrics and confidence for being a black woman. The empowerment and embracing of that natural black beauty. She was everything to her.

Electric Lady is also one of her favorite songs as she wore a replica of her outfit thanks to a stylist back in America. Her jacket was customized with��JW carved on it and Electric Lady on the back.

After performing Dope, the members introduced themselves and welcomed ARMY to the Halloween Party with BTS. Out of all the members, she thought Jin looked the cutest with his pumpkin costume.

When it was her turn to introduce herself, she was so pleased to see such a positive reception and to see that ARMY all over the world came to the event.

The day before the party, she had gotten sick and caught a sore throat, so she was advised not to speak much during the broadcast. ARMY was very understanding and gave her well wishes. Her voice sounded deeper with her sore throat and her vocal cords were aching lightly, so she remained silent, watching the members and lip synced her verses for their songs. But throughout the broadcast, the members would tease her about her sudden deep voice, making good fun out of the situation.

She honestly felt like hell during this broadcast but she still wanted to do it with the group. She had been drinking hot tea with lemon and honey, in a cute Halloween mug throughout the broadcast to soothe her throat.

The broadcast had activities such as random dance for their songs and express your body. Later on in the broadcast, the members sat down to check out questions to BTS from around the world from ARMY. The majority of the fans that asked questions were foreigners.

”What ghost are you afraid of the most?” J-Hope read. “Please imitate it.”

“I’m afraid of J-Hope now at this moment,” Rapmon answered.

“My father is the most scary existence in the world,” Suga added. “More than a ghost.”

“Who has the biggest hand?” J-Hope read the next question. “Let’s do a tournament!”

As the members compared hands, V continued to beat everyone on having the largest hand, going through each member. Once it was up to Jimin, he got out of his seat and tried to avoid getting his hand compared to his while ARMY laughed at him.

“Jimin has tiny hands~!” Jungkook teased.

“At least my hands are bigger than Jennie’s!” Jimin explained.

“At least my pinky finger is bigger than yours.” she cleared her throat and sipped her tea as the members laughed loudly at him.

“I should hide all her smarties so she won’t have any smarties to eat for Halloween.”

After walking back to the members, Jimin took off his Mickey Mouse glove and compared his hand against V’s as they started laughing at how tiny it was compared to his.

“V is the biggest,” J-Hope announced.

“Let me see your hand against mine.” Jen placed her hand against V’s. The difference was just as great as him and Jimin. “Wow, this is absurd.”

The next question was, “What was the hardest moves? Show them.”

“Oh God, them hip thrusts in dope. I cannot. It took me forever. I was the last one to perfect it.” Jen answered. She stood up and performed it over loud screams from ARMY. “A girl be struggling with that. I feel like I look awkward.”

-----

For the Jacket Shooting of HYYH PT.2, Jennie wore a white leather jacket with various pins on them and black jeans, including the same white butterfly necklace. She had taken photos with Rap Monster with spray cans, acting rebellious and fierce.

Once Jin began taking photos on a high wall, Jennie started to hype him up, making him laugh.

“Yes, Jin! Work! Show that profile! Handsome worldwide! Beautiful! Stunning! Absolutely stunning!”

“Jennie is my biggest fan.” He happily said.

When they were filmed on the street, Jin, J-Hope, Jungkook and Jen were shot riding bikes with bright smiles on their faces.

“And...action!”

While filming for the Prologue of their next comeback, the director decided to have the members film various scenes to show more of their stories in the HYYH era and since there can only be so many scenes in a music video, they can just add the extra scenes in the upcoming DVD of memories for 2015.

For the scene, the setting turned to Jennie yelping as she got shoved to the floor by her ex-boyfriend, wearing the same white dress from I Need U.

She had just announced that she was leaving for good but it didn’t sit well with him.

Jen and the actor had practiced this scene various times to get it right because they had him having his hands around her neck, aiming to choke her. Darker than she expected but they managed to get the scene right after a few corrections.

“Please...” she gasped out as her eyes teared up, grabbing his hands as she desperately tried to make him let go of her neck.

“I’m sorry, I can’t let you leave me.” she heard him as her vision began to fade.

This was it, she was about to become deceased as she felt herself getting weaker.

She should’ve listened to Jin.

She should have never gone this route. A never-ending cycle where those around her get hurt.

She suddenly remembered the knife that she had and found it on the ground near her. Risking it, she used one of her arms to reach out for the knife.

Just centimeters...

Centimeters close to the knife...

Almost there...

She was fading fast, would she be able to get it?

Feeling the knife, she quickly grabbed it and struck him with it, stunning him. Scared, she quickly pushed him off of her, scrambling away with eyeliner running from her eyes thanks to the tears.

She gasped deeply, trying to catch her breath as she touched her neck.

His body remained motionless as she found herself in a state of shock, noticing that blood was all over her and her white dress.

Wearing white, she didn’t feel pure. She had taken someone’s life.

With trembling hands, she grabbed her phone, sobbing at what she had done and wondering if she should call a friend or the police.

Later, on the set, the members prepared to film for the Prologue of HYYH. With Jen’s character for this era, she was the closest to Jin, linked with him. Jennie felt like her character for this era was an absolute hot mess who could not seem to get out of trouble no matter how much she wanted to help others and stubbornly didn’t want help from anyone.

The first location was in the woods, in an abandoned pool. Jennie wore a long-sleeved brown hoodie and the same white butterfly necklace. She had an acoustic guitar on her back and stood with Jin as he recorded the boys having fun around V who was lying on the mattress.

Jungkook had turned around to point them out. “Oh, it’s Jin hyung and Jennie.” he grinned while Jennie waved at them and met up with them, embracing each other.

‘You can smile as long as we’re together’

The group would run around and play with each other as Jin filmed and joined in activities like arm wrestling with Jungkook. One moment included everyone sitting around Jennie as she strummed along on her guitar and they sang out random songs, bonding. Following, she caught Jin filming her while she adjusted her bun. Turning around, she grinned and waved, gesturing for him to come over to her. As soon as he grew close, she snatched his camera and ran as he chased after her.

As filming went on, the members were sitting while V had stepped on top of a building a few feet higher than everyone. Jennie climbed up to meet him there, patting his back and looking up at the sky with him.

At night, the members stood around a bonfire, watching what Jin had filmed on a projector. Jen had sat next to Jin who offered her and J-Hope pretzels. Jungkook decided to lay on Yoongi’s lap while he was playing with a lighter.

“We...shall we go here?” Jin asked, showing the photo to everyone.

Everyone agreed while Jungkook blew out Yoongi’s fire.

As time went on, Jen rolled her eyes when she felt her phone vibrate yet again. She checked the time and sighed.

“He’s going to be mad that I’m not home yet. I’ll be right back.” she excused herself and a distance away from the bonfire to answer the call.

“What....? Why now? You’re acting a bit paranoid.” she paced around, getting annoyed. “I do love you but-listen-I...you have been blowing up my phone all day, relax! It’s not even like that...really it’s not...of course, I love you. I don’t get why you need to know every single little detail on where I’m at, I said I was fine. Listen, we don’t need to hang around each other 24/7-you are unbelievable, you know what?”

“Fine...okay.” she finally said, defeated, after a long period of listening to what her significant other had to say.

Hanging up, she wiped her tears and blew out her cheeks. Sniffing, she put her phone away and placed her hands on her hips. After pulling herself together, she turned around, bewildered when she discovered Jin watching her with worried eyes.

No words were said as her stomach dropped, realizing that he had been listening for a while.

“...H-how long have you been standing there?” she spoke nervously.

He frowned. “Is everything all right?”

“Yeah, yeah. Just a disagreement.”

“Jennie.” he grabbed her by the wrist and he noticed that she had winced in pain. “Are you okay?”

“Y-yeah, I’m fine.” she pulled away, rubbing her wrist.

“You look in pain.”

“It’s nothing. I have to go. I’ll see you guys, tomorrow, okay?” she fake smiled and left while he looked back at her with concern.

The next morning, Jin drove to the beach, with everyone in his truck, enjoying the beach and nice weather. They all would run and jump around while Jin continued to film. When the guys were far away, Jennie took off her shoes and walked near the ocean, getting her feet wet, and watching the view with a smile. Jin had met up with her, placing his video camera down and walked with her, taking some photos together. Jumping on his back, he had given her a piggyback ride.

That was until the rest of the guys ran over and succeeded in shoving them into the water.

“You’re all dead!” she shouted, running after them with Jin.

After chasing them around, Jennie tripped and Jin grabbed her by the arm, causing her to hiss in pain.

“What’s wrong? Did I hurt you?” he exclaimed.

“N-no, no. I’m good.”

“Don’t you want to take that off? It’s really hot and you’re wearing a long-sleeved hoodie, I don’t want you to pass out.” he lifted up her sleeve but saw a bruise. “What happened?”

“I just fell, okay?” she averted her eyes and pulled the sleeve down.

“What did he do?”

“Nothing.”

“He did this to you.”

“I just fell.”

He looked at her seriously. “I really think that you should leave him.”

“It was just a grab, it was my fault anyway. We’re fine, he’s a good guy-“

“That is not your fault. I can’t stand here and let him do that to you.”

“Jin. Okay. I’ll leave him, all right? Please just don’t get involved, okay?”

“I’m sorry but I have to.”

“Please, don’t. And please don’t tell the others.”

“Why won’t you let us help you? You help us. All the time.”

“Because I don’t really need it. I got it all handled, okay? I can do this alone. He said he’ll never do it again. It was an accident. But I’ll leave, okay? Let’s just drop it.”

“I can’t drop it when you’re hurting.”

“When I’m with you guys, I’m happy and can smile as wide as I can. Being with you all, makes me forget the negativity. I’ll be all right, okay? I’ll leave him soon.” she reassured him.

Once arriving at the gas station, Rapmon put gas in the car while Jen sat in the passenger seat. Rapmon grabbed Jin’s camera and took a photo of them with Suga joining in from the backseat. Once Rapmon got back inside the truck in the back, they checked out the photo. Meanwhile, Jimin was asleep in the truck while J-Hope placed snacks in the back. Looking out the window, Jennie turned and looked sad, having a lot on her mind.

The next day, they all sat by the pier, watching the sunrise. Taking a look around, V turned his attention to the large platform and started climbing it.

“What is he doing...?” Jen murmured and stood up, going to follow him. Once she made it up, she looked down at the sea.

It was a long way down. Something that she felt like she wasn’t ready for as she turned her attention to V’s back.

“Hey, think about this,” she called out, anxiously.

All she had gotten in return was a fond smile from him after he looked down at the guys. Once he had jumped off the platform, she had reached out her hand, yelling “Wait!” as he dived into the sea, jumping into the unknown.

When it was time to film for the Run MV, Jen sat on the train tracks with Jungkook, watching Rapmon film. Jungkook had been playing with one of the dogs on the set to pass the time.

She turned to see that big smile on his face as he tried to avoid getting licked and giggled when he ended up falling on his back with the dog showering him with love. Suddenly, their dog Tony, and the other dog he was playing with, ran up to her and Tony energetically jumped on her, giving her love as she laughed.

“It’s biting my hand.” Jungkook gestured to one of the dogs biting his hand. “Chew it up!"

“Guys, Tony has gotten bigger, huh?” Jen asked on camera,

“He still loves me the most by the way.”

“Who said that?” she asked as he stuck his tongue out at her.

After watching the dogs run away to play around, Jen stood up and prepared for their shoot, which was running...a lot.

“I’m just glad I have my comfortable Nikes on. And I’m still patiently waiting for Nike to hit a chick up for an endorsement.” she crossed her fingers.

Running was a common theme for this music video as the members ran through a tunnel, on a bridge, on the streets, and in the fields. After running throughout the day, Jennie and Jin were called out the get filmed in a dark alley. Although a majority of what everyone was shooting might not be in the music video, they can still be filmed for the future memories of 2015 DVD.

In the music video, Jennie is shown having a rough time. Since it was night, she was filmed walking to a dark alleyway with Jin following her closely, making sure that she was safe. Surrounding herself with a group of sketchy people, joining the activities they were doing, she leaned up against the wall, with her eyes getting red. In a daze with smoke coming out of her mouth, she wanted to numb the pain that was going on with her and the drama happening back at her boyfriend’s place.

“Act more out of it.” The director called out as she followed his commands. “Cut!”

“I'm not really supposed to be out here this late doing stuff like this. I have to act like I’m hallucinating. Hopefully, I’ll do a good job. It may take a few tries.” she mentioned on camera.

“Just do what I do, ahhhhhh!” Jin yelled out jokingly, causing her to playfully punch him.

When filmed again, Jennie had mentally prepared for the crucial part of filming. Holding her head, she frequently started looking around and flinching.

“What did you give me!?” she panicked, turning to the group.

“What do you mean? Just relax.” she heard them reply.

She let out a scream and kneeled, holding her head tighter. “Make it stop, make it stop!” she screamed, beginning to cry while Jin quickly rushed in to help her, as the group ran off.

“Jennie! Jennie!” he grabbed a hold of her as she tried to push him away.

“Get away from me!”

“It’s me! It’s me! Look! It’s not real! It’s not real!” he hugged her to try to calm her down as she continued to shake and freak out. Jin quickly looked at what she had smoked and realized that it was spiked. “I got you. Everything is going to be okay.” he lifted her up bridal style and quickly left the area with her, to get her help.

“Cut!”

“Was that okay?” she asked after getting set down by Jin.

“Very good job, both of you.” The director praised.

“Ayeeee!” she high fived Jin and jumped up to bump her chest with him.

“I was a little nervous for that scene. But she can cry on the spot. It’s really impressive.” Jin praised.

Later that night, the members gathered around in the alley.

“I think I ran for half a day and slept for the other half,” Jin said on camera.

“My feet are comfortable as heck because of these Nikes,” Jen added

“For goodness sake, someone get her that endorsement, so she can shut up.” Yoongi walked past them, making them laugh out loud.

For the scene, they were filmed acting like punks in a dark alley, acting drunk and goofy while Jin filmed them.

“Yo, why you gotta pull the lollipop out your mouth like that?” she chuckled and mimicked V’s actions.

For the individual shots, Jen was filmed stomping around aggressively and kicking random things around.

The next morning, the members are back around Jamsu Bridge to continue getting filmed running. The day consisted of the members eating burgers and playing around.

“Dasi run, run, run,” Jen whined as she continued to get filmed running for the 100th time.

Jen and Jin were together for another scene, as requested by the director, although they weren’t sure yet if they wanted to put it in the music video.

The scene had Jen look like she wanted to jump off the bridge. Her hands were on the railing as she looked down at the water. All Jin had to do was yell and grab her back so she could be on the ground again.

“Action!”

“Don’t!” Jin yelled, rushing over to her as he gripped her tightly. Hastily lifting her body over the railing, he placed her down as they both fell to their knees. Roughly grabbing a hold of her shoulders, he shook her repeatedly, catching her off guard. “Are you crazy!? Are you crazy!?”

The way he shook her so violently, made her tear up and start to cry, adding to the acting. “I-I’m sorry!” she wrapped her arms around him as he hugged her tightly.

“Cut!”

Wiping her tears, Jen let out a laugh as she heard Jin repeatedly apologize for shaking her so hard.

“It’s fine, it’s fine!”

They were then requested one more scene to film as SeokJen were told to improvise that Jen was angry at him for trying to help her with the problems with her boyfriend and wanted her to yell “I hate you.”

“Action!”

Jennie angrily walked up to Jin and shoved him. “Why would you do that!?”

Jin looked shocked and his facial expression caused her to burst out in laughter while he began giggling, holding his heart.

“Gosh, so aggressive,” he said.

“His reaction was priceless!”

Getting back in character, they tried it again as she shoved him and yelled, “Why would you do that!?”

Jin couldn’t even respond because he cracked a smile and started to laugh with her again. This was going to take a while.

“Get all your giggles out.” The director told them, amused.

“HA-HA-HA!” Jen exaggerated.

“HA-HA-HA?” Jin copied her.

“HA-HA!”

“HA-HA?”

“HA-HA!”

“HA-HA!” he nodded in approval and high fived her.

Finally getting it all out of their system, they went back to being serious, finally getting the scene right.

Storming up to Jin, she shoved him angrily, yelling, “Why would you do that!?”

“Do what!?”

“Why did you go and confront him!?”

“He needed to be talked to-“

“You’re ruining everything!” she shouted.

“I’m trying to get you out of this!” he shouted back.

“Oh my God!” she placed her hands over her head. “How many times do I have to tell you that I can take care of myself!? I got this! I’m fine!”

He shook his head sadly. “You really are going to choose him over us...?”

The way he said that so dejected made her heart ache as she hesitated for a moment, swallowing the lump in her throat.

This wasn’t acting anymore to them.

It took Jennie a while to speak again but the director kept filming, enjoying the scene.

Jennie exhaled to try to keep her composure, shakily responding as her throat tightened, “I love him.”

“We love you.”

Unable to fight the tears from her eyes, the tears began to fall as her chest felt heavy. She was not supposed to cry for this scene, she was supposed to look angry. Jen couldn't even say the "I hate you" line yet.

“Jin-“

“No, we love you. Our love for you is healthy. He doesn’t love you. What you’re dealing with isn’t love. Your family misses you and is worried sick about you. You ran away from home for him. Left a scholarship and great grades for him. Your life was all planned out, you had everything you dreamed of...and you threw it away for him.”

“Look-“

“We all miss you as well, you are never around us anymore. Whatever he did or said to you that is making you scared, it ends today. You want to help others but then you don’t want to accept help from us. Don’t be like that, please. When are you going to realize that you are not alone here? And you have people that love and care about you and will always be there for you? When are you going to let others guide you and help you through this?”

“Jin...”

“If I could just...take that pain away from you, I’d do it in a heartbeat. You deserve so much more. I know you’re hurting. I know you’re scared. I’m scared because if you don’t leave him, something bad might happen. He is trying to isolate you from us. I know and I refuse to let that happen. I can’t let him do this to you. Just let us help you, we can get you away from him, you’ll be safe with us-

“Enough!” she shouted at him. “I hate you!” she shoved him back as he looked back hurt.

‘Damn that facial expression...’ she thought as she looked at his heartbroken appearance. “I-I can’t hang with you guys, anymore. I’m leaving, okay?”

“No! Don’t do this.” he grabbed her. “Please-“

“Stop! I’m done! Don’t look for me. Okay? Tell the guys I said goodbye.” she quickly ran off.

“Jennie!” he ran after her but then lost her as he sat down and looked regretful.

“Cut!”

As soon as the director said that, Jin and Jennie quickly embraced. The scene seemed to have impressed the director because he decided to keep the entire scene. He even had the camera crew continue filming them hugging the way that they were as Jin wiped her tears and kissed her forehead.

The next shooting location was the tunnel. The members were blocking the way of drivers with their car and everyone was screaming and yelling at them.

“Two, three!”

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

They scream at the cars, running around chaotically.

“VIOLENCE!” Jen got on top of a car and stomped on it while Jimin threw water and other items on another car.

After her individual shot was finished, she quickly got off and bowed. “Sorry about that.” she made sure the car didn’t have a dint or anything in it.

And yet again, the members ran back into the car while Jin drove off.

“Out of all the music videos we’ve done, this is the most exhausting,” Jen said on camera.

After filming the loud party scene, hanging around with red cups as Jin filmed, the members sat around while Jin made a pyramid with cards. As soon as he finished, V smashed the cards away, making a sad expression appear on Jin’s face.

“Yo, seriously?” Jen frowned, scolding V for his actions.

A scene was filmed of her giving Jin another pack of cards to boost his mood and they ended up creating a bigger pyramid and taking photos together with it. The next scene was a pillow fight scene. And of course, Jennie was the first target because she felt a huge impact and feathers flying around her head and she turned around to see Yoongi was the culprit. Grabbing her pillow, they ended up hitting each other and their hair got disheveled and filled with feathers.

“It is going to take forever to get this out of my black hair. The things we do for music videos.” she chuckled softly, trying to pull pieces of feathers out of her hair.

With just a couple of scenes left, they filmed a part in the bathroom, pulling Jimin in to suffer by tossing him in the tub, and getting him soaked. The director called out Suga to go in next as the members pushed him in. After he got soaked, he sighed and looked at his wet clothes.

“I told you not to put me in. Gosh. These are my jeans.” he complained, getting called Yunki by the members.

“So...is Ennie next?” Rapmon called out.

“Who, what, where, what? Who? Who is Ennie? Ennie ain’t here! Back away!” she tried to avoid her fate but got picked up and dropped into the tub by Taehyung, Rapmon and J-hope. “Nice...”

“Jimin is already in the tub. Now Yunki and Ennie got soaked, too.” J-Hope shot a thumbs up to the camera. “Great!”

“Is V coming in too?” Jimin called out. “Hurry! Grab him!”

“Way ahead of ya!” Jennie grabbed ahold of him with the members before he had the chance to escape and pushed him in while laughing.

Their last shot was a lipsync shot with a black background. The members were sleepy but eager to go home after this as they were filmed looking sad. The majority of everyone had gone home after filming but Jennie decided to stay with V because he had one more scene. Laying his back on the platform, he began to complain.

“Gosh, this is awful. There’s the last scene where I have to go in the water. I thought everyone would wait for me but thankfully at least Ennie is here for support.” he said on camera. “I’m really happy that she’s here. She’s the best.”

Jennie decided to stay because she wanted to support him and see him in action. He was so disappointed when the rest of the members had left but as soon as she told him that she would stay and wait for him, his mood heightened and she never saw him smile so wide.

She watched as he had fallen back into the water without hesitation as the staff was impressed with his acting. Jennie had found Jimin and Jungkook also waiting for V as they stood with each other.

“I know he must be shivering,” Jimin spoke.

“Definitely. I feel for him,” she responded.

“His shoulders got wider.”

“He’s buffed up.” Jungkook noticed.

“He is so amazing. Look at him.” Jen admired his acting. It looked effortless to him.

As V proceeded to act in the water, the water scenes intrigued Jennie and she asked if she could film with him for fun.

“I was watching New Moon a while ago and I remember that scene when Bella had jumped and seen Edward. Can we recreate that scene for shiz and giggles? I know V wants to go home but...please?” she had asked.

“Let’s do it! Get in!” V beamed. He enjoyed these small moments with his best friend.

Standing on the platform, she stretched. “I bet this water is cold as heck.”

She jumped in and saw V waving at her. Making sure they breathed in some air, they dive back into the water. Sinking, V had slowly turned to look at her as she slowly started sinking, looking back.

“Jennie, turn diagonally.” The director said as she turned around gracefully.

When they both came back up, she wrapped her arms around his neck, shivering with him as he held her waist.

“When it’s cold outside~, I’ve got the month of May!” she fake cried. "Why couldn't the water be warm!?"

Once they got out, they were wrapped in blankets and heat packets.

“I have no regrets. That was fun. Thanks to everyone, you’ve worked hard.” she grinned at the camera.

--------

In Jen’s studio, Jennie and Jungkook were sitting with each other, finishing up their final homework question. Once they were done, Jen did some finishing touches on an upcoming cover while Jungkook took her phone to hack her Instagram.

Taking a goofy selfie, he posts with the caption, ‘Hello ARMY! #JK #Hacked’

It was normal for the members to take her phone and post ‘hacked’ photos of themselves. ARMY was waiting for Jungkook to finally do it again since it had been a while. Normally it would be Taehyung and Jimin to hack her Instagram the most.

Jungkook scrolled through her timeline and saw that Bam Bam had posted her as his Woman Crush Wednesday.

‘Here we go...’ he grumbled to himself.

“Whatcha looking at? Hacking again?” she called out after finishing singing.

“Bam Bam posted you as his Woman Crush Wednesday,” he responded apathetically.

“Haha, cute.”

“Do you...like him?”

“Define like.”

“Would you date him?” he boldly asked.

The curiosity got the better of him. He had to know.

“Well, anything can happen. If he says and does the right things that can sweep me off my feet, I’d totally fall for him. As of right now, I have no feelings. We are just great friends.”

“Good.”

“Good?” she laughed as he realized he said that out loud, looking surprised. “Oh, okay, hahah. You don’t want me to date him?”

“I just...think there is someone else out there for you.”

“Mm hm. Okay. I trust your judgment.”

Back at the dorm, while Jen stayed in her studio, Jungkook went on a rant to Jimin and Taehyung about Bam Bam.

“Did you know that Bam Bam has been posting Jennie as his Woman Crush Wednesday? How annoying is that? She’s supposed to be mine.”

“She’s yours?” Yoongi walked into the kitchen, grabbing a drink from the fridge. “Pshhh, you haven’t even gone to first base yet.”

Jungkook’s face heated up at the sudden shade. “Hyung!”

“Hey!” Jimin yelled. “We’re working on it! Things take time! And no, we didn’t know. Ennie is the only one with an Instagram, we haven’t been hacking her page in a while.”

“Don’t panic. Things should be fine because he still has his dating ban.” Taehyung added.

“Well, that’s not stopping him from making moves on her,” Jungkook grumbled.

“Jealous?” Yoongi asked, raising a brow.

“Yeah, I am! I admit it! I’m jealous!” he snapped, causing Jimin and Taehyung to snicker at his reaction.

“Calm down, kid...”

“Wait a minute...how do you know he likes her?” Jimin called out

“Come on...” the rapper shook his head. “The kid makes it painfully obvious. It’s ridiculous.”

Back to Jennie, her phone rang and she answered Angelina’s facetime call. “Hi!”

“Jennie! My flight is already booked for Seoul, I’m finally coming to see ya!”

“FI-NAL-LY!”

“You really didn’t have to pay for the ticket, I could’ve paid though!”

“Well, get used to it because I’ll be treating you to a lot of stuff once you arrive in Seoul. Can’t wait for you to hang with me. You’ll get to see everything about my comeback as well.”

“Niiiice."

“So...are you excited to see me or are you excited to see Namjoon?”

“Namjoon!”

“Ahh!” Jen caught her.

“I meant you!” she laughed

“Uh-uh. Okay.”

“Is he excited to see me?”

“Of course he is.”

“I bet he’s cuter in person.”

“Jesus take the wheel...”

-----------

When Jennie arrived back at the dorm after a few hours, she was aware that the guys would be celebrating their success in filming the comeback with drinks but apparently, they celebrated too hard because as soon as she walked into the dorm, everyone except for Jungkook was drunk.

“Yo...what the hell?” she called out.

“Jennieeeeee! You’re baaaaaack!” Jimin stumbled up to her, wrapping his arms around her for a tight hug.

“You stink.” she gently pushed him away, not liking the smell of alcohol. “How much did you drink? I wasn’t even gone that long!”

“We were just celebrating~!” he slurred.

“Too much, I see.” she turned to Jungkook who was walking out of his room. “Jungkook! Do you see this mess?” she gestured to the drunken members

Jungkook looked shooked and it seemed like it was the first time he had come out of his room since he arrived back at the dorm, surprised to see his hyungs like this. Some were giggling, lying around, and more hyper than usual.

“Wait, what happened?” the Golden Maknae looked around.

“What do you mean what happened!? You didn’t know they were in this state?”

“I was gaming!” he exclaimed

“Wow! Wow! Help me tame this chaos.”

She went straight to Jimin, helping him sit on the couch. It was short lived because Jimin couldn’t sit straight and laid his body across the couch, a giggling mess with Taehyung.

“My head is spinning.” Taehyung giggled.

Jen chuckled. “It’s like I’m taking care of grown babies, today. Jeez.”

“Well, at least none of them threw up,” Jungkook responded.

“Don’t jinx it,” she added, walking to the bathroom, only to find Yoongi taking a nap in the tub.

Laughing softly, she quickly snapped a photo. “This is ridiculous! Jungkook, can you come here for a sec?”

Seconds later, Jungkook walked in and laughed at the sight, which caused Yoongi to wake up and drunkenly wave with a gummy smile.

"I'm surprised he didn't get mad at us for disturbing his nap," Jungkook said.

"Must be a special occasion. All right, to bed, you go.” she got aid from Jungkook to lift him out of the tub.

“I got him,”

Suddenly, Yoongi dropped to his knees, causing the 97 Liners to look with alarm, and then watched him crawl to the toilet and hurl.

“Jesus...” Jen cringed while kneeling to rub his back.

“Handle the others. I’ll take care of him.” Jungkook said. Once Jennie had left, Jungkook cleaned Yoongi up and began to giggle when he heard him drunk rapping. “Hyung, are you rapping while drunk? What are we going to do with you?”

With Jennie, she went straight to Hobi and Taehyung who were together at a table, with their heads down and empty bottles.

“All right, time to go to bed.” she placed a hand on Tae’s back, causing him to look up.

“I chalgeenlwd hyung to ga drinkivng conteast.” He slurred.

“You challenged Hobi to a drinking contest?” she translated his gibberish. “You’re a lightweight! You both are lightweights! You can’t handle the hard stuff, why did you agree to a drinking contest when you’re a lightweight?” she scolded with a laugh.

When he responded, she couldn’t understand his gibberish anymore.

“What? I have no idea what you just said.”

After walking him to the bathroom, she grabbed his toothbrush and prepared to brush his teeth.

“Am I cute to you?” Taehyung suddenly asked.

“Yes, you’re adorable. Now let’s brush your teeth.” she held him steady and thoroughly brushed his teeth for him. After a while, she caught him staring at her. “What?” she removed the toothbrush from his mouth.

“You really do scrunch your nose cutely like he said, hehe,” he spoke with his mouth filled with the toothpaste foam.

She managed to comprehend what he said and asked, “Who said that?” while helping him rinse out his mouth.

“Your boyfrieeeeeend.”

She looked at him in confusion. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“Not yeeeeet!”

“So, what you’re my fortune teller, now?” she teased and walked him to his bed.

“Kinda! You just don’t know that you’re his yet~! Hehehe but you will soon.”

“Oh really?” she played along, deciding to entertain his goofy banter that she assumed. “Go to sleep, Tae Tae, you’re drunk.”

“I’m serious~!” he whined.

“Good night, Tae Tae.” she kissed his forehead and placed a blanket over him. “Keep drinking that water.”

When she headed back to the living room, she went to Jimin while Jungkook had already taken care of Hobi and Namjoon and was now helping Jin. She was happy that he was sober and helped her because she knew she wouldn’t be able to do this all by herself. The Golden Maknae worked pretty fast to get the guys to bed and she was grateful.

“You know what I love?” Jimin slurred, clinging onto her as she helped him off the couch.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“Seeing Jungkookie so happy.”

“The feeling is mutual.”

“Yeah, he is always so happy when he is with you.”

“I’m glad that he is.”

“Don’t you think I’m adorable?”

She giggled. “Yeah, I do.”

“Don’t you think Jungkookie is handsome?”

“Hahaha, yeah, just like the rest of Bangtan.”

“Does he make you happy?”

“Yes, he does.”

“Did you know that you make him happy?”

“Oh really?” she smiled softly. “Glad to hear that.”

“I know someone that likes youuuuu~!”

“Haha, you are acting so random tonight. Well, I like to be liked.”

“Noooo it’s more than like. It’s love.”

“Love? Well, I like to be loved, too.”

“Not like this~ hehehehehe.”

“Okay, let’s get you into bed.”

“Do you want me to tell you who loves you?”

“Let me guess, you? I love you too, Chim. Now let’s get into bed.”

“Heheheh, you don’t get it. This love is really strong. Like, relationship type strong.”

“JenMin is still a thing, Jimin. You’re good.”

“No, it’s not meeeeeeee~!”

“Okay, then who?”

“He always talks about youuuuuu!”

“Whoever he is, I hope it’s positive.”

“Very! He really wants youuuuu.”

“Really, now?”

“Uh huh! He has been your secret admirer for a while now. He thinks you’re very pretty and always dreams about dating you. He alwaaaaaaaaaaays talks about wanting to kiss you and treat you so special. I hope you two dateeeeee. I’m trying to help himmmm.”

“Well, this is interesting news that someone wants me. You sure he’s legit?”

“Trust me Ennieeeeee, your secret admirer wants you more than you think. He is very legit. Like, GOLDEN Legit.”

Jungkook stared at Jimin in alarm and quickly made his way over.

“Whose mans is this that you’re talking about?” Jen asked.

“OKAY! Time for bed, hyung! I got him, Jennie.”

“Jennieeeeeeee!” she heard Taehyung call out for her, taking her attention off what Jimin had blurted out.

When she went to his room, she helped Taehyung with whatever he needed which was more water and then a bedtime story. After that, she checked on Namjoon because he was feeling nauseous and spoke about his regrets for partying too hard from a psychological perspective that made her think deeply about life.

Exhausted from checking on all the members, she went into her room, but her night was far from over because the sight she saw in her room, caused her to scream, “What the actual-what the fuck!? Who threw up on my Nikes!? Are you kidding me!?”

Somebody was about to get their ass kicked tonight.

She rushed over to her ruined shoes. “No-no-no-no-no-no-no please, not the purple and white ones. My orange ones too? And the red ones!?”

Jungkook quickly rushed in, surprised by her screaming. “What happened!?”

“They threw up on my Nikes!” she shouted as he flinched at her yelling.

As soon as he saw her beginning to tear up from anger and sadness, he frowned. Sure, they were just shoes but to her, they meant much more, as he watched her pace around and angrily vent her frustrations.

“Oh my God, man! WHY!? This is so friggin unfair!” she stormed out of the room.

Jungkook began to panic. All his hyungs were drunk and now an angry Jennie was on the loose.

“Aish...why me? Why hyungs, why?” he murmured

Jennie had periodically wiped angry tears from her eyes after cleaning up the entire dorm with Jungkook. It was late and she should’ve gone to sleep but she stayed up to check on the members despite her frustration.

“I need some Jhene Aiko to calm my ass down...” she grumbled and grabbed her phone, connecting it to a tiny portable speaker that was sitting in the living room.

“A-actually, can I pick a song?” Jungkook called out.

“Sure. Be my guest.”

“I’m sorry about your Nikes.” He smiled sadly as he went over to the speaker.

“It’s fine...”

“I know you’re still upset but I think I know a way to make you feel better.”

“What?”

“Let’s dance,”

“Dance? Seriously?”

“Yeah, why not?”

“I’m not really in the dancing mood, Kook. I just witnessed part of my Nike collection ruined by vomit. Dancing is the last thing on my mind.” she turned her back to him, straightening things up on the couch.

“This song will change your mind. It’ll make you feel better. Trust me.”

When he put on IU and HIGH4’s Not Spring, Love or Cherry Blossoms, Jennie turned around.

gireossdeon gyeounae julgod

pumi jom namneun bamsaeg koteu

“Oh...you’re foul,” she called out.

He grinned mischievously, “You know this is your favorite song by her. Something to cheer you up.”

“Oh my gosh...”

“I see a smile trying to appear on your face~.” he teased as she looked away.

Once she heard him sing, her attention was back on him as she watched him walking slowly to her, “Son jabgo georeul saram. Hana eobsneun naege. Dalkomhan bombarami neomuhae.”

He extended out his hand. “Milady?”

Breaking out into a smile, she took his hand and he spun her around. Pulling her to him, they slowly danced around to the song as she started to loosen up.

“Bom sarang beojkkoch malgo.” she sang.

“Bom sarang beojkkoch malgo.” he sang back

As they continued to dance, he ended up dipping her, making her giggle. After releasing each other, they resumed dancing and singing together around the dorm, grabbing random items to use as microphones.

Once he hugged her from behind, she laughed and wrapped her arms around his, as her heart felt weird again. It felt full of something that she couldn’t understand. Despite the weird feeling, she felt happy in his arms.

“Feeling better?” he asked as the song ended.

“Much better. Thank you, for this.” she felt herself getting released.

“I guess we should start heading to bed.”

“I’ll sleep in a few. Let me finish the last of these dishes and I want to make sure the guys are safe while they sleep. I don't want them to throw up and choke or something. I’ll sleep soon.”

Later that night, Jungkook was still awake in his room, listening to music and playing games on his phone since he wasn’t sleepy yet.

Got me up all night, all I’m singin’ is love songs

She got me up all night, constant drinkin’ and love songs

She got me up all night, down-and-out with these love songs

J-Cole’s Power Trip played on shuffle on his music player as his mind wandered to Jennie.

“Would you believe me if I said I’m in love?” he sang softly to himself. “Baby, I want you to want me. Would you believe me if I said I’m in love? Baby, I want you.”

Well, this has got to be the longest crush ever

If I ever get to fuck it’d be the longest bust ever

Jungkook let out a chuckle at the lyrics. Ironic how it came on while he thought about her.

It really was the longest crush ever.

Getting out of bed, he wandered around the dorm to check on the members, making sure they were fine before he went to sleep. But once he went to Jen’s room, he noticed that she wasn’t in there.

‘Don’t tell me...’ he thought and made his way to the living room, to find her asleep on the couch.

The angle looked uncomfortable and he picked her up, bridal style.

“What time is it?” she asked tiredly.

“Time to get you in bed. I thought you were going to sleep after you checked on them?”

“I did. I still wanted to stay up to continue watching over them. Are the guys safe?”

“I checked on them, they’re fine. Go to sleep, baby girl.” he gently laid her down on her bed and put covers on her.

Half asleep, she dozed off, mumbling a “Thank you for helping me tonight.”

In the morning, remembering the Nike situation, she was still pissed at the guys. Despite being upset, she still loved them and decided to make breakfast and prepare water and aspirin for them. Once everyone was awake and ate with her, she ignored them and left to go hang with GFriend after finishing her plate.

“All right, what is wrong with her?” Yoongi asked

“Well, you guys threw up around the dorm and she and I had to clean it up,” Jungkook answered.

“Damn...”

“That’s not the worst part.”

“How can it be worse than that?”

“Someone threw up on some of her Nike sneakers.”

The members froze and glanced at each other anxiously as various reactions of curses were heard.

“Shit.”

“Fuck.”

“Crap.”

“Damn.”

“Oh, God...”

“Oh dear...”

“Jin did it!” Jimin shouted.

“I did no such thing!” Jin yelled, widening his eyes at the accusation.

“Ah, not so loud, my head!” Namjoon rubbed his temples.

“Then who did it!?” Taehyung yelled.

“HEY!” Jungkook shouted, making them flinch at the loud noise. “I don’t care who threw up on the sneakers. Each one of you should buy her a new pair and clean her shoes,”

“That seems fair,” Hobi spoke up.

“And you.” Jungkook turned to Jimin, frowning. “You almost ruined everything.”

“Me? What? How?” Jimin exclaimed

“You almost blabbed out my feelings for her!”

“Wha? Oh no, what did I say? I’m sorry!” he grinned sheepishly.

“You said quite enough...and you just had to say, Golden. You’re going to give her ideas if you keep that up.”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Look Tae and I have a plan. Christmas will be coming up in a few months. Why not try a mistletoe kiss?”

“Why not let it go naturally, instead?” Namjoon spoke up. “Don’t force it.”

“Why don’t you just tell her your feelings, right now?” Yoongi asked.

“Don’t do that. Jennie is in a foul mood. Not a wise idea.” the leader advised.

“I actually think the mistletoe kiss is a cute idea.” Hobi smiled

“Wait a minute, how do you all know that Jungkookie loves our Ennie? Did you tell them?” Jimin asked Yoongi after watching them talk.

“Like I said, the kid makes it painfully obvious.” Yoongi shrugged.

“If there is a mistletoe kiss, just make sure it’s only for a few seconds. They’re still too young in my eyes.” Jin added

“No way! I want my ship to sail!” Jimin exclaimed.

“Keep it rated G in this dorm!” he demanded, causing Jimin to roll his eyes and pout.

Watching the members discuss JenKook, Jungkook cleared his throat to get their attention, “Do you all...approve?” he nervously asked.

Hobi chuckled softly. “The both of you already act like a couple anyway,"

“Might as well add the kissing and future dates.” Yoongi agreed.

“I’m just...a little sad. You two are growing up a little too fast for me. But it’s undeniable to see your love for her.” Jin smiled. “You two seem happier when together. It is adorable.”

“Let’s all just make sure that Jungkook is the one to tell her. That means no more almost blabbing out the big secret, Jimin.” Namjoon added.

“I said I was sorry!” Jimin exclaimed, burying his face in his hands.

"It's okay, Jimin," Jungkook reassured him.

“When are you going to tell her?” Yoongi turned to Jungkook.

“Honestly, wait until after these events are over. We have a lot of work with the comeback and the end of the year shows. After these busy days, tell her. We’ll make sure not to interrupt you two when you’re alone with her.” Namjoon suggested.

The members went Nike sneaker shopping for Jennie and split up into groups. Jungkook went with Namjoon, browsing around for the shoes.

“Out of all the girls, I’m happy you want her. Nothing will change when you two date.” Namjoon spoke, catching Jungkook’s attention.

“You’re not mad?”

“About what?”

“Falling for her? You don’t think it’s a distraction?”

“If anything, I see the both of you as each other’s motivation. I never saw it as a distraction. Bang PD wouldn’t think so either.”

“He knows too?”

“The whole company knows, Jungkook.” Namjoon chuckled.

“Aish...Jimin and Taehyung with their big mouths.”

“Oh, it wasn’t them. It was you.”

“But I never said anything to anyone.”

“Your actions gave it away.” he placed a hand on his shoulder. “If there was any man I’d want our Miss Bangtan to be with, it would be you. I see your maturity grow when it comes to her. When you are around her, you act more like yourself than you act with other girls. She keeps you grounded. I also love how patient she is with you. All of us, really. It’s not easy living with seven men but she manages to keep us all in check. She takes care of us. Can’t take that for granted.”

Jungkook smiled and nodded at his words. “Do you think she’ll love me back?”

“I want you to see it for yourself. Pay attention to how she acts around you. Both of you will be lucky to have each other. Jennie is a dime. When you have her, don’t let her go.”

“Trust me, I’ll never let her go.”

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shadowpuppetteer · 3 months

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Fan Comic/Art Guide List

Gargoyles

Shadowpuppetteer — Got a big chunk of a project done, so I treated... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — Just having fun drawing out these fun characters.... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — This was the question that kept coming across my... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — Thinking about this while I was researching and... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — There's horse girls, wolf girls, dragon girls, and... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — Art struggles hit hard even for paranormal... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — Happy Halloween everyone! I just really wanted to... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — I need to charge these guys rent for the space... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — I kinda like the idea that Angela becomes a big... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — Bonus Panel: I was talking to someone about crime... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — First time Goliath threw some dude out of a plane... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — Happy Pride to my boys! Hopefully we'll get to see... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — Just wanted to see what human versions of Angela,... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — Calling myself out on my favorite ship dynamic.... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — A quick Gargoyles sketch of Elisa in between the... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — The shenanigans had to start somewhere with these... (tumblr.com)

Mandolorian/Star Wars

Shadowpuppetteer — Bet this is the reason why Luke wore black for a... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — This mood hits me hard sometimes. (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — @thejenmonster and I were talking, and this is... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — Decided to color this ink drawing just cause it... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — He needs a nap and an Enya CD to play. (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — This was all in good fun because I really just... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — That's "Sir Din Grogu" to you! May the 4th be... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — This is such a cute story @burnwater13 !!! I love... (tumblr.com)

ROTTMNT

Shadowpuppetteer — I just watched the first season recently and dang... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — I wanted to add in a few more sketches of... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — One thing I do when I hyperfixate on a show is... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — There have been such cool Venus redesigns, I... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — Continuing on with this redesign/rewriting of... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — Bonus Panel: Bonus Bonus Panel: Sometimes my cat... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — Really wanted to play around with redesigning Mona... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — Cleaner fish are just so cool. They are friends... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — Happy Holidays everyone, and now a production of... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — Love all these lil guys, but I have a soft spot... (tumblr.com)

Avatar The Last Airbender

Shadowpuppetteer — Bonus Panel: Been rewatching Avatar The Last... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — The further adventures in dragon babysitting by... (tumblr.com)

MISC

Shadowpuppetteer — A nice Valentine's Day kiss from our two favorite... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — Recently finished Owl House, Eda's my favorite! (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — Silly Sketches of "what if Aziraphale could turn... (tumblr.com)

Crossover Heathen Nonsense

Shadowpuppetteer — Happy Halloween! Decided to convert some notable... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — Once I read that Katana was from feudal era Japan,... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — There's a lot, and I mean A LOT, of similar tropes... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — One more of these crossover sketches with our two... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — I just really wanted to put two groups of monster... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — This suddenly popped up in my head so I had to... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — Sewer people need sewer friends! This is how I... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — These New York heroes don't know what to do with... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — One thing about being immortal is dealing with all... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — Bonus Playtime: Just a silly dumb head cannon I... (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — Shadowpuppetteer (tumblr.com)

Shadowpuppetteer — As the utterly ridiculous human being that I am, I... (tumblr.com)

https://www.tumblr.com/shadowpuppetteer/740092670609866752/i-hope-you-make-more-gargoylestmnt-art-as-a-fan?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/shadowpuppetteer/741357498522566656/one-of-the-funniest-things-about-history-is-how?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/shadowpuppetteer/742995780464427008/seeing-all-the-cool-fanart-of-donnie-with?source=share

Shadowpuppetteer — Bonus: Sometimes it takes a village to make... (tumblr.com)

https://www.tumblr.com/shadowpuppetteer/745621537191821312/got-curious-about-this-particular-crossover?source=share

#fancomics #fan comics #comics #fanart #shadowpuppetteer

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fabuloustrash05 · 3 months

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Incorrect TMNT Quotes But It's My Mighty Mutanimals Spin Off AU

Mondo Gecko: I have so much energy, I want to run a marathon or commit a crime... which should I do? Slash: Please don’t get arrested. Mondo Gecko: No promises! Mona Lisa: Why not both? Get creative! Mondo Gecko: Wonderful suggestion, thank you. Slash: Please don’t encourage him, Mona.

~~~

Leatherhead: Hey, it’s your turn to wash the dishes. Koya: I’ll wash the walls red with your blood. Leatherhead: Okay, but before that, wash the dishes. Also, use soap this time.

~~~

Mondo Gecko: You know, Alopex, I've been thinking... Alopex: Careful, you're not very good at it.

~~~

Slash: I thought you said you were decorating for Halloween? Mondo Gecko: I am. Slash: You're just hanging up pictures of Koya. Mondo Gecko: You said you wanted scary decorations.

~~~

Mondo Gecko: How old are you? Leatherhead: Wait… Guess. Mondo Gecko: 49! Leatherhead: WHAT?! Mondo Gecko: You said guess. Leatherhead: THAT WAS SO FAR OFF!! THAT WASN'T EVEN CLOSE!! Normally when people play that game they're like, they guess a little bit younger. Was that the little bit younger guess?! Mondo Gecko: Yeah, are you like 50? Leatherhead: WHAT?! Mondo Gecko: So was I right? Leatherhead: No! I'm 36!! WHAT THE FUCK?! Mondo Gecko: Oh damn! You're old! Leatherhead: WHAT??!!

~~~

Slash, panicking: This is bad! This is REALLY bad! Mona Lisa: What’s wrong? Slash: I kissed Alopex! Mona Lisa: Woah… I owe Mondo Gecko so much money…

~~~

Leatherhead: People talk loud when they wanna sound smart, right? Mona Lisa: CORRECT!!

~~~

Alopex: Koya, it just kills me to see you all worked up like this. Koya, emotionless: I know. I’m totally out of control.

~~~

Mona Lisa: Are you going to get a handyman to install this stuff? Alopex: No, I'm going to do it myself. Mondo Gecko: You’re gonna do it? Alopex: Yeah, why? You don’t think a woman can do this? Mondo Gecko: Women can, you can’t. Alopex: Mona, would you please tell Mondo that he is a pig. Mona Lisa, to Mondo Gecko: You’re a pig. Mona Lisa, to Alopex: And you can’t do this.

~~~

Slash: Get out now! Leatherhead is going to make us clean! He has jobs for everyone! Now, it’s too late for me, but save yourselves! Mondo Gecko, Mona Lisa, Alopex & Koya: *quickly runs towards the exit*

#mighty mutanimals spin off au #incorrect mighty mutanimals quotes #incorrect TMNT quotes #tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles #mighty mutanimals #tmnt slash #tmnt mona lisa #tmnt leatherhead #leatherhead #tmnt mondo gecko #mondo gecko #TMNT alopex #alopex #tmnt koya #slalopex #Slash x alopex

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thunderstroked · 5 months

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Boudoir & Business || Mona & Siobhan

TIMING: current. LOCATION: amity road photos. PARTIES: @banisheed & @thunderstroked SUMMARY: siobhan wants photos taken of her and she wants them now! mona obliges. CONTENT: allusions to domestic abuse (fae related).

Mona hadn’t anticipated the woman ahead of her actually showing up, especially not in the nude. Then again, she should have taken her words at face value regardless of whether or not she thought she would– she seemed the type to hold her word, even if her word was more on the eccentric side. Then again, who was she to judge? Before Esther had left, she had shown Mona the ins and outs of her studio– had shown her how to shoot, and how to edit. Whether or not Mona actually retained any of that was left to be seen.

The gumiho stood across from her subject, not bothered at all by the lack of clothes. They were just bodies to one another, after all. Mona pointed in the direction of the props, which ranged from feathery cupid’s wings, a giant heart, to dog ears and more. “You can help yourself to those, if you’d like.” There was even a skeleton, special for Halloween. She’d gone out and gotten that herself, along with a few rubber spiders. “But go ahead and pose however you’d like, and I’ll snap the photo.” She was behind the camera now, gaze setting over the viewfinder. At least she’d retained that information.

Siobhan was beautiful, she’d grown into it; gangly, pale child into curvy, still pale, adult who understood the length of her limbs and the fullness of her lips. Her beauty, inherited from her mother but diverged in its soft edges to her mother’s hard corners, was solely hers. Her beauty, striking and undeniable, was taken from her. Her face remained unmarred as a reminder of what had been taken; a bow tied at the end of a piece of rotting fruit. She had no use for a nude photo of herself, she hardly enjoyed looking at herself but did so anyway, poking and prodding at her scarred flesh as if it might transform—stitching memories of what it had been. There was no point to her visit other than the obvious: there was some idea to maintain and some sense of cruel enjoyment. So she came with a thin robe worn under a long brown coat and marched into the studio as if nude photos were the sort of thing she had taken all the time. Then she sucked in a breath, glamored her skin to flawlessness, and took it all off.

“Fates, no,” she hissed. “Do you want me to look ridiculous? With that skeleton? Who do you think I am? The sort of person that lays a plastic--anatomically insulting--skeleton on herself?” Siobhan stared at the other props. She ran her finger along the fake feathers on the wings. She twisted the plastic, sneering at how easily they cracked under her fingers. “These,” she rasped, pulling them on. The pressure against her back burned and soothed. They were nothing like hers, an insult to the beauty that once graced her back--but she’d wanted them in some way she could hardly explain. “Just these. No…” She pulled a few spiders. “These too.” She settled back down on her seat. “Fates,” she rolled her eyes, “if all you were going to do was press a button on a camera I could have done this myself.” But she hadn’t and now she was here.

Siobhan readied herself; one leg thrown over the other, back arched, hand steadied on the edge of her stool, small, feathery wings on display, brown hair pulled down one shoulder. “Go ahead.”

“No.” Mona stared ahead at Siobhan, eyebrow raised, “I think you’re somebody who has come looking for nude photographs of yourself, and it’s just a prop.” But even though the skeleton hadn’t been something she was keen on, it seemed as though the other objects Mona had brought in were something that caught the woman’s eye. The wings were pulled over her shoulders, see-through plastic straps tight against her shoulders. Some of the feathers fell to the floor with the movement. Maybe Mona would need to invest in higher quality props. She knew that Esther had some laying around, too. Maybe in the attic. She’d need to go and look. Most things had been cleaned out prior to her departure.

If you need to find something, go up.

Whatever that meant. Mona sucked in a breath as she watched Siobhan delicately place the spiders onto herself. Again, it was just a body– the woman in front of her, however, was not bad to look at. There was a sense of knowing from her, too. It was confidence, Mona realized. Of course it had to have been. Who would suggest nude photos if they weren’t confident in themselves?

“It’s not just a button.” It was, sort of. She’d need to detect the lighting– something that Edith, no, Esther? She couldn’t remember now, had told her to do. She pulled out the light meter and extended a hand, before craning back to look at the camera. “I’m going to take a few test shots. These, of course, are without charge.” She’d provide them to the woman, anyway, if they looked good.

“Okay.” Mona looked up to meet Siobhan’s eyes, a smile pulling at the corners of her lips. “It will flash a bit, obviously. It’s a camera.” She pressed the button and light bloomed from where she stood, to just over Siobhan with the lighting kit. She took a few more photos, picking the camera up off of the tripod. She took a step back, peering through the lens. It wasn’t necessary due to the digital aspect of it all, but it felt right. Whether or not the woman ahead of her would be appreciative of the dramatic flair of it, she couldn’t be sure. “Would you like to try another pose?”

The skeleton was insulting, though she didn’t belabor the point. Instead, as Siobhan posed, her gaze drifted towards it. Fates, it was so hideous; birthed from disgusting plastic--a human invention--and lacking in any anatomical accuracy. She couldn’t stop looking at it. Why did the humans insist on this for their…what was the insipid holiday called? The one that correlated with Samhain? She closed her eyes as thoughts swirled in her head, manifested in pops of yellow and red in the darkness. Hollow…something? Hollow bones? Like birds?

“Huh?” Her eyes snapped open, blinking quickly to adjust to the sudden light. “I--uh--” She’d forgotten where she was. Siobhan rubbed her eyes. She pulled her arms up over her head and then she felt it. Something scraped along her shoulder blades. She paused, breath caught in her throat and arms frozen in the air. She gulped. It wasn’t…it couldn’t be… Siobhan turned her head. Over her shoulder, sticking out from her back, was the feathered edge of a set of plastic wings. The hope that swelled inside of her ruptured in a surprised gasp. She’d forgotten she’d taken them. She’d forgotten about her glamour. Scars of every variety, as if her skin was a testing sheet for violence, dissolved into reality across her flesh--from her toned calves up to the crest of her neck and, with special vicious consideration, painted on her wingless back. She could feel it dissipate with a sudden chill before she straightened out, clenched her jaw, and willed the magic back into place. She looked up at the photographer.

“I’ll try laying down now, I think,” Siobhan coughed; if she pretended like nothing was wrong, maybe the photographer would trick herself into thinking she’d seen nothing. Siobhan pushed the stool aside and stretched out on the ground like a cat. Her gaze returned to the cursed skeleton; it was that thing’s fault, somehow. “Ready again,” she grumbled.

Siobhan looked to be lost in thought and Mona made no move to interrupt whatever might be running through her mind. Since taking on temporary ownership of the photography studio, she had learned a lot about people. They liked to be told what to do when necessary, and left alone for the rest of it. Mona wasn’t sure where this woman fell into the mold, but she figured it was somewhere far, far out of reach. She wasn’t even really sure if she was allowed to be taking nude photographs of the woman, but who was she to deny somebody’s dream? Besides, it was just a body, just like the others that’d ventured through the door.

The individual ahead of her, however, slipped in and out of view, or at least, that’s what it felt like. What Mona had been approached with had been that of a woman with smooth skin– pale as the moon, and in a flash, it was prickled with evidence of torture– years of wear. Mona forced her gaze ahead, to not travel along the lines of those scars– of finding identifying moments within the ones that covered from her neck down to her shoulder. These were different, she realized. Insidious– on purpose. Somebody had meant to do that to her, and it occurred to her then that this was no regular human in front of her, not with the way the glamor pulled over like a sleeve within moments of recognition that it had slipped to begin with. Mona had seen that before, though it was different. Where there should have been something different was just a woman who had revealed the ache of her past instead of insect wings, scales, or goat legs.

Her subject spoke and Mona found her attention pulling back over to the woman, to her features– soft, but sharp in all the ways it should be. There was attention to detail there, in her entire appearance. Not just in actual looks, but in the set of her expression– in the carefulness of her gaze. Mona had seen that somewhere before– maybe in her own mother. Mona cleared her throat and nodded. She took a step back, taking another photo. A part of her thought the scars might appear on the screen, that they might be highlighted with notes dug into the skin this is what happened to me. “Perfect, but that’s no surprise.” Mona looked over the camera and nodded at her, “would you like to see?” She tried to run through the possibilities of what the woman before her was– surely a fae, but she wasn’t certain on what kind. Her own scars ached beneath the sweatshirt she wore, as if in some kind of solidarity with the woman before her.

Siobhan was never normal, if the idea of “normal” could be bundled up in a series of traits and actions. She wasn’t normal before her first scream and she wasn’t normal after it. As an adult, she had moved so far from “normal” that she constantly forgot that there was such a state in existence as normalcy; she couldn’t fathom what that felt like. It did not, she reasoned, feel like laying naked in some photography studio trying her best to appear sexy—which wasn’t hard—while trying not to ask herself exactly who these photos were for. For a moment she thought about plastering them around town but then remembered that her role as a teacher meant the action would be wholly inappropriate, far beyond anything fun. She looked at her photographer and wondered what she did, who she was. Was she normal? Curiosity shattered by Mona’s voice, Siobhan pushed herself off the ground and brushed her glamoured skin—as if one grain of dirt would ruin it. As if she were a normal person, with normal skin, who wanted normal things.

“I suppose I can give it a look.” Siobhan stretched, arms above her head. When she relaxed, she pulled the cheap wings off her back. “You don’t have much bedside manner, so to speak. As a photographer. You’re very clinical.” Not that Siobhan had ever been photographed by anyone else, but she had expected more compliments, more praise. She hoped it would have been shoveled on to her from the moment her tits graced the open air. She looked back at the stupid plastic skeleton, then towards the photos. She nearly screamed. There was almost an artistry in their amateur horror—the unfocus, the unflattering tilt, the blur, the comical lack of understanding for composition—almost. “Those are hideous,” she said flatly. “It’s a skill that you managed to take a subject like me and make it ugly. Is this what passes for art now? I feel nauseous just looking at it.” Siobhan tilted her head. “You get paid for this? I’m paying for this?” She tilted her head the other way. “Are you aware of that human adage? ‘Don’t quit your day job’? Except this is your day job.”

“I don’t know what bedside manner means.” Mona tried to think about what Siobhan could want with the comment. She thought to tell the woman ahead of her that this wasn’t exactly her forte, that it felt stiff because Mona was afraid of tearing down the business that Edith had created. That because she was just filling in for an old friend who had saved her life, she felt obligated to do her best, and by doing her best, it meant not being so much herself, and being a version that got shit done. She hated this version of herself, but she couldn’t exactly recoil from it now.

The photos were hideous, she knew that much. She stared down at the screen, glass no longer smoothing out the obvious discrepancies of the photo. Mona had thought she’d done an okay job. She figured Siobhan’s beauty would have saved the photos no matter what, but that didn’t seem to be the case. She felt a little frustrated by the onslaught of insults, but pushed the feeling down. They weren’t anything she hadn’t heard before. So maybe Edith’s company would fall apart. Oops. Then again, she had warned the fury.

“If you’re dissatisfied–” She cut herself off with a sigh, bringing the camera away from Siobhan. She held it close to her stomach, looking at the other woman. She was slightly peeved that there’d be the suggestion of her being human, but Mona hadn’t really said much else to explain that she wasn’t. “Look, I’m just doing this for a friend. I’m bad, I know that, but I’m trying, and I figured you were pretty enough that it wouldn’t matter.” She looked at the pictures again, frown deepening, “but these– yeah, you’re right, they can’t be saved.” Mona put the camera back onto the tripod and turned her attention back to Siobhan. “You don’t need to pay me, and I’ll throw in the wings for free. Nobody else uses them, anyway, and it looks like you liked them.” It looked like she hated them and was traumatized by them, but she still wore them. Mona moved to the side, grabbing the robe that Siobhan had come in with and extended it towards her, “as much as I love looking at naked bodies, you can put this back on.”

“You’re running a photography business for a friend?” Siobhan thought about her own friendships—largely nonexistent—and if she’d run a whole business for them—well, the answer for that was easy. Any kind of relationship that would make someone take hideous photos for a living was one she couldn’t fathom. “This isn’t one of those cases where you’ve killed the person in charge and now need to run the business as if their corpse weren't in the attic, is it? Because that’d be interesting and I’ve already decided you’re boring and changing my mind is so tiresome.” Siobhan grabbed her robe quickly, slipping it on. She’d also decided that the photographer didn’t deserve her tits.

She had resolved to hate her. Yes, she imagined herself saying, I will be taking these ugly plastic wings and leaving now. She imagined her foot lifting, and then the other, and a steady walk to the exit. Her legs ached with their eagerness to move. Siobhan wanted it. She thought about it. She— “I didn’t say they were unsaveable, only that they were hideous.” She threw the plastic wings aside and placed a gentle hand on the photographer’s shoulder. “Every artist starts somewhere. You, perhaps, are starting at much lower skill than most amateur photographers. In fact, it’s quite admirable that you were able to take such repulsive photos. It was as if you took every known fact of aesthetics and ruined it. That, itself, is a skill. No other photographer would be able to take such terrible photos. Why? Because they understand the medium even a little bit, unlike you. You don’t understand it at all. That, I think, is an art.” Her grip transformed into gentle pats. “There, there.”

Pulling her robe tighter around her body, Siobhan smiled. “I will pay you. You rendered services. You rendered them poorly but you did render them.” Thankful for robe pockets, she pulled out a tangled wad of cash and slapped it on to the prop table. “You may keep the photos, they might accompany you on lonely nights. Or, perhaps, you may submit them to an untalented photographer’s art show. You may even want to pretend like you are a child, and thus your obvious lack of skill will be forgiven. Though, it may raise suspicion as to why a child would be taking photos of a naked woman—perhaps not that, then.” Traveling the length of the prop table she grabbed the plastic skeleton and held it to her chest. Then she grabbed her coat and draped it over the anatomically inaccurate body. “I will be taking this, however. You are welcome.”

Sparing a look at the photographer, her gaze drifted to the wings she discarded. “You gave me something new. Something I haven’t felt in a long time.” Siobhan looked up. “That’s more valuable, don’t you agree?”

Mona arched her brow, “no, but that would be interesting.” It has already been confirmed that Siobhan is fae, or at least that she was using some kind of glamor. She wasn’t sure if any human spellcasters could do something of that caliber, and so Mona extends a part of herself, the part of her own kind that are devout to the favors in kind. “They helped me with something, so I agreed to help them, too.” Mona considered letting Siobhan think that she got herself into a promise bind before she added on, “I like to repay my favors, even without there being some… proverbial axe swinging over my head.” Maybe that’d be enough.

Her own expression devolved into something of amusement as Siobhan… was that comfort? No, nobody would comfort somebody in that way, but it almost seemed adjacent. Mona nodded, clearly agreeing with the woman across from her. It was obvious that this wasn’t something she should have agreed to, but lucky enough for her, most people were too polite to protest about how bad their photos had come out. On the other hand, Siobhan’s candidness was… nice, to say the least. Though, Mona wouldn’t have expected otherwise. Who else would’ve arrived at a photo studio naked than somebody who expelled the truth? “I’m going to take that as a compliment, because I’m sure that somewhere, there’s a competition for worst photos.” She was almost sure there wasn’t, but did that matter? Not really.

There was surprise, however, that Siobhan was still intending to pay her. Mona bit back the urge to tell her to keep the money, and she watched as the green bills were untangled from the wad in the woman’s pocket, and then set onto the table. She lifted her gaze to meet the brunette’s, tilting her head to the side. She opened her mouth to speak, but promptly closed it as Siobhan continued. “I could always pretend that it’s a new wave– a new era. Humans are stupid enough to believe in that.” She could have phrased it differently, but Mona had to admit, she didn’t want the fae to think that she was such a lowly thing as human. It probably wouldn’t bend her expectations, or even her thoughts surrounding the engagement, but at the very least, she wouldn’t be thought of as human, and that was enough for her. The skeleton was dipped under the coat and Mona found herself a little sad to see it go. “Take good care of him, like I took good care of you.” Had she, though? There was a certain comfort, at least; in vulnerability, and it showed in the words that Siobhan spoke next, though Mona wasn’t sure if there was a level of sarcasm there or not.

“You certainly gave me a lot to think about, Siobhan. I appreciate your business.” She picked up the wad of bills, half-considering using them for the means of lessons in photography, but remembered the animatronic robot she saw a few weeks ago in the window sill of a nearby shop. It’d look good in the apartment.

#para: boudoir & business #para: siobhan #domestic abuse tw #wickedswriting

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