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chaoticallysapphic · 4 years

Text

i and love and you

summary: Sometimes Lin needs to be taken care of, thankfully your there to wash away the dirt and grime of a hard days work.

a/n: this is based off of this reddit post, i saw it and immediately thought of Lin.

word count: 1K

When Lin returns home, the moon is high in the sky and the lights are off in your apartment. She quietly bends off her armor and stumbles into the bathroom where she flicks the light on before closing the door.

The chief presses her hands against either side of the sink and looks up at her reflection, staring back at her is a disheveled middle-aged woman with dirt smeared across her cheek and dried blood under her nose, her hair is a matted mess and honestly, she feels so exhausted from fighting the triple threat triads all day that she debates just sleeping like this.

She brings a hand up to her cheek to try and wipe away some of the dirt smeared across her face, unfortunately with her line of work this happened more often than not especially since Korra took a break from her responsibilities to recuperate. The idea of the avatar no longer in sight has caused many people to bring up mischief and crime across the city, she’s had to double her police force in the last year alone.

You open the bathroom door, causing her to rip her gaze from the mirror, and rub at your eyes. “I didn’t mean to wake you, you should go back to sleep,” she says softly, her shoulders sag as she takes in your sleepy form but you simply walk over to her and gently take her face into your hands. “I’m not hurt, just a bit dirty.”

“Sit” you murmur, pointing at the closed toilet seat, Lin obeys because she knows you’ll fight her on it if she doesn’t. You leave the room for only a minute and return with a washcloth that you wet under the sink. Kneeling between her legs, you cup her right cheek with your left hand and use the other to gently wipe away the dirt and blood.

The cloth is warm and soothing and soon Lin finds herself closing her eyes as you treat her like a porcelain doll. A few minutes is spent in blissful silence as you take your time, even going to wipe her neck and shoulders clean. “Up,” You stand up and place the cloth on the edge of the sink, Lin follows your orders and you go to pull her shirt over her head.

“Y/N I think I’m a bit too tired too-”

“I just wanna wash you, my love” you interrupt her, Lin flushes a bit but you don’t tease her like normal. This moment is intimate and the silence that follows as you continue to undress her soothingly wraps around her. Soon you're directing her to sit in the bathtub and scoot her closer to the drain so you can undress and sit behind her in the tub.

You grab the showerhead, along with all the necessary toiletries, and kneel behind her. You flick the shower head-on, before using it on her you stick your hand underneath to make sure it's the right temperature before beginning to wet her hair. With your free hand, you run your fingers through her hair to make sure it’s thoroughly wet before you turn the showerhead off to begin shampooing.

You squirt a generous amount of the shampoo onto the palm of your hand and smear it on your other palm before beginning to lather her hair, you massage her scalp and move slowly. Lin feels the tension from the day slowly leave her body as your fingers work her scalp, she lets out a contented sigh and leans into you.

You smile at this and plant an innocent kiss on her shoulder, the shampoo is properly worked into her hair but you keep going for a minute to help soothe your stressed lover, “ ‘m gonna rinse it now, keep your head back for me.” Lin eagerly obliges and you gently peck her forehead before grabbing the showerhead once more and turning it on.

As you rinse her hair, Lin remembers the days before you stumbled into her life. These types of nights were unbearable and she usually fell asleep on the couch, too exhausted to even bother taking her shoes off.

She’d done that once with you and she’d woken up to you scowling above her, “You’ll get a crick in your neck, why didn’t you wake me? I would have helped” you said and Lin had laid there in confusion as you fretted over her. You had just moved in a few days beforehand so this was new to you, she remembers how you took her boots off and drew a bath for her before making her favorite breakfast and brewing her favorite tea. She remembers thinking about how much you meant to her in that moment.

You began to apply the conditioner and hum a familiar tune, it was her favorite song that sometimes played on the radio. Lin felt her heart warm at the small action and she suddenly felt like she might cry. No one had ever been so gentle with her before, she isn’t sure what she did to deserve you. Once done with the conditioner you let it sit in her hair for a few minutes and begin to gently clean her body by applying the body wash into your hands and you soothingly run them across her body.

Lin leans her body against your bare chest and sighs, she hopes whatever the afterlife is like, it feels similar to this moment. You pepper kisses on both her shoulders and cheeks as you finish up sudsing her body, as you reach for the showerhead once more, Lin grabs your hand and wraps it around her waist. You seem to understand because you wrap your other arm around her waist too and sit there in comfortable silence.

Lin closes her eyes to fight the tears, this must be what it feels like to love someone with your whole being, and be loved back too. She knows she’ll still get a bit insecure in the future but all she’ll have to do is think back on this moment and all her worries will wash away. Goosebumps rise across her body due to slowly becoming cold, but she doesn’t want to break this moment by speaking up.

You must understand because you finally turn the showerhead back on and begin the slow process of rinsing her body off, you run your free hand up and down her arm in soothing motions and Lin feels herself begin to drift.

She drifts in and out of sleep as you begin to rinse her hair, you're even slower then before and massage her scalp again with your free hand. “Almost done” you whisper as you press a kiss to her back. You push any stray hairs sticking to her face away and run your fingers through her hair to check for any spots that need extra rinsing.

When the showerhead switches off, Lin wakes up, not entirely but enough to keep her eyes open for a bit. You press a gentle kiss to her neck before climbing out of the tub, you grab a clean towel to wrap around yourself before grabbing another one for her, she stands up and you immediately wrap it for her. She grabs onto your hands as she climbs out to keep from slipping, you firmly grip her hands, and once she’s out you grab a second towel.

“Can you sit for me?” you say and she sleepily sits back on the closed toilet seat. You stand between her legs and begin to dry her hair. She wraps her arms around your waist and lays her head against your belly as you try to be as gentle as you can. Thankfully her hair is relatively short so it doesn’t take long to at least get it to stop dripping. You stop your ministrations once you deem it dry enough and place a kiss atop her head. “Let’s go to sleep.”

She groans in reply, already half asleep. You gently grasp her arms and help her stand up, she leans against you as you both walk into your room, neither of you seems to have the energy to change into pajamas so you drape the towels over a desk chair before climbing into bed.

She tugs you close so she can spoon you, burrowing her head into your neck. “I love you,” she says, it's muffled but you understand. You grab her arm slung over your waist and run your hand down to her own where you thread your fingers together. “I love you too.”

#lin beifong #lin beifong x reader #lin beifong/reader #fluff #tooth rotting fluff #this'll call you lonely in five different ways #fanfiction #fanfic #lok fanfic #legend of korra #beifong #lin beifong fanfic

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choco-mark · 4 years

Text

Accidents

pairing: roommate!mark x roommate!oc

genre: smut | my horrible attempt at crack at the end, i apologize in advance

warnings: language, masturbation (fem. + m.), mentions of nudes, voyeurism, hyuck and y/n getting it on, oral (fem. + m. receiving), fingering, handjob, pretty explicit sex, sub!mark but more like nervous!mark, praise kink, moaning kink (kinda), i feel like i just wrote fucking porn

summary: you keep saying his name as he watches, and he keeps thinking it’s an accident. little does he know that the only accident he created was the one in your pants.

words: 4k

7 May

“Okay, but I don’t fucking understand why I have to do this,” Donghyuck threw up his hands dramatically, earning him odd stares from around the coffee shop. “This is a team effort. So Renjun, you’re coming with me.”

Renjun looked like he was about to slam his head against the wall, and he sighed. Jeno had his head resting against the table, looking at the younger member with a glint of annoyance in his eyes. “Hyuck. We literally asked you to order coffee. It’s not that hard.”

As the two of them started their regular bickering on a Sunday morning, you were sitting at the table behind the three, with Mark and Jaemin straight across from you. You seemed preoccupied with your phone, at least to Mark, who kept giving you glances as you smiled to yourself. “Y/N? Hello...”

You pressed a few more buttons with a shaky hand, loosing your mind a little as you looked up to give Mark a slight smile. Stuffing your phone back into your pocket, you leaned against the table again. As you started your normal conversation with the two of them, you didn’t realize Mark looking down at his phone to see who had texted him. I’m right in front of her, though. Oh, looks like a picture.

Yeah, Mark regretted ever opening that photo on his phone that morning, nearly flashing it to Jaemin in the process. You were sitting in an open legged fashion, red lingerie decorating your skin without much coverage, showing off places of your body that he had never seen exposed before. He could’ve thrown his phone out of his hand at that moment, maybe even out of the window or at Jaemin’s face, but you were still sitting there all innocent in your oversized sweatshirt, talking to the other boy with a small smile ghosting over your face.

He gulped visibly, shoving his phone back into his pocket and attempting to cover his hard on with the end of his own sweatshirt. Why the fuck did she send me that?..

16 May

It was an accident, that’s what you responded too when you had finally opened up your chat with Mark and had seen your own scantily dressed body with your entire heart beating out of your chest. He had promised that he deleted it as soon as he saw it, his face turned a bright color as you asked him quietly in the living room that afternoon. But, it wasn’t really an accident for you.

You wanted Mark to know how fucking wet you were constantly, every time you accidentally peaked into his room while he was changing, or even when he was sitting on the couch with his legs spread wide. He looked so inviting all the time, and you wanted that for yourself. Yet, you could never seem to actually get it. You were going to send your nudes to a group of your friends to ask them if they were good enough for an impression, however you had pressed on the victim’s contact, sending it to the poor boy. The worst part was that Mark seemed so unaffected by the entire issue, just shrugging it off when you apologized and assuring you that it was fine. It silently made you want to throw yourself out the window and fall to your misery, mainly since his entire expression just read a blatant ‘I don’t even care.’

But Mark did care. He did care that he couldn’t get the image of you dressing up like that in a room that was right beside his out of his head. He did care that you had placed your phone in a tilted fashion to get that angle of your body, and it drove him crazy. Drove him insane, to be honest, considering you, his very hot roommate, were always right there in his sight. And god he had nothing more in his mind other than for you to sit on his dick.

Though he already was so turned on by the fact that you—existed, the entire memory of you wearing that pretty lace always flowed back to his brain whenever he was doing anything. He might be in the middle of a lecture, taking notes normally and paying attention until he sees your name pop up on his phone. He might be laying on his bed contemplating whether or not he should finish a huge project that he had been assigned weeks ago, until he hears your giggle from outside his room. He might even be in the shower, quietly massaging liquid into his skin until his eyes fell upon your toiletries. Except every time he was in the shower, the blood would flow straight to his dick, and with a little less embarrassment as he fastened his own hand around the appendage. And it felt so good jerking off to the thought of you, and even though he had been a man of his word and had deleted the photo of you, that didn’t stop him from engraving it deep into his mind. Yet it was so wrong, so fucking wrong and he knew that when you would burst into the bathroom while he was having his own fun time and grab something you had forgotten.

Mark had returned from his last class for the day, completely exhausted from the entire day that he had just spent. It was supposed to be just a peek, a peek to see what the noises from inside of your bedroom were, yet it was much more than you just having stubbed your toe as he assumed. You were laying on your bed, legs spread wide with your hand between the sweatshirt that was just too long for him to catch a glimpse past, to see what action was actually happening.

He stifled a gasp in his throat when you arched your back suddenly, your head rolling back on your shoulders as you let out a loud whine. Just your sounds were making him harder by the second, and surely a few seconds later there was a nice familiar tent in his pants, one that he was now groaning over. God, how much he wanted to yank back the troublesome fabric to give him a better view of you, but he didn’t make a move. In fact, he froze at the sound of his name tumbling from your lips without even a gasp of hesitation, his brain going into a malfunctioning mode as you finally removed your hand. Mark could tell from the juices that were practically dripping from your fingers, that you had relieved yourself—and you collapsed down against your bed, your eyes fluttering shut from the feeling.

Oh how much he wanted to open that door just a little more, show you that he had seen all of your sinful actions with his blessed eyes, but he took a step back, groaning softly as he palmed himself over his jeans. He stumbled to his room, slamming the door shut without a second thought, the only thing on his mind being the sound of your voice moaning his name so lewdly. Fuck, he liked it way too much.

24 May

“Fuck, I don’t care!” Your voice was a frustrated one, coming from the living room so loudly as Mark woke up from his midday slumber, having been met with the sound of your voice immediately. “Just do your job and make me fucking cum already!” There was a bright giggle after your words, one that he recognized as his one and only best friend, Lee Donghyuck’s.

“Wow, you’re a demanding one,” he commented, his unusually low voice being cut off to be matched with the sounds of your moans filling the apartment. Mark widened as he realized what was happening, his face turning a nice shade of red as he couldn’t help but prop open the door, looking out from his room to get a good look at what was happening.

Donghyuck was perched between your wide spread legs, his colored hair blocking the most important part of your body in his view. You were still wearing a shirt, but your bra was on the side of the couch you were sitting on, disregarded as he slipped a hand up to your breasts, flicking the nipple over with his thumb as his fingers presumably slid into your hole. Mark couldn’t tell, not from the angle he was seeing you, which was just as frustrating to the fact that he would’ve done absolutely anything to be Donghyuck in that moment, but he also could tell.

Your mouth was slightly parted open, small puffs of breath coming out of you while your fingers pressed into the nape of the other boy’s neck. Mark hadn’t even noticed that Donghyuck had been lapping at your clit until he pulled away, moving his mouth to leave wet kisses all over your inner thighs. You were still writhing above him, his fingers pumping in and out of you with a delicious sound filling the air: a sound that was so fucking filthy, but was making you feel like heaven was on earth.

“Fuck, fuck, I’m so close,” you let out a whine as your hands were now gripping at your shirt, holding onto it so desperately as your eyes squeezed shut, your entire face contorting as the boy between your legs just chuckled, teasing you to follow your words. “Don’t stop—shit, shit, oh fuck—” You looked so ethereal to Mark, your sounds having already caused his dick to be set on fire as it was now being stroked in his hand ever so quietly, just wishing that it was you touching him in the same fashion. “Mark—fuck,” he could’ve sworn that he fucking ascended into the afterlife as his name fell from your lips again, the action only making Donghyuck break out into a soft giggle as he removed his fingers from your pussy, inching them up to pop them in your mouth.

“You’re a dirty girl. Moaning your roommate’s name when he’s right here? Did I not do good enough for your pretty cunt?” Though his words held some truth, Mark had already backed his way into his room again, his ears only registering the way you groaned in annoyance and swore that you wouldn’t suck him off tomorrow if he kept teasing you about Mark. “That’s alright, darling,” his voice was muffled now, the sounds of shuffling and hurried movements filling the room. He assumed that the two of you were dressing. “You know you’ll be stuffed with my cock anyway!”

That last comment had rang through Mark’s brain for the next few minutes, his eyes fluttering shut as the image of you on your knees took up his mind, your eyes that were widening at his length and the pretty lace lingerie that you had worn in that picture decorating your skin perfectly. Your cheeks completely hollowed out with his cock edging down your throat, the gags, the tears, the whines of pleasure. If he came right from that thought, he wouldn’t admit it to anyone.

30 May

Mark was going feral. Yes, feral because his roommate was so fucking hot and he couldn’t even control his carnal instincts right now. You had been driving him mad for the past—literally, it felt like forever in his mind, because every time he had gotten closer and closer to his fantasies, it seemed to be ripped away from him just as fast as he could achieve them. He felt like he was having some kind of weird hormone boost as he paced around his room, feeling the blooming sensation from low in his stomach rising and falling with every single thought going towards you.

Everything about you was inviting: your smile, your touches, your body, your voice. Mark couldn’t really say he was a sex expert, only having had done the deed only twice in his entire existence, but you were making him feel like he was getting more experiences that he even had in the first place. Yet, most of them were unannounced peeks of his naughty eyes.

He knew that every time you sank your fingers deep inside your pussy and allowed those soft walls to clench around them, that you would cry out his name with a type of bubbling noise in your throat. The same cry that made him want to leave everything he was doing at the moment just to fuck you until you were a blabbering mess. Yes, he had so many fantasies about you, so many more than he could ever admit to any of the other boys, and most definitely not you.

But this time it was really an accident.

Mark had a really nice shower, at least it was one that allowed him to take his time and...fulfill his desires. It was late at night, probably past midnight as he finally emerged from the bathroom, walking into the living room at a slow pace. However, when he reached the living room with a hand ruffling at his hair, he froze to the sight he was welcomed with; he would’ve died from embarrassment, he thought later, if that was him in that position. Yet, since it was you, it didn’t even hit him how flustered you were.

Your legs were spread out in the same fashion that they always were, except this time, everything was exposed. The crease of your folds caught his eyes, the arousal dripping from your core staining the neutral color of the couch so beautifully that he could’ve stared at it for hours just knowing it was you that caused it. The tips of your fingers were rubbing at your clit, almost violently from the way you were trying to chase after your high, but Mark could’ve sworn that was probably the most attractive thing he had seen in so long, and he had been secretly watching you for ages, it felt.

“Mark, oh my god,” you kept arching your back, trying to get the release that you knew you needed to get, but it never seemed to come. Your frustration rang through the apartment, bouncing off of the walls as your moved your hand away, both of them now gripping your thighs. “Fuck,” Mark thought you were about to cry from the way you finally opened your eyes, ready to get back to work until they fell on him at the side of the room, watching you intently.

As much as you wanted Mark to throw you against the wall and fuck you until you were begging for him to stop, your eyes still went wide at the sight of him. He looked so fresh in the moment, his hair still dripping slightly of the water he had showered in, his skin glowing and face flushed from how turned on he was getting. A smirk grew from your lips, stretching across your face as you tilted your head at him. He was much more shy than you expected him to be, but that only piqued your curiosity, wanting to push him even further. “Mark?”

He visibly flinched at the sound of his name. “Y-Yeah?”

“How long have you been there?” You noticed his eyes were flitting from between your legs to up to your face, his cheeks deepening in its reddening color as he blinked, not sure how to answer. “Mark—you know it’s rude to stare, hmm?” You couldn’t help but tease the boy a little, but he didn’t even make an effort to look away, even though he mumbled an apology.

“Are you just gonna stand there?” You dipped your fingers back between your folds, gathering the liquid around there with his following eyes, before you held them out for him to get a good look at. “You don’t want a taste?” You edged your fingers past your lips, tasting your own juices while Mark’s own tongue darted out from his mouth, licking his lips like he could taste you. “You’re practically drooling over me already, you don’t want to help? I’ve been on edge for so long...”

He walked over with a stumble, only focusing on how wet your fingers were from barely touching yourself in that moment, but you hoisted your feet up onto the couch, giving him an even better view. He didn’t initiate anything at first, looking into your eyes that were burning into his with a dark color of lust. “Come on, Mark. Touch me.”

He didn’t think you would be this bold, but he dropped to his knees anyway, liking your demanding words with so much fire in his blood. Out of all the ways he imagined pleasuring you, he didn’t think it would happen like this: in the middle of the living room where you had shared hundreds of innocent memories, or in the middle of the night, probably only a few hours until your morning lecture. But his hands barely brushed past your inner thighs, your breath hitching at the touch.

“Mark—” you elongated the sound of his name, whining out to let him know how much you were affected by him. Little did you know that he was being ten times more affected, his dick hardened to the point where he thought he was gonna explode. A digit prodded at your hole, and he looked up at you with caution in his eyes. You nodded reassuringly, guiding his finger into you with ease. A soft groan left your lips, your eyes shutting tightly at the feeling of his warm flesh. “Move, Mark.”

He added another finger without your help, the fulfilling feeling of your core reaching as he filled you up. He was pumping slowly, however, watching your each and every move. You could tell that he was inexperienced, but he seemed to know exactly how he was making you feel as he picked up his pace. Mark’s eyes were now fastened on your pussy, almost drooling at the sight of something so beautiful in his view. “Am I doing good?”

You forced your eyes open to look down at the boy, who was blinking up at you with those huge doe eyes that you swore looked too innocent to be true. “Yes, baby, you’re doing so good. Your fingers fuck me so—well.” He curled the digits, managing to keep your legs apart as you choked on the last word, the sensation basically taking your breath away. The pet name made him shiver, but he liked it, only repeating the motion again and again. “Oh fuck, fuck, ‘m gonna cum, please, fuck—”

Mark trailed his eyes back up to your face, and you honestly looked like you were having the time of your life when you came, soaking his fingers perfectly. You watched as he pulled them out, giving them a look of thought before looking up at you in some kind of anticipation. “Go ahead, baby,” you reached over to smooth a hand down his hair, pulling his wrist closer to his mouth. “I thought you wanted to taste me? Isn’t that what you wanted?” He nodded cautiously, letting you pop his fingers into his mouth and humming at the taste.

Your gaze fluttered down to between his own legs, your eyes falling on the bulge that looked almost painful through his gray sweatpants. Mark’s eyes were closed until he felt your hand lingering on the skin on his neck, and he blinked at the sight of you looking down at him. He was on his knees, peering up at you with a flushed face that made you want to giggle, and you gave him a small smile. “Can you sit down on the couch for me, baby? Hmm?”

The pet name slipped from your mouth so casually that he couldn’t help but gape at you, shuffling up to his feet with his stare fixed on you. You latched your hands onto his shirt, pushing him back against the soft cushions as he widened his eyes at your movements. “You’re such a good boy,” you cooed softly, allowing a hand to lift the hem of his shirt as you watched him flinch. He visibly swelled at your praise, responding with a sharp breath as you lowered the waistband of his pants. You grazed your palm against his boxers, rubbing a thumb against him. “You—like that, hmm?”

You straddled his thighs, leaning down to mouth as his toned stomach, smoothing the skin underneath your fingertips as you pulled down his boxers, letting yourself take a look at him. His dick was already erect and throbbing, basically waiting for you to do something—anything, to relieve the painful pressure. He wasn’t the biggest you had seen, but you could almost swear that it was the prettiest dick you had seen. With a look up at him, you pressed your thumb against the tip, teasing the slit with slow movements.

His body fell under a heat again, allowing him to let out a strangled breath as your hand grasped him from the base. Out of all the times he had caught you, and out of all the hundreds of times you had said his name, this time was best. “Mark,” you rubbed his thigh to gain his attention. “Look at me.” He complied gladly, his eyes fixed on yours as your mouth enclosed the tip of his cock. You sucked him along with your increasing pace of your hand, enjoying how he was falling apart under the tips of your fingers. He looked so ethereal in that moment, at least to you, his head thrown back against the couch. You swirled your tongue around him once more before letting go of him with a pop, a string of saliva falling hot from your mouth as you continued to jerk him off.

“Fuck...” You pulled yourself up with a hand on his arm, smashing your lips against his. It was the first kiss, taking him by surprise as he could barely move them against you. You let your tongue lick at his bottom lip, letting you inch in to suck on his tongue. Mark let out a whine, making you moan at his sounds. “Y/N, I’m c-close.”

You closed your eyes as you trailed your lips down his neck, nipping at the skin to savor to the taste. You could feel him tensing up from below, his body tightening as your let your hand glide over his cock without end. “Cum for me, baby. Make a mess.” His hands finally laid on your hips, pressing into your skin so hard that you were sure it was going to leave nice future bruises.

“Ah, Y/N—” You giggled as Mark struggled to get a hold of his words, mumbling nonsense as cum spurted from his cock, covering your hand with the milky liquid. Some of it spilled onto the dark color of his shirt, decorating him with a muffled moan from him. You made sure to milk him of every last drop, watching in awe to how much he came for you; it even surprised him, considering he had came twice in the shower beforehand, and was able to do so again just to the sight and feel of you.

There was a moment on silence as you rested your head against his chest, moving your hands over his, that were still grasping onto your body. You listened to the racing of his heart, hearing his breaths as he calmed himself down to a normal beat once again. “Wow,” was all he said, the exclamation coming out more as a lost breath rather than a word. “That was—wow.”

You let out another chuckle, peeking up at him. “Wanna join me for a shower?” He pursed his lips, feeling his heart speed up once again at the sight of your huge eyes. Did he just take a shower not even a few minutes earlier? Yes. Was he about to reject the chance to see you fully naked? No. “Mark? What’s wrong?”

“Just give me a moment, bro. You kinda just jerked me off right in front of my face.”

“You did not just call me bro after that!” You said with an incredulous voice, your eyes widening. “Do I look like a bro to you, Mark Lee?! Like you said, I just jerked you off!”

“I’m kidding! Calm down!”

#nct smut #nct 127 smut #nct mark smut #mark smut #lee mark smut

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tmp-jatp · 3 years

Text

we keep him alive

a response to this post by @thedeathdeelers

read on AO3

“You’ll have the sorts of abilities very few other ghosts get to have, very few indeed. The kind of abilities only I have the power to grant you. You’ll get to go and complete that unfinished business you left on this earth when you died. Tie up all the loose ends, and all that. And when you finish and your time is up, you’ll come back to me. Do we have a deal?”

“Wh-what’s the catch?” Reggie’s eyes practically glow in the dim light. They’re wide. His face never looks so young as it does whenever he’s scared.

“A clever one, you. In payment for me allowing you to complete that which you never got a chance to do in your time allotted, in payment for borrowed time, you shall serve my needs for a proportional amount of time. I’ll give you enough time to complete all it is you still need to do, don’t worry about that. You’ll just return to me at the end of it.”

“Service like what?” Alex prompts.

“Oh, nevermind that, that’s for later. What you need to consider now is whether this is worth it to you. Do you want to live your dreams? Find love? Find a true, complete family, a home? More than that measly ragtag band of brothers you three formed. Something real and more? Something alive? Is it worth it for you to have all you ever wanted and more, in return for a few short years of afterlife with me? Come on, boys, it’s an offer you can’t refuse.”

Luke, Reggie, and Alex exchange nervous glances. An entire conversation elapses in a moment through their eyes.

Then Luke takes the lead. He reaches his hand out to shake. He grasps it and they shake, solidifying their deal. After Luke, so do Alex and Reggie.

Their wrists sting, and they look down to see a stain across the skin on the inside of each of their wrists: Three equal lines, arranged in a formation where they reach out from the middle to the points of an equilateral triangle. The dark marks are clearly visible even in the lacking light, etched black against their pale and suddenly clammy skin.

“One more thing, boys. When the time comes, if you are touching anyone but each other, they will be brought back as well, to help pay your debt to me. It’s a way I can get my time returned to me at a quicker rate. Because you know, time is valuable.” He laughs. “You probably know that better now than you ever did while you were alive.

“And how will we know when the time comes?” Luke asks.

“You will know.”

“You know, you don’t seem so wise, for the Wise Man. You’re just a broker for the desperate.”

“Do you want to repeat that, Alexander?”

Alex gulps. His jaw stays clenched. All three of them, probably all four of them know that even though he may just be a ‘broker for the desperate’, they were nothing if not desperate.

“You’ve already made your deal with me. Now it’s time for me to fill my part of it, before you fill yours.”

~~~

The time is coming. Luke can feel it. His mark, his stamp, tattoo, brand, whatever, has been pulsing for months, throbbing for weeks, aching for days, searing for hours. At regular intervals, the pain comes over him for an instant. He’s dealt with it the entire time he’s been here, like a second slower heartbeat in his wrist. A constant reminder that every minute they spent here was borrowed. He grimaces and grips his wrist tightly with his opposite hand. Elsewhere, Reggie and Alex surely hiss through their teeth in tandem with Luke.

Julie is there. Julie is always there. As soon as Luke’s muscles aren’t tensed anymore, he digs his nose even deeper into the skin of her neck and they hold each other tight. Neither wants to ever let go, even though they both know a goodbye is inevitable – and fast approaching.

They’re in the studio, because where else would they ever be? It’s a far cry from how it looked six years ago when they first arrived. The walls are plastered with posters advertising Julie and the Phantoms playing at various venues all across America. The plants have been changed out multiple times in the years Luke has “lived” here. Yet some things also always stayed the same: the pink dahlia curtains on the windows and the knitted throw blanket on the couch. This is home.

The others are spending their final moments with those they found during their second chance. They’ll have forever with each other, but only now with these. Willie. Ray. Carlos. Luke doesn’t blame them for spending every last second with those they’ve come to love most. Isn’t that exactly what he’s doing too?

Except-

The others don’t know yet, what Luke did.

“Please, let me take it from them. You said debts can transfer onto others, so they can transfer onto me. I’ll serve triple the time. I’ll do it.”

Luke winces again but he tries to hide it. Julie notices. Julie always notices. She squeezes her arms around his torso once and starts rubbing her hands up and down his back. She would whisper sweet nothings in his ear if only they could trick themselves into believing nothing was something.

He hears her sniffle. Luke leans back, loosening his arms around her waist. Her hair is a mess but his is even worse. Her eyes are shining but she’s doing her best to keep herself together for Luke. As if, if only she were strong enough, she could bear the weight of both their pain. He swipes away a stray tear on her cheek with the pad of his thumb.

They’re grieving prematurely, because they know there’ll be no opportunity after.

Luke’s mark pulses twice, quickly.

A warning.

Time’s almost up.

Luke pulls away from Julie, and she tries to cling to him.

“Please, Luke-”

“It’s time, Julie. I can’t- You know what’ll happen, if- if we stay like this. I can’t.”

She clings harder. “It’s worth it. To me. It’s worth it.” She’s pleading with him, and his heart shatters. She should never have to plead with anyone. She’s Julie Molina. This shouldn’t be happening to her.

“Not to me, it isn’t. I couldn’t live with myself if you came too.”

Three pulses.

“I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t.” Her voice breaks and her lips are curling outwards.

He takes a deep breath in and can feel his own eyes threatening to overflow. At once they pull back together in the center of the room. She digs her face into his chest and he envelopes her in his arms. They hold each other tighter than ever before, and Luke can’t bear the thought of trying to let go again.

Four pulses.

Luke buries his face in the hair on the top of her head and presses his lips to her scalp. She turns her head so her cheek is pressed against him and he squeezes his eyes shut.

“Julie, I need you to listen to me,” Luke murmurs against her head. His voice is muffled, but amid only the sounds of their two hearts beating, it’s impossible to miss. “It’s going to be okay after I leave. You’re going to be okay.”

She shakes her head – whether that’s a denial that he’ll leave or a denial that she’ll be okay, he can’t tell.

Three pulses. It’s a countdown now.

“Yes, you will,” he insists. “I’ll still be here, in you. Just like your mom, Julie. She’s alive in you.”

“That’s different, Luke.”

“It’s no different at all.”

He reaches around behind his back for her hands and finds them, clutching to the fabric of his shirt. Gently he eases her fingers free and grips her hands in his. He brings them back around to be held between them, forcing space to open up between the two.

Two pulses.

“Luke, please,” she pleads again. “Please, no.”

Luke rubs his thumbs over the back of Julie’s knuckles. They’re white with how hard she’s trying to hold to him. She’s always been his anchor, but today she can’t be anymore. He won’t let it happen.

She brings him in one final time and this time they meet at their lips, in a kiss that doesn’t say nearly everything that is left to be said. Luke knows she’s trying to keep him there long enough that the deadline will pass with them together as one. He keeps one hand intertwined with hers down at their waists, but he draws her other hand up so she can caress his face one more time, the way she always liked to do. His own hand rests on top of hers there.

One pulse.

Now or never.

Luke breaks off the kiss and once again Julie has tears escaping her eyes. “Luke, no,” she makes one last bid to stop him or change his mind. “Let me come, too.”

Luke uses their joined hands to push her away as he feels heat begin to build in his wrist. She stumbles and falls backwards onto the sofa, and he takes three large steps backwards.

He meets her eyes just after she swipes at them with her sleeve. “Keep me alive, yeah?”

“Luke!” Julie calls his name in an anguished cry that haunts him from the moment he hears it. It’s worth it to keep her safe.

The heat rises and rises in his wrist, from a searing red to a white-hot all-consuming pain coursing through his every vein. A scream rips from his throat. He keeps moving away even as his vision begins tunneling, anything to keep her from reaching him before he goes.

The fire burns him up from the inside out, feeling like a constant electrocution of the highest current going through every single pore. His vision tunnels more and more, until everything is black.

And then the pain is gone, and it takes a moment for his cry to melt away, too. He opens his eyes – he didn’t know they’d been squeezed shut tight – and sees that dim dark room he hasn’t seen for six years.

“Welcome back.”

The doors to the studio slam open and Julie startles from her stupor trance. Her eyes widen when they land on Reggie and Alex.

“How are you still here?”

“Where is he?” Alex demands.

Julie shakes her head. She wants the anguish back. She wants the grief back. This numbness is too much. “He- he’s gone. He left. I- I thought you two did too.”

Alex storms through the small space, checking behind large furniture and pounding the bathroom door open as if to make sure Julie wasn’t lying.

“We thought we’d be gone, too,” Reggie explains. “We don’t know what happened.”

Alex returns. “He’s not here,” he growls. “We were supposed to go back, it was supposed to be all three of us. Damn bastard took our place!” Alex slams his fist against the wall.

Julie gapes. “He could do that?”

Alex throws his hands up and paces back along the floor. With Alex’s back to them, Reggie answers.

“Maybe? We think so? I don’t know, it wasn’t really clear.”

“So is he just...gone?” Julie doesn’t like how small her voice sounds. Reggie’s face and Alex’s body say everything. Yes.

“So what are we supposed to do now?” Alex poses to the room.

Julie takes a shaky breath. “We keep him alive.”

taglist: @futurearchaeologyprof @beethovensbitxh @ace-bookworm @queenmolina @molinashimbos @star-astro @sunset-sweeerve @bluefirewrites @reggieshamster @blush-and-books @smolfangirl @thedeathdeelers @williexmercer @thesunsetcurvephantom @russsianspy @fanfics-she-wrote @pink-flame @angelofarts @chickwiththepurpleguitar @hey-there-juliet @tonightthestarsalign

#tmp writes #what a fun exercise to get back into writing #angst #idk what kind of au this is it's just some idea #melody and words #juke

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shirtlesssammy · 3 years

Text

6x16: ...And Then There Were None

Then:

Assistant Director Skinner and Mr. X were on Supernatural and I think that’s something to celebrate

Now:

At a truck stop, Eve finds a Jesus loving trucker and asks to tell him a secret. She goes to whisper in his ear, and instead, bites into it. The trucker comes home that night and bashes his wife’s head in with a claw hammer.

Bobby fills the brothers in on a string of monster sightings alone I-80, leading to the trucker’s murder ramage on his family.

They interview the trucker, who has no memory of the event.

The man is beyond distraught at what happened.

The trio then looks over the truck stop camera footage and they find Eve.

They discuss their options (Run) when the police get another call about another mass killing. Bobby heads out, only to find the FBI is already there --in the form of his old buddy Rufus.

They check out the victims.

Bobby finds goo in an ear. They decide to check out the cannery where the victims worked.

They meet up with Dean and Sam and all head inside to investigate. Once there, they find the Campbell clan. Dean instantly heads to off his granddad. Sam stops him. Rufus then breaks up the family reunion to focus on the case. Samuel tells the others that Eve, the mother of monsters, is on Earth. Bobby fills Gwen in on Samuel’s little betrayal of Sam and Dean, and she heads off to talk to Dean.

She asks about Samuel, and he confirms it. He then shoots her in the stomach. WHAT? When the others rush to her, Dean is gone.

Sam tries finding his brother. Rufus tries saving Gwen’s life. Neither is successful.

They split up to find Dean, who they believe has whatever the other killers had. Rufus and Samuel find Dean.

Dean tells the group that he had some kind of slimy worm thing crawl out of his ear. They have to make sure it actually left Dean though. Bobby makes everyone give up their guns. Until they figure out where the worm is and if it’s in somebody, they have to be cautious.

With the guns locked up, Bobby and Rufus get to calling people about what they're dealing with. Samuel heads off to use the bathroom, and Sam and Dean follow.

Rufus and Bobby get no leads. Bobby suggests going after the thing “guns blazing.” “Like Omaha,” Rufus retorts. Bobby gets pissed that Rufus would bring that up.

Dean and Sam corner dear old Grandpa Campbell into a family reunion. Samuel refuses to apologize, and the Winchester lads persist in their threats of murderous retribution. Dean notices goo oozing from Samuel’s ear just in time to stop him from firing some new holes into the Winchesters. Possessed!Samuel escapes into the factory.

They head out into the factory - hunting together in a pack like majestic wolves! At last, Dean’s horror movie obsession helps them out. (Never split up.) They discover booby traps! This is like Goonies except without the delightful pirate treasure!

Sam gets split off from the pack and encounters Samuel - who immediately works the Sam guilt angle. Samuel closes in and Sam shoots him in the head. (It’s times like this that I really resent Supernatural naming them “Sam” and “Samuel.”) When everyone else catches up, they cuff Sam. A little later, examining the body, they discover that Samuel’s ears are clean. CLEAN! No monster ear wax! IS Sam the infected one? They determine that further autopsy is needed, so Bobby and Rufus head out to get Bobby’s cranial saw. As one does.

Sam and Dean stand vigil over Samuel, and have a broment. They talk about feelings and guilt. Sam frets over what their mom would think about Sam killing her father. Dean opines that just because someone’s blood, it doesn’t make them family. When Bobby and Rufus return, the Winchesters leave the room in a flurry of soulful looks. Bobby and Rufus prepare to crack open Grandpa Campbell’s skull.

It’s Bobby’s turn to have a soulful moment over a dead body. He brings up Omaha - he should have listened to Rufus. While Rufus has spent this whole hunt exuding amused ease, he grows serious quickly when Bobby tries to apologize. “You can blab all day and it wouldn’t change a thing, Bobby,” he says angrily. “I’ll never forgive you for what happened.” Rufus advises Bobby to change the subject and my entire body goes cold and I hurt so much for these two characters!

Speaking of hurt...they start to cut into Samuel’s skull, only for the guy to wake up and start beating everyone up! (You can see where Dean inherited his not-dead-yet tendencies.) Samuel gets electrocuted and it chases the khan worm right out of his head.

They regroup, and try to figure out where the worm might have gone.

All their ears turn up clean, but Sam proposes electrocuting everyone to see if they’re possessed. Sam. Sweetie.

Dean volunteers to be electrocuted first. Dean. Sweetie.

They electrocute Sam, Dean, Rufus, and….Bobby tries to decline. As Rufus approaches, Possessed!Bobby stabs him. UGH. This is why I don’t rewatch this episode. RUFUS NOOOO!!!

Bobby wakes duct taped to a chair.

The worm speaks through Bobby. Enough people have died today, Possessed!Bobby posits. Do they really want to endanger Bobby’s life to defeat one little worm? Anyway, the worm’s eager to talk. “New monster just dropped,” the worm announces proudly (paraphrasing). Eve made him and she’s going to make monster-topia on Earth. She’s sent the worm to them with a message: “You’re all gonna die.” (I have to say, that packs a bigger punch than, say, scrawling “I am coming” on an angel’s chest.)

They tape over Bobby’s mouth, nose, and ears and order Bobby to hang on. They’re gonna fry themselves up a worm! (But hopefully not a Bobby.) The worm drops out of Bobby’s electrocuted body eventually and we end the scene with Sam breathlessly announcing that “he’s not breathing.”

Cut to the Winchesters standing over a fresh grave. Dun dun DUN.

Bobby joins them, and we’re left to mourn Rufus. He eulogizes Rufus: Bobby was just a mechanic until Rufus saved him from his possessed wife. Rufus taught Bobby all about hunting. They hunted together for years, until Omaha. Dean tosses his opinion in before Bobby spirals too far down the self-recrimination slide. Rufus should have forgiven Bobby because “life’s short. And ours are shorter than most. Are we gonna spend it wringing our hands? Something’s gonna get us eventually. And when my guts get ripped out, just so you two know...we’re good.” Dean offers a blanket absolution. Then Sam and Dean wander off as it starts to rain, leaving Bobby to drink and mourn his friend.

Long Live Rufus Quoter:

C’mon man, it’s not rocket surgery

Somebody needs a hug

Monster possession? That’s novel

If anything crawls out of anybody, somebody step on it

This can’t be my afterlife, ‘cause the three of you are here

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive!

#spn recap #dean winchester #sam winchester #bobby singer #rufus turner #Samuel Campbell #spn 6x16 #and then there were none #supernatural season 6

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jasperwhitcock · 4 years

Text

01. AN IMPOSSIBILITY

i stumbled upon a post you can read here from @bellasredchevy from like a year ago where she expanded on an au where bella & edward switch places where bella is a vampire in the cullen family and edward is a human. we’re all social distancing (or we all SHOULD be unless u have work so if ur out partying take ur ass home boo) so i had time to kill & i thought i’d write a chapter hehe.

It was an impossibility for me to have missed the presence of my adopted brother entering the room. What with my astute senses, my supernatural sensitivity to everything – the microscopic details of the book page’s porous beige paper, the length of his shadow stretching onto the floor beneath the novel in my hands, cast from the golden light of the hallway, the smooth, feathery finish of the paper under my frozen fingers, the whooshing sound of air caressing his mountainous stature as he appeared, the soft yet heavy thud of his feet against the floor – a sound nearly imperceptible, the impossible to place scent of something like bergamot, white cedar, rose, and sandalwood perfuming the room at his appearance. An impossibility, and yet, my focus was so invested in the words inked on the page, enamored with a story I’d read a hundred, a thousand, a million times, that I found myself shocked when the novel surprisingly ripped down the spine into two perfect halves before my eyes, another one of my novels that he had plucked off the shelf barreling towards my face. He had thrown the other book with such force that in the process of his attempt to grasp my attention, he knifehand-striked a book I had taken from my mother Renee’s sad little toilet-reading, bathroom basket collection of a library.

I was on my feet hunched towards him infinitesimally, the book that had been less than a centimeter from crashing into my face tenderly clutched in my right hand, my lips pulled back over my teeth to let out a snarl. The right half of the original novel I had held fell onto the floor with a thump a moment later. He stood crouched as well, a wicked smile spread on his lips, a mischievous glint in his eyes. He loved provocation – eliciting this kind of response in me fueled him. A fight with some authentic irritation, a fight with an edge.

“Time for school, baby sister,” He raised an eyebrow, inviting the challenge.

“Emmett,” I hissed through my teeth, tensed to launch myself at him. Part of my mind sifted through a dozen plans of attack, strategizing what would be my most successful method of taking him down since he was pretty much insurmountable. He had all the strength and all the size. Stealth would be my greatest chance. Another part of my mind pulsed with irritation, an irrational, furious mood swing sweeping over me. The kind of emotional response only our kind could experience...or handle. I nearly saw red as the rest of the words flew through my lips. “Couldn’t you have told me that without destroying a priceless artifact of my human life, big brother?”

I made the name sound like a curse word.

“Artifact?” Emmett snorted. “Please. How many times have you read that same damn story in the past few years? I did you a favor,” he smirked as he feigned right and left so fast that it was as if he hadn’t moved at all.

I tensed to hurl myself forward at the opportune moment before a tsunami tide of calmness washed over the room along with an earthy aroma of citrus, patchouli, musk, and leather. “We really should be leaving now,” my other adopted brother Jasper murmured in his lightly southern accent as he appeared.

“Restricting as it may be, vehicles only allow up to a certain speed, and Esme wouldn’t like for us to be late,” my tiny sister materialized by his side in a blur of porcelain skin and inky black hair. “Although, maybe she’d get a kick out of a call home for tardiness,” Alice laughed, a sound like windchimes. “I can tell you who would have won or you could have your fight later.”

“Ugh,” Emmett groaned in disappointment, dropping his stance. “It’s so hard to get her that riled up. Fuck!” He complained, grumpily disappearing from the room in a flash.

“Later,” He promised under his breath from the garage.

“You would have won,” Alice mouthed, her beautiful lips stretching into a secretive smile as she winked. She picked up the other half of the novel I had purposefully dropped to catch the meteor Emmet had propelled, tossing it in the air towards me in one fluid motion.

I grinned to myself, gently tucked the other book back into its rightful place on the shelf across the room, and caught the ruined piece before it hit the ground. My face immediately dropped into a frown as I analyzed both halves. Fortunately, Pride and Prejudice was not beyond repair. I could mend the division by sewing it back together down the spine later. I set the injured book down and flew downstairs not a moment later. As I passed my adopted mother on the way to the door, I pecked her on the cheek before exiting the house and sliding into the dark leather backseat of the pearly white car next to Alice. Without checking the mirrors, Rosalie sped out of the garage as soon as the door lifted enough for us to clear.

The trees outside the windows were a green haze as we flew by, our speed only decreasing when we arrived in the main part of town among other drivers. We could have ran to school much, much faster – and thus not had any concern about tardiness – but without our cars for appearance, our show might prove unconvincing. It wasn’t abnormal to walk to school in the unrelenting pouring of rain in our small town of Forks, Washington. However, though few people in town knew the location of our home, perhaps the front office ladies might find it concerning that a group of teenagers trekked a half marathon to their classes. It was unlikely they’d care to look up the address from our files, but we were never too cautious.

I liked running. I had been characterized as very clumsy in my human life, so it was a welcome change to feel graceful and coordinated. It was a welcome change to feel powerful. It was, however, unwelcome to participate in the daily charade of masquerading as exactly the opposite of that. As much as I had enjoyed my afterlife, I loathed the same thing many teenagers did, a hatred that may be my greatest commonality with the humans that surrounded me.

High school. I didn’t mind school prior to my immortal life. I had been decent and even above-average in most subjects. I had been a responsible, diligent, and quiet seventeen year old: I paid attention, I completed assignments in time, I spent most of my time in solitude which allowed me ample time to study. There were subjects I enjoyed far more than others that kept things interesting enough for me. Unfortunately, after a number of graduations, high school lost any potential interest and became something of a purgatory. Even classes like English lost their charm over time. Once you had spent years studying literature from the greatest professors, scholars, and writers both living and dead, it was immensely rare for a small town high school English teacher to offer a new take that would make my attendance worthwhile.

Attending high school provided us with the opportunity to remain in one place longer, so complain as much as I want, I suppose it’s something to fill the endless amounts of time. Still, that didn’t make the obligation any more tolerable.

Rosalie hummed along to a song playing quietly through the speakers while Emmett sulked in the passenger seat over having missed out on a fight. I smiled, a bit smug. On the other side of Alice occupying the middle seat, I sensed Jasper’s head jerk slightly in my direction to see the expression that reflected my slight change in mood. I shook my head, still smiling, and he smirked a bit himself before returning his attention back to his window. His scarred hand traced affectionate circles onto Alice’s hand in her lap, and she stared forward, her unfocused eyes seeing not what was in front of her, but the potential realities of the future.

They were a gifted couple. We become immensely enhanced when we’re transformed from being human, and as a result, some immortals are equipped with a special gift on top of their already unparalleled supernatural senses. Our creator and father figure Carlisle theorized that our strongest traits from our human life develop in even stronger ways once we’ve been changed. Jasper’s influential nature flourished into a skill of sensing and manipulating the emotional climate of those around him. Alice’s gift was even more unique. She could see into the future. We didn’t know what in her human life this had developed from. Her past is a secret to not only us, but Alice as well.

I too was gifted. For some time, we had no idea until I had met our cousins. In Denali, Alaska, there was another coven similar to us not just in kind but in diet and ideology who we considered extended family. Another commonality we share is that they also have gifted immortals among their coven. One of the only males, Eleazar’s, gift was sensing the abilities of other vampires, and he had detected my ability. He revealed, to all of our surprise, that I was something called a mental shield. It’s a talent of blocking out any powers that could invade my mind, and it is absolutely, entirely useless to me. I didn’t have a need for this kind of protection. My gift was a complete waste.

The drizzling rain was picking up into a steadier shower as we pulled into the small parking lot of Forks High School. Scenting the earthy, fresh stormy air was the tempting fragrance of the students’ pulsing blood as they ran for the dry cover of the maroon brick buildings. I was entirely satiated from my most recent hunt. Still, my throat burned with the slight dryness that would never completely go away. Jasper sighed.

There were only a few late stragglers hurrying from their vehicles towards their classes that could potentially see us, but as Rosalie parked, we moved at the frustratingly slow pace of the humans around us as a precaution. No risks. After exiting the car, Alice tossed me my backpack of useless school material from the trunk. I slid one strap over my shoulder and departed from my siblings for my first class.

The rest of the morning dragged along like a slow, drawn out sigh. I spent most of the time in my classes thinking of ways I could reorganize the book shelves in my room again. By genre, by author name, by theme, by year published, by year the story takes place, by favorite author, by alphabetical order of the location the story was set, by date of author’s death, by favorite to least favorite protagonist, by which accumulated the most pieces of literary criticism, by section that each family member might enjoy the most, by order in which I first read each, by order of which I read most to least, by order of which my family had read most to least, by alphabetical order of the antagonist’s name, and by which was least to most realistic were all ways I had structured my personal library in the past few years. I was toying with the idea of organizing by order of the birthday of the first character introduced, but a lot of the birthdays had not been established throughout the plot. I would have to decide where they would fit throughout the year based on which zodiac sign I might consider them to have depending on their character traits. Not that I held much stock in astrology – horoscopes did me no good when I had a future-telling sister.

The only difference in this day than any other day was that the trivial gossip I unintentionally overheard throughout the hallways concerned a new addition to the student body. This stirred up a lot of interest seeing as the majority of the children here knew each other for the entirety of their lives. What I had gathered in passing was that it was a junior boy named Edward Masen from Chicago who had recently moved from living abroad with his family. The girls were very excited – they considered him a very attractive potential new love interest. Attractive, though those who had been brave enough to speak to him found him to be impenetrable despite his charm. I wondered what the boy would make of me and my family.

I joined my siblings at our lunch table, the farthest table from everybody else in the room. In front of each of us was the prop of a lunch tray piled with unappetizing food. Alice sat, staring forward with empty eyes again, living in her own ever-changing reality. Jasper and Emmett made a hacky sack out of an apple and subtly kicked it back and forth in the air beneath the table, the apple moving too fast for human eyes to detect. Rose twirled a piece of her golden hair around in her hands, disinterested. Her thoughts were clearly elsewhere. As were all of ours. Occasionally she participated in their game by intercepting the apple with her foot.

“The new student’s going to ask about us in approximately fifteen seconds,” Alice chirped, her face returning to the present.

Emmett chuckled quietly.

“What will be said, and how will the boy respond?” Rosalie asked, her foot sending the apple reeling toward the ceiling.

Alice caught the apple in her slender, white hand before tossing it back to Emmett to end the game. “No different than anything else that’s been said, and no different than anybody else.”

I scanned the cafeteria to find the new student, so I could place a face to the upcoming conversation I’d be listening in on.

My eyes locked with a pair of soft green eyes set in a pale, angular face beneath an untidy mess of strange bronze hair. I looked away immediately but caught the beginning jolt of shock lighting up those surprisingly wise eyes.

“Who are they?” The boy gasped. So it had been my gaze that brought Alice’s vision to life. No doubt he’d immediately recognize the subtle differences that distinguish our kind from his. Emmett and I exchanged a glance, laughing under our breath as another junior student I recognized as Naomi Parker provided the common knowledge of the strange Cullen children. The story was complicated. In Forks, the explanation for our family was that Carlisle had adopted his twin niece and nephew, Rosalie and Jasper Hale, after the unexpected passing of his much older half-brother. Similarly, after a tragic car accident took the lives of Esme’s parents in addition to her aunt and uncle, she took in her younger siblings, Emmett and I, along with her niece Alice to look after us. Bonding over the shared experience of so much responsibility so young, Carlisle and Esme eloped, and we formed one giant, misshapen family.

Instinctively, I caught the apple in my hand just as it nearly turned into applesauce by means of collision with my stone face. I snarled at Emmett’s hysteric expression, hiding my hand from view so that anyone watching would have missed the entire catch. “Would you quit doing that today!?”

Rosalie shot Emmett a disapproving look. He shouldn’t be so irresponsible when we were clearly on display for the new Masen kid. I shot a minute glance towards his table to make sure they were no longer watching us. The boy seemed to be focused on the information he was receiving.

“This,” I snarled, sneakily disintegrating the apple into a pulp in my hand below the table where the humans couldn’t see, “will be what happens to you at home.” I made a show of letting the mush slide off my hand onto my tray.

My brother guffawed, and my other siblings joined in the laughter.

“In your dreams!”

I couldn’t help but laugh as well. I also couldn’t help but feel the intensity of watching eyes.

“Who’s the girl with the really long dark hair?” The soft, low voice of the boy asked quietly from across the room.

Reflexively, my eyes met his stare once again. He looked away quickly.

“That’s Bella. She’s insanely beautiful obviously, but if you’re thinking about trying to talk to her, forget it,” Naomi shrugged.

Once lunchtime was over, we disbanded to head off to the last half of yet another monotonous day. On my way out of the cafeteria, I purposely bumped into the trash can for Emmett’s benefit as he and Rose followed close behind. The action was a little more violent than I intended, and the plastic container bent slightly at the force.

“Oops,” I bit my lip to keep from smiling as he erupted into laughter. Upon our move to Forks, it had become something of a joke between Emmett and I for me to feign clumsiness. I didn’t participate in this joke daily, but every once in a while I’d sprinkle in an elaborate fall for his sake.

When I reached my junior level Biology class, I settled into my seat at the lab table I shared with no one. I laid the books devoid of any information relevant to me out on the table, and propped an elbow on the surface to hold my head up in my hand, awaiting the oncoming tedium.

The room filled as students returned from lunch. I paid them no attention, my eyes fixated on counting the snow-like particles of chalk dust floating in the air likely from Mr. Molina writing on the board prior to the end of lunch.

“Ah, welcome, Mr. Masen! We’re so glad to have you join us. You can take the seat next to Miss Cullen,” I looked up to find the biology teacher pointing in my direction. Next to him was the new boy. Standing up, he appeared very lanky – several inches taller than our teacher – though his physique was still slightly muscular.

I pulled the books closer to my side of the table to make room for him, feeling bad that he had the misfortune of being assigned the seat next to me. He would probably feel more comfortable anywhere else. Not only because I didn’t go out of my way to interact much with my classmates, but because their long-buried survival instincts told them what their brains didn’t totally understand: we were dangerous.

I had never been more dangerous than I was in that moment. Because after the Masen kid politely thanked the teacher, he turned down the aisle, directly in front of the heated airflow that blew towards me.

His scent washed over me like the most vicious, violent wave, a wall of unrelenting water in a heavy thunderstorm in the middle of the ocean, drowning me, taking me down, down, down, further and further away from the traces of humanity I had once clung to.

In every direction of this blackest of depths, there was no escape that could lead me back to the light; I resurfaced as the monster I pretended not to be.

The sweet enticing smell of Edward Masen’s blood compelled my throat to rupture into a burning, aching fire. I had never been ablaze with such need. My mouth was pooling with venom as my prey approached. Since he spoke, he had only taken another step forward. He would not take another.

As my muscles begged for the release that would send me springing forward, stealing the first life of my existence, those sage eyes glanced at me, widening in bewilderment at the vicious expression contorting my features.

With great difficulty, I emerged from my horrible, repulsive compulsion. The look on his face was enough to spare him another moment.

His scent perfumed the air around me; I was encompassed in this irresistable cloud of bloodlust, eager to leap up and put an end to this unexpected torture.

In all my years of immortality, I had never experienced a desire this overwhelming. I had never been so vulnerable to committing this kind of atrocity. My record was clean. With guidance, I had been able to restrain myself from the temptation of human blood. Of course, instinct is not easily fought. Sometimes the abstinence was painful. But never like this.

A dozen scenarios on how to kill this poor human boy crossed my mind, and I combatted every single one with the last miserable shred of self control I had left. I had never exerted so much effort. The toil was something hazily reminiscent of human exhaustion, weighing heavily onto me.

I had no choice but to end his life. There was no other way.

He awkwardly settled into the seat next to me, aware of some unknown hostility, but unaware of the ferocity raging within, unaware of the way his blood sang to me, inviting me in, inviting me to betray all my years of discipline, effort, and tolerance. Inviting me to betray my family.

Despite the absolute consumption, by some miracle, I resisted.

I desperately clung to the thought of my family. Rosalie. Esme. Carlisle. Alice. Emmett. Jasper.

They loved me. They would forgive me for this detestable, inexorable act. They would understand. They wouldn’t harbor any judgment.

But how could I let them down in this way? Everything about who we are, everything about what unites us and bonds us is intricately traced back to the compassion that rules over our lives. It’s what makes us different from others of our kind. It’s what allows us to retain some remnants of the humanity we’ve lost. So just as I’ve done before, I would withstand human blood now. No matter the agony that accompanies the resistance.

I took one last deep breath. The scent washed down my throat, burning me alive from the inside out.

I wouldn’t dare to breath for the next torturous hour. It was uncomfortable to forgo the sensation, but the consequences that would follow if I did breathe had far worse implications.

Could I last that long? What was I trying to prove? Was the possibility of a lapse in the best of my judgment worth not succumbing to the honest truth – that I had more weakness in the face of human blood than I thought?

Perhaps Emmett might make fun of me. Perhaps Jasper might secretly appreciate someone else struggling more than he did. But Carlisle and Esme wouldn’t see any weakness in leaving. They’d be proud of me for making this decision. They’d understand.

The last of the students were arriving from lunchtime. Now was the greatest opportunity to escape without drawing too much attention. In my peripheral, I saw the boy open his mouth to begin to speak to me.

If I didn’t leave now, I never would. My resolve was slipping away with every thud of the boy’s heart.

I got up and walked to the front of the classroom a little too fast.

“Mr. Molina?” I asked, my voice tight. The biology teacher looked up from a lesson plan he was reviewing, his eyes startled as he registered my face. I heard his heartbeat pick up from the surprise.

“I’m feeling a little... unwell. May I be excused?” I utilized the last of my breath, hoping the subtle begging in my voice didn’t prompt more questions.

Mr. Molina recollected himself, his eyebrows pulling together in slight concern along with confusion. The Cullens were never sick.

“Of course, Miss Cullen. Do you need a nurse’s pass-” He began before I cut him off, resentfully taking another tormenting breath. The scent sent my mind reeling. I fought for coherency in my thoughts.

I didn’t need to work to put on a show; I probably looked pale and sick enough.

“No thank you,” I spoke quickly, desperate for the relief of fresh, untainted air.

“Alright, then. I hope you feel better-” I was out of the room before he could finish the rest of the statement. The bell for class rang. The hallways were empty, so I risked the charade and began to move at an inhuman speed around the corner. Only when I had exited the building did I allow myself to breathe again. I gasped, nearly choking on the mouthfuls of clean air when I reached the car. My head was still spinning as I climbed into the drivers’ seat. I gave little thought to worrying if my quick movements in the classroom would reveal too much. I hoped that the students were too focused on finishing up their leftover conversations from lunch to notice.

With a jolt, I realized I was not alone in the car. In the passenger seat sat my tiny sister.

“Bella?” She asked, her pitch-black eyes unable to convey the concern that was etched on the rest of her pixie-like features.

“Alice,” I breathed. I had been so distracted with my own thoughts I hadn’t even paid any attention to the proximity of the familiar vanilla and jasmine fragrance of her skin. What was wrong with me today?

“Are you alright? I saw…”

I winced, knowing what she must have seen.

“I’m fine. I just… I-... I don’t know what happened…” The words flew rapidly out of my mouth.

“Do you need help? Should I grab the boys? Or would you like to leave-”

“No! No. It’s really not...a big deal. I’m just going to… I promise I’m fine. I won’t go back there-” I gulped, the venom filling my mouth as I even considered returning to the class where he sat. Alice’s eyes widened, so I stopped the thought in its tracks. “Rosalie has a free period right now. I think I’ll go find her. I’ll see you when school is over.”

I reached for the door, turning away from her, shame filling me, making me unwilling to face her any longer. Her slender hand grabbed my other wrist, pulling me to a stop. “I’ll come with you.”

“Don’t. I’m fine, Alice!” I pulled my hand away too defensively. Regret replaced the shame for a moment. “Sorry.”

I left her alone in the car, feeling guilty.

I knew it was risky to utilize my sense of smell, but following the sweet, warm aroma of orange blossom, marshmallow, and roses – and avoiding anywhere remotely near the science wing – I found my other sister alone in an empty classroom. Now that it had been distinguished from the rest, I could still smell the boy, but with more distance between us, I fought the temptation off.

“You’re not in class?” She asked as she typed into a computer, her back turned to me. It looked as though she was searching for some car parts. Even though I helped her in the garage sometimes, after all these years I was still no better at identifying anything related to automobiles.

“Rose...” I began, before stopping short, unsure of what to say.

She turned around in an indiscernible millisecond, her breathtaking face worried at the tone of my voice. “What’s wrong?”

She reached for me consolingly. Though I didn’t need the rest – I could stand still for hours on end and never feel tired – I sat on the floor beside her chair, hugging my knees to my chest, my eyes fixated on the dust deep in the roots of the rough, outdated carpet.

Her silky hands smoothly brushed through my hair, patiently waiting for me to build up the courage to speak. It felt nice.

After a few seconds, she spoke up. “Bella, you’re worrying me.”

I sighed.

“I’ve never...struggled this way before,” I admitted, exasperated with myself.

I could see that she was nodding out of the corner of my eye, immediately understanding. “That’s nothing to be ashamed about, Bella.”

I didn’t need to see her face to know her perfect lips were set into a deep frown. She wasn’t lying to me, but I knew to her, this existence was everything to be ashamed about.

“I won’t pretend that I don’t find myself...repulsed with...well, what we are. That’s no secret to anyone.” Her musical laughter had a dark edge to it. “But I’ve spent enough time for all of us hating myself for the impulses we have and the tragedy of our existence. You needn’t be so hard on yourself. It’s alright to...” She trailed off, selecting different words. “We’ve chosen an abnormal path in this non-life of ours. The terrible consequences of what we are are normal” – her hands froze in my hair briefly saying the word – “so try to let go of the shame I know you’re feeling, though I don’t blame you for feeling that way.”

She paused for a moment before adding, “you know we won’t allow you to harm anyone.”

I bit down on my lower lip. I was glad I came to Rosalie. She didn’t think I was being overdramatic the way Emmett might have.

Though I deeply loved my mother from my human life, there hadn’t been much maternal guidance. We had a strong bond, but I was far more of the caretaker than she was. I had been very lucky in this immortal life. Esme treated me as her own daughter, and I became truly taken care of. Just as Esme became the most loving mother figure in all the ways that counted, Rosalie became the very best protective older sister. My life had no shortage of supportive femininity and womanhood.

I heard a springy, featherlight approach of fast footsteps.

“I told you not to follow me,” I grumbled.

Alice poked her tongue out at me as she entered the room and fluttered to my other side, joining my other sister in stroking my head. “You’ll forgive me. I didn’t want to be left out of a sister moment.”

Her words brought half a smile to my face.

I closed my eyes, allowing myself to be comforted by Rosalie’s words and the soft feeling of my sisters’ hands in my hair.

Yes, it was undeniable what I was. I could never change the fact. But I could change the fate of this boy, and I could deny myself the instincts that identified me this way. I could deny myself Edward Masen.

#twilight au #twilight fanfiction #twilight renaissance #the twilight saga #twilight saga #edward cullen #bella swan #new moon #eclipse #breaking dawn #jasperwhitcock #equinoxjw

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smokeybrand · 3 years

Text

Reap What You Sow

Finally finished Mass Effect Legendary Edition and gearing up for a second run. Before that, though, i wanted to stop and reflect on how well this game holds up, how ell this story is told. I’ve been playing these games since Mass Effect 2 was released on the PS3 over a decade ago and i haven’t regretted even a second of that time spent. I love these games. I loved these titles. And Legendary gave me an opportunity to experience the entire narrative, on one system, with a gorgeous face lift This makes me want Bioware to take another shot at Andromeda because, holy sh*t, can they deliver when they’re not hindered by corporate bullsh*t and it looks like EA is starting to accept that as fact and policy, rather than just the gripes of fans. I love these games and before i get back to it, i wanted to highlight my favorite companions because Mass Effect is nothing without those who run headfirst into the fire with you.

Urdnot Wrex

I hate the first Mass Effect but that’s because i’m a Sony shill so i started wit the best one of the franchise and had to double back. It was a poor experience by comparison but Wrex was f*cking delight. I loved this dude but his time on the throne in 2 and his limited time with the squad in 3 is what that sealed it for me. Uncle Urdnot is a goddamn joy to play with and even more hilarious as an NPC. If you romance Liara, definitely talk to him during the Cure the Genophage mission in 3. You wont regret it.

Aria T’Loak

I’ve been a fan of Aria since the first time she introduced herself in Afterlife. “Don’t f*ck with Aria.” Yeah, she definitely made an impression. Mostly an NPC in the second game, she really came into her in the third. The extended time we spent with her in the Omega DLC was exceptional. I loved that side of her we got to see and, if you play Paragon, you get to see an interesting evolution in her character. Not as dope as getting that awkward kiss at the end but still just as rewarding.

Javik

Good ol’ Prothy the Prothean. I don’t really bring him on missions in 3 but i make sure to check in after every major battle because dude is a f*cking fountain of snark. I do, however, make sure to take him on the Thessia mission because the banter he and Liara have n that temple is very compelling. Their dynamic is one of the highlights in Mass Effect 3 and i absolutely adore that sh*t. It never gets old and it never disappoints. I’ve played this game dozens of times over the years and i have never once deviated from these two, on that mission, since the first time i took them into that battle together. Plus, Javik in the Citadel is a whole ass delight. Make sure to check your bathroom when you wake up the next day. There’s a surprised in there for you!

EDI

EDI is a ray of sunshine in such ire circumstances. Long before she got Eva’s body, EDI was a full member of the Normandy crew. Her banter after becoming unshackled was brilliant in 2 and even more dynamic in 3. Seeing her becoming more and more “alive, over the course of that last title, was a real pleasure and i hated seeing her name on that board at the end. I almost always pick Destruction because that’s the only one where Shepard survives but it’s always a struggle. Me or EDI? My life or Hers? I hate having to make that choice but the time spent with her until that point, is always so much fun.

Urdnot Grunt

Grunt is MY Wrex. He’s the Krogan i was introduced to first and he’s definitely be the one i have the most love toward. I basically raised this dude in-game during 2 and seeing him finally come into his own in 3, is a big moment for those who are as invested in this series as i am. Not only is he an absolute unit on my squad, but the kid is hilarious. Some of the best banter in 3 comes from Grunt and it makes me wish i got to play with him more. Similar to Jack who is definitely going to make an appearance later down this list, you only get fleeting time with him but that time spent hunting Rachni is one of the funniest missions in all of Mass Effect 3.

Miranda Lawson

My darling Cerberus Cheerleader Princess. Miranda is never my first choice on a mission and was, like, my last romance option originally but, upon running threw these titles a decade later, she’s a lot stronger a character than i remember. Seriously, the growth she shows throughout Mass Effect 2 is real and is presented with a proper focus in her driven resolve during her solo mission in 3. Miranda Lawson is one of the most complete, best written characters in the entire franchise and I'm frustrated with myself that it took a whole ass decade to finally see that. Plus, i mean, she got a fat ass, too, so...

Mordin Solus

Listen, I'm going to keep this one short and sweet. Mordin is amazing and if you didn’t feel something when he did what he did in 3, f*ck you.

Kasumi Goto

Oh, Ms. Goto, i do enjoy you so very, very, much. Kasumi is like the mascot of my squad, the ship cat who keeps knocking sh*t of the table. She is an absolute disaster but i still love her anyway. She has some of the best lines in the entire franchise and i dearly missed her snark on my ship in 3. Tat lone mission with the Hanar was not enough time with the galaxy’s best thief but it had to be because Kasumi is nobody’s fool. She was like, “No galactic war with eldritch space horrors for me, sir.” but she made up for it in the Citadel DLC.

Liara T’Soni

Now we’re getting into the meat. Liara is a mainstay in my squad during Mass Effect 3. She is dub overpowered, especially with that Singularity, and i rarely go into a boss fight without it. Beyond her fighting abilities, Liara just has such a sweet relationship with Shepard that spans the entire trilogy. She opted not to be an official part of the team in 2, later taking up the mantle of the Shadow Broker, but more than makes up for that in 3. Liara is a principal character in Mass Effect 3 and her relationship with Shepard in that game, specifically, is fantastic to experience. If you romance her, it’s even more rewarding.

Garrus Vakarian

Garrus is one third of my Death Lineup. He and Tali stay in my squad in 2 and alternate with Liara in 3. Dude is, for lack of a better term, a straight up killer. I’ve only played mShep so i never actually romances Garrus but dude is easily one of the best companions in the entire game. The relation he has with Shepard and the way it develops over those three games, is only topped by one other character and she’s the premier on this list. Garrus is hilarious and a real force in the game but, more than that, he’s arguably Shepards’ best friend and a solid foundation they can rely on as dude shapes the history of an entire galaxy.

Jack

Oh, my darling Jacqueline Night. You were SO close to the top spot on this list and only missed it because you were introduced in the second game. That’s it. Jack is dope, one of the most complete characters in the entire franchise, and definitely a great romance option. I adore this chick for all of the reasons but mostly because of how realized she becomes by the end of 3. Her growth from “Psychotic Biotic” into maternal teacher for a bunch of biotic kids, was a turn i didn’t expect but loved to see. I love Mass Effect 2′s version of Jack, for sure, but her appearance in Mass Effect 3 is head-and-shoulders better than her initial introduction. It hurts we never got to actually got to play with her in an actual fight but her appearances were still outstanding.

Tali’Zorah vas Normandy

Tali is the best f*cking thing about this franchise and I'll fight you to the death over it. Listen, Tali, for me, is best girl, best character, best development, best everything! I adore Tali. She made that first game bearable but really came into her own in the second. By the third, she was the premier supporting character in the entire franchise for me. Literally her and Garrus stay in my party and for good reason. Tali’s romance is so goddamn saccharine that it gave me diabetes but her maturation as that narrative continues is exceptionally written. Being one of two squad mates who has ridden with Shep through the entire trilogy really gives Tali room to grow and it shows. She is the best companion in the game and i almost never leave her behind.

Look, all of the squadmates hold a special place in my heart but these twelve, specifically, always seem to find their way into my onsite shenanigans more often than not. Obviously, just because you didn’t make this list, doesn’t mean you didn’t have your moments and Aria being on here instead of, say, Thane, is not a knock against him at all. Aria was just hilarious and i enjoyed what little time we shared. Everyone on the Normandy is dope and i cannot wait until my next mission to save the galaxy from the Reapers with them. Not Kaidan, though. Never Kaidan. F*ck that guy, specifically.

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imalwaysintune · 4 years

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Statement of Julian Robert, regarding the stranger that has been living in his walls. Statement taken direct from subject, the 9th of May, 2020. Statement begins...

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When I awoke, everything had seemed normal. All my various knick-knacks that were scattered around my room remained untouched. There was only one difference I could see- my dresser drawer was open.

It seemed like a seemingly harmless revelation; drawers get left open all the time, who would be freaked out by just a drawer?

Obviously, I wasn’t. It barely registered in my mind, but looking back I wish more than anything that I would have noticed. I wish I could reach back to my past self and tell him that he’s not crazy. Maybe then I wouldn’t be where I am now.

I got out of my bed and made my way to my kitchen like any other morning and made myself my usual breakfast: a bagel and cream cheese. The cream cheese looked a little less full than I had remembered it, but this didn’t really register to me either.

Eventually, I got ready for work. That’s the scariest part, is that everything had seemed so normal and looking back, knowing it’s not...

So I opened the drawer, and I could have sworn that one of my shirts was missing. It had been there the night prior, on top of everything else in the drawer. So for it to be gone, I was utterly confused, but I didn’t have time to think about it. I was going to be late for work at this rate, and I didn’t need more tardies on my tail.

The next... ‘strange’ thing I had noticed was when I got home. I have a cat, and I swear that she can see ghosts or spirits. She’s always staring off at things that aren’t really there, and to be honest, most of the time I just find it cute.

This time, she was staring at one of my vents that was in the living room, near the ceiling above my TV. Not only, though, was she staring at the vent with such intensity, her ears pushed back farther than I’ve ever seen them. She looked like she was hunting a prey.. no, almost as if she was being hunted by a predator and this was her last stand.

When I walked over to her, she lunged at me and it scared the hell out of me. She managed to get me pretty good with her claws, so that’s why I have this scar on my face. It would be the first of my scars I’d get in those few months after this incident.

It started slowly at first. I would notice things only slightly out of place, and I managed to convince myself that I had taken up sleepwalking. I’d never slept walked in my life, but that had to be the only solution. I lived alone, there was no one around to move the objects, and soon they became too heavy for it to be my cat’s work.

It was when things started disappearing that I got seriously freaked out. The first thing was simple: it was just a six-pack of beer from the fridge. But I took the entire day searching my house trying to find where it had gone. I checked under carpets and behind things that I knew wouldn’t have what I was looking for, but I was desperate.

Much to my dismay, I didn’t find any remains of the six-pack. The entire rest of my night was spent chewing my fingernails too far down. I couldn’t even care about the blood that was starting to slowly run down my hands, but I just couldn’t bring myself to care.

My cat changed too. She was constantly aggressive and always staring at the vents in every room of the house. I was starting to get worried, and taking her to the vet yielded no results. It was just a waste of a couple hundred bucks.

It wasn’t until about a month ago that I started hearing things. I’ve heard the fridge open and close, though when I check, nothing seems out of place. I’ve heard the shower run in the middle of the night, but by the time I’ve gotten over my nerves, there was no sign that I wasn’t imagining things.

There was one night I woke up and my throat was dry, so I got up to get a drink of water. As soon as I opened up the door to my bedroom, I heard a crash from the kitchen, and it sounded like someone was moving around in my kitchen. I’d like to say that I braved the noise and went to check immediately, but instead, I slammed my door and cowered against it until the sun rose again.

It was by then that I even felt safe enough to get up, and I ran over to my phone to phone the police, but it was a while before they got there. I heard the knock on the door and it took all my willpower to go through my apartment and open the front door.

The only thing they found was a shattered glass in the kitchen. No fingerprints or evidence of a breaking and entering. Nothing was stolen and nothing was out of place except for the broken glass. Once they saw my cat, they started being very rude, like I was wasting their time. I wrote down my statement and they left in a rush, and I was stuck feeling like shit.

I ended up laying on the couch with my cat for hours, just stuck in a constant state of fear and confusion. Was I insane? Was this all just in my head and I was just lonely?

I finally decided to just take a shower, hopefully the hot water would clear my head. When I walked in, though, that was when I knew I wasn’t crazy.

The vent in the bathroom was hanging wide open, hanging on by one screw that looked like it would give any minute. I just sat there dumbfounded, scared to look at what could be inside.

When I climbed up onto the counter to get a closer look, I screamed. It’s not totally clear in my memory what I saw, but I do remember seeing a hand. At least... I think it was a hand. I think it was a hand fundamentally, but the joints were all pointing different directions and the fingers were way too long.

It was connected to an arm that drew my attention to a face, covered mostly by the darkness of the vent. It hurt to look at, and I could only look for a few seconds before I slipped backward and fell hard onto the ground.

It had been... smiling. At least, I think it was a smile. The face was like static, constantly shifting, and moving around. Its mouth traveled from its cheek to its forehead in the few seconds I looked at it. It was bizarre more than anything, and it wasn’t until I let it sit in my mind for a few seconds that I started to scream.

I screamed for hours, until my voice was hoarse and I heard knocking at the door. I ignored and sat there in my bathroom for hours, gripping at my hair and pulling it out in chunks.

Through all this though, what I didn’t realize was that I couldn’t see anything. I had honestly just thought that my eyes had been closed through the entire experience, that they refused to open in the panic that had engulfed me.

When I finally had the nerves to stand and just try and do... something, I tried opening my eyes. But I found that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t open my eyes. I reached my hand up to my face and clutched at my face, and when the tip of my finger brushed against one of my eyes, it felt bone dry.

If I hadn’t lost the ability to cry, I think I would have cried for hours then. But my tear ducts seemed to be broken and I couldn’t see anything anymore.

I was numb at that point; I stumbled around my house looking for my phone, and I finally found it in my living room. I don’t know how, but I managed to open it and call my best friend at the time. I made up some bullshit excuse as to why I needed to stay with him, but he seemed more than willing anyway.

I’ve been living with him for the past two weeks, and he’s the one that told me about your institute. He wanted to check out my apartment after I’d been there a few days, just to confirm a hunch he had after I told him everything that had happened.

I urged him to let me go with him, and he reluctantly agreed. When we stepped into my apartment, my eyes started to burn. It was the most painful thing I’d ever felt in my entire life. They felt like they were moving, going from my eye sockets into the back of my throat and I felt like I was choking. I was choking on my own eyeballs.

I heard my friend distantly, asking if I was okay but the question never really registered. I felt like I was completely losing my mind at that moment. I could feel my brain cracking, like the glass that had been dropped not so long ago.

My friend immediately picked me up and dragged me out of my house, and the last thing I remembered before passing out was that face again. It was smiling at me again, it’s hand reaching towards me and... and plucking out my brain. It held it in its ever-shifting hand and squeezed and I felt it...

When I awoke next, I was in a hospital bed. Well, that’s what I gathered being surrounded by beeping machines. My friend had been there, and explained that he took me to the hospital as soon as my eyes had started to bleed. The doctors performed an MRI on me and had discovered that a piece of my brain was missing.

I think the creature stole my amygdala. I’m never scared anymore, even when I dream about… that fucking thing’s ever-shifting, breaking form. It baffles the doctors, but I escaped the hospital easy enough. I didn’t need to stay there anymore; there was nothing more they could do for me. I knew that.

It had been living in my apartment for god knows how long, and I had just been unlucky that day by coming face to face with it. My friend, now roommate, takes care of me now. He constantly has to clean my face of blood. I don’t cry anymore. But every morning I wake up after a dream, everything around me is soaked in blood.

My roommate never fully describes the scene, not that I could be nervous about it even if I tried. Now I live my life as a blind man, constantly stuck in limbo with this stranger.

I didn’t want to come here, but my friend urged me. So I’m giving my statement, and I think after this I might try and kill myself. I don’t want to burden him any longer, and the stranger says it’s a good idea. I’m inclined to agree, if I’m being honest. Death feels like it would be such a relief now.

Maybe I can finally see my cat again in the afterlife. Maybe I can finally escape this hell I’ve found myself in.

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My entry for Shobasuckso’s horror writing contest!

#tma #the magnus archives #my work #i finally did it!#i wrote my own statement!#i honestly didnt know if i ever would #just because its so much different #but im actually pretty proud of this one!#shobasuckso

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miss-pearlescent · 5 years

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Grim Reaper’s Duties (1/2)

(1/2), (2/2)

Kai swung his scythe onto his back, making it disappear until he needed it again. Now was not the time for reaping souls.

He morphed into regular human clothes, a plain black t-shirt and jeans. They weren’t uncomfortable, but they left him feeling naked. He was used to a heavy cloak that shielded eyes from the plethora of lethal weapons strapped to his body. Now they were all simple tattoos lining his skin that waited until their master called on them.

He flexed his empty hands and strode inside the office.

Sitting at the desk facing the window was just the person he was looking for. She was buried in her work, the bun on top of her head bobbing away as she recited some text.

Kai cleared his throat.

The girl dropped her pen with a little gasp and spun around in her seat, her eyes wide. For a moment, he knew that look. It was a look of recognition but was quickly concealed by hesitant confusion. The girl stood up, her toned legs crossing over to the door in quick strides.

“Sorry, you scared me.” Her chest heaved with her intake of breath and he caught a glimpse of her tight black bathing suit underneath a baggy red tank with the word LIFEGUARD on the front. Clearly wanting him out of her office, she met him right at the threshold, keeping a hand on the door. “How can I help you?”

Kai was mildly amused at the way she was trying to be polite and shoo him off at the same time. He must have caught her at a bad time. If only she knew who he was. “I’m here to inspect the pool.”

Her eyes narrowed for a second. “Inspect the pool?”

Out of thin air, Kai produced a badge from his back pocket and handed it over.

“Kim Jongin,” the girl read out loud. He could almost see the gears whirring in her brain. “Oh! For the company meeting this weekend?”

Kai nodded, though he had no idea what this meeting was and why it was held in a pool, let alone who this Kim Jongin person was. “Call me Kai.”

The girl flashed a smile and held her hand out for him to shake. “I’m Lily.”

And Kai...

Kai almost staggered back.

He stared down at this girl and suddenly had the urge to protect her. It was wrong. All wrong.

Stiffly, he shook her hand, his brain racing. The Grim Reaper didn’t protect anything but his job.

“Come, follow me this way.”

Kai blindly took step after step behind Lily, barely noting the thick textbook and pile of notes on her desk. His nose made the slightest of twinges when they walked through another set of doors and the smell of chlorine hit him like a wall.

“This is our pool,” Lily said, walking ahead of him.

He didn’t hear much of what she said after that as she showed him all the amenities that came with the hotel pool. He was too busy noticing the way her legs disappeared under a pair of shorts that really highlighted her butt, which moved in such a hypnotic way when she walked.

Kai gave himself a mental slap in the face and pretended to look around.

No, he was not thinking about Lily’s butt. He was busy trying to piece together everything he knew about her.

Six months ago, he had flashed to one of the biggest accidents in the country on a busy highway. Multiple vehicles were involved, including a coach bus and an oil tanker. Kai was drawn to the scene by the call of imminent death. Many of them.

And when he arrived, he saw the fire and breathed in the smell of charred flesh. There were many deaths indeed.

Almost everyone involved had died, and Kai dutifully sent their souls off away from the human realm. He was almost done with the job when suddenly he felt a hand on his arm.

It was warm, yet it stung his flesh.

Nobody had touched him in thousands of years. He had no idea what skin to skin contact even meant anymore.

He remembered whipping his head around, ready to lob the hand off with a swing of his scythe, but he was stopped when he saw the sooty mess hanging onto him.

“Hi, mom?” The girl coughed the words into her phone as she clung to his arm for balance. “I’m okay.”

Kai froze, wondering if he was in some simulation. He heard the voice on the other end desperately ask “How?” and Kai wondered the same thing. This crash took out almost a hundred humans and stretched on for miles. Bodies were being extracted with zero resemblance to their owners, so burnt and mangled they were.

Yet this girl got out with just a dusting of ash.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I was using the bathroom in the back of the bus when it happened.”

Nobody else had survived the coach bus.

Kai squinted at the girl as she told her mother about how perhaps the disgusting toilet water that had splashed onto her had actually saved her. He peered at her aura for an angelic blessing but could find nothing.

Why was she spared?

She rubbed her eyes and Kai realized she still did not notice she was clinging onto him hard. Quickly, he sliced the bottom of his sleeve and handed the makeshift handkerchief to the girl.

She took it with a shaky word of thanks and rubbed her eyes clean.

When she opened them again, Kai had left the scene.

He spent the rest of the week checking his abilities, making sure that he was still invisible to humans when he reaped souls. That girl shouldn’t have been able to see him. But when nothing out of the ordinary happened after that single event, he marked it off as a fluke.

Until he found he was being drawn to the girl nearly every other week. Week after week, he found himself in her vicinity, yet nobody was dying. He ignored it at first, concentrating on the call of death that always drew him out of the Underworld.

But after six months, he couldn’t ignore it any longer. He had spent enough time in the human realm without a true purpose. He needed answers.

And Lily with her hypnotic behind was going to give it to him.

Lily needed to get laid.

Pronto.

Because while she was leading her client around the pool, showing him how the jacuzzi would be perfect for the non-swimmers at his company, all she wanted to do was strip naked and jump into the freezing cold deep end of the pool.

Yeah, her choices were either get laid or take a cold shower.

The moment Kai had walked into her office fifteen minutes ago, her brain and lady parts screamed “That’s my type!” but she tamped their voices down and took on her professional role. The hotel was counting on her to book this man’s reservation because it meant extra overnight bookings for any company members who would be too drunk to drive home after their party.

And if she was lucky, she’d be able to earn some tips from this party. Hey, a girl had to pay her student loans somehow.

“How long can we book the pool?” Kai asked, casually leaning in to inspect the jacuzzi.

For as long as you want, Lily wanted to say. “Free swim time for hotel goers ends at 6:00pm. You’re free to book the entire pool with the saunas anytime after that.”

“And there will be a lifeguard on duty all night?” He looked up at her, his gaze sending a wash of warm tingles down her spine.

She didn’t speak lest her voice cracked from being—oh, she couldn’t deny it anymore—horny, so she simply nodded.

She must have been blushing or looking like a lovesick puppy, because his lips curved into an all-knowing smile. “Good.”

Lily had to look away before she melted under the intensity of his gaze. “After midnight, the fees will be a bit higher due to the night premiums for workers.” She gave a nervous laugh. “You know, labour laws and all that.”

She began rounding the jacuzzi, back toward the office, when suddenly, she felt a sizzle on her arm. Lily yelped at the pain and jumped away, rubbing her shoulder. Her flip-flop caught on the grate and she fought to regain her balance.

“Lily!”

She felt a hand graze her flailing arms as she fell into the jacuzzi. Great, what a perfect show of how competent she was as a lifeguard. And it had to be in front of a hot client too.

Pushing aside her thoughts, she twisted her face toward the surface of the water. After a couple of futile attempts, something yanked at her scalp, causing her to nearly scream in pain.

Her feet touched the bottom and if she just stood up, she could punch through the surface, but something was keeping her down. Her hands reached up and found that her hair had come undone from its bun. She followed the strands down and realized they were being sucked into one of the filters.

No, no, no.

She wanted to cry for help but she knew she needed to stay calm in order to reserve her oxygen. Out of fear and shock, her fingers fumbled as they tried to unknot the tangles of her hair from the filter. Thank goodness the water was warm and not freezing cold like the pool.

Then someone jumped into the jacuzzi beside her, their huge shadow blocking out the fluorescent light on the ceiling. She couldn’t tell what was happening anymore until a strong arm wrapped around her torso and for some reason, she suddenly felt safer.

It was the same feeling she’d often had every few weeks when she was scared or anxious. It had started six months ago after that huge crash on the highway, and she was thankful that her brain could give her a sense of calm whenever she needed it. She attributed the calmness to the meditation exercises her therapist had taught after the crash.

Without the break from flashbacks of the crash, her mind might’ve gone awol.

Now, she watched as a great hand held onto both her hair and the filter, yanking the plastic out of its hole in the concrete with one great pull.

Then Lily was thrust into the air, where she clung onto her saviour and gasped for oxygen.

“Th-thank you,” she coughed and sputtered, her hands moving wildly over Kai’s shoulders to make sure he was real and she wasn’t already dead and moving onto the afterlife. “You saved me.”

A reassuring hand stroked down her back as she continued to hack up the last bit of water. “Someone tried to kill you,” he growled.

“What?” She couldn’t have heard that right. Swiping the wet hair out of her eyes, she pulled back and looked Kai in the eye. “No, I slipped.”

He shook his head, his gaze so angry, she thought she could see flames in his pupils. “Someone came into this realm and pushed you into the water.” Lily’s eyes widened because he wasn’t making sense, but also because Kai’s hand was suddenly on her butt and she wasn’t sure if he even realized it. “Someone wanted you dead.”

“Hold on, you need to explain—” Her words cut off with a little scream as a crack of thunder ran out indoors.

Why was there lightning and thunder inside the pool?

Lily realized she had wrapped her legs tightly to Kai’s as the water began to whirl around them. Her arms were basically superglued around his neck. Nobody could pry her away from him at this moment.

She was freaked out and he seemed to be the only one with answers.

She heard a snick in the air and suddenly Kai had a scythe in his hand. She stared in awe. The man was wielding a freaking scythe. All while his other hand gripped her by the ass.

She didn’t know if she felt like a woman or like an infant.

Either way, she felt adequately protected, and that was all that mattered.

Come on, the man had a scythe.

“What’s happening?” she asked, raising her voice over the storm that was brewing around them.

Kai shook his head, an indication that he wasn’t sure. “I think we’re about to get some answers.”

---

Hello again! I have been on a big writing slump because all of my favourite authors had back-to-back amazing releases during the summer and then there was NOTHING for months :’( But yesterday I finished reading Larissa Ione’s Reaper and I cried so much because it’s the end to one of my favourite series! SO I HAD TO WRITE until midnight even though I had to be up at 5am for work the next day. If you have read the book, you will know that I took a lot from her world. Namely, the main character’s name (her main character is Lilliana and I just really love the Grim Reaper and Lilliana T_T) and the idea of someone being stalked for certain reasons that shall be revealed in the next half of the short story :) I really love reading paranormal fantasy especially when it’s so SMART. Like you can do so much with a world and just the fact that one author can create all that along with intricate plot that leads to crazy consensual sex?!?! Where stalking isn’t creepy and there is always a SMART reason for forced proximity aka one of my favourite tropes ever?!? Sign me up!!!!

Anyway, I’ve been rambling. Thank you guys for reading and have a great week :)

PS: KAI LOOKED SO GOOD WHILE PROMOTING IN LA! I JOP EVERYDAY FOR HIM!

PPS: Do you guys like the gif in the beginning of the story?? Hate it??? It feels bulky to me but it also sets a ~mood~ so let me know :3

#exo #kai #fanfiction #exo scenarios #kai scenarios #kim jongin #jongin #kpop fanfiction #kpop #paranormal #fantasy #grim reaper

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goldeneyedgirl · 4 years

Text

Fic-Mas Day 3: Jessamine & Alice

Day 3 <3 Today I bring you a larger section of the Jessamine/Alice fic I posted about previously; today was meant to be something else but I think it was a really unsatisfying post, so I’ll rework it/find another fic for tomorrow.

Today was spent putting my mother’s giant, elaborate Christmas tree up, so I have no other thoughts. Hope everyone is having a good day!

(Warning for internalised homophobia; ‘//’ signals a time jump, as there are large chunks still unwritten.)

When Alice wakes up, she isn’t Alice.

She just is.

Her eyes open, her lungs fill and she exists for the first time in her memory. Her heart is still in her chest, her eyes draw in every detail of the forest around her, of the grains of dirt in the mud smearing her legs, of the beetle crawling up her leg.

And then she sees the girl with the blonde hair, and that is when the world slowly pieces itself together. Mostly with a soft smile and a gaze that strips her down to the bone, and a soft, “Alice”.

That is when she is Alice. She wants nothing more than to be that Alice, an Alice that inspires that smile, that gaze.

There’s a lot that she still doesn’t understand, and her throat is burning, but she knows two things.

Her name is Alice.

And she loves that girl.

Alice has a tiny hotel room in a terrible neighbourhood. It smells of dust and mildew, and is barely large enough for the mismatched bed, wardrobe and desk. The wardrobe is open, and Jessamine sees three dresses hanging there – yellow gingham, red polka-dot and blue floral. They are so small and remind Jess of doll’s clothes, with the ruffled hems, the puffy sleeves, the tiny buttons. She is wearing a filthy tweed skirt and threadbare blouse that was once grey that she peeled off a past meal, and this girl… she has actual tissue paper stuffed into the toes of the shoes in the closet.

Alice is perched on the desk, beaming at her with barely disguised excitement. The emotions that she can feel coming off the tiny girl are ones of excitement, joy, awe and pure adoration. She is utterly charming, with her pink dress and blue coat, her tiny gloves and curled hair.

The clothing Alice has chosen her are… nice. Nicer than she deserves – a dark blue shirtwaist dress, stockings and flat shoes. A pair of tailored pants and a blouse, in dark blue and yellow. Even underwear, silky and brand new. It is more than she’s owned in seventy years. More than anyone has ever given her.

When she finally emerges from the bathroom, months of dirt and blood washed away, Alice’s eyes light up, at her in her new blouse and pants, her hair damp around her face.

“You are so beautiful,” Alice coos, and is at her side, practically vibrating, and Jess doesn’t know what to say.

The kiss is so unexpected – Alice on her tip-toes, leaning up to kiss Jessamine on her lips. It is a moment so sweet and so impossible, Jessamine freezes and isn’t sure what to do.

This isn’t right. This isn’t right.

Alice knew that they would be tentatively welcomed at the Cullens – Jess is apparently rather intimidating (she doesn’t see it herself) and her own gift is a dangerous one. But the Cullens are peaceful people, do not seek out battle when there is any other alternative. They will sooner pack their things and leave, than claim their territory through warfare.

But she also knows that it will be their relationship that will throw the Cullens. That they live the closest approximation of a human life that they can manage. Husbands and wives, daughters and sons, brothers and sisters. There are no grey lines, just right and wrong. She sees religious iconography in her visions of their house, and that worries her a little.

She also knows that this is what Jess needs, more than anything. A peaceful retirement, a place where she is loved for herself, and not what she can do.

Once they arrive, it takes a few days for the family to realise. Edward has a pinched look on his face the first time Jess’s thoughts turn away from defence back to her Alice, and she is glad she cannot read Edward’s thoughts, because they would not be flattering. Rosalie has a slightly quizzical expression on her face when she catches Jess dropping a kiss to Alice’s lips in the hallway, and Esme just becomes flustered, but in a sweet way that overcompensates in her desperation not to offend them.

Carlisle is no less gracious to them, though – later – Edward will tell Alice that he was torn. Over the half-remembered lessons of his youth at his father’s knee, at the human principles he clung to with all his life, the ones that have guided him, with moderate success, this far in his afterlife.

But of everything that he has seen in his centuries of life, is a pair of mated females really that extraordinary? The idea that the bond could form between two souls, despite time and gender and all of the other minutiae that had to align is not so impossible, or he would not have found and lost, and then found Esme again.

And he watched them, to see the way they move in sync, the constant contact, the long looks that could be entire conversations, and the peace that surrounded them. To see the way Jess anchors Alice, contains the boundless energy and joy that is the slight girl; the way Alice brings Jess back to life, banishes the ghosts that haunt her gaze.

Carlisle knows that he cannot condemn that sort of soul-deep bond, cannot turn them away for their most genuine love because of old, narrow-minded teachings, because of social expectations that should have been discarded generations ago. Whatever brought them here, they did so for a reason and he will trust in a higher power, and Alice’s visions.

Emmett is the last to realise, in the middle of a hunt, and his mouth drops open, staring between the pair – standing apart from the rest of them, Alice tucked under Jess’s arm.

“They share a room,” Edward says slowly when Emmett splutters, still clutching his bear corpse. Alice can feel the tension in Jess’s body, waiting to protect and defend, should Emmett’s opinion threaten her.

Emmett contemplates them for a second, and Alice can almost see the wheels turning in his head, as he reevaluates their interactions with this new information.

“Oh well. Esme’s still got you to marry off, Eddie,” Emmett says cheerfully, and drags his bear corpse off to be buried and Alice tries not to laugh at Jess’s expression at Emmett’s response, at Edward’s scowl, at Esme’s bright smile at idea of Edward getting married.

After Italy, there was celebration, relief, hope. They were coming home to Forks, and everything would be okay once again. Even Edward thought that everything had been righted.

But then, he’d never seen Jess in full-flight. Alice had caught one of her fits of temper in a vision, before Peter went back for her, but had never witnessed the full scale of Jess’s wrath in person. Peter and Charlotte had both alluded to the temper that had made Jess such a legend in the south on occasion – it was rare that she was ever ‘out of control’; usually it was cold rage with a clear aim.

But when she lost her temper, well, neither Charlotte nor Peter had words for it, aside from a warning that it usually involved some property damage.

Perhaps the fact, according to Peter, was that even Maria backed down when Jess was in a ‘confrontational’ mood was the best indicator, to Alice, of how terrible Jess could be.

It was never planned ahead, and Jess was probably second only to Carlisle at keeping Edward out of her head.

The pacing was what caught Alice’s attention, and by then it was too late to stop Bella and Edward from coming into the house. And if her sight was any indication, the sooner the confrontation happened, the better off they’d be.

Edward realised the issue a moment too late, but there was no way to get Bella somewhere ‘safe’. And from the look on Rosalie’s face, it was clear Rose thought that Bella witnessing the result of the trauma of their eternal lives would probably be good for the girl.

“Jessamine,” Edward had said cautiously, and Alice wanted to bang her head against the wall. Only three people called Jess by her full name – Carlisle, as a mark of respect for her age; Alice, on occasions when she wanted to be taken seriously, and Charlotte, as a sign of deference for her former leader and creator. Peter called her Jessie, Maria had called her Major or Majorette, depending on her mood, and everyone else knew her simply as Jess.

For Edward to use her full name was a red flag to a bull, and Alice just knew Edward was going to be without some extremities by the end of this.

Jess hissed outright at Edward, and Bella was backed into the corner, eyes wide. Esme had ghosted over to the human girl, obviously to sooth and protect, and Alice just perched herself on the side table, waiting for the fireworks.

The argument was loud and unspeakably nasty, ending with Carlisle, Esme, and Emmett gaping in Jess’s direction, Jess putting her foot through Esme’s solid oak coffee table, Edward having his right arm snapped clean off at the shoulder, Rosalie enjoying herself immensely, and Jess storming off to cool down.

“I’m sorry about the table, Esme,” Alice hopped off the side table. “I’ve got another one ordered. It should arrive in a few days.”

Bella and Carlisle were already crouched beside Edward, reattaching the severed limb.

“You knew,” Edward said between gritted teeth. She shrugged.

“Did I know she was angry? I did. Did I know she would confront you? Yes. Did I let this happen? Only because if I had interfered, it would only delay the inevitable,” she said. ‘It would have been so much worse, Edward. So, so much worse.’

‘That’s the first time I’ve been scared of her,” Bella said, her eyes wide. Rosalie snorted at that comment.

“Don’t, Rosalie.”

#TwilightFicMas2019 #twilight fic #twilight fan fic #alice cullen #jessamine hale #jasper hale #alice/jasper #alice jessamine #twilight lgbt #twilight lgbt fic #my fic: jessamine and alice #my fic #my writing #wip #twilight: life and death

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