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flemingsfreckles · 2 months

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Don’t Be Sad

Jessie Fleming x Reader

Preview: based off of this request. You take your kids to watch their mom play in the gold cup semifinal.

Warnings: upset Jessie, not really angst though

WC: 4.8k

A/N: okay, so the timeline here is all kinds of messed up in terms of how old Jessie is, the fic revolves around the US/CAN game but she obviously doesn’t have kids already so just go with it. It’s called fiction for a reason. This is also my first attempt at writing based off a request/an idea that my brain didn’t come up with.

“James, slow down please.” You hollered at your oldest child as he ran a couple of feet ahead of you. You watched as he stopped immediately in his tracks as if he had been frozen in place. The brown curls on his head bouncing slightly. Once you catch up to him you extend your hand out for him to hold.

“You have to be careful, you can’t be running ahead, there’s a lot of other people here.” You often took your kids to watch Jessie’s games, but most of the time they were not this busy. The stress of temporarily having to operate as a single mom with an almost 3 year old and 1 year old was building on you. Your wife would not be thrilled to learn you let one kid run off 20 minutes after arriving at the stadium.

“Sorry, just want to see Mama.” He said, reaching up to grab onto your hand.

“I know kiddo, we’re going to see Mama, but after her game remember, we can’t go talk with her before. Remember what I told you in the car?”

“Mama’s at work and is warm.” He tried his best to remember what you had told him about how Jessie wouldn’t be able to talk to you before the game. You had explained that she would have to warm up and be focused and ready for the game. Trying to explain that the field was her work and she wasn’t allowed to just come hang out.

“Mama!” Your one year old daughter, Nora, squealed, waving her hands in the air. You were holding her on your hip, not wanting her to get trampled in the busy stadium, also not fully trusting her minimal walking skills. She had recently started taking a few steps alone, and while holding the hand of you or Jessie, she could walk for a bit. A crowd of people was not the time to practice walking.

“Yes baby, Mama’s at work. We can see her after the game.”

Gripping your son’s hand tightly you continued to make your way to the friends and family box that the Canadian Team had set up for the Gold Cup Match. You didn’t love being in the box, it made you feel far away from the game. You liked being up close being able to see your wife playing just a couple meters away. Not being able to complain too much though, it was so much easier with the kids to be in the box, they were free to roam safely and could occupy themselves with other activities if they were too restless to sit and watch Jessie play. It was also nice on afternoons like tonight where the weather was brutal, you were able to stay nice and dry.

You checked into the box, grabbing some juice boxes for each of your kids. You looked around, you had gotten to the stadium pretty early, meaning the box only had a few other people in it already. You moved to the corner with a small table, setting down Nora, and pulling out a chair for James to sit as well. You rummage through your bag, pulling out some toy dinosaurs and cars for James and a stuffed moose than Jessie had gotten for your daughter before she left for the World Cup. Nora insisted it went everywhere she went so you had to bring it with. Placing their juice on the table as well you stood up, looking over the field. You spotted your wife, doing some dribbling in a space all by herself. Not being able to help yourself, you watch her for a second before you feel a hand on the back of your shoulder and a voice calling to you.

“There’s our favorite daughter-in-law!” Jessie’s parents had arrived, her mom standing behind you, arms out for a hug.

“I’m your only daughter-in-law.” You remind her as you move into her arms. Jessie’s father, already kneeling down to talk with your children, opts to give you a wave, you reply with a wave and a quick hello before he goes back to playing with a dinosaur.

“How are you? How are the kids? I feel like we haven’t seen you in forever. What has it been 6-7 months?” She asked.

“Something like that.” The last time you had seen the Flemings was when they had come to visit after the World Cup. “The kids, they’re good. They’ve definitely been keeping me on my toes these days especially while Jess has been away for this tournament. They still haven’t grasped the concept that this is Jessie’s work though. James kept asking when he could see her, it’s just hard to explain at that age, they think she’s just playing like they do in the yard.”

“Yeah I can imagine they don’t quite get it,” Jessie’s mom trailed off turning to watch her husband with his grandchildren. You both stand for a minute watching Jessie’s dad who now had your daughter in his lap, still holding a dinosaur in one hand, play with your kids. “Gosh they both look so much like Jess when she was that age.”

Your children were practically spitting images of your wife. They were, after all, biologically her babies. You and Jessie had decided to do reciprocal ivf after careful consideration. Together you had chosen that you would be the one that would carry them, not wanting to take Jessie away from her career and love for football, meaning the kids would be genetically related to Jessie while you carried them for 9 months, letting you both be a part of their creation. Who could say no to the idea of little versions of Jessie running around, not you.

Both having her brown hair, James' hair had started to show the soft waves that resembled Jessie’s. They both had big brown eyes, which they used to get their way with you. It was hard to say no to them when looking into their eyes reminded you of the woman you were so infatuated and in love with.

The resemblance was obvious at birth with their beautiful eyes looking up at you and Jessie as you held them for the first time. The first time you really recognized how much they all looked alike was one afternoon when you got home from work, you walked into an empty house calling for Jessie and getting no response. It was then that you had heard giggling and joyful screaming coming from the backyard. You walked out to watch as Jessie chased James around the yard, following him with the garden hose as Nora sat on her hip. It seemed they had been playing in the sprinkler all afternoon, all 3 of them soaked. You stood on the deck and watched, just admiring your family for a second before Jessie caught a glimpse of you. She dropped the hose to come say hello and proceeded to hug you, soaking your clothes in the process. Your kids followed and you saw all three of them with the freckles that covered their pink rosy cheeks, just another trait they had gotten from their mother.

The game started shortly after, you had taken a seat on a bench with Jessie’s dad, your son seated between the two of you and your daughter crawling across your lap. You weren’t always the most relaxed watching your wife play. Watching her play was so fascinating and you loved watching your wife play the game she loved so much, but it stressed you out. She always joked to you that you were more nervous than her and all you had to do was watch. Today you were extra anxious. Not only was this a knockout game, but the pitch conditions were horrendous. Everytime Jessie would go for a ball you were just hoping she didn’t slip and end up injured. The US took the lead 20 minutes in, only adding to your anxieties. Halftime came and went, Canada still down. It wasn’t until only 10 minutes were remaining that Canada tied it. You had jumped up and shouted in response to the goal, watching Jessie jump on top of Jordyn in her celebration. You watched as full time played out, ending in a tie. You stood up excusing yourself to use the restroom, leaving James and Nora with their grandparents.

Extra time began just as you returned to the box, you made your way to the table in the back of the room to grab a water bottle and turned back to face the pitch. The sight in front of you warms your heart. It even takes away the stress of the game for just a moment. There were your two children, Nora sitting on Jessie’s mom’s hip, you watched as she babbled at her grandmother, only a couple of the sounds coming out being actual words, but Jessie’s mom was responding as if she was having a complete conversation. James was sitting on his grandfather's shoulders, watching and listening closely as his grandpa pointed and tried to explain the game to him. You and Jessie, mainly Jessie, had tried to teach him but that’s hard to do with a just under three year olds attention span. All he wanted to do was roll the ball around with his hands. You had joked that he’d grow up to be a keeper.

What really tugged at your heartstrings was the assortment of jerseys that all had on, a mix of new and old and a mix of home and away. Your wife’s family name on all of them, which was now your last name too, displayed proudly across the back, her number sitting just below. You felt so lucky, you felt lucky everyday with Jessie, but even in a moment when she is caught up elsewhere, you feel her love and everything she had brought you in this life. Two beautiful children, an amazing set of in-laws, the chance to experience things you could’ve never imagined. Thinking about how adorable it was you grabbed your phone and snapped a photo to show Jessie later.

The anxieties came back as you returned to your seat on the bench. You couldn’t help but notice how relaxed Jessie parents seemed watching their daughter play, maybe it just came with decades of experience that you didn’t quite have yet.

You watched as overtime continued. Feeling upset when the US scored again, only to feel ecstatic when Canada tied it up. Before you knew it, overtime had expired and the game was moving on to penalties.

You watched as the US player made her penalty, followed by a miss by Canada. A goal and another miss had happened for the Canadian side before your wife took the ball and headed to the penalty spot. The US having scored three of their four penalties taken meant if Jessie missed, the game was over, but if she made it they would keep kicking.

Watching Jessie, or any player, take penalties was one of your least favorite parts of football. You always felt bad if a player missed but then you also felt bad for the keeper if it went it. Jessie had laughed when you told her, claiming you just weren’t competitive enough, when it’s your team on the line you don’t feel sorry for the other side. You had told her that your competitiveness only applied to her and whatever team she played for, other than that you were more of a ‘hoe everyone has fun’ type person. You asked Jessie about how it’s such immense pressure being put on just one person on each team and how it feels to be in that spot. Penalties usually didn’t bother your wife, everyone knew it, she had been a penalty kicking machine most of her career. The pressure on her shoulders everytime she steps up, being expected to make it every time, no questions asked, is not something you ever wanted to feel.

You watched her line herself up, placing the ball. Seeing this routine done more times than you could count you had memorized her behaviors. You knew each of her steps before taking it, asking one day in the backyard to explain it to you as she was practicing. Your hands came to rest on your knees that were anxiously bouncing.

She stepped back, took a deep breath and started toward the ball. And then it was dark.

You had shut your eyes, not intentionally, it just happened. You didn’t see the kick, you only realized that it must not have gone in when the crowd erupted in cheers. You slowly opened one eye, peeking as if it’ll change what had just happened. First you see the US team running, dog piling on top of one another. Second seeing Jessie, her head hung, walking toward the bench, shaking her head, brushing off the teammates attempting to console her. Feeling your heart sink for her, knowing just how upset she must be.

“Mom why are they hurting each other?” Your son tugged your hand. He pointed at the pile of US players on the field.

“They’re not hurting each other, they’re celebrating kiddo, they won.”

“But Mama supposed to win.” His eyebrows pinched together, confused looking up at you.

“Well honey that’s not how it always goes, do you remember watching the World Cup?” You hadn’t actually let them watch the games live due to the timing of them but you had put them on during the day letting them watch their mom play. “Mama’s team didn’t always win, right? That’s what happens sometimes. And sometimes that makes her sad. She might be a little sad when we go to talk to her, okay?” He just nodded back at you.

As the stadium cleared out, you and Jessie’s parents, each of them holding one of your kids hands, headed down to the base of the pitch. Jessie was making her rounds, thanking the Canadian fans for coming, signing autographs and taking photos. You loved how even after a tough game she made time for those who came to watch her play. You watched as she continued to make her way headed toward you, not seeing you yet.

“Mama!” James shouted pointing at Jessie. “Mama, hi!” His hand waved in her direction. Hearing her son's voice, Jessie’s head snapped to the side with a smile on her face as she saw her family, you, her kids, her parents all standing together waiting for her. Giving a quick wave to James she turned her attention to the young fan in front of her. She finishes greeting and chatting with the few fans between you and her. As she wanders over, her eyes meet yours for a second and while she isn’t currently crying, you can see she must’ve been at some point. Her face has small tear streaks and eyes are a little red.

“Hi Mama, don’t be sad.” Your son says, making grabbing motions with his hands at Jessie.

“Hi buddy, I’m just a little sad right now, but I’ll be okay. I’m happy that I’m getting to see you and Nora.” She reaches over the wall, grabbing James and pulling him up and over, into her arms. She hugs him tightly and then puts him down at her feet.

“Mama, it's grandma and grandpa.” Your son points, as if Jessie hadn’t seen her own parents in front of her.

“Hi Mom, hi Dad.” She acknowledges them with a quick wave, knowing she’ll be able to fully catch up with them later tonight.

“Hi love.” She turns her attention to you.

“Hi,” moving toward her you reach over the wall giving her a quick peck on the cheek quietly talking in her ear . “I’m so proud of you, even if you don’t want to hear that right now. I love you.”

You pull back, hearing your daughter start babbling again, the words “Mom” and “Mama” coming out as she looks from you to Jessie. She’s standing both of her arms above her head holding onto her grandpa's hands

“You heard her, give me my baby.” Jessie laughs holding her arms out to take Nora. You bend down to pick her up and pass her into your wife’s extended arms. “Hi cutie,” she bounces her, making soft giggles come from her mouth.

You admired Jessie’s ability to put on a happy face for your kids, you knew she was upset about the loss, the lack of penalty called against her, her missed kick, the pitch conditions, but none of it showed as she held your daughter. She looked as happy as can be, as if she had just won the whole tournament. Even if it was a forced smile, you could tell it was, she still put forth the effort.

“Look at us all matching.” She’s talking to your kids. “Can you take our photo?” Now directing her question to you. She bends down to kneel next to her son, daughter still in her arms. She smiles big and tickles your son, getting him to laugh, his smile big in the photo.

“Oh man, we’re all matching. It looks like we’re going on a family reunion with matching shirts.” You see Jessie standing up looking between you and her parents. Everyone laughs at the realization, sure you knew you were all wearing her jersey but it being pointed out was humorous .

“Okay James I have to go, but I’ll see you later tonight okay?” Your wife is back kneeling down, talking to your son.

“Okay Mama, you did a good job at your work job today.” He tries his best to tell Jessie she played well. She looks at you with a questioning glance.

“I was explaining to him that this is your job, the game is work.”

“Gotcha.” She hands you Nora before lifting James over again. “I just have to do recovery. I think since we’re out we’re released as well so I don’t have to stay at the hotel. I don’t know I’ll find out though.” She quickly informs you.

“Alright babe, just shoot me a text and let me know. We’re just going back to the rental.” Deciding that more space and isolation would be better than a hotel with two small children, you had rented a small house for the week. It had a couple bedrooms and was perfect for letting the kids be free and not cooped up in a hotel.

You give Jessie a quick kiss on the lips, making it short and sweet your wife wasn’t big on PDA anywhere, let alone in front of fans and more importantly her parents. Jessie gave hugs to her Mom and Dad before saying goodbye to them as well.

All five of you headed back to the house, Jessie’s parents deciding to crash in the extra bedroom for the chance to see their daughter more than if they had gone to the hotel they had originally booked. It was only an hour later when the knock at the door told you Jessie had arrived.

Jessie’s dad greeted her at the door. You were occupied feeding Nora in the bedroom, while Jessie’s Mom was watching James while he ate. Through the cracked door you could hear your father in law talking to his daughter. He was telling her how proud of her he always is. You could tell she entered the kitchen as you heard James start talking to Jess. You knew her arrival meant he would be done eating, forgetting food was ever an option, just wanting to hang out with her.

“She’s in the bedroom feeding Nora, third door on the left.” Jessie’s mom was telling her daughter.

It was only seconds later that there was a soft knock on the door and Jessie peaked her head though. Her cheeks are still rosy from the game.

“Can I come in or do you want privacy?” Her concern regarding you being comfortable showing.

“Yeah babe, nothing you haven’t seen before, it just felt a little weird with your Dad there so I figured I’d feed her in here.” Nodding at her to come in. She opened the door to come through, closing it behind her. She moved next to you, placing a kiss on your lips, one on your forehead and grazing a hand across Nora’s head. She smelled of vanilla and coconut, freshly showered, her hair still wet.

“I love you, you’re such a good Mom.” She sits down on the bed next to you. Jessie loved watching you with the kids. She especially loved watching you do the more “mundane” tasks, like you were now, Nora resting in your arms as she fed, a task you had done hundreds of times. It felt incredibly intimate to share these small moments together and Jessie was so grateful that you let her be there.

Deciding this might be the only bit of time you get with Jessie alone, without your son or her parents hearing, you decide to check on her. Jessie isn’t the best about expressing her emotions especially in front of your son, she never wants to appear sad or disappointed. Nora was here but she was occupied and she was not yet at the age of picking up much from conversations that didn’t involve the words Mom, Mama, or milk.

“Are you doing okay?” Looking in her eyes, you see the beautiful brown color looking back at you.

“I’m disappointed.” She pauses before continuing, “it just felt like something we could’ve won.” Her head comes to rest on your shoulder and she lets out a sigh.

“I know, baby. I’m sorry. Are you okay besides being just disappointed?” You wanted to make sure the missed penalty wasn’t weighing too heavily on her mental. Jessie knew exactly what you were asking.

“I think so, I chatted quickly with the sports psych while I was stretching about the penalty, I think missing the one earlier got in my head. I don’t feel much at all about it.” Nora decides she’s done feeding, pulling her mouth away and trying to squirm from your hold. “Here let me take her.” Jessie pulls her into her lap, allowing you to clean up and pull your shirt back down.

“It was really nice having you all there after the game.” Her voice was soft as she continued “it just made it hurt a little less getting to see them. They take my mind off the game so quickly.”

“They were both so excited to see you.” You wrap your arm around her waist, pulling her closer to your side. “I was excited to see you too.” Jessie hummed in response, her cheek still resting on your shoulder. You look down in her arms, your youngest was laying, her eyes fluttering as she fought off sleep. Moments later your son is knocking at the door.

“Mama, Mom come on, I want to play and make Mama not sad anymore” You open the door to find your son, a dinosaur in one hand and a small ball in the other. Jessie’s mom quickly following him down the hallway.

“Sorry, we were cleaning up the table from his dinner, we can take play with him if you two need some more time.” She reached out to move James away from the door.

“Oh, no we’re good. Nora’s about to be asleep.” You point back into the room where Jessie is sitting gently rocking your daughter. “We can come play.”

You and Jessie leave the bedroom, coming back to the living room to play with James. Jessie’s dad takes Nora who is sound asleep, claiming he doesn’t get to hold her nearly enough. You both sit on the floor as James hands you plastic animals and begins telling you both about the make believe scenarios he had come up with. You stay on the floor for a while, switching between the make believe world with your son and having regular adult conversations with your wife and in-laws.

Jessie is quiet, not contributing much to the conversation, focusing more on your son. Wishing you could just lift the weight off her shoulders and take away the disappointment she is feeling toward herself, you try your best to steer any conversation away from mentions of the game or football.

James lets out a big yawn as he makes his dinosaur trample a small city he had created.

“Someone’s sleepy.” You tease him.

“No I’m not!” He protests. Looking at you with his brown eyes, silently begging for more time. “Want to keep playing with Mama, it makes her happy.” Jessie shoots you a look, her eyes begging just like his were, mouthing ‘five more minutes’ her hand being held up to emphasize her point.

“Okay, but only a few more minutes bud. You and Mama can play in the morning.”

He seems content with the extra few minutes and the reminder that Jessie would be there in the morning and goes back to playing.

After the few minutes pass by, Jessie starts to clean up the toys, James helping her. You stand up taking Nora from her grandfather’s arms, she’s still fast asleep. You say goodnight to Jessie’s parents and carry your daughter into the office that you had turned into her temporary bedroom. Your kids had separate bedrooms at home and you wanted to keep it as similar as possible. Being able to move around Nora’s crib easily, meant James got the other bedroom in the house. You placed her softly, with a kiss on her forehead and a whisper goodnight. Jessie surprises you by wrapping her arms around your waist.

“She’s so perfect.” Jessie whispers in your ear. “You made two perfect babies.” She adds a kiss to your cheek.

“Technically you made them.” You whisper back to her, still looking at Nora sleeping.

“We both made them, those are our kids.” Humming in agreement, you feel Jessie grab your hand turning to leave the room. You enter James’ room, he had changed into his pajamas while you both were putting Nora down.

“Do you want Mama to tuck you in tonight?” You ask him, wanting to give Jessie the chance as you had tucked him in alone the past few days.

“Both!” He points to both you and Jessie. You each take a side of the bed as he climbs in. You tuck him in, each giving him a kiss and telling him you love him and to not let the bedbugs bite.

Finally back in your bedroom, you and Jessie get ready for bed, each making a trip to the bathroom to brush your teeth, wash your face, change into sleeping shirts and shorts. You come out to Jessie sitting on the edge of the bed, you notice tears on the brims of her eyes.

“Hey, baby what’s wrong.” Rushing in front of her, you kneel down, cupping her face in her hands.

“Nothing, I'm okay.” She blinks hard, clearing the tears that were tempted to spill over.

“Jess, it’s okay if you’re upset, you can be upset in front of me.”

“I know.” There’s a pause and you’re not sure if she’s going to continue or not. You watch as a tear manages to make its way out, rolling down her cheek, you extend your thumb to brush it away. “I just, I feel like I let people down. It’s silly I know, it’s a game, but, I don’t know. I’m just disappointed in myself.”

“It’s not silly Jessie.” Grabbing her hands in yours. “You’re allowed to feel however you want about the game, you’re allowed to feel disappointed. You have to remember you’re just doing your best. Just like everyone else in that game and everyone else in the world, you’re doing the best you can. That’s all you can do.” Not sure if she’s even really listening to your words but wanting to get your point across you continue, “Jess people miss penalties all the time. It’s how it goes, you weren’t the only one to miss tonight. This isn’t all on you. You played so well this whole tournament.” You stand up as your knees started to ache, Jessie was the professional athlete in this family, not you. Deciding to sit on the bed next to her you wrap an arm around her shoulder and lean in.

“I hope you know how proud I am of you.” Hoping she can accept the compliment, she nods at you. The two of you sit in silence on the edge of the bed for a few minutes, just enjoying the quiet after the long day. You’re reminded of something from earlier in the day, reaching for your phone on the bed next to you.

“I know it’s not going to fix how you’re feeling about the game, but look at this.” You slide open your phone, open your photos to show Jessie the image you took of her parents with your kids. “Look at our family.”

She grabbed the phone from your hand, examining the photo. For the first time since the game had ended you saw a genuine smile come across her face.

“That’s our family.”

#jessie fleming imagine #jessie fleming #jessie fleming x reader #jflem #woso imagine #woso x reader #canwnt #canwnt x reader #portland thorns

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specialagentlokitty · 3 months

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Negan x reader - trade skill

Hello. I was wondering if you could please do Negan X reader, where Negan is unable to find Lucille and thinks that someone has taken her. So he has people to search every area in Alexandria (I think it is), only to later find out that Y/N took Lucille in order to clean and repair her, and accidentally forgot to notify him. - Anon💜

You didn’t know why a lot of the saviours were taken to Alexandria, you had a thought maybe it had something to do with Rick not doing what he was supposed to be doing.

You weren’t all too sure but you didn’t really have the time to find out either, you were busy with your own project which is why you refused Dwight when he came to get you to go with him.

Was it the smartest choice?

Definitely not, and you knew you were going to get it in the neck from him and most likely Negan after, but you were always in some kind of trouble.

Sitting on your bed, you picked up the pair of wire cutters, carefully getting ready to cut the barbed wire.

You had already caught your arm once, you just tired a bandanna around it and carried on working.

You had to be careful, you didn’t was to break it, and you had to do everything exactly right otherwise you would be more screwed than you were going to be.

Setting the old barbed wire aside on the floor, you picked up the new one and looked at it.

It was a little rusted with the weather, but it was in a lot better condition than the other one.

Wrapping it around like the other was, you nodded to yourself a little.

Setting the bat aside, you got up, grabbing everything you had been using to fix it you shoved it into a box and left the room.

Making your way down to where the workers were, you walked over and set the box down.

“I’ve not used it all so I’m sure someone can get some use out of it.” You said.

The man looked up, nodding her head as she set the box on the floor.

Humming to yourself, you began to browse through the other things that were laid out on the table, looking for something of interest.

Finding nothing, you decided to head outside instead, looking for some part of a fallen tree or a decent sized branch for a new project.

“Hey (Y/N)?”

You looked to one of the other saviours.

“We got problem with the walkers out front, a few got free somehow.”

You sighed, stopped what you were doing and you pulled out your knife, following him to the front where some of the walkers were banging on the fence.

“You said a fucking few, this is a mini horde dumbass.”

He just shrugged and you glared at him.

“Go get the fucking pole idiot.”

He grabbed the pole and you tried to make quick work of clearing the walkers that were building up.

You heard the cars and trucks pulling up and you ignored it, stabbing the final walker in the head, you turned to the man who went to leave.

“Not so fast, you’re waiting here I’ll deal with your ass in a minute.”

Opening the gate, you walked through the bodies, maybe your way to the far end of the fence, slowly looking along it.

For the walkers to get in the gap would have had to be pretty big, so it wasn’t hard to finally find it.

Kneeling down, you carefully inspected the fence and grabbed some zip ties from your jacket to seal it temporarily for now.

Making your way back over you looked at Simon.

“Sort your dumbass out Simon, this fucker hasn’t been checking the fence, there’s a massive hole.”

“You fix things, you sort it.” He said.

“Not my job asshole.”

He stuck his middle finger up at you and you did the same thing, walking over to the doors to head back inside but you stopped by Dwight.

“What was the trip about anyway?”

He glanced at you.

“He’s pissed someone took that stupid bat of his, I’d stay clear.”

You slowly nodded your head and glanced at the leader.

You had three options, either sneak the bat back into his room, leave it somewhere for someone else or come clean.

You didn’t want someone else to take the heat for your actions, and you couldn’t exactly sneak it into his room so with a heavy sigh, you walked over to where he was stood.

“Negan?”

“What?” He snapped.

He turned around and glared at you and you subconsciously took a step back.

“I know where Lucille is…” you mumbled.

“Where?!”

“I uh… could you follow me?”

Negan didn’t say anything as he trailed behind you, and you took his to your room, opening the door and you gestured to the table.

He walked inside, picking up the bat, carefully inspecting it.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing with her?”

He slowly turned around and you stepped inside the room, closing the door so nobody passing by could look in.

“I uh.. I forgot to tell you…”

“What the fuck were you doing with her?” He growled out.

You sighed, heading under your table you pulled out a box and set it down, showing him to contents.

“I noticed that Lucille was breaking, and you left her on the table so I decided to fix her and forgot to tell you.”

“Why?”

You shrugged a little.

“I like fixing things a guess, plus you wouldn’t be Negan without Lucille.”

Negan stared at you and you couldn’t bring yourself to look at him, but you could feel his eyes practically burning into you.

You couldn’t tell if he was still angry or not, and part of you didn’t want to know.

At least if he wanted to kill you for taking his beloved bat then you wouldn’t see it coming so it would make it easier.

“Look at me.”

You took the box, setting it back under the table and began to inspect a few of your things, just doing anything to avoid looking at him.

“I said look. At. Me.”

You turned around, connecting your eyes with his, he wore a blank expression and you watched as he slowly began to grin.

It was that grin that sent a chill down your spine, the same grin that you knew was the last thing some people saw.

“She looks just as good as the first day I made her, shit (Y/N), if I knew you were so handy I woulda moved you ranks ages ago.”

He put the bat on his shoulder, stuffing a hand in his pocket as he looked at you.

“What do you want? Name me one thing and it’s yours.”

“Anything?”

“Damn straight.”

You went quiet for a moment.

“You got anything else I can fix?”

Negan blinked a little in confusion.

“I just gave you permission to ask for anything, anything you fuckin’ want, anything at all, and you want to fix shit?”

You shrugged a little and he laughed.

“Fucking weird as ball man, but alright. I got a few things for you, you’re to return them directly to me.”

“Yes sir.”

Negan began looking around at a few things you had already repaired and made.

It was why he kept you around at first, you were just handy when it came to fixing something that had broke.

He turned around to look over at you.

“How’d you know how to fix her?”

You paused what you were doing.

“My dad owned a repair shop, mostly just household shit, but he could fix up other crap too, loved baseball.”

Negan slowly nodded his head.

“Next time you take Lucille without asked I’ll start breaking fingers.”

“Understood.”

He smirked at you, and he picked up a little figurine you had fixed of a baseball player you didn’t even know the name to.

“I’m taking this too.”

With that he left and you let out a sigh of relief.

Maybe you shouldn’t have drawn more attention to yourself, but in the world it was now, you needed to have people you could rely on, so you needed to prove yourself to Negan if you wanted a chance of being kept around and surviving.

Maybe you didn’t agree with how he did things, but you sometimes had to do these things in order to survive

#the walking dead #the walking dead x reader #the walking dead x you #the walking dead x y/n #the walking dead imagine #twd #twd x reader #twd x you #twd x y/n #twd imagine #Negan smith #negan smith x reader #negan smith x you #negan smith x y/n #Negan smith imagine

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fatuismooches · 5 months

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fabulam diu oblitus - sequel.

synopsis: The tale of the raven and the sparrow has ended, but that doesn't mean it can't start again.

includes: dottore w/ gn! reader

notes: This is the fifth and final part of this fic, please read the other four before this! This is a fluffier continuation of the last part in order to soothe your hearts from the last part. Thank you to each and every one of you who supported me with this fic, it was a wonderful experience and I hope you all enjoyed it! Now, let's wrap up the tale of the raven and sparrow once and for all. (Also, I realize that this part may seem a bit reader-centric, but I hope it's still good!)

prelude. first interlude. second interlude. postlude. sequel.

It had been years since the Traveler had attended their first Akademiya Extravaganza. It was a marvelous experience. It had also been years since the old sages were overthrown, the Balladeer’s attempt to become a God, and of course, the deletion of the Doctor’s segments as well as the death of the Omega build.

But why was the Traveler still in Teyvat? Since they still had yet to find their treasured sibling, their journey persisted. And so they and their traveling companion had found themselves back in Sumeru for another fun festival. Paimon had already had her fill of games and yummy food, so now they were going to see a performance, by the one and only Nilou. Their friend often danced, but today would be a special one since it was during the festival.

“Oh wow! Zubayr Theater is so much more lively than usual!” Paimon exclaimed. Indeed, there was a large crowd gathered below the stage, all of them excited to watch the dancer’s performance. But there was one person who caught Paimon’s eye. Someone was sitting by themselves, away from the crowd.

“Huh? Look over there, someone is sitting all alone. Do you think they’re okay?”

“Paimon, just because someone is by themselves doesn’t mean they’re in trouble. Maybe they don’t like being around large groups of people.”

“Oh… Paimon knows that! But maybe we should check on them, just in case. We still have some time before Nilou’s performance.” The Traveler gave in to their friend’s request and the pair made their way over to you. But you were too lost in your thoughts to notice them coming.

Your illness still remained, but with all the years that had passed by, at least it wasn’t as bad as it was before. It didn’t totally dominate your life, and you were able to do some things by yourself that you couldn’t do before! It wasn’t a cure, but it was something. Though of course there were bad days, the good days were the ones you focused on more. Good days such as today.

You were back in Sumeru after hundreds of years. You never thought it would happen but, one day your husband came to you and told you the news so casually, you thought you were dreaming. You? Leaving Snezhnaya? It felt unreal! If you were stronger, you would have tackled him to the floor with your love, but alas you had to settle for squeezing him as hard as you could.

Though, to be honest, you weren’t sure if the Fatui actually had business there, or if he wanted to bring you there since you’d been longing for it for so long. (But it seemed unlikely that Pierro would give him vacation days…) Regardless, your joy was received by him adequately as you peppered his face with kisses.

So now you were here, in your home country. Of course, there were numerous top-tier Fatui agents assigned to you in disguise, always trailing behind with great skill, since Dottore was never going to let you be by yourself. But you didn’t really mind. The past few days had been the most fun you’d had in so long! (If only Dottore could join you. Obviously, he couldn’t in broad daylight… not to mention whatever duties he had.)

As you remember it, each Darshan had set up booths for the Wisdom Gala with a ton of interesting mini-games and other stuff. Though the concept was the same, you were once again realizing how things had changed over the centuries you were asleep… these games were truly novel! You were impressed at the creativity because it was nothing like this when you were a student!

One that was funny was when you were given a mallet… yes a mallet, to hit these little wooden fungi that kept popping up and down in different spots. You were given a question and each of the fungi had a different answer. You had to whack the one with the right answer. Now, figuring out the answer wasn’t the question, but rather hitting them. With your illness, lugging this thing quickly enough to smack them was not an easy task… but it was fun! Hehe, you knew Zandy would have whacked all of them anyway. Ugh, you were really feeling robbed now… the best things always happen in school after you already left.

Though your favorite game was the gear puzzles. You were given multiple gears of different sizes and had to insert them to make all of them eventually turn. You ended up finishing them at record speed, causing a whole swarm of Kshahrewar students around you, begging you to join their Darshan. It was a good thing one of your agents caused a distraction elsewhere for you to swiftly escape… Hmm, maybe you should ask Dottore to make these for you, so you could occupy your mind.

Ahh, not to mention the food… the delicious, authentic Sumerian cuisine that you missed so much. Although some things had naturally changed over four hundred years, it was as yummy as you remembered it. You always packaged some so you could share with Dottore (especially the sweets.) At the end of the day, or when you were tired, you were always escorted back to him. The location was secluded of course, for privacy and safety reasons. Your husband would listen to you ramble about quite literally everything, as you explored Sumeru City thoroughly, not just the festival. Even though he already knew everything you spoke about, he liked seeing your curiosity be indulged in.

But today was different. Today you decided to witness the performances going on in the theater. You had always liked watching them (Columbina often invited you to them) in Snezhnaya, so now you wanted to see what Sumeru had to offer. Four hundred years ago, the Akademiya looked down and shamed the arts far more than they do today. Non-academic writing, drawing, sculpting, acting, singing, dancing, you name it. There was no such thing as the Grand Bazaar or Zubayr Theater. Though you didn’t live here anymore, you were very pleased to see how much the arts were appreciated now, as they should be. Especially that red-haired girl, her dancing was awe-inspiring. You had seen her practice before the performance for a few days, and it was beautiful! If only things were like this when you were a student here…

“Hello there! You’re sitting all the way over here by yourself, are you okay?” A squeaky voice interrupted your reminiscing and you turned to see who it was.

The Traveler and Paimon… It seemed that you were blankly staring at them for too long because the floating one spoke again.

“Um… are you okay?”

“Oh! I’m fine, sorry, sorry, I just spaced out for a second there,” you apologetically waved them off. This was going to be a bit annoying.

A while ago, you had decided to let go. Let go of the pain, of any possible thoughts of revenge, of the sheer grief you suffered from your loss. Because continuing to work yourself up like that would only worsen your illness and mental state. For the most part, you’d been successful, living each day as best you could along with your husband. You still thought about the segments though, always thankful for what they did for you.

But now that the Traveler stood in front of you in flesh and blood, your composure wavered a little. This was the same person who killed Omega. You couldn’t help but feel a twinge of hatred, but you relaxed with a deep breath.

“That’s okay! Well, Paimon is Paimon, and this here is the Traveler. We saw you here by yourself and just wanted to see if you were alright!” The blonde nodded in affirmation.

“Ah, I see. There’s no need to worry about me. My body can’t handle standing for so long, so it’s better for me to sit, even if I’m a bit far away from the stage.” There was no harm in telling them right off the bat because you had a feeling that Paimon’s line of questioning would make you reveal your illness anyway. She talked a lot, according to your fellow Fatuis.

“Huh? Are you injured?”

“No, it’s just my illness. My body struggles to do many things a healthy person would, so I need to be careful.” The pair nodded at you in sympathy.

“Oh… Paimon is sorry about that. That sounds really tough…”

“It’s alright. It’s been like this for many years, so I’ve grown accustomed to it.” The fairy placed her hand on her chest in understanding before she brightened.

“Ah, Paimon has a good idea! Why don’t we keep you company during the performance? You know, we’ve been here loads of times and are even friends with Nilou! We can definitely tell you some cool things!”

“Oh, that sounds… nice.” You smiled at them, not because you liked them, but more because you were interested in their stories about this place. Paimon cheered and the Traveler took a seat near you. It made your skin crawl a bit, but you didn’t show any outward reaction.

“Say, Paimon never asked your name.”

“You can call me [Name].” The only person who knew you in this country was the Dendro Archon, and you doubted they would tell her about you, so there was no point in using another name. Also that was too much work.

“So [Name], is this your first time in Sumeru? We can show you all the best restaurants if you need it!” Ah, so the agents were also accurate when they said she liked food a lot. And the fact the Traveler was silent most of the time.

“No, I used to live here. But, I moved away a long time ago, so this is my first time back in many years.”

“That sounds nice. It must feel good to be back, huh? It’s too bad the Interdarshan Championship isn’t taking place this year. That would have been lots of fun!” Paimon sighed, memories of the last one flowing through her mind. Ah yes, you remember that as well. You and Zandik were never chosen as nominees of course… but it was a fun event to observe. For you at least. Zandik would always go on about how foolish the competitors were, how they couldn’t see how simple the seemingly difficult challenge was. You always laughed at his criticism.

“Mhm, it’s too bad. Maybe I can come back another time to see that.”

“Yeah, you definitely should! Speaking of, did you come here with anyone?”

“Yes, my husband accompanied me here. But he’s working right now, so I’m by myself.”

“Aww, that’s too bad. It must be lonely to enjoy a festival by yourself, huh?”

“Perhaps a little bit, but I do not mind. He’s taken care of me for countless years along with his work duties, it’s more than enough for me to even have the opportunity to experience this festival.”

“Wow, you two really do sound like a loving couple!”

“Hehe, yes… yes, we are,” you had started to smile loopily at the thought of Dottore and ignored the look the Traveler and Paimon gave you. But your attention returned when the stage lights flickered on and the crowd started to simmer down.

“Looks like the performance is starting! Oh, Paimon can’t wait to see what Nilou has in store this time!” You were excited to see it as well.

—

The performances were delightful. The play was well-acted and interesting, and the red-haired girl’s dance at the end was beautiful. Huh… you wish they had more festivals like this in Snezhnaya. Or maybe they did, and you didn’t know about them. You’d have to ask Bina about that when you return.

“That was so, so touching,” Paimon sniffed as the Traveler comforted their friend. You couldn’t help but agree as well. “We have to go say hi to Nilou now!” The Traveler and Paimon rose as you watched them.

“Just stay here [Name], we’ll be back in a few minutes!” You smiled at them as they went off to greet their friend before you quickly dropped your expression. Stay? With them? Nah, you had enough for today. You wanted to go back to Dottore now and bother him to let you cuddle him on his lap. So when they weren’t looking, you slipped out of the theater, and your bodyguards slyly followed, attracting the attention of no one.

Ah, you had a lot of things to say to Dottore now, didn’t you…

—

“Huh? Where did [Name] go?” When the pair returned, you were gone.

“They must have left. I bet it’s because you were asking them so many questions, Paimon,” the Traveler teased her.

“Hey! Paimon was being friendly and they didn’t seem to mind! Anyway, let’s go outside. It’s only been a few minutes, maybe they’re still around.” The pair exited and walked around the city for a bit, but you had already disappeared into thin air.

“Traveler, Paimon! It’s nice to see you again!” A gentle voice called out to them. It was Nahida, who walked up to them with a bright smile on her face. The other two responded in kind.

“Oh, hey Nahida! Long time no see, huh?”

“Yes, it’s been quite a while. You must come over for a bit and tell me about your travels sometime. I guess you’ve been enjoying the Akademiya Extravaganza, right?”

“Yup! Traveler and Paimon enjoyed a lot of fun games and delicious food! And then we went to see some performances at the theater, and now we were looking for someone, but eh, it’s not really important anymore.”

“Hmm? Looking for who?”

“Just someone we met a few hours ago at the theater. Their name is [Name].” The Dendro Archon’s eyes widened at the mention of your name, immediately straightening up.

“[Name]? Did you say [Name]?” The Traveler and Paimon noticed the God’s surprised expression and inquired about it.

“Yeah, do you know them, Nahida?”

“I… I can’t believe it. Do they happen to look like…” Nahida then went off to give a brief description of you, and the Traveler confirmed that you indeed matched her words. Paimon was a bit worried.

“Nahida, why are you asking us this? You’re making it seem like we were talking to a long-lost criminal or something.”

“Well, I suppose that wouldn’t be too far off. This [Name] that you’ve met is… part of the Fatui. But that’s not the big part. They’re the Doctor’s lover.” It was silent for a few seconds before Paimon responded, nearly yelling as the Traveler’s jaw dropped.

“The man [Name] is married to is THE DOCTOR?!”

“Oh, so they’re married now? Last time I heard they weren’t.”

“Nahida, surely you must be mistaken, right? You’re far too casual about this, no one could be dating the Doctor of their own free will!” Nahida was about to respond when yet another voice interrupted.

“She’s not lying.” A familiar voice echoed from somewhere and the group turned to face it. It was the former Sixth Harbinger, standing to the side, braced against the wall. “That [Name] is indeed the partner of Dottore. I met them while I was in the Fatui.”

“Ahh… Paimon’s head hurts…” The Traveler nodded in agreement as they too rubbed their head at this revelation. “But why? Why would they want to be with the Doctor?”

“It’s futile to ask me about their relationship,” the puppet scoffed. “I cannot begin to comprehend how the two of them supposedly love each other. I’ve spoken to them a few times…” the puppet thought back to those encounters in the lab, “but our conversations did little to enlighten me on the nature of their relationship.”

“[Name] and Dottore have a long history together. It’s… complicated, but I’m not lying when I say they’ve been together for centuries. But what concerns me is that if [Name] is here, then the Doctor must be close by as well… and the Fatui too… He wouldn’t let them roam around all by themselves.”

“Oh no! That’s right, [Name] said that their husband accompanied them here. So that means the Doctor is in Sumeru!”

“I see… the Matra would have noticed if a boat of Fatui arrived at the port… so that means the other agents must be well disguised. But nothing has happened lately. Sumeru has been at peace like usual, there’s nothing that the Fatui have been digging their nose into recently. I wonder…” the God of Wisdom began to mumble to herself while Wanderer merely looked on.

“Paimon would have never guessed they were in the Fatui… do you think they were lying about their illness too?”

“No, they are indeed afflicted with a mysterious illness. From what I know, [Name] used to be quite a formidable force four hundred years ago. But their illness gradually sapped their strength away from them, leaving them as they are now… so they have virtually no physical prowess anymore.”

“Oh… that’s quite sad. Wait, but that doesn’t change the fact they’re part of the Fatui, with the Doctor no less! They’re our enemy, no doubt!”

“That’s not to mean [Name] is weak. Although their mind has certainly been ravaged by many things, they possess a strong will. Not to mention, they are the one and only Doctor’s close confidant. I’m sure if pressed, they have some tricks up their sleeves.”

“We have to do something! The Fatui are always up to no good, I bet they have some horrible, evil plan to… to… ruin the Akademiya Extravaganza! We can’t let them do that!” Paimon exclaimed while the Traveler nodded in complete agreement. “Nahida, what’s the plan?”

“The plan is to let them be.”

“H-Huh? Nahida, you’re just going to let them go?”

“That’s correct, Paimon.”

“Lesser Lord Kusanali, are you sure?” Even Wanderer, who usually went along with the God albeit with some moaning and groaning, had an objection.

“The festival has been going on for several days now, and tomorrow is the last day. If the Fatui truly were planning something, it would have been done by now. And to be honest, I suspect that the only reason the Doctor made the trip here was for…” You, Nahida wanted to say, but then decided against it. She wasn’t one hundred percent sure, after all. “Actually, never mind. Don’t worry about it, Traveler, Paimon. But if you happen to see them tomorrow, you could speak to them again. I am admittedly… interested in [Name].”

“Well… alright Nahida. We trust you.”

—

While the group was busy chatting about you, you were making your way back to Dottore. It was already evening, and all you wanted to do was relax in the embrace of your beloved. However today, the Fatui agents were escorting somewhere else rather than your temporary home. Where? The more you walked, the quicker you realized.

The large Ruin Golem in the mountains of Sumeru’s forest.

Seeing it from a distance brought back fond memories for you. You remember the first time you and Zandik entered it. He was incredibly fascinated with it and literally spent hours in it. Of course, you were forced to stay with him and help him with all the research and note-taking. But looking back, it was fun. And you may or may not have kissed him a lot in there, and he was very annoyed at you breaking his focus, but did nothing to stop you.

This same spot, near the Ruin Golem, was also a frequent star-gazing spot. Because he would spend so long there, even until night fell, and you kept insisting it’d be romantic to watch the stars here. He didn’t really agree but… Zandik surprisingly indulged you more than you realized.

Soon, you were much closer to the Ruin Golem and Dottore was in sight, waiting for you. The Fatui agents bowed to you as you dismissed them and made your way over to your husband, who was patiently waiting for you while gazing at the large robot in front of him. You wondered if he had finished his work, for him to be wasting time like this.

(In reality, there was no real mission in Sumeru. The five-day long trip was done to indulge your long-time wishes. Pierro had only let Dottore go on it if he managed to finish at least three-quarters of his paperwork before the trip, and the other quarter during it. So needless to say, Dottore had worked quite hard to acquire this time off, but you didn’t need to know that because then you would feel absolutely terrible and he’d have to deal with your countless apologies.)

“[Name],” he greeted you.

“Zandik!” You immediately hugged him to which he reciprocated and patted your head. “I missed you! Oh, I have so much to tell you. You wouldn’t believe what happened. I met the-”

“Traveler,” Dottore interrupted.

“You know already?”

“Of course. I was notified the moment it happened.”

“Oh.” Well, now that you think about it, that made sense. Of course, Dottore would be aware of everything that happened to you… you were alone, but in a way you weren’t. He still had that overprotective and possessive streak, and rightfully so. He chuckled at your reaction.

“But, I believe your point of view will be far more eye-opening. So please, do tell.” You brightened and immediately began prattling about everything, not before you two laid down on the grass and got comfortable, the same as you did four hundred years ago. Though Dottore wasn’t particularly worried about the Traveler doing anything to you, no, of course, he had planned for this possibility (unlike you) and already had measures in place just in case anything happened.

So the conversation began to move onto softer things. Like you bringing up old memories every five seconds. For example, you two also used to come here frequently to investigate the forest for classes. Zandik usually found these ones boring and was much more interested in Ruin Machines, so you often sped through these boring expeditions in record time so he could do more “fun” things.

“Perhaps we should do that again.”

“Do what? Investigate the biodiversity of Sumeru’s forest?”

“Correct.” You laughed at his words but Dottore looked rather serious about it.

“Isn’t the sun going to set soon? And I thought you weren’t interested in that stuff anymore.”

You were surprised he was doing this, but Dottore had already risen to his feet and stuck out his hand to you expectantly.

“No matter. We can still see, no? And I do believe it will be interesting to see how it has changed over four hundred years.” That was a lie. He didn’t actually care about the plants of the forest. He was only doing it because he knew it was something you would like. And he was right of course, for you smiled happily and took his hand, clasping it tightly.

“Alright then! I’ll lead the way, just like old times,” you puffed your chest out. “Just follow me, Zandik. And you’re taking notes this time! You don’t know what you put my hand through all those years ago!” Dottore only chuckled at your huffing. You were always on note duty because he kept breaking his pens and spilling ink everywhere, much to your dismay.

But regardless, you two spent an evening examining Sumeru’s fauna, the conversation turning surprisingly rather intellectual. But it soon turned quiet as you two ended the night off by gazing at the stars, just like old times.

The stars may be a lie, but sometimes lies are still beautiful.

—

Today was the last day of the Akademiya Extravaganza, and you decided to spend the day enjoying the city one last time. You were set to leave with Dottore this afternoon, so you only had about half a day to do what you needed to do. You didn’t know when you’d be back again, so you wanted to imprint it into your mind, and maybe get a few souvenirs as well. It all went well, you did what you needed to do, bought what you wanted and passed it on to your agents to keep for you, and were actually about to head back to Dottore when you met some familiar faces.

The Traveler and Paimon… again. It seemed like the Gods really did hate you, huh?

“Hey [Name]!” That familiar high-pitched voice waved to you and called out your name… ugh. Just as you were about to go, too. But you pretended otherwise.

“Hello Paimon, Traveler. It is good to see you again. I must apologize for leaving yesterday. I had… matters to attend to,” you apologized.

“Don’t worry about that! Paimon understands.” You smiled back in response and waited to see if the pair would say anything else, but they just… stood there for a few seconds and looked at you.

“Well, if that’s all…” You turned to leave, but Paimon blurted out a strained response unusually quickly.

“Wait! Paimon means, would you like to take a walk with us? Our conversation got cut short yesterday, it would be nice to talk a bit more.” You squinted a bit at Paimon’s expression. It seemed a bit… off. Regardless, you did have some more time to kill, and perhaps they would tell you something of amusement you could relay back to Dottore. So it wasn’t too bad of a decision.

“Alright, that sounds fine,” you nodded in agreement. Paimon had to hold in her sigh of relief. And so the three of you began to walk, taking in the sights of the city. Paimon asked you some more questions, but she seemed a bit… nervous? You weren’t dumb, the more she talked the easier it was to notice. The Traveler was good at keeping a poker face, but Paimon on the other hand, was not. She was nervously looking back and forth between you and the blonde. Which could only mean one thing.

They knew your real identity.

Ah, so they found out. Huh. You weren’t expecting that, but you didn’t care much. They were bound to find out eventually, so long as they kept fighting the Fatui. You didn’t know if they were going to confront you right now or not, but you weren’t going to wait around for it. You knew your Fatui bodyguards were close by somewhere, but you didn’t want them to get hurt by the Traveler, so you stretched your arms out, a signal for them to back away a bit. Because you already had a defense mechanism readied that you didn’t want to affect them. Courtesy of Dottore, of course.

So before Paimon could ask another question, you abruptly stopped. You two had exited the city, so there were no regular civilians around either.

“[Name], why did you-”

“There’s no need to pretend anymore. You know who I am, don’t you?” The looks on their faces gave it all away, and the Traveler instantly put up their guard, which you chuckled at.

“Now now, there’s no need to get all worked up. Surely the ever-righteous Traveler won’t hurt a poor, defenseless soul like me, right?” You simply smiled at them, and Paimon was immediately on the verbal defense.

“Hey! You’re in no position here to be saying stuff like that! The Traveler here has taken out countless Fatui, you’re no different,” the travel guide bluffed. She remembered Nahida’s instructions to let you be, but how could she let you talk to her like that?! “And, and,” she scratched her brain for another warning, “we’ll take you to the Matra for questioning!” Paimon blurted out her best threat, which you only laughed at.

“Oh no, I’m so scared…”

“Hey! We’re not joking! You’re connected with the Doctor, they’ll lock you up!”

“Mhm, you know all of that, don’t you? And yes, I’m well aware of your martial prowess,” you looked directly at the blonde. “The same hands killed Omega, didn’t they?” At the segment’s name, the Traveler stiffened. The look in your eyes wasn’t the same as it was before. It had a carefully veiled sense of loathing that had come up to the surface.

“You know, for years I wondered to myself, how did Omega look like in his last moments? What did he think of? What did he do?” Your voice gradually became a soft whisper. “These questions used to drive me mad, but I don’t think I want to know the answer anymore.” The two were shocked at the clear love and longing you had in your voice for the deceased segment. It wasn’t fake at all.

“But why? Why would you willingly be with someone like the Doctor?” Earlier that day, the Traveler and Paimon had decided to scout Sumeru again in hopes of finding notes that you left behind, and after careful exploration once again, they did. Your notes, however, always had careful logical additions left by Zandik. And then, in response… you’d flirt with him on the note, to which the scholar never responded. The pair didn’t know what to feel or say to that.

“Ah, there it is. The same question I receive every time. But it’s okay. I can understand your confusion. Though if I were to stand here and tell you every reason why, it would make you only more confused. So let me answer your question with the simplest answer of them all. I love Dottore. Dottore loves me. That is the foundation of our relationship.” Unfortunately, that answer seemed to only make the two more confused.

“… It seems that you still do not understand. But that’s okay. It’s not like it matters anyway,” you supposed they were unconvinced a man such as Dottore could love, but you weren’t here to convince them of that. So then you turned to leave before Paimon spoke again.

“Where do you think you’re going? You are coming with Traveler and Paimon!” You let out a sigh at this creature’s persistence. Looks like you’d have to do something.

“You know, I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to use this,” you mumbled under your breath before you retrieved a pill from your pocket and swallowed it, although it was a different color from your regular ones. The Traveler continued to watch on carefully, ready to summon their sword at any second.

“Hmph! Any last words?” Paimon put her hands on her hips as she stared at you. You thoughtfully looked up and began to think, before you came up with something. You despised the Traveler, but a question couldn’t help but linger in your chest. And hey, they’ve helped Childe and Arlecchino in the past, despite nearly being killed by them, right? And that Electro God too. You didn’t know if they were stupid or just too nice. It was worth a shot. And, you didn’t care if you were selfish or not. You were tired of being nice.

“Traveler… may I ask you a favor?”

The Traveler raised their eyebrow, partially offended and shocked you would ever ask them that considering the antagonistic stance you took. That was the last thing they expected, but you took their silence as an opportunity to continue.

“You hop to different worlds, don’t you? Different universes?” The Traveler nodded, unsure of where you were going with this. Your gaze flickered to the floor, eyebrows furrowing before you made up your mind.

“Then, when you leave Teyvat, could you… look for me?” Out of everything that could have come out of your mouth, the Traveler could not have expected that.

“I want to know… I just want to know if there exists a world, where none of this happened. Where I was never sick, where he didn’t have to do all of this to find a cure. I want to know if there’s a world where everything is okay for us.” Your eyes fluttered shut as you spoke, loads of memories flashing through your head about everything you’ve gone through. The Traveler and Paimon remained speechless because they truly did not know what to say, before you cringed at yourself for saying something so stupid.

“Ah, what am I saying? I know you have no sympathy for us, it was dumb to ask,” you waved it off. “Forget it. But I’m afraid I’ve wasted too much time here with you. I have things to attend to.” At that moment, you reached into your pocket and produced a strange device, and before the Traveler could summon their sword, an irregular, headache-inducing sound echoed throughout the area. Instantly, the Traveler knew it was the same sound device Omega had used to put them to sleep all those years ago. But it was too late, as their mind became foggy and their knees buckled to the floor.

“To think that you fell for the same thing twice… that’s kind of embarrassing for you, mighty Traveler,” your laugh was the last thing they heard before they fell into a dream. “It’s a good thing Dottore told me to carry this thing… and made a pill so the effects wouldn’t work on me. Well, bye now.”

—

After rendering those two unconscious, you made your way to the boat you and Dottore were going to leave in. Your agents had caught back up to you and you swore you heard them mumbling about how “cool” you were. It was cute.

You saw your husband standing leisurely on the boat. You guess he had no reason to disguise himself considering he was already about to leave. You immediately smiled and climbed onto the boat with his help.

“I guess you were immediately notified of what happened, weren’t you?” You teased.

“Of course,” he went along with your tone. “I am always aware of what hindrances may plague my spouse.” You hummed in acknowledgment as you watched the Fatui prepare to set off.

“You know, this whole trip, I’ve been thinking something stupid.”

“No thought from you could be stupid. Do tell.”

“I’ve been thinking… that I love you so much that it may begin to physically hurt me when you’re not around.” Dottore seemed amused.

“Is that so?”

“Yes, really! All those times when you left me alone in the lab, I swear I started developing some side effects!” You pouted as Dottore found himself laughing at your pain.

“Well, not to worry. I am a doctor, after all, I know very well how to treat this ailment.” Dottore ran his fingers up and down your neck, leaving behind a tingling sensation.

“Oh, do you? Well, go ahead, doctor. Make me feel better.”

“I would be delighted to but, the treatment is a little… hands-on,” his deep voice made your heart race with excitement.

“Aren’t you the one who always gets mad at me for trying to skip my medicine? I see no reason to hesitate.” You smiled boldly.

“As you wish. But don’t say I didn’t warn you…” Dottore then pressed you against the railing of the boat, holding you down so you wouldn’t tip over, and then began to lean into your lips.

(The Fatui agents kept their heads turned the whole time.)

—

That had happened years before the Traveler defeated the Doctor, and consequently killed you in the process. Sometimes they wonder if things could have turned out differently. Especially since some of the other Harbingers were certainly not pleased with them when they finally fought, namely the Third, but she too eventually met her demise. But what’s done is done.

The Traveler thought that would be the last they ever saw of you and the Doctor, but they were wrong. As one would expect, Dottore was connected with many of the events in Teyvat, and so he popped up here and there again throughout the rest of the Traveler’s journey.

But one thing they did not expect was to see you and Dottore again. Where? The Ley Lines had somehow shown them people from the past, as they once did with the Shogun.

It was… strange. Strange to see the two of you just be normal. Normal people, normal students before it all changed. You, a stark contrast to the person they saw before - energetic, bubbly, handling your weapon with ease as you protected Zandik from any possible danger. Zandik, a lot more grouchy and less suave, morally ambiguous but not quite evil yet. Two people who were alone and found company in each other’s likeness. It created a sort of… understanding for the Traveler. Not forgiveness. Understanding.

So when they finally left Teyvat, they decided to fulfill that favor you had asked them. To find you in another universe. It was also to satisfy a sort of curiosity they had themselves. Would you two truly be happy in another world? They would find out as long as they continued to journey with their sibling. So they traveled and traveled and met many new people, and went on many new adventures, your request lingering in the back of their mind every time they visited a new planet.

Admittedly, it was actually kind of… sad to see your fates in the other universes. In many universes, you died, or he died, leaving the other all alone unable to come to terms with their fate. In some universes, you were ill again. You did not survive. In others the relationship did not last, breaking it off due to numerous reasons out of your or Zandik’s control. And maybe the worst fate of them all… you two never crossed paths. Never able to give the other a chance at love.

If the Traveler had a Mora for every time fate divided you two, they might be as rich as Pantalone. They wondered if your request would ever be finished. So when the Traveler entered the next universe, they weren’t expecting much.

This world was a bit different from the others. It had no supernatural powers, but it had great technology. Things like “internet” and “phones” and “computers.” But they had gotten accustomed to it quickly, as they always had. Right now they were at an outdoor cafe, waiting for their sibling when they heard a familiar voice.

“Ugh, I swear, as soon as the term ends, I will be running to give that guy a scalding rating!” The voice spoke with annoyance and a slam followed soon after, presumably textbooks dumped onto the table. This cafe was frequented by students, so this was no surprise for the Traveler. Cheap, yummy, and a good study spot is what they heard from passersby.

“I told you not to take him,” another grouchy voice replied. “You brought this on yourself.”

“You know that he was my only option! I literally got the last seat in the class,” you whined back, the chairs dragging across the concrete. “Besides, I don’t want to hear that from you when you complain about your professors every single day, Zandik.” That name nearly made the Traveler choke on their drink.

Zandik? Did they hear that right…? They turned around, hoping not to arouse attention, and then their eyes widened as they looked at the pair that just arrived.

They were the spitting image of the [Name] and Dottore from Teyvat, although these people were dressed in different clothes that were normal for this planet. There were a few minor differences that the Traveler only recognized because they were familiar with Teyvat’s version of you, but there was no doubt about it.

These two people were this planet’s version of you and Dottore. But the question was, were you two happy together? The Traveler needed to find out, and this position wasn’t good for spying so they moved to another inconspicuous location.

Zandik only rolled his eyes at your defiant quip before opening his heavy textbook, which you soon followed suit. The friendly banter between the two of you flowed naturally. When the food came, you tried feeding him the piece of cake which Zandik tried shooing your hand away, but had to give in after a while with slightly red cheeks. Your hands occasionally brushed against each other, but neither of you pulled away. Interesting, very interesting. Could this be the universe…?

After you two left the cafe, the Traveler decided to follow. This was probably a bit stalkerish, but they just needed to confirm. (Good thing they had skill in this area.)

In the busy public streets, your shoulders only brushed, but when it became more deserted, you reached out to hold hands with Zandik. He huffed and mumbled something to you, which the blonde could not hear, though you only responded with a laugh as you squeezed his hand tighter. But then your attention was diverted by something else.

“Oh, look there Zandik! Do you see that?” You whisper-yelled, drawing his attention to a tree branch. “It’s a raven and a sparrow! Together! The thing is on top of the other’s head!” You couldn’t contain your amusement. “Isn’t that really strange? Don’t ravens eat sparrows sometimes?”

“Yes, and the sparrow must be rather stupid for allowing itself to get so close to something that can kill it,” Zandik said bluntly.

“That’s not nice,” you poked him for that comment. “Just because they’re different doesn’t mean they can’t be friends. Just like us, Zandik!”

“The world is not that nice, [Name],” he sighed, your optimism causing him great headaches sometimes.

“Yeah, I know thatttt~. But you never know! Hehe, you know, this reminds me of the time a few months back when a butterfly landed on your nose. You looked so cute! Ah, I’m so glad I got a picture.” Zandik immediately scowled, because you set the bloody thing as your wallpaper, so anyone who looked at your phone’s home screen could see the embarrassing moment. Ajax and his wretched finance and theater friends did not let him hear the end of it. Your boyfriend then started walking much faster, dragging you along as you yelped at the increased speed.

“Stop babbling and hurry up, otherwise I’ll leave you behind.”

“Okay, okay! Just slow down!!”

Soon, the two of you reached your newly rented apartment. Both of you had only recently moved out of the dorms, but it had been a lot of fun decorating and growing accustomed to this new life. The Traveler watched as you disappeared into the building, and then noticed your figure again through a window near the upper level. You were cradling an animal, a cat actually, and kissed it gently. Zandik then made his way over, uncharacteristically scratching its chin as well, before saying something to you. (Perhaps scolding you for giving your pet too much attention. A very Zandik way of saying he himself wanted more attention too.) You only shook your head with mirth before pressing a kiss to your lover’s lips, and the two of you moved away from the window, now out of sight.

Well, the Traveler’s job was done now. You and Zandik were happy. Maybe not in Teyvat, maybe not in any other world but… you two were happy in this one. And that was all you wished for.

[Name] and Zandik were happy.

And that’s the perfect ending for a fairy tale, right?

395 notes · View notes

mochie85 · 1 year

Text

Desire

One-Shots Masterlist Complete Masterlist

Summary: This is the prequel to Pheromones. You and Loki were sent to gather intel on a new drug that's being manufactured in Madripoor. Pairing: Loki x Female Reader Word Count: Over 4K Warnings: One-bed trope. Fake Marriage trope. This has hard fluff. There are no actual acts but there are steamy moments. Dividers: @firefly-graphics

It really shouldn’t have surprised you. A classic setting in the modern streets of Madripoor. A top-secret mission that only you have the skill set to accomplish. Getting to spend an obscene amount of forced private time with your long-time infatuation. It all seemed like a trademark recipe for a rom-com movie. So, of course, it shouldn’t have shocked you that there was only one bed.

Both you and Loki entered the bedroom suite to stare at the offending furniture only to drop your duffel bags down simultaneously.

“Well, darling, shall we?” he asked with a playful glint in his eyes.

“Shall we what?” You asked slightly hopeful. Slightly cautious.

“Set up, of course.” He said pragmatically. “What exactly are we here to witness?” Loki said moving towards the windows. He moved with the grace of a predator. He looked like one too, in his expensive dark suit, the top button loose on his white linen shirt.

He held the curtains back to watch the tall office building across the street. The nightclub on the top floor bursts with prismatic lights and shadows dancing to unheard music. You followed and stood behind him, watching the windows across the way.

It was a supposed front for the distribution and manufacturing of the latest drug to hit the States. You and Loki were posing as honeymooners. Rich, honeymooners looking for a good time that would remain discreet and classified to mummy and daddy’s open wallet.

“We should take turns if they want us to monitor them 24/7.” You posed. You started to take your strappy sandals off as well as the jewelry you had on. Loki could hear you start to undress and it took all his strength and poise as an honorable gentleman to not turn and watch you. But he was the god of mischief after all.

“I’ll take the first shift. Go ahead and sleep. It’s been a long day for you.” he said, still looking out the window, watching your reflection through the glass.

“Thank you.” You said quietly. “I’ll be…” you started.

“Don’t worry darling. I know where you are if I need you.” He smiled. He left you with a nod and a smirk as he closed the door to the lone bedroom not once having turned your way.

Feeling rejected that your brazenness wasn’t received, you spent an extra amount of time in the shower, only leaving after you imagined him deciding to join you. Hoisting you up against the smooth tile, his godly cock burying deep inside you as his grunts echoed in the open shower.

After finishing your nightly ritual, you lay there on the soft sheets, listening to what Loki might be doing outside in the living room. You fell asleep to his quiet shuffle across the floors. You felt safe knowing that he was out there watching guard as you drifted off. You weren’t sure, but you thought you could hear his deep voice humming a soothing lullaby.

You woke up to the sun glaring through your windows. You stretched and moaned feeling the spacious mattress you were sleeping on. I should probably remake the bed. Considering it’s the only bed in the entire suite and you and Loki would have to share it. You wouldn’t want him thinking you’re a slob.

Wandering into the living room, you were pleasantly surprised at the surveillance equipment Loki managed to set up on his own. Multiple monitors and a couple of keyboards were arranged at the lone table in the entire suite.

“Looks like you were busy.” You said clearing your throat.

“Good morning. Yes, I got bored and decided to tinker around a bit.”

“You didn’t need any help? You could’ve woken me up. I wouldn’t have minded.”

“No. You looked so peaceful. I couldn’t disturb you.”

“Oh. Thank you,” you said making you wonder when Loki came into the room last night.

You sauntered your way to the small galley kitchen and made yourself a cup of coffee. You hummed, taking the first sips as you sat next to him in front of the surveillance office he set up. He crossed his arms and sighed. Boredom dripped off his every pore. “Remind me again why I decided to join your merry bunch of misfits?”

“Because you look good kicking ass!” You blushed, offering the compliment as a joke. Loki turned to you with a smirk.

“I do make it look bewitching, don’t I?” he teased.

“Why don’t you go to bed? You’ve had a long night. I’ll take over.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. Go. Sleep.” You commanded. Loki rubbed his face and sighed as he got up weary from staying up all night. You watched him as he ran his fingers through his hair and worked the last of the buttons off on his shirt.

“You will wake me if…”

“Don’t worry, darling. I know where you are if I need you,” you said trying to mimic his accent, using his own words against him. Loki exhaled a puff of air as he smiled back at you.

After luxuriating in the hot shower, he readied himself for bed. He only realized when he stepped out that you had made the bed earlier. You fixed it to look like you hadn’t slept in it at all. Would it be peculiar if I slept in the same bed? It’s not as if she’ll be using it while I’m in here.

The thought of sharing a bed with you came unbidden into his mind. He looked at the mutual bed as he towel-dried his body off. Thoughts of taking you under him and whispering rude things in your ear made his abdominal muscles clench and blood rushed down to his straining cock.

Loki shook his head furiously as if he could shake the thoughts out of his head. He can’t think about you like that. Especially not right now. You were both on this mission and any distraction could mean the difference between a small cut or serious bodily harm.

Loki laid down on his stomach with a loud sigh. He wondered when he would ever have the courage to tell you of his feelings. He only volunteered on this mission because you would be away for almost a month and he couldn’t stand not seeing you for that extended amount of time.

Loki closed his eyes and relaxed into the soft mattress. She can kick me off if she has a problem with me sleeping here. A grin played on his lips, hoping very much that you would come into the bedroom.

Loki fell asleep to the smell of your floral shampoo on the pillow and the quiet movement of your feet outside the doors. Knowing that you were out there, essentially waiting for him, made him content and he fell into a deep slumber.

Loki woke to the sunset blaring down on his face, turning the bedroom into a bright orange hue. He opened the doors to the aroma of food wafting over to him. Having just woken up, he sauntered out into the living room with only his silk pajama bottoms. His hair was unruly and curled around his shoulders.

“Hi, sleepy head. You woke up just in time. I ordered takeout.” You said pointing to a paper bag on the dining table next to the kitchen. When you turned to address him, you nearly choked on your drink, leering at him as he came out of the lone bedroom.

He stifled his yawn, stretching his hands toward the ceiling. You took this time to follow the soft dark curls of his hair that trailed from his abs down to where his pajamas had ridden low past his sharp hip bones.

“Darling, are you all right? You look a little flush.” He asked as he made his way over to you. He tilted your chin up gently to look up into his eyes trying to make certain you didn’t become ill during the day.

“Yes. Uh-hum.” You nodded your head.

“Your blush suits you,” he whispered, causing your skin to burn at his touch and your face reddened even more. His scent overflooded your senses. If he didn’t move from you soon, you would take his fingers, which were caressing your face, into your mouth and show him exactly what you could do.

Just as you opened your mouth he looked over to the table and moved to the bag filled with food.

“Wonderful. I’m famished!” he said opening the bag and taking out the contents. “Anything to note on the building?” plating some noodles and chicken.

“Some sketchy trucks came by earlier.” You remarked, clearing your throat. “In half-hour increments for four hours. Not labeled. Non-descript. If we want a closer look, we might have to attend that nightclub up top,” you reported. Loki nodded as he handed you a plate of food.

“Thank you,” you whispered.

“My pleasure,” he answered. It was then that you got a good look at him. His eyes were two different shades of blue and green, like the ocean. His sharp nose and pointed chin framed his face so strongly that it made him look regal.

He twirled the noodles on his fork as he rested his feet on top of the coffee table, leaning back. He caught you staring at him midway between putting the fork in his mouth and was surprised. “What is it?” he asked.

“Nothing. I’ve never seen you so…relaxed before.” You smiled. “I kinda like it.” You turned away, looking out the window, hoping to hide your blush.

And so, it went on for three weeks. In the mornings, you would wake up to fresh coffee and sometimes a pastry. You were always surprised to note that your cup was ready for you. Made just the way you preferred, with two sugars and cream. You and Loki would relay all the happenings and everything he observed during the night. Then you would switch shifts.

Loki would go to sleep each morning, grateful for the fact that you made the bed, deeply inhaling your scent on the pillows as if you were sleeping right next to him. Then he would wake up in the afternoon to the smell of dinner. Sometimes takeout, sometimes cooked by your own hands. He appreciated those the most.

Until one afternoon, just one hour shy of Loki’s alarm going off, you woke him up.

“Loki. Loki wake up!” You shook his shoulder. Still half asleep, he grabbed your arm, turned you over his body, and pinned you down on top of the bed. His hands cuffing your wrists on top of your head.

Loki growled. His face was a mix of irritation and fatigue as his half-lidded eyes narrowed on you lying underneath him.

Your eyes were wide and dilated, trying to take in his proximity. The first purple hues of your blush started to appear, and Loki took a deep breath inhaling your warm floral scent.

“What are you doing here, pet?” he said hoarsely, his voice cracking. His hips pinned you down as his fingers tightened around your wrists.

“The v-vans stopped coming,” you stuttered as Loki continued to trail his nose down your neck, making you breathless and moan. “Expensive sports cars and dignitary vehicles were com-coming instead.” Your moans made him grind further into you. You could feel his hard shaft pressing against your already wet cunt, sending jolts of pleasure throughout your hips.

Your mind was gone. You couldn’t think straight as Loki grazed your jawline with his teeth. “There’s going to be a sale going on tonight and we need to be there.” You groaned out.

Loki’s eyes snapped to yours. His clear eyes furrowed with confusion as he took in your dazed ones under him. A sense of wakefulness finally caught up to him as he realized what he had just done.

“Why wake me now? Couldn’t this wait?” he whispered, more to himself than to you. Lifting himself off of you, he turned, lying next to you in bed.

“No. Steve just called. Said he wants us to pull out tomorrow morning. If we don’t get anything tonight, we would be going home with nothing to show for it,” you tried to sound professional. You tried to slow your breathing and contain your heartbeat within your chest.

“So, what do you propose we do?” he said as he let your aroma wash over him. He turned his head in your direction, and you turned in his. Your hair was caught in between you and the pillow, covering half your face with sultry allure.

“Let’s go to the club. We’re supposed to be a honeymoon-ing couple. We haven’t left the hotel room since we got here. People will think it’s suspicious.”

“I don’t think it’s suspicious for newlyweds to never leave their room.” He chuckled. You playfully hit his arm as a joke, and he caught your hands. He brought it up to cover his cheek as he turned his whole body to face you. “Is this really that important to you?” His thumb grazed the back of your hand, holding your touch in place.

You felt his smooth skin under your fingertips as they took on a life of their own and started twirling the locks of his hair. “I don’t want our hard work wasted for nothing, Loki. If we leave now we’ll have nothing to show for it.”

His face inched closer to yours on the bed. You looked so ethereal. Your warmth pulled him closer, enticing him to keep you there on the bed. “All right,” Loki whispered. “We’ll go. We’ll look around, see what we can find,” he whispered. The happiest grin showed on your face and warmed his heart. “But the moment you see something off, we leave. Do you understand? This was only supposed to be a recon mission.” He commanded and you nodded enthusiastically.

Shortly after, the both of you were getting dressed to attend the nightclub across the way. Loki had worn a dark navy suit with a light blue dress shirt. He had changed his appearance slightly, opting for short dirty-blonde hair and a slight stubble to adorn his face.

Once again, Loki was finding it hard to keep his eyes off you as you slid your dress onto your curvaceous frame. A low-cut, backless dress held together by a single knot on the back of your neck. He was watching you struggle through the reflection of the window when he finally decided to turn and help you.

“You know…” he started, as his fingers adjoined the zipper on the side of your dress, “…we would have to act like we are actually married. As if we were madly in love with each other,” he stated.

You hummed your agreement. You knew that it wouldn’t be too hard to act like you were infatuated with Loki. You just hoped that you could recover from the fact that he wasn’t interested in you after this mission. You turned around to look into his eyes, “That wouldn’t be too hard,” you smiled.

He let out a small chuckle as he looked down and noticed your wrists. Bruises had formed where his fingers pinned you down earlier in the bed. He held them up as he conjured thin gold bangles to hide them.

“If we were a real couple, do you think we should be hiding them?” you asked absentmindedly. Loki looked up at you through his lashes. His smile grew wide as he learned something about your predilections.

“In that case, darling, let’s make it more believable. Shall we?” He twirled you around and pulled your body flushed with his. “For instance, if you were mine, I wouldn’t hesitate to mark you,” he growled in your ear. You felt his solid chest on your bare back. His hands trailed up and stopped at the top of your arms. You felt a cool tingling sensation on your shoulders when he touched you.

“I would mark you here, on your strong shoulders.”

“…mark me?...” you replied weakly, and Loki hummed his answer. His nose trailed down your neck again inhaling your floral scent as small bite marks appeared on top of your right shoulder. His hands continued their way to your collarbone. His light touch making you shiver.

“And with my mouth, I’d gently suck on your skin right here until you bruised. Trailing down further until I reached your navel.” His finger slid down your front, feeling his touch in between your breast. A cool trail of his seidr followed summoning light bruises to mark you sporadically where his fingers had touched you.

His other hand reached around your throat, wrapping his fingers gently, but firmly, along your long neck. “Hmm…and my hand would look so fetching around your throat, keeping you breathless.” Coolness tingles around your neck as you shivered at the image he put in your head.

A breathy moan escaped you, unbidden, and it made Loki smile with pride. His fingers brushed your lips as you opened them, making him trace your pout with the tips of his fingers. “And these would be swollen from my endless kisses,” he purred.

You felt his touch all over your body. You felt his seidr caress you. Enveloping you in a cool embrace as half-hidden marks appeared on some of the more delicate parts of your body.

Loki pulled his body away from you and circled you. He looked you up and down, appreciating his work. “Hmm…”

“How do I look?” you asked coyly.

“Like you are mine,” he growled. A smoldering heat crept up your body, making your body blush and the marks he placed more prominent.

“What about you?” you asked bravely. His flirtatious behavior giving you the courage to ask. Loki raised his eyebrow in response. “Don��t I get to give you my marks as well?” you expressed.

You once again closed the gap between the two of you and nuzzled against his neck. You pulled his dress shirt down to the first open button. “I don’t have any magic.” He felt your lips vibrate at your words. His hands gripped the sides of your dress pulling you closer to him. “So, I guess I would have to do it the old-fashioned way.”

You began by licking a small stripe on his neck. You opened your lips to kiss and pull on the small patch of skin between his neck and collarbone. The scent of his cologne mixed with the tangible trace of his own musk made you feral.

Loki sighed and whimpered feeling your lips on him. He closed his eyes relishing every draw of your lips. Every scrape of your teeth. Every breathless moan you let out against his skin.

When you finished, you looked up into his eyes. Their playful glint was gone, replaced by deep longing and a savage desire. He lifted his face, looking down at you. Your mark flashing proudly on his fair skin. “How does it look?” he rasped. His voice was subdued, trying to contain the passion he was experiencing inside.

“Like you belong to me,” you said quickly. You gave him an innocent kiss on his cheek and smiled. You proceeded outside to the living room, leaving Loki standing there watching you walk away from him.

Outside the club, it was hot and humid. Sweat had trickled down your back. Loki tried to keep you cool with subtle touches here and there combined with his chilling skin. He dutifully played the husband who couldn’t keep his hands off of his new bride.

Inside the club, the air was thick and not much drier. They were misting water to keep the clubgoers cool and happy. The drinks were readily available and inexpensive, served by masked waitresses and barmen.

Loki openly handed the bouncer a $100 note to get bumped up to the front of the line. You both had to keep appearances up as you reserved a private booth for the two of you with bottle service to last the whole night. The two of you were attracting a lot of attention from everyone who wanted to scrounge in your supposed wealth.

Sitting next to him in your private booth gave you an opportunity to watch different parts of the club. You leaned in close to Loki, your hands trailing down his neck where your mark still bruised. You whispered in his ear all the things you were observing. “The bartenders keep giving away small shots of alcohol with some of the drinks. Do you think the drug is in the shots?” you whispered as you inhaled and crossed your leg to rest over his knee. You noted how that simple act took a lot more effort than it should have.

Loki trailed his hands up your calves and whispered, “I could care less darling. I find myself unable to concentrate at the moment.” His hand traveled under the hem of your dress as his face got dangerously close to kissing your neck.

He savored your warm floral scent. How it haunted him every time he went to bed and smelled your perfume on the pillow. He also detected another fragrance. Something earthy. Something darker. It smelled like an invitation. Like a tempting piece of Valhalla waiting to be consumed. It drove him mad.

You looked back at him in shock. What had come over him? His face contorted in passion and longing. You couldn’t help but respond in kind. Your movements started getting slow and heavy as you reached for his face.

“Loki…” you murmured. “Loki…I think we’ve been drugged.”

Loki’s mind was going miles a minute. He couldn’t think straight. He took a deep breath in and inhaled your aroma once again and the intoxicating need you had let out. He could smell your desire.

Shaky, he looked around. The sprayers misting the club had gone off, enveloping the room in a haze. It’s a gas! The drug is in the mist!

You had started leaning towards Loki. Your body started shutting down. “Loki, I…I’m blacking out…call…help…”

“Darling, let’s go. We need to go back to the hotel room.” Loki pressed the distress signal that was located in your purse. He carried you by your hips, hoping that it would look believable enough not to raise suspicions that you were both under the influence.

“And ver do you tink you’re going, Avengers?” A callous voice said from behind Loki. A tall, burly man in a suit wearing a transparent mask stepped out from the shadows. “Vee don’t take kindly to people snooping around. Do you like the special mixture we made for you? Breathe deep, my friends. For it will be your last.” The man smiled as he reached for a weapon inside his breast pocket.

Loki couldn’t think of anything else to do but try to transport the two of you back to the hotel lobby or somewhere public, where there are lots of people to hide with.

If HYDRA knew they were being spied on, then they probably knew which room the two of you were staying at. He couldn’t risk transporting the two of you back there.

Loki brought the two of you to the restaurant he spotted earlier. The waiter, surprised that someone was sitting at a table without his knowledge, came by to see what was going on.

Loki looked flushed and irritated as his breathing got heavier and the air around him started to change. On the other hand, you could barely keep your eyes open, leaning on Loki to help you get around. “Rodgers, get here now. NO. Tonight! We’ve been compromised.” Loki hung up the call.

That was the last thing you heard before your sight faded into black. Your hearing got muted into a single ringing noise in your head. You felt a cold chill as your body stiffened up. The only reason why you didn’t feel scared was the lingering smell of his musk, filling your nose.

“Darling, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Read Pheromones, the conclusion.

🏷️@emarich7 @michelleleewise @coldnique @vickie5446 @psychospore @mukagentropy @lokisgoodgirl @silverfire475 @fictive-sl0th @springdandelixn @wheredafandomat @goldencherriess @peaches1958 @salempoe @thomase1 @kkdvkyya @a-witch-with-words @mischief2sarawr @sarawr-reads @vbecker10 @peachymallows @irishhappiness @cakesandtom @simplyholl @here4thefanfics @loopsisloops @muddyorbsblr @luvlady-writes @kellatron55 @huntress-artemiss @crimson25 @purplegrrl27 @sarahscribbles @ladyofthestayingpower @ozymdias @lokixryss @athalialaufeyson @thedistractedagglomeration @theotherspiderlady @gigglingtigger @skymoonandstardust

#writing ideas #fic prompt #loki fanfic #loki fluff #mcu #loki laufeyson #loki fandom #loki x you #loki oneshot #loki x reader #marvel fanfic #loki series #pheromones #prequel

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hyukabean · 2 years

Text

enemies to lovers trope w/ idol!skz

req — none!!

nana’s notes — my fav trope! way too long as always (5k rip). i struggled to find a reason for some of the boys, especially chan lol feedback is always welcome ^^

warning(s) — cursing? (does that count??) a lil suggestive at times! ps. tried keeping it gender neutral!! i am still used to writing fem!reader, so if i ever slip up, (since this is still unedited), lmk!

definitely unedited.

bang chan

you’re hannah’s bestfriend and are currently interning at jyp; chan doesn’t exactly know how to feel about you being so close to his baby sister, and he, unintentionally, makes for a lot of awkward interactions between you three

you just graduated high school and now, boom everyone just excepts you know what you wanna do?? what are you a fortune teller? a genie??

but!! you and hannah became online friends by coincidence a while back and y’all are besties now!!

after venting to her for a while, she was like “bro, wanna do an internship to figure out your life a bit?”

and you were like “aight bet”

so here you are now, doing a summer internship at jyp of all places! and tbh you were having so much fun!

until you met chan, who ironically enough was your bias

out of respect for your bestie, you never really brought skz up, eventhough she knew you were a fan ofc

you’d never want her to feel taken advantage of:<

chan on the other hand, didn’t really ask enough questions?

he thought is was kinda sus how hannah’s bestie was a stay and got an internship at jyp (once again, lacking info massively-)

so he’d try to be super friendly but it just be awkward?

big bro things ig-

“hey! i got you iced matcha since i’m on break, wanna go sit outside? weather’s nice!”

and hannah’s like:D yes!!

but then chan’s is like?? what if they kill her????

“so y/n! what’s your favorite song on I AM: who?”

you blink at him

“h-huh?”

hannah face palms, apologizing on his behalf quietly, “shut up chan…”

“uhm… ‘voices’ probably? though awkward silence is probably more fitting……”, you mutter the last part

it happens again and again so you ask hannah about it

and she’s like: “he’sreallyprotectiveandthinksyoureusingme? ahahahaha…”

and you go: “oh… </3”

because you put some much effort in to make sure that’s not the case yk???? plus he was your bias-

eventually you “resign” 2 weeks early and just spend the rest of the time going around korean with hannah!

and chan felt super bad… not only because you were his sister’s best friend and he was hella awkward, but also cause you’re cute?

he knew it was wrong, but the more he thought back to it, the more he realized how intuitive? understanding? helpful you were?? always assisting everyone perfectly

hannah does eventually catch on and she is a bit pissed cause like, seriously? my best friend, chan?? 🤨

“as long as i don’t have to watch you two way each other’s faces…”

her thought process was, ‘if they get married, no in-law drama’

she loves her bro so she gives him your number

he hits you up and eventually, after apologizing, he does ask to meet up and get to know you a bit better

you ofc can’t just be like, yea!! before asking hannah

she ofc agrees and appreciates you asking:)

and now, months in the future after you’ve gotten your uni business sorted out, you’re sitting on his lap, listening to him edit some track:3

hannah still gags everytime you two make eye contact but hey, we love a supportive tsundere bestie <3

lee minho

since jyp’s wifi and electricity are always going out, you, an engineering major, do chan a favor and fix it while your in the building (;)), this means, someone is constantly messing with the lights while minho is trying to practice

as a fan who’s also one of chan’s closest friends, you could positively say, chris was equally as annoyed with the wifi situation as stay are

you happen to be studying engineering and learning about electricity, smoldering, and such, is kinda part of the skill set;

soooo, you, bless your soul, sit with chan during his lives, and whenever he sends you a text or drops any hints, you fix the wifi for him

the whole lights going out business was kinda new, but hey, it’s jypapi what else is to be excepted

and so, whenever you go to fix it, you’ve got to mess with the lights for like a solid 10 minutes!! super tiring but anything to see chan go from :( —> :D right?

wrong. (well no ofc not but yk-) minho fucking hates those 10 minutes with a passion !!

“who’s the little bitch that’s messing with the lights again, huh>:( i thought the among us hype was over”

“i got the imposter!” “hyunjin sHUT UP”

istg this boy would rather dance in darkness smh

he’s complained to hyunjin and jisung about it plenty of times

but never to chan, come on, the man’s stressed enough already!! (awww caring minho everyone:))) )

i luv sungie and jinnie w/ all my heart ofc but….

they didn’t exactly give him the best advice?

perspective thing ig-

either way, it ended with minho lurking in one of the supply closets, waiting for the culprit you to show up

“AHA you little fucker”, “e-excuse me?…”, “….aren’t you chan’s friend?”, “aren’t you skz’s minho?….”

awkward to say the least ^^;;

“so let me get this straight, you’re the one who’s been playing irl among us? to help chan?? you’re the one who’s not letting me dance in peace???”

“i-, yes? no? how does one answer this correctly?”

n e wayysss, chan came to look for you cause it’s been like 20 minutes at this point lol

your korean is pretty good, but minho doesn’t know that >:)

“형... 그 친구�� 정말 예뻐요” // (“hyung… your friend is really pretty”

chan: o-o —> ;)

you: o-o —> :o —> :>

minho: -^-?? —> ಠ_ಠ —> (@_@)

“thank you~” “fuck-”

suddenly minho doesn’t mind irl among us

he definitely doesn’t take you to am meet his cats as an apology. psshh who’d do that hahaha…

o-o

anyways! y’all chill now

and dating sksjksja-

seo changbin

you and jeongin have been friends for a while now; you needed to improve your korean, and he felt too shy to practice his english with his hyung’s. changbin and you have never really clicked, but when push comes to shove and he breaks chan’s laptop, he desperately needs you to fix it for him

“y/n… why don’t you like hyung? he’s super goofy once you get to know him! have you seen him and felix hyung do aegyo?”

*sigh*

it’s not that you ‘hated’ changbin per se, you two just…. don’t mesh well?

you had immense respective for changbin, though. you liked him a lot as a stay, before you met jeongin; of course now you still thought his talents were incredible, but as a friend? yikes…

bin shared your sentiments; he too thought it was crazy how you could study two such a difficult majors at the same time, in a foreign country, AND befriend jeongin, (he was lowkey jealous since you guys became friends faster than he did)

and yet still, something was off?

he knew deep down, he had not been trying nearly hard enough, but after you had given up, he didn’t see a point in trying either

jeongin, bless his little soul, really does try to make it work!

but it usually just ends with either of you leaving or avoiding each other and hanging out with other members that were present

you’ve contemplated pretending to be friends for i.n’s sake, but you felt it would be disingenuous:((

one fine afternoon, while you were translating and helping jeongin pronounce some of the lines he wanted to say during their upcoming concert:

“oh thank god, y/n! i need your help, please!”

jeongin ofc is like ^^ “psst y/n! he’s asking you for help! go bond!!” (spolier alert: i.n knew you found him kinda cute, and bby does not know how to whisper:D)

you smiled awkwardly and were like?? ‘changbin never looks this disheveled’ :((

“you okay? you seem kinda off”, you were mostly just confused

until he pulls out a 7/11 plastic bag, with want looked to be chan’s laptop

“yep, that’ll do it…”

jeongin gasps, “hyung!!! he’s gonna kill you if be finds out!”

“exactly, so unless you want me dead, and skz to be a 7 member group, please don’t tell him”, he murmurs out, (bby’s just a lil embarrassed)

you nod, understand; “i’m not even gonna ask, but you’re pretty lucky i double major, and i know how to do this…”

“i’ll treat you to literally anything, just please, save my head”

you grinned, it was cute getting to see this side of him for once:))

“no worries changbin, i’ve got this”

*cue jeongin and changbin starting at you, and occasionally leaning over in fear*

after a solid 4 hours, and two coffee breaks, you had successfully fixed his laptop!

“try running it first”, you chucked at his cheers

“his password is ‘bang-chris’ and his date of birth”, changbin sighed playfully, wiping away the tears

“and to think he’s technically still gen-z”, you played along, entering

he took you out for dinner, and an evening walk after that as a thank you, definitely no other reasons

he uh certainly didn’t think it was cute how a stubborn strand if your hair would continuously fall into your face, or how you’d puff your cheeks in frustration every once in a while, ahem.

jeongin, in typical maknae fashion, teases the crap out of you two 24/7

but you two are good now! and pinning after each other, but yk!

also, chan never found out? like?? sir there’s a massive dent on the bottom but okay?

“hyung’s getting old, he needs glasses now…” “jeongin, what-”, “it’s best you don’t know”

hwang hyunjin

you a felix are the best of friends! you and hyunjin on the other hand, just don’t get along, plain and simple. y’all can’t be a room together for more than 5 minutes before breaking out into a cat fight, and honestly, the members are tired of it

it’s really not all that deep; you and hyunjin just don’t like each other

whenever you go to see lix, it’s become normal to hear some sort of passing snarky remark, some statement about what you’re wearing or your personality, anything really

felix was at a loss, after all, hyunjin usually just dips when he doesn’t like someone, so why was he like this with you?

jisung and chan were almost certain he liked you

“oh come on, look at the way he’s looking at them! besides, hyunjin hating you is actually scary…”, jisung shivers, thinking back to their pre-debut days

felix agrees, “y/n’s probably just giving back the same energy… muhahaha my time to play cupid”

grins for like an entire day looking like —> >:]

the reason was he was acting like this towards someone he clearly liked, was unclear to them

but boy, were they dead set on finding und out!

and so, here you are, stuck in a closet, listening to a smug changbin twirl the keys, the threat of keeping you locked in there until you spoke to each other on his lips

not only that, but there’s like… no room there

so you’re basically laying side to side and on top of each other-

ten minutes in, you stop trying to shuffle around (thank god cause jinnie was strUGGLING), and felix, who was obviously tired of the silence:

“oh my god play 20 questions or something, jeez!”, minho chimed in happily, “we came for the tea, so give us some already!!!!!”

hyunjin got tired of the whining, “so uh… what do you do in your free time?”

you raised an eyebrow, “i… i like listening to music i guess?”, you gave a generic answer, not really wanting to open up to him like this

“seriously? i can’t think of anything duller…”, hyunjin rolled his eyes

on the inside he was dy!! ing!! his fingers itched to show you the playlist he has made you a few weeks back, but a) he was wayyy too shy for that, and b) moving was not a good idea right now

you huffed, rolling your eyes back, not that he could see, “i can…”

felix roared in laughter, clapping his hands a bit, “they got you there jinnie”

hyunjin suppressed a grin, he always liked how much of a smart ass you were

“tch… whatever…”, he leans in, breath hot on your ears, “let’s talk outside, hmm?”

DEFINITELY KNOWS WHAT HE’S DOING KSSKSHSJ-

after getting your agreement, he spoke up, “guys, we’ll talk, promise. just let us talk in a… less cramped space”

you guys end up talking all night in his room, and you realize he’s no too bad

after, the two of you do hang out separately from the boys a few times before he confesses (shows you the playlist) and asks you out

“and i thought minho hyung was a tsundere….”, seungmin shook his head

“ew, i miss when my bestie didn’t have their tongue down their my other besties throat”, felix sighs

definitely a cute couple; unexpected, but cute for sure <3

han jisung

getting an intern position at jyp was fantastic; not only have you gotten to meet and close to one of your favorite groups, but you guys even hang out privately now. jisung has always been skeptical of your intentions, especially after finding out you’re a stay. when hate posts start to spread on social media, containing only information a staff member would know, he suspects you

“i wanna grab take out before going home, join us? or are you still feeling sick?”, felix asked, side hugging changbin

jisung rolled his eyes at this

why were they asking you this? aren’t you a little too close to the guys for just being a simple college student intern?

sure, he was impressed at the fact that you managed to put up with chan’s insomnia ridden schedule

and of course being able to run to three separate locations to get the boy’s coffee could not go unmentioned

that being said, he still felt it was unprofessional of you to hang out with them separately

part of him hope you weren’t ill intentioned; that and you’re super attractive, like super super attractive and exactly his type sooooo

but another felt as though you were abusing your close contact to them for personal gain;

ofc he couldn’t be sure, and so he tried not to judge you preemptively

did that work??? not really.

but a+ for effort right:)

last week had been great! you went out with felix and changbin to eat, chan had shown you a small preview of their new title track, and even hyunjin had offered to teach you a choreo you’d been shying away from for years

all was well, and you with school giving you a little break, you’d rarely felt better!

when you came in on monday, chaos was high at jyp

apparently someone had leaked private videos of the boy

nothing crazy, thank god, like them changing, but it was clear the boys had not consented to them

along with the images and footage, dates of upcoming events and two of the manager’s numbers were leaked

chan was furious to say the least, and he immediately called you to help him analyze the images/videos, hoping you’d catch something he and the other staff hadn’t

“why did you call them? it was probably their fault this leaked”, jisung huffed at chan, upset the lyrics he’d worked so hard on were captured on video

chan’s eyes widened, “oi, han jisung, aren’t you going a bit far?”, he pulls up a portion of the footage, “y/n was sick that day, remember? this was the photo shoot they missed. plus, they’ve never spoken to manager kim or cho. you’re way out of line here”.

jisung followed the leader’s gaze, noting that indeed, the day he had been forced to cosplay as a red highlighter, you were missing

(secretly he was thankful, he was kind of embarrassed at the fish nets top)

“s-shit… y/n, look-”

rolling your eyes you cut him off, “this isn’t where you guys normally get your make up done, no?”

chan nods, not quite following

“see the balloons in the back? maybe if we zoom in, we can at least get a glimpse of the person. and if i remember correctly, this room was going to be used for itzy; in that hallway there should be cctv footage available on both ends”, you spoke, pulling up the map you had initially made on your ipad not to get lost, but eventually just developed as a pass time.

he grinned, high-fiving you, “you’re a godsend y/n!”

to make a long story short; one of the external staff members had recorded and leaked the footage, so you were, obviously, in the clear.

legal charges would be pressed for multiple contractual violations but you had gotten praised and thanked for your quick thinking

“the police would’ve probably never gotten to actually taking a look at the footage”, one of the managers laughed, “but now i have an excuse to buy a new phone without my wife being too upset”

things were going well!

jisung on the other hand felt like shit:(

acting out like that was so unlike him; hyunjin even joked about not having seen him talk like that since their pre-debut days, to which han just :< —> :(((

with the help of chan, he eventually gets you alone and apologizes sincerely

he had come to the conclusion that part of his “hatred” towards you was fumed by genuine fear for skz’s wellbeing,

but the other part was the fear that he had of being rejected by you

“why didn’t you just so?”, you had accepted his apology, but you did want to get him back just a bit

“i don’t know jisung, you’re kinda asking a lot of me right now. a date? hmmm”

he just, @-@, “okay, i understand…”

after laughing at him you eventually do agree to go out together with him:))) and he just goes full anime blush you jaksjsk-

lee felix

felix has always been a super affectionate and cuddly person, especially with chan; but lately, he’s been spending an awful lot of time with you, and felix can’t help but resent you for it just a tiny bit

felix is not a bad person, he never wishes harm on anyone, you included

and as angel-like as he may look, he’s still a person like everyone else, and prone to jealousy at times

“sorry lix, looks like we’ll have to watch that movie another time!”, “aww sorry felix, hannah, y/n, and i are going to a concert”, “my bad lixie, i already have a hang out planned with y/n tonight, and i might sleep over… but we can talk tomorrow!”

chan, his honorary older brother, had been dipping on him a little (lot) more than usual

but he couldn’t blame him! he hadn’t seen you in a while

felix had been introduced to you, and he thought you were amazing in every conceivable way!!

he almost disliked you for it, or so it seemed to you when he avoided you religiously

felix’s jealousy stemmed from his own insecurities; he felt as though chan and you were both incredible!

you could make him laugh so easily! shouldn’t he be the one doing that? after spending so many years with chan???

these days his insecurities often get the best of him, especially since he already wasn’t feeling the best

was he really that unlovable? ‘of course, channie deserves someone better…’

lix would never want to make you someone, especially chan, feel bad for having friends and being close to them; his jealousy made him want to curl up into a ball and hide, so he did

even you could tell something was up with him

chris was running late, so, as per usual, you waited in his studio

“hyung! have you see-, oh… sorry…”, felix backs out slowly, voice lower than usual

you’re like:(( why you no like me sir ㄱ(-^-)

“wait! uh i know it’s not really my place to ask but… are you okay?”

after a lil bit of pushing, he eventually sits down with you and admits to feeling just a littttle jealous

“sorry if i made you feel weird, not cool…”

you shake your head, “no worries. would you uhm like to hang out with us today maybe?”

now it’s chan who doesn’t get to see lix and you any more dkshsk-

you both got super close!! as time passed, he found himself glancing at your lips a lil too long

or watching the reflection of light in your eyes with a bit too much fondness for it to be considered platonic

you end up asking him on a date after getting a chris style pep talk, and boom

two cuties are now going out together:)))

kim seungmin

seungmin has always been observant, and he can’t help but feel that you’re bubbly nature was a bit too unprofessional as a staff member; on the other hand, his “rudeness” and disinterest in most things, made you feel uneasy. the lack of communication seems to act as a catalyst for plenty of arguments…

“would it kill you to shut up?”, he huffed

“would it kill to take that stick out of your ass?”, you whispered back, “and i thought retail was bad…”

you and seungmin always argue

it’s like;;;; a natural law almost

a^2 + b^2 = c^2

stoichiometry is ass (lowkey kinda fun though-)

n you and puppy boy can’t get off each other’s backs

chan would always laughed about it

he knew that although this job was only part time for you, you were meticulous

you go y/n!!

seungmin on the other hand saw you as some sort of free loader with way too much mouth

TLDR: you two couldn’t be kept in the same room without arguing

“good morning! anything i can help with?”

“could you ask her to leave please?”

the other staff awkwardly glanced at you

“have your self a wonderful day, yeah kim?

instead, you’d try to work with other members, grab them their coffee, find the right tools for the stylists, just listening to them

but of course not without the back track that is kim seungmin in the buildingggg

the bitch was indeed present and you were tired of hearing it

literally anything you’d do was too loud or spontaneous

“hey i might actually take my 15 later”

cuts off the staff, “and inconvenience everyone? how unprofessional, you’re a real piece of work y/n”

eventually, you stopped having fun at work, not wanting to argue on days where college work already piled up

“not talking today? what, cat got your tongue?”

“no, i’m doing what evolution did”

“huh?”

“ignore you”

chan frowned, it seemed like you had genuinely taken his words to heart:((

everyone knew seungmin didn’t actually care about professionalism or volume, (i mean have you met han?)

but he wanted a reason to talk to you, even if he didn’t know it himself

during their next break, chan gently guided minnie, not having deemed it necessary until now

he basically said, ‘hey lil bro we all know you think y/n is cute. maybe actually try talking to them instead of just… you know, insulting them??’

“hey uh, i got you a drink?”

“is it poisoned??”

“no?”

“you’d be doing me a favor either way… thanks i guess”

over time, you two started genuinely bonding and hanging out 1-1

eventually it just lips out that he likes you

and you’re like: :o

he’s like: :0

and when you’re like: :3

and know you two are holding hands and chan regrets ever opening his mouth:)

yang jeongin

beomgyu and you had met by coincidence, but you had clicked and kept in contact. recently, he had introduced you to his other 01z friends, among them jeongin, who wasn’t thrilled. seeing one of his fans being friends with his best friend, he can’t help but assume the worst.

beomgyu and met in a convenience store by pure coincidence

he heard you talking on the phone about not being able to find a certain snack, and boom, he hands it over to you at the speed of light

(choi beomgyu everyone <3)

it was obvious you were a moa by the keychain on your bag, but you didn’t recognize him at first

you thanked him, and offered to pay for his soda can

long story short, y’all end up getting pretty close!!

you tried not to rub being a fan of him and his friends into his face, so you only brought it up, when he did

sooner rather than later, he found you not only stan skz, but also bias i.n., aka his bestie

and because you couldn’t attend their concert, and were kinda :< about it

he plans a meeting with you, him, and the three other boys!

you refuse, not wanting to ever make gyu think that’s the reason you’re friends with him

but he decided to just not tell you and invite you over after that!

master mind beomgyu strikes again;)

and you’d think nothing could go wrong, right?

afterall, you guys are at HYBE, behind closed doors, there’s plenty of food, and the boys arr chill, riiiight?

EHHHHN WRONG

see, jeongin wasn’t taking well to the whole idea

to be fair, gyu did tell him, but he forgot they wouldn’t be alone

he watched as you spoke to gyu, how you guys had inside jokes, or how he knew just what type of snacks you liked

you were, without a doubt cute, but, what were your true intention?

“i don’t know beomgyu, isn’t they’re a bit… too nice?”, “jeongin, what-”

he frowns at you the entire night, ignoring any and all of your attempts to have small talk or pleasantries

shrugging him off, you focus on having a good time with your friend

later, after coming back to the bathroom, you over hear jeongin talking to gyu again:

“can’t you see they’re just using you beomgyu? it’s obvious they wants in on this-, this lifestyle, whatever you want to call him”

you huff, shaking your head at him: “shouldn’t you trust your friend’s judgement just a little more?”

he’s kinda stunned, but doesn’t relent, “no, i’m just being careful”

he was right somehow, but still, you scoffed, “be careful all you want then, i’m not sticking around”

and you leave &-&

you being the good friend you are, send a message to gyu on your way home, thanking him and apologizing for how the night ended, eventhough it wasn’t exactly your fault

gyu shows jeongin the texts he had where you told him you didn’t want to meet

jeongin is like:< “b-but i thought-, was i mean?… oh no:((((”

so, he asks gyu for your number to apologize

‘this is yang jeongin’

‘i was wanted to apologize for yesterday, i was out of line…’

‘could i treat you to something as an apology?’

that’s how you guys end up in the jyp cafeteria, (away from the eyes of dispatch lmfao), with iced matcha and a piece of cake!!

“so, i heard i’m your bias”, “jeongin, shUT THE-”

all’s well that ends well!!

jeongin does take you out a few times after that, as… ‘friends’

but after a few months he does eventually ask you out on a date:D he was a lil shy but yk~

2K notes · View notes

ansu-gurleht · 1 year

Text

okay here is my beginner’s guide to morrowind! it talks about some of the mechanics you’ll want to know, but it’s also a little bit of a walkthrough to get you a good start on your journey. note that i originally wrote this for somebody specific: i don’t think it does, but if it seems like it’s talking at somebody in particular, that’s why. anyways, i hope this is helpful!

before you start the game:

there is only one mod i absolutely recommend you play with, and it’s not quite a mod at all.

when you download morrowind from steam or gog or whatever, you have the game! congratulations! however, what you really own is the assets of the game and a horribly broken engine. that’s where openmorrowind (openmw) comes in.

openmw is a remake of the original engine of morrowind. you see, morrowind’s original engine fucking sucks. this is for a multitude of reasons, but for me, the reason i switched was because at the later stages of a playthrough, the game will literally start corrupting your saves. don’t have that problem with openmw!

i can’t really give you a guide on how to install it and get it running better than the one on the openmw website (https://openmw.org/en/). go install it and you will have a much smoother experience overall.

before you start a new game:

before we start talking about PLAYING the game, though, let’s also take a peek through the options.

in the first page of the options, “prefs,” you’ll find some things you’ll want to switch on. namely, subtitles, always use best attack, and auto-save on rest. i’m not sure which of these are enabled by default, but enable them all.

in the “controls” section, you’re likely going to want to swap the “activate” and “jump” buttons. for some reason, the default control scheme has “activate” set to “spacebar” and “jump” set to “e”. this is, of course, counterintuitive to anyone who plays modern pc games. go ahead and just swap those around.

in the “video”-“video” section, go ahead and set your game to the highest resolution, and maybe increase the field of view a bit (i play with 75 fov, but you may prefer higher. idr what the default is, probably stupid low). in the “video”-“detail” section, crank up that view distance as high as it’ll go. i’m not sure what the default is, and i’ve fiddled with my set-up to maximize it for openmw. also turn on trilinear texture filtering and the anisotropy to the highest setting. also raise all the “video”-”water” settings to their maximum values. trust me, you can run this. it’s a new engine but the game itself came out in 2002. not the most graphics-intensive game out there.

tutorial and creating your character:

okay, that’s the options out of the way. now let’s hit that “new” button and make a new game.

watch the intro cutscene, talk to jiub, and tell him your character’s name. follow the instructions of the guards until you get to the one who asks you where you’re from. this is how the game asks you for your race. there’s no bad options here - pick whichever race you like best. you can take into account the bonuses each race gets, and compared to later games in the series these bonuses are more significant, but you can really play any character with any race in this game. it’s worth noting, however, that the beast races (argonians and khajiit) can’t wear full helms or boots/shoes. for a first timer, i would probably recommend dunmer (dark elf).

after that, go into the census office. this is where you build your class properly. you CAN take the class quiz, or pick from the premade classes. i would not recommend this. i’ve come up with a custom class that i think covers pretty much all the bases and gives a fairly enjoyable experience for a newcomer:

specialization: magic

attributes: endurance, intelligence

major skills: long blade light armor conjuration restoration marksman / destruction

minor skills: short blade medium armor spear mysticism alteration

now let me explain my choices here, to give you an idea where i’m coming from, and what those choices mean.

your specialization gives you +5 to all nine of the skills that fall under that specialization, and makes those skills increase more quickly. i’m giving you magic because magic skills don’t always increase the fastest, and every little bit helps.

your chosen attributes get +10 each. endurance determines your starting hp, which is obviously important, among other things, such as how much health you gain on level up. intelligence increases your maximum magicka. when you level up, you get to pick three attributes to increase, and depending on what skills you increased to get to your new level, you get multipliers on how much you can increase certain attributes. i recommend always increasing endurance, even if you don’t get a multiplier for it. speed, which affects your, well, speed, and strength, which affects your physical damage done as well as your carry weight, are good choices for leveling up as well. but you can increase other attributes as you think is necessary - i won’t elaborate on what each one does here, you can look it up on uesp.

your major and minor skills are what you need to increase in order to level up your character level. major skills get +25, minor skills get +10.

i always recommend at least one weapon skill and at least one armor skill for your major skills. i’m giving you long blade, bc it’s the most ubiquitous and useful weapon skill in the game, and light armor, bc it’s generally speaking the best armor skill in the game, and is also lighter to carry around as well.

i’m giving you conjuration and restoration bc having a magic skill as a major gives you a starting spell from that school. conjuration gives you bound dagger, which summons a daedric dagger for you to use for 60 seconds (and gives you the requisite skill to use it effectively), and restoration gives you hearth heal, which is a very effective heal, albeit a somewhat costly one to cast.

i’m giving you two options for your last major skill: either marksman or destruction for ranged capabilities. note, however, that marksman is not as good in this game as in later titles, and not all destruction spells are at range. destruction gives you the starting spell fire bite, a decent on touch (melee range) fire spell.

just like you have a weapon skill and armor skill in your major skills, i recommend doing the same thing with your minor skills. so i’m giving you short blade, the second most ubiquitous and useful weapon skill, and medium armor, which is almost as good as light armor, albeit a bit heavier. you can mix and match your armor pieces to great effect in this game, and wearing at least one piece of a type of armor (a medium armor gauntlet, for example) will increase that skill when you get hit.

i’m giving you spear mostly bc it’s a fun weapon to play with, and not in the other games. mysticism is an important skill for a few reasons: 1) telekinesis, which we’ll mostly use to disarm traps from a distance, and 2) teleportation spells like almsivi/divine intervention, which lets you teleport to the nearest tribunal temple or imperial shrine respectively, and mark/recall, the former of which lets you set a point the latter can teleport you to from anywhere. alteration gives you access to a lot of good spells, like feather, shield, levitate, water breathing, water walking, and open.

okay, that’s enough about your class. next you’ll be asked what your birthsign is. i’m going to recommend either the steed, which gives you +25 speed and makes walking around at the beginning of the game more bearable, or the lady, which gives you +25 personality and +25 endurance. up to you whether you value the speed or the endurance more. there are other options, of course, but i think these are best for a first-time player.

okay, after you pick your birthsign and confirm your character, you’re free! kind of. not really yet. you’ll be notified you now have an inventory menu, and instructed to pick up the papers on the table to your right. do so. then, we’re going to do something a little sneaky. on the shelf against the rightmost wall is a limeware platter, which costs like 650 gold. you want that platter. so you’re going to take it. now, you just did this in full view of a guard. but you’re fresh off the boat, so he won’t arrest you - he’ll just confiscate what you stole. BUT, if you drop the platter before he gets to you, he won’t have anything to confiscate. and since YOU dropped it, it’s technically YOURS now, so you can pick it up without any ramifications. congrats! you just got like, 300 gold (note: your mercantile skill affects how much gold you get from selling things. very rarely will you ever get full asking price for anything).

(how do you drop the platter, you may ask? well, to open your menu/inventory, you need to right-click. very counterintuitive, i know. but you’ll get used to it. to drop an item, click it and drag it outside of any of the menus. you can either drop it directly beneath you, which usually happens, or you can place things directly onto surfaces like tables or shelves if you’re close enough to them.)

now you’re expected to go out the door across from the platter shelf. go out, and close the door behind you. there’s nobody in this side of the building, so with the door closed, you’re free to just jack anything you see without ramifications. there’s a lot of ingredients to take, if you want to get into alchemy (which can be useful, for either making beneficial potions or for making a quick buck), but most of what you want is the expensive stuff you’ll find. there’s a book you can take (books can be very expensive in this game), some silverware, a bottle of liquor called flin, a lockpick, and a shitty dagger. you’ll want to sell everything you get here except for the lockpick, and maybe the ingredients if you want to do alchemy. there’s a little chest on the bottom of the shelf by the exit that’s locked. you should be able to pick it with ease with the lockpick you just got, even though your security skill sucks atm. there’s like, 31 gold in there i think? worth taking regardless. to pick the lock, equip the lockpick (click and drag it onto the little portrait of your character in the left of your inventory screen), and “attack” (left-click) over and over while pointing your cursor at the chest until it unlocks. there’s a couple of torches you might want downstairs, as well.

after you’re done looting, leave the building. you’ll find yourself in a little courtyard. the game’ll tell you to look in the barrel by the next door, and take the enchanted ring you find inside. don’t get too attached to this ring. go into the next door and talk to sellus gravius, the guy inside. this is your first real encounter with morrowind’s dialog system. it is not like skyrim’s. at all. get used to it. this weird wikipedia like structure is going to be your best friend. you have a list of all available options on the right, and you can click highlighted options in the text itself. you can talk about whatever to sellus, but you have to say a couple specific things to progress. i can’t remember what it is exactly, but he doesn’t have much to say outside of it, so it shouldn’t be hard to figure out. he’ll give you some money, a package for caius cosades, and a note with instructions on how to find caius cosades. don’t accidentally sell the package. don’t try to open the package. just leave it in your inventory until you’re ready to go find caius.

seyda neen:

after that, you’re free to go! and this time you’re really free, and you can do whatever you want now! but that’s a bit overwhelming, so i’m going to let you know what there is to do in this town, seyda neen.

first off, almost right outside the door there’s a bosmer (wood elf) named fargoth. he’s lost his ring. yes, that ring. give it to him. that’ll earn you better prices with the local merchant, who happens to be fargoth’s friend. don’t worry, if you want the ring, we’ll be getting it back later.

now to go make some money with all the shit we stole. go to arrille’s tradehouse, which is the building with the little raised platform adjacent. the “front” door is locked, it’s actually arrille’s house, so you have to go around on the platform to the real front door. go inside and talk to arrille. in the right pane of the dialog, you’ll see the option to barter with him. click that and get to selling your shit.

here’s what you want to buy with the money you just got (around 500-600 gold). buy all the chitin armor pieces you can. it’s very good light armor for this stage in the game. buy the iron saber for now; you’ll be replacing it soon but you need something, and it’s cheap. buy one of the journeyman’s probes - you need these to disable traps - and one of the journeyman’s lockpicks, since the one you stole from the census office only has 10 uses. buy 3 bottles of sujamma - it’s a regional liquor that gives you +50 strength and -50 intelligence for 60 seconds. it’s VERY powerful for dealing with foes you normally shouldn’t be able to handle at a lower level. note the intelligence drop though: if you need to cast a spell, cast it before you drink the sujamma. buy 2 scrolls of almsivi intervention - like i said earlier, this teleports you to the nearest tribunal temple. lastly, buy 2 scrolls of ondusi’s unhinging. sometimes you need to open something that you just can’t pick with your too-low security skill. that’s where this scroll comes in.

yes, you just spent like, all of the money you just earned. it’s okay. we’re going to make it back and then some, soon.

before you leave arrille’s, go upstairs (behind him). talk to the guy, hrisskar flat-foot, at the top of the stairs. he’ll offer you a topic about recovering gold. he wants you to find out where fargoth (the ring guy) is hiding his gold and valuables. you’re going to help him find it, because YOU want those valuables as well. we’ll get back to this quest later, though.

next, talk to elone, the redguard behind the counter. she’s a scout, which means she knows a lot about the land. you can ask scouts all sorts of interesting questions about geography. but what you want from elone is directions to balmora. ask her about balmora and she’ll give you said directions in the form of a note.

finally, talk to the wizard lookin’ fella in the corner. ask him about the latest rumors. keep in mind what he says about mentor’s ring - we’ll be pursuing this later.

now, let’s make sure we equip all the armor and weapon we just bought. right-click to bring up your inventory/stats/map/magic menu, click on each piece of armor and weapon, and drag them onto the little portrait of your character to the left. that’s it! you’re equipped and ready to face the wilderness.

the wilderness, plus notes on combat:

leave arrille’s tradehouse from the door you came in from. jump off the corner of the platform into the water below, and cross that little river, heading west. on the far shore, you’ll find your first foe: a mudcrab! very scaaaaary! this is your introduction to combat. it works a little differently in this game. first of all, just because you SEE your weapon connect with an enemy, doesn’t mean it’s going to HIT necessarily. this game plays off of dice-rolls, and a lot of factors contribute to whether or not you’re gonna actually do damage. but the two most important factors are: 1) your level of skill with the weapon you’re using, and 2) your fatigue. that’s the green bar in the bottom left of your screen, what you’d call in skyrim your “stamina”. if your fatigue is low when you enter an encounter, you’re going to really struggle to fight!

here’s a somewhat annoying thing about fatigue: running at full speed diminishes it! so when you’re out in the wilderness, you’re going to want to conserve your fatigue by walking. it’s slow, but hopefully bearably so if you picked the steed as your birthsign. and it’s better than dying to a mudcrab because you were too tired to properly swing your weapon.

fortunately, there’s this thing called resting! if you’re out in the wilderness, you can press “t” to rest for as long as you’d like, or “until healed” (until your hp, magicka, and fatigue are completely restored). unfortunately, this close to seyda neen, you can only “wait” - all this does is restore your fatigue. it’s illegal to rest inside of most settlements, or even in their outskirts.

anyways, hopefully you’ve completely dominated that first mudcrab of yours. should go down in one hit, so long as you can connect. another thing to note: you may have noticed when you bought your saber that its damage stats are ranges. for instance, its chop stat (the one you’ll be using with your “always use best attack” enabled) is 5-18. to maximize your damage on the high end of that range, you’ll need to hold down your click for a second or so to wind up the attack. you’ll do a lot more damage this way rather than just mashing left mouse button!

anyways, after you’ve gotten your first kill, proceed along the coast, making sure to head between the rocks just up the way. you’ll find either a rat or a kwama forager (worm thing), and that’s how you know you’re going the right way. it’ll attack on sight, but there’ll be another critter there, a little grey insect looking thing called a “scrib” that thumps its tail on the ground and squeals. it’s not going to attack you when you get close, so don’t attack it. be nice. it’s just a little guy! if you do decide to attack it, though, you might be in for a nasty surprise: it has a paralyzing bite! a scrib can really catch you off guard at this low level. so leave the little guy alone!

across from the scrib, to the left, you’ll find a corpse. if you’ve been talking to the residents of seyda neen (i highly recommend you do) you may have heard that the local tax collector is missing. this is him. take the tax record and 200 gold from him. let’s read the tax record! to read any note or book from your inventory, click and drag it over your character portrait! this is really how you interact with anything in your inventory. note who has the highest unpaid tax to find a motive, but we’ll get back to that later. we’ve got some other stuff to do in the swamp.

proceed northwest, killing any little critters (except scribs!) that get in your way. pretty quick you’ll find yourself with a mountain on your right and the ocean on your left. follow the coast along those mountains. you’re going to find pretty quick a weird looking door on your right. that’s an ancestral tomb door! they all look like that. make a note of where this is, we’re coming back to it. keep progressing along the coast.

eventually you’ll find a little shipwreck. yes, that’s a ship, albeit a local, kinda weird-looking one. just before you get to the ship itself, there’ll be a chest next to a log that’s sticking up out of the water. there’s a silver longsword in there! take it, it’s your new weapon of choice, slightly better than your saber. now let’s explore the ship! get on board and take the trapdoor down to your right. at the end of the interior, next to the next trapdoor down, there’s a crate in the water with moon sugar in it! you may be familiar with skooma, the narcotic? moon sugar is what it’s made from. it’s very valuable, but also very illegal, so we’re going to have to be careful with how we sell it. we’ll get to that eventually.

take the trapdoor further down, and immediately swim up, bc you’re gonna be underwater! at the end of this section of the ship, you’ll find a little chest on the floor with 3 diamonds in it! woohoo! now let’s get out of here, that skeleton’s freaking me out. there’s nothing of note in the cabin section of the ship, so don’t worry about it. let’s go back to that tomb!

samarys ancestral tomb:

okay, right outside the tomb, SAVE! you need to save a LOT in this game if you want to make progress! i recommend having multiple running saves going as well as your quicksave. my most recent playthrough has 5 different saves that i cycle through. it’s a good way to make sure you don’t get stuck in untenable positions! make sure you have your silver longsword equipped and head on in.

once you’re in, open the door right across from you. in the next chamber, you’ll see these little raised things with jars on them. those jars have dead people in them! you don’t really want what’s in those jars, though - you want what’s next to them. always check next to these jars in ancestral tombs for valuables. most of the time it’s just clothes or ingredients, but sometimes, like in the case of the first jar on the right, there’s valuable scrolls! take it, and proceed down the corridor and turn right.

here’s your first challenge! a ghost! this is why we got the silver longsword first, because only silver weapons (or higher quality) or enchanted weapons can actually hit ghosts! this ghost knows a nasty little fire spell that can do quite a bit of damage if you don’t kill him quickly. just keep up your consistent, charged hits until he goes down. across from the entrance to this chamber is another jar-plinth with another scroll, this time an offensive one! take it, it might prove useful. save again!

on the other side of the next door is either a greater challenge or an even greater challenge. sometimes it’s just a skeleton, and sometimes it’s a lesser bonewalker, which can be very dangerous! take him down as quickly as you can, because bonewalkers often know very detrimental curses that can lower your attributes. save again after you kill it!

next, you want to disarm the trap on that urn in the bonewalker room. equip your journeyman’s probe and start clicking on that urn, just like you did with the chest in the census office! once the trap is disarmed, take mentor’s ring! told you we were gonna get that. it’s a very useful ring that increases your intelligence and willpower by 10 points each. go ahead and equip that. there’s a weird named ash in the urn, and a key to the chest next to it, but don’t bother. the chest never has anything valuable in it. don’t forget to reequip your silver longsword after you disarm the trap!

speaking of, here’s another little tip. press f1. this gives you the quick-select menu, where you can assign items or spells to your number keys. i’d put your main weapon (right now the silver longsword) on number 1, then put your most used spells on the next few numbers, in whatever order or fashion you prefer. makes swapping between items and spells much easier.

heading back to seyda neen:

leave the tomb and hug the mountains going east until you hit the road. then follow the road east some more until you see a man fall from the sky. yes, that just happened. he’s dead and free-game, so let’s loot him. take his nice enchanted sword (it’s slightly better than your current weapon, so long as it has a charge), equip his nice conical hat, and either equip his robes and shoes (you can wear robes over your equipped armor in this game! isn’t that so cool) or take them to sell later. take any gold he might have on him, and take those weird “scrolls of icarian flight” he has. do NOT use those scrolls. sell them. you will DIE if you try to use those scrolls. also, take a gander at his journal underneath him, and then take it to sell as well.

alright, from here, follow the road east and south back to seyda neen. let’s head back to arrille’s to sell some of the stuff we got. note that you are now carrying moon sugar, which as i said, is illegal. honest merchants won’t trade with you if you have moon sugar or skooma in your inventory. we’ll find some dishonest merchants later, don’t worry. but for now, you’ll have to simply drop the moon sugar on the floor before you start selling. don’t forget to pick it up when you’re done!

next, remember that guy you noted from the tax record, the one with the highest unpaid tax? we’re going to pay him a visit, ask what happened to the tax collector. i won’t tell you where he is; check the houses around seyda neen until you find the one with his name on the door. before you go in, save, and make sure your fatigue is up.

talk to him. he’ll confess to killing the tax collector, giving you the option of letting him go, or doing justice right then and there. do the justice. he’ll immediately attack you - with his fists. this might not sound scary to you at first. in later games, hand-to-hand combat merely does a little bit of damage to your health. in this game, hand-to-hand hits do damage to FATIGUE. and remember how important fatigue is? it affects everything, from physical combat to your chance at casting spells. so you’re gonna wanna take this guy down before he does too much damage to your fatigue. if your fatigue reaches zero, you get knocked out, falling to the floor. at this stage, hand-to-hand hits actually do damage to your HEALTH. and it’s easy to get trapped in a loop of getting knocked down. so don’t let that happen and kill him quickly. this fight is probably actually harder than the bonewalker, since this guy does a lot of damage to your fatigue with each hit, and you’re draining your own fatigue by swinging at him. but keep up with your consistent charged hits and you should be able to take him down.

be sure to take the ring he’s wearing! it’ll come in handy later. then loot the place - it’s effectively your house now, a decent starter shack. especially important is the book on the floor, which is a skill book increasing your mercantile skill, and sells for a pretty penny. there’s also some ingredients in the various barrels and sacks, if you’re into alchemy.

next, let’s go back to the census office. yes, the place you started at. talk to the old dude who set up your class and birthsign. there’ll be an option to report the murder. do so, and he’ll give you 500 gold. nice!

next, head on to the lighthouse on the coast. you should be able to see it from anywhere in seyda neen. step inside and talk to the lady immediately on your right. ask her about the ring you picked up from the murderer and she’ll give you two pretty high-quality healing potions! nice. now, head upstairs. there’s a very valuable book at the top you can take (the lady downstairs can’t see you now) which increases your unarmored skill.

now head outside to the top of the lighthouse. stand at the corner facing the rest of the town, and wait until 10pm. if you’ve spent a lot of time resting/waiting, you might have missed your first 10pm, and will have to wait almost a day for the next one. don’t worry about it, you don’t have a time limit. now watch that little torch-wielding gremlin fargoth crawl around for a little bit. he’ll make a few stops along his way, but don’t worry, he can’t see you from up here (even though he does approach and stop in front of the lighthouse at one point). eventually he’ll stop by a tree-stump in a mucky pool - that’s where you need to go. once he walks away from there, head back down the lighthouse and go there. inside the stump you’ll find a bunch of gold, fargoth’s old healing ring, and a nice lockpick. take it all.

now, hrisskar wanted you to return with the money so he could split you a cut. instead, we’re just going to never talk to him again and keep all the money. there’s no repercussions for this at all, unless you’re a completionist who wants to finish every quest completely. but there’s not really a tracker for your completed quests, so it doesn’t really matter.

one last thing to do in seyda neen. we’re going to talk to an altmer (high elf) named eldafire. she can usually be found across the bridge towards the silt strider (the big bug thing you probably saw when you got off the boat), although she tends to roam a bit. ask her for a little advice. she’ll recommend you take out the bandits in the addamasartus cave nearby. let’s do that.

addamasartus cave:

the cave is right across from the silt strider landing, hiding behind a big boulder. save and rest until healed right outside the cave, then head on in. the first enemy shouldn’t be much of a problem to you at this point. she should go down in a few hits, and not get much of a chance to hurt you. take any valuables she might have, especially the addamasartus slave key.

the next enemy, who is beyond the door down to the right, is going to be much more challenging. he’s a mage who will cast a weakness to fire spell at you, and then cast a fire spell at you. you’re a dunmer, so you have some resistance to fire, but this guy can still fuck you up if you’re not careful. try to dodge his spells until he runs out of magicka and is forced to attack you in melee. or be brave and try to take some swings as you dodge. up to you. don’t be surprised if he kills you a time or two - he’s pretty tough. if you need to, go outside (or close to the front door) to rest to heal your wounds after he’s dead. or before he’s dead - no shame in running to fight another day.

okay, now that the hard part is done, we can explore the rest of the cave. go down the stairs to where that mage came from, and turn left when you get to the water. there’ll be another enemy, this one throwing throwing-stars at you. you can try to dodge them - they’re kind of small so it’s difficult to see them - or you can just tank the hits as you rush her down. they don’t do much damage. she’ll go down pretty easy, too. she’ll have a lockpick and probe - take them. if you picked marksman as your ranged skill, you can take the throwing stars as well, although they’re not as effective as a bow would be.

now, loot the room - the crates, sacks, chests, etc. the crates near where the throwing-star lady was should have a total of 8 moon sugar and 2 bottles of skooma in them. the chest will have a random leveled item (that is, an item suited to your level) - you might get lucky with this! in my test run, i got a steel daikatana, which is better than my silver longsword (except against ghosts). don’t forget the crates and barrel over by the water! sometimes the crates can have scrolls, potions, or soul gems in them.

next, go behind the rocks to the left of where the throwing-star lady was. you’ll find a door the slave key will unlock. on the other side of the door you’ll find a little stretch of water. at one point you’ll have to dive under to get to the next chamber - just watch your breath meter! but you shouldn’t have a problem, it’s not a very long dive. at the bottom of the water in the next chamber, you might be able to find a skull to the right. if not, don’t worry about it! but there is a rising force (levitation) potion right next to the skull. don’t drown yourself looking for it though, it’s not that important.

in this chamber, you’ll see a spiral pathway rising out of the water. find where you can clamber onto the pathway and follow it up. there’ll be a rat up there - but nothing you can’t handle. up there you’ll also find some glowing mushrooms. in between them there’s a few pieces of gold, a netch leather pauldron (don’t worry too much about that part - your chitin pauldron is better), and the important part, a “thief ring”! it’ll give you a decent buff when you need it. it’s a little tricky to see against the stone floor of the cave, but try your best to find it.

follow the rest of the passage until you come out near the beginning of the cave. you may have wondered why we went down (to where the mage was) instead of up to where there was a door earlier. we’re going to go up there now. your addamasartus slave key will open the door, and you’ll find two argonian slaves and a khajiit slave. talk to them and offer to let them go free, and unlock their bracers. congrats, you’re an abolitionist now! the game tracks how many slaves you’ve freed for a hidden faction you’ll find eventually. you need to free quite a few to join that faction, so try to free every one you can if you want to join.

now you’re done with addamasartus! feel free to leave. we’re done with seyda neen, now, as well, unless you want to head by arrille’s first to sell off some stuff before you leave. don’t forget to drop your moon sugar and skooma before you barter, and then don’t forget to pick it up before you leave!

onward!:

next stop, balmora, where the imperials wanted you to go. there’s a couple of ways we can get there. the first and easiest is to just hire a silt strider to take you there. those big bug things are basically giant buses, and they have routes all over the western half of the island. but i recommend you walk to balmora, following the directions elone the scout gave you. a big part of this game is exploration, and you’d better get used to it quick. don’t be afraid to get a little sidetracked here and there. explore the occasional cave or mine or tomb on your way - but always save before entering one, and know your limits. the dungeons in this game are largely not leveled to you, and if you enter the wrong one too early, it can really ruin your day. so don’t be afraid to turn around and leave, or load the save you made before entering, if things get too tough.

there’s a little town called pelagiad between seyda neen and balmora. feel free to stop there to restock if you need to. otherwise, just follow the road signs and elone’s directions. you’ll get to balmora in no time. and don’t forget! conserve your fatigue. you don’t want to be running everywhere, run out of fatigue, and then run into even a basic enemy you suddenly can’t handle because you can’t connect any of your hits.

once you get to balmora, go to the south wall cornerclub like you were told in your directions to caius cosades, and ask around to find out where caius lives. i’m not going to hold your hand on quest instructions any more! figure it out on your own. it’s not too hard, so long as you just remember to talk to people about important topics - usually “latest rumors,” “little secret,” “little advice,” and “morrowind lore.” but peruse the other topics, too! you might learn something about the people and place you’re in.

before caius gives you your first official orders, he’ll tell you to join a guild to establish a cover identity. there’s a lot of factions in this game you can join. you’ve got the imperial guilds: the fighter’s guild, the mage’s guild, and the thieves’ guild; the morag tong (essentially the dark brotherhood of this game, but a bit different flavor-wise, as well as in how it works); the religious guilds: the tribunal temple and the imperial cult; the imperial legion; and the great houses: house redoran, house hlaalu, and house telvanni. i won’t go into detail about all of these, but i will mention a few.

factions, and a bit on fast travel:

even if you don’t plan on playing through the questline, i recommend joining the mage’s guild. it gives you a couple of invaluable services: spellmaking, enchanting, and the guild guide. the first is self-explanatory: it lets you use any magic effects you’ve already learned to make custom spells from them. enchanting as a service is what it sounds like - you pay somebody to enchant items for you (you still need to bring a filled soul-gem, though). the guild guide is probably the most important, however. basically, it’s a teleportation service between the mage’s guilds of vvardenfell.

morrowind doesn’t have a fast travel system per se, but there are quicker ways to get around than just walking everywhere. we’ve mentioned the spells that can do this, like almsivi/divine intervention and mark/recall. but you can also take the bus (silt strider) across most of western vvardenfell, or a boat across most of eastern vvardenfell. but those two systems are largely disconnected; the only real way to trade off is to silt strider to vivec, walk (or divine intervention) to ebonheart, then take a boat to sadrith mora or tel branora, or vice versa.

but the mage’s guild guild guide solves this problem rather nicely! you can teleport from anywhere in the west to sadrith mora in the east much more quickly than the silt strider-boat trade off in vivec and ebonheart. so join the mage’s guild, i’m serious.

the only other factions i’m going to mention are the houses. they’re very important, and you’re going to want to join one. and only one, i might add - once you join one, you’re locked into it. so make your choice wisely. here’s a brief description of each house:

house redoran is a house of noble warriors, whose capital is ald’ruhn, literally inside the hollowed out remains of an ancient giant crab. they are most favored by the local warrior-poet god, vivec, and most of the buoyant armigers (vivec’s personal army) are from redoran.

house hlaalu is a house of sneaky merchants, whose capital is balmora. they’re the most closely affiliated house to the empire, whereas the other two are distrustful of the empire - and therefore distrustful of house hlaalu.

house telvanni is a house of arrogant wizards, whose capital is sadrith mora (literally translates to “mushroom forest”). they live in settlements built around giant fungal wizard towers, and are most distant and distrustful of the new forces (like the empire) in vvardenfell. they’re also most likely to own slaves, although they will accept argonian and khajiit as members all the same.

there is a bit of a disparity when it comes to the rewards you get from quests from these houses. telvanni gifts you with powerful spells and enchanted items; hlaalu gives you gold; redoran gives you, um. “honor.” which doesn’t sell for much in this economy. that might affect your decision here, but really, choose whichever faction appeals to you most. you’ll be able to get your hands on lots of money and powerful artifacts regardless of which house you choose.

i think that’s about all you really need to know to get started in this game! really, the best piece of advice i can give you is: take your time. take in the atmosphere, the lore, the books, the dialog. absorb yourself into this game and you will have the most amazing experience with it, i think. if you have any questions, let me know!

P.S. i’m going to add things to the end of this as i think of them:

a lot of the time, you’re going to run into people you need information from who won’t give it to you. every npc has a disposition stat, basically how much they like you, and if it’s too low, they won’t discuss certain topics. there’s a few ways to increase their disposition. 1) use the speechcraft skill to admire, intimidate, or taunt the npc. (taunting actually serves a different purpose to the other two, but we’ll get to that shortly.) 2) use a spell, namely the “charm” effect from the illusion school of magic, to temporarily raise their disposition with you. 3) increase your personality attribute, like with telvanni bug musk (always a good item to have around). and 4) bribe the hell out of them. you can bribe in 10 gold, 100 gold, and 1000 gold increments. 100 gold tends to be the most efficient way to bribe, and most people will open up to you after about 200 gold spent this way. money isn’t exactly difficult to come by in this game, especially after the first few levels, so this greasing of the wheels of commerce won’t hurt your wallet too much.

okay, that’s about how to increase a npc’s disposition. how about the scenario where you need (or want) to kill an npc without getting a bounty on your head? simple: either 1) take them out into the wilderness where there are no witnesses (this only works in cases where you can get this person to follow you, such as by using the conjuration school’s “command humanoid” effect), 2) use the “frenzy humanoid” effect from the illusion school to get them to attack you (this shouldn’t trigger a bounty, or for their friends to attack you as well), or 3) “taunting” them to get them to attack you. if your speechcraft is low, this will take many tries, because most of the time your attempt to taunt will fail, and also because it generally takes several successful taunts to get an npc to actually attack you. but you don’t have to worry about using a spell this way, and if you’re patient it’ll work out just the same.

another thing to note: if you’re on an assignment from the morag tong to kill somebody, you’ll get what’s called a “writ” with their name on it. the morag tong, unlike the dark brotherhood, is a government-sanctioned entity - using the tong to have someone killed is completely legal. this writ is your permission to kill that person. you don’t have to worry about incurring a bounty when you have a writ - you can just straight up merk somebody in broad daylight. watch out, though - sometimes that person’s nearby friends will attack you too. most of the time, though, although they might shout about it, nobody will report the crime. if somebody does, expect to be approached by a guard. in that instance, just present your writ to them, and they’ll be forced to let you go. (if this appeals to you, consider joining the morag tong. although every major city has a morag tong chapterhouse, you can only join the tong from the headquarters in vivec city. i won’t tell you exactly where those headquarters are in vivec - it’s actually fun trying to figure out on your own. just ask around and you’ll figure it out.)

okay, i forgot to mention. once you’ve leveled up your major or minor skills 10 times (repeats of the same skill count as well), you’ll get a notification saying it’s time to level up. to do this, you need to sleep in a bed. simply resting won’t do it. you need some kind of bed. make sure it’s a bed you’re allowed to sleep in! i recommend saving before trying to sleep in a bed. sometimes you’ll find a bed in like a mages guild and assume it’s free game but it’s actually someone in particular’s bed and you get expelled from the guild for trying to sleep in it. not a fun time.

since you’ll have the goty edition of the game, you’ll have tribunal enabled. that means sometimes when you rest you’ll get attacked by a dark brotherhood assassin. they’re not too tough, though, and they have very useful and very expensive armor and usually a decent weapon. if you want the attacks to stop, talk to a guard about them. but why would you, it’s free money.

i forgot to mention in the main body of this guide, but there are only a handful of places where you can pawn off your skooma and moonsugar. there are two in balmora: there is ajira, the resident alchemist of the balmora mage’s guild, and ra’virr, a merchant whose store is right next to the mage’s guild. in general, if a merchant is a khajiit, and normally deals in ingredients or potions, they’re likely to buy skooma and moonsugar.

another thing: you do have a journal! your character automatically records most important information in it about your quests. now, this is an actual journal, with entries in chronological order. so it can be difficult to find relevant information by just looking through it normally. if you have the goty edition (which you should) you have the option to categorize by topic and quest! should be a button on the right. not all quests are marked, but most are.

#morrowind #the elder scrolls #tes #tes 3 #tes 3 morrowind #tesblr #please play this game #guide

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orrianreaper · 1 month

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GW2 people - Pitch me YOUR idea for an Expansion!

What's the theme, where are we going, what lore threads are we picking up on, what's the story premise, what mechanics do you think it could have.

I love spitballing ideas when I'm talking with friends so I'm posing the question To Everyone because I know everyone has some pet concepts floating around. As self-indulgent as you'd like, as unrealistic as you like, just throw ideas around, I wanna hear them!

The One I think I have the most rounded ideas for would be an Underwater Expansion. Picking up on the threat of whatever is terrorising the deep oceans, having some exploration of the Largos and bringing back in the Quaggan and the Krait maybe!

I love the sort of depths we get in maps like Frostgorge sound, and underwater combat has badly needed a rework and a tune up - there's loads of skills which straight up don't work and break entire builds underwater, and this would be a perfect excuse to try bring it up to speed. Maybe even make the underwater weapon sets function on land, to satisfy those who're after more weapons. You could make the maps a mix of true underwater and perhaps giant air bubble caves so you still had some land exploration even in maps otherwise set deep under the ocean. A map meta split with land phases and water phases. Additionally as personal bias wish, I'd love map event/meta design more like HoT. A map-wide Story with a few chains with specifically Build into the actual true Meta. I also simply love the idea of having a bunch of enemy designs based of the ocean and the abyss, there's so much incredible inspiration and interesting marine life. and biomes too! Give me a hydrothermal vent section in one of the maps, hell underwater 'water' in the form of brine pool 'quicksand'.

The Turtle might get some more use out of it's underwater, and skimmer would absolutely get spotlight as a skyscale isn't going to get you too far here - hell maybe even some speedy new underwater mount could be a fun addition to the roster.

I can see a plot being around trying to work with the Largos, The 'Terror of the Deep' being a danger and learning from them about how to survive the hostile environment and also convince them work with you to Hunt the 'Terror'. Maybe you come to the area of the ocean with the Quaggans and it's convincing the Largos to take them seriously as allies against whatever you're fighting? A quaggan companion character would be really fun, and you could easily bring back Sayeh al' Rajihd from the personal story given Largos involvement. I think not only would it be something very different in terms of the maps, which granted quite a few people might not like (thalassophobia reasons, or general Dislike of Water Gameplay reasons), but I think a rework of the underwater mechanics would benefit a bunch of places and it's something that really doesn't get touched outside of base game and maybe like, the Leviathans in EoD. There's so much neat creature design inspiriation swimming around out there, and I know so many people love the largos and even if not playable getting to see more of them could be neat! Also - it'd finally make all those legendary full people happy. A Legendary Aquabreather :P.

And a new suite of legendary underwater weapons since the G1 set. (and not themed pretty please make them all Unique.)

#gw2 #guild wars 2 #apollo talks #I would also adore a fully underground give me three-four tangled depthslike cave maps for an asura expansion where they go back undergroun #to explore and something's trying to capitalise on the hole left by Primordus #and something with the Norn heading back up into the northern shiverpeaks again and similarly dealing with #whatever is trying to fill the jormag power vaccum #and how the spirits are doing #there's so much solid stuff to play with

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theteasetwrites · 1 year

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The Dixon Problem

❧ Pairing: Daryl Dixon x Reader ❧ Era: Season 1 (The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning series) ❧ Pronouns: she/her ❧ Warnings: swearing, mild violence ❧ Word Count: 5k

❧ Summary: Not everyone is happy with the Dixons’ presence in the camp, especially Shane. When things go haywire, the only solution is a compromise, and to let Daryl know you care.

❧ A/N: I realize I’m posting this after a weird little argument over the ethics of zooming in on a man’s crotch but here we are. This is a fanfiction blog, believe it or not. Anyway, here’s another fic set in the same universe as The Beginning (I really like doing these ok), and this one takes place between Chapter 4 and Chapter 5. I really wanted to do some oneshots that would’ve happened before they got together because idk it just seems to cool to read about them before they kissed at the CDC and sort of build up to that. I find it fun to hint at their burgeoning attraction to one another, and how they’re both kind of in denial about their little crushes lol. We all know it was love at first sight. Also I loved writing Daryl fighting with Shane it was so fun. Daryl should’ve punched Shane in the show don’t @ me.

A deep huff escaped your lips as the back of your hand wiped the dripping sweat from your brow. The sun was a few hours from setting, but Georgia summers were unforgiving, and even a setting sun would prove to be dangerous if you didn’t hydrate.

Taking a sip of water from the crinkly plastic bottle, you watched Lori skillfully sew up the rips in one of Shane’s shirts. It was a skill you had neglected, but at one point, you were pretty good with a machine. Hand sewing was something else entirely.

“You’re so good at that,” you said. “How’d you learn?”

Lori smiled as she looked at you, staring in awe. “My mom sewed, my granny sewed, and I wouldn’t be surprised if my great granny sewed, too.”

“That’s sweet… Maybe you could teach me sometime?”

“Sure, but I thought you were trying to get Mr. Crossbow to teach you how to hunt?” She spoke with a crooked smile, on the verge of laughing. You failed to see what was so funny, frankly.

But mostly, you were embarrassed. The warm blush on your cheeks and the butterflies doing somersaults in your belly betrayed you, though you just pretended none of it was there.

“Well, he, uh, said I should learn how to fight first. He said he’d teach me that, though.”

“Oh?”

“Mhm… Why are you laughing?”

Lori lowered her head until her hair covered her face, but you heard a few snorts and giggles from beneath the dark curtain.

“You’re so cute,” she said. “That’s all.”

“Cute? Why am I cute?”

“You just are…” She leaned closer to speak in a quiet voice. “I bet Daryl thinks you’re really cute.”

You scoffed, trying to laugh it off as you awkwardly nudged her shoulder with yours. “Stop. That’s not funny. Not true, either. I think he finds me annoying.”

“Oh, really?” she asked. “What about the little rock he cracked open for you? That doesn’t sound like the actions of a man who’s annoyed.”

That “little rock” was now your prized possession. You had one half, and you’d let Daryl keep the other. It was a simple gesture, but it meant the world to you. That rock was a geode, something your father would’ve added to his extensive collection. Maybe you were thinking too much into it, and maybe it was cliché, but you liked to think that it represented the last beautiful thing in the world. You kept it by your cot, on full display so it was the first thing you saw each morning. Sometimes, the translucent purple shards would catch the new light that streamed through your tent in just the most perfect way.

“He was just being nice,” you said. “Daryl’s… really nice. I mean, he’s a little… grumpy, but he’s got a good heart. I can tell. I wouldn’t have brought him here if I didn’t think so.”

Before Lori could respond with another teasing quip, you both flinched at the sound of Daryl, the man you were just talking, and thinking a little too deeply, about. His voice was raised, one decibel away from being a yell. It sounded like it was coming from the center of camp, near Dale’s RV, so you both jogged over, anxious to see whatever was causing Daryl to yell a series of curse words and a few other words you couldn’t yet make out.

“Stupid cop!” you heard, now getting closer. “Who the hell do ya think you are?! This ain’t Miami Vice.”

You stumbled upon Daryl, with his chest puffed up and his hands moving vigorously along with his hostile words, in some kind of argument with Shane, who only shook his head with his hands on his waist as the bowman hurled insults his way.

“Listen, Dixon,” replied Shane, who was visibly also beginning to lose his temper, “we gotta maintain some order ‘round here. Now, I don’t give a shit ‘bout what you and your white trash redneck brother used to get up to in bumfuck nowhere, but there’s women and kids here, and I don’t want this shit ‘round ‘em.”

Oh, noble Shane, you thought to yourself, but then again, you still had no idea what the men were arguing about, so maybe he had a point. Still, you did take some issue to being compared to a child, but you weren’t about to jump in the middle of a fight between two burly, hotheaded men for the sake of feminism.

“Are you fuckin’ kidding me?! It ain’t nothin’, Merle goes off into the woods to do it! Ain’t no women or children gonna get hurt. You’re just as stupid as you look, Columbo.”

“It ain’t them seein’ the drugs I’m worried about,” Shane replied, getting closer to Daryl until their chests were nearly touching. “It’s you and your ugly ass brother.”

Drugs? You knew Merle had a stash of drugs, including crystal meth, and most others figured it based on, well, everything about him, but you didn’t think Shane would pick a fight with Daryl over it. Maybe Merle himself, but not Daryl. Merle wasn’t even there that day, having taken his turn to go hunting, though he never brought back nearly as much as his brother. You weren’t sure if it was because Merle wasn’t a very good hunter, or because he just didn’t care enough to bring back food for your group, but either way, it was clear which brother was better.

“Man, that’s bullshit,” he replied, narrowing his eyes at Shane. “You wanna see a threat then look in the mirror. There’ll be a big arrogant prick starin’ back at ya.” Daryl punctuated his sentence by shoving the other man backwards, but before Daryl could strut away as he planned, Shane shoved him back.

“Watch yourself,” Daryl warned, voice low and raspy. “I don’t want your pig blood on my hands.”

He tried to brush past Shane, but the man was fuming. He shoved Daryl back once more, knocking him to the ground.

A puff of dirt swallowed his body as you let out a small gasp of disbelief. No one in the group had gotten physical with anyone like this yet. Maybe it was only a matter of time before it happened. After all, a group of several strangers under incredible physical and mental stress in the middle of the end of the world was a recipe for disaster, but you’d hoped it wouldn’t happen so soon.

All you could register was the sound of Daryl’s grunting before he sprung back up to sock Shane across the face, disorienting him. He soon struck back, but Daryl ducked and delivered a blow to Shane’s stomach.

Shane had managed to deliver a few blows of his own, but at this point, all you could focus on was thinking of a way to break them up without getting hurt yourself.

“H-hey!” you shouted out, along with Lori and several other women who’d gathered around, yelling to the men to stop. “Stop it!”

Dale was frantically climbing down the ladder of the RV, then greeted the scene with wide eyes. “Hey, hey! Break it up!” He managed to get his arms between the two of them, but he could only keep Shane back. Daryl even tried to get around Dale so he could deliver one last blow to Shane’s face, but T-Dog came up behind and pinned the enraged man’s arms back.

“Get offa me!” he yelled to T-Dog, then turned his attention back to Shane. “I’m gonna beat your ass, you hear me, bacon bits?!”

Dale stood between them, holding his hands out to keep them both at bay. Their chests swelled with heavy, panting breaths as their faces molded into their own unique scowls. Shane’s was terrifying, much more than Daryl’s. His dark brown eyes didn’t need to narrow at all, they were just as terrifying in their wideness. His mouth wasn’t agape, it was sealed shut as the breaths pumped out of his flared nostrils. He stood completely still, like a ticking time bomb. You’d never been more terrified of the man.

Daryl paced back and forth for a few feet on each side of him, his face much more natural looking, but still enraged. At least you could make some sense of Daryl in his anger. He didn’t send a shiver down your spine like Shane did. Well, and maybe you were a little partial to Daryl now, since he’d shown you kindness. In any case, the awkward silence that permeated the stiff, humid air was excruciating.

“Just calm down,” panted Dale, arms still outstretched between them. “What the hell is going on here?”

Shane huffed before speaking. “I was just tryin’ to have a civil conversation about the drug use goin’ on in this camp.”

“Drug use?” questioned Lori. “No, no way. No drugs, not around the kids. That’s the last thing we need right now.”

Daryl turned to look at Lori, not with anger, but confusion. He seemed troubled, unable to reconcile something in his head. His eyes squinted shut as he wiped his nose, which had just begun to bleed from the punch. He spat a glob of pinkish saliva onto the dirt ground, then turned back to face Shane.

“Talk to Merle,” was all he said. His voice was quieter now, almost timid, but still with an air of defensiveness.

He turned back again, in the direction of his tent. You met his glance for a moment, at which point he seemed to stop in his tracks. His foot backstepped, flashes of blue still on you until they averted to the ground. When he regained his focus, he moved quicker, more determined. Still, his confidence seemed drained after he looked your way, but all you could pay attention to now was Shane, who was walking directly towards you, huffing and puffing.

“What the hell were you thinkin’, bringin’ those meth heads here, huh? You stupid or somethin’? I thought you were some kinda… librarian.” He ended his sentence with a sarcastic chuckle.

Before you could respond, Lori spoke up, and thank God she did. You were still petrified by Shane’s aggression, and Lori knew him from before the fall. Maybe he’d actually listen to her.

“Stop it, Shane,” she scolded in an almost motherly tone. Fitting, since the argument between him and Daryl seemed more like that of children than two grown men in their thirties. “It’s done. No point in arguing about it.”

For your part, you took a moment to collect your thoughts, then spoke to Shane with as much bravado as you could muster. “It’s because of Daryl that we’re not starving to death,” you said.

Dale stepped forward, hand outstretched slightly to gesture towards you. “That’s a good point, but what about the drugs?”

You shook your head profusely. “I don’t know anything about any drugs.” That wasn’t true, you knew Merle was getting high, and that he was a dealer, but that honestly didn’t matter to you much at this point. As far as you were concerned, everything that had ever separated the human race from each other was out the window. Drug addicts were no different from Mormons now. Granted, Merle could be unpredictable, and you hated him, frankly, but Daryl and Merle seemed like a package deal, so you’d have to deal with both of them if your group was to reap the benefits of having a skilled hunter.

Plus, you might’ve fostered a bit of admiration for him. Friendly admiration, of course.

“Well, I just ain’t havin’ no crystal meth in this camp,” replied Shane. “And I’m about this close to killin’ your buddy, so’s as far as I’m concerned, this is your problem to solve if you wanna keep them here.”

Diplomacy wasn’t your strong suit, but if it kept Shane from kicking out the Dixon’s, you’d try your best to find some common ground.

“Compromise,” Dale said with a nod. “(Y/N), you should talk to Daryl, ask him to talk some sense into Merle when he gets back to camp. We give them shelter, they get rid of the drugs.”

It sounded more like an ultimatum than a compromise, but you were perhaps the only person who’d had any meaningful contact with the slightly more tolerable brother, so you put aside your reservations to head to the Dixons’ camp, several yards away from the rest of the group.

He was on one knee as he chopped the head off a squirrel on the sawed log he was using as a butcher block. The sound of the axe slicing through the flesh and digging into the wood was so powerful that you flinched, alerting the hunter to your presence.

Though he didn’t look your way. He simply set aside the axe and continued skinning the creature as if you weren’t there.

“You want a piece of me, too, woman?” he asked. “Whatever you gotta say, I ain’t in the mood.”

You bit your lip as you stood still, thinking of what to say. Daryl was tricky, you knew that. Sometimes he was nice to you, and sometimes he wanted nothing to do with you. No one in the camp knew how to deal with him, really. You only knew a little because you somehow found yourself trying to ingratiate yourself with him, but why? You still weren’t exactly sure.

“May I sit down?” you blurted out, thinking that might be the first step to talking to him.

He looked up at you then, with a suspicious glare.

“Why?”

Just as you were still trying to get used to talking to him, he was still trying to get used to your desire to talk to him in the first place. Why would a woman like you want anything to do with a man like him, anyway? Surely you had an ulterior motive, though he couldn’t deny there was something genuinely kind and soft about your face. Maybe even, dare he say, pretty? Not just physically, though he was painfully aware of that, but through and through, you were quite lovely. Well, that’s how it seemed, anyway.

Merle always said that women couldn’t be trusted, that if they weren’t childlike and dumb, they were manipulative and cunning. Nothing else, nothing in between. Of course, Daryl had a hard time believing that. People weren’t that simple, and Merle’s authority on the topic of women was questionable at best. Still, old habits die hard, and maybe he was just a little skeptical of your intentions. After all, no woman or man had ever shown this much interest in talking to him.

Daryl was, for all intents and purposes, a loser. He still felt like one, though he had to admit, when you brought him to your camp, insisting that your group needed him, he did feel a small sense of real, genuine pride, for the first time in his life. Maybe he had something to offer, something good he could do. Maybe you really wanted him there, and he wasn’t just a loser with a bad temper and a meth head brother.

His deeply ingrained insecurity, though, told him otherwise, and that you were only kind to him because of what he could offer your group, not because you actually appreciated him. But then again, the rest of the group had all but ignored him since he arrived, and you were the one who’d spoken more than five words to him at a time. That had to mean something, right?

“I want to talk to you,” you said simply. “So, can I?”

He chewed his lip as he looked you up and down, as if inspecting you. Wordlessly, he nodded, then lowered his head again to focus on the mutilated squirrel.

As you cleared your throat, you sat yourself on a dinky camping chair across from the fire pit. Both of you were silent for a little while, with only the sounds of flesh tearing from the muscle of the little furry critters Daryl was skinning. You watched with furrowed brows, though at a certain point, you had to stop looking, otherwise you’d get a little woozy, so you lifted your gaze to the top of Daryl’s head, covered in short, choppy brown hair.

Surprisingly, just before you were about to say something, Daryl spoke first. “I ain’t no meth head,” he said abruptly. “I don’t touch that shit.” Not anymore, he thought, but something stopped him. Could it be… embarrassment? Maybe shame. All he knew was there was a part of him that cared what you thought, for some odd reason. He’d trained himself not to give a damn about anything, though it was in his nature to. Why was your presence bringing out his sensitivity? It was a blessing and a curse. It hurts to care, he’d always thought. Nothing good could come of it. He cared once, before he knew how cruel people could be.

“I never said you did.”

“S’what you all think,” he replied. “Y’all think I’m some kinda… stupid redneck bastard.” Wouldn’t be wrong, a voice inside him retorted.

“I don’t think that.”

He finally raised his eyes again, glowering at you. “You will.”

It shouldn’t have hurt you, but it did, just a little bit. “I bet you I won’t.”

He shook his head and stood up to retrieve the red rag that was often dangling from his back pocket. Wiping his hands, he nodded towards you. “What’d ya really come over ‘ere for? They send ya over to kick me out?”

You shook your head immediately. “No, no. Not at all. Just… You need to tell Merle to quit with the drugs.”

Daryl scoffed, almost a laugh. “Askin’ Merle to give up crystal’s like askin’ him to cut off his own hand. ‘Sides, ya don’t think I’ve tried? Ain’t no use in it. Might as well jus’ kick us to the curb ‘cause it ain’t gonna happen.”

His apathy frustrated you, and you let out an exasperated, now quite irritated, puff of air. “So you’d rather live out in the woods by yourselves than in a group, with people who will look out for you?”

“None of these people will look out for me,” he scoffed.

“Well, I would.”

He looked your way again, this time not suspicious, but confused. “Why’d ya bring me and Merle here in the first place? All ya got to show for it is bein’ yelled at and bossed around by that asshole Shane.” He spat the man’s name out in obvious distaste.

“I told you,” you said, “I thought you would be able to help us… And you saved me. I’d be dead right now if it weren’t for you.”

He lowered his head again, busying himself by cleaning between his fingers with the rag in the hopes of distracting you from the obvious blush on his cheeks. When he didn’t respond, you realized you hadn’t asked him a similar question.

“Why’d you save me, anyway?” you asked, your voice a little more quiet, as if afraid of him even hearing it.

After all, you were a complete stranger, why should he have helped you? What you knew from human nature was that people often only helped others if they knew there was something in it for them. True altruism was hard to come by, and often not evolutionarily beneficial. Those who helped others and put themselves in danger often died out before their lineage could carry on. Well, that was your vague memories of anthropology class resurfacing, but it still applied.

Indeed, you yourself hadn’t been acting out of true altruism. You had decided to bring Merle and Daryl into the fold because they were hunters, and they could benefit your group by providing your people sustenance. But Daryl’s motivations were less clear.

He swallowed hard as thought for a moment, himself now forced with the reality of facing that question. Why did he help you?

For the next several moments, he transported himself to that day just a month ago, when he was trudging around in the woods outside Atlanta, listening to Merle ramble on about some drunken memory, a relic of his “glory days” that he seemed unable to forget about. They had no destination, no idea where they were going. They’d tried the refugee center in the city, but that had been overrun about as soon as it was set up. Merle was quite content to rough it, and so was Daryl, so long as there weren’t flesh-eating monsters roaming around.

When he heard the rather faint sound of a woman screaming, somewhere ahead in the maze of aspen trees dotting the humid forest, something in him switched, and though he remembered the muffled sound of Merle’s protesting, all he could hear at the time was the scream getting closer and closer.

Soon he was in a small clearing, setting sight on a decrepit creature. Below it were two squirming legs, belonging to the screaming woman who was just inches away from becoming something’s lunch.

Without hesitation, he lifted his bow to shoot, snagging the creature in the head until it fell less than gracefully onto your chest. Pushing the body off, you faced him, mouth panting and eyes hazy with tears.

He tried to think of what he thought then, but it was difficult to put himself in that position again. He only remembered your face, how scared you were. You seemed so fragile, and yet somehow brave enough to look him in the eye. Most of all, you were peculiar to him, different from anyone or anything he’d seen before. Of course, there was nothing particularly strange looking about you, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. You were just… special, with a calming aura of warmth around you, something he was instinctively drawn to for whatever reason.

So, how was he supposed to explain that? You seemed special, important, warm… Creepy. He knew that would’ve sounded creepy. He was already embarrassed from Shane’s display earlier, and his stomach stung to think of you seeing that cop strike him across the face, to appear weak. Once again, he wondered why he cared in the first place.

He finally settled for a somewhat satisfactory explanation. “S’just what people do.”

Indeed, he would’ve done it for anyone. That wasn’t the issue Daryl struggled with, he knew right from wrong, for the most part. He struggled with understanding why you looked at him the way you did, and why he found himself wanting to keep you safe even after the creature attacking you was long dead.

At least you seemed happy with that answer, as one corner of your lips upturned into a small smile. “Well, I am sure some people wouldn’t have done anything. I’m really grateful… And I really don’t want you to go. Merle… I will put up with him if it means you stay here, but if you could please talk to him, try to get him to at least hide the drugs better and maybe go further away from camp to do it, I’d be even more grateful.”

Though he had no idea how he was going to get Merle to agree to changing anything about himself, he couldn’t deny that you were convincing. Something about your wide, almost pleading eyes. Somehow, making you happy seemed to make him happy, too.

“I’ll try,” he said. “But I ain’t promisin’ anything. Merle don’t care ‘bout what I got to say.”

“Well, he should,” you said as you stood to your feet. “He’s your brother… I have a brother, too. We used to talk all the time, though we sort of lost touch before all this.” You gestured around vaguely, ending your sentence with a small nervous chuckle.

Daryl almost didn’t speak, didn’t want to ask what he was thinking, but the look on your face as your lips began to droop and your eyes became vague made him wonder if maybe you needed to talk about it.

“Where is he?” he asked simply, though he immediately began to regret it when he noticed you shifting awkwardly where you stood. “I mean… I, uh… Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” you replied with a shake of your head. “No, it’s fine. He’s, well… I don’t know where he is. Last time we talked he was in Atlanta. Actually, that’s why I was headed there when it happened.”

It seemed to be a universally agreed upon signifier. The fall, the turn, the apocalypse, the plague… Everyone called it something different, but what it all came down to was The End, or The Beginning, depending on who you asked.

“Sorry,” was all he could reply, though he found himself going further, speaking more than he normally would’ve. “Hope he’s all right.”

That meant more to you than anything anyone had ever said to you since the world turned. You hadn’t told anyone about your brother, and you weren’t sure why you decided to tell Daryl, but it felt right. In a world where everything was suddenly wrong, lots of things still felt right, all of which had to do with him. Strange.

“Thank you. I do too. He means a lot to me… I’m sure your brother means a lot to you, too, so I understand why you care so much about him. He’s lucky to have you as a brother.”

If Daryl wasn’t so strangely calmed by your presence in this moment, he might’ve protested to the assertion that Merle meant a lot to him, but he supposed he really did, whether or not Daryl liked it.

As he shifted his shoulders, he raised his hand to scratch his neck, chewing the inside of his bottom lip all the while. The unique little nervous mannerisms he had were already becoming part of your ever-growing encyclopedia of quirks Daryl displayed, and you had to say you found that quite endearing. Indeed, you truly felt that Daryl could become a friend. You wanted him to be a friend.

It reminded you that Daryl spent almost all of his time alone. Whenever Merle was gone or at the edge of camp getting up to his illicit activities, Daryl was by himself. You figured he had to get lonely, and surely the sole company of a man like Merle would eventually drive him insane, even if he was his brother.

“Daryl?” you asked, moving closer as you tried to telepathically direct his gaze up at you.

He did, and a flash of silvery blue eyes that caught little sparkles of light from the sun looked up at you. His eyes were quite deep set and narrow, making them seem at first glance to be cold and uninviting, but that wasn’t really the case at all. Now that you saw them in full view, there was mystery there, something waiting to be revealed. You had a feeling whatever it was, it was something lovely. Your curiosity made you eager to get to the bottom of it.

“Yeah?”

Even the strange softness of his often rough, gravelly voice struck you. As he licked his chapped lips, you found yourself trailing your eyes to his light stubble, sparse on his cheeks but more concentrated around his lips, which weren’t particularly full, but beautifully sculpted as if by delicate, intentional little hands. You found his face much more tolerable than his brother’s. Handsome, even. Perhaps not an A-list Hollywood movie star (certainly no one so clean-cut as Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt, both of whom you had at one point hung posters of on your closet door in the mid-nineties) but he had been blessed with good proportions and a pleasant visage that you only dwelled on for a moment until your subconsciousness took the image into its darkest recesses. The last thing you needed to do today was to admire a man’s physical appearance, though it did tempt you for just a few seconds. Maybe a few more.

“You should really join us for dinner tonight,” you said. “You know, around the fire… Dale’s going to make something special. I have no idea what, he says it’s a surprise.”

When his breath seemed to hitch and his muscles flexed in seemingly anxious response, you quickly tried to explain yourself. “I mean, I know it’s awkward, with the Shane thing… but Shane has watch during dinner tonight. Maybe you can just… talk to me, and Dale, Andrea, Amy, Glenn, Jacqui… We all sort of congregate, talk a little bit. I’m sure they’d like to get to know you more.”

He found himself wondering how to respond, how to tell you that he hated talking, especially to people he hardly knew. Then again, he liked talking to you. That was clear to him.

“Maybe… I dunno.”

Though you didn’t want to pressure him, it was hard not to try to convince him. You were shy sometimes, too, but the older you got, the more you realized that you needed people, and that couldn’t be more evident than right now, when people were hard to come by.

“All we have is each other,” you said. “You told me that the world’s never gonna be like how it was, and you’re right. We should never take people for granted anymore.”

He’d never wrap his head around the way you spoke sometimes, how you could be so articulate and intelligent, and at other times, so high-strung or bubbly or aloof… You were about as hard to read to him as he was to you.

“I’ll try,” was all he replied.

“That’s all that matters.”

When he briefly lurked around the fire that night, exchanging a few brief words with Dale and Andrea (and you, of course), you felt like you’d gotten somewhere further with the temperamental hunter.

He didn’t stay for long, and hardly ate any of Dale’s “mushroom mash,” but it was something, and though the day started with a fight between Shane and Daryl, it ended with the latter feeling just a little more welcome.

Most of all, you had no regrets about bringing Daryl Dixon to your camp. You had a feeling it was the right thing to do.

Thanks for reading! Likes, reblogs, and comments of any kind are always appreciated!

Masterlist

#the walking dead #the beginning series #daryl dixon x reader #daryl dixon #twd #the walking dead fanfic #daryl dixon fanfic #twd fanfic #norman reedus #norman reedus x reader #norman reedus fanfiction #the beginning oneshot #theteasetwrites oneshot #theteasetwrites fanfiction #theteasetwrites series

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esmedelacroix · 5 months

Text

14 days til' Christmas

going to your daughter's hockey game and running into singleparent!miguel o'hara ⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅̩̩͙‧͙ ‧͙̩̩͙❆ ͙͛ ˚₊⋆

25 days til' Christmas ← previous part

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

You watched as your daughter Mari waved goodbye to Gabi through the window. "I really liked playing Legos with Gabi, it's so much more fun with a friend," your daughter explained.

"That's so true when I was your age I used to love playing Legos with my little brother. We would build the sets together and play for hours," you said thinking back to the moments that you spent with your best friend in your childhood home.

You quickly ushered Mari back into the house not wanting her to catch a cold. "Mari! Get your overnight bag I packed for you and come downstairs your dad's going to be here soon!" you called out to her.

"Okayy!" she called back. You heard her little footsteps echoing above your head.

Soon enough she rushed down the stairs with her duffel and you handed her all of her gear. "Thanks, mama," Mari said as she motioned for you to bring your face closer to hers so she could kiss you on the cheek.

Just then you heard a knock on the door and realized you left the gifts that Mari had gotten for her dad under the tree. You opened the door for her dad and quickly rushed to stuff the gifts in her duffel(Mari wanted it to be a surprise).

"Hey Rafael, come in just packing one last thing," you called out.

You heard him greet Mari followed by her laughter. "Alright don't be too long," he called back, tickling her some more.

"Sorry about that, I almost forgot her favorite stuffed animal," you lied as you handed him her bag.

"It's fine I've gotten used to you never being prepared," he said as took Mari's hand.

"Not in front of her, we said we wouldn't do this in front of her," you muttered as you crossed your arms glaring up at him.

"What? I can't tell the truth? I don't even know why I only have weekend custody, look at this place! There are Legos all over the floor!" he said pointing at the mess.

"Ay dios mío[Oh my god], Rafael! You're scaring her," you said pointing your hand towards Mari working hard to keep your tone in check, unlike her father.

"I'm scaring her? You're putting her in danger by letting her play with such small toys, she might step on them," he said, keeping his tone down after realizing that Mari was starting to get upset.

"Danger? The only danger is you coming into my home and trying to instigate some kind of fight to make me look like the 'bad guy' in front of my own daughter. Mari is nine years old, she knows not to put Legos in her mouth, and she's not blind, she can look where she's walking," you said as you ran a frustrated hand through your hair.

"Okay, but were you even supervising to make sure she was okay?" he said, trying to find some kind of fault in your parenting skills.

"¿Eres estúpido?[Are you stupid?], Of course, I was. Miguel and I were watching our daughters play with Legos," you said as you simply guided him out of your house.

"¿Quién es ese cabrón?[Who is that fucker?]," he asked as he put Mari's stuff into the trunk.

"None of your business, don't forget to make time for Mari's game tomorrow, ¿Vale?[Okay?]," you said as you gave Mari a hug and a kiss on her forehead.

"I'm sorry, me and your dad always fight all the time. I'll make it up to sweetheart, I promise," you whispered as you gave her one last parting kiss before she got in the car.

"Okay, I have a Hockey game tomorrow. Can I go now?" he sighed.

You rolled your eyes making sure Mari could hear you even though you knew she couldn't really understand, "Vete a la mierda[fuck you/fuck off],"

You slammed your door and texted him, 'If you forget to take her to her game like last time, I'll never forgive you'

You hated that you had to say goodbye to Mari every weekend and not see her for days. But you could sympathize with her father because he didn't get to see her on the weekdays.

You couldn't help but shake the feeling that Rafael wasn't as committed to parenting as he was before meeting his girlfriend. You could give two shits if he had started dating just months after your divorce but his girlfriend didn't seem too interested in Mari. On top of that Mari could recount multiple times when she would be dropped off at his neighbors because his girlfriend wanted alone time.

You weren't going to let the toxic thoughts plague you any longer and you allowed yourself to rest and go to sleep.

. . .

The next day was very relaxing. You were able to do some deep cleaning for the winter and since you work on your own hours you popped in and out of shifts and did some grocery shopping.

Once work was finally over and you finished eating an early dinner you checked your watch. Rafael was probably dropping Mari off for her game. She had to be there two hours in advance to prepare herself and warm up.

You had called her and her father in the morning and she seemed very excited about her game. You took your time getting dressed and doing your hair to go to her game. You know you were just going to end up bringing your look because of how passionate of a sports watcher you were.

It didn't matter what sport it was, you were going to scream whenever a player messed up and cheer on the team you thought was going to win if you didn't already have a favorite. To make matters even worse you had a tendency to eat like a pig when you watched sports.

That's probably why none of the single dads approached you at games. You went crazy when it came to being a supportive parent for your daughter.

Just as you were about to make some snacks for Mari's teammates for the end of the game someone was blowing up your phone. Rafael was blowing up your phone.

You picked up his call and put it on speaker as you prepared each teammate's bag. "What is it, Rafe?" you sighed.

"Heyy, mama listen, I don't want you to get upset, but Angela had to go out because she's not feeling well, and I completely forgot about dropping Mari off," Rafael explained in a hushed tone.

"¡¿Qué?!" you gasped hoping that it was just some sick prank.

"Please don't get mad, I'm sorry but it's an emergency. Mari is at Peter's house," he said.

"Seriously? Rafael, I knew you would choose her over your own daughter again. Wasn't feeling well? Just take Advil seriously, is she a child?" you yelled.

"Look I'm sorry I really am-" he started.

"No no, don't apologize to me. Apologize to Mari when you see her after her game," you said as you abandoned the snacks and put your coat on getting your bag and keys.

"Well, I can't make it to her game... Angelica is going to want to eat somewhere and she's vegetarian, she can't have the food at the stadium," Rafael explained.

"You gotta be shitting me. No. For Mari, find a way to at least make it to the end, or else," you threatened

"Or else what?" he instigated.

"Or else I have my lawyer ready. I have so many instances where you neglected our daughter and I can easily take full custody. Seriously, why pick her up just to take her to Peter's house?" you asked. You really didn't want to threaten full custody but he needed that push.

It may have just been a hockey game from anyone looking at the situation from the outside but it's about being there. Being present. I would’ve wanted both my parents present. You thought to yourself. It already hurt enough knowing Mari is different from others in her class and her parents aren't in love anymore. The least we could both do is be there for her.

All you heard was silence on the other lie so you hung up and got into your car. You definitely obeyed all speed limits and most definitely didn't run a red light or two 'on accident' just to get to Mari quickly.

You practically ran up the stairs to the apartment right next to Rafe's. You knocked on Peter's door fidgeting hoping your daughter wasn't upset and she wasn't posing on his evening.

"Hey, squirt!" Peter said as he opened the door greeting you Mayday in his arms obviously wanting to cry.

"Hey Peter, listen I'm sorry about Rafe," you started.

"It's fine, it's always a pleasure having Mari over. I would’ve taken her to her game but Mayday here isn't too fond of the cold," he explained.

Just then you heard Mari run to the door and give you a hug. "Hi mija[darling]," you said as you got on your knees to hug her back.

"Mommy I'm late!" Mari said with tears in her eyes.

"I know and Papa's really sorry but I'm going to get you there in time. Trust me," you assured as you quickly got all her gear and her bags.

"Do you need help with all that?" Peter asked.

"I got it!" you called down as speeded down the stairs.

Mari followed giggling cheering you on.

Once everything was in the trunk and all seatbelts were on, you drove to the Hockey rink. You weren't really speeding because you had your baby on board and you wouldn't allow her to witness your road rage. Well maybe.

You were doing a really good job keeping the yelling in check but there was a car pulling into the rink going at painfully slow speed. You honk your horn at them before driving over the grass patches to overtake them, flipping them off and yelling, "Do you even know how to drive?!"

You swerved right into a parking seat and hopped out of your car, opening the trunk and giving Mari all her stuff telling her to run into the auditorium and get her gear on.

She wasn't on time for the team stretch or for the team dinner but she was right on time for warmups. You already texted her coach about her situation. You were so lucky that he was so understanding.

You were just about to go into the auditorium before taking a look at your terrible parking job before just leaving it and walking in.

You got yourself some snacks and took your seat. Your eyes immediately scanned the ice for your little girl. There you saw her warming up. She was number 23 and she looked ecstatic. A lot more excited than she looked before any other game. That's weird. Is her father here for the first time in forever? You asked yourself to look around to see if he was sitting anywhere.

When you finally looked to your left you saw none other than Miguel?! "Oh my god, hi, what are you doing here?!" you asked as you waved and motioned for him to take a seat next to you.

"Well, my daughter's playing today. On the opposing team," he said as he took his seat.

"Well, then I guess we're rivals today. Best of luck to your daughter though," you said as you looked down and waved at your daughter.

"Best of luck to your daughter too. I hope she's not a crier 'cause her team is about to get crushed," he said.

"Really? So it's like that? You're on Miguel O'Hara. This is war," you quipped.

The two of you laughed at your stupid parental rivalry over your daughters' sports.

"You won't believe what happened when I was pulling in. I take it we were both running late but when I was entering the stadium, there was a car on the way and they were driving as slow as a grandma. I flipped someone off in front of my daughter for the first time. I swear when I find them I'm gonna.... do something bad that will make them regret it," you said, unable to think of a good threat.

Miguel laughed and shook his head before saying, "I'm pretty sure that was me," he chuckled.

Your mouth hung open in shock at his revelation. "And for the record, I do know how to drive," he said before sipping his hot cocoa.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry I didn't mean that. I speed all the time and have terrible road rage issues," you said, placing an apologetic hand on his shoulder.

"I thought you were going to do something bad to me that would make me regret it," he teased.

God, this guy knows what he's doing. With that naturally erotic voice of his. You thought to yourself as you felt the heat rise to your cheeks.

"Well, I'm very forgiving so I'll let you off easy just this once," you said, turning away from him, hiding your flustered expression from him.

Just then, the lights in the stadium began to dim and the game started. The two of you immediately entered sports spectator mode leaning forward and watching your daughters play.

The two of you occasionally yelled when there was a good play and whenever one of your daughters had the puck. Their positions were immediately rival to one another so whenever they were going against each other the two of them went insane.

It was nice to know that there was a parent who was just as crazy about his daughter as you were. The two teams were keeping up with each other pretty well; the score was 3 - 3. There was only one minute left and both teams were doing everything they could.

Luckily Mari's team was working on a fake pass. They weren't going to try it originally but you saw Mari make the hand motion to her team mate and she faked the pass well leaving open space for her to go up the goalpost and shoot with all her might.

Gabi was on her tail but she ended up making it. The stadium erupted with cheers for the team and they all hugged. After Mari celebrated with her team she immediately went to Gabi and pounced on her. She was overjoyed to see her and they were so happy to be playing against each other.

"How does defeat feel?" you asked Miguel while doing a little victory jig.

"Worth it," he answered as he saw you in such a euphoric state with ketchup and mustard on the corner of your mouth from the hotdog you were devouring during the game.

"Here got a little on your mouth," Miguel pointed out as he took out a handkerchief and wiped the condiments off your mouth for you.

"Thanks," you said sheepishly before being interrupted by the stadium erupting in applause randomly. When you looked up you saw you and Miguel on the screens in the center of the stadium for the Kiss Cam.

The two of you looked at each other awkwardly while everyone begged the two of you to kiss thinking you were a couple or something. You turned to him looking up at him. You could feel your heart pounding in your throat. He took the sides of your face in his big warm hands and gave you a quick peck and everyone cheered for you.

You just kept looking up at him tracing your hands over the lips that he kissed. "That wasn't too bad," you joked as you snapped out of the trance he put you in.

"Yeah," you said, shaking his head.

"We should probably go," you started.

"Yeah let's," he said.

The two of you walked down the stairs to go see your daughters in the lobby. Mari and Gabi immediately ran up to the two of you.

"Hey you girls played so well," you said as you gave Mari a hug.

"What do you say we go out to eat?" Miguel suggests looking at you for a nod of approval. You looked down at Mari who was giving you the puppy eyes.

"What the hell, why not?" you said.

"You wouldn't mind if I joined would you?" you heard a voice behind you say.

"Papa!" Mari exclaimed as she ran to hug him. You crossed your arms and rolled your eyes.

"Actually we would mind so maybe you should just crawl on back to your apartment," you said

"Hi I'm Rafael, I'm Mariana's dad," Rafe said, shaking his hand, acting all nice and angelic.

"Oh goodness I'm sorry, you probably just watched me kiss your wife. Look man I'm really sorry I didn't know she was married," Miguel apologized profusely to Rafael.

"No, you kissed my ex-wife, it's all good," Tafael corrected.

"Oh, well you could join us if you would like we were going to get a bite to eat," Miguel started before looking down at Mari who was pulling at his shirt, shaking her head.

"Mama and Papa are fighting right now," she whispered as you glared at Rafael.

"It's okay you all should go. I have things to take care of at my place, you played well today Mari," he said, giving her a playful nuggie.

He waved goodbye and signaled for you to call him later tonight. Probably so that he could explain why he forgot to drop off Mari and left her at Peter's house.

Dinner with Miguel was fine and thankfully he didn't mention or ask out Rafael after seeing how his presence alone upset you so much.

Your daughters had fallen asleep and were in the car. The two of you were outside conversing. "When can I see you again?" Miguel asked.

"You mean like when is our daughter's next playdate?" you asked not sure how you felt about meeting with Miguel alone.

"I was kind of hoping we could have a playdate," he said. You felt heat rise to your cheeks and ears. That voice of his always made the thing he said sound so forbidden but maybe this time it was intended.

"Maybe next week? I'm usually free on Wednesdays," you said.

"Okay it's a date, I'll text you, looking forward to it," Miguel said before getting in his car.

"It's a date," you whispered to yourself with the dumbest smile on your face. you turned around and did a little victory dance forgetting that Miguel was still in fact, right there.

. . .

next part → 9 days til' Christmas

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

taglist:

@aripet22@to-the-endoftheline@primroselovessupernatural

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theguyinthemathexamples · 1 year

Text

been a long while since I've been back, so here's something before i disappear again ✌️

so here and now, i would like to introduce to you all,

The Levels Of Self Awareness in SAGAU

(aka, the ones I've seen so far)

Warning(s): Cursing(probs), possible misinformation?, not really accurate?, my opinions, my humour and experience, and more.

Not proofread, we die like Guizhong in the Archon War.

1. None. Just- Just none.

As the name suggests, none. Just your average game.

No, literally, there's nothing to worry about here.

No worrying about getting sucked in while you're sleeping or anything of the like.

Nothing strange happens (for now) while you're playing, nothing like that.

No extra items, no extra friendship exp, no extra anything.

It's best to savour it while you still can.

2. "Since when did i get that??"

This is when the "getting extra stuff" and/or "extra luck" happens.

Either your characters have been doing some offcam grinding themselves, or you've just been collecting stuff for a while now and haven't really looked into your bag other than to switch gadgets.

Normally, you probably just caught one crystalfly, and yea it shows that, but either 1. it shows you got multiple, or 2. you have a tiny bit/alot more crystalflies in ur bag the last time you checked.

Maybe that's what they want you to think, who knows.

You'd also probably get lucky with a pull or more - usually nothing more than ten or so.

Your characters would also glitch a lil. Things like the sudden cancelling of idle animations, not switching onto the character you want/need, accidental skill/burst activation, and more.

Though, those only happen on occasion. It's not common enough for you to notice and just interpret as misclicks, but also rare enough to set off a raised eyebrow or red flag inside of you.

Nothing happens out of the ordinary outside of your phone.

Apps like Youtube, Google, Chrome, Photos/Gallery, etc. aren't tampered with.

You're good ... As long as the characters don't break through the 636f6465, that is.

3. "Yo," - Kaeya, 2022

It's probably time to delete and redownload Genshin at this point.

You might see hints of you - i.e statues, your favorite color/thing appearing here and there, characters mentioning someone by "Their/His/Her Grace" or some other title, etc.

Your Gallery might be affected, a few photos of a character and/or a view from Genshin.

Getting extra stuff also (probably) gets more frequent

Either you get them through mail or it just gets sent to your storage/bag directly.

The character glitches also happen a lil more frequently.

Oh, you wanted [thing] but didn't have the chance to do so? Don't worry, we'll get it for you, Your Grace. Just occupy yourself with some other miscellaneous tasks and you'll have it in no time.

Your luck also increases a lil more.

The character you've wanted for some time now but didn't get the chance to get them before? Yep, you guessed it, you lost your 50/50 atleast 4 times now.

Lmao I'm kidding

But seriously, if it's what you've been wanting for some time now, you're at least bound for one or a few 50/50 losses (unless you're guaranteed)

It's also why you (probably) get that one unwanted 5* because you wanted to try your luck/build pity.

Jealousy runs in the family, as they say. It's almost unavoidable, really. (looks at my lost 50/50s)

Hey, don't blame them! They were just... excited that you wanted to even pull on their banner, y'know?

Level them up and ascend them to level 20. I dare you.

I mean hey, atleast you'll get a free acquiant fate after you ascended them.

It only takes 7 Hero's Wit, 1 Wanderer's Advice, and their ascension mats.

It's basically a win/win, is it not?

You get a free fate, they get strength. It's fair for everyone.

You don't even have to give them a new weapon or any artifacts! Just leveling them up will do the job, will it not?

4. Caught You Slippin'

Oh, and if the Barbatos statue at Mondstadt actually changed into you, it's best if you just, yk, just look at the first • on this #.

It's too late to turn back now.

This is the "isekai" part of SAGAU, aka, where most fics take place.

This might be a major jump from the previous #, but hey, i started making this at 5AM.

But besides that, what AU you end up is all based on chance.

I'm sure you get the gist of this #. If you don't, i don't blame you.

Remember that one machine in Albedo's cave? That big rectangle/oval one? You don't? Good cuz neither do i.

Either you got sucked in and woke up somewhere in Teyvat, or you woke up to a bunch of hot people staring at you.

This part of the post is very sensitive to change, so I can't really say much here.

Just know that if you manage to find yourself at this point, you probably don't have a chance in getting back to your normal life without getting atleast a tiny bit of trauma.

C/N: Yea, it's me Your broy, chips ahoy, Cake.

Didn't expect me to post, did you? Well, you probably did, but hey, i like imagining nonexistent things

Anyways, have this while u still can cause i'm going back to nap again

Oh wait right i just remembered i haven't done my commissions

Nevertheless, thank you for all of your patience.

Peace — ★

#fool's flour °#scaled vanilla extracts °#silver lined strawberries ♪#stellar-borne cookies and cream ♪#genshin impact #sagau #genshin impact sagau #what else can i tag #i got lazy at the end #sorry lol #still thinking about those times scara and alhaitham said smth that wasn't part of their voicelines #oh well #i made this instead of sleeping

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sahmandbean · 20 days

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Inherited Manor Challenge 2024 - A Sims 4 Gameplay and Build Mode Challenge For Only The Most Ambitious

You come from a long line of Occult Sims. Vampires, Mermaids, Werewolves, Spellcasters; all were welcome in your home (and present in your bloodline). You are, naturally, the rebel of the family and preferred the company of Sims and more modern amenities. After high school you decided to rid yourself of your occult ties and moved away from the family manor. This process reset your skills and you lost a few memories, but it was worth it to live the normal Sim life you had been dreaming of. Within a month you hear there was a terrible accident back home and your parents' lives were lost. Your father hadn't written you out of the will as you had expected, so you pack a bag to temporarily move home and decide what to do with the manor. You figure you'll sell it to your Spellcaster cousin. She's been a bit of a hot head, but always dreamed of a big house, and not getting along as kids is no reason to not act like adults. But, wait, why is there a hedge around the property? Why can't you get through it? Why does it smell like smoke? Your cousin and her husband, furious that you were set up to inherit the property, have set a curse on it and destroyed the home in the process. You have two choices: walk away and let them deal with the aftermath they created, or turn back to the lifestyle of your ancestors and reclaim what's yours. Are the suburbs really worth letting her win this way?

Warning: this challenge involves heavy fire damage. Please play responsibly.

The Goal

Fix up each room in order, meeting all of the requirements. Each room will have a required occult, some required items, and an overall monetary value to hit. You can check the Simoleon value of a room by selecting the room in build mode, then saving it to your library. It will show the cost of the room. Once you have completed a room, you can move on to the next one. Exact requirements, "hard mode" optional gameplay, and some FAQs will follow the rules.

The Setup

First, you have to determine if you are playing with the save file or the gallery upload. If you are playing on PC and have Vampires, Island Living, Werewolves, Realm of Magic, and Paranormal, you can use the save file. However, if you do not play on PC or don't have one of the required packs, you will have to use the gallery version. Missing even one pack will cause the damage on the lot to reset, which kind of defeats the challenge.

Here is a video I made that shows how to get started in the challenge and answers some frequently asked questions.

Save File Setup: 1 - Download the file here: http://www.simfileshare.net/download/4612595/ 2 - Place the save file in your save folder. If you followed a standard install procedure when you got the game (you would know if you didn't) you should find the save folder following this path: This PC > Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4 > Saves. Make sure the save file does not share a name with any other save already in your game before saving to avoid accidentally overwriting an existing save in your game. That would really suck. 3 - Open your game 4 - Click "Load Game" (not "Resume") and select the file named "Inherited Manor Challenge 2024" 5 - If you have Seasons installed, you will have to select a season. Next, load into the Vampires world "Forgotten Hollow". The manor will be at the top of the map by the graveyard. We kicked Vlad out lol. 6 - Move a new Sim into the lot. The Sim must be a single non-occult young adult with no skills or bonus traits. You can set the aspiration, traits, likes, dislikes, gender, etc to whatever you want. You can create a Sim or use one from the gallery. 7 - Use the "freerealestate on" cheat to move your Sim into the Manor. On PC press ctrl+shift+c, on Mac press cmd+shift+c, and on console press all four trigger buttons to open the cheat bar, then type "freerealestate on". You should see a confirmation message. You can now move your Sim into the manor. 8 - Set your household funds to zero. Type "money 0" into the cheat bar. Lock the back door in the kitchen if the lock setting didn't stick. 9 - You can use whatever life span, neighborhood stories, season length, or other gameplay settings you want. I do recommend turning off the dust system if you own Bust the Dust as it becomes a hinderance to gameplay as it accumulates in the rooms you can't access.

Gallery Download Setup: edit: after posting all of this the gallery upload was giving me a ton of issues, so unfortunately I had to remove many of the photos for it to work, just so you're aware. 1 - Open an existing save file or create a new one 2 - Chose any lot that is at least 40x30. The manor was built on Vlad's lot in Forgotten Hollow but if you don't have that world, or don't like it, you can play elsewhere. 3 - Download and place the manor from the gallery. My Gallery ID is sahmandbean and the Lot Title is IMC 2024. 4 - Exit the lot to the map view and proceed from step 6 above.

The Rules

To enter the Manor, you must become a Vampire. Each section has a designated occult. You will begin by transforming your Sim into a Vampire, completing the rooms in order in the Vampire section of the Manor, then reverting back to a normal Sim before transitioning into a Mermaid to fulfill the requirements of the next section of the house, and the same with Werewolf and Spellcaster. (If at any point you don't own the necessary pack for that occult type, just skip to the next occult or stay in your current occult. For example, if you don't have Vampires, you must become a Mermaid to enter the manor, and if you don't have Werewolves you must complete the second floor as a Mermaid or Spellcaster, but not a normal Sim.) Once you have completed your transformation into the designated occult, you may go into build mode and remove the cursed hedge blocking your way.

As you enter each new room, make sure you clean it, replace or remove all of the burned items, and fulfill the requirements listed below. There are maps as well, which will hopefully help. If at any point you have questions or feel stuck, join this discord server to ask and get help from myself and the other challenge players in the community. Standard rules let you live in the full area designated to the occult, but you have to work on one room at a time. For example, as soon as you are a mermaid you can use the pool, but you cannot clean the yard up until after you have completed the other rooms in the area in the order listed below. Hard mode, however... Well, more about that after the normal rules.

Also, if at any point you get stuck and decide to use a cheat to transform your Sim in or out of an Occult life state, it will cost you. First transformation will be $10,000, then the second is $25,000, and it will double from there. Use a calculator and "money [amount]" to settle the balance.

You may not at any point sell anything from an area you are not working on for money, or any of the landscaping. You can rework the landscaping after you have completed the Manor but you can't use it as a get rich quick scheme.

Here are the room requirements. Remember, these are just minimums. You can add a bathtub and bed to the entryway if you want, for example, so your Sim can maintain some needs, but if you are not going to leave them there make sure you remove them before calculating the total value of the room. Also if at any point an item in a completed room is broken or lost, whether to the repo man or a fire or some other reason, it must be replaced or repaired before continuing with whatever room you were working on.

As a Vampire Entryway: Simoleons: $25,000 Items: Two Knight of the Octagon Table statues, living chair, rug, accent table, and two wall decorations Coat Closet: Simoleons: $5000 Items: sofa or loveseat; two “coat closet” like items, like coat racks, umbrellas, or shoes Office: Simoleons: $15,000 Items: desk, Seance Table with two or more chairs, bookshelf, computer, rug Hallway: Simoleons: $10,000 Items: four pieces of wall art, rug Big bathroom: Simoleons: $5000 Items: bath or shower, two sinks, toilet, two mirrors, toilet paper Kitchen: Simoleons: $25,000 Items: six counters, fridge, stove, sink, dining table, four dining chairs, trash can, bowl of fruit Cupcake Room: Simoleons: $10,000 Items: cupcake factory, kitchen appliance Dining Room and Vestibule: Simoleons: $20,000 Items: dining table, six dining chairs, hutch, and keep the big painting in the dining room; living chair and lamp in the vestibule

As a Mermaid Bar: Simoleons: $20,000 Items: bar, seating for six, clock Half Bath: Simoleons: $2000 Items: toilet, sink, mirror, and toilet paper Ballroom: Simoleons: $30,000 Items: stereo, piano or pipe organ, fireplace, mirror, a table that can hold food in the event of a party Yard and Shed: Items: keep the pool; four planters, woodworking table, fountain, wedding arch, grill, telescope, seating for 10, and monkey bars

As a Werewolf Landing: Simoleons: $10,000 Items: couch, chess table Art Gallery: Simoleons: $35,000 Items: seating for four, rug, six pieces created by your sim, twelve pieces of art overall Purple Bedroom: Simoleons: $40,000 Items: bed space for two, rug, fireplace, two skill and/or activity items in the bedroom; dresser and chair in each closet; two sinks, toilet, toilet paper, and bath or shower in the bathroom Blue Bedroom: Simoleons: $20,000 Items: bed space for two, one skill or activity item, rug, and one dresser in the bedroom; toilet, sink, mirror, bath or shower, and toilet paper in the bathroom Pink Bedroom: Simoleons: $20,000 Items: bed space for two, rug, one skill or activity item, and one dresser in the bedroom; toilet, sink, mirror, bath or shower, and toilet paper in the bathroom Hall Bathroom: Simoleons: $3000 Items: bench, toilet, sink

As a Spellcaster Yellow Bedroom: Simoleons: $30,000 Items: bed space for two, rug, one skill or activity item, and one dresser in the bedroom; toilet, sink, mirror, bath or shower, and toilet paper in the bathroom Green Bedroom: Simoleons: $30,000 Items: bed space for two, rug, one skill or activity item, and one dresser in the bedroom; toilet, sink, mirror, bath or shower, and toilet paper in the bathroom Hall and Bathroom: Simoleons: $5000 Items: toilet, sink, mirror, toilet paper, six lights, rug Black Bedroom: Simoleons: $30,000 Items: bed space for two, rug, one skill or activity item, and one dresser in the bedroom; toilet, sink, mirror, bath or shower, and toilet paper in the bathroom Red Bedroom and tower: Simoleons: $50,000 Items: double bed, bar, desk, rug, dresser, fireplace, couch, bookshelf, and armchair in the bedroom; dresser, mirror, chair, and shoe rack in the closet; two sinks, two mirrors, tub, shower, toilet, and toilet paper in the bathroom

Hard Mode Optional Start Rules - Start as a teen (no skills, occult, etc) instead of a young adult and balance High School on top of the manor. - Stay exclusively in the current room. Use more magical hedges if necessary. - There are photos of the pre-destroyed manor scattered about. Identify and replace the exact items in each photo. Some of them are locked behind careers, so it is up to you exactly how hard you want to make that on yourself. "Buying" the item off the gallery is acceptable. - Turn on all lot challenges and remove them randomly as you complete rooms. - Double Simoleon requirements for each room. If you have Get to Work, you must marry and have at least one child with an Alien. - Throw a gold dinner party after completing each individual occult phase before transforming back into a regular Sim. - Max out each occult skill tree.

The end goal of this challenge is for you to have fun! Mix and match the rules a little if you feel stuck, marry Father Winter, have a relative named Rosebud conveniently leave you a small inheritance...

FAQ

If you have a question not answered here, please join the discord and ask in the designated Inherited Manor 2024 channels.

How to I become a...? And how do I turn back into a normal Sim? To become a Vampire, become good friends with a Vampire and ask to be turned. The process takes a few days so be prepared to live at the gym for a bit. The cure can be crafted after reaching Level 15 Vampire Lore skill and gathering the necessary ingredients. To become a Mermaid, eat one Mermadic Kelp. To transform back into a regular Sim, eat two in a row. The kelp can be found diving, fishing, gifted by a dolphin, or purchased with reward points. To become a Werewolf, as a Werewolf to turn you (similar to the Vampire). The cure can be crafted after finding the recipe in "An Insider's Guide to Being a Werewolf", a book found in the underground tunnels. To become a Spellcaster, travel to The Magic Realm and talk to a Sage. They will give you a mini quest. This is by far the easiest one.

Can I get married? Yes, but your spouse (regardless if an occult Sim or not) can only access the areas you have already unlocked. Your spouse must live on the lot with you until death or divorce, and the kids cannot be moved out until they are teens. Your main Sim is the one that counts as far as transformations and unlocking areas goes.

What happens if my Sim dies? Find or create a fresh Sim and pick up where you left off. This can include a spouse or child.

Can I change the room requirements? Can I put a bedroom instead of an office? You can change whatever you want after the challenge is completed, but the required items must be present in the room to count it as done. You can add additional items if you want, of course, but not completely alter the function of the room.

Can I sell stuff in the house already for money if it isn't damaged? You can sell or replace whatever is in the current room. You can't sell a chair from the office to get money for the kitchen, etc. Remember to keep any items specified in the rules above.

How do I know what my save file name is? Each save file follows the same format: the word “save” followed by a period and eight numbers. For example, save.12345678. Make sure those numbers don’t match the numbers of the save file when you download it. If they do match, you can change a number in the challenge save file before you save it, so long as it is still follows the naming convention laid out above.

Your save file is broken! It loaded me into a household! It's not even the right lot/world/etc! If you're not on the right lot, sounds like you answered your own question. Go to the map view and click on Forgotten Hollow, and maybe read the setup instructions again.

Can I change the lifespan, season length, weather, holiday, etc etc? Yup! Change whatever you want so long as it isn't prohibited in the rules.

What counts as a piece of art my Sim made for the galery? Any project that can be started, stopped, and resumed, and/or your Sim is directly involved in the end quality of the item. This includes, but is not limited to, knit objects, paintings, books, woodworking objects, scientist career objects, and photographs. This does not include found items, such as posters or snow globes.

Do I have to hit the Simoleon requirement exactly? That is too much math, even for me. So long as you are at or over, you're good.

Can I add some lot traits or challenges? Absolutely. Remember, though, that you can't build outside your current zone. You can't add solar panels to the yard, for example, until you get to that point as a Mermaid, but you can set your lot to "Off The Grid" whenever.

Can I purchase traits from the reward store? Yes. You just can't have your Sim start with any reward traits or points.

Are there more challenges like this? Yes! This is actually the fourth version of this challenge. You can find more information here on tumblr, or by visiting my website here.

Can I make one of these, or help make the next one? Absolutely! The official Inherited Manor Discord will be the best place to keep up to date on the challenge. I only ping everyone at the start of building the challenge for the year and when it is released, so don't worry about me blowing up your phone. Can't wait to connect with you there!

Huge thanks to chat for all their help during the streams, and a special thanks to my playtesters: Alasmina debs Foxbird kittycatxo miraclesnjoy SRSimmer Tessa Who?

#sims 4 #sims 4 build #sims 4 challenge #inherited manor challenge #sims4 #architecture #pc games #gaming #the sims 4 #sims challenge

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cursedvibes · 2 months

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I see a lot of complaints lately that Sukuna is too strong and that the protagonists could never defeat him because they are so much weaker. Everything seems hopeless now that not even powerhouse Gojo is here.

For one, I'd like to say that that is very much intentional. A villain should seem like an impossible hindrance, he should be someone who makes the heroes struggle and lose, sometimes often. Not every strategy is going to work or else the story would become very predictable if everything works out on the first attempt. On top of that, jjk has established that the whole point of Sukuna is his overwhelming sense of self and his disregard for others which in turn makes him so inhumanly strong. If you want to be as strong or stronger than him, you not only need some innate skill, but you would have to throw away your humanity as well. Yuuji's entire purpose was to oppose Sukuna in that regard. He is weak, but he cares for others and he has a will that Sukuna can't break no matter how much he tries. So the way to defeat Sukuna isn't by becoming stronger than him, that would only buy into his ideology and not fundamentally challenge him. It is what Gojo and Kashimo tried to do and they failed for it because that is the wrong approach. Yuuji has to be the one to break Sukuna's ideology of the strong, that might makes right, only this way could he truly win over Sukuna. Because at the heart of it their fight is a struggle of ideals. Sukuna himself announced that his goal is above all else to crush Yuuji so he won't get up anymore because Yuuji makes him question himself, his philosophy, his entire life and by defeating him, he proves himself and his way of thinking/living to be superior.

The question remains how exactly they will accomplish this. I don't know the specifics, but I think it will have to come down to hurting Sukuna's soul, to attack him at his foundation. Yuuji's punches to shake the bond of Sukuna and Megumi's souls, Jacob's Ladder's attack of the cursed object and Maki's Split Soul Katana are what have shaken Sukuna the most and in a way he can't easily recover from. It's not about strength, it's about shaking up Sukuna's very being and his root in this world. I also think Megumi will have to play a role in it. With Yuuji's help he could find the will to stand up against Sukuna and if not regain control of his original body, at least hinder him long enough for the others to kill Sukuna once and for all. Sukuna knows he has Megumi buried deeply and crushed his spirit, he's confident that even if Yuuji reaches Megumi, he could never be a substantial threat because he has accomplished with Megumi what he wants to do with Yuuji. He is weak and broken and had to submit to his will/soul. That confidence has to be shaken up.

We'll have to see about the rest, but those are two points I think are very important in defeating Sukuna. I also think that Sukuna has to release Tengen for that plot point to have a satisfying end. Tengen just dying inside Sukuna would be very unsatisfying, waste a whole lot of setup and also make for a pretty bad final fight because Sukuna is a very simple villain and one that is only really important for Yuuji. If he doesn't get defeated, Sukuna won't destroy Japan, he won't fundamentally change the foundation of jujutsu society, he is build on it and their adherence to strength after all. He doesn't pose a systematic threat and inspires change like Kenjaku did and to make up for Kenjaku's presence no more being the greater looming threat, we only have Tengen and the merger to fill that hole. So Sukuna has to release her at some point.

I'd also like to say, that I acknowledge that the current situation and how Gege has set Sukuna up are not without its faults. I know that defeating Sukuna through strength isn't the way to go because of, well, the entire message of jjk, but I also think that Sukuna's struggle with Yuuji and their opposing ideals have fallen short in this final fight so far. The fight in Shinjuku is far too formulaic. It feels like the protagonists are doing a relay race and Sukuna is just passively standing around and lets them do their thing, casually swiping one person away, so someone else can fill their spot. This will hopefully change soon, but I also think there was too little focus on the thematic meaning of this whole fight. We got Sukuna reflecting on his ideals or lack thereof, but then nothing really came of it so far. He boldly claimed to want to crush Yuuji's spirit only to not change anything in his approach towards the main characters and more importantly Yuuji. Instead he's distracted by Yuuta and Maki and whoever else catches his fancy, similar to the Higuruma situation. It just feels like there is a personal approach missing in this fight and it's more focused on flashy action than characters.

It worked well in the past, like for example I think Kashimo's fight despite being short was actually very well written. It wasn't just about Kashimo's strength, it was about their understanding of the world, their values that are similar to Sukuna, but don't entirely line up. It felt more like a discussion than a fight, a feeling you also get with Kenjaku and Takaba and other important fights in the series like Maki vs Naoya. Currently, there is more of a focus on chapping away at Sukuna's strength than anything substantial. It is there in parts, but I would like more. But again, this could improve in the future. At least Sukuna finally seems to take things seriously now.

#jjk spoilers #jjk 252 #itadori yuuji #ryomen sukuna

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canadiansummer · 7 months

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SEE YOURSELF (18+)

Pairing: Dmitri Antonov x Fem!Reader / Enzo x Fem!Reader Series: Day one of the October challenges. | Masterlist here. Prompt: Edging/Orgasm denial Warnings: GRAPHIC SMUT. Not much plot. Note: Here we are to kick this off. I hope you all enjoy.

You knew you were a little stubborn.

It had been something that had been stuck with you since you were a kid. You knew how to really dig your heels in about certain things, an odd mix of patience only making your stubbornness stronger in certain ways. You could really hold your ground when you had your mind set on something, as much as that was both a virtue and a flaw depending on the situation. It was usually only in hindsight that you could tell the difference.

If anything, it felt like you noticed most things in hindsight these days.

You knew your little on-and-off partnership with Murray might come back to bite you in the ass, and it wasn’t like what you had found yourself doing as entirely legal. Given that you had been raised up by a family of Doomsday Preppers, it wasn’t like you were unfamiliar with things like paranoia and secrecy. You had also gotten particularly skilled at forging documents–nothing overly official, but an ID or driver’s license here and there. Passports were always extra and something you didn’t like doing often, but it was the thing that got someone like Murray on your radar.

He always brought you the more…interesting work. You should have figured that he’d bring you something that really got you in over your head.

That moment eventually came in the form of a sudden appearance from the man himself and an exhausted looking stranger in tow.

Though, the following months were a surprise too. The evolution from taking him in as a begrudging favor, to something closer to friends, and now occasionally pulling each other into bed. Really, you knew Dmitri was an attractive man, as much as the situation he brought with him was nothing but a headache sometimes. He was rather soft-spoken, yet he had a wit to him that had drawn you into him very easily after a while. Intelligent, introspective when the moment was right, and almost playful in others.

As much as your initial goal was to get him set up so he could leave, it was hard not to feel like you wanted to keep him around sometimes. Some days it felt like you both would dance around the subject, as much as you eventually landed on it in the end.

It was hard to ignore the way the gazes started to linger, too. The way a part of you had wanted to test the line, yet struggled to find the courage to really do so in ways that were noticeable. You had thought, at least.

Obviously, that viewpoint had shifted once the facades started to drop and one night you found your hand gripping at the hair on the back of his head, Dmitri’s mouth on your own.

Really, you didn’t fully know what this was supposed to be between the two of you. The first night, you had just figured it would be just that. The second night, it kind of threw things into question. Along with the odd tender moment shared between the two of you that felt much more than just this unnamed thing between the two of you. Yet, neither of you seemed to want to put a name to it, to say exactly what it was. Sometimes it ate at you, while in other moments you didn’t really care to dig into it.

The current night fell more toward the latter.

Dmitri could be hard to read sometimes, especially when things turned more physical. Sometimes it felt like the both of you were trying to scratch an itch that neither of you could get at otherwise, while other times it felt more intimate than that.

The look in Dmitri’s eyes was more amused than you were used to, currently, however.

The night had started slow, lingering touches and kisses coming across as more sensual. It hadn’t taken you a terribly long time to figure out where things were headed, and it had you responding in kind. Really, it had been a while and you couldn’t help the small building eagerness that started to drive your actions. Yet, Dmitri seemed to have his own plans, stopping your wandering hands from progressing too far with a frustrating sense of patience. His touches were the opposite, trailing along toward the parts you wanted him to touch the most before he would change course.

By the time you found yourself laying on your back on your bed, you had an idea on what he was trying to do.

Still, you found yourself shutting your eyes as Dmitri’s mouth pressed against the side of your neck. You parted your legs to let him lay between them, pressing his body against your own as he dropped his kisses down to the space that connected your neck to your shoulder. You ran your hands down his back, trailing your fingers over his spine before resting on his lower back. You lifted your hips somewhat, grinding yourself against the hardness of his cock through his boxers. Dmitri responded in kind, pressing himself against you and gave you a taste of the contact you were seeking. Yet, it didn’t seem to deter him too much from his slower pace.

Mercifully, however, he seemed to catch on to what you were wanting as he moved to pull your underwear down your legs. You shifted forward somewhat, spreading your legs a little more so you opened yourself for him a little more. The action pulled a small groan from him that almost dissolved into a chuckle at the end.

“You are very eager tonight.”

“You’re being a terrible tease,” you replied, taking in a short breath when you felt him press a finger along your folds and stopping to rub against a certain spot.

“You don’t seem to mind.”

“I’m starting to, actually…” you muttered, sounding half-hearted even in your own ears as you gently rolled your hips against his hand.

Dmitri kept his attention on your clit with his fingers, sometimes circling it in a way that had you gasping somewhat before he’d slow down with more deliberate strokes. He was close to what you needed, yet always a short ways off. It was slowly starting to kill you. All the while, he remained nearby, watching your reactions and you knew he would change up his motions if you showed too much of one.

You wanted to control your reactions, take him by surprise, yet you knew it was pointless. You had already been pent up and he was only making that worse.

So, it had you moaning outright when he finally inserted his fingers. The slight stretch was welcomed, his fingers pumping inside almost feeling like a relief. You gently rocked your hips against his movements, not wanting to give too much but also wanting him to touch just a little deeper.

You welcomed the kiss he pressed against your mouth as he leaned over, parting your lips for his tongue with a small sigh. You rested your hand against the back of his neck while you dropped a hand down toward his lower abdomen. At meeting no protest from him, you dropped that hand lower to palm at him over his boxers. The action pulled a small moan from him against your mouth, pressing himself a little harder against your hand. You started to stroke him somewhat, trying to match the pace he set with his fingers still inside you.

It was difficult to keep that up, however, when he curled his fingers somewhat to swipe against a spot inside you that shot little sparks of pleasure into your core. At the small whimper you let out, Dmitri took the time to pull back from the kiss somewhat to guide your hand away from where you were touching him.

“You want me to touch you?” you asked.

“Yes,” he replied, “But it defeats the purpose.”

“What would that be?” You might honestly just do what he wanted if it meant it would release the tension building in your gut.

“No matter how close you get, I’m not letting you cum tonight unless it is on my cock.”

“I-I’m more than ready,” you said, the combination of his words and another brush against that spot inside you almost making you moan.

“I know. You are soaking my fingers. I know you are more patient than this, though,” Dmitri replied.

You were patient in some sense, but this was certainly a test of that. Still, you couldn’t help but take in the sensations he was pulling from you, hitting just the right spots enough to really have you squirming somewhat. You could feel that familiar tension building toward that moment you were craving, Dmitri keeping up his pace with his fingers. You were left to grip one of your thighs and the bed when he moved further down so he knelt down at the edge of the bed.

Just as it felt like you were crawling closer to that edge, he slowly pulled his fingers out. You groaned somewhat, feeling your walls pulse in the absence as you let your head fall back somewhat in frustration. While a part of you wanted to tell him to stop playing around, you couldn’t help but admit that a small part of you was curious. What it would feel like to finally climax after you had been pushed toward that moment again and again. Yet, you knew there was only so much you could take. You figured there was only so much Dmitri could take, too, yet he was making a particularly good show of indifference at the moment.

So, you didn’t say anything when you felt him start to kiss the inside of your thighs, his hot breath against the sensitive skin there as he kissed his way further up. Very close, yet didn’t put his mouth on you just yet.

While the excitement from before was starting to ebb out, you knew the anticipation was putting a flutter to your stomach. The curiosity was keeping you playing along for the moment, yet you couldn’t help the way you wanted to buck your hips or at least touch yourself. Still, you let him do what he wanted for the moment.

Thankfully, it wasn’t much longer until Dmitri shifted one of your legs to settle against one of his shoulders before he bowed his head down. The feeling of his tongue dragging along your sensitive folds pulled a small sound from you, one of your hands coming down to rest in his hair. Moreso for something to hold, considering you doubted he’d let you guide him this time around. As much as you craved something deeper, the prodding of his tongue inside you was pleasurable enough.

Though, you weren’t too sure if it was a good thing if he had worked you up beforehand or not.

Your clit was particularly sensitive and begging for attention when Dmitri finally swiped his tongue over it, the feeling making your legs tense somewhat. The alternating between his tongue against your clit and the light sucking had you struggling not to grind yourself on his mouth, pulling a few drawn out gasps and moans from you. Though, the addition of another finger pushing inside you had you letting out a short cry.

“Dmitri–fuck…”

“Not yet,” he warned as he parted his mouth from you for a moment, watching you squirm somewhat at him pushing a second finger into you again.

“You’re…terrible,” you managed to get out around a small moan.

“If you could see yourself, you would understand why I do it,” he commented before reattaching his mouth to your clit again.

You moaned again as he sucked at your clit again, the combination of his fingers pushing you into that familiar territory again. The growing tension in your gut made you tighten your hold in his hair, moving your hips against him until you felt him press you down against the bed with his free hand. This was starting to become rather torturous, as much as you were feeding off the mounting pleasure he was giving you.

In particular, you could feel that pressure moving down toward your core as Dmitri kept his attention on your pussy. You let out a few moans, trying to keep your hips still as he curled his fingers somewhat, tongue flicking against your clit. You took in a short breath, feeling your walls start to twitch somewhat as you could feel yourself growing dangerously close.

Dmitri pulled back, removing his fingers from inside of you. You let out a small noise at the sudden absence, your walls twitching somewhat but you could already feel that sensation becoming less intense from the lack of stimulation.

“I want to cum so badly, please…” you muttered around a small breath as Dmitri stood up at the end of the bed.

“Not yet,” Dmitri repeated, shifting the last of his clothing down to release his hard cock.

He climbed back up onto the bed, crawling over you so he could press his mouth against yours in a hard kiss. You responded instantly, pressing back into the kiss with a small sigh as you wrapped your arms around the back of his shoulders, his body pressing against your own in a way that was somehow both not enough and a little overwhelming at the same time.

You lifted your hips somewhat, feeling his cock slide against your folds. The sensation pulled a moan from Dmitri against your mouth, him pressing back in return as he ground himself against you somewhat as you met his motion with another small roll of your hips. He parted from the kiss with a small inhale, letting out another short moan as you rubbed yourself against him again.

As much as the words were right on the tip of your tongue; how much you wanted to feel him inside you, thankfully you didn’t have to say anything at the moment. Dmitri shifted somewhat, you feeling the tip of his cock press against your entrance as you wrapped your legs around his hips somewhat. You let out a soft sound at him pushing inside, his cock stretching you open a little more with only a little bit of a sting given how wet you already were. While he could push in further with little resistance, Dmitri still went slower than he needed to.

Though, the feeling of his cock fully inside you was enough to where you didn’t feel the need to complain much. Still, you moved your hips against him, really wanting some movement. Dmitri rolled his hips against yours in turn, another somewhat slow movement as you tried to urge him to move a little faster. You were only met with a small, breathless huff in amusement and another small roll of his hips.

“I have never seen you so needy for me.”

“That is completely of your own doing–oh, fuck.” You cut yourself with a small gasp when he pressed into you with a bit of a harder thrust.

“You have been really good for me, just a little more,” he muttered into your shoulder.

You gripped a little tighter onto his shoulders as Dmitri’s thrusts became a little harder, setting a rhythm that was easier for you to follow. Still, despite that, you were still ridiculously close and each thrust of his cock rubbed against you in a way that made that fact hard to ignore. You really didn’t know how long ‘just a little more’ was in Dmitri’s mind, yet you tried your best to prolong your looming orgasm, trying not to move too much at points in increasingly poor attempts at trying to hold back.

Shutting your eyes for a few moments, you tried to focus on anything outside of that pressure building up in you again. It was rather difficult, however, as you could hear Dmitri panting in your ear, his increasingly frequent moans and the sounds of your bodies meeting together as he thrusts grew faster. You let out a small, strained noise almost as a warning–to yourself or him, you weren’t sure–as you could feel that light fluttering deep inside you.

The seconds almost seemed to drag on, each press of his cock against your walls and prod against that spot inside of you pushing you closer and closer to that edge. Dmitri’s thrusts were coming faster and deeper, the pleasure of those sensations making you moan and cry out more than you really had control over.

“Dmitri…” you moaned.

“I know,” he breathed, letting out what sounded like a curse in Russian.

Mercifully, it seemed like the moment you had been waiting for was not as far off as you had been feeling. After a few more seconds, as much as it felt like time was dragging on indefinitely in the moment, Dmitri let out a deep moan and lifted his head to look at you again.

“Cum for me,” he finally said, a command that took a few seconds to register but you were more than happy to oblige.

You started to move your hips in time with his own again, only having to really hold on for more than a few more thrusts before that building pressure finally moved further down. You pressed your head back against the bed as your pussy clenched around Dmitri’s cock, the rush of your orgasm washing out his short praises and comments as you did so. Nor did you really catch the moment when Dmitri buried himself deep inside you and came with a low groan into your neck. You moaned and whimpered a little as the effects of your orgasm started to ebb out, your walls still clenching and fluttering lightly as your mind seemed to return to you.

Dmitri still lay on top of you, his chest pressing against your own as he was catching his breath. You willed your legs to relax from where you still had them curled against his hips, which prompted him to shift to pull out of you before laying down against your side.

“You are okay?” he asked after a few moments, which made you nod lightly with a small chuckle.

“Yes.”

You placed your hand over the arm Dmitri slung across your middle, smiling softly at the feeling of him pressing a kiss to the side of your neck.

“I’ll get you back for this,” you muttered, feeling the tickle of Dmitri’s mustache against your skin as he grinned. “Just probably not tonight.”

#dmitri antonov x reader #enzo x reader #fandom: stranger things

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