#anyway just some fun details about shadow's favorite things again

[realperson022]

Shadow's favorite flowers are Lantanas...

according to the internet, I possibly can see why:

they require the full sun

Prefers well-draining soil that is neutral, slightly acidic, or slightly alkaline (really got to take care of them)

leaves display antimicrobial, fungicidal, and insecticidal properties (so they're great for medicine use, especially in cancer, skin itches, leprosy, chicken pox, measles, asthma, and ulcers)

they're invasive (smother and destroy native vegetation and are impenetrable to animals, people, and vehicles)

they've been the focus of control programs for a century because of their invasive nature, and as of recently, biocontrol agents have allowed for few successes in controlling them

#my point is he's probably been exposed to the plant before and took a liking to it because...well. why not? #anyway just some fun details about shadow's favorite things again #im always on the hunt for this stuff during twitter takeover season :) #ALSO. i can keep track of this for *writing purposes* #shadow the hedgehog #twitter takeover #sonic the hedgehog

[dialovers-translations]

DIABOLIK LOVERS DARK FATE Vol.2 Chapter of the First Quarter [TRACK 1]

Original title: 狼の影

Source: Diabolik Lovers DARK FATE Vol. 1 Chapter of the First Quarter

Audio: Here

Seiyuu: Toriumi Kousuke, Katsuyuki Konishi, Midorikawa Hikaru, Kaji Yuki, Hirakawa Daisuke & Takashi Kondou

→  LIKE MY TRANSLATIONS? SUPPORT ME ON KO-FI!

Track 1 ll Track 2 ll Track 3 ll Track 4

Track 1: The Shadow of a Wolf

Laito: ( Night falls per usual, while time ticks away as nothing of significance happens. Every day is a repeat of that same scenarioーー )

Reiji: ( With an eternity of time on our hands, us Vampires constantly find ourselves stuck in a gap in between boredom and idleness, until we eventually lose our perception of time, simply eagerly awaiting for the day when it will finally all endーー )

Shuu: ( Since we do not die a natural death, one’s passing is considered a joyous occasion. We wish for someone to kill us, no matter who. So we can at last be freed from this never-ending flow of timeーー )

Ayato: ( However, back then, we all came to the realization. ‘If we had to be killed, it should not be by just anyone.’ーー ) 

Wolves are running through the woods.

*Grooooowl* 

They continue running. 

*HOOOOWL*

You tell Ayato about the wolves. 

Ayato: …Aah!? Wolves, you say!? 

You nod. 

Ayato: Chichinashi…Are you still half asleep? …And everyone’s talking ‘bout it? Che! What would a bunch of wolves be doin’ runnin’ ‘round this human city? Idiot!

You frown.

Ayato: I’m sure someone mistook a pack of wild dogs for wolves? Ridiculous! Anyway, you don’t need to come and tell me every time you hear ‘bout some stupid horror story! 

*Rustle* 

You shriek.

Ayato: It hurts…? I bet. I pinched you hard just now after all. I made sure to make it hurt good so you won’t spout such bullcrap again! I have to go this far or else you just don’t listen, right? In that case…

*Rustle rustle*

Ayato: I wouldn’t mind hurtin’ you even more? Well, in your case…

Ayato pins you down.

*Thud* 

Ayato: I guess this would be more effective? 

*Rustle rustle* 

Laito: One second, Ayato-kun~

Ayato: Aah!? What’s your problem, Laito!? Don’t get in my way!

Laito: Oh, I never meant to disrupt. I only wanted to warn you since I believe that there’d be no point in trying to ‘punish’ Bitch-chan with your fangs…~ 

Ayato: Aah!? 

Laito: I mean…Bitch-chan is the world champion at perceiving pain as pleasure! So that won’t do, right? A punishment should be so painful, it has to make the person realize that they never want to go through it again. Nfu~ 

Ayato: Aah, fuck off! Why are you tryin’ to ruin my fun!? 

Laito: Once again, that was never my intention!

Ayato: God, I was just in the mood for her blood as well, but now I’m just pissed off. …Ugh. Laito. You’re tryin’ to upset me on purpose, aren’t you!? That’s your intention, isn’t it!? 

Laito: Nfu~ I mean, maybe? After all, it’s not like Bitch-chan is officially yours or anything, right? Her blood happens to be my favorite meal as well! Anyone would step in when they see someone else about to indulge in their delicious snack, no? 

Ayato: Cut the crap!

*Rustle* 

Ayato: She belongs to me!

Laito: Oh~? And when was that decided? 

Reiji walks up to them. 

Reiji: Okay, time out. 

*Clap clap* 

Reiji: Please cut out this pointless argument. Good grief…I do not understand how you lot never get bored of getting into stupid fights every five seconds. 

Ayato: Haah…!? I mean, you start complainin’ whenever you see Mr. Lazy Guy as well, don’t you!? You’re in no position to judge us!

Rejii: Hmph! …Even if that good-for-nothing was a little more aggressive and would actually react to my provocations, I would still have better things to do than to argue with him all day.

Laito: Which means…So you’ve been calling him a ‘good-for-nothing’ or a ‘waste of air and space’ knowing very well that he won’t bother to retaliate anyway? 

Reiji: I never called him a waste of air and space, did I?

Laito: I mean, don’t sweat the details~ 

Reiji: Despite what you may believe, I am a pacifist at heart. I do not find enjoyment in twisted games such as deliberately causing conflict and getting a kick out of it. Unlike you lot, that is. 

Ayato: Aah…!? Just get to the damn point! I’ve got no clue what you’re tryn’ to say!

Reiji: If you cannot comprehend, so be it. …Well then, you spacing out over there, snap out of it as well. I shall pour you a cup of tea, okay? 

You fix your posture. 

Reiji: Right, right. Now straighten your back and please pay attention to the etiquette of the traditional Japanese tea ceremony as you accept the cup of tea. 

*Psssh* 

Reiji: Here you go. Ayato, Laito, the two of you should have some as well. 

Ayato: Che…Buzz off. I don’t like that smug look on your face after you resolve a conflict.

Laito: Right? I don’t like that look of accomplishment one bit either.

Reiji: That is fine. Never once in my life have I felt the need to earn approval from you people. 

*Cling*

Reiji: More importantly…I heard you mention something about wolves earlier. 

You raise your head. 

Reiji: Did you also spot a wolf? 

You nod.

Ayato: Aah…? Chichinashi, you actually did?

You explain. 

Reiji: I see. While you did not see one yourself, you are worried about the rumors. 

Laito: …I mean, I guess that makes sense. Nfu~ I mean, just remember the story of Little Red Riding Hood? After the Big Bad Wolf gobbles up her grandmother, Little Red does all sorts…of naughty things with him, right~? So I’m sure that’s why Bitch-chan is so curious about this wolf too!

Ayato: Did the story really go like that?

Reiji: Ayato. Just pretend you didn’t hear it. Do not take it seriously. 

Ayato: S-Sure…?

Laito: Eeh~? Aren’t you being a little mean?

Reiji: Either way, putting aside debate on whether or not wolves have actually shown up…Well, even outside of the world of Little Red Riding Hood, those with a strong thirst for blood are a threat to humans either way. As a result, the wolf has been a popular candidate to be the villain in various fictional works. Either to evoke fear, or in other cases, to be respected and honored. Therefore, I believe it is only natural for humans to instinctively express fear when they hear that such creatures have shown up in the middle of a city.

Ayato: The fuck, Chichinashi? So those wolves actually do make your instincts kick in, huh? Shouldn’t I be the strongest and scariest of all…!?  

Laito: Exactly~! We’re ‘scaaaaary’ Vampires, remember? We suck your blood and corrupt both your heart and soul. Nfu~ Fufufu…~ 

Reiji: Haah…You really love picking on her whenever you’re given the chance, don’t you? Do you not believe that we have more important matters at hand right now?

Ayato: And what would that be?

Reiji: The word ‘wolves’ should ring a bell with you both, no?

Laito: Hmー Ring a bell? For me, nothing else but Little Red Riding Hood comes to mind though…?

Ayato: Did somethin’ happen which involved Wolves?

Reiji: Good grief…This is what you get when Vampires start living in the human world. …They exist in the Demon World, remember? The Wolf Clan. 

Laito: Ah, now that you mention it!

Ayato: I completely forgot ‘bout those guys up until now! …Then could it be that the Wolves which were spotted in town are actually people from the Wolf Clan? 

Subaru: …Nah, not a chance.

Laito: Subaru-kun! When did you get here? 

*THUD*

Subaru: Fuck off! I’ve been here this whole time. 

Ayato: You have so little presence, I didn’t even realize at all! My bad!

Subaru: Haah? In other words, you’ve become nothin’ but a little housepet who has lost all natural instincts, right?

Ayato: Aah!? A housepet, you say!? You bastard…You’ve sure got some nerve talkin’ to your older brother like that!

Subaru: Tsk…Says the guy who didn’t even remember the Wolf Clan exists. Do you even have the right to call yourself a Vampire still? You don’t deserve better than to be called a pet. Seems like you’ve even forgotten ‘bout the fact that the Wolf Clan is known for being extremely territorial and therefore rarely ventures beyond their area of land.

Laito: Nfu~ I mean, I never felt particularly ‘prideful’ to be a Vampire and you can hardly blame us for forgetting about the Wolf Clan when we live in a place where they’re of no concern, right? …I don’t think that warrants calling us ‘pets’, won’t you agree?

Subaru: You’re basically proving my point. You’re always quick to shame her, but in reality, it’s you guys who are slaves to her blood, aren’t you? 

Reiji: Subaru, lay it off. …Why are you so on edge?

Subaru: ‘Cause you bastards keep on spoutin’ a load of bullcrap!

Laito: Subaru-kun, is it ‘that time of the month’ perhaps~? Nfu~

Subaru: …Fuck off! Do you want me to send you flyin’, huh!?

You try to stop Subaru.

Subaru: …Hah!? Why are you tellin’ me to stop!? You’re to blame here as well. Don’t be hangin’ out with these bastards! …Tsk. You people seriously piss me off!

*Thud* 

Reiji: Good grief…I suppose that is why Subaru has been so irritable. 

Subaru: Haah!? 

Reiji: Oh no, simply talking to myself. …Well then, let us return to the previous topic. Just like Subaru stated earlier, the Wolf Clan is known for rarely leaving its territory, even within the Demon World. 

*Rustle* 

Reiji: So it would be even more unusual for them to come here.

Laito: Well, I can believe that. I went into their territory once and had one hell of a rough time.

Subaru: Ah? You did that? 

Laito: There’s girls like Bitch-chan amongst all species, you see~ 

Ayato: You’ll really take anyone you can get, huh? 

Laito: Nfu~ I wish you’d instead say that I don’t discriminate. 

Ayato: …Well, anyway. Even if there’s some wolves wanderin’ ‘round somewhere, I’ll make quick work of them, so rest assured!

*Rustle* 

Ayato: Chichinashi…I won’t let you get devoured by some stupid Wolves. Hehe…

Reiji: Oh dear. Seems like it is time to leave for school already. 

*Clap clap*

Reiji: Well then, everyone. Let us get ready and be on our way.

*Rustle*

Reiji: I shall not allow you to skip classes. 

Laito: Geez, guess I’ll go get ready then.

*TIMESKIP*

Subaru enters your room. 

Subaru: ー Oi, are you ready to leave? 

You tell him that you need a few more minutes. 

Subaru: Haah…!? What’s takin’ you so long?

You explain. 

Subaru: You’re lookin’ for something? Che…What is it you need? 

You answer. 

Subaru: Your hair pin!? You’ll be fine without it, right!? …Hah. Why do chicks have to waste time on that sorta crap? I just don’t understand. …Haah, god. Where have you searched already? 

You explain. 

Subaru: Hm? Then you still have to check here, right?

*Rustle rustle* 

Subaru: …

*Rustle rustle* 

Subaru: Haah…Not here. …Haah. What a drag. ーー Oi, have you looked underneath here? 

You shake your head. 

*Rustle* 

Subaru: Ah…It fell on the floor. 

*Rustle*

Subaru: Haah…God. 

He walks up to you.

Subaru: Here you go. 

You reach for it.

Subaru: Ah, hold up. You put this in your hair, right? I’ll do it. It’d be annoyin’ to have to fix it a million times while lookin’ in the mirror. I don’t have the patience for that.

*Rustle rustle*

Subaru: If I recall correctly…You always put it ‘round here…Like this? 

*Thud* 

Subaru: There. That should do. It looks good. 

You grow flustered. 

Subaru: Hm? Why…are your cheeks red? 

You explain.

Subaru: Hah? Why are you embarrassed? …! This wasn’t…really… ー Ugh! Fuck this…You know, I was…a little on edge earlier so…I felt a lil’ bad for how I acted and well…Ah! No! That isn’t it! 

You tilt your head to the side. 

Subaru: …Aah! What a pain in the ass! …Right.

*Rustle* 

Subaru: I just wanted your blood, that’s all. By leanin’ in this close, I can easily sneak in a couple of sips, right? 

*Rustle* 

Subaru: Come on, keep still…

Subaru bites you. 

*Gulp gulp* 

Subaru: ー Hah. Haah…Nn…

*Gulp* 

Subaru: Mm…Haah. Do you understand now? This is why I approached you. Haahn…

*Gulp*

Subaru: Mm…Nn…Hah…Delicious…Haahn…

*Rustle* 

Subaru: Your blood belongs to me…

*Rustle rustle* 

Subaru: Don’t you dare…let any of the guys feed off you, ‘kay? 

Laito: Bitch-chan~! Subaru-kun~! The limousine’s going to leave!

*Rustle* 

Subaru: Che…Guess we have no other choice. Let’s go. Come on. 

He grabs hold of your hand. 

Subaru: Come. …Just hurry!

You look at your connected hands.

Subaru: Your hand? It’s ‘cause you’re such a damn slowpoke! Now quit whining and lemme hold it!

He drags you out of the room.

ーー TO BE CONTINUED ーー

#diabolik lovers #dialovers #shuu sakamaki #reiji sakamaki #ayato sakamaki #kanato sakamaki #laito sakamaki #subaru sakamaki #diabolik lovers translation #diabolik lovers drama cd

[hikari-ni-naritai]

Hello Emily I am unsure if you are watching anime this season but I have a question. I am interested in Frieren but I just watched a show where they suddenly shoehorned a het romance in and it really soured the whole experience. Basically, do you know how het the show is? I really dont wanna be let down again... Also I am curious, any other recommendations?

i am watching. approximately 25 anime this season. its a big one ill fuckin tell ya that. a lot of good stuff. ill be sure to steer away from het stuff for recs tho. anyway frieren, i havent read the manga or anything so i dont know what kind of , if any, romance is in it. but so far there's been none. frieren herself states that elves lack romantic and reproductive urges, so i think its unlikely she'll get any het romance forced on her. she does have positive feelings towards her old adventuring party, but not like romantic ones. though i guess you could READ them as romantic if you wanted? but i dont and see no reason to. anyway frieren is REALLY good so please watch it!!

as for recs, uhhh. lemme fuckin. you would probably prefer female protags right? there's 'im in love with the villainess' of course. that one's been good so far. i've also really enjoyed 'the family circumstances of the irregular witch', which is a comedy about a witch who adopts a human girl. theres a guy whos got a thing for the witch but neither she nor her daughter have any interest in romance. its funny and theyre cute. there's also 'i shall survive using potions!', an isekai about a girl who dies and goes to a fantasy world where she has the power to just. manifest Potions that do whatever. i dont THINK she's shown any romantic inclinations, but she's had to turn down some suitors. either way shes fun and i love her. paragraph break bc this ones getting long

another one that's been pretty good so far is 'vexations of a shut-in vampire princess', about a shut-in vampire princess who suddenly becomes the leader of a vampire army in a world where no one can die. her maid is gay for her but she doesnt seem to have much interest. but at the same time no interest in men either so. its good, its got vampires in it and violence. ive also been enjoying 'tearmoon empire', which is about a really shitty awful princess who gets guillotined and wakes up several years in the past with a bloodstained journal she carries with her everywhere now detailing the events of the future. she's trying to make sure they dont revolt and kill her, which has the incidental effect of fixing the problems in the empire. this one will probably turn het though, she's definitely straight but shes primarily interacting with boys for her own not-getting-murdered purposes. but yaknow.

one last one ive been watching is 'let me check the walkthrough first', an isekai about a girl who ends up in a game world with a spoiled rich girl she used to tutor. i like it but i would say it is an EXTREMELY acquired taste, most of it is like. rwby-type cgi. this is something that doesnt bother me, but i know it would bother a lot of people.

i would love to rec my actual favorites but they've got male protags and unnecessary fanservice. no romance, the protags are like. functionally ace, but yaknow. those would be eminence in shadow and dead mount death play, both in s2 this season. theres a lot of other good stuff too, but like. not about girls. i kind of understand in theory why people only watch stuff about girls but its not a restriction i could ever place on myself. anyway i hope you like frieren!!! and if you choose to check out any of the other stuff ive mentioned, i hope you like them as well! <3

[nightroo]

May or may not have forgotten what I posted here myself months ago so the last post had a few repeats. oops.

Well I know for sure this one won’t because I stopped posting when I started the second semester, which is what this post is about. So the drawing above is the start of working with more complex shapes, using the ones we learned from last semester. This is also where things got interesting, since I could see the potential for architectural drawings.

There are a lot, and I mean A LOT of drawings like these in my sketchbook, I’m gonna show you only the ones I find interesting.

After that we went back a bit for cast shadows, which I have decided are my new mortal enemy in art. A long time ago it was rendering hair, but that’s nothing compared to this.

The amount of calculations you need to do for this and the different formulas for each shape make me wanna rip my hair off. And that’s before getting into more complex shapes.

They're not 100% correct but my teacher said the majority of people won’t notice anything wrong so I shouldn’t worry about it. I won’t until I need it for a personal project, then I’ll get very annoyed again.

After that nightmare I got rewarded with finally using colors to render for the first time!!! I love rendering with colors so I was very excited haha

The copper (right middle sphere) is my absolute favorite, and my teacher really liked it as well.

We also had a small lecture on arrows and ribbons/fabric and we got to render them with colors as well.

For all the colored drawings I used a combination of alcohol markers and colored pencils. The markers melted and blended the pencils and I could use this to mix colors I didn't have. For example, I didn’t have a red marker at all.

After that we had a fun exercise where we needed to either study an object or design our own. The purpose was to use the previous lessons about shapes in perspective, and the rendering of different materials. I went with a gun design, but not just any gun-this one is technically 3 guns, a pistol and an SMG that you can connect and form an assault rifle. So I designed each gun separately (somehow I managed to turn this exercise to designing 3 objects instead of one, leave it to me to make it harder on myself lmao), and thought about how they connect, making sure the chambers kinda align and stuff like that.

I don’t wanna brag but I got the highest grade in the class for this assignment. Mostly because I’m the only one that actually rendered the different materials (or tried to), but also because my teacher liked the idea and thought it was interesting, and something people would actually buy if it was real.

It’s not the best but I literally didn’t have a grey marker so I was pretty limited. I chose a stained-glass theme for some reason, I didn’t want to make it a normal looking gun. The scan made it a bit more contrast-y than it is irl.

After a huge break we came back and had one lesson of silhouettes, something I kinda knew but never went out and made studies of. The challenging part of this was the time limit, at the start we had a minute, but it went down to 30 seconds. We were allowed to go overtime but it wasn't considered good.

On the same lesson, we also had life drawing, using each other as models. We had to get the pose down in one minute, and then take that as a reference for a more detailed drawing. I chose to completely change the context at that point lol

The next lesson was about isometric perspective. I don’t think I’ve actually talked about this here, but I got scammed by a guy who asked me to make him a city island in isometric perspective, then when it came time to pay, he “took a vacation” for two weeks. Came back to tell me he’s definitely gonna pay me. Proceeded to disappear. Anyways I haven’t done isometric from that moment until this lesson, where we were given a prompt word and had to draw an environment following it. I used only colored pencils for this one because I forgot to bring my markers, but it was a nice restriction to only use 12 colors and try to combine them to make the rest. I really enjoyed this one since I got the freedom to make something cool.

(the prompts are top-to-bottom forest, COVID-19, underwater and space) my teacher walked up to my desk to see what I’m doing while I worked on the space one, and he said “you are crazy” every time he passed by. He showed everyone’s work around, and a lot of people liked mine :) The space one is based on a black hole btw, but if it was an eldritch horror.

The last lesson was a time for the teacher to review everyone’s work one by one, so most of the time we were waiting for our turn. He put up a pic of an old camera if any of us wanted to draw it, but I used it as a reference for a building because it reminded me of art deco architecture. After finishing that, I had an idea for a shrine kind of place, inspired by a spot I built for a friend’s minecraft server that we didn’t end up using. And I topped it off with Lykena and Eivrun sketches (that for Eivrun might turn into a full painting when it’s her turn)

The entire year my teacher was occasionally asking me if I’m not getting bored, because we were going through a lot of basics I was obviously proficient at already, but I always found something new to learn, no matter how small, even on topics I practiced a lot before. So I’d say this workshop was very useful for me. And besides, it’s always good to get critiques from a professional, and from people who are interested in art.

#original art #Art Studies #uni work #my teacher was pretty mean but he wasnt mean to me #probably bc i never gave him trouble but also i dont think i look like the person that can take his roasts lmao #i learned a lot about perspective from this year #which is good bc it was a weakpoint for me

[doberbutts]

I have to say I watched the rop partially bc of your positive reviews and I loved it. I mean I definitely have my qualms with parts of it (Elrond’s haircut, female dwarves not having beards) but overall I found it hella enjoyable.

I also love the LoTR movies, and the animated ones, and the books. I did hate the hobbit movies though, which is actually why I didn’t want to watch it originally was because I was worried it would be like them. But I’m glad I decided to watch it in the end.

Also in terms of not being exactly compliant with the lore, I can never remember the lore anyway so it doesn’t really bother me. It’s also a fantasy world, I’m ok with seeing different interpretations of things. The point is to just enjoy watching it *shrugs*.

This is just my opinion but I think like... people saying that the short hair on elves or the beardless dwarven women are taking a minor detail and making a huge mountain out of what would effectively be negligible.

Like, the short hair on the elves does bug me, but mostly that's just because I did like the PJ look better. Not saying one is inherently more correct than the other because Tolkien never said that all elves have waist-length hair, I personally feel that it's a better look is all. Elrond's hair specifically doesn't bother me nearly as much as Finrod's, because the dude's named "great hair" more or less and he's got maybe an inch or two on his scalp and an undercut. Where are my boy's long flowing locks??? He's one of the elves that's specifically described as having very long hair I demand to see the actor in a wig right now. But also again, relatively minor detail for a character that has a collective 5 minutes of screentime in the first season's entire 9 hours.

Like I'm not saying you can't be upset about it, it's just one of those things where I'm like. Does the hair length really matter that much? Compared to everything else?

PJ's Fellowship is literally my favorite movie ever and the trilogy will always always be my comfort food, don't get me wrong. I'd say they're a solid 8-9/10. I think Rings of Power is more like a 7-8/10. I think the Shadow of Mordor/War games are a 6-7/10. The Hobbit trilogy I'd rate a 5-6/10. Maybe even a 4/10 depending on how annoyed I want to be about some things. I appreciate that they are all a return to my favorite franchise ever and what I've devoted frankly embarrassing amounts of my life and hard-earned money towards, and even if I don't like a particular entry it'll still earn a place on my shelf just for having the name "Tolkien" attached to it, but I'm also honest in how much I actually enjoyed them.

Like the Shadow of Mordor/War games were a serious departure from lore (despite people currently astroturfing them and saying that they're lore-compliant, lmao)... Celebrimbor forged the One Ring??? His soul merged with Sauron's??? A human has the ability to be a necromancer??? And a human necromancer has the power to lasso an elf soul and stuff it into a dying human's body??? Shelob is a sexy goth spider lady that has a romantic tryst with Sauron??? Two of the wraiths are twin sisters from Totally Not China??? But even despite that, I found them really fun and enjoyed the story it was trying to tell me, even if some of the lore breaks made me wince.

#tbh the shadow games lost points most often for bad textures #pop-in #bugs #and really annoying but constant crashes #granted I played on console so maybe it's better on PC idk #but I tried to go back and play on my ps3 and I just can't #it lags so hard that there'd be a black screen and Important Cutscene Dialogue and I wouldn't see anything #and timing certain things that require QTE was impossible due to lag #it didn't lose points for story (mostly) it lost points because in its current state on my ps3 it's practically unplayable

[looks-at-you]

oh right fern lore

uh have fun I guess?

Oh yeah this takes place about halfway through season 2 so

*Click*

"Statement of Fern Doyal, archival assistant, regarding-?" "Something I once considered my best friend, i-i think. It happened a long time ago so i-" "then why haven't you made your statement before." I don't know, it, it's like something was blocking me from, remembering I don't know what changed but it's- I don't know, I've seen something similar in one of the statements I think-" "get to the point." "R-right, I'm sorry." *sigh* "Statement recorded direct from subject, December 17, 2016, Statement begins.""Alright. So me and Alonso were best friends right? We lived in the same neighborhood since we were both about 3, I couldn't tell you much about the place, it's something I've never really been able to remember since I moved out. But, uh anyway, one year when we were about, 7 I think, the circus had come relatively close to us, I don't remember how far, details at this point are, still a bit fuzzy I will admit, but um, the two of us begged my father to take us, and shockingly, he actually agreed. I think we might have asked so much he was just trying to shut us up. But come the day we went, it was amazing. Its, honestly one of my favorite memories-" 'I thought you said you couldn't remember it-?" "I'm getting to that part, calm down. This part I only recently remembered: at some point, Alonso got separated from us. Not for very long, but obviously I was worried for my best friend, eventually we found her of course, but there was something off about her- i-i think. Maybe it's just hindsight making me think that- but um, the next day Alonso's family received a package, it was a new table. It was- it was strange, to say the least, it almost looked like a web, or a spiral even, if you looked at it for long enough, now I come to think of it- isn't there one just like that in artifact storage?" "I believe so yes" "A-allright I wasn't sure. But anyway, eventually, maybe a fee months later? we were messing around, and part of it broke. Not much- just a corner chipped off. But something was wrong with Alonso, she was off. She- she changed, I asked if anything was wrong and she said no, but clearly something was. she became, I, I can't really describe it, almost shadow-like. Something I knew for sure is that was not my best friend, I don't know how much I can stress that nothing like this had ever happened before. Ever. Things were broken, and- I ran. I'm not proud of it, and its weighed on my mind that I could've done something to help. I could've- nevermind. Alonso and her family were gone the next day, and nobody ever brought them up again." "Is that it?" I dont- Yes. That it." "Alright, Statement ends"

*click*

*sigh* "while there isn't much we can do to research Fern's statement, I did happen to recognize the statement she referred to. Its uh-" *sounds of paper moving* "Case 0070107, statement of Amy Patel, regarding the alleged disaperence of Graham Folger. If- if it wasn't for this statement then I'd dismiss this to trauma or- I don't know. There's that table, the one in artifact storage, it's in this statement too. It's almost as if these occurrences are, connected, somehow." *sigh* "recording ends"

*click*

#Oh yeah I usually don't write at all so #the cy rambles #Fern Doyal #tma #the magnus archives #Tma oc #Oc lore #Tma oc lore #Oc

[hitnran]

OBSESSIVE EX (gender neutral! reader)

how they deal with you having an obsessive ex

includes: ran, rindou

CW: obsessive behavior, cursing, stalking (ran), phone harassment (rindou), the haitani brothers lowkey kinda scary here (not to the reader) 💀 but i’m just trying to make it fit within their character

— RAN HAITANI

Getting into a relationship with someone like Ran, half of the charismatic brother duo that ruled Roppongi, almost means guaranteed safety wherever you go. His title itself is one that is feared when murmured. Whenever you two leave, he always has an eye and a hand on you. Ran knows well that even if he is feared, he can also be challenged and the last thing he wants is for you to get involved — you would make an easy target for his enemies.

You two were out together on a stroll around the city. Although there was nothing neither of you needed, Ran’s favorite thing is showing you off. Sometimes you start to feel similar to his younger brother, thinking that you’re just a shadow and only known as ‘Ran’s partner.’ But Ran’s intentions were opposite. He wanted everyone to know that it was him that belonged to you and it is him that people would have to deal with if you were ever tested.

As you two are walking, Ran noticed your eyes consistently checking itself to the side. He took note of that and eventually brushed it off since you stopped. But then he noticed that you were being especially keen and scanning the whole area.

“Are you okay, love?” Ran slightly hunches down, getting your attention as your face turns his way. He lightly smiles at you. “Did you see something you liked?”

You swallowed down hard. You could’ve sworn you saw a familiar face, but after trying to scan the area numerous times for the past few minutes, you thought it was just you being paranoid. The last thing you wanted was to worry Ran and cause a scene.

“I’m okay,” You shook your head, returning a light smile. You grabbed on his arm, this time a little tighter. “Let’s turn into this corner.”

Ran knows when you’re lying. He knew something made you uncomfortable, but he wasn’t going to force you to tell him. Instead, he’ll make it his own problem too and deal with it himself.

This area was his territory and everyone knew it. It was almost as if Roppongi, a city known for liveliness, calmed down ever so slightly if one or both of the brothers were out. Everyone’s gaze wound be kept low and their conversations would go mute as they walk by.

At that moment, Ran could feel a pair of eyes staring your way. He won’t make it obvious though.

“Love,” Ran called out to you. You looked up his direction and he placed a hand against your lower back. “Rindou’s gonna throw a fit if I don’t bring back food for him. How about you go into the restaurant and order first while I call him and ask what he wants?”

You felt at ease hearing that you two were finally going to be in somewhere indoors, but it made you nervous that he would be separated from you for just a little while.

“Don’t wanna bring something back he won’t like and have him complain,” Ran lightly laughed, trying to ease your clear discomfort. He placed a hand over your head. Taking out his phone to add to his act. “I’ll be quick.”

After some hesitation, you gave in. It was a public space after all, so it shouldn’t have been anything to worry too much about. He watched as you entered the place before turning around, sending chills to the person who had been following you two around this whole time.

“Would be a shame if I left them alone for too long, wouldn’t it?” Ran gave off a sinister grin, slowly walking towards the person. “Wouldn’t want anyone to take them away…especially someone like you.”

Ran knew who this person was. He was an obsessive ex of yours that just would not leave you alone and accept the separation despite it being years passed. He gulped hard, nervously stepping back, not thinking that he would get caught.

“You were so bold to even follow us in the first place, why so shy now?” Ran smirked, hiking up the sleeves of his sweatshirt. “This is the first time you’ve heard of me or something? I should introduce myself to you well and hard then.”

Almost ten minutes had passed since you’ve been waiting for Ran. You sat patiently and waited. Your best guess as to what’s taking him so long revolves around Rindou. Maybe he was complaining about how he wanted food from a different place or being picky about menu opinions. Just as you were about to raise yourself from your seat to check up on Ran, you saw him enter.

“Did I make you wait too long?” Ran appeared, seating himself in front of you. The worse case scenario you had in mind was that he got into a fight, but in front of you, he looked just as how you last saw him. “You know how Rindou is.”

Your chest became relaxed and you gave a small smile, shaking your head, “What did he want from here?”

“I didn’t even listen to what he said,” Ran teased, opening up his menu and leaning back against the chair. You felt his legs sandwich your calves from beneath the table. “He can order it himself. All my money is going to you today.”

And that was how Ran liked it. Although Ran wanted everyone to know that he belonged to you, he knew how important it was for others to know that you belonged to him too. The image of the face of your ex is burned so clearly into his brain — face all bloodied up, mauled almost, as he failed to even whisper for forgiveness.

“I think there’s only one way I’m gonna let you outta here alive,” Ran kicked his body down with force, hearing something shift in his jaw. He couldn’t give half a damn about it. “Do you know what that is?”

Your ex was visibly beaten and weak now, barely able to even blink or properly form a sentence. Though, with his adam’s apple slightly moving from fear, Ran took it as a response.

Grabbing him by his hair upward, Ran bent down, looking straight at him, “You’re gonna leave them alone and never show your goddamn face again. If it wasn’t fucked already before, it sure is now. I promise you I’ll know if you’re even barely visible or a mile away, I won’t hesitate to kill you.”

Ran thought it was so disgusting how someone like you could ever have your time wasted on someone low like this ex of yours. Even if Ran saw him and his brother above everyone else, he always put you above him.

“Maybe even after this, I’ll send one of my men to go and beat the shit out of you every day so you could suffer for as long as you’ve tried to bother Y/N.”

— RINDOU HAITANI

Rindou can’t even remember what it took for you two to even reach this state of your guys relationship. He convinced himself that it was Ran, his older brother who wouldn’t shut up about how he was going to take you if Rindou didn’t make a move.

It genuinely surprises himself even whenever he looks your way, observing every detail and soaking in the idea that you are someone he can call his.

You two were watching a movie, or rather, supposed to. Rindou was too focused on side-eyeing you every now and then. You caught him a few times, but he would brush it off with comments like “this movie is boring” or “I’m just checking to see if you fell asleep.”

He would snap himself out of a trance after hearing your phone ring beside you. You eyed it once, looking at the caller ID and ignoring it. It wasn’t enough to cause Rindou to worry - it’s not his problem if you just didn’t wanna answer a call, it was your guys’ time anyway.

But then it rang once more again. Your ringtone dragged itself out halfway through before Rindou slightly raised his hand from your hip, pointing to the phone on the side of the couch.

“You not gonna answer that?” He asked.

You shook your head, eyes focused on the TV, “It’s fine. It’s an unknown caller ID.”

Rindou shrugged, ignoring it once again, but after a few more calls and your phone receiving back to back text messages, it was starting to irk him. He was close to just grabbing your phone and answering the call himself, but you were quick to act before him, just shutting it off.

“It must be spam or something,” You sighed, sitting back down.

“Yeah, well whatever it is, good thing you shut that damn thing off. That shit was annoying,” Rindou sighed, curling his arms around you again. “Let’s change the movie too or something. This one is boring.”

One thing about dating Rindou is that he seems uninterested in absolutely everything he does. Although you avoid thinking like that when it comes to your relationship with him, you always remind yourself that Rindou is someone who deeply cares for you. He shows it very differently compared to others, but you know.

He can recall a memory from a few weeks ago where you kept getting calls in the middle of your guys’ date. It annoyed him, but not as much as it annoyed you. You’ve pressed the red decline button at least five times now, stressing over it and spilling out everything about your previous ex.

At the end of your rant, Rindou grabbed your phone, picking up the call and saying words as simple as “leave them alone.” It was so simple, but for the next few weeks, it was silent. You finally thought you were free of harassment thanks to your boyfriend, but recently, they’ve been coming back as unknown caller IDs and more frequent than before.

Halfway through the movie, Rindou felt your body become more loose and relaxed beneath him. Your breath became slower and more steady. You had fallen asleep. He thought it was ironic to have someone as angelic as you in the arms of someone like him - a gang member always involving himself in trouble, even just for fun.

He stared at your phone just a reach away and then back at you. The last thing Rindou wanted was for you to be uncomfortable, or really, anything that isn’t where you aren’t happy.

When you woke up, the TV was shut off and you felt a blanket drape over your body. You realized you had fallen asleep from earlier, but you were expecting to find your boyfriend with you as well. That was when the door swung open and you were greeted with Rindou.

“Rindou?” You slowly let out, still adjusting from waking up. “I didn’t know you left.”

He raised a bag up midway in the air, it’s a bag from a bakery you often bought from, “You kept murmuring about it in your sleep. Didn’t want you to wake up all grumpy.”

“I don’t wake up grumpy!” You protested, watching as he took his seat next to you and unpacking all of your favorites.

“Yeah, okay,” Rindou joked. He listened to you puffing out before wrapping yourself around his arm.

“Thank you though,” You murmured out of embarrassment - maybe he was half right.

“It’s nothing,” He replied, softening his face into a grin. “Must’ve been hungry though if it got you talking in your sleep and drooling on my arm.”

You didn’t even know about half of the things he does for you, but he didn’t mind it, because if you were happy, then that was all that mattered.

It made Rindou feel guilty to turn on your phone and look through it. It wasn’t something that he ever felt the need to do - he trusted you and it felt wrong if you weren’t aware that he was using it. Though, at this time, he felt like it was for the better.

While you were silently sleeping, he browsed through your texts. It’s that same person - your ex back again to bother you. Rindou scoffed, making sure it wasn’t loud enough to wake you up, but he was angry. He clicked his tongue whilst composing a message.

Rindou knew you would never be so stupid as to meet up with someone like this, especially not after already experiencing it once. It was a good thing that it was just Rindou posing as you though. How delighted your ex felt to have finally received a response to you - ‘Let’s meet up here.’

Rindou thought it was so pathetic. This guy had no idea what he looked like, let alone that you even had a boyfriend. So when Rindou’s immediate reaction upon seeing him was to throw a punch, he was shocked.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” Your ex cried out, trying his best to dodge his attacks but failing in between his words and attempts.

“Me?!” Rindou snapped, pushing him to the ground and twisting his arms. “Speak for yourself.”

The man beneath him screamed in pain, “I-I’ll call the cops on you and have you arrested!”

“Yeah? You think they’ll give me less time if I tell them I was just trying to teach a creep a lesson?” Rindou pulled back on his arms a little harder, tendons and muscles stretching themselves out of place.

“T-The hell are you talking about?!” He stuttered out.

“Don’t bitch around. Might end yourself up in there if you keep this act of yours up - I’ve been once before,” Rindou smirked, pulling back more and more on his arms. “It was fine for me. My big bro and I even got some respect while in there, so what’s gonna happen when they hear about your name from me? You’re fresh meat to them.”

“W-Who even are you?!”

Rindou scoffed, “The same guy who warned you once to leave Y/N alone. I should’ve honestly went to find you myself personally and beat the shit out of you, but I hate wasting my time.”

Your boyfriend let the man go. If his arms weren’t all bent out of place and dislocated, he’d be crawling away by now. It was a sight that Rindou would laugh at. Upon seeing that his phone had fallen out of his pocket, the same phone used to consistently harass you, Rindou stomped down hard, breaking it into bits and pieces.

“Don’t waste my time again. Next time you do, call the cops, I promise you I won’t care if they catch me killing you,” Rindou turned his back around.

#tokyorev x reader #ran haitani #rindou haitani #tokyo revengers #tokyo revengers x reader #tokyo revengers x y/n #ran haitani x reader #rindou haitani x reader

[astaroth1357]

Demigod MC Series: Nyx

Nyx is a primordial goddess and the Greek personification of Night - the mother of Hypnos, Thanatos, Nemesis, and many more. She's a mysterious figure in their mythos as there's little surviving info about her cult. What is known, however, is that she was portrayed as beautiful, powerful, and feared by Zeus himself.

Demigod MC Series: Intro, Aphrodite, Hermes, Hades, Dionysus, Demeter, Athena, Hades Pt. 2, Poseidon, Ares, Hestia, Nyx

Lucifer 

What happens when you take a being born from the darkness and place them in a realm of eternal night…?

The answer came when the MC first stepped out of the portal. Everyone in the room was wholly expecting a normal-looking, confused human they could get up to speed, however…

The MC's skin suddenly darkened until it was as black as a shadow, their clothes levitated around them as if they were defying gravity, and glimmering speckles dotted their skin like twinkling stars.

Even their eyes turned a pure, glowing white without irises or pupils… Like two crowning stars locked into a body made from the shimmering night sky...

They weren't human. At the time, Lucifer wasn't even sure he could say what they were... Breathtaking, certainly, but there was something else about them that he couldn't place… something… foreboding...

Diavolo must have had the same unease because Barbatos was put in charge of monitoring them. The butler would send reports to them both and the results would range from benign to nerve-racking...

They kept their distance from his brothers and most people, but their power seemed immense... Barbs would report seeing them making small items float or summoning a meteor shower from their fingertips!

Lucifer ended up actually tasting their powers only once. When they stepped in to protect Beel and Luke and he went to attack them…

The whole House began to shake and the candles of the tomb started going out one by one as the air grew intolerably heavy... He could have sworn he saw a vortex of… something... swirling at their feet...

He backed off immediately and Beel and Luke got off with a warning, mostly because he was trying not to look utterly petrified...

He's never met a more beautiful and dangerous creature in his life… Pact mark or no, this is probably the only person the firstborn will admit he never wants to have to fight because he'd lose, big time.

Mammon

He was expecting to find a human when he walked into the Student Council room, not an alien!!

Mammon was seriously scared of the MC when they first met because he legitimately believed they were an extraterrestrial sent to probe him!!... Or whatever else those scary movies say aliens do, lay eggs in his stomach?

He straight up avoided them like the plague until the Goldie incident more or less bound them together. But even then there was a distance between them he just couldn't place…

Naturally, it bothers a demon a bit if their master doesn't seem to like them, so he eventually cornered them one day to force them to tell him why they'd been running off!

As it turned out, the MC actually knew as little about their new form everybody else! They had been perfectly normal in the human world, but for some reason the Devildom supercharged them! They could tell that they were powerful, but had no idea how to control themselves yet and it scared them...

So Mammon became their first unofficial "coach." Not that he knew how to train them or anything, but he was the first person supportive enough to even try to help them learn their new powers.

It led to some… interesting misadventures. Like when the MC unexpectedly burst every water pipe in the House or when they got a little too frustrated and ripped the kitchen apart with an accidental twister, but hey, Mammon was always there for them at least.

Of course, because he's who he is, he's not above asking the MC to help him with his schemes for "training purposes…" Infiltration is more fun if you're weightless, after all!

Speaking of weightless… His favorite way to float is when the MC gets excited and hugs him. They can't help but levitate them both off the ground when they're that happy and it makes the whole hug that much sweeter.

Leviathan 

It's… it's like he's in his very own Magical Girl anime!!! Uh, "I'm a Demon and this is My New Life with a Magic Starchild!!"-or something like that. 🤷‍♀️

He didn't even think their transformation was real when he first saw it! He really thought it was an elaborate body art cosplay but then their "freckles" rearranged themselves when he frightened them, so it had to be real!!

He'll declare that they're probably (literally) the coolest thing on the planet. They have the looks of an epic fantasy character plus insane powers to boot! 

…though uh… they may need a training arc or two to learn how to control them… 😅

Since their powers are apparently tied to their emotions, Levi's seen them do a whole bunch of stuff that's not entirely on purpose... Like, they can make things float when they're happy and push everything down when they're sad. 

So once he showed them one of those "tragic ending" animes for fun, but they cried so hard that they increased gravity and accidentally sent his bathtub crashing into the basement…

The worst of it is when they're mad, though. He made the mistake of making them play a rage game once and they ended up shattering all the glass in his room! His aquarium wall and Henry's fishtank included!!

They were able to make a zero G sphere of water in order to save Henry's life, but the cleanup was brutal… They were super sorry, but Levi took most of the blame himself anyway.

Honestly, he'd have been more mad but their body is clearly not something they can control just yet. Plus, it's so cool that he can put up with a little destruction anyway, you know?

Satan

Well, isn't that an interesting phenomenon?

Meeting a demigod is exciting enough, but one who reacted to the Devildom like that? It was pretty much unheard of!

Though he'd hate to admit it, Satan stalked the MC just as closely as Barbatos for a little while... But only because he was a little unsure of how to approach them…

They kept to themselves and their powers seemed "a little" unpredictable (see Levi's orphaned bathtub). Thankfully, Mammon ended up recommending the MC to him since Satan's one of the smartest guys around.

Satan made a better coach than Mammon, anyway. He was far more knowledgeable and actually able to hypothesize the strength their powers, which came in handy because uh… well…

Look. The whole realm 'ooohs' and 'ahhhs' over their appearance but they're all fools - no morons - for not noticing what potential the MC actually has. Satan was positive that the MC is the most powerful being in the Devildom, without question.

They had a complete control over gravity, atmospheric pressure, and even astronomical bodies… If they wanted to, they could literally pluck a planet out of orbit and send it careening into who knows what!

Want more terrifying? They could create near-matterless vacuums at the palms of their hands with the potential to suffocate, crush, or rip apart basically anything they wanted with implosive force….

Does he even need to spell out why that's utterly horrifying??

At least the MC seemed to be a genuinely nice person who wanted to control their powers better… Their emotions often got in the way but they tried their best.

He likes the MC a lot, but he'd be lying if he said that they didn’t also terrify him… They may have been pretty normal in the human world, but give them endless night and they may as well be a god...

Asmodeus 

Oh… My… Father!!! They're GORGEOUS!!!!

From the moment their transformation completed, Asmo had never seen anything like them! He said that they were like a living droplet of the night sky!

They were magnificent!! They were radiant!!! He was posting pictures of them before they had even said their first sentence!!

So Asmo was pretty much patient zero for any and all rumors and hype about the MC after that... Apparently someone like them only visits the Devildom every one, maybe two, centuries so everybody was bound to get talking.

Thankfully, the MC's habit of ducking out of the House kept them from becoming a full on sideshow. Unfortunately, however, Asmodeus was relentless!

He'd beg them to try modeling or make videos with him because of their unique look! He'd lay on the praises, but it was a little... much. It wasn't until Mammon finally stepped that he backed off a bit.

Asmo sometimes forgets that not everyone puts as much emphasis on looks as he does... Though he meant well, he hadn't realized that the MC maybe wouldn't appreciate him making such a big deal out of their appearance change. Pretty as it was, it was still involuntary to them...

Of course, after they told him this he cooled off and stopped putting them out there so publicly but even still he could hardly keep his eyes off of them... unless he was looking in a mirror, of course. 😘

A fun fact about the MC: when they blush, their skin makes a pink nebula. And thanks to his antics, Asmo has seen their lively pink cheeks many, many times… 🤭

Beelzebub 

Belphie would like them, wouldn't he...?

Beel's first reaction upon seeing the MC was genuine sadness, as seeing the stars with his twin brother still gone often brought him… 

The sadness didn't last too long at least because Beel tried his best to see the MC more like a person than a work of art or an oddity. Sure, they looked different - like really different - but they still laughed, cried, and ate like everybody else so they couldn't be that different.

Though then again, most people don't end up floating in midair when they laugh… Eh, oh well. It's not like those little details bother him. 🤷‍♀️

He always remained certain that Belphie would like the MC so he told them a lot about him. Since his twin loved stargazing, it'd only be natural that he'd like someone who looked like the stars, right?

Aside from the occasional tangent about his brother, Beel would also help the MC with their training by letting them help him with his training!

Controlling gravity can be pretty nifty for strength/resistance exercises, so there would be days where Beel would just pull a Dragon Ball and walk around at 1.5 or 2 times Earth's gravity thanks to having the MC on his back!

Sure, lifting a glass of milk becane so difficult that he literally broke a sweat from trying, but he felt like he can juggle motorcycles afterwards so who's complaining? Not him!

Belphegor 

……

………….

Was it some kind of joke?

The MC was not human. There was no way in heaven or hell that whatever he lured to the attic was supposed to be a human!!

Really, everything about the MC and their situation seemed directly designed to throw a monkey wrench into his plans...

One: They weren't human so how was he supposed to ruin Diavolo's dream? Two: They were clearly some kind of magical being so they could likely defend themselves…

But third ans most embarrassing of all... he honestly, genuinely, has never seen a more amazing person in his life. Blame it on his soft spot for the stars, but the moment the MC step up to his prison bars, he was smitten...

And. He. HATED IT!

Look, as much as he loved the night sky, he wasn't about to let some random non-human derail his anger! He was stronger than that!

He managed to hold onto his bitterness just long enough to make a halfhearted attempt on their life after they got the door open, but uh…

His brothers found Belphie when he fell through a newly-made hole in the ceiling... Said hole was made when his body slammed to the ground hard enough to crash through the attic floor... 😣

If the damage they caused wasn't enough to change his mind (which it was), then their distress when they thought they might have hurt him certainly did. Even their tears looked like stardust...

After far too long, Belphie got over his denial and began to properly love MC. If he liked stargazing before, he adored it now because he never even has to get out of bed! He can just roll over and follow the "stars" on the MC's body!

Unfortunately, that same love means it also takes a lot to ditch him if they get sick of being his personal night's sky… The brothers have found him floated up and sleeping on the ceiling on numerous occasions so the mortal can get some fresh air (clever MC)...

#obey me #obey me shall we date #shall-we-date-obey-me #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me leviathan #obey me satan #obey me asmodeus #obey me beelzebub #obey me belphegor #obey me headcanons #obey me demigods

[hellomynamiseglaf]

🌰Chestnuts and Warm Milk🍂

My List of ~Favorites~ for Interactive Fiction and Visual Novels

(This is a work in progress so please bear with me)

Interactive Fiction:

The Wayhaven Chronicles (WIP Series in Development) - @seraphinitegames  (Look,,, I’m just... obsessed.. I can’t stop thinking abt it,,, and I'm..... sometimes, I read and I think I feel like I know what love is.)

Mind Blind (WIP) - @mindblindbard (I just,, UGH it’s so good. I can't even say that much because my feelings about it are so potent that everytime I see an update I try to tell myself to leave it alone to play larger portions of updates as a treat and everytime my willpower FAILS and I replay the demo like twice in a row)

Demon: Recollect ; Forsaken (WIP) - both by @bathalafiction (whew...WHEW!!! Are you kidding me?? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? Look. I was attached to Demon: Recollect. I loved it. And then I played the Forsaken WIP and now I can't get over my absolutely BOMB character design for my player persona. Also it's kind of fun being considered a jerk in the game, because it opens up a lot of different options that I usually feel bad about taking)

Shadow Society - @carawenfiction (the concept is so interesting,, I dream of more. Also Quaiel...baby...)

The Soul Stone War - @intimidatingpuffinstudios (also whew!! I really enjoyed it and the characters all picture themselves really vividly in my mind for some reason.)

Greenwarden (WIP) - @fiddles-ifs (reading this is like thick fog.. but in a good way? I don't know how to describe it without pictures but this IF smells like fog over wet grass)

Divine Intervention (WIP) - @divineinterventiongame (the concept?? UGH SO GOOD. For some reason it's always the first game I click to check for updates)

Golden (WIP) - @milaswriting (😈😈😈😈)

Blood/line (WIP) - @bloodlineoffical (simply put,,, LARRY)

Supernatural in New York ; The Bastard of Camelot (both WIPs) - @llamagirl28  (UGH Both of these are so good in their own ways but equally as exciting to see updates for. I haven't consolidated my feelings much further than "my MC for SiNY is so cute" and "Mordred is a child" but they're all generally positive.)

Ace of Spades (WIP) - @steph-writing (I keep thinking about,,, con........)

Nevermoore (WIP) - @asteristories (AHHHHH.... let me say it again for those in the back: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH)

Son of Satan: The Mortal Coil (WIP) - @sosthemortalcoil (YES.)

Shepherds of Haven (WIP) - @shepherds-of-haven (yes. I just have to sigh because it's very good and I like saying those funny little words of power. But also outside of the game I can only picture this game as a great, grey border collie)

Attollo (WIP) - @attollo (Also a very interesting concept, whoo... I almost forgot how immersive it was untill I played the demo again and was reminded of how 'into it' I was straight off the bat. Also the seperate, short little piece on the blog with Sysba was also really good and I had a dream about it the other day)

Into the Shadows (WIP) - @wynnakang​ (whooo.... I'm sighing again, but louder. I press restart and play the demo again)

A Comedy of Manors (WIP) - @sviyaginthegreat (I kept replaying options that I hadn't chosen before because I wanted there to be more lmao)

Fallen Hero: Rebirth - @fallen-hero (I think there's a sequel coming up? I haven't stopped thinking about this storyline since I finished it omg... the.. the details are really good and I've become ridiculously attached to my tragic villain? Character... she IS the standard for my reusable IF persona, or at least one of my most prominent ones ;-D )

Samurai of Hyuga (WIP series) - (I'm pretty sure multiplechoicestudios.com is the development blog for this game, or at least what I've been checking for updates..... this is a series with four book currently out.... and I've been playing through book 4 at slower than a snail's pace in a desperate attempt to prolong my experience. I really didn't think I was going to like it as much as I did but I got a little too into it and now I'm horribly attached to all the characters)

The Porthecrawl Witness(WIP) - @porthecrawl-witness (I'm pretty sure this is a WIP?? But ugh. SCREEEEEE- it's so good. It's SO GOOD. I really want to punch Talbot in the face. And Asher, if for a different reason. And sort of Staci just to try. Quinn is just a cutie I could never hurt him like that. Ugh but they're all so good and I forgot that I was reading a WIP untill it suddenly was over..... I'mfeeling really aggressive rn as I'm writing this, so please just note that the punch comment is meant as a statement on how interesting the concept and immersiveness of the characters and story is)

Forgotten Names (WIP) - by Alexandra_Zorila on the CoG Forum (turn the volume up. AHHHHHHHHHH!!! Look, look. It's..... delicious. It's SO interesting and I obsessively have a tab open on my computer to check for updates)

OFNA: Birds of a Feather (WIP) - @ofna (the vibes are so grey and smoky but the fog is definitely from a party smoke machine and the room is only dark because the walls are taped with those huge sheets of black construction paper that teachers use to cover their bulletin boards with... the game definitely falls in the 'dark and mysterious' genre but something just strikes me as really funny when I play it. Anyway it's good and it's in a lot if recommended lists for a reason. Also I'm very attached to my American Goldfinch)

More Things in Heaven and Earth (WIP) - @morethingsgame (in the same way that it's fun to play Guenevere in the Guenevere game or Mordred in The Bastard of Camelot, playing Ophelia in the sort-of Hamlet story is really fun. If anyone has read the Missing collection- which I absolutely love- by Margaret Peterson Haddix, this gives me similar vibes for some reason. Anyway, I really want to give Hamlet a hug and make him a flower crown or something)

A Tale of Crowns (WIP) - @ataleofcrowns (It's kind of not even funny how much I love this game... It's hard to even describe why I like it, just that it's so well rounded in terms of the story, characters, dialogue, and relationships. It's such an interesting plotline and it's pretty immersive. Also the first time I read the demo, there was an update as I was reading and the high that sent me on has very rarely been matched. Also Dara running to save my Crown in the tunnel?? 🤚😩🤭💓 ugh. UGH!! That's good food for my fool heart)

Scout: An Apocalypse Story (WIP)- @anya-dev (I'm usually not that into apocalypse themes/plots but I really enjoyed this game, and the plot was very good and intruiging... it really pulled me in and I like my character in the story a lot. I don't know why but it tastes like chikuwa, atsuage, and this specific type of carmelized onions that my mom makes sometimes)

Nothing left to burn (WIP)- @clowdee-works (......ouch. I *knew* what was going to happen and I STILL became attached to Drew)

Smoke and Velvet - @roast-ifs (It's good. And I am VEDY much into my character design. Also the story is really interesting, and I enjoy the setting a lot somehow)

Speaker (WIP)- @speakergame (very fun to play, and each update gets me more interested in the aspects of the plot. I also really like the little descriptions of what the characters think of the player)

The Nameless (WIP)- @parkerlyn (interesting plot, I like the characters a lot, and The aesthetics of this world are so interesting. Definitely had a good time visualizing what everything looked like)

Fields of Asphodel (WIP) - @asphodelgame (I think it's really cute so far!!! I like mythology in general, and the persephone/hades dynamic is *mwah!*... I like the way the story progresses in the beginning, and I think it works well in drawing the reader into the world. I also very much enjoy petting large dogs.)

...there are so much more.. and I have followed so many blogs.........

I'm not sure why I can't find it rn but there's this one WIP game that I really like where the MC buys a manor for like dollar and moves to go live there with her best friend and shenanigans ensue as they try to settle in and fix up the estate

Harbringer (WIP) - @harbringercog (....are you KIDDING me?? I was fully planning on just enjoying the demo and keeping a mental note to update the list sometime later,,, but this game... THIS GAME really made me fold. It's very immersive and regardless of how nervous the author claims to be after releasing the demo, it's of my humble opinion that those nerves can be calmed. It's very good. I was planning on procrastinating and reading a little bit and then going back to this essay I need to write, but somehow I got pulled in and ended up reading through the whole demo and it's apparent that I honestly had no chance of getting through this without becoming invested in the plot.... just... so good.. I'm very excited to see how this will progress)

Visual Novels:

Andromeda 6 (WIP) - @andromeda-six​  (I repeat: Obsessed, I come back every few months to see an update and I fall deeper into the hole every time...)

To the Edge of the Sky (WIP,, probably) - by Ajané (??) on Steam (I think, it’s been a while)

Next on my list to check out: Perfumare by pdrrook

Does.... does The Arcana game by Nix Hydra count as VN?? If so, then yes.

Similarly, the FictIF games are all entertaining, although Last Legacy and Heir to Love and Lies are my favorites rn (and.....unfinished....)

I also don't know if this counts, because I kind of consider Otome games to be their own genre, but on the Love 365: find your story by Voltage Inc. There are a bunch of fun stories, my favorite of which are: the Shinichi Kagari route on After School Affairs and the Saejima and Keiichiro routes on Bad Boys do it Better

..To be continued...

#IF_VN #fis fic recs #interactive fiction #visual novels #game #recommendations

[staticscreenwriting]

Love like the movies // Bucky Barnes

One - When Harry met Sally 

Synopsis: This is a story of boy meets girl. The boy, Bucky Barnes, finds himself thrown into a world that seems so different from everything he’s ever known. Growing  up, Bucky had not a doubt in his mind that his undeniable charm and his gorgeous smile would one day help him find the one. Now he realizes there’s so much more to romancing women, especially those from the 21st century. The girl, (Y/N) knows entirely too much about rom-coms and is quite particular about the way she eats her popcorn. Bucky meets (Y/N) a few months after returning to NYC. He knows almost immediately that becoming her friend is inevitable. This is a story of boy meets girl. This is not a love story. This is a story about love. (Bucky Barnes x female!Reader // a few spoilers for EP1 of TFATWS)

[additional note: I am German. Sometimes I get the tense wrong or make mistakes. I am useless when it comes to punctuation. Go easy on me, please.]

“ Now in the movies they make it look so perfect And in the background they're always playing the right song And in the ending there's always a resolution But real life is more than just two hours long “

Some Avett Brothers song sounds from the little radio that sits on the corner of the counter. Thick drops of rain pearl against the window, racing each other down the glass before meeting up eventually and becoming one with each other. 

(Y/N) refills the last of the mustard bottles, setting it on the counter next to the others. It’s a quiet night at the diner. The kitchen’s been closed for an hour now and usually, that’s when people stop coming in. While the Little Blue Diner is known for their hot dogs and burgers, neither their coffee nor their cold sandwiches are gonna win any prizes any time soon. 

And yet …

Sure enough, as her eyes lift towards the figure slouched down in the corner booth, his gloved hand is already outstretched, signaling his desire for yet another refill.

A mixture between a chuckle and a scoff tumbles from her lips at the thought of him wanting more of the slightly burned liquid. If there’s one thing (Y/N) can admit to being bad at, it’s brewing coffee. Where there should be a rich brown color, hers usually ends up with an inky black hue and instead of leaving a hint of warm caramelization on your tongue hers just tastes bitter. It doesn’t seem to face the man in the corner though. Not even a little bit. To say this worries her is a bit of an understatement. No one in their right mind would take 7 refills of her witch's brew.

“ You okay, my dude ? “ (Y/N) inquires as she steps up to his table, coffee pot in hand. 

The man doesn’t look up at her. He doesn’t have to. She’s acutely aware of the character currently occupying the corner booth. It’s a face she knows like the back of her hand. One that’s been staring at her from books and documentaries, one she’s been greeted by every time her dad took her with him to the Smithsonian. Though they do not dare look up at her, she’s so awfully familiar with the bright blue shade of his eyes, he might as well be a long-time friend. 

“ I’m fine. “ 

Of all the lies in the world, “I’m fine” must be the most unbelievable one and yet the one told most often. No one who’s actually fine ever says those words. Those two words are reserved for the lonely and broken only. It’s like getting “I’m not fine at all” tattooed across your goddamn forehead. 

“ Sure you are, that’s why you’re having the 7th refill of my god awful coffee. “ 

“ ‘s not that bad. “ 

“ Sure, if you’re into licking charcoal it’s probably not that bad. “

It’s just a split of a second, a fraction of a moment, but (Y/N) is sure she can see the corner of his lips lifting slightly. It falls back into the stoic scowl immediately but it was there. For a teeny tiny moment, there was the shadow of a smirk on his face and that’s a success in her book. 

“ Either way, here’s how we’re gonna do this. I’ll give you one last refill, after that, I’m cutting you off, my friend. I know I’m a waitress and it’s my job to bring you what you want but I do not fancy watching you suffer a caffeine-induced heart attack in this very diner. I am not equipped to handle a situation like that and quite honestly they don’t pay me enough to deal with that either. “ 

His eyes are still trained on the scratched-up white linoleum table but ever so faintly he nods his head in silent agreement. 

As promised, she pours him one last cup of coffee. A brew so dark it could rival the bubbling goo of a tar pit. 

“ Enjoy your last cup of the night, Mr. Barnes. “ 

It’s then, as she’s just about to walk back behind the counter, as those words leave her lips, that he looks up for the first time since he’s walked in. 

His eyes are the exact shade of blue she’s so familiar with but there’s something else about them. An infinite sadness haunts every spec of blue. Where she thought there would be a sparkle of adventure, a hint of mischief, there is just loneliness. This is not the man she’s read about in museums, heard about in stories. This man right here is completely and utterly lost.

“ I - I uh — “ 

He clears his throat, once, twice, then nervously brushes his hand across his face. 

“ I can go if you don’t want me here. “ 

“ Huh? “ 

“ I asked if you want me to leave. “ 

As those words escape him, his eyes seem to grow even more devastated. They glimmer with memories of a time long gone and a future uncertain. Shine with hurt and fear. 

“ Why would I ask you to leave? “ 

Bucky shrugs his shoulders in a way to make it look nonchalantly. It’s hard to seem casual though when you seem to carry the weight of the entire world on your shoulders. 

“ People who recognize me usually aren’t so keen on having me around. I don’t know if you’ve heard but I’m uh — I’m not people’s favorite person. “ 

It’s a sad thought, (Y/N) realizes, to be constantly bound to a past that is yours but never really belongs to you. To be forever linked with the horrible actions of a version of yourself you had no control over. And no matter how hard you try to set it all right and to repent for your wrongdoings, to some people it will never be enough.

“ No, you don’t have to leave, “ (Y/N) reassures before sliding into the booth opposite him. “ I don’t know you because of — because of what happened. I know you first and foremost as Sergeant Barnes, former officer of the 107th Infantry Regiment, part of the Howling Commandos, and best friend and brother to Steve Rogers. Everything else that’s — none of my business really. “ 

Bucky lifts his eyes off of the table again and while the sadness is still there, something else lingers for a moment. Curiosity, intrigue maybe, or just relief. 

“ Wow. Didn’t think I’d run into someone reciting my life to me. Huh. “ 

“ My dad used to be a curator at the Smithsonian. He was in charge of the Captain America exhibition. I’ve seen your face a million times, visiting him at work. I gotta say though, you look way more approachable and friendly on the picture they put up. “ 

This time, it’s more than a fleeting moment, this time she’s sure about it, this time he lets out an actual chuckle. 

“ I was a lot younger then, okay? Cut an old man some slack. “ 

“ Oh, you pulling the old man card now? “ 

“ Is it working? “ he asks, eyebrows raised in question. 

“ Not really. “ 

“ Ah, what a shame.” 

Silence settles upon them again like a thick duvet filled with feathers, it’s not uncomfortable but it’s smothering anyway.

“ Do you wanna talk about it? Your sour mood, I mean.” 

Bucky shrugs again “I have a therapist.” 

“ Does she make you draw your feelings? “ 

He smiles again at that question. His smile, (Y/N) thinks, ain’t the worst thing she’s ever seen. She wouldn’t mind seeing it more often.

“ No. Why? “ 

“ Mine did. She stopped pretty quickly though, I guess my drawings were too detailed and gory for her.” 

“ Huh. “ 

“ Mmmh.” 

After another sip of coffee, one he takes without grimacing, without showing any sign of disgust for the burnt brew, Bucky speaks up again.

“ Mine thinks I’m lying to her. “ 

“ Are you ?” 

“ Well yeah, but she doesn’t need to know that.” 

“ Maybe telling her the truth would help you. “ (Y/N) suggests only to be met with a determined head shake No from Bucky. 

The notification sound of a phone pulls them from their conversation and at the sight of the name on the display, Bucky lets an “oh shit” slip from his lips.

“ Don’t you sound excited about getting texts from your friends, “ (Y/N) jokes

“ I had a date last night. That’s her. “ 

“ Since she’s texting you I assume it went well. “ 

Bucky grimaces at her words, slightly shaking his head in disagreement.

“ No? “ 

“ I mean, I had fun and it went well — at first. She’s really sweet. But then we started talking and I may have run. “ 

“ Ran where? “ 

“ Away. “ 

“ Away as in you left. “ 

“ Mm-mmh” 

“ Just like that? “ 

“ Yup. “ 

“ Why? “ 

He throws up his arms in frustration and shakes his head again as if to gather all his thoughts and rattle them neatly back into place. 

“ I don’t know, okay? I haven’t been on a date since the 1940s. Everything I know about women and dating and romance seems antiquated. I’m overwhelmed and confused and I just don’t wanna do anything wrong.” 

“ Dude, you ran from your date without any explanation. How much worse could you have handled it? “ 

“ Yeah well, hindsight is 20/20. “ 

While his words try to sound light and nonchalant, his shoulders tense and his whole demeanor seems to shift back into the gloomy state he’s been in since he entered the diner. Like a big cloud that’s following him around, casting shadows at all times and hardly allowing any light to shine through.

“ Look, I don’t think any of us know what the heck we’re doing half the time. Like, trust me I know what I’m talking about. Online dating means I have to choose between men who think posing with a dead fish will make me want to sleep with them, men who think knowing obscure Star Wars facts can replace having an actual personality, and men who send me pictures of their … privates without me ever giving any indication of wanting to see those. So yeah — dating can really s - be frustrating. “ 

Bucky regards her for a second, the right corner of his lips pulled into a lazy lopsided smirk.

“ Did you just censor yourself because you don’t wanna swear around me ?” 

“ Maybe, but that’s beside the point. The point is, we’re all just human and in the end, we’re all just looking for someone to like us the way we are, all quirks and issues and baggage included. I know women might seem intimidating but really all we want is to be loved and appreciated. And not the over-the-top build-you-a-house, the notebook kind of love. More like the Harry and Sally kind.“ 

(Y/N) can almost see the gears working inside Bucky’s brain, the desperate attempt to make any sense of all the words and phrases she’s just thrown at him. A jumbled mess of pop culture references swirls through his head like a swarm of bees, chaotic and messy. 

“ I have no idea what you just said. “ 

“ When Harry met Sally? “

Bucky just shrugs and shakes his head.

“ You’ve never seen it? “ 

“ I’ve been a bit preoccupied with being blipped away into oblivion for the last 5 years. So I haven’t really had the time to get into movies yet. “ 

This time it’s the gears in her own head that start turning. 

“ What are you doing Friday night ? “ she asks, biting her lip in nervous anticipation.

“ I — I don’t know. “ 

That’s a bit of a lie, really. He does know. It’s the same thing he does pretty much every other day. He gets some takeout, brings it home, sits down in front of the tv, tries to get lost in whatever show they put on, fails at doing so, reads a few pages of a book, lays down to sleep, and then wakes up a little while later to yet another nightmare, tangled up in sweaty sheets, heart racing. 

(Y/N) doesn’t need to know any of that though. He doesn’t tell his therapist so why would he tell a random stranger.

“ Well, don’t make any plans. We’re gonna kill 2 birds with 1 stone. “ 

“ We are? “ 

“ Yeah. Trust me on this one. “ 

“ I don’t even know you. “ 

“ Sure you do. “ (Y/N) says and taps the tag pinned to her baby blue polo shirt with the diner’s logo on the back.  “ I’m the one who serves you just enough coffee to keep you happy but not have you die a painful and honestly mildly embarrassing death. “ 

Every part of him screams at him to say no. To stay away from her the way he does from most other people, even Sam. To get up and get out and not cause any more damage than he already has in other people’s life. But then he remembers his therapist's words, he remembers Leah’s face full of confusion and disappointment, he remembers the empty feeling in his chest. That feeling of pure and utter loneliness. 

“ Alright, Friday works for me, (Y/N). “ 

“ Perfect, Bucky. “ 

“ Bring a jacket. “ 

The address and “Bring a jacket” that’s all she’s texted him. No explanation, no plan, nothing. 

Bucks leans against the streetlamp, hands stuffed deep into the pockets of his leather jacket. Anxiety is washing through his system like tidal waves on a stormy ocean. This whole being spontaneous thing was much easier back in the 40s. When his shoulders weren’t so heavy with guilt. When he didn’t have to constantly face the consequences of his actions. Consequences of a past he can never quite outrun no matter how far he goes and how hard he tries. 

Maybe this is good, he has to remind himself. Getting out of his comfort zone, if that even exists for him. Opening himself up to new opportunities. Maybe even make a friend. (Y/N) seem nice enough, if a bit peculiar. 

His shrink would be proud of him. Getting out there, talking to people, being approachable. This must for sure earn him some kind of gold star equivalent in her notebook. 

“ Hey there, Mr. Grumpyface. “ 

(Y/N)'s voice cuts through the chilly New York night like headlights through thick fog. She strolls towards him, lips pulled into a big bright smile. Leading up to tonight he’s spent quite a lot of time wondering if this is some kind of project for her, if maybe she sees him as a sort of charity case. Something to earn her karma points. It wouldn’t be the first time. But the genuine joy radiating from her face lets those worries melt away instantly. 

Maybe, Bucky thinks, she really just thinks he’ll make a good friend. And maybe he can. 

“ Hi, (Y/N). “

“ You brought a jacket” she points out, pinching the black leather between her fingers. Her nails are painted in various shades of red, each finger a different hue. 

“ I did. You told me to. “

“ And you listened! “ 

“ Why wouldn’t I ? “ Bucky inquires, a look of confusion settling on his face.

“ You wouldn’t believe how many men think wearing a jacket when it’s cold out somehow clashes with their need to demonstrate their masculinity. “ 

“ Wow. “ he exclaims.

“ Yeah. So anyway, you ready to go up? “ 

She nods her head towards the house across the street. It’s a slim multiple-story brick building with rusty fire escapes. It looks like a residential lot, not much else that could give away (Y/N)’s plan for the rest of the night.

“ Up? “ 

“ Mm-mh. “ (Y/N) nods and motions towards the top of the building. “ to the roof. “ 

“ The roof? You’re not planning to push me off or anything, right? I don’t usually spend time with strangers on rooftops. “ he tells her, a smirk lifting the sides of his lips.

She grants him a smile in return. One of those that you try so hard to suppress but despite your best efforts they find their way onto your face anyway. Because some smiles demand to be smiled. And her smile is pretty cute, he thinks, it deserves to be seen. 

“ Foiled again, damn Bucky. I’m a waitress with a useless degree in literature and creative writing but assassinating you was exactly what I had planned for tonight. Couldn’t let me have that one, huh? “ 

“ Sorry to spoil all the fun. “ 

She softly bumps her shoulder against his right side as she passes him and crosses the street. Her red skirt flutters around her knees like a ribbon of fire, bright and warm and —

“ You coming, grumpy ?” 

“ Yeah uh — yeah sure. “ 

The walk upstairs is filled with chatter from her and nodding from Bucky. It’s been like this most of the time since — well since he’s really back. Other people usually do the talking and Bucky listens. It works most of the time. Works with Yori. Sometimes though, sometimes it doesn’t. He can see people getting frustrated with him. Hell his own therapist does and she knows the baggage he has to carry around. 

This is different though, (Y/N) doesn’t seem to mind much. She’s a waterfall of words and topics and doesn’t seem to get bored or annoyed with him. It’s nice. 

A heavy iron door swings open as they reach the top of the building and as soon as they step out onto the rooftop balcony they get engulfed in an ocean of lights. They’re strung from one end of the roof to the other and back again. Next to the door, a little makeshift bar is set up, and a guy in a Star Wars shirt hands out beers to people. 

Multicolored deck chairs and beanbags are haphazardly placed across the entire roof, all pointing towards the corner furthest away from the door where a big white sheet hangs spanned between two poles. 

“ Sooo you gonna tell me what we’re doing here? “ Bucky asks again as (Y/N) steers him towards a cluster of chairs in the back. 

“ Some peeps I went to university with, set up movie screenings here every once in a while. I could pull some strings and got to choose the movie. “ 

“ We’re gonna watch a movie? “ 

“ Not just any movie, “ she exclaims and drops down onto one of the plastic deck chairs that looks like it used to be bright pink once but is now but a bleached blush colour from being exposed to the sun too much. “ We’re watching when Harry met Sally. “ 

Bucky slumps down on the chair next to her, a blue one with white daisy patterns. 

“ Me not knowing this movie really does bother you, huh? “ 

“ It’s a classic, might as well start with this one. And anyway, maybe this can help you get back into the dating game. Ya know, help you understand modern romance. “

“ You think so? “ 

She shrugs and starts fumbling around in her bag, “ I dunno. It might. And if it doesn’t at least you’ll spend your time watching a good movie and get to experience the blessing of my company. Ah-ha! There you go “ 

Her hand reaches out holding a bag of M&Ms.

“ I brought snacks. “ 

More and more people start occupying the chairs and bean bags and a few minutes later a guy steps up in front of the sheet. He’s wearing a shirt with a black and white bird pattern, huge glasses with a brown frame, and jeans that don’t cover his ankles. He’s tall and lanky and his hair is so messy, Bucky wonders if it’s intentional or if he just hasn’t brushed it in a while. 

“ Hi guys, I’m Andrew. For those of you who don’t know me, I live in apartment 2B and I just wanna say thank you for showing up and welcome you to our movie night under the stars. A few days ago we received a special request from one of our good friends and because she let me stay on her couch for several months back during our college days and I still owe her for that I couldn’t reject her request. So thanks to Miss (Y/N) over there in the pink chair you now get to spend the next 90 minutes watching Meg Ryan fall in love with Mike Wazowski. Enjoy. “ 

As he steps away from the sheet, the lights are turned off and the MGM logo pops up on the screen. 

“ Trust me, Bucky. This one’s so good.” (Y/N) assures before throwing some M&Ms into her mouth, now entirely focused on the movie.

It takes a while for Bucky to relax. Being around so many people and not having any fear of what’s lurking around the corner is still very new. Letting go is never as easy as it sounds. Eventually though, his nerves settle down a little and as the movie progresses, he finds himself relaxing more and more. Something he hasn’t done in a long time. Not since Wakanda.

Exactly 46 minutes into the movie, (Y/N) lets her eyes wander to her left where Bucky, until now, sat slumped into his seat. Still perpetually grumpy but more chilled out and relaxed than she’s seen him before. Until now. A moaning Meg Ryan visible making him uncomfortable.

“ You okay, grumpy? “ 

He doesn’t grant her a real answer, just scoffs and rolls his eyes. There’s a smile though, she’s sure. Somewhere hidden there is another smile. 

“ So, what did we learn today? “ 

Bucky looks at (Y/N) who has her arms wrapped tightly around her middle shielding herself from the chilly night air. The movie night has ended a while ago and the two of them are slowly strolling along the New York City streets on the way back to (Y/N)’s apartment. 

“ To take your own advice and dress warmer for a movie night? “ 

(Y/N) chuckles. “ No, grumpy. I meant the movie. “ 

He shrugs at her question. Quite honestly he hasn’t learned anything new. Nothing about the movie seemed in any way revolutionary to him nor does he see any benefit for himself and his dating life going forward. But the way she looks at him right now, expecting something grand not from him really but some beautiful consequences to her ideas, that makes him reconsider. Sure he could tell her that it was just a silly little movie about people falling in love but that would no doubt hurt her, even a tiny little bit. And if there’s anything Bucky has enough of, it’s hurting others. 

“ I guess that men and women really can not be friends. “ 

“ Noooo! No. Is that really what you took from this movie? “ 

“ That’s literally what happened. “ 

“ Okay first of all it works, look at us! We’re friends! Second of all, that’s not what the movie is really about. It’s about love and vulnerability. It’s about overcoming all the tiny things that can work against you and your relationship. Like distance and timing and egotism. It’s about hiding who you are because really opening up to someone, being your authentic true self with all your faults and imperfections, that makes you vulnerable. And being vulnerable is fucking scary. But love is worth it anyway. That’s what the movie is about. “

As Bucky noticed before, some smiles demand to be smiled. They need to be smiled because they’re important and they mean something. The one gracing his face now, that’s one of those. One of those you remember because you feel them all the way in your heart.

“ You think we’re friends? “ 

“ Oh, are we — are we not? “ 

“ No. I — no, we are! I’d like to be friends. “ 

(Y/N) abruptly stops in her tracks, turns towards him, and holds out her hand. “ To friendship.” 

“ We’re shaking hands on it? What is this, a business deal? “ 

“ You know what, yeah now that you mention it that’s pretty lame. “ (Y/N) agrees, balling her hand into a fist “ how about a fist bump, bro? “ 

Bucky reluctantly knocks his right hand against hers before continuing his walk down the street. “You call me bro again I’m canceling the friendship. “ 

“ Alright. Noted. “ 

“ So have you talked to the girl again? “ 

“ Hmm? “ 

“ The one you went on a date with? “ 

“ Oh, Leah. Uh — no.” 

“ Why not? “ 

Bucky throws her a look. One that says “are you kidding me?”. One that says “ you know why.” 

“ Cause I ran out. That’s embarrassing. She’s gonna think I’m insane. She’s never gonna wanna see me again. “ 

“ I sincerely doubt that. You just gotta say sorry. I know in Love Story — that’s a novel and also a movie from the 70s — they say that ‘Love means never having to say you’re sorry but that’s a load of bull. Just say sorry and ask her for a do-over. “ 

“ And then what? We play a rematch of battleships and talk about my trauma? “ 

“ Well, what did you do on dates in the 40s? “ 

That time, his youth, that seems like a different life altogether now. So much happened between then and now and the man he is now, has no relation to the boy he was then. Sometimes looking back hurts, makes it painfully obvious what he’s lost. But sometimes, like tonight, he can feel a hint of fondness coursing through him at the thought of times long gone.

“ Dancing, mostly.” 

“ Like, ballroom dancing? “ 

“ Swing. “ 

“ You swing dance? “ 

“ I did. “ 

(Y/N) regards him through squinted eyes “ really? “ 

“ You don’t believe me? “

“ I don’t know. You don’t strike me as a dancer. “ 

Not a second later, Bucky’s gloved hand grabs onto her’s and twirls her towards him then away from him and back in. 

“ You twirled me! “ 

“ Mm-mh.”

“ I’ve never been twirled. That’s so fun. “ 

It’s like autopilot taking over as Bucky holds onto her, twirling her again then pulling her in and swaying them in a circle. It’s not swing dancing, not even close but there’s no music either, and anyway, his dancing days are over. But sometimes you gotta make a point and if that means slow dancing in the middle of an empty street then that’s that. 

The night wraps them in a blanket of comfort and intimacy as the stars and the New York skyline try to outshine each other. It’s a moment so peaceful, Bucky can’t remember the last time his heart felt so light, his mind felt so at ease, his entire being got to let go and just be alive and in the moment.

And then the shine of headlights rips them from their moment and makes them jump back onto the sidewalk. 

“ Get off the road you fucking morons! “ 

“ Gotta love the big city folk. “ 

“ Yup. “ 

“ Hey, Bucky.” 

“ What? “ 

“ You really can dance.” 

“ Told you. “ 

“ Can I tell you a secret? “ 

“ Sure. “ 

“ I can’t dance for shit. “ 

“ That so? “

“ Yup. Which means you gotta teach me. “ 

“ Absolutely not.” 

“ Oh, 100%! “ 

“ We’ll see about that.” 

There are nights you try to forget. Nights that you wish to never ever remember. Ones that break you. That beat you down and leave you bruised and battered.

Then there are nights like this one that you want to hold onto for just a little bit longer. Those that fill you with joy and an immeasurable thirst for life. The ones that make you feel grateful to be alive right here and now. 

The inevitable end of the night creeps closer as they arrive at (Y/N)’s front door. Neither of them really want to say goodnight but both know there’s no use in delaying it.

“ I hope you didn’t hate the movie too much, “ (Y/N) speaks up, leaning against the front door of her apartment complex.

“ No. It was fun! Although I still don’t know who Mike Wazulsky is. “ 

“ Mike Wazowski, he’s — you know what? That’s a conversation for another time. “ 

“ Alright, if you say so. “ 

“ Thanks for walking me home. “ 

“ Oh, yeah no need to thank me. It’s the right thing to do. “ 

For a moment they just stand and smile, trying to cherish the last few moments of this night. 

“ We should do this more often. “ Bucky suggests, surprising even himself.

“ For sure. I still have so many movies to show you. “ 

“ Can’t wait. “ 

A slight sense of awkwardness falls over them as neither of them knows what to do. Go for a hug? Shakes hands? Wave goodbye? 

“ I uh — I should go. “ 

“ Yeah, of course. Have a good night, Bucky.” 

“ You too, (Y/N).” 

“ Oh and Bucky? “ 

“ Yes? “ 

“ Give Leah a call. “ 

Bucky nods his head before turning around and walking back into the night.

As he takes the way back to his own home, there are only two things on Bucky’s mind: the vulnerability of falling in love and the question of who the hell Mike Wazowski was. 

#bucky barnes x reader #bucky x reader #bucky barnes imagine #bucky imagine #mcu imagine #bucky x y/n #bucky x female reader #bucky barnes x female reader #bucky x f!reader #bucky fanfic #bucky fanfiction #bucky barnes fanfic #bucky barnes fanfiction

[princessofgayskull]

Hi sunflower, what's your thoughts on T Swift's Betty being a catradora song???

Me, taking a break from spop to focus on my mental health and setting better boundaries:

Me, reading this ask:

This ask woke me up from like a deep, sleeping beauty type slumber, not joking. I don’t get asked to talk about Taylor Swift often, despite being a fan of hers since I was nine years old (I’m 22 now *wink*) and we are about to find out why. But I pride myself on taking any fiction piece of media I interact with and connecting it somehow to Taylor Swift. I can do so to varying degrees of success (usually depends on the ships and romance of the world) but there are so many songs of Taylor’s that have just fit Catradora so well for me, both in and out of canon. 

Some of my favorite examples: out of the woods (AND IT KEPT ME UP AT NIGHT WHEN NOELLE SAID THIS WAS HER TAYLOR SWIFT SONG FOR CATRADORA LIKE GAH CASUAL TS LISTENERS WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND) bad blood, lwymd, don’t blame, dancing with our hands tied, the archer, breathe, you’re not sorry, the way I loved you, forever & always, should’ve said no, safe & sound- I could go on.

But I won’t because I wanna stay on topic and talk about betty. Now I have a number of songs from the folklore/evermore series that are for me catradora songs (we’ll get to that in a minute) but this one is… challenging. Because I could be like “yes, because [insert casual reason here]” or “no, because [insert casual reason here]” but I can’t because Taylor feeds her children well and there’s several aspects of this song I feel like should be considered.

This biggest one to be considered, for me, is the love triangle aspect. Folklore features at length the betty/james/Augustine love triangle, each of them having one main song on the album from their POV. Betty's is cardigan, augustine’s is august, and james’ is betty. (also I’m going to throw out the gender component for a second; I know taylor says that Betty is about a guy’s apology and I totally vibe with her reasons why she wanted to write a song about a boy apologizing BECAUSE HOW GREAT WOULD THAT BE?) The love triangle makes the application of Catradora iffy at best. Because it’s like, who would be who? I am going to go out on a limb and assume that you’re seeing Catra as James? I think that personality wise, Adora as Betty and Catra as James is not a stone’s throw away from fitting actually really well. Adora’s canon journey is one of coming to realize “I know what I want and I know that it’s okay to want it” and a big part of Catra’s arc is her being like “Well shit… there goes my plans. Kind of feeling like a dumbass rn” especially in s4/s5. 

(That s4/s5 distinction is important; I’ll show why in a second) 

But for me, there’s no augustine. Or one that’s obvious anyway. I never imagined that either Catra or Adora dated or even had any inclinations with anyone else during the five season run- that’s just my personal opinion, people are completely welcome to feel free to disagree. I don’t think Catra acted even out of distraction with Scorpia or DT, and I think Adora was so focused on being She Ra that when she wasn’t thinking about failing/abandoning Catra when she alloted time to do so, she was thinking about the crushing weight of her responsibilities. So you know, not that much time to get back out there. So I rule out what causes James to apologize in the first place- cheating.

Side note about James cheating- I’m pretty sure Taylor confirmed this, in the long pond studio sessions doc, when she’s telling Jack Antonoff (MY BOY JACK) and Aaron Dessner ( GRAMMY AWARD WINNING KING) that James “was a fool!” And James did sleep with Augustine as confirmed in august, but cardigan makes it seem like he was definitely dating Betty before the summer. Maybe Taylor took inspiration from friends and they “were on break.” I also believe that the kiss in the Heart is the first kiss, that Catra and Adora were never ‘together’ together before Adora found the sword and defected (again, that’s just an opinion, but Adora just looks so wonderfully gobsmacked), so…

We can rule out cheating, and I think we can accomplish this and still reserve the essential meaning of the song of “I did something wrong, I see that now, I apologize for doing it, and I still love you” by widening the lens of what the “did something wrong” was (or “did something bad” you know *wink*). In that wider lens really you could fit either Catra or Adora into the song, but I’m still going to assume Catra is the James in this scenario based on how much of her redemption arc is formed around her refusal to say sorry and then eventually doing so. Of course there is no standing your porchlight but rather standing while wrestling a bunch of murderous clones…. Hmm….

But there are some stupid friends! I wholeheartedly believe Catra is James because of the dissing of Betty’s friends. That’s what Catra does to Bow, Glimmer and the rebellion et al., for most of the show and by the end of s4 she has no friends for Adora to even mock (terrible and cruel of me, I know, but it’s true). Also I know people are like “he called her friends stupid and then expected betty to take him back?” but I scream sing the line “WILL YOU KISS ME ON THE PORCH IN FRONT OF ALL YOUR STUPID FRIENDS?” every time. It brings me serotonin. 

Along those lines we can ask “Who’s Inez?” in this situation. When I think gossip no one from the show really comes to mind, well, expect for Double Trouble. But Double Trouble doesn’t ever speak to Adora about Catra. This happens vice-versa, and in Betty, James reveals that Inez told Betty he cheated on her. 

I want to say something controversial… Glimmer comes to mind when I think “who’s the Inez?” And this is based off of two things: 1) Inez’s closeness to Betty, and 2) Inez drags James out to dry, rightfully so. And when I think of that I think of Glimmer screaming “Do one good thing in your life!” directly in Catra’s face. James gives Inez a bad wrap in Betty. Not cool James. 

Of course there’s the pivotal, “would you tell me to go fuck myself?/ or lead me to the garden?” To me this a fun way of showing there’s vulnerability to what James is doing, so automatically I’m led to is the scene where Catra asks Adora to stay, or each time in s5 when Catra risks, basically an identity crisis to let Adora in how she really feels, but there’s always the potential that Adora could spurn her by not returning her feelings or rejecting her outright. 

I think the best argument that can be made for “is betty a catradora song” can really be encapsulated by the lyric(s): “the worst thing that I ever did is what I did to you” and “the only thing I wanna do is make it up to you.” That is what about the song SCREAMS Catra to me. And yeah, it could be argued that Adora hurt Catra pretty brutally (Shadow Weaver makes that point EVEN THOUGH SHE HAD NO RIGHT TO) that she messed up by abandoning Catra- but Adora feels guilt for... literally breathing. Adora is the quintessential embodiment of “pick your battles, no that’s too many battles, put some back,” but Catra picked one battle first and foremost (yes, she had a few others but this was the one) and that was Adora. Everything that motivated her was surrounded around a narrative of surpassing Adora for a multitude of reasons, and because of that she pretty much hurts Adora every chance she gets after Promise. Adora is really Catra’s first casualty, it makes sense that she has to be her first apology. And I think that after being vibed checked back to back by DT and Glimmer and realizing “oh hey fuck, I’m still in love with her” and then almost dying just to not die because Adora saves her, I think much of Catra’s motivation shifts to “how to do I get Adora to want to stay?” 

That’s my logic for how Betty could be a catradora song in canon. Now not all of my Taylor associations are with canon catradora, many of them do belong to uws catradora, because it’s a lot easier to apply the more modern details of Taylor’s songs to a modern au. The song Breathe is big that way. (it’s in Upper West Side, it’s the song Adora listens to and cries to after that first ride, I just never mentioned that it was taylor because my conditioned reaction to bringing up taylor is to have my head bit off with someone’s semi incorrect and slightly sexist opinion that I never, ever ask for) And this ask got me thinking about what it would look like if I applied not Catradora to Betty, but Betty to Catradora. What would it look like if Catra skateboarded and wore black lipstick, Adora wore a cardigan and they had homeroom together until Catra really messed up? What would it look like if they were seventeen when they admitted their feelings for each other instead of 21? What would it look like if they spent a summer fighting but dreaming of each other? What would their love story look like if Catra and Adora were in that town where Taylor envisioned this “same event that affected three people in different ways?”

I think it’d look something like this. 

https://archiveofourown.org/works/31141973/chapters/76952048

what do you guys think?

quick but INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT thank you to @gimme-tea-bitch for helping me with this, being my beta, and listening to me talk about folklore/evermore.

#I am literally SHAKING as I post this you guys have no idea #like vibrating through a wall shaking #i've been working on this for like the past two months #and I know everyone wants cruel summer but my goblin brain is like #AHHHHHHHH WRITE A FOLKLORIAN AU FOR CATRA AND ADORA YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO #IT'S 23K WORDS NO ONE WILL NOTICE #this was supposed to go up with two parts but tbh with you guys i have high key been feeling when jenny slate said #'i don't get the love until something beautiful goes out' #please be gentle with me

[garrothromeave]

let’s talk about minecraft diaries rebirth.

and why it’s literally amazing. (warning: this will contain spoilers. lots of them. also, long post ahead.)

i think a lot of people hate mcdr because they were expecting a remake; but the point of rebirth is for jess to rewrite it. it wasn't supposed to be exactly the same.

honestly i went into mcdr with a closed mind. as an og mcd fan, i thought that this was going to suck ass and that i'd rant about how bad it was to my friends later. but actually watching it, i just... couldn't help but immediately fall in love with it.

ik im probably the only motherfucker that likes mcdr, but honestly how could i not? for one, garroth and zenix actually have personalities at the beginning. AND; the villagers? actually amazing. donna made me smile, visher made me laugh and cry, brendan was just bein as good as ever. like... i even didn't despise emmalyn with every ounce of my soul like i usually do?? the characterizations of them were GOOD, man.

and honestly, aphmau like--the way she spoke, her whole thing. it was reallyyy well done in my opinion. she was oblivious to things, but it wasn't overdone and wasn't done in a way to make her annoying. she's a very appealing character in mcdr, a main protagonist i do not mind following along with. her dynamics to the characters are really cool and all very unique.  gonna cut it here so i don’t clog y’all’s feed cuz i got a lot to say :)

the early use of aphmau’s powers was actually pretty cool as well, it also really showed how clueless aphmau really was to everything going on around her. AND UH, THE FACT THAT SHE THOUGHT THAT GARROTH FELT FAMILIAR? GOLDEN. absolutely golden.

AND GENE OH BOY, the early introduction of gene? ik a lot of people are upset about it, but god DAMN i love it so much. his role in the story is very important in original, and i cannot express how much joy this brought me learning that he was actually getting the proper attention for it. and the fact that gene and aphmau were working together?? i mean ik gene was just trying to use her to get back to the "shadow abyss" (pretty pog replacement for the nether, gg) but god DAMN i loved every moment of it. i found their dynamic to be pretty fuckin funny to be honest, would absolutely love to see more of it.

i might be biased considering gene is one of my absolute favorite characters, but i honestly think that introducing gene this early on in the story was a good move. again, he's literally the right-hand man to the shadow lord. it makes you really wonder why he didn't have as much of an important role in season 1 or even 2 of the original mcd plotline. also, we get some of that good-ol-fashioned exposition with seeing early on how vylad and gene interact. vylad’s at a very strange point in the story right now; his motives are unclear, even to the side he’s ‘supposed’ to be taking (aka, a shadow knight.)  another early introduction to a character is zane! this, my friends, is good. really good. i’d say that zane is the main antagonist of season 1 in the original series--and he wasn’t even introduced until like, episode 50. it’s not necessarily a bad thing, but him being introduced this early on really gives the audience a better understanding of what threats are out there and what our protagonist will have to encounter in the future. in the original series, there’s not much explanation as to why lords are disappearing/dying left and right--and while yes, that was supposed to be the mystery of it, having some of that early information is a better move in terms of writing. 

AND IVAN?? BEING A PART OF THE JURY OF NINE?? I COULD NOT HAVE ASKED FOR ANYTHING MORE LIKE GOD DAMN that was a very pleasant surprise i'll just say that, thank you jess :)

and no i did not loop the 4 minutes of screentime laurance got in that one episode haha who would do that i would never do that anyways

SPEAKING of laurance, im so glad jess actually wrote him in this early :) she totally could have just waited for the first time aphmau visits meteli and meets him there, but no! she put him in an early episode. i dont even care if she did it just to shut up the fans about laurance but man that made me so happy seeing him, even if it was only for a bit.

okay i kinda wanna go over the guards real fast firstly; garroth. ignoring how weird the helmet showing emotions is, i really like how garroth is portrayed. he's under a lot of pressure because the village is putting a lot of the blame on him for malik's death, and he's trying his hardest to keep things running. the fact that garroth utterly refused the to take up the position of lord and even got a little snappy about it was actually really cool to see as well. and while he doesn’t have that same “reserved, quiet, observant” feel as the original mcd version of him had, this version of garroth is absolutely awesome. he’s more direct and blunt, is significantly more sarcastic, and isn’t as stiff or as much as a pushover as he is in the original. he even has a sense of humour. also, no homo, but he’s kinda adorable.  plus, the desperation that he goes through during the whole thing is just--it’s really cool to see how hard he’s trying to prove himself and help the village. my rating for mcdr garroth? 9/10. the helmet... the helmet is the main thing throwin me off, i can’t lie. next, zenix. oh BOY do i have a lot to say about this man. first of all, his and garroth’s dynamic is incredible. when i saw how the interacted with each other, my first thought was: father and son. zenix has this immaturity to him that is so fucking fun and interesting to watch, and seeing how garroth scolds him is so fuckin good man. and! seeing how he interacts with the rest of the village... honestly, if jess ever picks this story up again, i would probably cry when zenix (literally) backstabs garroth. HELL, i hope that’s something that still happens, it’d be heartbreaking to witness this character that we’ve come to love hurting his mentor, the man who took him in. he’s just a really good character all in all, and much more appealing than the original mcd zenix. ...except season 3 zenix. no zenix can be better than that one.  either way, zenix is amazing written to be the comic relief and he’s just an all-out lovable character in this series.  finally, dale and brian. yes i’m going to group them up because there’s not much to say regarding them, but i do want to address them. for starters, we have brian; who’s already 16 when the story starts. good on jess for doing that, because in the original aphmau watched brian be born and age INCREDIBLY quick, haha. THOUGH i do feel like there’s a slight connection lost there--one of the hardest things about brian’s betrayal in the original series in the fact that we watched him grow up in phoenix drop. we were there from the moment he was born, to the second he betrayed phoenix drop. BUT OF COURSE, this version is a lot more realistic, so it’s understandable. i just think that if it’s brian who’ll be betraying phoenix drop again (if it even goes down that same route), it won’t hit as hard unless jess really takes the time to grow the connection between brian and aphmau.  as for dale; gotta admit, love it. and like, i think one of the main things about how good of a call it was to make him a drunkard from the beginning is considering how much the village is struggling. the fact that the second-in-command is literally drunk all of the time really conveys the message of, “yeah. this village needs help.” plus, he’s another good comic relief character. i loved seeing molly and dale’s relationship too, it was very funny.  PLUS. we were blessed with a well scene, in which aphmau had to help villagers out of the well. i don’t know about you guys, but that was one of my favorite nods to the original series. i cannot thank jess enough for that, there was a smile on my face the entire time. another amazing thing--visher’s character. instead of just being introduced to this quirky lil merchant who only had one or two interactions with aphmau like in the first one, we got to sit there and really get a feel for someone worth remembering and worth mourning over. we had a reason to be sad over his death, it wasn’t just some npc getting blown up suddenly. this was different, and this hurt.  one of the major things that i hope is to come out of this is for jess to fix the major mistakes she had when writing the first series. she’d expressed how unhappy she was with some of the decisions she made, and i’m glad that she’s getting that second chance to undo the things she didn’t like. this series also gives her a second chance to really, really dig into characters and their motives. like, gimme laurance backstory in better detail. or like, garroth and zane’s relationship from back when they were kids? or how vylad died and who killed him? etc etc. she’s already done an excellent job so far, and i can’t wait to see where this goes. that is, if she ever continues it. god, i wish there were more episodes so that i could seriously let you guys know how beautiful of a series this is. there’s so much i want to say about rebirth, but i think i’ll stop here. i might say some more shit about it later, but if there’s anything i’d want you to take away from this, it’s: give minecraft diaries rebirth a chance. there’s a lot of potential, and this is a chance for jess to really change things for the better! ... but again, that is if this ever is continued. 

#aphmau #minecraft diaries #minecraft diaries rebirth #garroth #laurance #gene #zenix #vylad #rant

[curiousconch]

Chase You / Chase Me (Pt. 2)

Part 2: Before I dive right into you

Catch up here: Series Masterlist

Chapter Summary: In the aftermath of their pretend wedding in Las Vegas, Gabe begins to unravel his growing feelings for Alex. But as he attempts to bring his past to light, someone from Alex's previous life casts a shadow on the future.

Book/Pairing: Choices - Laws of Attraction / Gabe Ricci x MC (Alex Keating)

Words: 2.4k+ (sorry 🙈)

Rating/Warnings: Mature (16+) / alcohol consumption, some swears

Disclaimer: Most of the characters as well as some dialogue belong to Pixelberry. I am merely borrowing them.

A little after 1 AM, Las Vegas

Gabe can't help but smirk at the look of mischief in Alex's eyes as they stood by a quiet spot in the middle of Las Vegas. With her in that glittery dress, he somehow can't bring himself to part from her yet.

He knew it wasn't only him who felt that tingling in his fingertips when he brushed her cheeks, her breath smelling strongly of martini. He was very aware that Alex felt the same when she stared back at him, standing at that cramped cheap chapel while an Elvis impersonator stood nearby. The moment she stepped away when he said that it's just all pretend made Gabe's heart ache with regret.

So here they were, standing awkwardly after he shot down her advances again.

But he was sure he didn't want the night to end here.

After calling for a car, he shoved his phone inside the pocket of his slacks and turned to Alex.

"I was serious when I said I wanted a celebratory drink," he glanced apologetically to his side where she stood. "Our hotel bar offers my favorite scotch."

Alex raised her head, smiling. "Knew you had it in you, Gabe."

A car ride and a couple of glasses of Lagavulin later, there they were, lounging on stools at their opulent hotel bar, warm lights and jazz music providing a backdrop on the casual atmosphere.

"And I could not believe the rat thing worked! Who would've known they kept a rat in there as a pet? Like really?" Alex raised her glass to her lips, as Gabe sat on the barstool beside her, cradling his own drink.

"Beginner's luck, I would believe," he chuckled in reply, leaning forward, tie loosened and his coat hanging at the back of his chair.

"I am so offended," Alex gasped as she shoved her hands flat on her chest in mock disbelief. "I'm not only the boring nerd when I was in high school, Gabe. I was that nerd who sang and dance at the drama club!"

Gabe shook his head, his lips pursing. "That makes so much damn sense, Alex." He took another swig of his third shot, fighting for dear life from laughing his heart out. Not wanting to give her that satisfaction, he threw a sarcastic dig at her remark. "That's so believable, seeing you could snatch an Oscar from Meryl Streep herself and the no one wouldn't even bat an eye."

"Ah, law was plan A, sir." she saluted, placing her empty glass on the bar counter. "Acting was a fallback in case it didn't pan out." she giggled.

Gabe grinned as he rolled up his sleeves, beckoning the bartender for another round. "You should have made it your plan A, seeing how you turned out," he teased, bringing up the fun bit they did to retrieve a copy of Lydia Rothswell's marriage certificate. The very same act that almost made Gabe kiss Alex in the middle of The Strip.

"Aww, Gabe, finally found a better lawyer than you? Feeling threatened yet?" Alex leaned in, snickering as their glasses were refilled. "Don't worry, I' ll settle for being a Junior Partner for now," she said as she reclined, before throwing in a playful wink.

"Well someone's head just became bigger," he gave her a smug look.

"Just trying to keep up with all the cockiness in the room," she smiled coyly, watching Gabe's stupefied expression. It was clear then that she scored a slam dunk at the championship of comebacks, laughing at his astonishment.

Gabe finally gave up, joining Alex in her laughter. As their joy receded, he let himself take in the sight of Alex without any inhibitions. What he was beginning to see was the extent of her wit, her ability to keep her cool, and the sharp humor that matched only his.

Under the warm light of the lounge, she brilliantly shone. He couldn't focus at what she was now saying as he danced at the appeal of them becoming more than colleagues. Perhaps he resisted his own feelings long enough that he was past the point of denial. Or simply because he was starting to get drunk.

Though before he can even begin to consider that, he was still sober enough to know that he first needed to tell her the truth.

The truth that sometime long ago, their paths have already crossed. And that he did something very horrible.

Call him cynical, but he wasn't kidding when he admitted he was an all-or-nothing kind of guy. And that meant laying down all his cards on the table. Because for him, Alex was more than the occasional one-night stand. And he can't be certain of how long he could keep himself from his budding feelings, all stakes be damned.

What better time to be honest when there was enough alcohol in his system to prevent all rational thinking? It's now or never, he figured.

"Alex, I -"

"Alessandra? Alessandra Keating?" a deep voice came from behind him, interrupting Gabe. He cocked his head to get a clearer view, as a man with slicked back blonde hair approached from a private booth nearby.

Without hesitation, the tall stranger in the dark suit stepped forward, his striking features Gabe would have easily recognized anywhere. That face was almost in every blockbuster movie in the last five years.

"Julian? What are you doing here?" Alex asked, as abashed as he was. Gabe saw how she clammed up the very second she recognized the man.

"Oh my, it really is you!" the man stopped beside Alex's bar stool, welcoming himself to their company. The way he was looking up and down at her made Gabe's jaw clench so hard, his teeth gritted. But the man's next movement stunned him all the more. In front of him, the man embraced Alex, making Gabe suddenly want to combust. His tumbler could've shattered if he tightened his grip on it a little more.

"Uhm, Julian, hi," Gabe surveyed Alex as she writhed within the man's arms, waiting for any signal from her so he could do something, anything, to make this man go away. But she assured him with one look, shifting a little, making the man who wedged himself between them release her.

"It's been so long! When was the last time I saw you, like, 12, 13 years ago?" the man exclaimed, his annoying smile making Gabe want to slam his fist somewhere. And it wasn't on the bar counter.

Gabe heard Alex scoff, fighting hard to regain her composure. "Yeah, high school," Her icy demeanor took over, one that Gabe only saw in the courtroom. She brushed her dress as she tilted her head to Gabe's direction.

The man turned to Gabe, the surprise evident as he acknowledged Gabe's presence behind him. The two men sized each other up sending an undercurrent of tension between them. Before Gabe could even consider acting out of impulse, Alex cleared her throat to diffuse his temper.

"Julian, this is Gabe. Gabe, this is Julian, my -"

"Ex," Julian interjected, before turning his attention to the lawyer. Apparently, this guy had a habit, Gabe observed. "We were together senior year. Alessandra, my angel, we had the best time together, didn't we? We looked good together, at least after Alex thought to improve her image here. Sadly, we had to break up. Teenage romances, you know?"

The picture couldn't be any clearer; this was the person Alex was speaking about during their dinner back in New York. And hearing the way he talked, no wonder Julian got under her skin. He was a damned manipulative pretentious liar. Gabe could hear the dishonesty between the words, not an ounce of authenticity in sight while the blonde hotshot rambled on.

Alex wasn't showing any sympathy either, her brown eyes staring daggers at him, as he went on about his monologue, emphasizing on how she was his back then. She was clearly infuriated by his attempt to own her, as well as his lack of shame. As Gabe quietly considered her reaction, he deliberated on a strategy to put her out her misery. The moment an idea came to mind, he gave Alex a subtle look asking her to back his play.

Alex nodded, sitting a little straighter. Finding the instant shift in her, Gabe made his move.

"Sweetheart," he slowly raised his voice as he said the endearment, enjoying the contempt from the other guy when he was interrupted. "You never told me Julian Wintour was your ex."

Alex smiled smugly, appearing pleased with the nickname Gabe chose, a clear pun on the whole high school sweetheart trope. "Never crossed my mind, babe. It's such an unimportant detail in my past," she waved her hand dismissively.

"Ah, nonsense," he finished his drink and gestured for the bartender to clean up. "Mr. Wintour's history would have made a good conversation starter." Gabe straightened his vest and stood, collecting his coat. He sauntered towards Alex, circling around the now speechless Julian. He draped his jacket over her shoulders, clearly making a statement before he reached for her hand, wrapping it in his.

"Why? Isn't the shiny nameplate of Senior Partner not good enough?" Alex expertly rode along, locking eyes with her former flame before gazing back at Gabe enticingly. "Forgive him, Julian. My lovely boyfriend here has a bad hobby of underselling himself," she smiled warmly, the irony of her statement eluding her ex. Gabe was about to smirk with her ingenuity, stopping when he felt her arm slowly wrapping around his waist. He barely stifled a groan at the intimacy of her touch.

The other man went beet red at the gesture. For embarrassment or infuriation or both, Gabe didn't fucking care. All he cared about was for Alex to slap this douche's face, metaphorically speaking.

"Anyway, Julian, it's been a pleasure. It's been a long night, and we're about ready to retire at our penthouse suite," steadily, she got up from her seat. The command in her was undeniable, forcing anyone to feel nothing but regret the day they decided Alessandra Keating wasn't good enough for them. Then with a flourish, she turned around as she let Gabe take her away from her past lover's scrutinizing gaze.

Inside the elevator, Gabe caught Alex's exhale of relief, probably thankful that Julian was out of her sight. Gabe still held onto her hand, though Alex didn't seem to notice. As they began their ascent, he waited for her to break the silence, deciding that the questions running in his mind can wait.

"I would have traded my rankings for the look of disbelief in Julian's face," Alex said turning to him, to which Gabe arched his brow.

He smirked devilishly, knowing Alex could take the hint. "I believe I could offer a sight better than that."

She grinned at the innuendo, further lightening up the mood between them. "One day, Gabe, I'll take you up on that," she said, crossing her legs as she leaned on the polished wall behind her. "Though I'm sure you're dying to know... How did I end up dating the Julian Wintour?"

Gabe pondered before answering. "Hmm, actually not the first one that comes to mind, no." He tapped against his temple. "I doubted you would ever bat an eyelash to his direction."

Her eyebrows rose. "Ah, you think so highly of me." She chuckled, shaking her head at his reply. "But yes, he was my ex. And yes, he was the red on my ledger. He was my first love," she admitted. "That ideal, once in a lifetime, true love everyone's talking about? Julian was it, or at least I thought he was." she sighed, glancing at her reflection on the polished metal panel beside her. "But when things started to go downhill for me, he was the first one to walk out," she paused, taking a deep breath. "By cheating on me."

Gabe's body went rigid, clenching his fists so hard until his nails dug unto his palms. What the fucking hell? I know I should have punched that guy's perfect teeth! He decided against airing his vengeful thoughts, staying quiet as he glimpsed at her image on the walls.

"Joey reminded me how Julian made me doubt myself. If I'm really over what he's done to me, if he's still in my head," she continued, rubbing at her nape. Gabe felt her gaze fall on him, which he reciprocated. "But after walking out from him tonight, I am much more certain that I made it out, after all."

Gabe felt her squeeze his hand as she said those words, and his heart somersaulted inside his chest. "So thanks. I needed that little nudge," she said in finality.

He turned to beam at her as he relished the triumph in her words, hoping that it was enough to convey that he was proud of her. And to be part of that discovery about herself, about who she always was in his eyes - someone who was his equal.

When they arrived at her floor, she gently freed her hand from his grasp invoking a sharp exhale from him. She stepped out of the elevator, her gait as undeterred as ever. But then she turned, her soft expression dimmed by the lack of light. "And while we're on the subject of appreciation," she uttered, before dropping one last revelation.

"Thanks for that save you also gave me ten years ago," Alex glanced up at him with half-lidded eyes, her words laced with meaning.

It took him a few moments before he could even comprehend what she was trying to convey. He searched her eyes for some explanation but found none. "What do you mean, Alex?" he said, managing to find his voice.

"I know exactly who you are, Gabriel Ricci."

With that, the doors slowly closed in front of him, her sly smile fading from his sight until he can only see his own reflection. He examined her last sentence, repeating the words over and over in his head. There was only one plausible explanation: she only knew half of the truth. His body sagged against the wall as he shut his eyes, angry at himself.

No Alex, I think you really don't.

Author's Notes: Thank you for your continued reading! As some of you may have already noticed, this part was written purely in Gabe's POV because I wanted to expose his conflicted feelings for Alex. It's probably my own version of revenge, with PB stretching that slow burn as much as they could 🤭 Share your thoughts in the comments, I'd really appreciate it! 💖

Taglist: @adiehardfan @pixelnutrookie @starryjieun @fucking-random1 @sarcastic01lily @spookycolorpeanut @ophrookie @suitfer

@choicesficwriterscreations

It's my first time tagging a couple of folks, so please inform me if I missed including you. Also, want to be added or removed from the tag list? No problem - just let me know 😊.

#choices laws of attraction #laws of attraction #choices laws of attraction fanfiction #laws of attraction fanfiction #choices fanfiction #choices fic writers creations #fics of the week #gabe ricci x mc #gabe ricci

[bump1nthen1ght]

Waltz of the Vampire (Vampire x Reader)

Pairing: Fem!Fat!Reader/Fem!Vampire

Genre: Fantasy (Vaguely Historical/Renaissance)

Warnings: None

Word Count: 3469 words

Summary: You forcibly attend the ball of the rich family that has just moved to town, unexpectedly finding comfort with one of their daughters.

Request: Hey!! I love your writing a lot! Would you consider an elf or a vampire whatever suits your fancy with a fat fem!reader. I try hard not to hate my body but it can be really hard sometimes and I know a lot of people go through it not just plus size folks but... idk it’s my weakness and a huge comfort. Anyway I hope you have a awesome day!!!

A/N: I really loved writing this request, and after I finish Thicker than Water, I might make a part two.

Serena has been to a lot of parties. Too many, in her opinion, even over her 326-year span of life. Her matriarch, “Mother” as she is called by her and the coven, believes there is no such thing.

Every move they make is celebrated by a grand ball, invitations sent out to every available person. Mother claims it’s the best way for them to fit in, to hide in the crowd rather than the shadows.

Serena understands this, she’s seen it work wonder for their reputation time and time again, but she still does not like them.

Tonight is especially dreadful, a bad hunt the day before and a quick spat with her “brother” enough to sour the whole get together. Serena spends most of the night eluding suitors and dance partners, embracing a mysterious persona so she can enjoy some alone-time.

As she looks around at the dance floor, Serena concludes that she is not a fan of the new fashion statements of this era. A bit too strict, too formal, with precise lacings and starchy hoop skirts. It makes the dance floor too stuffy in her opinion, no room to twirl your fabric or move your limbs.

She sips on her special red wine, eye’s lazily perusing the hall for her siblings, hoping to gain some company, when she spots you. Selena is brought to a pause, mid-drink, as your embroidered skirt glimmers, catching the light as you twirl it across the room. Her eyes widen, determination peaked when she notices you don’t have a partner.

How beautiful.

----------

Oooh, I love this song.

You hum, unconsciously bouncing from side to side as your favorite piano piece begins to play. It’s a piece you have on your list to learn in the future, bubbly and cheerful with a bumpy melody and the option for a fun violin accompaniment.

The energy of the music quickly translates to the dance floor, where couple’s begin to giggle and improvise amidst the strict waltz and counted-steps. It’s a shame that it’s such a good piece because for the first time of the night, you really wish someone would ask you to dance.

When the news the MacArthur’s were throwing a huge welcoming ball had reached your household, your mother quickly began throwing together preparations for you to attend. You had sighed, set your feet in a preemptive ice bath, and ready for another boring night.

As a former socialite herself, from girlhood you were forced to attend party after party. While it had done as intended and transformed your sister into a perfect lady, it had the opposite effect on you. The stiffness of the hoop skirts, the suits, and all the damn people always stuffed up your throat and flushed your face. With your sister as the shining star, it was easy for you to slip into the shadows, and avoid the preening of your mother’s etiquette lessons.

Now, as a growing woman with more and more free-time, you used all of your abilities to avoid huge social gatherings. You found your place amongst small gatherings with local friends, sneaking wine from the cellar and telling stories in the freezing cold around a fire

But as the music increases it’s tempo, with flourishing skirts and plenty of laughter, you can’t help but lose yourself in the joviality of the gathering. The fancy dresses, the even fancier alcohol, and the decadent ballroom had you wondering if you had been missing out a bit.

If only Margaret and Min-Young were here, now that would be a party.

You giggle into your champagne, heels still tapping against the hardwood and hand slightly tossing your skirt back and forth. You easily fall back into your reclusive corner to avoid embarrassing eyes who may glance upon your solitude. But a tiny yelp escapes you when your heel accidentally digs into a foot. You whip around, faced already flushed red with embarrassment.

“Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry! I didn’t look where...I was…”

Behind you, dressed in a dark purple satin gown, is Serena Macarthur herself. She stands a solid two heads above you, hair done up in an immaculate up do and two shimmering ruby earrings dangling from her ears. Her face is serene, lips curled up in a bit of a smirk. You quickly jerk away and give a half-decent curtsy, noticing her beautiful black dancing shoes which you just stomped on. “I apologize, Miss Macarthur, I can’t believe I acted so foolishly. I didn’t realize-”

“Oh, there is no need to worry darling. I’m alright, no harm done.” She says, her voice low and musical, almost like a thrumming bass line. Her gloved hand is placed on your shoulder, the other slides up your neck and tilts up your chin to meet her eye line.

My god, she is stunning.

Her eyes are a color you’ve never seen before, not dissimilar to the sharp gemstones in her earrings. Serena’s makeup, simple yet sharp, does everything to accentuate the cardinal-red of her irises. You can feel the simmering blush heating up your skin as she continues to stare. “I was actually coming this way to speak to you, flower. It’s my fault really, for sneaking up on you.”

You shake your hands, nearly spilling over the champagne in your glass. “Oh no, it’s no problem. Like you said, no harm done”. You force a giggle, hastily taking a sip of your champagne. “May I ask what you wished to speak of?”

Serena smiles, a smirk which is just as sharp as the rest of her, though her eyes betray no slyness or ill-will. “I was going to enquire about your dress. I noticed it from across the room and was stunned by how enchanting it is.”

“Oh! Well, thank you very much.” You blush, unconsciously rubbing your finger over the embroidered flowers on the skirt. “I actually-”

“Whoops!”

In less than a second, you find yourself right next to Serena, as a drunk dancer trips and spills his drink all over the floor. You blink, brain not even fully processing what just happened, as you notice Serena’s arm on your elbow and the red wine splattered where you stood just moments ago.

Did she move me? But when-how did she-

“Sorry! Sorry about that.” The man slurs, sheepishly scratching the back of his head. His partner, a distressed young woman, grabs his elbow and forces him to stand straight. “Guess I’ve had too much.” His embarrassed partner chokes out a laugh as he continues to sway.

“Yes, it seems you have. Make sure to fix that, soon.”

Serena’s tone is barely above talking volume, but holds a command like a powerful shout, Both of the dancers jerk with surprise, furiously bowing as the female drags the man out of the hall.

Serena sighs, rubbing her forehead with exasperation. She turns toward you, smiles back on her face.

“Would you like to take this to the garden? Seems the party is getting a bit too rowdy for good conversation.”

You nod, still a bit befuddled by Serena’s quick mood change and even quicker reflexes. But you link elbows when she holds hers up in invitation nonetheless, following her outside.

---------

The Macarthur estate is beautiful, as expected, and the garden fits that image to a T. Even in the moonlight you can see the finely cultivated roses bushes which decorate it, along with the gleaming marble fountain and sitting space under an ornately decorated gazebo. The two of your heels click along the paved path as you walk towards the center, your half-empty drink still in hand.

“You were sadly interrupted, but you were mentioning something about the dress?”

You nod, taking another long sip of your champagne, hoping a little alcohol may temper your thoughts.

“Yes, I was just going to say that I made it myself.” Serena’s eyes grow wide, eyes darting up and down your attire, and you feel yourself fluster. “It’s a tradition in my family, you see. My great-great-grandmother was very diligent when it came to teaching her kids how to sew, even the boys, and it became such an insisted upon skill that all her children ended up making their own evening clothing for special occasions. It ended up filtering down that every child makes one special outfit themselves, for what occasion it doesn’t particularly matter, but something thatt is uniquely you.” You pull up the end of your skirt, pointing out the flower pattern. “I’ve always had a fondness for gardening, so I tried to incorporate that into my dress. Plus,” You smooth out your skirt, “Most party dresses I’ve found are a bit too restrictive for my tastes, I wanted something I could really get into some fun with, y’know?” You force a giggle, immediately wondering if that comment was a bit too salacious for high-society talk. Serena simply smirks, letting out a low chuckle of her own.

“I wholeheartedly agree. May I take a closer look?” She gestures to your skirt and you hastily nod. The two of you take a seat by the fountain, Serena’s glove accidentally brushing against your calf as she picks up your skirt. You try and control your shiver from the simple contact. She hums admirably as she runs along your work. “Such incredibly done Sunflowers, the detail you put in is astounding. And these are forget-me-nots, correct?”

“Oh yes, those are my favorite kind.” Serena’s hands continue to run along the linework, following the bumps and dips of each flower petal. “As you can see I had trouble with the lavender, what with the petals being so small.” Serena shakes her head, a fond smile on her face. She looks up at you, forcing you to hastily act as if you weren’t admiring her face.

“The work you put in makes them twice as beautiful, mistakes be damned.” You blush even harder, throwing your hand and taking a final sip of your champagne.

“Thank you very much, but I have a long way to go.”

Serena’s hand hasn’t left your skirt, now resting on her lap as she continues to look at you. You swallow the last droplets of champagne down your throat, trying to fill the silence.

“The band is incredible, did you hire them locally?” You stutter, setting down your glass. Serena continues to fiddle with your skirt.

“Some of them, yes, but the violinist is actually my older sister, Marigold.”

“Wow! Make sure to give her my compliments, she’s very talented.” Serena nods, before her eyes dart down your toes. As the music echoes out of the hall and into the garden, you had unconsciously begun to tap your toes to the beat. When she glances at you, she can see your head slightly bobbing, a content look painting your face. A small smile forces one on to hers.

How cute. She internally sighs, noting how soft the skin of your cheek looks, the nice curve of your jaw, and your adorable noise. The pulsing blood which would run down your throat, the crimson looking devine against your exposed collarbone and dripping below your breast line.

She stands up abruptly, forcing those evocative thoughts out of her mind. You were quite cute and good company, someone Serena would like to get to know. Sometimes the crossed wires of her brain confused attraction for bloodlust, mistaking the butterflies for hunger pains.. She is almost embarrassed; It was one of the common hurdles new vampires had to overcome, a bridge she thought she crossed years ago

You startle, looking up at her with innocent doe eyes. Serena holds out her hand, ignoring how she can hear your steady pulse, unintentionally matching the beat of the music.

“May I have this dance, fair lady?” She almost whispers, bowing slightly.

Your face flushes, nodding without a word, and slipping your bare hand into her glove.

Serena boldly grabs your hip and presses you against her, quickly taking the lead. Your brain fervently recalls all of your formal dancing lessons, pressing your head into her chest as she takes you along.

In her arms, following her perfected steps, that slithering self-consciousness sneaks back into your brain. Your logic tries to reason with it;

You wanted to dance, but now that this beautiful woman has gladly offered her hand, you want to stop?

But your insecurities are louder, screaming about every trip and every spare touch. This close, you can feel her firm musculature through the dress, spotting the hint of her bicep as she leads you. With her dainty and elegant hand on your side, you feel twice aware of your size underneath, every imperfection concealed by your dress.

You had fallen in love with this dress when making it, but had always been hesitant to wear it. You feared that once you put it on, that beautiful picture in your mind would shatter, leaving you forlorned of what could never be. Not with you wearing it, you had thought, avoiding your own mirror as you left.

“Something on your mind, flower?”

Serena whispers into your ear, sending a shiver down your spine. Your back jerks and contorts back into position, almost stepping your foot on hers. You shake your head furiously.

“Oh no! I-I just-” You stumble, trying to find an easy excuse, but are stopped when you take a look at her face.

She’s resplendent, even up close, not a hint of makeup to be seen. But across her cheeks, slightly faded from what looks like years away from the sun, are-

“My, you have such wonderful freckles.” You murmur, without a second thought.

Unbeknownst to you, if Serena could blush, she would. But the scrunched up look of embarrassment is telling, hinting that maybe this beautiful heiress has her own things she hides away.

“W-well, thank you.” She hastily utters, eyes averting from yours. It’s uncharacteristically shy and you can’t control the giggle that escapes you.

To give her some reprieve, you take your eyes off her face and trail them around the garden. They catch on the fountain, where the contrasting colors of your dresses stand out amidst the black. In the reflection, the two of you could not look more different. Serena stands a head above you, slim-fitted dark purple dress pulled across her curves, while your bright green dress cinches at the waist, flowing out like the flower's detailed skirt. It blows and beckons with every movement, brushing occasionally against your form and showing off the contours of your body.

Damn, you think, we look hot.

Just as fickle as it’s counterpoint, confidence quickly overtakes your mind, blocking out the noise of your doubt. You hold tight to your beautiful partner, in the beautiful dress that you made, and allow the happiness of this moment to exist uninterrupted, however short it may be.

The music increases its pace, the smooth line of a saxophone bringing up the energy. With a new burst of energy, you allow yourself to improvise amidst the  strict waltz. You lift your weight off your heels and try to glide from step to step, like the fast-paced tango dancers your mother once took you to see. Serena matches your enthusiasm, gripping your waist, even lifting you a few inches off the ground when a particular chord strikes. Her fingers slightly tickle your ribs, an ecstatic giggle escaping you and you falter a misstep. Your mind almost stops, embarrassed by your stumble and that insecurity sneaking back in, but Serena follows your new tempo with grace, urging you along with improvisation.

Your bodies follow the music with abandon, ordered steps devolving into impassioned stamps and twists, Serena twirling you around as the violin and piano sing from afar. Your heart and mind are running on adrenaline. It’s like when you were little, letting out your energy in any way possible. Serena’s laughter is magical and for once you don’t detest your awkward snorts and chuckles.

As the music slows, the two of you near-tumble back into the fountain, taking a seat with heaving chests.

“Whew, I haven’t danced like that in a while!” You say, brushing a stray hair back behind your ear. Serena nods, patting her stomach as she continues to laugh.

“Me as well. I forgot how fun it could be, when you’re not counting your steps.”

“Oh good, you do that too. I always wondered how no one got dreadfully bored just saying 1-2-3 over and over.” You mutter, taking in a deep breath and patting her thigh. Your other hand drifts down to the fountain water, letting your fingertips brush across the top and inadvertently catching your reflection once more.

It’s not the most flattering angle, your shoulders slump and the water slightly distorted, and those intruding thoughts try to slip in once more.

Oh shut up, let us have this.

Your logic sighs, batting it away without another second thought.

As the two of you sit, your energy eventually begins to drift back down, your muscles slightly tired from that short burst of impact. You sneak a glance at Serena.

While her outfit is still immaculate, her updo shows the smallest signs of dishelevement, curly black hairs falling down above her ears. In a way, she’s more beautiful than ever.

“Me and some friends are actually getting together next week. The shepherd's daughter, Violet, is getting married and they are throwing a little shindig at the barn to celebrate. Do you want to come?”

Serena looks up at you, slightly surprised, face furrowed with that hidden bashfulness. But she nods nonetheless, shooting you a bright smile.

Still high off your dance, you just barely miss her large fangs, which glimmer under the moonlight.

You smile back, only startled when the large bell tower from  the center of town chimes. Your head looks towards it’s large face and back towards the moon position. You’d guess it was midnight. Seems the two of you had lost track of time while dancing.

“Well, I should probably be going.” You say, standing up and brushing off your skirt. “I do have some gardening to attend to in the morning, going to need a solid amount of sleep. But,” You say, eyes demure and locked on your toes as Serena stands up, “I had a lot of fun tonight. More than usual, I would say.” You giggle, twirling a strand of your hair. Serena hmms in agreement.

“Me as well, flower. Your company has been the highlight of my night.”

In a bold move, Serena grabs your hand and lays a kiss on the back of it. Her eyes radiate that power and certainty from before, crimson irises shining in the night. Your blush crawls its way back up your neck.

“I-I can say the same.”

The two of you stay in that position for a moment, Serena pulling away her lips but keeping a lingering hold on your hand. Your heart thrums in your chest, while hers is deathly silent. Neither of you wants to be the first to pull away.

“I-uhm.” You stumble, hand still locked in place.

Now’s as good a time as any. You suppose.

In a quick movement, your hand loosens from Serena’s grasp and you give a quick peck on her cheek. In another, you have pulled away, sprinting towards your carriage.

“I-I’ll see you Saturday!” You shout, nearly tripping over a rose bush.

Left behind in the garden stands Serena, cold hand pressed against the burning skin of her cheek. Your kiss shot through her body like a lightning strike, almost jolting her frozen-heart alight.

That night, Serena goes for a hunt. She barely takes the time to change out of her formal clothes, nearly tearing the delicate lacework of her dress. Her claws catch on her gloves and almost rip apart, her heels scuffing the floor as she kicks them off and to the side. Her undead body is thrumming with life, untapped energy that longs to get out.

Her thoughts run a mile a minute, forcibly distracted by the Grizzly bear she currently has in a choke hold. It puts up a good fight, but Serena is running off of pure bloodlust.

At least, she thinks it’s bloodlust. A deeper part of her knows it's something else; The sparking fire of something new and a little bit frightening.

The last time she was personally invited to a ball, an event, a ceremony was less than a couple months ago. When you hold a position such as hers, look like her, they are common occurrences.

But to a party? Not a politically motivated meetup, but a genuine, let your hair down, party? Well, she hadn’t been to one since she was a youngling of 150.

And for the first time in a while, she is excited.

#reader insert #monster romance #female reader #monster x reader #vampire x reader #my writing #vampire

[just-a-dumb-gay]

Hear me out.

Lady D with a competitive S/O who's just a little bit smaller than Alcina, maybe she's around 9 foot 1 or something. But, she has giant ass wings... So everytime someone brings up their height, she just puffs up her wings to intimidate said person... DANIELLA

Also maybe to impress Alcina at the same time.

Wings and wing aus are one of my favorite fucking things!!! So y'all are getting 3 things. This ask, Alcina with wings and if both Alcina and her s/o (who is also hella tall) had wings! I can't explain how excited all this makes me, thank you!!

For the sake of details lets just say their wings are magic and can appear or disappear without damaging any clothing but they have marks on their back where the wings appear from. Or they've either become perfect at altering clothes so they can wear whatever the hell they want without wings being an issue. But I'm going with magic wings because it seems a little more fun to be able to hide them!

S/o / Reader With Wings

S/o has wings that look black to the naked eye but in the right light are a deep shiny color. (Whatever matches their eyes. Brown eyed people with lighter eyes tend have slightly golden wings, and with darker eyes it can be closer to a brownish red mix)

When they first came to the castle they kept their wings hidden, they didn't want to draw any unnecessary attention

Alcina was the first person to see the marks where the wings appear when she accidentally walked in on them getting changed. But she assumed the marks were old scars and didn't say anything to avoid possibly bringing back bad memories.

Eventually once they get together she sees the marks alot more once s/o is comfortable getting changed around her. But she still doesn't ask.

One day a few months into their relationship Daniela was in a bad mood and was taking it out on everyone. Mainly s/o, being the newest person around they tend to get the most mocking.

S/o loses their cool and yells back at Daniela during dinner but at the same time accidentally pops out their huge wings.

Daniela, across the table, immediately shuts up as she's not quite sure what to make of the situation.

Alcina doesn't say a word, she just quietly sips her drink seemingly unfazed. But if you look close enough she's definitely impressed.

From then on any time Daniela is being a bitch s/o spreads their wings and reminds her they're pretty equal power wise and Daniela walks away mumbling curses and threats she'd never get away with following through on.

Alcina adores her s/o's wings, along with how powerful and intimidating they looks especially with them fully spread.

Alcina always wants her darling s/o to stay out the fight on the rare occasions vampire hunters stop by. And usually they watch from the balcony, wings spread and usually its enough to scare the vampire hunters away once they notice a dark winged figure watching from the shadows.

But one day a vampire hunter gets a good hit at Alcina with an axe and without a second thought for their own safety, s/o swoops in. They knock over a hunter with each wing and the one who hurt their girlfriend gets a boot straight to the face.

Daniela NEVER messes with them again after that!

Alcina With Wings

She's got huge majestic black wings and the tip of each feather is a blood like crimson colour that changes ever so slightly depending on how much blood she's had. (So darker after not feeding for a few days but more vibrant after feeding)

Each wing is almost as long as she is tall so she tends to keep them hidden because they don't fit within most halls of the castle (but there's plenty space in her room of course)

At first she keeps any knowledge of them hidden from a newbie at the castle because she's grown fond of them quickly and doesn't want to scare them.

Even when the newbie eventually becomes her s/o she still keeps them hidden. She always changes either in her bathroom or with her back away from her s/o so the marks aren't visible.

But one night s/o is the big spoon for a change because Alcina is tired after a long fight with vampire hunters. S/o notices the slightly darker shapes on her back through her thin nightgown but doesn't ask about them because its late and they're both tired.

They ask about the marks the next morning at breakfast but Alcina avoids the question because she's still afraid of scaring her s/o away.

That night more vampire hunters show up after one that got away the previous night informs his friends of what happened.

Alcina and her daughters are still tired from the previous night but have to fight anyways.

S/o is told to stay out of it but when the youngest daughter takes a hard hit they grab a sword that was hanging on the wall and jump into the fight, immediately taking out a hunter.

But s/o doesn't notice the crossbow aimed at them until it's too late. They brace for death but upon opening their eyes wondering how they're still alive they see Alcina off to their side. With a huge wing in front of them, the arrow meant for them having pierced the middle of Alcina's wing.

Between her daughter getting hurt and her s/o nearly dying Alcina is pretty pissed off and ends the other hunters within seconds.

The daughters break off to clean themselves up while Alcina wordlessly starts heading back to her room, injured wing dragging behind her. Of course her s/o follows her, with an apology for not listening and getting her hurt.

S/o helps clean up all wounds Alcina has, including the wing. They only have one question during it all and it's "Why did you keep them hidden?". Alcina then quietly explains she didn't want to scare them off since dating a vampire was definitely already unusual.

From then on s/o loves whenever the two of them are outside and Alcina lets her wings drag freely behind her as they walk. They also love hugs that include the wings. Alcina notices that there's no better way to make her s/o feel safer after a bad day or a nightmare than being in her lap wrapped in a wing or 2.

Both With Wings

Flying together. A lot, almost daily. Over the village, through the mountains and forest. Sometimes going high into the clouds and sometimes so low they skim the treetops.

Wings are great when it comes to hugs. After a long day or tough fight group hugs (this includes the daughters) on Alcinas huge bed are common (almost expected after a while). Alcina and s/o against the headboard with the 3 daughters between them covered by 2 large wings.

They're also great for intimidating people. It doesn't take much to scare hunters away when two tall figures with huge wings are stalking them in the shadows just out of sight while their daughters stand in the light just waiting for someone to make the first move.

One night s/o finds a kid, maybe a 9-10yo, lost in the woods in the middle of the night. Of course not wanting to let a child freeze to death they pick the kid up and wrap a wing around them to keep them warm as they head back to the castle.

Alcina may seem cold hearted to some, but she won't let innocent children suffer. So when s/o moves their wing to reveal a small, shivering kid in their arms her mom instincts kick in. She takes the kid and wraps them in her own wings to keep them warm while s/o grabs some clean clothes and a few blankets (which prove to be unnecessary when the kid falls asleep on Alcina and she refuses to put them down so she doesn't disturb them)

Lots of using wings to smack Daniela and sometimes the others from down the table when they're being snarky at meal times.

Cocoons. When s/o and Alcina can't be together for any reason they can both be caught cocooned in their wings pretending its a hug from the other.

#lady dimitrescu #lady dimitrescu x reader #wing au #resident evil village #resident evil 8 #asks

[simpingforthisonedeer]

Chapter 11: Sons & Daughters

SFW version here

Summary:  Holly is involving herself in things she shouldn't be, like telling the Wizard King he is doing necromancy. Aika plays matchmaker and then has tea with Lord Silva. The Captain of the Royal Guards "greets" Aika and the faceless assassin from the final battle returns. 6563 words

Notes: Heyo folks! Im back 😎 I stopped waiting for the Spade arc to finish so I’m posting now. It’s gonna be really fun from here on out cus we’re slowly easing into the plot so I can’t wait😋

Tagging: @ckjwnnbc​ @thoughtfullyrainynightmare @lyranova​ @elysianluv​

“Good Morning, Julius!” She chirped from where she was seated on her mother’s lap, completely unaware of tension.

A smile lit up his face. He was truly happy to see her again. He faintly wondered if he would get an opportunity to ask about her magic.

"Good morning, Holly! How wonderful to see you again! Are you here to spend the day with your mother?"

"No, I'm about to go to the CLK headquarters to go see Uncle Fueggy, and Leo!" He raised a brow at the name. Uncle Fueggy?

"Good morning, Julius," Aika greeted as casually as she could as her arms tightened around Holly.

His face softened when he looked up at her. She felt her face heat up under his gaze. It always seemed like he was looking through her.

"Good morning, Aika." His low voice raised goosebumps on the nape of her neck. "I just wanted to inform you that I will be touring the bases and will hold a conference with the Captains. I was wondering if you would like to accompany me? It would be a simple way to come out of the shadows as well, now that your amulet is gone," he explained, his voice the epitome of neutral.

She ushered Holly off of her lap and stood up as she clasped her cloak pin, slight regret crossing her face,

"I’m sorry, Julius. I have to go settle a territorial dispute between the city-states Roma and Amor." While it wasn't necessary to provide details, her Uncle recommended that she tell him minor details of her company to encourage Julius to trust her more about his own work.

She had only noticed after Master Raymond pointed it out but Julius may tend to seem casual and open but that was just part of his charm. He asked a lot of questions but rarely ever revealed any details about himself but most people don't notice it because he was so charismatic.

"What does that territorial dispute have to do with you?" Holly grumbled as she crossed her arms. She wanted her mom to come visit Fuegoleon instead. It’s a big achievement becoming captain! It’s like becoming a general.

Aika layed a gloved hand on her head as a small smile crept up her face.

"My company owns a big part of the land they're fighting over so it's a matter of who I will be paying the taxes to." Holly was always very aware of her mother's work and it was all so fascinating. She was glad she explained this stuff to her in a way she could understand. She hated not knowing things.

Aika looked up and addressed Julius again who was listening in interest.

"Then, I would have to have tea with Lord Silva, and hopefully finish that before I have to go introduce myself again to the Royal Guard who take lessons from me once a week. They don't remember me because of the amulet I used to have."

"Oh! I've heard about some faceless teacher giving lessons to the Royal Guard from Master Raymond." Julius touched his chin thoughtfully. "He told me it was you...It was the amulet you were wearing right? Would they even remember your lessons if they couldn't remember your face?"

"Yes, and of course. They only don't remember the identity of their teacher." She tilted her head when she noticed the time. "I must be going now," she announced as she pulled out her communicator. “I will talk to you more when I return.” Aika brought the device up to her mouth. "Ellie, to Roma please." A portal opened up next to her. "I'll see you later, Julius. And Holly," she gave her a stern look. "Behave yourself. Don't bother Fuegoleon too much, okay?” She sighed. It was his first day as Captain but he permitted Holly to come visit him anyway. She worries how much he showed favoritism towards Holly. “And no mischief,” she added.

Holly nodded somberly, suppressing a grin. It was perfect that Julius had walked in when he did. While it wasn't necessarily mischief, she needed to inform him of something that may be considered a bother in her mom's books. She may not exactly like him yet, but this was important. It was her very first, very real mission.

"Yes, mom. I love you!" She blushed when her mom gave her one of her infamous headpats. "Be safe!"

Aika smiled down at her daughter. "Of course." She nodded at Julius who winked at her in response. She blushed as she shook her head and ported away. 

"Julius?" Holly called seriously, her face turned away from him. He briefly feared that that wink may have been too much in front of her.

"Yes, Holly?"

"Are you going to the Crimson Lions Headquarters first?"

He raised a brow.

"Yes. How did you know that?"

She turned around with a mischievous grin.

"It's the closest base to the capital, so logically you would go there first."

"Wow!" He didn't expect deductive reasoning from a 10-year-old.

She smiled proudly.

"So, could I come with you? I'm going there too and I want to tell you something."

That piqued his curiosity. She had something to tell him?

"That mark you and mom are wearing on your forehead." She tapped her forehead. "Do you know what that is?"

Julius stilled at her words. Should he even be talking about this?

"It's a mark from a magic item," he answered cautiously.

"Yeah, I overheard. But do you know what the rune actually means or represents?"

"Er, no?" Where was she going with this?

"Well, the Nordic runes, the Hebrew alphabet and the Star of David are derived from the six-rayed star."

He quirked his brow again. He never knew that and it was fascinating information that he could delve into. But why did she sound so serious?

"The top part of the Tree of Life, also known as the Tree of Sephiroth or Sephirah is also derived from the same rune."

Julius's eyes widened. The elves who used to live near Hage worshipped the emanations in the Tree of Sephirah. Was the Swallowtail their relic? But the first Wizard King had a log of how he invented it so was it inspired by the elves?

"Any magic related to the Sephirah is life magic, used in resurrection, necromancy, reincarnation etcetera etcetera. It's forbidden magic."

Chills swept through him. Oh. Now that she put it that way, that was exactly what he was doing wasn't he? He reasoned that it was so that he could revive himself but that was technically necromancy, wasn't it?

"Mana and life essence are one and the same and you are storing your mana in it right? So that means you are storing your life energy," Holly narrowed her eyes at him in suspicion. "And also, there are elves in other countries who might find it a great offence that you are wearing Sephira's mark, especially when you don't worship it." She looked pointedly at the cross he wore.

"How do you know all of this?" He asked as he mirrored her suspicious gaze.

"My mom's old teacher, who is now my teacher, is an elf and a High Priest of Sephirah. He told me. He knows a lot about the divinity part of forbidden magic. And in order to learn about the light, you need to know the dark so yeah, he knows about all of this." She walked past him towards the door leading to his office. "But please don't tell my mom I know because she doesn't want me learning about the darker parts of forbidden magic yet."

He followed Holly into his office, thinking about how surreal this all was. A ten-year-old was just casually telling him off about necromancy and religion.

"Then why are you telling me this?"

"Because the Triad in the Spade kingdom and their Devils would target this kingdom more aggressively if they knew that someone was bearing the mark that represented the antithe—" She wrestled with the word. "Antithesis to them." She raised her arms defensively. "I'm just telling you what my teacher told me." He was a prophet for Sephirah. Someone who had also achieved Enlightenment, which granted him the ability to bear the Image of God, Imago Dei, and not go blind or insane. He and the other Enlightened Ones would receive direct orders or visions from God that they must carry out. He told her that she needed to tell Julius Novachrono that he must be wary of the mark on his head. When she asked him why, he told her it was more for her sake than him but the message must be relayed nevertheless.

His words worried Holly because did that mean she must be wary of the mark too? She worshipped the sun gods which were emanations of The God so they will be merciful towards her if she made a mistake. Right? Holly wasn’t so sure.

After all, there was no law dictating that God must be fair.

Julius stared long and hard at her. That was very heavy information for a child to bear. And how did her teacher know all that information about the Spade Kingdom? Why did he want to relay it to him? He needed to think on this because there is a very real threat from Spade that could kill him and if he had no way to come back, who was going to protect Clover Kingdom? He needed to keep the mark.

"Alright." He said simply. He would think about this later. "Who's Uncle Fueggy?" He asked with a bright smile, changing the topic. A child shouldn't dwell on such things. 

Holly blushed at that question, ignoring the bizarre way his mood quickly switched up for now.

"Fuegoleon played with me a lot when I was a kid so it's a habit," she explained sheepishly.

"Oh, is your family close to the Vermillions?"

"Well—" Her mom did not want her to tell anyone about her and Mereoleona unless she said so, so she couldn't say anything. "You have to ask my mom about that."

"I see..." Julius did remember the tense looks former Captain Leonardo and Aika shared. There seemed to be some history. Well, he could ask Fuegoleon himself when he goes to their base. If Holly wanted to accompany him, he doesn’t see a reason why she shouldn’t. 

He proffered his elbow to her with a dashing smile. "Shall we go?"

Aika landed unsteadily on the study floor as she tossed her cloak and folders on the desk. Ellie followed behind her, eyes blank and wide as she just tried to process what she just witnessed.

"Are they going to be fine...?" She asked, pointing shakily at the shrinking portal behind her.

Aika leaned on her desk as she pinched the bridge of her nose, staving off an oncoming headache.

"Of course they're going to be fine. The two kings are in love with each other despite how much they fight."

"What?!”

“Yes. It is obvious to most of the officials in the room, myself included.”

“I—” Ellie sputtered in shock as Aika continued.

“Usually, I don’t play cupid but in a show of unity they were trying to impose both their taxes on me and I can’t have that. Our branch on the disputed land is a small one and it would go bankrupt if they did that. So I did the next best thing. I paid the wait staff and guards off so that they would direct the two kings to the same private lounge when they adjourned for recess and lock them for the entirety of the break.”

Ellie gaped at Aika and her crazy idea.

“They’ll either talk it out or kiss and make up.”

“...But how would that help us?”

“This plan could only work because I have a good rapport with both the kings. I proposed a plan where they could split the money from one single tax evenly between themselves. If they talked it out calmly and away from prying eyes, they would go with my plan. If they kissed and made up, their first compromise together as partners would be to go with my plan as well because they are both favorable towards me. They were only being unfair because of the tension between each other, not with me.” It was guaranteed that it would go either way. She didn’t play fair and not use her Time Magic with her own company. She could see what choices she could make that could lead to a favorable outcome for her and her company. 

She knew what investments to make, where to take risks and where to back down, but only if she could think up various solutions to her problems. If she couldn’t think of any plan, then her foresight would offer her nothing. 

She could only see if the plan that she thought up works or not but her foresight couldn’t offer her a plan itself because there technically would be thousands, if not millions, of ways any situation could play out. If she had visions of all of them at once, with the information overload, she would be dead instantly. She has to come up with a plan herself and confirm its success. It was better that way because it kept her sharp.

“What if the—er, tension between the two escalated to a physical fight?”

 Aika plopped down in her armchair with a sigh. She had thought of that as well but she didn’t need to worry about that.

“Even if they did have a fist fight, I’m not worried because those two would not go to war over personal vendettas. I think it would relieve some stress between them actually. In the end, they will calm down and end up compromising on my idea. So either way, whatever manifests in that room, hate or love, I’ve no doubt they will be coming out of it a little bruised,” she smirked as she crossed her legs.

Ellie let out a laugh at her boss’s suggestive look. Aika was relieved she could reassure her. She tended to worry too much about such things. Evan, Jayce and Ellie do not know that she used Time Magic. So they sometimes wondered how she was so sure about her decisions. After years of wondering, they just chalked it up to forbidden magic.

"Ready for round two?" She asked, referring to the tea they were about to have with Lord Silva. Ellie hummed affirmatively as she shook her head in amusement.

"I have only been as far as the gates to the Silva Mansion. Is that alright, ma'am?"

"Yes, Ellie. That is perfect." They quickly freshened up and stepped into the portal and the grand gates of a white, picturesque mansion came into view. With it's steeples, domes, and solid, white brick walls, it would be more appropriate to call it a castle. Daunting gates made of black metal framed tastefully by green vines slowly swung open when their feet touched the cobblestone.

Aika and Ellie shared a cautious look and took the first step forward together.

When they reached the burnt, spruce wood doors, Aika stared at the tacky gold eagle door knockers in exasperation. Ellie reached for them without a second thought and knocked twice, the loud noise startling Aika. The spatial mage looked at her apologetically as the doors seemingly opened by themselves to reveal the Lord of the house standing in the middle of the foyer, his back ramrod straight, hands linked behind him as an ever-present scowl eased into a bored expression in some resemblance of courtesy.

"Welcome to my home, Madam Tolliver and..." His gaze landed on Ellie. "And uninvited guest," he sneered as he took in her appearance. It was obvious that she was a commoner and even worse, a foreigner. Her big, red eyes, soft nose, and plump lips all encompassed by skin as dark as the sea stood in direct contrast to his features. The only trait they seemed to share was the snow white hair that seemed to shine with an otherworldly glow.

Aika cleared her throat when Ellie's brows furrowed to glare back at the older man.

"I hope you don't mind my maid accompanying me. She's a close associate of mine that assists me in anything I need."

Lord Silva's eyes snapped back to hers as he pursed his lips.

"She may wait in the gardens. The matters we are going to discuss are rather... delicate."

Aika turned to her and nodded permissively. There was no reason for her to stay. She could simply go back to the headquarters but the more area a spatial mage covers, the more places they could travel to, and the more valuable they would be. It would be...advantageous for her to be able to travel directly onto the Silva property if she needed to for any reason.

A servant led Ellie away while Lord Silva motioned her to follow him. She side-eyed the paintings she passed by, but one in particular made her pause mid-step. It was undoubtedly the painting of Acier Silva. It was gigantic as if to immortalize every detail on her beautiful face and the frame was grand and ornate. Lord Silva stood stock still next to her, looking up at his former wife with eyes full of utter adoration and heartache.

Aika looked away, allowing him to have his moment.

When she noticed his feet move away, she followed him, putting that little moment of vulnerability behind them.

He led her to a well-lit sitting room with big windows and a view to the gardens that was breathtaking in the afternoon sun. 

Aika faintly wondered how Holly was doing.

Another servant poured them tea and quickly left the room, leaving them in tense silence. She looked out into the garden, clearing her mind and bringing the tea to a much more lukewarm temperature with her magic.

"I apologize for my behaviour on that day," Lord Silva said evenly. She turned to him with slightly raised brows as if she had just noticed his presence. "Whether it was wanted or not, you saved me and I should be grateful to you for that."

"Should be," meaning he wasn't.

Aika looked pensively into her cup.

"Tell me, sir," She peered up at him through her lashes. "How many children do you have?"

He stared at her for a moment, lips parted, before he finally answered,

"Four."

"Have any of them struck your mind before the earth struck you?"

"Excuse me?"

She took a sip.

"I'm sure you need no repeating."

"How dare you ask me such a personal thing?!"

Lord Silva's voice raised several notches, immediately setting Aika on the edge but she restrained her tone and body language.

She quietly stared at him straight in his eyes and he scowled back, refusing to back down for a minute. When he realized she wasn't either, he wrenched his gaze away with a derisive scoff.

"You still haven't answered my question. I'm sure that's not very polite in Clover society," she added lightly. He huffed as a sneer crawled up his face.

"Neither is asking such questions."

"Think of it as payment for saving your life."

"The debt can only be fulfilled when I save you in return."

"You will never save me." Lord Silva's gaze snapped up to her's with a jolt. Blank eyes were downcast at her cup as her left cheek twitched in annoyance.

It seemed like she slipped up once more. It has been happening a lot recently. What was wrong with her?

"What?"

"I meant that you would not have an opportunity to save me." She cleared her throat. "Answer the question for me at least, as your saviour and as a mother."

He was taken aback by that.

"You are a mother?" He asked incredulously.

Aika smiled internally. Information must always be timed perfectly. She had used the truth to both change the subject and reveal a detail about her in a show of false vulnerability that would no doubt encourage him to open up a bit more.

"I am." She smiled lightly. "I have a daughter. Nearly ten."

"So do I..." Lord Silva's shoulders relaxed slightly. He wrapped his hands around the cup comfortingly as he sighed. He caved under her persistence and answered,

"No, I haven't. I haven't thought of them at all."

Aika let the silence envelop them for a moment.

“If you abandoned your children and died, how do you think Lady Acier is going to react?"

He stared at her in shock. How dare she be so casual with him?

"Whether you go to the Underworld or the After, it would be hell either way. If the father of my child died to follow me into the After, leaving our daughter, believe me, I would raise hell."

He looked away pensively when her words struck him.

“I suppose you’re right...”

And with that, Aika was done with what she came for.  She gave him something to think about and hopefully it would snowball into something better for him.

She stood up as she set her cup down.

“I’m glad we agree. I don’t believe there is much to discuss.” She clasped her hands in front of her. “I pray that your retirement is as peaceful as today’s afternoon.

“We are not done yet.”

Aika looked up with a raised brow.

“Your Uncle.” she twitched at the mention. Silva senior smirked at her as she sat down in interest.

He knew.

“Yes, Raymond told me you were his niece. He also told me about your company.”

She picked her cup up with a sigh.

“You two fooled the rest of the world into thinking that you were enemies.” She took a sip. “It seems like that is not the case.”

“We were rivals, but we are also comrades,” he retorted defensively. “But back to the point. He told me about your company, Eidolon.”

She tensed at the name. It was very rare to hear the name of her company. It was both a secret and not. It was vast and well-known but it was strange hearing a Clover citizen discuss it.

“He told me that he was allowed to recommend one person if he wished, to work for your company,” he conjured a sheet of water that materialised into a thick binder of papers. “And he recommended me to your company.” He placed it on the table in front of her. “This was the paperwork and possible contracts I could sign that he gave to me. I have no plans to sit around during my retirement. I want to join the dungeon raiders.”

Aika threw a perplexed look between the papers and the man who stared intently at her for her response.

She opened her mouth open, and snapped it shut when nothing came out. She was at loss for words.

When she asked her Uncle to maybe recommend someone in the future, she meant someone young, adaptable and full of potential. Not a recently retired Magic Knight Captain who is well known to be classist and most likely racist, and too old to learn anything new like a language or a culture.

She was so close to blurting out a rejection but she stilled her tongue. She threw up a polite smile and pretended to sift through the papers in interest.

“I will...consider it,” she finally answered tightly. Silva Senior seemed to be oblivious to her annoyance as he clapped his hands together.

“Well, that’s settled then!” He stood up with her and led her to the door with a wave of his arm.

Aika pursed her lips as he allowed her to pass him. He threw a cold look at her back. He didn’t want to spend any more time in her presence than he had to. He was stubborn but he knew how to pick and choose his battles.

“I must go pick up my maid,” she informed him as they walked in long strides, both eager to relieve themselves of each other’s company.

“Ah, yes of course. I shall show you around the gardens on the way if you don’t mind.” He really didn’t have to but he was just playing the role of a polite lord. And he played it well too. Any sign that they had a heart-to-heart was gone, replaced with brittle formality.

“Thank you, but I have another appointment and I must get to it soon.”

Aika must introduce herself to the Royal Guard, but this time, they will not forget her.

Ellie’s portal directly landed them on the training fields in Clover Castle. Aika adjusted the shoulder brace that clung to her crimson half-cloak that covered her left shoulder. Her longsword hung from her waist, ready to be drawn at a moment’s notice. She appreciated how time magic always helped her get ready quicker.

“And who might you be, porting into Clover Castle without permission?”

Aika looked up and a finger crystallizing with ice was pointed between her eyes, threatening to engulf her any second. She tilted her head to the side to stare at the owner of said finger.

It was the Captain of the Royal Guards, Sal. The rest of the guards were in various groups, exercising or sparring but they all paused to stare at her.

“Hello there, Captain,” she greeted. “You wouldn’t remember but I was the one helping you train your men and I came to reveal my face today.”

Sal raised a brow.

“Is that so?”

He brought his sword up and down in an axe cut where her exposed shoulder was at an unprecedented speed. But Aike blocked it with a dagger she reflexively drew from her forearm where it was strapped.

“Attacking without a warning,” she drawled. “How rude.”

Sal grinned at her.

“No real fight has a countdown.”

She pushed his sword away from her face as he slackened. She took this moment to tie her hair at the nape with a ribbon and drew her sword.

“I see that you wish to test me.”

“Well, Master Raymond did say something about forgetting someone before he left, but I didn’t forget the way they fought.” He rolled his shoulders as his smile fell away and a sharp glint in his eyes surfaced. “Would you mind a spar?”

Aika sighed heavily. Sal wasn’t the one for chit chat, always got to the point in an almost rude fashion. She will make this quick, just as he would prefer it.

“On your mark.”

He threw himself forward with his ice magic propelling his feet and clanged his sword against hers. While Aika pushed with her sword hand and shoulder, she wrapped her other hand around the hilt of his sword where he attached his hand to it with ice so it wouldn’t slip off and she crushed it so the ice encasing it broke.

Sal’s eyes went wide and with the element of surprise, she twisted the sword out of his slippery hand and threw it to the side, far from his reach. 

He launched himself upwards with a tall pillar of ice before she could attack him but she laid a hand on it and melted the pillar with her time magic and it instantaneously turned to water. She pretended she had water magic and this just helped solidify that lie.

When he dropped and rolled, Aika quickly moved to kick him to the side mid-roll but he grabbed her ankle and knee and tripped her onto her side. She threw her sword away as she fell and waited for Sal to come close. He tried to pick her up by the leg but she used the momentum to wrap her legs around his thick neck and she squeezed hard .

She rocked forward and backwards as he choked and he toppled face first but he braced himself with his arms. Aika used this opportunity to reach back and grab his ankles and wrenched them backwards so he couldn’t use his legs.

The leg lock around Sal’s neck slackened and so he inserted his hand between her calves and made a tube of ice that forced her legs apart, freeing him from the chokehold. Aika broke away from the ice clinging to her pants and shifted her hips to straddle his back and grabbed his arm and forced it behind him.

“Give up,” she finally said. Sal struggled in her grip and tried to use his musculature to overpower her strength but it was no use. Aika had always had an abnormal amount of physical strength.

He stopped struggling and tapped the ground twice with his free hand.

“I surrender!” His voice strained.

And just like that, she rolled off of his back and offered a hand to him. Sal took the proffered hand and stood up as he rolled his neck with a grimace.

“That grip was not expected at all. What do they even feed you?” He asked as he scratched his beard.

“Same thing as they feed you. I just don’t have a tendency to flex my muscles like you men,” she said lightly as she covered her smile with her hand. Sal was often funny when he wasn’t terrifying his guards to do their job right. Talking to him was always fun and she would be lying if she said she wasn’t happy that she finally got to talk to him as herself and not some faceless cryptid who whooped the guards asses once a week.

“No shit.” The gathered crowd moved closer to listen to the exchange. “You’re covered from head to toe like a nun!”

Aika let out a laugh.

“Far from it actually!”

He leaned in as if to tell her a secret but whispered loudly, “But I would be lying if I said anyone in this castle is a saint.” He thought for a moment. “Well, except maybe the new Wizard King. Met him earlier today. He was really nice and young. Didn’t seem to be ruffled by too much and was full of boundless energy like a puppy.”

Her mind couldn’t help but conjure up images and memories. A wide smile framed by little dimples that kept her distracted. The passionate way he discussed magic without an end. A soft, content look that he would give her when she added onto his rants.

Aika felt her ears burn up. This infatuation was too much. She was not a schoolgirl yet there she was blushing like one.

“Yes, he is like that a lot.”

“Oh, you know him personally?”

She sighed as she let a smile take over her.

“Something like that.”

“Oh.” Sal smirked. “I see.” He cleared his throat. “Well, Madam Tolliver, wasn’t it? My name is Sal, Captain Sal.” He offered a hand for her to shake. “But I’m sure you knew that.”

“I did, and you seem to know mine as well.”

“Master Raymond made sure to brief the entirety of the Castle staff on many things after the final battle.” She nodded in understanding. Sal motioned at the crowd of guards who were speaking in low voices.

“Well, do you have anything to teach or train us for today? We can catch up over drinks later.”

Aika crossed her arms and scanned her surroundings. She recognized some of the faces among the crowd and Evan and Jayce gave her a thumbs up when she spotted them. Ellie moved to lean on the castle wall where the shadows provided reprieve from the afternoon sun. Sal had a mischievous smile that only served to increase the dread among the guards. The rooms overlooking the training grounds were some libraries, conference rooms and some lounges for the Wizard King to use.

Aika took a deep breath. It was hard not being anonymous. She couldn’t just rely on people to forget the things she will say or do in the future now. She had to watch herself in the future or consequences will follow her.

“Last time, some of them mentioned wanting to practice offense and defense because we practiced intelligence gathering last time so I suppose that?”

She looked to Sal for approval.

“Yes, that sounds good. I’ll keep watch.”

He still had that smile on his face and she wasn’t sure why.

“Okay, everyone!” She raised her voice to catch people’s attention. “My name is Aika. You may call me Miss Aika. I was the teacher who had been training you all alongside Captain Sal when Master Raymond was still Wizard King.” The crowd began to murmur amongst themselves at her words. “That being said, we’re going to be practicing offense and defense today.”

Aika drew a circle around her with a sword, a meter wide, as Sal moved away to stand next to Ellie in the shade.

“Your task is very simple. You have to push me out of the circle in any way you see fit. All of you have to do this at the same time. But of course you can’t all crowd me at once because you might hurt your allies so this tests your teamwork too if you wish to work with other people.”

Someone raised their hand.

“Yes?”

“Will you be attacking us too?”

“I will attack if someone attacks me inside the circle but I will not initiate any offense yet. I will also be defending myself. Blocking, deflecting, and cutting down attacks. I may even send back one of your spells back towards you. You are all allowed to attack me however you please. But think of this exercise as a way to coordinate against one enemy so don’t all rush in at once.”

As Aika spoke, they all slowly moved to surround her at a good distance. She could see the gears shifting in their minds as a strategy formed in their heads. Unlike the Magic Knights, who can go on solo missions or in small teams, the Royal Guards must protect the castle as a one big team. These training exercises have been especially frequent the past few years because of the constant wars with Diamond and Spade kingdoms. And since King Augustus had been crowned, he had been especially insistent on everyone being able to protect him.

“I am ready when you are.”

They didn’t even give her a moment to breathe. Everyone on the front line shot their long-ranged spells at her. All the trajectories were different. Some were straight and some were arching over her so it was difficult to simply just jump and let them collide but she had no other option.

Aika jumped high and tried to make it seem natural when she weaved through the ones still in the air and took this moment to see where the next attack was coming from. Close-range fighters readied themselves to ambush her, no doubt going to use the smoke of the spells that exploded below her to their advantage. Her position is set in that little circle so there’s no uncertainty as to where she will be.

When she landed on her feet, amidst the dense smoke, three people leapt towards her, wielding various weapons. Her objective was not only to push them aside but to knock them out or else they will keep coming back. One woman with a spike-less morningstar swung at her but Aika subtly slowed down the force and when another attacker lunged at her back, she sidestepped and sped up his speed and he was smacked right in the shoulder by the woman. She froze in shock at how she accidentally injured her ally.

Aika’s circle was getting cramped so she kicked them both away and used the momentum to kick the next man right in the side of the neck. She studied enough anatomy during her college years to know that she kicked him perfectly in the vagus nerve and he was knocked out cold as his daggers slipped out of his hands.

The smoke dissipated as she rolled him out of the circle with her foot.

She tied her hair up tighter as she taunted,

“Who’s next?”

There was an immediate response.

Golems rose out of the ground, their bodies burning with the enchantments of different elements. She was briefly impressed with how quickly they infused the mana of multiple mages into them.

They all tried to swarm her but she finally drew her sword and swung in a wide arc. As they were all cut in half and the mana escaped, she drew it all to her.

Her head whipped towards a loud cheer that came somewhere from above. The distraction was dangerous but if she was being honest, she had nothing to worry about. What was the worst that could possibly happen?

Aika’s heart jumped when she saw Julius who was waving enthusiastically from a window. He must be using one of the conference rooms that was overlooking the training grounds. A familiar ginger headed man also leaned forward behind the Wizard King in confusion and was surprised to see her when he spotted her. Her heart warmed at the familiar face. It had been weeks since she had seen Fuegoleon and now he was Captain.

She waved at the both of them with her sword hand as she held the other hand up to hold the growing ball of mana. She should go congratulate him as well.

Just as she refocused her attention back to the fight on hand, a figure came lunging at her with a sword but she quickly blocked. Aika couldn’t help but feel surprised when she strained against his strength. She couldn’t see the entirety of the man’s face except for his growing grin. All her instincts seemed to awaken at once, screaming at her to move, but her skepticism and curiosity kept her still.

Then in a strange turn of events, he let the sword slip out of his hand and his other hand seemed to reach for her stomach, but curled into a tight fist and punched her right under her ribs.

For the first time in years, Aika went flying. She was slammed against the castle walls, creating a sizable crater. Her breath was knocked out of her and her head spun but a brief surge of rage quickly sobered her. She thrust her arm out as she whispered,

“Mana Zone: Mana Hands.”

A swarm of invisible hands materialized all around her and one of them quickly brought her sword to her as she picked herself off of the wall.

Aika took in the sight of her opponent who wielded enough strength to punch her that hard.

A young man whose hood covered half of his face, smirked at her as a slight young woman stood next him, wearing a familiar mask framed by flowing blonde hair that spilled out from either side of her, swaying in the wind as she held up a bow, ready to shoot.

Aika had to look twice as her eyes went wide. It seemed like a bizarre dream when the mask stared back at her. It was the same archer who broke her amulet.

Her hand curled around the hilt of her sword.

And they had some nerve coming back to face her head-on.

Notes: There's a fight scene the next chapter and we see Fuegoleon!! WOOO so I'm excited for that🥰 Also, yes, Sal already knew her because the previous Wizard King refreshed his memory in detail but he was just messing around with Aika LMAO

#black clover #julius novachrono #oc: aika tolliver #julius novachrono x reader #julius novachrono x oc #black clover julius #julius & aika #demons run #demons run fic stuff #demons run chapter 11