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#blood bounded guardian au
jeonride · 9 months
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mingi reading list / fic recs !
don't forget to like + reblog fics that you like to support the authors <3
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FICS ! ✧*
Counting Stars (smut, also so fucking fluffy & soft you'll get butterflies) by @min-gis
My Way (fluff, angst, suggestive, bodyguard!mingi) by @sorryimananti-romantic
We Fell in Love in August (fluff, smut, brother's bestfriend!mingi) by @mingigoo
The Library Illusion: The Temple Guardian (smut, fantasy, naga!mingi) by @kwanisms
Inked Up (tattoo artist au, smut) by @huihuiheart
Nothing Compares To You (smut, fluff, established relationship) by @noramoons
Slow Down (smut, established relationship) by @strawberryya
Thique (smut, fluff) by @gojosnympho
Numb My Pain (smut, friends to lovers) by @yeonjuns-beanie
Bound In Blood (smut, angst, fated lovers au, vampire!mingi) by @nateezfics
Grant Me The Light (smut, angst, a lil' fluff, dystopian au) by @mingiswow
Skinny Dipping (smut, fluff, gentle dom!mingi) by @byuntrash101
For Me (smut, fluff, angst, sugar daddy au) by @hwanchaesong
Late Night (smut, fluff) @binniesbobastay
Sexual Feeling (smut) by @robyn-core
Jealous (2/2) (smut) by @cyberpxnk
Such A Tease (smut) by @call-me-bha
See Me After Class (angst, smut) by @ateezreactionsandscenarios
Use Me (smut, angst) by @hwaightme
Punishment + Dacryphilia (smut) by @hongism
Sour (smut, angst. with continual parts and different endings) by @itsbeeble
Kinkuary 21 (smut) by @kwanisms
DRABBLES / SCENARIOS ! ✧*
written by @min-gis :
i've never felt alone with you (smut but also so fucking fluffy & soft i got butterflies)
12.27 am (smut, fluff!)
written by @mimgi :
and you're here (smut but also so fluffy i'm cryin) by
pretty please (smut, fluffy!)
wedding buddies (smut, fluff, fake dating au) by @idyllic-ghost
rainy morning (smut, established relationship, soft dom! mingi) @nateezfics
7.36 (smut, fluff) by @riboism
make up sex (smut, fluff) by @nateezfics
somnophilia (smut, lil' fluff?? ig) by @hanjisungs-bigtittyg0thgf
written by @ateezreactionsandscenarios :
thigh riding (smut, soft dom!mingi i'm cryin bc of how soft he speaks)
orgasm control (smut)
fingering (smut)
you're blushing (fluff) by @biaswreckingfics
written by @danihow :
fix you (fluff, simping, reader is mingis's spouse)
24 to 25 (fluff, dad!mingi)
face time (smut) by @byuntrash101
sleep habits (smut) by @cas-skz
the night doesn't belong to god (smut) by @straykids-97
obsession (perv!mingi) by @cybrsan
00.12 (smut, in which mingi wanted fem!reader to sit on his face) by @kwanisms
ungodly hour (smut) by @nabis-dreamscape-world
hard thoughts (smut) by @ateez-melody
22.36 (smut, fluff) by @star1117-archives
the star (smut, professor!mingi) by @flowerboykun
good morning (smut, fluff) by @mingisval
sixty-nine (smut) by @ocean-ai
written by @last-words-ofashootingstar :
sweet dreams (smut, sub!mingi)
don't make me beg (smut, sub!mingi)
use it (smut) by @a-soft-hornytiny
written by @ateezscupid :
random thoughts (smut, soft dom!mingi)
seductive (fluff, smut, crackhead energy)
hard hours : mingi eating you out (smut) by @soobberries
hard thoughts : kiss me thru the phone (smut, fluff) by @kpopscruggles
cold coffee (smut) by @cyberpunkhwx
stop staring (fluff) by @blu-joons
dom!mingi x innocent!reader (suggestive) @/sluttywonwoo
choco ice cream (fluff) by @/woosluv
caramel popcorn (fluff, bestfriends to lovers) by @/leejungchans
model student (fluff, tutored!mingi) by @/itgetsquiet
"don't read that, the lyrics aren't ready yet" (fluff) by @/imaginidol
sick (fluff) by @/lovelyjaem
thoughts on mingi : fucking you for the first time (nsfw, fluffy) by @/minranghae
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enhaeven · 4 months
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disclaimer: these are all fiction and do not reflect the members personally. please don’t repost them or copy any of my ideas :)
important note: not all of my wips are here (for a lot of reasons) and these are subject to change depending on inspo :)
⇠ back to navigation 
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STATUS KEY ⇣
☆ — planning | ✎ — writing | ⟳ — editing 
legend: m - mature, f - fluff, a - angst
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・❥・ 이희승 ; LEE HEESEUNG
⟶ 1:10AM (m, a)
     ⇥ [fuck buddies, college!au, holiday!au?]
↳  « the last thing you expect in welcoming the New Year is for Heeseung to remind you that he's still the best fuck you've ever had »
・❥・ 박종성 ; PARK JAY
⟶ ✎ Positions (m, f, a) ⇥ (??k)
     ⇥ [college!au, roommate!au, fake dating]
↳  « how hard could it be for jay to have you as a roommate when you've done nothing but give him headaches. oh, even better when his mother thinks you’re his girlfriend »
・❥・ 심재윤 ; SIM JAKE
⟶ ☆ If You Fall (f, slight angst?)
     ⇥ [college!au, fall!au, best friends to lovers]
          ― PART OF THE FREE FALL SERIES
↳  « you've been missing your best friend more than you expected but Jake just thinks that you needed space after your recent breakup. truth is, you just didn't know how to admit his role in making it inevitable »
・❥・ 박성훈 ; PARK SUNGHOON
⟶ Look Closely (m) ⇥ (4k)
     ⇥ [situationship?!au, gala!au, college!au]
↳  « you've been spending a lot of time with Sunghoon lately so he's not entirely pleased when you showed up with a date after refusing his offer »
・❥・ 김선우 ; KIM SUNOO
⟶ ☆ Spirit Bound (f, a)
     ⇥ [urban fantasy, vampire academy!au]
          ― PART OF THE INTO THE FANDOMVERSE COLLAB
↳  « when the new decree to be officially assigned before graduating became mandatory, you’ve had expectations given your consistent top ranking as a guardian novice throughout your high school career. but what you didn’t expect was to be paired with a non-royal vampire and an undeclared magic user at that »
・❥・ 양정원 ; YANG JUNGWON
⟶ Polaroid Love (f) ⇥ (1.5k)
     ⇥ [high school!au, classmates to lovers?]
↳  « wherein a series of polaroid pictures may be helping you realize your feelings towards jungwon »
・❥・ 西村 力 ; NISHIMURA RIKI
⟶ ☆ Under The Moonlight (f, a)
     ⇥ [harvest festival!au, rivals to lovers]
          ― PART OF THE FREE FALL SERIES
↳  « never in your life have you thought of being paired with your ultimate rival until he surprisingly seemed interested in working with you — but only because his graduation was on the line »
'*•.¸♡ OT7 TEXTS ♡¸.•*' (REQUESTS OPEN!)
⇢ best friend?enha during last minute school shopping
⇢ vampire!roommate enha and their blood bag crisis
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© 𝐞𝐧𝐡𝐚𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒. 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐝.
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wixelt · 27 days
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Hermitphibia AU.
Tango has the passive ability to choose to teleport to Skizz whenever he senses Skizz doing something sort of stupid unintentionally.
The origin of this ability's irrelevant, though speculation ranges from some sort of blood pact to Impulse having arranged a spell when Skizz joined the Hermits to make sure his best friend had someone watching his back.
No matter the truth, both Skizz & Tango have always been jokingly coy about the specifics with other Hermits.
What's clear, though, is that over time as Skizz learnt more & more of the unspoken "rules", that little itch in the back of Tango's mind spiked less & less often, til Skizz needing to be mildly sassed became a rarity, & Tango would instead just trek over to his base more often than not to sass him anyway.
One of the first things Tango does on arriving in Amphibia - isolated from every other Hermit - is reach for that connection, & he finds nothing, even as he sits and waits for a spike. Naturally, if Skizz is as lost & confused as he is right now, there's bound to be an itch sooner or later. And even once he snaps back afterward, he'll know where Skizz is so they can regroup.
But no matter how long he waits, the itch - that mental tug - never comes.
Not during all the time he spends on his own.
Not after he reunites with other Hermits in Newtopia.
Not even when he helps Zed summon Impulse and the pair suggest things he's already tried to bridge the link.
And then Tango notes that many other Hermits' esoteric abilities are either weakened or outright suppressed by some unknown force, & it clicks for him why he can't reach Skizz.
So, reluctantly, Tango mentally shelves the itch & the present members of ZITS resolve to find their missing man another way.
Fast forward a while, & there's srill no luck. Unlike other Hermits, there's been no evidence of where Skizz is.
Understandably, everyone's feeling a little hopeless on that front.
And then, for the first time, Tango happens to be present when Anne's then still largely unstudied calamity powers flare for a moment.
To the outside, it appears as if Tango's eyes widen in shock for a second before the guy just blinks out of existence entirely.
Inside his mind, Tango feels several months of undelivered misteps & panics bombard his thoughts all at once, finally allowed through a tiny gap in the Guardian's lockout. Without hesitating, he reaches for his friend...
Several moments later, Anne's flare up passes & Tango reappears, his face suddenly set with determination.
"I know where Skizz is."
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mayullla · 1 year
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Title: Flowers and Shells
[ - Cottage (Fem!reader) + Lily (Platonic yandere) + Ayato (Genshin Impact) + Chocolate brownie (Mermaid/siren au) - ] - Anon's Ask
Summary: Fairytale au: The little mermaid; Ayato lost his sister who chose to die instead of hurt her true love, in anger Ayato wanted revenge and found you.
Additional warnings/tags: child!reader, manipulation, kidnapping, dark/obsessive themes, unhealthy coping mechanisms, tell me if there is anything I missed
[ - Fairytale Picnic Event - closed ]
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“Gasp mister you are so pretty!!” That was the first thing you said to that man in the water with a fishtail that looked as pretty as the jewel stones you saw the adults wear. He was also very pretty, with hair that reminded you of a clear blue sky and his eyes reminding you of a particular blue jewel.
Young, your guardian had told you many stories. Some stories of the fairies and magic but you always found the books that talked about mermaids the most fascinating. You would always beg your nanny to read you the little mermaid before you sleep as if you would never be able to sleep without even hearing the first page of the story.
Your nanny told you that mermaids were real and even if the people around you didn't believe it. You believed it!
“Hello, child.” The man smiled, chuckling as you watched his tail move under the water. “Careful now you could get fall if you lean too far into the water.”
You didn't listen, you continued to look at him in awe and fascination.
“Pretttyyy~”
"What is your name merman!" You asked at one point playing with the shells and pearls that Ayato had in his pouch. He hummed as he played with your hair adding the shells one by one so prettily placed.
"My name is Ayato, young one."
"A pretty name!" You said laughing cheerfully at him. He became your friend, when you were lonely you would go to the cave where you first meet him and wait for a little. Ayato would always come after a few minutes holding something from the ocean your small hands could not reach.
He was your friend, but he wanted your neck.
Ayato wanted revenge, he wanted revenge toward the humans that took his little sister away from the waters.
Ayaka was a child of pure heart, with such a loving and caring personality she was a treasure to the ocean kingdom loved by everyone. Yet even so Ayaka craved the world outside her reach, the place of land.
She fell in love with a boy from the outside world, a boy that she saved from a shipwreck from the storms and waves. She sacrificed her own voice in exchange for legs to be with the man she loved above ground yet that man choose to marry another instead, breaking her heart. 
After Ayato found out he tried to help his sister, telling her to crave out the boy’s heart with a magical knife and splatter the blood on her legs to become a mermaid again.
To return to the sea.
However Ayaka’s kindness and loves knows no bounds when she instead sacrificed her own life so that the boy she loved would be happy with his lover, she turned into nothing but bubbles as the sun begins to rise. Leaving instead sorrow and blind anger in her brother's heart.
He wanted revenge, he wanted to give the same pain and heartache to the man who took his sister away from him. Even after years he waited, he had his people, the more stealthy of his subordinates head to the surface and gather intel and from there he found you.
You were a daughter of that man too young and naive to understand what was going on, but cheerful and curious when you meet him.
There were many times, many times that you were so close to your own death. You were just a young girl after all, younger than Ayaka when she died Ayato could easily grab you and drown you in the water. He chooses not to tho, for his aim was your dear father.
He wanted him to suffer even more.
Yet here he was holding you in his arms as you brought a basket full of flowers to make a flower crown, they were flowers that Ayato have never seen fresh only in books did he see them or the old flowers that somehow managed to get into the water one way or another by the time it was in his hands they were brown and rotting.
“This is for Ayato! I made it just for you!” you said cheerfully, holding out to him a flower crown pretty in your hands. "Thank you." He smiled as he glanced at the flower.
He was sure that if he would take this flower with him, it would not survive the waters and instead wither. It was weak, a delicate beauty yet so weak. It was funny how it reminded him of you.
Yet he let you place the flower crown on his head. His hair crowed with beautiful flowers while your hair had a crown made of coral and shells.
"We match now!"
Ayato chuckled at your cuteness patting your head in affection. He could not help himself as time passed you started to carve a part of his heart. He had grown so protective of you as he once was towards Ayaka. Your innocence reminded him so much of her... he could not help it.
He wanted her back so much that sometimes he could not live. He hated when you have to leave when his mind made up scenarios where could not reach you anymore, where you were taken away from him. He was scared he would lose someone again when he is already all alone in this world.
He wondered if the ocean queen was willing to help him out a bit. So faithful to her following most of her orders. He protected the waters from dangers and avoided many.
The queen had made a few puppets in the past and placed life within them. Surely something like bringing a child from land to the waters would be simple if not Ayato knew a few who could be of help. A few secrets and a few words would be enough.
He could make a deal with the sorcerer who Ayaka made a deal with to change her tail to legs.
Ayato would take something your father so cherished just like he took Ayaka away from the world. Ayato's hands tightened around your small wrist, flinching in pain you looked up confused.
"What is the matter Ayato?" You asked yet Ayato just shook his head.
Placing you on his lap he let you play with his arm, you were always so fond of the iridescent scales of his so he always let you touch them when he wants to keep you in his arms.
He will take you that your father treasures most.
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Springdad AU Headcanons Up For Grabs
Why? Because I can? Credit for the AU to @skeletoninthemelonland as per usual! While trying to figure out how my OC would fit into this universe my love of worldbuilding got in the way… So these headcanons may not even be accurate or confirmed by the AU’s original creator. They are just ideas I’m throwing at the wall.
General Headcanons
For some reason, (cough cough this mysterious hunter character cough cough) I suspect there is a dark history of how humans treated these sapient humanoid animals in the past.
Perhaps hunting them used to be a lot more common? Perhaps they were sold to rich humans or circuses once upon a time? (I am talking like a hundred or so years ago, here…)
I imagine the two groups coexisting or having blended families is relatively new in society at large, only happening in the last century. Maybe some on both sides are still hesitant about it or outright against it.
Not to get too political, but I can see their being a lot of bigotry around it in cities at least. The rural areas were likely founded by the sapient humanoid animals, so they would be more tolerant.
Orphanages end up with a lot more orphans like Evan and Micheal than they do human orphans for this reason. There is still a lot of shady stuff happening underground that these kids end up being rescued from.
On a more positive note, I imagine these blended families are the best sorts of families: bound by love and not blood. The best family is the one you choose after all! They typically seek out rural communities to live in peace.
Staff at these orphanages have a lot of methods to weed out suspicious figures who may want to harm the orphans, and they especially look out for any human only wanting to adopt an animal orphan.
Parents like Henry and William are beloved by the orphanages for giving any child a chance at a good home, regardless of species. Even if they may only adopt one or a few, those kids have a good family now.
Lots of seasonal festivals happen in the rural communities and raise money for any nearby orphanage, as many residents build their blended families through adoption. This is mostly lower level though, and doesn’t reach those like the directors.
Rebecca Backstory Headcanons
She was taken from her biological parents by humans. Perhaps hunters? After they killed her parents, they had planned to sell her off to the highest bidders who could do with her as they wished.
The little rabbit was neglected emotionally. Though all her physical needs were met to keep her alive, she wouldn’t have anyone come comfort her if she cried, or show her actual genuine love.
These humans were soon discovered and charged with kidnapping, leading to Rebecca ending up at the orphanage. This was around the same time Micheal and Evan arrived as well.
The only other orphans she really warmed up to were Evan and Micheal. They were the new arrivals and got lumped together often, especially Evan and Rebecca, who had to share a bed to save space.
During the orphanage fire, Rebecca was one of the few children unaccounted for. Her instincts to hide made her impossible to find until after the fire was completely extinguished.
She did go to the hospital briefly for some minor injuries, then returned to the orphanage to find Evan and Micheal were gone. This led her to feel more afraid even as the other orphans tried to help.
This little bunny is observant and timid, always on alert. She enjoys blankets and stuffed animals/pillows. She cries quietly due to her past teaching her nobody comes if she cries loudly.
Springdad doesn’t know her past just yet, but he could always ask someone who does. Micheal knows the general idea of her past since he helped watch her and Evan at the orphanage.
Rebecca only started to trust William after Evan showed how comfortable he was. From there, the other rabbit instantly became her new guardian. She is slowly bonding with Elizabeth and Alice, too!
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badwithten · 1 year
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A Burnt Sacrifice | Hyunjin
PAIRING Guardian Angel!Hyunjin x fem!reader
GENRE angst, guardian angel au
WORD COUNT 12.5k
SYNOPSIS Hyunjin was built for the purpose of caring for Y/N, her guardian angel. And after serving her for almost 25 years, he can no longer stay as a background character in her life. Despite being an angel, he will sin if it means he gets a chance to be by her side.
FEATURING Mark, Han + Beomgyu
WARNINGS hyunjin is kinda obsessive over y/n but he justifies it as being her guardian angel, swearing, use of dating apps + cringey awkward dates, hyunjin watched y/n grow up so its kinda weird but he’s only as old as y/n yet he never ages, burns, self harm (y/n picks at her blister), description of injuries, blood, only light religious themes despite the theme, mentions of poverty, descriptions of anxiety 
BASED OFF of ‘Cherry’ by Harry Styles 
COLLAB part of @hvcmixtape​ ‘heart to heart’ valentines day collab
TAGLIST @isearchedtheyooniverse @oddfeeeling @itslovelylilly @rgbsona
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Two were born on the day of your birth. Y/N L/N and Hyunjin Hwan. To call them twins would not be appropriate for this story, for they were not connected by blood. Nor was he birthed by any woman. For Hwang Hyunjin was created, sculpted by God themself. This wasn't a metaphor for his beauty, As his soul was quite literally pieced together one by one by the heavens. Y/N’s mother had an angel of her own, as did every human on Earth. While in the womb, her angel watched over both Y/N and her mum, allowing those above to create the perfect match for Y/N. Someone designed to protect, care and love her.
This is the story of Hyunjins journey to protect, care and love Y/N. He was created for that very purpose. He was Y/N's guardian angel. Everything he did was for her, his every thought, want and need was her. Both their hearts were bound by the stars, fused together for eternity. He was created at Y/N's birth and would be destroyed at her death. Even in the afterlife, he would be there for her. Although she was to never know him, his time was spent away from his physical form where she couldn't see. Watching her from another dimension where the rules of Earth didn’t apply. But no matter where he was, the rules of heaven still applied. And despite his heart wanting more, he shouldn’t overstep those heavenly rules. He was a lover, destined to love Y/N for his everlasting life.
This is the story of Y/N's life, the girl who was to be protected, cared and loved for by the heavens. Born to a single mother and raised fairly. Y/N never had an interest in relationships, no desire to have a romantic partner. Her values lay elsewhere. Her family, education and job are more important than any lover could be. Or so she once thought. For loneliness begins to hurt after a while and thoughts begin to wander. Despite not believing in the heavens, she was sure some cosmic power must be against her in life. She was loveless, destined by the heavens to be alone for the rest of her mortal life.
Here is the story of love. Love at first sight, at last sight, at ever and ever sight.
Pryham. A town big enough to have two high schools competing against each other for scholarships. Small enough for that scholarship to be for students coming from a poor area. Big enough to have a lake named after the region it's in, the biggest lake in its area. Small enough for that lake to still be run by the natives of the land, a grumpy old man guarded the burnt-down lakehouse to make sure no one vandalised it further. Big enough for three major supermarkets to all be within walking distance of each other. Yet all three were small enough that they were managed by young adults who had not long left the same high school you attend now. It was a big enough town that the main street was filled with every large fast-food chain you could think of. Mcdonalds, KFC, Subway, it was all there. Yet the life of the town was not abandoned, locals still ran their cafes and small market shops. Something that bought your home back into the small-town culture. It’s hard to imagine angels would watch over such a town.
Growing up in such a town had its advantages. It was a close-knit community that supported its locals. When your mother had you at a young age and was left to raise you herself, the support came. It was the only way you made it to where you were now. Nights, where you would’ve been cold and alone while she worked, were saved by your mother's young coworker volunteering to watch over you. When your growth spurts outgrew your mother's financial situation, strangers come to donate new clothes to you. Keeping you warm in the winters you’d otherwise freeze in. And for that you were grateful. Not only for the people of your town who reached out to help but for your mother who swallowed her pride and asked for help when others would’ve been too scared to.
Growing up in such a town also had its disadvantages. Kids more fortunate than you didn't see the world as you did. To them, they weren’t thinking of the kindness it took for someone to give you their outgrown shoes. Instead, it was a teasing competition due to the condition they had arrived in. You would be lying if you said it didn’t get to you, but you took after your mothers bravely. Ask for help when you need it and keep smiling.
The people of your town were content with how it was. No one was going to make a change to how it was. The bullying, the poverty, the addictions. If you asked anyone how it was, they would say it was the best town in the world. But you knew better than that. Most born in Pryham stayed in Pryham. Majority with only high school educations, working in either the local shops or become labourers, tradies or farmers. This wasn’t an insult, you knew without these people the world around you wouldn't function as it should. But you had a burning desire for something more. Something larger than life.
You knew for this desire to come true, hard work was needed. With that in mind, you put your head down and got to work when it came to high school. It was all a teenager had during this time in their lives. All their friends, all their work, all their purpose was high school. For some it was just to learn the basics, kill some time before then become an adult and get a full-time job as soon as they can. For others, it was more than that. For you, it was more than that. Without a good high school education, you would not make it for any scholarships and if you wanted to go to university, you needed funding or else you couldn’t afford it. High school wasn’t your entire life despite what it seemed like, it was only part of the plan for your happy future.
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Wednesdays were your favourite day of the week. The perfect middle of weekdays as well as your school's late start days. An extra hour in the morning supposed to be used as a study period for senior students was actually just used as an hour to sleep in. Unlucky for those who arrived at school each morning on the bus. For them, it was either wake up at the regular time or miss the bus and walk to school. Han Jisung was one of those unlucky few. Han was also part of those few who wanted something larger than life. At first glance, he was your regular high school student. Loud and funny, the class clown of your graduating class. His behaviour was often scolded by teachers yet he never could get in too much trouble with grades as good as his.
Han Jisung was lucky enough to be friends with someone like you, who was gonna wake up at seven AM regardless of your school's start time. He was never gonna do that extra study and you were never gonna find a break otherwise. Breakfast and coffee allowed you two to remain friends despite how hectic high school had become in your last year.
Part of the charm of living in a town like the one you called home was that the best coffee came from the local movie theatre. Five minutes down the road from your school and a student discount for some of the best coffee in town? Yes, please! But there was another reason that irked your stomach, another reason you were so persistent in going there each week. Sam.
You were so intrigued by this unknown man. He was older than the two of you, in his early twenties unless he was older and aged unbelievably well. With his long black hair and pretty face, it would be difficult for anyone to believe that the reason you were so intrigued by the man wasn’t because of his good looks. But it wasn’t a crush. Maybe it was, you had never experienced love before, thus you wouldn't know what it felt like. But the way it was described wasn't anything you felt. You weren’t excited to see him, nor were you nervous when he was around. No increased heartbeat, no romantic thoughts of wanting to be with him, no heated cheeks when he spoke to you. None of that. But it was a fascination.
That first day you met him you were instantly attracted to him. He laughed as you stuttered over your order, so effortlessly easy to be around, you didn't feel embarrassed. Your attraction wasn’t romantic, it was a longing for an old friend. A sibling you had fallen out of touch with. Anyone you had once known and then lost. But who was he? When you bought him up with your mother his description was unfamiliar.
The next time he served you and Han, you asked for his name. At that, he laughed and smiled. Sam was his answer. When you asked if it was short for Samual he didn’t give you an answer. You thanked him and left to join Han at your usual table. Becoming a regular customer wasn’t enough, each time he asked about your day you would give him some information about your life. When you asked back, he said nothing, keeping his life a secret from you. With his first name and face in mind, you desperately searched for him online.
But you found nothing again. No Facebook page, no Instagram. Sam remained a mystery.
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“How was I?” Han is out of breath, his white shirt untucked and messy compared to how presentable he looked only moments ago on stage.
“Great, you were great” Your arms wrapped around his body, pulling him in for a hug. Your heart swelled with pride anytime Han took his place on stage during school assemblies. His anxiety often got the best of him, yet he still managed to secure a place within the student council. Once considered the naughty kid, he was able to clean up enough to get the position. One he deserved.
It felt like only the two of you existed as you stood outside the hall, swarms of students piling out eager to go home. But the two of you just stood, holding each other. Although he tried to pull away, you only held on tighter. Your fingers dug into the fabric of his shirt, begging him not to leave. Han didn’t mind, he matched your desperation with a hand on the back of your head, holding him to him. With the last week of school coming up, he knew soon both of you would have changing schedules.
You held him close. Your best friend, one of the only friends you had during this time. Han overwhelmed your senses. His cologne clogging your nose, shirt ripping through the skin on your fingers. All you could do is push your face into him harder, hoping to ground yourself into the solidness of his torso. It was all too much and not enough at the same time. Soon you would be leaving Han, and soon you would miss every part of him that would be overwhelming.
“Y/N?” His voice was soft, full of concern and lacking his normal enthusiasm. And it broke you. Hearing his voice tipped the tears you tried to hold back out and over your eyes. Spilling onto his white shirt and staining his skin forever. “Y/N what’s wrong?”
Once again he tried to pull you away, but you only held on tighter. Shaking your head no. He no longer held onto you, arms hovering awkwardly over his sides and he waited for you to be done. And when you finally pulled away he was more lost than ever.
“I got in Han” You watched as he processed your words. Soon the confusion was replaced by a smile, bigger than any you had seen him wear. Excitement took over him and he pulled you into a crushing hug. “I got into Britechester”
“Y/N Britechester? That’s great!” Each time he pulled away it was only for a second, he couldn't keep you away. Until it all finally clicked in his head, he clicked why you were crying. “Britechester, Y/N, that’s an eight-hour drive from here”
“I know!” You felt the tears form again, the overwhelming anxiety it brought you was something you tried to hide, but it was hard to hide anything from Han. “I hate to be so far away from mum and from you but I have to”
“No, you don’t” His head was shaking in disbelief, he now only held you by your hands. With a grip so tight that he was afraid that if he let go you’d leave right there and then. “You can’t go”
“I’m sorry?” His lack of support was lost on you. You had never doubted your decisions before but Han may be the first to change your view on it all.
“You can’t go Y/N, it’s not fair!” Anger arose in him alongside the first tear that split from his red eyes. He was looking at you, only past your eyes trying to search for some part of you that wasn’t committed to moving away. But you had already made up your mind.
“What are you talking about? I have to go, it's my dream university” You pull your hands away for him, not wanting to be touched by someone talking to you so poorly as if your opinion doesn't matter. “You knew this was a possibility Han, you’ve been with me for five years while I was making this happen”
“But this? I- I-” The words were lost on him. His hands rubbed the tears into his skin as he tried to calm down. Tried to make some sense of his world that was falling apart. “You just can’t, it’s not how things are meant to be”
“I thought you would be happy for me” As much as it hurts you to see him upset, what hurts, even more, is his unsupportive nature towards your situation. Something you worked so hard on and he is treating it as if it's his own. You reach to him and pull his hand away from his face. “Han please talk to me-”
“No!” Han was loud, it was in his nature. But he wasn’t an angry person. The loudness of his voice today came from anger. It froze you from the inside out, you watched with tears as he looked at you with the most fury you’d ever seen in him. “If you leave Y/N, I swear to god I will-”
“You’ll what Han? Stop being my friend?” You spit back at him, tears falling over the form of your lips and melting away any regretful words that may leave them. “It’s too late for that isn’t it?”
You pulled your bag on tighter and leave him standing alone, his fists clenched at his sides. Han never opened up to you much and you had just learnt why. With no control over his emotions, it was easy for him to be over the top. Moving away wasn’t going to be easy for you, but with one last friend to say goodbye to it made it that little bit lighter.
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The first Wednesday without Han in it was strange. The bandage that held you two together had been ripped off and you were feeling the air on your skin for the first time in five years. And it wasn’t a pleasant experience. Yet you were determined to prove you could do this alone. So your usual stayed the same apart from the absence of your friend. Sam had become your usual, greeting you with a smile as you entered the small theatre.
“A large latte with almond milk and vanilla, extra hot?” He knew your order before you could speak it. Already reaching out with the stamp for your loyalty card.
“Please” You smiled, something genuine, something that wasn’t a crush. It was more than that. A deeper connection that you still didn't know where from.
“Where’s Han?” Although you were his regular, so was Han, something about that made your connection a little less special.
“He’s sick today” You didn’t look up from the EFTPOS machine, hoping he would buy your lie.
“I’ve got you all to myself then” He winked, something playful in his eyes. You only roll your eyes, not letting that smile that so badly wants to emerge show itself on your face. Instead, you take your seat, waiting for him to bring over your order.
After a few minutes have passed he brings over the latte he's carefully made for you, a heart appearing in the foam layer on top. Before you get a chance to make a comment he whisks away to serve another customer. Sam would be the death of you. Ignoring his flirting you're able to bring out your laptop and catch up on some work. School once again takes up any kind of social life you may have.
Finishing up your drink before school starts and mouthing the words thank you to Sam as he helps an older lady understand the card machine. You had only walked a couple hundred feet to where you needed to cross the road towards your school and you swore you had checked both ways. You swore that you saw that no cars were coming. But before you can take you could step away from the path and onto the road. A hand tugs at your collar, pulling you back with a mash-up of feet.
The force on your neck isn't what shocks you the most, it's the car flying past your face. Horn blaring as to blame you for their speeding. When you turn to see your saviour it's Sam. His eyes wide in panic. It's almost disturbing how fast your heart is beating. A near-death experience, that was something new to your life. Something that you first experienced with Sam. Was this the connection you felt with him? Did you know that one day he would be saving your life?
You couldn't calm yourself to think enough. After a few moments of standing, just staring at each other, you notice the tears on your face. The panic got to you. You reach up and wipe them, allowing Sam the opportunity to step away from you, heading back to the store after simply nodding at you.
“Sam?” You call out, still shaking as you stand near the road that was almost your grave only seconds earlier. As much as the panic of the event was still high in your mind, what stood out more was how fast he got to you. Only moments earlier he was inside the theatre building, talking to a customer who wouldn't be done ordering that fast. “How did that happen?”
“You were on your phone” He speaks nonchalantly, his usual charm gone. He sounds disappointed about how careless you were with your own safety. “You didn’t look before crossing”
“But how were you there?” Your voice was desperate for an answer, mind trying to make sense of his speed, or whatever force allowed him to save you.
“A ‘thank you’ would be nice” He turns back to the building, heading away from you once more
“Sam?” He stops at your voice but doesn’t look at you til he hears your next words. “Thank you”
Once you meet his eyes again, both of you feel a change. Your connection with him no longer feels like a weird obsession, you owe your life to him but he knows you're grateful. His eyes shift, knowing that you have found something true in him for the first time. Something about him is for the greater good rather than just a polite barista.
For him, this was love at first sight.
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02/02/2022
Thoughts of Sam left your mind not long after high school, you no longer were in town every Wednesday to visit him. Instead, you were at university, studying even harder towards your law degree than you did towards your scholarships in college. The absence of love or any type of romance was something you were teased for in college, at university you were desperate to change that. And while school was still your number one, you had four years of it. You didn’t know if you could take four more years of nothing. Of being empty.
But with every lover, if you could even call them that, came hurt. It seemed no matter how hard you tried, how pretty you made yourself look, how well any first date went. Your relationship with that person would crash and burn. It became a vicious cycle of opening up only to be crushed. At some point, you were convinced you had gone to hell and this was your punishment. It was a dumb mistake made by your heart. You knew it was never to be successful, yet each time you had hope. But every time you were ghosted or just told the “it’s not you, it’s me” story, your heart smashed up a little more. Scattering so far away you were not sure if the next person you allowed in your life would be able to find it. The biggest worry was getting it so lost that you’d never be able to love yourself.
So you pushed it down for the most part. Half of your university you spent with open arms, trying your hardest to find love. And each time you failed. So for the last two years, you put your head down and focused on graduating. After endless hours of study and internships, finally came your career as a family lawyer in one of the most established law firms in your city. But now that you were a lawyer of your own, it was time that you hosted an intern. Like you did many years ago, someone who was fresh out of university with a law degree would come to work alongside you. And today was your lucky day to meet the new intern.
You hadn’t thought much about it. Although they would be working alongside you, they were their own employee and you weren’t their employer. That wasn't something you had to worry about. What you did need to worry about was keeping them up to date in cases, making sure they handled files correctly and teaching them the computer system used in your firm. It felt more like a chore than anything, guilt comes back to haunt you as you remember how useless you were when you first started. Pushing it to the back of your mind, you smooth out your shirt and head to the front room to greet the new intern at Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill.
You wouldn't describe yourself as the nervous type. Even in moments like job interviews, first dates and meeting the new young person who you would train and have an impact on for the rest of their life, you weren’t nervous. You knew your value, holding yourself high in the workplace. So you weren’t worried about giving any bad advice to new students. You got where you were today with hard work and dedication. With high confidence, you stepped out of the elevator that separated your office floor from the ground level. And there was the intern.
Your heart stopped beating for longer than you thought would be possible. His shirt and jacket were way too big for his lanky frame, they hung off of him. A thin black tie that would soon be covered by the blue lanyard you held for him. Despite being the first day of a new job for him, he stood just as nonchalantly as you were just a moment ago, he wasn’t nervous either. Even as recognition flashed through his eyes, his manner did not change. In fact, his smile grew larger. You weren’t a nervous person, but seeing Sam after so many years definitely was enough to shake you up.
The receptionist laughed at the awkward tension you had just created in the room, calling you to meet Sam at the front desk rather than stand and stare from the elevator. You clear your throat, begging the confidence you had this morning to come back.
“Y/N this is Hwang Hyunjin” She gestures from you to him. “And Hyunjin, this is Y/N L/N” And then from him to you.
“Nice to meet you Miss L/N” He puts his hand out for you to take, and you slowly accept, confusion still strong in your system. Why was he pretending this was your first time meeting?
“Hyunjin?”
“That's me” He laughs that awful laugh that you remember from years ago. This would be the longest internship of your life.
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His desk sat outside of your office, along with the other cubicles. You're lucky to have your privacy but you knew you couldn’t avoid him forever. And the truth was you didn’t want to avoid him, he was once someone you enjoyed spending time with. But rekindling that seemed too much for you. You weren’t sure if you were ready for your hands to burn again. Yet you were powerless. This situation was out of your control, it didn't matter if you weren't ready for him, work meant you had to be. As much as you dreaded your upcoming interactions with your long-lost friend, you weren’t the same person you were years ago. You were no longer leaving texts unanswered just to do extra hours. Instead, you valued your time. You learnt when to take a break, but you also learnt when to prioritise work. And Hyunjin, your coworker, needed to be prioritised over your friend Hyunjin. It seemed he didn't feel the same, instantly knocking on your office door as soon as you settled in the safety of your desk chair.
“Come in” Your chest rose with your words yet your eyes stayed down. Empty words being typed to avoid any eye contact with the tall man in your door frame. He didn’t wait for any more cues, sitting with his legs tightly together in the chair across from yours. Defeated, you let out a breath of air and finally meet his dark eyes. “So Hyunjin”
“Yup” He popped his lips together, watching with some sick amusement as you come to terms with what was happening. “I’m Hyunjin”
You held eye contact for a moment longer, before your eyes darted to the shut door. You could drop the professionalism for just a moment. “What are you doing here?”
“Just wanted to say hello?” His lips curled upwards, watching your every move without a break. “You know, since I'm new here”
“No, I understand that” Your hands couldn't sit still, fidgeting with a pen tightly. “Not why are you here in this place, why are you in the city?”
“Same reason you're here I guess” No matter where you looked, you couldn’t escape his eyes. They were a dark pit, constantly bringing you in. Although his nature didn't reflect this, your memories of him don’t contain that part of him. “I needed to get out, see the country a bit. Get a real job”
“Okay” It wasn’t the answer you wanted, but you knew it was all you were getting. Your posture dropped as you got familiar with his voice once again. “What about your name? What happened to Sam?”
“Sams my English name. Hyunjin is my birth name, my Korean name”
“Why Sam?” While you felt your emotions change with each word spoken, stomach flipping at each sentence that came out of Hyunjins mouth. Hyunjin was unchanging. Stoic as he sat there, eyes boring into you.  
“I was new to town so I thought having an English name would make it easier for me to fit in” But in that sentence, you see him drop a little, and for the first time, sadness flies over his eyes. “But that doesn't bother me anymore. So it's Hyunijn again”
“I’m glad”
“Me too” With a smile, he comes back to his original state. “Any work for me today?”
“Uhh just learn the system today, you know? Learn the office, say hi to some people and I’ll have something for you tomorrow” Since the start of the conversation, you jump back into reality. This wasn't Sam at the cafe you were catching up with. This was Hyunjin at work in which you were his boss. With your head clear again, your eyes go back to the many emails on your screen that are needing to be replied to.
“Well if you need me, I'll be here” Hyujin pulls himself out of the chair, long legs making his steps to the door faster than usual. Before he leaves, his eyes find yours once again, this time, there's hope within. “And you should call me sometime, tonight maybe. I’d like to catch up if that's ok with you.”
“Goodbye Hyunjin” You ignore his question, boss Y/N coming out once again.
“Bye Y/N” He smiles and with a few taps of your doorframe, he steps out. “Nice office”
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Working with Hyunjin wasn’t as difficult as you imagined it would be. It was strange, you had imagined it would be like working with an ex-partner. The thick tension in the air of unresolved conflict. Rumours being spread on each side of the breakup. It wasn’t something you were looking forward to. But with Hyunjin, it was true to what your relationship was, old friends catching up. It wasn’t awkward and there were no unresolved topics to bring up, in fact, there were barely any memories to speak of when making small talk. More and more you’ve come to realise that your connection to Hyunjin was one-sided. In your head, you knew this man very closely in high school, but in reality, you weren’t even friends. He was nice to you because it was his job. And now it was your time to show some professional courtesy.
Yet since he started last week, that feeling you once had about him came back. If deja vu was personified, it was him. He was that bad dream you couldn't shake. Every part of him felt like a memory of a stranger. His smell, his voice, even the darkness of his eyes. They were all so familiar. It was as if he was a reminder you’d left to yourself. But what were you trying to remember?
These feelings should have felt more real, more justified. Unlike your teenage years, you did know Hyunjin. This was someone who left your life and then came back. But they were still too unfamiliar for your liking. Even as you sat in your break room and watched him make his coffee, something you knew all too well, it was still off. Your staring didn’t go unnoticed, soon his dark eyes were staring back with a smile. You tried to play it off, look in the other direction and finish eating from the plastic utensil in your mouth. But Hyunjin didn’t take the hint, or maybe he purposely chose to ignore it, as soon he was heading towards your table, sitting down with his hot mug of coffee.
“Can I help you?” The smugness in his voice made you sick, acting as if this was normal. Him being here wasn’t normal. You could feel it although the feeling was indescribable to anyone else. Why wasn’t it normal? You couldn't tell.
“What?” Playing dumb wasn’t the smartest choice when you’d been caught, but he was overwhelming your senses. He always did. Too good to be near you.
“Nevermind” His smile disappeared in his coffee, his eyes turning back to the room as he absentmindedly drank his coffee. Despite already being caught once staring, you couldn't keep your eyes off his face.
It was a comfortable routine you had found yourself in. During work hours, you’d help him where you could, show him how to do his job without you one day. It was playful, you had a reason to talk to him. But as soon as lunch hit, it was gone, and you had no reason to speak to him. And you barely could. This didn't seem to bother Hyunjin. He could speak for hours without another person replying. If he was passionate about something, it was all that was on his mind.
“I haven’t been back to the studio in a long time though, works been keeping me busy” The last of his drink disappears with a gulp and a sigh. Without waiting for a reply, he starts again. “You’re my boss, right? Want to give me some time off so I can go again?”
“I can’t do that Hyunjin” Your voice trails off, focusing more on the messages popping up on your phone.
“No fun Y/N, no fun” His hands rest against this table, leaning up and over his arms to look at your phone. “Who's that?”
“Hyunjin!” You quickly turn off your phone, the invasion of privacy upsetting you more than he expected. Quickly he backed away, taking his seat in the uncomfortable silence he created. Even he couldn’t talk his way out of it. It becomes too much so you stand, wanting to spend the rest of your lunch alone.
“Y/N wait-” He stands with you, not loud enough to draw any attention to himself. He was always good at that. Enough but never too much, but right now he was overwhelming you.
“I’ll be in my office” You speak to him once again as a stranger, nothing more than your intern. “You know what you need to get done for today?”
He sits himself back down, silently nodding at your words before you leave him once again.
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04/04/2022
You hated running late, you knew how annoying it was to wait for someone to arrive when you had plans and being the one waited on was dreadful. Your mother had put it into your brain so many times, ‘Early is on time, on time is late and late is unacceptable’. You were just hoping your date was more forgiving than your mother. His name was Mark and from his photos, he was pretty darn cute. It had been too long since you got excited over a date. Usually, the talking went fine, you were excited at the time you had planned the date but meeting up always made you regret your choices. But as long as you kept your mouth shut and laughed at their jokes, you could at least get a free drink.
Not with Mark though. You had been chatting with him longer than you normally would before a date, even through your messages he made you laugh. Even if he wasn’t the one, even if you only got a friendship out of this, you wouldn’t be mad. He seemed like a nice person and you were excited to find more nice in your life. Despite being almost twenty minutes late from your meet time, you hold your head high and walk into the small town diner. The door rings with the bell above the entrance, most people here are too concentrated elsewhere to look your way. The cashier rang up an elderly man. Students head first into their laptops. A family with screaming kids. This place wasn’t fancy, it wasn’t somewhere you would take someone for a first date. This was boyfriend-girlfriend date material when you wanted to split a milkshake and grab food before the movies. But the food was good and the casual pace was a nice change.
Despite being late, Mark's eyes still lit up seeing you walk in. His oversized bomber jacket was pulled around the front as he sat in the booth, hands in his pockets. He was quick to his feet as you made your way over, pulling off his beanie and stashing it away in the process. His black hair was a mess underneath but you couldn't say you looked much better. Your high-waisted dress pants and untucked blouse. All the running in hopes to get here in time had the wind burning your face. You were burning up with the sudden change of temperature, eyes dry from the cold wind outside.
“Y/N?” He double-checked before you got to give him a hug, a formality you would not usually do right away but he was offering and who were you to say no when arriving so late.
“Mark I’m so sorry” You were struggling to catch your breath, sitting with shaky legs. Your jacket and bag had been discarded on the set next to you. Mark watched silently as you poured yourself a glass of water. “I had to stay late and then I missed my usual bus” You spoke between mouthfuls. “Todays just be wild, I’m sorry I kept you waiting”
“It’s ok!” He insisted, smiling as he watched you calm down. Something about the chaos was comforting and familiar to him. He was sick of putting on an act in front of women who assumed they were better than him. Today seemed different for him. “You’re here now so that's all that matters, you know?”
It didn’t take long to destress from your hectic work day with Mark. Words flowed freely between the two of you. He laughed away all your work problems while you laughed at his cheesy jokes. Soon you were settled in at a nice pace of conversation, waiting for the young waiter to bring your food over. First arrived Mark's burger and fries, he waited patiently for your food to arrive before he started eating. Then you watched him return with a large bowel sat upon a plate.
“You know, I’ve never seen someone order soup on a first date” He gave you a mischievous smile, a sign that he wasn’t actually judging. It was a comfort to be around someone who communicated so easily through their body. As a lawyer, it was easy to see when someone was lying with their body language. But not Mark.
“Nothing better than soup on a cold day!” Finally, he arrived at your table, plate in one hand as he placed down your food. The young man watched as you reached for your bowl, watched as you offered to take it from him, thanking him as he had done so much for you. But he watched silently, he didn’t say a word about the temperature of the bowl. “Oh fuck!”
As soon as your hands touched the ceramic your fingers went up in flames. Although not literally, you could feel the fire course through your body. Your hands flew up and away from the bowl, desperately escaping from the heat that had burned you. In doing so it's your turn to watch silently, watching as the dish leaves the waiter's hand and lands on the table. Not only does the scorching hot liquid drip onto your lap, but you also watch as it drips onto Mark's side as well. He jumps up with a yelp, his legs burning. You stay put, eyes shut. At least you have the pain to focus on. Anything other than the embarrassment you feel build up in your chest. You’ll take the fire over the looks of pity from other customers. The blisters over dealing with your date who you had just spilled soup on,
“I’m so sorry” The young waiter was just as embarrassed, panicking at what your reaction would be. But he didn’t stay long enough to see it. “I’ll get you something to clean up right away”
Shut. Your eyes stayed shut. For as long as you kept them close, the longer this wasn’t real. But it came creeping up faster than you could handle, and soon a sob left your mouth. Your body shakes as you begin to cry. The tears had to fight their way out as you kept your eyes firmly shut.
“Y/N?” Finally opening your eyes, you saw how bright and wide Marks had become. Standing by your side, mouth slightly agar. “Are you ok?”
“Yeah” Your voice was the quietest it had felt in a long time. You watched as the young waiter rushed back, damp cloth in hand.
“Oh sorry” Mark stepped out of the way, allowing the waiter to aid you in your cleaning. “I’m gonna, you know, head to the bathroom”
You nodded, the nervousness in his voice a clear sign he wasn’t returning but you didn’t want him to. Embarrassment consumed you and you were reminded why you didn’t date.
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The peace that naturally came with Hyunjin was appreciated more than ever after your date last night. The pressure of work sent away as he walked past your office, smiling and waving at you despite his late arrival. It gave you a laugh, a small break from the pending work in front of you. But moving your hand in the wrong direction had you wincing, the paper folder rubbed against the raw blisters on your palm. A painful memory of the embarrassment you endured. You allowed yourself a moment, sitting with the pain, living with it.
A knock at your door brings you away from your thoughts, Hyunjins head poking through the door. “Is this a bad time?”
“No, come in” You gesture to the seat across from you, pulling your hand away and into your lap to try to soothe the ache of it away. “What can I do for you Hyunjin?”
“I just need to speak to you about the Kettleman case, is that ok?” Every time he spoke, each word was so perfectly chosen. Delicately leaving his mouth and waiting to see your reaction before he spoke again. “He wants to meet with you again, something about the deal you offered him. I told him he could speak to me about it before setting up a meeting but he was pretty insistent on seeing you”
As he spoke your ears rang, and you couldn’t resist the temptation to press into the blister forming on your hand. But the pain was too distracting and you could barely focus on his words. “Overall he was really difficult, I told him I’ll call him back, or have you call him back to sort out a meeting time with him. So when would it work for you?”
Finally taking a breath and opening your eyes, you looked at him as he waited for your reply. “Which one was the Kettleman case again?”
“Y/N are you ok?” You were off your game today, upset over your failed date and hurting from the now-open blister on your hand. Everything was out of your thoughts.
“Please just remind me” He licks his lips nervously, unsure what to make of your behaviour. Regardless, he follows your words.
“Mr Kettleman is, well was, our state treasurer. But he’s been accused of embezzling $1.6 million of government funds” As he speaks, he searches through the manilla folder on his lap. Eventually, he settles on a single piece of paper and holds it for you to grab.
“Ah the Kettlemans” You reach for the paper, not thinking about the burn on your hand. But quickly it comes back to the front of your mind and you flinch at the contact. Unluckily for you, it doesn’t go unnoticed by Hyunjin.
“Your hand? What happened?” He quickly stands, making his way to your side of the desk. Without thinking he takes your hand in his own, but he doesn't get a good look before you snatch it away.
“Hyunjin, please. This is not appropriate and while I appreciate your concern I am ok” He looks down at you blankly, ignoring your anger.
“Can you drop it?”
“Excuse me?”
“The whole boss act! I’m sick of you pretending you don’t care about me or even that you don’t know me” Hands on his hips, he steps away to empathise with his words. “I know it's strange that I work for you now, but you can’t just pretend that we're strangers”
You clench your teeth, remaining silent. He hasn't convinced you but you weren't fighting to get him to.
“Please just let me see your hand. I’m your friend and I care about you ok?” You stay put and he takes this as an ok to try and see your hand again. You don’t stop him. “Ouch, how’d this happen?”
“I don’t want to talk about it” If he was to treat you like a child, you weren't going to have an adult conversation with him.
“Alright let me get something for this” He rubs over the back of your hand before leaving it to rest on your desk. Once he returns he brings over your spare chair. “This is going to hurt a little, ok?”
His long fingers tickle the surface of your skin, a white cream being rubbed into your wound. Your heart stops at the intimacy of the situation. One hand holds onto you steady, the other circling the skin of your palm. Skin to skin, touching your open wound but only to heal, not to hurt. Satisfied, he pulls away before covering it up with a plain bandaid and finally meeting your glossy eyes.
“Thank you Hyunjin”
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07/07/2022
After the disaster that was your date with Mark, you had high hopes for how tonight would go. It literally could not get any worse. And it already was going better. Work didn’t keep you late, Hyunjin even walked you to your car. You felt comfortable with him once more. Still distant as you were in your younger years but with that same connection, this time you knew he felt it as well.
Without being late, you had time to put yourself together. Make yourself feel real again after spending all day in corporate hell. You weren’t dressing to impress, the date was still casual but anything was better than your tight slacks and buttoned shirt. There was once a piece of work you couldn’t shake off your mind.
It always was the little things with Hyunjin. Back in high school, it was making your order before you got there. It was taking time to help elderly customers who couldn't read the menu. Saving your life. And just like then, it was the little things now at work that had him sticking in your mind. He remembered your coffee orders despite him not making it for years. Clients would always tell you about the polite young man who greeted them on the phone. You were just hoping he wouldn’t need to save you again. The debt you already held to him could never be repaid and it weighed down your soul.
A text was sent to Beomgyu letting him know that you were on your way before you exited your place. The bar where you were meeting wasn’t far from your house, barely a ten-minute walk, but you wanted the time to think. Need the time to be early to ensure your mistakes aren't repeated. It wasn't long before you arrived, had your ID checked and sat waiting for the brown-haired boy to arrive.  
Yet seven o’clock came and went. You had triple-checked that your message went through, yet no reply. Nothing saying ‘omw!’ or ‘sorry I might be running late tonight” (although you had forgotten to give that same curiosity to Mark). So you sat and waited because you had been Beomgyu in this situation. Yet tonight you needed to be the Mark that waited.
Seven thirty arrived, the barkeep asked if he could get you a drink and you felt as if that may be the only interaction with a human that you get tonight. Another message sent was another message left unanswered. The anxiety you swore up and down to your therapist that you didn’t feel started creeping back into your life. A mixture of guilt and betrayal. Guilt for the night you left Mark waiting, only to waste his time further. Guilt for when you left Han for college. While guilt was something you were too familiar with. Betrayal was something new. You were now in the position of the hurt. The one who was allowed to be upset. But you weren’t upset at Beomgyu, instead upset at yourself for all the times you had betrayed the ones around you.
One more time you would check your phone, and if you still had no response then that was it. Your heart was still held high before you saw no notifications on your screen. And then it came crashing into your guilt, a new wave of anxiety washing over you, a tear to match. You were quick to wipe it away, mind trying to focus on anything but the ache that you were experiencing. With one hand tightly around your phone and the other swirling the ice in your glass, you found yourself staring down at the boy's profile. Analysing every photo, every aspect of his life that he shared online. Were you not good enough for him? Did he think that little of you that he forgot?
You watched his profile update in real-time, a new photo on his tag displayed him out at dinner with a group of his friends. Stood up. You had been stood up. Your entire life you thought that was just something that happened in movies. Some way to break the protagonist down just so their friend, the real love interest of the story, can bring them back up. But there was no love interest in your story. All you had was a dating app full of men not willing to take that chance with you. And there was nothing you could do about it.
You watched the ice melt with every round it made in the glass, your finger became numb to the sensation although you knew there would be a mark from where it rested on the rim of the cup. There was nothing to hold you steady, the only sensation to ground you was beginning to melt away at your own doing. Your own fingertips wore it down and soon you’d be alone again.
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09/09/2022
“Thank you for your time today” You pressed your lips together, cringing at the fake voice you put on anytime you were on the phone. After years of working with clients, you were hoping you would have gotten used to it. But you continued to dread each phone call you had to make. “I’ll have someone get back to you shortly”
Finally ending the call allowed you a breather. Hands resting against your forehead for just a moment before you move on to the next thing. And the next thing always seemed to be Hyunjin. His rapid knocking on the door became a sound you were all too familiar with.
“One second” You called out to him, face still hidden. He didn’t listen to your request, quickly entering your office with confidence. Soon recoiling when he saw your position. “Or not”
With a sigh you pull yourself up, washing away any grief you were feeling and becoming workplace Y/N once more. “What can I help you with Hyunjin?”
“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to interrupt” He seemed genuinely remorseful, trying to back out of the awkward situation he had created. “I can go”
“Just stay, tell me what you want” The ringing of his hands made you realise this may not be work-related, was something wrong with Hyunjin?
“It’s not important, I’ll come back” He gave a polite smile and turned back to the door to leave.
“Please wait” You stood, leaning across the table to speak to him. “You can talk to me it’s ok”
“I know” He smiled sadly, chewing on his lip. “Later?”
You gave it up, dropping back to your seat defeated. Hyunjin left you alone. That seemed to be a theme with you recently. You had never cried at work. But the warmth they provided down your face brought you some comfort.
The phone from your drawer buzzed. Although you would have scolded Hyunjin for using his phone during work hours, you couldn't resist the distraction from your overwhelming emotions.
Han Jisung added you as a friend!
Han Jisung sent you a message!
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Never in your wildest dreams had you imagined that you would repair your relationship with Han. After you left Pryham he hasn't spoken to you. Despite the awful day you left him off on, he organised with your mum to give you a hug before you left. Not a word was spoken. But that tight hug was your goodbyes. And that was the last you saw of Han Jisung.
Neither of you reached out while you were away at university. You had no idea if he moved out of town or even moved out of his parent's home. You didn’t care to know. For years you lived peacefully without Han, an idea that once seemed painful to even think about. But here you were, sitting across from him at a lively cafe laughing harder than you had in years.
But there were only so many old memories you could talk about, only so many years of catching up before silence filled the space between the two of you. An awkward sip of your drink and fidgeting with your hair before Han finally speaks.
“Y/N” He swallowed hard, looking at you briefly before staring back down at your hands. “I’m really sorry for everything”
He watched silently waiting for your reaction, but when you didn’t show anything other than the tears that began to form in your eyes he continued. “I didn’t understand what it meant when you were leaving, I just couldn’t understand why you would leave me in such a shit town”
“Is this why you messaged me? To say sorry?”
“Maybe?” He watched your face drop, hands reaching out to hold yours in a panic. “You were my closest friend, my only friend at some point and I want you to know that I am sorry”
Once again silence fills the air, your mouth is twisted, unsure of how to feel about all of this. The tears that rolled down your face weren’t tears of sadness, they weren't tears of anything. You were simply overwhelmed by Han once again. He takes the silence as a bad sign, struggling to put together his words.
“I just wanted to see you and talk to you, because I miss you so much, and I want you to know that I-” His head drops, and you watch as pain crosses his face. He grunts to bear with it, before looking back up at you and smiling, the tears you wear are now on his face as well. “I think I should go Y/N”
“What?” The both of you stand, Han to get away, and you to chase. With a nod, he collects his things and leaves. His steps are light, he almost floats away unaware of how his words have affected you. “Han wait”
You weren’t the most receptive to his feelings or words but you have never imagined he would have just left. You don’t want to run, it feels wrong to run after someone in the streets. But your steps are fast, trying to catch up with him through the crowd of people that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. You’d only been walking for a few minutes before you lost him. Your head spins as crowds of people swarm past you. Disorientated and out of breath, you feel yourself begin to panic.
A numbness overtakes your fingers, increasing with each beat of your racing heart. You can’t think, all you can feel is the burning of your lungs from your lack of air. You’d never felt so lost before, everyone has left you while simultaneously you're surrounded. It's both lonely and crushing. Just when you think you won’t be able to take another breath, a warm hand makes itself at home on your shoulder. The touch is grounding and you almost choke on the air you manage to gulp down.
You find the strength in the familiar dark eyes that seem to appear whenever you need them the most. “Y/N?”
“Hyunjin?”
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In the safety of your apartment, you’re able to calm down enough to talk to Hyunjin. He insisted on walking you home which you needed, him staying to listen was something you wanted and he seemed more than happy to. He sat in the armchair across from you, elbows leaning against his knees as he listened intently.
“I don’t know what was wrong with Han” Your nose was still running, your nerves still on fire as you fiddled with the tissues you held onto. “I mean, you saw us at school right? We used to be best friends”
“People change Y/N, it’s been a long time since you saw him last” He spoke calmly, choosing each word with precision so as to not upset you further.
“Yeah but he reached out to me, you know? Why reach out to say sorry and then back out of the apology? Unless he was just trying to make himself feel better, maybe he didn’t mean it so when I didn't accept it right away he got upset” Your brain was running laps trying to put together the pieces of today.
“Can I ask what he was apologising for?”
“Nothing, it was dumb” You put the tissue down, reaching to rub your face. “I’m not upset over it anymore, I was gonna accept his apology. He just hadn't finished talking so I didn’t want to interrupt!”
“Why are you so upset then?” You pull your face away to look at him, his usual charm was there. But he felt so empty. You shake the thought away, trying to think of an answer that would please his overanalyzing brain.
“I’m lonely Hyunjin. Like really lonely” You laugh to hide the embarrassment of it all. People joke about being lonely, spending all their time watching Netflix instead of hanging out with their friends. But true loneliness was different. It was painful to experience and embarrassing to admit. “I’ve tried to go on dates but they never work out so I was excited to finally have a friend”
“I didn’t take you as the dating type”
“I’m not, I’ve been on a total of two dates this year and each one was comically bad”
“Do you care to share?”
“What are you, my therapist?”
“I didn’t take you as the therapy type either”
Sinking back into your couch with a sigh, you just shrug back at Hyunjin. “Maybe I’m just destined to be alone”
“Don’t think like that” His tone changed from concern to trying to cheer you, reaching out to give your knee a rub. “Whatever happened on those dates wasn’t on you, it just wasn’t the right guy”
“Maybe not” You weren’t in the mood to talk about your sad dating life much longer. But you felt bad being so defensive over your life, maybe this is why you were alone?
“You know that time I came to work with a burn on my hand?” You decide to humour him with a couple of stories. “That was from a date”
“That wasn’t on you though was it?” He smiles with you, allowing the change in tone. “That was on that waiter for not warning you about the hot plate”
“I guess” You laugh, thumb running over the small scar that sits on your palm from your date with Mark. But you stop and so does your heart. How did Hyunjin know that? He doesn't see anything wrong, continuing to enjoy your company even when neither of you are speaking. Your eyes dart from him to the door and you decide it's safe to ask. “How’d you know that?”
“Know what?”
“About the waiter? I didn’t tell you how I burnt my hand” You see his eyes shift in panic but his smile only grows. An uneasy combination that starts your panicking again. “Were you following me?”
“I think you’re mistaken, you told me the story you just hadn't said you were on a date at the time” You shake your head, trying to process how he knew. You remember that day so clearly, the feeling of his skin rubbing over the raw part of your hand burnt into your mind. He seems so calm but you can feel the tears starting in your eyes again.
“I did not tell you anything about it Hyunjin” You stand, trying to get away from him. “I know for a fact that I didn’t tell you, so how did you know?”
He stands but doesn’t move from his position in front of the chair, only watching silently as you back away from him. Each rise of your chest bought you more discomfort, the two of you stood silently staring each other down. While you were experiencing your fight-or-flight instinct for the second time that day, Hyunjin just seemed sad.
“I had to do it Y/N” You had seen Hyunjin happy, you had seen him be charming, you had even seen him just blank. To most, seeing someone so empty would freak them out. But you had never seen Hyunjin mad or sad. Seeing him act this way now was scarier than that day he saved your life.
“What do you mean ‘you had to do it’?” You had only thought he had been following you, which was bad enough, but thinking he had something to do with it only made the dread in your stomach worse.
“Han. Mark. Beomgyu. Then Han again. I had to intervene”
“What? Had to intervene?” You can barely process what you're hearing, let alone think of a response. All you can speak are questions you know you’ll never get an answer to. “How do you know their names Hyunjin?”
Silence.
“Hyunjin answer me!” You watch as he begins to cry, the raising of your voice shaking something within him.
“If I show you, will you forgive me?”
“I don’t-” Your voice breaks itself off, the mixture of emotions in your gut making it impossible to think.
Without saying another word, Hyunjin excuses himself from where he had previously been frozen in place. His back against the blank wall of your living room. He shuts his eyes and takes a breath before you see the impossible. Shadows appear behind him, but not of any human form. Wings that span far past his arm's reach are cast onto the walls of your apartment. It’s your turn to freeze. Mind racing as you try to take in what you're witnessing. Once he opens his eyes, they disappear, you’re almost convinced you were just seeing things but the shit-eating grin he wears tells you otherwise.
“What- What does that mean?” No matter what you just saw, you fail to understand how it relates to the situation you currently find yourself in.
“I’m your guardian angel”
“My what?”
“Guardian angel, you know, like in the movies and stuff”
“Get the fuck out of my apartment” The confusion you felt is replaced by rage. You don’t care to hear him out, any reason he may have for playing this joke on you will go unheard.
“Wait Y/N, I’m serious!” You shake your head, refusing to believe anything he says but you don’t get another second to think until he’s suddenly in your face. “How do you think I got here?”
“Hyunjin” Your voice is quiet, fear eats you up as he stands so close. The Hyunjin you thought you knew is no longer there, a strange man stands by you instead.
“No, don't be scared!” He can sense your every emotion, his hands grip your shoulders trying to calm you. “I’m just trying to show you I’m telling the truth! Think about that day at the theatre right? No way any human could be got there as fast as I did”
“Hyunjin please” A madman was in your home, gripping you hard enough to leave bruises and you couldn't do anything about it apart from beg for him to leave. That didn’t seem to align with Hyunjins plans.
“Y/N just listen to me!” He lets go of your shoulders and steps away, though not far enough for you to leave the wall he had backed against. “Don’t you see how good this is!”
“Good?! In what way is this good?”
“We can be with each other now, without any secrets”
“You think I want to be with you?” You force him to step away from you, finger jabbing into his chest. Although tears continue to flow down your face, laughter now joins them. “You’re fucking crazy!”
“I’m not crazy!” He snaps right back at you. “How else can I prove I am an angel, your angel?”
“That's not the issue Hyunjin. The issue is that you’ve ruined all my relationships! And now you work with me? You’ve ruined the only thing I had!”
“I didn’t ruin anything Y/N, they weren’t right for you. We were made for each other, it has to be us”
“I don’t want you Hyunjin! Especially not if you’re gonna force it, let me figure that out myself! I- I don’t want you micromanaging my life Hyunjin, can’t you see how insane that is?” He shakes his head, his tears breaking him down further. Your roles have reversed as he quietly begs for you to stop. “I want to live! I want to date and have my heart broken. I want friends, I want a job where you aren’t there”
“I had to” He’s no louder than a whisper, but he isn’t speaking for you, instead he’s trying to convince himself that he’s done nothing wrong.
“I don’t care Hyunjin, I just want you to leave”
“I can’t” It’s his turn to panic, when he looks at you his eyes are full of fear but you fail to understand where it's coming from. “If I leave now, you’ll forget me. Humans are forbidden to know about creatures like me. If I leave, everything will be forgotten ”
“Good” You spit the word at him, furious at the way he has made your life worse, furious at the way he thinks he deserves your acceptance. “I don’t want to ever see you again”
“I’m not leaving Y/N, I- I- I love you and I’m not leaving” He stands like a child in the middle of your living room. Tears flow down his face but he’s barely crying. He just stands and watches you, refusing to give in.
“Well, I hate you Hyunjin” You watch him swallow back a cry at your words. “And if you won’t leave then I will”
As you go to walk past him he grabs your arm, grip much stronger than before. If the wings and teleporting weren’t enough to convince you of his powers, his inhuman strength was, you cry out in pain. “No! You can’t leave!”
“You're hurting me!” Your begging is more desperate than before, the pain becoming unbearable as he crushes your arm. “Let go please!”
“But then you’ll leave” His soft eyes find yours, lips broken and chewed as he tries to find himself a loophole in the situation he's put himself in.
“Let me” He didn’t yell at you so you don’t yell back. Trying to find peace in the situation.
“Y/N you have to understand that I can’t”
“Are we gonna stand like this forever then?” He doesn’t respond, all reasoning goes past him. So instead you put your hands together and begin to pray.
You pray to the heavens above for help. You pray that justice can find its way into your life and punish Hyunjin for the damage he has caused. You pray that he is no longer the man to watch over you. And just when you begin to lose hope that anything holy could be on your side, his grip loosens and although it is still painful, it is human. You make eye contact with him one more, and terror makes its way over his face one last time before he collapses.
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For the first time, Hyunjin wakes up. Never in his life had he slept and he never wishes to again. A burning pain on his upper back from what he assumes is the hard wooden floor below him. But when he opens his eyes and sees the panic in your eyes, he begins to believe it's from something else.
“You’re bleeding Hyunjin” You can barely stomach the blood, unsure of what to do as he bleeds out onto the floor of your apartment. He manages to peel himself out of the sticky mess, his hand reaching back to feel the open wound that sits on his shoulder. His heart sinks even further when he reaches and feels a matching wound on the opposite side.
“My wings” Defeated is the only way to describe Hyunjin in this situation. He had lost his power, his status, his purpose. “What did you do?”
“I prayed” You look just as broken as him, sorrow present in your eyes. “I didn’t know this would happen Hyunjin, I’m sorry”
Despite the constant distress he had put you through your entire life, you helped him up. You go to leave for the first aid kit but he stands to join you. If you leave, you’ll forget. Although you wouldn’t mind forgetting right now, the grief in his eyes is enough to guilt you into remembering for now. You do your best to tend to his wounds as he sits crying. A grown man bleeding and crying in your bathroom wasn’t the plans you had for tonight and it makes you incredibly uncomfortable having him in your house. But you couldn't leave him now.  So you allow him to stay, and the two of you lay side by side in your bed, not touching but close enough for comfort.
The night stays silent, you can’t sleep knowing that once you do, everything will change forever. Hyunjin won’t be a part of your life, Sam will be forgotten. “Hyunjin?”
“Yeah?”
“What happens now?”
“You forget” His voice is the same monotone you're used to from him. He doesn’t sugarcoat his words. “You forget about me and you get a new angel now that I’m human”
“I’m sorry” Tears roll from your eyes down the side of your head, soaking the sheets below you.
“Everything I did for you” He sighs and you know whatever he says next is going to enrage you. Nothing he did was ever for you, it was for him. “And you just threw it away? I sacrificed so much for you Y/N”
His crying had only just calmed but he began again, turning away from you and sobbing into your pillow to hide his pain.
“I’m sorry” It’s the only words you manage to spill from your lip, no matter how you felt, you couldn't express it properly. It wasn’t worth it knowing this would all be wiped clear from your mind. You just wanted it to be over with. “I’m going to the store, when I’m back, please be gone”
He sits up but it’s too late, you’ve made up your mind. Yet you stall at the door to your bedroom, knowing once you leave the room, your life will change forever. One last time you look back and take in his dark eyes, eyes you once considered a comfort in the chaos of your life. The chaos that he was now the centre of.
“Goodbye Hyunjin” And with that, you stepped away. It was the last time he would ever get to see you look at him with love. The next time you saw him, he would be a stranger.
For him, this was love at last sight.
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Work was no longer entertainment for Hyunjin. Work was now essential. It wasn’t that he didn’t know how to look after himself, but for the first time, he had to think about comfort, food and hygiene. It was a difficult adjustment but if it meant he could continue to see you every day, he would.
The first day back was the most painful, having to be reintroduced to someone who he loved so dearly and for you to look at him as if he was a stranger. In your mind he was, and he had to accept that. But what he couldn’t accept is your behaviour in the following weeks. He no longer held the power to intervene on any dates you may or may not be going on. But he knows you too well.
He knows when you had a good night and when you had a bad night. But when the good nights started becoming more frequent, he knew it was over. His suspicion got confirmed when a man he had never seen before walked through the elevator doors on the floor he worked on, the floor you worked on. His eyes immediately went to you, heartbreaking when he saw you light up at the man. He assumed it was bad and was greeted with the worst when you meet the man with a kiss. He called in sick for the rest of the week.
Could you blame him?
Hyunjin's purpose was to protect, care and love Y/N. And he could no longer do that. So instead he prayed. He prayed until his knees bleed and his hands grew calloused. Until the heavens could no longer ignore his thoughts. His wish? To make sure Y/N never found love if it wasn’t from him.
Y/N's purpose was to be protected, cared and loved for by the heavens. Yet she was no longer protected the way she once was. Despite the efforts of her new guardian, she was left alone. She never prayed after Hyunjin. Never once thought of him as more than a young intern trying to make his way. Never would she think to love him. Her memory was lost and so was their love.
For Hyunjin, this was love at ever and ever sight.
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wanderlustmagician · 3 months
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Anything you wanna ramble about?
Jfbdksjeekdj so many things!!
I’ve been rambling about my modern au for a while so maybe I’ll do the mythical creatures thing that’s been knocking around my brain. This time :D
Have you ever heard of a Peryton? They’re essentially winged deer who are the Guardians of the Forest. Fierce and intense, magically haunting. Very cool. Some people’s interpretations have them with these really wicked fangs.
And thunderbirds!! They’re like coated in lightning and I have got to get my hands on more information on them. They’re so cool!
Which of course made me go hmmm what if, what if. And I play fast and loose with everything when I write because it’s more fun for me that way… so LU mythical creatures. I’ve seen it done a few times and LOVE the concept;
Twilight is harder than expected when you don’t want to take the easy way out. I’ve been playing with the idea of a version of Peryton for him, more wolf than deer, BUT then I remembered that Black Shucks are a mythic, ghostly dog-like creature that exist and it kind of fits in the most spooky sense. Depending on where you look at the mythos, they’re either menacing (malevolent also but eh) or companionable omens of death that usually roam a coastline. There’s also church grims, which often take the form of a black dog, and guard church cemeteries. So playing fast and loose, as I do, I thought Twilight could be the more companionable, omen bearing Black Shuck in his Mythic form and then by the time he meets Wild in BOTW, he’s more spirit-like and is more akin to a Church Grim… just on a more personal level. I think it would be a fun little idea to play with instead of meeting Wild on the Plateau and have him be like “guarding” the Shrine… Wild meets him in Blatchery Plains where he actually died and that’s where they meet.
Sky would be some form of Thunderbird and nothing will change my mind on this. It fits. SO WELL. At least from what little I remember from previous research dives on the subject. I also originally had planned to have Sky be the reason that the Faron region changes from being a big growth forest in Twi’s time to the lightning infested jungle of BOTW/TOTK. It was gonna be because he was visiting Twi, who if I had left him as a Peryton would have been bound to the forest he guarded, which was planned to be Faron! Obviously I’ve changed that somewhat… but I still like the idea so I may find a way to work it back in.
I don’t like to take the easy routes when doing these kinds of concepts, not because I look down on them but more because I like the challenge. So Hyrule is giving me a little trouble because he’s canonically got fae blood. So like fae or even changeling… but changelings are a type of fae so of course I’m going to go all in on that (and get horribly distracted because doppelgängers are a type of fae, what that’s so cool) and it’s lead me down a rabbit hole. So more on Hyrule another day…
Wind is also giving me fits because he’s going to be something ocean related and it’s gotta fit his nature, so there’s Cephali which are a type of Sea fae and then there’s others that are more commonly thought of, but I could make him something wind related a novel idea I know which means more research to be done! I had some other ideas, like mythos or superstition believed by sailors to draw inspiration for but like I said more research.
Wild! Is! A! Church Grim! Also! But he’s gonna be an amalgamation like Twi. Dryad calls to me for him, but I want to do a little more digging because it’s gonna be a connection thing for him. He’s a church grim, but all of Hyrule is the cemetery :3c hehe oops
Time is 100% a changeling. Hands down. No explanation needed. He may become something else after events of TP, he may not, we will see. I will saying nothing else because mans needs to be mysterious. It may change if I stumble across something more interesting though
Legend is a kitsune (which is also!! A type of fae!! It falls into fae rules. Very interesting.) but they’ve got that same tenuous relationship with being perceived as good versus not good. In a lot of myths, they’re the messengers of the sun goddess… which feels fitting for Legend since he’s been on the most adventures! The more intense Good vs Bad in their mythos also feels fitting because Ravio is also a kitsune! While mythos says they’re fox spirits… I don’t follow rules so they’re bunnies. Heh.
Warriors is going to be my only one without anything as of yet. I want to do more research into mythic creatures and spirits more associated with war and just haven’t had the time yet. Maybe this weekend. Some of these wouldn’t have “true forms” while on their adventure through time together… so it would be interesting to have TOTK events happen post LU events and have Wild contend with how changed his brothers have become in the years (millennia for then really) since they traveled together.
This was rrreeeaaallllllllyyy long. Oops lol
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moliathh · 2 months
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Idk if you’ve thought this much about it but I keep thinking about your reverse au,,,,, how did the groups come together in this universe? Were the members of Iscariot still raised together, or are they more of a hodgepodge of mercenaries who met through work? Has Hellsing taken on that roll of a ‘family’ in the church?
Yes I mostly want to know how Yumikel met MEUXBEKZHEBE
Thank you so much for your interest i am still working on the AU but here are some basic information i kind of sketched out about the Iscariot (i also love yumikel yess i am working on how they meet),
The initial idea (might change) i had for the Iscariot is that Yumiko, Heinkel and Enrico are all from the same orphanage and they sticked together, because Iscariot in this is neutral alignment, and i intended to fix Enrico. He's still hungry for power and control, like in canon, but more grounded because his relationship with Yumiko and Heinkel is closer and they're his found family that keep him from straying too deep into madness (btw spoiler that Millenium is good aligned and Hellsing is bad aligned, it is "reversed" from the og hellsing anyway). In this, Enrico is an occultist, and Anderson is a demon he conjured (to contrast Anderson in canon that served his Christian religion).
Yes and back to the trio, they were seperated and taken in by different organisations and got turned. I am still working on this btw, so the reasons are still unclear whether they were used as bloodbag (yumi) or maybe military purposes idk i need to think harder on it, but one thing is definite is that in this au there are more monsters, real one not artificial, than in og Hellsing, so each group have their own autonomy. Yumie and Heinkel are both true vampire and werewolf btw, not artificial. Anyway, Enrico made a pact with Anderson for power to find Yumie and Heinkel. And they started growing up together, making money by working as hired mercenaries. That's why their alignment is neutral, because they work for the organisation that pays them.
During that time, they helped each other work on the newfound power. Heinkel can't control the wolf shapeshift yet she is working on it and she still wolf out when she's excited. While Yumiko sometimes go bloodlust and delirious, after she drank a lot of people that she assassinated, and her alter ego is Yumie (almost similar mechanism like Alucard's variations in the og hellsing). Enrico binded her with black magic demon power something something idk, almost similar to the Hellsing binding in og Hellsing, but not to bound her to him but to restrict her powers so Yumiko don't just comes out randomly. (I will work on creating a mechanism on her restraint that makes sense, this is still missing a lot of informations).
And to Hellsing, well Hellsing doesn't exactly act like a family, well they almost, kind of, but not exactly. In this, Integra is probably the closest to "family" to Seras while Alucard acted more like a teacher than a family member to Seras. And to recap, Integra is supposed to be Seras' guardian angel (long story btw), but she failed to save Seras in time so she gave Seras' angel blood so Seras became a nephilim, half human half angel.
Okay, let me start from the beginning, everything process like in og Hellsing, Vlad got dragged to public execution and prayed to heaven but G didnt ascend on him. So in this au, i made Integra an archangel who pitied Alucard so she think a little bit of divine revelation to a dead man is probably not too much of a transgression, but when she appeared before him (only he can see and no one else can so they thought he was tripping when he started talking to himself), he assumed that G sent her as a prize for his sacrifice so he just assumed that he rightfully owned her (inspirations from stories of selkies or mermaids that were caught by men because those fishermen just ASSUMED he owned her what a crazy man, but that is what Vlad would do i think) so he cursed her to be bound to him and every of his reincarnations (it's a blood curse, and if you want to know how he did it, he kissed her with his own blood and blood he licked off the stage, and she became an outcast angel like Eve because she ate food from humans, and that was blood too so it was extremely sacrilegious, im drawing inspiration from Eve AND Persephone). Yeah well anyway, Integra still had some celestial power left like understanding Angel's languages and shapeshifting, immortality, demon repelling, exorcism etc etc yeah all the classic one and she can return to her angel form but only PARTLY, not entirely and also she is not allowed back to heaven (she can fly tho but she have her limits when it comes to flying). And then, Vlad reincarnate and everytime he did, he started wrecking havoc, each reincarnations of him doesnt exactly remembered his past lives but he is always born into someone with Dracula blood, descendants of the family. And because Vlad left records, other reincarnation of him also contribute their own record of encounters with Integra. Integra on another hand was stuck with humans, she have her limits and no longer as omnipresence as she was. And each angel in this au is asigned a list of humans to guard over, and Integra failed her task because she no longer capable to guard all over them, however she did have the list and she tried to find her human to protect but most of the time they're already dead by the time she arrived. And she tried to do good things to ammend her sins, but Vlad everytime he was reborn will start conflicts and war to draw Integra out because she is a repenting angel she is very drawn towards places of great suffering, and she tried to hide from Vlad's reincarnations because he have authority over her and she can't kill him, both not capable and not allowed to (as a repenting angel, remember? not allowed to harm anyone). Okay okay fast forward, in the au i am working on, this time the reincarnation of Vlad is called Alucard, and spoiler alert, this time, hes a human but with celestial powers, almost like Integra. Because the soul of Vlad made a deal with Lucifer so when he reincarnated as Alucard, he maintain all of his memories and Integra in this au agreed to side with Alucard because she sensed celestial energy from him so she thought he was blessed or chosen to become an exorcist. And as to why he became an exorcist, he doesn't really care about exorcising, he was just messing around with Integra. In some cases, he himself was the one that conjure demons up (Hellsing is bad aligned in this but Integra and Seras didn't know it yet). And as an exorcist he is invited to crime scenes of demon activities to clean up. One of the crime scenes was Seras's family and Integra finally came across someone on her list that is still at least breathing so she tried ressurecting Seras with her blood. Yeah that's how we got Seras Victoria an orphan that was adopted by the church. Integra cared a lot about Seras, while Alucard intended to use Seras to use Integra. Oh and, Alucard in this au is still obsessive as ever to Integra, he's very close to losing his shits. Alucard and Integra acted like an exorcist duo, with Seras as their protege exorcist.
(The background of Integra and Alucard is lowkey inspired from buddhism's concept of reincarnation and fate and karma something something btw)
If you have any suggestion please do inform me I would love to hear it and thank you for listening to my yappings.
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stardragongalaxy · 9 months
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Library of Illusion Event
Title: The Lion's Heart
WC: 1.5
Pairing: Leonin Ranger/Robinhood Mingi x Elven reader
Au/trope/genres/rating: Dungeons and Dragons inspired au, Robinhood inspired au, Established relationship, Adventure, Angst, Fluff, slight horror, 18+
Warnings: Violence, blood, fighting, uses of weapons, I think that's it. Let me know if I missed anything
AN: Hello. This is not edited, but I hope you enjoy it. The event itself is 18+, and even if these have no smut, they are still considered mature from the graphic nature. Zyn is an oc I created long ago. If you wish to use her, ask permission before doing so. Thank you!
Disclaimer: The idols in this fic are no way to represent them in real life.
Comments, feedback, and reblogs are welcomed and appreciated as this is a source to keep us writers going.
Do not steal, translate, re-upload, or plagiarize my fics. Thank you!
Taglist: @abiaswreck @kitten4sannie @cultofdionysusnet @sanjoongie @anyamaris @kwanisms @yoonguurt @flowerboykun @kpop-stories-21 (dm or send asks to be added or removed)
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You stepped closer to the remaining four books, looking around at the darkness, growing a little closer each time a book disappeared with its owner to each section. You felt watched, making you feel a little uneasy, but shaking it off, wondering if it's just you overthinking. "Don't get into your head. You are here to overcome the trials and find answers. whispering to yourself in reassurance.' Turning to the inner right, you see a book with a paler color of red and orange intertwined. Deciding to go with adventure next, from memory, bending down watching this little orb shiver at you. You chuckle softly, holding your hands out for it. Bounding three times almost in excitement and courage into your hands. This time, the orb and book burst in explosive light, pulling you into the next story. 
You open your eyes, blinking a few times looking around, this time the area is more woodland, overlooking nature on a cliff. You relax yourself by taking in memories of this story. Feeling something moving under you that broke your focus, your eyes landed on the large dragonic wolf you've been mounted upon. "Where are we?" You whispered, taking in everything, petting the beast's neck gently. 
"The hills of Nottingham to find your husband who hides for now until the next mission with his band of friends" The beast spoke with firm certainty though gentle, mythical energy radiated from them. You nodded petting the dragon head gently careful of the chains wrapped around her horns. "Let's waste no time. Lead the way Zyn" 
Zyn nodded while you held on tight jumping  into the air, bounding off the rocks going down the valley safely on your best friend, one of the guardians of the land. Landing at the bottom in safety, Zyn began running at full speed through the woodlands. Both of you keeping your senses sharp knowing any of the deputies or Sheriff could appear if they were searching. You moved you hand over you weapon holding tight to Zyn, seeing a cave ahead that concealed much more inside. A roar of victory was sounded inside while Zyn slowed down to walking catching her breath.
Upon entering the cave venturing further in, seeing the darkness chased away with torches and a campfire with the surrounding group, your husband among them. You smiled, taking in his features. A muscled lion, brown and red in coloration sharing not only his food, but the treasures after he gave most of the other loot to the villagers that needed it the most. You slid off Zynnia's back, letting her move and rest beside Yeonjun, her own lover, after reaching the campfire with the others greeting them. You took a seat between Mingi and Soobin, an elf much like yourself to rest for a time. Mingi wrapped his arm around you nuzzling into you with a soft growl kissing your temple out of missing you, asking if everything went well while the others talked among themselves, but quieting down enough to listen in respect. You had made a journey earlier to give the same village any medicines for the sick that you created for healing purposes. Answering with a positive notion, holding up the reward of a journal and another emblem that was important to the traveling group. 
Mingi and the others, satisfied with the successful missions, decided to call it a night. The other members had gone to bed, ones they had crafted themselves further off in the cave system for their own privacy leaving only you two around the campfire. He moves you to his lap to sit wrapping his arms around your waist laying his head on top of your own, enjoying the peaceful moment. You relax, caressing up and down his arms gently hearing a growl from him, flinching slightly in pain from his injuries. Clicking your tongue, you reach into your clothes carefully getting some medicine you had left over, the inside of the bottle mixed with crushed herbs. You opened it gently, seeing the paste-like substance dipping your fingers into it. "I'll be quick so don't move too much darling" You calmly suggest starting to cover the larger wound on his forearm. He growled, trying not to move his arm, but he did curl his claws into your sides causing you to bleed a little making you jump slightly.
"Sorry, I didn't mean that" Mingi whispered, whimpering slightly that he hurt you. You kissed his chin to assure him. 
"It's okay. I knew it'd hurt, but it will soothe and sting since it works differently than anything before" You explained, working the paste to the other wounds he had then to your own. Mingi calmed down again, nuzzling into your head gently with a loud purring growl, caressing your stomach in gentle motions and taking care of you enjoying the moment together. "Shall we take a walk?" Mingi whispers by your ear with a hmm in response grabbing both your weapons.
Mingi helps you up, taking your hand leading you out of the cave quietly into the sunset filled woods leading the way. You tugged his hand gently making him stop, turning to look back at you passing him his bow and quiver of arrows. In turn, he puts everything on letting your hand go for a moment letting you fit your own weapons as well. 
The ground shakes catching both your attention. Mingi moves closer to you, reaching back to get an arrow getting it ready, while you get your own weapon looking around carefully. He bumps your shoulder then pulls back quickly hearing the whizzing of the enemy arrow hitting the tree. You both turn, seeing three figures in white. Mingi bares his fangs letting out a roar letting his arrow fly. He turns giving no time grabbing your wrist running now in adrenaline to get away hearing the enemy following. Mingi looks ahead seeing a smaller cave opening. You glance back, seeing one of the white figures using a large weapon. Pushing Mingi to the side he rolls a few times watching the weapon hit the ground then frantically searches for you, seeing you nowhere in sight. He does see blood on the ground making his heart sink at the sight and his body shaking from fury. Standing up, holding back his tears, he lets out a vicious roar at the enemy moving with more speed to fight.
You on the other hand, hold your injured arm looking at the slashes from the heavy mace the enemy wielded. Looking around the tree you see the fight going on then looking at the cave entrance. You move quietly to the cave mouth holding yourself against it, turning to watch the fight seeing Mingi get knocked backwards, though still standing holding his arms over his head and chest, snarling. 
"Looking for something, golem!!" You called out, holding a pendant in front of you, smirking, tricking the giant to come after you with his weapon that broke the pendant off. Mingi ran in your direction as the giant gave chase. It slammed its weapon again to hit a tree this time. Mingi moved quickly enough to get you inside while the fallen tree enclosed the entrance leaving an angry giant wailing outside.  
Coming out of the light, Mingi and yourself landed back in the mirror dimension once again. "That was too close" You whispered breathlessly as Mingi smirked with a soft chuckle helping you up onto your feet. 
"We still made it. An adventure of a lifetime" He commented holding your hand with the pendent to get it gently. "I'm glad you got to visit again. I'll take this. Keep it up and I'll be free soon enough" he adds kissing your forehead heading towards the mirror. You turn to follow Mingi go through, but to see Seonghwa covering your body up with a blanket. You check over yourself seeing no marks, but for some reason you felt strange. You heard a noise causing you to turn quickly, but seeing nothing in the darkness. You wanted to say hello, but thought it best to listen if you could hear anything. A moment passes and nothing. Shaking the feeling away for now, you take a deep breath.
"Is something the matter?" Seonghwa asks, making you jump, looking in his direction quickly. He sees your expression and chuckles amusedly. "Half way through and you are already jumpy" he teases while rubbing your neck bashfully. 
"You are doing well and half way there. The challenges get harder from here. I suggest you rest before continuing" 
You took him up on his offer, letting your spirit and body rest for a time while Seonghwa watched over you. He looks over at the mirror, seeing a flash of silver eyes looking back from the darkness behind the three lively books.
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by-glass-and-waves · 2 months
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do you have a playlist or like a mixtape for inspiration or setting the mood when writing your stories?
Oh boy I hope you're ready because YEAH I DO
Associating songs with themes/scenes/locations have been my thing for like years and I would totally listen to a song over and over to figure out what happens during each part as well as what themes/ideas fit with a song. I made a few playlists on my oc worldbuilding shit a long while back in this manner heh
My playlist is divided into each AU, complete with weird titles to remind me what is what in each song
It is a work in progress though, a lot of them on the bottom haven't been organized yet and may not even be used actually there's a lot to organize omg
Link is for my YouTube playlist (and if you're on YouTube Music I recommend using the video for the first song because if you select the audio only version it will not give you the remix)
I go by vibes more than lyrics, and I thought that most of these should be more soundtracks though there are some exceptions
Song list/associations under the cut, it'll be in the playlist description as well (it's really long sorry)
Emil Ultimatum - Narinder (Courtship/Depression Quest/Restart) - use the video vers since the song vers only plays Emil (Despair)
Depression Quest
Courtship of the God of Death
Master of Time - Narinder
Dark World - Anupet
Epilogue - The Gilded Cage
Wretched Weaponry (short vers) - The Chained One
Widespread Illness - Prison of the Mind
[Tower of Sunz] - The Wrong Side of Love
Midcentury Motion - Escape
Danger in the Forest - Darkwood
Terra -
ZETA, la chanson - The Wanderer
Esto Gaza - The Heart Shaped Pond
Bran Bal - Eye of the Storm
Currents - Respite
Yoru Vln - The Stars Above
Somnus - Grief in Darkwood
Restart
Freya's Theme - Narinder
Malchut's Song - Shapash
The Kingdom of Noigllado - The Bishops
Kagachi - The First Resurrection
Ristaccia - Chaining the One Below
Trisagion -The Temple (Shapash)
Pandemonium - The Temple (The One Who Waits)
Memoria - Recollection
Once in a Lullaby - The Crystal Temple
Wretched Weaponry (long vers) - The Crystal Temple/Regret
Candy Shoppe - The Blacksmith's Final Gift
Innocent Wish - Yearning
Palliative - Distance
Water from the Same Source - The Admirer/Understanding
Unrequited Love -
Eidolon Wall - The Gateway/The Lands Below
Shadowlord's Castle/Memory - The Temple, Defeated
Eidolons on Parade - Slow Descent into Despair
Sarabande - Understanding/Contentment
When We Finally Fall Asleep, Pt. 3 - Mutual Understanding
Amusement Park - Arms Full of Offerings/Growing Jealousy
Dark Colossus (Kaiju) - The One Who Waits
Copied City - The Gateway
Possessed by Disease - Unraveling
Mourning - The Bishops
19th Century AU
The 13th Anthology - Narinder
Snow in Summer - The Lands of the New Faith
Turii ~Panta Rhei~ - The Dying World
Turii ~Panta rhei~ (Orchestra) - The New World
Main Theme of Final Fantasy V -
Zephyr Memories ~Legend of the Eternal Wind~ -
Saving Words for Making Sense - A Tender Moment
The Disney Afternoon - Town Theme/Respite
Blinded by Light - Crusade
Silver Dragon - Boss Battle
Gods Bound by Rules - Frivolous Masquerade
Blind Justice, le concerto - Blood of Chaos/"What… has become of us?"
Grandma (Destruction) - Guardian of the True Word
…con lentitud poderosa - Threshold of His Temple
Bipolar Nightmare - Betrayal
Black Song White Scales - The Sacrificial Beast
The Sound of the End - The Point of the Sharpened Blade
Raison d'etre - The Final Battle
God Shattering Star - The Final Battle
The Ultimate Weapon - A Heart for a Heart/Sacrifice
North - The Red Crown
Dispossession/Piano Ver. - Aftermath
Dust to Dust - Crossing the River
His Dream - Within the Circle
Theme of Love - No Illusion
Terra's Theme -
Shadowlord - Shamura
Shadowlord's Castle/Roar - Silk Cradle
Sustained by Hate - Revelation/Disappointment
March of the Dreadnoughts -
Atonement - A Heart for a Heart
VS. Star Dream - Kallamar
Midnight Moonlight -
The Final Battle (Magolor's Theme) -
Three in the Morning (Aftermath) - Abandoned/Regret
Destati - Imprisonment
Village of Dali - Respite
Kaine/Salvation - Relief
Alien Manifestation - Bitu
Dwelling of the Ancient Gods - The One Who Waits/The Gateway
Lord of a Dead Empire - The One Who Waits
Between Heaven and Earth - The One Who Waits
Birth of a Wish - The Red Crown/The Deal
A Beautiful Song - vs Heket and Miniboss
Crumbling Lies (Front) - vs Shamura and Miniboss
Song of the Ancients (Atonement) - Baal and Aym
Pascal - Ratau
The Spirit Dais - Bitu
Tango Appassionata - Allani and Narinder
Phantom Forest - Lost in the Gardens of the Ball/Shamura
Aerith's Theme -
Nautilus - The Capital
Yoru Vo - Halycon Harbor (Night)
Moonsetter - Baal and Aym
Requited - Across the Room/The Dance
War & War - Shamura
A Funeral of Flowers (Rain) - Prince Narinder (Unfettered)
A Funeral of Flowers (Thunder) - Prince Narinder (Amenthes)
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I am anon of the corpse party, and i REQUEST THE BANSHEE FINAL OF WHUMP, WITH ALL MY POWAAAAAAAA THUNDERS FALLING AGAINST THE GROUND
Sorry, just to confirm mermo, and maybe someday you'll see my true form… Anonymous not anonymous
The Fox and the Onryo - Evil!Miko x Male!Reader - Ending
A/N: Hello, anon of the corpse party! The thunder summoned Sadness herself, who brought with her a chance for vengence. Enjoy!
CW: Reader death, suicide, gore, self-destruction, mental anguish, murder, ghosts eating bodies, Demon!Reader, Necro AU.
Under the cut, for safety reasons.
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There was no pain when your body hit the cold, hard pavement of the road leading to the shrine. In your last moments of consciousness, some primal part of you regretted your decision to end your nightmare. You used the final scraps of your mental fortitude to push through, and position your head straight down. Thanks to that, your brain didn’t register anything as you splashed on the stone. 
The suicide took place in the evening, when most workers and visitors were already at their homes. The point was for no one to stop you. Still, you wanted to leave an impact. A final spit in Miko’s face, a scratch on the Shrine’s reputation. The holiest place in all Inazuma, and one of its guardians threw himself off the edge. It would certainly raise eyebrows, if not at Miko, then at least at the place. At least you hoped so. 
Misfortune had it that there was a real downpour of rain that day, so it was no problem for Miko to spin a story about how you most likely slipped on the walkway. Most people believed her - she was the wise Guuji, for crying out loud. Doubting her would be doubting Sakura's will, and no one was brave enough for that. A few most trusted shrine maidens were appointed by Miko to scrape your remains off the cobblestone, and prepare them for burial. 
But… Miko had other plans for you. Announcing that you couldn’t be buried with full honors, she argued that your blood stained the holy shrine - and that wouldn’t pass by the rules. Again, nobody objected. Intimidated, or just uncaring? Nobody could tell. You were ‘gifted’ a simple memorial spot on the Tenryu Commission graveyard, while your actual body was wrapped in simple, white sheets, and thrown into a shallow grave a few hundred meters away from the shrine. 
There was no way Miko would allow your soul to rest. You were her best, most fun-to-play-with toy, and the hottest one at that. How dare you cut her fun? As punishment, your soul would have to roam the island for all eternity, grieving and unable to let go of your hate, but harmless at the same time. It was believed that the power of the spirit was bound to their body’s state, so if yours was eaten by wild dogs you wouldn’t be a threat. 
Convinced of the effectiveness of her actions, Miko left your unmarked grave with a smile on her face. 
What she didn’t expect was an intervention. A manipulation from someone she knew from a long, long time ago. A creature, or rather a force sped up your inevitable revival. Your last thoughts formed into a shadowy silhouette of the person you once were, now overcome with your final emotions - hate, rage, sadness, fear. 
You just… woke up. You were shaken, shaken to the core. Your last memory was the sight of the ground, barely a few inches from your face. Not darkness, but fog-like gray surrounded you. There was a single, square disturbance in its cloak around you. You got up, and moved to investigate. Crossing through the thin layer of dirt separating you from the outside world, your sight was immediately overcome with a blurry mess of pastel colors. After a brief moment, you caught on as to what they represent. All of them were elements - the vibrant green of Dendro below you was grass, the yellow shapes of Geo in the distance were rocks, and the deep blue Hydro blanket in the horizon was surely water. The layers were pastel and really bright, but they didn’t hurt your eyes. 
The actual realization as to why they didn’t hurt took you a good, long while to dawn upon you. You simply… no longer had eyes. There wasn’t anything to ‘hurt’ anymore. 
You looked down at your once-hands. Now, all that was left were strings of pure darkness, slightly curling and expanding every now and then. The rest of your body was just a black fog. Your mind raced, desperately trying to accept that. You could no longer feel yourself, and this reality scared you. It was so… different. You knew there would be no chance for Miko to hurt you physically anymore, but also that you couldn’t smell, touch, or taste anything from now on. No dango, no smell of cherry blossoms and no feeling of soft rain falling on your hot skin. All that… lost. 
Lost to Miko. 
It wasn’t your fault. You would still live, still feel if not for her. 
Wrath boiled in your soul, making it violently morph. Your ten fingers turned into wicked claws, and sharp knife-like teeth emerged from the shape of your head. You focused on one thing, and one thing only. 
Revenge. 
There was no point in delaying now, you thought. Moving through the elemental landscape you searched for her. Miko. You thought of all the ways to kill her. Rip her eyes out. Snap her spine. Drown her, push her off the cliffside, or choke her to death. 
All those wonderful ideas stopped when you saw a figure. A human silhouette made up of pure white. The large shape with straight lines at the sides made you come to one conclusion - a shrine gown. And those unmistakable protrusions on her head. It was her, surely. No one would come to taunt you in this awful afterlife other than the Guuji, for sure. 
You knew she wasn’t inside the realm you were in. This enraged your spirit, so you attempted to take form. You attempted to think yourself into physicality. As you felt the grass underneath your bare feet once again, you knew you succeeded. Wasting no time, you threw yourself at your abuser. With loud screams and heavy, merciless swipes you struck at her form, ripping out fragments of the light she was made up of in your eyes. Only when her shape turned from human into an irregular mess did you stop. The light on your fingers felt so… good.
A wave of sudden hunger overcame you. Your hands weren’t moving on your command as they lifted the light up to your mouth, and placed it in. It tasted good, however. So much so that the next grab was voluntary, just as the next one. And the next one. After a while, your entire ‘forearms’ were covered in whiteness. Your very soul shook suddenly, and your vision blurred once more. The elemental colors started to merge and morph, turning into a much more varied spectrum. Dendro separated into many shades of green, just as Geo and Hydro. You gazed up at the sky, and soon enough the light gray moon came before your sight. 
You looked down at the light you were consuming just before, as well as at your own, now physical body. 
Your mangled hands were covered in blood. Not your own blood this time. Your attention shifted to the body in front of you. On the wet grass lie the motionless, gutted body of not Miko, but another maiden. A young girl with black hair and a large hairpiece you so easily took in as fox ears. Her skin was pale, and her eyes were glossy. An expression of pure terror was twisted on her lips. Her hands lay at her sides, exposing her ripped-open stomach. You slowly wiped your mouth, and discovered flaps of skin and other viscera on your hand. 
Next to the girl was a smashed, glass lantern. Even though the outside cover was in pieces, you could easily spot the Kanji making up your name. The candle was still flickering weakly. 
The wave of agony that overcame you is indescribable. You fell to your knees, and wailed. Your talons made their way up to your dead eyes, and started scratching. They worked and worked, until nothing was left of your face. This did nothing to relieve the pain you felt, the pain in your very soul. 
So you screamed, cried, begged and shrieked and scratched for Archons know how long. It was the only thing you could do, really. Miko had won, again. She had indirectly taken another innocent life, this time with your hands. This girl… you knew her. She was named Akira. She handed out the fortune slips, and she would always be so kind to the people, even those bitter. She always greeted you respectfully, and even referred to you as ‘-sama’. 
She most likely came here to place that lantern at your unmarked grave. Akira wanted to show you the proper respect one last time, and what did you do? You attacked her, like a wild animal. You filled your undead stomach with her meat… A beast. A disgusting, foul being was what you were. 
Despite wanting to so badly, you couldn’t kill yourself again. You couldn’t lift this curse, no matter how much you tried. You considered going to the shrine in hopes of the maidens banishing you, but you decided against that. There was a chance Miko would be the one to do it, and you refused to give her any more chances to hurt you. Any satisfaction from doing that as well. Attacking her would most likely result in collateral damage like you just caused, and you dreaded the possibility of that happening again. 
So, you thought, the only way to end your miserable existence would be to get revenge. But not with your own hands - but with mortal ones. 
You combed through your mind for the best person to ask for help. Someone in a position of power, who knew you and didn’t like Miko would be best. You were lucky to know such a person. 
It didn’t take long to find Sara. You ambushed her in the evening when she was alone in her office, and took physical form. Understandably, and uncharacteristically as well, the Tengu was mortified by the sudden appearance of a broken corpse. She whispered every single prayer she knew when you closed in, managing to force her to back up against the wall. With utmost difficulty, you managed to force a single word out of your lips. Follow. 
And follow she did. You led her to your grave, pointing at the exact spot you were buried in. After seeing that, Sara immediately went to get a few strong soldiers with sturdy shovels to dig in the spot. They soon uncovered your body, and with a lot of disgust, they lifted it out of the hole. Barely a day from your death passed, so it was barely decomposed. Sara ordered your equipment to be thoroughly searched, and sure enough, the letter you wrote was discovered in your blood-soaked sleeve. Its content, a final description of the abuse you withstood before snapping into jumping, made her face contort in hate and disgust for the head priestess. You wrote and kept it on you in faint hopes of someone finding it, and giving Miko what she deserves. There was no way for you to expect just how useful that would prove to be. 
Without a moment of hesitation, Sara delivered the original letter straight to Ei herself. It was barely readable due to the blood and grime it was covered in, but the shogun understood its contents. Miko was summoned shortly after right before the throne. Ei interrogated her on the matter, but Miko obviously refused the alleged faults. Raiden Ei ordered the other maidens to be brought before her. As expected, they either denied seeing or knowing about her actions, or just pleaded obliviousness. There was only one way to find out the truth.
And so, the Shogun ordered a Xiezhi to be brought from Liyue - an illuminated beast capable of telling truth from lies at a moment’s notice. As it turned out, there was one who would be willing to come to Inazuma. Even despite being a hybrid, the young but renowned lawyer named Yanfei would prove to be just right for the task at hand. She came shortly after. 
And just as legends told, it only took Yanfei one glance to deem your written words truthful. The room erupted into chaos - the people cheered, whistled and screamed for punishment. 
Miko only laughed. She knew Ei wouldn’t be able to kill or seriously harm her. She looked her straight in the eyes when she got up from her throne. The onlookers watched in tense silence as Ei approached her once-friend, brandishing her polearm. An expression of nothing but pure disgust rested on the vessel’s face. 
“For your betrayal, for your abuse and killing of the mortal, and for the shame you brought upon the Sacred Sakura, I condemn you to a hundred years of solitude.”
Miko’s eyes widened. Ei was merely joking, right? She couldn’t do this to her! Not for messing with a pathetic, meaningless mortal! But Ei’s mind changed over the years. She grew more empathetic towards her subjects, and seeked out to fix her past mistakes. Letting Miko go unwatched was one of those shortcomings, and the Archon would not let that slide. She swung her polearm in the air, summoning a wormhole to the Plane of Euthymia. After the Traveler’s intervention in Inazuma, Ei decided to abandon that realm to instead pursue a greater connection with the humans she ruled over. As Miko was dragged in, you rushed to her, and managed to enter the dimension.
Both of you landed on the gray sand, now placed in a liminal space between the metaphysical and the real world. You raised, brandishing your newly gained instruments of punishment. Miko looked at you, eyes wide. 
She did not predict this. 
You smiled, and hummed softly. 
Time for payback. 
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lunarsands · 10 months
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ALSMP Fanfic: Along The Roads To Sanctuary Ch 1
Bonus also Empires SMP S2 fanfic! I just didn’t want to make the title field too long ^_^;
Characters: PearlescentMoon, Scott Smajor, MythicalSausage, Eddie, Joel Smallishbeans, Bubbles the Dog, Hermes, mentions of other Empires S2 characters, including a certain misplaced warlock… Sausage Supreme
Relationships: MythicalSausage/Scott Smajor
Tags: Canon Divergent, fictional religion, scosage, Afterlife SMP meets Empires SMP S2 but in an AU way,
Warnings: violence, surrealism via magic auras, humorous misunderstandings about infidelity, (tfw your husband cheats on you…with you), kidnapping (although we know how that went in canon)
(Sequel to Echoing Through To You, When The Skies Cry, Until The Blood Moon Descends, Then We’ll Rewrite The Stars, Wherever These Flowers May Grow)
Summary: A happily ever afterlife is interrupted by the distant past; Sausage receives another calling and is sent into a different mortal world from their old one, with Scott insisting on following so they won’t be separated. They both lead brand new lives but only Scott regains memories of the previous one on his own, and he isn’t allowed to remind Sausage about any of it without jeopardizing the mission the angel was sent to complete – a mission someone else was supposed to have dealt with.
(Also available on Ao3!)
[ A/N: Gratitude as usual to Cynthrey for brainstorming and for help translating dialogue lines to Spanish! | Since my sequel title game is getting excessive, I’m noting here that this also follows the events of “Who’s The Unfairest Of Us All”, hence the italicized blurb at the beginning]
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Chapter One
As soon as Sausage and Scott had left after telling her about their encounters with Myth and Smajor, Pearl began to pace around the inside of the royal gazebo, her mind abuzz with thoughts of parallel versions of people. She stopped at one point to wave a hand over the reflecting pool, bringing up a sepia-tone image of a world from the past.
She watched it for a moment, then let out a distressed sigh and returned to pacing around, hands clasped tightly behind her back.
An unfamiliar voice called out from the direction of the pool. “Goddess PearlescentMoon, we need to have words with you.”
Pearl froze, then pivoted on her heel. Rising out of the pool was a bipedal figure made of jittering static. When they fully emerged, they stepped onto the floor, remaining indistinguishable, although Pearl thought she could make out the shape of a pair of closed eyes. “Well, that’s quite an entrance,” she said stiffly. “But – I’m sorry? Who are you?”
“We are one of the higher deities, responsible for matters of the spirit which are involved with all living things. That includes souls. You have something to answer for…”
Behind them, the pool returned to the image of the sepia-washed world just as a figure wearing a crown of red and gold stepped into view.
~*~
Having overseen the settling of night across the mortal realms, the starborne guardian Scott made his way home with a series of mid-air leaps and bounds that left a trail of purple sparkles in his wake all the way back to PearlescentMoon’s realm, where it was also still night. He smiled, thinking of how he and Sausage would have a chance to watch the sunrise together before he took a little rest and the seraph started his daily work. They would still get to spend time together during the day, but night had become very special to him.
“Sausage! I’m back!” Scott called cheerfully as he opened the door. He then gave pause. There was an odd stillness about the place, and he found himself beginning to rush as he went from room to room, looking for any trace of the seraph – a note, perhaps, if he’d had an early duty to attend to. As he entered the bedroom, he could swear he heard the sound of a baby crying, just for a split second – but, no, it had to have just been the creak of the door hinges.
Then he spotted several feathers on the floor, a glint of silver along the tips as the light from the doorway fell on them. “Sausage?” he asked of the empty air.
It was unusual for him to up and leave with no word, regardless of whatever task he had to do. Scott turned, not even entertaining the thought of waiting, and was soon bounding toward the center of the realm where he knew he could find the one person who should definitely know where Sausage was.
The royal gazebo came into view, a humble and rustic structure on the outside that matched its surroundings and had nothing fancy about it that would indicate it was where a goddess held court. She was, at the moment, seated in her wicker throne and chatting with a messenger from some other minor god but her gaze flicked over to Scott as he entered. She held up a hand to pause her conversation then nodded at the starborne.
“Pearl, have you seen Sausage? He wasn’t at home waiting like usual and I didn’t see a note. Was he summoned for something?” He had expected a mere confirmation; he did not expect her look of sympathy.
“I am so sorry, Scott. This is going to be difficult to hear, but he received another calling.”
“What? What do you mean? I thought seraphs didn’t get those anymore!”
“It’s unusual but the situation turned out to be dire. And also complicated. It had to be him.”
“Wait, so… I don’t get to say goodbye or anything?”
“It was urgent.”
Scott hastily considered his options. “So, he’s on some mortal world again… Send me there.”
“I… don’t have that type of power over you.”
Scott tried not to let too much annoyance cross his face. “Then at least show me, please.” He gestured desperately to the reflecting pool set into the gazebo’s floor off to the side.
“There honestly isn’t much to show right now. He only just entered the world, but he’s also starting over – from the very beginning of a new life.” Aware of what he intended to do, and as usual knowing she couldn’t stop him, Pearl added, “You’ll have to do the same if you want to follow him. There are different rules there than the world where you two met.”
Scott’s eyes widened. He hadn’t imagined that sound of a newborn baby. The echo back at their house was Sausage’s connection to this realm. “W-Will he remember me, when we meet again – however many years that ends up being?”
“No. He can’t remember right now. His task requires… other memories. I can’t explain all of it right now. I’ll answer you if you call on me, when you regain your memories of life here, but you absolutely cannot tell him. It’s very important. There is… a great evil that he is now responsible for undoing. You can help protect him if the danger becomes too much – I know you could never be stopped from doing so – but you still have to be careful. Promise me, Scott of the Stars. Promise me you won’t interfere with this destiny.”
Scott’s heart ached. It might be a very long time before Sausage returned to the celestial realm if all of this was to play out as indicated. It would be better to at least be in the same world to help, rather than just watch from above. He murmured out loud, “Now I know how he felt, only able to look in on me in the other world after he ascended…” Then he nodded firmly.  “If we were destined to be together despite all the other trials, then this is destiny, as well. I promise.”
~*~
The first decade and a half was something of a blur and spent unaware of the power of the cosmos just beneath his skin, but as Scott made his way into his later teen years, he found himself studying the stars, drawn to follow them and see where they led. He began to explore around outside the idyllic town of llama herders and quiet meadows, collecting shiny rocks from the hills and streams, and occasionally even stumbling upon half-buried relics of a long-ago past – well, mainly pottery shards and arrowheads, but one time he found a gemstone that definitely had been shaped by artisan hands.
This gave him a taste for treasure hunting, and when on trips to other towns while accompanying llama caravans delivering goods, he would stop to scour local history books that might lead him to other shiny discoveries.
Some turned out to be in the clutches of people far wealthier than him. Some were squirreled away in general collections, and others were rumored to still be in the ruins and caverns they had been lost in. He wanted to acquire them all, even though he wasn’t always sure what was behind that urge. Stealing probably wasn’t the best idea…
At least, not without some tricks and training first. He practiced with treasures out in the wild, scaling cliffs and navigating ravines, although finding quite a bit of it to be easier than others might. His agility was unparalleled, and sometimes he seemed to have no regard for gravity at all.
The only thing that ever seemed to – if momentarily – throw him off his game was the sound of a bird taking flight. Something about it always caught his attention right away, and he would be compelled to watch as the bird flew away.
~*~
Elsewhere in the world, a young man learning to be a blacksmith in a peaceful town full of magically-gifted people would wander outside in the evening and sit to gaze up at the sky. His surrogate father, Eddie, the blacksmith training him and a member of one of the anthropomorphic peoples in the area, would join him after tidying up for the day.
One evening, after a particularly busy day and needing the extra hand with cleanup but finding him already gone, Eddie went out to retrieve him. He was on the bench out front as usual, making him easy to find, at least. Eddie put on the act of it being arduous to lower his older, aching body onto the bench. “Well, quite a lot to do still today, yet here you are. Sausage, why do you stare at the sky so much? It will still be there after we’re actually done for the day.”
“Sorry,” the young man offered, laughing awkwardly as he realized he was being scolded. “I can’t help it. They’re just so beautiful! I love seeing them appear as the sky gets dark, like a mystery that’s only revealed in certain light – or, well, lack of light, I guess. Lack of daylight, specifically? Anyway, I love to see them. I - I’ll come inside in a minute, I promise. I wasn’t going to not help close up the shop, I just…” He turned his gaze upward again. “I feel drawn to them. Sometimes I wish I could meet a star.”
Eddie scoffed, although it was a gentle sound. “You know they’re just specks of light, and not something you can actually see in person, right? Aside from legends that say otherwise, but those are still only legends. Even the old stories of spirits from the forests are just people who had nature magic. Probably just someone who had light magic, and either they or someone else claimed they fell from the sky.”
“This is unusually cynical of you tonight. I mean, one day someone might tell the legend of Sausage, the man who could talk to animals! I could be mythical, even!”
“I’m unusually tired and sore tonight, son.” Eddie tried to sound grumpy, but he enjoyed Sausage’s idea of whimsy. “Get back inside and help your old man out, then you can run with your imagination later.”
“Yes, sir, on my way!” Sausage hopped up and scurried inside. Eddie heard him a moment later chattering with a mouse before the sound of a broom sweeping the floor followed. He smiled and folded his arms over his stomach, taking a rest of his own as he admired the sky.
~*~
Adventuring and treasure hunting naturally came with a few costs. There were the occasional close calls where Scott was nearly caught stealing, and the ones where he was caught – an incident with a witch came to mind, when he had merely been trying to procure some potions to help in his endeavors, and while she was busy brewing, his sticky fingers just so happened to try to touch a shiny bauble hidden away on a dusty shelf. He figured she wouldn’t even miss it, considering the number of cobwebs around it. Instead, he ended up running out of her hut with neither the bauble nor the potions, and her threatening that the only reason she didn’t curse him right that second was because he paid for the potions in advance, and she at least was honorable in that aspect.
Then there were the physical scrapes and bumps from hastily escaping traps, his agility saving him from worse damage. He managed to avoid any major breaking of bones, although he did sprain his wrist one time. A little bit of rest and strictly adhering to stretching exercises saw him back to his craft again.
He was more careful about inspecting his surroundings when closing in on an item, now expecting pretty much everything to be trapped in some way. Yet one thing he did not heed was rumors surrounding treasures – he only believed in concrete evidence. No, a tomb was not guarded by an invincible warrior clad in armor; it had a redstone system that assembled iron golems when the trap was triggered. No, people were not stolen away by spirits; they bumbled their way into a hidden pit with a sheer drop all the way down to bedrock while the trap reset overhead.
Someone could say that a relic was ‘haunted’, but he dismissed those claims as nonsense. Actual magic had to be performed in front of his eyes, and until then, he remained skeptical. But it was still a good way to get a lead on where a treasure might be.
One such tale sent him on his longest journey to date, to find the entire treasure room of an ancient kingdom. It was said that the people had fled a great calamity, and with their ruler gone missing, not a second was spared toward worrying about what was inside the castle. Among the treasures were rumored to be a magic staff that allowed the wielder to travel to other dimensions – Scott guessed it might allow someone to magically summon portals to the Nether and to The End – and something called the Nether Star Pendant, said to contain the soul of a grim reaper, and whoever carried the relic with them would be safe from all manner of death. For that one he figured it had a spell of protection on it; there was no possible way a mere gemstone could hold such a spirit.
The ruins seemed promising, once he found them among overgrown fields and the crumbling foundations of buildings long since reclaimed by nature. He made his way to the largest footprint and scoured around until he found a way underground, where the lowest levels of the castle might have survived intact. After no small amount of digging, however, he found the old corridors to be impassible. This was not as simple as buried treasure under a beach somewhere.
He hated to leave empty-handed, but this would take some possibly serious excavation, and he didn’t even know for sure if there would be anything in there. Ancient tragedies eventually passed, and in the aftermath other people might loot an area as soon as it was safe – especially an entire abandoned castle.
He camped for the night under the stars. He would explore around tomorrow, maybe do a little more digging – maybe an extra meter further in might yield something to make this worth it. Even just a fancy sword or two would suffice. Although, perhaps the missing king himself had taken the items when he left, intending to cross dimensions and cheat death.
~*~
Elsewhere in the world, a man was running for his life through a village that was engulfed in fire everywhere he turned. He had lost track of his remaining loved ones in the smoke when everyone scattered. At least one of them needed to escape. At least one of them needed to keep the magic safe.
Well, no. Eddie had insisted that it be Sausage who must absolutely make it out alive and flee far, far away. With arrows streaking past him, he continued to run. He tried to use the smoke and flames to his own advantage until he could reach the outskirts of the village and attempt to lose his pursuers in the forest. As he crossed the border into the trees, he whispered a fervent request to those old spirits of the forest that Eddie had once talked about, hoping they might hear him and aid his escape somehow.
Someone answered, although he saw none of it as he fled, eyes straight ahead to find a path. Behind him the brush grew thicker, tree branches closing in to fill gaps, with vines suddenly swinging down to conveniently catch around a soldier’s chest, almost seeming to pull them backward. Giant sunflowers sprang up to block the way as well, and their stems proved too tough for the soldiers to cut them down with any type of speed.
The tyrant king would still want him – and anyone else possessing so much as a scrap of magic – to be found. Dedicated trackers and assassins would have to handle that.
~*~
Scott checked his map one more time. This was definitely the right desert temple. The supposed marble skull had to be around here somewhere. The drawing in the bottom corner was pretty specific, so it wasn’t like he could mistake it for one of the other dozen, mundane skulls laying around. Someone had once had a very creepy idea of décor, or maybe thought the display would scare off thieves. But he still wasn’t about to become superstitious and turn back.
He sidled around a bend in the corridor, very much continuing to be cautious of traps, however. He gasped quietly. There it was, finally. It practically gleamed in the dark, the light of his torch not yet reaching it, but once he had made his inspection of the floor and walls, the torchlight struck the pink jewel in the skull’s right eye socket.
He grinned to himself. It was magnificent. It would look wonderful in his collection. He kept his eagerness in check, however. Picking up a treasure was where the final two traps would be: triggered by touching the item itself, and by carrying it past a specific threshold.
With the utmost caution he removed the skull from its place. There wasn’t any dust around it to have left an imprint…or to hide some mechanism. He remained alert as he retreated to the doorway of the chamber, and watched every step he took on the way out of the temple. He even waited to see if taking the skull a certain distance caused any reaction, but it seemed he was going to get away with it completely unscathed.
That was, until he woke up the next morning and found he could no longer see out of his left eye.
Except that turned out to be because he no longer had a left eye.
Meanwhile, the skull now sported a brand new, shiny green gemstone in its left eye socket.
The shock and realization of what had transpired was enough to keep him stunned for the better part of the day. Putting the skull back was unlikely to change anything. After all, there was someone out in the world – at least at one time, since there was no way to gauge how long the skull had been there – walking around missing their right eye.
It took longer than he would have liked to gather his thoughts and choose a course of action. Maybe someone with more knowledge of magical artifacts could tell him how to get his eye back. Nothing that he could recall mentioned anything about the skull being magic, only that it was pristine and had a beautiful crystal in it.
.
Quiet inquiries eventually led him to an old wizard in a swamp – a very likely place for someone who would have knowledge of a body part stealing-and-transforming artifact. By that point Scott was more than happy to hand over the skull in way of payment, and he figured the weird potion was pretty much meant to knock him out so the wizard could extract his eye from the skull, change it back to normal, and return it to him.
At one point he heard a strange sort of echoing sound, and then felt the warmth of sunlight, and then could smell freshly turned soil, and then tasted honey.
All that was left to sense, then, was…
He opened his eyes. The wizard, the skull – all trace of everything was gone. But he could see properly again. He still had everything else on him that he had brought, so the wizard hadn’t robbed him; whatever reason he had for disappearing before Scott woke was fine to remain a mystery. He was just glad to have his full sight back.
He pushed open the door of the shack, knocking aside a tall sunflower without realizing that it hadn’t been there before. He passed several more sunflowers on the way to find a clear stream to get a look at his face. He leaned over and was startled to see that it wasn’t his eye, because now his left eye was yellow.
Unless maybe it had been altered by being in the skull and then removed from it? With the wizard gone, he had no way of finding… out…
Something else was strange.
His reflection appeared to be glittering, and not just from the sunlight refracting off the water. He looked down at his hands, then turned them forward and back; his skin appeared to be dusted with pinpoints of light. He brushed at them, then dipped them in the water and splashed some on his face, too – since it also glittered in the reflection.
But, no, it wasn’t something that could be washed off.
A memory stirred. He glanced over his shoulder at the nearest sunflower, then looked back down at the water. As the ripples faded out, he saw himself again, but with violet hair and matching eyes, a purple gradient starting bright at his fingertips then darkening as it went down the bare arms of his reflection.
He stumbled backward and landed pressed up against the side of the low hill. His head became a whirlwind of conflicting memories. His life here, but… a life somewhere else. A life of many creatures, not just human, starting with a small mothling and ending with a shooting star that left purple sparkles in its wake.
He gasped and looked at the sunflower again. “P-Pearl? Pearl?! Can you hear me?!” He jumped up and looked around, frantic. “I – I’ve remembered! I’ve remembered! Pearl, help me – where is he?!”
He reasoned that it might take a moment for his words to reach her. In the meantime, he crept back over to look in the water and gingerly touch his cheek below his left eye.
Perhaps the skull had known exactly what it was doing by taking the eye of a starborne.
~*~
“Scott, just remember – it is very important that you do not remind him yet.”
Scott kept that warning circulating in his head as he made plans. Pearl had responded by coming to him in a dream and giving him a quick briefing. Sausage was somewhere called Sanctuary, building the next phase of his life in this world. Scott would do the same to keep up appearances – a place of his own, rather than simply trying to move into Sanctuary right off the bat. Taking inspiration from the life that had gotten him to this point, he named it Chromia; a small kingdom situated in a flower meadow, which was his own poignant reminder of his home in another world.
It also conveniently gave him a source for trading with local villages, and he made a bittersweet pun out of calling Chromia “a place to dye for”. He looked forward to the day when Sausage might pick up on the second layer of the joke.
In the meantime, he learned that not only did his replacement eye reveal his own appearance, it also showed a glowing aura around magical items; he supposed starbornes could be considered magical beings. Upon this discovery, he tore through his collection, looking for anything of exceptional power that he might use to help Sausage when the time was right.
He found a set of five rings that glowed brightly and one gaudy scepter that had a spell contained within it. Items that had been proclaimed to be special turned out to be mundane, while a few others were, surprisingly, lit up like torches. He soon figured out that with a little concentration he could see the hidden runes floating around things, and he translated a few of them as he went along. The rings all had protection ensorcelled upon them. The scepter held a single fire charge.
A pair of netherite scimitars caught his attention. He remembered fighting with a sword and shield just fine in the past, but perhaps he could start practicing with them. They had a few layers of spells on them, which would doubly come in handy. He decided he would keep them secret, and let everyone think the ruler of Chromia had standard battle skills – more a colorful surface than substance underneath.
.
When an invitation went out calling on all the rulers of the lands to meet and discuss one big trade deal, Scott saw his chance to finally see how Sausage was faring. At first the gathering was dominated by a very outspoken goblin then everyone began talking over each other, but Scott’s focus was on Sausage, to the exclusion of anyone else. He appeared much the same, having managed to obtain a scar over his right eye again and was… well, honestly, quite a bit more buff-looking than Scott remembered. When Sausage loudly announced that he was trading in every type of wood that existed, it was clear the extra muscle came from lumberjack work.
Scott mentally shook off the distraction and began to analyze the others, just in case. No one seemed like too much of a threat so far… The presence of a pirate seemed a little shady, but that might have just been the instincts of one thief to another.
There was, however, one more shock of the day for him. One person towered above everyone else – literally. As Scott’s gaze traveled up their body to their face, and then as he focused on their voice amid the cacophony, he realized he recognized who it was. He couldn’t help murmuring out loud, “What are the odds of it being­ this world…”
Joel. It was Joel. The weather god. And he was showing no sign of recognizing him – or Sausage, for that matter – as he turned from his current conversation to look down at Scott. “What’s the matter, little colorful man? I noticed you on that hill near Stratos. You had better stay on your own side of the border. I’ve got big plans, because I’m a big god, and you don’t want to get on my bad side.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Scott replied coolly. “Don’t worry. I planned to just stick to my flower fields.” He turned away to not let the calculating look show on his face. There was no telling how long it had been since Joel had last seen them. Time was always a funny thing between the mortal and higher realms. It was possible Joel had forgotten all about the two florans who had been wandering around his world when he had been a fledgling god. Of course, they were also both decidedly less leaf-covered and not flower-bedecked now, despite Scott’s comment about fields.
A wistful look now crossed Scott’s face as he wandered away from the group. He might have managed to establish Chromia on top of lands that he and Sausage had once worked to repair. The idea was solidified when he wandered far enough for a distant structure to come into view, and he soon recognized it as the Greatbridge of Gilded Ratio – or, the Ancient Capitol, as the archeologist who was studying it called it.
“Hey – Scott, was it?”
His heart fluttered as he heard Sausage call him by name. “Yes, that’s me.” He kept his tone even as he turned to see the founder of Sanctuary jogging over to him. He tried very hard to not stare, for a few reasons. Then he realized something; just because he couldn’t remind Sausage of their previous lives didn’t mean he couldn’t show attraction to him. “What can I do for a strong, handsome man like yourself?”
“Um.” Sausage let out one of his giggles that Scott now realized he missed hearing. “I just, um, I heard you trade dyes? I have some colorful building designs I want to try, but I’m going to need a lot of dye for the concrete. Can we set up some kind of extra deal between just the two of us?”
“Sure. I’m actually lacking tree variety in Chromia. I’ll trade you color for color – I’m thinking regular planks might get too boring after a while.”
“I would highly recommend spruce for a lot of things, though!”
“Oh, that goes without saying, that you would—” Scott caught himself, “…because you seem to know what you’re talking about, being a lumberjack and all. I would assume decorating taste goes along with it, best use of each type and all that.”
“Oh, yes yes yes, architecture is another hobby of mine!” Sausage smiled proudly, perhaps glad that someone was seeing beyond his brawny exterior. “You should visit Sanctuary after I’ve built it up some more, you might enjoy what I have in mind, since you seem to also like a good color combination.”
Scott smiled warmly. “I’d like that. You can let me know how it’s going whenever you come by Chromia with a delivery. And you’re also welcome to stay for a little while, if you like…” He lightly placed a hand on Sausage’s arm and decided to not be subtle as he offered an admiring glance.
Sausage grinned in response, blissfully unaware that it was his own husband flirting with him, but clearly appreciating the interest.
~*~
Upon returning from the gathering, Scott decided he needed a better way to communicate with Pearl other than waiting for her to visit him in dreams. Recalling how Sausage had been able to focus directly on him via the memorial dais in the cemetery of Heaven’s Reach, he disguised a small shrine as seemingly just another part of a patch of sunflowers next to a supply shed, while including a small reflecting pool to ‘fancy up’ the shed itself. He figured it also counted as a nod to the farming goddess.
It took a day or two of visiting and quietly speaking her name over it, but there came a point where he walked past it and caught a glow coming off of it with his replacement eye. He smiled in relief and stopped to gaze into the pool. “Pearl. I can see you’ve connected. Can you hear me right now?”
The surface of the water shimmered, then the goddess’ face appeared. “I hear you and see you. Clever of you to think of this.”
“Well, you gave the suggestion last time. I figured it could work again. I’ve spoken with Sausage. He seems well, and didn’t recognize me at all, so the memory thing is working perfectly. I assume I’m allowed to spend time with him as long as I don’t purposely try to trigger anything.”
Pearl smiled patiently. “Yes, you can be friends with him. I did say you could help him. Just keep your own disguise up.”
“I do have one question, and it’s more for me than him. Do you know what, um, happens if someone gains access to a piece of a starborne? Can it be used to influence the stars in any way?”
Pearl’s expression became sad. Scott’s stomach twisted, now worried he had inadvertently caused a bigger issue – except, he didn’t know at the time he was risking a starborne’s body, nor knew what the skull was capable of. “I don’t know why it took your eye, Scott,” she said, startling him since he hadn’t told her any of that yet. “But I tried to help you as best I could.”
“Wait, what do you mean? Did you read my mind while you were in that dream?”
“No. I had been watching both of you. Dire events were happening around him, so I checked on you, too, to see if anything pivotal was also going on around you. I saw you seeking help. That wizard was only going to give you a glass eye, but I imbued it with power that could help you. Why do you think it’s yellow, and not green?”
Scott touched his left cheek. “Yellow… …like a sunflower. But… then it triggered my memory…”
“Yes. I had something else in mind to give you a nudge to start the process, but I had to intervene somehow in that moment. Now you’ve got a little divine assistance to help out more.”
“So, I can see what I really look like, and I can see a glow around magical items. Is there anything else? Wait, why didn’t I see what Sausage really looks like – I mean, he doesn’t usually sparkle like I do, but wouldn’t an angelic aura count?”
“You’ll be able to see more in time, when and as needed. For now, it’s just an extra edge. Have those magic items at hand, and so on.”
“I figured I would keep them handy, yeah.” Scott tried to think of anything else to ask, but nothing came to mind right away. “I’ll check in again if anything else out of the ordinary happens. I guess you can give me a signal to call me over to this shrine if you need to tell me anything, too. For now, I’ll keep just being Scott, ruler of Chromia.”
Pearl now smiled gently. “Live your own life, too. It’s sort of like another chance at a mortal life.”
Scott gave her a sad look. “Pearl, you know I can’t have much of a life without him beside me. This is like life-adjacent, where I only see him from a distance.”
 [ Chapter Two ]
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toontruelove · 1 year
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The Beginning
a friend wanted me to type up a story based on the au @sovereignspades has made!
Shattering… that was the last thing I remembered before waking up in his realm.. The realm of the one who waits…. He was bound by chains to keep him in this limbo prison of his. At first I was in a daze as he spoke my vision blurry till I felt something lift my head up. That was when my eyes met his… eyes… when he saw that he had my attention he let out a chuckle. It was everywhere and nowhere at the same time…. “Now that I have your attention” his voice boomed as he pulled his hand away to lay on his side with his head propped up with his hand.
“Make a cult in my name and become my vessel… I will give you the power you need in order to do it, but only if you think you are able to do it.” the one who wait’s spoke as he held his hand up and a crown was formed in his hand. The red eye glaring down at me as if it was thinking I am not worthy to wear it. Seeing that… just reminded me of the glares of disgust the bishops gave me, the looks they had when they killed my family.
Gritting my teeth I shouted at him. “Give me the crown! I will make a cult in your name and make sure the Bishop’s blood runs like a river at your feet!” I declared. Hearing that the one who wait’s just laughed gleefully as he flicked the crown at me. I was ready for anything that was going to happen, but the pain of the sudden surge of power I was not ready for. I yelled in pain as it felt as if an electrical surge ran in my body but just as quick as it happened it stopped.
I stood there panting from the pain and the one who wait’s just grinned gleefully at me and with a small gesture, I was gone, pulled into what I could only call a tunnel of death as I was suddenly flung into the world of the living. And nothing but anger filled my chest as the followers around me clamored at the shock of my sudden appearance.
Hearing them made me snarl in anger as I whirled around to attack one of them. I was ready to use my bare fists till the crown melted and covered my arms and hands with claws and with them I made sure to tear the followers apart. I will admit they got a few good hits in but it was not enough to keep me down.
I soon met porkrind, the one who was supposed to be the vessel before me but with his age the crown rejected him. He is a crass pig but he is helping me train with the crown and I am grateful for it. He would also be there to tend to me when I would fail a crusade gently scolding me for letting my guard down but in the end he would always end the lectures in a hug. At first I would try to push him away but after the third fail I accepted the hug. And… I don’t know what happened but I broke down… I started to sob and clung onto porkrind.
Thankfully he didn’t say anything but he did tighten the hug. It only took me a moment to realize I was in mourning. The tears were not for what I have become but for losing my guardian and my brother. And those that were killed because of some stupid fear the bishops had. After crying Porkrind just rubbed my back as I let out a few more choked sobs. “It’ll be alright kid… I swear..” Porkrind said as I just looked at him and gave a bit of a nod. “Thank porkrind..” I said and he just coughed into his hand as he stood up and held his hand out to me.
“No problem but come on, you need to practice your claws.” he said, making me groan in the process but I gripped his hand and he yanked me up so we could get to work. but on one of the breaks I started to sob once again as I gripped my chest. “Does it ever stop… this pain…?” I asked between choked sobs and Porkrind just looked away, not saying anything for a bit till looking down. “It never will kid… but that is what makes us different from the bishops, we still have our humanity when they lost it eons ago…” Hearing that just made me sob more as memories of that horrible night filled my head, it was getting dark and clouded till I felt a heavy hand on my shoulder, looking up Porkrind just had a sad smile on his face.
“But never let that pain go kid… I know it hurts but it helps to keep their memory alive, the memory of those we lost.” With a bit of a hiccup I just nodded and wiped my tears with my arm. I was about to ask him something else but he held out a bottle of Booze to me. “And tonight is the night we drink in their name, remember them for what they lived for.” he said proudly and I just smiled as i took the bottle. “I could use a good drink right now..” I said as I poured him a glass and with a soft ‘clink’ we drank the night away.
One by one the Bishops fell to my feet and by day the cult grew bigger and bigger. It was strange… I felt as if the cult was becoming a family to me… yes there would be a death once in a while but other than that we were happy… I almost forgot about my mission till the crown reminded me one night. I had one door left to open and with a deep breath I opened it.
What greeted me was the circle I have grown used to using to get from one place to another. And with the help of my followers this time I was able to use it, but upon entering that was when I knew something was wrong but I didn’t know what just yet till it happened. The followers… my cult… no my family were all in cages. Fearful and yelling for help….
I gripped my chest as I tried to catch my breath and dropped to my knees from the room shaking. I held my head as my heart beat started to become fast and irregular. I closed my eyes and tried to block everything out, till I opened them again and I was back there in the cage.
I gripped the bars looking around as I heard shattering all around me but one voice stood out from the rest. And hearing it I jerked my head up to make eye contact with him.
“Cuphead!” It was mugman, my little brother. He was struggling hard against the followers leading him to the chopping block, digging his heels into the ground and even throwing his head back to try and hit the one following him. But a bit never landed because the follower was too fast. “Let him go!!” I yelled as I reached from the bars, as if that would do anything… “Please let him go! He’s harmless!” I yelled at one of the bishops…. But they just looked back with cold eyes before one of them gave the signal.
The sound of shattering glass filled the air as I felt something in me snap that day… I don’t know how but I swore to kill the bishops… and that included the one who waits… with a growl I pulled myself off of the ground as the one who wait’s was giving me a choice, give everything I have fought for up, or fight him and become a new god.with out saying anything I jerked my arms to my sides and took a stance, glaring at the one who waits…. No his true name is Bendy.
Glaring at him I took a stance and he just sighed. “You have gotten too full of yourself cups… looks like I need to take what is rightfully mine back.” he said with a flick of his wrist. I don’t remember much of what happened after that… All I remember was the fight with Alice and Boris. And they went down fairly easily but Bendy was the true challenge but thanks to the training Porkrind gave me I was able to beat him.
But what greeted me was surprising. Bendy looked up at me with hatred in his eyes as his tail flicked from side to side. He was like one of the followers that I would greet on a crusade. But that didn’t matter, I raised my clawed hand up, ready to strike him down, but stopped with a twisted grin I instead snapped my fingers, making a portal to my cult and surprising him as he was yanked into the void, a new follower was ready for indoctrination.
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mantleoflight · 6 months
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//OK! SO! I'm doing a lot better and am coming off Hiatus to Semi-hiatus and will be putting asks and threads in the queue. I'm in a much better head space and have been absolutely buzzing on ideas inspired by this season's content.
//Namely extensions of Echo's Hive!AU in which she tries to talk terms with Savathun and ends up as one of her Oubliette experiments instead.
1. Weapon of Sorrow
//The first is "Weapon of Sorrow" au in which Echo is discovered/revealed after being defeated by a trio of guardians and is brought back for examination. It runs on the idea that Hive Magic is meant for infecting and transforming living biological beings, not inorganic life forms like Exos and Ghosts. Yet it still affects inorganic materials, as seen in the Weapons of Sorrow. //This also runs on my HC that all Exos have Alkahest running in their bodies, maintaining their minds and humanity while also adding a biological component to their beings, albeit minimally. //Thus, when Echo is retrieved and her chitin (courtesy of @bandit-prince's hive OC, Taûryx) is removed, her main body is revealed to have been heavily modified by the terraforming ability of the hivified Alkahest (modified/refined radiolaria, IE the exo's blood/only biological component). Where once was the sleek, human-like model of Clovis Bray's exo design, now lay something looking like it was made of knives and bone, much like the Necrochasm and Osteo Striga. //Naturally, Echo's ghost, Whisper, beseeches the Vanguard for help in bringing Echo back as a guardian and cleansing her of the Hive magic Savathun and Taûryx used on her. With some help, they are eventually successful in cleansing and restoring Echo, yet she still feels some effects of being an exo acolyte. This AU actually extends to another AU, a "Bad Timeline" au that combines "Weapon of Sorrow" and "Ties of Binding" which will be detailed in a section below.
2. Bad Timeline AU
//In this second au, "Bad Timeline" mixes the WoS and TtB verses with one of the Bad Timelines where the Exo Stranger came from. In it, Echo becomes her "Weapon of Sorrow" self by design, submitting herself to Hive!Eris Morn as a way to get close to her and Savathun. She does this in order to find the Hive God ritual and use it herself. In this, she would try to become a rival to Eris in the pantheon of hive gods and give the remaining guardians not completely lost to the darkness, a chance at retaking their world with or without the Traveler. //This would be tricky though, since she'd know that she'd need a Worm in the pantheon to do this. So she gets the only one she could find on hand: the one inside the YW's gun. Using different magics, including the Essence Transfer magic utilized in the Scarlet Keep, Echo speak with Xol, contending with him that he was the weakest of his pantheon because he didn't live up to his name. Because up to that point, he hadn't been the Will of thousands, only the will of one. But if he made a deal with her, she would make him the will of thousands, and his tithe would be greater than had ever been for him. //So through this, she becomes Ehkos Ahnan, Hive diety of Ties and Binding, taking strength from bonds between her brood (the guardians who accept her offer). Her first act of binding was binding Xol to his physical form, remaking him and gaining strength from the bonds of love, hate, rivalry, etc. made with and extended to her by other sentient beings. To other's surprise though, she had not relinquished the Light, only hidden it until the time to reveal it came. //Now the Deep and Sky battle within her as she runs against the clock, seeking to become the one Blade willing to carve its place in the universe and allow to shelter beneath her in exchange for obedience to her terms and tithes of Light and violence in defense of their new kingdom.
//We are the ever-grasping hands. Those who accept us are bound to us by our Mercy. We are the ever-shaping truth! Those who reject us are cut down by our blades and bonds! For Mercy can only be given by those Strong enough to carve it from the hands of their enemies! And those whom you gain and bring to me by Mercy are yours by right of Submission. Through this bond, they must tithe and prove themselves worthy of your efforts, your protection, and their place in the world. As well, you must prove yourself worthy to keep them! Carve their place into the chasm that is your domain, claim, and grow! Prove yourselves worthy to be called mine! Aiat!"
3. Ties that Bind
//The second AU is set after her Hive verse in which she isn't made into a Weapon of Sorrow but is still discovered and recovered from being an Acolyte. After providing all the information she has and being aided by Eris in her recovery (specifically during and after Season of the Haunted), Echo goes on as usual during the rest of the year. //However, in hearing the call to aid to help Eris with Immaru, Echo defies strong recommendations of her leaving the situation alone and goes to aid Eris. Ikora has strong reservations about letting Echo continue to aid Eris, but Echo insists that with her experience the previous year in the Hive, she would be the best suited to help Eris in her current endeavors. Ikora's fears prove founded as Echo begins to slip into her old Acolyte patterns as she fights and tithes to Eris. //However, despite their efforts and how fruitful they've been, Echo's discovery of Ahsa's involvement puts a huge damper on her efforts. She knows the corrosive power of hive magic and fears they can't last much longer without hurting, or worse, killing Eris and Ahsa. Thus she begins to prepare a secondary plan, which in reality is a terrible idea but what else can she do when good ideas don’t show themselves? //So she contacts an "old friend", and whether by bonding with him as a Darkness Risen ( @aurea-fide) or raising his essence from the weapon of his own destruction, she calls on the weakest of worms with an assertion that he was weak because he hasn't lived up to his name, and a promise that if he abides this new contract with her, he will become that which he claimed to be: the will of thousands instead of the will of one. //In this line of action, she intends to pick up where Eris left off and join the hive pantheon -- not as villain or antagonist to humanity, but as a paracausal advocate and contender against greater powers. //"If the Traveler is the Gardener then I am its guard, for I know by right, all who are born in this universe have a place in it. If this is a garden, then I will tend it and carve a place for all things in this universe.”
Addendum to Ties that Bind is that it would be a precautionary plan. One that is likely discovered and not acted upon since Eris seems to have things well in hand. Seasonally, this is Eris’s journey and our goth girl deserves some good things. UuU
Echo: “and this is why Eris is doing this. Because she won’t fall to the temptation of the Deep like I would. She’s the Stronger Truth, a true light in the blanketing dark. A friend, a protector, a guardian. aiat.”
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nelapanela94 · 2 years
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⭐ Love woven in the simplest form - Three seconds it takes to change everything you knew about him, to bring down the castle he built during years. As time move on, the wound slowly heals, but reopens when your paths recross on the other side of the sea. TW: depictions of war. Levi as a Marleyan warrior AU [WC: 3.5k]
⭐ It's not enough - if you truly love me let me go.
⭐I must be defective - I'm sorry. Two words heavy enough to tip the world
⭐ Whenever you need me; wherever you need me - After the war, Levi is lost and broken, pushing everyone away, but his beautiful You reminds him that as a team, you can conquer any challenge.
⭐Green-eyed monster - Levi's jealousy spines are cinching around his neck when he sees you flirting with another guy. He's trapped between two forces that pull to opposite directions, tearing him apart. He wants you, but the demons stoking in his heart push you away.
⭐You're not leaving, are you? - Reader's not willing to wait for Levi to make up his mind. Why is he so afraid to be loved?
⭐ it's only sex - Is it? Or did your heart give in?
⭐I think... you deserve better - Even though you're the love of his life, Levi believes he's not worthy and shears the thread that bound you together for good.
⭐Bacon stripes - Post war. Levi and you closing the peepholes of desire for fear of getting hurt.
⭐ I'm tired you're not here with me
⭐ My sweet darling
⭐ The kiss thief
⭐ Butterfly dust
⭐ Even though you’ll never know
⭐ Tell me you love me
⭐ See you forever
⭐ Thief
⭐ Our place on earth
⭐ Those three words
⭐ Lucky me, lucky you
⭐Safe with me
⭐ His tears
⭐ you’re all I want
⭐ All I need
⭐ I'm not alone - mentions of violence, prostitution, abuse
⭐ The birthmark on your shoulder - angst, incest
⭐ Guardian Angel - mention of death, fluff, angst
⭐ you’re beautiful - fluff, ED
⭐ What could’ve been - angst, mention of drugs, abortion, swearing
⭐ I want you to want me - fluff, angst, depiction of violence, comfort, bittersweet
⭐ Don't leave before me - mentions of blood, injury, bit of angst and fluff
⭐ Don’t give up - Angst, mentions of degenerative disease, suicide
⭐ I will always protect you - fluff, tw: mention of sexual abuse
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badwithten · 1 year
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A Burnt Sacrifice | Hyunjin | Teaser
PAIRING Guardian Angel!Hyunjin x fem!reader
GENRE angst, guardian angel au
WORD COUNT 397 (teaser) - 12.5k (full fic)
SYNOPSIS Hyunjin was built for the purpose of caring for Y/N, her guardian angel. And after serving her for almost 25 years, he can no longer stay as a background character in her life. Despite being an angel, he will sin if it means he gets a chance to be by her side.
FEATURING Mark, Han + Beomgyu
WARNINGS hyunjin is kinda obsessive over y/n but he justifies it as being her guardian angel, swearing, use of dating apps + cringey awkward dates, hyunjin watched y/n grow up so its kinda weird but he’s only as old as y/n yet he never ages, burns, self harm (y/n picks at her blister), description of injuries, blood, only light religious themes despite the theme, mentions of poverty, descriptions of anxiety 
BASED OFF of ‘Cherry’ by Harry Styles 
COLLAB part of @hvcmixtape​  ‘hear to heart’ valentines day collab
COMING out now!
TAGLIST send me an ask, message me or comment to be tagged when i post this story!
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Two were born on the day of your birth. Y/N L/N and Hwang Hyunjin. To call them twins would not be appropriate for this story, for they were not connected by blood. Nor was he birthed by any woman. For Hwang Hyunjin was created, sculpted by God themself. This wasn't a metaphor for his beauty, his soul was quite literally pieced together one by one by the heavens. Y/N’s mother had an angel of her own, as did every human on Earth. While in the womb, her angel watched over both Y/N and her mum, allowing those above to create the perfect match for Y/N. Someone designed to protect, care and love her. 
This is the story of Hyunjins journey to protect, care and love Y/N. He was created for that very purpose. He was Y/N's guardian angel. Everything he did was for her, his every thought, want and need was her. Both their hearts were bound by the stars, fused together for eternity. He was created at Y/N's birth and would be destroyed at her death. Even in the afterlife he would be there for her. Although she was to never know him, his time was spent away from his physical form where she couldn't see. Watching her from another dimension where the rules of Earth didn’t apply. But no matter where he was, the rules of heaven still applied. And despite his heart wanting more, he shouldn’t overstep those heavenly rules. He was a lover, destined to love Y/N for his everlasting life. 
This is the story of Y/N's life, the girl who was to be protected, cared and loved for by the heavens. Born to a single mother and raised fairly. Y/N never had an interest in relationships, no desire to have a romantic partner. Her values lay elsewhere. Her family, education and job are more important than any lover could be. Or so she once thought. For loneliness begins to hurt after a while and thoughts begin to wander. Despite not believing in the heavens, she was sure some cosmic power must be against her in life. She was loveless, destined by the heavens to be alone for the rest of her mortal life. 
Here is the story of love. Love at first sight, at last sight, at ever and ever sight.
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