#but 4 against 1? 4 people he knows r skilled?

[mocha-tapioca]

my genshin oc that i made back in january got the reboot she deserved <3333 utc is a bunch of info abt her!!! likes n rbs r appreciated n i hope u enjoy my little scrimblo ^^ sumeru deserves a hijabi chara

combat, talents, abilities

-        hydro staff (polearm + orb catalyst fusion) called “oasis”; other characters with this weapon primarily use it as a polearm, and only certain sumeru scholars know how to infuse the catalyst part into it to inflict the wet status

-        ^ base atk 43 at lvl 1/passive increases crit dmg by 22%. ability is called “deserted dream”: user’s elemental res. doubles (chances are 35%; increases with refinement rank), also increasing it for other party members by 75% (if 35% fails, this is guaranteed for the user; otherwise, this just applies to the other party members) for 20s. cooldown is 30s.

-        physical dps + enabling

-        charged attack has her stick the staff in the ground, jump up, and literally swing around it via the staff’s orb while physically kicking people; cause yk, why not?

-        normal attack has her (1) forward lunge (2) swipe arm, whacking w/ floating catalyst (3) spin in a 315 or smth, again whacking w catalyst (4) hold polearm upside down and use floating catalyst to vault upwards (5) bada bing bada boom use the staff as a hammer

-        holding the charged attack for over three seconds has her doing a plunging attack, using up abt 50% of her stamina but dealing 150% dmg

       wouldn’t it be funny if she rolled around on her staff while using it as a scooter

-        her skill “rainlight” summons small stars to fall down on opponents, dealing AoE hydro dmg and applying the wet status as the catalyst on amika’s staff glows to life. hp restored from the stars scales off amika’s elemental resonance. if combined with opponents affected by cryo or pyro, stars deal an additional 20% dmg at lvl 1 (70% when talent is maxed out), while electro opponents share damage taken every 2s. skill lasts for 15s/cd is 20s.

-        her burst “no longer luminous” has amika unlocking the catalyst from her staff, throwing it up in the air, and whacking it with her polearm baseball-style, summoning a giant black hole that pulls in nearby opponents and renders them immobile, dealing physical dmg over time. those that aren’t pulled in are affected by massive AoE hydro dmg, and any other elements that combine with the black hole deal an additional 25% in elemental dmg. requires 70 energy/cd is 18s.

-        her passive “all by myself!” reduces expedition time by 25%

-        constellation: stella stilanus

-        special dish is from jelebis: she turns them into heart and star shapes, adds powdered sugar at random, and puts a few tiny multicolored roshmalai around the plate. now restores 34% hp and an additional 700 hp every 5s!

lore

-        amika was the granddaughter of great sage azar. his prodigious son had died and his daughter-in-law had disappeared, leaving him with a little girl at the gates of the akademiya. instead of treating her like an actual child, he had tried to raise her as the future great sage to take over his job after he died.

-        ... unfortunately for him, amika hated sitting still and kept breaking her akasha earpiece. seeing as her mother was from aaru village, azar had determined that this was why she was so... unruly. he'd have to quench that in order for her to truly take over his great work.

-        and in amika's opinion, it was as if she'd been damned to eternity. look, she TRIED enrolling in the akademiya, okay? it was just so... suffocating. nobody tried reaching out for help unless they wanted to be seen as weak. nobody attempted to get close to her with good intentions. nobody wanted to rebel against the ridiculous hierarchy based on pure nonsense. anyone that tried releasing themselves from this barrier would be exiled. amika wondered if she, too, would become as unloving as the scholars were. not that she loved anything, but living out of spite wasn't nice.

-        for a bunch of smart folks, the scholars at the akademiya sure were stupid.

-        she tried bringing it up with her grandfather with limited success, if any at all. he decided that instead of promoting her to great sage, he'd denounce her on the day of the jnagarbah. it was a solid punishment for the traitor he'd failed at raising.

-        amika overheard him talking about this plan with the other sages. she should have figured this would happen eventually. with a heavy heart and days of secretly packing and planning, jnagarbah day came.

-        the second azar came into her room to "crown her as the next sage", she'd already escaped. she carried a large bag on her person, the only contents being an orb and a boatload of sunsettias. quite a terrible pick, honestly, but she was a bit short on time.

-        with that, the ex-next sage had left sumeru city.

-        amika ran to the desert. knowing those dumb sages, they wouldn't dare set foot outside of sumeru city or even port ormos. it seemed like the perfect plan. she'd be all alone.

-        ... oh. she was alone.

-        this was a problem.

-        after three days of walking aimlessly and rationing her food to the best of her ability, she sat in the sand and weighed her options. should she go back and endure the sage's puppetry just like always? should she be left to die here? which would be less punishing? wouldn't it be embarrassing if someone found her dead in the sand?

-        before she could reach a conclusion to her whirlwind of thoughts, a foot nudged her knee. she looked up to see a blond man with elaborate clothing, who reached out a hand to her and scowled.

-        "you look like you're going to die out here. come on, i've got food."

-        it did seem like a good deal (especially considering how bad a newborn adventurer is at rationing). with only a nod, she accepted his offer. they went back to his camp and amika resolved to only stay there for the night. she wouldn't want to be a bother after all.

-        the blond man's name was kaveh. he'd been taking a break from studying in the akademiya in order to pursue his own interests, craft, trade, the works. amika found him being in the middle of the desert to be quite strange, but she figured to each their own. despite her self-promise to stay the night, she'd end up sticking around for over half a year as she learned the joy of having something to love. sketching.

-        she'd draw on the back of maps, within scrapped architectural designs, between the page margins of textbooks. every surface she could find would be covered in doodles, whether simple smiley faces or intricate patterns. it became a habit of kaveh's to lend her any design he was having trouble with to see what she could add to his half-baked ideas.

-        being a master blacksmith (his words, not hers) and possessing a vision, he also taught amika to fight. first with the orb catalyst she'd brought with her, then with a long steel beam he'd forged a polearm out of. as reward for mastering both, he'd fused her catalyst and polearm together, turning it into a staff that doubled as what the modern age would call a slingshot-shaped baseball bat. she adored it, carving both of their names into the staff with a sharp rock she'd found nearby. kaveh may have called it defamation, but she'd keep it as a memory for years to come.

-        when kaveh announced that his research was done and that he'd start heading back to the akademiya, amika was noticeably taken aback at first. "why go back?" she had asked, her eyes narrowed. "it's nothing more than a land doomed by the god that left them."

-        kaveh sighed. "like i said, my research is done. plus," he added with a smile, "i'd say you're just about ready." with that, he left in the morning.

-        a month after he'd left for sumeru city, amika had adjusted well to living on her own. she could ration her supplies like a seasoned adventurer, hunt and forage for food easily, and even set up a camp and cook. in her opinion, she may as well have been a veteran with how skilled she had become.

-        that didn't mean it stopped being lonely, though.

-        with kaveh gone, amika had gone back to being quieter. she didn't want to go back to sumeru city, that'd only cause bad memories to resurface. her problem out here was that there wasn't anyone to talk to in particular aside from the wind. not like it'd say anything back. she had a hydro vision, not an anemo one. from the stories she'd heard about their archon, he seemed like a fun guy to hang around. perhaps he'd be a nice companion. yet with each new day passing by of being around nobody whatsoever, it was definitely starting to take a toll on her.

-        and so, she asked the wind. whether out of desperation, exasperation, or the sheer lack of having affection, she'd never be able to tell. either way, the wind decided it was going to kick up a breeze, carry the petals of a sumeru rose with it and send the girl chasing after the petals.

-   ��    sumeru roses were rare around here... that had to be a sign, right?

-        laying her staff orb-down,she kicked it and planted her foot onto the side of the staff, steering the uniscooter through the desert and turning the sand she was riding on into dust. for periods of time, she'd switch between riding her staff and slinging it over her shoulder, running after the wind for a glimpse of something, anything, really.

-        nightfall came before she managed to catch up to the petals in a secluded tropical grove of sorts. hopping off her staff, she reached for the petals and grabbed a fistful of them, save for a single vibrant violet one that waltzed in the air before landing softly on the head of a boy seeming to be around her age slumbering against the base of a tree.

-        he looked like a porcelain doll. amika thought he was almost ethereal for a guy that looked totally out of place in a land like sumeru. sharp eyes, delicate facial features, dark hair that looked as soft as feathers. his clothes were of silk and another material amika couldn't recognize. next to him was a large disk with intricate details, almost brand new. she wondered if the dollface used it as a weapon. if it wasn't for his chest moving up and down rhythmically, she would have cursed the wind for leading her to a fragile corpse still frozen in time.

-        she approached hesitantly, crouching down as quietly as possible. extending a hand towards the boy, she plucked the petal from his head and sighed in relief... but as she turned to go back, a cold hand grabbed her wrist with lightning speed. her eyes darted back to the boy, whose eyelashes fluttered awake as his eyebrows furrowed.

-        "and what, may i ask," his voice was low, but clearly ticked off, "do you think you're doing?" the boy's eyes were almost like glass with how glazed over they seemed. a dull gray clouded them, almost lifeless.

-        she winced, but showed him the petal between her fingers. "easy there, dollface, i'm just grabbing a stray ingredient," she replied. "i'm making fish rolls for us." (she wasn't going to at first, but telling a stranger that she ran after a bunch of petals in the wind seemed really weird.)

-        "us?" he scoffed, but loosened his grip. amika pulled her hand back, rubbing at her now-red wrist. "you don't know me and i don't know you. how do i know you aren't here to kill me like everyone else?"

-        "i dunno who 'everyone else' is supposed to be, but to be quite frank with you, i'm just hungry." she stood up and scanned the landscape, her gaze landing upon an abandoned campsite. grinning, she rubbed her hands together and looked back at the boy at the tree, extending a hand out to him. "now get on your feet. you're going to help me cook over there."

-        "is that an order?"

-        "what am i, a god?" amika sighed, placing her other hand on her hip. "you're all skin and bones. i'm not letting you die of starvation out here."

-        he bit his lip, grumbling. "i don't need your pity--" he managed to get out before his stomach grumbled. after a beat or two, his shoulders slumped and he grabbed her wrist, letting her pull him up. "fine. your pity will be accepted just this once."

-        "it's not pity, pretty boy, it's just what feels right. plus," she added with a smirk, "any resistance will be met with the big circle thing over there turning into a plate." her smile widened at the look of abject horror on his face.

-        leading him to the campsite, she laid out their ingredients and started a fire underneath the pot. "what's your name, anyway?" she asked as she started chopping up the fish.

-        the boy, who had been put in charge of the rose petals, hummed softly. "i don't have one," he mumbled, his fingers brushing against the soft petals. "i'm just... a wanderer, i guess. they don't tend to have names."

-        "huh." a moment passed by. "i'm gonna call you 'dera'."

-        his gaze shifted to her, the wanderer's expression shifting to that of confusion. "you could have chosen anything else," he said, "and you land on that?"

-        she snickered in response. "okay, 'wandy'," she retorted.

-        "... on second thought, dera might be better."

-        within a half hour, they had made enough fish rolls to snack on. laying back against the tree, they sat in silence, the only sound coming from the gale breeze through the flora and the crunching of the rolls. swallowing one down, amika started to fiddle with the ribbons intertwining on her arm.

-        "so," she asked, "what are you doing here in the middle of nowhere?"

-        dera tilted his head, dull gray eyes locking with her own violet ones. "i could ask you the same thing," he said. despite there being nobody else around, he kept his voice quiet, soft. "you did ruin my nap, after all."

-        "please, you're just a light sleeper," amika retorted. "and like i said before, i lost the flower in the wind and had to get it back. then it led me to you." more fiddling, this time with the cuffs on her wrist. "your turn."

-        "like i said before, i'm a wanderer." he pinched the bridge of his nose at her blank expression. "hello? i'm a wanderer. i wander."

-        "ohhhh, that explains it."

-        he nodded, going back to staring at the landscape in front of him. "and via that wandering, i ended up here." his eyes closed, his blunt bangs shifting in the wind. "nobody around but me."

-        "and you've never, like..." the girl made some vague sort of gesture with her hands. "felt lonely or anything?"

-        the gray in his eyes darkened. "i don't experience useless emotions like that." he paused, resting a hand in the grass and grabbing a cluster in his hand. "rather," he added as an afterthought, "i'm not supposed to."

-        "it's okay if you do." she pulled a leg up to rest her head on her knee. "who said you couldn't?"

-        he looked away, but his grip on the grass cluster tightened. "that's not something for you to know."

-        ah, so there actually was someone. maybe someones. amika huffed, her fist balling up as her nails dug into her palm. "then they're as stupid and brain-dead as the akademiya scholars and sages."

-        "you don't seem to like them very much," dera remarked, the corner of his mouth quirking up in a half-amused, half-curious grin of sorts. letting go of the grass, he rested his hand on his thigh and started drumming his fingers absentmindedly.

-        she shrugged and sighed. "yeah, well..." her eyes lowered, her smile now bittersweet. "sometimes you're both not enough and too much at the same time for everyone you meet, y'know?"

-        dera's expression changed. "yeah," he breathed, "i do." without a word, he reached out and gently patted amika's shoulder, soothing both her and himself to an extent he'd rather not talk about. they stayed like that for a few minutes before he pulled the hood of her cloak over her face.

-        "get some rest," he muttered. "i'll gather the supplies. we leave in the morning."

-        "we?" a groggy amika raised her cloak hood just enough to make out his chin. "does this mean we're friends now?"

-        his nose scrunched up. "we aren't friends," he replied curtly. "we'll only travel together."

-        "this isn't a command, is it?"

-        a quick exhale from the wanderer. amika vaguely recognized it as some sort of laughter. "what am i, a god?" he said, then paused. he shook his head and raised the cloak's hood up just enough for her to see his face. his eyes looked more silver than gray. "it's an offer. one that an impulsive flower chaser like you will accept." he poked a finger into her forehead, eliciting her to suddenly tense from the lack of warmth.

-        "you don't know that," she grumbled, then added a "but you're not wrong" as she brushed his hand away, her scowl breaking into a smile as she pulled the hood back over her eyes. "goodnight, wanderer."

-        "goodnight, flower chaser."

-        and despite the wanderer's many vices against anyone he'd surrounded himself with before, he did have to admit it felt a little less lonely now.

-        maybe they could be less lonely together, at least.

voicelines

-        hello / hey, i'm amika. let's see what sort of adventure we can find ourselves today. don't worry, you have me with you.

-        chat: sketching / oh, this? it's just a hobby of mine, nothing more. even so... i do enjoy it a lot, haha. it gave me something to do, even if i sort of overdid it. maybe someday i'll be able to share my littles scribbles and doodles with the world. i'd like that.

-        chat: oasis staff / when kaveh first made me this, i didn't expect it to be as useful as it really is. see, if you turn it upside down and nudge the orb a fair bit, just step onto the sides here and use the pole here as a way to steer... voila! a transportation... thingy!

-        when it rains / the pitter-patter noise is so calming to listen to... ah, no, i can't fall asleep!-        after it rains / oh, great. mud. this is fine. i'm not hating this.

-        when it snows / oh, this is definitely gonna blind me when it starts getting sunny later.

-        when the wind is blowing / oh, this breeze feels so nice! a sandstorm might kick up soon, though, so let's find shelter.

-        good morning / up and at 'em, huh? that's the spirit! let's head out.

-        good afternoon / how long do you think it would take to glide from the tallest cliff in the desert all the way to the bottom? ...don't be silly, people don't die from gliding for too long! i think.

-        good evening / the sky looks so pretty... i hope i get to see thousands of sunsets for as long as i'm alive.

-        good night / you did well today. make sure you don't stay up for too long, alright? get some rest.

-        about wanderer… / i'm proud to say that he and i are best buds! the longer you spend time with him, the more you come to realize that his snark and teasing are all with good intentions, even if he'll try to cover it up with some lame excuse. what a softie.

-        about kaveh… / kaveh's a pro at what he does. i have to thank him for taking me in and teaching me a bunch of stuff, like architecture and fighting and all that stuff. i wonder if he'll accept some padisarahs as a thank-you gift.

-        about al-haitham… / he doesn't look like it, but he's caused a fair bit of trouble for the sages. i envy his annoyance skills. when kaveh talks about him, he always talks like he's al-haitham's bitter housewife, haha.

-        about lisa… / the mondstadt mage, right? i caught a glimpse of her in an old photo when i was a kid. you could tell she still had a spark of something still left in her unlike the sages that are around today. maybe that's why she left.

-        about cyno… / the general mahamatra--wait, no, i think it's former--anyways, he interests me. i was always told the children of the desert were people to be avoided, but... i don't know if that applies to him. bad guys aren't punny.

-        about kazuha… / a lone samurai wandering through the islands of the land of thunder, with nothing but the animals, the water, and the breeze to accompany him. that's what a former scholar of the akademiya described him as. it paints such a vivid image in my head... for some reason, dera comes to mind, too. in a way, they seem a bit similar. i can't quite explain the connection, though.

- about tighnari... / despite his calm demeanor, he can get quite flustered if you touch his tail or ears, which is always why he tends to avoid it unless completely necessary... wait, he offered to lend you his tail?! when i did that, he scolded me for ages... man, i'm so jealous.

-        about us: camping / beyond anything else, an adventurer should know how to set up camp! it says so in the little handbook i got from miss katheryne!

-        about us: aranara / i've heard of the little lettuce hat creatures, but i've never been able to see them in person. the only visual source of information i trust is the picture books about them. if i squeezed one, would it squeak?

-        about the vision / from what i know about the visions, certain visions are assigned to those who embody the trait criteria that the archons stand for. the hydro archon is all about justice, which should mean i have some sort of sense of justice. i don't think my spite qualifies as justice, though. her reasoning will always remain unknown to me.

-        something to share / sometimes, i think about whether the great sage really saw me as a child or not. maybe i never meant anything more to him than a means to achieve immortality in spirit. does he regret his actions? i don't know and i don't intend on ever knowing. he's only my grandfather in blood.

-        interesting things: dreaming / most people in sumeru don't dream, save for the few that have faint flashes of them. ever since i broke my akasha terminal when i was six, i've been able to dream vividly, remembering everything that happens in them. some are good, some are bad, some are mundane little things. i try to enjoy every little one i can.

-        interesting things: dunyarzad / whenever i went on errands, i'd always see a beautiful girl gaze out her window. if neither of us were being monitored, we'd wave to each other and even have a quick conversation when we had the time. may she find happiness wherever she goes.

-        more about amika: I / i heard from someone still in sumeru city that after i ditched the sages, wanted posters were put up on the boards of port ormos and sumeru city. there wasn't a reward though, which might be why i haven't ran into someone interested in a reward.

-        more about amika: II / the sages are all corrupted beyond relief. their pursuit of knowledge caused the akademiya hierarchy to be born, which gave people with "more intellectual capability" enough leeway to straight-up harass others they don't deem as prodigious as them. people like that disgust me.

-        more about amika: III / the akademiya is a privilege nobody deserves. scholars should be encouraging towards their peers, not belittling them at any chance they get. i just wanted the opportunity to be recognized for my own achievements without someone else tying it to the sages, and yet... perhaps the dendro archon just doesn't favor me as much as the others.

-        more about amika: IV / if there's anything that always bothered me, it was how the scholars treated the desert people. condescendingly and mockingly, like they were idiots. i found out from the great sage that my mother had been from the desert as well. he spoke of her with nothing but venom in his voice. had the scholars found out i'm half-desertrian, would the harsh treatment and isolation i faced in the akademiya have changed?

-        more about amika: V / i think wandering with dera has really given me peace of mind. you know that feeling you get when someone you seem to have nothing in common with ends up sharing the pain you have, even if how that pain affects them isn't the same as you? it's like that with us, which might be why we're such good friends. i'm not enough and too much and perfect the way i am. i hope you find someone that lets you feel like that, too. take your time, traveller.

-        amika’s hobbies / i make a note to sketch anything i think i won't remember. i'd like to keep a memory as accurate as possible, but i'm not interested in being close to a perfectionist. besides, the whole point of a hobby is to be able to enjoy it.

-        amika’s troubles / hey, traveller, have you been to sumeru recently? has it changed at all since i left? i've been wanting to go back, but everytime i even think about, i end up panicking and my entire mind and body just shuts down on me. it's like i'm sick or something and i just... hate it, i hate it so much. i'm supposed to be okay, but it's like all my senses get so overwhelmed that i'm paralyzed... whatever this is, i hope it stops soon.

-        favourite food / the more flavor food has, the better it tastes. not to an overwhelming point, of course. it's best when the flavors balance each other out well enough so that you're able to enjoy each and every difference.

-        least favourite food / bland food is the worst taste ever, if mainly for the fact that there is no taste to begin with. rice is a prime example of this, since it's only tasty if you add something like curry or soup to it. what's the point in enjoying food if there's nothing to enjoy?

-        receiving a gift: I / everything's melting in my mouth... i could die happy!

-        receiving a gift: II / ooh, this isn't bad! i've gotta have this more often.

-        receiving a gift: III / oh, you shouldn't have... really, haha...

-        birthday / hey, hey, happy birthday! as a gift, i've prepared a special art piece of you. despite how ordinary it may look, there's a catch: it's made entirely out of flower petals! pretty amazing, huh? let's make sure next year's birthday is even better than this one, alright? only the best for the birthday traveller!

-        feelings about ascension: intro / i'm getting a major adrenaline rush!

-        feelings about ascension: building up / ooh, it's all tingly and stuff. like chills, but in a good way.

-        feelings about ascension: climax / if i jumped off a cliff before, i'd die immediately. but now... well, i'd probably still die, but the chances of me surviving are there now!

-        feelings about ascension: conclusion / maybe this is the closest i'll ever get to perfection. for once, i don't really mind it. if i can use this strength for something good, i'm willing to stay like this.

#❣️ai arts #i prefer this design a lot more than the original #it looks less hydro-ey but the background is a lit simpler and i actually know what im doing w the design #hyv give us hijabis now pretty please #BTW THIS IS NOT SCARAMOUCHE/WANDERER X OC. THEYRE JUST BESTIES #okok tag time <3 <- dying miserably #genshin #genshin impact #genshin impact art #genshin oc #genshin ocs #genshin impact oc #genshin impact original character #genshin original character #oc art #oc #art #my art #digital art #artwork #drawing #illustration #hijab #sumeru #sumeru genshin #sumeru genshin impact #genshin sumeru #sumeru oc #if anyone could rb an alt description that would b appreciated!!! ive never done one b4 n it would b nice to learn how to do them well #scaramouche

[nodynasty4us]

From the January 1, 2024 item:

A couple of weeks ago, Donald Trump let his inner racist come out when he talked about "vermin" and how immigrants were "poisoning the blood" of America. Not subtle at all. Not a dog whistle in sight. In the past, Trump opposed immigration and promised to build a wall (with Mexico paying for it) in 2016, but he didn't quote Hitler while doing so. Now the mask has dropped and he is going full-bore racist. Then there is Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who thoughtfully reminded people that some slaves learned skilled trades (e.g., carpenter) that were of personal benefit to them. Now remember, he was talking about people who had been kidnapped from their own country, brought to America against their will, and sold into slavery, all without their permission. He was not talking about indentured servants who voluntarily made a deal with someone who agreed to pay for their passage to America in return for working for them for 4-6 years, after which time they were free to do whatever they wanted. Last week at a town hall, Nikki Haley was asked about the cause of the Civil War, something she surely knew about since she was governor of the state where it started and the first state to secede from the Union. She gave an incoherent answer about the war was caused by a disagreement on how government should be run. That kind of downplayed what every 12-year-old in America knows, it was caused because the North wanted to stop the spread of slavery and eventually eradicate it and the South wanted to keep the peculiar institution. She took a lot of incoming fire on that and eventually admitted that she did in fact, successfully graduate from 6th grade and knew the real cause.

#racism #donald trump #ron desantis #nikki haley

[alovesongshewrote]

You Choke on His Blood - Twilight | Eddie Munson x Reader

Plot:  Kas!Eddie scenario but with a twist! a twist that will become very obvious very quickly. Anyway, a year before the events of season 4, Eddie takes you to a bar and things go very wrong very quickly- and they don't get better for a long, long time. [Eddie Munson x Gender Neutral!Reader]  Part 1, Part 2,

Word count:  9,219

Warnings:  BIG WARNING: this whole chapter can be read as a metaphor for date r*pe, and there is an attempted date r*pe at the end that very quickly fails. A main character is drugged, another is turned into a vampire without their consent. Other warnings include: blood and violence, gore, murder, and assumed character death. Please use caution while reading. If there's anything you'd like me to add here, please lmk

Disclaimer: Fuck netflix, fuck whoever came up with having a "stranger things experience" in a former n*zi prison where jewish and romani people were exterminated. that's an incredibly fucked up thing to do, and i do not support or endorse it.

A/N: jesus fucking christ this chapter is 22 pages long on google docs. anyway, there's so much preamble here and most of it is the warnings- can't wait to see if i end up writing that darkfic...

Tags: i'm so sorry, but i genuinely can't remember who asked to be tagged for what. if you'd like to be added to the taglist for this fic, please lmk

You’d never given much thought to how you would die. You just assumed, as most others do, that you would meet your end at an old age in a hospital bed, or drift off in your sleep without suffering. In all fairness, even if you thought about how you would die every day, I don’t know how you could’ve seen your death coming.  

Instead of passing on in the usual way, you were dragged behind a bar and murdered by a monster. Its venom flooded your veins. You grew fangs and claws. You lost the boy you loved. Your mortal life ended.  

One year later, you sat at the same bar, alone. An untouched gin and tonic sat in front of you, glowing slightly thanks to a newly installed ultraviolet light. You glared at the drink, tapping your fingers against the glass and trying to clear your mind. Your attempts were unsuccessful.  

It wasn’t like you could be blamed for that, though. Thanks to your new inhuman memory, you remembered your death as transparently as the glass before you- including the role this bar had played in your final moments.

Long story long, you’d spent most of your last human day in the bedroom of a dear metalhead friend of yours. You’d more or less taken over his bed, lying on it as you listened to him rant and rave about some bar he’d ventured out to the other night. That wasn’t too out of the ordinary. You and Eddie Munson spent most of your time ranting at each other about whatever the fuck you felt like, and you were no stranger to sneaking into bars. However, it was pure tradition for the two of you to break drinking laws together.

Maybe that was why this rant in particular was creeping under your skin. You couldn’t come up with another reason for it. Eddie wasn’t teasing you, or provoking you in any way, which was out of the ordinary. Whatever the true reason may have been, you could only sit in his room watching his perfect lips move for so long before you got sick of it.  

Eventually, you were forced to act- you sat up from your spot on his bed and threw a pillow at his face with all of your strength. He was mostly unaffected.

“Something bothering you, sweetheart?”

You threw another pillow at him. It was the best way to ignore how the pet name made you feel, “Uh, yeah, there is. You’ve been talking about this place all day, and I’m almost one hundred percent sure it isn’t as metal as you say it is.”

“Oh?  Are you doubting my descriptive skills, (L/N)?”

“Why, I think I am, oh great master of descriptions,” as tempted as you were to throw something else at your friend, you settled for nudging his leg with your foot. Hard.

He stood from his place on the floor, looming over you with his hands on his hips in a very half-assed attempt to be intimidating. Of course, he failed at that. As intimidating as the rest of Hawkins found him, he never managed to scare you. He was too sweet for that. His eyes were too big, too soft. Also, his smile was a dead giveaway. He tried to fight it, but it won out, practically yelling out to the world that Eddie wasn’t actually upset.

Still, he tried to sound wounded, “Harsh, (Y/N). Harsh, and cold.”

“Is that really the best you can do, Eds?” you scoffed, “I’d give those descriptive words… maybe, a three out of ten? It’s closer to a four than a two if that helps.”

“It does not,” he paused, and the smile he had been fighting took over his face. His eyes glinted, bright with mischief. That fucker had a plan.

“Eddie?” your question sounded like a warning, “What are you-?”

Before you could finish your sentence, Eddie let himself fall on top of you, effectively pinning you to the bed. You let out a squeak of rage as you struggled, wiggling around as you tried to free yourself from underneath him.

“You dick!” you screeched through your poorly disguised giggles, “Get off me, oh my god-!”

“Mm, “dick” isn’t the best descriptive word you could come up with, (L/N), I’d give it a three out of ten. Maybe scoundrel- or mayhaps villain or rogue would be better.” 

Eddie’s voice was slightly muffled, his face still pressed into his sheets as you writhed about. You tried to ignore the heat that flooded your body at the feeling of his weight on top of you.

“Oh my god, get off of me.”

“Mmm, I’d rather not. You make a good pillow,” he pushed himself up on his elbows and smiled down at you. A strand of his hair was stuck to his cheek, and you had to fight off the urge to brush it away. Instead, you planted your hand in the center of his face and shoved him off of you. He gave out half a yell as he lost his balance and collapsed to the floor.

You dragged yourself over to the edge of the bed and looked down at him. The smile on his face matched the one on yours.

“Thou art a cruel and unmerciful wretch, (Y/N) (L/N).”

“Oh, bite me, Munson.”

“You wound me! And to think I was planning on taking you to a certain bar tonight.”

You rolled your eyes and extended a hand down to him. He accepted your hand and let you pull him up. As you did, you made a bit of a show of sighing and groaning as you said, “Damn, I guess that means I have to keep you alive for the next few hours.”

“You doooo,” he almost cooed at you as he returned to his seated position at the side of the bed, “Otherwise, who would watch your drink when you got distracted by something shiny, huh? And who would drive your ass home after you have one too many?”

“I’m gonna… bite you,” you grumbled, running a hand through Eddie’s hair, messing it up as much as you could.  

You knew he was right. Whenever the two of you ventured out with the intent to commit the lovely crime of underage drinking, he was the one to have your back. Of course, you had his

“I’d like to see you try,” he grabbed your wrist, pulling it away from his hair and towards his chest. He didn’t seem to notice the effect that small action had on you. Instead, he just continued to ramble on about whatever came into his mind.  

That was just how the two of you were. Your friendship was a mix of relentless teasing and genuine affection. And you loved it. You loved him, as deeply and truly as any one person could love another. He loved you the same way- even if you did threaten to bite him on a regular basis, which you absolutely did.  

Of course, all of your feelings were felt in silence. You never told him how you felt, and it was one of your greatest regrets. If you had known what was going to happen to you that night, you would have told him everything. You would have gotten him to stay home with you. You wouldn’t have left his trailer.  

You didn’t know what would happen, though. You had no way of knowing. So, you stayed silent, and you didn’t think about it too much.

Now, as you sat in the same bar he wanted to take you to, you desperately wished you could go back and make better choices. As your fingers traced shapes through the condensation on your glass, you mourned your past self and all their bad choices. After a moment of silence for your past actions, you let the memory consume you again.

The day passed quickly. Soon, you were ready to leave. Eddie draped one of his jackets over your shoulders as you stepped out of his trailer. The leather smelled like him- like warmth, spice, and weed. He ran a hand through your hair and messed it up, laughing as you grabbed at the offending limb.

“Munson, you asshole, I’m going to bite you.”

“I’m so sorry, sweetheart,” he said, trying and failing to hide his smile, “Look, in return, you can pick what we listen to on the way there.”

That was a high honour- one that was very rarely offered to anyone other than you. A smirk crawled its way across your face as you looked between the car and your friend, “That’s more like it, pretty boy.”

“Pretty boy?” he questioned as you climbed into his van.

“Don’t judge- you keep calling me ‘sweetheart,’ I have to at least try to compete with that.”

“Well,” he shut the door behind you and got into the driver’s seat, “You aren’t doing the best job of that.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re winning now, whatever,” your reply was absent-minded, your attention now focused on the cassette tapes scattered throughout the organized disorder of his van. You picked up a tape and examined it before returning it to the pile, “But I will make a comeback.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“I will!  I’m gonna kick your ass, trust me.”

“Sure thing, man, and right after that, I’ll kick your ass.”

“You could never, I’m too adorable.”

“Damn,” he smacked the steering wheel without much force, “I think you’re right.”

“I know I’m right,” your focus returned to the pile of tapes, and the van fell into silence.

Unbeknownst to you, Eddie was also focused on the tapes- or more specifically, the way you looked as you picked a cassette from the mess in his van. Your bottom lip was drawn between your teeth in deep concentration, and for an embarrassingly long moment, he wished that it was his teeth biting down on your lip instead. 

He tried to ignore that, fighting the thought off and hoping that you didn’t notice the red dusting his cheeks. Suddenly, the silence of the van was far too loud for him.

“Hurry up and pick a damn tape, will ya? Pick one, or I’m pulling over, 'cause I’m not about to drive all the way to the bar sitting in silence like a serial killer.”

You scoffed, “Yeah, right. You might look scary, Cupcake, but I don’t think anything could make you into a serial killer.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“I think you’d be surprised, (L/N).”

“Okay, then, tell me. What would make you, Eddie Munson, into a serial killer?”

He paused for a moment, staring straight at the road, pondering your question. As you fell to pieces laughing at him, another bigger question crossed his mind.

“Did you just call me Cupcake?”

“Would you kill me if I did?”

He sighed and stared out at the road again, choosing not to dignify your question with a response. It was a wise choice- but of course, it was one you couldn’t accept.

“So that’s a no? A no to my murder? Okay then, baby girl.”

He turned to you, his concentration on the road nearly shattered. His head was cocked to the side slightly in a very cute way. He smiled, though his eyes betrayed his utter confusion, which, really, you couldn’t blame him for.

“Sorry,” you said, tapping your fingers against the dash, “I was trying to come up with something to match ‘sweetheart’ again.”

“And the best you came up with was ‘baby girl?’” his composure was quickly slipping as he descended into giggles.

“I’m sorry! It was the first thing that came to mind!”

“The first thing that came to your mind was ‘baby girl?’”   

“Oh my god,” you shoved his arm, setting off another round of giggles. It was your turn to sigh and look away.  

A few moments later, when his laughter had subsided, you opened your mouth again, “So, should I go back to calling you Cupcake? I liked that one.”

He wheezed, completely unable to answer. You were thankful that the road was empty because he probably would have crashed the car. When he finally recovered, he sat up straight, wiping a fake tear from his eye, “That’s up to you, sweetheart. Just like the music. So pick something.”

“You got me,” you threw your hands up, trying to act exasperated- though the look on your face gave you away. You leaned over in your seat and returned to the cassette pile, finally choosing one.

Of course, it was a mix that you had made. There was nothing you enjoyed more than gently bullying your friend by making him listen to your taste in music. You let yourself relax in your seat as the first song on the track blasted in your ears.  ‘The Chain.’ Fleetwood Mac.  Musical excellence.

The setting sun cast a warm glow over your world, painting you and Eddie in gold. You watched him, a smile crossing your face as he ranted to you about some D&D thing over the music. His eyes were so bright, so alive- and you were entranced.  You couldn’t look away, and you didn’t want to. If that one moment could have extended on forever, you would’ve been happy, your destination be damned.

Of course, that wasn’t the case. The sun set, the van stopped, and you arrived at the bar. Still, a year and a monstrous transformation later, that moment continued to shine like gold in your memories.  

You found yourself relaxing slightly, leaning against the bar, your hand supporting your chin as you thought about it- as you thought about the way the sun lit Eddie’s hair, giving him a sort of halo, and as you remembered the way the sun changed his dark eyes to the colour of honey.  

The sweet memory was quickly shattered, however, by a flash of those same brown eyes, confused and terrified, watching as that thing attacked you.

You took a sip of your drink.

Behind you, a few people entered the bar. You turned the slightest bit, taking them in without turning your head too far thanks to your belothed inhuman eyes. Among them stood a couple- one in leather, and one in a battle jacket.

You took another sip, trying to ignore how much that couple resembled you, pretending you didn’t notice the burning sting in your eyes as you remembered walking into the bar with Eddie, oblivious to what was about to happen.

Your body was tucked under his arm, distracting you, for a moment, from the fact that the bar smelled pungently of metal. You couldn’t exactly place what it was at the time- though now you knew that the smell was iron, or more accurately, rust.

Still, at the time, you paid it no mind. You were just a little distracted by the sight and sounds surrounding you. Lights flashed, drenching the dance floor in darkness before blinding you with light. The entire room was filled with people, talking, dancing, drinking, all of them densely packed into the space like metalhead sardines. You didn’t notice then, how many of them were staring at you.

You couldn’t be blamed for that. The bar was mildly overwhelming, drowning out your senses in a sea of screams and shouts and songs. Still, you couldn’t help but grin. Something about the noise made you feel particularly alive.  

“Are you thirsty?” Eddie asked. He didn’t wait for an answer before he continued, “I’m thirsty. Come on, sweetheart.”

You let him take you by the hand and pull you towards the bar, stopping a few seats down from where you would sit one year later. He didn’t ask you for your drink preferences- he’d always known your tastes well. You trusted him to choose for you.

You could practically see your former self now, sitting at the bar, drink in hand, looking around with wide eyes, trying to take everything in at once and failing. You could see yourself turning back to Eddie, catching his smile as he watched you.

You spent a few hours like that, talking to each other, drinking, and simply taking in the revelry around you. Then everything started to go south.

Somewhere behind you, a fight broke out. The chaos stole your attention from the bar and the drinks in front of you. The fight took Eddie’s focus as well. He put an arm in front of you, protecting you from the edges of the fray. It was a valiant effort, and you appreciated it, even now- but maybe getting punched would have been better than what came next.

The fight ended quickly. The instigator was asked to leave, and the other man involved in the brawl was left behind, nursing what looked like a black eye. And that was that. You shared a glance with Eddie, your eyebrows raised as he grimaced. You swallowed your laughter and turned back to your drinks, not realizing that your fatal mistake had already been made.

You brought the glass to your lips.

Eddie brought his glass to his.

You both took a drink.

Your drink was fine. It didn’t taste any different than it had before. There was no powdery substance swirling around the liquid. Nothing had changed. It was fine. You were fine.

But Eddie? Eddie was not fine.

It was easy to see that something was wrong- especially when, out of the corner of your eye, you watched him take a sip of his drink, make a face, take another sip of his drink, and spit that sip back into his glass.

“Eds?” you said his name like a question, “Are you-”

“Shit.  Shit-” instead of responding to you, Eddie held his drink up, trying to see it in the low light of the bar. He squinted at it, trying to focus on the liquid through the condensation.

Then he dropped the glass.

It shattered on the bar’s surface, spraying glass fragments and alcohol in every direction. A few people jumped back, and you joined them with a yelp- but not before a shard managed to slice your hand open.

Your focus wasn’t on your own pain, though. Nope, you were entirely focused on how Eddie had barely moved. It looked as if he was slumping forward slightly- like he was off balance, uneasy on his feet.

“Eds?” your voice and hands shook as you reached out for him. Before your hand met his shoulder, he bolted upright, his hands braced against the bar.  

“That was too quick. It shouldn’t have happened that fast-” his words were quiet. He wasn’t talking to you.

“Eddie, what are you talking about-?”

“Something’s wrong. We should leave,” he sounded so serious in that moment- almost scared.  You’d never heard him sound that way before.

“What’s- what’s going on?”

“Someone put something in my drink,” he turned and tried to smile at you in what you had to guess was an attempt to keep you calm. It didn’t work. His movements were off- slightly subdued and sluggish. He looked like he was struggling to keep his eyes open.

And, in fact, he was. He was dizzy, drowsy, and overall experiencing the effects of what he had to assume was some kind of date rape drug. Someone must have slipped it into his drink while he was watching the fight- and he had a feeling that they’d missed their intended target.  You.

He wasn’t exactly thankful that he had been drugged, but at the time, he was thankful that it was him and not you.  

He wasn’t sure which drug it was. Sure, he was a dealer, but not for this.  His general knowledge suggested that it was probably roofies thanks to the sudden and bitter taste in his drink, but his general knowledge also reminded him that roofies didn’t work this fast. He’d taken one sip, and within seconds he was seeing symptoms. That wasn’t normal. None of this was.  

It scared him, honestly, and it should have.  He didn’t know what was happening to him. He didn’t know what was going on in his own body. He didn’t know what was in his system. And on top of that, he couldn’t protect you from whoever did this. He was too out of it- too dizzy, too drowsy. The world around him was too fuzzy for him to do much more than get the two of you out of there. 

“It’s probably just roofies, but, uh- we need to go,” his words were slurred slightly, but you understood him just fine. As you pulled him from the bar and towards the exit, one thought lingered in his blurred, distorted mind.

The person who had done this to him was probably targeting you.

That thought scared him more than anything else that night- more than the drugs in his system and more than the unknowns that circled his head. It was sweet that he worried too much- but in a way, it was also a waste. It wasn’t like he would remember any of this the next day.

But he didn’t know that. He was just focused on getting out of the bar with you. He put all of his effort into walking normally, trying to make the process easier, taking as much of the burden as he could off of your shoulders.

He wasn’t great at that. It was nice that he tried, but he almost fell into you completely, swearing under his breath as you moved to support his weight. You did your best to avoid getting blood on him, but it was a difficult process considering the blood was coming from your hand. The two of you swayed slightly, entirely unsteady as you moved back through the bar, making your escape.

And you almost did it. You almost escaped. You were just a few feet from the door when someone stepped in your way, blocking your path.

You recognized him. Eddie was too out of it at that point to register the man’s face, but you knew him. He was one of the men who was fighting earlier- the one left in the bar. Oddly enough, there was no bruising on his face. There was no blood, no damage- just a sharp grin cutting across his cheeks. The man had a beautiful smile, you had to admit- beautiful and off-putting.

“Need some help there?” he offered, reaching out a hand. On the surface, it was a kind gesture, but something in your gut told you to run. The scent of metal was stronger around this man.

“I think we’ll be fine, thanks,” you tried to keep your face neutral, all the while gritting your teeth.

“No, no, I insist.”

“So do I,” you growled, clutching Eddie’s body tighter to you, “We’ll be fine. Thanks.”

The man’s smile grew wider. You tried to step around him, but he walked, again, into your path. When you turned to take another route, you almost walked into another man. You recognized him, too, as the man who had started the fight. He must have made his way back into the bar, but you barely registered that. You were distracted by the grin on his face, just as sharp and intimidating as the smile on the other man. 

You tried again, in vain, to bypass this man, but you found yourself walking into someone else’s body. You looked up to find yourself encircled by strangers, all of them with sharp, cutting smiles. You were surrounded. Your stomach dropped.

“Come on, let us help,” the first man said, taking Eddie from your grasp by force.

“Hey! Stop-!” you called out after him, trying to keep up with his lengthy steps.

“Stop! Let him go, you asshole-” you raised your fists, pounding on the man’s back, trying to get him to stop. You failed. What’s more, your effort was cut short by another two men grabbing your arms and pulling you towards the exit.  

You struggled in their grasp, not really caring if you made a scene. You writhed, screamed, and fought, but you made no impact on your situation. Somehow, none of the bystanders even seemed to notice.  

To be fair, you almost didn’t notice when the men pulled you into the brisk night and behind the bar. It was a dimly lit space. Night had fallen, and clouds covered the moon. That left two lights attached to the building to cast the space in a sickly yellow light. You were almost glad that they did such a shitty job.

What you could see of the concrete behind the bar was covered in odd stains. Two dumpsters were covered in a similar substance. Each of them reeked with the smell of rot- in fact, the whole area did. Flies buzzed nearby, humming an elegy in tune with the dull static sound of the wall lights.  

Before your surroundings could make you spiral any further, Eddie’s voice hit your ears. He groaned out your name, breaking your heart into a million little pieces. You did your best to keep your eyes on him despite the situation, and the horror around you. You had to focus on his limp frame, his arms twisted behind his back in a cruel, unforgiving hold by the man from the bar.  

Seeing him hurt just made you fight harder. You snapped at your captors, spitting and biting, snarling like a feral beast. You screamed, too, begging them to let him go, begging any passers-by for help. No one came. No one helpful, anyway.

In the midst of your frenzied fighting, a figure emerged from the shadows. Its eyes were white pinpricks in the dark, gazing at you, eating you alive even at a distance. Your body froze when you finally noticed it standing there. It took a few steps into the light, and a chill ran through you. He was just a normal man. A little older than you, relatively handsome, and with a grin as sharp as any other. You didn’t know who he was. You didn’t recognize him from the bar. But something told you that he knew you, that he’d been waiting here, for you.

You wanted to keep fighting. You wanted to break from your captors’ hold, grab Eddie, and escape. You didn’t do any of those things.

Instead, you stood, trapped as the Stranger advanced on you. You watched him with wide, terrified eyes as he took your injured hand in his. He examined the wound, inhaling the blood that stained your skin.

“I told you they’d be a catch, didn’t I?” he finally spoke in a deep voice that chilled your blood.

“Mhmm, but are they really worth the hassle?” one of your captors spoke up, “They’re rather intent on causing a scene- and extensive damage to my face.…” 

“You deserved it,” you barked, a bit of fight returning to your bones.  

The shadow-drenched Stranger seemed to like that response, “See? They’re a fighter. They’ll last longer than the others, and when they do break, well-” he dug his fingers into the wound on your palm, drawing a scream from your lips, “It’ll be more fun for us, won’t it?”

His hungry eyes met yours as he brought his blood-soaked digits to his mouth. Again, you found yourself frozen, like a deer trapped in headlights, watching as he licked the red from his fingers.  

“Oh,” the Stranger purred, leaning closer to you, “They’re delicious.”

The Stranger’s smile grew wider as he turned his attention to your throat. He took his time drawing closer to you, casually taking hold of you in place of your captors. You strained against his grip, but your efforts were futile. His strength was inhuman- his grip on you left bruises that would never truly go away. It finally dawned on you that this was not a man that held you like he wanted to destroy you- this was a monster that wanted to toy with you until you breathed your last.

And in that moment, you understood. You were his prey. You were a rabbit between the teeth of a predator. A deer staring down a fucking bus. You were going to die- and things were only going to get worse from there.  

The Stranger grabbed your face and pulled you in, teeth bared. He was mere seconds away from piercing the thin flesh of your throat when the sound of a scuffle broke his concentration.

“Let them go, you bastard-”

Eddie.  He was up and struggling, fighting against the man holding him despite the drugs coursing through his veins. Your heart screamed in your chest, desperate for him to help you- and for you to help him. But there was nothing you could do.

“Did you hear me? Let. Them. Go,” his voice trembled, and his words slurred together, but it didn’t matter. He was fighting and he was doing it for you.  

It was incredibly stupid. It was incredibly brave.  It spared you for a moment, but it cost you both in the long run, and that didn’t matter in the end, because fuck, you loved him.

The Stranger also loved Eddie, but he loved him for a much different, much more entertainment-based reason.

“Ohhh, isn’t this cute?” The Stranger released you, throwing you back to the other men. His eyes set upon his newest fascination with an unsettling joy engraved within them.

He grabbed Eddie by the chin, forcing your friend to meet his gaze. The Stranger studied him for a moment, taking in the honey brown eyes that you were so fond of before he placed both of his hands on Eddie’s face, almost cradling it. His grasp almost looked gentle. From experience, you could tell that it was anything but. It would only take a jerk of the Stranger's hands to end the boy you loved- and you were powerless to do anything about it.

A sob escaped you as you thrashed, helplessly. Eddie was drugged and defenceless, and you couldn’t help him. You couldn’t see his face, but you could practically feel the panic burning through him.  

“Don’t cry, little one,” the Stranger said, casting a glance at you over his shoulder, “Don’t waste your tears on this fucking failure.”

“Fuck off-” you hissed, but the Stranger paid you no mind. Instead, he turned his gaze back to Eddie, tilting his head and humming a bit. The world fell silent for a few moments as dread built in your chest. Fear grew inside of you, eating away at your soul like a parasite.  

“It’s kind of sweet, you know? How much he cares for you. How much he wants to protect you. Oh, he’s going to be so much fun.”

“Stop!!  Leave him alone!” you begged, “Please, don’t hurt him!”

“Don’t worry, little one,” the smirk on the Stranger’s face could not be described as anything but malicious. His eyes glinted in the low light, and as he spared you another glance, your heart dropped to your stomach, “I’ll leave most of the hurting to you.”

Before you could process what that truly meant, the Stranger tilted Eddie’s head back and drove his fingers into your friend’s temples. You watched, petrified, as the light faded from his eyes. He stopped struggling. His limbs fell to his sides as he went limp in the Stranger’s hold. You could barely hear the apology that fell from Eddie’s lips- a small, pitiful “I’m sorry,” that was undoubtedly meant for you.  

A milky white sheen covered his eyes before they slid shut entirely. Then, as quickly as it began, it was over. The Stranger let Eddie’s body fall to the floor. Everything stilled. The world fell silent.

You screamed.

The sound echoed through the parking lot. Your pain and anguish bounced off of the brick walls of the bar, and the stained concrete below. You strained against your captors, praying for some secret strength to help you free yourself and get to your friend.  

But there was nothing. You were trapped. And you were certain that Eddie was dead.

“Will you shut up?” one of the men growled.

“Master, I really think this one is more trouble than they’re worth-”

“Let’s cut the crap and slit their throat. It’s not like we really need another servant,” another of the men entangled a hand in your hair, pulling him towards you by the roots. He used the leverage to pull your head back, exposing your neck to the men around you, “Especially this one will be so fun to break.”

You felt hands on your wrists and on your waist. It felt as if a thousand men had suddenly gathered, manifesting from the shadows to tear you apart. No matter how hard you thrashed, you couldn’t shake them off. A sharp pinch hit your neck- teeth. Fangs threatened your flesh, digging in, moments from drawing blood.  

They were going to eat you. You were going to die, and all you could think about was the life leaving Eddie’s eyes.

“Enough,” the Stranger’s voice rang in your ears, blocking out the sound of your screams. His footsteps filled your mind as he approached you, stepping away from Eddie’s body, “Have patience. You’ll have your turn to drink as long as we stick to the plan.”

He stopped in front of you and held out a hand, “Give them to me.”

Without another thought, you were thrown into his arms. You weren’t sure whether you should be relieved, or afraid. Before you could make up your mind on that one, the Stranger took your injured hand in his. His hungry eyes bore into yours as he ran his tongue over the wound.  

The second your blood hit his tongue, he shifted, slightly. His eyes sharpened, glinting in the low light like an animal’s as if he had a tapetum lucidum of his own. His teeth grew slightly in length and in sharpness. You already knew that this man wasn’t human, but now you could see it. And looking just behind him, you could see that every other man surrounding you was the exact same type of creature that he was. They were monsters, all of them.

You whimpered, wounding your pride slightly. Still, you found it in yourself to ask, “What did you do to him?”

“You’ll find out soon enough, sweet one.”

A shaky breath filled your lungs. In your last moments, with your last breaths, you asked another question- one that you already knew the answer to, “What are you?”

He didn’t answer. Before you could understand what was happening, you were knocked back. The Stranger held you in midair against his chest, between him and the ground. As he set his teeth against your pulse point, your eyes fell to Eddie. His crumpled form lay where the Stranger had left him. His eyes were shut. He looked dead.  

Despite the imminent death, you couldn’t help but wonder- what would happen to him after these monsters were done with you? After they followed their plan and ate you, would they kill him? Would they do to him what they were doing to you?

Tears spilled down your cheeks even before you felt the Stranger tearing into your throat.  

He made no effort to show mercy. His jaw clamped down on you, tearing through flesh and vein until he was satisfied. Your body burnt with pain so violent that you could not help the tears that fell from your eyes. Your vision blurred and tunnelled. Everything around you turned grey as your hands began to shake. The rest of your body began to convulse.  

Each and every sensation you felt intensified tenfold. You could feel the beating of your heart in your chest, the pulling of your muscles, and the grating of your bones against your flesh.  

It was fucking sickening.

You heard a sound. A scream, a broken plea, faint but full of fear- the cry of a dying thing. For a moment, you thought it was something in the woods, a deer or a rabbit caught screaming as something big tore it apart. It took you a minute to register that the sound came from you.  

Other sets of teeth pierced your skin as the rest of the men joined in on the murder. Someone’s lips lapped at your wounded hand, and someone else’s fangs carved into your thigh. You could feel the smiles on their faces as they ate you alive. Time seemed to slow down as they ripped you open and drank you to death. A sickening lightness took your mind as you recognized what was to come.

With even your desperation drained, you succumbed to your fate. The fight in you was gone. The last thing your human eyes saw was Eddie. The pain crescendoed, and the world went dark. You were dead. Your life was over.  

But that wasn’t the end, was it?  

No. No, it was not. You were dead, yes, but then you noticed that you could still feel everything. All of the pain, the anguish, the panic- it was still there, running through your body, eating away at what was left of you.

In the haze of sightless experiences, you could feel something pressing against your lips- something hard, dripping with what had to be blood. The taste of metal flooded your mouth as a thick, hot liquid rushed in. You could feel it coursing down your throat, changing you as it went. As you drank, you grew stronger. Whatever it was that they had given you, it brought you back from the abyss. The pain lessened. Your senses sharpened. And everything felt wrong.

Your teeth were too long for your mouth. You could smell the ichor that stained the ground beneath you, and what was undoubtedly the scent of corpses radiating from the dumpster. The buzzing of the flies and of the dim yellow lights screamed in your ears, creating a cacophony of sounds that you could not escape from. You could feel your blood, hot and steaming, dripping down your cold flesh where your assailants had decided to waste it.

And what a waste it was.

From the outside of the building, you could hear the heartbeats of every single patron of the bar. You could smell their sweat and practically taste their flesh.  And you were so hungry- suddenly, the trickle of dark plasma down your throat wasn’t enough. You needed more.

With new inhuman strength, you gripped the thing against your mouth and sunk your claws and teeth deeper inside. You drank from it, hungrily, viciously, like an animal drinking in the viscera of its kill. You could hear a laugh, feel the limb, an arm, twitch between your jaws, but you didn’t fucking care. The new hunger that gripped you was vast and relentless- you couldn’t get enough.

You were still clinging to the arm when the Stranger pulled you away by the back of your neck. It was his other arm that you’d been tearing apart, but he didn’t seem to mind. Another of those nasty cold smiles was plastered across his face, and there was almost a sort of pride in his eyes when he looked at you.

“That’s it, sweet one, that’s it,” he cooed, “You’re thirsty, aren’t you?”

You didn’t want to give him a response. Instead, you strained against his hold, trying to bite his arm again. He was bleeding- dark liquid dripped down his fingers, beckoning you to taste it. And yes, his blood was weird. It was bitter, and it wasn’t completely satisfying, but fuck, did you want more of it.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” his smile widened, “Well, I can tell you where to get more. Do you want more?”

Your gaze broke from his arm, snapping to his face. You were desperate, so fucking desperate, inhumanly and monstrously desperate.

The Stranger seemed to know this. His eyes glinted with malice and excitement. He knew that he had power over you. He knew what was coming next, and he loved that you didn’t. He rose up slowly, keeping his eyes on your quivering frame, and with a flourish, he gestured to Eddie.

“Drink up, sweet thing.”

…

You couldn’t. You wouldn’t.

And yes, you were conflicted. Yes, you wanted to eat Eddie Munson, your longtime friend and overall protector- the man you’d loved since you knew what love was, but for obvious reasons, you also did not want to do that.  

And yet, despite that, you found yourself crawling towards him, eyes set on his body like a hungry animal stalking fresh meat. In many ways, you were. 

When you reached him, you took a moment just to stare. He still looked sick- an after-effect from whatever the Stranger had done to him. Somehow, though, he managed to look beautiful. He was angelic, even in this filthy hell. You brought a hand up to trace his jaw. Your fingertips traced over his porcelain skin until they hovered over his neck, setting themselves atop his pulse point. For a moment, you thought you felt a heartbeat; slow and faint, but present.

You told yourself you were imagining things.

He was gone, you knew that, and the knowledge burned you.  It cursed you, inside and out.  Loss weighed heavy in your heart, calling you to make bad decisions and do things you’d regret.  Why worry about tomorrow when your world had just ended?

But something stopped you- something deep inside you- the little rational part of your brain that still remained- screamed for you to control your impulses.  And you did.  Dead or otherwise, you wouldn’t be eating Eddie Munson. 

Instead, you leaned down, bringing yourself closer to his throat. Your lips hovered over his pulse point, but you didn’t bite down into his sweet skin. Instead, you placed a short, gentle kiss on his neck- a soft goodbye.

Then, with a final look at the boy you loved, you stood. Your body shook terribly. Your vision swam, and the world seemed to shift underneath you. Despite all of this, you managed, and you stood tall and proud as you faced down the Stranger and his monsters. Blood-soaked and broken, you did your best to look confident and unafraid. You were a fool for what you were about to do. You did it anyway.

It was time to be brave.

“I can’t do it.”

“Oh, why? Because you love him?” the Stranger mocked you. You refused to react.

You remained silent.  

A sickening smile spread across the Stranger’s face, “Ah, humans. So simple. Don’t worry, darling. We’ll fix you.”

With a flick of his hand, the Stranger ordered one of his monsters to come and investigate your claims. You watched as the man moved forward, his hungry eyes fixed on you and on Eddie. Before he could get too close, you darted forward with speed that surprised you. You greeted him with a solid punch to the face.

Your assailant hit the ground, clutching his face with a hand. You had done that. You had knocked him down. You hadn’t been able to knock any of these monsters off of you before, but now… Your new strength was a definite surprise, but a welcome one to be sure.

Another few blood-suckers were sent your way. You punched the first one in the stomach, sending him back to the ground. Another fist flew towards your face, but you managed to dodge it, grabbing the wrist of the thing that attacked you. You threw the man away from you and caught the fist of the next man. For all intents and purposes, you were winning.

And then that ended. A knee met your chest, knocking the wind out of you and sending you stumbling towards the concrete. A boot collided with your ribs, followed by several more blows. You could do nothing but curl in on yourself, trying to protect the more fragile parts of your body. You could practically feel the bruises forming, though your skin remained unblemished.  

The beating continued for a few more minutes. You could do nothing but lie there and take it. You were already weakened- what could you do to fight back?  

“Enough,” you could feel the Stranger’s voice in your bones, “Get them up.”

Hands gripped your arms and pulled you up from the floor. Another hand gripped under your chin, forcing you to gaze up at the man who’d caused all this suffering.

He stalked towards you. For once, his face was expressionless. He looked you up and down, taking in your weakened form. An awful grin took over his face as he reached out to stroke your cheek.

“Like I said, fun to break. Let’s be off, now. There’s still much to do before the sunrise.”

And, unfortunately, there was- and it never seemed to stop. For a year you were kept as a prisoner, a thrall to the thing that turned you. You witnessed horror after horror, and you did what you needed to survive. You bided your time, though, and eventually, you gathered your courage and your cunning, and you tore the Stranger- your vampiric master- limb from fucking limb.  

You drank him, consuming his foul blood until there was nothing left. It felt good, freeing, to see the fear on his face. It brought you indescribable joy to watch the light drain from his eyes. And when, finally, your killer lay dead before you, 

After that, you found yourself relatively lost. You’d lived the last monstrous year of your life dependent on the Stranger and his coven. With them dead at your hand, you weren’t sure exactly how to live in the modern world as a creature of the night.

Your former master’s bank account was a good first step.

Yeah, it turns out that decades, possibly centuries of murder can turn a bit of a profit. Between general theft and contract killings, the Stranger definitely wasn’t hungry for money. He was just hungry for blood- and now, he wasn’t hungry for anything. Just dirt, if you had to guess.

Anyway.

You donated a solid portion of the money to various charities. It was blood money in the purest, most literal way, and keeping it would only weigh you down.

With the rest of it, you bought the bar you’d been turned at. A surprising number of the staff had been dangerous monsters in one way or another. You quickly corrected that. The staff you had now were much less monstrous- they were a safer crowd, human or otherwise. They also had a solid benefits package, so that was nice.

You had also purchased yourself a home near Hawkins. You weren’t directly in the town- no, you were easing yourself into returning. For one thing, people would have questions for you. It wasn’t every day that a young adult for a year before reappearing miraculously and with assloads of money in the bank.  

For another thing, the memories of your human life stung you. It hurt you to think back, to think of everyone you left behind. To think of Eddie, whose death still weighed heavy in your heart, and whose absence left a deep ache inside of you. It was almost nice, the agony that he left behind. It was just nice to know that you could still feel hurt, emotionally or otherwise.

So, that’s where you ended up. One year later, at the same bar, your bar, watching patrons mill about, dancing and drinking. Your eyes fell back, again and again, to the couple- the one in the leather and the one in the battle jacket. 

They were leaning against the bar, drinking together, all loving smiles and adoring stares. You embraced the stab of pain the image sent to your heart.

Taking a sip of your drink, you continued to watch as the one in leather stood and headed for the bathroom, eyes distracted as she seemed to sulk away. Your eyes turned, then, to the one in the battle jacket. You were glad you did. It meant that you got to watch him shatter the illusion that he was anything like Eddie.

You watched, eyes widening, as the man slipped a pill into his date’s drink. He looked around, his own eyes wide, looking to see if anyone had noticed him. Of course, he didn’t see you. He sat back down, shaking his hands out and pretending he’d done nothing wrong.

You knew better.

You knew you would be eating tonight. 

You turned to the bartender- another monster with a story similar to yours, and placed your hand on the bar between you, “Jen, we’ve got a bit of a situation.”

“I know,” she said, leaning towards you, “Should I-?”

You nodded, adding, “We might need a car, as well.”

“On it, boss,” Jen gave you a mock salute before she turned to face the battle jacket-wearing animal. She leaned over the counter with a wide grin and asked if she could get him another drink. He accepted with a wide, lusty grin. Pig.

You turned your attention back to the washroom, waiting for the leather-clad girl to re-enter the room. You saw her before her date did, and as she made her way to him, you stepped into her path.

“Hey there,” you said, voice low, “I just thought you should know- your date slipped something into your drink.”

A thousand emotions showed on her face- shock, anger, fear.

“That shithead, I- I don’t know how I’m gonna get home. He drove me here, I-”

“Don’t worry, cupcake. Ask the bartender in the black to call you a car,” you pointed to another bartender- not Jen, who was busy dealing with the pig.

“I- I don’t know if I have enough,” the poor thing was starting to tear up. A pang of sympathy ran through you, and you revelled in the emotion for a moment, clinging to the small fragment of humanity you had left.

“Like I said, don’t worry. The bar will cover it for you, no charge.”

“I- are you sure?”

“Of course, dear.”

“I-” her relief turned to suspicion, “Why would you do that?”

You shrugged, pulling a smile onto your face to hide the memories that crossed your mind, “It’s important to us that our patrons make it home safe. Go on now.”

You bowed, slightly, as you made a rather grand gesture in the direction of the bartender. The girl turned away from you slowly as if she was hesitant to stray from the modicum of safety you provided. You didn’t blame her. The world you lived in was a dangerous place.  

The girl’s asshole date would learn that very soon.

As she reached safety, your eyes fell from her frame and slid towards the situation unfolding between Jen and the battle-jacket date. She had him now, hook line and sinker. It was almost comical the way he stumbled after her as she led him through a back door. You followed, pausing for a moment at the door.

Outside was the back parking lot where you and Eddie had died. The lighting was still shit, but you’d gotten the place cleaned since you came to own it. The buzzing of the flies wasn’t nearly as loud as it had once been. It was almost a pity, really, that the pathetic attempted date-rapist wouldn’t feel the fear you felt that night.

Oh well.

You could hear music playing from inside the bar: ‘The Chain.” Fleetwood Mac.  Perhaps it was an odd choice for a metal bar, but you didn’t mind it in the slightest. It was familiar, and it had so many memories tied to it. Besides, how could you come to mind anything when there was such a meal in front of your face?  

Your steps fell in time with the music as you stood next to Jen, taking in a very confused man who’d just been thrown to the ground. The man at your feet was a predator to be sure; one used to getting his way and hurting whoever he felt like in the process. In that moment though, he was prey.  He was a rabbit staring into the vast, waiting jaws of a much bigger, much scarier creature. Those jaws smiled, opened, and bit down.

Blood always had a different taste. The Stranger’s blood was bitter, like the drugs he used as a weapon. Your blood tasted sweet and a little spicy, like cinnamon, sugar, and cloves. This man’s blood tasted like the beer he’d been sipping inside your bar. It wasn’t the best thing you’d ever had, but it would do for your needs.

Your teeth split flesh and broke veins, and you drank down the warm liquid that spilled out. Beneath your hands, the bastard battle-jacket boy was freaking out, losing his absolute shit. You were pretty sure that he didn’t think his night would end like this.

Of course, you didn’t give a shit. You were much stronger now, so his struggling didn’t affect you that much, and his begging was met by an explanation from Jen on how exactly he’d ended up in this position. You tuned it all out, focusing instead on the blood in your mouth as the song played out.

The man fell limp in your hands, but it mattered so very little. You were too busy pulling your head away, savouring the bliss that fresh blood brought you.

Now, you didn’t kill the man. Killing people usually caused more problems than it was worth. There would be a police investigation, and you would have to cover it up, and that his poor date would probably end up with survivor’s guilt of some kind even though she didn’t deserve it. So, no, you didn’t kill him.

Instead, you shared his blood with your more monstrous employees and then left him, unconscious, in a ditch by the side of the road. Someone would find him. Eventually.

For you, though, it was time to call it a night. You returned to the bar to find your lovely staff closing up. After checking in with the bartenders (and ensuring that the leather-clad lass made it home okay) you sent everyone off for the night, ensuring them that you would be fine cleaning up on your own. With nods and smiles, everyone was on their way.

It was a strange feeling to be in the bar when it was empty. The place held so much pain in its walls that you could practically hear the screams if you were quiet for long enough. The suffering was palpable here, in the mirror behind the bar, and in each and every table and chair. Hopefully, under your control, things would change.

For the moment, though, you decided that music would cover up the screams well enough- like patching up walls with Mud (which is, very much, a real product you can patch walls with.) With a bit of a flourish, you turned the bar’s sound system back on. Broom in hand, you swayed around, cleaning to a very familiar song and successfully keeping the memories away.

#this is so fucking loooong :') #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x y/n #x reader #stranger things x reader #pay attention to the warnings #if you'd like me to add anything to the tags lmk #eddie munson x you

[shuttershocky]

I recently got interested in dota, but as someone who does not have a 4 stack of friends what is an easy way to learn the game? I started watching tournaments, but while they did teach me how the games are structured I still lack the awareness and knowledge of my role to play with others

Let me start off by saying Dota is truly best played with a squad, or even just a single friendly teammate. If you don't have any friends to play with you, I recommend making a post at r/Dota2 with your region stated, asking if anyone would like to team up. The community there is friendlier to newbies than the average pubber, you might get lucky!

Now as for learning Dota, there's no one who's more experienced in teaching new players than Purge and his new player guide. While the guides themselves are technically incredibly outdated (by half a decade), the basics he teaches such as setting up your controls, items, warding, the various disable types, etc are all still relevant and all critical information for new players to learn. Purge is the guy Day9 from Starcraft hit up to teach him how to play the game in the year Day9 was supposed to host The International, he's the real deal with teaching the basics.

I also suggest playing vs bots first. You can do matchmaking vs bots where you get paired up with 4 other humans to play vs a team of bots. It's a very low stakes environment as even the Unfair difficulty bots are easily exploitable, so it's a good way to learn the game. Once you're having too much of an easy time playing Vs Bots, then you can try playing against humans.

When playing against humans, remember to hit that mute button whenever someone's toxic, and hit that high five button whenever your teammate makes a good play. At low-medium skill levels winning is often extremely reliant on which team is cooperating more (since at low skill level people don't know how to actually end a game), so fostering a sense of camaraderie will take you a long way.

Finally, if a game of regular Dota 2 takes too long or you're just finding it a bit too stressful for a newbie to learn, there's always Turbo Mode. It's the Easy mode Dota 1 had, where getting killed doesn't take away your gold, and everyone gets gold and experience like 2x faster so everyone's just getting super rich and brawling a lot without too much regard to strategy. It's a lot of fun and a great way to learn what every hero does, as well as just how powerful these heroes can really get if they have a ton of gold.

Have fun!

#Dota 2

[gravitascivics]

JUDGING THE NATURAL RIGHTS VIEW, XXII

An advocate of natural rights continues his/her presentation[1] …

The last posting introduced the teacher as the next commonplace of curriculum development.  For those just beginning to read this series of postings over the commonplaces, they are the brainchild of Joseph Schwab; his theorizing focuses on the factors that affect the way curricula are designed and implemented.[2]  More specifically, this posting, as opposed to what the last one indicated, addresses only teacher effectiveness and the next posting will report on teachers’ command of civics, the subject matter.

Teacher Effectiveness

Jere Brophy, some years ago, reviewed the research on this factor of effectiveness among teachers up until 1988.[3]  He states that, according to that research, effective teachers tend to be those who have a goal-directed approach and a businesslike, task-oriented personality. These teachers do not waste time in class on non-academic activities but stay on task expecting their students to meet their goals.

Class periods are well planned, and students are clearly told what is expected of them. Students’ progressions are closely monitored and problems such as behavioral ones are quickly identified and handled.  There are brisk paces to their class procedures, and presentations are conducted in smooth manners avoiding choppy transitions.

Students receive timely feedbacks on their evaluated works and content sets of material are organized into small increments so that successes are more likely. These teachers rely mostly on direct instruction (usually didactic style).  They maintain enthusiastic manners and utilize content presentations that are structured in such ways as “integrated wholes.”

That leads students to grasp the material more easily.  Brophy adds that these teachers have students do challenging but not overly difficult activities, so that the students can more likely achieve successes. And they also prepare students with appropriate framing or previewing of homework assignments so as to increase the likelihood that those efforts meet their planned purposes.

A respected online service, University of the People, identifies eight functions that social studies in general – and civics in particular – serve.  This review of the commonplaces addresses the function of civics as a subject matter earlier, but here, by extension, one can apply those functions to that subject’s teachers.  

And in that pursuit, UOP offers eight functions:  better reading and learning, citizen responsibilities and values, cultural understanding, economic education, critical thinking (especially in line with Robert Gagne’s approach to essentialist teaching),[4] real-world understanding, political skills, and respect for history.[5]  

In line with the effort here, and while this account focuses on secondary schooling, readers can derive useful information from elementary education literature. One such case is what G. R. McKenzie[6] offers.  He applies these arguments from his study of elementary education to social studies.  His research further supports how social studies is a basic, fundamental source for much of the core information students need to know in order to perform in a typical curriculum.

That is, social studies information helps individuals make sense of the complex realities of the world, from local settings to the global stage.  Such knowledge is even necessary to acquire “basic skills” of reading, writing, and arithmetic.  McKenzie warns against the use of high-level questioning, stating that teacher effectiveness research does not support this practice because students do not have adequate knowledge to respond in a useful manner.  Of course, with secondary students, more sophisticated questioning can be expected.

McKenzie tends to support a systemic approach of curricular development.  He hypothesizes that problem solving skills are better taught with a systems approach than with a direct problem-solving approach and calls for more research into the question.  

Daniel T. Willingham addresses this directly.

 It's true that knowledge gives students something to think about, but a reading of the research literature from cognitive science shows that knowledge does much more than just help students hone their thinking skills: It actually makes learning easier. Knowledge is not only cumulative, it grows exponentially. Those with a rich base of factual knowledge find it easier to learn more — the rich get richer. In addition, factual knowledge enhances cognitive processes like problem solving and reasoning. The richer the knowledge base, the more smoothly and effectively these cognitive processes — the very ones that teachers target — operate. So, the more knowledge students accumulate, the smarter they become.[7]

 For some time, teacher effectiveness research has provided support for direct instruction, i.e., an essentialist approach to the teaching of social studies.  It is conducive to the content suggested by the natural rights construct and its reliance on political systems.

         Teachers who incorporate the pedagogic method outlined by the teacher effectiveness approach have at their disposal a theoretical foundation that has a holistic model of governance and politics, that being the political systems model (with the supplemental addition of the structural-functional model). Once applied, an explanatory basis for that reality emerges and the essential facts and principles of American government become exposed, making cognitive acquisition by secondary students possible.  

Of course, this presupposes that teachers are sufficiently sophisticated in their knowledge of the discipline of political science and, to some degree, the other social sciences.  Teachers, one can assume, cannot know too much when it comes to the subject they teach. The next topic of this review is teacher knowledge.

[1] This presentation continues with this posting.  The reader is informed that the claims made in this posting do not necessarily reflect the beliefs or knowledge of this blogger.  Instead, the posting is a representation of what an advocate of the natural rights view might present.  This is done to present a dialectic position of that construct.  This series of postings begins with “Judging Natural Rights View, I,” August 2, 2022.

[2] Joseph Schwab presents his conception of the commonplaces of curriculum development – they are subject matter, students, teachers, and milieu.  See William H. Schubert, Curriculum:  Perspective, Paradigm, and Possibility (New York, NY: MacMillan Publishing Company, 1986).

[3] Jere Brophy, “Research on Teacher Effects:  Uses and Abuses,” The Elementary School Journal, 89, 1 (September 1988), 3-21.

[4] B. Janse, “Gagne’s Conditions of Learning,” Toolshero (2019), accessed September 15, 2022, https://www.toolshero.com/personal-development/gagnes-conditions-of-learning/.

[5] “Why Is Social Studies Important?  8 Reasons to Study,” University of the People (n.d.), accessed October 9, 2022, https://www.uopeople.edu/blog/why-is-social-studies-important/.

[6] G. R. McKenzie, “Learning and Instruction,” in Elementary School Social Studies:  Research as a Guide to Practice (Bulletin No. 79), edited by Virginia A. Atwood (Washington, DC:  National Council of the Social Studies, 1986), 119-136.

[7] Daniel T. Willingham, “How Knowledge Helps,” Reading Rockets (associated with WETA), (n.d.), accessed October 9, 2022, https://www.readingrockets.org/article/how-knowledge-helps.

#civics teachers #teacher effectiveness #essentialist education #political knowledge #social sciences #civics education #social studies

[luvspence]

contact names

spencer reid x reader

synopsis: a love story told through contact names

word count: 1.5k 

———

“hi dr. reid, or u-um spencer? is that all right? can i call you by your first name? i was wondering if i could get your number, so we could have a line of communication and all”

you stood in front of him, smiling brightly. this was your first jet ride of your first case. you believed first impressions were important, and a little more important when that first impression was with him

you’d gone to the same college as him, given you went around 12 years after he did, and his name was always brought up. when you were a criminal justice major and cal tech, spencer reid was a name that was hard to not know. you studied his analysis, you read his doctoral papers, and you admired him from a far. just an alumni, smart one, cute one at that, but just an alumni, someone to learn from

okay so maybe you had a crush on him, but of course you didn’t that was ridiculously, you’d never even met the man

but there you were, somehow you fought your way through school, the academy, and the baus hiring process, and you went from admiring learner, to colleague

he was beautifully perched on the edge of the jet seat, staring down at the chess set, playing against himself

“oh hello, and spencer is quite fine. just appreciative to be called anything other than morgan’s chosen nick name of ‘pretty boy’. i mean i guess it is a compliment? well it feels degrading in a sense, i digress,,”

he chuckled awkwardly

when he was nervous, he rambled, and you made him nervous

he and garcia had thoroughly researched you before you had joined

you were top of your class at cal-tech, top of your class at the academy, your published work was astonishing for someone your age, you had numerous letters of recommendation from highly regarded professors

you were nothing short of excellent, and nothing short of beautiful

long hair with bangs that perfectly framed your face, dimples on both of your cheeks, a smile that could light up any room you walked into

so needless to say, spencer already had a crush on you before you walked through the bau doors

“ and oh i’m regarding that phone number, let me...”

he shuffled through his satchel, files, books, tea bags and granola bar wrapper being pushed a side in search of his business card

“shoot, i can’t find it, here”

he pulled his phone out

“why don’t your enter your number, and i’ll text you so that you can save the contact as well?”

“oh perfect!”

you grabbed his phone typing in your number, and handing it back

“t-thank you!”

you turned to walk away

“oh wait! could you spell your last name for me? i wouldn’t want to get it wrong”

you spelled it out, he typed in the letters into his phone

now you were officially in his phone as plainly

“y/n l/n”

—

you guys quickly went from colleagues to friends

ever since that first text that spencer sent to share his number, you two were inseparable

carpooled to work and back

sat next to each other on the jet

office spaces next to each other

coffee “dates”

hotel slumber parties during cases

friday night game night traditions

endless conversations

book recommendations

and of course

a blinding amount of romantic tension

a couple months into you working at the bau you were sitting on spencer’s desk, him reclined in his chair

“i’m telling you! i’m amazing at gin rummy”

“mhm okay”

you hit him playfully with a file

“mhm? what is that supposed to mean? do you doubt my skills?”

“no not at all, i just know i’d crush you”

you raised an eyebrow

“okay dr reid? you wanna go?”

he pulled a deck of cards out of his drawer

“i’ll deal”

he said, shuffling the cards

7 rounds later, you had beat him by 27 points

“HA!”

he looked down in defeat

“HA HA HA!!!!”

“i let you win”

“UNTRUE UNTRUE! you knocked and were so confident that you had won, but guess what? I HAD GIN” you laughed un controllably while spenxer rolled his eyes

“they don’t call me y/n “gin rummy god” l/n for nothing!”

he perched his face in his hands, staring up at your giggly face that still remained seated on his desk

“who calls you that”

“everyone! and now you have to!”

he laughed, pulled out his phone went to his contacts

he typed in

“y/n “pretty okay at gin rummy” l/n”

he showed you the screen

“happy?”

you squinted in to read it

“very”

———-

it didn’t take very much longer until you and spencer were dating

it happened one day on the jet, you were flying home and while sitting next to spencer instinctually laid your head on his shoulder

that wasn’t too abnormal, but spencer bent his neck down to kiss you softly on the forehead

you looked at him

he looked at you

finally an action that couldn’t be written off as platonic

with scared eyes he looked at you, looking like he had just committed a grave crime

as he had forgotten that you two were not dating, you had forgotten that the entire team was also on that jet

so you grabbed his face and kissed him, kissed him long, gently wrapping your arms around his neck, until you heard an “ahem” from derek

“finally”

he laughed, you and spencer just stared at each other an also burst into laughter, and from then on, you were his girl, his love, his object of adoration, his lady

—-

3 months into your relationship, spencer had gotten a concussion

he was okay, just unable to fly

you were about to board the jet, face buried in spencers shoulder

“i don’t have to go spencer”

“yes, yes you do”

“i don’t want to leave you”

“y/n i will survive, and it’s not like i’m gonna be alone in the office, i’ll be consulting virtually through garcia”

you pressed a kiss to his lips

“okay, i’ll miss you”

“miss you too”

you let go of his hand and jogged up to emily who was boarding the plane

“you two are vile” she said laughing

“not funny!”

-

the case was tough, even tougher with spencer not around

though he and garcia made quite the duo

“hey spencer could you call y/n for me? i’m on this line with derek”

“yeah of course”

he pressed your contact on his favorite list

your name saved as “m’lady”

garcia noticed immediately

“m’lady?! M’LADY??? if you two aren’t the cutest pair of 18th century literature nerds i don’t know what is”

he giggled, you picked up the phone

“spence?”

garcia started shouting

“Y/N YOU SUcK! YOU AND YOUR PERFECT ADORABLE RELATIONSHIP WITH CUTE LITTLE CONTACT NAMES! HAVE SOME MERCY FOR THE SINGLE PEOPLE HUH?”

you started to laugh

“garcia do you have that list of names i asked for?”

——-

4 years, 1 built in library, and 3 cats later

spencer knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with you

it was a warm saturday, and you and spencer went to the museum of natural sciences

you were standing in front of the aquatic birds exhibit

you were reading the swan description

“swan, largest waterfowl species of the subfamily anserinae, family anatidae. most swans are classified in the genus cygnus. swans are gracefully long-necked, heavy-bodied, big-footed birds that glide majestically when swimming and fly with slow wingbeats and with necks outstretched. swans mate for life, and can actually die from heart break if their partner dies, interesting”

“yeah, swans are usually a symbol of love and marriage”

“how sweet, such romantic birds”

spencer took your hand

“i’m gonna love you forever, just like these swans”

he kissed your forehead

“forever and ever spence?”

he got down on one knee

“forever and ever”

-

you wanted to wait until the perfect moment to tell the team, refraining from wearing your ring until you two could figure it out, but by an unfortunate accident, they secret was out

“hey y/n, i didn’t get a chance to save your number earlier, would you mind?”

an officer at the local precinct was asking you, as to have a more direct way of contact

the entire team was sitting around a table as you typed your number into the officers phone

“oh and y/n i’m sorry how do you spell your last name”

“r-e-i-d, reid”

you froze

in most of your circles you already started going by spencer’s last name, this detail slipped your mind

derek was the first to say something

“WHAT”

then emily

“YOU TWO?”

you and spencer looked at each other

“okay, we’re in engaged”

the entire team started hugging and cheering, the rest of the precinct joining in

“so when were you planning to tell us?” hotch asked with a raised eyebrow

you laughed

“would you believe me if i said that contact name incident was planned?”

#criminal minds #spencer reid #spencer reid fanfiction #criminal minds fanfiction #spencer reid fluff #spencer reid fluffy #spencer reid x fem!reader #spencer x y/n #cm #mgg #gubler #matthew gray #matthew gray gubler #mgg fluff #mgg fic #spencer reid fic

[doctor-plagueis]

RWBY Booty Tier List

Hi I said it would happen so now it's gonna happen, time to rate asses and explain why I gave them that rating...

(also they are in order from flattest to phattest)

[This took way too long (T-T) ]

Starting with D TIER Aka Flat as fuck

Raven: Ya go to the lowest tier in D tier ya all-tits-no-ass having ass, you deadbeat fucko (I really don't like parents who leave their children, how'd you guess?).

Weiss : Sorry girl but even with all your dance training, your Sperm donor's DNA is in you, if it was just your mom's DNA you'd rocket up to A TIER, still more ass than Raven tho, which says a lot about Raven since Weiss is as flat as a wooden plank (sorry @naughtyweiss your girl has no ass).

All of team NDGO: these bitches show up once or twice, and, in the novels they do something bad? I didn't read it, but they like sacrifice some people to the Grimm or something? Anyways they have almost no ass too little to actually matter.

C TIER Aka Too much muscle

Pyrrha : Sorry unbeatable girl your life style is just too healthy, with all her exercises and no fat foods she has no cushioning, I'm sorry Pyrrha you just have too much muscle.

Reese : With all her skating she must have some muscle in the back, like literally, her muscles are trained to keep her on the board during combat so her ass is super firm, but that's a bit of a downside since it's too firm, kinda hard actually like really hard.

Also she gives me party animal girl vibes, that doesn't affect anything just thought I'd mention it.

Elm: Have you seen how tall and beefy that girl is? Now does this affect her backside...mmm...kind of? Her ass is just and, I mean just muscle which is bad because no cushioning.

But her thighs tho mm~mm delicious.

Yang : Yang is all about her upper body, she's proud of her tits and her arms, she is Miss "punch first ask later" after all, so i can actually see her skipping some leg days, like Reese her booty is alot of muscle but not so much cushion, sorry Yang.

Arslan : Like Yang, Arslan is all about working out and honing her body to peak physical fighting ability, however, this girl has genetics on her side, her tits aren't as big as Yang’s however, she make up for having a tentsy little bit of cushion for the pushin' not really enough to be B TIER though.

B TIER Aka Now were gettin' good

Penny Ver.2 : Penny Version 1 was pure metal (at least in my headcanon) so she was all legs no butt, however, Penny Version 2 (again in my headcanon) had synthetic skin, now I'm not saying Pietro is some weird pervert giving his child a fat ass, but he was "generous" which was inaccurate as...

Penny (human) : Penny as a human never had the chance to exercise [fuck you RT (T-T)], so her booty was a little lacking but it was still bigger and rounder than her robot body.

Ruby: Now you and I both know that with all the sweets Ruby eats she isn't exactly thin, good thing though is all the fat goes to her ass, Ruby has that fatty y'all!

Neo : I'm sure people will question this one but, Neo's height is a detrement on her ass, since she's so short her ass has to be proportional to her actual height, so for women her height she has so much ass but compared to the others in this list it isn't as much.

Coco: Coco takes care of her fashion and her body. She does squats often and keeps a balance between fat and firmness. Unfortunately genetics gave her a cute face but not a phat ass, sorry queen.

Summer: Same as Ruby except she has that MILFY boost to her hips and booty (she also has bigger tits but, oh well this isn't the Titty Tier list so...).

Winter : Training for the military helped null the taint of Jacques DNA in her, so she took a bit more of her mother’s blessed genes, her ass isn't exactly impressive like the girls in A TIER but it's nothing to scoff at either, unlike her sister (sorry Weissey).

Miltiades "Miltia" : both sisters wear heels, however, Miltia has bigger boobs than her twin while Mel has a bigger booty, still wearing heels and being as acrobatic as they both are requires a lot of lower body training, and also since they work at a club as security they do know how to seduce people, and that did affected their rating.

A TIER Aka Nearly perfectly fuckable

Harriet : Now to be one hundred percent honest Harriet has more thighs than ass, however, with her focus on speed and the training she does, she must have a nice fuckable ass, not the biggest or roundest but really, really nice.

Melanie: Both sisters are guards for Junior's club, but, I like to think that Mel also works as a Stripper or Lap dancer (Hooker if you got enough to buy her services and have a dick big enough, she's a bit of a size queen), so she worked on making her already fat ass even better and also took the time to hone her sex appeal, those being her twerking and lapdancing.

Velvet : Bunny gal has some phat Bunny Buns if ya catch my meaning, like go back to volume 3 and get a good look at her costume, girl's got hips and ass like she was bred for it!

Willow: Have you seen her in the newest volumes?? She has a chance (admittedly small) against the legendary bellabooties Gahtdayum!

Too bad she wasted it with a nearly sterile fucking shit pile of a human like Jacques, ugh... (How he managed to have 3 children baffles me, must've taken half the world’s supply of Viagra)

[Side note our favorite Schnee femboy took after his mom, if he was on the list he'd be just below Harriet hehe].

A+ TIER Candidates for the Bubble Booty Brigade (BBB)

Glynda : Glynda is a professional huntress, she is a teacher and she's decked out in dominatrix gear, can I make it any clearer?

Salem : Salem is the original MILF, the thiccest witch of remnant , and also, she has magic and is technically a monster girl sooo... that gives her extra points (who would've guessed I like monster girls hehe).

The next entry might be blasphemous for some and for that I apologize but...

Blake and Kali : I'm sorry kitties, even though the belabooties are know world wide they are not yet in the BBB. Blake has the firmer booty because of her time in the Fang but Kali has the MILF bonus.

Because of their similarities and their diferences they tie for top of A+ tier.

S TIER The BUBBLE BOOTY BRIGADE

The three heavenly asses of remnant, only three girl stand a top the mountain of the perfect Bubble Booty and they are in order...

May Zedong : May has been depicted by the fandom as being really curvy, especially the cow udders she calls breasts, however she hides her curves under her clothes. The same applies to the fucking badonk she hides in her baggy pants, so much so in fact, that May should be number two of the BBB but because she's so shy about her body she's demoted to number three, still, being a member of the Brigade is a blesing of itself.

Emerald Sustrai : As stated in the previous entry Em should be number three, but because May is so shy and Emerald isn't they swaped places. Em is number two because of one singular thing, she knows her ass is her best atribute, and she fucking flaunts it, she knows she can make men and futas pitch tents, and make women stare like horndogs just by walking past them. Not only that, but she wear clothes that accentuate her ass from short shorts to miniskirts, she knows how to make anyone undeserving cream themselves just by swaying her hips a little and winking. Her seduction skills boosted her above everyone else except one.

NORA VALKYRIE THE ONE TRUE BUBBLE BOOTY OF REMNANT

Every single step a jiggle, every single jump or tiny hop and the world stops to stare, every time she passes by jaws hit the floor, every man woman and futa either wants Nora or wants to be Nora.

Nora's voluptuous cheeks are legendary and the worst part of it all is: She does know the effect she has on people, and she gives zero shits about it.

Because no one is worthy of her divine ass cheeks, except for two men: Jaune Arc and Lie Ren.

She's found her studs the ones who care for her, love her, give her the world AND the ones who have huge bitch breaking cocks to fuck her into the sheets like rutting animals.Every.Single.Night.

Every day of her life is one big teasing session for her studs, she purposefully wear skirts just short enough to see the glorious bounce, she always finds excuses to bend over, she sits on their laps as often as possible.

Just so she can have the mind blowing three ways she has every night.

All hail Booty Queen Nora Valkyrie.

Now everyone thank you for being patient this was something i spent a few days writing (like 3-4 days) and I only wrote this for that time so I hope y'all like it.

Some chacters are missing I know, but I really am comfortable with how it is now.

As always this SHOULD NOT AFFECT YOUR WRITING.

This was a thought experiment of mine, and like I always say in this sort of thing WRITE HOW YOU WANT TO WRITE I hope this was clear.

Thanks for reading and please if you so desire share it with friends.

But for now see ya!

#Rwby #NSFW-ish #raven branwen #weiss schnee #team ndgo #pyrrha nikos #reese chloris #elm ederne #yang xiao long #arslan altan #penny polendina #ruby rose #neopolitian (rwby) #coco adel #summer rose #winter schnee #Miltiades Malachite #Harriet bree #melanie malachite #Velvet scarlatina #willow schnee #glynda goodwitch #rwby salem #blake belladonna #kali belladonna #may zedong #emerald sustrai #nora valkyrie

[dean-you-assbutt-cas-loves-you]

I saw in your tags that there’s some old destiel fic you like on ffn. Do you have any recs ? :)

omg I haven’t been on there in years! like last time I read anything on there was like in 2014 lmao xD

32 fics total - I just checked and all of them are still up...there’s like 30+ more that I bookmarked that isn’t on the list cuz I’m not sure if they’re destiel fics or not so I gotta re-read them

all the ones below are fics that I’ve recced before in the past

1. All Angels Need Their Wings - RATING: NC-17 | LENGTH: 29,784 (2012)

Dean never thought that Castiel would ever return. And when he did, he came in a very unexpected way, a very horrifying way. SLASH Castiel/Dean. Wing-Kink. Takes place in season 7. AU.

2. Heart Trouble - RATING: NC-17 | LENGTH: 74,320 (2011)

Dean's having a harder and harder time of denying what he feels for a certain blue-eyed friend of his. And it's making him a little ornery, and a lot confused.

3. It Hurts - RATING: NC-17 | LENGTH: 29,963 (2013)

Inspired by the S9 Trailer Cas had watched the angels fall and with them, his self worth. Now human facing the challenges of navigating mortality he also tries to find a place for himself in this new world. It is a hope he has to find without the Winchesters, without Dean. So now he runs, from both Heaven, Hell and from Dean. 

4. Small Problem - RATING: NC-17 | LENGTH: 13,310 (2011)

A cursed artifact has made Castiel miniature, it's amusing for the Winchesters at first until they realize he might stay that way forever. Slash Dean/Castiel Please R&R

5 My Broken Angel - RATING: M | LENGTH: 24,999 (2010)

When Castiel disappears from his vessel, Dean is concerned. But when Castiel reappears and seems to avoid him, Dean is heartbroken. Set mid-season 5. 

6. A Hand - RATING: M | LENGTH: 23,474 (2010)

Dean/Cas, multichapter, slight AU. Dean's busy trying to re-soulify his brother, but Cas needs help. Maybe it's time Dean gave it to him. Ch. 15: Dean glared indignantly. "I find the term 'lovebirds' to be offensive. We prefer to be called 'sex-falcons.'" 

7. Saving Grace - RATING: PG-13 | LENGTH: 38,602 (2010)

With everything that was going wrong in Dean's life, it took him a while to realize that the person close to him that really needed the most help was Castiel. 

8. Candy - RATING: PG-13 | LENGTH: 98,068 (2013)

The Fall from Heaven changed everything. The supernatural no longer hidden. Angels roaming the planet. Sam and Dean's immediate concerns were on a smaller scale. What do you do with the former King of Hell? Where is Castiel?... Destiel/Mute!Human!Cas/Angst!Dean

9. Dude, Dean Looks Like a Lady - RATING: M | LENGTH: 20,774 *gen/pre-slash* (2013)

Sam's good, Cas has been found, and demons everywhere seem to be on hiatus. Seems like things are looking up for Team Free Will that is until Dean wakes up with his very own vagina anyway. Warnings: Fem!Dean, Destiel, female masturbation and S8 spoilers.

10. Evil Intent, Trials of Love, & Finding My Angel - RATING: NC-17 | LENGTH: 36,729, 70,453, & 59,941 *rape, graphic torture, violence* (2009)

Anna rapes Castiel and uses a method that torments him more than anything imaginable. WARNING: Rape and Castiel/Dean makes sense when you read it . If you don't like then don't read!

11. Cascade - RATING: PG-13 | LENGTH: 44,626 (2013)

"And if you fall as Lucifer fell, you fall in flames!" An 8x23 coda. 

12. Count The Cracks, Hear The Shatters, Feel The Insanities - RATING: PG-13 | LENGTH: 44,626 *gen/pre-slash* (2013)

They've walked miles on gravel roads that led to hell and back but the journey never quite ends. This is the story of Castiel and the Winchesters after the angels fell from heaven. Post Season 8. 

13. Damn Straight & Wait Wait Wait - RATING: PG-13 | LENGTH: about 21,000 (2010)

Humorous Cas/Dean, with multiple POVs. Slight AU. Fluffy. Ch. 5: Sam sat in the Impala in the motel parking lot, praying that three and a half hours at the library had been long enough.

14. Entertaining Angels - RATING: PG-13 | LENGTH: 43,659 *gen/pre-slash* (2008)

A strange boy shows up at Dean and Sam’s motel room. Maybe he needs help, or maybe he’s there to help them—they can’t quite tell. Spoilers through 4.10. Not an OC. 

15. Happy Friggin’ Valentine’s Day - RATING: PG-13 | LENGTH: 22,771 (2010)

SLASH. It all started with Dean's perfectly healthy hatred of frivilous holidays and a much-coveted sack of dust. Poor Castiel doesn't fully understand 'romance' to begin with, and this crash course is most unwelcome. 

16. I’m Just a Love Machine - RATING: PG-13 | LENGTH: 29,200 (2011)

The Impala finally gets the chance to love Dean back. The problem is, Castiel seems to be in its way. 

17. It’s The Great Destiel Shipper, Sam Winchester - RATING: PG-13 | LENGTH: 49,641 (2012)

What's Sam really doing all that time on the computer? Fangirling. Over Chuck's Supernatural books. Now Wincest might be a bit too much to deal with, but Destiel he might be able to get on board with... Especially after being around the two people involved for three days straight. 

18. Pain in the Head - RATING: PG-13 | LENGTH: 78,771 *character death* (2011)

It started out slow. "Since when do angels have headaches?" "Since they become human." Established Dean/Cas. Sort of AU. PG-13. Complete. 

19. Sleep in Heavenly Peace - RATING: PG-13 | LENGTH: 45,517 *christmas fic* (2013)

Dean wants to have a nice, peaceful Christmas for once, but it seems like the universe won't let him. Dean/Castiel. Post-8.08 (Hunteri Heroici) AU. First in "Holidays With the Winchesters are Always Fun." 

20. The Shattered One - RATING: PG-13 | LENGTH: 94,021 *grace mpreg* (2012)

When it struck Castiel, it dropped him out of the sky. He set down the first place he could find. He stood in a field in Switzerland, swaying on his feet and staring down at his body, dazed by what it had just done.

21. This Cupid Isn’t Stupid - RATING: PG-13 | LENGTH: 41,572 (2012)

Dean receives a shock when he wakes up to discover Castiel has returned. Why is the angel suddenly back? Why have his powers dimmed? And.. Why are he and Dean joined together by an invisible rope!

22. Wild Horses, Cas - RATING: PG-13 | LENGTH: 23,505 (2013)

(S8 Spoilers (story is set in S9), Sickfic! Destiel, Minor Sabriel). When Cas comes down with a bad case of Pneumonia it leaves Dean feeling more protective over his friend than ever, but will it also lead to Dean's admittance of his feelings towards his friend? 

23. Wrong - RATING: PG-13 | LENGTH: 51,384 (2010)

Angels are not supposed to drop out of the sky into motel rooms, broken and beaten. They're not supposed to bleed like that. It was all wrong. 

24. The Reluctant Contestant - RATING: PG-13 | LENGTH: 50,502 (2012)

AU When Gabriel is hired as a new host for a dating show, Cas has no choice but to follow his brother along as part of the camera crew. Forced at the last minute to be a contestant, he is shocked when Dean Winchester continually refuses to eliminate him. 

25. The Ugly Duckling - RATING: PG-13 | LENGTH: 81,676 (2012)

Castiel: a nerdy, skinny thing with a crush on the the most popular guy in class. Being unpopular isn't easy and it's worse when the homophobic school figures him out. A small struggle to be noticed by his crush is turned into a huge struggle for himself and his dignity. But bullying can get the better of anyone. Slash. Destiel rated M for later chapters. 

26. Nameless - RATING: PG-13 | LENGTH: 77,882 (2013)

AU. Everyone has the name of their soulmate written on their wrist at birth. Well, everyone except Dean Winchester. Complete. 

27. Cufflinks - RATING: M | LENGTH: 61,845 (2012)

The world is full of creatures that prey on humans. It is up to 'Hunters' to fight against the dark. Lucky Hunters rely on the help of angels they have bound to their service. Sam and Dean may be good Hunters, but they have yet to capture an angel. One day, Sam finds an angel and seizes the opportunity to bind the angel to himself. Little did they know what they were getting into. 

28. Angel Training - RATING: M | LENGTH: 95,700, Angel Training 2: Save Us - RATING: M | LENGTH: 76,888, & Angel Training 3: Uprising - RATING: M | LENGTH: 89,512 (2011)

In a world where angels are common and the most privileged or skilled people are able to own one; the world's angelic hierarchy is about to change when Dean Winchester receives a wild and recently caught angel.

29. Chasing Your Shadow - RATING: M | LENGTH: 92,077 (2012)

The prophecy says that when Castiel turns twenty-three winters old, a stranger will come into his life and bring a lot of suffering. But do prophecies always come true? Demon Dean/human Castiel AU 

30. The Holiday - RATING: M | LENGTH: 32,088 (2011)

Castiel and Sam are unlucky in both life and love, so they swap houses for the holidays. Both find the experience highly...interesting. Dean/Castiel Sam/Gabriel

31. And In Your Arms I Shall Find Shelter- RATING: M | LENGTH: 33,824 (2012)

Dean Winchester is a long forgotten painter who suddenly receives an order for a painting from a rich man - Crowley. He is about to start painting when Castiel - his personal reaper visits him. The main question is: Will Castiel give Dean enough time to finish the painting? 

32. Jar of Hearts - RATING: PG-13 | LENGTH: 127,192 (2013)

February being the supposed 'month of love' people seem to forget that it's also one of the coldest times of the year. Valentine's Day themed events in a cafe turned bar is how Dean managed the courage to speak to the locally famous singer and somehow score a date, a relationship, and a man he didn't deserve out of the deal. Destiel college/uniAU some Sabriel 

#ask me stuff #my fic recs #destiel #spn fanfic #Anonymous

[therewithall]

Roswell, New Mexico custom Magic: The Gathering cards

For RNM D&D Weekend Warriors, I branched out to another tabletop format and made a handful of custom Magic: The Gathering cards based on the core cast of Roswell, NM. Here’s the break-down of how I chose each character’s color(s) and abilities as well as highlight some of the neat ways they interact. None of the cards have been playtested so there is still room for them to be further developed and balanced. For anyone who isn’t very familiar with Magic: The Gathering, every card fits into various types that can be played for the cost printed in the top right-hand corner. There are 5 colors of Mana- White, Blue, Black, Red, Green- I’ll be using the letters W, U (blue), B (black), R, and G to represent the mana colors in my discussion. Each card can also have different traits and abilities, and a set of numbers that represents how strong its attack and defense are (represented as attack/defense). There’s a lot of amazingly nerdy discussion of Magic Lore that delves into how the Mana colors relate to personality traits and behaviors of the characters on the cards-- more on that here- but just know that I’ll be discussing some of those qualities as I go into why I chose the attributes for each card/character.So here we go!

Max Evans, Smalltown Hero        2WR Legendary Creature – Human Alien Vigilance, Haste (This creature doesn’t tap to attack and may attack or use tap abilities the turn it enters the battlefield.) T, Sacrifice a nonland permanent: Another target creature gains indestructible until end of turn. Max is a deputy with the sheriff’s department and a natural leader who has kept his powers and identity a secret for years. 3/1

Max is kind hearted and wants to protect his community and friends. On the other hand, he’s impulsive and will make rash decisions without thinking about the consequences of his actions. These two beliefs place him firmly in red/white for Magic colors; a combination that often plays small aggressive creatures and engages in frequent combat. I gave Max vigilance to represent him being a defender as well as an aggressor in a lot of circumstances. His ability to sacrifice something to protect someone else exemplifies his ability to both heal and destroy. Lastly he has haste and a fragile body (1 toughness) making a game with Max play out with an early attack followed by him protecting someone else and only getting in when the coast is clear.

Michael Guerin, Tech Genius      1WU Legendary Creature – Human Alien Artificer When Michael Guerin, Tech Genius enters the battlefield, search your library and/or graveyard for a noncreature artifact or enchantment card and exile it with a research counter on it. If you searched your library this way, shuffle. X, T: Create a token that’s a copy of a card exiled with a research counter. X is that card’s mana value. 2/3

Michael cares about the team differently than Max does. He is often tinkering with things in order to heal or protect others if possible and is a genius when it comes to inventions involving alien technology. His intelligence and need for knowing more fits in blue (alongside a few other science oriented characters). Whereas Max is a straightforward attacker, I chose an ability that is much more complex to understand for Michael. He makes copies of trinkets after taking the time to examine them which lends itself to more combo and control oriented play patterns instead of just blindly turning stuff sideways. I didn’t capture Michael’s temper, but I didn’t want all aliens to be red. Maybe I’ll make another version some time that incorporates different facets of their personalities.

Isobel Evans, Influencer                UBR Legendary Creature – Human Alien Your opponents play with the top card of their library revealed. 3R, T: Gain control of target creature an opponent controls until end of turn. Untap that creature. It gains haste until end of turn. 6BB, T: You control target player’s next turn. Activate only once. 1/4

Isobel has fewer words than Michael, but oh my is she complex as well. If Max leans toward aggro and Michael is combo, Isobel is the control card of the siblings. Isobel is often guided by her emotions, but channels that into careful thought in how to execute a plan and always looks out for herself and her people. Her abilities represent her powers spread across the three colors: Blue – Reading your opponent’s mind, Red – Controlling someone’s impulses for a short period, Black – Forcing your opponent’s actions, once.

Liz Ortecho, Savvy Scientist          1UB Legendary Creature – Human Rebel Liz Ortecho, Savvy Scientist can’t be blocked as long as defending player controls an artifact. Whenever Liz Ortecho deals combat damage to a player, gain control of target artifact that player controls with mana value less than or equal to the damage dealt. 2/1

Liz is smart, cunning, and will protect her own. Her science background lends itself to Blue, but this card plays up some of her devious nature of stealing hospital equipment, doing illegal research, and general sneaking around, so there’s Black in her mana cost as well. She often draws on the abilities of those around her, which means that her connections make her stronger. Amusingly, she’s unblockable against some of our other characters including her own dad!

Alex Manes, Tech Specialist            1WUB Whenever you draw a card, target creature you control gains deathtouch (Any amount of damage it deals to a creature is enough to destroy it.), lifelink (Damage dealt by that creature also causes you to gain that much life.), or vigilance (Attacking doesn’t cause it to tap.) until end of turn. Whenever Alex Manes, Tech Specialist deals combat damage to a player, create a clue token. (It’s an artifact with “2, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.”) Kyle: “What’s the worst thing we could find?“ Alex: “Literal skeletons.” 2/3

Alex also sneaks around, but I wanted to play up his investigation skills a little more. Instead of just drawing a card when he does damage, he makes a clue “token”. That clue token represents information (drawing a card) that can be held onto or acted on later. He’s a character who’s able to do plenty of damage in his own right, but his big advantage is being able to help other characters do their jobs and get combat abilities they wouldn’t otherwise have. He protects his friends.

Maria DeLuca, Entrepreneur       2RG Legendary Creature – Human Alien Haste (This creature may attack and use tap abilities the turn it enters the battlefield.) Each other creature you control enters the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter on it. “Maria DeLuca is her own savior.” 3/2

Maria cares about her friends and her business. Her ability helps everyone and represents your other creatures being able to stop in for a drink at the bar. She gets haste to show how hard she works and has aggressive stats so she can get her hands dirty in a fight. Like Michael, I could see another version playing into her psychic powers.

Dr. Kyle Valenti                 1WW Legendary Creature – Human Lifelink (Damage dealt by that creature also causes you to gain that much life.) When Dr. Kyle Valenti enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on each other creature you control. "In a hospital it doesn't matter what someone did before they came through the doors." 2/2

Kyle is a healer and instead of showing that with damage prevention, I chose a simpler buff to the whole team. Now you’re less worried about losing fights!

Rosa Ortecho, Troubled Artist                     1BR Legendary Creature – Human Alien At the beginning of your upkeep, choose one — • Draw a card and lose 2 life. • Exile the top card of your library. Until end of turn, you may play that card. Red is armor. 3/2

Rosa was a fun one to design. She is black red which is a color combo notoriously bad at impulse control. She has aggressive stats and an ability that makes the controller make a hard choice every turn. Do I take the guaranteed draw at the cost of a couple life or do I risk not being able to cast whatever I exile? Among other things, this represents her struggle with addiction-- taking the most directly expedient option comes with some harm to her life totals- but it’s the damage you know. The second option requires you to risk the unknown, but be able to participate in the fight without automatically being harmed-- it requires you to trust your deck and your support network...but be prepared for potential setbacks.

Arturo Ortecho                 GG Legendary Creature – Human Defender (This creature can’t attack.) Whenever a nontoken creature enters the battlefield under your control, create a Food token. (It’s an artifact with “{2}, {T}, Sacrifice this artifact: You gain 3 life.”) G, T, Sacrifice a Food: Target creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn. “I already have my miracle.” 2/4

Arturo cares about his community as do many of our characters, but if there’s any color that cares about bringing everyone in for dinner, it’s green. He delivers food whenever a new creature enters and can use them as buffs instead of just life gain! His kindness and compassion sustain everyone.

Deputy Jenna Cameron                 1RR Legendary Creature – Human First Strike (This creature deals combat damage before creatures without first strike.) Whenever Jenna blocks or becomes blocked by a creature, she deals 1 damage to that creature. “Who you callin’ a girl?” 2/3

In case you can’t tell, a lot of our characters act on impulse and emotion, which is a Red trait. Cam is tough (A 3/4 is needed to best her in combat!) and efficiently deals with enemies. The faster-than-first strike damage represents her sharp shooting skill. And because of her skills, anyone going up against her is going to feel it right away.

Sergeant Jesse Manes                   2BB Legendary Creature – Human Soldier Menace (This creature must be blocked by two or more creatures.) When Sergeant Jesse Manes enters the battlefield or attacks, exile the top card of each opponent’s library face down. You may cast noncreature cards exiled this way and you may spend mana as though it were mana of any type to cast that spell. Jesse's inhumane methods leave only pain in his wake. 3/2

Jesse is a character who has his own twisted view of how his actions will better society. His card here plays up how he tends to believe the ends justify any means-- for him, at least. He steals information and uses it against those he took it from, to represent his involvement in Project Shepherd and the threat he represents not just to the safety and security of the aliens, but to anyone helping them. I chose to exclude creatures in order to make the ability a little more efficient and make it feel more like controlling the chess board and less like mind control (Which a Noah card would someday probably do).

Whew! I hope you enjoyed reading these as much as I enjoyed making them!

#rnmweekendwarriors2021 #magic the gathering #roswell new mexico

[notthatiwilleverwriteit]

Hey there!

Love ur blog!! Hope u r doing well!!

I see u love ugetsu and akihiko a lot!💗

But..if u don't mind me asking...may I ask for ur opinion on Nakayama Haruki 💛

Thanku!! Love u loads! Xoxo

Hello there, Haru-chan and my AoKise comrade!

Ooh, this was an interesting one since I have never really talked about Haruki that much. His character (and AkiHaru) is probably the part of Given into which I venture the least, but lately I’ve been trying to dip my toe into that pool more.

“may I ask for ur opinion on Nakayama Haruki”

Haruki’s character design

I figured I’d start with an easy one. Overall, I love the art style and character designs in Given a lot, and Haruki is up there with my favorites (vol. 4 ch. 17, 19, 21; vol. 5. ch. 22, 23, 26, 27, 28; vol. 6 ch. 29):

My favorite thing about Haruki’s character design is how gentle and cute/pretty he looks. I love the panels when he’s smiling softly the best. The close second favorite is when he’s flustered and blushing.

I have always had a thing for long-haired male characters in manga, and I fell in love with Haruki’s hair design immediately, too. My favorite hair-do for him were the braids. These days, though, I’m a firm believer of short-haired Haruki supremacy. When that’s combined with Kizu’s new softer style... *chef’s kiss* Short-haired Haruki smiling are some of my favorite panels in all of Given.

Comedy

I like the comedic situations that Kizu wrote for Haruki’s character (vol. 1 ch. 5; vol. 2 ch. 9, 10, 11; vol. 3 ch. 13, 16; vol. 5 ch. 26):

His (poorly) hidden unrequited feelings for Akihiko often result in Haruki getting flustered and mentally short-circuiting a little. He also tries being friendly and accommodating which sometimes leads to him handling everything and “😅” kind of awkward, panicked comedy.

The savior in crisis

Even though Haruki gets flustered and embarrassed easily, he’s often the one who keeps situations from escalating (vol. 1 ch. 4; vol. 2 ch. 7, 10):

Uenoyama can be too straightforward and blunt. Mafuyu is not the best at putting his thoughts into words and can be awkwardly frank. Akihiko has good observation skills but he often keeps his thoughts to himself and goes for jokes instead. Despite being probably the most yielding personality in the band, Haruki can keep a surprisingly cool head in crisis situations and “reset” them.

Haruki also often takes the mother-like role in the band. Before anyone comes at me for that choice of word, let me make it clear that I’m not against fandom content that jokes about Akihiko being the band “dad” and Haruki the band “mother”. I would even say I find it endearing. But I’m not for reducing a character into just one trait which I often see happen to Haruki’s character in the fandom. He becomes an angel/mother/gentle baby. He has a caring and gentle nature - and I love that about him - but he’s also an adult with adult-like issues, feelings, and inner conflicts.

But I get that this kind of thing often happens in fandoms, so I’m not trying to preach against it. Despite how I feel about it, I still believe fans are allowed to make whatever kind of content they wish. But personally speaking, I often find the Haruki-related content a bit one-dimensional and hard to grasp because of that. Whenever I’m writing something for him, I’m trying to include some less-rose-tinted things as well.

Unrequited feelings

The side I’m probably the most interested in Haruki is his unrequited feelings for Akihiko and the angst that comes with them (vol. 4 ch. 18; vol. 4 ch. 19, 20, 21):

As someone who’s very familiar with unrequited feelings, this is the part of Haruki’s story to which I relate the most. I could feel the painful throb when he realized Akihiko was with a woman. How wonderful and yet painful it is to be around your unrequited crush. And finally, how crushing it was for Haruki when Akihiko basically rejected him when he wouldn't rely on Haruki. In his deepest pit, Haruki felt like he was the only one who was desperate. He was desperately trying to keep up with others’ music only to feel left behind and desperately reaching for Akihiko only to hear “there is nothing you could do”. He felt pathetic and lame.

To be honest, I sometimes struggle with Haruki’s character because I would like there to be more depth to him. As a writer, I find him challenging to write because it feels like there isn’t much I can grasp. That’s why I love this angst period of his story - it gives him more depth and dimensions. Generally, he’s friendly, gentle, and upbeat but he also has insecurities, fears, and dark moments. He often hides them behind a friendly, gentle smile. He gets angry and doesn't always feel like accommodating to others’ needs. These are the sides in him that I try to include in my representation of him because I know they are there.

Now, I do realize that a lot of people relate to Haruki’s character and probably don't agree with me when I say that he feels one-dimensional to me. Those readers have probably noticed a lot more details/nuances in him than I because of that personal connection. Please know that I’m in no way trying to invalidate that. If you feel like the character speaks to you, I’m glad you have found him! I’m merely talking from my own point of view. As a writer, I find myself somewhat struggling with him but I think I’ve found my own way of portraying him. Overall, I have nothing against Haruki. He’s a very likable character, and there are many things about him that I love.

Thank you for your question!

#given #nakayama haruki #answered ask

[shijiujun]

Hi! Is it okay to ask you for a small advice? I started reading Thousand Autumns recently (currently on chapters ~85-88) and I'm having a bit of a problem with Yan Wushi's character. I am so turned off by his behavior towards SQ for the whole novel up to this point and I just wonder - is it gonna get better...? I can't stand seeing him openly abusing SQ and treating him like shit, I'm sorry (1)

I know he's evil and it's expected of him to be bad but with future romance prospect I'm really struggling to like the relationship between him and SQ; and if in the first half of the novel I didn't expect big changes, now I keep hoping to see something different from him but I'm not seeing much. He keeps treating SQ horribly. I'm not sure if I can forgive him for what he's done and has no remorse whatsoever - (2)

- abusing SQ and manipulating him, using him as an experiment as if he's a toy to play with; selling him to a r*pist knowing he'll be tortured to death...! And after everything that happend I still barely see anything good in his attitude towards SQ. I can't help but think SQ deserves so much better. I suppose I should try to have some hope for the upcoming chapters to be better? Is it worth it to continue reading or nothing will change? Excuse me for writing so much, Thank you

---

Heya! Oooof okay so you’re totally valid, Yan Wushi isn’t like a character for everyone - so let me break it down with the first part and then the second part where his attitude turns for the better XD

Spoilers under the cut

Before SQ goes to save him:

Yan Wushi does have a goal which is to play mind games with Shen Qiao and (1) throw him into despair (2) try to see if Shen Qiao is a worthy opponent - sure, he’s an asshole with an agenda of his own. YWS doesn’t believe that there is any good in anyone - he thinks Shen Qiao is a hypocrite and that everyone will turn evil given the right circumstances, and so YWS doesn’t trust anyone, or even considers anyone as an equal to him.

He wants to see Shen Qiao become evil basically and does everything he can to direct him towards that but I’d say his actions (with two exceptions) fit his character and the two motives above pretty well and I’m not sure I’d count it as abuse (based on my understanding of abuse, feel free to disagree). I think it’s easy to forget that Shen Qiao is not delusional or naive or ‘innocent’, and he does not paint YWS as some saviour or a friend (at least in the beginning) - he knows who YWS is, knows that he’s insane, not compassionate, totally evil etc. even from the start the moment he realizes that YWS and his disciple lied to him.

1. He lies to Shen Qiao that he’s his shizun, and then sends him to kill someone, but he’s not there to enforce it

2. Throws him out on the streets without his memories, but Shen Qiao is anything but a weak youngling, once again, YWS doesn’t do anything to him

3. YWS turns up at the temple and has Shen Qiao read the scripture - SQ’s not sure what’s going on at first but he more or less figures it out, but also the scripture reading inadvertently helps to heal him (and YWS knows this)

4. YWS flirts with Shen Qiao for a reaction for a while, he’s not genuine of course, but Shen Qiao knows he’s not genuine

5. YWS doesn’t help Shen Qiao out when he’s faced with an opponent while he’s still injured just to see how long Shen Qiao can hold out for - but firstly, Shen Qiao never really expected him to help in the first place, because he has no delusions about the man - and YWS ends up helping anyway, of course not out of the kindness of his heart, but I don’t see why I should hold that against him XD

6. Stands by and watches as Shen Qiao and his shidi Yu Ai have their confrontation - Sure, he’s there to watch the drama, but it’s Shen Qiao who makes the decision to go with him - the lesser of two evils

7. Forces Shen Qiao to fight him while he’s still injured because he wants to see if Shen Qiao’s recovery level has reached a certain point, enough to be an adversary worth dealing with - yes, he’s forcing Shen Qiao to fight when he’s still blind and weak, but throughout the fight you realize that YWS is right - it’s that very battle that basically lets SQ recover his previous abilities by a bit. He’s not hurting SQ for the fun of it (out of sadism or shit) - he purely (or evil-ly) wants to know if SQ is every bit of the skilled warrior he’s heard about 

The exceptions are these: (1) When he plants the demonic seed thing in his heart (2) When he trades SQ to Sang Jing Xing for his sword, knowing full well that SJX has a habit of sexually torturing his prisoners - I feel like YWS was almost warming up to SQ when his habit of distrust and everything kicked in and he reverted back to his cynical self - Not an excuse for what he did though, because yes Shen Qiao especially didn’t want the demonic seed thing firstly (and YWS knows this), and then he despaired at being left to SJX. This is the incident that has SQ basically give up on YWS and allows him to erase any notion of him ever becoming friends with YWS. I’m also rather curious how exactly SQ kind of like got over this - but in the settings of the book, I guess it’s explained away with (1) SQ actually fully recovering as a result of this incident (2) SQ has a big heart, and forgives YWS after - but whether or not that’s convincing, that’s up to every reader.

After SQ goes to save him:

1. So after the SJX incident - where he chose to self-destruct and die, taking SJX along with him but ended up surviving and being able to cultivate properly again from the start (previously he couldn’t because he could only recover to a certain extent as there was some blockage etc., but the blast in this incident clears the blockage) - and after he’s sort of recovered like 50-75%, he hears of an ambush on YWS by the leaders of like 5 other sects, and decides to go forward to save him 

2. Not because he harbours any like delusions on YWS, but to show him that despite all YWS has done to him (especially with SJX), SQ is still SQ, and he still adheres to his own principles, that YWS did not make him change his mind about being good basically

3. YWS’s views of him starts to change because of this - YWS has never found someone with this much grit to stick to his own principles etc., to still be kind and righteous basically despite being betrayed again and again. Of course this does not excuse the fact that YWS did indeed deliberately leave him to a potentially painful death with SJX - and SQ doesn’t forget either. 

4. SQ saves YWS, and then his heart melts because while YWS is recovering from the ambush, he has two other personalities that show up - so YWS when he was much younger, then YWS when he was a teenager, and YWS now. So YWS as a kid and teen are more trusting and open, and SQ likes kid YWS a lot (like as kid brother), and now-YWS wakes up occasionally from the switch in personas, he realizes that SQ likes kid-YWS and starts thinking about why SQ hates him and likes his kid self.

5. Even then, YWS still does try to jump ship once and leave SQ and other evil people behind in a dangerous cave, but thankfully teen/kid-YWS personas fight to turn up in time, and then YWS goes back for SQ

6. SQ knows this - he doesn’t think YWS has had a sudden change of heart or shit, and knows full well that if it was now-YWS, if kid-YWS didn’t turn up, he would probably be left to think about how to leave the cave on his own

7. YWS’s behaviour towards SQ does a 180 - now that he knows he cannot sway SQ, he starts to listen to SQ, and despite all the barbs on the surface, even if he disagrees with SQ’s positive outlook, he makes an effort to contribute and consider SQ’s opinion even if he doesn’t, intrinsically, believe in it. Starts putting himself in front of SQ, and of course SQ doesn’t believe this all the way to the end, where he realizes that he actually, just that tiny little bit, has started liking YWS and doesn’t want him to die.

8. Then they confirm their relationship in the extras, and YWS does do that hot-and-cold thing once so SQ figures out his feelings for him properly - It’s SQ that initiates the confirmation at the end I think

---

I think at some level, YWS cannot stand how naive Shen Qiao is, and some of the things that he’s leading Shen Qiao to think about/discover are valid - And throughout the book it’s proven true - SQ is kind to Chen Jing, but Chen Jing sells him out (not just once but thrice). He’s kind to and has always doted on Yu Ai, but Yu Ai sells him out too. The elders in his sect - some of them obviously turned to Yu Ai over him despite SQ never having given them reason to doubt him. I don’t think YWS is being deliberately cruel (or abusive) - he’s forcing SQ to look at reality, a reality that YWS sees and lives in.

He always asks Shen Qiao why he trusts others so easily, and afterwards, Shen Qiao does admit that YWS is right in this aspect - he won’t give up his ideals and how he gives everyone the benefit of the doubt, but through YWS, he realizes he needs to be able to think ahead to protect himself and the ppl around him.

Doesn’t excuse the SJX thing YWS did, and I’m sure SQ doesn’t conveniently forget about that either, but in terms of how/why they got together, I guess it’s because despite everything they do know each other best, and are soulmates (tho not only in the sugar-spice-and-everything-nice way i.e. SQ does think YWS is handsome and YWS thinks SQ is the cutest thing ever later). SQ has seen the worst of YWS, and YWS has seen the worst of him - and SQ is made to realize that what he was before was not the best path he could go on because of YWS, but he adjusts his attitude slightly and holds on to his ideals sufficiently. 

On the other hand, YWS still does not believe everyone except his Ah Qiao can truly say they’re good and keep to it in every way, still thinks the worst of a lot of people if not all, but he stops to consider SQ’s POV and input now, whose opinions and every action now mean more to him than anything else ever will. Of course he has to prove himself and earn SQ’s trust back, but I guess he also doesn’t expect SQ to reciprocate, even after he developed feelings for SQ, knowing full well that he’s a mofo and SQ has every right to hate him after all he did.

They don’t fix each other, they’re not each other’s salvations, but they fit and come sort of to a truce, despite having differing views and principles.

Manipulation? Sure, but I think we forget that Shen Qiao is not a victim (except the part where he’s given to SJX) and his agency in every situation is apparent - He’s pretty clear-minded, he knows what Yan Wushi is doing, knows what his character is like, knows that he’s doing/saying things all to get a reaction out of him. He doesn’t expect YWS to help him either, because he knows YWS is here for fun and games. He doesn’t go along with YWS just because, either. He just made a wrong call by trusting that YWS reciprocated his feelings of friendship (not that it’s his fault at all), but that is certainly a moment of weakness he probably regrets.

---

In summary, I personally wasn’t all that put off by YWS’s behaviour, altho I agree the SJX incident is pretty much unforgivable. For me I read this more from the SQ perspective, because his strength shines in every moment and interaction with YWS and overshadows YWS by a lot, which is why the end makes sense to me.

In response to your question - yes YWS does get better when he’s finally totally convinced that SQ is not a hypocrite (although yeah it takes him a while to get there). And for me it’s nice to see Shen Qiao figure out himself, and also his feelings for YWS after, but also never once compromising himself for YWS.

But YWS is definitely less palatable than most other characters in danmei, so it’s natural if you dislike him and remain unconvinced! It happens XD If you hate this, I suggest you try Wu Shuang! Set in the same universe and timeline, and actually doesn’t have much angst - full on bantering between the main CP, constant veiled insults etc.

#qian qiu #asks

[hphmmatthewluther]

" If I had to rate my panic level from 1 to 10, it’d be pi. It’s low level, but always there. "

Name: Matthew David Luther Species: Wizard Gender: Male Physical appearance: Slightly taller and thinner than average with brown hair that falls over his green eyes. Height: 4′11′’(Year 1) - 6′1′’(Year 7) Weight/Body Type: He’s tall and thin, but has no clue how much he weighs. Personality: Matthew is sensitive to other people’s feelings and is very good at reading people, although he is constantly doubting himself. The one thing he is sure of himself in is his intelligence; he is constantly calculating and mentally notes almost everything around him. This comes in handy in a place as confusing as Hogwarts: it may take a bit, but Matthew can always put the pieces together. Date of Birth: 16th February 1973 Blood Status: Half-blood (Wizard Mother, Muggle Father) Family Info: Lucia Doherty was a powerful pureblood Ministry Witch who met and fell in love with Peter Luther, a Muggle plumber, whom she had Jacob with. When Voldemort began to rise she left and wiped Peter’s memory to keep him and their children safe, meaning he forgot about Jacob who stayed with her, but for reasons unknown Peter somehow remembered his wife and eldest son and reunited. Soon after this, Matthew was born, growing up in the Muggle world but enjoying knowledge of Wizardry. Lucia later tried to erase his memories again when the Wizarding War broke out, but Matthew found her and told her to put his father back to normal, discovering his magic in the process. Recently, things have been difficult as Peter has had difficulty finding work. When Matthew attempts to describe Thatcher to his mother, she assumes the Muggle government has been infiltrated by a hag.

He also has wizard Ancestry on his father’s side, with the famous Magizoologist Newt Scamander being his Great Uncle and Queenie Goldstein being his Great Grandmother.

Wand: Cedar wood, 14 1/2 inch, pliant flexibility Boggart: Being stuck somewhere with no way out at all. Animagus Form: Sparrow. Patronus: White Stallion House: Ravenclaw, Prefect in Year 5 Quidditch Position: Chaser Academics: Took Divination, Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures into Year 3 Partners: None so far (bar that one time), but the Celestial Ball is on the horizon... Closest Friends: Rowan Khanna: Matthew’s best friend, they have been close ever since Diagon Alley. They both like working on the Cursed Vaults, as well as playing Wizard Chess and Gobstones together. Rowan is always there when Matthew needs him, and even helped him with Merula when nobody else would. Matthew, in return, helps them be more confident, as he’s aware how difficult that can be sometimes. Finally, Matthew is the only one who knows about Rowan’s huge crush on... Penny Haywood: Bonding over their skills at potions, Penny is another of Matthew’s closest allies. Matthew relies on her to keep the Hogwarts rumour mill in check, especially important considering who he’s secretly dating. Matthew did, at first, have a minor crush on her, but always maintained that he wouldn’t intrude on Rowan, which helped improve their confidence in the matter.  Barnaby Lee: Barnaby and Matthew met after Barnaby wound up in the Magical Creatures Reserve on his way to Transfiguration. They both do work with the creatures in the reserve there, sharing a love of animals. Barnaby is a great deal of help to Matthew as he can always be counted on to point out the obvious solution when Matthew starts overthinking. He’s also willing to share what happens in the Slytherin Common Room and No, it definitely isn’t so Matthew knows if Merula’s ok and No he isn’t turning red what do you mean Tulip Karasu: Matthew’s only intellectual equal. When Merula tried to get Matthew framed for stealing potions ingredients he quickly deduced that someone in Ravenclaw was working with Merula. In a rare moment of confidence he declared this to his House, leading to a Battle of Wits between the two. Tulip immediately realised how Matthew felt about Merula and worked to get them together.  Chiara Lobosca: The only girl to pull on Matthew’s heartstrings before Merula. They became friends after helping to quell the werewolf rumours, and worked together to find the Cursed Vaults. They discussed the idea of them being together (and did more than discuss), but decided that they were happier as friends. Bill Weasley: Really, the one who saved the school. Bill helped Matthew out of his shell, so to speak, and consoled him when things became really tough when it came to the Ice Vault. Together, they defeated the Ice Knight and entered the first Cursed Vault together, and went on to work together more in the future. He also was instrumental in pushing Matthew towards curse-breaking. Merula Snyde: Matthew Luther’s rival in the hunt for the Cursed Vaults. For a while, she was a bully, especially towards Ben Copper, but Matthew was able to win a duel against her and made her never pick on him again. After that, while remaining antisocial, she became more tolerable, as several threats forced the two to work together. The two are very close. They’ve shared an accidental kiss, cast their Patronus together, cared for a Thestral, and defeated many evil magical beings. Recently, Matthew has realised that he had met her before, many years ago, on the day he searched for his mother. After that, they agreed to no longer be enemies, merely rivals. Matthew has come to the conclusion that he has a crush.

 Foes: “R”: The dark organisation worked to trap Jacob, thus making Matthew’s early time in school rather difficult. However, there’s more to this cabal than at first glance... Edwin the Changeling: Known as “The Bard”, he attempted to take over Matthew’s body by force, slowly moving to allow more changelings in. However, he was defeated by Matthew and Merula. Controlling, sexist, and rude to everyone around him, he appeared to have been destroyed when Ismelda Murk melted the Ice he had hidden himself in. Preston Crawford: A slimy Slytherin in Matthew’s year who seems to want nothing less than to ruin everyone’s day. Even Merula doesn’t like him, which is saying something. Erika Rath: Matthew’s only foe who doesn’t irritate him. He and Erika became Rivals as a result of being in differing quidditch teams, and this feud only worsened after Skye Parkin spread rumours that she destroyed Matthew’s broom. It’s unclear where they stand after Ravenclaw won the Quidditch Cup (especially considering she doesn’t talk much). Pets: As of Now (1987) Matthew has a pet Cat named Danny, a toad named Ribby and a rat named Jerma, and has adopted a Niffler, Porlock, Abraxan, Fairy, Thestral and Imp.

Who knows, this sideblog may go somewhere! We’ll see! Thanks to @hogwarts-misery for the template!

#harry potter #hphm #hphm jacobs sibling #hp oc #original character #character profile #hogwarts mystery #fuck jkr tho #jacob's sibling x merula #merula snyde #rowan khanna #penny haywood #barnaby lee #tulip karasu #chiara lobosca #bill weasley #hphm mc

[queen-haq]

Fic: A Woman Scorned - Part 5

Fic: A Woman Scorned - Part 5

Pairing: Billy Russo x Reader

Rating: R for language and light smut.

Words: ~2000 words.

Summary: You’ve been sleeping with Billy Russo for a few months now. Knowing his aversion to emotional commitments, you’re satisfied with your clandestine arrangement until you catch him having dinner with Dinah Madani one night. Then it finally dawns on you. It’s not that he doesn’t want to commit, he just doesn’t want to commit to *you*.

Billy may think he knows you, but he has no idea what he’s just lost...

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

******

You didn’t grow up with hugs, so you never really understood the big deal about them. Nothing irritated you more than when acquaintances wanted to hug you. Over the years you’d learned to accept it and go with the flow but intimate gestures from people you barely knew made you uncomfortable. The only time you didn’t mind being hugged was by Davina and even then she was careful not to overdo it. But right now, with Billy’s arms locked around you, you pressed up against him, he felt so good, so solid, you never wanted to leave his embrace. You couldn’t remember the last time you felt so cherished, and the fact that it was Billy – you didn’t want to think about what that meant.

You wrapped your hands around the back of his shoulders, simply breathing him in.

At first the comfort Billy provided was enough to distract you from what happened today, but then you were suddenly struck by the memory of Adam pointing his gun at you. Thanks to your father’s outbursts you learned a long time ago to stay calm in hostile situations, and that skill came in handy this morning. While Adam spewed hatred at you and accused you of destroying his life, you kept him preoccupied and talking until the cops came up and managed to haul him away. But once the danger subsided, all of that unleashed fear came back with a vengeance and you hadn’t been able to shake it off since then. Shopping, and then Billy’s unexpected arrival, had provided a temporary distraction but it was still lingering in you, threatening to engulf you at any moment.

Your fingers trailed up Billy’s back. One hand cradled the nape of his neck while the other reached up to play with his hair. He was so tall you had to stand on your tip-toes to run your fingers through his silky strands. You dropped a soft kiss on his chest, over his sweater, then on his skin as your lips dragged up to the base of his throat. His hands caressed languidly down your back, and you groaned when he squeezed your ass. Your hips ground into his, needing more from him than he was giving.

Adam’s face flashed through your mind, his sheer hatred of you stamped across his angry features. Your chest felt constricted, like you couldn’t breathe.

Before you could change your mind, you reached up to kiss Billy.

Every thought in your head instantly dissipated.

You’d forgotten what it felt like to have his mouth devour yours, hot and wild and reckless, tongue on tongue, tongue against teeth, nothing about it soft or tender but simple, pure assault on your senses. He didn’t just kiss with his mouth, he kissed with his whole being, every movement of his reverberating throughout your body. Even something innocuous like his fingers fisting your hair heightened your desires, making you more frantic.

Usually he was very much in sync with what you wanted, he could read when you were in the mood for slow and sensuous, or when you wanted to be fucked hard and rough, and he always delivered. But today he seemed to want to take his time even though you kept pushing for more. Charging forward, you trapped him against the wall behind, kissing him ferociously while your hands rushed to the buttons on his jeans. As you tried to undo them your fingers shook violently, frustrating you so badly that you tore your mouth away from his just so you could focus on ripping them off.

“Y/N,” he groaned, panting.

You didn’t look at him, too busy unzipping his jeans.

“Y/N, slow down…”

Your fingers delved beneath his boxers to palm his cock. You missed the feel of him, the touch of him, how slick he felt in your hands when he was hard. Before Billy you never thought cocks were beautiful but his was thick, long and divine, made to give you the most incredible of pleasures. Your mouth and pussy thirsted for him-  

Abruptly, Billy grabbed your shoulders and forced you to back off.

Caught up in passion, your brain scrambled to figure out why he was no longer touching you. Breaths labored, you stared up at him, confused, as he pulled up his jeans. Before you could catch your breath he was whirling you around, forcing you against the wall, gripping your wrists tightly over your head. His penetrating eyes bore into you, like he could see right through you or something, and the thought scared you. Leaning forward you tried to kiss him but he angled back, rejecting your attempts.

“Hey,” he murmured. “Just stop. Okay?”

“I thought you wanted this.”

“I do but-”

“Isn’t this why you showed up here?”

“Look, you’re messed up right now.”

“I’m fine!” you snapped, struggling to release your arms from his grip. “I want this, ok? I want you. Let me show you. Let me fuck you.”

He focused on you closely, his eyes dark and stormy, before he finally loosened his grasp. When you moved to cradle his face, he retreated back. Forget kissing you, he didn’t even touch you. Instead, he knelt down to pick up your robe from the ground and cover you with it. That’s when you noticed you were naked. You hadn’t even realized your robe had slipped off.

You were naked and desperately throwing yourself at him and he was purposely rejecting you. It felt like a slap in the face. You were mortified.

Pushing him away you tightened the robe around you and tried to sidestep past him. Except he blocked your path.

You tried again, he did the same.

“What?” You snarled, swallowing the lump in your throat. You were embarrassed as hell but you’d die before telling him that.  

He tilted your chin, forcing you meet his stare. In turn, you glared at him.

“Sex isn’t going to make you forget what happened this morning,” he said softly.

“Maybe I just wanted to feel something good.”

“Doesn’t last long. Then you’re stuck feeling shitty again.”

You were tired of his sanctimonious bullshit. He of all people shouldn’t have been lecturing you on using sex as a distraction. “Like you’ve never used me for sex?”

“Fine, yeah, I have. And I don’t want to be used in the same way.”

“You’re such a hypocrite!”

“I don’t want you to regret being with me.”

The intensity in his eyes was spellbinding, piercing you right through to the core. You trembled when he brushed your cheek with his fingers, your heart pounding. Throughout your time together, you’d studied and learned many of his expressions and nuances. The excited bounce in his movements when Anvil booked a new client, the underlying bitterness in his words on those days he’d gone to visit his mother, how dark and glossy his eyes shined when he was about to come. But the way he was watching you now – this was new to you. This was dangerous territory. The last thing you wanted was to get caught up in Billy Russo again.

You wrenched his hand away. “If I have regrets, I wouldn’t bother you with them.” You shrugged your shoulders. “Anyway, I told you yesterday. If we have sex again, I’d see it as closure.”

The shift in his eyes was instant. A second ago there had been warmth in his gaze, now there was only disdain. “So you can move on?”  

“Not just me. You too.”

Molten eyes narrowed into slits. “Maybe I don’t want to move on.”

“What does that even mean?”

His jaw was clenched, his mouth set in a hard line. “Why do you have to make this so complicated? Why can’t we just go back to how things were?”

“I threw myself at you five minutes ago and you rejected me! And now you’re telling me you want to keep sleeping together?” You massaged your temples, feeling a headache coming on. “Are you purposely trying to fuck with my head?”

The sound of your phone vibrating loudly against the coffee table drew your attention. You marched over to see who was calling. Spotting Roger’s name, you tensed immediately. Why would he be calling you late at night unless it was to tell you Adam was being released? Your heart started pounding as you picked up the call. “Hey, Roger. What’s up?”

Billy snickered beside you and you cast him a dirty glance, turning away from him.

“How are you holding up? I was worried about you, I wanted to check in.”

You breathed a sigh of relief that he wasn’t calling with news about Adam. “I’m fine.”

“I received an email from HR. They said you refused an appointment with the therapist?”

“I don’t need to talk to anyone,” you insisted. You’d tried the therapy route years ago and found it to be a waste of time.

“Unfortunately, it’s not optional. You know how it is. Insurance. Liability. All of that. We just need to make sure you’re okay.”

You exhaled a resigned sigh, rubbing the side of your head again. Today was not your day. “Fine. I’ll make an appointment.”

“Good. I’m glad.” He cleared his throat. “And if you need to talk to me, I’m also here.”

“Thank you for the offer but I’m alright.”

“How about we meet for dinner tomorrow?  I want to run some ideas by you about the expansion.”

You groaned internally. You had a stack of work you needed to do and you were hoping to catch up on it this weekend, but turning down a work dinner with your boss wasn’t a smart idea. “Sure. Tomorrow night sounds good.”

“Any preferences?”

“How about Piatti’s?”

“You love that place, don’t you?”

You chuckled. “Yeah, it’s one of my faves.”

“I’ll make reservations for 7pm. See you then.”

“Yeah. Thanks for checking in, Roger.” You hung up and put the phone back on the coffee table.

“Yeah, Roger, thanks for checking in.”

Hearing Billy imitating your voice, you turned around to find him balanced against the edge of the sofa arm, his long legs sprawled in front of him. Arms crossed, he was staring at you with a stern expression. “Isn’t that sweet? First his negligence almost gets you killed, and then he checks in to play the hero.”

You frowned at him. If he was anyone else, you would have thought they were jealous – but you knew Billy didn’t feel that way about you.

His lips twisted into a sneer. “And of course you eat it all up. Because he’s such a fucking sweetheart.”

“What is your problem with him? He’s a nice guy, and he was actually really great with me today.”

“I bet.” Billy’s voice was laced with hostility. “Nice. Sweet. He’s checking of all the right boxes, isn’t he? But can loverboy get you wet? Would he even know how to make you come?”

You finally snapped. “Are you jealous or something?”

Silence hung in the air as he simply stared at you, his jaw ticking. “Don’t flatter yourself. You’re not my fucking girlfriend.”

His words may have hurt, but they also served as a cruel reminder of why you needed to walk away. “That’s right. I’m not. So this thing you’re doing…” You wagged you index finger back and forth between you and Billy. “This interrogation stops now. I don’t answer to you. Who I’m seeing, who I’m fucking, who I’m interested in, it’s none of your business. So stay out of my life and I’ll stay out of yours.”

He stood up to his full height, probably trying to intimidate you. However you held firm, leveling him with a heated glare as he closed the distance between you. His eyes were cold, contempt etched on his face. “Bring the vibrator on your date night with Roger. Probably only way he can get you off.”

“Fuck you, Billy!”

“Not interested, sweetheart,” he snarked back, walking past you.

When you heard the door shut a few seconds later, you walked over to lock it.

You spent the rest of the evening trying to distract yourself from the warring thoughts in your head. When it wasn’t Adam’s face haunting you, it was Billy mocking you. You tried watching a movie but that did nothing. You attempted working next, but you couldn’t focus. Eventually you realized there was only one thing you could do to lessen the fear. You needed to get ahead of it. Adam may have been angry and unhinged, but he came from a powerful family. Even if he couldn’t be controlled, they could be. So you did what you always did to protect yourself. You started acquiring information you could use as leverage against your enemies.

Part 6

A/N - Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the likes, reblogs, comments, feedback and the asks. I’m so grateful to have wonderful readers like you. As always, if you have the time, I’d love to read your thoughts on this chapter.

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