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wolfsbanee69 · 2 years

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Duskwood theory: MWF

!!!!!!!!!SPOILERS AHEAD !!!!!!!!!

This is gonna be a long boy, so strap in for a wild ass ride, induced by lack of sleep and brain jitters that want answers! This may not be in a correct time-line because some details are pretty fuzzy early on, so sorry in advance for that!

I’ll put it under the cut, because it really did end up as a very long boy.

To be honest, I’ve been sitting on this one for quite a while; I think the idea came around the end of episode 7 or 8 (the episode where Richy dies anyway).

And in my opinion; Richy is the one behind everything.

Now, put your pitchforks down, I have evidence, or, at least, stuff that will probably make you rethink Richy a little bit.

To start this off, I think I’ll raise the first questions that have plagued my mind since my first playthrough (and believe me, I have a pretty big number of replays under my belt): Why did Richy not add us until the Legends of Duskwood chat and what did he tell Jessy about us that one time? It must’ve been very important if he felt the need to tell her in person even though we find out later on they don’t necessarily have any problems with texting each other even if they work at the same place.

So, what’s going on?

During the chat with Jake, he asks us the same question: What did we think he told Jessy? Now, unfortunately we can’t say we know even in the present, but in my opinion it is quite weird nothing else followed that.

On the Richy not adding us part, I think he was mostly trying to gauge the group’s reaction to us, which also seems pretty weird because in comparison with the others, the only people that didn’t add us almost as soon as we came in were Lilly and Dan if I remember correctly; Lilly obviously didn’t want anything to do with it and Dan, well, as he himself said “guys like him always get in the line of fire”

Until now, there isn’t much evidence against him, just stuff that feels odd.

I’m pretty sure he doesn’t get involved in more investigating stuff until the Legends of Duskwood chat, so we’ll move to that. At this point we know that the kidnapper is hiding behind the legend of the man without a face.

We find out that there is a book in the library that contains information about the mwf and Jessy suggests she goes to pick it up herself. Richy, immediately starts putting holes in her plan by saying stuff like “It’s already closed when you leave” and when she suggests that she goes during the lunch break he just responds with “That’s gonna cut it too close”. Weren’t they the ones complaining that Roger’s Garage doesn’t have customers? Who cares if Jessy is late 5-10 minutes? Not the customers that’s for sure.

Unless Richy doesn’t want us to have that book.

Pretty sure that when Jessy goes to pick it up the person who grabbed it has it for a long time as it’s past the returning time which means in the least that he didn’t get the book just because he heard that we want it.

Then comes the forest search. We all know everyone had high hopes for it, but it ends up being canceled because of the threatening letters sent to Cleo’s mom. In response to us saying “Hannah is definitely in the forest” he responds with “It would have been like searching for the famous needle in the haystack anyway”

Sounds pretty weird when everyone was super excited and hopeful. He also continues with:

“And to risk our own lives” I thought we were talking about a kidnapping, not a murder???

This might be him trying to comfort the others that were excited about the search, but the line “And to risk our own lives...It’s not worth it” makes me kind of doubtful he was trying to comfort anyone.

Then we have Dan’s accident.

I’m pretty sure I don’t have a screenshot of the text message, but we know that when Jessy left Roger’s Garage to get ready for her date with Dan, Richy isn’t there. I am almost certain that at one point it was mentioned that his apartment was above the garage, but I’m not too sure. Anyway, if he isn’t in the garage, where could he be?

Since Jessy leaves from work we can safely assume that it’s around the end of their shifts (since they seem to be the only employees and just like with the library apparently Jessy cannot leave during set hour unless she asks for Richy’s permission), but if that was the case(and we didn’t see any messages letting Richy know that she’s leaving early), wouldn’t resident gentleman Richy wait for the lady?

He must be somewhere with some business to take care of, right?

We know from reading along Jessy’s and Richy’s conversation that Jessy apparently hasn’t had a day off in a long time

This in itself isn’t evidence to go off from. But just keep this piece of information in mind.

Further on we get the chance to question Dan about what happened. One of the questions is “Is it possible, that you have any enemies?”

Richy’s reaction seems uncalled for? No one else reacted in any shape or form at the question which probably means that it wasn’t a tease at Dan’s rough exterior. And this reaction paired with the fact that Richy wasn’t at the garage when Jessy left, it doesn’t really paint a pretty picture for him...

Ultimately, Dan asks Richy to take a look at his car and check for any signs of tampering.

After Jessy is attacked we can talk with her about what happened. Between the questions we have available one was “Did he say anything to you?”

Jessy responds with:

Hmm, strong you say?

Richy must be pretty strong if he works with cars...but, at the same time, we know from his profile that Dan likes to work out, so this piece of information is up to you how you want to interpret it.

Richy goes into the forest to the dare house; great job buddy that’s worked out for everyone!

During that time, the garage was left unsupervised, just like Richy said “Usually I would have been at the junkyard all day. That means someone was watching me when I went into the forest” and with Jessy gone, there was really no one as an alibi for anything before he texted us that he was in the forest. He could have been practicing off his sick skills in drawing ravens with fake blood for all we know!

This one is more of a hit or miss, but at the end of the day it’s just a theory- a GAME THEORY-

Then after Richy is marked, we have this conversation with him:

I didn’t think to screenshot the rest of the conversation because while it seemed as if it was supposed to be important, I didn’t feel the need to have it as a photo. Basically Richy tells us that Phil used to give Hannah free drinks, as if we are supposed to now write Phil down as a suspect. While I do admit his character is flirty and kind of shady, I don’t think he had anything to do with the kidnapping.

The last line also seems very weird to me, like you’re fine with me getting all sorts of information about Hannah, but the moment it comes from you, you are suddenly not entirely sure it’s good?? You do you man I guess.

In a nutshell, I think this conversation is meant to confuse both us as the players, but also MC. We suddenly have Phil to worry about and that “someone else”.

Then we find out that apparently Cleo and Thomas are trying to break in Aurora’s basement? Whoever the fuck told them it was a good idea?

We make Thomas go and talk to Phil before the police is involved and we get an explanation as a reward. Not very fair if you ask me, but whatever, we get an explanation either way.

We get added into a group chat with Cleo, Thomas and guess who? Richy. When we demand an explanation about what was going on we have this sequence:

Seeing as everyone is so eager to throw the burden to us of investigating Hannah’s kidnapping with no worries about who else finds out, it seems weird that this is the one instance they decided to keep us out of the loop. There weren’t any other instances of Jessy finding out something out from us, so this worry seems very...questionable, in the least.

We know about the body since episode 1 if I’m not mistaken and this conversation takes place around episode 2-3, which is enough time for them to be plotting something behind our backs. Let’s say Richy was genuinely worried about Jessy finding out, since she is Phil’s sister and we are very close to her; why would that matter? In the worst case she gets upset and tells them to knock it off.

Sometime around Lilly’s video, I am almost 100% sure that it was shortly before, we have this:

If it was me in Jessy’s place, I would be pretty pissed if someone talked about my attack without me. But, I don’t know. Here, it seems Richy is pressuring us to let the others know as soon as possible. Why? To send a message? To induce real fear for their lives?

After Lilly’s video, we find the book of legends in Hannah’s cloud.

We know Jessy is a hardcore fan of legends and myths, why would she get “over-excited” over something she already knows about? It would mostly be satisfaction of being right, or something like that. Anyway, Richy doesn’t want to postpone it that badly. To me, that sounds like an admission of wanting to postpone it, but ok.

We find out the body’s idenity, Amy. Richy doesn’t participate in the conversation because he “can’t add anything” to it. Weird, but ok, I thought Duskwood was a small town where everyone knows everyone, maybe not.

He seems almost eager to get out of the conversation by throwing the attention on the lack of Jessy and Lilly.

As we get our hands on the call log, we find out that Roger’s Garage is on that list, surprise, surprise. Apparently Hannah’s oil pan was damaged. But Jessy didn’t know anything about that. When we ask Richy why, here is his response:

Jessy had the day off. Ladies and gentleman; what the fuck.

Time passes differently in game as in real life (obviously) so in the game’s time line, only a few days have passed. Around three if I’m not mistaken? Remember what he told Jessy? “No worries, you didn’t have a day off in a long time” Only a few days have passed, or, anyway, a short amount of time for the phrase “a long time” to not be needed.

Further on, when we discus this with Jake, we have this option:

Since the story will progress mostly the same, no matter what answer you choose from, the fact that the devs felt the need to include this option seems a very...interesting dialogue choice.

Phil gets arrested. Wooo

This prompts Jessy into getting even more invested in the investigation and so she goes to take a look at Hannah’s sat nav that Richy was so sure it didn’t exist.

Broski, you literally work with cars and her car was in your workshop, what the fuck.

We have this conversation in the groupchat:

Suddenly, our beloved mechanic wants to back off the investigation. Only like 6 episodes late.

The group is going to the cabin in the woods. Sounds nice; a cabin around 40 minutes by car, no biggie. A cabin found by Richy. We text Richy and this is what he says:

“The only way is up for us” Uhm, sir, you have a kidnapper after you despite the police why are you so chill?

Then we finally have an answer. Apparently Dan’s car has no sign of tampering. Which is such a red flag to me, the vibes are so off, Dan seemed so convinced about his brakes not working. Also, remember that Richy wasn’t in the junkyard when Jessy left, so, during our Date with Jessy, he could’ve been anywhere.

The only thing I hate so so so so much is the fact that the car was sent to Richy. I would’ve loved to see what Tool Tastic would’ve had to say, before Richy put his grimy mechanic hands all over it. If he was the one to cut Dan’s brakes (he surely would have the knowledge to do something like that), he probably has already fixed it so taking it to TT is kind of a waste Despite that, I hope TT checks it over either way.

We get to ask him if he thinks Phil was framed

Suddenly! Oh no! A scream from the forest! How convienent!

Now this. This is the scene that absolutely made me question Richy’s innocence. The scene that started all of this for me: Richy’s death call.

As soon as he’s outside, on the call with us, the screams stop. Weird, right? Anyway, no more screams. He sees someone and runs off. He’s a runner he’s a track star.

The thing is. He sees someone then runs off and then gets attacked. That means someone must’ve been chasing him, but things start to get weird. We see at the beginning of the call that the forest is full of dead leaves on the ground, meaning you hear leaves crunching under your shoe when you step on them, right? You can only hear one pair of footsteps, Richy’s. What is he running from then? Someone levitating?

Then he stops. We hear him very clearly stop and pant, but otherwise is quiet. Now, I’m guessing that for you to bleed out of your mouth you have to be shot or stabbed. We don’t hear a gunshot so that is out of the question. The other option is getting stabbed. Now, unless mwf is a throwing knives champion, I don’t see how he would be able to hit Richy without getting closer.

Notice how there are no footsteps again? It’s only Richy.

Let’s say he truly was stabbed. Somehow, someway our mechanic has a wound that we cannot see and that causes him to bleed. From his mouth.

You can’t see the blood very well in this picture, but the blood is coming out of his mouth.

ALSO MWF DOESN’T SHOW HIS UGLY ASS MASK!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was a very big thing with him, us seeing him seeing this is his handiwork. Now where is he?? He’s okay with attacking Jessy and then staring at us ominously, but when he kills Richy he’s like “Nah man, u got this”????

Richy’s dead, we tell the guys and Thomas goes into the forest to search for him (if you choose that option) and he calls us from the forest, showing us this:

(yes this photo is taken from google, let me be, I only have so much space on my phone)

Notice how the blood is on the edge of his cap? Yeah, I studied physics and from what I know, gravity doesn’t work like that. Unless he dropped the cap in a pile of blood and it remained there long enough for the blood to stain it so thoroughly and also dry, I don’t see how the cap would’ve ended up like this.

Besides the fact that what we see in the call is so little blood, not nearly enough to stain the hat like that, we don’t see the blood on the grass or anything like that. If Richy was stabbed, wouldn’t he bleed? At least enough to stain the ground? Unless the hat is in another location, I don’t see how we could explain the lack of blood on the ground.

And the raven feathers around the hat don’t have a SPECK of blood. Kind of a weird detail.

And last but not least! We have this messages with mwf through Hannah’s phone:

“I set a trap for you”

I as in me, myself. I have. The person texting us has.

This could be interpreted in two ways. Richy, may I remind you, he is the one who organized the whole cabin in the forest, has gone before hand and placed the gun there so they can start pointing fingers at each other, OR, Michael (Jackson-) put a bug on Jessy’s/Thomas’ car and followed them to the cabin.

To me, this points towards Richy especially with the line “And you didn’t even realize” backing it up. Again, this could be discussed as if it was Michael talking, taunting us, but I’m still leaning more towards Richy.

And that’s it! If you have gotten here, thank you! Your dedication is admirable, I spent so long writing this and trying to put it as best as I could in a time-line correct order, so I hope it’s if not exact at least close enough to the events in the game :D

#duskwood #duskwood theories #duskwood thoughts #mwf

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thatfuzzyfamiliarspace · 1 year

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It’s not even her that’s getting at me. It’s seeing what he did. This time last year I went to see him during my lunch round her flat. I came back with countless hickeys, bite marks and scratches all over me. It’s like I got jealous of myself from the video and pictures I saw. The feeling of the lust he had for me. How fucking intoxicating it was that we wanted eachother but couldn’t go any more further. He hasn’t touched me like that since. Maybe that’s what fucks me up. Maybe that’s what I miss about the 3 of us. How much I was wanted. Maybe it was because it was forbidden for us to do anything major, the having to slow the pace of everything. But I miss the marks. There’s so many pictures and videos of all the marks. I remember saying I was having the best sex of my life then, and we weren’t even fucking. That whole dynamic of the 3 of us back then was so comfortable. I felt equal to her. I didn’t feel like some play thing. It worked. And I loved it. I wanted a future for all of us. And I fucked that up. There’s feelings I’ll never get again and it still gets to me that I lost that. There was so much potential there too. It was different. I’m so much happier now I’m so many ways, but there’s things I don’t feel would be the same. If we ever found a third it wouldn’t be nothing like it was with her. I think that’s what puts me off the idea. It wouldn’t be the same. It’s like it would only work with her. I do find myself missing her. But lately it’s more been missing the feeling of being with them both and being at that early lustful place in the dynamic. It was such high in my life. A major peak and I fell so much afterwards. I’m forever scarred by how it ended. I still have resentment for him breaking up with her in the first place, and for getting back with her two weeks after that. I just felt like that solidified me being out of it for good. And shit those videos will come up soon too, that day I was just crying the whole time at work where my eyes were so puffy. Where I started to really hit that mega low. Seeing the memories or not it still comes flooding back to me all the time. Both the good and the bad. It’ll always haunt me, knowing what we had and what could’ve been. I still dk how to move on and process it. I guess it would be moving on with J. And I am. We’ve got the flat, we’ve done so much, and I’ve never been happier. But he talks so much about finding someone else. I wonder if he feels the same as me, I wonder if he misses how it was with the three of us and craves to have that again. Idk.

I hate how much it affects me tho. He’s right it will do our relationship harm in the future if it keeps going on. How can he blame me for worrying about being too much and him leaving when he literally affirms it ? He says if I don’t change and get over this “silly stuff” then he will rethink stuff. That just fucks me up and makes me not wanna talk or open up or be honest. It makes me wanna shut down and keep it all hush and quiet.

He doesn’t deserve to keep dealing with me tho, not with all the repetitive lows and worries and anx’s and everything. It’s what pushed Thelo away. I’m scared shitless that I’m doomed to have history repeat itself. I can’t shake the feeling that even tho “we’ve hardly seen eachother these past few days” as he’s been saying constantly, that he doesn’t even have the capacity to see me tonight because of how I’ve been lately. I’ve been too much. Added too much to his plate and stressed him out. Now he needs space from me. We’re meant to be moving in together in a week. What if he needs space and now we live together ? What if I’m too much to be dealing with 24/7? Ik we did it in the flat before, but it’ll be different this time. He won’t have the option to go to his mums or whatever, maybe his will idk. I just wish I didn’t get us to this point. I hate that I can’t control anything when I’m hormonal. I defo don’t think I’ll take a break again from the pill for a few months. I fucking hate this shit. I wanna go back to being how I was before, with him being so happy with me. He said this new pill made me so much better. I just wanna be what he wants. God I can’t help but beat myself up over the past few days. I can never tell if what he says to me is just being said to comfort me or if he’s saying “what I wanna hear”. Like I wanna believe he’s genuine but he says such contrasting things it just confuses me. Or am I just listening wrong and making myself believe that. I have no fucking clue. I don’t wanna suck the enjoyment out of the next week. We’re going out tomorrow. We move in a week ! We have his b day thing next saturday. I just want him to be happy and I wanna be the cause of his happiness. Maybe it’s a good thing we’re apart tonight. I miss him loads. But I don’t wanna risk making matters worse. God why am I such a fucking idiot.

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hua-fei-hua · 3 years

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HOOOOOOO WHEE now that i’m FINALLY done with the first draft of that stupid long philosophy-driven oneshot i wrote mostly in the car two weeks ago and sent it in to be betaed, i can finally get back to business with zenith

#the rough draft is sitting at ~11k so depending on how many edits are made it could be 12k or more #it really is a lot of thinking around in circles going insane but that's honestly kind of the point #it's not just ANY fic i leave discussion questions in the a/n box for after all #i was kind of surprised by some of the discussions that came up in the fic! not bc i didn't know how to answer them #well okay i didn't know how to answer some of them at the start but with others bc i thought i'd already found an answer for myself #but they came up and i ended up rethinking some stuff in my past #so honestly no matter how it ends up doing (and i'm anticipating a pretty bad turnout bc of the philosophy bits haha)#i think i'm gonna be really proud of this one!!!#花話 #AFLHASDFLA THIS FIC ROUGH DRAFT IS LONGER THAN WHAT I CURRENTLY HAVE WRITTEN FOR ZENITH #not by much so i'll be fixing that soon but that's so funny

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drabbles-mc · 3 years

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Hurricane

Angel Reyes x F!Reader

Inspired by This Song and Day 26 of the July Prompts: hurricane

Warnings: angst, language, alcohol

Word Count: 2.4k

A/N: I couldn’t separate the word prompt from the song so it ended up being a little bit of a mashup here for Day 26 lmao. I hope you guys enjoy it!

Join my group-chat here: (X)

Angel Reyes Taglist: @helli4nthus @angelreyesgirl @starrynite7114 @queenbeered @sincerelyasomebody @sadeyesgf @thesandbeneathmytoes @appropriate-writers-name @tomhardydallasstarsgirl @kelpies-shed @beardburnsupersoldiers @louisianalady @gemini0410 @paintballkid711 @chibsytelford @yourwonkywriter @sesamepancakes @behindmyeyes-insidemyhead @plentyoffandoms @georgiaaintnopeach @twistnet @themoonandthewicked @garbinge @bucky-iss-bae @enjoy-the-destruction @withmyteeth @encounterthepast @lilacyennefer @rosieposie0624 @mylittlelonelyappreciationtoo @mijop @xladymacbethx @blessedboo @holl2712 @lakamaa12 @luckyharley1903 @masterlistforimagines @kkim120 @toni9 @shadow-of-wonder @black-repunzel99 @crowfootwrites @redpoodlern @punkgoddess-98 @lexondeck @mrsstevenbuchananstark @berniesilvas @lovebishoplosamiguelgalindo @amorestevens @angelreyesisdaddy04

You’d been going back and forth with your friends for the past few days. They desperately wanted you to come out with them, saying that you had spent enough time at home wallowing and now it was time to get back out into the world. You knew that it was coming from a good place, but you also didn’t really think you were ready for the bar and club scene again just yet. Plus, it was a small town and there was no guarantee that Angel wouldn’t be there with the guys.

The last time that you’d talked to them, you told them that you were sitting this one out, that maybe you’d be up for joining them next weekend. They weren’t happy about it per se, but they also knew that it wasn’t like they were going to show up on your doorstep and drag you out with them. So that was the end of the discussion, and the group-chat delved into other topics.

However, as the evening wore on and you were sitting on your couch at home, you couldn’t help but to rethink your decision. As much as you enjoyed your alone time and solitude, it might do you some good to go and be with your friends. It wasn’t like you had to get shitfaced, or throw yourself at the nearest available target. It was possible to just go out and socialize for a couple hours to remind yourself that you could still do it. With a sigh, you got up off the couch and made your way to your room to pull together an outfit. Something simple, but cute. You pulled your hair and makeup together and before you knew it, you were taking off out the door in hopes that the evening was going to go better than the scenarios in your head.

Meanwhile, Angel got basically bullied into going out with the guys for the night. Gilly was about one more argument away from strapping Angel to the back of his bike and driving him out himself. Angel was outnumbered and he knew that if the roles were reversed, he’d be ruthless with his friends as well. So even though he didn’t want to, he rolled out with the rest of them.

The relief that flooded through him when he walked into the bar and didn’t see you was immeasurable. His heart dropped into his stomach at first when he saw your friends, but once he realized that you weren’t with them, he was able to relax a little bit. He was still a little nervous as he approached the guys, not in the mood to catch flack from all of your friends, but they were surprisingly cordial. If you were there it might’ve been a different story, but he was taking his wins where he could get them.

He and the guys were locked into a competitive game of pool. Your friends had migrated to a different part of the bar, and it helped Angel breathe a little easier. Meanwhile, a few different women had begun to hang around the pool table, clearly trying to shoot their shot with Angel and the other guys that were with him. The guys were eating it up, and Angel wished that he could’ve been more enthused about it, but he had no real interest in entertaining any of it.

Just as he was about to take his next shot, the door to the bar opened and he instinctively looked up to see who it was. He wished that he hadn’t, though—the air immediately got sucked out of his lungs when he saw you walk through the door. You looked more beautiful than he remembered, if that was even possible. He could see it on your face that you weren’t totally committed to being there, the same way he was.

“Take your shot, bro, c’mon,” Gilly snapped him out of his daze.

“Shit,” Angel shook his head and tried to focus on the game, but his mind was already too far gone. He missed his shot, and it cost him and Coco the game. He didn’t even really notice EZ and Gilly celebrating their win as he put the pool stick down and headed towards the bathroom, needing a minute or two out of the noise and chaos to get his head back in order.

When he walked back out, he saw you standing by the bar talking with EZ. You sipped on your drink and nodded as you listened to whatever his brother was saying, and every single emotion that he had been trying to stuff down came back up. He clenched and unclenched his hands a few times, trying to steady them. There was no way that he was going to get out of this without talking to you, acknowledging you somehow. It seemed so effortless for you, like it cost you nothing to stand there and talk to Ezekiel, meanwhile just the sight of your friends earlier in the evening almost made him turn around and walk out of the bar.

Deciding that he couldn’t put it off any longer, he made his way up to the bar and landed next to EZ. You saw him coming from the second he walked out of the bathroom, but you chose not to make it awkward. You didn’t want to seem like a majority of your attention was really on him while you were talking to Ezekiel. However, now that he was standing in front of you, you couldn’t quite peel your eyes away from him.

“Hey, Angel.”

“Hey, Y/N,” he tucked his hands into the front pockets of his jeans, “Didn’t think I was gonna see you here.”

“You almost didn’t,” you let out a quiet laugh, “Was a last-minute decision to join the party.”

He nodded, “Gotcha.”

EZ could feel the awkward tension in the air and he truly wanted no part of it. He had no problem talking with you, truthfully, he missed having you around. However, he wasn’t in the mood to have Angel lingering over his shoulder and into the conversation. So, with as much grace as he could, he excused himself and made his way back to Coco and Gilly. It left you and Angel standing there in front of each other, trying to figure out what the next move was going to be.

Letting out a small sigh, you sat yourself down on one of the barstools and nodded for Angel to join you, “Next round on me if you want,” you offered up a cautious smile.

His stomach was in knots but he took you up on the offer and ordered another beer as he sat down next to you. There was a small stretch of uncomfortable silence, neither of you really knowing what a safe topic to talk about was. Angel’s feelings were resting on the tip of his tongue, and truthfully you weren’t in much better shape than he was.

“I see EZ made it through his Prospect stint,” you finally broke the silence, “The full patch looks good on him.”

Angel laughed, nodding, “Yea, made that vote by the skin of his fuckin’ teeth.”

You smiled and shook your head, “Lemme guess, you were the one who almost didn’t vote him in?”

A smirk crossed his face, an expression that you had been missing more than you cared to admit, “Is it that obvious?”

“If it didn’t mean that he’d have to spend a whole ‘nother year prospecting, would you have done it?” you asked with a laugh.

“Maybe,” he took a swig of his beer as he watched you laugh and shake your head.

The sound of your laughter nearly brought him to his knees. He didn’t know how long it had actually been since the last time he saw you smile and laugh, but it felt like it had been an eternity. Muscle memory was trying to take over and it took every ounce of self-control that he had to not reach out and try to hold you, to kiss you. He watched the way you drummed your fingers along the sides of your glass and all he wanted to do was reach out and take your hand in his own. But he couldn’t. You were mere inches away from him but it might as well have been miles if he couldn’t hold you the way that he wanted to.

“I won’t lie,” you said, your expression sobering a little bit, “I almost walked out when I saw that EZ and the guys were here. I, I wasn’t sure if I was ready to see you.”

His felt his heart starting to beat faster in his chest, “What made you change your mind?”

You shrugged, taking another sip of your drink, “I miss you.”

Those three words washed over him like a tidal wave. It was everything that he had been wanting to hear from you for so long. He knew that it didn’t change anything or fix anything, but it suddenly felt a little easier to breathe.

“I miss you too,” he couldn’t even try to lie or downplay it—he wasn’t that good of an actor.

“Are you seeing anyone?” the question came out before you could stop it. You knew that it wasn’t any of your business, and that regardless of what his answer was it wasn’t going to change anything. But there was something in you that just needed to know.

“Nah,” he shook his head, eyes fixed onto his beer bottle, “You think I’d be out with these jokers if I was?” he nodded towards his friends with a laugh. There were a couple beats of silence before he asked, “You?”

You shook your head, “No.”

It felt like you should have some sort of a follow-up statement, but you didn’t. Part of you had almost wanted to lie and say that you were, just so you wouldn’t be confronted with the tension that you were now encompassed in. You were the one who called things off to begin with, and it felt wrong that you were so conflicted about it now, after so much time had gone by. It was too late to take back what you said then, or what you’d just told him now. You could feel his eyes on you as you looked anywhere but back at him. Part of you hoped that he would be smart enough, strong enough, to get up and walk away from where the situation was headed, but you knew that he wouldn’t be. You could spend the rest of your night staring at the glass in your hands and he would be next to you the entire time. For as much as you hated being away from him, he hated it even more.

“Do you still wanna be here, querida?” despite his voice being so quiet, you heard him perfectly through the noise of the bar.

You finally looked back over at him and shook your head, “No.”

He nodded towards the door, “Come on, then. Let’s go.”

“Angel, I don’t think we sho—”

“You could’ve gotten up and walked away when you saw me, but you didn’t,” he got up off his stool and stood in front of you, a pleading look in his eyes, “And I coulda walked out the second I saw you talking to EZ, but I didn’t. What’s the point in kidding ourselves here, hm?”

There was a slight tremble in your hands as you took in everything that he was saying to you. He was absolutely right. You’d been trying, unsuccessfully, to get your mind off of Angel for weeks. But no amount of distractions and keeping yourself busy was effective—your mind always went right back to him. You didn’t know who you were trying to kid by hesitating. There was no way you were going to turn away from him again, not after the turmoil the last few weeks had brought you when you tried to get on with your life.

He held his hand out for you to take. You paused for a moment, wondering if you’d have a sudden surge of self-control, but you knew yourself better than that. Setting your hand in his, you hopped off the stool, immediately comforted by the sensation of his hand clasping around yours. Tossing a few bills onto the bar to cover your tab, you let Angel lead you towards the door. You thought about touching base with your friends, but you knew that they’d know what happened. Looking at Angel’s expression, you could tell that he was having much the same thoughts about his own friends. But EZ had felt the tension and you knew that he’d put it together immediately.

Stepping out of the bar and into the night air, you let the breeze wash over you and cool you off as Angel led you towards his bike. Any last bit of resolve that you had in you was gone the second that you laid eyes on his bike. All of the long days and late nights out on the road with him came rushing back to you and a smile appeared on your face. Angel glanced back at you, and when he saw the look on your face, he couldn’t help but to pull you closer, cupping your face and pressing a kiss to your lips.

Your hands rested on the beat-up leather of his kutte, leaning your chest against his as you let yourself get lost in him. There was so much that the two of you should’ve been saying and doing instead, but that didn’t matter anymore. Feeling the way that his rough hands rested so gently on the sides of your face felt like coming home and you’d been away from it for far too long. You could feel the way his body started to relax as his lips continued to move against yours, trying to get all that he could while he had the chance, not knowing when this was going to get ripped away from him again.

When you finally pulled your lips off of his, you reached up and lightly trailed your fingertips though his beard. Forcing your eyes up to meet his, you could see that there were countless thoughts and feelings swirling around in them. There was a tinge of sadness, but mostly it was desperation, and you couldn’t say that you were in much better shape than he was when it came to that.

Letting your hands drop back down and interlock with his, you nodded towards his bike, “Let’s go.”

#mayans mc #mayansmc #mayans fx #mayans mc imagine #angel reyes #angel reyes x you #angel reyes x reader #angel reyes imagine #angel reyes fanfic #july prompts #my writing #fanfiction #song fic #drabblesmc

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d-criss-news · 3 years

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20 Questions With Darren Criss: How Acting Has Helped Him Make New Music

While Darren Criss has graced our TV screens with a range of characters, from high schooler Blaine Anderson on Glee to serial killer Andrew Cunanan on The Assassination of Gianni Versace, he was last spotted just being himself, on our For You Page on TikTok. “I’m walking to rehearsal with a guitar on my back with a Trader Joe’s bag ... I did not bring an umbrella because I forgot that it was raining. I’m rocking that NYC musician life,” the Glee alum explained in the hilarious clip posted three days ago.

While Criss’ acting work has earned him acclaim and stardom, he leaned into making music during the pandemic. On Aug. 20, he dropped a new EP, Masquerade, featuring five new tracks that Criss says were inspired by the different characters Criss has embraced throughout his career. After Criss wrote songs for his musical comedy web series Royalties and Apple TV+’s animated sitcom Central Park before the pandemic struck the United States, he then used those experiences as a precursor to his new EP. As Criss continues to promote his new music, he answered 20 of Billboard's questions – giving us a peek into how his new EP came together, and how growing up in San Fransisco shaped him as an actor, singer and all-around artist.

1. What inspired your latest project, Masquerade?

Although I would have preferred that it come at a far less grim cost, I finally had the time. Before the pandemic, I had written 10 new songs for my show Royalties -- along with an original song for Disney and another for Apple’s Central Park. These were all assignments in which I was writing for a certain scenario and character. Go figure. It was the most music I had ever written in a calendar year. This really emboldened me to rethink how I made my own music— to start putting a focus on “character creation” in my songs, rather than personal reflection. The latter was not proving to be as productive. The alchemy of having this time and having set a new intention with my own songwriting and producing made me put on a few of my favorite masques and throw myself a Masquerade.

2. How do you think your background as an actor complements your music?

They are one and the same to me. I treat acting roles like musical pieces— dialogue is like scoring a melody; there’s pace, dynamics, cadence, tone. Physical characterization is like producing -- zeroing in on the bass line, deciding on the kick pattern. Vocal characterization is like choosing the right sonic experience, choosing the most effective snare sound, and mixing the high end or low end. It goes without saying that it works in the complete opposite direction. Making each song is taking on a different role literally and employing the use of different masques to maximize the effectiveness of the particular story being told.

3. On Instagram you wrote that “Masquerade is a small collection of the variety of musical masques that have always inspired me.” Which track do you identify with most in your real life?

Everybody absorbs songs differently. Some key into the lyrics, some into the melody, some the production, some into vocal performance. When I listen to songs, I consider all of their value on totally different scales. So it’s hard to say if there’s any track I “identify” with more than any others, since I -- by nature -- identify with all of them. I think I just identify with certain aspects more than others. If it helps for a more interesting answer, I will say I enjoy the slightly more classical, playful -- dare I say -- more Broadway-leaning wordplay of “Walk of Shame,” but that’s just talking about lyricism. I enjoy the attitude of “F*kn Around,” the batsh--t musicality of “I Can’t Dance,” the relentless grooves of “Let’s” and “For A Night Like This.” All have different ingredients I really enjoy having an excuse to dive into.

4. What’s the first piece of music that you bought for yourself, and what was the medium?

Beatles audio cassettes: “Help” and “Hard Day’s Night.” I just listened on repeat on a tape-playing Walkman until my brother and I got a stereo for our room with a CD player in it, which was when I just bought the same two albums again, but this time as compact discs.

5. What was the first concert you saw?It’s hard to say, because my parents took us to a lot of classical concerts when we were small. But I guess this question usually refers to what was the first concert you went to on your own volition, and that my friend, was definitely Warped Tour ’01. My brother and I went on our own— two teenagers going to their first music festival, in the golden age of that particular genre and culture. It was f--king incredible.

6. What did your parents do for a living when you were a kid?

My dad was in private banking and advised really, really wealthy people on how to handle their money. My mom was, by choice, a stay-at-home mom, but in reality, she was my dad’s consigliere. They discussed absolutely everything together. They were a real team, and I saw that every single day in the house. They both had a background in finance (That’s how they met in the first place.) and were incredibly skilled at all the hardcore adulting things that I absolutely suck at. They were total finance wizards together. So of course, instead of becoming an accountant, I picked up playing the guitar and ran as far I could with it. Luckily, they were all about it.

7. What was your favorite homecooked meal growing up?

My dad was an incredible chef. For special occasions, I’d request his crab cakes. They were unreal. I’ve never had a crab cake anywhere in the world that was good as my dad’s.

8. Who made you realize you could be an artist full-time?

I don’t know if I’ve actually realized that yet.

9. What’s at the top of your professional bucket list?

The specifics change every day, but the core idea at the top is to continue being consistently inconsistent with my choices, and to keep getting audiences to constantly reconsider their consideration of me. But I mean, sure, what performer doesn’t want to play Coachella? What songwriter doesn’t want to have Adele sing one of their songs? What actor doesn’t want to be in a Wes Anderson film?

10. How did your hometown/city shape who you are?

San Francisco. I mean, come on. I was really lucky. The older I get, the more grateful I am for just being born and raised there. It’s an incredibly diverse, culturally rich, colorful, inclusive, vibrant city. By the time I was born, it had served as a beacon for millions of creative, out-of-the-box thinkers to gather and thrive. I grew up around that. The combination of that with having parents, who were unbelievably supportive of the arts themselves, laid an incredibly fortunate foundation to consider the life of an artist as a legitimately viable option. It’s a foundation that I am supremely aware is not the case for millions of young artists around the world. I was absurdly lucky.

11. What’s the last song you listened to?

I mean probably one of mine, but not by choice. I know, lame. But I’m promoting a new EP, what’d you expect? But if you wanna know what I’ve been listening to, as far as new s--t is concerned: a lot of Lizzy McAlpine, Remi Wolf, and Charlie Burg.

12. If you could see any artist in concert, dead or alive, who would it be?

The Beatles is an obvious "yeah, duh." Sammy Davis, Mel Tormé, or of course, Nat King Cole. I would’ve loved to see Howard Ashman give a lecture on his creative process and his body of work.

13. What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen happen in the crowd of one of your sets?

I feel like just having a crowd at all, at any one of my sets, is pretty wild enough.

14. What’s your karaoke go-to?

The real answer to this I’ll write into a book one day, because I have a lot to say about karaoke etiquette. I have two options here: I can either name a song that I like to sing for me, for fun, or I can name a song that really gets the group going. The answer depends on what kind of karaoke night we’re dealing with here. So I will say, after I’ve selected a ton of songs that services a decent enough party vibe for everyone else, then I would do one for me, and that would be the Beatles’ “Oh! Darling.”

15. What’s one thing your most devoted fans don’t know about you?

What I have up my sleeve.

16. What TV show did you binge-watch over the past year?

Dave is a stroke of genius. There are episodes that I believe are bona fide masterpieces. Also, My Brilliant Friend is a masterclass in cinematic television.

17. What movie, or song, always makes you cry?

It’s A Wonderful Life.

18. What’s one piece of advice you would give to your younger self?

Get used to sharing everything about yourself and your life now, or more astutely, to the idea that you don’t necessarily get to control how your life is shared. I know it’s not really your thing, but you’re gonna have to get used to it, so start building up those calluses now. And don’t worry, all the stuff you love now will be cool again in your mid-thirties, so keep some of those clothes because you’ll be a full-blown fashion icon if you just keep wearing exactly what you’re wearing. Oh nd also, put money into Apple and Facebook.

19. What new hobby did you take on in the last year?

I’ve always been a linguaphile. My idea of leisure time is getting to study or review other languages. This past year, I took the time to finally dive into learning how to read, write, and speak Japanese. Other than making music, it was one of the biggest components of my 2020-2021.

20. What do you hope to accomplish or experience by the end of 2021?

I hope I get to play live shows again.

#darren criss #billboard #masquerade ep #press #sept 2021

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imgonnapanic · 3 years

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Miyagi Setter Squad Responding to “I Love You”

I can’t condition because I sprained my ankle again so here you guys go. Also I’m so sorry for the oddly specific name but if you want the other setters lmk 😭 I’ll do them later I’m too tired. ⚠️SPOILERS FOR SEASON 2 ⚠️

Oikawa Tooru

You were over at his house to study and maybe pass around a volleyball for a couple hours.

It was a pretty peaceful setting, you were splayed out on the floor looking at the ceiling

And he was on his computer doing god-knows-what.

It definitely wasn’t homework-

The silence is destroyed by your phone buzzing.

Your ride was here.

So you pick up your stuff, and you’re just about to walk out the door when it slips out.

“I love you, bye!”

This smooth fuck will pretend to be totally chill on the outside.

But on the inside he’s probably exploding.

He has seen this in movies, read it in books, seen it told to other people.

A couple of people have even said it to him.

(Even though he had no idea why because he had only known them on a last name basis for thirty seconds.)

So he knew alllll about it and exactly how to respond.

But...He didn’t execute as well as he wanted to.

So he ends up giving you some weird ass eyes as his whole face flushes.

“I love you tOo, Y/n.”

You don’t know whether to laugh at him or just leave

But you’re grinning the whole way home.

Yahaba Shigeru

‘Yahaba does not get annoyed at much’

Lies. He gets annoyed at so much that he thinks he might have some repressed anger issues.

The butt naked screaming in the bath after losing to Karasuno helped him come to that conclusion.

But not much actually sets him off.

In other words, he’s not slamming anyone against the wall unless it’s really fucking important.

Or, nowadays, when someone does something to cross you.

Now, you did not know that Yahaba was capable of throwing hands until today.

Because most of his wounds were dealt out verbally.

However, you figured the guy that stole your gym clothes deserved it.

You were just planning to leave it alone, but there he was.

Off campus.

Tackling this random dude.

The fight lasts about thirty seconds before you can run into certain death and break it the fuck up before someone goes to jail.

The dude has a bloody nose already and he listens to you and steps back.

“Apologize.”

He mumbles out a sorry before stalking away.

Yahaba is looking way too pleased with himself.

“That’s assault.”

“That’s chivalry.”

“Shigeru, I love you, but don’t fucking do that again.”

He mumbled a response back. “Yeah yeah I won’t. I love you too.”

It will probably take him at least an hour for that to hit-

Kageyama Tobio

He doesn’t have a very affectionate family, so that phrase has probably only been used sparingly around him.

But he has been silently willing you to say it to him for a while.

He’s already on top of the world when he beats Aoba Johsai.

You are so proud of him for finally taking down his rival.

When that final point is scored, you’re going crazy in the stands with Yachi, Saeko, and Shimada.

It was the most excited you had seen him in a long time.

He achieved his goal! He was now the best setter in the prefecture.

Not that he wasn’t before, obviously 🙄

But you’re sitting on the bus with him after they win, and it’s quiet.

Kageyama’s happy, you’re happy, and there’s almost no one on the bus.

You rest your head on your shoulder.

“I’m so proud of you. I love you so much, Tobio.”

*bang bang there goes your HEAAAAART*

On the outside he gets that wobbly look on his face, but on the inside he’s like

TWO IN ONE DAY?!

You’ve just been watching him smile at the bus driver for twenty seconds before he snaps out of it.

“Ah-I love you too, Y/n.”

You didn’t expect him to be so excited about that.

It was the sweetest thing ever.

Sugawara Koushi

It was after he came up to you and told you that he would no longer be in Karasuno’s starting lineup.

And at first you’re like.

“Bull-fucking-shit Koushi, what do you mean you’re not starting?”

He explains that a new first year setter had arrived with much better technique.

And that the coach had sat him down and explained that to him.

And that he knew that Kageyama was better and that he would be supporting the team from the bench.

You can tell his heart is breaking with every second he tells you this.

So you need to shut him up. Getting mad at the coach wouldn’t help.

You start telling him all the things he can do to still be a significant player.

He could stat games, keep a notebook, make hand signals, paint the notebook-

You can tell he’s feeling much better about himself by the end of your talk.

You pick your next words very carefully.

“You’re gonna have a great season, trust me. I love you, okay?”

Alllll the color just drains from both of your faces.

He’s like “yeah-wait. You love me?”

You rethinking your life decisions: “Yeah?”

“I love you too.”

“...Good.”

“Good.”

Shirabu Kenjirou

MotherfUCKER-

Well, he’s flustered, he’ll give you that.

But you’re not living that one down anytime soon.

You were on your way to school, making fun of stereotypical romance mangas.

“Sh-sh-shirabu-kun!! I guess you have to get to class now...😞🥺💞🌸”

“...we’ll see 😶”

“OHHHHHMYGOSH💞💞💞💞🌸🌸🥺”

By this time, you’re on campus, getting weird stares.

Past, single Shirabu would have given a shit.

But he only had a couple more minutes of making fun of people with you before he had to go to his classes.

Stupid 4.0

So now, you’re just pointing out random things that the horses were doing.

One of them kicked its own shit, and both of you lost it.

You guys were folded in half until coach Washijo came up behind you, and ordered you both to get to class.

As soon as he was out of earshot, you guys started laughing again.

“Well, I don’t wanna be taken out of the starting lineup, so let’s get to class.”

“Okay, love you.”

Oh shit. You did not mean to say that. For Christ’s sake, it had only been a month.

He looks like he’s seen Goshiki fall down the stairs. Almost triumphant.

“I love you too, Y/n. Now go attend to that math grade of yours.”

“Shut the hell up :)”

Semi Eita

Was very well planned out and very thought through.

It was ✨Valentine’s Day✨

And you had it written down in a card because you were pussying out you were a little nervous.

Plus, you could always brush it off and pretend like writing it down wasn’t as big of a deal as saying it.

On the other end, Semi was also planning to tell you.

Like, he was sure you already knew.

And he was sure he was making it into a bigger deal than it should have been.

But whatever, Semi’s never been one to do things halfway anyhow.

He just wasn’t obvious about it.

So, Shiratorizawa was just g l i t t e r i n g that morning.

Which was why you both were currently at a cafe, very far away from it.

This had also been planned, because his coach would not like it very much if he knew he didn’t have the Flu.

So you guys are laughing, talking, awkwardly holding hands over the table.

It’s so obvious that both of you are nervous.

And Semi’s like “wHats wRoNg bAbY?”

As if he’s not in the exact same situation.

So you just hand him the card and the gift you got him for Valentine’s Day and he opens it up.

And you’re basically ready to melt into the floor when he puts the card down.

“You love me huh?”

No answer.

“Well, I love y o u t o o.”

He got so quiet at the end, but the words were finally said, and you were both satisfied.

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willowisbunger · 3 years

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God Im Sorry (A tapeworm clef fanfic)

Before we begin. This is all for jokes. I am so sorry for anyone who has to read this. Its also just a draft and will be complete at some point. For now enjoy what little I give you.

You find yourself resting on the couch of your dearly beloveds bed quarters. You scroll through your phone looking fondly at old text messages of when you and your husband to be's first text messages. All the ridiculous nicknames you two exchanged, all the flirting, photos, and various other things you two have sent to each other over the years. You couldn't help but giggle. You find it hard to believe this all started cause you decided to help some weird blonde guy with a ukulele out with his broken leg.

You two have been dating for almost 8 years and two months ago, the man, Dr. Alto Clef. He took you on a date. Just a nice simple stroll around the woods, which ended in a nice picnic by a river. In which you saw the man you have fallen head over heels for, get down on one knee and began plucking at the strings of his ukulele. Singing a sweet melody like a song bird in the spring, before pulling out a wedding ring and asking those simple words of "will you marry me". Your heart flutters with glee as you chuckle. You feel giddy and so over joyed with happiness. Right as your giggle fit calmed down you heard the front door open, and there stood your beloved. With a wide grin on his face as he held some folders in his hands. He had a doctors appointment that day since he had been feeling strange. With his face showing his usual bright beaming smile and his three beautiful eyes showing their usual mischievous gleam, it was clear that he was in more than perfect shape.

"Heya there pumpkin. I'm home. And I've got some great news." He spoke in a raspy slightly southern voice. At first it was grating on ya, but now its like all your favorite songs combine into one incredible tune. "Welcome home sweetheart!" You chirped as you ran up to your beloved teddy bear to give him a quick peck to the lips as you hugged him close, "What's the good news teddy? I can tell from that big dumb grin of yours ya got somethin real good to tell me. What did the doctor say?" You said as you affectionately pinched his cheeks causing him to laugh as he took both your hands to hold. "Well besides me being fit as a bull. Looks like I'm gonna be eating for two from now on."

You blinked and tilted your head in confusion, slowly processing the information as you stepped back a lil. "How? Babe I never top and we always use protection. Who-" "Oh no pumpkin. I ain't pregnant" He interrupted, chuckling as he ruffled your hair. "I got a tape worm. The doc took some sonograms of my stomach to see if there were any issues and yeah, there's a lil fella in there. Look." The blonde handed you the folder, which you opened and began reading through and your face turned pale at the sight of the tape worm in the photo of an ultra sound. You gagged a lil as you shoved the folder back into clefs arm. "Babe that's not okay!!!! That's a parasite!!!! Its gonna just keep reproducing and shit and its gonna fuck up your insides." You said quite loudly, usually you were quiet but this, this was making you quite distressed. Your fiancés face turned from a smile to a disappointed frown "I thought you would've liked clef junior....".

You stood baffled at the situation before you. Your dearly beloved, just, accepting and seeming to be happy about the fact he has a god damn TAPE WORM living inside of him. You've seen some shit in your days working for the foundation. A sheet of music that makes people go bonkers and try to bleed, Kondraki -clefs ex- ridding on god damn 682, and other shit that would boggle anyone's mind. But this. THIS RIGHT HERE. Just.... Leaves you speechless. "Pumpkin?" the third eyed man spoke in a concerned tone, which rarely came from him. "Are you okay?" You held your head in your hands as you sat back down on the plush couch and just took a deep breathe, and just as quickly as you sat down you sprung back up, grabbing your jacket and zipping it up. "Babe.... I just.... I need a moment.... I'll be out for awhile.... This is just, strange even for you and I need a moment to think about this." You sped walk past your -potentially ex- husband to be to the door. You shut the door, seeing Clef's face look uncharacteristically sad at you. It hurt you a little to leave your teddy bear like that, but you still needed time to just, think and process this whole situation.

You leave the housing area for researchers and quickly the site as well. You hail a cab and as soon as you enter the bright yellow vehicle you tell the faceless driver to "Take me to the nearest motel." Which he happily complied especially with the hefty tip you gave him. You just, Needed awhile to think and god knows how long that could be so you may as well rent out a room away from that hell site foundation to have a clear mind. After all who knows what might happen. Fucking Dr. Bright could tell you to give it a chance and raise the worm together with your teddy bear or some shit. You never know with this job and the people you worked with. While in your thoughts you rented out a room, room 105. Great another reminder of your hell job, even though it was just the simple numbers of 0 and 5 you can't help but be reminded of your faceless higher ups and the fact you work for them.

You found your room and quickly made your way inside to flop down on the bed, beforehand making sure to put up the "Do not disturb" sign and locking it. You burried your face into the hard cheap pillows of this motel, missing the one you had back at your place with its soft textures and the scent of your beloved.... Which once again brought you back to the worm. That fucking worm. Why the hell was your husband so keen on keeping it? He's at least some form of scientist he should know that tape worms are a dangerous parasite that affect your health. You stare up at the popcorn ceiling just, trying to wrap your head around WHY. Why would your partner; your future husband; the one who knows everything about you and you know everything about them.... just why are they keeping the tape worm?

You of course knew the stuff your teddy was known for, sleeping with that statue after a date, killing a dangerous reality bending child, father to 166 (who you were honestly happy to take in as your new step daughter). Out of everything. The tape worm makes you break. Makes you rethink your relationship with the man you've been dating for years at this point. All you can do at this moment is sigh, hearing the phone in your coat pocket buzz. You pull it out and set it to "do not disturb" as you set the device aside on a night stand. "Maybe I should sleep it off. Maybe I'll have a clearer mind then...." You say to yourself as you threw your coat off and roll onto your side. Feeling uncomfortable in your current clothes but you didn't pack a bag so, you just ignore the discomfort until eventually.... You drift off to sleep. The shallow hum of power surging through the building and the busy city outside envelop you as you feel unconsciousness take over.

While in your state of unconsciousness you hear a silky smooth, deep yet gentle voice speak to you. "Y/N... Y/N its time to wake up Y/N". You slowly awoke, opening your groggy eyes, what laid before you, you didn't know. They had a handsome chiseled face, comparable to the statues found in ancient Greece with even a similar tone of white marble. They had thick luxurious hair that went down to their waste, rippling muscles that went down both torso and back.... They were ungodly white though. And didn't have legs. You stared at the bottom half and slowly processed what you were looking at..... A fucking tapeworm man. A fucking humanoid tape worm what the fuck. "Im going back to bed" You said as you laid on your side, and tried to ignore the hallucination.

The tapeworm creature, slid over you just to get to the side you were facing. You shivered feeling it’s disgusting body wiggle about. You close your eyes tightly as you did your best to ignore it. You could feel yourself holding back even more shivers as you felt their cold hands touch your face. “Y/n…. Look at me…. I just want to talk.” “And I just want to be left alone and not think about tapeworm men trying to seduce me while I’m contemplating breaking up my engagement.”

#alto clef #tw parasites #scp foundation #joke fic #shitpost #please end my suffering #crack fic

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stressisakiller · 3 years

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You look like your mother.

Fred Weasley x Potter!reader

Summary: You are Harry Potter’s older sister and you look just like your mother. You having a terrible day and messing up in Potions was the tipping point.

Requested: Anonymously requested - Hey! I love your writing! Could you maybe do a Fred Weasley imagine where the readers a Potter. Harry’s older sister, that looks exactly like lily. And maybe there an accident in class and everyone’s shocked that Snape doesn’t get upset. Maybe she’s a favorite and can basically can get away with everything. And she’s dating Fred of course.

Warnings: Nothing really. Like 3 curse words.

Word count: 1.3k

Everyone knows the story of how your bother survived Voldemort’s killing curse and somehow defeated the dark lord. What they didn’t talk about was his sister who was two years older than him watching their parents be killed and believing that she was about to watch her brother die as well. They don’t talk about the red-haired green-eyed older sister of Harry Potter. Why should they, it’s not like you were the reason that Voldemort failed, no, you were just there to witness the end of your family as you knew it. When Sirius arrived at the house you latched on to him and refused to let go, even when hagrid came and took your brother you refused to leave the man you called uncle. So instead of having to go with Harry to the hell hole that is your real aunt and uncle’s house you were raised by your uncles Sirius and Remus. Your upbringing was practically the opposite of Harry’s while he grew up knowing very little about Magic, you grew up surrounded by it.

Although you didn’t grow up in the same house as your brother, you and your uncles made sure to visit as often as you could. You made sure that Harry knew that he was loved and that you would always be there for him. Against Dumbledors wishes, you told him that you were his sister, that your parents were killed by an evil man and that magic was real. Harry had to stay with Vernon and Petunia for safety reasons but that didn’t mean he couldn’t know love and family. On the day that you turned eleven and received your Hogwarts letter you immediately had Sirius and Remus take you to see Harry. You told him that you wouldn’t be able to come and see him since you were going to be at school but that Remus and Sirius would come by and check on him as often as they could. You assured him that you would write to him as often as you got the chance and that he would get to join you at Hogwarts when he turned eleven. He was there with you when you boarded the train and he was there when you got back. You were the one to take him to Diagon alley, along with Hagrid, Sirius, and Remus.

It was your fourth year, his third when you started dating the older Weasley twin. Although you looked the spitting image of your mother, being raised by two of the Marauders meant that you acted more like your father. You had met the Weasley twins on the train to Hogwarts your first year and the three of you were inseparable. You helped with the pranks although you were the voice of reason, keeping them from going too far, you were your mother's daughter after all. The thing that surprised everyone the most was your relationship with Professor Snape. Though you were a Griffendor through and through you still managed to be on his good side, some even said he acted as if you were one of his Slytherin students. You maintained that it was simply the fact that you excelled at potions and were able, for the most part, to keep the twins in line during said class. Or you could at least keep them from purposely causing their cauldron to explode.

It was a Monday, for you it was the mondayest monday to ever Monday. Everything was going wrong, you spilled your tea at breakfast, managed to lose all of your transfiguration homework and you and Fred were having a bit of a spat. He had gone a little too far on one of the pranks they were planning, against your warnings, and someone ended up getting hurt. All you wanted to do was go lay in bed and eat some of the chocolate that remus had given you after class on Friday.

You were currently working on a rather complicated potion for Snape when you fucked up by adding one too many drops of Acromantula venom. The next thing you knew your cauldron was smoking and a foul stench was filling the dungeon. You rushed to try to fix it but it was too late and your potion was ruined. You were trying to keep yourself from crying after the day you had had when Snape came over. You flinched as he stepped in front of you but instead of telling the class how incompetent you had been he said something completely unexpected.

"See students, this is why you need to be careful as you add ingredients. Even the best of us mess up sometimes and it's not always just a bad smell and a ruined potion that comes of it." You looked up at him, eyes shining with tears and in a tiny voice managed to breathe out a thank you. He looked down at you for a second longer before softly telling you that you could try again during your free period the next day and that you were free to leave and pull yourself together if you needed. You stared at him for a second in disbelief before nodding, packing up your stuff and heading out the door.

You reached the dorm and decided that a shower would help you calm down. You took your time standing under the hot water and letting the tears that were welling up earlier fall. You got out and felt refreshed, you were thankful that potions was your final class that day and dinner would be starting soon. You threw your long ginger hair into a messy bun on the top of your head, got back into your uniform and started towards the great hall.

Your path was blocked once you left the common room by a familiar mop of red hair. You looked at the Weasley in front of you, wanting nothing more than to ignore him and walk past. Let him have a taste of his own medicine you thought. But then you met his eyes and all you could see was the regret and sadness he was feeling at failing you and making you mad at him. You watched as he struggled to figure out what exactly to say to apologize and show you how terrible he felt. You brought him out of his stupor by placing a gentle hand on his arm.

"You realize now why I tell you to hold back on your pranks sometimes right?" You asked watching as he nodded looking ashamed, a soft smile came to your lips as you continued.

"So in the future will you listen to me when I warn you to rethink your pranks?" He nodded again this time you could see the hope in his eyes.

"Well then as long as we agree on that then I forgive you. I can't stay mad at you for long and honestly, I don't want to."

He pulled you into a hug apologizing for how he had acted and how much he wanted to be there for you when he saw how difficult your day had been. You pulled back, and gave him a quick kiss before hooking your arm through his. You looked up at him

"Lead the way handsome, I had a terrible day and all i want right now is to stuff my face with some good food while spending time with my favorite person." He kissed you on the head before starting off down the hall. He couldn't help the cheeky grin that appeared on his face as he asked

"Who the hell did you have to kill in order to get on Snape's good side. I mean I knew you were a favorite but today he almost seemed nice to you."

You shrugged.not wanting to tell him about how Sirius had told you about the crush that Snape had on your mom and how he was nice to you because you looked so much like her. For now you decided to just be grateful that Snape had taken pity on you and not rubbed the failure in your face. You decided that you would silently thank him by making the potion perfectly tomorrow.

#fred weasley #fred weasley imagine #fred x reader #fred weasley x reader #hogwarts #sirius black #Remus Lupin #sirius doesn't go to azkaban #Harry Potter #potter!reader #harry potter imagine

179 notes · View notes

xofanfics · 3 years

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Selfish - Part 16

Genre: angst, fluff

Pairing: Jun x Reader / Chan x Reader

Word Count: 4.4k

Summary: You love them both and you’re torn. But…what if you didn’t have to choose?

You felt like Chan was avoiding you and you didn’t know why. He ended up changing his flight and staying in Jeju for an extra day, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family. You understood but it felt a little out of the blue. So you flew back to Seoul with Jun.

It’d been a week since you’d been back and you barely saw Chan. You’d eaten at a restaurant for dinner and he declined your invitation to sleep over at your house. He said that he had work to do but he’d never declined one of your invitations and, in the past, having to do work never stopped him from coming over. If anything, he’d just bring his laptop and books with him, at least wanting to be in your presence. But you didn’t want to complain or come off as petty over this. Chan must’ve just wanted more alone time. Maybe he was stressed about work or school or both. But part of you felt hurt because, normally, he’d always come to you during those times. Something changed but you weren’t sure what.

You weren’t going to lie, you’d been in a weird mood since. You hated feeling like he was mad at you or something. So, Jun suffered a bit too. And you felt bad that you couldn’t give him your all. And he knew that there was something off with you. The trip you thought was supposed to be relaxing ended up not being as relaxing as you would’ve hoped, especially given that Chan had joined unexpectedly. You supposed that it caused a little turbulence in your lives. Maybe you shouldn’t have said anything, you wondered. Maybe you should’ve just kept the trip as one with Jun. But, then again, it seemed like everyone had a good time. And you knew that Chan wasn’t there the whole time but you also knew he hadn’t seen his family in a while. It was hard to tell how everyone felt truly. Was this all just a facade?

It was nine o’clock and you knew that Chan was working at the cafe tonight. You figured you’d just show up with chocolate covered strawberries and hope that you could convince him to let you sleep over. You missed him and you missed falling asleep in his arms.

As you walked toward the cafe, you could see him through the window. There weren’t any customers at this point. He was wiping down the tables, from what you could see. And he looked handsome while doing it. He looked concentrated, his eyebrows furrowed the same way they did when he was frustrated or thinking. When you knocked on the glass, you could tell that he wasn’t expecting you. He took out his Airpods, surprised. He opened the door, letting you in before locking it again. “What are you doing here?” he asked, little to no emotion in his tone.

“I miss you,” you said, a little taken aback by his tone, or lack thereof, “and I wanted to see you. I feel like you’ve been avoiding me…”

Chan turned around, heading back toward the table he was cleaning. “You could’ve called me.”

“I wanted to surprise you...but it doesn’t seem like you’re happy to see me so maybe I’ll just go…” You took the box of chocolate covered strawberries out of your bag, placing it on the table. “Enjoy them.” You turned on your heel to leave and, just before you got to the lock, Chan’s hand was wrapped around your arm.

“Don’t go.”

Tears were starting to build up in your eyes. Chan was usually the one that always greeted you warmly, the one that always showered you with love and affection, the one who always seemed to know what you needed no matter the time or place. You bit your lip, trying to hold back the tears.

“Baby,” Chan said, frowning at the sight of you tearing up. “Please, I’m sorry…I’ve just been in this weird space lately. I don’t mean to take it out on you...”

You raised your brows. “What do you mean?”

“There’s just…something that happened to me recently that made me rethink things.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll be fine.”

You shook your head. “You’re the happiest person I know…and I know when you’re not being honest with me.”

Chan looked down. “I know. I just…don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Does what happened have something to do with something I did?”

He shook his head. “No, no, it’s not that…''

To be honest, Chan was tired of keeping this secret. It was hardly his to be carrying on his shoulders like this. This was all Jun’s fault. Why was he the one to be suffering when Jun was the one living stress-free? Why was it that he was still protecting Jun like this? Chan was the one who was done dirty and he was sick of putting everyone else first. Even if you were hurt by this information, you deserved to know the truth and to not sleep next to someone who hadn’t been completely honest with you.

“So what is it, then?”

“I want to close up first. I’ll be done in five. We can talk as soon as I close the cafe.”

And within those few minutes, your mind started racing. You didn’t have the slightest clue what Chan wanted to talk about. It seemed like he was going through something and, on top of that, he’d even distanced himself from you. Did what he was going through have to do with something you did?

Chan closed up the cafe and locked the doors. “Okay, let’s go.” You started walking toward Chan’s building, which was about a ten minute walk from the cafe.

As you started walking around the corner, Chan said, “I haven’t been completely honest with you…” You bit your lip, expecting the worst. “Remember when I said I had family stuff to deal with in Jeju?” You nodded, unsure of where this conversation was heading. “That wasn’t true.”

“So why did you leave? I thought you were having a good time…”

“Well you know we’d all been drinking. Jun had been drinking the most and I saw that when he went over to the bar by himself. I went over to bring him back over to the dance floor with us while you were in the bathroom. He said some things that made me uncomfortable even though I was doing my best to be friendly and include him in everything…” Chan let out a sigh. “He implied that the only reason he agreed to me coming on the trip was to make you happy. He basically didn’t want me there. He got angry and told me that I’m your favorite and that he never gets time alone with you, which is ridiculous. The part that made me upset was the fact that he basically lied and put on this pretend act. If he wasn’t okay with it, he could’ve just been honest and said no. I-I don’t know how to feel. I can see him trying to push me out. I had to leave because I didn’t want to ruin the trip, so I kept my distance and let him have his time with you...which, I guess, was his plan. And it worked.”

Tears had been building up in Chan’s eyes as he told the story. He’d kept a lot of it in up until now and, honestly speaking, it felt nice to be able to be honest with you. He hated the situation that he was in. He felt more secure about being in this polyamorous relation ship with you and Jun but Jun didn’t seem to be okay with it at all. And it hurt him because he felt like Jun had basically pretended to be cordial with him. Chan wondered what you saw in him. What Jun did just seemed so...evil. Was Jun finally showing his true colors? Would you forgive him yet again?

You stopped him to pull him into a hug. “I...I didn’t know…”

“It’s not your fault. You didn’t do anything wrong, babe.” Those words were comforting and, with them, came a few tears. You could hear it. “Thank you for telling me...and for trying to protect me. You don’t have to hide things like that from me, I promise. I love you so much, Chan…”

He pulled away from you and you wiped his tears with your thumbs. He smiled and said, “I love you, too, Y/N…”

You left Chan’s house in the morning feeling a little confused and, by the time work was over, you still felt frustrated. You didn’t know what to think of the situation with Jun. It seemed like there was some turbulence in the relationship and you weren’t sure what to do next. Of course, you needed to bring this up with Jun. You couldn’t sit back and let this simmer on the back burner.

You opened the door to the nail salon. Na-Ri was there a little early, waiting for you. “Well, well, well, look who it is...The person I’ve hardly heard from since you got back.”

“Sorry,” you said, chuckling. “Things have been kinda crazy.”

The two of you checked in for your nail appointments and headed to the back of the salon to get your pedicures done. When you got settled and dipped your feet in the warm water, you turned to Na-Ri. “You won’t believe what I just found out...”

Na-Ri looked over, putting her phone down. “What’s up?”

“Remember when I said we went to dinner that first night in Jeju? The three of us? Well, everything was fine up until we went to dinner. That’s when things started getting a little weird. Actually, no, things were a little weird before that but I didn’t put two and two together at the time…I think it started when Jun fell asleep at the hotel. Me and Chan stayed up for a little bit and then we fell asleep, too. When I woke up Jun was gone and I think he might’ve been feeling jealous that me and Chan fell asleep together. Then he just got really...drunk at dinner. If we had ordered another bottle of wine, I don’t think Jun would’ve made it to the bar.”

You continued your story as you flipped through the catalog to decide on what colors you wanted. “I always try to make sure I spend enough time with both of them. Next thing I know, I go to the bathroom and then when I come back, Chan is telling me he has family issues to go and take care of and that I should stay with Jun. At the time I thought it was kind of weird and random but, at the same time, it could’ve been true so I believed it. In the past, his dad collapsed from overworking, so it was believable. Anyway, I went back to the hotel with Jun and he just acted like everything was normal after that.”

Before you could continue, Na-Ri stopped you. “Did Chan invite himself on the trip?”

“Not exactly. I was talking to him and I told him what we were doing. I guess he kind of implied that it sounded like fun and he wanted to go. So I asked Jun about it...and that’s when the lie started...I asked if Chan could come with us because I thought that it would be a good idea for us to bond. And it was supposed to be Chan’s weekend with me so I felt bad. Anyway, Jun said it was fine and that it was okay. If he didn’t want him to come, he could’ve just said no…”

Na-Ri said, “What the hell? Where’s the communication?”

“Exactly…”

“Have you talked to Jun about any of this?”

You shook your head. “I just found out last night.”

“Good luck. I don't know how you do it. One man is enough problems for me.”

You chuckled. “I don’t know how I do it either…”

“Maybe it was too soon to try this kind of relationship...”

You let out a deep sigh. “We’ve been doing this for months...I don’t know how much longer he could possibly need.”

“Well if you think about it, you haven't really done anything together, with just the three of you. So maybe it was a bit much to go on a trip together. I think it’s something you have to ease into. Like going on dates together, to the movies, to the amusement park, and stuff like that. Cause it seemed like everything between them was pretty much fine–well, neutral–before this. I don’t think he gets jealous until Chan is physically there...and, I mean, that’s not good either.”

“Yeah, you’re right. We’ll have to work on that if this is going to work.”

“Yeah, it’s the next step in the relationship. You got past the beginning stages so now the next step is for them to be more comfortable around each other and to do more things together.”

Na-Ri was right. You were still angry with Jun and the fact that he hadn’t been honest with you or with Chan. Jun’s selfish actions had hurt you but, more importantly, his actions hurt Chan. From what you could see, Chan had been trying to be friends with Jun. He’d been putting in effort, only to be rejected by Jun in the end. And Chan knew that feeling all too well.

It had been months since you came up with this arrangement and Jun was acting more like a child than an adult. But you couldn’t help but feel like part of what was happening right now was your fault. Since this was your idea, you should’ve had a better plan. But you weren’t an expert and neither were Jun or Chan. Was it too much to expect this much from them?

You probably should’ve been trying to do more things together rather than keeping things separate. Keeping things separate wasn’t realistic and, obviously, it wasn’t working. The relationship was going to have to undergo some changes if there was going to be any chance of survival. You needed to figure things out but, first, you definitely needed to talk to Jun.

When you asked Jun if you could have dinner later, he thought nothing of it. He answered your message, of course, suggesting that you come over to cook. But, strangely enough, you declined saying that you’d rather go out to eat. It was a little surprising since you usually enjoyed making dinner together but he thought little of it. He told you to meet him at your favorite restaurant to have some Taiwanese noodle soup.

He waited for you inside, browsing the menu. He’d been here once with you but, as far as he knew, it was a place that Chan had introduced you to. Sometimes Jun couldn’t help but feel like you had more in common with Chan than you did with him. Jun pushed the thought out of his head. Those small insecure thoughts were beginning to annoy him a bit. He was starting to feel bad about the things he’d said to Chan. Maybe he shouldn’t have been so harsh. Maybe he should’ve been more mature and accepted things as they were rather than mope about the things he couldn’t change.

Was this kind of relationship for him? Was he too in over his head? Was it even meant for the two of you to be together right now, with or without Chan in the picture? He loved you, without a doubt, but sometimes he wondered if all of this was worth it. He missed when things were simple, when it was just the two of you. Before you’d even met Chan in the first place. Part of him wished he never accepted that job or went to Japan. But maybe everything that was happening to him now were things that needed to happen.

You came into the restaurant looking a little stressed, bringing Jun into a state of distress. Were you here to break up with him? Had you finally had enough of his shit? You sat down across from him and said, “Hey.”

Normally, you’d embrace him. You’d reach across the table and brush your fingers against his hands. You’d lean over for a kiss, something. But you weren’t doing that. Jun’s heart dropped. Something was definitely wrong but he wasn’t sure what.

Jun tried to lighten up the mood. “Are you okay? How was your day?”

“I’m okay. My day was decent.”

Jun nodded. “Your nails look nice,” he said, glancing at your hands. “This color looks good on you.”

“Thanks,” you said, taking a sip of water. “Look, can we talk about something serious?”

“What’s going on?”

“Chan told me everything…”

Jun looked down. Of course, he knew that he was in the wrong. Deep down, he’d known that this day was coming. How could he think a secret this big would stay a secret? He’d wanted to come clean and apologize about it, mostly to Chan because he’d done nothing wrong in the situation. In any case, Chan was merely a victim of Jun’s insecurities.

Jun didn’t say anything so you did. “If you wanted it to just be us, why lie to me? I would’ve understood.”

Jun let out a deep sigh. “I don’t have an excuse for why I did it…” He looked up at you, finally. There was so much hurt and disappointment in your eyes, he could barely stand to see it. “I just couldn't bring myself to see you disappointed so I lied and I tried to convince myself that I could do it but I couldn’t...Then it got too late to say anything, so I just tried to swallow it. And I became a person I couldn’t recognize by the end of it all…”

“You hurt me, Jun, and you hurt Chan, too…”

Jun nodded. “I know…”

You reached for his hand, taking it in yours. “It’s okay to feel these kinds of things but it’s not okay to act like that. We agreed to this relationship and for it to work, the three of us have to have some type of communication.”

Jun said, “I’m sorry…I’ll also apologize to Chan. I’ll talk to him tonight. I really am sorry, Y/N...”

You looked him in his eyes, almost as if you were staring into the deepest, most vulnerable parts of him. “I need to know if you’re all in.”

Jun squeezed your hand in his. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t afraid of losing you. But he nodded, continuing on through these unknown waters.

After dinner, you went home despite Jun’s suggestion of coming over. He understood and he wanted to give you your space but he couldn’t help but feel like there was suddenly this giant rift in your relationship. It was his fault, he knew. But he missed you. He missed the way things were, just before the trip. So much had changed and it’d only been about a week. One of the ways he usually made himself feel better was to find comfort in your arms. When he had a hard day, he’d go over to your place or you’d come to his. And you’d hold him in your arms, running your fingers through his hair. But again, that wasn’t an option for him right now.

He knew he needed to apologize to Chan soon. If he didn’t apologize soon, he’d lose the nerve to do it and you’d be more disappointed in him than you already were. He took out his phone and called Chan, anxiety filling his chest. It rang five times and, just when he thought that maybe he should just hang up and forget it all, Chan answered.

“Hello?”

“Hey, I was wondering if you had time to talk.”

Though Jun couldn’t see him physically, Chan was rolling his eyes on the other end. “Sure. Do you mean over the phone or in person?”

“We should talk in person, no?”

“Okay. Where do you want to meet?”

“I can meet you near your place.”

“Okay. There’s a bar a few blocks away. I’ll send the address.”

The call was over and anxiety washed over Jun. He had no idea how to start or what to say. There was nothing he could say to take back those shitty things he said to Chan and there was nothing he could say to justify them. He was immature, insecure, all of those things. He hated that he put himself in this position and that he had to even apologize in the first place, but he knew that he couldn’t just sit quietly.

As Chan got ready, he felt very irritated. Of course, you’d already told him how the conversation with Jun went. He even felt annoyed at that. How many ways did that man have to show you that he wasn’t ready for this kind of relationship? It was so frustrating to sit back and watch Jun hurt you both. These feelings were no longer coming from a place of insecurity or jealousy; it was a place of genuine concern. It seemed like a good idea at first, but maybe this kind of relationship was beyond the three of you. Chan had done online searches trying to figure out how he should go about things but he always ended up in a loop where his question was too specific or there were too few answers for him to make an educated guess.

With the current state of things, he at least knew that he’d at least attempted some research. Had Jun even bothered to do research on what it meant to be in this kind of relationship? Chan knew that there were different types of people but he could see that Jun wasn’t the kind of person that could handle this. Once upon a time, Chan wasn’t either but he’d like to think that he’d grown since then. If being in a relationship with you and Jun had taught him anything at all, it was patience and he’d even gained a bit of maturity. At the end of the day, you needed a man who was mature, a man who made you feel secure and who felt secure in himself. Of course, Chan wasn’t perfect and he had moments where he felt insecure but, overall, Chan liked himself and the person he was becoming. He was becoming a better man, not only for you, but for himself as well.

When Jun entered the bar, Chan was already there. He was sitting by himself, having a cocktail. From the looks of it, it was dark liquor. It was one of those nights and Jun understood. Hell, he figured he’d order one for himself. He greeted Chan with a nod and sat down in the seat next to him.

“Hey,” Chan said, taking a swig from his glass.

“Hey,” Jun replied. He turned to the bartender. “Can I have the same thing?” he asked, referencing Chan’s nearly finished glass.

Chan downed the rest of his drink, sliding the glass toward the bartender. “And can I have another?”

A moment of silence passed before the bartender returned with both drinks. Jun let out a deep sigh before he turned to Chan. Chan didn’t look up, though, and understandably so, Jun supposed.

“I’m sorry for those things I said back in Jeju. I was completely out of line,” he started. “I know I can’t take any of it back but all of this happened because I wasn’t being honest. I wasn’t being honest with myself and I took it out on you instead, thinking you were the problem when I was the problem. I drank too much and I felt frustrated. I should’ve been honest with Y/N and told her I wasn’t comfortable.”

Chan nodded. His feelings about everything began to rise to the surface. “I’m not going to forgive you right away but I’ll accept your apology for now…” Jun didn’t say anything but nodded instead. He didn’t know what to say next. Was there anything left to say? Was the conversation over? Was this one of those instances where the conversation could’ve just been a phone call? Just when Jun thought that the conversation was over, Chan spoke again. “You know what was most upsetting about all of this? I thought we were finally at a point where we could be friends…I thought wow, we’re actually getting along.”

Hearing that made Jun feel even worse than he already did. He wanted to be able to be friends with Chan too but his insecurities were holding him back. In the ideal situation, the three of them would get along. In the ideal situation, he and Chan would be sitting at this bar having a drink together, laughing and sharing stories, while you were at home with no worries about whether or not your boyfriends would get into a fight. There wouldn’t be all this drama and conflict surrounding the relationship, for God’s sake!

Jun wanted to say something comforting. He wanted to tell him that he did want to be friends, believe it or not. But he couldn’t find the right words. The words, for some reason, wouldn’t leave his mouth. “I’m sorry…again.”

Chan was frustrated because it seemed like he didn’t even care. Was Jun here because you made him or was he here apologizing on his own accord? It was hard to think of him as a decent person after all the drama and lies about Malai and more recently, their Jeju trip. This was his second strike, in Chan’s eyes. If he did something else, Chan wouldn’t be able to forgive him. He couldn’t read Jun’s mind but it would be nice to know what he was thinking.

He said, “I don’t think you’re serious about this relationship. Have you considered it at all? If you’re serious about being with Y/N, you’re going to have to work harder. and I’m more than willing to support her to make this work. But if you’re having doubts or don’t think you can work with us, then you should leave us alone. Y/N is my priority. Why isn’t she yours?”

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#a.c.e jun #a.c.e chan #a.c.e fluff #a.c.e smut #a.c.e angst #kpop angst #kpop smut #kpop fluff #kpop imagine #kpop imagines #kpop reactions #a.c.e imagines #a.c.e reactions #a.c.e fanfic #a.c.e fanfiction #kpop fanfic #kpop fanfiction #xofanfics

30 notes · View notes

hawkland · 3 years

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My (mostly) Destiel Recs, Round-up #6

Well, between working like crazy on my DCBB fic and GISH and injuring my neck last month I haven’t kept up with my rec posts, so this one is going to be LONG and have a LOT and I’m going to try to break it up into sections, from oldies but goodies (some things I found on very old rec lists) to smutty delights to just tasty little bits of fluff, hopefully there’s something or everyone here. Most of these are not super-long, largely in the 10-25k range, though there are a few beyond that. With all the stuff I’ve had going on I haven’t wanted to lose sleep diving into 100k epics (especially when I’m writing my own right now, lol.)

“Oldies” but Goodies: Here are two great fics written some time way back when but that still definitely slap.

Theodicy by manic_intent (11k) - Probably the most brilliant Godstiel fic I’ve read to date. One of Cas’s first acts as the new god is to make a new archangel. Dean isn’t exactly on board with having his soul re-sculpted into wings he hates on sight (especially as they seem magnetically drawn to Cas), but he isn’t exactly given a choice. He, Sam and Bobby struggle with how to handle their former friend suddenly becoming a vindictive deity - trying to make plans to kill him if they must, which is pretty hard when it seems like Cas is always one step ahead of him. Can Dean hold on to enough of his humanity to provide a conscience to Cas and try to steer him toward good acts instead of destruction? This is one that I can’t say has a perfectly happy ending, but it’s a hopeful and imperfect one that’s just right for how the story plays out.

My Eyes Are An Ocean by entanglednow (10k) - Season 5 AU where Dean averts the apocalypse through a spell that “powers up” all the angels and he sees Cas’s true form - before being rendered blind. Dean tries to adjust to his blindness, Cas tries to deal with his guilt, and it’s just a lovely little read with an ending that’s... *chef’s kiss*

Lots more recs below the cut:

More great reads from some of my favorite authors I’ve recced before:

The Cabin on the Lake by DeanRH (21k) - This may be my new favorite DeanRH fic...at least for the moment. The year is 2152, Sam and Dean are long gone to Heaven, while Cas - stuck somewhere between mortal and angel - remains on Earth keeping vigil, keeping up the hunt, assuming he’ll never see either Winchester ever again. But when he starts hearing things, and imagining Dean visiting him as an angel himself, he starts losing grip on what is and isn’t real, and whether he can trust anything he sees or believes to be the truth. This is one hell of a psychological rollercoaster that kept me guessing right along with Cas until the very end. It also has some super-creepy horror elements, a novel “monster of the week”, and the hot-as-sin smut scenes I always expect from this author.

X Marks the Scot by DeanRH (15.9k) A fun little romp through history in one of this author’s great not-quite-au fics. Crowley sends Dean and Sam back in history to the Scottish Highlands to stop a monster, and while there they meet a blue-eyed clan chief who makes Dean weak in the knees. There’s something familiar about him, too. a very clever au that ties back to canon for an unexpected fix-it. Also, Cas in a kilt. Enough said.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon by DeanRH (12k) - Sweet and slightly angsty AU. What if Dean was a gardener in ancient Babylon when a strange dignitary came to warn that the tower under construction was to be destroyed by angels? Lush, romantic and sexy with some wonderful tie-ins to canon characterizations (of Dean, Sam, John and of course Cas).

sufficient for thee by angelfishofthelord (21k) - This is a beautiful Cas angst-fest and character study that reimagines how angel grace works, particularly in regards to healing others. It covers the whole of Cas’s arc from Season 4 through a post-series fix-it, is absolutely stunning and features some great world-building in regards to the angels. (One important TW: those with cutting/self-harm issues may wish to skip or at least proceed with caution). I love that I can always count on angelfishofthelord when I need a good dose of Cas!whump and pain.

And laugh at gilded butterflies by ireallydidthistomyself (13k) - another great Dadstiel fic from this author featuring one of my favorite angsty subjects! I don’t know how I missed reading this one before. An AU where Cas is raising (baby)Jack on his own until the angels find the two of them and prepare to seal Jack away in the Ma’lak box. Cas begs them to let him go with Jack, so at least Jack won’t be alone for eternity. Meanwhile Dean is frantically trying to find what happened to Cas, and he gets some unexpected help from Crowley. It’s sad and sweet and all the characterizations are great. A+ Crowley use here, too.

what stays (and what fades away) by dothraki_shieldmaiden (64k) - a fabulous read with some great art, too, that started me reading a bunch of fic from this author. Cas goes missing, and when he’s found he seems deep under a spell. When they finally manage to awaken him, he doesn’t remember anything of this life with Dean, Sam and Cas in the bunker. The last thing he knew he was a nurse living with his wonderful husband, Dean, and their two adopted children, Jack and Claire. What I loved about this one was the clever twist as to who was behind Cas’s curse and also how well-developed his AU world/existence was. I’m not generally keen on mundane aus or the one-dimensional way a lot of djinn dream fics tend to go for them, but this one managed to capture a believable version of Dean and Cas living a “normal” life without monsters without making it sugary/too-sweet.

before knowing remembers by dothraki_shieldmaiden (14k) Post 15x04, a wonderful fic that plays with some meta topics in a clever way. Dean and Sam are happy - they have free will and they’ve won against Chuck, even if they suffered some big losses along the way (including Jack). But Dean can’t help but think he’s forgetting something...or rather, someone. Yet every time he thinks he remembers, the name and face of that someone slips from his mind.

weights on my ankles by dothraki_shieldmaiden (9k) Post-15x03 where Cas ends up going back to the Gas ‘n Sip and working with Nora after leaving the bunker. A bitter sweet divorce-arc AU and what I love the most is how it ends - not perfect, not tragic, just very real and believable.

15x18 and Post-canon fix-it fics:

Orbital Velocity Around a Celestial Body by LeverDrift (26k) - An angsty but lovely fix-it fic, one where it gets worse for a while before it gets better. Dean pulls Cas from the Empty, where he’d been living in a fantasy world with a dream!Dean who was giving him everything real!Dean is certain he can’t. Dean has to struggle with wondering if Cas would have been better off with dream!Dean instead of him. This is one that will break your heart before putting it back together again as Dean struggles with his self-worth issues.

so good at crashing in by Wintertree (36k) - Another post-finale fix-it where Cas is back, the world is saved, and things are still...not as easy as it should be for either Dean nor Cas. Monsters are gone, there’s no more hunting to be done, and Cas wants to move out of the bunker somewhere closer to Claire, to move on with a proper human life. Dean thinks he can move there with Cas and stay as “best friends”, even to the extent that Cas encourages him to go out and have sex with others/women. (And wants to hear about it after the fact!) But can Dean figure out what he really wants, and what Cas wants as well? A refreshingly unique take on what a post-series life could have looked like for them.

Delicious smut:

Empty by squirrelofcelestialintent (43k) - Every day this fandom makes me rethink my previous squicks and DNWs in fanfic. Here I find myself enjoying quite a bit more dom/sub elements than I normally ever would! I think because I was absolutely drawn in by the breathtaking first chapter, capturing beautifully the emotions of Cas returning from the Empty in Season 13 if he and Dean had confessed their feelings right then and there. But Dean’s self-worth is all fucked up, he feels there’s no way he can be good enough for Cas, especially when his sexual desires run a little bit...let’s just say outside the vanilla and he’s struggling with shame over doing sex work when he was younger. This was HOT and POOR SAM really gets stuck in the middle of, well, hearing more about his brother’s sex life than he ever needed to.

He's My Mate by Hatsonhamburgers (22k) - This fic manages the delightful combination of humor and extreme hotness perfectly. Dean and Cas catch each other in some questionable masturbation situations. This leads Cas to decide he needs to buy Dean some proper sex toys. He’s just helping his best friend out, right? Sure. As I said, hysterical AND hot as hell.

Generals by nanoochka (9k) - Cas/Dean, Cas/Balthazar/Dean, implied past-Cas/Balthazar. An old LJ fic I found on an ancient rec list that is just scorching hot and a brilliant character study of Cas and Dean. Balthazar decides to invite himself in when he catches Dean and Cas engaging in some frisky business, and it turns into a bit of a power-play between the two soldiers of Heaven. Cas gets DP’ed and it’s all...well. It’s fucking good, read it.

The One With The Preening by HolyFuckingHell (5.5k) Can I do a rec post without including some wing!kink/wing!grooming in it? No, I can’t. (I also really enjoyed some of the other fics in this author’s series including The One With Dean's Horny Movies).

A Single Point of Light by Destina (2.4k) - This is a gorgeous Cas/Dean/Benny Purgatory short! A delicious balance of the two each caring for and caring about Dean in their own, protective ways, definitely a delight for any fans of this threesome.

Short and sweet, fluff to angst:

Snugglebird by almaasi (5.3k) - So, so soft and sweet and snuggly, just like the title. Dean’s things are disappearing from the bunker...and so, suddenly, has Cas. What’s going on? I do love my nesting!Cas fics, so...yeah. If you need a smile this is a good one to read :)

And Cleanse Me From My Sin by thisisapaige (1.6k) - another one for my beloveds who also enjoy wing grooming and sweet Dean-taking-care-of-Cas fluff.

Needle and Thread by Misachan (4k) - Season 5 wing!fic hurt/comfort. Cas’s wings are badly injured, Dean doesn’t quite know what he’s doing, but he’s stitched up Sam and himself enough times. He can do this. If you love caretaker!Dean and vulnerable!Cas don’t overlook this little gem.

Deceptive Preludes by sp8ce (2.7k) - One of those stories that delves into some of the difficulties Cas might have after coming back from the Empty a second time, especially in regards to accepting what’s real or not, understanding Dean, and how both of their communication issues can add to their struggles. Painful but hopeful for the future, felt very believable as I read it.

#my fic recs #destiel recs #my destiel recs #ok that's it for right now #should be plenty to keep y'all busy for a bit

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stray-kids-react · 3 years

Text

Becoming jealous because of your insecurities

Warnings - Good and bad endings, Swearing.

Masterlist

....

Bang Chan

° Bang Chan has been having relationship rumors with this popular idol, you were already insecure about yourself but this only made your self esteem worse.

° You've been sobbing non-stop in your room as Chan was on tour, he never reassured you about the rumors or said that weren't true.

° You thought you feelings and sadness were all caused by you insecurities, and you shouldn't ignore Chan just because your jealous. That is until Seungmin called you.

"Hey y/n... I don't know how to tell you this but I can't let this go unheard. Chan cheated on you... And I'm so sorry." The message read over the phone, you practically screamed as you sobbed. Feeling so stupid for ignoring your gut feeling.

° You weren't going to be hurt by another guy again, so you called Chan to tell him that you were through. After the phone call, not one member of Stray Kids heard from or saw you ever again.

Lee Know

° You were a soft person, people constantly targeted you with hate for that reason. Especially crazy fans who made you rethink if you were good enough for Minho.

° But recently a group of sasaengs have been harassing you to the extreme, one even breaking into you home to try and kill you.

° You loved Minho very much, but the crazy fans were becoming too much for you to handle. Especially when you are all alone while he's on tour.

"Hey Minho, I love you so much and that will never stop... But these fans are becoming so hard to deal with. I don't know how much longer I can put up with it..." You sighed, hanging up the phone before you cried.

° Later that night, Minho got a message from his manager while he was flying home to convince you to stay with him. The message explained that you were killed by a fan when you finally confronted them.

Changbin

° You were going on a cute date with Changbin, the date was going well until he started chatting with the waitress. Making you inner demons suffocate you.

° Without thinking, you walked out of the café. Surprising Changbin, since you were rarely ever mad at him for something.

° He chased after you nonetheless, calling your name over and over even though you never turned around once to look at him. You were jealous, and too stubborn to fess up.

"Baby! What did I do? I apologize if I hurt you, but can you tell me what I did so I can fix it." He huffed, catching his breath after the long sprint to get to you. You explained rather harshly, that you didn't like his chat with the waitress.

° The chat was innocent and meant nothing to him at all, but he wasn't going to start and argument with you. Instead he apologized and continued to try and make it up to you, hoping it may calm some of your jealousy.

Hyunjin

° Hyunjin knew how easily jealous you got since you were best friends before you started dating, he just never knew why you got so upset over something so little.

° Hyunjin was having a particularly bad argument with you, over his make up artist allegedly "flirting" with him.

° He asked you why you always get so jealous over small things and make his life so much more difficult. Watching as your anger turned into soft and delicate sadness.

"It's because I hate myself Hyunjin, when I look in a mirror all I see is a fucking ugly monster that doesn't deserve you." you explained, sliding down the bedroom wall as you sobbed into you hands.

° Hyunjin soon felt his heart break into millions of pieces, he loved you with all of his heart. He decided to forget about the argument and just focus on comforting you, the person who means to world to him.

Han

° You and Jisung were driving home after very awful dinner, which included him dancing with someone other than you on the dance floor, who was also very into him.

° Jisung was a free spirit who didn't like to argue, while you were very serious and got jealous VERY easily due to insecurities.

° For the past moth you both have been arguing non-stop, wondering why you two are still even together anymore. Both of you are honestly just done with each other.

"I don't want to fight anymore, I'm tired and exhausted. But I think we need to see other people." You sighed, looking out the window with know sign of regret in your voice. You didn't feel anything for him anymore.

° He nodded in agreement, knowing it was coming sooner or later after you cheated on him with Felix and after he cheated on you with you bed friend. You just weren't meant to be, and you were okay with that.

Felix

° Felix got quite jealous himself, he never admitted it you. But that's part of the reason he understands when you get frustrated from your own jealousy.

° He knew about you past with bullies, and never like arguing with you in case he ever said something he didn't mean.

° But in the morning he knew he must've fucked up somehow, since you weren't answering his texts like you always do. So he stopped by you apartment to check in.

"Hey love, I totally understand if you having a down day. But can you please tell me if it has anything to do with me?" he asked, carefully claiming the spot next to you on the couch as you clenched the fabric of your shirt.

° You weren't mad at him, but instead hated yourself for putting him through some hard times due to your one insecurities. So you just clung onto him, telling him how much you love and appreciate him.

Seungmin

° You and Seungmin started off great, but you both noticed the interest and love slowly dissolve over the time. Soon finding one another quite annoying and irritating.

° Seungmin was ready to end it after you ended up becoming jealous more frequently, realizing the relationship won't work out.

° He called you over the phone while he was on tour, explaining that it is over and he doesn't want to be with you anymore. You though you deserved more than a phone call.

"Hey Min Min, you'll find you stuff that was left at my place in the dumpster out back, where it belongs." You replied, as the maintenance man changed the lock on your door.

° Many found you actions immature, but they weren't part of the relationship or heard the words that came out of his mouth. You deep down knew that you needed this revenge, and felt relief when you did it.

Jeongin

° Jeongin knew how insecure you were when beginning the relationship, constantly trying to cheer you up and make you gain some level of confidence in yourself.

° So when a stylist of his began flirting with him purposely when you were around, he knew he was in deep shit.

° Even though it wasn't his fault, he still felt guilty for not taking action fast enough. You were clearly jealous and upset by the stylist's remarks, and he wished he could take it away.

"I'm sorry y/n, if it helps I was just as surprised as you were. They have never done that before." He explained, rubbing shapes into your back. Slowly calming you down.

° You snuggled into his grasp, wrapping you arms across his torso as you drowned yourself in his warmth. You weren't mad at him, but more at yourself for being so stubborn and bitter over some nobody.

#stray kids #changbin #kpop #hyunjin #jeongin #lee know #skz scenarios #stray kids reactions #bang chan #han jisung #skz felix #skz seungmin #skz angst

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buglife · 3 years

Note

Ghost and Tiso? Maybe about how they became friends?

Depictions of injuries and some sad stuff ahead, but this the longest request to date! Apologies my eyes are bad lol.

Tiso didn’t know what to think when he first laid eyes on the little knight, sitting alone on the sole bench in Dirtmouth. They were one of the strangest beings he had ever saw, with their big white helmet-like head, their weird little nubby body, and the fact they had a nail. How could something this tiny hold a nail? It had to be someone’s lost grub, he was sure of it. There was no way this little squib wasn’t about to be ambushed by some angry parent, furious that they were carrying an actual nail. He waited a moment and looked around, but nobody came.

He supposed someone would come sooner or later, he had a mission after all. He had wandered the wastes since he came of age with just himself and his shield searching for some sort of purpose in life. Sure, he had over time, became a rather competent warrior, but he failed to find challenges that would actually test his mettle. Then, he heard tales of a lost Kingdom where many bugs have gone and never returned. Said Kingdom was rumored to have an arena where one could compete for glory. Tiso had already bested many arenas and moved on, ever searching. If there wasn’t an arena than he could at least look around and recount what he saw.

Maybe here, he’ll find himself, and find a measure of happiness.

His shield felt heavy as he sighed and looked at the well. The Elderbug, kind as could be, had warned him of the dangers below. Bugs sometimes lost their minds, trapped in a dreaming world where they couldn’t remember anything but a bright, burning light. Bugs died from the claws of the infected, most no more than empty husks driven by a malevolent will. The thought horrified Tiso, he had never heard of such a thing. The dead walking? Still, the old bug was serious as he let his old gaze drift around the nearly empty town.

Tiso was inclined to believe him.

So there he was, ready to take the plunge down below and took one last look at the grub sitting on the bench. He happened to catch their eyes, and the little grub straitened up a little. He was surprised to see them leap off and stride toward him quickly, waving their arms.

“What do you want, Squib.” Tiso had no mood to deal with any little kids.

He watched them move their hands out from under their cloak, their tiny paws and equally tiny claws making a flurry of movements. They then stared at him expectantly.

“Uhhh...the fuck was that?” He had no clue what the little grub was doing with their hands. They deflated a little and then brightened, reaching into themselves with a hand and suddenly, they had a little book and a pen.

“...what...did you, did you just reach inside yourself!?” Tiso boggled, the hell was this? What the hell was this kid?

He watched in stunned silence as the little being ignored him to start scribbling quickly, turning over the book once done to display their writing.

“Hello, please be careful down there. It’s dangerous.”

“Ppfft. Nothing dangerous for the likes of me.” Tiso couldn’t help but grin. Aw, how precious, they were worried about him. “I’m a seasoned warrior, I faced a lot and I am sure I can handle myself.”

The being frowned, at least, Tiso thought they did. They tilted their mask in a way to convey some measure of unhappiness and then started writing again. They turned over the book with a flourish once done, the ink smeared a bit in their haste to write it.

“I am also a warrior and there are things down there that can kill you without hesitation. I’ve seen corpses of better armed and armored warriors scattered below. All thought the same that you did. Please be careful.”

Of course Tiso ignored most of the writing to focus on the first part. “Oh, a warrior you say, you know how to use that nail you have there?”

They nodded, shoulders tense as they again, pointed to the part about the dead bodies. Then tapped it.

“Obviously they weren’t as good as me then.”, he huffed. “Say, if you do fancy yourself a warrior, I hear there’s a place for us, an arena of sorts. Maybe we’ll meet up there, and you can show me what you know.” He held up his shield, the metal glinting in the lights of the lumafly lanterns. “That is, if your parents let you, Squib.”

The grub sighed with their whole body, and wrote back to reply.

“I am not a kid. I’m probably older than you.”

Tiso couldn’t help but bark out a laugh. “Okay, okay, whatever you say. You got a name, little Squib?”

The being rubbed their face for a moment and wrote back. “My name is Ghost. You?”

“Heh, you’re speaking to Tiso! Remember that name, it’ll probably be famous.” He preened a little, slightly disappointing to find that the little Ghost was just staring at him. Once again they presented their scribbles.

“Or I’ll remember it to put on your grave marker.”

Bummer, kid. Tiso at first thought the squib was mocking him. He opened his mouth to call them a little shit, but he took a second look at them. They looked tired and weary. They looked like someone used to hearing bad news. Inside, he felt a little guilty at this. Clearly this thing...Ghost...was genuinely worried about his safety and he went and spit it back in their faces. It seems that foot-in-mouth disease is a reoccurring issue with him.

He sighed. “Look, I know you don’t believe me, but I promise that I know what I’m doing. If things are too bad, I know when to cut my losses and run, alright?”

Ghost brightened up at that and nodded. Tiso snickered to lighten the mood, reaching down to pat them between the horns (something they radiated a scowl at, but said nothing about).

“No worries, if anything, I do wanna see what you can do sometime!”

And with that, Tiso jumped down the well.

---

Well, Tiso should have listened to the little Ghost. Because he had to fight every inch of the way to reach this one stag station. He had learned the name of this wretched section, ‘the Forgotten Crossroads’, and he wished it could be forgotten. He had barely landed on the stonework below when an infected bug lunged out of the darkness, hissing. He had swiftly decapitated it, getting some orange gunk all over his shield. He had wanted to clean it off then and there, but the buzzing sound of vengeflies made him rethink his plan. The feral Tiktiks and Crawlids didn’t give him much trouble, except the time he stepped on one by accident and their spikes hurt like hell. The vengeflies were bastards like usual, screeching as they tried to dive bomb him.

And oh, the aspids. The fucking aspids. How he hated them. He felt so much satisfaction every-time he threw his shield and popped their horrible little glowing abdomens. The only problem was the orange that splashed out burned any exposed bit of chitin he had. Never before, had he been glad to own his armor. He would be extremely happy if he drove those little bastards to extinction. The husks though, were very horrible. Not in a fighting way, in there they were stupid in that they only knew how to run straight at him. He could take their heads off at a distance, shield returning to him with a flash of soul. In the end, he pitied them. They were once bugs, like him, but something had changed, and they became infected. He had been happy to find a hot spring that he could scrub himself and his equipment clean. He didn’t know if he even could be infected, but he decided to err on the side of caution. The orange...goo...he couldn’t call it proper hemolymph, didn’t seem to cause him trouble for now. But still, better safe than sorry. He made camp there for the night, but not only because he didn’t want to get out of the water.

He had braved the crossroads again the next day, ducking under aspids and slaughtering husks until he found the relative safety of the stag station. He sighed and sat on the bench, leaning backwards to rest a spell.

Then came the sound of rumbling. He was instantly alert, shield at the ready and his eyes trained to the tunnel. He expected many things to come out of that tunnel, but he didn’t expect to see little Ghost so soon. The stag they are riding slid to a stop, bending down to let the little warrior off. The stag spoke to him, Tiso didn’t catch what exactly, and watched the warrior wave goodbye as the stag took off down the tunnel again.

They turned and saw him and seemed just as surprised. They bounced a bit in delight and rushed over, waving.

“Hello to you too, little warrior. See? I’m perfectly fine.” Tiso gestured to himself with a grin. “Though I will admit, those aspids suck.”

Ghost nodded rapidly in agreement, going as far as to draw their nail and stomp a little. Tiso laughed.

“No worry, If you’re going up I have thinned their numbers a bit. Seems like having a big gross abdomen makes it easy for someone to cut you down. It’s the perfect target! You can’t miss!”

Again Ghost nodded in agreement. Remembering that he couldn’t understand those weird hand sign things, they took out their journal and pen once more. It was once of those fancy ones that held the ink on the insides but still needed refilling from time to time. They hopped up on the bench to join him, there was plenty of room after all.

“So,” Tiso began, “What have you been up to?”

“I’m trying to figure out a way past the fungal wastes.” They wrote. Tiso could easily look over their shoulder so they didn’t have to keep turning their book around.

“Fungal wastes?”

Ghost chirped, which absolutely did not make Tiso jump a little. They were just, so quiet. They were obviously mute but he didn’t expect them to make sounds. Tiso hid his reaction and watched as they fucking reached inside themselves again and pulled out a map. They opened it up, showing an incomplete map, each section in a different colored ink. Tiso whistled, impressed.

“You did that all on your own?”

They shook their head and wrote out. “Cornifer sells basic maps. I find all the hidden stuff.” They gestured to the various lines on the paper. Some of the ink was newer than others, which meant they back tracked and found new places. They even did little doodles of interesting things they saw. The sheer amount of drawn spikes and thorns make him question just how much fun he’s going to have traversing some of this kingdom.

“That’s still hella impressive for such a little grub.” He teased. He was arrogant, but he could recognize talent. “Maybe if being a warrior doesn’t work out, you could be a map maker in the future.”

Ghost just held their map for a moment, seemingly lost in thought. It looked like they wanted to write something, but passed it up to put on a more cheerful demeanor. “It’s nice you think I’m that good.” They wrote.

“Heh, I can recognize talent. By the way, since you’ve been all over the place, have you figured out where this arena is?”

“I hear that it’s called the ‘Colosseum of Fool’s. It’s somewhere near the City of Tears, I think.” They make sure Tiso read what they wrote before drawing a line with a claw from the stag station where they sit to somewhere east. They had a place marked ‘Crystal Peak’ and ‘Resting Grounds’, so it was probably near those places.

“Thanks, Squib. You probably saved me a lot of walking.”

Ghost innocently pointed to the stag station’s bell.

Tiso shook his head. “Oh no no no, true warriors don’t convenience themselves like that! True warriors make it to where they go on their own efforts alone.”

He was so full of shit and he could tell that Ghost knew. He honestly didn’t’ want to be in any dark, tight spaces. He couldn’t help thinking of the colony he grew up in. How dark and how crowded it was. You couldn’t find a moments peace to yourself and cave ins could happen at any time. How close the walls were to each other. How you never knew when the ground would rumble and stones would start to fall. No sir, he won’t take the stag way.

Ghost gave them the ‘whatever you say’ look before they rolled their map back up and tucked it away again.

“Where the fuck are you putting all that?” Tiso exclaimed as Ghost also put away their book and pen. They only shrugged in response and then gleefully bounced away with a wave goodbye. He heard the patter of little feet, and then the shriek of a vengefly, only to hear the sharp slice of a nail and the silence after.

Hrm...perhaps this was a warrior after all?

Tiso leaned back, determined to rest a little more before continuing his journey. With how big this place is, he wasn’t sure he’d see the little warrior again, and something about that statement saddened him.

---

Tiso had no idea there’d be an entire lake this big in Hallownest. Sure, water in caves was common, it’s how the caves were made after all, but this was something else. He sat on the sand, a campfire crackling softly as a tiktik roasted on a stick. All around him were fossils of shells, creatures long since gone and lost to time. One made for a nice seat and he wondered a bit to whom it may have belonged to. Some water snail, maybe. The water was clean and clear enough that he could take a dip to rinse off the grim of travel and found it most refreshing.

It had taken him a couple days to make his way here. Some paths were blocked off, either to cave ins or rusted closed, so he had to improvise. Moving through the Resting Grounds was eerie. It was full of graves, yeah, but once you fight empty husks for a while, tombstones start loosing their spookiness. There he had run into another stag station and swiftly turned back around. He took another pathway he didn’t try and ended up here, at this lake.

He thought of all the empty houses along the way. He poked inside to take a look here and there and only took things that he needed. The dead weren’t going to use them, he was sure no spirit would begrudge him for taking a few spices or a blanket. It did make for useful places to rest, as he could just shut the doors and windows to keep out husks. But still, he couldn’t help but feel like a trespasser in this dead kingdom.

He mused on this as he poked at the roasting tiktik. It’ll be done soon and then he can eat and continue his journey. A warrior needs their energy after all.

He poked up his antenna as he heard a distant noise over the crackling of the fire. He turned and looked over the lake, watching a white dot in the distance grow steadily closer. Water kicked up around bent air currents as the figure flew just above the surface. When close enough, he spotted the horns.

Oh, it was them. Small world, huh?

Little Ghost seemed to spot him as well. As soon as they reached the beach, they cut off whatever power they were using to run straight at him. They were all waves and ‘smiles’, tilting their head up to look at him in obvious glee.

“Hello, Squib!” Tiso grinned, he wouldn’t admit it but he was glad to see the little bug. “Still in one piece I see?”

They nodded and gestured to himself.

“Yeah, told you I’d be fine!” He took a moment to poke at the tiktik again and caught a flash of light on metal. Little Ghost had drawn their nail and was holding it out for Tiso to see. Oh, it seems like they got a new one, or they fixed up their old one. The other was dull, and this one had a soft pale light to it. Nothing fancy so far, but he could tell it was sharper.

“Nice.” He was impressed. “But I��m a shield guy. I don’t know much about nails other than that you shouldn’t get stabbed by them.”

The little bug ‘laughed’, huffing air in amusement as the reached over and pointed at his shield. They looked at it, and then back at him, titling their head.

“Sure, you can look, but be careful, because it can do this.” He attached his shield to his arm and squeezed his hand just so. There was a click, and the sides of the shield unfolded into blades, a perfect circle of pain. Ghost vibrated in response, the dark eyes within their mask shining brightly in the light of the fire. Tiso grinned and flexed again, withdrawing the blades to make a normal shield again. “And that, is how I deal with aspids. It can also come back when I throw it.”

He wasn’t sure why he was telling this to Ghost. Weren’t they going to fight sooner or later? If so it would be best to hold his cards close to his chest and keep his surprises as surprises. But there was just...something about this bug that made him want to talk about the things he knows. They were paying rapt attention, eyes scanning all the details made in the shield. Bugs that only wielded shields were not very common, he had found, so maybe they just never seen something like the one he has before. Maybe he wanted to be the one to cause the air of wonder and awe in someone else.

Maybe he just wanted a bit of attention that didn’t result in getting bruises.

Ghost touched the shield gently with a paw, feeling the metal a little before they withdrew, satisfied. They nodded their approval and sat down, looking up at him expectantly.

“Oh? What’s this? Do you want tales of how I used this shield?” A giddy happy feeling welled up in his chest as Ghost nodded rapidly. They moved their hands, signing a word he didn’t’ know how to understand. He could figure it either meant ‘thank you’ or ‘please’, either way they were polite. They shuffled and got comfortable and watched Tiso as he began to talk.

Tiso talked for so long that he forgot all about his tiktik.

–

Tiso sat on the bench, the roar of the crowd above him shaking loose the dust on the ceiling. It fell around him in motes of light reflected from the fires in the pit. There were other warriors there too, waiting their turn to engage in the carnage above. So this was the Colosseum of Fools. A crowded arena where a corpse sat as the seat of honor, empty gaze watching as the combatants did their damndest to kill each other. Geo was rapidly exchanged between hands as fighters either won, yielded, or died. Most died, but so it was in the way of the arena. He had taken time to watch to get a scope of what he was dealing with and concluded that the bugs in this kingdom were fucking insane. He was not used to this style of games, but he supposed he’d have to learn. He met the little fool chained up and dangling from the ceiling. He paid his fee and waited for his turn in the pit. There was a shriek above, and something big slamming into the ground. He imagined that he could expect to fight more beasts than warriors.

What he was not expecting, was little Ghost to jump down into the pit.

“Hey, you made it!” Tiso couldn’t help but exclaim as Ghost ran over to climb on the bench as well. “This is the place for us, I can feel it. There’s finally a challenge for me here.”

Ghost nodded, and in a flash held their journal and pen. “Are you doing the trials?”

He snorted, “Of course I am, and you?”

“Not yet, just exploring.”

“Hey what, are you afraid of being paired against me?” Tiso tugged his hood a little, smoothing down his antenna to try and stifle the intense smell of infected hemolymph. For a moment, he felt a flash of relief at Ghost’s prior statement. He didn’t quite believe that this bug was an adult, but they seemed to be a good sort. Did they really need to do this, taint their soul with battle just for the glory of it? For a bug like Tiso, he was okay with it. He was okay with it ever since he found himself alone with only a shield to protect him and bad memories to keep him company. He had to get tough, but did this little being who asked him for stories really need to get tough?

They shook their head as their shoulders shook with mirth. “No, I have things I have to do. I’ll fight you later and I’ll make you the one scared.” Their shoulders kept shaking, so Tiso assumed this was all said in jest.

“Bold words from a little shit.” Tiso was interested in seeing just what they can do, but later in a spar. Away from a place like this. This wasn’t a place for them.

They nearly rolled over, chirping in laughter and getting strange looks from the other waiting combatants.

Tiso rounded on them. “Mind your fucking business.” He snarled, and the combatants averted their gaze to go back to polishing their weapons. Good.

Ghost took a few deep breaths to calm themselves down. “You don’t have to be mean.”

“Sometimes you gottah be mean.” Tiso countered. “If they tried to throw you out or something, I would have cut off any limb that touched you.”

Woah, where did that thought come from?

Ghost looked at Tiso for a moment, really looking at him. Tiso felt like those eyes could see into his very soul and he suppressed a shudder. Ghost looked back to their book and wrote again.

“Why?”

Tiso gulped, time to bullshit and fast. “Well, because we were practically destined to battle each other. Hell, we keep running into each other in this dead fucking kingdom. What are the odds of that? What are the odds of both of us, meeting multiple times, and then meeting up here? It’s destiny!”

They tilted their head.

“If we are going to have a proper spar, none of us can get hurt before then. We have to be at 100%, right? So I won’t let anyone lay a claw on you until then.” There, nailed it.

They nodded and tapped their pen against the bottom of their mask in thought. They took a while to write, in which Tiso glanced around to make sure the other combatants weren’t about to get bored and try to pick a fight. Finally, they tapped his arm and showed him what they wrote.

“I understand. That means you have to promise to be okay until then.” They gestured above as more dust shook loose and rained down in a shower of gray. The crowd roared again, along with the sounds of something big screaming.

“Sure, I can do that. If I break my promise I’ll give you five thousand geo.” This was a prop bet for sure. He didn’t have that kinda money yet, he’d have to earn it in the arena. But he was confident in his abilities, he would be fine and he’d be able to take off time to have a proper spar with his little companion friend buddy fellow warrior.

They nodded and held out their hand, which he took and shook. Gods, they had such little paws. “Good doing business with ya, Squib.”

They did their odd version of ‘smiling’ again. “I got to go, gonna try and go up more.”

“Good luck with that.” Tiso watched them put away their book, and with a hop, skip, and a jump, vanished up the pit. He had time now, to sit and sort out his feelings. He had that weird ‘big brother’ urge, and it wasn’t because they were so small. Nah, this person listened to him and liked him. He figured he can try and do the same.

---

Tiso was in a world of hurt, agony seeped into the broken crack in his chest. Hemolymph kept flooding his lungs and dripping out the corners of his mandibles. There was a fog around him in his mind, his barely open eyes blurry and seeing only smudges of green and blue. Flecks of white occasionally crossed his eyes before vanishing again. He had long since given up on trying to move, each pull of muscle only made the hemolymph flow faster. He struggled to recall what was happening as the pain moved in and out, like it was happening to someone else.

Breathe in. Breath out. Breathe in. Breath out.

The only thing he can do was just lay there and breathe wetly. Each breath he had to mentally will and it took up all other functions for now. He had no mental power to spare on anything else, so when a bigger fleck of white took up his vision and didn’t leave, he had no clue what to make of it. What the hell? He took a breath, momentary forgetting too when he pondered the white. A cough tore into his chest and he could feel the broken edges of chitin rubbing together. Something was touching him. Something was trying to get his attention, but he couldn’t spare the thought.

Breathe in. Breath out. Breathe in. Breath out.

The white vanished suddenly and Tiso found himself unable to bring himself to care or wonder about it. He had to keep breathing. Something deep and hot within himself had refused to give up. He had something to do that was very important and he couldn’t miss it. He wouldn’t. The weight of his shield was his only current comfort. Just as suddenly, the white appeared again, with a flash of red and gray. He peered at the smudges as distant sounds tickled his antenna. Was he underwater? Why couldn’t he understand them? A flash of pain and suddenly his world twisted. Colors spun around and around and it made it hard to concentrate on breathing. More sounds. More pain.

Breathe in. Breath out.

Breathe in. Brea-

It seemed like only a second and he was consumed in fire. A burning ache spread over himself as he saw only darkness. The darkness and a shriek as round orange pustules throbbed and vibrated. The sickening sound of hot fluids spilling and the nasty pop as pustules burst in a shower of gore. He was there. He had his shield, as a giant thing of teeth and screams jumped into the arena. He could barely raise his shield and then there was so much pain.

Trapped. Trapped like the fallen tunnels as the air got stale and lungs burned. Instead of the cries of the dying there was the roar of a crowd.

Take my breath, his sister had said. A little tiny thing with a tiny heart. A stone had hit her. The cave was too crowded and there wasn’t enough air. She was dying. Tiso couldn’t move the stone or she’d die faster.

Take my breath, she said. Then she breathed no more.

She always wanted to be a warrior.

She wanted to help people.

She never got to grow up.

You wasted her breath, the mawlurk shrieked as it fell toward him. You wasted it. You wasted it to die like a Fool!

Then was falling and falling and falling and falling an-

He felt cool hand in his, so tiny and small. They held on tight and Tiso stopped falling.

---

Tiso cracked his eyes open, still blurry and still in pain. He felt odd. The pain was there, but a large portion seemed locked away, just barely felt on the surface. He felt a hand in his, and with a colossal effort he managed to tilt his head to the side.

He was in some hut, on a bed, and holding his hand was the little Ghost. They must have felt the movement, because their head snapped around and looked on his eyes. A rapid flash of emotions, anger, grief, relief, joy, and others he didn’t have the ability to process, cycled through their very being. His hand was gripped with both paws now and a dribble of black welled up in their eyes to drip down their mask. Tiso wanted to say something, but it was taking a bit to remember how to do so. A large shadow fell over him, and he instinctively turned his head up to look.

Standing over him was an enormous beetle with a nail the size of Tiso himself. They looked down disappointingly at him.

“You must be Tiso, eh?”

He could only nod in response.

“You have to be the luckiest bastard in this whole dead kingdom.” The beetle moved over to a table, clinking glasses together and pouring some liquid. “You landed in just the right spot for Ghost to find you and close enough for me to come get you.”

He returned and handed a glass of water to Tiso, waiting for him to grip it before letting go. “I am Nailmaster Oro and you are here because my pupil insisted. You are going to be bed ridden for a while. Be glad I am more patient than my brothers, because after a whole week of putting you back together, I’m going to be glad when you leave.”

Tiso gratefully took the water and sucked it down, letting the liquid cool his dry throat. Once hydrated, he looked down to the ocean of bandages covering his front and one of his arms. His shield lay tilted against the bed, in arms reach. A whole week was gone, just like that. Oro must have felt the questions in his mind, because be continued to talk.

“You nearly got crushed to death, you goddamn idiot.” Oro tutted, looking over the bandages with the bedside manor of a primal aspid. “The Colosseum of Fools is just that, a collection of fools looking to die for no good reason.”

Tiso opened his mandibles to retort but only managed a wheeze. His lungs felt particularly awful and Ghost patted their hand in sympathy. Ghost let go just long enough to run over to Oro, tugging on his cloak. Once Oro bent down, Ghost gently embraced as much as he could, which wasn’t a lot. He saw Oro sigh with the tiniest glimpse of affection, before roughly patting them on the head. He glanced back to Tiso, and scowled when he realized that the ant saw the whole thing. Ghost stepped back to return to Tiso, taking his hand again.

“You’ll be okay after a bit of healing and time in the hot springs.” Oro went to squat by the fire, stirring something that smelled wonderful in a pot. “But I hope you found what was so damn important up in the coliseum.

Yes, Tiso thought to himself, I did find something. He looked at Ghost in a new light, and smiled as best as he could. They couldn’t replace her, but maybe, he could learn to not be a colossal fuck up. Maybe in that way, he can be okay with himself.

Ghost patted Tiso again for a bit and then reached in their ‘whatever’ space to pull out a pre-written piece of paper. Seeing what was written on it made Tiso almost want to take back everything he had just thought.

“You owe me 5000 geo.”

#hollow knight #fanfiction #tiso #ghost #nailmaster oro #tw: injury #tw: suffocation #found family #the knight #big brother tiso #tiso doing tiso things #ghost adopts yet another random bug #tiso is a dudebro #Anonymous #my writing

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