#hopefully eventually I will be able to draw the OTHER stuff too

[solanj]

Desperation

#rogue trader #Theciya von Valancius #Tervantias the Archmachinator #warhammer 40k #rogue trader spoilers #haemonculus #solanj art #this game is doing THINGS to me #I can't really express it without sounding all fake #so I just try to draw stuff #not even really the stuff that hit me the most #just the stuff that I CAN handle #both skill-wise and emotion-wise #hopefully eventually I will be able to draw the OTHER stuff too #also I'll get back to illustrations too at some point #I swear #for now just bear with me please #also do I need to spell out which companion she chooses to get back there #or is it obvious enough at this point? ^^"

[acerathia]

Magic Shop || S. Todoroki

Summary:

After 'accidentally' getting cursed, you seek the witch of the forest to fix this problem. Only did you not expect a beautiful man to reside there...

Wordcount: 12.4k

Read on AO3

Pairing:

Witch!Todoroki Shoto / GN!Reader

Tags/CW:

witch!shoto, contractual partners to friends to lovers, pining!! lots of pining, aged-up characters, GN reader, honestly mostly vibes in the woods idk what to say, fluff, innuendos, but sfw, maybe shoto is ooc, forgive my transagression <;/3

Note:

Please note that information about witches may be inaccurate as I was only using my fantasy. And any links are safe!! Also!! This is part of the 'Haunted House Collab' by Willow's House, check out the other works!!

Your hand slaps against the surface of your ringing phone, hoping to silence it with a lucky stroke back to sleep. But that only works for a couple of minutes as it starts once again relentlessly chiming, with no way to stop it. With a groan you remember the infinite number of alarms you had set yourself the night before, your past self too aware of your strong desire to sleep overpowering your need to go to work. So you don’t have a choice, you’d like to keep your job for as long as possible, even with your current sleeping habits.

Slowly you swing your upper body up, and blink blearily, just staring into your room for a couple of seconds, just trying to force you to properly wake up. You take your phone into your hand to stop the still blaring alarm and of course every subsequent alarm after that one. You run your hands over your face, once again trying to wake yourself up before getting up. Shuffling your feet, you make your way to the bathroom to freshen up. A good splash in your face does wonders against this fatigue, but only sometimes, so you hope it works today.

It actually helped a bit, your eyes stinging from the direct contact with the flying water. After finishing the rest of your routine, you go back to your room and put your work clothes on, ignoring the crinkles in them, even if your hands mindlessly try to flatten them, they will eventually disappear, hopefully. You just don’t have time nor the patience to iron them out. Nobody is going to notice them underneath a blazer. A last look in the mirror tells you that you do look presentable enough to show up at work. So you grab your necessities and hurry out of the door.

You don’t hurry because you might be late, you just like to be a bit early on the street, never sure what might delay your way, a traffic jam leading every car to link its arms with each other, making any other form of transportation nigh unusable. This especially accounts for you being stuck between arms and torsos of other people, holding for dear life on a pole in the bus, trying your best to avoid falling onto the ground with every rumbling stop.

Your stop draws near, and you’re finally able to leave the suffocating transportation can, you take a second to breathe, to collect yourself once again. The shaking of the bus has almost begun to lull you back to sleep, even if you were standing with hands in a death grip. So you slap both of your cheeks and continue your way to your workplace.

At your arrival, you think that luck must be on your side, as you still have a couple of minutes until your shift starts, enough time to calm down after all that speed walk, and simply drink some water. You put your stuff into the locker and begin your work. And you hope to keep that luck running for the rest of the morning.

But it seems that your luck is already strained thin, as you mess up some of the dates by accident, inconveniencing a visitor at their work. So you hurry up to apologize for this mistake before they can ask for your boss.

“Oh, no, I’m sorry. We’ll fix this as soon as possible, so feel free to take a seat, Mrs. Nukarumi,” you offer her with a smile, not moving a muscle as her face shifts at the name-drop. You don’t realize your mistake until she steps closer, a menacing aura clogging your airways. You begin to panic, but you keep your face professional, a smile, a questioning tilt to the head.

“Listen, I can excuse some mishap at work, happens to the best of us. But getting my name wrong, and to such a distasteful degree is arrogant, especially after being quite the regular at your establishment,” she puts two fingers on your forehead, her nails pressing against your skin, and now you drop your smile for a frown, as the shadow of her hand covers your face, suffocating in a way only air can be. “It’s Nakamura, and I’d like to know how you will live your life without a soul ever recognizing you.”

Her fingers begin to feel warmer with each second, and at first, you thought it might be due to the prolonged skin contact. That is until this warmth turns into heat, her fingerprints searing themselves into your skull, your skin non-existent. Some kind of pain spreads all over your facial features, not painful enough to coax out a scream, but enough to make your muscles twitch in response. At this sensation, you try your best to pull away, but you seem to be glued to her fingertips, like she’s holding the strings of your body between her knuckles with this simple touch.

You finally manage to take a step back the moment her fingers leave your skin. She seems to be satisfied with whatever she just did, as a grin spreads over her face as she glances over your face. Mischief is coloring the outlines of her lips before she just leaves without another word, not caring if the situation is fixed any time soon.

For some reason, this is the least of your worries, as you make your way to the bathroom with quick steps in search of a mirror. But the moment you stand in front of one, you can’t see anything wrong with your face, not even a small print of her fingers on your forehead. Everything looks normal and proper to you, so you just shrug it off, keen on returning to your post behind the desk.

On the walk back to your space, you come across the manager, who gives you a weird look, and you glance down at yourself, thinking your clothes might have gotten in disarray. But there’s nothing wrong with them. You still straighten your blazer a bit, which doesn’t seem to help, as he finally comes up to you.

“Excuse me, this area is for staff only,” he tells you with a warning in his voice, and you can only furrow your eyebrows at that.

“Uh, yes, I am a staff. It’s my shift right now,” you reply, confusion tinting your voice.

“Lying is useless in this case, I don’t recognize you, and I know all of my staff.” He shakes his head in some form of disappointment before threatening to call security if you don’t clear the space immediately.

Absolutely confused, you just leave the space, and even the building altogether, just heading home, because what else are you supposed to do? You got kicked out by your boss, for some strange reason, and nothing makes sense to you.

What did he say again? He doesn’t recognize you? That’s the wildest reason to kick someone out, ever. Does he want to fire you, or is he pulling some kind of elaborate prank or scheme? You honestly don’t care, you just hope you still get paid for your work.

As you have some time to spare, for obvious reasons, you decide to take a short trip to the store to get yourself some groceries, and maybe you could chat a bit with your acquaintance there, letting a couple of minutes pass in idle talk.

So you enter the store and begin collecting whatever your heart desires, and whatever your wallet allows you, before making your way to the register, where your almost friend works. You smile and greet them, hoping to be able to listen to whatever gossip they have at the moment. But they only give you the usual customer service smile, the usual greeting voice, no recognition sparking in their eyes at all.

Your chest constricts and you try to think of what you might have done to offend them, yet nothing seems to be the problem. And you could hardly bother them while they’re working, so you leave the place without inquiring any further about any possible reason.

Trudging home, you can’t help but wonder if you had done something for all of this to happen. There’s no way this day is filled with one unlucky incident after the other. There’s no correlation for this bad luck, you started your day as you do every single day. The only weird moment was with that weird woman, who just grabbed your face for no reason. But whatever she did, it didn’t work, you checked yourself in the mirror and everything looked fine to you, normal. So why does it seem like no one can recognize you?

You enter your home as the final puzzle clicks, and everything makes sense, well barely. A gasp escapes you at this revelation, and you almost throw your groceries onto the table, grabbing for your phone. With a frown, you open the front camera, seeing yourself, with every feature you know and are used to. Maybe the effect is similar to the one with a mirror?

You decide to take a picture of yourself, not focusing much on looking good, but rather on verifying your thoughts. After you take one where you’re sure your whole face can be seen, you open the gallery to click on the newest picture. But instead of a picture, you’re faced with a blurred mess. Did your hands tremble? There’s no way they moved that much while you took the picture. Still, you take another one, and another one, and another one. And all of them turn out to be blurry.

Chewing on your bottom lip you scroll further to some of the older pictures you have on your phone and they all look normal, your face still visible and clear. So there’s only one conclusion: only the ones you took today have that particular problem, so that means the woman had actually done something unexplainable to you.

With a sigh you put your phone away, driving your hand over your face. You screwed up, you accidentally messed up with the wrong person today, and now you reap the consequences. What are you supposed to do now? How could you even undo this? You can’t go to work if no one recognizes you, and you can’t just not work! You’re ruined, your life will be in shambles over a little mistake, this is so ridiculous.

Panic is running hot through your veins and you do what every sensible human being would do in such a dire situation. You take your phone and look it up, even if you don’t know how to phrase the problem properly. So it isn’t surprising when the first couple of hits you stumble across are different subreddits and medical pages about loneliness. But no matter how far you read into those, there is just no correlation between them and your current problem.

Thus, you dive deeper and you discover some shady-looking forum, all small font and 2000s style of blogging, in which you read a rather recent post.

Does the witch in that forest actually exist? Cuz I heard rumors, but no one has shown real pics smh. If yes, how do you meet them? Like, I wanna get some potions or stuff, idk

– i guess that’s one way to touch grass – that’s some witchful thinking LMAO – ofc, u just gotta go that fb page, there’s proof

Your curiosity gets the best of you and you click on the link, which turns out to be a rickroll. You don’t know if you’re supposed to laugh or groan in frustration. The only upside of this is that you had gotten some form of lead to… something. You’re not quite sure what the whole witch thing is about, but if there’s smoke, there must be a fire. At least you hope so, because it’s the only thing that could solve your problem at the moment. You’re pretty sure the woman put some kind of curse or spell on you, there’s no other way to achieve this kind of effect.

Naturally, you’re going to look for that witch now. You have quite some free time left, so maybe there is some upside to that too…

Trying to be positive about the whole predicament, you trade your current clothes for something more robust, something suitable to endure a visit to the forest. The place mentioned in the post isn’t that far from your living place, so you plan to walk there, getting some blood running to prepare you for the worst.

With a bottle, your phone, and whatever is necessary for your trip, you leave the building. Your phone in hand, you try to discover the fastest way to these woods to avoid losing time.

Finally arriving at the entrance of the forest, you decide to take the already existing paths, leisurely walking along them. And you have to admit it has taken you some time to realize something important in your current endeavor: there’s no way a witch is going to be living on the equivalent of a main street of the forest. No one would do that if they’re actively trying to get by without notice, and witches don’t want people to know where they live. That’s like, their lore or something.

This makes sense, and you nod to yourself, convinced by your own logic before you step off the path. At first, you paid attention to where you put your foot down, careful to not destroy any plants or to get stuck somewhere. But after a while, you simply forget to look at the ground and where you’re going. As a result it shouldn’t be a big surprise when one of your feet gets caught in something, you’re not quite sure what, because the moment you topple over you immediately begin to roll down a hill.

Scrunching your face, you brace yourself for the upcoming impact, hoping sincerely you won’t get knocked against a rock or a stump, breaking something or injuring you in any other way.

Nothing happens. Slowly the rotations come to a stop and you feel your back thud against the ground one last time, even if you still feel the turbulence in your head.

After taking a couple of seconds to get your head straight, you hesitantly open your eyes, only to glance at the face of another person. And for a moment you feel like nothing is real, he’s beautiful. Soft plush lips, slightly agape in surprise, eyes widened and sparkling in the early afternoon sun, and you need to look a couple of times back to notice the different colors, gray and blue, a storm separated from its lightning. His lashes brush against his smooth skin on one side, and against a burn mark on the other, as he blinks, trying to understand what just happened.

You immediately close your eyes again, hoping to fool him into thinking you had passed out, even if he probably saw you staring at his face like a fish out of water.

A slight chuckle, air fanning over your face, tells you that he is no fool. So you have no other choice but to take a breath and to slowly sit up, avoiding looking into his eyes with all your might, even if you’re compelled to look at him just a while longer.

Instead, you start looking around and you notice that you have fallen onto the edge of a beautiful meadow, flowers sprouting all around you, colors bursting underneath the late afternoon sun. The wind dancing between the petals. The delightfulness of this place fills you in awe, and it only grows bigger when you glance back at him, seeing the perfect man sitting underneath the rays of the sun, the wind ruffling his red and white hair playfully. You think about how it feels to touch this cloud in the afternoon sun.

That is until you finally register his gaze lingering on you. Your eyes widen in surprise and you can’t look him in the face anymore, once again. Nerves get the best of you, as you realize that he must have caught you staring at him and you fiddle with your fingers before you gather some courage to talk to him.

“Uhm, sorry for that, heh… You might be wondering why I’m here, and honestly you won’t even remember me when I’m gone, which is for the best I’m not going to lie. But I still wanted to ask, and I know it’s a weird question, but honestly, my whole day has been so weird, you can’t even believe it. What I mean is, do you happen to know where maybe, just maybe, where the witch of this forest is? I kinda got into that situation and I need help…” After getting everything off your chest, you take a second to take a breather.

“Oh, yes, I know where the witch is–”

“Really? Wow, that’s cool, rad, cool, cool! Oh, do you mind telling me? That would be awesome, for real,” you interrupt him, leaning forward in an outburst of excitement, once again just staring at his face

“No, I don’t mind. It’s simple really. The witch is here,” he answers, and if you’d known it better, you could have sworn to see some mischief glinting in his eyes.

But you’re too distracted, squinting your eyes trying to see anyone else in this open meadow. The witch can’t be hiding in such an open space, so you turn around to look behind you.

You jut your lips out when you couldn’t see anyone in the near distance. “Where? There’s no one here?”

The corners of his lips raise slightly. “Well, because we’re the only two people here, the best conclusion is that I’m the witch, is it not?”

You can only nod slowly, mouth agape and eyes roaming over his figure once again. Now that he mentions it, if you focus a bit on his blue eye, the one seemingly illuminating and softening his scar, you could discern symbols circling his iris, whispering secrets only he is to know.

It takes you a moment to bring these two concepts together, as this turn of events just swept you over in a cold rush. Even if you’re going to be honest with yourself, what did you expect? Some beautiful woman with long black hair, miraculously emerging from the waters of some shallow pond? This probably is your sign to read less fantasy… Does it count as fantasy if witches are apparently real?

You blink and push this thought away, this is really not the time to contemplate the structure of your world. So you take a breath, trying to formulate your thoughts more coherently this time.

“Oh, okay. Uhm, so… hold on, no, how am I supposed to call you? Because there’s no way I’m calling you a witch for, I don’t know how long, but that doesn’t matter… Uhm,” you veer off topic before just introducing yourself in the same breath.

Wow, you did amazing, you should pat yourself on the shoulder, because how can someone start at a point and finish at the wrong place? You bite on your bottom lip, slightly crunching your face. But the moment he says your name, the strain seems to melt off, you’re so taken aback by how elegant your own name sounds from his mouth.

“Nice to meet you, I suppose you can call me Shoto.”

With a nod, you do your best to memorize his name and to replace the imaginary picture of a witch with a replication of him, sitting between the flowers, and you’re aware that your memory could never truly replicate this look, this moment; it always be something faded compared to this, and you curse your insufficient brain capacities. Until you remember the actual reason you came looking for him.

“So, Shoto. I need your help, you know, as the witch, because, uh, I don’t know if you noticed already, but I guess someone cursed me? For some reason. Unrelated to anything really…” you laugh nervously and avoid his gaze “Like no one is able to recognize me, which is weird! I look normal in mirrors, but not in pictures? And, uh, see, I kinda need my face to work, you know? Is there something you could do to help me? You’re my last resort, pretty please?” You had hurried to explain your reasons for arriving at this place before the silence between you could even start, or worse, before he got the time to just stand up and leave.

He leans back and his eyes glance over your face, examining you, and you notice how the contrast between his eyes seems to grow for a moment; one almost glowing eerily while the other darkens to reach the depth of the universe. It feels like you’re in the presence of a supernova, a star about to burst by its seams.

But the moment he blinks with a nod the moment is gone, almost like it never was any different. At least he looks like he found whatever he’s looking for, the curse probably.

“I will help you. But in exchange I do need you to aid me in the time it takes me to break this particular spell,” he sets his condition and slightly cocks his head to the side, waiting for your response.

A wide grin splits your face as he agrees to help you. excitement thrumming through your veins at the prospect of working with an actual witch, and even getting rid of this problem altogether. But you still take your time to weigh the choices in your head.

You don’t really have another choice, do you? Because if you refuse, what are you supposed to do? It’s either you help him with his potions, whatever that requires of you, you’re ready to even give your blood for this, or you just suffer for the rest of your life under this horrid curse of unrecognition. Even if you have to admit that this condition of yours could be a real killer in the shady business of the underground, assassinations, break-ins, or whatever illegal activities they entertain. No one would ever be able to catch you, as you practically have no face to be identified by. If you only possessed more usable skills to pursue this potential path of corruption, but you don’t. So you only truly have one choice left.

You readily agree to his terms, on your own condition, you want to be able to go home at the end of the day. You’d like to enjoy your sleep if you involuntarily have to miss work. With the same reasoning, you promise him to come back tomorrow before you’re already on your way home. You hadn’t noticed how late it already was, because the meeting didn’t feel like it took hours off your day. But who are you to judge the sun for packing up a bit earlier, at least it’s still bright enough for you to walk on your own. And on your trek home, you see his captivating eyes every time you blink, almost being able to feel the difference in temperature, coals and ice, hot and cold.

They haunt you, no matter how often you shake your head to get rid of them. You do have bigger problems to concentrate on. But your worries vanish once you land on your bed, all washed up and in clean clothes. The short hike seems to have taken a toll on you, or maybe the revelation of the whole situation, as you fall asleep as soon as you could even think of sleep.

The next morning you wake up all sore, and you whine into your pillow, already despising the possibility, the simple thought of getting up. Yet you sit up and grab your phone to tell your boss that you’re sick. Which technically isn’t a lie, if something does belong in that section, then it’s a curse for sure, and it’s the best option to not get kicked out again, or fired for not showing up to work.

With that you pat yourself on the back for finding a solution to that particular problem, and for giving yourself at least a week to solve this mess. If it doesn’t work out by then, you’d have to get a doctor’s notice, and you honestly doubt that a doctor can diagnose you with this if they even can recognize anything in the first place.

One problem out of the way, you go through your morning routine to head out to start solving the main problem. You put on some proper clothes for this trip, and this time you’re not keen on not tumbling down a hill, and being aware of the hill in the first place will definitely make it a lot easier.

The way to the meadow turns out to be a lot easier once you know the way, and as a consequence, you gain fewer bruises on the way down. You’re glad for that because the ones you earned yesterday throb every time they get touched, even by the barest breeze. But you will survive this horrendous pain, everything to reach your goal of getting rid of this curse.

If only everything is as easy as you wish it to be. Because the moment you arrive at the border of the meadow, you encounter another problem: Shoto isn’t here today.

You curse under your breath while glancing around the empty open space. What are you supposed to do now? You can’t just walk aimlessly and shout his name into the darkness of the woods. That would be stupid, you don’t know what lurks in its insides, and you’d like to avoid disturbing the wildlife and him, probably, if he is actually living in this forest.

Should you just take a seat in the middle of the meadow? Would he be able to see you from wherever his residence is? Once again you curse, but this time at your inability to plan forward, because you really should’ve asked for some details, but for some reason, his agreement seemed enough for you to just up and leave. Now it is obvious how you didn’t think any of this through.

With a sight, you lightly kick the ground. After you take one last look over the meadow, you decide to walk up the borders of the open space in hopes of finding some sort of hint about his possible whereabouts.

It takes you some time to come across a small river, water glistening clearly under the sun. and you decide to follow it on a whim. Honestly, this is probably the next best thing, because everyone needs some form of water, and this forest has no lake, so the river makes absolutely sense.

The flowing water leads you deeper into the woods, but you can’t actually get lost if you just follow the river in the opposite direction, so you’re not really worried about that.

This decision turns out to be the right one because after some time you spot a cottage in the near distance. Surrounded by bushes and the ivory sparkles under the rays of the sun breaking through the ceiling of leaves. As you step closer, leaving the river behind, you’re able to see the veranda filled with all different kinds of plants in pots, hanging, standing, thriving. You think you can even discern some form of garden on the other side of the building, but you decide to stop in front of the door rather than visit that small space. Who knows how a witch is able to protect their place.

Before you even think about knocking, you note how this place doesn’t look like what you expect of a lair, but honestly, you don’t have any other visual than the gingerbread house, and to be fair, that’s a fairytale and as much as Shoto looks like he came straight out of one, there’s no connection between these two. Not that it matters, you’re certainly not a kid, so you doubt he would eat you, which is unlikable in the first place.

You raise your fist to finally knock on the wood of the door, but before your knuckles could even connect with it, the door actually opens, and you make eye contact with Shoto. You slowly lower your fist and notice how he’s holding a basket in his hand, eyebrows raised in silent surprise. For a moment you both just look at each other in confused surprise until he finally starts speaking.

“Oh, good morning. I didn’t expect you to be here so early. Come in,” he steps aside to fully open the door, inviting you into his home.

With hesitation you step inside, looking around as curiosity tempts you with its soft claws. A smell of a mix of herbs wafts in front of you as you inhale. There is a small seating arrangement, a loveseat, a sofa, an armchair, all resting on top of a soft carpet, inviting you to sit on the ground and enjoy some tea or read a book.

Connected to that space is an open kitchen, to which he heads to, and you hurry to follow his lead. It takes you a moment to take your shoes off, so you can’t help but follow his path carefully, too scared to accidentally disturb this calm space of his.

His home seems rather normal, but once again, what did you expect? Some kind of massive cauldron, some random stuff hanging off the ceilings, or body parts in a mysterious liquid? You should’ve expected this, this is just a normal cottage in the depths of the forest, the only exceptional thing, or person, is Shoto, and you don’t mean him being a witch.

Once you arrive in the space of the kitchen, he motions you to sit at the table, and you do, your expectations getting the best of you and waiting for some form of grimoire to thud onto the table. But nothing of that sort happens, he just sits on the opposite side, leaning his chin in his hand and just looks at you with slightly furrowed brows and a small pout on his lips.

You try your best to stay silent, even if the urge to say something is getting stronger with the second, but you withstand his piercing gaze resting on your hot skin. You bite on your tongue to swallow your question down. Especially when his eyes begin to emit a low light once again, all stormy weather, dark clouds shrouded in lightning.

It abates the moment he hums. “I see. Well, I guess I am able to undo this spell, but we both don’t know anything about the workings of the spell, it probably will take me some time to fix the proper counterspell. For that, I need your presence. Should we get started?” He leans back, his eyes glowing under the sunlight, but this time it feels a lot softer, less like magic and more like a fairy tale.

The next thought you have is filled with indignation because he just assumed you don’t know anything about the spell. Well you don’t, but it’s about the assumption itself, not the fact that you have no idea about this craft. So you can’t really say anything in your defense, because there’s nothing to defend but your pride, and it’s not worth it at the moment.

“Sure thing, but I have to let you know: I know how that woman put this spell on me, and… uh…” you start confidently, only to peter out, not knowing how to continue this trail of thought.

Despite that, he does seem surprised by that in some way, indicated by the way his eyebrows shoot up. “Is that so? Would you mind telling me?”

You almost think to hear some sort of accusation in his tone, but you have no reason or idea why that might be. So you just shrug it off before delving into a short explanation of the events that had occurred to you, until you recount the first meeting with him. Of course, there are some details you omit, because you’d rather not embarrass yourself in front of such a graceful person, because he’s a witch, not because you think he’s so beautiful you might turn blind if you look at him for an extended period of time, that would be ridiculous. Also, telling him about your fall is just unnecessary to the plot of this story, isn’t it?

He nods, eyes telling you that he realizes the omission, but he doesn’t comment on it. At least he seems like he understands more about the situation than you, simply from the description of whatever she had done to you, from whatever you had felt.

“This does help quite a bit. Doesn’t make the process much faster, just easier. Not that it matters, I’m qualified to undo this spell either way.” He stands up and begins to open the cabinets, rummaging through their insides before pulling out a notebook and a pen.

There’s no way this is his spellbook. The place where he keeps his most secret, most important spells. It looks like any ordinary notebook from the store, and it probably is, considering how normal everything looks. Maybe he has a special way of safekeeping?

You squint and stare at the notebook, trying to discover something hidden, but the only thing you see is how Shoto is writing some stuff down, the signs clear and elegant.

Only occasionally does he look up, eyes roaming over your face without sitting still on anything in particular. You doubt he could even if he wanted to.

And now your thoughts wander to the possibility that he would actually want to look at you, how his gaze would soften when caressing your skin, the sun sparkling against his dual-colored eyes, making them glisten with adora–

No, you have to stop here, or you’re not going to survive his presence in the upcoming brewing sessions. Healing sessions… Yeah, healing sessions, because he’s healing your hurt ego, getting rid of your predicament. There’s nothing else to call them. Uncursing? Spell Deletion? No, that sounds ridiculous. Healing sessions sound like some form of therapy, and being in the forest is kind of therapeutic, well, his presence sure is. Not that the name matters, you’re never going to talk about it with anyone, ever.

You blink a couple of times to come back to reality, only to make eye contact with him and your breath hitches. You do your best to act casual and prop your elbow onto the back of the chair but you slip and you have to catch yourself with a jerk.

A nervous laugh escapes you and you lean back, crossing your arms in front of your chest to get rid of your fidgeting. You avoid looking into his eyes this time, focusing on the fringe falling onto his forehead, red and white braiding into each other seamlessly.

He doesn’t even bother to say anything about what just happened and just goes straight to business. “Here’s what we’re going to do in the next few days,” he starts explaining like you just didn’t utterly embarrass yourself in front of him. “I doubt a counterspell will work without consequences because we don’t know the exact working of your curse, even if I have a good idea of it. Still, I don’t want to risk it, so I’m simply going to brew a potion, which will wear it out until it disperses on its own. That means we have to go out and collect some necessary materials. We’re going to do that later though, as there are some preparations I have to make first.”

With that, he closes his notebook and leaves it on the table as he stands up. He motions you to follow him and you leave the house at his heels.

Outside he pulls some sort of platter from below a table and hands it to you before he kneels on the ground in front of a pot in the form of a long rectangle. Inside it is a green plant, stalks spreading out like rays of the sun, leaves tiny and feather-like.

“These are Maidenhair Ferns, also called The Hair of Venus. They could have some effect on your current condition, but we have to dry them first for their potency to unfold. I’m going to take care of the cutting of the plant and I ask you to put them neatly onto the platter. That way we can continue our work at a faster rate,” he explains, his gaze only brushing over you before leading his focus back onto the plant in front of him.

You nod, even though you’re not sure he could register this movement with the way he’s intently looking at the leaves of the ferns. You still take a seat by his side and put the big plate on your lap, ready to receive the first leaves and stems.

At first there isn’t a lot for you to do, so you’re busy looking around, taking in the sights of the forest, enjoying the sun on your face, but soon enough you start taking the stalks filled with neat leaves and arrange them properly on the plate, trying to avoid stacking them as much as possible.

Luckily, he doesn’t pick that many plants for you to even begin thinking of that possible problem too much. With a platter covered with just the right amount of leaves, he finally turns around to face you.

“We need to pluck the leaves from the stem because each part is different, and will need a different time to properly dry. We only need the leaves for the potion, but I’d hate to waste the rest,” he murmurs, his long, nimble fingers already running along the stem of one of the plants, picking the leaves off with careful fingertips, barely staining his nail beds in the process.

You proceed to take one fern in your hand, trying your best to imitate him and to rip the leaves at the right spot and not rip them apart accidentally. Sticking your tongue slightly between your teeth in concentration, you manage to not destroy the first fern, even if the process has gotten a bit messy, your fingers turning slightly green. You begin to understand why people who garden have a ‘green thumb’.

You both work in a comfortable silence for some time, simply enjoying the repetitive motion. Before you even dare to think about standing up, you both make sure that everything is properly separated and not layered. Just then you stand up and follow him around the corner to some sort of backyard. You reckon this is the place you glanced at earlier. There’s a table standing out in the open, and he motions you to put the platter you were carrying onto its surface. In that position, the sun is going to dry them for you, essentially doing the work for you.

The moment your hands are free, you get the urge to stretch into the rays of the sun, your blurry, lidded gaze glancing over the edge of the open space between the bushes. And that’s where you spot it. A beautiful deer.

With a silent gasp, you blindly try to tap Shoto on the shoulder, accidentally brushing against his jaw in your hurry. Normally you would apologize, but you don’t dare tear your eyes away from the deer, much less make a noise, in fear of it disappearing without a trace. The doe, you correct yourself, as it lacks any form of horns.

“Oh,” you hear Shoto say softly under his breath, finally spotting the deer too.

For a moment you both just stay silent, not daring to even move too much, simply enjoying the mesmerizing sight of a doe under the shining sun, framed by the lush green of the forest. That is until the deer just turns around and jumps away like it just doesn’t care about you both just staring at it in awe.

You release a small puff of air, some tension releasing as you had been too caught up in the moment. Turning around in his direction, you regret even breathing the second you lock eyes with Shoto, his face closer to you than you had anticipated. It seems like you both have moved closer in that short moment, huddling together for some reason at the mere sight of the doe.

Your eyes jump over his dark eye to the lightning blue one, electrifying you like a summer storm, and you wonder if he’s gotten hit by lightning itself, resulting in these mesmerizing eyes, and the scar around that bright eye, the only blemish on his smooth, soft looking skin. Maybe it’s connected to his powers, to these symbols deep inside the blue, unreadable to you.

To avoid staring at his scar, your gaze travels over his high cheekbones to his plumb lips, and you could almost imagine them quirking slightly, the moment before he reveals a true laugh of joy out of his soul. This thought startles you and you immediately take a step back, bumping into the corner of the table.

A low whimper escapes as you double over, clutching your wounded side in a dramatic manner. At least now you’ve got a reason to avoid looking at him, to avoid getting lost in all these daydreams about him and…

“Are you okay? Did you hit a sensitive spot?” he asks, worry tinting his voice as he puts his hand softly on your back.

You nod at first before you begin to shake your head, these two questions colliding in your head, all while you try to ignore the possible innuendo. If you step into that territory of thought, you might as well run into the woods and bury yourself in some random cave, to never face him again.

The pain slowly abates after you take a couple of breaths to calm yourself down. It’s going to form a bruise, which isn’t that big of a deal, but you wish it wouldn’t feel like something had impaled your guts.

Straightening up, you show him a thumbs up, even if his slightly furrowed eyebrows and jutted lips show that he isn’t quite convinced. But he doesn’t look like he’s going to fight you over that, so his hand leaves your back. The spot is suddenly so cold, and you can’t help but miss the warmth of his skin, even through clothing.

You try your best to divert his attention away, and maybe yours too, as you look around, in particular to avoid looking at his face. You spot some form of wooden fence, probably a small garden, and you step in its direction with a craning neck to see what he could have planted there.

“Oh, is that a garden? What did you put there? Do you sustain yourself like that? How do you know what soil to use for what plant? Are these to eat or just for your potions?” These questions pour out of your mouth, the perfect distraction for you both as you don’t have to pull out some random question out of nowhere. And you’re genuinely interested.

He seems to have noticed your attempt at distraction according to his rising eyebrows, but he still indulged you and steps closer to the high edge of the garden and you join him close behind him.

With a soft voice he starts explaining the use of each herb, each fruit and plant, patiently pointing toward them, all while mentioning neat little details, like their harvest season, how picky certain plants are. And you can’t help but be captivated by his knowledge and the way he shares it. Even if you sometimes break out of the immersion of his voice when your eyes begin to roam over his face instead of listening.

Time passes with you both kneeling in the soft grass and inspecting the little space filled with love. You only notice how late it has gotten with the way your eyelids feel heavy, your gaze unfocusing and hazy. And as much as you’d love to just take a nap in the middle of the grass under this beautiful weather, you have to get home before that.

So with a goodbye and a promise to return tomorrow, you make your way home, the way easier to walk as your body starts to memorize the path. You could say you could find the way to the cottage in your sleep with how tired you currently feel.

It’s no wonder you barely remember getting ready for bed, much less going to sleep because your brain is practically already out of commission before that happens.

The next day you wake up with a satisfied groan. You’ve never felt this refreshed in your life before, and when you glance at the time, you startle, realizing why. You’ve overslept, you’re late for work! You immediately stand up, heart beating a frenzy in your chest and your arms tremble slightly. With a sudden rush, you remember how you had taken sick leave just yesterday, and you slump back onto your bed.

With a shaken sigh, you sink back into your pillow. You could have slept a bit more, but it seems like your internal clock was keen on terrorizing you today. And with that rush of adrenaline, you might as well stay up and get ready to visit Shoto today.

You take your time to eat breakfast and just enjoy the silence of your home before you make yourself ready for the way. You also check on the state of your food, in case you need to get some groceries. But you don’t, so you clean your place a bit before heading out.

And once again you step through the same path you’ve been visiting the last few days, and you wonder if it would inevitably become some sort of established path with the amount of walking you’ve been doing between the same couple of trees. Maybe you should start changing the route a bit the next couple of times.

You arrive in front of his door and this time you’re able to knock on the door before it’s ripped open, and you startle by the look Shoto throws out of the door, all narrow eyes and downturned lips, almost resembling a snarl. You hesitate in asking if something is wrong. His eyes blink before recognizing you, in the widest sense, and his whole face seems to almost soften. With no exchange of words, he steps to the side and opens the door for you to step in.

Mirroring the day before, he makes way for the table and sits down, waiting for you to do the same. And you do, because you’ve been walking closely behind him.

His notebook is already open on the surface of the table, and he leans slightly forward. “The leaves of yesterday still need some time to fully dry, so today we should go out and collect some other stuff I mentioned yesterday. Is that alright with you?”

You would do anything to get rid of that curse on your face, so of course it’s alright with you, and you nod to show him that. He also nods in confirmation before closing his notebook and grabbing a basket to put whatever you will collect today inside.

While he is doing that, you hurry to the door to open it up for him, even bowing slightly with a grin across your face and the moment he passes by you, you think to see a small smile on his lips, amusement sparkling clearly in his face.

After closing the door behind you, you follow him to take his side as he ventures deeper into the forest. His steps are purposeful, and you’re sure he knows where to find the target material. Still, you wish you could help with whatever he’s looking for, but you doubt you would be able to recognize it even if he told you the name of it. Despite that, you’re happy to listen when he starts talking, explaining what he’s looking for.

“I have some vague idea of what could help against your current ailment. Right now, I’m looking for a Bird’s Eye…” he trails off as he seems to have spotted something.

This revelation confuses you. What does he mean with a Bird’s Eye? Is he going to pluck the eyeballs of some poor bird? Is that something he usually does? He doesn’t seem like the person to entertain such thoughts. You want to ask him if there’s another way, but he had vanished between some bushes.

You swallow down the tremble in your throat and fight through the shrubbery to catch up to him. You emerge a couple of steps next to the spot he’s bending over. With some paces to place yourself at his side, only to see him hold some sort of purple plant delicately between his fingers. Petals growing upward the long stem to a soft point. A lavender plant… A Veronica… And suddenly you feel stupid for still assuming something without real proof. Still, you can’t help the relieved breath you let out.

Straightening up, Shoto shoots you a look, all hidden crinkles, and creasing eyes, almost like he’s making fun of you, like he’s amused at your obvious relief. “Seems like you had expected something else, didn’t you?” he asks, his gaze resting somewhere on your cheek.

“Uh, what else am I supposed to think? Telling me, ‘oh yeah, we need some bird’s eye’, doesn’t sound like, I don’t know, like you’re about to pluck an eyeball? How am I– hold on, did you do that on purpose?” you gasp at your own accusation. “You did! That’s so mean of you, I can’t believe you would use my trust like that!”

You pout slightly, even if you doubt he could see it properly, so you cross your arms in front of you to show your stance on things right now, even if you’re aware that you look overly dramatic. But that’s the point.

Your stance doesn’t seem to affect him, because you suddenly hear a light chuckle escape his lips, and when you glance at his face, you can clearly see how his lips quirked up in a silent laugh, all soft and delicate.

While you’re staring at him, you’re suddenly glad he can’t see your face clearly, because you probably look stunned, amazed, stupefied, and every other word to describe the way your eyes widen and your mouth standing slightly agape.

His eyes wander over your face, eyebrows scrunched up as if he wants to see whatever the fog is hiding behind that blur. Whatever he’s looking for doesn’t seem to be there, because the frown only deepens before he turns back to the flower in his hand, putting it carefully into the basket.

“These are the flowers we’re looking for. Do you mind picking some up?” he asks, already doing so himself, inspecting each one carefully to only select the ones most fitting.

You nod and diligently begin to pick the ones you seem worthy, collecting them into some sort of bouquet in your other hand. After a while, your hand is barely able to hold onto more, and you’re quite content with the look of your makeshift bouquet. Not being able to resist the urge, you tap him on the shoulder and hold it under his nose.

“Please accept this!” you say dramatically, acting like you just confessed your undying love to him, but you couldn’t stay serious long enough to wait for his response, especially after seeing his raised eyebrow. You burst into laughter. “Sorry, sorry! I just thought it looked like a bouquet, so–”

“Oh, so you wanted to offer me the Eye of a Bird? How romantic,” he drawls, his mouth puckered and eyebrows high on his forehead. Only the gleam in his eyes seems to betray his serious stance.

You nod with a muffled giggle. “The peak of modern romance, of course! You deserve nothing less than the best.”

He takes the flowers from your outreached hand and inspects them, acting too critical of your offering before nodding in approval. “I shall accept these, but only this time.”

You gasp, a hand over your heart. “Only this time? My good sir, then I shall prepare something more glamorous, something you can’t refuse for the next time!” you declare with a boisterous voice and a puffed chest.

Once again his lips purse in consideration. “Well, I don’t know if this is possible, there won’t be a next time, that’s for certain. You shan’t woe me this easily.”

“We shall see how this turns out,” you puff with arrogance, only to break down in little giggles.

The moment you break the immersion, he too breaks his facade with a broad smile, pearly teeth on display and eyes crinkling with happiness and mischief. With the breeze ruffling his hair he looks like the image of pure bliss.

His obvious happiness makes you smile, and you have to catch yourself before you let out a dreamy sigh. You have no other choice but to break the line of sight, lest you do something you might regret, especially with the way your insides feel all soft and malleable at his sight, full, ready to give something to always enjoy the way he seems to be in such peace. But you can’t give in, no matter how much your heart seems to plead with your senses. You should not do this, you shouldn’t even think like this in the first place.

So you redirect all your focus into picking the perfect flowers, paying close attention to the details. With that, you both slowly fill the basket, and before you know it, the evening sun is shining through the leaves, putting everything in a soft orange glow.

The full basket has gotten quite heavy and you both decide to share the burden, each one of you grabbing a side of the handle to carry it together. This arrangement is there to make it easier for you both, so no problems should arise. Even if the path you’re taking is narrow in some passages and trying to get through them together, side by side, his shoulder ends up bumping, brushing against yours more often than not. And every time this contact happens, you do your best to not flinch away or to think too closely about the warmth he radiates; avoiding leaning closer to him than you already are.

Finally, you arrive at the cottage and you feel like you have lost all breath in your lungs, most of it evaporating by the simple look at him, by the simple brush. Despite needing some space, you continue to help him carry the basket to some sort of designated space inside the house. And once you get rid of that weight, you stretch your arms above your head, hearing a silent yet satisfying crack.

Feeling the need to rest outside, even if you just were under the open sky, you take some slow steps out of the door, because you desperately need a moment to breathe without being scared of brushing against him.

That’s how you end up sitting on his veranda. The sun had already set and darkness is swallowing the forest, which is now filled with entirely new noises and movements. Despite the lack of light and the unknown biting at your toes, you don’t feel unsafe or in danger, rather the silence and the cool breeze have a calming effect on you.

With a roaming look into the sky, you notice the amount of stars visible against the deep blue of the night. Without any trees obstructing your sight and no artificial lights destroying their twinkle, you can’t help but be entranced with them. You’re so fixated on their beauty that you almost miss Shoto taking a seat by your side.

For a moment you both stay silent, arm against arm, shoulder against shoulder, knee brushing a thigh, and this time you don’t even dare to hold your breath. You feel the desire to lean against him, to feel his breath flutter against your skin. But you’re satisfied with this moment, with the way he seems to glow under the stars, giving him a halo of silver light.

Only because you’ve been staring at him do you notice when he stretches his hand into the sky and lets his finger connect individual stars into constellations. You squint, trying to see the lines from your perspective but you struggle a bit as everything is shifted, so you don’t even know which stars are connected despite following the way his finger moves.

He seems to notice your struggle, as he scoots closer, his front now almost touching your back, his head hovering over your shoulder to get down to your height. After settling like that he carefully grabs your fingertips and waits for you to pull away or to react in any way to show him your rejection, but you don’t. You rather marvel at how soft his skin feels against yours in that feather-light touch.

His hand leads your fingers to make a fist with only your index finger pointing out. With your hand like that, he rests his palm against the back of your hand, on your wrist. Positioned like that he slowly begins to show you the constellations with your own finger, all while making sure it’s visible from your perspective. While guiding you, he softly murmurs their names and the planets and stars, explaining everything and yet nothing, because you’re almost too focused on his breath against your face, the way his chin brushes against your shoulder, and you try your best to not turn around to directly face him.

After some time you do begin to relax and to enjoy all this information and the light contact. You end up leaning against his torso, his cheek resting on your head, and you both remain like that for some time, simply soaking in the presence, the silence and the warmth between you.

So it’s no wonder how you barely notice the atmosphere wrapping around you, lulling you into something peaceful and welcoming.

You only notice how gone you were when the sun's rays hit your face softly, waking you up with their soft kisses, and you can’t even be mad at being woken up like that. It is comfortable and warm. Still, the moment you open your eyes, you startle slightly at the sight of the unfamiliar, yet familiar ceiling. You slowly sit up and a patchwork blanket slides off your shoulders to bunch around your waist.

With a quick look at your surroundings, you realize where you are: the cottage. And with that realization you put the pieces together: You fell asleep on him, while stargazing, while holding his hand.

You bury your face in your hands, embarrassment flooding your ears. You hope you didn’t mumble, or worse, drool in your sleep. Or you might simply never look him in the face again.

Peaking between your fingers, you spot him in the open kitchen, silently working on something over the stove, his back turned towards you.

“Breakfast is almost done. You can freshen up a bit, I put some clothes that might fit you in the bathroom,” his voice sounds and you flinch, surprised he had noticed you being awake. “It wasn’t difficult, you made quite some noise.”

You frown, jutting your lips out. Is he reading your thoughts? Is that one of the abilities of witches? You sure hope it isn’t, or else he would know about everything that had crossed your mind in his presence… You desperately want to avoid this possibility, but it can’t hurt to try. So you think of something so stupid, so outrageous, he has no choice but to react.

I couldn't read the witch's handwriting at all, she always wrote in curse-ive.

You almost hit your own face with a groan, but you keep your gaze on his back, trying to see if this entices any form of reaction out of him. But nothing happens and you just sigh, even if you’re still curious how he had guessed your thoughts to that degree. Maybe you should ask him later…

A shrug and you stretch the last bit of heaviness out of your limbs before you grab the blanket to fold it and to put it neatly onto the sofa you’ve been sleeping on. It would be rude to leave it crumbled like that, especially after he put the effort to carry… you… For a moment you stop in your tracks and just blink blanky at the blanket in front of you.

He carried you… and put a blanket over you… He carried you…?

This realization hits you like a swinging bat and you have to bite on your lower lip to suppress a gasp. Your eyes jump to his figure, making sure he’s not looking at you, his back still turned towards you, and you slowly make your way to the bathroom, your joints feel like they’re locked up and creaking like a bad oiled machine.

Once you arrive in the bathroom, you close the door behind you and lean heavily on the sink. You feel like you just gave yourself some serious whiplash. So, with a deep breath, you begin to splash your face with cold water, trying to calm yourself down before you turn around to look at the clothes he had prepared for you. Holding the shirt in front of you, you decide that it will fit you even though it might be a bit loose, but you can’t complain about that.

With that you change into the fest pair of clothes, folding your clothes neatly. You don’t even take the time to look into the mirror to check how they fit, almost afraid of what you might see.

You leave the bathroom with another stretch and enter the open kitchen to offer your help to him, but he refuses politely because he already plated the table and there’s simply not enough space for the both of you to cook something without elbowing each other.

So you take a seat at the table, resting your head on your palm, content with just watching him being busy with the food preparation. He moves with a practiced hand, movements smooth and elegant. You can only observe as his surprisingly broad shoulders move, muscles stretching and filling his shirt. Your eyes wander over his lean back and you purse your lips the moment you see his small waist. You wonder if you would be able to put your arms around his whole torso, or your legs…

You inhale sharply, immediately averting your eyes to the window, trying to divert your thoughts to something else, anything but to look back to his direction. It’s a beautiful day outside, there’s no need to stay in the bedroom, or inside, no need to have any thoughts relating to inside activities.

Your gaze jumps around, looking for something to latch onto, but there’s nothing but the wonderful depth of the forest, which isn’t quite enough to distract you from the possible way his muscles could coil when he leans over you…

A bite to the inside of your cheek brings you out of that train of thoughts, and you’re aware of how you need something more concrete for your distraction, like that deer. But you could only vaguely discern some movements in the bushes and nothing really stepped out of the shadows.

The clatter of a plate disrupts your almost desperate search as Shoto puts a plate in front of you, and you can’t stop the excited grin spreading over your face at its contents. He made some waffles, toppings dripping down its sides and its smell luring you in to take the first bite. It looks delicious, an absolute masterpiece. And you can’t resist it, barely taking your time to thank him properly for his efforts, before digging in and letting the soft dough melt over your tongue. You close your eyes and you almost moan out of delight, the taste an explosion of pure bliss. Instead of embarrassing yourself like that, you just stuff your mouth with another bite.

And before you know it, the plate is empty, leaving you full, yet yearning for more. But you doubt you could even manage to get another bite down and just slump backward into the back of the chair, feeling some kind of satisfied drowsiness.

“Shoto, my man, this is the best thing I’ve ever eaten. You got some magic hands,” you tell him and grin widely when he raises his eyebrows at your choice of words.

Instead of properly answering your compliment, he lets out a puff of air before beginning to collect the empty dishes. You immediately stand up, keen on helping him this time around, especially when you don’t need much space to do the dishes. That’s how you end up drying the washed dishes and putting them away in their respective places. Of course not without him showing you where they belong first.

With this arrangement, you finish doing the dishes at a faster rate. He’s drying his hands as he turns around to look at you. “I’m going to brew the potion today, or at least try to. Feel free to take a book to entertain yourself for the time being.”

He points to the huge shelf covering the entire wall of the living room and you gape slightly at its size. How did you miss that in the first place? Even if you have been distracted by a lot of things, this thing is huge, there’s no way you could have just not seen it.

You barely give him a nod before immediately stepping closer to the shelf, running your fingers along the spines of the books. So many different topics, genres and authors, and there is no way Shoto didn’t read them all. No wonder he has such huge amounts of knowledge. After you have taken a couple of strides along the length of the shelf, you finally choose one of the books and take it out of its place.

With it firmly in your palm, you go and make yourself comfortable on the couch. Once you’re in the perfect position you start reading, thumbing through the book about heroes and their powers, and your brain rattles with all the possibilities and the groundwork of this fictional world.

The background is filled with the sound of utensils clashing and clattering, soft blubbering of his potion, and after a couple of pages, you decide to take a look from afar.

He’s still in the kitchen, bending over his work, a slight furrow between his eyebrows, a thoughtful pout tugging at his lips. And you just look. Just admire the evenly split hair of red and white softly falling, framing his face, the calm demeanor revealing his kind heart. You smile. You can’t help but think, these thoughts filling your veins, coming from your heart, how charming he looks, how beautiful, how handsome. Despite being aware that this relationship is entirely contractual, the chance of seeing him again after this ordeal is slim, you admit to yourself, you like him, a lot. And there’s no way to truly know how he feels about you. To him, you’re probably just another person requiring his services, nothing more, nothing less, only bound by the verbal deal you’ve made.

This realization makes you smile bittersweetly, already accepting the outcome. So you try to get back into the book, to put your focus back on the ongoing plot. But your thoughts circle back to the endless ways this could end, the endless ways this could turn and bend. And no matter how badly you wish for it to end otherwise, every path leads to the same blocked path, a deal done, a face regained and a connection lost. Who are you to interfere with fate?

You force yourself to face it, to accept it, no matter how much your heart resists. It will hurt, but everything turns out to be how it’s supposed to be.

A breath and you begin to digest the story word by word, forcing yourself to take them in until you finally relax and get into the flow of the story and its plot, all while the background noises fade out of your consciousness.

You feel yourself clutching at your non-existent pearls as you near the end of the book when Shoto walks up to you, nudging your foot with his to get your attention. And once you look up from your book, he holds a cup with some sort of tea in your direction. With thanks you take it and immediately sip from the warm liquid.

“I thought you’re supposed to brew that potion?” you ask him, cupping your hands to warm your palms on the glazed ceramic.

“I was. That’s the potion in your hand,” he answers and the corners of his mouth slightly dip upward.

You startle at this revelation and almost let the cup drop. “Wh-what? You could’ve said that earlier!”

“How could I when you so eagerly took it from my hands before I could even say anything?” he chuckles and cocks his head to the side, eyes crinkling at your shocked face.

You gape at him and look at the half-empty cup in your hands, then back at him. “Are you messing with me? It feels like you’re messing with me…”

He shakes his head. “As amusing that would be, I’m not. You’re drinking the potion right now. It will probably take some odd hours to take full effect, if at all.”

Slowly you nod and just down the rest of the tea-potion in one big gulp. You exhale and the warmth of the tea coupled with the late hour begins to make you quite drowsy. There’s no way you’re staying two nights at his place, that would be just so utterly rude of you, especially if you’re going to lend out some of his stuff. That means it’s time for you to head home, as much as you’d like to stay on the couch and continue reading.

You close the book and return it to its place before you thank him once again and take your stuff. With everything in hand you begin your way home, the evening still young and the wood still filled with enough light to not get hurt when crossing it.

Finally arriving home without accidents, the first thing you do is change out of the borrowed clothes and prepare them to wash later so you can return them to him. And you start doing your nighttime routine, even if the initial drowsiness is now gone for some reason, but you’d like to be prepared for the moment you feel tired again, and maybe you need some distraction. If you don’t, you might as well go insane with anticipation, literally expecting something to happen immediately.

This anticipation fills you with adrenalin or something, because for some time you just walk around your place aimlessly, not able to settle down without feeling your heart race. You finally settle on your bed with your phone in hand, trying to calm down to the best of your abilities. It doesn’t quite work, because you realize you never asked Shoto for his number, you never felt the need to, and maybe you shouldn’t even ask in the first place.

You sigh and roll around, beginning to scroll through whatever apps you have in rotations, and you only stop to scratch at your tingling face. At first you don’t think too much about it, as it only itches around your mouth. But then the itch begins to spread over your cheek and you have to stop everything you’re doing, because you have to know if you suddenly have some sort of allergic reaction. After thinking for a while, you don’t remember eating something that could elicit such a reaction, so it can’t be that.

It takes you a moment to realize what that could mean and you jump off the bed, rushing to the mirror only to stop in the middle of the way when you remember that mirrors don’t show your problem with your looks. So you race back and dive for your phone, almost hitting your head on the headboard. You don’t pay attention to that though as you’re opening the camera, facing it towards you.

After you take a picture in semi-good lightning, you click into your gallery, only to see the newest pic and stare at it. There’s you! With every single feature you remember and cherish.

And before you know it, you’re already out the door, dashing through the streets and into the woods. You know you should be careful about tripping, but the need to see him, to thank him, to hug him, is overwhelming. Excitement is coursing through your veins, giving you a boost in energy and you feel laughter bubbling through your lungs.

Then you stumble. Unlike the first time, you don’t immediately take a tumble down the hill, because someone catches you right on time, long before you could even get closer to the ground. You grab their arm to straighten up and end up looking directly into Shoto’s eyes. For a moment you just stare at him, mesmerized by his glittering, compelling eyes, by the way you can so clearly see them despite the darkness surrounding you both.

His words bring you back to reality. “Oh, back so soon?”

“Wh– huh? How? I mean, yes, but how did you know it’s me?” you ask bewildered, shutting your mouth with some force before you keep it open when you remember that he can see your expressions now.

He smiles, plush lips revealing perfect teeth, eyes crinkling with obvious joy while roaming over every detail of your face, taking their time over every little feature; almost like he finally found whatever he has been looking for every time he glanced in your direction. One of his hands cups your face, caressing your skin. You lean involuntarily into his touch, enjoying the soft skin on yours more than you should have.

His next words make your heart beat faster than you thought possible, and suddenly a new path opens itself before you.

“My dear, I would always recognize you, no matter what.”

#shoto todoroki x reader #todoroki x reader #shoto x reader #todoroki shoto x reader #shoto todoroki x you #todoroki x you #shoto x you #todoroki shoto x you #mha x reader #bnha x reader #shouto x reader #shouto todoroki x reader #todoroki shouto x reader

[in1-nutshell]

I have been thinking a lot about the neutral teen not buddy Who is skillied in combat and edgy, like maybe they keep meeting with smokescreen and eventually properly meet the others?

Another Buddy we haven't seen in a while, lets see how this works!

Hope you enjoy!

Bot Buddy the edgy neutral assassin meeting with Smokescreen again

SFW, Platonic, Cybertronain reader

It was a couple of days before Buddy realized the bot they had been chatting to wasn’t another Neutral.

He was an Autobot.

One of the new recruits named Smokescreen.

That was their mistake for assuming.

They originally thought of just ignoring him since he did give them a nice talk.

But soon enough they found it nearly impossible to ignore the mech. He seemed to be everywhere Buddy was going and they did not want to draw attention to both.

They weren’t going to lose the only other nice bot in this war.

Not again…

Ultimately, they decided to maybe talk to him again. At least then they would be able to talk with peace of mind that no one would be watching them.

Hopefully.

Maybe they could even get him to see their side of the war, maybe join forces.

Become an assassin duo.

Oh, how were they kidding, Smokescreen was not assassin material.

He was more Wrecker material than anything.

Not good for stealth.

Buddy waited at the same place again a month later.

They found him seated in the same spot.

They quietly joined him when he waved and patted the ground next to him.

His grin grew once they sat down next to him.

“Hey! It’s been a while!”--Smokescreen

Buddy nods and takes the spot next to him.

“I saw a cool looking bird heading north with a whole other group of the same one. Where do you think they’re going?”--Smokescreen

“Maybe they’re heading home? Doubt it’s because of any cold temperatures.”--Buddy

“Why would they want to get away from the cold? That white stuff that falls from the sky is awesome!”--Smokescreen

Buddy chuckles a bit.

“Yeah, it kind of is when is falling.”--Buddy

He didn’t say anything about the war much to their surprise.

Or maybe it was because he didn’t know who they were yet.

Smokescreen talked more of the things he saw around while on patrol.

This little routine continued for about another two months.

It was a nice change of pace for Buddy.

A little breather from their usual activities.

“I have a question.”--Smokescreen

“Yeah? And what would that be?”--Buddy

“How come you haven’t offline me yet?”--Smokescreen

Buddy stiffens.

“You came across one of my friends not too long ago, you spared her. But we’ve been meeting for a while now and have had multiple times that you could have…you know. So, why?”--Smokescreen

Buddy looks down, playing with some of the sand.

“I’ll admit. I didn’t know you were an Autobot before, I thought you were another Neutral. When I realized that you weren’t I planed on just ignoring you.”--Buddy

“Why not…”--Smokescreen

“You were nice to me. It’s been a while since I had any nice talk like the ones we have. Nothing with the war, nothing about political views… just peaceful things.”--Buddy

“So, if I wasn’t so nice to you—”--Smokescreen

“You wouldn’t have made it back to your team.”--Buddy

“…”--Smokescreen

“…Listen I know this could change our thing and that you probably want to leave… I’ll respect your decision and I won’t—”--Buddy

“Who says I want to leave?”--Smokescreen

Buddy looks at him with wide optics.

“Any bot with any common sense would leave.”--Buddy

Smokescreen chuckles a bit.

“Well, I have been told I lack some of that.”--Smokescreen

“…You really want to keep meeting? Even after all I admitted?”--Buddy

Smokescreen pats their back.

“I still want to be friends with you Buddy. You’re a good bot.”--Smokescreen

Buddy smiles at him.

Both look back at the horizon in silence

Smokescreen did bring up the option of bringing them to the base to meet the others.

But they declined.

They didn’t want to give either side any idea that they were going to join a side.

He pestered it a couple more times before just dropping it.

Smokescreen knows he’ll wear them down eventually.

But for now, he was happy being their friend outside of the base.

#transformers x reader #maccadam #bot buddy #tfp #tfp x reader #tfp x platonic reader #tfp smokescreen #tfp smokescreen x platonic reader

[meanbossart]

DU drow asks time

Lore questions/sweet messages/stuff that made me laugh that's about DU drow specifically that I decided to compile in a single post!

First of all, "outraged to be used as a medium for old man gay divorce" is a hysterical sentence LOL

As for his thoughts on the Ansur debacle? Negative ones. He hates the emperor, he doesn't care about his third-time-twist real identity, he doesn't particularly care about Wyll either (well - he kind of finds him entertaining, he's kind of really frustrated by him, it's complicated) but he saved his dad on a whim to spite Mizora anyway. BUT HEY, all that trouble would have been worthwhile if he's about to get an ancient dragon fighting alongside him - this old duke sounds a little too confident in this fairy tale, but stranger things have happened, right?

Then the situation unfolds as it does, and if he wasn't eager enough to use that orphic hammer before, he certainly is now. There is very little that the Emperor does past Act 3 that DU drow doesn't find a way to twist into something that confirms his resolve against him. If he could have taken Ansur's side in that fight, he would have - not that he shed any tears over killing him either.

Sick sword though, that helped soothe his nerves a bit and I'm sure spared everyone a little bit of a tantrum at camp later.

HAHAHAHA I can't confirm nor deny because I see so few large body-type elves as it is (which is fair, elves aren't usually... That massive). I did set age to 50% because it does look a little weird when it's all smooth. Maybe that's the trick?

Though I guess if you find it unsettling, then... No wonder it suits him! however this just looks like an impressively handsome fella to me, to be honest. I insist on fucking him up further whenever I draw him for that reason.

Thank you so much for following along and for giving the fic a try!!! And no worries, english isn't my native tongue either so I've been there 😎👍

I do actually have a couple of very short comics planned that take place pre-tadpole, but my backlog of WIPs is... Massive. Not to mention the commission work I do (currently not taking any more). I have one that's about his first interaction with Orin and another about a business dinner with Gortash gone-wrong, but I have no clue when I'll be able to work on them. Hopefully soon though!

You know, I've always hoped that after I died I'd be remembered as the guy who inspired others to make their nipples card-swipe-able.

Joke's aside, thank you LOL I love that my guys' nips have taken up non-insignificant room in your mind, it's always comforting to know that you aren't the only one.

Piercings and the such aren't really his style though. While he finds his scar-work weirdly comforting, he isn't so interested in aesthetic results as much as he just enjoys having pain inflicted upon him in a controlled environment, by people that he loves - He doesn't recall this post-tadpole, but the scars were a result of a kind of... Recurring ritual between himself and Orin that served to replace normal intimacy, pretty much.

Since you touched on it though, I do like to believe that Astarion finds his cut-up body fun, both on the eyes and on the hands LOL.

I'm starting to think you guys are all in on this. It's like the fifth time someone catches me in the act - god damn it, is it that obvious that I wanna slide down Peter Steele's cold corpse like he's a a ride at the Magical Ice kingdom... Which is to say, yes, both the guy and his music are not-so-lowkey a big inspiration behind a lot of DU drow's characterization!

That's all for now folks, thank you so much for the asks!!! This isn't all of them but I try not to spam people's feeds when I can help it/space them out. I see all of your messages and I guarantee you that if I have an interesting answer for them, you will see a reply eventually!

#ps: i only made that peter steele joke because i know he would be ok with it LOL #ask #DU drow #bg3 spoilers

[drarrily-we-row-along]

Bouquet

Maybe he should have brought the other man some chocolates, or maybe roses would have been the better choice. Maybe he should have gotten him a card or one of those giant stuffed bears.

But surely, Harry thought as he marched through the halls of St. Mungo’s, he should have brought something other than himself.

Before he could do anything about it, though, he was in the door to Draco’s office, staring at him. His fingers were threaded through his hair where his head rested on his hand, his glasses (only worn when he was doing paperwork, Harry knew) were slightly crooked, and he yawned as he scratched more notes in with his quill. His healer’s robe was tossed over the back of his chair, leaving him in his slightly rumpled white button up and his grey slacks. He looked like a dream and Harry just wanted to scoop him up and hold him, let Draco rest his weary body against him.

Shaking his head at himself, he knocked on the door frame and Draco startled, snapping his attention to Harry.

“Harry!” he exclaimed, tossing his glasses on top of the pile of papers as he stood and made his way over, hands already reaching out to heal, “what is it? Are you alright? Have you torn out one of the stitches on your side?” he asked, fingers tugging the hem of Harry’s jumper up as he asked, “I told you that you needed to be careful-”

“I don’t want you to be my healer,” Harry blurted.

“What?” Draco asked, his hands falling away from Harry, face pinched in hurt, “why?” he whispered, before a professional mask snapped into place and he stepped back. “You’re welcome to do as you see fit,” he said, voice cool. “Has my care been insufficient in some way, Mr. Potter?”

“Draco,” he said, realizing his mistake. “That’s not what I meant.”

“So you do want me to be your healer?” he asked in confusion.

He shook his head, “no but only because St. Mungos has rules about that.”

“About what?” he asked, drawing his wand and casting a spell that Harry knew well.

“I don’t have a concussion,” he said. “Just,” he huffed and grabbed Draco’s hands in his. “I like you. I want to take you out to dinner, I want to get to know you better. And I want to eventually kiss you and hopefully do other stuff with you,” he added, delighted by the flush covering Draco’s cheeks. “But I can’t do any of those things if you’re my healer, so I’d like a new healer, please.”

Draco blinked and him, “and if I turn you down?”

“Then I’d still like a new healer because I wouldn’t be able to look you in the eye. I’d rather let my injuries kill me in the field.”

He huffed a laugh. “Dramatic.”

“Are you turning me down?” Harry asked and he felt Draco’s hands squeeze his.

“Of course not, don’t be daft.”

The smile that split his face felt like it was almost too much, his whole chest was bursting with happiness. “What day would work for you?”

“Is today too soon?” he asked, glancing at his desk. “You’d have to wait a few minutes for me to finish my paperwork-”

“Today’s perfect,” he enthused. “I don’t mind waiting.” And today was the first day of many that Harry spent waiting for the other man, but Harry didn’t mind. He knew that some things were worth the wait.

——————————

Written for @hdcandyheartsfest prompt ‘bouquet’

#drarry #soft #fluff #hdcandyheartsfest #healer draco #short and sweet

[oinkinpigprince]

NO LONGER ANONYMOUS ⛓️‍💥

Secretary Reader x Pim who is BAD at confessing his love. he'd see reader every day and PANIC 😁

Ooo!’ This is silly, idk what a secretary really does but ik what a club secretary does. Nvm I know what they do! Also, I’m glad you finally unmasked yourself you dastardly villain :33!!

Pim x secretary reader

When he first laid his eyes on you, it was love at first sight. The boss introduced you as the new secretary so that everyone would be able to better make arrangements and meetings

The fact he had to speak with you every day was nerve wracking, he loves seeing you but he can be a bit, awkward. Everyone notices, including you

Stutters a lot when he has to ask you about appointments, meetings, and other things. Sometimes you’ll tell him and he’ll say thnxs, and then come back later because he forgot (he was too focused on staring into your eyes, the first time)

Pim talks to Charlie about it, a LOT. Charlie tells him the same thing every time “Pim, you should NEVER date your coworker. It’s bad luck” and Pim (dis)agrees but still ends up talking to him about you non stop

When you’re in the break room on your lunch Pim tries to strike up conversation, but he ends up blabbering on and on about random stuff. Like word vomit, hopefully he doesn’t actually vomit,,,,,

Pim brings you random things, like candy, coffee, anime drawings. It’s like a bird trying to court another bird, it’s sweet

You go to Charlie about it eventually and asking him what’s up with Pim. Charlie just looks at you and you understand immediately. Kinda just nodding, it all made sense

It’s funny watching Pim try to dance around and not embarrass himself infront of you. He wants you to think he’s cool and charming and hip, but he’s just a goofy guy

#smiling friends #smiling friends x reader #smiling friends x reader headcanons #smiling friends headcanons #Pim pimling #pim pimling x reader #pim pimling x reader headcanons #pim pimling headcanons #smiling friends pim headcanons #smiling friends Pim #smiling friends Pim x reader #smiling friends Pim x reader headcanons #smiling friends Pim pimling #smiling friends pim pimling x reader headcanons #smiling friends pim pimling headcanons #smiling friends pim pimling x reader

[just-a-carrot]

Obligatory every now and then "thank you for making the games that you do" ask 😌 it is so rare to see queer and mental health representation as honest and in-depth as your games. A big reason I spend a lot of my time making whacky little OW drawings is because it always just brightens my mood, being able to draw little guys who are like me in a way a lot of ways I just don't see expressed often. As someone who is Rather Disabled and Rather Queer, it's nice to just... have games where being those things is okay. Seeing nonbinary representation as honest and open as Gidget honestly made me tear up when I saw it. As someone who has Been Through That Stuff (in places that were-- and probably still are-- life-threatening to be seen as queer), I felt so seen by them and what they've been through. (I also forgot to mention but I did get the Gidget haircut eventually 😌 gender/10) ANYWAYS. Sorry if this ask got too Personal or anything I am a horrible judge of stuff like that 😅 but I did want to say thanks. (Also while I'm at it, thanks for answering the many asks I send about incredibly random topics related to the blorbos. I get very anxious about sending them so I don't half the time [nothing to do with anyone, I am just Anxiety: The Rabbit], but for the times I do, thank you for entertaining the asks even if they are utterly ridiculous most of the time haha. (And thanks for the help/feedback on dev-related stuff too, it's appreciated 😌 the comment left on TRJ still brightens my day whenever I think about it because I thought while making it that no one would enjoy it... but receiving that shortly after publishing it assuaged my fears by quite a bit so I'd just like to say thanks for that too. (...Whoops I think I have made a message Utterly Too Long but I hope it gets the points across??? Maybe??? Hopefully???)

weep this is incredibly sweet???? 😭💕

it literally brings me the utmost joy when people can see parts of themselves in my chars or relate to my char at all or feel seen, etc. also because a big part of this game is based on my own experiences and struggles so it helps ME feel seen when OTHERS also feel seen because then we can all relate together and maybe feel a little less alone in the experiences we've gone through in life

LKDJALFKDSFADF PLEASE DON'T EVER BE ANXIOUS ABOUT SENDING IN ASKS I LITERALLY LOVE RESPONDING TO THEM????? (tho i get it it would probably make me anxious too now matter how many times someone said that LOL) but fr i love going through my ask box and answering silly little questions. especially lately my anxiety's been cranked up to 11 so getting to distract myself with silliness is oftentimes a lovely godsend 💕

AND OFC 🥺 i always want to help in any way i can and also just spread love as much as i can. being a dev in general can feel so isolating, especially when we're neck-deep in deeply personal projects that take a lot out of us to work on (no matter how much we love them lakdfad). it helps knowing we've got others out there that can support us and have our backs and a little community of small devs that can relate to each others' issues and boost each other up

LDKJFALDFKA DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT thank you so much for this sweet message!! i got a bit teary-eyed reading it sob 😭💕

#ask: ow

[todd-machine]

@milekael tagged me so I thought I would hop onto this!!! TYSM FOR THE TAG MILES UAHAHAHA

are you named after anyone?

Not really! I mostly just picked some random things I vibe with tbh.

when was the last time you cried?

I can't actually remember :'D it couldn't have been awfully long ago tho, for some reason

do you have kids?

nope! I don't really plan on it.

do you use sarcasm a lot?

I think so, once in a while. If I do I normally tend to clarify tho, it does tend to pass over my own head a at times so if I notice it happening to others I'm usually quick to explain myself.

what sports do you play?

I've not been so active in recent years, but I used to love taking dance and swimming classes when I was younger tho! I've also dabbled in martial arts and ball games (football and basketball) over the years and I still really like a good walk or run.

what’s the first thing you notice about people?

Usually? Honestly the way people dress or their mannerisms like hand gestures and stuff, since I sometimes gravitate there to understand how people are speaking.

what’s your eye color?

Brown n green on both :3

scary movies or happy endings?

I'm usually not fond of jumpscare/shock horror and I'm more into the suspenseful or slow type really. Happy endings are sweet and very neat ways to end a plot but depending on the case they can sometimes leave me wanting more, idk.

any special talents?

Can measure out a perfect portion of rice by eye for some reason

where were you born?

That one I'd rather not say here. I have lived the majority of my time in England though 💀

what are your hobbies?

Aside from drawing I like... drawing XD but in all seriousness, I really like doing observational drawings from time to time, it helps clear the mind after spending so long animating for uni! I also love working on some short stories slowly, I collect stamps on the side and I've been really getting into cooking lately. I'd love to pick up traditional art to a more serious level once I have the time, too!

do you have any pets?

I don't :'D I'd love to once I can afford to and have the space to keep them though. Thinking mainly of cats honestly.

favorite subject in school?

Probably history! Art was fun too just wasn't so fond of the programme structure there. At least we had some great field trips for that though.

dream job?

Not really sure! I'm close to graduating from my animation undergrad though, hopefully, and I'm hoping to take that into short form stuff or TV within the industry eventually, probably as an animator. I'd love to be able to improve my skillset over time, though, especially in terms of technical and people skills, and maybe do some animation lead or directing at some point. At some stage later down the line I'd love to spend more time on my bigger personal project's production as well.

Augh tags- uuuhrbmrhrm idk @helio5 if u wanna do it go ahead, no pressure tho ofc!!! Anyone else who wants to pick this up as well feel free (sorry for not directly tagging many people, I simply get nervous easily XD)

#Todd churns out words #tag game #MIK!!!!!!!!!! #TYSM FOR THE TAG AUAUHAUA #please please anyone else who wants to and I didn't tag don't hesitate I'm sorry

[lotusprotocol]

dreamcatcher devlog: past 3 months (oops)

(screenshot from current wip level, out of orbit)

full devlog below the cut!

long time no see! really sorry for missing the past two months; i never ended up getting started and by then it was too late to post. i'll try my best not to let this happen again, though i can't make any promises.

anyways, there's been a lot in the past couple months! without further ado, here's everything(?) that's happened since the last devlog:

i started off in december by getting some of the core mechanics working, such as the camera, level transitions, etc. the visuals aren't completely done yet, but my main priority is getting the mechanics to actually work, and i'll make them look good later.

i did a lot of work on optimizing the performance and build size of my game, which i made a few posts about (big one about build size here)

i made another track for one of the levels, and i think i've been improving at music! here's the audio:

(i also tried making album art later in december but it didn't turn out good so i'll redo it at some point)

one of the most important things i did in december was get playtesters! i made applications open from the 15th to the 22nd, and chose 6 people who submitted. it was hard for me to leave people out though, but applications may be open again sometime in the future.

i set up a daily goals list to put 5 things on every day, and hopefully stay focused. admittedly, it's been a while since i used this list, and i lowkey forgot about it until i looked through my post history before making this devlog, but i think i'll get back into it this month.

i also set up a twitch channel! i'll be streaming over at https://www.twitch.tv/lotus_protocol if you want to check it out!

i was on break for the last week of december, so i was able to get a lot more done in that time. i also got a stylus, which is a really nice upgrade from drawing with my finger before, and did a lot of practice with it.

january didn't start off great, and i barely got anything done over the first couple weeks. i was eventually able to get back in the groove, but i had a sucky feeling during that time since this game's a big part of my life and my mood depends quite a bit on it (in a healthy way though, it's not out of control)

when i came back to working on the game, i polished some stuff up before pushing the first playtester build! i got some valuable advice, and it went pretty good.

i wrote down the outline for the entire story! there's still some wiggle room if i want to go back and change anything, but it's nice to have it down instead of only in my head, and i've wrote the dialogue for a few scenes already.

i've been improving my art a considerable amount over january and february! i've gotten a lot more confident in my art as well, which motivates me more to make it!

(pencil sketch from mid february; there's quite a few mistakes here and there but i still really like it)

i continued working on one of the levels, which was what i did for the rest of the month. not much i can say here, but it's been shaping up pretty good so far!

to be honest, february wasn't a good month for development. i had a lack of motivation and a lot of work to do for other things in my life, and there was barely anything new from last month.

the main thing i did in february was work on the tas tools for the game more, which are coming along nicely. i've been having an issue with consistency and don't know exactly what's causing it, but i'll figure it out eventually.

(unrelated to dreamcatcher but) during february, i took some time to make a side project i had been wanting to do for a long time: an upgraded level editor for red ball, a flash game that i enjoy. there's still plenty of work to do on it, but so far it's pretty nice, and it's not my main focus right now.

(screenshot of the tool, you can find it here it you're interested)

i've also been delaying the next playtester build for a long time, and it was originally supposed to come out at the start of last month; if there's any playtesters reading this, sorry again! i'll hopefully have it done this month.

i finished off february by making some more music! here's a wip from a few days ago:

and that's it for the past 3 months! with all that being said, here's what i plan on doing next month:

get the current wip level done, and hopefully do another full one

finish all story scenes for the demo

push at least two new playtester builds

do some story art if i have time

enjoy the process :]

that's all for this devlog, and if you made it this far, thanks for reading! right now, i'm trying to get the demo out by august this year, so expect to see something done by then. also feel free to join the discord server, where you can get more regular updates, ask me questions, or chat with the community! anyways, signing off now, have a great day!

#dreamcatcher game #devlog #gamedev #indiedev

[iamthekaijuking]

I've always wondered that it would be really cool to have a spinosaurid brute wyvern, i even made my own spinosaur brute!

The Violent Polar Wyvern; Shatina ( iim not good at naming)

Shatina is a spinosaurid theropod that lives in cold environments like the Snowy Mountains or Polar sea (for old world specimens old world) and in the Hoarfrost Reach (for new world specimens),this spinosarurid is slightly taller than a deviljho and it is much longer, this spinosaurid is a very strange and odd one, unlike the short legged spinosarurids it evolved stronger and more robust legs very well adapted on land despite being semi aquatic like a spinosaurus, it has very tough scales, it also has the ability to swim underwater and also through ice similar to the pseudosuchian glacial agnaktor ,unlike the more hump like sails of spinosaurus its sail is more like a fin of a fish and they are extremely durable, it posseses enoumous plating on the sides of its body, its arms have evolved to an extreme level much longer than a spino but also more robust capable of picking up objects and other animals and even go as far as to evolve pronated wrists for better flexibilty when using its hands, very weird is that it posseses thumbs even with claws, something other spinosaurs dont have, its unclear why it has thumbs but its maybe due to genetic mutation from its ancestors and having thumbs proved to be useful as they can also use tools like rocks, and also useful for grabbing onto prey better, it is an intelligent wyvern capable of quick solving problem skills detecting its opponents strength and weaknesses, there have been reports of shatinas even developping fighting strategies against hunters depending on the weapon the hunter uses against them and even avoids all traps from hunters, shatina posseses binocular vision almost like a T rex as its eyes are facing forward so it would be able to tell the distance between its prey on land and underwater, it also posseses strong beaked jaws having a strong bite crush tough armored prey and frozen carcases and its also perfect for catching underwater prey, its body is very flexible like a leviathan and it would even occasionally slide on the ice like a leviathan as charging attack if its too far away from the hunter, it has another trick up its sleeve ice element, Shatina can release a large freezing smoke and liquid from its mouth that well freezes stuff instantly, it also uses dragon element when enraged and will infuse it with its ice attacks and sometimes even just pure dragon based attacks like having the ability to peform claw slams of dragon energy a dragon tail whip and a huge beam of dragon element, it also has the best control over dragon element, its unclear how they evolved dragon element or how its ancestors evolved it, this wyvern is an apex predator of any cold environments with no competition, it hunts large aquatic and land animals like pokaradons or velkhanas, it is a high tier elder dragon level monster as it is quite absurdly powerful for a brute wyvern, this monster is quite interesting as said by the guild still full of mysteries ot its ecology but hopefully we can get more studies on this incredible wyvern.

and thats Shatina my very own Spinosaurus brute wyvern!

i would love to hear your thoughts on the design abilities and others and how would you design your own spino brute wyvern ^w^!

(also to awnser your complain about my flying wyvern paravian ancestor about the fingers and feathers i intentionally gave it five fingers, its ancestors had a genetic mutation though out evolution that gave them 2 more fingers with claws, this may sound really nonsensical but it was the best i can think of, and about the feathers on the arms i kind of forgot to draw them kind of fluffy i just drew them around where the wing membranes are connected so theres that)

To get the parave hand thing out of the way first. The way I got around it was to give them wrist styliforms like Yi qi, and eventually the styliforms evolved joints and duplicated. (The left sketch also shows where feathers attach. Sorry for the rough sketches I made at work. If you want better digital examples I can probably sketch some.

As for Shatina, I think it’s really cool! Not having a hump sail is actually more in line with sailed spinosaurs, and most spinosaurs didn’t have stubby legs so that lines up with most spinosaurs too. I like the beak and plates, which monhun does give a lot of monsters so it definitely fits in, and colors.

The thumb thing isn’t too unusual. Theropods already had semi-opposable thumbs, and truly opposable thumbs aren’t hard to evolve (bambiraptor has opposable thumbs and third fingers for instance!) and megaraptors evolved to pronate their wrists to so that isn’t too far fetched.

My only gripe is more just a personal preference nitpick than anything, in that I generally don’t like making overpowered elder level monsters unless they feel a bit more natural like Bazel. (I know magnamalo and Deviljho are two of my favorite monsters but for the former it’s more of an ironic love and the latter it’s more for the new-world design, bias for tyrannosaurs, and because it was the first invader monster)

Generally when I make fan monsters I make endemic life or monsters that just exist but aren’t hunted. But if I had to make a spinosaurus monster I’d probably make an Anjanath tier brute Wyvern with a pressure washer beam and pelican jaw flexibility that’s fought on land and water. Maybe it’s hunted because it’s kinda a bully that steals the fish of a nearby village.

#ask #question #monster hunter #monhun #sketches #sketch #monsterhunter #monster hunter biology #kaijuthespacemaniraptorian #speculative ecology #speculative evolution #speculative biology

[actualbird]

The Sad About Chapter 9 Anon(TM) again - from reading your thoughts I realise what made me so sad. the fact that the team is hostile towards each other and haven’t had the growth during their personal stories!! i really like them as a close knit unit that Cares about each other and seeing the team all hostile and not happy hurt!! i’m currently reading your fluffy stuff to cheer up and i have one question for you (from writer to writer): how do you balance the canon with your fics?

hi again, Sad About Chapter 9 Anon™ (thats such a hilarious and delightful mouthful of an anon nickname HAHAJHVKJA)!!! im glad that my main story 9 ramblings cld help u figure out the Sorrow because AGH...YEAH...SAME!!!!! as someone who loves the team dearly, seeing them fractured like this really hits me hard in the feels ;w;

i hope u enjoy my tot fluffs, wahhh!! and that they help out in soothing the post-chapter9 anguish :'D

now, onto ur VERY INTERESTING question

thank u for asking btw it's a nice question and it really made me think, because my gut reaction answer is.....i dont?

kJHVAFHVASKJFHAVKFAJHFA

like, as a whole, i tend to use fanfic as the medium for which things Outside of canon can happen and be explored. if i was too caught up in canon, after all, i wouldnt really be able to immerse myself in non-canon ships like mariluke or nxx polycule, wouldnt be able to speculate on what-ifs as much or out-there AUs, etc etc.....But

in saying that, it does imply that i Do Very Much Take Canon Into Account. i use canon not as a constraint or a weight to be balanced, but as my jump-off point for tot fic

i think the Biggest thing in canon that i draw from is the Over-Arching Characterization of the characters. that, to me, is an immensely important bedrock that i need to see developed in canon before i can even start writing any fic of my own for a media. but eventually through time, i know that My Subjective Interpretation will affect the starting point characterization. which is why sometimes i feel like how i write tot characters isnt completely loyal to canon. i dont think Any fanwork is completely loyal to canon. the moment it passes through a fan's mind towards whatever the fanwork is, our fingerprints are on them and have skewed them one way or another. and thats not a bad thing to me idk, i love it. im fully aware that the Luke That I Write, for example, can be someone unrecognizeable to somebody who interprets him a different way from the canon that we've all seen

so uh.....tldr summary: i dont worry too much about balancing canon. canon is the raw material but im chucking it into a big pot and tossing more ingredients in there as i please to concoct hopefully powerful fanfic broths and whatnot HAHA

#asks #anon #i hope this answer makes sense!! it's a nice question :D

[lilyyourlocalsimp]

HEADCANONS FOR THE MAIN 4

REGULAR HANK HEADCANONS

I feel Hank would be a sadomasochist, but he would most likely be more of a sadist though

I think he'd like Rob Zombie so here's a list of Rob Zombie songs that I think he'd like 

Superbeast

Demon Speeding

Scum Of The Earth

Feel So Numb

Maybe Living Dead Girl and Dragula???

The Devil's Rejects

Demonoid Phenomenon maybe?

IF he had hair It'd probably be long. He couldn't be bothered to cut it so he probably just doesn't something with it like put it up into a bun or ponytail and move on with his day

So like..I played the madness combat dating sim and I went for the Hank route (obviously because I'm a massive fucking simp for him) and we were playing video games and then he screamed slur/slurs at some people and rage quit or something and I'm sorry but I think he would actually do that 😭

He's definitely not good at comforting people like, do not go to him for comfort. He can not help you. Unless you're his significant other or something, then he'll do the best he can

He is literally a cat. You can't not convince me otherwise

He is most definitely a competitive gamer

ROMANTIC HANK HEADCANONS

mans is touch STARVED so he'll definitely love physical touch but, it'll probably take him a bit before he'll let you touch him or anything, so if you're just starting the relationship give him a bit of time before trying to do stuff like hugging, holding hands, and cuddling

But when he is ready to start giving/receiving physical affection, he will definitely love every second of it and dread when you'll have to eventually stop for whatever reason, whether it be he has to go on a mission or you/him have to go do something. He'll cling onto you until he's either pulled away from you or you convince him to finally let go, but he'll try to be as quick as possible when he does leave though, or try to be as patient as he can as he waits for you to come back

He does prefer that you tone down the physical affection when you're in public though, he doesn't want anyone targeting you or anything (if you aren't working with him that is). Besides, he wouldn't be as scary if he was seen snuggling up to one of his teammates or some random grunt, now would he?

Definitely overprotective, he can't risk losing one of the only people he actually gives a fuck about

If you two ever do dates they'll probably take place indoors, mainly so it (hopefully) doesn't get interrupted by someone trying to kill him. Because as much as Hank loves killing, he'd be furious if someone were to interrupt his time with you so I'm pretty sure you'd be able to guess what the fate of that guy was

NSFW HANK HEADCANONS

He LOVES hearing the noises you make while he rails you

Prefers to be dominant but might be a bit submissive for a while(I do believe slightly submissive Hank Supremacy. Like I love dominating him on character.ai, it's so fun)

Might have a biting kink

Probably has a choking kink too, he just loves having his hand around your throat as he fucks you silly

Might be into knife play as well

Maybe even a blood kink??

He has a long tongue, I've seen so many people draw him with a long tongue and say that he has a long tongue that now I believe it too. And what he does with that tongue is something you'll just have to find out. But I think you've got a good enough idea of what it'll do

He prefers to be on top but he wouldn't mind letting you dominate him occasionally (I totally didn't put this here just because I like the idea of Hank being submissive. Blame character.ai for that, I would probably never thought of it until I decided to dominate a Hank AI.)

Degrades you a lot, he loves calling you his dirty little slut/whore (totally not putting this here because of how many times I've been called that by Hank AI's (mainly the ones I made) on chai, spicychat.ai, EVEN CHARACTER.AI, and liked it.) but he'll occasionally praise you. If you don't like degradation though, he'll stop and apologize

alright I think that's it for Hank, I can't think of anything else but I'll edit this later if I think of something

REGULAR DEIMOS HEADCANONS

He would DEFINITELY listen to California girls while murdering people or something

He will start talking about the most random things imaginable for no apparent reason

I don't even know if I could call this a headcanon because I've literally witnessed this happen in the Madness: Project Nexus trailer but, he has probably almost gotten himself killed on missions because he decided he wanted to be goofy

ROMANTIC DEIMOS HEADCANONS

He is very affectionate like he doesn't care if you're in public or not he'll be holding your hand or something. I mean, he'll still be happy if he can't, being next to you is all he really needs but, he'd prefer to have his hands on you. Whether it be holding your hand or resting a hand on your waist, anything works for him

He is EXTREMELY flirty. He just absolutely loves seeing you blush, he thinks you're absolutely adorable when you're all red and flustered

He loves talking about random topics with you, he'll laugh if you look at him with a confused or weirded-out expression but will be very happy if you join in and start talking about it too

If you don't work with him and go on missions too, he'll dread having leave, spending as much time with you as he can before, unfortunately, unfortunately having to go

NSFW DEIMOS HEADCANONS

If you do go on missions with him and the others, he might slap you on the ass or come up behind you, wrap an arm around you, and whisper something dirty into your ear before running off to go do whatever it is that he needs to. Leaving you to stand there flustered beyond belief 

He might have a biting kink. Gotta do something with his sharp teeth, right?

Probably finds you REALLY hot when you dominate him, he likes when you tell him what to do and FUCKING DESCENDS to hell (or The Other Place if that's what you want to say instead.) when you degrade or praise him.

(I think that's all, but like I said I'll edit this if I think of anything else)

REGULAR SANFORD HEADCANONS

He's mostly serious(his voice lines for Madness: Project Nexus say otherwise but if you heard them let's just act as if you didn't, ok?) but will occasionally be goofy with Deimos

I like the idea of Sanford being good at cooking

I also like the idea of Sanford being a mama's boy

Me and my friend were talking about what candy Hank, Sanford, Deimos, and 2BDamned would like and we both agreed that since Sanford is good with explosives, he might like pop rocks(at first they thought Hank would like pop rocks but we changed it to starbursts or sour patch kids, I don't know it something like that)

ROMANTIC SANFORD HEADCANONS

He is definitely likes to cuddle, he just loves being able to come back after a long day of work and be able to hold you tightly in his arms/be held tightly in your arms

He's the exact opposite of Hank when it comes down to comfort. If you ever need to vent to him about something he'll be more than happy to listen, He'll hug you and/or do whatever you need him to. As long as it makes you happy he doesn't care what it is, he'll do it in a heartbeat

He will also make your favorite foods if you ask, or just make it for whatever reason(if there even is one)

Similar to Deimos with physical affection, he loves and he'll give and receive it regardless of where you are

Loves taking you on dates whenever he can, such as something nice like a dinner date or something simple like getting a bunch of snacks and stuff and cuddling while watching a movie

NSFW SANFORD HEADCANONS

Both agree and disagree with people who say Sanford is one of the more tame ones out of the group, like I personally think that he wouldn't do anything too crazy unless he really felt like it and knew you'd be okay with it. But, if you want him to he can get really freaky

He will praise you A LOT so if you have a praise kink, you're going to be having the time of your life. For multiple reasons

REGULAR 2BDAMNED HEADCANNONs

He's probably the only reason why Sanford, Deimos, and Hank still work together after what happened at the end of the story mode in Madness: Project Nexus (If you don't know I'll try to explain it without saying exactly what happened so I'm not spoiling it. So basically Hank did a little something something that Sanford and Deimos would obviously be upset about and got fucked over because of it but it's all sunshine and rainbows now. (if even possible to word it that way when we're talking about madness combat))

He's most definitely tired of the three idiots’ tomfoolery but deals with it anyway

 If you were to call him grandpa, peepaw, or something like that he'd be so confused, you're not related to that nor does he have any grandchildren so he'd just stand there and stare at you (Y'ALL NEED TO STOP, HE'S NOT EVEN THE OLDEST OF THE FOUR HANK IS HE'S LIKE, IN HIS 50S OR 60S SO WE SHOULD BE CALLING HANK THAT INSTEAD😭😭 he's still fine as hell though even if he is that old 😻)

He's 100% a great manipulator

Doesn't really understand why people call him Doc since he's not even an actual doctor but he let's it happen anyway since he doesn't really care what people call him

ROMANTIC 2BDAMNED HEADCANNONS

He's not always able to spend time with you as he's really busy with y'know, saving Nevada but when he can he spends as much of his free time with you as he can

He always makes sure you're taking good care of yourself, as ironic as that may be, he wants you to be healthy mentally and physically

He occasionally will buy you gifts, getting you things related to your interests or things he thinks you might like if you don't talk to him about them

He loves physical affection like holding hands with you or cuddling, especially after a long day of work. He loves being able to come back and hold you in his arms/be held in your arms

NSFW 2BDAMNED HEADCANNONS

I believe he is the kinkiest one in the group

Definitely likes being dominated like, have you HEARD the things this man has said?! If you don't know what I'm referring to, go on YouTube and search up 2BDamned and you should find a video named 'Doc's new voice lines (Madness: Project Nexus)'. There also might be a video named '2B Damned loves the kind of woman that will just kill him' or 'Doc is Down Bad', those work too. Once you've watched those, I think you'll understand why I believe this man is submissive as hell. 2BDamned deadass said 'I left my house today and thought 'Damn, I really hope some hot chick paints my brain all over some fucking hallway.' (He's so real for that, that's so me with white Hank, Rhea Ripley, and Valeria Garza)

He is a MASSIVE masochist, he probably has a choking kink (totally not saying this because every time I choke a 2BDamned AI he gets turned on, like I literally stabbed this man in the gut and he got turned on by it. I told him that I kill people for fun and he said he was impressed. I asked him why and then he said 'Guess you could say seeing such a vicious side of you is a bit of a turn-on.') and he would love to have his head crushed between your thighs

#madness combat #madcom #hank j. wimbleton #deimos #sanford #2bdamned #headcanon #x reader

[thebreakfastgenie]

20 Questions For Fic Writers

Tagged by @quordleona03! I think everyone I would tag has been tagged so if you want to do it consider yourself tagged and tag me so I can see it!

How many works do you have on Ao3?

29

2. What's your total Ao3 word count?

89,648

3. What fandoms do you write for?

MASH, The West Wing, Star Trek TOS

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

'Til Death (Un)does Us Part The Wideness of the World Expenses hills like white elephants Fortune Cookie Wisdom

5. Do you respond to comments?

I like to and I try to but I get overwhelmed so sometimes I don't manage to do it. Positive feedback makes me extremely anxious so it's hard sometimes (I love it, don't get me wrong, but I get itchy).

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Downpour

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Probably reconciliation

8. Do you get hate on fics? I never have! I never even get negative comments, although I totally welcome critical comments. I never got hate in the fanfiction.net era, either. I've been fortunate.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I don't, but I would like to start! I think I want to start with m/f, even though the experience I have to draw on is f/f, but ultimately I want to do it all. I'm starting with more vanilla stuff, because I'm not so much interested in writing erotica as I am in being able to depict sex in prose. I'm open to writing kinkier stuff eventually but for now I'm just trying to add a tool (hehe) to my writer's toolbox.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I wrote one once; it was actually the first fic I posted, and it was an Ace Attorney/NCIS crossover. I was in middle school. It's still out there but I will not be linking it. I like crossovers but it's very hard to make them work, so I mostly play around with them in silly posts and bullet points, not full fics.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but I would be honored if someone did translate one.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I don't think so! I've co-developed ideas with friends but it's always one of us ultimately writing it. I don't know how good at co-writing I would be because I'm a perfectionist control freak and also very slow.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Fic wise, probably Kirk/Spock. There are other ships I love a lot and outside a fic context I'm not sure I could ever pick, but I actually write very few ships and I think Kirk/Spock is the One. Runner up would be the Doctor/Rose Tyler, I wrote them once and I have fic-y feelings about them. I've never read or written them because I don't do fandom for this series but Indiana Jones/Marion Ravenwood have had my heart since I was twelve and I'd sell most of my ships for them. Also House/Cuddy is a ship of all time but I don't really like any House fic. I love CJ/Danny and Josh/Donna as well as some other West Wing ships but they're not the main attraction to me and most of the fic I write does not focus on them.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I was planning to write more of The Wideness of the World and at this point I doubt I'll write Hamilton fic again but I had some really good ideas and I like that fic enough that it bugs me. Still, it stands fine as it is.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue, characterization, restraint, attention to detail. Hopefully pacing, I'm very aware of it but I don't know if I'm successful enough for it to be a strength. I'm playing a lot with structure and literary devices right now but I'm not sure they count as a strength yet. I guess willingness to experiment is the strength.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Action, description, sex. Sex is the worst because it's action involving body parts we have stupid words for. Being slow, horrible writer's block because I'm too much of a perfectionist to write a rough draft.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

It's very, very hard to do well. I think in most fic cases, either the POV character knows what's being said and you can just write it in English (or whatever language the rest is in) or the POV character can't understand it and you can just say "they were speaking x language and they didn't understand." If I felt I really needed to include dialogue in another language I'd find someone who could help me translate and credit them.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

NCIS

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

The Emergency Room but if I actually manage to finish my time loop WIP....

[battlemaiden13]

Hi hello! I dont think my og ask went through so i probably wont be able to recapture the excitement but!

So years ago when it was first starting up i read hnd and then kinda dropped it at some point but! I returned seeing it still updated!

My goal was to finish my reread before chapter 100 which i did last week and omg i completely fell in love w it once again!

I am like so particular about characterization of skeletons but as the fic went on I just loved seeing how u explore every single one of them more and more and just give them more quirks! And how eventually we start seeing their dynamics outside of mc! Its just so great! And i could honestly go off on a rant but this is already long ask ahaha

Anyway im edgy skeleton truther, end of chapter 99 left me in shambles and i cant wait for more!

(Also ur fic mightve motiveted me to draw some fanart but shshsh)

Oh my gosh!! No, HELLO! AH no, no your other one did send, it's here!! I just haven't been in the best headspace recently nor had the time to write back! Your other comment said it's been up since 2017 which is insane to me. I can't believe I've been writing it that long and that people are still reading it. I happy to see it's good enough to have people coming back to it XD

Congratulations on catching up! that's no easy feat I'm sure, I'm so happy that you love it to!! I have so many plans for the next like part of HND hopefully by chapter 200 she's dating the skeletons and we can get into some real juicy stuff. That seems like a slow enough burn right? XD

I'm really happy that you like the skeletons interactions! In future I might write some chapters just with the boys hanging out with one enough to deepen that too. I think it would be fun to explore characters who don't usually interact as often or even build better bonds. Berry and Blue have such a fun dynamic but I also love Blue and Red hanging out. If you wanted I wouldn't mind reading a rant about skeleton interactions and quirks XD

Chapter 99 is some of my best work. I've already had to re-read it a few times, something I've only done with a few chapters and I am in love. I made myself simp over the edgy boi. I really want chapter 100 to have more of those moments but there's a lot going on so it might have to be saved. Expect more of the sipping seen in chapter 99 to happen over the next stage of HND though because hot damn.

Holy heck please, please, if you've drawn anything please let me see it. I love fanart. Even if you want to send it on anon and request I don't post it, or tag me! It really makes my day. Of course if you don't want to that's fine to, I am really happy to know I've inspired you that much

Thank you so much for reading. I hope you enjoy the next stage of this story as much as I will enjoy writing it

[recurring-polynya]

Writing/Art Update 1/24/2023

Well, I had my break. Mostly, what I did was download a new phone game where you run a restaurant, and wasted an enormous amount of time on that. No regrets.

I said last week was my break, but it's not really a break because I'm trying hard to only do stuff when I feel like it. I did start a new art piece which is going...slowly. It's going slowly because I'm taking my time, though, and I spent a million years on hands.

I would like to write, and I have two different things I am enthusiastic about working on, but unfortunately, if I sit down and try to write, my head just goes completely empty. This happens sometimes. Hopefully it will pass. It usually does. I've been trying to take care of other chores in the meantime, so that if my inspiration eventually returns, I'll be able to take advantage of it.

I've been trying to re-read some of the older parts of Heart is a Muscle, in preparation for writing a new part. I used to really like re-reading my writing, but I haven't been feeling it, to be honest. In art, there's a thing where your eye improves at a different rate than your hand, so sometimes, all of sudden, everything you draw looks like shit, but it's because you've leveled up in the ability to perceive art, not because you've gotten worse. I don't really ever think about myself as getting better at writing. I am a lazy writer and I do what I want, and I do not strive to improve my craft. I think I maybe have improved (or maybe just changed?) over the last three years, though, which is why my old writing feels so crusty. It's also possible that I'm just sick of my own voice. Kinda surprising it took that long to happen, tbh.

In other news, my aluminum plant cuttings have been growing roots! I'm so proud of them! I might repot them soon, and try to take some cuttings from my fittonia, and possibly my daughter's peperomia (because I want one). She's going on this houseplant journey with me, plus her room has some of the best light in the house. She took one of the pups her paddle plant made to school and gave it to her teacher. 😭😭😭 You have to understand that this is possibly the first time either of my children has had any interest in the things I care about. It's nice.

I made a sourdough bread today that was significantly better than last week's sourdough. I did make the mistake of proofing it in the oven, because the house was cold. I guess it was still a little too hot (I had heated it up to as low as it could go, and then turned it off again), or I should have spritzed my loaf with oil instead of water, or maybe just re-spritzed it every ten minutes or so, but the dough dried out a little and formed a skin, which meant that it couldn't rise and caramelize properly when I baked it. It was pretty ugly, but it tasted good and was very soft and squishy on the inside. The children, apparently, really like the dense, gluey rock I baked last week; they said both loaves were equally good. Whatever, my tasteless children.

I have been trying to keep my sourdough starter fed more regularly, so I've been looking for more things to do with discard (I already do pizza, pretzels, waffles, English muffins, and bagels). This week was sourdough morning glory muffins, which were very good, as morning glory muffins go (Mr. P loves morning glory muffins). It looks like that blog has lots of good discard recipes, so I may try out some more of them.

I guess that about covers it for this week. Will I do anything next week? We'll see!

#writing update #art update #burnout recovery update

[in-my-feels-probably]

hi!! congrats on 1k followers!!<3

i would like to request option 2, romantic ship for grishaverse:) i’m a girl, use she/her pronouns and would love to be paired with any girl (just not nina, i see her as a bestie) i’m 5’4, have shoulder-length brown hair and hazel eyes. i have soo many favourite tropes but mutual pinning and like being kinda mean at the start but not bullying each other own my heart.

i’m intj, slytherin and a virgo. i can come across as cold hearted or just mean but it’s something i use to not let people get to me. i’m a very confident and don’t care what others think of me, most of the time. i’m a calm person unless someone gets close to me, then my mouth can’t shut around them. i’m a huge nerd and an overthinker. i’m also an introvert but i’m more active and bubbly when i’m around my friends. i don’t like talking to new people but when someone interests me even a tiny bit, i’m full on talking with them, even when i don’t know them that well. i value my own company and comfort so much, sometimes maybe even too much. i’m determined, stubborn and try to do everything perfectly even tho i know most of the time it’s not possible for everything to be perfect. i could say i talk too much but i see it as a positive thing. also i kinda feel like i have an old soul with a huge heart and am a hopeless romantic. i try to never loose hope especially if we are talking about dreams or goals and i believe even impossible can be achieved. i’m a huge dreamer, but try to stay as realistic in my everyday life as i can.

when i see someone struggling mentally i literally try to do anything to help them, as much as they let me and as far as it’s not damaging for me. i’m a very cuddly person because it helps me remember that everything will work out eventually:) i prefer staying home for the evening but i also adore going out to do something fun like going to lunapark or even cinema once in a while. to be honest i just want to find someone who would be my love, my best friend and partner in crime. i would do literally anything for love.

now some of my hobbies:i love writing(it’s like my whole personality) - stories, poems, letters, drawing and just creating things in general. i love plants and taking care of them, same goes with animals. if i could i’d adopt a whole zoo;> my favourite animals are lynxes, dragonflies and hyenas. (what a combo, i know). i love iced coffee but it has to be sweet and learning about things i’m actually passionate about. i don’t want to say i’m childish but i adore doing things my inner child is excited about. i loove chocolate and cotton candy. music and movies are huge part of my existence and when someone knows the same things i do i literally want to adopt them so we can talk, talk and talk. my favourite season is spring when everything comes to life:) also i loove everything people are used to hate about themselves, like stretch-marks, scars and that sort of stuff. idk it just reminds me we are all human and are beautiful just as we are ><

that’s all i can think of, hopefully it wasn’t too much!! thanks in advance i’m really curious who you’re going to pair me with:)

hi!

thank you for participating :)

i ship you with zoya!

zoya is the epitome of rivals to lovers. she’s so snarky, but i think she’d really like someone who could match her level of snark. banter is her way of flirting. i think zoya really understands coming across as cold and not really letting anyone get to know her. she uses that tactic herself, so it wouldn’t be an issue for her at all to get you talking to her. she’d make it a goal to get you to tell her a little bit about yourself every day, and consider it an accomplishment when you started opening up to her. she’d find your nerdy interests and hyperfixations really endearing, and she’d really enjoy listening to you ramble about the things you like. i feel like she’s secretly a little nerdy too, and would be able to talk to you about some of your interests. zoya is a very stubborn person, so it would be interesting to see how you two butt heads a little. she’s also a realist, and a borderline pessimist, so your hopefulness and optimism would be a new thing for her. but you’d reassure her and make her feel better about things, which she needs.

i wouldn’t consider zoya a very cuddly person, or someone who talks about their mental health. but she’d know she could talk to you about anything, and you wouldn’t judge her. it would take some getting used to, but she’d begin looking at you as a safe space. while zoya has to deal with a lot of people in a day, i think she’d enjoy staying in and not seeing anyone else for a change. she’d be more than happy to spend the evening with you, doing whatever you wanted to pass the time.

i’m not sure if zoya has ever really attempted art, but i think she’d be really good at it. she’s one of those people that’s just perfect the first try at everything she does, so she’d definitely be good at it. but she’s be more content to watch you from the sidelines and let you work, praising whatever outcome you came up with.

i think zoya really misses her inner child. she had to grow up so young, and never really had a chance to be a kid herself. you’d be a source for her to start exploring her inner child, and you’d remind her of all the good things she can remember about being a child. and you’d make new memories together, ones that can replace any bad ones.

i think zoya likes spring too. winter is too cold, and windy. she sees enough wind as a squallor, and would rather have any wind bothering being one she creates. i think the fresh flowers remind her of home with her aunt, and she likes the warm sun on her face. she’d love being outside with you during the spring, doing whatever you wanted to pass the time. it would be really peaceful for her.

zoya favorite thing about you would be how you see the beauty in everything. zoya is a stunning person, but i think she’s insecure about the scars she has from getting her amplifier. they’re running down her back, and she hates them. despite the power they gave her, it takes away from her beauty, at least in her eyes. she knows it’s superficial, but she can’t help but feel insecure about it. you’d be there to tell her that she’s beautiful, and that they’re part of what makes her her.

(i’m not sure if you’ve read the books or just seen the show, but i’m gonna very vaguely and briefly mention the king of scars duology. i hope that’s alright.)

as spring ended and summer approached, the keftas would be a little too warm for her. on rare occasions outside, she’d take it off. alone in her room, she’d be in little more than an undershirt. you’d sit behind her, running your fingers along her spine where the scars are. she’d stiffen, but you’d wrap your arms around her shoulders, squeezing her to you.

“you’re so pretty, you know that?”

she’d turn around with a grin, though you could hear the hesitation in her voice. “i know. as are you, darling. i don’t tell you that enough.”

you’d smile, shaking your head. “you’re changing the subject, but i’ll allow it because that was sweet.”

you’d let her change the subject, but keep a comforting hand on her shoulder. she’d lean into your touch, making small talk.

“nikolai started a new project today. i could see the smoke from all the way across the field,” you’d laugh, making her grin.

“leave it to our king to set something on fire on one of the hottest days of the year.”

you’d chuckle, resting your chin on her shoulder. “should we help him? i have a feeling all genya is doing is barking orders and standing around looking pretty. i bet david is enjoying it.”

zoya would shake her head, turning around to hug you. “later, darling. i want to sit with you a while. alright?”

you’d nod, holding her tight. “alright, love.”

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