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jackie-shitposts · 3 years

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I Thought Thieves Love Jules!

Carmen strolled out of the elevator, feeling pretty beat after her workout with Shadowsan. Not that she would ever admit that- she had wanted to keep going, but it had only been two days since she got electrocuted in Egypt, so Shadowsan made her cut her workout short while he continued. Carmen sauntered over to the counter, taking a long drink from her water bottle, just as Player’s image appeared on her laptop screen. “Check it out, Red. Julia just posted a new entry on her blog, about a recent find in Columbia.” Player said, ”But it totally digresses into fun facts about fair trade coffee, including a “Red Blend.” Carmen leaned onto the counter. “Could be another riddle to solve?” “Good thing I learned a thing or two about code-breaking from Julia.” Player smirked, clearly excited to show off his new skills. “Every paragraph ends with a number. If you line ‘em up like they're a date and time, it’s tomorrow at 8am.” “Seems Chief wants an opportunity to thank me over coffee.” Carmen quirked an eyebrow. Seems as though she’d be seeing her favorite agent-turned-historian-turned-agent-again in the field, per Chief’s request. “How can you be sure it’s not a trap?” Player asked apprehensively. “If it were, Jules would’ve worded it differently.”

“OoOoO, are we talking about Jules?” Zack asked, peeking his head out from the doorway.

“That ACME gal Carm has a crush on?” Ivy chimed in, peeking her own head out from under her brother.

Carmen rolled her eyes at the sibling’s cartoonish antics. “Jules and I are just friends, you two.”

Ivy scoffed, entering the room and flopping onto the couch. “Yeah right- then why did you specifically go to her when you needed help decoding the relics?”

Carmen casually took a sip of her water before answering. “Jules was already familiar with VILE- getting a stranger involved would’ve only made things more complicated and dangerous than it already was.” Zack hopped onto the couch opposite of Ivy, resting his feet up on her knees. He pointedly ignored Ivy’s protests of, “Zack, gross!” and smirked at Carmen. “Oh? Then why did you ask Devineaux where she was in Louisiana?” “Hey, you never told me about that one!” Ivy gasped, feigning betrayal. “I was just surprised ACME let that driving disaster use a car,” Carmen quipped. Player laughed on his side of the screen. “Don’t act like you’re any better, Red. Don’t you remember your first caper?”

Carmen gasped, pretending to be insulted. “Says the 17 year old without a learners permit.”

“Not like I have anywhere to go.” Player laughed, before refocusing on Carmen’s interrogation. “Speaking of firsts, how about when you first met Julia? I listened in, and it totally sounded like you were flirting with her. You called her “Jules” on your first meeting!” Carmen narrowed her eyes at Player in defiance. “I was just sitting across from Jules so I could blend in while keeping an eye on Paper Star. And what’s wrong with nicknames? I called Crackle “Gray” and Ivy “Ives”. I don’t see what the difference is.” “The difference is that you and Cracker used to be best friends, and now we are best friends. However, you and Jules were not friends at the time.” Ivy said, emphasizing the nickname. “His name is Crackle now.” “He went and rejoined VILE, I think I get to call Gary whatever I want.” Player chimed back into the conversation. “Why did you leave the Magna Cartas with Julia, anyway? You had one conversation with her, what made you think leaving them with her meant they were in “good hands?” “While sitting next to her, I noticed Devineaux’s briefcase, and she said they were travel partners on business. I figured that meant they were law enforcement also trying to recover the documents. Leaving them with Jules simply saved me the hassle of returning the documents myself.” Carmen explained casually. “What about the fashion show in Milan, Carm? Why’d you have Julia help us then?” Zack asked, a shit-eating grin plastered onto his face. Carmen sighed in annoyance. Why won’t they just get off her back about this already? “Jules was the only ACME agent around, and I knew that ACME would be able to get the gowns to safety. And before you ask,” Carmen pointed at Ivy, whose mouth was already open with some smug retort, “I put her in charge instead of you because she would know where the gowns could be put for ACME to return.” At that, Ivy simply leaned back onto the couch and mirrored her brother’s smug grin. “Yeah, that was a fun night.” She smirked, and Zack tried to hold back his laugh that came out as more of a snort. Carmen raised her brow at the untold story, but she decided not to press. For the sake of her sanity.

“Well, what about Stockholm?” Zack blurted. Ivy and Player’s eyes snapped to Carmen, looking for any hint of discomfort, and Zack immediately tried to rectify the situation. “I-I mean, yknow, you just were gonna go try to get her help before-”

Carmen cut off his anxious rambling, smiling warmly. “Don’t worry about it Zack, I know what you mean. I wanted to talk to Jules to see if she could get ACME to back off. While that obviously didn’t happen, I know Jules didn’t try to betray me.” Carmen glanced out the window for a moment, whispering quietly to herself. “I don’t think I could be angry at her if I tried.” Carmen turned back to her friends and smiled. “Plus, she helped me out in Monaco and Ile De L'oleron afterwards, so-” Player practically leapt up from his chair, causing a loud crash as he knocked the fidget spinners off his desk and dropped the rubix cute he was playing with. “Yeah, let's talk about Monaco! You can’t tell me you guys weren’t flirting at the party. She was so confident you were going to deliver the goods to her door, and you trusted her not to stop you when you stole the eggs. Come on, Red, you know she was flirting with you!” Carmen felt Zack and Ivy’s eyes on her expectantly, and she chuckled at Player’s exasperation. “Player, I’m pretty good at reading people, and I’m fairly certain she wasn’t flirting with me. Even if she was, I was not flirting ba-” “Then what about the roses?”

Carmen’s eyes widened almost imperceptibly. How did Zack, of all people, know about the roses?

“Oh my god, the roses! Carm, why the fuck didn’t you tell us about the roses?” Ivy exclaimed, springing up from her relaxed position on the couch.

Carmen bit her lip before answering. “They were just flowers, as a thank you gift for the help. How do you know about them, anyway? I didn’t buy them until after you guys left.”

At that, Player piped up once again. “So Red, you know how at the end of each month, I look through our funds and see how much we spend on capers, to set our budget for the next month? Well, it was pretty interesting for me to see that you used our encrypted card to buy a bouquet of red roses from the flower shop across the street from Julia’s apartment, on the same day we left her the goods.”

Fuck. Carmen needed to shut this down, now. “They were just a thank you gift guys, nothing more. Just something Jules could keep for herself. And red is my color, so the roses seemed like a good gift. Now if you’ll excuse me,” Carmen glared at the redheads sternly, daring them to stop her, before looking down at Player with the same forbidding look. ”I’m going to take a shower. Player, let me know when you’ve got a red eye to Seattle ready.” Carmen closed the laptop, tucked it under her arm and walked out of the room without looking back. ~~~

The video call flickered to black, and Player leaned back into his chair, sighing. Red can be so thick-headed sometimes. As he booked her flight, he thought back to their teasing and banter from moments before.

Red seemed pretty genuine- maybe we were wrong after all.

Player took a deep breath- he didn’t want to call Carmen back so soon, especially when she seemed pretty pissed at the end of their last call- but he had booked her flight for a short two hours from now. So, Player reconnected to Carmen’s laptop, still looking at the red eye information on his other monitor, before hearing a loud, exasperated groan coming from his speakers.

“Holy fuck that was such a mess!”

Player’s head snapped towards his other monitor. The laptop had been set on the dresser across from Carmen’s bed, where she was laying sprawled out in agony. Player quickly hit his mute button and sat back to watch.

Carmen’s arms raised up to cover her face- though Player couldn’t see it, he was sure her face was covered in her signature color. “God, and the roses- why did I use the card for the roses? That’s a basic credit card slip, how am I so stupid!”

Carmen sat up, hands still over her flushed face. “I’m so fucking lucky they didn’t hear us on the ferry or at her office, there’s no way they would’ve ever let that go- I thought I wasn’t being obvious about this stupid crush-

That was all the confirmation Player needed. He clicked unmute and nearly shouted, “So you do have a crush on Julia! I knew it!”

Carmen’s head snapped up to the source of the sound, her face as red as her coat hanging on the wall’s hook. “Player! What the fuck are you-” Carmen froze as she watched Player pick up his cell phone. “Player, if you do what I think you’re about to-”

“Then what? You’re two thousand miles away Red, I'm practically untouchable.” He laughed and grinned smugly at the webcam as he dialed a number.

“Player, you are so dead next time I visit Ontario!” Carmen yelled before she threw her door open, barrelling down the hall to the stairway.

~~~

Zack and Ivy watched in silence as Carmen walked out of the room. When they heard the door to the stairway close, they looked at each other, before they couldn’t take it anymore and burst into laughter.

“Holy shit she looked so mad!” Ivy wheezed through her laughing fit.

“I know! Do you think that means she was telling the truth?” Zack questioned as he tried (and failed) to calm his giggles.

“No way.”

“But she seemed pretty-”

“What are you two laughing about?” Shadowsan’s stern voice stopped the twin’s giggling dead in its tracks. Just as Ivy opened her mouth to make an excuse, since she doubted Carmen wanted Shadowsan involved in her love life, (he is like her father, isnt he?) Zack spoke up.

“We tried to get Carm to confess that she likes Julia, but she kept on telling us she just likes Julia as a friend. Maybe she wasn’t lying, most of her reasons were pretty solid.” Ivy would’ve smacked him then and there if Shadowsan hadn’t interrupted her train of thought with a small chuckle. Since when did Shadowsan chuckle? “On VILE Island, Carmen was trained to be a master of deception. Do you not realize that she was also trained to survive any interrogation?” Shadowsan said, with…humor in his voice? Zack and Ivy were silent for a moment. “Wait, does that mean she actually does like Ju-” The moment was interrupted with a call on Ivy’s phone. When she looked at the caller ID, her eyes widened as she answered it and put the device on speaker. “Carmen does have a crush on Julia!” Player shouted from the phone, just as the Crimson Gay Ghost herself burst into the room and crashed into Ivy. “Dammit!” Carmen yelled, taking the phone from Ivy who was now on the floor with Carmen and laughing. “Player, I’m going to fly to Ontario and kick your ass!” Player’s laughing from the phone was almost drowned out by Zack and Ivy’s. “Oh no you’re not, you’ve got a flight to catch in two hours!” “OoOh where to? To go see your “favorite ACME agent”?” Ivy teased through her laughter. “Yeah Carm, I thought thieves love Jules!” Zack said as he laughed. Carmen jumped off of Ivy, her voice a noticeably higher pitch and her face extremely red as she shouted, “No! I mean- well, that is- I just-” As Zack, Ivy and Player continued to tease an extremely red-faced and stammering Carmen, Shadowsan smiled and quietly walked out of the room. It seems the war may be coming to a close with ACME on their side, but that doesn’t mean Carmen has to stop chasing someone.

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daised-daisy · 2 years

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Our Happily Ever After

One last quick thing for the first day of @loginceweek2022! I had this on my old account and I decided to repost it here since it fits with the proposal theme.

Ship: Logince (Logan x Roman)

Word Count: 759

Summary: Logan has a special surprise for Roman during their trip to Disney World.

Taking Roman to Disney World was the best decision Logan had ever made. This was the happiest he’d ever seen his adorable Disney-loving boyfriend. His green eyes were constantly wide and filled with wonder and amazement, and always complimented with a bright, excited smile. And of course, Roman being Roman, was dressed incredibly stylishly and in a Disney theme. He had a gray Mickey Mouse shirt that was slightly oversized tucked into red shorts, and some Minnie Mouse Ears that had a red bow with white polka dots. Those ears have already almost fallen off multiple times when Roman got bouncy from his excitement.

“Mmph.” Logan looked down when he heard a noise and something touching his side. Roman was pressed against him with his arms around Logan’s waist and his head buried in Logan’s side.

“You alright, Ro?” Logan asked, bringing his hand up to rub Roman’s back. Logan could see a peek of a smile at the corner of Roman’s lip. He nodded and looked up at him.

“I love you,” he said. Logan smiled back at him.

“I love you too,” he said. As he stared down at Roman, he felt an urge. He was going to wait until later when the sun was just beginning to set, when the sky was painted with Roman’s favorite colors—red and pink and orange and yellow. But as Roman pulled away from him and started talking about what they could do next, rocking back on his heels and forwards onto the balls of his feet over and over as he spoke, Logan knew he couldn’t wait any longer.

“Roman, let’s get a nice picture by the castle,” he said. Roman looked at him, a little surprised, glancing over at the semi-long line behind the photographer. He scrunched up his face with pursed lips skewed to the side. “And we’ll get some lunch afterward. Come on.” He took his hand and led him to the back of the line. Roman wasn’t really pumped about waiting in this line for a photo when he could be waiting for a ride or looking through the shops, but he knew this trip wasn’t all about him, so he waited as patiently as he could next to his beloved boyfriend.

Logan knew Roman was bored as soon as they stepped in line, but luckily, he had planned for this. He took off his small backpack and pulled out a Mickey themed fidget spinner he had secretly bought and handed it to Roman, who immediately perked up.

“It lights up if press the buttons,” he said. Roman happily busied himself with it while also talking to Logan about things like what their favorite ride was so far. Roman thought himself to be quite funny when he first answered ‘you’. Logan had done a lot of carrying that trip when Roman’s feet got tired.

After surprisingly not that long, they reached the front of the line. Roman gave Logan the fidget spinner and he put it back in his bag, discretely taking something else out as he did. He quickly whispered something to the photographer while Roman got in the spot in front of the castle. Logan stood by his side with one hand around Roman’s waist.

“Three... two...” the photographer said. Roman felt Logan’s touch disappear. Confused, he turned to him and found him down on one knee beside him. He gasped. “One!” Click.

“Roman, before I met you, I didn’t believe in things like true love’s kiss or happily ever after. I thought my life would remain dull and repetitive and consistent because that’s the way I thought I wanted it,” Logan began, holding up a ring with the Tangled sun on it. “But then you came into my life and I realized just how wrong I was, because, Roman, you are my happily ever after.” He smiled and took a deep breath. “So, will you marry me?”

Roman was already crying, and had been fanning his face with his hands as he listened to Logan. He nodded enthusiastically, smiling even brighter that he had been before from just being in the parks.

“Yes!” he said. Logan took his hand and put the ring on. Roman then pulled him up and kissed him, and they got a few cheers from the people who had been waiting in line behind them.

Logan paid for the picture, then quite literally swept Roman off his feet, carrying him to Pinocchio’s so he and his dream come true, his everything, his fiancé could get something to eat.

#loginceweek2022 #logince #roman sanders #logan sanders #sanders sides #daisy writing

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get-shiggy-with-it · 3 years

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#1 Victory Royale

✧ pairing: college student!spinner x student!afab!reader

✧ word count: 4.4k

✧ warnings: college au/no quirks, light angst, mostly soft/fluff, smut, could be hate fucking if you squint, afab reader but no pronouns, this is pretty tame, by like my standards, I wrote this at work, not really a warning, but it felt like you needed to know that

✧ summary: relationships suck and Spinner is starting to think maybe he does too

✧ ao3 mirror

✧ a/n: Hey y'all, welcome back to more college au bs from me. This is set in the same universe once again as all my other college pieces. A very sweet anon asked if we'd ever get to see more of Spinner, so here he is! Also with another cameo from shiggy's bitch (endearing) cause I can't help myself.

“Ughhhhhh….”

Spinner’s groaning echoed through the tiny apartment, the heavy sound of creaking couch cushions under his weight following.

“What?” his long-suffering roommate shouted out their bedroom door, rapidly shoving clothing and a toothbrush into an overnight bag.

“Uggghhhhhhh!”

He let out with another, louder dying animal wail. He’d been like this since they woke up—wallowing in some strange concoction of self pity and Red Bull on the kitchen floor when they walked in for water two hours ago.

“Motherfucker,” they mumbled, tossing their bag to the floor and marching, more than a little disgruntled, into the hall. “What do you want?”

Spinner was sitting upside down on the couch now, feet up against the wall tapestry and cotton candy hair splayed out on the floor. He stared blankly as his friend came into view—arms crossed, frowning at him from the end of the hall—and opened his mouth once more, letting out another garbled grunt that had one of the neighbors pounding twice on the wall to shut his dramatic ass up.

“Dude seriously, are you gonna tell me who pissed in your cereal or are you just gonna scream until the guys next door kick a hole through our wall?”

They almost felt bad as he looked away, sniffing and letting himself slump farther off the sofa until he was sprawled completely on the hardwood and staring, glassy eyed, up at the ceiling.

When he finally spoke a full sentence, his gaze was locked on the water stain above him from a year ago when the upstairs neighbors flooded their apartment trying to make jungle juice in the bathtub.

“I don’t know, I’m just in my feels as the kids say,” he sounded so dejected—strange for someone who was perpetually energized to a frustrating degree—that their shoulders immediately slumped from a hardass square to a softer, more sympathetic angle

They padded over to join him on the floor.

“Care to elaborate, oh roomie of mine?”

There was a pause and Spinner tapped his nails against the hardwood idly before responding.

“I guess I’m just feeling, like, fucking I don’t know,” he sighed, knocking his head against the dusty boards, “left out I guess? That’s not quite right, but it’s just Magne mentioned last time she came to The League meeting that Jin was seeing somebody and it just got me all introspective and weird…”

“Hm,” his roommate hummed thoughtfully and studied the way the textured white ceiling gave way to the rings of brown water damage, like a dead and dying flower, “I thought you and Jin weren’t ever that serious?”

“We weren’t,” Spinner groaned again and rubbed his eyes. “We went on like, one date a year ago and I haven’t thought about it really at all since then. I’m not sure why hearing he’s got someone else now made me so fucking...jealous I guess.”

“I mean, maybe you just never really gave yourself the time to process it?” they asked and received only an annoyed huff and accompanying groan. “Sorry, should have asked if you were looking for advice or just wanting to rant. My bad.”

“No, it’s fine. I think it’s just…”

Spinner trailed off and they shifted as the hard floor bit at their back and made it ache. The muscles were sore already as it was, and Tomura blowing their fucking back a few times a week wasn’t really helping. They’d created some kind of perpetually horny monster, but something told them cracking a joke about it wasn’t really going to help the situation much. Thankfully, Spinner found his way to filling the silence a minute later.

“I don’t think it has anything specifically to do with Jin. Yeah I liked him, we’re still really good friends and I don’t feel like I need him to be more than that. It’s just that—and this is gonna make me sound like a massive asshole—but with you and your new fucking boyfie and now even Jin finding someone to date I just keep seeing reminders everywhere of how motherfucking isolated I am.”

“Oh,” they felt their face burn a bit, guilt frothing as they were forced to acknowledge the fact that in all the time they’ve spent holed up with Tomura, Spinner had been discarded like an old Steam game, bought impulsively on sale and never played again. “I’m sorry I haven’t been prioritizing you—”

“No, no, no shut the fuck with that,” he waved his hand to cut them off and pushed himself up on his palms. “I know I’m not being fair about it, and I really am happy for you guys, but idk man….I just feel like I’m never gonna find that you know?”

Beside him, his roommate remained sprawled out on the floor like a homicide tape outline and was just as deadly quiet.

“I just,” he continued, running an angry hand through his hair, “I know I could be such a good partner. Like I’m funny and I’m not a fucking creep, which is actually a plus to most people.”

He shot a side glance down and they rolled their eyes, sitting up and knocking his shoulder roughly till he toppled back to the dirty floor and they stood above him.

“Fuck off,” they chuckled.

His roommate watched as the laughter seemed to infect him like a bad cold, creeping down the back of his throat and shaking in his chest.

“No I’m serious, I would be such a fucking great boyfriend. I give goddamn top quality cuddles and I actually know how to do laundry, what more does one need truly?”

“Damn bro, you’ve known how to fold your own clothes this whole time?”

The giggling spread into the quiet space, rocking through both their shoulders and leaving the air feeling light—fresh like the first nights of Spring. When it finally petered out into friendly silence, they were both far lighter.

“I just like the way you fold my t-shirts, the sleeves don’t get those weird creases when you do it,” he muttered and stood, doing his best to fix the wild pink locks that stood on end from his fidgeting.

“Yeah I’m sure,” his roommate rolled their eyes and turned back down the hall.

When they left for the night to stay over with their boyfriend, Spinner tried not to acknowledge the way he subconsciously glared at their back as they walked out the door, skipping yet another League meeting to swap spit with that guy from their English class.

He tried even harder not to think of how their bed would be warm and their legs would have legs to tangle with, their chest have a chest to lay against, while he heated up instant noodles in the microwave and fell asleep alone on their living room couch.

Not to mention that tonight was the big tournament with that new group on campus. He was really banking on his bff (best fucking friend as they were always sure to clarify) and him teaming up to crush those assholes from The Commission or whatever they called themselves.

Fucking lame as shit name in his opinion.

In any case, he’d have to settle for Magne again, and she was such a loose cannon they were sure to get their asses handed to them. She was a great fucking tank, he’d be the first to admit, but strategy was not a strong point of hers and they desperately needed that tonight.

He could feel the sinking weight of failure rolling in the pit of his stomach already even as he dragged himself into his room to tug on an old pair of jeans.

It bothered him way more than it should, the idea of losing some gaming tournament that, by all means held little to no actual significance.

Spinner knew the stock he’d started placing in games was growing to an unhealthy degree.

He knew that.

But self awareness rarely did anything to alleviate the irrational fear of failing at one of the only remaining consistencies in his life.

It stung worse when the tournament kicked off and by the third round, Spinner was the only remaining League member in the brackets.

“Fucking shit…” he muttered to himself, the small basement room alight with the blue glow of the monitor and the sound of frantically smashing controllers.

Behind him on the couch—stolen long ago from the theater building—Magne held him by the shoulders as he grit his teeth and leaned into the movement of his avatar on screen.

“You got this babe,” she shouted, cheek pressed up to his ear. “Make ‘em eat shit for me!”

“I would if you stopped distracting me,” Spinner hissed back.

Really it wasn’t Magne’s aggressive and somewhat bloodthirsty style of encouragement that shook his focus so badly.

It was his opponent.

The fucking president of The Commission sat, thighs spread and pressed to his, resting your weight on your elbows and snarling beside him in the couch.

Your face was split in this heart stopping grin as you quite deftly dodged all his attempts to get a hit in and managed to land a few of your own in the process.

And you looked really hot doing it.

Which was definitely just a side effect of the punch he (didn’t) drink and the body heat fueled temperature of the room—sweaty skin against sweaty skin making his mind wander against his will.

The shifting in his seat was absolutely just to illogically make him move faster and had nothing to do with how tight his pants now seemed.

So much for not being a fucking creep.

Your teammates were gathered in a circle behind you, enraptured and exuding the kind of smug confidence that said quite clearly The League was fucked from the second they walked in.

Not even two minutes later your hands were thrown up, punching the air and your team piling over the back of the couch to drown you in a sea of celebratory limbs.

Spinner felt himself deflating even as he was toppled off the couch by your screaming members and The League collectively cursed in the background.

Truthfully he’d known the chances of winning were slim.

Ever since his roommate started getting busy with classes and clubs that ‘looked good on their resume,’ The League had gone downhill rapidly. It was a problem since long before that Shigaraki guy swooped in and stole them away, but Spinner couldn’t stop himself from lowkey holding that against him.

The League had consumed so much of his life in college, functioning as a haven where he was finally respected and belonged to an extent he’d never experienced before.

The stink of failure and loss, not of the game but the only space he’d ever really occupied without complaint, burned his face and made the room feel more suffocating than usual.

Magne looked as though she wanted to give him one of her signature—and admittedly very comforting—hugs, but the deadly look of disappointment on Spinner’s face must have made her think twice.

The rest of his team seemed to read this sudden downward shift in the room as they began to filter out, climbing the steps onto street level and away from the suddenly stuffy, uncomfortable meeting spot. Normally everyone would stay and finish off the drinks snuck past the janitorial staff, eating Doritos until well past midnight. This time they couldn’t wait to be rid of him.

He couldn’t really blame them.

The multimedia building was a strange place after hours. Once Spinner might have called it something rare and liminal, now it felt more like a prison.

He stood, packing up the consoles a bit more roughly than necessary when someone cleared their throat behind him.

He turned to see you, standing alone with hands on your hips and scowling like you were the one who just got their gaming reputation ruined.

“Dude what the fuck was that?”

Spinner bristled at the knife sharp point of your tone.

“Really?” he asked incredulously. “You seriously waited around to rub your win in my face?”

You rolled your eyes and took a step closer around the couch. “I’m not talking about the fucking game dumbass. Why the hell are you pouting like I stole your fucking candy or some shit? You ruined the vibes man.”

“If anyone was ruining the vibes, it was you and your cocky ass team.”

Spinner felt himself stepping closer too, pulled in by the celestial weight that accompanied any kindling argument.

“Me?” you pointed to your chest and scoffed, “Wow, I was really hoping you’d actually possess a bit of emotional maturity, but if this is how you get after a loss I’m not shocked your fucking club is bleeding members.”

At some point the two of you had gravitated close enough that he felt the puff of your last breath on his cheeks. Two comets, ready and willing to collide.

“I’m not being the asshole in this situation, you know that right?” Spinner glared down his nose at you, heart pounding in his ears. “Maybe you shouldn’t make fucking unfounded assumptions about people you don’t know.”

“So then why are your panties in a twist over a fucking game?” you retorted.

He was peripherally aware that your eyes had taken on the same laser focused quality as they had during the last round. Determined and locked onto him without sparing a glance to anything else.

It was this same undivided attention that he’d envied in you as you played, and as Spinner felt it trained on him, his pants once again felt uncomfortably restrictive.

“It’s not about the fucking game okay!?” his voice came out hoarse and far more petulant than he’s been aiming for.

Though he quickly felt the embarrassment give rise to a secondary heat as you both breathed each other’s air and searched the face across from you.

“Then what is it about?”

That strange, unexplainable, inexplicable rush of potential filled the small gap that remained between your bodies—the kind of tension Spinner was beginning to think he’d never feel again.

He’d kissed plenty of people. Almost more than he’d like to admit, or that they’d like to admit more accurately.

But when his flickering eyes found your hard stare still and unwavering from his, it felt incredibly natural to lean in and press his lips against your fading frown.

It was slow going, the few centimeters that separated you seemed like miles as he moved slowly, never breaking eye contact until his mouth was finally slotted over yours and you weren’t pushing him away.

There was still a bit of lingering confusion, as this was decidedly not what either of you appeared to be expecting from the prior conversation. That coupled with the fact that Spinner wasn’t entirely sure he remembered your first name made the feeling of your tongue prodding at the seam of his lips all the more startling.

When he gasped, you slid your hands up his chest and licked into his mouth. Tongue tangling between breaths, Spinner felt himself getting lost in the familiar and coveted taste of another mouth, another body, another hand that grasped, that desired, that wanted him.

***

Your knees dug into the cushions on either side of Spinner’s thighs as you bounced in his lap. He fought to keep his eyes open against the pleasure of his cock sinking into you over and over again, so he could watch the way your head was thrown back and your chest heaved with the exertion.

He dug his hands into your hips and let his head hit the back of the couch, feet planted on the floor to help his hips thrust up into you, earning him some of the prettiest, stifled moans he’d ever heard.

Truthfully, he had not expected to fuck you. He figured you might be down to just make out for a bit until the cleaning staff came and booted you from the building, but both your pants had quite quickly and naturally found their way to the floor.

Neither of you spoke much, which he was thankful for. That would have been far too complicated of a conversation, especially considering you really didn’t know each other all that well.

Spinner usually liked to do a bit of ‘getting to know you’ type activities before he hooked up with people, which he did with surprising frequency for somebody so starved for a long term thing. Sex just fucking felt good and it was this eagerness that was his downfall. Most people he’d fucked around with seemed to read the urge to get into their pants as a diminished interest or emotional attraction and Spinner ended up with more friends with benefits than actual friends...or benefits.

Regardless, it was fine by him that the only form of communication passing between you for now were scattered groans of pleasure and the wet slap of your ass against his thighs.

He’d nearly forgotten how fucking amazing pussy felt.

For no particular reason, Spinner had always found himself fooling around with bodies more similar to his own. Not that he had any real preference, though the lack of experience often made him a bit nervous in the whole ‘pleasing your partner’ department, despite many helpful lessons from his roommate.

That was all to say that Spinner was incredibly thankful you reached down to guide his hand that had clumsily begun rubbing circles on your clit. That is until you simply knocked it away and went back to riding his dick like a fucking champ.

Then he did speak.

“Wanna make you cum,” he mumbled and really did sound like he was pouting this time.

You peered down at him, slowing your pace so you sat flush in his lap, grinding his cock deep against your walls. Spinner keened as you clenched around him, pussy so deliciously warm he felt himself near to drowning in the feel of you.

“Mm fuck,” you panted, leaning in to steal a few more messy kisses from him before lifting up and enveloping him in the slick heat all over again. “Don’t worry about it.”

“No,” he nipped at the column or your throat, careful not to leave any lasting marks just in case. “If I’m finishing, you’re fucking finishing.”

You pulled back and stared at him for a moment. He felt you purposefully tightening around him just so he would squirm under your curious gaze. After a moment you smirked and rolled your eyes again, taking his hand and guiding his fingers back to that little nub just above where his thick length was seated inside you.

Spinner was proud of his dick, it was hefty but not so long that it was a hassle to fit—just enough to reach all the important bits. He was sensitive as hell too most of the time, so just about any pressure felt amazing. But the best part of it was watching whoever he was fucking fall apart on his goddamn perfect cock.

So when you whispered, “Like this,” and showed him the rhythm and motion you liked, he pulled himself back from the brink to pay attention, speeding up until that look of cooled control slid right off your face.

“Ahh, yes fuck...” the words tumbled from you freely now. “Shit, yeah just like that—”

Spinner could get fucking drunk off the low groan that left you as he planted his feet more firmly and bucked his hips up. He must have hit something good by the way you choked and moaned boarding on too loud, though he had neither the heart nor self control to stop you.

“Feel good?” he grunted, picking up the pace and force he thrust into you, so that you had to loop your arms around his neck and hold tightly as he speared you on his cock.

“Fuck...yes..” you whimpered into his shoulder which did wonders for his ego.

Spinner kept up his rubbing frantic patterns on your clit and feeling the gradual constriction of your walls around him—the coil growing tight and ready to snap. He nudged your cheek with his until you pulled back a bit to face him.

“I want to see you,” he murmured, sucking your tongue into his mouth for a moment and tearing himself away so he could watch as you came undone around him.

You gave him a strange, soft look and pressed your forehead to his, eyes zoned in on only him.

The rest of the room, the whole fucking basement and campus melted away under that stare.

Your nipples peaked through your shirt, brushing against his as you were jostled into him by the movement of your hips. As you reached your peak, words devolved into increasingly breathy gasps. It took Spinner an incredible amount of concentration not to fucking paint your insides then and there.

Your pussy was so goddamn tight and warm and milking him just right, it was a fucking impressive feat to remain staunchly at the edge of his peak as your mouth fell open and your fingernails scratched at his back when you finally came—the telltale spasms around his cock and the near sobs coming from you more than enough indication.

He lost himself well and truly then.

Lost in the false sense of intimacy that came with being allowed to see you fall apart, this person he barely knew yet made him feel immensely important in that moment. Your breath and spit was in his mouth, the smell and feel of you soaking his length pushed him beyond the realm of conscious thought.

There was only a deep and burning need to be closer to you. So, so much closer.

His hands moved of their own accord, hooking under your thighs and flipping your bodies so your back hit the cushions and he hovered above you. The angle allowed him to slide deeper, pulling out and thrusting his hips in fast, hard strokes that hurtled him towards release.

Spinner couldn’t keep himself quite now either, panting and moaning and gasping unashamedly with his eyes screwed shut as you took his cock so unbelievably well.

It wasn’t until your hands, softer than he’d imagined, cupped his jaw and pulled him down to meet you that he was brought back down from whatever higher plane of existence his impending orgasm whisked him too.

Your lips weren’t nearly as frantic as the rocking of his thighs, the slap of his balls against your ass. The sweetness was an odd but welcome contrast.

“I’m gonna—fucking mm...” he tried so hard to get his tongue to form the words but he could feel himself slipping further as you started clamping around his length again.

“I know,” you breathed against his lips, faces pressed together and unmoving eyes steady on his own. “Ahh, inside if you want.”

He did want.

Oh fuck did he want nothing more in that moment to stay sunk in your warmth and pump you so full, but the last few remaining logical braincells reminded him that was not a great idea. Not without a more in-depth conversation neither of you was in a state to have.

“Shouldn’t...” he groaned and moved to pull out but your ankles locked around his ass and forced him back down.

“It’s okay,” you huffed and rocked into him, squeezing around the sensitive head of his dick just once, just right and that did him in.

It was something in the way you looked at him, so that he could feel nothing but secure—nothing but safe wrapped up in you. Something about the way you pressed him closer, in the movement of your thumb on his cheek.

It scratched some deep seated, lonely itch in Spinner.

Made it feel like this meant a hell of a lot more than it probably did.

In seconds he was blowing his fucking load right into you, milking himself in your heat until he was spent and overstimulated. You were kind enough to pull him to you, turning your bodies so you laid side by side on the coach, his softening cock slipping from you in a gush of release.

For a minute or so, neither of you spoke, just stared, long and comfortable at the stranger you’d just fucked on the gaming club couch.

Well.

Fucked wasn’t really the word he’d use at that point to describe what you’d just done, but anything more than that felt presumptuous.

You broke the silence as he nuzzled into your palm.

“You really needed that didn’t you?”

Spinner couldn’t help the familiar, infectious laugh that rattled in his chest. He liked the smile it earned him, far more genuine than any others you’d worn that night.

“Uh, yeah,” he said. “Yeah, I guess I did.”

You hummed, nodding in response. “Mm, me too.”

And somehow, for no real logical reason, Spinner knew you understood. That you felt the same isolation, the same starvation for love, for holding weight in someone else’s world.

That the games were just a placeholder, a way to fill the space, to get lost in other lives, in other stories where he did matter. Where his actions had foreseeable and measurable worth. That’s why it hurt to lose. Not for the glory, but for the destruction of the only remaining diversion from how empty his reality felt.

Even if it wasn’t really.

Even if there were friends and benefits and friends who offered both. His roommate could let him rest his head in their lap on movie nights or sleep in his bed on occasion when the heat went out and he got cold too quickly. But none of that quite filled the hole like you now, holding his face and knowing the struggle without him having to explain it.

Nothing like you pulling him in and kissing him too familiarly for someone he’d only known a day.

Magne used to say something about shit like this. Something like how people bond in train cars when there’s a rat eating a slice of pizza and you all watch it happen. Some weird camaraderie forged in the shared experience of life being a little fucking freaky a lot of the time.

That was how it felt when you slipped your leg between his and brushed your lips together again. Content to lay, half naked in the media building basement, making out with some guy you beat at Smash and fucked right after.

Reveling in the brief but meaningful feeling of mattering in some small, strange way to someone else.

Of holding weight.

Of being held.

#spinner x reader #shuichi iguchi x reader #spinner x y/n #spinner x you #college au #mha angst #student!reader

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dancingthesambaa · 3 years

Text

The Smell of Plum Blossom Tea Ch 3

Summary: Just like a butterfly wing, a single act of kindness can change the course of the future, it certainly did for MK as a black-furred monkey put out a hand towards him.

Rating: Teen and up

Chapter 3: Shadows of the Past

“Mhmmmmm,” Mei's eyes sparkled as she munched on the moon cake on the outdoor patio. “This is the most amazing thing I have ever eaten, I don’t even think the chefs can top this.”

“I seriously have to ask your parents what they do one day,” Macaque said as he ruffled her hair and picked up the empty plates with his hands and used his tail to set down the plate of mooncakes right beside an assortment of origami made by both Macaque and the kids. They were in the shapes of people, a vulture, monkey, jellyfish, rabbit, lion, and other varieties of animals and objects. They had a little too much fun making them all. After he put the dishes in the soap-filled sink he took off his apron and sat down next to MK, who was stuffing his face, “cause there is no way they can have normal jobs to have a chef.”

“I think they dig stuff up,” Mei shrugged her shoulders.

“Archaeologist,” he mused as he snatched up a sugar ring from MK plate, receiving an outraged ‘Hey’ from MK, “Didn’t think they were the down and dirty people, though...” The first time he met them was when Mei wanted to go visit MK at their house for his tenth birthday. Nice people, a bit cutthroat and sharp tongue, but nice people, especially when it comes to the safety of their daughter. “I have been wrong before.”

“It’s nice to hear you admit that,” a deep voice chuckled as both the kids jumped up in fright at the unexpected voice.

“Yeah yeah yeah, can it kitty cat,” Mac grumbled as he took a bite of the sugar ring, then wrinkled his nose at the sweet taste. “Can’t afford Raki to hear that.”

A figure softly leaped down from out of nowhere and by the lanterns' soft glow, they saw that the figure was dressed in an extravagant red robe that had rings of gold displayed all across, but the kids were more focused on the figure being a giant lion demon than anything else.

“I brought Eight Treasure Rice Pudding,” he tempted him as he held up the dessert in one hand and a floating lantern in the other.

“Well then you're more than welcome to join,” the monkey jokes, “Happy New Year kitty.”

“Happy New Year,” he said as he put the tray down and gave a smile as he noticed that Macaque was not alone, “and a Happy New Year to the both of you as well, I’m Ahmed.”

“MK!” The boy greeted him as his eyes went from the figure to the pudding.

“Mei the name and let me say that the pudding smells really good,” she drooled a bit.

“Well I hope it is, here,” he cut a slice for the two of them and sat down on the other side of Mac once the two began to dig in.

“Delicious!” They both said in glee.

“Bottomless pit I swear,” the monkey demon muttered.

“Your food is just that delicious,” Ahmed teased and gave a small nudge to his shoulder.

“Flattery will get you everywhere,” Mac then took notice of his mane and gave a small eye twitch, “oi when’s the last time you took care of that mane of yours?”

The lion stiffens as he avoided eye contact, “oh not too long ago.”

“How long?”

“I don’t quite remember it could have been-,”

“How. Long.”

“....a few months ago.”

“I swear-what is with you guys and not taking care of your goddamn fur,” Mac grumbled as he forced the lion head to lay down on his lap as he began to fix his fur, “only can count on Bohai to take proper care.”

“But he doesn’t even have any fur,” the demon tried to refute, only to be met with a stink eye.

“And he can still take better care than the rest of you lot.”

“Does this happen a lot?” Mei pointed out the scene and MK nodded.

“Tons, usually it’s with Daiyu since she tends to get blood in her wings, the monkeys, or even me.” He can’t remember the first time he had his hair played with, but once it began it just never stopped. “He said that monkeys tend to the other fur when they care for the other.”

“Ohhh,” then Mei's eyes widened, and had to hold back a large smile as she realized that Macaque had been messing with her hair for the past month. He may be gruff, but he is just one big softy on the inside. Though she couldn’t help but take a longer look at the pair and noticed that the lion's eyes were closed in pure content...like a cat, she couldn’t hold back a giggle.

Ahmed's ears perked up and looked towards her, Mac's eyes didn’t even move from his grooming as he was used to both children's strange outburst, and he saw the young child just eerily smile at him. He decided that it would be better if he just ignored all of that.

Almost an hour later, Mei noticed that a soft glow of light was slowly flying above the forest. “Hey what’s that?”

They all looked in the direction of her pointed finger and it was MK who reacted first.

“Someone released their lantern! Can we do it now!” He eagerly said as he watched many more lights begin to emerge from the treetops.

Mac laughed as he pushed the purring cat off his lap, who didn’t take any offense as he stretched, and grabbed the lanterns, “yeah we can.”

“Yes!” He grabbed his lantern and waited by the edge of the patio with Mei.

“Don’t forget yours as well rocky,” he handed a lantern to the surprised Mei.

She blinked, a bit taken aback by the sudden action, but smiled brightly, “thanks fluffy!”

“Not fluffy,” he muttered as he slapped his tail at the back of the laughing lion's head. The two joined them with their lanterns and at once they all released it in the air as they all joined the small trove of floating lanterns in the air as the light almost illuminated the pink forest in its entirety.

They watched the scene until they could no longer see it anymore and when they thought it was all done they diverted their attention to the first crackle of fireworks and the kids cheered loudly as much more came.

“If I was a snake, where would I be?” MK hummed as he looked through the trees, hoping he didn't run into any creepy crawly spiders, as he tried to find his slithery friend.

The Qilin merely snorted as he laid down against the Yao grass, MK met him one day when he was visiting Whatever. He tried so many times to call him Shui Gui or Kappa, but the webbed spirit would just ignore him, and the horse-like creature trotted from across the lake and up to him, and after a moment of staring, just decided to take a nap next to him. Ever, MK managed to haggle that nickname out of him, once again busted out laughing and left a confused eleven year old.

“They have to be around here somewhere,” he grumbled as he searched further through the woods only to stumble upon an open clearing with an old house in the middle. “Huh, didn’t know anyone lived here.”

He walked closer to the home and he gave a cheerful yell “Hello! Anyone home?!”

No response.

“Doesn’t seem like they're here right now...let’s take a closer look,” he mischievously scurried over to the open window and peeked inside to see that it almost looked like he traveled back to the Tang Dynasty, see he has been paying attention to history, take that Dad.

“I wonder who could live here?” He pondered as he looked through the clean wooden and sun dried brick structure. “It actually looks clean, but everything is just so...well old?”

“What are you doing here kit?” He jumped up at the melodic voice.

“You scared me Ní!” He yelled at the Huli Jing, the brown nine-tailed fox.

“Well everyone needs a good scare every once in a while,” they said with a grin as they walked forward.

“Course I did,” he grumbled as he turned to face the shack, “so do you know whose house this is?”

Sadly, the fox smiled, “just one filled with fond memories kit, now come,” they nudged him away from the old home. “I heard that you were looking for our lost slithery friend of ours.”

“Yeah, they took my fidget spinner after learning that they could spin it on their tail,” he huffed as he once again.

“I presume you mean our Xian,” she hummed as they walked back to the trees.

“Who else?”

“Well there are our many reptilian friends amongst the trees, for all I know you could mean our biggest companion,” they teased.

MK looked at the fox as if they were crazy, “I don’t think that there even is a fidget spinner big enough for her.”

“You never know,” they swished their tails as they made it back to where the Qilin was and they took on a grin, “oh, it seems that we have found them.”

MK's eyes twitched as he saw that the snake was just chilling next to the horned horse beast as they played with the spinner, “Hey!”

All nine snakeheads lift at the voice and with a unison hiss, they promptly slither away with fidget spinner in hand, or rather tail in their case.

“Don’t you dare run! Get back here with that! I need it for class!”The boy yelled as he ran after the Xiangliu with much fervor.

“-but how?!” MK threw his hands in the air, “Monkey King has all these amazing powers, it doesn’t make sense that he can’t use them underwater.

“He is a stone monkey!” Mei pointed out to a section of the book as she leaned against MK’s bed, “stone sink, not float!”

“But he can still transform into all these different animals, can’t he just make himself a fish or something?”

“He is still stone!”

“But he can fly!”

“I don’t know magic,” she was half tempted to throw her book at her friend, she doesn’t have all the answers either.

“Then why can’t he use it underwater then?!” He was then hit by a thrown book as he fell off the bed, “you didn’t have to throw it at me.”

“Well maybe I did,” she crossed her arms and just laid down on top of him, “this is so confusing...maybe we can ask Mac, he knows a thing or two about magic.”

“He does,” the thirteen year old shot straight up, knocking Mei off, but then he slumped down when a thought occurred to him, “but he’s currently helping Ning right now.”

“Ning?” She asked as she sat back up.

“She’s a client,” he added.

“Oohh...I wonder what she’s in for?”

“When she sneezes or burps, she breathes fire,” MK easily answered. He already saw this happen when she first crawled in, she gave a wave to him, but quickly turned away when she sneezed. He is glad that the wood in the house has been enchanted to be fireproof, cause he doubted that there would have been a house standing after that fireball.

“She’s a dragon!” Mei got in his face, if there was one creature she loved it would hand down be the dragons.

“No, just a lizard demon.”

“Well technically dragons are reptiles,” she slumped down, her dreams of seeing the magnificent beast being thoroughly crushed. She then picked up the Journey to the West book and she gave an amused huff as she saw what page it landed on. “I still find it funny that your dad shares the same name as Monkey King rival.”

MK shared her grin, “it is pretty funny, like can you imagine him going toe to toe with the Monkey King.”

Mei’s grin widened, “the same monkey who let me put braids in his fur with ribbons!”

“The one who has a heart attack each time I get a bruise out in the forest,” he joined in.

“Who wears aprons when cooking food!”

“Let the baby monkey cling onto him!”

“He makes medicine for any demon or human that stops by!”

“He uses scented shampoo cause he likes the smell and it makes his fur soft,” the two couldn’t help but roll on the floor laughing.

“Do you want to hear something even more hilarious,” MK grinned.

“What?!” Mei asked after her laughter died down.

“There are some customers who even call him the Six-eared Macaque,” he snorted even louder.

Mei's face completely froze, “Huh?”

“Yeah,” he vigorously nodded, not taking any notice of his friend's change of mood, “I heard them call him with full respect and everything!”

“...what?”

“And what’s even better, he has six ears!”

“What?!” MK jumped up at Mei’s outburst.

“What was that for?!”

“You just told me that he has six ears?!” She began to shake him. “Do you not realize what you just implied?!��

“NoOoOo,” he shakily answered.

Mei then dropped him as she reached back towards the book and flipped through the pages until she found another, “oh my god, how could I have not realized it before!”

“What?” He asked as he managed to sit back up.

“Shadow manipulation, clones, stealthy,” she read out some of the powers, “they both share almost the same abilities! Hell, he even is a black-haired monkey!”

“Fur, but yeah and?” He still didn’t get what she was implying.

“And doesn’t he have super hearing?” She pressed further hoping that her dense friend would get it.

“Yes andddd?” He didn’t.

She pushed the book to his face, “Your Dad is the Six-Eared Macaque from the book!”

“What?! No he isn’t,” he snatched the book from her hands, “I mean it doesn’t make any sense, he may be grumpy, but he is not anything like the one from the story! He is downright mean and cruel!”

“Well, maybe he changed?!” She threw her hands in the air, “it won’t be that big of a stretch, I mean 500 years is a long time.”

“But I have never seen him fight before, not even when Daiyu would plead to him for a spar, he would just roll his eyes.”

“Maybe he just doesn’t fight when you're around,” she threw in her answer.

“But, but, but it just can’t,” MK threw the book away from him, “it just can’t.”

“MK,” Mei worriedly put a hand on his shoulder, “are you okay?”

“Yes-no-I don’t know,” he leaned on the ground with a groan. “He just can’t be the same one from the book okay.”

“Well, why not?”

“He can’t, he can’t because if he is then he has purposefully kept this a secret from me,” he whispered out.

“Then that’s more reason to ask him,” Mei insisted.

“No!” He shot up and grabbed her shoulders, “we can’t!”

“Well why not!”

“It might not even be him!”

“But what if it is?!” She countered back.

“But what if it's not,” he firmly stood his ground.

“And if it is?”

“It’s not!”

“It is!”

“It’s not!”

“It is!”

“It’s not!”

“MK, we have to ask him.”

“Ask me what?” They both scooted back in shock when the said monkey demon walked into the room. “I’m hoping by those reactions that you were just startled and not guilty of doing something you weren’t supposed to.” He decided to check out their yells after he had finished with his patient.

The two shot a look at one another.

“Right?”

“Yeah, nothing bad, nothing and at all,” MK nervously said as he scratched the back of his neck and avoided his golden eyes.

“You know that right there isn’t helping your case,” Mac deadpanned.

“It's just that we have a question,” Mei butted in as she grabbed the tossed book.

“Mei no,” MK tried to stop her, but she was determined to get her answers.

“Are you the same Six-Eared Macaque from the book?!” The pigtailed girl showed him the Journey to the West book up to him.

Macaque stilled at the question for a moment before easing down as he took a look at the book, “Huh, haven’t read this book in a while,” he said noncommittally.

“Well? Are you?!” Mei pushed him for the answer, she was not leaving until she got one.

Even MK was silently watching this whole interaction but didn’t move an inch, because deep down, even he wanted to know.

The monkey demon let out a sigh as he nodded, “yeah, I am.”

It was silent as the two kids took in that information.

MK's mind was racing, he didn’t know what to even think. The cruel demon in the story, the one who constantly attacked innocent people, killed so many, clashed fiercely against the Monkey King, is the same one who found him all those years ago and took care of him. It just doesn’t make any sense!

“Want to talk here or in the living room?” Macaque’s voice pierced through the silence.

It took a moment before MK finally responded, “living room.”

“Alright, I’ll go make some tea. This won’t be an easy talk,” he said as he began to reach out to ruffle his hair only to stop at his child's nervous stare. He puts his hands down and promptly walks out of the room and turns away to the kitchen, while he ignores the tight squeeze in his chest.

“So,” Mac sat down on the opposing chair from the couch that had the two kids on it as the pot of tea and a bowl of peeled mangos sat in the middle of the table, “where do you want me to start?”

“Were you ever gonna tell me?” MK blurred out first as he clenched his fist. “Or was this gonna be kept in the dark.”

“When you turned 18, I was gonna sit down with you and talk about this,” he firmly told his son. “I had no intention in hiding this from you forever.”

MK didn’t reply as he lowered his head.

“The beginning is usually a good place,” Mei tried to joke, but only the demon gave a small smirk as MK stayed silent.

“That’s as good a place as any, well before that book ever took place, before even the thought of the Journey took place, me and Sun Wukong were friends.”

“You were friends?!” This time MK didn’t stay silent as both kids shouted.

“Surprising right,” he mirthlessly chuckled.

“It never said anything like that in the books!” Mei exclaimed as she held up her book.

“Well first that’s a kid-friendly book of the story,” he pointed out the childish cartoon design on the front cover. “Don’t think they want kids reading books about graphic violence, especially with the disembowelment and all types of gore,” he muttered the last part quietly to himself. “And second, not everything you read or hear is correct.”

“Huh?”

“History is told by the victors and survivors, not by those who lie dead,” he softly said.

“Oh,” Mei shuffled at the uncomfortable thought.

“So how did you two meet?” MK prompted.

“When we first met, he looted some food from a shrine and got caught like an idiot, which pissed off the mountain god.”

“He did?!”

“Yeah, this was way before he met Subodhi, the one who taught Wukong about how to take on immortality.” He reminisces back to the scene where he met his first friend.

‘Shit! Shit! Shit!’ Sun Wukong leaped from rock to rock as he tried to get as much distance as he could from him and the deity. He spotted a cluster of rocks that looked like it had some amount of cover as he leaped behind it and waited. “All I wanted was some damn food! How was I supposed to know that it was supposed to go to a God?! It makes no damn sense to just leave food lying out!” He whispered angrily.

“So you're the one who pissed him off,” Wukong managed to suppress a yelp as he noticed that he wasn’t alone in his hiding spot. It was a bit surprising to see that it was a Monkey demon like him, only with black fur and a red scarf hiding the bottom of his face. “One would think that you shouldn’t piss off a deity, but that is just my opinion,” he snarked.

“Well one shouldn’t leave food lying out like an idiot,” he shot back.

“So you decided to steal from a mountain God? Yeah, real smart,” Macaque drawled out. “Usually I steal from fields, but you took the idiot crown today.”

“How was I supposed to know that it was for someone!” He retorted.

“Just by looking at it dumbass, have you never seen a shrine before?”

“What’s a shrine?” He questioned.

“I’ll take that as a no,” he deadpanned. “How can you not know? Were you living under some kind of rock before?”

“No, I was born from one!” He cheekily grinned.

“...I don’t know if you're insane or if that’s just the weirdest thing I heard,” he then froze as he dragged Wukong closer to the rocks.

“Wha-,” he was about to break free but was hushed by his fellow hider.

“Shhh,” he silently pointed to the right of them and after a moment noticed that a shadow was getting larger. Wukong smartly decided, for the first time, to keep his mouth shut.

It was only after the shadow left did the two relax.

“So I guess we’re stuck here for awhile,” the brown-furred monkey sprawled against the rocks and made himself comfortable, “I’m Sun Wukong, but people call me the Monkey King.”

The other monkey let out a burst of laughter at his ridiculous name, “Ha! Yeah, no I’m not calling you that. I’m Liu Er Mihou.”

“Pfft, boring,” he grumbled back as he then got curious, “so why are you hiding behind this rock anyways? You certainly were here long before I was.”

“Well unlike you, I was taking a nice nap before this happened,” he smirked as he leaned back.

“Just napping you say,” his eyes happen to spot a bag filled with different goods and food.

“Well napping after I nicked off some things from the fields and market and unlike you, I didn’t get caught.”

“Would have been helpful, but-,” they were cut off when a huge explosion erupted from underneath them.

“You thought you could run from me you little ape!” The mountain God’s echoey voice boomed out. “I am one with all upon this mountain! Every pebble is my ears! Every rock is my voice! You can-,” he was cut off by a voice angrily yelling at him.

“I’m not an ape!” Wukong screeched as the two of them started to run.

“That’s what you're concerned about?!” Liu Er confusedly asked though it was laced with a twinge of amusement and fear.

“I have a tail!” He emphasized the tail carrying the bag of food. “Obviously not an ape!”

“You can’t run forever little ape,” the voice snarled out with every crushed rock booming behind them.

“You got one more time to call me an ape!” He yelled out as his eye twitched.

“And what are you gonna do about it little. Ape.” The voice mockingly said with a toothy grin.

“That’s it!” The angered monkey stopped in his tracks as he flung the bag over to Macaque, “hold this!” And with that, his eyes started to glow bright yellow as he flung himself at the God.

“What are you doi-,” he cut himself off as he noticed that the impulsive monkey that he was hiding with had suddenly begun to shoot lasers from his eyes. “Huh, maybe there was something about him being born from the stone that was true.”

“GHA stop that!” The Mountain God wheezed out as he was hit by another bludgeoning punch from the mortal monkey.

“Not so tough now are you!” He mocked as he sent a flying kick towards the immortal being, only for him to slink down into the mountain. “Oh now who's the coward! Come out and fight me!”

“This dumbass,” Macaque grumbled as he was half-tempted to just take the bag and run, but even he doubted that he would hold up against the enraged monkey like this. His ears twitched as he heard the lingering God about to move so he yelled to Sun, “you might want to duck, he’s about to strike from the left.”

Sun Wukong heard him and managed to leap high enough to avoid the Mountain God claws, “got you now fucker!” And with a couple of spins, he struck down upon the God and landed a killing blow upon his head. “That’s what you get.”

“Remind me never to piss you off,” Macaque said as he casually walked up next to him, tossed his stolen bag of food, and examined the dead God.

“Thanks!” He cheerfully reverted from his enraged form once he got his food and happily began to chew on an apple as he sat down against the fallen God. “So how did you know that the God was there?” He curiously asked as he took another bite.

Liu Er blinked at the odd scene and let loose a snort as he sat down a little ways away from him. “Well seeing that you managed to kill a God with your bare hands, mine is definitely not weirder than yours,” he said as he pulled down his scarf to reveal his two extra pairs of ears.

“Cool!” Wukong's eyes glisten as he immediately began to touch his ears.

Macaque only flinched for a moment at the unexpected touch, but became a little more at ease when he didn’t feel any sharp pulling or twisting the longer he touched them, but he batted his hand away, “Heard of personal space?”

It was after the two had eaten that Mac decided to speak again, “alright let’s make a deal.”

“What kind of deal?” Wukong hesitantly asked.

“You are shit when it comes down to stealing,” he bluntly told him.

“Rude, fair, but rude.”

“But I can.”

“Where are you going with this?”

“How about we team up for a bit, with your strength and my stealth, I think the two of us make out with a lot more goods than this,” he tossed up their near empty bags.

“Hmmm, I don’t know. How do I know that you can actually steal,” Wukong pointed out, but the six eared monkey smirked.

“Well you haven’t noticed this,” he tossed up the half eaten apple in his other hand.

“Wha-,” his eyes widened as he now noticed that the apple in hand had disappeared in a poof of violet energy. “How did you do that?”

“Misdirection,” he tossed his apple back to him.

Wukong blinked as he caught the apple then a large grin took up his face as he wrapped an arm around his shoulder, “I think that this is the start of a beautiful relationship.”

“And the start of so many headaches,” Mac couldn’t help but grumble out.

“Well you can only blame yourself.”

“I already am.”

“So you two had stuck together from that moment,” MK said as he stayed in his seat with his knees covering his face.

“For all of nine years, until he left to learn under Subodhi, then I was free roaming once more. Though I did learn a few things from Wukong as it made my travels a bit easier,” Mac said as he took a sip from his lukewarm tea.

“And he probably learned a few things from you...like how to steal so many things from the celestial realm,” Mei's eyes widened as the realization hit her. “Now that’s how he managed to do that! You taught him how to steal!”

The simian paused as that hadn’t occurred to him in the slightest, “...to be fair I didn’t teach him shit, he simply watched what I was doing and used it in practice. All the havoc he managed to cause in the celestial realm and below was his reckless ideas, I had nothing to do with that...for the most part.”

“But the Monkey King is an immortal being,” MK interjected, “and you're not...unless.”

“Yeahhh, I’m immortal too,” he sipped his tea at their dumbfounded stares.

“How?!”

“Once again, blame Sun Wukong for that.”

“I’m sorry, run that by me again,” Mac let the book hang freely from his hands as he listened to Wukong.

“You're immortal! You can thank me with words of praise and/or delicious food,” he cheekily grinned at him as he hung upside down from the tree branch above.

The monkey demon had to blink for a moment and take a deep breath before closing his book and putting full attention to his friend, “I’m almost scared to ask how the fuck you managed to pull that off, but also dying to know.”

“Well,” the simian jumped down to the same branch as Macaque, “I was kidnapped by Yama lackeys, which was uncool you know, I earned my immortality fair and square,” he huffed out.

“You got kidnapped by the emissaries of the God of Death...okay that’s kinda funny,” he cracked a grin.

“Well it wasn’t for me,” he crossed his arms, “so I kicked all of their asses and spoke with some old folks, who call themselves the ten kings which is a stupid title itself, to get things straight you know and they tried to do? They tried to pull a fast one on me and say that they meant to take another Sun Wukong, which I call bullshit on. I mean who else is a stone monkey that’s name is Sun Wukong?”

“No one,” Mac snorted as his partner threw his hands in the air.

“Exactly! So they take me to the place where they keep track of the ones dying and we all look around to find where those names happen to be and lo and behold, I found my name and you want to know what I did?”

“You erased your name,” he was getting more and more amused by this, he can only imagine the chaos that must have happened due to Wukong antics.

“I erased my name! And I also decided that I wasn’t gonna be alone in this so I decided to erase some of the other monkeys back at Flower Fruit Mountain and I found your name and I erased that too,” he proudly grinned. “You can’t believe the sheer amount of panic that was on all of their faces when they realized what I did.”

“I really can’t,” he chuckled as he then scooted over and wrapped his arm around his neck in affection, “thanks for immortality I guess, never thought I would ever get anything close to that.”

“Well a little more praise than that would be nice,” he teased as he felt the back of his head get slapped.

“Oh, I’m sorry your royal highness, did that harm your oh so precious fur of yours?” Mac took on a haughty tone, “let me be the first to go to my knees and bow for your kind gesture that you have bestowed upon me.”

“Shut up,” Wukong snorted as he nudged his friend's shoulder.

“You asked for it,” the black furred monkey tone returned to normal as he grabbed his book and began to read it once more. Though he was interrupted by Sun sprawling over his lap all of a sudden, “can I help you?”

“Read to me!” He demanded.

“Don’t you get bored with stuff like this? Actually, I’m surprised you haven’t already left to cause some sort of chaos at this point Sunny?”

“Meh, don’t feel like moving now, so read to me!”

Mac knew that when he got like this there was little to change his mind, so with a mockingly reluctant sigh he said, “As his highness wishes,” and began to continue where he left off. It was during that, when Macaque was lost in the book and Wukong was lost in the soft words, did two tails slowly curl up and intertwine with one another.

“You know, it’s a bit surreal to hear that the Gods are real,” Mei hummed out. “I mean reading about it is one thing, but knowing someone who actually met with a God is another.”

“If you think that’s surreal then that’s nothing compared to actually meeting one,” Mac pointed to her.

“Trueeee.”

“So what happened next?” MK spoke up as he managed to get out of his curled up position halfway through the story and was instead leaning in close.

“Well you know what happens next, he gets a position in the heavens, his infamous havoc in heaven, left the heavens, fought some gods, got tricked by Buddha and he had the mountain pin him down for 500 years or so,” he casually said.

“Only you would manage to screw it up big time huh peaches,” Liu Er said as he jumped off the top of the mountain and back down next to his friend. “I mean, what were you thinking?”

“Heyyy mango,” Wukong nervously chuckled, “I might have pissed off all the gods in the heavens, you know how it goes.”

“Yeah I heard, but how did they do this,” he gestured to the entire mountain.

“Well, that was maybe...Buddha,” he softly said the last part, but Macaque didn’t have six ears for nothing.

“You managed to piss off Buddha themself,” he said incredulously. “How in the fuck?!”

“I didn’t piss him off!” He said in defense, “I just maybe lost a bet with him.”

“You lost a bet with Buddha.”

“Look, it's complicated!” He huffed as he tried to wiggle under the mountain, “look there’s a seal on the top of this mountain, if you can just rip it off I can easily-,”

“Already tried that,” he showed him his blackened fingers, “didn’t quite work for me.”

“Well shit there goes that idea,” he muttered as a horrible thought occurred to him, “Flower Fruit mountain! The tribe-you have to-,” he was cut off once again.

“Already have a few clones stationed there since you got that position in heaven dumbass,” he whacked his head, “you don’t have to worry about them, now let’s think of a way to free you.”

Wukong let out a breath of relief as he lay his head against the ground. “It ain’t gonna be easy you know.”

Macaque grinned cheekily at him as he sat down next to him and his dark purple daxiushan flared out underneath him, “who said it ever was,” he joked as he began to groom his friend's fur.

“Might have to go against the Gods,” he said as he relaxed to the grooming.

“You can’t have all the fun,” he retorted back.

The Monkey King merely hummed as the grooming went, they can discuss more later, but he sorely needed this.

“But you didn’t free him,” Mei quietly pointed out.

“No, I didn’t,” he shook his head as his tail silently swooshed behind him.

“But you did something,” MK noticed that something was amiss by his relaxed position as he ate a peeled mango.

“Welll, let’s just say that there was a reason why Guanyin happened to find Wukong.”

“You tricked Guanyin,” Mei deadpanned.

“I wouldn’t say trick, more like a gust of wind in the right direction,” he knew that he teetered along the line when he subtly diverted the God's attention to his friend. He heard through some of his contacts that they were looking for immortals for the Journey, so he managed to arrange some coincidental happenings that maybe got the Goddess of mercy to float in Wukong’s direction.

“You tricked Guanyin,” Mei still bluntly told him.

“Anyways,” Macaque ignored Mei as he picked up his empty cup, “then you all know the rest, Wukong infamous Journey to the West and all that.”

“But that doesn’t explain how you went from friends to enemies in the book,” MK pressed and watched as his father's shoulder slightly slumped.

“I-,” he looked down to his empty cup and sighed, “I was an idiot, I-I thought he was being tortu-something cruel was being done to him. When Tripitaka used that sutra, I thought they had managed to enslave my friend and harm him,” he gripped his cup before setting it down, he refused to dive further in that memory. “Clearly I was wrong and you know how that went down.”

The two once again became silent as they took in the information.

“Okay, okay,” Mei nodded as she crossed her legs, “but here’s what’s confusing me. In the Journey to the West, it told you were ruthless, but I know that in some other books it is said that you are a minor deity of trickery and medicine and that you would help wandering travelers by giving them medicine and give them protection by tricking the bandits and Gods. So what is that about?”

“Okay that minor deity thing is just not true,” Mac pinched his nose, “I still don’t know who even put that down in the first place.”

“How did you change?” MK added as well.

“Well,” he let out a soft smile, “I met someone.”

“Ooooo,” the two couldn’t help themselves.

“No,” he firmly told them, “No. No-fuck no. Hell no. Hell to the no. By all the Gods-no just no,” he shuddered. “It’s not anything like that at all.”

“Who was it?” MK asked.

“It was a weird man named Ping who found me on the side of the road somehow and decided to just drag my body to his house,” he snorted at their confused faces. “Yeah, that was me when I first awoke.”

Macaque groggily came to as he heard the faint sound of clinking metals coming a little ways away from him, but as he got up a sharp pain emerged from his entire body as he fell back to the bed.

“Shit, what the hell knocked me ou-...oh,” his memories came back to him in a rush as he remembered just who exactly did this to him. “Fuck, but why? Why, why why!” He gripped his fur and then his right eye as he noticed that there was a distinct lack of sight from that one, “it doesn’t make sense! Why the fuck would he, just why?!”

“So you're finally awake,” he had to freeze as for the first time in a long while, he was snuck up on, “you were knocked out for quite some time.” The monkey turned to see a graying middle aged man wipe his hands on the cloth.

“Who are you,” he went on the immediate defense. He doesn’t sense any celestial or demonic aura coming from him, but he knows it better wary than dead.

“People call me Ping,” he gave a small bow to him, “it’s nice to see you awake.”

“...Are you blind by any chance,” Macaque couldn’t help but blurt out. “Cause there's no way in hell would someone be happy on seeing a demon alive unless they were a goddamn monk…” he couldn’t help but narrow his eyes.

“Ohoho, believe me, I am no Monk,” the man chuckled as he began to pick up some materials from the side, “I have very little patience for just sitting around and meditating all day.”

“Can’t front ya there,” he grumbled as he tried to get back up only for him to wheeze in pain and cough viciously.

“Here, this will help your throat,” Ping handed him a steaming cup of tea that was next to a brown rabbit, which was a bit strange as he didn’t even notice it before.

The monkey hesitantly accepts it, he was unsure if the tea had poison in it, but decided that the human literally could have left him on the side of the road to die and spare him the troubles of killing him himself, so he took a sip of the tea and his nose scrunched up, “why is it sweet?”

“Not to your liking,” he chuckled as he sipped on his own cup.

“You know people-humans are usually terrified when encountering a demon,” he deadpanned as he realized that not only was he half clothed, but his six ears were out in the open. “Just saying.”

“And usually, most demons would have tried to take a bite out of me,” he retorted

“And that is usually enough to not even get close to one of us, let alone bring one to your home,” he emphasized.

“Well we're all a little bit crazy in this world,” Ping chortled as he ambled off to the other room. “You can leave when you want to!”

Macaque could only watch dumbfounded at what just took place as he loosely cradled the teacup in his hand. Though he could do without the rabbit gaze boring into him.

“So what happened next,” MK asked.

“I left,” he shrugged his shoulders.

“You just left?!” Mei shouted as she squished the fruit in her hand.

“Yep.”

“Why?!”

“I had no reason to stay with a man who just up and saved me for no reason, especially one who was so confident in his capabilities that I wasn’t going to attack him,” he pointed out.

“So where did you go?” MK asked next.

“A little bit of everywhere,” he lied a little, he may be spilling his secrets, but even he has a hard stop on some of his more personal ones. He was not about to tell them that he essentially stalked Wukong and his friends for a good portion of the Journey. “But, for some damn reason, I went back to Ping.”

“You went back?” Mei said as MK asked, “Why?”

“Curiosity? Boredom? I honestly still don’t know,” he sighed and leaned back in his chair. “But I just kept going back every few months and the strangest thing is, he would just give a slight wave and give me some tea. Each and every time, until eventually I stayed a bit longer.”

Macaque watched in interest as Ping began to crush some herbs together and mix them. He knows some of those plants and they tasted downright horrible. “What’s the point of making that? It doesn’t taste any good with food, old man.”

Ping simply chuckled as his rabbit laid silently to the side, “I'm not that old, unlike you. It helps with backaches, I know many of the elderly will need it in the coming winter, so it’s always good to prepare ahead.”

“Oohhh, that’s medicine,” Mac hummed. He hasn't seen much of it since he was able to heal fairly fast and also that usually medicine is one of the hardest items to steal due to it usually being hidden or secured.

“Would you like a closer look?” The graying man asked as he stepped a little to the side.

“Sure, why not,” he shrugged his shoulders as he watched with rapt attention to how the medicine was being made.

“He must have a lot of patience to be able to teach you,” Mei grinned.

The monkey huffed in amusement, “I honestly thought the same thing.”

“But how was he different?” MK hesitantly asked as all he heard was of Ping doing completely normal things. “How did he get you to...well change?”

“Does it matter that he was supposed to be some amazing being with special abilities,” he gave a small smirk.

“Well no,” he deflated a bit.

“Cause let me tell you that Ping was one of the farthest things to have anything godly about him. The only thing special about him was his strange ability to practically befriend anyone that passed him and that was it. He never went on any magical adventure, wasn’t appointed a great duty by a God, hell the man has never taken a single martial art or learned under any great sage before,” he couldn’t hold back laugh at their confused looks. “He never tried to force me to change into what he believed to be good.”

“Then why did you keep going back?” Mei jumped off the couch and leaned over the table. “If he didn’t have anything mystical about him, why did you keep going back?”

“Have you ever heard the age-old question on if you can teach a monster how to love?” He suddenly asks, throwing them all off guard.

“No?”

“Cause the answer is no, but rather you have to show them,” he smiled fondly.

“...what does that have to do with this?” MK whispered out.

“He may not have any special abilities, but there was something about him, something- I can’t say good because it’s not strictly subjective in that, but just something comforting about him. About the way he wouldn’t bat an eye at my appearance, the way he would simply give me a cup of tea, the way he would let me stay when I had my bad days, just the way he was just was comforting,” he breathed in as he unhooked his fingers that he unconsciously grabbed together. “He was just Ping and that was enough for a monster to change.”

“You're not-/Don’t believe-,” he cut off both kids.

“I know I did...horrible things in the past, things can’t be redeemable no matter how many times I may help those, I couldn’t forgive myself, but he showed me that I could.

“How?”

“I planted a seed.”

“What?”

“Oh yeah, I was just as confused as you guys were too,” he smiled as he leaned back. “He straight up told me to plant a seed each time my anger or frustration overwhelmed me.” He threw his hands in the air, “I didn’t know what he meant, by the Gods know how many of those things I planted even long after he passed.”

“So he did pass away,” Mei said underneath her breath.

“Humans tend to do that, especially with one as old as him,” he said with a small smile.

“You still kept planting,” MK huddled together as he wrapped his arms around his knees.

“...Yeah,” he wrapped his tail around his waist in comfort, “I didn’t know what else to do and I know I raged and cried, but I couldn’t just go down to Yama and demand his soul back or up to the heavens and just steal a peach. Not even the drunk old man could change fate,” he whispered that last part quietly. “I’m not that strong, so I did the only thing I could and just planted the seeds and plant and plant until one day I was interrupted.

“I’m terribly sorry to bother you, but did you happen to grow these yourself?” The woman asked as she carried her child upon her back.

“Yeah, and?” He didn’t feel in the mood to even attempt to snark back against a human as he tended to some of the flowers.

“Well let me tell you that they're simply beautiful,” she smiled at him.

“Huh?” Mac froze at the sudden compliment.

“Yeah!” He looked down to see a young girl with a wide smile, “they are super pretty.”

“Very pretty,” another child shyly piped up as he peeled from behind his mother's skirt.

The monkey demon could faintly remember their goodbyes as they proceeded to walk away from him. “What beauty is there in a bunch of seeds?” He turned to look at his plants and for the first time, he realized that they haven’t been seeds in a very long time as they sprouted into a giant, pink, flourishing Plum Blossom trees-no not trees a blossoming forest.

“Oh.” He then decided to slowly walk through it all as he plunked a plum from one of the branches. “Damn, I must have been really out of it for so many years that I didn’t even realize that it...that it grew…during all these years it grew and grew into something beautiful.” He paused as he now realized what Ping was trying to show him for all these years, that even when he got angry and made so many mistakes, they can turn into something beautiful. He let out a full body laugh as he just screeched and screeched.

“Only you, you fucking coot! Only you would think of such a weird ass idea and actually be of help, I swear if you weren’t already dead I would be yelling at you for this!” He screeches as tears or amusement and anguish filled his eyes, “you made me plant a forest of mistakes and did a fuck you and made it something worthwhile, something beautiful!”

He eventually laid down with plum in hand, ears out as he listened to the chirps of the bird and rustles of the leaves and his heart didn’t feel as empty as before. “Couldn’t have told me straight out his thoughts,” he huffed with a watery smile as he took a bite out of the plum.

“You made this forest-the Plum Blossom forest?!” MK asks shockingly despite listening to the story.

“A good portion of it, yes, the rest done simply by Hòutû herself.”

“So what happened next?” Mei said as she kneeled and put her elbows on the table.

“Life happened and time slowly crawled forward and I slowly began to change and probably still will,” he shrugged his shoulders.

MK fidgeted in his seat before finally speaking up again, “so...what happens now.”

“That’s for you two to decide,” he stood up and stretched, “You're the only ones who can decide for yourself.” He picked up the empty plates and cup, “Take as much time as you need kiddos,” he began to walk away with a heavy heart.

He knew that he couldn’t force their minds into completely accepting him, but he prays, one of the very few times he does, that he didn’t fuck two of the few good things he had. He can accept that they may not forgive him, but he damn hopes that there is still a sliver of affection-he stiffen as he felt two pairs of arms hug tightly around his waist. “Wha-?”

“You can’t get rid of us that easily Goldilocks,” Mei smiled as she cuddled her face in his soft fur, “No amount of scares can force us away from you.”

“Mei-,”

“At first I was angry,” he heard his son's voice even when it was muffled against his fur. “You kept secrets and I didn’t like that, but you told me and I was so confused, still am, but you aren’t the same mean monkey in the past, I don’t think you would have saved me if you were the same as your past self and I am happy about that. I am happy that I know you now, because I may have not liked you and if I didn’t like you then I would have never stayed with you and I really don’t like that,” MK looked up at him with tears in his eyes as he hugged him tighter. “I really don't like the idea of never being here, being with you Dad, so thank you for being you, thank you and I love you so much.”

Liu Er barely had the forethought to place the dishes down before wrapping his arms around them both with a tight grip. “Well I guess you're stuck with me.”

“Like old gum stuck in your fur,” MK squeezed out through the fur.

“I swear you spend way too much time with Minsheng…love you too Starlight,” he huffed as he ruffled his child's hair.

“And besides,” Mei started, “you may be a grump but you're our grumpy monkey demon now. And if anyone tries to say otherwise then I would need to have a few words with them,” she ended with a wide creepy smile on her face as her eyes promised vengeance.

“I’ll direct them towards you little newt,” he chuckled as he also messed with her hair as well and gave them both a gentle kiss on the forehead.

“Fuzz butt,” she shot back then got a gleam in her eyes, “a fuzz butt who can teach us how to fight.”

“No.”

“I’ll wear you down eventually,” she grinned, “sooo can we see what you really look like?” MK’s head shot up at that and shared the same gleam as well.

“Nosy, all of you,” he said as he gently pried them off of him, and in barely a flicker, he had transformed and he looked more...dangerous. His nails and teeth have become sharper, a few scars were more visible upon his hands and feet, the scar on his right eye was very prominent as it displayed a dull yellow pupil, even his ears seemed to add to his threatening appearance as the middle violet ear on the right was missing a portion of the upper cartilage.

“You look badass/So Cool!” Though he didn’t have to worry about scaring those two off as their eyes sparkled at his appearance and rushed to touch his fur as MK happily exclaimed as he put his face on his fluffy chest, “why does your fur feel even softer than before?!”

Macaque snorted loudly as he sat down on the floor and let them have a better reach, “shouldn’t even be surprised that was what you took away from this.”

“Seriously, now it looks like you actually know how to fight,” Mei ‘ooed’ as she felt some of his scars underneath his fur. “How’d this one happen,” she felt a faint scar right above the left shoulder.

“Well let me tell you that it all began by a river and I just found out that a certain monkey can’t fight underwater,” the two teenagers leaned in close as he began to tell the tale of the blood demon beast that rested underneath the river.

#monkie kid #mk #macaque #PlumTeaAU

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hannibalecterf · 4 years

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#MilkGate: A Tale of Love, Loss, and Lactation

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3

So a little while ago I said this in the tags of a post:

and at the request of absolutely no one, I’ve decided to do the full writeup!

This is a very long, complicated story involving no less than 7 parties, and the destruction of a friendship group, but I’m hoping that, if nothing else came out of this mess, it might at least get me some clout on tumblr dot hell.

So, without further ado, here’s the story of #MilkGate

Before we properly begin, we need to introduce our key players, who can generally be considered in three separate groups:

The TERF Trio

Me (M): your intrepid narrator and instigator of Lactation Discourse

Cath: that bitch, been that bitch still that bitch, will forever be that bitch

REDACTED: lovely lady of intruige, and, incidentally, my ex

Aramis (Mis): very dear friend, unwitting instigator of chaos, and secret fourth musketeer

The TRAs

Milk Pervert (MP): former friend, a trans woman and lactation kink haver

Erupting Scrote (ES): my former best friend, male, identifies as nonbinary

Herb: former friend, nonbinary female with bones made of glass

The Inoccent Bystanders

Crow: a sweet friend

Crystal: sweet friend 2: electric boogaloo

Möther: too sweet too friend

Jam: another ex of mine, in hindsight not quite so sweet

With that out of the way!

Chapter 1: Prologue

The actual events of #MilkGate went down in August this year, but really the seeds were sown three years ago, at our university’s Pride Society social. I’m just starting my second year of a four year degree. It’s the beginning of the new year, and Erupting Scrote (currently my best friend and fellow second year) has made friends with Herb in their joint class! Herb is a first year, and naturally wants to meet new people, especially some fellow el gee bee tees, and so we all decide to go along to the Pride social together. Here we meet Herb’s friend Milk Pervert, who is very tall, LOUD, and domineering in conversation. We’re hanging out in a little group, eating pizza, enjoying the surroundings, when MP spots a girl with a fidget spinner (what can I say, it was 2017). MP gets it into her head that she wants to play with the fidget spinner, so she points at this girl and yells “You! With the fidget spinner! Come here!” We learn that this is Catharine, she is a lesbian, somewhat nervous in big social situations, and autistic (hence the fidget spinner). I actually leave the social early, but I am later informed that, within only a couple of hours, MP had kissed Cath (without first asking permission) and asked her out, and Cath, not knowing what to do, accepted. Nobody thinks this is wrong. (Cath has since informed me that part of the reason she accepted is because she didn’t want to be seen to be transphobic. The other part was fear and confusion).

So now Cath and MP are in a relationship which is, how should I put it? Unhealthy. MP is clingy and possessive and never gives Cath a moment’s peace, and she actively takes pride in triggering a nonverbal meltdown in Cath. She also talks about her kinks incessantly. Not just with Cath, with all of us. After about a month of putting up with this crap, Cath ends the relationship, as politely and amiably one can manage. The rest of the friendship group, who have already become very close-knit, immediately revile Cath for the terrible crime of ending a relationship that isn’t working out for her. I, however, have grown quite close to Cath, on the grounds that she’s a lovely girl, and so she remains friendship group adjacent.

Time moves on. Herb introduces us to a small social media app called Peach, which we all start using to share memes, aesthetic pictures, or uncomfortably personal details about our mental breakdowns. In my 3rd year I make friends with Aramis, a lovely and intelligent foreign student who came to university two years early. She never really gets into the friendship group, because they’re all uncomfortable with the fact that she’s underage. MP is not so uncomfortable as to stop talking about her various kinks (primarily her lactation kink) in front of Mis. Cath goes on a year abroad, and only one other friend and I keep in touch with her all year. I have my first real breakup — Jam and I had been dating for about a year, but she breaks it off because the relationship isn’t really going anywhere. We remain friends, but we’re not very close anymore.

The summer between 3rd and 4th (final) year, I begin a tentative relationship with REDACTED. It’s intensely emotional, but also very sweet, and ultimately short-lived — she’s about to head off for her year abroad. I tell Erupting Scrote about the relationship, because he’s still my best friend, and also he kind of guessed it was happening. He tells me, though not in so many words, that he disapproves of this relationship, but never expands upon why. (A year later, REDACTED learns from Herb that it’s because ES apparently believed that I was somehow manipulated into this relationship). ES comes out as nonbinary because they enjoy wearing makeup and the occasional skirt. When we are alone together, it’s easy, like the friendship always had been. Mostly, ES comes over to my house we watch old tv shows and episodes of Pointless. With our other friends, ES makes a big deal of how close we are, calls me their “wife”. This started as a joke, but by now it feels possessive. My intelligence and acerbic nature are suppressed and ignored by my friends, who call me “baby” and treat me accordingly.

In my final year, I write my dissertation on postfeminism in Disney Princess films. I hadn’t heard about postfeminism before, but all of a sudden something clicked in me, and I finally understood why pop feminism was so grating to me; I finally had a vocabulary to express my frustration. (I get 90% on my dissertation, the highest grade my supervisor has ever awarded anyone). This leads me into reading more feminist literature, and especially radical feminist literature. At the same time, Cath, REDACTED, and Mis are also steadily getting into radical feminsm, and we fuel each other’s awakenings with book recommendations and late night conversations. MP still won’t shut up about how much she loves “tittie milk,” even when I directly ask her to stop.

Then, lockdown happens. MP, ES, and Herb are living together in one house (they’re fourth housemate, Jam, made it home a few days before lockdown went into effect). Mis, Cath, REDACTED and I aren’t locked down together, but we keep in regular contact with each other. I also stay in regular contact with Crystal, Crow, and Möther. In June, J. K. Rowling ‘TERFs out’, and our conversations increasingly turn to radical feminsm as we watch with mounting horror the number of rape and death threats she receives.

And then, it was August.

#milkgate

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ivesblosson · 4 years

Text

Bonding

Day 3 at @official-batfam-week : Injuries | Bonding During A Mission | No Capes/Civilian AU

Also on AO3

She groaned as she sat on the hard metal floor. The fluorescent light in her mask cast a strange aura around her face. Parts of her costume also shone in neon purple and the dim light was enough to let the others see her silhouette, especially since she was the only thing glowing in the darkness. “Great, now we are stuck here”, she mumbled for no one in specific. “Batman is going to be so pleased with us.”

The older boy couldn’t help but chuckle. “It’s all your fault, blondie”, he grunted, pointlessly kicking the door that separated them from their freedom.

“My fault?”, Stephanie exclaimed raising up in a swift move. She rolled her eyes, despite knowing that Red Hood had no way of seeing it, and laughed. “He’s the one who locked us in here”, she yelled, pointing her gloved finger to the newest Robin, who was pacing around the old freezer trying to get a signal.

Damian stopped in the middle of a step, then turned back to stare at his partners with a death glare. “We would not have needed to hide if you hadn’t been so loud”, he said bitterly at the young girl.

“But I wouldn’t have yelped if he”, Steph gestured towards Jason, who tried to play it cool, casually leaning against a wall, “hadn’t poked me with a freaking gun!”

“I’m sorry you can’t take a joke”, he grunted, taking the pistol from it’s holster and flipping it in the air. “Just playing”, he said, flashing a devilish smile.

“You shouldn’t be playing with guns”, she replied, taking large steps in his direction and attempting to take the pistol from his hand.

“Relax, they are unloaded, see?”, he stated and fire against the ceiling. There was the noise of the trigger being flicked, but nothing came out of the barrel.

On the other side of small room, Damian cleared his throat, causing the others to drop their discussion to look at him. “In case you have forgotten, we are here hiding. If you keep yelling, you’ll blow our cover.”

“Fine”, Steph muttered, grumply sliding back to the floor. She pulled back the purple hood of her cape, letting her blond hair flow freely and rested her head against one of the many boxes laying in the floor.

Jason followed her example and also sat down, removing his red helmet and revealing his jet black hair with a white streak. “If I were you,” he said to Damian, “I would sit down. No use trying to find a signal. we are five floors below street level.”

“Sitting there isn’t going to help either”, the boy hissed.

“Suit yourself,” Jason replied with a shrug. What the brat did was the least of his worries.

“You know, we are lucky the freezer isn’t a funcional one…”, Stephanie commented, lost in her thoughts. “What do you think they kept in here? Dead bodies? Horse meat? Cocaine?”

In that moment Jason wished he had brought a flashlight with him, just so Steph could see the expression in his face. “Why would you keep cocaine in a freezer?”

“I don’t know. To keep it icy?”, she sighed. “Do I look like I do cocaine?”

“No, honestly, you look like a mushroom girl. Especially since you are fucking glowing.”

“Firstly, don’t say the f-word, there’s a kid in here--”

“I’m thirteen. I’m not a kid”, Damian shouted.

“Second, it’s called emergency lights. My suit has strategically placed glow sticks that I can activate when needed”, Steph explained.

“Call it what you want, they are ridiculous”, he pointed out.

She huffed. “At least I can see.”

“Yeah, and be seen by every criminal from Gotham to Metropolis.”

In silence she wondered if the idea was as stupid as he made it sound. She had been very proud of her invention, and the memory of how embarrassing the one time she accidently activated the neon lights in the middle of a stealth mission was still fresh in her mind. There’s no need for Jason to know about that, she thought. From the depths of the pockets on her cape, she took an old fidget spinner that glows neon green. She had bought it back in 2017, when everyone was playing with those and forgotten about it, luckly, she now had something to play while they waited for rescue.

Damian, finally giving up his useless task, sat cross legged near Stephanie. “I finished my analysis. I’ve concluded that there’s no exit. The best course of action is to sit and wait for Batman to realize we have been gone for too long and come looking for us.”

“Then we are going to be here forever. Bruce won’t even notice that three soldiers of his army have gone missing, he’ll just replace us. Especially since we ain’t exactly his favorites”, Jason grunted, thinking about how Bruce had quickly forgotten about him the time he died and how soon Tim had taken the mantle of Robin.

“Shut up, Todd, you don’t get to talk about my father like that”, Damian snapped. “You are an ungrateful piece of shit.”

“And for what I should be grateful for, uh? All he did was get me killed.”

“Oh shut up, Jason. No one wants to hear you talk about Joker and that crowbar again”, Stephanie complained. Everyone had heard that story at least a hundred times. “Besides, you aren’t the only one left for dead”, she added, thinking about how she almost had met her own end in the hands of Black Mask.

Jason seemed to recall that too, as he murmured a half-hearted apology to her. Silence took hold of the freezer for what seemed a long time.

“It’s not his fault,” Damian whispered, making the others snap out of their thoughts.

“What did you say?”, Stephanie inquired.

“I said it’s not his fault the two of you got killed. We knew what we were signing up for. The dangers that came with the job. And we still chose to do it, so we can’t blame Batman for what happens to us, it was our choices. And actions have consequences.”

Jason chuckled once more. “Seriously? I was 12. I wasn’t old enough to make a life changing choice. He knew that, he took advantage of that to mold us into his image.”

“He has a point, though. No one made you go to Egypt and get blow up --”

“Ethiopia…”, Jason corrected.

“Whatever. And no one made me go after Black Mask alone.”

“And start a city wide gang war”, Damian added.

“Gezz, thank you, Damian, good to know I can count on you to keep reminding me of my worst mistakes.”

“Can we stop with the first name basis? We are in patrol.”

“Right, sorry, Robin”, she corrected. “You know what? No wonder no one likes you. You come in out of nowhere, tries to kill Ti-- the former Robin many times, disrespects Nightwing and think of yourself being so superior. And then when someone tries to defend you, you act like a asshole!”

“Bullshit”, Damian yells, standing up revolted. “I never disrespected Grayson.”

“Stop with the first name basis? We are in patrol”, Jason mocked, imitating Damian’s accent.

“And it’s not like they like you either”, the younger boy continued, his voice cracking. He fought to keep the tears from falling and tried to regain his composure. “You are a screw up”, he pointed to Stephanie, who was sitting playing with her spinner, “and you are a killer”, he angrily shouted at Jason, who was juggling with his guns. Neither of them seemed affected by Damian’s words. It was almost as if they had been hearing the same thing every single day and the words had lost their impact.

“Look who’s calling me a killer…”

“Yeah, and I may make mistakes, but at least I got friends”, the blonde said, thinking of Cass, Barbara and Tim. “Not that you would know what that means”, she added in a whisper.

“Shut up! Shut up!”, Damian screamed, slamming his fists against the freezer’s walls. Now he couldn’t hide the fact he was crying.

Slowly, Stephanie rose from the ground and walked towards him. Before he could react, she had him trapped in a tight hug. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that”, she said softly. She glanced back to Jason and mouthed for him to join them.

“Yeah, Robin, I’m really sorry”, Jason apologized joining the group hug.

They stayed that way, arms tangled together until Damian had stopped sobbing. He didn’t say anything, but the way his tiny arms clung tightly to Stephanie’s waist was enough to let her know he regretted the things he had said.

A loud pounding at the door startled them, making them pull away.

“That’s it, they found us”, Steph whispered, rushing to get her mask in place.

Jason nodded, picking his helmet from the floor and putting it back on. He stood near the door, guns pointed at the entrance. “Don’t worry, those two are loaded”, he said, smiling underneath his hood.

Damian prepared his fighting stick and Steph got in position. Another bang echoed in the chamber. And finally, the door was pulled outwards.

The three of them let out a collective sigh of relief at the sight.

“Kate”, Steph exclaimed, running to greet her.“I’m so glad you found us.”

“Yeah”, Batwoman replied, gently pushing Steph aside. “Now, do any of you care to explain how the hell did you get locked in a freezer?”

“It was totally not my fault”, three voices shouted simultaneously.

#batfamweek2020 #batfamily #red hood #spoiler #jason todd #stephanie brown #damian wayne #robin #mine #writing #dc

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jflashandclash · 4 years

Text

Tales From Mount Othrys

Ajax: Fidget Spinners VI

The Lord of the Underworld was almost exactly what Pax expected he would be: moody, dark, and evil-looking with a strong affinity for the color black. Or maybe it was the color “trapped soul.” Whatever it was, Hades liked it outlined in gold, probably to look more intimidating. He wore black robes and had a helm under one arm.

There was one major problem. He didn’t have blue fire for hair. Disney taught Pax that Hades was supposed to have blue fire hair and a great sense of humor. Disney had lied to him. This just looked like a rich, pasty white guy.

His black and gold chariot was spooky, but Pax had seen cooler ones. The one they were designing for Kronos was way better.

Axel was crazy enough to have his sword still drawn. In the presence of the Lord of the Underworld, with Hades’ squadron of geriatric dominatrixes, and some Halloween standees behind them, Pax’s brother set his jaw and kept hislips in a firm line. When asked later, Pax would say Axel didn’t shake once (and they would get a chance to be asked later; they were both surviving this, damn it.) Truth was, Pax’s presence seemed to weaken Axel’s resolve. Pax guessed it was real easy to get yourself killed when it was just you that would be doing the dying part.

Pax’s mind raced. One thing was certain: they weren’t fighting their way out of this.

Axel grunted when Pax pushed his sword hand down.

“Get out of here,” Axel hissed in Mayan.

Pax didn’t know how to explain to Axel that the invisibility spell over Pax was sparking and would attract a lot of attention if he tried to pick up Axel and flee. Pax didn’t get a chance.

Hades’ voice boomed and reverberated around the cavern more than Jack’s had. “You will not escape me this time, Perc—”

As his chariot ground to a halt, his dark eyes narrowed at Axel’s tiny form, then flicked back up to the furies. “This isn’t Percy Jackson.”

The furies had been fluttering in an intimidating circle above, like the most obnoxious of gnats. One landed beside Hades’ chariot, looking nervous. “We thought it was Luke Castellan, My Lord. Your rage and obsession over Jackson must have—”

Hades roared. He lashed out towards the Fury.

She took to the sky again, shrieking.

“Does this look like the host of Kronos?!” Hades bellowed, Pax thought, rather offensively. Axel could totally host Kronos if he wanted. “I’m not sure if I would rather strike Jackson or Castellan dead first.” His dark gaze returned back to Axel. “You’ll have to suffice.”

Pax wished the invisibility spell came with a sink-into-the-ground function. He trembled at the power radiating off this god, and knew, in that horrifying moment, that Axel was about to challenge Hades to a duel.

Pax’s mouth opened. He wasn’t sure what words would come out, but they would definitely be better than Axel’s, You wanna throw down?

“We’re lost,” Pax said.

Hades looked confused, clearly noting that Axel hadn’t opened his mouth.

Axel tensed.

No option for running now. Pax continued, feeling a few sparks above his head flutter down to singe he shoulder. He hoped that wasn’t burning holes in the invisibility spell. He might need it in a moment. “Yes, we’re lost,” Pax repeated. “We’re looking…” He grasped for anything that might baffle the Lord of the Dead. At those words, it popped into his head. “We’re looking… for Xibalba?” The comment came out a question.

Axel cleared his throat. “Yes,” he confirmed, glancing in Pax’s general direction without landing exactly on Pax. “We’re looking for Xibalba.” Robotically, Axel sheathed his sword.

Hades looked incredibly annoyed. “You are Mayan,” he said, examining Axel’s tufted ears with begrudging realization. “You’re not Greek at all.”

“Nope,” Axel confirmed. “My faith is in the Mayan gods and the Catholic Trinity.”

None of that was false. They had always practiced within the Mayan and Catholic faith. They knew Greek and Roman gods and hung out with them. Pax hardly called that faith or worship, no matter how often Morpheus liked to tease them as his little devotees when they slept-in with a rare, sweet dream. Axel scorned when anyone suggested he refer to the Titans as all powerful.

Hades pinched the ridge of his nose. “Who let you down here?”

“Um…” Axel said. He, Luke, and Jack must have slipped into the Underworld through a back entrance and didn’t know who to pin the blame on.

Pax had an immediate answer. “Charon,” he said.

“CHARON!” Hades bellowed.

Even Axel flinched as the cavern trembled with a minor earth quake. A stalactite fell and crashed into lines of the dead in the distance. They passed through, unharmed.

“First he has the audacity to ask for a pay raise, and now he’s letting heathens into my domain!” Hades yelled, “His impertinence knows no end! First his suits! And now his life coach that’s telling him how hard it is to find someone with his skill set!”

Although Axel probably couldn’t see Pax, the brothers knew to looks towards each other as though to exchange a glance.

“Is his skill set hard to find?” Axel asked.

“Yes!” Hades bellowed, “It’s nearly impossible to find a well-suited grim reaper.” Pax wanted to raise a hand to ask if Hades’ “well-suited” meant Charon’s outfit or skill set, but Hades cut him off. “But, you can’t let him know that. It goes straight to his head and now he thinks he’s irreplaceable. He forgets that one-in-a-billion is different than irreplaceable. How many people do you think die in a day!?”

Pax coughed into the back of his hand to keep himself from laughing. Was this guy for real? Most of his prior fear was evaporating. “Us heathens?” he reminded Hades.

“Yes, it has been an awfully long time since Charon flubbed and let savage barbarians into my domain—”

“Let’s stick with heathens,” Axel growled.

Pax had to agree. He remembered Alabaster once telling him something about how barbarian meant someone who wasn’t Hellenistic to the Greeks, but avoiding the adjective “savage,” was that too much to ask for?

“And now we have a leak in our ICEE unit. They should have caught you at the entrance,” Hades continued like Axel hadn’t spoken.

Had Pax heard that right? “ICEE? For real? As in—”

“Inhumation Correction to Exact Exequies,” Hades growled. “This is what you get when you let liberal arts majors name things. Regardless, they’re for the dead who were improperly processed after death. They’ll be able to sort a ghost and a…. are you some kind of spirit guide?”

The question didn’t sound sarcastic, just irritated. Pax’s mind raced, trying to think—

Pax decided to go with lying, a rarity with his normal half-truths. He forgot no one could see him while he shrugged. “He’s the weird one. All Mayan dead look like me.”

“Uh-hu…” a Fury somewhere above said doubtfully.

Pax stuck a tongue out at her and had the delightful realization that he could moon the Lord of the Dead right here, right now, in his own domain, and no one would know to stop him and there would assuredly be no repercussions.

That would also mean mooning the creepy dominatrixes in the sky. He decided he would pass up the opportunity to avoid that.

“We’re sorry to cause you such strife, Lord Death,” Axel said, holding up his hands in a mock-honoring gesture. “We can show ourselves out, really.”

“Likely,” Hades said. “Last time we had an ICEE mix up, there was SUCH ruckus and chaos. That einherji was terrible for our image!”

Axel frowned, his hands clenching into fists. “You know, not all misplaced souls are like that.”

“Yes, you try telling that the to Elysian Field occupants that had their houses torched and raided. All it takes is one and it devalues all the properties for miles!” Hades said.

Pax got the bad feeling that Axel was about to attack Hades regardless of their ruse. While warranted, Axel might really be a misplaced Mayan soul stuck in the Underworld’s immigration unit if he did.

Before Pax could say something to ease the mood, Hades leaned forward in his chariot. His hand curled around his black helm. His dark eyes bore down onto Axel.

Had Axel been a lesser man, he’d have probably crumbled to his knees with all that godliness trying to make him feel mortal. Pax definitely felt himself trembling. Instead, Axel stared back.

Hades pointed to Axel’s arm. “You tried to swim in the River Styx.” This time, when the Lord of the Underworld spoke, his oily voice was also filled with ice.

Axel lowered his arms completely. His burn marks had been on full display from where he’d withdrawn Luke from the dark waters and held his acidic friend.

Considering that probably wasn’t a popular tourist destination for a leisure dip, Pax could see where marks from it would be suspicious.

“Is that what your river is called?” Pax asked, trying to edge his voice with some mockery. “Our black river is the scorpion river. Dipping in it is part of our death ritual. You should check the pH balance of your scorpions. I think they’re off.” That most certainly was not part of their death ritual. Pax planned to stay as far away from the Black River as he could when we went to….

An existential panic threatened to break Pax’s concentration on the present. Would he end up in the Mayan afterlife or the Greek one? Or even the Catholic one? Others in Camp Othrys said it was based off belief, but what if you believed in all three? And what if Axel didn’t end up in the same one? Would paradise even be worth it if you couldn’t hang out with your bro?

The expression on Hades’ face brought Pax’s attention back. Those harsh lines hadn’t softened at Pax’s flubbed explanation. Hades was in the process of deciding he didn’t believe them and, probably, wondering which part of his robes he’d put the Pax brother’s souls into. Guy had some weird fetishes if he kept people’s souls in his robes and ladies with whips as his escorts. No wonder Persephone only stayed down here a few months out of the year.

They needed a distraction and they need one fast, something that would shock or offend Hades so much that he’d forget to toss them into his evil sock drawer and something that would startle Axel away from where his hand was creeping towards his sword hilt.

“Your helmet looks stupid,” Pax blurted.

That… that was not what they needed. But, Pax would make it work.

Before Hades eyes could bulge out of his head, his “WHAT” could shake apart the Underworld, or Axel could choke on his laughter, Pax continued, “I’m looking out for your best interests. It looks like your helm would look stupid on, and I wouldn’t want you looking stupid to other invisible spirits like myself. You see, us invisibles look visible to other invisibles. Haven’t you noticed that when you have your helm on?”

It was a huge gamble. Alabaster would have been able to tell Pax if that was stupid or not, according to mythology. At the moment, all Pax could remember was that it was a helm of invisibility. He couldn’t remember what other figures possessed this power.

Hades’ brow had furrowed in rage, his mouth agape like a rabid animal. In the briefest moment, Pax saw a glimmer of insecurity in those pits of eternal pain that Hades had for eyes.

Either Pax had already sentenced him and his brother to death or Hades needed the tiniest bit more coaxing before he cracked.

“I mean, I’m a Mayan. I’ll talk to you straight. How many Greeks would dare give you an honest opinion on this?” Pax said, so fast that he hoped others could keep the syllables separated. “Try asking one of your humble servants.”

The ghoul army behind him shuffled in nervous motion. The Furies seemed to fly higher.

“I trust my servants to be honest with me,” Hades snarled. He scowled up towards the Fury that had spotted their party; she hadn’t flown up fast enough. “Alekto.”

She seemed alarmed. “Yes, Master?” she said uncertainly.

“Does my helm look stupid when I’m wearing it?” Hades asked.

Her wing flapping grew so tentative, Pax thought that she might lose altitude. “Um…. Master, I cannot see it on you when you wear it. You’re invisible.”

Hades nostrils flared. “Of course you can’t,” he said, his voice bitter with suspicion.

Pax shrugged in a, what are you going to do?, gesture. Remembering that Hades couldn’t see him, he shoved Axel and hoped his older brother got the message.

“Underlings, am I right?” Axel asked. The words sounded unnatural from him. On the laundry list of things that made Axel passionately angry, the misuse of underpaid workers was one of them.

That didn’t matter to Hades. He examined his helmet so thoroughly, he probably hadn’t even heard Axel. Pax had cracked Hades’ confident demeanor with the tiniest hint of insecurity. Alekto’s hesitation was all Pax needed to convince the Lord of the Dead that there was a problem.

“Charon did give the design to the Elder Cyclopes during the First Titan War. It has always been a little too tight.” Hades lifted his helm and stared into the dark eye sockets. Pax was a little disappointed that the helmet didn’t turn Hades’ arm invisible when he stuck his hand inside to lift it up. Hades snorted. “Of course I would be the only god that needed measurements for my great weapon. Zeus and Poseidon get a bolt and a trident. Doesn’t matter if their henchmen are unreliable. You’d think with all those tailored suits, that Charon could take a proper measurement—”

Pax wanted to point out that Hades should be able to just change the size of his head. He was a GOD. That was the opposite of what Pax wanted Hades to think. Pax feigned a gasp, kicking his brother’s boot.

Instead of sharing Pax’s gasp, as he had hoped, Axel glared at him. His message was clear: get on with what you’re doing before you get us killed.

“Oh, you’ve never SEEN your helmet on yourself?” Pax said, sounding as aghast and offended as he could manage. “I mean, if you’re comfortable with not knowing whether or not you look like an idiot—”

Hades made a threatening growl.

Pax knew he couldn’t back down. “—and maybe telling Persephone that her husband lost his fashion sense after the SS uniform went out of style—”

“Those uniforms influenced dark fashion for years,” Hades said with pride.

“All villains admire that look. Clearly you know what you’re doing,” Pax agreed. “Maybe we just need someone to model your helmet for you, that way you can make adjustments to fit what you think is best, not Charon’s sloppy notes.”

“It would be nice to fix the sizing. And I could add some more skulls to it, if I were to have it fixed,” Hades mumbled, tilting the helm on its side.

“You’ll need someone who—I mean, no one could do your grand, imperial stance justice, but someone who would come close. You need a chiseled, manly-jawed model. Someone with an authoritarian stance...” Pax hummed like he was thinking. “Oh, the Furies won’t do. They’re ladies. And you don’t want someone who’s decomposed. They won’t be able to tell you if it would be comfortable with adjustments. What’s your head circumference?”

“37 in this form; 25 when I look more like the lesser race,” Hades said absently. He gestured towards Axel and Pax, clearly meaning, when I look mortal.

“Twenty-five!” Pax cried. He shoved Axel’s shoulder, so Axel stumbled a step forward. “A chiseled-jaw, authoritarian stance and a 25 inch head circumference—”

“No—” Axel hissed at Pax, but Pax knew it was already too late for him to properly protest.

“—that just so happens to fit my brother! What luck!” Pax had no idea if that would fit his brother’s head. He didn’t know many people who knew their own head circumference, let alone the head circumference of a relative. After they lived through this, he’d have to ask it of Axel. Then he could make him a, I Went to Hades and Only Got This Defective Helm of Darkness cap.

Hades’ eyes narrowed. They slid past the helm to the two of them. Pax had managed to usher them closer to Hades’ chariot. “Are you suggesting I put my most prized weapon atop your brother’s head?”

“I mean, if you have someone else to model it for you quickly, we don’t need to bother you.” Axel shot Pax a look.

Pax nodded sagely. “I’m sure you have lots of dashing heroes that aren’t decomposed and gross or incorporeal to help. I mean. We’re just right here. Passing through. And I happen to be someone who can see invisible things. I guess we could call up Hecate—augh. I forgot she betrayed you for the Titans.” Pax snapped his fingers like he was disappointed. “And Queen Persephone might not mind too much if you get some zombie brain junk on those beautiful, raven locks.”

Hades eyes widened enough that Pax thought the King of the Underworld might shoot lasers at him. Maybe Pax was pushing the line a bit too much.

“How would a Mayan know about Hecate and her betrayal?” Hades demanded.

“The Lords of the Dead gossip a lot,” Axel blurted. “You know how Lord Hun-Came gets when he’s been drinking and playing ball with Lord Vucub-Came.”

“This is why you only have one Lord of the Dead. Bureaucracy just means red tape and more time for courtly banter.[1] You can run a government so much easier when you’re a tyrant,” Hades said and sighed, like he’d been petitioned many times for a democratic underworld.

Axel rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath, “Apparently, only when you have competent henchmen.”

Pax pinched his brother’s arm. They were close; he could feel it, especially since he almost felt bad for Hades. If Hades really thought it was easier to rule down here by himself, Pax wondered how lonely this guy got.

Pax wasn’t here to check on the underworld’s mental health though. “Why not surround us with a circle of guards. It’s not like we’re trained acrobats that can jump over people’s heads.” Axel snorted. Pax pinched his shoulder again. “And, we might as well help you. It’s the least we can do before you escort us to your ICEE unit.”

Hades considered this for a moment. His entourage shuffled in discomfort. The Furies might hit a stalactite if they flew any higher to avoid his wraith.

“Very well,” he said. “Guards!”

The shuffling grew louder as the warriors made a loose circle around him and his brother. Some of the spear tips got a little too close for comfort. They’d have to be careful avoiding those while escaping.

Hades motioned Axel forward.

The taller boy clenched his jaw. Pax was pretty sure the tension therein could shatter an entire frozen lake. While this was the perfect opportunity for Axel to get the sword equivalent of a sucker punch on Hades, Pax wanted to remind Axel that they probably couldn’t stab the Lord of the Dead, bid a “good day” to his army, and skip out of here down a black brick road. Pax swallowed, reminding himself that sucker punches were things that he did. His brother had some weird concept about something called honor? Pax normally ignored Axel when he talked about it.

Here came the hard part: getting Axel to kneel to accept the helm.

Axel leveled with Hades’ black chariot. Pax could feel the overwhelming power radiating off it and its master. Authority bled off this guy like creepiness from a spider, and Hades wanted Axel to bend to his will without having to be asked.

Axel, an idiot who bowed to no man nor god, cleared his throat. “Lord Hades, I believe you won’t be able to reach me from your chariot if I kneel.”

The comment was presumptuous and Pax thought Axel had blown all their improvisation quicker than a Star Trek Vulcan would ruin the atmosphere of the Renaissance festival. He waited for Hades’ fist to turn into a cartoon hammer and smash Axel into the black sand.

Instead, Hades growled, “Mayans are the first people to even think about that. Would my soldiers have said anything? No. They would have forced me to reach further down to get them.” Especially with how tall the god was, an extra four feet would be a lot to stoop.

The Lord of the Underworld lifted his hideous black helm above Axel’s tufted ears.

As the helm came down, it compressed Axel’s long, twisted hair. Or, Pax thought it did. When it made contact, the helm melted Axel.

Within a microsecond, the essence that was Axel had liquefied into shadow and flooded into the sands. There wasn’t even an indent where he’d been standing.

There was one major flaw in Pax’s plan. He actually couldn’t see his brother. And, in that moment, with Axel-fertilizer in the underworld’s black sand, Pax realized Axel and Pax might have been the ones who were just tricked.

***

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed! :D Stay tuned next week to see what—well…. you can’t really see what Pax and Axel are doing. >>’‘

Anyway, stay safe and indoors!

***

Footnote:

[1] Ha ha. Courtly. Like a ball court…. I’ll show myself out.

#Tales from Mount Othrys #TFMO #PJO #HOO #fanfiction #Fidget Spinners #I injured my back in three different places this week. Further proof that staying in can be as dangerous as going out #And further proof that my body refuses to stay with its age group #People did always call me mature.....#anyway--stay safe guys

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runaway-horses · 5 years

Text

Rainbow Colored Love

Word Count: 1,765

A/N: Me? Self-projecting? Never. (Read; I absolutely am) This took me in a lot of directions in one day before I settled on what I have now. (Yes, I wrote this in one day, and yes, I am exhausted.) Happy Pride to everybody! This fic means a lot to me just because I made Virgil non-binary, like myself, and I hope y’all enjoy it.

Warnings: One use of the F-word, Sympathetic Deceit but he’s only mentioned twice and both times off-screen. I think that’s it? Un-beta read, all mistakes are the result of writing this past midnight.

Tags: @pippippippin, @a-cure-for-sentience, @stormcrawler75, @princeyssash, @quoth-the-sparrow, @theresneverenoughfandoms, @queer-guineapig

Virgil sits at the end of their driveway, head tilted back, eyes shut. The harsh June sun beats down on them, but Virgil is enjoying it. Normally, they would find the heat oppressive. It made wearing their signature hoodie uncomfortable (and according to Patton, dangerous) and the Florida sun was not kind on their pale skin.

But it's hard to muster up any sort of negative feelings today, not even towards the sun.

A smile splits their face as they hear the distinctive rumble of their boyfriend's car making its way down the road. Virgil sits up and squints at the dark blue van rolling to a stop in front of them. Their boyfriend steps out and runs a hand through his blue hair, missing it up. Virgil feels a pang of fondness in their chest at the very sight of him.

"Logan!" They call, standing gracefully. Logan looks over to them and he smiles big, dropping his hand. “Hello darling,” Logan greets, his eyes bright behind his glasses. Virgil walks up to him and tilts their head back to look him in the eye. As much as they liked to grumble about it (and as much as Roman teased them about it), they loved how Logan was just a head taller than them. It meant Virgil could tuck their head right under his chin and breathe in the familiar scent of their boyfriend. (It also made them feel safe, when Logan would wrap his arms around them and press a kiss to the top of their head- yeah. That was nice too.)

Logan’s hands are cool against Virgil’s warm skin as he gently cups their face and kisses their forehead. “Are you ready to go, starshine?” Virgil hums in affirmation and bounds over to the passenger side of Logan’s door, sliding into the car and ignoring Logan’s fond chuckle. Virgil tries not to bounce in their seat as Logan backs the car out of their driveway, and they reach into their pocket for their fidget spinner. They spin it around and enjoy both the motion and the whirr before turning to Logan.

“I want to dye my hair,” They say, abruptly. They’re surprised by Logan’s smile (Logan is extra smiley today, usually it takes a bit more to get their stoic boyfriend to show emotion. Although Virgil supposes they’re feeling particularly stimmy and happy today as well.)

“I had a hunch, or a hope, that you might say that. I re-did mine last night,” He gestures to the vibrant color atop his head, “And I purchased some extra dye. Did you have a particular color in mind?” Virgil hums and flicks the spinner again.

“I was thinking purple?” They say and Logan nods.

“I have a bottle of it at home. Would you like me to do that before we leave for the parade?” Virgil hums again and nods before turning to look out the window. Logan reaches for the radio and the playlist that Virgil made him for their anniversary fills the car, which causes Virgil to glance over at Logan.

I need to know

That when I fail you'll still be here, mmm

'Cause if you stick around, I'll sing you pretty sounds

And we'll make money selling your hair

He’s smiling, and after a moment he starts to song along.

I don't care what's in your hair

I just wanna know what's on your mind

I used to say I wanna die before I'm old

But because of you, I might think twice

Yeah, yeah, yeah!

+++

The two of them are still singing along to the playlist when Logan pulls up to his house, and they wait in the driveway until the current song finishes for Logan to turn off the car. Virgil opens the car door and follows Logan into his house. They like Logan’s house, it smells like peppermint and cinnamon and Logan’s dad is always kind to Virgil. Logan leads him into the bathroom, where there’s bottles of hair dye on the counter. Virgil spots the purple and picks it up to look at the color more closely. Vibrant Violet, the label reads. They smile at Logan and hand him the bottle. “This is good, I hope.”

Logan reaches for the latex gloves on the counter and urges Virgil to sit up on the edge of the sink so he can start on their hair.

45 minutes later, Logan is blow drying Virgil’s hair as they discuss Doctor Who and Logan is making Virgil laugh with his Intense Focus face. (Your eyebrows scrunch together and you get this really serious look on your face; it’s adorable! Sometimes you even stick your tongue out a little-hey! I’m just telling the truth!)

“All done!” Logan announces, peeling off his gloves and dropping them in the trash can. Virgil hops off the counter and turns to look in the mirror, gasping at their reflection. Their hair is a vibrant shade of purple, the bangs fluffier than usual due to its recent blow drying. They run a hand through their hair and study their reflection for a moment longer before turning around and hugging Logan.

“I love it! Thank you, Logan,” They say into his chest, and they feel themself melt a little when Logan drops a kiss on their head.

“You’re welcome dearest. Now, are you ready to get dressed? I don't want to be late.’

Virgil nods and looks at themself in the mirror one last time before grabbing their bag and darting into Logan’s bedroom, pulling their outfit out of the backpack. They’re pulling their shirt over their head when Logan enters and they smile at his tank top, which has the words “Everything is gay and nothing is binary” printed on it in blocky letters.

(It also highlights Logan’s impressive biceps and shoulders, so in no way is Virgil complaining.)

He lifts up a pallet of face paint and shakes it. "Would you paint my face for me, dear?" Virgil nods and reaches for the pallet, swatting Logan's arm when he lifts it up out of their reach. Logan laughs and hands it to Virgil, who flips open the lid with a huff. "You're lucky I love you," they mutter as they swipe color across their boyfriend's face.

"Indeed I am," Logan murmurs, leaving forward and kissing Virgil gently, trapping their hand between their chests as they melt into the kiss.

"Fuck you, Logan. Now I'm soft," They object weakly, fighting back the blush that's painting their cheeks red. "You weren't supposed to make that romantic!"

Logan pulls them closer and kisses their cheeks. "Roman must be rubbing off on me," he says. Virgil pushes him away gently, certain that they'll explode if Logan keeps kissing them.

"He's a bad influence on you, that Prince."

Virgil finishes the last swipe of blue on Logan's face, having painted two identical bi flags on either side of Logan's face.

"You're all set!" They say, admiring their work. "I can't believe I painted straight lines during this Good Gay Month."

Logan's laughs as he pulls on his combat boots. "Now who sounds like Roman?"

Virgil doesn't respond, preoccupied with their task of painting yellow, white, purple, and black stripes on their own face. When they catch Logan's eyes in the mirror, he's smiling at them.

They smile back at him, and pull back from the mirror.

"Ok, I'm ready." They say, picking up their backpack and slinging it over their shoulder.

"Let's get our gay on, shall we?"

+++

The entire drive, Virgil is vibrating with excited energy. They spin their fidget spinner for the entire ride, trying to settle their emotions somewhat.

When Logan parks the car at their destination, Virgil reaches into their backpack and digs around for a moment before emerging with a small pin that they fix to their shirt.

My Pronouns Are they/them/theirs.

Logan reads the white text over the non-binary flag and gives Virgil a smile filled with pride. Virgil smiles back. They've come a long way in two years, two years ago they never would've imagined being comfortable enough with themself to wear a pin like this, to have the flag so visible on their body.

They step out of the car and grasp Logan's hand as the two of them walk towards the loud and joyful sounds of the crowds. There's glitter and color and sound everywhere, and Virgil feels the tight grip of anxiety for a terrifying moment, but then Logan squeezes their hand and the crowd parts and they can breathe again.

They hear a loud shout to their left, and when they look they see Roman and Patton hanging off of each other, each decked out in Pride regalia.

"Oh my stars, Virgil! Look at you, you look wonderful!" Patton says as they get closer. Virgil smiles shyly and squeezes Logan's hand again.

"Thanks Padre. You look pretty pan-tastic yourself."

Patton screeches with joy and slaps at Roman's arm, smiling huge.

"A pun! What a pun-derful pun, thank you Vee!" Virgil smiles at their friend as he flaps his hands a little and Roman looks at his boyfriend like he hung the sun. Roman is wearing his “No Romo” shirt that Virgil gifted him when he came out to the group. (Later that night, he also admitted his squishes for Patton and Dee, and the three of them have been together since. It’s a memorable day in their friendship history for a couple reasons.)

"We're looking for Dee, but we'll see you guys once the parade starts?" Roman asks, questioning gaze lingering on Virgil.

"You will, for sure." They say, happiness bubbling in their chest as they answer. Roman smiles at them before leading Patton off, presumably in search of their third QPP.

Logan and Virgil walk hand in hand through the crowd, and they find what they deem to be a good spot to wait in for the parade to begin. Virgil takes their backpack off and reaches into it again, pulling out the finishing touch to their outfit.

The demiromantic flag unfolds, and they tie it around their shoulders resolutely. They look at Logan, pride in their eyes, and Logan kisses them.

And as Logan's fingers sink into their hair, with the rumble of people around them and their flag fluttering at their back, Virgil feels at home.

And when they break apart to walk, Virgil says a silent thank you to all those who walked before, and gave them the opportunity to be here, walking hand in hand with the boy they love.

#pride prompts #analogical #royaliceit #love athena #athena rambles #nonbinary virgil #aromantic roman #demiromantic virgil

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inmyownlittlecorner5 · 4 years

Text

Moonlight Chapter Four: Take Two

A fanfic Novel by la-topolina

Rated for Mature Audiences

Warnings: Language, Violence, Sexual Content

Chapter 4/26

Moonlight Masterpost+

<< Chapter Three+

Chapter Five+ >>

-----------------

A week after the vampire killing, Miranda knew that she could put off her visit to the Ministry of Magic no longer. She approached the innocuous phone box and rode the elevator to the guest entrance, flexing her hands and fidgeting with her clothing as though everything itched her. She had been depressed and restless, particularly since Severus’s disappearance. If she were honest with herself, she knew it was probably for the best. The man’s jumpy behavior made her strongly suspect that he was wrapped up in something less than legal and she barely knew him. It wasn't her usual practice to fall into bed with complete strangers, but she knew it was most likely to happen when she was coming down from a case. The thrill of the hunt and the kill had to run its course. Sometimes she managed this in more virtuous ways—meditation, exercise, and the like. Sometimes she stayed awake for three or four days and the slept for the same amount of time. Sometimes she smoked and drank the feeling to oblivion. In her younger days, sometimes she would indulge in a one night stand; but they had usually been disappointing. After a few times of pretending that an inept lover was a Casanova, she’d mostly given up the practice. Men’s egos were so fragile and she had no patience for stroking them when they didn’t deserve it. Once, a long time ago, there had been a man worth the trouble and her throat tightened as his face appeared before her eyes.

The doors of the lift snapped open and Miranda shook her head to clear it. Now was really not the time to be thinking about such things. She knew there would be a mountain of paperwork waiting for her. She walked quickly past the fountain, her boots clicking on the marble floors. She was so intent on controlling herself and crossing the atrium, that she didn't notice a tall man dressed in black until she had knocked into him. For a brief, hopeful instant, she thought it might be Severus, back from the dead. But as she looked at the cold grey eyes and saw the long blond hair, she knew this man was not who she had hoped. "So sorry," she muttered and pushed past him. "I'm sure," he drawled lazily after her. Miranda's eyes were crossing as she finished and filed the final form. It seemed to her that the process became more complicated each time she followed it. She supposed it was worth it to some degree. If she had a good track record for following procedure, then the Ministry wouldn't see the need to prod into anything that didn't quite fit. That was her hope in any case. "Just a moment and I'll have your receipts for you," squeaked a short, balding wizard from behind the desk. She drummed her fingers impatiently on the counter, studying the wanted posters that decorated the walls. They all seemed to be of the same hollow-eyed wizard, one Sirius Black. The price on his head was high enough that her interest was piqued. Perhaps she'd do a bit of digging in a week or two and think about taking up the case. He'd been at liberty for quite some time, and with a Hippogriff too. That might make for an entertaining chase. "Thank you. Have a pleasant day," the bureaucrat finally said. "Same to you," she said, exhausted and thoroughly sick of being indoors. She had just reached the fountain in the atrium again when she noticed the same tall, blond wizard from earlier. He was striding towards her purposefully, followed by an older, white-haired man in a purple suit. The older man looked vaguely familiar and as they approached she realized the older man was Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic. They were on a collision course with her and she stopped, standing out of their way with a slight frown. To her surprise, both men did indeed appear to want to talk to her. "Good afternoon, Minerva Rose, isn't it?" Cornelius Fudge asked, sticking out his stubby hand to her. His tone was jovial and smooth like the politician that he was. She smiled blandly at him and corrected, “It’s Miranda Rose, actually. Although Miss Rose will do.” He went on as though he were only half listening. “I am Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic. I don’t think we’ve had the pleasure, but your work has come to my attention. Excellent job on the ghoul hunting a few years back.” “I think it was a graphorn that time…” “Quite so, quite so. What brings you to London just now?” She extricated her hand, but kept her tone polite. "I just finished the paperwork on the Islington Vampire case." "Excellent, excellent. Allow me to introduce my companion, Mr. Lucius Malfoy." Lucius inclined his head to her, but did not try to take her hand. "Charmed," he said. She returned the nod. "Is there something I can do for your gentlemen?" “Indeed there is,” Cornelius said. "I'd like to talk to you about something that I hope could be your next case.” "Mr. Fudge, I'm terribly sorry, but I have a bit of a waiting list at present and it will be at least a week before I'm ready to think about another case anyway.” "Come now, Miss Rose," Lucius said cooly, "I'm sure we can make it worth your while." Miranda could tell by looking at Mr. Malfoy that he was a man used to getting his way. He was sneering down his nose at her like a prince would sneer at a serf. The back of her neck prickled in warning and she knew he was not a man to be trifled with. "Well, in that case, throw this into the fire in a week to remind me and I'll come discuss it with you then. I'm afraid I'd be utterly useless to you now, I got a bit banged up in the last fray you see.” She pulled a silver card printed with M. Rose out of her pocket and handed it to Cornelius with a charming smile. "Of course, perfectly understandable," Cornelius agreed. Miranda started to leave but Lucius blocked her path. "One week, Miss Rose." His voice sounded like a threat. She held his gaze fearlessly, but calmly and replied, "Good day Mr. Fudge, Mr. Malfoy." Lucius blocked her path for a moment longer, and then let her pass. She kept her pace unhurried although she wanted to run. It wouldn't do to show any discomfort in front of a man like Lucius Malfoy. He would pounce if he scented fear. She was very glad when she finally reached the street. *****

Later that evening Miranda found herself loitering up and down Grimmauld Place. She’d returned to the alley where she’d met Severus several times since his disappearance. She knew she was being ridiculous—for all she knew the man had been dead since the previous week. She told herself that she was doing this mostly to keep herself from getting into worse trouble. Surely wasting her time in a fruitless search was better than sitting alone in her cabin in a drunken stupor, or picking up some fool at Prospero’s night club. At least this way she was getting some exercise. But she knew that part of her hoped that she might succeed in tracking her quarry, ill-advised as that might be. Her instincts were usually spot on when it came to judging people, which served her well in her profession. Severus was obviously an ass, but he also seemed to possess the intelligence necessary to observe what would give a lady pleasure and the self control to give her the time to enjoy it. As impulsive as she knew she was being, she ached to continue what they had started.

She leaned against the wall of one of the dilapidated houses and lit a cigarette.

"Nox" she whispered, and the light at the butt of the cigarette went out, even as she continued to smoke it. The shadows of the building covered the smoke as she watched and listened. She told herself that this would be the last night she'd waste this much time.

As the minutes ticked by, she gradually became aware of a spot between two of the houses a bit up the street from where she was standing. She settled deeper into the shadows, but noticed that there seemed to be quite a few people who wandered up to the spot, and then disappeared. The silence was eerie, and she could have sworn that it was punctuated by the angry shrieks of a woman. Her eyes narrowed and she slowly made her way to a better viewing point across the street. Just as she reached a new length of shadows, her patience was rewarded. She heard a crack that sounded like a wizard Apparating from somewhere close. A few seconds later, Severus swept into view, cape billowing like giant bat wings. Her eyes narrowed as he approached that same spot between the houses, but she could not see exactly when he disappeared. She crossed casually to the spot. She could almost smell the magic, but she doubted she would be able to break whatever spell was in place. Instead, she followed Severus’s trail to the alley from which he had emerged. Grinning, she realized that it was the same alley where they had had their first meeting. Moving like a cat, she climbed up to a fire-escape and lit another cigarette. The magic spot up the street somehow slipped from her mind and she settled in to watch and wait. ****** Severus was in a very black mood as he swept out of Number Twelve Grimmauld Place. He'd taken his anger out on all of the members of the Order and felt a bit gratified that he had put a few of them out of temper as well. Since his interrupted tryst of the previous week, he felt rather at the end of his rope. Tasting the promise in Miranda’s lips had lit a fire in his blood that had been long dormant. He was like a starving man given a crumb of bread--his hunger was harder to bear after the tease of the morsel. He tried to tell himself he was probably fortunate that they had been interrupted. She had seemed relatively honest, but how could he really be sure that she wasn’t playing some other game? As much as he hated teaching, he really would be glad when he had his duties at Hogwarts again to distract him. He turned into his usual alley to Apparate back to Spinner's End and felt, rather than heard, someone drop to the ground behind him. He whirled around, wand drawn, and found that he held it pointed at Miranda Rose's lovely neck. "Oh, that's right," she said with a note of laughter in her quiet voice, "you're jumpy." "You are fortunate I didn't kill you," he snapped, wand still at her neck. What the hell was she doing here? "You're right," she said, more seriously than before. "Stupid of me. It must be the moonlight. Do you think you could point that thing somewhere else?" He lowered his wand very slowly and demanded, "What are you doing here?" "Waiting for you. Hey!" she snapped, temper rising as his wand returned to her throat. "What do you think you're doing?" "Who are you working for?” His voice was soft, smooth, and dangerous. There was no possible way she was waiting for him for any good purpose. Wasn’t there a saying somewhere about not trusting beautiful women? "I told you before. I work for my father. His name is Conor Rose. You can check my story at the Ministry of Magic if you don't believe me. Now put that wand away before I get angry." "I don't think so. Why are you waiting for me?” She raised her chin in defiance and said irritably, "Well, if you must know, I was hoping that you weren't dead." "Obviously I am not. Why should you care?" He was sneering at her and her face had turned so red that he could tell that she was blushing, even in the shadows. He relaxed his wand a fraction of an inch and arched an eyebrow as he waited for her answer. Blushes and brazenness, what an interesting combination. Despite her blush, she met his eyes boldly. "I thought that we could pick up where we left off before we were so rudely interrupted." "Did you?" He dragged out those words as though he were tasting them. Very slowly, she brought up a hand and placed it over his. Just as slowly, she stepped closer to him, pinning his wand, and their hands, between them. She turned her face up to his, and murmured, "I suppose I'm being a bit forward, but I hoped you wouldn't mind."

His hand was brushing the curve of her breast where she had it pinned. If he were honest, he'd spent a good deal of the last week imagining what that curve would feel like under his fingers. He raised his free hand and traced her lower lip with his thumb. Her lips parted slightly and this was rather more temptation than he cared to resist. He leaned in to taste those lips and they were warm, yielding, and eager. Vanquished, he slid his fingers over her cheek and buried them in her thick hair, knocking pins asunder as he did.

A few moments later, he became aware that the moonlight was much brighter than it had been. He opened his eyes and saw that they were standing on that same country lane as they had been the previous week. "Homing Spell," she reminded him quietly. "I suppose I wanted to come," he replied, smirking. It was a much more pleasant way to travel than Apparation or port-keys. The cabin wavered into view and he finally pocketed his wand. She started up the path and he followed silently behind her. When she reached the door, she turned, a little smile on her face. “You don’t have any appointments tonight, do you?” she asked. “Nothing planned,” he replied, suddenly hyperaware of the skin on his arm around the Dark Mark. It felt raw for a moment, but the Mark remained quiet for once. “Good.” She opened the door and entered the cabin, removing pins from her hair as she went. He closed the door after them and stood near it, eyes glittering as he watched her. When she reached one of the shelves, she turned and held his gaze as she released her hair from the pins, one lock at a time. She put the pins on the shelf and ran her fingers though the waves of silver, smiling at him invitingly. He crossed the room to her, took a lock of her hair, and wrapped it around his hand. It wasn’t red hair, but it would do. He brushed her lips with his, and then trailed them over her jaw to her throat. She let out a delicious little sound somewhere between a sigh and a moan.

She wasn’t Lily, but she would do.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and her body moulded to his.

This wasn’t love, but it would do. It would do very nicely, indeed.

-------------------

End Notes:

One of my favorite things about this story is the opportunity to imagine what sort of a magic and American would do. The Homing Spell is one that is particularly useful throughout the tale. This is a spell that is put on one specific place by one specific person. It enables the person to return to the place by picturing it in her mind, relaxing, and “stepping sideways,” sort of the way one enters the Land of Oz (but not quite). The spell caster can bring another person with her, assuming that person wishes to go, as relaxation is key to the spell working. The spell also keeps the place hidden from anyone the caster doesn’t wish to see it. There is a limit to how far away from the place a person can be and have the spell still work, and you can’t perform the spell from anywhere that is warded to prevent Apparation. I’ll write more about my American spells as they come up.

Masterpost+

<< Chapter Three+

Chapter Five+ >>

#harry potter fanfiction #harry potter fanfic #severus snape #severus snape fanfiction #snape #snape fanfiction #snape x oc #romance #adventure #espionage #spying #ilvermorny #world building #american magic #second wizarding war

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illkickyourbass · 5 years

Photo

It’s been SO LONG since I gave myself a project that was 1) small enough to not take months/years 2) didn’t ultimately go towards teaching, so I’ve had lots of motivation for keeping up with the Granblue AU :) Here’s Camus!

The Silk Palace is secluded society of Crystalia, a humanoid species that constantly give off a bone-chilling cold. Most have never met anyone from outside their ranks, and even fewer even attempt to venture off their home island -- they know they are received unkindly by others more often than not. The Silk Queen will occasionally handpick a subject to be reared from childhood to spend their future skyfaring, bid with the mission to search for “spring.” Only when they discover what calms their chill and come to completely understand it are they permitted to return.

Camus is one of those subjects, and he’s already found his “spring.” He is absolutely appalled he did, though, because it’s gotten him stuck amidst a band of miserable peasants on the airship Quartet Night! His first touch of warmth came during a chance performance/battle with them, where he used his cello, swordsmanship, and fearsome ice attacks to help quell a rampaging Primal. He’s now a reluctant member of their crew (even though he’s the one who invited himself on) until he figures out why *these* are the plebians that cultivate his spring. As repentance, they will keep the Quartet Night heartily stocked with stores of sugars and sweets of every variety -- no matter what that pesky Kurosaki says about the galley needing more meat!

I didn’t come up with a moveset for Camus (mostly because I imagine him as the glass cannon for the team...so it’s just a lot of Crazy Massive Damage) but sketches and some notes under the jump!

There’s honestly not a tonnnnnn to say about Camus’ design? I mean, other than I’m feeling very smug about combining a rapier and a bow, there’s no better weapon for this priss lmfao. Especially bc this theoretically means he’s stabbing anyone/everyone who gets too close to him while he’s playing cello...or he could just switch right into fencing as needed!

I like the idea that his cello is carved from some sort of blessed material) like a specific kind of ice that’s been blessed by an aurora), and that Silk Palace citizens in Camus’ position (groomed as dignitaries, warriors, and skyfarers) have to make their own as a coming-of-age ceremony of sorts. Do some hard labor, dingus! I also know that Reiji can’t get him to do a DAMN thing when it comes to ship chores. At first, Reiji would just do them for him, but Ranmaru eventually caught wise, thought that was stupid, gave reiji an earful that he needed to be harder on Camus, tried to show Reiji how to be tough on Camus, gave Camus SO much hell, probably called him an aurora whorealis, and STILL couldn’t get him to do a damn thing....so Ranmaru just took over doing his chores. (At least ‘til Ai made an impossibly sophisticated chore wheel that solved the whole problem, hahaha.)

Anyways, Ai’s going to be the most challenging of the group! His aesthetic is so far out of my usual wheelhouses, and I’m still thinking up how exactly to translate a synthesizer into high-fantasy/GBF vision......but Granblue has a whole canonical martial art based on fidget spinners (I’M NOT LYING) so I’m sure I’ll figure something out!

#granbluexutapri #utapri camus #camus #granblue fantasy #quartet night #uta no prince sama #utapri #illkickyourbassart

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dusk-realm · 5 years

Text

Chrysanthemum [Chapter 5: Spinner’s End]

Tagging: @featurelengthfics

A/N: due to the lack of information about Snape’s house, I had to get creative and improvise stuff. I’ve also based some things on my own headcanons, which you may want to revisit before reading this chapter.

Thanks goodness I haven’t eaten, she thought. It was true what everyone said about apparition, it really messes up with one’s bowels. Professor Snape let go of her arm and went ahead to open the door. She had barely noticed that he was grabbing her, he did it very gently. The professor found the key game inside his robe and proceeded to open the front door of the house. It was tiny, and the borough looked as if it had been a long time since anyone cared enough to maintain the lighting or to clean up the garbage. Just as she had figured out, it was a small district which had been home to several workers of the industry, which had been abandoned when the production started to either move or shut down.

‘Are you going to stay there all day?’ Snape called, waiting by the doorframe for her to enter. The girl obeyed and stepped inside, taking her time to adjust a bit to the indoors darkness. The living room looked a bit claustrophobic; it had only one small window, and the walls were covered by tall shelves that reached the roof. The shelves, despite their height, looked as if they could fall in any moment due to the vast amount of books they had in them. A lot of them didn’t even fit properly, so someone had been just piling them up on top of others. The house in general had a general air of neglect, but it was normal, (Y/N) guessed, if Professor Snape lived alone and spent most part of the year in Hogwarts. But what worried her the most, was the fact that she didn’t see any door.

‘So… Professor, where am I going to sleep?’ She asked, having a look around before finally stopping at him. He was calmly leaving his suitcase on the floor, near a threadbare armchair.

‘On the floor, obviously.’ He joked. Or so he thought. The lack of a response from her after a few seconds made him turn around. She looked pretty much unbothered, setting her luggage on the floor as well.

‘...What?’ She asked, seeing that Snape was looking at her in a weird way.

‘You didn’t really... expect to sleep on the floor the whole summer, did you?’ (Y/N) shrugged a little and answered:

‘I’m used.’

Snape looked stupefied at her mettle,

In what kind of place have you been living, girl?

but managed a few words out:

‘What do you mean with used?’

Shit, maybe shouldn’t have let that slip.

Have you been sleeping on the floor at Hogwarts?

‘I mean, I used to live in an orphanage, I’m used to hard surfaces. You know, not enough budget to buy a soft thick mattress for every kid.’ She explained. It wasn’t exactly a lie, so it should content him for now. Thankfully, Snape did seem satisfied with the answer, as he gave a slow nod.

‘Come, I’ll show you your bedroom.’

‘With a mattress, professor?’ She joked, letting a soft chuckle out.

‘With a mattress.’ He conceded, showing the smallest of the smiles. He motioned her towards a wall. Surprisingly, there were doors, but they were very well hidden. She followed him up through a small staircase with only one lightbulb hanging from a wire. The staircase lead to a hallway with 4 doors, 2 at each side of the corridor. He pointed at the furthest one to the left and announced:

‘Junk room,’ His finger moved to the door next to it and continued, ‘bathroom,’ he pointed to the right now, to the furthest room, ‘my bedroom, and the one left is yours.’

(Y/N) nodded with satisfaction.

Goodbye shared bedroom, see you in hell.

‘Clean it up before you get installed. It hasn’t been used in a long time.’ Snape warned before opening the door for her. She peeked inside and saw a double bed, with two nightstands and all. The bedroom was quite big and nice, even if it was dusty.

‘Woah! All this room for me, Professor?’ She entered and spun around.

‘All yours. And you don’t need to call me Professor while you’re here.’ He was leaning against the wall, fidgeting with his fingers slowly.

Does she like it?

‘Mr. Snape then?’ She asked. Well, she didn’t want to disrespect him after all he had done for her, plus taking her in for the whole summer. The master allowed himself to chuckle a little at her manners.

‘Severus. Severus is fine. Make yourself comfortable, you can borrow anything from the closet.’

‘Thank you, Severus… Really.’ She spoke in a very meek voice. Severus simply dismissed it and left the room, closing the door after himself.

He went straight to the bedroom of his childhood and remained there in silence. He heard the door being opened, footsteps down and then up the stairs, then the door closing softly again. She had probably found a cloth to clean up her bedroom, as he had just ordered to do. He checked the hour: 5:36. There was still enough time for him to unpack his clothes and then it would be time for dinner.

True, dinner.

He thought. Evidently, there was nothing edible in the house, so he should probably go get something. For the both of them. It felt so strange to think of grocery shopping for two. He leaned his ear on the wall. Severus could hear some ruffling and rubbing here and there. After a few minutes, having checked that the girl was fine, Severus cleaned up his own room with a quick flick of his wand and began unpacking.

I have too much to do.

In no time, his robes were neatly hanged on the closet, his suitcase put away and the bedroom spot-clean. Severus sat down on the bed and let out a sigh. He was having a mental debate on whether he should tell (Y/N) that he was going out or just leave. Maybe she felt scared being alone. Or awkward, seeing that she was a guest. But it wasn’t strictly necessary for him to tell her about his whereabouts.

Would she care at all?

His hand moved automatically to the side of his garments, and took out the pentagonal box.

You better have not melted.

He shook the box gently with one hand, until he could hear a croak. The man left the box on his nightstand, waiting for the right moment to come. He had bought that chocolate frog in an express trip to Honeydukes, while the girl was under Pomfrey’s watch. He thought it would be good to cheer up her stay in the Hospital Wing, but he never really had the chance to actually give it to her, so he hid it in his robes and kept carrying it around secretely, until now.

Ultimately, Severus stood up and decided to go check on his pupil.

(Y/N) had already cleaned the furniture, not that there was much stuff to clean anyway. She had taken off the bed sheets because they were all dusty, but she couldn’t reach the clean ones, as they where stored at the highest part of the closet. Regardless, her savior came to the rescue, as she heard two soft knocks on the door.

‘Yes, come in~’ She sang. Severus peeked his head inside, without opening up completely. He saw that the window was opened, and in poured the afternoon light, bringing life to the bedroom.

‘How’s that going?’ He questioned. Seeing that Severus wouldn’t come in, (Y/N) opened the door wide open for him and extended an arm.

‘I wanted to change the sheets before cleaning the floor, but I can’t reach. Do you mind..?’

With a stiff nod, Severus came in and reached the bedsheets for her.

‘I’m going out for grocery shopping, I hope you can handle this yourself.’ He said in a monotonic voice, dropping the bedsheets carelessly on her arms.

‘Yes! Of course, I can handle this. Don’t worry, I’ll try to finish before you come back. Do you need me to clean anything else?’ She kindly offered. Severus looked very unimpressed on the outside, but he felt a little touched in the inside by her gentle nature.

‘Just get installed when you have finished.’ He ordered. And with that, he turned around and walked out of the bedroom and down the stairs, only to leave the house seconds after.

(Y/N) got down to work immediately after she heard the door shut, beginning to reflect on this first day of cohabitation. The neighbourhood was, somehow, worse than what she had figured at first. True, she expected dirt and poor people and not the best landscape, but the place was abandoned in every possible way. She saw no people, and the condition of the street was literally rubbish. Why did Professor Snape live here? Being a professor at Hogwarts, he could surely afford something better than this house. The house was small, and cramped, but at the same time it felt empty. There was not a single photography at sight, nothing that suggested any sort of familiarity or warmth. Spinner’s End didn’t feel like a home at all.

It’s not like I have the right to complain. She told herself.

It has four walls, a roof and a bed. It’s not that bad. Plus, Professor Snape is not the monster everyone thinks he is. He’s been gentle so far. Maybe not the kindest, maybe not the most welcoming, but he’s treated me just right. This is better than sleeping in the street.

The girl had finished her tasks before she could realize it: the sheets were changed, fresh, and the floor had been thoroughly cleaned. The only thing remaining on her to-do list was to unpack and hang her clothes in the closet.

Piece of cake. It won’t even take up much space.

(Y/N) opened the suitcase on the bed and began taking out her few clothes. After putting everything away, she was left with her old pyjamas in hand, realising that she was still wearing her Hogwarts uniform.

I don’t think he minds me taking a shower now…

And with that, she took her belongings and went to the bathroom to take a shower until Snape came back. Well, she opened the wrong door, leading to the junk room.

‘Oops.’

It really is a junk room.

Severus came back home carrying four bags of food.

Will this be enough?

He couldn’t help hesitating, it had been such a long time since he last bought food for more than one. And taking care of a teenager was not just a matter of doubling the amount of food the available, no.

Slowly, Severus began to freak out as he arrived at the kitchen, leaving the bags on the table. He had just noticed that he knew absolutely nothing of her tastes.

He took a look around. She wasn’t around, so she should be still upstairs, in her bedroom.

What if she’s allergic to something?

Severus started fidgeting with his fingers anxiously. That was a big failure.

I’m supposed to keep this child healthy and we’re already going downhill.

Then, he decided that it was probably a good idea to go ask her, just to be sure. Severus shuffled going upstairs, drained from so much activity. It had been a busy year thanks to Potter, and his duty had not finished for the summer either. The potions master saw her door opened and came in, looking for her. The room was empty, except for the caged owl. He hadn’t been able to see the bird up close.

‘Hi, Chilli…’ Severus cooed softly, leaning in a little to observe him. Chilli was a real mess. It was an elderly royal owl of red eyes. Severus guessed that he got the name because of the characteristic intense red of his iris. His plumage was badly moulted, and cataracts had begun to cloud his sight. Regardless, anyone observant enough would be able to tell that the animal was not in this state due to neglect. His remaining feathers were clean and of good colour. His claws and beak looked perfectly healthy and clean too, as well as the cage. Severus tried his luck and stuck his pinkie through the spikes of the cage. Chilli angled his head and bit the man’s fingertip, making him jolt and jump straight up again.

‘Bastard.’ He whisper-yelled before leaving the room and returning to the kitchen.

(Y/N) walked down the stairs now feeling fresh and clean. She had changed into her tatty short-sleeved pyjamas. She was carrying her dirty clothes and the wet towels when she entered the kitchen, seeing Severus busy with the food.

‘Hi… Welcome home.’ She shyly greeted. He straightened himself up and looked at her from above his shoulder. Seeing no answer expectancies, (Y/N) continued:

‘Have you been here for long? I didn’t hear you, I was in the shower.’ The girl explained. Her voice was very soft, Severus thought, but he could still hear her perfectly.

‘Just a few minutes.’

‘Oh, I see. Do you need any help with that?’ She offered, standing behind him. She realised that he had removed his cloak at some point, although she had not noticed the instant in which he did it. She also noticed how slim her teacher actually was.

‘Do you have any allergy? Anything I should know of?’ Severus bluntly asked. The question caught (Y/N) a little taken aback, so she took a little to utter a response.

‘Uhm… No?’ Severus turned around with his eyebrow raised.

‘I- I mean,’ she hurried to finish up, ‘I’ve never had an allergic reaction to anything, so I guess I don’t have any.’ Her professor nodded and continued with the task in hand.

‘Go hang that outside, what are you waiting for?’ He grunted. The unfriendlyness of his tone startled (Y/N) a little, making her rush to the little inner patio that the house had.

‘Y-yes, of course…’ The poor girl did as told, then put her clothes in the washing machine and quietly sat down waiting for dinner.

Severus had made some sautéed vegetables for the both of them. Dinner passed quite slowly, as there was no other sound but the occasional cutlery bumping gently into the plate. The professor kept watching his student intently; she ate well, not rebuffing at anything in particular in her plate. She had very good manners too, but Severus was more focused on seeing her reaction to his cooking.

Does she like it? She doesn’t seem picky. But she sure is slow.

In the end, they finished at the same time, and Snape picked up his and her plate without delay. (Y/N) stood up quickly and placed her hand on his right arm.

‘Wait, no, you cooked dinner, let me do the dishes in exchange.’

Severus agreed and gave up his place in front of the sink. The young Slytherin made sure to scrub the plates until they shined before considering that she had finished. A few minutes later, she left the kitchen and then went to her bedroom to feed Chilli. She took her good time to look around. It all seemed so strange… It had been a weird day in general, and she was exhausted. Her body felt sore and tense, even after laying down in bed for a good while. It was pitch dark outside and there was no clock in the bedroom, but (Y/N) was quite sure of having been laying down for a few hours by then, constantly tossing and turning.

Maybe it's the bed? Since I'm not used to having so much space… It also feels weird knowing that it belongs to a married couple. Wait. Is Snape married? Nah. No, I don't think so. He'd be living with his wife. Unless he's a widower. But still, why not sleeping in this bedroom? He must be single. So… is this his parents’ bedroom? PROFESSOR SEVERUS SNAPE WAS CONCEIVED HERE?!

(Y/N) jerked straight up and left the bed as a shiver went down her spine. She decided to go get herself a glass of water, hoping to calm down with that and be able to sleep at last. Regardless, she didn't expect to find Severus sitting in the living room with his nose buried in a book. He slowly raised his head as he heard soft footsteps.

‘Can't sleep?’ He asked, glancing from above the pages.

‘No, not really…’ (Y/N) sighed audibly and let herself plop on the couch in front of her teacher. ‘I guess I'm just overexcited, a lot of things happened today…’ she made a little pause, watching his expression carefully. He was paying attention, so she continued: ‘I still can't believe that Professor Dumbledore is going to allow me to move on to the second course, as if it was nothing, just like that.’

‘Well,’ Severus spoke, shutting his book and letting it rest on his lap, ‘you have managed to fall in the same year as The Boy Who Lived,’ his voice sounded overly theatrical and envenomated with sarcasm, ‘a true honour, being the classmate of a living legend. You should feel happy.’

‘Potter?’ (Y/N) rolled her eyes and put her bare feet up on the couch, hugging her own knees. ‘I don't even know the kid and I'm already sick of him. I swear, if I hear anyone else praise him, I'll finish off the job myself.’

Severus bursted a dark laugh. It was the first time that (Y/N) heard him laugh in two years. It was a deep sound that tingled your ears, but at the same time it had an indecipherable undertone that made it strange and almost addictive.

‘How tempting, my little snake…’ He murmured mysteriously.

‘Plus, he's everyone's favourite, and Slytherin lost the House Cup for his and his friends’ fault.’

‘Don't remind me…’

‘Well, actually, Slytherin legitimately won the Cup with effort throughout the entire year and Dumbledore snatched it from our hands to give it to Gryffindor for being reckless and breaking at least a dozen of rules.’ Snape watched his student slowly fire up and spill her frustrations. He had never seen her this talkative, not even in class, but it was honestly a spectacle worth watching. She continued with her ramble.

‘It enrages me. Potter doesn't deserve to be called a legend. Let alone receiving the poorly-concealed biased treatment he gets. He was a baby when all of that happened, I'm convinced that his own magical power had nothing to do with his survival. I've been in class with him, he's not any extraordinary wizard. Granger, if you ask me, is so much more talented than him. She only needs to learn to keep her mouth shut sometimes.’

Severus shifted and straightened up at the mention of that dreadful night, as flashes of horror and grief took over his brain. He leaned on, resting both elbows on his knees and chose to carry on with the topic.

‘I see you cherish them just as much as I do.’

‘Yeah, I think you made that clear at the beginning of this year.’

‘Hmpfh.’

‘They probably hate you, since you won't follow up your peers on glorifying Potter, but you put them right in place. Harshly, but effectively.’

‘I'm aware… that I'm not precisely the.. favourite teacher. Not that I mind much, regardless, the opinion of that bunch of dimwits. Others... like you, for instance, don't seem so bothered.’

‘Me? I don't feel threatened. As much as potions are fascinating, they're also very dangerous if one brews them incorrectly. I'm aware that you need to keep everyone safe. You have to be strict.’ She emphasized.

‘You recognise the danger, and yet you still pair up with that Longbottom boy.’ He pointed his finger at her chest accusingly, making her giggle softly.

‘Okay, Neville is clumsy, but-’

‘The boy unleashes chaos in my classroom.’ Severus interrupted. (Y/N) cleared her throat.

‘Neville may be clumsy, but if there's one Gryffindor I can stand, that's him. He's very sweet. Scaredy, yes, but he's a good boy. Did you know that he loves Herbology? Professor Sprout paired us up a few times, and we've been sticking together ever since. Well, once he stopped being scared of me.’

‘Scared.. of… you?’ He unhurriedly echoed.

This girl is probably the most tranquil in temperament of the whole House. How can he?

‘Prejudice, I suppose. A girl told us that she heard Ronald Weasley say in the welcoming ceremony that every wizard that went bad was in Slytherin. I bet he's been running around telling that to everyone else, and the others of course believed him. Because nobody wants to mingle with the House of the rotten apples.’

She lifted her glance up. Snape's face twitched a little, and he had a weird expression. His black eyes glittered illuminated by the faint light that the lamp provided. Her eyes, on the contrary, looked dull, lifeless again.

Where did that beautiful (E/C) go?

Severus saw so much of himself in her. He saw her frustration, her loneliness, he saw how much she craved even the smallest affection from a friendly hand, a confidant, he could guess how many emotions she was bottling up, repressing them, learning to confine to herself just the way he had done during his teenage years. And it felt so close to home that it made his heart ache and his guts contort. He could also begin to fathom why Dumbledore sent her with him. They allowed silence seize the room, and minutes passed and passed. It wasn’t however, awkward, but rather, a prolonged pause in a conversation, it was a reflective lull. (Y/N) was the first one to break it.

‘Severus?’ She called in a whisper after a while.

‘Hmm?’

‘I… I think that’s enough conversation for today. I should go to sleep.’

He turned around and checked the hour. 3 AM. Then, he looked at her again and got up lazily.

‘I’m going to bed too, come.’ He said, leaving the book on his armchair.

(Y/N) got up too, and was surprised to feel a warm hand resting on her shoulder.

Snape escorted her back to her bedroom, squeezing her shoulder softly in front of her door. She turned around to look at him. His hand abandoned her shoulder and laid heavily on top of her head, stroking her hair on its way down, towards her cheek.

‘Good night, (Y/N)’

(Y/N) took a moment to answer, leaning into his soft touch slightly, almost imperceptibly. It felt delightful and soothing, welcoming. She wished deep down to increase their confidence to allow a caress like this every so often. The girl placed her own hand on Severus’ and drew a semicircle on his skin. The gesture sent a jolt to his stomach, thinking that she would slap his hand away, but Sevrus was secretly relieved to feel her correspond his stroke so delicately.

‘Good night.’ She replied in a whisper after an eternity.

That night, (Y/N) slept peacefully and soundly, without dreams, but feeling warmth in her heart.

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cherryfocus · 5 years

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Shippers like tomdaya make me laugh, honestly, with their logic then rdj must be in a relationship with Tom lmao. RDJ knows Tom's entire family and bff, has invited Tom to his house multiple times, cooked for him in many occasions, sent gifts and bought gifs for Tom, his kids give tom gifts, facetime at 2am, have inside jokes and body language, rdj spent many days reading lines to help tom and visit him on set daily and vice-versa, constantly writes him and likes all of his posts. LOL -cont-

Oh yes, for sure. They’re pretty close. Zendaya and Tom do have more face to face contact probably, but that’s mostly because they’re the same age and don’t have children, etc.

I know that RDJ has met Tom’s brothers at the Homecoming premiere and he already knew Harrison from when they filmed Homecoming (RDJ’s assistant also follows Tom, so they’ve definitely spend quite some time together). As far as the public knows Tom has been invited to RDJ’s house once, to see Black Panther before it even came out. Same with that I don’t know if RDJ specifically cooked for him, but it’s a well-known fact that RDJ always has a chef on set for daily lunches where cast members get invited. Tom has asked RDJ once after a long day of filming if his chef could cook something up for him and RDJ said it was no problem.

There is proof online that RDJ has bought a fidget spinner for Tom while on press tour for Infinity War. And he once dressed Tom up on the set for Endgame (don’t know if he got the jacket or not from RDJ, but Tom wore the jacket again, so it most definitely is Tom’s jacket). And there is indeed a rumour online that RDJ’s son Exton gave Tom a present when meeting Tom. I honestly don’t know if there is any truth to this though. Tom has said that Robert facetimed him as well, but we can’t possibly know how much they actually happens. I don’t even know how you would know if they have insides jokes and body language, but hell, I’m very inclined to believe you since that doesn’t seem like an abnormality.

Tom has also said that RDJ came to shoot scenes with him when that wasn’t required of RDJ. And I haven’t heard about RDJ helping him read lines. Again, I have no idea how you would know if he constantly writes him. And for RDJ he definitely likes quite a lot of Tom’s posts. And the fact that RDJ follows Tom on Instagram means they’re pretty close. Since RDJ only follows the people he becomes close to.

So overall, I think you’re exaggerating a bit on the amount of times all of this happened. We can’t possibly know since RDJ is a very private guy. But yes, all of the things you mentioned have happened! And if you know these things, it’s definitely downgrades the evidence shippers have of them hanging out.

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lilrooroo · 6 years

Note

Headcanons for an disabilities human au

I did a lot of research and talked to friends with these issues, so I hope everyone enjoys! I worked really hard on them

Emile Picani

47 years old

The doctor of all the others

Believes regression therapy is a valid and good coping techniques

Acts like his clients caretaker during their sessions

Loves his clients so much, gets truly upset when something bad happens to them.

Best caring doctor ever.

In general one cool dude

Married to Thomas (29 year old)

Met his husband though friends. Nether of them cares about their age gap. Has dated since Thomas was 26 married a couple months ago

Patton Miles has Bipolar I Disorder

22 years old

Spends a lot of time stable or on highs

Tries to hide it when he’s low

When he’s feeling a depression episode he tends to wear large sweaters and forget to take care of himself

Sleeps a lot during low periods and eats a lot

No energy to do anything feels empty

Slowest talker ever

During his highs he’s bouncing off the walls

Fastest talker ever

Hyper touchy (cuddles? Lets cuddle!)

Tends to be more dangerous

Started regression therapy for his low periods, finds that it really helps, now does it during his ups too.

His little age is 3-5

Has a stuffed brown bunny named “Coffee”

Meets Logan first. Adores the taller man. Finds him cute.

Has been called Patton Smiles before

Logan Powell is High Functioning Autistic

22 years old

Has known he had autism for a very long time

Started going to therapy because he wants to learn how to fit in

Monotone talking, but very passionate about topics even if his voice doesn’t seem like it

Likes pressure, enjoys bear hugs as long as he doesn’t have to hug back

Emile gives really good hard hugs, he likes them

Hates gentle touches, can’t stand someone slightly touching him or giving him a soft hug ew

Doesn’t understand jokes, when told it’s a joke he’ll just say “Ha”

Makes lists for everything, most organized person in the world

Routines Routines Routines

Hand flapping when he’s excited

Researched all about regression when Emile mentioned some of the toys in his office was for clients who regressed.

Came back to Emile wanting to try Regression Therapy

Little age is 3-5

Has a realistic stuffed raven that is heavy

Collects blind bag toys, gets obsessed over with getting all them for his collection. Likes Tsum Tsums because they are small, can be stacked and there is a lot to collect. Prefers the Vinyl one over plush ones though

Squishies loves squishies but hates the feeling of slime

Showed a interest in meeting other regressors hoping he could make a friend that way

Emile had Logan meet Patton first. It surprisingly worked amazingly

Virgil Storm has Social Anxiety Disorder and Generalized Anxiety Disorder

21 years old

Suffers bad panic attacks and bad thoughts

Very lonely guy who people call “emo” he’s not though. He just likes black clothes and black makeup and his bangs happen to cover his face

Struggles with sleeping and goes to the bathroom a lot

Very shaky cranky boy

Started going to therapy after he was caught self harming

Virgil in therapy ends up going on about how he wish he could go back to when he was a kid. Before life got stressful (sure he was always a nervous child, but being an adult is too hard)

That’s when Emile explained what Regression therapy was

Virgil thought it was weird and was afraid other people would think he was weird, but after talking to him and promising he didn’t have to worry Virgil gave it a try and loved it

Little age is 3

Has a million fidget toys, squishies, fidget spinners, and chew toys are some examples

Was given a black and purple cat that smells like lavender

Met Patton first and made his first real friend

Deceit Nathair suffers PTSD

20 years old

No one knows his real name, has had it legally changed to Deceit

Was forced into therapy after he had an “episode” at the mall

One of Emile’s hardest clients.

Refuses to talk about what happen. Already knows he has PTSD

Whatever it is, it has to do with his burns (turn into snake scale tattoos) and his missing eye (replaced with a yellow slit eye)

Has had a bad life, bad childhood, bad teenage years, and bad adult life

Always been the villain of other people’s stories

Was the son of a teenage single mother who blamed him for ruining her life

Never had a childhood very resentful of it

Thought Emile was crazy for suggesting Regression Therapy but agreed anyway.

Little age 2-4

Loves praise so much, cries happy tears.

Flinches at unsuspected touch

Bad eyesight

The most scared when Emile suggested group therapy with other regressors

Agreed because Emile encouraged him

Roman was diagnosed with Schizoaffective disorder

Started suffering effects at the age of 16, dropped out of school at the age of 17

Was kicked out of his home because he was “crazy” and “dangerous” to his younger siblings

Comes from a rich family, who wasn’t the best to him (he has scars)

Believes a woman has cursed him, goes on about the Dragon Witch and her crimes towards him.

Refuse to give last name

Struggles with caring for himself

Talks very weird

Believes in everything magical, fairies, dragons and so on

Struggles with sleeping which can make his symptoms wore

Very disorganized and compulsive

Keeps a journal with all his notes about magical creatures

Keeps a diary (different book from the journals) about his day.

Was placed in Emile’s care after he had gone to an elementary school with a toy sword demanding to see the princess.

It turned out that he had gotten very afraid that his sister was in danger and he needed to see her to make sure she was okay. Unknown to him, his family moved away to get away from him.

Didn’t know about regression. He ended up walking in on the group therapy session. And just joining in.

According to him they must have been dosed with Fairy Dust. Because Fairy dust can make you experience childhood again.

His main delusion is that magic is still in the world, it’s just people have lost the ability to see it, so they can’t see the creatures that live their life with humans in secret. The Dragon Witch had blessed him with the sight however, but it was also a curse, because people think he’s crazy.

Wants to join in on the fun, he loves fairy dust and being able to be a kid again, but this time not having to worry about being the perfect prince.

His little age is 2-3

Believes Deceit is the son of the dragon witch. And is extremely interested in him.

I hope you all enjoy! I worked very hard on this one

#sanders sides #Emile Picani #patton sanders #logan sanders #virgil sanders #deceit sanders #roman sanders #N/A

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grapsandclaps · 6 years

Text

GRAPS AND CLAPS REVIEWS - PROGRESS WRESTLING CHAPTER 77 "PUMPKIN SPICE PROGRESS".

Hello and welcome everyone to this edition of Graps and Claps, this time taking me to Camden for PROGRESS Wrestling's Chapter 77 'Pumpkin Spice Progress with the huge main event between PROGRESS champion Walter and the SSS16 Winner for 2018 - Zack Sabre Jr. which was a mouth watering prospect on paper and one I personally couldn't wait for as in a surprise I have never seen this match live or on the box which is rare as rocking horse shit in this day and age.

As ever with a trip to London it was a 9 am bus journey to Manchester to catch the 1035 am train to London Euston, thankfully unlike last week's journey to Leeds this went without a hitch and also the happiness of finding a stray £1 coin on a seat on the top deck of the bus - rich beyond my wildest dreams folks. A distinct lack of people from up north made the trip to London for this show, meaning I was drinking on my own in The Black Heart until London friend Steve came in, so I had a good chin wag about the action upcoming and what other stuff had been going on in the world in the past week. Only two pints in here for me both from Amundsen Brewery with the following - 6.5% Apocalyptic Thunder Juice IPA (£6.60) which was really juicy in taste, another winner in the book was a Lorita Pale Ale (£5.40), if you spot any drinks from this brewery make sure you check them out.

Drinks done, it was time to get into the Ballroom and take my position up on the raised perch with Athers for the first time (a great viewing spot if you can get up there early enough). The Ballroom in the time since I last came for the 1978 show has grown a big screen where the sound booth once resided, another happening is a change in the beer lines available with a Sharp's Brewery IPA, Spaten and Franziker Weissbier taking pride of place on the bar which is a welcome move away from the usual Camden Pale. So with that all said let's get into what went down on this cold Sunday afternoon!

First up we had pre-show action with the lesser seen Kyle Ashmore taking on JJ Lynch who I found out ply's his trade in Battle Pro Wrestling down south. Opening part of this contest was the audience shouting out that Ashmore had a resemblance for some reason to Uncle Albert of Only Fools and Horses fame, plus yes it was me who started the 'Baldy Baldy' chant to absolute silence as ever from the London crowd who don't do singing like they used to (Thanks to the Taffs for trying to join in). JJ Lynch impressed me in this first look at him as he hit a headbutt to Ashmore to stun him but Ashmore rolled out of the ring. Back in the ring Lynch hit a Superkick for a 2 count but that was as good as it got for Lynch as Ashmore hit a big JOHN WOO! and then a elevated back cracker to Lynch for the 3 count to end a tidy pre-show match and maybe the best Pre-show match in ages.

After the opening messages from Jim Smallman, we started off with the main card and a change to the advertised match up as Tyler Bate wasn't fit to compete after picking up an injury at Fight Club Pro at the weekend. Instead we had one half of the fearsome Ringkampf duo, Timothy Thatcher taking on a repackaged version of Pastor William Eaver who is now going by the name of 'Present' William Eaver - the basis of this character is that of a upmarket street preacher (A touch of the Bray Wyatt's here) coming out saying that 'Today is the Day' which I initially thought of a great song Eaver should come out to - go and check on Youtube for the Sean Maguire hit 'Today's the Day' which was a popular tune in the 90's.

Anyways on to the match, Timo hit a big T-Bone Suplex and followed up with a Judo throw slam for a 2 to Eaver. Eaver though eventually got the grasps of things as he beatdown Thatcher in the corner leading to Timo to hulk up by slapping the taste out of Eaver's mouth but Eaver retaliated with a Uranage Backbreaker to stun Tim. Tim though came back to hit an enziguri to the back of Eaver's head and then following up with an arm submission to get the tapout victory in around 10 minutes. Was what it was for an opener, even though it is early days Eaver's gimmick I can't say I was sold on it but time will tell for the Former PROGRESS Champion!

Second up was yes you guessed it PROGRESS Women's Division action with Isla Dawn taking on Millie McKenzie with the latter trying to build momentum after not being able to capture the title in the 3-way at Wembley, Even though this match was 6 minutes long, this was a really good match between two women who you will be certain to hear much more from in the future, Isla at one stage locked in a Dragon Sleeper to Millie that was until Millie managed to reach the ropes to break the hold, Millie though made a fightback hitting a couple of crazy back German suplexes to Dawn but as it looked like Millie was on her way to victory, Jinny and Laura Di Matteo made an unwelcome appearance to lay the boots to Dawn and Millie, that was until her Jinny's former House of Couture mates Nina Samuels and Charlie Morgan came down to fend them away making both Jinny and LDM to fall in the arms of Isla and Millie who hit stereo Germans to send them packing to the back.

Sadly no explanation yet to why the House of Couture split up but it will at least be good to see both Nina and Charlie Morgan at least get some wrestling time in PROGRESS instead of mooching around on the ring apron watching Jinny.

Third match was a PROGRESS Atlas Title Open Challenge match with the Champion Trent Seven offering anyone in the back the opportunity to take him on in his first defence of his newly won belt when he defeated Doug Williams at Wembley Arena. The person to take this opportunity was none other than the MCW Heavyweight Champion - Gino " Mr. Juicy" Gambino. Gambino was on the upside of things early on as he hit a couple of running splashes in the corner to Trent, but all that running left Gino with no juice in the tank which led to Trent passing Gino an inhaler only for Gambino to spray this in Trent's eyes (a really good inventive spot).

This temporary blindness for Trent led to Gino being on top for the next couple of minutes but Trent managed to fight Gino off with knife edge chops and a DDT for the two count. At a vertical base Gino flattened Trent and followed up with a big splash to get a two count, as it looked like Trent's reign was in trouble Trent somehow managed to hit a massive suplex to Gino - Christ Almighty! The big spots didn't end there as Juicy hit a Piledriver for a 2 count but that only awoke Trent who managed of all things hit a Burning Hammer to the 330 pound monster from Australia to get the 3 count to retain the Atlas Title - Excellent big lads action that I didn't have much expectation for but this was a BIG thumbs up from me.

Your first half Main Event was for the PROGRESS Tag Team titles with the first defence for Aussie Open (Mark Davis & Kyle Fletcher) taking on the Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson) and also the 17:35pm 198 bus service from Cardiff to London in the form of 'Flash Morgan Webster' and Bill Bailey doppelganger Wild Boar. Lots of green material on show here as the action got underway in the early feeling out process as the match built to a great crescendo with all three teams coming close on a number of occasions to winning the match.

The Aussies hit a fidget spinner at one stage only to be dragged out of the ring by Gibson, but as teamwork was much needed in this match Gibson who had grabbed a stray chair he accidentally hit his own tag team partner James Drake to possibly plant the seeds for a break up which was hinted at on the USA tour a month or two ago. With the GYV's out of the way Webster was in the ring to hit headbutts to Aussie Open but this had no effect on them as Davis hit the 'Close Your Eyes and Count To Fuck' Piledriver of Doom and then Fletcher joined hit to hit the fidget spinner with Davis t0 end the 198's hopes of winning to end an all action tag match and end a really fun first half of action.

Back from the break we had Eddie Dennis interrupting an entrance by one of the people who pledged money to the Progress Documentary. Eddie who has some valid points, was unhappy at being left off the card despite beating Mark Andrews at Wembley and that he would cash in his No.1 contenders opportunity when he see fit. The crowd even though Eddie in hindsight is supposed to be a baddie, cheered a lot of what he was saying and in a way can you blame them, out of the current No.1 contenders I am certainly more intrigued to see how Eddie's story ends.

Talking of people from Eddie's past we came to a match between two wrestlers who both ended up on the losing side at Wembley Arena with the terrifying Paul Robinson taking on what seems perennial loser at the moment and in need of a freshen up Mark Andrews. In what was a rematch from Chapter 10 and the first Natural Progression Series, we got off to a great start in this match with both Andrews and Robbo hitting dives to the outside with the fans scrambling out of the way whenever Robbo was in the vicinity.

Back in the ring Andrews hit a reverse rana to Robinson for a two count, but as Andrews went up top to hit the Shooting Star Press he was unfortunately straddled by Robinson on the top rope leaving Robinson to hit a Huaracarana sending Andrews crashing to the mat leaving him prone for a Curb stomp from Robinson who duly pinned Andrews in around 10 minutes to get the win. Onwards and upwards for Robinson for now, for Andrews it is back to the drawing board once again to figure out - Who the real Mark Andrews is??

Semi Main time with a No.1 contenders match to the PROGRESS title with the usual faces in these No.1 contenders matches taking part in the form of Jimmy Havoc and Mark Haskins who both gained big wins at the Wembley Arena show, joining them in this three way was #CCK himself - Chris Brookes who last had an opportunity at the big belt at the turn of the year coming close to beating then Champion Chris Brookes (I'm not counting the 3 minutes Walter no contest in Hamburg). On reflection this was a good match, but for me a downgrade from what had followed before it, Jimmy Havoc was on his way to victory that was until Drew Parker came from out of nowhere to attack Jimmy from behind to take him out of the running by dragging his lifeless body up the ramp and through the curtain. With the odds drastically reduced for the remaining two folks in the ring, it was Mark Haskins who was the one get the victory on Brookes as he locked in the Sharpshooter Submission before leaning back to tap out Brookes in 14 minutes.

After the match Haskins got on the mic to proclaim that after all of the setbacks he was back on top of his game once again to hopefully take the PROGRESS World Title in the future, but I have a bad feeling that if he came up against Walter he would end up on the short end of things but we shall see if that materialises.

With the clock striking 7 p.m it was now time for your Main Event with the unstoppable force of WALTER taking on Zack Sabre Jr with the latter coming out to the Idles tune 'Mother' which was welcome relief away from the Casio Keyboard music which is around once again. My god what can be said about this match - duelling chants from the crowd with a 50/50 split in terms of who people wanted to win here, we had chop battles where at times Zack was trying to wind up Walter by saying that the chops were not having that great an effect on his body - at one stages ZSJ gave Walter the middle fingers which would be a death wish for anyone else but this is Zack Sabre Jr. we are talking about here.

Reversals galore by both men, as Zack tried to grab any stray body parts when Walter was on the floor or at a vertical base - Zack is just smooth as silk in this situation. At one stage though as the match reached fever pitch it looked like Walter was ready to tap to another deadly submission from the Technical Wizard but alas the Austrian managed to escape Zack's clutches when at coming up to 30 minutes in the contest Walter hit the 'Fire Thunder Driver' to Zack to end a breathless and enthralling contest to retain the PROGRESS World Title to send the Camden faithful excited at what they had just seen. In closing though on this match, in terms of PROGRESS matches of the year I would put this slightly above Bate vs Walter at Wembley so make sure you go and check this out once it hits the On Demand service in 5-7 Working Days *Terms and Conditions apply.

Wrestling done, it was time to get back on my way to Rochdale getting back in the 'Dale for Midnight to end another long weekend of japes on my travels. So with that said, I hope you have enjoyed reading this review and as ever any comments and feedback are welcome! Until then I will bid you farewell - BYE!!

@oggypart3

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