#i did this quickly so i could get the brainworms out so it looks bad

[iiscpr]

what good is to live if he is not here?

#im aware i have absolutely no skill at illustrating any concepts so ill explain: #ivan starts to pretty much feel completely hollow as soon as fyodor is not in front of his eyes #he cant be happy or feel anything at all unless fyodor is right there. hes doing well. im also doing well 👍 #bsd #ivan goncharov #fyodor dostoevsky #my art #i did this quickly so i could get the brainworms out so it looks bad #fyovan #i fucking supporse

[inairbinad]

maybe together we can get somewhere

Written for my lovely, talented, and frequent brainworm-sharing friend @stobinesque! Happy birthday, I hope you have the best day!! 🥳💙 This one is also affectionately known as stobin: codependent delivery drivers. Featuring the soulmates soulmating, some Rockie fluff, and just a dash of Steddie. rated: T | wc: 4k | cw: none [read on ao3]

Robin slaps the classified section in front of Steve as he’s making their morning coffee. It’s been another long night of tossing and turning, of holding each other through anxious dreams thanks to the latest round of shit they’ve been through. It’s exhausting, but they’re figuring it out together. Again. Because if all they can do is stay attached at the hip, share a bed, and tell each other everything’s okay as long as they have each other? Well, Robin’s more than willing to do that for Steve. And after two times around this ride already, Robin knows Steve’s more than willing to do that for her too.

So she uses the time not sleeping to scour the paper for job leads. It’s not like she’s dying to work again, but if she and Steve ever want to realize their plans of getting the hell out of Hawkins and moving to the city, they’re gonna need something. If they can’t sleep without each other, they certainly can’t be expected to work without each other. 

Luckily Robin thinks she’s finally stumbled upon something that could be great for both of them.

“I think I found our next excursion through the perils of capitalism,” she grins and takes her mug from Steve, who always knows just how to make her coffee. She’s actually pretty sure they could do each other’s morning routines in their sleep, by now. 

“Yippee,” Steve says with all the enthusiasm of someone on death row. He knows as well as Robin does that they need to find another job after the Family Video quite literally crumbled to dust, but neither of them is exactly eager to dive back into the hells of minimum wage labor. Not to mention that Robin’s more than a little worried that they’re cursed, and the total destruction of both of their previous workplaces might precede them.

“Come on, as long as we do it together it won’t be that bad,” Robin tries to persuade him before telling him what the actual job is.

“You said that about the last one!” Steve points out, looking so scandalized that Robin’s a little annoyed.

“Are you saying you don’t want to work together anymore?”

“No,” Steve course-corrects so quickly that Robin can’t help but laugh at him. “I whine about work about five-hundred percent more if you aren’t there with me, Robbie. You know that.”

“I’m familiar,” she chuckles, thinking back to every single time Keith scheduled Steve to work without her at the video store. And every time they’d come back to work together at Scoops after a few days apart, Steve would have countless tales of people-watching and bizarre customers to share, even before they considered each other certified soulmates.

“So what is it?” Steve asks.

“How would you like to be one of the newest faces of Surfer Boy Pizza?”

“I thought you couldn’t drive,” Keith narrows his eyes at Robin before going back to inspect her newly acquired driver’s license. She figured it was time to get one after the shit hit the fan for the second time in less than a year, so that’s exactly what she did…after a few tries, anyway.

Steve would argue that she still can’t drive, actually looks like the words are poised on the tip of his tongue before he thinks better of it.

Robin can’t exactly blame him, not after all he went through trying to teach her. She has to hold back a wince as she relives the time she popped one of his tires like a balloon just from rolling over a curb. But by some miracle—arguably her impeccable parallel parking skills, which might be the only thing she’s actually good at, go figure—Robin finally did manage to get her license.

So the way Keith is looking at it like it has to be a fake is a little bit insulting.

“It’s newly minted, I’ll admit,” Robin sighs and leans across the counter to try and level with him. How he managed to snag up a manager’s spot here so quickly baffles her, quite honestly, since they just opened. (The rumor is that the owners saw Argyle driving around in his van so frequently that they were inspired to open a franchise. Robin isn’t sure what that says about her potential new employers, but she’s trying not to think about it too hard.)

At least she knows how to talk Keith into things he doesn’t necessarily want to do by now.

“But I’m super careful and am an excellent parallel parker,” she continues. “You won’t find any scratches on your shiny new delivery vans when I’m working, or get calls from customers saying I left a dent in their bumper like the infamous kid that used to drive for that other pizza joint in town.”

“We don’t mention that place in here,” Keith grumbles, knowing full well that he is that infamous kid. It’s another reason Robin is shocked that someone hired him to work at a pizza place again, even if he isn’t driving this time around. Keith passes her license back over before glancing at Steve, who knows to stay quiet and let Robin handle things. He merely shrugs and gives Keith a look that imparts so much confidence in Robin that it makes her heart swell. “Fine, you’re both hired. Again. But—”

Robin cuts him off with a soft whoop, surprised at how excited she is to be able to make a mixtape and drive around town without a manager breathing down her neck for her entire shift. She doesn’t really care much about the handing pizzas off to people part, more so the independence. And then to come back to the store and gab with Steve about it while they wait for their next call.

It maybe doesn’t promise quite as much togetherness at work as they’re accustomed to, but Robin has a feeling they’ll find a way to work around that.

“But—” Keith says again with his supposedly stern face on and points at Robin specifically. “You’ll deliver by bike until I trust you with a van.”

Robin feels the way her shoulders slump like she’s sinking into quicksand. “It’s about to be summer, Keith—”

Steve kicks her ankle and clears his throat loudly before he sells her out like a Judas. “Deal.”

Robin stares daggers at the side of his head like the good old days when he was just the douchebag who left bagel crumbs everywhere he went. He doesn’t look at her, though, just shakes hands with Keith and seals her to her sweaty fate.

Robin doesn’t speak to Steve again until they pull up in front of her house. “I can’t believe you threw me under the proverbial bike like that, dingus.”

“Do you want to hear my plan, or do you want to go back and quit before you even get your little yellow visor?” he asks as he shuts off the Beemer.

“I’ll hear your plan,” Robin sighs, glad he seems to have one at all. “But I reserve the right to reject it out of hand. Visor be damned.”

Steve smiles and twists around in his seat to face her, like whatever he’s come up with excites him.

“Okay, so every time Keith sends you out on your bike, you ride around the corner and wait, then I’ll pick you up in the van. That way we can do all our deliveries together until Keith trusts you to drive on your own.” Steve crosses his arms and grins at her like he’s some kind of evil, work-avoidant genius.

Robin thinks he just might be.

“I guarantee we’ll still cover just as much ground if I push the speed limit, Hawkins is so small,” he continues. “Then we’ll both basically be getting paid to do one job, and Keith never has to know.”

“You’re a genius Steve, you know that?” she figures it can’t hurt to tell him. It breaks her heart a little to watch the shadow of disbelief that crosses his face to hear it.

“I don’t know about that…”

Robin claps a hand over his mouth before he can say anything self-deprecating. “Nope. Take the compliment. I only have one question.”

“Shoot, Bobbie,” Steve says. He’s probably trotting out one of Robin’s favorite nicknames to counteract the fact that his lips are moving against her palm as he talks, which he knows creeps her out. How she understands what he’s saying anyway is beyond her, but she does.

“What do we do on nights that I’m scheduled to work, but you’re not?” Robin asks as she drops her hand.

Steve shrugs and gives her such an easy smile, Robin thinks his knack for scheming is one of her favorite things about him.

“Help cover the gas, and I’ll drive you around anyway,” he says. “But you’re pretty good at convincing Keith to schedule us together already.”

Robin wonders if maybe this job will actually be kind of fun.

Robin’s pretty sure Keith catches on to their little routine after about a week of doing it. But she’s already plotted a route around Hawkins that maximizes the ground they can cover, and Steve’s had all the best places to speed memorized for years, so every customer ends up singing their praises to the point where Keith can’t really bring himself to do anything about it.

She thinks she might never have to drive a delivery van herself as long as they keep this up. That’s fine by Robin, because even if the pay is shit, it’s probably the most fun she’s ever had at work.

It beats slinging ice cream in a sailor outfit, anyway.

People actually seem happy to see Robin when she’s the one who rings the bell, delivering their dinner with a smile and a little bit of a clumsy lilt to her gait. It always gives her an extra dose of confidence when the particularly hot moms of Hawkins are thrilled to see her—whether it’s for closeted sapphic reasons or just gender solidarity, Robin can’t help but enjoy the attention and praises heaped upon her.

“Robin, you look almost as adorable in that uniform as you did in the sailor outfit. Yellow really is a good color on you,” Mrs. Wheeler says to her one night, and Robin nearly faints from it.  

Eventually she starts flirting a little—not with Nancy’s mom, but maybe with some of the others who didn’t birth her friends—just subtly enough to make getting out of the car to talk to the babes on their route worth it. Steve grumbles about letting Robin talk to all the pretty girls at first, but it’s good natured and really Robin can tell that he’s proud of her for being a little charmer.

He doesn’t mind flirting with the dudes instead, anyway. Especially not when Eddie starts ordering pizza way more frequently than is strictly necessary, even for someone still recovering from his first stint in the underworld.

“Why don’t you just ask him out?” Robin asks when Steve climbs back in the van with a goofy smile on his face for the fourth time in one week. Between the kids hanging out at Max’s and Eddie calling so often, they spend more time delivering to their new, unearthquaked end of the trailer park than anywhere else.

“Why don’t you just ask Vickie out?” Steve counters, just like he always does. Robin tries to flick some of her Coke at him (that she may or may not have snagged from the work fridge behind Keith’s back), but she fumbles the execution and ends up spilling the whole can on Steve’s shirt. Then Steve’s laughing, but also glaring at her as he whines about his work shirt being sticky now.

Robin tries to stifle her own laughter with apologies, chooses not to point out that Eddie’s laughing from his door, too. She strips her own Surfer Boy tee off, leaving just the white tank top she’s wearing underneath, and hands it to Steve to change into. They share clothes like it’s their lot in life anyway. Robin’s actually kind of convinced that one might’ve been Steve’s shirt to begin with.

“Thanks,” he grumbles and changes hastily. He finally notices Eddie’s still watching once he’s trying to fix his hair in the rearview mirror.

Robin revels in the way his neck flushes, just a teeny bit. Steve waves shyly, Eddie waves back, and she wonders how long they’ll continue to be dumbasses as Steve finally pulls away.

“Where to next?” he asks, and Robin checks her list.

Her groan tells Steve everything he needs to know.

“Vickie’s it is!” He sounds entirely too cheerful about it.

The drive from Eddie’s to Vickie’s is vanishingly short, especially with Steve and Robin’s System of Fast and Efficient Pizza Delivery, patent pending.

“Gimme my shirt back,” Robin implores as Steve pulls up to Vickie’s, feeling exposed all of a sudden in just her tank top. She anxiously looks towards the front door as she waits. The porch light’s on for them, because Vickie is always one of the more courteous customers they’ve got—and one of the best tippers.

“Oh so I’m supposed to sit here shirtless because you don’t want to show off your arms to a pretty girl?” Steve asks, and Robin whips her head around to realize he’s not planning on giving her shirt back at all.

“It’s company policy not to approach a door without your uniform!” Robin shrieks, not because she cares much about company policy, but because Steve should have her back on principle. “Plus, you enjoy being shirtless, you flirt!”

“I don’t think Vickie’s going to mistake you for a missionary,” Steve says blandly, ignoring the mild-slut shaming completely. “Plus, you’ve still got your visor on.”

“Steve,” Robin tries, but he just grins at her without moving a muscle.

“You look great. Go get ‘em, Tiger.”

“Oh god. You did not just say that,” Robin sighs, delaying further just to make fun of him a little. She thinks it’s deserved.

“I did, and I meant it,” Steve raises an eyebrow at her. “Unless you want me to drop this one?”

“No,” Robin tells him with all the annoyance she can muster. She might be awkward, flailing, and hopelessly pining over Vickie already, but she’s not gonna let any of that stop her from going up to that door. “Gimme the damn pizza.”

Steve reaches to get it out of the back and hands it over to Robin with a shit-eating grin. She really regrets not giving him more hell over Eddie back there, but she takes the box and squares her shoulders before making her way up Vickie’s front stairs.

Robin rings the bell and does her best not to fidget the entire time she’s waiting. Which isn’t very long at all. Vickie opens the door with a wide smile in greeting, looking almost angelic in the way the light behind her frames her fiery hair, her eyes bright and excited just because Robin’s there. 

Or maybe she’s just really hungry, a more cynical part of Robin’s brain corrects.

“Veggie pizza?” Robin asks, and Vickie nods.

“Thanks,” Vickie says, already moving to exchange pizza for money. “That was really fast.”

“Oh, well. Steve and I have a system. I kind of buried myself in maps for a night while I worked out the quickest routes around town, then we spent the next couple of days figuring out how to drive them quickly without hitting any pedestrians or breaking too many traffic laws,” Robin says without thinking. No matter how many times they talk, Robin doesn’t seem to be able to stop blurting things out around Vickie.

Vickie just laughs though, leaning a little around Robin so she can wave to Steve who is very obviously watching them from the car.

“That’s a whole lot of dedication to the job,” Vickie comments, and Robin can feel her ears turn pink.

“Sometimes I just plan stuff out when I can’t sleep, even if I never actually end up doing it,” Robin admits.

“Me too,” Vickie says with such soft knowing in her voice that Robin wants to wrap herself up in it like a blanket. For the first time she wonders if maybe Steve isn’t the only person who can calm her nerves enough to help her sleep. She doesn’t have much time to get caught up in the thought, though, because Vickie keeps talking.

“Is that your normal uniform?” she asks, and Robin hopes she’s not imagining the way Vickie’s gaze lingers over her bare shoulders, her chest, her neck. She feels exposed, still, her skin alight with any attention Vickie is willing to give, but it feels nice. So nice, actually, that Robin doesn’t remember how to respond for a moment. “Or did you just want to show off your tan?”

Vickie bites her lip and flushes ever so slightly, like maybe she hadn’t quite meant to say that part out loud. Robin can’t think of anything but how desperate she is to kiss her.

“I really don’t tan,” Robin admits. “Freckle, mostly. Sometimes burn if I’m not careful. Which I guess isn’t surprising, given the history of skin cancer in my family—” Robin hears herself and wants to die. She snaps her mouth shut before she can say anything else horrifying.

“Oh, I burn too! Even with all the sunscreen in the world, sometimes–” Vickie cuts herself off with a nervous laugh. “Well, the freckles look very good, anyway.”

“Thanks,” Robin murmurs, and she thinks maybe she’s blushing enough to look sunburnt now.

“Robin?” Vickie asks, still holding the pizza between them like she’s afraid if she moves the moment might break.

Or maybe that’s just what Robin’s scared of.

“Yeah?”

“Can you help me with something real quick, or are you super busy tonight?” Vickie asks. The hopeful way she tilts her head is so precious Robin might implode right there on the spot.

Robin doesn’t care how busy they are, there’s no way she’s not following Vickie inside. “I can help. What’s up?”

“It’s just that my VCR is jammed,” Vickie says, already leading Robin inside and talking over her shoulder. She puts the pizza down on the coffee table and nods toward the TV. Robin ambles over, not sure there’s anything she can do to fix it, but she’s willing to try.

“You worked at Family Video for a while, right?” Vickie asks. Robin nods and tries not to relive every time Vickie came in to rent something and Robin acted like a fool. “Thought maybe you’d have the magic touch with it.”

Robin doesn’t think she’s imagining the flirtatious way that Vickie says magic touch, so she pours all of her focus into the malfunctioning machine in front of her before she malfunctions and melts into a puddle on Vickie’s floor.

She feels Vickie’s eyes watching her as she works and thinks she might melt anyway.

It doesn’t take long to figure out the problem. After some fumbling, Robin manages to untangle some loose tape from inside the deck. She can’t help but think it looks haphazardly shoved in there. “Were you babysitting, or something?”

“No?” Vickie says, voice inexplicably laced with questionable guilt.

“Just seems like it got stuffed in there,” Robin says as she turns around with the tangle on display. “Like maybe a kid was playing with it.”

“Oh. Well. Weird.” Vickie’s biting her lip and looking at her feet all of a sudden. Robin can see the sheen of freshly applied gloss on Vickie’s lips. She wonders what it tastes like.

She also wonders if maybe Vickie put it on just for her.

“Vickie?” Robin’s voice is whisper quiet.

“Yeah?”

“Did you really need my help with the VCR?”

Vickie’s eyes snap to Robin’s face, worried, like she’s been caught out. But then Robin smiles at her, so gently she feels like it might break her own heart just to feel it on her face, and Vickie relaxes her shoulders.

“No,” she admits.

Robin doesn’t know where the courage comes from, what comes over her or how, but one minute she’s standing in Vickie’s living room thinking she might pass out from nerves, and the next she’s cupping Vickie’s cheek with all the casual smoothness Robin’s ever mustered in her life. Then Robin leans in to kiss her.

It’s heady, the power Robin feels just from being the one to move first. It’s like her body was made for this, for gently holding Vickie’s face and tasting the strawberry flavor of her lip gloss, feeling the soft pout of her lips slotting between Robin’s own like puzzle pieces fitting together.

But mostly Robin is soaring because Vickie is kissing her back, fiercely, like maybe this was actually what Vickie was hungry for instead of pizza in the first place.

Robin isn’t entirely sure what being a good kisser entails, at least not when you actually want the person you’re lip to lip with so badly you’re seeing stars. There’s no universe in which Robin thinks this can’t be good, though, because her whole body is tingling from the way Vickie presses up against it, the way she gently slips her hand into Robin’s hair and tilts Robin’s head just so.

Robin feels her visor come tumbling off her head, but she can hardly care when Vickie lets out a delicate moan that leaves her absolutely weak in the knees.

“Vickie,” Robin breathes out when they separate, already wanting to dive in for more. Vickie smiles against Robin’s mouth, kisses the corner of her lips again like she’s worried she missed a spot.

“Yes, Robin?” Vickie asks, suddenly sounding much more confident than she’d looked just a moment before—almost teasing.

“That was really good,” Robin says plainly.

“I agree,” Vickie hums. She pecks Robin on the lips one more time, gentle and quick about it. “And as much as I want to do it again, I think Steve’s waiting for you.”

It’s only then that Robin even hears the distinct sound of the van’s horn honking—two quick beeps to remind her that there’s still two more deliveries they need to make.

“Damn him,” Robin mutters, and Vickie just laughs. Her breath against Robin’s face is minty fresh, and Robin can’t really be expected to function when she knows Vickie planned this whole thing, can she?

“Call me later?” Vickie asks.

Robin nods, but not before kissing her again, deliveries be damned.

“Your lips are swollen,” Steve says first thing when she gets back in the car, dazed and floaty like she’s just taken the best drugs of her life. (This is something Robin actually has a point of reference for now, and she’s easily putting ‘Kisses From Vickie’ at the top of the list.)

“I kissed her,” Robin says, staring straight ahead. Steve squeals like a little girl and bounces in his seat.

“Finally!” he cheers, giving Robin’s shoulders an excited shake. “Are you comatose over there?”

“A little,” Robin admits, but she feels the smile break out on her face like an explosion of fireworks. She sucks in a deep breath and finally looks at Steve. He looks so happy for her she thinks her heart might burst all over again. “I kissed a girl.”

“Was it everything you imagined?” Steve asks, not bothering to hide the hopeless romantic that lives in his chest and pulls all of his heartstrings.

“And then some,” Robin says, hearing how dreamy she sounds and just rolling with it. Steve starts the van up again just as Vickie waves at them both from her front window. She blows Robin a kiss, and Robin thinks she’s died and gone to a heaven she’s not sure she believed in until now.

“Seems this job was worth it after all,” Steve admits.

Robin really can’t disagree.

#read 📚 #stobin #rockie #robin buckley #steve harrington #vickie stranger things #robin x vickie #fanfiction #stranger things #platonic stobin #rovickie #dani's drafts

[mofffun]

King-Ohger Character Song memo

link to streaming

Gira - Kind King

oooh rock! something Taisei himself likes? (Masashi mentioned they quickly became friends because they have football and rock bands in common)

the opening electric tunes is a consistent Dug motif

His voice is SO cute and the mismatch with the instrumetns XD

I like 'i gotta we gotta' part. catchy kinda slogan-y like self pep talk

Gira will stand up to unjustice and do it himself, but with the bonds with his friends too 😭😭

the longer I listen to it the less it sounds like Taisei?? and closer to sports anime freshman protag. I look forward to listening its live version.

Overall the song is very motivating and cheerful, let's just say it does sound like something Gira could write himself.

there's no beating INFERNO, but the lyrics is direct and cute, very fitting for Gira's character.

You get the chara song is how the character wants to express themselves and the image song is who they are from an outside perspective.

Yanma - Teppen Online

hmmm I'm surprised by the chorus? (+ve)

musically I don't find much surprise with this one but I like the chorus. Try & Fight and I'm still alive were just too impactful.

no wait it sounds like the most we learn about Prez?

In the lyrics he said, "some things don't need to be said (out loud)" and yeah, he's a bit shy in expressing affection huh? Or say, he believes in action more than words and he's the traditional manly type that's like, "hing1 dai6, sum ziu3 lah"

Himeno - Golden Garden

the "I wish" song in musicals

That's Erica's voice???

'K I can see the second verse as Hime singing to Rita.

ah no bridge (I think none of them have bridge? :(

A very beautiful song. Gives me a 2000s shojo amime ED vibe.

Rita - Moffun's Song

Yeah no, I don't like Rita's stuck being a Moffun fan in their character song. Can't say I'm more impressed by the full version as a Yuzuki fan either

The short version impressed me by showing Yuzuki's range in just under a minute. The high note is moved to the very end of the song from verse 2

Some rationalize it as Rita themself choosing to use this version to represent themself and I can see the reasoning behind Rita's caring interior should've be apparent by now and you have the contrast with Ignorantia but UGH I want the Chief Justice actually singing about their struggle and duty and YOU KNOW MAYBE TOUCH ON THEIR CONNECTION WITH GOKKAN????? IN HIRAKAWA'S LOW IKEMEN VOICE???

On the other hand did we ever get an explanation of why Rita likes Moffun in the first place? We know it's not some tragic backstory and honestly, they could've like it simply because it's cute. And yes, I can infer why someone like Rita would like something like Moffun but hnnnnn it's not canon

but another contradiction I'm facing is actually I was glad to see an adult character who's not afraid of showing their otaku passionate side, but Rita's not fully committed to that...

Kaguragi - 仰天珍道中

hohoho I so look forward to Kaku-san's singing.

oh my god that's really good???

i can see him on a showa TV show in a white suit

this is gonna be a brainworm

it's much faster than I expected too.

there's lore in this lyrics… (looks up japanese dictionary)

Jeramie - 線上のTrickster

Masashi's in the "singing voice close to speaking voice" group.

Jeramie, you're not beating the Noel allegations

has some early 2000s J-rock vibes I guess?

It's not a bad song ay any rate but again (like the perfume) doesn't feel very Jeramie to me?? Maybe I've been paying too little attention to him my interpretation deviation from official's for the second time?

(I like The Prophet better but maybe this will warm up to me)

#mon mon

[bespectacledbun]

more Obsidian!Yves nonsense that I cooked from the brainworms I've shared with my friends in dms before (⚠️ SPOILERS FOR GIL'S MAIN ROUTE IN JP!! ⚠️):

yves who loses his nanny and is told that he has to leave rhodolite to go back to his mother's family. yves who arrives in obsidian alone, scared, and unable to speak the language because he grew up only speaking in rhodolitian and not his mother tongue obsidianite

yves who meets his grandfather and he seems nice, but he's very strict and has a bunch of rules that he has to follow all the time. yves who quickly learns to stifle his cries until he's alone and makes sure to never show weakness in front of his grandfather

yves who doesn't really trust his cousins, except for gil. the rest of them always try to get him to trust him by talking badly about the rest of the family to him, but gil is nice. gil gives him sweets and takes him into town and even showed him a photo of his mother and aunt when they were young, but he gets sick so yves can't see him often :(

yves who quickly learns his uncle is terrifying and definitely not to be trusted. yves who keeps his head down, keeps his mouth shut, keeps to himself and avoids interacting with the emperor at all costs. if gil doesn't like the emperor, then neither does he, he decides

yves who is barely 10 when one cousin dies of bad food and the other in a "riding accident" and he learns how truly brutal obsidian can be. yves who is told it's a mistake the castle cooks and stablehands made, but late at night he hears his grandfather talking about a poisoning and tampered saddles. yves who sneaks around to hear the maids whisper how all the workers at the royal residence were slaughtered and their bodies put on display outside the gates

yves who notices his grandfather gets increasingly stressed over the years. yves who starts helping with with for the kloss household more and more, until he ends up taking over the duties entirely while his grandfather does.... god knows what. yves who manipulates the household business to suit gil's needs instead of the emperor's after gil confides in him that the emperor was the one who murdered his mother and older brother in cold blood

yves who is there right alongside gilbert when his oldest cousin mocks gil to his face about his mother's death, who says her and their brother were too weak and deserved to die as they did. yves who turns away as gil stabs him through the heart in rage and then helps hide the body later. yves who joins gilbert's plans for a coup d'état cleanse the empire of all its corrupt nobles

yves who is 16 when he learns of his grandfather's plans to eliminate gilbert on the emperor's orders, who skewers lord kloss before he can even try to hurt gil, who watches from behind as gilbert finally kills the emperor and throws the body off a cliff

yves who helps find and eliminate all those who are still loyal to the bloodthirsty politics of the previous emperor so that gil can achieve his goals of cleaning the country faster

yves who finds and brings roderich into the court, so that when if gil dies he can replace him and yves won't have to. yves who refuses to let gil die after everything he's done because he doesn't want to be left all alone again

yves goes to the border on gilbert's orders, who finds an injured little boy unconscious under a collapsed building and brings him back, so that even if he's too far gone to be saved he can at least get a proper burial along with all the other civilians who died in the war

yves who finds out this unconscious little boy could possibly be his half brother, who looks at his scrapes and injuries and wonders what kind of hellish family would have left him to die on the battlefield like that

yves who spends months nursing and training the boy–– luke, as he will later learn–– and teaches him how to fend for himself before gil sends him back to rhodolite

yves who spends years growing the power and influence of house kloss in order to support gil, until one day he is summoned to the palace for no discernible reason. yves who is told by his cousin that his father has died, and that in a month the court of rhodolite will send ambassadors asking for his return for the selection process

yves who spends that month reading up on the history of the belle system and scoffs at the sheer naivety of it, because what would a commoner know about the dangers of the royal court? how much could they possibly learn in a month that would equal the experience of a lifetime in danger?

yves who is told by gil that he is to be prince, liaison, and spy all at once, that luke and another prince in the rhodolite court will help him while he is there. yves who practices his rhodolitian again after years, so that he doesn't need that airheaded translator assigned to the diplomatic party. yves who introduces himself in stilted, but fluent rhodolitian to the group of strangely dressed men that greet him in the throne room, the men that are supposedly his brothers

yves who gauges all of the princes one by one, wondering which might be the prince gilbert mentioned that would help him. yves who's eyes barely flicker when they see luke, because they aren't supposed to know each other at all

yves who is both surprised and suspicious when Leon reaches out first and invites him to dinner, who shows up not expected to be welcomed with a feast in the domestic faction's office. yves who keeps his guard up, not wondering if this is some sort of ploy to get him to spill his secrets, but by the end of the party realizing leon is just that trusting of him (he can't tell if his older brother is stupid or kind-hearted)

yves who is already used to the stares and contempt that townsfolk and nobles give him so it just slides off his back like water. yves who is surprised when jin and licht both step up to defend him from a particularly loose-lipped noble that was barraging him earlier

yves who sees leon and jin and licht and clavis having fun together, who can't help but feel a kernel of resentment sprout when he sees them truly happy with each other. yves who remembers his cousins before they died, who recalls those years of just him and gilbert working alone because it was them against the world

yves who has completely settled in by the time he is allowed into the round table room, where he meets the commoner that will apparently decide the fate of the kingdom. belle. yves who learns her name is emma, and that she's apparently one of the townsfolk and works as a local bookstore's employee.

yves who remembers gil's orders–– 'you must be chosen as the king for our plan to work'–– and meets her bright eyed gaze, innocent gaze. this will be way too easy

#ikepri #yves kloss #obsidian yves au #louise cheering in dms when I made yves stab grandpa kloss was so fucking funny actually #the way i had to triple check gil’s route and family lore for this tho omfg #boi yo family is FUCKED UP #as a suitor i absolutely despise him but damn is his route rich in plot and character lore #also im remembering i made like a character design for how his yves would differ from rhodolite yves and it was so sexy #yves and gil with matching piercings. okay? okay #they like a lil bit of body candy on em dont talk to me okay #obsidian yves my deranged feral meow meow. i can give him trauma he dont even know about

[hirokiyuu]

ok that person's art gave me brainworms. evangelion au. i might have more of this at some point but this is all i got for now. 'wheres the thing u said u were working on' sorry i cant hear you over how much i like writing messy teens

dys+sol, evangelion au; 550 words

“Hi!”

Dys glances up, glances away. The transfer student doesn’t move, still standing there with a smile shy and sweet across her face, a lock of long hair twirled around one finger. “You’re Dys, right? Unit 01’s pilot?”

He doesn’t bother answering. Most of his classmates found the shine of his status wear off pretty quickly after they all realized Dys had exactly zero desire to talk about piloting, especially when Vace was right there and preening fucking constantly, an easy target for admiration. Makes him sick. He turns his head towards the window, a clear brush-off.

“I’m Sol!” A brush-off clearly ignored. The girl -- Sol -- shifts enough for some of that long, long hair to catch in the corner of Dys’s vision. “I heard you transferred in recently too, right? Where did you come from?”

Again, he doesn’t answer. Again, she keeps going. “You must’ve been here long enough to find some cool places and stuff, though, right? If you know any, could you show me around a little? I --”

“Will you just shut up?!”

The class falls dead silent at his outburst, his hands slamming hard against the desk as he rocks forward onto his feet, a snarl digging into the corners of his mouth. Sol stares back at him with wide eyes; Dys’s shoulders fall and rise and fall with each ugly breath he lets out, jaw clenched so tight he can feel it all the way down his neck.

Slowly, the chatter around them starts back up, a polite agreement to ignore the weirdo in the corner again, and Dys lets himself fall backwards into his chair. “Just leave me alone,” he mutters, turning his head back towards the window. “I’m not here to make friends or whatever.”

“...O-oh,” says Sol, a little quietly, enough that he almost feels bad. “I’m… um, I’m sorry, Dys. I….” A pause. He deliberately doesn’t look back over. “Sorry. I’ll leave you alone now. Um. See you at Nerv later, I guess. Bye.”

He doesn’t bother to answer; there’s a moment before he hears the tap-tap-tap of her footsteps heading away. Finally, he thinks, resolving to put the whole dumb fucking thing out of his mind, before all at once his mind processes her last words and without meaning to his head whips around towards her.

She’s not looking back, already being pulled in towards Marz (ugh) who’s got an arm around her shoulders and is no doubt whispering reassuring bullshit about how Dys is always like this and don’t take it personally, but on closer inspection the things in her hair aren’t ribbons at all -- they’re interface headsets, perched on top of her head like little decorations, announcing to all and sundry her status as a pilot.

Whatever. Whatever. If she’s wearing them out like that she must be proud of her job, which is just totally great for her. Maybe she and Vace can bond over how fucking cool they think their shitty lives are. Not his problem -- sure, Dys’ll get in the robot and fight off the Angels and whatever, not because he wants to. Just because the alternative is death, and he might not be scared of it but he doesn’t exactly want to kick it just yet either.

The clouds part; Dys turns his head back towards the window, staring out at the endless vast sky. Whatever, he thinks again, deliberately as he can. Who cares. Not him.

#uhhhhh im not going to tag this one with main tags i think but its ok to rb lol #evangelion is just. a bit messy u kno. so #same reason ill probably not post utena au stuff anywhere lol #teenexo stuff #she/her sol but dont make the mistake of thinking shes a girl #(guy who thinks a lot abt school uniforms as gender violence) yeah #how do you writing

[kootiepatra]

#FFxivWrite2022 - Day 27 Prompt: "Hail"

I tried to use an old-timey-fantasy version of the word "hail". I did. But then my brain realized that bad weather was an opportunity to smush my OTP together into shelter alone, and well. The fluff brainworms are too strong.

==========

A sharp wind raked across the island, bowing the palm trees and churning up some truly spectacular waves in the bay. Two figures stood on an outcropping overlooking the lush valley, clothes and hair whipping about wildly as they surveyed the scene.

“I promise it is usually much more pleasant than this,” Keimwyda said, smiling apologetically at Aymeric.

“Nonsense, I still am quite pleased,” he replied. He looked around. Though he had taken her advice to dress for warm weather, he still wore a light cloak, which he pulled tighter around himself. “Do you suppose the weather will hold?”

“Oh, certainly not. Quite rude of it to greet you like this on your first visit.”

“Hah. Well, give it a stern talking to for me, if you would be so kind.”

Keimwyda cast her eyes upwards, noting the speed of the clouds rolling by overhead. “At least it seems it will blow through quickly.”

As if overhearing their conversation, a few heavy drops of rain spattered to the ground.

“...I propose we head back to the cabin,” she said.

“I quite agree.”

The two assumed a brisk pace as they turned, simultaneously realizing their walk had taken them a good distance further than they realized. 

“Halone have mercy,” Aymeric muttered as the rain began to threaten itself in more earnestness.

“Ah, perhaps I neglected to warn you,” Keimwyda said, smiling, “The water here is actually liquid when it falls from the sky.”

“Indeed!” he laughed. “Such a phenomenon. I shall endeavor not to be too frightened of it.”

“Forgive me, it is not kind for me to make light of… ow!” she yelped.

He was about to assure her that he enjoyed the humor, but was cut off at hearing her cry. “Are you all right?”

“I could have sworn…ah!” she said again, her hand going to her head. She glanced up at the sky, and then around at the ground. “Do not tell me…”

“Oh,” Aymeric joined in surprise, as he, too, felt a sting upon his head. Small white orbs of ice, no bigger than a pea, began to bounce along the path around them.

“Now this is a poor jest!” Keimwyda bemoaned. “This way. The bathhouse is closer than the cabin.”

Aymeric slipped off his cloak and held it over their heads. The two were near enough in height that he could reach, but she was just enough taller that it was obviously an awkward strain, and the garment was falling over her eyes.

“You were saying something about liquid water from the sky?” he said, struggling to get the words out through his laughter.

“Yes, yes, it serves me right,” she laughed, tucking her own arm under her end of the cloak to help him. “Quickly!”

They broke into a run and veered onto the branching path to the bathhouse—perhaps not the most obvious place to seek shelter from wet weather, but it was close and had a roof. It would do. They stumbled over the threshold and looked back behind them, with both rain and hail properly coming down now. They had taken shelter just in time.

“Welcome to paradise,” Keimwyda said helplessly, with a welcoming gesture that was more of a shrug.

“‘Tis a dream,” Aymeric laughed. His voice soon gave way to a more serious tone. “Your crops—will they survive?”

“I am not sure,” she replied thoughtfully. “I have admittedly not been here that long, but I have not seen weather like this on the island before. So long as the hail stays small, I think the popotoes and onions should not know that anything had gone amiss. The tomatoes on the vine may well suffer bruising, though.”

“I am sorry,” he offered.

She blew it off. “It is hardly a great loss. This is more of a garden than a proper farm. And the climate is mild enough—well, most of the time—that it shall not be that long to grow others. This is certainly a matter of ‘hobby’ and not ‘livelihood’. I daresay I shall recover.”

“A hobby, she says!” he laughed, shaking his head and surveying the view through the rain. “I struggle to comprehend that this place was uninhabited but a few moons ago.”

“It still practically is,” she objected. “I am not even here full time.”

He shot her a look. “My darling. We are sitting in your heated bathhouse. You must admit it is a little impressive.”

“The mammets have done all the heavy work, really. I simply show up and give orders.”

He folded his arms and narrowed his eyes at her. “Has anyone told you that you can be truly dreadful at accepting praise?” he asked.

“Aside from you?” she replied, her face reddening. “…Yes, actually. Several.”

He nudged his shoulder into her playfully. “So then accept it. I know you have put some hard work in here as well.”

She leaned into him in return and smiled. “I am grateful for it. Genuinely. Tataru knew me well to know that this is the kind of escape I would enjoy.”

“Is it so difficult to simply relax and do nothing?” he asked.

Now it was her turn to shoot him a look. “I think you are not one to talk. But no, I do find this relaxing in its own way.”

“How so?”

She turned her gaze back into the rain with a faraway look. “In some ways, it reminds me of where I grew up. The Shroud is obviously a bit of a different ecosystem, but… tending to a garden, gathering wood, foraging reeds to weave? ‘Twas the way Miss Estelle ran her house and I was brought up helping her. It just feels… familiar? And normal, I suppose.”

He slipped an arm around her waist. “Do you miss it, then?”

“Not exactly,” she shrugged. “I do not regret the path life has taken me on. I am grateful my horizons expanded.”

“Aye, to be the Warrior of Light is quite a different calling.”

“And yet…” she trailed off, trying to find the words to say what she truly meant. She was not well used to talking about her inner thoughts, and it did not come easily to her. “I think that is why I yet find this so comforting. This is the sort of life I led when nobody knew me. I had never crossed blades with a primal. I knew ‘the echo’ as naught but the sound bouncing about in a cave.  Not a soul looked to me for salvation. There were no grand expectations upon me—I was just the odd, stray Roegadyn with a little homestead in the forest.”

She lowered her eyes and continued. “I think… I think it is simply nice to not have to be the Warrior of Light for a while.”

He regarded her softly, and raised up to place a light kiss upon her cheek. “In that case, I am full glad you have this place,” he said.

“Not that I am not grateful and happy for what I do,” she began to clarify.

“No! No. I quite understand.” He smiled. “May I join you, and not have to be the Lord Speaker for a while?”

“With pleasure.” The corner of her mouth quirked up in a smirk. “I can well assure you, that these mammets do not care.”

#FFxivWrite2022 #FFxivWrite #ffxiv #wolmeric #wolaymeric #my writing #island sanctuary #fluff #FREE THEM BOTH COME TO THINK OF IT

[bunny-rambles]

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

“Accidents happen.”

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

characters: Albedo, Klee (platonic), gn alchemist reader

notes: hi everyone, bunny here! This wasn’t a request but instead a little brainworm I got last night. This is my first original piece on this account so I hope you like it! I was feeling down and I needed some comfort, so I wrote this, enjoy! Likes, reblogs and comments are always appreciated! (о´∀`о)

Summary: You had been having a bad few days and the young spark knight was determined to make it better! Unfortunately, her bounciness and excitable personality made her more of a liability than a helping hand. Thankfully, the chalk prince finds a way to make it better.

CWTW: injuries (specifically burns and cuts), descriptions of panic attacks, but it’s mainly fluffy hurt/comfort. readers just having a very bad day,,, and it’s also pretty long

word count: 2.6k

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

In the silent halls of Mondstat’s library, a young alchemist tries to obtain the unobtainable, and is disappointed when they cannot achieve it.

You sighed heavily, rubbing your temples to soothe the creeping migraine that was growing at the base of your skull. This was the fourth try and it still didn’t give you the reaction you wanted. And the procedure was so complicated, it took hours just to get the next result. You had been in here all day and you were starting to lose patience with this ‘little project’. The funny thing was, this was supposed to be a distraction from all the paperwork you needed to do. Truthfully, you were starting to think the mountains of forms and reports you needed to fill out might not be such a bad idea compared to… This.

“Y/N!!” The door burst open, shaking the fragile glass containers and liquid-filled vials with how hard the door had slammed into the wall. You heard the rush of tiny footsteps coming your way, coming to a stop right next to you.

“Hello, Klee… What brings you here?” You asked blandly, hoping if you sounded as boring as this experiment you were doing, she would turn tail and leave.

“Klee heard Y/N’s been here aalll day with nothing to do!” She huffed, placing her small hands on her hips with a pout. It wasn’t necessarily wrong, you had been stuck in here all day. And the day before that. And the day before that one too. You were so behind on work you had buried yourself in it to compensate, but each experiment you conducted were nothing but failures, or resulted in the same reactions or answers.

“Mhm…” You hummed quietly, eyes trained intently on the bubbling pot in front of you instead of looking at the child by your side. She gasped suddenly, which made you snap your gaze towards her. “Klee? Are you-“

“We should do something fun!” You heaved a sigh of relief, hand placed on your heart to soothe its rapid beating. She shouldn’t have been in here, and it was so easy for a girl her size to bump into something and get seriously injured. So when she made such a noise, you immediately jumped to the worst conclusion.

“Oh… Maybe later, Klee. I’m busy.”

“We could go fish blasting! I once caught a fish thiiissss big!” Her arms stretched out wide, and you could only watch in shock as the various bottles strewn around the large table started to fall off.

“LOOK OUT!” In a rush to protect the young spark knight, you pulled her head into your chest and wrapped your arms around her tight, holding your palm out to block out the light from the sudden explosion. Quickly, you covered her head with your lab coat and held your own nose as you led the two of you out of the room. When the door was shut, only then did you let her go.

“It… It was an accident…” The trembling girl next to you whispered, arms wrapped around one of your legs as she peered her head out to look at the closed door which hid the destruction of your room.

“Klee, are you alright?” You wasted no time, kneeling down to her level and checking her over. When you were finally satisfied with her appearance, and a confirmation from the small blonde herself, you stood up properly.

“Y/N! Your hand!” Your gaze trailed down to where your young companion had pointed to, wincing at the sight of your destroyed hand. You couldn’t feel it yet, mainly because of the adrenaline pumping through your veins, but you knew later it would hurt like hell. Your eyes then moved up to the small window on the door, and your shoulders slumped. Everything you had worked hard on was completely destroyed. All those notes, all that planning… Gone.

“I’m sorry… Klee didn’t mean i-“

“It’s all ruined…” You mumbled quietly, stepping away from the door slowly. You turned your head away, very quickly wiping your watery eyes with your uninjured hand. The young girl waits in silence, hands anxiously balled into fists. Even without her bombs, she managed to find herself in trouble. But the scolding never came. You knew yelling or telling her off wouldn’t have done anything, and all your energy had been spent on your project to truly feel angry about it. “Klee… Please just be more careful next time. You could’ve gotten really hurt.” Your voice sounded shaky but you were keeping it together, for her sake. To see you cry would’ve made her cry, and you didn’t want that. “Please don’t go back in there to clean up, it’s dangerous. Why don’t you go fish blasting?… I’m sure Kaeya is around. I need to be alone for a little while.” You forced a smile on your lips before sending her off with a small head pat. She tried to reach her small hand out to stop you, but you had already turned and walked off in the direction of your office.

—

Contrary to what you had suggested, Klee hadn’t gone to find Kaeya. For some reason, she wasn’t in the mood for fish blasting right now. Not after you looked so upset… The young spark knight wasn’t sure what to do. She couldn’t clean the mess up because you specifically had told her not to, and she didn’t want to make things even worse. What would her big brother do…? Wait a minute. Albedo would know exactly what to do! She began to grin with delight at the idea forming in her head. Luckily, Albedo had just come back from Dragonspine this morning and he was exactly where she thought he would be.

“Big brother!!” She called out, running towards the three alchemists that were gathered in front of the small alchemy stand.

“Mr. Albedo…” Sucrose timidly points behind his shoulder when he offers a confused hum in response, turning around to see a blur of red running towards him. He was already kneeling down to her height, arms open wide for the young girl, who gladly jumped in his arms. Her small arms wrapped tightly around his neck, giving him a small squeeze while his own arms held her close.

“What a lovely welcome back…” Albedo chuckled, carefully letting go of her, but he frowned when he saw the guilty expression on his younger sibling's face. He didn’t even need to ask what was wrong, because she was already confessing what she had done.

“Klee did something bad… And Y/N is sad… And Klee doesn’t know what to do to make it better.”

When she was done explaining what had happened, the two came up with a fooland bombproof plan to cheer up the defeated alchemist.

—

The scratches of a worn out quill echoed through the quiet room, the afternoon sun casting harsh rays of light down on the hunched over figure at their desk.

After you left Klee to her own devices, you decided it was best to do what you were putting off before: paperwork. Unfortunately, the hand you were writing with was currently shoddily bandaged, and in excruciating pain. Your trembling hands were struggling to even hold the feather, but somehow you were managing, up until now that is. The quill slipped from your fingertips for the third time in the past five minutes, but as you went to pick it up again, your unsteady hand knocked over the pot of ink beside you. The dark liquid spread across the pristine papers quickly as your hand scrambled to clean up the mess.

“No no no no… Come on…” You sighed heavily, lifting the stack up and placing them somewhere else before they got even more ruined. But there was no point. There was no salvaging them. This day just seemed to be getting worse and worse… Defeated, you buried your face in your arms on your desk, trying to take a few deep breaths to calm yourself, but the tightness in your upper half only began to grow worse. Thick tendrils felt like they were snaking around your throat, squeezing out every last breath until there was a painful emptiness in your chest. You choked, trying to fight back against the feeling, hot tears streaming down your cheeks. You only snapped out of your daze when you felt a hand set gently on top of your back. It rubbed it in soothing circles, and a smooth voice said your name quietly.

“Deep breaths, Y/N…” The disembodied voice commanded softly. You felt something lift your hand, pressing it into something firm. “Match with me.” And so you did. You followed the movements of the stranger's chest. In. Hold... Out. “Again.” In. Hold... Out. “That’s it… One more time, now.” In. Hold... Out.

Finally, the restricting feeling in your throat eased off, and your head became clear enough to see who exactly was guiding you through that.

Azure eyes bored into your own, and for a moment it was all that consumed you. Then the rest of that beautiful face came into view.

“Albedo…?”

He smiled at the sound of his name, and the hand that held yours to his chest tightened. Before he had the chance to say anything, you wrapped your arms around his neck tightly, face burying itself in his shoulder. You couldn’t help it. It had been weeks since either of you had seen each other, and for a moment, all the frustrations of the last few days melted away in his embrace. “I missed you so much…” You sniffled, on the verge of tears again for an entirely different reason.

“I missed you too…”

After a few moments of being in his arms, you finally pulled away enough to face him properly, but his eyes weren’t on you. Instead, they were fixated on the bandage on your hand, which he had begun to hold when you let go of him.

“Klee told me there was an accident… May I take a look?” Though his voice was calm and his face was blank, the look in his eyes told you he was incredibly concerned. You nodded slowly, and he took that as a signal to unwrap your hand. His face paled at the state of your injury, a large cut in the centre of your palm that was starting to blister with the untreated burns you had sustained.

“… One moment.” He stood up properly from where he was kneeling, exiting the room. You hadn’t really looked at it properly, so you weren’t exactly sure what he was seeing. You didn’t get a chance to, because he was already back with a first aid kit, pulling up a chair to your desk. He carefully took your hand once again in his own, in his other, some antibiotic ointment. “This will sting a bit… Apologies.” He murmured quietly before pressing the cloth that had the solution on it against your burns. You let out a yelp of pain, your free hand scrunching your hand into a tight fist, your knuckles already beginning to blanche white. Noticing your extreme discomfort, he carefully laid your hand down on the desk, and slipped his now free hand into your own.

“Keep your hand still, and if it brings you comfort, you can squeeze my hand if it gets too much.” That was the only warning you got before he was back to cleaning it again. You did squeeze, hard, but the chief alchemist didn’t seem to mind one bit as he did his best to properly treat your injured hand. He murmured soft, hushed apologies and reassurances, consisting of ‘it’s okay’s and ‘almost done’s.

“There, all finished.” He claimed after a few moments, and after adding some numbing cream so the pain wasn’t as severe as before. You flexed your injured hand carefully, surprised when you barely felt anything. You looked back towards the blonde who was sitting in front of you, who only smiled at the relieved expression on your face.

“Thank you, Bedo…” He shook his head, gathering up some fresh bandages to wrap your hand up with. He slowly let go of the hand holding his, placing it under your injured one while he worked.

“It’s the least I can do for you. Not too tight, is it?” You flexed your hand again to test the bandages, and shook your head at his question. Satisfied, he packed away the rest of the kit and put it somewhere where it wouldn’t cause a nuisance. When he sat down again, he once more held your uninjured hand with a small smile. Even though these weren’t the most pleasant circumstances to be meeting one another again, he always was comforted by your company alone. You squeezed his hand gently, your own smile forming on your lips. That was the confirmation he needed to know; your feelings were entirely mutual.

“Now… About what happened…”

—

After explaining your own version of events from the past few days, the two of you talked through your problems, and how such a scenario could be avoided in the future. It wasn’t wise to overwork yourself, but it wasn’t exactly like you could put off all of your work either. It wasn’t much, but both of you decided that Albedo would help you with your workload when he was not overly busy himself, and you would do the same for him. You were both talented alchemists, so it wouldn’t of been too hard, even if you both specialised in other areas. Perhaps you two could’ve learnt something from one another…

“Klee told me she’s very sorry about what happened.” The alchemist chuckled, sending an amused look your way, which resulted in your own quiet giggle.

“It’s fine… The lab was messy, anyway. I’m just glad I was the one that got hurt instead of her. I wouldn’t of been able to forgive myself if I let that happen…” A heavy sigh escaped your lips, eyes trailing down to your now properly bandaged hand. Another hand reached out to take it carefully, the other resting on top of your own.

“But it wasn’t all fine… You still got hurt.” You heard another sigh, this time not one of your own. Slowly, your hand lifted, and the chalk princes lips pressed gently against it. “Please… Start looking after yourself, too.”

It didn’t matter how long the two of you had been together, he still managed to make you a flustered, stuttering mess. But before you could even respond, your door opened. A small, blonde head peaked out from the door before Klee emerged properly from behind. She cleared her throat before placing what she was hiding behind her back on your desk.

“Klee is very sorry! Klee promises she will be more careful next time! So… Will you please forgive Klee?” It was rather adorable that she thought you were mad enough for her to apologise so earnestly. On your desk sat a large, messily chocolate frosted muffin, in white icing was an expertly drawn dodoco, underneath it a poorly spelled ‘Sory’.

You chuckled softly before kneeling down to her level, opening your arms with a wide grin. “Apology accepted.”

You heard a surprised gasp before you were tackled by the excitable red bundle, a happy ‘Yay’! being yelled out. You felt another pair of arms wrap around you from behind, feeling the comforting weight of Albedo’s chin resting on top of your head.

Even though this day certainly had not been the best, at least it ended well with your small, makeshift family. Maybe the storm had to come, before you could experience the euphoria of a rainbow.

#albedo x reader #albedo my beloved #albedo x gn reader #albedo x y/n #albedo x you #genshin x yn #genshin albedo #genshin x gn reader #genshin x reader #genshin x you

[fishiesgonefishin]

Coping - drabble

Karai was strong until she let herself be weak.

A small drabble focusing on how Karai coped (or struggled to) after all she’d been through with the mutation, Shredder and the brainworm. They really ought to have gone in depth with Karai’s emotions in the show, but I suppose they didn’t for good reason. It’d be a can of worms. And that’s what fanfiction’s for, after all.

Read here at Archive Of Our Own, or more under the cut

Karai was strong until she let herself be weak.

It had started happening ever since she got back to the lair. Now, she was living there full-time. Her mutation was under control, the brainworm was gone, and Karai was free from Shredder’s grasp. But not free from his shadow.

Most of the time, things were fine, and Karai was integrating herself quite well into the household. Of course, it was a learning curb for all of them, having someone else live their full time. But for a while April had practically been a permanent tenant, so it wasn’t like the turtles were completely unfamiliar with having a new face around.

She’d train with Leo in the dojo. She’d eat pizza and watch movies with Mikey. She’d throw friendly jabs at Raph as they sparred. She’d take an interest in Donnie’s inventions, more than his brothers ever had.

Things were nice and normal.

Most of the time.

-

Then there were the times she wouldn’t come out of her room all day, sometimes for days on end. Leo would try talking to her through the door, or Mikey would try and persuade her out with promises of movies and pizza. At best she’d say she just wanted to be left alone. At worst she wouldn’t reply at all. Master Splinter had told his sons that she needed time and space to collect her thoughts. After all she’d been through, even before the mutation, it was a miracle she was doing as well as she was. It was a testament to her strength; she was a force of nature. But she wasn’t bulletproof. No-one was.

They’d leave food outside her door, and a hand would slide out and grab it. She’d skulk over to the bathroom now and again, not making eye contact with anyone, but forcing a smile if she did.

It was a process. They would give her the time and space she needed. It was a marathon, not a sprint.

Leonardo found this the hardest to grasp. It was in his nature to help, to see the problem and find the solution. Knowing someone was suffering, someone he cared so much for, and being unable to do anything about it, crushed him.

Fearing for her, there were times when he went against Karai’s wishes and pried her door open a crack. Sometimes there’d be quiet music playing, sometimes dead silence. Karai would be huddled on the bed, facing away from the door, but she could tell from the crack in her voice as she asked him to leave that she’d been crying.

-

Sometimes they’d hear a smash coming from her room; something had been broken. After the first time Karai broke two fingers punching the wall, she never did that again. Now it was ornaments, lamps… something they’d find in pieces in the garbage a few days later when she’d snapped out of it and cleaned up the debris.

Karai could be volatile at the best of times, but when the flame of anger was sparked by the hurt she was trying and failing to repress, it was that much worse. The first time Karai had smashed a vase, Leo had run in to see what the commotion was about, and was rewarded for his troubles by Karai throwing a lamp at his head. She missed, smashing it to pieces against the wall beside the door, and he hurried out after she screamed at him to leave.

The next day, she sheepishly apologised. Leo hadn’t taken it personally. He knew better than that.

-

Sometimes she’d leave the lair at night, then return home a few hours later, wobbling back into her room. Leo would wait up for her, unable to sleep until he knew she was back safely. He’d ask if she was okay. She’d slur her reply.

Occasionally when she left at night Leo would follow her. She caught him a few times, told him to go home, assure him that she was just getting some fresh air and not to worry so much. When she didn’t catch him, he’d follow her on the rooftops as she walked into a bar or a liquor store, more often than not preferring to take a bottle of whiskey and sit on a rooftop alone. He debated joining her, but worried that’d be too much. He didn’t want to get into a fight with her, which he knew he would, regardless of how good his intentions were.

-

Sometimes he heard her mumbling in her sleep, or wake up with a start at her screaming. Sometimes they’d all hear, dash out of their rooms to check what was happening, battle-ready seconds after being fully asleep. But one look from Leo and they’d retreat back to their rooms.

He’d look in on her, bring her a glass of water, ask if she wanted to talk about it.

She never did.

Sometimes she’d just be tossing and turning, mumbling in her restless slumber. Leo’s room was closest, and he’d hear the disturbance. Sometimes he’d press an ear against her door, debating whether to wake her from the bad dreams or let her ride it out herself.

When he chose the former, the reply was always the same.

“I’m fine. Go back to sleep.”

When he chose the latter, knowing he’d never get back to sleep, he’d instead slide down to the floor and rest against her door for the remainder of the night, like he was keeping guard.

But he couldn’t protect her from what’s inside her mind.

-

One time he awoke to her screaming, and by the time he got to her door, the sound he heard put a crack into his fragile heart.

Swallowing down the thick lump in his throat, he gently opened up the door and peered inside.

Karai was awake, mostly shrouded in shadow from the darkness of the room, but the glow from the living room shone a harsh picture on her tear-stained face. She was facing the door, gazing up at him with a broken stare. She wasn’t even trying to hold back the tears this time, her whole body convulsing as she shuddered and shook through the onslaught of emotions.

Leo’s heavy eyes met hers, and his mouth hung open helplessly, wishing he had the magic words that would fix everything, that would bring that beautiful smile back onto the face of the girl of his dreams.

All that he managed was, “D-Do you want to talk about it?”

Sniffing, Karai shook her head.

Leo knew the drill by now. He wished these episodes didn’t happen at all, let alone at the frequency they did. But when they did, he knew the routine. Smiling sadly, he went to leave.

“Don’t,” a weak, cracked voice called out to him. He turned back, looked down, and she was reaching out to him. Her head was lowered, her gaze averted. “Don’t… don’t leave.”

Leo’s heart thrummed in his ears. This was new. This was progress. Maybe… maybe she’d let him in? Open up. Give him a chance to help her! To talk and listen and-

Quickly, Leo caught himself. If he went too quickly, no doubt her walls would spring right back up. Leo knew how much Karai would hate to be treated with delicacy, but he had to do so anyway.

She shuffled over, and Leo sat down next to her, placing a large hand over one of her tiny little ones, studying her with a weighted gaze that bore no pity. There was only boundless love, care and concern in those ocean blue eyes.

Karai pulled back, and pulled him with her. The two laid down beside one another, facing one another, and Karai huddled into his shadow, clutching onto his hand like children clutch onto teddy bears to help them through violent storms. Leo wrapped his other arm over her back, drawing her nearer, and held her as she shook. He held her silently as she shivered and cried and cursed her existence. But before long, much sooner than normal, she fell back asleep. Maybe it was his presence, or maybe just the sheer exhaustion, but Karai fell asleep in his arms and slept through the rest of the night in peace.

Leo listened contently to the steady rhythm of her breathing, the slowing of her heart rate, and didn’t know whether to smile or cry. He wanted to do both.

It was going to take time, it was going to be painful, but he would be there for all of it. When Karai needed him, whether to talk and vent, or simply to hold her until she fell asleep, he’d be there for her. It was a promise he’d made to himself years ago, and he’d never renege on it. He loved her too much. Probably more than she’d ever know.

But all of those things were the worries of tomorrow. Right here, right now, he was doing all he could for Karai. Such a simple act was enough for her. And so, not long after her, Leo drifted off into a peaceful sleep too.

#Karai #Leorai #Fiction #Mine

[dragonswithjetpacks]

Pretty Thoughts

Chapter Four: A Hand of Caution

-dragonswithjetpacks

Notes: No summary. Just another chapter to the retell. I did space this out a bit. I got to the point I just wanted to write the conversation and details more than I did the in-betweens. Plus I just finished the bite scene and am really excited to get it up so I’m impatient.

Read here on Ao3.

Ferelith jumped, her feet landing hard on the rock surface below. She felt a shift and a piece crumbled off, rolling down the steep hill toward the river. It was close, but she remained unscathed. Taking another step forward, she felt the ground rumble. Her eyes widened. The front half of the cliff began to roll forward. She jumped backward, sliding to the side and losing balance. She reached up to grab the rock wall behind her. But felt the firm grasp of a hand. She looked up seeing Astarion reaching down with another hand. She grabbed it, feeling the rest of the dirt turn loose under her feet. She kicked up, walking up the wall as he pulled her. It seemed to be safe until she reached the top, rocks tumbling followed by the collapse at the base. She staggered for a moment, only brought back to balance with a hand on her shoulder. Her hand reached out, hitting him in the chest. But he had caught her. And she was stable once again. They looked over the edge, watching the rocks tumble down to the river below.

"You should be more careful," he chided her quietly.

Ferelith's head snapped, feeling the need to lash out from her insecurities. Her strength was not in her hands and she had lost a moment of grace. But she certainly did not recall asking for help. And she was ready to inform him he had caught her a moment to soon when she saw the concern on his face. It made her hesitate, and though he did seem quite distressed, she was fascinated by the idea of Astarion caring. Not that he hadn't put for the effort before. But it always came as a bit of a shock when he did.

"Ferelith!"

She pulled herself with a frustrated groan, much to the satisfaction of her savior. Looking back down, Lae'zel was shouting up the bank. She, along with Gale, had safely made it to the water's edge where Ferelith and Astarion could see them.

"I'm alright," she replied.

"This path is out of commission, I think," Gale called up. "That slide took out any way down from there."

"Shit," Ferelith mumbled under her breath. "Alright. Just... Just wait there. We'll find another way."

"Not a problem," he gave a salute from below.

Ferelith dusted her gloves off on her pants and grumbled as she scraped the mud that had caked on her boots onto a nearby tree. Astarion watched, only grateful that it was her and not him who had slid down the hill.

"I suppose I should thank you," she turned to him when she was finished, still full of irritation.

"I suppose you should," he crossed his arms.

Astarion waited, but the roll of her eyes accompanied by a half smile told him he would not be receiving such gratitude today.

"We should get moving," she stated.

"That didn't sound appreciative at all," he complained, remaining at a standstill.

"It wasn't supposed to."

"Oh, well it's a shame that my hand might just slip the next time you need someone to catch you."

"I don't need you to catch me," she stuck her chin out as she walked by. "Besides, if it wasn't for my footing, I would have drug you into that river with me."

"That would be unwise," he pitched in behind her.

"Little choice you have when taking my hand."

"Yes, I suppose I'll have to remind myself of the never ending uncertainty that follows you."

"Ah, but what fun would it be if you were certain?" she grinned, spinning around with her arms out while taking a few steps backward.

"Aha..." he chuckled, trotting behind her and watching the waves of her hair bounce as she turned her back to him. "That is a fair point. And, say, where does this hand hand take me now?"

"To find a way down. To rejoin the others," she panted while hiking up the steep hillside.

"Just you and I? Through the forest?" he came to a sudden halt.

"Is that a problem?" Ferelith stopped as well when she had gotten solid footing.

"No," he shook his head. "No complaints here."

"Then let's go," she motioned to the forest floor up the hill above them.

With a heavy sigh, he prepared himself for a hike he had not anticipated that morning. "After you... my lady..."

**********************************************************************

"So," Astarion breathed heavily as they had been walking quietly for several minutes through forest. "You're from Baldur's Gate."

"I am," Ferelith replied, walking a good few feet ahead, focused on their trek.

"Any... family?"

She stopped, turning around to look at him curiously. "Are you making small talk to fill the silence?"

"No," he frowned while shaking his head. "Maybe I want to know more about you."

Ferelith scrunched her nose. "No you don't."

"Sure I do," he waved his hands. "We've known each other four at least three days, now. And you've barely said a thing."

"I know very little of you and I don't have any issues with it,"  she waited for him to catch up.

"But you do know a little."

"I'm not that interesting," she replied, still making her way up the hill.

"I disagree. I think you're fascinating. And that you're lying."

She stopped again, turning around so fast he nearly ran into her.

"You think I'm lying?" she followed the question with a laugh before resuming her walk.

"Tell me how boring you are, then. What did you do in Baldur's Gate?"

"I was a book keeper."

"Book keeper?" he responded in a disgusted way. "That does sound boring. Family business?"

"No."

"Do you have family?"

"No."

"Friends?"

"One or two."

"Sweethearts?"

"Definitely not."

"Shame," he muttered under his breath.

"Are you done with your interrogation?"

"If I must," there was a long drawn out sight between his words. "I only thought if we were alone we could make some use of it."

Ferelith came to a stop in the middle of the trail. There was something off to the side in the brush. Something that had been covered poorly. As she approached it, there was something strange about the way it was arranged. She uncovered it to find a boar, perfectly healthy but quite dead.

"That's strange," she looked over it.

Astarion, who approached but remained a bit of distance away, crossed his arms.

"The pig's dead, my friend. Staring at it won't bring it back. Come," he beckoned her, drawing her attention back to himself. "We'll never stop these brainworms if we stop and gawked at every piece of carrion you find."

The change in his tone alarmed her. He did not seem so rushed before. No, he seemed invested. It struck her as odd he would be ushering her along. She looked back down to the boar, noticing it had not been dead for very long. Not even a day. And there were two small marks at it's neck.

"You don't find this remarkably odd... at all?"

"No," he shrugged. "Is it not dead enough for you?"

"Look at the damn boar, Astarion," she motioned in front of her. "Don't you see anything?"

She watched carefully as he stepped closer to her, looking down at the dead beast. His shoulders relaxed. He took a deep breath with a look of defeat.

"It's been drained of blood with wounds it's neck," he pointed out.

The shift in tone. The distracting conversation. Ferelith crossed her arms.

"You're not tell me something."

"I..." he hesitated. "It's been killed by a vampire."

"A vampire?" she rose her brow in disbelief.

"I didn't want to say anything," he said solemnly. "Because I didn't want to worry you. They are ferocious creatures."

"And you know about vampires?" her head tilted to the side.

"I do, unfortunately," he nodded. "But don't worry. I'll keep watch tonight. We won't have to worry about nocturnal visitors. Now please, let's go."

He motioned her forward with his hands.

"Why? Does this bother you?" she asked, looking back down to the boar.

"Not at all," he shook his head with a convincing grin. "I just want to keep moving. Before it gets dark."

Astarion was right. The sun was starting lower itself from the center of the sky. If she wanted to search the forest, she would have to move quickly in order to get to camp before nightfall. She looked over the boar one last time. But saw nothing else unusual. And even though she was unsure of her companion's intentions, she was still not convinced he was guilty of anything at all. While his strange behavior was enough for her to pause, it was not enough at all for accusations to be thrown. She left it to the thought that perhaps there was something more to him he was not yet willing to share. And for that... she did not blame him.

"Alright," she nodded. "Let's find the others."

***********************************************************************

"Still awfully steep, isn't it?" Astarion looked down the path.

"It's not too bad," Gale shrugged. "At least it's not as far down. Or covered in mud."

"I'm tired of waiting," Lae'Zel sighed. "Either get down here or I'm going in the cave alone."

"No need to rush," Astarion sighed.

With a few hops, he managed to climb down the rocky path. The soil was by far more sturdy and he barely felt the rocks shifting beneath his feet at all. It was as if the stones were placed there like stairs for that very purpose. He smiled with a bit of relief, eyeing the stream running nearby. He was glad they found the bridge when they did in order to cross over. Lae'zel wasn't too please with crossing through the river, but it was most amusing listening to her curse as her boots were drenched in the cold water. Ferelith followed behind him shortly, though not as quick as she was not nearly as nimble. She was however, graceful with steps. Her stance was well balanced. And they all watched as she carefully made her way down. Lae'Zel and Gale eventually turned, assuming she would be close behind. As reached the bottom, Astarion held his hand to her to bring onto the bank. She looked at it suspiciously.

"I know you don't need it," he said softly to where she would be the only one to hear. "But with your optimistic promise of uncertainty, I'll gladly offer a hand where it seems fit."

"Strangely charming of you," she eyed his hand carefully. "But what sort of guide would I be if I declined?"

She rested her hand in his, feeling his hand gripping hers, and suddenly, she felt a swirl of old memories. The tadpole was stirring something inside her. She was on a marble staircase. Coming down, she could see the back of someone. They turned, but she couldn't quite make the face. Then they held out their hand. The hand that she was holding... the face that appeared... Astarion... She took it stepping down from the last stair into a room filled with debutantes. But their eyes were only on each other. Reality flashed back into a burst of greenery around her. But he was still there, his brow lowering out of of concern as her eyes filled with bewilderment. He felt the weight of her in his hand and he, too, caught a glimpse of his own life that was once more luxurious. However, the moment her feet touched the ground, their fantasy disappeared. And they stood staring at one another on the bank of unknown forest floor.

"A cautious one," he finally replied as things cleared around them.

She took her hand back, her fingers gliding across his palm, his skin holding onto her warmth for as long as it could. She looked at him a bit longer, wanting to question his statement but unwilling to be left behind. He thought it best to leave her in silence and wait until she was ready to press forward. Ferelith shifted her attention to her other comrades. And they pressed forward once again. She was unsure of what sort of connection had been made. But it the familiarity in the moment was all too disturbing.

#astarion #astarion x mc #astarion x pc #astarion x oc #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #astarion x ferelith #fereldan #ferelith moonshade #ferelith writing tag #astarion romance #baldur's gate 3 convo retell