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kookblurx · 4 months

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Used to it - thv pov [ oneshot ]

→ SUMMARY: its been 3 monts since you broke up with him. while your life moves on, his is in pure chaos. no matter how many times he reached out with his hand ... he never got a hold of you again.

→ GENRE: break up; angsty; talking it out; alcohol and cigarette abuse; stalking social media profile; university oneshot.

→ RATING: 13+

→ NOTE: some kind of other point of view. somehow i woke up today and had the urge to write a break up scenario from Tae's point of view. its not proof read, so ignore minor mistakes.

TAEHYUNG MASTERLIST ♡.°₊ˎ SONG FOR THIS ONESHOT

in the darkness of the room an empty wine bottle rolled under one of the little closets. a soft sound emerged as it hit the wall behind it. the only lightsource in this room was the tv. it didnt showed anything specific ... only static noise. someone might wonder what happened that this room became so gloomy and the only one who could answer this question, was taehyung. leaning against the sofa he downed another bottle of wine, at the same time his phone lit up beside him. like in trance he picked it up, unlocked it and clicked on the notification at the top of the screen. taehyung always hoped that it was you. that you would finally write or call him.

its been 3 months since the two of you broke up with each other. more precisely it was you who broke up with him. it came out of nowhere, taehyung had no idea how unhappy you were in this relationship. whenever he is a lone like this, his mind travels back to the day he first met you.

it was a warm summer night. the both of you went to the same university party. tae always thought that it was fate because at the beginnning, he never intended to visit this party. jungkook, his best friend and the most popular boy in uni, insisted that he would go. the moment tae stepped one foot into the huge hallways, his eyes immediately moved over into the right corner. you left him breathless in that thight black dress you were wearing that night. after that everything mixed into a blurr of laughter, silly jokes and your beautiful smile as you gave him your phone number.

those were tae's precious memories. the time after that night was perfect. it was like a fairytale. but now everything keeps falling apart, at least for taehyung. since 3 months he is stuck in his own personal time loop. every single day is the same, him waking up, barely making it out of bed followed by his heavy footsteps as he carries himself over to the livingroom. there he sits in front of the sofa, staring onto the wall and hoping you would finally call him again. it never happened.

another notification popped up on the display, hurting his eyes as it lit up again. it was jungkook, asking if he's okay and when he will come back to the lectures. everyone was worried about taehyung, they even tried to visit his apartment next to the campus. no one had luck, not even your best friend Sana. normally tae was really close with her but after the break up even that friendship kinda fell apart. sana was the one who told him that the both of you would marry one day. how wrong she was.

yet another notification popped up and this time, tae finally unlocks his phone. it was a notification from one of his social media apps. instagram to be more specific. his fingers flew over the bright display, hoping it wasnt a false alarm. scrolling through his feed, he finally stops. there it was. a new post made by you.

jungkook once told him that its cringe that tae still follows your account. he suggested to block you for tae's sake but tae refused. he knows that its unhealthy for him, that he wont be able to let go. at the same time he needed that. knowing what you were up to, if you were sad .. if you could live without him. as expected it was a picture of you and Hobi, another friend of yours. a smile was seen on your face as hobi had his arm comfortably around your shoulder. you even had a new hair colour.

it didnt took tae long to lock his phone again as he putted it back beside him. his head fell back against the sofa as his hand reached to the half empty bottle of wine. all this time he hoped that he would get used to it, to the pain, to the loneliness inside of him but the healing process never came. his mind was still stuck in the past. another big sip from the bottle made him sigh heavy. tae already felt dizzy as the alcohol finally took effect on his body. without it, he wouldnt be able to survive this empty feeling inside his chest. everything of him was in denial since that day. suddenly tears kept welling up inside his eyes, the bottle rolled out of his hand joining the other one underneath the little closet.

both of his hands dissapeared inside his hair as tae placed his head against his knees. alcohol was numbing the pain but at the same time it brought back all the bad memories of that day. he could see your eyes in front of him, how they were red from crying, how your hands were shaking. everything feels so real whenever he was drinking again. as he saw your quivering lip he wished he had done something to stop you. instead of sopping you, he only stood there, frozen in place as your hands changed into fists.

by now he knew that you wanted to hear something from him, anything. because after the break up you called him from time to time, telling him how you wished he would had stopped you and that it was too late for it now. in those phone calls tae was able to hear why you broke up with him. for him everything was perfect but you suffered in silence. all those gifts werent enough for you, you wanted a boyfriend who was emotionally available. something he couldnt give to you.

"i know ... i know i cant talk about my feelings .." tae mumbled into the silence of his room.

while he had received phonecalls from you ... 2 weeks ago they suddenly stopped. tae figured that you finally moved on from the break up. it was probably better like this, no one keeps calling their ex to look out for them. it was just a small nice gesture from you ... a final thing to say goodybe. to cut loose from him and the memories you both shared.

tae rolled over to the other side as he grabbed the cigarettes from the coffee table. since the break up he started smoking. you were the reason he stopped this unhealthy habit but now he had no one. now the half lit cigarette was the only light source inside the dark livingroom. the ray of sunshines behind the curtains slowly dissapear as the evening laid down over the city. out of the corner of his eye, tae saw another notification on his phone. this time, it was another text but not from jungkook or his other friends.

with the cigarette between his lips, he lifted his phone back up again into his hand. it began to shake as he noticed the name at the top of the screen. the purple heart was still behind the last letter. another thing he couldnt bring himself to delete, along with the whole contact info. with quivering lips he opened the text message. it was a short sentence which held a lot of meaning in it.

" ... please, be happy"

tae's heart skipped a beat. his fingers immediately flew over the keyboard to send you a message back. to tell you that something like this wouldnt be possible without you. the moment he wanted to hit send, something at the bottom of the chat caught his eye. it was another text, this time, his heart sunk.

"this user has blocked you. you wont be able to send messages or contact this user again."

in a slight panic tae opened instagram. hoping he could answer you there but ... he couldnt. even on instagram you had blocked him by now. a chuckle left his lips as his phone slipped onto the livingroom floor again. with his other hand he took the cigarette from his lips.

you finally did it. you finally had cut the last few thing which kept you attached to taehyung and all the things you both shared. tae was envious that you were able to move on this fast ... while he was still stuck in time.

standing up he walked over to the kitchen. there he opened the small cabinet beside his fridge, pulling out the third bottle of wine for the night. tomorrow will be another day. another day were he will try to forget you. maybe this time ... he will finally manage to let you go and get used to the pain he is feeling inside his heart.

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thecoffeelorian · 24 days

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And now, for something slightly different...

Hello again, everyone...

...Okay, gang...before we get started here, there's something I think I need to confess here first.

I don't know how in the world I'm supposed to feel about this show any more.

I mean...in the beginning, I thought their arc was clear as a bell: start removing every single darned inhibitor chip they could find, start the evac efforts to an Outer Rim planet, and then start rebuilding new lives, the end.

Instead, it's turned into what looks like a never-ending negative feedback loop: don't lift a finger to rescue a certain person; get told to give a darn about said person by the child character; finally act on the child's orders...but then as a creepy consequence for giving a darn at all, the title squad/'family'(?) starts watching its members not rethink one side of an ideological/psychological divide and leave them; not give up completely on rescuing Troopers/join the Margaritaville Society and leave them; not remember that there are human weight-bearing birds on a certain mountain planet and leave them; finally agree to be caught by the Empire in order to locate Mount Tantiss and leave them...and oh yes, let's add a 'Will They Kill A Brother/Won't They Kill A Brother' game to the mix, if things weren't totally weird enough...I mean, all right, already.

If this show WASN'T about having all six title characters come back together as a true family on an asylum planet, what IS happening here?

How in the world am I expected to respond to repetitive, exhausting moments of disaster and family splintering when for three whole years, I was endlessly told that there was NO disaster, that this was the PERFECT family, that they would NEVER end up shedding members one by one, etc...and...everything that the big-name fans and fandom influencers said WOULDN'T happen IS, in fact, happening right this very minute.

In other words, the squad and family keeps on disintegrating a little bit more with each new season, and I'm left thinking the same thing a few of you must have thought at least once.

Why am I here?

Is it because I'm studying this series as a whole like a certain Chiss studies art, and searching for all of its strengths and weaknesses in order to better improve my own writing? Is it for the sake of wishing to learn how to draw better, and practicing the craft in the safety of something familiar? Or, am I instead becoming some manner of corporate counter-revolutionary, and taking up fanworks as my mode of protest against stories that revolve more around too-short moments of cuteness and horror, sometimes solely for shock value alone...?

I'm afraid I can't answer questions like these just yet, no, not even to myself. I can only read and write and pretty much grieve everything that these episodes/seasons were supposed to be...yet for Force knows what reason, keep getting relegated to the same few plot points over and over again while expecting different results. I can only hope that there's some eventual breakthrough to make it all worth it in the end, if only to rid myself of the thought that this could be the very first bit of Nihilist media in the fandom.

Anyway...*deep breath* Now that I've given you my two cents on this issue...let's get right to my picks of the week, which, thanks to the return of a very interesting sister, I'm unofficially titling this as:

THE DATHOMIR EDITION

The Bad Batch Fan Art

Captain Howzer by @thespianwtch.

She Is Mommy by @anko-art.

Star Wars Rebels Fan Art

Alexsandr Kallus by @ghosty-blues1.

The Bad Batch Fan Fiction

You know, brother by whiteaxolotl

Fight Like Brothers Do by AgentMaryMargaretSkitz

deprogramming by vicious_creature

Whatever Is Necessary by ChopSyndulla

Domiciles by Polyphonic_Garden

Star Wars Sapphic Week, Day 5--Sparring by @violetjedisylveon

Serpent's Kiss by mediumsweet

Not A Soldier by TigerTheSpahget

Star Wars Sequels Fanfiction

What We Do In The Resistance by AgentMaryMargaretSkitz

And now, I'd like to put in a small advertisement, if only to bring more attention to an up-and-coming artist: @ve-ti-ver has started up their own Patreon page, available at this link . So, if you'd like to support them, please feel free to visit their page.

Finally, yes, you probably all know the drill by now...but just in case you need a reminder, here we go: Please give this post a like and a reblog, so that we can pass this post around the Internet and back!

This Week's No Pressure Tags Go Out To: @sharpasanaro @bananasugarwarrior @lazyprofessorpursesalad @callsign-denmark @melymigo @yeehawgeek @littlefeatherr @anko-art @guppyfreedom @giraffedragon-universe @clonebrainrot @gun-roswell @omglisalithium @falconfeather23435 @uuurgh @simply92-me @skellymom @metalatl @dathomirdumpsterfire @kuraiummei @thedynamicworm @ur-pal-ari @advisorsnips @groguandthebadbatch @lee-lee-la @themightychipmunk42 @random-chaotic-bitch @wastingstarsss @flyiingsly @ilovemedia @talesfrommedinastation @swarovski-yoda and anyone else who might be interested in catching more fanart and fanfictions.

Thank you, good afternoon, good luck, and...

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charmixpower · 1 year

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let's GET this bread give me Skloom vibecheck give me rivusa vibecheck just bc i'm nice and i wanna gibe you the excuse to talk abt them and then for the sake of being selfish give me roxyselina vibecheck

-@parola-di-winx xx

NOVE!!!! Hiiiii

I am literally the only Sky liker (apologist, stan, defence lawyer) that doesn't give a fuck about Skloom

Firstly I'd like to say, Sky stans I'm sorry I don't like Skloom I'm still one of you I pinky promise

Okay likeeeee have you ever thought about Skloom is built on both Sky and Bloom looking at each other, imagining a perfect person and future that literally can't exist based on internal fantasies, projecting that on each other, and getting together based on that?????

No, wait, listen

Sky and Bloom only know lies about each other when they first get a crush on each other, and they both get a crush on each other immediately after meeting and barely having a single conversation. Like??? That's just a bad start.

When they find something out about the other that doesn't fit their preconceived notion they both physically leave the area. Both of their personal issues match up perfectly in being conflict avoidant. Like Bloom obviously isn't Valtor 2.0, and Sky has assassins after him and some of the world's worst parents that let Diaspro stay kidnapped just for an attempt to manipulate Sky. Like, if they would have a single conversation before running

In s1 they're first kiss is a hallucination between both of them. You can say neither of them made a move because they're shy, and that's kinda the point??? Evidence that most of there relationship is in there head

Bloom is stupid jealous of Aisha in the beginning of s2, and gets mad at Sky for being jealous for the rest of s2. As someone who's easily jealous with a best friend who is easily jealous, I usually mutual jealous behavior chills out both parties because they're fears of being abandoned are unfounded. UNLESS ITS NOT ABOUT ABANDONMENT AND IS ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE!!! THATS SUSPICIOUS!!! THATS WEIRD!!!

I'm not going to bring up Bloom thinking Sky's Valtor state was real because girl as the self confidence of dirt, this is nomral for her

Anyways they should break up!!! They're relationship is built off of what they imagine the perfect partner to be like and this perception is very not good for both of them!!!

But they stay friends bc they care about each other

This ship is so important to me because it's like the basis of both of their "LIVE IN REALITY YOU DUMB FUCKS" character arc and I love that for them

Certain fandom interpretations are super cute too

Also s5 is what s4 is Rivusa to Skloom. Don't ask

THEE OTP

SHUT UP SHUT UP THE DISASTERS ARE HERE!!!!

ITS ABOUT FINDING LOVE AND CONNECTION WITH SOMEONE WHO CAN UNDERSTAND AND LOVE YOU FULLY, MENTAL ILLNESS AND ALL, AND LOVING THEM BACK

ITS ABOUT SUPPORTING EACH OTHER THOUGH THE BAD DAYS AND GETTING HELP

ITS ABOUT LIFTING EACH OTHER UP DURING THE GOOD DAYS AND CELEBRATING THE HARD WON VICTORIES EVEN IF NOMRAL PEOPLE CAN ACCOMPLISH THEM EASILY

ITS ABOUT SEEING SOMEONE LIKE YOURSELF AND LEARNING TO LOVE YOURSELF THOUGH THEM

I can go in forever

They are THEE BPD couple, do not argue with me. Musa is sooo bipolar and Riven absolutely has borderline personality disorder. Musa WILL start crying randomly and cuddle Riven until the mood swing passes, and Riven trusts her to send her texts about everything that's going on and see if he's reacting like a normal person

Yes I AM projecting, thank you for asking!!!!

The relationship between two people who experience mood swings can be so important

THEY ARE GETTING HELP AND TAKING LIFE ONE DAY AT A TIME TOGETHER!!!!! SHUT UPPPPP AGH!!! THEY ENCOURAGE EACH OTHER TO GET THEREPY AND SHIT!!!!!

They're both so insecure that the fact that the other one feels the same as them loops back around to being secure

I could go on about them forever but I love them so much!!! These two being happy together is such a uplifting story, you ARE more than your mental illness!!! S3 golden kingdom, s4, and s6 on don't exist ❤️ and will NEVER be forgiven by the mentally ill community

I have not seen s6 yet nfjsdn so I have no clue about Selina's real personality

1) they're both alt girlies and I fucking love that for them

2) the idea of Roxy going to CT, pissed off at being made a authority figure with a bunch of responsibility, meeting and kissing fuck all authority Selina is cute and I love it

3) THEY ARE GOING TO SUPER HELL IN YOUR VERSION NOVE!!!!!!! "I love you" *gets eaten by a deep sea fish* frothing at the mouth ect ect ect ect

4) I'm very open to it and nomral about the fandom version of it I prommy

#winx club #winx musa #winx bloom #winx sky #winx riven #winx roxy #winx selina #rivusa #musa x riven #roxy x selina #rus chatters #asks #ask game

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yzafre · 1 month

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Trying to wrap my head around my thoughts re: 2012 and Rise, and how they hit my brain, and it’s like...

The things I think these two series are missing/needed to improve on are what the other series did really well? Like, each show would be enhanced by borrowing from the other (an impossibility in one direction due to the linear nature of time, but you get me).

And now I'm going to post about it to hopefully trick my brain into thinking I talked to someone about it so that maybe it'll let me think about anything else.

Uhhh putting a read more because this is mostly just a brain-dump ramble to free my mind from the topic-loop and it got. Long.

Okay, exposing my biases ahead of time: while I very much enjoyed both series, I will admit that Rise appeals more to my personal taste. I do also like 2012! I liked it a lot, it’s just that, you know, I’m easily drawn in by cool 2d animation and anime bullshit, and also Rise’s humor matches mine better, which means it's the one I’m more likely to re-watch. However, that doesn't mean I think Rise is perfect.

Also, for the sake of this rant, we’re going to be ignoring the circumstances surrounding production. Yes, yes, we all know the executives specifically asked for Rise to have a much lighter tone, and that it got cut really short, and that affected how things panned out – but I don’t know enough about 12’s production to compare them fairly on that front. So.

MOVING ON FROM THAT.

Let’s start with ROTTMNT. I love Rise, love a good shenanigan, but... can you really deny that it would have been nice to have a more even split between pure shenanigans and more serious episodes? Even just getting closer to 50/50?

Don’t get me wrong, the shenanigans absolutely have their place and actually contribute to what I like about Rise’s writing (which I will talk about in the 12 section), but the overwhelming amount of them really messes with the pace of the show overall, and with the escalation of tension.

Obviously, you can’t have every episode have the spectacle of an episode like, say Many Unhappy Returns, I'm pretty sure animating that shit's expensive, and early on it’s not like they really know what they’re slowly being dragged into, but... post Shadow of Evil, you’d kind of like them to acknowledge the stakes more, right? And even before the turtles themselves know, you’d like the slow build that only the audience is getting to be a bit more consistent, right?

You’d like the weaving together of the plot and character arcs episode-to-episode to just be a bit more well-thought out... wouldn’t you?

And that is what TMNT 12 is good at.

I personally think 12 peaked in season 2 (I was so engaged with that season, the buildup was phenomenal), but throughout the entire series it is obvious just how much effort they are putting into developing these interweaving plots, and it pays off. Every episode is a self-contained story, true, but even from season 1 you can see how even the most one-off episode is putting at least one thing into the Rube Goldberg machine that’s going to go off at the end of the season. It honestly impressed me how they balanced “you can watch any episode on its own because tv has re-runs" and “every episode leads into the next until everything blows up”.

The end of season 2, when the tension they've been ratcheting up inch by inch nearly every episode finally releases, and all the dominoes start falling and danger is coming from every direction? Mwah. Stellar. Like, devastating cliff-hanger of an ending, but also the satisfaction of seeing it all fall apart? It's gripping.

Also, they acknowledge the stakes. 12 is obviously going for a much more serious tone, and covers some heavier topics like revenge, obsession, healing, ect (in a kind of surface level way for young kids, yes, but this is a nickelodeon toy-selling series. Genre and intended audience matters). I may not always agree with the answers they come to, but they are trying! As opposed to Rise where the enemies feel... kind of out-of-sight, out-of-mind, in 12 the Shredder, and occasionally the Kraang, are a constant threat that they are always aware of.

While the setup is different (12!Shredder wants them dead specifically, whereas the Rise boys don’t really know what the Shredder will want other than mass destruction when the armor is complete), you kind of feel like the danger could have maybe been a little more acknowledged in Rise.

And like... the move into season 2 had them getting the Shredder armor "contained", which they used to go so far backwards on stakes which is... I mean, there were other choices they could have made.

You can argue that many shows reset the stakes when you beat the season boss at the end, but... Rise specifically went straight back to "straight shenanigans with little awareness of the outside world", repeating the "occasionally things are happening to build up to the end outside the turtle's awareness" and it's. It's a pacing and escalation, issue, again. And yes, we got some of my favorite episodes out of season 2! Season 2 had some good episodes! But also... I would have liked the stakes to progress just a bit?

When you finally had such a huge shift in the plot, and then suddenly you go ALL the way back down the where you started in stakes and tone it can be a bit... jarring. It's a pacing and escalation issue, again.

Also, if we’re going a bit more abstract, Rise could have had more serious episodes relating to their main theme/focus.

2012 was obviously focusing on their plot, and specifically the history between Splinter and Shredder, and the concepts of revenge and obsession. And it came up a lot! It was threaded through the majority of the episodes. I might not always personally agree with the conclusions they came to, but I can’t deny they treated it with gravitas.

Rise seemed to be focusing on family bonds and family baggage. And it's woven into a lot of the silliness. And there are also some episodes that address it seriously! And they’re GOOD! But, uh – there could definitely have been more. Especially for the Splinter-children relationships.

They went with a very risky play for Splinter and his arc, and while I personally liked the shape of it, I can understand the people who take a very negative interpretation of this Splinter because there were not enough episodes dealing with reconciling his relationship with his kids. They made a point to show that things were strained, made the theme family bonding, and then... didn’t put in enough episodes to finish off their main theme.

Don’t get me wrong, what Rise does have for their characters is very, very good. Again, I’ll be talking about it in the 2012 section. It’s just... the pacing of it all.

So, what I think Rise needed is what 2012 excelled at – pacing and interweaving of the plot, proper escalation of stakes, and time spent highlighting their main theme in more serious episodes.

Now, the other half of the equation: 2012.

I mentioned earlier that 2012 was going for a more serious tone, and that it was focused on the plot. And they did it well! It paid off! I just maybe, personally, think that came at the cost of the character writing.

It’s not that it’s bad. They’ve got a strong sense of character voice for their main cast. It’s just that when you go anywhere beyond that it’s really... average for a kid's cartoon, and when compared to the obvious effort they went to when weaving together the plot it sticks out. Of course, authors are allowed to lean into plot-based narrative over character-based, and this might just be personal taste again, but...

I’m going to put in a reminder that everything in this rant is based on how the writing hit my brain specifically. Different people will experience the same story differently, yes? Yes.

That being said, the character writing for 2012 hit me weird. There were “character episodes” in between the plot ones, yes, but they didn’t feel... connected? If the pacing of the plot in Rise felt weird and disjointed, the character arcs, if I could find them in 12, felt the same way. It’s like they would drop in a really interesting nugget for a character into a single episode, and I’d be excited to see where it went – and then it would either be shoved way in the background from there on out, or dropped completely. It often left me feeling like I’d missed a step going down the stairs, when I expected them to start working on a character arc and they just went back to the status quo. That’s not uncommon for a kids show, but... they put so much more effort into the intricacies of the plot!

What ended up feeling missing was a development of the characters from an internal perspective. That is, hm.

I mentioned earlier that there were narrative benefits to the shenanigan structure of Rise. The first half of this is because it lives and dies by its characters. They can’t depend on an engaging plot to capture your interest long-term, because the plot is only in select episodes, so by god you better be attached to these characters. While part of the humor is, yes, the situations they get into, the other part is the character dynamics – both the friction between them, but also the positive synergy between them. That’s not to say 2012 doesn’t have character interactions – they've got their banter – it's just that it doesn’t have to carry the episode the way it does in Rise.

The other half of the narrative benefits is that more episodes can be motivated by the character’s internal desires, rather than external forces. Stepping outside of TMNT to reference everyone’s favorite cartoon, Avatar, for every, say, Avatar Roku, you’ve gotta have a The Waterbending Scroll.

2012 is largely driven by its plot – which is a good plot! But what felt like, eh, 90% of the time? Everything that’s happening is motivated by what the antagonists are doing – the Kraang/Purple Dragons/Foot are doing this bad thing, or coming after us, and we have to stop them, because we’re the good guys/they’ll kill us if we don’t. Not bad, objectively, it certainly raises stakes! But also, it doesn’t really let us in on, like, the character’s internal world or what they want.

With Rise’s shenanigans...

Origami Tsunami happens because the boys got a taste of fighting and want to chase that high. Shell in a Cell happens because Raph loves wrestling, his brothers seem to like it well enough or otherwise want to hang out/humor him, and Leo is feeding his ego/fighting his insecurities. Repo Mantis is because Donnie and Mikey were hanging out while Donnie collected resources(?), saw something they wanted, and went balls to the walls to acquire it. The Purple Jacket happens because Donnie wanted to experience toxic academia and fashion. I could go on.

My point is Rise leaves more space for the episodes to be internally motivated, and that ends up telling us a lot about their characters! What did they want? How did they specifically go about trying to get it? Did they involve others? Who did they involve? It adds depth to them, even in the silly goofy show!

There is also one specific writing trick Rise uses which I wish could go back in time and be implemented into 2012, and that is: “line played for laughs in one episode” > “oh wait they were serious”.

I’m talking the “my first positive reinforcement from a parent-aged adult. EVER.” to Turtle-dega Nights pipeline. Minotaur Maze to Many Unhappy Returns for Leo. Arguably Pizza Puffs to the series finale for Raph, if you follow me. Reparin’ the Baron to Hidden City’s Most Wanted.

Even in the jokes, the throw-away lines, Rise is exposing what makes the characters tick. And then when it hits, it hits. This is why, while the Rise arcs are kind of incomplete, the writing still feels more consistent to me and I find it easier to see the intended arc they were going for.

And I so so so wish 2012 had that kind of thing, or ANY more focus put on character development, because, not to harp on this again, but they’ll drop in this one really interesting line or action from a character in a single episode focusing on them, then never mention it again or develop on the concept, and it kind of makes me feral because, like -

I want to gather up all these weird little scraps they give about these characters and pin them up conspiracy-board style and go: why didn’t we get a plot line about this? Or this? Did you notice how a lot of the time Raph is pushing for more action against their enemies, he brings up that they’re out there hurting more people? And that could indicate a unique empathy for the victims, which would have been an interesting expansion on the vengeance theme of the showing, looking at justice v vengeance when ti comes to people without the ability to fight back? Leo has a lot of tension between wanting to be a good leader and wanting the freedom to make impulsive choices and chase what he wants, which is interesting when you also look at moments we see with his two role models the sci-fi hero (who is kind of an asshole) and Splinter (who, while wise, has baggage that sometimes affects his decisions), and it feels like somewhere between all that there could have been an expanded storyline that actually resolved that tension between responsibility and personal desire that would have lead to his own version of leadership? What about getting a focus on the few lines Donnie gives about his insecurities/stress re: his scientific abilities/role, rather than dragging him into his extremely bland romantic b-plot? Can we address the weird way Mikey did chemistry magic two or three times but it’s never brought up outside that, or that one line by the anger-persona in his mind explicitly saying he tries to repress his anger because he doesn’t like the way it feels, or, or -

Why do they keep dropping these really interesting inciting incidents for character arcs and then not going anywhere with them I am losing my mind I am shaking the writers why do you keep teasing me like this -

Ahem.

Additionally... well, I mentioned above that Rise has a main theme of family bonds, where... 2012 kind of struggled to convince me of any relationship. Or, no, that sounds harsher than what I really mean.

I also want to clarify that I am not saying I think they dislike or don't care about each other, or any of the extremely negative takes I’ve seen thrown at the 12 characters dynamics. That’s not it at all. It’s just that they all felt... very surface level? Sometimes it felt like the show wanted you to just accept that the characters were close without putting in the work to really show it. And definitely not to explore it in depth. (And I know, I know, I know! It’s a Nick kids show! But! They put so much effort into the plot!)

Again, I think this is affected by the lower usage of internal motivation for episodes. Characters doing things because they want them, then seeing how those different desires interact, gives you a better view of their relationships than just seeing a team work together because they have a common enemy.

Again, it’s not that 2012 never does this. We see glimpses of them playing around – competing to do flips when running the city, watching their tv shows, playing pinball (was it pinball? Or an arcade game?). It’s just that the emphasis on the plot (not an objectively bad thing!) leaves less room for episodes based on them just... doing things together, because they want to. And less room for engaging in personalized interests together, rather than separately, and seeing how that plays out.

I think I’m devolving into senseless rambling at this point, so to sum up:

2012’s emphasis on plot – which it generally excels at! – leaves less room for exploring stories based on internal motivations, which I find necessary for consistent character arcs or relationship development and are the elements Rise kind of lives on when its plot is running thin.

Hopefully none of this is taken as an attack on/dislike for either iteration. I like them both! It’s just they both drive me a little bit crazy with what could have been!

Of course, this is all down to personal taste and interpretation. I am fairly aware of my biases, I think. I am very much attracted to character-driven narratives, and even in plot-based ones I have a tendency to care more about the character implications than the plot itself. There’s a reason Days (the oops all character writing game) is my favorite Kingdom Hearts story!

(I do, also, really, really like anime bullshit, so do with that what you will.)

I am also aware that I binge-watched this series as an adult years after it ended, and that combination of factors may affect my reception. (Admittedly I did that for both series, but). Your experience might be very, very different, but I’m trying to understand the way these two shows are hitting my brain.

Thinking it over also gives me a hypothesis (which other people have probably already figured out) of why certain people are drawn to one series of the other: 2012 probably appeals more to people who are engaged by continuous, interconnected plots and careful pacing in a story, while Rise probably appeals to people who are more engaged by pure character pieces (and anime bullshit).

#maybe if I get this out of my head #my brain will clear and I can finally get back to work on my kh fic #I've got less than 10 chapters left to draft but turtles Will Not Leave Me Alone!#rottmnt #tmnt 2012 #yza talks about a thing #not posting this mean my brain continues to spin in circles as the thoughts are trapped...#but contemplating posting all these opinions is making me queasy...#fuck it post it and immediately walk away #like you do with scary work emails #go straight to bed do not pass go do not collect your anxiety #tmnt

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scholastic-dragon · 2 years

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Hellboy x OC Ayia (for @ayia-the-wolf-girl )

Friend, once again I am so sorry it took me so long to write this and I hope you enjoy it! 😁

Love at first abandoned laboratory

Word count: 1.3k

Warnings: none other than spelling mistakes

Summary: Red, Liz, and Abe are on a mission to investigate an abandoned laboratory, what they find is much more interesting than paperwork

"This place is freaky," HB groans, looking up at the abandoned building, the windows were cracked and boarded up. The floors had been ripped up, leaving splinters and wood chips everywhere, not to mention the giant holes in the ground.

"Perfect place for illegal experimentation's," Liz added, pulling her flashlight out of her belt and turning it on as she carefully stepped into the building.

"This is also the last clue we have for all those missing people cases from Manning, it's not a coincidence that we found this place, I can assure you," Abe was right behind her with his large camera that could sense supernatural or not human auras.

Hellboy followed last, cigar lit and gun at the ready, he peered up into the ceiling, cobwebs hung low, covering any and all light fixtures.

"Oh my gosh," Liz gasped, both men turned to find her looking through a filing cabinet that had fallen on its side. "Oh these poor people," Liz looked up from the thick folder, tears brimming her eyes.

Abe quickly knelt by her side, peering at the file and paperwork.

"These scientists worked most of these people to death just for the sake of experiments, and it didn't even bring results that would help anything like diseases or anything. They just-"

"Treated 'em worse than dirt and left 'em here to die?" Hellboy finished, blowing out the smoke from his cigar. Liz nodded, handing that file to Abe and picking up another one.

"What I don't get is why they would leave these files here," Abe stated, glancing at Liz then Red. "This is incriminating evident against them, it has their names, addresses, even pictures of their faces! Why would they leave it out in the open like this?"

"Maybe they didn't have a choice?" Liz mused, furiously flipping through papers. "Most of these people were all written down to be hostile and violent, maybe they left because they didn't have a choice or they were killed,"

"Are they the people that went missing? The ones from Mannings case?" HB asked, leaning over Abe's shoulder.

Before Abe could respond, a loud crash sounded down a dark hallway, followed by strange snarling noises.

HB and Abe drew their guns, glancing at each other before Hellboy started to move toward the hallway.

"Liz, you stay here and let us know if something comes through, okay?" HB nods to Abe to take the lead with his camera.

"Yeah, got it," Liz nodded, shifting so she could watch the hallway and the main door that they had entered.

Abe snuck down the hall, making sure his feet made as little noise as possible, taking pictures of all the rooms and walls, but not finding anything.

"You gettin' a read yet, Blue?" Hellboy asked, puffing his cigar.

"No nothing....wait," Abe stopped in front of two large steel doors. A large chain was wrapped around the handles, keeping it tightly closed. "This is something," Abe put the camera down, taking his gloves off and touches the chains.

He gasped, turning back and looking up at Red. "Somethings definitely in there, I can't quite tell who or what, but-"

"Is it friendly?" Red asked, taking a match out to relight his cigar.

"Can't tell," Abe shook his head, standing up.

"Only one way to find out," Red rolled his shoulders, grabbing the chains in his hands and ripping them from the handles. The now loose chain loops clanged and fell to the stone floor. He, rather roughly, pushed open the doors, slamming them against the walls.

"Red! You can't-" Abe started.

Whatever was in there quickly ran from one side of the room to the other. The lights were mostly off, save for the one hanging directpy in the center of the room. Tables, beds, and other medical equipment were thrown and scattered about.

As it ran, it hit a steel table, knocking it and several glass containers over, smashing loudly.

"Read it, Blue," Red simply stated, coming to stand in the center of the room, listening intently.

Abe sighed, standing behind him and holding his hand out. He cocked his head, humming softly.

"Its...someone like us, but, more animal like, they've been here a long time,"

"Can they understand us?"

"I believe so,"

"Hey! Grumpy! We're not here ta hurt ya' we want ta help you!" Red shouted, the sound echoing through the metal lined walls.

The thing moved again, coming a bit closer but still hiding in the shadows. Abe peered forward, sighing in disbelief that that was what Red had said.

Instead a beaker flew through the air, smashing against Reds face. He dropped his cigar, it fell to the floor, burning out into a small pile of ash.

"Oh!" Red groaned, bending over, squinting and holding his head. "What the hell?"

"I thought that would happen," Abe murmured, helping Red to stand up straight. "Duck!"

More beakers, folders, even filing cabinet drawers came flying from the shadows at them.

A beaker flew past Abe's face, almost hitting one of his eyes, he quickly ducked down, covering his face. Red stood over him, feeling his patience wear thin.

"Stop! We're not here ta hurt ya!" Red yelled, using his stone hand to block Abes face. The other was holding his gun out, moving it around toward the shadows. But Red didn't shoot, he couldn't see where the thing was and in a room lined with metal the bullet was likely to ricochet.

Abe held his hand out, reading for the monster, he hummed.

"They're scared, it's defensive,"

"Well what do you want me to do about it?"

"Put your gun away and stop shouting,"

Red glanced down at Abe before sighing, putting the gun in its holster. Abe cleared his throat, taking a step forward.

"It's alright, we are here to help," Abe spoke calm and firmly, hand outstretched to find the person.

"No one comes here ta help," The voice spoke, very thick Scottish accent. It came from all directions, making Abe slightly dizzy, he couldn't find where they were.

"Well we did, so if you could be so kind as to not chuck books at us that'd be great," Red grumbled, turning to the back shadowy wall. He could've sworn the shadow behind him just moved.

"I will if ya leave," it responded again, this time it sounded closer.

"You do not have to be afraid," Abe spoke, he couldn't find them per se but he could feel their fear and apprehension. "We are like you, and we want to help you, honest."

"So we're they," finally a dark shadowy corner formed the outline of a person. Skinny and lanky, covered in dirty ripped white pajama looking clothing. "All those nasty doctors were like us to and they didn't give a damn, why should I believe you,"

"Because unlike them, we are recruiting our kind, not locking them up and experimenting on them," Abe responded.

Even from the shadows Red saw her squint her eyes, big yellow orbs with small black slits. She was clearly unconvinced from Abe's reason.

"Hey," Red spoke over Abe, getting her attention. "If we were here ta hurt ya you'd be dead already,"

She quirked her head to the side, showing off a large gray ear. She thought for a moment, maybe going with them would be better. None of the old scientists were going to come back. Maybe this was her chance to start again. It didn't help "Red" was rather handsome and headstrong like she was.

She scoffed, taking a step into the dim lighting, crossing her arms.

It was then Red saw how small she really was, her red hair was matted and greasy, her arms and legs thin as twigs and she was as pale as a ghost.

And yet, she held her head high, not letting her guard down. She was clearly a "fight-till-the-end" kinda girl. Why did knowing that make his heart skip a beat?

"Make any bad moves and I'll kill ya both without question," She pointed a finger at them both. Red simply smiled.

"Wouldn't want it any other way,"

#hellboy #hellboy headcannons #hellboy imagine #hellboy imagines #hellboy x reader #hellboy 2008 #hellboy 2006 #liz sherman #liz #abe #abe sapien #thanks for the ask!

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persphonesorchid · 2 years

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Mark of the Arcane || Prologue ||

Notes: KAKDJAJS ITS HERE!! ITS OFFICIALLY STARTING!! Okay I'm suPER EXCITED TO SHARE THIS WITH YOU GUYS. It's been in the works since forever! It's a labour of love, truly. Now this is just the prologue to kick stuff off for the main story, and nothing that's plot moving happens even though it's like the longest piece so far. I hope you guys enjoy!! And look forward to the first chapter :))

Please leave feedback I love interacting with y'all!! ❤️

| Chapter Archive |

"You look ridiculous." You deadpan, watching Seokjin model a junky piece of jewelry that hung heavy from his neck. Thick links of silver looped around, and around, meeting at the center where a jade gem sat, glowing ominously alongside the sigils etched around it.

He put his hands on his hips, turning his head to and fro, peering into a mirror that hovered, buzzing with magic. You scan the face of the merchant, watching the way his transparent wings flicker hopefully behind his back. Seokjin fixes the necklace so that it lays perfectly against his chest, flashing a smile at you, "I think I look dashing."

"We came here for a reason, Jin." You frown, sighing when your words went unheard. As your closest friend and guard, you would think that Seokjin would be more than ready to breeze through the bustling village of Daasir and get you in and out as he promised.

Your hood hangs low over your face, a deep shade of earth brown for the sake of being inconspicuous, hiding the way you roll your eyes. You sigh, forced to watch Seokjin, who is dressed in dark shades, parade around while chatting animatedly with the merchant. His hood was down - despite your protests - the soft cotton swaying with his every movement, ebony locks looking a beautiful shade of chocolate brown in the sunlight streaming in through the trees. The pointed tips of his ears twitched at every sound, and you don't envy him, hearing everything a lot louder than you were.

"Seokjin." You call his name quietly, a soft hiss between your teeth to get him moving; he could only ignore you for so long. You tug insistently at his sleeve until he sighs, loud and dramatically.

"Oh, alright." The man huffs, taking the necklace off and returning it to the merchant. The merchant looks a tad disappointed, the red tips of his wings curling slightly downward, but quickly flicker upward as Seokjin passes him a gold coin. "Always so grouchy in the morning."

You shuffle behind him, trying to keep up with his long strides and get through the travelers that filled the space. "I'm not grouchy."

You stick close to Seokjin, who eventually had taken your hand in his to ensure that you weren't lost among the throngs of people in the market.

"I'm just--"

"Anxious?" Seokjin nods, completing your sentence. He knew well your dislike for big crowds, and even though he'd warned you that it would be this way before you both left Jax, you weren't expecting this many people.

Daasir was loud, with merchants shouting their prices to anyone who would listen, and the mindless chatter of the people passing through. It was a small village, tucked away in the forest a good day on horseback from the capital. The pixies resided here, not only because the location kept them close to their source of magic, but because if you were heading towards the capital city, it was the perfect place to stop for anything you would need.

The surrounding forest kept the air cool, and individual rest spots were designed to suit any person that may need them. With their magic, the pixies were able to care for any manner of folk to pass through their village, with the housing area a little walk away from the market.

The trading market sold a manner of things, from weapons to bottled spells, artifacts that only pixies can create and modify, and of course, the one thing you're on the hunt for this morning; a suppressant. It was only found at one place, and that's a good way on the other side of the village. And you would be there by now if Seokjin hadn't the need to stop and gawk at everything he saw as though he's never been here before.

"Would we be staying the day or do you want to head back as soon as we're done? There's a festival later." Seokjin calls over his shoulder, thankfully slowing his pace, "We could stay at my usual place for the night and leave at sunrise."

"I'm sure father wouldn't mind." Lifting your shoulder in a shrug you fall in step next to the taller man, raising your head to try and see over the crowd. Your father probably would very much mind. It was a whole task in itself convincing him to let you tag along with Seokjin this morning; the trek he makes to Daasir at the end of every month was one he always did alone.

You'd bemoaned the fact that you would have to spend an entire day without any source of entertainment. With your need to get out of the walls that seemed to close in around you being too great, you'd begged. You were lucky that Seokjin was someone your father trusted. He probably would have sent the entire garrison trailing behind you both if not for Seokjin reminding him of his oath to protect you with his life.

You tried to take in as much as you could, eyes dancing around at everything like an excited child. Watching the way some pixies would fly from place to place in their much smaller forms, no more than three inches tall, their little wings carrying them quickly through the air. You never know when you'd be able to see it again; always trapped within the walls of the palace, staring out of your window lost in daydreams.

It didn't take you long to realize that Seokjin was very well known in the village, considering he comes by every month. Some of the older merchants greeted him warmly, even if they eyed you with some curiosity, most likely wondering who you were.

You pass by a merchant selling sharp blades and nearly knock into Seokjin's broad back as he stops once again. He ponders over daggers that lined the wooden table, unable to help himself at the new findings of the weapons he mastered.

"Look at this, Y/n." He tugs you forward lightly, pointing at a dagger that was at least twelve inches long, the hilt smooth and a glinting silver under the sun. His hand hovers over it and he hums, eyebrows lost in his bangs, "It's enchanted too!"

"Keen eye, my good fellow!" The merchant smiles, stepping forward to pluck the blade off the table with a flourish. "It will return to you once thrown, and it can never be lost."

Seokjin hums at a higher pitch as the merchant demonstrates, tossing the dagger behind him and into a wooden plank riddled with indents. You and Seokjin both watch as the dagger flies back into the merchant's hand. "I crafted and enchanted it myself. It is perfectly balanced." He turns the hilt towards Seokjin, who takes it, eyes alight with wonder as he balances it on his index and middle finger.

It didn't take much convincing, - The merchant had him sold from enchanted - before Seokjin had added the dagger to his already extensive collection, slipping it under his cloak with a mad grin. He then leads you by hand, weaving through the travelers and merchants chatting on and on about one thing or another. You could barely hear him over the crowd, ears straining as you also tried once again to keep up with his much longer stride.

Your hand slips from his, bumping into a man who scowls down at you. The pixie's wings flutter behind him in agitated flickers, a whiz of pale blue at his back and you wondered how he kept his feet on the ground with the pace they were going.

"Watch it." He growls, your apology dying in your throat when he pushes at your shoulder and sends you stumbling backward.

Seokjin was at your side in an instant, his features calm as he takes your hand again, "Sorry. It was my fault."

The man eyes Seokjin, gazing at the length of his ears, silent, and he narrows his eyes at the point of them. They were shorter than the average pixie but noticeable enough for anyone to identify. "Filthy half-breed."

Seokjin's hand squeezes yours at the man's words, but his face betray no emotion as he apologizes again, bowing slightly. He steps around the man who still glares and tugs you behind, his grip is still tight.

Once out of the market, Seokjin leads you down a winding trail, a good enough distance that the sounds of Daasir fade behind. The trail was well trodden, thickets and foliage lining the sides of it, different flowers swaying in the breeze. It was quiet between you both, a tense silence you're not used to from Seokjin, who was always quick to joke about and leave you in stitches.

"Jin..." His ear twitches at the sound of your voice, the only indication that he was listening. He didn't turn his head, kept looking straight ahead of him, jaw tense.

"It's alright." He mutters after a long while, and it was so quiet, you probably wouldn't have heard it if you weren't walking beside him. "Happens all the time."

His heritage isn't something he talks about often, but you've seen enough to know. Even with him being your guard, as high as he is in the ranks of Jax's armada, discrimination still lingered in whispers behind his back. You know the guards wouldn't dare speak ill of him in front of you, but word gets around quickly in the halls and it was easy to pick apart the backhanded words of Seokjin's peers.

The story of how his mother, a pixie woman, had left him in your father's care was well known. He hated talking about it, though he was ever grateful for everything that had been done for him, it was a sore topic to approach. So, you remained quiet, only squeezing his hand in return to at least let him know that you were there.

The trail comes to an end, and veering off the path was a house, that was seemingly built in the middle of a large tree. The top of the tree extended out from the roof of the house and towers over you with its low-hanging branches and vines. A stained glass of violets and pinks fitted a large window that you could barely see through, a wooden door firmly shut with a hanging sign that said 'CLOSED'.

Seokjin strides forward, completely ignoring the sign and unlocking the door with a flick of his wrist. You make a sound at the back of your throat at his trespassing but follow nervously behind him.

When you walk into the house and the door shuts softly behind you, the lock latching itself. The first thing you notice was the unnatural silence. You couldn't hear the wind blowing outside, or the sound of nature's children in the forest. There was the scent of roses and Cejid in the air, you furrow your brows at the odd combination of sweet and spice, and wondered what the owner could possibly be doing. Along the walls were tall shelves filled top to bottom with books and artifacts. There were vials filled with liquids arranged by color, some of them left in the open, strange smoke rising from the mouths, and some fitted behind a glass case built into the shelf.

Before you is a counter, riddled with things you didn't know the name of and more vials with liquids that faintly glowed in the dimness of the room. There was a neat stack of papers, and a quill that scribbled away against it, a necklace mounted on the wall behind clear glass. Light filtered in through a closed window, and strange flowers swayed in a non-existent breeze, leaves curling and dancing as if music was playing.

Behind the counter was a door, slightly ajar, and stairs that lead down and sharply to the left, and you can only assume it went underground. You share a glance with Seokjin, brows furrowed, there was no one here besides you and him. He smirks as though he heard your thought, but you're not sure if his magic goes to that extent.

Seokjin wanders forward, leaving you to stare at anything you put your eyes on. You could faintly hear Seokjin muttering under his breath - just barely, your ears had an odd low humming within them - as he approached the counter.

"Jimin!" Seokjin calls, leaning over the counter to peer down the stairs. His voice seems louder than he'd intended in the silence and he grimaces at the volume; the tips of his ears flushing red. There was a loud clank from below, followed by the sound of glass shattering, and a string of curses.

You've only ever heard of Jimin. Seokjin would sometimes talk about him when he comes back from his trip, usually in whining tones about the pixie being feisty and not excited enough to see him after such a long time.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to shout?" A light voice asks, irritation clear as a man emerges through the door. The white cotton shirt he wore was stained with something blue, his hair, a light shade of pink that hung in silky strands above his sapphire eyes. Eyes that he narrow at Seokjin, wings twitching in agitation behind him when his squeaky laugh fills the room.

"Is that any way to greet an old friend?" Seokjin retorts once he calmed, "If that's the way you treat all your customers..."

Jimin rolls his eyes, a smile blooming on his plush lips, "No, you're just special." There's no hostility in his words, as he rounded the counter to Seokjin, who suddenly startles at the movement and backs away with his hands up.

"If that's what I think it is on your shirt, do not hug me." He says, and Jimin only grins, wings fluttering as he rises gracefully off the floor, floating towards Seokjin with his arms open. "Jimin."

"I should greet you properly, no? Friends hug each other!" Seokjin was just barely able to dodge Jimin's swift movement, ducking out of the way to run around to the other side of the counter, and you could only watch on with amusement. Your presence was forgotten by Jin and went completely unnoticed by Jimin.

"You know I'm allergic to--"

Jimin lunges over the counter, grabbing Seokjin around the shoulders in a hug, pressing his nose right into his soaked shirt before swiftly pulling away with a tinkling laugh.

Seokjin makes an affronted sound, wiping at his face with the sleeves of his cloak. "You--!" He sneezes, once, twice and a third time for good measure, eyes watering and nose and cheeks flushing pink. He whines, loudly in the silence, glaring at Jimin who still laughed.

"Ah, don't be such a baby." He picks up a glowing vial from the counter and tosses it at Seokjin, "Drink that, and next time don't be so loud barging in here."

His feet meet the ground soundlessly, and he turns, finally seeing you, and startles, wings straightening before they relax and flutter. "Oh!" Jimin suddenly turns sheepish, pink dusting his cheeks and the tips of his ears, the color almost rivaling his vibrant hair. "You brought someone..."

"You can take your hood down," Seokjin says, his voice nasally, as he pulls the stopper from the glass vial in his hand. He drinks it with a grimace, frowning as he swallowed, "Ew."

You pull your hood back, and Jimin's eyes widen just a bit. His wings flutter mindlessly in his surprise, "Your Highness." He bends in a bow and Seokjin snorts, shaking his head at the action.

"Oh, there's no need to--" You wave your hands in front of you, moments late as Jimin had already swooped upward from his bow. Your voice sounds a bit muddled to your ears, as though your head was under water and you frown at the faint humming that turned into a low ringing in them.

Jimin notices your change, "Sorry,"

You were confused about his seemingly random apology but didn't have the time to ponder it further as sound suddenly floods your ears. You could hear the wind outside and the chirping of birds, a tinkling sound that sounds like wind chimes. The ringing in your ears slowly dissipates, clearing fully like someone had pulled cotton out of them.

"I usually work in silence," Jimin supplies with an apologetic smile, "I forget that humans react differently to our magic."

He turns to Seokjin, tilting his head at him, "You're a week early."

Seokjin was distracted, watching the dancing flowers, and he hums, "It burnt out a lot faster this time, I did send a letter."

Jimin walks around the counter, shuffling through his things with a frown, "A letter I barely pried from the claws of that beast you sent it with. That crow nearly took my eye out."

"Ha, I told you before. Let him drop it, don't take it from him, he hates that." Seokjin shrugs used to Jimin's complaints by now. He turns from the flowers, "I would deliver it myself, but Jax is so far away."

Jimin rolls his eyes, shaking his head as he continues to riffle through his belongings. "I used a different metal, one that's strong enough to withstand the push. Had to tweak the enchantment, too, so it'll last longer when his arcane lashes out." He finally uncovers what he was looking for, something small that was wrapped in linen, and passes it to Seokjin. "How is Tae anyway? I haven't heard from him in a while."

"He's been alright, he's staying with Hoseok at the moment." Seokjin frowns as he says this, eyebrows drawn together and creasing. He tucks the wrapped object into his cloak, distracted once again by the dancing flowers. You suspect that the way he was lost looking at them was only mock interest. "That's why you haven't heard from him. Hoseok's trying to find a way to help him control the outburst."

Jimin hums, a light sound that was barely there, and then a smile brightens his features. "He's in good hands."

Seokjin nods, "He'll be better once he gets this."

He pats the pocket he'd slipped the item into, smiling at Jimin. "Aren't you supposed to be preparing for the festival?" He asks, fingers poking at the dancing leaves of Jimin's strange plant.

"Don't touch that, it bites," Jimin warns, just as the flower itself rears back, the bud of its petals opening to a mouth of sharp teeth that snaps at Seokjin's hand. He yelps and pulls away, just shy of losing his curious fingers. Jimin shakes his head, "Anyway, yes I should. My mother wouldn't let me hear the end of it. But, I have way more pressing things to do right now. I told her to wait until next spring, but when does she ever listen to me?"

"Is the festival something important?" You ask curiously, and Jimin smiles, a little forced and you regret asking. He nods, but says nothing and you leave it as that.

"You're going to go anyway, Min. The festival is for you, you do know that."

You're a bit confused, Seokjin clearly knows more than you do, but Jimin sends a glare his way and Seokjin only sighs. "Alright, we should get going. We'll be at the festival if you decide to stop hiding away." His words have a double meaning because Jimin's glare didn't waver.

His eyes soften as they meet yours, and he smiles, eyes forming crescents and cheeks puffing up. "It was lovely to meet you, Your Highness."

"Likewise, and, just Y/n would do." You offer a kind smile and Jimin bows his head shyly. You follow Seokjin as he leads you out of Jimin's workshop, throwing a wave over his shoulder and his parting words.

You walk back up the trail, and Seokjin seems a lot lighter than he had been when you first walked this way. There was a mischievous glint in his eye, pixie nature unable to fully hide under his human one. "Bet you're curious."

"I am. But Jimin didn't want to talk about it..."

"It's not a secret, everyone just chooses to turn a blind eye because they can't exactly say anything about it." Seokjin's words were vague, as he steps over a large tree root that wasn't there before and stops to wonder at it with a frown. He looks behind him and groans, prompting you to look too.

The path looks completely different, with a different set of trees than the ones you'd passed earlier, and flowers no long danced at the edges. "It's going to take ages to find him again. Why does he always change the path?"

He sighs, pulling you along behind him as you marvel at the changed forest with wide eyes. Seokjin hums lightly, "He's the Prince."

You almost stop walking, lips parting, "Really?"

"Yes," Seokjin chuckles, "He'd rather be doing what he's doing now though, never been much for the court. The festival tonight is supposed to be his coming of age."

"I see..." You mumble, and you wonder just how old Jimin is, as pixies live for a long time and age slower than humans do.

You and Seokjin go past the market again, now bustling with festival preparations. A little further into the forest, were the inns and special housing for travelers, at the entrance was a wooden booth, where a red-haired pixie sat, looking beyond bored even as you approached.

"Minxine!" Seokjin greets, all bright smiles and waving arms, but the girl simply blinks at him, expression unchanged, "Ah, you're a ball of sunshine as always."

Seokjin fishes a handful of gold coins from his pockets, passing them to Minxine with a smile as she nudges a thick open book towards him. Seokjin signs his name with the feathered quill before walking on, with you following behind him.

The housing area was as large as the marketplace, with houses of different sizes lining the twisting roads. There are a lot of people settling down for the evening, some like you were just arriving.

"Most of them are here for the festival tonight, well, if Jimin decides he wants to show up," Seokjin says as he leads you towards a decent-sized cottage. Something in your ears pops as you get closer to the door, and the air around you ripples when Seokjin puts his palm against the door. "You should get some rest before tonight. I'll be back in about an hour, don't go anywhere."

"Wake up!" Jin startles you awake, sending you tumbling out of the bed and onto the floor with a thud, his eyes were wide and you could see the panic within them even in the dark. "We need to leave."

"What's happening?" You slur, barely awake but getting off the ground with Seokjin's help. You stumble a bit when he guides you before him, mind confused and limbs tired. "Jin?"

"Forgive me." Seokjin hastily wraps your cloak around your shoulders, and faintly, you can hear something in the distance. "I need to get you as far from here as I can."

"Seokjin." You grab onto his hand, stilling his frantic movements, "What's happening?"

He stares at you for a moment, quiet, serious, and it was scaring you. "There's been an attack in the village. We need to leave now before it gets worse."

He pulls the door open, pushing you through it and into the cold of night. Now that you're standing outside the house and it's enchantment, you can clearly hear the sound that had been faint before; screaming. It was coming from the village, and you can see smoke rising over the treetops and the orange hue that can only be fire.

"Wait. The villagers..."

"No. We can't. The pixies can handle themselves. My first and only priority is you. Don't make this difficult by arguing with me." Seokjin sends a glare your way, one that makes you immediately shut up. You watch him as he puts his fingers to his mouth to release a loud, high pitched whistle.

You wait, standing close to Seokjin. You're more than capable of defending yourself should the need arise, you were trained for combat. Though, Seokjin would never allow it, you would rather avoid the earful he would give you. The sounds from the village is getting closer, no doubt whoever caused the rukus already breached the gates.

Seokjin looks in the direction of the noise, brows furrowed as he listens.

"Do you know who attacked?" You ask softly, heart thundering away in your chest at the loud sounds of a fight.

Seokjin shakes his head, "They're all wearing cloaks, no crests, and not colors of any court. They're using Arcane magic as far as I saw."

There's a loud sound from the sky, trees swaying violently with the sound of wings flapping and a dark mass descends, landing on the ground with a heavy thud. The animal was smart enough not to make a sound, as it's cry would be heard for miles off. Seokjin's crow was something gifted to him by your father, along with the enchanted metal rings around it's talons that allows it to change size. The gigantic bird blinks it's beady black eyes at you, as though it could sense you're about to protest.

"I am not getting on that thing!" You say, and Seokjin turns to face you.

"You are. Whether you like it or not." He snaps, dragging you by the hand towards his pet crow. The bird ruffles it's feathers, the enchanted bands on it's leg glows softly in the darkness. Seokjin wastes no time before he hoists you up onto its back, insuring that you settled into the saddle and was holding the reigns tightly between your fingers. When he steps back, you frown, reaching for him but he's too far down.

"What are you doing?" You nearly shout.

Seokjin gives you a strange sort of smile, one that twists your stomach into knots. "Take her home. I'll need you, so return quickly." The crow makes an odd chittering sound that rumbles beneath you and you can feel it preparing to lift off the ground.

"Seokjin!" You squeeze your eyes shut when the crow lifts off the ground with a powerful flap of its wings. You don't have the forethought to assess the damage of the village, as Seokjin's form gets further and further away, until you can no longer see him.

Permatag: @allhobbitstoisengard @dontstoptime @astormunchar @eren-fall @taestefully-in-luv @main-bangtansmauyeondan @xpeachesncream @doneimnida

Series tags: @3sriracha @loveyoongles @studiosakuras @amon-rei

#persphonesorchid #Fic: Mark of the Arcane #bts #yoongi x reader #bts x reader #bts fic rec #kim seokjin #kim namjoon #jung hoseok #min Yoongi #park jimin #kim taehyung #jeon jeongkook #bts fanfiction #bts fantasy au #yoongi fic

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sumerun · 2 years

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sumeru archon quest act 2 appreciation post

HEAVY HEAVY spoilers warning, wall of text

note: i know the game said it wasn’t a time loop but for simplicity’s sake we’re keeping that phrase

honestly, i’m still riding the high of the archon quest so i will be very biased in my opinions LMAO. however from reading some friend’s and randoms’ opinions, i think we can all agree to a certain extent that this is one of the best if not the best archon quest to date. it’s such a mindfuck, wonderfully executed and so much more engaging. this is what inazuma should have been instead of the rushed mess that we got. i knew that the writing was going to improve bc MHY is no stranger to well-written stories (honkai, dainsleif’s and inazuma npc’s quests) but i certainly did not expect such drastic improvement this patch lmao.

first i want to go back and look at previous nations and why i hated the format of the missions. (to be fair i know that story-heavy live services games usually get better over time and not perfect the first few years but just using these points for comparison ;)). mondstadt and liyue, imo, is just there to set a foundation and test the waters. how the story was delivered was very boring. it’s pretty much: you walk here, read dialogue that most skip anyways, fight for 3 seconds, watch characters do the same 3 talking animation, cue cutscene, conclusion. look, i may be able to play visual novels for hours, but when i play genshin i expect something much more engaging than that okay lol. story is supposed to excite you, keep you immersed and encourage you to keep coming back to it. but i really didn’t feel that with mondstadt and liyue. most of the excitement were boss fights and cutscenes. if you asked me what happened in-between, i wouldn’t really remember much LMAO. inazuma was slightly better but followed a very similar format. i think we were all hyped from raiden shogun reveal and new region that we just kinda accepted whatever we got. Inazuma’s quests were better near the end with yae miko’s and raiden’s quest for certain though. building up to sumeru, we had a LOOOT of unanswered questions and no one seems to know or want to talk. this frustrated me a lot bc the only time we get to learn more about our sibling/khaenri’ah was through dain and that motherfucker appears like TWICE in the duration of one nation KJASEK. so as we enter sumeru we have a LOT of anticipation for something MORE, whether that’s through better quests or getting actual answers about the other sibling/abyss. inazuma is not completely flawed and is amazing in its own way but it should tell you a lot that I was already kinda done with the region by 2.4 ish.

now to actually talk about why i think act 2 was so good. i love time-loop like tropes ok? like a lot. it’s a complex trope to write and the audience can very easily get lost and frustrated trying to follow it. however, if developed with care, it’s extremely rewarding for both the writer and us pea brains gacha addicts. it’s not perfect as i think MHY could’ve done better than a “collective dream” as the reason for samsara. the conclusion was a tiny bit jarring with nilou being the host bc she barely appeared. but everything else was incredible. i appreciate that they tried to make that trope work within genshin’s lore. if anyone has ever watched madoka magica, i think it’s a great example of why time-loop like tropes are so good. simply, it’s disturbing. (madoka spoilers skip to next bold text if needed) the creator of madoka confirmed that homura has ran through at least 100 timelines to attempt to save madoka. when i watched it, i personally didn’t even get the hint that homura was stuck in a time-loop lmao. (end of spoilers). i like that the time-loop in genshin was similar to this. we sensed that something wack was going on. our memories are erased and we keep repeating the festival until the duo consistently retain their memories. nahida confirmed that they went through at least 20 time loops before realization. that is so eerie to me. i would legit question everything i ever knew about time and reality lmao. paranoia would overwhelm you and you can’t help but think if you’re truly of out the “dream”. if the duo wasn’t protected by plot armor, they could’ve been trapped there for an eternity. autonomy over your own life lost bc of some petty scholars. it’s that feeling of helplessness and trapped with no way out is what makes this quest so terrifying.

so that’s reason #1: time loop tropes are cool and it was executed well majority of the quest. reason #2: better audience engagement. aw man 100 chefs kiss to the teams that worked on this together. i don’t want to ramble but to summarize the following things really helped me stay engaged in the story:

- camera work: I might be very wrong there were some shot that utilizes actual camera techniques such as dutch angles and dolly zoom. subtle maybe but it was there. these are great for giving the feeling of uneasiness. and it was a great way to lead the audience too - dunyarzad: she was fleshed out very well! i was attached to her early on and even shed some tears during the dancing cutscene lmao she feels much more alive bc she had a purpose and relationships (nilou, dehya) that we care about. teppei lacked a lot of that and while i adored his character, i can’t deny that dunyarzad was more complex and believable - deduction mechanic: for once the player actively participates in the story!!!! it was so cool piecing things together. it helps making you feel like you’re a part of the mystery. aaaaanddd it confirms that the traveler is an established protagonist that actually speaks and not a piece of cardboard voiced by paimon. - battle of wits: we always see paimon solving issues via brute force but i think this is the first time we really get to watch them use their intelligence and observational skills to get out of this sticky situation. it was so refreshing to do a quest that was more mystery oriented. i definitely need more quests like this bc the dynamics/bonds between the duo truly shines here! - small little things such as art of young dunyarzad speaking to nahida, and mini-cutscenes of the duo time-looping to show quest progression. it helped liven the quest for me!

- traveler: traveler feels so much more human here. like I LOVED that they were mourning dunyarzad and angry at themselves for being unable to protect her. paimon has always spoken for them and we don’t really get to see traveler express their own thoughts and emotions a lot. I feel much more attached to the traveler bc of this imo. I’ve always seen them as a blank slate (and they are for the player but I see them more as an OC)

CONCLUSION

whether or not they're listening to our feedback regarding story (certainly not for character design oop), this is very exciting. i love the direction that they are going in in terms of storytelling and execution. this specific act is more story than action so it's possible that this gives MHY more leeway to be creative. but i'm gonna send them a fat feedback to make sure they keep some of the elements i mentioned bc i refuse to go back to the 40 minutes of pure dialogue and talking animations. the sumeru plot line has potential to be one of the best AND very dark thematically but will mhy actually do it??? we’ll find out in 3.1 and 3.2!

#if u read this whole thing ily #i already want to replay it #i promise i'll start posting more edits again skjease #sen speaks #sumeru spoilers #genshin spoilers #3.0 spoilers

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nyankoizumi · 2 years

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I spent a whole day yelling to my mom about Wakey Wakey and what makes it so special in its own way and now you have to suffer: the post

Yes we have a bunch of very important scenes of Wakey Wakey still not leaked and it's kinda silly to make an analysis when we don't even have the full material but I'm a silly guy okay and i do agree and can see what the creators meant when they said that they wanted to keep the show "small" because, yes please!! That really adds to the essence and makes wonders to the tv show, because it makes everything feel… static? I dunno, i think it adds to the whole prison loop house with shit that comes alive and teaches you something badly feel everything has, something Wakey Wakey does lack on. The town doesn't feel small enough and nor does the happy house, added to Red actually leaving the town, making it feel much less "trapped"

But don't you DARE think I'm here to say "pilot bad" and call it a day because i love Wakey Wakey. But in a special way.

I don't know if it's an universal thing, but the feeling wakey wakey gives to me is like when an animated show gets a movie. It has that vibe, and some of the patterns i tend to see with those cases? Same characters we love, but put them in a foreign situation we don't know yet!! New world!!! Give them a musical number about it!!! New characters?! So exciting will we see them again? NO in FACT nothing that happens here will be brought up in canon probably but it's fun so just. Listen to the songs and slightly smoother animation okay

Just overall, the music and atmosphere and the tone def makes me feel like I'm watching a strangely short DHMIS movie but it's interesting enough to make me not realize

And while i do think it's a neat little middle between the yt series and the tv series in term of tone and characters, given that the main guys talk and do more things than the yt series but not as much as the tv series, and they show little tid-bits of personality traits (that we didn't quite see in the yt series) that get exaggerated in the tv show for funny content's sake (more clear example is red guy's. Uh, annoyance? English hard) , i do think it isn't the PERFECT transition for someone to go through, despite being neat in itself. Don't get me wrong, it might be better than the whiplash of watching the yt series and having no clue what just happened, to watch the tv series and still have no clue what's happening but also they fight to death and straight up kill the teachers now, apparently. But i do feel like the tone is pretty different from the two. It feels much more light than the other two, and it doesn't have the pace that the tv show has. If i HAD TO, I'd say it's closer to the tv show, but to me, honestly, it doesn't need to. It's not as dark as the yt series, and it doesn't feel as trapped as the tv series, but it's! Really good!! Because it's like it's own thing and that's honestly based!! The production is as good and impressive as usual, it's really funny, it has an interesting topic at hand, and the songs are so much fun. The songs are specially what give me the cartoon show movie feel, they're not so spot on to children's songs like the yt series, but they have this… silly musical feel to them that i super vibe with, like, the introduction song is unironically really catchy and cute and super "hey guys its the start of the movie everyone in town let's sing", and Mean Steve's song (was that his name? Metal child) is animated in such an interesting way, and yeah, it doesn't rhyme sometimes and it's kinda strange and pretty to the point with his true intentions but that's also what i love, it does catch the essence of the teacher's songs but put it's own musical twist to it, i swear i thought red guy was gonna start rapping his ass off the moment he had that one line in the song that would've been glorious but, his few lines and the awkwardly sung normal speech at the end was enough to satisfy my strange taste heart.

But i did figure a way to put it while having a sandwich which i chocked on upon this realization; it's like the yt series is a kids show that got terribly corrupted and starts """normal""" then goes insane, while Wakey Wakey is more like a kids show/movie that is actually going on adult swim or something so like, everything's fairly normal but it doesn't shy away from grotesque imagery or jokes when given the chance.

(i guess the tv show could be both at the same time- haven't thought about it)

In conclusion, I love Wakey Wakey, it feels like a DHMIS movie but chiller i get why the creators don't like it but still i find a unique charm into it and please i want a full version I'm so greedy /hj

#dhmis #my thoughts on the pilot feel like that one scene from the tv show #where stain was like #i cant stop looking at it.... its terrifying and beautiful at the same time #and yellow and red were trying to get them to look away #like i totally get that creator's shame when you do something but its kinda not what you wanted so throw it away burn it with fire #i totally get that. i totally get that a hundred percent. the thing is i dont care /ref #/j #dont hug me im scared #dhmis wakey wakey #dhmis pilot #when i say I've been screaming about this thing all day i mean that #i woke up and watched it then was holding back MORE talking during dinner #so be aware my mother is now very well taught about dhmis' influence on the internet and it's tumblr sexymen #and all that you have just read #and how are you doing this mother's day /j #rant #oh and the mayor's song in the wild is incredibly amusing to me

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flightfoot · 2 years

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I hope you don't mind me asking, and you don't have to answer if it makes you uncomfortable. It's just that I have very conflicted feelings about the current Ladynoir situation and I'm thinking myself mad trying to figure out how to approach this moral issue. Like seriously, please I need a second opinion on this.

It's the same problem per usual ever since the beginning of s4. Marinette keeping secret from Chat Noir that she has a whole second partner behind his back who she treated much better and favored over him in season 4 in like, every possible way...and she just gets away with not releasing him out of that obliviousness even though in "Multiplication" Ladynoir literally spend WEEKS bored on patrol. WEEKS! And Marinette and Alya KNOW that Monarque is aware of her now, so thats no excuse anymore.

I just... can not look past this. Adrien still knows JACKSHIT about anything Ladybug pulled behind his back, how insultingly far she went in several cases and how she basically played the whole system that works in her favor against him to keep him out of the loop and content with the little he got by the time of "Strike back". I just... the amount of dishonesty she is just not being held accountable for just because Adrien in his oblivious state said its fine?? He's just being left by her in a completely wrong perspective of her entire situation from season 4??

I feel so hurt and betrayed by this every time I watch and think about it, this whole Ladynoir situation is so morally screwed in my eyes because he just doesn't know anything?? She just decides that he doesn't get to know and I'm supposed to support that just because she doesn't want to face a consequence in which she literally wouldn't loose ANYTHING?? And she is still immediately always rewarded with a perfect partner who doesn't have any problems of his own and is currently still only there to continue being nothing but her support? I-I just... man I just want to enjoy Ladynoir again, what the hell am I WATCHING?

Who in their right mind thought this was okay to do in the show? Why on earth was the entire Ladynoir situation so awfully handled that I really hardly have anything to hold onto here? Marinette literally had Chats and Renas positions switched by "Risk" with him taking Renas old status as "temporary" hero while Rena basically got everything Ladybugs actual partner should have. And to make the matter even worse then in "Strike Back" once 'Adrien' got involved Ladybug just immediately ignored Chat (Ladybugs "favorite") almost entirely for his sake and even gave him Chats spot in their sacred sewer place. And you just KNOW that if 'Adrien' had actually stayed part of their the hero team from then on as she thought he would she would have just... kicked Chat out of their sewer place to give it to Adrien and Chat would have to... swallow it again and make his existence even smaller than it already was.... She just really never had any intention of ever letting him out of that scapegoat role...the only reason why Chat Noir is now actually treated with any kind of legit respect and dignity again is because the worst thing imaginable happened and Gabriel got all the other miraculous so only Ladybug and Chat Noir are left as heroes. That's it. That's the only reason.

How-how am I supposed to look past this? Everything from "Ephemeral/ Kuro Neko" onwards is just morally disgusting to me and I swear I TRY to give Marinette all the credit in the good aspects, especially now in season 5. Really I SWEAR I KNOW that Marinettes situation was fucked as well, but at a certain point (that being Ephemeral and Kuro Neko) that's just no excuse for the ACTIVE choices she made to continue to deal with the situation!

All the disgusting circumstances still surrounding Ladynoir are just too much for me. She is.. This is.. she is simply taking advantage of him and his kindness by just leaving him in his convenient obliviousness that keeps every aspect hidden from him that Adrien very much had a right to know and properly settle his valid upset feelings over.

I don't want her to get punished, yelled at, loose him or anything. Non of that! I just want Chat Noir to be given the proper dignity and respect by his partner to not be continued to be left out of the loop and taken advantage of. That she just does the morally right thing and owes up to him to create a team of three with Alya so he isn't alone anymore either and he at least gets the opportunity to settle any hurt feelings and issues he has/had/whatever and not just... her deciding over his head that he doesn't get to be potentially upset with her and her being nice about it now just has to be enough to make up for it.

It doesn't. It's morally deceiving and disgusting. Why are the show and the Fandom glorifying the hell out of this? She had no right to continue scapegoating Chat Noir like this (and Chat Blanc wasn't even about her in its core, he wasn't kept save from anything in this regard!) and now it just keeps going in season 5?? Please not... I just want to enjoy Ladynoir again and go back to being able to support and agree with Marinette like I was able to do in the past. I MISS it so much, but I simply cannot look past it. I'm morally disgusted by what I'm seeing on screen and I dont know... what to do with this now?

I refuse to set my standards even lower for this Ladynoir situation, it already went way too far in my opinion to the point where season 4 send more than a few questionable messages out there. I refuse to do that.

I just want her to do the right thing and owe up, is this so much to ask for? :(

I apologize with all of my heart for the chain of replies this ask is likely about to get since I brought up the Ladynoir conflict of season 4, but I seriously simply need another opinion on this matter. I'm thinking myself mad trying to figure out how to approach this...

I do think that during season 4, Ladybug really needed to at least tell Chat Noir that someone else knew her identity, and that Rena Furtive was helping out during fights, even if it was only on a covert basis. Preferably with a more thorough explanation of why Rena could know her identity while Chat could not - he didn't really seem to grasp the specifics of that, and thought it had to do with trust, rather than the practicalities of Shadow Moth being able to get both of their identities in one fell swoop if he managed to akumatize one of them, and that being "Game Over".

Chat already knows that Rena Furtive and was watching over the two of them during the fight, so telling Chat that Rena Furtive exists would be superfluous. I'd like it if Ladybug sat down with Chat and told him that Rena's been following them for the past few months secretly, and also about Chat Blanc, since that appears to have been a large factor in why she pushed Chat away last season. But I can see why the showmakers would kind of ignore that - Chat already found out that Rena was there secretly without his knowledge once, I'm betting he already figured out that that probably wasn't the first time, and the showrunners want to move on from that plotline.

I mean... yes, Ladybug still hasn't told him everything that she kept him out of, but I think at this point, the only things he hasn't found out about are Chat Blanc, just how long Rena Furtive had been around, and the whole plan she came up with in Ephemeral to pass his identity to Su-Han without her remembering it (though to be fair, that's a pretty big one, even if it ended up being interrupted due to Sass turning back time. But I can also see why she wouldn't think to bring it up, since the plan was interrupted before it could get very far). So I don't think he's completely in the dark about the situation during season 4 - he already found out that Ladybug told someone else her identity without informing him, that she allowed Rena Rouge and Carapace to know each other's identities, and as already mentioned, that Rena Furtive was secretly watching over them at least once. So he already got the idea that Ladybug was keeping him out of the loop of a lot of things.

She just decides that he doesn't get to know and I'm supposed to support that just because she doesn't want to face a consequence in which she literally wouldn't loose ANYTHING?? And she is still immediately always rewarded with a perfect partner who doesn't have any problems of his own and is currently still only there to continue being nothing but her support?

Marinette does have a problem with being "the one who has the right to decide everything", instead of letting other people in on the information to decide things for themselves. It can be good in that she's ready and able to take charge of situations, but... yeah, it went too far in Season 4 with Chat Noir. It was supposed to, though, as something for her to learn from. And while she did just decide that he doesn't get to know some things that he really should have gotten to know about, or even gotten a say in, it wasn't like she was being malicious about it. It wasn't that black-and-white.

She was scared of screwing things up, and when she's nervous like that, she tries to minimize the chances of it happening by taking control of everything she can - we see that with her plans to ask out Adrien, for instance. And in order to take control of circumstances, she needs to minimize what other people know and the options they have, otherwise it can mess with those plans. Hence, why she tended to leave Chat in the dark a lot, and her reason for her plan in Ephemeral - she wanted to ensure the outcome she wanted (Chat revealing his identity to someone who wasn't her, so that person could pass his identity to Su-Han and get him off her back) and she at least thought there was a chance that he might not do so, which is why she manipulated the situation to make it into one where she could be sure he'd do what she wanted.

It wasn't right. It wasn't fair. But I can understand the mindset behind it, why she did it, and that she genuinely didn't mean any harm. It still would cause harm, even if he didn't find out about it, because of how badly she betrayed his trust there, but I can understand her mindset, thinking that what Chat didn't know wouldn't hurt him, and that it was better than risking Su-Han taking Chat's Miraculous, which was an outcome she couldn't bear.

I don't believe that thinking about the Ladynoir Conflict as a "being rewarded or punished for different actions" way is the best way to approach it. Both Adrien and Marinette are regular people, which means that they are flawed. In this case, Marinette's flaws were at the forefront.

It's more a case of two characters flaws and personalities and character traits combining with bad circumstances in order to result in- well, a bit of a mess. Marinette made some errors in how she interacted with Chat Noir, but that's more of something for her to learn from, grow from, than to be punished for. Chat wasn't rewarding her at the end of Strike Back- she was showing her compassion, and letting her know that she didn't need to be so afraid of failure.

I won't pretend that I was happy with Chat being treated (and Ladybug explicitly acknowledging as much) as just being another part of the Miracuteam that she called on. I wasn't. I liked Alya being around permanently, I love Alya and I think she makes a great permanent addition (or will again, later on, once they retrieve the Miraculous). But Chat's been around just as long as Ladybug has, has just as much experience as she does. He may not have the special role of Guardian that she has, but he's hardly just another wielder. He is her partner, not her subordinate - he may often follow her orders, but that doesn't mean she should consider him to just be her follower. Viewing him that way is a mistake, but it's one that she should take as an opportunity to grow more than anything. To correct and do better.

And to make the matter even worse then in "Strike Back" once 'Adrien' got involved Ladybug just immediately ignored Chat (Ladybugs "favorite") almost entirely for his sake and even gave him Chats spot in their sacred sewer place.

Okay, to be fair, Adrien was going through some stuff. She knows how bad he felt about not being able to stand up to his father, about being sent away, and with him saying that he wasn't a hero, combined with what happened in Desperada... yeah, I can't blame her for focusing on him, especially since she could feasibly make him feel a lot better, maybe even persuade him to stand up to his father which would, (as far as she thinks) vastly improve his circumstances. So she prioritized helping him, since she knew how to.

Plus she needed him for the plan in Strike Back since he was the only one without a Risk mark, and the Strike Back sentimonsters needed to be defeated so... yeah. Priorities.

She didn't totally ignore Chat anyway, she was so thrilled to introduce 'Adrien' to Chat.

And as much as the fandom may joke, I don't think Ladybug and Chat Noir really consider the sewers to be their sacred place.

the only reason why Chat Noir is now actually treated with any kind of legit respect and dignity again is because the worst thing imaginable happened and Gabriel got all the other miraculous so only Ladybug and Chat Noir are left as heroes. That's it. That's the only reason.

I do think that Marinette needed some sort of wake up call when it came to Chat Noir, though I don't think it necessarily had to be Chat being the only wielder she had left to count on. Marinette tends to stubbornly run headfirst towards an idea, a concept, and not realize it's a bad idea or that she's doing something wrong until something bad happens that snaps her out of it, gets her to re-evaluate what she's doing.

But I don't think that invalidates the realization, the wake-up call itself, even if it had to be a fairly extreme situation.

Marinette did make some active bad choices in Ephemeral and Kuro Neko - though in Kuro Neko she mostly just went along with what Chat thought was best, she just kinda gave up, like in the NY special - but I think she realized it afterwards, in Strike Back's finale, when she apologized for lying to him and pushing him away. I'd prefer for her to talk to him about those specific incidents of course, but I do think she realized her mistake and is trying to do better.

This is valid. If she continues leaving Chat out of the loop, at least about new stuff, then I'll think that she hasn't actually learned from season 4. I think as far as the stuff from season 4 that happened that they haven't talked about... well, circumstances have changed so much, I think they're trying to bury the hatchet on it. I would prefer for them to talk things out, but I can see why it'd be more practical to just move forwards at this point, since most of it is moot.

Here's one of my major things I keep in mind for Marinette: sometimes she makes mistakes, even does things she should know are wrong (like with how she acted with Kagami in season 3, especially in Animaestro and Ikari Gozen) and it can take a lot to get through to her that something she's doing IS wrong, especially if she's using it to deal with her anxiety.

But once she does realize she's done something wrong? She does everything in her power to make the situation better, to learn from it. She did it in Maledikatator, she did it in Ikari Gozen, she did it in Crocoduel, and I think she's gonna try and do that with the Ladynoir Conflict as well. It's one of her finest qualities, and something that keeps her from going too far off the edge - or, well, more like bring her back to the edge after she's gone over it.

#ask #miraculous ladybug #ml analysis #ladynoir conflict

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1tad0ri · 3 years

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OKAY hey girl lemme j say how invested in this blog i am going to be . okay . so uh yuuji being the horny shit he is and texting you late at night to come to his room n you barely get through the door b4 he’s grabbing at you n telling you how much he missed your body n how he was *thinking* of you before n j URGH lemme get dat pls 🤲🤲

warning: body worship, eating out

itadori yuuji x fem!reader

AHDHSJJS FIRST OF ALL THANK YOUUU that’s so sweet!!! <3 second of all, girl i gotchu

“for fuck’s sake.” the shuffle of your sneakers along the corridor was almost too loud in the otherwise quiet space, phone screen lit up and reflecting back at you as you scrolled through the text messages that had gotten you into this situation in the first place.

one peaceful night was what you wanted. one goddamn full night’s rest. oh... but it was so hard to ignore him, no matter what time he texted you.

the amount of times you wanted to pretend to be asleep was outshone by the fact that you always wanted to talk to yuuji. eccentric and playful, he hit all the points on your ‘boyfriend checklist.’

arriving in front of his door, you sighed, clicking your phone screen off and stuffing the device into your back pocket—you hoped that he hadn’t asked you to come over to play uno at 2 a.m. again. the “can you please come over?” text had been fairly ominous, but truthfully you wouldn’t mind just cuddling up to him and falling asleep if he wanted.

you twisted the doorknob—he always left his room unlocked like a dummy (a cute dummy) and by this point you knew to spare yourself the knocking, knowing a reply of “it’s open!” would just reach you from inside.

the door creaked open under a single push and you stepped inside the familiar room, the movement already rehearsed in your mind during the walk from your dorm over to his.

“yuuji, what do you-”

heavy lips against the corner of your mouth interrupted you when someone pulled you into their chest—they’d missed your own lips in their haste but your mouth fell open in shock all the same, you squeaking as you stumbled into their arms, trying to find something to grab ahold of. your hands found warm shoulders to dig into as your regained your balance and you barely registered the click of the door shut behind you.

steady now, you untangled yourself from the person, pulling back to find yuuji staring back at you—of course it was him, this was his room after all.

he was already diving back into your lips before you could speak, and you know what? you let him. his mouth was hot when it pressed to yours and when his hand on your back pushed your waist closer to him and you felt the nudge of something hard against your leg, you decided he could do whatever he wanted to you at that point.

your arms travelled up from his shoulders to loop around his neck properly and he held you against him, so sweet and boyish when his tongue hungrily nudged between your lips, asking for entrance.

yuuji tilted his head back from yours enough to speak once he’d had his fill of shoving his tongue down your throat, hands wandering down to rub at you through your shorts. “do you know how long i’ve been thinking about this?” his voice was husky, eyes glazed over—he was lost to his desires already.

his fingers cupped your mound, shoving the pads of them against your cunt through the fabric, making you whine. “fuck, you’re so perfect.” a quick kiss to your lips. “always so much better than what i imagine.” another kiss, but this time, when he tried to pull away, you tugged him back.

you ground down on his fingers, nipping at his lips, legs shaking. “yuuji, h-harder.” he did as he was told, pressing along your underside blindly until he found your clit, knowing it was the right spot when you let out a surprised, “oh—”

then his hands were back on your sides (despite how much he loved the feeling of you melting against his chest from barely anything at all, the heat radiating from your pussy evident even without him directly touching it) and when he whispered, “jump,” into your ear, you did as you were told, his arms catching you easily and hoisting you up so you could wrap your legs around his waist, grinding your cores together. once again, you were thanking the universe for blessing you with such a strong boyfriend.

yuuji was pushing his face into your neck, breathing you in, babbling, tasting the skin—everything. “i’ve missed you. missed you so, so much.” his lips tickled, leaving behind a trail of fire and goosebumps in their wake, and you were holding onto him for dear life—it was as though sometimes he didn’t realize what he did to you (actually, you were sure that was the case now that you thought about it). he was always so needy, just a few hours apart seeming to drive him wild. it was flattering and you also maybe found it a little more hot than you probably should.

“couldn’t cum without you. mmm... needed your pretty pussy.” fuck. he just kept talking and talking, and the thought of him laying on his bed, frustrated, cock gripped in his palm as he fantasized about you only a few doors down was filling your mind, your wild imagination going straight to the building heat in your body.

from this angle, your head was just a little above his and you pushed lightly on the back of his neck to bury his face further into you, breath hitching when he bit at your collarbone. “don’t worry, i’m here now, baby. you can do whatever you want,” you cooed, finding it hard to keep your voice steady.

his movements paused for a moment, only his warm breath continuing to fan against you, and then he looked up, eyes wide. “really?”

leaning down to peck his nose, you swallowed thickly at the look in his eyes, nodding. “really.”

your head spun when he immediately turned on his heels away from the door and instead walked further into the room, dropping you onto the bed not far away. you bounced when you landed on the soft surface and tried to sit up, but yuuji was already crawling between your legs, hands planted on the covers as he leaned up to kiss you, gently pushing you to lay down. you allowed yourself to fall completely back, heart beating as you stared at the ceiling. yeah, you had ended up on his bed like you thought you were going to but... it seemed like your plans of cuddling had gone completely out the window.

a tug at your shorts had you glancing downwards, seeing that he had wasted no time settling in front of you, nipping at your thighs and tugging at your bottoms. yuuji met your burning gaze when he felt it on him, his lips attached to your upper thigh—it was a pretty sight, the blooming reds resulting from none other than your own handiwork on his mouth. his eyes were wide and lustful—cute yet making your stomach do flips as only he could.

“let me taste you, please.” hoarse voice begging, he was already running a finger close to your still-covered crotch, blinking up at you and waiting for permission. he was desperate, eyes flicking down momentarily to work your shorts down just over your hip bones as he placed a lopsided kiss to your clit through them. his eyes were back on yours. “can i? you want to cum on my tongue, don’t you? you’re going to let me tongue fuck you, yeah?”

fuck, fuck, fuck. “oh my god,” you whispered, taking in his wide blown pupils. you frantically nodded at his words, if only to shut him up before you came from that.

yuuji grinned and you were absolutely done with him because it was the same cheesy smile he always gave you and, quite frankly, it wasn’t fair if he was doing it while slick dripped out of you and onto his fingers holding your underwear to the side. you wanted to hate him for driving you wild by just being him, but it turns out you were incapable of that as well.

he buried his face in your clothed cunt, pressing light kisses to it and murmuring praise about how you were so perfect, fingers working to blindly pull your bottoms down. you helped him by shimming out of them and kicking them off to the side (shoes tumbling off when you pressed them off at the heel—you’d also pulled your phone out of your pocket and chucked it somewhere further up the bed for safe keeping in a single moment of clarity), spreading your legs for him to lean down between again, knees bent and feet planted firmly on the bed.

he took a moment to admire your pussy, the dripping lips fully on display before him, and for once he was quiet, nearly drooling.

“yuu-”

his tongue was on the folds and licking a stripe up, your thighs closing in to squeeze his head closer in surprise and you pulling on his hair, your grip so strong you were almost afraid of some of the strands coming loose (or you would be if you could think straight that is).

his hands locked around your thighs and he slid you closer to him, licking and sucking as though he were starved. you yelped and clung to the bed sheets as he dragged you closer, completely caught off guard by everything and legs burning as they bounced from the onslaught at your core. “yuuji-”

“such a good girl, opening yourself up to me.” he kissed your clit, lips so soft, and humming praise. “love it when you spread open for me. fuck, love it so much, always thinking about it.”

when yuuji’s tongue poked at your heat and then wiggled its way past the entrance, slipping in with little resistance from your wet hole, curses and whines fell from your lips. he worked the muscle in and out of you, curling it perfectly against your walls to hit the weak spots inside of you before he removed it to speak again, caught up in his own thoughts, saying anything that came to mind. his lack of filter had you pressing your fingers into the back of his head with a death grip, mind reeling.

“you’re perfect, so perfect. i love this pretty pussy.” yuuji flattened his tongue against your slit, words vibrating into you. “gonna make you cum from just my tongue. going to make this pretty pussy cum from just my tongue.” and that he did. if there was anything yuuji was, it was someone who could deliver on his promises. “it’s what my pretty baby deserves.”

you don’t know how long it took him, whether it be a few short minutes or long hours that had flashed by (you had your bet on the former considering you were already ready to cum for him as soon as he’d set to work kissing and grinding against you as soon as you’d walked in the door, although you truthfully wouldn’t be surprised at either option), but yuuji hadn’t let up once on you until you were coming undone all over his tongue, too fucked out of your mind to try to last any longer. his tongue just kept going, sliding along your folds to take up everything, relishing the taste of your jucies.

your legs were jumping at the feeling, chest heaving, and you tugged at his hair to pull him up—it was so good, yet almost too much—

when he finally emerged, lower half of his face covered in slick, he was on you again, pinning you to the mattress and kissing you—he’d quickly swiped the back of his hand across his face so it wasn’t too wet, but you could still taste yourself on his tongue, mumbling around him at the taste.

“yuuji—”

even though he had finally left your cunt alone, you still felt overwhelmed as his hands drew shapes over your skin, tracing up your sides and running over your curves. “perfect—fuck—you’re so perfect. your body is perfect, perfect, perfect. want you so baddd.”

you whimpered into his mouth, unable to reply in any other way. yuuji was nuzzling his face against yours, lips landing everywhere and no where at once. “you tasted so good,” he practically moaned at the memory. he licked his lips to taste you all over again and you could feel the wetness against the side of your mouth when he did so, your faces pressed so close together you could feel every little pull of his facial muscles.

“yuuji— ugh, fuck.” you shoved your hand in front of his mouth to stop him for a moment, his latest kiss landing on your palm and still somehow making you shiver.

his eyes were wide as he blinked down at you, hands stilled on your stomach. “babe?” his voice was muffled around your hand. “did i... did i do something wrong?”

“wha- yuuji, what? baby, no, of course not.” he let you pull him to rest on your chest and you stroked his hair soothingly as he tried to peer up at you, straining his neck. “you did so well. made me cum so well.” you kissed his forehead and he squeezed one eye closed when you did so, melting at the feeling. “i just think it’s time to help you out a little, hm?”

you cut off the protest he was surely about to make about how getting you off was enough for him when your leg purposefully brushed against the front of him, his dick solid on you even under the layers. he groaned and buried his face further into your chest. the opening and closing of his lips in silent pants rubbed on your breasts still hidden under your t-shirt—you didn’t even think he was aware of it, but you sure were—and he nodded meekly in reply when you mumbled out a quiet, “okay, baby?” into his hair.

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everygildedstar · 3 years

Text

Bible Study (Optional Male Bias)

Summary: He wants to know what could be better than God’s love, and you are happy to enlighten him

Pairing: Optional Bias x Reader

Word Count: 1.9k

Warnings: smut, corruption kink, religious corruption, blasphemy, hand jobs, blow jobs, riding, fem dom, male sub, loss of virginity, sex in a church, semi-public sex, quoting scripture during sex

A/N: It’s been a while since i wrote a smut so i’m rusty, so please be nice. Inspired by a discussion with @bigkpopstan and anon about religious corruption and Heeseung. Heeseung was in mind when I wrote this but it’s technically optional bias so have fun. ;)

“Meet me in the confession booth when everyone leaves for the barbeque,” you had messaged him.

There had been a certain tension between the two of you for a while. He knew you weren’t the innocent “Church Girl” you pretended to be, and you knew he was curious. Curious about what could be so great as to reject what you were taught at church. What could possibly be better than God’s love?

He had asked you as much one day, while you were waiting for your parents to stop socializing so you could go home.

“Because I like what I can understand,” you answered. “I like what makes me feel alive. I like what I can be certain of. And I am certain that there are a great number of things that are more pleasurable to me than church, and worshipping our so-called God while receiving nothing in return.”

“Like what?” he pushed.

“Maybe I could show you sometime,” you had said before walking out with your family.

He hadn’t brought it up to you again for a long time, but you could tell he thought about it. You could see it in his face every time you caught him looking at you, and every time he would look away blushing, as if he had been caught doing something sinful.

Finally he couldn’t take it anymore. He asked you to show him. And that’s how, today, you ended up pulling him into the confession booth in the empty church.

You shut and locked the door behind you, and then there was silence. The tension was so thick, just the sound of your breaths to fill the space, only a small amount of light leaking into the tiny room.

“Are you sure about this?” you asked. “There is no going back. You will only be pretending to be the good church boy. You will be like me,” You reach out and hold his face in one hand and the nape of his neck with the other, leaning in to whisper in his ear, “a sinner.”

You feel him nod. “Use your words.”

“Yes. I’m sure.”

“And you are not scared?” you ask further.

“No. If it is truly a sin, and should I wish to repent, God is merciful. He will take me back,” he says.

You let out a breathy laugh. “And if you don’t wish to repent?”

He wrapped his arms around your waist and pulled you closer. “Then I suppose hell can’t be that bad if you’ll be there, my own beautiful temptress.”

You laughed again. “So much for the good little church boy.”

You leaned in and kissed him. It started out slow and sweet, and you tried to pour every ounce of passion and honey as you can into every movement. He seemed to follow your lead leaning into you so much you were leaning back with him. You bit his lip, and then took his gasp to press your tongue into his mouth. He moans a little, surprised at the intrusion and starts sucking on it.

You slowly move him back until his back hits the wall of the booth, pressing yourself close to his body. You tug his hair while your other hand starts to roam, slowly feeling its way past each dip in his defined chest and abdomen. You hook a finger in his belt loop and use it to pull his hips even further against you, forcing him to break the kiss and let out a moan. You move to kiss his neck, or at least the little bit you could reach with his unbuttoned collar. He moans again, and then again even louder when your hips forward. “What is your favorite scripture?” you ask. “Recite it for me, and don’t stop or I’ll stop.”

“What-” he asks as you unbutton his pants while you attack his neck with your mouth again. He gasps when you pull down his zipper, and then you reach your fingers into the waistband of his boxer briefs, eventually grasping his cock with only the tips of your fingers. He lets out a needy groan, rolling his hips into your touch, but you don’t move any further.

“Recite it, or I’m not going to do anything.”

He takes a second to gather his thoughts enough. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not wa-want.” He stutters when you pull his waistband down and bring his cock out, hissing at the cold air. You give it one stroke, and then stop, waiting for him to continue.

“He maketh me to lie d-down in green pastures-” You start stroking him slowly, rubbing your thumb over his slit once to gather his pre-come. You continue kissing his neck until you find a sweet spot that makes him whimper.

“-he leadeth me be-beside the still waters.” You move faster, pumping lightly with each stroke, while you pull his hair with the hand still resting there.

“He restoreth my s-soul-” His grip on you tightens, hands grabbing fistfulls of the material of your church dress. “-he leadeth me in the p-paths of righteousness for his -ngh- name's sake.”

“Yea, though I wa-alk through the valley of the sha-hadow of death, I will f-fear no evil-” you move your kisses to the other side of his neck, and he throws his head back against the wood of the booth.

“-for thou art with m-me; thy rod and thy s-staff they co-co-comfort me- ” You then get on your knees in front of him, licking the tip of his cock, hand still stroking his length. “-Shit!”

You snicker, giving a long lick up the underside before looking up at him. “Don’t swear when you are reciting scripture, sinner.” -he moans at the nickname- “Keep going.”

He whines again before he continues, voice considerably higher.

“Th-thou preparest a ta-able before me in the pre-esence of mine enemies-” You take the head of his cock into your mouth, sucking lightly. He lets out a guttural groan.

“-thou anointest m-my head with o-oil-” your hand that isn’t preoccupied with stroking the part of his cock that is not deep in your mouth is making its way under to cup his balls.

“-my cup ru-runneth over.” He muffles a whine with one hand while the other makes its way into your hair.

He pulls his hand away from his mouth to recite the next part. “Surely g-goodness and merc-cy shall follow me all the d-days of my life- ngh!” You are bobbing your mouth farther and farther each time, and he has to refrain from thrusting his cock deeper into your mouth.

“-and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. Fuck, I’m so close-” He finishes his scripture, and you take him as far as you can and swallow, the squeezing of your throat around his cock almost sending him over the edge. You lift your mouth off of him with a pop, and he whines like a hurt puppy. “No- Please- Why?”

You stand back up and turn him, making sit on the seat to your left, before you push your skirt up around your hips and straddle him. “You didn’t think I was gonna let you have all the fun, did you?”

You grip his cock again, rubbing the tip over the wet spot on your panties. Both of you let out a moan together, pressing your foreheads together. His hands fly to your hips, gripping them tightly.

“Are you okay with this?” You ask again before you continue.

He nods, the thin ray of light peeking into the booth in a perfect spot to show the desire in his eyes. “Yes, please. Please let me feel you. I’m not turning back.” He kisses you again, short but passionately. “Ruin me.”

You whine at his words, then you pull your soaked panties to the side and line his cock up with your entrance before you sink down on him, ever so slowly. Deep, long moans come from both of you. You kiss him again when he is fully sheathed inside you.

“Would you like for me to recite my favorite scripture for you?” you ask him, foreheads together while you adjust to his large size. “It was from a woman to her lover, and I feel like it fits the situation nicely.”

He nods, interested. “Enlighten me.”

“My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.” You start to move agonizingly slowly up and down his length. He buries his face in your neck to muffle his noises and grips your hips even harder, and you were sure you would have bruises in the shape of his hands the next day.

“His head is as the most fine gold; his locks are bushy, and black as a raven.” You tangle your hands into his own hair and he attaches his lips to the side of your neck like you had done to him.

“His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set.” You start to move faster, rolling your hips with each thrust.

“His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers; his lips like lilies, dropping sweet-smelling myrrh.” You feel his hips stutter as he struggles to keep from thrusting up into you.

“His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl-” He loses the fight, and starts jerking his hips up as you sink down, causing him to go way deeper, hitting your sweet spot and making you moan. “-his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires.”

“His legs are as pillars of marble set upon sockets of fine gold; his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.” You take one of his hands from your hips and press it between you against your clit, ripping a whine out of you.

“His mouth is most sweet-“ you move impossibly faster, even with your thighs growing tired. Your combined sounds and heavy breaths resonate within the confined box.

“I’m close- is it ok if I…” He asked. You nod pulling him close, lips hovering only a hair away from his.

“-yea, he is altogether lovely.” You kiss him deeply as you reach your high, hands harshly pulling his hair and gripping his shoulder. The squeezing from your release sent him over the edge, and he pulled your hips flush to his, coating your insides.

As you come down from your orgasms, you finish the scripture. “This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.”

The two of you sit in silence for a minute, catching your breaths.

“Holy shit-” he says, and you let out a breathy laugh as you pull off of him, both of you wincing at the sensitivity. “I see why you do this now.”

“Are you gonna regret this and never talk to me again?” You ask, standing up and fixing yourself up.

“Hell no.” He puts himself away and zips and buttons his pants. You feel his hands rest on your hips, and you wrap your arms around his neck, leaning in for another kiss.

“What do we tell our parents if they ask where we’ve been?”

“Tell them we were doing private bible study and shared our favorite verses. And maybe ask if we can see each other more often for “bible study” sessions,” you added before stealing another kiss.

“Sounds good to me,” he said. “That’s the only kind of bible study I’ll need from now on. If god is real and merciful, he can forgive me when the day comes. I have the only god I want to believe in right here in my arms.”

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likeshipsonthesea · 3 years

Note

I don’t know if you take requests for nurseydex fics... but if you do the song “omg did she call him baby” by Beth McCarthy screams a heartbroken Nursey when Dex has a girlfriend

i like really can’t do genuine heartbreak but i CAN do angst that ends happy, so here’s my best shot :)

Nursey’s got a red Solo cup in one hand and a plastic champagne flute in the other and it’s sometime after three but before five and he is definitely not thinking about her or him or them together when he looks up between one sip and another to see the telltale blue hair reflecting the murky spotlights of the basement.

Nursey squints. He could be making things up--his brain is nice like that-- but he doesn’t think he’s imagining things. She’s got very distinctive hair, Dex’s--girlfriend. It’d been rather disappointing, actually, the blue hair. The whole thing had been easier to deal with when he’d been picturing some light-haired brunette going for an economics degree who smiled like a mom at soccer practice. Someone who Nursey could reasonably dislike on grounds of, like, predictability.

But no, Dex had to bring home a blue-haired physics major with a nose ring and good taste in music and the ability to out-argue Shitty while polishing off Bitty’s pie, i.e. perfect. Even Lardo couldn’t pretend like she wasn’t awesome for Nursey’s sake. Even Nursey can’t pretend like Amanda isn’t awesome for his own sake. She’s just so--so--

Nursey squints.

So-- making out with some random girl in a blouse at a frat party.

What the fuck.

Nursey is about two margaritas and three years too deep to be dealing with the emotional ramifications of catching the girlfriend of his best friend (who he’s also kind of sort of possibly maybe totally in love with) macking on some consultant for Goldman Sachs or some shit in the basement of arguably one of the worst frats at Samwell. This one doesn’t even have good music, Nursey’s only here to get drunk without the possibility of Dex calling Nursey Patrol and helping Nursey up the stairs and saying nothing about the poetry Nursey spills or the way his hands linger.

(Fuck does Nursey hate Nursey Patrol, fuck does he hate how much he loves it.)

Nursey downs the rest of the champagne flute--which was probably mostly orange juice at this point anyway-- and hands the red Solo cup to a freshman gearing himself up to talk to a cute boy a few feet away and then Nursey gets the fuck out of dodge. He manages to get a better look at the corporate recruiter Amanda is cheating on Dex with (and really, if you’re going to cheat on Dex, you’re really going to pick a chick in a blouse that probably has opinions on the stock market???) and if he hadn’t been sure before, the distinctive tattoo on Amanda’s shoulder proves that it’s really her.

(“Tattoos? Tattoos? I have tattoos.” “I know you do, Nurse.” “They’re really nice tattoos.” “I know they are, Nurse.”)

Emerging from the basement and then the frat house itself is instantly sobering. The chill from winter hasn’t quite left the air at night and Nursey wraps his arms around himself and doesn’t think about how Dex chirped him about not wearing a coat before he’d left. The frat isn’t far away from the Haus, thank god, but it is slightly farther when he turns left instead of right and then has to a backtrack a bit, but he still gets back in under ten minutes and he can still feel his hands, so overall, a win.

Attempting to get into the Haus quietly is a lost cause, given its one thousand year old floor and the fact that a ladybug could fart in the kitchen and wake up the guys in the attic. Still, Nursey gives it the good college try, which is why he’s creeping ridiculously through the living room when the light turns on suddenly and he screams, much to the amusement of Dex, standing in the kitchen doorway.

“Fuck, dude, what the fuck.”

Dex just smirks in that horribly attractive way of his. “How was the Psi-U basement?”

Nursey thinks of blue hair, washed out in the lights, Amanda’s hand on that girl’s cheek, the way Dex smiles when he’s around her. “Fine,” Nursey says, swaying.

The amusement falters and Nursey wishes he could figure out a way to keep the smile on Dex’s face the way Amanda does. Dex takes a step closer. “Are you alright?”

Nursey shakes his head violently and takes a step back, a step farther away. This is the part where he says yes, yes of course Dexy-darling, I’m right as rain, what about you? This is the part where Dex rolls his eyes and loops his arm around Nursey’s waist, his warm side pressed into Nursey’s. The part where they go upstairs, where Nursey writes his best poetry that he’s too embarrassed to write down when he’s sober, where Dex tells him to sleep well and lingers outside the doorway long enough for Nursey’s breathing to slow and then the floor creaks and Nursey knows he’s gone and wishes he’d held on just a little bit longer--

“Nursey, what’s wrong?”

Nursey shakes his head again. He means to say nothing, he means to say, I’m going to bed, he means to-- “Amanda, she--”

The concern turns to alarm. Why can’t Nursey ever make it better? “Is she alright? Did you see her? Is she okay?”

Nursey shakes his head again. He can’t seem to stop doing that. “She’s fine, she--she--” He swallows, and it’s sticky, cloying, citrusy and sweet on the back of his tongue. “She--there was this girl, she-- Amanda, she--”

Dex won’t stop frowning, concern knitting his eyebrows together with three short wrinkles, and Nursey has wanted to smooth them out with his fingertips every time he sees them since sophomore year, and he shouldn’t be doing this, shouldn’t be telling Dex this while he’s drunk, shouldn’t be telling Dex this at all, but he’s Nursey’s friend first and Nursey has to believe he’d tell Dex regardless of the love thing, he must--

“She was kissing some girl. In the Psi-U basement.”

The wrinkles smooth out. The amusement returns. Nursey--he can’t make sense of it over the ringing in his ears. Why is Dex smiling? Did--did Nursey do that?

“Did she look like a lawyer?” he asks, and at Nursey’s confusion clarifies, “The girl Amanda was kissing. Did she look like a lawyer?” Nursey nods dumbly. Dex’s smile only grows. Nursey is so, so confused and also more in love than he’s ever been. “Finally. I just won fifty bucks.”

What the fuck. “What the fuck.”

Dex laughs--laughs. “The girl’s name is Tammy. She graduated last year and moved to Boston. Amanda’s been in love with her forever, and I bet her that she’d get with Tammy before I--” Flush appears high on Dex’s cheeks, the soft pink one that means embarrassment and Nursey imagines would taste like cherry pie against his lips.

Nursey is--still quite a bit drunk. He needs--clarification. “You--you bet your girlfriend that she would get with her friend at a frat party?”

Dex’s nose scrunches up in Nursey’s favorite way--the same way it does when he’s trying to write humanities essays, the reason Nursey always says yes when Dex asks for help. “Girlfriend? Did you think Amanda was my girlfriend?”

Nursey remembers the start, hearing about Amanda every other day, then every day, then it was, sorry I can’t come, I’m meeting Amanda at-- and then one day at Annie’s, a girl with blue hair and a sharp grin yelled Babe! from across the room and planted a kiss on Dex’s cheek, her hand lingering on his shoulder, sipping from his coffee cup, getting him to smile like that--

“Well, yeah.” Nursey’s head is spinning and, for the first time tonight, not from the gin. “Is she--is she not?”

“Oh God, no, she’s so fucking gay, dude.” Laughter twinkles in Dex’s eyes. Nursey is drunker than he’s been since freshmen year of high school when Shitty snuck in some of his dad’s hard liquor and the janitors found them on the roof singing Disney songs at the moon. Dex’s girlfriend is gay. Dex’s girlfriend isn’t his girlfriend. Dex is--is smiling at him like he smiles at his girlfriend who isn’t his girlfriend.

“Oh,” Nursey says, dazed, “chill.”

“Oh wow,” Dex grins, leaning into the doorframe, “I can’t believe you thought--and you thought telling me my girlfriend was cheating on me at 3am while shit-drunk was a good idea?”

Nursey says, “Hey, honesty is important, and I’m not--” He stops. He remembers something. He squints. “Wait. If you bet 50 bucks on Amanda getting with Tammy, who did Amanda bet you would get with?”

The cherry pie blush is back. Nursey takes an absent-minded step forward. The room feels so much lighter now that Dex’s girlfriend isn’t cheating on him. The distance between them feels so much sillier now that Dex doesn’t have a girlfriend.

“Ah, well.” Dex rubs at the back of his neck, all country bumpkin sheepish to ask his sweetheart to the dance, and--and--

“I’m the sweetheart,” Nursey realizes with the kind of crystal clarity only afforded by the most copious amounts of alcohol.

Dex’s eyebrows furrow, those sweet little wrinkles appearing between them, and Nursey takes two long strides forward and presses his thumb into them. Dex goes cross-eyed trying to watch, but moves his eyes to meet Nursey’s after a moment.

Nursey grins, likely a bit sloppy from the gin, but he can’t find it in himself to care at the moment. “I’m the sweetheart,” he repeats, beaming.

Dex tries to repress the smile at his lips. “You’re not a sweetheart.”

“Yes I am,” Nursey sings, listing forwards. “You like me.”

“You’re an asshole.” Dex’s smile grows. Nursey watches its progress and sways.

“They’re not mutually exclusive,” he says, tracking the pink lips as they spread, revealing teeth and--and tongue and--

“I hate that you can still say mutually exclusive when you’re this drunk.”

“I’m not that drunk.”

“Yeah?”

“Mhmm. See, I’ll prove it.”

“How do you plan on--”

If Dex’s mouth weren’t so preoccupied, he might say that the taste on Nursey’s tongue is a good indication that he is in fact fairly tipsy, but as it is--well. He’s got other things to do.

(Amanda asserts that they tied since it happened on the same night and only pays $25. Tammy throws in five more and a condom and they call it even. Nursey kisses away Dex’s protest and pockets the condom, much to Amanda’s amusement. Turns out, she’s even cooler when she isn’t dating the love of Nursey’s life.)

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sneezefiction · 4 years

Text

soft nekoma sleepover

Nekoma x Reader - Sleepover Headcanons

a/n: the Nekoma portion of my soft sleepover series :,,) my friends and i have had rough weeks so far and i thought this would be a sweeter way to cope <33

warnings: none!

wc: 1280

---

you’ve always been such a strong person

whether you’d had a rough week full of assignments and exams or there was tension with your family/friends, you would always manage to hold your head up high and push through it all with a convincing smile on your face

but this past week finally pushed you over your limits

as you walked into Nekoma’s volleyball practice that Friday afternoon, manager’s clipboard in hand, you tried to keep up your usual peppy expression on

...but the smile refuses to reach your eyes

Yaku greets you warmly, expecting a big grin and a soft hug from you, but all you could do was ruffle his hair and walk quickly to your seat, holding in tears of frustration

this threw him for a loop and Yaku definitely asks you what’s wrong and if Lev did anything to upset you because, and i quote,

“I will fight him right here, right now. Just say the word.”

you just shake your head and stand up to give him a quick, wordless hug, which only leaves him more confused?? because he wants to fix this and you’re being really quiet??

Kenma then notices your gloomy presence and mentions it to Kuroo who’s eyes snapped your way quizzically

you were clearly upset and, if they weren’t completely mistaken, you looked like you’d been… crying?

Kuroo wasn’t having it at all bc you, of all people, deserve to be happy & smiling

he calls the boys in for a huddle but Kuroo asks you to wait on the bench with that trademark sneaky smile on his face

as they all converse, you see heads pop up and turn around to glance at you, Lev and Yamamoto’s concerned expressions making it obvious that you were the topic of conversation

it became clear that, even without words, your misery hadn’t escaped them… you couldn’t decide whether it was a blessing or a curse

“Alright!” Kuroo’s volume gains your attention

everyone turns to you and you feel as though you’re shrinking under their gazes

“We have a proposition for you, Y/n…” Kenma explains quietly

“More like a demand, but whatever you say Kenma.” Kuroo cuts in, with a slight drawl

“How about you come over to my place tonight? We’ve not had a team sleepover since our last training camp and none of us are busy tonight.” the quiet setter finishes

Kenma sounds reluctant, his eyes shifting from the floor to the wall, avoiding your gaze as much as possible

yet one glance over to you reminds him why he’s offering up his precious Friday night

a real smile graces your previously downcast face, which makes all the boys go silent in awe of what a simple sleepover suggestion could do

now cut to Kenma’s house where he has two consoles of Mario Kart already set up bc it’s the only game that everyone on the team knows how to play

you get there last, much to your own dismay, because you had hoped to feel more settled before interacting with all of the boys again

just before you walked in, Inuoka made sure that everyone was smiling, welcoming, and that there’d be no fights (@ Yaku)

and the team agreed that tonight was all about you: their precious manager who really needed some encouragement and fun in their life

the moment you set foot inside, you’re met with cheery faces, bowls of popcorn, “cards against humanity” on the table, and a spot on the sofa (that you have to assume is meant just for you)

everybody looks SO DAMN COMFY:

Kai, Kuroo, Lev and Fukunaga are in name brand sweatpants and soft t-shirts, Shibayama, Inuoka, and Yaku are in clean workout shorts, Kenma is in a trendy sweatshirt and the rest of him is covered by a weighted blanket, and Yamamoto & Teshiro are in their volleyball uniforms from earlier (ew)

you get a quick nod and a brief smile from Kenma (basically Kenma was never meant to be a Professional Host™), but the rest of the boys are ✨Beaming✨ as you look them over

and your heart swells because this is exactly what you needed. to be in the presence of these sweet, granted kinda sweaty, guys where there were no goals or deadlines to be met

Kuroo’s grin quickly catches your eye and he pats the open couch seat next to him

and conversations take off smoothly and sweetly, the airspace full of friendly taunts, crude jokes, and screams from Lev’s being hit by 3 blue shells in a single game of Mario Kart

after several hours of you beating their asses with Princess Peach on Rainbow Road, everyone ends up splayed out across each other for the sake of comfort

your head found its way to Kuroo’s lap (the two of you being both third years, classmates, and close friends) and his hands move to give you a much needed scalp massage

you feel the weight of the world melt off your shoulders. it’s like one night was all you needed to clear your head and at least help you back onto your feet

with your legs dangling off the arm of the couch, Kuroo’s hand now just gently stroking your arm, you decide to thank them for tonight as best you could, because you’ve not felt this happy in what seems like months

“I just want to let you kids know that you’re all the best.” you cut through everyone’s conversations, voice resting on their ears for a moment

“And, uh, not to be disgustingly cheesy… but I really love you guys.”

you cover your eyes, acting as though you were embarrassed, but in reality you feel tears threatening to spill out

Kuroo’s expression falls for a moment, because he’s not stupid and can tell you’re still processing everything

so he simply lifts your hands off of your eyes and you, with a perfect tear skimming the side of your face, can’t help but let out a soft, relieved laugh

it’s silent for a second, but Kuroo just smiles & opens his mouth to say something

but he’s interrupted by some rude-ass kids (Yamamoto & Inuoka) shouting out their love for you and rushing over to smother you in tearful hugs

you’re saved by Yaku, who’s grabbed them both by the backs of their shirts, stopping them in their emotional, hug-giving tracks

but your giggles continue, now laughing at all their surprised expressions and Kuroo’s peeved one from getting cut-off

so you hop up off the couch, place your hands on your hips and allow their eyes to rest on you before swinging your arms open wide with the sweetest, most genuine smile you can muster

“Well, are y’all gonna come hug me, or should I just go now?”

queue a small stampede of boys tackling you (gently) to the floor, laughter bubbling from every mouth, and warmth that spreads from the outside, in

in between the chuckles, shoves, and “get off of me’s” you hear a phrase tumble out of Kenma’s mouth

“We love you too, y/n.”

it was supposed to be unheard, lost in the tumbling around you, but those three words then took traction in individual ways with different boys

“We love you!”

“I love ya.”

“You’re kinda okay, I guess...”

“Marry me, y/n!”

“Shut up, Yamamoto!”

you would always have a place with them, no matter how bad things got and no matter what anyone said about you

because whenever you needed them, they’d be sure to show up, just as you’d do for them

---

soft team sleepover series

soft shiratorizawa sleepover

soft karasuno sleepover

soft seijoh sleepover

soft fukurodani sleepover

---

tags: @cherryonigiri, @yams046, @miss-rin, @shou-kunn, @senkuwu-chan, @super-noya, @stcrryskies, @holaaaf, @sugacookiies, @vintgicals, @moonlightaangel, @kit-tea, @theworldupthere, @sugasugawarau, @star-puff, @akaashisupremacy

(comment, dm, or send an ask to be added to my general tag list - blogs in bold could not be tagged)

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chocolatecakecas · 3 years

Text

Rockin' the Suburbs: Chapter 4

chp1 chp2 chp3 or read on ao3

After an afternoon of failed research attempts, Dean found himself carrying an excited Jack in his arms, walking up the sidewalk, hand in hand with Cas. Which didn't immediately send Dean's mind running wild because it honestly was starting to feel natural. Which of course is what sent Dean's mind running, but at least the act of Cas grabbing his hand wasn't the real source of the freak out anymore.

Dean's fine by the way. Totally cool and normal and under control.

"You ready?" Dean asks as they come to a stop at the back gate.

"As I'll ever be" Cas quips, giving Dean's hand a squeeze, which he gratefully returns.

"Holy shit" Dean gasps, jaw-dropping, head quickly snapping towards Cas.

"I agree completely...." Cas trails off, as he drags Dean further into the backyard.

There were people, food, drinks, tents, music blasting, and lights strung up everywhere. And a giant fire pit in the center, with crowds of people hovering around it, roasting marshmallows and hotdogs.

How many people lived in this damn neighborhood?

"So see any fugly faces?"

"If you're talking about demons, then no-"

"Well, what about that lad-"

"No she's no-"

"What about that group, those guys seem kinda-"

"No Dea-"

"Okay well, what about th-"

"Dean if I see a demon I'll be sure to let you know, promptly" Cas sighs, clearly exasperated, which only causes Dean to smile wider.

(read the rest under the cut)

"Okay.....but what abo-"

"Hi guys! Oh my god, we're so glad you decided to come!"

Their heads snap over to see Molly and Jason making their way towards them.

"Time to schmooze with the capitalists" Dean whispers to Cas, earning an elbow jack to the rib, but when he looks over, he sees amusement in Cas' eyes.

"Your home is lovely" Cas gushes when they're within earshot.

"Yeah, this is quite the rager you've got going on back here" Dean muses, earning bright smiles from the pair.

"Thank you! But Amanda's already managed to find at least ten things wrong with the decor, or the lights, or the food" Molly grumbles, as Jason gently rests his arm around her waist.

"Seriously, and Bill picked up every bottle of wine and inspected the year. As if these people aren't drunk enough to even care about the aged taste" Jason continues with an eye roll.

"Oh! Speaking of drinks what can we get you? We've got beer, wine from the wrong years, whiskey, scotch? You name it we've got it"

Shit. Dean hasn't had to talk about this with anyone outside of his family, but his dumbass should have thought about it. He is a party after all.

"Oh um..." Dean starts, but trails off realizing he didn't actually think through what he was going to say. His mouth has been doing that a lot lately.

"Oh we actually don-"Cas rushes in, giving Dean's hand a squeeze, which makes Dean's breath hitch.

Dean was floundering like an idiot and Cas cut in to help. That stupid, undiscussed swirling feeling dancing in his stomach, and he also can't help the dopey grin that spreads across his lips.

"I actually don't drink anymore, not since this little bug came around. But Cas here will definitely take a beer" Dean smiles, giving Jack a little bounce in his arms.

"Dean are you sur-"

"Yeah babe, it's good. I promise. Have a beer, you dork" Dean says turning to fully look at Cas so he gets that he means it. And he must because Cas gives a small smile back, which definitely doesn't make his stomach flip.

They turn back to the pair, praying they get the memo so Dean doesn't have to explain any further.

"Oh! So we have water, seltzer soda. We've got sprite, rootbeer-" Molly quickly moves to offer.

"A coke is good if you have it" Dean interrupts before Molly lists every single brand of soda they've got. And with a nod, Jason jogs off to get their drinks.

"Oh! Jack's probably itching to play with the rest of the kids. There's a whole section set up on the far side of a yard, keeping them far away from that fire pit! But don't worry, a handful of the parents are taking shifts" Molly rushes to add, as she points them in the right direction.

The two turn to follow her finger, Dean's eyes blowing wide at the sight. Four different size bounce houses, two jungle gyms, a huge sandbox, and pretty much every toy you can imagine. And yeah there's things definitely for toddlers, but Dean can only focus on the height of the slides and the amount of kids jumping inside that inflatable nightmare.

His hold only tightens around Jack, as he glances down hurriedly at Cas. But to his surprise Cas isn't gazing horrified at kid-sized deathtraps, he's smiling brightly, eyes shining.

Dean's gotta put his foot down. There's no way, it's too dangerous

"I don't know Jack's neve-"

"Exactly, why he should. There is more than enough equipment his size, and looks like there's plenty of kids around his age. And we both agreed it would be good for him to play with more children his own age, remember?" Cas supplies calmly, resting a hand over his shoulder. The heat radiating through Dean's jacket is doing nothing to put him at ease.

"Yeah but that fire-"

"Is perfectly safe. See, there's at least six parents over there right now. We can even take a shift watching the kids soon if you'd like?" Cas offers in the same tone, eyes shining with sincerity. And Dean manages to pull his gaze away long enough to glance over at the kids' party zone again.

There's a sort of gate squared off in the corner of the yard, with a large and small bouncy house, and what looks like a group of parents watching every move intently.

Cas is right. Jack will be fine. Of course, he will be. And if he's not, they'll just kill whoever's responsible. Stupid angels and their stupid sound logic.

"Alright, you're right" Dean sighs in defeat, as he gears up to walk across the yard. Besides Dean can probably use this as a chance to talk to some of the other paren-

And it happens so fast Dean almost misses it.

But he sure as hell feels it.

There's a heat on his cheek that quickly comes and goes, but there's a lingering warmth that blossoms in its place, spreading across his entire face and down his neck. Lighting shooting through his veins with a jolt, and of course that swirling feeling is back.

What the hell?

Dean's slowly turns towards the source and sees Cas smiling up at him. There's a nervousness dancing behind his features, the kind that's only visible to the trained eye. His hand his still on his shoulder, but he's closer now-wait.

Dean's entire brain short circuits as it works to catch up with the rest of his body, most importantly with his face and that whole lightning thing going on.

Then his brain finally snaps back into action, sending his stomach flipping, that swirling thing looping right along with it.

Because Cas kissed him.

Cas kissed him. On the cheek. Like it was nothing.

And the culprit refocuses in his vision, still smiling up at him anxiously, blue eyes searching his features. And Dean without even thinking, smiles back, which seems to settle Cas.

"I'm very proud of you for making the mature fatherly decision, now go! I'm sure Jack's dying for a turn on that bouncy thing" Cas teases, shoving Dean away, and he vaguely hears Molly giggling behind him. Dean doesn't even have time to process what he said before he's walking across the grass.

Actually, Dean isn't processing anything at the moment.

Because Cas just kissed him on the cheek like it was nothing, and Dean's face is on fire while his heart does its damnedest to pound its way out of his chest. Because now Dean Winchester is having a flustered meltdown over a friggin kiss on the cheek like he's thirteen again?

But it was more than that. Because he sure as hell didn't think Cas would go for it first so what i-

Dean almost stalls, but quickly forces his feet to keep moving as his stomach twists.

Because that feeling, the feeling Dean doesn't talk about is swirling in his stomach, bubbling upwards, trying t-nope.

Dean clenches the hand, that isn't currently supporting Jack, into a fist, nails digging into his palm. It was just a peck on the cheek it didn't mean shit. They had talked all about PDA, and both agreed to it, so that's all it was. It was a kiss for the sake of the case, all for the act.

So Dean tries to shove it from his mind, but failing to get rid of the warmth still radiating through his body and the tingling on his cheek. But hey, he isn't perfect.

He thankfully makes it over to the kid's section in one piece, but unfortunately, an over-excited mom immediately spots him.

"Hi I'm Maria, I don't recognize you, so must be one of our new neighbors!" Maria practically cheers, and Dean doesn't buy her false enthusiasm for a second, but he plasters a smile on his face ready to play the part.

"Yeah I'm-"

"I spotted you and your husband carrying boxes in yesterday! Didn't look like you had very much hmm?" Maria continues as if she hadn't heard him. And Dean didn't miss that little dig and he definitely didn't miss the way she emphasized husband.

"Yup that's me, Dean Richardson, and this is my son Jack" Dean says before she has a chance to cut him off again.

"Pleasure to meet you two! Now I assure you Jack is in good hands, you've got some of the best parents on duty right now!" Maria jokes and Dean has a feeling she's a little tipsy, which only increases his nerves. At least there's some other capable-looking parents standing around.

Maria continues to chatter loudly about god knows what, so he ignores her opting to carefully stand Jack on the ground, crouching to his level.

"Alright Squish, you're gonna hang out over here and have some fun with the rest of the kids! Me and your Dad are going to be right over there" Dean says excitedly, which only makes Jack even more excited.

"So if you need us, you tell one of the other grown-ups, and we'll come right over. And remember the rules kiddo? No mojo, capiche?" Dean reminds, whispering the last part.

"Capeesh!" Jack promises and Dean can't help but smile. So reluctantly, he presses a kiss to Jack's hair, and gently nudges him towards the other kids, watching as he runs away laughing.

"He's such a little cutie! Oh look he's playing with my Ella" Maria gushes while Dean silently prays Jack will drop that kid so he doesn't have to Maria and her false sweetness, ever again.

"Yeah, adorable. Anyway, my husband and I will gladly take a shift watching the little rugrats a-"Dean starts trying his best to sound like he doesn't want to strangle her.

"Oh no I wouldn't dream of it! It's your first party in the neighborhood, we have more than enough capable parents on duty tonight! Get back to your husband, drink, mingle!" Maria interrupts shoving him away, and Dean has no choice but to obey, unless he wanted to cause a scene. Which he did want to, because he was practically fuming from that subtle dig at capabilities at a parent, but he couldn't he had the damn case to think about.

And with a final glance to assure Jack was okay, Dean quickly surveys the crowd, easily spotting Cas' leather. He begins to make his way over, but suddenly the memories from five minutes ago come rushing back leaving him frozen.

Cas had kissed him-yeah it was on the cheek, but it was a kiss nonetheless. And that stupid swirling feeling began to bubble up in his stomach, unable to move as the-

"Dean, over here man!" Jason calls from across the yard, effectively kicking Dean's back into gear, as he made his way over to them.

Stuff it Winchester, focus on the case. It's all for the case.

So Dean jogs, over stopping next to Cas, who was lightly laughing along with Jason and Molly. Jason hands him a bottle, an honest-to-god glass bottle of Coke. They probably had to buy hundreds of these, must have cost a fortune.

"Is Jack all settled?" Cas asks, the slight worry on his face. And so without thinking, Dean takes his hand giving it a gentle squeeze.

"Yeah babe, kiddo is having the time of his life over there," Dean says with a sweet smile, pet name rolling off his tongue like nothing as he meets his eyes. Cas only responds with a smug smirk that says "I told you so", which definitely didn't make Dean's stomach flip.

"So, new neighbors let's get the good gossip out of the way before the bitch squad corners us. Tell us about yourselves! What do you guys do for a living?" Molly teases, effectively snapping them out of their staring contest.

Showtime

"Well I'm a mechanic, still looking for a good space in the area to set up shop, but Cas here is all set with a position at Amherst College in the sprin-" Dean begins, gushing about Cas like a proud husband.

"Dean, of course, is wildly underselling himself. He specializes in classic car restoration" Cas cuts in also like a proud husband, but there's a hint of sincerity in his voice that twists Dean's heart.

"Wow! So that gorgeous Impala really is your's after all?" Molly asks in awe.

"Yeah that's my Baby, rebuilt her after a crash a while back, she's been in the family for years" Dean shrugs, hand instinctively reaching for the back of his neck, but he can't help the little sense of pride that swells in his chest. He feels Cas squeeze his hand, but before he can glance over Jason starts talking.

"And Cas, Amherst that's impressive! What course do you teach?"

"English literature, and global history" Cas answers. They decided to tack on the history on account of Cas knowing pretty much all of history, and that it might be an in seeing as weirdo rich people are often weirdo history buffs.

"Oh I actually teach history over at the high school" Jason reveals, and Dean has to hold back a laugh.

Weirdo rich people, weirdo history buffs. Score.

"Well looks like we're surrounded by academics! Amherst, an incredible school, but that's a bit of a commute from here, isn't it?

"Oh it's not too bad, and the drive is all worth it if we get to live in this beautiful neighborhood. But what about you, Molly?" Cas deflects smoothly shooting them a charming smile-that Dean definitely didn't find charming.

"Oh, I'm a real estate lawyer. That's how we're in this gorgeous neighborhood" Molly jokes, Jason laughing along.

Real estate law, Dean tucks away that info for later because maybe that's how they got their house on the market and sold so quickly.

"Hey everyone, sorry to interrupt but we just wanted to introduce ourselves to the new neighbors," A shorter man says as he appears on the other side of Cas, with another man in tow.

"Oh come join the real party, anything to stay away from those vultures" Molly snorts with an eye roll, earning a laugh from everyone.

"I'm Tom, and this is my husband Stephen" The man, Tom, supplies as they each stretch out a hand. Dean reluctantly lets go of Cas' hand, and as they each shake their's, exchanging greetings.

Turns out Tom and Stephen live right across the street from them. Great, they're gonna have to get in extra good with them, because they might have seen something the night of the murders.

"So, we were giving these two the rundown on our lives, before Amanda and Bill start circling" Molly groans, and Tom and Stephen launch into discussing what they do for a living. Dean, of course, listens very intently, as he tries not to think about the sudden loss of warmth in his hand.

But he really doesn't have to think too long because he finds Cas' arm is curling around friggin waist.

Dean's eyes instantly snap up, as he tries to keep his expressions in check, but he can feel the heat creeping over his cheeks. Cas only gives him a nervous look, which makes Dean's chest tighten at the sight. Damnit.

Because yeah Cas keeps taking the lead, but he's never actually done this before, he's just doing what he thinks he should do. Cas must be anxious as fuck. And Dean's general "lets never talk about emotion or affection" attitude, probably isn't helping. He's the one who knows what to do, he should be helping ease Cas into this more, not having breakdowns every time they make eye contact.

So without really thinking, Dean slightly leans into Cas, causing him to wrap his arm around him tighter. It clearly settles Cas' nerves, because that worried look is gone, replaced with a smile, before he turns his head back to the conversation.

And Dean figures since Cas is listening, it's okay to tap out for a moment. Because excuse him, but Cas' arm is around his fucking waist, not even 20 minutes after he kissed him. Dean's just surprised he isn't passed out on the ground yet.

And that feeling-the feeling Dean of course doesn't talk-about is back and swirling around his stomach, threatening to bubble up his throat. It's making him feel nauseous, as his heart thumps against his chest.

But he can't exactly bring himself to care because there's a warmth washing over his body in waves. The heat of Cas' arm around his waist and shoulder resting against his own, radiates through his jacket. Dean can smell the worn leather mixing with Cas' cologne as he tries to focus back in on the conversation-what is he doing.

He's supposed to be getting info about the neighbors, and all he can think about is Cas' arm around his waist. Which is only there to keep up the act, and it doesn't matter that it fee-nope not even gonna go there.

Focus Winchester.

"-but enough about work, how did you two meet?" Dean catches Molly asking, and thank god he chose that moment to pull it together.

So Dean quickly meets Cas' eye. Both knowing they have to nail this part if they plan to gain anyone's trust. They hadn't exactly rehearsed it, but they are best friends who've spent over a decade lying for a living. They've got this.

Dean takes a steadying breath, ignoring the swirling and the warmth and the heart rate.

"Well, it was back in 2008. I was sort of going through a bit of a rough patch at work and was frequenting the local bar a bit too much. But maybe the hangovers were worth it, because one night this guy with wild hair and baby blues strolled in and happened to sit at the other end of the bar. And just my luck he looked about just as much of a mess as I did-no offense babe" Dean began putting on a show, and Cas rolled his eyes.

"Oh please, you didn't look half the mess that I did" Cas teases dramatically. Cas then gave him a look, leveling Dean with an arched eyebrow, causing laughter to bubble around them.

"Yeah yeah Casanova, we both looked a wreck okay? So much of a wreck that we apparently felt so sorry for each other, that we unknowingly bought one another a drink"

"After the bartender pointed out who bought me the beer, I looked up to see it was the person I had just bought a drink. So I figured he was worth a little conversation, and I moved to sit on the stool next to him" Cas continues, throwing a wink at Dean.

Damn they were good at this.

"And it turned out we were both walking disasters. I was out of a job, and Cas here had just gone through the world's worst breakup-"

"We had been together for years, and I had decided I'd had it. It was a mess, his whole family got involved. But I guess it was a good thing it was such a disaster, or I never would have gotten a drink from the gorgeous man at the end of the bar" Cas cuts back in, which definitely didn't make Dean's cheeks flare.

"Anyway, we got to talking, probably overshared way too much with a complete stranger, and called it a night. But I thought I'd be crazy to let him get away, so I practically chased him down on the street to get his number. And god was I lucky he didn't think I was a creep-"

"Actually I thought it was very romantic. Like a movie, too bad it wasn't raining. But honestly, I was just lucky he didn't think I was a creep when I called to ask him on a date the next morning" Cas jokes, earning another laugh from the group. Dean quickly surveys their faces to see that they're hooked. Time for the grande finale.

"And really the rest is history, we just sorta clicked. It sounds like bullshit, but it was like we were made for each other ya know? Cas just always knew what to say, always knew what to do to, understands me better than anyone else, helps me through every obstacle. I guess you could say he basically pulled me out of hell. And he still does, every day. There's no one else in the world I'd rather have by my side" Dean gushes, tacking on the hell line as a joke, but it didn't exactly sound like one. No, it sounded like the most sincere thing Dean's ever said, and he quickly realizes that it's not part of the act. He really means it.

He glances back over at Cas to see him slightly slack-jawed, gazing at him in soft wonder. Dean's heart picks up again, stomach swirling as he makes a little fist to ground himself.

Because of course, he means it Cas is his best friend, he's family that's nothing new. But it's more than that and yo-nope. Focus. Cas is only looking at him like that as part of the act, he's playing up.

Dean quickly tries to wrack his brain for something to say, but thankfully Molly cuts in.

"God aren't you two just the cutest, sappiest couple in the entire world! Oh my god, you're like a romcom. The perfect couple" Molly practically shouts earning a laugh from everyone and nods of agreement.

"Trust me, it wasn't as simple as a romcom. We fight, and we scream, but we always come back to each other" Cas says earnestly, looking right into Dean's eyes.

And Dean's pretty sure his heart is gonna burst through his chest because Cas' heart eyes look pretty damn convincing and it's sending his thoughts running. But thankfully, Tom and Stephen start telling the story of how they met, so Dean can thankfully push those thoughts aside. For now.

And after an hour of small talk, Dean and Cas have got a pretty good grasp on the people they're dealing with.

They learn that Stephen and Tom are both doctors at the same hospital, they have three-year-old daughter named Elizabeth. And with a glance over at the kids' section, they see that she and Jack are playing together. Another couple, Emma and Rachel come and join them all about halfway through. Emma is a cardiologist, and Rachel is a biomedical engineer, and they're in the process of adopting. They also learn that this entire week is the "Annual Autumn Festival", and there's a different event hosted by a different family each night, ending with a huge block party on Saturday night. Apparently, the school in town gives the kids a whole week off for some "district convention" with the higher ups, so they've been doing this for years.

And honestly, despite everything, Dean's actually having a good time. Yeah, these people's careers are insane, but Dean thinks they're pretty normal, and he's genuinely enjoying talking to them. And they seem to have warmed up to them, so with a slight nod from Cas, Dean goes in for the kill.

"So, we have to ask. We saw some crazy stuff in the news about this neighborhood, of course, it was after we bought the place. But we couldn't find much info about it" Dean begins gently to ease them into the conversation.

"Oh you must be talking about Carol and Mike" Rachel supplies with a frown, and a silence settles over the group.

"We're sorry, we didn't mean to pry. We were just curious sin-"Cas begins to apologize

"No, it's okay. You've got a right to know since it is about your house and all. Not your fault someone paid to keep it out of the news" Ton sighs heavily, and Stephen comfortingly presses his kiss to his temple.

"Carol and Mike were our best friends before they we-before everything" Stephen chokes out.

"We're so sorry for your loss" Dean offers, Cas nodding along.

"The night it happened, we were actually all supposed to go out to dinner. The four of us and the kids, it's a monthy tradition. But when we walked across the street to meet them, Carol answered. We should have known something was off bu-"

"Hello! I'm seeing frowns which is never a sign of a good party!" A shrill voice calls, which earns a groan from the group.

Damnit. They were so close.

Suddenly there's a shorter woman with platinum blonde hair, and a man with enough goop in his hair to grease a pan, who've both clearly had some work done.

"Hi I'm Amanda, and this is my husband Bill. You two must be our new neighbors" Amanda smiles with her too-white teeth, extending a hand with perfectly manicured nails. Of course, they are.

Dean resists the urge to roll his eyes, but with a squeeze on his side from Cas, he's reaching out his hand to shake theirs'.

"Bill, a pleasure to meet you! Nice to see you've already found your people. I know how you guys like to group up" Bill laughs with an equally blinding, white smile.

A pit drops in Dean's stomach. "Your people", who does this guy think he is? And these aren't Dean's people he's stra-

Give it a rest Winchester, you can only lie to yourself about so many things at once.

Fine so maybe they are "Dean's people", but this homophobic assclown has no right to say it, especially not like that.

"Well, not as much as your people lik-"Dean starts, only to be cut off by a pinch to his side and he whips his head towards Cas.

"Just let it go, he isn't worth it" Cas softly whispers in his ear, while he gently pulls him closer. With a huff, Dean begrudgingly lets it go.

He turns back to the conversation to see Bill and Amanda completely ignoring them, as they ramble on about nonsense. Dean quickly locks eyes with each couple, they throw him an eye roll, or a face when Amanda and Bill aren't looking.

"Oh Amanda and Bill, looks like you found the new neighbors" Molly calls slightly strained as she and Jason practically run back over.

"Yes, but sadly we don't have much time to chat with them tonight. There are still some people we must say hello to" Amanda informs, and honestly, Dean could cheer from relief.

"But you two must stop by sometime this week so we can get you properly acquainted with the neighborhood. Maybe widen the variety of your social groups" Bill snarks and Dean opens his mouth to retort but is silenced by a sharp tug from Cas.

"Thank you for the offer, bu-" Cas answers cooly before Dean even thinks about reopening his mouth.

"Perfect! Stop by Tuesday around two, we'll have lunch! But like I said we must be going, try to have a pleasant evening. Oh and Molly, that chicken looked a bit dry, might want to check on that" Amanda proclaims, and then she and Bill are disappearing into the crowd.

Dean turns to glare at Cas, who only gives him a look that reads "we'll talk about it later".

"I'm so sorry you got trapped by them. God, they're the fucking worst" Molly groans in apology

"Yeah can't argue with that" Dean grits out, still fuming from Bill's words and Amanda's stupid smirk.

"And Bill's such a homophobic bastard, thinks he's so subtle. God, what I'd give to shove a-" Emma rants, only to be cut off by a gentle shove from her wife.

"We can try to get you out of the lunch with them, we can sa-"Jason offers, but Cas of all people shuts him down.

"It's okay, if we go once and make them hate us, maybe they'll never bother us again. Oh and I'm sorry, but we really better get going. It's almost Jack's bedtime. Thank you for everything" Cas explains with a smile, shooting a look at Dean.

"Yeah, this was a killer party. So great to meet you guys, hope we see you all soon!" Dean says plastering on a smile despite his bubbling anger.

And with quick goodbyes, Cas' arm unsnakes itself from around Dean's waist. But before he can mourn the loss, he feels his hand in his dragging him silently towards the kids' section. They scoop up an exhausted, but ecstatic Jack, and carefully avoid running into Maria, as they make their way through the gate.

Now that they're alone, walking down the cold, dark sidewalk, Dean can hold it in anymore.

"God we were so damn close then, Barbie and Ken had to show up and shut the whole thing down! And now you want us to have lunch with them?" Dean rages, pointedly ignoring the way Cas' hand that isn't holding a sleeping Jack, squeezes his own. And of course, the fact that they're still holding hands.

"I know they were dicks, but I noticed them circling us for at least ten minutes, and they only rushed over as soon as we started asking about the murders. Isn't that suspicious?" Cas questions.

"Yeah I guess, but wh-"

"So I think they might be the thing we're hunting. I only agreed to lunch so we could check them out, and scope out their house" Cas continues, amusement dancing in his voice

Of course. God, it's so obvious how could Dean miss it? This whole thing is really fucking with his head.

"Alright, no need to be smug about it. But I still don't understand why you wouldn't let me tear that assclown a new one" Dean grumbles, anger quickly returning as they climb their porch steps.

Cas sighs dropping his hand, turning to look at Dean fully. Dean's heart starts up, as Cas levels him with an intense, unreadable stare.

"Because he's just some rich, homophobic asshole, who believes he's better than everyone. But he's not, because he isn't even worth your energy or thought. He doesn't know anything about us" Cas speaks, softly, as he rests a hand on Dean's shoulder. Dean suddenly realizes they're standing almost nose to nose.

"And I certainly don't care what he thinks of me or you, and I certainly don't care what he thinks of us. Because all that matters is how we think about ourselves." Cas continues purposefully, and Dean's throat constricts at the words. Dean of course knows Cas is "indifferent to sexual orientation", but he doesn't know that he-wait is Cas-

"And besides, if he's the monster. We'll get to kill him, slowly" Cas says in a mock-serious tone, which startles a laugh from Dean's throat. He's so close he can feel Cas's breath on his face, and Cas can probably hear Dean's heart racing.

But thankfully the logical part of Dean's brain is still somewhat running because it reminds him that it's all for the act. "He doesn't know anything about us", Cas was talking about the act. These people don't know they're pretending.

Because none of this is rea-

And it happens so fast that Dean almost misses it, again. But now he's watching Cas' retreating form walk through the doorway, and up the stairs. Leaving Dean, standing alone in the cold night air, his hand moving to his cheek without consent.

Cas kissed him on the cheek, again.

But this time. Nobody was around. They were completely alone, nobody to put on an act for.

That swirling feeling his back and wreaking havoc on his stomach again, while that lightning thing courses through his veins, and his mind races a mile a minute.

Dean lets out a breath, aggressively running his hands through his hair, as he stares out onto the empty street.

Because what the fuck is happening.

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feelinglikecleopatra · 3 years

Note

I do have a request: Can you do a Kanej shot where Kaz picks Inej bridal-style? Please, please!

I have not read anything like this for the two (the usual hand- holding is kinda too obvious by now) and ik how picking up bridal-style is a bit too much contact for them but let's assume they get better with touching and contact over the years- and 'Kaz picking Inej bridal-style' will be peak fluff if you don't decide otherwise!

Please Write this! :) (it had be totally fine if you don't want to)

hmmmm okay, interesting... i mean, arguably he holds her bridal style in soc after she's stabbed by oomen but i'm assuming you mean something fluffier lol

this is a bit of a challenge (creatively) cause inej being inej doesn't really need anyone carrying her, like, ever and, to boot, a disabled boy who uses a cane is not the best candidate for the job. buuuut i did have one little idea that i thought could be cute so, here you go!

let me know what you think!

inej can't stop looking at them.

its a very rare thing for her to own something pretty just for the sake of it, something meant to be kept in a box and only worn on special occasions.

the soft leather and supple soles mean the pumps are amazingly comfortable despite the two-inch heal. they're dyed the colour of ripe plums, a deep purple, which nina insisted suits inej's colouring perfectly.

and, even better, they’re perfect for tonight.

in the midst of kaz and her busy schedules, including her tendency to run off on the wraith every few months, they’ve made a habit of going to the van eck's for dinner whenever she's shoreside.

for tonight's dinner, inej is wearing her favourite cream blouse tucked into charcoal pants that taper at the ankle and, of course, her new shoes. the whole ensemble makes her feel very dolled up. though in her childhood, walking the high wire, and not to mention her time at the menagerie, the outfits she wore were many times more extravagant.

it's not like her friends expect finery. kaz certainly doesn't. but inej doesn't regret the choice when, in the darkness of his rooms, he lets his eyes slide over her and tugs on her belt loops gently.

"i like the shoes," he says lowly, settling his hands on the flare of her hips.

"is that all?"

his gaze drops to where she left the top buttons of her shirt undone, revealing the slope of her chest. humming, he slips one hand under her collar and cups her neck.

"i think so—can't think of anything else." with a thumb he tips her chin up to him. the disparity in their heights is not so great with the extra couple of inches so he need only bend down a little to brush his lips to hers. "you look beautiful," he says against her mouth before pulling away.

"hush, kaz, you'll make me blush," inej says it lightly but her tone is belied by the way her breath quickens as he smiles.

"that's the goal, my darling inej."

"we're going to be late."

"let them wait. it's only jesper and wylan."

laughing, she pulls out of his grip. "you know how wylan gets. i will not have it said that i caused him distress, come on!"

in the end, they arrive just in time.

dinner is a simple affair but delicious all the same. and besides, inej thinks, the company is worth all the lobster and caviar and bizarre delicacies in the world.

all night, inej watches her friends laugh and flirt and tease, unapologetically joyful in each others company and it makes her heart ache to think how far they've come from their years spent living at the mercy of desperation and pain.

of all the things jesper and wylan serve with dinner, inej likes the champagne best. it fizzes and skitters over her tongue, a delicate dance that makes her head feel light and fuzzy in the best possible way.

when the dessert is brought out, inej nudges her foot against kaz's under the table, tapping the toe of his polished shoe with the toe of hers. other than a subtle quirk of his eyebrow he doesn't acknowledge the contact.

there's a challenge if ever she saw one.

with one leg crossed over the other, she manages to slide her foot up the side of his calf, which garners her a twitch at the corner of his mouth. resting her foot against his good knee gets him to drop his hand under the table and reach for her ankle.

she's tipsy, drunk almost, but the feeling of his warm hand wrapped around her ankle has all her already disarranged thoughts dissembling entirely.

the warmth of his palm seeps into her skin and his thumb tracks back and forth in a slow movement inej knows is unconscious.

it gives her a moment to watch her man, to take in the way his throat works as he swallows a sip of champagne, his long fingers wrapped around his fork, the candlelight playing in his coffee-black eyes.

she finds herself quite entranced by him, endlessly counting the parts of him she loves and misses when she’s away.

some obnoxious, slurring voice in her head is telling her to list them aloud, to the group, now. the voice is sure he wouldn’t mind. inej knows better.

though she cannot be held accountable for her actions in such a state of inebriation, she resists, content to be distracted by the feel of his hand on her ankle.

by the time they’re standing on the threshold of the van eck mansion again, her promising wylan she'll be back before she ships out and kaz enduring jesper teasing him about something she'll have to get details about later, inej is swaying slightly with the background buzz of one too many drinks.

keeping one hand on his cane, kaz offers inej his arm. when she grins up at him and takes his proffered arm, his answering smile means he's very nearly laughing at her.

"don't!" she pouts.

"what?" he's all innocence.

"don't laugh at me!"

of course, kaz laughs anyway.

the way home seems long to inej. an interminable, meandering amble through the city.

beneath an iridescent spray of stars, ketterdam’s colourful facades feel wholly different. their light and music dance in the inky canals, giving life to another world beneath the waves.

arm in arm, kaz matches his pace to inej’s—almost clumsy as it is. and although the air is warm she can’t help but lean into him, the firm line of his body a precious support.

too soon, they’re back in the barrel, facing the slat. but there, in front of their door, is a large puddle, one might even go so far as to call it a minor flood.

kaz, being the sober one of the two, notices it first. when inej goes on blithely, apparently unaware, he catches her by the hand.

“awww, you wanna hold my hand?” inej coos, nose wrinkling in delight.

“no—i mean, yes, of course—but look.” kaz points at the puddle with his cane, not hiding his amusement. blinking slowly, inej looks at the slat and at the puddle and at kaz. “your new shoes,” he adds, helpfully.

“my new shoes!” inej brings a hand to her mouth, gasping. “they can’t get wet. i—i’ll have to take my usual route.”

it takes kaz a second to catch up as inej heads toward the back of the building, with the clear intention of scaling the outside.

“inej, i’m not going to let you climb a building right now.”

“oh please, you can’t stop me.”

he takes her hand again and all inej can do is blink down at the contact. “what if i asked very nicely?”

“hmmm…” leaning into him slightly, her ascent forgotten, inej says, “alright, go on.”

“please,” he whispers, tucking a stray lock behind her ear. “we’ll find some other way in, one that doesn’t give me heart palpitations.”

inej frowns at the front door, stymied in a way she normally never is. “but how? kaz, i can’t ruin my new shoes!”

one moment, she's pouting up at kaz, trying to make some kind of order out of the syrup of her thoughts, and the next, she’s in his arms.

without hesitation, kaz has scooped her up—one arm supporting her back, the other under her knees. what he’s done with his cane, inej can’t tell and she’s too lightheaded to try and figure it out.

“kaz!” a giggle escapes her and inej presses her face into his chest, trying to slow the beating of her heart. “put me down! you shouldn’t carry me!”

“why not? you’re light as a feather.”

then, kaz walks through the puddle (his own nice shoes be damned) and knocks on the door.

inej doesn’t see the look on pim’s face, she’s too busy studying the underside of kaz’s chin, indulging in the feel of his body against her, the feel of his hands on her back and legs.

“she’s fine,” kaz answers an unasked question as pim beckons them inside.

“actually, i’m quite drunk,” inej adds, primly.

the smile kaz gifts her is slow and unerringly fond. “yes, you are.”

a/n: well, there we are. can’t believe i managed to sneak in a little footsie (saw this @anonniemousefics' post recently and just had to).

#kaz brekker #inej ghafa #kaz x inej #bridal style #soc #fluff #my writing #requests #just2bubbly #drunk!inej #has that ever been done #who knows #now it has

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