#low key wrote a whole short story here

[crystal-overdrive]

🔺Ask game- what is Tav most ashamed of, and how would she react if anyone found out?

Dear Brave-Little-Avocado-Toaster,

My apologies for taking a while to get back to you on this one. I had to think for a while. While I am ashamed of how I acted, I think there are worse things you could ask me. A seven, I think. Others have tried to make me feel shame many times in my life. My mother, for failing to meet up to her expectations; my wizardly colleagues, for not having "proper" magic; my former compatriots, for choosing the path that was efficient over the one that was kind, even a number of ex-lovers who had issues with...how to put this politely...my fondness towards the gifts that The Maiden of Pain blesses us with. I am ashamed of none of these things. There is something that I feel ashamed of. I did a bad thing to a good man because he got something I wanted. This might be a long story.

Every year, the Watchful Order hosts Venture Adventus, a summer-long event where teams of students of magic compete to create a new spell. Even getting into Venture is a huge deal. It practically guarantees archmage status in the years to come. I'd been with the same man since week two of undergrad, basically. We met in Ancient Magic Soc and that was that. He was an abjuration wizard, a painfully traditional occupation for WO grads and very much in demand. So a Venture team picked him up: a mutual friend of ours from AMS plus some of their promising Blackstaff friends. I'll admit I was hurt that we weren't going to enter together, but it didn't put me off; I was recruited too. Our team was strange, to say the least. Aeren, a brilliant, yet somewhat reclusive, transmutation wizard I'd only seen at AMS or in class had built a team consisting of an evocation specialist, an artificer, a second transmutation wizard whom for sake of brevity we will just refer to as my frenemy, and me; not even a wizard, just a student of languages, who for this project learned to read the most powerful language of all: Loross. Not Netherese, the language of the commoners, but that spoken by the archmages in their flying fortresses. Aeren wanted to create a spell that would boost the power of our magic beyond current capabilities. They told us the project was to ambitious, too technical, too likely to fail. The interviewer from the Temple of Mystra called it blasphemous. Suffice to say, we didn't get in. My ex's team did. We still worked on the project, though. We had an entire free summer and five brilliant minds. It didn't matter that none of us really liked each other, not like my ex's team, who seemed to be the best of friends. It was hard, watching that. Watching them excel together. And it was even harder working alongside my frenemy, who liked to remind me that she and my ex had been in school together, of how many times she had rejected his desperate advances. She compared him to Aeren, whom she evidently lusted for.

So if those things were hard, it was easy to say yes when Aeren asked me to work late with him, to translate the romantic Lorossian language while he worked the weave, to eat good food and drink good wine, to go to the opera and the theatre while my ex was at the tavern and the mage brawl. It was easy to kiss him. It was easy to fuck him. For once I felt like I came first. I wasn't second to my sister, or to my frenemy, or to the stronger magic wielders in my class. I thought he valued me for the things I liked and, honestly, it felt good to hurt my ex, to hurt my frenemy. I wielded sex like a weapon, because I thought it was the only faculty I had. I wanted my ex to feel as powerless as I had when we'd failed to get into Venture. My patron (how I referred to Our Dark Lord at the time) encouraged this behaviour, obviously, though at the time I didn't recognise Him for what he was.

It crashed and burned, as it does. I lost my ex. He didn't deserve what I did to him. We had a future and I threw it away because I couldn't bear to be in his shadow. I could not fathom the idea of being second to an ordinary man. I thought I was first in Aeren's eyes, but I think to him I was a fantasy. He started to tell me how we'd sip wine from his floating fortress, and for a while I believed it. That was until he met someone else, and I was second again. What I'd done to my ex, I'd had done to me. I must admit, sometimes when I look at Enver, I see Aeren. Perhaps that's why I've tried so hard to supress my feelings for him. There is a difference though: Enver has earned it. My supplication. For him, I'd accept second place. Enver will rule the Sword Coast. Astarion knows about this, he gets it. Anyone else, well, I fear my former comrades would use it as further proof that I've been an awful person all along. Karlach would probably use it as an excuse to accuse me of sleeping with Astarion while I was with Wyll. I could hear that accusation on the tip of her tongue at the ball. For what it's worth, we have never seen each other that way. Purley platonic. If Env found out, well, I suppose I will tell him eventually. If it comes up. I don't think he's in a position to judge me for anything I've done based on his own moral track record, but Banites do value loyalty. I'd worry it would make me seem weak in his eyes, susceptible to petty flattery and seduction. I'm laughing at what I just wrote. He already thinks of me that way, doesn't he? I think I shall end this overly long letter here.

Yours in Authority, Grand Duke Tavarina Ammakyl

#low key wrote a whole short story here #this is why it took so long #ask game #ask #🔺 ask game #tavarina ammakyl

[rollinouttahere-writes]

Wait; I don’t remember much about some arcs, but the foxy the pirate arc was fun; if you’re willing to do anything with this it would be much appreciated!❤️

It’s about on child lucky/reader during the foxy the pirates where they take the reader during one of the games, trying to win her back. Since she’s a child and has no idea what’s going on, she starts crying and stuff, but once they win her back that she’s so clingy and won’t let go of them to the point where she just holds onto on their legs when they win her back and if they lose again; she starts fighting tooth and nails to not let go.

Or something else. I just want to read more child lucky stuff if you have any! Thank you for reading, have a good day author!

I keep telling myself that I’m not going to spoil Lucky Break… but y’all keep giving me these plot bunnies and I keep caving instantly

When I wrote Get Back Here! I’d only imagined the deaging to be temporary, but now this ask has me thinking about it being permanent and now Lucky has been factory reset into a four year old. It’s a very interesting dynamic to think about. I’m gonna have to write about this some more… I’m hereby calling this the Little Lucky AU

I’ve written something like this about the Foxy Pirates before actually! It was just a short drabble, here, but it’s got a similar vibe. The davy back fights do not mesh well with yanderes, and considering that normal, regular-ass Zoro suggested just killing them and leaving in the anime, I think I underplayed how dangerous yandere Zoro would be tbh

Ok so into the spoilers for Lucky Break. They would not get Lucky at all. Period. Why? Because they couldn’t have come in at a worse point in the story. Don’t get me wrong, the Straw Hats wouldn’t take it well at any point, but by this point in Lucky Break they are unhinged. Skypeia is a really bad time for Lucky, and it really messes with adult Lucky so child Lucky is going to be severely traumatized by it. Enel winds up being the tipping point for the Straw Hats going from low-key yandere to full on yandere. Everything post Skypeia takes on a darker tone to match it and the yandere elements of the story go from subtle to very intense.

By the time they get to Long Ring Long Land, Lucky is looking like she got thrown down a flight of stairs, electrocuted, and strangled. This is concerning to see on an adult, and is horrifying to see on a literal preschooler. The Foxy pirates aren’t even really being malicious when they try to take her, they’re genuinely concerned (and also suffering under the effects of Lucky’s amulet which becomes much more potent post Skypeia). They have a team meeting beforehand and are all like “so we’re gonna take the baby and leave the rest of them behind, right?” and no one disagrees.

But needless to say, all of the Straw Hats are on edge and fucking feral so this concern is not taken well. This was supposed to be a drabble, but as per usual I have no self control and wrote a whole ass chapter basically.

3.9k words

Resisting the urge to pick at your scabs was hard on a good day, but when you were feeling sick to your stomach with nerves, it felt impossible not to do. Not wanting to make Chopper upset, you move your hands to grasp at the brim of Luffy’s hat. Partially to keep your hand busy, and partially to keep it from falling over your eyes again.

You guess it made sense that they wouldn’t let you participate, but that didn’t make having to be separated from your friends any less nerve wracking. Luffy had tried to bring you onto his boat regardless, only relenting when Nami bitterly admitted that they had a point and you would be safer on land. 

Terrified at the idea of being alone, you immediately began to tear up and protest, but Luffy made a compromise with you. Since the race was going to be so dangerous, he needed someone to look after his hat and keep it safe. So, if you could be brave about being by yourself for a little while, he would entrust this task to you. Part of you still wasn’t happy about this, but you didn’t want to let Luffy down, so you put on a brave face and accepted. 

Now you were left to sit on the cliffside overlooking the start of the race, waiting for it to begin so it could be over already. At least not everyone else will be in the games after this. From your perch, you could see your friends frantically scanning through the crowd. Oh, they were probably looking for you.

Standing up, you maintained your hold on Luffy’s treasure with one hand and waved to them with the other. Sanji was the first to spot you and pointed you out to everyone else. They all swiveled their heads in your direction, and the relief on their faces was palpable. Everyone waved back at you, and Luffy stood up, rather shakily on his raft, to call out to you, “Don’t worry, Lucky! We’ll win this no problem!”

There were some chuckles coming from the audience, and the weird looking announcer guy felt the need to comment on this, “Oh! What’s this? The Straw Hat’s captain thinks they’ll win this no problem? A bold claim to make from someone who has never seen the might of! The! Foxy! Piiiiraaates!”

You winced at the sheer volume and noise of feedback, not able to resist the urge to cover your ears. Luffy’s hat fell over your eyes, blocking out the view but doing nothing to block out the noise. You already didn’t feel good, and that was not helped by the roar of applause and cheers coming from the crowd. 

The breath lodged in your throat. The onslaught of noise felt like it was coming at you from all angles, melding together and ultimately amping up into an obnoxious ringing in your ears. Your knees buckled, making you fall onto your behind as you struggled to force yourself to remember how to breathe.

It’s too much! It’s way too much! It’s-

“Hey!” Two familiar hands fell onto your shoulders, snapping you out of the downwards spiral you were falling victim to. One of the hands moves to lift the brim of the hat just enough for you to make eye contact with your best friend. He smiled, and just seeing it was enough to soothe you a little, “It’s going to be okay! Don’t listen to them, we’ve got this!”

“Y-Yeah, of course you do,” you choked out.

Luffy brought you in for a quick but tight hug, smushing your face into his red shirt, “That’s it! We’ll be back before you know it!”

“Luffy! If you’re not in your boat by the start of the race you will be disqualified!” The announcer shouted, causing you to flinch again.

His grip on you tightened, and while you couldn’t see it, you just knew that he was scowling. His neck snapped towards the announcer furiously, “I will be! Stop being so loud about it!” Gently, Luffy pulled you away from him, offering another smile. His voice was quieter than usual, “Don’t worry about it, we’ll beat them and be out of here before you know it.” 

With a quick pat to your head, he rocketed himself back to his raft, nearly flipping it over in the process. While the exchange had eased your fears a little, there was still an overhanging discomfort about the situation. What would happen if they didn’t win? Who would those other pirates take? You shook your head. No. You’re not gonna think about it! Luffy will win, you just know it.

The distinct sound of grass crunching beneath feet made your shoulders tense up. Hesitantly, you turned to identify who was coming up behind you. It was two people. One of them was the captain, you think Luffy said his name was Split-Head? Yeah that sounds right. The other one was some big monkey-looking guy. You’re pretty sure his name was Hamburger, a funny name but who are you to judge?

Split-Head grinned at you, but it was not providing the warmth and comfort that Luffy’s gave you. It reminded you of a sleazy salesman that your mother yelled at in the mall one time for being too pushy. Maybe he’ll go away if you ignore him? You hope so.

“Why hello there, young lady! Your captain didn’t include your name on the roster, can you tell me it?” Split-Head was now crouched down next to you, much too close for comfort.

You kept your head down and shrugged, “I’m not supposed to talk to strangers.”

This didn’t deter him in the slightest, “Aww, come on! You won’t make friends that way, kid. You can trust me! I’m captain Foxy of the Foxy pirates!” From your peripherals you could see him puffing out his chest in pride. His name is Foxy? Split-Head is more fitting in your humble opinion. He must think really high of himself. “There, now I’m not a stranger!”

It seems like this guy isn’t going away any time soon. You dug your heels into the dirt anxiously, wishing he would leave you alone. “Yeah, well… you’re still strange,” you mumbled.

Split-Head-Foxy let out an offended gasp, then fell to his knees with a gloomy aura looming over him. Wow. He’s pushy, full of himself, weird, AND dramatic. You rolled your eyes and took a decisive step away from him, looking out at the ocean as the race finally started. 

It was then that it dawned on you that this race went around the whole island, meaning that you’re going to have to run to try and keep up. Emphasis on the try. Without a word to the two pirates bothering you, you ran after your friends’ boats. Both of your hands were tightly grasping the hat on your head to prevent it from flying off. Sure, there was a string attached to it around your neck, but you didn’t want to risk it.

Immediately, it became obvious that you were not going to be able to keep up. Even if you were at your best, you wouldn’t be fast enough. But with how injured you were, everything was sore and the pain of your muscles pulling on your scabs made your run more like a trot. The Straw Hats’ boats were getting farther and farther away, and you could feel frustrated tears prickling at your eyes.

There was the sound of… galloping? Yeah, galloping behind you. Pretty soon, Foxy pulled up next to you riding Hamburger like a horse. Man, this guy just keeps getting weirder.

“Looks like you need a ride there, kid. Why don’t you hop on so we can watch this race together, hm?” Foxy held out his hand to you, smiling smugly. Memories of your preschool teacher telling the class to never get in a stranger’s car came to mind. A monkey man isn’t exactly a car, but you think the same idea applies here.

You shook your head vigorously, “No, I don’t wanna go with you.”

Foxy’s smile fell, and his hand drooped. He plastered it back on his face after a moment, “Kid, you’re not going to be able to keep up, just come with me. I’ve got some candy! I’ll give you some if you hop on!”

A stranger offering you candy to get in their vehicle was another thing your teacher warned you about. Yeah, this was definitely a bad guy you shouldn’t talk to. You doubled your effort to run a little faster to put some distance between you and them, “No! Leave me alone!”

They sped up, closing the gap in seconds. Instead of saying anything, Hamburger simply reached out and plucked you right off your feet then dropped you onto Foxy. Naturally, you started thrashing and screaming, “Let go of me! Put me down! Stranger danger!”

Hamburger laughed at your terror, “What a feisty child.”

“Quit laughing Hamburg, she’s kicking up a storm,” he was frantically trying to get a good hold on you. “Calm down! We’re not going to hurt you, we’re help- OW!” You managed to land a good kick to his face. Despite that, he was able to hold onto you. He spun you so that you were facing away from him.

His hand grabbed your face and turned it to gaze out at the ocean, “Look! We’re caught up now!”

True to his word, you could see the contestants. Your face scrunched up in confusion, not seeing Luffy and Sanji’s boat anywhere. Or Zoro and Chopper’s. Were they that far ahead? Yeah, that was definitely it, had to be. You could still see Usopp, Nami, and Robin at least. Seeing them made you feel a little calmer.

“See? We were just trying to help you out,” his smug grin was back. “Now how about you tell me your name?”

As much as you didn’t want to, he probably wouldn’t shut up about it until you did, “It’s Lucky.”

“Lucky? Is that supposed to be a nickname or something?” “It’s my name! You asked and I told you, stop bugging me about it,” you grumbled. You want to get down, but you get the feeling they wouldn’t let you do that. At least you get to follow the race now.

Foxy fished around in his pocket and pulled out some brightly colored objects, “Here, I bet you want some candy, don’t you?”

It’s bad enough that you’re riding with him, you’re not gonna take any candy from this weirdo, “No thank you, I don’t want any.”

He sighed and stuffed it back in his pocket. You hoped this would be the end of his chattering. Unfortunately, it didn’t appear that luck was on your side today. Or this week, really. Foxy held out your arm, scrutinizing all the scabbed over burns on it, “How did this happen, Lucky?”

“It’s none of your business, I don’t wanna talk about it mister,” you huffed. You didn’t want to even think about that ever again. About him. About how cold and uncaring his eyes were. About how much it hurt. Your shoulders started to shake and your lip trembled.

“Whoa, hey it’s okay! You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to!” Foxy brought you in for a hug, but you really didn’t want it. You squirmed and tried to get away from him, but he wasn’t letting you.

“What’s this?! The last remaining Straw Hat boat has broken into first place with incredible speed!” The announcer shouted.

Wait. Last remaining?! How was there only one boat left?! You looked out to see Usopp, Nami, and Robin barreling towards the finish line. They were going to win! They needed to if they were the only ones left.

Foxy cursed under his breath, “Hamburg, you need to hurry to the end goal!”

Hamburger only nodded and sped up. You were kinda impressed by how fast he was able to go. Despite being pestered by these two so much, you were smiling and kicking your feet in excitement. They were going to win this race! And then they would win the other two races, too!”

A little ways before the finish line, Hamburg came to a halt, and Foxy hopped off. You took the opportunity to scramble off him, too. You rushed to the cliff and called out, “You can do it! You’re gonna win!” If they heard you, they didn’t react.

“I wouldn’t count your chickens before they hatch, Lucky,” Foxy stated ominously. He held out his hands and made some weird shapes with them, like he was trying to make shadow puppets. All you could do was eye him curiously, trying to figure out what that was supposed to mean. You don’t have any chickens, why is he talking about counting them? Weird. 

His fingers were pointed right at your friends and then he said something about a slow-slow beam. Your friends, who were previously rocketing towards the finish, abruptly slowed down to a crawl, seemingly unable to move. Your jaw dropped as the other boat with the pointy nosed girl on it took the lead and then, much to your horror, won the race.

You whipped around to Foxy, who was looking quite proud of himself, “What did you do?!”

“I put my devil fruit to good use, that’s what! I can slow down anything with my slow-slow beam.”

“That’s cheating! You’re a cheater!” You stomped your foot angrily, pointing an accusing finger at him.

“No it’s not. I said there were no rules in this race, didn’t I? That means I’m allowed to help my team from the sidelines if I want.” He tried to pat your head, but you slapped his hand away.

“But that’s not fair!”

“Life isn’t fair, kid, you should get used to it and be a good sport about your team losing,” Foxy had the audacity to try and scold you for your behavior. Who does he think he is?!

“I hate you! Stupid Split-Head!” You kicked his shin before running off to try and find your friends, you need to tell them about this. 

Due to how large Foxy’s crew was, it was difficult to find one of your friends. Especially when everyone was trying to get you to stop and talk to them for some reason. Finally, though, you spotted the red shirt that you would recognize in a heartbeat. 

“Luffy!” 

That catches his attention, alright. He whirls around and then runs to meet you. Knowing the drill, you lift your arms so he can pick you up. He does just that, holding you out in front of him, “There you are!” His clothes were wet and water was dripping out of his hair, he must have fallen into the ocean at some point.

Your first order of business was to return his prized possession to him. You pulled the hat off your head and placed it onto his, albeit a bit crooked, “I kept your hat safe for you!”

“I knew you could, good job Lucky!” Luffy pulled you in to balance you on his hip and used his free hand to ruffle your hair.

Now onto the big thing, “Luffy, that Split-Head guy is a cheater! He’s got a devil fruit that makes stuff super slow and he used it on Usopp, Nami, and Robin! He uses his fingers to do it!”

“Is that what happened?!” The grin he was previously sporting dropped and he looked surprised.

You nodded, “Mmhm! I saw it myself!”

Luffy mimicked your nod, humming in thought, “Well now that we know about it, we can look out for it in the next game. We’ll figure out how to beat it, don’t worry!”

You looked away, picking at his shirt nervously, “Are you sure? You said the same thing about winning the race, but…” 

He tensed up from that, “Hey, come on! Have some faith in me, in all of us. We’ll win the rest of the matches for sure!” Luffy knelt down to put you on the ground, “Now how about you go stand with the others, okay?”

“Okay,” you didn’t really want to leave him, but you needed to listen to him. He probably had important captain stuff to do. It only took a second to spot some of the others. They weren’t far away and were watching your interaction with Luffy. You hurried over, squeezing yourself in between Robin and Sanji.

Sanji dropped onto his knees and brought you into a tight hug. He was also soaking wet. “Were you okay being on your own, princess? No one bothered you, did they?”

“I’m okay. Some people did bother me, but I gave them the slip after I kicked one of them in the shins,” you declared proudly.

Sanji’s face pinched in fury, “Who?”

“Um,” you took a second to remember their names again. “Oh, Foxy and Hamburger!”

“Hamburger? Do you mean Hamburg?” Robin asked, stifling a chuckle. Oh yeah, Foxy did call him that, didn’t he?

“Yeah, that. They kept trying to talk to me and made me come with them to watch the race. I didn’t want to, but Hamburger- I mean Hamburg, picked me up and made me come with. Oh, and Foxy tried to give me candy but I didn’t take any.”

Sanji was scowling and looked ready to go on a rampage. Forcing himself to take a deep breath, he let you go and stood up while digging his cigarettes and lighter out of his pockets. He was muttering about caving their heads in later.

The announcer and captain were standing on a stage and said that it was time to announce who they were taking for their victory. Your heart sank and you clung onto Robin’s leg nervously. Who were they going to steal? Would Luffy really be able to win them back? What if they won all three rounds and stole three of your friends? Robin pet your hair reassuringly.

“We have decided on who is becoming a Foxy pirate! It is none other than,” there was a pause for dramatic effect. Your stress was climbing with every second. The announcer took a deep breath and finally finished the sentence, “Lucky!”

Everyone fell silent, but for only a second. Then chaos erupted.

“Absolutely not!” Nami shrieked.

“You said she was too young to participate!” Sanji interjected.

“We said she was too young to participate in the fights, not that she was off the table for this part,” Foxy pointed out with a smirk.

“She’s four years old! What could you possibly want from her?!” Sanji was already mad before the announcement, but now he was furious.

“That doesn’t matter, you need to hand her over now, lest you want to break the rules,” Foxy reminded him.

Sanji was distracted from his argument as he heard a sob behind him. From you. Robin was quick to scoop you up, cradling you in her arms and trying to calm you down. “Now look what you did! She’s crying!” Sanji barked at them.

“I don’t wanna go, I don’t wanna!” You wailed, clinging onto Robin like your life depended on it. Which, as far as you were concerned, it did.

“Pick someone else, Lucky isn’t going to go with you,” Luffy spoke. His tone was cool, but the words were sharp.

“Don’t tell me what to do, straw hat. I’m making the rules here, not you. She’s a pirate, is she not? She needs to learn not to be such a crybaby. Besides, once she’s with us she’ll see how nice we are!” Foxy crowed proudly. 

“This is cruel, she’s just a child!” Robin chimed in, clutching you to her chest even tighter.

“Quit complaining so much, it’s not like we’re going to hurt her any worse than she’s already been hurt. We’re probably better suited for protecting her than you are,” the pointy-nosed woman was now approaching you and Robin, looking annoyed. “Now give her to me. Come here, Lucky! Do you want to go get some cotton candy with me?”

Her reaching for you only made you scream louder, “NO NO NO! I’m not going!” She tried to grab you anyways, but Robin was quick to put a stop to that. Arm sprouted from the woman’s body and immobilized her. 

Robin backed up by several paces, “Get away from her, you’re just going to make this worse!”

At this point, tears were pouring down your face and you felt like you couldn’t breathe despite how frantically your lungs were working. You coughed and hacked between hysteric breaths and sobs. Your heart was pounding out of your chest and your head hurt. They were going to take you away. You were going to be taken away from your friends again. Just like in Skypeia.

They were going to steal you.

They were going to hurt you.

“Don’t let me get taken away again!” You wailed at the top of your lungs.

Foxy scoffed, “This is getting ridiculous! Fine, if you won’t give her to us then I’ll tak-”

His sentence was ended abruptly by Luffy’s fist connecting with his face. A sickening crunch cut through the air. Before he even hit the ground, Luffy’s hand grabbed hold of his jacket and pulled him close. As soon as he was in range, Luffy was on him. 

He climbed on top of him and as Foxy was raising his hands to defend himself, Luffy grabbed them and snapped his fingers before he could put his devil fruit to use. Then Luffy began wailing on him, furious, raw screams erupting from his throat.

Everyone was frozen in place, shocked at the display, but then the crowd rushed at Luffy to save their captain. They couldn’t even get close, though. Zoro leapt into action, cutting them down like paper. You weren’t able to see anything else after that, as Robin snapped out of her own state of shock and buried your face in her neck. “Don’t watch this, Lucky,” she whispered.

A hand landed on your head, gently stroking your hair. It feels like Sanji. He confirmed this by speaking lowly, “Robin, get Nami and Chopper and head back to the ship. Prepare it to set sail, it looks like we’re not going to be finishing these games after all.” He peaked around her shoulder to be able to look you in the eyes, “Don’t worry Lucky. We will never let you get taken away again, I promise.”

Many Foxy pirates swarmed around you ready to attack, only to get sent flying by Sanji. He didn’t even look back at you and Robin, “Go! I’ll protect you so just focus on getting the others and going back to the ship.”

“Right, let’s go Lucky,” Robin held you securely in her arms and ran. “Navigator! Doctor! We’re leaving, follow me!” They didn’t need to be told twice, cutting through the crowd to run in tandem with you and Robin. “We need to free the ship and get it ready to sail!”

“Should be easy enough,” Nami said. She caught your eye and switched to a softer tone, “When we get back to the ship, I need you to go hide in our room until one of us comes to get you, okay?”

“O-Okay,” you sniffled pitifully. At least the tears had stopped now. You chose to nestle in closer in Robin arms for the duration of the sprint back to the Going Merry, eager to leave and for this to all be behind you.

#one piece #one piece x reader #yandere one piece #one piece x y/n #one piece x you #monkey d luffy #zoro roronoa #sanji #black leg sanji #roronoa zoro #nami #one piece nami #cat burglar nami #usopp #tony tony chopper #nico robin #luffy x reader #nami x reader #usopp x reader #roronoa zoro x reader #tony tony chopper x reader #monkey d luffy x reader #sanji x reader #yandere #platonic yandere #lucky break #little lucky au #foxy pirates

[desswright29]

The Golden Stairs

Pairing: Shuri X Reader

Word Count: 6.3k

Contains: Fluff (hella fluffy), Some angst, and Smut, romantic proposal 🥰, Shuri is in looove!

A/n: I wrote and deleted this several times over the past month. This story stomped me in my chest, grabbed me by my hair and banged my head against the wall! But I wrote it cause I love y’all.

Please enjoy! 😄

Y/n pov

My heart rate increased as I sat in the car releasing short and quick puffs of air to control my erratic breathing. Palms sweaty and limbs shaking, I glanced into the side mirror to see if my eyes had deceived me. They had not. There she stood in all of her regality, stuck in the center of the sidewalk, hands intertwined infront of her body as she stared into space. She rocked a low cut now, making her look attractively mature; and the black and white suit did her all the more justice. Even with all of that, she looked lost. I pulled my eyes from the mirror as they began to burn from the tears threatening to fall. Why was she here? Why today of all days, would she show up! Ofcourse she would, It was classic Shuri to show up and shift my atmosphere on what was supposed to be the happiest day of my life. No! It is indeed the happiest day of my life! I won’t allow her to get inside of my head. I get a handle on my breathing, remembering how Shuri destroyed me. Destroyed us! I’ve moved on and I’m receiving the love I deserve. So, fuck her! 

“Baby.” A soft baritone called from the drivers side of the car, releasing me from my mental torment. A tear involuntarily escaped my eye as I turned to look at my new husband, plastering on the best smile I could muster. “You ok? What’s going on Peaches?” The concern etched onto his face while he comfortingly gripped my hand, caused a slight ache in my chest. He was always so good to me, so patient. How dare I still care for Shuri. “Of course! I’m just overwhelmed my love. This has been such a beautiful day. I can’t believe we’re married now! We made it Mike!” I laugh wiping away the tears that fell for her, trying to lighten the mood as I attempted to push the thoughts of her away. Don’t mistake my shock for unhappiness with my situation. Michael has been nothing short of amazing from the moment he began to pursue me. He consistently handled my heart with care, and gave me grace from the side effects of the trauma my relationship with Shuri had caused. He loved me whole, and never left room for doubt. Still, seeing Shuri after so long, brought long forgotten emotions back to the forefront. Now, I can’t help but think about how this should’ve been us.

—————————————————————————

 3 years Ago

  No matter how often you’d been granted access into Wakanda, your mind could never quite comprehend the magnitude of its beauty. Your eyes were bright with wonder as you watched the towering buildings of Capital City twinkle in the night sky. They whisked by as you were driven through the city streets in the Royal Rolls Royce. To think that this country was a testament to the inconceivable intellect of your woman always baffled you. The thought of her belonging to you made you swell with pride. 

It had been two years and 5 months since she’d placed her heart on her sleeve for you in the parking lot of a club. Likely one of her lowest moments, but she’d put her pride aside to fight for you. Baring her soul, making promises of placing the world at your feet. Fittingly, you were skeptical after all that had transpired. So you made her work for your time and effort. Putting pressure on her that could build warriors. Every grand gesture was met with push back, every slick word, met with skepticism and rebuttal. If she was going to have you, It was going to be pure and honest. All of the requisite steps to protecting your heart had been taken. You kept it up until you eventually broke her.

After months of her pouring her all into the extended apology, you both lie side by side on a plush blanket; one completely disconnected from the other. A navy gradient was the backdrop for a full moon; the night sky so clear you could almost see every crater. You both stared up into a blanket of star’s, as the vodka clear lake shimmered, luminescent in the moons glow. A picnic basket filled with all of your favorites seperated the two of you, along with flowers Shuri had hand picked herself. Fairy lights hung from the trees surrounding you, rose petals spread sporadically across the blanket while four lanterns illuminated each corner. 

Another perfectly planed date was coming to an end. Shuri made sure to cross every T and dot every I, and still you showed minimal interest. Hardly engaging in conversation, Nitpicking the food and quite frankly you seemed bothered to be around her. Quiet. The crickets chirped, and the water was still. Staggered breathing, and a sniffle caught your attention; and you turn to look at Shuri just in time to catch the moonlight highlight the lone tear falling down her cheek into her ear. Jaw clenching and trembling as she swallowed, trying to hold back a sob. God! She even made crying look glorious. 

“What are we doing?” Her voice trembled and broke, betraying her strong front. She didn’t make a move to look in your direction. “Well, I’m just waiting on you to take me ho-“ Shuri cut you off, sitting up abruptly. “Stop! Stop it y/n!” Her voice raised in a desperate plea. “I c-can’t keep doing this.” Her hands shot up to her uniformed curls, pushing them back from her forehead in a frenzy, as though she couldn’t stand the feel of them against her skin. Her anxiety in the moment causing sensory issues. “I understand I hurt you, but you said you’d give me a fair chance, baby y-you don’t seem to want this. Ndiyakuthanda, ngako konke endinako (I love you, with all I have). Giving so much of myself and watching you not want it. Is killing me.” 

“Shuri-“

“Wait.” She released a shaky breath “I’m giving it my all uthando (love), It would tear me to peices to watch you walk away, but I’m doing the work. I need to know will it ever be enough.” Now sitting up, you stared out at the water, tears running down your cheeks. “This.. this is all so perfect Shuri. This date and every other one you put effort into. All of the gifts were well thought out. Nothing gaudy or over the top. You’ve been perfection. What I’m saying is, I see your effort, I see the changes in you, I’ve appreciated and enjoyed every single moment we’ve spent together. But, I’m so scared Shuri. So afraid of the love I have for you. It’s all consuming. I look into those eyes Shuri and I want to melt into you. I want to let go of the fear and breathe you in, bask in this feeling of being loved carefully, and protectively. But every single fucking time  there’s this feeling of impending doom.” You look straight into her eyes, wanting to make your next point exceedingly clear. “I can’t allow you to believe that it would ever be ok for you to treat me the way you did before. If you want me, I want it to be only me Shuri. Don’t play games with my heart.” Shuri’s head began to shake fervently side to side. 

“I wish I’d never been so careless with your heart intombi eswiti (sweet girl). It took some time to recognize my mistakes. To see past my own selfishness, but I would give up everything if it meant I could finally call you mine officially. I’d give the air from my lungs for that honor. Only if it’s what you want too. I could allow you to walk away right now, if that is what would make you happy. However, I’d always be waiting for you. You placed the love back into my heart and then you took it as your own. I belong to you. So, I’m begging you y/n. Be with me. I want the chance to cherish you as my woman. I want to take my time with your heart. Continue learning to give you the love I know that you want and deserve from me. My ego has long been placed aside sthandwa. I love you y/n.” 

You’d pulled your legs into your chest, hugging your shins, and sobbing into your knees. Shuri moved in front of you, sitting legs spreading excepting you inbetween them, she grabbed both sides of your face, pulling your head up to face her. Both of your eyes were swollen and red, wet and dry tears coating your faces. “I love you, I love you, I love you” She repeated, you could hear her heart pour from her voice as she stared into your deep brown irises. You finally break falling into her arms. She held you in her arms,  pressing your head against her chest. She rocked you like a baby as she continued to reassure you. Kissing your forehead, speaking words of affirmation as you cried together. That night you would officially become hers. Mind, Body, and Soul.

————————————————————————

It’d been two years to the day, and Shuri had kept her word; becoming all you could have asked for and things you could have never imagined. With you by her side she’d become the most noted ruler of Wakanda. Yes, Ofcourse with the worlds obsession with attractiveness, the whispers around the world began from Shuri’s first live press conference in America. It was said that Wakanda had the most beautiful, androgynous Queen anyone had ever seen; who had a swagger that could bring any man or woman to their knees. But then, Shuri consistently began breaking through ceilings of limitations people placed upon her. 

Politicians saw her and expected some young suave, conceited, scientist that however intelligent, was unfit to rule.  It was an easy and popular consensus. However, She was not only intelligent, she was the smatest person in the world, She spoke with the power and authority of Romanda, She was strong, compassionate, and open minded as T’challa had been, But cross her or her people and she could easily summon her inner N’jadaka. Anyone who had ever doubted her felt regret every moment of her reign as Queen. She OOZED power. But she had a weakness.

You quickly rose to fame. Becoming a Queen in your own right, having a work ethic like no one had ever seen. Being a genius level engineer had worked in your favor in the industry. Not only were you surpassing all other artist in lyricism and vocal ability; Your shows were a site to behold. You and Shuri created the most elaborate sets, and people lined up for miles to witness your greatness. People had tried to account your success with your connection to the Queen, until it became apparent that your talent was undeniable. Your life with Shuri was what dreams where made of. Wakanda loved and excepted you as though you were their own. You created peace for Shuri, creating a calm joy in her that she never believed she would have again. She was grounded by you. The sound of your voice, your innocent smile, hell just the mention of your name brought an uncontainable smile to her face. Your relationship with Shuri became the embodiment of what love should be. 

The car coming to a stop jarred you out of your thoughts. As your driver exited the car, you reach for your purse pulling out your compact mirror to check your make up. It was perfection, courtesy of Shuri. You’d flown into Wakanda this morning after celebrating the last show of your 6 month tour with your crew. She hadn’t been able to make the show which wasn’t a rare occurrence for either of you with both of your demanding schedules, but you both always made it up to one another. This time you were pretty sure that Shuri was planning something unecessarily extravagant for your anniversary so you were a bit more understanding than usual. You had been correct. As soon as you’d landed you were greeted with staff whisking you off to a day of pampering. Nakia, and Aneka accompanied you. 

There was brunch, massages, mani’s and pedi’s and you decided to get your natural hair in a wash and go. You’d come back home hoping to finally see Shuri but were met with a beautiful nude gown that was covered in Swarovski crystals and had a split traveling all the way up your thigh to the hip.  There was a full glam squad waiting on you and you were told you’d be meeting Shuri at a recently opened restaurant in the inner city. As always Shuri had gone above and beyond! You shut your mirror placing it back into your bag and adjust your dress.

The door to the car was opened and you gracefully place your heeled foot onto the pavement below you to exit the car. An unexpected gasp came from your throat as you take in your surroundings. In front of you was the most magnificent grand staircase that appeared to be made of solid gold and vibranium. Various cultural symbols from Wakanda were carved into them. At the bottom of the stairs, Two men in traditional Wakandan garb from the golden tribe waited with single white roses with golden stems. 

The driver offered you his arm, and you took it still wide eyed, at the beautifully unique staircase. You met the two men at the bottom of the stairs. The driver released you and stepped back with a slight nod, signaling the men to take over, as he walked away. The men handed you the roses. “Good evening, Ms. Y/l/n” They both say. One offered you his arm while the other stepped behind holding your small train. As you stepped forward onto the first stair, the symbols on the stairs glowed white revealing the symbols were placed strategically, ultimately creating a large portrait of 2 Queens face to face. Violins began to swell, as a holographic wall appears infront of you. 

If I Ain’t Got you. Written by Shuri Udaku  

Appeared on the wall in front of you as you continued up the steps. It disappeared only to be replaced with a photo of you and Shuri. You immediately giggle at the memory. It was the first official picture taken of you both as a couple. Courtesy of Nakia. You’d spent all night christening your new relationship, and she thought it’d be funny to snap a picture of your irritated faces as she burst in on your “honeymoon” the next morning. You and Shuri’s face both mirrored irritatation, as you sat snuggled into her lap with a blanket covering you both. Various pictures continued to scroll into the night sky with each step you took. Your heart rate was slowly increasing as piano now began to accompany the violins as you ascended the stairs. 

At the height of the stairs, your breath catches in your throat and your eyes glass over. “No way this is happening” A large fountain spreads across the massive courtyard of a white and gold building, water jutted out like geysers on both sides of a glass pathway through the center of the pool. The walkway illuminated by lighting, different shades of white and purple, which happened to be yours and Shuri’s favorite color. As breathtaking as the sight was, it paled in comparison to the view of your friends and family surrounding the marble courtyard. Seated on either side of the pool there was a full orchestra, and lines of people waiting for you with white roses with golden stems. Your eyes brimmed with tears. 

A voice rang out, causing you to look ahead that’s when you finally noticed Alicia freaking Keys sitting at a piano in the front of the fountain. The lyrics of the song appeared above her like subtitles as she sang. Your friends and family began to walk up to you each handing you a rose smiling from ear to ear. Giving little comments like “You’re so beautiful” or “Get it girl”. Some were already in tears. 

Some people live for the fortune

Some people live just for the fame

Some people live for the power, yeah

Some people live just to play the game

Some people think

That the physical things

Define what's within

And I've been there before

That life's a bore

So full of the superficial

Listening to the lyrics your girlfriend wrote, your heart swelled. You almost stopped paying attention to the people handing you flowers, until at the end of the lines of people you see your mother and your sister practically beaming at you. As soon as you see them you let out a soft sob slightly bending at the waist. Your sister ran up to you. Grabbing you into a hug. She pulled tissues from her bag and gently dabbed your eyes. “You look so beautiful sister, don’t mess up your beautiful make up before she see’s you.” She says with a tear escaping her own eye. Your mother reached you both, face beaming with pride as she grabbed your hand squeezing. “Mommy! Dani! H-how?” 

“She’s been planning this since you went on tour. Well she got us involved at that point, but something tells me she’s been planning this day from the moment you said yes to being her girlfriend.” Your mother stated gesturing in amazement at the everything Shuri had put together. Her and your sister share an amused chuckle. “How did everyone get here? I was just with my crew before I got on my flight.” You were amazed and confused. “She sent jets Ofcourse” Your sister rolled her eyes and laughed at how casually she was able to say that. Shuri had sent 15 jets to locations only disclosed to the people you held closest to your heart. That would be family, best friends, and your main crew from work that was always with you. She’d made sure they were greeted by her and comfortably housed for their stay. The things your love was capable of. “Come on” She said grabbing your arm as your mother grabbed the other. “Pay attention” She says, as they walk you to the edge of the fountain to continue watching Alicia perform with the orchestra and pictures of you and Shuri continue to appear. 

Some people search for a fountain

Promises forever young

Some people need three dozen roses

And that's the only way to prove you love them

Hand me the world on a silver platter

And what good would it be

With no one to share, with no one who truly cares for me

Some people want it all

But I don't want nothing at all

If it ain't you, baby

If I ain't got you, baby

Some people want diamond rings

Some just want everything

But everything means nothing

If I ain't got you, you, you

Your head lay on your mothers shoulder as your sister continuously dabs at your eyes, and checks your makeup. The doors to the building opened and twelve Dora file out six heading right and six heading left in single file lines. Once they get in position they faced center. And then there she was. Shuri. Okoye to the left of her and Nakia to the right of her. Your eyes immediately connect with hers as the music began to swell. Shuri began walking towards the other end of the path as the Dora threw their arms across their chest in salute as she walked past. She was stunning in a simple black suit tailored to perfection with a diamond harness, and her heeled boots. You loved when Shuri wore heels. Your sister squeezed your arm, and you lifted your head to look at her, she took your flowers, and they both looked at you eyes watering smiles setting their faces aglow. “Go on, baby. Go get your woman.” Your mother says. You smile, turning seeing that Shuri was standing at the end of the pathway waiting for you. You take a deep breath, and step onto the glass as Shuri does the same. Swallowing, you walk toward the love of your life, your gorgeous gown flowing behind you, as water shot into the sky beside you with each step you both took. 

If I ain't got you with me, baby, oh, ooh

Said nothing in this whole wide world don't mean a thing

If I ain't got you with me, baby

You now stood face to face with Shuri. Your body shaking with anticipation. Nerves getting the best of you already. Her eyes were glassed over already holding back tears. She let out a deep calming breath grabbing both of your hands.

“Molo mntu omhle (Hello Beautiful)” Her voice echoed throughout the area so that everyone could hear. You offer her a soft smile as you let out a wet exhale. Her eyes sparkled as she looked down into your eyes. “I’m sure you’ve gathered what is happening by now.” She smiles, and giggles were heard around the yard. “ I was inside the building kind of panicking, because I wanted to do this from the heart.” She let go of one of your hands placing her right hand over her heart. “So I didn’t write anything and my mind was going blank in there because I’m nervous as hell!” More laughter erupted as you let out a chuckle. She grabs your hand again. 

“I knew though, that once I was in your presence, everything I needed to say would come rushing at me. You’ve always had that effect on me. In my position I have to always be strong, logical, unemotional. But with you I’m just Shuri. To everyone else I’m The Black Panther, and to you I’m just Kitty.” She shakes her head at everyone’s laughter. “I can’t believe I said that outloud. When I met you, I was searching for something, little did I know it was someone. The girl of my dreams. The one who would unapologetically give all of her love to me. You stood beside me as a friend, and I knew that I could always depend on you, that anything life threw at me you’d be there beside me. You’ve been my strength when I wanted to give in. I could spend a lifetime showing you how special you are to me. You made it easy for me in the loneliest times of my life. I knew the moment I saw you dance I wanted to marry you. Cause damn.” 

She bit her lip grinning and nodding to herself. You softly hit her arm. “Move it along perv.” You say as laughter filled the area. “But really, everything about you seemed so familiar to me. The feel of your hands, the way you felt in my arms. If I could go back in time, I’d tell you thank you. Let you know your as beautiful now as you were then. Hold your hands just like I’m doing now. The same hands I’ll hold in front of a minister, the same hands that’ll carry my son and his sister. I’d thank you for the first kiss in three weeks, for when we make love in six weeks. For the ring you’d wear proudly 3 years from then. For when you say I do in fall and for those beautiful children of ours. I know it would sound strange because we would have just met. But I’d be thanking you in advance.” There wasn’t a dry eye in the room. At this point you were trying not to hyperventilate. 

Shuri with her own tears streaming down her face, licked her lips and let out a puff of air before continuing “We’ve been through so much intombi yam (my girl) we’ve laughed, like when you had that show in Georgia and as we left the arena someone in traffic was playing “wipe me down” and you climbed on the roof of our moving car just in time to yell” Everybody in the crowd yells it out as Shuri says it “B.O.O.S.I.E  B.A.D.A.Z.Z THATS ME!” The crowd was roaring as you did a little twerk as they sang. Shuri threw her head back laughing. Everyone had saw that video, it went viral and was on every news station across the world. “You pissed Okoye off that day. But that’s what I love about you. You’re fearless and nobody makes me laugh like you. We’ve cried. In the beginning I didn’t go about us in the best way. And I’ll spend the rest of our lives making that up to you, if you’ll have me.” She got down on one knee, and you let out choked sobs. “As Queen and Black Panther. I kneel to no one. But today and forever after I kneel to you humbly. Y/f/n will you do me the honor of being my lifetime partner, my wife, my Queen.” She pulled out a box opening it to reveal one large oval diamond with a vibranium band with clustered diamonds. You were absolutely speechless. All you could manage was a breathless “yes” as you nodded.

Shuri smiled big sliding the ring onto your finger before standing and scooping you into her arms, holding you by your waist as you grabbed her face placing kisses all over before finally connecting your lips as she spun you in circles. Fireworks started to go off as you heard “ Happily Ever After” by Case began to play in the back ground. That was one of your favorite songs. You pull back looking into her eyes. “I’m so in love with you”

“I hope so fiancé.” she says as she finally placed you on your feet. As soon as she placed you on your feet your mom and your sister rushed you. “Let me see the ring!!“ your sister yells. You proudly hold out your hand as you guys scream and jump around together “OH MY GOD that is beautiful sister! You did your big one with this one sis! Big Panther not the lil one!” She said turning towards Shuri and hugging her. Shuri stepped back and popped her lapel “Well you know” You all share a laugh as your mom pops your sisters arm.  “Danielle act like you got some sense!” Your mom says as she hugs you. “I’m so happy for you y/n. You seem to be in wonderful hands.” She turns to Shuri giving her a hug. “Thank you for loving my daughter the way you do. I’m so happy to welcome you as my bonus daughter. You’ve got plenty of family now, so visit as often as you can.” Shuri teared up a bit more going in for another hug with your mother. “Of course we will. You won’t be able to get rid of me” 

Nakia, Okoye, Aneka, and Ayo all come up and embrace you giving you congrats and gawking at the ring. Nakia pulls you to the side, holding your hand as Shuri and M’Baku teased one another. “Thank you y/n for loving her the way you do.” You gave a soft smile. “I don’t have a regret in the world Nakia.” She steps up and engulfs you in a long embrace. 

————————————————————————

The rest of the night was filled with drinking, laughter, music, dancing, pictures and congratulations. You and Shuri had finally entered the sanctity of your second home. Both of you heading straight toward the bedroom upon entering your home. Entering the bedroom you’re surprised once again to see that Shuri had had it decorated for the night while you both were out. Candles lit up the room, with rose petals and balloons. There was a large assortment of fruit with whipped cream, honey, and chocolate sauce lined across the top of the tray, and a bottle of champagne with two glasses, sitting at the center of the bed.  “Baby I can’t cry anymore tonight. I’m going to turn into a puddle.” You’d already started crying. She walked up to you pressing her body against yours, placing a soft kiss to your lips “Nwabela usuku lwakho owaqala ngalo iqabane” (happy anniversary fiancé). 

“Happy Anniversary sweet lady” You bite your lip as Shuri bit hers smiling and blushing. She began helping you out of your dress and you both collapsed onto the bed.  Shuri sat up straight on the headboard as you straddled her lap nuzzling your head into her neck, nothing but your panties on, as she absentmindedly massaged your back.

“Shuri”

“Hm”

“You’re beautiful. Everything about you.” You sit up looking into her eyes. “You never cease to amaze me, and I am so proud of you and how far you’ve come my love. How far we’ve come together. Today was beautiful. I couldn’t have dreamed of a proposal more perfect. You caught me completely off guard. I’m so thankful that I get to call you mine for the rest of our lives baby. You have my heart forever.” Shuri with tears in her eyes closed the distance kissing you with a slow passion. Gently, she laid you onto your back as the kiss became hungrier, hands roaming your body with intention. Every touch meant to cause pleasure. “I’m going to give you my all tonight.” Is all she said before she pulled away from you completely. She removed her harness and her suit jacket and you weren’t surprised to see there was nothing underneath. But all the same your core leaked with want and your mouth began to water. 

Shuri hovered over your body, bottom lip trapped between her teeth as she lowered herself onto you maneuvering her head to settle into the crook of your neck. She inhaled deeply taking in your scent, slowly she began licking the area where your neck and jaw connect. She lapped at it like a cat three times before giving it a hard pulsing suck. Drawing out a long moan from your throat. She pulled back and stared deep into your eyes. You looked up at her; your juicy lips slightly ajar, want written all over your face. That��s when you witnessed it. Her usual deep dark brown irises, turned green. Pupils turning vertical,  like slits as her inner feline came out to play. You gasped. Heart rate increasing in excitement. This was new.

Suddenly, you hear a ‘KHOOOAAA’ sound and a cool sensation hitting your nipples. You gasp looking down to see Shuri applying whipped cream to your breast. You’d been so distracted by her eyes that you’d totally missed her reach for the can. “Baby w-what are you doing?” “Making a sundae.” she says with a wink as she placed down the cool whip and grabs the honey.  She takes the bowl of honey and the honey dipper from the tray. Using the honey dipper she placed honey over top of the whipped cream. And then with a sly smile made a trail all the way down your body. You looked at her as you bit down on your lip. “Baby I’m gonna be all sticky”

“Kulungile (it’s ok). I want to get sticky and wet tonight” She winked, and you let out a moan. 

“You like that huh, my dirty dirty girl” Shuri grabbed a half of a peach from the tray placing whipped cream and honey on top of it as well. 

“Shuri what are you doing?” She looked over at you and tsked twice. 

“Patience is a virtue my dear.” In seconds she’s back over top of you with the peach placed on your lips. “Open for me.” You opened your mouth like a good girl. As she places the peach inside. “Have a snack, while I have my meal” You bite into the peach as Shuri starts on your breast still holding the peach to your mouth. You moan looking down at her as she cleaned up the pretty mess she made all over your body. You take the peach from her hand so that she could concentrate on her meal. “Fuuck Shuri” you whisper. She looks up at you mouth messy with whipped cream and honey. Her cheeks sucked in as she gives your nipple a hard suck and releases it with a pop, getting rid of the last bit of cream. “Haaaa” you moan out. “That must be one delicious peach.” Smirking at her you take another messy bite of the peach. It’s juices running down your chin. Cream coating the corners of your mouth. Staring right into her hungry eyes you give each side of your mouth a lick. 

Shuri comes up only for a moment to suck the juice from your chin and bottom lip, before continuing her path down your body. Making it down to your lace panties she took them between her teeth and with a low growl she gave one hard yank pulling them from your body. Sitting up with your black lace panties trapped between her teeth, mouth shiny from honey and traces of whipped cream. She looked sexily rabbid and you wished you could take a picture and hang it on your bedroom wall. Turning her head to the side, not taking her eyes off of you, she opened her mouth allowing the panties to drop out of her mouth. You felt your slick pool out into the crack of your ass. 

“Mmm. Panther I need you please! Please fuck this pussy Queen Panther!” 

“As you wish.” Shuri immediately lowered herself to your pussy, spreading your lips apart, she used the tip of her tongue to lick directly through the center of your pussy. Her head tilted to the side eyes closed as she enjoyed your taste. Moving her head up and down she went from your clit to your hole, arms wrapped under your legs holding you wide open.  “Damnit! Eat that shit! Queen! More please More!”

She smirked in your pussy. Then she began to concentrate on your clit taking into her mouth giving it pulsating sucks before she started to suck and release. Building pressure at the tip of your clit. She released one of your legs placing her fingers at your entrance. “Kaninzi? (More)” Before you could answer her fingers entered you. Her other hand still wrapped around your thigh reached over to your pussy pushing back the skin above your clit giving her full access as she continued her pulsating sucks, while simultaneously massaging circles into the area above your clit, leaving no area of your pussy unsatisfied. “F-FUCK! W-what are you doing to me! W-what I-is Aaah.” 

Shuri nodded her head “Mhmm” You were thrashing as Shuri easily held your legs opened, one with her forearm as she pumped, her arm wrapped around the other. As the tip of your clit began to pulse. Shuri pulled back. “Whatever you feel sthandwa let it go for me. Soak my face”.  With that she placed her tongue underneath your clit and closed her mouth around it. She moved her tongue in and out of her mouth as she sucked. Your mouth fell open, but no sounds came out as your eyes rolled back into your head. Your body began to convulse and she then began to shake her head from side to side as a fountain of liquid poured from your womanhood.

————————————————————————

When you opened your eyes. You were confused. You were still in bed but had been cleaned up and placed under a new cozy comforter. You were facing Shuri’s side of the bed. But she wasn’t there. It didn’t take long  to figure out where she was once you felt a light breeze. Both doors to the balcony where open and Shuri sat on her knees infront of them. Just as you were about to get up to walk toward her, her voice echoed through the room

“Bast, I know I don’t talk to you as often as I should. But, I wanted to properly thank you. I was so lost when y/n came into my life. And I know I’ve been careless with her. That is unmistakable. I was young and confused. I wanted to feel anything. I don’t understand everything about what you did. However, I am eternally greatful for you sending her to soften the blow. For giving me a love that stands through any and everything.” Her voice caught in her throat as she choked back tears. As she stretched her arms to her sides. “With open arms, I promise to give her my all, every part of me, because I know she is my destiny.” She let go of a sob. “I finally know. I’m so glad. I thank you Bast for showing me the one, I am no longer searching, She’s so perfect, Bast. Please don’t take her from me. Please.” She ended in a whispering plea as she let the dam break. Covering your mouth as tears poured from your eyes. You let her have her moment with Bast.

————————————————————————

Present

It was 2:14 am, and you sat on the edge of the hotel bed next to your sleeping husband. You were crying for her. The memory taking a hold of your heart. Sliding down the side of the bed with your face buried in your hands. You grabbed your phone from the nightstand and took it into the bathroom. Your palms were sweaty as you searched for a number. You found what you were looking for and your thumb hovered over the contact until you got a serge of bravery and hit the call button. The phone rang three times before you got an answer. 

Nakia: Y/n?

“Where can I find her?”

Taglist: @imjusthere2readbruv,@6-noir,@oceean,@sleepynggafr,@blacksapphhicmaddonna,@bbbbbbrilliantly

A/n: If you’re a fan of the Shame series you have more than likely realized that this is Part 6 to the series. If you’re not. Welcome. I hope you enjoyed! Part 7 will be out soon and it will be the FINAL CHAPTER!

#letitia wright #letitiawright #shuri udaku #spotify #shuri x reader #shuri fanfiction #shuri x you #shuri angst #shuri fic #shuri smut #shuri black panther #shuri imagine #Spotify

[shipcestuous]

Josie and Jack's Valentine's Day

This is my entry for the Valentine’s Day Shipcest Event. I chose the Not Together Yet prompt, and wrote a short story about how Jack and Josie Raeburn (from the novel Josie and Jack) fake date turned quite real.

——

Jack waved the bright red envelopes at me, a pleading look in his eyes. “Come on, Josie! It’s free dinner!”

I shook my head again. “I’m not going to a Valentine’s gala with you. Can’t you just take Lily instead?”

He growled, lips curling upwards, and I knew he was beginning to lose his patience. “She’s the one who bought these damn things before taking off to L.A. with her girlfriends. Since it’s paid for, I might as well go with you.”

Now, that explained why Jack had been in such a sour mood the whole day. His rich girlfriend had gone partying elsewhere without him on Valentine’s Day. Here’s to hoping she doesn’t come back. I shouldn’t hate her so much. She had been giving Jack lots of money and taking us to cool places, but still, I couldn’t stand my brother’s new girlfriend. At least she’s better than the previous whore. 

He threw one of the tickets on the table. “Go or don’t go, I don’t care. But there’s no food in this apartment and I am not giving you any money.”

Without waiting for my response, he stomped towards the bathroom and slammed the door shut. In this tiny place we called home, the bathroom was the only room he could sulk on when he felt like throwing a fit.

I sat on the couch for a few minutes, thinking about it before I calmly walked up to the door. “Even if I wanted to go,” I began softly, “what would I wear? I don’t have any dresses.”

There was a click and the door was pulled open. Jack opened a wide grim and took something shiny out of his pockets. Keys. “You don’t, but Lily has.”

* * *

An hour later we were in Lily’s bedroom, Jack sitting in the large twin bed surrounded by discarded clothes as I tried to find a dress that actually fitted me. They must fuck a lot in this bed.

“It’s useless, Jack, they are all too large around the chest”, I said to my brother, finally giving up on the fruitless search. I thought enviously of Lily’s large breasts, which Jack seemed to always be staring at or fondling, and how amazing they looked in low cleavage, while my petite small-breasted frame made everything look ridiculous.

“Calm down, Josie, it’s not the end of the world if they look a bit loose.”

I shot him a ugly look. “I feel like a child playing with her mother’s clothing! Everyone will notice that this dress doesn’t fit me.”

“And what do you care what those people think? You didn’t even want to go.”

I rolled my eyes. It was impossible to explain it to him.

He got up from the bed and placed his arms around my waist, pulling me closer to his chest.

“Hey, little sister, if it means that much to you, we can try to find a sewing kit to adjust it to you.”

I tried to think of Lily sewing anything and shook my head. That girl didn’t know how to hold a needle. “I doubt she has any.”

“In that case I’ll go out and buy one!”, he said in an exasperated tone. “Why do you have to be so pessimistic all of the time?”

“Fine, I’ll search this room, you check the guest bedroom.”

* * *

We had made the best we could with two safety pins, and while the cleavage still seemed too loose around my breasts, at least the sleeveless dress was no longer threatening to slip down my body. It was a simple black dress, which hugged my waist nicely before getting loose around the middle of the thighs, ending just below my knees. Matched with silver high heels, matching gold necklace and earrings, and a clutch purse, I almost fitted in with the rest of the crowd. Almost. My hair was too messy and the make-up I wore was clearly of terrible quality, but I didn’t let that bother me.

Jack, on the other hand, looked handsome in his tux, like he was born to mingle with the elite that surrounded us. Women much older than him stopped to stare at him while we made our way to our seats. Because of course this party had fixed seat arrangements.

There were already two guests seated at our table, and by the purses laying around, I assumed some others had arrived and were now either socialising or dancing.

Like always, Jack took upon himself to start the conversation. “I’m Jack Raeburn, and this is my beloved girlfriend, Lily Crawford.”

I faked a smile and waved. Since there was a guest list, I was passing myself for Lily since we had walked up to the line in front of the large Upper East Side house where the dinner was being held. I had to hope that no one around here actually knew her. Luckily, Lily preferred to surround herself with the poor and the outsiders and was unlikely to ever have shown her face around this posh crowd.

The other couple introduced themselves and Jack made small talk with them while I sat lost in my own thoughts, wishing I was anywhere else.

My brother poked me, pulling my attention back to him. “Yeah, Lily, why don’t you tell them how we met?”

“W-what?”, I stuttered, not quite sure of what to say.

Jack smiled, “Alison and Jason were kindly asking us how we met and came to be such a lovely couple.”

I gave another fake smile and suppressed the urge to kill my brother. “Well, I feel like I’ve known Jack since I was a little girl. Our families are so close that it’s almost as if he’s my brother”, I said in an overly sweet tone.

“What Lily means is that we are childhood friends. But we lost touch for a while and only recently became a couple”, Jack amended.

Alison exclaimed how cute it was and Jason then promptly began to tell their love story, to which I tuned off again. A waiter came around serving champagne, which both Jack and I took a glass. Sometime during the conversation, the other couple had returned and now chatted eagerly with my brother.

The champagne tasted bitter in my mouth, the bubbles tickling my tongue and I finished the glass in one sip, before carefully switching with Jack’s still full one. No one noticed. It was like Dad’s awful department party all over again.

Jack leaned towards me, his mouth close to my ear. “Are you okay?” I nodded, even though I wasn’t. “Why don’t we go dancing?”, he suggested, noticing how desperately I wanted to get away from that table and the conversation.

“Sure,” I said, a small smile opening on my lips.

“If you’ll excuse us, it’s time to take my girl to the dance floor”, Jack announced and the two couples laughed enthusiastically. No matter what he said or did, everyone seemed to love him.

The dance floor was full with other couples moving around at the sound of the orchestra. Jack placed his arms on my waist and, copying what the other women were doing, I placed mine over his shoulders.

“There you go, little sis, just dance with me. Soon they will serve dinner and I can go home with our bellies full without having spent a cent.”

“We should just have eaten whatever Lily had on her fridge.”

Jack wrinkled his nose. “Good luck trying to find anything edible in that house. I’ve never seen that girl cook. Unless you consider mixing vodka and coffee as ‘cooking’.”

I laughed and rested my head on the crook of his neck. The song had gotten slower and without even noticing, I had allowed our bodies to get closer, my chest pressing against his.

Song after song played as we waltzed around the room. Suddenly, the orchestra stopped and a man got up on the stage. The microphone screeched when he tapped on it, testing the sound and I shrinked into my brother as an involuntary reaction to the noise.

“Welcome, welcome, welcome”, the presenter began, each other sounding louder than the previous, “to the tenth annual Éclat Gallery’s Valentine’s Day Gala.”

There was a round of applause and cheers. I had never heard of an Éclat Gallery, nor had known this party was from some art gallery or such.

There were some other announcements and then the man announced a little game. “Whoever the light lands on, has to kiss and will win a bottle of the prized Dom Pérignon Vintage 1996”. I had no idea what that even was, but I supposed it was expensive. A spotlight was turned on and danced around the room, from one side to the other, before stopping on a table towards the back. “Why don’t the young lovely couple show us how it’s done?”

I watched as the woman giggled and the man gave her a chaste kiss on the lips. There was a round of applause and a waiter appeared to hand over a bottle of champagne. The spotlight shifted again, landing on another couple, who once again shared a kiss and took their prize.

“And now, for our final winner!”, the presenter announced. I watched the light moving around the room until I could no longer see where it had stopped. I was flooded with brightness.

I was confused for a moment, but Jack touched my cheeks softly. “Our turn, girlfriend.”

My face burned bright red. I saw the waiter approaching with the bottle. All that was left to do was to kiss. “We can’t!”, I whispered urgently to my brother.

“Come on, just a little peck. And then we get drunk on vintage champagne.”

I closed my eyes and tilted my head to meet his mouth. His lips touched mine, soft and tasting of alcohol. Warmth filled my body and I opened my mouth to allow his tongue in. It was more than a little peck, but I couldn’t stop. Something primal had taken over me and I kissed him in the way I had wanted to all my life.

“Wow, things are getting hot and heavy over in the dance floor”, I heard the presenter say and was brought back to reality. The reality that I was kissing my brother. Because no matter how handsome and charming Jack was, no matter how much I wanted him to touch me like he touched Lily, he was still my brother and I couldn’t allow myself to go down that path.

I pulled away from him, untangling his hands from my dress and charged for the exit. People, shocked by the brutality of my movements, opened the way for me to pass. I made it out of the house and onto the street before I tripped on the ground, the stiletto heel getting caught on a crack in the stone pavement and sending me to the floor.

“Fuck,” I screamed as pain began to burst from my ankle. Just then, I felt the first drops of rain falling from the sky, because of course, things could get even worse. Tears pricked my eyes and I was about to start screaming when I heard Jack calling my name.

“Josie, there you are”, he said walking up to me, Dom Pérignon in hand. His gaze moved to my broken shoe and he knelt down. “Are you hurt?” he asked and I could feel the worry in his tone.

I shrugged. “Just some scrapes. And my ankle is hurting like hell.”

“We need to get you home. You might have broken something.”

The chilly rain made me shiver and, noticing my discomfort, Jack removed his suit jacket and draped it on my shoulders. “There you go, now, wait here as I try to get us a taxi.”

I shook my head. “It’s okay, I’m sure I can wal-”

“No. I’m getting a taxi”, he said, not even letting me finish my sentence. 

* * *

Soaked, starving and aching, we finally made it to Lily’s home. The taxi had been paid with the jewellery I had borrowed from Lily, which Jack said she wouldn’t even notice that had gone missing. Jack took some ice and towels and wrapped it around my ankle as I sat patiently by the couch.

“Why did you run?”, he asked me after opening the champagne bottle. We had won, afterall.

“I guess I just panicked. Too many eyes on me”, I said, hoping the lie sounded convincing.

He scooted closer to me on the couch and passed me the bottle after taking a large sip from it. I copied him and let the drink soothe my pain. “It doesn’t taste anything special”, I said after thinking about it for a moment. “We could get the same flavour for a few bucks at the liquor store.”

Jack laughed. “I’m fucking starving. Couldn’t you have waited until dinner was served before running off?”

“You could have stayed”, I answered with a shrug.

“And let my little sister wander New York all by herself? No, I couldn’t do that.” His fingers caressed my exposed skin and I felt at peace. “Seriously, why did you take off like that? Am I such a terrible kisser?”

“Quite the contrary.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Really? Did you like kissing me?”

I could feel my face burning. “I… I did. I….”

“What is it, Josie?”, he asked in a sweet tone I rarely heard.

I couldn’t look at him. Staring at the floor, I forced myself to say the words I had been thinking of since our lips had touched. “I guess I had been wanting to kiss you for a while. I know I shouldn’t but…”

“Me too.”

“What?”

Carefully, he moved my head so our eyes were locked into each other. “Josie, I’ve been wanting you for so long. I want you more than just as a sister.”

The words flooded my heart with relief. Before I could stop myself, I began to sob, feeling the stress and worries of so many years dissolving under his touch. “I love you, Jack. I always have.”

He kissed me, hands exploring all over my body. I no longer felt cold or pain, I only felt him. The dress fell to the floor, along with his clothes. It didn’t matter where we were, only that we were together. As long as I was with my brother, I was safe and at home. 

When we finally got too tired, he helped me onto bed and laid by my side. I felt him take my hands into his.

“Will you be my Valentine?”

“Yes, today and forever”, I said with the last remaining strength I had,before closing my eyes and drifting off to sleep.

#submission #ivesblosson #shipcest valentine's day 2024 #valentine's day #jack and josie #josie and jack #r: brosis #fanfiction #noiv #nr #asks #tw: incest

[rpgchoices]

Sometimes I really want to read a short summary of what to expect from a game… and thankfully people can also submit their summaries of games they played and help me (and others) find games that cater to their interests!

submitted by @lairofsentinel

(click here for other videogames)

what to expect from PAINSCREEK KILLINGS

Point-and-click detective game which goal is to understand the unsolved case of an assassination that happened years ago in a now abandoned town. 

Unlike most of these detective games, there is no journal that gathers your clues [so in those cases, the game ends up determining which piece of info is worthy and which one is irrelevant]. However, here, you have to take down notes in real life, so this improves your experience as a detective. You and only you decide which piece of information may be relevant. 

In my opinion, the game has a big flaw: all the clues and most of its narrative is given via personal diaries: this ends up being repetitive and rather ridiculous since it means every single person in this town had several diaries in which they wrote the most stupid and vain things that are not related to their personal life. 

Another flaw is that everything is locked with keys, and there is a constant, annoying back and forth between all the places you visited several times just because you unlock part of the rooms progressively. Since the game lacks of teleport, this mechanics makes you lose a lot of time.

Mexican telenovelas are small in comparison with the relationships mess of this case, haha. 

It has several endings, depending on who you think is the assassin or other spoiler conditions. 

Not voiced, since you are the only person in the whole abandoned town.

Short game of around 7 hours if it weren't for all that walking back and forth. Depending on that, this game can be of 20 hours.

——- Plot? ——-

You are a reporter who has just come to a ghost town that will be bought by a company and probably destroyed. In this place, a series of assassinations happened after the strange murder of the local Mayor’s wife. The case was closed unsolved years ago, and your main goal is to try to understand who killed this woman and why. In the process, you will discover other murderers and motivations.

——- Gameplay? ——- 

You pick objects that can be examined, or you can read tons [really tons!] of diaries. They reveal clues for unlocking other houses and rooms. There is a constant back and forth between the many places of this town, since you unlock sections of each room progressively.

——- Characters? ——- 

You, as the journalist who looks for the truth, and all the dead people that were related to the victim. 

 ——- LGBT? ——-

None.

——- Sadness level? ——- 

Low. There are sad stories that make you think about life, fairness, and choices, but everything is so lost in time that remains a bit far away from you as a viewer/player. 

——- Happy ending? Deaths? ——-

Depends on your investigation.

#the painscreek killings #lairofsentinel #what to expect

[fran-in-the-deep]

Okay so, I need to get this out somewhere eventually and since this has turned out to be my writing blog, I'll just leave it here.

Clickbait Title: How I defeated my inner self doubt and have now written over 430.000 words in a year | extreme edition

Actual Summary: Me whining about how writing made me miserable, then I started writing fanfic, now have a very healthy and joy-filled relationship to writing. That writing can be fun and meaningful and I wish more people got to this point, whatever they enjoy writing, because it makes me genuinely sad to see so many writers beating themselves up over something that can be so fulfilling. And I don't mean the struggles of the writing and editing process but the constant existential justification that writers seem to have to perform. It's okay to just exist for a while.

I am one of those people who have been writing all their life and their life goal was writing a novel, publishing, becoming an author and all that. Make art, make something meaningful. I wanted to study creative writing, become an editor, the whole package.

I was also a dinosaur kind and wanted to become an Archaeologist, because nobody told me that it's actually Palaeontologists who research dinosaurs. Looking back I wish I would have stuck to this so it wouldn't take me however many years to figure out I now want to go back to it, though in a different capacity.

That is because writing was a chore, it was painful, it made me incredibly miserable. Yet it was the only thing I was good at, big fish in a small pond, small schools in rural area style. But it was always this constant perfectionism, so much pressure, so much disappointment. I have more bad memories of writing than good ones when I admit the crumbs of euphoria it sometimes caused kept me going.

Like, I hated it. The constant self doubt, knowing that I would never be good enough, that I couldn't write anything meaningful, that I just couldn't stop. I didn't even enjoy the stories I wrote myself or the feedback that I got, because as long as I wasn't publish, had really made an impact, it didn't matter anyways.

So where does this lead? That exactly a year ago I said fuck it, I don't care anymore. Fuck everyone and their high art and aspirations and having meaning and perfectionism and self doubt, just leave me alone. And I stopped writing.

For a month. And then I picked up AoT again, despite all the controversies and with no expectations and I ended up getting really invested. I started writing fanfic for it because I felt like it. I wrote by myself, for myself, no pressure and somehow ended up writing literally every free minute. You know, like Terry Pratchett did. Because it was just so, so much fun. I didn't know that writing could be so much fun.

So I wrote over 430.000 words of "bad fanfic" in a year. It was supposed to be bad, and stylistically it very much is, but even then I have fun re-reading it, because for once I'm the target audience. Because it only matters to me and that's what makes it great. And while I'm low key prouf of that number, it's not about productivity here. I haven't produced anything of merit for anyone else, and due to hospital stays and my life screeching to a halt I've had an awful lot of time to write.

Since then I've stayed out of most writing related forums because they remind me too much of how miserable I was and I just want to tell everyone in there, that they're allowed to have fun. That you can write literally whatever you want and that publishing, be it traditional or self-publishing isn't the thing that gives it meaning. You don't have to be read by a million people or make an cultural impact for your work to have meaning. I've hosted writing groups when I was in the hospital with some other patients a lot of the time now, and nothing of that will ever "matter" in the grand scheme of things but it mattered that we had a good couple hours together and they have something to remind them of that. The random funny short stories I come up for my friends with matter. My own enjoyment matters.

And it's not that I don't get it, I very much do and people are different, some kinds of writing are just not for me and that's okay. But it makes me somewhat sad seeing so many people beating themselves up about something that can be so much fun because of the mental image they have of what they have to do, of having to reach some form of grandeur so their pain was worth it, to justify their existence on this world. And for some people that works, but I'm not one of them and I hate seeing people sad, so I just want to wrap everyone in a blanket and tell them that it's okay to just exist for a while. Indulge in what you made, what you can do.

After that year I'm at the point where I felt like actually sharing what I write now, because I am petty and there isn't enough Hange fluff out there that's solely focused on them, and I can write, so I'm gonna be the change I want to see and fill that niche. (To all the other Hange writers, see you and appreciate you). And if I want to write about Levi, I just do that. Because I can, because it's fun, because I'm not owing anyone a product you pay money for. I still try my best to write a decent story, but I don't despair over it.

I don't mean to shame or blame anyone who thinks differently, if you told me that a year ago I wouldn't have taken it seriously. And there have just been many life incidents that changed my general outlook on life and whatever. Being in your early twenties is an absolute mess and things get simultaneously better and worse all the time. I've been hitting rock bottom so often all the time, especially the past half year, and writing fanfic has gotten me through it. My life might be objectively bad a lot of the time, but at least I have a good relationship to writing now. I can have fun. So that means a lot to me.

#getting all deep and philosophical at 1am #maybe i start figuring out how being on tumblr works #yes it's another it's my blog and i can decide what i put on here thing #still very fascinated that i can go here and take up space with my silly little stories and stuff #and getting positive reactions from it or at least neutral #the fascination of the web

[mannatea]

Vita, a Tales of Symphonia ‘fic (& podfic!)

Words: 4,112 words Summary: Half-elves can now attend formal schools as well as teach in them. They can join the church, attend the theater, walk into any medical facility and receive treatment, and practice medicine. But they cannot marry humans. Pairing/Character: Regal/Raine, Zelos gets some lines too. Warnings: Fantasy racism, procreative sex, and literal healing sex. Rating: Explicit Genre: Oops!All Tenderness. This skews heavily into romance and longing and is ultimately a happy story. You're welcome.

The title is the link to Ao3.

Link to the podfic: here! If you have issues listening, let me know.

Notes are under a cut.

Inspiration pulled heavily from I Fell in Love Again Last Night. I very nearly named this story after the song.

These lines mess me up the most:

I fell in love again last night When you kissed me the way you've always done Like the first time you were with me and my heart just came undone

The whole mana/vita thing is pulled from a meta I wrote: Boltzman's Theory of Vitality (and The Manavita Effect).

--

Regarding Regal's apartment in Meltokio: I go to this option so often because it feels plausible. I'm sure he spends quite a bit of time there.

Half-elves and humans not being able to marry is just something I made up for this story. That said, I think it's probably more likely to be canon than not, especially in Tethe'alla.

The incident in Flanoir was a hate crime and Raine was the intended target. This could be its own story, though in here it's just a mention and serves to explain her chronically poor health.

Aisha and Harley are me just making stuff up. I always sorta just...wondered about them, I think. I could have just as easily gone with Linar and Harley, but Linar seems to have a crush on Raine.

Viscount Alaric is from Break Open the Sky. He's a minor character who will have a bigger role in Swallow the Ground. He supports half-elf rights (not always for the right reason) and has some sway with the other minor nobles.

Regal's father: I pulled this from the drama CD, at least to the degree that he bought votes and threatened people to get what he wanted. I think in Regal's current situation it would be hard not to feel despair at how, while things are changing, the change moves slowly. He could certainly buy more votes. But he is too honest a man to stoop that low, and it's one of the reasons Raine loves him.

Thaddeus is a name I always give to the most asshole male character I can find. It's a long story. Just know Regal's father fits the bill best in this fandom, so it's the name I'll use. He would definitely hate Raine.

Regal's anger about his mother is a headcanon I have that I still haven't managed to write into anything. I imagine she died while Regal was away at school, and all he got from his father was a short letter saying she was dead. He hates that he was forced away from her and to school, but he has never processed his anger and grief over the way his father handled his mother's death—as if it was an unimportant little footnote, hardly worthy of recognition.

Regal's father being a count. This is also a headcanon. While Regal was granted the title of Duke (or Grand Duke—the game low-key hints at this being the actual truth), I find it hard to believe the nobility wouldn't all hate him vehemently if he'd risen from nothing to the highest noble rank. The fact that the Bryant family has been wealthy more than 800 years (even before Tethe'alla was flourishing!) tells me they've always been a noble family, and the rise from count to duke isn't a large leap (even if the title is still deeply meaningful).

--

Procreative sex: I don't think these are characters that would moan about making babies. Like, it's very hard for me to picture Regal talking about how he's going to impregnate Raine while he's fucking her, even if getting her pregnant is what he's aiming for. That is especially true in this story, where there's a sort of sadness about even trying for a child. That said, they do try, so I had to tag it, even though it's maybe not what anyone expected when they saw the tag.

Also, the incident in Flanoir might have made her incapable of conceiving, though neither of them let themselves think about it at this point in the story.

--

I don't even know how to bring this topic up, but I do want to talk a little bit about the importance of marriage to these characters. I think if the person reading this story is of a marginalized group, they don't need to have this explained. Society has been shit for so long. Interracial marriage wasn't legal in the USA until 1967. Same-sex couples were not granted full marriage equality until 2015. And even now, disabled folks face discrimination and do not have equal rights, as they often lose their right to assistance the moment they marry.

These characters could live together and they could have children together, but we don't know how the Tales of Symphonia society will treat that behavior. If the Lezareno Company functions like a company (and according to the drama CD, it does), the board could simply remove him as president. Then what happens to him? What happens to the world when the most influential person in it can't exert any influence?

It's also important to note that they want marriage because they want the security marriage offers. Raine is likely to outlive Regal, and he wants to ensure that she, and any children he has with her, will be taken care of when he dies. If they simply live together and he dies, she (and any children) lose everything.

Marriage is a HUGE deal to them.

--

Healing!Sex. Uh, look. The way Regal's healing works in-game (the closer the target, the more he is able to heal) forced my hand. This concept was begging to be written and I'm surprised I haven't even seen it mentioned before.

Jokes aside, this is straight up a kink for them, and especially for Raine. There might be something to be said here for the healer wanting to be healed by someone else, but I was mostly just thinking about how she probably has a lot of violence directed at her, and sex with someone she loves and trusts while those hurts are healed is just...very emotionally and physically gratifying for her. (At least if they're having sex when he heals her, she gets pain and then pleasure, but if the healing is standalone she only gets the pain...which she's already experienced in sustaining the injury in the first place.)

Also, the whole ejaculation + release of vita into her thing just seemed like a way to tie the healing sex in with the fact that they are trying for a baby.

As to what I imagine the transfer of vita would feel like, I pretty much explained it in the story. Generally it just feels good in the way, say, a massage can feel good. But when it comes at certain times or from certain people, or there are emotions involved, or, you know, it comes along with sexual gratification, it can feel like a lot more.

I also had a small thought here that even if she doesn't have physical injuries, he can still transfer vita to her to help boost her energy levels and that will make her feel better, too, albeit in a slightly different way.

I also just thought it would be kind of funny that they could discover it by accident. I imagine she had her arm in that sling and refused help but he decided to help anyway when she wouldn't have the chance to argue about it lmao. Oops, new kink unlocked.

As to the sex position itself, it's just a side-by-side, like this:

If he's trying to heal her while he fucks her, he'd have to choose something that wouldn't require too much thought or focus from him. This one is a good compromise where she can let him do the work at first, and then participate later when she's feeling better and they both want to get off.

--

I have no defense for "darling" as a pet name. I think he might also call her "dear" or "dearest" sometimes.

Raine calls Presea "dear" (affectionate) and Sheena "dear" (derogatory) in-game but she doesn't strike me as the kind of person who would be super into having pet names for her partner or being called by one.

Every now and then, though...she might like it. She just usually prefers her name.

--

"You're already my wife" is to show he already thinks of her this way.

It also references the earlier scene where Raine tells him he's a better husband than his father was. She thinks of him this way, too.

--

The first kiss in Meltokio was at the in-game party.

--

Regal crying had to happen. He's very empathetic and feels things deeply. What do you do when happiness comes with an immense and heavy relief? You cry.

I like the idea that post-game Zelos works hard to do his best at making the world a better place, and I wanted to include him here. He and Regal probably work together a lot and their alliance is to be feared and respected. The fact that Zelos supports him and his ideals even fifteen years later is a testament to his character and the reason Regal has remained friends with him.

Because he helped the change come about, Regal wants his name on their marriage license. (Raine would want this too, if I included her opinion.)

Her sleeping on the couch is me trying to subtly show she deals with fatigue a lot. Otherwise, she would have been waiting outside for Regal.

--

Regal has brought his mother's ring with him every year to vote.

I was attempting a slight culture difference between Sylvarant and Tethe'alla with weddings where rings are not common in Sylvarant but expected in Tethe'alla. Tethe'alla probably tends to have more elaborate ceremonies and Sylvarant veers toward simpler traditional things.

The last Sylvaranti wedding he attended was Colette's (to any partner you prefer teehee), but that was more than a decade ago.

--

I wanted to include SO MANY OTHER THINGS in this story, because any story 15 years into the post-game just brings up a lot of questions, like how Lloyd's expshere journey is going and who has married and who has children. I didn't even get to mention Genis in this story, which felt like a crime considering this law would matter to him, too, if only tangentially at this point.

If you couldn't tell, I really enjoyed writing this one. I even cried at one point. I hope someone out there enjoys it as much as I enjoyed working on it. 🤍💙

#tales of symphonia #mannafics #regal bryant #raine sage #regal x raine

[heyiwrotesomethings]

Spooky Stories to Hold Them Close

Shinobu Kochou x They/Them Reader Modern AU

A/N:  I’ve got camping on the brain so I wrote a camp AU. There is a manga character mentioned in here but I morph them a bit to fit what I’m going for so I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Please enjoy!  Shinobu: If there are any spirits out here tonight tell me, does this sound like Shakira? lolay lolay lo- 

Word Count: 4,821

It was summer again, and (Y/n) groaned as they removed their camp issued baseball cap to swipe at the sweat that had accumulated over their brow. Not even the cheap material could save them from the intense heat of the day. God, they would kill to be back at the counselor’s cabin to enjoy just a smidge of AC but no, instead they were out with the unruly boys of Cabin K, making sure that they carried out their punishment of hard labor after causing a food fight in the mess hall.

“Come on boys, those canoes better be sparkling if you’re going to be taking your sweet time like this.” (Y/n) called, fanning themself with their hat.

“There’s a spider in this one!” Zenitsu cried. “This is so gross, there’s no way anyone’s ever cleaned these before!”

“Don’t worry Zenitsu, I’ll get it.” Tanjirou smiled earnestly.

(Y/n) felt bad for that kid. He was such an enabler though. The others looked up to him and respected him a lot. Who knows how much better it be if he knocked their heads more often. But because of his soft and nurturing demeanor, Tanjirou was always getting caught up in his cabin mates’ shenanigans. Speaking of which...

“Inosuke! If so much as a toe goes in that water you’ll be at the craft table with the junior kids making macaroni art until the only color you know yellow!” (Y/n) warned.

A strangled wail mixed with a roar left the boy’s mouth, the sound didn’t even sound like it could come from a human being. It was like that boy was a feral boar. Given how he’s kept coming back year after year, he may as well be just that.

“It’s hot! I’ll wash the boat in the lake!” He yelled, pulling the canoe closer to the sandy beach.

“Inosuke I’m serious! Macaroni art! That, and I’ll call your mother!” (Y/n) yelled back.

“Damn you and your sick threats!”

“My, still at it are we?”

(Y/n) sighed, turning with a tight smile towards Shinobu as their fellow counselor came up beside them. They tried not to let their eyes wander too long over the expanse of soft looking skin Shinobu’s shorts left exposed.

“Yeah, and as you can see, Tomioka ditched me to go help Sabito with something.” (Y/n) huffed, returning a watchful eye over Inosuke as he dragged the canoe back up to the others.

“Oh, you poor thing.” Shinobu tutted, stepping closer to rub (Y/n)’s back as a sign of sympathy. The proximity brought the scent of sunscreen and damp earth to (Y/n)’s nose. It was an intoxicating scent that (Y/n) had grown to associate with Shinobu always.

“Yeah, are you getting ready for swim lessons right now? Tradesies?” They asked hopefully, mustering up the best puppy dog eyes they could make. They only succeeded in making Shinobu laugh though, which honestly, wasn’t a bad constellation prize.

“Mm, no, sorry. You’re not the only one wanting to get relief from this heatwave.” Shinobu pinched the front of her shirt pulling at it to circulate some airflow. A motion (Y/n) definitely did not follow with their eyes.

“I did grab you and the boys some water though.” Shinobu said, digging into the drawstring bag that was slung over her shoulder and presenting (Y/n) with four bottles of cold water. “And to think I purposfully didn’t get one for Tomioka and he isn’t even here to stare off into the middle distance. Such a waste.”

“You’re such a bully sometimes, you know that?” (Y/n) chuckled, placing all bottles at their feet except for one, “remind me to stay on your good side.”

“You’d really be on my good side if you came to the counselor fire after the kids turn in. The theme is Fright Night, sponsored by yours truly,” Shinobu winked playfully.

Immediately (Y/n) felt a tad ill. “Fright Night?”

“Yes!” Shinobu nodded, a small, yet very excited grin on her face, “it’ll be held at Hangman’s Clearing, of course, a full night of frightening tales and games by the fire... and delicious treats! Provided Mitsuri doesn’t eat them all on the way. You’ll come, right?”

(Y/n) wasn’t particularly fond of the supernatural or chilling tales of murder or other dark themes. In fact, it would be fair to say they loathed them. They hated being scared and this themed get together should have had (Y/n) running in the opposite direction. ‘Should have’ being the key in this situation.

Shinobu looked so hopeful, waiting expectantly for (Y/n)’s reply. It would be impossible to say no to that face. A face that (Y/n) looked forward to seeing every summer and was always desperately looking for an excuse to see as often as possible. It couldn’t be that bad, right? (Y/n) could handle a few spooks in exchange for hanging out with Shinobu all night. Yeah, they could do this.

“It’s not a trick question, (Y/n). A simple yes or no would suffice.” Shinobu teased. “Though if it helps sway your decision at all, it would make me really happy if you would come.”

And with that, (Y/n)’s fate was sealed.

“Okay, sure, yeah, I’ll come.” (Y/n) bashfully agreed, their heartbeat picking up in pace at Shinobu’s delighted giggle.

“Great! I’ll see you at the clearing at ten. Don’t be late or,” she suddenly latched on to (Y/n)’s arm, startling them, “the ghosts will get you!”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” (Y/n) laughed weakly. Their skin tingling from where Shinobu had grabbed them.

“I better get to the beach, the kids are getting antsy.” Shinobu said before proceeding to pull her shirt over her head. She was wearing her swimsuit of course, but still. (Y/n) nearly had an aneurysm because of the casual reveal. “See you later, (Y/n).”

“Sssseee you. Bye. Thanks for the water.” (Y/n) then made themselves busy by taking several sips of said water.

“Anytime,” Shinobu’s eyes traveled past (Y/n)’s body before returning to them with a sympathetic smile, “looks like you’ve got your work cut out for you.”

“Huh?” (Y/n) squinted before their eyes blew wide and they jerked their head back in the direction of the canoes. “Tanjirou, why is there a canoe in that tree! I swear I can’t leave you guys alone for two minutes!” (Y/n) stalked over to the boys and Shinobu watched their back, laughing as (Y/n) ran up to Inosuke and tackled him to the ground before he could scale the tree with another canoe.

***

Night fell much too quickly after a full day of scheduled activities and once all the campers had retired to their cabins for curfew, (Y/n) knew their time to mentally prepare for the counselor fire had run out. At least they hadn’t had to walk to the clearing themself, as they had bumped into Mitsuri and Iguro at the edge of the forest entrance.

Iguro seemed miffed that his alone time with the bubbly counselor had been interrupted but Mitsuri was all too happy to catch up with (Y/n) about their day as they walked to Hangman’s Clearing.

Soon the light of a fire could be seen between the trees and they met up with the other counselors who had decided to join in. Sitting around the fire, (Y/n) saw Kyoujurou and Tengen talking to each other while poking at the fire. (Y/n) frowned, wondering where Shinobu was.

“Boo!”

It took everything in (Y/n)’s power to swallow the scream that threatened to spill from their mouth as arms wrapped around them from behind. Instead it turned into a pitiful and embarrassing squeak. (Y/n) wasn’t sure which would have been better.

“Oh dear, (Y/n). Did I startle you? I’m sorry.” Shinobu released (Y/n) from her hold and patted their shoulder.

“It’s okay!” (Y/n) promised, not wanting Shinobu to feel bad. “Besides, that’s kind of the point of tonight, isn’t it?”

“Right! I’m glad you could come (Y/n). I didn’t know if you liked scary things.” Shinobu said as they followed Mitsuri and Iguro to the fire.

“Yeah...” (Y/n) replied, lying against their better judgment. They just wanted Shinobu to think they were cool, impress her somehow maybe. “Horror is.. great.”

“Is this it?” Tengen asked, leaning his back against a sturdy log.

“Yes. Gyomei is staying behind to keep an ear out for the kids, as are Sabito and Tomioka. Sanemi said the whole thing wasn’t worth his time.” Shinobu explained as she took her own seat at the fire, motioning for (Y/n) to sit next to her.

“Did you even really invite Tomioka?” Tengen snorted.

“Of course I did, but as you all know, Tomioka is a wet blanket so he declined and Sabito decided to stay with him.” Shinobu clapped her hands against her thighs, “Now, enough about them. Let’s get the festivities started, shall we? Mitsuri, you brought the goods?”

“I sure did!” Mitsuri cheered, taking the nearly overflowing backpack she had been toting off of her shoulders. It landed in the dirt with a heavy thud. “I’ve got s’more fixings, jiffy pop, chips, sodas, water, hotdogs...”

“Wow Mitsuri, you really went all out. How did you carry it all?” (Y/n) marveled.

Mitsuri flexed one of her biceps, smacking the muscle with her hand. “Strength, pure will power and an intense love of all things delicious!” She said, her lips curled into an adorable smile.

The counselor fire started out great. For the first hour they all talked and ate, enjoying the warmth of the fire and the twinkle of the stars, laughing with each other as they recalled the memories that they had made over the years.

But like anything else, the conversation dried to a slow trickle and most of the food had been polished off. The once hearty blaze of the fire was now a low flame with glowing embers. Shinobu took it as her cue to begin the main event.

(Y/n) blinked at the sudden brightness that flashed beside them. They squinted against the light and saw that Shinobu was brandishing a flashlight, highlighting her face for a moment before moving the light to cast shadows over the sinister smile growing across her face.

“Anyone have a scary story they’d like to share or are you all content to dive into the main event?” Shinobu asked, placing her free hand confidently over her chest.

“Oo! I got one, Shinobu! Pick me!” Mitsuri called, calling out in her seat beside Iguro.

“Alright, catch!” Shinobu tossed the flashlight to Mitsuri who caught it with an excited squee.

“Okay, so, um.. oh! Once, there was this girl who woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t go back to sleep. She decided that she wanted a midnight snack and remembered that there was still a piece of her favorite raspberry cheesecake left. A perfect creamy treat! She could practically taste it already.”

Mitsuri wiggled on the log, leaning forward in her excitement. Light from the fire illuminated the green tips of her hair making them appear to glow.

“So she got out of her warm and comfy bed and crept into the dark, cold hallway, thump thump thump, and down the squeaky stairs, squeak squawk squeak, until she finally made it to the kitchen.

Mitsuri reached out towards the fire with her free hand and made a motion like grabbing a door, slowly pulling it back.

“She opened the refrigerator door and then—“ Mitsuri slapped her hand down upon her thigh with startling force, “to her absolute horror, she remembered that she had eaten the last piece of cheesecake at lunch the previous day! There was no more cheesecake to be had, and she had to settle for confetti cake ice cream when what she was really craving was the cheesecake!”

Mitsuri shook her head sorrowfully, and Iguro rubbed a soothing hand over her back while she collected herself.

“The end.” Mitsuri finished, clicking the flashlight off.

“Haha! Good one Mitsuri. The emotion behind your tale made it feel so real!” Kyoujirou loudly proclaimed. Shinobu giggled from her seat beside (Y/n) who also couldn’t help but laugh as well.

“It was real!” Mitsuri said seriously. “It happened to me just a couple weeks ago!” she shuddered.

“I don’t know, that was hardly scary Kanroji.” Tengen shrugged.

“I’d like to see you do better!” Mitsuri pouted.

“I could, but I’d rather let Kochou get on with her activities. Her knee is bouncing. Impatient, Kochou?”

“Ha ha! That it is!” Kyoujirou laughed.

“I can wait,” Shinobu countered, her leg ceased its bouncing due to being caught. “Does anyone else want to share a story?”

A chorus of head shakes met Shinobu’s question and she shrugged, a sly smiling curling at her lips.

“Very well then, Mitsuri, the flashlight please.”

“You got it!” Mitsuri cheered, tossing the light back to Shinobu.

Shinobu clicked the light back on, her eyes roamed over her audience one by one.

“Have you all heard of the serial killer Douma the Cannibal?” Shinobu asked.

“Of course,” Iguro spoke up. “He killed at least seventy women throughout the 1910s until well into the 1920s. However, their still connecting cold case murders to him even now. Some experts believe he could have killed well over two hundred. A really despicable monster to say the least.”

“Very true.” Shinobu nodded solemnly, “His parents ran a cult, believing he was some kind of messiah or deity. They let him do whatever he wished. It started with the killings of small animals but quickly escalated once that had lost its appeal. We don’t know much of motivations, but it’s believed he killed simply because he enjoyed it. Famously developing a taste for his victims after he ran out of places to store them.”

(Y/n) shivered, clutching themself in a hug as they waited for Shinobu to continue. This was worse than any old ghost story, the girl beside them was talking about an actual person! Well, at least he was dead right? Right?

“He was apprehended right here in this very clearing actually.” Shinobu said, looking around at the dark forest that surrounded them “The mob hung him, strung him up in one of these trees, hence the name Hangman’s Clearing.”

(Y/n) swallowed thickly. Why here, he couldn’t be dead someplace else? And they made a fucking summer camp here, what the actual fuck? Suddenly the woods seemed much more sinister.

“He deserved it of course,” Shinobu continued with a sigh, “but just think of what we could have learned if they chained him up instead. There are still many bodies unaccounted for. But perhaps,” Shinobu turned to (Y/n), making them jump a little as her hand slid behind them to pick up a box.

“But perhaps tonight, in the field where he gasped for his last breaths, we can learn something from beyond.”

Oh hell to the fucking no. She was holding a goddamn ouija board and matching planchette.

(Y/n) felt the hairs on the back of their neck rise to attention. There was no way, how could they get themself out of this? Calling upon the spirit of a serial killer was not what they had signed up for. Everyone else however, seemed to lean in and stare with excitement at the prospect, even Mitsuri quickly hopped out of her seat to sit on Shinobu’s other side.

“Oo, oo! Shinobu what a good idea!” she cheered.

A good idea? Mitsuri, honey, what is wrong with you, respectfully. (Y/n) held their face in their hand. That girl had been their only chance of escape, but she seemed just as invested as everyone else!

“Thank you, let’s get this set up then, shall we?” Shinobu grinned.

Tengen and Kyoujirou pushed the logs around into a makeshift table and everyone kneeled around it. Shinobu placed the board and planchette neatly in the middle, beckoning everyone to place a finger on the planchette.

(Y/n) jolted to attention as Shinobu placed her hand over theirs, giving them a questioning glance.

“(Y/n), are you still with us?” She teased.

“Yeah, sorry.” They gulped, watching in dismay as Shinobu smiled at them and pulled their hand up to the board, curling all fingers but one and playfully pushing it against the planchette before placing her own over the wood. There was no getting out of this.

Shinobu then went on about how the board worked and what not, (Y/n) didn’t really listen, too busy trying to find their happy place and pretend they weren’t there.

“Are there any spirits with us tonight?” Shinobu asked, pulling (Y/n) out of their head at the most inopportune moment.

At first there was no movement, for which (Y/n) was thankful, but ever so slowly the planchette did move.

“K-Kyou, you aren’t pushing it are you?” (Y/n) couldn’t help but ask.

“Not at all my friend!” Kyoujirou heartily replied as the planchette continued moving in (Y/n)’s direction.

The fact that it was moving in their direction wasn’t the issue, but rather the fact that (Y/n)’s corner of the board had ‘yes’ written on it.

“Ah, a yes! This is so exciting!” Mitsuri wiggled.

“Nice, how flamboyant!” Tengen added, pumping his free fist.

“What is your name spirit?” Shinobu continued.

(Y/n) let out a shaky breath as the planchette moved away from them. Watching with dread as it skimmed across the board.

‘D’

‘O’

‘U’

‘M’

‘A’

Fuck.

“Where are the victims you buried in these woods, you worthless, demonic bastard?” Shinobu tensed beside (Y/n), concentrating heavily on the board, her tone was commanding as she demanded an answer.

(Y/n) would have found it extremely attractive if they weren’t already scared out of their mind. The taunting of a serial killer ghost was the last thing they wanted to be a part of. Especially if they were talking demons, (Y/n) was too young to die like this. Well, they’d never be at an age where death by demon possession would seem favorable, but that was not the point!

The planchette moved across several letters and (Y/n) lost track of what was being spelled out. Which was just as well, ignorance is bliss after all, right? They waited for the others to figure it out with bated breath.

“Follow the sounds of the woods and we’ll find the signs, hm?” Iguro muttered. “Sounds like a trap.”

“What does it matter? Not like ghosts exist anyway. This is all a part of the ambiance, right Shinobu?” Tengen laughed, laying back on his forearms.

“I wasn’t pushing the planchette if that’s what you are suggesting, Uzui.” Shinobu answered seriously. “But if anyone else wants to confess to it, by all means don’t waste our time.”

“I didn’t!” Mitsuri denied while Iguro shook his head.

“I didn’t either.” (Y/n) also spoke up, an undetectable tremor pulled at their vocal chords.

“Nor have I!” Kyoujirou boomed.

“Then there is only one way to know for sure that this is all legitimate,” Shinobu said, brandishing the small lantern she had lit to illuminate the board, “we break off and search the surrounding woods.”

“Break off? Like, search in the dark alone?” (Y/n) couldn’t help but ask for clarification. Couldn’t they all just head back to the cabins together and watch a movie on Tengen’s smuggled DVD player and forget this whole mess?

“No, not alone,” Shinobu smiled, looping her free arm through (Y/n)’s, “that would be too dangerous. Pairs would be better.”

“I’m going with Kanroji.” Iguro immediately declared. Mitsuri wiggled and clapped, happy to go with him.

“Guess that leaves you and me,” Tengen grinned, fist bumping Kyoujirou, “let’s kick some ghost ass!”

“Yes!” Kyoujirou enthusiastically replied.

“Great, then it’s decided!” Shinobu nodded, squeezing (Y/n)’s arm closer to her as she stood up, pulling them up with her. “Meet back here in half an hour?”

A range of approvals sounded and once they synced up their watches (since phones weren’t allowed at camp), the three separate pairs went off in different directions into the dark woods.

(Y/n) used to love these woods, coming back summer after summer, it was one of the things they looked forward to every year. It only took about twenty minutes for them to learn to hate it as Shinobu led them through the bramble and roots by lantern light.

“You’re being awfully quiet, something on your mind?” Shinobu asked after an owl hooted in the distance, startling (Y/n) a bit.

“No, I’m just,” (Y/n) made a vague gesture with their hands, “concentrating, I guess.” They finished lamely.

Shinobu hummed in amusement, “I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself. It is all rather exciting isn’t it? I hope we find something.”

“Mhmm.” (Y/n) forced a smile as Shinobu looked over her shoulder at them. It quickly fell from their face once Shinobu turned to face front again, guiding (Y/n) further down the darkened path.

(Y/n) had never been more tense in their life. They didn’t know if they were thankful for Shinobu’s commentary as they kept walking or if they wanted her to be quiet so they could hear any approaching threat. Whatever the case, they kept their mouth shut. Only answering Shinobu with one word responses, affirming or negative noises or just the shake or nod of their head when Shinobu would look back at them. If Shinobu thought it odd, she didn’t comment on her fellow counselor’s behavior.

After awhile, (Y/n) attempted to pretend they were somewhere else again. Still with Shinobu, but somewhere nice like an amusement park or a beach at sunset... maybe sunrise instead. (Y/n) was jostled from their musings when Shinobu stopped suddenly, causing (Y/n) to bump into her.

“Did you hear that?” She whispered, spiking (Y/n) blood pressure through the roof.

“No.” They squeaked.

“Listen.” Shinobu hushed, pulling (Y/n) down to their knees, they both crouched to the ground, listening so hard their ears were buzzing.

A snapping of a branch in the distance, the rustle of leaves.

“What,” (Y/n) swallowed, “what was that?” They whispered.

“Shhh,” Shinobu exhaled, covering (Y/n)’s lips with her fingers as she continued to listen.

It was quiet again, and as Shinobu gave up on listening and removed her fingers from over (Y/n)’s mouth—

“KYYYYAAAAAHHHH!”

A loud scream could be heard far off in the trees, then everything went quiet again for all of three seconds before (Y/n) absolutely lost it.

“Oh my god!” They gasped, clutching Shinobu’s arm tightly to their chest, their eyes wide and unfocused. “Oh my god, that sounded like Mitsuri! Oh god, oh fuck! Shit!”

“(Y/n)?” Shinobu looked at them, a bewildered expression molding her face as she observed their sudden outburst. She quickly moved to comfort them though, setting the lantern down to hug them, rubbing their back as it shuddered with ragged breaths. “Hey, it’s alright. You’re okay.”

“For now!” (Y/n) frantically retorted. “It’s only a matter of time before whatever got Mitsuri and Iguro come for us!”

“(Y/n), wait—“ Shinobu tried to calm them, but they just kept spiraling.

“Why did I agree to this? I should have left the second you took out that ouija board, but no! I stayed just so I could spend more time with you and now we’re gonna be murdered by a demon serial killer ghost before I could finally work up the courage to ask you out!”

“(Y/n)!” Shinobu tried again, speaking a bit sharper this time, forcing (Y/n) to look at her and hoping to calm them with her attentions. “Hey, we’re going to be alright. You’re alright. Listen to me, okay? I set this all up.”

“Huh?” (Y/n) weakly croaked.

“I messed with the ouija board. We weren’t really communicating with anything. I planned for us to split off into groups. We heard Mitsuri scream because—“

“Who’s ready to die!?” A loud maniacal laugh sounded behind them and a chainsaw roared to life.

(Y/n) screamed, otherwise paralyzed in Shinobu’s embrace. Their head tucked under Shinobu’s with their cheek pressed snugly against her chest as they waited for the chainsaw blade to tear through their skin.

“Sanemi, turn that off right now! Stop, damn you!” Shinobu yelled over the noise.

“Okay, okay!” the false murderer, Sanemi, turned off the whirring blade with a tisk. “I was only following your own instructions, Kochou. Why are you looking at me like I was really gonna... oh damn, are they okay?” Sanemi winced, gesturing at (Y/n) quivering in Shinobu’s arms like a leaf.

“Do they look okay to you?” Shinobu huffed, more angry at herself than Sanemi. She continued rubbing at (Y/n)’s back, trying to coax them out of their tight ball while Sanemi stood by awkwardly at the side, rubbing his neck and looking into the woods.

“I’ll uh, gather everybody up and take ‘em back to camp.” Sanemi eventually spoke up. “You have things all under control here?”

“Yes, please go. Thank you Sanemi.” Shinobu shooed him off, not even looking away from (Y/n) as she did so. As Sanemi lumbered back into the forest Shinobu continued to help (Y/n) calm down.

“It’ll be okay, you’ll be alright. I’m so sorry. It’s all over now. It’s just you and me and I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you.” Shinobu promised. “Can you look at me (Y/n), please?”

Ever so slowly, (Y/n) pulled back. They were still visibly shaken and meek which pulled heavily on Shinobu’s heart.

“I’m sorry.” (Y/n) shuddered, closing in on themself as they looked away from Shinobu, “I ruined your event.”

“Hey, you didn’t ruin anything.” Shinobu spoke in a no-nonsense tone. “I should have noticed you weren’t having a good time.”

“I was having a good time at first. I just really wanted to spend time with you, I thought I could handle it.”

“You can spend time with me whenever you want; all you need to do is ask.” Shinobu smiled softly. “And if anything makes you uncomfortable I want you to tell me right away, okay?”

“Okay,” (Y/n) sniffed.

“I think we’ve spent enough time in the woods tonight.” Shinobu stood, holding her hand out for (Y/n) to take.

“Yeah,” (Y/n) chuckled weakly, accepting the hand and rising to their feet. Shinobu kept her hold on them as she picked up the lantern and guided (Y/n) back to the cabins.

Once they reached the clearing, the other counselors involved in the night’s festivities surrounded them, making sure everything was alright. Mitsuri gave (Y/n) a long, comforting hug while Kyoujirou squeezed their shoulder warmly. Tengen and Iguro shared a few kind sentiments and Sanemi grumbled out a sincere apology for scaring them so badly.

As everyone was turning in to their bunks for the night, Shinobu stopped in front of (Y/n)’s bunk as they were pulling back the covers, waving Tengen’s contraband DVD player in her hand.

“Hey, so, I figured you might have a hard time sleeping tonight. Would you want to watch a movie with me?” She asked.

“Yeah, I think that would help a lot. As long as it’s not horror anyway.” (Y/n) added.

“No, I’ve learned my lesson,” Shinobu shook her head making herself at home in (Y/n)’s bunk as she untangled the ear buds, “a romantic comedy is just about as far from horror as one can get I think.”

(Y/n) tried to give Shinobu her own space, but the small bunk didn’t leave much room for that and Shinobu didn’t seem interested in preserving her personal space anyway. Instead pulling (Y/n) to rest against her side after she set everything up.

“Are you comfortable?” She asked, finger poised over the play button.

“Yeah,” (Y/n) nodded against her shoulder, “thanks.”

“Of course.” Shinobu nodded, pressing play.

As the movie played they quietly made fun of it together and commented on the events as they transpired. Once earning Tengen’s wrath for laughing a little too loud while the rest were trying to sleep.

“You know,” (Y/n) whispered during one of the lulls in the story, “if you wanted to watch a horror movie with me some other time I think I could do it if you stayed by my side like this.” They bashfully admitted.

“Well, there is one coming out that I’d like to see this fall...” Shinobu informed with a teasing smile and (Y/n) scoffed lightly.

“I don’t like how quickly you came up with a plan, but I’ll look forward to it.” They said.

“Hey, it’s still a ways off. I hope to have several tamer dates between now and then.” Shinobu casually dropped.

“You do?” (Y/n)’s face grew warm, “With me?” They added just in case, making Shinobu giggle and nod her head.

“Yes, with you. So think of what you want to do for our next free day.”

(Y/n) grinned and snuggled further into Shinobu’s side.

Eventually they fell asleep while Shinobu’s fingers lightly scratched the back of their neck. She turned off the movie and carefully set the DVD player on the floor below. Then she curled up against (Y/n) and fell asleep as well.

#demon slayer oneshots #demon slayer x reader #kny oneshots #kny x reader #shinobu kochou x reader #shinobu x reader #shinobu kocho x reader #shinobu kocho #shinobu kochou #au

[excalisbury]

okay I'm curious 📚 and 💌 for the fic rec meme :)

Ooooohohoho these are good ones! (from this post)

📚 A fic you wish you could display on your bookshelf

This one is so hard because if I had the time and energy I would either ask my friend-who-is-a-professional-bookbinder for book-binding advice to bind like all 420 (nice) of my bookmarks or pay her to do some of them. Alas... I will just have to dream of my fic bookshelf.

Anyway. I will narrow down the list slightly for now. And keep it to one fandom.

So for bookshelf fic, I feel like you have to go for things that you would recommend to almost anyone. And I do have a relatively long list for that, honestly... but we do not have time for the whole thing here. So here is my top 5 bookshelf fics, a tragically short list, with reasons for each:

The Space in Between by @whatevertheweather - As I noted in my ao3 bookmark, this fic absolutely destroyed me but in the way a really painful loose tooth hurts so good. Also it's the perfect chunky 100k length for a good looking novel. And I would rec this to pretty much anyone. Like... can be read outside the fandom. Plus I cannot help but imagine it with the fanart @cutestkilla drew of it for the cover 👀 and that would be some hot shit.

Local Hero by BasicBathsheba and breadofgod - this is a masterpiece of the ban and bread partnership. It was coming out at the start of the pandemic and so can bring up some painful memories, but also some really good ones. I just started making fandom friends around then and it was a bright spot to read this fic. Also I'm a jock at heart and love a good sports fic. Being stupidly into EPL for Americans is an endearing family trait of mine and I love it when my loves mix well. Also same as The Space in Between, this fic can be enjoyed regardless of fandom, imo, so huge props for that.

All this soulmate shit by half_witch - It's the loveliest tropiest thing in the best way. I can't get enough of this fic. It's made of nearly everything that makes fanfic fanfic, so why am I binding it into a real book (in our imagination, at least)? Well it's because it's all executed so well it's practically textbook. I must admit, I may not recommend this to Everyone, but I would love to show it off on my bookshelf and have it to reference.

Some Kind of Path by @im-gettingby - This fic fits in perfectly in my scifi bookshelf. It's just a perfect little taste of everything good about spec fic in one fantastical go. I imagine it bound with some illustrations I would add to it. Make it into a little poetic short story pamphlet thingy? Give it out at parties? perhaps.

When the Tides Held the Moon by @vkelleyart - I mean. Eventually I have got to have the real book when it comes out, but for now, the fic version is absolutely worth keeping like a precious pearl on the bookshelf! Reading through this as it came out was such an experience. And marveling at all of Venessa's amazing art with each chapter to boot? I live for those kind of fanish experiences. I'd love to have a reminder of this one.

Aaand I do most certainly have bookshelf fics for aftg, check please! and HP next gen as well, but I have already written a freaking essay. (Low key anyone who wants those recs can send a follow-up ask tho. I'll do another essay.)

💌 A fic that inspired you to create something for it

This one has an immediate and easy answer: rebel rebel.

I literally joined active fandom because of this fic. Even in my many years in the harry potter fandom, I was only a lurker. It took about seven chapters of rebel rebel for me to dive fully into fic art. I made my first two fanart pieces for this fandom for rebel rebel. And that was back when I just drew with pencil irl, took a picture of it with my phone, and colored that picture in photoshop with a mouse. So I have come a long way. (I had to troll thru my archives for those links. yikes.)

But yeah, reading rebel rebel as ban wrote it was an unparalleled fandom experience for me. This fic is obviously an invaluable staple in our fandom now, but I'm stuck in the nostalgia of that first read-through as each 10k+ chapter came out and we all devoured it together.

I have done fanart for a few other fics... notably,, literally all of my own fics 😅, but I'd love to give a special shout-out to Pour Some (Maple) Sugar On Me, which was a labor of love that I wrote with my friend, Liz, for @bazzybelle (my beloved). I drew at least one illustration for every chapter of this fic and they're all pretty great ngl.

#fic rec #carry on fic rec #my fic rec #ask game #abbysurdities

[chocosvt]

⚬ pairing: seungcheol x fem!reader ⚬ word count: 4342 ⚬ warnings: brief drug mention ⚬ genres: mainly just fluff! college/uni!au

✧✎ synopsis: your longtime campus crush just received an interesting dare: to ask you out on a date. while the circumstances are questionable, you aren’t going to decline. maybe this is your ticket to romance. 

✧✎ a/n: if this title or plot sounds familiar, then that’s bc i finally accomplished a goal of mine: to rewrite i dare you. this was a fic i originally wrote in 2016!! i did change some aspects, so not everything is identical. PLS ENJOY ;w;

The bells to the café door jingled.

Normally, you wouldn’t be so attentive about the customers filtering in and out, but at that moment, your gaze shot over the lid of your laptop like a harpoon. It was roughly the right time, the right day. According to your judgement, this was when they usually came for their morning coffees. Jeonghan, Joshua, and Seungcheol: a very popular trio amongst the likings of your campus.  

Jeonghan was a nursing student. Clean-cut, charming to a degree of annoyance, and always ordered a boring black coffee. The second boy, Joshua, was cute enough to stop you in your tracks and force a double-take. However, he liked mathematics, numbers, weird formulas which looked more torture than learning. He preferred lattes with foam. And then there was Seungcheol. You wouldn’t call him your true love, because you didn’t know him all that well, and as far as he was concerned you were the lunatic who accidentally set pages of Joshua’s chemistry homework on fire. But that was a story for another day (you haven’t been near that Yankee candle since).

Nonetheless, you were crushing on him. Badly. To the point where you arrived at the café early, pretending to type a document on your laptop, just so you could flit your eyes every so often at his table while he slurped his chocolate mocha. You even had their scheduling memorized. It was a bit weird, and you would be the first to admit such a thing, but nothing was going to thwart you from daydreaming about those eyes of his. Or that dazzling smile. His short bursts of laughter which were usually tweezed out at Jeonghan pulling some stupid prank on Joshua. Everything about you adored him.

The trio gathered at their usual table, sat obliquely to your nook by the window. You had opened an older document that was already finished, pretended to tap against the keys while they ate a small breakfast before class. Something was different. They were giggling more than usual. And you couldn’t help but blatantly stare with concern when Joshua tore open a salt packet and poured it straight on his tongue. Jeonghan was grinning so widely that you were positive his face must be aching, and Seungcheol cackled into his fist while Joshua immediately grabbed for his latte.

A game. They were playing some sort of game.

Once Joshua had recovered, you noted that he began surveying the café, running his narrowed gaze to each table.

The second he found you huddled in the corner, attempting to shrink behind your laptop and pretend your presence was nothing but invisible, Joshua leaned into Seungcheol’s side to make a very smiley whisper. Pretend I’m working, pretend I’m working on something so damn important I can’t look up for even a second, you reiterated to yourself quietly, ignoring the panic ballooning inside you. A minute later, someone had just pulled out the chair across from you. They sat down with a slight groan, clasping their hands together.

Of course, it was Seungcheol.

“Hey.” He said, watching as you tentatively lowered the lid of your laptop, probably wondering why the hell you looked so stunned.

“What are you, um, doing?” You asked.

Seungcheol could not be sitting across from you just because he wanted to. It was impossible. And as much as that stung to admit, you knew the truth was simply that. He was definitely put up to this.

“We know each other pretty well, correct?” The boy completely ignored your question. “I know that you set Josh’s chem notes on fire. We take toxicology together. Need I say more?”

“Wow,” you replied, twiddling your fingers anxiously under the table, “that’s a whole two things. I can’t even count that high.”

“We can’t all be mathematicians,” Seungcheol moved the conversation along while he angled a white jar of sugar, “and I guess I should tell you, I’m in a predicament, which involves you.”

Your hands squeezed together so firmly that they nearly moulded into permanent fists. Seungcheol was staring at you now rather than flickering his gaze between the objects on the table, with those eyes as dark as sapphire. You were burning up, sweltering, felt like you needed to burst from your clothes and bathe in ice.

“A predicament?”

Seungcheol folded his muscular arms on the table and nodded. “Yeah, I got a dare from Josh. To ask you out. The thing is, I’m not supposed to tell you. But you seem like a nice girl.”

You swallowed very tautly and pushed down the lid of your laptop a little more. Over Seungcheol’s shoulder, you spotted both Joshua and Jeonghan observing, chuckling amongst themselves.

“Another thing,” Seungcheol added, raking a hand through his black locks, “I don’t want to lose to tweedle-dumb and tweedle-idiot over there – you can decide who’s who – so you should accept.”

Straightening your posture against the chair, you decided to spell out the situation, more for your sake than Seungcheol’s. “Let me get this straight. You got dared to ask me out. You have nothing better to do tomorrow night, so you accepted it. And I don’t have a choice.”

“Your wording is a bit disparaging. But essentially, yeah.” He leaned back with a gorgeous smile, turning up his palm. “So, down?”

At that moment, you could not believe the universe had just ladled this ridiculous possibility into your lap. A date with your biggest crush on campus. A date that so many people would be wrangling your neck to steal from you – even if it was based on an innocuous little game which Seungcheol refused to submit because he was too competitive at heart. It might not have been your most prideful choice in life, but you accepted. Any chance to spend the night with him would not be wasted as long as the offer stood.

However, you had one condition.

“I’ll do it,” you grinned, watching the boy’s expression perk like a child who just got handed a cookie, “on the account of another dare. Which you’ll find out on our fake date.”

“Fine.” Seungcheol shrugged, sliding his phone across the table so that you could enter your number. He stood up afterward, on the verge of returning to his friends when he suddenly paused.

“See you tomorrow night, sweetheart.”

There was such a rush of butterflies in your stomach, you were surprised one hadn’t flown out your mouth.

You didn’t know why you cared so much about a date that was most likely intended to humiliate you. Was Joshua still not over those chemistry sheets? Even after you spent a good two hours in the library attempting to rewrite them with your nicest, smoothest gel pel? Thoughts of what to wear, your style of makeup, and which perfume you should choose amongst the few on your dresser were awfully overwhelming. In fact, you were almost late to the park, the area Seungcheol had picked as a rendezvous point.

He rose from the bench in front of the duck pond once you arrived, checking the time on his wrist while making a tsking sound.

“Four and a half minutes late,” Seungcheol said, shaking his head, “you’re not making a good first impression, my lady.”

Obviously, you weren’t going to admit how you were stressing about a technically-fake date. In the end, you threw on a simple outfit and applied some lipstick on your way out the door, shoving the tube into a small purse hung over your shoulder. It’s not like he was treating you to a five-star restaurant by romantic candlelight. But if he ever did, you had the perfect outfit planned.

“Well, I’m here now. And with your dare.” You grinned.

Seungcheol stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Let’s hear it.”

“I dare you to buy me a week of coffee.”

At first, Seungcheol didn’t utter a thing. But then he erupted into a fit of laughter until his cheeks turned rosy like peaches.

“That’s not how this works,” he half-sighed, half-chuckled while removing a tear from his eye, “I’m rejecting it.”

“You can’t reject it! You definitely owe me. I didn’t let you lose to tweedle-dumb or tweedle-idiot. Plus, it’s low to ask someone out on a dare. I didn’t even have to show up.”  Ensuring your tone was confident, you folded your arms over your chest, raised your brow at the boy, and observed him as he tapped his foot in contemplation.

“Can I have time to consider?” Seungcheol asked.

While it was tough to capitulate so easily and let him have his way, you didn’t want to spend the entirety of your night standing next to a slimy pond, debating the regulations. So you bit the bullet. Besides, Seungcheol announced that there was a party he needed to stop by, that there was a particular someone to which he owned money. It was a short walk to this brick house that reverberated with music, cars stalled up and down the street while a flood of strobing colours illuminated in the windows. Seungcheol knocked on the door quite loudly, and then he reached for your hand, wrapping his fingers around yours. You shot him a puzzled glance just as the door swung open, the stench of marijuana mingling with the cool, night air.  

“Well, well, well,” a fox-eyed boy murmured after taking a long puff from his blunt, “Choi Seungcheol. It’s about damn time.”

“I was in the neighbourhood. Heard you and Soonyoung were lighting this place up. What a good turnout, huh?”

“Mmhm,” the other boy hummed unenthusiastically, leaning his wide shoulder against the doorframe, “you got the money or no?”

Seungcheol laughed. “C’mon, Wonwoo. We don’t even get to go inside? Hang out for a bit? Have a drink? You’re a shitty host.”

Wonwoo slid a finger under his chin, rubbing in contemplation. It was starting to get colder out, for you could hear the tree leaves rustling together as a wind whisked through the dark. You squished yourself a bit closer into Seungcheol’s side, and to your surprise, he let go of your hand and wrapped an arm around your shoulders. Finally, Wonwoo concurred, sticking the rolled paper back between his lips while stepping aside with an inviting gesture.

“Make yourselves comfortable,” the boy muttered, “but I’ll be coming to find you in about ten minutes. And I wanna see cash.”

“What’s his problem?” You whispered by Seungcheol’s ear as he guided you around an illy lit corner, into the kitchen.

His warm breath feathered your ear as he said, “I lost a couple bets to him and was slow getting the money back.” Seungcheol then grabbed two solo cups organized in a stack on the counter, filling each with a red, fruit-mixed alcohol which sat in two glass bowls.

“Don’t worry, he’s harmless.”

You accepted the cup and took a sip. “Oh, in case you needed to beat him up? I don’t know,” you lilted,  “he looks pretty sturdy.”

“Are you kidding?” Seungcheol gawked.

He slapped his drink down on the counter and threw his jacket over the back of a chair. With a perplexed, is this man crazy expression, you watched him roll up his sleeve and flex his bicep.

“Go ahead,” the boy grinned, “you’ll see.”

You made sure to roll your eyes and sigh incredibly loud in order to really establish your indifference. Meanwhile, your inner-self was fizzling like a carbonated soda. Grabbing onto Seungcheol’s muscle, you pressed down, forcing back a surprised chuckle at the fact his arm was hard as a rock. In that moment your meter of attraction toward the boy was ticking so absurdly you thought it could break.

“Okay, I’ll give it to you, Seungcheol. You’re strong.”

He tugged his sleeve back down and slid into the jacket again, a very brash smirk beaming on his face. You couldn’t decipher if he’d actually been attempting to impress you or if that was just a display of his cockiness. And yet, you didn’t really care which category it fell into, because you were still blissfully afloat thinking about Seungcheol’s arms. You lifted your drink and took another sip, swishing the sweet but tangy flavour between your cheeks. At that moment, a man you didn’t recognize attempted to scoot behind you – except there was definitely enough room for him to get by without planting his hands on your hips and squeezing them.

“Hey! What the hell?” You squeaked, quickly turning around on your heel to see the crookedly amused look he stared at you with.

“What?” He somehow had the audacity to respond.

But you weren’t going to accept his disgraceful maneuvers, and neither was Seungcheol. He abandoned his cup on the counter and pushed up his sleeves.

“Did you just put your hands on her?” Came his demand. It didn’t sound like the normal, relaxed Seungcheol who liked his jokes, but someone with an unnerving amount of authority and fearlessness.

“I-I was trying to get by.” The man stammered, clearly uncomfortable with the thought of confrontation. He was already stepping backward as Seungcheol approached him.

“Don’t touch other people like that,” Seungcheol admonished him in a deep, staid voice, then pointed toward the threshold of the kitchen, “just get out, man. Seriously. Don’t even go near her.” And like a saddened puppy who received a scolding from its owners to lay down in the pen, the man slinked away without another word.

You were unsure of what to say to Seungcheol for diminishing the situation. Folding your arms tightly, you nodded at him.

“Thanks.”

Wonwoo came wandering into the kitchen. His eyes brightened the moment he saw Seungcheol, and he rubbed his fingers together to wordlessly convey that he wanted his money now.

“It’s alright,” Seungcheol gave you a soft smile while he revealed a large wad of cash from his pocket, “he was a weirdo.”

“Yeah.” You laughed as Seungcheol handed the sum to his friend, who fleshed out the paper notes to count the correct amount.

It took you a moment to realize that Seungcheol’s arm had wrapped back around your shoulders, this time a bit more securely.  When you leaned into him, it wasn’t because you felt a draft or a chill, but because he was comfortable. He felt and smelled like safety.

Later that night, you returned to the park, throwing stones into the duck pond while the moon was hidden behind a thin curtain of clouds. Seungcheol claimed that he could throw his stones farther than yours, which prompted your short-lived competition. It had ended so abruptly because you ran out of stones to throw. At one point you tried tossing sticks, but they didn’t travel as far, and they definitely didn’t break the surface of the water with a satisfying plop.

“Hey,” Seungcheol said, nudging your elbow excitedly, “I dare you to get in the pond.”

“No way!” You cackled. “It’s freezing. And that pond is nasty.”

“Just dip your toe in or something.”

“You dip your toe in!”

“I don’t wanna take off my socks.”

You huffed, a plume of your breath escaping into the crisp air.

“Well, we’re at a crossroads then, aren’t we?”

Rather than continue bickering about the dare, you were starting to feel these annoying hunger pangs. You didn’t eat dinner because of how nervous you were toward this fake date (which was rapidly morphing into a very real date) with Seungcheol. The most you ate today had been some toast and pieces of apple your roommate cut the night before. Directly on cue, your stomach gurgled, and your face swelled hot with embarrassment. Seungcheol grinned.

“Hungry?”

“Starving, more like.” You corrected him.

He pulled out the white fabric liners of his pockets, revealing they were completely empty. “All my cash went to Wonwoo.”

You flashed a playful smile while repeating his statement from earlier. “Oh, wow. Not being able to cover the meal on a first date? You’re not making a good impression, sweetheart.”

In an instant, Seungcheol had snatched your hand, interlocking your fingers together warmly. He began tugging you out of the park and onto a familiar street, where there was a twenty-four-hour diner that the students absolutely loved. Admittedly, you had been there a few times. Once as a giggly drunk who just wanted a waffle plate at three in the morning, and also as a struggling student who was desperate for a cup of coffee in order to power through a procrastinated essay. Now, it seemed you were returning for a date.

“I’ll pay you back, promise.” Seungcheol said as the server placed a nacho platter onto the table. “It’s my new priority.”

The diner was quiet and mostly empty apart from a group of three seated at another table. You didn’t realize just how hungry you were until that first taste of melted cheese, salsa, and seared chicken hit your mouth. Seungcheol didn’t like black olives, so he kept picking them off. You were eating too ravenously to inspect your food.

“You’re taking the olives off?” You smirked. “Baby.”

Seungcheol scoffed. “I am not a baby.” He looked up at you as he shoved another delicious chip in his mouth. “And I know it gives you some sick, twisted pleasure to say that. You should be ashamed.”

Nearly choking on the water you just sipped, you dropped the  cup back on the table to cough a few times.

“You know what’s sick? The fact I’m paying.”

The boy reached for his glass of coca cola. “Yeah, but technically this isn’t a real date. So, doesn’t count.”

“Really?” Raising a questioned eyebrow, you watched Seungcheol take a long gulp from his drink. “Are you willing to say that with your entire chest? That this isn’t a real date?”

And in that moment, Seungcheol genuinely seemed to have met a stupor. In fact, there was a red tint dusting the crest of each his cheeks. He leaned back in the booth, folded his arms over his chest, and pursed his lips. You waited patiently for his response, lifting a nacho to your mouth while threads of cheese dangled in the air.

A smile broke through his stiff, musing expression.

“Okay,” he nodded his head, “maybe this is a real date,” (your heart impossibly fluttered), “you could be right about that.”

“I’m glad we’re on the same page.” You answered.

In truth, you couldn’t have been more delighted to hear Seungcheol agree, because if he hadn’t, you would have dined and dashed, fled straight out the restaurant in a haze of shame and embarrassment. In the span of just a few hours, your attraction toward this boy had impressively expanded like a sponge soaking up water. Before, you weren’t positive that he could be your true love. It was mostly a running joke between you and… well, yourself. However, this one night was proving that perhaps your joke could have some actual weight to it. And as Seungcheol continued to make you laugh, choke on your food, stare at him in complete adoration like he was a crowned jewel, you completely lost track of time.

It wasn’t until you burst into another frenzy of laughter at his story and spilt water all down your shirt that you finally checked your phone. Almost one in the morning. The server whisked your cutlery and plates away with a tired expression. You tipped generously, feeling rather guilty for creating such a racket at this hour.

“Do you want my jacket?” Seungcheol asked as you prepared to leave. There was a huge water stain soaking through your shirt.

“A-Are you sure?” You asked him, pulling a few strands of hair from your face. He nodded, already wrestling the jacket off.

“Go change, sweetheart,” Seungcheol told you so casually that you couldn’t hide this blatant look of surprise, “I’ll wait outside.”

Entering a washroom stall, you peeled the damp shirt over your head and folded it to pack nicely within your purse. You then slipped into Seungcheol’s jacket, which had this wonderful, warm fleece patched to the inside. It was soft against your bare skin, and it smelled like a fragrant hint of his cologne. After spending an extra moment freshening up at the sink, you wandered back into the cool night, where Seungcheol was leaning against a street pole. You weren’t sure if your eyes were playing tricks at the late hour, or if he’d actually given you a very smug, very relishing once-over.

Considering you had class early the next day, you asked Seungcheol if he’d be willing to walk you home. He obliged, and you paced together in comfortable silence until reaching the bridge. It arched over a swirling, gushing river which ran through the city, the current black as kohl and reflecting the lights of the nearby architecture. In the daytime this bridge wasn’t anything spectacular, but it was a beautiful vantage point during the night; a place to watch the city sparkle and flash like the cosmos.

“Hey,” Seungcheol whispered, grabbing your hand, “I have another dare for you, since you chickened out on the pond.”

You looked at the mischief compiling in his gaze. “What?”

“Climb up there.”

Seungcheol pointed toward a thick, metal beam that slanted upward, like a ramp. It flattened out at the top, and sometimes when you walked by during the day, there would be a few students sitting down after class, eating sandwiches or cracking open sodas. A placement of bars was set behind, only wide enough to stick your leg through. You glanced back at Seungcheol and nodded.

“Okay, fine.”

And so you began to climb up the slanted beam, feeling the breeze nip at your cheeks, your hair, like the smallest of kisses. At the flattened section, you turned around and looked down at Seungcheol, feeling like the empress of a powerful kingdom. His face ignited in the moonlight. He was smiling very wide as you stuck out your tongue.

“Easy. I dare you to climb up here.”

Seungcheol shook his head. “I, uh, can’t.”

“Why not?” You laughed, folding your arms. “Scared?”

“No, I just—I twisted my ankle, so I can’t.”

“When was that?”

“You weren’t looking.”

Rolling your eyes, you decided to tease him. Taking the zipper dangling from his jacket, you began to pull it down slowly, revealing a hidden amount of skin which turned the boy’s face an adorable pink.

“If you come up here, I’ll take the jacket all the way off.” You sang in a promiscuous tone, lifting up the strap of your bra and snapping it. Seungcheol grinned, cupping a hand over his gaze.

“No way. I’m not falling into a trap like that.”

“Fine,” you huffed, lowering to your butt and carefully scooting your way down the metallic beam, “you missed out.”

Seungcheol merely held his tongue; however, he did take the zipper on his jacket and pull it back up, right to your chin, hiding the expanse of flesh from the bright moonlight. You weren’t sure what courageous energy had just taken over your body. In fact, you’d probably regret such a thing by the time your alarm clock erupted tomorrow morning, pulling you from the pit of your sleep.

“I don’t want you getting cold.” He said. “And I can’t believe you nearly gave me a strip tease from the support beam of a bridge. That’s a first.”

“I’m just making sure you don’t forget this date.” You chuckled, half in nonsense, half in truth.

As he promised, Seungcheol walked you back to the house and made sure the door unlocked using the spare key under the letter box. Thankfully, your roommate left the lights of the front porch on, the bulbs now swathed in grey moths. It was a strange night. A night that wouldn’t have happened if not for the antics of Seungcheol and his two equally competitive friends. Maybe there was a positive side to burning Joshua’s chemistry notes, though you weren’t sure he’d be thrilled to hear you admit that. A game of I Dare You, turned into a fake date, turned into a real date, turned into a sweet affection.

You yawned, feeling the faint glisten of tears stretch in your eyes. “I had fun. And I guess I’ll see you tomorrow in toxicology.”

“With my jacket.” He reminded you.

“Yes, of course. With your jacket.”

And while you expected Seungcheol to simply bid his goodnight and perhaps take a late bus home, firing question after question of why he decided to accept such a stupid dare as he stared out the window, you were surprised when he reached for your hand.

“By the way,” he said, “I accept.”

You crinkled your nose. “Accept what?”

“The dare. I’ll buy you coffee every morning this week.”

“Oh!” There was a small flare crackling to life in your eyes as you recalled the original dare of the night. “That’s right. I forgot.”

“Yeah, I’ll do it.” Seungcheol agreed. He then squeezed your hand. “On the account of one very simple condition.”

“I don’t think you can do that. Doesn’t seem rule-abiding.”

The boy discarded your comment. Instead, his grasp became tighter around your hand. He pulled you swiftly into his chest and stared straight into your helpless, panicking eyes as though he were going to confess something profound and utterly dire.

He smirked. “I want you to kiss me each time.”

Seungcheol lifted his brow in anticipation of your response, which was an undoubted agreement. Probably the fastest, easiest agreement you had ever made in your life. He moved in close to your ear, whispering something about how you should meet at the café tomorrow morning and walk to the lecture hall together, though you were ultimately buzzing and experiencing such a bold heartbeat that you missed most of the details. When he pulled away, you smiled.

“That sounds good. I’ll see you tomorrow. Goodnight.”

Stepping off the porch, he turned back with a wave.

“Goodnight, sweetheart.”

✧✎ a/n: the reason i wanted to rewrite this fic was bc i still rly enjoy the concept. however, i cannot STAND my old style of writing, thus i decided to just rewrite the fic and appease the nagging in my head lol. this is how i would have written this fic today if i hadn’t already done so four years ago. i’m also questioning the possibility of rewriting love café for jeonghan (pls don’t go reading it if u haven’t already)  but that would take much longer ,,,, JUST AN IDEA THOUGH. i hope you enjoyed!!

#seventeen scenarios #seungcheol scenarios #svt fanfic #seungcheol fanfic #choi seungcheol #s.coups scenario #svt fluff #seventeen fluff #seventeen imagines #scoups fluff #svt x reader #seungcheol x reader

[iboughtaplant]

I tried to write angst! Here is a short Geraskier fic I wrote based on the Regina Spektor song Samson. 

A Pair of Dull Scissors in the Yellow Light 

Rating: T

Warnings: no archive warnings 

Relationship: Geralt/Jaskier 

Tags: Established Relationship, Angst with a Happy Ending, Angst, Fluff and Angst, Blood, Head Injury, Haircuts, Sort Of, Songfic, Song: Samson (Regina Spektor), a lot about Geralt's hair, I love Geralt's long hair so idk why I wrote a fic about his hair being chopped off

Read it on AO3

Geralt’s hair had always been long the whole time Jaskier knew him. Granted, Jaskier hadn’t known Geralt for very long compared to how old the witcher was.

When he first saw him, Jaskier was drawn to the quiet witcher seated in the corner. His long silver-white hair framing his handsome face. He was then of course drawn to the medallion and swords that marked him as a witcher. Not just excited to talk to a pretty face, but to hear the stories he could tell.

They might not have got off to the best start, but Jaskier...he loved Geralt. It might have been a bit of hero worship at first, this brave, strong witcher with a heart of gold. Branded as a mutant, a butcher, the stuff of nightmares in stories told to small children. But Jaskier loved him first. He loved Geralt above all else. His lute might be a close second, but that didn’t detract from the fact that he loved Geralt first.

It also meant he was already head over heels in love with Geralt when Geralt finally confessed that the love was mutual a few years into their friendship.

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

Soon after Geralt confessed his feelings, Jaskier also learned about how Geralt’s long hair was linked to his witcher abilities. He already knew that its silver-white color was due to Geralt’s mutagens, but he hadn’t known there was more to it.

They were in Oxenfurt and Jaskier’s hair was getting too long for his liking, so it was the perfect excuse to spend some of the coin he earned playing in a tavern the night before on a proper haircut from a barber.

“Geralt, you should come with me. I am sure I have enough coin to pay for you to get your hair trimmed.”

“It’s fine, Jaskier. It doesn’t need to be cut.”

“Well maybe it doesn’t need it, but a haircut can be nice and relaxing. I know you love when I wash your hair for you, and they will do that at the barber’s as well.”

“No, Jaskier, it doesn’t need to be cut because it is always the same length.”

“But doesn’t your hair grow? Is it magic that keeps it from growing out of control?” Jaskier asked.

Geralt answered with a “hmm.” He took a long pause before saying more. “It must be tied to the spells the mages used, however they might have changed the mutagens. I don’t know. I don’t cut my hair. And it doesn’t grow past a certain length.”

Geralt then told Jaskier that due to some odd reaction between his body, the extra mutagens, and the magic of the mages his hair was cursed to be tied to the abilities and heightened senses the mutagens afforded him.

Jaskier had thought that Geralt’s long hair had been his one vanity. But of course it was yet another thing out of his control. But it made him curious if Geralt was the only witcher whose hair was tied to his powers.

“I’ve never heard of another witcher with white hair like yours,” Jaskier said. He didn’t want to ask a more pointed question.

“Because I’m the only,” Geralt said, voice thick with emotion. “The only one to receive a second dose of mutagens. Well the only one to survive it at least. The mages experimented on others before me, but I was the only one to survive the ordeal.”

“That’s awful, my love. I’m sorry you had to endure that.” He paused. “And I know it won’t make you feel better about it, but it is quite dashing, if I do say so.” Jaskier said, edging closer to Geralt and running his nimble fingers through the soft strands.

“How about I forgo the haircut and we can spend our coin on that nice soap you pretend you don’t like. I’ll wash your hair for you. And then we can braid it. A bit of a change even if you can’t cut it.”

“I’d like that,” Geralt said in a soft voice.

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

The yellow-orange light of the campfire made everything glow. The atmosphere felt far more comfortable than the current situation. But Jaskier was thankful for the light it granted. Jaskier scrambled to dig his scissors out of his pack and make his way back to Geralt, unconscious on the ground, only his thin bedroll under him.

“I’m sorry, my love,” Jaskier whispered through his tears to Geralt’s unconscious form as he took the scissors—considerably duller than he would have liked, he had forgotten to ask Geralt to sharpen them for him recently—and began to cut away Geralt’s silver locks that were stained red by blood and gore matted in them.

Unfortunately, most, if not all, of the blood belonged to Geralt, the gore belonging to the beast he killed, but not before it almost killed him.

Jaskier’s hands were shaking, he had to grip the scissors with both hands, one hand supporting the other. He had to cut Geralt’s hair. He had to. They were in the middle of a forest, in the middle of nowhere. No towns were close enough to travel to with an injured witcher. Not to mention the fact that Geralt had already been running low on potions. They were going to restock on potion ingredients in the next town they visited. But again said town was too far to travel when Geralt was severely injured and Jaskier was only human, and would not make it there and back with help in time.

The gash on the back of his skull was nasty. Jaskier knew that head wounds bled profusely regardless of their severity, but this one was quite bad and even a witcher could die from bleeding out.

He kept whispering apologies to an unconscious Geralt as he cut away, piece by piece, the tangled, matted hair and clumps of monster gore to better see the wound. The bleeding had hardly slowed, and Geralt had also lost blood from a thin slice down his side. At least the bleeding of that wound had slowed and Jaskier had been able to crumple up one of their shirts to put pressure on it and wrap a bandage around it.

The head wound was much more worrying. Once Geralt’s hair was mostly cut away, Jaskier was able to clean the wound with the water from his water skin, some alcohol from a flask as an antiseptic.

It was a rough job, but at least the wound was cleaned and the bleeding finally slowed. From his kneeling position, Jaskier finally sank down onto his heels. He could feel the sticky tear tracks down his cheeks. He ran his hands through his hair, pushing it back from his face. He felt the tackiness of the blood still on his hands.

Geralt’s hair had been covered in blood, only fitting that his was now. Geralt’s blood. It was Geralt’s blood on his hands and he hated it.

Once the adrenaline started to wear off, Jaskier realized his hands were shaking again. Or maybe they had been shaking the whole time. It was still an odd sensation as his hands were always steady. Geralt pointed it out many a time when he had to guide Jaskier through stitching him up over the years.

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

Once Jaskier was done stitching and bandaging, all he could do was wait. Sit and wait for Geralt to wake up. He felt anxious and tired at the same time. Excess energy thrummed through him while his limbs felt heavy like lead.

He looked at his lute, but felt no compulsion to play it. He should probably eat, but any food would probably taste like ash in his mouth.

He laid back on his bedroll and tried to relax. He would be no use to Geralt when he woke up, if he was keyed up and anxious. He sighed and stretched out, his arms pillowed beneath his head as he stared up at the sky.

The stars were bright, twinkling spots of light speckling the inky sky. It made the world feel big, and made him feel small. He was but a small speck in the grand scheme of things. He glanced over at Geralt and felt a smile cross his face. Geralt was more beautiful than all the stars in the sky and twice as bright. The stars were just old light.

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

Jaskier was woken up by Geralt sitting down on the edge of his bedroll. He didn't even remember falling asleep. Geralt was slow to sit down as he leaned against Jaskier’s legs, his injuries taking a toll. Jaskier wasn’t sure if he wanted to know if it was more than usual. Was Geralt human now? Did his witcher healing at least do its part before Jaskier cut his hair?

He was pulled out of his spiral when Geralt spoke. “Your hair’s red.” Geralt said in a slur.

“What?” Jaskier asked, scandalized and afraid. Of course of all things Geralt was focusing on his hair, oh the irony. Jaskier also had the thought that somehow Geralt was seeing the blood in his hair from when he ran his hands through it earlier.

“In the light, looks red,” Geralt mumbled. “You’re beautiful.”

“Oh, Geralt.” Jaskier sobbed. In the light of the fire—that he somehow managed to keep burning—his hair looked red. He buried his head in his hands, still curled up on his bedroll. He felt his tears plastering his hands to his face. He couldn’t look at Geralt. He couldn’t face his honey-golden eyes, full of softness that betrayed his hard edges.

He essentially killed the man he loved. Maybe that was a bit dramatic. But Geralt is, well was a witcher. Jaskier just took that away from him when he chopped all of his hair off. His beautiful silver hair. Jaskier knew that Geralt was more than his hair, he almost cried when Geralt admitted that he loved when Jaskier told him all the things he loved about him and his hair wasn’t near the top of the list.

Geralt leaned more heavily into Jaskier and sighed. Jaskier removed his hands from his face and looked up at the love of his life, his greatest downfall. He stifled another sob that threatened to come out and looked at Geralt.

“My head hurts.” Geralt said in a small voice that was out of character for him. He sounded so vulnerable.

“You had, well have, a head wound. It was bad. Oh Geralt it was so bad. There was so much blood. I didn’t know what else to do.”

“You saved me.”

“But at what cost, my love?”

Geralt didn’t answer his question. He just said, “My hair’s gone isn’t it.”

Jaskier sat up and wrapped his arms around Geralt, situating himself behind him so Geralt was in the vee of his legs, still on Jaskier’s bedroll, Geralt’s abandoned a few feet away.

“I’m so sorry,” he muttered wetly into Geralt’s shoulder, lightly trailing his fingers down Geralt’s arm.

“You did good, Jask.”

“Don’t tell me that. How can you say that? I took it. I took your strength. I took it all. I-I, I hurt you.”

“No, the monster hurt me, you saved me.”

“Are you even a witcher anymore? Can you tell? If I took that away from you, I-”

“I never wanted to be a witcher, Jask,” Geralt said as he leaned his head back against Jaskier. He let out a slight hiss of pain and Jaskier felt a hand was squeezing his heart at the sound.

“I’m sorry. I am. But I had to save you. I couldn’t watch you bleed out. It was the only way.”

“You did alright, Jaskier.” He paused. “Wanna see you, help me turn around.”

Jaskier sucked in a breath. He knew he would have to meet Geralt’s eyes eventually. He helped Geralt turn around in his arms and supported most of his weight as he leaned into Jaskier. He looked into Jaskier’s eyes and Jaskier looked back. He looked into those honey-gold eyes and he felt settled. Geralt wasn’t mad. Jaskier took in Geralt’s face. It was clean, Jaskier had made sure of that. And his hair, of course, was short. Silver strands cropped close to his scalp, uneven in a few—well many—places. The bandages wrapped around the crown of his head. He was beautiful.

Geralt kissed Jaskier then. And Jaskier kissed back. Geralt kept kissing him. Soft, gentle kisses. Comforting kisses. They laid down on Jaskier’s bedroll, Jaskier pulling Geralt’s body on top of his own so he could support him, so his head wouldn’t touch the ground. Geralt insisted on kissing him more. He kissed him until the morning light broke through the trees of the forest surrounding them in golden light.

#the witcher fanfiction #geraskier #the witcher #geralt of rivia #songfic #jaskier #my writing

[anise05]

This is the first part of the story. There will be a part two in the near future... Have fun!! I am sorry if I have any grammatical errors!

During the chemistry lesson, the students were separated into teams of three, to create the project that Divus would give them.

"Today we will make poison" Divus said, walking among the students "It's called Exchange poison. If two people drink it, they will exchange their powers, only for some hours or days" he stood in front of his table, so he could see the whole class "The reason that I separated you in teams of three is simple. Two of you will drink the poison and the third will write a report about the results. You will choose who will be the one who will write the report of each team. You have 45 minutes to complete the poison. Good luck, my little puppies"

One team was composed of Malleus, Anise and Sebek and one other was composed by Ace, Deuce and Katelyn.

"Before we start" Deuce said "We have to find who will drink the poison and who will write the report. Who wants to drink the poison?"

"I do" Katelyn and Ace said in the same time and they looked each other

"It's settled them"

"Who will write the report?" Malleus asked to his team

"Master Malleus, I would give my life for you!" Sebek said and touched his own chest "Let me drink this poison!"

"I am your guardian" Anise said "I will try the poison"

"Copycat!" Sebek shouted

"I am not a copycat! The poison is to be drunk by two people"

"Yeah, right" Sebek said "Not that you want to show to Master Malleus that you are capable of staying by his side, forever" Anise had enough with his complaining and she smirked mischievous

"Jealous?" she asked

"Em... Em guys..." Malleus said next to them "Five minutes have passed and you only scold. I am making the poison here..."

"Of course you will not make it alone!" Sebek shouted

"I will help too" Anise said looking in the chemistry book

After fourty minutes, the poison was ready. Ace and Katelyn took the glasses, full of the colorless poison and looked at it with a suspicious look.

"Cheers" Ace said and they clinked the glasses. They drank it at the same time

"Gross... It's like soda with aspirin and lime" Ace said "Disgusting" Katelyn stucked her tongue out

"Well, do you feel anything... Different?" Deuce asked

"I don't. I am fine" Ace said and scratched his head. Deuce's eyes opened wide and stepped back "What?" Ace asked and felt that he touched something on his head. It was an ear, a cat ear. He looked behind and saw a red cat tail. He turned to Kat to see that she was more human than ever.

"You became a beastman!" Kat shouted pointing to him

"And you became a human!"

"What?" she turned to Deuce who was waving his head positive

"I cannot believe it that I became a beastman. So this is how we exchange our powers? This is exchange of nature!" Ace was talking but at the same time he was starting to disappear "Divus didn't tell us anything..."

"Ace..." Deuce said

"Shut up, I am talking!" Ace shouted and was continuing talking, as he continued to disappear "Sensei should have told us that it isn't only the powers that can exchange. Why did he hide it from us? What is it? A secret?"

"You know" Kat said "We have actually exchanged powers too. You have disappeared. We can only see your mouth"

"Now I am really mad!!" Ace shouted and appeared again

"Stop shouting!" Kat shouted "You are breaking our ears!"

"This is what you are doing now Kat... " Deuce said as he was writing the report of the results

At the same time, Sebek and Anise drunk the poison. After some seconds, Malleus was observing them

"That was nothing!" Anise shouted "I told you that nothing would happen! I am strong enough to serve Master Malleus!" she laughed and stopped "Wait. What is going on with my voice?" she turned and looked Sebek next to her.

He scratched his head and looked at Anise confused

"Hey! This is me!" Anise shouted

"What are you talking about?" Sebek looked at her "Wait... This is my body!"

"No! You are in my body, Anise!" Anise shouted and her expression became full of fear "We... We..."

"You exchanged bodies" Malleus said

"No... No... Noooo" Anise (Sebek) said crying "I cannot believe it that I exchanged body with her!!"

"Oh shut up!" Sebek (Anise) said looking his body "It's not that bad" he (she) turned to Malleus "I am actually almost at the same height with Malleus now!"

"And I am short" Anise (Sebek) whispered crying

"Who did you call short, you lettuce"

"I called you short. But, now you are the lettuce, my dear"

Malleus was just looking at them, having his hand under his jaw, without talking. After some minutes he whispered "That's almost unbelievable. I always wanted to see how Sebek would be without shouting and Anise without being so low key"

"Wait..." Sebek (Anise) said "How long is this going to last?"

"About some hours or days" Malleus said "That's at least what sensei said"

"Wait and I am going to be in her body for days?!" Anise (Sebek) shouted

"And how are we going to live like this? How are we going to change clothes? Or take baths?"

"Don't you even dare to touch my body, shadow girl"

"The same goes with you lettuce"

"You are the lettuce now, remember?"

"Wait!" Malleus said "You called her shadow girl. What is going on with your powers?"

"Oh please" Anise (Sebek) said "I am sure that if I click my fingers, green lighting will appear

Anise (Sebek) clicked her (his) fingers and a lake of shadows appeared under him "Just wait and seeeeeeee" she (he) said as she (he) was diving in the bottomless shadow

"Magnificent" Malleus said thinking "So, your bodies kept their magic powers. Interesting" he wrote it down. He turned to see that Sebek (Anise) has raised his (her) hand and green lightings appeared "I have lettuce powers" she said.

A shadow lake appeared on the ceiling of the lab and Anise (Sebek) landed on the lab's floor "I have been falling for 23 seconds!"

"Are you OK, Anise?" she (he) turned and saw Kat and Ace standing next to him

"I am not... I am fine"

The class was dismissed and all the students returned to their dorms.

This... omg this is so funny 😂😂😂😂

Okay so I find it really funny that Sebek and Anise exchanged bodies😂😂😂 I can't with Anise calling Sebek lettuce and then she just became the lettuce😂😂😂

I really can't imagine soda with aspirin and lime😂😂 I wonder what it tastes like I wanna lowkey try to taste it😂😂

Also Ace and Katelyn clinking their glasses are they in a party😂😂😂

Lol this story is just really funny that I was laughing the whole time while reading it😂😂😂

I'm excited for part 2!!! I can't wait for their shenanigans 😂😂😂

And thank you so much for writing this♡ this makes me happy so much!!

#twisted wonderland #malleus draconia #sebek zigvolt #ace trappola #deuce spade #twst oc #anise #katelyn shadows #jintaiyang #anise answers

[whatiwillsay]

kaylor oomfs avert your eyes 😞

i get asked from time to time “why don’t you like kaylor, why don’t you like karlie, why do you think kaylor isn’t together? why aren’t you and ttb married yet?” and i think it’s high time i centralize my thoughts and receipts on all of that in a little timeline of shady things karlie has done to taylor that have made me wary of kaylor/karlie/that whole situation.  don’t read if you stan kaylor this isn’t for you (unless you know you’re interested in the truth.)

first things first, i do think something romantic happened between kaylor go read @swiftiesleuth‘s realistic kay timeline for what i (generally) think happened between them.

but long story short - i think joshlie is real, i think they weren’t all that serious at the beginning, she famously didn’t meet his family for years, he didn’t take her to work events for a long time, so there’s room for her to have a fling with taylor even though we ended up with a real joshlie endgame.

taylor’s music and art supports this theory - in the wd mv she paints herself as the other woman, on rep she sings of secret sexy sex with her best friend that drives her crazy, in cruel summer she sings of a miserable, secret, and toxic situation with a person who rejects her love, in illicit affairs and august again she is the other woman - the art matches up.  she also sings about her sunshine being gone on lover, and eclipsed on folklore. we have good clues in taylor’s artistic expression.

taylor’s given interviews about some of these karlie songs - she said cruel summer was about the start to a “doomed” relationship and look at what she said about august:

“It kind of explores the idea of the undefined relationship. As humans, we're all encouraged to just be cool and just let it happen, and don't ask what the relationship is — Are we exclusive? But if you are chill about it, especially when you're young, you learn the very hard lesson that if you don't define something, oftentimes they can gaslight you into thinking it was nothing at all, and that it never happened. And how do you mourn the loss of something once it ends, if you're being made to believe that it never happened at all?”

if joshlie is real which i think they are that 100% sounds like taylor having to process being gaslit by karlie while she cheats on josh with her.

so why do i think joshlie is real?

-  josh has no credible gay rumors that didn’t originate on gaylor tumblr: he has old ex gfs that came before karlie, harvard message boards gossiped about him and didn’t like him but never said that he was gay, in fact one of the complaints josh’s schoolmates had about him was that he got special treatment for her girlfriend at parties.

-  as stated before taylor’s art suggests she’s been the other woman with someone in her life recently.  if josh and karlie are beards then what is the affair? why is taylor the other woman so often all of a sudden?

-  i’ve spoken to someone with a mutual friend with the kushners - grain of salt of course, i know you can only trust stuff you hear from me with no proof so much, but i do absolutely trust this person and they say - no way in hell is joshlie fake, no way in hell is josh gay, no way in hell is karlie having taylor’s baby.  also karlie absolutely has moved down to miami with josh.  i’m sure we’ll see her in nyc and la from time to time but she is living in miami now.

-  vicky ward, who is a real investigative journalist not some unhinged person on tumblr, wrote a tell all about the kushners.  she uncovered gay rumors about josh’s father and josh’s brother but not josh.  she had actual sources and was legitimately digging up tons of dirt on these people and not a word about josh being gay or joshlie being fake.

-  yes karlie did convert to judaism.  it’s really offensive to suggest she didn’t.  of course she always could have done it for personal reasons but occam’s razor dictates she did it for josh i don’t know what else to tell you 🤷‍♀️

-  also just vibes.  karlie writes him love notes and leaves them with his breakfast.  they make playlists for one another.  if the kushners weren’t so heinous they’d be cute.

so in the joshlie is real world view i inhabit, i don’t stan kaylor the same way i do swiftgron because i don’t think kaylor was ever a committed monogamous relationship.  important and impactful on taylor’s life? absolutely.  inspired some amazing music? 100%. but was is true and tragic love that drives me insane and makes me feral?  no.  i don’t believe so.  is it still an interesting and iconic ship? yes!  but i don’t stan because it wasn’t like...true love or gay shit like that.

so let’s talk about karlie’s screwups that 1. assure me kaylor is not together and 2. make me have no desire to stan karlie/kaylor.

1.  after the kimye drama (something that deeply traumatized taylor we now know thanks to miss americana) karlie said she was sure kim was a lovely person 😭 now i know she walked it back and tweeted she and taylor had one another’s backs. i know karlie was just trying to be diplomatic.  but come on...if someone did what kim did to taylor to my lover or hell even just my friend i would say “fuck that clout chasing fame whore” bottom line.  c’mon guys.  have higher standards for your otp.

karlie also has vibed with kim on IG about her adidasas line.  recently!  yes i know she’s just promoting her brand but c’mon.  taylor still hates kim, their drama got rehashed in march 2020 and just 6 months later kim n karlie are bestie-ing around on ig.

2.  ALL the fucking masters drama and scooter fucking braun

-  not long at all after the masters heist karlie was palling around with scooter on a yacht like come on the only other thing taylor is equally as traumatized over as the kimye drama is the master’s heist.  why is karlie hanging out with him and partying with him at this time?

-  karlie liked a tweet completely incinerating taylor (in a gross and unfair/inaccurate way) regarding the masters heist.  she unliked it but still.  why was she even looking at that shit.

-  and yeah we gotta talk about perez.  so perez hilton (who is a scumbag and gross but sometimes does have legitimate tea) posted a video saying that karlie and taylor were no longer friends because karlie betrayed taylor to scooter.  now if that were all there was to it, it’d be dumb gossip.  but a taylor fan account posted the video to twitter ashley avignone and claire winter both liked the tweet.  ashley liked two tweets about it.  perez proceeded to tweet that since two of taylor’s oldest and truest friends liked the tweets it must mean he was correct and neither of the girls unliked the tweets.  ashley and claire are low key people, not celebs, not pawns in a “fued narrative”, just long time and loyal friends of taylor’s.  they liked the tweet, imo, because there’s some truth to it.

-  that brings me to spencer pratt.  spencer is a reality star and super swiftie/huge fan of taylor’s.  he despises karlie.  he’s tweeted negatively about her and he also had perez onto his podcast to talk about the drama between karlie and taylor.  taylor herself sent him a cardigan.  do you really think taylor is going to allow a cardigan to go out to the guy who’s dragging her girlfriend or bestie? i don’t think so.  receipts on perez and spencer here.

3.  karlie posted for hailey fucking beiber’s bday instead of taylor’s and hailey hates taylor 🤢🤢🤢

4.  karlie married into a fascist family that is associated with the trumps.  like how can you expect me to stan?  trump is a fucking criminal evil piece of shit.  i know karlie isn’t like him (probably) but it’s still awful.  kimby even goes around liking ivanka’s ig posts like give me a fucking break 😭.

in summation, you can disagree w me all you like, you can ship kaylor all you like, but if you’re of sound mind i don’t think you can look at the facts in this post and think i’m misguided for not being a kaylor/karlie stan.  and you can’t blame me for thinking if you spend a lot of time obsessing over that ship you may not really be that big a fan of taylor’s.  and if you’re spending a lot of time leading lgbt kids on to think they’re going to get a kaylor end game when all the objective facts of the case suggest that that’s never going to happen you might need to reevaluate but at the very least you certainly can’t press me for not doing all that.

#komments #of interest

[kiingocreative]

The Structure of Story is now available! Check it out on Amazon, via the link in our bio, or at https://kiingo.co/book

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Every author starting out will know how important reviews are. If you’re yet to be convinced, here are some fun facts about reviews*:

1. 88% of consumers trust reviews as much as personal recommendations.

2. 72% of consumers will take action after reading a positive review.

3. Positive reviews tell Amazon and Google you’re worth ranking and can boost search results for your book by feeding into SEO (reviews account for almost 10% of total search ranking factors).

So reviews aren’t just a nice to have — they’re critical to the success of a book.

Now, amongst the writers community, we talk a lot about receiving reviews, but less so about giving reviews. I enjoy writing book reviews immensely, because it makes me think about what I’m reading on a different level, and forces me to learn how to articulate that opinion. This is actually one of the main reasons why I got into professional BETA reading.

I was asked recently how I structure my book reviews (all of which can be found on my blog), so here you have it: all the secrets to how I go about writing book reviews, along with some concrete examples!

Start With Why.

The most important question to ask yourself before you even start writing a review is this:

Why do people read book reviews?

In essence, they want to know whether the book is good, what it’s about, and — more importantly — whether they should read it. They generally like some context and detail to back the review so that they feel it’s genuine and trustworthy.

If you can keep in mind what people generally want to get out of a book review, this will help you keep your review relevant and useful. It’ll help you figure out what’s worth including and what isn’t. If in doubt, ask yourself what you would want to read about in a review when you’re trying to decide whether or not to buy a book.

Some Key Questions.

Before you start writing, you also need to ponder a few things. It may not always feel natural to reflect on a book on this level of detail — it didn’t for me at first. I either liked a book, or I loved it, or I didn’t, but I rarely spent a lot of time critically thinking about why I did or didn’t like a read.

If you’re also finding this uncomfortable at first, I say stick with it. I found it extremely interesting to make myself think these things through. It’s made my writing so much better, because I’ve developed that objective evaluation muscle that activates even when I’m with my own work. It’s also made me much better at forming and formulating an opinion, which is something I didn’t use to be good at!

Here are some questions to start with before you start on your review:

• Did you like the book?

• What did you like about it?

• What didn’t you like about it?

• Are there any themes that were particularly well handled?

• Were there any characters you liked above others, and why?

• Would you recommend the book to a friend?

These few questions will start shaping your view of what you’ve read and provide the main elements of your review.

To take your critical reading to the next level, you may want to ponder the various elements of the story and the writing as a whole. Think about:

• The plot / storyline — is it strong? Consistent? Original? Enticing? Are there gaps?

• The characters and character arcs — are all characters well developed? Multi-layered? Do they make sense? Are they relatable?

• The key themes — what are some recurring topics through the story? Are they well handled?

• The pace and timeline — is the story progressing at a good pace? Where does it lag? Does the timeline make sense?

• The writing style — how was the writing style? Did it flow well? Did it feel unique or original?

• The dialogues — did they feel natural? Were they believable? Were they engaging? Did they add to the overall story?

• The editing — how was the editing? Were there any typos or formatting errors?

Example Review Outline

Once you’ve spent some time with those initial questions, you’ll find it gives you the best part of your review content. At first, you may want to note down your answers to each of these. With time, you may find you can process these in your mind faster than you did before, and you don’t need so many notes. Whichever way is right for you, once you have this, you’re ready to start structuring your review.

I tend to use the following outline (though, of course, this isn’t the one and only way to write a review!):

1. Star Rating:

It’s most common in this day and age to include a rating in your review. There are talks out there about not leaving a rating on a book, because these can be extremely subjective — someone’s three-star rating may mean they loved the book but for others it’s a negative rating, some people don’t leave five-star reviews out of principle etc.

If you’re reviewing the book on Amazon and Goodreads however, you don’t have a choice but to pick a rating out of five stars. Have a think about how that rating system relates to you. For instance: would you leave five star ratings? What rating do you use for a book you liked versus a book you absolutely loved? What kind of book would warrant a low-rating? etc.

2. Opening:

Start with a short overview of what you thought of the book. This should give the reader a concise view of what you thought of the book, in two or three sentences. The idea is that, if they read only this opening part of the review, they should know your view on the matter.

Here’s an example opening paragraph I wrote for Heart of a Runaway Girl by Trevor Wiltzen:

‘Heart of a Runaway Girl is a breath of fresh air. As far as crime and murder investigation novels go, I only ever read Agatha Christie, so my standard is high. But this book did not disappoint.’

3. Synopsis:

The next section of the review is a short summary of the book, which should give the main elements of the plot. I tend to keep that part really short because I find that, if anyone wants to know the specifics, the book blurb the author so diligently wrote for the back cover is a much better place to learn more about that. Yes, you need to give a sense of what the book’s about, but it shouldn’t be the bulk of the review.

I think this is a matter of personal preference, I’ve seen reviews out there with a much longer synopsis section, but I always find myself skipping those bits to get to the nitty gritty of the review, which is what the person thought. There again, go back to the why — people who read reviews do so to find out whether or not they want to buy a book, so the more valuable pieces to help with that (in my view) are your opinions, more than an in-depth summary which they can find elsewhere.

For instance, when I reviewed Counter Ops by Jessica Scurlock, the second opus in the Pretty Lies series, I kept the synopsis paragraph to:

‘In Counter Ops, we meet a familiar duo, Ivy and Nixon, as they face the aftermath of the Elite Auction, and each endure its painful consequences. We follow their journey as they try to escape their fate and attempt to come to each other’s rescue — in more ways than one.’

4. Highlights:

The next part is what I call the ‘highlights’. This is where you talk about what you liked most about the book, or what you thought the strongest parts of the book were. This can focus on one element of the book (a character, a part of the plot, a theme etc.) or cover multiple elements.

See, for example, the highlights I picked for my review of Age of the Almek by Tara Lake:

‘I loved the author's ability to give every character their own voice and a distinct perspective on the world around them. I loved how involved I became with every character's fate and woes. I loved the precision with which the Almek world has been created, with such minuteness you can picture it down to the finest details.

My favourite part is the portrayal of the many facets of human nature, be it through the reactions of the masses to the barbaric ways of their rulers or the individual views of the protagonists. In every Almek citizen is a piece of the great puzzle that is humanity at large, and the author has a gift for writing it as raw and real as it gets.’

5. Mitigate your view:

Right after the highlights is where you’d add anything that mitigates your view. That’s anything that wasn’t quite as strong as you’d want it to be, or anything you weren’t a fan of.

You can skip this part if there’s nothing you didn’t like about the book — you don’t have to go nitpicking if nothing comes to mind. And it doesn’t have to be a bashing of the author and their work either. Keep it constructive and explain why you felt that way. There’s never a need for insults or expletives, and these wouldn’t enhance the quality of your review anyways. Formulating constructive criticism takes practice, and requires tact and subtlety. It’s a valuable skill to have if you’re willing to invest time in honing it.

Here’s how I phrased that part of the review for Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan:

‘But - and there's a but - my qualm with this book is that, for a story that revolves entirely around Nick and Rachel... There's actually very little Nick and Rachel in it!

Yes it's all 'about' them and it talks 'of' them loads, and we're told theyare happy together and want to be together... But it's all 'tell' and no 'show'. Their intimacy is sorely lacking, so I was left missing that added colour to convince me that they, in fact, do love each other. And I'm not talking saucy passages — I 'm talking about basic things suchas them actually talking to each other and spending time together.’

6. Conclusion:

The final part of the review is a short paragraph with closing remarks, such as a short summary of your view on the book, whether or not you recommend it or some indication of what readers the book may be for (e.g. ‘if you liked… you may like this book’).

When I reviewed Collision by Kristen Granata, I ended the review with:

‘Readers used to intricate, far-fetched romance plots may find this book too straightforward for their liking. In my mind, this is what makes the book's key strength: it's real and honest, it takes the reader through difficult situations and complex emotions beautifully, and that makes it all the more relatable.

A great read overall - and the moment I finished the last page, I was on Amazon ordering the next book in the series!’

How long should a review be?

I don’t think there should be a minimum or maximum word count to a review, though I find that mine end up being around 300 to 500 words. I feel this is a good length because as a reviewer this forces me to be concise and clear in expressing my opinions, and as a reader it’s long enough to give people a sense of the book, but not too long that they’ll drop off before the end.

Final Thoughts: To spoil or not to spoil?

My view on adding spoilers in your review is simple: DON’T.

Try as I might, I can’t fathom what could be gained from adding spoilers to a review. Once again: back to the why. Someone reads a review to find out if they want to read the book themselves. If you ruin the plot for them in that review, what’s the incentive to pick up the book?

It just hurts the author’s chances of making a book sale, and it robs a fellow reader of the joyful rollercoaster of finding out those plot twists at their own pace. Don’t do it, it’s just rude.

*Sources:

www.bookmarketingtools.com

www.searchenginewatch.com

www.dealeron.com

#writingtips #screenwriting #creative writing #writers on tumblr #writers #writing #writerblr #writing advice #writing community #writing resources

[starrysupercell]

I didn't notice till now, but you've said before that "[Edgar isn't mean] unless you push him, as Colette learned the hard way once." Could you elaborate? My interest is PIQUED. (Unless it's a spoiler for smthn!)

I'd love to! Much more manageable than the mess that's WKBRL.

Luckily, I don't think it's too much of a spoiler since it just involves my interpretation of how Colette and Edgar met and eventually became friends! (In my main verse.)

It might come up later, when I get to the Gift Shop Arc too... so it's more of a sneak peek I guess? :3

Afternote: Sorry this took so long! It came out longer than I expected (practically wrote the story itself oml), and I was tired all while writing it out. Hope you enjoy it! Sorry if it sounds cheesy--

~

In short, I see Edgar + Colette as the "extrovert adopts the introvert" friendship, but since Edgar is callous and Colette is pushy (both more than necessary), it wasn't the best way for that bond to start.

When Edgar started working around the holidays, Colette has been self-appointed welcoming committee to anybody new, so he was no different. Mr. Chip on his shoulder swerved every which way except friendship because he’s edgy.

So this whole Edgar unnecessarily dragging his heels and Colette meaning well, but not getting that it's prying continues for some time. Edgar isn't really happy, and even Colette is low-key frustrated. Just accept comradery, darn it!!

I feel the breaking point is when she finds out something big (most likely that El Primo is his favorite Brawler) and takes the initiative to make a big deal about it. Like, at a public show type big deal, complete with El Primo. who is very big on theatrics. being told by Colette that Edgar’s a big fan.

I haven't quite been able to flesh out the details yet, but Edgar is outraged, shocked and embarrassed at the intrusion and the sudden 'spotlight' on him. He might just flee at the moment, but he’s angry most of all and he’s going to confront her.

Biting things are said. Edgar is pissed and relentless. The gist of his words is “Get off my back and stop being some freak who needs constant validation from everybody.” but like in the meanest way possible.

Colette gets it, and backs off. She doesn’t talk to him, and after a few days of silently working together, switches out her shift too. 

Edgar takes it lightly at first. He does not miss her shenanigans, and even welcomes the quiet stretches of work hours.

Day in... day out.

He realizes it's boring without Colette's annoying motor-mouth to pass the time. But that doesn't mean he'll take back what he said. He's not going to apologize, because he's TOLD Colette to quit her self-projection BS. Yeah. And he doesn't feel guilty one bit! At all. Totally.

A few weeks drag by.

On Colette's side, she pretends that nothing's the matter but Byron notices the change in temperament (and schedule). A chat is easily coaxed out of Colette, and by the end of it, she determines that she should try to make things right.

So she apologizes. Not a full blown, in-person, heart felt conversation with tight hugs and tears as she would want it to be. But in the way Edgar would want it to be.

She crafts a gift, attaches a handwritten notecard, and leaves it in a place she knows Edgar will find. And she leaves it at that, whether he accepts her apology or not, her conscience is clear, because she means it.

When Edgar does encounter it, he feels better/worse over the situation. On one hand, at least Colette has realized her errors. On the other hand. He feels like the jerk now.

Now it's his turn to meet her halfway. (Byron also has a talk with him and pretends not to know about the gift. "Oh? You two had a fight? This is the first I'm hearing of it.")

On one of his days off, Edgar comes into Colette's shift. He doesn't know how to approach her. Eventually, he swallows his pride and just steps up to the counter.

Their talk is awkward at first, but once Colette realizes that he's here to thank her and apologize, the tension's gone and they're able to make up.

They hang out after her shift that day, and on occasion work together. Colette is a little less pushy, and conversely, Edgar reaches out a little more.

Compromise is important to make workdays and customers more bearable after all. May as well get through crappy retail on good terms. (And there's still worse to come~ >:3c)

[Maybe insert chapter 5 of "Bounced Around" here, idk.]

They're Super Mega BFFs now, in Colette's words. In Edgar's, they're "cool now."

#Brawl Stars #Colette #Edgar #teenager sitcom #Byron is just like 'my god. this is the most important thing in the world to them right now. so trivial. so blown out of proportion.' #'they have to fix this in their own.. but a little nudge should be fine..' #Man I. really wish this were the Gift Shop Trio :v

[thepointoftheneedle]

Happy New Year!

I wrote a little New Year’s Eve one shot.  It’s below the cut or you can read it on AO3 here.  (I’ve started a collection of short pieces just to keep things tidy.) I hope you are all able to celebrate safely and I wish you a healthy and happy 2021.

It was obvious that the party was going off the rails as soon as Archie started lining up shots along the whole length of the marble counter top.  He called Reggie out and Reggie never backed down from a challenge to his machismo so they both worked their way along the little bullets of stupid until, breathless and belly laughing, they slid to the floor, their eyes swivelling in their dumb skulls like cartoon coyotes that had just been smashed over the head with an Acme anvil.  It was nine fifteen. Betty had wondered if Veronica would be mad about it but she seemed in the mood for some chaos as she set up two more lines of glasses opposite each other on the counter and challenged Cheryl who had never met an unnecessary drama she didn’t like.  

Betty had drunk a very pleasant glass of good champagne and had been contemplating having a couple more before midnight.  She’d never been a big drinker so for her that was cutting loose.  It had been, to put it crudely, a shit-show of a year and she was glad to see the back of it.  At the last New Year’s party she had been showing off a dazzling engagement ring, about to start the job that she had been expensively and laboriously trained for and she and her intended had signed the lease on a cute and well appointed apartment in Sunset Park which everyone said was the up and coming neighbourhood. The world had been unfolding for her like a flower.  Then the frost had come and scorched the petals with its chill. This year she was single, her job sometimes felt like it was eating her up and that cute apartment burned through every cent of her pay check now she had to make the rent alone.  It was possible that she was the saddest girl in a cocktail dress on the whole island of Manhattan, she was certainly the soberest person at the party.

An hour later the shots were completely out of hand and Betty had only just prevented Ethel from throwing up into the piano.  Moose made some half hearted effort to restore order, offering glasses of water, trying to start a game of Charades, but Kevin was in too mischievous a mood for his efforts to bear any fruit and instead they were embarking on Drunk Jenga, the rules of which seemed to be that you took a shot whenever you removed a block and then another when you placed it on top of the stack.  She imagined you took a shot if the tower fell but she didn’t stick around to find out.  She sidled over to where the Pol Roger was stacked, neglected,  in its very own champagne refrigerator and helped herself while everyone else was supporting the economy of Mexico by the prodigious consumption of Patron Silver.

She took her recharged glass to the window and looked out at the snowy expanse of Central Park far below.  It looked like the idealised interior of a snow globe, the air glassy and still and a huge yellow moon surveying its domain.  Betty remembered walking through the park with Trev last Christmas, bundled in a thick coat and scarf.  They’d held hands inside one of his mittens. They’d made snow angels.  They’d skated at the Wollman Rink and drunk hot chocolate afterwards.  Her life had been a cover image from a romance novel. This year she had spent Christmas being patronised by Polly’s constant offers of introductions to a succession of Jason’s frat brothers and golfing buddies.  Eventually she’d pointed out that if she’d wanted some obstructionist, bigoted blowhard she could have found one herself, without Polly’s oh so sympathetic intervention.  Polly cried and Betty apologised but she still wasn’t going to go on a date with a junior vice president of acquisitions even if he did have a weekend place in Connecticut.  She wouldn’t tolerate being paraded in front of prospective suitors like a prize dairy cow at the county show, not by Veronica and certainly not by her sister.

As she reminisced she became aware of Archie and Veronica deep in conversation in the corner of the room.  “We have a teeny emergenshy,” Veronica said, her hand on Archie’s forearm.  Veronica was never less than perfectly composed but that slur at the end of her word and the ramped up sincerity gave her away to her best friend. She was sozzled. “Only two bottles of Patron left and then the cupboard is bare. I may have over-ordered on the fizz and neglected the tequila.”

Archie nodded, taking the situation as seriously as his wife.  Then some kind of light dawned on his handsome face.  “We’ll get the magic doorman to get us some.  He’ll be on duty now.  I’ll go slip him a fifty and he’ll take care of it.”  He turned to reach for his wallet and promptly fell on his face. It was ten to eleven and all was decidedly not well.

Betty went over to help Archie off the rug.  He grinned even though his nose was bloody. “Ronnie, Betty’s all sober and sensible.  She can go talk to the wizard.  Here Betty, here’s fifty for a tip and Ronnie’ll give you her credit card for the booze.  Okay?  Shit I’m bleeding… still it’s not a party til something gets broke.”

V was looking at her imploringly now.  Somewhere there was the sound of glass smashing and Monroe’s attempt to do chin ups on the kitchen doorframe seemed to be bringing plaster down on the floor.  Betty would rather be almost anywhere than right here so she nodded at her friend.  "What do you need V?”

V explained that the building’s night doorman was a kind of fixer.  When Tom in 204 had forgotten his wife’s birthday Jones had got him a gluten free chiffon cake iced with her name at two thirty on a Thursday morning along with a bouquet of out of season narcissuses....narcissi? When the little boy in 116 had told his mama at midnight that he needed a George Washington costume for school the next day the night doorman had sourced it, complete with powdered wig, before the little tyke had finished his cheerios.  When V had realised an hour before her 5.15 a.m. flight to Miami that she had completely forgotten her niece’s confirmation gift he had sourced a personalised Catholic Bible bound in white leather which he handed to her as she got into her cab.  “He’s a miracle worker B.  Just tell him we need a case…no two cases of Patron Silver before midnight.  Give him the fifty but tell him I’ll make it a hundred if he can fix it by eleven thirty. OK?”

“Sure.  On my way.”  

She travelled down in the elevator imagining the doorman.  He’d be some old guy in a uniform with gold braid on the chest. He probably knew all the residents and their dogs by name and had one of those old timey extended families so that he could reach out to Cousin Ike for last minute birthday cakes or get his nephew’s wife to sew a costume at no notice.  She needed a fixer herself since her life seemed so broken.  She wondered what he could do for a lonely woman who was trying to work out if getting a cat was too much of an admission that she had given up.

As she stepped out into the lobby she was slightly taken aback by the mismatch between her expectations and reality.  He was behind the reception desk, dark head bowed over a laptop, no braid in evidence, no grey whiskers or paunch, just this dark, poetic looking guy in a black sweater.  She approached the desk and he looked up at her, fingers still flying over the keys without him needing to glance down.  He seemed to reach a natural pause, closed the lid of the laptop and smiled politely.  “Yes ma’am, how can I help?”  His eyes were blue.  They seemed to look through her probably thinking she was just another rich girl bringing him problems.  He must get that a lot.

“Yeah, hi, I’m a guest of Mr and Mrs Lodge Andrews up in the penthouse.  They’re having a little New Year's Eve party and they’re running low on liquor.  They wondered if you could source them a couple of cases of…”

“Patron Silver?  Yes ma’am, of course.  Who should I charge it to?”  She had no idea how he could have known what she was going to ask for.  It made her want to say that they wanted Stolichnaya or absinthe or something, just to surprise him but she’d been sent for Patron and Patron she would get.

“Oh, yes, I have a credit card.” She handed it over,  “and Mr Andrews said to give you this for the trouble.”  She passed him the fifty, embarrassed.

“No incentive to get it here before the coaches turn into pumpkins?” he asked, eyebrow raised.  She thought he was making fun of her but she couldn’t be sure.  

“Oh yes, that’s right.  Veronica said another $50 if it’s here by eleven thirty.”

“Okay ma’am.  I’ll buzz up when it’s here.  If that’s all.”

“Oh please don’t call me ma’am.  I’m Betty.”

“I’m Jones... Jughead. Nickname. Long dull story.” He raised an eyebrow, clearly wondering why she was still standing in front of his desk.

“Look, it’s a little crazy up there.  Would it be okay if I just stay down here for a minute? Just say if it’s inconvenient. I don’t want to disturb you if you’re busy.” She didn’t think she could bear to be the responsible adult at Veronica’s party for a moment longer. Here it was quiet and no one needed her to hold back their hair while they were getting sick.

“Busy getting hold of twelve bottles of good tequila on New Year's Eve but that’s all.  I just need to make a call.  Excuse me.”  He stood and walked away from the desk, his back turned to her.  It was a good back.  He was wearing the black sweater over grey slacks with a key chain hanging from one of his belt loops.  He had broad shoulders but his neck was fine, not thick and meaty like the guys who needed to lift weights to manufacture some self esteem. He was slim at the waist and the hips, long legs, tall.  The hair was the USP though, dark waves of it tumbling freely as he dragged long fingers through it, waiting for someone to pick up his call.  Finally he yelled “Hey Toni.  Yeah, two cases of Patron Silver asap.  Yeah, I’d noticed that but mark it up. Can Sweetpea drop it over?  Yeah right now.  Hey, ask him to get me a burger on the way too.”  He turned and looked at Betty with a questioning look and she shrugged and nodded, “Two, make it two.  Ok, thanks Toni.  Yeah you too.  See you Sunday.”

He ended the call and made his way back to the desk.  “My pal Toni runs a bar,” he explained with a grin. 

“Veronica says you’re magic, a wizard,” she told him.

“Nothing occult about it.  I’m just observant, that’s all.”

“Seems magical to produce a George Washington costume overnight,” she countered.  

“Oh well, that was a lucky break.  My sister’s a textile artist.  A struggling one.  I gave her the brief and she knocked up the costume in a few hours.  Now all the upper east side mommies have her business card and she can afford to buy materials and pay her rent.  She had to pull an all nighter but it paid off pretty big in the end.”

“Birthday cake?  Out of season flowers?” 

“The husband’s kind of a dick.  He forgot last year too. They had a fight about it in this very lobby so I wrote down the date and got ready to save his bacon.  If he’d remembered the date I’d have had cake for my breakfast and sent my sister a bunch of flowers.  As it was I made a couple hundred bucks.”

Betty was laughing now at the smug look on his face.  “So you could have reminded him beforehand?”

“Could have, but maybe the expense’ll help him remember next time.  Anyway if the doorman knows more about your wife than you do it might be time to review your priorities.”

“Ok but what about the Bible?  That seems pretty miraculous.”

“Actually it’s kind of the opposite. The kid’s confirmation name is Maria. Hardly original.  My buddy Joaquin’s little sister was confirmed a few months ago.  Her confirmation name’s Maria.  She hadn’t made a whole lot of use of the Bible.  Your pal paid me three hundred, Joaquin’s kid sister got two hundred in her college fund.”

“Seems like the side hustles are more remunerative than the pay check,” Betty observed.

“It’s all a side hustle.  I’m a writer.  This job’s kept me supplied with characters and plot lines and given me eight hours of mostly uninterrupted writing time.”

Betty flushed pink and jumped up from the corner of the desk where she had been leaning.  “Oh I’m so sorry. Here I am wasting your time.  I’ll be on my way.”

“No, wait,” he reached out and put his hand on her arm.  It tingled.  “I didn’t mean it like that.  This is research.  Maybe I’ll put you in my next book.  The sad girl in a party frock who’d rather be in the lobby than with her friends at a party being kissed for New Year.”

“There’s no-one to kiss up there,” she confessed with a sad smile and then, without having any idea why, she said “I broke up with my fiancé last February.”

“Aha,” he said.  “There’s the plot.  Tell me.”

“He’s great.  A really good guy.  Kind, loyal, handsome.  Everything I should have wanted. Any girl would be lucky to have him. I think I broke his heart.”

“Why?”

“We started to plan the wedding and I wanted to run away.  I couldn’t bear to think about it.  Then one day I found myself imagining what I’d do if something bad happened that prevented it, like if he got sick or if I was in a car accident or something.  It was pretty clear that I couldn’t go through with it if I preferred the idea of one of us being in a coma to the idea of my wedding day.”

“Cold feet?”

“Oh freezing but it wasn’t just nerves.  When I imagined being married to him I couldn’t see myself, I was just a blank. It was… I don’t know how to say it…like I was finished.  I’d never be anything more than I was, never change or grow or struggle.  It was all too easy.  No grit in the oyster.  I know it’s crazy.”

“You didn’t say it was you not him did you?  You didn’t do that to him?” He was smiling at her, sympathising not mocking.

She blushed.  “I did.  All the clichés.  How could I explain?  I don’t even understand it myself.”

“I understand it.  You want to find out who you can be and he couldn’t give you that.  He was happy with who you were, didn’t want you to change.  He was probably scared of losing you. Anyone would be.” He looked at her with an intensity that made her nervous so she tried to change the subject.  

“A writer then?  What do you write?”

“Mostly mystery stories.  Magazines and online so far but I’ve just got a publisher for the novel.  I’m going to quit this next year.  What do you do?”

“I’m a psychologist.  I work with kids who are in trouble.  Try to get them back on track.  I love it but it’s hard sometimes.  I hear things that it’s tough to leave at the office.”

“You need to take care of you first.  You can’t save someone if you aren’t safe yourself. ”

“Writer or life coach?” she smiled.

He chuckled.  “Sorry.  I’m not good at small talk.  I get too intense too fast and freak people out.  Oh hey, cometh the man, cometh the tequila.”  

A tall guy in a leather jacket was pulling boxes out of the back of a truck that he’d illegally bumped up the curb outside..  He looked a little scary.  Once he was in the lobby she saw that he had a snake tattooed on his neck.  He fist bumped Jughead and then pulled him into a side hug. “Hey man.  Happy new year and all that. Hey,” he said, noticing Betty for the first time. 

“Hey.  Thanks so much for bringing it over. There’s a whole apartment full of drunk idiots upstairs just waiting to make themselves sick on it. Oh!” He turned back to Betty, aghast at what he’d said. “Sorry Betty.”

“You’ll not get an argument from me.  That’s why I’m down here talking to you.”

Neck tattoo laughed and held out his hand “Sweetpea.  Pleasure doing business with you.”  He turned back to Jughead,  “So I have to get back, I’m supposed to be on the door at the Wyrm.  See you Sunday?”

“Burgers?” Jug reminded him and his friend nodded, trotting back to the truck to grab a take out bag and toss it back to Jughead who snatched it from the air like a dolphin snatching a fish at Seaworld.

Betty buzzed up to the penthouse to get one of the assembled jocks to come and collect two cases of tequila and bring down a bottle of Pol Roger and the promised fifty dollars. It was eleven twenty four.  Ten minutes later she was sitting on the reception desk eating a burger, washing it down with $200 champagne.  “This is the best New Year's Eve I’ve ever had,” she grinned, a little disinhibited by the bubbles.  

“Weren’t you engaged last year?”

“This is much better.  I was pretending last year.  Now I’m just being me.”

“I always find that works better.  The not pretending bit. Especially not with someone you can love.”

She certainly wasn’t pretending at eleven fifty nine when she reached out to him and he took her in his arms and kissed her softly as cheers and yells rang out from the parties all over the city and fireworks exploded high above the park, casting confetti of coloured lights across the marble lobby. 

As the kiss ended she looked up into his blue eyes, wondering if it was the champagne that was making her blurry and relaxed or if it was him.  She thought she’d have to keep on kissing him to know for sure.  He really was a fixer though.  Her heart felt lighter, hopeful.

He grinned.  “Spectacular as that was, this is probably the most surveilled lobby in the city.  Can we schedule the repeat for when I’m not actually on the clock?”  He gestured at the security cameras covering every inch of the space and she blushed to think that somewhere there was taped evidence of her trying to seduce the sexy doorman.

“Can I stay here and talk to you some more if I promise not to touch?”

“I wish you would.  I get off at six and I know a great diner for breakfast.  We can tell people our first date was breakfast.  They’ll be scandalised.” She couldn’t hold back at the mention of the first date, of them telling people about it, so she kissed him on the cheek before retreating back to the edge of the desk with her hands up.

They talked about her work, his writing, they compiled an ultimate New Year's Eve playlist and top tens of movies and books.  She found herself distracted by the fullness of his lips, the expressiveness of his face, the heaviness of the locks of hair that fell forward over his eyes only to be pushed back impatiently.  They agreed on almost nothing and that was exactly how she liked it.  When she crept up to the penthouse at five thirty to collect her coat and change her party shoes for snow boots, she was met with a scene of devastation.  Prostrate bodies sprawled on every flat surface.  The two cases of tequila sat unopened in the kitchen, clearly surplus to requirements by the time they had been manifested.  She picked her way through the carnage and found the coat closet where Archie had put her things when she’d arrived the night before.  Opening the door she noticed the cases of liquor stacked inside, three unopened boxes of Patron among them.  She realised that Jug wasn’t the only fixer in the building.  She made sure to lean over her sleeping friend to place a kiss on her forehead before she let herself out, locking the door behind her.

#bughead fanfiction #bughead fan fic #New Years