#man the old one was so rushed and terrible lol

[candycandy00]

The Doll House - A Choso x Reader Fanfic Part 1

When your younger sister is tricked into selling herself to the Doll House, you rush there to help her, only to find her being led away by her trainer, Choso. Moved by your desire to save your sister, he convinces the owner to let you take her place.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Read Geto’s Part Here!

Read Toji’s Part Here!

Read Nanami’s Part Here!

Read Sukuna’s Part Here!

Read Gojo’s Part Here!

Note: Please remember that these stories don’t take place at the same time, or even one after the other! Consider each one its own timeline. So if you see Geto and Toji with other dolls, don’t be alarmed lol. I had to do it this way because if I don’t, by the time I get to the last trainer, there won’t be any other trainers left to interact with!

On the outskirts of town, there stands a particular shop called the “Doll House”. Inside its walls you can find a “doll” to match any taste you might have. All your desires will be fulfilled, no matter how depraved. Satisfaction is guaranteed! The dolls are exceptionally high quality, thanks to the skillful trainers who work with them twenty-four hours a day, molding them into perfect toys for your enjoyment.

Each trainer has a specialty that they focus on, and they all take great pride in their work. Their methods differ greatly, their approaches vary, but they all follow one rule: never get attached to a doll. After the training is complete, they hand the dolls over to their new owners, and never see them again. However, just once over the course of their careers, trainers are allowed to pick a doll they’ve personally trained and keep her as their own.

AU! Each trainer will get their own story! This is Choso’s. I’m keeping the tag list from previous parts. If you’d like to be tagged in future parts, let me know! You must be an adult to be tagged! Any feedback whatsoever is adored!

Smut. 18+. Fem Reader. FemDom. Sub Choso. Oral sex. Foot kissing. Divider by @benkeibear!

Your phone won’t stop buzzing. Even with the sound turned off, it’s making a racket in your bag, disturbing the important meeting you’re in. With a sigh, you slip it out to look at the Lock Screen. Your younger sister has sent you several messages. Wondering what kind of trouble she’s gotten herself into this time, you tap the latest message to open all of them. 

“Sis, I need your help! It’s an emergency!!!!”

“Yosaku is in trouble with his dad. He needs money right now or the old man’s gonna kill him!!”

“We’re at the Doll House. Yosaku says he’ll win big at the next race and buy out my contract.”

“Guess I’m a doll now! Why won’t you answer me?! This is important!!!”

“The owner went to find a trainer for me. God, I hope I don’t get the BDSM guy!”

“Sis, I’m scared!!! Yosaku left and I don’t think he’s coming back!”

You clench the phone in your hand so hard, you almost break it. 

“Fucking Yosaku!” you shout, then notice the dozen pairs of eyes that all immediately shift to you. You’re so enraged that you forgot you’re in a meeting. You apologize and excuse yourself, quickly leaving the office building where you work and heading toward the Doll House.

Your sister has been dating the son of a small time Yakuza boss for a little over six months now, and the two bit wannabe gangster has already ruined her life. 

Before meeting Yosaku, your sister was always so sweet and never got into trouble. Despite only being four years older than her, you practically raised her. She’s the only family you have, and as such, you’re fiercely protective of her. 

So when she introduced you to Yosaku, six years her senior, good looking in a “bad boy” sort of way, and with a terrible personality, you knew he was bad news. The fact that they started dating almost immediately after she turned eighteen was a big red flag. It’s like he was waiting for her, like a vulture. 

She started getting into trouble within two weeks of meeting him. She got caught shoplifting items he instructed her to take (and he of course fled the scene when she was spotted). He got mad and ditched her in a dangerous part of town one night. He talked her into gambling away all her money. And a whole list of other things. Each time, you had to go and rescue her.  And each time, you begged her to dump him before he got her into real, serious trouble. 

Now she’s at the Doll House? Unbelievable! How could he convince her to give up ten years of her life for him?! You can only hope you make it there in time to stop the sale. 

When you barge in the front door, past a front desk with a startled receptionist, and into a large circular room, you find your sister. She’s being led away by a pale man with a strange hairstyle, and she looks like a deer in the headlights. 

“Stop!” you scream, rushing forward and ripping your sister’s arm out of the man’s hand. “Don’t touch my sister, you pervert!”

You don’t know a whole lot about the Doll system or the Doll House, but everyone knows the basics. The men here train women to be sex toys, usually with some bizarre fetish. A friend once told you a guy here makes his dolls crawl on the ground like a dog while wearing a butt plug. Unimaginable! 

The man looks at you, seeming confused. “Oh, don’t worry. I’m not anyone suspicious. I’m just her trainer.”

You place yourself in front of your sister, blocking his view of her. “You think I’m gonna let you train her to do depraved… sex stuff? I won’t let you hurt her!”

“I’m not going to hurt her,” he says, looking a little hurt himself that you would suggest such a thing. “My job is to prepare her to be a doll. I’m helping her.”

He seems so honest, but you can’t let yourself be fooled. “I don’t care what your job is. You can’t have my sister! Look at her, she’s just eighteen! She’s practically a baby! She’s still a virgin! You can’t turn her into-“

“Actually, sis, I’m not a virgin,” you hear your sister say behind you, making you wince. You assumed so, but it sucks to have it confirmed. Fucking Yosaku. 

You look at her over your shoulder. “That’s not important right now.” Then you turn back to the man. “Please, don’t take her. She’s the only family I have. She has her whole life ahead of her.”

The trainer’s face softens slightly, as if he feels bad for you. “I’m sorry,” he says, “but she already signed the contract. There’s nothing I can do.”

“But there has to be some way out of this! Her lowlife boyfriend coerced her!”

“What’s going on in here?” a voice asks. 

All of you look over to see a silver haired woman standing just inside the room. She’s holding a silk fan in one hand, the breathless receptionist standing beside her. 

“Who are you?” you ask her. 

She flips a long braid over her shoulder. “I’m the owner of this establishment. And if you’re here to stop a sale, you’re too late. Unless you want to pay some rather punishing fees for breaking the contract.”

You narrow your eyes. “Just how much are these fees?”

The owner snaps her fingers, and the receptionist scurries to grab a pen and paper. The owner writes something on it and the receptionist presents it to you. She wasn’t kidding when she said they were punishing! You’d never be able to pay this back! Even with your pretty good job. Your sister’s credit would be ruined forever. And you’d have to work yourself to the bone and you’d probably still lose everything. 

Your mind races. Think! Think! There has to be a way out of this! An idea pops into your mind. A terrible one, but it’s the only one you have at the moment. 

“What if I take her place?” you ask. 

Your sister steps out from behind you to look you in the face. “Sis, no, this is my-“

“Just be quiet,” you hiss, using the sort of tone you took while caring for her as a child. The “angry mother” tone, she called it. She falls silent. 

The owner looks you up and down. “I don’t know… We’ve never done something like that before.”

You get down on your knees, looking up at the owner with a pleading expression. “Please! My sister is young and naive. She can’t handle life as a doll. But I can! As the older sister, it’s my responsibility to protect her!”

Beside the owner, the trainer’s eyes widen. Then, suddenly, he moves over and gets down to his knees right next to you, bowing his head low. 

“I’m asking as well,” he says to the owner, shocking you. “Out of respect for her wanting to protect her sister, could you let them trade places? The older sister would be more suited to my training anyway.”

The owner looks slightly flustered to be met with such old fashioned, formal pleas. But she sighs and says, “Alright, I’ll go get the paperwork fixed up.”

As she walks away, the trainer stands up, then offers you his hand. Still somewhat in shock, you take it and let him help you up. 

“Thanks,” you tell him. “But why did you help me?”

He gives you a subtle smile. “I understand wanting to protect a younger sibling. I have a little brother I would do anything for.”

Wow, he’s actually pretty cute… for a sex crazed pervert. It just now occurs to you that he’s going to be your trainer now. This cute guy is going to be doing all sorts of depraved things to you! 

Your sister hugs you suddenly, her face wet with tears. “You didn’t have to do that! This was my problem!”

You pull away from her and stroke her hair. “Yes, I did have to do this. Just promise me one thing: that you’ll stay away from Yosaku. He’s dangerous! The next time he gets you into trouble, I won’t be there to help. Don’t make what I’m doing be for nothing.”

Your sister nods. “I promise! I’m all done with him!”

After reading over and signing all the paperwork, you and your sister say your goodbyes. Then you turn to your trainer and say. “Well, I’m all yours.”

He reaches out and gently takes your hand, then leads you down a hallway. He actually seems… sweet? You can’t imagine him doing perverted things to you. But he is a trainer here. Sooner or later, this man is going to have sex with you. You’re not some blushing virgin, but the thought still makes you a little embarrassed. 

Once inside his room, he shuts the door behind the two of you. His room looks surprisingly neat, clean, and comfortable. No crazy props or weird toys hanging on the walls. Thank goodness. 

“Feel free to sit down,” he says, gesturing toward a pair of chairs on either side of a small table. 

You walk over and take a seat, watching him a bit warily. You still don’t know what kind of fetish he specializes in. 

“I’ll tell you about my training,” he says, as if he can read your mind. You sit up straight in the chair to listen as he goes on. “I train women to be Doms. Dominant. I will call you Mistress. My name is Choso but you can call me whatever you like. I will do anything you tell me to. For the next six weeks, I belong to you. Oh, before you ask, I can’t get you out of the contract. That’s up to the owner, not me.”

Wait. What? He’s training you to be a Dom? You’ve heard the term before, but it conjures up an image of a woman in a black leather corset, cracking a whip. You’re supposed to do that stuff with him? 

“So, you’ll do anything I ask?”

He nods. “As long as it doesn’t violate any of the house rules, and is within my power.”

That doesn’t sound so bad. But you’re not naive. You know this is supposed to lead to things of a sexual nature. This is the Doll House after all. But at least you’ll probably get to do things at your own pace. You feel yourself relaxing slightly. 

“Can you get me a cup of coffee?” you ask, curious to see how he responds. 

“Of course, Mistress. How would you like it?”

“Hot. Heavy on the cream, no sugar.”

He gives you a small bow of his head. “Right away, Mistress.”

You watch him leave the room, then exhale deeply. Why does any doll trained by him ever do any of the sex stuff? Why not just make him rub your feet and bring you snacks for six weeks? You suppose that would defeat the purpose of being trained. What was it he called it? Preparing you to be a doll? Whoever your owner ends up being, he’s definitely going to expect some sex stuff. 

But do you have to initiate it? Command Choso to sleep with you? You can’t imagine doing that. 

He walks back in with a steaming cup and reaches it to you as if he’s a butler. You glance up at him, and you think he’d look really good in a butler uniform. 

You noticed it before, but he’s really cute. He’s like a quiet goth guy without the piercings. His hair is styled into two short ponytails, one on either side of his head. It’s not a style you’ve seen before, but it looks good on him. His clothes are a bit baggy, making you curious about what’s under them. 

The coffee is delicious, and Choso watches you drink it silently. After you sit the cup down, he asks, “Is there anything else you’d like me to do?”

You think for a moment. “You’ll do anything? Even if it’s something embarrassing or demeaning?”

“Of course, Mistress.”

You frown. “I don’t know. It seems wrong to force you to do things.”

A gentle smile appears on his face. “If you’re concerned about consent, please don’t worry. I work here voluntarily because I like doing stuff like this. I’m happy to do anything you want. No matter what it is.”

There’s an eagerness in his voice that makes your heart beat fast. You take a deep breath and say, “Kiss my foot!”

You really just want to test whether he’ll actually do anything you say or not, and this seems like a relatively tame command. Actually it’s not sexual at all. 

Or so you think, until Choso gracefully drops to his knees in front of you and, oh so gently, removes your high heeled shoe from your right foot. Then his hands move to your thigh, sliding just under your skirt. You start to yell at him, but then you realize he’s pulling your stocking down, slowly sliding it down your leg and off your foot. 

His eyes lock onto yours as he carefully lifts your foot up in his hand, holding it up close to his face. He licks his lips, then presses them softly to the top of your foot as his hand caresses your ankle. 

Oh wow. Okay, you kind of get how this all turns sexual. Choso on his knees in front of you, so eager to please, is doing things to you. 

He stands back up, the tiniest hint of a grin on his pale face. He knows what he’s doing. He wouldn’t be a very good trainer if he didn’t. “Is there anything else you’d like me to do, Mistress?”

Your heart is racing. You feel your face heating up. Fuck, did he just seduce you with a single kiss to your foot? You cough awkwardly and look away from his pretty face. 

“I’m not sure what else to make you do,” you say, then quickly add, “What would you do if I told you to strip?”

He instantly begins pulling his loose fitting shirt over his head. 

“Wait! I wasn’t serious! I was just messing around!” you yell, but his shirt is already off, dangling from his hand. Your eyes drink in his well defined torso, surprised by how toned he is. A cute face and a hot body? Plus he’s sweet and gentle? Is this guy the total package or what? 

You shake your head. You can’t let yourself fall for him. He’s your trainer. He’s done this same stuff, and much more, with lots of other women. And besides, in six weeks you’ll belong to someone else. You just hope whoever that is has half of Choso’s charm. 

“I’m sorry, Mistress, I thought you wanted me to undress,” he says, pulling his shirt back on. Why does he sound a little disappointed? 

Now you really want to see what he’s packing beneath those baggy pants, but you can’t bring yourself to command him to show you. Not so soon after meeting him anyway. 

“It’s my fault,” you tell him. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

He smiles at you. It’s a very warm expression. “Please don’t worry about it, Mistress. I’m here to please you.”

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

Choso watches his new doll as she stands up and looks around the room. This will be her room for the next six weeks, so it’s good for her to familiarize herself with it. 

“Can I go get some of my things from home?” she asks. 

“Yes. You can leave the house so long as you come back by nightfall. That’s one of the house rules. If you go out at night, I have to go with you.”

She looks at her watch. “I guess I’ll just go tomorrow,” she says. “So what do we do for dinner?”

“There’s a dining hall where we all usually eat our meals,” he tells her, then goes on to explain what times meals are served and tells her about the small shared kitchen. He goes over some more house rules and also warns her that the other trainers all have their own styles, so she shouldn’t be surprised to see naked dolls or dolls in strange outfits.

She seems to be taking it all in fairly well. 

For dinner, she opts to stay in his room while he fetches plates, saying she isn’t quite ready to meet everyone else. She also tells him to eat at the small table in his room with her. Some dolls, perhaps angry about being dolls in the first place, order him to sit on the floor and eat. It doesn’t bother Choso, but he does think his new doll seems nice so far. 

“So you have a little brother?” she asks over dinner. 

He looks up from his plate, somewhat surprised. Some dolls ask a few basic questions at first, just to get to know him a little, but this one managed to get straight to his favorite topic. He smiles and says, “Yes. His name is Yuji.”

Her face looks kind, pretty, as she asks, “How old is he?”

“Nine,” he answers. “He’s a very energetic child, but he’s very sweet.”

She’s smiling, perhaps thinking of her sister. “He sounds adorable. Do you get to spend much time with him?”

Choso lowers his eyes to his food. “Not as much as I like. We only share one parent, and both of his have died. He lives with his grandfather now. I visit him as much as I can, and he visits me here occasionally. Oh, don’t worry, he doesn’t understand what I do here.”

They talk for a while longer, Choso eventually getting his phone and showing her pictures of Yuji. And he almost forgets, for a few moments, that she’s a doll and he’s her trainer. For those few moments, they’re just two older siblings smiling and talking. 

When night falls, Choso goes to take a shower. When he steps out, dressed in cozy sweats with his wet hair grazing his shoulders, his doll looks at him strangely. 

“Is something wrong?” he asks her, drying his hair with a towel. 

She blinks then averts her eyes. “No, nothing’s wrong,” she says, looking a little embarrassed before adding, “You look nice with your hair down.”

His doll decides to sleep in her clothes tonight, refusing his offer to wear something of his. And when it’s time to go to bed, he asks, “Where would you like me to sleep, Mistress?”

She wears a puzzled expression. “Uh, the bed?”

“Most dolls tell me not to sleep in the bed with them on the first night. I suppose they’re nervous, me being a stranger to them.”

She shrugs. “It’s your bed. It wouldn’t be right to force you out of it. Just don’t touch me and it’ll be fine.”

He stares at her. “You trust me already?”

She smiles as she climbs into his bed, staying on one side. “I think anyone who loves his little brother as much as you love Yuji can’t be a bad person.”

Choso feels his heart skip a beat, but he keeps his face neutral as he gets into bed, keeping a respectful distance from his doll. 

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

Two days later, you find yourself sitting in a chair in Choso’s room. He’s standing nearby, waiting for you to tell him to do something. These past couple of days, you’ve had him give you foot rubs, massage your shoulders, and brush your hair. All things pointedly not sexual. But in every case, Choso has made innocent actions seem incredibly sensual. 

The way his hands touch you, the way his eyes look at you with desire, they make you want to order him to fuck you right now. But you can’t do that. You’ve been trying to think of a way to make the orders you give him more sexy, but it’s difficult for you to just tell a man you barely know to start doing sexy things to you. 

You thought he was supposed to teach you how to be a Dom, but when you said that, he replied with, “It’s much better to just learn by experiencing things. So please tell me what you want me to do.”

Which was no help at all. You’re starting to think Choso isn’t a very good teacher. 

If he would just tell you what he wants, what he’d like for you to order him to do, this would be far less awkward! 

Wait. That might work!

“Choso,” you say, and he seems to perk up a bit at the sound of his name. “If you could pick one thing for me to tell you to do, what would it be?”

He smiles mildly. “I’d love to do anything you tell me to do, Mistress.”

“No. Give me a real, honest answer. This is an order from your Mistress. What would you most want to be ordered to do right now?”

He looks at you for a moment, then his eyes seem to get darker, a very slight pink flush to his cheeks. “What I’d most like to be ordered to do,” he says, keeping eye contact with you, “is to pleasure you with my mouth. To get on my knees in front of you while you spread your legs and stand over me, to taste you, to use my tongue to make you cum, over and over, until your legs give out.”

Oh shit. Are you seriously already wet just from hearing him talk about eating you out? There’s a hunger in his eyes, and you feel heat creeping across your face, your breaths quickening. Just imagining his pretty face buried between your thighs is making you horny as hell. 

“Okay then,” you say, standing up and trying to keep your voice steady, trying to sound confident and in charge even though you feel like you’re about to melt into a puddle of goo, “do it. Pleasure me… with your mouth.”

The way his cute, pale face lights up! He drops to his knees on the spot, and slowly crawls over to you. When he reaches you, he puts his hands on your thighs and carefully slides your skirt down, looking you in the eyes as he does it. 

“Mistress, may I please remove your panties?” he asks. 

You feel like you can barely breathe as you nod and say, “Yes, you may.”

His gentle hands rub upwards, until they reach the top of your lace panties, and then he eases them down your legs, helping you to step out of them once they reach the floor. This leaves you standing in his room, naked from the waist down, while he kneels in front of you. 

“Mistress, can you spread your legs?”

You feel your face burning as you move your feet further apart, giving him an eye full of your dripping pussy. He looks at it, then at your face, then licks his lips as if he’s about to dig into a tasty meal. 

And boy does he dig in! He runs his tongue up your slit, collecting any juices he can, then uses his fingers to open your folds. He takes a moment to look at your most private place, then says, “You’re beautiful, Mistress,” before slowly licking your pussy. His tongue circles your clit, then his lips wrap around it, and you can almost hear him slurping at your wetness. 

You look down at his face, only the top half visible, and his eyes shift up to yours. They’re half lidded, looking at you through his long eyelashes. 

As he makes out with your pussy, licking and kissing it so sweetly, taking his time, your legs begin to tremble. The pleasure is simply too much. You’ve been eaten out before, but never like this, never as if your clit is the most delicious thing on earth. 

“Ahh… Choso… I can’t…”

He pauses and glances up. “Are you alright, Mistress?”

“Y-yes, just… don’t stop, even if I tell you to. Not until I collapse,” you say, feeling slightly delirious. Did you really just say that?

“Of course, Mistress,” he says, then returns to devouring you. 

Your hands move to his head, and you find yourself pulling the ponytails free and letting his hair loose. Then you’re gripping it, hopefully not hard enough to hurt. You hear him utter a quiet moan, and the vibration of his voice against your clit as his lips suckle it gently sends you over the edge. 

You cry out, your hands tightening in his hair, your legs shaking and nearly giving way right then and there. His hands move around to your thighs and ass, holding you steady while his tongue laps up any fluids that leak out. You’re quivering, your clit extra sensitive and swollen after your orgasm, and that’s when his wet tongue glides over it again, pushing the hood even further back. 

“W-wait! Oh God… oh fuck!”

Your body jerks, your legs turning into spaghetti as another orgasm hits you within minutes of the first. Choso’s grip on your body is firm, keeping you from crumbling. His lips and tongue are still working at your clit, moving at a faster pace now, making you shudder and moan. 

“Choso… I can’t stand it… feels too good… I can’t…. I can’t…”

His mouth is relentless, pushing you right back to the edge. You know you must be pulling his hair too hard, but you have to grip something or you’ll fall apart. Then, you feel his teeth lightly scrape over your sensitive, overstimulated bud, and you inhale sharply, nearly choking on the air as you cum for the third time. 

It feels like your body is dissolving as all strength leaves you. Choso catches you in his arms and eases you down to the carpeted floor, cradling you. 

“Are you alright, Mistress?” he asks, his lips glistening with your juices. 

You’re still twitching, clutching his arms as you ride out the aftershocks of the three most intense orgasms of your life. You can’t speak, so you just nod to answer him. 

He holds you until you’re able to stand up with his help, then he helps you clean up before tucking you into bed. 

“I’m going to take a shower,” he says, and you nod as he goes into the bathroom. You didn’t mention it, but when he was holding you on the floor, your upper half in his lap, you felt a rather impressive erection through his loose pants. You thought about doing something about it, but your mind was a little too hazy at that point. Oh well, you’re certain you’ll get plenty of chances to pleasure him as well. 

You never imagined being a doll before all this, and you’re still angry that things turned out this way, but at least you have Choso as your trainer. You don’t know how things will turn out, who will end up owning you, but at least for now, the situation isn’t too bad. So you fall asleep to the sound of the water running in the shower, knowing Choso will be sleeping beside you again tonight.

Tag List:

@suguguro @kaedear @onyxsphynx @poopoobuttsy @butterskyy @collectionofdolls @akaotv @witchbybirth @bloofinntoona @wasurenagusaa @tclbts @tojirin @lucyrocks86 @badbyeyoongi @97britt @aydene @lzaj19 @lyn-lotte @missthatgirl @peachedtv @ladytamayolover @nanam1nx @deegausserr @voids-universe @hinata7346 @maflorex @issracollen @xkittiecatx @ryumurin @emrys3456 @mysecretesc8pe @typicalloser3 @gabriiiiiiii @fvsm4x @tyunhyukamyloves @rottmntrulesall

#choso x reader #choso smut #choso #choso kamo #jjk x reader #jjk smut #choso x you #x reader

[hotchfiles]

divine rush.

⋅☆⋅ mrsaluado's first xmas event ⋅☆⋅ masterlist

pairing: sirius x fem!reader.

summary: sirius is just very very nervous to meet your parents.

content warnings: maybe underage drinking lol but just fluff

word count: 1,4k

"oh my, you do not look well, pads." that was probably not the best way you greet your boyfriend as soon as you open the door to your home, but it got you by surprise how red and sweaty he looked, he wasn't the type to get sick and he looked absolutely feverish. "are you alright?" you touched his forehead with the back of your hand terribly worried about the boy in front of you.

"i'm fine! just... nervous." sirius replied, his teeth clenched as his eyes traveled to the room behind you. so that was it. you smiled back at him, holding his hand to finally pull him into your house, to meet your parents for the first time.

"you're quite charming, nothing to worry, babe."

"don't think being a good kisser's gonna work on your old man." you laughed out loud but you weren't sure he was actually trying to be funny, his eyes still roaming around your parents' house.

it was a decent middle class family house, not nearly as big as his own, or even the potter's one, where he had been living for the past year. still, it reminded him of his best mate's home in the best way possible: it felt like home. your little cousins were running around, no one telling them it was impolite to do that. most of your family were casually dressed and had christmas hats with the family's last name embroidered.

it was easy to see why you were so loving and understanding and for a second he envied you, the same way he envied james. he had spent so many years feeling like christmas was just a day family got together to make their highest efforts to look and seem better, more successful and richer than the others. worrying if his clothes were alright or if his mum was going to yell at him for it. arrogance was really the only things uniting his family and for a while he thought that was how it was for everyone.

"dad's been doing literal shots of spiked eggnogg, you could try the kissing." that finally got his attention back to you, a boyish grin taking over his beautiful face, following up with the quickest of kisses, his lips barely touching yours.

you nodded and were about to take him to the kitchen to meet everyone, especially your mum and dad, but your mother was quick to notice you both were taking a while at the door, going to you to see if everything was alright.

"merlin, aren't you dashing?" was her literal first words to sirius, excited her daughter had been dating such a beautiful boy, "where's the tattoos?" he was confused for a moment, his arms covered up with his coat, but he gave his hands so your mum could see it, his eyes looking straight at you trying hard to understand what was going on, you simply shrugged, like you had no idea and no involvment in that.

of course you did, you had mentioned to your parents he had quite a few and that he probably would be nervous about it so your mother thought the best way to make him ease up was just to put him on the spot immediately. good intentions, not the best execution.

still, he was getting less nervous by the second, your mother was a blabber mouth, she could talk with a rock, it felt you blinked for a second and she was already pushing him to the kitchen, taking one of the red embroidered christmas hats and fitting it on his head just before she herself introduced the boy to her sisters, who also had no problem showering him with compliments, you followed close behind, trying to hold in how amused you were and when you got to your dad, your mum went to his side, waiting for you to do your part.

"this is sirius, dad, sirius black, the boyfriend i've been telling you about." the fact you talked about him to your parents seemingly so many times had him die and come back mentally about three times before offering his hand so your dad could shake.

your dad gladly did, again, asking him all sorts of questions, about his tattoos, about motorbikes and music and what kind of food did he like. all questions about him and him only, not about his family, not about his blood, not about his name nor money. just him, what he liked, what hogwarts classes was he good at, what quidditch team did he support.

all training he had done as a child on how to behave correctly at family parties showed completely useless as the men of your family fought about who was going to win the quidditch world cup and the women tried to secretly talk about their sex life to one another but were all a bit tipsy on wine to really notice how loud they were.

your dad even offered you both eggnogg, and before any of you could drink it, he got a bottle of firewhisky, already half empty, and added barely a shot to each, his finger going over his lips asking for secrecy, but your mother obviously noticed it. "you're not trying to get the boy drunk, are you?"

"sweetums, let the kids have some fun, it's christmas!" he argued, knowing very well the amount of alcohol he had added wasn't going to do much but that it would be enough for him to create a cool father-in-law image.

you were in heaven, every time you felt sirius' hand brush on yours softly, showing you he was fine as he talked so happily to your family you felt your heart getting fuller and fuller of love for him. at the end of the night his coat was nowhere to be seen, he had leftover containers to take back to the potters and his arms were very very colorful after he decided to let your cousins paint his tattoos.

your parents offered the guest room so he wouldn't have to leave, although he would have to share it with other family guests, but he didn't want to impose so much just yet.

and when it was only the both of you, before he left, sirius took you in the most passionate and grateful of kisses. "i want this for us, doll face, so much."

"what do you mean?" you looked up at him confused, your arms over his shoulders.

"family... this freedom, kids running around, spiking the boyfriend's eggnogg... i hope we get to where your parents are." you could try to hold your emotions, you could try not to cry, but you knew it would be impossible, so you just let your eyes water and put your head on his chest.

you hoped so too, and hearing him say those things gave you a sense of certainty that one day it would be you both having your kid's partner over for christmas, and that thought on its own made that night one of the best of your life up to now.

#lari writes xmas #lari writes sometimes #marauders x reader #sirius x you #sirius x reader #sirius x y/n #sirius black x reader #sirius black x you #sirius black x y/n #sirius black imagine #sirius black scenario #still working on his fancast i just know it aint ben barnes

[mkfluffluv]

How would Marc and Steven help their s/o when they’ve had a bad day, like the kinda bad day where everything goes wrong.

Thank you

We're Here

MARC SPECTOR X READER , STEVEN GRANT X READER , JAKE LOCKLEY X READER

prompt : your boyfriends comfort you after you've had the worst day possible

posting two fics in a day? i'm on a roll!! yes i worked on both this and dyed hair disaster in a single day, i am very tired lol, BUT I HOPE YOU ENJOY!!

likes and reblogs appreciated as always <3

warnings : this is hurt/comfort. still fluff. but there's a lot of emotional stuff, blaming one’s self for things when you shouldn't, sad thoughts. this is still very fluffy tho no need to worry

word count : 1,497

masterlist

Today has been a very awful no good very bad day.

It started with getting up 10 minutes late for your desk job all because you'd forgotten to set up your alarm on time. Then, because you had hurried while getting ready, you'd also forgotten to bring the very important papers that you had to give to your boss to which he had yelled at you for hours and then proceeds to tell you to get out and go home. You weren't getting fired, no, your boss wasn't that cruel, but still, it was incredibly humiliating to have been scolded like that in front of all your co-workers.

But that's not where the bad day ends, oh no, that was simply just the beginning. On your sad walk back to your apartment, a car drove past a brown puddle, and you, standing on the sidewalk had become the selected victim of the splash. Nobody else had gotten hit. Just you. Not even the lady who was sitting right beside you. You didn’t even know how that was even possible but people were staring and you needed to go immediately.

So you've got disgusting mud water all over your work clothes as you continue your shameful walk, what next? You could already feel everyone's pitiful gaze boring into your back and could almost hear their thoughts every time you passed by each sorry look that they gave. You hated it.

So far, the only good thing that came out of that day was the nice old lady who had approached you and given you a bag of delicious pastries for you to eat. It lifted your mood a bit after she patted you on the back and left.

Then of course, because your luck was just so darned terrible, the moment you were finally at the front door of your apartment building, a man rushed past you and bumped into your shoulder, resulting in you falling on your ass and dropping the pastries into another puddle.

Those darned puddles.

At that point, you just didn't care anymore.

You were tired, hungry, upset, and just overall not in a good mood. So, you let out a scream into the palm of your hands, ignoring the people around the sidewalk that are most definitely staring at you right now.

After you've finished your little scream fest, you stand up and take a deep and long breath, whispering reassurances to yourself all the way back to your small studio apartment.

Everything was fine for a while.

You threw away your wasted pastries, changed into your comfy pajamas, and finally, sat down on your couch to watch the new episode of your favorite show. At least, that was the plan.

Imagine your shock when you find that the show was nowhere to be found on the site and when you looked up what happened to it, you just snapped.

The show had been discontinued.

-

That's pretty much how terrible your day has been. So now you're curled up in your blankets, crying into your phone with your boyfriend on the other line, whispering constant reassurances at you as you can hear him rushing through the crowds of the busy streets. It lightens up your mood a bit when you hear him yell at a bunch of random walkers, like you being sad over an unusually unlucky day was this big emergency.

When Marc bursts into your room, you immediately jump to your feet and into his embrace, Marc immediately wraps his arms around your waist and softly whispers into your hair. He doesn’t question you nor force you to talk. He just holds you tighter and tighter, making you feel safer as the seconds go by.

"You're okay, baby, you're okay, I'm here." He soothes, one of his hands gently patting your head as he presses multiple kisses to your forehead.

The dam that has been holding up all the emotions inside of you since the beginning of this day finally breaks and you start to fully cry into his shoulders. Everything is coming all at once and it's just too much. Your fear of getting fired by your boss, the worry of never being able to get rid of the stains on your work shirt, and the guilt of dropping those pastries that the old lady had been so kind to give to you. It’s all too much.

Marc guides you back to your bed, arms still tightly wrapped around you as he sways you back and forth to calm you down, all the while whispering comforting words into your ear.

The both of you stay like that for a while until your sobs quiet down and you can breathe slightly better now.

Suddenly, he pulls away but still keeps you at arm's length. You let out a disapproving whine at the loss of his warmth against your body, but when you look up, you notice the change in his expression and his posture.

His brows are more furrowed, his lips tightly shut and turned downwards to an upset frown. He's holding you by your forearms tightly as if holding back the urge to punch the wall next to him. It's not tight to the point of hurting though. You know Jake would never hurt you.

"Who did this to you?" He asks, the tone of his voice dangerous and threatening but you know they're not directed to you. You don't know to who the voice should be directed. Should it be for your boss who humiliated you in front of your friends and co-workers? Or maybe the driver who splashed mud all over your work clothes? Maybe the man who had pushed you and made you drop your pantries? No. You don't know because you can't blame any of them and can only blame your bad luck.

So you shake your head instead, indicating that you don't want to talk about it right now. Jake's face drops even more but he understands and opens his arms. You naturally fall into them, your back now pressed to his chest as he plays with your hair. He tells you about his day, about the different people he talked to working as a cabbie, and the criminals that he had caught. It's nice. You listen to him intently as his voice drowns out your loud thoughts.

Eventually though, after a while of hugging, your emotional breakdown starts to tire you. Your eyes are half-opened and you're yawning every few seconds. Jake chuckles at you.

"Guess it's Steven's turn to comfort you. He's always been the better cuddler after all." He says. His arms wrap around your stomach and his chin rests on your shoulder so you can turn and see his smile.

"You're all good cuddlers." You respond, a hand coming up to pat Jake's head and giving him a quick kiss on his cheek.

"But you won't deny that Steven's the best cuddler, huh?" You shake your head at his question with a shy smile, making him laugh a little. "I won't argue with that."

Jake holds you for a little longer before you can feel the way his posture changes, his eyes changing from the usual tense stare to Steven's often wide-eyed but still somewhat relaxed one.

"Hi, Steven." You greet him, the smile on your face lighting up even more. He smiles back at you of course and presses a quick kiss to your lips.

"Hi, love." He greets back.

You turn your body so that you're facing him now, and press your forehead against his. He then moves his hands to hold yours as you practice your breathing together. In and out. In and out. This is how it usually goes with Steven. A few minutes of just grounding yourselves before falling asleep.

You pull away first when you remember something important.

"Don't you have, um," You flail your hands around your face and do the motion of throwing a crescent blade, unsure of what word you should use to describe their nightly routines.

Steven laughs at your silly reenactment and shakes his head. "The old pigeon will understand. He's got a big ole soft spot for you actually." He tells you, to which your cheeks flush in embarrassment. Steven can't help but lightly pinch your cheeks.

He then lays down on your bed, pulling you with him and closer to him. His arms wrap cozily around your waist and his legs tangle themselves with yours. The position is comfy and warm but most importantly, it makes you feel safe.

Having Steven, Marc, and Jake around makes you feel so much safer now. No more worries are lingering in your head about what other things your bad luck would bring to you, no more fears of what the next day might become. All you can feel and hear right now is their heartbeat close to your ears and it's steady and calm and comforting in all the right ways.

#moon knight #marc spector #steven grant #jake lockley #moon knight x reader #marc spector x reader #steven grant x reader #jake lockley x reader #moon knight imagine #marc spector imagine #steven grant imagine #jake lockley imagine #moon knight x you #marc spector x you #steven grant x you #jake lockley x you

[the0nlyallison]

Vent pt 2 because there's more I forgot about

I'm also not allowed to have my phone in my room at night so when I'm really sad I don't have anything to distract me.

I'm always thinking of the last time I saw my grandpa.. we went to my grandparents house to clean (my grandma's camera was making her see things that weren't there and she couldn't do any cleaning because of how bad she was). We were rushing to get out of their house to go home so I didn't get to hug my grandpa, I just waved... I can see so clearly his smile as he wanted at me.

I also remember things of my grandma's death. One day I was sitting in the living room at our old house and she wasn't waking up. My mom being a nurse, I asked her a lot of what was happening. Then it hit me that maybe my grandma's gasps were her trying to talk so I cried and my mom was trying to comfort me... I saw my dog stand on his hind legs to look at her, his first time acknowledging her. So I knew.... The next day I was at color guard practice. Mid practice I knew something was wrong. This terrible feeling came over me. It was so bad I was going to vomit. I was going to leave but I stayed. The time that happened was at 2:45, the same time she died.

I also think of how I got bullied. Freshman year me and this girl were best friends and we'd do best friend things lol we'd link arms, kids each other's cheek, etc and people then started calling us gay. I didn't really care about that because we both knew it wasn't true... Then it got worse. They started saying I was finding her in the bathroom. By the beginning of sophomore year it died down. At the end of sophomore year I had got with this dude and he wanted to meet me in the locker room so I told my color guard team I was going to the bathroom. He wanted to give each other head so we argued the entire time because I wasn't ready. My name got called on the announcements. I went to the group, told them I just had really bad period cramps, and continued. I found out the next day someone in the group started going around saying I was fingering myself and I had a breakdown in front of my history teacher and my classmates saw it. I didn't care. I could just remember me telling and screening and crying telling my teacher how much I wanted to kill myself when it was happening during freshman year and how I couldn't take it anymore after my grandma and grandpa.

I think about my biological mother too. About or last interaction. We barely talked. We talked twice. She asked me what I was listening to (Bon Jovi of course) and at the very end she said I was getting tall. There's things I won't ever forget about her. The last interaction I had and another, where it was my birthday party at my mamaws (her mom) house and she asked me when my birthday was. Being her first child, being my birthday party, I was pissed and everyone knew it. Drugs lol

And my biological dad. Why didn't he change after she died? I wanted him to get better. I wrote a poem for him. He was supposed to get better. I'll remember two encounters with him. A few years ago my baby nephew was really sick so my and my mom went to take care of the rest of my brother's kids. My other brother and my biological father went there and I ignored him the entire time. Before he left he came over, gave me a hug and a candy bar and said "happy birthday." Keep in mind this was in December and my birthday is in October. The second encounter was much recent, a couple months ago. We were in the drive through of Tim Hortons and I people watch lol so I was looking out the car window and saw a homeless man walking wearing pajama pants, so my brain automatically named him Pajama Pants. Another guy was walking farther down behind him. I heard my mom go "oh God there's [name] Allison don't look." I waited til both guys were gone and asked which one he was... He was Pajama Pants.

Every night I wanna cry about it but I can't. I'm too scared to. If my parents see me crying then I'm forced to tell them what's happening. I can't just tell them to leave me alone and that I need space.

I just miss how everything was before. I miss my friends. I miss my grandma and grandpa. I miss everything.

[scurvyratt]

Oz fast food barista AU (as someone who has had 3yrs barista experience). Also their ages can be pretty flexible in this au. Maybe they're college students maybe they're middle aged idk.

Tobias: He's definitely a shift leader and is one of the most responsible employees. Customers like him and he's the person you go to when you need a shift covered. He may not be the fastest barista but he never messes the drinks up.

Busmalis: Random elderly coworker. He's nice but he is SO slow and it stresses everyone out when they see that he's scheduled for a morning rush. Also he spills everything.

Rebadow: Sweet old man customer who orders the same thing every time (black coffee, prefers to pour his own creamer. Also a bagel with butter, prefers to put the butter on himself). Leaves a $1 tip lol.

Chris: Fuck boy employee. Has slept with TOO many coworkers and slips his phone number to like 20 different customers every shift. He's kinda entertaining but otherwise miserable to be around. He isn't particularly good at making drinks and he def doesn't help with cleaning or prep,, but he is unfortunately good at drive thru and making tips.

Ryan: The workplace gossip and devils advocate- you want to know anything about anyone? Ask Ryan. Somehow, he knows everything. He riles people up for fun and pits his coworkers against each other. He spends a lot of the time in the back on his phone, or in the bathroom doings drugs (yes I had a coworker who would do this lol), but sometimes he does work hard; It's very on and off with him. If u work with him for long enough he will tell you about his own relationship troubles. Also he's weirdly obsessed with one customers (gloria).

Miguel: He's fun to work with and is a pretty fast barista, altho he gets in trouble often and has even been fired a few times but somehow they always take him back. Runs to the window whenever there's a dog and makes sure to give them a pup cup. Is the only one who likes cleaning the espresso machine.

Chico: Is best at the food station or as a barista. Sometimes comes to work high but somehow he works better that way. WILL fight customers he does not gaf. Will make shady comments to a customers face if they don't leave a tip. Does not care about milk allergies and rolls his eyes when asked to remake a drink.

Omar: Same as Busmalis where he makes a lot of mistakes😭. Can talk to customers for a long time even if they clearly want to leave and are over the convo. They try to keep him in the back doing prep or the dishes but he loves doing drive thru even though he messes everything up.

Kareem: Shift leader who dreams of becoming manager. WILL call you out if he catches you stealing or sitting around, like if he is on the schedule it will not be a chill shift. He gives good advice sometimes so you would probably like him if he wasn't your annoying snitch coworker lol. He's the only person who makes sure that the bathroom is clean. Is pretty good at making tips.

Kenny: That one random teenager. Probably the laziest employee. He sits on the counter and plays games on his phone, even in front of customers. He's kinda amusing until you remember that he's a misogynist. Constantly threatens to quit but he never does.

Augustus: Okay so since he's in a wheelchair he may have to just stay in one position (I did some googling). Like just drinks or just drive thru since it's pretty cramped behind the counter. He's excellent at taking orders and makes customers laugh. A man who values his breaks. Like he doesn't gaf if the drive thru line has 20 cars, he WILL go sit out back to get some air.

Schillinger: gets paid minimum wage but also thinks that the minimum wage should not be raised. CREEPY. Like you do not want to work a closing shift with him. Will go on racist rants and all you can do is nod. Is a terrible barista and thinks that oat milk is woke.

Mukada: I imagine him as an operations manager type of person? Like he randomly pops into the store to see if everything is going fine. Everyone scrambles when they see his car pull into the lot. Ignores all the dirty jokes that they make. Tries to gently guide everyone to follow the rules but it's hard.

Adebisi: Also a creep that you won't want to work alone with. Do not put this man on drive thru... but he's an alright barista actually. Likes coming up with his own drinks. Has earbuds in when working and no one can get him to take them out.

McManus: Manager who is mad about the fact that he works for a fast food place. Honestly tries to be chill but will lose his shit over the most random things. You can tell him the times that you prefer to work but he will ignore that and schedule you whenever anyways. Does not take shit from customers and will defend his employees against them.

Okay ermm there's prob a lot of other characters that I could do but lolol

#oz #hbo oz #tobias beecher #miguel alvarez #kareem said #chico guerra #chris keller #omar white #tim McManus #agememmnon busmalis #Bob rebadow #simon adebisi #ray mukada #kenny wangler #ryan o'reily #augustus hill #vernon schillinger #Ok I spent the first hour of my 3 hour long class typing this up #what do i do now? #pay attention? no.. no.. that cant be it...

[initiumseries]

I don’t really care about any of the relationships on Invincible except for Omni-Man and Debbie because wtf was his side like, I’m a bit divided on Mark and Amber’s relationship in Season 1.

I honestly don’t think Mark treated her unfairly if she knew he was a superhero because that kind of job is always on-call and it’s frustrating for loved ones, as seen with Josef/Red Rush and Olga. I’ve seen the claim that Mark led Amber on, but to me that’s not exactly the case because initially, she pursued him and he didn’t really know how to respond to that, but he eventually reciprocated and committed to their relationship. I say committed because even though he was constantly late, he did come see her, often with an apology or a gift. It’s true that Mark could have broken up with Amber to more completely focus on his career as a superhero, but I think he really wanted his relationship with her to work. He was easily able to quit his job, and I think if he didn’t care about Amber, he would have just broken up with her. I also think that if Amber was that unhappy with him about keeping his secret, she could have confronted him earlier because she has demonstrated that she can speak up for herself when she debates breaking up with Mark for constantly flaking.

I think it was unfair to Amber because he never outright said that he was Invincible or provided her with the explanation she was waiting for, but I also think Mark should have been cut some slack because he was a 17 year old boy learning how to deal with the responsibility of his powers and how to balance his life and because their relationship was still new. I also think revealing that you have superpowers or that your dad is Omni-Man is a huge leap, but I also think Amber demonstrated a lot of faith in him even when he disrespected her and her time and Mark should have trusted her back.

I think what solidified my opinion that Mark was unfairly treated was that he did protect everyone during the attack on campus and accidentally outed himself to William, and Amber knew he was Invincible at that point, but she still gave him a lot of grief for supposedly running away, but she saw Invincible there so that couldn’t have been the case, right? I also think William and Mark don’t have a good friendship because William fails to defend Mark against Amber when she’s angry with him afterward and Mark doesn’t take William seriously when his boyfriend goes missing. Eve asks him what he expected after he tells her Amber dumped him as well. I think that was a bit excessive because I’m not sure he treated her that terribly considering his circumstances.

I don’t think Amber is evil or abusive at all, and I think the parts of the fandom that demonize her (especially in comparison to Omni-Man!) are insane. She was absolutely right to demand a more attentive boyfriend who showed up on their dates on him and who demonstrated that he cared about her and her interests. I just think she could have been a bit more understanding of Mark’s situation because I honestly feel like he wasn’t as much in the wrong as the show depicted him to be, but I wanted to ask your opinion because I’m wondering if I’m treating her unfairly because she’s Black.

As for the fandom I KNOW the fandom is treating her unfairly because she's Black, because fandoms are *always* antiblack, and they *always* attack and undermine Black characters. That train is never late. It's also telling because how, can you look at this show, see Omni-Man, and go, the real problem is Amber. Like, lol okay.

Now to your ask:

I honestly don’t think Mark treated her unfairly if she knew he was a superhero because that kind of job is always on-call and it’s frustrating for loved ones, as seen with Josef/Red Rush and Olga.

So, I think the part you're missing here is a couple things: Amber didn't start off knowing he was Invincible. She figured it out (and the writing on this is dubious at best but more on that soon) later. She wasn't like Olga, who was still disappointed in Red Rush, but Olga knew what he was, and Red Rush still lied to her. But she at least had that foundational knowledge. Amber didn't. So all Amber knows is that this guy she's interested in, keeps flaking on her and showing up late. That's upsetting and unfair to Amber.

I’ve seen the claim that Mark led Amber on, but to me that’s not exactly the case because initially, she pursued him and he didn’t really know how to respond to that, but he eventually reciprocated and committed to their relationship.

This isn't true. Mark tries to defend Amber, and then she gives him her number. He calls her and asks her on a date. Amber left it up to Mark whether or not he wanted to pursue, and he did. I think it's less Mark led Amber on, because he is genuinely interested in her, so much as he strung her along trying to hold onto the relationship, while not prioritizing her. We, as the audience, know that Mark is Invincible, but the characters around him do not, so we have to remember to perceive Mark's interactions through Amber's lens, not ours.

It’s true that Mark could have broken up with Amber to more completely focus on his career as a superhero, but I think he really wanted his relationship with her to work.

I believe this is true, but it was also a selfish thing to want. Mark never considered what it was like to be on the receiving end of his behaviour (more on this later).

I also think that if Amber was that unhappy with him about keeping his secret, she could have confronted him earlier because she has demonstrated that she can speak up for herself when she debates breaking up with Mark for constantly flaking.

K so, I think it's important to talk about this within context. Amber contemplates dumping Mark seriously after he flakes on her at the soup kitchen, which she'd said was her last straw. Before that, he was incredibly late to dinner meeting her parents. Because the writing is unclear, we don't actually know when Amber figured out he was Invincible. But that doesn't change the fact that up until she figured it out, Mark was this guy who kept pursuing her even though he couldn't commit to dates, even when she verbalized they were important to her. So while Mark was nearly being killed and that's why he couldn't make the date (Eve even tries to intervene to help Mark with Amber, but he doesn't show when he needs to and that's what does it), Amber doesn't know that. And she HAS confronted him, for being flaky. Their very first study date she holds him accountable for not actually being there to hang out. She *consistently* holds him to task, and he keeps begging for more opportunities, only to disappoint her. Again, because the writing doesn't clarify exactly when she found out, it's not reasonable for trying to hold Amber to account for not saying something earlier when we don't actually know when SHE knew.

I think it was unfair to Amber because he never outright said that he was Invincible or provided her with the explanation she was waiting for, but I also think Mark should have been cut some slack because he was a 17 year old boy learning how to deal with the responsibility of his powers and how to balance his life and because their relationship was still new.

So this is where I squint my eyes in racism, because Amber is also just a 17 year old girl who just wants to go on dates and have her boyfriend be honest with her, and instead, he just plays in her face for weeks to months. It's incredibly unreasonable for her to sit through what she did and NOT be mad at Mark. She says in their final confrontation in s1, she was waiting for him to be honest with her. Can we just for a second try to imagine what it must've been like, to have this awfully flaky boyfriend who embarrasses you in front of your family, stands you up, then keeps begging for more chances and sweet talking you, you figure out WHY he's like this, and instead of him trusting you enough to tell you the truth, he keeps providing even stupider lies, and then abandoning you when all hell breaks loose on a college campus. That's CRAZY. Mark doesn't deserve slack for that. It was self to drag Amber along like that, cut her loose or trust her, but don't have her existing in this confusing and hurtful space for so long. That's cruel. Mark doesn't deserve slack for that.

but I also think Amber demonstrated a lot of faith in him even when he disrespected her and her time and Mark should have trusted her back.

It's a little confusing reading this because you admit it's reasonable for Amber to be angry, but then also defend Mark, and say that Amber shouldn't have been so upset. Not following the logic here.

I think what solidified my opinion that Mark was unfairly treated was that he did protect everyone during the attack on campus and accidentally outed himself to William, and Amber knew he was Invincible at that point, but she still gave him a lot of grief for supposedly running away, but she saw Invincible there so that couldn’t have been the case, right?

So, like I've said, the writing is weak here, but Mark doesn't make sure she's safe and away from danger, he doesn't try to provide an excuse for why he needs to step away from the chaos or anything. He just vanishes in the middle of hell raining down on these normal people. That's NUTS. Amber would've been worried he got hurt, or that he was a coward and abandoned them. This is exacerbated by her knowing that he's Invincible. Even when she's in direct danger, he doesn't trust her enough to tell her the truth, and that could've gotten her hurt. Again, Amber has every reason to be upset about that. It's a crazy thing to do to someone.

I also think William and Mark don’t have a good friendship because William fails to defend Mark against Amber when she’s angry with him afterward and Mark

Because he doesn't deserve it. He treated Amber terribly, and his friends are good friends for holding him accountable for that.

Mark doesn’t take William seriously when his boyfriend goes missing.

Because Mark is selfish. Lol. That's kind of the point he. Here was caught up in his own stuff with Amber, and wasn't prepared to take William seriously right away and people got hurt because of it.

Eve asks him what he expected after he tells her Amber dumped him as well. I think that was a bit excessive because I’m not sure he treated her that terribly considering his circumstances.

Because you're not willing to think outside of what you know about the situation, and consider what Amber knows and would feel. He treated her terribly, that's not even up for debate, it's canon.

She was absolutely right to demand a more attentive boyfriend who showed up on their dates on him and who demonstrated that he cared about her and her interests. I just think she could have been a bit more understanding of Mark’s situation because I honestly feel like he wasn’t as much in the wrong as the show depicted him to be,

So, if she was in the right to demand a more attentive boyfriend who cared about her interests, why should she also be more understanding of Mark's situation? That doesn't make sense. You've already provided the grounds for why she wasn't "understanding". Because he didn't do what he needed to do to keep that relationship going and healthy. Regardless for his reasons, it is cruel to keep pursuing someone you can't commit yourself to. It's shitty to be like, hey I know we just started this thing, but I'm going away for two weeks to this place I can't tell you about, but wait for me, only to then waste their time. It's cruel to beg for another chance, and then abandon them in a crisis situation with no word, no explanation, nothing. It's cruel to pursue someone to date, and hide the biggest part of yourself from them, and leave them confused and upset at your flaky behaviour. Mark treated Amber like shit lol. I think my annoyance with people not seeing that, is in part, I think because if Mark had done this to Eve, we'd all be on the Mark is Wack train. So, yeah I call out racism, but some misogyny too implicit or otherwise, because why is the onus on Amber to be understanding, and not on Mark to be honest or leave her alone? Why aren't we willing to confront how selfish his behaviour is? Just some things to think about.

#invincible

[tennessoui]

I’m so obsessed with playmaker au!! im wondering how mob!anakin reacts to being truly not in control/someone getting to obiwan- like he goes out on business and someone gets into the apartment while obiwan and the twins are in there or something like that. i feel like anakin seems even more unflappable than mobiwan but surely something like that would freak even him out? or is he just pure base instincts and no fear by this point

lol my first thought was hm what if obi-wan had a stalker? 🤔 and then I was like why does that sound familiar and then I was like ohhhhh yeahhhhhh

Hm though ok for a playmaker au situation where Anakin feels out of control, I think maybe we could go with your suggestion! Someone breaks in while a Anakin is out of town, some guy who has a grudge against Anakin for mob related things and thinks he’s gonna kidnap his children or kill his twink

Only Obi-Wan snaps and murders him instead because he’s a danger to his life and his kids. And like. There’s no way to really cover it up because it’s in Anakin’s house and some innocent bystander hears screaming and calls the cops.

And maybe Obi-Wan would have gotten off as he was defending his kids and his house, but the detectives—his father—don’t want him to get off. They push the angle that the murder is too ugly and brutal for just self-defense, this man was practically tortured (he was), and then obi-wan had lied to the cops and obstructed justice.

And anakin rushes back because of course he’s Obi-Wan’s one phone call (especially because Obi-Wan is taken to the station and he’s allowed to make his one phone call but only while his old coworkers and his father stares down at him so maybe he should call one of the mob’s lawyers, but instead he cradled the phone to his ear and cries that he’s scared and he misses Anakin and he needs Ani to come to him)

(Highly effective at making the detectives terribly uncomfortable and highly, highly effective at making Anakin nearly lose his shit)

But even with Anakin buying half the jury, the detectives get the judge and so obi-wan is sentenced to a few months in prison because his father thinks it’ll do him good and he’ll come out of it a changed man, ready to be Obi-Wan again.

…….Anakin has a very hard few months because obi-wan is away?? Sleeping somewhere else??? Is he safe??? He sends men into the prison to act as bodyguards (they don’t particularly know that’s why they’ve been arrested), but there’s only so much control he can have when obi-wan belongs somewhere else.

Neither of them is a very big fan

#asks #playmaker au #obi-wan’s dad’s plan failed because after getting out of prison obi-wan goes right back to Anakin #because now his recent living experiences have been: #luxuriously living in a home with a man who is obsessed with him and dotes upon him with only a lil manipulation #or b) literal prison #obikin

[j-ellyfish]

I just saw your spaus week about the demon and the priest. So spain is clueless that he is pact with demon that make him horni? And demon austria is piss off that spain ignoring him?

Imagine if spain so clueless why he is horni all the time and wake up with wet bed 🤭

It's funny that you ask me today of all days because this morning I randomly thought about that AU again without checking Tumblr first xD

I was actually tempted to write a fanfic out of that Demon/Priest AU, I started it but then I didn't have enough time to actually plan it out properly so I settled for that drawing.

Not sure if I'll ever actually write that fic, tbh ... But I'm gonna copy-paste here at the end of the post the beginning that I had written!!

Omg, yes Spain would be so clueless xDD Like, it'd blatant to most people that Roderich is a demon trying to seduce him, but Antonio assumes the most innocent explanation out of every clue lol

If he feels horni so much more easily now and even wakes up with a wet bed, first thing he'd assume it's just that he got some illness, or that maybe he's not as fit for a priest as he thought. He'd feel guilty over it but wouldn't figure out right away what the actual reason is.

The mysterious man who showed up one day near his church out of nowhere and seems to be so eager to meet and talk to him everyday?? Nah, that must just be some random guy admiring him as a priest and considering the clerical path as well. Definitely not a demon in disguise. No, nope, not at all!~

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

[So here's the beginning/prologue of the Demon/Priest!AU Spaus that I wrote back then]:

Coming down the dusty path that led to the church, Antonio did what he did any other day and gave a look to his right and to his left, before continuing his march.

He had the prayers book in his hand, with his index finger stuck between two pages to keep track of the ones he'd recite during the next Mass, and a big childish smile plastered on his face as always.

He was twenty-five, still freshly out of his religious studies and already in charge of his own parish, after the old priest who had been teaching him the job died in unfortunate circumstances about one year ago.

As the church became clearer in front of him, he also noticed a young man struggling to fill a bucket at the near fountain.

"Do you need help?", he asked after rushing to him, as Antonio's love to help others had been a known fact and virtue ever since he was a little child.

The stranger took his sweet time before turning in Antonio's direction, and deep down the priest wished he didn't.

His skin was pale and delicate, in stark contrast with dark, carefully styled hair. His lips looked rosy, maybe a little too rosy and smooth for a man, and a tiny mole rested just beneath his mouth, on the right corner.

That had to be the most handsome young man Antonio had ever seen.

"Ha ... But if you do, you'll end up soaking that little book you're carrying", he pointed out, and even his voice was the sweetest he had ever heard, like a thousands nightingales chirping to the rainbow at the same time.

"Don't worry! I'll just put it in here for a moment!", he put the prayers book in his pocket and held the bucket below the water spray, keeping it in place until it was full and heavy, "Is your place far from here? Do you want me to carry it there for you?"

"No, no need to", the man turned in the direction of the flowers that adorned the edges of the churchyard. They looked terribly dry, almost dying. - how weird, Antonio thought, he could swear he had watered them no earlier than last night, "I just wanted to water those flowers over there"

"We can water them together, if you want."

"It'd be my pleasure." The mysterious man's smile had turned somewhat weird, excited in a way Antonio couldn't really understand. Did he love plants this much?

Once the flowers were watered properly, the priest handed the empty bucket to the other man.

"Thank you for your help.", he thanked politely.

"Don't mention it! Thank you for having noticed they were dry ... How weird though, I thought I had watered them last night." The Spanish priest observed while looking around. Despite having been so dry until ten minutes earlier, they were now back looking as colourful and healthy as they can get. He didn't know flowers reacted to water that quickly. They truly were a gift of God!

"Oh, you're the one in charge of these flowers?"

"Yes! I'm the parish priest!", he answered proudly, nodding at his church a few meters away, past the churchyard, "my name is Antonio", he added, offering the stranger his hand to shake.

"Those clothes sort of gave it away ...", he chuckled softly, shaking the hand before him lightly, "enchanted. Roderich."

His handshake was like nothing Antonio had ever experimented before, and he had shaken quite a number of hands in the past. It felt firm like a man's, yet soft and alluring like a woman's. For a moment, he could've sworn that a ray of sunlight had hit right against Roderich's left eye, making his iris almost glow. After what felt like eternity, Antonio managed to shake the thought away, like waking up from a particularly clingy dream, "Roderich," he repeated with a nod, "that's a nice name, where are you from?"

"From far away," he almost cut him off, laughing lightly, "so far away you'd think it's another world."

The priest laughed as well, not really putting much thought on it. He was pretty fun, he hoped to see him again at Mass. Maybe Roderich could help him water the flowers from now on, he could indeed use some help with it.

"You must excuse me now, it's pretty late and I must get back." Roderich explained, suddenly in a hurry.

"Oh, okay!", Antonio stared at him as he walked away with his bucket - wait, the bucket wasn't his!

He called out to tell him, but the stranger didn't hear him. He tried to follow him, but suddenly he was gone, no idea what direction he took.

Antonio walked back to his churchyard.

Oh ...

The bucket was actually below the water fountain, where Antonio had left it last night.

The stranger must've placed it back where it belonged while the Spaniard was not looking, or was too absorbed in thought. That's for the best.

He shrugged and walked into his church.

He put a hand in his pocket to pick up his prayers book.

Oh, weird ...

It must've been the other pocket.

He put his hand in the other pocket but there was just an old candy he kept forgetting to throw away.

He rummaged again in both pockets.

No success.

Maybe it had accidentally fallen on the ground while he was watering the flowers with Roderich.

He went back and inspected the surroundings.

It was nowhere to be found.

Oh well ...

Antonio felt bad, but his day moved on. He had a Mass to prepare, and activities to organize, and money to administrate.

Nonetheless, in the back of his mind, the image of the stranger kept appearing like the flame of a candle dancing in the night.

#ask #spaus #aph spain #aph austria #hetalia #ary writes stuff #ary spoke #I actually wrote the last bit today but it was like 80% written back then I just completed it now bc I hate leaving things ending abruptly

[shivunin]

Not sure if you’ve gotten Cullen yet but I will for the character opinions ask game - also Morrigan and Vivienne! <3

Hey, Saif! Thank you for asking <3 Nobody has asked about Cullen yet, so you've rounded out the collection of all my romances very nicely c:

(oh man this went long lol sorry in advance)

(Character Impressions thing)

(And: to add context, I started Inquisition first, so my first impressions of all three of them were from that game and not Origins for Cullen and Morrigan)

Cullen:

First impression: Ah. This must be the intended romance, the bland white guy everyone is into, the one the game expects you to romance. No thanks.

Impression now: I said something similar about Fenris, but like....I have thought about Cullen so much that I have no idea how to summarize my feelings lmao. He is deeply flawed and deeply hurt, but he is still trying to fix what he's done as best he's able.

Cullen was given every opportunity to take the easy road and pretend that he'd never done anything wrong; he could have taken off and chosen not to help Hawke at the end of the game, he could have chosen to join the Red Templars or stay out of the conflict entirely, he could easily have chosen to go through withdrawal in the comfort of his sister's home....and instead he chooses to be the Commander of the Inquisition.

I mean. I think playing the other two games has given me more scope for how much shit he's seen and done and that's still my conclusion: even after everything, he is still trying to be a better person and right his wrongs and I think that is deeply admirable.

(idk---maybe this is just me projecting as someone who often feels like a fuck-up, but I'll take a guy who still tries, over and over, to fix a mistake over someone who doubles down and pretends he was always in the right) (not referencing anyone specific, tbc)

Favorite moment: Anytime he falls all over himself and gets tongue-tied haha. I especially love the first kiss scene; I love that he admits that he wants something for himself, I love that after the interruption he just goes for it, I love the little mannerisms he has as a distraction from trying to find something do with his hands, and I love how fumbly he is. My second choice would probably be the scene where a romanced Inquisitor comes back to Skyhold after killing Corypheus and he bows first, then rushes to hug them. He's so relieved I just !!!

Idea for a story: *gestures to small mountain of wips* haha. But! I think my favorite one I haven't written is my No Exalted March AU/the arranged marriage AU, in which the Dalish largely dwell in a sovereign land encompassing the Dirthavaren/Halamshiral and Cullen is a marriage candidate to seal the compact between the Chantry and the Elvhen government. It's set about a year before the Conclave, so Cullen is still straddling the divide between being a Knight-Commander in Kirkwall and being the Commander we meet at the beginning of Inquisition.

(It's a really interesting fic, but it requires a bit more worldbuilding than I put in up front, so I am ~76k words in and like....ahh yes I need to actually describe what the capital city looks like. Shit. And here we are. But it's still a really cool fic idea.)

Unpopular opinion: I don't think what Cullen says during the Broken Circle quest should be marked up as proof that he's a horrible terrible person. I really can't imagine anyone being tortured psychologically and physically for weeks to months handling the stress better, tbh. I think it's awful and sad and not like, a kind thing to say, but again....he's a 19-year-old who just watched most everyone he knows be tortured to death so.

Favorite relationship: I mean, I feel like it's a given but Dorian and Cullen's friendship is really interesting to me. If I had a better handle on Dorian's voice, I'd definitely be exploring whatever led the two of them to have regular chess matches. Because ostensibly at least they don't have much in common.

Favorite headcanon: Oh man. I have so many. He and the other advisors are actually friends. He's bi (obviously). He's the shortest Rutherford. I saw art forever ago of baby Cullen fighting an inert Shale in the town square and that one lives close to my heart.

Morrigan

First impression: Holy shit she's hot, but that dress is awful. Why is the game acting like I should know her already?

Impression now: Loooooove her, it's a crime that I cannot romance her as a female Warden. She's a bitch, she's fantastically competent, she didn't really want a kid but she's a great mom, she is breaking a trauma cycle with her own mother, she's funny as fuck, she can turn into a variety of cool things, and also she's like really hot.

Favorite moment: The confrontation between her and Flemeth in the eluvian. I love that she's cast as this very mercenary, heartless character, but she chooses her kid over power pretty much without hesitation. I think it's a really beautiful moment.

Idea for a story: I have a half-written thing with her and Wen (my Tabris) bonding over animals c: Also, at some point I want to write them during Witch Hunt, because Wen adores Morrigan (she was her first friend, in many ways) and misses her horribly.

Unpopular opinion: The Dark Ritual is not a betrayal. Also...I really wish the writers had changed her dialogue in Mythal's temple if she's speaking to a Dalish elf. I understand that she represents an information source for the player, but it's a really frustrating conversation if you're playing a Lavellan.

Favorite relationship: Her and Kieran tbh. I wish there'd been more of them.

Favorite headcanon: Hmmm I like the idea of a romanced Warden raising their kid with her in the eluvians somewhere. I don't know if this is canon or not.

Also that she chose that dress during WEWH exclusively to piss Leliana off.

Vivienne

First impression: O.O wow...please...tell me she is romanceable

Impression now: I adore her. Again, I like that she can be very calculating. I also think her position on so many things (the Chantry, the Circles) is more nuanced than she's given credit for. Her personal quest breaks my heart every time and the scenes with her in Trespasser are delightful. I really, really enjoy traveling with her (oh my god, walking around with her, Dorian, and Solas is just....they are so mean to each other and I love it) and though I don't love the way she treats the other companions sometimes (specifically Cole) I think her characterization is very consistent and compelling. Honestly one of my favorite DA characters. Her intro scene is one of the best in the whole series.

Favorite moment: Her intro scene is so good, but also when she says goodbye to Bastien....ugh. it kills me every time. She has so much power and so many resources and she still couldn't save the person she loves most in the world.

Idea for a story: Hmm I've been thinking about doing a piece about her and the Inquisitor during Trespasser, because I really love a lot of her dialogue during the DLC. Also, she and Elowen have an interesting relationship and it's...mostly contained in a wip I'm not sure I'll finish T.T

Unpopular opinion: I think just liking her is an unpopular opinion lol. Or at least, that's how it seems.

Favorite relationship: Vivienne and Bull. Whaaaaat is going on there, guys???

Favorite headcanon: Hmm I can't think of anything specific right now, but I do believe that Bastien was the one person she could truly be herself with, without thinking about the benefits or angles. You know, to make his death hurt worse

#thank you for asking!! #ask response #ask game response #*stuffs cullen into my clothes dryer and turns it on high* #i totally don't have strong opinions about him c:

[branwendaughterofllyr]

Branwen reads ASOIAF (again) - AGOT Catelyn II

Of all the rooms in Winterfell’s Great Keep, Catelyn’s bedchambers were the hottest.

They’re pretty warm too!

Ba-dum-ching!

Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here until TWOW is released. 

Listen, if George can indulge in his inner 12 year old boy all the time, I can too.

We also learn a lot more about WF in this chapter, and we all know I live for WF lore. 

The castle had been built over natural hot springs, and the scalding waters rushed through its walls and chambers like blood through a man’s body, driving the chill from the stone halls, filling the glass gardens with a moist warmth, keeping the earth from freezing. Open pools smoked day and night in a dozen small courtyards. That was a little thing, in summer; in winter, it was the difference between life and death.

WF has an internal heating system that basically keeps the castle functional during winter. How interesting. I wonder if this will at all be relevant when winter comes. Also LOVE the description of WF being a body, with the hot spring waters beings its warm lifesblood. (also explains how the glass gardens work. Sorry Jonny boy, not sure if this would work at the Wall as well.)

Catelyn’s bath was always hot and steaming, and her walls warm to the touch. The warmth reminded her of Riverrun, of days in the sun with Lysa and Edmure, but Ned could never abide the heat. The Starks were made for the cold, he would tell her, and she would laugh and tell him in that case they had certainly built their castle in the wrong place.

Aw. Ned and Cat banter. Adorable. But I love how Catelyn really has been able to make WF her home in so many small ways, like having hot bathes and warm rooms, which all remind her of her childhood (notice LF doesn’t make the childhood memory reminiscence lol). And Ned thinking its too hot, but taking the teasing from Cat so well. (also the Starks choosing a super hot location to build their castle. HMMMMM. Feels relevant to more than just the terrible winters. I know people have already said this, but it’s important!).

So when they had finished, Ned rolled off and climbed from her bed, as he had a thousand times before. He crossed the room, pulled back the heavy tapestries, and threw open the high narrow windows one by one, letting the night air into the chamber. The wind swirled around him as he stood facing the dark, naked and empty-handed.

I CANNOT believe that Eddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North, habitually stands butt naked in an open window after having sex with his wife. Everyone in WF knows a little too much about Ned, methinks. 

He looked somehow smaller and more vulnerable, like the youth she had wed in the sept at Riverrun, fifteen long years gone.

I will never be over NedCat, thank you very much. 

Her loins still ached from the urgency of his lovemaking. It was a good ache. She could feel his seed within her. She prayed that it might quicken there. It had been three years since Rickon. She was not too old. She could give him another son.

Just let them be happy with their babies!

Okay, now we’re going to get into the political discussion, which has a major chunk of the fandom convinced that Catelyn is an evil conniving bitch, whose ambition killed Ned. (no, I’m not even exaggerating a little.) Personally, I think that it’s an important moment that characterizes Cat as very politically astute, and the Race for Iron Throne guy agrees with me, which is always nice. What does the text actually give us?

“I will refuse him,” Ned said as he turned back to her. His eyes were haunted, his voice thick with doubt.

Ned is already strongly considering turning down Robert’s offer, but it’s clear from this description that he’s not sure if this is the right choice. He’s haunted by this decision, and he isn’t hiding the fact that he’s very unsure. There’s a reason why he's asking Cat. Not only are they a team, he also trusts her input. Saying he needed to talk to her was more than just an excuse to put off Robert, Ned really did need to talk to Catelyn, and he’s clearly not afraid to show just how vulnerable and unsure he is to here. This is one of the moments that really cements how strong their marriage is. Okay, so here is Cat’s reaction. 

Catelyn sat up in the bed. “You cannot. You must not.”

Cat’s immediate reaction is “that is a bad idea.” She physically reacts because Ned refusing Robert could have really bad consequences down the road for them all, and she’s going to argue this case ion just a moment. 

“My duties are here in the north. I have no wish to be Robert’s Hand.” “He will not understand that. He is a king now, and kings are not like other men. If you refuse to serve him, he will wonder why, and sooner or later he will begin to suspect that you oppose him. Can’t you see the danger that would put us in?”

Once again, we are seeing the idea that power changes a person, usually in the context of kingship, which is about as powerful as you can ever be in Westeros. And Cat is clearly no such when it comes to past relationships between kings and the people who turned them down. It’s a great way to breed suspicion. 

Ned shook his head, refusing to believe. “Robert would never harm me or any of mine. We were closer than brothers. He loves me. If I refuse him, he will roar and curse and bluster, and in a week we will laugh about it together. I know the man!” 

“You knew the man,” she said. “The king is a stranger to you.” Catelyn remembered the direwolf dead in the snow, the broken antler lodged deep in her throat. She had to make him see. “Pride is everything to a king, my lord. Robert came all this way to see you, to bring you these great honors, you cannot throw them back in his face.”

Ned’s stance is that Robert is still his friend and would never do anything to hurt him, which is probably largely true. But we have seen in the past that their relationship is from unshakable, and the only reason they made up after Robert giving Tywin the pass on war crimes was because Lyanna died (and also there’s a reason why you hid Jon’s parentage so well, Ned. You know why.) And we see in a few chapters the absolute fight Ned and Robert get in over the assassination of Daenerys that could easily gone south. And part of the problem is that Robert is usually extremely far way from Ned, so they won’t be able to physically reconcile if Robert is busy brooding in KL, with all the Lannisters around him after he leaves the North. But Ned is probably right that Robert wouldn’t be as bad if it was someone else turning him down, but he’s still probably going to be pissed, and we all know that Robert had ego issues and likes to hold grudges. 

Which leads to Cat’s point that this would be an affront to Robert’s kingly pride, which gets played on a lot by other people, with various degrees of success. Think Cersei trying to get her direwolf skin. And if Robert has made it known he was going to ask Ned and Ned turns him down, it is going to be embarrassing for Robert. And also Cat is still freaked out over the very obvious omen but knows that won’t sway Ned so she keeps it to herself.

“Honors?” Ned laughed bitterly. 

“In his eyes, yes,” she said. “And in yours?” 

“And in mine,” she blazed, angry now. Why couldn’t he see? “He offers his own son in marriage to our daughter, what else would you call that? Sansa might someday be queen. Her sons could rule from the Wall to the mountains of Dorne. What is so wrong with that?”

 “Gods, Catelyn, Sansa is only eleven,” Ned said. “And Joffrey … Joffrey is …” 

She finished for him. “… crown prince, and heir to the Iron Throne. And I was only twelve when my father promised me to your brother Brandon.”

Oh boy. Let’s try to break this down. A consistent thing throughout this conversation is that Cat is trying to get Ned to see why she’s so concerned about this offer and why she so strongly disagrees with him. We see later that Ned has severe blindspots in several areas, and it’s really interesting to note the way the text goes out of its way to show Catelyn making Ned “see” what's really happening around him. Ned’s not stupid, but he has weaknesses that he needs Cat to compensate for, and vice versa. We make lots of jokes about Cat being consigliere of the North, but she really, really is. Ned at his core is a very trusting person that expects basic decency from other people, while Cat is much more able to see right through them (something which is very clearly inherited by Arya.)

And the marriage between Sansa and Joffrey. Ned, my love, in this world children are very much dynastic tools, and I think one of the people who are most aware of this is sitting right in front of you, so I think Cat probably has considered this quite deeply. Catelyn wants Sansa to be the next queen because not only is that the most secure/powerful position she can ever hope for for one of her daughters, it also means that the Starks will be permanently tied to the big power of their world and thus probably safer. There’s a reason why marrying your daughter off to the throne is such an important move to make. Catelyn is clearly thinking long term about this, planning out to her grandchildren’s futures. Ned is stuck on the fact that Sansa is eleven, and while he is VERY correct she’s not at all ready to be married off, she won’t be eleven forever, and a betrothal is far from out the question. Cat was twelve herself, and we see a lot of various other characters betrothed very young throughout the series. Why are none of your kids betrothed yet, Ned? Robb at the very least is old enough that you should start poking around. 

And also, picking your daughter to marry the crown prince is ABSOLUTELY a major honor, and I think Robert would be extremely prickly if you turned this down, what with his Lyanna baggage. Tread carefully here, Ned. 

Also, is this the first hint of Ned realizing that Joffrey is a psychopath and probably should not be allowed to marry his daughter? because if that's the case, maybe say something to Catelyn? She’d probably be more on your side if she thought Joffrey would be dangerous to Sansa, especially since husbands are allowed to do everything short of murder to their wives. (also, love me some queen Sansa foreshadowing. We all know that she won’t be Joffrey’s queen. 👸)

That brought a bitter twist to Ned’s mouth. “Brandon. Yes. Brandon would know what to do. He always did. It was all meant for Brandon. You, Winterfell, everything. He was born to be a King’s Hand and a father to queens. I never asked for this cup to pass to me.” “Perhaps not,” Catelyn said, “but Brandon is dead, and the cup has passed, and you must drink from it, like it or not.”

Oof. Now we can see what this is really about. Ned has really never (and understandably so) gotten over what happened to his family, and he has one of the most massive cases of survivor’s guilt ever to grace literature. And it seems like he and Cat have had this conversation before, which is why Cat is being a little short with him. They've been married for over a decade now, and have five children together. He has no reason to feel insecure in their relationship, but the past is always going to hang over both of them. Brandon and Jon’s mother in particular are always going to be there in the background. Oh shit, I forgot that the narrative straight up says this in the next paragraph 😂.

Catelyn softened then, to see his pain. Eddard Stark had married her in Brandon’s place, as custom decreed, but the shadow of his dead brother still lay between them, as did the other, the shadow of the woman he would not name, the woman who had borne him his bastard son.

I am very smart. 

But I love the way that past constantly overlays the present in ASOIAF, its impossible for the characters to escape no matter how hard they try. (also, the connection between Brandon and Jon’s mother, though unintentional by Cat is... excellent. It’s always his family hanging over Ned, dead Starks.)

Also, a younger son drinking from a cup meant for his older brother sounds like some light foreshadowing for Jon and Bran inheriting what was meant for Robb when he dies. And the bitterness screams Jon to me, lol.

She was about to go to him when the knock came at the door, loud and unexpected. Ned turned, frowning. “What is it?” Desmond’s voice came through the door. “My lord, Maester Luwin is without and begs urgent audience.”

Way to clamjam, Luwin! Could you not have waited like half an hour for Ned and Cat to have emotional married sex???? 

The maester was a small grey man. His eyes were grey, and quick, and saw much. His hair was grey, what little the years had left him. His robe was grey wool, trimmed with white fur, the Stark colors. Its great floppy sleeves had pockets hidden inside. Luwin was always tucking things into those sleeves and producing other things from them: books, messages, strange artifacts, toys for the children. With all he kept hidden in his sleeves, Catelyn was surprised that Maester Luwin could lift his arms at all.

Alright, let’s take a look at Maester Luwin for the first time. Overwhelmingly grey, which suggests Stark loyalist right off the bat. But also, “his eyes were grey, and quick, and saw much.” feels very close to Jon. Possible connections include: diehard loyalty to the Starks, often underestimated, sworn to a celibate order? May not be that intentional, unlike the Waymar Royce description which was almost identical, but something that I picked up. 

Also, I love Luwin and his sleeve pockets. I want them so badly. (also, he’s literally hiding something up his sleeve!!!!!!!)

The maester waited until the door had closed behind him before he spoke.

With this one move, Luwin proves himself to be smarter than half the characters  in the books. 

We move into the Agatha Christie section of the book which is very funny to me because it has a lot of early installment weirdness in it that will never be seen again. 

I have been left a message.” Ned looked irritated. “Been left? By whom? Has there been a rider? I was not told.” “There was no rider, my lord. Only a carved wooden box, left on a table in my observatory while I napped. My servants saw no one, but it must have been brought by someone in the king’s party. We have had no other visitors from the south.”

I don’t care that much who actually brought the box, though I’m sure there are entire reddit threads devoted to it, but I think the important detail is that WF is not that hard to sneak through. The implication that it must be someone in the king’s party is also probably an early hint that LF’s fingerprints are all over this, since Lysa is already in the Eyrie. But no one will think about this, and we won’t get payoff until Sansa gets all the tea dropped on her three books from now.

The box contains a a myrish lens, and it turns out that Cat and Luwin have not been inviting Ned to the escape room parties they have on Thursdays nights, and they have to walk Ned through to the clue, that there’s something else they need to look for. 

“What is it that they would have us see more clearly?” “The very thing I asked myself.” Maester Luwin drew a tightly rolled paper out of his sleeve. “I found the true message concealed within a false bottom when I dismantled the box the lens had come in, but it is not for my eyes.” Ned held out his hand. “Let me have it, then.” Luwin did not stir. “Pardons, my lord. The message is not for you either. It is marked for the eyes of the Lady Catelyn, and her alone. May I approach?”

It’s a secret message... for Catelyn! Also, love Luwin diligently enforcing mail privacy laws. 

I know that there’s a not small contingent that firmly believes that Luwin and Catelyn conspired to trick Ned into going south for... political gain, I guess, which only gets funnier to me over time, especially post ASOS. Have they considered that Luwin and Cat are actually just really good friends, and that most of WF likes and trusts each other? No, impossible, Catelyn is the source of all evil, and Sansa has learned to be the worst character at her mother’s knee. It is known. 

“What is it? My lady, you’re shaking.” “I’m afraid,” she admitted. She reached out and took the letter in trembling hands. The furs dropped away from her nakedness, forgotten. In the blue wax was the moon-and-falcon seal of House Arryn. “It’s from Lysa.” Catelyn looked at her husband. “It will not make us glad,” she told him. “There is grief in this message, Ned. I can feel it.”

I doubt that any mail from Lysa is ever that fun even in the best of times. Catelyn knows that this is going to be very, very bad. 

“Lysa took no chances. When we were girls together, we had a private language, she and I.” “Can you read it?” “Yes,” Catelyn admitted.

AND THIS WILL NEVER COME UP AGAIN. Ding ding ding, early installment weirdness strikes again. 

Okay, Catelyn gets up butt naked across the room and makes everyone wildly uncomfortable in a scene that is very funny to me personally.  Also, she says that Maester Luwin delivered all her children, but we also know that Robb was born at Riverrun. Is Luwin originally from the south? Did he come North with Cat? Is this a character detail or just early installment weirdness? Idk, I’m sure someone somewhere knows the actual answer, but it is not me. 

Catelyn immediately burns the letter after reading it, which freaks Ned out because “wtf was in that letter?????” The answer? Treason!!!!! (and the Catelyn conspiracy theorists will say that the letter actually said something different and Cat burned it so Ned couldn’t see it which makes NO SENSE)

“Lysa says Jon Arryn was murdered.” His fingers tightened on her arm. “By whom?” “The Lannisters,” she told him. “The queen.” Ned released his hold on her arm. There were deep red marks on her skin. “Gods,” he whispered. His voice was hoarse. “Your sister is sick with grief. She cannot know what she is saying.”

And there was no saving anyone from this point onwards. Everyone is irrevocably fucked. 

“She knows,” Catelyn said. “Lysa is impulsive, yes, but this message was carefully planned, cleverly hidden. She knew it meant death if her letter fell into the wrong hands. To risk so much, she must have had more than mere suspicion.”

Sounds to me that someone other than Lysa may have been involved with this letter. HMMMMM.

Catelyn looked to her husband. “Now we truly have no choice. You must be Robert’s Hand. You must go south with him and learn the truth.” She saw at once that Ned had reached a very different conclusion. “The only truths I know are here. The south is a nest of adders I would do better to avoid.”

Cat, Ned, I love you both, but I’m not sure if Ned’s really qualified to become an amateur detective in a place with ridiculously high stakes. Ned might be right that it could be better to stay in the North and ride shit out. There’s a nonzero chance KL is just going to self-implode. But I guess Cat has a point that they should probably be proactive. 

Luwin plucked at his chain collar where it had chafed the soft skin of his throat. “The Hand of the King has great power, my lord. Power to find the truth of Lord Arryn’s death, to bring his killers to the king’s justice. Power to protect Lady Arryn and her son, if the worst be true.” Ned glanced helplessly around

AH, chafing collar motif! Service as a source of discomfort! One of my favorite little details that will come up again and again. The in world metaphor of maester’s chains is one of my all time favorites.

But also, while Luwin is correct, I feel like we’re overestimating Ned and underestimating the Lannisters. As far as you know, they killed the previous hand of the king, and are probably willing to go for round two. 

Ned glanced helplessly around the bedchamber. Catelyn’s heart went out to him, but she knew she could not take him in her arms just then. First the victory must be won, for her children’s sake.

Once again, Catelyn is very much a political animal in a way that Ned never was, and a lot of people hate for it, but when it comes down to it, Cat is a mama wolf out to protect her family. And I think it’s very clear in Cat’s pov, that as it stands, the Lannisters are gaining more and more power and aren’t afraid to fuck any of their rivals up, which include the Starks. If she wants to make sure her kids don’t get knives in their backs five, ten years down the road, they gotta act soon before it’s too late entirely. Who knows how Robert will feel about Ned if he goes back after Ned turns him down? Who knows if Robert will even still be alive next year? Better to play what they have now before they lose it. (and yeah, she is more than a little manipulative but she’s a woman without any power in her own right???? She has to go through the men in her life???? It’s called soft power, look it up. It’s what queens and ladies have doing for like two thousand years.)

“The Others take both of you,” Ned muttered darkly. He turned away from them and went to the window. She did not speak, nor did the maester.

Poor Ned. I think he can tell he’s absolutely fucked. 

And the best bit of descriptive writing this chapter goes to sad Ned who’s trying not to cry.

They waited, quiet, while Eddard Stark said a silent farewell to the home he loved. When he turned away from the window at last, his voice was tired and full of melancholy, and moisture glittered faintly in the corners of his eyes.

*sniff sniff* I’m not crying, you’re crying!

“My father went south once, to answer the summons of a king. He never came home again.” “A different time,” Maester Luwin said. “A different king.”

I know that you know that Robert is no Aerys but there is a 99% chance that this line will be said again when another Stark contemplates going south to meet with another Targaryen. Just saying. 

“Catelyn, you shall stay here in Winterfell.” His words were like an icy draft through her heart. “No,” she said, suddenly afraid. Was this to be her punishment? Never to see his face again, nor to feel his arms around her?

Say what you will, but there is no doubt that Catelyn truly loved Ned. And though this is very clear death foreshadowing for Ned, and for Lady Stoneheart,  I think that Catelyn was not entirely prepared for the consequences of Ned basically moving to the south for probably the next decade without her. But also, you were always going to have to stay, Catelyn? Did you not realize it or were you just in denial?

“Yes,” Ned said, in words that would brook no argument. “You must govern the north in my stead, while I run Robert’s errands. There must always be a Stark in Winterfell. Robb is fourteen. Soon enough, he will be a man grown. He must learn to rule, and I will not be here for him. Make him part of your councils. He must be ready when his time comes.” “Gods will, not for many years,” Maester Luwin murmured.

EVERYONE HAS GOT TO STOP FORESHADOWING NED’S DEATH. I DO NOT LIKE IT.

Ned was never going to make it out of the book alive with all of this very helpful foreshadowing. 

Also, I’m going to say that 14 year old Robb does not in fact turn out to be ready to rule, but hey. You tried. 

“Maester Luwin, I trust you as I would my own blood. Give my wife your voice in all things great and small. Teach my son the things he needs to know. Winter is coming.” Maester Luwin nodded gravely.

Tears are just weakness leavening the body. I’M FINE.

But Luwin really did remain loyal to the end. He really did.

Then silence fell, until Catelyn found her courage and asked the question whose answer she most dreaded. “What of the other children?”

Oh, Cat. All your babies are going off and you can’t do anything because its the best course of action. 

Ned stood, and took her in his arms, and held her face close to his. “Rickon is very young,” he said gently. “He should stay here with you and Robb. The others I would take with me.” “I could not bear it,” Catelyn said, trembling.

Catelyn is very smart and astute, but she loves her babies so much. 

“You must,” he said. “Sansa must wed Joffrey, that is clear now, we must give them no grounds to suspect our devotion. And it is past time that Arya learned the ways of a southron court. In a few years she will be of an age to marry too.” Sansa would shine in the south, Catelyn thought to herself, and the gods knew that Arya needed refinement. Reluctantly, she let go of them in her heart. But not Bran. Never Bran.

I still think that Ned should let Catelyn know about his misgivings about Joffrey, but it’s too late for that. And also maybe you should let Sansa know that she should be careful around her future in-laws??????? 

But Catelyn does know her girls very well, and even Ned knows that Arya needs to go through lady bootcamp. (personally I hope Arya would have remained a little hellion if everything hadn’t gone horribly wrong.)

But also Bran. He really is Cat's favorite and she’s going to blame herself for his fall for the rest of her life which just breaks my heart. 

“Yes,” she said, “but please, Ned, for the love you bear me, let Bran remain here at Winterfell. He is only seven.” “I was eight when my father sent me to foster at the Eyrie,” Ned said. “Ser Rodrik tells me there is bad feeling between Robb and Prince Joffrey. That is not healthy. Bran can bridge that distance. He is a sweet boy, quick to laugh, easy to love. Let him grow up with the young princes, let him become their friend as Robert became mine. Our House will be the safer for it.”

Big lol on the Starks being friends with Joffrey like Ned and Bobby B. Bran is incredibly easy to love, but even that isn’t going to save the relationship between Joffrey and the Stark boys because Joffrey is Joffrey. Also, let’s debate below if the Robb/Joffrey conflict foreshadowing was fully fulfilled in the War of the Five Kings happening, or if maybe a personal fight between Joffrey and Robb was initially planned but then dropped, bc I could could either way.

Also note that Ned was only eight when he was fostered out, so Jon Arryn really was a second dad for all intents and purposes. I wonder if Ned ever felt a little bit like an outsider in the North? Possible.

He was right; Catelyn knew it. It did not make the pain any easier to bear. She would lose all four of them, then: Ned, and both girls, and her sweet, loving Bran. Only Robb and little Rickon would be left to her. She felt lonely already. Winterfell was such a vast place. “Keep him off the walls, then,” she said bravely. “You know how Bran loves to climb.”

😬

Way to bring the negative foreshadowing, Catelyn. Grouping Robb and Rickon together does not make me feel warm and fuzzy inside about Rickon’s survival chances.

Ned kissed the tears from her eyes before they could fall. “Thank you, my lady,” he whispered. “This is hard, I know.”

Guys. I don’t know if I can survive Ned and Cat dying all over again. I really don’t know if I can do it. Every time I cry all over the place and these moments are not helping. 

“What of Jon Snow, my lord?” Maester Luwin asked.

Thanks for ruining the mood YET AGAIN, Luwin. 

Catelyn tensed at the mention of the name. Ned felt the anger in her, and pulled away.

 Many men fathered bastards. Catelyn had grown up with that knowledge. It came as no surprise to her, in the first year of her marriage, to learn that Ned had fathered a child on some girl chance met on campaign. He had a man’s needs, after all, and they had spent that year apart, Ned off at war in the south while she remained safe in her father’s castle at Riverrun. Her thoughts were more of Robb, the infant at her breast, than of the husband she scarcely knew. He was welcome to whatever solace he might find between battles. And if his seed quickened, she expected he would see to the child’s needs.

Oh boy. It’s time to have the bastardy conversation again. So Catelyn is essentially not allowed to be mad at Ned having a bastard. “He has a man’s needs” and all the garbage, but Catelyn was raised to suck it up and shut up about it, and that’s what she’s done. She is obviously very hurt by it, but she can’t really be mad at Ned without having to reevaluate how fucked up Westerosi marriages really are so she’s not going to. This is actually pretty standard for Westerosi women and real life medieval women. But the real kick in the teeth is Ned bringing the bastard home and Catelyn knows it. 

He did more than that. The Starks were not like other men. Ned brought his bastard home with him, and called him “son” for all the north to see. When the wars were over at last, and Catelyn rode to Winterfell, Jon and his wet nurse had already taken up residence.

 That cut deep.

This is what pissed Catelyn off, and frankly, she’s right. She's a new wife, an outsider to both the family itself and the North as a whole, and when she shows up to her new home, Ned has already installed his acknowledged illegitimate son there. Catelyn is already starting at a disadvantage at WF in pretty much every way, being a Southerner and of a different religion, and her only leg up is that she’s already done her job and produced an heir. But Ned already has another son, one that is not only already there when she arrives, but also looks more like Ned than her sons, which is going to rankle her every time she sees him, and also bastards in this world have started at least a couple rebellions against true born heirs. Is Cat right to be mad at Ned? Yes! Should she be taking it out on Jon? No! But she can’t really do anything against Ned, but she can ice out Jon, so she will. 

Also, having your children inherit is basically the only “reward” noble women get  in Westeros and the medieval period for being “good women,” and we’ve established that Catelyn is all about defending her children’s rights (and her only real legacy she’s allowed as a “good” Westerosi noblewoman.) Bastards are a really problem in that system, and Catelyn KNOWS it.

There’s also the emotional betrayal. Even though Ned and Catelyn didn’t really know each other when they got married, they’ve by now established a very close and living relationship, but the fact is that he cheated on her and she has to deal with the proof everyday. The entire segment about Ashara Dayne is really about the emotional betrayal rather than Catelyn just hating Jon because she’s a bitch. 

Ned would not speak of the mother, not so much as a word, but a castle has no secrets, and Catelyn heard her maids repeating tales they heard from the lips of her husband’s soldiers. They whispered of Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning, deadliest of the seven knights of Aerys’s Kingsguard, and of how their young lord had slain him in single combat. And they told how afterward Ned had carried Ser Arthur’s sword back to the beautiful young sister who awaited him in a castle called Starfall on the shores of the Summer Sea. The Lady Ashara Dayne, tall and fair, with haunting violet eyes.

Once again, Catelyn is absolutely all up in her head over this, because who is she supposed to talk about this with????

This is the same thing I was talking about earlier, the way the past constantly overlays the present, even as it passes into story while some of the players are still alive.

Also... is this the version that Sansa hears??? I assume not because Ned puts a stop to it after Cat asks him about Ashara, but Sansa knows that Ashara committed suicide? I do wonder how she heard it (and how she would feel about this version considering she idolizes her parents’ marriage.)

It had taken her a fortnight to marshal her courage, but finally, in bed one night, Catelyn had asked her husband the truth of it, asked him to his face. That was the only time in all their years that Ned had ever frightened her. “Never ask me about Jon,” he said, cold as ice. “He is my blood, and that is all you need to know. And now I will learn where you heard that name, my lady.” She had pledged to obey; she told him; and from that day on, the whispering had stopped, and Ashara Dayne’s name was never heard in Winterfell again. 

OOOOH. The one time that Catelyn is ever afraid of Ned. The one time she describes him as “cold as ice” the way other people do. This really is the major sore spot in their marriage, and don’t think I missed “She had pledged to obey.” SHE HAD PLEDGED TO OBEY. Just.... Remember that. As much as Ned clearly loves Catelyn, he does always have the upper hand in the relationship because of the society in which they live, and Catelyn is very aware of that even if Ned often isn’t. 

Whoever Jon’s mother had been, Ned must have loved her fiercely, for nothing Catelyn said would persuade him to send the boy away. It was the one thing she could never forgive him. She had come to love her husband with all her heart, but she had never found it in her to love Jon. She might have overlooked a dozen bastards for Ned’s sake, so long as they were out of sight. Jon was never out of sight, and as he grew, he looked more like Ned than any of the trueborn sons she bore him. Somehow that made it worse.

This entire conversation is littered with Jon’s parentage conversation, but this feels like some of the strongest stuff right here. Aside from Catelyn, the woman that Ned thinks about constantly with love, is Lyanna. I don't think that there are that many Ashara truthers out there anymore, but there’s the evidence right there for Lyanna.

Also Catelyn straight up spells out why she’s so icy to Jon. She loves Ned, but she can’t stand that he brought the proof of his infidelity home, and there’s literally nothing she can do about it. And Jon looks like Ned more than her sons, and honestly, that’s probably pretty scary considering what we learn about the Blackfyres in later books. 

I am a Catelyn apologist, and while I don't think that Catelyn should have taken her feelings out on an innocent child, she is under no obligation to love Jon and her stance is pretty understandable, especially since the text straight up spells it out why she feels this way. This entire situation is really on Ned, but neither Catelyn or Jon can put the blame on him for many reasons, so they hate each other instead. And that’s a pretty interesting emotional conflict in my humble opinion!

“Jon must go,” she said now.

 “He and Robb are close,” Ned said. “I had hoped …” 

“He cannot stay here,” Catelyn said, cutting him off. “He is your son, not mine. I will not have him.” It was hard, she knew, but no less the truth. Ned would do the boy no kindness by leaving him here at Winterfell. 

The look Ned gave her was anguished. “You know I cannot take him south. There will be no place for him at court. A boy with a bastard’s name … you know what they will say of him. He will be shunned.”

 Catelyn armored her heart against the mute appeal in her husband’s eyes. “They say your friend Robert has fathered a dozen bastards himself.”

 “And none of them has ever been seen at court!” Ned blazed. “The Lannister woman has seen to that. How can you be so damnably cruel, Catelyn? He is only a boy. He—”

Okay, Ned, what was the plan for Jon? You really should have been thinking about this. I repeat: WHAT WAS THE PLAN?

Also, the implication that Ned had just as much to do with seating Jon away from the royal family as Catelyn has not gone unnoticed by me. He is also aware how petty Cersei is.

His fury was on him. He might have said more, and worse, but Maester Luwin cut in. “Another solution presents itself,” he said, his voice quiet. “Your brother Benjen came to me about Jon a few days ago. It seems the boy aspires to take the black.” 

Ned looked shocked. “He asked to join the Night’s Watch?” 

Catelyn said nothing. Let Ned work it out in his own mind; her voice would not be welcome now. Yet gladly would she have kissed the maester just then. His was the perfect solution. Benjen Stark was a Sworn Brother. Jon would be a son to him, the child he would never have. And in time the boy would take the oath as well. He would father no sons who might someday contest with Catelyn’s own grandchildren for Winterfell.

Thank the gods for Luwin, thus fight could have gone completely sideways. 

But also, yeah, Ned. He asked to join the Night’s Watch. Where the hell else is he supposed to go?????? 

Also, Catelyn worrying about Jon's children competing with her grandchildren.... Catelyn, I have the perfect solution but you are NOT going to like it. 

Maester Luwin said, “There is great honor in service on the Wall, my lord.” 

“And even a bastard may rise high in the Night’s Watch,” Ned reflected. Still, his voice was troubled. “Jon is so young. If he asked this when he was a man grown, that would be one thing, but a boy of fourteen …”

OH, so now a boy of fourteen is too young? Make up your mind, Ned!

Also, another mention of honor and Jon, bastards rising high, everyone take note. This will be on the test. 

“A hard sacrifice,” Maester Luwin agreed. “Yet these are hard times, my lord. His road is no crueler than yours or your lady’s.” Catelyn thought of the three children she must lose. It was not easy keeping silent then.

Fun fact, the kindle version of AGOT has “cruder” instead of “crueler” and that did make me snort a little. 

But I think this line is kinda the thesis statement for the Starks’ journeys. Everyone’s road fucking sucks, just in different ways. 

Catelyn thought of the three children she must lose. It was not easy keeping silent then.

STOP WITH THE FORESHADOWING CATELYN.

This chapter repeatedly putting Robb and Rickon together is NOT good for my nerves. 

“When shall we tell Jon?” the maester asked. “When I must. Preparations must be made. It will be a fortnight before we are ready to depart. I would sooner let Jon enjoy these last few days. Summer will end soon enough, and childhood as well. When the time comes, I will tell him myself.”

This entire chapter is just meant to emotionally wreck anyone foolish enough to reread the books. I’m not even going to make a joke about Ned’s inconsistency on when kids should become adults, because I too just want Jon to enjoy these last days of childhood.

So, some wrap up thoughts on this chapter. 

This is the first repeat POV, so there’s a departure from the last couple chapters, which were in my opinion basically mini foreshadowing arcs for the character’s whole story. This chapter was much more intent on establishing the personalities and relationships between Ned, Catelyn, and Luwin, and I think it did a pretty good job. I think that Catelyn comes off fairly sympathetically, as a person trapped in u fortunate circumstances, but that’s just me. 

Oh, and the LF and Lysa conspiracy really was planned from literally day one.

I have no idea when the next chapter will be coming bc I have to actual work for my uni that sadly does not include analyzing ASOIAF, lol. 

#branwen reads asoioaf again #Catelyn II #Catelyn #AGOT

[emcscared-whumps]

WiJ 2023 - 01: Introduce Yourself

WiJ 2023 Navigation Post

(I'll put my favourite tropes under the cut because this post is getting a bit long, oops lol)

Re-Introduction

I've been in the Tumblr whump community for a couple of years now, but hello and welcome to everyone both old and new to my blog! I'm emc, and I'm an Australian writer and artist specialising in the bloodthirsty subject matter we all love here on whumpblr! I mostly reblog at this stage, but I love to participate in community events, and have plenty in the works :)

I create original whump works. I'm only in one fandom, Danny Phantom, so I will occasionally reblog stuff from there.

Project Updates!

I'm completely, totally obsessed by one singular whumpee... so everything I work on centers around him... lol

Anyways, so, it turns out that SP multiplied...

Shifting Phases - This is gonna be a loooooong fic lol, but! I'm making good progress, and I've managed to stay inspired and motivated for +6 years, so you can count on it getting finished, no matter how long it takes :)

10 of 59 chapters are drafted, one of which is pending review,

8 of the remaining 50 chapters are in progress,

The word-count as of writing this post is 23.5k.

I'm sure a few of you have followed for this fic/pieces of the boi, and I think about that constantly especially since it's still a major wip lol ^-^' Not worry, I will not rush uwu

I'll link the masterpost of it though because I keep it updated with my progress, and also any good snippets I write :)

Full Moon Waning - Because I'm horrible and have so many thoughts all the time, I've actually started planning this; the sequel to Shifting Phases! I think I have some cool whump ideas, and it provides another chance to explore the worldbuilding and character backstories, so I think it has a lot to offer and will be fun to write :)

Plotting; jotting down vague ideas and arranging them in a semi-coherent order.

Eclipse Descending (AU) - Oh this one is incredibly fun and fucked up, and somehow manages to be SO much darker in which Pete falls down a terrible path and becomes a hunter. It goes about as well as you'd expect lol. I explained the premise to a friend and she wondered, since it was so compelling, why it wasn't canon, and man, that's a fun thing to hear. It also means it's gonna be an absolute behemoth...

Plotting and detailing scenes simultaneously.

Caesar Salad (AU) - Remember how I said I wanted to stab my whumpee during the Ides of March? Guess which concept got WAY out of hand XD It will be a much shorter fic, but it's still a major project. It's an alternate secret reveal, so, it's an AU.

Detailing the scenes while trying desperately to come up with a resolution ^-^'

Anything Else? - Yep! I have a few other little scene/whump ideas that I'll eventually write out, but for now, I just keep them stored in a little au/idea doc. I'm still also working slowly on my BTHB card, and also the gift and several treats for the exchange I mentioned earlier, but I shan't be spoiling those :)

Favourite Tropes

Those of you who've been around me/know me will find that I am indeed very consistent XD Some of my favourite tropes include:

Bad caretaker/s

Collapse

Compromised mobility

Dehumanisation and animalisation

Domestic abuse

Emotional whump

Environmental whump

Hyper/hypothermia

Long-term injuries and scars

Near-death of the whumpee

Nightmares/Night terrors

Nonhuman whumpees (usually vampires, demons... and especially mer)

Panic attacks

PTSD

Restraints, especially creative ones

Secret angst-- whumpee having to keep their species/identity secret for their personal safety, and because they fear they'll be rejected by the ones they love most

Severe sickness

Species-specific whump

Starvation

Transformation whump

... and so many more...! Also, caretakers and whumpers are not necessary for me to enjoy the whump ^-^

#wij23day1 #whumpmasinjuly2023 #whumpmas in july #wij #whumpblr #whump community #whump intro #whump reintro #whump writer #whump artist #omfg how do i count #i can't fucking count i either made an error on chapter count here or on the masterpost shit shit shit lmao #i can count it's just whether i count them the same way lol

[cmdonovann]

quantum break appreciation month: a quick retrospective

so, first of all, wow, it was WAY more effort than i thought to just POST SOMETHING EVERY DAY. i put a lot of pressure on myself to only post The Good Stuff to this blog, and boy golly is my standard of "good stuff" higher than it ought to be! so this has been great practice for me in "finished is better than perfect."

second of all, i wanna put together a quick rundown of everything i did this month!

Announcement post

April 1st: My Bleeding Clock (My Immortal AU) fanfic for April Fool's Day

April 2nd: Playlist to go with My Bleeding Clock

April 3rd: Sketch of 2010!Beth

April 4th: Sketch of Jack and Beth

April 5th: Reblogged my old post about last year's anniversary zine, as well as a new little sketch to celebrate the 7th anniversary of the game's release

April 6th: Doodle of Beth in a skirt (with pockets!)

April 7th: I literally just posted a passage I like from the QB:ZS novel

April 8th: Started posting old art... completed set of the halo series here!

April 9th: More old art (Jack/Paul this time)

April 10th: More old art, LNEHH edition

April 11th: More old art, Will Joyce edition

April 12th: Some Jack/Paul art to celebrate me and my husband's anniversary :3c

April 13th: QUANTUM BREAK HOMESTUCK AU!!!

April 14th: Surprise! it's even more old Jack/Paul art!

April 15th: Wow! I can't believe it's more Jack/Paul art!

April 16th: Apparently I was busy this day because I just reblogged LNEHH, lol

April 17th: Quantum Break characters, but as Skyrim characters

April 18th: Some blinkie gifs I made using blinkies.cafe

April 19th: A sweater I made using the linocut stamps from last year's anniversary zine

April 20th: Another blinkie gif, hehe

April 21st: Meta post about color palettes and color usage in Quantum Break

April 22nd: A little QB divider I made for my fansite (WIP)

April 23rd: Some terrible glitter gifs, also for the WIP fansite

April 24th: Minecraft skins of a bunch of QB characters!

April 25th: I was also apparently busy this day, cuz all I did was make a stupid phone background for myself XD

April 26th: Took a swing at pixel art

April 27th: A promo for the Quantum Break Discord Server I run!

April 28th: Wrote another chapter of My Bleeding Clock...

April 29th: Art of Jack and Paul :3

April 30th: Started a new longfic: The Symmetry of Fear!

holy shit. that's a lot. i am retroactively impressed with my past self for doing all this, lmao. nice.

third of all! i wanna note that i started several projects this month that i have yet to finish. of course i'm not confining my quantum break posting to one month of the year (impossible) but i will take my time finishing the... uh... three fics and two meta essays i have unfinished, as well as the fansite i am working on. i want these to be GOOD, so i'm not going to rush them. i'm glad this month gave me to juice to finally get these projects started, though!

and lastly... why did i even do this project/event in the first place?

well... good question. i imagine i'm not the only one who has been Going Through It for a while now, and i just... really needed a big project to focus on for a while. and quantum break is like, one of the only things that i never get tired of thinking about, so... are you seeing my logic here?

all that said, i do genuinely want to work on putting more love out into the world. and i love quantum break! i want other people to love it too! (or at least, i want other people to look at my passion for it and be like "i dont go here but you keep doing your funky little thing my man," you know what i mean?)

so, big thanks to everyone who has encouraged me this month, whether it be in reblog tags, in the quantum break discord server, or elsewhere. also, big thanks to my husband, who i would not have married if not for our mutual obsession with quantum break, and who is always down to listen to me talk about my various theories and fic ideas. and finally, a big thanks to remedy, for making this dumb game that i love so so so much.

#quantum break #quantum break appreciation month #thanks yall for putting up with my qb posting seriously #i know thats not what most of yall are here for #but thanks for humoring me anyway! #i WILL make more people love this game so help me god

[raspberrii-soda]

I have the biggest important-est tests in a week but I can't concentrate to study I keep making doodles of the children of the candy corn... I've also spent time just uploading to the internet archive the ~6 videos I've found of the one sugar rush game there's barely any info about. Also here's a wip base for the needle felted vanellope I wanna make when I get the colors I need lol

Anyway I've come to the terrible realization that while I can make one base 3D model based on the taffyta/gloyd/crumbelina turnarounds I found and modify it for making all the sugar rush kids, I haven't found a good T-pose image of king candy so I'll probably actually have to learn to draw that old man...

#I've accidentally hyped my sister up to become the playtester for when I actually make a playable build of the game so #Basically I've got no option but to learn to make games lol #raspberrii being dumb about the sugar game saga

[sissytobitch10seconds]

Disturbed

Fandom: Wednesday 2022 Summary: It's very rare that a parent gets rid of their child after years of living with and parenting them, it's even more rare when it happens to someone so heavily in the public eye. Conversely, disturbed children are meant to be shunned. The second rule always overcomes the first, which is elegantly shown with one Xavier Addams. Warnings: Canon-typical torture, child abuse, and murder Word Count: 7,534 Ship(s): Wednesday Addams/Tyler Galpin and Rowan Laslow/Xavier Thorpe

Archive link!

A/N: I don't know, man. I had an idea and then I wrote it, so now it's here. If you have ideas or liked this then I would love to chat about it but this is so niche that it basically still exists in my own brain lol. Stay sissy and bitchy everyone &lt;3

Wednesday was practicing her sleepwalking when she heard her parents speaking to each other in the living room.

She knew that sleepwalking implied that she would be sleeping, but her father had told her that she had to practice before she was going to master the very difficult art. She was frustrated with that answer since it had been so easy for her to master sleep talking, to the point that Pugsley had to be moved out the old nursery faster than they were anticipating, and even sleep-levitating but not sleepwalking. She was trying to move around her house at night so that she could adjust to the feeling of the floorboards when everything was swamped in darkness.

Even though she was supposed to be pretending that she was asleep so that her brain could get used to the idea of the new thing that she was trying out, she couldn’t help but pause when she heard something that intrigued her. Sleepwalking practice could wait all night, even if she was rather hoping that she would have a nightmare in the early hours of the morning.

She snuck to the edge of the door as silent as her little feet could be against the creaky old floor. She knelt down beside the frame and placed her hands over her nose and mouth so that she could stay quiet, just like she had seen the girl do in the black and white horror movie that she had watched with her father only a week before.

“It’s so terribly sad that this has happened to him again,” Morticia clicked her tongue and shook her head. Wednesday could hear the way that her hair was rustling against the back of her silken gown. It was a familiar sound and almost lulled her to sleep the same way that a tree scraping against her window would. She refused to let the echoing comfort do anything to her and stubbornly kept her eyes open as she continued to listen.

“Isn’t it? How many deaths can a young boy like this take?” Gomez replied. 

“Hopefully a couple more,” Morticia replied with what Wednesday knew was a grin to her tone.

Wednesday didn’t know who they were talking about but if he couldn’t handle a couple of deaths then he was never actually going to be able to make it in the world. She regretted thinking so harshly about someone that she didn’t know only when she remembered the sorrow and grief that had overcome her when she had lost her beloved pet scorpion to those bullies. She wanted to go harder on this mystery person but if he had also lost something that close to his heart then he must have been just as sad as she had been. He’d have to hope that he was as strong as she was, she resolved.

“The Addams are notorious for gruesome murders,” Gomez agreed with his wife. There was a rush of shuffling silks and taps on hardwood floor, so Wednesday assumed that her parents were dancing in their room again. They did that often, springing into waltzes and twirling around with each other to music that only they could hear whenever they had the chance. She resisted the urge to heave and run away from the room at the obvious display of affection so that she could continue to listen to their conversation.

“Oh, Gomez. Are we really doing this?” Morticia asked with a wispy sigh.

Her father laughed that big-bellied laugh of his that meant he was giddy about something. Usually it was sword fighting with their accountant or a new bundle of stems provided by her mother for his bedside table. He then said, “Of course we are, Tish! You can’t really expect us to just send him back to his father, can you? The chance to have a disturbed boy in our home isn’t something that happens every day. It’ll be good for us to have another one after Fester got lost in the Bermuda Triangle. Maybe Wednesday will enjoy having a playmate.”

The sounds suddenly stopped and Wednesday peaked closer into the door. “You could always ask her,” Morticia said as she released her husband and turned around to lock eyes with her daughter. “She’s failed at sleepwalking again and is currently evesdropping on us.”

“My little raincloud! If you wanted to come and speak with us then you could have just come in, you didn’t have to kneel down on the cold floor,” Gomez said as he held both of his hands out to grab her.

She got up from where she had been sneakily hiding and then rushed over to her father. She threw her arms around his neck and nuzzled against his head. She was getting a little bit old to be such a daddy’s girl, she knew that she wanted to move on so that she could find her own hobbies and studies, but she was nervous and excited about the change that her parents had just promised.

“It’s not like the floor is hot, Father. I was trying to be sneaky,” she pouted as she looked at her mother.

Morticia carefully reached out and took Wednesday by the waist. She settled her daughter down onto her hip and then pressed a kiss to the jet-black hair that Wednesday had inherited from them both. “My dear, you should know that you can never truly eavesdrop on someone that’s clairvoyant. This is important information to remember for when we bring the new boy home next week.”

“Is he going to have visions like you do, Mother?” she asked, even more dreadfully hopeful than she had been before.

“We think so. At the very least, he shrieks in his sleep and death follows him like a cape, how lucky. Do you remember Grandmama talking about a funeral that she had to go to in Italy?” Morticia asked. She was sweeping around the room with that ethereal beauty that Wednesday had tried to mimic only once before she had decided that it just wasn’t for her.

“Of course I do,” she replied pragmatically. She would be an idiot to forget something an adult said only a few hours ago.

“Of course you do,” Morticia cooed as she pressed a kiss to her daughter’s cheek. Wednesday wrinkled her nose and pulled away from the offending gesture, which succeeded in getting her set down on the ground. Even though she didn’t always have the words to express what she wanted, her parents were fairly good at listening to her and respecting her wishes.

Gomez sat down on the loveseat, where her mother quickly took up the other half. She was leaning against him with one of her delicate hands pressed to his shoulder, which made Wednesday want to roll her eyes again. “Well Grandmama’s friend was the godmother of a very special little boy. His mother is gone and his father doesn’t want him, so we’re going to bring him to live with us.”

“Why doesn’t his father want him?” Wednesday asked. She was young and she knew very little about family dynamics outside of her own since she had yet to even go to kindergarten. She was aware that people were different than her since her mother had read her bedtime stories for as long as she could remember and they always had endings that were unsatisfying. Despite that knowledge, it was hard for her to fathom a father that didn’t love his children as deeply as her own did.

The two adults shared a look with each other that made her feel a little bit nauseous. All thoughts of spewing the remnants of her dinner all over the carpet were left behind when her mother said, “The little boy is disturbed.”

---

Wednesday stared at her parents like she was trying to burn a hole in them or in the window behind them. She loathed what she was being forced to do and was about ready to try and figure out how to rig a pipe bomb out of nothing but her dress if it meant that she would get out of the trap that they had lured her into.

Morticia shook her head and leaned heavily against her husband, just as they always did when they were sitting beside each other. She clicked her tongue as she said, “Wednesday, you know that this is your fault.”

“I was merely protecting what is mine to torture. People should know better than that by now,” she crossed her arms over her chest. She could vaguely hear the conversation that Pugsley was having with Lurch in the front seat. He had been spared from having to be in the back with her parents, but she supposed that this was part of the punishment that she had brought upon herself by being careless.

“You haven’t even given them the chance to get to know the two of you, my little stormcloud,” Gomez sighed.

It had been a long time since her parents were genuinely disappointed in her or exasperated with her antics. She strived to make herself her own person, regardless of what her parents felt about her, but she could help but feel a little bit guilty that she was causing them as big of a headache as she was. She knew that if she had a child like her then she wouldn’t be able to handle it, but that was the reason that she was never going to have children.

“We managed to pull a few strings so that Nevermore would admit you in the middle of the year. It helps that your brother already agreed to be enrolled there,” Morticia said as she changed the conversation away from where it had been going. 

Wednesday cast another imperceptible glance back towards the window that separated their part of the car from the other. While Pugsley had been her brother for longer, she was rather fond of her other brother. He drove her up the wall with his penchant for the neo-classical look on the world and the melodramatic theatrics that licked at the edges of his shadow, but they had gotten very close when they were young. They hadn’t seen each other very much after he had been sent to the very boarding school that she was now being shipped off to, but that was the only silver lining that she was able to find. She wasn’t happy about being removed from the brother that needed her actual protection, though she supposed that it was for the best. Pubert wasn’t going to have her around in the same school since she would be away for college or possibly doing research in europe by the time that he got into high school, so Pugsley would need to know how to defend himself so that he could be there to pass on the knowledge.

Morticia leaned forward like she was sharing a secret with her daughter, but didn’t try to touch Wednesday, which was a relief. She had come a long way since she was a child clinging to the back of her mother’s dress while begging to be taught about all the curses and hexes that she would one day be able to cast. “I think that you’re going to enjoy going to this school, at least a little bit. The classes are more oriented towards the types of things that you enjoy learning and the teachers are actually going to understand your intellect so that they can act accordingly. The other students might try to be your friend in the beginning but they will also learn how to leave you alone.”

She let out a dreamy sigh as she leaned back against her husband, almost pretending to faint with one hand pressed to his chest and the other pressed to her forehead. “Do you remember back in our school days, Gomez? We had one girl that literally turned into a ghost because everyone forgot about her.”

“How could I forget? She walked through us when we were having our hundred-second kiss,” Gomez took her hand in his and then began to kiss over her fingers.

“If the two of you don’t stop then I’m going to run away and take my brother with me,” she warned.

That actually got her parents to do what she wanted, which she hadn’t been anticipating. Usually her threats got advice about the best way to do it or a small laugh, like they weren’t actually expecting her to follow through with them. She supposed that the incident that she had pulled by putting the piranhas in the pool made them think twice about what she was and wasn’t willing to do. She had made Pugsley unhappy by getting him expelled from the school as well, which meant that she wasn’t always looking out for the feelings of her family like they had previously assumed.

The car went quiet as they finished up the last of their drive. They pulled through a pair of wrought iron gates and then by several strips of woodlands that were all barren trees and dead grass. That was enough to make Wednesday feel a little more intrigued and slightly put out that she hadn’t accompanied her parents when they were dropping her brother off before, not because she wanted to come to the boarding school but because she would have enjoyed roaming around such a desolate place.

She sat through a very boring meeting with the principal and then endured the goodbyes that her parents wanted to offer her before she was escorted into the front hallway of the building. The principal was a very tall woman with platinum blond hair and an even brighter suit, who introduced her to a girl that had pink and blue dyed ends but was thankfully wearing the rather muted colors of the school uniform.

The girl bounced over to Wednesday before the principal even had the chance to introduce them. She was so bright and bubbly when she spoke that it almost made Wednesday’s ears bleed, “Hi! My name is Enid and I’m going to be your roommate. Principal Weems asked me to show you around the school. Are you good to do that now or do you want to go unpack your things?”

“Lurch should have already unpacked my things to my liking, so I suppose that you can get on with this mandatory showing of the school,” she drawled. She let her eyes wander over to things that were far more interesting than the girl that was going to be sleeping on the other side of the room than her. She briefly wondered why she wasn’t going to be sharing a dorm with her brother, but then she remembered the details that he had shared with her in his last letter and felt the urge to roll her eyes.

Enid began bouncing down the hallway after she gave Wednesday a strange look. She prattled on about each of the classes and where they were going to be held. She pointed down various hallways while telling stories about social gossip that Wednesday literally could not care less about. It was about as boring as every other school tour had been until they stepped through a doorway and out into the open-air hallway that led to the grass in the center of the building.

“And this is the quad,” she held her hands out in front of her before she clasped them together again. Usually, Wednesday would vehemently object to any kind of introduction to the pre-established pecking order that high school aged people had decided to make amongst themselves. Given that the school she was being forced to attend was one where there were actually dangerous people, she was going to let the other girl continue. The information that she got might actually be able to help her unravel some of the loose ends that her parents had left for her in the car. Wednesday was perfectly aware that they had done that on purpose, in the hopes that it would get her to stay at the school, but it was her one weakness. Every person had a fatal flaw.

“You should know that there are four main types of Outcasts here. First are the Gorgons,” she pointed towards a group of teenagers that were lazing around a table with various types of head coverings.

“Aren’t they dangerous to have around? I thought that Gorgons typically lived in isolation,” Wednesday said.

“That’s a very euro-centric idea,” Enid shook her head. “In the east and up north, where head coverings were sometimes required but often used, they’ve lived in society for a long time. Being stoned also wears off after a little bit or when someone can put you under running water so it’s not really that big of a deal. Now the Sirens you actually have to watch out for.”

Wednesday’s attention was then directed over to a group of teenagers that were standing relatively close to them. They were all ethereally beautiful but also looked as though they had been pulled fresh from a river, skin dewey to the point of almost shimmering but their hair slicked back with some type of gel. She had heard of them before, mostly because of what had happened the year before with her brother. She wasn’t excited for the types of drama that she was going to momentarily become a part of because of him. Maybe she didn’t actually want to be going to school with him again.

“I’ve heard that a couple of them have tried or actually used their powers on teachers to get better grades,” Enid let out a huff and rolled her eyes. “The vampires aren’t out here but you should keep an eye out for them if you’re wandering around at night. They’re silent and blend in with the shadows so you can totally run into them, which makes them super pissed. And then you have the wolves, like me!”

She presented her hand out towards herself and did a little fake-bow that Wednesday refused to react to. She turned her gaze back to the quad and then felt a presence behind her. She was able to step to the side just as one of the Gorgons that she had seen earlier walked over and started talking to Enid like he didn’t even know that she was there. “Hey Enid, did you hear about your new roommate? Stance was telling me that she had like, totally killed someone at her old school and that’s why she’s here. Do you think that she could be related to that weird art kid?”

“Hi Ajax!” Enid said, trying to cover up what he was saying. Based on the way that her posture had seized up before he had even opened his mouth and how red her cheeks were, Wednesday assumed that she had some sort of crush on the boy.

“Weird art kid?” Wednesday folded her arms over her chest as she turned towards the Gorgon.

“You know, him,” Ajax jerked his head over to a mural where a brooding boy was nearly hidden in the shadows. He had a hoodie on underneath the blazer of the uniform and shaggy brown hair that was pulled messily back into a bun.

A smile began to develop over her lips but she quickly shoved the emotion back down while she turned on her heel and walked away from them. Avoiding the bodies of the other teenagers that were enjoying their off day was something that came as basically second nature to her. She was able to weave her way around groups of people to the point where not a single elbow grazed against her skirt.

She paused once she crossed the quad so that she was standing on the other side of the mural. She looked over the thick coat of blue paint and the image of birds in flight that was beginning to take place over the top of it. Most of them were ravens and other corvids, but at the very bottom she could see a shape that was distinctly a shrike.

“Mom and Dad dropped you off earlier this morning?” the artist asked without looking away from what he was doing.

“They did,” she replied just as curtly. “Did you get permission to do this or are you currently destroying the walls?”

“Art can’t destroy anything, it can only improve upon it,” he snapped back in reply.

She huffed, turning her head so that she was looking at him instead of staring ahead. “You’re just as annoying as I remembered.”

“Funny, I was about to say the same thing about you,” he grinned at her while tucking the brush that was in his hands behind his ear. She wondered how anyone could think that he was weird when he was already streaked with paint and clearly enamored with himself and his artwork.

She almost reached out so that she could touch his arm, but everything about the school was already so overwhelming that she could barely handle the idea of knocking elbows with her bother, much less hugging him. So instead she studied the sharp jut of his chin and his nose, the way that his cheekbones had become almost gaunt in the dim light cast by the stone arches on the other side of them. He looked exactly as he had a couple of months ago when they had sent him off to the boarding school and yet so much had changed in that short time.

“Do you desperately need to finish this or can you come escort me back up to my dorm, Xavier?” she asked as she turned back to the art.

She knew that he loved the shrike because of the damage that it represented in a body that looked like nothing more than a harmless songbird. They had practiced their own version of what a shrike did when they were children using her dolls and the little figurines that Xavier had gotten for his seventh birthday. It felt almost like he had put it there just to welcome her to the school, and the idea made her sick in the best way possible.

“I can come finish this later. I told Rowan that I would meet him in the library anyway,” he stretched his arms out since they had no doubt been cramping after working so long. He removed the brush from behind his ear and then thoroughly rinsed it out in the cup of water at his feet. His art supplies were left behind as they walked down the hall together, back to where Wednesday had left Enid and Ajax.

“Ah, yes, Rowan,” she clicked her tongue, though she heard how much she sounded like her mother and hated herself for it. “That’s the reason that the two of us aren’t room together, right?”

“Well we’re strange and kooky, they might have assumed something along the lines of incest,” Xavier laughed. 

She loved that sound because it was usually followed with the moans of pain that came whenever one of them was having a vision. That was the wonderful thing about growing up with someone that had the same type of prophetic dreams as her, they triggered each other and grew their powers at the same time. Their magic had become intrinsically linked with each other so that they would never operate at full capacity without the other person present.

Xavier turned a corner and she followed promptly after. Wednesday was watching the way that heads would turn to look at them and then quickly snap back to what they had been doing before. It had been a long time since she had felt that kind of power before, and she was relishing in it.

---

With Xavier attending the same school as her, she was surprised to find that Thing had hung back to watch over her for her parents. After a quick bit of blackmail she had gotten the loyal servant onto her side instead, which was what had always happened when she was a child too. She wasn’t planning on running away like she had before, but delving into the darker secrets her parents had laid out for her.

When she was dragged down to town for her mandatory therapy sessions and the school activities that happened there, she usually slipped away to the dark little coffee shop that Xavier had showed her during their first Saturday together. He liked going there because it was quiet enough that he and Rowan, his boyfriend and roommate, could argue with each other in the corner without being disturbed. Wednesday enjoyed it at least a little bit because she could observe her brother with his new romantic interest and avoid being talked to by Outcast or normie alike.

That was true to a point, of course. Usually she came there late on school days or on the Saturdays that everyone was escorted down to the town so that they could practice their integration skills. There were a few rare days that they didn’t have school because it was one of the eight High Holy Days or some other such holiday that Wednesday didn’t feel like celebrating.

It was one such day when she found herself actually being disturbed. The local Jericho high school also seemed to be out of session, which meant that the young high school workers were behind the counter and patrolling the floors like they were on Saturdays. 

Wednesday and Xavier walked into the shop at the same time but then immediately peeled away from each other. Xavier walked towards the back of the cafe where Rowan was hunched over a series of books and the two of them started whispering about something. Wednesday marched over to the table that she always sat at and plopped herself down. She removed the notebook that she had been using to keep track of the leads that she had about her parents’ mystery. She knew that one of the workers would come over and ask what she needed eventually, she didn’t have to go and find them like she might have had to in another store. 

She had been writing and reading over her notes for about five minutes before she sensed a presence next to her in the booth. She tilted her head towards the worker and then was surprised by that itching feeling in the back of her head. She had just enough time to lock eyes with Xavier before the vision overcame them both.

It was flashes of images, nothing solid or that she could really sink her teeth into. It was almost like she had undone all of the work that she and Xavier had clawed their way through as children so that they could have something that made sense. The first thing that she saw was a woman bathed in white with a veil clipped into her dark hair, standing beside a man that was smiling at her like she had hung the sun. Then it changed to the woman holding a squalling newborn while walking around a dimmed house, but her finger was elongated into a black claw that brushed over the cheek of the baby. The last image that she saw was a marble headstone that had worn away enough that the name wasn’t visible.

When she snapped back to life, several of the normies and a few of the outcasts that were in the surrounding tables where whispering to each other as they stared between her and Xavier. “Are you okay?” the waiter asked, bending down so that he could look at her easier. “Do I need to call an ambulance or something?”

“I’m not epileptic,” she nearly snarled at him. Xavier often cried when he had a vision, but she was usually overwhelmed with a kind of hatred that only someone with a vendetta could manage. “If you’re done staring at me like I’m a circus act I would like a quad.”

“Are you sure that what you need is more caffeine? You looked like you were trying to vibrate out of your body,” he snorted.

Before she could say anything, her brother appeared at her side. He slipped into the booth across from her and said a bitter, “Leave her alone, Galpin.”

The man gave a snort of disdain as he turned and walked back towards the counter to get her order. Wednesday took a moment to assess him so that she could figure out what about him had triggered her vision. He had short, curly brown hair that clung to the sides of his head and fell elegantly over his ears. He was taller than her with the king of muscle that came from working everyday but not trying to build any muscle mass. He carried himself in a way that was awkward and uncomfortable, like he didn’t quite fit into his body.

“Galpin?” Wednesday asked as she turned her attention back to her brother. It was as if looking back at him made her finally realize what he had done and she flicked her attention back to Rowan for a moment. “You’re not going to continue fighting with your boyfriend?”

“We’re on a date, we’re not fighting,” Xavier huffed.

“You’re always fighting.”

“His name is Tyler Galpin and something is wrong with him,” he said instead of addressing what she had said. It was part of the reason that Wednesday had grown so close to her adoptive brother. He strived to have a relationship that was so different than the one that she had grown up seeing in the form of her parents. He liked having a partner that would scream at him, claw at him, that had the kind of toxic passion that left him devastated for months. She knew that he was happy even if nothing that he was seeking out was necessarily sustaining.

Wednesday sighed as she leaned back in her seat and looked him over. “Is this the boy that destroyed your mural freshman year?”

“Yes, but my hatred towards him is about more than that,” he replied. “Something about him was off the first time that I came in here and met him.”

She turned all of her attention back to her brother and then eyed him warily. She wasn’t sure where he was going with this but she had learned to trust his instincts back when they were in elementary school together. The first ever murder that she had been around was what her teacher and guidance counselor had called a ‘freak accident’ but was actually the result of unknowingly normie parents adopting a werewolf child that they were thoroughly unprepared to handle. She figured that his feelings towards the boy that they had just seen were going to lead to something like that, and she was very excited for it.

---

Months had passed since she had come to Nevermore and she found herself in a dead end. She had originally been prying into the secrets that her mother and father had hinted at when they were dropping her off at the school earlier in the semester, but that was quickly overshadowed by the string of murders that Jericho found itself having to deal with. She didn’t believe for a minute that any of the gruesome bodies had been the result of a bear attack, especially not after she had tried in vain to get a bear to do the same to her when she was twelve.

She had collected a number of stories in her little notebook from the therapist that she was notoriously good at escaping from. She was also spending more time in that coffee shop outside of school hours so that she could watch the boy that her brother had referenced as setting off his feelings. Still, she had been unable to uncover anything else in quite a while and she was becoming frustrated by it.

Which was what had resulted in her marching down the path that led to the shed that her brother had fixed up so that he could do his strange art in a larger place. Back home, he was burrowed deep into one of the towers on their property so that he could work in peace and his screaming wouldn’t keep anyone awake. Wednesday supposed that the shed he had found while he was at school was sufficient, but it wasn’t nearly as good as what her parents had made for him.

She banged the door open and then paused as she saw the creature that had run at her when she was examining the lead on Crackstone that she had gotten earlier that week staring down at her. Xavier was sitting in the center of the room with his back to her as he carefully traced out the monster on another piece of paper, this time with charcoal that was already smudged all over his hands.

“Is this why you’ve been missing class all week?” she asked, folding her arms over her chest.

He only turned around when the door loudly swung shut behind her. His face dipped down into that scowl that she adored so dearly because it meant that he was enjoying the misery that was echoing through him. “What are you doing here, Wednesday?”

“I’m struggling to link together a couple of my leads together. I think that the Galpin boy has something to do with it,” she replied as she walked over to the picture closest to her. She hadn’t been having the same nightmares as Xavier since they were seven and would sleepwalk together, but she thought that if he had that many dreams about the same monster then she would have picked up on one or two of them.

He set down the charcoal and then stood up to grab a towel so that he could wipe his hands off. She caught sight of something red and bleeding dripping onto the starched white uniform that was struggling to effectively hide the markings.

She tilted her head to the side as she asked, “Did Rowan give you those?”

Xavier let out a slightly wistful sigh, “I wish that he had. He hasn’t been the same since you came here, Wednesday. I caught him trying to kill you instead of me during our first week here and almost broke up with him for it.”

She startled at that. Xavier was the most possessive person that she knew, herself included. She was astounded that he had continued his relationship with someone that wasn’t directly going after him all the time. She didn’t say anything about it because she had very little care for her brother’s love life when there was a mystery pushing at the edges of her mind. “Do you think that the monster is linked at all to the mystery that our parents used to get me to stay here?”

“It’s very likely,” he shrugged. “The only way that you could know for sure is to either capture the monster or the man.”

Wednesday shot him a confused look, struggling to figure out how he had linked together the two items. She then turned back to the new painting that he was completing, which held the form of the monster with the smaller outline of a man standing inside of it. Whatever they were dealing with had a human form, the same way that werewolves did. They were dealing with someone that was parading around with the face of a human and if they caught the beast, then they would be able to rip off the mask so they could figure out exactly who that was.

---

Despite herself, she had managed to make a couple of friends while she was at Nevermore. Bianca was Xavier’s ex-girlfriend and Wednesday resented her cowardice at not being able to play the game, but respected her ability to be who she actually was. Enid was trying to be her true self, even if that true self was the antithesis of everything that Wednesday was, and she had respect for that as well. Eugene was an odd ball and she had only formed a friendship with so that she could get Weems off of her back.

She had never seen the purpose of friends before. She had gotten through all of her human needs for companionship by having her brothers in proximity to her, even Pubert. She found that it was nicer to have bodies that were about the same size as her when they were sedating and dragging a monster through the woods around Jericho. They had gotten the massive beast tied up in a chair that was decently oversized but would host the human inside of the monster rather well once the reverse shapeshifting took place.

Bianca and Xavier had been glowering at each other the entire time that they were working, so Wednesday sent Bianca away as soon as they had finished. Enid decided that she was going to drag Eugene to the dance that was happening so that she could find a girl that was more willing to date him than she was. That left only Rowan, who had come along to interrogate his partner about why they weren’t going to the dance together, Xavier, and herself.

She checked the ropes on the shapeshifter every few minutes to make sure that they would stay in place while otherwise just jotting down the appearance of the monster in her journal. She wasn’t very interested in anything other than the mystery and perhaps the new beast that she had found.

Xavier tilted his head up when he noticed that the change was beginning to happen. Rowan also went quiet, which was good because Wednesday was about half a second from breaking them up for Xavier. They all focused in on the shifter as his massive gray claws shrank back into his body. His skin became mole-pocked and pale. His hair shrank so that it was a mop of brown curls clinging to his head and draped over his ears. He was wearing very little, clothing-wise, but he was otherwise the exact image of the boy that had triggered Wednesday’s first vision post her arrival to Nevermore.

“Interesting,” she commented.

“I told you,” Xavier grinned. It was the kind of look that she hated because it meant that she wasn’t going to be hearing the end of it for a very long time. Usually they agreed about something or he was the one that was proven wrong, so she didn’t actually see it all that often, but she really detested it when she did. 

She let out a sigh and turned back to the boy as he began to rouse. She grabbed both the hammer and her taser from the tray of instruments that Xavier had let her stash in his shed very quickly after she had moved into the school. “Wake up,” she demanded as she kicked the chair.

“Wh-what’s going on?” Tyler asked, straining in the ropes that bound him to the chair.

“That’s funny, I was wondering the same thing,” she clicked her tongue and cast him a dark eye.

Rowan settled down on the stool in the corner of the room as he watched what she was doing. Wednesday knew that he came from a family of psychics and was very close to the breaking point, which Xavier had crossed long before he had been taken in by her family. She could see the story unraveling itself between them, the boys without mothers and tormented by visions falling into a relationship that let them tear each other apart. Rowan had been trying to hold back on all of the vicious tendencies that were crawling at the back of his mind but now was the perfect time for him to actually see someone get tortured. Perhaps he would pick up on something and keep Xavier occupied for longer.

Wednesday turned her attention back to Tyler, activating the taser in her hand. “I’ve never seen an Outcast like you before. I’m kind of wondering what kind of torture that you can withstand. Do you want to figure it out with me?”

Tyler turned to the side, his brown eyes wild and terrified as he tried to get as far away from her as he could manage. He asked, “Aren’t you going to get me out?”

“I told Wednesday that as long as she kept the structure of your body so that I could finish my newest piece then it was fine for her to do whatever she wanted,” Xavier shrugged. “As a late birthday present, sis.”

“Call me that again if you want me to start dosing your tea with sugar instead of arsenic,” she warned. She knew that the threat had actually landed because he wrinkled his nose and turned back to the pens that were dancing over the canvas of paper in front of him. He likely wanted to be able to get as much of Tyler’s visage down onto paper as he could before she began wailing on the poor teenager and mutilated him fully.

Wednesday let out a soft hum as she set the taser back down. “I suppose that I should actually ask you some questions before I get on with hurting you to see how you react compared to the way that our brother did. Are you linked at all to the death of Garrett Gates?”

His eyes flickered and changed then. Wednesday and Xavier looked at each other before they were both overcome with the same flashing of images. A woman with red hair that looked oddly similar to their teacher walking towards the art shed with the purpose of a woman on a mission. A pair dressed in black while holding bloody sabers and standing outside in the pouring rain. A normie family growing one of the deadliest poisons known to man right next to a school that was supposed to protect Outcasts.

When they came back, they had just enough time to rush to the door so that they could hold it closed while the woman on the other side tried to push it open. “Well this just got a lot more interesting,” Xavier hissed to his sister.

Wednesday ignored him while her mind whirled on what she was going to do to stop whatever it was that was happening. She gasped when she saw that the boy they had chained to the chair was shifting back into the monster that they had found out in the woods. Apparently the veneer of the innocent boy had melted away completely and he was returning back to the beast that he was. He charged through the side of Xavier’s art shed and into the cold night.

A moment later, the woman that was banging on their door was also gone.

---

It only took a month and a visit from their uncle to figure out what had been going on.

It was hard for them to get in and out of town because none of them owned a car, but they were making it work. They realized who Marylin was very quickly after they investigated the old Gates mansion. She wasn’t very good at covering her tracks despite the string of murders that she had managed to stump the police on. They realized what old ritual that she was trying to perform to bring back her deceased ancestor thanks to another set of visions that the duo had when they were in the house.

Even though Tyler knew who Wednesday was, she was still going to visit him in town. Xavier had warned her away from doing so until their uncle had shown up to explain exactly what a Hyde was. Once they knew that Tyler had very little control over his actions in the beginning, they started devising a plot so that they could get Marylin taken away from him to break his bonds. The only thing that was required for that was unearthing the mystery that her parents had lain for her and showing them to Weems.

Marylin was sent to jail and Tyler was left in Jericho. They were tempted to chain him up in the art shed again so that he wasn’t able to chase after the van that was carrying the murderer to her new forever home, but they instead focused on petitioning the board so that they could get Hydes admitted to the school again. That was the only time that they had ever brought up the fact that Xavier was adopted, using the blackmail of his true lineage as a way to get his birth father to cast the deciding vote.

Of course, once it came out that Tyler was a Hyde and was going to be attending Nevermore instead of Jericho High as a human, his father kicked him out of the house. Morticia and Gomez were more than happy to welcome in the son of their favorite classmate, even if they weren’t going to adopt him as they had the other boy that they had taken in.

#fanfiction #fanfic #writing #ao3 #archive of our own #wednesday #wednesday tv #wednesday 2022 #wednesday addams #tyler galpin #xavier thorpe #rowan laslow #rowan x xavier #xavier x rowan #wednesday x tyler #tyler x wednesday #weyler #wyler #rovier #whatever their ship name is

[after-witch]

What do you think about Empty Smiles? I heard a lot of people say the ending was rushed.

Also, is this the final final of the smiling man?

I have a lot of thoughts about Empty Smiles! So I actually had a WIP post with my thoughts in my drafts that I forgot about, I'm going to rework that here for an answer.

Short, non-spoilery answer: Yes, the ending is very abrupt, to a frustrating degree. If you check on Goodreads, almost every review mentions this, it's definitely not just me.

As for "is this the final final," Arden did say she was toying with the idea of writing a middle grade historical fiction where the Smiling Man plays a role. So she may not be done with him! I would love it if she did that. I have endless WIPs where it's just "historical setting reader + Smiling Man."

under the read more: loooong thoughts (criticisms & otherwise) about Empty Smiles, SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS for Empty Smiles by Katherine Arden.

First, the criticisms, because that's the juicy part right?

This book was too short. It really needed an extra 15-20 pages. The resolution is shockingly abrupt and doesn’t feel climatic at all. I literally had to go back and reread, because I thought I’d somehow skipped pages. I mean, I guess the resolutions in the previous 3 books were fairly abrupt as well... but since this was the last book, I expected something more drawn out and not as easy as "Okay we literally just walk and key #2 appears with no work or effort, then we're outside and we have key #3 and leave." There needed to be something more.

I don’t understand why the last two books were so short compared to the first two. Is it a publisher thing, maybe? Them wanting shorter books for middle grade consumption, instead of longer books which may be more YA? The library assistant in me says yes, but it is a theory only. I would hope it wasn't because Arden just gave up and didn't know how to end it.

Also the publisher does know how stupid it is for Empty Smiles to have excerpts of books 1-3 in the back, right? Who is reading book #4 but not book 1-3 first?? It's just to pad the book's physical copy out so that it doesn't look too slim on the shelves, and it's a cheap trick.

What else... so Phil is now part of the group but with how short this book is, you don’t get a solid sense of the new dynamic. They kind of wove Phil feeling left out in there (Phil is like, jealous that the evil clowns don’t ransack his house, lol, oh Phil) but it was a little flat.

Nmmm. Now for something a bit frustrating to admit. So I love all the Smiling Man, I’m over the moon about it, y'all know that for sure.

But I feel like the Smiling Man in this book is quite different from the Smiling Man in the first and second books in some respects. Why doesn’t he want to kill Ollie now? He was legit ready to doom her to die behind the mirror, to spend her eternity in a frozen hellscape either sleeping at best or chased by a creepy old hag monster ghost at worst, in book #2. He dug a knife into her heart, figuratively, when she told him about her mom dying.

It’s like he went from Book #2 “yeah I want you to die and suffer, watching you get dragged away to your damnation is so funny I'm actually crying, you thought you could best me, girl??” and #3 "literally trying to kill you guys, KILLED PHIL'S UNCLE" to being softer with her, no gloating, almost protective in some ways, for Book #4.

And mind you, he IS mean in this one. He really is. He shows Ollie a fantasy of her dad & Coco’s mom & Coco without her, trying to pressure her into agreeing to stay with him forever, and what he says to her is just so horribly awful and cruel. And he says terrible things to Coco (saying she’d look lovely as a transformed doll--lovely and quiet) and is delighted by the tortured ghosts of people who died, tormented, in a mental hospital.

He doesn’t care that the carnival has countless people trapped, and he tries to gift Ollie a doll that is a literal human being transformed into a toy. There’s a fucking... box... of broken “doll parts” (aka, literal human beings who are just?? broken?? pieces now jfc) and he doesn’t care that Ollie is horrified by it.

But there's this significant shift with his overall personal dynamic with Ollie. It’s like... he doesn’t care that she beat him anymore. That was the game the entire time. She beat him, and it really, really pissed him off, and he wants to get her (and by extension, Coco & Brian) back. So now he has her and it’s like... eh, whatever.

We get perspective from Ollie as to why her perception of him changes because they are constantly interacting and he is cordial and even funny sometimes, but we never see it from his side. We can’t, not without a chapter from his perspective. I honestly wish that Arden had been like, okay fuck it, and done a chapter from his perspective just before the final chapter. Maybe that would have helped. Because as it is, I am confused. 

I think this ties into why we needed to see Ollie make the deal in book #3, because I think that moment is what shifted the dynamic. He beat her. He finally beat her. We need to see that to get a resolution of their original dynamic, and to introduce the new one. But we don't, and so it's jarring.

And like... I find it fascinating, and I love it, and I lost my mind at him giving her soup and medicine and bandaging her hand and asking her to stay. But I have to personally fill in the gaps of why he's not acting so gleefully horrid over having beat her, and I shouldn't have to do that.

Also, loose ends, loose ends. What happened to the cat and the hound? Why is this carnival suddenly so important to the Smiling man? I'm sad that the cat & hound servants present in book 1, critical components of the Smiling Man when he’s in his element, don't appear at all. Especially the hound. He seemed quite kind to Ollie in the end, whispering gently that if she ever needed him, to call his name. Would have been a neat thing if she'd remembered, and called him. Maybe he could have given us some of the Smiling Man’s perspective that would have made his shift towards Ollie more understandable and sensible. 

For the positives.

Oh gosh, there's so much smiling man. There's SO MUCH. And we get a new facet of his personality, him 'at ease,' which is truly delightful. He randomly trips and horrifies a teenager. Why?? Just to fuck with them. He's surrounded by transformed humans who live terrifying existences as dolls that are literally given away to people who take them home as prizes, and he doesn’t care at best, finds it amusing at worst. Wonderful.

The way he interactions with everyone is just delightful. The way Tim describes him as "nice," but still refusing to let Tim see his sister; the way he's cooly cruel with Ollie and Coco sometimes, the way he gets frustrated with Coco ("Save me from stubborn girls" that line killed me and sent me straight up) and tells people to mind their manners and just... it's a smorgasbord of smiling man in his element. 

And the lore and backstory we get? I love it. It’s tantalizing, while leaving a lot open for interpretation. Especially when we get into the notion of the smiling man being “alone.” I can’t help but think of what someone else wrote about him on here, essentially saying that narratively, he is the :no one else to turn to,” he is Alone, personified, for people who think they have nothing else that they can do, nowhere they can go, no one they can turn to get what they want (whether they do or not). And for him to potentially in some ways, feel alone, and be alone, is very fascinating to me. 

And the little things, here and there. The train car being already decked out with furniture and such, and having old clothes in the drawer. Who was there before? How many were there before? Were there others, are there others? Tucked away here and there, perhaps agreeing to stay, perhaps not, and finding themselves trapped (into scarecrows, into dolls, into mirrors) when they aren’t able to escape like Ollie? 

I also love, on a non-smiling man related note, the closeness of the kid characters and the bond that they’ve developed. The end bit where Coco and Ollie agree that they’re sisters was heartwarming. I also love the involvement of the adults although apparently I’m in a minority on that one. I loved that it was realistic. I loved that, with Ollie’s dad, he wants to believe... feels compelled, deep down, and Arden keeps the detail going of him looking at the scar on his hand (from the snake in book #3) when the subject of Ollie comes up. Like some part of him knows, despite the smiling man’s magic.

Overall, I really did like it. The ending is not great/too abrupt, and I feel like we really did need that scene of the smiling man “winning” over Ollie from Dark Waters to truly bridge the characterization gap--but I love how much more Smiling Man we got, and I love that we got to see him basically be himself instead of in hiding for a good chunk of the story.

Oh, and... the Smiling Man wears Led Zeppelin and Grateful Dead band t-shirts to his carnival. I mean, the man knows how to dress. 

#katherine arden #small spaces #book thoughts

[sadcatjae]

Young Master Kamiiki - Arrow Removal

Masterlist I was inspired by this post to write about arrow removal. Probably not accurate but I really wanted to indulge myself lol These characters and this world is from a new novel I've been plotting out. The lore isn't important at all here but I did want to beta test the characters a lil bit O3O . CW: Blood and gore, arrow removal, medical procedure, mentions of abuse, mentions of drug use/abuse, fever, restraint.

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“Young master!” Ruri rushes forward, panic stark upon her face. Her charge, the scion of the Kamiiki Faction, stumbles into the main house, only saved from falling by the sturdy servant supporting him. 

Kosuke’s wild sable hair is dull and damp, sticking to his deathly pale face. His pair of sharp, mean eyes are heavy-lidded and absent, and by his groggy glances, he doesn’t seem to register his surroundings. 

Heart palpitating, Ruri notices the lord’s right shoulder, drenched in blood, and from his back she spies a feathered arrow shaft. 

“How could this have happened?!” she gasps, feeling faint. “Someone call for the physician! Quick!”

A passing servant sprints ahead to notify the doctor. 

Meanwhile, Ruri assists in carrying the semi-conscious lord inside, fretting and asking question after question. Since the master and mistress of the estate are away undertaking their Arbiter duties, this old maidservant will have to care for the young master in their place. 

“The young master was fooling around with his friends,” Giiki, the sturdy servant grunts, his expression dark. “They caused a fight with the wrong people and this was his punishment.”

“Who are these people??”

“I won’t say.”

“And why not??”

Giiki takes one look at the older woman who's almost spitting fire. “Because I fear for their safety…”

Ruri shoots Giiki a glare. “You would defy your mother?!”

“You can punish me later. Help me carry the young master to his quarters.”

They don’t dare rest the injured man on his bed, lest they agitate his wound, so Giiki sits on the bed and holds Kosuke upright instead. The lord sways in his arms, cold sweat dripping from his delicate jawline. 

In the dimness of his waning consciousness, Kosuke feels the incessant throbbing in his shoulder. Like someone’s exerted a great pressure upon it and is refusing to release him. He groans and tries to push away those strong arms, feeling suffocated, but they are unmoving. 

“Young master, you must stay still,” Ruri chides worriedly, preparing a basin of fresh water. “The physician will be here soon.”

The maidservant dunks a clean cloth into the water, wrings it out, and dabs it over Kosuke’s clammy brow. How many times has this foolish boy returned home in a sorry state? Because of his poor temper and (terrible) personality, Ruri is certain that one of these days she will keel over from stress alone.

Just as Ruri finishes cleaning her young master’s face, the physician hurriedly enters with his signature leather bag. One look at his patient is all he needs to know that the situation is dire.

“Physician Asa! Oh, please help the young master! He’s lost so much blood…”

The doctor immediately sweeps past the fretting maidservant and prompts Giiki to move Kosuke deeper into his arms. The position ends up with Kosuke’s head resting upon the servant’s wide shoulder, and those strong arms wound around his waist, keeping him secure. 

The wounded shoulder is exposed from the back where the arrow shaft sticks out. Judging by how short the shaft is, the arrowhead is buried much too deep to simply pull out. 

Asa grimaces and quickly washes his hand in the water basin, before cutting through the bloodied fabric to expose the wound. “The arrow is too deep. I will have to detach the shaft and see if the arrowhead has struck bone.”

Ruri kneels beside the bed, taking the wounded man’s hand into hers. “I told you to stop getting into fights, young master,” she scolds, though her tone lacks severity. “When you have recovered, I will be sure to have the master and mistress discipline you for this!”

“Insolent…” Kosuke slurs, glaring at a hazy blob he assumes is his noisy maidservant. “No supper for you…go to bed hungry…tell me what to do…“ Dissatisfied grumbles peter out as he dips out of consciousness again. 

Giiki and Ruri both watch in silent apprehension as the doctor carefully cuts the shaft with a pair of sturdy scissors. From the way he handles the task without even causing his patient any pain, it’s clear that he is well practised in this operation. 

But in truth, removing the shaft is the easy part. Asa pushes out a steadying breath and glances at Giiki. “Hold him tight. I have to feel around inside and it won’t be pleasant for the young master.”

The sturdy servant returns a serious expression, his grey eyes unnaturally dark and thunderous. “Yes,” is all he says in that deep, rumbling voice. He tenses his arms, squeezing Kosuke tight against his chest. The latter stirs and protests weakly, raising his head to scowl at the big lug. 

“Release me,” the lord huffs, knocking his forehead into Giiki’s cheek. This seems to have hurt the injured man more, despite his malicious intentions. “Ow. What are you made of? Stone?”

Giiki stares down at those arrogant pair of eyes, so easily full of wrath and sadistic glee. But in this moment, they are glazed over and feverish, making him appear uncharacteristically soft. The servant swallows and says, “You can bite me if it hurts too much.”

A puzzled expression ripples across Kosuke’s face. Before he can respond, he jerks and cries sharply as Asa nimbly cuts an incision to widen the arrow’s entry point. “Ahhh–!! W-What are you doing to me?! It hurts! Stop it at once!!” 

Without pausing, Asa pushes his finger into the incision, gingerly feeling around the arrow head. Kosuke’s sharp cries deteriorate into mindless howls, his spine arching and legs kicking as incomprehensible pain erupts in his back. 

Thanks to Giiki’s efforts, he’s locked in place, so all he can do is writhe minimally and choke on his cries. 

After what seems like aeons to Kosuke, but in reality is only a few seconds, Asa removes his hand and wipes it on a clean cloth. His expression is troubled. “It hasn’t struck bone, but the arrowhead is the kind to cause more damage upon removal. The only solution is to push it all the way through.”

Ruri winces as her young master pulses bone-cracking squeezes around her hand, but the doctor’s words instantly numbs her to the pain. “All the way…” She truly will faint this time! “Must you do this??”

Giiki simply stares down at the raven haired man, who is panting weakly against his chest. His cheeks are shock white and his eyes are misted over. Pale lips quiver in fear, indicating that Kosuke understood the physician’s diagnosis. 

A pinch in Giiki’s heart makes him stroke the small of Kosuke’s back. A silent comfort. 

“Unfortunately, this is the only way to avoid irreparable damage.” 

“At least give the young master something for the pain!”

“I do not know what substances he has imbibed,” Asa says, frustratedly. “I dare not risk accidentally poisoning my patient.”

“But surely–”

“It is not worth the risk,” Asa says sharply, ending that line of discussion. Does she think this is ideal for him too? What doctor enjoys seeing his patient in pain?

He pulls out a delicate looking tool from his physician’s bag. It’s a specially designed set of pliers that should clamp onto the arrowhead securely. The thin length of the steel clamps afford the physician dexterity he could never achieve with hands alone. But even with a tool like this, the procedure is difficult to endure for even the most seasoned of warriors. 

And the Kamiiki scion is not a warrior, but a pampered young master who had never earned a callous in his life.

The doctor slips a leather strap between Kosuke’s teeth, urging him to bite down. “Giiki,” Asa says, “Remove his robe and turn him so that I can access the front.”

Giiki gently slips the bloodied robe down to expose the lord’s wound and angles the latter’s torso as guided. There’s a flicker of upset in the servant’s strong, handsome features. 

Kosuke’s head lolls this way and that, held upright only by Giiki’s large hands, clamps tight upon his arms. Ruri holds down his legs, and in this way, all four limbs are secured. 

As the lord stews in his fever and confusion, Asa makes another incision in the front, creating an exit for the arrow. Fresh blood dribbles down Kosuke’s torso, creating a rather shocking contrast against his skin. Ruri’s quiet weeping joins the lord’s weak groans, muffled by the leather strap held loosely in his mouth. 

“Giiki. Ruri. Hold him tight. You must be strong now to prevent further suffering for the young master. Do you understand?” The doctor glances between the servants sternly, and they both give him a nod. “Very good.”

Wasting no more time, Asa inserts the tool into the wound and clamps onto the buried arrowhead. 

Kosuke stiffens, eyes snapping wide in panic. He lets loose a series of terrible guttural cries through the strap clenched tight between his teeth. His colour turns ashen as the arrowhead is forced through his flesh, carving a path into his shoulder. Blood bursts and bubbles from the exit incision, painting his front red. 

And then the arrowhead catches on something. Something hard. And Kosuke’s visions turns white. The gut-churning agony takes on a ruthless edge. It feels like a white-hot blade digging into his flesh, searing him from the inside out. The pain is excruciating, gnawing, impossible to bear. 

Kosuke screams and strains away from the pain, delirious, desperate. The pain chases him, hounds after him, and stubbornly churns forth its furious attack. He’s dimly aware of Giiki calling his name and forcing him upright, causing another mind-numbing burst of agony. 

He sobs loudly. Pleads incoherently. The leather strap slips from his mouth. Saliva tinged pink with blood rolls down his chin. 

But the doctor remains stoic, pushing the arrowhead in deeper, inch by excruciating inch. 

By the time it’s halfway forced out of the front incision, Kosuke is unable to make a single sound. He simply sags in Giiki’s grasp, shaking and dripping sweat. His breath comes ragged and scorched, and there’s an unhealthy flush upon his otherwise ashen face.

“Hurts…” Kosuke whimpers, tears cascading down his cheeks. “Giiki…hurts…”

The manservant’s heart twists. While Asa pauses in the procedure to reposition himself, Giiki frees a hand to gently wipe those fever-flushed cheeks clear of tears. “Physician Asa has almost finished, young master,” he says, softly. “You are bearing the pain so well. This servant is in deep admiration of you.”

“Just a little more, young master,” Ruri encourages, keeping a strong grip upon the lord’s trembling legs. Her eyes shine with tears. “Endure for a little longer and you can rest.”

A hopeless sob breaks from Kosuke’s bruise-bitten lips. His reprieve is short-lived. 

This time, the doctor uses the clamp to pull the arrowhead out from the front. Due to the shape, it tears the wound wider with every merciless tug. This pain is too unbearable for the delirious lord, and his weak cry stutters before he slips into oblivion. 

Asa moves quickly, yanking the rest of the arrowhead out in one fluid motion. A spray of blood splatters his clothes, but he pays no mind. He hurries to disinfect and suture the wound while his patient remains unconscious.

After the last stitch has been made, Kosuke is bandaged and allowed to rest. 

Giiki cradles the lord’s limp form as he sets him down upon the bed. He stares for a moment at that pinched, feverish face, and then goes to wring out the cloth in the basin. 

Ruri speaks with Asa in low, urgent tones, while Giiki dutifully wipes down his young master’s trembling form. He removes the blood and sweat from Kosuke’s clammy skin, until he’s finally clean and dry. 

When Giiki wrings out the cloth (a grimace at how red the water’s become), he feels a light tug on his shirt. He looks over to see Kosuke gazing up at him with bleary eyes. Despite the recent bathing, tiny beads of sweat glimmers upon his brow like morning dew.

Those pale lips move. Mouths something only Giiki can understand. 

Years of abuse and vitriol are instantly forgotten by this servant, whose affections for his foul-tempered lord had been quietly cultivated in the background. So of course, faced with a rare display of vulnerability from this malcontent, Giiki gives a subtle nod and sits at his young master's side like a dutiful dog. 

Reassured, Kosuke drifts. His hand remains latched onto his Giiki's shirt, however. Obstinate, even in sleep.

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#whump #whump writing #medical whump #arrow removal #villain whump #villain whumpee #wound care #giiki is such a simp ;u; #he doesnt do much other than stare and grunt lol #most likely got the procedure all wrong but o well