#my discord friends have just been hearing me talk about this man non stop for the past 3 to 4 days because of his smug fucking grin

[miilkybnn]

y’all know that one audition tape Neil did? Yeah, so anyways make it Soap

#john soap mactavish #cod soap #cod art #soap art #john mactavish #cod fanart #call of duty #cod modern warfare #my art #milky art #cod #sorry for falling off the face of the earth it will happen again #HES SOOO #BTW IF YALL DONT KNOW WHAT IM REFERING TO JUST ASK ILL TELL YALL #my discord friends have just been hearing me talk about this man non stop for the past 3 to 4 days because of his smug fucking grin #i’m going to choke him with my bare hands (affectionately) #neil ellice #bc technically #bubbles the beloved

[nevermindirah]

Yitzhak!

is a character! who Gregadiah What-Is-Math Rucka gave us almost no information about!

I've gone through Tales Through Time #6: The Bear and #1: My Mother's Axe with several magnifying glasses and done a lot of googling and taken my copy of the Tanakh off my shelf for the first time since (well, since the last time I needed to read Torah for TOG reasons, which I think was Booker Passover headcanons) and here's the best I can come up with.

In The Bear we meet someone who goes by the name Isaac Blue:

Read on for a lot of comic panel analysis and historical research and Jewish flailing!

So what do we know about this Isaac Blue person?

He's Lorge, he's got curly hair, he's basically a taller version of Joe as drawn by Leandro Fernández (ie an antisemitic stereotype why the fuck did they approve this character design?? and then why did they double down and copy-paste it to Yitzhak??):

He's got a mezuzah on the doorpost of his house in Alaska!

I screamed about the mezuzah way back in January in this post where I (very reasonably) assumed this character was Joe and spun myself a tale about how Booker is still Joe's brother so the mezuzah stays up even though Booker isn't welcome in that house for a century. Bottom line: the mezuzah is a tradition with origins in the commandment from Deuteronomy 6:9 to "write the words of G-d on the gates and doorposts of your house" and evolved over the course of the Rabbinic period into the modern mezuzah we see here.

I did unnecessary levels of google image search to glean absolutely no useful information about Yitzhak’s origins from this panel:

I've decided the variant cover of TTT 6 is Yitzhak because of a panel in My Mother’s Axe, shown here, and what's likely an unnecessarily deep reading of Exodus, discussed further down:

The person at the right of the bottom panel is wearing the same clothes as in the TTT 6 variant cover and has the same shoulder-length curly hair and hairy forearms.

Left to right, the people in this panel are Lykon (I'll never get used to him being white in the comics), Andy, Noriko (I think? why doesn't Andy mention her by name here?), and Yitzhak. Andy's robe has a stereotypically Greek design on the sleeve cuff, and I had to stop myself 10 minutes into a Wikipedia rabbit hole because Gregorforth doesn't think that deep about this shit. The solid clues as to timeline that we get in this panel are:

Andy's iron axe

the presence of Lykon, who Andy first met in 331 BCE

So all we know is that Yitzhak is an immortal, he was a contemporary of Lykon, and he's Jewish.

Isaac is the most common Anglicization of Yitzhak (which in turn is the most common Anglophone transliteration of יִצְחָק‎), and Greg always uses the (transliterated) Hebrew when he refers to this character. Yitzhak is the long-awaited child of Abraham and Sarah in Genesis, the child who G-d commanded Abraham to sacrifice but spared at the last minute. I see what you did there, Gregory.

Why Isaac Blue? This is where I pulled out my Tanakh. According to the New JPS translation, blue is the first of three colors of yarn listed in Exodus 35:6 among the gifts requested of the Israelites to construct the priestly garments for the Tabernacle and later the Temple. Then in Numbers 15:38 the Israelites are commanded to "make themselves fringes on the corners of their garments throughout the ages; let them attach a cord of blue to the fringe at each corner."

And now for sandbox timelines party! Gregadiah gave us ALMOST NOTHING to go on, so I'm gonna make my own fun.

I, like many modern Jews, think the stories in the Tanakh are foundational mythology that are valuable because of how they've shaped our people but that contain some fucked-up shit and either way aren't meant to be a record of historical facts. Modern scholarship generally agrees that the community we now call Jews emerged as a distinct group of Canaanites sometime in the late Bronze Age (cw this video's host says the Name of G-d aloud despite being a religious studies scholar who knows that is not a name anyone but the Temple priests are allowed to say). The first non-Biblical written record of the people Israel is from an Egyptian source c. 1200 BCE, and the Biblical kingdom of David and Solomon was probably an exaggeration of whatever really happened during the Bronze Age Collapse. We start getting into historical-fact territory a few centuries into the Iron Age:

588 BCE Solomon's Temple destroyed, Babylonian exile begins

538 BCE Cyrus of Persia allows Jews to return to Jerusalem

515 BCE Second Temple construction complete

332 BCE Alexander the Great At Something I Guess conquered Judea, beginning the Hellenistic period of Jewish history — 331 BCE Andy & Lykon find each other

167 BCE another jerkface Greek king desecrated the Temple and basically outlawed Judaism

164 BCE recapture of Jerusalem and Temple rededication during the Maccabean Revolt

70 CE destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans, beginning of the Rabbinic period of Jewish history that we're still in now

What if... and hear me out... what if immortals come in pairs, and the pairs are:

Andy & Quynh

Joe & Nicky

Booker & Nile

LYKON & YITZHAK

What if Yitzhak was a priest of the Second Temple? What if he and Lykon killed each other just like Joe and Nicky would in the same city around 1300 years later, but instead of enemies-to-lovers speedrun with an absurdly long happily-ever-after, when Lykon died permanently Yitzhak decided to separate from Andy and Noriko and become the hermit we later see in Alaska?

We don't know how old Yitzhak is compared to the others, only that he was a contemporary of Lykon at a time when Andy was using an Iron Age version of her mother's axe. Other plausible origins for him:

a Jew of the early Rabbinic period, maybe a child or grandchild of people who were still alive before the Second Temple was destroyed

a Judean of the Second Temple era under the Romans or Greeks or Persians, maybe a priest, maybe not

an exilee in Babylon, maybe of the generation who got to return, maybe of the generation who was exiled (he doesn't look like he was 50 at his first death but who knows, he could've been mortal for both)

an Israelite of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, maybe a priest of Solomon's Temple or again maybe not

an Israelite wandering in the desert with Moses

THEE Yitzhak, ben Avraham v'Sarah, our patriarch who was brought up for sacrifice and then spared, and then spared again, and then spared again, and again, and again...

or! he could also be a Canaanite or other Levantine who predates the people Israel, who at some point in his very long life chose to join our mixed multitude, who like Andromache before him (and like Avram and Sarai would in this case do after him) took a new name to reflect the magnitude of influence this people has had on him

Why do I keep saying Yitzhak might have been a priest? It's thanks to the one detail in the artwork I could plausibly connect to solid research without getting a PhD real quick. Take a look at the gorgeous detail on the opening of his robe in the TTT 6 cover. He's dressed in rags, holes and dirt everywhere, rough stitches probably from hasty repair work — except for the neck opening. Compare that to this description from Exodus 39:23 of the construction of the priestly garments for the Tabernacle: "The opening of the robe, in the middle of it, was like the opening of a coat of mail, with a binding around the opening, so that it would not tear."

The next verses describe the intricate designs for the hem of the priestly garment. Yitzhak's ragged garment looks like the hem was torn off entirely.

Am I overthinking this? Yes I am! You're welcome!

My friend and historical research hero @lady-writes​ is in a Discord server with Gregadiah and asked the man himself some questions about all this. He clearly thinks he's being sneaky?? No shit Yitzhak is Jewish, dude, I want DETAILS!

I will not be giving up my Jewish Booker headcanon, I've put too much thought into it by now, the internalized shame of antisemitism explains Booker's depression too well for me, and it just adds so much richness to Booker/Nile both being children of forced diasporas. Fortunately (for him, not me, bc I'd do it anyway!) Gregothy supports fan headcanons even when they're not in line with his own:

One last thing before I close like 100 research tabs and go back to writing historical fantasy and/or porn! I love that, despite that atrocious caricature of a face design, our canon Jew and our fanon Jew are both Lorge and Soft and Kind, flying the face of the antisemitic stereotype of Ashkenazi Jewish men as small and weak, but also not falling into the New Jew / Muscle Jew stereotype that Zionism created. (I am trying SO HARD not to talk about Israel/Palestine for once ughhhhhhhhhh) Anyway here's a (US-centric but very good) primer on both these stereotypes of Jewish masculinity. Is this why I'm forever projecting my transmasc diasporist feels onto Jewish Booker the service sub? 🤷🏻‍♂️

I’ll reblog a second version of this with full image descriptions so that there’s a version accessible for folks who need IDs as well as a version accessible for folks who get overwhelmed by walls of text.

#TOG POC Love Fest #yitzhak #jewish booker #tales through time spoilers #tales through time #tog meta #tog #jewish things #mine #antisemitism #hi i'm an antizionist jew no i don't really want to talk about it

[kominum]

semoto (corpse x fem!reader)

4 times you think tuxedo mask!corpse could be yours + 1 time you learn to stop feeding your own delusions 

pt. 1 + background info can be found here! please read for context. 

basic rundown of classic!sailor moon (anime) lore ‘creatively’ used in this two-part:

sailor moon and tuxedo mask are star-crossed lovers/soulmates that faced tragedy in a previous life. 

sailor mars (aka you/reader) had a crush on tuxedo mask’s non-hero persona, darien/mamoru, for a while 

sailor moon is the moon princess and tuxedo mask is the earth prince.  

sailor moon’s non-hero persona, usagi/serena, bickered a lot with darien/mamoru.

fem!reader // tw: death mentions, bodily injury, unrequited love to the very end, some unresolved tension. 

1. “Whaddup, baby?” 

Without much reason, you and Corpse trade off calling each other whenever a new monster is defeated. You’re figuring out all of this as much as he is, but he doesn’t have much guidance besides some supernatural force within him. He’s not taking instructions from a black cat and white cat like you and the other girls are who can help fill you in on the gaps -- all he knows is that he’s pivotal to maintaining Earth’s existence, and he’s not exactly thrilled about it.

But the calls are never about the fights, never about your secret identities. In fact, you’d be willing to bet half your grocery funds that he still hasn’t made the connection between you and your Sailor Mars persona and part of you wants to keep it that way. Sometimes you’re mentally exhausted and just want to forget about the events for the day or night, which is why you usually end up calling him soon after everyone disperses or vice versa. It’s almost instinctual these days, and you wonder how long it’ll be before you accidentally crack. 

Right now, the rule of thumb seems to be, “Never trust new flashy shops that open with no warning and have too-good-to-be-true grand opening offers.” This time, some luxurious salon opened up by a famous local hairdresser had been the said attraction. All of you weren’t ignorant enough to believe the sham, but the star of the show had taken the chance to say, “Let’s go scope it out!” when really, she wanted that free haircut. You had called her out on it, but she argued that if anything happened, then perfect, you all could take care of it right then and there. Needless to say, you do not want to be attacked by a monstrous version of Edward Scissorhands ever again. Corpse had made a dark, humorous entrance, a style he’s really adapted to because he knows it pisses Sailor Moon off, 

About an hour later, you’re home and bandaging up some cuts and rubbing salve on bruises, phone on speaker and dial tone blaring through the bathroom. You’re addressing the scrape on your knee when he picks up, a low drawl of, “Whaddup, baby?” comes through and your heart stutters.

The girls call you a number of terms of endearment: sweetie, honey, love, dear, babe, queen, but the last person to address you as ‘baby’ with any amount of affection was your ex-boyfriend.

You scoff to hide how flustered you actually are, quietly hissing as you attempt to put some Neosporin on the scrape and catch onto some stray skin. “Are you drunk?” You ask jokingly, knowing full well he wasn’t. 

“Drunk? Nah. Tired? Yeah. But that’s always.”

“Sorry to hear that.”

“It’s old news. But uh, what’s up? Been a while since we last talked.”

“We talked like...three days ago. You called me, remember?”

“Feels like forever. I like talking to you.” 

You wonder if it’s irony or plain, cruel fate that this man will probably be the death of you.

2. “Don’t lay a fucking hand on her.”

It’d been a bad day overall. Lack of sleep compiled on by a growing pile of assignments in addition to having to get your tires checked out for an air leak because your car said, “Not today, honey,” -- everything came together in torrential hurricane and the last thing you needed was to be caught fighting another force of evil.

You’re so tired.

Sailor Moon seems to have all the energy in the world as she dodges attacks left and right, but your muscles are screaming in agony. You’re constantly hunched over and panting, but looking for the right openings to weaken the monster. Luckily, the creature has its back towards you when it dashes over to Venus and you muster everything you have to summon a bow and arrow made of fire, pulling back and making sure your arms don’t quiver. 

But at the last second, your lack of oxygen gets the best of you and your flame sniper barely manages to graze the monster’s side and narrowly avoid Jupiter. It’s enough to cause a distraction, but the anger in its glare as it’s directed at you elicits surrender in your heart. There’s nothing left in your bones to help you run or hide, and your knees buckle painfully onto the concrete. Everything else hurts so bad that you’re not bothered by the sediments digging through your skin. Venus is running towards you but she’s not quick enough, and you feel your eyes begin to slip. If this is what death feels like, then so be it. You hope that the girls’ mourning will be short, that they can still complete the ultimate mission, and--

“Don’t lay a fucking hand on her,” an angered, frustrated baritone spits out and you’re torn between laughing or crying. In a separate romantic context, you’d like the idea of wholeheartedly leaving your life in his hands. But in this reality when either of you could die at any moment and the world be consumed in darkness, it’s something you would never wish upon anyone. It’s a different situation than your bonds with the girls. 

The pain is enough to send you in and out of consciousness for the next few minutes. But strong, warm arms sit you up, though they’re slightly trembling and keeping you awake. “Hey, you okay? What happened to you? You’re stronger than this.” 

“G-great way of telling me, fuckthathurts, that I was...shit today,” you joke, but hiss when you try to move your legs and the deep scrapes scream in agony. 

“Take it easy, ‘kay? Or your princess is gonna have my head--”

“Thanks man, but we got it from here,” said princess interjects, hoisting you up with the help of the other girls. “You can go.”

“Speak of the devil,” Corpse chuckles and helps make the transfer less painful, a lot less awkward jostling around. “Look, I saved her--”

“And I said thank you. We’ll see you around,” your stubborn friend dismisses. 

“You’re welcome, baby.”

“Not your baby, piss off!”

3. “I’m always gonna be there for you, no matter what.”

It’s soft yet sonorous, deep yet light. Twilight hours are cast high above you both, separated by walls and buildings connected over wires and unseen forces. Technology is the sharpest, double-edged sword you’ve seen and used on this planet, because Corpse has never felt so close yet so far than in this moment. Your mind deludes you further by indulging in believing he’s right there next to you, strong arms holding you much like he did when you were on the brink of unconsciousness just two weeks ago.

Wishing, hoping, wanting. Dangerous, dangerous, dangerous.

The one year anniversary of your ex-lover’s death looms over you on another sleepless, caffeine-fueled night. It’s no surprise when his custom ringtone chimes softly throughout your room during these graveyard hours, but it certainly raises your eyebrows when after a minute or two, he asks tentatively, “Are you gonna go visit him?”

There’s no question as to who or where “him” is. You haven’t been since the funeral, if you’re honest, swept up by work, classes, and your new side job. But Corpse doesn’t know that, and you know it’d be the right thing to do. Maybe it’d help settle the storm of anxiety (or guilt?) that swirls in your gut on a daily basis. 

“I think so,” you reply quietly after a moment of silent contemplation, already thinking ahead to what the drive might be like. “He deserves better.”

“Do you want me to come with you?”

Charming, compassionate, thoughtful, absolutely too good for this world -- the three-letter affirmation nearly slips off your tongue without a second thought. You can’t risk him seeing you, putting two and two together, and potentially forever losing him to his long-lost princess. Selfish delusion creeps through your veins and you fight back the shiver of guilt that runs down your spine. 

“I think I’ll be okay. Might be a visit made best alone, but I really appreciate you even asking.”

“Let me know if you change your mind. You know I’m always gonna be there for you, no matter what. Right?”

Warmth. Strength. Oblivion. 

“I know. Thank you.”

4. “I don’t have anyone else but you.”

“Why are we doing this again?”

“Because we can’t sleep and have nothing better to do.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it,” you chuckle into your phone, free hand swirling a pot of instant ramen. “I have better things to do at 3 in the morning than watch The Poltergeist with you.” 

“Then go fucking do it,” Corpse laughs teasingly. 

“And leave you high and dry? I don’t have the heart.”

“I mean, you really don’t have to--”

“Seriously, I was awake anyways. Just giving you shit.”

“One of these days, you’re gonna fucking regret it.”

Ramen done and lamp on, you snuggle beneath your blanket and start the traditional countdown to pressing ‘play’ on the movie. Neither of you really had the technology to screen share on this Discord call (your laptop is almost on its last leg and your apartment WiFi can be spotty at times), so it seemed better this way. 

The next roughly 2 hours are filled with laughter, small jump scare yelps, and quiet yelling at the ignorance and twisted logic of horror movie characters. But towards the end of the movie (and arguably the climax), your eyelids start to droop, body succumbing to the warmth of your bed. The screaming and cheesy, orchestrated music are all background noise as your breathing evens out, shifting in and out of consciousness. Ending credits roll on screen before you know it, and the only think that rips you awake is Corpse’s gentle calling of your name. 

“Sorry, fell asleep,” you murmur tiredly and squint at your screen, languidly closing out the window and letting the Discord window take precedence. “Tells you how riveting I found this movie.”

“Should’ve just let you sleep, my bad,” he chuckles. “Thanks for staying up with me.” 

“Yeah of course -- I wanted to, just got a little sleepy. Wanna watch another one?”

“ ‘m actually gonna try to sleep. Don’t wanna bother you too much. You got work tomorrow?”

“Not ‘til noon so it’s okay. You sure?” 

“Yeah...yeah. I’ve only had like...3 hours of sleep lately. Fucking awful.”

“Anything I can do to help?”

“You do enough by just letting me call at the fucking crack of dawn, seriously.”

“I’m your only option, let’s be real,” and your voice is a mix of fatigue, humor, and some bitter sardonicism. There’s no malice intended, and you really hope it’s conveyed accurately. 

“...I don’t have anyone else but you,” he all but murmurs. Your heart clenches painfully, anxiety and fear and love surging through your lungs. Those words don’t hold the connotation you desperately wish for, but what matters most is that he knows he’s not alone and you’re not the only one he’s got. You verbalize as such and he only hums back in a façade of agreement before wishing you a good night. 

And sometimes, while you do know that your girls have your back and that you love them to death and would take a bullet for them any day, there are nights where you really do feel the same.

That you have no one else but Corpse. 

5. “He was never yours.”

There’s nothing you hate more than psychological monsters. You’d probably take physical pain over mind games any day because at least, it’d heal faster to some degree, or there would be a more surefire way of minimizing symptoms. But sometimes, there are days when the egotistical chess players of hell come to wreck havoc on the world, and you get lost in their trap. It’s annoying, a pain in the ass, and affects you a lot more than it should at times. 

This particular instance makes you want to quit. It makes you, Sailor fucking Mars, guardian of the planet of fire and passion and perseverance, leave all of this behind right here and now. You’ve never hated yourself more for feeling so weak. 

You’re not sure what to call it -- altered dimension, distorted reality -- but all you know is that you and the princess are kept in separate cages hanging from an endless ceiling, labelled as baits for tuxedo mask/Corpse to come. The enemy lets you both stew in the confines of the metal, watching with glee as your partner attempts to cut through the rails with her tiara and ultimately fail. It seems they’ve thought of everything because you’re not their #1 enemy today. Or maybe you are. You’re not sure anymore, even as they launch into villainous speech. 

“Nothing brings me more joy than watching you lose all your energy to fight, both physically and mentally. I’ve seen all your dreams and wishes. Nothing’s more fickle and double-edged than love, no? We shall see who the prince really belongs to.”

Mention of the prince has you snapping your head to meet the enemy’s eyes, slowing squinting as they catch yours and begin cackling like your demise is racing at the speed of an oncoming train. Your princess looks confused, but dread is heavy mercury filling your veins because you know, you know, your best held secret is coming to fruition. 

“What the fuck are they talking about?” She hisses across the void. 

“I don’t know,” you lie through your teeth, eyes flicking toward every corner of the cage now to find a way out. This isn’t how you wanted it to happen, much less happen at all. 

“Are they talking about Corpse?”

“Is there any other prince they’re referring to?”

“Do you always have to be a smartass with me?”

“Somebody’s got to,” you allow yourself a slight reprieve of laughter. It’d be dumb to try to set fire to this thing, knowing you’d only burn yourself in the process. Your exorcism tags also have no use and you can hear the clock ticking down in your mind. 

“Think it’s pretty fucking rude to keep a couple of girls in cages, not gonna lie,” a baritone voice cuts through. It sends temporary sparks of relieve down your spine. Perhaps you’ll have a fighting chance to get out of here. 

“Welcome, welcome! I’d like to get straight to the point, but maybe we’ll up the stakes a little bit before you answer my question,” they tease cartoonishly and you want to roll your eyes.

“Is this a fucking test--”

Both you and sailor moon yelp as the cages drop into a miraculously (or not) appearing large body of water, but still hanging just above the surface so you have enough air to breathe. You look out and down to see how deep this pit is, and though it might be some elaborate illusion seemingly defying all laws of physics, you see nothing but descending darkness. You don’t even have to hear the question to know what the enemy is going for, to know that they’re trying to hit you where it hurts the most, and you loathe how cliché and goddamn unfair this whole situation has turned out to be. 

“So, dear prince. Pretend that the fate of the world depends on the princess. Before you are just two girls you know and care for, stuck, captured, and on the brink of drowning. You may only save one. Who would it be?”

It’s fucked up. Corpse seems stunned, perplexed by the question. “What the absolute fuck is this? Just let them go if you had an issue with me.”

“Quite frankly, I have an issue with allof you, so this is only fair. Now, what’s your answer?”

Corpse catches your eyes first. Is it from the water that your eyes seem to be brimming with unshed tears? Is it stubbornness or defeat in the way your hands clench around the cage bars?

And this is why, once again, you hate enemies who strictly play mind games. Confirmation that Corpse would never love you the way you do him, knowledge to the princess that she’s the source of your deepest unhappiness despite the bickering friendship, realization to Corpse that the girl he’s treasured so dearly and maybe unknowingly kept as a bit of a placeholder was doomed to love him -- pain on all of you, lashes and scars on what was once believed to be unbreakable bonds, as soon as the villain explains it all with sick glee. 

“Do I have to give you an answer?”

“If you don’t, I’ll really consider drowning them since I honestly wasn’t before.”

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

“Ah, just to make things a little more interesting -- I’m aware you and the princess speak regularly outside of all this.”

They what? This was certainly news to you. 

“And?” Corpse asks somewhat defensively. 

Don’t say it. Don’t tell him. Please don’t--

“Say Mars, don’t you enjoy those late night calls with him, too? Though I must say, meeting in a hospital while your ex-boyfriend is having life-altering emergency surgery seems rather morbid in its own respect.”

You don’t have to look at him to know and hear the gears turning in his brain, the villain allowing this brief silence to let everything sink in. There’s a disbelieving whisper of your name, your real name, but he’s cut off from saying anything more. 

“You have 10 seconds.” 

You know the stories. You know the couple’s tragic end in their previous lifetime. You know that as much as the princess denies feeling anything but annoyance towards Corpse, she looks forward to seeing him. There’s a certain softness that he treats her with, different from the platonic affection that he showers you in. You’ve lied to yourself for too long. 

The countdown has no chance to finish when Corpse spits out a name that’s not yours, your eyes squeezing shut to fight back the tears that threaten to flood over. Everything disappears and you land on your butt -- a quick sweep of your surroundings registers two things: Corpse running over to your princess and the villain standing proudly at the chaos they’ve created. It’s instinct that has brings your powers to surface, arms and fingers quickly notching a fiery arrow with pinpoint aim at the imaginary target on their head. “Move!” You yell at the two and they scramble to gather their bearings and avoid your rage. 

They don’t run or cower. The maniacal grin only grows wider and more sinister and you’re this close to screaming expletives. 

“Hurts, doesn’t it, to know that he was never yours?”

It’s the last thing they say before you release the arrow, watching with no remorse as they burn and disintegrate. When the dust disappears and the dimension shifts back to some abandoned building with an exit, you run. 

You run until your lungs burst, until they scream over the aching of your heart, until your costume dissolves and you’re finally buried under the blankets. You turn on ‘Do Not Disturb’ and only allow notifications from a select few important numbers.

And maybe you’ll keep running. Maybe you’ll go off the grid. Maybe you’ll let your voicemail inbox fill up with unheard messages, apologies that you don’t and never will deserve. 

But the love you feel and cherish will never fade. It’ll run alongside you; a bright, burning star, forever bittersweet--

Forever out of reach. 

#corpse x reader #corpse husband x reader #corpse x y/n #corpse husband x y/n #corpse x fem reader #corpse husband angst #corpse husband imagine #corpse husband

[xiaonesis]

Thank You For 2020!

I’m not very good at things like these to be honest. Weaving a high-fantasy story and putting into words my honest feelings of thanks and gratitude to people are two entirely different things, and the latter is infinitely more difficult. 

But I hope that, as simple as the words may be, each and everyone of you will feel my heartfelt gratitude and appreciation, and know that I rarely say things like these and when I do, I can only mean them.

@knightofameris I cannot start this off without first thanking you. You helped and supported me with so many things, from teaching me how to use Tumblr and giving me the tool I needed to making banners, to always, always and constantly keeping me up with your words, presence (online lmao) and heck, provided me with more than one meal and I am not ashamed to say it! Thank you so much for being my friend. You are too good for this world and I truly wish you will have a great 2021, and that all the good things you deserve will come to you this year.

@buddh-art Bro, mah bruder. The Bokuto to my Kuroo. Bruh, I don’t know how life would be like this year if I went through 2020 without ever knowing you. Like, who the heck thought we would get on this well, to the point we have a damned brotherhood contract! HAHAHA Thank you soul-brother, for the nights (well, your mornings) of countless laughter and joy, and for keeping me company when I draw even though half of the time, it is just me pressing Ctrl+Z. Here’s to more bronenigans this year with you, on discord, on tumblr, and on Genshin!

@sovtwords My brightest star! I don’t even know what I can say to you that you don’t already know since we talk almost every single night since...I don’t know! I know it hasn’t been that long, but it also felt like forever ahahaha I still remember clearly that one morning, seeing your comment on GWS at 5am, and how happy it made me. Thank you always for your understanding and love, and for listening to me gush about Genshin non-stop hahahaha Let’s both work hard this year to FINALLY FINISH THAT TOKYO DRIFT AU FIC AND OUR OWN RESPECTIVE STORIES AND FINALLY PLAY A GAME TOGETHER THAT WE KEEP SAYING WE WILL DO BUT NEVER GET TO! FJKHDSBHF

@xavestory Omg Xave, I don’t even know what to say haha your artwork is always so inspiring to see, and your name precedes you! I knew your name long before I came across your art, and I was immediately taken in and blown away- and then to have you looking at my art??? Renesis.exe has timed out. Thank youuuu for being so encouraging with my art, everytime I hear from you I feel like my soul just goes UwU I haven’t drawn in years before I started again late last year, and you and your art were definitely one of the motivating factors for me to try harder, and I hope to keep that up this year!

@writeiolite fbhdshjf IT HASNT BEEN THAT LONG BUT WTH I FEEL LIKE WE’VE BEEN CHATTING NON-STOP ABOUT GENSHIN FOR A WHILE HAHAHAHA I remember you used to just be that person on Mudae that I really wanted to avoid cause I can never be as fast as you (HNGGGGNNNN) and then it turned to us talking nonstop about Genshin and even playing it together hahaha thank you for always being your kind self to everyone, and for playing with me <33 I’m SO sorry that I ascended my world so soon after our world levels matched BFSHJB BUT WE CAN STILL PLAY TOGETHER WHENEVER YOU ONLY NEED TO PING ME AND I WOULD GET OUT OF BED TO PLAY JUST FOR YOU!  

@yanderexbabydoll I can never thank you enough, nor forget, your guidance and support when I wrote my first 18+ fic ahahaha it’s a daunting topic to start on, especially for me who still felt a tad uncomfortable writing mature works, needless to say talking about it, but you were so open and understanding, answering my questions and insecurities so patiently. The day I found out you read GWS- man, I swear my neighbors still hate me for the way I screamed that evening ahahaha We haven’t talked in a while but I hope this year we will have more opportunities to catch up <3

@sawamooora Bees. Atsubee. Really, I should just end this note here like this because the word bees sums it best for us HAHA Thank you for being such a whirlwind ride, always storming into my discord and turning everything upside down and then leaving just as fast as literal wind; I absolutely love it. I don’t think I would have gotten into the entire Atsubee, Beenarizaki and Bee Supremacy without you, and what a shame that would have been. Thank you for being you, which is just a literal bundle of clownery, sunshine and joy to everyone who interacts with you. Everytime I chat with you I have a giant grin on my face and I cannot explain it- it’s as mysterious as the hold the bees have on us.

@chunhua-s HNGGG you’re always sending in GWS music recommendation and I love it so much haha Thank you always for your support for GWS, and also, I just love all the tag games you always tag me in hahaha I can’t get to all of them some times but I remember clearly there was a time where I wanted to do more of those but was too shy to ask people to tag me and lo and behold, you swooped in and answered my prayers HAHA I really hope this year we will be able to interact more <3

@tencofish @moondriplets @gothelle @essentlai @thatlofiguy @animemess @skiyoomii @keiijiis @justatinysaltymbb @butyfigers @veryrawknees Madao, Luca, Kels, TIA, Sodium Possum, studio,dasom, Yeon, Jess, Asta, Mau, Riah, Beef Burger (J), ThatGoldfish, Wardi, Jaz, Ember, and allllll the others on my discord server who do not have Tumblr or do not want it named. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BEING YOU, BEING PART OF MY DISCORD AND FOR BEING MY FRIEND! Everyday, the first and last things I see are the messages on the server and I just- I’m literally crying right now as I type this but I don’t know how I could have survived 2020 without all of you. I live alone in a foreign country away from family, further isolated from others due to Covid and I imagine last year would have been extremely dark without you all. Thank you for brightening my everyday.

Alright, Tumblr might start to cap my tag numbers soon but let me at least end this by saying a final thank you to EVERYONE who follows me here and on AO3, and who read my work. Each and everyone of your presence, feedback, and encouragement for my writing keeps me going, and I truly mean it when I say that GWS would not have gotten where it has without you all, nor will my other non-GWS fics. Though my updates has been slower, I will continue to work hard this year to show you more of the world of Hyquile, and other works <3

Happy New Year everyone!! 明けましておめでとうございます！

今年もよろしくお願いします！！！！

#lots of thank yous #but each and every one of it is well deserved and meaningful #i really cannot stress how much you all mean to me #happy new year!! #renesis posts #2021 #moots #and everyone

[kai-keda]

So something on twitter got me rambling this to someone who I don’t even know whether or not they’re involved in the same communities as me or not and I kinda just realized this is actually a big problem.

Why are fandom spaces having age wars? Or would it be more appropriate to call it generational wars?

Basically what I’m going on about is how now that I’m 25 years old and have joined and become super involved with a relatively much newer community than any other I’ve been in before I’m seeing a lot of hostility.

Hostility thrown at me by complete strangers.

Okay, so, if you’ve known me for long enough you’d know that I’m used to people not liking me because of actions I did or words I said. Specifically I’m referring to that mega dark time in the Dragon Ball fandom when my mental health was unchecked, I was overly emotional and stupid.

When I say “Hostility being thrown at me by complete strangers” in this context I don’t mean it in that same sense. I mean people who only know my age and that I’m in their fandom.

With my previous fandoms they were things that a lot of adults were in as well because they initially joined said fandom as children themselves. This includes Dragon Ball and Naruto. So I never really had a problem with people hearing my age and running for the hills screaming since they were used to seeing adults. There were also communities with source materials that were geared more towards adults like Trigun.

Heck I was still more often than not on the younger side of any particular group discussion. At most I would be more in the middle of the groups age range and never the oldest.

That is until now.

See I’ve recently gotten really excited, obsessed, hyperfixated or whatever you want to call it with the MCYT content creators. I’m talking of course specifically about the Dream SMP stuff but also the creators individually.

I love the Sleepy Bois Inc group and the Dream Team and Fundy and Ranboo and Niki and BBH and Tubbo and just the whole lot of them in the right contexts honestly.

To me this wasn’t really anything new. I mean, once upon a time I enjoyed Yogscast but I was really young and not involved in the internet’s current world of fandom culture. Also, I never obsessed over them and their story. I was into other things at the time.

When I get really invested in something I tend to immediately go searching for a community to share it with and I’ve started following on tumblr and twitter a lot of wonderful fan-artists and analysts and shitposters and man the lot of you are so great. And I’m also subscribed to a LOT of animators on YouTube. I’ve been leaving as many positive comments ranging from pointing out the finer details of a piece of work to fully emotional responses as I can possibly leave.

And it seems like you guys are really awesome and open and friendly! You guys tend to reply to my comments and even if you don’t (which is totally fair! Don’t feel pressured, my comments are to make you feel good not a trap to make you interact with me!) you’ll leave a like or heck a heart on my YouTube comments to y’all’s animations.

Seeing my positive energy getting returned with positive energy gave me the courage to join some discord servers and I started, of course, with the official ones. Wilbur Soot was the content creator of this group of people that I watched first so of course by this point I was subscribed to him on Twitch. I was also subbed to TommyInnit so I joined their servers. I’m in a few other servers including SAD-ist’s server and Techno’s members only server.

I started out joining vc’s and chatting in text channels but it’s been quite a long time since I’ve done either of those two things (not including a stray opinion here or there being thrown into the DreamSMP Boundaries discord).

I’m pretty sure it’s been since early December since I’ve really interacted in ANY of these servers - including the much smaller non-official fan ones!

Why is that?

Honestly, I got tired of the hostility thrown my way at any mention or reminder of my age.

I’m 25 years old and when people in these servers hear that, a good chunk legitimately feel really awkward.

I was asked not once, not twice, but FOUR TIMES in a single night from FOUR DIFFERENT PEOPLE in the SAME VOICE CALL “Why are you in a fan server for a sixteen year old Minecraft streamer (referring to TommyInnit) if you’re 25?” with NO trace of irony and with complete seriousness and out of all those times only ONE PERSON defended me because they were in the call for the third instance only for them to leave, someone else to join and it to happen again.

And each time, the call went quiet and everyone waited silently for my answer. They were all legitimately concerned for the fact that I happen to be a fan of a streamer who happens to be younger than me.

And when I pointed out what I THOUGHT was obvious which was “90% of the other streamers he’s with and openly calls friends are also adults including Wilbur who is only one year younger than me and Philza who is seven years OLDER than me” only a portion of people responded with “yeah that’s true.”

The rest said “That’s not the same.”

I tried again to “explain myself” (we’ll get to how shitty THAT is in a minute) by detailing how I just genuinely think Tommy, and Tubbo as well, are fun to watch. They’re entertaining, they’re funny, they’re energetic, they work well off the other streamers and I also find them adorable the same way I find puppies and kittens adorable. Heck, I love referring to Tommy as a Chihuahua because he’s a tiny little child with a really loud bark. It’s funny and cute and that’s the appeal.

That got a few other people to relax but there were still some people who at this point just said “well, I still think it’s weird but whatever.” and continued on only with an awkward air of nervousness around them.

Alright so it’s really important for me to stress that being a fan of a content creator does not equate wanting anything romantic or sexual with them in any capacity and therefore there is nothing inherently “creepy” or predatory about an adult being a fan of a content creator who happens to be a minor. I get that that seems like a hard concept to grasp but it’s true.

I’m sure there’s plenty of musicians and actors y’all absolutely adore who you don’t want to marry and/or bang. Heck, I’m positive there’s a good chunk of you who love Miyazaki films. You love his work, you’re a fan of what he does, of his content and you’re a fan of him yet you don’t want to marry and/or bang him. I’m sure a lot of you also have really close platonic friendships that you enjoy.

Assuming I’m only a fan of Tommy to get closer to him and his fans who are minors for some gross reasons is really shitty. NEVER assume the worst in someone like that. Be cautious around adults on the internet in general, sure, but this particular attitude I’ve described is disgusting.

Anyways, beyond that though this rabbit hole goes deeper.

It’s not just people being concerned that an adult is a fan of a content creator who is a minor. People have actually openly shamed and mocked me for being 25 years old in these other servers. Including the one you have to pay monthly to get into in the first place!

And now I go on twitter and I see a post pointing out how silly it is for minors to push adults out of fandom spaces that are based on content created BY ADULTS and the replies are people arguing FOR THE EXCLUSION OF ADULTS?!?!

HELLO?!?!

Are you guys okay?!?!

How is me being a fan of Philza and wanting to interact with other fans of his weird and creepy?? THE MAN IS LITERALLY SEVEN YEARS OLDER THAN ME AND MARRIED WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!

I heard that there’s been a lot of drama in the JoJo fandom recently where minors are trying to say the whole fandom needs to be purged of adults??? That it’s meant to be a safe space for children and teenagers?? THE ANIME JOJO’S BIZZARE ADVENTURE?!?! DO Y’ALL KNOW HOW OLD THAT FRANCHISE IS?!?! IT’S OLDER THAN SOME OF YOU!!

Should teenagers have safe spaces in fandom where they don’t have to worry about strange adults if they’re uncomfortable with that? Absolutely.

Should adults be shamed and kicked out of fandom as soon as they become an adult? Should “20” be the age where fandom must stop? Absolutely fucking NOT!

I want so bad to make friendships and be a part of a community of people who enjoy these dorky Minecraft streamers as much as I do. It kills me to open Discord, see all the activity in these servers and shy away at the last minute from joining in because of my age.

I’m rusty on this quote so forgive me if it’s not exact but this has been my life motto since I became an adult and accepted my place in fandom. I think a lot of you guys can learn from it:

“When I became an adult I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”

- C.S Lewis

#long post #mcyt #might as well tag the fandom in specifically talking about the most #you guys seem like so much fun to talk and hang out with #i want to be a real part of this community #y’all are so nice and awesome until my age is discovered or brought up #fucking hell #and don’t say oh just don’t mention your age #cause then I just feel dishonest and like I’m being fake #fandom #discourse #I guess #Kairi Yajuu rambles #Kairi Yajuu rant

[hopesilverheart]

Title: I loved your colours (before I loved you) Artist: @calliartss​ Rating: Explicit (Chapter 10 only) Pairings: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, Alec Lightwood & Clary Fray, Clary Fray/Isabelle Lightwood Word Count: ~95k Summary: Magnus Bane is a journalist who's always dreamed of modelling for Lightwood Fashions. When the CEO Alec Lightwood starts looking for new models for their spring collection, he jumps on the occasion.

In the meantime, Alec Lightwood is struggling with the idea of finally announcing his role as co-designer. When Magnus Bane strolls into his life, Alec is torn between keeping his secret or throwing all caution to the wind.

This fic was created for the Malec Discord Mini Bang 2020.

Chapter 15: Blinded by the colours

Magnus couldn’t breathe.

Isabelle was at his side, rubbing soothing circles into his back and reminding him that he couldn’t back out now, and he couldn’t breathe. The only reason he was still standing was because he couldn’t ruin his outfit, not when he knew how much the show meant to Alexander and Clary.

Magnus would have to be walking down the runway in twenty minutes, but he wasn’t even sure he remembered how to walk. Isabelle had assured him that Andrew and Emily were going through a similar nervous breakdown in their own corner of the changing rooms, but Magnus wasn’t sure she understood how big this event was for him.

He was modelling for the first time in front of hundreds of important people – including some of his ex-corkers – and he was doing so for Alexander’s collection. The collection the man he loved had designed with Magnus in mind. On top of that, this was the night Magnus finally gathered the courage to apologise to Alexander and tell him that he loved him without getting interrupted.

He wasn’t sure an event had ever mattered as much to him as this fashion show did.

“Magnus, I understand why you’re freaking out, but you need to pull it together sooner rather than later,” Isabelle urged him, tightening her hold on him when he stumbled slightly in an attempt to move. “Why don’t we go see the other models, huh? The night is going to be stressful enough as it is, so maybe a bit of time spent with our colleagues will help you relax before the show. Just… forget about the things you’ll have to do in a little while.”

It wasn’t a bad idea, even though Magnus wasn’t sure he could get his mind off the show or Alexander. He had been incapable of thinking about anything else for days, and he didn’t see that changing anytime soon. However, he wasn’t going to deny Isabelle such a simple favour. If she wanted him to talk to the other models, that was exactly what he would do.

“See! I told you Magnus would be just as nervous!” Magnus narrowed his eyes at Aline as he reached the group. He knew he looked like hell, but he really didn’t need another reminder. “No offence, Magnus. I’m sure you’re going to do wonderful out there tonight, but you’re not the only one who needs support and reassurance.”

“You already know people love you,” Andrew nodded, looking panicked and wild and slightly unhinged. “The first issue you released was a success and you’re the only thing anyone can talk about. We, on the other hand, are just some unknown models who can’t afford to screw this up.”

Emily nodded agreeably from her seat on the floor, looking up at Magnus with anxiety written all over her features.

“We had to send someone to get their significant others,” Maia whispered to Magnus and Isabelle as the other models fussed over their two nervous colleagues. “They seem determined to go through with the show so we’re not worried about that, but the last thing we want is someone passing out from sheer anxiety. Do you want us to find someone for you, too?”

“I should already have-”

Before he could finish his sentence, a ball of energy and brown hair came hurtling into his legs, rustling the fabric and almost knocking him over in the process. As much as Magnus wanted to be annoyed at his goddaughter for disregarding his ‘don’t mess with the outfit’ rules, he was far too relieved by her appearance to say anything.

“Madzie,” Catarina tutted, shaking her head at her daughter as she leaned in to kiss Magnus’ cheek. “You’d better hope those pants are still spotless, because I’m pretty sure Magnus’ team isn’t going to accept anything less than perfection.”

Behind Magnus, Maia and Isabelle made matching noises of agreement. If the giggles Madzie let out was anything to go by, they were also pulling faces at the little girl to get on her good side. Ever since Magnus had introduced Madzie to the models and the rest of the fashion team, they had all started harassing him with questions about his goddaughter. He knew she was cute, but she was also not theirs, for heaven’s sake.

“How are you feeling?” Catarina asked him once Madzie had detached herself from him and ran off with one of the girls.

“Not great,” Magnus laughed nervously. “I mean, I know I’ve got the modelling part down since Lydia and Raphael have been coaching me non-stop for months, but- I don’t know, I’m starting to wonder if I should just call everything else off. What if he hates it, Cat?”

“He won’t hate it,” his best friend huffed, shaking Magnus’ shoulders gently. “You pulled off this plan in less than two weeks, and it’s one of the sappiest, most romantic things I have ever had the pleasure of participating in. Is it slightly embarrassing? Yes, but all the best grand gestures are, especially when the recipient is as big a romantic as your man apparently is.”

Magnus knew that. He had thought about that every step of the way, every time he had started doubting himself. Isabelle had assured him that Alec would love the gesture, and he had believed in her. Had believed in himself and his knowledge of what Alexander did and didn’t like. Now, though, he couldn’t help but feel like he had gone completely overboard.

What if Alec didn’t want him back? What if he thought Magnus was trying too hard? What if he wrote him off as desperate? No matter how kind and compassionate Alec was, even he had to have his limits, right?

“Magnus?”

Oh no. No, absolutely not.

Magnus was stressed enough as it was; the last thing he needed was Lorenzo fucking Rey to show up at his work place looking smarmy. How on earth had the man even gotten in?

“Hey, babe,” Andrew cut through Magnus’ thoughts, pecking Lorenzo’s cheek and smiling dopily at the man, looking far less worried than he had seconds earlier. “Thank you for coming here, especially considering- Just… thank you. So, do you and Magnus know each other?”

“We used to work together,” Lorenzo answered easily, looking Magnus up and down confusedly. “At Fade Medias. I thought you had moved to Lightwood Enterprises for a job as Head Editor, Magnus, not as a model. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a model, but it’s a little out of character for you.”

“Is it?” Magnus raised his eyebrows, finally snapping out of his daze. “I think it suits me rather well. And I’m more than capable of handling two jobs at once, Lorenzo. My position as Head Editor is secure even when I’m on another floor, and I’m far from the only person in the department to work as a model.”

“Magnus is great at what he does,” Andrew nodded along to Magnus’ words, earning himself an irritated look from Lorenzo – his date? Boyfriend? “We all just wish he would take a little more time for himself on the side, since he’s always so busy working.”

“That’s me,” Magnus chuckled, smirking slightly at Lorenzo’s guilty look. “Always working harder than anyone else. Maybe that’s why I missed the fact that the two of you are dating. How long has this been going on?”

“A few weeks?” Andrew shrugged. “It’s still pretty recent, but I’d like to think it’ll last a while longer.”

As soon as Lorenzo turned to stare down smittenly at his boyfriend, Magnus knew it was time for him to leave. There were a lot of things he could handle in life, but his ex-boss who had always treated him like crap acting like a love-sick fool wasn’t one of them. Instead, he turned back to the rest of the fashion team and smiled as he spotted a familiar figure embracing Emily.

“Julie!” He greeted the writer, his smile widening when the woman waved at him without turning away from her girlfriend. “I see that the comforting crew has entered the building. Feeling better about the show now, Em?”

“She’d better be feeling better about the show,” Julie huffed, twisting herself around so she was leaning back against Emily, her head resting on the brunette’s shoulder and Emily’s arms wrapped around her waist. “Because she knows she’s beautiful, isn’t that right? And you’re going to do so well, baby; you could just stand there and people would cheer for you. You’ve all been getting ready for months, and there’s no reason for any of you to fail.”

She looked straight at Magnus during that last part, raising her eyebrows at him knowingly, as if she had been aware of just how much he needed to hear something like that. In the meantime, Emily had turned a bright red and had buried her face in her girlfriend’s hair, which Magnus took as his cue to leave the loving couple alone.

“You’re going to be great out there, Em,” he said as he left, patting the brunette’s shoulder reassuringly before grinning widely at Julie. “And you, keep her out of trouble for the next ten minutes or so, alright? Go talk to the other gays in the room – yes, I’m aware that’s just about everyone – and distract her for as long as possible. Thank you for coming.”

“Anything for my baby,” Julie smiled softly, kissing Emily’s temple. “But you’re welcome. Don’t worry about her, I’ll make sure she’s fine, and I’ll see you at work on Monday. Good talking to you, boss.”

Magnus rolled his eyes at the appellation but didn’t bother correcting the blonde woman. He had learned very early on during his time at Lightwood Media that most of his employees would call him whatever they wanted to, whenever they wanted to. Unfortunately for him, he liked Julie enough to let her get away with it.

“And he’s smiling! What a miracle!” Isabelle exclaimed, beaming as Magnus joined her and Clary’s side again. The redhead looked stunning in her emerald and gold dress, and she seemed to be well aware of it. Magnus had never seen her look so confident before.

“I have to be out soon, Magnus, but I just wanted you to know that I think your plan is going to work just fine,” Clary said impassively, even though Magnus could see a sparkle of excitement and eagerness in her eyes. “And of course, I’ll do my best not to screw it up. Isabelle gave me instructions and I intend to follow them, if that makes you feel any better.”

It did, and Magnus didn’t hesitate to express his gratefulness to the redhead. A part of him had worried that she would mess things up for him out of pure spite or pettiness, but he should have known that the woman Isabelle loved wouldn’t do something like that.

“Well then,” Clary continued, grinning widely. “Showtime.”

***

The lights dimmed, and Alec’s heart rate sped up considerably. The ambiant music was turned off, and he tried to remember how to breathe. The audience quieted, a spotlight was aimed at Clary, and a veil of anxiety draped over his skin.

His best friend looked beautiful, dressed in greens and golds and – unknown to the attendees – reds, although those were hidden underneath layers and layers of fabric. Even though Clary had taken care of dozens of fashion shows in the past, Alec thought she had never looked so radiant.

The final reveal was always a moment of joy for the team, and doubly so for the designers, but this was… this was something else. This was the collection that had granted Clary love, and it was the collection that would lead to Alec’s first step into the limelight. They had practised this exact moment hundreds of times, and yet Alec still wasn’t sure he was ready for the chaos that would ensue.

“You’re going to be wonderful out there tonight,” his mother murmured, her eyes never straying from Clary’s graceful figure.

They were both hidden behind two thick curtains at the back of the runway, waiting for Alec’s turn to shine – or to fail, depending on how things went. Alec couldn’t have been more thankful for his mother’s presence; as fragile as their relationship was, he had to admit it was nice to have someone at his side whilst he waited to do the single most terrifying thing he’d ever done in his life.

“You can’t know that,” Alec whispered back, almost bouncing on his toes as he waited for Clary to start speaking. He knew timing was of the greatest importance, but he also just wanted this to be over with already. The sooner they could get the show started, the sooner they could get it finished, and the sooner he could reveal himself and get rid of the horrible anxiety clawing at his chest. “You can’t know how I’ll be. There’s a good chance I’ll freeze on the spot and forget everything I wanted to say. The only speeches I’ve held in the past few years have been business-related, and this is- This is different.”

“It matters more,” his mother hummed, smiling at him softly when he turned to her with wide eyes. “I’m not stupid, Alec. I know you care far more about these clothes you design than you do about the company itself. You’re a great CEO, but you’re an extraordinary designer.”

Alec’s heart stuttered at his mother’s words, still unfamiliar no matter how many times she’d said them in the past two weeks. Despite all his worries, he couldn’t help but perk up slightly at the praise. It reminded him of what Clary had told him once, when they were still young designers who had no idea how successful they were going to be.

Everyone had been pushing Alec to give up, to stick to business and forget about his art, but his best friend had taken him aside and asked him one, very important question.

If you had to choose, if you had to pick one thing you wanted to do forever, could you honestly tell me you would pick business? You’ll be a good CEO once you’ve fixed your father’s messes, Alec, but you could be a spectacular designer.

After that, he had never thought about quitting the job of his dreams ever again. He loved his colours, his partnership with Clary, and the support of the fashion team far too much for that. Now, he was going to get to share all of that with the rest of the world. He would be able to tell them that the only reason he was still a designer was because of the people around him.

That thought was enough to have him cracking a smile despite the stress he was currently under. He had chosen this life and he refused to be ashamed of it.

Clary reached the front of the runway, curtsied with a light giggle, and opened her mouth to speak just as the thunder of applause died down. A golden hue illuminated her from behind, and Alec could see various members of the audience gaping at his best friend.

“Good evening, everyone,” the redhead started, the smile evident in her voice even though Alec couldn’t see it from his position. “Thank you all for coming tonight and thank you for showing support for our latest collection even before its release. We at Lightwood Fashions are delighted to finally be able to present what we view as our greatest accomplishment to date. We hope for this spring collection to be the beginning of a new leaf for our brand and couldn’t be prouder of the pieces we will be showcasing today.”

Her speech sounded scripted – her speech was scripted – but Alec could hear the pride and joy in Clary’s voice as she spoke. She may have been working on her words for weeks, but Alec knew they still meant as much to her now as they did when she first put them down on paper.

“In honour of this new leaf, my co-designer and myself have decided to rename our own personal brand, or more specifically to correct your assumptions about our brand,” Clary continued seamlessly, glancing behind her and smiling when their brand’s logo – a simple L intertwined with an F – appeared behind her. Everyone had always assumed the letters stood for Lightwood Fashions, but Alec could have never done his best friend so dirty; “We present to you today, after a brief note from my co-designer, the Lightwood-Fray 2021 spring collection.”

There was a moment of silence as the audience members turned towards each other with considering and calculating eyes, but enthusiastic clapping broke out as Clary grinned brightly before moving towards the runway’s entrance, heading straight for Alec and Maryse.

As she approached them, Alec realised what her exit meant and almost broke into a bout of hysteria right then and there. He wouldn’t be appearing on stage for another hour or so at least, since he had decided to wait until the end of the show to actually step out, but he had also…

“Good evening,” his recorded voice rang out in the show room, startling a few attendees as they looked around for the source of the sound. “By now, I’m sure Clary has told you all about what the collection means for our company and for our brand. However, before the show can start, I thought it would be important for all of you to understand what it means to us, as individuals.”

Alec could have heard a needle drop in the complete silence that followed the start of his speech, and only Clary’s hand squeezing his fingers tightly stopped him from panicking about the entire plan. She had promised him it would go fine; the silence was just a result of the audience’s shock, not of their horror. It was just shock, and he couldn’t even blame them. After all, he had been trying to shock them.

“It’s no secret that, at times, designers and artists find a muse,” recorded-Alec continued, sounding far more smooth than real-Alec could have managed at that moment. Thank god for Clary and her wonderful idea to let him work up to an on-stage speech. “For the first time in our lives, Clary and I have both found that person who inspires us to try more things, to expand our horizons, to be more. The spring collection is an ode to a new page in our careers, but it’s also the physical demonstration of the love we have been given.”

In the end, it had been impossible for Alec to cut Magnus out of the picture, no matter how afraid he was of rejection and mockery. He hadn’t been lying when he had told Magnus that he was his muse, and he would be damned if he didn’t give the other man the credit he deserved.

Besides, just because the two of them were no longer together didn’t mean Alec couldn’t still love him. Angel, did he love him.

“The first time Clary met her muse, she hated her,” the recording went on, sounding amused and light as Alec always did when he thought about Clary and his sister. “But through it all, the two of them have always meant something to each other, and now they mean more to each other than ever. It was all too easy for her to design half a collection solely for the woman she loves, be it through magnificent designs or shapes or fabrics or colour suggestions.”

Next to him, Clary smiled shakily, looking towards the models’ changing room doors with tears of joy in her eyes. Alec knew that, had she been given the choice, Isabelle would have been right there with them, probably crying over the words Alec had spoken for Clary. Before he could so much as hug his best friend, however, his voice rose again and he scrunched his eyes closed as tightly as he could manage.

“The first time I met my muse, I thought he was the most beautiful person I had ever seen,” Alec’s voice said softly. Alec wondered if his love for Magnus was as obvious to everyone else as it was to him. “Hell, I still do. He shines brighter than anyone I’ve ever met, and I painted him onto every outfit we created, even though nothing could match his magnificence. He’s the reason behind all the colours I added to this collection; he’s the person who gave me the courage to truly step out of my comfort zone.”

He wondered how Magnus would take the entire speech. Would he disregard it and follow Alec’s earlier instructions of leaving him alone? Or would he understand that this was the only way Alec could express his feelings without feeling like he was drowning? This was the closest thing to a love confession Magnus would get, and if he still didn’t want to talk to Alec after this… Well, Alec wasn’t going to fight forever.

Next to him, Clary smiled gently and knocked their shoulders together in a silent show of support. Alec had never loved her more.

“This collection is as much a matter of fashion as it is a matter of the heart, and I hope it’ll show in the final product,” recording-Alec concluded, sounding as nervous and excited as Alec currently felt. “Thank you for coming on this journey with us tonight, and I hope you enjoy the view.”

The audio cut off, and the room burst into a wave of whispers as the audience connected the voice to Alec’s. He wondered if they knew what it meant or if some of them were still fooling themselves into believing Alec was nothing more than a substitute speaker.

The dim lights turned off completely, and Alec completely forgot about the attendees’ reactions to his little speech. He would have plenty of time to worry about that later, when he was fielding off questions and handsy reporters. For now, his newly found fame and identity were the least of his worries.

He hadn’t been kidding when he had announced that this collection was as much about fashion as it was about the heart – about love. He may not have designed all the clothes in it, and he may have had Clary’s help and council on every single piece, but it didn’t make it any less valuable. He and his best friend had poured their entire souls into the final show, and he would be damned if he didn’t watch every single second of it.

“I have to go,” Clary whispered as the models moved around to their left, getting ready to step onto the runway and do the one thing they had been preparing to do for months. “I know you wanted us to watch the show together, but the models needed my help with something and I promised I wouldn’t disappoint them.”

Alec frowned, wondering what on earth could justify his best friend’s sudden disappearing act, but he knew better than to ask. If Clary had wanted him to know more than the basic facts, she would have told him. Besides, there was a good chance that when she said models, she meant Magnus, and Alec really wasn’t ready to face the man quite yet.

“You’ll be back for the end of the show, right?” Alec frowned, thinking about the plan they had put in place. “Because there’s no way I’m going out there without my co-designer. We’re in this together, Fray, and I will fight you if you try to run away.”

“Why run away?” Clary smiled. “I have nothing to be afraid of. But yes, I promise I’ll be back for the end of the show. I wouldn’t miss it for the world, and my deal with the models should end before we make our grand entrance. Or is it a grand exit? Either way, I’ll be there.”

“Perfect,” Alec nodded. “Then off you go. I’ll be joining the fashion team in a second, I just want to make sure the beginning of the show goes off without a hitch.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Clary waved his statement away. “Seriously, they have it under control. We didn’t want to say anything in case we needed you last minute, but everyone agreed that you should enjoy the show instead of having to work again. I know a part of you wants to join the team to make sure everything is going off without a hitch but trust me on this. You’ll want to see what comes next.”

Once again, Alec didn’t question his best friend’s words. He did want to join the rest of the team, but he wanted to see what Clary was helping them with even more. So as she walked away, he dutifully stayed in his ideal viewing spot and shuffled nervously from foot to foot, wondering what on earth was about to happen.

Before he could worry or wonder too much, a single spotlight was pointed straight at Clary, who had somehow made it to the side of the runway and was grinning brightly at the crowd. Clearly, whatever the models had needed wasn’t a bad thing. Clary was many things, but able to cover up her emotions wasn’t one of them.

Then she spoke, and Alec’s mind went blank.

***

In front of Magnus, Emily and Andrew took a deep breath, letting their remaining tension melt from their shoulders. Next to him, Isabelle smiled reassuringly and smoothed her clothes over one last time.

She looked beautiful in her almost-sheer flowery blouse and ripped jeans, and although Magnus knew the audience was mostly there for the high-end part of the collection, he was certain the general public would love the more casual side of the collection. Clary and Alec had truly outdone themselves, creating something affordable for people to enjoy, and Magnus couldn’t have been prouder to represent their brand.

“So these are the colours you think of when you think about the beginning of yours and Alec’s relationship, huh?” Isabelle asked him quietly, gesturing at their little group of models. The ten of them were dressed in warm hues, from oranges to dark yellows to burnt pinks, and Magnus wondered if Alec’s colours resonated as deeply with everyone else as they did with him.

Probably not, but perhaps that was the point.

“I think about every colour when I think of Alec,” Magnus shrugged, the rainbow and white outfit flashing in his mind, “but these ones do remind me of first meetings and longing and all those wonderful things one feels at the beginning of a relationship.”

“Can’t relate,” Isabelle chuckled, winking at Magnus as she gestured towards Clary.

The redhead had made it to the side of the runway, and Magnus could barely contain his impatience. She knew what she had to do, and he had complete faith in her ability to make sure everything went off without a hitch, but a part of him still itched to check up with her one more time.

Before he could so much as move, however, a spotlight was directed towards the back of the runway, right where Kaelie and Meliorn were waiting, and Magnus knew it was too late. The show was about to begin, and the most he could do now was wait and be the perfect model the fashion team had trained him to be.

“Naming collections has never been me and my partner’s strong suit,” Clary started, chuckling along with the crowd. It was no secret that the designers’ one and only attempt at naming their creations hadn’t gone well, hence why they had stuck to nameless collections up until that point. “Thankfully, a good friend of mine has incredible insight on this collection’s meaning and was able to name these outfits to perfection.”

Magnus’ breath hitched as he looked around at his fellow models. His colleagues and friends were looking at him proudly, expectantly, and Magnus let their confidence fill his heart and mind. They believed in him, so there was no reason for this to go wrong.

“This spring collection is, in many ways, a story,” Clary continued, her scripted words sounding more genuine than anything Magnus could have achieved. “And as many stories are, this one is about love. I won’t go into detail with all of you, but I’m sure you’ll understand what I mean once you see these designs. For now, please enjoy the beginning of our show with our first series of casual-wear designs, Quite Magical.”

Isabelle smiled approvingly and nudged Magnus’ side before schooling her features and straightening up, her gaze never straying from Emily’s back. Magnus quickly copied her and let the model mentality his friends had taught him about take over his movements.

By the time it was his and Isabelle’s turn to step out – they were the last of the group – Magnus felt sure enough that he wouldn’t collapse as soon as he walked into the light. The audience seemed to be enjoying the first round of outfits, Clary was biting down on her bottom lip to keep in a grin, and Magnus couldn’t mess any of this up.

He couldn’t remember a single second of his first walk down the runway. He knew he had done a good job, since that was the only thing Isabelle had told him before racing to get her second outfit on, but his mind had seemingly decided to black the entire experience out when he tried to recall the walk.

Thankfully, he really didn’t have the time to over-analyse what had just happened, since he was already stripping out of his clothes and stepping into his next pant-shirt combo. He had to walk out in casual, flowery outfits three times before moving onto the part of the show he was most looking forward to, and he couldn’t help but hope that time could move slightly faster.

No matter how eager he was, however, he made sure that his performance remained impeccable and professional every time he stepped onto the runway. He didn’t falter, didn’t let his eyes stray to where they definitely wanted to go, and kept a polite and charming smile plastered on his face every time the cameras went off.

By the time the haute couture outfits were up, Magnus didn’t even have to fake his smile. He loved his job as an editor and wouldn’t give it up for the world, but he had to admit there was a certain thrill about going on stage and showing off outfit after outfit to the audience. Now he understood why Isabelle kept up her hectic schedule year-round; for an experience like that, Magnus would easily give up on a proper night’s sleep.

He slipped into his peacock-like outfit with a grin splitting his features. This was one of his favourite outfits, the greens and blues and golds clearly meant for him, and he had been dying to see the audience’s reactions to it – as well as to Isabelle’s peacock dress.

Clary announced the beginning of their Cryptic and Coy outfits, and Magnus got back in position behind Andrew again. Beside him, Isabelle looked radiant and confident in her long, sleeveless gown, and Magnus had to bite back a burst of delighted laughter as they stepped onto the stage.

The attendees turned to stare at Isabelle and him appreciatively, and Magnus wondered if they had any idea what they were looking at. He wondered if they understood how many meaningful glances Alec and he had exchanged, wondered if they saw them in the colours Magnus was draped in, wondered if any of them could see the memories of their first date Alec had hidden in the shirt’s layers.

They probably couldn’t, just as they probably couldn’t recognise their first kiss in the purples and golds Magnus wore when Clary announced the Lose Control series. There was no way any of the audience members could tell how much desire and longing were represented in those colours, but Magnus didn’t care. He didn’t care, because they were smiling and clapping, and he knew what the colours meant.

“Magnus!” Madzie called out as he stepped off the runway for his third-to-last outfit.

She looked beautiful, dressed in a miniature version of the dress Clary had designed for Isabelle. The blues and golds made her skin and eyes stand out, and Magnus couldn’t help but hope she would be allowed to keep it after the show. He was sure she would love nothing more than to wear such a pretty dress to costume parties.

“Mom says I look like a princess,” she giggled, taking his hand and bouncing on her heels excitedly. Magnus let go of her hand and went behind the curtain reserved for his quick changes. He took off his previous outfit – a mostly-open shirt painted in silvers and blues – and quickly changed into the much more formal blue and gold suit Alec had designed after their date at the pier. “But I told her I wasn’t a princess at all. Do you think she should get her eyes checked? That’s what she always tells me when I say something stupid.”

Magnus chuckled at his goddaughter’s antics and shook his head fondly at her as one of the hairstylists fidgeted with his hair before shooing both him and Madzie back towards the runway.

“I think your mother just needs to learn more about the difference between princesses and other magical, beautiful ladies,” Magnus whispered as he nodded at Isabelle. She would be stepping out a little before them so they didn’t risk anything with Madzie on stage, but she still took the time to coo at Madzie’s dress. “And I’m sure that the Sorcery theme tipped her off as to what you really are.”

“Alec’s favourite sorceress!” The little girl grinned, obediently settling down when Magnus shushed her and tightened his grip on her hand before leading them out and onto the stage.

The crowd went utterly silent for a second before bursting into ‘aw’s and ‘ooh’s at Madzie’s appearance. The little girl looked around shyly for a few moments before catching up to Magnus’ quicker strides and smiling prettily at the audience members. She even started waving at someone to their left as they made their way to the end of the runway, which Magnus found odd for all of thirty seconds before he noticed who she had been gesturing at.

As he walked back to the back on the runway, his gaze crossed Alec’s. The man had been standing behind the curtains when the show had started, of that Magnus was sure, but now… Now he was sitting in the front row with his mother to his left and Jace to his right. He looked like he couldn’t remember how to breathe, staring at Madzie and Magnus with wide, impressed eyes, and Magnus felt weak in the knees.

He barely made it back to the changing rooms, and he was almost convinced Madzie had had to drag him for the last few feet. The only reason he snapped out of his daze was because he knew the next two outfits were the most important ones, both for the show and for him. He couldn’t mess it up when he was so close to the finish line.

“Alec gave me a thumb’s up, Magnus!” Madzie giggled happily as Magnus took off his suit and exchanged it for another, this one red and black and decorated in a thousand little jewels.  “That means I did good, right?”

“It means you did great, little sorceress,” Magnus grinned back at her, swallowing down his nervousness as he remembered what, exactly, he had named this particular series of red and pink clothes. Perhaps he should have thought it over some more before giving the list to Clary for approval. “I’m sure Alec will find you and congratulate you for your performance later. You could be a great model someday.”

“I don’t want to be a model,” the little girl shrugged. “But you’re an amazing model, Uncle Magnus. Mom thinks so, and I think so, and I think Alec thinks so too. He was looking at you the same way you always look at him, which means he must love you, right?”

“That’s what I’m hoping for,” Magnus answered diplomatically, not wanting to get in an argument with Madzie about love when he needed to be back on the runway in less than five minutes.

Clary was already announcing Aku Cinta Kamu, technically the last series of outfits in the collection, which meant Kaelie and Meliorn were about to step on stage. It also meant Magnus had to get the hell back to Isabelle before the brunette tore him a new one.

“I’m trusting you with her,” he told his hairstylist, pointing at Madzie. “Her mother should be around in less than three minutes, but I need to get going now. I love you, sweet pea, and you were wonderful out there. I’ll see you later, alright?”

“Alright!” Madzie smiled, waving at him as he rushed back to the runway and took his rightful spot next to Isabelle, who raised his eyebrows at him, looking decidedly unimpressed.

“Cutting it short for the ones that matter, I see,” she snarked, snapping her mouth shut as Lydia gestured for Emily and Andrew to step out. “But for the record, who even knows what Aku Cinta Kamu means?”

Lydia shushed them before Magnus could answer, so he ignored his friend’s question and focused on the runway instead, wondering if Alec had ever gone through and found out more about Magnus’ language. He had said he would, but they hadn’t been together very long and there was a good chance the designer had been joking around to begin with.

However, as he walked down the runway with Isabelle a few steps ahead of him and let his gaze stray to Alexander, he knew the man had done exactly what he said he would. There were tears in his eyes and he was looking at Magnus like he couldn’t quite believe that he was real.

As though Magnus had been the one to design an entire collection after him and publicly call him his muse. As though Magnus telling him he loved him mattered even more than that. Magnus still couldn’t quite believe he had someone as extraordinary as Alec in his life, and he was finding it even harder to believe that Alec thought he was the extraordinary one.

He couldn’t remember anything from his walk down the runway other than Alec’s eyes on him, steady and warm and as beautiful as when Magnus had first seen them. He wasn’t sure how he had managed to tear his gaze away from the designer long enough to smile for the cameras, but he was pretty sure he deserved an award for that.

By the time he made it back to his changing room to put on his final – and most important outfit – he was shaking with nerves. Alec’s awed smile and teary-eyed gaze seemed to point at a happy ending for the both of them, but he couldn’t be sure yet. He couldn’t get his hopes up before he got a clear answer, so he would go through with the end of his plan and pray.

Isabelle appeared behind him, dressed in her magnificent white dress covered in a rainbow of sparkling reflections, and Magnus breathed in deeply.

He could do this.

***

Alec was frozen in his seat, unable to do more than stare dumbly at the runway as his sister stepped out in the beautiful dress Clary had designed for her – with minimal help from Alec.

He was still reeling from the previous outfits, a whisper Aku Cinta Kamu looping in his mind and making his heart beat faster than ever. He had known, of course, that Magnus loved him. He had known that the other man wouldn’t change his mind in less than a month, just as Alec hadn’t been able to change his. Love had never been the issue, not for Alec.

He realised now that love should have been the only issue. He shouldn’t have cared about the secrets or the white lies or the mistakes, because he loved Magnus and Magnus – for some inconceivable reason – loved him back. That should have been enough from the very start.

If watching Magnus walk down that runway in that outfit had taught Alec anything, it was that Magnus had always been enough. After all, why else would Alec have designed that outfit as soon as he had realised he was falling for the other man? Why else would he have missed the journalist so much over the past few weeks? Why else would he have found it impossible to look away from Magnus?

Even now, as his sister smiled for the cameras and displayed one of his favourite dresses for the world to see, he couldn’t think of anything but Magnus. He wondered if he had given this last outfit a name too, or if he – just like Alec – thought the white ensemble couldn’t be translated into words. And more than anything, he wondered if this entire affair meant what Alec thought it did.

Maybe he hadn’t been the only one with a plan for the night. Good thing for Magnus, it seemed like their plans aligned quite well with one another.

His thoughts came to a screeching halt as Isabelle stepped off the runway and a single spotlight appeared right where the models came out. Even knowing what was going to come next, even having seen Magnus in the outfit before, Alec still lost his breath when the man he loved walked onto the runway looking more beautiful than ever.

The last time Alec had seen Magnus in the white outfit, he had been too busy with Clary and Izzy’s love life as well as his own heartbreak to focus on how well it suited Magnus. Now, though… Magnus swayed down the runway, a small smile curling at his lips as he glanced over at Alec, and the designer wondered if it was possible to fall in love with someone twice.

Magnus glistened in the spotlight, his white shirt gleaming brightly in a rainbow of colours as he twirled around for the audience. Alec had always thought of Magnus as the sun, all golden skin and golden eyes and golden heart. Staring at him now, though, he couldn’t help but wonder if Magnus had been an angel in disguise all along.

He looked stunning in white, and Alec vowed to design him a hundred other outfits like this one. He wanted to admire Magnus under every light, in every room of their studio and from every angle of his bed. He wanted to see the sparkling shirt torn open and exposing Magnus’ bare chest. He wasn’t sure why he had chosen to design this outfit, couldn’t remember when he had decided to make it the final and central piece of the collection, but he knew he couldn’t have made a better choice.

Magnus reached the end of the runway and stopped completely, wringing his hands behind his back in a way that made Alec sit up in anticipation. He knew Magnus, and he knew the other man only ever fidgeted when he was about to do something out of the ordinary.

Rattling Magnus’ nerves wasn’t an easy feat, which meant that whatever he had in mind went against all of his instincts. Alec could relate. After all, he was almost certain Magnus was about to give a speech that would bring Alec to tears, and the designer had a similar one planned as soon as the models were done with their part of the show.

The reminder of what Alec was going to have to do threatened to choke him with a wave of anxiety, but he pushed it back down and focused on Magnus instead. If Magnus could do this – whatever this was – then so could Alec.

The music stopped, Clary left her spot besides the runway to disappear in the background, and Magnus opened his mouth. The crowd held its collective breath, and Alec shifted in his seat.

“Good evening, everyone,” Magnus started, echoing Clary’s and Alec’s words from earlier. He sounded sure of himself, although Alec could see the way his fingertips trembled slightly. “I know it isn’t conventional for a model to take centre stage and steal the limelight from the wonderful designers who created the collection, but I’m afraid you’re all going to have to bear with me for a few minutes.”

A few chuckles echoed around the room, and Alec was pleased to find that no one tried to complain about Magnus’ little interruption. He would have quickly shut them down as the fashion show’s organiser if it had happened, but he was glad that everyone was behaving – for now.

“For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Magnus Bane,” the model continued, looking surer of himself by the second. “I’m the Head Editor over at Lightwood Media, but I currently work as a model for what I believe is the greatest collection this country has seen all year, if not more than that. The Lightwood-Fray fashion team is one of the best teams I have ever worked for, and I have never been more grateful to be a part of something.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Alec could spot the fashion team – Clary included – peeking around the corner of the runway with smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes. Even Isabelle, who Alec assumed had helped Magnus organise his plan, seemed to be biting back a sob.

“I’m also the one who helped the lovely Clarissa Fray come up with names for this wonderful collection. They might have been a little bit sappy, but I won’t apologise for the reason behind all these names,” Magnus said, his voice wobbling as his gaze briefly skipped to Alec. “Because no matter how great working with the team has been, nothing could ever compare to what I feel for Alexander Lightwood. You may only know him as the company’s CEO, may think he’s a little bit dull or arrogant or self-centred, but the truth is…”

He cut himself off then, fully angling his body towards Alec and abandoning all pretence of speaking to the rest of the crowd. Hopefully, they would take the grand gesture for what it was and not interrupt Magnus, because Alec really wanted to know where this was going.

He had an idea, of course, but he needed to hear Magnus say it, and he needed to hear him say it now, preferably.

“The truth is, Alexander is one of the most amazing people I have ever met,” Magnus murmured, his voice crystal clear in contrast to the rest of the room’s complete silence. “He may be a little rough on the outside, but aren’t we all? He’s far from perfect, but I have never met anyone who cares as much as Alec does about the people around him. I’ve never met anyone who can command a room without coming off as rude or selfish as well as he can. I’ve never met anyone so talented, beautiful, and worthy of love.”

Alec could feel tears rolling down his cheeks, but he didn’t even try to wipe them away. He had been dreaming of someone loving him enough to announce it to the rest of the world ever since he was a child and there Magnus was, fulfilling his dreams once again. Alec felt his heart swell more and more by the second, overwhelmed by his feelings for Magnus and the feelings Magnus seemed to have for him.

God, he loved this man. And he was going to make sure Magnus knew exactly how much Alec loved him as soon as he was given the chance to speak. He wouldn’t stand to see Magnus cry because of him for a single second more.

“So Alexander, know this,” Magnus added, seemingly fighting back tears of his own. “I may have loved your colours far before I loved you, darling, but I love you more than anything in the world. You are the most incredible man I have ever met, and I will never be able to properly express how sorry I am for ever hurting you. You deserve the world and, since I couldn’t give you that, I settled for second best. This show is a piece of your world, Alexander, and I hope you know how much I cherish it. How much I cherish you.”

As far as love confessions went, Alec wasn’t sure he had ever heard anything that could rival Magnus’ words. He knew he was biased and that his best friend would probably argue that Isabelle’s declaration had been just as beautiful, but Alec would have to politely disagree.

Magnus was still staring at him intently, his eyes shining brighter than his glimmering outfit, and Alec smiled through his tears. He knew it wasn’t nearly enough to make Magnus understand how much his words meant to Alec, but it was a start. The rest would have to wait a few minutes.

Thankfully, it seemed like Magnus got the message, because he nodded minutely before turning back towards the rest of the audience and executing an elegant and shallow bow.

“Thank you,” he said, before grinning mischievously and winking at the group of photographs. “Hopefully that was enough time for you to get the pictures you needed. Unsurprisingly, this is by far my favourite outfit of the bunch. And now I’ll let our wonderful designers finish their show the way they had planned.”

He sauntered away to a thunder of applause and confused murmurs, and Alec could feel more than a few stares aimed in his direction. He knew they were probably expecting him to run to Magnus but, as much as Alec wanted to do that, he did have a show to finish.

So instead of doing what he so desperately wanted to, he hurried to find Clary in the staff area, fumbling with his suit jacket as he walked. He had told himself he would get ready for his first official appearance as a co-designer during Isabelle and Magnus’ last performance, but he had been too transfixed to even remember that he had to go through an outfit change.

He got ready in record time, putting on the clothes Clary had designed for him and hoping the dress he had designed for her would match his outfit as perfectly as he’d hoped.

“Alec! There you are!” Clary exclaimed, looking Alec up and down a few times before nodding approvingly. “We need to be on stage in less than three minutes. Lydia managed to stall for us by answering a few exclusive questions, but we need to get on there as soon as possible. Are you ready to blow Magnus’ speech out of the water by making our own perfect confession?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Alec swallowed nervously. His hands felt sweaty and he knew he was trembling all over, but he refused to back out of this. “Let’s get this over with.”

“And remember,” Clary said softly, placing her hands on his shoulders and fixing him with a piercing glance. “This isn’t about Magnus. This isn’t about the audience. This isn’t about me. It’s about…”

“Me,” he completed for her. “I know.”

He hadn’t been sure, at first, but he knew Clary was right. He wasn’t revealing his secret to the world because he felt like he had to, or because he thought it would make Magnus love him more. He was doing it because he had been hiding for far too long, and he was sick of lying about his life.

He was proud of what he had accomplished, and he wouldn’t let fear get in the way of that. His mother believed in him, Clary believed in him, the fashion team believed in him… Hell, even Magnus believed in him. And more importantly, Alec was starting to believe in himself. He should have stopped letting other people’s expectations get in the way of his happiness years earlier, but better late than never.

With one more nod aimed mostly at himself, he took Clary’s hand in his and smiled at his best friend, feeling stronger now that she was next to him. They had been working on this for months, it would be fine.

Lydia stepped behind the curtain, and Alec led Clary out to a thunderous round of applause.

***

If there was one thing Magnus thought he had known about Alexander, it was that the man was the perfect epitome of tall, dark, and handsome. He had always had that look about him that had made Magnus swoon and honestly, the model hadn’t thought it could get any better.

Although Alec was still tall and handsome as he stepped onto the runway, fingers linked with Clary’s, Magnus was suddenly hit with the thought that he had been missing out on a big part of his boyfriend’s – ex-boyfriend’s – life. Dressed in clothes clearly designed by Clary and Alec themselves, light seemed to seep from Alexander’s very being.

His outfit was nowhere near as bright or flashy as Magnus’, and yet Magnus was almost certain he had never seen anyone shine so beautifully. His Alexander was draped in a thousand shades of blue sown together in a way that shouldn’t have worked but did, and threads of gold glimmered in the room’s artificial light, the perfect glimmering match to Magnus’ ensemble.

He knew that, were he to step onto that stage, Alec and he would clash horribly, and yet… yet he thought that in a way, they would look stunning. He hadn’t been lying when he had said that he loved Alexander for more than his colours, and he would ruin his own image a hundred times over if it meant he got to stand next to the man he loved.

He barely had the time to notice Clary’s emerald and gold dress before the pair of designers reached the end of the runway and visibly breathed in deeply, smiling as the crowd continued cheering them on. Magnus wondered, right then, how many people had already understood the significance behind Alec’s opening speech. He wondered how many of them had caught the clues in his own words. He wondered if they knew who they were clapping for.

And if so, he wondered why they weren’t clapping harder. Magnus wasn’t sure any amount of praise or recognition would ever live up to what Clary and Alec had created, but they could damn well try to give them at least a fragment of what they deserved.

“Thank you,” Clary started, grinning at the audience and catching Magnus’ gaze momentarily, seemingly unsurprised to find him in the crowd rather than backstage. “Thank you for coming and thank you for being patient and respectful throughout this evening. I know our show has had some… unconventional elements added to it, and I’m sure you’ll be glad to know it isn’t over yet.”

She glanced at Alec then, letting go of her best friend’s hand and taking a step to the side, leaving Alec alone in the limelight. She looked so proud, and Magnus wondered how hard it had been for her to have to hide her best friend from the public eye all along. Isabelle had seemed to think that Clary didn’t understand why it was important for Alec to reveal himself, but Magnus thought the brunette had it all wrong.

Clary stared at her best friend like her dreams were finally all coming true, like she had never been happier in her life. Her hands were loose at her sides, there was a small smile curling at her lips, and Magnus knew she had been waiting for this moment to arrive all along.

As confused as he had been at first, he now understood that Alec and his colours just… made sense. They worked in a way that Magnus couldn’t quite explain, and he couldn’t be happier that the man he loved had people at his side every step of the way.

“Good evening, everyone,” Alec started, cringing as soon as the words were out of his mouth. Magnus chuckled lightly, biting down on his bottom lip when the woman next to him sent him a sharp and reprimanding look. “I suppose I should say good evening again. I hope you all had a wonderful time tonight, and that you’ll consider investing in a few Lightwood-Fray pieces once they are released to the general public.”

He sounded nervous, and Magnus wanted nothing more than to wrap Alec up in his arms and never let him go. He wanted to tell him it would be alright, that he didn’t have to worry, that Magnus would be there no matter what everyone else thought.

Unfortunately, he knew going up on stage wasn’t an option, especially not given how much time he had already spent there, pouring his feelings for Alexander out into the world. But Alec was strong; if he had made it this far, Magnus knew he wouldn’t break. He would get everything off his chest and Magnus couldn’t wait to see it happen, couldn’t wait to take in everyone else’s reactions.

“Most of you know me as Lightwood Fashions’ CEO,” Alec said quietly, his voice ringing clearer than ever in the completely silent room. “And I am. I was always meant to take over one of my parents’ companies and, although most people expected me to take after my mother, here we are today. I know what the rumours are, you know? I’ve heard it all. I know I’m too dull for a fashion company, that it would have been better for Isabelle to take over, or that I’ll never be the icon everyone wants me to be. But I also know- I know that’s not all I am.”

Finally, finally, his eyes drifted to Magnus’, almost as though he couldn’t quite help himself. He looked lost and confused but so, so determined, and Magnus had never loved him more. Whatever Alexander had been looking for when his gaze had strayed to Magnus, he found it in less than ten seconds, breathing in deeply before speaking again.

The whole room was holding their breath, and the inner journalist in Magnus wanted nothing more than to be taking notes like the other reporters in attendance. But Alexander didn’t need Magnus the Head Editor at the moment; he needed Magnus, the man who was madly in love with him.

So, Magnus shoved his hands into his pockets and didn’t let his eyes leave Alec’s beautiful silhouette for a single second.

“When I took over for my father, no one thought I would last the week,” Alec continued, his eyes glazing over as he lost himself in memories. “I hadn’t even graduated from college, I didn’t have any interest in fashion, and I was too inexperienced. I heard the same questions over and over again; you’re too young, you don’t know what you’re doing, why would you even choose fashion? Frankly, I don’t blame any of you. If I had been in your place, I would have wondered the same things.”

But he hadn’t been in their place. He had always known fashion was where he belonged, and Magnus marvelled at the strength it must have taken the CEO to ignore everyone’s opinions and focus on himself instead. In his place, Magnus wasn’t sure he would have lasted a week.

“What you didn’t know back then, what no one knew – not even my own mother – was that I had already started studying fashion,” Alec added.

Magnus sat up in his seat as he realised what Alec was doing, what he was giving them. This wasn’t just him announcing his position to the world; this was him telling them about all the moments in his life that had made him into the man he was today.

“Clary and I met in college when both of us were struggling to find a connection to the courses we had picked. She was studying art but didn’t think it was exactly right for her, and I felt like my business plans weren’t what I had always dreamed of having. We found each other in the middle of madness and haven’t let go of each other since. I’m the one who signed us up to take a basic fashion class, but she’s the one who pushed me to keep going. Even back then, we were a team.”

Magnus wasn’t sure when he had started crying, but he supposed it was around the same time Clary had let out a quiet sob before stepping off stage, clearly struggling to keep her emotions in check. She had run straight into Isabelle’s arms, and Magnus felt another pang of longing shoot through his chest as he thought about doing the same thing for Alec.

“We’ve never stopped being a team since then,” Alec went on, his voice trembling and tears shining in his eyes as his words stumbled past his lips. “If you haven’t figured it out by now, I was Clary’s co-designer all along. We’ve been working on designs together since long before we joined the company, and I’m sure we’ll be doing it even once we’re old and grey and barely able to speak. So to all the people who thought I was too closed off or not honest enough, know that I’ve been sharing my colours with you for half a decade, and those colours mean the world to me.”

For a second, Magnus wondered if his speech had come to an end. He raised his hands to start clapping but stopped when Alec shook his head minutely, opening and closing his mouth a few times as though he were struggling to find the right words. Magnus wasn’t sure what Alexander wanted to add to his beautiful declaration, but he had a feeling it was even more important to the designer than his big reveal.

Alec’s eyes pierced through his soul, and Magnus held his breath.

“This part wasn’t planned, so bear with me,” Alec smiled crookedly, getting a few chuckles out of the audience. “However, I would be a fool not to say anything to the man who stood up here and gave me the romantic gesture of a lifetime. Magnus Bane is the most incredible man I have ever met and, no matter how many mistakes he’s made, I will never – never – cease to love him.”

Honestly, Magnus should have known better than to expect Alec to respond to his love declaration in private. He had known, going into this, that Alexander was the biggest romantic he had ever met, and he should have expected the designer to do something just as grand as what Magnus had done for him. Damned Lightwoods and their perfect minds.

“Magnus is the only muse I have ever had and, if I have it my way, he’ll be my muse forever,” Alec breathed out.

Magnus wasn’t even sure how he was hearing him above all the frantic whispers of the other audience members. Maybe he had just grown attuned to his boyfriend’s voice, or maybe he had just learned how to forget about everyone else when Alexander was nearby.

“He has made me the luckiest man alive by being part of my life, and I will never regret hiring him as our model. He has shown me that the world can be so much more than an office and an apartment, and I hope he knows that without him… Without him, this moment would have never happened. You give me courage, Magnus. You make me brave and bold and for that I will be forever grateful. Maybe dedicating an entire collection to you so early on in our relationship was a reckless idea, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way.”

Magnus knew they were making a spectacle of themselves, declaring their feelings for each other in front of an entire crowd, but he thought maybe that was what love was really about. Maybe love was about pushing their own boundaries and letting go of their fears just to prove that they cared for each other. It was terrifying – and Magnus would know, since he had been in Alec’s place less than twenty minutes earlier – but it was also mind-blowingly easy.

Because if there was one thing Magnus knew about his relationship with Alexander, it was that it mattered more than anything anyone might have to say about them.

“So, Magnus Bane, you may cherish me, but I…” Alec stumbled on his words, staring straight at Magnus and shaking his head slowly, as though he couldn’t quite pinpoint what he was trying to say. “I treasure you, because you are the most precious thing in my life. So thank you for loving my colours and thank you for loving me. I just hope I can give you even a morsel of what you’ve given me.”

Magnus let out a sob, and the crowd seemed to take it as a sign to start clapping. They cheered and whistled and patted Magnus on the back as though they knew exactly what he was going through, but Magnus only had eyes for his Alexander.

“Thank you for listening, and thank you again for coming to the show,” Alec concluded his little speech. “I know this isn’t exactly the conclusion you were all imagining, but I hope it didn’t ruin the experience for any of you. All questions about the collection should be directed to Lydia Branwell and Clary Fray for the rest of the night. I hope you all enjoy the rest of your evening.”

As soon as he stepped off the runway, the audience dissolved into a true ocean of chaos, and Magnus knew there was no chance he and Alec were going to have a real conversation in the midst of all the noise. He nodded at Isabelle and Clary briefly, tilting his head towards the staff area, and waited for a sign of their acknowledgement before slipping away from the rest of the crowd.

He was sure the after-show would be nice, but he had a man to find and kiss until neither of them could breathe. The rest of the world could wait.

***

“I’m sorry.”

Alec spun around faster than ever, letting his trembling fingers fall from his suit jacket as his gaze met Magnus’. The other man was still dressed in his white outfit, looking unfairly beautiful, and Alec shuffled uncomfortably as he tried - and failed - to resist the urge to reach out for Magnus.

He had his lips on Magnus’ less than a second later, sighing contentedly at the familiar feeling. He couldn’t believe he had survived two weeks without it. He kissed Magnus like a starving man, sucking at the other man’s bottom lip in a silent gesture for him to open up, and he was ready, so ready to taste Magnus again, but-

“Hey, Alec, hey,” Magnus pushed him away gently and raised his hand to cover Alec’s mouth. “We can’t do this right now, not yet. I need to… I need to apologise first, alright?”

“You don’t have to-” he started, only to be interrupted by a sharp gesture from Magnus. He snapped his mouth shut and waited for the model to get whatever he needed to off his chest.

“I’m sorry for lying to you,” Magnus continued, stepping closer to Alec and clenching his hands at his side, almost as though staying away was just as hard for him as for Alec. “I’m sorry for keeping things from you, I’m sorry for thinking I couldn’t trust you with my past, and I’m sorry for throwing your own hidden truths back in your face. I know now- I mean- What you did tonight was amazing, and I’m sorry that I took part of it away from you. You deserved to have your moment.”

“And I did,” Alec cut in, hoping his words sounded as genuine as he had meant them to. “I got my moment, Magnus, and I would have gotten it whether you knew about my position earlier or not. The thing is, I was… I was doing it for all the wrong reasons. Clary helped me realise that I couldn’t rely on you all the time, especially not for things that matter as much as this. I wasn’t lying when I said that you pushed me in the right direction, but I did this for myself more than anyone else.”

It had taken him a few days to come to peace with that, but as he stared at Magnus’ lips curl into a proud smile, he knew Clary had been right. He knew getting rid of the reveal just because things between him and Magnus hadn’t worked out would have been a ridiculous idea. Although, on that note…

“That was quite something you did out there,” Alec murmured, biting at his bottom lip as a dark blush overtook Magnus’ features. Alec wasn’t sure he had ever seen the other man so flustered, and he had to admit he didn’t dislike it in the slightest. “I know you’re not exactly a grand gesture kind of person when it comes to romance, so that must have been quite the experience.”

“In a way,” Magnus shrugged, staring intently at Alec. “But you’re a grand gesture kind of guy, so it was all worth the effort. You’re worth the effort, Alexander, no matter how big that effort may be.”

“Magnus…” Alec breathed out, glancing away from the model’s intense gaze and wondering what the protocol was for two people who still loved each other but were no longer together. Was there a proper method to getting back together? Were they supposed to say something? Was Alec supposed to…? “I’m sorry too.”

He blurted the words out before he could overthink his apology. He had worried about finding the right thing to say, but he knew Magnus would be perfectly content with the truth. They were done lying to each other, done changing themselves for the other. If they wanted this to work out, Alec’s apology needed to be completely sincere. Nothing more, nothing less.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he huffed when Magnus frowned at him confusedly. “Don’t act like you’re the only one to blame here. I know you think you’re the only one who messed up that night, but I was just as wrong as you were, Magnus. I should never have made you feel like you had to tell me everything. Your lie was… it wasn’t the best idea, but it wasn’t as big of a deal as I made it out to be. So I’m sorry for pushing you away at the first sign of trouble.”

“I went behind your back to ask about Clary’s co-designer,” Magnus pointed out, as though he needed to remind Alec of all the things he had done wrong. As though Alec hadn’t thought about them repeatedly over the past few weeks. “To ask about you.”

“You regretted it almost immediately,” Alec countered, knowing both from Isabelle and Magnus himself that the man would have done anything to take his questions back. “Izzy wasn’t the only drunk one that night, and you… You regretted it as soon as she gave you the answer you’d been looking for. I’m not saying what you did was right, but I forgive you. I forgave her, after all. I was never going to stay mad at you, Magnus, I just needed…”

“Time?” Magnus finished for him, smiling knowingly at Alec. “Yeah, I get that. And thank you, for not holding this against me. I mean, I had a feeling that you weren’t angry with me anymore, given what just happened out there, but it’s nice to get confirmation.”

They stared at each other for a few moments, neither of them moving and both of them waiting for the other to do something first. Alec had a feeling they could have stayed like that for hours if it weren’t for his lingering anxiety. He just needed to be certain; he needed to make sure that Magnus had been telling the truth earlier. He needed the man he loved back in his arms.

“I still love you,” he murmured, his eyes never leaving Magnus’. “I don’t think I could have stopped loving you even if I had wanted to. Look, I know we screwed up, alright? I know we proved we’re just like any other couple, capable of fighting and arguing and getting mad at each other, but… But that can’t be reason enough to give up completely, right? I love you, Magnus, and shouldn’t that be enough to try again?”

“We’d have to communicate better,” Magnus started, closing the remaining distance between Alec and him easily.

This time, Alec didn’t hesitate before taking the journalist’s hands in his own, rubbing soothing circles into Magnus’ soft flesh. He let his fingers run up and down Magnus’ arms, let himself enjoy the feeling of Magnus so close to him again, let himself breathe for the first time in weeks.

“No more secrets,” Alec added. “None that matter, at least. If something’s bothering us, we need to talk about it instead of shutting it behind layers and layers of anxious feelings.”

“And most importantly,” Magnus continued, the smirk on his lips tipping Alec off as to the nature of his next request. “You need to keep dedicating entire collections to me. I may have gotten a little bit used to this lifestyle and amount of attention to detail, so I’m not sure I could go back to how things used to be before. If you want to keep me in your life, I’m going to need a lot more clothes.”

“Is that so?” Alec raised his eyebrows, tapping at his chin as though he were truly thinking Magnus’ demand over. “I’m not sure… You see, collections take a lot of work, and I don’t think I could create that many clothes in your honour. Besides, you’d probably just get bored of it all after a while.”

“Objection!” Magnus scoffed, gesturing down at himself with an incredulous stare. “How on earth could I get bored of this, Alexander? This is the proof that you love me enough to use me as your muse, and I’m honestly not sure I could do any better than you after this. You’ve ruined love for me, darling. From now on, I’m going to accept nothing less than grand gestures and artistic declarations of feelings.”

“Thankfully for you, I don’t intend on letting you go any time soon,” Alec hummed softly, letting go of Magnus’ hands and looping his arms around the model’s waist instead, pulling him in until their bodies were pressed together. “You’re going to be stuck with me and my ridiculous gestures of romance for quite a while, so I don’t think you have anything to worry about on that front.”

“You seem awfully sure of yourself,” Magnus breathed out, his words ghosting against Alec’s lips as he leaned in closer, their noses bumping together at the movement. “Who’s to say I want to be stuck with you? A man who paints our love into colours and lets go of his fears to make me happy? How dull.”

Alec pinched the other man’s side and shook his head fondly before giving in to the urge to kiss Magnus again. He covered Magnus’ mouth with his own and swallowed the model’s pleased gasp as their lips slotted together perfectly. God, Alec had missed this. He had missed curling his hands around Magnus and drawing tiny sounds out of the man he loved. He had missed feeling Magnus’ tongue slide against his slowly, turning the both of them into puddles of heat. And more than anything, he had missed Magnus.

Magnus and his perfect eyes, his golden skin that stood out starkly against Alec’s white sheets – or in this case, his sparkling outfit – and his hair’s brightly coloured tips. Magnus and his heart of gold, his sharp mind, and the endless compassion he seemed to have for the people around him. Magnus and the way he looked at Alec like he was the single most important thing in the world.

“I missed you so much,” Magnus whispered against Alec’s lips as they pulled away from each other, panting for air. “God, Alexander, I missed you more than I’ve ever missed anything in my life, and we were only apart for two weeks. How on earth am I going to survive when you have to go abroad for work?”

“We’ll call each other,” Alec answered immediately, not even embarrassed to prove that he had been thinking about their relationship at length, both before and during their break-up. “Just because we’re not always next to each other doesn’t mean we’re not always together, Magnus. If lies weren’t enough to keep us apart, I doubt a country or two will be what ruins things for us. Besides, I only leave a few times a year and I could always take you with me.”

“I certainly wouldn’t say no to taking advantage of the perks having a CEO boyfriend could bring me,” Magnus smirked. Before Alec could say anything else, however, Magnus’ features fell slightly and his eyes filled with uncertainty. “You- You are my boyfriend again, right? I didn’t completely misread this situation, did I?”

“No, Magnus, you didn’t misread the situation,” Alec huffed, pressing a soft kiss to Magnus’ lips again. “Two weeks of being single were more than enough for me. I would be an idiot not to jump on the opportunity to be with you again. I wasn’t kidding when I said that I still love you, Magnus.”

“And I still love you too,” Magnus answered softly, resting his forehead against Alec’s and breathing in deeply. “Now, you should go out there and give the crowd what they really want. It would be bad publicity for the CEO and recently-revealed co-designer of the collection to hide away all night.”

“But I’d much rather be here with you,” Alec pouted, tightening his hold on Magnus when the model tried to step out of his arms. “Can’t they wait a day longer? I’ll still be around tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that…”

“So will I,” Magnus pointed out, snorting when Alec narrowed his eyes at him in the most betrayed manner he could manage. “Seriously, at least go spend time with the team. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to congratulate everyone on a job well done, and I can’t do that if we’re over here declaring our love for each other all over again. Don’t you think we’ve had enough romantic gestures for one evening?”

“There are never enough romantic gestures in the world,” Alec scoffed, but he didn’t protest when Magnus dragged him back out into the crowd, never letting go of the designer’s hand. “I’m still not talking to any journalists, though.”

“Oh, really?” Magnus chuckled, glancing down pointedly at himself. “I was under the impression you didn’t mind talking to me. Or Isabelle, for that matter.”

“You’re ridiculous,” Alec rolled his eyes. “You know exactly what I meant, so please take me to the rest of the team and keep the vultures away from me. I’m not in the mood to deal with interviews, especially not from people who are still reeling from my latest revelation.”

“So… everyone in this room?” Magnus asked slowly, snorting when Alec nodded. “Alright, darling, I will keep you away from everyone who doesn’t work for you. We’re only a few feet away anyways, so I doubt anyone will try to steal you away from me no- Hey, you! I’m sorry, but Alexander isn’t taking any questions or interviews tonight. No, he won’t make an exception for you. Not for you either, ma’am, I’m sorry.”

Alec laughed softly as Magnus sent him a helpless glance, desperately trying to get them through the thick crowd of people even as people tried to grab him left, right, and centre, all too eager to get a piece of Alec. Through it all, Magnus didn’t flinch or cave once, keeping a tight grip on Alec and glaring at anyone who dared touch him. Really, Alec couldn’t have asked for a better bodyguard.

By the time they made it to the rest of the fashion team, everyone had noticed their struggle to get across the room and snickered as they congratulated Magnus on his success.

“Well, that was a night,” Clary grinned, sidling up next to Alec and looping her arm into the crook of his elbow, shooing Magnus away when the journalist sent her a surprised glance. “I need some time with my best friend, lover boy, go talk to Cat and Madzie or something, I’m sure they’ll be delighted to see you again.”

“Very well,” Magnus laughed. “I can tell when I’m unwanted. You should catch up with Madzie once you and Clary are done with your best friend talk, alright? I think she missed you even more than I did, which I didn’t think was possible. And please, for the love of god, stay away from Andrew and his leech of a boyfriend.”

Alec stared at his boyfriend amusedly as he waited for Magnus to finish his little rant, nodding occasionally when the man mentioned a name Alec recognised. Finally, Clary glared at Magnus and physically shoved him away from them, barely giving Alec the time to kiss him softly, whispering a promise that he would see him again later.

“I forgot how annoying the two of you could get,” she curled her lip in distaste as Magnus walked away from them. No matter how disgusted she sounded, Alec knew she was genuinely happy for him – could see it in the way her eyes had lit up when she had first seen Magnus and him walk into the room. “Seriously, there should be a limit of how much PDA two people are allowed to partake in when their friends are around.”

“Sure, Red. We’ll see how Izzy and you do with those limits,” he answered, chuckling when Clary blushed a bright red. “But seriously, who in this team cares about PDA? Aline, Helen, Meliorn, and even Andrew and Emily certainly don’t seem to mind being able to kiss their partners whenever they want to. Besides, we should just be glad we have people to love in our lives. We’re happy, Red, isn’t that enough?”

“Yeah,” Clary breathed out, glancing over at Magnus and Isabelle where the two journalists were discussing something enthusiastically, smiling widely at each other. “It might even be more than enough. How did we get so lucky, huh?”

“I don’t know,” Alec answered honestly, his smile softening when Magnus and Izzy turned to glance at them, both of them waving seductively as they caught Alec and Clary staring. “But who cares? She loves you, Clary, more than she’s ever loved anyone. And you love her too. Maybe that has nothing to do with luck; maybe love is bigger than all of that.”

“Maybe,” Clary hummed. “He loves you too, you know? I’m not sure I’ll ever think he’s good enough for you, but he loves you more than anything in the world. I suppose that’ll have to be enough for me.”

“Good,” Alec laughed fondly. “Because it’s enough for me. Now, was there a reason why you stole me away from my boyfriend, or should we put them out of their misery and join them?”

“I just- I’m proud of you, Alec,” Clary said seriously, turning towards him and staring at him with a small, private smile tugging at her lips. “And I wanted to thank you for being the best partner I could have ever asked for. Thank you for giving me a place to thrive, for believing in me every step of the way, and for loving me all along. Out of everyone I know, you are the one most deserving of love, and I am so glad you found that with Magnus.”

“So am I. And for the record, you’re also the best partner I could have asked for,” Alec said, blinking back tears at his best friend’s words. “Now come on, enough with the sappiness. Izzy and Magnus are waiting for us, and the rest of the team will probably want to take a few pictures of the four of us in all our fabulousness.”

“Undoubtedly,” Clary grinned, eagerly skipping towards her girlfriend and letting Alec trail behind her.

He took his time reaching the rest of the group, looking them all over and feeling his heart speed up at their obvious happiness. He had contributed to that, even if just a little bit, by keeping the promise he had made them months earlier. The spring collection had turned out to be even more memorable than what Alec had planned, and it showed on all of his colleague’s faces.

Even though he knew he would still have to deal with the consequences of his speech, and he was well aware that he and Magnus would have to work on fixing their relationship for a while longer, Alec was happy. He would even go as far as to say he was happier than he had ever been.

The world now knew who he truly was, and he would be a fool not to take advantage of that. No more lies, no more secrets, no more hiding behind other people.

His colours were finally out in the open, and it was time for Alec to shine.

#malec #magnus bane #alec lightwood #fanfic #my writing

[bluejaysfeathers]

There’s something that has been on my mind for a while and it’s still not letting me sleep so I want to talk about it a little, and that’s the reasons that Twitch Partner X33N decided to ban me from his community. There’s a few things I want to clarify from the beginning. First, he is not obligated to be my friend, because that’s not how friendship works. If he feels that what I said to his moderator was a betrayal then, well, that’s not what I intended, but I quite literally cannot stop him. Second, this is not about what Karacorvus said. X33N has made it very clear that he doesn’t think her words were transphobic, and at the end of the day it doesn’t matter. And finally, this is not me accusing him of being transphobic. I fully believe that he has always had good intentions toward the trans/nb community and he has been very apologetic in the past about his difficulty with they/them pronouns. People can not find things transphobic without being transphobes themselves.

So. Depending on where you want to get into it, this story begins two years ago, or a year and a half ago, or last summer, or a month ago. Frankly, thinking about the good times we had and the advice he gave me about my mental health just hurts right now, so I’ll skip over the details, but suffice it to say that this man knew some extremely personal things about me and I trusted him implicitly. Last summer, given the state of the world with the pandemic as well as his perfectly understandable personal stress, his streams shifted away from the focus on the community and mental health as he, in his own words, began to rely on streaming with others to make up the energy. At the time, I tried to bring it up to him and was essentially told that he wasn’t forcing me to watch, and that the focus was shifting due to his energy levels. Before that I had been a dedicated viewer of every stream I could catch, but after that I started skipping a few of the more obviously non-community-focused streams. Which brings us to the last-summer portion of the beginning of this story. I’m starting here because he seems to include it in his reasoning, and because it seems to have colored his view of everything I did since then, including an incident that involved several friends of mine who were not him. Essentially, after a while of seeing that nothing was changing, I messaged a moderator (whose last message to me before this had been “I never reveal my sources”) something along the lines of ‘do you think X33N would even notice if we all didn’t show up one night bc that’s what’s going to happen if he keeps this up.’ (I’m not going back through long deleted dms to find exact wordings). This moderator took my message to X33N without my knowledge. He messaged me, ostensibly to “check in” which made me happier than I care to remember, because at the time I had been struggling as had everyone, and it was nice to think that someone had noticed and cared enough to check on me. But alas, it turned out to be a secret test as to whether I would tell him what I’d said, and when I didn’t do so he viewed that as a betrayal and dishonest. It took some time and communication for that one as it felt like all the honesty I had given him was being tossed aside, but we did talk it out, and as far as I could tell, went back to a slightly bruised but recovering friendship.

This should lead into the aforementioned situation involving people that were not him, but at least one of them would be genuinely endangered by that situation becoming public so I will summarize it as drama, which a mutual friend mentioned to X33N and then brought his reaction to me. His reaction had seemed upset with me, so I reached out to apologize and X33N reassured me that he hadn’t been upset and just wanted to point out to the mutual friend that he knew what was going on. Cut to the next day (or the day after? My sense of time last year was... well, about where everyone’s was) and X33N was asking other mutual friends whether I was leading a conspiracy to get him to add me back on snap (this conspiracy was news to me but whatever) and accusing me of fomenting drama because... honestly this is one of those times where I don’t care to speculate on his motives, he said a lot of things very fast while I was tilted about the snapchat conspiracy and I don’t think I correctly grasped why he was upset with me, but I distinctly remember him bringing up the previous ‘betrayal.’ This was also when I stopped joining in the community among us games, which seemed fine by everyone involved.

All this apparently came to a head about a month(?) ago, when he, karacorvus, and some others were trying a new game. Kara said to one of the other streamers, a man who had seemed perfectly happy with his character model, would he please change his character to a man, etc. There was some uncomfortable laughter, Kara doubled down on her comments, a friend messaged me to tell me they had been uncomfortable with it as well, and I took the problem to a friend of mine who X33N had modded and who I trusted to handle the situation. This mod told me that I had not been the only one uncomfortable, and, when I said that I had been surprised to hear such comments on X33N’s stream pass unchallenged, replied by pointing out that Kara had a big community. I replied with something along the lines of ‘well... there was a time when that wouldn’t have mattered more than his allyship but I guess a lot has fucking changed with his priorities’ and the discussion moved on, seemingly productively, and ended on a friendly “thanks for bringing this to me/no thank you for taking it seriously,” and I didn’t think much more of it, although I did resolve to ask X33N about the whole well she has a big community comment the next day if he seemed in a decent mood. Maybe if I’d talked to him that night things would’ve gone differently, maybe my fate was sealed as soon as I was given the no-win statement of ‘she has a big community’ and put in the position of arguing with a mod or agreeing that X33N would change his mind on his statements of his community being welcoming to all in pursuit of someone else’s community. I’ll never know, I guess, because as I was saying goodnight to my friend X33N messaged me to tell me he was banning me over my pattern of betraying him behind his back. He kicked me from his server and had me blocked before I had even shaken off my shock and confusion- remember, at the time I had no idea what would trigger this, his last words to me had been ‘we totally good yo’ and my conversation with his moderator had seemingly ended amicably. It’s only now, after some very dear friends didn’t buy in to what he said about me in his discord (that I had been sowing discontent among “community memberS” about him “not making a stink” over “comments bluejay felt were insensitive”) that I am able to know that it was that part of that conversation that he was upset by. According to those who spoke with him, it’s not clear that he even knew I said what I did in reaction to his moderator claiming he would let transphobia slide because karacorvus has a big community, and I’m not sure I’ll ever know because the moderator I spoke to also blocked me. Which means that I lost two friends that night, not even counting the multiple people who believed his side of things from his discord without hearing me out. I can’t say that I blame them, I would’ve struggled to believe it myself.

There’s a part of me that still hopes X33N will realize that what I said was the best I could do in response to the situation I was given and reach out, but I kind of doubt it. I messaged him from an alt account, admittedly rather angrily, to ask that he at the very least correct what he said about me in his discord, and he had my alt banned from the server we’d had in common and seemed very sure of his position. As I said, he doesn’t have to be my friend, but I wish that he hadn’t taken such steps to harm my friendships with others from his community, and the fact that he has no obligation doesn’t stop me from missing the parts of our friendship that were good- I know I haven’t really laid them out here, but I was genuinely thankful for whatever power led me to him, and we did have good times. Both the serious mental health kinds and the playful friendly competition in beatsaber kinds, and many in between. I miss him and I hope he one day sees that his friends can bring up issues from his streams with his mods without it being a personal attack on their friendships. But most of all, I hope that by writing all this down it will stop bouncing around in my head.

#X33N #transphobia mention #ends of friendships #this man mattered to me more than I can express and I am a different person because I knew him #probably forgetting a tag sorry :(

[hergan416]

Katakuri Challenge

Continuation after this post in my Seek and Ye Shall Find universe. Written for @straycrayoncrypt's Katakuri-day challenge in the MF discord server.

The main fic is rated M, but this segment is rated T.

Some notes not apparent in this text: time in Domino and time in One Piece's world do not travel at the same rate. It has been much less time for Katakuri by the time this happens, than it has been for Yugi and Ryou.

Featuring questioning Katakuri, and a bit of light pain re: Kata's relationship with the Big Mom Pirates (as seen from an outside perspective.)

Read more under the cut:

Life in Domino had mostly returned to normal since Katakuri’s sudden disappearance. It had only lasted a few days, but the city was shaken by the upstir. Pegasus was amused, Yugi was curious, Kaiba furious. Yugi chose to put the mirror Katakuri had left behind on his desk in his room for safekeeping

Jounouchi was understandably hostile towards the man, considering the damage that had been done to Seto, and the fact that he had to defeat the man himself. He refused to go in Yugi’s room with the mirror, knowing that was how Katakuri seemed to appear. Yugi didn’t necessarily blame him, even as he tried to reason with Jou that his room was too small, and Katakuri appearing through it was highly unlikely.

“He went back through it though,” Jou would say. “What if he’s spying on you?”

“You sound like Seto,” Yugi replied.

“Sometimes, Seto is right,” Jou defended, crossing his arms over his chest.

Jou wasn’t wrong per se. Yugi had a nagging feeling in the back of his mind after the whole incident that just because it was over didn’t mean it was resolved. Yugi felt like keeping the mirror around was the key to everything, so he kept it, whatever Jou felt.

Ryou seemed even more curious about Katakuri than Yugi, almost as though Katakuri was finally proof that others could see that the supernatural existed. Ryou was excited about the encounter with the oversized man, and on more than one occasion offered to take the mirror off Yugi’s hands. Yugi had declined, if only because Katakuri had handed the mirror to him. As illogical as it was, he felt that he had been handed the mirror for a reason, much like he had been given the millennium puzzle, although he did not voice those feelings to Ryou. (Ryou’s experience with the millennium items had, of course, been much different than Yugi’s.)

Instead, Yugi regularly asked Ryou to visit the mirror in Yuig’s room. It wasn’t as though having his partner over was out of the ordinary, but their activities over the past few months had begun to include a routine of performing various rituals and experiments on the mirror. Sometimes Ryou would experiment alone while Yugi watched, sometimes they’d try something together. Regardless of who was in charge, however, it seemed that all of their experiments had been a bust.

This was certainly true of their most recent one, involving lighting copious amounts of incense, and chanting various chants that Ryou explained were meant to be summoning spells.

“It doesn’t seem responsive to us,” Ryou said at the end of all of it. “We can’t summon anything. I thought I saw the shade of an old lady walk past the mirror, but I must have been mistaken. She didn’t seem anything like Katakuri, and you never saw her.”

Yugi nodded along, furrowing his brow, his mind wandering to ponder whether he’d ever find out how Katakuri’s mother had liked the sweets they had picked out.

By the time Black Friday rolled around, Yugi had forgotten the mirror’s existence entirely. Ryou was out of experiments, and work had picked up, leaving little time to deal with the mirror anyway. He plodded up the stairs to his room, exhausted from a long day at work. The game they were beta-ing was not his own design, and there were a number of balancing issues before the game would be ready for release. Unfortunately, the small company he worked for seemed keen on releasing the game “in time for Christmas,” so it was all hands on deck and mandatory overtime until then.

He paced to his closet, intent on changing out of the stuffy suit that he had worn to the office, walking past his desk as he trekked towards comfort. A tapping noise from the area to his right stopped him.

Tap tap, tah-tap tap, TAP TAP!

He turned towards the desk, concerned, eyes widening when he saw Katakuri’s head and one of his arms sticking through the mirror, gaze trained on Yugi. His hand tapped the pattern out on the pile of binders full of Yugi’s work notes that now covered the desk’s surface and nearly obscured the mirror.

“Hello,” Yugi greeted nervously, moderately concerned that Jounouchi had been right.

“Hello,” Katakuri returned politely.

Yugi softened his startled expression upon hearing Katakuri’s tone. “What can I do for you?” he asked, approaching the mirror quietly. “Do you need me to put you outside?”

“Not yet,” Katakuri replied, his eyes looking thoughtful to Yugi. “I wanted to ask you some questions.”

Yugi nodded carefully. “Sure thing! We can talk!”

“Your friend, Ryou,” Katakuri asked carefully, eyebrows furrowing uncharacteristically. “What makes them a them?”

Yugi blinked. That had not been the turn of conversation that he had been expecting.

“Ryou is just a them,” Yugi explained, a bit defensively. “They are non-binary, so they don’t identify with either gender.”

Katakuri nodded, his eyes betraying that he was having a hard time processing the information. “Do you need... any specific parts to be a them? I’m supposed to be a he according to my family but…”

Yugi smiled widely, suddenly realizing why Katakuri was asking. “You don’t need to be born any specific way to be a them, no,” he explained. “Would you want to talk to Ryou about this? They might be able to give you better information.”

Katakuri seemed to swallow, the scarf around their neck moving up and down. “I … don’t know. I don’t have a lot of time to keep talking about it.”

Yugi nodded in response. “Well, you can be a they over here, if that helps, even if you can’t wherever you are right now,” he suggested, and Katakuri’s eyes widened. “Or a she,” Yugi continued. “Experiment here, and figure it out, see what makes you happiest.”

Katakuri nodded, looking thoughtful. “Do ‘theys’ still have to be big brothers?” he asked, voice quiet.

Yugi picked up on a lot of pain in that statement, and he wondered exactly what kind of world Katakuri came from, to elicit such a response. “Your gender doesn’t make you have to be anything. You’re a big sibling if you choose to take care of your family,” Yugi replied, trying to be helpful. “But you don’t have to be called a brother if you don’t want to. I bet your siblings will understand.”

Katakuri’s eyes looked pained, like he wanted to believe Yugi, but couldn’t.

“Did your mom like the candy?” Yugi asked, trying to change the subject, thinking the conversation would be more light hearted.

Worry crossed Katakuri’s face instead, plain as day. Then he nodded. “Yes, she liked it a lot.” His eyes looked like they were trying to smile, but it was forced, and Yugi wondered once more about the man’s strange situation.

“That’s good to hear,” Yugi replied uncertainly. Maybe it was better to stick to the topic Katakuri had breached. “If you have more time later, maybe I can work out a time for Ryou to talk to you?”

Katakuri nodded, but the action was distracted, like he was listening to something else. “Sure. But I have to go now. Could you do me a favor, and get some more of those dragon-shaped cookies? Maybe… five dozen? Bring them to the mirror as quickly as possible, it’s a bit of an emergency.”

Yugi nodded, eyes clouding with confusion, but willing to help anyway. What would make cookies an emergency?

“Sure! Should I charge Pegasus for these ones too?” he teased, hoping to get more information about where he was supposed to get the money for the cookies. But, Katakuri’s head had already started to slip back into the mirror, and disappeared by the time he was done with the phrase.

Yugi exhaled, confused, slumping against the desk chair. If this mirror had come to him for a reason, he sure hoped he’d find it out quick.

#seek and ye shall find #my writing #op #ygo #katakuri #yugi #ryou #jounouchi #mentions: #seto kaiba #pegasus #questioning gender #nonbinary #crossover

[gh0stbird]

Okay Now Do The Rest

4. how did your elementary school teachers describe you?

Bright but argumentative. I was never afraid of pointing out things I didn’t feel were fair hfhddh

When we were learning numbers kids would often write 91 for nineteen, just flip them, y’know, and Ms. Potter yelled at the class for it. Baby Generiq went into it about how it was an understandable mix up because you do say the number first. In twenty-three you write the two first, so in nineteen it’s easy to assume you would write the nine first.

6. pastel, boho, tomboy, preppy, goth, grunge, formal or sportswear?

Tired.

8. movies or tv shows?

TV shows. Every book adaptation should also be a series not a movie. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

9. favorite smell in the summer?

Honeysuckle and sunshine

10. game you were best at in p.e.?

Floor hockey! My friend and I used to be brutal and swing at each other’s shins going after the ball. Also it was reminiscent of golf, which I competed in.

12. name of your favorite playlist?

I have an untitled playlist I cycle my current music in and out of, but Newton’s Third Law is my favorite named one!

14. favorite non-chocolate candy?

I don’t- I guess the yellow smarties. Don’t come for me they taste like lemonade.

15. favorite book you read as a school assignment?

I assume this means assigned book and not the reports we got to pick for ourselves. Ah, Night was good. Lord of the Flies was fine but way overhyped. Again, don’t come for me.

16. most comfortable position to sit in?

If I can tuck my legs into the chair I am sitting in that is ideal!

18. ideal weather?

When you know it is going to rain and you get to stay home

19. sleeping position? (Skipped on accident)

I reeeally like pressure, so either against something or on my stomach.

20. preferred place to write (i.e., in a note book, on your laptop, sketchpad, post-it notes, etc.)?

Phone notes and a notebook! Sometimes a blank document but I always find it strangely intimidating

21. obsession from childhood?

Warrior Cats, Percy Jackson, and Maximum Ride were my big three!

22. role model?

Aa I try to straw from people I want to copy, but there are talents I look up to. Rachel Chavkin is a brilliant director, and there are so many artists and authors I look up to and who inspire me.

24. favorite crystal?

Obsidian because it’s black like my hea- I’m kidding, I do love obsidian, but it’s Rose Quartz because it’s a very very pretty, soft pink and makes me happy.

25. first song you remember hearing?

The mobile above my crib played Imagine by John Lennon. My childhood room was themed after it as well!

26. favorite activity to do in warm weather?

Swim or sit in the sunshine. Ben and I usually go driving with the top down as well.

27. favorite activity to do in cold weather?

Walking through fresh snow is amazing, so are snowball fights and building snowmen.

28. five songs to describe you?

Oh fuck yes

Hurricane - Hamilton

The Reckless and the Brave - All Time Low

Almost There - The Princess and the Frog

All This and Heaven Too - Florence + the Machine

Facade - Jekyll and Hyde: A Gothic Musical Thriller

30. places that you find sacred?

I don’t typically find places sacred, but certain headspaces are very special to me, and time spent with loved ones means more than enough to be considered sacred.

31. what outfit do you wear to kick ass and take names?

A black blazer with a white button-down and a skirt.

32. top five favorite vines?

I am in Missouri (misery)

I love you, Bitch

I want a Church girl

Obama’s “I know because I won both of them”

I won’t hesitate, Bitch!

33. most used phrase in your phone?

“No worries”

34. advertisements you have stuck in your head?

That fucking PFI bandana boot sale I stg

35. average time you fall asleep?

Somewhere between 9:00 and three in the morning

36. what is the first meme you remember ever seeing?

Some girl doing bunny ears on her friend. I don’t remember what the caption was

38. lemonade or tea?

Both. Mixed together. It’s called an Arnold Palmer and it is my favorite drink

39. lemon cake or lemon meringue pie?

Lemon cake!

40. weirdest thing to ever happen at your school?

We duck taped out principal to the wall once. Also some kid broke their tray over another kid’s head at lunch one time.

41. last person you texted?

The family group chat, though Beau if Discord counts

42. jacket pockets or pants pockets?

I wear a lot of leggings so jacket pockets!

44. favorite scent for soap?

We had some Lily of the Valley hand soap that was amazing

45. which genre: sci-fi, fantasy or superhero?

Fantasy, I think! I’ve never done super heavy into the other two. Though I definitely don’t want to ignore sci-fi because two of my favorite stories are a little science-fiction-y

46. most comfortable outfit to sleep in?

A t-shirt and shorts

48. if you were a fruit, what kind would you be?

A banana. Generally accepted as a fruit and kind of just rolls with it, but is actually a berry

49. what saying or quote do you live by?

I fucking hate Hamilton-ing on main, but

“And when my prayers to god were met with indifference, I picked up a pen, I wrote my own deliverance!”

50. what made you laugh the hardest you ever have?

That changes every time Beau and I play HetaOni together, but I have fucking lost it for at least five minutes the last two sessions.

51. current stresses?

I dunno, man, life? My hair could use a wash

52. favorite font?

Covered by your Grace and I’m a big Spectral baby. These are both google docs! I don’t know if that makes a difference.

54. what did you learn from your first job?

Patience is important when teaching material, but never be afraid to find another approach better suited to the person you’re tutoring.

55. favorite fairy tale?

Robin Hood!

56. favorite tradition?

My family does homemade Springfield cashew chicken for Christmas!

57. the three biggest struggles you’ve overcome?

Uhh lots of self-acceptance shit no one really wants to read

58. four talents you’re proud of having?

I can pop the joint at the center of my foot

That’s all

60. if you were a character in an anime, what kind of anime would you want it to be?

I sort of like my role as mom friend, so maybe I could keep that role in a sort of action-based anime that followed a group of friends

61. favorite line you heard from a book/movie/tv show/etc.?

“I am not the protégé to waste your time on; I'm complete!” Jekyll and Hyde: GMT

62. seven characters you relate to?

Haha

Lisa Carew - Jekyll and Hyde: GMT

Japan - Hetalia/Oni

Garnett - Steven Universe

Hfhddh that’s all I can say that aren’t my own characters

63. five songs that would play in your club?

I Don’t Like Clubs, but

Overwhelmed - Royal + The Serpent

Backseat Serenade - All Time Low

Go Big or Go Home - American Authors

The Nights - Avicii

Tempo - Lizzo

64. favorite website from your childhood?

Webkinz!

65. any permanent scars?

Yep - One from a bad bike wreck. My body rejected the dissolvable stitches so it’s a lot bigger than it was supposed to be

66. favorite flower(s)?

Lily of the Valley, daisies, Day Lilies, and Dandelions! I also love honeysuckles but I don’t know if those count.

68. worst flavor of any food or drink you’ve ever tried?

Accidentally drank rancid milk once!

69. a fun fact that you don’t know how you learned? (Haha, nice)

The fastest, free way to fill up your potions on Wizard101 is to play Potion Motion to level three.

70. left or right handed?

Right handed

71. least favorite pattern?

On myself, animal print

72. worst subject?

I’ve never been intuitively good at History, I do think it’s interesting though.

74. at what pain level out of ten (1 through 10) do you have to be at before you take an advil or ibuprofen?

I don’t like to take it until I can’t move without it.

75. when did you lose your first tooth?

Kindergarten? I had mono and then scarlet fever twice, so my baby teeth were pretty much ruined and they all fell out very fast.

76. what’s your favorite potato food (i.e. tater tots, baked potatoes, fries, chips, etc.)?

Curly fries!

77. best plant to grow on a windowsill?

Kalanchoe’s, it literally Window’s Thrill. These babies are fairly temperamental outside and love partial sun, so the window is the perfect spot for them. And! If you keep them happy! They’ll bloom! My personal favorite is the pink bloom.

78. coffee from a gas station or sushi from a grocery store?

What’s wrong with coffee from a gas station? Also I don’t like seafood.

80. earth tones or jewel tones?

Earth tones!

81. fireflies or lightning bugs?

Lightning bugs

82. pc or console?

PC!

84. podcasts or talk radio?

Podcasts - talk radios actually tend to get under my skin for n o reason

84. barbie or polly pocket?

Barbie, but let it be known I was brutal with mine. We did human sacrifices and the like.

85. fairy tales or mythology?

Mythology!

86. cookies or cupcakes?

Cookies, but I’m a slut for whipped frosting

87. your greatest fear?

Losing control!

88. your greatest wish?

A life beyond where I am now. Haha Stop chasing new down the hallway you’re so sexy haha

90. luckiest mistake?

Logged into Omegle in like 2015 and some rando asked me to join their Doctor Who roleplay. Luckiest moment of my gd life.

91. boxes or bags?

Bags! They’re easier to store

92. lamps, overhead lights, sunlight or fairy lights?

Sunlight! But in the late afternoon when everything is bathed in orange.

93. nicknames?

Mom is the most prevalent!

94. favorite season?

Fall into winter. Peak leaf crunch!

95. favorite app on your phone?

Discord or Notes

[trojansblr]

#FightOn! (05) | OT7 Halloween edition!

Summary: The University of Southern California is a prestigious school - only the best or the richest can attend. That means there will be a lot of spoiled brats. Two groups start colliding and the entire college shift alongside them. What will happen when sparks starts to flow between them? Drama will certainly be there.

Pairing: BTS with -eventually- female characters

Genre: Fluff, Angst, Smut (in the future), College!au, Interactive!au, Halloween!au

Word Count: 20k UNEDITED

A/N: First things first thank you so much to everyone who patiently waited and sent me nice messages. You guys helped my not so confident ass going hehe :’) also, thank you Ali and Lily for being and unconditional support, even if this piece is a mess. You guys make me feel embraced and secure! Like I said, it’s not perfect and it’s more like a comedy based on the sad life of emo Jungkook  or something than a proper halloween/suspense story, but I tried and had fun in the process! That’s what counts to me. I hope you all like it and also, I’ll be waiting for asks and conspiracy theories on the discord chat hehehe Happy -first part of- Halloween, fam! Love you all very very much. 🖤🎃

P/S: It was hard to insert so many people into one chapter but! to the one’s that didn’t show that much, don’t worry, part 2 coming out soon and you will definitely show more there hehehe and I can assure you guys part two will be even more chaotic. 

The Characters • Day 3 • Day 4 • Day 5

1

USC’s haunting night, which came to an end with a shocking reveal, began with nothing more than an exciting buzz that hovered in the air.

The students were now filling up the campus streets with contagious laughter and thrill. A few lamp poles were shining through this dark afternoon in the fall of 2019, orange pumpkins adorning the entrances of the old buildings, three leaves and skeletons that happened to be hanged around were dancing in the howling wind. It was Halloween night, it was time to trick and be tricked, it was time to pretend to be someone you were not while dancing the night away… you could tell by the way all houses were being left in the dark, that every student residing here waited anxiously for this chance of playing pretend.

A built up silhouette wrapped up in a tight red suit, walked in a fast pace towards the Fluor Tower, nobody to be seen down the gloomy streets since the party was located in the opposite direction. The unforgiving wind made walking a little worse for the boy, his breathing against the mask he was wearing began to feel heavier and warmer but there was no way he would take it off now. His friends needed to see him in full costume, he kept thinking. The boy beneath the mask was Jungkook Jeon. His friends, known to most of the university as the Y Group, were all gathered at Deo and Hyori’s dorm room, waiting for him.

Hyori was the one suggesting the disguise Jungkook was now wearing. A week before this, the boy was still indecisive about what to wear and in one rainy afternoon, while they all ate a cheesy pizza and the rain tumbled endlessly against the window, she suggested him to dress like Spiderman with an obvious glance sent through the other end of the table.

Once he was almost reaching the girls building, he started hearing euphoric chattering close by. Hoseok’s laughter impossible to mistake by somebody else’s.

“I can’t believe he actually did it!” Jungkook heard Hoseok say and immediately the idea of hiding behind a tree and pulling a prank on his friends crossed his mind. That was exactly what he did “That guy is crazy to say at least!” laughter filled the chilly air.

“I never doubted he wasn’t” Hyori added sharply.

“Where’s Jungkook though? Didn’t he say he was like- 5 minutes from here?” The boy’s attention was now fully focused on Deo “I’m going to die if we stay here any longer waiting” the sound of her shoe tapping nervously onto the floor didn’t go unnoticed by the hidden spidey.

“Want my jacket?” Jimin offered “He did say he was a few minutes away? Maybe he met someone?”

“Jungkook is more anti social than I am, I doubt he stopped by with someone-” Hyori started but was quickly interrupted.

“HEY! No I’m not!” he let out by impulse making the group snap their heads towards the direction of the sound. Hoseok’s hands fled to grab Deo’s arm who was near him, his eyes almost popping out. Both girls unable to form a sound, too caught up in the moment.

“Fuck-” Jungkook cursed under his breath once he realized what he did.

“Aaaaish!” Jimin said out loud; adrenaline running through his veins, although he would never admit he got a little scared for a second there.

“Are you serious dude??” Deo said once she saw someone coming from behind a tree, ready to throw some hands at whoever it was. She was dressed like Cher Horowitz from Clueless, the movie, one that Jungkook himself had seen countless times once he was younger. He remember turning on the tv on Sunday afternoons and seeing the actress face over and over again. Deo did a great job, he thought.

“It’s spider man now” he started walking towards his friends, arms coming to the front of him to mimic the superhero spider web shooting action “How do I look?”

“Ya, this guy will never change” Hoseok laughed it out “I was really scared, you- you dumbass” he finished making the younger laugh. Hoseok wasn’t far behind, and the character he had chosen a month before, was on everyone’s opinion, the perfect choice for him. Ace Ventura was spirited and loud in every way Hoseok could be. His clothes were probably arranged by his sister, she loved to dress up her younger brother and Hoseok didn’t mind at all, and his hair… Wow, his hair!

“Imagine if it went like I had planned it to” Jungkook chuckled and reached back to tug into his mask and pull it off. His heavy huff louder now, hair completely messy.

“I could punch you in the face I swear to God!” Deo started but the corners of her mouth were already pulling up.

“Can we go now? After this I feel like somebody else will be lurking in the dark-”

“Eyyyy- It’s halloween but we’re not in a horror movie” Jimin glanced at Hyori feeling creeped out. Of course Jimin wouldn’t waste the opportunity to look cool and laid back this Halloween, and Deo excelled herself making his hair look like Johnny Depp’s in Cry Baby. Hyori on the other hand, decided her costume by fumbling through her whole closet. I’ll go with the easiest but still remarkably costume, she said, and that’s how Ashley Spinelli turned out to be her choice.

“She has a point. Everybody will try to scare us tonight and I’m not ready”

“Let’s just go!” Jimin said pulling Deo and Hyori’s arm at the same time and Jungkook couldn’t help but laugh at how much of scaredy-cats his friends were.

“Wait!!!” Hyori heard Hoseok saying loudly right behind her, and once she turned around to smile at him, vision a little blocked by her mustard beanie, she couldn’t help the goosebumps that went through her body. Something feels eerie, maybe it’s just the fact that we are alone in a dark street, she thought. And shrugging off that feeling, she marched alongside her friends to the party she put most effort so far.

2

Doing his best to keep his posture straight while sitting in bed, Yoongi was feeling rather sleepy having Carolina toy with his hair, the girl trying her best to style it just like Naruto’s. He had been feeling a little lazy the past few weeks but he knew there was zero to no chance of him escaping halloween night, specially because his friends digged the fact they could just dress like some weirdos and pull pranks all night long. If he said he wasn’t going, for sure they would do something stupid and hey, he wasn’t one for refusing free liquor either.

“Why is your hair so damn straight?!” he heard Carolina complain for the thousand time. He said nothing, just kept his eyes closed and opened a cheeky smile. A month before his group started talking about this night - mostly the girl and Taehyung who were already fantasizing about what to wear. Namjoon and Jin quickly followed the lead making jokes on who was similar to what character and what not. Once they inquired him on who would he be for this night he just said the first thing that came to his mind. First because it was an easy costume since it was basically one piece of clothing and also because he wasn’t creative enough to remember anything else, as far as he knew Naruto was the only other guy he would like to be if he had to choose.

“Are you still doing his hair?” Jin came into Carolina’s bedroom with an indignant tone and before she could even answer he was already adding more to his little playful rant “Ya, you need to help me out with the makeup! Namjoon made it look like I had a hole instead of an eye-”

“I’m sorry if I’m no make up artist!!!” they all heard Namjoon say out loud; Yoongi could perfectly picture him sat down on the couch too entertained with his cellphone to even glance up while responding Jin’s comment about his poor artistic abilities.

“Ya” Jin turned around to look at Namjoon; voice deep but in a playful tone “You don’t need to be a makeup artist to know this looks terrible”

“Take those baby wipes over there” Carolina pointed a little package over her desk “And go clean that mess! I’ll do your makeup once I finish Yoongs” she continued spraying hairspray non stop while combing the hair of a now intoxicated boy, who kept coughing like he was really dying.

“I told you not to open your mouth!!” she said more laughing than scolding Yoongi.

“Im- Argh- Impossible!” the taste on his mouth was horrible and for a second he panicked over dying the most ridiculous death. It didn’t help the fact that Jin passed by laughing hysterically only to cough the same way he did once he got closer to the dangerous cloud of spray hovering over Yoongi’s head.

“You should be given permission of the state to use something as toxic as this” Jin said getting out quickly making Carolina laugh and shush him with her famous ‘Go away’. He directed himself to their bathroom to try and remove the damage Namjoon had made on his eye. Jin usually liked a lot what he saw on the mirror, and today wasn’t any different. His hair was combed with gel, he had a nice suit on and personally he thought he did a nice job on gluing Thing - family addams member, or hand, into his suit right shoulder. Gomez Addams was who he chose to be tonight, a classy and fun character, very appropriate for him as Namjoon had pointed out.

“Tcharamm! Howl arrived!”

“Woaah Taehyung, nice job!”

“You like it??”

“What’s going on with that cape?”

“Leave his cape alone, Yoongi, he did good”

“Thank you!”

Jin let out a chuckle, his friends were always nagging one another, not that he wouldn’t do the same with them but normally he would play the mom figure and try do ease the situations.

He looked at himself in the mirror one more time after throwing the used baby wipe in the trash and pushing the bathroom door he made his way to the living room.

“Lady Joker I hope you’re ready for me cause I’m all clean and I’m impatient as well” heads turned to Jin, Taehyung’s previous pout face becoming an excited one now after seeing him.

“Woah!!! Jin! You look just like him!!!”

“You mean handsome?” Jin stated the obvious with his hands on his hips.

“Yes…?” Taehyung replied with a weird confused face making them laugh.

“Lady Joker here is ready, so is everyone else now…” Carolina spared a glance to everyone in the room “… I think. It’s just you now, c’mon” she started pushing Jin back to the bathroom.

“That’s cause he has the easiest character of all” Jin went backwards while Carolina still pushed him; his finger pointed out to Namjoon.

“Being Milo Thatcher requires great effort, like having a brain for example” Namjoon concluded.

“I hope that’s not you calling me dumb” Jin answered back, the sound of it a little muffled since Carolina was closing the bathroom door to avoid any bickering.

“Yeap. He was” Yoongi said quietly; he was sat on the arm of the couch Namjoon was in, his arms crossed and his hair was fully up.

“So! Do you guys think I look good with long hair??” Taehyung said after a minute of entire silence making both boys look at him while he wiggled his head to make his fake hair flow.

After the bathroom door was closed, Jin sat on the faucet while Carolina opened every drawer looking after her black eye shadow and that’s when she heard Jin say “He was calling me dumb wasn’t he? He’ll see. Just- Wow the disrespect” and the way he said it was more than enough for the girl to crack a laughter right on his face.

3

Differently from the chilly outside, the party at Tau Kappa Epsilon was burning hot. The frat committee had pulled a great amount of money and effort this year and everyone that had been to the Halloween party last year could say so the minute they set foot on the entrance. For starters, this year for you to get inside you needed to know the password, which was strategically leaked on the USC gossip blog a week before this.

“Did you find it yet?” Holly asked; she had her arms crossed, the wind too harsh and although she was wearing a red hoodie and a pair of yellow trousers because she was dressed as Winnie the Pooh she couldn’t help but feel cold since she and her group were still outside.

“God, why in all days today had to be this windy?!” Tori said with frustration, tightening her grip on the coat she was wearing “If I hadn’t brought this coat I would be hard as ice right now, I’m telling you” she chuckled, her chin trembling a little since she was feeling cold, the coat doing nothing for her uncovered legs. She had decided with Deo they would go as iconic characters from the 90’s, and of course she chose Vivian Ward from Pretty Woman.  

“Ok I think I got it!”

“You did??” Holly that was a little distracted looking around exclaimed in surprise and quickly scooched up towards Silvia who had been glued on her phone scrolling through USC gossip page to find the code.

“Yeah, I think I did! Look-” Silvia showed them the phone; she was dressed as Simon of Alvin and the chipmunks, her glasses sliding on her nose bridge non-stop while she looked down too focused.

“Nice job, Silvy!”

“Now I only need to wait for Esme and Tessa… I’m sure they are almost here, I mean I called them half an hour ago and they were already on their way” Silvia said looking at her phone again, checking if she had any unread messages.

“I’m sure we can go inside and they meet us there? We could send them a text with the-”

“HEY GIRLS!!” the three of them heard and their attention flew to the newcomers.

“Nina!” Holly exclaimed excited.

“You look amazing guys! Oh my God, I’m so excited for tonight!” Nina said making Cecilia laugh besides her; Nina was dressed as Poison Ivy, her new red hair contrasting greatly with her green outfit. She had some ivy plants complementing her costume and it looked absolutely stunning.

“That’s actually right, she came all the way here talking about it” Cecilia joked; she had chosen to dress up like a sexy racer this year, keeping it simple but hot.

“And you look a bomb as well!” Tori said, giving both girls a quick hug. “Now chop chop girls! Otherwise we’ll get all ruined in this bad wind”

“I’ll send Tessa and Esme a text with the code then- Let’s get going, I’m kind of freezing as well and regretting being a chipmunk without proper pants” Silvia said making them laugh.

The decoration this year was incredibly well done, full of big killer statues, things hanged and detailed paintings on the wall, most probably TKE (Tau Kappa Epsilon) had once again contacted the art students to help with that. Hoseok had already jumped out of his feet ten times at least, too scared of the large Pennywise face he had come across a few times and the many spider webs hanging above everyone’s heads.

“I thought it was you!” Amber laughed when she came besides Hoseok and he jumped in fear… Again. “How are you doing Mister…?”

“Ace Ventura! And ooof- Amber!” He gasped first because he had been scared and now because she was looking really good.

“Hey! You came! Are you alright love? You seem a little startled.” Amber was so happy to see the boy that she talked way too fast making him stare at her with endearing eyes “It’s been a while.”

“Of course! I wouldn’t miss this party for the world! But that Pennywise…” he said pointing at the wall painting, a frown crossing his face “Not cool at all.” he chuckled while turning to her again, his glance lowering a bit now to see her costume more attentively. Amber was wearing a playboy bunny costume, a dress like version of it.

“It’s ok, it’s just a painting. Besides if it wasn’t just a painting, I’d always protect you. Well… I would try.” she giggled making him follow “And tonight will be so much fun, I haven’t really celebrated Halloween in years!”

“I see you already have a drink so now just enjoy the night!” Hoseok said cheekly.

“I do!” she stated quickly looking down, where she had a drink in hands “You should grab one soon too.”

“Jimin went to grab some drinks for us. I’m waiting for mine.” he winked “But what are you most afraid of then? If not Pennywise”

“Probably just… Uh… Spirits” she said finally with a tiny shivering “The unknown too. Maybe just being alone. My fears are very strange.”

“Oh spirits are a no for me too! I try not to believe they exist but I have a fertile imagination!” he said with a panicked face and Amber made a quick note on how cute he could be.

“You look really good by the way… Like I know you aren’t in a sexy outfit, but you look happy and just… You know… You just look great.”

“Thanks Amber! I tried hard to find the clothes to match the movie! But you look great too…“ he offered his heart smile, his eyes genuinely matching his soft expressions.

While Hoseok kept talking to Amber, his friends were close by still waiting for Jimin to come back with something to drink. They had arrived for a while now, but since the place wasn’t that crowded yet, Jungkook managed to find a spot for Deo to sit a little. The girl had been complaining about her shoes choice for some time now but he himself felt like sitting, so that’s what he did. He sat and kept fumbling with his phone while Deo rambled with him (things that he was certainly not listening) and Hyori kept scanning the place after Jimin.

“I hope this party doesn’t suck.” Deo commented a little bored while looking the ambience.

“What do you mean?”

“There’s no one here. My feet already hurt. Jungkook took the only seat available and is staring at his phone with a grin on his dumb face.”

“We got here super early, relax! And just take the damn shoes off, you’re going to in a couple of hours so might as well do it now.” Hyori grinned at her “Is Jack coming?”

“I think so? I didn’t talk to him today yet but he should be here. We bought his costume like- last week so…” Deo wondered; she was answering Hyori but her head was turned at Jungkook’s direction, trying to pry on what he was doing.

“The love birds that text all day didn’t talk today?”

“He texted me this morning but we were dealing with the outfits so I… kinda forgot to text him back? He’s probably just making one of his ‘imma take longer to answer’ games” Deo looked back at her again to roll her eyes.

“Don’t sweat it, he’ll be around.” the older girl patted her shoulder with a warm smile to wrap that convo up.

“So… you’re just gonna ignore the fact that JK is laughing at his phone?”

“We teased him enough about him wanting to be spiderman…” Hyori bit down a smile, exchanging her glance to the boy in question, still entertained and completely absented of what was going on around him.

“True…” Deo concluded but then turned around to do exactly the opposite with what she had just agreed with “Hey dork.” she called and poked him, making him lift his head towards them “Yeah you. What are you doing?”

“Texting.” he said simply.

“Who?” Hyori questioned.

“Have you ever heard of neighbor number?”

“No…?”

“You have one?!” Deo asked the boy while coming closer and feeling a lot more excited.

“Everyone has one.” he rolled his eyes.

“What is that?!”

“It’s the person whose phone number is either the before or after yours. Like, your’s 55 and their’s 56.” Jungkook explained to Hyori but he locked his phone trying to hide his previous conversation.

“Oh… and that’s cool because?”

“Because!!!” Deo exclaimed turning around to look at Hyori.

“It’s just like meeting someone online guys.”

“Oh don’t be an old lady. You’re a recess punk tonight!” Deo retorted making Hyori do a funny face as a response while trying to pry at Jungkook’s phone as well.

“You’re not looking at my texts.” he said defensively while hiding the phone against his chest once more.

“Oh c'mon JK.”

“No.”

“I’m not keeping your phone in my bag then. Good luck spidey.” Deo teased.

“Fine!”

A while ago Jimin had departed quickly from his friends to go fetch something to drink, but on his way he stopped by with many people. He got used to being popular in some way, he didn’t mind the attention at all… What he did mind was the constant people who tried to fake being friends with him just to get “famous”. He was now walking furiously towards the bar, the last conversation with some random guy he thought that was being genuinely nice to him stuck on his head. A small bump followed, his mind too distracted to actually pay attention at his surroundings and the frown that was before on his face quickly disappeared.

“Wow Jean! Sick costume!” he said once the girl in question turned around surprised to see the one that bumped on her was actually a familiar face.

“Really Jimin? Thank you” Jean was dressed as Mikasa from Attack on Titan, an anime Jimin had seen and liked a lot. “I think you look handsome in your costume” she finished with a cute smile while blushing a little.

“I tried my best to look like Cry Baby but Johnny Depp will always win.” he showed his cute laughter while saying it and Jean quickly retorted.

“Don’t say things like that. I think you just being yourself is handsome and a win for everyone including you” as soon as she said it and he was about to smile at her again thankful, the bartender came by and Jimin was quick to tell him his orders. He looked back to see if Jean wanted something but he noticed she was already served. The guy that was attending him, poured a glass of whiskey to Jimin and went to fetch some beers. While he went inside to fetch it Jimin turned again to Jean.

"You came with friends?”

“I did! I’m meeting Holly here!”

“Oh~ she’s Deo’s friend! I didn’t know you two knew each other! Small world huh?” he winked and raised his glass to take a sip of it making Jean laugh.

“Yes, we do. We talk time to time whenever I have time. She is really nice.” she said and Jimin hummed in agreement.

"So, who or what scares you most?”

“What scares me most is bugs especially cockroaches… oh yeah also rats. What about you? Are you scared of anyone or something?”

“I’m trying to keep a brave face tonight so I can’t tell you!” he cutely joked putting his finger to his lips and doing a slight ‘shush’ motion “But it was nice seeing you Jean~ I have to bring these drinks to the sober ones before they fall asleep” he said while pointing with his head towards the beer bottles the bartender had just brought.

“Have fun at the party. Don’t be reckless or get yourself in trouble!” she said loudly when Jimin started walking away with all those drinks in hands, trying to make way, only to turn back again and smile foolish at her and then winking again.

On his way towards his group he spotted Hoseok a little closer than the rest and he moved fast to get the help of the older boy. Jimin was hardly managing to hold all those bottles plus his cup.

“So do I! I overthink way too much.” he heard Amber say enthusiastically to Hoseok and for a moment he felt really sorry to be barging into the conversation.

“Hey guys! Sorry! Help me-” he said quickly and Hoseok took two bottles off his hands. “Oof! I thought I was going to let everything fall” he laughed at his own moment of clumsiness.

“It’s alright! I’ll help you take this to them” Hoseok trailed off and then looked at Amber once again, she still had a smile on her face, their talk before being way too cheerful for her to lose it. “It was really good seeing you!”

“It was good seeing you too. I hope we can hang out again soon, I’ve missed seeing you.”

“Keep that beautiful smile on your face Amber~ I’ll see you around tonight yeah?”

“I will! Thank you! You enjoy it too, and keep safe, ok? Don’t drink too much and drink plenty of water. I’ll see you later on in the party. I’ll probably stay until pretty late.”

“Can’t promise I won’t drink much but I’ll try to stay away from the zombies! Be safe sweetheart~” and there he went, him and Jimin towards their group of friends.

4

“Where’s Yoongi?” Carolina questioned while looking over Jin’s shoulders; her voice louder than expected as the raging song played in the party.

“I don’t know?” Jin looked around too trying to spot Yoongi’s hair among all those costumes “He left quite a while ago… And I doubt he will be able to bring us all something to drink”

The five of them had arrived and the party was already hectic. Yoongi had offered to go to the bar fetch something to drink since he was in the need of something to keep him relaxed and more loose in the middle of all those people. The rest of them stayed in a corner next to the entrance, the less crowded space they could find, but now a lot of time had passed and Carolina was starting to feel anxious.

“Ok, you guys stay here and I’ll go help him out”

“You’re going alone in this sea of people??” Taehyung asked her, whom was already ready to walk away.

“I’ll be fine Tae, just stay here with Nam and Jin. If anything happens I have my phone with me and I can call you. Yoongi is the one without his”

“We’ll wait here. Namjoon won’t be leaving anyways since he’s socializing for what it feels like an hour now” Jin joked looking at the other boy talking enthusiastically to some people from his book club. Carolina spared a glance and smiled at him, and then in a blink of an eye she was already being engulfed by the many costumed students.

She tried her best to make space and go towards the bar, where she was hoping to find Yoongi, but the task was getting complicated. It didn’t help that people were already tipsy and some really drunk. Carolina was starting to feel a little claustrophobic and way too pissed at the people who were pushing and also pulling her. When she was about to shout at some random guy that was trying to make her dance with him, she felt her arm being pulled and her head snapped quickly thinking she had finally reached Yoongi, but no. Someone in an all black costume and a weird baby face mask was pulling her out of there.

At first she offered no resistance, glad she was going to get out of that tumultuous crowd. But after a few seconds of the mysterious person pulling her towards what it seemed like the bathroom area, she pulled back her arm making the person look back.

“Who are you?!” She questioned seeing that the person went for her arm again but she was quick to flinch it’s grasp. “This is not funny!” still, no reaction. She analysed the person standing in front of her; someone taller than her, definitely a male but not a short one. “Ben?” she tried “Dude this is getting creepier.” the man did nothing but to offer his hand to her gently. And although Carolina was feeling a little creeped out she was also starting to get curious about who the costumed guy in front of her might be. So she took his hand, and he took her to the bathroom area.

“Ben if this is you I swear-“ she started but the man she thought was Ben just opened the bathroom door and pushed her inside, locking the door quickly. He himself never entering the space with her.

Carolina bumped hard against something “FUCKING ASSHOLE!!” she exclaimed mad.

“I said the same but he didn’t opened the door… Until now that is” Yoongi’s voice now filling her ears and she turned back in a snap. Turns out the thing she went against was Yoongi and not a wall like she was expecting.

“Yoongs? What are you doing here?”

“I myself don’t know…” he answered returning the hug she gave him.

“Ok! I think I have a plan!” someone said making both of them get out of their transe.

“Oh yeah, Carol this is Sarah. She was already here when I got… here” Yoongi explained simply.

“Umm… I would say nice to meet you but due to the circumstances I think-“

“I perfectly understand and share the feeling!” Sarah quickly interrupted the other girl “Also either we wait for him to open the door again and I don’t know put our foot in the middle of the breach or we stay stuck here”

“Doesn’t seem like a bad plan but I won’t volunteer my foot for the cause”

“Why the hell are we even here???” Carolina questioned “Is it the new trend locking people in the bathroom to socialise or something?” and as soon as she finished it a cell phone started ringing. They all exchanged glances.

“Don’t look at me, I didn’t even bring my phone” Yoongi said.

“Well it’s not mine!”

“I think…” Sarah trailed off while going towards the faucet, there was something behind it “Oh” and she retrieved a bag. The sound of the ringtone died and she looked at Yoongi and Carolina who were focused on the paper bag. Not even a second passed and the cell phone started to ring again.

“Oh just give me this” Carolina snatched the bag from Sarah’s hands and quickly opened it, a burner phone now visible and she picked it up. “Who’s this? What? Why would I be enjoying being locked inside a bathroom you weirdo??”

“Who is it?!” Sarah questioned and Carolina lifted a hand for her to wait.

“What game? What are you talking about?” Carolina questioned further “A paper?”

“What is this? This is a stupid prank” Yoongi rambled.

“What- Hey!!!” Carolina exclaimed taking the phone out of her ear and looking at it extremely angry “Asshole!!!”

“What happened?”

“This motherfucker said that the rules were on a paper inside this bathroom and then hanged up!”

“Are you serious now? I just wanted a drink” Yoongi sighed and started pacing around.

“What now?”

“Oh! I have my cellphone!!!” Carolina realised quickly reaching for her pocket of her nurse suit “I’ll call Jin and he can come here an- Fuck.”

“What?!” Sarah exclaimed again and Yoongi glanced at them.

“No reception” Carolina said blankly “I fucking hate this party.” she placed her phone inside her pocket once again and crouched down near the bathroom wall, her hand fast to pick up her pen kept inside the same pocket and started doodling on the wall. The neon light in the bathroom making her feel nauseous.

“I’ll start searching then!” Sarah sighed; the girl was dressed as comfortably as she could. Her costume being Violet Beauregard from Charlie and the chocolate fabric and she mentally thanked herself for choosing something so comfy.

“Are you seriously vandalising the bathroom?” Yoongi asked Carolina; he was leaned against the sink, his arms crossed.

“Yeah”

“I don’t think writing on the wall ‘Babyface sucks’ is going to solve the problem”

“Well I’m unsatisfied with Babyface service! He just pushed me and locked me inside the bathroom! Ugh- I bet it was that fucking asshole…” Carolina started doodling near the words she had just written.

“What asshole? Everyone for you is an asshole”

“Well- That’s a good point. But Jimin. I bet it was Jimin. He must be trying to pay me back ever since-“

“You mean Jimin Park?!” Sarah asked while fumbling through the cabinets that the bathroom had.

“Yeah he-“

“I FOUND IT!!!!” Sarah exclaimed excited and showing them the paper.

“Umm… I guess we are a team?” Sarah looked at them expectantly “And I didn’t brought my phone so…”

“I was going to say no but then I saw the 6.000 cash prize so”

“2000 each Yoongi, not 6000!” Sarah corrected him.

“Still. Carolina?” he looked at the girl in question “I could really use the money to-“

“I know.” she said serious “So we better win this. And I guess I’m the only one with a phone which only unlocks with my fingerprint so I guess it’s fine to leave it behind…” she reluctantly put her phone inside the bag “Also Sarah, if we’re doing this-“

“Yeah?” the girl asked.

“Yoongi already knows me but um… I’m kind of extremely competitive so if I happen to loose my shit-“

“Oh it’s ok! Totally get it!”

“She will lose it. Just saying” Yoongi brushed it off.

“I will”

“OK PLAYERS HERE WE COME!” Sarah instantly became another person and both Yoongi and Carolina exchanged glances a little surprised “OPEN THE DOOR!”

5

“I can’t actually believe we got stuck in a tiny broom closet for 15 minutes just to find a damn paper!” Tori let out laughing; her breathing heavy.

“In my defense my moves were restricted to just being able to lift my arms up” Jason retorted, his face a little red from the lack of air in the confinement.

“That’s true! I was feeling trapped between you-“

“Guys shut up!” Jungkook finally said something; the paper with the rules still in his hands “We have to focus now, I ain’t losing this game”

“Jeez! Ok, ok! We’ll focus” Jason put his hands up in defeat.

“I could really use those speakers bro, I want this prize” Jungkook sighed trying to apologise.

Somehow in the middle of the party Jungkook realised he was left behind with Hyori, both of them clueless of where their friends had gone to. So he eased her mind by saying he was going to look after them quickly. Hyori at the time nodded and kept looking around without leaving their previous spot.

Jungkook went to the bar hopping to find Jimin there but his friend was nowhere to be found. He wandered off to the bathrooms but two of them were locked and the other one was empty. He tried to scream Deo and Hoseok names in hopes that one of them were inside but due to the loud music it was useless. Not shortly after a person passed by and seeing he was fumbling with the door lock, that same person approached him and asked what he was doing. “I’m looking for my friends” was what he simply answered so the mysterious being asked what were they dressed like and after a brief description of their costumes Jungkook was pointed towards a long and gloomy corridor. He didn’t hesitate on going and that’s how he ended up opening the dark broom closet and being pushed inside. To his surprise, Tori and Jason were already there, their breathing too heavy and Jungkook kept thinking he had interrupted something else, but his thoughts were quickly brushed away when a cell phone started ringing.

“To get those speakers you first need to win the prize, Kook, and to do that you’ll need to find those damn three hidden bags” Tori pointed out making him come back to the moment; her arms crossed over her chest.

“Things that scare me most…” Jason wondered.

“AH! The decorations!!!” Jungkook’s face lit up “They must be near the decorations!”

-

Most of the teams were already out of their confinements by now. Some a little hazy and confused, some fully determined to win the prize. What student wouldn’t want to win 2.000 dollars in a night just by playing a Halloween game? It was easy money! And that was exactly what Aashna kept thinking.

When she left her dorm to go to the party that night she would have never expected to be going home again with that large amount of money, and there was nothing that she loved more than to play games, in fact she liked to think that she was good at them.

She got a little confused at first, when she lost herself from Sana and Cara, especially because she had left her phone back into the dorms and due to that she had no way to contact the girls. While she kept waiting for Sana to get ready hours ago, she used it so much that it discharged and it was totally useless to take it. But now, here she was, running around with two other girls she had never seen before trying to get to those bags before anyone else would.

“Guys look!” Nina pointed towards three dark things on the floor near a tree in the backyard of TKE. A few people transiting from one house to the other were passing by but none of them were paying attention to the girls.

“Are those the bags??” Esme asked a little behind from the other two. She was dressed like Theodore from Alvin and the chipmunks and although she was looking adorable her legs were freezing.

The backyard was the last place any rational person would want to go. It was windy today, and not the kind that feels like a nice summer breeze, it was the kind that made you feel the presence of a storm coming. The fact that the place wasn’t illuminated properly didn’t help either. Team 6 could barely see if those things on the floor were the bags they needed or not.

“I can’t believe we found them!” Aashna said coming closer and once she grabbed a loop of one of the bags a grotesque nun showed up behind the tree. Slowly it made it’s way towards the girls. “Holy-“ Aashna took a step back startled, the bag she had taken was now dropped onto the grassy floor.

“OH MY GOD!!!” Esme that had just being able to catch up with both of them sprinted back the moment she saw the dark presence, going back to where she had came. She didn’t even took a second glance.

The nun kept slowly walking forward. Aashna at the same time walked back. It’s yellow eyes focused on her and her breathing started to match her heart race. Her chest going up and down really fast.

“Push it, Khaleesi!!!” Nina shouted at her making her snap out of the transe. Both of them could hear a faint scream in the back but it was being blocked by their own heartbeats drumming on their ears. Adrenaline kicking in. Nina kept shouting ‘Khaleesi’ at Aashna, the fearful creature making her forget her teammate’s real name.

On the confusion of it, Aashna did in fact push back the nun, but the result wasn’t the expected. It didn’t move. Not even an inch.

“I GOT IT!! RUN!!!!” Nina passed by her with one bag on her back and two on her hands; her costume making it easier for her to sprint, contrary to Aashna’s.

The girl didn’t think twice. The moment the scary image before her started to lurk forward again, she stumbled two steps back and turned around to run. A hand grabbed her arm making her come to a halt. Aashna screamed and yanked her arm back. Free at last she ran towards Nina and Esme. Her mind not functioning properly. She could see her teammates shouting and making exaggerated moves for her to go to them but she could hear nothing. It was like a slow motion scene of her worst nightmare.

-

Hoseok thought he had been scared enough since he got to the party but now he was more than terrified. He was walking with Cole and Asa, two guys he had just met due to a bad joke and he couldn’t help being alert all the time. Cole was leading both him and Asa and they were looking for the so called bags inside the TKE frat house.

“I’m sure they hid it here, I mean- it’s just the perfect place, not a lot of people will come inside the house when there’s an actual party going on” he heard Cole’s voice more clearly now, the loud music sounded distant; the boy was still facing forward, leading them into a big hallway.

“Yeah but it said it was near what we fear most?” Asa pondered while looking attentive to a photo hanged on the wall “I don’t know about you guys but I’m not afraid of a frat house… As much gross as they can be” he frowned seeing one guy almost naked on that same photo.

The corridor they were now in was narrow so they lined up, Cole going in the front and Asa in the back. The wall on their left had some pictures of the boys of TKE while the wall on their right was mainly filled with big windows. That didn’t mean the place was lighten up, the whole house was dark. Things were visible due to the windows, the boys could see each other’s figures and what surrounded them because of the moonlight, but other than that there was no other form of light.

“Uoooh uoh what was that?!” Hoseok freaked out and fumbled back making Cole giggle.

“It’s just a glimpse of a light dude” Asa calmed him down while catching him and pulling him forward gently.

“I- I think I’m afraid of the dark” Hoseok admitted.

“It’s ok”

“And I’m afraid of being alone” Cole said sarcastically “So that’s why this is the perfect place to hide the bags because it’s both dark and has zero people in it. Genius ain’t I?” and he turned back to face the other two.

Hoseok’s face went pale. Asa’s blue eyes became big. Cole felt a puff of air into his neck and he tensed.

“For the first time in my life I just hope I’m ugly and that’s the reason you guys are doing those faces” he said; his body frozen and his mind in denial, he didn’t want to turn back.

“Boo” something grunted right behind him making his body tremble. Hoseok screamed and fell back into Asa who screamed as well and fumbled backwards, his eyes never leaving the amorphous creature upon them. His big hands clumsily trying to find support on the walls. Hoseok that fell on his butt quickly got up only to turn around just to stumble onto Asa once again.

Cole finally turned back and for a second he wished he didn’t. His voice stuck on his throat, eyes fixed on the sinister scarecrow right in front of him.

“G-Givee meee yourrr heeaaart” the creature grunted once more. Cole finally got a grip of himself and pushed the haunting scarecrow back, running right past him.

“ASA!! THE BAGS!” he screamt after stumbling on something and realising it was what they were looking for.

“FORGET THE BAAAAGS! AAAAH” Asa’s voice was trembling and between trying to help Hoseok who kept falling and running away from the creature who was going after the two he managed to scream back at Cole “FUCK YOU GO AWAY!!!”

“WOOOAHHH!!! WOAA”

“I got this, I got this” Cole kept mumbling to himself while scanning the place. He had very few options. The scarecrow had it’s back turned to him but the corridor was too narrow for him to pass by it without something happening. So he looked at the window right onto his left and let his body take the lead.

Cole’s hands were shaking a bit due to the heat of the moment. He fiddled with the window lock for a little but once he unlocked it a huge smile opened on his face.

“COLEEE?”

“I- Wait a sec! I got this!!!!” he answered while quickly glancing at his teammates and then back at the task in front of him. The window was a little rusty but he managed to open it fully so he threw both bags down. “GUYS! JUST RUN! MEET ME DOWN ON THE LAWN”

“COLE WHAT?!” Asa who was pushing continually the scarecrow back asked. Hoseok was glued to the wall screaming nonstop.

“JUST RUN AWAY! I’LL JUMP” Once he said this the scarecrow turned back. Cole was already sitting in the window. “GO! NOW!” he reassured his teammates again and Asa took the lead grabbing Hoseok by his shirt and running as fast as he could. The dreadful creature fastened it’s pace towards Cole. The boy smiled before jumping.

-

“Did we really need to choose the dark basement as our place to search?” Jin asked while he looked to the stairs that led to the dim place over Sana’s shoulders. His hands were gripping her arms and keeping her in place as a shield. “I feel like there’s definitely something there but it’s not the bags.” he laughed nervously.

“Yeah… I don’t feel like this is a good idea, Jeremy” Sana pondered, her eyes on the same spot Jin’s were.

“Fine then, you two stay here and I’ll go.”

“Great plan!” Jin offered him a quick thumbs up and his hands were back on Sana’s arm making the girl sigh but also let out a small giggle.

“It’s not a great plan” she said making Jeremy retrieve his foot of the first step to look back at her “If something happens to you, it’s only me and Jin”

“Not offended”

“Guys this is a Halloween game” Jeremy said laughing at their faces “The scariest shit that can happen is someone yelling at our ears and that’s it”

“Fine then, go” she brushed off. Jeremy rolled his eyes and turned front again, the darkened stairs making everything creepier. A second passed and he didn’t move. Another one and nothing. “So… Are you going or…?” Sana looked from him to the stairs again.

“I’m going! I’m going! It’s just- dark that’s all. I have no flashlight and I was trying to get my eyes used to it and-”

“You know there’s a light switch right there right?” Jin pointed to the wall next to them.

“Wha- Jin!!!!” Sana turned back giving him a soft slap “You could’ve told us that sooner!”

“Well sorry! I didn’t think he would go into the dark!”

While both of them kept quirreling Jeremy flicked the light switch in a flash tired of losing time, after all he had a game to win. But as soon as the lights were turned on two things came on focus, the bags near the third step and Freddy Krueger right at the bottom starting to climb up to get to them.

“Run-” Jeremy said lowly still paralysed watching the killer move himself “RUN!!!” that’s when Jin and Sana stopped arguing and looked back at him and what was going on. As soon as Freddy entered Jin’s vision, the boy screamt and started running backwards, looking every direction he could too afraid that more frightening creatures would appear. His loud voice echoing without coming to a stop.

Jeremy quickly pulled the bags towards him and turned around to run, passing one bag fast to Sana who was even faster to turn around and run towards the first floor as well but not before taking a box of washing powder left near the washing machine she passed by and throwing it back to hit the burnt face that tormented her so much.

-

Acute clinking sounds filled the air along with tree leaves dancing in the maddening wind. Jungkook and his team were sat on the porch of a neighbour house of TKE, the bags already retrieved and now alight right in front of each of them.

Tori kept trying to align her hair strands that kept swinging in front of her face while Jason kept fumbling with a walkie talkie he had just found on his own backpack. Inside each backpack they found a piece of paper with the same clue written on it, a little flashlight, a map of the campus, a walkie talkie and an almost realistic human finger with a tag on it that said one point for you player!

“This wind is making me stressed!” Tori let out with a sigh. Jason spared her a glance but kept pushing the buttons without really knowing what they did.

“That guy dressed as Chucky was pretty heavy” Jason mused “Don’t you think, bro?” he looked over Jungkook who was really quiet while reading over and over again the clue he found inside the backpack with furrowed eyebrows, deep in thoughts.

“Don’t you think bro??” Jason tried again.

“Uh?”

“Lost much, Kook?” Tori laughed.

“What are we supposed to do with this information?” Jungkook asked frustrated to his team “Wet blue? What is that?? There’s no such color”

“I’m sure we still have time, man, don’t stress it” Jason tried to cheer him up “I’m sure we were the first ones finding the bags plus we each have one point finger” he laughed while holding his gifted finger up.

“Yeah” he sighed “You’re probably right” Jungkook swept his bangs back. By now he was sure his hair was a mess, but he didn’t care much.

“Umm..” Tori began, her eyes following the movement of something way ahead of them “Not trying to break the lovely moment but I guess we are second place”

“We what?” Jungkook lifted his eyes from the paper he wouldn’t stop reading to see where Tori’s eyes were focused at and to his despair Yoongi and Carolina, alongside some blonde girl, were walking in a fast pace towards somewhere. They all had a backpack and the blonde girl was explaining something to them in a enthusiastic way. Jungkook tried his best to overhear what they were talking about, shushing Jason when he tried to say something along the lines of ‘don’t worry bro, we still got this’.

“Are you sure that’s the place?” he heard Yoongi ask lazily “I ain’t walking all the way over there for nothing”

“It’s there Yoongs, just stop being a grandpa, do you want the two thousand or not?” Carolina joked and Jungkook instantly got up.

“HEY!” Jungkook shouted “YOONGI”

“Kook what are you doing?” Tori asked alarmed.

“You heard this?”

“I think it was someone calling your name” the blonde girl said to Yoongi while looking around.

“YOONGI!! HERE!” Jungkook stepped forward.

“Who’s there?” Jungkook saw Yoongi stop and squint his eyes in his direction, he knew the older guy had a bad vision. “Ya, who’s that?” Yoongi asked Carolina who had the same expression on her face.

“It’s spiderman” the blonde one said and Carolina immediately commented “Uh nice butt” since the boy was turned to the side trying to fetch his walkie talkie to talk to Yoongi, and as soon as he heard the comment he turned around and walked forward a little further.

“IT’S JUNGKOOK!! YOONGI, IT’S ME!”

“Nevermind” Carolina said again and crossed her arms “WHAT DO YOU WANT VIRGIN BOY?!”

“It’s Jungkook?”

“Yeah”

“BRO ARE YOU PLAYING THE GAME?” Jungkook shouted trying to ignore Carolina. A hard gust of wind hit them suddenly, the boy’s hands coming up to protect his eyes.

“YES WE ARE”

“DO- DO YOU KNOW WHERE THE PLACE IS?”

“WE DO VIRGIN BOY BUT WE AIN’T TELLING” he saw Carolina shut Yoongi’s mouth without need with one of her hands and answered for him while laughing. Jungkook knew this because although he was trying to ask Yoongi the answer, he lived with the guy and knew him well enough to know that he could be a snake sometimes. “GO FIND YOUR BRAIN QUICKLY BEFORE YOU RUN OUT OF TIME”

“YOU- YOU’RE A BITCH!” Jungkook grunted in frustration.

“AND MUCH MORE!” her laughter echoing in the silent street and she coldly turned around with the blonde girl, both of them walking away. Yoongi did the same but before he shouted an apology “SORRY JUNGKOOKIE, GOOD LUCK!”

“Well that sucks” Jason stated bluntly coming near Jungkook, Tori right behind him.

Jungkook kept staring at their figures slowly disappearing in the distance, and something inside of him started boiling. His body was starting to get cold and his brain was completely blank due to his frustration.

A static noise broke the tension and Jason got startled by his own walkie talkie, Tori came rushed towards him as well as Jungkook - who spared one last glance at the horizon, Yoongi long gone.

“Hello players, this is your game master” a modified voice came out of the piece of machinery Jason was holding.

“Thank God! We need a hint!” Tori exclaimed, her right hand coming to her chest in a sign of relief.

“Beware of who may be watching you…” the voice said and as quick as it came it went away. The three of them still looking at the walkie talkie in hopes to hear anything else but nothing. Nothing came. Just the howling wind that was serving as a background song for their night.

“It’s.. It’s that it?” Jungkook asked indignant.

“It sounded like that guy- What’s the name?” Jason asked Tori rather excited “The Scream dude! The voice was exactly the same”

“TKE is definitely excelling themselves this year”

6

Hours ago Silvia thought she was up for a hell of a good night with her friends, even if the weather wasn’t helping at all, and now here she was, chasing the correct number painted on a tree located on the McCarthy Quad park. At least that was what Hyori and Namjoon had concluded from the clue they had been given to and she didn’t dare to refute.

Silvia was running fast but Hyori was running faster and the wind was pushing them back, difficulting their bodies movements. She heard someone shout a little further and coming to a halt she turned to see Namjoon pointing towards a big sycamore tree.

“Hyori!!!” she looked back to shout at the girl that went ahead “Hyori!!! He found it!” Silvia’s hair was all over her face and for a moment she could hardly see one foot ahead.

Something cold touched her skin while she tried to tame her wild curls, and when she looked up startled she saw Hyori’s smile. Both girls ran towards Namjoon who currently fought a battle with the zipper of his backpack trying to put away the clue inside it.

“What are you doing?” Hyori questioned him chuckling once they approached the spot. The boy glanced at them with a furious expression.

“I broke the zipper of my bag”

“Let me see it” Silvia took the still light bag only to conclude he indeed had broken it. She started then to try and find a solution to his problem.

“Ok so this is it” Hyori said looking around; the lantern she had in her right hand illuminating the red number painted on the tree. “And I’m guessing we’ll have to digg now” she pointed then her flashlight to the shovels pilled next to it.

“I’ll start then” Namjoon took one in his hands and started digging; he had no clue of what he was doing.

“Ok, let’s do this-” Silvia was going to put Namjoon’s backpack on the side but the other girl interrupted her with a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“Let’s take turns!” Hyori said with a gentle smile; her small voice a little louder now to be heard in such a terrible weather. “Me and Namjoon will digg while you come up with a solution to that” she chuckled.

“Got it!”

The boy wasn’t paying much attention now, his eyes strained onto the ground and he tried his best to not make a mess out of it. He could be clumsy at times - most of the times if he had to be honest, but he was trying his best to do the job properly and not disappoint both of his teammates. Hyori on the other hand got a little distracted once she saw another group of three a little further away from them. They seemed to be looking at a map. The only thing she could see was their flashlight pointed to the piece of paper and their silhouettes.

Hyori normally wasn’t that great at distinguishing people, she was bad with faces and all, but she would be damned if she didn’t recognize her own best friend even if she was from far away.

While her gaze was upon Deo and what her group might be, one of the tall silhouettes turned it’s head to the side, right at her direction. The flashlight wasn’t illuminating properly, but Hyori could see it was two boys that surrounded her friend.

“Are you going to digg too or…?” Namjoon asked huffing.

“Yeah… Just a sec…” she answered still too focused on Deo’s group. When her roommate illuminated the higher corner of a map she had in hands, the ray of light flashed Jack’s face and she could see his squinted eyes trying to look at her as well. “Jack!” Hyori said out loud but the howling wind muffled her voice.

The next thing she saw was Jack pointing towards his back and leading both Deo and the other tall guy further away from her. Is he really that competitive? Hyori thought. She held her glance at them for a few more seconds before Namjoon say something.  

“I- I think” he gasped “I think we have the wrong spot”

“It’s still shallow Namjoon” Silvia pointed out laughing.

“Oh? Yeah… Sorry. I think I’m not doing a very good job” he said with both hands resting on his shovel, admiring the work he had done so far.

-

“Jack I’m pretty sure is that way” Deo pointed towards her back but her eyes were still trailed on the map she was carrying around. Jack’s hands never leaving her shoulder, pushing her forward. The girl was a little out of focus since her worst fear (clowns or just pennywise) got to chase after her earlier, that resulted on her eye mascara being smudged a little under her eyes due to crying. 

“It’s not baby, look” he pointed with his own flashlight to a trail marked on the map. “We were here and we need to go this way”

“He’s right… I think” Taehyung admitted against his will. From the second he met Jack he hated the guy. He was the typical jock that made stupid jokes and spoke nothing more than about himself. The guy was cocky and basically the complete opposite of Taehyung. And to say it wasn’t being hard to control the facial expressions he felt the need to do every time Jack spoke was a complete lie.

“You can’t even read the GPS on your car and you’re asking me to trust you with a map?” she looked over her boyfriend.

“Hold on a second-”

“Sorry to interrupt the love quarrel but the guy is right” Taehyung interrupted; he was walking behind the couple and that made Deo stop on her tracks to look back at him, Jack being obliged to stop as well. “We passed by those trees back there” Taehyung said carefree while pointing back “and their numbers were 4, 7, 9… If we are assuming this is like a house address numbers thing, then our tree is on that way” he finished his thinking pointing frontwards.

“Thank God someone that backs me up” Jack said with a bright smile and going back to push Deo forward and gently once again.

“Fine then, let’s see” the girl rolled her eyes but offered no resistance at being guided.

Somewhere near, in the chilly park that was already filled with autumn leaves everywhere, you could hear the sound of a shovel insistently hitting the earth while a heated chattering followed. Team 3 was finding hard to reach to an agreement. Emma kept digging by herself, it had been fifteen minutes since they found their tree but Jennifer refused to touch a single nail on a shovel. V alongside Emma had picked a shovel to dig as well but seeing Jennifer did nothing she stopped her work and started arguing with her.

“We are a team Jennifer!” V was now almost yelling; the vein on her neck popping due to such frustration. “You gotta help as well!”

“I’ll help in the next one” Jennifer rolled her eyes and kept playing with her nails. Her expression not even alterated.

“That’s what you said when me and Emma were trying to catch the bags, yours included! And when we were trying to figure out this riddle”  

“Stop being a dramatic bitch” Jennifer retorted now looking at Victoria’s eyes. “I said I will help on the next task”

“Leave her be, Victoria” Emma said with a huff. “I can do it, it’s-” another puff of air leaving her mouth “It’s alright”

Victoria grunted in frustration, her eyes never leaving Jennifer stare. “Forget it” she ended up saying and then went back to help Emma. “How deep do you think we have to dig?” she asked throwing the dirt she had just digged to the side.

“To be honest-” Emma started and stopped to kick her shovel deep into the soil “I hope not much more”

“Well I think you two will have to dig a whole more and faster if you want to finish this game until tonight”

“Shut up!” V snapped at Jennifer “No one asked your opinion, oh my God”

Jennifer just laughed in amusement, scenes like this were a regular thing on the volley practices. Both girls were from the same team although it didn’t look like not even a little not even at all.

“Did you felt that?” Emma asked V, trying to ignore the profound want and need of hitting Jennifer with her own shovel. The girl was just being too much ever since they got trapped together.

“Felt what?”

“That” Emma said again hitting her shovel on something harder than what it felt when digging earth and hearing a clink noise in return.

“Shit- We found it” Victoria exclaimed and quickly let her shovel fall by her side to start brushing the dirt aside with her own hands.

7

“Told ya’” Jack said. They had just found the tree marked as 22, the bright red impossible not to spot from a certain distance. They had been walking for ten minutes non-stop trying to check every tree they found on the way, to make sure they weren’t missing theirs. And turned out Taehyung was right about the whole address thing.

“Told ya” Deo mocked “Just grab the freaking shovel jock. Let’s put those muscles up to good use” she cheekily put her tongue out making Jack blow a kiss with a cocky smile. Taehyung decided not to stand by watching the scene so with a roll of his eyes he grabbed the first shovel he could see and started digging.

-

Dylan was completely stretched on the dirty floor of McCarthy Quad, although he was feeling his clothes getting damped due to the temperature he was just too exhausted to get up.

“So what do we do now?” Lindsay questioned; in one hand she had the little paper with their new clue and the other was resting on her hip. “You guys have any idea of where this might lead us?”

“I have no clue” Ali who was dressed in a renaissance garb sat down next to Dylan; the air she huffed and puffed visible in the air due to the temperature drop. She and Dylan digged until they found a metal box, inside it another finger with the same tag one point for you player! and the clue.

For a few seconds the only thing hearable was the sound of Lindsay wiggling the pearls she was wearing around her neck to complete her flapper costume and the tapping of her impatient foot.

“Ok” Dylan said while shuffling himself to a sitting position. “As soon as we figure the place, cause I’m really assuming that note leads us to another location, I have a plan for us to go faster”

“Please do tell” Ali turned her face gently to the side to see him.

“No, no, first we need to find what is up with that location”

“Isn’t this talking about books though?” Lindsay said, her eyes trailed on the little note and her mind paying no attention to her teammates.

“Books?”

“Let me see it” Dylan asked with an extended hand to her and she handed him the clue. “Umm… You guys know we are right in the middle of two libraries right?” he asked looking from one to another.

Ali immediately looked at Lindsay with huge eyes. “Oh my God we are!”

“So, what was your plan to get us there quickly?” Lindsay asked excited.

“Oh nevermind, the buildings are right here, we don’t need that old bike over there” Dylan shrugged off.

“Were you seriously thinking on riding that thing?” Lindsay laughed. The old bike leant on a bench near where they were was rusty and seemed to be missing some pieces.

“You probably failed calculus because we are three and there’s no way you could ride a bike taken other two people in it”

“I said I had a plan, not that I had a good one!” he said jokingly while getting up and cleaning his hands on the side of his trousers. A static sound interrupted the girls laughter.

“Hey players, if I were you I’d run…”

“Bro the Halloween game this year is getting hella’ artistic” Dylan commented.

“Yeah, tell me about it! That horrendous version of Slash was really artistic”

“I spy with my little eyes…”

Lindsay glanced around a little spooked out, she didn’t know if it was her head painting scenarios over what she had just heard the so called game master saying or if she could really feel someone watching them. “Guys let’s just get out of here”

-

The third challenge was indeed in the libraries that surrounded the park the players had gone to like Dylan suspected. As soon as the teams got to the entrance they could spot the door open and everyone knew that it wasn’t supposed to be open at night. Most of them in fact hesitated to enter the dark place… Hyori for example went over the little clue a few more minutes before coming to terms that she would have really to trespass the property.

Screeching noises could be heard the moment you passed through the door, the aged wooden floor not helping to keep the secrecy of someone being there. The only thing team 10 could see was what their flashlight was illuminating.

“Oh my God what is that?!” Jae whispered alarmed, her body frozed up near a huge shelf full of books.

“Is that another player or…”

“If you say it’s that weirdo dressed as Scream again, Cecilia, I swear to God” Tessa was crouched near them, her hands on her head. When the girls were searching for their bags they encountered Scream. He looked like a statue, one of the many that were decorating the party that night, and they would never think it was actually a real person. Tessa that was in the front got a tremendous jumpscare and ended up falling.

“It doesn’t seem him” Jae that was still looking at the lurking presence a little forward said after looking back at them. “It’s mask is different”

“That one is a…” Cecilia tried to figure out. “A phantom of the opera?”

“Oh then we are ok” Tessa got up and started walking towards the person. “Hey! Psssst”

“Tessa!” both girls whispered in a loud manner.

“Hey you! I’m sorry-“

The costumed guy, dressed as what it seemed like phantom of the opera, said nothing but pointed her towards a door.

“Guys” Tessa called looking back. “I think we have to go that way!”

“Really?” Jae approached her, looking from the clue she had pointed with a flashlight and then the door. “Between poets and suspense…” she looked to the sides of the door. There were a two shelves next to it, one that said poetry and the other said suspense/thriller.

“Yeah, definitely here” she concluded.

“Let’s go then… I guess” Cecilia went to open the door, and once her hand was on the doorknob it opened up without her doing anything. “Jesu-“

“For some people Naruto is indeed Jesus” Yoongi chuckled opening the door fully now and walking past Cecilia and the other girls from team 10.

“TESSA!” Carolina exclaimed once the girl entered her sight. “You’re here too?”

“Just got here!” she went for a hug. “What did you do there?” Tessa pointed the door that was now being closed by a girl dressed as Violet from the charlie and the chocolate fabric.

“Friends are friends, business is business, Tess! Sorry!” Carolina smiled apologetic. “And good luck!!” she wished truly.

“Fiiiine” Tessa sighed. “Happy Halloween!” she smiled to her friend. “Let’s go, girls” and she opened the door again, this time going through it with Cecilia and Jae right behind her.

“I didn’t know you could make friends” Yoongi pointed out in a tone of joke; his arms crossed.

“I befriended you, after that everything else is super duper easy” she sticked her tongue out.

Yoongi laughed and then took out the little card he had hidden inside his pocket. “Tchaa!” he sighed “Another one for you two, I’m tired of thinking”

“That sounds like a fun place to go” Sarah chuckled nervously.

8

Cara, Jimin and Holly had just entered a dark room they had been pointed out inside the library. Jimin mustered the courage he didn’t have and put on a brave face to go first while Cara and Holly followed, both of them tightening the grip on his leather jacket. The room was pitch dark and before going in they saw a sign saying they needed to leave their backpacks behind.

“Just stay close” Jimin whispered without a need while going inside. Not a peep could be heard.

“This room is freezing!” Cara commented while getting even closer to Jimin. “And my outfit isn’t helping”

“It’s ok, girl, I got your back” Holly immediately crouched to grab part of Cara’s dress to help her walk more freely. Her chosen outfit for tonight was Feyre from A court of thorns and roses and although she was looking beautiful until now her dress was making everything seem harder for her, specially running. Before she could thank Holly, the door they had just walked through which was also the only remaining source of light for them was shut close with a loud bang. The three of them jumping with the loud noise and an uncomfortable silence followed.

Jimin’s eyes were trying to adjust to the somber room, he blinked and tried his best to focus on some spot and try to see at least some silhouettes but he failed.

“Hello players, I hope you are up to play a game because I have some questions for you” a grotesque laughter came right after, the voice deep and clearly altered.

“Who’s there??” Jimin asked and chuckled nervously after he did it. He brought Holly and Cara closer to him, his hands firmly placed on the small of their backs.

“Who directed the film Halloween from 1978?” the grotesque voice asked them.

“Eeey- That isn’t fair!” Jimin complained. “How are we even supposed to know that?!” 

“Oh God, I don’t really know that one!” Holly said anxious. Cara just kept holding for dear life onto Jimin. 

A loud error noise was able to be hear making the three of them jump in fear, no one expecting the loud noise so close and loud. 

“Which film has as its main characters, Morticia and Gomez?”

“Oh! Oh! That’s easy!” Holly exclaimed. “It’s The Addams Family!”

“Nice!”

“Thank God we have Holly” Cara said in relief. 

“WOUSH!! What was that?!” Jimin fumbled back taking the girls with him. 

“What?!” 

“There was something touching my feet!”

“What is the word Hallowe’en an abbreviation of?”

“All Hallow’s Eve!!” Jimin and Holly yelled at the same time. Cara unable to form coherent thoughts on her head, the dark room was freaking her out. 

- 

On a blacked out room right next to group 9, three girls were kneeled on the ground together. As soon as group 6 entered the room they started getting uncomfortable with not being able to see things and also about the lack of sound. 

Esme started crouching down, her defense mechanism being turn herself into a little ball, and of course Nina followed. Aashna stood up for a little while, she kept feeling the other two getting closer to her legs, but once a loud bang echoed the room she dropped to her knees in a matter of seconds.

“What was Dr. Frankenstein first name?”

“Victor! It was Victor!!!” Nina yelled, she wasn’t afraid but she would admit the room was getting weirder and weirder. 

“Yes!!” Esme celebrated when a xylophone acute sound soared on the room, they knew the answer was right. 

“Name all the killers that embodied Ghostface from Scream.”

“Oh fuck! That one is hard” Nina said more to herself than anything. 

“You know it?” Esme asked turning to Aashna. 

“Uh… Roman Bridger is one of them…?” Aashna started not feeling very secure of her answer. “Loomis? Ugh I don’t know!!” 

“It’s ok-” 

A loud error sound echoed startling them, that probably meant the answer was wrong, they thought. 

-

“Who were the targets of Jack the Ripper?”

“Prostitutes!” Dylan said. “That’s for sure!”

“You sure?” Ali questioned him, but he didn’t need to answer because the xylophone sound was heard. 

“Thank God! I just want to leave here!!!!” Lindsay was feeling agitated on this room, it was too eerie. 

“It’s ok, Linds! I’m sure it will be over soon” Dylan said softly trying to pull her closer. They had just met but he knew she was having a hard time being scared. 

“For what is Ted Bundy known?”

“Killing over 35 women!” Ali and Dylan said at the same time. 

“It was 35 right?” he questioned.

“Yes, I’m sure!” 

Another xylophone sound was heard. 

“Please tell me this was the last!!” 

“It’s almost babeee” Ali tried to cheer her up, her hand coming to Lindsay’s squeezing it a bit. 

“It’s dare time players” the game master finally said freaking them out. 

9

After answering the last question, there was a loud bang again and Deo immediately held the closest thing she found as some sort of comfort. She knew this was just a game but she couldn’t help feeling scared being in the dark.

“Lights on”

The girl had her eyes closed shut. Jack opened his and rubbed them. When he looked back he saw his girlfriend holding tight Taehyung who was standing still like nothing was happening while scanning the room. That was enough to make Jack insanely mad. 

“WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!” he exclaimed loudly making Taehyung look at him confused and Deo just opened her eyes surprised. 

“I-I thought it was you!” the girl said after looking at Taehyung’s face and realizing it was not her boyfriend there. Taehyung immediately let out a tsk. 

“ME?! I look nothing like that guy!” Jack pointed at the other boy furious. “Why are you still holding him?!” he asked when his girlfriend did nothing to move away. His anger making him explode and stride quickly until he could reach her arm to pull her away. 

“Hey!” Taehyung exclaimed; his eyebrows furrowed. “You’re going to hurt her” 

“I was not! And how could I see?! It was pitch black!” Deo defended herself. 

“You were with me in the dark before. You should know damn well how I feel to the touch”

A snort sound coming from Taehyung was heard. “Now that’s just pathetic”

“What?! That doesn’t even make sense!”

“You know what?!” Jack exclaimed furious “I don’t want to talk about this shit anymore” he went towards the left wall; hands placed on his hips. An awkward moment of tension followed.

“Oook” Taehyung said breaking the silence. “What’s up with this thing?” he approached a locker standing in the middle of the room. 

“Are you seriously going to be like that? Whatever..” Deo said, Jack having his back to her. And then looking over the locker where Taehyung now was she asked “How many digits?”

“Four” 

“Are you fucking kidding me right now? Are you really pretend nothing happened??” Jack looked back at both at them but his frustration clearly directed at Deo. 

“Jack what the fuck! You said you didn’t want to talk about it, let’s not!” she answered, looking everywhere but him. 

“Not to be indelicate but- 2:31 minutes left according to that timer over there”

“Fuck off dude!!!” Jack yelled at him. 

“Yeah, same” he answered back. 

“Jack!” Deo reprehended him but he did nothing but to ignore her still pacing around the room. "Do you want me to just tell you the words on the walls?“ the girl asked Taehyung. 

“Could we maybe exchange? I’m not very good with this but I have big eyes so I can tell you the words!” Tae smiled cutely to her and she immediately walked over the locker. 

"Yup, sounds good to me." 

“I have big eyes so I can tell you the words” Jack mocked in a stupid tone. “Did I just disappeared is that it??”

"Fucking wish Pennywise was here” Deo said almost in a whisper way. Jack didn’t hear but Taehyung certainly did which made him chuckle loudly. 

“What is so funny, jackass?!”

“You’re the one named Jack not me” Tae scoffed; his eyes briefly on Jack before returning to the written walls again. 

“Guys the time!!!”

“Sorry!” Taehyung apologized and quickly read a few words before finding one with four digits. “Try rack” he said looking back at Deo.

“Oh shit!!”

“What?!” Taehyung asked nervous and Jack just stopped pacing to look at Deo expectant. 

“It’s right!”

“IT IS???!” Taehyung just couldn’t believe he found the word at his first attempt. A huge smile taking over his face. “My eyes worked!!!!”

“What does it has inside?” Jack asked without patience. 

Taking over a piece of paper from inside Deo said “A clue I think”

-

Aashna kept blinking trying to adjust her now recovered vision to the intense light. Nina and Esme seemed more recomposed than her since both of them were standing in the middle of the room inspecting a big and solitair red locker that also stood there. She observed that the walls were full of words and letters painted in red, her hand trailing slowly the gory word that gained her attention the most. Somber.

“I think we need to find the word that opens this” she heard Nina say but her eyes still on the marked walls.

“Yeah and we need to find it fast, look” Esme said and she turned around to see what the girl was talking about. Esme was pointing towards a timer placed on the top of the door they came in by. 2:40 it marked. And after blinking Aashna got to see one number less, the timer was decreasing.

“How are we supposed to know which word is it???” Aashna panicked.

“For starters I think it’s a four letter word since there’s only four spaces here” Nina pointed out going to the nearest wall to try and find something.

“I’ll insert every word I know then!”

“Try dark” Aashna said when she spotted the word right next to where her hand was leaning and then looked expectant at Esme to see the result.

Esme fumbled with the padlock a little and then looked back at Aashna “Nope, not that one”

“Lost!” Nina shouted from across the room.

2:03.

The clicking sound of Esme fumbling with the locker could be heard, nothing else. It was followed by a long sigh. “Still a no!”

“Bone?” Aashna asked.

1:40.

And when the answer was once again a no, Nina shouted again “Shot!”

“I’m starting to get really frustrated at this” Esme grunted. “No, still nothing” she sighed.

“Are we going to stay stuck here?”

“Just keep looking!”

“Ok, what about blue? It’s written there” Nina suggested. “There’s not even a clue or something?”

“I guess not…” Esme answered her while inserting the word on the padlock. “And it’s not blue either.

1:01.

“This sucks!!!”

“I don’t see anymore words here with four letters only” Aashna said while reading everything she could. “Are you sure it’s a four letter word??”

“Pretty sure!” Esme answered leaving the locker and going to check the walls herself. “There’s only four spaces there.”

“I’ll try words I know then” Nina said walking towards the big red locker. “We still have time right?” she looked over the timer to see 0:43 marked on it. “Shit. Ok, what about home?” she said more to herself than anything else fumbling with the lock.

“Ghost”

“That’s a five letter word” Esme chuckled making Aashna chuckle too.

0:27.

“Love isn’t the answer after all…” Nina sighed moving onto the wall on her right. “Let me see if there’s something here”

“And the only door here is locked” Esme said turning the knob of the door and stating it didn’t open. “So yeah, we are probably screwed”

“What happens when the timer reaches zero though?” Nina questioned.

“ZERO! That’s it!” Aashna said excited looking from the timer to Esme who was quick to run towards the center of the room and insert the word on the padlock.

0:09.

“Please, please” Aashna mumbled.

“IS IT?”

And with a heavy sigh Esme said “No”.

A loud and screeching sound of a siren echoed in the entire room making the girls press their hands to their ears to somehow muffle the noise. Nina even crouched on the floor and they got even more horrified when the door finally opened and a tall figure dressed like an intimidating and gory doctor entered with a catering trolly, three cups on top of it.

The siren stopped and the abrupt change made the girls head combust. “I guess it’s going to be trick instead of treat” the guttural voice echoed on the room once again and the girls knew right then they would have to drink from the cups.

“Choose your cup wisely players” a wicked laughter followed along with Aashna, Esme and Nina exchanging glances before picking up their glasses and gulping everything down.

-

On the room next door the timer was running fast but still no sign of the locker opening up.

“I still can’t believe Jungkook managed to open this thing” Jennifer kicked the locker lightly. Group 3 had previously met Group 2 on the entrance of the library, Jungkook, Tori and Jason were just leaving the place when the girls happened to be entering. They exchanged a few words since both V and Jennifer knew Jungkook and Jason from volley, and of course, Jungkook knew Jennifer from much more than volley but it was a brief meeting nonetheless.

“You don’t know if he actually did it” V retorted.

“Try the word host!” Emma said to Jennifer who rolled her eyes and fumbled grudgingly with the padlock.

“I’m guessing he did since he was walking away from here differently from us” Jennifer answered while doing the task she was in charged with.

1:04.

“And it’s not host”

“What about Hope?” V asked.

“I’m sure it’s not going to be a cutesy word, hello? We are in a halloween game!” Jennifer answered without moving to do what V had asked her.

“Girl I swear-”

“Just try it out, Jennifer” Emma let out a long sigh.

“Fine” with another roll of eyes she turned around to fumble once more with the padlock.

0:38.

V and Emma waited expectant. “Not Hope, as I clearly explained before, the answer is clearly nothing like a cute word.”

“Let me see then” Emma said walking slowly around the room again and reading carefully every word she could find.

“Dark?”

“We tried that one already, pay attention bitch” Jennifer chuckled acidly.

“Girl you better watch out your back starting from tomorrow I swear, if I see you on the street-”

“Four? Try four” Emma ignored the heated argument, by now she was more than used to it.

0:17.

“That would be such a stupid passcode” Jennifer said while inserting the word. “I will be so disappointed if that is actually- It isn’t! Thank God” she snorted.

“This bitch is dumb as hell.” V chuckled while nodding her head and turning around to check the walls once again. “She is actually thanking the lord for not being able to get out of here.”

“It’s what they say, aesthetics first” Emma let out almost in a whisper and it was totally unintended but V managed to hear and she cracked hard.

0:02.

“Oh great, the time is up and you two are laughing like best-” Jennifer was saying but the loud siren interrupted her. She instantly fell backwards, bumping into the locker and slowly sliding down with her hands pressed firmly against the sides of her head.

Emma did the same, trying to protect herself from the madding noise while V stayed up trying to open the door by twisting the knob furiously. Until the door opened and she stumbled backwards seeing the eerie doctor coming in with a trolley and the three cups.

10

Carolina could feel her heartbeat drumming in her ears due to such excitement and thrill. Yoongi was the one decoding the clue they managed to get from inside the locker placed in the challenge of the library and they quickly came to the nearest graveyard around USC. Arriving there none of the three could see a single soul walking or completing the next challenge and both Carolina and Yoongi weren’t very keen on risking when they didn’t know the outcome. So thinking fast the girl suggested the other two for them to hide near the graveyard and wait for the next team, that way they could see what were they up to or at least know what they should and should not do.

Sarah was bundled up on her tracksuit just looking out with her lince eyes towards the foggy graveyard. Yoongi was crouched down right next to her looking comfortably, his hands near his mouth for warmth. If there was a thing he really hated was the cold. Carolina on the other hand had no coat, she was wearing only a nurse dress, her arms and legs were so numb that she stopped paying some mind to the harsh and cold wind.

“You look like a lunatic with that makeup” Yoongi whispered to her chuckling softly. His breathing creating a considerable breath vapor every time he talked or chuckled.

“Even when you’re serious you look like you’re laughing wickedly” Sarah whispered too with a satisfacted smile making Carolina open one herself.

“Why so serious?!” she looked at them jokingly with one eyebrow up and a creepy smile.

“Ya” Yoongi pushed her and she stumbled back since she was crouching to stay hidden. “That was creepy as fuck” he finished making Sarah laugh again.

“I almost fell and got dirt and mud on my white nurse… thing. What is this called?”

“It’s just a dress” Sarah laughed even more.

“This way we are going to ruin our plan, everyone can hear us”

“We got here first???” they heard someone exclaim from a distance. The three of them silent now and vigilant.

“Bro what did I tell you??? We didn’t open that stupid locker but we still got here first than anyone else!!”

“Who are those?” Yoongi whispered, his eyes squinted but he couldn’t see anything.

“I think… Jason?” Sarah whispered back.

“Not surprised he didn’t open the locker then” Carolina chuckled lowly.

“What do we do now? There’s nothing here”

“And that’s virgin boy”  Carolina added.

“How do you even know?”

“Confirmed, it’s him” Sarah answered her.

“His voice is annoying”

“Shit there’s more people coming”

“Where?”

As soon as team 8 heard that, they looked towards the direction the girl that was with Jungkook was looking to. Sarah, the only one with falcon eye vision in that group was reporting what she saw. To what she could see, there was not only one other group approaching but two. The first one she described as being three girls and Carolina quickly recognized one of them being Esme, her new front door neighbour. The other group as Sarah described had two girls and a guy. She tried her best to explain who Silvia was, saying she worked on the library and everything but Yoongi and Carolina never really paid much attention to their surroundings. Now, the guy… That one as soon as he came to both friends vision they recognized as their clumsy friend. He approached Jungkook and while doing so he stumbled on a grave and if it weren’t for the spidey senses that Jungkook conveniently had Namjoon would probably be on the floor right now.

The so familiar static sound surprised team 8 that was focused on the other groups interacting. “Should I take someone else to serve as company to your friend, players?” They heard the voice say followed by a muffled scream that left them in shock.

Sarah chuckled nervously. “They- They are really taking this game seriously” she let out a few more spaced laughter, her eyes going from Yoongi to Carolina, hoping that one of them could ease her mind that the pained scream she heard was nothing but a dumb joke of halloween.

Yoongi pressed the button to respond on the walkie talkie and a little beep could be heard. “Is this another riddle or clue? Over” and as soon as he said it he could hear himself faintly, the message being emitted from Carolina’s and Sarah’s walkie talkies still kept inside their own backpacks.

“Why are we receiving the message as well?” Sarah asked.

Another muffled and pained grunt could be heard again and their attention fell over the walkie talkie on Yoongi’s hand “Tik Tok players… Your friend doesn’t have much time, that I can guarantee you” Carolina looked from the piece of machinery in Yoongi’s hand to his eyes “Mhhmmm” someone screamed uncomfortably and visibly gagged. “Tik tok” and the beep sound made them know the message had come to an end.

“What is happening?” Sarah asked visibly disturbed. Carolina didn’t answer but her eyes moved towards the graveyard again, Namjoon was there looking at a map together with his team and her heart tightened. Where is Taehyung and Jin? she thought to herself.

“Yoongi there’s something wrong”

“What do you mean?” both him and Sarah said at the same time, their expressions worried.

“There’s only Namjoon there.” Carolina pointed out. “Where’s the other two?”

“Which two? What are we talking about?”

“I’m sure this is all a prank Carolina” Yoongi tried to ease her mind. “It’s halloween after all”

“I’m telling you-”

“Too slow” there it was the static noise again. “Happy haunting, players”

A loud scream was heard, Yoongi’s head snapped towards the sound and Sarah gasped at the vision. A bunch of grotesque and gross zombies appeared on the graveyard, and if they didn’t know zombies didn’t exist they would definitely think they were just now meeting the creatures.

Tori was being dragged towards a tiny grove behind the graveyard, she screamed and struggled to get away but the fetid creature had a tight grip on her. Jungkook tried to help but two of them came towards him and he had no choice but to run and on it’s way of doing so he took one down that was trying to catch Aashna. He grabbed her arm and forced her to run with him, dodging the grunting beasts but there were many of it. Aashna eventually couldn’t keep up with his pace and was grabbed by the waist being dragged away from the boy.

“I FOUND ONE!” they heard Jason scream, his arm up trying to show Jungkook the finger they had been receiving with every clue so far. “IT’S THE POINTS RIGHT??”

“KEEP LOOKING FOR THEM!!” the boy answered dodging another zombie.

Esme and Nina were running together, they were trying to leave the graveyard when Nina spotted a piece of paper tied to a finger. She swiftly snatched the finger and looked back to check on Esme, they had what they needed, now they just had to run as fast as they could to the front gates, Aashna already had been taken, they couldn’t afford being catched as well.

“Nina run!!!” Esme’s voice could be heard louder now after a little scream. Nina looked back to see the girl being held by two of the ill looking beings. “GO NINA!”

“We have to help” Sarah whispered to her teammates, they were still hiding.

“No no no, let’s wait” Yoongi tried.

“Yoongi something is not right here, why would they take people?”

“And this game master person said our friend needed company and our friend seemed in pain. I don’t think this is a bad joke guys…” Sarah was trembling.

The boy sighed and then looked front, he could see Namjoon hiding with both girls of his team, just like he was. But something definitely felt wrong. “We need to evaluate this better”

“There’s nothing to evaluate Yoongi. We have zero ways of communication right now” Carolina looked at him with pleading eyes. “We don’t have our phones, we only have walkie talkies that don’t let us talk to others apart from this fucking psycho and that was not a sick prank.” she paused offegant. “I know how editing works and so do you. That didn’t sound like a sound effect he browsed online, that sounded like a real fucking person and it’s either Jin or Tae”

“I- I think she’s right… I didn’t come with friends tonight so he was probably talking to you two. And it’s pretty weird that one of your close friends it’s there but the other two aren’t-”

“We don’t even know if they are in the game! As far as we know they can perfectly be partying right now” Yoongi reasoned.

“And why the hell did he choose me and you instead of Jin and Tae? No offense but those two are walking gamers. Me and you are just grandpas that do nothing but complain” she pleaded tugging his arm. “This thing is looking like the fucking Saw movie, Yoongs”

“Carolina-” he was going to say but Namjoon’s voice was heard loud and clear making the three of them look again at the chaotic scenery at their front.

A group of zombies were trying to take Hyori away but Namjoon pushed two of them freeing the girl. She quickly ran to stay behind him and everything seemed ok until the got to the other girl that was with him. He grabbed Silvia’s hand to pull her towards him, but two built up gory zombies dragged her in a flash.

“Silvia!!!” he yelled. Another one was coming towards him and Hyori again, but he took her hand in his and they both sprinted towards the entrance of the graveyard.

“Fuck.” Carolina said and before she could think properly she was getting up. “Stay here and when I say so you two sprint out of here, understood?” she looked back at Yoongi and Sarah.

“Hell no. What are you doing now?”

“I- I can come as well” Sarah offered.

“I said stay put.” she glanced at them with warning eyes and sprinted towards Namjoon.

11

A lot of the dead creatures had been gone by now, there was only ten of them remaining and most were focused on trying to catch both Jungkook and Jason. The fogg was making everything feel creepier and Carolina couldn’t help the goosebumps and bad feeling she was having even if her skin was already burning hot from the sprint she suddenly took.

“Namjoon!!” She screamed over the top of her lungs and her friend came to a halt, he was almost near the gates to leave, Hyori right behind him.

“Carolina?”

“You have the clue right??” she asked still sprinting; she could see three creatures walking fast to approach Namjoon and the girl.

“Yes! Are you alone?? What are you doing here??” he asked in a hurry while looking to his sides to see if there were any threats near.

“I’m with Yoongi!” Carolina was almost reaching him “There’s something wrong-” right at that moment she felt something grabbing her arm and she yanked it back, running faster. “There’s something wrong!!! Namjoon run!! The walkie talkies- We can’t communicate”

Two grunting creatures appeared behind Namjoon and Hyori, the girl screamed and stumbled back. “Hyori run!” he said grabbing the grimy arm of one of them and pushing the other with all his might.

“I won’t leave you!!”

“Mother-” Carolina came fast pushing hard one of the creatures due to the speed she was in. “Go you two! Find Jin and Tae!!!”

“What’s going on Carolina???” he asked in panic.

“Try the walkie talkies, Nam, there’s something wrong!!”

They started to aglomerate near the three of them and Namjoon just nodded and ran, taking Hyori’s hand once again and disappearing into the fog.

“WATCH OUT!” Carolina heard Jungkook’s voice near, he came running and pushing a zombie that was hunting down after her but he tripped and fell, the clue he had just found falling from his grip. The girl saw the opportunity and took it. She quickly grabbed the finger tied up with a clue that Jungkook just lost and started running, the object entering swiftly her pocket.

“HEY! CAROLINA” he yelled after her, still on his knees.

“I’M SORRY!” she shouted back but he was being left behind. “YOU AND JASON CAN MANAGE FINDING ONE MORE!! I’M SORRY”

“AAAAH” she heard his scream and turned back to see two morbid silhouettes dragging him by his arms. “GET OFF OF ME”

“Ah shit” she cursed under her breath and sprinted towards Jungkook.

-

Group 5 had roamed for a while now trying to figure out what the next place could be. Deo kept saying it could only be the graveyard and none of the boys said the contrary, even if Jack kept saying he was convinced it was some place else. 

“Do you think this is the right place?” Deo shrugged, eyes shifting from one boy to the other, their eyes clued to their maps. The graveyard seemed empty. 

“Yup, seems right to me.” Taehyung said, nonchalant.

“And what now?” She asked again, the apprehensiveness tone in her voice visible.

“Nice! Seems like we are the firsts so let’s not waste more time and look for the next clue.”

“This is huge… It’s going to take us forever specially with this fog.” Taehyung sighed, squinting his eyes to try and see over the deep white cloak pairing in the air. Before Deo could open her mouth to complain about how creepy the game had become Jack pulled her to him, grabbing her hand and running backwards. 

“Watch out! Zombie!!”

Taehyung ran right besides them, the wet grass making it slippery for them to keep balance. They heard a scream not so far away and Taehyung’s supersonic ability of recognizing every sound possible made him look attentively towards his right while still running. 

“JIMINAH!!” He yelled; his voice sounding deep and hoarse, the wind carrying it away. 

“TAEHYUNGIE!!!” he heard back but he had no sight on Jimin. More screams could be heard and in one second of distraction Taehyung bumped into one Zombie. He fell back harshly but quickly getting up. That’s when he saw the piece of paper tied onto a finger and he thought no more, he clumsily ran towards it and grabbed it. 

“TAEHYUNGIE! THE ZOMBIES! BE CAREFUL” he heard Jimin’s voice once again and he looked towards the direction of it. 

“JIMINAH! LET’S DO THIS!!!!” 

“Jack!!!!” Deo’s voice sounded close to him. “Get awaaaaay!!” 

Taehyung ran as fast as he could and when he got near the girl she was trying to set herself free from the disgusting creature holding her by her waist. The boy glanced over to see Jack dodging two of them and he wasted no time in pushing the zombie that fought Deo. The creature stumbled back and Taehyung pulled her with him towards the entrance once again. 

“JACK!” she kept screaming back. 

“I GOT THE CLUE!!! RUN FASTER BRO” Taehyung yelled in hope the other guy could hear it. 

“FUCK YOU!!”

-

The desert streets of USC campus that normally had a peacefulness to them were now feeling intimidating. The big and old buildings had a menacing look to them now. Silvia had her arms crossed tight over her chest, the trees making noises that were scaring her and her body was trembling from head to toe. Her Simon glasses were long gone, she lost them while trying to get away from those zombies, her backpack still secure on her back though.

On her hands she had only her walkie talkie that seemed useless since she tried over and over again to talk to someone but obtained no answer in return. She wasn’t liking the feeling of having to wander around USC at night and alone…

Suddenly a screeching sound. “It’s easier to hunt a prey if it is found alone” and a sinister laughter followed. Silvia looked around, the feeling of being watched creeping her out. She fastened her pace and tried again.

Beep. “Hyori? Namjoon? It’s me Silvia! Please Answer! Over” she kept looking around and walking as fast as she could trying her best to stay in the middle of the street where some lamp posts were still on. The leaves being swayed away by the wind.

“Silvia???” she heard Hyori’s voice and quickly brought the walkie talkie towards her mouth.

“YES!!! IT’S ME”

“Where are you right now?? Over” Hyori asked, her voice seemed hurried.

“I’m-” Silvia looked around. “Near Webb Tower! Over”

“Ok, listen to me very carefully” Hyori started, her voice difficult to be heard due to the noises the machinery kept doing. “Me and Namjoon think there’s something wrong. Be careful! We are currently on our way to the cinema department, the next clue sends us there. We’ll wait for you in the entrance ok? Over”

“What do you mean something is wrong? But ok, I’ll be there! Over”

“We’ll explain once you’re with us again.” Hyori said. “But please be careful. Keep talking to us from five to five. Over!”

“Ok! On my way. Over” Silvia answered before tightening her grip on the walkie talkie and running down the street.

12

Holly had been separated from her group quite a while ago. The last thing she remembers being Jimin trying to protect her and Cara from some scary zombies who were trying to catch them. It all felt like a fun game of catch until one of them dragged her away towards the grove and tied her up, her eyesight being compromised since they put a sack on her head. She felt like she was being taken somewhere since she could feel she was inside of a car, she could also feel there were other people inside it with her but she didn’t know who since she had a gag on her mouth keeping her from asking questions.

When the car came to a halt for the third time, she was dragged again, this time they removed the rope she had on her hands and then all she could hear was the sound of the tires burning in the asphalt. She waited for a few seconds and since nothing happened she slowly took off the sack that was still on her head. Holly felt a little scared while doing so, she was afraid of what she might see, but it turned out to be nothing more than an empty and dark street.

Now here she was running towards the cinematic department since she was able to contact Jimin and Cara with the walkie talkie that she kept inside her backpack, and although she was feeling a little dizzy due to the alcoholic beverages she was forced to gulp down on the library (her team didn’t manage to open the locker up) and Jimin kindly offered to go pick her up, she was feeling more alive than ever, a little spooked too, but that was halloween and nothing could stop her now.

“It has been quite a while since she said she was on her way” Jimin said pacing around with his hands in his hips; eyes trailed onto the horizon, hoping Holly would emerge there somehow.

Jimin and Cara had arrived on the cinematic building half an hour ago. A big sign glued on the wall saying for the next challenge they needed all three present, and ever since he saw Holly being taken he started worrying over the girl.

“I’m sure she’ll be here soon, Holly is a brave girl, she’s fine” Cara was sat on the steps of the front stair. The wind softly blowing on her face.

“Yeah but it’s dark and-”

“Are you actually afraid of the dark Jimin Park?” Cara chuckled trying to release the tension the boy was feeling somehow. She knew he was feeling guilty over the fact he let Holly unguarded somehow because a group of people passed by him and he got distracted. And Cara was still curious about why he did such a surprised face but that was a question for another time.

“No but she might be!”

“I think she isn’t” Cara offered a smile. “Once she arrives here we ask her about it and see who wins, what do you think?”

“Yeah sure” he answered but his eyes were still full of worries; his lips caught up by his teeth and his body never facing anything but the horizon.

-

Inside the cinematic department the air was hazy and there was also an unintelligible sound echoing the halls. Group 7 was wandering the halls, Cole once again in the lead since he was a frequent passenger of this department. The lights were out, the three boys were finding their way while following the bloody arrows painted on the floor with their flashlights and as Cole was starting to think it was leading them towards the basement or the archive room as the cinema students would call it.

He wasn’t wrong. He came to a halt right at the door of it, the whole way there Hoseok standing really close to Asa both of them a little spooked out.

“Is this it?” Asa asked. “I was expecting something scarier, I have to be honest”

“I can’t handle anything scarier than this”

“Well, I guess it is a little scarier” Cole pointed the flashlight towards a paper glued on the door. “Look” his flashlight now illuminating the big black letters. “One stays here and the other two go down… in the dark. Wow, what a fun activity!” he looked at his teammates with a sarcastic smile.

“I’m not going down- No oh. Not a chance” Hoseok said, his eyes flickering with fear.

“Then you just have to go there” Cole pointed towards an open space full of small screens twitching and showing different perspectives of a long corridor. Asa kept looking from one to another, he himself wasn’t finding the decision an easy one to make.

“No way I’m staying over there alone! The place looks like a scenery of a horror movie”

“It’s either that or the dark”

“If you stay up you will have to lead us with the walkie talkie, that’s what the rules say… At least it’s a rather backlit place!” Asa presented him the options. “But if you’re scared of staying alone, you can always go down, you’ll be with one of us… but in the dark”

Hoseok’s eyes kept going from the glitching tv screens and the iron made door with the intimidating keep out sign on it.

“Hey guys!!” all of them looked back pointing their flashlights towards the newcomers. Hoseok letting out a few weird sounds, he was definitely the scaredy cat of the group.

“Wow!” Tessa chuckled; her hands serving as shield for her now blinding eyes. “Keep pointing that at me and I might actually become the moon”

“Sorry! We thought it was someone else” Asa clumsily apologised making the girls laugh.

“Ok so I think one of us has to stay outside guiding the other two since down there is basically pitch black and we can’t enter with our flashlights?” Cecilia said, she was reading the rules until now.

“Alone here??” Jae exclaimed. “Not a chance!”

“I’ll do it it’s ok, you guys go” Cecilia reassured them and moved towards the screens. Pressing the button speak of her walkie talkie she tested if it was working. “One, two, one two” beep.

“It’s working!” Tessa gave her a thumbs up.

“Ok, I’ll stay here! It’s ok, I’ll stay with her” Hoseok pointed towards Cecilia.

“Alright! Let’s move then” Cole replied and opened the heavy metal door with a screech.

-

Somewhere in the way team 7 and team 10 went separate ways, both Hoseok and Cecilia guiding their teams to opposite directions. The humid and pitch black corridors giving everyone the chills, and if that wasn’t scary enough the sound of water droplets falling into what seemed like buckets with water inside was the cherry on top of the cake.

Jae and Tessa were holding hands both of them completely blind in the dense and darkened place, they walked slowly, each with a walkie talkie in hands.

Beep. “Guys turn to your right” Cecilia voice was heard through the static noise. “Not now! Walk about four steps straight and then turn”

“Can you see something inside here with us???” Jae asked her; her voice quivering a little.

“I don’t think so. Over”

“Did we take four steps yet?” Tessa asked coming to a stop. Through the little screen upstairs, Cecilia could see them stopping, they were talking but she couldn’t hear them.

“I don’t think so… Did we?”

Beep. “Girls what are you doing? Turn right now” Cecilia ordered.

“Turn left or right? Over” Tessa asked completely lost. Not being able to see was messing with her sense of direction.

Beep. “Left! Over” and they immediately turned left but what came after was chaos.

Tessa screamed once she felt something going against her. And that something screamed even louder. Fearing something was happening Jae crouched on the floor, the only command her mind was able to give her body with the jumpscare.

“It’s us! Calm down, it’s ok!!” the girls heard a deep voice say making them even more scared. A continuous scream still echoing.

“US WHO???” Tessa shouted putting her hands close to her chest as a defense mechanism. “Don’t touch me!!” she let out in surprise when a hand brushed hers.

“It’s Jeremy! Jeremy from the volley team! And Jin!” the owner of the deep voice said trying to calm them down.

Beep. “Girls are you ok?” Cecilia asked worried. She saw the whole scene without a sound.

“YEAH AND JIN!!” Jin shouted; his hands kept wiggling, in his mind if he kept doing that no one would approach him and scare him. “WoOAh”

“Jin? Jin Kim?” Tessa asked, her hand coming to her heart to calm herself down.

“Who’s asking?” Jin answered turning abruptly to his side and then to the other. Eventually Jeremy had to place a hand on his shoulder to make him stop.

“It’s Tessa! From the cinema!”

“Tessa?”

“Who- What is happening?” Jae was still crouched down.

“Carolina’s friend! She was asking for you!!” Tessa answered Jin.

“She was?” Both Jin and Jeremy asked at the same time.

“When we were arriving here she and Yoongi were leaving and she asked me if I saw you! She looked very worried. She asked for Taehyung as well”

“I-I’ll try to catch up with her” Jin said. “Let’s go Jeremy, we already have the thing”

Beep. “Girls?” Cecilia asked again.

“We’re here!” Jae quickly answered. “Everything’s ok, we just bumped on Jeremy”

“Hey! And Jin!!!” Jin scolded.

Beep. “And Jin”

Beep. “You got it?” Sana’s voice was heard and that made Jeremy remember what he had come for.

“Tell her yes!”

Beep. “We got it! On our way. Over” Jeremy said.

Beep. “Let’s go then! We have a game to win people!!” Sana finished the message with a cute chuckle.

“Best of luck, girls” Jeremy said pulling Jin with him.

“The clue is on the floor!” Jin said quickly and winked and then laughed like a mad man over his own stupidity of winking if no one could actually see his face.

Beep. “Keep moving forward now! I see some things on the floor. Over” Cecilia told them and both of them quickly said their goodbyes to the boys and went on walking slowly and tugging at each other’s arms.

Jin and Jeremy kept walking forward this time, the latter on the front since Jin was a total basket case when it came to feeling scared.

“I think we’re almost out” Jeremy said lowly.

“Ya, how do you even know?!” Jin chuckled. “I can’t even see you!”

“I just know man”

“Back there I was so blind and afraid that it felt like I lost you for a second. I was screaming your name but I don’t even know if it was something decipherable”

Jeremy was about to answer, he turned back as if to face Jin to do so but the static noise of the walkie talkie interrupted him. “Boys! To your left now!” Sana said.

Beep. “Right now?”

Beep. “Yes, turn left Jer! Jin, place your hands into his shoulders, like a train that way I will guide him better and you will follow. Over”

“Ya how do I even know where he is…” Jin thought out loud; his hands coming forward to try and find Jeremy.

Beep. “A little forward!” Sana chuckled. “Up! Up! There you go!”

A few minutes had passed, the boys following Sana’s instructions until they reached the metal door once again. She was already there waiting for them but her voice sounded nothing like before.

“G-Guys we need to go” Sana said almost in tears. Jeremy quickly went towards her and gave her a side hug. Jin approaching her too but without knowing what to say or do.

“What happened?”

“The g-game master” she said pointing towards the screen room now completely empty, team 7 and 10 most probably long gone.

“What did he say?” Jeremy asked concerned. Jin’s face going from worried to confused in a small fraction of time.

“I-I” Sana tried but she was really struggling to say out loud what was bothering and disturbing her mind.

“Easy! Is ok” Jin gently rubbed her back. “Just tell us what is happening”

“The game master he- I think he is keeping someone captive” she blurted it out. Jeremy glanced over Jin who chuckled unsure about the whole situation.

“He probably has… It’s supposed to be a fun game after all” he told her gently. “We have a serial killer like Freddy chasing us and then we had the zombies… I mean, it’s scary but it’s the game-”

“No!” Sana interrupted him. “You guys are not understanding!!” she gasped and looked at them a little distressed. “He contacted me saying there was a traitor inside and I thought it was just another riddle but then- then I heard someone screaming for help!”

“Ya… That was just him trying to scary you” Jin shrugged and then looked at Jeremy who was lost in thoughts. “Right Jeremy?” Jin poked him.

“Yeah! Right”

“I’m telling you guys! It wasn’t for pretend, I swear!” Sana pleaded once again.

“Ok let’s do this” Jeremy paused; both Jin and Sana looking at him attentively. “Let’s go to wherever this next clue takes us and try to find other people? Let’s just finish this and see where this whole thing leads us, ok? It’s probably like Jin said, only a prank to scare you.” he finished. Sana wasn’t very convinced, she knew what she had heard, but she nodded and followed the two guys out of the cinematic department.

13

It took a good hour for Cole to find a way of getting out a room where someone trapped him, completely in the dark. Once he managed to break in the door he desperately yelled Asa’s name, his clothes were damped and he had to hold one of his arms (he injured it while trying to break the wooden door trapping him from the outside world). Asa who was almost losing hope, absolutely terrified, was quick to get up on his feet and yell back. It was a trick thing to try and find the other person in the dark, specially inside of what it felt like a cold and infinite labyrinth.

Asa pushed the metal door while offering some support to Cole that was visibly hurt and even the half light hurt their eyes when they passed through the way out.

“Hoseok??” Cole shouted. “Our walkie talkies jammed, man! Someone trapped us inside” they both walked towards the little screen room Hoseok was left in.

“Hobi?” Asa called.

The room was completely empty. No note, no walkie talkie, no backpack, no Hoseok.

“What the fuck?” Cole let out in a breathy way.

“He’s probably outside waiting for us dude, let’s just go there” Asa said and both turned around to get out.

“Oh! Asa!” Hyori’s voice shouted. Namjoon and Silvia right behind her as it seemed they had just arrived to complete the challenge.

“Hyo! Again!” Asa chuckled.

“Where’s Hobi?” she asked glancing over his shoulder.

“He’s probably outside!”

“What…?” Hyori asked weakly.

“What happened dude?” Namjoon pointed Cole’s arm with his chin.

“Me and Asa here were the one’s going down but we got trapped. I had to take a door down to get us out of there…” Cole answered. “Hoseok was supposed to be here but he’s probably outside”

“But there’s no one outside” Silvia stated confused.

“Where’s- Where’s Hobi?” Hyori was starting to panic. The way to the cinematic departement was spent by her and Namjoon talking about Carolina’s weird comments on the graveyard. They got genuinely spooked out and tried the walkie talkies, stating indeed there was something wrong with them. Now she was starting to think that wasn’t the only thing that was wrong.

The static noise that by now freaked everyone out interrupted Asa from saying whatever he was trying to say, his mouth opening and closing at Hyori’s question. “Tik tok players, find the last clue to save your buddy here- MHHnMPHHH HEL-” the beep cut the rest, but by the look on everyone’s faces, they knew it was help.

“Hobi-” Hyori gasped.

To be continued…

#bangtanarmynet #magicshopnet #bts fanfic interactive #bts college au #bts social media au #bts halloween au #bts ot7 #bts sm au #jungkook smut #jungkook college au #jungkook social media au #taehyung smut #taehyung college au #taehyung social media au #taehyung halloween au #jimin smut #jimin college au #jimin social media au #jimin Halloween au #namjoon smut #namjoon social media au #namjoon college au #namjoon halloween au #hoseok smut #hoseok social media au #hoseok college au #hoseok halloween au #yoongi smut #yoongi social media au #yoongi college au

[profoundnet]

Header by @cryptomoon and is available on merch from her redbubble store. You can use all those fancy emojis (and more!) on our Discord server!

The masterpost is open for all creations by ProfoundBond members which are posted in their entirety during that month.

MEMBER CONTRIBUTIONS FOR JUNE 2020!

Featuring works by @blueraven06, @castielslostwings, @delo0821, galium, @goldenraeofsun, @imbiowaresbitch, @jemariel, @masterofevilmonkeyness, @multifandom-fanatic, ravens_tell_stories, @saywhatjessie, @shadowkat-83, shikaro, @spnsmile, tiamatv, @thefandomsinhalor, @vulfmert, and @wookieefucker under the cut.

Redamber79 - @imbiowaresbitch - Redamber79

Free Hugs (E, 2.6k)

Castiel is moving into his dorm for his first year when his older brother Gabriel trips him into the arms of a half-naked hunk holding a sign reading FREE HUGS. Then Cas meets his roommate...

Tags: No Archive Warnings apply, meet-cute, explicit, roommate AU

The Fall of Castiel (E, 5.8k)

Another fight, Castiel's blue eyes flashing as he pinned Dean to a wall for his stubborn refusal to accept his role. A desperate attempt to convince the angel to join Team Free Will. Dean could never have anticipated how well it would work.

Tags: no archive warnings, explicit, canon-adjacent, wing king, grace powered orgasms, claiming, confessions

“Yes, Sir.” (E, 3.8k)

Dean's earned himself a spanking, but keeps losing the count. Cas decides it's time to up the ante for his punishment.

Tags: no archive warnings apply, bdsm, explicit, safe sane consensual, safewords, top cas/bottom dean

Pizza Man (E, 3.4k)

Dean and Castiel are roommates in their third year of college. Cas frantically shows his best friend a horrible typo on the latest ad for the pizza place where he works, just knowing it's going to ruin his night.

Tags: no archive warnings apply, roommates au, explicit, PWP

Grow For Me (E, 20k)

Dean is desperate for a housemate after Charlie moves out. After interviewing several potential tenants with near disastrous results, he meets Cas. Can the lawyer with the strange habit of talking to plants fit into Dean's life?

Tags: no archive warnings apply, omegaverse, POV Dean, explicit, Roommate AU, Complete, Happy Ending, mating cycles/in heat

FriendofCarlotta - @delo0821 - FriendofCarlotta

Adventures in Demon Summoning (E, 10k)

When Dean's friends get high and decide to summon a demon, it seems like a monumentally bad idea. Of course, even Dean couldn't have guessed that the whole thing would land him with a grumpy, sarcastic angel who seems dead-set on following him around.

Tags: Alternate Universe - College/University, First Time, Meet-Cute, Soft Boys

JessJesstheBest - @saywhatjessie - JessJesstheBest

Five Times Dean felt Out Of His Depth and One Time He Definitely Was (G, 10k)

It was with a sore shin and a broken model P-51D Mustang that Dean began to consider he wasn’t quite ready to be a foster parent. Or it's exactly what is says in the title.

Tags: Human AU, Fluff, Parenthood, foster parent au, Established Relationship, 5+1 Things

castielslostwings - @castielslostwings - Castielslostwings

Fire and Ice (E, 165k)

Firefighter Dean Winchester has somehow tumbled headfirst into a whole new kind of relationship with his quirky paramedic best friend, Castiel Novak. What was only meant to be mutual relief from their high-stress jobs is quickly developing into something more, but with all the missed signals and crossed wires, can these two ever figure out that they're so much closer to being on the same page than they think?

Tags: Firefighter Dean, Paramedic Castiel, Dom Castiel, Sub Dean, Friends to lovers, mutual pining, angst with a happy ending, BDSM, all the sex.

multifandom-fanatic - @multifandom-fanatic - multifandom_fanatic

We Can’t Keep This Undercover (T, 5k)

Cas and Dean have been dating for a month, but Sam is clueless, despite the fact that they haven't been hiding that they're together. Or so they thought. After reflecting on Sam's obliviousness, Dean deviously suggests he and Cas try to be as obvious as possible to see how long it’ll take for Sam to realize. Cue Dean and Cas' escalating attempts to prove they're together, and Sam mistaking every scenario until Dean just can't take it anymore.

Tags: Oblivious Sam Winchester, Clueless Sam Winchester, Fluff, Feels, Teasing, Idiots in Love, Sneaky, Flirting, Domestic Fluff, Plotting

Put a Ring on It (T, 3.2k)

After non-stop researching, Cas is in the Bunker's kitchen making Dean lunch with the radio on when he hears Single Ladies by Beyoncé. Suddenly he's stuck by the lyrics and realizes just how much he loves Dean and therefore needs to put a ring on him. Cas goes out and buys a ring, and a week later he proposes to Dean in the library of the Bunker. Will Dean say yes?

Tags: Marriage Proposal, Proposal, Engagement, Castiel Proposes Marriage to Dean Winchester, Inspired by Beyoncé, Crack, Song: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It), Romantic Fluff, Love, Fluff

galium - galium

scents & sensibility (M, 5.7k)

There are three things Dean knows about betas: (1) Betas are boring. (2) Betas can be passive. (3) Betas have a mediocre sense of smell (well, unless you're Cas).

Tags: AU, A/B/O

ravens_tell_stories - ravens_tell_stories

i’d rather drown (E, 3.7k)

Was there anything weird that you noticed?” “Weird? Other than the fact that I could see you while you were several states away?” “Yes, Dean,” Cas sounds impatient now, which is never a good sign. “Weirder than normal.” Dean tilts his head, weighing his options, then sighs and scrubs a hand over his face. “Yeah, I, uh… I could see your wings.” ~~ wing!kink destiel oneshot.

Tags: No archive warnings apply, smut and a little fluff, pwp, handjobs, set season 8

Jemariel - @jemariel - jemariel

Cas is a Tummy Sleeper (T, <1k)

A short fluffy ficlet. Cas is sleepy and snuggly. Dean is smitten. Everything is beautiful and nothing hurts.

Tags: Cuddles, bedsharing, human!Cas, fluff

MasterOfEvilMonkeyness - @masterofevilmonkeyness

“Ah yes. Me. My brother. And his Angel who sneaks in his bed when they think I’m asleep” (SFW)

Art created for Meme about Sam, Dean and Cas.

Vulfmert - @vulfmert

Ghost Road (SFW)

Art created for the fic Ghost Road by Kris-Kenobi in the Bottom Dean Big Bang and it’s lovely.

Tags: Michigan, Canon Compliant, Human!Cas, Only One Bed, Case Fic, Post Series. Collaboration with fic by Kris-Kenobi.

spnsmile - @spnsmile - spnsmile

Undercover in the Bunker (M, 3.5k)

Castiel invites an angel to the Bunker to 'observe' the Winchesters in order to change Heaven's view about his charge, only to end up making Dean just a little miserable and himself a little jealous.

Tags: Domestics,  Castiel in the Bunker

Devastatingly Yours (G, 3.9k)

When almost everyone—demons included— all but told Dean that his angel is the hottest, most devastatingly handsome angel in the face of the seven seas, he not only believed them, he’s secretly and most exclusively Cas’ number one fan. So when the angel is recruited as a model in the middle of a case, what is Dean to do?

Tags: Established relationships, domestic, fluff

Saved by a Stranger (E, 43k)

Rule One: Never change the deal. Rule Two: No names. Rule Three: Never look in the package. Ex-Special Forces operator, Alpha Castiel Novak adheres three strict sets of rules, which he never breaks as a mercenary "transporter" who moves goods—human or otherwise— from one place to another. No questions asked. Until his new delivery contains a deal-breaker pretty face hot-headed Omega—who turns out to be his true mate— Castiel knows rules have to be changed especially with a dangerous group intent to get their hands on his Omega. Castiel wants to see them try. Destiel x The Transporter AU

Tags: Non-con,  Graphic Depiction of violence

The Room Service (E, 39k)

‘Hands off, Pants on!’

Dean Winchester has groomed himself to be a professional room service staff providing hotel guests with all the necessities they need while catering to all mundane whims and complaints except one: keep hands off the staff. Until a mysterious blue-eyed guy enters the 7th heaven floor and shakes Dean’s steamy dreams. And after saving Dean from one dangerous stalker, it seems like the restriction is practically flying off the window for his grumpy blue-eyed hero.

Hotel x Destiel AU

Tags: Romance,  Fluff,  First meeting,  Jealousy,

Baby Plushie (G, 1.1k)

A Baby. Who says Dean doesn't need it?

Tags: Romance,  Fluff. Inspired by art by @gabester-sketch.

Shadowkat83 - @shadowkat-83 - Shadowkat83

Better Than I Know Myself (T, 1.1k)

He had to make a choice; he didn't want to. The choice was between the two people he cared about the most: Cas and Sam. They both knew him so well but on different levels. How could he possibly go through with this?

Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Songfic, Fluff, Love, Confessions, Mutual Pining, Ambiguous/Open Ending

Shikaro - shikaro

Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome (E, 1.5k)

the one where Dean comes untouched for the first time

or the one where they meet at a bar

Tags: PWP

blueraven06 - @blueraven06 - blueraven06

College days (G, 1.2k)

It's Castiel's first day of college and he is already late.

Tags: Alternate Universe - College/University

goldenraeofsun - @goldenraeofsun - goldenraeofsun

Magic Quarantine Ride (M, 1k)

“Cas,” Dean growls as he stalks past the hospital's general information desk. “What the hell are you doing here, you psycho? Go home - where it’s safe!” Cas whirls around. “You forgot this,” he says hurriedly as he rushes forward with the necklace he made for Dean. “I told you, it will provide protection.” He waves it in the air like a crazy person trying to ward off demons. “You are insane,” Dean says flatly.

Tags: They were quarantined, witch!cas, college nurse!dean, fluff and angst, mentions of COVID-19, mutual pining, emotional hurt/comfort, discussions of PTSD

thefandomsinhalor - @thefandomsinhalor - thefandomsinhalor

A Driver Worth His Salt (E, 68k)

Twenty-year-old Dean Winchester hates fixing up stolen cars on the side for Gordon Walker. But with his grandfather’s dry-cleaning business slowly dying, medical bills piling up, and his younger brother Sam abandoning the prospect of attending college because of their grim situation, Dean convinces himself that it isn’t as reckless as it seems.

When everything goes belly up, leaving him in a troubling position with the wrong people, a representative of the Garrisons, the city’s most powerful and notorious family, offers Dean to help him with his situation in exchange for his employment.

The job is simple: drive the passenger a few times a week to yet-undisclosed locations and return with said passenger without fail. Don’t ask questions. Be on time. Be discreet.

And never interact with each other outside of work.

Shady, but simple.

So, he accepts.

But once he meets the passenger in question—the sharply dressed and rough-looking Castiel Novak—Dean finds that abiding those rules may be more complicated than he had anticipated.

Tags: Graphic Depiction of Violence, Alternate Universe - Modern Settings, Crimes & Crimes & Criminals, BAMF Castiel, Slow Burn, Hurt Sam Winchester, Trauma

wookieefucker - @wookieefucker - wookieefucker

The Eye of the Storm (T, 8.5k)

“Only fifteen miles to the highway,” Dean said cheerfully, reading from a sign on the side of the path. Bobby groaned loudly. “Shoulda known I’d get my body back only to put it through its paces right away.” Amara left with Chuck, promising that she was going to give Dean what he needed. Maybe what he needed was different than her first impulse.

Tags: eventual Castiel/Dean Winchester, season 12 AU, canon AU, canon-typical violence

tiamatv - tiamatv

Spicier Ginger (G, 4k)

Kevin held out a flat piece of dough and spooned in a teaspoon of pork mixture. “You can’t put too much in them or leave any air bubbles inside," he explained, folding up the dumpling. "‘Cause they’ll explode.” “So kind of like packing shotgun shells,” Dean joked. “Uh, yeah. Sure, Dean,” Kevin agreed, very dubiously. “Sure.”

Tags: Cooking, Domesticity, Kevin Tran Lives!, Winchester Family Fluff

To Sleep, Perchance (T, 3.4k)

Dean wasn’t used to good dreams. But he was used to taking what he could get—so when he dreamed of a lean, compact body pressed against his back, an arm heavy over his waist, he settled into it, hazy and comfortable.

Tags: Canon Temporary Character Death, Canon Compliant, Dreams vs Reality, Mark of Cain

Ephelis (E, 1.8k)

“I think someone has sent me a picture of their genitals.” Castiel looked down at his phone. “Erect.”

Tags: AU-Canon Divergence, Dick Pics, Plot What Plot, Fluff and Crack, Season/Series 09

Phaleonopsis (E, 4.8k)

“Here, let me.” Cas’s long fingers plucked away a dead leaf from a calathea, and Dean watched helplessly as Cas rubbed the bare spot where the leaf had come away with a fingertip. “See? Isn’t it nice to let someone touch you now and again?” “Goddammit, Cas ain’t the creep, I’m the creep,” Dean muttered, and put his head down on the desk.

Tags: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Gardening, Roommates, Fluff And Smut, Alpha Castiel/Omega Dean

(Atypical) Love Story (E, 13.k)

“Are you… scenting me?” the man in an oversized beige trench coat asked, suspiciously, in a deep gravel voice that ran down Dean’s spine. "Why? I really don't smell like much." Dean’s mouth sagged open. “Dude,” he answered, honestly, “You smell amazing.” He’d never seen anyone look so shocked at a compliment before. “O-oh.”

Tags: Non-Traditional A/B/O Dynamics; Scenting; Top/Bottom Versatile Dean/Castiel; Alpha Dean/Omega Castiel; Enthusiastic Consent

Pigment (G, 1.6k)

Dean wasn’t ashamed of what he was doing or anything. He didn’t think he had any reason to be, hell. So what if he liked to spend a little of his downtime just putting little blobs of paint inside neat little lines?

Tags: Canon Compliant, Hobbies, Painting, Fluff

#Profoundnet Monthly Masterpost #june masterpost #dean winchester #castiel #destiel #member fic #member art

[flipsideds]

“ oh, haha... ”  a default response to a very non-default situation –– a little post-show, barside rendez-vous with an older man who insists nour has been singing to directly to him the entire night. “ flirting ?  i... ”  

gentle eyes gloss over the banquet hall’s dimmed lights, bright smiles, flickering electric candles... “ . . . what’s that ? ”  and then he’s off, gin and tonic in hand. three strides and it’s already half-drained. yikes.

or, alternatively :  greetings loved ones!! my name is linc ( 21 / est / she/her ) and here is the ever so graceful, ever so unintentionally magnetic nour al-busiri! below the cut you’ll find a messy run-down. i am so excited to plot & write with all of you !!

( i’m scheduled for a tonsillectomy tomorrow so i’m gonna be so grateful for the distraction, y’all have no idea. ) 

if you want some great mood-setters for this beb’s backstory / insight into his soul, slap on some jacob collier, kevin garrett, or charlie burg ‘n let’s get cookin’ !

so this is all copy-pasted from a discord chat with devon bc i improvised nour’s entire life story over a span of... 10 minutes ?? bahaha pls enjoy i apologize in advance. ( i also put this in normal text size bc it is v long and i don’t want anyone hurting their eyes !! protect dem beautiful retinas <3 )

h i s t o r y .

his parents met in grade school in egypt, but then didn't reconnect until their masters studies crossed paths in london... immediately fell head over heels again ( had they been searching for one another in crowds since being 6-7 years old?? maybe... ). graduated top of their class, accepted job offers in london in the biopharmaceutical realm. but then. when nour was 3...

they were involved in a freak monorail accident on their way back from a science conference in amsterdam. the babysitter paid 80 quid to watch the kids for two nights became their sole protector in this world. british authorities had trouble contacting other kin, but managed to reach mr. al-busiri's mother, rashida, who was still living in dahab with her second husband, zaim.

the al-busiri's came from old money. so off nour goes ( and potentially his older bro if i decide he exists... potential wc with a rami malek fc tbh ) to live in the city which, unbeknownst to him, sparked his parents' storybook love.

so nour grows up in this like... picturesque seaside childhood. collects shells. bonds with his grandmother and her husband. they encourage him with school, etc. but he quickly shows that he excels at maths and... music? wow. that's unexpected. gets his first piano at 5. first guitar at 6. by 8 1/2, he's managed to hodge-podge together a little recording studio for himself in his bedroom, and he's constantly serenading his friends at school.

( death tw / illness tw ) then comes zaim's stroke. he lives for four months after, but he loses his ability to speak. his motor skills deteriorate. nour and his grandmother do their best to tend to him –– she's already about 40% down the macular degeneration path, but hasn't told him yet that her vision's going. so 10 y/o nour does what he does best: unconditional love and support, delivered through the gift of song. zaim dies after requesting his favorite song: 'blackbird' by the beatles, sung in verses alternating from english to arabic.

after,  it's just nour and rashida against the world ( maybe his brother too bergorghre if i decide he's a thing ) . rashida's forced to come clean about her vision the day she can't for the life of her find the bloody pen she just put down so she can finish signing off on nour's choir trip permission slip. ( it's right next to her, to her left, just out of her closing field of vision. ) things progress more rapidly after that. by the time nour's 16, his grandmother is legally blind. it's not an uncommon sight to see him at the markets or strolling along the beach with her on his arm. she refuses canes as long as nour's around. ( “ don't rob me of my youth, nuri-nuri [ my light ] ”  )

despite her growing dependency on him, she encourages him to apply to unis all over the globe. by the time college apps roll around, nour is somewhat of a local household name: he plays summer concerts, coffee shops, and is even asked to play at his teacher's wedding ceremony –– and his neighbor's cat funeral.

acceptances roll in. julliard. berkeley. chicago school of music. he chooses chicago, because there's someone there. someone he connected with online a few years back, a friend, but... could turn into something more. this hopeless romantic heedlessly ventures off to find out if this boy in chicago might... be someone. something more.

spoiler alert: he gets to chicago, starts music school. and each meet-up they set? gets pushed. sometimes it's traffic. a cold. transit trouble. can't get work off, sorry. things with ma are really tough. the excuses kept coming but... nour's naive. he believes every word. but in his second year of uni, things....... start getting suspicious. by chance, he spots this man in the window of a coffee shop downtown. overjoyed, he texts as much. but ... messages go read and unanswered. phone calls dwindle.

his music suffers. so does his muse. so much so that he's tempted to drop out, to throw in the towel, to just...... go back home. he speaks with his grandmother each day on the phone. she's doing well, stop worrying, nuri-nuri, your uncle is taking good care of me. nour goes on dates. thinks about chicago boy. thinks about him a lot.

he's 20 when it happens. sat on a stage in a little dive bar, tuning his acoustic guitar for an opening number, and there. those eyes. he knows them.

they talk after the show, in the alley. share a cigarette. and it's almost like... maybe things are finally clicking. maybe this is finally their shot.

except chicago boy ( neil ) says they have to stop talking. that he had to just... see nour for himself. see that he's real. hear him sing, and... move on. nour doesn't buy it. pushes back. asks why the hell neil'd come out now only to slink back to the shadows. things get heated. neil yells. and the men... the men who hear and come running ?  they think nour is the cause of it all.

( hate crime tw, violence tw )  how many kicks does it take to break to the center of a broken heart ? twelve. how many broken ribs does it take to immobilize a probably terrorist, dude ? four. shattered wrist. snapped ankle. broken arm. cracked skull. and neil scuttles off like nour's bad meat. bad blood. like he asked for this. 

chicago school of music receives a call from weiss memorial three days later.

nour never gets his degree. he breaks his apartment lease. flies home after he heals, spends a year with his grandmother and uncle. just... creating. writing, playing, trying to fill that void with something. but then things with his uncle get heated. he wants to put his own mother in a home, sell the estate, pocket the cash. nour fights it, but he's got no legal bearing.

the nursing home concept never takes hold, though, because his grandmother's still sharp as shit and refuses to sign anything nour doesn't read first. eventually the uncle grows tired of fighting and stops trying, just... slinks back to his husband and keeps his mouth shut. nour's grandmother pressures him to go back to chicago, make that city wish he never left. take back his own story. together they work to find a live-in aide they trust. freshly 22, nour ventures back to the city that broke him.

he finds cheap housing, a gig. the malnati, seems legit. good money. good exposure. and then he meets @ryderxmms​ –– they form one night stand. when not scheduled for malnati banquets, you can find nour providing vocals ( and occasional keys ) in the dive bars / parties the band lands gigs at.

g e n e r a l .

nour creates like food and drink don’t exist, sunlight is an illusion, and all the human body needs for sustenance is sound. he can find his way around just about any instrument under the sun, but his main poisons are piano, acoustic guitar, and digital recording tools –– think jacob collier and you’re right on the money.

actually, i’m stealing a lot of jacob collier discography and pegging it as his creations. this kid’s got an experimental sound and loves it.

he grew up speaking english and arabic equally, but because he learned english in london and then continued in egypt, he does have a mild brit-arab accent. it’s v cute, i promise.

looks like he’d be a total lothario, yeah ?? but. he’s so shy ?  so sweet ?  get him on a stage and he’s shameless but plop him in a bar and eye him up and he’ll honestly just smile nervously and pretend you’re looking at someone else.

love languages : singing to his succulents and plants before his 5am morning runs. facetime calls at times least convenient for him, but most convenient for you. little notes written on napkins, smiley face doodles included. candy bars. lingering a little longer in doorways after saying hello, just to see you smile.

he’s got major water sign vibes. birthday comin’ up in march, woot woot !!

he often wears very simple statement pieces. he likes rings, crystal pendants, leather bracelets. soft tees layered with embroidered jackets, metallic blazers. somehow he pulls off mixed media and crazy prints that should never go together ?  he just... is so easy breezy.

he often wears his hair wild ‘n curly, unless the gig he’s got mandates a more streamlined look. 

falls in love.... 14 times a day ??  really.

has a scar across his left temple from the incident with neil. will probably write it off as a bike riding accident. ( he doesn’t know how to ride a bike. )

don’t let him cook ever, okay ??  unless you want him to literally do this.

pls come at me for all the plots ?  i’m so open for all the things !!!  y’all got me on discord, so feel free to slide on into my dms. i promise i will be so thrilled <3

#intro. #☼ –– gimme that afterglow ! inspo.

[ajora]

I never played ff5 but ngl I kind of want you to answer ALL the questions on that meme because I like hearing your thoughts about it. (and faris for the character part, because hm. yes. butch lesbian pirate. I can dig this. and your otp for the ship part, obviously.)

Oh boy, settle in because this’ll be looong.

So, for everyone else: warning: this talks about being nb/butch, a taboo ship, and spoilers for FF5.

001 | Send me a fandom and I will tell you my:

Favorite character: Toss-up between Faris and Lenna.

Least Favorite character: I don’t actually hate him because his recurring crossover character status is hilarious and he’s got great theme music, but, Gilgamesh. His final words to Faris ( 恋でもして　ちったあ　女らしくなりな | essentially: go fall in love, then you’ll become more feminine) always rubbed me wrong. The love that defines her is the love she has for Lenna, even if you don’t interpret it as romantic love, and her love should never force her to become what she’s not. 

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): Honestly, just Faris/Lenna. I’m chill with other people shipping other ships, but farilenna is my forever ship.

Character I find most attractive: I overrelate to Faris and Lenna is exactly my type. Gosh, but her squeak in DFFOO is adorable.

Character I would marry: I mean, I have a girlfriend I intend to marry, but Lenna would be a nice second option.

Character I would be best friends with: I’d probably get along with all of them, but realistically Butz is just the kind of no-commitment, independent friend I get along best with

a random thought: After the DFFOO event with Butz giving everything that makes him him to his dark world clone, I unironically want to redraw a SUF screenshot with someone taking Connie’s place to say that the only one who hasn’t had Steven Butz is Steven Butz. Largely because Butz shunts his personal feelings to the side to be the supportive friend and teen girl escort everyone needs.

An unpopular opinion: The GBA localization is great, but it’s not an accurate translation and sacrifices accuracy for the lulz. Which is fine!

My Canon OTP: I’mma reach and say Amano drew my otp holding each other on official art that got plastered everywhere in Japanese GBA-release media, so that totes counts as official, right? It’s the same argument the Butz/Lenna shippers used back in the day. (I even have this art in poster form)

My Non-canon OTP: Because FF5 has no actual endgame ships, obviously my otp. 

Most Badass Character: Look, Faris dove into a dragon-generated whirlpool that could have killed her to save her crew when she was 15. She fell off a cliff and crawled back up for Lenna. Faris, hands down.

Most Epic Villain: tbh the most epic villain was one who wasn’t in the game until he became an optional boss added in the GBA revamp: Enuo. He might not have been in the game’s present, but his shadow loomed large 1000 years after his death/sealing away.

Pairing I am not a fan of: Not personally a fan of shipping Butz with any of the girls, largely because he’s shaped like a friend and has been a fantastic friend to all of them, and FF5 really isn’t a romance. I’m absolutely happy to ship him with Squall in the Dissidias though. Butz/Squall is my otp for him. 

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): Eh, I feel like the ending sequence for Faris could have focused less on her being a woman and more on her actual acts of courage. Courage being her whole damn thing and defining trait and all.

Favourite Friendship: Faris and Syldra. Gosh, but all the Japanese texts on them makes me mourn Syldra’s death even harder.

Character I most identify with: Faris bc butch/nonbinary reasons and huge issues with being shoehorned into one gender (male) but not really feeling it (Faris does, in Japanese at least, identify as a woman; direct translation by me: “don’t treat me like a fool because I’m a woman”) and also not wanting to 100% be compliant with femininity.

Character I wish I could be: Look, who doesn’t want to be a pirate.

002 | Send me a ship and I will tell you:

When I started shipping them: 1997 baby. It’s been years and while I flitted out of FF5 fandom in the 2000s up til I returned now, I never stopped loving my ship

My thoughts: Yeah, the sibling incest complicates things, but also? They were separated very young, didn’t grow up together, and didn’t meet again until adulthood. There’s no actual power imbalance there. Even with respect to social status. Like, yes Lenna’s in line to be queen, but does anyone really think she’d abuse her position for anything? She adores Faris. Faris will destroy everyone in this room and then herself if anything happened to Lenna. 

What makes me happy about them: Oh, gosh, they are so good together. Also? I adore how muddled up they are together. Lenna is the Light Warrior of Water, her defining trait being conscientious kindness. Faris is the Light Warrior of Fire, her defining trait being courage. But Lenna will absolutely kill that dragon if she has to. She’ll hare off into the unknown with only a knife to find her father. She’ll trudge through poison to save that dragon she was gonna kill. Her sky dragon turns into a phoenix. She’s the spirit of Water, but everything about her screams Fire. Conversely, Faris is bonded to a sea dragon, nearly drowned twice that we know of, and over the course of the game she does become a kinder person than she was. She’s the spirit of Fire, and yeah she does have courage aplenty, but she’s so inextricably bound to water that her skills in DFFOO are water-related. 

What makes me sad about them: That they could never be together openly. Also? That modern/post-GBA fandom will absolutely shit on the ship’s fans. You’ve seen me talk in Discord about the hate I run across often enough. And it’s absolutely wild to me because I’ve been here since 1997, I’ve heard all the jokes about Faris/Lenna back then, and no one threw a fit about it like they do now. Nevar 4get the off-color FWAKs that were common back in the day. 

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: Mostly just... treating the girls as Butz’s personal harem. And this is a small thing, at least. 

Things I look for in fanfic: Anything with my ship. Alternatively, anything where at least Faris isn’t straight. 

My wishlist: God I just want to talk to fellow Faris/Lenna shippers! And if I have to improve my translating-to-Japanese skills for it, I will. Also, I wanna get involved in a Faris/Lenna doujinshi someday. Or an anthology!

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: their dragons

My happily ever after for them: A cottage by the sea, all regal responsibilities forgotten, with new dragon companions because theirs died over the course of the game and Highwinds must have dragons.

003 | Give me a character & I will tell you:

How I feel about this character: Superb. Fantastic. When I was a young butch in the closet with only Oscar to look up to, Faris stormed onto the scene with all her flaws and character development and a dragon friend! and yes, I dig this. Still favorite, though Lenna unseats her ever so often. 

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: Lenna. That’s it, really. World of Final Fantasy floated the idea of Quistis/Faris, but didn’t provide a lot to go on. 

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: Syldra! Although I have been known to ship her with Syldra too, back in the day. 

My unpopular opinion about this character: Faris is a very, very Asian trope character, her roots being in Oscar of Rose of Versailles, Takarazuka, and East Asian legends and histories of crossdressing women. I just feel really uncomfortable when white people, especially white cis people, ignore that, ignore that she herself says that she’s a woman, and insist that she’s a trans man. 

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I do wish the epilogue slideshow focused more on her deeds than on her feeling uncomfortable complying with traditional femininity.

Favorite friendship for this character: Syldra!

My crossover ship: Faris and Quistis becoming friends in WoFF after Quistis challenged her to a fistfight is just so Faris that I’d love to see fics exploring that. 

#replies #jaspurr

[albapuella]

How to Lose a Lover in 10 Days or Less: A Comprehensive Guide to Becoming a Future Romantic Failure (Chapter Two)

AO3

Fandom: Homestuck

Summary: How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days AU Dave needs to win a bet; Karkat needs to write an article. Shenanigans ensue.

Tags: Humanstuck, alternate universe - no sburb session, POV switches galore, implied/referenced child abuse Author’s note: This story is the result of a jam session I did with aceAdoxography on the davekat thirst federation discord server. This one's a little out of my usual wheelhouse, but I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it. New chapters every Saturday/Sunday. Didn’t bother with the formatting this time: You want the fancy formatting, go to AO3 :D

Day 1:

Despite his slacker appearance (and life-style, to be honest), Dave was always punctual. He'd even made an effort to look the part of a guy going on a date with another guy: jeans with only a few holes at the knees, his favorite record shirt, and a red hoodie—all freshly cleaned. So freshly cleaned that the sweater was still very slightly damp. Well, whatever, it'd be fine. They were having dinner first, and that meant he'd have plenty of time for the thing to dry out before they went to the movies where the main thrust of Dave's doki-doki plan would commence.

Karkat arrived a few minutes later. He wasn't dressed to the nines, but it was at least to the sevens. It occurred to Dave, as he watched him approach, that he hadn't known how tall Karkat was. The answer was slightly shorter than Dave but with a more solid build. Stocky. Or maybe that was just the black sweater he was wearing. Then again, his legs looked pretty solid in the black pants he was wearing, too. Either way, he looked good.

Dave gave him an appreciative whistle which made Karkat's eyes narrow. Not the reaction he'd wanted. “Looking good, Karkat,” he said quickly, hoping to smooth over any feathers he might have inadvertently ruffled. “I'm digging the whole sexy college professor thing you've got going.”

“Uh, thanks,” Karkat said with evident disbelief. “You, uh, you look good, too.” He straightened up. “You said we were doing dinner first.”

“Yep.” Dave held out his arm. “I’m taking you to my favorite place. A lot of people think it’s wack, but I’m buying, so if you really don’t like it, at least it didn’t cost you anything.” When his date didn't immediately take his offered arm, he shook it invitingly. “It's not too far from here.”

Karkat looked from Dave's arm to Dave, suspicious. Then he sighed and laid his hand on Dave's arm, his hold tighter than Dave had expected it to be considering his earlier hesitation. “Okay. Fine. Sounds great. Let's go.”

---

The first thing Karkat noticed when he took Dave's arm was that his sleeve was damp. Then he noticed the feeling of the arm beneath his fingers. Despite looking thin enough to break, there was some muscle here. As they walked to what was apparently Dave’s favorite restaurant, Dave just kept talking. If Karkat had been offered a thousand dollars, he doubted he could have remembered any specific details of the inanity he'd been subjected to. A nervous talker. He'd have to put that down in his notes.

Dinner went much the same. Dave talked at him while Karkat sat there trying to eat his food (overpriced, faux Italian—of all the places Dave could have chosen, he'd picked a fucking Olive Garden? That was going in his notes, too.). In all honesty, Karkat tried not to pay too much attention to what was being said. First, he'd already determined that most of what came out of this man's mouth was completely meaningless nonsense, and second, if he actually listened to any of it, he'd be hard pressed not to respond to the idiocy. While Dave had no evident compunction about swearing, Karkat wanted to get through at least this first date without screaming.

All right, so that was an exaggeration. Some of what Dave said was actually pretty funny. In a hopelessly awkward sort of way. Karkat hated that Dave's clumsy compliments were making him blush. Clearly, the man had brain damage... which also explained the rapping that Dave kept doing (completely unprovoked!). By the time dinner was over, Karkat was only too grateful that their next destination meant that Dave would have to stop talking.

---

Since Dave had picked the restaurant, Karkat had picked the movie. Some romantic comedy chick flick Dave couldn't be bothered to remember the title of. Still, it gave him an opportunity to sit right tight next to Karkat and eat his weight in popped, buttery goodness, so he really couldn't complain.

“What’s the deal with that dude?” Dave whispered. “I thought he was already tight with that other chick. What gives? Is he cheating on her?”

Karkat made a noise like a cat being stepped on but softer. “Dave,” he whispered back, his tone full of the same sing-songy patient impatience that Rose would use when she thought Dave was being particularly dim, “if you were paying attention, you'd already know that that 'dude' is that 'other chick's' cousin. They are probably not romantically involved. I know you're from Texas, but that's not how it works above the Mason Dixon line.” Then he ducked his head and took a long drink from his soda. “Sorry. Just-just watch the movie and be quiet.”

Dave blinked. He'd been starting to think Karkat wasn't going to open up at all. At least, he'd had fuck all to say during dinner. Even if it had been an incest joke at his expense, it still was nice to hear Karkat say something. Something that wasn't just non-committal noises or unenthusiastic agreements. He leaned against Karkat's shoulder to whisper, “It's not true, you know. About Texas. We don't fuck our cousins; I mean, we do, but not first cousins. We're strictly second cousins only. It's a rule. Of course, none of my second cousins are as hot as you, so I'd be willing to make an exception. Just this once.”

This earned him a light elbowing to the gut and a low growl, but Karkat didn't push him off.

By the end of the movie, Dave had gotten five more elbows to the gut, three startled bursts of laughter, two creative insults (quickly joined by muttered apologies), and one “Will you please just let me watch this movie?” Over all, Dave felt like he'd succeeded in charming the hell out of this motherfucker, thank you very much.

They'd walked out into the open air, a nice breeze whisking away the smell of popcorn and sweat from the movie theater. “I had a lot of fun, Karkat. Thanks for coming on this date with me. Do you think we could do this again sometime?”

Karkat blinked at him, a clear look of surprise on his face. “Oh, uh, sure.” He shook his head. “I mean, yes, I'd love to go on another date with you.”

Dave's heart leapt. “Awesome. You can hit me up on Pesterchum. Or I can hit you up. How about I hit you up?”

“Fine, that's... that's fine.” Karkat's smile seemed uneven. “I'll be looking forward to it.”

Although Dave was tempted to try for a kiss, he didn't think he ought to press his luck so far on the first date. Karkat had loosened up some while they'd been in the theater, but out here under the streetlight, he looked nervous again. The last thing Dave wanted to do was chase him away. “Okay then. I guess I'll see you later?”

A slow nod. “Yeah, later.” Karkat was stilted and contained again. Restricted, like a hermit crab stuck in a shell that was too tight. It wouldn't do. It wouldn't do at all. Dave had caught a few glimpses of the real Karkat tonight, and the sight made him hungry to see more.

Dave watched him walk away, admiring the view with a new goal in mind: he was going to get Karkat Vantas out of his shell if it was the last thing he did. Getting to rub him in Rose’s face at her wedding was only going to be a bonus.

---

* Never shuts up. Not even during movies. Especially during movies. Attention span of a gnat. From Texas. Doesn't know how to use a dryer. Finds me attractive. Probable brain damage. Funny. Charming. Obnoxious. Never takes off sunglasses. Olive Garden.

Karkat sighed and set down his pen. He'd tried his best to be as cordial as he knew how to be, and he still hadn't managed to last for the entire four hours without insulting his date. Multiple times. Oh well. At least Dave was apparently brain damaged enough to find rudeness terribly amusing (if the way he'd kept bugging Karkat during the movie had been any indication).

He'd been surprised when Dave had actually asked if they could go on another date. Karkat knew he hadn't made the best impression, and yet Dave wanted to spend more time with him? He looked over his notes, trying to ignore the surge of happiness that filled him at the thought. It didn't mean anything: Dave was clearly an idiot, and after a few more days, Karkat was going to start on the offensive. Whatever meager promise there would have been in this fledgling romance, it was still doomed from the start: like all of Karkat's relationships.

Day 2:

It was all Dave could do to wait until the next day to pester Karkat. He didn't want to come off as too eager, after all. Didn't want to put Karkat off. But Dave was only so strong.

TG: so i was thinking TG: if youre not busy TG: we could go to the park this afternoon TG: watch the grifters and maybe get robbed TG: or you could come to my place and hang TG: is it too soon to do that? TG: asking for a friend TG: this is dave by the way TG: i dont know how many people youre talking to TG: not that its any of my business TG: i wouldnt want you up in my grill asking me who im talking to CG: IT IS SIX O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING ON SUNDAY. TG: yea and youre up anyway CG: BECAUSE YOU WOKE ME UP. WITH YOUR TEXTS. THAT YOU SENT JUST NOW. TG: oh shit sorry CG: IT'S FINE. I NEEDED TO GET UP ANYWAY. CG: YOU WANT TO HANG OUT WITH ME? WHY?

Dave frowned down at his phone. Was Karkat fishing for compliments or was he being serious?

TG: because its fun to hang out with you TG: thats how this works right? TG: i thought we could watch another movie TG: at my place TG: or your place i guess if that works better for you TG: ive got popcorn if that sweetens the deal at all CG: YES. BECAUSE THE WAY TO MY HEART IS MICROWAVED POPCORN. TG: fucking called it CG: … CG: FINE. I'LL MEET YOU AT THE PARK AT 2:30PM. IS THAT ACCEPTABLE? TG: perfect ill meet you by the giant yo CG: YOU MEAN THE OY/YO. TG: tomatoes tomotoes karkat

Dave watched the little “CG is typing” message run for almost a minute, feeling his nervousness grow. What had he said that required a novel length response? He managed to reign in the impulse to apologize preemptively, but it was a struggle.

CG: OKAY. WHATEVER. I'LL MEET YOU THERE.

He let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Fine, good then. Nothing was wrong.

TG: im looking forward to it TG: its not hard to intuit TG: when we come out to debut TG: sit by the yo then well go round TG: downtown get the lowdown TG: before we get busy in the hissie TG: partake of the fizzie cause we got a duty TG: to watch the fuck out of this movie CG: RIGHT. SEE YOU THEN. BYE.

Dave shrugged. He couldn't expect Karkat to really appreciate his off the cuff rhymes so soon after waking up, he supposed. Maybe they'd land better later. Flat reception or not, the important thing was he'd gotten Karkat to agree to come to his apartment. He looked around, frowning. Maybe he should clean up a little.

---

Jesus Fucking Christ. Karkat tossed his phone on the bedside table with a groan. It had been all that he could do not to curse out Dave like there would never be a tomorrow. Considering the fact that he was currently planning to go to the apartment of a practical stranger, that much might just be true for him. He lay in bed a little longer, out of spite mostly—he could never get back to sleep after being woken up—, before getting out from under the covers. First things first: notes.

* Inconsiderate asshole. Horrible rapper. Calls the OY/YO “the YO”. Doesn't know the right way to express “tomatoes, tomahtos”. Wants to spend time with me. Insane. We have that much in common.

Thanks to Dave's wake-up call, Karkat had plenty of time to eat a hearty breakfast and start his article.

“How to Lose a Lover in 10 Days or Less: A Comprehensive Guide to Becoming a Future Romantic Failure” BY KARKAT VANTAS

Since you have decided to read this article, I will assume that you are looking to learn the art of ruining your relationships without the mess of all that trial and error. Maybe you enjoy breaking hearts. Maybe you are the kind of masochist who enjoys getting their heart broken but is at a loss as to how to properly sabotage your relationship yourself. If you can manage to follow these simple steps, you will be well on your way to the same bitter loneliness that usually only the most unlucky in love get the privilege to experience. 

The first step is the victim. For the purposes of this article, I picked one that is particularly obnoxious and brain dead. You may have different qualities you are looking for in a potential short-term partner. Ultimately, the most important thing to consider when you plan to lose a guy (or gal or enby) is that you make certain they are one you do not mind losing. That way you can start the process without any regrets.

The second step is the hook. Laugh at their dumb jokes; accept their stupid compliments; ignore their mangling of the English language (in my case, his horrible rapping); and generally be as agreeable as you can manage. A severe lack of intelligence in your short-term partner can be a boon here, though you will find most people are not immune to flattery. You need to make certain that you have your short-term partner well and truly interested in you before you attempt to lose them. If you try to lose them too soon, you will miss out on the full relationship ruining experience.

A little too informal, maybe, but a fine start. Depending on how well this afternoon went (assuming he wasn't murdered and stuffed in a closet), maybe Karkat would be able to start on step three. He was able to stomp down his nascent guilt with ease. After all, Dave wouldn't have been interested in him after the novelty wore off anyway.

---

The afternoon was a little warmer than the evening had been, but Dave still wore his hoodie. It felt lucky, and it was still clean. More the latter than the former, but the point stood! He sat down on the bench next to the giant yellow YO installation and waited. While it was tempting to shoot a message to Karkat, he decided against it. He’d be seeing him in less than ten minutes, and he didn’t want him to think he was clingy. Which he wasn’t. Totally not. Dave Strider had never clung his whole life. Ask anyone. Except Jade. Don’t ask her. 

He noticed his leg was bouncing and put a stop to that noise. He was a cool operator. He had this thing on lock. The date yesterday had gone good, right? Karkat wouldn’t have agreed to see him again if he’d had a terrible time. He pushed back his hood and ran a hand through his hair. Nothing to worry about. He’d have a date for Rose’s wedding and continue sorting out the mystery that was Karkat Vantas.

Dave heard the crunch of gravel and looked over to see Karkat approaching. Another sweater combo, but gray this time. The guy had a style he preferred, clearly. It was fine: he looked great. He stood and closed the distance between them. “Hey, Karkat.”

“Hey,” Karkat returned, frowning. Of course, that seemed to be his default expression. “I brought a movie to watch,” he said gruffly. 

Although Dave had been hoping he’d be able to pick the movie this time, he wasn’t too cut up about it. It might be a little early in the relationship to bring out The Room anyway. He wouldn’t know. “Sounds great. My place isn’t too far from here.” He held his arm out. “Shall we?”

Again, Karkat regarded his arm with suspicion. “Why do you do this?”

“Do what?”

Karkat opened his mouth before seeming to think better of whatever he’d planned to say. “Never mind.” He took Dave’s arm. “Let’s get going.”

As they walked to his apartment, Dave tried to keep the conversation flowing, but Karkat’s subdued responses quickly killed his enthusiasm. “I feel like I’m talking too much,” he said finally. 

Karkat mumbled something which sounded suspiciously like “You think?” before he shook his head. “No, of course not. I’m just a little too tired to, uh, participate, that’s all.”

Dave winced at the reminder of his first faux pas of the day. “No problem, dude. I got us covered. I got words for days.”

“Months even,” Karkat added before ducking his head. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have--”

Nudging Karkat’s side, Dave laughed. “Nah, man it’s true. I’ve got words for fucking years.”

Karkat smiled slightly. “Decades.”

“Centuries.”

“Eons”

“Until the next motherfucking epoch, I’ve got words, Karkat. So many words. All the words even.”

Karkat snorted, covering his face with his free hand. “Damn it, Dave. Stop making yourself likeable.”

“I think that’s the point of this whole thing,” Dave pointed out reasonably. “Dating, I mean. It’s not like the old days where your dad and my dad decide if you’re worth enough chickens to trade me for, you know. These days I get to decide for myself how many chickens I want to be traded for.” He gave Karkat a mock critical eye. “How about it, Karkat? How many chickens could I get for you?”

“I don’t know,” Karkat said, his mock serious tone almost too close to a serious tone for Dave’s comfort. “Let me look in my pocket.” He made a show of staring down at the pocket containing his free hand before sliding the hand out and flipping Dave the bird. “Is this enough for you?”

Dave laughed. “I’m sorry, Karkat. You must have at least five chickens to ride this ride.” He felt his face flush but pushed onward. “I guess you’ll have to settle for a movie, and maybe some pizza.”

Karkat was grinning, and Dave decided right then and there that he wanted to keep seeing it. “Maybe next time.” As though to intentionally spite him, Karkat frowned again. “Are we almost there?”

“Yeah, man, just a little further.” As they continued their journey to his apartment, Dave felt himself frown. What was Karkat’s deal? He was a lot more fun when he let himself be himself. Dave didn’t like meanness for meanness sake, but he enjoyed a good joke. For some reason, Karkat seemed to think he shouldn’t joke around? Why? His frown deepened. Karkat also apologized a lot. And he was so often deferential even when it was obvious he had OPINIONS he wasn’t sharing. The pieces were adding up to a disturbing picture. 

Maybe after he was done hanging out with Karkat today, he should hit up Rose. She’d know what to do.

---

Karkat’s expectations for Dave’s apartment had been fairly low, and he’d been pleasantly surprised. While not as meticulous as his own apartment, there at least weren’t empty food containers on every surface or dirty clothes everywhere. There was an overall shabbiness though: the feeling that the occupant didn’t care overly much about the apartment’s upkeep. The futon in front of the television was ancient and threadbare as were the carpets. The posters hung on the walls were dusty and faded, and there was a sort of mildewy smell. Still, as previously mentioned it was clean (more or less), and there were no obvious signs of a hidden murder dungeon (not that there would be if there were one, naturally). 

“Nice place,” he said for politeness’ sake. 

Dave beamed like a little boy who’d gotten just what he’d wanted for Christmas. “Thanks. It’s not much, but it keeps the rain off.” He gestured towards the futon. “Make yourself at home. Do you want anything to drink? I’ve got apple juice. And water from the tap, I guess. I could go pick up some beer if you want to go that route, or--”

Karkat held up his hand, hoping to stem the tide of suggestions. “Water’s fine, thank you.”

“You’ve got it,” Dave said before tilting his head and making twin awkward gestures with both hands involving his pointer fingers. “I’ll be back in a flash.”

It wasn’t until after he’d disappeared into, presumably, the kitchen that Karkat realized he’d been making finger guns. What a dork. Not that Karkat was any more suave, but he liked to think he was at least less childish. He tried to supplant the rush of fondness he felt by recalling just how pissed he’d been with this manchild this morning. It was not one hundred percent successful.

Dave returned with two glasses: water for Karkat, and apple juice for himself. “Take a seat,” he insisted as he set the glasses on the coffee table (sans coasters). “It won’t bite.”

Gingerly, Karkat took a seat on the ancient futon. The padding was so thin, he could feel the bars beneath. It was going to take a while to become unbearable, and he hoped this hang out? date? didn’t last long enough for that to happen. Just as he’d been about to reach for the water, suddenly uncertain whether he actually ought to drink anything Dave gave him, Dave flopped down onto the futon beside him like a sack of gangly flour. “Dave!”

“S’up?” Dave asked, grinning. 

“Don’t ‘s’up’ me--,” Karkat managed to stop himself from calling Dave an asshole, but only just. “Just don’t ‘s’up’ me. Speak like a normal person.” He realized he was making a mistake as soon as the words were out of his mouth. “Sorry, I--”

“Dude,” Dave said, his grin dropping away, “Karkat, you don’t have to apologise for every kind of mean thing you say. I’m a big boy: I can take it.” 

Karkat supposed he shouldn’t be surprised: he’d never been good at pretending to be a good person. If he could have managed that feat for any length of time, he wouldn’t be in this position. “I’ll keep that in mind,” he said as dryly as he could. 

“I’m serious.” Dave sat up and turned to face Karkat head on, and Karkat saw his own annoyed expression mirrored in the black lenses. “I haven’t known you very long, and maybe I shouldn’t say anything, but--”

“You’re right,” Karkat interrupted, feeling his tenuous hold on his temper slipping. “You shouldn’t say anything.” After taking a moment to make sure he wasn’t going to say anything he didn’t mean to, he spoke again. “Let’s just watch the movie and eat some microwaved popcorn. Does that sound like something we could do? Or would you like to keep pretending you have some deep insights into my character as though we’ve known each other longer than three days?”

Dave raised his hands, and Karkat realized he’d sounded far more aggressive than the situation warranted. At this rate, he wouldn’t even get a chance to lose this asshole! Nice job, Vantas: stellar work. “No, you’re right. I’ll step off.” Dave said softly. He got off of the futon with far more grace than he’d flopped onto it with. “You just put the movie in, and I’ll, uh, I’ll make the popcorn.”

Karkat watched him go before putting his head in his hands. Well, fuck. As though this whole situation hadn’t been awkward before. He should just leave. Just leave, forget about his stupid article, and stop dragging this stupidly likeable idiot down with him. He should. 

He stayed where he was. 

---

Dave took maybe longer than he absolutely needed to to prepare the popcorn. As much as he liked to consider himself a smooth operator, he could tell when he’d made a mistake, and he wanted to give the guy in the other room a chance to cool down. What made it made it worse was that Karkat had been right to get mad at him: Dave barely knew him. In his place, Dave would probably be pissed, too. 

Even so, Dave didn’t think he was wrong about the conclusions he’d come to. It was obvious that Karkat was, for whatever reason, putting on a show for Dave’s sake. Honestly, it was kind of creepy. If he understood why Karkat felt the need to do that, he’d feel better about it.

But it wasn’t his business. Not yet. Maybe you had to reach a certain level on the boyfriend echeladder before that kind of thing was something you talked about. It would probably help if they were actually boyfriends and not just newly dating, too. There seemed to be at least one obvious solution to that problem.

Dave could be patient. After all, he still had eleven days or so to get Karkat to at least like him enough to be his plus one at Rose’s wedding. It wasn’t all he wanted anymore, but it'd be enough to start with. As Rose had so often told him, start with small goals. 

He poured an obscene amount of butter over the popcorn in the bowl and headed out to the living room. Karkat was bent over, fiddling with the DVD player, and when he looked up at Dave, his mouth was curved somewhat upwards. “What movie do you have for us?”

Karkat stood. “Coming to America.” He made his way back to the futon and sat down as though worried he might fall through if he sat down too quickly. “It’s more comedy than romantic, so I thought you might enjoy it more.”

That sounded vaguely familiar. “Okay.” Dave joined him on the futon, taking care not to startle him this time. “Let’s get this party started.”

---

Karkat had hoped bringing a comedy would hold Dave’s attention enough to keep him from talking through the whole thing. He’d been mistaken. Yes, a lot of what Dave said was funny, but it just never fucking stopped. Finally, Karkat couldn’t take it anymore.

He grabbed the remote and paused the movie. Then he very deliberately set the remote back down. “I want you to listen to me, Dave. Are you listening?”

Dave looked confused, but he nodded. “Yeah, I’m listening. Do you have something you want to tell me? I’m all ears. Lay it on me.”

God, he couldn’t even listen without rambling! “Would it kill you to shut up?” He saw Dave’s eyebrows peek over the tops of his glasses. A part of him told him to reconsider his current course of action, but naturally, Karkat could never abide by a piece of good advice. “Would it literally cause you to drop dead if you couldn’t expel your idiocy out of your mouth like a goddamned septic pipe full of half-formed metaphors and bullshit? Would your head explode? Can we try that experiment and see what happens?” Karkat felt his fingernails biting into his palms and realized he’d clenched his fists. “What do you say, Dave? Wait, I’ve changed my mind: don’t say anything. Let me bask in the gentle ethereal glow of silence for a moment. Can you do that for me, Dave? Can you let me bask? Will the endless flow of words finally cease?”

‘No’ was clearly the answer to that question since Dave was already opening his mouth. Then, to Karkat’s utter shock, he shut it again. His expression wasn’t ever easy to read with those douche shades he insisted on wearing all the time, but now it was completely closed off. Even the eyebrows had lowered back to their original position.

Silence stretched between them. 

Karkat felt sick to his stomach. Shit. Shit. He really just couldn’t do it, could he? Couldn’t pretend even for a few hours that he was a normal person. Well, so much for this experiment. Time to write off this little adventure. Was it worth even trying to apologise? Before he could decide, Dave made the decision for him. 

He was clapping. “Damn, just got owned,” he said, a wide grin splitting his face. “You owned me, Karkat. You should feel proud. Not everyone gets own this,” he gestured to himself. “I just hope you know what you’re getting into: I’m barely house trained.”

For an embarrassingly high number of seconds, all Karkat could do was blink. “You’re not mad?”

“Fuck no,” Dave said, still grinning. “I’m a big kid now. I’ve graduated from diapers all the way to pull ups. It takes more than a finely crafted, well-deserved take down to take me down.” The grin softened. “This is what I was trying to say before: I want to date you, not some weird super agreeable version of you. If you want to tell me off for talking too much, fucking go for it. You’ve got a way with insults--it’s a gift. Frankly, I’m insulted you’ve been keeping it to yourself.”

“There’s more where that comes from, asshole,” Karkat said before he could stop himself. To his amazement, Dave still seemed more amused than anything. A strange mixture of anger and fondness welled up inside him. “Stop grinning at me, and watch the fucking movie.” He picked up the remote and hesitated. “You don’t have to be silent,” he said, still feeling a little guilty over his earlier outburst, “just maybe less talking?”

Dave made a big show of running a zipper over his lips. Then he immediately ruined it by saying, “Scouts honor, Karkat. My word is bond. You can cash that shit at the bank.”

Karkat tried to picture Dave as a boy scout and failed. “Right.” He pressed play and the movie resumed. Of course, Dave still talked during the movie, but the sheer volume of words had slowed to a moderate stream rather than the full-bore blasting Karkat had been subjected to earlier. As he sat there on the futon, occasionally answering Dave’s stupid comments with barbs of his own, he felt warm in a way that was only nominally connected to the temperature of the arm he was leaning against. He felt… content.

---

Overall, Operation Hang Out had been a big success. It had been rocky in places, but again, overall, Dave felt like he’d hit his major mission objectives. A movie was watched, pizza was consumed, and Karkat finally, finally, did something other than apologise every time a hint of the person he’d met at the cafe had come through. He didn’t necessarily want to keep pissing Karkat off, but that bitch fit he’d thrown had been epic. 

Karkat wasn’t the kind of guy Dave had expected to find himself interested in. At least, he’d never thought he’d have a grumpy asshole kink. Not that he hadn’t enjoyed the more quiet parts of Karkat’s visit, too. It had felt nice to sit on the futon with someone leaning against his shoulder. Dave wasn’t a sap, no, not a suave guy like him, but he couldn’t deny he’d like to do it again some time. 

He considered texting Rose as he’d planned to earlier before deciding not to. After all, he’d managed the first crisis all on his own, and she might consider it cheating if he got her help. No, for now at least, this bird was flying solo.

---

* Clean apartment. Finger guns. Puts too much butter on popcorn. Also talks during movies outside theater setting. Likes getting insulted. Kink?  Wants to date the “real” me. Delusional. Comfortable arm. Had a nice time. Had acceptable time. Clothes in his shower??? 

#Homestuck #Humanstuck #fan fic #my fic #wip

[nightglider124]

RobStar Week 2019: Day 1

Sooo... I said I was probably not going to take part in RobStar week this year on account of just being burned out and hating basically everything I wrote.

However... I’ve been busting my ass this weekend to get some oneshots written for the week and so far, I’ve managed to churn out like 3 days so I’m rolling with the momentum because fuck knows how long the creativity will hold out.

Not the happiest with this first one... shock... but I like day 2 at least so... yea.

p.s - sorry if I have been awol or not responsive these past few days. I’m not ignoring anyone or anything. I’ve just been solely focused on writing these and haven’t wanted distractions so have like... really tried to stay away from discord and tumblr lmao.

Anyway... enough blabbering... hope you like day 1 and happy robstar week, folks!

(Forgive the weird, makeshift line break below. If Tumblr wasn’t such a little bitch and hadn’t got rid of said feature, it would look normal. >.>)

_____________________________________________________________

Wayne Manor

Pearls of rain were speckled all across the glass with a few trying hard to best the others, racing one another to see who would be first to reach the bottom of the window pane, leaving a watery trail in their steads.

She brought her fingers to the surface, following the lines of the rain droplets, a patient smile on her face. The dampness outside was not one of her favorite types of weather patterns but she didn’t mind it so long as she didn’t have to go out in it.

It had been raining all day; non stop and relentless. Starfire sighed as she shifted in her seat, pressing the side of her head to the glass, her green eyes watching the new raindrops that appeared from the night sky.

She and Robin had arrived in Gotham early that morning and had spent a bit of time together around the city before they inevitably went to see Robin’s former mentor and legal guardian.

Bruce Wayne was, in Starfire’s opinion, a complex and intriguing man. There were a lot of similarities between him and her boyfriend; ones that were painfully familiar to her when she saw them in the billionaire by day, vigilante by night.

She had known Bruce for a while now; having been in a relationship with his son for 2 years, she had had her fair share of meetings with him.

And yet, she still wasn’t sure how she was supposed to take him. She wasn’t sure on what he thought of her as he could make himself just as unreadable as Robin could, if not more. It was so very frustrating to be around humans who were so secretive about their own thoughts and feelings.

Starfire constantly wore her heart on her sleeve; allowing all of her emotions to be showcased. It was a Tamaranian trait, to embrace everything one felt. The very idea of hiding your thoughts and feelings or not expressing them at the very least was unheard of on her world.

They had come to the city Robin had grown up in as another milestone approached.

Nightwing was on the horizon; plans and designs carefully in place, just waiting to be followed through. He had always told her how he wanted Nightwing to be separate from Batman but, asking for a small ounce of help in creating the identity wasn’t too hard a pill to swallow.

Alfred was someone that instantly made her smile; the older gentleman was warm and wise and she felt like she got on very well with him. He reminded her somewhat of Galfore, someone who would likely give her advice that was hard to hear but that was necessary.

If anything, she enjoyed visits to Robin’s former home, simply because of seeing Alfred. She liked to help him with household chores including food preparation or, if the rarity came when the sun was beaming down on Gotham, she would help him in the garden; all the while chatting about whatever they wanted to.

She didn’t have to wonder with Alfred; not like she wondered with Bruce.

As she sat on the integrated seat at the large window of the back of the den, she sighed and rolled her shoulders. There was a breath of loneliness that befell her at times such as this.

Robin had been summoned hours ago, spending the time with Alfred so that measurements could be taken for his new uniform. Bruce had gone as well of course; down the winding staircase into the cave.

She hadn’t explicitly been told she couldn’t tag along with the three of them but she also hadn’t received an invitation, having resorted to staying upstairs and out of their way, instead.

The faint smile she wore faded a little as her mind dwelled on the insecurities she had locked away inside of her.

Starfire had a gut feeling Bruce didn’t like her very much and was likely happy that she had not followed them down to the batcave. He was a conundrum of a person and she simply could not gauge what he was thinking, especially when it came to her.

In the beginning, when she had first come to Wayne Manor and met him for the first time, he had offered a polite smile and engaged in small talk with her as best he could but she still felt the scrutiny in his eyes whenever he looked at her.

Was it because she wasn’t from Earth? Was it because she was a super powered being and he felt that she was a dangerous threat? Or was it simply… he didn’t like who she was and didn’t approve of his son being involved with her?

Biting her lower lip, Starfire pushed the swell of concern mixed with unhappiness further down inside her. There was a lump in her throat and tears briefly pricked her eyes. She wanted him to like her, to think of her like an addition to their family but she had doubts that she would ever reach such a level of acceptance from the man beneath the cowl.

“Starfire?”

A squeak burst from her lips and she jolted forward, her heart thumping in her chest like a caged bird fighting to be free. She took a deep breath and turned to find the source of the voice.

Bruce stood at the archway of the den, staring at her with mild curiosity, his hands at his sides. He wore a pale blue dress shirt, with a stray button not done up at his neck along with pressed, black pants, looking pristine as always. The dim light in the room reflected in the shine of his dark leather shoes and she found herself blinking at him.

“Oh… B-Bruce… you startled me.”

A soft smile adorned his face, “Sorry. We seem to have that be a running theme in this house.”

She puffed out a laugh, “Yes, Dick often catches me by surprise when we are at the tower… he is most silent and works well to use stealth tactics, without even meaning to.”

He nodded and slipped his hands into his pockets, blue eyes narrowing ever so slightly in her direction,

“What are you doing down here?”

She gulped and suddenly felt nervous, a chill coming over her like she had been caught doing something she shouldn’t have.

Immediately, she got to her feet, shyly wringing her fingers together in front of her chest, 

“O-Oh… apologies for… intruding upon areas of your home… I was just-”

Bruce tilted his head, looking confused, “Starfire, please… sit.”

She appeared hesitant now; unsure and uncomfortable.

“Please?”

Wordlessly, she sat back down on the cushion of the window seat, looking awkward as she pressed her knees together and threaded her fingers atop her lap.

Bruce calmly walked closer to her and waved a hand, “I didn’t mean it like you aren’t allowed to be here. You are… I was just curious why you were here of all places in the manor?”

She turned her head back towards the window, watching the rainfall, “This is… the most peaceful spot I have managed to find within your home. I can watch the rain here and be soothed by it.” She paused, “And… I did not wish to interrupt… your planning in the cave.”

His eyes widened a fraction, “Interrupt us? We were actually waiting for you for a time… Dick said you would come down but…”

“Oh.”

She felt her face become hot, embarrassed, with the blush hidden by the orange tone of her skin. 

Peering down at the hem of her skirt, Starfire chewed on her lip, feeling foolish and out of place. Insecurity gnawed at her soul, whispering fears and uncertainties into her mind about what he must think of her.

Bruce watched her for a long moment, processing and reading her behavior before he crossed the space between them and took a seat beside her, on the cushioned surface.

“You must be used to the grim weather here by now.” Bruce murmured, his eyes focused on the lead of the water droplet race that was still in full swing.

Starfire blinked, surprised that he seemingly was trying to make conversation. As she had already pointed out to herself, Bruce was a quiet person, analyzing and calculating and using the true streak of a detective in him to figure others out, rather than conversing to do that like most people would.

“Uh… I… truly do not mind it. Rain is not something that we have on Tamaran. I find it fascinating.”

His brows rose, “You don’t?”

She shook her head, “We have water, of course. But, our water does not fall from the sky.” She paused as a memory floated through her mind and she giggled behind the palm of her hand,

Bruce tilted his head in a questioning manner.

“Forgive me… I… just remembered the first time I discovered rain on this planet. We were all at the park and it started to rain and I was most certain is was an enemy hiding in the clouds… until Dick explained what it was. I do not believe he expected me to spend the rest of our day jumping from puddle to puddle, refusing to go home.”

Bruce stared at her for a long moment before he quirked a smile, “I suppose it would definitely be something worth exploring if you’d never seen it before.”

She smiled fondly as she cast her mind back on that day, “The first time I saw the snow… it was much the same… Dick explained it to me and told me how snow only really comes in Winter.”

“He’s been quite a teacher to you through the years.”

Her smile widened a little more, “He has helped me adjust to life on Earth the most out of all our friends.”

Bruce’s blue eyes softened, seeing very clearly how much his son meant to this girl. 

He hadn’t been sure what to make of Starfire when Dick had first mentioned her and when it became apparent that the boy wonder thought of her as more than just a friend, Bruce took a little more interest when Dick would let slip little details about her.

Meeting her was a full on experience, she’d been excitable and exuberant, floating around the manor with the other Titans, awestruck by the building. He remembered wondering if she ever stopped smiling and if her face hurt at the end of the day because of the constant cheer across her features.

That first time had been years ago now and yet, sometimes, he still got the feeling he and Starfire were at odds in some way. 

He was far from oblivious. He could guess that she didn’t feel like she belonged or fit in whenever the two visited and stayed in Gotham for a few nights; the city and her were like polar opposites. One was gritty and dark, the other was passionate and full of happiness and life. 

Bruce mused that that was what attracted Dick to the alien Princess; she was so different to what he’d known throughout his adolescence; a ray of sunshine through all the gloom, if you will.

“He’s always been the helpful type.” Bruce grunted,

“He is a good man.” She paused to look at him, her green eyes locking on his blue orbs, “For any flaws Dick may have… he has a big heart and a gentle nature…”

He held her stare for a long time; not exactly one to break eye contact easily, before he gave her a short nod, “He is.”

Starfire smiled and played with a lock of red hair, spilling over her shoulder and she turned her attention back to the rain streaked window.

Bruce refrained from clearing his throat awkwardly, trying to ignore the subconscious tapping of his fingertips against his knee. He wasn’t an open book and he wasn’t exactly the social type or at least… he didn’t enjoy being social.

But, in this case, he wanted to try. He knew he wasn’t easy to get along with and every single time they had come face to face, it was Starfire attempting to crack open the shell around him that she’d clearly shattered with Dick. 

He’d noticed the change though; how in recent months, whenever they visited Gotham, Starfire had lost some of that glowing joy that usually radiated within an entire room, lighting everything up.

She’d given in a little with being the first to try and he could imagine what she thought, he thought of her.

Of course, she would likely be wrong. 

Bruce considered her to be a very charming young lady; she was a very good fighter with a fiery temper to match. She was besotted with his son and he with her which was something no one could miss when seeing the couple together. She was an extremely upbeat soul with a sense of childlike wonder which was nothing short of endearing. 

He was happy that Dick was happy and it didn’t hurt that Starfire was a lovely girl as well. He enjoyed her company and found her sweet; a rarity to find in most humans, especially in Gotham City.

“Have I ever told you about when Dick was just a kid and Alfred was in London for a few days?”

Starfire’s brows rose and a small, hopeful smile lingered on her lips as she shook her head.

Bruce chuckled, “He was only about 11 years old then and I’d finished a rough patrol… I had injuries that no child could really know how to dress.”

The Princess shifted, eyes sparkling with interest as she tucked her legs underneath her and laced her fingers together.

“And in usual Dick fashion with trying to help everyone around him… He ended up wrapped toilet paper around my wounds. He wasn’t stupid of course; he’d washed them with water and applied medicinals but this kid couldn’t figure out where Alfred would store the gauze so… doing what he does best, he improvised and headed for the roll in the bathroom.”

Starfire stared at the dark haired man for a long moment before she cracked up laughing, holding her stomach with one hand whilst the other covered her mouth as she descended into giggles.

“He did not!” She squealed, eyes bright with mirth,

Bruce smirked, “Oh he did… before he stuck the paper down with some plasters, hoping that would hold it all together.”

Wiping a tear from her eye, Starfire shook her head in disbelief, “That is most hard to believe. Beside Raven, Dick is possibly the best in the team at wrapping wounds after battles.”

Bruce eyed her, amused, “Well of course he is… after that little display, I had to teach him how to do it the right way.”

Starfire tucked her hair behind her ear as the last of the chortles flowed from her mouth, slowly feeling an ease in her chest, like a weight was lifting the longer Bruce kept the conversation going with her. 

Maybe she hadn’t been entirely correct; maybe there was a chance that Bruce did approve of her and perhaps… he may like her.

“You sharing my embarrassing childhood moments with her, Bruce?”

Starfire beamed as she cast a glance over at the archway where Dick was standing, his arms folded over his chest whilst he leaned against the frame. He wore a smirk across his lips, like he already knew what they had been discussing.

“Me? Never.” Bruce told him in a somewhat stoic manner,

“Uh huh… sure you’re not.” Dick replied, pushing off of the wall to cross the distance before he took a seat just behind Starfire, one arm sliding around her waist and softly kissing her cheek in greeting.

“I’ve just been telling her about… skills you have now improved upon.”

Dick narrowed his eyes at his former mentor, “Is that right? Well, Star, would you like to hear some stories about Bruce?”

Bruce’s eyes widened slightly and he frowned at his son, “Don’t you dare.”

Starfire grinned and turned to her boyfriend, “I believe I would love to hear some.”

“Wait, wait… if you’re set on tarnishing my reputation…” Bruce paused and smirked, seeing Dick playfully roll his eyes in Starfire’s direction, “We’d best go and see Alfred for snacks.”

“You think he’ll be up for making his cookies?” Dick queried, getting up and offering Starfire a helping hand as well. 

Bruce eyed the clock on the wall, “Hmm… I don’t know… it’s a little late.”

Dick grinned and laced his fingers with Starfire’s, “Maybe but I have a secret weapon with one hell of a puppy dog face.” 

Starfire laughed, a tinkling sound amidst the brief silence in the room as walked towards the kitchen with Dick on one side and a smiling Bruce on the other. 

And for once in all the times she had visited Wayne Manor, she actually felt like she could relax and that her presence was welcome, rather than tolerated. She felt like she belonged, even if it was just a little bit.

But, she decided it was something and that feeling could only grow in the future.

#robstar #robstarweek #robstarweek2019 #robin #starfire #teen titans #DC comics #i mean #its more star and bruce really #but #eh #fanfiction #nightglider124

[southsideprince]

airing the grievances - a sweet pea and jughead para (discord)

Sweet Pea was sat in the snake ground, a pack of six and a carton of cigarettes. For once it was empty, either people were working or at home and Sweet Pea was enjoying the silence it brought. Raising the bottle to his lips, he took a deep mouthful of the beer. The funeral had been and gone, an emotional day but it was needed to start the process of moving on. Upon hearing footsteps approaching, he looked up, distracted from his inner musings to see Jughead standing there. “Can I help you?”

Jughead had been looking for Sweet Pea, it had been a few days since the funeral and only a couple since the announcement of his father being let go from the police department. Overall, Jughead was feeling down. But he also needed to make things right, if anything it had shown that he and Sweet Pea could find a middle ground and maybe begin working together to get things sorted. After asking around, someone had mentioned seeing him heading for the snake ground and with beer and chips in hand, he made his way over. As he approached, he saw Sweet Pea lookup. At his question, he simply held up the beer and chips with a small shrug. “Thought we could chat?” 

He let out a snort, but indicated to the space next to him. “Do what you wish, Jones.” he replied, moving his feet to the ground to make room. “But if this is going to lead to us braiding each others hair and painting nails I’m walking away” he added, raising a brow as he took another sip of his beer. 

A smirk graced his lips as he took the offered seat, curling one leg underneath him he turned his body to face Sweet Pea as he cracked open one of the beers. “I’m not down for the nails, but I think you’d suit some pretty little plaits with bows.” he commented, opening the bag of chips and popping one into his mouth. 

Sweet Pea shot him a look before taking another sip. “Watch it Jones, or I’ll shave that mop you call hair.” he warned, leaning over to help himself to chips. “But what did you want to talk about?” he asked, curious as to why he’d approached him. He must have made an effort to find him. 

Jughead looked affronted and touched his beanie protectively. “You touch my hair and I’ll burn your trailer to the ground.” he threatened, patting it gently. As Sweet Pea helped himself to chips without even a please, Jughead rolled his eyes. “I wanted to thank you for....well for the other day. Stepping up, helping me. It meant a lot.” his voice was less teasing, more sombre as he tried to express his sincerity. It had been tough, preparing it all and getting everything ready. Sweet Pea knew more, knew what had to happen and had guided him through it. Had put aside the differences to help lead and step up when Jughead felt he was floundering. 

Sweet Pea focused his gaze on Jughead as he spoke, disregarding the threat- banter could come later. The tone had taken on a serious one and he simply sipped at his beer as he spoke. When Jughead had finished, he remained quiet for a few seconds before taking a large breath and a long sigh. “It was an important event...I wanted to make sure it went correctly because I thought you’d fuck it up. Couldn’t trust you to do it right.” he replied, chewing on his lower lip for a few seconds. Until he ran a hand across his eyes. “But you did good, okay? You took charge, you injected hope and faith and the speech was incredibly fitting- and tell anyone I said this, I’ll knock you sideways but I was proud, okay?” he added, voice quieter as he focused on the grass, not able to meet his gaze as he spoke. 

Jughead felt his heart sink at Sweet Pea’s words, not expecting him to be so brutal. It was hard for both of them, but to hear he didn’t have faith in him? He was about to interject until Sweet Pea spoke up once more, only this time it sounded less hostile and more....open. Jughead took a small sip of his beer before clearing his throat. “That means a lot, Sweet Pea. Thank you.” he said, sitting up a little straighter in his seat. “I won’t tell a soul that you actually said a good word about me- jesus, new love must be doing you good?” he added with a small smirk. 

Sweet Pea was still staring at the ground, that was until Jughead spoke and thanked him and he managed to look up and meet his gaze once more. It was strange, he didn’t even feel hatred anymore- he could barely remember why he had such resentment for Jughead. It didn’t even seem important anymore, as sad as it was to think, if they hadn’t died would they still be at each other’s throats? He felt a grin stretch across his face, the insinuation of Jughead about him and Reggie made him weak all over. “You really asking me about my love life, Jones? But if you must know, he makes me happy. It’s strange how we just went from enemies to...this. I guess I just got bored punching his face and instead I wanted to kiss it. Funny how the world works.” he said, a genuine smile on his lips. “But it means one war is behind us, there’s still a lot to do and a lot to happen until things are set rightfully but I don’t know, I consider this a good step for us as a family- and with you and Archie as well, I think its the beginning of a new era-” 

Jughead wasn’t one to get in the way of romance. It blossomed in strange and weird ways and crept up when least expected. Was it a surprise to him still? Yes. Did he wonder if both had ulterior motives? Of course. And as much as Jughead had his own issues in the past with Reggie it seemed both of them being together was bringing out the better sides of them. “I feel awful now that I kissed him but it makes a hell of a lot of sense on why you looked like you were going to strangle me in my seat. Maybe this is what it took, not just me and Archie being friends but you and Reggie or any other serpent/bulldog/vixen pairing. With everything that has happened it sure helps in getting the town all on the same side. Let’s just hope everyone is on board and can put differences aside.” he replied with a sigh. 

Sweet Pea let out a snort, remembering the night of the lock-in and the amount of rage he was holding that night. “I think I was more pissed at our argument earlier that night and it kind of just took the piss with you kissing my sister and my non-boyfriend at the time. Man, fate really had it out for you that night. But I see you got some kisses in yourself loverboy....” he teased, grabbing another beer and tossing his empty to the ground. “Reggie made a public announcement, so here’s hoping it subsides but if you and I and Archie and Reggie are working together it should stop any future bloodshed.” he mused. 

Jughead remembered the argument, it was heated and hate-fuelled and nearly ended in them tearing each other to shreds. But Jughead didn’t want to admit that maybe it was some home truths he had been denying. “I’m sorry I went for you about being on the football team, it was petty and stupid. Toni went to the vixens are you’re right, I was being two-faced about it. I guess fate if you want to call it that, decided I had to go through the wringer that night. Or maybe it was bad karma, I don’t know. I may have got kisses, but none of them holds a candle to someone- well that’s not important. It’s complicated.” he murmured, finishing off his beer with a big gulp. “But you were on point with my father and at the time I didn’t want to listen, but with what happened the other day I can’t help but feel something isn’t right. He still isn’t saying anything about why he didn’t help us or give us a heads up and it’s so frustrating!” he grabbed another beer, popping the cap off with ease and drank deeply. It was bothering Jug more than he let on. He just didn’t understand. 

Sweet Pea shrugged, already sort of over it. “It’s okay and believe me when I say that. I was harsh and angry and spoke out of anger. At the end of the day, he is your father and I guess I was putting across my own issues onto you and that wasn’t fair. I have no idea why FP is being how he is and I just don’t get it- he was our King before. Loyal, faultless and everything else and it just seems so against him not to give us a heads up. It’s all fucked, I can’t help but feel this is just another way of pushing us to the side and not getting justice for Peaches and Joaquin...” it unnerved him, just how everything was going down. It felt like a move against them. That they still didn't matter despite it being another two dead teenagers.

Jughead could only agree. It was mighty suspicious at best. “I think we’ve both had a misunderstanding of each other, I don’t know much about your past but I’ve picked up enough and the way you care about this club, this family is admirable and I can see how I may have confused that with you being jealous of not being the leader. I didn’t even ask for this, it was just handed to me without consultation and I guess I just wanted to prove myself to him that I didn’t think of the repercussions. You’re a decent guy, Sweet Pea and I admire you and the way you just put everyone first.” it felt like history was being made right now. The way they were speaking, the walls were finally crumbling down and he felt they were getting a clearer view of each other. “I don’t know if was a move to push us further aside but I can assure you, I will not stop until we find out who did this and why. But I can’t do it alone....” 

Sweet Pea had held resentment for a while, he had felt it was his right to lead. The things he did, the things he still did to this day just to make sure everyone had at least food on the table and a place to feel safe. But he also realised Jughead was right and neither of them had given the other the chance. Maybe he was getting softer, or maybe he was just done with fighting everything and everyone. “I’ve been more than tough on you, maybe most of it was unneeded. You’ve stepped up every time we've needed you- even if you didn’t ask for it. You’re a good King, I see that now and so does everyone else. You can take this club further and from now on..-” he leant over towards Jughead, holding out his hand. “-you won’t be doing this alone. I got your back. I swear on my life.” he said, finally ready to bury this hatchet and work together. It had all been put into perspective and he didn’t want to lose anyone else. 

And there it was. The moment. He didn’t realise how much he needed to hear it and somehow it meant a lot more coming from Sweet Pea than anyone else. Jughead took Sweet Pea’s hand in his, both of them shaking hard. “And I have yours. from this day until my dying day. Let’s nail this fucker to the wall.” 

Hands were shaken, bottles were clinked together. That evening the beginning of something new had blossomed and may God have mercy on any soul who tried to get in the way of it.

@jonesingforaburger 

#sweet pea #jughead jones #sweet pea solo #//co written by cari and lola