Tumgik
#not for any fandom ive written for before of course
god help my soul im writing fic again
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tadhgsstuff · 8 months
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hello fellow new moot, may I request anything fluff with ghost (if you write for him)?
heyy!! I can certainly try, Ive written for other fandoms but for cod I’ve only read so far, so I’ll do my best! I really needed smth to take me out of this writers block anyways so thank you very much for the request ^^ (this is gonna be pure fluff no suggestive things or anything, so no warnings, I’ve been sitting on the whole stressed out reader thing so thats why Im using it for this, but I have many many more ideas for ghost fluff specifically coming up!!)
ok long intro over
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You’re sitting on the couch at home, doing some work.
Well, trying to. Right now you’re staring at the unrealistically bright screen, thats been subtly blinding you since the laptop opened hours ago, your eyes hurt, your head hurts, your brain is tired of thinking. You place your fingers on your temples and rub your head in circular motions. All of the sudden you feel two hands on your shoulders.
“Si’? I’m sorry I would’ve gotten up to say hi at the door, I didn’t hear you come in”
“It’s okay, love. How long have you been working?” he asks concerned, as he look at the bags forming under your eyes.
“A few hours”
“How many is a few?” he continues
You quickly check the time, “roughly 5” you say trying to stifle a yawn
“Alright, thats enough working for tonight.” He says before abruptly taking your laptop
“Why’re you all cuddly tonight?” you say as you attempt to take the laptop back
“You’re putting too much pressure on yourself. You need a break.” He says sternly
You fight the urge to argue with him and just let him put your stuff away, he quickly changes and sits down on the couch next to you.
“c’mere”he says quietly
you shuffle over to him and sit in his lap, you curl your legs up and lean your head against him as he runs his rough hands against your scalp softly, his other hand supporting your body.
“do you want to talk about it?” he whispers into your hair
you simply shake your head and say “Its okay, can we just enjoy each others presence for now?”
“Of course.” he goes back to working his hands into your skin, trailing around your body and getting every possible knot in your tense muscles, peppering little kisses around your face.
While this isn’t his usual demeanor, he’s okay with it because you are his home, his comfort, so he doesn’t mind being as affectionate as you need him to be. He loves being with you, being silent with you, being loud with you, as long as you’re there he loves whatever you’re doing, you soon both fall asleep intwined in each others arms on the couch, embraced in your combined warmth with the ambiance of your synced breaths.
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(not proofread 😞 I am in fact very stressed with work right now so I’m sorry if this isn’t exactly what you were looking for! like I said before I so appreciate the request! Please comment and reblog and let me know if you want to be in the next taglist!)
@dudeitiskarev (for the divider!)
Do not steal or post my work on any other platform! Thank you!
(Taglist: comment if you’d like to be tagged!)
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metanarrates · 1 month
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on fandom parenting talk, i think it would be cool to see more single fathers in fandom. like i really enjoy kidfic but 90% of stories about men with kids are actually just romantic fantasies where the kid is symbolic of a successful love, and it seems like most of the stories about single dads that aren't about him falling in love with someone who will help him coparent are. some kind of incest thing. it's just very weird and discouraging to see where people's priorities are
oh yeah the treatment of motherhood in fandom is just 100% pure unfiltered misogyny but the way fatherhood is treated exposes something deeper, imo. being a parent is a state of responsibility where you have the burden of making sure a small, developing person stays safe and healthy and grows up to be a functional adult. it's something that inherently requires that you have a relationship with a child. and one that goes both ways! just as you have thoughts and opinions and emotions regarding your child, your child will have thoughts and opinions and emotions regarding you. it will be a relationship that defines much of who you are and how you treat the responsibility you have towards the vulnerable.
but the reason that fandom doesn't typically write any of this well is that children in fiction are often written as props, not as characters. they exist purely for the sake of making their parents look good, or for furthering aspects of the plot, or to look cute for an audience. it's why depictions of parenthood in certain stories are often a miss for me. it's fine if the plot is primarily about someone being a parent, of course, and the way they feel about that. but you have to have the essential ingredient of making the child a person! even a newborn infant has a personality and will sometimes react negatively to things they don't like!
parenting is interesting because the relationships adults have to children, and the relationships children have to adults, are interesting. if a story about parenthood fails, it is probably because it cannot understand the ways that those relationships are complex in real life. (or is being nasty. ive seen the incest thing before. Ew. 🤢🤢🤢)
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Text
When a Paradise is Lost
Papa Emeritus IV x Fem!Reader, mentions of Papa Emeritus III x Fem!Reader (18+ ONLY, MDNI)
TW: this thing is angsty, death, pregnancy, pregnancy loss, grief, and of course smut.
Word Count: 13.4k
Hey Ghesties... It's finally here ❤️ I was hoping to have this out about 2 days ago, but life has inevitably happened. It's been a great escape working on this though. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did writing it! I've written in the past for other fandoms but this is my first big boy story for Ghost, so please feel free to drop constructive criticism if there's any way I can make future stories more immersive. Okay, I leave you alone now, love you, bye! Enjoy 😉
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Silence fell over the chapel as the head of the church apathetically entered through the heavy wooden doors. Even Sister Imperator froze mid sentence upon seeing him.
No one, save for a few of his closest ghouls, had seen Copia since that tragic night. The whole abbey felt very melancholy in the days following, and with no Emeritus progeny left, Sister Imperator had no choice but to take over some of Papa's duties, including leading mass, like she was now.
Paint clearly brushed on haphazardly and not doing a great job of hiding the red puffiness around his eyes, he stalked up the main aisle between pews, only stopping when Sister called to him by his nickname, "𝘊?"
Keeping his chin down but moving his eyes to look at her, he replies, "Please continue, Sister," before turning his eyes back towards the floor and moving to his intended destination: the open spot next to you.
Sister Imperator, who rarely ever hesitates, calmly tries to keep going with her lecture on the fight against corruption. A subject that frankly felt out of touch in this moment in the ministry, but it was probably in an attempt to take everyone's mind off of what had happened.
Not wanting to make a spectacle of your Papa seated next to you, you quickly peek at him out of the corner of your eye. He simply stared blankly straight ahead. Perhaps he thought it would look like he was listening, but he was clearly a million miles away. 𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘵 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦? You had only encountered Copia typically in formal settings or on the days that you hung on Terzo's arm while strolling the grand halls of the abbey. Perhaps it was the only open seat he saw, but it seemed more directed than that, to you at least. 𝘋𝘪𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦?
Lost in your thoughts, you almost don't hear the whisper that squeaks from his sore vocal chords. You turn your attention to him, eyebrows upturned with worry, "yes, Papa?"
"How-" his lip quivers, "h-how did you deal with it? How did you handle... this pain?" Still staring blankly ahead, a tear falls down his cheek.
Instantly searching your pocket for a handkerchief, you now understand what he's come to you for. You've had to admit to yourself that Copia's loss reminded you of your own, bringing up a flood of memories of the days, weeks, months after Terzo was killed. You're unfortunately all too familiar with what the antipope must be feeling after losing his own Prime Mover.
Just days prior, the ministry bubbled with excitement over the prospect of the newest member of the Emeritus bloodline arriving soon. Copia's Prime Mover could be seen wandering the halls, hand on her swollen belly, surrounded by ghouls and handmaidens who had been tasked with protecting her and keeping her as comfortable as possible, respectively. She really was a brilliant woman. Everyone liked her, as it was hard not to find her charming, and she brought out the best in her Papa. It made everyone immensely happy.
Naturally, it hit everyone very hard when news travelled that her labors had turned fatal for both her and the baby.
Now here you are, faced with a grieving man, asking you an unanswerable question. Gently, you bring the handkerchief you'd finally found to his cheek. For a moment, he furrows his brows as if he's angry and doesn't like you so close to him, so you make quick work of touching him up before giving him the only honest answer that comes to your mind: "There's no right way to deal with it. It's just important that you do deal with it; don't push the feelings down, but face them straight on."
He stares blankly again for a long time, before moving his eyes to look at you. His face softens, eyebrows quirking up, as he meets your gaze. "Grazie, Sorella," barely came as a whisper, before he turns his eyes back to the stained glass window at the front of the room.
He sits right there, unmoving, as mass ends and Siblings and ghouls quietly shuffle out, not wanting to disturb their Papa. As the room empties, you're unsure whether you should stay or go; clearly he had been seeking you out and you don't want to abandon him in his time of need. Even though he sits in silence, you can see the storm raging behind his eyes, the hurt in his heart from losing his love.
"Would you like company, Papa?" you gingerly ask.
"Sì. I would like that very much."
And so you sit with him in the chapel in silence as his mind races. It isn't much, but you know how lonely that feeling is, and how sometimes just having someone nearby can help ease that, if only a little.
• • •
There was no feeling in the world like being loved by Terzo.
He could make anyone feel important, as if they were the only one that ever mattered to him, just by talking with him. You reflect on just how important you felt when he lifted that veil from your visage and closed the space between your lips, making you 𝘩𝘪𝘴, forever, in the eyes of Satan, and before the eyes of all members of the ministry piled into the chapel that had started to feel like home. But not as much as 𝘩𝘦 felt like home.
As he twirled you on the dance floor at the reception of your Prime Mover ritual, you'd never felt so safe as you did in his arms. The promise of forever on his lips whispered softly into your ear. But that forever was cut short, sooner than you ever could've imagined.
• • •
A couple days later, as you're messily shuffling through papers that Sister Imperator was breathing down your neck about, a Ghoul sneaks up on you to request your presence in the papal suite. You aren't as familiar with Copia's group of Ghouls as you had been with Terzo's, but you can tell through the dark goggles of his mask that he seems a little nervous. Something must be wrong.
You quickly grab the arm of the Ghoul, muscle memory taking over as you walk hurriedly towards the space that once was so familiar to you. You haven't seen it in years...
You're quickly met with a "Sorella-" after a frantic knock on the door, "are you alright? It was not my intention to worry you." He grabs your hand, kissing your knuckles gently. He looks a lot better than he had in the chapel, but still not fully pieced back together; frankly, he never would be, and you knew this from experience.
He turns to the Ghoul, "Thank you for guiding the Stellina here safely."
"Uhhh..." he mumbles and tenses up, scratching the back of his neck with his finger tips, "It was more like she guided me," he chuckles nervously.
A small smile of realization crosses Copia's face, "Of course she did." It hadn't previously crossed his mind that you once lived here.
The Ghoul turns to leave, as Copia invites you inside. It looks very different than it had all those years ago. It hasn't lost it's elegance since you and Terzo resided here, but all the decor is much more elaborate now.
You chuckle at the memory of Terzo essentially just wanting to throw black silk on everything and calling it a day. "𝘐𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦... 𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘭 𝘮𝘪𝘰 𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘢 𝘥𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘰." Satanas, even the memory of him could make you blush.
"Everything okie dokie?" Copia snaps you out of your thoughts; you must've been just staring blankly and smiling like an idiot.
"Oh- yes, it just all looks so different. Everything's all moved around." You surely look like a deer caught in headlights.
"Is it to your disliking?" Copia is such a considerate man, almost to a fault; naturally he would be concerned if a guest didn't like his quarters.
"No! No, not at all. It's just..." you look up at the ceiling trying to find the right word so as not to cause him more concern.
"Unfamiliar, sì?"
"Yes, unfamiliar," your eyes drop from the ceiling to finally meet his, full of kindness, but still red and puffy.
"Please, sit," he motions to the sofa that faces the marble fireplace; at least that still looks the same, although you suppose it would be a lot of work to replace all that marble.
Taking a seat beside you, Copia startes to fiddle with the tea glasses on the coffee table in front of you, "Would you like some, topolino?"
You let out a giggle at the nickname, appropriate considering his obsession with his pet rats. "Please, Papa."
"Oh, please, no need to call me Papa; I remember the days when I was just a cardinal to you... but that's enough reminiscing for now; I have a few things I wanted to discuss with you- or uhhh, just say to you really." He hands you a little cup of tea, having added a swirl of honey to it; you aren't sure what kind it was, but it's good. "Let me start by apologizing for pulling you away from your duties in the main offices," he gently squeezes your hand, "I know Seestor already has so much on her plate with everyone in mourning, especially having to see to my tasks, and now I've taken one of her best workers away for a little while. I'm sure she'll be frustrated," he sighs, seemingly in regret; he doesn't want to get you in trouble.
Now it's your turn to squeeze his hand, reassuring him, "It's 𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘦," you start, imitating him, "I can handle her."
He sips his tea and makes eye contact with you. For a moment it looks like tears threaten to build up in his mismatched eyes, the pain of loss clearly still fresh on him. You know how quickly it could bubble up, seemingly out of nowhere, while talking about things somewhat unrelated. But that was the thing about death hitting so close to home: it made everything related to it; every thought was about them, every little thing would remind you of them.
"Thank you..." It comes out as a whisper as he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, clearly trying to maintain composure. "I'm just so tired of crying. Sometimes I think I've run out of tears, but then somehow, more come." You sit with him patiently until he's ready to talk again.
In the silence your eyes drift back to the room, scanning over the beaded black lace of the bed canopy, the lush deep blue rug on the floor with metallic gold trim, the collection of art glass vases-
"Sorella." It comes out bluntly. Maybe you hadn't heard him the first time he tried to speak.
"Hm? I'm sorry- um, yes Papa?" you fumble over your words.
The tiniest smile tugs at the corners of his painted lips, "Sorella, I also wanted to thank you."
The deer-caught-in-headlights look is back, "What for?"
He puts his tea cup down and fidgets with his hands, looking down at them. "Throughout the last weeks, you're the only one that's been honest with me. Everyone else-" he chokes up for a moment, but pulls it back together, "everyone else just looks at me with pity, horror in their eyes because they can't imagine it happening to them." He grabs your tea cup, setting it down, and turns to face you, taking both of your hands in his. "That's why I knew I had to seek out someone who would understand, someone who wouldn't cry just because I was, someone who wasn't trying to sympathise with this... unimaginable feeling. It had to be real. It had to be you, Stellina."
You're taken aback. You had no idea how much your words would have affected him when you spoke them in the chapel. Of course, you had no one to turn to when you had been in Copia's shoes. At the time that the Emeritus brothers were killed, Primo's Prime Mover had long since passed, and Secondo's, stubborn as he was, ran off out of anger. You were the only connection left to their bloodline, and you hadn't even had the chance to provide Terzo with an hier. In that way, Copia's experience differs from yours; at least he has someone to talk to who understands the grief.
He continues, "I know we never had any deep conversation before they took Terzo away from you, and I've done horribly at keeping touch with you since becoming Papa; that wasn't fair to you, cara, I'm sure it only made you feel more isolated; that's why I appreciate your, ahhh... willingness to accept me. And my grief. I know it must be a lot-"
"Copia," you whisper, stopping him from rambling, "it's okay." You cup his cheek in your hand. "Or 𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘦, rather," you give him a warm smile, and get a laugh in return. "Now, was that all you brought me down here for?"
"Um, sì," he replies with a cringe, realizing maybe he shouldn't have pulled you away from work just to talk.
"Ahhh, using your Papa power just to get what you want, huh? Some things never change," you laugh as well.
For the first time in a long time, Copia calls you by your name, grabbing your hand again, "Please stay."
• • •
Although it was now late in the afternoon, you're back in the office to at least sort out some papers, getting your things in order to work hard tomorrow. You'll have a lot to catch up on since you'd practically taken the whole day off.
You don't regret it though. You knew Copia needed to get some things off his chest, so you simply sat with him again, but this time you talked--a lot. Everything from reflecting on old times, listening as you shared little secrets about Terzo that no one knew, laughing about goofy memories or things you never knew you had in common, all the way to literally being a shoulder to cry on. Papa still has a lot of feelings to feel and you're just trying to be there for him; based on his little speech earlier, he needs it.
"And where have you been sneaking off to?"
Imperator. It comes across cold and unforgiving.
"I'm sorry, Sister Imperator, it won't happen again."
"Hm. You say that now, but I remember how you are when you start seeing somebody. You'll be my best worker, until you find a distraction."
"Sister, please. You know I apologized for that." She was referring to the times when you started seeing Terzo, and again when you briefly were seeing someone to try to get over losing him. "You know how grateful I am that you let me have this job back." After you were no longer a Prime Mover, the clergy didn't know what to do with you. They weren't sure if you would get angry like Secondo's lady, and they needed Copia's transition to power to be as smooth as possible.
"Well perhaps if you kept your head in your paperwork, we wouldn't be struggling as much as we are to keep up the pace of things around here."
"Sister. You know very well why we're struggling. Papa losing his Prime Mover hasn't been easy on anyone in the ministry, least of all him. He's broken! At least I'm trying to help put the pieces back together!" You may have kind of yelled that last part, but damn is this woman hard to put up with.
"What was that? How would you know how he feels?" Her voice is softer than before with a touch of concern.
"Now you know where I was all day. He summoned me to his chambers."
"Oh. Well. I suppose if Cardi- I mean, Papa wants to see you, then I suppose I can't argue with our figure head." The only thing in the world she has a soft spot for is Copia; she'll protect him however she can.
As you dismiss yourself from the offices, Imperator stands there, frozen to the spot. That same part of her that wants to protect him from the feelings he's having also wants to protect him from you. She worries what you could do to usurp the power she has not only over the ministry, but over her Copia as well. (It's called enmeshment babes 💅✨)
• • •
Your meetings with Copia continue on for several weeks, often with the rollercoaster of emotions that he feels each time you met: release of sadness, laughter, comfortable silence, caring. You really start to care for him not only as the Papa of this ministry but as a person. It kind of makes you feel silly for not getting to know him better before, maybe then you would've had a friend after Terzo left you.
The thought made your eyes wander over to the bed, again. It often caught your attention; it was only of the only things that was still in the same place you and your beloved had yours.
"𝘈𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦..."
"𝘠𝘦𝘴?" 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘦𝘥, 𝘨𝘪𝘨𝘨𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘵 𝘛𝘦𝘳𝘻𝘰'𝘴 𝘴𝘶𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴.
𝘚𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘦𝘴, 𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘮𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘩 𝘣𝘦𝘥, 𝘱𝘶𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘶𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘧𝘵 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘴𝘪𝘭𝘬 𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘴. 𝘖𝘯𝘦 𝘦𝘭𝘣𝘰𝘸 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘶𝘱 𝘰𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦, 𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯, 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘱 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴.
"𝘐𝘭 𝘮𝘪𝘰 𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦... 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘶𝘯 𝘴𝘦𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘰, 𝘴𝘪?"
"𝘖𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦," 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘻𝘦𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘯 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘴, 𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘳, 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨.
"Non ti lascerò mai. Nemmeno lo stesso Lucifero potrebbe tenermi lontano da te." 𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶. 𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘓𝘶𝘤𝘪𝘧𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘪𝘮𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘺𝘰𝘶.
It was a promise he couldn't keep.
"Cara?"
Once again, Copia pulls you from your thoughts. You were unaware tears had welled up in your eyes as you stared at the bed, lost in a different time. As you turn to face him, your tearducts betray you and tears spill down your cheeks.
"Oh, no no no no no.... Stellina, you're always the strong one," he says pulling you to him, your forehead cradling against his neck and hands finding his chest. "What's gotten to you, piccolina?"
His endless stream of pet names did attempt to soothe you, but in the end your feelings won. In that moment, you realize it had been a long time since you'd let it all out, which is exactly what you'd been encouraging him to do. Funny how you didn't take your own advice. You harshly sob into his chest for a few minutes, hands balling his shirt up into fists. He feels solid like a brick wall for you, supporting you, letting you beat your fists against him in frustration until you calm down, although it's more that you tired out honestly.
One arm around your waist and the other hand cradling the back of your head, he holds you tightly to him. He wants to offer you the same comfort and support you offer him, he's just perhaps more 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘯 about it.
"Hey Copia?" you prompt, drying the last of your tears and sniffling lightly.
"Yes?" he counters by using your name as well.
"Let's go see Primo's garden."
"Okie dokie, Sorella."
Sun on your face is just what you need, and to get out of that room. The gardens haven't been the same since Primo himself no longer tended to them, but they are still beautiful nonetheless, and everyone still calls it Primo's garden; it feels wrong to call it anything else.
Walking right into the greenery, running your fingers gently along the flowers, Copia starts after you, "You know Primo wouldn't want you walking among the plants..."
"Hmmm... Little do you know," you smile over your shoulder at the man, "I used to work in the gardens, and Primo taught me all the best hiding spots." You wink, before running off quickly.
"Hey! Sorella!!!" Papa hollers after you, picking up his pace, but it's nothing to match your knowledge of the twists and turns of the foliage. He probably never would've found you if it wasn't for your uncontrollable laughter. By the time he turns the corner to the little clearing in the tall bushes, you're already laid back on the soft grass, habit pulled off, and shoes kicked aside. You reach your hand up for his, pulling him down roughly. "You're stronger than you look, Sorella," he chuckles as he settles on his back in the grass next to you.
You lie back in silence for a while, just enjoying the sun, the breeze, the sounds of nature. But it can't last forever.
"Mia cara, you never answered my question."
"Hm? What question?" you play dumb.
"Cara... What have you been teaching me about talking about our feelings, facing them head on? Do those rules not apply to you?" Copia turns on his side to face you, "What was bothering il mio topolino back there, huh?"
"It was, uhhh..." you search for the right words; you don't find them, "It was stupid. I'm okay now, Papa."
"If stupidity made you cry like that, I'm afraid you'd be crying all the time around me. Now," he places his fingers on your chin, making you look him in the eyes, "what was it, tesoro?"
"You're not stupid, Papa."
He addresses you bluntly by your name, letting you know he's serious, "Stop avoiding the question. And I know you're only calling me Papa to distract me from getting my answer." He keeps a straight face for a long moment, then sticks out his tongue at you, breaking his stern look. It's his way of letting you know that you aren't really in trouble, but he does expect you to be honest with him.
"It was the bed."
"Hm?
"The bed."
"Che cosa? Do you not like it?"
"No, it's, uh," you knit your eyebrows together in frustration, "it's a lovely bed, but it's where Terzo and I had ours. It's one of the only things in your chambers that's in the same spot as it was before."
"That is all, mia cara?"
"Well it reminds me of him."
"Do you not want to be reminded of him?"
"Not in that way, no. Those memories are so... intimate, and they're the hardest ones to take." You feel vulnerable telling Copia this, but it had been bugging you for weeks.
"Well then... We move the bed, sì? Problem solved."
"Copia... I don't want you to rearrange your room on account of me," you reach up, resting your hand on his arm, which was languidly lying across your waist.
"It'll probably be saving me the trouble of some of those memories in the future, no?" he gives you a bittersweet smile, "Come now, we have some work to do!" He sits up, grabbing your shoes before running off. Now it's your turn to chase him...
Back in his chambers, your shoes wait neatly by the door as Copia returns from the small kitchen with two glasses of ice water. He has a smug grin on his face as he practically makes you drink from the glass. "I believe you left your habit in the gardens, Sorella."
Damn it. "Ah, fuck it. Sister Imperator already wants to kill me for missing so much work. I'm sure the habit is only a minor infraction."
"Sì, and you look bellissima without it."
That comment makes you blush a little. He'd never commented on your appearance before, but luckily your cheeks were already flush from running after him.
Copia shrugs off his vest, rolling up the sleeves and unbuttoning the top few buttons of his shirt. You have to admit that it looks good on him. Now you're blushing about commenting on his appearance, albeit internally.
"What do you think of putting it here, hm?" He gestures to the nook in the wall that had a huge dresser and his art glass vases.
You sip your water, "Hmmm??"
"The bed. We move it here, sì?"
"You meant right now?"
"Of course, I meant right now. I don't want this to cause you another minute of worry, Stellina."
Next thing you know, you're gently wrapping art glass vases and placing them into a box. It is only when the sound of furniture scraping against the floor becomes obvious that several Ghouls come rushing to the door, worry written on their faces even behind their masks.
"Ah! Perfetto! Extra hands to help!" Copia invites the Ghouls in to help move the massive bed and dresser, which they handle in no time thanks to their otherworldly strength.
As you unwrap the last of the art glass to place back on top of the dresser, now in its new place, Copia remarks, "Sembra fantastico, dolcezza!"
"Someone's in a good mood," you turn to look over your shoulder at him.
"Sì, it felt good doing something other than sitting around here. Not that I don't like sitting with you," he takes your hand, thumbs rubbing your knuckles.
"No, you're right," you smile up at him, "it did feel good. Change of pace."
"Sì," is all he says before a wicked grin spreads across his lips. Suddenly, he wraps his arms around your waist, scooping you up, and throwing you over his shoulder.
"PAPA!!! Put me down!"
"I can't, not yet, Sorella! The floor would be too hard!"
"Too hard for what?!"
"For this!" He grabs your waist and pushes you high into the air, letting you come down hard on the bed.
"You-" you grumble at him, straightening out your skirt and fixing your hair
"Who, me?" he asks bewildered.
"Yes, you! You little shit!"
He tuts his tongue at you, "Now is that any way to speak to your Papa? Especially one who just moved half his room to make you comfortable?" He sheds the look of disapproval, and sits next to you, taking your hand, "Really, mia cara, is this better for you?"
His soft voice coaxes you to recline back on his pillows, observing the room only half seriously, "Yes, Copia, it's perfect... Thank you." And you really mean it, because you know that you don't have to sleep in here, he does, but it still means enough to him to move the bed so your thoughts won't haunt you anymore.
• • •
As the months went on, Copia started working again. It was good to see him leading mass again. At first the topics were perhaps more basic, helping him dip his toes in the water, so to speak; it was still so easy to strike a chord that would make him spiral. But he was happy to be back in his office working on translations with his cute little assistant. 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵?? 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘚 𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘦, 𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘐'𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘶𝘱 𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘓𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦...
He had even started working with the Ghouls making music again. You didn't know exactly what went into all that, but you have to imagine he has to take that slow as well. For now, you've heard they're just rehearsing old songs to get back into the swing of things. They even invited a few (which of course turned into more than a few) Siblings of Sin to a short performance, the Ghouls insisting it would help their Papa to be in front of a crowd again.
"What did you think of our little show, mia cara?" Copia shyly asks you, pulling you out of the crowd of Siblings; his small voice such a sharp contrast to what you'd just seen up on that stage.
"Papa, I think you know what everyone thinks of your performance, everyone is absolutely gushing seeing you reach your full potential again."
"Ah, sì, but my timing was a little late a few times, and I forgot a couple of the lyrics... Besides, I wasn't concerned with what everyone else thinks. I want to know what 𝘺𝘰𝘶 think, Stellina."
"Papa Emeritus?" a Sister nervously approaches the two of you.
"Yes, my child?" he turns to them, always charismatic after a performance.
"Um, uh," she holds out one of the CDs from the Ghost Project, "will you sign this?"
"Of course, dolcezza," he chuckled, delighted over the attention. You have a sneaking suspicion that the Ghouls told everyone to really play it up and act like adoring fans rather than people who get to see Papa regularly. The girl waves her friends over and a small group of Siblings and Ghouls all come over to shower their Papa with praises. As he's drawn further into conversation with them, he turns over his shoulder to look at you, almost as if asking for approval, as he did not want to disappoint you by leaving you alone.
"Go!" you mouth, shooing him away with your hands, "Go have fun! Go see your fans!" You had to yell the last part as he slowly got pulled away from you.
They don't mean any harm; they just want to let Papa know how much they adore him, but you did get a weird pang in your stomach when he called that other Sister "dolcezza," one of the many names he used for you. You quickly shake off the feeling and try to enjoy the atmosphere, it isn't every day you got to see Papa and the Ghouls perform.
After being dragged to a wild after party by the Ghouls, you quietly walk back to your quarters. You had left a little early, knowing the party would rage into the night, but you need to say least 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘵 to work tomorrow. Plus you don't think you could take the sight of Papa with that girl anymore--the same one he called dolcezza--sitting in his lap. You knew it had been several months, and he would start to seek comfort in others eventually, but still, something about it felt wrong. Of course, you never mean to judge your Papa, it just feels too soon and you worry if he's ready, if his wounds are healed enough.
As you dig in your pocket for the key to your room, you feel hands grab at your waist from behind. Gasping, you drop your keys before being pinned to the door by the tall slender form behind you. "Going to bed so soon, dolcezza?" 𝘏𝘮𝘱𝘩. 𝘖𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦.
"Yes, Papa. Some of us have work tomorrow," you threw him a small smile over your shoulder.
"Ahhh, but how often do we get to party like this, mia cara? Especially as of late." He reaches down to get your keys, and you turn, leaning your back against the door.
"You really came all the way down here, just to drag me back to the party?"
"No, Sorella. I came to party with you," he leaned his against the door, hand next to your head, trapping you to the spot.
"Papa, I think you're drunk."
"I might be, Sorella," he giggles, clearly still riding the high from performing again. Terzo used to act similar after a performance with the inflated ego, knowing everyone wanted him.
"Besides, I thought you would have other 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘺 this evening..."
"Che cosa? The sorella from the party? Don't tell me my little topolino is jealous..."
𝘑𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘴. 𝘕𝘰 𝘸𝘢𝘺. 𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘭... 𝘮𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦? 𝘞𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘫𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘴? 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵, 𝘣𝘶𝘵... 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘵?
"Piccolina, your silence says more than you know," he coos, lifting your chin with his fingers.
"I'm not jealous, Copia," you squirm beneath him, looking down at the floor, "Our relationship isn't like that." Technically that is the truth. Yes, he was handsy with you, but he was handsy with all the Siblings. You'd never thought about him in that way, and now, as the thoughts crept up now, it felt wrong. You're supposed to be his friend, his confidant.
Copia seems to sober up for a minute, inhaling sharply before dryly stating, "I suppose you are right, Sorella."
"Goodnight, Papa."
"Goodnight, amore," he replied, kissing your knuckles before letting you retreat to your room, ever the gentleman.
All you could think before crashing hard into your pillow was 𝘈𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦? 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘢 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘰𝘯𝘦.
• • •
A few days passed and you hadn't heard anything from Copia, you hadn't been called to his suite or anything. You were certain he likely had another Sibling warming his bed, the thought making you sick. You feel guilty. Guilty for feeling possessive of your Papa; he isn't yours, he could belong to anyone he wanted now. Not enough time had passed since he belonged to another, the most spectacular woman he could've asked for. You feel like you're trying to replace her, and it isn't your intention. She was amazing and always deserved to have a place in Copia's heart. And then there was Terzo... You feel like your were betraying him. Every memory you make with Copia pushes Terzo further and further from your mind. That also makes you feel guilty. You don't ever want to forget him. It feels like you're trying to replace him, too, and he deserves to live on in your heart, just as Copia's Prime Mover will for him.
Without even realizing, your feet wander quickly through the halls of the ministry; you hadn't even bothered to put shoes on. Your feet pad against the floor hard as you rushed in what direction you aren't even sure. Tears fill your eyes making everything blurry. You're sure someone probably could follow your trail by the amount of tears you left on the cold marble floor. Before you know it your feet stop, looking up through weary eyes, you make out the silhouette of Copia's chamber door. 𝘜𝘨𝘩, 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦? 𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘐 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘺𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧? 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦?
You knock before you can even stop yourself.
The whole door shifts slightly, it was cracked open, and you hadn't noticed. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘢. 𝘏𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘩𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘎𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭 𝘨𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘣𝘺.
Worried, you pull the door open gently, not sure what you'll find behind the heavy oak.
And there he is... leaning against the doorway between the little kitchen and rest of the space, taking the breath right from your lungs.
You can barely say his name, "Terzo?"
His eyes gently lock with yours, and he moves towards you, suave as always.
"Teh... Terzo? Wh-what.. whatareyoudoinghere..."
It makes no sense. You're clearly in Copia's room, the bed in its new place and all.
"𝘈𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦..." his arm effortlessly gliding around your waist, and his other hand brushing your cheek. "What makes you cry like this? I'll put an end to it right this minute."
You're not even able to speak as you lean into his chest sobbing. His scent envelops you, bringing back a flood of memories.
"Bella, you must calm down, you'll worry yourself sick, mia cara. Try to breathe." He holds you tightly to him, white-gloved fingers laced in your hair. "Shhh, shhh..." he coos, humming to you like a mother would to her child.
After a while of trying to dry your sniffles and tears, Terzo leads you across the room to sit at the foot of the bed with you.
"Terzo," you whine, "what's going on?"
"You always were un uccellino curioso. Do not worry piccolina, you will get your answers in time," he reassures you, placing a kiss on top of your head.
"I just- I've missed you so much!" Tears threaten to spill once again. Immediately they're met with a white glove wiping them away.
"I know, mia cara, I've missed you too, così tanto. But I'm here now, and it breaks me to see il mio cuore hurt the way she does." He gently guides your chin towards him, softly kissing your lips. That familiar spark flies through you; electricity seemingly coursing through his veins, you can feel it on your skin with every little touch.
Absentmindedly you open your mouth, ready to receive anything he has to offer, and his tongue never did disappoint. Even after all these years your body still aches for him, made obvious as you hastily works on the buttons of his shirt. Terzo's hand, now bare, creeps under the hem of your skirt, "They put my Prime Mover back in her old habits, huh? This simply won't do..." He tugs your skirt up around your waist and quickly makes work of pulling the veil from your hair. Almost like muscle memory, you lift your arms for him to pull the simple black fabric from your form in one fluid motion. "Quello è meglio. Satana, quanto mi è mancato il tuo dolce corpo," he mumbles, lips immediately attaching to your collar bone.
This draws a sigh from you as you run your fingers through his hair. He throws his shirt off his shoulders, discarding it on the floor, and your fingertips greedily take in the feeling of his bare skin.
With a hand behind your head and a strong arm around your hips, he moves you further up the bed, then crashes his weight down on top of you. His hands roam your body, grabbing at your waist, your panties, your breasts, your hair, until one of his hands find yours, interlocking your fingers. His lips work on the sensitive skin at your neck, drawing his name accompanied with several moans and whines from you.
"Oh, please Terzo... Don't ever stop," you let out, nails scratching at his back and scalp.
"Forever and ever, sì? I'll make love to you 'til the end of time, amore." With one hand holding yours above your head, his other scoops up your thigh, hooking your leg on his hip. You feel his hardness grind down on your sex, layers of fabric trapped between you, and you both hiss with pleasure.
You want to yell at him so badly, demand he take you right then and there, but the words wouldn't come. What if you lost him again? Instead it's best to savor the time you have.
You reach your hand between your bellies, nails lightly dragging from the waistline of his pants up to his belly button, a move that drives him crazy every time. As he practically attacks your mouth with his, your hand finds his erection and starts to palm at it. Within seconds, your lover is becoming putty in your hands, and as you unzip the annoying fabric to take his hot girth in your hands, an indecipherable stream of Italian flows from his vocal chords, something about a sex goddess handcrafted by the Dark Lord himself.
His hands glide along your hips, fingers hooking into your panties as he rips them right off of you. "Please, cara," he begs, kicking his pants off into the floor, "mia cara dolce seduttrice, please let me take you."
You feel his cock, slick with precum, pressing against your folds; he looks up at you panting, eyes blown wide with lust, "Per favore." You have mercy on him, allowing him to enter you, the stretch drawing loud groans from both of you. It feels like two strong magnets had finally collided, and once he was seated comfortably inside you, he looks down at you, ever-so-gently pushing a strand of hair behind your ear before pressing a soft kiss to your lips. His hand rests on the side of your neck, thumb stroking your cheek, never breaking the kiss as he starts to roll his hips. You let out a light moan, threading your hands in that beautiful raven black hair.
He only broke this kiss when neither of you could hold your breath any longer, but he didn't stray far, as he nipped at your jaw. "Va bene per te piccola?"
Terzo continued to rock his hips at a deadly pace, making you want more and more of him, "Sì, Papa, molto bene." His heart absolutely beamed when you spoke Italian to him, only pushing him to snap his hips faster.
He always knew exactly how to please you, his throbbing member scraping against that sweet spot inside you over and over again. It doesn't take long after his fingers find that little bundle of nerves at your core that you fall over the edge; the only word on your lips is his name.
"Brava ragazza, una brava ragazza per tuo Papa," his praises making your heart swell for him.
"Ti amo, Papa," you mutter, bones turned to mush as he continues to careen against that soft spot inside you, "Ti amo, Terzo."
"Ti amo, il mio amore... Forever," he pants hotly, right in your ear, "Tesoro, I don't think I can hold on any longer." He groans loudly.
Without hesitation, you grant him permission, practically begging him to finish inside you. His hips halt for a moment before evenly rocking them back and forth, letting out a needy whine, riding out his orgasm.
He relaxes on top of you, laying his head on your chest and lacing his fingers with yours.
"Amore," Terzo starts, looking up at you through his lashes.
"Hm?" you ask, a silly grin on your face as you twirl a strand of his soft hair in your fingers.
"I know you won't forget me."
You knit your eyebrows together, confusion washing over you.
"You shouldn't be afraid to be with him, I know you'll never forget me. Remember, tesoro, I told you not even Lucifer himself could keep me from you. I live on in here," he says, putting his hand over your heart.
"Terzo- I-" you feel the lump forming in your throat, making it hard to speak.
"You need each other. Maybe more than two people have 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 needed one another. He teeters on the edge of madness, and I'm afraid without you, it would topple the scales. Take care of him, soothe his soul, just as you did with me." He leans up leaving kisses on your forehead and eyes.
When your eyes flutter open again, you're outside. You look around taking in Primo's garden.
"Come, bella," Terzo stands next you offering you hand to help you up, "let's play a game like we used to."
He gives you a shit eating grin before running off, into the maze of bushes and shrubs. Both laughing hysterically, you chase after him, following the well known paths. As he turns a corner, you lose sight of him, but you won't give up so easily as you press on to catch up with him. Trailing just behind him, you reach out only brushing his waist for a moment before he peels away from you again. He turns the corner to your old hiding spot with you hot on his trail.
As you reach the clearing, he's nowhere to be seen. You realize you're the only one still laughing. Just like that, he was gone.
You drop to your knees, that empty feeling creeping in all too quickly...
• • •
"Tesoro?" You hear Copia call your name, "mia cara, are you there?"
You crack your eyes open slowly, "Co- Copia?" you breathe out, voice raspy.
"Hi! Hey. There she is," he attempts to sound cheery but clearly he is worried out of his mind. He cups your cheeks and places a hand to your forehead, making sure you didn't have a fever.
"Wh-where am I?" you glance around at the all white everything. The bed you're on is cozy but certainly not homey.
"The infirmary, cara," he chuckles nervously, "You gave us quite the fright."
"What happened?"
He doesn't want to worry you with the details, but he knows you won't rest until you have answers. "Well the morning after the party, you didn't show up to breakfast, which isn't like you, Stellina, so a few Ghouls and I looked all over for you. You weren't in your room and it wasn't until someone-" he stopped suddenly, clearly choking up.
"Someone heard you screaming in the gardens," a cold voice supplied. You turn slowly to see Sister Imperator standing opposite Copia.
"I was in the gardens?" you ask, turning back to Copia.
"Sì... In that little clearing you took me to. You, uhhh, you were screaming for Terzo. Cara, I've never seen anything like it. It was like you were in a ritual trance, I didn't know you'd practiced communing with the Dark Lord before."
"I, uhhh, I haven't."
You and Copia both look equally shocked, but not wanting you to be stressed, he insists on you relaxing the rest of the afternoon. And of course, despite the nurses working in the care ward, Copia stays right by your side, sending various Ghouls to get whatever you need. It really is probably overkill, you are just a little dehydrated, after all.
Not needing to stay in the infirmary for more than a day, Copia has you moved back to your room, insisting you need bed rest and lots of fluids. "Take the day off, amore, the week if you need it, it's my turn to handle Seestor after all," he chuckles, helping you into bed. He looks around to make sure you have snack, water, medicine; you can tell he's getting ready to return to his duties.
"Papa," you reach out, grabbing a couple of his fingers.
"Sì, piccolina?"
"Stay with me? Just for a little while," your eyes practically beg him. You'd been craving some proper alone time with your Papa.
His face softens and he begins to sit down on the edge of the bed, but you pull him towards you, urging him to lie down with you. He obliges, facing you, draping an arm over your waist, and you do the same to him.
"Copia..." you whisper to him, not even really sure what you wanted to talk about.
"Yes, dolcezza?"
That triggered it, and before you could stop yourself you blurted out, "Did you sleep with that girl?"
"La ragazza from the party? No, Stellina," his lips pull slightly into a frown, accentuated by his face paint.
"Oh... I was hoping it went well," you lie.
"Topolino," his tone disappointed, "do not start being dishonest with me now, after all these months."
𝘋𝘢𝘮𝘯𝘪𝘵. 𝘏𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘴 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭.
"I'm sorry, Papa, I just-" you look up at him, making him drop the stern look he had, "I don't want to hold you back."
"Amore, you could never hold me back, you do nothing but support me, lifting me up when I need it most." His free hand finds yours to draw shapes on the back of your hand with his thumb. You look down at his hand, then carefully move to lace your fingers with his. Feeling the warmth of his hand through his leather glove, the butterflies swarm in your stomach; a feeling you hadn't felt in a long time, but unmistakable nonetheless.
Copia lets out a small sigh, silence washing over you both as your minds race; thoughts ranging from "I like this, I want this, I want 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦" to "What if this ruins what we have?" to "What if I'm not ready to move on?"
Always knowing the exact right thing to do, Copia leans forward, placing a chaste kiss on your forehead, and it immediately quieted down the noisy chatter happening in there.
"Get some rest, mia dolce Sorella," he commands, sitting up next to you. "We still have much to discuss, but don't you worry your pretty little head over it." He accents his point by gently scratching at the crown of your head. You knew aside from your newly forming feelings, Copia still wanted to know what the hell happened to you the other night.
"Yes, Papa. Now, you should go back to your office before Imperator blows a fuse," you lean up too kiss his cheek then whisper, "or I may keep you here all to myself..."
If it weren't for his paint, you were fairly sure his cheeks beamed bright red.
• • •
Days go by before you see him again. Pulled in every possible direction, he simply has too much on his plate between rehearsals and the mountain of work that had backed up over months of not being in the office. Plus Sister Imperator fired his assistant and reassigned her to your office... Seems like a strange decision considering how much pressure Papa is under.
When your lunch break rolls around, you decide to order take out, ordering a little extra for Copia, knowing he often works through meals when he gets his mind set on something.
Lightly tapping on his door, food cartons in tow, your hear him grumble something before yelling, "Come in!" in a not so nice tone.
Pushing the door open, you let him know, "I'm sorry, Papa, if it's a bad time, I can just drop this off and leave."
"Cazzo, Satanas, Sorella. I'm sorry I thought you were- ...someone else." You could tell he meant Sister Imperator. "Please, make yourself comfortable wherever you can."
You scan the room to see piles of books and papers and files and folders everywhere on nearly every surface. Even one half of the couch had a few stacks of documents. "Goodness, Copia, are they trying to work you to death?!"
"I suppose so, Stellina," he sighs, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Well..." you start, needing a minute to think, "okay, here's the plan: you take a break, we sit down and eat, and after we get our bellies full, I'll stay here and help you sort through some of this."
"Mia cara, you don't have to do that." You could read the appreciation on his face though as he twirled a small strand of your hair between his fingers; he really needs the help.
"I don't have to, but I want to. You don't deserve to be stuck in this office burning the candle at both ends."
His hand moves to your cheek, "Grazie, cara, you always know exactly what I need."
Forcing him to sit back in his chair, you take a long pause to stand behind him and rub his shoulders, causing him to let out a nearly inappropriate groan. At the sound of your giggle, he questions you jokingly, "You think your Papa's tension and pain are funny, Sorella? Watch yourself... I may have to punish you." Then it's his turn to giggle as your cheeks heat up at that remark.
Out of the corner of your eye, something catches your attention swishing past his office door, but you don't let on to it, not wanting to worry him further. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘺 𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘢𝘵, 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘴𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘺𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘶𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬.
You push the thought from your mind and instead move to distract yourself and Copia with food. And boy is it delicious! It's just what you both need.
As promised, after lunch, you hop right to work helping him organize ALLLLL the papers, which ends with you sitting on the floor, sorting things into neat piles.
"Sorella, I never would've thought to sort things out in this way, but it makes so much sense." He saunters over to you, placing a hand on top of your head, like a pet.
"Maybe now you'll be able to chip away at all this a little faster," you smile up at the man towering over you.
"Sister!" Imperator's voice boomed from Copia's office door. "Your lunch ended hours ago! We have a lot of work to get done before Yule next week!"
"She 𝘪𝘴 working, Seestor," Papa defends you.
"What? By playing in the floor like some toddler? C, don't let this girl distract you."
You can tell he wants to remark on the informality of her using his nickname.
"I'll have you know, Sister Imperator," his tone stiffer than normal as he used her whole name, "She's implementing the organizational system used in your offices. The one she came up with, and I think it will be a great help to me, especially seeing as I lack an assistant now. I believe it's in the ministry's best interest if their 𝘗𝘢𝘱𝘢 is able to work as efficiently as possible."
𝘖𝘰𝘰𝘩! 𝘏𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘫𝘢𝘣 𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦! You can't help but silently root him on.
"Unless, Seestor, there is some reason I'm being held up in every way possible?" his eyes lock on hers as he stands protectively in front of you, still in your spot on the floor.
"What are you implying, Copia?" she practically spits back at him; he's onto her, and it's making her nervous.
"I'm not implying anything. It's the hellsent truth. We have more work than ever after I was out for so long, and I am getting less and less help. It keeps me right where you want me: in this office, closed off from the ones I'm 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘥 to be leading, offering guidance to."
You had never really heard him speak this way. He's suddenly almost... Cold? Confident in a different kind of way. You can't quite place your finger on it, you just hope you're never on the receiving end of it.
Imperator opened her mouth to speak but was quickly cut off. "Sorella in here will be my new assistant. She's supported me more than anyone since the passing of my Prime Mover, and I'll not have her disrespected anymore. Not by going back to that office, and certainly no longer by you."
Your eyes go wide at the last part, along with Sister Imperator's. "I understand, Papa. As you wish," was all she replied before leaving you both.
Closing the door and pressing his back to it, Copia chuckles nervously, "I can't believe I just spoke to her like that." His eyes lingered on the floor before tracing their way up your form. "But it needed to be said..."
"Papa... I," you let out a shaky breath; you are so proud of him and honored by the way he defended and complimented you, but also made nervous by the whole situation. "Papa, I hope you know I didn't start doing all this just to get a promotion."
Copia's face broke a smile with breathy laughter as he got on his knees in front of you, looking you straight in the eyes. "Of course you didn't, topolino," he presses a kiss to your cheek. "But you take care of me better than anyone I know. I'll be stronger with you by my side."
If your chest wasn't overflowing with emotions and your eyes weren't filled with tears, you would've taken him right there on the floor, dealing with damn papers later. But for now, you just let him hold you as your eyes wander over him, his torso, his shoulders, those wild mismatched eyes you could never get used to. Not with Terzo, not with him.
Delicately, like you would break him, your hand snakes up to his hair, combing back the gray locks on his temples. Gently, you close the small space between you, finally taking comfort in those lips over the course of several long, chaste-for-the-most-part kisses.
You both pull away before things can progress any further; at this point, you were used to waiting. Eyes still closed, you hear Copia call your name. "Seestor reminded me... Would you like to accompany me to the Yule Ball, amore?"
You can't help but laugh; after that whole heated thing, all he could think about was spending Yule with you. "I'd love to, tesoro."
Once again blushing under his paint at you finally using a pet name on him, in Italian no less, he wraps you in his arms, nuzzling his nose to yours, "Okie dokie."
• • •
Before the night of the big dance, you spent the evening pampering yourself. You drew a nice bath, did a face mask, styled your hair just the way you like, put on a little makeup.
You were just stepping into your gown as your hear rapping at your door. It's a beautiful deep purple gown made for you in your Prime Mover days, and boy did it make you and Terzo look like a pair! He adored purple; you weren't sure exactly the last time you'd worn it, but you were sure it ended up on the floor quickly after Terzo got you alone.
"Just a minute!" You quickly slide the gown up and into place at your waist then sliding your arms through the proper holes. Clutching the dress, hanging loose, against your chest, you scurry over to your door to see who was waiting.
"Buona sera, amore mio."
None other than Copia, of course, but he isn't Copia this evening; tonight, he is Papa Emeritus IV. He steps into your small quarters, looking far too regal to being here. Dressed in full papal regalia, the silky blue robes and bejeweled mitre making him look larger than life.
"Oh, Papa... You look so nice." You're practically breath-taken.
"Nonsense. I pale in comparison to you, Stellina," he steps towards you, noticing your hand still holding your gown in place. "May I?" A hand on your hip urges you to turn, other hand carefully sliding the gown's zipper up your spine. He stands behind you in your dusty little mirror, his ceremonial gloves, beautifully adorned with golden bones, rest on your hips with his fingertips tickling at the top curves of your thighs.
"Assolutamente sorprendente..." It comes as a whisper before he presses a kiss to your shoulder. You like the portrait painted on the looking glass in front of you. If there was one thing you could change, it would be that you wished you had a blue gown to match his vestments; though you suppose your violet fabric against his blue silk is a reminder that you've belonged to two great men.
"Copia... Do you think they'll ever let us be together?" The question falls out of you suddenly.
"Who?? Who wouldn't let us be together, mia cara?" He whips you around to face him as if you were in trouble for asking that question, but his face reads nothing but concern.
"Well, I guess Sister Imperator mainly... And then there's the clergy. Are they going to let you take a second Prime Mover, especially one who belonged to another Papa?? And then there's the ministry... your followers, your fans. What if they get jealous that someone took their Papa? What if they don't like me because I took someone else's shot at being the PM when I already had my turn? What if-"
Copia cuts you off, your name leaving his lips like he's just been knocked in the chest. "You've thought about being my Prime Mover?"
That's when you realize you said the quiet part out loud. 𝘖𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘗𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘔𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳, 𝘥𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘺. 𝘞𝘩𝘰 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵? "I know this is all new for us, Cope, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't want more."
"Mia bella ragazza, it seems you want 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵," he says, attempting to be suave, but it does pull a laugh from you regardless. He cups your cheek in his gloved hand "Dagli tempo, amore mio, avrai tutto quello che vuoi e anche di più." His hands thread through your hair, pulling you into a fiery kiss that simply wasn't long enough. "Speaking of time, I must be going, Sorella. The clergy will be expecting me. I'll leave Aether with you, sì? No one as bellissima as you should enter the Ball empty handed. I wouldn't want someone to think they could take you from me..."
He presses one more kiss to your lips before turning to exit, leaving you reeling at his words.
• • •
The Yule Ball is buzzing already. Siblings and Ghouls pour into the ballroom, already tipsy on eggnog and spiked hot chocolate, chatting and laughing, and a few even dancing to the light music that played as you all await Papa Emeritus IV. You were grateful to have Aether with you, giving you company in the flood of people. In fact he's oddly tame considering the amount of attention some of his fellow Ghouls are gathering; he must be on orders from Copia to be on his best behavior.
The energy is simply electric as everyone hardly pays attention to Sister Imperator's opening speech. It had been a rough year for everyone; they all need the release the Yule celebration can offer.
When Papa steps onto the stage in his ceremonial garb, the whole place erupts with applause, shouts, and a few lewd whistles. You see that familiar look of pride well up in him; not pride for himself, no, pride for the ministry, the church, everyone who worked so hard to spread the Olde One's message. "Good evening, my children. Multa Yule beneficia omnibus. How are we tonight, eh?"
He absolutely dazzles the crowd, everyone hanging on his words of praise for their devotion and support this year. He chokes up a bit mentioning the trials and tribulations he and everyone had faced this year, you knew he would, but a few Ghouls cheering their love for their Papa perked him back up and he made it through. Keeping his sermon brief, Copia just wants everyone to have a good time; they all deserve it.
As Papa moves onto the ballroom floor, he's swarmed by ministry members all wanting to dance with him, but he always handles a crowd well. Offering several of them a quick spin and kiss on the cheek, they swoon over him, and this time, it didn't make you the slightest bit jealous; you know who he has eyes for. A few couples even brought their kiddos over to meet Papa, watching him quickly bless a couple of babies then hold a young girl on his hip, "dancing" with her made your heart feel like it may burst. He doesn't realize how adorable he is with that sweet smile on his lips as he greets his congregation.
A tap on the shoulder catches your attention. Aether holds out his hand, clearly an offering to dance with him, perhaps trying to distract you from staring at Copia. You giggle at him before taking his hand. He wasn't the best dancer, but rocking back and forth, slowly spinning did allow you to get a chance to look the room over. The event committee did a great job with this one: handcrafted swags made from evergreen, holly leaves, and berries hung between each stained glass window, with golden bells cascading out from the base of each one; spreads of candles everywhere in black, dark green, and gold; they had even adorned the Renaissance-style painted ceiling with twinkling lights, a beautiful representation of the Winter solstice night sky.
"Ahem, Aether," Copia's voice lightly commands over your shoulder, "may I cut in?"
"Of course, boss," Aether quickly straightens up, releasing you from his grip as he wipes his palms against his vest.
Copia lets out a chuckle as his hands comes to rest on your waist. "Sorella," he whispers just behind your ear, as Aether disappears into the crowd, "I have a very important question for you."
"Yes, Papa?"
His hand glides around the small of your back as he dramatically walks around to meet your eyes, hand now gripping your other hip. He looks just as stunning as he had in your room an hour ago, but it's only enhanced by the ambient lighting, the gemstones and metals on his mitre and gloves absolutely sparkling.
He bows deeply, lowering his head until he's eye-level with your waist. This catches the attention of everyone nearby, as Papa bows for no one, especially in his formal wear. Looking up at you as if you're the only thing in the room that exists, he asks very simply, "May I have this dance?"
It's a very public display that lets everyone know his intentions. You could only imagine that Imperator must be fuming, but your attention is fully ensnared by the man in front of you. "Of course, Papa, it would be an honor."
He slowly moves back up, eyes clearly drinking in the curves of your body, "It is I who should be honored, principessa."
𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘧 𝘩𝘦'𝘭𝘭 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘳𝘶𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘦. 𝘚𝘰 𝘧𝘢𝘳 𝘪𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘶𝘯𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘭𝘺.
Suddenly, his arm snakes around your midsection and pulls you tight against him, a twinkle in his eyes as you start dancing together. This dance is much more energetic than it had been with Aether; Copia wastes no time in taking you out on the floor, twirling you in his arms, leading you gracefully. You remember being impressed with his moves back when he was a Cardinal in the way he would enthusiastically move against whomever he may have been courting at the time; no one had expected such a performance from the shy awkward man in his cassock and biretta, and you certainly never thought you'd get to experience it firsthand.
In one final move, he spins you away from him, arms outstretched between you, before he stops and cracks a grin at you before breaking into a few of his stage moves, "ass wobbling" as he calls it. It elicits a great deal of laughter from you, then he saunters back over to you, scooping you back into a kiss, like you were in a movie or something. You get a peek at the chandelier above his head, spotting the mistletoe hanging there. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘦𝘬𝘺 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘥. You could almost roll your eyes at how corny he could be, 𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵, but it's hard to think of anything when his lips are against yours.
It's only when a group of Copia's closest Ghouls start hooting and hollering that you recall that you are in fact surrounded by most of the ministry. As Papa stands you back up and turns to hush his Ghouls, your face colors bright red, realizing almost everyone was watching that little display. You notice a few envious eyes cutting daggers at you.
"Come, mia cara," the man offers his hand to you once again, this time for an escape. As you rush from the room, embarrassment is quickly replaced with excitement. You and Copia run hand in hand through the halls of the ministry, laughing at what you aren't really sure, but you don't stop until you get outside to the walkway overlooking the courtyard.
The cloister is always beautiful at night, the gargoyle
s casting shadows that looked like demons, and the tall arches allowing a perfect view of the stars, but keeping one dry if it happened to be raining. It also always had a nice breeze, which on a night like this, the longest night of the year, chilled you right to the bone.
"Here, principessa, take this," Copia says, unclipping the top layer of his vestments.
"Oh, no no no, I couldn't take that. It would be inappropriate," you argue.
"Stellina, it is only cloth, and I won't have you freezing your plump little ass off out here." His word is final as he drapes the beautifully embroidered chasuble over your shoulders.
𝘖𝘩, 𝘴𝘰 𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘺 𝘢𝘴𝘴?
After clipping up the chasuble, Copia wraps his arms around you for an added layer of warmth and leans you against the waist-high wall behind you.
"Mia cara, you look beautiful against the stars like this." He brushes a piece of hair behind your ear, seemingly one of his favorite things to do to you.
"You look very handsome yourself, Papa," you admire him, running your hands over the blue silk that now runs up to his shoulders, no longer covered by the chasuble.
"You still call me Papa after all this time," he points out.
"Well, I didn't want anyone to think I was getting special treatment..." You practically stare a hole in his chest.
"Stellina," he lifts your chin to meet his gaze, "I don't think you were fooling anyone."
Your cheeks start to flush, whether from the cold or the intimacy of the moment you aren't sure.
"You know, Copia..." Tears start to well up in your eyes at that... dream? hallucination? memory? You weren't sure what to call it. "Terzo... He, uhhh..."
"Tesoro, if you don't want to do this because of him... Well, I'll know I've missed out, but I'll understand. I could never dream of replacing him; his shoes are much too big too fill."
"No, Copia!" you whine, tucking yourself into his chest, "That's not what I was going to say." You pause for a moment, collecting yourself. "Terzo came to me that night I went missing. I don't know how to explain it... It felt so real. But he told me that we needed each other, and that I should take care of you."
"I know, amore, I had a similar dream that night. It was perhaps 𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦 than yours however. I saw my dear Prime Mover, holding our child in her arms, and she reassured me that they were being taken care of. They had all of the opulence and prosperity that Satan promises his followers. I just 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦 that I couldn't give it to them-" His eyes turn dark, and for the first time, you understand what Terzo may have meant about Copia going mad.
You gently reach up, gracing your fingertips over Copia's lips and chin, bringing him back to reality. Your face soft but concerned as you search for the soul behind those mismatched eyes.
As if you're some sort of grounding force, he stiffens up, inhaling sharply as he looks down at you; a tear rolls down his cheek as he chokes out your name followed by, "I do need you. I need you so much, cara." His lips hit you like a wave, crashing down on you wherever he can make contact: lips, cheeks, nose, jaw.
With both of yours and his emotions running high, it's easy for the sadness and grief to cradle itself away inside, while new feelings make their way to the surface. His tongue urgently finds it's way into your mouth, as your fingers card into his ashy brown locks, knocking the mitre to the ground. It's heady and desperate, but it's exactly what you both need.
As he nips at your neck, tongue tracing various shapes over the sensitive skin there, his strong arms lift you to sit on the cloister wall, drawing a gasp from you. As if your arms didn't have enough of a hold on him, your legs locked around his hips, pressing him close to you--but not close enough. It felt like you could fall over that wall with him and dive head-first into pleasure; it's exhilarating.
One hand roughly rips open the snaps on the chasuble that had been keeping you warm, leaving it cascading down the wall. Certainly preoccupied as his lips search yours again, you aren't even sure how he got the blue underlayer of his vestments off, but it left him in a stunning little combo: black jeans, black skirt with billowing sleeves, and a tight little vest. How that man wore so many clothes you didn't understand, but you didn't care, as long as they came off.
His gloved hands scratched up your thighs, pushing the hem of your gown up. With your arms already locked around his shoulders, he asks, "Ready, baby?" before sliding your weight off the wall and onto his waist before he quickly carries you in the direction of his chambers.
It's nothing short of miraculous that you make it back to the room without bumping into anything or knocking any expensive sculptures over, seeing how Copia was pretty much navigating blind; his lips hardly leaving yours for a second.
Inside the cozy suite you'd come to know so well, even growing to like it the way Copia had it decorated, he flops you both down on the little sofa you'd had so many chats on. Hands on his chest and legs on either side of him, you shift to get more comfortable when you find his sex with yours. You both groan against each other's mouths, desire growing to become unbearable. Your fingers work his shirt and his vest open as your hips gently grind down, searching for that sweet sensation again.
Papa's mouth leaves you with a pop as he gasps for air; his eyes are dark again, but this time for an entirely different reason: you. Having you is the only thought on his mind as his hands fumble for the zipper on your back. His lust-blown eyes devouring each new inch of skin exposed to him as your dress hits the floor.
"Satanas, mia bella, your Papa Terzo was a lucky man," he mumbles as he presses a string of kisses to the tops of your breasts. "You could make the Dark Lord himself blush in this little number."
You cradle him against your chest as his flattery pulls a giggle from you, "Keep talking like that and you'll get lucky too, Papa."
He groans happily at the sound of that, his hands cupping at your lacy bra.
"Oh, so now you like being called Papa?"
"When you are dressed like this, sì, call me whatever you like, mia principessa." He looks up at you, strands of hair falling out of place, chest exposed as his shirt falls off his shoulders, his lust evident against his jeans; he looks like debauchery personified.
"What if I call you mine, huh?" Your boldness surprises you, but you roll with it.
"Hmmm... Okie dokie. Papa is all yours... to do with as it pleases you, topolino." Now, that last part makes you blush, but you don't hesitate to start loosening the laces on his pants. With the laces undone, you untuck the tail of his shirt from the tight demin, allowing his erection to spring free.
Your fingers gently grace over the shaft, eliciting a shaky breath from Copia. You both look at each other like nervous teenagers for a moment; it has been a while for you both. He leans forward and delicately kisses you, and it was the push you needed to fall over the edge with him. Your hand grips him with more confidence, bobbing up and down, while his moans are muffled against your lips.
His nimble fingers drift under the edge of your panties, teasing at the lace on your hip before gliding to circle the damp cloth over your clit. You match his noises, a blissful harmony filling the room. The sensation is only heightened when his fingers push the lace aside to slide into your slick folds. 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘰𝘧𝘧 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘴? You pull away from his lips to let out a whine as he teases your entrance, and a hiss escapes Copia as you tighten your grip on his dripping member.
"Copia," you gasp, "Papa, I need you."
"Cara-"
"Right now, Papa, I need you right now," you demand, head thrown back as you grind against his fingers. "And please don't say 'Okie dokie.'"
"You took the words out of my mouth, bella," he gives a half-smug half-goofy smile while he pulls your hips closer to him.
Letting him pull your panties aside, hooking them on that plump ass he remarked on earlier, you line up over him, impatiently taking him. As the tip enters you with that delicious pop, you both attempt not to buck your hips. You both fail. His arm snakes around your waist, urging you down onto him. It really is a desperate sight; you hadn't even properly gotten either of your clothes off, yet you still seek to become one.
Slowly seating yourself fully on his length, Copia calls out your name, "Ti amo, tesoro, così tanto, da così tanto tempo... Ti amo tanto." It came like one of his chants during Mass, like it was well practiced, like he couldn't wait to recite it.
You cup his cheeks, holding the the last bit of resolve he has, "I love you, too, Copia." Your hands slide down to his shoulders which help stabilize your movements on top of him. Instantly his hips move up into yours, matching your rhythm in a delightful way.
The antipope's hands reach up, sliding your bra straps off your shoulders to free your breasts, and his mouth quickly starts to work on your budding nipples while one of his hands reunites with the bud between your thighs. "Voglio adorarti, mia dea. Ti farò piacere. Prendi il mio seme come offerta."
That stream of Italian has your head soaring through the clouds; the hand holding a death grip in his hair might be the only thing that keeps you from derailing. How he could manage to press every button you had all at the same time is beyond you, all you know is that it has you barreling towards your orgasm faster than anything you've ever experienced.
Suddenly, Copia pushes you off of him, your back landing on the sofa. He hungrily pulls your panties off and lines back up with you, filling you again in an instant. Instinctively, you want to wrap your legs on his hips, but Papa has other plans. He hooks his hands behind your knees, holding them straight up and squeezing your thighs together as he relentlessly pounds into you. This has you screaming his name within seconds as the head of his cock drags over that sweet spot inside you over and over and over again.
The feeling is so overwhelming, you can't stop the wave of your release from crashing over you, "Oh, Satanas, Copia, I'm coming!" Your eyebrows contort and your jaw relaxes while your thighs shake violently beneath him. The sensation causes his hips to stutter, and as he finds a shallow but steady movement, you know he's reached his end as well.
A warm sensation fills you as he gives you his offering, just as he'd promised moments ago.
His hips continue to buck, riding you both through your climaxes. He lets your legs go weak, gently letting them down to either side of him as his movements come to a halt. He finally shrugs his shirt and vest from his arms then carefully pulls out to lay next to you on the scant little couch, but he holds on tight so you don't fall off. Propped up on one arm, his eyes observe all of your details: the flush of your cheeks, the marks he left on your neck and collarbone, the way your chest rises and falls as you try to calm your breathing. Everything about you looks perfect in his opinion.
Copia grabs your bra, which has just fallen around your waist at this point, turning it so the fastening is in the front, and he makes quick work of discarding it. "We did this a little out of or order, sì?" he chuckles.
"I wouldn't have had it any other way, amore mio," you lean up to kiss his nose.
"No one has been blessed more than me this Yule, Stellina. I'm grateful for it, and for you." Before his blush becomes too evident, he leaves you, only for a moment to retire to the big bathroom connected to his bedroom. He returns wearing a big soft robe, with one just like it thrown over his shoulder for you, as well as a warm washcloth.
Soft as kisses, he smooths over all of your love bites, calming the red wounds; he then wipes away any proof of your love making before bundling you up for a long night of cuddles and sweet nothings. Maybe even another round... Or three.
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meruz · 4 months
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another ask post
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i mean i also read it because a friend whos rly into queer SFF fiction circles recced it but she did kinda lead with "the writer used to write hs fanfic...tasmyn..taz...?" to which i replied
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of COURSE I read the locked tomb because i heard taz had written a book. of course. ill consume most any media made by a beloved homestuck bnf. thats also why i played undertale. and read like..snotgirl. and idk... watched the new dub of neon genesis evangelion.
if u made homestuck fanwork 10 years ago and havent even made it since chances are I still remember and I love you for it.
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sdlkfhsg its funny you sensed that because that drawing did in fact start kinda more........ well, I'd be lying if I said my hands never wrought a drawing toeing over the pg-13 line LOL...
NOT to say i have a secret stash of porn or anything. in general im more interested in the implication of sexuality or mature themes over any explicit depiction. like everything i draw is so softcore itd almost feel silly to make a nsfw acc for anything.
but im not rly jumping to post anything on main either bc i get the sense i have a lot of kids in my social media following. it varies from site to site and fandom to fandom but the themes in my work often circle around childhood, coming of age etc and in general i like stories about kids so the fandoms i draw for have a lot of kids in them. even stuff like IT (stephen king) which is about kids but isn't necessarily for kids.. there were a lot of kids in that fandom lol.
actually thats why ive been censoring swears in comics lately because the tmnt fandom comes across to me as a little young...IDK I've had MULTIPLE people ask me what "sodomize" means because of the joke in this post and I'm like... I Cannot be the one to explain this to you. you have to look it up on your own klfsdhsdg like i wouldn't be doing this if i were doing a comic for mgs or even homestuck wherein the characters textually swear constantly LOL but sometimes u gotta change tacks depending on the faces u see in the crowd yknow.
i HAVE been thinking abt drawing nsfw of sunspot/richard rider/kobak from x-men red just because that comic seemed to be really asking for it. who knows.. if the need rly arises maybe my separate account policy will change.
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its rly more a matter of the fact that i havent read/watched much of any other iterations... im sure id like most lol. I like most things related to my interests regardless of quality. i rly like the marvel ultimate alliance games for instance. sometimes seeing my fave guy is enough he doesnt have to be well written LOL. i dont exactly have a wealth of free time tho thats the real impediment.
i did watch the 2007 movie on new years eve and found it quite charming overall. and i have read about 30-40 issues between the mirage and idw comics. still feels like im barely scratching the surface but i liked em. i rly want to read all the sophie campbell stuff bc i think her work is interesting. jason aaron will be a mixed bag i think lmao. i say as the worlds biggest Wolverine and the X-Men (2011) fan.
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hmm this is kinda hard bc i feel like i naturally draw very loose and the hard part for me is tightening it up. maybe some suggestions tho...
1) hand excercises. i think its easy to forget this when many artists sit in front of the computer all day but drawing is a physical activity u do with ur actual...bodys...muscles lol. if u feel urself tightening up it might help to strech (any google search for "artist hand excercises" should yield good results) or do a page of loose practice strokes like..big circles. long lines. scribbles. that kinda thing. whatever feels good for ur hand. this is also just good to do as a general warm up before u sit down for any drawing sesh.
2) draw further away from the canvas. as a general rule...when ur painting traditionally you do the big strokes with your whole arm outstreched and a long handled brush. and when you do the details its smaller wrist movements and a shorter handled brush. so it might help to take a step back or push back from ur chair a little.. or hold ur tablet a little further away. and hold your pen further away from the nib.
3) change mediums / brush types. some brushes and mediums are more suited to loose sketching and some more inclined towards detail work. so changing ur tool could help. also! i personally have this problem where sometimes if im using a brush i feel really familiar with the pressure to make a "good" "finished" "perfect" drawing is greater... if i want to force myself to loosen up ill switch to a tool i dont use as often so it feels like the pressure is off. a lot of times for me this is switching from digital to traditional. but sometimes its switching from a small pen to a big marker. or a smooth pen to a textured one. or a nice brush to a shitty dried up marker.
but also every body is different so i dont think these tips will work for everyone. u should listen to what ur body and mind tell u and how drawing feels to you
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bro just sign up and set it up i dont think theres much to it... i dont rly think too much abt my itch.io store because its digital goods so u just upload the file and let it do its thing. no distribution work needed on ur part. youll notice i barely even advertise my itch unless i have smth new on there lol.. its easy. but good luck!!!
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idk if im the best person to ask this im more a comic fan than i am a comic professional... a comic hobbist.
well. scott mcclouds understanding comics and making comics are good books on the craft. i think i had to buy them for a class in art school once.
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other than that idk just keep at it. comics are really laborious i think for a lot of people the hardest part is sitting down and doing it.
i think a lot of people have a very instinctive understanding of how to read comics and what they look like so whatever you think seems like good way to tell the story you have in mind, its probably right. if u get stuck, study comics that have done something similar. most people in comics are relatively self taught and actually it can be problematic bc you can tell when a lot of comic artists are all copying the same like 5 old white guys LMAO. but on the flip side if you make sure to reference and study broadly your comics will almost assuredly feel unique.
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sorry im responding to this anyways. this is just a really nice ask. i like when people reference my older work bc i feel like sometimes theyre subtly implying it wasnt very good LMAOOO. but its true! at least compared to the work i make now ^^ and the fact that im still making art is whats keeping me from being embarassed abt how much of my old art just floats around online lmao im never ashamed to be growing and learning. isnt that a nice thought <3
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raccoonfallsharder · 25 days
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When I saw the first guardians film in middle school, my love of our favorite raccoon began. Finding a community of Rocket lovers after keeping it silently inside for so long is special (in a way I can't articulate without sounding goofy bc it's an anthropomorphic raccoon we're talking about here). I graduate from college this weekend and want to thank you for your stories getting me through hard times and motivationless days. It's given me a knew way to enjoy the movies I've watched so many times :) What was the media that got you super into Rocket and inspired your fiction writing? Much love!!
first and foremost, i want to congratulate you. school is not easy, and i swear it gets harder and feels more high-pressure/high-stakes every year. i hope that your time at college has given you more learning experiences than all-nighters, more opportunities than stressors, and more joy than hardship. and i hope that you are able to take everything you’ve earned and enjoy your freedom from university surrounded by good people, with plenty of time and resources to do the things you love. if you haven’t yet, please take time to sit and breathe and really soak up the fact that you did this. be proud of yourself. you fucken deserve it.
secondly, i read this while walking to the parking garage at 11pm after helping at an event for my college students (i work at a university) and i had to sit in my car and wait till i stopped tearing up so i could drive home. this truly made me so happy and im so glad my silly stories made things even just a little easier for you. ♡
so, my falling in love with rocket was a process. (cue me narrating this for three paragraphs like a schoolgirl with her first crush)
when we first saw rocket’s back in gotg1 i was like, oh. he’s in so much pain. between that + his fucken sarcasm, i complained afterward that the movie would’ve been so much better if he was the main character (lol). i started lazily dabbling in comics content then. i hadn’t been big into marvel comics before (more of a dc/image comics kid) but rocket and groot were becoming my faves. i loved gotg2. so much more focus on rocket, and yondu’s arc had me bawling like a baby. gotg2 made me like gotg1 more, which is part of how i judge the quality of a narrative series tbh (and why i think series are so hard to make). when the first gotg3 trailer came out and it was clear this was rocket’s story, i was obsessed. i didnt watch any additional trailers or read any more comics — rare for me. i wanted to go in completely blank. then i went back to the theatre to rewatch it three additional times (i have never before gone to see a movie more than once in the theatre). i was like… almost bursting with love for this stupid raccoon at this point.
then i got around to reading his grounded comic arc, and it was like — the dam burst. i hadn’t written fanfiction since 2017ish, and hadn’t been on tumblr since 2016, but i was like — i have to write about this fucken raccoon. i need to take care of him lol.
so when you ask what media - i guess all of it? in increments? because of course now ive watched most of his various cartoon incarnations, read probably 70% of the comics content, halfway through a stream of the 2021 game, have one of the novels (sitting on the tbr pile) and frankly the love just continues to grow.
now that ive taken up thirty-two years of your life, i just want to say im so glad you found this fandom and this community. he may be an anthropomorphic raccoon but he’s meaningful to people, in so many ways. im so very very glad that he could be that for you, and that you’re here.
congrats again, nonnie. i hope post-graduation life rewards you with supportive people who love and understand you, with joyful new experiences, good health, and everything you need to live happily and fully.
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chirpins · 1 month
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your vampire noah au has me hooked immediately, i had to come here and ask you questions after reading.
first things first, your half vampire tag. what exactly does that entail? it could mean anything. are there going to be other character's who are a vampire?
secondly, what are the other ships mentioned in the tags? are they going to be important enough to mention any time soon? or can we know them now.
thirdly, is this going to be based off of stakes? with its recent departure from the fandom, a lot of people are missing it. is there a reason you posted this when you did, so close to its deletion?
is fourthly a word?
fifthly, what does the soulmate tag mean? i've never seen it used in that way before.
sixthly (?), can you tell us anything about it? fun facts, i mean.
seventhly (i'm just winging it at this point), does noah being bitten on his ankle have any plot relevance to it? given that it wasn't on his neck?
that's all i can think of for now.
woaaah this is like .. one of the longest asks ive ever seen. sorry it took me so long to reply, i really had to think on how i would respond to this..!
well, lets start in order.. lets seeee..
mm i dont know if i can answer this in a way that isnt spoilery or holds plot relevance. sorry if that doesnt help ur curiosity, but rest assured it will be addressed in the fic itself so .. just stay tuned!
i dont see how it would be any spoilers to say this, so ill just come out and do so already! one of the main background ships is geoff/gwen/bridgette. they are just so cute to me, and id like to make it clear the three of them are all dating each other. there is also going to be eva/izzy, of course; and owen/izzy (izzy has two hands). another ship im entertaining the idea of is possibly duncan/dj? but neither of those two are going to have much relevance to the story. actually, funny story, this was supposed to be an alejandro/noah/heather fic, but i totally forgot to tag it as such. im debating on if i want to keep it that way afterall, or have it stay just alenoah.. i guess we'll see the further i write. there is some others but those are a bit spoilery so, stay tuned..!
uhh.. i feel like thats a very weird thing to ask? but, i guess you could say i was inspired after reading stakes? i began writing this last month (pictured below) so i wouldnt say i wrote and posted this just because stakes got deleted. actually, i wasnt going to post this fic at all until i had at least 5 chapters written for it, or all of it written, but i got too excited after finishing writing chapter 2 so.. teehee...
i THINK it is..!
teehee i cant saaay.. much. what i can say is it being 'non-typical' is important. its nothing like soul bounds themselves. how youd think of a soulmate 'au' is not what this is, nobody are soulmates. but .. well.. sooomething may happen. i will just say, it has something to do with vampire culture.
fun facts, huh..? mmm i really dont know.. tbh not even i think too deeply on this sort of thing.. i guess id say that noah has a lot of moles / freckles everywhere? so him having a bite mark wouldnt really raise suspicion, given that its just two puncture wounds. i dont know, im sorry! i guess ill have to think on this some more.. im sort of entertaining the idea that theres more to the universe than just vampires, if this helps. buut,.. i havent decided yet, teehee.
hmm, aside from me thinking itd be funny for him to have a mark on his leg? well... who knows!
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anyway, thanks for caring so much to ask me stuff!
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soullessjack · 7 months
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im roughly 65% sure ive made this post before but it rlly does confuse me how almost nobody in the fandom acknowledges Jack’s anger issues or “insane moments” or honestly any of his flaws in general, esp in comparison to the rest of team free will 2.0 and it’s like … what show did you watch. What show did you watch where the guy that attempted to strangle someone in a fit of rage, deliberately tortured a man as brutally as possible before killing him and ate raw human hearts that he himself ripped out of peoples’ chests is somehow always being depicted as the sweet innocent flower child of the group.
and like while this itself isn’t directly an ableism thing, i think it speaks a lot for how any character with autistic traits or coding is perceived as inherently innocent or childlike and infantilized/woobified as such. and look, i get that jack is canonically written to come off as very cute and adorable and sweet on purpose, but literally nobody can see past it on a surface level and recognize that Hey, Maybe The Guy Who Can Throw People Against Walls And Fly Into A Murderous Rage When They’re Too Upset Has A Reason For Being Super Nice All The Time.
idk . I mean this is like one in a million other things about jack that get watered down by the fandom because he fundamentally does not exist to half of y’all as a full character with autonomy outside of being a domestic destiel centerpiece — which itself also confuses me as someone who’s been deeply fixated on him pretty much since his storyline began in s12. And while I didn’t have a tumblr back then in 2017, I did see the posts made about him & I remember even then thinking “yeah I get it he’s cute he’s baby but can we like actually talk about him,” because almost nobody was and it drove me crazy, and to see that that hasn’t changed in the past six years (mind you, I was 13 when he appeared and im 19 now) just. Drives me even more crazy, but also exhausts me at the same time.
it’s like. idk, it’s like y’all are incapable of consuming his character unless he’s been made palatable to you , which for some reason seems to exclusively mean making him a baby or removing his actual personality to the point that even when he isn’t being de-aged, he’s still treated and depicted as a Large Child (which, by the way, is a directly ableist notion many autistics actually face irl!). And of course I can’t force anyone to stop liking baby-jack or stop making content around that because that’s just not how anything works, but at the very least i can ask you all to think a little more critically about why that specific content appeals to you and the harmful implications it carries, and if you’re unwilling to stop making/engaging with that content (which frankly I assume is the case for everyone, but again I can’t stop you) then the very least you can do is listen when someone says “hey this is actually kind of harmful.” thanks
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ephemyrals · 5 months
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「 𝐏𝐈𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐓 」
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# 𝐞𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐲𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐬 .     ━━          a private writing blog featuring muses from multiple fandoms including genshin , hsr   &.    bsd as written by mona  (       25+ years  ,   she / her     )    .    please check the rules before interaction , you can find them below the read more  .    heavy    &.    dark themes will be present on this blog  ,     follow at your own discretion  .
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❛❛  𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐱 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠  .    stories tell about love  ;    about its mythical properties  ,    the way it changes people  .    connections are what makes time on earth worthwhile  ,    is what they say    ━━      more than bustling chatter carries in the background  ,    gazes lingering from afar  .    more than a brush one another  ,    a gentle caress   (       ephemeral     )    ,    fading alike dust in boreal breeze  .    maybe  .  .  .    it is more  .    but why come to care  ,    𝐢𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲  ,    right from underneath the tips of your finger  ?        ❜❜ 
[  ❀  ]     closely intertwined with : @gemkun , @raytm , @starspurn @taiixuan , @scrtilegii / @furiaei
𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐬
i . i am highly selective  ,     mutuals only  .    i might not always follow back  ,    for whatever the reason may be  .    basic roleplay etiquettes apply  .    please do not involve my in ( dash ) drama  ,    writing is a hobby for me    &.    i am just here to have fun  .    my activity is sporadic  ,    sometimes replies might take longer depending on how busy life is  .    you can nudge me if you think i have forgotten or when you are thrilled to continue our thread quickly  .    this helps me with direction  ,    please be kind about it  .    i do not reply to my threads in order received  ;    i generally reply faster for characters i have muse for    &.    to my mains  .
ii .    i do not often post starter calls  ,    since i prefer plotted threads  .    feel free to shoot me a message  ,    either on tumblr ims or discord  .   you can also turn a meme reply into a thread if you wish to    (        it is even encouraged        )    ,     please do so in a new post    &.    do not forget to tag me  .
iii .    reblog memes  ,    art    &.   poetry from their source  ,    unless i have tagged you in it  .    don’t reblog threads you are not involved with  .    it helps me keep track of what i have got coming in  .
iv .    i love writing ships  ,    which includes any sort  :    romantic  ,    familial  ,    enemies etc  .    of course it is chemistry - based  ,    but feel free to just barge into my ims    &.    say you want to ship    (        within appropriate age range        )    . pro - shippers dni .
icon border and banner from paletterph
𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭
❀ tbhk  :   minamoto teru .
❀ hsr : aventurine , blade (request) , kafka , sunday , acheron , robin .
❀ genshin : childe , aether , kaveh .
❀ dgm  :    lavi bookman &. nea d. campbell .
❀ alien stage : luka &. till .
❀ miscellaneous , request only  :    vanitas (vnc) , hiiragi shinya (ons)  ,    cloud (ff7)  ,    komacine machi &. kurapika (hxh)  , cheng xiaoshi (lc) , gojo satoru (jjk) , zoya (ptn) .
blogroll : @fiyres (khr) , @autymns (bsd)
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radioprune · 5 months
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tagged by my friend maddie @leonardcohenofficial to answer these 20 Qs for fic writers!! yay thank you :-) i'll tag @fieryphrazes @stupidredsuspenders @ghostpunkrock if you'd like!
How many works do you have on Ao3? 26, they tell me
What's your total Ao3 word count? 400,467. oh my
What fandoms do you write for? mash of course but i also have a couple of star wars things including the time travel fic that i promise will get done eventually
What are your top five fics by kudos? or, the children's crusade, maple syrup, breathe fresh air ever after, hawkeye, why hawkeye, i now pronounce you pierce and hunnicutt
Do you respond to comments? i really try to even if it takes 100 years
What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? hmmm. i really rarely don't write a happy ending but maybe breathe fresh air ever after aka the one where daniel pierce watches "the interview." the truman show AU and the one where it's all a dream also are both kind of bleak
What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? all the long ones with a bj goes to maine element i think are kind of equally happy so maple syrup, hyh, but also you deserve the best, the hawkmarg friendship inspired fic that was the first mash fic idea i ever had
Do you get hate on fics? not to my face tho i sometimes wonder if mutuals in law have me blocked bc of any perceived bad takes in my writing
Do you write smut? If so, what kind? not habitually, but ive written some in my opinion narratively relevant sex scenes lol
Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? closest i've come is incorporating elements of the catch-22 universe into mash stuff, and i have a broader outline for a real mash-22 crossover that i'd like to actually write one day
Have you ever had a fic stolen? ok funny yeah i was just telling della about this but like. not word for word like copy pasted but i was reading a hawkeye margaret friendship fic a while ago and was really enjoying it and then realized it was beat for beat copying my hawkmarg bestfriends fic 😭 right down to including references to the communist manifesto
Have you ever had a fic translated? i don't believe so but that would be cool!
Have you ever co-written a fic before? not really, i've thrown ideas around with people especially like with noirhawk stuff but it never really coalesced
What’s your all time favorite ship? i don't knowwwww. when i was a teenager the doctor/rose was literally so important to me and honestly i was surprised at how much i cried at doomsday upon rewatch. i possibly care more about the hawkeye/margaret friendship dynamic than i do about beejhawk
What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? ooh my idea for a mash tv show/movie crossover which i have some good dialogue written for and would love to be able to bring to fruition but i just dont think it's gonna happen
What are your writing strengths? i think dialogue for sure, and when it comes to fic in particular (like as opposed to my original writing) i think i'm good at character studies/keeping things very realistic and in character
What are your writing weaknesses? bc when i write as a hobby i write mostly plays, i sometimes catch myself writing prose like that, like just dialogue and what amounts to stage directions. i have to make myself think about when some internal monologue might be good, how to make things actually sound good instead of just being practical
Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? you guys know i love to throw lots of yiddish in there. i wouldn't be able to write real dialogue in another language unless the character had an eighth grade level spanish education or was trying to say "the farmer is my friend" in latin
First fandom you wrote for? star wars 👍
Favorite fic you’ve written? ough hard to choose. i have to shout out mind field bc i somehow haven't mentioned it yet and the experience of writing it was so surreal and was just genuinely me trying to convey how it had felt to be in my brain for a year or so through projecting onto hawkeye. and the fact that everyone liked it was bonus. BUT my actually favorite might be with friends like these, who needs enemies?, my hawkeye/margaret slow burn friendship fic and margaret deep dive. i want to make everyone read it and care about them as much as i do mwah
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Um hi so sorry to bother you but I really love your writing!!
I think your work is very well written and funny and entertaining!
That being said Ive been wanting to write for a while but get too anxious over getting the characters wrong…
You wouldnt happen to have any tips to get over this, would u?
First off, thank you so much for your kind words!
As a disclaimer, I don't know that I'm much qualified to give writing advice. I have dear friends who are Writers with a capital W; at this point I see myself very much as the hobbiest version: Writer Lite if you will. I don't mean to devalue or discredit my own writing; I just mean to say that...I don't feel like I worry about the things a Writer is supposed to worry about, at least at this point. I write what I want, when and how I want to, and I will regularly and cheerfully sacrifice grammar and canon characterization and pacing on the altar of my own whims.
And tbh, if you're looking at starting out in fanfic specifically, that's probably a good place to start. The stakes are really low so it's a great space to get comfortable. No one is paying you. You don't owe anyone anything. Some people will like your characterizations and style, and other people won't. And (assuming you're a Yuumori fan because you mentioned my writing), the Yuumori fandom is a GREAT place to test the waters, because while the fandom is small and there's never a huge amount of engagement, it's a really polite fandom. Basically everyone here understands the principle of "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."
Anywho, practically speaking: I really like to try to vary characters' voices a bit. Sherlock gets his incredibly-irritating-to-write attempt at a Cockney accent. William and Albert are posh but get to swear sometimes because I think it's funny. Moran is just kind of casual; somewhere between the Moriartys and Sherlock. And so on.
If you're trying to stick really closely to canon characterizations, doing some rereading/watching of the source material before you start can definitely help. But it's also worth noting that sometimes fandom has its own interpretation that's widespread but not really sourced from canon. Can any of us prove canonically that Albert Moriarty is bisexual, promiscuous, and a little bit masochistic? Not in the slightest! And yet for some reason a significant portion of us have just gone "yeah that sounds right," and you'll never get shot down for writing him that way. So there's definitely a lot of space to just have fun with it (though acknowledging in your tags/author's notes that something is OOC can help lol.)
Then of course it's just...just do it! Have fun! Make playlists to write to if you're anything like me! Fall down Google rabbit holes researching what Victorians ate for breakfast! Pretend to be confident but not arrogant (I admit, I will sometimes scroll by things where the author is self-deprecating in the summary: it kind of feels like clicking there is agreeing to do some emotional labour, which is usually part of what I'm trying to escape via fic. 😅) Engage with your chosen fandom, and you'll start to see those group-workshopped headcanons that we enjoy reading about just as much as actual canon characterizations; you'll also make friends that way who will be excited to read your fics!
I hope you have so much fun writing! 😊
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rin-enjoyer · 6 months
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long and detailed ramblings about rin's character under the cut <3
rin is flatter than almost any other character in naruto- an impressive feat, considering how badly kishimoto hates woman. i'm not saying that everyone else was written better than rin- all things considered, the complete lack of attention focused on her means that she's probably one of the more consistent characters. no, the flatness arises from a general lack of anything interesting about her presented in an easy to understand or. um. intentional way.
fandoms take the traits that characters display and explore and expand upon them- when a character or concept is interesting but poorly executed in canon, it will often receive a large amount of attention dedicated towards giving it its due.
when a girl has no real personality to speak of and exists pretty much just to die and make two others guys sad- well, that doesn't lay a very good base to explore! it's no wonder rin is an incredibly overlooked character.  
not me tho. id never overlook my girl. this is because i am a little bjt insane and also rabid about her. take my hand. let's explore the deep rabbit hole ive been silently digging for half a year now. there's nuance to her character i prommy- let me show you it.
disclaimer before we begin: i'm aware that the amount of character depth i can extrapolate from rin was not intentionally written in. i mean, like, that's not gonna stop me or anything. but im aware of it. some of the things here have little to no canon basis- i cobbled my rin characterization together with dramatic irony, copious amounts of masks, and spite. i do think that viewing rin like this adds flavor to the canon story, though, so maybe keep that in mind?
the first, central headcanon that influences pretty much everything about rin (to me) is that she hates the idea of being misinterpreted in life or in death. despite that, she wears masks built of what people expect her to be, and makes no effort to remove them and build real connections. and then she gets mad when no one really knows her. she contains multitudes.
this also adds a delicious twist to canon- from rin's pov, obito's great fault is not the murders, the betrayals, or the longing for a perfect world; its him mis-remembering her so BADLY that he somehow mischaracterized the mask she was wearing. my guy.
part of the reason rin wears masks is because she is unsure of who she is and what she wants, and she views that as a personal failure. she has made the logical fallacy, of course, that she has an immutable "true self" who she has managed to lose. she's also 12 and living in kill people repress your emotions city, so i guess we can give her a pass on that. the real important thing to understand here is that rin views any presentation of herself that is not her "true self" (smth that doesnt exist) as equally false. therefore, she assumes that it is easier to continue on with the mask she is already wearing than switch it out for smth just as bad. she does not know that the self is something cobbled together over a lifetime of stealing thoughts, feelings and mannerisms from other people and mixing it with your experiences and innate personality. she paints her cheeks purple because her father does, and he does it because his father did, who did it because his mother did, and on and on, but she cannot comprehend that the laugh she learned from him is just as unique. lmao
another thing about personhood: kakashi and obito, from an outside view, seem very put together. they have goals, for heaven's sake, they must know what they're doing! rin doesn't have a crush on kakashi- she admires him because he looks like he's got his life figured out! (when you start thinking kakashi's put together, you know something's wrong.)
the thing about rin's relationship with the rest of her team is that it's very one-sided. rin is obito's best friend- obito is not rin's best friend. the team spirit and unity that konoha tries to impress on them is lost on rin because she interacts with them like she's on an infiltration mission, and then gets mad that they don't know the "real" her, gets sad that she doesn't know the "real" her, and then puts on more masks to make sure no one notices, and the cycle repeats. the rest of team minato is fooled into thinking that they are close with her, and rin drifts further and further away. we see this when obito "dies-" she almost unaffected by it. now, it's probably portrayed like that as to not take away from kakashi's reaction, but it feeds nicely into my interpretation that she just… doesn't really care.
after obito dies and kakashi starts falling apart, i do think he and rin get a bit closer. he's obviously not in a great mental state to be worrying over her in any manner except physical safety, but he does wonder when her smile stretches a bit too thin and brittle. he never knows rin- not by her definition- but i think sometimes he gets to see her without any masks on: a limp doll who's tired of pretending at humanity.
last point on rin's mental state before we move onto the totally-there-and-real symbolism aspects of her character: she has a very, very apathetic attitude towards death that's only exacerbated by the fact that she's not really close to anyone. she's not exactly suicidal, but she wouldn't care if she died. she's not jumping at the bit to sacrifice herself- that apathy means she doesn't really care if anyone else dies, either. she holds on until she can't hold on anymore, and then she drops it like a hot potato. rin voice: wait if there's an afterlife why are we scared of dying. and then no one ever explained it to her so she never unlocked her fear of death.
ok! symbolism time! i, personally, am a huge proponent of moth/astronaut/icarus rin. there's a few threads that weave into that tapestry, so stick with me while we make our way through em.
first: remember what i said earlier, about rin hating obito for mis-remembering her rather than the whole infinite tsukuyomi gig? well, part of that is because she just really hates being misinterpreted, but the other part is that she wouldn't think infinite tsukuyomi was bad at all! remember, rin is very… nihilistic, and already has a tenuous relationship with consequences- she wouldn't see the problem with fixing things with an illusion. this slots into the moth interpretation- she's chasing the moon! 
second, there's the whole chidori thing. idk if you guys remember it, its only the most defining moment of rin's entire character in canon. the chidori looks like the sun. icarus. do you catch my drift
the rest of the points towards this symbolism are more vague and tend to lean more towards like. obscure references to the challenger crash and a reliance on my insistence that moths and icarus and astronauts ARE basically the same thing, thank you very much, but i think i've said enough to get my point across.
there's more i could say- we could explore aus where rin lives to adulthood, and how she would grow and develop, or we could dive into the fascinating relationship she has with minato and being a mednin, or how she and sasuke are 2 flavors of the same guy, but this post is already stupid long, so i'll save that for another time. just know that rin is the coolest girly ever. and she deserves to kill.
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scarrletmoon · 5 days
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hi! i'm the poster of the fanfic etiquette rant. i just wanted to make it clear that in the post, i'm referring to people assuming they have the right to critique a writer's stylistic choices, their spelling, their characterisation, their posting schedule, to send mean anon asks because they didn't like a fic, to give fics ratings like "mid" and all that kind of stuff. i didn't say it explicitly because in the context of the time it was posted, that intention was clear in the fandom i'm active in.
i never expected this post to get so many notes and reach other fandoms, too. i fully agree with your addition and i just wanted to clarify that disallowing people to point out blatant racism (or any other offence of that nature) is of course NOT what my very spontaneously written rant was directed at. sorry this got so long & thank you for the sensible, important addition 🫶🏻
of course! i didn’t mean to make it sound like a criticism of you and i probably should’ve phrased it better — obviously when you’re writing a post, you can’t account for every single perspective ever.
and i don’t think you didn’t mention racism out of malice bc the post isn’t really about that. my addition was mostly bc of stuff ive seen in my current fandom, where someone (usually white) dismisses accusations of racism as “people being rude and mean” and “demanding perfection from free writing” which i think we all know is a bad excuse. if anything, my addition was me trying to address the gap before someone used your post (or one like it) in bad faith
i’m sorry your post unexpectedly blew up 😭 but i hope people aren’t being dicks in the replies and stuff, it was an important post to make
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cinnamon-bunni · 5 months
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hm... 4, 7, 11, 12, 17, 21, 22, 24! happy new year, bunni!
4. Total number of words you wrote this year That's hard to find tbh....I didn't end up posting a lot of fics, so i dont only have to just check my statistics on ao3, but all of my possible fics ive written this year in my wip docs as well. the total i got was 58,171 words (~35k of it being WIPs and not posted)! so definitely not as much as i wrote last year which was (i think over 100k), and also not including all of my notes ive written. i did not do a lot of writing this year, so hopefully next year i'll wrap up all of my big fics and post them all <3
7. longest completed fic you wrote this year Again, i did not write a lot this year, much less finish them lmao. if you were to ask about uncompleted fics, we would have a different story--but alas, the longest completed one was Once More, With Needles, sitting at 4,414 words!
11. fandom you enjoyed writing for the most this year hm....obey me, I suppose. its hard to say really, but enjoyment from writing specifically, i'd have to give it to obey me. what can i say, the cast is just really fun to write (even when levi is impossible to write, like what the hell man i have rewritten your part in my undead fic like 3 separate times and am continuing fixing it, like what the hell man i trusted you and then you dont behave for me). like this year specifically i realized how much i love each and every character--those like lucifer reminded me as to why i love the game and the characters, and people like mephisto and raphael randomly won a spot in my heart. theyre all just so so fun to write <333
12. favorite character to write about this year lucifer!!! even though i only have like, one fic that features him thats out and finished lmao; hes such an interesting and complex character, yet is one whose mind i can easily slip into when i need to write when its his pov. idk, sometimes i find myself struggling to write characters like levi or even asmo sometimes--mainly from my own failures to pay attention to their canon interpretations and making them not out-of-character--but lucifer is surprisingly one i can always rely on to be easy and fun to write!! he is angst galore and so emotionally constipated, hes great <3
17. fics you’ll continue next year Heart Melts for sure!! i originally wanted ch3 to be out before the new year, but ive been drafting and redrafting all of my future chapters (i am trying my best to make it a psychological horror in order to match the tag that i put on the fic, but idk if its going to live up to the hype that people have for this fic ^^;;) so i sadly didnt get time to finish it. maybe by the end of January ill have it out--heres to hoping its done by then! and maybe i might continue Dirty? I didn't even update it this year lol--its def one i dont wanna leave discontinued, as i have all of the chapters planned out, but i just have many other projects that i wanna focus on and also i really wanna rewrite it, so ive been debating doing that first or just to finish then rewrite it. in a perfect world, i'll update that one too lol
21. most memorable comment/review I have two that come to mind!!! in all honesty all comments make me sooo happy, but these ones specifically is just,,,idk man, they just hit a certain way that itches that scratch in my brain that needs validation lmao i love rereading these all the time <3 theres these comments for Messy Makeup:
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(make me go insane from them saying i wrote multiple fics that were their favorites <33) and of course there's this banger of a comment from @/snugglebunnies!!! idk if youre reading this but thank you thank you thank you for inspiring me so much with your fics!!! i love them so much, and this comment was just incredible! from the fic Heart Melts:
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(love when people leave quotes, no matter how long or short!!!! such deep analysis is what i live for!!!!) and of course, sending out so much love to everyone who leaves a comment on any of my fics, no matter how big or small they are <333
22. events you participated in this year i didnt participate in any events this year! i tend not to do events tbh, theyre not really my style, as i dont do well with due dates unless i have months in advance lol;; usually i might do one, maybe two, events a year, but those are usually simple gift exchanges or something. nothing caught my eye this year, and ones that did i just didnt have the time to do, sadly. but! i do plan on doing the sonic big bang next year, which will be my first ever "bigger" event ive been in! exciting, but also really nervewracking as ive never posted sonic content and idk how well i'll do staying on schedule. but its still something i really wanna do (have a great fic planned for it!) so i still wanna give it a shot and do my best on it lol
24. favorite fic you read this year from this year is really hard to say--i think all of my favorite fics were found last year lmao so its a struggle to think of one. @heleentje's BOTW fic Moonlight has been a fantastic read (even though i havent finished it yet;;; i promise will soon!!) and just hits all of the right notes for me!! The batman fic Performance Piece is also definitely up there for me, as it captures so well what i want in my own writing when it comes to writing characters, especially when it comes to inner-dialogue (i might just go back and reread that one again lmao)
as of posting, i have about twenty minutes left before the new year. so happy early 2024!! 🥳🎉💝
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pocketofpencils · 2 months
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Questions for Writers
10000 years late! thank you @calunalilly for tagging me
1. How many works do you have on AO3?
a very modest 19 lol
2. What's your total AO3 word count?
163,620
3. What fandoms do you write for?
Last Tango in Halifax
Happy Valley
Collateral
1 Vigil fic lol
4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
1: The Equation of Mass. : Caroline/Jane christmas fic. My first ever loooooooong one.
2: I Want You To See Me: Caroline/Gillian. Glasses are annoying, lets kiss about it.
3: Welcome Home: Vigil fic lol First ever thing I published on the internet.. Only 412 o words, thought people would hate it but I still get kudos and bookmarks on it 3 years later lol
4: Brunhilde and the Bastard in the Barn: Catherine/Jane Current WIP/Pain in the arse lol. Getting ready to wrap it up :')
5: Pain and the Passing of time: Caroline/Gillian. First LTIH fic, in first person *gag*. Makes me cringe, but also surprises me that I wrote that!
5. Do you respond to comments?
I try really hard to! My inbox overwhelms me sometimes haha! But I appreciate and read every comment I get! So thank you to the like 2 people who are probably reading this haha.
6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?
It is yet to be written! But I do have a mildly angsty one in mind.. Not a not happy ending.. Just happyish lol
7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?
Equation of Mass I guess. Most Fluffiest
8. Do you get hate on fics?
No! Thankfully. I only write there for fun. Any hate (that isn't warranted of course call me out if I fuck up) would probably make me stop posting haha.
9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?
Yes.. Im a much better smut reader than writer I can tell you that lmao.
10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?
I mean at this point I think we have just accepted Jane into the Happy Valley landscape, so much so that its sometimes hard to remember she's plucked straight (or gay ;)) from another show. So I guess almost all of my works are crossovers haha
11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?
lol hands off my garbage
12. Have you ever had a fic translated?
Ive had to explain words to my American friends.. does that count?
13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?
I just did my first colab with @calunalilly! I think were going for another..or 1000 <.< lol
14. What’s your all time favorite ship?
All the pairings I write for are my faves. i also love Mirandy :')
15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?
Lmao well anything Ive started I always have doubts I will complete. I am (very very slowly) writing my first book...and I have doubts but I am working through them!
16. What are your writing strengths?
I dont really know.. I think jokes? Funny is most important!
17. What are your writing weaknesses?
lol Grammar, formatting, imposter syndrome, actually writing lol. All things that I am working on. I also need to plan better to stop writing plot holes lmao. remembering fic is just for fun!
18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?
Do what you want bro lol
19. First fandom you wrote for?
Published: Vigil.. I also wrote some unpublished Killing Eve and Doctor Who fics that will never see the light of day as I wrote them by hand (lol) and lost the notebook I wrote them in. So I hope who ever found that notebook enjoyed them lmaoooo
20. Favorite fic you’ve written?
ahhhhhh I dont know. I think Year of the Dog was the first one I wrote and was like: "Ok I can do this writing thing".
Everyone I would tag, has already done it so... :)
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ruiniel · 2 years
Text
Another way - IV
Summary: What if someone in the 21st century stumbled upon this stranger during a turbulent storm, narrowly avoiding running them over, and what's more they can't understand a word coming out of their mouth.
Fandom: Castlevania animated series
Pairing: Alucard x Reader
Rating: Mature / 18+ only
Tags & Warnings: explicit language, depressive character, character-meets-world, modern AU, Fantasy, References to personal Loss, References to Grief, more tags to be added
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IV.
It’s you, and him, and the low crackle of fire inside the room confined in its stone shelter.
Evening came sooner than you’d expected and you had lost track of time showing him around the place, the tool shed and close surroundings of the cabin, speaking and gesturing for good measure in your explanations.
And Adrian followed you, sometimes speaking to himself as one thinking out loud, but mostly staying silent and observant — while seeming so, so far away. It was an odd contrast. 
Thinking back, the singular most out-of-the-ordinary moment of today was when you’d passed by the car. Adrian had approached it carefully, so tense the image of some sort of prowling animal arose in your mind.
“What? This dusty thing?” you’d asked, closing behind him, watching as he curiously placed his hand on the hood like someone who’s just made a baffling discovery. “It’s hard to upkeep, has some sentimental value, though,” you’d added as he walked around it, studied the wheels, the angles of the vehicle, murmuring all the way with an expression close to awe on his face.
You’d eventually left him there to return inside, bracketing the thought ‘none of my business, none of my business’  in your mind all the way.
You have not the slightest idea what to do about him, once you reach the city. Go to the police? Find out where he’s from and reach out to an embassy? He has no ID or any other identifying information, not from what you’ve gathered at least.
Conclusion: you’ll start back as soon as you can, give him a chance to find his bearings and then, you’re out.
You still mull over that thought as you glance up at… at Adrian, sitting there across from you on that ancient couch and leaning forward, forearms resting on his knees. He stares listlessly into the fire, a reddish glow tinting his profile and glazing over the rest of him.
“Adrian?” you try, at which point he slowly turns to you, drawn from his thought; waiting.
“I have an idea,” you rise, going over to the kitchen counter and sifting through a drawer. You return holding a ball-pen and an old agenda, plopping down onto the couch next to him and before his expression of dawning understanding, you tap the paper with your finger and say, “Adrian.” You point at him, gesturing as though penning something, “Write it down, please.” 
Maybe seeing the words he speaks in written form will help gauge at least… something.
He nods, then stares at the ball-pen with some fascination as you offer it to him, turning it here and there, interested in the tip especially before pressing onto the paper and doing a tentative swirl. 
You tilt your head, eyes on the elegant lines forming under his hand and your hopes dwindling to nothing the next moment as…
“Ugh,” you drag a palm over your face beneath his stare, his features already falling at your budding confusion. You take the agenda from him, “Of course it couldn’t be that easy…” you grumble, staring at the unknown script you can make zero sense of, turning the agenda upside down. 
He’s written something else, too, using the same unknown letters — beautiful cursive, you’ll give him that, but… “We really need to get back,” you stand, a sarcastic smile on your face reserved for the outlandish turn your days have taken, staring out the window into the falling night. You start to pace as Adrian watches, then sit down and write your own name next to his. 
“See?” you show him. “Different. We’ll head back tomorrow,” you say, gesturing to express the act of driving. “You, and me, we’re leaving here, to-morrow,” you stress when he merely looks at you with no sign of comprehension whatsoever. “So... get some rest, all right?” you say as he covers his face with both hands again, and there's nothing to do now but leave him to his own.
~~
There’s a room on the second floor, one you've retreated to after bidding goodnight. It leads to a small balcony your parents had built into the roof, where you’d retreat many times during your visits here to read or be alone, or to observe the night sky in ways you never could back in the city.
Now, sleep eludes you with the tumult of the past couple of days, and since it’s a mild night for autumn you’ve set yourself up on a cushion, a blanket wrapped around your shoulders; staring at the silent, sleepy forest and the bright, glaring moon like a giant silver pearl, gliding across the tops of pine trees.
You rest your chin onto your risen knees, arms wrapped around your legs, and time glides by in the hourglass of your mind, its sand your memories, good and bad, though mostly…
Mostly, you miss them.
You miss your family so much, wondering how long until it all lessens, how long until you’ll be able to function as before, to live, though a part of you knows nothing will never be the same, it cannot.
You wipe your face with your sleeve, pressing the heels of your palms into your eyes and looking out again, to the small clearing sheltering the cabin.
You freeze.
There’s… something there, you realize, eyes widening as the bright lit night reveals a creature of some kind, standing right there.
Fucking impossible.
Four-legged; the brightest coat you’ve ever seen, silvered by moonlight; much too large to be a dog.
A…  wolf?...
“Hhhholy shit,” you gasp, and a primal fear curdles your reflexes into knots. You’re unable to move, the urge to flee never stronger — but your brain takes over immediately, as... What the hell?
You're on the freaking roof, so you're safe, and the more you watch, it’s not as though the animal seems particularly interested, either.
It’s closer to the line of trees than the cabin, and if anything, it seems to be… leaving?
The wolf (you choose to call it that, for now) confirms your thought as it makes for the forest on slender legs, and you stare with bated breath at the great silver-white shadow as it turns its head towards the cabin (from what you can tell).
A part of you has the unseemly impression it’s looking straight at you, though of course that’s... ridiculous. 
You can barely make out more details as the moon hides beneath a strip of cloud, and in the next moment, it — whatever it was — is gone. 
“Isn’t this the right amount of fuckery…” you rub at your eyes again, then glance down at the half-empty glass of wine you’d taken with you. “I think that's enough for tonight,”  you grumble, thinking you’d maybe imagined things. Still, you cannot take the image out of your head. That presence, the unreal, ghostly beauty of it despite the danger...
You remember there are no wolves in the area, there can’t be. Your folks kept telling you this growing up, and you’d never seen one to disprove it either.
A shiver creeps up your arms and ribs, as though your body were freed from a spell, and you rise to stand, the now chilly night-wind icing your face. Yes, maybe you’d imagined things. Content with your reasonable conclusion, you decide to try for sleep.
But it’s the howl that wakes you in the dead of night, raw and long and seemingly endless, that ices your heart and rips your earlier conviction to shreds.
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Part I - Part II - Part III - Part IV - Part V - Part VI - Part VII - Part VIII - Part IX - Part X
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Want to be added to the taglist for updates? Let me know.
MASTERLIST: CASTLEVANIA SERIES x READER
More of my work is on AO3 [many stories not on tumblr]
BLOG MASTERPOST (all you need to know)
Likes/comments/reblogs always and forever appreciated
AN:
This is a footnote, some language nerdery you didn’t ask for that only adds a bit of context to the writing scene.
Romanian is a Romance language, a linguistic group evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin. But! At one point the Cyrillic script was made the basis of alphabets used in various languages in Eastern Europe where the Orthodox Church had much influence, both Slavic and non-Slavic(like Romanian). In Wallachia for example a 'slightly' local variant evolved and was used as the official writing script from the 14th through the 19th century(the Latin script was verifiably also used and recorded from as early as the 1570s). Considering Alucard would be born before 1476, for kicks I chose to have him write using this script. For anyone who cares to visualize Reader’s confusion here’s a sample:
Привѣ́ ꙟ̃ зáрє кꙋ́м пє мъ́рй
Ръсáрє шѝ стръʌꙋ́чє,
Пє мишкътѡáрєʌє къръ́рй
Кѡръ́бïй нє́грє дꙋ́чє.
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