#outdoorsy side would have gotten that more across

[mikiruma-art]

4 19 21

more solidified human marzipan design (ft. the cheat)!

#my art #digital art #homestar runner #marzipan (homestar runner) #the cheat #human au #not super clear here but i gave the cheat the gay earring #but yeah marzipan... i love her dress but i think having her wear something that shows her #outdoorsy side would have gotten that more across #the only design i DID have aside from date nite redraw was a gardening specific look hghnghng #both are good but i was lacking the casual wear and i think this is a good look #also hi hal started these and about halfway through i finished em #oh and dont worry her bracelet is vegan leather :)

[cupofteaguk]

come over here and make me

FROM THE PETALS COLLECTION

[pairing] :: yoongi x fem!reader

[genre] :: best friend au + fluff

[word count] :: 2.1k 

[note] :: taken from my old nct blog. i don’t write for nct anything + i don’t see myself ever posting this fic under nct anymore but i have a soft spot for this story and still wanted to post it. 

.

It’s horrible. Disgusting, even. Dreadful and shameful and shocking and ghastly all at once. Seriously, the boy could not come up with enough terrible words to describe his feelings and the unpleasant sensation coursing through his body and hitting upon every nerve underneath his skin—the feeling of responsibility. The feeling of having to take care of someone just to avoid the guilt that usually accompanies leaving someone behind, not that he sees you as unnecessary baggage or weight or an obligation or a problem, it’s just that now you are completely and utterly—!

“Shitfaced,” Yoongi hisses, wrapping an arm around your waist to keep you upright and grounded—okay maybe grounded was too generous of a world to describe you and your current state of mind, because you’re lopsided and rocky and he’s sure that if he left you on your own you would tip over and that would be a new problem in it of itself. “Absolutely shitfaced. How could you be so fucking stupid?” 

“I’m not stupid,” You manage weakly, stumbling on one of the steps and he has half a mind to just leave you at the base of the stairs and spend the potential two and a half hours it would take you to sober up from this mess. However, the thought of the alcohol poisoning your liver or sending bile upwards keeps him at bay, keeps him rooted to your side. Besides, he would never leave you to fend for yourself. Min Yoongi may be the star of the basketball team, easy on the eyes and the words and a certain disarming gummy smile, who fucked around and definitely did not do the whole emotions and feelings thing, but like most seemingly perfect systems, this one had a kink, a flaw. A weakness, one that takes the form of bright eyes, soft hair he loves to curl his finger around, cheerful smile, nerdy and unique habits that make his heart spike: you. 

He likes to think that he’s not soft without a purpose, likes to rationalize with himself that there must be some reason as to why you of all people continue to get under his skin time and time again, why he naturally gravitated back towards you. It might be time, how you probably knew him better than anyone else, how comfortable he felt under your presence. It might be reassurance, how being with you and talking to you and sitting with you are all just as easy as breathing. Most of all, it might be because he’s a tad bit too in love with you, but you’d have to get him very drunk to get him to admit that (which explains why a certain Jung Hoseok knows one of his deepest and darkest secrets). 

But the debate (or the discussion) regarding Min Yoongi being in love with you is far from the point of tonight, because the tables have turned and a dare has switched the roles and he’s been reduced to dragging your drunk ass up the flight of stairs to his apartment and god, you were so fucking heavy with all that dead weight. 

“Remind me to never let you get near Jimin again,” He sneers under his breath, mentally cursing out the boy who had offered the shot of vodka to you in the first place. “I swear to god, I leave you alone for two fucking seconds—!” 

“M’not my fault!” You whine, at least having the conscious decency to stay leaning against the wall that Yoongi has propped you against in order to dig around his pockets for his keys. “It was good…” 

“You’re stupid,” He repeats with a shake of his head, unlocking the door and kicking it open long enough to help you inside. You’re no stranger to his apartment, practically living in it on the nights you spend studying with him or playing video games or, once again, just being in each other’s presence. It’s one of his favorite ways to pass the time, but you’d have to get him drunk to admit that one as well. He distracts himself by dragging you towards the couch, easing you down onto the cushion. “You stay here, lemme grab you a sweater.” 

You hum, falling back against the surface. “I love it when you give orders.” 

Min Yoongi has only gotten you drunk out of your mind a grand total of three times within the long period of time the pair of you have spent growing up together, so how could he have forgotten that you’re the type of affectionate, say-whatever-the-fuck-is-on-your-mind type of drunk and it has a tendency to drive him crazy. Not bad crazy, but the kind of crazy that almost makes him want to kiss you and confirm the fact that your lips are even softer than he’s spent way too long fantasizing about. 

He swallows thickly to dispel himself of those thoughts. “Shut up,” He manages long enough to make his escape, disappearing into the hallway and reappearing a few moments later with a sweater from his closet. “Here,” He says, reappearing just to toss you the garment. 

He’s about to turn and go back to grab some blankets for you before your whining interrupts the thought process. He sighs, turning on his heel again to find you desperately trying to find the zipper of your dress, twisting your body uselessly and arms unable to bend back far enough to reach it. You make a face, scrunching your face up, nose wrinkling and in spite of his exhaustion and the alcohol overpowering the previous adrenaline, he can’t help but quirk up the corner of his lips. Cute. 

He approaches you, sitting next to you on the couch and turning your body to the side, making quick haste to unzip your dress—not that the gesture makes him uncomfortable and not that he’s never done it before, but the action seems so private and intimate and romantic, which would normally make him want to fling himself off a cliff but with you it’s different. With you, it’s clammy hands and racing hearts and shaky breaths and just so beyond the typical Min Yoongi image that he desperately longs to separate himself from it at every possible moment. Weak, that’s what he was. With you, he’s just weak and pliable and easy to manipulate and an idiot. 

Yoongi practically tears the zipper down, flinging himself off the couch as soon as he catches sight of the skin of your back, shutting his eyes as he throws his body down on the floor. “D-Did I get it?” He inquires shakily, actually super glad that you’re drunk and likely won’t remember any of the stupid shit he could potentially say or do during a duration of the night. Finally, he wills himself to look up at you. “Do you need help with—oh my god, Y/N!” He exclaims, throwing his hands over his eyes, the image of you stripping your dress off still very clear and very vivid in his mind. “A little warning next time, will you?” 

“Yoongi, I need help,” You manage, your voice muffled by what sounds like a pillow. “I can’t put your sweater on… Yoongi!” 

He grits his teeth together, repeating the affirmation of your current state of mind and how you didn’t know any better, and how you couldn’t have known about his own personal feelings for you when no one else knows—except him and Hoseok, but besides the point. 

“Fine, fine, you big baby,” He scolds, throwing his hands down at his side and gazing down at your figure collapsed on the couch. From the light of his apartment, it’s hard to miss the black undergarments you’ve slipped yourself into, the hemline where fabric meets skin, so he works hard on distracting himself by grabbing his sweater on the other end of the couch. “Sit up for me.” 

You groan, but follow his order by arising on the cushion, watching him with wide, glassy eyes. “Yoongi,” You start, continuing to gaze up at him as he busies with straightening out the sweater in order to make it easy to slip onto you. “You’re really pretty—did you know that?” 

He stiffens slightly, heart ramming as he swallows, pinning you with a confused stare that completely goes over your head. 

The corner of your lips turn up into a smile. “Like, really pretty. Your hair always looks soft, and so does your face. Your eyes get this little sparkle when you smile, and your jawline…” 

“Y/N,” He interrupts, approaching you and raising the sweater up, watching as you raise your own arms up to help him slip the material over your head. “Shut up.” 

“I thought you liked it when people complicated you!” You retort, your statement muffled by the sweater. “I know you pretend not to, but I see that little smile you get when you think no one is watching. You always try to look really cold and calculating in front of everyone, you try to look like nothing bothers you, but you’re just a dork.” Your head pops through the top of the sweater. “You smell really good too.” 

In spite of the words you say having an effect on his mind, his heart, his nerves, he can’t help the smile that spreads itself across his lips at your scattered mess of a brain. He reaches over, running his fingers through your hair. “Go to sleep,” He says instead, turning around to go into the kitchen, probably to get some medicine and some water for you for the morning after. 

“You smell amazing Yoongi,” You continue as if you hadn’t heard him at all. “Like, really good. Like a boy. Girls smell too soft and sweet most of the time, too floral, you know? But you smell sturdy. Sturdy and a little bit of pine. Outdoorsy. I didn’t know you went outside so much.” 

“Y/N, I say this for both my sanity and your own—but go to sleep,” He interjects just as he’s approaching you again to place the medicine and water on the coffee table. “Waking up might hurt like a bitch, you gotta just rest this off.” 

You laugh. “We should go outside more, like hiking or something. Or rock climbing. It could be a date!” You sit up, eyes widening. “We should go on a date, Yoongi.” 

“No, we shouldn’t.” The words, however, feel pathetic leaving his lips. It’s a very light-hearted retort on the subject matter. 

“Why? You don’t want to go on a date with me?” 

Yoongi rolls his eyes without contempt. “Shut up Y/N.” He turns to make his way down the hallway towards his bedroom, his mind set on adjusting his alarm to early morning so he could make you breakfast before you could wake up. 

You moan, still trapped in your spot on the couch. “Come over here and make me.” 

Yoongi freezes from his place in the hallway. Your voice seems to have lost its original innocent, light-hearted quality to it and is replaced with something darker, lower in pitch, husky along the edges, and his swallows. 

He turns around just in time to see you stagger your way back to your feet. Despite the swaying of your body, you look less drunk than you had been a few moments ago. Yoongi’s eyes roam quickly along your frame, taking in everything from the way you wear his sweater to the dark glint in your eyes, the red of your lips and the flush of your cheeks—you look so vulnerable and welcoming and warm and Yoongi would be lying to himself if he told himself he didn’t just want to take you and have you right there on the couch.

But the bigger part of him, the bigger part that loves you and is protective over you, who promises to himself that he would never let anything happen to you—wins. Of course it wins. Like he said, weak. You make him weak. 

He does manage a few steps towards you, reaching forward to grip your shoulders and setting you back on the couch. He kneels before you, leaning forward to kiss your temple, lips hovering your ear: “If you can say that to me while sober, we’ll talk.” 

You let out a sigh, leaning into him, and he can physically feel the air of liquid courage fading away from your body and being replaced with complete and utter exhaustion—at your ropes end, you are a sleepy drunk. 

He smiles against your skin, pulling away and readjusting you so that you laid horizontal on the couch. “Sweet dreams.” 

#yoongi scenarios #yoongi fluff #bts scenarios #bts imagines #bts fluff #yoongi imagine #yoongi x you #yoongi scenario #idk how to tag anymore i'm sorry #collection:petals #traci writes

[imaginepirates]

Modern! Jack

Another modern au where Jack stumbles upon your house in the woods. This is an outdoorsy one for everyone who loves Jack being Jack. You try to convince Jack that the mountains are just as beautiful as the sea. (Poll: which do you like better?)

@emdrabbles​ @tesserphantom​ @paljonkaikenlaista​ @viper-official​ 

~3000 words

~~~~~~~

          The wind whispered through the trees, the light dappling through the leaves to fall across the ground in mesmerizing patterns. You stood under them, watching the movement in the undergrowth. Mice scuttled through the bushes, insects skittered across the ground, and a thrush took flight from its place in the grasses. You walked along a path that led away from your small home and out into the woods. You lived in a secluded area, away from the hustle and bustle of city life. It was nice, out in nature. It was relaxing, and your walks always took you somewhere new.

          You stepped off the path, letting your feet lead you. You knew the area well enough that you wouldn’t get lost. You made your way to a small brook, using the stones jutting out from the water as a pathway across. The stream burbled up at you as you crossed. You were glad to have this space to yourself. Sometimes, hikers came along, and you held pleasant conversation with them. They came down from the hills behind your home, a beautiful range of white-topped mountains that stretched for miles, carved out by glaciers. You could swear that they were the most beautiful land formations on earth. A bird cawed somewhere nearby, taking off from its perch. You watched it fly overhead, admiring its deep blue coloring.

          You noticed the man not long after. He came stumbling through the trees, looking disoriented. He carried no pack, and you worried that something might have happened to him while he had been out hiking. Your fear was amplified by the fresh bloodstain on his shirt. You both stared at each other a shocked moment before either of you moved.

          You moved toward him, taking his arm. He must have been one of those modern hippies; his dreadlocks reached his lower back. There was some sort of dark makeup around his eyes, and his clothes were strange, too hot for hiking in. You brushed the thoughts of his strangeness out of your mind, intent on getting him some help. “I live not far from here. I can help you.”

          “Thank you, love. But may I ask: where exactly is ‘here’?”

          You glanced over at his face, realizing that he was sincere. Surely he had to have some idea of where he was. He’d likely gotten lost while out on the path, but there was no way that he could be utterly confused as to his location. “You’re by the Cascade Mountain Range.” Seeing his still-confused expression, you decided that the injury on his chest might be taking more out of him than you originally thought.

          You rushed him back to the house, a little surprised to find how steadily the man walked across the rocks in the stream. Once inside, you sat him on your couch and went to the bathroom for your first aid kit. You kept one around just in case, especially considering the fact that accidents like this did, in fact, happen.

          When you stepped back into your living room, you saw that the man was standing in your kitchen, casting a curious glance at your toaster-oven. Seeing the kit in your hands, he nodded, stepping back over toward the sofa.

          You pulled his shirt to the side to find a long gash. It was shallow, but it had bled a concerning amount. You bandaged it as best as you could, making sure to apply generous amounts of disinfectant. With the bleeding stopped, you took another look at your patient.

          He wore a bandana around his head with trinkets dangling from it, including a rather large piece of what you assumed to be plastic, though it looked convincingly like bone. His outfit was…interesting, to say the least. He wore what appeared to be a worn waistcoat over a billowing shirt, and he had thick belts around his chest and middle. The very personification of a swashbuckling pirate, you thought. He was the strangest person you’d met in the woods to date.

          “I know you might feel a little confused,” you said, carefully folding a bloodstained washcloth. “You seem to have lost some blood. Would you mind telling me what happened?”

          “Confused is a bit of an understatement, love. I’m baffled. Bewildered. Befuddled, if you will.”

          “And why is that, Mr…”

          “Sparrow.”

          “Mr. Sparrow.” Sparrow? you thought. Certainly not Sparrow as in Jack Sparrow, fictional pirate and dashing rogue?

          “Because I have no idea where I am. In perfect honesty, I have no idea when I am.”

          You almost laughed. The notion seemed so ridiculous. Then you realized he might have passed out somewhere, and was probably asking for the day of week. “It’s Thursday,” you said. “March thirteenth.”

          He nodded.

          “Do you mind telling me how you got hurt?”

          “Oh! That.” He looked down at the injury, as if analyzing it for the first time. “Swordfight.”

          “Swordfight?” At this point, you were fairly sure that you were hallucinating. You’d heard of strange things happening to people, encounters that left people shocked, but you’d never thought that you would have one. You couldn’t tell if the man was a very good actor, or if he was simply insane. You realized that it would be best to call the police. “You should get some rest,” you told him. “You look tired. When you wake up, I’ll have some food ready.”

          He thanked you, sprawling out across your couch to take a nap. You moved over to the kitchen, picking up the phone on the way there. Any man who claimed that he had been injured in the middle of the woods in a swordfight wasn’t the type you wanted to be around. You looked back at Sparrow, who had his thick leather boots slung over the edge of your sofa.

          A glint of metal caught your eye. There, resting by his hip, was a belt. A large sheath hung off one side, and a sword seemed to be inside it. “Excuse me,” you said without thinking. “Is that a real sword?” The pommel looked lovely, and you wanted to know where he might have gotten something so convincing.

          Sparrow cracked an eye. “Of course it is.” He flashed a glint of steel, then returned to his nap.

          You put down the phone. Maybe he's not crazy. You busied yourself making a snack, trying to calm your panicking mind. The man laying on your couch was too much like the actual Jack Sparrow, and you were afraid that you’d hit your head in the shower, or that you were still dreaming.

          By the time he woke up, he seemed very thankful for the peanut butter and jelly sandwich that you handed him. He ate it with gusto, eyes widening with what you knew was the unusual taste of peanut butter.

          “Thank you, love.” He licked the jelly off his fingers. “It seems that I’m in need of a place to stay. I don’t suppose you’d be willing to provide?”

          “Of course,” you squeaked.

          “Unfortunately, I don’t know my way home, and I don’t know how long I’m supposed to be here. I hope it’s not too inconvenient.”

          “Not at all.” It really wasn’t, but it was certainly odd to keep a strange man in your house for an undetermined amount of time.

          The next few days passed blissfully uneventfully, leaving you to tend to Jack’s injury and introduce him to modern technology. Hilariously, the bed was probably the thing he enjoyed most. You had a guest bed, and he flopped into it unceremoniously all the time. You supposed that if this truly was Jack, then he hadn’t slept in a proper bed in ages.

          He was wary of the shower, but you convinced him that scrubbing some of the grime off his face and body would make him feel better. He admitted, later, that it did.

          His wound healed up nicely. It hadn’t needed stitches, which you were thankful for. It had been a shallow cut, but it had bled a lot in the beginning, which had concerned you for obvious reasons.

          He kept flicking open a compass that looked suspiciously like the real one, staring at it before snapping it closed again, annoyed.

          “What do you keep looking at your compass for?”

          “Nothing.”

          You raised an eyebrow. “I doubt that.”

          “Look, lassie. I appreciate the hospitality, but the compass is my business.”

          You frowned. You hadn’t realized that Jack probably kept the compass a secret. From most people, at least. You supposed the people who knew about it were exceptions, given that they had known him for a while.

           You could tell he was growing fidgety, and that he needed something to do. He paced around the room sometimes, and he kept toying with some of the beads in his hair.

          “Do you want to go for a walk?” You asked. “You seem like you could use something to do.”

          He agreed. You left the house with a backpack full of food and water, just in case you needed it. Always better to be safe than sorry. You walked back along the little path you’d found him on. Again, he was surefooted crossing the rocks in the stream, and you wondered what would make his balance so good. The mountains rose up ahead of you, a hundred trails splitting off into the wilderness.

          “How can you tell where you are with all these trees?” Jack asked.

          “I suppose you have to know the paths. Or get a map. Or look for landmarks. It’s pretty easy to tell where you are in comparison to what mountains are around.”

          He looked up. “All your mountains look the same.”

          “That’s not true.” You pointed out the jagged rocks at the top of a mountain to your left, and the smoother top of the one to your right.

          “It’s easier to see things on the open ocean. The sea is the most beautiful thing in the world.” He spoke with such reverence, you could tell that he really believed it. He must love the ocean.

          “There’s nothing out there!” you said. “There aren’t any landmarks to tell you where you are.”

          “Stars, lassy.”

          “That’s only good at night,” you pointed out. “And I think the mountains are more beautiful than the ocean.”

          Jack made a face.

          “Have you ever hiked up to the top of one and looked off at everything down below?”

          “Why would I?”

          “Because it’s amazing. I’ll prove it to you.”

          Jack looked up at some of the towering peaks. “I’m not sure I can make it up there, love.”

          “It’s not so bad, I promise. We won’t go all the way up to the top, anyway. That requires rock-climbing gear.” Jack still looked dubious, but you kept on. “You can’t say that something isn’t beautiful if you haven’t experienced it. I’ve been to the ocean. I know it’s pretty, but not as lovely as the sight off the top of the hills.”

          “If you say so.”

          You led him up a dusty path that connected to the base of one of the mountains. There was a ledge of rock that you could climb up to and look out at all the things down below. You started leading him up through the trees and bushes.

          Jack looked around at all the foliage. His eyes followed flying birds, gliding butterflies, and flowers lining the path. He stared, wide eyed, at all of it. As you climbed higher, he looked out between the trees to see the view. You enjoyed the look of surprise on his face when he gazed out over your home.

          “I don’t think I’ve ever been this high up before,” he said.

          “We still have a ways to go, too. You’re going to love it when we reach the top.”

          He looked back at you with a silly grin. “You’re right: this is beautiful. Not sure it beats freedom on the ocean yet, but it’s something.”

          You couldn’t wait for him to see it all sprawling out underneath him. The true views were something else. You loved looking down over the little valley you were in, trying to find your house in the trees, looking across at more towering mountains, the sun framed by the peaks.

          When you finally reached the top, the afternoon sun hung overhead in the sky. Jack stopped a moment to catch his breath before walking out onto the shelf of rock that extended from the cliff face. He sucked in a breath as he looked out at the view.

          The trees had fallen away behind you, and the shelf of rock gave you an unobscured view of the valley below. You could just pic out your small house among the trees far beneath you. The sky seemed to stretch on forever, over the mountains opposite you, bright blue in the midday sun. Everything looked so small; the stream you’d crossed earlier was a winding ribbon, and the road leading up to your house was no wider than a finger from where you stood.

          “This is…there aren’t words, love.” Jack gazed out over the expanse. “I’ve never seen anything like it. And the air is crisp, crisper than on the sea, even. And there’s no sound. It just...disappears.”

          “I know. Now you can see why I love it so much.”

          “I do.”

          You sat on the rock, enjoying the view and eating snacks. There was the occasional bird whistle, but other than that, you were in complete silence. No sounds from the road traveled up to greet you, and you were there all alone. Jack couldn’t stop staring. Obviously, he’d never hiked up anything in his life.

          He flipped open his compass with a practiced flick. Chewing on a granola bar, he looked down, almost lazily, and the expression on his face changed at once. He was on his feet in an instant. He stepped out off the outcropping, back onto the trail, and took a few short strides to the left. Then, he turned in a few circles, finally stooping down to pick something up.

          He brought it back to you, inspecting it carefully. It seemed to be some kind of broach. Why his compass pointed him to a broach, you couldn’t understand, but you were beginning to understand that this was, in fact, the real Jack Sparrow in front of you. He sat back down, and pulled at a piece of string attached to the object. It had some paper on the end of it. A note, probably. His eyes widened, and he cursed under his breath.

          “What is it?”

          “Nothing.” He shoved it in a pocket.

          You looked at him suspiciously, but decided to leave it. He’d tell you if he wanted to. Besides, you had to head back down the mountain if you wanted anything to eat for dinner.

          You headed back with Jack in a dark mood. He glared testily at the trees and shrubs. Obviously, whatever he’d found in the woods was bothering him. You didn’t want to pry, but you were curious to know what made his mood change so quickly.

          You arrived back at your house just as the sun was beginning to sink over the opposite mountains. The air conditioning felt blissful against your warm skin. A shower was in order, you knew, but you decided to clear the air first. Jack had dropped onto the couch, and you walked up, sitting down beside him.

         “What was it?” You asked gently.

          “What was what?”

          “You know what.” You sighed. “The thing you found while we were out hiking.”

          “My ticket home, is what.”

          “Your ticket home?” You didn’t understand.

          He moved closer, showing you the broach. It was a silver ship, and the light bounced off the reflective surface. Then, he grabbed the note, holding it up for you to read.

          Jack, it seems you’re doing well where I put you. You were never very good at facing your problems, so I decided to give you one you couldn’t run away from. You seem to have acclimated to the future, and you deserve a way back. Just rub on the ship and think of home.

          You stared, flabbergasted. What did it mean? The initials at the end caught your notice. T.D. Surely that had to be Tia Dalma. Was Jack going already, then? Was he leaving you to go back to your everyday life? You’d enjoyed his company, and the more you thought on it, the less you wanted him to go.

          “Damned woman put me in the future herself! I can’t believe her, sometimes. But that’s women for you.” He turned to you. “Well, not all women, I guess.”

          “Are you leaving, then?” You asked, a little afraid of the answer.

          “I do want to get back to my Pearl,” he said, “but I like it here. It’s a nice rest from the ship. Besides, Tia said I needed to do some learning. I don’t suppose it would hurt to do a little more.” He grinned cheekily. “So, tell me about yourself.”

          “I don’t think that’s what she meant.” You smiled in spite of yourself.

          “You’re right. She wanted me to face my problems. And you’re certainly not a problem, love.”

          Oh dear. You rolled your eyes. It was going to be different, if he decided to stick around. Different, but decidedly worthwhile.

          “Tell me one thing,” he said. “Does my not-problem kiss? They’ve certainly deserved it. I mean, they’ve patched me up, and given me a place to stay, and shown me some beautiful views.” With that statement, he raked your body over with his eyes. “I think we can do more beautiful things, too.”

          You blushed furiously. “I suppose that depends. Are you a good kisser?”

          “You’re going to have to come over here to find out.” He winked.

          He was. And he insisted on proving it to you quite a few times. Not that you minded.

#potc #pirates #pirates of the caribbean #Jack Sparrow #sparrow #Captain Jack Sparrow #request #requests #jack x reader #jack sparrow x reader #potc fanfic #x reader #self insert

[quarantinebreakup412081121]

Day 1: Long Story Short It Was The Wrong Guy (AGAIN)

After nearly a year of being miserable after my ex and I broke up, and about 8  overlapping months of attempting to date, I finally met someone.

He seemed genuinely nice.  He met me at my neighborhood park and we walked his dog, around and around and around for probably a couple hours.  We talked nonstop- about 90% of the conversation was about our dogs.  We left and he hugged me goodbye (I turned to the side because- COVID- and I wasn’t expecting it... but it turns out he was vaccinated already) and said we’d do it again.

The next time he came to my house, met my dogs, and we walked his dog around my neighborhood. My dogs aren’t up for more than about a half a mile walk, so they stayed at home.  We talked and talked, we ended up back at the house before we were finished, so we re-walked half of the route, then walked part of the neighborhood beside mine.  By the time we got back, we still weren’t finished talking, but it was getting late.  We attempted the hug again.  He was vaccinated, I was going to be vaccinated the next month.  His dog lunged when we were going in for the hug and it ended up being kind of a 101 Dalmatians, tangled hug moment.  It was funny and a but awkward, but definitely memorable.

He said we’d do it again.

Then he asked me to go to his apartment so he could cook for me; he called it a date.  It was a little fast, but I made the hour long drive and went over for shrimp and fake meat tacos.  We also watched a movie.  It was nice.  He kissed me on the way out.  It was sweet.  I wasn’t sure that I wanted it to happen so soon, but I left with butterflies.

The next few dates alternated between him coming here to do outdoorsy things and me going to his apartment for a meal and a movie.  It was beginning to feel like a real relationship.

Over the next 5 months, he introduced me to all of his friends and we went to game nights together, coordinated to play video games with his friends when I went over, attended his friend’s post elopement wedding party, and he had me sign the photo matte that they had in place of a guest book.  It felt real, it felt solid, it felt like it would be long term and like he really cared about me.  It felt like the opposite of what I had with my ex.

He had me meet his dad.  He came over and met my family.  He said he’d go to Disney with me and he asked me to go skiing with him and his family.  He said he loved the beach and that it was his favorite place to go- so I anticipated multiple beach trips over the summer.  He listened to Taylor Swift with me, we watched dumb movies together, went grocery shopping and made Target runs together- aka “couple shit” as he called it.  I loved it.  I never got to do everyday couple activities with my ex.  He’d cook for me, I’d cook for him, he’d make random Taco Bell stops for me and he knew my order.

A few weeks ago, I finally decided to open up to him about some of my anxiety and worries.  I thought that the person I’d gotten to know over the last few months would be a person I could talk to and be real with- something I could never do with my ex unless I wanted to be judged and then ignored about it.  He listened, and attempted to offer a helpful response- which wasn’t really helpful, but he TRIED.  That was much more than I’d ever gotten from my ex.  A few days later, I went over to his apartment for the night.  We had dinner, it was off.  The conversation was off.  The movie was uncomfortable- like we were just sitting through it to get it over with.  He went to bed early but I was so wide awake that I sat in the living room playing on my phone and watching the storm outside for another 3 or 4 hours so I wouldn’t toss and turn in bed and keep him up sine he had to work in the morning.  In the morning, I had to drive home at 7am on only a few hours of sleep. I was cranky from that and the way the previous evening had panned out.

I laid in bed for a bit and snuggled his dog.  She’s so sweet.  She loves me and I love her-- so do my boys.  I laid there thinking “this feels like it might be the last time I ever see her...  so I just scratched her head and took a photo to remember the moment.

The goodbye was awkward, and I texted him when I got home and apologized for acting weird the night before and that morning.  I told him things felt off for some reason and laid out some things that were on my mind.  I thought open communication would be a good thing and that it would help him to understand my headspace and show him that I felt comfortable enough with him to talk to him  about these things.

The next week, he avoided hanging out with me.  The week after that, same story.  I asked him to come to a concert with me on a Sunday night- he said he’d love to if it wasn’t on a Sunday.  Then I asked him about another concert on the following Tuesday night- I jokingly asked him to play hooky from work and come with me.  He said he couldn’t- but I understood that; it made sense. I went out of town for the weekend to visit my brother and he said that we’d plan time to get together once I returned.  I returned and he mentioned nothing about getting together.  I brought it up once and he didn’t acknowledge it, but he still talked to me, just a lot less than usual.

The conversations we were having sounded like repeats of previous conversations- and I honestly don’t know if he didn’t remember telling me some of those things, but he liked to partake in a beer or two or three... pretty frequently- so I’m not certain that some of the time he talked to me, he wasn’t 100% there.  But that wasn’t the point- he was just sending me pleasantries and fillers as texts. No real conversation.

I started getting worried because my mind went to the worst possibility.  He was checking out.  We were done- or almost done.  I asked him if we were good because it seemed like we weren’t.  He said he was good and that work was just really rough lately and he was basically working and sleeping all the time.  All of my worries melted away and I instantly felt a sense of relief-- I had been worrying for nothing!  So I asked him if he had time for an evening hangout on Friday or Saturday or a different night if those didn’t work.  I’d come to him and bring food and we could watch a movie and veg out for a bit.

That was last night.

This morning I woke up early to go to a sunflower field to take some fun summer photos.  With covid apparently flaring up again, I was trying to find safe summer activities to do before the season’s over.  Since I couldn’t get my guy to go with me to basically anything, I decided I’d do the things he didn’t want to do with me on my own and do the other things with him.  It wasn’t so much a compromise as it was me just learning to be okay with having someone who didn’t want to take part in activities with me.  My mom went with me an we got some gorgeous photos.  I kept an eye on my phone expecting him to reply to my hangout request, because once he said yes- I’d also ask him to go with me to visit my brother in a couple weeks an have a fun beach weekend.

On the way home, I went through the drive thru at the bank and while I was waiting, I noticed my phone blinking.

It was a text.  From him.

I don’t think we’re a good match for each other.  There has been numerous occasions where you’ve said or done something (even in the name of “joking”) that hasn’t sat right with me.  I’m sure there have been times you felt the same about me as well.  I don’t want to waste any more of your time either.  I hope you find a man who is a better match for you.

First of all, what the actual fuck.  Secondly, there *have* been numerous occasions.  Third- I have no idea what I said or did...  Best I can muster is that since I’m pro equal rights and pretty liberal, maybe it came across as offensive because I think he has family members who are... trump-esque.  I barely brought up politics because I didn’t want to make things weird.  He is a cop and I never made jokes unless he did first (he’d regularly joke about cop stuff and talk about how he isn’t a typical cop and how he doesn’t like hanging out with other cops or doing cop stuff or even talking about cop stuff outside of work.)  He gave me a whole spiel about he’s not a “cop cop” when we first met, like he was trying to sell himself to me-- which  he didn’t need to do, but I thought it was cute.

I asked him if we could talk for a few minutes later in the day because I wasn’t understanding what was happening.  I told him that I wasn’t trying to change his feelings about anything, but I wanted to talk.  He totally blindsided me.

He never responded.

It’s basically midnight and he’s had most of the day to respond.  Five months and he can’t even give me an explanation.

This is what I get for trying to trust people.

Tomorrow- or later tonight- I’m sending one last text and blocking him.  He knew that’s how my ex ended things and how insensitive it was and how wrong it was.  We had this conversation.  And after five months, he just strings me along for the last few months and then ends things with a text.  So goddamn insensitive.

I know I’m better off without someone like him in my life, but this hurts so much more than the last time because at least my first ex was a jerk and it was on brand for him.  This one... my second ex... he was supposed to be better than this.  He was supposed to be nice.  He wasn’t supposed to hurt me, not like this.

#quarantine #quarantine breakup #breakup #love #loss #heartbreak #heartache #quarantinebreakup #lockdown #betrayal #folklore #longstoryshort #taylor swift #taylorswift

[kaitycole]

faded and worn corners

Prompt: Finding an old letter or picture of them together deep inside a pocket AND Sharing a coat together (list here)

Pairing: Drake x Liam

Word Count: 918

Warning: Domestic Fluff

Thank you @sirbeepsalot​ for the request!

A/N: I had originally wanted the sharing a coat to be different but I couldn’t get it to fit so I modified it a tad.

“Couldn’t he have waited until it was warmer outside?” Drake grumbles, if anything he’s gotten grumpier with the passing years.

“I don’t think he purposefully had our grandson in October.” Liam shakes his head; his husband could be so one-track minded at times. “What happened to my outdoorsy man?”

Drake rolls his eyes; those years were long behind him. His once dark brown hair was now mostly gray, frown lines deep across his forehead and a strong desire to sit in his chair watching TV instead of being outside in the cold.

“Grandpa!” A little red-haired boy comes running over to Liam who scoops him up in his arms and kisses his cheek as he says, “Ollie”.

The boy giggles before he presses his forehead to Liam’s, it was Ollie or Oliver’s way of saying ‘I love you’.

“What’s wrong with Pop Pop?” Ollie asks, frowning as he looked over at Drake.

“He’s just getting old!” Liam runs his fingers through his graying hair, to everyone’s surprise the monarch’s hair hadn’t grayed as much as his husband’s. Drake refuses to believe that Liam doesn’t secretly dye his hair. “Liam Rys!” Drake snaps, causing the other two to laugh.

“There you are. You scared me, Ollie.” James sighs, taking the six-year old from Liam’s arms.

James grew up into Liam’s twin through and through with just enough of Leo’s rebellious ways to explain how he ended up with Bella Nevrakis, daughter of Olivia Nevrakis. The two had just welcomed their second son, Alexander which called for royal family photo release; the current source of Drake’s irritation.

*                      * The photo shoot lasts an hour and a half longer than intended. Ollie couldn’t decide if he wanted to sit on Grandpa or Pop Pop’s lap so they had to do some of each, Alexander being just two weeks old wasn’t a fan of the cold and Olivia refused to have a picture taken on her bad side.

When it’s finally over, Drake tries to bolt as quickly as he can back in but Ollie stops him.

“Pop Pop.” “Mm?” He’s colder than he’ll admit, he was so irritated when Liam said they were going outside he refused to grab a coat saying he didn’t need one.

Ollie reaches his arms up signaling for Drake to pick him up and once he does, he presses his forehead to his Pop Pop’s. Drake immediately relaxes, pressing slightly back against his grandson as if saying ‘I love you more’.

*                      * Drake and Liam wave as James, Bella and their sons head back to Applewood leaving the royal couple alone. The wind blows sharply, wrapping around Drake and causing him to shiver. As if on cue, Liam shrugs his coat off draping it around Drake’s shoulders.

“You’ll get cold.” Drake states, even after all these years Liam’s gestures still get to him.

“I wore layers,” he smirks. “Like I told you too.”

Drake mutters something to himself before slipping his arms in the sleeves and shoving his hands in the pockets. He raises an eyebrow with he feels something almost sharp poke his finger and then realizes there’s a hole in the pocket. He digs around before pulling out a small polaroid, one from those more modern cameras. The corners were worn and slightly discolored, but it held up well through the years.

“What’s that?” Liam looks over his shoulder and smiles, “Remember that day?”

“How could I forget?”

Drake had the whole thing planned and then the weather decided it should snow. He couldn’t believe it, honestly things couldn’t get worse.

They did.

When he finally got back to the palace from his dad’s old cabin, he was informed by a maid, not his boyfriend, that Liam would be on a conference call until whenever. Today was just chalking up to be the worst day of Drake’s life.

It was close to 2am by the time Liam crept into his room, a half sleeping Drake on his bed. Liam smiled, that was his favorite Drake; his peaceful expression and not to mention how husky his voice sounded.

“Drake? Drake? Wake up.” Liam softly shook his shoulder.

“Liam? What?”

“Come with me.” Liam pulled him up to his feet and handed him his coat. He then dragged him outside to the middle of the apple orchard.

“Li, what are we doing out here?” He looked around, annoyed.

“Drake Thomas Walker.”

Any amount of sleep that was in his body was completely gone. There was no way Liam had been planning the same thing. He couldn’t let Liam beat him.

“Lia-“

“I love you.”

Drake looked at his boyfriend, his boyfriend who was always one step ahead of him. He shook his head as he pulled him in for a kiss, hearing a click just before he pulled back. Liam and that damned camera.

“You know, I was going to tell you I love you that night first.” “Oh, were you?” Liam questions, unconvinced his husband just isn’t a sore loser.

“I had it all planned. Candle lit dinner at the cabin, that retched camera nowhere in sight, but like always you were one step ahead.” Liam pulls Drake into a chaste kiss, “If it wasn’t for my retched camera, we wouldn’t have that memory. Or this one.”

Drake grumble something Liam doesn’t catch as they walk back inside the palace, rubbing his thumb gently over the photograph. Maybe the cold weather wasn’t so bad, it did after all hold all his favorite memories.

#choices #trr liam rys #trr drake walker #trr driam #driam

[floatingpetals]

Call Of The Mountains || Ch. 1

Pairings: Steve Rogers x Reader x Bucky Barnes (Werewolf AU!)

Warnings: Nothin

Word Count: 1700+

Summary:  (Werewolf-AU!Stucky x f!reader) Life had begun to overwhelm her. Work was insane and her life was a mess. There was a tug in her soul that called her to take this trip, deep into the forest away, where there was the peace and stillness of nature. She didn’t know why, but she knew she needed to listen. It was meant to be a relaxing trip, but one misstep on some moss sent her tumbling into the rapids of the flooded river. She thought she was gone and the earth decided it was time to reclaim her. She didn’t expect was to be pulled from the river nor the creature that saved her. Her entire world is turned upside down and all it took was an accidental step to the left. (18+ Only Story)

A/N: Aight, so this is one I’ve been wanting to write for a while but made myself wait until I got a few stories done. Now that’s done, I can write this! It’s gonna get spicier in later chapters, and I’m exccciittteeeed! I hope you all enjoy this new story and the wonders it’s gonna contain! Let me know what you think! Enjoy! ❤

The gifs are not mine, credit to the owner.

Chapter One | Chapter Two | Series Masterlist

This wasn’t a really bright idea.  She knew it. However, that didn’t stop her from packing up her car with a tent, duffle bag filled with essentials and enough food for a week or so in a bear-proof cooler. She needed a break. Things had gotten crazy at work and life was stressing her out to where she was nearing her breaking point. If she didn’t take this vacation, she’d lose her ever-loving mind.

Fortunately, her boss understood and gave her the time off she wanted. The very next day, Y/N packed her car up, let her friends know she was going to be gone without cell reception for a week or so and drove off towards the mountains and forest. There was a campsite she and her family had been to a few times before; they were more outdoorsy than her, but something was calling to her. A little voice inside of her was craving to be surrounded by nature and away from society, tugging her towards the distant mountains. She needed to unplug and unwind. And so far, the little voice hadn’t steered her wrong.

The drive was long, but it helped her being to decompress and leave the stress behind her. The closer she drove, the thicker and taller the trees began to grow. Eventually, she reached the exit her mother wrote on a sticky note. Very quickly Y/N felt a peace wash over her as she took the quiet country road towards her destination.

She checked her location on her phone and noted her service was at one bar and kept dropping, not that she minded. She was about half an hour from the turn into the reserve and still had a few hours left of daylight. Good, she’d be able to pitch the tent and get a quick dinner started before the sun began to set. Maybe she could go for a quick dip in the river nearby. It had a lovely waterfall that flowed from a spring somewhere along the mountain. It was the perfect place for her to unwind.

Half an hour later, a smile spread across Y/N’s face when she spotted the sign and entrance. The ranger at the booth at the reserve's entrance was happy to help point her in the right direction, chatting with her for a moment and explaining how things worked. She was one of the few campers there, and while she might run into one or two if she went out hiking, the campsite she requested was far enough away she didn’t have to worry about seeing people all the time. Just what she wanted. He did, however, warn her that due to a large amount of rain they were getting, the rapids in the river were quite high and fast in the area and to make sure she kept an eye on where she stepped on the soft ground beside it.

Following the directions the ranger gave, Y/N drove further into the reserve and was unable to keep herself from admiring the green around her. Living in the city meant she got very little to none of this. True there were trees here and there, but nothing like this. Parking her car in the marked spot beside the site, Y/N stepped out and took in a deep breath of the clean crisp air. No loud sirens or shouting filled in air, or the smog and dingy stale air from the city. All she heard was the sound of the trees swaying in the breeze and the happy chirps of the many birds in the canopies. The weather was supposed to be sunny and relatively cool, with a slight chance of clouds later in the week. The perfect weather for camping in the perfect setting. Yep, she thought, this was what I needed.

The unpacking took her a little longer than she thought. The tent was new, one of the dome ones big enough to fit six people. Her father bought it on sale, something about it being almost 70% off and he just had to get it. The tent was comically large for Y/N, both in height and width, but she wasn’t going to complain. She didn’t want to go out and spend an inordinate about of money for one camping trip. There’s no telling when the next time she’d get a chance to do this again. Her father was also the one that gifted her with the cooler, which he reminded her to keep in the car locked up tight at night as well as a few lanterns, a swiss army knife, plenty of matches and lighters, a few jugs of water, a camping GPS tracker, and the fishing poles Y/N doubted she’d use. But considering she had no idea what she was going to do while here, Y/N didn’t argue. Her mom wasn’t so sure about this, going out alone into the woods, but Y/N just needed to do it. That tug kept growing inside of her and the only way to make it stop was to answer the call.

The rest of the afternoon went smoothly. After the slight struggle figuring the tent out, Y/N made a quick dinner with her packed food and started getting her things ready for sleep later that night. But first, Y/N wanted to go find the waterfall with the scenic pond that turned fed the river. Going off what the ranger said, Y/N assumed the waterfall would be much larger than the last time she’d been. She had plans to go back in the morning but didn’t want to wander around trying to find it.

So lacing up her hiking boots, she snagged a flashlight in case it got darker sooner than anticipated and followed the little marked trail that led her through the woods. The trail was familiar. She hadn’t been here in a few years, and normally her parents would camp further down the river, but once she found the main trail that followed closely alongside the riverbank, Y/N knew where she was. She paused at the sight of the much higher waters, the usually calm waters roaring with life. The ranger wasn’t joking about the current. It looked like it could drag a person under and downstream before anyone had a chance to blink.

Keeping a close to the trail along the forest, away from the soft edge, Y/N walked against the stream of the river and towards where the waterfall should be. Usually, when she was alone with her thoughts, Y/N would find herself full of anxiety, constantly thinking over everything and anything that could go wrong in her busy life. She hated how her mind fought with itself, constant warring with her about this and that. Trivial meaningless things she’d have little to no control over. Yet right now, with her breathing calm and her footsteps unusually light, there wasn’t a single anxious thought insight. The forest seemed to soothe her as if a spell was cast when she stepped foot on the land.

As she began to turn a corner, Y/N heard the waterfall first. It was roaring, echoing off the mountain beside it and the rocks and trees surrounding it. She felt a little flutter of excitement as she turned the corner and gasped. What was usually gentle and slight, the waterfall was twice its size. It caused a cooling mist to form at the bottom, shrouding the little clearing. Where the water pooled was twice in size as well. She spotted the top of a rock she would usually settle on beside it nearly submerged five feet from where the water line began. Fortunately, there were still plenty of places to sit and read around the area, the waterfall loud but not overly so. It was just enough to keep her thoughts at bay in case they crept back in sometime later in the week.

As she stood there staring in awe about how quickly nature can turn from mellow and serene into an impressively dangerous beast, a strange feeling took over. At first, she couldn’t quite place it. It sort of felt like someone was watching her. Frowning, Y/N turned from the waterfall, eyeing the surrounding forest across the water.

The sun had begun to set, leaving shadows to grow under the trees. With the added combination of the mist, Y/N couldn’t make out the other side very well. But the feeling was still there, growing heavier as whatever it was watched on. It wasn’t angry or even annoyed. No, it didn’t make the hairs on the back of her neck raise. Instead, it was almost curious, watching and waiting to see what she’d do next. It made Y/N want to see who it might be, so she chanced a step towards the water. Her eyes followed the waterline, looking and searching.

A shadow moved out of the corner of her eye. It made her jump, her attention snapping towards the spot. She couldn’t have been certain, but she swore she saw a large shape through the trees. Squinting, Y/N tried to make out what it was. But a bird cried loudly behind her, startlingly loud. It caused her to jerk and jump away from the edge of the water, surprised at how close she had gotten without realizing it. She glared at the smug-looking bird that sat on a low branch staring everywhere but at her and turned back to the shoreline on the opposite side. However, the feeling and whatever ever was there was gone.

Letting out a sigh, Y/N deiced that was enough excitement for the night. She shot once more look over her shoulder before heading back towards the way she came. Shaking the strange feeling off, Y/N decided not to dwell on it. It was the first day, there was no point in worrying about something she may or may not have seen. It was just a trick of the light, she tried to reason. Either that it was another hiker who happened across the same spot as her. Yeah, she thought, that was it.

The forest was a mysterious thing. It had its secrets, both good and bad. More often than not, the visitors that would come through never saw the magic that it was made of. There were a lucky few that would see the enchanting wonders it held, whether they stumbled across it or the magic was brought to them. Then, there were the unlucky ones who could see how unforgiving mother earth could be. The trails could lead her down many different paths. It was up to her to determine which direction she would end up taking and what the Earth had decided.

NSFW Tag: (Open- MUST BE 18+, NO EXCEPTIONS)

@cherrynat  / @221bshrlocked / @theapologies / @lusts-of-the-flesh / @rowencarter3 / @littlehellflame / @buckyb4rnacle / @diinofayce / @sincerelymlg / @punkrockhippiefromthefourties / @slytherinlifeislove / @moderapoppins / @nirinael-the-rising-demon / @girlwhoisfearless / @whatisanniedoin / @xxashy999xx / @cinema212 / @sergeantjbuckybarnes / @lokigodofsasss / @myforeveryoungblog /  @serpentbaby / @palaiasaurus64 / @electra-hxart / @libbymouse / @disaster-rose /

Call Of The Mountains Tag List : (CLOSED)

#stucky x reader #steve rogers x bucky barnes x reader #steve rogers x reader #bucky barnes x reader #steve rogers imagine #bucky barnes imagine #steve rogers fanfiction #bucky barnes fanfiction #steve rogers fanfic #bucky barnes fanfic #steve rogers fic #bucky barnes fic #steve rogers #bucky barnes #marvel fanfiction #marvel imagine #marvel fic #reader insert #marvel au #stucky au #werewolf au #wer!steve rogers x reader x wer!bucky barnes #wer!steve x reader #wer!bucky x reader

[cianmars]

Peter Benjamin Anthony Parker-Stark was kidnapped from his home when he was four years old. Tony Stark searched tirelessly for him for the next ten years, only to have him fall into his hands by chance... only probably being that Peter was being 'looked after' by Hydra that whole time. Peter was injected with something just before being saved, could this ruin his chances of finally having a somewhat normal life.

AO3

Chapter One:

August 10th 2006 - August 10th 2010 - August 10th 2020.

Anthony Edward Stark was fourteen when he had decided that he would never become a parent. It was when he had been unceremoniously dropped off at MIT, forced to pose with his ‘proud’ parents, then as soon as they were out of the view of the worlds’ media his father had slapped him for wearing a ACDC shirt, within five minutes his mother and father had left him, driving away for yet another ‘well deserved’ vacation, Tony filled the hole left by their departure with the serbian vodka Obie had given him as a leaving present.

Tony later met Rhodey and the loss of his parents was forgotten, or at least he pretended it was, but his own promise stuck in his mind: He was never going to be a father.

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It had worked for years, he had always made sure to have protection, to check that the many women he slept with were clean and they were being safe, not that Virginia Potts ever seemed to believe that, it became like muscle memory.

There had been false claims of course, enough that there was an entire legal department of Stark Industries devoted to it, none had been convincing enough to go far enough to get on Pepper (and therefore his ) radar.

He was safe.

Always.

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But nothing was entirely effective, there was always going to be a small, incremental, chance that a pregnancy would occur.

It had been Mary Parker who had turned all of that around. She had been the exception to the rule. She had passed every test and had the bump to prove it.

She didn’t want a pay off, for it , or for the whole workplace sexual harassment thingy which Pepper had been very mad at him about (she had only gotten madder when he had suggested that she was just jealous that a different red head had caught his eye, he had kept his mouth shut about only half kidding or he would have lost her).

It had taken Tony one night of getting way too drunk, driving way too fast in his car, and falling into Rhodey’s apartment instead of into another girls bed like he had intended, for Tony to realise that he couldn’t stand to have a kid out there and to not know about them, to not be part of it.

He amended his own, decades old, promise: He would never be a father like his own father had been .

It took another two weeks to fully convince himself that he could do it, well he believed it about 80% which seemed like it was enough to tell Pepper and Mary Parker his decision, in that order.

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The next six months passed in a slew of changes, he moved all his weapons out of all his workshops in all of his properties, he stopped drinking, stopped taking drugs, he even started sleeping more, though he insisted that those three things weren’t linked, mostly to wind Pepper up. He looked up houses in Malibu, close to one of the Stark offices, but a good place for the kid to grow up, better than Manhattan, his kid was going to grow up around the beach, the year round sun, he’d take him to do all that outdoorsy scout shit his own father had never encouraged (he had once sent a house and home magazine type thing a photograph of Tony in a purchased scout uniform with the caption something about Tony particularly loving going fishing with his father, Tony often wondered if the sale of deadly weapons had increased after that).

He bought every possible product he or Mary would need, set up bank accounts ready, he took classes on everything from infant first aid, to some infant martial arts class or something (okay perhaps he hadn’t paid much attention to that class but he had still taken it, it might have been like tai chi or something). He built nurseries in all of his homes, he baby proofed all of them, made sure that no weapons were allowed in any of the buildings, not even his current penthouse a the top of the Stark Tower. He insisted that if, when, they moved to Malibu he’d pay for whatever and whoever Mary needed to move with.

The further into the pregnancy the more Mary Parker seemed to be around, but the quieter she was, there was something wrong but she insisted she was okay and would bring the talk back around to the one topic which could distract Anthony Stark:

Peter Benjamin Anthony Stark.

The names they had finally settled on after finding out that the baby would be a boy, Tony kept trying to add Parker in there too, partially because he knew that his father would have hated it, but Mary insisted no, Benjamin was after a brother of hers who had died, that was enough for her. She had insisted on the Anthony too, she had insisted it sadly after distracting him away from their original deal of 50/50 custody, he thought she might cut and run but she actually told him that she thought it would be a good idea for him to have the baby a little more, that she would work (and no she wouldn’t accept his handouts so he should stop asking).

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When Mary went into labour a month early and immediately rushed off due to complications Tony Stark was certain he was going to have a heart attack, instead he had a panic attack in the waiting room over the fear of losing his baby. Pepper had been at his side, had calmed him down, had been his anchor in the storm, or whatever the saying was.

Hours, years, lifetimes, later the doctor called him into the room.

He led Pepper in, holding her hand, she looked as scared as him, he only let go of her when he saw the hospital crib in the middle of the room, next to the empty and freshly made bed. His son.

He was okay, the doctor insisted, a little smaller than ideal, but he was okay, he’d be okay, he was a fighter.

Mary had been a fighter too, she really had, but there had been a clot, a massive one… she hadn’t survived.

He was set out of the hospital three days later, with the tiny baby he was terrified to hold but couldn’t stop himself from holding, with Pepper, but without Mary. Peter Parker-Stark was already starting life with the disadvantage of only having 50% of his parents.

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

Fatherhood was something which Tony was never quite sure he was achieving, or ever part of, not for those first six months anyway. Peter struggled to grow, he cried every time someone who wasn’t Pepper or Tony held him, he just wouldn’t sleep. Obie kept trying to get him to either sign over the company to him or to at least attend some of the meetings so he would, with Peter in this scarf-like contraption keeping him to his chest, Obie hadn’t been happy about that, but that was kind of the point.

Tony figured that Peter would fall asleep if he talked to him, or if they listened to Tony’s secret greatest 80’s hits playlist, that he liked to try and tinker in Tony’s office with him, that he loved the natural history museum, and their summers in Malibu where he played on the beach and Tony would do his best to keep his son out of the press as much as possible.

They celebrated every holiday together, him, Peter, and Pepper, who was just part of them now, not that she had ever been anything else. Tony’s birthdays stopped being huge parties and instead became a disney then, when the kid fell asleep, an action movie, and takeout with Pepper and Peter.

Tony didn’t know enough about Mary Parker to tell their son, she had refused to talk about herself, something he was only realising now, so he bought some books on organic chemistry, her specialty, and read them out loud to Peter until the, now, toddler fell asleep against his chest.

Being a father was a mantle which Tony had grown in, excelled at, and had become the best Stark father in a century.

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

Peter was what he owed his own success to, he was a clingy kid, but he was an angel, so much that Pepper would sometimes joke about getting a DNA test, he was incapable of lying (something he found when he had told Peter -who Tony had believed was asleep- that he loved Pepper and was going to ask her out on a date), he was so smart too, smart enough that at the age of four he had matched his father’s ability to design and build a circuit board, who made his Uncle Rhodey wear sparkly pink stickers when Tony and Peter had visited him at work, Rhodey had kept them on all day. The kid was still small for his age, but he never stopped talking, especially if it was to “daddy ‘n’ mommy Pep”, when Tony and Pepper got married in a small (only a thousand or so people) ceremony Peter dropped the Pep part, as though the kid had been waiting all his life for that day.

In short, they were a family, they were happy, they struggled, they argued, Peter had tantrums and got sick sometimes, but for the most part they were happy.

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

It happened when Peter was sick, when he was tired and whiny, when Pepper was across the country at some board meeting or scholarship awards ceremony night thing, whatever it was Tony had lost track off between the time difference and the crying, feverish, four year old who was clinging to him.

“Daddy…!”

“I know buddy, I know, c’mon Petey-Pie, just lie on the couch while Daddy gets your medicine.”

“Don’t wan’ you to go!”

“Bambi, I’m not going anywhere, just grabbing it from there,” he let out in a sigh, pointing towards the kitchen, he pulled his son close to him, running his hand through his slightly sweaty brown curls before pressing a kiss to his forehead, “okay buddy. You trust me, right? I pinky promise I’ll be right back, as soon as you’ve counted to six.”

“To six?”

“Yup,” He sent him the smile which was reserved for only Peter and Pepper… maybe Rhodey if he wasn’t annoying him, “unless you can’t count to six…”

“I can!” The kid shouted, his enthusiasm overtaking his tears. “Go daddy.”

Tony grinned, relieved it had worked without having to carry the kid, even if he was small enough that it wasn’t really a hassle, but Tony was starting to get older and feel those aches and pains of carrying a child nearly every day for four years. Tony pressed a last kiss to his forehead then let go of his son.

Peter began to count.

“One.”

“Two.”

Tony was in the kitchen.

“Three.”

Tony grabbed the bottle of medicine, his cellphone was ringing, it was one of the important ringtones, JARVIS would usually put it on speaker for him but Peter was there, he fished his phone out of his pocket, his back was to his son.

“Four.”

The pain came hard and fast, something hitting the back of his head, hard, he fell to the floor unconscious.

Peter never got to the number five.

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Tony awoke in hospital, he had been kicked enough after he had passed out that he had broken ribs, a broken nose, apparently someone had even bothered to break his arm while he was down on his kitchen floor. He would have had some sardonic comment about them really wanting to be rough with him… but instead he asked for Peter.

The room went silent.

He demanded again, this time louder, more forceful, even as he shouted he was trying to push himself out of the hospital bed.

Pepper burst into the room as nurses tried to stop him from ripping IVs out of his arms.

“They’ve got him! Someone took him! Tony, they took Peter!”

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The years kept coming and they didn’t stop coming after that:

Tony was kidnapped, nearly died a few times, became a superhero, had his big coming out thing, nearly died from poisoning, scienced the shit out it, saved himself, joined the ‘Avengers’, Pepper died, or nearly died, he saved her, they finally fixed their marriage for good, helped Steve Rogers snap Bucky out of his funk/murderous assassin Buzz Lightyear Spanish mode thing, accidentally unleashed an evil AI, sacrificing Jarvis. They all had a fight in a Denny’s parking lot before realising it wasn’t worth it over some paperwork, instead they worked together, amending and rectifying the accords, eventually they got them passed.

And spent nearly ten years chasing down every hint, clue, whisper of Peter Stark. Nothing. Ever.

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

His phone rang, Rogers, who preferred to text which Tony found eerie coming from a nearly one hundred year old guy, he picked it up, knowing it would be a mission, something important, as they all treated him with kiddie gloves this day every year, not letting him get drunk, not letting him beat the shit out of human scum, not letting him be alone, not letting him go on missions.

“Ya?” His eyes flicked to the bottle of Johnnie Walker blue, onto the framed photograph of him, Pepper, and Peter, all together on Christmas morning. He had been so excited that day, he was finally old enough to understand it, he and Pepper were beaming at Peter as though he were their gift. “New York, yeah sure, 4 minutes…. Cap, I can look after myself, I’m fine, I’m used to it. Cut it out, and tell the others not to start, or I just won’t bother coming.” He hung up.

He found himself stuck to his seat for  a minute. “Happy Birthday, Petey-Pie.”

He left the lab ready to go on a mission, to prove to himself that he was right, that he was okay and he could do this until…. Until they had confirmation on Peter, one way or the other.

#peter parker fanfiction #peter stark fanfiction #iron dad #irondad fanfiction #peter parker is tony stark's biological child #peter parker #iron man #tony stark #the avengers #avengers fic #spiderman #spiderman fic #mcu fanfiction

[malgal7777]

Hiking with Tracy 2021:  Weekend 3, the Lost Weekend

As I went back to re-read my blog I noticed I had cut off my WHOLE weekend of 4/17!!  This is my 20 mile walk from the Emeryville Marina to the Richmond Marina and back via the Bay Trail along the water & Hwy 80.  So let me try to reenact my journey!

The theme of this hike was “Don't tell me this town ain't got no heart, you just gotta poke around” - Once again I tip my hat to the great Jerry Garcia.  Not sure if you all figured it out, but I love Jerry.  I came to the Bay Area to follow the Grateful Dead’s music and I never left.  

This particular hike was absolutely beautiful.  I wish it wasn’t so I can mix this blog up, but sorry folks, you live in a beautiful area.  Even along a dirty highway, there are things of beauty all around you.  Take for example this hike, wildflowers everywhere.  Even popping out of the sidewalk.  I'm reminded of Jeff Goldblum’s character in Jurassic Park...”Life refuses to be contained...it just finds a way”.  And sure enough, Sunflowers out of the sidewalk!

Since I was next to a highway, I went with headphones this time around.  One of my positives during this pandemic is my rekindled love for music radio stations.  I love listening to a radio station and I definitely have my favorite DJ’s. My personal favorites this past year were:  WWOZ - a local New Orleans station; KCSM - a Bay Area jazz station and KXT - out of Dallas, TX.  These stations literally kept me sane during the lockdowns.  I highly recommend them, especially if you’re cooking, doing chores or working in the garden. 

This particular morning I went with WWOZ.  And what a good decision that was.  Ron Phillips was spinning his favorite Saturday morning tunes and I was going down the road feeling BAD (as in good)!  Irma Thomas, Anders Osborne, The Subdudes and a little known singer/songwriter out of New Orleans, Chris Smithers.  If you get overwhelmed and about to burst...stream Chris Smithers “Let it Go”.  So funny.   Anders Osborne is a name my friends have been trying to get me into for a long time.  And I’m a bozo, definitely missed the boat on this one!  From his new album, try this song:  Welcome to Earth.  

Ok, so I digress!  Back to the walk.  In one of my last posts, I mentioned the people I meet.  Well this am was a doozy!  As I was grooving to the sweet sounds of the Crescent City I was approached by a group of ladies.  They had a question for me:  What’s more important in a relationship:  Love or Economics?  My first response was “Wow, you ladies don’t mess around for a Saturday morning!  Going deep on me”.  But, because I’m me, I had an answer. Now usually I would have said Love, Love, Love.  Hands down right?  But they caught me at a weird time.  I have been obsessively thinking of a comment I overheard from another group of ladies while doing my Diablo hike.  One of them had commented “I have no desire to marry just for love.  Forget that, I need to be economically stable”.  My reaction was pity for this poor girl.  I literally felt sorry for her.  The more I thought about it (obsessively for two weeks) I came to realize, she didn’t necessarily say she wasn’t going to work, she just wanted someone with their shit together and would contribute to their family being comfortable.  What’s wrong with that?  Is being comfortable taboo now?  So when my Bay Trail friends asked me, that’s how I answered.  Love was great but there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be comfortable, isn’t that love after all?  I obviously made one of the women very happy.  She loved it.  The other two nodded and smiled, they were on Love’s side.  So we said our goodbyes and I felt like I had gotten a weight off my shoulders.  As I was walking away though...I asked myself...But didn’t YOU marry for love?  And sure enough, I did.  Bob & I didn’t have a pot to piss in.  And while we’re not the Rockefeller's, we’re comfortable enough for us.  I love him dearly and love has to be the basis that you build your financial future upon.  If you don’t have that, it get’s ugly when $$ is involved.  The best part of this moment was that song “Welcome to Earth” was playing as I was coming to this realization and the last line is literally “Love is always the answer”.  The Universe works in mysterious ways!  But, where were the ladies...I wanted to change my answer??!!  No where to be found.  Man, I blew it.  I would now obsessively think about this for the next 20 miles. Told you I was a bozo. 

By this time I had reached The Albany bulb.  A Bay Area gem to the north of Golden Gate Fields.  There’s a great beach and then it jets out into a peninsula which is covered with art installations all over.  I’ll talk more about that later, since I came back on Sunday to finish my 25 miles. This morning though I watched a group of swimmers about to enter the freezing bay waters, no wet suit mind you!  CRAZY and No Thank You!  Brrr.   Next Stop, Point Isabel, dog heaven.  A large open spaced off-leach dog park.  I go there all the time.  If you have a dog, you should take them.  They will love you even more than they already do. 

Now past Point Isabel is where the trail gets interesting.  You start to wander away from the highway and are now among the prettiest beaches and marshes. It’s an interesting view of the Bay Bridge and you can no longer see the Golden Gate Bridge as you veer north of it.  You now start to come upon single family homes along the trail.  You’re instantly reminded of Cape Cod.  A ocean view from Richmond, CA.  The best part is once you see this neighborhood you know you’re close to the marina.  And sure enough, I turned the bend and there in front of me was the Ford Assembly plant, my 1/2 way point.  But, it’s a very cruel joke.  You see the plant across the opening of the marina, it’s literally right there!!  Then the realization hits you in order to get to it you need to go around the WHOLE marina.  And as you continue to walk and go around another bend, the sidewalk gets longer and longer and longer.  The Richmond Marina is HUGE. Lovely though.  Large green spaces with people doing yoga;  a ladies bootcamp class along the water; boats coming and going from the marina and two pretty cute restaurants also along the water.  

I finally made it to the Ford Assembly Plant and now Richmond Ferry Terminal.  The assembly plant hosts seasonal events, we’ve been to the women’s roller derby ones.  Nothing like watching tough chicks bully each other on roller skates.  Then there are a few businesses strewn throughout the building.  Dolls Kill, which I believe is a clothing business for those on the freakier side of the spectrum.  And Mountain Hardware!  Quality clothing for the outdoorsy types.  I should have gone in and gotten a windbreaker.  The wind was pretty brutal.  

The best part was of course the Rosie The Riveter museum.  A museum dedicated to the women that left the kids at home and joined the workforce to help build ships during WWII.  This whole area was built for the war effort.  Richmond grew from 25,000 to over 100,000 within three years!!!  Can you imagine?  How does any town build the infrastructure needed to maintain that population?  Grocery stores?  Clothing? Schools?  Highly recommended.  It’s a suggested donation, so don’t be cheap, donate.  You won’t be disappointed.  I once brought Charlotte and a couple of her Girl Scout troop there to meet a real life “Rosie”.  She told the girls her story and it was of course about LOVE!  The trials and tribulations of her and her partner as he was fighting in the war and she was here making the ships that would keep him safe.  Man, where were those 3 ladies!!  

The way back was pretty much the same. I made it!  Now onto Sunday, 4/18. The Albany Bulb!  A Bay Area gem.  Bob & I have been coming here for years.  Way back when it was a landfill full of broken concrete slabs and rebar.  Some artist types took it upon themselves to start living there.  They kept the concrete slabs and rebar and started to make installations out of them.  Giant sized figures;  rows of wooden paintings; mazes and one guy even built a concrete castle along the water facing the Golden Gate Bridge.  Best real estate in the Bay.  They exemplified the phrase “one mans trash is another man’s treasure”.  Of course the stuffed shirts got wind and kicked them out.  But gave the stuffed shirts an idea...Hey, why not make a park out of this dirty unused lot?  Duh.  So before you harass your kid for taking art classes, remember it’s usually the artists who push the rest of society in the right direction.  

It’s also a great place to bird watch and now the wildflowers are a blooming, so it’s quite serene.  If you’re looking for some inspiration, this is the place for you.  

So my posts/weeks are a bit out of order.  Oh well!  It’s my blog and I’ll create chaos if I want to!  

I’ll end on this note:  Love is ALWAYS the answer. 

So sponsor me (hehehe):  https://runsignup.com/tracyalbert/Donate

[lost-n-stereo]

Summary: All Bellamy Blake’s little sister wants is to attend summer camp. When his best friend tells him of a job opening as a camp counselor, Bellamy jumps at the opportunity to make his sister’s dream come true, plus earn a little cash for college. What he doesn’t expect is the breath of fresh air that is Clarke Griffin, a camp counselor from another school that turns his summer upside down. Multi-chaper Modern AU

in the sweet heart of summer

Chapter 1 - [AO3]

He’s never been a fan of summer vacation.

Call him weird but he was always the kind of kid that genuinely liked school. Learning to him was fun but it was also nice to have structure. His home life wasn’t the greatest, and being the oldest child and having a single mom that worked two jobs meant that his summer vacation was usually spent babysitting and working odd jobs to bring in extra money. Octavia slept in almost every day and they would bum around their small town, stopping for ice cream or swimming at the public pool. On the nights Octavia would have sleepovers at her friend’s house Bellamy would join his group of friends as they drank beer by the railroad tracks that ran the length around the entire town.

That’s what he was imagining this summer would be, just a repeat of every summer he’s had for the last eighteen years. His sister just turned thirteen though and the only thing on her mind has been summer camp.

“It’s expensive,” his mom tells him one night in May. School lets out in just under two weeks and he knows his mom can’t afford a camp that lasts almost two months long. “She’s going to be devastated.”

“Let me talk to Jasper. Maybe he knows a way to get her into the camp he works at every summer.”

His mom’s eyes light up. “Really?”

Bellamy shrugs. “It doesn’t hurt to ask.”

“Thank you, Bell. Even if he could just get us a discount, maybe between the two of us we could pull it off.”

As soon as she walks out of the kitchen, dropping a kiss on his head as she leaves, he pulls out his cell and thumbs in a text to his best friend.

Any chance you know how to get a spot for O in your summer camp that won’t cost us an arm and a leg?

His phone rings, just like he knew that it would because Jasper hates talking on the phone.

“Dude,” is all his best friend says and Bellamy laughs. “If you want to get Octavia into this camp all you need to do is apply to be a camp counselor. Younger siblings of counselors stay for free and you get paid.”

“No shit?” He’s not the most outdoorsy person in the world but he knows enough to probably teach some little kids how to do basic wilderness things.

“None to be given, my friend. I’ll email you the link to apply.”

Then Jasper hangs up without another word and Bellamy chuckles, waits for the email to come through and applies for the job that might make his sister’s summer wish come true.

***

“Oh. My. God.”

Bellamy shushes Octavia. “O, you need to chill.”

His sister is practically jumping up and down in her seat as the school bus they are on drives under the Forest Acres Summer Camp sign. Jasper is sitting in the seat in front of him, with their mutual friend Harper, and he knows at least fix or six other counselors from their high school.

Jasper turns around and rests his arms on the back of his bench seat. “Leave her alone, Blake. She’s just excited for all the fresh air and activities.”

Bellamy rolls his eyes, mostly because he knows full well that Jasper only comes to work at this camp so he can see his summer girlfriend Raven. Plus he knows that the money isn’t bad. He’ll make almost two grand this summer and it’s going to help a lot with his moving expenses for college.

The drive to the center of camp takes a little less than ten minutes. There are trees lining both sides of the long road, and he’s assuming that’s where the camp gets its name. The camp is almost four hours from home and it’s the first time that Octavia has ever stayed anywhere without their mom for longer than a night or two. He’s glad he’ll be around if she starts to get homesick.

“What kind of stuff are we going to be doing?” Octavia asks and Jasper starts ticking off items like he has the entire summer activity catalog memorized. And hell, maybe he does. Jasper’s been coming to this summer camp since he was seven so he has a solid ten years of Forest Acres experience.

“And they will group you into cabins,” Jasper is telling her. “Each counselor is assigned a cabin and every counselor will have different things for you to do too.”

“Can Bellamy be my counselor?”

Jasper shakes his head. “Sorry, kid. Girls get girls, boys get boys. But you’ll see him a lot. We do movie nights and camp outs and we all eat together for breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

“Cool,” Octavia says, looking out the window as giant green pine trees pass by her. “This summer is going to be so awesome.”

Bellamy smiles and ruffles her hair, sits back in his seat until the bus pulls to a stop in front of a long red building not dissimilar to a barn.

“That’s the main office,” Jasper tells them, gathering his stuff before standing up and turning to Bellamy. “That’s where we’ll get our cabin assignments and meet all the other counselors.”

Bellamy punches him lightly on the arm. “Bet you’re excited to see your girlfriend,” he teases and Jasper flips him off.

“Don’t knock summer love, bro. It can be pretty fun.” Jasper raises his eyebrows suggestively and Bellamy rolls his eyes.

“Dude, there are kids here. Keep it in your pants.”

Bellamy grabs their backpacks and follows Jasper and Harper, who’s bouncing on her heels to get out of the bus.

“Speaking of summer love,” Jasper whispers and Bellamy watches as she practically jumps off the bus and into the arms of a guy that looks around their age. “That’s Monty Green. He goes to the same school as Raven.”

Bellamy nods and looks around. “And where is Raven? I’m honestly starting to wonder if you made her up.” Octavia snickers from beside him and Jasper shoots them both dirty looks.

“She’s over there,” Jasper says, trying to point discreetly to where two girls are standing side by side holding clipboards. “The blonde next to her is new, though. I don’t know her.”

Bellamy looks at the girl, who’s got her long blonde hair tied up in a high ponytail with loose curls falling out naturally. He’s seen girls at his school try for the same look but it always comes across like they are trying too hard. This girl is cute as hell with legs for days despite not being very tall at all, lean and tan in her short red athletic shorts.

“Let’s go,” Jasper says to Bellamy before turning to his sister. “O, see that group of girls your age over there? That’s where you should be.”

Octavia looks up at Bellamy and for the first time he can see panic rising up in her eyes. He bends down so he’s eye level with her. “I’m going to be right here, okay? Don’t forget, we came here so you can have fun.”

She bites down on her lip before standing up straight and he can see his badass little sister coming back. “You’re right, Bell. I totally got this. Later, losers.”

Jasper snorts. “She’s one of a kind.” Raven waves over to them and Jasper elbows him. “Move your ass, Blake.”

Raven is pretty, definitely pretty enough to make Jasper an idiot ten months out of every year. But the girl standing next to her is a stunner, even more so up close.

Jasper and Raven hug, leaving Bellamy and the unnamed girl standing awkwardly while the couple giggles and speak quietly beside them.

���I’m Bellamy Blake,” he says, deciding to break the silence and she looks relieved.

“Clarke Griffin.” She holds up her clipboard. “I can help you sign in if you’re a first-timer like me.”

“Yeah, that’d be great.” Bellamy turns to let his friend know that he’s taking off but Jasper just waves him off without even looking at him. Clarke laughs when Bellamy leans over and whispers, “I’d be mad but he hasn’t shut up about her since September.”

“That’s actually kind of sweet,” she says as they weave their way through groups of kids. Bellamy looks for Octavia and sees her laughing with a group of girls. Clarke follows his line of sight. “Little sister?”

He smiles. “Yeah. She’s the reason I’m here actually. I only applied for the job so she could get in.”

“That’s also kind of sweet.” When he looks down she’s blushing, pretty pink hitting her cheeks like she’s embarrassed that she said what she did. “So this is the main office…”

Bellamy follows her into the building and is hit with a sudden blast of air conditioning. “Jesus, it’s freezing in here.”

Clarke laughs. “Yeah, the camp director hates the heat. You’d think that someone that hates the heat wouldn’t work at a summer camp, right?”

She walks him to the front desk, which looks a lot like the front office of a school. There’s an older redheaded woman behind the desk that introduces herself as Kathy, and she helps him sign in and lets him know he’ll be the counselor for Cabin B4.

Clarke waits for him, even though she doesn’t have to, and when he heads back to her with his own clipboard in hand she asks him what cabin he got.

“How funny! I have Cabin G4. And look,” she says tilting her clipboard so he can read it. “Octavia Blake. Is that your sister?”

“Yeah, it is.” He’s happy that Octavia is with Clarke, not just because he happens to think she’s pretty fucking cute but also because he can tell that she’s a good person. “I’m glad she’ll have you looking after her.”

Bellamy bites back a smile when her cheeks flush pink. “I’ll make sure she has a good summer.”

He can’t help but think this summer is going to be good for him too.

*** The first few days of camp are hectic.

He’s in charge of five campers, all between the ages of ten to thirteen. There are three cabins of boys in this age group so he gets together with the other two counselors to come up with activities for the campers to do on their downtime.

“What about a fishing trip? There’s a bigger lake not far, I’m sure we could secure two of the vans for the day.”

Bellamy nods at Monty, who he’s gotten to know pretty well over the last week. “Yeah, I think they’d like that. Murphy, any ideas?”

John Murphy, who seems like he’s here for the money and probably not much else, shrugs. “Shooting practice?”

Bellamy snorts. “I don’t know if teaching a bunch of preteens how to shoot guns is a good idea.”

“I mean, like…bows and arrows or whatever.”

“Archery?” Bellamy looks over to Monty, who nods like it’s not a bad idea. “Okay, yeah. They’d probably like that.”

“We should be teaching these kids useful life skills,” Murphy says. “Like how to throw knives and pick up chicks.”

Monty rolls his eyes. “We’re not here to help them hook up, Murphy. They’re kids.”

“They’re almost teens,” Murphy says. “Why not have like…fuck I don’t know. A dance or something?”

Bellamy and Monty look at each other, both visibly shocked at the idea. “That’s…actually a really great idea, Murphy.”

“Yeah,” Monty agrees. “We could ask for the rec hall for the night. Maybe we could ask one of the older campers to DJ?”

Bellamy starts jotting down notes. “I’ll talk to Clarke about it and have her talk to the other counselors.” He nods to the guys as he stands up to leave their cabin. “Good ideas, Murphy.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

It’s nearing nine o’clock, thirty minutes past lights out, so he makes his way to the cabin Clarke shares with three other counselors and knocks on the door.

Raven answers, her smile warm but tired, and he can only imagine how demanding taking care of a bunch of preteen girls must be. “Looking for Clarke?”

“Um…yeah.”

He doesn’t blush, exactly, but he does feel like his skin is a little hotter. It’s not even that he and Clarke have spent a lot of time together since coming here. It’s been a few smiles across the mess hall and brief hellos here and there.  

Raven gives him this knowing smile and turns her head over her shoulder. “Griff, there’s someone here to see you.”

Clarke appears a minute later in a red and white striped shirt and a pair of cut off jean shorts. Her hair is up in a messy bun and her cheeks are tinted pink from too much sun.

“Hi,” she says brightly. “What’s up?”

Raven is still standing there, an eyebrow raised and her hip popped out, and Bellamy chuckles. “Do you wanna go for a walk?”

“Yeah, for sure. Let me just grab my shoes.”

She emerges from the cabin with a small bottle in her hand. “Close your eyes,” she says and he does without asking why. He feels a mist on his face and arms and when he opens his eyes she’s spraying it on herself. “The bugs out here are awful. This bug spray is the best on the market.”

It smells expensive, not like the cheap three dollar bottles his mom buys at the grocery store. It occurs to him then that Clarke probably doesn’t need the money she’ll be making this summer, which means she’s here because she genuinely wants to be.

“Thanks,” he says and nods towards the lake that sits in the center of the camp. “Want to head that way?”

She agrees and they set off towards the trail that leads around the lake. The camp is still alive with activity, counselors laughing around the campfire and couples sneaking off into the woods to fool around.

“Murphy came up with a good idea,” Bellamy starts and Clarke snickers.

“I find that hard to believe.”

He laughs out loud. “That’s fair. But he thinks our cabins should have a dance. We were thinking just our cabins and the girls that are the same age.”

“Wow, that actually is a good idea.”

“Trust me, we were as shocked as you are.”

They make their way towards the lake and sit on a bench that looks out over the still water. It’s quieter here, just the sounds of crickets and rustling leaves from the light breeze blowing around them.

“This place is so beautiful,” she says quietly. “Living in the city you don’t get this kind of silence.”

“Where are you from?”

“Boston, originally. We moved to North Carolina last year and when I met Raven at school she told me about this place. She made it sound magical.”

An idea occurs to him and he grins to himself before standing up. “I want to show you something.”

He holds out his hand and she takes it. “Where are we going?”

“Be patient.”

There’s a small trail that leads through the trees, he found it on a nature walk he took his campers on a couple of days ago, and it leads to a clearing that’s only twenty feet or so wide.

“Close your eyes,” he tells her right before they hit it and he’s pleased when she does.

“You’re not going to kill me are you?” she jokes and he snickers. “I’ve seen enough summer camp horror movies to know that’s a real possibility.”

“Would I tell you if that was my plan?”

“Good point.”

When they make it to the clearing he stops and moves her so she’s in front of him. “Open your eyes.”

Her sharp intake of breath makes him smile. “Oh my gosh, Bellamy.”

The clearing is full of fireflies, just as he expected it to be. It’s the perfect temperature for them here and they are easy to see without a ton of trees in the way.

“How’s this for magical?”

Clarke’s hand is still in his as her eyes roam over every inch of the clearing. “This is everything.” She turns around suddenly and throws her arms around his neck. “Thank you for bringing me here.”

There are few moments in your life that you know it’s a perfect moment in time when you’re in it. Sometimes these moments pass you by and years later you look back at them and think, damn if only I would have known then what I know now. He’ll be damned if he lets one of those moments pass him by.

When she pulls away she’s still close, her lips a hairbreadth away from his, and when he bends down to kiss her everything else falls away. Her lips are pillow soft against his and he doesn’t try anything more, just kisses her softly surrounded by the fireflies dancing around them.

“This is a perfect moment,” she whispers against his lips, saying out loud the words he was just thinking in his head, and he grins.

“It won’t be the last,” he promises her. “It’s going to be a long summer.”

#bellarke #bffnet #bellarke fanfiction #bellamy and clarke #in the sweet heart of summer #fanfic

[its-sixxers]

For the character ask. Multiples of 7 for Charmer or Multiples of 8 for Courier 6 or both if you’re feeling up to it.

Poppin’ this baby under a read more cuz I’m doing BOTH

Eleanora / Nora / “Charmer” / Sole Survivor

07. Is there a catchphrase or sound that they tend to make a lot (likely without being aware of it)? 

She does a weird little hum when she sighs a lot, and makes little noises when she hops over things and down to the ground and just... most physical things. She’s able to cut it out when sneaking about, at least.14. Do they live alone or with family? How do they feel about their family/roommates? 

Charmer surrounds herself with people - she and Deacon set up shop in Mercer safehouse (Hangman’s Alley), the apartment buildings on either side of which end up filling up with settlers and former Railroad agents after the Institute falls. Deacon and Shaun are her family that live in her apartment, though often some of the old guard (Desdemona, Drummer Boy, Tinker Tom, the Courier, Preston, Piper and Nat) come and stay over.She loves it. The people are what make the Commonwealth bearable for her, and she’s happy to have such a sense of safety and familiarity around them.21. What is one of your character’s biggest fears? How would they react when dealing with this fear? (Answered this in a different early ask prompt, but changing it a bit to reflect her post-game).Being alone. Well and truly alone. It’s what she had to deal with for the brief time she was out of the vault before coming across Dogmeat, and it’s the worst experience she could imagine. Having company and friends is the only thing that makes what happened to her bearable. If she was a born wastelander it might be fine, but the knowledge of what was and the great weight of what was lost with the war means that every day spent post-War is a challenge. Having to deal with it without a support structure would probably make her a pretty jaded and shitty person. If by some horrible happenstance she lost everyone she cared about? She’d lose it. Would probably end up Boone-tier for the death wish thing, except without the combat aptitude. Wouldn’t last long.28. If your character became a celebrity, what would they be famous for? 

Pre-War, probably winning an insane legal case. Post-War, taking out the Institute’s a pretty big achievement but most of her fame’s just from helping people out and word of mouth spreading.35. Is your character afraid of death? If they got to choose how to die, how would they want to go? She fears it a little in that it’s unknown and she also fears whatever pain may be included. As a parent and a partner, she’s also scared of what will happen to the people depending on her when she’s gone. If she got to choose, old age all the way, failing that, some way in which she could say goodbye and give people some closure, say the things that she still had to say.42. Is there anything in your character’s past that they regret, haunts them, or they wish they could change? Sometimes she wonders what would have happened if she never signed up for the Vault, if she, Nate and Shaun could survive in a world right after the bombs dropped. She thinks they could - knowing how she adapted to the Commonwealth and Nate’s military experience, if the radiation didn’t get them they’d make it.It’s a thought that bothers her on occasion, though she tries not to dwell on it as it’s something she can’t change and her life ended up turning out decently given the circumstances.49. (Done in a previous ask!)

Carmen / Courier Six08. (Answered in a previous ask!)16. Is your character the athletic type or more of a couch potato? What are some sports/games that they like?

Girl loves to keep moving, definitely the athletic type. Shooting contests, hiking, climbing, running - most things outdoorsy she enjoys. In a time before the War she’d probably be absolutely killer at baseball - she’s got a good eye and can run. 24. In their own words, how would your character describe what their lover is like?

Glory: “Someone told me once that the flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long. That was her. She wasn’t a light, she was like fire - whatever she set her mind to she’d take down, and she’d warm you just by being near. Felt like I could take on anything as long as she was there. Too bright for this fucking world, turns out.”

Boone: “The man’s like Lake Mead. Still waters, placid, boring on the surface - but those waters run deep. And cold. Have to throw a stone to make any waves, but a delicate hand can skip it. The few moments I saw the man in those depths were enough to ruin me. I don’t know if that man can exist anymore, but god, I thought it was worth trying to see.”

32. If your character’s lover offered to take them out on a dream date, what would they want to do?

Carmen’s a simple woman. With the right person, a night under the stars and some good sex is really all she needs. She hasn’t gotten it, so something that simple is almost mythologized in her mind.

40. Does your OC have any guilty pleasures they enjoy? Hobbies, past times, music, etc that they wouldn’t want known by others? 

She has a book of poetry by Keats that’s only half burned. Arcade gave it to her when she mentioned wishing she could use words as well as he did. Most literature from the Romantic movement appeals to her - the focus on nature and the spiritual resonates. It’s personal and something she doesn’t like to talk about or would think understand properly, so she keeps it quiet.48. Is there anything in particular that would ignite your character’s jealousy? Or does your character not get envious? It’s a little difficult to make the Courier jealous, since the people she looks for romantically are people that aren’t major flirts - or if they are, it’s targeted toward their partner and no one else. If her partner was actively trying to make her jealous, however, they’d just have to go after people who have what she lacks. Innocence, idealism, softness. Playing on her insecurities is the best way to fire her up. She desperately wishes she could be someone who wasn’t so fucked up, but life’s a bitch.Get to Know My Character asks

#ask #thank you this one was great!! a lot of stuff #figured out things for carmen i hadnt considered

[thephoenixmagician]

Rhea Orasa || Character Survey

@cela-astral-projection - who presented a really awesome survey I couldn’t help but steal. 

This is going to be long, so it’ll all be under the cut!

Basic Questions

First name?:  Rheanna

Surname?:  Orasa

Middle Names?:  Elizeàn

Nicknames?:  Rhea (her preferred name), Elize (by Mazelinka only)

Date of Birth?:  March 28th

Age?:  During the time of the Game, about 24.

Physical Appearance

Height?:  5’ 9”

Weight?:  In the 160s

Build?:  Hourglass.

Hair Color?:  Vivid pink.

Hairstyle?:  Usually leaves it down and curly, but might put in the effort to style it with braids or clips on occasion. Only straightens it on the rarest of occasions. 

Eye Color?:  Left eye is royal sapphire blue, the other is emerald green.

Glasses or contact lenses?:  She doesn’t need them, or so she’ll insist. She might squint if something is just a little too far. She should wear them to read books or whatnot, but won’t.

Distinguishing facial features?:  Her eyes, obviously. They just aren’t common, even where she’s from.

Which facial feature is most prominent?:  Plump-ish lips, they’re a… favorite among the people she’s been with.

Which bodily feature is most prominent?:  Her posture. She can’t quite get rid of the habitual sitting up straight and walking with her shoulders squared.

Other distinguishing features?:  Stretchmarks on her hips, shoulders, thighs -she loves them. 

Skin?:  On the pale side. Has freckles, but more so on her cheeks and shoulders.

Hands?:  Slender, with soft callouses from the years of grinding herbs and stripping bark. Always keeps her nails relatively short and neat.

Makeup?:  She doesn’t mind on occasion. Eyeliner especially really makes her eyes pop. Won’t say no to eye shadow every now and then either.

Scars?:  Plenty all over. The most notable of them are the long, thin ones zigzagging across her back from lashings and a branded sigil on her left hip.

Birthmarks?:  Has one near her navel, very faint and looks like a heart to her.

Tattoos?:  She’s got a few. One is a simple amaryllis flower that she’d gotten to honor her mother. And another in the center of her back is a replica of a magic circle used in rather powerful spells.

Physical Handicaps?:  Occasionally has issues with her shoulder, a result from taking an arrow.

Type of clothes?:  She’ll wear whatever, honestly, regardless of who it’s meant for. She’d rather be comfortable over everything though.

What are their feet like?:  Kinda small, but soft. She’s got a scar on the bottom of one from stepping on glass once.

Race / Ethnicity?:  They’re based of Danish or Norwegian for the most part. I haven’t put too much thought into it, really.

Are they in good health?:  For the most part. Her mental health isn’t always in the best shape, but otherwise she’s alright.

Do they have any disabilities?:  No.

Personality

What words or phrases do they overuse?:  She uses the word “fuck” a lot. The girl can make even Julian blush with her swearing, but she keeps it in check for the most part. Otherwise, she’ll overuse 

Are they more optimistic or pessimistic?:  She’s learned to be more optimistic.

Are they introverted or extroverted?:  Introverted, but she’ll whip out an extroverted persona when needed.

Do they ever put on airs?:  No. She’s too blunt. You get exactly as expected with her.

What bad habits do they have?:  Sitting very ‘chaotically’ everywhere, no matter if its in a chair, on the table, atop a fence, or wherever she happens to find herself.

What makes them laugh out loud?:  She’ll burst into laughter if Faust whispers a suggestion for crime to her. They’re truly partners in crime.

How do they display affection?:  She loves to be affectionate physically. Will trail her fingers up your arms and through your hair if you let her. Uses a lot of Latin pet names and presses her forehead to yours, a sign of love and deep vulnerability. Or, she’ll get gifts. Honestly, she’s fluent in whatever ‘love’ language you speak.

How do they want to be seen by others?:  Normal.

Strongest character trait?:  Loyal as hell.

Weakest character trait?:  No self preservation at all. She’s very reckless.

How competitive are they?:  She’s very competitive, but she’ll deny it.

How do they react to praise?:  If it’s genuine, she’ll melt. On a rare occasion, she might even blush. But she’ll quickly recover and whip out that top energy to give her own in return.

How do they react to criticism?:  She’s indifferent, really. She’ll listen to them, say thank you, and move on with how she sees fit. She might heed to it if it’s constructive to her.

What is their greatest fear?:  Losing her memories again ties with being buried alive.

What are their biggest secrets?:  Her heritage and status as next in line for a throne. Nadia had always known. Lucio figured it out later, but never spoke about it (surprisingly). But for everyone else Rhea left that part out every time when she talked about her past. 

What is their philosophy of life?:  “Commitment, resilience and perseverance will take you far.”

What haunts them?:  The fact she blinded her sister. She’ll never get over that. And her mother’s execution.

What will they stand up for?:  Whoever needs it. And she’ll always fight for the people.

Are they indoorsy or outdoorsy?:  Outdoors. 

What is their sinful little habit?:  Will indulge in certain herbs... It helps her relax.

What sense do they most rely on?:  Sight

How do they treat people better than them?:  Equals.

How do they treat people worse than them?:  Equals.

What do they consider an overrated virtue?:  Obedience.

If they could change one thing about themselves, what would it be?:  Her heritage and the fact she’s supposed to lead an entire country.

What is their obsession?:  Books and pretty things.

What are their pet peeves?:  Arrogance. Loud chewing. Leaving shoes out in the middle of the walkway.

Friends and Family

Is their family big or small?:  Relatively small. It was just her mother, father, little sister, and herself. She had never met or heard of any other blood family members from either side.

What is their perception of a family?:  It doesn’t have to be blood. She considers her friends family. She considers Salasi the Baker her family. It’s whoever she cares about and would do anything for.

Do they have siblings? Older or younger?:  Just Adara, who is 2 years younger. 

Describe their best friend.:  Which one? 

Ideal best friend?:  Someone she can be wholly comfortable with.

Do they have any pets?:  Do the neighborhood strays she feeds count?

Past and Future

What was your character like as a baby? As a child?:  As a baby, she was super clingy to her mom. She did not like being held by anyone else, not even her dad until she was almost a toddler. As a child, she was very wild. She was a rowdy little thing that some people would call a ‘tom boy.’ Her parents would call it ‘free spirited.’

Did they grow up rich or poor?:  Rich until she moved to Vesuvia.

Did they grow up nurtured or neglected?:  Nurtured.

What is the worst thing they did to someone they loved?:  When Asra asked her to go away with him during the plague, she had to break his heart to get him to leave without her. She’d already known she was sick and wouldn’t let him see her wither. She also told him she didn’t love him when he’d confessed, which was a lie.

What are their ambitions?:  Be happy and live a full life.

What smells remind them of their childhood?:  Lilacs, teak wood, burning sage, pine.

What was their childhood ambition?:  Become a battle magician -like her dad was. Or travel the world like Auntie Zira.

What is their best childhood memory?:  Before she lost control of her magic the first time, she’d shown her sister an illusion of the constellations in their bedroom. She made them dance and told stories. It’s a bit melancholic for her though… 

Did they have an imaginary childhood friend?:  No need.

Love

Do they believe in love at first sight?:  No.

How do they behave in a relationship?:  Respectfully. She’s always aware of boundaries and never pushes them. She’s wholly committed and they receive every piece of her love.

What sort of sex do they have?:  She’s down for anything. And will try almost anything at least twice. She’s a perfect switch and versatile, too.

Has your character ever been in love?:  A few times.

Have they ever had their heart broken?:  Maybe a few.

Conflict

How do they respond to a threat?:  She’s very quick to act. She’ll try to subdue first, but if that’s off the table… she’ll do as required.

Are they most likely to fight with their fists or tongue?:  Both, at the same time.

What is your character’s kryptonite?:  The people she loves.

If your character could only save one thing from their burning house, what would it be?:  Assuming no soul is left inside, she’ll save a grimoire of her mom’s.

How do they perceive strangers?:  As people, with their own lives.

What are their phobias?:  Taphophobia, being buried alive. Claustrophobia, fear of confined spaces.

What is their choice of weapon?:  Magic or a blade. Has no issue using fists though.

What living person do they most despise?:  Despise is a strong word, but it’d probably be Valerius. She can’t tolerate him for long.

Have they ever been bullied or teased?:  Plenty of times as a kid, but had no qualms about knocking someone in the teeth.

Where do they go when they’re angry?:  A walk or run. Or, she’ll climb something, preferably a very tall cliff or palace wall. Any physical activity really.

Work, Education, and Hobbies

What is their current job?:  Court Magician of Vesuvia, shop keeper, and [redacted cause spoilers]

What do they think about their current job?:  It’s necessary.

What are some of their past jobs?:  Court Magician, combat medic, shopkeeper, and personal guard to the Count

What are their hobbies?:  She collects rocks, pressed flowers, odd trinkets, shiny shiny stuff.

Educational background?:  Was trained in various forms of magic by her parents as soon as she could walk, as well as other combat styles with traditional weapons. She was taught other lessons in history, politics, and more to train her to become Queen, too. She learned most of her medical knowledge from Nazali and Julian.

Intelligence level?:  She’s wicked sharp. 

Do they have any specialist training?:  Magic is her main focus.

Do they play a sport? Are they any good?:  She’ll try any sport for fun; but, again, she’s competitive so don’t be surprised if she tries to kick your ass at it.

What is their socioeconomic status?:  Upper-middle, maybe?

Favorites

What is their favorite animal?:  All, especially if she can pet it.

Which animal do they dislike the most?:  Birds kinda freak her out, just a little.

What place would they most like to visit?:  Zadith or Nevivon. But she’s down to go anywhere at any time.

What is the most beautiful thing they’ve seen?:  The sunrise from the highest cliff in Moonsea. She could see everything painted in orange, reds, and violets.

What is their favorite song?:  Song of the Sea - Ashley Serena

Music, art, reading preferred?:  Don’t make her pick. Please, don’t make her pick. Her head might explode.

What is their favorite color?:  Black and purple.

Favorite food?:  Seared scallops.

Possessions

What is in their fridge?:  Fruit, certain herbs, beer, and more fruit.

What is on their bedside table?:  A book (that’s cycled out after she’s finished obviously), sleeping draught, and the emerald necklace.

What is in their pockets?:  Herb pouch, warding charms, stones, small pocket knife, that kind of stuff.

What is their most treasured possession?:  A broken necklace. She can’t remember why it’s so important, but she never leaves without it tucked safely somewhere on her person.

Spirituality

Do they believe in the afterlife?:  She believes there has to be something after all this.

What are their religious views?:  Spiritual.

Are they superstitious?:  Not in the “black cats are bad luck” way.

What would they like to be reincarnated as?:  A bear!

How would they like to die?:  Doesn’t care. It won’t matter afterwards.

What is your character’s spirit guide?:  A bear.

What is their zodiac sign?:  Aries

Daily Life

What are their eating habits?:  She either eats non-stop, or goes without because she forgets. She’ll make sure it’s at least a balanced meal, for the most part.

Do they have any allergies?:  She’s allergic to hazelnuts and bananas. Will still eat them and get calmly lectured for it by Asra or Julian, too.

Describe their home.:  Organized, mostly. Everything is in a specific place. She cleans regularly, especially since ‘someone’ doesn’t remember to.

Are they minimalist or a clutter hoarder?:  Organized clutter.

What do they do first thing on a weekday morning?:  Morning tea to wake her up and make her less grumpy. Then maybe breakfast of apple and rice pudding.

What do they do on a Sunday afternoon?:  Nap, read, nap again, sex, nap, snack… 

What do they do on a Friday night?:  Either go out with Julian, pull an ‘all nighter’ with Asra, or whatever. She’s done to go out or stay in.

What is the soft drink of choice?:  She wouldn’t drink soda often, actually. So she’d have no preference.

What is their alcoholic drink of choice?:  Anything but tequila.

Miscellaneous

What is their character archetype?: From this list: The Creator seems the most fitting. Let me know if you think I’m wrong.

Who is their hero?:  Her mother.

What or who would your character dress up as for Halloween?:  She’d have a different costume every year. So a witch, a mermaid, an android (in Modern AU)… She’d never do the same one twice.

Are they comfortable with technology?:  In a Modern AU, she’d like to use it quite a lot. It’d be useful to her.

If they could save one person who would it be?:  That’s… a hard question.

If they could call one person for help, who would it be?:  Asra, for sure. 

What is their greatest extravagance?:  Herbs, books, and stones.

Do they believe in happy endings?:  She’d like to.

What would they ask a fortune-teller?:  About what deck they use.

#Rhea the Phoenix #arcana mc #arcana oc #oopsies it's a long post! #I wanted to add photos but it wasn't cooperating #character survey

[notbang]

heather & nathaniel - otherwise occupied

The party hasn’t quite gotten started by the time Heather interrupts them with the insistent staccato of her fist against the bedroom door, but it’s enough on its way that they both visibly flinch, mouths detaching with an audible pop, and stare at each other in mutual frustration.

“Occupied,” Rebecca calls out, then yanks Nathaniel back down by his neck to resume her attack on his face.

“Sorry, can’t hear you, coming in,” Heather intones back.

The door opens as promised to reveal a wine-drunk Heather, bottle in hand, and Rebecca growls at the intrusion, executing a poorly-aimed shove and roughly extricating Nathaniel’s hand from under her shirt.

She flops heavily onto her back. “What do you want, Heather?”

Ignoring the question, Heather jerks her chin at Nathaniel. “Can I get under the covers, or are you not wearing pants?”

He stares at her for a moment before reaching for his discarded t-shirt at the foot of the bed. “Maybe I should just go.”

“Hey,” Rebecca says abruptly. “What are you doing? Don’t—do not put your shirt back on. She’s leaving!”

“Yeah,” Heather says with a shrug, blatantly looking him up and down. “I mean, it’s fine.”

He frowns and tugs the sheet up over his chest as a compromise.

“He might still be wearing his pants,” Rebecca grumbles, crossing her arms over her chest and staring straight forward at the wall, “but I’m not making any promises.”

“This side it is. Scooch over, lover boy.”

Heather lifts up the corner of the bedspread and shoehorns her way in with such matter of factness that Nathaniel finds himself shifting over without question, nudging Rebecca closer to her edge of the bed as a byproduct and earning himself disbelieving scowl in response.

“I see what this is,” Rebecca says, yanking out the sheets where they’ve gathered uncomfortably beneath her. “This is payback for last weekend. But it’s not going to work. Ha-ah-ah, nope. You know why? Because I love sleepovers. Sleepovers are my favourite thing, so. Of course I’m going to love a sleepover with two of my favourite people. Right? That’s just… twice the fun. Which means I’m going to enjoy this way more than you.”

“Cool,” Heather says, the infinitesimal twitching of her lips only serving to needle Rebecca further. “Then let’s hang, roomie. Bring it.”

Nathaniel continues to fidget from where he’s caught uncomfortably between them, still clutching the comforter to his chest.

“Oh, are you, like, low-key pitching a tent or something? Don’t be embarrassed—I’m outdoorsy. I knew what I was walking in on.”

His eyes flutter shut as he tilts his face up towards the ceiling. “Well and truly taken care of, believe me.”

“Do you guys want some wines?” Heather asks, angling the neck of the bottle for a refill and narrowly avoiding missing the glass entirely. A trickle runs down the side onto the bedspread.“Oops. I only have one glass but we can share, it’s fine.”

He can practically see Rebecca’s eye start twitching as she stares at the pink blotch blossoming in the fabric of her covers, and he squeezes her thigh in an attempt to appease her. “We’re good,” he says, clearing his throat.

Heather palms the remote from the nightstand and immediately commandeers control of the television, punching through the channels until she settles on reruns of Planet Earth, curiosity sufficiently piqued by the colourful shots of schools of tropical fish and the pleasing lilt of David Attenborough’s dulcet tones.

Nathaniel would be lying if he said he wasn’t interested, but the simmering agitation is still rolling off Rebecca in waves beside him. He knows better than to spend too much time looking at the screen.

Her stony silence persists, though, and when she rolls her eyes and pushes herself down the bed to bury her head into her pillow—back turned towards them, the cold shoulder clear—he lets himself grow a little lax. He doesn’t watch TV particularly often, and while Rebecca’s generally a fan of a late night movie, more often than not they tend to find themselves somewhat preoccupied.

“She should get a new mattress, right?” Heather says during a lull in the commentary, between ungraceful gulps of her wine. “You should tell her to get a new mattress. This one feels like it was passed over by Goldilocks, the princess from Once Upon a Mattress and the princess from Slumbered. Just, like, all the exhausted princesses.”

“The bed is fine,” Nathaniel says, raising his eyebrows. “Sleep like a baby, every time.”

“Well, okay then, Papa Bear.”

Though he immediately hates himself for it, after a beat he asks, “Was Goldilocks a princess?”

“Yeah. But like, a people’s princess.”

Rebecca lets out a sleepy moan and rolls back towards Nathaniel, burrowing into his side. “If you hate my mattress so much, leave,” she says, the words garbled from the way her face is smooshed into his ribcage. His palm curls around her shoulder on autopilot but she shrugs him off irritably, oversteering and tipping too-far towards the edge.

She lets gravity take its due course and melts out the side of the bed to the floor, taking half the bedcovers with her. Once she manages to push herself to her feet—pantsless, as promised earlier, but thankfully with a flash of blue cotton visible beneath the hem of her t-shirt—she tangles a hand in her mussed hair in frustration. “Dude, seriously. What do I gotta do to get you to leave? Coitus interruptus aside, I just fucking want to go to bed.”

“Oh, I’m not leaving,” Heather assures her. “One—you’re right, this is payback for last weekend. Two—as long as I’m here, you two aren’t having sex. Which means I don’t have to listen to you two having sex. Three—your television is bigger than mine, so. Pros all round.”

Nathaniel recognises what’s about happen approximately two seconds before Rebecca launches herself forward, and by some miracle of reflex he manages to intercept and haul her off Heather before she has the chance to substitute a sharp writing implement with her bare hands at her housemate’s throat.

“Okay,” he says, swinging her back towards the other side of the mattress with a grunt despite the admirable struggle she puts up. “That’s enough.”

“Let me go, you turncoat,” she gasps, so taken aback by his unexpected betrayal that her assault on Heather is momentarily forgotten.

She clambers back off the bed, turning around to yank on the bedspread as an afterthought, pulling the covers off entirely and exposing the twin lengths of their ridiculously long legs. Nathaniel comically scrunches up in a ball at the unexpected gush of air but Heather remains unfazed, tilting her head in Rebecca’s direction.

“Well, rude,” she says.

“You,” Rebecca growls, jabbing an index and middle finger in Nathaniel’s direction. “Put your shirt on. We’re leaving. This sleepover has officially been relocated to your apartment and Heather’s not invited.”

Nathaniel opens his mouth to say something then quickly closes it again, sneaking a furtive glance at the television that has Rebecca jerking her head towards him and widening her eyes, enraged.

“Oh, I’m sorry—would you rather stay in bed and watch late night TV with my drunk housemate than continue taking off the rest of my clothes?” When he hesitates she adds, “For the record, there is very much a right and wrong answer to that question.”

Rolling his eyes, he retrieves his shirt from the end of the bed and tugs it down over his head, compressing the crest of his hair and sending it bouncing comically upwards once it escapes containment. “Are you really going to make me drive across town right now? It’s almost midnight.”

“Are you really leaving me to infer that your answer is yes—you would rather stay in bed and watch—”

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” he assures her, reaching across Heather to retrieve his keys from the nightstand.

“Well, you kids have fun,” Heather calls after them as Rebecca aggressively shepherds Nathaniel from the room, tossing one shoe then the other at his retreating back and eliciting a protesting yelp each time. “I’m just gonna, like, chill here and crash.”

She starfishes across the bed in satisfaction.

mini fic prompt meme.

#crazy ex girlfriend #it's hot here in hell so ship it all away #rebecca x nathaniel #heather davis #nathaniel + heather #brotp: what are you doing in my house? #my fic #mini fic prompt meme #catty-words #replies #this is not remotely what it was supposed to be #which was a lot more of heather and nathaniel watching tv #but rebecca really likes to make things about her so here we are #it almost fits the prompt??

[kammieceleek]

The Final Bell:  A Camp Camp High School AU Prologue:  The Knockout

The final bell.

For most kids, it's a symbol of freedom. It signals the end of a long day of school and the beginning of a few hours of liberty and peace. At the final bell, kids go to their lockers and head home for the day, or they wait for the bus or their parents to come pick them up. In short, most people are happy when they hear that bell.

Nicolette Virginia Morrison was not most people.

No, today, when she heard that final bell, the hurt and anger she'd been carrying around in her gut for a week bubbled to the surface. It was the final day of school before Spring Break, and she was furious. That bell rang and she left her classroom, ignoring the calls of her friends as she headed to her locker. It snapped open with ease and she glanced at a picture stuck to the door. A picture of her and him.

Just looking at his face made her want to punch something.

Or someone.

"Okay, it'll be done by the time we come back from break."

And as if someone was listening, he was behind her. Acting as if he hadn't betrayed her trust. Acting as if he was completely innocent. As if he didn't. Fucking. Care.

Nikki turned and saw him walking through the hallway with a guy she didn't know well. His name was Joseph something—it didn't matter. What mattered was that he was smirking.

The goddamn bastard.

Nikki had never understood the meaning of heartbreak. She'd never been in love. She'd never trusted her heart to somebody, only to have them stomp it to pieces and act like she hadn't given them shit.

That was before him.

She'd told him things she'd never told anyone before. She'd shown him the part of her she kept hidden from the world out of fear. He was her first kiss, her first make-out session, her first love, her first boyfriend. She'd given him those kisses, those make-out sessions, her heart.

And her virginity.

After all that, he'd only been doing because a girl paid him to hurt her.

She was angry, and hurt, and he needed to pay.

Quickly, she shut her locker and began weaving her way through the crowd, stuffing the picture in her pocket as she went. Her eyes were trained on the back of his head, her mind on one thing and one thing only.

Making him pay.

She could hear her stepbrother's voice, calling her to come back so they could go home, but she ignored him. He was getting closer and closer.

Both of them were outside the school, now, and he'd reached the bottom of the stairs. He took out his phone and checked his messages, not realizing that she was behind him. Quietly, she tapped him on the shoulder. He turned to see who it was…

And Nikki's fist went flying into Max's face.

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

Let's go back a bit, shall we? Back before this confrontation, before Nikki's heartbreak and Max's betrayal. Because neither of those is the beginning of the story. No, our story begins in a small town called Sleepy Peak. A nice town, to be sure. Located near scenic Lake Lilac, with half the town owned by crooked con man, Cameron Campbell. In this small town, there were two high schools, located in opposite school zones.

And our story truly begins at Sleepy Peak High.

At Sleepy Peak High, there was a food chain, like every other school, and at this school, Sasha Harris ruled over all with an iron fist. Everybody knew not to cross her or her small inner circle—a circle that included just three people.

Erin Roberts, Tabii Nichols, and Max Greene.

Now, two of those are understandable. Every queen bee worth her salt has at least two mindless female minions backing her up—Regina George in Mean Girls and Heather Chandler in Heathers being two famous examples. Max, however, was a mystery to most of the student body. He was the son of Mr. Greene, one of the teachers, and also known for having an underground homework ring. You wanted an assignment done or a person messed with? See Max.

Okay, so maybe him hanging out with Sasha made more sense than people thought, but still. People whispered that he and Sasha were dating, or that they were fuck buddies. Neither of those two rumors were true, but that didn't stop people from saying them.

Since Max's dad was a teacher, that meant that his little side business had to stay off the radar, which it did. For the first two years of high school, Max was considered one of the top students in the school.

Then, right before junior year started, David dropped a bomb on Max.

They were moving across town.

Granted, it was only because David had gotten a job at Campbell High and wanted to live closer to his new job. And his girlfriend was moving in with them, so their tiny apartment-for-two wasn't going to cut it anymore.

Sasha, of course, wasn't happy that she was losing her homework guy. She wanted nothing more than to finish coasting through high school with Max's fantastic work on her record, but that wasn't going to be possible anymore.

Now he was going to school with her worst enemy.

Nicolette Virginia Morrison.

There was nobody the queen bee hated more than that outdoorsy little tomboy. Nikki was the bane of Sasha's existence, and Sasha was determined to bring her down.

And she intended to use Max to do it.

You see, Max's system on favors was that he would do anything as long as you paid him the right price. His limits were assault, sex, and murder, but anything else was fair game. Sasha knew this, and she intended to use his policies to get to Nikki and crush her in the purest sense of the word. After all, little tomboys didn't have the same emotions true girls had, right? It wasn't like Nikki would actually fall for Max!

Right?

#camp camp #camp camp au #camp camp high school au #makki #max and nikki #dadvid #momgwen

[vicccwrites]

Movie Nights - Zhu Zhengting

(A/N: Hey ^^ To the sweet anon who requested a Zhengting fluff, I’m sorry it took so long to get out!! I hope it’s fluffy enough for you, and it was a blast to write! <33)

Masterlist

- Photo Source: Google -

After a several long months of promoting as a member of Nine Percent, Zhengting was finally allowed to come home and rest for a while

His first priority was seeing you again, so you two decided on a simple beach date on the day he was scheduled to fly in from Beijing

As luck would have it though, ofc it had to start pouring rain JUST as his flight was landing

The corners of your lips twitched into a frown while you were stuck in the traffic on the way to pick your boyfriend up from the airport. Of all of the days that it had to rain, why this one?

By the time that you managed to park and make your way into the luggage claim area to wait for him, it was pretty much storming outside

Thankfully, his plane had managed to land safely amongst the strong winds and fierce weather

Eventually, you managed to catch sight of him, and tackled him into a huge bear hug

Despite your slightly sour mood, knowing that you would essentially have Zhengting to yourself for the next week and a half put a giant, goofy grin on your face

Grabbing his suitcases, you two dragged his stuff back to your car, before the realising that your date was ruined

“Wait - we can’t go to the beach in this weather?!”

So you two instead decided to head back to your place for a bit and try to see if you could wait out the storm

nOPe

3 hours, 2 makeout sessions and 4 games of cards against humanity later; it was still pouring rain

(can you even play cards against humanity with 2 people?? idk)

Safe to say it was getting pretty boring

It’s not that you two didn’t enjoy spending time in the company of the other, but rather that you were both outdoorsy people that hated being cooped up indoors

By that point you were both starving too, having eaten nothing for a good while

“Wanna order pizza, babe?”

He readily agreed, and soon enough you had 2 piping hot pepperoni pizzas between you as you both pigged out, casually chatting and catching up on the past couple of months

(Even though you had basically told him everything over text already lmao)

++ more kisses

“Ewww, ting, you taste like cheese!”

You two managed to polish off the pizzas pretty quick, and then you were back to hoping that the storm would stop, or even lighten up a bit, soon

Because ofc it hadn’t stopped, and if anything, the rain had gotten heavier 

A pout started to form on your face, why did the stupid weather have to ruin your first date with Zhengting in forever?

Sensing your frustration, your boyfriend pecked your lips and stood up, starting to search through the shelves on the side of your TV stand

Just as you were about to ask him what on earth he was doing, he pulled something out and plopped back down next to you on the couch

“Found it! Why don’t we make some popcorn and watch a movie instead?”

This dork was holding up a dvd of the notebook that you had totally forgotten you even owned

You couldn’t help but chuckle as a huge smile spread across your face

“Only if we get to cuddle though,” you joked

Zhengting’s face changed into an expression of mock-offense, as he joked back

“As if we would be doing anything else!”

You both burst into laughter at that, and you’re still chuckling minutes later when you go to microwave a bag of popcorn

Meanwhile your boyfriend is trying to figure out how to operate your dvd player

He gets it eventually though, and the movie is just about to start when you get back to the couch equipped with plenty of snacks and soda

Settling onto the comfy cushions in Zhengting’s arms, you couldn’t help but think that there was nowhere that you’d rather be, and maybe your date wasn’t ruined at all

In fact, as you stuffed popcorn into your mouth, you thought that maybe movie nights would have to be a more regular addition to your dates in the future <33

#zhu zhengting #zhu zhengting scenarios #zhu zhengting imagine #nine percent #nine percent scenarios #nine percent imagines #idol producer #idol producer scenarios #idol producer imagines #yuehua #yuehua ent #yuehua entertainment #nex7 #yuehua nex7 #9 percent #9 percent imagines #9 percent scenarios

[the-gay-cryptid]

Camping Trip

I have never been an outdoorsy person. Not really. Sure, I like walking in the field behind my house. It’s big enough that I’ve gotten lost a couple times and had to consider the possibility that I’d need to call my parents to help me. But I always had my phone in those situations. I had food and water and was never more than an hours walk from civilization. Even so, when i learned of our sophomore retreat, I decided to embrace the wilderness.

For our retreat, we went into the smoky mountains for a few days with our classmates and three teachers. It wasn’t exactly camping, since we were actually sleeping in dorms, but the dorms weren’t nice. The building was freezing cold and the bunk beds didn’t have actual mattresses, just those thin mats we used in kindergarten at naptime. Then there were the ladybugs. Those perfectly harmless and charming little red and black bugs. Signs of good luck. Signs of a lovely spring day. They were everywhere.

One of my closest friends once admitted to me she was terrified of ladybugs after her house had a small infestation. I used to laugh at her. Then I got to Tremont and had to sleep with a towel over my head so the ladybugs didn’t get in my hair or mouth while I slept. In the mornings, i had to shake them out of my hiking boots. It was disgusting, but I could at least appreciate the potential for a story of my classmates shrieking in the night because a lady bug had crawled on her face.

I complain a lot about the dorms, but they really weren’t so bad. Even the communal bathroom wasn’t too bad. And that’s coming from someone who locks the doors for privacy when I’m just brushing my teeth. Would I ever actually choose a communal bathroom? Absolutely not. But I could live with it so long as the next ones didn’t have ladybugs trying to escape the shower water by flying into my hair.

Every morning we rose from our uncomfortable beds that left my shoulders cramped for almost a week and went to breakfast. Breakfast was okay, with it’s bland pancakes and even more bland yogurt. But there was hot tea, and that was all I really needed. Lunch and dinner weren’t much better, but they served brownies after dinner, which were surprisingly good. After breakfast (and lunch) we went on hikes or had rest time. Most people spent rest time in the dorms sleeping or hanging out. I opted for the hikes that our biology teacher took a few girls on.

They were short, easy hikes that usually took us to the river. The water was freezing cold, and we all took advantage of it to rub down our necks and foreheads after we’d been running around the forest. It was so quiet out there. I don’t live in the city, and I do wander around the field, but I can’t ever escape that faint hum of civilization. Of cars. Of shouting children. But out there, standing on a rock dangerously close to the river’s edge, I heard only water and wind. It would’ve been disturbing if it wasn’t so beautiful.

On our last day, we went on the hardest hike of all: The Waterfall. The walkways were narrow and right on the edge of the mountain. We had to walk single file and warn each other of loose leaves and mud. Even so, several of us fell and finished the hike with dirty hands and clothes. Some parts of the trail were so steep, we had to climb on our hands and knees, like we did when we were kids running up stairs. Unlike the stairs, the mountain was uneven and muddy and didn’t just leave us with carpet burn when we slipped.

With the worst of the hike over, we were faced with the next challenge: scaling rocks to get to the actual waterfall. The paths on this hike were all extremely narrow, and as we got closer to the waterfall, the rocks got bigger. Though they’d been worn down a bit over the years of people climbing over them, we still had to boost each other up. Getting down them was much easier, since we could essentially just slide down.

If we had felt like it, we probably could have just walked upriver and bypassed the rocks altogether, but one of our girls had fallen in the river during an activity the day before, and she’d come out bruised and so cold her whole body trembled and her lips took on hinted hues of blue. We’d all given up our spare blankets to warm her when we got back. She was fine after some hot chocolate a good group hug, but walking in the river was still a no go.

Surprisingly, no one got hurt on the rocks. After them, we finally reached our destination. The waterfall wasn’t huge, only a couple stories tall if I had to guess, but it was still pretty. We partook in the Tremont waterfall challenge, (dunking your face in the freezing water beside the waterfall for seven seconds) and painted our faces with mud made from rubbing two river rocks together. I swear that mud was magical, because it cleared my skin by nightfall.

I’d made it through the hike without a problem. I’d shoved my face in cold water. I’d put mud on my face. I’d taunted my teachers with my classmates so they’d stick their faces in the river too. But when I finally injured myself, it was because I was posing for a picture. It wasn’t even a dangerous picture. We were just standing on a rock a little ways into the river. We only had to hop across spaces between the rocks, and the spaces were each no bigger than six inches across. Just like I’d done on every single hike that went by the river.

It was a stupid mistake. I had gotten confident from my lack of injuries throughout the entire trip, and this was our final hike. So my dumb, arrogant self tried to jump to the next rock. Fun fact: river rocks tend to be wet and slippery. As any half wit could tell you, it’s best not to jump on them. Hell, even I knew that when I was jumping. But I assumed my boots had good grip on them. Thing is, my boots were meant to grip dry rock and dirt.

My foot slid from under me and I went down. I didn’t fall in, thank God, but I skinned my hand and knee on the rock. Several people panicked when I fell, since I’d barely caught myself before my head collided with the stone. I’d gotten close enough that the edge of the frame of my glasses got scratched, but my head itself thankfully didn’t hit. I was okay, just a little bloody. I got a bandaid and sat for the picture. I actually still have a small scar on my knee from the fall.

The best hike was not the last one though. The best had occurred on our first full day there. There’d been whispers of it from the moment we saw the whiteboard in the mess hall with our day’s schedule: the night hike. Those words were murmured like rumors of a haunted house among middle schoolers. I thought nothing of it. We were just going to bring our flashlights for a late night hike. No big deal. Then dinner rolled around and we were informed that, no, we would not have flashlights. Then I freaked out a little.

I am perfectly willing to admit that I’m a tad afraid of the dark. I’m not scared of monsters hiding in the dark under my bed or anything, I’m just scared of all the things that can go wrong when you can't see. I have a recurring nightmare of going into the kitchen late at night to get a glass of water, only to drop it and have it shatter around my bare feet, leaving me stranded and bleeding until someone comes to rescue me. That nightmare is the reason I keep a huge plastic water bottle in my room at night. I know I don’t have to be afraid of dropping glass in the forest, but there are other very real things to be scared of.

The forest was overrun with wild boars, for example. Our guides had all warned us how to spot tracks and what to do if we saw one. They even pointed out some of the traps they’d set to capture and relocate the boars since they’d started to over populate in the park. There were also wolves, as our guide told us in a story about how she’d accidentally run into a couple on the verge of a battle one night. There were also owls. We weren’t warned about them, but we could hear them. Owls are too often forgotten to be the vicious predators they really are. They’ve been known to attack people’s heads before, and just the thought of those vicious talons sinking into the back of your head is terrifying.

We walked in a darkness so thick, I couldn’t see my hair when it fell across my glasses. We walked single file, whispering warnings about loose rocks, roots, and steep step downs. We clutched the shoulder of the person in front of us and stayed pressed to the mountain to keep from falling down its side. I tried to map in my head where we were going, recalling that my teacher had mentioned one of the paths we’d taken on an optional hike was used for the night hike, but I quickly realized I was not on that at least vaguely familiar trail. Then I lost my grip on the girl in front of me.

I’ve always had anxiety. It’s gotten worse since I got older, but I learned how to manage it, and it rarely left me unable to think clearly. But then i was in a dark forest with nothing to hold onto. I was acutely aware of how far I was from civilization. Of how close the edge of the trail was. I was alone and lost. I felt a scream in my chest, but it couldn’t get past my constricted throat, and I could only gasp in the fresh air that felt too pure for my emotional state. I imagine i might’ve looked comedic. My eyes wide as I jerked my head around and fumbled with my arms straight out for a tree branch. But i felt absolute terror deep in my chest, like I was already on the verge of death.

I looked up at saw billions of stars. Living somewhere so rural, I’d never known how truly dark the world could be, nor did I have the faintest idea that I could see so much in the sky. So far and many that I knew i was very small and insignificant among them. I’d never seen so many. I’d never seen a sky so black. It was cold and vast and I was small and alone. I did not find fear in that sudden understanding. I found calm. Looking back, my reaction was incredibly melodramatic, but it felt so crystalline and simple at the time. I thought if i’m going to die, then this is a beautiful last thing to see. Then my teacher put her hand on my shoulder and guided me forward till we reached the group again. The group which had only made it a few feet in the brief thirty seconds i’d faced what I imagined to be a very evident demise. Fear certainly turns us into drama queens.

I didn’t lose track of the group again, but I had another moment to admire my insignificance in the universe. We’d separated, going a mere five or six feet from our stopping point, and sat down at the order of our guide. We were told to sit in total silence for five minutes, at which point she’d call us back. I sat on the cold damp river bank and looked straight out. I couldn’t even tell when I’d blinked or stared into the woods. Both were equally void of light.

The bank of the river was made up of cold, damp mud that chilled my hands and legs. Without thinking of all the bugs that might be there, I laid on my back and closed my eyes. It was so calm. So strangely quiet. It was too cold for crickets to even be out and chirping, so the only sound was the river. And something else.

I strained my ears, but kept my eyes closed. The sound was constant and distant, and also extremely familiar. I sat up and opened my eyes, searching the shadows for any movement. It sounded like another group of hikers talking in the distance. Probably just like us. I heard them laugh and heard their changing inflections as they talked. I even thought I could make out a few words. But I couldn’t see anything. They sounded like they were just up the river, but they never got any closer.

A sudden fear began up my spine again. What if it was my group? What if they’d started back and I’d not heard the guide calling us? I felt sure I hadn’t really wandered that far, only a few feet or so. But it was so dark out there really was no way to tell. Oh god, what if I was alone? I could never find my way back, i didn’t even have my flashlight with me. I’d left it in the dorms after we’d been told we wouldn’t be allowed to use them on the hike. I could maybe survive for one night; I’d watched Man vs. Wild plenty of times. But I didn’t have anything useful. Just a journal, a pen, and a lightweight jacket in my bag. You can’t exactly defend yourself from boars or wolves with those.

I began turning side to side rather frantically, searching everywhere for any sign of anyone I knew. My heart pounded so loud in my ears, I couldn’t hear my group in the distance anymore. I turned and sat on my knees, opening my eyes as wide as possible to make them adjust and start to see anything. In one of my panicked turns, I saw something human-ish in shape leaned against the rock. When I squinted, i could make out a small, pointed nose and straight hair.

“Angie?” I said softly, and the head turned. “Oh, just making sure it’s you.”

“It’s me,” she answered. I sighed, knowing instantly she was telling the truth. Even when she was whispering, she still had her distinct Vietnamese accent.

Now that I knew I wasn’t alone, I faced out to the river again. The sound was still there. It was still the same distance away. Who in the hell was out there whispering and giggling, but not actually hiking?

And then, like someone had smacked me upside the head and knocked the obvious explanation into my head, it hit me. The river. It was the river. What I mistook for voices was simply the gurgling water against the rocks. I finally understood why we describe brooks as “babbling”, because even now that I was aware of it, I couldn’t shake the belief that what I heard was people.

I could imagine how people can go crazy getting lost in the woods. The deceptive sounds of nature could lead anyone to believe they weren’t alone in the unbreakable darkness out there. Stories of fae and madness made so much sense now, and firmly set my intention to never go hiking alone or without damn good supplies ever again.

With the misunderstood danger gone, I tilted my head back and looked up. The stars were beautiful, and I was breathless. I decided then and there, I’d spend as much time watching the stars as I could from then on. I’ve always loved space. I love how big and vast and full of potential it is. It’s exciting. Like a gigantic mystery novel waiting to be read. I’d been describing myself as insignificant in comparison to it, but that just wasn’t true. I wasn’t insignificant because I couldn’t be compared to it. I am just a small living thing trying to compare itself the the entirety of the universe. It just wasn’t fair to myself.

Our return hike was silent. No warnings whispered over our shoulders. Just silence as we all returned to the dorms to sleep. I didn’t talk much that night. I called dibs on the first shower, and I told my friends goodnight. I laid in my bunk, towel over my head, and closed my eyes and dreamed beautiful things of a void of stars and whispering creatures living in shadows.

#my writing #writing #creative writing #creativity #my post #text post #stroy #true story #truestory #camping

[ocean-tumbled-pebbles]

Obligatory Beach Episode

Summary: In which Team Happy plays beach volleyball to protect Ye Xiu’s virtue. Crossposted on FFN and AO3 under Jellysunfish.

Tags: beach day, crackfic, fanservice-ish, allye, author is too lazy to even name more people than necessary.

It was summer vacation, and all of Team Happy was at the beach. Why, you might ask, would gamers who would preferably spend all their time gaming indoors, be outdoors, in the sun? Well, the answer is simple. Ye Qiu.

It was Ye Qiu who had bought train tickets and hotel rooms and even reserved the entire beach. When most of Team Happy, Ye Xiu included, stated that they would #rather not go outside, Ye Qiu threatened to kidnap his brother and take him to a remote island with no internet access or phone signal. When faced with losing their captain/no Glory for Ye Xiu, Ye Xiu and company gladly chose to accompany Ye Qiu to the beach. At least the hotel had wi-fi.

It wasn’t actually that bad though. Ye Qiu had rented out a large tent with a fan. Ye Xiu, Ye Qiu, and Wei Chen were currently relaxing under the shade while the youngsters frolicked around in the sand.

Ye Qiu, being the more outdoorsy type was quite tanner than Ye Xiu. Ye Xiu supposed that if he actually bothered to go outside, he might look like that too. But he was content lounging in the tent out of the direct sunlight.

Ye Qiu handed his brother a fruit cocktail. Ye Xiu sipped at the drink. It was cool and icy and sweet, just how he liked it.

Wei Chen also had a drink in his hand. He poked his head out of the tent to see what the kids were doing.

“Hoho! It seems like those youngsters found some people to play beach volleyball with. Ah summertime really is the season for youth.”

Ye Qiu almost spat out his own drink. “What? This beach should be empty! How did they get past the guards?”

Ye Xiu and Wei Chen sweatdropped. Uhh, weren’t guards for a simple beach trip rather excessive?

Wei Chen offered to go check it out so that Ye Qiu could cool his head. He popped back into the tent a short while later, poured himself another drink, and started packing up his chair to go sit outside.

“So it turns out, that those other people are all our pro player friends,” He laughed heartily. “I’m going to go watch. It seems that they’ve gambled away Ye Xiu’s virginity.”

“What.”

“WHAT?!?!!”

=====

The three of them traversed across the sand to the expanse where everyone was playing beach volleyball. Steamed Bun had spotted them coming and shouted out with big waving arms, “BOSS! OLD WEI! YE QIU! HIIIII!”

Fang Rui smacked Steamed Bun across the back. “Pay attention to the game, Baozi. Otherwise, Ye Xiu really will be f*cked.”

“Oh, right!”

On the other side of the net from Team Happy was a mixture of pros from other teams. The six on the court were Han Wenqing, Huang Shaotian, Yu Wenzhou, Wang Jiexi, Zhou Zekai, and Zhang Jiale.

Ye Qiu angrily marched up to them. “How did you get past security?! They were under strict orders not to let anyone in without my express agreement!”

“Haha, your security is no match for Han Wenqing!” boasted Huang Shaotian. “The old wallet-face can get you in anywhere!”

Han Wenqing glared at Huang Shaotian.

Shaotian leaned away shakily, “S-see what I mean?”

“How did you even find us here?” Ye Xiu asked curiously.

Wang Jiexi answers. “Last week, I gave you a potted cactus with a tracker on it.”

Ye Qiu narrows his eyes. “And for what reason did you want to track my brother?” he asked with a not so subtle emphasis on the my.

“Oh, you know. Reasons.” He waved dismissively.

“But I gave it to Steamed Bun,” Ye Xiu said scratching his head. Wang Jiexi looked a little disappointed at that.

Ye Qiu whipped his head to Steamed Bun, who was laughing and asking Gao Yingjie on the sidelines about his horoscope. “You brought it WITH you?”

Steamed Bun scratched his head. “It’s a plant. I need to water it!”

“IT’S A CACTUS! It doesn’t need to be watered!”

“Calm down, brother Ye Qiu.” Yu Wenzhou tried to calm the older man with a voice that soothed like the waves.

Ye Qiu, not soothed at all, turned his anger to Yu Wenzhou. “Don’t you call me ‘brother’ you with untoward intentions toward my Xiu-ge.”

“Wang Jiexi’s just joking. (I hope).” said Yu Wenzhou. “We actually followed Su Mucheng’s geotags on Instagram.”

Su Mucheng let out a laugh. She stuck out her tongue playfully. “Whoopsie, my bad.”

Ye Qiu couldn’t be mad at his brother’s adopted little sister (even though he did still slightly resent her for taking his place as Ye Xiu’s cute younger sibling), but he could still be angry at the other people who decided to crash their beach day.

“Okay, you found us. Now leave!”

“Aww, why can’t they stay. The more friends the merrier right?” Ye Xiu laughed.

Ye Qiu turned to his brother. How could he be so dense? He led Ye Xiu away from the crowd and hisses in his ear. “Do you realize that they’re all looking at you like they want to be more than friends? They’re fighting over your virginity!”

That last part came out louder than intended. Qiao Yifan came up to the pair of twins.

“Don’t worry senior, we’ll protect your virtue.”

“We’ll be your knights in shining armor,” Tang Rou stood resolutely.

“Yeah, Boss! We’ll protect your virginity forever!” yelled out Steamed Bun.

Ye Xiu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He didn’t want to be a virgin forever!

Wei Chen laughed heartily. “Why don’t you let them finish their game? At this point, the ‘Let’s-take-Ye-Xiu’s-Virginity’ Team would win by default!”

“...Fine.” Ye Qiu turned to Team Happy. “You guys better win, or else.”

So they continued the game of beach volleyball. After watching the ‘Let’s-take-Ye-Xiu’s-Virginity’ Team win several rallies, Ye Qiu had the sneaking suspicion that Su Mucheng was making several mistakes on purpose to help the other team score points. Under the pretense of making sure she was okay, he subbed in Mo Fan for her.

After that, Team Happy aka the ‘Protect-Captain-Ye’s-Virtue’ Team was able to steadily make a comeback. As he was watching the game, Ye Xiu suddenly had a thought.

“You know, there’s only one of me, and several of you. So if you guys win, how could it be that all of you are going to take my virginity?”

“...”

“We should do it based on points scored!” yelled Huang Shaotian, who had naturally scored the most points due to his synergy with the setter, Yu Wenzhou.

“That’s unfair to the setters,” replied Yu Wenzhou. “In that case, the setter should count all the points anyone has scored since without the setter, none of you could have scored.”

“You wouldn’t have gotten to set it without me saving the ball,” claimed Wang Jiexi.

“Team captain should get it,” said the team captain, Han Wenqing.

“It has to be me! I want to be Ye Xiu’s first! I won’t settle for second!” yelled out Zhang Jiale.

“...Me.” Zhou Zekai didn’t even bother to give a reason.

“What about all the bench players?! We didn’t even get named by the author!” cried the players on the bench. “We want Ye Xiu’s virgin experience too!”

The tension on the team rocketed sky high. So much, that they failed to save Mo Fan’s serve on the match deciding point.

The visiting pro players were all disappointed, but at least none of them could get a lead on the others in taking Ye Xiu’s virginity.

Team Happy celebrated by jumping on top of Ye Xiu. He toppled over under the weight of the cuddle party.

Ye Qiu was also happy. He suddenly pointed at Mo Fan.  “You, you get a bonus. Anything you want. On me.” He then turned to the rest of Team Happy. “I’d like you all to join the Ye Xiu protection squad.”

“Brother!”

“Should anything like this happen again, we’ll all stand together to protect my brother’s virtue. Are you with me?”

“YES SIR!”

“Brother!” Ye Xiu cried out, and Wei Chen patted his back comfortingly.

Brother, please stop! I don’t want to be a virgin forever!

And so, having protected their captain, Team Happy’s beach day ended on a high note, and Ye Xiu went to console himself by playing Glory on the hotel’s computers.

END.

//Notes: heyhey beach day! I had a fun time going to the beach this weekend so I wanted to make a fun fanservice/crackfic. Enjoy your summer vacations!//

#tka #qzgs #Allye #fanfiction #crackfic #beach fanservice #drabblesandwriting #my writing #mine