#sky oc: Sho

[prythianpages]

ACOSM | The Night she met Noctis

azriel x rhysand's sister (oc)

warnings: fluff, spoilers for the harry potter series bc I couldn't help but mention hp in this lol

summary: Valeria and Rhysand come across an injured bird when walking together at night. Valeria decides to take the bird under her wing and nurses it back to health, finding a strange similarity between her the dark creature.

A/N: this is an imagine among my collection of imagines that follow Rhysand's sister, Valeria. while I'm still working on them, you can find the masterlist for it here. I know the next imagines were meant to be Valeria's birthday and the coming of the Bloodrite but I when I was driving today, I thought it'd be cute for Valeria to have a little pet bird. So sorry that this one isn't as eventful but there some good foreshadowing here. I hope you can still enjoy it <3

**

Rhysand strolled alongside Valeria, the calm of the evening wrapping around them like a comforting embrace. The stars were like shimmering diamonds in the night sky, their gentle glow soothing to the soul. They had just returned from Velaris, where they had dropped their mother off before winnowing back to Windhaven.

Rhysand, ever the protective older brother, could sense the weight of unspoken thoughts on Valeria's mind. He didn’t have to pry into her thoughts to know what was troubling her. They had run into their father when they dropped their mother off. They hadn’t seen him in months. Their father, the High Lord of the Night Court, praised Rhysand for growing up to be strong and expressed his best wishes to Rhysand as the annual bloodrite was approaching. Rhysand, along with Cassian and Azriel, would be participating this year as they had reached the age where it was tradition for Illyrian males to prove their worth as warriors.

Their father barely acknowledged Valeria, and Rhysand had to bite back the urge to call their father out on it at the sight of Valeria’s eyes losing their usual spark.

Rhysand took a moment to gather his thoughts, delicately approaching the topic that weighed on Valeria. “Care to share what’s troubling you?”

Valeria shook her head but when she felt the familiar touch of her brother's concern caressing her mind, she sighed. Her gaze was fixed on the stars, reflecting a mix of frustration and sadness. "The Blood Rite... How all males must participate to prove their worth as warriors. But why does it have to be so... brutal? Can't there be a different way?"

Rhysand sighed, acutely aware that while the bloodrite was on her mind, it wasn't the main source of her distress. It was, unmistakably, their father’s neglect that troubled her the most.

"Traditions are deeply ingrained, and altering them is an unfortunate, immense challenge. It's a test of strength, of endurance. It encompasses not only physical strength but also mental and strategic prowess."

“And what are your thoughts on it?”

Rhysand shrugged, the gravity of the tradition weighing on him. “Honestly, it is a bit unsettling.”

“Do you believe they’ll ever allow females to participate in the bloodrite?”

“Females have participated in the bloodrite before,” Rhysand replied, shooting a look at Valeria as if to deter her thoughts. He, protective as ever, would never wish for his sister to partake in such a dangerous ritual. “However, it’s rare and often not by choice.”

Valeria’s eyebrows furrowed, her wings mirroring her confusion. “What do you mean?”

“It’s a cruel way for fathers to punish their daughters, an excuse to slaughter them without getting their hands dirty themselves,” he explained, revealing a dark aspect of the tradition that made Valeria's heart ache for the unfairness of it all.

“As if clipping their wings wasn’t enough.” Valeria let out a small huff. “It seems that the world loves punishing daughters.”

Rhysand also couldn’t stand the thought that the world didn’t value females as it should. He shoved his hands into his pockets, feeling the weight of the unjust world pressing on his shoulders. His eyes, violet pools of determination, burned with an unwavering fire. “It’ll be different when I’m High Lord,” he promised.

“I know.”

A sense of fierce pride surged through Valeria in that moment. Her brother, who so strongly resembled their father in appearance, couldn't be any more different in conviction. Rhysand as High Lord would be a beacon of change and hope. A testament to the possibility of a better world, a world where daughters were cherished and valued as much as sons.

They fell into comfortable silence then.

 As they made their way back to their house in Windhaven, the sound of faint chirping caught their attention. The chirping grew louder, resembling a cry for help, like a plea from someone in need. Intrigued, they followed the sound.

Following the source of the sound, they discovered a small, injured bird lying on the ground. Valeria knelt down, her heart going out to the frail creature. She noticed one wing was smaller than the other. She carefully cradled the bird in her hands, worry etched on her face.

Rhysand joined her, his concern mirroring hers. "Poor thing. It must have fallen from its nest."

Valeria nodded, gently holding the injured bird. "We need to help it.”

**

Valeria had named the bird Noctis, after its dark plumage that shimmered like the night sky. Over the course of several days, she meticulously watched as the bird, despite its injuries, displayed a remarkable will to survive. Its resilience struck a chord with her, a reflection of her own strength during challenging times.

Perched delicately on her finger, Noctis's one undergrown wing trembled slightly as if in anticipation. As the sun cast a warm, golden glow through the window, the bird chirped and fluttered its wings. Noctis was healing. 

Noctis soon became a constant companion, finding comfort in perching on her shoulders during chores or errands around the house or camp. The bird even accompanied her when she went ice skating with Mallory, choosing to watch from a nearby tree branch. 

**

One day, as Valeria sat at the piano, her fingers dancing gracefully across the keys, Noctis was perched on top of the instrument, curiously observing the movement of her fingers. It seemed Noctis had tired of chasing Azriel’s shadows for the night. His shadows had surprisingly taken a liking to the bird. If Noctis wasn’t with Valeria or Azriel’s shadows, it was likely he was annoying Rhysand by picking the lint off his clothes, perched on top of Cassian’s head or messing with her mother’s thread and fabrics.

Valeria played a lively tune and to her delightful surprise, Noctis began to mimic the tune in his own chirpy, playful way. Amused and excited, Valeria laughed softly, encouraging Noctis to continue. She played another tune, and once again, Noctis responded with his endearing chirps, as if engaging in a musical conversation.

Upstairs, Rhysand, trying to focus on his reading, found the chirping and piano music increasingly annoying. “Just leave it be,” Cassian warned him with a knowing look.

Rhysand sent him a glare as he put down his book and made his way downstairs. His gaze landed on Azriel, who had fallen asleep on the couch shortly after dinner, before meeting his sister’s.

“Do you have to encourage the bird to compete with the piano?” Rhysand asked, a hint of annoyance in his tone. “I am trying to finish the tale of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.”

“Ginny is the one who opens the Chamber of Secrets!” 

Rhysand sent her a vulgar gesture for spoiling the book for him. Azriel began to stir, along with his shadows that had cuddled up against him, from his spot on the couch, surprise etched on his features as he hadn’t realized he had fallen asleep there. 

Valeria giggled, her eyes sparkling with mirth. "Oh, come on, Rhys! Everyone knows how the series ends. Besides, Noctis is just having fun. We're making music together."

Rhysand shook his head, trying to suppress a smile. "I don't understand how you find this amusing."

Valeria shrugged, her focus back on the piano. "It's the little things that bring joy.”

She played another tune, and once more, Noctis joined in, filling the room with a cheerful, harmonious cacophony. Both Valeria and Noctis squealed in delight, reveling in the delightful musical moment. Even Azriel, with heavy and tired eyes still from his nap on the couch, couldn't help but crack a smile 

“Whatever,” Rhysand retorted, a playful annoyance in his tone as he rolled his eyes. “If you keep on spoiling this series for me or that bird of yours doesn’t decide it's bedtime soon, I won't be bothering with a birthday gift for you!”

Rhysand turned, making his way back up the stairs toward his room. However, he was intercepted by Azriel, who had stirred on the couch and once again made himself comfortable, though his wings made the task a bit cumbersome. With a sly grin, Azriel called out:

 "Snape kills Dumbledore!"

Rhysand let out an exaggerated groan. “Fuck you guys!”

**

I couldn't think of any old tale for Rhysand to be reading so I decided to bring up Harry Potter lol

Tag list: @justrepostandlove @kemillyfreitas @thelov3lybookworm

#azriel shadowsinger #azriel #azriel x oc #azriel imagine #azriel x rhysand's sister #rhysand's sister #rhysand imagine #acotar #acotar imagine

[gothfield-official]

My Top 56 Yugioh GX Unhinged moments

The fact that vampires are casually confirmed to exist including an entire vampire/human war backstory where all of them died and there was only one left and then she died. Also she had the ability to turn people into dolls and duplicate herself

Professor Banner was an actual rotting corpse and a homunculus and even though he had no genitals in the original the 4kids version censored his crotch implying that he has genitals in the english version. Once judai beats him he turns into dust and then for some reason his corpse that he’s kept in a coffin in his little science lair turns into dust too and there’s just banner dust everywhere. Then his pet cat eats his soul.

Professor banner puts chazz asuka and fubuki in planets after stealing their souls. The planets are inside his alchemy book? I think? Banner and Judai go in the book? By doing this he awakens chazz’s love for asuka somehow. 

No one ever actually finds out professor banner is dead besides judai sho and chumley, they just think he’s missing and even then Judai is the only one that knows he’s a fucking ghost

North Academy’s entrance exam is an extreme and life threatening gauntlet of finding cards on a fucking iceberg and then you go inside the iceberg and the school is a fucking wild west town with a pyramid with a giant spire inside of it and also the sky is visible from inside the iceberg also you have to duel 50 people

The little belowski has weed superpowers which are so powerful that he needs to be kept in an underground island inside the island also for some reason you can see the sky from in here too. He was somehow left on duel academy’s doorstep as a baby despite the fact that duel academy is a fucking island in the middle of nowhere

The fact that duel spirits are never actually explained to us

Judai commits genocide in order to make a card

The big bad guy of season one is literally a man we have never met or heard of up until the last 3 episodes where he shows up and he’s a fucking old man in a test tube metal gear thing and headmaster samejima is like “oh fuck it’s board director whats his name” like THAT MEANS ANYTHING TO US and then judai beats him and snaps his old man back like a twig

Duel academy island has an active volcano

Judai collects all the knock off millennium items over the course of season one and then proceeds to do nothing with them and the show never explains what they are or how they work and they’re never shown again after season one including the amulet which some duel spirit lady gave judai half of and told him to tell the person that had the other half (fubuki) that she was alive and waiting for him and then judai never did that

(That fucking amulet was built up to be important like it’s a part of judai’s character design in season 1 basically and all it does is protect everyone’s souls from camula’s soul sucking card in one episode and that’s it. It keeps shining randomly in duels throughout the first season but there’s no reason for it and then it’s gone after season 1)

That time Crocodile Jim somehow lost his eye as a child after falling off a cliff and into a river and an old man put a new magic rock eye in its place and then gave him a vague prophecy about having to save his friend with that eye and something about the tail of a comet and then he straight up fucking vanishes into thin air leaving this little boy alone in the middle of the australian outback

Saio killing multiple mr t’s to save judai by running them over in a truck, almost running over judai and also committing an act of terrorism by blowing up the kaiba tower in like 2 episodes. The fact that the kaiba tower was destroyed is never addressed maybe they were prepping for it to look different in 5ds idk

Judai gets hit by a comet in the middle of the ocean and is somehow transported to the moon io of jupiter where he is greeted by his OC who tells him about his destiny and gives him some official duel monsters cards of his OCs before he duels an alien robot and then is sent back to earth

After Judai disappears at the end of season 3 he comes back in the first episode of season 4 on a comet and nearly kills sho 

Hell Kaiser dies of actual literal heart failure in the other world due to shocking himself too much with his bdsm (the d stands for dueling) shock collars and then somehow washes back on shore of duel academy island because he’s too popular to kill off forever lmao. Also in season 4 sho says that it wasn’t the shock collars that were hurting his heart it was the pain of using such a powerful deck (which physically shocks you as well… somehow…) but like… honey no, the shock collars weren’t doing nothing to his heart.

Kaiba sent cards into space for literally no reason

EVERYTHING ABOUT BASTION MISAWA. Lolicon. Femdom kink. Furry. He joins a cult because all his friends forgot he existed. He fucking strips naked and disappears after self actualizing and then shows up in another dimension before fucking off again to his femdom furry wife. 

The duel monkey. I am legally obligated to mention the duel monkey

The fact that duel academy abandoned their entire animal research lab after judai beat the duel monkey but, like, didn’t take any of the animals out they literally just left them down there like eh they’ll figure it out

That guy that steals Johan’s sapphire pegasus with a lava lamp egg lookin thingy that can somehow trap spirits and slowly suffocates them to death and we literally see a duel spirit die which CAN HAPPEN? The fact that after Johan beats him we see all the duel spirits he killed and then they fUCKING KILL HIM LIKE THEY TURN INTO WHITE ENERGY LOOKIN STUFF AND COVER HIM AND HE STARTS SCREAMING AND THEN HE DISAPPEARS????

(The lore reveal in this ep that if you rip a card in half that kills the duel spirit means that Kaiba canonically killed a blue eyes white dragon)

When that guy who crowler hired and then turned into one of the seven stars gets eaten by dark ghost thingies screaming as he is dragged away to whatever horrible shadow realm TWICE and both times jaden and everyone else watches and is just like :) no thoughts head empty that guy never shows up again

That time that Chazz casually set up and lured amon onto his two helicopter lifted platforms so they could duel above a river that wasn’t even that deep and then chazz almost fucking drowns after he loses

The fact that Chazz almost drowns twice in the series and the first time it’s because he crashed his yacht offscreen

So many fucking people go missing on this island. Fubuki. All the students Banner and test tube grandpa kidnapped to experiment on (?) for the seven stars and banners own alchemy experiments, i guess including Yusuke Fujiwara but not really because he disappeared doing his own thing? Chazz in like ¼ of season 1. Professor Banner himself technically. Tarzan. Bastion on two separate occasions. Amon, the son of one of the most powerful conglomerates in the world. The entire school during season 3.

A student goes feral for like 6 months and becomes a Tarzan because he kept fucking up his random sandwich draws and also his card draws i guess but the sandwich thing is more important. He trains to get better at randomly drawing and somehow this actually works. He is only found and brought back because he stole the one good sandwich at duel academy too many times. Even though he comes back, at an indeterminate point in time between season one and two he goes feral again

DINO DNA

(Ok but like seriously Kenzan gets mad at Jim for disrupting dinosaurs sleep by digging them up like KING THAT’S EXACTLY HOW YOU NEARLY BROKE YOUR LEG IN TWO THEY HAD TO OPERATE QUICKLY SO THEY USED THE DINOSAUR BONE YOU FOUND TO SAVE YOUR LEG, EVER SINCE YOU’VE HAD DINO DNA??? THE DOCTOR SAYS IT MAKES YOU STRONGER THAN THE AVERAGE JOE????)

In season 4 Kenzan can’t be turned to darkness because he’s not 100% human (just like how he couldn’t be brainwashed by aliens in season 2) so Mr. T shows him his past life as a dinosaur? It’s unclear if this is real or just a fantasy made up to give Kenzan anxiety and therefore an in for darkness but anyway he shows Kenzan as his past life dinosaur eating another dinosaur (I think it’s a triceratops) which unsettles Kenzan greatly then Mr. T reveals that the dino bone in his leg just happens to be from the dino he ate in his past life and the grudge it and all the dinosaurs carried all this time EAT KENZAN ALIVE ok they don’t actually eat him it’s just the feeling of being eaten alive which is still fucking insane and then we never revisit that kenzan’s just gone til judai saves everyone lmao

(ppl give kenzan shit for this like you didn’t know dinosaurs ate each other dude but I think it’s more that he’s upset that he had to hurt something he loves so dearly and also knowing dinosaurs ate each other vs being the one to do it and see it up close and personal is way different and disturbing. Kenzan defense hour staring me apparently)

The season 4 villain reveals that the universe is a literal card like the big bang theory but it’s a duel monsters card and I thought this was supposed to be a metaphor but it’s yugioh and i feel like i’m giving it too much benefit of the doubt also apparently they do stuff with this lore in like zexal or something idk man

That time a gothic lolita haunted doll had another spirit enter her because one dude ripped a card in front of her spot in the obelisk blue dorm lounge which by the way she’s like a pvc anime figurine looking girl like i think they were trying for a victorian doll look but that’s not what I was getting yall got some freaks decorating the obelisk blue dorms but im here for it. Tyranno Kenzan falls madly in love with her and actually pretty much every guy she meets in the episode besides Judai has some feelings for her (Sho clearly also likes her, Bastion is jealous of Kenzan) Her plan doesn’t even make any sense like she has Kenzan fall in love with her and then drags him out to the woods to send him into despair but every time we cut to him he has a goofy smile on his face and is giggling about her? What is despair to this girl? Anyway Judai duels her and she turns back into a normal doll and Kenzan has no gf we hate to see it king

The fact that the season 4 villain and the haunted gothic lolita doll basically have the same origin/motivation

That time a guy sold his soul to the actual grim reaper in order to draw better in yugioh. For some reason north academy had the yugioh card of the grim reaper that functions exactly like the real grim reaper and this is just common knowledge like Chazz was at north academy for like 3 days and he’s like “oh yeah the grim reaper card I know about it” 

When head teacher Napoleon and Professor Cronos dueled to see whether or not the red dorm would be torn down and every time Cronos lost life points part of the dorm would be destroyed and every time Napoleon lost life points the dorm would be rebuilt and they fucking wonder why duel academy’s going bankrupt

During season 3 when everyone’s getting their energy sucked out after dueling and somehow electromagnetic waves are involved and apparently those make reptiles go apeshit so every time there’s high EM activity jim cook’s crocodile karen and tyranno kenzan go apeshit to the point where Kenzan can only make rawr noises and at one point both of them punch themselves in the face and knock themselves out to stop

Professor Banner/Daitokouji is a cat boy homunculus/ghost chaotic neutral alchemist 

That time Judai got kidnapped for like a week by a pirate and everyone immediately accepted that he was gone forever

That time that Judai had a bunch of near death hallucinations because he hadn’t eaten or drank anything in a week and imagined the duel monkey now turned regular monkey as each of his friends for a clip show episode and this is resolved by him drinking half a bucket of water and eating 2 bananas. 

Mizuchi’s powers are wild she gives 4 people the power to control the elements of earth, lightning, ice and fire, turns dudes into cards, makes a bunch of magic mirror projections of herself to taunt judai, and creates a weird barrier around domino city so that the duel spirits can’t leave? Did the light give her all this or did she have all these powers along with being able to tell the future like Saio?

Mizuchi turns herself into a digital ghost to protect Saio better which is basically just giving him judgy looks on his laptop and then showing up at the end to stop the satellite from firing on Kenzan and Neos

That time Kenzan astral projects into his spirit form of a Tyrannosaurus and joins Neos who is real and tangible now to destroy the satellite that’s very very very slowly destroying the earth. When Judai plays the field spell Neo Space in his duel with Saio it takes him to actual real space where Kenzan is and no one acknowledges the fact that Kenzan is a fucking dinosaur in space. Also even though Kenzan has literally met and talked to Neos before he still thinks Judai is kind of insane for talking to duel spirits after this

After Edo loses to Saio in a brilliant flash of light he turns entirely white then turns to a pile of sand then reappears normally colored in the palm of the hand of the statue of the goddess of light or something which slowly lowers him into a pit of lava that Saio either had retrofitted specifically for this purpose or that the blue dorm already had for some fucking reason. Either one is just as likely as the other.

When Chazz has to duel his brother with only low level cards and he doesn’t have any so he needs to make a new deck and instead of going to the card shop like a normal human being Professor Banner tells him there’s a haunted well that people throw their shitty cards into and he should just jump down there and get some. 

Apparently the darkness in Martin’s heart is greater than the darkness in Amon’s heart (either that or Yubel was fucking with Amon to strengthen the darkness in his heart) because we find out Amon was abandoned as a child to slowly starve to death alone until he was adopted by the Garam conglomerate and despite the fact that he is extremely smart and capable and the best person for the job he’s dedicated himself to his younger brother who is the true heir to the conglomerate by blood I guess even though it should be his and there’s this great resentment for his brother to the point where he almost killed him once (bc it’s not yugioh without an adopted older brother almost killing their baby brother) but because he owes the Garam family his life he’d do anything for it and Martin’s darkness is. He’s sad his parents are divorced. :( 

(Professor Napoleon canonically fucks and that’s something you’re just gonna have to cope with)

For some reason Edo and Hell Kaiser do a fun little role play in the other world where Edo acts as Kaiser’s butler in order to trick some goblin soldiers it’s so extra. Also when the other goblin goes up to meet Kaiser he’s like “welcome to my cyber art dojo” and he has the poster of the cyber end dragon there. Does Hell Kaiser just bring that poster with him everywhere and he hung it up? Did this run down mansion in the other world just happen to have a cyber art dojo and poster? (This isn’t a cinema sins moment i just think its v funny)

That time there was a zombie apocalypse

The fact that duel academy has this super expensive Kaiba corp dimension gate technology and they keep it on their fucking tennis court for some reason

DUEL PHYSICISTS

That time that the dark magician girl’s duel spirit physically manifested herself in the real world and then nearly started a riot at duel academy because she lost a duel to Jaden

The fact that a micronation sent a death laser satellite into space just for fun because the prince is way too into satellites and then he immediately loses the keys to his death satellite because he lost to Saio in 0 moves

That time an ancient egyptian prince crossed time and space in his flying boat in order to duel Jaden only it turned out he sucked at dueling and everyone was just humoring him because he was the pharaoh. Then Jaden teaches him how to duel and he’s so happy he asks Jaden to come with him to the afterlife to duel with him more… how he came back from the dead is never explained

That time a bunch of LARPers stole the plot device from our protagonists then they dueled chazz and summoned themselves and it turned out that they WEREN’T LARPers they were actually duel spirits and once Chazz beats them they lose their corporeal form and the episode ends with them living with chazz as his new duel spirit roommates. We never see them again.

The fact that in the dub Grandpa Muoto says Yugi left to buy groceries 3 years ago and never fucking came back

That time Fubuki and Asuka have a duel to see if they’ll be a sibling idol duo or not and Fubuki enters the arena by flying around on wires dressed like Austin powers and then Alexis comes in riding on a giant goose shaped carriage. 

That time the Ra dorm head teacher was so depressed none of his students were living in the yellow dorm anymore (because at this point bastion had gone missing for the first time and kenzan was basically living with Sho and Judai in the red dorm) that he dressed up as a food truck worker and tried to bribe his students back with food and also dueling with a deck themed around making curry. 

That time Chazz started a cult and then left it and destroyed it with a second cult basically

The foriegn princess who was also a student at Duel Academy who played a frog deck who claimed she could see duel spirits and that her cards all appeared as hot guys  to her and got all horny about it but chazz and judai think she’s fucking nuts because they only see the normal ass solid vision holograms of frogs until the very end of the episode where judai sees one and it’s like a frog but with a crown on so was she crazy or not. Or both.

#yugioh gx #ygo #yu-gi-oh #shitpost #i have some for 5ds and zexal but those lists aren't nearly as dense as gx's #unhinged #also im not sorry for using dub and sub names that's just how i roll #also also I know the number isn’t 56 but tumblr fucked up my formatting so it should be 56 #the ones in parentheses are meant to be sub points

[charmwisp]

miyawaki sakura. cis woman. she/her. bisexual. ⇝ hey, isn’t that hoshino rika? i think that the twenty-six year old from minamisatsuma, kagoshima, japan works as the psychic at the raven house, but outside of that people describe them as moons and stars and celestial lights against a night sky, fairy lights strewn across the wall, windchimes twinkling in the breeze, vague silhouettes and shadows glimpsed between the curtains. i hear they are evasive & an overthinker, but they are also known to be curious & hardworking. consider giving them a visit at their home in seal harbor apartments and get to know why they’re called the secret charm.

the names above are written according to their native japanese format (surname, first name). to clarify, this character's given name is rika!

IMPORTANT LINKS: will be added when they're ready!

BASICS

The Kanji for her full name is 星野梨華 and I deliberately incorporated 星 into her name as it means star! Usually surnames don't need to have a meaning so i'm only pointing this out bc it was a creative choice. (btw i know there's a popular anime rn where the protags have the same surname, with the same kanji, but that's a coincidence; i haven't watched the show and i made rika before the manga was even published.)

She grew up in a small city called Minamisatsuma, located in the southernmost region of mainland Japan (Kagoshima), and was always surrounded by the ocean. Alaska's proximity to the coast puts her at ease for this reason, even if the difference in climate has been a big change.

She has a pet cat; a little black cat with with big round eyes and she's called Charmy. She's kind of silly and a bit of a menace. Because Rika doesn't feel safe letting her roam but knows that her apartment isn't quite big enough to expend Charmy's excess energy, she has been known to take her cat on walks with a harness.

Rika lives in the Seal Harbor apartment complex but she rarely tells people that fact. Having worked in Kabukicho (a relatively seedy area) for a couple years, she always tries to err on the side of caution. As a young woman doing work that might spark unpleasant emotion reactions, she finds it safer to claim that she lives in Delilah's Den instead. That, and it fits the witchy character she's taken to playing at work much better.

She's a bit of a bookworm. A total bookworm, actually. She spent most of her childhood with her nose in a book, mostly stories and fiction but she has been known to spend hours researching topics that interest her. She's got a quick mind and loves to learn. All this extra information has proven quite useful in her cold readings.

Ever the overthinker, Rika has some concerns about the general ethics of her work, especially when it comes to the matter of lying to people (she tries to keep to vague embellishments as best as she can) but it helps to think of herself as a performer. It's all an act and people are encouraged to take from it what they will.

Rika loves horror and all things spooky. Because of her reserved nature, people might expect her to be quite squeamish but she's braver than she looks! That said, she likes cute-spooky best of all. Halloween is easily her favourite time of year and she's been known to go all out when buying decorations; for Rika, it's one of the biggest positives about moving to the States.

In the kitchen space of her apartment, you'll find a corkboard covered with notes and photos and mementos. You'll also find a photograph of a young man (he's Sho, you'll learn about him later!) whose face has been drawn on. Devil horns, angry eyebrows, stink lines. The works. If you ask Rika about it, she'll just tell you it's 'some useless asshole'. Do not assume that's her ex.

BACKGROUND

please note that this backstory makes references to a few named characters besides rika. they will not be opened as wanted connections, as these are all existing ocs of mine (they're mostly npcs but sho is specifically a character i have actively written).

MINAMISATSUMA, KAGOSHIMA

Rika had always considered her childhood to be a fairly ordinary one; she had two parents and three siblings (one older sister and two younger brothers, a pair of twins), and rode her bike to school every day like any other kid. Everything was always normal, simple, uneventful and maybe even a little boring. But, as the years went on, Rika started to find that she was more spiritually inclined than other children her age and her intuition was so sharp that it sometimes frightened her. (Those around her had started to joke that she could predict the weather better than the official forecast.) Never one to rock the boat, she tried not to bring it up too often and nobody ever seemed to mind but, in her own time, she grew to harbour an interest in the mysterious and unusual.

When she was thirteen, her dad was given a promotion that saw the whole family packing up and moving to Tokyo. The shift was staggering, it seemed to Rika like an entirely different world. Suddenly, she wasn't normal anymore. Overnight, she'd become the quiet new girl with weird interests. She was eventually able to make friends but only after months of sideways glances and whispers. Junior High had not been gentle on Rika.

By the time she got to high school though, things had changed. People had gotten used to Rika's sharp instincts and even started to take interest. Girls would hover outside her classroom, peering through the windows as they waited for her to come out and let them test her. Cold readings based on gut instinct, answers to questions like 'what number am I thinking of?', so on and so forth. She didn't get it right every time but it was enough for people to be impressed. After months of students begging her insight on to their entrance exam performance, Rika was worn out. Graduation was a blessing.

Shortly after graduation, Rika's family ended up moving back to Kagoshima. However, having already gotten into a good University to study Japanese Literature, Rika stayed behind and got her own tiny apartment in Tokyo.

SHINJUKU, TOKYO

Rika was quick to find work to support herself while she worked on her studies; she got a job as a cashier in a little bookstore that specialised in the occult. Although her experiences growing up kept her from telling anybody about her talents, she had never let go of that interest in all things strange and unexplained. It was a perfect job for her and she continued to work there for the entirety of her academic career. Her coworkers were Hayato, the nephew of the shop's owner and son of a television illusionist, and Sumire, the daughter of a wealthy family whose idea of rebellion was getting into retail work.

About two years into working there, a new regular started showing his face. Rika quickly learned that he was a good friend of Hayato's and had previously worked at the bookshop, having been replaced by Rika almost as soon as he had left. His name was Tsukidate Sho and he was...an interesting character; he'd quit his bookstore job at twenty-two, head filled with haphazard dreams of becoming an unlicensed private detective. (Hayato had ensured her that Sho had a real and valid motive but it too sensitive a subject to share with her, despite Sho's own claims that he wanted to get paid for being nosy.) Regardless, it didn't take Rika very long to get used to his bewildering presence and she even soon befriended him.

Eventually, Rika grew to trust this ragtag team of friends enough to tell them about her apparent gifts. She admitted she wasn't really sure if it was anything special at all, that she was sure it was probably just good judgement. Sumire told her, 'You've either got freaky powers or you're just freaky smart. Either way, it's freaky.' And yet, for the first time, nobody cared all that much. To them, she was still just Rika.

By the time Rika had graduated from University, it seemed like Sho had grown disillusioned with life as a private detective. Week after week, she'd hear him complain that all he ever had to work on were adultery cases. One day, Sho pulled Rika aside and proclaimed he had a plan, a great plan, and he needed her help. Sho's was from Kawagoe, a city in Saitama known for having maintained it's Edo-era architecture and, as it turned, his family had upheld a tradition of fortune telling for generations. The plan was as follows— they'd set up their own fortune telling and psychic reading business, with Rika as the face of it, using her talents wherever possible, while Sho used his skills to hunt out information on the customers. A mix of cold and hot reading at once. He would teach her the skills he'd gained growing up, things like showmanship and similar little flourishes. Rika had her doubts at first, not wanting to scam or fraud anybody, but Sho insisted that most people didn't believe this stuff, that they were selling an experience. She recalled her experiences at school and how much trouble people had caused her just for that same experience. She agreed to his plan.

Setting up shop in Sho's office in Kabukicho, Tokyo's answer to a red light district, the two would work together for a couple of years, with Rika juggling the scheme with her bookstore job, and they made a surprisingly good team. Eventually, they got close enough for Sho to explain himself, why he'd gotten into the business of being a private detective. When he was just a kid, maybe about fourteen years old, his best friend had gone missing. Sho was the last person to see him but there was a big dark gap in his memory between that last sighting and Sho coming to his senses. Despite his best efforts, he'd never been able to find any answers and the only appeasement he'd ever found was looking into the problems of others.

At some point, Sho had developed a fascination with the mysteries surrounding Anchorage and became fixated on the idea of hunting for answers himself. Before long, he'd become set on moving over there and he swore that, if Rika came with him, they could continue to work together. Rika paid out of her own pocket for English lessons and studied as hard as she could. Before long, they were ready to leave. Rika would go on ahead first, as Sho had a case to finish up, and they would reunite later. They never reunited.

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA

At first, Rika had feared for the worst. Sho's job was hardly free of danger. The only way she could contact Sho was by email and it took her a couple of weeks to get decent access to her inbox. When she finally got access to everything, there was nothing. Another month passed before she finally heard from Sho. In his email, he explained that he'd gotten caught up with a new, interesting case and that the scope of meant he wouldn't be making it to Anchorage after all but he was sure she'd do great on her own. Needless to say, Rika was pissed.

Thankfully, she was still able to do exactly what she set out to do. She had been worried about finding work with her degree but she'd quickly come upon the Raven House. Seeing that they didn't appear to have anybody working as psychic, Rika immediately put herself forward. At this point, it was all she really knew how to do.

Only months after Rika arrived, Monique Jackson's body was discovered. So, she had thought, this is Anchorage.

#« 𝗿𝗶𝗸𝗮。 » / 「 intro. 」 #anchorintro #i'm not proud of how long it took for me to finally get around to this :| #but i'm v happy with the graphic i made for this hehe i think it's cute #i might edit this later if i read over it but rn i just kind of want to get it posted x___x sorry if there are any mistakes

[safyresky]

Sorry for the late hour but here are some questions! For the ask thing!

I could've literally asked for all the questions to be answered but here's just a few. Please and thank u

54 / 40 (for no reason at all 🤫)/ 39 / 16

I am a cretura of the night, Andie! No worries about the late hour EVER lol ;)

40. If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

Oh I like this one! Let me think! Hmm! You know what's fun? Bullet points! And readmores which I will do. uh. now

Cold front hugs! Specifically the mindscape one in Chapter 6, and the pair of them leaning on one another on the way out of the pond @ the Springs in Chapter 23 of CS! Which yes, isn't a hug, but is a cute Cold Front moment

Winter grabbing Blaise's lapels in Chapter 11 while he has a whole ass crisis >:)

The fucking. (breaks window) Blinter: were those our kids? Jack: SCATTER scene lmaooooooo (from Chapter 22 of CS)

The twins doing one of these (see photo below) on the backyard deck stairs before asking Summer to play fire tag with them

^like that, but like. on all fours. with Fino squashing Fiera lmao

Honestly there's so many scenes I'd love to get fanart of/draw/EXPERIENCE but those are the ones that pop into the head IMMEDIATELY! And that's just CS, AH!. The family photo from Jacqueline Dies pt2 would ALSO be a lovely fanart to see! I actually did a shit doodle of it last week just for funsies:

My god it's so LONG. Sorry about that! anyway!

54. What’s your favourite part about the fanfiction writing process? Shoving an OC or two or five into the story and see how it goes >:). that and uploading a draft and reading it through one last time. That's exciting! I love that part! It's time consuming but I LOVE IT. It's like. THE ANTICIPATION

39. Share a snippet from a WIP

I should like. Assign these wips to numbers and start rolling dice about it. Um. OKAY! From smile shot wip "Believing is Seeing"

“Is it Grapes of Wrath?” “Yes! It actually was! Nice guess, Dite.” Dite and Xander lay on his dream cloud, just behind the chimney of Danielle’s house. Jacqueline snoozed still, curled up on Dite’s thigh. The goddess had lain back; her arms were behind her head as she gazed up at the sky, watching the clouds drift by. On the other side of the cloud, Xander lay on his back as well, one leg dangling, the other one bent at the knee as he read a book. “Alright, I got one. Two exes meet up again after a few years; shenanigans ensue, they still both have it bad for each other. Best slow burn I have ever read.” “Persuasion?” “Awh, you got it on the first go!” Xander laughed. “It’s supposed to be a misleading summary, Dite.” “I just really love Persuasion. It’s one of my favourite books! When Wentworth writes that letter? I just. Ugh,” Dite finished with a happy sigh. “It’s good.” There was a grumble between the two Legates; Dite perked up, sitting up gently. “Hi sleepy head,” she said with a grin. Jacqueline sat up, scrunching up her nose. “That was not four hours.” “Almost twelve, actually,” Xander said. “Dream sand may have had a hand in it.” Jacqueline scratched her neck and stretched her shoulders, shaking her freshly thawed hair off her face. “I didn’t melt all over you, did I?” “You did, but I don’t mind! It was just a little damp, no biggie.” “What’s the status?” “Quiet day,” Xander said, flipping his page. “They’ve stayed in for the most part. Left for errands a while ago, not back yet. Danielle’s still feeling hopeful, though.” “And she’s been meaning to text Charlie all day!” Dite said, chipper. “Can we get closer?” Jacqueline asked. “Why’d we move from the window?” “She ran to it right when she woke up and we were almost caught,” Xander said, flipping another page. “You snore.” “The fuck I do.” “You do,” Dite said. “But it’s cute snores! Like um, like every third breath is a snore.” “A honk sho or a mimimi?” “A weird cross between both.” Jacqueline looked thoughtful, then shrugged. “I can vibe with that. Side note, love that we can swear right now. Feels good, feels wholesome,” she said, hopping off of the cloud and onto the roof. “What are you doing?” Xander asked, putting down his book. “Getting closer! This one’s her room?” Xander nodded. “Quiet, though!” “I thought nobody was home?” “Her sister is.” “Alright, I can be quiet,” Jacqueline said, and, with a little hop, disappeared into thin air. “What is she doing?” Xander asked, trying to find her magical aura. Dite peered over the cloud with Xander. She surveyed the roof, then swatted Xander gently. “Right there, look; fast moving trail of frost headed down the drain pipe. She’s being sneaky,” Dite said with a grin. Xander chuckled. “Nice.” In the distance, car doors slammed and chatter met their ears. Danielle and her Mom had gotten back from their errands and were chatting up a storm. “Things are picking up again!” Dite said with an excited squeal. “We’re almost there, Xander!”

The summary of this one: Charlie tells Danielle about what his Dad REALLY does. Trouble in paradise has Dite on ALERT; determined, she hatches a lil plot and drags Jacqueline and Xander along for the ride. It's been fun to write! This trio of Legates is my fave lmao. They get into situations, and it's tripled when Charlie hangs with them!

16. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Share one of them?

Honestly? Too many! If I had to count, excluding wips, it'd be uh....eight, I think 🤔🤔🤔

My favourite one right now is Diteline Valentine's Day featuring Diteline kiddos! Dite's working and Jacqueline gets the day off. There is a cuddle puddle after Dite leaves for work. The kids ask Jacquie about what Diteline used to do on VDays before kids. Jacquie tells them all about their romance and such and says that every day is VDay with the four of them for her! They decide they wanna do something nice for their moms despite Jacquie's reassurance. Shenanigans ensue!!! Robyn wears a blanket cloak! Eira/Bianca didn't sleep! Joy has been awake for hours bc Valentine's Day! It's a recipe for disaster!

thanks for sending these in 🥰🥰🥰

#dani answers #alpharra #long post #crystal springs #cs snips and wips #dani doodles #really really drafty doodles lmao #my god i have so many art ideas and talent the size of my pinkie lmao #BUT WE WILL GET THERE! HELL YEAH! #Thanks again andie! #ask box shenanigans

[randomwriter5000]

The Chimera: Part Five

Pairing: Nicodeme Savoy x OC (Can be read as Nicodeme Savoy x Reader) Warnings: Accuracies and inaccuracies about the 1920s, Angst, Unhealthy coping mechanisms, Violence, Injuries, Explosions Word Count: 2,931

Summary: The California Chimera. Born with a genetic abnormality causing her face to be split down the middle. Not only an oddity, but a source of fear for many as she is a notorious gun for hire across the United States. After a near death experience and the death of most of her family, Chimera now goes to the bustling town of St. Louis on a job. Used to other cats eyes looking at her in disgust and fear a new reaction catches her eye. A pair of cats that look at her with curiosity and wonder. One of them being Nicodeme Savoy. Could she be biting off more than she can chew with the Louisianan?

Part Five: I See Fire

Chapter Summary: Fire isn't something to play with. Unless you want to get hurt.

Despite St. Louis being a bustling city full of cars, suburbs, and industrial heartland, there were places where a cat could find peace. The forests, parks, and, most notably, cemeteries were a place for such relaxation. With the nonexistence of the nagging noise of engines and cats, anyone could take in nature. The nature ranged from the small cottontail rabbit running in a burrow to the swift deer running across the meadow.

On the outskirts of the city, a lonesome cemetery stood. However, the crunch and cracking of roots could be heard. An oddly colored cat stomped her foot on a shovel, huffing as she threw the dirt over her head. Hearing the recognizable thump of wood, she looked above the ditch to see Nico toss the shovel to the side and look at her with a smirk.

“I win, cher,” He tightened the bandages around his paws. “Now, where to take you?”

Chimeras’ ear pinned themed back as she pouted. “You cheated! Yours has to be shallower!” She jumped out of the grave and stomped through the mud and into the pit. The hole was clearly shallower, barely reaching her waist, while others had come up to her shoulders. “Point proven!”

“Never took ya’ for a sore loser.” Nico patted her head only to make her take a breath to control the red spreading across her face. With a proud smile across his face, Nico purred. “Well, cher, how sho- Seraphine!”

A crowbar had been tossed at Nico, narrowing missing Chimera. “Get dat liquor in da car!” She barked before rolling her eyes and walking back into the car.

Walking out of the pit, Chimera gripped the shove and returned to work. Each strike to the dirt was an attempt to wipe her face from the blush. Only ten minutes passed, and her crowbar finally cracked the grave open, but the red on her face remained prominent. Shaking her head, she gripped the coffin and dragged it out.

“Ready for da last, mon ami?” Seraphine asked as Nico walked over, tossing his emptied coffin into the lake.

“The last job of the night?” She clarified, watching Nico pull the full coffin and load the alcohol into the car. “Extremely, I have a couple…things to do tomorrow,” She dragged, rolling her neck from the nonextant stress.

Laughing could be heard from the older savoy sibling. “I thought we were goin’ on a date, cher?”

“That doesn’t count. That grave was shallow,” Chimeria growled, her ears twitching in annoyance.

“What will it take then, cher?” Nico seemed genuinely curious.

Leaning onto the car as Nico gripped the final bottles, Chimeria thought about the interesting question. “An act of God, or a lot of money?” She shrugged, looking up at the moon shining in the jet-black sky. “I'm not even sure that will work,” A chuckle left her as she counted the bottles stacked in the back.

“I can be persuasive, cher, as y’know,” Nico flirted, closing the lid.

Opening the door to the backseat, Cimeria smirked before jumping into the back of the car. “And I can be notoriously stubborn.”

The trio finally got into the car. Once the engine roared, Chimeria pulled off her glove with her teeth, her other paw reaching into her coat pocket for a leather journal. The leather was clearly worn through the years, yet the spine was fully intact. Chimera pulled out a pencil before writing down the number of alcohol in the back.

“Writin’ back there, cher?” Nico looked in the rearview mirror.

“Just making sure I got everything…” She dragged, tapping her fingers against the leather. “50 bottles…” She spoke to no one.

Getting up from her seat, Seraphine stared at the oddly colored cat. “Tell me somethin’, cher,” Seraphine leaned towards Chimera. “Why don’t y’tell yer’ real names to anyone? ”

“Mainly for tradition and safety,” Chimera answered.

Bored at the answer, Seraphine sat back in her seat, pulling out her knife to sharpen. “How do ya get into this business?” Nico asked. “Can ya’ jus’ walk in?”

Chimera laughed. “You two are awfully curious,” She pointed out but continued. “You are either born into it like I was. Otherwise, you must know someone, marry into it, or you’re the rare people who get in on their own merit.”

“What ‘bout ya’ parents?” Seraphines’ tall ears perked up as she handed a cigarette to Nico.

“My mother was born into it. My father got in on his merits and then married my mom,” She spoke curtly as she opened her journal. “We are dropping off the bottles, right?”

“Oui, we will be there soon,” Nico confirmed.

 It didn’t take long to return to the city. The closer they got to the town, the more common car engines, streetlights, and tall buildings were. The alcohol was quickly dropped off to another group of Mr. Sweets guys. After sharing goodbyes, The trio was in the car heading down towards the business center of St Louis. Chimeria looked down at her journal and began to look at the names in the book. Multiple from the previous weeks, but only one without a line struck through it.

“Alright, the last person is…Ah Monsieur Jones,” Chimera read in the back seat. “So how do you two usually handle these where we need to tie the guy up for information?”

Seraphne chuckled, taking the cigarette out of her mouth. “Mordecai usually does all dat,”

“We do da fun part, Cher,” Nico grinned, looking at her through the rearview mirror.

“I do not want to be Mordecai for a day,” She grumbled sarcastically. “That would be very imprudent.” She mimicked the deadpanned tone of the tuxedo perfectly.

Seraphine let out a cackling laugh. “You sound jus’ like ‘im!” She turned to face the smaller cat. “How did ya meet ‘im?”

Leaning her head onto the leather headrest, Chimera couldn't help but let out a loud laugh. “Now that was a fun day. My parents had a business in St. Louis and promoted the Brothers of Peril to Atlas May. When Mordecai saw me, I thought he would have a heart attack. The first words he said to me were, ‘The asymmetry of my face made him want to die.’ One of the better insults I should say is,” She is mocking the deadpanned tone used by the tuxedo. “After that, I worked with him, and I guess we developed a mutual respect for each other.”

“Course’ he can’t see da luck,” Seraphine rolled her eyes, waving her hand in the air dismissively. “Plenty of people can’t see it, but we can Cher.”

Chimera's ears twitched in annoyance at the word luck as she looked over Jones's name etched into the paper. “Perhaps you're just not afraid because there is nothing different between me and a normal cat.”

“Dat ain't true,” Seraphine argued sternly. “Yer’ riddled with luck and power. The best part is dat y’know how to use it. Dats why Nico asked da fat man for ya’ to be with us.”

“Aw, how sweet that it wasn’t just to ask me on a date,” Chimera smirked as Nico shrugged.

A laugh escaped Chimera as she looked out of the car's window to the streetlights exposing the dark streets. After another conversation, the trio laughed as if they were old friends. However, the joyful laughter died as they caught sight of the business of Mr. Jones. Parking the car down the alleyway behind the company building.

Chimera was the first to hop out as she scanned the area. The building was two stories tall. Peeking into the window, she saw cats inside working despite the late hour. If there were fewer cats, she would break down the door. Her ears twitched as she looked over her shoulder to see the siblings grabbing their weapons. As she walked back, the siblings seemed eager to charge in guns blazing, literally and figuratively.

“We shouldn’t break the doors down.” Chimera looked up at the building, seeing a fire escape. “But I have a plan for us to both have fun.”

“Alright,” Chimera spoke to no one as she was hidden behind a tower of crates as she loaded her rifle. “Here goes nothing.”

Steading the scope, she aimed and took a breath. Her gun was aimed at the giant chandelier hanging off the ceiling of the grand room by a skinny cord. Chimera then pulled the trigger, causing the chandelier to crash down to the floor. Dozens of gunmen surrounded the destroyed light while others went to investigate. One of them, Mr. Jones, the target. The group was so focused on investigating they didn’t notice a grey cat click her shotgun.

A barrage of bullets loaded themselves into the cats surrounding the chandelier. Seraphine's recognizable laugh echoed through the business as shots missed her, and nearly every gunman was down. With her scope, Chimera took out a few stragglers who ran to the doors but didn't realize that they were jammed from the outside. Passing her view was Mr. Jones, running to his office. Only to be cut off by a solid punch to the face from Nico. Chimera chuckled before coming out of her hiding spot.

 Nico had quickly subdued the man and tied him to a chair. Looking at Seraphine, who had a Cheshire cat grin as she reloaded his gun, Chimera spoke. “What do you think? Was my plan good?”

“Yer a breath of fresh air compared to Peekon!” She smiled, slinging her gun back on her hip.

“I'm glad you liked it. I never get to be extravagant like this,”  Chimera gazed at the shattered chandelier.

A grunt was heard as she turned her head to see Nico smirking. “There will be plenty of fun things with us, cher,” Nico promised.

As she opened her mouth, Chimera's ears swiveled at the thudding from upstairs. “I'll get them. You two can have the pleasure of interrogating him.” The oddly colored cat smiled at the siblings before jogging up the stairs.

Hearing constant shuffling from the office down the hall told her someone was there. Yet, the cat was still careful as she gripped her pistol tightly. The shuffling suddenly stopped, her body as her ears stood straight for noise. A sudden creak had her dash out of the way of a door that swung open to reveal a gunman. Two quick shots were all it took until the door behind her opened, hitting her in the side. Hissing, Chimera shot blindly into the wooden door, hearing a yell of pain. Spinning to the front of the door, she pulled the trigger.

With both gunmen dead, Chimera groaned, rubbing her side that the oak door had slammed into her. Turning her oddly colored eyes to the door at the end of the hallway, she marched to the door.  Leaning her ear on the office door, she took a breath and gave one hard kick to the doorknob. Before stepping into the office, she was immediately met by someone throwing a box of documents and papers at her face. Chimera pulled out her gun and shot the cat in the knee. Growling, she ripped his weapons away from him. While the cat sobbed on the ground, Chimera uncharacteristically froze.

Her eyes were wide, her posture stiff, and her breathing paused. Among the dozens of papers that had floated all over the floor, Chimera grabbed a medium-sized picture. The distinctive cat in the foreground was a younger Chimera with a broad smile holding up a first-place ribbon while a rifle was slung on her shoulder. While a dozen other cats were around her. However, a cat with its face circled was who they were clearly after, with the name ‘The Wraith’ written on top.

Pulling out her gun, she gripped the man's collar. “How the hell did you get this picture?”

“I-I-“ She shot him in the leg. “Where!”

“Jones! He knows! I swear I don’t-“ A gunshot landed in his skull before Chimera stomped out of the room.

Jogging down the stairs, Chimera saw that the siblings seemed pleased with themselves. Nico turned to see Chimera. “Hey Cher, we got-“

“Let me have him,” She gripped the photo tightly as she marched up to the tied-up cat.

“What ya-“ Before Nico could finish, he got his answer. Chimera gripped a tire iron and struck Jones in the knee.

Chimera gripped his face to stare at her as he yelled in pain. “Where the hell did you get this picture?!” She shoved the picture in his face.

“I found it-”

Hitting his knee against she hissed. “Lie to me again. I'm taking that leg off. Now, where the hell did you get this picture,” She repeated slowly, her eyes filled with anger. “Only two people in the world have this picture, and you are not one of them!”

“Chimera-“ Nico tried to interrupt.

“Shut the hell up, Nico!” She hissed, her eyes slit and fur flared. “Where the hell is he?” She gripped the cat's collar. “I will make your life hell if you don’t tell me.”

The sudden sound of a shotgun caused her to turn her head. Looking over her shoulder, she could see a couple of people Nico and Seraphine were taking care of. Before she could reach for her gun, a sudden punch to the face set her backward. Holding her jaw, she watched the target dash out of his chair and run.

“Get back here!” She roared, dashing off to the man.

With a pistol in hand, she chased him up the stairs, around a corner, and into a room. Only for Chimera's feet to freeze at the smell of gasoline. Her eyes were as round as golf balls, and her heart began to pound in her chest. The target dumped gasoline all over the room, where boxes of dynamite were stacked up neatly. Holding up a match, he dropped flame. The flames were uncontrollable as the fire swallowed the room and the dangerous boxes.

“Chimera-“ Nico turned the corner but was met by the frantic eyes of Chimera.

“RUN!” She screamed, grabbing Nico and running in the opposite direction at full speed.

“What da hell is going on?!” He barked, chasing Chimera as she rushed down the stairs as if she saw a ghost.

“Dynamite!” She looked to her side to see Seraphine loading her gun. “Seraphine! Get out!” She yelled, the terror in her voice evident. Not hesitating, Seraphine ran out of the building alongside the two cats.

The sudden and defining explosion threw the trio of cats, mainly Chimera, into a brick wall. Her ears rang as she felt the cold asphalt beneath her paws. Every noise was muffled except her pounding heart. Her eyes stung from the smoke as flames engulfed the warehouse. Her whole body shook as she stared at the fire. Looking down at her gun, she shakily pulled herself up. Her eyes scanned the area in the distance. The target was making a run for it. The shaking stopped as a deep breath was taken as she aimed. Then she pulled the trigger, and a bullet lodged into their back.

With a slight limp, Chimera stomped on the back of the scrambling cat. “How did you get that photo,” She spoke slowly and darkly. “If you don’t, I will throw you into the fire.”

“He gave it to me to identify your brother!” He attempted to scramble away.

“Who is he!?” She roared, stomping on his back.

“The Red Snake!” He admitted. “No one knows what the Wraith looks like and-“ A bullet landed in his head.

“And nobody will,” Chimera continued to shoot the lifeless body until the magazine was empty.

Her eyes were blown wide and black as night with adrenaline as she panted for air. A chill ran down her spine at the feeling of eyes on her. The pounding in her heart changed from adrenaline-laced panic to fear.

“You're fine, you’re alive. No emotion, not sadness, no fear,” Chimera muttered as she attempted to take breaths. However, her heart was still pounding, her hands shook, and her pupils were blown wide. “You're fine, you’re alive. No emotion, not sadness, no fear.”

“Mon ami-“ Seraphine's paw brushed her shoulder.

“I’m fine!” Chimera barked, walking away from the body. “We-we have the information now we can leave,” She began walking towards the car as her body continued to shake.

Nico blocked her path. “Hey, cher-

“I'm fine,” She grumbled, feeling the blood dripping down her forehead. “That explosion…” She whispered.

“We need to get ya to the hospital,” The tomcat tried to reason. “Dat John guy-“

“No!” She barked, but her ears immediately pinned themselves back, realizing how loud she was. “He-he isn’t there. I-I…” She attempted to run her hand through her hair only to hit the deep cut in her skull.

The siblings looked at each other as Chimera leaned on the alley’s wall. “I-Im going home,” She began to fast walk down the alleyway with the bit of adrenaline left in her body.

“Chimera!” Nico shouted along with Seraphine, who was quick enough to jump in front of the agile cat.

Seraphine joined her brother with a concerned expression. “Mon ami are you-“

“Get the hell out of my way!” She screamed, causing the siblings' eyes to widen. “Don’t act like you know me! Don’t act like you care about me! Leave me alone!” Her head pounded as she yelled. The stabbing pain in her skull overwhelmed her senses as she fell to her knees.

Authors Note: Ah... angst. Don't worry it will be balanced with some fluff soon.

#canon x oc #lackadaisy #lackadaisy oc #nico savoy #nico savoy x oc #nicodeme lackadaisy #nicodeme savoy #nicodeme savoy x oc #oc x canon #self insert #lackadaisy nicodeme #lackadaisy nico #nico x reader #nicodeme savoy x reader #nico savoy x reader

[kalira]

Fandom Year in Review (2022)

It’s the very last day of 2022, and that means it’s time for a little look back at my fandom year in writing (and podficcing, events, etc.) once again! Then I’ll get back to writing before midnight, along with setting some goals and plans for 2023, of course. ;)

I posted 163 new stories to AO3 this year!

(Startlingly, as I had entirely forgotten, I also posted exactly 163 new stories to AO3 in 2021! o.o)

Those 163 stories were for 17 fandoms, 3 of them new for me to be posting for, and 50 ships! (18 of those ships were new.)

I posted a total of 377,979 words to AO3 this year!

I participated in 8 fandom events, with a total of 73 stories! Those events include:

Iruka Winter Bingo 2021-2022 (server event, @the-umino-hours) the Three Sentence Ficathon, over on Dreamwidth (moving to its own community for next year!) @harunosakuraweek @domaystic @badthingshappenbingo, which I will continue working on my board for @kakashiweek @whumptober, for which I wrote only minifics this year NejiHina Week (run by @nejihinata)

(And I don’t count my personal project the Valentine’s Spectacular in this list.)

I also ran 3 events - @harunosakuraweek in its second year and @kakashiweek in its third, as well as the second year of Iruka Winter Bingo!

~

In those new stories I added 5 new minific collections:

Labyrinth - gen Labyrinth - Jareth/Sarah Labyrinth - Jareth/Toby Naruto - KakaShisui Tiger & Bunny - Keith/Agnes

247 minifics posted this year, to my now 22 collections of sme, account for 67,807 words of my total.

Minific breakdown:

Avatar: the Last Airbender~ ❧Zuko/Sokka ~ 2 minifics

Castlevania~ ❧9 minifics

Kamisama Kiss~ ❧33 minifics

Labyrinth~ ❧gen ~ 18 minifics ❧Jareth/Sarah ~ 7 minifics ❧Jareth/Toby ~ 2 minifics

Naruto~ ❧HashiIzu ~ 9 minifics ❧HashiMito ~ 1 minific ❧HashiMitoIzu ~ 3 minifics ❧KakaIru ~ 1 minific ❧KakaSaku ~ 17 minifics ❧KakaShisui ~ 26 minifics ❧MadaTobi ~ 60 minifics ❧SakuOro ~ 36 minifics

SK8~ ❧MatchaBlossom ~ 6 minifics

Tiger & Bunny~ ❧Keith/Agnes ~ 17 minifics

~

I posted 3 new podfics this year, totalling 26.5 minutes!

(I was unable to podfic - recording or editing - for most of the year, and still am; hopefully that will be resolved soon. . .)

All 3 were my own work.

Podfic fandom & ship breakdown:

Kagen no Tsuki ❧Adam/Mizuki ~ 1

Naruto ❧gen ~ 1 ❧NejiHina ~ 1

~

Fandom & Ship Breakdown:

Castlevania ~ 1 story ❧Alucard/Trevor ~ 1 story

CATS ~ 1 story ❧Tugger/Misto ~ 1 story

Hikaru no Go ~ 1 story ❧gen ~ 1 story

Inu-Yasha ~ 1 story ❧Sesshoumaru/Kagome ~ 1 story

Labyrinth ~ 3 stories ❧gen ~ 1 story ❧Jareth/Sarah ~ 1 story ❧Jareth/Toby ~ 1 story

Marginal Prince ~ 2 stories ❧Angel/Mikhail ~ 1 story ❧Joshua/Yuuta ~ 1 story

MCU ~ 1 story ❧Thor/Loki ~ 1 story

Moon Child ~ 8 stories ❧gen ~ 7 stories ❧Kei/Sho ~ 1 story

Naruto ~ 75 stories ❧gen ~ 15 stories ❧Gai/Iruka ~ 5 stories ❧Haruya (OC)/Iruka ~ 1 story ❧Hashirama/Mito ~ 1 story ❧Hashirama/Izuna ~ 1 story ❧Ino/Sakura ~ 1 story ❧Jiraiya/Orochimaru/Tsunade (Sannin OT3) ~ 1 story ❧Kakashi/Gai ~ 2 stories ❧Kakashi/Iruka ~ 5 stories ❧Kakashi/Naruto ~ 1 story ❧Kakashi/Naruto/Sakura ~ 11 stories ❧Kakashi/Sakura ~ 1 story ❧Kakashi/Shikamaru ~ 1 story ❧Kakashi/Shisui ~ 7 stories ❧Kakashi/Tenzou ~ 2 stories ❧Kisame/Sakura ~ 1 story ❧Madara/Tobirama ~ 3 stories ❧Neji/Hinata ~ 6 stories ❧Rock Lee/Sakura ~ 3 stories ❧Sakumo/Orochimaru ~ 2 stories ❧Sasuke/Naruto/Sakura (Team 7 OT3) ~ 2 stories ❧Tobirama/Iruka ~ 3 stories

Promare ~ 1 story ❧Galo/Lio ~ 1 story

Sex Pistols ~ 32 stories ❧gen ~ 1 story ❧David/Maximillian ~ 1 story ❧Hidekuni/Noririn ~ 3 stories ❧Kunimasa/Manami ~ 1 story ❧Kunimasa/Manami/Noririn ~ 3 stories ❧Kunimasa/Noririn ~ 3 stories ❧Shinobu/Hidekuni ~ 4 stories ❧Yonekuni/Shiro ~ 19 stories

SK8 ~ 3 stories ❧Adam/Langa ~ 1 story ❧Joe/Cherry ~ 2 stories

Sky High ~ 2 stories ❧Warren/Will ~ 2 stories

Tiger & Bunny ~ 29 stories ❧gen ~ 4 stories ❧Keith/Agnes ~ 15 stories ❧Keith/Agnes/Ryan ~ 4 stories ❧Keith/Ryan ~ 3 stories ❧Kotetsu/Barnaby ~ 3 stories ❧Nathan/Antonio ~ 1 story ❧Ryan/Karina ~ 1 story

Tight-Rope ~ 1 story ❧Ryu/Nao ~ 1 story

Torchwood ~ 1 story ❧Owen/Ianto ~ 1 story

Underworld ~ 1 story ❧Lucian/Sonja ~ 1 story

~

. . .and that’s my look back at my year in fandom (on AO3, at least)! I tried out some new things, fell into some very unexpected new things, rediscovered fondness for some old ones, and had a lot of fun!

Of course I’ve many more things in the works, as always, so keep an eye out - I’ll be back on AO3 next year, and I’m sure as heck not going anywhere!

Happy New Year!

~Kalira

#Fandom Year in Review #AO3 #AO3 Year in Review #year in review #ships #fandoms #about Kalira's writing #about Kalira's podficcing #numbers

[red-riding-wood]

Heroes - Chapter 9

Chpt. 1 , Masterlist , Chpt. 10

Pairing: Sgt. Elias Grodin x Female OC (Alexis Ryder)

Fandoms: Platoon (1986), Cherry (2021)

WARNINGS: I'm just going to put down a blanket for the entire book/all chapters: graphic depictions of violence and gore, torture, explicit sexual content, attempted sexual assault, language, marijuana use

Another day was coming to an end, the sun just beginning to dip below the horizon of the highest peaks, dappling the leaves of the deciduous trees and brushing the sky with a tincture of pastel pink. I allowed myself to sit and watch the sky slowly morph into an impressionistic painting, watching as the clouds drifted lazily by, noticing how a gossamer fog crept from the recesses of the valleys below.

Elias had taught me to become more in tune with the world around me – the colours, the scents, the sounds. I could detect the trace of wildflowers, the perfume-like odour that I associated with the blue-eyed soldier, and every time my song came to its end, I took a moment to listen to the creaks of the boughs as the wind stirred the trees, or the lullaby of the birds that were lamenting their final song to the daylight before it died.

But Elias wasn’t here with me, because he was out on patrol with his squad. Taylor hadn’t been in the chatting mood, either, had been a recluse for much of the day. Though I wasn’t permitted to stray far from the village, I had wanted to distance myself as much as I could from the rest of the soldiers – namely Two Bravo.

But with the incipience of dusk, it was time I made my way back down. Elias would be expected back soon, too, so maybe I could wait for him in his hammock, start reading that book of Taylor’s.

As I approached the village, I slipped my headphones down and let them hook around my neck, stuffing my iPod in the pocket of my khakis. Immediately, I was assaulted by a cacophony of shrill, feminine cries and the deeper, more tenebrous notes of male laughter and hollering. An eerie contrast to the serenity I had just come from.

With a knot pulling taut in my gut, I made my way through the village to the source of the sound. I should’ve ignored it, walked away, went back to Elias’ hammock and curled up with the book and put my music on full blast to drown out the helpless wails. But if I had, that knot would’ve twisted, culminated, and the reflection of the killer I’d seen in that cracked, bloodied mirror would’ve haunted me.

Behind one of the huts, in the thicket of trees and brush, were Bunny, Junior, and a couple of Warren’s men. They had three little girls – Afghan, former prisoners of the Taliban, barely past the age of ten, by the looks of them – and were yanking them by their bony arms and tearing the fabric from their impotent forms. Bunny threw one against the gnarled trunk of a tree and began undoing his fly. The little girl’s screams pierced the air like a knife, slicing straight through my chest and stopping my heart.

I should’ve turned the other way, made out of there before they saw me, acted like I hadn’t just witnessed the members of my platoon attempting to rape children.

But “Heroes” still played faintly from the headphones around my neck, and the image of the woman in the mirror still flashed in my mind, and memories of Bunny nearly doing the same to me, of Elias barging in and having to save me because I had been willing to just put up with it, inundated me like a suffocating tide, and I knew that I couldn’t walk away. Not this time. I was done putting up with shit, was done letting my humanity chip away until all that was left was that woman in the mirror.

“Hey!” I mustered as much ire, as much valour as I could and I forced it into my tone. It was enough to make Bunny hesitate where he fumbled with his fly and snap his head towards me. It was enough to make Junior let his hand slip from one of the girls’ mouths and still. It was enough to lull the wailing of the children into quiet whimpers.

“Get the hell away from them!” I shouted, because if I let my volume drop I feared my voice might waver like the hands that trembled at my sides. “What the fuck is wrong with you? These are fucking children!”

An awful smile carved itself into Bunny’s features, and he kicked at the girl by the tree, doubling her over and silencing her crying. I started forward, but something about the way his eyes glinted and his lips curled so gleefully over his buck-teeth stopped me in my tracks, my flesh prickling and my stomach churning.

“You wanna take their place, Sugar Tits?” He asked me, sauntering forward.

I glared at him, and hissed, “Nobody’s raping anyone, unless you want a court-martial when we get back to base.”

“Aw, lookie here, boys,” Bunny chuckled, swinging his head around to regard the men around him before settling that disconcertingly-giddy gaze back on me. “Sugar Tits is threatening to tattle on me ‘cause she knows she ain’t no danger to me. Elias ain’t ‘round this time to rescue her.” Another laugh, and then, “This is real cute, but you’re barkin’ up the wrong tree.”

I wasn’t sure if Bunny knew what that expression meant, but I knew what he meant by it, at least, from the way he stalked forward, closed the distance between us until he was near enough that he could’ve reached out and tore another button from my shirt.

A rustling sounded from the bushes to my left, and Taylor emerged, hazel eyes wild and his rifle gripped firmly between whitened fingertips. “I heard yelling,” he said to me, and darted his gaze to Bunny, and the girls and the men. Horror blanketed his face like he’d just seen a ghost.

“Don’t worry, Taylor. You showed up just in time to get your dick wet,” Bunny cooed, and flashed him a toothy grin. “This generous lil’ girl is about to volunteer those pretty tits o’hers.” His eyes were on me again, glinting with something in-between madness and evil.

I swallowed, but held my ground, and said to Bunny, “You’re not touching me. And you’re letting those girls go. Now.”

Bunny stepped even closer, so close now that I could smell his foul breath as it raked across my face. “What’cha gonna do? You gonna scream, like a lil’ girl? Maybe I like it when they do.”

My lip pulled in disgust over my teeth, and in a flash, Bunny’s hand was reaching for the buttons on my shirt again, but as the movement flashed in my vision, I curled my fingers into a fist and sent it straight for those buck-teeth of his.

“Son of a bitch!” he screeched, staggering back as he pawed like a wounded animal at the blood that cascaded from his mouth, and his helmet, already unclasped and ajar, tumbled to the forest floor.

When those glinting eyes met mine, they were filled with nothing but murder.

He sprang towards me just like a jackrabbit and knocked the wind from my lungs, his scrawny form surprisingly heavy as it sent me careening to the ground. My spine knocked against some sharply-pointed rocks – my rifle had been jostled from my shoulder and had landed somewhere to the side – and I gasped, but fingers slick with warm blood were around my throat now, and the substance was landing in splatters across my cheeks, my lips, my lashes. I blinked furiously against the red, and kicked at him, tried to grab hold of something, but I was half-blind.

Oxygen poured like a vicious yet welcome tide into my lungs as his weight was knocked from me, and as I regained my footing, swiping the blood from my eye, I glimpsed the butt of Taylor’s rifle striking Bunny firmly across the jaw. He shoved him back then, and pointed the bayonet of his rifle at his chest. “She’s a fucking human-being, man!” He shouted at Bunny, and I swallowed, blinking again against the red.

Bunny’s gaze darted back to me, his bloodied lip curled around the gap in his mouth, his eyes still undaunted. I grabbed my own rifle from the ground, though I held it across my chest, and I stood up straighter, squaring my shoulders. I spat some of his blood that had trickled past my teeth onto the grass and sneered at him.

“Taylor!” A thunderous voice barked, and everyone’s attention was immediately stolen by the Two Bravo sergeant.

Fear darted through Taylor’s eyes as he turned, and he lowered his gun, Adam’s apple visibly bobbing along his throat.       

“Barnes,” I said, and stepped forward. “He didn’t do anything.”

Ugly, scarred features turned to me, and cold blue eyes froze me in my tracks. They darted to the blood on my face, and realization flickered through them – whether it was a good kind of realization or an awful, calamitous kind, I wasn’t sure. But I was quickly met with my answer.

“The fuck you mean, Ryder?” He said, and forgot about the men as he stalked towards me. “You mean you started this shit?”

“I saw Bunny and these men trying to rape these girls, and – “

“You didn’t see fuckin’ shit, Ryder! You attacked my men for no fuckin’ reason! You wanna explain to me how we’re gonna win this war if I got lunatics like you tryna bring their own justice where it don’t fuckin’ belong?”         

Barnes’ voice was like thunder in comparison to Bunny’s, seeming to reverberate through the marrow of my bones, and his stature loomed well over me, shoulders blocking the light that stretched its pleading fingers through the trees. I thought that my breaths were coming as rapidly as my pounding heartbeat.

“I – “

“I know what this is all about,” Barnes snapped. “You let ‘Lias get in your fuckin’ head, you did. You, and Taylor. Fucking hippies. I told you to stay the fuck away from him, Ryder. You think you’re some kind o’ water-walker now, too?”

I trembled, but stood my ground, even as the bitter tang of alcohol and the smoke of cigarettes on his breath met my nose, and the blood roared in my ears, reaching a terrifying crescendo of which there was no return, no escape, no sanctuary.

Barnes’ eyes darted then to the headset around my neck, that was set ajar from my skirmish, and to the wire that travelled to my pocket. My heart seized.

“What the fuck are you listenin’ to, Private? Some fucking bible hymn? Give me that shit.”

He snatched the headphones from my neck, leaving my throat feeling so unnaturally exposed, and I gasped as he held the cuff to his ear. I watched as his expression soured, and recognition passed through his eyes when he heard the song, and he threw the headset to the ground.

“You think you’re some fuckin’ hero, is that it?” Spittle landed across my face as he bellowed these words to me, and I flinched. He reached for my pocket, and he was quicker than Bunny; in less than a second he had my mother’s iPod  in his hand, and he was letting it fall alongside the headphones.

“No, sir,” I spoke feverishly, my eyes darting frantically from him to the last piece I had of my mother.

But he wasn’t listening. He brought the heel of his boot down on the screen, and followed with a bullet that made me jump back.

My chest heaved. My ears still roared with blood. And my heart split in my chest.

I hadn’t realized tears had welled in my eyes, but they streaked my cheeks now; one bound itself to Bunny’s blood, and the crimson-hued bead suspended itself for a moment from my nostril only to dribble down to lips parted in a shallow, aching breath. Metal tinged my tongue, and I stepped back, my head light and my fingers seizing as I tried to wind them tight around my rifle.

Whatever bravery I had found within myself had shattered, like the mirror, like the screen of the device that lay at my feet, a little eddy of smoke winding its way through the air.

But somehow, one of its fragments managed to hiss out from my bloodied teeth with trembling tones, “Fuck you.”

And I turned and I ran, insensibly slinging the strap of my rifle over my shoulder and sprinting for the trees, for the wild terrain, for the honey-gold light that burned through the diaphanous fog and reached so sorrowfully for me.

My sweat was beginning to mix with my tears and the blood and the spittle, and the shouting behind me became distant, like gunfire echoing across a barren battlefield. And I kept running, nearly twisting my ankle over the perilous terrain, but my adrenaline and this vacuous canyon in my chest kept me going.

I barely noticed as I ran into the returning squad of Two Alpha, and I nearly swatted King’s reach away as he extended an arm to block my path.

“Whoa, easy there, little lady. Where do you think you’re…” He trailed off  as he saw my face.

“Alex?” Elias bulled through the jumble of men, and past the blurry veil of my tears, I could see the golden limn of the dying sun on his wild hair, and the way his brows knitted solicitously on the sharp yet soft features of his face, and as I pulled him into a hug and buried my face in the fabric of his uniform, I could smell the wildflowers, the earthy grime, the musky sweat, and I closed my eyes and imagined myself back on that cliff-side, or in that hammock, pressed to his body.

Elias moved my rifle to the side, sliding the strap from my shoulder and letting it fall gently to the ground before returning my embrace – but only for a moment, before his hands were peeling my head back, strands of hair clinging to my face from the blood and tears.

“What’s going on?” he demanded, blue eyes shining with worry. “What happened? Are you hurt?”

“Barnes,” I breathed, blinking away tears. The rest of the men were coming into view around me now, but I ignored their stares. “He – “ A sob seized my chest, and I let the crest of my head fall back to his chest, but as I tried again to form the words on my lips, I realized that if I did, that I might be sentencing Elias. I’d seen what he’d done – or tried to do, rather – to the man when he’d ordered me to shoot those innocents on my first day. I could only imagine the hellfire that he’d unleash upon the sergeant and Bunny if he returned to the sight I had. And the violence that would surely rival it.

“Elias,” I breathed, and tipped my head back to meet his gaze. “Take me away. Please.”

Elias stared back at me for a moment, seemingly torn, before barking out to his men, “Rhah, you take the men back down to the village.”

Without question, the men began filing down the hill through the trees. Cherry tried for a moment to linger, but I shook my head at him, mumbled that I was okay past the hair that clung to my bloodied, tear-stained lips.

Elias smoothed out the messed hair on my skull as I buried my face back in his chest and sobbed. “Where’s your music, sweetheart?” he asked me, trying to find something that would calm me.

This only widened the chasm in my chest, and I heaved a broken sob into his uniform. I was so pathetic, weeping like a child, barely able to speak. My fingers, still unnaturally stiff, clawed at the course fabric on his chest, unable to quite grasp it.

“Shhhh,” he breathed, hot breath sending a shiver through me. “Alex. Sweetheart.”

I kept sobbing into his chest. I couldn’t get a hold of myself.

“Alex,” he said, and pulled me from his warmth again, leaving me shivering in my cold sweat. But those eyes were staring down at me with nothing but affection, and the final rays of the sun were silhouetting his head again like that of an angel, and I reminded myself that I was okay now, that whatever happened, we’d get through it together.

“Come with me,” he said, and slipped his fingers through mine, filling the trembling gap finally and giving them some kind of stability. With his other hand, he carried my gun, and I followed him, up through the trees, and he took me away, just like I’d asked. Away from the fear, and the anger, and the hate.

---

The wind in the rustling leaves and the persistent hoot of an owl and the symphony of crickets were my music, the song that threaded itself so ethereally into the otherwise silent night.          

I rested my head against Elias’ shoulder, my fingers still looped through his, and the warmth of his body radiating against mine as it stabilized me. I nestled Taylor’s book against my wrist, eyes slowly tracing the words from still-slightly-blurry eyes. Shoots of grass tickled the bare flesh of my ankles where my khakis rode up from my boots, and my attention was briefly drawn from the literature as an insect crawled across Elias’ knee.

My tears had dried on my face, and when I blinked, my lashes would stick together, but there were none left to shed, and my body felt like a drained faucet, resting limply against the man that sat still and quiet beside me, his eyes trained up on the stars that glittered overhead like winking diamonds in the black sky. We were entirely sober, the last of the weed smoked last night when we’d found ourselves in a similar position, but we were still content.

At this point, the events of earlier that evening seemed like nothing more than another reflection in a dirtied, broken mirror, and I couldn’t believe I’d cried so much over them. I was at peace, in my sanctuary, and nothing – not Barnes, not Bunny – could hurt me.

“Elias?” I murmured, and slipped a finger through the pages of the book to mark where I’d left off as I shut the cover. “Do you believe that every man has two sides to him?”

Elias shot me a glance from his starry eyes, and he smiled. “What’s gotten you so philosophical, sweetheart? You hidin’ some of the good shit?”

The line of my mouth quirked into a smile, and I shook my head, and opened my book again. “Listen to this,” I said, and recited, “’I have been doomed to such a  dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two.’”

The soldier made a soft yet resonated “hmm” sound and landed his gaze back on the stars above, pondering this for a moment or two. And then, he said, “There’s a Cherokee legend that in every man exists two wolves – one evil, one kind. They’re in a constant battle.”

Once again, I found myself reminded of Barnes’ cruelty, of Elias’ kindness, and I wondered if Barnes had ever been kind, if Elias had ever been cruel. It was difficult to fathom either. When I thought of Barnes, I thought of dead bodies at my feet; I thought of children being raped. When I thought of Elias, I thought of hope, of the warm glow of the sunset, of the feeling of wind through one’s hair.

I fell silent as I ruminated, and stirred my head from its perch as Elias’ baritones reverberated beneath me, before nestling my cheek back into the crook of his neck. “You still got that letter, sweetheart?” he asked me. 

“Um… yeah,” I said, at a loss for words in my state of alarm. I shifted, and pulled the envelope and a pen from my rucksack, and handed the objects to him. “You change your mind about your family?” I asked.

“I’m gonna write to my brother,” he said, and took the pen and the envelope in his hands; he removed the contents of the latter, smoothing the paper across his knee.

A contented smile graced my lips, and though I wanted to ask about his change of heart, I said nothing, deciding instead to let him be deluged in the music of the night as his pen laid its first stroke against the paper. I settled back into place, my cheek falling against his warm shoulder, and I opened my book. I inhaled, breathing in once more the wonderful tincture of grass and earth and man, filling that chasm that had split inside my chest, and as I exhaled my sigh, with it I expelled the cruel, haunting gaze of the woman in the mirror. And the ache that dwelled beneath my ribs, I imagined to be the warring of two wolves; one, who’d let bodies fall before its depravity, and the other, who’d had the courage to sink its jaws into the harbinger of such destruction.

#fanfiction #elias grodin #platoon #platoon 1986 #writing #my writing #sgt. elias #oc: alexis #heroes #there's smut in this story I'm just not saying where because spoilers but you've been warned #mdni

[dcrlingmuses]

#// I'll be deleting this once the results have been finalized but I need HELP #// All of them WILL be added at some point BUT #// also personals DO NOT INTERACT PLZ #( DO NOT REBLOG ) #( PERSONALS DO NOT INTERACT )

[straybreeze]

GX MONTH 2021

Day 1: “Hero Signal”

We’re kicking things off with everyone’s favorite hero Judai/Jaden Yuki’s birthday! Show the fluffy boi some love!

Yay, this is my very first time participating in a Tumblr event! Thank you @gxmonth for making this, I'm so excited!

I tried my best to include my OC as well, I hope it won't be too cringe lol.

Also, I would like to remark here, that I'm not a native English speaker, so if I made any grammatical errors or other mistakes, please let me know!

Word count: 2475

Pairing: implied spiritshipping

Warnings: slight angst

Happy, happy birthday Judai.

The sun was already high on the endless blue sky, showering the small apartment room in golden light when a big, orange and round thing pushed the door open with its head. The cat made his way through the mess and straight to the bed, where his owner was still sleeping. Confuting his own respectable weight, he jumped easily into the bed and snuggled up to the sleeping boy’s side, purring loudly. The quiet snoring suddenly stopped as the boy slowly opened his deep brown eyes, his hand automatically searching for the cat’s fluffy head.

“Let me sleep, Pharaoh! Just five more minutes!” Judai pleaded and covered his eyes with his free hand.

But it had been proven to be an unacceptable answer to Pharaoh. If he was hungry, nothing was an excuse for being late for breakfast. And in fact, it was almost lunchtime.

“Meow!”

However, Judai still didn’t seem willing to move, so he had to try harder.

“Ouch! Pharaoh, I know you are hungry, but I’m not your food! Don’t eat me!” Judai moaned as he sat up reluctantly. He squinted in the vivid lights, reaching the phone on the nightstand. The screen was showing 11 AM and the date below: 31th August.

31st August. The last day of summer. And his birthday.

Judai almost forgot about his nineteenth birthday. But to be honest, this day is going to be just like any other of the past week. He had nothing to do besides sitting at home and feeding Pharaoh occasionally. There was no real difference from what he did ever since he arrived from his last journey.

In fact, he was stuck in Domino City and had to stay there until he would eventually get a phone call from Chancellor Samejima. In the past one year of his life, an incoming call from his ex-headmaster meant one thing: a new job is on the sight. Not that Judai minded that. He loved travelling around the world and solving intriguing cases with his dueling skills. He didn’t continue his studies in a college, nor joined the Pro Leagues like his other friends. No, he just did the same as in his Academia years: slacking and occasionally saving the day. That is the duty of the heroes after all.

…And at least he could be useful in something as well.

Judai spent the last two weeks in this apartment, which he and Johan were renting together. In the first days, it wasn’t so hard to stay put, but Johan went on a holiday to his family in Sweden more than a week ago. He promised that he will get home before the end of summer, yet he messaged his roommate that he had to stay for a few more days. So in the end, Judai was left alone for his birthday.

Okay, not completely alone. At least Pharaoh was there for him, he thought as he strolled out to the kitchen to find some breakfast for his hungry cat. And for himself.

One year had already passed since they graduated from Duel Academia. A lot of things happened to everyone and it appeared that nobody had the time to greet Judai on his birthday. At least none of his friends told him that they would like to see him today. No missed calls, no unread messages yet.

Have they already forgotten him?

No, that was nonsense. They might be just… busy.

Sho and Manjoume have joined the Pro Leagues right after their graduation, so they were already living their restless life just like his other pro friends, Edo and Kaiser. Well, in his Academia years Judai already got used to that Edo is as much unavailable as the Emperor of Japan himself, but it appeared that Kaiser is that kind of celebrity too. Since he more or less recovered from his heart condition, he started a Cyber Pro League along with Sho and they both attended various events actively in the country and lately overseas too. Of course, Kaiser was told that he must not overstrain himself and stress too much in general, but Judai would bet that he disregarded all of those rules anyway. Especially because he hadn’t talked to him in months, so he must be busy as hell as always.

On the other hand, as far as Judai knew the Tenjoin siblings still lived in North America – Asuka was still studying in Duel College for sure while her brother, Fubuki-san was… doing something too, he assumed? Judai hadn’t heard much of them lately, but he knew that Fubuki-san followed his younger sister to chase his dreams and become an idol abroad. Judai didn’t know much about the school system of America, so Asuka might have classes at this very moment, maybe that’s why she hasn’t called him yet.

For his younger friends, Kenzan graduated from Duel Academia this summer, while Rei is going to start her last year in October. Maybe they are both on a vacation right now, enjoying themselves on a beach or something. It was still summer anyway, Judai couldn’t blame them for that.

And oh, there was Aurora, too. She was the roommate of Edo (and maybe his stepsister as well? Or something more? Who knows. She was a mystery anyway), who befriended him less than a year ago. Judai supposed she doesn’t even know that this day is his birthday.

After he gave some salmon flavored cat food and fresh water to Pharaoh, he decided to grab a bowl of cereal for breakfast and lunch at once.

As much he wanted to act like his birthday was nothing, if it was just like any other day, it made him hurt deep inside that nobody, even his closest friends haven’t paid attention to him on his day. He already got used to that his parents don’t care about him, but he thought he found a new family in his friends.

Maybe he was wrong.

But hey, it was him who abandoned them in the first place, Judai reminded himself. He was the one who left the Academia without saying goodbye and ran away from them straight to another country. He shouldn’t feel sad, because he knew that their friends would be estranged from him sooner or later. And he was the only one to blame.

Judai was so lost deep in his thoughts that he didn’t even realize that the milk was long overflowed the bowl and it was already spilling down the table. Pharaoh didn’t waste a single second: he leapt to the white liquid dripping from the edge of the table and licked it with such joy as if he had never tasted it before in his entire life.

“Dammit!” Judai moaned, then hastily wiped the milk off from the table and the parquet.

Oh well. He hadn’t been awake for ten whole minutes yet, but he already knew, birthday or no birthday, this was not going to be his day.

As the day continued, Judai climbed back to the bed and chose to do nothing today besides watching silly TV shows. He could have gone out at least for a walk, that’s true. He lived in Domino City after all, the city he loved the most. If you are a duelist, this is the best place for you in the entire world, especially if you live in downtown. The coast was not too far, Kaiba Land and other fun places were within easy reach too. But nothing was entertaining enough if you had no friends around.

“I feel like you’ve forgotten something,” Judai heard a familiar voice from all of a sudden. Slowly, the television screen became blurry as he was still staring at it, and a demonic shadow appeared at the end of his bed.

“Yubel,” he spoke their name aloud as he closed his eyes. “What did I forget?”

“Me,” came the obvious answer. “Why do you feel so lonely?”

“I’m not lonely. I’m just…” Judai began but then realized that the sentence had no continuation. “No, Yubel, everything’s good.”

“You sure?”

“Uh, yeah! I’m glad you’re here. It is enough for me.”

“You are a bad liar, Judai. You know that?”

“Hey, I mean it! I’m glad you are here, Yubel.”

“… I know.” Yubel smiled, gentler than it was imaginable from them. As they took a short break, their heterochromatic eyes curiously scanned the boy who was bound to them for an eternity. “But I still don’t understand, what is the matter with you?”

Judai didn’t answer their question. At least with words. He thought it was enough for an answer that he checked his phone every five minutes if someone messaged him already. But sadly, nobody had searched him so far.

It was already late afternoon when he finally heard the standard ringtone of his phone. He almost fell asleep again, and the vibrating sound made his heart pound in excitement. He immediately grabbed his phone, but when he checked the screen, he had mixed feelings.

The caller was Aurora, Edo’s roommate. And the last one who Judai thought would call him on his birthday.

“Hello, Rory! What up?” he greeted her, a soft smile unintentionally crossed his lips. But it had soon vanished when Aurora didn’t answer immediately. “Rory? Is something wrong?”

“Judai,” she spoke finally. Her usual melodic voice was trembling somewhat as if she was nervous. “I’m glad I could reach you!”

“Yeah, I mean, you could have totally called me all day! I had nothing to do, you know.” Maybe he shouldn’t have hinted things like these, but still.

“I see. Sorry, Judai, but may I ask you something?” Aurora’s voice still didn’t sound too firm.

“Sure, anytime!” Judai’s eyes sparkled at thought of the adventure. “But you’re fine, aren’t you?”

“Y-Yeah. I just… need to talk with someone. With you.”

“Really? Well, I’d gladly chat with you, but if you wanna talk about some… girlish thing, you know I’m not your man.”

“You will be completely fine. I wanna talk about something else, not girlish things.”

“Something happened with Edo maybe?” Judai guessed.

“Not at all! Ahw Judai, stop asking questions! I will tell you everything if I see you in person. So get ready and come!”

“Come where?”

“I’ll be waiting for you at the entrance of Kaiba Land in fifteen minutes.”

“Why there? You’re not even a duelist—„

“See you later, Judai!”

Before Judai could remark that he may not be there in fifteen minutes, Aurora had already hung up the phone. Surely, she became weirder and weirder. Maybe it was Edo who was a bad influence on her.

When Judai arrived at the said place, he was nearly jumping out of his skin. He was curious about what Aurora wanted to talk to him about, and at the same time, he was glad that he finally had a reason to leave the apartment.

Though it was still a bit unexpected that he would spend his birthday with Aurora, but why not? They were friends after all. He should have thought about her sooner.

“Judai!” Aurora shouted and waved him from the distance.

As he came closer, Aurora silently turned around and headed into the Park. It was almost sunset, the monstrous structures of Kaiba Land were glowing in orange.

“Okay, would you tell me now what are we doing here?” Judai asked while he barely could keep up with her.

“You will see, I promise!”

“Come on, Rory!”

“No worries, we are almost there!”

And that was all she told him, no matter how hard he tried to get more information. But the sparkle of hope ignited in his heart, that something bigger was standing behind this weird invitation.

Kaiba Land was slowly emptied out as the closing hour was coming, so they didn’t meet too many people. Especially as they got deeper and deeper into the amusement park.

They were nearby the rollercoaster when they finally stopped.

“Judai,” Aurora turned to him. “I know that this whole thing came from all of a sudden, and I’m so happy that you followed me without a question anyway.”

“Well, actually—”

“I hope you know that it means a lot to me. Not just me. To all of us.”

“What do you mean?”

“Judai, you have amazing friends. And you are the best among the best for all of them.”

“Rory, I’m not sure I understa—„

“SURPRISE!!”

Shouts were coming from everywhere, and suddenly a shadow of a whole crowd appeared in the dim lights of the setting sun. Before Judai could have the time to react, a short figure stood out from them and started running towards him.

“Happy birthday, Aniki!” Sho shrieked as he bumped into Judai and embraced him closely. Shortly after, he found himself surrounded by people. Surrounded by his friends.

“Happy birthday, Judai!”

“Judai-sama! I wish the bestest birthday in the world to you!”

“Nice to see you, loser! Where the hell have you been for this long?”

“Yeah, Judai, we were all waiting for you!”

“Happy birthday, Aniki-don!”

“Damn, I missed you so much!”

Everyone was there. Asuka and Rei. Manjoume, Fubuki-san and Kenzan. Sho was still holding onto him, almost crying.

“Hehe, surprise! I came back from Sweden today just because of your big day!”

Even Johan was there. He came home finally! Judai couldn’t help, but sudden warmth flowed through his body as Johan hugged him along with everyone else. Even Manjoume was in the crew.

“Hey guys, you flatter me…”

“See, Edo? We almost missed the group hug because of you.” Another familiar voice came from the distance, and when Judai glanced up, he saw Kaiser Ryo and Edo Phoenix’s silhouettes were approaching them.

“Don’t blame me because Kaiba Seto himself wanted to talk with me. But I assume you can still join the group hug if you’re really that desperate.”

When the pros reached the crew, they greeted Judai in unison.

“Happy birthday, Judai!”

“You two…”

“In fact, these two were the masterminds for this plan,” Aurora joined the celebration too. “Happiest birthday for you!”

With suppressed tears in his eyes, Judai looked around his friends. Yeah, Aurora had right. He had the best friends in the world and now he felt terrible guilt that he had ever questioned them. Yubel were right after all, for not understanding what was his problem. Now he didn’t understand too.

“Okay, who wants some cake?”

“WAIT, we have cake?” Judai asked in shock. How the hell did they bring it to here?

“Of course! I mean you have it, Judai,” Asuka corrected him.

Before Judai could shout in happiness, his phone started ringing again. To his surprise, Chancellor Samejima called him.

“Happy birthday, Judai! Are you ready for your next adventure?”

Judai couldn’t help but smile again.

“Ready as I’ll ever be!”

#gxmonth2021 #yugioh gx #ygo gx #yuki judai #jaden yuki #fanfiction tag

[scarlettriot]

Welcome to my Fantasy MHA AU Fic!

I'll be posting specific content warnings at the start of each chapter just to give you a heads up but you can expect swearing in almost every chapter and some NSFW 18+ content down the line.

Plan for ships though I don't know which ones just yet.

An OC or two might pop up. In the chapters they appear I'll be sure to give you some information on them.

Hope you enjoy it!

CHAPTER ONE

WARNINGS: SWEARING

The king stood atop the hillside, admiring the vast expanse of his kingdom laid out before him.

King Enji couldn't have been more pleased with the results of his tedious plans and tireless efforts if he tried. In fact, everything had gone off without a hitch!

Flames engulfed buildings. Smoke and embers choked the sky as well as the lungs of his citizens, and King Enji watched it all happening on high.

The sword of the once famed paladin rested on his shoulder. There'd be no one else now in his kingdom for anyone to worship other than him. He'd finally be treated with the respect he deserved.

Magic and projectiles soared through the sky, chasing down every last dragon they caught sight of. The beasts were the perfect villains for his plan. They'd be killed or chased out and once over the magical barrier he'd been working for years to create, they'd never be allowed back.

Two of his biggest problems were taken out in a matter of minutes.

King Enji Todoroki had won.

The celebration of the Phoenix King took place on the same date each and every year. The day that their kingdom had once burned to the ground was now celebrated with dancing and food, music and costumes as a way to remember how their great King chased off the fearsome dragons and did what he could to protect the Paladin of Might.

Izuku could hardly remember the day. What he could recall was filled with smoke and a burning in his lungs. He also remembered his best friend, Katsuki vanishing on that day.

His mother told him that many had died, that sadly, young Katsuki was probably among them. But, Izuku never believed it. Katsuki had been the strongest person he knew and so, even 18 years later, Izuku held out faith that his best friend was still out there... somewhere.

The festival was in full swing, Izuku's stomach was stuffed and his chest felt light seeing everyone around him so happy. His mother, Inko, was using vibrant colors to paint a beautiful flowered mask on a young boy. She'd already marked Izuku's own face, swirls of green in various shades that went over the bridge of his nose and extended down onto his neck. It had been his preferred design since he was a boy.

Horns sounded in the distance at dusk, the signal for everyone to turn their gaze towards the large grey stone castle and witness the light show presented by the top mages in the land.

The first flash of color, bright orange, flooded the sky and Izuku felt a hand in his own tugging him backward.

He turned, noticing a hooded figure but more importantly, the red and white bangs that were just barely visible beneath it.

"Sho?" He breathed the name and it was lost over the sound of the lights exploding. "You're supposed to be-"

"I know." The man mumbled, "But this was my best chance of getting out... getting this out."

He pulled back the cloak just enough for Izuku to see the gleam of a golden hilt. "Shoto, is that what I think it is?"

"Yeah, yeah Izuku, I finally found it."

The two men slipped through the crowd unseen, their eyes transfixed on the light show high above to notice two figures slipping in between buildings. Izuku begged Shoto to keep the sword hidden. The last thing they needed was for someone to see it and recognize what it was.

"He lied." Shoto gritted out. "You were right all along, Zu, my father lied. It was never stolen, he kept it hidden right under our noses. In the damn treasure vault for fucks sake!"

Izuku rarely had seen the young royal so livid but when he got this way his father was usually the cause. Izuku had hoped more than anything that he'd been wrong about the King and what happened 18 years ago. He really hoped that a dragon had been the one to hurt the Paladin and steal the sword, that the King had just arrived too late but something about the story had never sat right with him.

As he grew older, the more he learned about the Paladin, it made him question things. Everyone thought he was mad, Izuku hardly had any friends thanks to him voicing his opinions when he was too young to know better but, to his surprise, a boy with two-toned hair listened. He listened to Izuku's theory long before Izuku knew Shoto was the prince, and he believed him.

"I remember my father coming home that night," Shoto had confided in him, "He just had dirt on his clothes, no scorch marks or burns. Not even blood. He couldn't have fought a dragon!"

Izuku had just thought it odd that the Might Paladin had been taken down by a dragon. Sure, the King said it'd been a horde of them but the man had left without another word, he'd only made a brief appearance at the King's side and then was said to have wandered off into the woods alone; his will to fight and protect, gone.

He couldn't believe a man who slew hundreds of vile creatures could go down so easily, not that handling a horde of dragons was easy but the Might Paladin was practically a God!

What Shoto had told him as kids only further solidified the idea in his mind that things didn't add up. Of course, Shoto wasn't allowed to ask questions. Hells, he was barely allowed to leave the castle grounds but he promised Izuku he'd search for answers. He wouldn't stop until the truth was uncovered.

"I also found this with it, tucked away inside the scabbard."

Shoto handed over a piece of aged parchment folded up small enough to fit in the palm of Izuku's hand. It was scribbled designs, spilled ink blotched out a couple of words and the rest didn't make any sense to Izuku.

"Any idea what this is?"

Shoto shook his head. "No clue but there are some witches that live out past the woods. Maybe they can help?"

Izuku looked at his friend with knitted brows. "You know as well as I do that witches practice unsanctioned magic. And if either one of us were to engage with one, we'd be thrown in jail at the least!"

"Then you better be sneaky about it, Zu." A slight smirk played on his lips. "We can't go to official mages with this, so, witches are the next step to solving this mystery."

Izuku sighed and hung his head. "Fine. Fine, I'll leave in the morning. I'll tell my mother I'm helping you with your power analysis again." He looked at the slightly taller man in his oddly mismatched eyes. "You better make sure she says safe while I'm gone."

In truth, it took very little to convince Izuku to investigate and explore. He loved it actually and if it wasn't for his mother, he'd have the whole damn continent mapped out by now! But, it was just the two of them and he couldn't leave her for too long at a time to tend to the farm all by herself.

"I'll be sure a few guards come by to assist her in the field." Shoto unhooked the sword from his belt. "Take this too. Maybe a witch will know where the Paladin has gone and you can return this to him."

Izuku almost refused but Shoto shoved the weapon into his hands and the moment his fingers wrapped around the hilt, he felt... something. What exactly, he couldn't find a word for it but there was a feeling of magic to the weapon. Shoto had to have known that, that had to be another reason why he wanted him to take it and so, with some hesitation, he strapped the sword to his side.

"Write to Sir Iida with anything you find. Use the code though, just in case." Izuku nodded. "Be safe. Let's get to the bottom of this once and for all."

A/N: If you feel inclined, please let me know your thoughts. I might delete and rewrite this depending on how I'm feeling. Thank you for reading :)

#mha #bnha #mha fantasy au #izuku midoriya #shoto todoroki #prince shoto #mha fic #mha au idea #bakugo katsuki #kachaan #deku

[rottmntrulesall]

Hi! How are you?

21,39,40,41,62,63,64 for the OC ask game. (For all the Hamato Siblings)

21. Who are your OC’s closest relatives?

Their grandfather Sho. He cared for them and trained them after their parents left/died.

39. How does your OC handle anger?

Saki trains so aggressively, he breaks the equipment, walls, the bones of any unfortunate soul who crosses his path.

Nori works out and trains with Saki. She can take his aggressiveness.

Kenji meditates and hums soothingly to himself

Yoshi/Lou/Splinter would eat and sleep while watching TV

Hiroki would brew some tea for herself and just think about what makes her happy.

Hikari would lay on the floor and stare at the sky and not think abot anything.

Mei creates creepy dolls and sets them a flame, stabs them, or rips off the limbs. To keep her from doing the same to actual people.

40. How does your OC handle grief?

Saki just trains as way to take his mind off the pain. Grief is WEAKNESS.

Nori cries and often tries to comfort her family despite her tears.

Kenji swallows his sadness first in order to make sure his family is ok.

Yoshi/Lou/Splinterhugs each of his sons and cries with them.

The twins hold each other and grieve together.

Mei locks herself in a dark room and lays there so no one will see her weep.

41. What is your OC’s greatest fear?

Saki - Being seen as weak/Unworthy

Nori - Forced into typical gender roles

Kenji - Losing his siblings

Yoshi/Lou/Splinter - Losing his sons

Hiroki - Their family breaking apart

Hikari - Yoshi leaving him again

Mei - being forced to be lively and perky

62. How emotionally/mentally vulnerable is your OC with other people?

Saki shuts himself off to people, even his siblings

Nori tries to keep a strong front, but can crack from time to time.

Kenji will express himself but not too much as to not make people uncomfortable.

Yoshi/Lou/Splinter isn't afraid to be emotional, he won't act like a robot.

The twins tend to lose it when things get too hard.

Mei, like Saki shuts herself to other people, but not her siblings

63. How does your OC display love?

Saki awkwardly pats whoever on the back. Hard

Nori and Kenji hug and tells whoever how great they are.

Yoshi/Lou/Splinter just flat out says it

The twins give bear hugs and sloppy kisses

Mei makes a strange talisman and gives it to whoever as a sign of her devotion.

64. What are some habits your OC has picked up?

Saki will grumble to himself when frustrated and it gets louder and louder

Nori will fiddle with her earring until she nearly yanks it off

Kenji rubs his hands together fast when anxious

Yoshi/Lou/Splinter curls up in his bed whenever distressed

Hiroki bites on her index fingers

Hikari chews his lip until it starts to swell

Mei watches her siblings sleep to make sure they don't vanish from her sight

#Thanks for the asks #Mei is so creepy #they all have issues #siblings au #oc asks #my oc #lou jitsu #rottmnt #rise of the tmnt #hamato family au #hamato family

[gloves94]

Sunburn [Prince Zuko] 1

Warnings: None Rating: PG-13 Pairings: Zuko/OC Summary: "You have everything you've ever wanted." "No." He said softly. "Not everything..." His golden eyes looked at her with a melting intensity she had never witnessed before. "I guess not." She responded with glassy eyes as tears welled up threatening to break the dam of her eyes. 

My fanfiction: M A S T E R L I S T

"Uncle!" The young prince roared exasperated.

For once his uncle stood on the deck of the ship being quiet and distant. His eyes gazed out into the vast blueness that expanded so far you couldn't tell where the ocean ended and where the sky began. He wore a solemn expression on his face, both of his hands tucked inside of his sleeves. His eyes clouded with a rare sadness.

"I'm so close to capturing the Avatar! I'm going to lose his trail and we are losing precious time! I haveto regain my honor!" Prince Zuko barked. The dishonored banished Prince of the Fire Nation barked.

Iroh also known as the Dragon of the West, the retired general who had been disgraced at walls of Ba Sing Se remained pensive and let out a deep breath he had been holding.

"Why do we even have to go to the colonies?!" The frustrated prince threw his hands over his head.

"I already told you my dear nephew. I've received somber news. The sun has set on a dear friend Sencha's life. And so we must attend the service and show our respects to his spirit and his family."

"This is pointless!" Prince Zuko breathed out a cloud of fire, his exasperation boiling in the pits of his stomach. How he sometimes wished he could just shove his uncle into a sailboat and send him to out so that he could move on with his life and actually have a shot at regaining his honor. Why couldn't his uncle just go by himself?

Zuko was too blinded to see the pain in his uncle's amber eyes.

"Patience," Iroh sighed wisely and stroked his gray beard. "If you allow it, the howling wind shall carry you to your destiny. Who knows? You might encounter something interesting in the colonies."

The prince remained silent.

"Perhaps even the Avatar?" Iroh baited glancing at his nephew from the corner of his eyes.

Zuko gripped the railing tightly, his body tense. His uncle turned to look at him and flashed him a weak smile before squeezing his nephew's shoulder.

xxx

The prince's military vessel docked at the port of Yu Doa.

The city of Yu Dow was one of the first Fire Nation Colonies. It was known for it's unique architecture and surprising co-existence of Fire and Earth bending cultures as near equals. Because of this Yu Dao was the Fire Nation's most powerful asset and wealthiest colony. It was also famously known for having the finest weapon craftsmen in the world.

"This place is... odd," Zuko observed as they made away across the city.

No royal had set foot in the colonies since the war began one hundred years ago and it was safe to say that people from the mainland thought less of those from the colonies. Sneering at them, calling them colonials, and laughing at stereotypes.

The city was quiet, its citizens wore funerary colors and expressions of mourning. All windows were closed and shops were closing early.

"Of course, they are mourning their governor."

The Prince also noted how the people in the streets did not shy away from them like others would've back in the mainland. They neither bowed nor cowered with disrespect. The prince and his uncle entered the gates of the golden palace and were received by an escort who lead them inside the building. The architecture was a mixture of emerald green and square shapes typical of Earth Kingdom architecture with contrasting bold golden pikes, maroon carvings, and large figures and carvings of crimson and golden dragons on the walls which were typical of Fire Nation architecture and culture.

"General Sencha was appointed as the Vice Royal Governor of Yu Dao sometime after your grandfather Azulon rose to the throne. He was a brilliant general, brave, courageous, a good friend and also a worthy Pai Sho adversary," Iroh said with a smile as they were lead through a massive pair of intricately carved golden doors.

"His people, they mourn him. It's almost as if they care-" Zuko was interrupted. "They do," Iroh nodded. "Fire Lords don't often concern themselves with the Fire Colonies once they are tamed. Sencha took it upon himself to provide a life of equal opportunities to both Fire and Earth Kingdom citizens. Together they worked to build and grow the city making it the most powerful asset of the Fire Nation abroad. Because of that Yu Dao paved the way for its own culture and traditions to blossom. That's why this place seems so different to you."

For a moment Zuko thought about his grandfather, Azulon. Besides other aristocrats and the military it had been just another day when he passed. His people hadn't mourned him, he hadn't been missed by many. He certainly didn't miss him. The citizens of the Fire Nation didn't seem to care much for him, then again, he had been a cruel man. It was a drastic contrast to the ambiance in Yu Dao and the respect its people had for their passed leader.

It was then that they entered the heart of the governing room where the service was being held. It was dark and the room was barely illuminated by numerous candles which were burning at different heights. At the center hoisted above a bed of white arranged wild flowers and lilies lay a fine wooden coffin. There were few government officials and family in the private service. The disgraced prince and the retired general approached the front to pay their respects. Iroh knelt before the bed and meditated for a moment on his dear friend's memory. Zuko nodded his head in respect and he patiently waited for his uncle to stand. His eyes scanned the crowd as he attempted to distract himself, not wanting to linger his gaze on the coffin before him. It was then that a spot of red in the darkness captured his attention.

His eyes froze on a person with a hair color he had never seen before. He had never seen an individual with hair the color of fire. Auburn, red, maroon, he couldn't place his finger on the shade. The dim light made it even harder. She appeared to be around his age. Her blazing hair was wavy and reached down past midback, half of it up in the matter that was considered fashionable in the Fire Nation. Her expression was one of pure desolation as a woman whom he assumed to be her mother held her close while holding her hand.

"Prince Zuko!" Iroh whispered harshly elbowing him snapping him out of his train of thought. As he did the girl looked up and their eyes met. His lingered on her face for a second.

Her mother turned as did the man Zuko assumed to be her father. He turned his head sharply ready to walk away, but instead Iroh turned the opposite way and began walking in the way of of the Vice Royal family.

Xxx

"I-I think I need some air," gasped the girl as she took in a deep breath suddenly feeling claustrophobic. Her soul felt numb with the absence of her dear grandfather. She felt dizzy and partly nauseous. She had shed her tears and her eyes were dry from crying so much, over the past couple of days. Her nostrils felt irritated from blowing so many tissues. Her mom gave her hand a gentle squeeze and a sad smile before letting her go. She noted the two strangers that were approaching to pay their condolences.

Distraught she didn't bother in engaging with them or even checking out their improper attire. From the looks of it they were probably military from the Fire Nation mainland. She stepped out quickly suddenly feeling like she couldn't breath due to the stench of flowers, incense and burning candles. She in took a large gulp of fresh air when she reached the small garden outside the governing room. She sat on a stone bench that was placed before a small koi pond fountain and under a blossoming plum tree. Just a few days ago she had been sitting in this same bench with her grandfather. She had been holding onto his arm tightly, he had given her one of the plum blossom flowers, tucked it into her hair and was telling her stories about her late grandmother.

And now- he was gone.

She felt fat tears begin to swell in her eyes as her lungs felt heavy with woe. She had done enough crying. Death was part of life.

"Loss is part of life,"her grandfather had said to her sagely. "But nothing worth keeping is every truly lost."

Her tears certainly wouldn't bring him back. She sucked in a deep breath and sat up straight as an arrow, just as she had been taught her entire young life. Holding her head up with pride.

She didn't know how long she had been out here. Holding her breath, trying to hold it all together.

"The flower that blooms in adversity is the most beautiful and rare of all," a wise voice interrupted. Her ears had to be playing tricks on her.

It was her grandfather.

"W-What?" She turned bewildered.

Automatically a cascade of tears streamed down her unblinking amber eyes.

It wasn't.

She almost felt as if she had heard her grandfather. She wished it had been him. She sternly believed that those had been his words through a different voice. One that was unfamiliar to her. The man standing beside her was older. His hair was aged and gray and he was large. He seemed like a pleasant person carrying an air of peace and gentleness around him. The kind that his grandfather might've kept around for counsel or as a part of the governing cabinet. He was the one that had walked in late, with the boy with the scar on his face that had been glaring at her during the service.

"Blooming season can be powerful, glorious and intoxicating, but tragically short-lived," the man said wisely. "It is a visual reminder that our lives, too, are fleeting."

Who was this man that spoke in riddles with his wise tongue? Where had he come from?

"They also signify most important above all love." He reached down and with care picked up a lost flower. Lifting it up he offered it to her with kindness. Ceasing her crying the girl took the flower from the wise man.

"Thank you," she said quietly keeping her head lowered in respect.

"You must be Tsai, Sencha's granddaughter," it wasn't a question. He knew who she was. She nodded. The man lowered his head bowing before her. "I'm terribly sorry for your loss. Your grandfather was a good man, he was also one of my closest friends. Strange that he would pass on such a pleasant day," he commented raising up to view the clear sky above.

"My name is Iroh," he introduced himself. "I have come here with my nephew to pay my respects."

Tsai rose to her feet and bowed her head in equal respect. Of course she had heard of the famous General Iroh, the Dragon of the West. Afterall he had been first in line for the throne of Fire Lord just a couple of years ago.

"General," she acknowledged respectfully.

"There you are!" A woman of similar features to the girl approached the two. She wore a matching dark tunic and her hair was light brown and her eyes were a minty green.

"How embarrassing," she breathed. "I certainly hope Tsai wasn't bothering you with any nonsense General," her mother said as she wrapped her arms around her daughter's shoulders holding her close.

Being of Earth Kingdom decent Sanyu, her mother, had always been hyper conscious of her and her children's behavior. She couldn't afford for them to be shunned because of their Earth Kingdom heritage.

"Not at all," He smiled kindly. "And just Iroh, please."

"Has it-" Tsai turned asking her mother. She simply nodded. The body had been ignited in flames as it was customary in Fire Nation funerary tradition. Her expression twisted into a tormented one. "I really do apologize that you've come to visit us on such a somber occasion," her father stepped forward. It was the new Vice Royal Governor of Yu Dao. He had introduced himself as Azah. "It would truly be an honor if you could join us for lunch. It is not often that we receive such as esteemed guests. Specially royalty from the mainland."

"Uncle, send for the ship to undock. We don't have any more time to waste," a voice rudely spat into the conversation.

It was that rude boy who had been glaring at Tsai during the service. She eyed him warily as she approached her and her family in the plum-blossom garden. The governor's eyes narrowed at the royal's rude behaviors. Sanju seemed oblivious to this.

"Please excuse my nephew. We'd love to join you," Iroh nodded. "Tsai, have you introduced yourself to Prince Zuko?" Her mother spoke tensely slightly grabbing her by the shoulders and shoving her towards the prince.

"Uncle-" The other protested.

"Zuko you're always talking about honor. We are going to stay and join our host the Vice Royal Governor and his lovely family for some tea and dinner." Iroh grinned cheekily as he grabbed his nephew's arms tightly and slightly shoved him forward towards the other teen.

Both were awkwardly pushed to face each other as their families observed the impromptu match-making meeting all with knowing eyes and discrete growing grins. Tsai's older brother Mecha snickered from the back, she wanted to turn and glare at him but was instead once again nudged forward by her mother who was glaring daggers at her and poking an invisible knife at her back.

Her grandfather had just died, could they cut the match-making and courtship some slack?

The prince stood half a head taller than her. Maybe he appeared to be taller because of the way he wore his dark hair, in a tall ponytail, most of his head was cleanly shaved off and Tsai realized that he hadn't been glaring at her. That's just the way his face was, it was stuck in a mean scowling mug with suspiciously narrowed eyes. However the most striking feature was half of his face, which was scarred by fire in an ugly branding on his skin. Of course she had heard stories and rumors about the banished prince. Most girls her age would giggle and say he was extremely handsome, other rumors said that he got his scar in a training accident. However, it seemed that his temper and infamous bad character were no myth.

"Tsai of Yu Dao," She bowed down her head lightly bangs slightly falling forward as she did. "It is an honor your highness."

xxxx

AN: Woooooooooo, this Avatar Netflix revival is doing things to me. I think I LOVE Zuko more than I did when I was watching the series as a child. I'm super excited to see where this story goes. I'm almost done writing it at chapter 30 and I've grown super attached to these two characters.

Let me know what you guys think and send me some love!

Best,

xxx

First: [Here] Next:  https://gloves94.tumblr.com/post/621143206633046017/sunburn-prince-zuko-2

CHAPTER MASTERLIST

#avatar #avatar the last airbender #atla #prince zuko #zukoxreader #Zuko x oc #Zuko x you #zuko #fire nation #Zuko fanfic #fan fiction #Zuko fic #avatar fanfic #atla fanfic #atla fanart #fancast

[pxnk-velvet]

The Dancing Warrior: Water, Chapter 1

(Sokka x OC Reader)

The sunshine danced gracefully within the room as Navani stirred awake. She sighed in content as she sat up and brushed her black curls away from her eyes.

A light knock came from her door, “Come in, Mother.” She swung her legs over the side of the bed.

“Good morning, my love.” Meena greeted lovingly. Walking up to her daughter and placing a gently kiss to her forehead.

Navani’s own skin showed that of Meena’s and the rest of her Southern Water Tribe ancestors. As well as her single left eye that matched the crystal blue of every other person from the Water Tribes.

Her hair and opposite eye shown otherwise. Her right eye matched that of the golden sun. Showing her Fire Nation blood. Her hair, pitch black and as dark as the night sky. Opposing her mothers long brown locks.

Yet despite their differences, it was obvious they were related. From their similar lean, yet strong builds to their mannerisms and demeanors.

“I have breakfast waiting.” Meena mentioned, turning and heading towards the other room, “And I hope you’re ready. I need you to grab some errands from the pier.”

Navani groaned, falling backwards onto the bed, “Do I have to go? It always takes days to get there and back. Plus what if I fall back on my training.”

“You won’t!” Meena called from the other room, “Your bending is fine. Not to mention your non-bending skills. Just please hurry and get out here.”

With a huff, the girl sat up reluctantly to begin getting ready.

===

After a very filling breakfast, Meena sent her daughter off with a small bag on her back. Full of food, some water, and camping supplies. As well as a list of miscellaneous things and foods.

Navani walked with a quick pace, hoping it would make the trip a little shorter. Entertaining herself by bobbing a little ball of fire from hand to hand with quick, smooth motions.

After a few miles, she had already made it into town. Waving and smiling at those who greeted her.

She was well known here and across the Fire Nation. Seeing that her performance skills caught the attention of many from all over.

She was a prodigy in many ways. She danced like no other. Her flexibility and skill astonishing many. Using her knowledge of combat and dance together as one, as well as tying in elements of bending. Something people thought was amazing and innovativing.

People cheer as she walked along the roads, striking poses, showing off a few moves. Some people even asked for her autograph or gave her gifts.

When she eventually made it to the dock, her arms were full. She walked slowly, looking for a boat to hop onto. Her only two options being a small fishing boat or a Fire Nation Navy Vessel. It was obvious which one she had her eye on.

The boat roared, notifying that it was ready to set sail. Navani quickly shoved everything in her arms into her bag and set off for the giant boat. But before getting on she stopped and scouted the ship. She noticed a Fire Nation soilder walking up the ramp.

“Excuse me!” She called, the soilder turning towards her. She quickly jogged up the ramp to catch up with him.

“Do you happen to know who’s running this vessel?” She questioned.

“The banished Prince, miss.” He informes her, blocking her way up the ramp. An idea popped into her head.

“If you’ll excuse me,” She maneuvered her way around the man, “I need to speak with him.”

She broke into a sprint to make it up the rest of the ramp, in hopes of finding the Prince before she got caught.

And she did, she quite literally ran into him. Mistake number 1.

“Hey! Watch where you’re going!” The Prince yelled, turning around to see who had just ran into him.

“Prince Zuko.” Navani bowed her head low, “I-I apologize.”

She glanced up, feeling the Prince’s heated glare.

“I’m Navani. I don’t know if you remember but I performed at a royal event. A-and I was wondering if you could do me the small favor of dropping me off at the Seedy Merchants Pier?” She asked, gently. Hoping he would be easy with her.

“Ah, yes, The Seedy Merchants Pier! The perfect place to find a replacement for my lost lotus tile.” A voice came from behind them.

Navani turned in surprise, facing an old man. For some reason he looked oddly familiar to her but she pushed the thought to the back of her mind.

“Uncle Iroh, we’ve already changed course to stop here. I don’t need to waste any more time so you can find your stupid Pai Sho tile!” Zuko roared, annoyance evident in his voice.

“But Prince Zuko, the pier is only a few miles from here. It won’t be long, plus it’s always good for the soul when a good deed is done every once in a while.” The man smiled, bowing his head towards Navani.

She bowed in return, “Thank you, sir.”

“You are very welcome, young lady.”

#avatar the last airbender #aang the last airbender #aang #katara #toph #sokka #the last airbender #iroh #sokka x reader #sokka x oc #sokka imagine #sokka of the southern water tribe #suki #legend of korra #asami #bolin #mako

[salami-dono]

If your OC's were ghibli films, which films would they be?

I’ve seen 10 Ghibli films but I’m afraid that’s not enough to answer this question! Ugh, I love this question... 😭💔 I’ll try to pick a few, at least.

Salami (any version) would be either Kiki’s Delivery Service or Spirited Away. I’m leaning more towards Kiki today. Seeing him behind a counter, whether it be at a bakery or a mask shop is important to me. (He’s also the little boy Markl in Howl’s Moving Castle and Sosuke in Ponyo, just putting that out there.)

Cervelas is Arriety because of Sho/Shawn and his sickness. Hm, I’d like to see the Borrowers reimagined as Minish!

I guess the demon known as Apollyon is Howl’s Moving Castle. I really should go into more detail about these choices... Eh! Apollyon doesn’t have a heart. There, easy! Now we can explore a scenario in which his heart is returned to him...begrudgingly.

I feel like a movie I haven’t seen would be good for Mutton. I’m so sad. It must be a Mutton x Munoora movie, too. 😝 For now I’ll say... Princess Mononoke? I’d love to see what Castle in the Sky is about.

That’s it for now unfortunately! Thank you for the question, anonymous!

#anonymous #my ocs

[flerkenkiddingme]

Do you have more of ur OC hcs? 🥺👉🏾👈🏾

me: i talk about my ocs a lot, maybe i should focus on the other canon team avatars

exactly 2 people: spare oc headcanons please? 🥺

me: time to reopen pandora’s box, buckle up bitch

Anyway to curtail the box just a bit, i’ll give you 2 for each OC i’ve introduced, starting out with Kami, the Alex Russo to Roku’s Justin (i miss wizards of waverly place). 

1) She was a hardcore theatre geek. Every birthday she had, she dragged her mom and brother to a show on Shuhon Island. She despised the Ember Island Players (rightfully) and had strong opinions on how different actors portrayed their parts. Rather similar to musical theatre fans in this world. 

2) Once she met Roku’s dragon, it loved her almost immediately. Fang was found as a juvenile, about the length of your average dachshund, and he would often fall asleep in her lap or curl up next to her shoulder. Everyone else he tolerated, but the firebender siblings were his two favorite people.

Next we have my iconic queen Ta Min (nika answer an oc ask without a pun challenge).

1) Some time after the events of the thing I’m making, she created a movement for equality between benders and nonbenders in Fire Nation education. Guess who was the reason Mai and Ty Lee were in the same classes as Azula at the Royal FN Academy for Girls? Sozin granted it just to shut her up, but she did not, in fact, shut up. Usually at the events she organized, Roku would just be there giving his Avatar Seal of Approval™.

2) She used to dream about meeting Kyoshi, and becoming a Kyoshi Warrior. They had personal agency, mad skills, and no one cared if you were a bender or not as long as you could kick ass and take names, all things that appealed to her. Later on, she did get to meet some Kyoshi Warriors, but declined their offer to join since now she had people that valued her as an equal and made her home worth staying in.

And now we’ve got my girl Asha, who I defo need to spend some more time on since her last section took me like an hour.

1) She lived with her dad, but is almost a permanent fixture at Kami’s place. Kami’s mother (I named her Suna) may have only birthed one child and legally adopted a second, but emotionally she ends up with five. She’s more than happy to have Asha over anytime, even if it means she has to witness Kami and Roku bitching to each other about their friends who never hang out at their own houses.

2) Her father, worried about the implications and consequences, forbade her to waterbend outside their house, but the only person he could find to teach her in secret was a healer from the NWT. She picked up healing from them very quickly, but her dad also wanted her to learn to fight, like her mother had. The healer wasn’t able to help with that, so she tried developing her own style by copying firebending moves she’d seen Kami do, and some of the moves she and Ta Min had learned in their weapons training but with blades of ice.

Now we’re zooming back to the Gangchen and starting with her brother Passang.

1) He once found an injured baby panther-bat stranded in a bush, and kept it safe to heal it with his other patients. Yangchen came to meet it and it liked her a lot. It it eventually became her animal spirit guide, and she credits Passang for helping them find each other.

2) His favorite past Avatar was Wan. Lots of information about him was lost to the past, so one day Yangchen called on him and allowed him to enter her body to speak to her brother, similar to how Aang did with Kyoshi in the Avatar Day episode. Passang was delighted, and he learned so much about Wan that was recorded in the libraries of the monasteries.

Following this up is Yangchen’s other brother, Khetsun.

1) He was the first to get a sky bison, and it did NOT like Yangchen’s panther-bat at all. The airbender siblings were constantly having to stop them from biting at each other. After a while, they settled into a truce, but always slept at least ten feet away from each other. Khetsun would often joke that it was because the animals’ souls were siblings in their past lives.

2) Yangchen apparently mishandled the spirit world a bit, and since Khetsun had tried to advise her in how spirit affairs work, he felt a little at fault. Yet all anyone ever said was “you did the best you could,” and that just made him feel worse, because the spirits were in a state no one had seen the likes of in many, many cycles, and neither Yangchen nor her teachers had any experience with it. He didn’t think she should be blamed for being taught so few things that were actually helpful.

Finally, we’re getting a little more of her friend Rianak.

1) She was a bit nervous to come out to her family, so she fake-dated Passang for a short time. He’d scripted a whole dramatic breakup for them once she was ready, but unfortunately never got to use it because Rianak’s grandmother saw her kissing the Avatar, pulled her aside to talk privately, and helped her realize they were all cool with her dating whoever she wanted.

2) She could beat all the siblings, plus their parents, in pai sho. She taught Yangchen her strategies, and the way she played eventually manifested in her reincarnation.

that took so long but damn was it fun. hit me up with more asks if you want to know more!

#atla #ocs

[dabis-azure-songstress]

Your Scars Are Beautiful (Todoroki Shoto x Reader)

A/N: I got way too into this one! It's my more romantic style of writing as opposed to the smutty filth that I usually write. This is my first time trying to write Shoto Todoroki and I hope I nailed his character awesomely! I hope you enjoy him and becoming his lovely wife. ;) This is the Taste the Peppermint version. Please enjoy yourselves and be sure to drop some love or comments if you like! This is the one I've worked the hardest on so far, so I hope it gets some serious love but if not, oh well~ I really enjoyed writing it. If you all don’t like it, I’m seriously going to let Dabi spank my bare butt with his fire on his hand. xD Because oh my god, I worked so hard

Pairing: Shoto Todoroki x Reader Warnings: Passionate loving, NSFW, TASTE THE PEPPERMINT Reader's Quirk: My OC, Shinju a.k.a. Electro-Dancer has an Emitter-type quirk called ElectroMance that allows her to harness the power of lightning. She can also call forth storms if one is in the area that has lightning with it. Honestly, it's attracted to her both as a good tool and in a bad way. When a storm is called (by her low whistling, I call is Storm Whistling, as a belief from some of the more witchy culture which is a part of what I'm into) she can imbue some of the droplets with varied amounts of lightning to paralyze an opponent by intercepting brain/muscle signals where the droplets touch the opponent which she calls "Electrostatic Precipitation". Think of electro-therapy almost or a taser.

Shoto glanced swiftly to his side where Y/N ran alongside him (though somewhat clumsily) on his ice. She slides as she came to stop. He grabbed her hand quickly and stared at the masked hero. "Can you do it from this range? Can you manage?" he spoke. "I think so! Here we go!" Y/N clasped her hands together rapidly and let out a low but soft whistle before periwinkle lightning crackled between them. A loud rumble resounded overhead as the angry grey clouds above began to spill their bounty of precipitation and lightning began to strike from the clouds. The villain was still going at it with Deku as Y/N infused a select few droplets above them with lightning charges. As they began to hit the villain, his body tensed as they paralyzed the muscles as they intercepted his nervous signals. "Electrostatic Precipitation!" Shoto watched in amazement, yet his face remained quite aloof as normal. It was the first time he'd been paired with the lightning quirked female, despite his years of school and friendship with her. Suddenly, the sky lit with lightning and Todoroki tried to intercept the strike with ice, but was a bit too late as it hit Y/N directly. She cried out sharply and her body shook from the charge as the ice below their feet shattered. Todoroki managed to catch himself as he created more, but the other heroine continued to fall. "Hey, Half N' Half! Be careful!" Bakugo roared as he propelled himself forward with explosions to catch the heroine. "Take her somewhere safe! She's short-circuited herself worse than Dunce Face, literally!" Bakugo hollered as he landed on Shoto's ice with a careful slide. Todoroki nodded as Bakugo loaded Y/N onto his back cautiously. Shoto managed to move to an evacuated building basement before he laid Y/N down on a spare bed he found inside. Swiftly, he began to check her vitals and body for further injury or shock. Luckily, she was alright until he could get her back to Recovery Girl or Recovery Girl to her. Y/N's eyes flicked open in utter panic and she groaned loudly. "T-Todoroki, it hurts! SHIT! It burns! Please!" she began to cry loudly. "What does? What's going on?" he replied monotonously with a slow blink. "M-my side! You've gotta unzip my suit quick! Please! I'm begging you, Todoroki," she sobbed, "My body hurts so bad!" He stared at her a moment before he began unzipping the underside of her sleeve and the side of her hero uniform. Shoto's eyes widened at the deep and angry red Lichtenberg mark that swirled and curled down the side of her body and over her right hip like a tattoo. Y/N was in too much pain to be embarrassed by the situation. "S-Shoto..." she cried helplessly and squeezed his hand roughly with her. The pressure made him have to fight not to freeze her. Maybe I can distract her. Without thinking, he placed his lips upon her knuckles quickly. "It's okay. You'll be okay. Kisses make everything better." He mostly got a pained breath in return, but her body seemed to relax slightly. "Easy." he shushed lightly as if speaking to a terrified child. She slipped unconscious beside him. ---A Few Hours--- "She'll be just dandy. That right hip might give her a bit of trouble walking temporarily, but she should heal up just fine besides having a nasty scar." Todoroki nodded as he watched Recovery Girl inspect Y/N and whispering to All Might. "You did well not to move her more. Probably would've put her body under more stress and sent her into cardiac arrest. Do you know if she has any family at home?" Shoto shook his head. "Alright. Out. I'll see if I can get her up and changed." Todoroki looked up as he heard approaching footsteps at the basement doorway and much slower, unsteady and awkward limps. Y/N looked at him, H/L down and frizzed slightly with a crutch under her arm and now changed into a plain white tee and grey sweatpants. "Ah, Young Todoroki. Can I trust you to help her home?" He nodded at All Might who took a spot by Recovery Girl. He nodded. ---- "You...really didn't have to help..." "Nonsense. With your hip hurting like that, you look like you're barely able to stand, much less walk." Y/N huffed gently. "Thank you, Shoto." He was surprised that her apartment wasn't really all that far from his. They came to the door and Y/N was very much freaking out. "Y-you don't have to come in, I'll be okay." Heterochromatic eyes watched her fumble with her keys. Her trying to keep him from entering kind of went over the poor guy's head. "I-I didn't pick up my laundry." she stuttered. "That's okay. I have a sister and I won't pay any mind." She'd never had another person in her apartment before honestly. Y/N relented and pushed the door open finally. They stepped inside and Todoroki glanced around. "This doesn't seem so bad." Sure, there were really clothes kind of flung randomly about and there was a trash bag completely filled in the kitchenette that needed to be taken out, but Todoroki thought it seemed homely and cozy. Y/N didn't look at him. "D-do you want anything to drink or something?" "Tea is fine." Y/N hobbled to the kitchen slowly as she started the tea. Then Todoroki took note of it. There were no photos on the fridge, walls, or tops of the furniture. "Y/N, I noticed there are no picture frames anywhere." Y/N paused in her movements as she set the teacup down carefully. "I don't know my family. I've heard mama was quirk-less and dad was like me. I've only had a boyfriend in my life for a little while, but we broke up last year so I tore all those down." Shoto listened quietly before he grabbed her hand softly with his hot one. "Then, I'll be your family. Would you like me to be?" He was as stoic as ever, but his eyes held a gentle softness. "Y-you're going to be my family? The great Shoto Todoroki?" Y/N began turning into a blubbering mess. "Not like I care what my dad thinks. You're powerful and I know you don't like him, but...After all these years, you've been taking care of yourself? Even as hurt as you've been in the past? Yes, I am your family. I want to be your family. The one you rely on." Y/N sobbed loudly and limped her way over to wrap the taller male tightly in her arms. She'd never heard him be so touching with anyone before. "Thank you, Shoto. That means so much to me." The male stroked her H/T hair and rested his head on her crown softly. It suddenly all made sense to him and clicked. How she was always working side jobs and came into her classes and even work exhausted and nearly on the verge of passing out a few rare times. Yet, she was still one of the best and strongest fighters they had, even managing to hold her own with Ground Zero and winning occasionally. He was impressed by the strength she obviously possessed physically, mentally, and spiritually. -----A Few Years Later----- As the years progressed, Y/N and Todoroki had begun dating and grew closer. They were inseparable. You rarely ever got one without the other. Especially since Shoto had promised to be there for her always in case she needed him. Lo and behold, they were in another battle when the villain's earthquake quirk had trapped them in a pocket under rubble and debris. "Sho, I don't see any way out." "Me either, but I turned the location on in my phone before we fell. Hopefully, someone will get us out of here soon. It's too dangerous to use our quirks." Y/N nodded and sat in front of him cautiously. "Baby, come here." Y/N moved carefully into his lap as he beckoned and he held her softly with her legs thrown over one side of his lap. "You know, I have been meaning to ask you this for a while now. Since I'm your family, how would you like to make it official and maybe make our own?" he inquired as he swept a stray strand of hair behind her ear. Y/N paled softly. "A-are you serious? You're asking me now?" Shoto chuckled lightly at her bewilderment. "I don't want any regrets, just in case. I also just wanted to gauge your reaction, but yes, I am entirely serious. I'm sure we also have quite a bit of time to ourselves here." Y/N felt flustered and stared off as a little movie flashed in her eyes. Their first meeting, their first date, all the work lunches, and all the work together. She finally glanced at him directly and Shoto was watching her softly with a small smile. "I-I'd love that...b-but..." "Hush, my love. A simple 'yes' or 'no' would suffice, but I'm so happy to hear you love the idea of marrying me as an answer." He caught her hand and held it tightly in his own cool one tightly. "My sweet love..." He leaned in slowly, capturing her lips passionately. Their mouths and tongues danced in sync. Her hands twisted into Shoto's two-toned locks softly. "Mm, I love you, my darling." Shoto cooed as he began to work her zipper down and slip the suit from her shoulders, peppered kisses following the trail of revealed skin. "I-ah-love you too, Sho..." she gasped softly as his tongue meticulously swirled around a swiftly budding nipple and his heated thumb massaged at the other gently. She hummed softly as he adjusted her to straddle his lap instead. "My Sho..." she purred lightly, grinding her hips down against his own. He grunted gently as his body reacted eagerly to her ministrations. He removed her uniform entirely before he held her firmly against him again. Y/N suddenly shied away slightly, the large scar down her side causing her to overthink. He'd seen her before after he had helped her shower and change into a new set of clothes the day it happened, but this time she wasn't exhausted or sore enough to keep her mind from speeding off self-consciously. She squirmed and was going to shield herself, but Shoto grabbed her hand and placed it over the scar upon his face softly. "Don't. You're so beautiful, my darling. Your scars are beautiful. I love it because it's so unique, just like you. I understand how you're feeling, but I love every. single. breath-taking. inch of you." he accentuated with gentle kisses between his pauses. Y/N melted immediately, stroking her thumb over his scar as they met in a gently appreciative kiss. "It's not really the appropriate place, but please permit me to show you, my love." Y/N nodded nervously at the suggestion as she pulled at the zipper on the front of his uniform and began to unbuckle his belt meekly. She blushed at the feel of his broad chest under her fingertips and his arousal proudly pressing itself up against her core. "Sho-" "Shh, my darling. You don't need to worry or use your words. Let me take care of you." Y/N nodded and relinquished herself to him. Shoto was intoxicated with her lips as he pulled her closer to him, one hand pressed gently on her upper back and the other sliding feather-light down the scar that adorned her body before it came to rest on the top of one of the supple cheeks of her rear. Blush filled her face. It was the first time he'd ever touched her so intimately with simple touches. Then the hand on her back slowly descended to trail down her front as they continued in heated kisses. Her soft moans parted them gently as his fingertips softly orbited the silky hear and nerves at the apex of her thighs. Nuzzling her cheek gently with his nose, he sighed out softly, "Such arousing noises, my love. You will make a beast out of me. I can barely refrain from ravaging you, but such conduct wouldn't be acceptable for this time." He hummed gently as he massaged her opening gently before sinking his middle finger slowly into the depths of her velvet. She mewled out sweetly, having long dreamt of the situation Y/N found herself in. "You're so hot and needy for just my hand, my love. I can't wait for your undoing when you finally have me in here." She hummed lowly, pushing her hips softly against Shoto's hand and digit. Shoto was nearly pulsing with need as he slipped another finger into her core. Y/N was beginning to feel too hot as she felt the flame in her core beginning to lick and build. "Sho..." she moaned out as after the slightest feeling of her clench on his fingers he'd quickened his attentions and begun curling his fingers sagaciously. "Does that feel good, my darling?" he purred. "Yes...yes...Sho...I-hngh..." She shuddered with a breathy sigh and her thighs quivered as the coil inside burst forth. He blushed softly, surprised at the sensation of her orgasm coating his fingers and inwardly proud it had just been with his fingers so far. See her so wanton and reciprocating of his ministrations had caused his desperation to bead up at the top of his rock-hard and straining shaft. "I think you're finally ready. But, just to be sure, are you ready?" he whispered softly into the shell of Y/N's ear hotly before he nipped gently. Her mind was still buzzing as she trembled and nodded, sliding her hands from his biceps and slipping her arms around his neck. They locked their lips heatedly as he prepared himself to delve into the most sacred of her depths. Shoto was hot against her and then he was slowly slipping deeper and deeper. They both moaned at the sensation as she began to stretch and spread wide to accommodate his girth. "You're in control of this, my love. The pace, the depth. It's all for you to set." Y/N moaned out as she shook and lowered herself to sheathe him entirely. The bi-colored haired male nearly rolled his eyes back enraptured in the pleasure and couldn't bite back the curse that slipped from his lips. "Fuck." Then Y/N began at a slow, deep, intimate pace that had both of their minds and nerve-endings reeling. That soon melted away though as they began to fall to their needs, and the soft fleshy sounds of their love-making filled their secluded area. "Unh, baby~" Shoto moaned out, gripping her hips tightly as he pulled her down to meet his urgent thrusts. As her head tilted back, he took the opportunity to suck a dark bruise into the silky skin of her neck. Y/N's back was arching and he moaned at the pure sight of her. "I can't take it anymore, my love. Hang on." He paused their movements before he laid out the top of his uniform on the ground behind her. "I can't get enough of you like this. Need more." Shoto pushed Y/N back onto his top gently before he had her pressed into the mating press position, not daring to remove himself from her, despite the slight discomfort of shifting. Shoto pushed until his pelvis was flush against her and she groaned at the feeling of being so full, causing him to twitch slightly. Y/N stared up at him with deeply glazed eyes and once he drew back, she was all but pouting as he pushed himself back in. "You take me so well, my love. You're just made for me." he praised, stroking a cheek with a starting-to-get-icy hand. She moaned at the praise and he had to let go of her hips to bury them in the dirt before he lost control of his quirk as he continued to drive into her. Y/N noticed the small clouds of their breaths as she dug her nails deeply into the skin of his back. She was feeling too good and the effort of their actions kept her from being cold to the nippy air. Shoto laced his icy hand with Y/N's by her head as he gyrated particularly deep. He groaned out loud. "My love, I won't last much longer if you keep gripping me like that." Y/N moaned beneath him and lifted the upper half of her body to sweetly kiss him. "I'm sorry. You just feel soooo goooddd. I can't help it. There's always our honeymoon and next time.~" Shoto was losing it as he heard the promise and he had to release her hand before he froze her. "Fuck." His thrusts picked up a more brisk pace. "Sho-wai-I-agh!" He moaned loudly as her heat tightened in spasms and creamed around him, some of her release even dripping onto his top below them and around his length. Y/N squirmed as he continued to thrust into her oversensitive and soaked heat. "Just a-" he shuddered out as he hit his peak, hips stuttering and pausing as his length throbbed and coated her insides with his snowy white release. The woman below him moaned at the feeling of his cream and he removed himself, blushing furiously at the soft flood that tried to follow as he glanced at her entrance to ensure he hadn't hurt her. Shoto huffed slightly as he noticed his right hand and part of the ground had frozen together. Y/N giggling sweetly below him made his cheek burn slightly as he got himself free. "Are you okay? Can you stand?" There he was, back to normal Shoto, but his eyes always told you everything. "Yeah. Give me just a few minutes, darling." --- The two of you redressed quickly, though Todoroki was sans shirt due to the mess you two had created on his shirt. "I can get another. I'm just going to burn this and we'll pretend it got ripped or something," he spoke, alighting the crumpled garment in his left palm. Y/N cleared her throat softly, slightly embarrassed and attempted to fix her hair. Shoto reached to touch her and his eyes widened as a loud electrostatic discharge 'POP' went of with a bit of a blue spark. "O-ow." "B-baby! I'm sorry!" A chuckle cut Y/N off. "It's alright, my love. At least you didn't strike me down with lightning like you did to yourself the first time we worked together. Though, I may need to invest in an ESD bracelet for future reference." --- Y/N and Shoto were found by none other than Deku and a few other friends who helped to get them out. The shirt excuse would have been bought if not for the angry nail marks down Todoroki's back. Cue everyone's embarrassment and trying not to say anything. Shoto got Y/N the ring of her dreams and she was happily content with the man of her dreams. Her pregnancy was announced soon after her honeymoon and Endeavor wasn't too happy but Shoto was Shoto about it. He kind of liked being a rebel and pissing his dad off. Although technically, Y/N had conceived before the honeymoon. ;)

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