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94blazed · 9 months

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OBSESSION

PART 1

WC : 8.3K

Genre: smut. fluff. crack. angst.

Rating: M (minors dni)

Warnings: depression. alcohol; consumption. no smut in this part!

Summary: Seven wednesday jungkook. You and Jungkook have been delusional about each other your whole lives, but when Jungkook is off the market, you start to wonder if it was all just one-sided. After the break-up with sohee, you became friends with benefits right after a simple hookup, but when he receives a text from his ex..

a/n: this is a two part series! i couldn’t stop expanding the story :,) - no hate to sohee this is fiction!

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⋆

You and Jungkook have known each other since the 3rd grade, basically throughout your entire lives, and have always had a connection towards each other. Ever since you were kids, there was always something there, a spark, but no match to ignite it. So it was more of an under the table type of thing, but everyone knew it was obvious.

At age 20, I was enrolled in Seoul University along with Jungkook and the rest of the boys. It was the summer of 2020 and we had gathered around the campfire on the beach, cooking s'mores, admiring the sunset, and playing a few rounds of volleyball while enjoying a few cans of Truly. Everyone was present except for Jungkook, who was the last to arrive with a hinted surprise he had mentioned in the gc. As the drinks flowed, I began to suspect that his surprise was just another bottle of alcohol. However, I'm growing a high confidence from these drinks, I start to prepare myself for this moment mentally and physically. To confess my feelings to him.

Light beams hit our faces as Jungkook finally arrived, and I couldn't contain my excitement. Everyone started dashing towards him, with me being the last to arrive. "Guys, I'd like to introduce you to Sohee, my girlfriend," Jungkook announced. Everyone greeted her as they should, and as a friend, I knew I should do the same. However, my heart sank deeper and deeper as I came into contact with her. It registered that she was now Jungkook's girlfriend and that everything that we had between us was probably one-sided and never meant anything, but I couldn't help but wonder why he never mentioned her before..

⋆ TIME SKIP ( 2 years later / december ‘22 )

After Sohee and Jungkook got together, they would always show up together at the hangouts. Even with the rest of the boys being there, I still felt like a third wheel. "jk's kinda a jerk for leading you on just for him to bring a girl out of nowhere," your best friend Jimin whispers. "Yeah," you sigh. You're honestly happy for them, but to be honest, you're a little jealous.

When we hung out with the boys, we would often sneak off to talk and maybe share a kiss or two, but it never progressed into anything further..

Just talking to him as if we were together made me feel like the world was on pause. Looking up from the ground, I saw them cuddling on the couch, his hands on her waist and hers resting on his chest, their eye contact never breaking. It stung a little, but as a friend, I knew I had to be supportive and had to accept the fact that it was over. "Hey, I'm gonna head out. I'm getting tired," I said. "y/n, stay a little longer. It's barely 11," yoongi replied, glancing at the couple. They didn't even acknowledge your presence. "No, it's okay. I have work in the morning anyway," I said, hearing a collective of "aww's" Jimin spoke up, "I'll walk her down. I'll be right back."

"I'm sorry, y/n," Jimin says, turning around to face you. You furrow your eyebrows in confusion. "Jimin, it's not your fault." "I know, but I really thought you two would've ended up together." he pauses. "You know, I've always seen you two sneak off, so I thought you two would have confessed to each other during that time. I would even distract the guys so they wouldn't notice." you smile. "I thought so too, but trust me, chim, I'm happy for them." Jimin throws you a squinted look, making you laugh, as you reach your car, as you say your goodbyes. Jimin embraces you and whispers, "Don't think about it too much. I don't like seeing you like this." grinning, you hug him back tightly, "I won't. Thank you, chim." After letting go, you waved goodbye and made your way home.

⋆ february ‘23

A week after that hangout, Jungkook stopped coming to the hangouts along with Sohee. He slowly stopped responding to the group chat and stopped posting on all his socials. You started thinking that he was just too busy being lovey-dovey with his girlfriend, but your assumption was wrong.

You attempted to contact him multiple times but went straight to voicemail. Frustrated enough you grabbed your keys, hopped in your car, and made your way to his place. Upon arriving, you knocked on his door. only to find that the lights were off, but it was only 9pm? he never goes to bed this early. Banging harder the door finally opened to a messy-haired Jungkook. "What do you wan- y/n?" He was surprised to see you at his doorstep. "What are you doing here?" "I'm here to see what's going on. You don't come to the hangouts, nor do you text or call us?" "I'm sorry." "Yeah, sorry. I love to hear it." "You think this was my choice?" Now you were confused. "What do you mean?" "Sohee. She didn't want me to be around you guys, especially you." You were taken aback a little. "Wait, me?" " I told her about us. She never did things like you did, and comparing you to her must've gotten under her skin." you didn't know Sohee would feel this threatened by you. "Wait, where is she now?" "We broke up a while ago. she took everything of mine, even my phone." You felt bad, really bad, and it kind of pissed you off. "Okay, um, can I come in?" He finally raised his gaze to meet yours, now seeing his face, you noticed how pale he got along with dark circles under his eyes. Which caused you to be concerned for his health. "Have you eaten yet?" "No, the last time was two days ago." Your heart sank, but you couldn't just stand there. "Okay, um, I'll order takeout right now, but let's wash you up first." Grabbing his hand, he followed you like a lost puppy. Looking around, you saw clothes everywhere, smashed dishes on the floor, and cabinet doors flung open. And pretty sure she did take everything.

After finding the bathroom, closing the lid to the toilet you assisted him to sit down. Turning to the tub, you plugged up the drain and turned on the warm water from the faucet. "Okay, can you undress for me and hop in once you're done?, I'll be right back." closing the door, you heard shuffling on the other side, which was a good sign. After placing an order, you helped clean up the mess that was made around the place. placing clothes in the hamper, making the bed, sweeping the glassware off the floor, and putting the dirty clothes in the washer. When completing, you went to check up on jungkook. Knocking on the door, you heard a quiet "come in." Opening the door, you saw him immersed in a bath of bubbles, which you did not recall adding, indicating that he had done so himself.

Sitting on the rim of the bathtub, you stare at his face, head tilted back, eyes shut, messy hair, and that cute little mole beneath his lip that you love so much. You didn't even notice a smile had crept onto your face until he opened his eyes, "What are you smiling about?" realizing that you were caught, you averted your gaze and responded, "Nothing, I just thought the bubbles were cool." There was a long moment of silence before you offered, "Let me wash your hair." dampening his hair a bit, you pumped a few globs of shampoo onto your palm and proceeded to massage it into his hair.

Jungkook let out a sigh of relief, "feels so good," causing your cheeks to tint a light shade of red. After rinsing it off, you continued with the conditioner, and so on. You stepped out for a little while so he could wash himself up. While waiting outside, you heard your name being called. "yeah?" "um, do you think you can wash my back?" burning up, you cooled yourself down a little before entering. returning to the rim of the tub, you took the sponge and gently applied it to his back.

While scrubbing, he spoke, "thank you, and I truly mean it. thank you." pausing, you resumed scrubbing. "That's what friends are for, Jungkook." he fully turned around this time, making eye contact with you. "No, I actually mean it y/n. thank you. To be quite honest, you were the last person I thought I would see." "Kook, after everything, I still care about you. Yeah, what happened between us was nothing, just a little fling. You didn't hurt me like you think you did. I completely understand." ( yeah right ). "Honestly though, I mean it. I owe you. a big one" You both held contact in silence, the world pausing yet again; both flicking your eyes at each other's lips, making sure the other wouldn't notice. "Can I kiss you?" you were taken by surprise, but after all this time, you couldn't miss this opportunity. Smiling, you leaned in closer, hand dipping to the bottom of the tub for support, eyes never breaking contact. You were an inch away before you answered, "yes."

Jungkook finally breaks a smile as he takes his damp thumb, tilting your chin to adjust to his angle. You deepen the kiss, not holding back as you slip your tongue through his parted lips, which he gladly accepts. Playing with his lip ring earns you a small bite to your tongue, making you want to play with his tongue instead.

You guys lasted a while in the bathroom, having an intense make-out session, but like before, it didn't lead up into anything. After helping him out of the tub, providing him with a towel. You left him to get dressed while you unclogged the drain, allowing the water to flow along with the rest of the bubbles down the drain.

After eating the takeout you ordered, you guys watched movies together on the sofa, but it was 2 in the morning, and you couldn't stay here all night, so you had to say your goodbyes. Looking over, you noticed that jungkook had fallen asleep. Cracking a smile, you get up and plant a kiss on the top of his head, but as you reach for your keys, he grasps your wrist. "stay, just for tonight." Breaking into a smile, you agreed. and let me just say, it wasn't the only night.

⋆ TIME SKIP / april ‘23

Ever since that night, you two have been fwb. slowly but surely, you started bringing him back into the group. He seems more lively now than he was when you first found him.

Like today, you both came back from the group to hang out, to spend time, just the two of you. ordered pizza, watched movies, and just enjoying each other's presence.

until now, jungkook received a notification.

- unknown: Do you like her?

- JK: who is this?

- unknown: Sohee.

- sohee: Y/N, do you like her?

- JK: why are you asking me this?

- sohee: because I still want us.

to be continued…

a/n: i hope you enjoyed part 1 even though it’s on a cliffhanger 😭 but i’ll be posting part 2 this week !

taglist : @jjklves @ane102 @moonbinniehappy @caro134340lina @bbtsficrecs @ahsluv @tatamicc @heartjiminie @ta3bae @ahsluva @starbrightday

#bts masterlist #bts smut #bts jungkook #jungkook #jungkook smut #jungkook fluff #jungkook angst #94blazedobsession

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am-i-the-asshole-official · 9 months

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AITA for keeping a huge secret from my mom?

so i (26ftm) moved back in with my parents a little over a year ago due to the housing market. shakes fist at sky. you know how it is. anyways, uh, while i may be a broke zillennial, my parents are fairly financially well off, and it's in part due to my father's job. my mom recently retired and my father keeps saying he's going to retire, but still keeps pushing it off (and has been pushing it off for about a decade now).

now uh, shortly before i moved in, my mom was telling me that she was having problems with my father. that this was "the third time this had happened" and "this is his last chance" - i think you may see where i'm going with this. he was cheating. for the third time. and she'd caught him, got them to go to couples therapy, and told him there would be no fourth chance. she was willing to move out of the house and start anew somewhere else if she needed to.

um. enter me, the apple of my dad's eye. i move in. one night my mom is off at a book club so it's just me and him for dinner. he opens his phone (up til this point i've noticed he looks at his phone A Lot.) and opens up wechat. he's calling someone "babe" and sending them red heart emojis. i instantly feel kind of sick. i ask him, "are you texting mom?" and he gets SO confused for a second and says no (i don't think he knew i'd seen his phone screen).

that was almost a year ago today. since then i have seen him text this other woman nonstop, has talked about starting a family with her, has talked about taking her with him on his "work trips," and - for some reason - i've seen him google straight-up escort websites on his phone. uh, that one was while my mom and i were in the middle of showing him old family videos.

i feel so fucking guilty. every time i see him i want to [REDACTED DUE TO TUMBLR GUIDELINES]. i lost my therapist that i had known for five years in the move, i lost my entire support network, and i still haven't found anything like that up here. i am completely isolated, and while i have my own job right now, i am in no way financially stable enough to find my own place to live. if i tell my mom, i don't know what's going to happen to me. i don't know if she will kick him out or if she will move. i am trying to move back to where i was living, but i just can't afford it. i feel completely trapped in this situation, and i know what the right thing to do is, but i am terrified that on top of losing my entire life a year ago, i'm about to lose everything else, too.

a large part of me wants to confront my father first, but i am also terrified of him. i know i'm his favorite, but i am well aware of his temper, and while he's never physically harmed me, i feel like the situation might be a bit different if i'm the person that might get him divorced and ostracized from the entire family. i don't know. i honestly have no idea. everything is so confusing and i just have felt frozen for an entire year.

but the other night i saw him texting her again. she's mentioned she had been feeling sick lately and he told her that she might be pregnant. i was so close to losing it. i almost ripped his phone out of his hand and smashed it on the ground. i couldn't look him in the eye. i could barely even speak to him. maybe the funniest part about this is that he doesn't realize anything is wrong. he's a fucking narcissist and doesn't pay the slightest bit of attention to how other people act around him.

the next day, he was gone for another "work trip".

i am run completely ragged and i don't know how much longer i can take this. i find myself wishing someone else could take it out of my hands so that i don't have to be responsible for destroying our whole family.

anyways. am i the asshole for being a coward?

a bit of extra INFO as well though: as far as i'm aware, my parents are in a bit of a dead bedroom situation (frankly. my mom likes to oversshare.) so uh. at the very least i know she's not getting whatever diseases my dad surely must have by now.

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole

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alexturne · 6 months

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I'm having a lot of thoughts and idk if I've fully thought it all out, but I needed to get it down and try to work out how I feel about it all..

I genuinely don't think this whole "discourse" is what's happening. I'm sure they just really wanted to do the whole bit with the strings and that's all.

Nothing to do with Alex and Miles being less close than they once were. Nothing to do with their relationship being less profound than it has always been. They're super important people in each other's lives and there comes a point when you've been that for someone for so long that it no longer requires constant reconfirmation. Their friendship is so solid, so deeply rooted within them both, that they don't need to perform together to assure themselves that they're good. There's no question. They're friends, and they always will be, no matter how much time passes, they'll always be there for each other. I have no doubt about that.

And they asked Miles to come along, they knew they could count on him to make it and do an amazing show, even on short notice. And Miles was there watching, having fun, riding the high of his own show, and I bet it doesn't hurt him the slightest bit not playing 505 with them. And neither does Alex not joining him for a tlsp track. And it's just very fun to watch Miles do such a great job on such a massive stage and to watch Alex (maybe) send some inside jokes his way, and definitely acknowledge his presence more than he has for any other opening act.

Miles has enjoyed playing a couple of the more Miles centric tlsp tunes during the last year at his own shows, and he probably just took them off the setlist when they figured out they wouldn't have the time/energy to rehearse and work it all out. And to not lead anyone on and create false hope that Alex might show up. It's been a long time since they've done it. And Alex is the sort of guy who has probably forgotten his own lyrics, and would require more time and brain capacity to practice to get it in order. Or something else that is perfectly reasonable.

Like, I'm all for delusions but I guess I'm just saying that I don't think it's that deep. They're friends. Close friends. Very important to each other. (Maybe more if that's how you choose to view it). And I bet they don't even think about the shows in the same terms as we do, every little thing doesn't matter as much to them as it does to us. Not everything is a "sign" and there are so many pragmatic and logistical reasons that play into a tour like this that we know nothing about.

I bet Alex is exhausted, excited for the tour to be over and to get to go home and rest, I know I would be! Even if he has loved every bit of it, I would be completely worn out and just ready to go home. But I bet they were also so excited to have the strings and they wanted to really have them shine during the set. It was their show. The Monkey's show, and they finally had the chance to let the vision they had for the album come to life. What an amazing end of the tour.

I won't get too much into why they haven't utilized the strings sooner, because they obviously could've and I don't get why they didn't, and maybe they could've skipped the strings on 505 and had Miles up for it instead. It would've been incredible. So much potential. A lot of fans would've been pleased bout that, and I know they'd enjoy it and have fun playing together too.

But they didn't, and even if I would love to know the actual reason, I'm choosing to let it go and assume there is a very logical and reasonable explanation, and not some big dramatic fallout going on. I can be disappointed about not seeing them, but I don't think it "means" anything in the grander scheme of things.

Miles could've played with them (assuming he doesn't for the last one either), and I won't get into that discussion too much either, because ofc they could have done it together, but so many things had to work out and maybe Miles just wanted to do his own thing. Maybe they never got around to having the conversation, maybe something entirely different happened. We don't know.

And yes ofc I'm disappointed that we didn't get to see them together, I won't deny it. I would've loved it, both as a fan of their music and performances and as a tiny little happy milex lover, my shipper and fic writer heart would've been so so pleased about it. But we didn't get it this time around, and that doesn't mean that their friendship is over or that they hate each other or that they're not close anymore or that they don't love each other anymore. And it doesn't mean that we won't ever see them play together again.

I think they would love to perform together again, but I would assume they also have so many other things they love to do too. So many other things that require their energy. Even together, but also just their personal dreams and wants in life.

They're both into the idea of tlsp being back someday, but as it has always been with them, tlsp will return when the time is right, when it happens naturally. That's the beauty of it. It's something that just happens and that's why they both love and enjoy it so much, I think. It's about freedom and spontaneity, it's without boundaries, it can't be planned or controlled, it's a beautiful chaos between two close friends who love to make music together, and who are incredibly talented at it. But they're also artists who have other ambitions. Other projects they love.

And their friendship doesn't depend on tlsp releasing new music. It is a product of their beautiful friendship, but the friendship came first. Them not writing together right now actually says absolutely nothing about the current state of their friendship. Which we have seen signs of being as healthy and strong as ever, if a bit more private than it used to be. And that's fine. They're super private people, and honestly I would have much more reason to worry for their friendship if they suddenly started posting about it all the time and parading each other around. They're not like that and they never will be and that's fine.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand.

Yes, they're being dumbasses - both the band and our dear milex boys, throughout the whole tour - with not utilizing the strings earlier on the tour, not playing more of The Car on the setlist, not skipping more of AM, not taking advantage of ALL THAT POTENTIAL. They could've done the strings for Glastonbury, it would've been perfect. They could've easily included Miles in a few more gigs (it was sooooo lovely when they did), these last ones in particular, and it would've been so beautiful and meaningful and they would've had so much fun with it - they could've made so many better decisions than they did. The whole tour came with some question marks. We can all agree on that. They're being stupid and they seem to not always think very far ahead, and sometimes forget to use their brains, and I assume that's why they end up not having time to rehearse and work things out sooner, and that is honestly just so dumb of them. They could be doing so much more and I hope some things will improve next time.

But either way - the tour is over and I've loved every second of it.

The new album is super gorgeous and it finally got the string section it deserved. What an amazing finish to the tour. I sincerely hope they will be bringing a lot of The Car back next time around.

Deeply in my own heart I wish we would see Alex and Miles on stage together again soon, but at the same time, I wish Miles the very best with his own work, he truly deserves all the success in the world. And I hope Alex will get some well-earned rest and time off. I hope he will go free of paparazzi and find peace and quiet after this insanely taxing year, and I hope he finds bunches and bunches of inspiration for new songs. I hope tlsp will be back sooner rather than later and I hope they're happy.

I've loved getting to follow the tour, I've loved being on here freaking out with you guys, and I will miss getting to see their little faces everyday. Truly.

But I think it's so well deserved for them to take a break and I hope they will be back soon.

#this is so rambly and maybe ill backtrack later if my thoughts and feelings change #but i feel like its good to try and be reasonable about it all #and try to see it from their perspective #just to keep our own hearts calm too #assuming he doesn't join for the last show either #judt trying to clear my own head #arctic monkeys

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dalchiid · 7 months

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I decided to do a poll to see which story you all would like to read first. I've been working on each of these stories and I'm fine with doing whichever. I'll just need some time to work on them more before releasing them 😊 Read the synopsis of each and then vote for which one you want in the poll located at the end of this post!

•Desirous

Your fate had been set into stone from the moment Hoseok saw you. Following Covetous is Desirous. Hoseok's PoV from within the Baeks' household.

Pairing: Yandere Vampire Hoseok x Fem/AFAB Reader

•Honeyed Affair

CEO of SiJak Electronics Kim Taehyung, a romantic at heart, has one job and one job only and it's to convince you that being his sugar baby will be the solution to all of your problems. You, a hard worker with baggage, reluctantly agrees and now he'll spend the rest of your time together trying to sweep you off of your feet. But will it work?

Pairing: CEO Sugar Daddy Taehyung x Fem/AFAB Reader

•Obsession

Jungkook could say he's a relatively sane man. He has his hyperfixations like most but nothing like this. When he sees you he decides he needs to know more and if that means he has to invade your personal space, well, he'll do what he has to do to let you know you're his.

Based off of Aventura's song Obsesión.

Pairing: Yandere Jungkook x Fem/AFAB Reader

•Don't Say I Love You

Your heart is broken. Breathing hurts. Living hurts and it was all due to your best friend. He told you it was a mistake being with you romantically and you wonder when these feelings started to plague him because for you it was far from a mistake. You try to live without him but it seems like there's more to your breakup than you originally thought. What was it and could you ever look at him the same way again?

Pairing: Idol Yoongi x Fem/AFAB reader

•Pachinko

Starting his days early means Jimin has a run in with the friendly neighborhood cat. He doesn't know where it came from but he does his best to take care of it. But why is it his early mornings also come with a crazy woman claiming Jimin is a thief? You're the crazy woman but to Jimin you're nobody so who the fuck are you?

Pairing: Jimin x Fem/AFAB reader

•Resentment a Covetous Sequel

It's been a few months since you've been turned and with that fact comes painful emotions you shut down from. Here is an update on your life now that you're no longer yourself. Now that you're Hoseok's. Forever.

Pairing: Yandere Vampire Hoseok x Fem/AFAB Reader

•Untitled Yandere OT7

You and Yoongi have been together for 3 months. It's been an extraordinary time together despite having to keep quiet about it to avoid media attention. His brothers are super supportive, but maybe a little too much. You don't notice it until it's too late and now you're being thrust into a life you didn't ask for.

Pairing: Yandere Idol OT7 x Fem/AFAB Reader

•Untitled Yandere Kim Seokjin

It's been a couple of years since your parents divorced and it's been a couple of years before your mother found someone else to love. Along with this new man comes his son who your mother adores. He's nice you have to admit but you're not that interested in getting to know him unlike how he would like to get to know you. Even if it's the last thing he'll ever do.

Pairing: Yandere Step-brother Seokjin x Fem/AFAB Reader

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agentsnickers · 2 months

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I know you've talked about how Crutchie and Race in near miss, etc. have a relationship that has not really made it into any of your fics, so maybe something about them? Or something related to that sixth timeline you've mentioned

TONY:

is it ok if we bring along some strays to brunch?

Bryan says yes, obviously, and it really doesn't matter that Charlie doesn't care one way or the other because it's Bryan's house and Bryan has never turned anyone away in Charlie's memory. So he doesn't bother weighing in and asks, instead:

anyone i'd know?

Tony's little typing dots appear and disappear a few times, before:

yeah i think so

Charlie doesn't really know what to do with that over text, so he calls. His brother picks up on the third ring.

"Hey, Chuck," Tony says. He sounds tired.

"Who's your stray?" Charlie asks, not interested in beating around the bush.

"David Jacobs," says Tony. "You work with him, right? David with the two year old?"

"Yeah, for sure," says Charlie. "How do you know him?"

"Neighbor," Tony replies. There's a pause - a distant crash in the background and the muffled sound of Frankie crying and Sean soothing him. "Sorry, Cesco fell off of the couch. Anyway, Dave's Leah is Frankie's favorite person in the world. They'll have a ball. But we invited him because - I don't know how obvious it's been at work, but he's been having a really rough couple of months. And his relationship with his family isn't amazing, so I thought -"

"You'd offer him a better one?" Charlie finishes when Tony trails off.

"I mean, yeah, kind of," says Tony. There's a rustling sound, like Tony's running his fingers through his hair. "I don't think he's got a lot of friends. Just you and us, but separately - he's lonely, and the last few months have been really -" He sighs.

"I've noticed," says Charlie. "Hey, Tones -"

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad you're looking out for him."

They don't talk much longer, with nothing much more to say before seeing each other tomorrow morning for brunch.

Charlie makes a mental note to talk to Racer more often - every time they have a family meal at Bryan's or talk on the phone, he remembers just how lucky he is that he stumbled into having such a great brother in his teens. And also how bad he is at talking to him at other times, yikes.

Tony seems stretched kind of thin - things have been picking up at the studio lately, which is great, but he also has a two-year-old and a best friend who seems to be falling to pieces. But at least some of those things Charlie can help with - he's just got to figure out where to start.

#newsies #near miss adjacent #this is leaning toward the vague 6th timeline for you :)

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linesonscreens · 4 months

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Let's Read Peanuts (Yes, all of it) - December 1952

There are lots of great strips I just don't have room to comment on. I strongly encourage everybody to read the full month at the official GoComics page. Today's month starts HERE.

Dec 6, 1952

Heh.

Dec 8, 1952

Honestly it's not a bad look.

Dec 9, 1952

Did that just make him cry?

Dec 11, 1952

Gah! Please never do that again!

Dec 19, 1952

No no no! If you just outright lie then of course he will brush you off without a second thought. You've got to start with something somewhat true and then slowly work in the bullshit over time. Maybe throw in a death threat and a passive aggressive snipe at his sexuality to twist the knife a little.

God, it's like you four year olds from 1952 have never even been on social media.

Dec 21, 1952

I mean, it's more than I've gotten this year.

Dec 23, 1952

One of many things that I think sets Peanuts apart from other strips is how well Schulz depicts depression (probably because he almost certainly suffered from it). You might think depression is just a sad feeling similar to grief but it's actually more of an irrational pessimism coupled with a persistent sense dread. Your brain doesn't exactly lie to you but instead tells you the most negative version of the truth possible which can lead you to some very irrational conclusions. You feel fine, it's the ~world~ that's broken (and keeps giving you these useless pennies).

Er, not that I know anything about all that.

Anyways, Schulz perfectly captures this in a way that's honest and sincere but also entertaining and kid-friendly. Which is pretty damn impressive when you think about it.

Thoughts:

End of the year character design recap time!

Again, not doing every character every year for my own sanity since the cast will be getting very large. CB and Snoopy will be constants but the rest will get rotated in/out:

Charlie Brown

October 1950

December 1950

December 1951

December 1952

Snoopy

October 1950

December 1950

December 1951

December 1952

Lucy

March 1952

December 1952

(why can't I make this one picture smaller? Am I doing something wrong?)

Linus

September 1952

December 1952

Schroeder

May 1951

December 1951

December 1952

The main thing I'm noticing is that everybody looks twice as old as they did last year while the expression work is getting a bit more complex and nuanced. Charlie Brown's head is literally half the size it was in 1950, Schroeder has aged up into an actual character and has shed a lot of his UPA stylization, Snoopy's face is becoming a bit more blocky and angular, and Lucy's eyes no longer make her look like some kind of cursed doll. Big improvements all around I think.

Linus... got a shirt. Look it's only been 3 months what do you want from me?

There's also a lot more detail in the backgrounds now which is creating a wonderful sense of these characters existing in an actual environment. Schulz is also surprisingly good at drawing plants and nature which adds a nice organic softness to his world. It's all actually making me kind of annoyed at the animated adaptations because they always go for something loose and minimalistic for their backgrounds and I think they would have really benefited form the contrast something more solid and detailed would have provided.

Finally his paneling and compositions are god tier. I mean, god damn.

Anyways that's it for 1952, I hope you all enjoyed it. Next up: 1953!

#peanuts #charlie brown #comics #charles schulz #comic strips #peanuts comics #lets read #patty #snoopy #shermy #schroeder #violet #lucy #linus #depression #1952 #1950s

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shwoo · 6 months

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Day 31 of @flooftober! Thanks a lot to everyone who read/interacted, and especially @flooftyfizzlebeans for creating the challenge, and saying such nice things about these stories.

I would also like to thank antihistamines. They really... anted those histamines. And unclouded my brain a little.

Anyway, this story involves Gramble, and I'm using both the "Trick" and "Treat" prompts. Also it's double length since it's the last one. I considered making it much longer, but my brain's not quite that unclouded.

(Prompt list)

Title: Has many discipline-specific uses Summary: Floofty notices a sleepwalking Gramble about to make a mistake. (Also on AO3)

Floofty had released what was happening too late, and Gramble was too far away. They yelled "Wake up!" as they crossed the rest of the distance.

Gramble opened his eyes all the way. "Wh…" He noticed the Grapeskeeto in his hands, which were raised to his mouth. "Ah! Igrapetius!" He lowered his arms and hugged it, as it struggled.

"One of your pets, I assume?" said Floofty. They hadn't seen it get out, but these days, any loose Snak generally belonged to Gramble.

Gramble jumped. "Floofty?! Why're you here?" Floofty wasn't good at judging tone, but they knew suspicion when they heard it.

"As we both reside in the same town, I assume you are asking why am I in this particular spot at this particular time," said Floofty. "I merely observed you come across this Grapeskeeto in your sleep, and prepare to eat it. Knowing your views on this subject, I awoke you before any consumption could occur."

They were too tired to bother trying baby language. Gramble would just have to take what he could understand. Maybe he'd end up being yet another Grumpus who turned out to be smarter than they looked.

"You… saved Igrapetius?" said Gramble. He looked down at the Grapeskeeto in his arms. "I… I didn't know you cared… But why were you watching me in the middle of the night in the first place?"

"I often watch you," said Floofty. They knew Gramble might find that creepy, but that was his problem, because they weren't actually being creepy. "There is precious little else of interest occurring at this time of night."

Gramble didn't run away screaming, but he did frown. "A-are you running some kind of experiment on me, Floofty? Wait. Are you the reason I've been so tired lately?"

Floofty's tired brain took a second to catch up to what was happening now. "What? Your sleep difficulties are clearly the result of stress! I, too, am prone to sleep difficulties. Believe me, I would much prefer to be asleep in my hut right now. Alas, my brain chemistry will not allow it."

"Oh, you just can't sleep?" said Gramble. "I guess I have been a little stressed lately, what with having so many little ones to take care of, and Wambus, and I still got a couple Grumpuween decorations to finish…"

"What?" said Floofty. "Grumpuween already?" Last they'd checked, it had been July. That meant they'd already missed their birthday.

"Um, yeah, it's tomorr--" Gramble looked up at the sky. "Today," he corrected himself. "Wiggle's been real excited, and I thought… Maybe I could knit some little Fryders, or some bats, and hang them up around town. I dunno if the little ones would appreciate it, but I think the others might…?"

Floofty didn't know why he was asking them. "Potentially." They decided they might as well tell him what they did know. "I, at least, would be… disposed toward that concept." They'd always really liked the idea that boundaries between the living and the dead were thin at this time of year, although it was obviously not plausible from a scientific view.

"Y-you would?" said Gramble. He squeezed his Grapeskeeto. "Just goes to show. You never know what someone's gonna like until you talk to them!"

"Yes, I am beginning to see that," said Floofty. If Gramble had seriously believed that Floofty might be experimenting on him without his consent, then it was surprising that he hadn't expected them to like Grumpuween. Maybe they could lean into that. "Perhaps I, too, will create some seasonal decoration," they added, "if my work allows. Yes, some fake blood, perhaps some green lights inside test tubes… It may be quite entertaining."

"Ooh, the more the merrier!" said Gramble. "Just so long as the blood is fake." He almost laughed.

"I shall make every effort to ensure that it is," said Floofty. Gramble had sounded like he was about to laugh, so he was probably joking. Apparently that was something he could do, sometimes.

#Bugsnax #Flooftober #Floofty Fizzlebean #Gramble Gigglefunny #Shwoo's writing #fanfiction #Gramble is much better than me at coming up with nicknames but I guess Igrapetius will have to do #Gramble would immediately accept Floofty's explanation and not be suspicious anymore #His response to Wambus apologising is to completely accept it and offer a hug #He can't hug Floofty here because his hands are full of grape creature

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megatownac · 6 months

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Supertown Popularity Poll Results

So. The polls are over. All 90 of them. You can still find the list here if you want to see the breakdown of each individual poll, but what you need to know is that each islander was pitted against each other islander in every one of the 90 ways that can happen, so each islander showed up in 18 polls. I decided early on that nobody got a point in the event of a tie. Here are the final scores, in order from highest to lowest:

First place: Ankha, with 11 points Second place: Chief, with 10 points Third and fourth place: Dom and Phoebe, with 9 points Fifth and sixth place: Chrissy and Drago, with 8 points Seventh place: Tybalt, with 6 points Eighth and ninth place: Francine and Henry, with 5 points Tenth place: Cally, with 4 points

Out of curiosity, I decided to see what the scores would be if a tie gave a point to each contestant instead of to neither. These were the results:

First place: Chief, 14 points Second place: Ankha, 13 points Third and fourth place: Phoebe and Drago, 12 points Fifth place: Dom, 11 points Sixth and seventh place: Chrissy and Francine, 10 points Eighth and ninth place: Henry and Tybalt, 8 points Tenth place: Cally, 7 points

So the rankings did shuffle around a little bit. Chief, it seems, was in 4 different polls that tied.

Despite what I said in the initial post on the subject, most polls did not end in ties or have zero votes. There were 15 that did. So 75 polls had a clear winner.

I could play around with the numbers even more if I wanted to. For example, what happens if ties gave half a point to each islander? But I won't. I also won't say what the results would have been if I had voted in the polls that ended in a tie. I was tempted. I really, really wanted to vote in some of these, just to do it. Just to let my own opinion influence things. Given how few votes each poll had, I could have really swayed things, I think. That's why I didn't ever vote. I really wanted to know who people liked the most.

And it's Ankha, of course.

Every so often, someone will find my blog through one of its tags and mass like a couple hundred of my posts that feature a certain character. This year, that happened at least three times that I noticed with Ankha. I wound up having to block one person who kept messaging me over and over about Ankha. I've never blocked anyone before this year. It was upsetting. I'm still upset about it. It kind of tarnishes the fact that she won this whole popularity contest for me.

I should be happier about it. This was a grand experiment that lasted nearly eight months, and I saw it through. And I've said before that Ankha is one of my favorite islanders, and that I had her in my Population: Growing game decades (literally, two decades) ago. So I like Ankha. She's a cute little yellow cat with a funny hat. What's not to like about her?

I'm also glad Chief did as well as he did. Chief is new to me. I only had him in this game on a whim: I liked the fact that his design made me think of certain middle-aged gay men I've known who are doing their best to age gracefully but are, undeniably, aging anyway. That's as much thought as I put into it. I'm sad Cally didn't do well. I had Cally early on in my New Leaf days, and I gave her away to someone who promised I'd be able to visit her again someday and then removed their blog from Tumblr and I never saw Cally again. It was sad. I think about that from time to time.

Something a bit similar happened with Henry: I had him in my New Leaf town, and I gave him away to someone whose blog is no longer active and who didn't post about him. Oh well. I didn't mind that as much. I like Henry alright, but he's never been one of my favorites. I'm fine with how badly he did in the polls.

I don't have any big conclusions here. This went, well, it honestly did go better than I expected for it to in a lot of ways. I kept holding out hope that maybe this blog would finally, after about ten years on this site, pick up a few followers and get me over that 1600-follower mark (I've had 1500-something followers for over six years--every time I gain a few followers, I lose a few), but I'm not willing or able to do what it takes to go viral. These are the kinds of posts I make.

I'm very grateful to the followers I have who stick around, liking and occasionally reblogging my stuff on a regular basis.

@vanilla-owns-chocolate @92explorer @zane275 @averygamin2 @schtroumpfalunettes @anch-vaviel @ozai @thebigjawpokemon @pie-bean

Those are in no particular order. I just went to my blog's activity page and scrolled down through a week or two's worth of notes until I saw all the usual folks I remember.

But, even though we don't talk, I appreciate you for being here for so long. It's easy to say that I don't do this for the notes, and I don't, really, but it's nice, you know? To see that there are folks out there who like what I put out there.

I'm going to be honest with you. I've given this a lot of thought. I think it's time I stepped away from Animal Crossing for a while. Focused on other things.

This isn't goodbye. It's just a hiatus. There are a few days of posts left in the queue, and then this blog will go silent, and I'm going to write some kind of actual message a little while after that sorting out my thoughts after ten years and one month of running this blog, which started on September 8, 2013. That's too long. Too, too long to have written anywhere from 4 to 10 posts a day. My activity page says 22,643 before I post this. Probably more than 22,000 of those were original, written by me, that is, not reblogs.

I'll be around. I have a main blog. @ozai has even liked a couple of my posts there, so I'm pretty sure they know about it. It's mentioned at the top of this one, even on mobile. So it's not a secret. It's right there. I write about other things there than Animal Crossing. Lately, it's been mostly about the novel I've spent the last three and a half years working on. I might actually have it done in another two years or so! Won't that be exciting? Then I can shut up about it and start writing about the next one.

I also wrote a few thousand words about Frog, from Chrono Trigger, once. It's not exactly surprising to me that my main blog has never even made it above 70 followers, is my point.

That's enough of this. I'm getting dangerously close to depressing, and I don't want to do that.

Here and now, this experiment, these 90 polls, was a triumph. I stuck with it. Ankha won. Chief came in second. Those are good things. It's good. I'm happy with that. It's the culmination of ten years of work. And it's time for a break.

Have a great day. Please continue doing your best, and I promise that I will, too.

#text post #long post #i've been considering this for over a year it was not sudden or brought on by any one thing #one way or another i will not stop writing until i am dead #and if i can think of a way to keep writing after that then i promise i will

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girlindelusionn · 2 years

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first of all, i literally love ur acc. b99? ts? barney and robin? robin pt 2 but hot lesbian stranger things version w insanely cute x reader fics? YES PLS. secondly, i saw that u were taking reqs for robin (buckley) fics and i think a song fic / fic inspired by the song “lover” would make me pee my pants but really. i want it so bad. i would be 1000% honored if u decide to take this req <3

alright so i fucking loved this. first, you were SO sweet, i'm crying, i love you so much. second, taylor swift is probably 91% of my personality so it works perfectly. thank you @leadmetodgarden for such an amazing request!!!

(i hope you meant lover by taylor cause if not this is awkard...)

the thing is, i got a little too exited...

i've written, as of right now, more than 10k, which is way longer than i've ever written, (imma one shot type of gal) and i still have one chapter to go

also before i post this i wanna clarify two things:

english is absolutely not my first language, this was written with the help of google docs and google translator, every mistake is immediately and utterly their fault

i'm not that sure of how christmas actually works there in the united states. i dont think you guys have Christmas Eve dinners that last until midnight, cause you open your gifts the next day (lame!), but for the sake of the fic, let's pretend you do

quick summary:

five christmasses with robin <3 (alternative tittle: almost plotless fluff)

finally, here it is:

i want them all, robin x you (part 1!)

“And there's a dazzling haze, a mysterious way about you dear.

Have I known you 20 seconds or 20 years?”

part 2 here

Christmas sucked. It always did. Too much sugar and alcohol close to families who were a little bit too close to collapse entirely. But this year, on the contrary, it was just too quiet. You and your family were completely new in town, having moved just a couple days ago. Maybe it was the absence of controversial family members, furniture or feeling of home and belonging, but not even your parents were in the mood this year.

You had dinner at eight, watched half of the worst christmas movie on the tiniest, shittiest tv and they were both already in bed, fast asleep.

There were still two hours till midnight and you were not going to spend them on your mattress on the floor. It was just too depressing. So you grabbed your bike, a book, a blanket and your walkman and biked until you found a Seven Eleven.

There isn't a single soul out, but you can feel the festive vibe on the hair. All the houses are carefully decorated and music is going through every single door. It seems like you are the only one who isn't celebrating.

Well, you, the cashier and the girl outside, who are having a heated argument through the glass door.

"Oh, cmon, Kyle! It's Christmas!" she yells. The dude is on the door, physically stopping the girl from coming in.

"Exactly! My shift ended seven minutes ago! No. More. Customers."

Seeing that you are already on the register waiting for him to charge you, Kyle closes the glass door on her face. She responds with her middle finger, but you didn't think he notices. You hand him your things and he begins to scan them.

"That'll be all?" he asks. You look to the side. The girl is still there, even with this cold.

"No, actually. Wait a second, please." You hear him complain when he sees what you’re going to do, but you don't care.

You approach the door and get the girl's attention.

"What do you want?" you ask. The girl, who’s sitting on the floor, right next to the door, looks up with confused eyes.

"No! Don't worry, he's just being a dick."

"No, c'mon. What do you want??"

"Are you sure it's okay?"

You nodd repeatedly, as you hear Kyle yell "Hurry up!" from behind.

"Just a coke and some chocolate?"

"Great!"

You get her stuff and pay for everything. You even give Kyle a five dollar tip, but he keeps the same pissed off expression. You get your bag and hurry out of there, wishing him a Merry Christmas on your way out.

Out you meet the girl. She’s taller than you, maybe for a couple of inches and has a blue dress that’s now stained with mud and blood? but she doesn't seem to be aware of it. She’s also shivering from the cold, her jacket not being able to put up a fight against the cold of December.

"Thank you!" she says as soon as you are out the door. "You didn't have to…"

"Well, it’s Christmas after all" you give her the stuff. She gives you five bucks and you don't have the heart to tell her it was more. She looks like she isn't having the best day ever.

"Yeah…" she looks down at the bag with a sigh.

"I hope that chocolate is okay?"

She looks up again, with a smile this time. She has a nice smile. "It's perfect. I'm Robin, by the way."

"I'm Y/N."

"Nice to meet you.” her rebel hairs dance around with the wind and she’s still shivering, but instead of going away she asks “I’ve never seen you around… Are you visiting for the holidays?”

“No.” you shake your head “I actually moved here a couple days ago.”

“Oh…” there’s a weird undertone there, but you can't quite place it “Welcome, then.”

You accept the gesture, giving her a smile. It almost seems like she hates this place as much as you do, which is weird and kinda scary, but also makes you feel a little less alone.

“I, um… I should get back?" You see her hesitate in the last part of the sentence. It’s pretty obvious she does not want to go back to wherever she came from.

You try to find an alternative, a way to make her stay even a second longer, but you couldn't figure out a single reasonable explanation for why you, two complete strangers, should spend the night together. So you agree with her. "Yeah me too."

"I don't really want to…" she confesses. You’re glad she did.

"Me too"

"Crappy Christmas at your house too? " she asks, you chuckle and she smiles harder.

"Yeah"

"I…" she doubts for a second, but your eyes meet hers with kindness and reassurance so she keeps going "I know it's kinda weird for me to suggest this, but I could, maybe, show you around?… I feel like I should pay you back in some way."

She looks embarrassed and absurdly cute, so there's no other chance but to say yes.

"Yeah, I picked up the serial killer vibe, but honestly it has been one of those days. So let's go."

You bike in silence, occasionally making a turn, with the wind hitting your faces like buckets of freezing water. And just as you're about to ask how long is this gonna take you find the building.

It is old, huge and it looks like nobody had painted it for at least sixty years. The fence was closed, obviously, but she didn't mind. You watched amused and impressed how easily she climbed up the fence and trespassed school property.

And if you weren't already sure you liked her this was probably a very clear indicator.

She guides you through what is going to be your high school the rest of the school year. You had to admit, it was way better inside than outside and had a pretty sweet auditorium. Still, it was smaller than the last one.

“And… here's my favorite place.” she says as she points at the old library door. You wait for her to open it, like she did with all the rooms before it. She notices. “Oh, they actually close this one during the nights. Someone, definitely not me, may have stolen a few, definitely not more than ten, books and manuals.”

You laugh. She was more of a nerd than you had thought. Interesting. She watches through the window on the door with sadness in her features, so pass your hand through your hair till you find the perfect tool. A hair pin. It's a little old and it might break, but it was your only option.

“More than ten?” you ask as you kneel in front of the lock.

“No way! Does that actually work? I always thought it was movie bullshit…” you hum yes, focused on your task. “It was thirteen books, by the way”

“Thirteen?” you laugh.

“I know! But I swear I was going to give them back…” you look at her with an eyebrow up and her innocent face falls apart “Eventually.”

“Aha…” you tease and she wants to protest but you finally get the door to open “There it is!” she squeals with excitement and that's the cutest sound you’ve heard in a while. “Just no more playing book thief”

She laughs and comes into the room, you follow right behind. You settle your things at the biggest table, Robin does the same, and even though there were still twenty minutes till midnight the two of you kinda set up a fake Christmas table.

When everything is in order you take the liberty to explore around for a while. They have good stuff, nothing too special. It needs an update, of course, as many things do these days. But, overall, you aren't so mad about the collection. Until, of course, you see the reading list for sophomore year.

“Robin!” you call out to her. She sticks her head out the language alley and looks over, curious. “Have you seen this shit?”

“Wha– oh, you’ve found the reading list. I know.”

“Not a single woman?” she nods in agreement, “What year are we? Fucking 1935?”

“Totally. And! The whole deal this year is, like, horror and science fiction. How do you teach horror and science fiction without Frankenstein?”

You agree with her, still offended. “It 's ridiculous.” You complain as you both go back to the table. You try sitting down, but it feels… odd. “This is weird, right?” She nods, so you settle for a space of floor between bookshelves. “Better”

“Much better.”

You talk and you share your food and complain a bit more about the educational system. After a while her eyes focus on one of the books behind you. You turn to look too. You’re in the poetry section and the book she’s staring at was a compilation, written by someone called Emily Dickinson. You haven’t heard about her, poetry wasn’t really your deal. But you did enjoy it.

Robin leaves her spot on the floor to grab it, and you’re confused when instead of keeping it for herself she tries to hand it to you.

“What are you doing?” You ask.

“Well, it’s Christmas after all. And you’ve already given me all of these…” She points at the food spread on the floor “So this is your gift.”

You smile “I haven’t even started at this school and I already have stolen something…” You reflect. Robin starts to second guess her decision.

“If you don’t like it it’s totally fine, I–“

“No, I love it. Thank you so much, Robin.”

You fall into a comfortable silence that doesn't last much longer.

"Can I ask you a question?" she says.

"Yeah."

"If you could run away…" she starts, and you see how her eyes light up with possibilities from just thinking of making it out of here "No money needed, no strings attached. Where would you go?"

You think for a while. "Italy" She seems to like the answer.

"Can I ask why?"

"My grandma lived in Italy most of her life. I want to see every place she talked about. And you?"

"Everywhere except Hawkins" she sentences. You smile sadly, how terrible her life had to be for her to want to escape so badly from her hometown. "But Europe is the dream, for sure."

You don't want to be disrespectful, but the mystery was eating you up. What is she doing here? What, or who, is she running from?

“Can I ask what are you doing in the school library at eleven forthy two on christmas eve? Or is it too soon?”” you don't want to make her feel uncomfortable, so you ask carefully.

She lowers her gaze. Fuck, you blew it.

“Im sorry” you whisper. She shakes her head and looks up with an expression you can't quite read.

“No, it's fine.” she sighs, grabbing another chocolate before starting to talk “Extended family came over. Aunts and uncles and little cousins type of Christmas.”

“Uh, rough.”

“Yes” she chuckles. “And my parents are usually cool, but family approval has always been their achilles heel. So you know, clean house, no swearing and this stupid dress.”

“Honestly, the dress isn't that bad”

“Cmon…”

“I'm serious!” you say but it's obvious she doesn't believe you. “It’s like… you know when you eat those little candy balls? And how sometimes the colors get mixed up and you eat a red one but it tastes like a blue one. It looks like that. It's not bad, it's just not… sincere? I guess”

As soon as you finish your deep analysis you notice she was staring. Head slightly tilt to the side, confused expression, like she’s trying to figure out how the hell did you come to that conclusion.

“That's exactly how I feel. Constantly.”

“That makes two of us.” You cheer for your problems with the two cokes you’d bought, which, thanks to the weather of December, were still pretty cold. “So, apart from sexism and really bad taste in books, is there anything more about Hawkins that you need to warn me about?”

Her eyes light up and you don't know if it is from the implicit question of a future together, but you hope so. There’s something special about this girl.

“Oh, there's so many people I need to warn you about! So many assholes” you can't hold the laughter that escapes your lips. She said it with such an innocent smile.

“That's great! So excited to start, then” Your sarcasm makes her laugh too.

“At least we can shit talk together?”

“Robin Buckley, you're officially the first, and only, person I like in this entire town.”

“Honestly? You too.” You cheer again, just as the clock showes midnight. “Merry Christmas, Y/N.”

“Merry Christmas!”

#wlw #stranger things #robin buckley #robin buckley x you #dating robin buckley #robin buckley x female reader #lgbt

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writingmccord · 2 days

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(a little drabble about my own life and love or lack thereof)

Sometimes I get to the points in my life where I let society pressure me into thinking, "Hey, aren't you getting a little old to be 'following' this couple?" I feel like fandoms are a thing of my teenage days, or are supposed to be, and following a couple that is no longer making a show is not really being part of a fandom.

I've noticed on and off that I "follow" (what's another word for this that's less creepy? Maybe it'll come to me) couples that I aspire toward--that I feel won't necessarily let me down for a lack of trying. Maybe this is because, at this stage in my life, I'm lonely. Maybe it's because I've seen so many relationships fail when I thought they would succeed. Maybe it's because I saw a relationship that I thought, in my mind somewhere, would last forever but ended in death of a spouse that happened much too soon. I see relationships end all the time that I had a feeling would last--or the ones that have lasted for so long and then crumble. Yes, people grow, people change, but where does that leave the people who want someone to grow with?

Without explaining too much of my life, I'm a full-time student and teacher. I am entering into yet another graduate program, and while I am extremely privileged in this regard, I can't help this icky feeling of loneliness. I want someone to celebrate the highs with, to hold me during the lows, and even someone to hold during their lows. Yet, in this society, it's so hard to find.

Anyway, if you've gotten this far, thanks for reading a little glimpse into my life and why I still blog about a random couple who I don't know and probably never will know. It's refreshing to see two people still be together after almost ten years, and while we only get tiny glimpses of their life together, we see it's possible for people to find "their person." That's all.

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rayadraws · 21 days

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Cirrus childhood ideas:

- (Working class family consisting of him and his parents. Lived in the Docks area of Baldur's Gate, parents sell fish/seafood)

- First year or so of his life he was mostly at home with his parents, they'd take turns watching him while the other worked. Some babysitting help from the neighbours as well, a couple friends. I don't get the feeling they had many relatives helping them, not sure why. Maybe one of them is not in contact with their family for some reason or other?

- When he was old enough to bring outside they'd take him to the nearby harbour to look at the boats and ships, he enjoyed that a lot; "boat" was one of his first words.

- He was outgoing at home with his parents but at first he was very shy when taken outside, so much going on around him, noises, smells etc. He wanted to be carried all the time, arms around mom or dad's neck and tail securely wrapped around their arm. He was too little to yet notice the stares and comments about 'the hellspawn'.

- By the time he was about 6 years old he loved to explore on his own, he'd investigate everything he found around the harbour, often putting his hands where he shouldn't (hasn't changed, he's the same as an adult). Aware of people not liking him, had begun to avoid crowds and older children, especially in groups as they'd pick on him. He knew his parents wanted him to be happy and have friends, he'd hide the fact that he didn't from them.

- When he was around 12 he was well known by the sailors and fishers around the harbour, sometimes doing odd jobs for them in exchange of a few silvers. There were lots of different people there and they didn't care about your looks, this helped Cirrus' confidence grow, as did his developing magic skills, but he still avoided crowds in the city. The other children no longer tried to physically fight him after the hellish rebuke incident, but he was still an outcast and blamed for all sorts of things.

- When he was around 14 he made his first real friends in his city, he was found and "adopted" by Caden and their friend Bella. I haven't really ironed them out yet but Caden I think is a human with short light brown hair, clever and kind but very no-nonsense. Bella I think is half-drow and a rogue's daughter, she can come across as pretty intimidating but she's more bark than bite.

I've spent the last couple of days thinking about what toys he had/loved growing up. I think when very little he had carven wooden blocks; they ended up with a lot of scratches on them when he was teething and his fangs grew in but I think his parents still have them.

He had a horse on wheels pulled by a string that he loved to walk around with. He also had some carved boats that he loved to play with in the bath - his parents had a tub and would heat water and put him there and he'd entertain himself for a long time. When he was slightly older he, against their warnings, took his boats to the real harbour and lost one after it floated away, he was very upset by this.

Later he had a kite painted like a bird or maybe a dragon? That he loved to play with. It unknowingly helped him develop his storm magic, he would move/create winds so it could fly even on still days.

Additionally he was a stick kid - always appreciated a Good Stick, always seemed to find one, always poking stuff with it. Another habit that stuck with him into adulthood, he just exchanged the stick for a quarterstaff. He doesn't need it for his magic but can use it as a focal point... and to poke weird things.

#cirrus #bg3

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beautifulblooms · 2 years

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Fighting Together to the End - Eddie Munson x Male!Reader - Part 5

Male! Reader, still just a rewrite of season 4 to help me cope with the pain of Volume 2, this is pretty much fluff and banter, enjoy lmao

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

CIS Women and Female Aligned people, please DNI, this story and all of my others are for non-binary, masculine aligned and male readers!

After a few minutes of recovery time Nancy explained how she had guns hidden in her house. It would be a long walk there but it was worth it to get any supplies. After about an hour we had made it to the Wheeler’s house, but it surely wasn’t the same. Gross vines connected to the hive mind of Vecna we’re covering everything, the door, walls, the floor and even the stairs. And somehow even more strange when we got up to Nancy’s room, things that were supposed to be there were missing. Like the whole reason we came here, the guns that were supposedly in her closet were no longer there.

“Are you sure they were there Wheeler?” Eddie chirps at her, slightly annoyed we all had wasted time walking here.

“Yes, there’s a 6-year-old in the house I know where I keep my guns.” She was pissed but tried to keep it together and search through the rest of her closet.

“Hey, Nance?” I had started to look around her room to see if I could find anything, and came across a diary.

“What?” Turning around she looked at me while I held her diary, well old diary in my hands.

“The last entry in here is from November 6, three years ago. Did you just stop writing or something?” I looked back over at her with a confused look on my face.

“What? No, I've been writing every day, the last entry should be from a few days ago.” Everyone started to walk closer to me and Nancy grabbed the diary. “It really is only this one. What happened November 6th, 1983?”

We all sat in a moment of confusion and thought trying to remember what would’ve been happening around that time

“My first time smoking with Eddie?” I shrugged my shoulders just throwing ideas out there.

“No, I don’t think it would be that babe.” The man in question looked at me with a dopey smile.

“Wait, isn’t that when Will went missing?” Steve finally started to piece his internal timeline together.

“Yes! That’s the day he disappeared, so when Will disappeared things stopped updating and changing down here.” Putting the old diary down Nancy turned to look at Steve while she talked.

“So we’re stuck in Hawkins circa November 6th 1983?” Robin asked, trying to get clarification.

“Yes, which means we need to find different weapons because I didn’t get my guns until after the Demogorgon. Shit.” Nancy now seemed pissed that we really had gotten all the way here for nothing.

Trying to find other things to defend ourselves we wandered back downstairs and around the main floor of the Wheeler house. The kitchen still has knives and some other stuff but we were all hoping for a little more firepower. Then all of a sudden Steve started screaming for Dustin of all people.

“Henderson?!? Henderson, where are you buddy?!” Collectively we all looked at him like he was insane.

“Steve, why are you yelling Dustin’s name?” I asked after he screamed another couple times.

“I heard him! He’s somewhere here, in the walls maybe. Dustin!! C’mon Henderson talk to me!”

To be completely honest I had lost hope in his sanity, maybe the demon bats had some venom that was destroying his brain. Then I saw it, the light fixture in the kitchen was glowing. Not like it was turned on but like there were particles of light surrounding it.

“Hey, everyone not going crazy, can you come over here?” And soon enough everyone, even Steve, had wandered over towards me in the Kitchen. “I’m not tripping right? You guys see this too?”

“Yeah, we see it, and I’m pretty sure I’m sober.” Even in the worst place Eddie still managed to crack jokes. I smiled gently at him before noticing Robin try to investigate the lights more. She had reached her hand into the particles and giggled.

“It kinda tickles, heh.” We all began reaching our hands into the light to see how it felt. Without realizing it at first we soon heard talking from somewhere around us.

“Wait, that’s Dustin, Steve I don’t think you’re going crazy anymore.” Robin spoke up while pulling her hand back.

“Go to Nancy’s room!”

The only thing we could assume was that Dustin was trying to find a way to communicate with us. So without knowing what else to do we wandered back upstairs again and stood around until we saw something light up on Nancy’s bed. It was a litebrite, where the fuck did they find one of those so quick.

“We’re pulling the plug! Standby!”

There was now just a cloud of the fuzzy light particles floating where the litebrite had been. Touching it Nancy began to write out a message, well I don’t know if the word “hi” counts as a message but she wrote it in the cloud. We heard cheering from the other side.

“Why can’t you get back?”

Well shit how do we explain that the portal is being protected by a swarm of bat things that nearly killed Steve. Quickly thinking something Nancy wrote out the word “guarded”, which confused everyone on the other side.

“There’s a gate at every murder site!”

“What does he mean?” Steve was really confused now.

“I don’t know, the kid’s insane.” Eddie mentioned and we all kinda agreed silently. Not knowing what to say back Nancy put a question mark.

“How many times do I have to be right on the money and you guys don’t listen to me?!”

Dustin’s attitude was something nothing of us needed to hear.

“That kid really needs to get his ego in check.” Steve muttered

“It’s his tone right?” Next to me Eddie looked over at Steve and they nodded in agreement.

“You need to get to a portal where someone was killed by Vecna!”

“Wait, if there’s a portal where everyone was killed, that means there’s one back home, back at Eddie’s trailer.” I pieced together what I could with the little understanding I had of this whole situation. Nancy spelled out “Trailer” to the other group and now we just needed a way to get there.

“Don’t the younger ones have bikes everywhere?” I glanced over at Nancy to see her reaction.

“Garage, there’s enough for us, well, someone will need to double up.” She looked over at me to see what I was thinking.

“Well me and this handsome man here and ride together, can’t we babe?” Eddie’s words made me look at him and smile, giving him confirmation.

We made it to the garage and picked a bike each, well, Eddie picked a bike and I hopped on the bar sticking out of the back wheel while holding onto his shoulders.

“Ride as fast as you can rockstar, I wanna get home soon.” Leaning over his side I gave his cheek a peck before leaning back up.

“I better get a reward when we’re done with this.” Smiling at him I leaned back over.

“Don’t worry, it’ll be the best reward you’ve ever gotten, big boy.”

#eddie munson x male reader #eddie x male reader #eddie munson #eddie stranger things #eddie munson stranger things #male reader fanfic #stranger things fanfiction

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spnhunter4life · 1 year

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So Long Version 2 Chapter 8

Word Count: 5.4k

A/N: I've had plans (a vague outline of events) for this chapter since the day I came up with the idea of this fic. It was nice to finally be able to write it. It ended up being longer than I expected, so it got split into two chapters. Enjoy my take on this particular fanfiction cliche.

Series Masterlist

Age 24 and 25 August 2004

I sipped at the coffee I’d ordered, a second one for Dean sitting across the table. We were stopped at a diner for breakfast, but he hadn’t come in yet. Just as we’d pulled in, Dean’s phone started ringing. He told me to go ahead and get us a table and he’d be right in.

I scanned the articles in the newspaper I was reading, looking for a possible case. I’d already been through the obits and none of them looked like supernatural deaths, so I was hoping I could catch something somewhere else in the paper, unlikely as it may be. I heard the little bell above the door ring and a few seconds later Dean was sliding into the seat across from me.

“Find anything yet?” He asked

“It’s not looking promising,” I told him.

“Good,” he said, taking the newspaper from me. He closed it and set it on the table. “That was Bobby. He’s got something for us.”

I was about to ask what it was when the waiter, noticing Dean’s arrival, came to take our order. Dean spent approximately five seconds looking at the menu before spouting off his order of sausage, bacon, and eggs. I ordered an omelet and hash browns.

“What did Bobby say?” I asked when the waiter was gone.

“There’s this five star hotel in Idaho. They hold these retreats three times a year, one in March, one in August, and one in December. It’s something they started six years ago. And every year for those six years, people have gone missing during the August retreat, which just so happens to take place in two days,” he explained.

“How come nobody’s noticed? You’d think people would stop coming when they realized there was a high risk of being murdered.”

“You would think,” he said. “But the hotel’s done a good job of covering it up. Bobby had to dig pretty deep to find this information. I’m honestly not sure how he caught onto it in the first place.”

“How do you cover up six disappearances? Especially at such a high profile place?” I wondered.

“Are you kidding? That’s exactly how. It’s high profile. They have money and connections. Makes it a lot easier to hide things.”

“Yeah, I guess,” I agreed. “Well it definitely sounds like something’s going on there, but there’s nothing that makes it sound like our kind of case.”

“Maybe not. But we’ve gone off of less. Besides,” he continued. “We kind of have to go. Bobby’s already got us registered for it.”

“What? Why?” I asked.

“It’s a retreat at a five star hotel, Jenna. That’s not something you can just sign up for last minute.”

“No, I guess not. Alright,” I sighed. “What kind of retreat is it?”

Dean cleared his throat and shifted in his seat a little.

“Well, in March it’s a business retreat. A thing companies can bring their employees to for ‘team building,’” he said sarcastically, putting air quotes around the words. “And in December it’s sort of a family holiday thing.”

“And in August?” I prompted.

“Um,” he looked down at the table. “In August, it’s a uh… couple’s retreat.”

My breath caught and I felt my heart stop for a second.

“Oh,” I managed to say. “Okay. You know,” I continued after a short pause. “Idaho is halfway across the country. Wasn’t there anyone closer Bobby could have asked?”

“According to him, no.” Dean responded. “Apparently pairs of hunters are in short supply. Most of them work alone. And there’s even less available that could pass as a married couple.”

“Right. Well I guess we better eat quick and start driving,” I said.

Dean hesitated for a minute before answering.

“I already told Bobby we’d do it. But… I’m sure he’ll manage to find someone else if it makes you that uncomfortable.”

“No. It’s not that,” I assured him. “It’s just… the whole undercover thing. We’ve never done anything like this before. It makes me a little nervous I guess. Like I’m going to have to be on my guard constantly to make sure I don’t slip up.”

“I get that,” he answered. “But I’d say we know each other well enough to pull it off. We’ll spend the drive there getting our story straight. And also, nobody there is going to be paying that close of attention. They’re going to be too focused on themselves to notice anything about us.”

I knew he was right. And it did make me feel a little better, but that wasn’t my primary concern. A couple’s retreat. With Dean. Pretending to be married to Dean. It was like I was being given everything I’d ever wanted, but with the understanding it would be ripped away from me again in a few days. And even while I had it, it would be clear that it wasn’t real.

Things would be back to normal any time we had privacy, and even in public things wouldn’t have to be that different. We would smile, tell lies about our “marriage,” maybe even hold hands. It really wouldn’t take more than that to be believable. I wasn’t sure if that made it better or worse. But I would suck it up and do the job. I was an adult and a professional. I could handle it.

~~~~~

“We have a reservation under Young. We’re here for the couple’s retreat,” Dean told the hotel receptionist.

We’d spent the past two days driving all day in order to get here. Dean had relayed the rest of the information Bobby had given him about the case to me, and I’d mentally prepared myself for the next two and a half days.

We’d pulled into town at 4 o’clock, an hour before our check in time. We found a small little mall on the opposite end of town from the hotel where Dean grudgingly handed over his hard earned poker money in exchange for a couple of new outfits for the both of us and a couple of cheap suitcases. We couldn’t exactly show up to a five star hotel with old rumpled clothes and duffel bags. We both wore rings on our fingers. Dean had switched the ring he always wore from his right hand to his left. I was wearing my mother’s wedding ring. It was something I always kept with me, but I’d never actually worn it before.

“Alright, sir. Here’s your key,” the receptionist chirped as she handed over the plastic card. “You’ll be in suite 802. All of the activities will take place in conference room A, here on the first floor. There is a complimentary dinner being served there at 6:30, provided by the hotel’s restaurant. Enjoy your stay!”

Dean thanked her and we took an elevator up to the eighth floor.

“Wow,” I breathed out at the same time Dean let out a low whistle as we closed the door to our room behind us and looked around.

It had been clear enough from the lobby that this place was very nice, but I still wasn’t expecting the large, open room we stepped into. The floor to ceiling windows showed off a clear view of the city. The bathroom was shiny and clean, boasting a double vanity sink as well as both a walk in shower and a bathtub. The couch looked comfortable and new and was situated in front of a large TV. And the bed was huge. It was king sized with an excessive amount of pillows and a soft looking blue comforter.

“We should stay in places like this more often,” Dean said from where he’d perched on the edge of the mattress. He bounced a couple of times, checking the firmness.

“Sure,” I agreed. “We’ll just make a few withdrawals from our overflowing bank accounts.”

“Can’t you let a man dream?” he complained.

“Sorry,” I smiled. “It will be nice to sleep in a bed again after two nights in the car though.”

“It’s not that bad. And at least you can stretch out a little bit and fit comfortably,” Dean said as he moved to sit fully on the bed.

“Hey!” I objected, watching him sit up against the headboard and swing his feet onto the bed. “No shoes!”

“What? You’ve never cared about me having shoes on in bed before.”

“Yeah, but I’m not usually sharing the bed with you,” I pointed out. “And,” I added before I could overthink that statement, “the beds aren’t usually this nice.”

Dean just huffed and obediently kicked his shoes off onto the floor.

We had a little over an hour before we were supposed to be in the conference room for dinner. We took turns in the shower since neither of us had been able to in the last couple days. Then we went over our story one more time, making sure we covered everything. This was going to be both the easiest and the hardest role I’d ever had to play for a case.

Our names were Jenna and Dean. Dean was a mechanic and I was a writer for our local paper. We’d met when we were kids. It took Dean a few months after finding out we were soulmates to work up the courage to ask me out. He finally did the summer between junior and senior year. We’d gotten married last year. Any other details we needed could be made up on the spot. We decided to stick to the truth as much as possible to make it more believable.

Once we’d gone over it all again, Dean turned on the TV. We still had 20 minutes to kill. I sat next to him on the couch, trying to pay attention to the episode of Family Feud that was playing, but I couldn’t focus and was having a hard time sitting still. He didn’t seem quite as on edge as I felt, but Dean was fidgety too.

It was almost a relief when 6:30 rolled around. I wasn’t used to feeling uncomfortable at all around Dean, especially to this degree. I was ready to get this started and over with.

We left our room a couple minutes early and strolled into conference room A at 6:30 on the dot. Apparently this couple’s retreat was made up of people that lived by the phrase ‘if you’re not early, you’re late,’ because despite being on time, we were the last ones to arrive.

“Oh good!” Chirped a lady at the front of the room. She was wearing a nametag that identified her as Mallory. A man named Dave was standing next to her and there were five couples seated in a semicircle around them. “Now that everyone is here, we can start!” She gestured to the two empty chairs at the end of the half circle and Dean and I sat.

“I’m Mallory, this is Dave, and we’ll be hosting all the activities for this retreat! Now, before we serve dinner, we wanted to play a couple of little icebreaker games. After all, part of the reason you’re all here is to meet other couples, right?” Mallory said.

There were various head nods and murmurs of agreement from the other couples in the room. Dean and I nodded along.

“So,” Dave said, clapping his hands together loudly. “I want you to pair up with the couple sitting next to you. You’ll split up around the room and you’ll have ten minutes to talk and get to know each other. When time’s up, you’ll all come back here and instead of introducing yourselves, you’ll introduce the other couple!”

I mentally rolled my eyes but pasted a smile on my face. Dean and I walked to one corner of the room with the couple we’d been sitting next to. They looked to be in their early 40s.

“Hi,” the woman smiled, offering her hand. “I’m Stephanie.”

“I’m James,” her husband said, shaking both of our hands after Stephanie.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Dean said politely. “I’m Dean and this is my wife Jenna.”

“So where are you guys from?” James asked.

“Sioux Falls,” I answered. “South Dakota,” I clarified when I could see them trying to figure out where that was. Dean and I had decided on Sioux Falls for two reasons. One, we didn’t exactly consider Bobby’s place to be our home, but it was probably the closest thing we had to one. Two, while it wasn’t exactly close to Idaho, it was close enough that it was plausible for us to have chosen this place for a weekend away.

“That’s nice,” Stephanie said. “We’re from Ketchum. It’s just a couple hours from here.”

“How long have you guys been together?” I asked.

“We’ve been married fifteen years this month,” James said, smiling at his wife.

“That’s so great! Congratulations,” I told them.

“What about you two?” James asked.

“Well we’ve only been married for a little over a year. But we’ve been together for… eight years,” Dean answered, pausing to do the mental math.

“Wow. You look so young! You must have gotten together in high school,” Stephanie commented.

“We did,” I said as I smiled at Dean. “A few months after we both turned 16.”

“Oh, that’s so sweet!” Stephanie cooed. “But then I have to ask. Did you not know each other before then, or were you just not interested until you realized you were soulmates?”

Dean laughed good naturedly.

“No, we knew each other,” he said. “And believe me, I was very interested. I just… needed that little boost of confidence I guess. Once I knew she was mine, I couldn’t not do something about it.”

And there it was. These were the kind of conversations that were going to make the next two days extremely painful. I felt my heart racing at Dean’s statement and the very convincing loving smile he was currently wearing as he looked at me and laced his fingers through mine.

“How did you meet?” James asked. I cleared my throat before answering.

“Just in school. When we were ten, Dean’s family moved to Sioux Falls from Kansas. We became friends pretty quickly. How about you?”

“Oh, we didn’t meet until we were 26. I’m a doctor and she was a nurse at the hospital I did my residency at. The details are a little blurry since I was just coming off of a 22 hour shift, but I literally ran into her on my way out the door,” James told us.

“It was a little tricky trying to build a new relationship between our crazy schedules, but we made it work,” Stephanie added.

“What do you guys do?” James asked.

We passed the rest of our ten minutes this way, taking turns asking and answering questions. When Dave called time up, we walked back over to the semicircle of chairs we’d started out in.

“Alright,” Dave said enthusiastically when we were all seated. “It looked like everybody was having good conversations. I’m excited to see what you learned about each other! Why don’t we start on this end?” He suggested, gesturing towards Dean and me.

“Um, ok,” I said unsurely as Dean and I stood back up.

“This is Stephanie and James,” I said, gesturing to the couple that had stood up with us. “They’re from… Ketchum?” I questioned, looking to them to make sure I got it right. Stephanie nodded encouragingly. “He’s a doctor, she’s a nurse. They’ve been married for fifteen years.”

“They met at the hospital they were both working at. They have two kids and a dog,” Dean continued, taking over for me much to my relief. He listed a few more facts that we’d learned about them, and then it was our turn to be introduced.

“This is Jenna and Dean. They’re from South Dakota. I’m sorry, I don’t remember the town,” Stephanie said, addressing the last comment to us. I assured her it was fine.

“They met at school as kids and were best friends until they both turned 16 and realized they were soulmates. They’ve been together ever since, but only married for a year,” James added.

I listened to the information they were sharing about us and couldn’t help but notice how close and yet how far it was from the truth. Which was the point, I suppose. I held back the sigh I wanted to release at the longing I felt for this life that, in a different world, might have been mine.

“Thank you! That was great!” Mallory said when they were done. “How about you two lovely couples next?”

We listened to the other four couples introduce each other. By the time that was over, I was ready to eat. But though there were two large tables set up, there still hadn’t been any food brought into the room. And then I remembered that Mallory had mentioned icebreaker games. Plural.

“Okay,” Dave announced as he walked down the line, handing out paper and a pen to all the men. “Now I want each of you gentlemen to write down a favorite memory of you and your wife. We’re going to mix them all up and read them out one at a time. Wives, when you hear the one written about you, I want you to say it’s yours. So make it a good memory guys!”

I looked at Dean. He seemed a little tense. I wondered what memory he would pick. Was he already struggling to come up with an idea or just trying to find something that could be even remotely interpreted as romantic?

“And while they’re doing that,” Mallory continued. “Ladies, come with me.” She grabbed a bunch of brightly colored fabrics off the end of a table and moved to the other side of the room where a space had been cleared. “Everybody grab a blindfold and then line up and help the person next to you put theirs on. I’ll help whoever is last,” she instructed, holding out her handful of fabric.

We did as instructed and then waited to hear what was next. The fabric was thick and was far down enough on my nose that I honestly couldn’t see unless I looked up enough to see through the small gap at the bottom. Mallory walked down the row, assigning us each a number based on the order we were standing in.

I heard Dave giving the men instructions across the room. He numbered them off and then told them to line up across from us in order. Once the noise of shuffling feet stopped, he gave more directions.

“One at a time, you guys are going to move through the line. Ladies, you’re going to have fifteen seconds to feel the man in front of you and decide if he’s your husband or not. Don’t say anything though. After everyone has gone through we’ll ask you which number you think your husband was.”

Easy enough. I was confident I’d be able to pick Dean out. It actually sounded a little boring. And a little more up close and personal than I liked. Dean I was fine with. I was perfectly comfortable touching him. But I wasn’t looking forward to the five strangers.

“Any questions?” Mallory asked.

I wanted to ask if once our husband had been through the line we could skip touching the other guys or if we could stop touching before time was up if we were certain it wasn’t our husband in front of us. I didn’t want to offend anybody though, so I kept quiet.

“Okay. Will husband number one please step up to wife number one?” Dave instructed. I heard the man take a few steps forward. “Your time starts… now!”

“Time!” Dave called out a few seconds later. “Please move to wife number two.” That was me.

Not at all excited about this, but also feeling my competitive side coming out, I waited for the greenlight and then reached forward. The man was standing a little closer than I had expected. I felt his hair first. It was the same haircut Dean had, but if I was remembering correctly, three other men here all had the same haircut, so that didn’t mean much. I moved my hands down to his cheeks and was met with scruff. Not Dean then. I wasted the rest of my time halfheartedly feeling over the guy’s shoulders. I wondered if this was James.

“Time!” Dave called again and the man shuffled down the line. We continued on like this for several minutes, everybody waiting their turn to feel or be felt.

The second man wasn’t Dean either. I knew as soon as I reached for his hair and realized he was shorter than I was anticipating. I could tell right away that the third man was wrong too. His hair was much too long.

The fourth man stopped in front of me. I felt his hair first as I had with the previous three men. It was the right haircut and the guy seemed to be around the right height. His cheeks were clean shaven. Was it him this time? I ran my hands over his shoulders next, feeling the width of them. It might have been right. I thought they maybe felt a little too slim though.

I moved my hand towards his right ear, feeling just behind it. It was smooth. This wasn’t Dean either then. Dean had a small scar there from being thrown through a window. The glass had left a few nasty scratches, but luckily none of them were serious.

The fifth man stopped in front of me. I felt the hair first again. There were only two guys left and I was pretty sure that they would have the same haircut, so it probably wasn’t helpful. But if I was wrong about how many men here had the same haircut as Dean, this would rule the guy out immediately if it wasn’t him.

His hair was the length I’d been expecting. His height definitely felt right. I realized I had overestimated the size of the previous guys, because this one was noticeably taller. I moved down to his cheeks. No stubble. I felt his nose. It was slightly crooked. Behind his ear was my next stop. And I felt the scar I was looking for. I was all but sure it was him now, but I still had time left and who’s to say this guy couldn’t just happen to have a scar in the same place as Dean? That’s fine. There were other indicators I could look for.

My hands darted down to his shoulders. They felt more like what I had been expecting when I checked the last guy. His left bicep was next on my list. There was a rough patch of skin there, a scar from a salt round that had grazed him. I knew I couldn’t have more than a couple seconds left, and I used them to trace over his lips. I hadn’t been paying attention to be fair, but I doubted there was another man here with the same soft, pouty lips as Dean.

“Time!” Dave called.

Waiting my turn for the last guy was hard. I already knew it wasn’t Dean so the little bit of challenge I’d had was gone. And I was having a really hard time sitting quietly, knowing that there was a line of four more girls all taking a turn feeling up Dean. I knew it was ridiculous. They were all married. To soulmates of their own.

They were likely doing the same as me and touching him as little as possible once they’d ruled him out. And there was only one more guy left, which meant there should only be one woman who hadn’t ruled him out automatically. That thought made me feel a little better, but I still didn’t like it.

I think part of the problem was that I didn’t know what they were doing, although I honestly wasn’t sure if being able to see it happening would make it better or worse. Probably better. I could assure myself it was as perfunctory for them as it had been for me with the other men. But I figured part of me would never be ok with seeing other women touching him, no matter the circumstances. This was just a really dumb game for a couple’s retreat. What woman is ok with the thought of her husband getting felt up by a line of girls?

I’d worked myself into a bit of a mood by the time the last man stopped in front of me. Thankfully I was good at hiding it. I reached up for his hair. It was a bit greasy, possibly from product, but I wasn’t going to spend any more time with my fingers in it. I moved down to his cheeks as was the pattern I’d established. I left my hands there, motionless for a few seconds before moving down to his shoulders. Dave called time and I was glad to be done.

As the last guy made his way down the line, there was movement in the room. I heard the sound of footsteps and clinking of dishes accompanied by the mouthwatering smell of food.

“Alright, great job everybody,” Mallory said when everyone was done. I wasn’t sure why. It’s not like it had been a particularly difficult game. And we hadn’t even found out how many of the women were right yet. “Before you take your blindfolds off, we’re going to have you give us the number you think your husband was. Don’t worry if someone says the same number as you. It’s all part of the fun! Let’s start with you Hannah.”

And so we took turns saying our guesses.

Four. Five. One. Four. Two. Three.

“Hannah and Julia, you both picked the same number. Would either of you like to choose a different one?” Dave asked.

“I would,” Hannah said immediately. I’m changing my answer to six.”

“Okay! Blindfolds off,” Mallory instructed.

I did as she said and looked down the row of men in front of me to the fifth person in line. I wasn’t at all surprised to see it was Dean. He gave me a small smile.

“Great job ladies! You all guessed correctly!” Mallory cheered. “Now, I’m sure everybody is ready to eat, but we just have one last thing to do.”

“That’s right!” Dave continued, waving a few pieces of paper in the air. “We still have to do the memories. Remember ladies, when you hear the one written about you, let us know. Alright,” he said, clearing his throat before reading the first one. “‘One of my favorite memories with my wife is the time we went scuba diving in the Bahamas.’”

“That’s us!” said Anna. She and her husband Ethan were the youngest couple here at 23 years old.

“That does sound like a lot of fun!” Mallory said. “Okay. The next one says, ‘One of my favorite memories with my wife is the time she was sick and we sat together all day watching movies.’”

I figured that one was Dean’s, but it was generic enough that I waited just a second to see if anyone else would claim it.

“That’s us,” I said when no one did. That was definitely a good day for me, illness aside, but I wondered why he had chosen it. I suppose our time together was spent hunting, so there was a limit on memories he could choose from.

“If you don’t mind my asking, why was Jenna being sick a favorite memory?” Mallory asked Dean.

“It was in high school before we were together,” he explained. “She was really cold, so all day she was curled up against me to try and keep warm. It was the first time I ever got to be that close with her.”

I heard a few awws from the women around me and felt myself blush.

“Oh, that is so sweet,” Mallory cooed.

The two hosts finished reading the rest of the memories, and then finally announced it was time to eat.

“Here is the itinerary for the weekend,” Dave said before we sat down to eat. He set a small stack of paper on an empty table. “Mallory and I are going to take off now and let you folks enjoy the rest of your evening. Feel free to stay here and mingle if you want.”

With that, they went to what looked like some sort of little office connected to the conference room, leaving us to eat.

A couple of waiters were standing by the food they’d brought in. Once everyone was seated, they started bringing plates around. Everyone was given steak, a baked potato, and a side salad. It might have been the best food I’d ever eaten. As we ate, Dean and I chatted with the other couples at the table.

“What do you say we go down to the hotel bar and keep this party going?” James asked once everybody had finished eating. There was enthusiastic agreement from several of the couples. One of the couples, Julia and Pete, declined, stating they had their own bottle of champagne and wanted some time alone.

“Dean. Jenna. You coming?” Stephanie asked.

“You know, we would, but we actually had a pretty long drive up here. I think we both need a little bit of time to unwind tonight before all the fun tomorrow,” Dean said. I nodded in agreement.

“Alright. If any of you change your mind, you're welcome to join us!” James called to us and the other couple as we left. We took the elevator up to floor eight with Julia and Pete and waved goodbye as we went to our rooms.

“Wow,” Dean said when we were safely behind closed doors. “Can you believe people actually pay money to participate in this crap?”

“It’s definitely a bit over the top,” I agreed.

“A bit? If you want a romantic weekend away, why spend it with other people playing ridiculous games? Why not spend your money on something that’s actually fun?”

“Like what?” I teased.

“I don’t know. Like… a cruise. Or… I don’t know, maybe a nice hotel room without your entire weekend scheduled out for you by crazy people.”

“They are pretty enthusiastic,” I agreed. “Luckily you didn’t have to spend your money on it then. You can thank Bobby for putting you through this.”

“I mean, come on,” Dean continued as he looked over the itinerary he’d grabbed on our way out. “If I wanted to do a scavenger hunt, which, by the way, I’m certain no one does, I’d go to a six year old’s birthday party.”

“Scavenger hunt?” I asked.

“Don’t tell me you’re actually excited about that,” Dean scoffed.

“No. It sounds lame. But does it say where exactly it’s at? It could be a good opportunity for us to snoop around a little bit.”

“Good thinking. Looks like the whole first floor is fair game.”

“Ok, that’s a start,” I said. “When is that supposed to be?”

“Uh… tomorrow at 1,” he answered. “The good news is, that’s the first scheduled activity of the day which means we can do whatever we want until then. Hopefully we can figure out what we’re even looking for. You don’t have any theories yet, do you?”

“Based off of this evening?” I snorted. “No.”

“Yeah, me neither. You don’t think Mr. and Mrs. Peppy have anything to do with it, do you?” he asked.

“Who, Mallory and Dave?” I considered it. “Maybe. The people hosting the retreat would obviously have information about everybody and access to them. We’ll have to find out if they host it every year.”

We spent the next couple hours doing as much research as we could from our hotel room. It wasn’t helpful since we didn’t have much to go on.

“Well,” Dean sighed. “I think it’s time to call it a night. Lots to do tomorrow.”

“Yeah. Probably a good idea,” I agreed.

We took turns in the bathroom getting ready for bed. I finished my turn and stepped back into the room. Dean was laying on his back on the left side of the bed. I gave myself all of one second to prepare for sharing with him.

It was only for a couple nights. The bed was so big we wouldn’t have to touch each other. I told myself it wasn’t all that different from sharing a room with different beds. It would be fine. I could handle it.

I crawled into bed, slipped under the covers and turned onto my side, facing away from Dean.

“Goodnight,” I managed to choke out.

“Goodnight,” he answered.

I reached over and turned off the lamp. It took both of us a while to fall asleep.

Chapter 9

#supernatural #fanfiction #dean winchester #original characters #original female character #soulmates #soulmate!au #dean winchester x ofc #dean winchester x soulmate!ofc #so long v2

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