#this is. actually one of the guilty pleasure things is any sort of dragon/half dragon sort of au for alec where like. he is/can be | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

chrismerle · 3 years

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FOR THE FANFIC ASK MEME THING (I finally picked beyond 'just... all of them?'): F, I, K, M, N, Q, S, T, V, W, X, and Y. WHICH ISN'T ALL OF THEM it's just... several...

(from here)

F. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

I’m working on a Final Fantasy XV AU, because that’s basically all I write for FFXV; I really love the building blocks it gave me, but I don’t like a lot of the architecture. Anyway, conceptually it’s a fairly standard ‘what if Ardyn wasn’t a villain?’ thing, and on the off chance it ever sees the light of day, it will be called There Is a Crack in Everything.

This is a really early scene.

Regis stepped into his study, and Ardyn scarcely gave him time to close the door before wondering, with a languid sort of ease, “For how long have I been Adagium?” He sounded as if the word tasted foul.

“Longer than I can be certain of,” Regis sighed, taking his seat at his desk, across from Ardyn.

“And I’ll be able to relax for...how long?” Ardyn wondered pleasantly, leaning an elbow on the desk and propping his chin in his hand. “Before those lovely toy soldiers of yours try to haul me back to my stone box, that is.”

For a moment, Regis was quiet. For a moment, Regis thought of his father. Mors would have reacted the instant he realized who Ardyn was, and Regis wondered how many of the Glaive would have died and what sort of enemy they would have created.

He thought of his son, just a few weeks old. Already, Regis knew he did not want to teach Noctis to be that sort of king.

He did not want to be his father.

“You may stay here, should you wish it,” Regis answered at last.

Ardyn blinked, slowly. His expression didn’t change, but his words seemed carefully picked for carelessness. “And no one will wonder at another of the bloodline suddenly appearing?” he asked. “Or am I forbidden from showing off?”

“We’ll say you’re my half-brother,” Regis answered before he was even fully aware he’d come up with a solution. “It won’t surprise many.”

Ardyn’s eyes narrowed. “You’re awfully eager to dub me family.”

“You already are family,” Regis reasoned. “It seems it’s time someone finally treated you as such.”

That, at last, seemed to unmoor Ardyn. His posture went rigid for a moment as his gaze went distant. Twice, he opened his mouth to respond, before closing it without saying a word.

It took him only a moment to gather his composure, though, before he cleared his throat. “I have to say, this is the most elaborate method anyone has ever used to call me a bastard. I suppose that alone means it’s worth putting up with it.”

Regis laughed before he could help it.

I like it for a handful of reasons. For one thing, I’ve successfully weaponized it (and a few other snippets of the same WIP) to make my friend Ala emotional. For another, I didn’t really see this dynamic between Regis and Ardyn coming. It just sort of happened while I was typing, but I liked it when it showed up. It felt natural for an Ardyn who hadn’t been driven mad by turning countless people into daemons, but who was nevertheless not the same gentle healer after 2,000 years of isolation.

I. Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)?

I got paid for years, plural, to write really bad porn about people who could turn into animals fucking. I have no shame left. I’ve had no shame since the first time someone offered to pay me $500 for smut.

K. What’s the angstiest idea you’ve ever come up with?

It is, again, related to FFXV. I wrote If the Ring Fits and Backed in Silver years ago, and ever since, I’ve tossed around the idea of writing another sequel for Ignis.

The only issue is that my idea for it would forcibly make him realize that the Prompto that had been in their world was not actually their Prompto, and had not been for over a decade. And it would be a conflict he’d have to grapple with through the entire fic, trying to decide whether to force that same replacement on someone in a different world or to just endlessly keep hopping from one world to another because he can’t return to his.

I’ve never actually written any of it, and the concepting never got beyond Ignis’s revelation about Prompto. But considering If the Ring Fits was 10,000 words long and Backed in Silver was 20,000, I can only imagine what sort of behemoth it would be.

M. Got any premises on the back burner that you’d care to share?

Like, WIPs, or things that I’ve pondered but haven’t started working on?

I’ve got a few WIPs. There’s the aforementioned non-villainous Ardyn AU. I’ve got another FFXV fic that’s been on hiatus on AO3 for legitimately over three years, and the next chapter is very nearly finished and I just...can’t seem to get there. I’ve got a Persona 5 new game+ fic in the works. That one’s fully plotted out already, and just the outline is like 15 pages long. Based on how the first chapter is going, each chapter will probably be anywhere from 10-20,000 words long. And I’ve got a melancholy immediately-post-season-two Mandalorian one shot in the works, spawned almost entirely so I could make Mando say ‘fuck.’ I know no one says fuck in Star Wars, but I don’t care. I will not say kriff and no one can make me. And I’ve got the Dragon Age uber fic that I’ve just sort of been plugging away at since Inquisition was released and none of it has ever seen the light of day, unless you count me shoving a few snippets at Siobhan.

Oh, and I’m rewriting an older Mass Effect fic.

For things that I’ve thought about but haven’t really worked on, they’re mostly more Dragon Age and FFXV. The “canon” stories for the two timelines not covered in the uber fic, and more AU nonsense spawned from ItRF and BiS.

N. Is there a fic you wish someone else would write (or finish) for you?

Like, finish one of MY fics? No. I would bite them if they tried. Hell, I love you and I would bite you if you tried.

Just, in general? At this point I would take a monkey paw-style deal to get someone to finish Home.

(for anyone who isn’t Jim, Home is a nuTrek Jim/Spock fic that I think I was in high school when it was published. I graduated from college over five years ago.)

Q. How do you feel about collaborations?

Mixed feelings. I’ll take feedback, assuming I’ve offered the mic for it. I’ll prattle on about whatever I’ve got cooking. I’ll ask for ideas or suggestions. But when it comes to the actual writing of it, I’m a control freak. So, people are welcome to help me gather up the building blocks, but I’m gonna wind up doing the actual building myself.

S. Any fandom tropes you can’t resist?

Overly elaborate AUs.

T. Any fandom tropes you can’t stand?

That thing fandom does where if they’ve decided a character has anxiety, then it does not matter how that anxiety presents itself in canon, in fanon they are a weepy, shy introvert who can hardly string a sentence together because they’ve polymorphed into a shivering puppy.

V. If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?

Does it count if I just say I wanna rewrite a series as a whole? There’s a FrostIron series I read ages ago before the MCU made me wanna gag, and at the time I LOVED it. And then not that long ago I went back and read it again, and it felt like I was saying goodbye to it because oh my god it was unbearable.

Loki was NEVER FUCKING WRONG ABOUT ANYTHING, unless he wasn’t in the room, in which case Tony picked the slack about not ever being wrong about anything.

W. Do you like more general prompts, or more specific ones?

More specific. Not this past Christmas, but the one before that, I was doing some Advent Drabbles for one of my roleplay blogs, so I was open to drabble suggestions anyone wanted to see. Like 70% of them were just one or two words and I’m just staring at my ask box like ‘thanks, I hate it’

(Kudos, though, to the random stranger who gave me a very specific, paragraph-long prompt for a Spider-Man (PS4) fic.)

X. A character you enjoy making suffer.

...All of them?

Y. A character you want to protect.

I guess Din Djarin.

I mean, he still falls into the above ‘all of them’ but when I make him suffer it’s more related to exploring something that happened in canon, rather than me directly causing it.

#Ask #digitalmoriary #Meme #fanfic #writeblr #writblr #long post

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cj-and-cjs-ocs · 4 years

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🌺❤️ Draco, 💧🌙 Inlustris?

🌺 What additions would your OC make to their body if they could? Lets say, if they don’t have a tail would they want one? Wings? Horns? Do they wish they could shapeshift?

Honestly, he would try to make himself look entirely different in any way possible, so people wouldn’t recognize him. He wouldn’t care what he looks like just as long as no one knows it’s him.

Oddly enough, I have been working on a canonical concept where he can half-shapeshift into a sort of dragon-thing with wings, horns, etc. (Like how Milo can turn into a Pegon, but only going halfway)

❤️ what inspired you to make this OC? How long have you had them? How have they changed in the time you’ve been developing them?

Honestly, he started as an *insert villain here* with no motive other than the fact that he was evil and wanted to hurt the main characters. His design has stayed very similar, and I based him off of the dragon constellation “Draco” (not to be confused with a certain story about wizards). I’ve had Draco for 3-4 years, he’s the 4th Star Gazer character I made.

He has changed soooo much. I gave him a personality, a backstory, and everything he needs to be an actual character. I also gave him redemption, because he never deserved what happened to him. And coming up with the story of his parents really helped me tie my entire story together! A lot of his traits are based off of my own, like the social anxiety, but he’s also a very self-indulgent character so a lot of my character design guilty pleasures have gone into him.

💧What is something from your OC’s past that they’re the most ashamed of and why? What is something they’re really proud of? And lastly what is something in their past that could make them shake with dread?

Ooo...she does feel somewhat responsible for the death of her mother, but only because her sister and father always talk about it and it always feels like they blame her. However, Inlustris is really proud of her own academic achievements and having learned so much on her own without help from her family, she always remembers this in her hardest moments. She shakes with dread anytime she remembers getting in trouble, any time at all, she remembers how violent and scary her father can be, even more so after she fled from the palace.

🌙What are some of your OC’s favourites? Favourite food, colour, season, stuff like that! Give some general simple facts that tend to get overlooked!

Inlustris love pancakes, the colour yellow, and spring! She likes spring a lot because that’s when there would always be interesting flowers in the plants at the palace and she’d have something pretty to look at. She really enjoys calm weather because it’s very relaxing compared to the rough Thiolian climate, and one of her favourite things to do in her spare time is lie down in the sun (preferably beside Milo). Her favourite science is biology, and her favourite part about reading is looking at the biological diagrams. She doesn’t like to cook, but loves the sound and smell of cooking food, almost more than eating it!

#aaa thank you for these!!#these were so much fun to answer oml!#my ocs #ask #ask meme #Draco Hydrus #Princess Inlustris #Star Gazer

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serashapes · 3 years

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s e r a p h i n a d i a n a a n a s t a s i a p a r k i n s o n

basics:

name: seraphina diana anastasia parkinson. pronunciation: seh·ruh·fee·nuh dai·a·nuh a·nuh·stei·zhuh paar·kuhn·sn. meaning: seraphina- burning one. diana- supplier of beneficence and wellness. anastasia- resurrection. birthday: december 3rd. age: twenty-four. pronouns: they, she & her. sexuality: pansexual. siblings: julian parkinson (older adoptive brother), allegra fawley nee parkinson (older adoptive sister). parents: archer parkinson & merritt parkinson nee rosier. other family: david & ella griffiths (biological parents). languages: english. current residence: a penthouse near acid nightclub. hometown: london.

wizard fun:

hogwarts house: hufflepuff. year of graduation: 1977. occupation: owner of acid nightclub & professional keeper for the falmouth falcons. pet: a cat named bubblegum. blood status: muggleborn, but assumed pureblood. species: metamorphmagus. patronus: flamingo. people with the flamingo patronus know how to use their hearts to find the right solutions to their problems. they also find comfort in group situations. therefore, folks with this patronus know how to maintain their individuality within large groups and enjoy being around people. these people are often flirtatious and flamboyant in the way they dress. moreover, they know how to balance a busy lifestyle and often find themselves in a supportive role when someone is having relationship problems. they also know how to help them heal and move on. their decisions in life usually come from the heart. boggart: her worst fear is the idea that she will be found out. her true parentage will come to light and put not only her, but everyone she loves’ lives in danger. amortentia: broom polish. quidditch has been seraphina’s passion for as long as she can recall. there is nothing more peaceful to her than an entire day spent on the quidditch pitch. the smell of broom polish is equivalent to those serene moments when she prepares. coconut. it is a warm and inviting scent that sera associates heavily with her favorite desserts, lotions, and places to travel to. lemon. lemons are a guilty pleasure for seraphina. they are her favorite and go-to snack on any given day. she loves to add lemons to anything. wand type: 13 1/3″ hawthorn wood, phoenix feather, unbending. the wandmaker gregorovitch wrote that hawthorn ‘makes a strange, contradictory wand, as full of paradoxes as the tree that gave it birth, whose leaves and blossoms heal, and yet whose cut branches smell of death.’ while I disagree with many of gregorovitch’s conclusions, we concur about hawthorn wands, which are complex and intriguing in their natures, just like the owners who best suit them. hawthorn wands may be particularly suited to healing magic, but they are also adept at curses, and I have generally observed that the hawthorn wand seems most at home with a conflicted nature, or with a witch or wizard passing through a period of turmoil. hawthorn is not easy to master, however, and I would only ever consider placing a hawthorn wand in the hands of a witch or wizard of proven talent, or the consequences might be dangerous. hawthorn wands have a notable peculiarity: their spells can, when badly handled, backfire. this is the rarest core type. phoenix feathers are capable of the greatest range of magic, though they may take longer than either unicorn or dragon cores to reveal this. They show the most initiative, sometimes acting of their own accord, a quality that many witches and wizards dislike. affiliation: the death eaters.

appearance:

height: 5′2″. hair color: variable. prefers pink. eye color: variable. prefers purple. typical hair style: sera’s hair is usually the first sign that she is a metamorphmagus. she has very littler control over the changing color with her emotions. however, the style is almost always a clipped, choppy, and short bob. some days she is in the mood for long silky hair, though. it just depends on her mood. she rarely wears it up because the ties pull when she shifts. fashion style: colors. patterns. textures. sera likes things to be bright and bold and different. she loves mixing feminine and masculine styles. she wears very high heels since she is so short. she likes to wear furs, leathers, sequins, silk, and spandex. sera wears a lot of things that might not mix well together, but seems to make it work for her. she has a very early punk and glam rock style. [ fashion ] distinguishing features: her face changes shape. the most distinguishable feature about sera is that she can have any feature at any time. the face that is generally accepted as her normal has high cheekbones and sweet, rounded dimples. sera has a friendly face.

personality:

positive traits: resilient. cooperative. follower. negative traits: egocentric. irascible. stupid. theme song: bubblegum bitch by marina.

headcanons:

sera actually has great eyesight. her peripheral vision is especially good due to how much she uses it while flying. however, she can be a little sensitive to light and wears a lot of sunglasses when she’s outside.

during her fifth year, sera almost died during a quidditch accident. it’s one of the few things that she actually never talks about anymore. she pissed off a handful of slytherins. a couple were on the quidditch team. two aimed bludgers at her, while a third in the stands hexed her broom to freeze in the air. one bludger clocked her on the side of the head and did some serious damage. the other broke her arm. she jumped from the broom immediately after to block a quaffle. she broke her broom, bounced off the goal ring. it landed her in st. mungo’s for a little while. when she got back to school she’d just heard that the ones who’d caused the incident had been taken care of by her friends. paris wouldn’t explain any more than that. this, of course, being only one of the most notable in a lengthy list of injuries.

sera struggles with in betweens. to settle down and fall asleep is always a struggle as is waking up out of sleep she’s already in. so she is more than content to sleep until she wakes naturally on her days off. usually that’s still well before lunch time. often it’s due to light streaming through the window and causing her to sneeze.

biography:

It was an early frost. The sun had only just set and each breath exhaled produced a puffy cloud of steam from the nostrils and lips of the hospital patrons as they entered and exited the sleek, upscale building. It was the Griffiths’ third child. The private birthing suite at the hospital had been reserved for a day and a half by the time labor started.

They were the picture perfection muggle family for a short time. Both mother and father bursting with pride at the three perfect, healthy offspring. It lasted in bliss until the first time that infant Seraphina laughed. Her raven dark locks shifted to a bright, inexplicable pink. It was the same color as a cloud colored by a sunset. No expense was spared as they took her to doctors and experts in various fields to attempt to explain her shifting features. It was when things started floating off of shelves, rattled off the wall, and zipping up from the ground that the Griffiths could take no more.

A friend of a friend of a friend who was in the know took the babe to a magic adoption agency. The Griffiths paid well to ensure the trail back to them was nearly impossible to discover. They didn’t want an angry witch or wizard coming after them some time down the line. That was how the Parkinson’s discovered the babe.

Archer and Merritt Parkinson had already given birth to two children when they came to the decision for a third child. The social elite of pureblooded society, they were well known for their philanthropy. The Daily Prophet had done plenty of stories on the couple’s generosity. While some claimed that the very publicized adoption was just another stunt to gain public appeal, the truth was that they couldn’t have another child due to complications that Merritt faced when she’d had her last child.

Of course, that wasn’t a reason to avoid using the adoption to their advantage. They needed a child and a pureblooded one at that. It was the bundle of swiftly changing hair that caught their heart. An infant metamorphmagus was a rarity, and they were told of her pureblooded parents who passed from dragon pox in another country had been a tragedy. (An insignificant lie if it got the babe adopted, right?) What reason would they have to doubt it? Obviously the infant possessed magical abilities and that was a safer bet than potentially adopted a squib. It was a win all around. Thus, Seraphina Diana Anastasia became the newest and welcomed member of the Parkinson family.

Childhood for the Parkinsons was not all too different from any other pureblooded family. They were often flaunted in the name of their parents’ many pureblooded charities, but they never wanted for anything. Despite how public her adoption was, Sera never felt unwanted or out of place with her family. She was never made to feel anything less than a Parkinson. Seraphina embraced her role. She was ever the dutiful daughter, although she had a penchant for not thinking things through very well. But why would she need to? Any trouble that she came across, her parents would find a way to fix.

As they got older, Seraphina grew prone to long periods of boredom as her siblings became old enough to go to school. It was during this time that she first discovered her love of flying. Soon enough it became time for Seraphina to go to Hogwarts. While she’d somewhat expected to get sorted into Slytherin with the rest of her peers, she wasn’t upset when the Sorting Hat decreed her a Hufflepuff. Her marks were always average in everything but flying. Frankly, she didn’t care to practice anything except Quidditch. She joined the team her second year and it has been her passion since.

Life was normal. Well, as normal as it could be for a young, shapeshifting witch until the summer before her sixth year. An attack decimated an old orphanage not too far outside of Godric’s Hollow. Her mother was fast to say it was tragic that they’d lost the place that Seraphina had been adopted from. It was strange. Her adoption had never been the focal point of her life. More of a mere passing fact in the biography of her story. However, that sentence planted a seed in her. The attacks that were popping up over the nation, her father’s beliefs he became more and more vocal about, the tension of her peers… it all made one point abundantly clear. Blood was becoming more important by the day.

It was time to discover just precisely what bloodline was hers. Seraphina began digging. There wasn’t much to be recovered from the incinerated files of the old orphanage, but galleons greasing the palms of the right people supplied her with the right direction to continue her inquiries. It took time. It took money. It took resources that her mother was not always so willing to arrange. Eventually, Seraphina uncovered the not so pure history of her past. Then she destroyed every evidence of it. No one could ever know lest her own life or the life of her family be forfeit. She wouldn’t let that happen, no matter what. Besides, it didn’t change anything. Not really. Seraphina was what she’d always been raised to be.

It was less than a week later that she began to ask her father about taking the Dark Mark. While hesitant to allow his youngest daughter into the less savory nature of his organization, Archer Parkinson was proud of her tenacity. However, it was the rest of her that impressed the right people under the dark hoods. Seraphina became notoriously able to take a hit and keep going. Her temper could shift at the drop of a hat, and there no were apparently no lengths to which she would not go. She was an incredibly loyal and malleable follower in more than one way. It was swiftly agreed that her loyalty would be an asset. Sera took the Dark Mark the month before her last year of schooling was to begin, a fact which was easy to hide given her particular abilities.

Her marks swiftly fell to below average as Sera struggles to come to terms with the truth of her existence, with what she will do to hide it, with her ambition towards her quidditch career, and with her new found responsibilities. The girl who has always stood out by nature, is desperate to fit in. Survival became the only thing that mattered. Luckily, those with the mark stuck close together, and she relied more heavily on her friends than ever before despite the secret she kept from them.

Once she graduated (barely), Seraphina was offered positions on several Quidditch teams. She was marketable. They wanted her name, her style, her skills on the pitch, and eventually Sera decided to become a permanent member of the Falmouth Falcons as the Keeper. Between her matches, Seraphina worked for the Dark Lord’s desires. There had never been a hesitation to do what she was told to do. It grated on her a bit. Then when the season was over, Seraphina realized that she needed far more distractions from her extracurriculars and the fear of her secrets. That’s when she discovered Acid. Owning a club was just the right fit for her. It was perfect and soon it too was growing in popularity. Never had it been more difficult to keep a secret in the spotlight.

#ahintro #;about #;biography #;sera #;inspo

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ecto-american · 4 years

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White and Nerdy

Holiday Truce Gift for @idiot-cheesehead-archenemy based on their request for Vlad’s slice of life outside of the Fentons.

On FFN and AO3

Summary: Contrary to belief, Vlad does have hobbies other than spinning in a fancy chair with his cat thinking of evil plots. For example, every Tuesday he dedicates the day to hanging out with his best friend as they both indulged in their crippling, long term addictions: World of Warcraft, with a pinch of Dungeons and Dragons.

Rating: K+

Warnings: Some cursing

Other Notes: Everybody is gay or trans, and you can't stop me.

Running a multi billion dollar empire was stressful, to say the very least. And of course, when you own those businesses, it was easy to work as much or as little as you pleased. Not that Vlad ever found himself taking off too much from work. No, no. He loved running his empire, the meetings and decisions. Whenever he took too much time off, the halfa found himself restless. Vlad craved a full schedule, and he needed things to look forward to.

Though of course, he wasn't all work and no play. There was one day of the week Vlad always, with the exception of business trips, took off or would take easy: Tuesdays. Tuesday was raid day.

And on that Tuesday morning, Vlad paid no mind as he could faintly hear the front door being unlocked and closed. His best friend, his actual best friend (NOT that fool Jack), had keys and was permitted to come over whenever he pleased.

Vlad continued his morning routine lazily, carefully shaving and grooming his beard to his preferred style. Brushed and styled his hair in it's normal ponytail, and he dressed himself. Any other day of the week, Vlad would be putting on his Italian brand name custom suits, always freshly pressed and ironed by a maid. But today was raid day, and so he instead was wearing sweatpants and an oversized Packers sweatshirt. He slipped on his football slippers, and he went downstairs to his computer room.

Not his office, which was expensively decorated with only the most fine and formal, shelves lined with important titles. His computer room, which was expensively decorated for a whole other reason. As he opened the door, he smiled at the shelves full of figurines of his favorite characters, accessories adorning the walls. He knew that most would have a stroke, since he never kept anything in the original box, despite having the entire collection of figurines, statues, busts, everything that would make the most dedicated fan drooling. That was simply stupid in Vlad's eyes, it was made to be admired and displayed, not kept in a box. If any were to break, he could simply buy another, no issue.

They lined shelves that were all over the brightly lit room, with cabinets below that held their boxes. While he didn't keep them in boxes, he of course, still kept them. There were also some books, mostly related to the lore but also game guides and manuals.

He admired his collection for a moment before turning his attention to the middle aged man getting comfortable in one of the three computer setups Vlad had, the far left one. All the setups were, of course, only the best and most advanced, with each desktop having three monitors and leather chairs. Each desk was a large U shaped one, set pressed to each other and near the back wall for the outlets.

"Hey, morning!" Edward Lancer greeted him warmly. Both men were morning people, clear by their chosen professions and schedules. Ed was in his own lounge wear, sweatpants with crocs and an old college t-shirt. "I brought McDonald's." He gestured to the bag that was left on Vlad's desk, alongside a cup of coffee clearly from Vlad's own kitchen.

Had it been any person other than Ed, Vlad would have been mortified over McDonald's. But even billionaires couldn't resist their breakfast, and it was only on Tuesday that he was able to privately indulge. Ed never judged.

"Thank you!" Vlad replied brightly. Ed had his own meal in front of him, sitting facing away from the keyboard as he took his time eating. Vlad joined him, sitting at his desk and doing the same, allowing them to talk face to face as they ate.

"Are you ready to fight the dragon later?" Ed questioned as he cut up his pancakes. "Since we're resting, I've been trying to figure out what spells I should prepare for the day to fight it." Vlad snorted, shaking his head.

"Knowing Harriet, she'll likely make the dragon a red herring that goes down with ease and dick us over with the actual boss that'll be invincible to half our party because it's immune the attacks that destroy the damn dragon," Vlad replied before taking a big sip of coffee. Burning hot, but delicious. Ed chuckled in amusement.

"She's always made it fair though," Ed replied. "Her boss battles are never unbeatable."

"Yeah, but she makes every campaign some Water Temple level meets 90s point and click mystery game difficulty and outrageous puzzle solving," Vlad grumbled.

"I like it, it's good critical thinking practice," Ed replied. "I've used some of her puzzles in the games I DM for the students. Really makes them think rather than just attacking everything. I swear, one of my students, Nathan, he just loves rolling to attack every NPC I make."

"Sounds like a ninny," Vlad said as he took a bite of his greasy fast food. The best part about the summer was Ed not having to teach. They could dedicate the whole day to hanging out. Of course, Ed took up a summer job, but he was able to secure Tuesdays off.

"A bit, but a good kid," Ed always spoke fondly of his students. "You should come in sometime for a game, it'd be fun."

"I think I might," Vlad agreed thoughtfully.

Of course, going to Casper High was always hit or miss. Daniel was there, and it was always nice to be able to check in on the little badger. But as mayor and a billionaire that funded several scholarships, it would be nice publicity to go and have some face time with kids. Many of his high school interns had graduated and left for college, and he was in the market for some new ones. Might be able to find some promising new future employees too. Hm, he'd have to see where he could fit a Casper High visit into his schedule when school began. Vlad would worry about that another time.

"How's their gay club?" Vlad questioned. "You guys just formed one, right?"

"It's got a steady group of kids who come in, very good kids. Many have supportive parents now," Ed explained. The teacher had paused, giving a small sigh. "It's a double edge sword for me. On one hand, I'm so grateful that so many of them can be who they are. But...I don't know. I hate that we never got to have that."

Vlad nodded understandingly. He poked at his breakfast, feeling hunger temporarily leave him as those depressive memories came back.

"I'll forever be thankful that Mother wanted to apologize and make amends before she died," Vlad spoke. "But I'm sorry she missed out on so much because of what I had to do to become happy. At least she passed away recognizing me as her son."

The last memories of his mother was depressing. Elderly and sick with cancer, even with all the money Vlad began to throw at her once she reached out to him after nearly twenty years of refusing to speak to him. Whether his sister wore her down, or it was deathbed regrets. It was an emotional two years, being able to see his mom again.

"Mine's in better shape than me, and they're still calling me by my old name," Ed complained. "I don't think it'll ever change. I try to keep a relationship, cause of the kids, but I don't know if it's even worth it anymore."

Silence hung in the air as they separately mourned for what it all cost them. Of course, it was worth it. Absolutely worth it to be happy, to be comfortable and finally as they should be, but it didn't make the cost any less harsh of a price to pay.

"Their generation will be better," Vlad said firmly. Ed nodded in agreement. "Please let me know if any of them need binders or anything of the sorts."

"I will. I've been thinking about starting a clothing drive for them," Ed explained. "I can probably get the school on board with it if we market it as for the lower income students too. Dressing how you want makes a big difference."

"You get the details sorted out, and I will absolutely financially back you," Vlad promised. Ed smiled.

"Thank you. I may start working on that to propose for this school year," Ed mused.

For the bumbling oaf that Jack was, Vlad had to admit that he was a very loving and caring man. A bit too caring, honestly, it was a bit of a flaw. He had immediately accepted Vlad, and later on his own son. It always warmed him to remember that Daniel had two parents that had immediately gotten him everything a young trans man could ever need. No hesitation, no questioning.

Ed took a final bite of his breakfast before humming happily. He wiped his hands as he pushed to toss his empty containers into the trash can.

"Enough being sad, let's raid," he suggested. Vlad hurriedly took his last two bites before nodding in agreement.

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The raid was broken up with greasy Chinese takeout for lunch, brought to them by a staff. Another guilty pleasure Vlad rarely indulged in. Then, of course, it was a return to games before they changed into their normal attire, sitting down to a home cooked dinner by staff. By the time they were finishing up, their other guests had begun to arrive for the evening plans.

Vlad always hosted the game. It just always made the most sense. He had the most room in his house, nor the distractions of family. Not that he disliked Lance nor Ed's children, they were great, but there was nothing that ruined the immersion of dragon slaying quite like teenage dramatics. And he thought that playing with toddlers in the house was frustrating.

The four sat in yet another room in Vlad's mansion that he had dedicated fully to the hobby. A large round table with Harriet Chin sitting furthest from them. A DM folder that separated her papers from there, just low enough that the halfa could see her smirking to herself as she reviewed her plans. Ed sat to her left, with an empty seat in between them. Another empty seat in between him and Vlad, and yet another separated Vlad from Lance Thunder.

Vlad honestly didn't really know the man that well yet. He was one of Harriet's coworkers that she had dragged into the summer game, as Vlad and Ed needed a third person in the party for this campaign. Their normal fourth and fifth friends, Joe and Frank, were spending the summer with their daughter and their newborn granddaughter. He already missed the pair terribly, especially Frank. Frank would often join in on their World of Warcraft adventures. But Lance was gay, and that made him okay enough for Vlad to accept him into their little queer circle with little complaint.

"I wouldn't get her a car unless she had good grades," Vlad gave his two cents into the conversation. Something about Lance's daughter wanting a car. Lance nodded.

"That's what I've been saying, but Alan keeps saying that if Star had her own car, she could begin driving herself to the library and to school to study, but I just don't buy that," Lance agreed. Vlad knew by now who those people were. Alan was Lance's husband, Star was Lance's daughter from his first marriage. Vlad had seen pictures of Star before. She was a spitting image of Lance. "She's more interested in being with her friends."

"And what does Rene think?" Ed questioned about the ex-wife's opinion. Lance shrugged.

"She doesn't think Star needs a car," Lance replied. "Public transportation isn't bad here, she can always borrow one of our cars, and lots of colleges won't let you have cars as a freshman anyway. So it'd be sitting in the driveway in a year or so for a year anyway."

"Star's going to be a junior, right?" Vlad questioned. Lance nodded. Vlad mentally went over his garage of cars. "When she's able to have a car on her college campus, I'll happily give her a good deal on one of my cars if she has good grades. I'll probably be retiring one of my cars by then. Of course, it's not going to be some beat up piece of junk." Lance's eyes widened.

"I'll definitely keep that in mind," Lance smiled warmly at him.

"Vlad sold my oldest, Ophelia, a car about five years ago. Car still runs like it's new," Ed spoke up.

"Ophelia just began graduate school, didn't she?" Harriet questioned, finally speaking up. She had been nose deep in her campaign notes. Ed nodded.

"She got in at the University of Chicago, full ride," Ed beamed with pride, and Vlad was very proud too. Ophelia, his precious goddaughter, was like a niece to him. Very smart, quick-witted and the only one who could match Ed's passion for literature. Of course, Vlad provided her with that full ride scholarship, as he did with her younger siblings, and eventually he would do the same for Ed's remaining two when they got to that point. No niece or nephew of his was going to college with student debts. "George is set to graduate soon too, this is his last year. Before med school anyway."

Ahh, little Georgie. Vlad got to spend a lot of time with him. He was one of Vlad's interns at Axion Labs. A strong willed boy, good head on his shoulders. Sometimes a little too honest, but the world needed more people like that. Whenever the billionaire stopped by Axion Labs, he always paid a visit to his favorite intern. It was always those times he spent with Ed's children that Vlad regretted not having his own.

"So how's the cat, Vlad?" Harriet asked, giving a small smirk. She could always seem to sniff out his emotions. Damn journalists. They were a bit too observant. Vlad rolled his eyes.

"How's yours?" he asked back. She chuckled.

"Bandit's the happiest boy alive, I just got him a nice new cat tower," she replied. Vlad nodded.

"I just had a new cat house for Maggie built," Vlad told her. Of course, he was never going to admit to his friends, most of them knowing the ghost huntress, that he named his cat after a long term crush. "It's going to be installed in the next week or so. You should bring Bandit over then. Maggie loves him."

"Oh I might," Harriet hummed happily. "It's been a while since Bandit got to hang out with Maggie."

"Does anybody want a drink before we begin?" Vlad questioned.

"Can I have a glass of rosé wine?" Harriet questioned. The billionaire smirked.

"Of course," he replied. He glanced to Ed and Lance.

"Uh, just gimme a beer, you know what I like," Ed shrugged. Lance thought for a moment.

"I may just have some wine too," Lance spoke.

Vlad nodded, and he stood to go to the intercom on the wall. All of the rooms in his house had it for his staff. He pushed it, and he requested the drinks, alongside what he knew to be choice snacks.

Almost as soon as Vlad had sat down, a male staff member came with a tray. It was full of cheese and crackers, popcorn, chips and fondue. Another staff member came with drinks and glasses.

Vlad picked up a beer like Ed, cracking it open and taking a long drink. Of course, in any other company, he'd indulge in wine. Beer was not something one could normally drink at a formal business function, and so he always took advantage of the times he could freely have some.

They began. A small discussion, and as the billionaire expected, the dragon went down easy. Suspiciously easy. Harriet gave the group before her a mischievous grin just over her DM folder. Vlad didn't like this, or that look in her eye.

"So you guys defeated the dragon," the reporter replied slyly. "But there's no loot to collect on him. The dragon dissolves and melts away. Everybody roll for perception and add your stuff. Then tell me what you got."

Oh, he definitely did not like this a single bit. Vlad eyed her coldly as he picked up his dice. Ed and Lance did the same.

"Visual or hearing, I'm missing an eye so I'd have to roll disadvantage otherwise," Ed reminded her.

"Hearing!" Harriet chirped. He nodded.

"Uh, sixteen then," he replied.

"Ten," Lance said.

"Twenty-two," Vlad spoke.

"You hear nothing," Harriet told Lance, pointing to him. She moved her finger to Ed. "You hear a small noise, two voices. But they're a bit muffle, you can't quite make out the entire conversation. But you do hear some words. The general jist of the conversation you can make out is that these individuals have realized you killed the dragon and are here." Harriet pointed to Vlad. "You! However, you can hear everything. It's a rough voice of a masculine figure telling somebody to prepare for battle, somebody has killed their precious dragon. They're going to detect your thoughts to determine your next movements before making their next move."

"I cast detect magic," Vlad replied. Harriet's eyes sparkled.

"It failed," she announced gleefully. Vlad internally groaned, and he could see Ed looking confused. "So what will you guys do."

Lance scratched his temple as he stared at his character sheet. He was not just new to the group, but to the game itself. The weather man studied his sheet for a moment as he tried to think. He took a long sip of his wine before speaking.

"Well uh, I think my guy is just gonna look for the treasure, cause I didn't hear anything," Lance said slowly. "And I'm still really interested in the promised gold."

"I tell him to not, because we should be careful," Ed spoke up quickly. "Because of what I heard."

"You tell your party what you heard?" Harriet questioned. She had leaned back in her seat, a leg over the arm of the chair as she held her beverage. The lesbian lightly swirled her wine in her glass before taking a long drink.

"Yeah, I tell my party what I heard," Ed clarified.

"And I'll tell them what I heard," Vlad agreed. "Because I need these people alive to keep me alive. They're my meat shields." Harriet snickered.

"So the prince never mentioned anything but a dragon being in here," Ed said slowly. "It must be another adventuring party trying to get the treasure. Prince Yamum said he did send several people to collect the family amulet."

"I say we kill them," Vlad suggested. Ed looked at him in disapproval, and Vlad shrugged. "My character's selfish. He doesn't want to share the loot with this party, and he doesn't want to share the rewards for returning the amulet."

"I agree," Lance said slowly. "My guy doesn't want the competition."

"No, no!" Ed said sternly. "We are NOT killing him, he may have useful information for us or be able to help."

"There's two voices, so that's a five way split between treasure," Lance pointed out. Vlad glanced to see Harriet's reaction. She was grinning like a fool, with that distinctive sparkle in her eye. She was absolutely up to something, and she looked like a true super villain. Evil plots forming her mind. Vlad trusted her with nothing, and yet he admired this chaotic evil lesbian. Harriet was his villain goals.

"Harriet, I swear on your grave," Vlad began his threat, only to stop with a frown at Harriet's devilish giggle.

"The individual detects your negative and violent thoughts," she announced cheerfully. She finished off her glass, shifting to have both legs over the armrest, her back against the opposite one. "And they have deduced that you're a threat that needs to be taken care of. Congratulations, boys. You're encountering the real boss." Vlad scowled.

"I knew you were going to do this, you always pull some weird bait and switch thing!" Vlad complained. Harriet smirked. "Lemme guess. It's a, it's a, god what would be the worst thing to fight right now." Vlad racked his mind for a possible enemy. "A rakshasa? Probably with a shield guardian too."

Harriet's smirk only widened. And Vlad knew he was correct.

"Roll for initiative, bitch."

#my phics #phics #holiday truce 2019 #idiot cheesehead archenemy #vlad masters #mr. lancer #lance thunder #harriet chin

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alleiradayne · 4 years

Text

New Year (A Review)

I wrote a lot last year. More than I’ve ever written in any one year before. So on this New Year’s Day, I’m going to take a look back on 2019. For science.

To preface, in 2018 I transitioned from BioWare fanfiction to Supernatural fanfiction after finishing a massive 150k Dragon Age Modern AU fic. Prior to that though, in the summer of 2017, I started outlining The End. Over the last two years, I’ve been outlining and writing that book. It’s going to be a Death-of-the-Author/Fix-It fic. I’m definitely looking forward to getting back to that in 2020.

And by getting back to that, I mean actually writing it again.I put in minimal time on that piece at the end of 2018 and throughout 2019 for a number of reasons. I had a baby in November of 2018. Then I signed up for what felt like a thousand SPN Bingos, of which I only finished two. I also offered up two lots in the 2019 Fic-Facer$ Auction. And then I still had to write my Fic-Facer$ lot from 2018. I didn’t get nearly as much done as I would have liked but here’s a summary.

SPN Kink Bingo 2019 - All twenty-five squares filled, so many of which pushed me from my comfort zone, discovered new ships (hello, Ruby/Abbadon!), and tried my hand at different styles of writing. Some favorites:

Killer Queen - Where I discovered my love for Ruby/Abbadon, and was incredibly proud of my healthy (albeit graphic) depiction of a BDSM relationship.

Holy Smoke - Oh Saileen. My favorite canon-character ship.

Unconventional - This is one of my favorites from last year. I had a blast writing this J2 x Reader RPF series.

Dazed and Confused - When I offered up my free space for Kink Bingo to my followers for a request, I received the ask for a submissive Dean/Reader fic. And I went completely perfectly overboard.

Poison - Of course I can’t leave out my OC, Elizabeth Andersson, and some dominant Dean.

Cover You In Oil - Follow up to Poison

Rocket Queen - Okay, I’ll admit, I’m a slut for the F/M/M threesome. Sabriel is also a guilty pleasure ship for me. Tossing in my OC Natalie Murphy, my imagination ran wild.

SPN Fluff Bingo 2019 - Again, I filled all twenty-five squares, and had an absolute blast writing these. It was a really nice break after writing a metric shit ton of smut. More faves:

There’s Something Strange - This is easily my favorite thing I wrote all year. I struggled with the idea of an Author AU for weeks. Sam was the author for a while. Then Dean. Then Castiel. Then I finally came to the conclusion that the reader should be the author. Because meta. There are all sorts of pop culture references in this story, from Ghostbusters to Harry Potter to Dungeons and Dragons to Betrayal at the House On the Hill to Mansions of Madness. I hold this piece so close to my heart and loved how it turned out.

Anyway, Here’s Wonderwall - Greek God AU? How the hell do you do that? Easy. Sam is the god of the underworld and his eternal love visits him to ensure the change of seasons in the mortal realm.

Photograph - Superhero AU. Ugh. AUs are a damn struggle for me! But I am so happy with how this one turned out.

Have a Drink On Me - Business AU. This is almost canon-divergent. What if they’d never got into hunting? Sam and Dean start a bar. Platonic Fluff is always welcome here.

Secret Agent Man - Spy AU. I bent the rules a bit and went more with a hitman John Wick style world for Sam and Natalie.

Dead or Alive - Biker AU. I know I say I struggle with AUs but all of my favorite fluff pieces were AUs! And this one was especially fun!

About half way through the year I realized I wasn’t going to finish all the bingos I signed up for earlier in the year. So here’s what I got done for the others:

SPN Heaven and Hell Bingo 2019 - A truly challenging bingo, I struggled with so many of these squares. But, of the ones I finished in 2019, here’s my faves:

Yesterday’s Son - Apocalypse. I wrote this the day the guys announced the show was going to end with Season 15.

Hallowed Be Thy Name - Escaping Hell. A fun time-lapse piece on Dean’s time in Hell and his escape.

SPN Broment Bingo 2019 - Brotherly moments. I always need more of those.

Let It Be - Father’s Day. Tough topic, especially right after losing their mom again.

Here In My Car - They’ve always known Baby would be there for them.

That’s it for bingos. I flaked out on a couple others at the end of the year. Just didn’t have the time because, on top of those, I wrote three commissions for Fic-Facer$.

Rx: Physical Therapy - For the 2018 auction, I began posting this in January of 2019. The winning bidder requested a doctor AU Destiel fic. In this story, Castiel Novak is a surgeon and Dean Winchester is a physical therapist. I very much enjoyed writing this, but it took me a long time to get into it. It was my first steps in the Destiel ship, too.

Stuck In the Middle With You - I offered up two lots for the 2019 auction. This was the first. I did not post this to Tumblr. The winning bidder requested a cuckold threesome featuring his wife/Dean/Castiel while he (the bidder) watched. He gifted this piece to his wife. It is a male reader perspective.

Cowboys and Angels - For my second lot, @castielscarma and I talked a good bit before she requested this from me. And given all the other writing projects I had, she has graciously and patiently waited for me to get to this until the end of the year. It’s almost finished.

And here’s a few random things I wrote:

The Prophecy - A follower challenge.

Merry Christmas, Ya Filthy Animals - A Fluffy Christmas challenge piece.

That’s everything! It comes out to a grand total of

201,081‬ Words

posted for the year.

A giant thank you to @atc74 for all your time beta’ing and listening to me freak out about insane shit. Another thank you to @just-another-busy-fangirl for running bingos so damn smoothly despite all the Tumblr fuckery. And a giant thank you to all my readers. I cannot thank you enough for all of your wonderful comments, replies, squeeing, likes, and reblogs. You are truly wonderful.

Happy New Year!

The Whole Thang:

@atc74 @hannahindie @bevans87 @meganwinchester1999 @oneshoeshort @jonogueira @andkatiethings @elfinmox @princessofthefandomrealm @just-another-busyfangirl @jmekitchens @81mysteriouslyme @dolphincliffs @seenashwrite @canadianspnhunter @meowmeow-motherfucker @staycejo1 @hobby27 @pretty-fortune @mypopculturediva @fanfictionjunkie1112 @sandlee44 @4llmywr1tings @claitynroberts @maddiepants @donnaintx @blackeyedangel9805 @rainflowermoon @winchesterprincessbride @lazinessisalliknow @the-is13 @waywardafgrandma @keymology @sister-winchesters99 @amanda-teaches @amandamdiehl @onethirstyunicorn @spnbaby-67

Sam’s Sasstresses (Jared):

@karouwinchester

Dean’s Dames (Jensen):

@supernatural-jackles @jerkbitchidjitassbutt @akshi8278

There’s Something Strange:

@peridottea91 @amanda-teaches

Unconventional:

@wayward-and-worn @evansrogerskitten @squirrelnotsam @jerkbitchidjitassbutt @pink1031 @aomi-nabi @heavensheadbitch @amandamdiehl @thatonecurlygirl @deans-baby-momma @crookedslimecreatorpasta @stoneyggirl

#alleiradayne writes #spn fanfic #year in review

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tumblingdoe · 5 years

Text

January 11-15 on the Sexplanations Road Tour

Friday January 11, 2019

Nels repaired the roof vent that was worn out and worked on the water system while I business-interneted. We drove out of town to an Indian restaurant, ate, and then unrelated to the food -- determined that Nels needed some medical care. Five’ish hours later at the hospital we were discharged without any good answers but he seems to be on the mend. We drove south where I satiated a guilty pleasure (Chick-fil-a) and grocery shopped for some healthier eats. I bought a basil plant that we call Marvelous Mrs. Basil. We finished watching The Wiz and then winded down to the somewhat terrifying sounds of a car repossession followed later by car drifting and police intervention.

Saturday January 12, 2019

Happy that we survived the night in a parking lot, Nels and I drove to a nearby RV village where we were able to empty our gray and black water tanks for only $10. We also cleaned out our fresh water tanks and did dishes in house for the first time! An hour later we were San Francisco at Aunt Linda’s. She made us brunch and talked to us about sex and aging, hormones, incontinence, impotence, and dating. I’m excited to turn the conversation into an episode of Sexplanations.

Aunt Linda then drove us to our next engagement -- recording videos and a podcast at Mr. S Leather with Amp from Watts the Safeword. Amp had reached out on Twitter and I was so relieved. I wanted to keep going with the Sexplanations podcast and recording video episodes while on tour but we haven’t had time to sort out equipment or set it up. Amp had a studio in San Francisco with lights and microphones and cameras. He invited me in, made me tea, gave me all the time I needed to switch gears in to pro-mode, and then recorded everything for me to share with you. We did a podcast on sexhacks, an episode of Watts the Safeword on sex education, and an episode of Sexplanations YouTube channel about daddies. We just put my memory cards in his gear and voila, production! It was such a huge moment of feeling wrapped up by a safe person and validated as a creator. Amp didn’t judge me for needing his help. He just loved on me and needed that.

While we were there I also got a thorough tour of Mr. S Leather. I’d been 12ish years ago when I was in San Francisco for my doctorate but a lot had changed. Amp walked us through the showroom -- gear for every fetish and kink you can imagine. Then as a super treat he took us behind the scenes where most of their products were manufactured, right there in the building! We saw the old latex room with patterns for full suits, the remains of a really comprehensive dungeon, and the shipping warehouse. I was astounded by the passion everywhere. There was so much attention to detail and care for the products! The foot and half long dragon cock dildo was made by someone who wants that experience to be perfect.

I left feeling all warm and gooey. Nels left with ideas for rafting wetsuits and a new sex education. We wandered down the street to a coffee shop we learned about at PatreCon called Wicked Grounds. They had offered to host a event but I hadn’t been able to follow-though. So I asked a table of friendly faces if they had any sexuality questions for the sexologist on tour. “Nope.” One of them actually had their own sex education channel and was very situated in their knowledge of the subject.

I walked away from the cafe feeling very comfortable that we hadn’t planned more in California. Cali has so many sex ed resources. So does Oregon. These places aren’t my classroom per se, they are my launchpad. Between Nels’ friends in Oregon wrapping us up emotionally and Cali grounding me professionally -- it was like we were being nurtured for the experiences to come.

Nels gave me a burrito that he’d gotten for me while I was shooting with Amp and we walked to The Chapel twenty or so minutes away for a show. He treated us to the Red Room Orchestra performing the Big Lebowski. Margaret Cho was Walter, Kevin McDonald was the Dude, and James Adomian played the stranger. It was outstanding! Just incredible!

After the show we found late night Indian then took a Lyft back to the RV. The fridge wasn’t working because things weren’t so level on the San Francisco hills so Nels and I capped off the night stacking these really nice blocks someone got us on our Amazon Wishlist.

Sunday January 13, 2019

We went back to Aunt Linda’s, this time for showers. Then she took us out for lunch at a super cool restaurant called the Pork Store. After food we rushed back to the RV to get across town to a landscaping center to meet Dixie de la Tour for a podcast recording in. the. RV! Dixie showed up with her St. Bernard and we all climbed aboard to talk about her work running and mothering Bawdy Storytelling. She also has a podcast. 10/10 would recommend! We wrapped up our conversation 10 minutes before the landscaping center closed so I ran in with Marvelous Mrs. Basil in her inadequate two inch pot and paid a $2.00 re-potting fee to get her a new container and more soil.

It was a rush-rush day. Next on the list was dinner with three of my classmates from the institute where I did my doctorate. Jack drove an hour and half south, Danielle drove an hour north, and Nels and I drove the RV to pick up Ivy for us all to meet at Basil Canteen for Thai. The whole meal was perfect. I hadn’t seen these friends in more than a decade but there we were deep in conversation about sex of course, and buying a school to teach sexology! I think everyone left having to wake up in a few hours for work but grateful for the night.

Jack drove Ivy home (which I hoped would reignite a romance) and Danielle invited us to stop at her place the following day. We all said good-bye and then Nels and I strolled home happy. On our way around the block --because the RV was parked just down the street--we said hello to some gorgeous queens from the Imperial Sovereign Court and stopped at a gaming cafe for virtual reality. I love it. Nels was indifferent. And then he was awesome at it and we hung out for an hour getting some physical activity in by thrashing our arms around.

To conclude the day, we drove all the way the beach so we could listen to the waves from bed. It’s still really hard to push myself with work and travel but gifts like that are a reminder that were are right where we need to be and doing the best we can.

Monday January 14, 2019

I woke up wanting nothing more than WiFi so we set up our laptops in a cafe on the oceans and worked for hours. I was actually still on the phone planning stops when Nels courted me out to get to Sunnyvale by 3:00 to meet Danielle, my classmate from the night before. I kept working in the RV while he drove and we got there right on time.

Danielle situated us with rain showers, chicken soup, and tourist suggestions for the rest of our California route. That is until we learned that the coastal highway would be shut down for the week due to landslides. I was disappointed but only mildly. Being in Danielle’s care was delightful. She kept it simple and cozy, no pressure, no hassle. We got to explore her Somatica space -- a revolutionary way to improve relationships and sexuality and Danielle gave us two of her books! And a bag of oranges from her yard!

To finish the day Nels and I drove past the Apple complex, which is enormous, and we dined all fancy-like at Oren’s Hummus.

Tuesday January 15, 2019

Sadists are people who experience pleasure from inflicting pain. Nels is not this. I think he experiences pleasure from pleasing others. While I slept he drove us to Lover’s point so the RV windows would be looking out over a quintessential ocean view. Then he proceeded to cook onions, kale, broccoli, rainbow carrots, sausage, garlic, and eggs in a cast-iron pan for breakfast on the coast. Who is this person!?!?!

Before getting back on the road we climbed along the rocks watching the cormorants dive. I tried to swim but the tide came too quickly for it to be safe. We returned to the RV to acquire more miles. I responded to over 100 emails then requested we take a break from the washing machine existence of riding in an RV and nap. Post nap, Nels was at it again making colorful amazing food. He set up Moon --the 2009 film-- and we had our version of a drive-in dine-in movie.

This is in San Luis Obisbo. Now we’ve driven longer past huge agriculture land to Solvang and it is time again for cuddles and bed.

#sexplanations road tour #curious road tour #sex ed #dr. doe #california #bawdy storytelling #watts the safeword #sfsketchfest

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blackrose-ffxiv · 6 years

Photo

Penance Pilgrimage 09/24

Lebeaux Desrosiers smiled serenely as the two entered the room. He’d heard two sets of footsteps and merely assumed one was Gilbert. He tilted his head in a polite enough greeting without getting up to bow. “Lebeaux Desrosiers, actually. A pleasure. You must be a clergyman.” As though the hat and robes weren’t a dead give away. “And bodyguard?” He asked as he smiled between the two, the expression never making it all the way to his pale eyes.

Gabineaux Liautroix spares a moment to glare at the ..bird, sure. He's not glaring at Florimond at all. Soon his attention is snapped back to the stranger man, and he goes about appraising him. Finding him in such a state, in such a bed, he makes the worst sort of assumption. "Bodyguard? Oh, sort of. Don't mind him, he goes where I go." He must still be upset with the man if he's not even going to introduce him properly. "So, what's the issue? Did Gilbert hit you like that?"

Florimond Rochedalaix gives a quiet snicker at the assumption of bodyguard. He doesn't seem to take offense to not being introduced. Rather than follow Gabineaux into the room, he leans against the door frame and proceeds to give the rather fat hawk on his shoulder a scratch on the cheek.

Lebeaux smiled between the two a few moments longer then lifted a shoulder in a small shrug. Sounded like a bodyguard to him, fair enough. He wasn’t introduced and was therefore relegated to ‘The Help’. Fingers laced together primly in his lap. “Nothing of the sort. Gilbert arranged a fight between myself and another. If either party refused to participate he threatened to expose delicate information.” He gestured to his own cheek. “I lost. There’s rather more to it, this is all that’s visible. Now that it’s through It’s been made clear I’m supposed to take confessional before I’m permitted to return to my work.”

Gabineaux chuckles quietly. He can only assume Gilbert meant well, but by the sounds of it? Sounds like blackmail to him. "Ah yes, that's why you shouldn't give sensitive information out to the common folk. It seems unlike Gilbert to do that to someone he's willing to ..allow in his bed. Regardless, he's perhaps right. How long has it been since you've been to church? Did you do anything that could be considered a slight against Halone? Have you paid your tithes at least?"

Lebeaux held up a hand briefly before lowering it to pause that trail of thought there. “I presume we’re already under the seal of confessional and anything I say to you will not be repeated.” The smile remained ever serene as he glanced pointedly between the Priest and the Help and even the bird for good measure before returning to Gabineaux. “Assuming you are indeed a Priest? You’ve not even given your name in return.”

Gabineaux waves his hand in a dismissive gesture. "So that means you haven't even been keeping up with your tithes then? What, have you not the coin? Halone deserves your respect. As for me, I am Father Liautroix. I thought it unimportant, as this came to me sounding as if it were an emergency. All he said was that he needed a priest, that's all. I had assumed someone was dying. That's usually the case when it's an emergency. You don't seem half dead to me."

Florimond pipes up from his spot at the doorframe. "Perhaps he just got better, is all."

Lebeaux considered that for a moment, smiling silently all the while. Finally he tilted his head in a small nod. “Not even a quarter dead, I’m sorry to disappoint. My injuries weren’t grievous and I’ve healed much of it on my own.” He flicked a hand vaguely in Florimond’s direction, agreeing with him. “I’ve not kept up with my tithes so long as the church is in the hands of the Reformists. I’ll not fund their madness I show my Faith in other ways. You’ll have to forgive my concerns, there was the lingering worry that it was some elaborate ploy to bring me to trial proper.” He cleared his throat slightly. Probably as close as he came to saying ‘sorry’. “As the trial by combat was unsanctioned, to say the least.”

Gabineaux turns his head away from Florimond slowly, eyes wide as all hells. The REFORMISTS. Things are sort of falling into place, but nobody has said the H word yet. "Reformists.. trial. I think I understand now. Regardless, the Halonic Church is what it is. Tithes matter. Prayers matter. You will of course lose your trials, should you continue to neglect Halone. I can see why Gilbert suggested I help you. What exactly is it, you can't let go of the old ways?"

Lebeaux allowed the small smile to flatten briefly, perhaps pouting a bit at that though he had the decency not to jut out his lower lip. “They’re not simply the old ways, it’s the true Faith.” He insisted. “Ishgard has lost its way yet I have not. I didn’t lose due to lack of faith or conviction, it was because my opponent resorted to foul and heretical magicks.”

Florimond lifts his brows as he continues to listen in on the conversation. His arms fold across his chest and soon an amused grin speads across his face. "If they wish for Ishgard to change, perhaps the lot of them should stop stooping to such lows."

"Now that's quite the term to toss around willy nilly. We can't call anything involving dragons 'heretical' any longer. The sin does not define the person. All children of Halone are capable of forgiveness. It is no secret that those who love the dragons only come to church to torture the clergy with their presence. However if you're talking about a void-loving heretic, I can see the concern. Over time we have lost a great many men to the voidsent." Gabineaux corrected.

Lebeaux gestured a little more intently over at Florimond in a ‘see even the help gets it’ sort of jab. He then remembered the needle and mirror in his lap and promptly moved them aside before he could injure himself further with them. He smiled solemnly back to Gabineaux, tilting his brows in an attempt at ‘concern’. “Under the assurance of the seal of confessional,” he reminded the others, “my opponent is without a doubt voidtouched. One of the monsters of myth, men who sold their soul to the darkness and feed upon the aether of the good and devout.”

"Goodness, this man wouldn't be that soft faced little runt who's always muttering to himself? The one who was attending the scholasticate? I had a bad feeling about that one. Gilbert wanted you to fight him? To kill him? He always did like to honor Halone with combat." Gabineaux is just making assumptions ALL OVER the place.

Lebeaux smiled primly, wondering what right the somewhat plump Priest had calling others soft-faced but he kept that to himself. He was trying to bring them to his cause, after all. “Ah, well. The reformist I dueled was Isghardian by birth, at least partially. Likely not who you’re thinking of, he’s older and a bit… angular.” He gestured at his own face. “Nonetheless. He accused me of crimes during my time with the Tribunal and Gilbert decided to way to settle the matter was trial by combat, under his watch.”

"Was he grey-skinned?” Florimond chimed in.

Gabineaux cringes a bit. He reaches up to scratch the bristle on his chin, as if he were deeply considering something. "Crimes during your time with the Tribunal. What, is he daft? The few crimes in Inquisition endured, were for the good of the people. For the good of Ishgard. Most Inquisitors were granted leave, weren't they? Pardoned, for the most part. And what of it now? Do you feel guilt for that, of all things?"

“Nothing of the sort. He’s sort of a sickly looking fellow, gaunt with white hair and a hideous scar along his cheek.” Lebeaux explained to Florimond. “A perpetually sour look on his face.” His attention returned to the Father and he nodded his agreement. “I do not feel guilt, all I did I did for Ishgard.” He declared proudly. “Yet he is one of the Reformists of the mind that the faithful should pay. He accused me false charges of torture and abuse of power. Which I am now supposedly guilty of in Gilbert’s judgment due to my loss.”

Florimond tilts his head to the side, thoughtful. "Not the one I'm thinking of, then.."

"The faithful did pay. Did he not attend the mass execution of the Heaven's Ward? The highest ranking were all slaughtered. Perhaps he wasn't important enough to be allowed to witness such things. To be truthful, I've not met even one ..dragon loving cleric. Not one. I've heard they exist, they must be uninterested in the clergy of Ishgard. Regardless, I can see why Gilbert would make such an assumption. That IS the way of things, yes? Halone was simply not with you." Gabineaux explained.

Lebeaux tilted his head slightly at Florimond’s musing. “Do you know many aether-sucking leeches masquerading as men?” He mused thoughtfully in return before he turned his saintly smile back to Gabineaux. The expression froze and the medic bristled visibly. Fingers curling slightly as the bridge of his nose wrinkled and thick brows furrowed. “He was a coward who had already fled Ishgard to avoid the war. She was with me, as She is always.” He declared, his tone sharpening somewhat. I wasn’t powerful enough to defeat his dark arts.”

Gabineaux lifts his brows to blink delicately, as if he were smacked or something. Is he offended, or simply making a show of biting his tongue. Just Ishgardian things. Either way, he shuffles over while fishing an ornate looking bottle from his person. Holy water, obviously. "I know being at fault is difficult, for some. But you should take the burden on yourself, rather than suggesting that a heretic is more powerful than Halone Herself. Perhaps you did not make the proper preparations. We both know you've not been to church in some time. Did you have your weapon blessed? At all? Did you offer a prayer before the battle? Halone does require even Her best to bend to Her will."

Lebeaux inhaled sharply at that, immediately swallowing down whatever other excuses or explanations he had. He had made a mistake there. Implying not only that Halone was not infallible but that she could be bested by a few underhanded tricks from one Heretic. He lowered his gaze and managed to look properly chastised for a moment. “Of course, that must be it. I’ve been working as a chirurgeon in the Far East, I haven’t had opportunity to have the new blade blessed nor to offer prayers at a church proper in some time.”

@divinedhalmel

#lebeaux #gabineaux #florimond #lost a fight #gotta go to church #just ishgard things

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stylo-xx · 6 years

Text

Eyes Closed (M)

G-Dragon: Angst/Small amount of fluff/Smut

PART 9-A: Telephone Games

A/N: more to come soon

P.S: songs for your listening pleasure (The Horrors)

(Part One)||(Part Two-A)||(Part Two-B)||(Part Three)||(Part Four)||(Part Five-A)||(Part Five-B)||(Part Five-C)||(Part Six)(Part Seven)||(Part Eight)||(Part Nine-B)

Ji-Yong twirled his phone in his hands before unlocking it for the hundredth time before sighing heavily and locking it back up.

“You know, they say doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is insanity right?” Young-Bae raised an eyebrow.

Ji-Yong ignoring his best friend, absentmindedly scoffed as he stared at the black screen of his phone.

“How many weeks is it now that you’ve been waiting for her to hit you up?” “I don’t know I lost count...but I’m betting less than the amount of texts I’ve sent her” Ji-Yong sighed as he plopped his phone on his chest as he slunk into the couch “the fucked up thing is that she never has her read receipts on but she turned them on just so I could see she that she left me on read...” “Ouch, that’s a bit harsh” “A bit? She’s rubbing that bullshit excuse for a relationship in my face” he furrowed his brows. “By not responding to your texts?” “In case you’ve forgotten, any of those millions of pictures she’s been posting of her and that asshole, she made it official. Like to the public! God! it’s like even when we first got together we kept it as low key as we could for a while but suddenly she just wants everyone and their mother to know how great her newfound relationship with Satan is” “I mean you did kinda rub your non existent, happy relationship with Cassie in her face so—” “So nothing! That wasn’t an invite for her to stay pissed at me while she’s out ‘having the time of her life’ and rub it in my face” “What did you want her to do exactly?” “I don’t fucking know! Tell me that she’s sorry and she made a mistake and she needs me back” “So you basically want her to feel guilty for being in a functioning relationship with someone else?” “I guess when you put it that way then...yeah, kinda...yeah” Young-Bae sighed as he sat on the couch beside his best friend. “I’ve done everything she wanted me to do and yet here I am still not with her! I mean I got sober!—for the most part at least...I haven’t fucked anyone else!—except for those three girls in Japan I tried to distract myself with...but she practically has me crawling on my hands and knees begging her to get back with me” “I mean she does think you have a girlfriend…”

“That’s beside the point!”

“I don’t know maybe just tell her Cassie isn’t your actual girlfriend? Maybe just tell her the truth? Ever think about that?” “And run the risk of her getting even more pissed at me for lying? I think I’m good” Young-Bae sighed heavily “you ever think about just moving on? Clearly she has” Jiyong raised an eyebrow “you’re joking right? Besides, I can’t just ‘move on…” “Why not?” “Because I love her. And I know I fucked up, on more than one occasion, but I wanna make up for it before I don’t get the chance to” Young-Bae nodded his head absentmindedly “Also because I just can’t...I can’t. Physically, mentally I can’t. And I know it sounds stupid but I can’t” “Doesn’t sound stupid, just tiresome for the both of you” Ji-Yong bit his lip as he sat in deep thought for a moment. “Okay let’s say that, for instance, I were to just let her go and I ‘move on’ with someone else” he air quoted “--further down the line we’re able to see each other happy with someone else and not have any kind of feelings for one another and we manage to be best friends again—” “Doesn’t sound like a bad scenario to me” Young-Bae interjected.

“—let’s say that even further down the line, a year from now, two years from now things go great with both of our significant others and one day she calls me up all excited to tell me she got engaged to him—” Young-Bae opened his mouth to speak, Ji-Yong held up a hand to shush him before he could utter a single syllable “Then it hits me like a ton of bricks that I in-fact am not only not over her, but this wave of panic takes over me and come the day of her wedding all I’m gonna wanna do is to get wasted and tell her I’m still in love her and that she’s making a huge mistake marrying him and she should just run away with me. But then she tells me that she doesn’t feel that same way anymore and she marries him any way. But where the hell does that leave me Young-Bae? Huh? Where does that leave me? All alone wishing I had done something earlier”

He had gotten so worked up he stood up mid monologue. “I mean you see I’m in the right here, right?” Ji-Yong turned his body toward him. “Honestly I’m not so inclined to tell you where I stand on this whole mess between the two of you” “What why not?” “Because no matter what I say, you two do the complete opposite and frankly just don’t know how to help anymore. I will be here for you until the very end but I just don’t know how to help either of you” Ji-Yong furrowed his brows. Young-Bae crossed his arms across his chest “sure you say you got ‘sober’ and you haven’t screwed anyone else, not counting those three girls, but...do you honestly think you can change at this point?” “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” “What I think I’m trying to say is, Ji-Yong nobody believes you anymore. You’re a sad ass liar” “What did you just call me?” “You deserve to be lonely”

“What the fuck Young-Bae?!” “You can’t change. You wouldn’t know how to even if you actually tried” Ji-Yong squared up to his best friend. “She is much happier with him...you? You’ll only be the end of her...you’re just poison” The words and the image of his best friend started to become distorted as his words began to echo in his head as if in some horror movie. Tossing and turning in bed he awoke in a cold sweat

“Fuck!” He ran his hands over his face before he turned to face the glowing green numbers on his alarm clock on his night stand. Three AM.

‘Goddamn it’ he thought He sat up on one elbow to reach across the night stand to grab his phone. He groaned as he hit the home button prompting the screen to turn on blinding him with the light. He shut one eye as he turned down the brightness and began to scroll through his texts. He bit his lip contemplating opening the thread that read ‘Alex’. He had finally changed her name in his phone, considering he had called her now on more than one occasion, he wasn’t afraid of drunk dialing her anymore. What he was afraid of was that the reason she wasn’t responding was because she had blocked his number and all together tossed any and all memory of him in the figurative garbage. For the past month and a half, Ji-Yong had for the most part managed to stay sober despite his own brain clawing at his skull telling him to just down a few bottles until he wound up in the hospital again; that way she would have to come see him. And with his onset new sobriety, he’s even managed to stay celibate somehow. Though in retrospect he thought he went a bit overboard with trying to clean his act up. With his body not used to not having some sort of release it had inadvertently made him sensitive to the human touch. Just days prior at press junket during the translators speaking to the press, Seung-Hyun had leaned over to whisper something in Ji-Yong’s ear and it almost instantaneously sent shivers down his spine. Since then the others had teased Ji-Yong relentlessly randomly blowing on his neck, massaging his head and so on and so forth. Not having sex for as long as he had, had only made him rely on his imagination and his right hand. Though admittedly it just wasn’t the same as watching the person beneath beneath him squirm and claw at his back in ecstasy.

His thumb hesitantly hovered over her name in bold black text in his recent calls list; he weighed his options in his head as his bit his lip.

‘Was twenty-two unanswered calls one too many past desperate?’ he thought.

He sighed heavily placing one arm behind his head and leaning back into his mountain of pillows.

“Fuck it” he muttered to himself pressing dial anticipating the robotic voice he had come to know far too well.

Sure enough, not even a full ring on the receiver and he was sent directly to voicemail. Sighing again, he pulled his phone away from his ear readying to hang up as the robotic woman delivered her speech he had come to know by heart. Just as his finger was mere centimeters away from the red button he retracted his finger placing the phone back up to his ear.

‘--Please leave your message after the tone’

He took a deep breath before speaking

“Hey uh Alex its me...Ji-Yong” he chuckled awkwardly “I mean I guess you already know that ‘cause of the caller ID...umm it’s three AM here...I--I thought I’d actually leave you a message finally. I just wanted to make sure you’re okay...you hadn’t called me back so--just let me know how you’re doing...even just a--”

Two beeps signaling the call ending cut him off mid sentence.

“Mother fucker...” he muttered as he plopped his phone onto his chest and slunk even further into his sea of pillows and bed sheets.

He wasn’t sure where to go from here. He had tried his best to backpedal from when his own plan backfired straight onto his face the night of the dinner with Suho and company, though his efforts were all for naught. It had been a month and a half now and he still hadn’t heard back from Alex. At this point things weren’t looking to be in his favor; or so he felt that way.

“A-Bomb, calm down!”

“Liar!” she slurred as she drunkenly threw another half eaten chocolate at the mural advertisement on the side of the building.

“You’re wasting perfectly good chocolate!” Sash struggled behind Alex trying to grasp her by the wrist “besides the Guess model with the nice ass didn’t do anything to you!”

“No!”

“Alex, give me the box of chocolates!”

“No!” she wriggled herself free sprinting in the opposite direction.

“Alexandra!” Sash panted as she chased behind her.

“No, she’s fine...” Saige sighed as she looked behind her “we’re walking back from the pub to the hotel now”

‘All that yelling doesn’t sound fine to me’

“Don’t even worry, she’ll be over it soon”

‘I just don’t want her to have some sort of meltdown at that award show for it to be broadcasted for millions of people to see. Saige, you promised me that this new guy was going to help keep her reputation in pristine status’

“Chill out Davis, trust me on this. This guy is actually good for her, if not just making her look good”

‘Looking good is part of her job, that’s not the problem Sai--’

“To the public!” she scoffed “you know what I meant”

‘Listen, all I want out of this is that this show makes it look like she got her shit together and judging by how things sound on your end I am not so convinced’

“They’ve made it this far without her looking like a complete lunatic--”

‘Have you gone deaf or am I the only one hearing her screaming ‘fuck these stupid fucking chocolates’ Saige?’

“Trust me--”

‘You keep telling me to trust you Saige but your argument is mute!’

“Listen to me you hard headed genius of a man!” she huffed into the receiver “you asked me to take over her social media and make it look like she’s unbelievably happy and in love, and did I deliver?”

‘Yes…’

“You asked me to make sure she didn’t run her career into the ground when she came back to Seoul a few months ago, and did I not do that?”

‘It didn’t exactly go as smoothly as I asked...’ he sighed.

“Did I or did I not manage to turn that scandle into making her look good?”

‘Yes, but she almost went completely off the deep end with that asshole again Saige! Don’t think I didn’t find out about that’

“That is besides the point!” she scoffed “point is I got her to open her eyes, and with a little coaxing from Suho and from the douchebag’s own stupidity, she made the right choice and chose Suho”

‘This isn’t another episode of Grey’s Anatomy of McDreamy VS. McVet we’re talking about here kid, we’re talking about one of my biggest money makers almost running away with the Rebel Without a Cause and costing me lots of money when she can’t film anything because she’s either too distraught to work or because studios don’t want her because she has too much baggage following her!’

“Okay, first of all don’t talk about her like she’s some piggy bank” she furrowed her brows “you’ve known her since she was like twelve! And secondly the big picture here is Davis, she didn’t run away with that egotistical sadomasochist--”

‘The big picture here Saige, is she’s drunkenly running around throwing confectioneries on the darkened street corners of London at two in the morning!’

She sighed heavily.

‘Listen…’ he paused ‘I get that you have got your work cut out for you especially since you are her best friend, and I know sometimes it’s hard to draw the line between PR rep and her best friend but I won’t allow her to make her make a mockery of herself and this agency again. Only way I’ll let her even show up to that award show is if you guarantee me she and that new guy make as big of headlines as the Royal Wedding and if she has absolutely zero contact with that dragon mother fucker’

“Don’t even worry I’m already way ahead of you on that…”

‘Meaning?’

“Meaning that since you’ve had me manage her social media that means I am in full control of her phone...”

‘Go on keep talking’

“And ‘dragon mother fucker’ for the past month and a half since they saw each other last, has been relentlessly trying to contact her so I’ve just--more or less been withholding that information from her and deleting the messages; hence the drunken meltdown, she thinks he’s completely forgotten about her”

‘You keeping secrets from her now?’

She could hear the amused grin spreading across his face.

“What she doesn’t know wont hurt her...besides her being this pissed at him will only make it easier for her not wanting anything to do with him at the award show or any time after that. If she thinks he just up and moved on with that girl he’s supposedly dating she has no choice but to swallow her pride and move on too; for good”

He chuckled ‘wouldn’t be show business if a little scheming wasn’t involved. I love it, keep her as far removed from him as possible, soon enough he’ll be nothing more than a memory; if we’re lucky he won’t be anything at all to her any time soon’

“We can only hope, and Suho is completely onboard with the idea so that’s another person in our corner”

‘The new boyfriend is even in on this?!’ he cackled ‘oh Saige, I knew you were the best of the best but this is just fantastic! But aren’t you scared of what she’ll do to you if she finds out this whole plan of yours?’

She bit her lip “I’ve thought about it--”

‘And?’

“And she might--no, she will hate me but it’s in her best interest. Besides he’s been helping keeping her distracted by taking her on dates and umm… keeping her physically entertained…”

‘She hates to work out, she likes this guy that much?’

“Sometimes I wonder how you’ve managed to become a multimillionaire with the things that come out of your mouth” she scoffed “sex Davis, I’m talking about sex!”

‘Oh! Well why didn’t you just say they’ve been fucking then?!’ he cackled again.

“Didn’t really think that’d be suiting conversation to have with my boss”

‘So what happened tonight then? Sex got stale all of a sudden?’ he chortled.

She made a eugh noise “oh no they had sex, multiple times so she said. She just came knocking on my room door saying that she couldn’t sleep and didn’t want to bother him and since the pubs stay open late here she said she just wanted to get a few drinks to maybe help her chill out and then two hours and three heart-shaped boxes of chocolates later and well here we are...she’s piss ass drunk throwing chocolates all over the place and yelling at denim advertisements”

‘Well aside from her drunken rampage it seems like you have things more under control that I thought. Keep it that way, and keep that dragon guy as far away from her as possible’

“Oh, believe me I plan to”

#g dragon smut #g dragon scenarios #g dragon fanfiction #g dragon imagines #g dragon fluff #gdragon scenarios #gdragon fanfiction #gdragon smut #gdragon angst #gdragon imagines #bigbang scenarios #bigbang fanfic #bigbang fanfiction #bigbang imagines #bigbang angst

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gemmieurts-blog · 6 years

Text

The Emperor: Revenge Pt IV

Warning: Body Horror

“No...no please! What-what do you want? Money? Women?”

‘He doesn’t understand.’

Drip...drip…

His grip tightened on the other dragon’s head. The half clothed females lining the room looked like living statues, their bloodied hands gripping into the stone and silks that tried to give an unnatural lavish ambiance to the brothel so as to give their customers that ‘rich unbridled’ feeling to empty their pockets faster.

“PLEASE I’LL DO ANYTHING!”

Drip...drip…

The sound was nauseating to listen to as blood slowly pooled on the floor.

‘None of them understood…’

Snappers were a hardy and bulky breed, but their scales didn’t provide much protection to an Emperor. No dragon’s did. Their meat and natural plating simply provided a comfortable place to sink claw and teeth into. One pair of calloused hands firmly kneaded the robber’s head, thumbs caressing the temple. The otherwise affectionate gesture instead invoked a sense of realization that at any moment, his life could end right here and now on the whim of a monster. The other pair had the dragon’s shoulders pinned to the wall, threatening to permanently immobilize his arms for the rest of life. Though, it would be a very short life indeed given the situation. Woruk’s maw came deathly close to the cowering robber.

It was a strange sight, seeing a humanoid face amongst three writhing serpentine-esque heads that sprouted from a broad strong back and shoulders. As if the four arms weren’t enough...but Zyollan was happy amongst his subconscious misery of knowing what he had become. His brothers were with him once again in body, though they couldn’t speak. Chantha’s words came true in his eyes. However, he wouldn’t rest until he had the blood of those who mercilessly slaughtered and desecrated their corpses on his own hands, splattered on his chest and cheeks like war paint.

It was a pity though, that he didn’t know what was to come for him after his crusade…

A ghastly howling erupted from outside the establishment. Sharp and shrill, like a banshee had come to this world to wreak its havoc on the living. Zyollan didn’t mind the noise. Just like he didn’t mind the screams as he eradicated the other villages. They harbored such an awful man. How could they? How could they let him live? Why did he even exist? If they had killed him before, this wouldn’t have happened. If his parents never gave birth this wouldn’t have happened. If his parents weren’t born this wouldn’t have happened.

Everyone was guilty.

And in turn no one was safe.

However as time went on, the sound became more unbearable. What was it? A familiar? A dragon? A storm?

And then it stopped.

Everything went quiet save for the robber’s simpering pleads that were barely audible and more for his own sanity.

And then came the collective cacophony of what seemed like tortured souls coming up from beneath the crust in agony and sorrow.

That wasn’t the only thing worrisome. The particular room this… party was in, was on the second floor of the brothel in the ‘Royal Ankh Room.’ It was fitting for an Earthen territory place of pleasure, especially as expensive and well known as this one, but the addition of heavy columns inside made the room one of the most unbalanced should any of those on the first floor sustain damage.

And damage did the first floor sustain…So much so, that the entire 2nd floor came crashing down to ground level. Amidst the wreckage, the unfortunate few who didn’t manage to escape in time lay under layers of sand and stone. Zyollan had lost his footing yet his ‘prey’ had stay in the exact same spot, suffering from fractures along his back legs from the fall. From his place on the ground, Zyollan’s could only see a slowed version of the events in front of him, a watery filter above them as if he was witnessing everything underwater, drowning slowly. Bells like those at a cathedral rang in his ear amidst the carnage. He recalled memories of his childhood playing in a stream far too small for any Imperial, but he loved sitting in it and watching the small fish run between and around his toes for hours on end. ‘Where were they going in such a hurry?’ he would ask himself. He never found the answer. As he blinked to try and gain his focus back, he saw something creep closer and closer into view, until it took up his entire line of sight.

A large jagged claw was pointing at him from what seemed like only a millimeter away. Any closer and he would have been blinded for life. For the first time in what seemed like hours, the ringing cut away for him to hear a garbled version of ‘Found you~.’ As his senses came back he lifted his head in a drunken manner, feeling around to get some sort of semblance to actual earth. He could hear his pulse throbbing in his ear, but that didn’t stop him from rising to his feet once more.

The strange being pointing at him now came across quite clearer, though he was unsure what exactly it was. It had a jagged tail reminiscent of a Ridgeback yes, but its hair covered it in the manner of a Tundra. Furthermore it was blindfolded and seemed to not be able to formulate speech though it could comprehend. The appearance of it made Zyollan almost forget what he was even doing in the middle of this half demolished town until Chantha shook his mane out and roared in the direction of the robber, who was unusually hobbled over a small chest covered in a deep purple velvet and lined with gold. The trinket could have easily been worth his weight in gold (which was saying something), however it was clear that something much more precious was inside.

Meanwhile, Efren dashed off as he recognized the sounds of his leaders’ footsteps nearing the area.

“I see him.”

A shrill whistle sounded from Darius’s lips as Efren came ambling down the road dodging citizens trying to escape their previous stronghold. Diablo was met with a harsh hug from the much larger male, being picked up in the air and tangled in a web of hair and gembond. He couldn’t help but grin at the overly affectionate Ridgeback, giving him a quick head ruffle. Darius smirked at the gesture as he clicked his tongue to have him return to his side.

“Shall I bring back their heads?”

“You will do no such thing.”

“Shhh…”

Whirlpool stared from behind a pillar from the neighboring building that hadn’t quite collapsed. It was in her nature to find the reasons for beings’ actions, even if that being was quote a “mindless monstrosity,” Light’s failure in her creation and one of the reasons for her ‘new’ children.

The robber appeared to be holding something out to the beast in a prostrated position, his eyes not clouded with tears but wide with both fright and a glimmer of hope.

“They’re the most priceless things in my hoard right now! They’re worth more than my life and any other life in the vastness of the Earth territory! Please! Take them and have mercy!”

Whirlpool jumped at stifled laughter from behind,

“He must be an idiot trying to reason with something that has no conscious or even a brain.”

She wanted to slap Darius for his rude remark but she couldn’t help but think the same way. From readings she knew that due to the number of heads that made up an Emperor, the nervous system and muscle memory within the main body are thrown into a chaotic flashing of contradicting signals much like if a robot short circuited and its coding was lost. There was no helping one who transformed into such a ghastly creation other than to violently kill it. Nevertheless she wanted to watch this creature, to see if there were exceptions within this concrete definition.

“Hey look!”

Diablo’s nudge shook her back from her inner thoughts.

The Emperor was kneeling.

@fr-blackiebelle @guardianitefr

#flight rising #fr #flight rising lore #fr lore #emperor #emperor lore #Zyollan #SAVE THIS CHILD #Darius why are you such an asshole...#literally why did I create you

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sushihairjiyong · 6 years

Note

😄: Name 5 things that you love about Daesung. Am asking not only because he's my bias, but because I've had to read some disheartening (and unsurprising) things recently about how a lot of "VIPs" treat him and his role in the fandom. Guess I'm just looking for some cheering up. Thanks!

Yesss I was hoping someone would ask me to talk about Daesung! Okay, five things, let’s go:

1. Stage presence.

A lot has been said about the stage presence of other members, and while I think stage presence is a strong point for every member of BIGBANG, to me, no one knows how to hype a crowd quite like Daesung. He’s over the top in his gestures, in the way he communicates with the audience. He’s exciting to watch. He amps up the energy of the entire room.

I’ve been to a lot of concerts. Many of them have had opening acts whose music I didn’t know. If the opening act isn’t good live, this can make for a boring half hour or so. But sometimes the opening act is so good that it doesn’t matter that you don’t know any of their songs – the energy they bring has you up out of your seat anyway. Sometimes an opening act has delivered such a good live performance that I have enjoyed it more than the act I actually came to see.

Obviously not in Japan, where he is widely known and loved, but certainly in the US, Daesung’s solo music is likely not as well known by concert attendees as Jiyong’s and Youngbae’s. Yet I imagine despite not necessarily being as familiar with the songs, the US audience have the time of their lives when Daesung performs. Daesung’s one of those performers who gives his all and makes everyone enjoy his music, some more than they expected to. Think of his appearance on Fantastic Duo. Everyone was in love with him by the end of it, and I think it took them by surprise, the fact that they enjoyed him as much as they did.

2. Supportive/Caring/Reliable.

Coming to help perform with Jiyong last minute when Jiyong was injured. Immediately, without thinking, saying he’d be there again for Jiyong, whenever. Even at 4:30AM. His guilt in the MADE interviews over Jiyong’s collapse backstage. While he had no reason to feel guilty and I wish he wasn’t so hard on himself, the fact that he felt so personally responsible for not having been able to help Jiyong is evidence that he cares a lot.

Seunghyun often brings up Daesung being there for him, supporting him, listening to him. Checking in with him, making sure he’s doing alright. We all worry a lot about Seunghyun, not without reason, but I do feel reassured knowing that he has someone like Daesung in his life to listen to him and help him through his thoughts.

3. His love of LEGO!

There’s a lot of sort of gentle teasing that goes on in-fandom regarding Daesung’s love of LEGO. But I’m really glad that Daesung has something that makes him so happy. It’s good to be able to take pleasure in simple things. And I think perhaps LEGO, for Daesung, functions in much the same way that Seunghyun’s love of art does for him.We often praise Seunghyun’s love of art for how it helps him, how it soothes his mind, and while LEGO might not be quite as highbrow as art, I think collecting LEGO, building it, I think it provides the same sort of support for Daesung as collecting and enjoying art does for Seunghyun. So while we tease him for being a bit of a kid, I really am glad that he has something in his life that brings him such joy.

4. Duality.

There’s always been a lot of talk about G-Dragon vs Jiyong, but for some reason much less talk about the stark differences between Daesung’s public and private life. Daesung is so outgoing and sociable on variety shows and on stage, yet is an intensely private person who spends most of his downtime at home. I really like that, while something of a homebody, when in public he’s able to joke about and energize everyone. He brings so much joy to everyone’s life. I love that he is able to be private and appreciate time alone without being standoffish or aloof.

5. His voice.

Honestly, Daesung’s voice is one of my favourites ever. It’s so rich and full and so different in tone to what you typically hear. I especially love how his voice provides contrast in BIGBANG songs, such as during Café and If You. He has such a strong, powerful voice that suits a variety of genres. He’s able to do sweet songs, rock songs, trot, musical theater... his voice suits it all. And his voice is so expressive, which is particularly impressive given that many of his solo releases are in Japanese. I know that he’s fluent, but as someone who is also bilingual I know that no matter how fluent you are everything is always that little bit more challenging in your second language. But Daesung sings and emotes with such ease no matter the language. His voice commands your attention and sucks you in. I could listen to him sing anything.

#again sorry this took so long! i was trying to do him justice! and even so i'm not sure i quite succeeded #there were so many other things i wanted to include #i feel kind of uncertain about including the lego thing but it really is something i love a lot about him and love that he has in his life #but i think people will think it's an odd choice hahaha #Anonymous #asks #ask meme #about me

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thekuroiookami · 7 years

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Otome Mania

This is no longer a secret, I have played, do play and will play a fair number of otome games. I’m weak to cliched romantic plotlines, okay?

Since I did promise @lethesomething a list, here it is. The summary is...I’ve played a lot of games.

Games organized by console, arranged from meh to great.

PS Vita

I pretty much got a Vita so I could play otomes. Don’t judge me too harshly. And while a lot of these are incomplete (i.e. I haven’t played through every route), I feel like I can give an opinion.

Norn 9: Var Commons - Admittedly I haven’t gotten far into this, but lord is the plot confusing. Like, what is happening? What is happening? So many pretty people, though...

Sweet Fuse - Cute, fun, though not high on replay value. The characters are really weird, but don’t let that stop you. They have charm, and the parody elements are worth it. Plus blowing your top has never been so satisfying.

Collar x Malice - I almost finished one route and I’m really enjoying it. The heroine has so much personality and she chews out the dude whose route I was doing, and the mystery is so intriguing, if a tad weirdly investigated...

Code Realize: Guardian of Rebirth - By far the best otome game I’ve played on anything. A beautifully built world, excellent artwork, a heroine with backbone, massively diverging plotlines, and just about every love interest is actually interesting. I’d encourage everyone to play this when it comes out on PC. The Suwabe character is just the icing on the cake for once.

PS3

Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom - Hugely overrated, I think, though not many games can match the artwork. Incredibly long, painful storylines that made me yawn. Heroine has zero presence. I do love Saito though.

Mobile

Mystic Messenger - Is entertaining, but every love interest needs immediate help from a psychologist. The format works to the game’s advantage, and the voice acting is good, I spent a ton of money on it. But the romance doesn’t always feel like a romance.

Liar: Uncover the Truth - This is a surprisingly fun game, but I didn’t have the patience to wait for tickets, or spend money on the black hole. Sad but true.

Games you should definitely never play:

Amnesia: Memories - out and out horror, that one. I don’t know why player character has a sprite, because her personality is non-existent.

Ozmafia - Theoretically very interesting, but in practice, suffers from a spineless heroine. I have a knack for finding the yandere route the second time I play any game, and...let’s say if you play the doctor’s route you’re in for some surprises. Yeah.

Men of Yoshiwara: Sigh. Terrible translation, first off, backed up by terrible writing. Just don’t.

Games that are okay to pass the time:

Seduce Me and Seduce Me 2: Demon War - It’s not like this one is bad, just not amazing. It’s decently voice acted, and the first one is a cute rom-com. The second game gets a lot more complex and weird, and it’s super easy to die. The first game is free.

The Lady’s Choice - A Regency romance otome game with only two choices, but it’s nice how much you can shape the MC’s personality. Free on itch.io.

Dandelion and Nameless - Both of these are Korean-origin, produced by the same company that did Mystic Messenger, and while they do have strong writing plus original concepts, somehow the games never keep my attention for long. Nameless is a bit dark in tone, if that appeals to you. Dandelion is a stat-raising sim, which I hate with a passion.

Loren the Amazon Princess - I think this was one of the first ones I played, and it was pretty ahead in the range of LGBTQ characters, but now that I think back on it, the RPG/romance combination was a tad strange. But I do recommend it.

Days of the Divine - Another of those free itch.io ones, I can barely remember this. It was passable.

How to Take Off Your Mask - Cute, but I can’t remember what the point was.

Games that are super cute and definitely need to be played at least once:

Cute Demon Crashers - It’s a pretty short game, but utterly wonderful in its simplicity and earnestness. An R-18 novel that is very high on sex positivity, I’d recommend this one a lot. Free on itch.io.

The Blind Griffin - An odd but good work set in the age of flapper dresses and speakeasies, following a Chinese heroine who accidentally stumbles upon a secret magician’s guild and trains as an apprentice. Great art, comes with a slang dictionary, and makes up for its abruptness with cuteness. Free on itch.io.

Heartbaked - Lots of aggressive pastry references in this one, and one guy who is? a sheep? Or something? I dunno, it’s adorable. Free on itch.io.

Hustle Cat - A cat cafe, only the staff are the cats. Light hearted fun, though it is easy to mess the game up and get a bad ending.

Autumn’s Journey - So cute. So much fluff. Dragon boys. A girl knight. Enough said. Free on itch.io.

Magical Otoge Ciel - If you want to simultaneously have your soul uplifted and go “WTF is this meta”, play this. It’s so irreverent and sweet, and the art grows on you. @batensan‘s Magical Otoge Anholly is a good read as well, though it is technically a linear novel. Free on itch.io.

Taarradhin - A beautiful fantasy short, but incredibly hard to figure out. The high probability of getting it wrong kind of put me off. Free on itch.io.

Lads in Distress - Exactly what it says on the tin. Overly competent princess with pink hair takes matters into her own hands and saves the princes. I only wish we also had the option to date the childhood fried cum fairy advisor. Free on itch.io.

Re: Alistair - This one is really good, and honestly would have been included in the best games list if it had more LIs. There’s a cute mystery to sort of solve, and I don’t even mind the stat-raising elements. Free on itch.io.

Ristorante Amore - Gorgeous art, and a major plot twist once the story really gets started. I can’t give away anything for fear of ruining it, so just go play it. Free on itch.io.

Yo-Jin-Bo - One of my guilty pleasures, honestly. Yes the MC is a wimp, but the absolute comedy that passes for dialogue is worth it.

Games that sink their claws in and don’t let go:

Cinders - I cannot recommend this enough. Sublime story-telling, the option to be Machiavellian, naively sweet or something in between. The LI’s are good, of course (guess who’s my favourite), but the real star of the show is female relationships - Cinders and her stepsisters, the daughters and the mother, the godmother in disguise. There’s so many possible outcomes as well. I wish the original fairytale were half as interesting.

Cinderella Phenomenon - A free game I backed on Kickstarter, and it’s looking pretty good. The heroine is unapologetically bitchy, but goes through some satisfying character development in the routse I played. Intrigue abounds, and even though I wish there was a little less blushing to go around, it’s pretty good overall.

Demonheart - I am a little torn about this, because it’s an ongoing game on Steam (released in chapters). On the one hand, I feel like romance things happened really abruptly in the last chapter. On the other, the concept is executed very well and there are so many choices. Plus, excellent worldbuilding.

Nachtigal - A really good shorter game about a spunky heroine trapped with two vampires. There’s a whole variety of ways to die in this one, so it’s extra satisfying when you do land the guy.

The Royal Trap - Say what you will about it, but as one of the first VNs I read, I still quite like this one. So many romance options, and so much intrigue. Each route reveals something different about the overall plot. Good stuff.

The Second Reproduction - Starts off typical, but then it goes down some truly unexpected routes. Strong heroine, attractive demon king. Be sure to play it with a guide to get the whole story.

There are plenty I haven’t played at all, or not enough to comment, but this is the list I’d give out to anyone who wanted some recs.

#otome game #recommendations #not anime #random stuff #wow this is long #im restraining myself #honestly

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adorkablephil · 7 years

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Fic: Imaginary Friends (Chapter 5)

Title: Imaginary Friends Summary: Nothing’s AU ... except that Dan and Phil have been appearing in each other’s dreams since childhood without realizing it because they’re soulmates. Everything on the outside looks like the reality we’re used to irl. Rating: Teen Word Count: 1950 (this chapter) Tags: Soulmates, AU, But Kind of Not AU, Except That There’s Magic, Certainly Not a Typical Soulmates AU, Dreams, Getting Together, Friends to Lovers Fic also available on AO3 here

[Masterlist of all Imaginary Friends chapters on Tumblr]

Chapter 5: Friends

It hadn’t made any sense for one of them to sleep in the uncomfortable bunks, regardless of any rock-paper-scissors game they’d played on camera for the documentary. They might not advertise it to the outside world, but they were perfectly comfortable with platonically sharing a fairly spacious bed on the tour bus. They were close friends—the closest—and not homophobic, so why should either of them twist themselves into a 6’2” pretzel every night? It just wouldn’t have made any sense.

So they shared the bed. Platonically.

And it wasn’t weird.

Mostly.

Except for the dreams.

Because every night now, Phil had shadow dreams that had taken on an entirely new dimension. Phil had been a small boy when he first invented his shadow friend, and so their relationship had been that of any two small children having fun together.

But Phil was a man now. And the daily frustrations of going to bed every night beside someone he was hopelessly in love with, someone beautiful and golden and dimpled, someone who smiled at him with a special soft smile he never shared with other people, someone who thought he was funny and brilliant, someone with whom he spent every evening performing a show they had created together, about a world they had created together … it all apparently left him with longings that his subconscious could not handle except by finding another outlet.

And so the shadow had become his lover. Every night, they eventually found each other. Even if Phil was dreaming about something else, the shadow would break through and the dream would change until they were in each other’s arms and Phil felt a sense of completeness and fulfillment that he’d never felt with any of his lovers in the real world.

That made sense, though, because the shadow was a lover he had created for himself, and so of course he would create his own ideal match, someone who knew every aspect of him and every secret wish, and loved him beyond description anyway. Someone who balanced him and complemented him and knew without asking what would please him best. Someone magical and fascinating and just … perfect. Someone with whom he could literally become one in the dream world they shared.

Because who wouldn’t want that? Who wouldn’t want a lover who could simply feel your internal thoughts and longings, and act on them to give you pleasure like you’d never experienced before? Who wouldn’t want that?

Phil woke every morning to a heartbreakingly wonderful split-second of feeling lazily sated and blissful, feeling well-loved and well-fucked, until he turned to look at the beautiful man beside him and remembered that this wasn’t his lover whose head rested on the pillow beside his. His lover didn’t actually even exist, and Phil was just a pathetic man creating a dream outlet for his unrequited emotions for someone who didn’t even notice him in that way.

And so Phil started every morning with a guilty conscience, gazing across the bed at the sleeping face of the man who had no idea of the very non-innocent ideas that occupied Phil’s brain so much of the time.

He was beyond pathetic—he was pitiful. And more than a little miserable every day, despite the bliss of his nights.

They were sitting in a diner in some town in the middle of America somewhere. The tour was such a whirlwind that Phil never really knew where he was anymore and just went where he was told to go and did what he was told to do until it was time to go on stage and perform the show again.

This place didn’t seem to have much on the menu except burgers and fries, and a bunch of different kinds of pie, but it was close to their hotel and so the four of them had walked over to have a quiet meal together. An honest-to-goodness jukebox in the corner was playing actual vinyl records as if they were in some kind of Elvis Presley movie, but Phil didn’t recognize any of the songs. Old stuff, he guessed, from back when they were still making records like that.

His mind started to wander as Dan chatted companionably with Martyn and Cornelia. Last night’s dream had started with music, too … because the shadow himself had entered the dream as a song, something slow and plaintive and lovely … and he hadn’t taken physical form until Phil had already begun swaying to the music. They were in the same lake-side glade where the shadow had first transformed from stars into a man made of starlight, and as he transitioned from song to man he had shone just as brightly, bright as a star but without hurting Phil’s eyes to look at him, in fact making him want to look forever at nothing else…

“How about you, Phil?”

Phil’s head jerked up. He’d completely lost track of the conversation. And his meal. He looked down at the plate of fries he’d been picking at and his half-eaten burger. He looked back at Cornelia, who had asked him the question. “Um … what?”

Cornelia chuckled. “Lost in a fog as usual. We were talking about imaginary friends. I had one when I was little, but I’m guessing you didn’t hear anything I said about her. I was asking if you had any imaginary friends when you were a kid.”

Martyn wiped his mouth and added, “Yeah, I don’t remember you talking about any, but did you?”

Phil glanced from face to face, panicking as he thought of last night’s erotic dream events. He really didn’t want to talk about this. He made a non-committal noise, shrugged, and punted the question to Dan. “How about you? Any imaginary friends?”

Dan chewed and swallowed, looking pensive. “Sort of. I guess so. One. Except I never really thought of him as imaginary. More like another real, actual boy, but I would just slip into his dreams sometimes at night and we would do stuff together.” His expression grew shuttered and he looked down at his plate and pushed it away. “I’ve had enough. How about you guys? Shall we head back?”

Martyn looked around for their waitress, musing, “I want pie. They have a dozen different kinds, I think.”

Cornelia enthused, “Oooh! Pie! Me, too!”

But Phil was distracted by what Dan had said. He couldn’t believe Martyn and Cornelia hadn’t followed up with any additional questions. Hesitantly, Phil asked, “So … you had an imaginary friend in your dreams? When you were a kid?”

Dan shrugged awkwardly. “It’s hard to explain. It was like they were his dreams, but I was able to visit. I always thought of him as some other boy living somewhere else in the world, but I didn’t know where. We never talked about our real lives. We were too busy going on adventures.”

Cornelia looked intrigued now, forgetting momentarily about her quest for pie. “What kind of adventures?”

Dan smiled, his dimples showing. “Oh, terribly derivative stuff. Tolkien and Narnia and Final Fantasy and all that sort of thing. Sometimes we were climbing mountains and fighting giant spiders or crawling through tunnels or looking for buried treasure. Sometimes we fought dragons. Sometimes we were dragons. It was pretty fun, actually. I always looked forward to those dreams. They were my favorites.” His gaze seemed distant now, as if he was lost in fond memories.

Phil just stared at him. He’d never heard of someone else having the same kind of dreams! “What did your friend look like?” he asked, suddenly intensely curious.

Dan frowned slightly, then tilted his head a bit in contemplation. “He always looked different. Well, almost always, anyway. But I always knew it was him.” Dan glanced at Phil. “You know, that way you tend to just know things in dreams, without there being any good reason for you to know them.”

Phil nodded, extremely familiar with that feeling.

Dan continued, musing, “Sometimes he looked like an animal, or a regular boy but covered in leaves or feathers or something. Sometimes he looked just like me, like looking in the mirror but having another person there talking back to you. Sometimes he even looked like a tree or something, but I could still recognize him, still understand him.”

Phil was leaning forward without even realizing it. “I had a dream friend like that when I was a kid, too,” he admitted at last, still feeling shocked that anyone else had experienced something similar to what he had always assumed was something weirdly unique to him.

“Yeah?” Dan asked, perking up. “What were they like?”

Phil shrugged. “Like what you said. They looked different in different dreams, but I always knew it was them. And we had all kinds of adventures and stuff. It was really fun.” They grinned at each other.

“And now you’re having adventures in real life!” Cornelia interjected, making Phil jump a little. He’d sort of forgotten that he and Dan weren’t alone in this conversation, it had seemed so unexpectedly confidential, sharing something he’d never shared with anyone before. But … maybe lots of people had these kinds of dreams. Maybe he just hadn’t heard about it. Maybe it really wasn’t so special after all.

But it had always felt special.

Last night had certainly felt special.

“Right!” Dan said, and at first Phil was so lost in thoughts of last night’s dream that didn’t know what Dan was responding too. “We’re on our great tour adventure across America.” He met Phil’s eyes and smiled. “Everything in the past year or so has seemed like an adventure, to be honest, with the book and everything. It hardly even seems real.”

But it was, Phil reminded himself. This was real. Just because other people had imaginary friend dreams too didn’t make it any more real. They were still just dreams.

Dan was real. The tour was real.

The shadow was just in his head.

“When did your imaginary friend dreams stop?” Martyn asked Dan. “How old were you?” He glanced back and forth between Phil and Dan, casually curious.

Dan’s face closed off, and Phil wondered why. At the same time, he hoped none of them were going to press him to answer that question, because he didn’t want to lie, but he also didn’t want to announce, “Oh, I still see him every night. In fact, I had the best sex of my life last night with my imaginary friend!” He could just picture their appalled reactions. The embarrassment. The pity.

Luckily, the waitress arrived at that moment, and Martyn and Cornelia blithely turned their attention to a discussion of what flavors of pie were available and which were most highly recommended.

Phil met Dan’s eyes briefly, but they both looked away. A moment ago, the conversation had seemed so intimate … and now something uneasy lurked beneath. Probably just Phil’s guilty conscience.

“No pie for me, thank you,” he replied when the waitress got his attention. His three companions all turned to him in surprise. Okay, maybe it was unusual for him to turn down dessert. But some sort of knot had developed in his stomach. He smiled weakly, and noticed that Dan looked a little concerned. He tried to make his smile look a little more convincing, but Dan didn’t look fooled.

At least Dan couldn’t see through him the way the shadow could. He could keep secrets from Dan. In fact, he had to.

Phil looked out the window, but it was so dark in the parking lot outside that he saw only his own reflection … and his face looked sad.

Author’s End Note: Thank you again to my patrons: @jorzuela, @itsjustmestef, and she who shall not be named! If you, too, enjoy my writing and would like to support me, leave a tip in my Tip Jar or learn about how to become a patron. Or, you know, just like, comment, and/or reblog! Any way you can let me know that you’re liking what I’m writing would be very much appreciated! I live for feedback.

[Continue to Chapter 6]

#phanfiction #phanfic #phan #phan soulmates au #soulmates au #phanfiction au #phanfic au #au phanfiction #au phanfic #myphanfic

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medea10 · 6 years

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Medea’s Anime & Game Superlative of 2017

Time to do the annual list I do once a year acknowledging the anime and games I played this year. So that means if an anime came out in like...1979, as long as I watched it this year, it counts for my list. Let’s get started! First Fandom of 2017: Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga I started Blue Exorcist back in 2013 and fell in love with the story instantly. However, I often wondered what came after the whole finally confronting Satan story of the anime. Don’t spoil it for me, I’m not caught up with the manga yet. So when they announced this anime was going to come back, I was all ready to watch Rin and Yukio in action. Despite the many reservations I had with this particular season, I was so excited for this season early this year and couldn’t wait for the latest episode to air each week. I am satisfied to hear back-stories from some of the minor characters like Bon, Shima, and Konekomaru. And of course any moment when Rin is about to punch someone in the face is always satisfying to watch! Rin grows quite a bit in this season so this season wasn't a complete waste. Plus Bryce Papenbrook slays it as Rin and we get another awesome song by UVERworld. Favorite Main Character of 2017: Oscar François de Jarjeyes (Rose of Versailles)

As I mentioned in my superlative list last year, Rose of Versailles was an anime I didn’t expect to get into, but enjoyed nevertheless. And as I continued watching this year, I was severely hooked on the main character, Oscar. I know Oscar is indeed a fictional character in a story that’s based on actual history. Which makes me wonder if history would be any different if Oscar truly existed? I felt for this woman, especially in those last 10 episodes of the series. Oscar is one of the toughest females in anime history with her attacks during the French Revolution and the turmoil she went through in her love life. I was rooting for her to succeed throughout the entire series. All the way up to standing up against the French Army, she does it all! Favorite Villain of 2017: Frieza (Dragon Ball Super) Why do I love the biggest assholes in the Dragon Ball series? I don’t know. Out of all the villains in this series, Frieza was my favorite. Despite during the Z series where it literally takes him around 10 episodes to try and blow up a simple planet! With Dragon Ball Super, he’s still pure evil! He ends up resurrected more than once (thanks a lot Goku). However, I really wish that he would have gotten more of an evil streak during this Universe Competition saga. I know he can’t kill anybody or he’d be disqualified, but he could do a little more other than just stand on a pirch and laugh at the pitiful fighters. But when he’s fighting the Saiyans (including other universe Saiyans like Cabba), he’s ruthless! Anyone else hoping to see him take on Jiren in the coming episodes? Favorite Video Game Character of 2017: Lillie (Pokemon Ultra Moon) Lillie, you’ve done it again! And you are THIS close to becoming my favorite in the anime (except I’m still a Lana fangirl). With the Ultra Sun/Moon games, Lillie definitely shows hutzpah in her actions. She goes to great lengths in order to save the pokemon Cosmog and would even go through dangerous situations in order to save her own mother (who verbally disowned her). What’s even better with these new games is that in the post-game, Lillie actually battles with a pokemon. AND IT’S FROM THE CLEFABLE LINE! Lillie actually battles alongside you with a Clefairy. If it means I get to fight against that genital wart, Faba with this little lady by my side, I am very satisfied! This is awesome! I’m glad we get this extra bit in these games since the previous version had Lillie traveling and we don’t see her after defeating the league. Favorite Game of 2017: Miitopia …It’s my own fault for getting hooked on Tomodachi Life back in 2014. Ever since then, I’ve been having so much fun with these Mii games. And Miitopia was no exception! Guys, it was either this game or one of the Freemium games the Japanese throw my way. But since I don't feel like getting into Idol Hell with Love Live, I'm going with the miis again. As for this game, I got to add my favorite characters of anime (like Tracey Sketchit), favorite characters on sitcoms, favorite celebrities, and all sorts of others to fight an evil Dark Lord. Better yet, this game doesn’t care in terms of gender. You can be a boy character and be a princess. You can make two men lovers! Plus browsing through all the miis there are was amusing. I can’t tell you how many Guy Fieri’s and Rick Sanchez’s I’ve seen come through my game. Plus, I had a lot of fun trying to kill Donald Trump and Celine Dion. These are the people I despise, deal with it. The one downside was having your face stolen and having it put on something absurd like a rock, a mouse, or a turkey’s ASS! WHY WOULD YOU ALLOW THAT TO HAPPEN?! Favorite Het Couple of 2017: Takeo Gouda x Rinko Yamato (My Love Story) THIS WAS SO ADORABLE! These two, together, the cutest fucking thing I’ve ever seen! I can’t believe it has taken me so long to watch this series. So this series revolves around a very, very, very, if the mother wasn't a former pro-wrestler, she would have split in half giving birth to him large high school freshman named Takeo falling in love with this petite girl named Yamato. I was amazed to find that they both confessed their feelings for each other so early in the series. And then have the rest of the series dedicated to their relationship blossoming! I know they’re only high school students, but seeing them do the simplest of things like holding hands or going on a date is downright adorable to see them do. Yamato sees past Takeo’s large exterior and sees that he is a sweet boy. I want this couple to thrive well into old age! Long live this ship! Favorite Yuri Couple of 2017: Ymir x Christa/Historia (Attack on Titan: Season 2) This year there were several Yuri couples that caught my eye (including couples from Love Live and Miss Kobayashi). But the one that stood out the most came from Attack on Titan’s second season. In the first season, I really never paid attention to Ymir x Christa. I think I was busy screaming out, “HOLY SHIT, THOSE ARE SOME FUCKED UP LOOKING TITANS!” When the chibi middle school spin-off came along, they laid it on kinda thick, especially on Ymir’s end. But this season is where it all came out. Particularly in the episode Historia! In this episode, we get a touching flashback of the two girls surviving in the harsh winter climate. Ymir did a lot in order to protect Christa, even exposing her giant secret. Both girls cared about each other enough so to confide in each other their dark secrets. I know this ship might die down when season 3 airs next July, but as for this season, we got plenty of this, and I couldn’t be any happier. Favorite Yaoi Couple of 2017: Grell Sutcliff x Sebastian Michaelis (Black Butler: Book of the Atlantic) Here I am again with this one-sided ship. Call it a long-time guilty pleasure. Okay, I’ll be honest. I didn’t watch that many anime this year where I was enthralled with two boys. Not like last year when Yuri on Ice aired! I almost gave a pity throwaway to Ash x Kiawe from Pokemon: Sun & Moon. But one thing I do remember and liked was when I went to the screening of Black Butler’s Book of the Atlantic. Because with Black Butler, you never know when a certain reaper in red is going to come swinging a chainsaw! And as I said before, this ship is heavily one-sided as Grell always wants Sebastian (either to make love to him or kill him…or both) and Sebastian finds him annoying and dodges his advances. But my fangirly heart still loves this ship. Besides, this isn’t the first time I’ve put this ship on my superlative list. Not even a boat-load of zombies can keep Grell away from his Sebas-chan! Eight years later and I still squeal anytime I see that! Fandom That You Didn’t Expect To Get Into: Sakura Quest In April this year, I picked a completely random anime that was brand new to start. I had no idea what it was about, I just jumped right into it. And what I found was a quaint story about a young girl who becomes queen of a very rural town. There are many fine animes that delve into the concept of living in a small, rural town and the colorful characters that live there. And honestly, I’m just glad that it didn’t end up with the people murdering each other (like Shiki or Higurashi). Instead, we get the main character Yoshino take part as the role of queen of the small kingdom. And with the help of four other girls from the town, they were able to bring life into their little town. I enjoyed many of these characters and fell in love with many of their back-stories. From Maki striving to be an actress to Ririko breaking out of her shell! Kadota wanting to make-up for his past mistakes he made in his youth, to Yoshino deciding on her future! Even though Yoshino wasn't too fond of the small village scene, she quickly adapted and learned that small towns like Manoyama can be just as fulfilling as big cities like Tokyo. Fandom That Made An Unexpected Comeback: Attack on Titan *singing incoherent Japanese gibberish* YEAGER! I didn’t think I was going to get into the Attack on Titan hype train this year as big as I did. Especially since it’s been 4 years since the previous season aired. Buckle up bitches! Despite this being only 12 episodes, this season was truly memorable and gave us MANY, MANY, MANY revelations. However most of that was from minor characters. Now this season did come with some irritating things. Like Levi and Jean being pushed to the side. Eren is like a hostage for what feels like half the season. And Mikasa turned into so much of a yandere, I think Yuno Gasai pissed herself. But aside from my nitpicky things, I really enjoyed this season of Attack on Titan. Not just with this season, but catching up with the manga as well. Because I’m not waiting until 2018 to learn about giant monkey man titan! Add to that, a bomb-ass opening theme by Linked Horizon, Eren fighting the armored and colossal titan, and Ymir x Christa, this was one hell of a season. Can’t wait for July 2018! Fandom That Inspired the Most Crack: Miss Kobayashi’s Maid Dragon This is something I’m currently watching…and boy is it crazy! I almost gave it to Mr. Osomatsu again, but then I see busty dragon ladies! Imagine if you will, opening your front door and finding a humungus dragon standing at your door step. You are either in an anime, stoned off your ass, still drunk, or this is just a dream. Well in this case it’s an anime…and Miss Kobayashi might have been hungover when she met Tohru. And because it’s an anime, why not have this dragon transform into a busty girl? Thanks Japan! And living with Tohru and the rest of the dragons is anything but simple. Since Tohru is going to be Kobayashi’s maid, she’ll have to cook (by she’s going to cut off her tail and cook it for her master), clean (by licking Kobayashi’s clothes with her tongue), and protect the home from intruders (by blowing any and all intruders to oblivion). Yeah, this anime is wacky with not only Tohru, but the other mythical creatures like Kanna, Fafnir, Elma, and one of animes BIGGEST PAIRS OF TITS I’VE EVER SEEN Lucoa. Last Fandom of 2017: Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma: The Third Plate The third season of Food Wars is by far the BEST thing to air for Fall 2017 animes. Not just I think so, but friends and co-workers of mine agree. Fans of the show were finally treated to meeting rest of Totsuki Academy’s Elite Ten. Not only that, but learn a great deal of one of this anime’s most hated characters (as to why we hate her). As Totsuki is drenched in tradition, we see this tradition break by an uprising as an exiled member of Totsuki emerges and ends up taking over the academy. This leading to mass changes in curriculum with the students and the Shokugeki in danger of no longer existing! To which Soma Yukihira says, “Hold my beer. It’s time to cook.” Okay, he doesn’t exactly say that, but he definitely takes on the establishment (including several Elite Ten members) in order to protect his friends and colleagues of the school. And let’s not forget what this show also contains! FOOD ORGASMS! I will admit that the later seasons have toned down a bit on the food orgasms that’s shown. But when it does happen, it’s almost other-worldly due to who’s cooking the food. I would love to eat any of that food that they cook on this show…I just don’t want my clothes to rip off me while the food molests me both ways.

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tisfan · 6 years

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Holiday Spending

All I Buy For Christmas - Renting in the New Year - Will you Steal My Valentine - Up for (Mardi) Grabs - Hopping Down the Money Trail - (In) Memorial Day Sale - (Folding) Paper Anniversary - (Financial) Independence Day - Back to School (Fundraiser) - Fruit of our Labors

A/N: Contains unbelievable amounts of sap. Sorry.

Chapter 12: (Giving) Thanks

“Yaaaaaaasha!” Nat was yelling as she pounded up the stairs and into the little flat. For someone who was a dancer and supposedly graceful, Nat often sounded like a herd of very small brontosauruses. “Yaaaaaaasha!”

She stopped dead two steps into the living room, scowling. “You’re not Yasha.”

Tony laughed, cynical. “How observant of you, dear sister.”

“You’re not my brother-in-law yet,” Nat said, hands on her hips. “Where’s Yasha?”

Tony flipped the channel on the television. Oh, look, something with a gun fight. Flip. Something with a man forcing a woman into a kiss to shut her up. Flip. More gun fighting. Flip. Tony sighed. It’d be nice to watch some television some time without feeling like he was being personally attacked in high definition. Oh, cooking show. That might be okay.

“He went out to get some take-away,” Tony said.

And Tony was doing his best not to panic about everything. It’d been a bad day for both of them, starting out with a stupid argument about whose turn it was to do the dishes (for the record, it was Bucky’s turn and Tony was feeling both petty and guilty about feeling petty) and then they’d attempted to have some make-up sex that had gone terribly wrong when they discovered someone (Tony that time) had left half a bottle of juice on the bed and it spilled, soaking the comforter and sheets with orange juice. They’d had to put sexy times on hold to wash the linens, and by the time they were done with that, neither of them were in the mood to do more than try to be decent human beings another day.

Logically, Tony knew that Bucky wasn’t going to leave him over stupid fights. Logically, he knew the people on the television weren’t going to shoot him, either. Didn’t help with the stupid brain.

And the more stupid things happened, the snappier and uglier and prone to picking a fight Tony got until Bucky had grabbed his smokes and headed out to get dinner, rather than dealing with Tony and his attitude any longer. Tony wasn’t going to admit that his first reaction to that was “and stay out.”

“Hmph,” Nat said, flouncing into the kitchen. She pulled the vodka bottle out from under the sink. “I hope he brings enough for me. We have a celebration, tonight.”

“Do we?”

“Yes, mister pouty-pout face,” Nat said. She poured two shots and handed him one. “Drink with me.”

(more below the cut, or read the whole thing at A03)

“What are we celebrating?” A little good news might help get Tony and Bucky out of their funk.

“Wait,” Nat said. She knocked back the shot and licked the droplets from the side of her glass. “I will not tell you first. Yasha would be cross with me.”

“We could form a team,” Tony said, a touch bitter. He drank down the vodka she poured for him. “People that your brother is pissed with.”

Nat gave him a sharp look, refilled the shot glasses. “You are arguing?”

Tony shrugged. “It’s not even important, you know. Just…”

“The pain of a dozen blisters,” Nat said.

God, Tony hoped not; he’d seen Nat’s feet after some of her bad rehearsals, nights where the director made them do it again, and again, and again and she would drag herself home, feet bleeding and heels red and raw.

“I’m not that bad,” Tony protested.

“You are not,” Nat agreed. She poured them more shots.

“Just feel… shitty,” Tony admitted. “That I’m pissed at him about stupid shit.”

“Make a gratitude list,” Nat said. “My therapist tells me to do this every day, but that is ridiculous. If I must make a list every night, it becomes work, and I am not grateful for the things I have and love, I resent making the damn list. But sometimes, especially when I am feeling out of sorts, I sit down and make the list.”

“Coffee,” Tony said. That was easy.

“No, no,” Nat said. “We will make a written list.”

“You expect me to write after you dumped four shots of vodka into me?”

Nat’s look was so flat it could have served as a level. “Yes.”

Nat fetched notepads and ridiculously colored gel pens -- Tony’s was brilliant emerald green, hers was eggplant purple -- and an old-fashioned hour glass, the kind that actually had sand in it. Tony hadn’t seen anything like it in… well, maybe even ever, except on television and Nat actually slapped his hand when he tried to inspect it.

“Make your list.”

Nat’s ridiculousness Coffee Waking up before the alarm goes off and being able to go back to sleep Bucky loves me

A small wince there, because Tony hadn’t exactly been loveable recently, but he supposed that was what unconditionally meant. I still love him, even when I’m mad.

loving Bucky Believing both of those things are true The money

Another flinch, because he also felt guilty about the Stark fortune; he hadn’t done anything to earn it except being born to the right parents. And having those same parents die unexpectedly. Because of the fucking money. He resented it even as he was grateful for the comfort it provided, for the fact that he didn’t have to worry. That he could pay Bucky’s hospital bills. All the things that the money could purchase, without consideration for all the things the money was. He made a mental note to get with his accountants and look at the current charity donations. Surely there were things he could do to even the score a little bit.

The ability to make other people’s lives easier

People, yes, he had some people in his life that he was grateful for. Rhodey Pepper Jan Bruce

Tony made a note to call them all and get together for a lunch or dinner or something. He’d been neglecting his friendships. He wasn’t quite sure why, maybe something to do with Jan’s party and not wanting to look at his friends and remember that they’d seen him in the aftermath and fucking resenting that they’d seen him that way. You won’t get past it unless you deal with it.

He was grateful for his mom, much as he missed her.

Mom teaching me to play piano. The times she took me to the ballet.

Maria had loved the ballet; she was thrilled when she found out that Bucky’s sister was a dancer. They’d gone to the Nutcracker every year until Tony went off to college, and even then, she’d asked him every year if he wanted to go. He nursed a small regret that he’d said no last year, too eager to avoid questions about his lack of significant other. On the other hand, that had lead him to grabbing Bucky’s advertisement.

Bucky’s ridiculousness Bucky’s patience Bucky’s terrible bedhead

That had given him a bright spurt, first thing in the morning, on so many days. Bucky’s hair was shoulder length, thick and silky-soft, prone to curling up if it was humid or drizzly, and after sleeping on it, the whole thing had a mind and life of its own. Tony was almost convinced that Bucky’s hair was what lead to tales of the medusa with her crown of snakes.

Bubblewrap

Tony was prone to abusing his Amazon Now account and the last batch of stuff he needed without bothering to get the fuck off the sofa had come wrapped in yards of it. Tony’d put the widget aside without even playing with it, just so he could snap a few dozen air pockets.

Doughnuts. Grapes. Peppermint frappuccinos. Good beer. Bad vodka. Really terrible marshmallow flavored vodka. Cold pizza for breakfast. Bucky’s tomato soup out of a mug when I’m not feeling well.

Cheese.

Cheese whiz.

Stop judging me from across the living room Nat, I can feel the judgement here.

Roller skates.

Bucky’s kisses. Blow jobs. Sleepy morning sex.

There were a lot of other sex things to be grateful for, but he wasn’t sure if he and Nat were going to be exchanging lists, and Nat had made it perfectly clear that while she didn’t care that her brother was having sex, she really didn’t want to hear about it (or hear it) in any great detail.

Metallica. AC/DC. Black Sabbath.

Baby Metal.

Guilty pleasure that, and he was sure there were hundreds of hard-core metal fans that were going to come for his head-banging card for admitting it, but the Japanese jpop/heavy metal group were weirdly… cute, for lack of a better word. Like shiny, sparkly vampires, he couldn’t help but love it, even if people with sense, taste, and dignity thought they were awful.

Tony thought dignity was over-rated anyway.

Bucky’s eyes. The way he looks at me The way he looks at kitten videos The fact that he shares stupid kitten videos with me Because he knows I won’t look at them on my own

Bucky. Bucky Bucky Bucky Bucky.

November was a good time to take a cool down walk.

First, it was cool -- cold, even. Walking angrily while bundled up in sweatshirts and a hoodie and a coat and a scarf, with gloves and hands shoved in your pockets was oddly satisfying.

Sweat formed and dried against Bucky’s throat, keeping him mostly comfortable. His chest ached as he dragged in cold air and expelled it in a puff of steamy condensation. Like being a dragon.

All he needed was claws and the ability to fly away from his problems for a while.

Which just got him feeling weirdly guilty because there were so many people who would commit murder (not funny, brain) to have the kinds of problems that Bucky had. Smokin’ hot boyfriend who was smart, funny, and rich? What was there to complain about?

The fucking dishes and who left their trash around the house?

Like, what even was that?

Of course, Tony’s desire to throw money at problems was a bit annoying. Bucky’d taken the phone away from him at one point in the middle of calling a plumber for a loose flap in the tank that had taken Bucky all of fifteen minutes to fix.

Except Bucky could kinda see Tony’s point.

The kind of money Tony had, the kind he made just existing, it seemed a little silly to waste his time putting in new toilet guts and saving a hundred dollars on a plumber fee. Bucky wasn’t even sure why they still lived in Bucky’s tiny, overcrowded flat. Tony’d never even brought it up, but after seeing where Tony had grown up, it was strange that Tony didn’t seem stifled in his place.

Didn’t really make Bucky feel better about the situation. It was a little easier, back when he was bodyguarding for Tony, but that had gone over like a lead balloon. Epic fail.

Bucky didn’t like feeling useless. It bent back to the times when his father had yelled at him about dreaming his life away. The military had gone and shattered that dreamy boy, left him with a man who needed work to have worth.

It wasn’t fair to take it out on Tony, though. Bucky’s ego problems were his own damn problems. He shouldn’t need Tony to prop up his self-esteem, or worse, trying to make Tony feel small so that Bucky could feel better.

That wasn’t the man he wanted to be.

Of course, he didn’t know who he was. He hadn’t been Sergeant Barnes since an IED had tried to erase half of him from existence.

He’d been a bouncer, a bodyguard. He defined himself by what he did, and now that he wasn’t doing anything, he didn’t know who he was.

Tony, at least, had school, and eventually he’d have a company to run. He had court dates and therapy visits.

Bucky had four walls and an inferiority complex.

Fuck.

What… what the hell did he do now?

“Hey, man,” someone said, and Bucky jerked to a stop. People didn’t usually talk to him, especially when he was walking with his resting bitchface on. “Spare a dollar?”

Bucky blinked, suddenly aware of how cold it was. Looked down at the man sitting in the lee side of a staircase. Hard to tell how thin he was, bundled up in a bunch of discards. His face was covered in a thin beard, but he smiled when Bucky actually made eye contact. It was a harsh sort of smile, the guy had a face like a brick wall.

“Yeah,” Bucky said. He dug into his back pocket for his wallet. He didn’t have anything smaller than a twenty in there. What the hell. Bucky thumbed out three of them. Twisted into a squat. Handed them over.

The guy had a young man’s face but old-man hands, the knuckles swollen and bent, fingers red and peeling.

“Thank you,” he said.

“You’re welcome. I’m Bucky, it’s nice to meet you. Cold out here, today, yeah?”

“Oh, man, yeah,” the man said. “Name’s Frank Castle. An’ it’s one of those days, man. Fallish wind is blowin, and it finds the hole in your pants, blows straight up the crack of your ass, don’t it just?”

Bucky couldn’t help a rueful smile at that, pretty damn good description, really. “When was the last time you had a warm bed?”

Frank shrugged a shoulder. “What, man, you writin’ a book?” Bucky couldn’t imagine how bad things had to be to sit on a street and beg for cash, what people probably said and thought and knowing that no way in hell it was ever going to be enough. Little booze to cut the chill, let you forget about that empty feeling in your stomach.

“No,” Bucky said, honestly, “just… come into some money recently and I want to help.”

Frank gave him a sharp glance. “Havin’ a crisis of conscience man, wanna pay back karma by doing a good deed. Fuck off, dude.”

“The room’s no less warm if I’m getting feelgood points out of it,” Bucky pointed out. His father had never held any traction with beggars and homeless before. Bucky’d given a dollar to a wino one day and his dad had yelled at him about it. You feed a homeless guy, give him shelter, and what happens? Well, you just have to feed him again tomorrow. You got extra money, put it someplace where it’ll do some good, kiddo.

Frank tipped his head. “Yeah, truth.”

“Come on, then,” Bucky said, offering a hand up. “I’ll buy you dinner and get you a room for the night.”

“I ain’t gonna blow you,” Frank said, scowling.

“I’m not asking,” Bucky said. He shuddered inwardly. What a fucking world this was, that even something as simple as giving a hungry guy some food was suspicious.

Frank scorned the offered hand up and scrambled to his feet.

“Christ, you’re a big guy.”

“Don’t you forget it, neither,” Frank said. “Street people go missin’ all the time. I ain’t gonna be one of ‘em.”

Bucky nodded. He pulled out his phone, popped off a brief text to Tony to let him know he’d be a bit later than expected. Checked the map to see what food was nearby.

Chinese take-away acquired and it wasn’t too far for a Day’s Inn. He got a room for two days while Frank lurked under the staircase, aware that any hotel check-in manager wasn’t going to want a streeter in their room. Bucky cringed a bit; he knew what Frank must be thinking, must be worried about. How easy it would be for someone like Bucky to make someone like Frank vanish.

“So, what now?” Frank asked, arms crossed over his chest.

Bucky put his load of food down on the tiny table near the television. “Now nothing. You can eat. Have a shower. Get a few night’s sleep. Here’s my cell number. You can call me if you want.”

“You just doing your good deed, and poof, vanishing?”

“I ain’t gotten that far in my head yet, pal,” Bucky admitted.

“Well, whoever you killed that you need this much redemption, I hope he was an asshole,” Frank said.

“Take care of yourself, Frank,” Bucky said.

Frank was already deep in a paper container of Kung Pao chicken. “Thanksgiving came early, got it.” He gave Bucky a thumbs up and turned his attention back to more important things. Like food.

Tony wasn’t always as good with people as he thought he should be. Genius, right? He should be able to figure things out, except the one thing that he had figured out was that people didn’t make sense. They weren’t like circuits that traveled from A to B to C neatly, and they weren’t like science, where doing the exact same thing got you the exact same results.

“Biology,” one of his teachers had stressed, “is not chemistry.”

A biological system could mutate. Could randomize. Could end up being purple for absolutely no reason whatsoever, and sometimes you could track that reason down, and sometimes you just had to throw up your hands and say “magic.”

People were huge biological systems. Not just the meat and bones parts, either. He’d taken a few classes on human bio, just to round out his education a little, and just the basic studies of pharmaceutical science made his head hurt. Nothing in pharma made sense at all. Theory, where everything worked, except medication, where none of it did what it was supposed to and things that did were nonsense and should not have done that at all.

But even Tony could tell that Bucky was in a vastly improved state of mind by the time he got home. He hugged and kissed his sister and then hugged and kissed Tony with a little more heat. Apologized for the take-away being cold and needing to be microwaved, and Tony might have raised his eyebrows a little when he realized that Bucky had walked all the way to Genghis Connie’s rather than grabbing the slightly less expensive and much, much closer (if not as good, Genghis Connie’s made the best egg rolls!) No1. China.

“Well, this explains where you’ve been,” Tony said, taking his chicken and cashew out of the microwave. He was reminded, stuffing a mouthful of saucy chicken into his mouth, that Bucky paid attention. When he’d stormed out to get dinner, which was code for I need to not throw something at you right now, he hadn’t taken an order, or gotten Tony’s opinion on what to eat. But Bucky knew… he knew Tony’s preferences, had remembered them. Sure, Tony sometimes liked to wander off the beaten path and get something else -- particularly at No1, which did not do very good eggrolls, and he usually got the crab wonton there instead -- but he’d commented aside once that Connie’s did the best chicken cashew.

And after a fight, where they’d yelled at each other and gotten exasperated and had to stomp off to sulk like recalcitrant toddlers for fuck’s sake… Bucky had remembered. Had, as the phrase went, gone the extra mile (quite literally) for one of Tony’s favorites.

Tony was honest enough with himself to know that if he hadn’t been doing gratitude exercises with Nat, he might not have fucking noticed.

Bucky warmed up hot and sour soup for himself, handed his sister a packet of crunchies for her egg drop. “Yeah, I was thinking. Sorry it took me so long.” He gave Tony a long, significant look. “I’ll tell you about it later.”

Which was code for I don’t want to talk in front of my sister. Which was understandable. Having an audience for those kind of conversations was awkward at best. Tony stuffed another mouthful of chicken into his face and sat on his mental hands to keep from dragging Bucky off to their bedroom and demand to talk now.

“So,” Nat said, running her spoon up her chin to catch bits of spillover soup. “If you do not want to talk, I will talk. I have news.”

Oh, right. She’d come home with good news, she’d said. “Spill, Nat,” Tony encouraged. “I’ve waited long enough.”

Nat put her food down, finished chewing, and wiped her lips with her fingers.

“I am going to be Clara,” she said. “Dottie Underwood’s pregnant.”

Nat had been Vivandière at first, one of the doll-toys, and also a snowflake, and a Marzipan dancer, but she’d been understudy to the lead-dancer’s role, the child Clara, to whom the Nutcracker Prince was given. Dottie, who was lead, had been prima donna for a long time. Nat had barely been even looking at the role, because no one expected anything to happen to Dottie.

Bucky practically knocked over his food getting up to hug his sister. “Oh, Tash, that’s… that’s a leading role! That’s great!”

“It is… a great opportunity,” Nat said. “She is pregnant with the producer’s child. There have been rumors that she will not be coming back after the baby. We shall see about that, but in the meanwhile, I have this role. And if I perform with excellence, I may be prima dona for the spring show as well. But I must practice, all the time, now. There will be no second chances.”

“Anything we can do to make it easier,” Bucky promised.

“Yeah, congrats,” Tony said, and he joined them in the group hug, happy for his little family. Happy for his to-be sister.

Just… happy.

Grateful.

#winteriron #tony x bucky #holiday spending AU #thanksgiving #gratitude list #tony stark #bucky barnes #fic #fluff

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