Pick a topic you like, and that's what you're going to read about. Set a minimum word count, and read until you get to it. Start small. Smart easy. First try, it might actually be agonizing.
That's it for the day. Just hit the word count.
Next day, read to the word count again. Read something new! It will be easier today.
And easier the next.
And you will naturally find yourself extending how much you read per day.
yes! the brain must be exercised like any other part of the body to get stronger! no matter what place you’re at you can do stimulating activities to exercise your brain!
The answer to 'how are they going to function' is, and I say this as someone whose mom was a social worker in Appalachia for 20 years: they're going to get scammed. They're going to be victims of fraud, scams, and exploitation, due to their low literacy making them easier targets for others. And then they're going to be unable to read and write well enough to advocate for themselves in a court of law or fight back in any meaningful way.
"I ain't reading that" becomes "I can't read that" which becomes "I didn't read before I signed it because the guy telling me to was convincing and now I don't have anything".
Pairing: Cupid Ray x Reader, Cupid Suit Saeran x Reader, Cupid Unknown x Reader
Description: Four hearts, three conversations, and a human left dizzy by Cupid's arrow.
Part 1/4.
Word Count: 5806
[Read on AO3]
It started as a fluke, an arrow led astray, but once Ray set his eyes on you, he knew there was nowhere else in the world he would rather be.
A heart that shone brighter than any crystal he had come across. Yours was the jewel among mankind, and he couldn’t help but want for more. More… more… more! Never before in his long-lived existence had he seen a human like you, and that was saying something as he’d seen more beautiful hearts than he knew what to do with in the past.
You were… different, and what burned inside of Ray as he watched you go about your daily life was unknown to him.
He knew love like the back of his hand.
So, what was it he felt as you ducked behind a store counter to begin working your next shift? What was it that was gleefully eating away at his psyche as his fingertips gripped the wooden shelves no more than fifteen feet away from you? What was it calling out to him that he hadn’t seen before?
As a Cupid, it was his sacred duty to ensure the livelihood of hearts.
Why else would he be destined to fly if not to safely deliver the declarations of love?
For a world without lust was a world without love.
The wings on his back were heavier than most, and while he found it difficult to get around without putting significant thought behind every step, he managed his tasks better than was to be expected. He hadn’t found a human yet that couldn’t be helped. His touch ushered them away to a fairytale where their wildest dreams came true!
Every human had the capacity for love, and the only thing that stood in their way was the butterflies that made a home for themselves inside their bellies. Hesitancy was the enemy of love, and all the outstretched hands that missed their other half came from the devious, trickster butterflies who thrived on humanity’s fears.
With a wave of a Cupid hand, an arrow from their satchel, or dust from their pouch, the butterflies could be dispelled, and love would prevail.
Or, so the story goes.
Ray hadn’t seen anyone fail to complete their tasks, so no butterfly had gotten the better of his kind, but he didn’t want to live to see the day when they did. Even if a butterfly was a beautiful creature, too, its hunger for true love was just as insatiable as Ray’s.
In that way, Cupids and Butterflies were the same, forever contained to a dance that would spin them around and around as they ventured forward to push humanity closer to what brought them together. Without flutters, they wouldn’t notice their heart, and without Cupid’s wings to guide them, they might’ve never taken a leap of faith.
Ray knew that one’s innermost desires weren't limited to just romantic bliss, as there were undoubtedly many wonderful dreams humanity could aspire towards beyond a mere kiss or a tender embrace, but as a messenger of love, he couldn’t be helped.
The sight of unwavering, endless stars in someone’s eyes as they fell in love with another brought him more bliss than he knew what to do with. He couldn’t get enough of it, and the more time he spent drifting from place to place with one goal in mind, the more he lusted for the spice of life.
If he could help anyone, if he could do anything right, he prayed that it could be a lover’s heart.
It was more beautiful than a sunrise, warmer than a summer’s day, cooler than an ocean breeze, and more lively than a spring chicken. Every human he came across who was deeply in love made him dream of the next encounter, and the stories he would discover lying behind their trembling fingers, knocking knees, and nervous smiles.
No story was the same, and no heart was, either. Yet, instinctively, the desire they felt was undoubtedly the same. Although they communicated in different ways, a wildly fluttering heartbeat was indistinguishable from the next. Love was love.
He saw it for what it was: Something precious that should never be taken away. To let love into your life was no different than allowing air in your lungs, Ray thought. It was fundamental and necessary to experience all the world had to offer!
If the world one day lost its loving luster, then the flowers wouldn’t bloom and the seasons wouldn’t change!
Without Cupids, without their commitment to love, the world’s warmth would disappear and fade from existence. That was their future, their destiny, and he was determined to take his job seriously. He didn’t want to fail! He didn’t want to be a Heartbreak Cupid!
He wanted to be a Lovestruck Cupid. To cherish true love, and for that love to surround humanity in a blanket of warmth so that the bitter cold of a heartbreak couldn’t reach them.
One wrong move, and he could damn himself to the same darkness that his older brother knew day in and day out, but so long as there was someone to liberate from their butterflies, he would continue to spread their love so it wouldn’t take him away, too. Saeyoung made him… no, them, promise not to fall the same way he did.
One broken-hearted Cupid was more than enough, right? So long as one of them remained in the light, then they would never fall to a place where one could reach.
Sometimes, that fear ate away at him when he watched lovers embrace, but Ray knew if he let it get the better of him, that would be the end of him. He couldn’t live without lust.
He couldn’t live without the hope that the sun would always let its rays of sunshine beam down onto the flowers below after the rain. To fester in misery, to see nothing but the end, it would break him. Perhaps that was why his brother accepted his fate. If he turned the other cheek, then the odds of the same happening to Ray had to be slim to none.
The same could be said for Saeran… and Saeran, right? So long as one of them was in the light, they couldn’t be lost to the apathy.
Saeyoung doesn’t want that for us. He doesn’t want us to be forced to watch over the misery that exists underneath humanity’s love. It may not last forever, but the fact that it exists at all makes me feel sick. It’s not fair. He thought, fingers tapping the grooves in the grain. I just don’t want to see the ribbons I’ve tied around happily ever after fade away. Not even death can separate true love! I’ve seen it! I’ve seen it last on Earth, and I’ll stand by that claim until my wings wither and fade away!
From the moment Ray was first created, he knew nothing but the overwhelming passion humanity shared with one another as their hearts reached their fever pitch, unable to hide what was deep down inside as it poured from their lips in a brazen display of passion.
He was enamored with it.
The sights, the sounds, the very look of jubilation in someone’s eyes when they got what they wanted.
All of it.
Ray had never been able to look away out of the fear that the moment might pass him by. It had always been like that, fleeting; A tender ember in the dark, but once captured, a lantern would keep it safe forevermore. The glimmer of hope found in their sparks could keep his lust ignited for centuries!
He couldn’t ignore the sweetness in their eyes any more than he could ignore the weight of his wings. Who wouldn’t be fascinated by the decision to be vulnerable, knowing what might become of their heart?
It was a noble sacrifice, one that came with the hope that it wouldn’t be vain, and so long as Ray had a say, he knew there was a hope for lustful endeavors. To love was to believe the breeze would carry you to places unknown without so much as a scratch to show for the journey!
He might not have been as fast or even as lucky as other Cupids, but he cherished every relationship his magic helped foster. It wasn’t just for show. This was more to him than just a simple job! It mattered to the world, and that meant it mattered to him, too! He believed in them and the ripples their lust would create.
Love was magic in that way, carrying whispers that would stretch across the sky to find other lovers in pursuit of their dreams. With one heart saved from breaking, the spark he discovered would illuminate the path to the next person in need!
Drawn in like a moth to the flame, what Ray adored most was intensity. A heart primed with unshakable lust could turn even the darkest sky into daylight.
A passion that refused to die out, no matter how much water was poured on the embers. That was what Ray lusted after. It stood in defiance of the heartbreak he feared because he knew that if he could protect that type of desire by helping them cradle what they held dear, those in charge wouldn’t think to send him to the dark where nothing but anguish remained.
His fellow Cupids seemed to differ when it came to their preferred type of love... There were some who disliked the way he held love so close to his heart. It wasn’t unheard of for Cupids to abstain from pouring a piece of themselves into the love spells they crafted, but it was unheard of for them to lose sight of their whimsical charm.
If anything, Ray feared that those who hummed and hawed about what he believed in were sinking closer and closer to the depths of heartbreak.
Why weren’t those Cupids frightened of the lives they would lead if they became Heartbreakers, anyway? It sounded miserable; they sounded miserable. That was no way to live! The unsettling feeling in his chest was bad enough, but to live like that every day with no hope for the future?
Even if the Cupids who reigned over broken hearts insisted it was only a matter of time until the love faded to dust and returned to the ether, he refused to budge. He had to believe in something better, not just for himself, but for the humans whose lustful hearts he adored.
Someone’s true desire couldn’t be destroyed by a roadblock, even if something or someone stood in their way, the heart would continue to lust over what it could or couldn’t have. A broken heart could always mend.
He wouldn’t let himself believe that a heart could be beyond repair. Even if what remained was nothing more than ash, it could always be purified, pressurized, and converted into a diamond.
A storybook romance, one he could indulge in from afar, again and again, thanks to the dust blown from his fingertips. Rather than love arrows guiding someone’s heart, he found that the easiest way to nudge someone to their destiny was with a gentle breeze.
A soothing scent carried on the wind, smelling of herbs, honey, and sugar. Although the butterflies could eat away at someone’s heart until all they felt was an ache burning deep inside, the sweetest scent could draw them back to their home.
A home where their heart would never know misery again because it would know nothing but the lust. To want more, to never settle, and to know it wasn’t wrong to indulge. The unadulterated desire burrowed within the hearts of humanity was what he found most beautiful. How could anyone turn a blind eye to that feeling and embrace heartbreak instead?
Not even his brother, after being sent to their world, spoke like that when he returned home. If Saeyoung could hang onto his hope, then there had to be something to what Ray believed in.
Right?
Watching you spin caramelizing sugar on a hook to beat air back into it made him want to believe even more. It wasn’t inevitable that love would come to an end. If that were the case, then love would never have been created to begin with.
Cupids, such as him, wouldn’t have known their own heartbeats, either. It wasn’t a slough. There had to be a point to love, to lust, and to desire. It existed; therefore, it was a precious thing that couldn’t be ignored. Even if he watched the same story unfold again and again, it would never grow old.
The taste of honey on his tongue would never turn bitter.
You would never grow tired of making candy, either. Every day that he visited you to see your latest confectionery marvel, your eyes never turned dull. The sparkle he saw all those days ago remained the same. Your lust for creativity wasn’t just a light in the darkness; it was a beacon.
It was a wonder why no Cupid had noticed you before. You were in love with your career, and you wanted for nothing!
Sure, you might not have needed guidance for your dream to come true, but with a little push in the right direction, he knew the shimmer that would stretch across the sky would be brighter than any light he had ever seen. To think of all the hearts that would know peace because you lusted for a world as sweet as your candy made Ray quiver in delight.
Your heart burned with a passion unlike anything he’d ever seen, and with every customer you met, it seemed to burn hotter and hotter. You weren’t satisfied with someone’s smile.
You wanted them to walk away from your counter feeling better than they had when they arrived. Sure, a piece of candy couldn’t solve all of their problems, but it could certainly take away the bitterness long enough to help them see that there was more to life than whatever butterflies were inside of them.
He couldn’t stop thinking about you.
The way sugar crystals clung to every word you said, the way your laughter made him remember the first time he heard chocolate snap and ooze caramel, the way powdered sugar sat untouched on your coat on your walk home, and the way you smiled with the same devious delight as a twirling gummy.
How could he see you standing there with an expression of rapturous laughter and not follow the trail of bite-sized gumdrops lining the pavement behind you?
It had been a chance encounter, too. It wasn’t just your light that drew him to you. It was the momentary lapse in judgment as he realized he’d spent too much time on Earth one day, and that it would be impossible to return home with the weather as bad as it was.
It wasn’t as simple as conjuring a portal. He needed the hum of a happy tune and a breeze strong enough to tug a kite high in the sky to give him the boost he needed to make it back home.
A running start might have helped him get halfway there, but if the weather didn’t cooperate, he was out of luck.
His brother once told him that his wings were so heavy because he was so full of heart. Ray liked that suggestion. It made him feel better about himself. He wasn’t like Saeyoung, after all. His wings were perfect, not a feather out of place, but if he thought there was beauty in their wings, then Ray did, too. Saeran and Saeran had a difficult time getting their feet off the ground, too. It wasn’t as if he was the only one who didn’t know how to make their body cooperate.
It wouldn’t have been so bad had he been closer to the clouds when the downpour began, but he wasn’t mad about it. Being caught in the rain wasn’t a bad thing. He liked watching humans scramble under whatever they could find to stay warm.
It was always the sweetest thing when two hearts found peace in one another during a summer shower, too. The way two humans inched closer and closer together as they sat side by side, the way their fingers removed the space between them until a confident hand found someone’s thigh, and the dazzling glimmer shared between glances as heartfelt confessions were exchanged.
Oh, how Ray’s mind wandered to wonderful places during thunderstorms until he forgot that he was supposed to return home hours ago!
But it was in that rain that Ray discovered a peculiar scent that nearly knocked him off his feet. It wasn’t the smell of wet grass, nor the breeze carried over from the ocean, but rather, it was sugar in its purest form.
You caught him by surprise, and he hadn’t known what to do with himself because it wasn’t often that anyone addressed him with more than the simple formality of a stranger. It wasn’t as if he were supposed to remain unseen. Cupids could become a part of any crowd, and it didn’t bother him to walk amongst those who filled his heart with lust.
In fact, he preferred it.
He liked knowing that he could blend into the crowd and enjoy the view from the ground without anyone being the wiser. It wasn’t a bad thing to indulge in a story, especially not a love story, but to be addressed as something more than a bystander was strange. He wasn’t human; therefore, he would never be seen as one.
That was the conclusion he’d come to long ago, but when you looked at him, it was as if his heart realized there could be something more for Cupids. He tried (and failed) to say something in gratitude, but you disappeared before he knew what to do with himself.
You didn’t need thanks to do something kind. You just did it with a lust for life. You were everything he imagined love to be in human form, and to be in your presence was far sweeter than any piece of candy that he had the pleasure of biting into.
Of course, candy made by your hands was twice as sweet. He could tell when the batch of fresh candy he picked up from the counter was made by you or someone else. There was a lingering lust from your hands that no other person could hope to recreate.
Ray believed, no, he knew it was because your heart was the epitome of all humanity had to offer. There had never been someone like you, and there was a chance that no one like you would ever exist again.
A once-in-a-lifetime treat for a Cupid hungry for the most beautiful heart on the planet.
Ray couldn’t stop thinking about the way you offered him your umbrella in the middle of an afternoon shower without so much as a second thought. He worried about his wings, the ones carefully tucked away under the guise of magic, but you gave your protection away with a smile and danced across the widening puddles to escape the water droplets at your own pace.
It was over for him after that.
Ray had to know everything about you!
That was why he found himself moving closer and closer to the corner store where you worked. He didn’t want to stray too far on the off-chance that someone else in his line of work caught a glimpse of you. He didn’t trust them to cradle your heart the right way.
He knew they would lead you astray, daring your heart to walk away from the caramel delights that made your heart sing! They wouldn’t understand it the way he did. They couldn’t see you the way he did. They wouldn’t know how a heart like yours needed to be treated the same way someone would cradle glass. So fragile, so delicate, and yet a work of art when held in the right light.
You lived a relatively simple life. You went to work five days a week and returned home around the same time each night. You spent your weekends out and about in the city, taking care of chores and catching up with anything you might’ve missed during the week.
You went to the market every Sunday to refill your home pantry, and while your meal plans changed depending on your mood, you made sure to pick up a few cans of wet food to feed the stray cats that lived around your apartment complex. They couldn’t survive on the leftover candy you took home in droves!
That went to your neighbors, who gladly scooped up the treats and shared them amongst themselves without a second thought. All in all, you were a kind person who had everything they could ever want, but your heart refused to stop lusting for more.
For more smiles, for more candy, for more relationships, and for more… more.
More!
You wanted more, and for some reason, you had no idea just how loud your heart was!
It wasn’t satisfied, even if you were.
That was why Ray couldn’t turn away, and why he refused to let another Cupid shoot their grubby arrows inside of your heart. Your heart was special, and it was in desperate need of protection. The butterflies, oh, the ravenous butterflies just beyond your starlight.
How they hadn’t found you yet was also strange. It had to have something to do with your satisfied face at the end of every shift, but… unlike the darkness of a broken heart, he knew the butterflies were inevitable for even the sweetest human alive.
They wouldn’t discriminate on taste. They never did. That was why they were created, after all. They were there for a reason. They were hungry for something more, just as hungry as Ray was for a lustful heart, and… just as hungry as you were for something he didn’t yet understand.
He just needed to learn more about you and the wonderful life you led. Sooner or later, Ray thought, he would find what he was looking for, and then he would be able to ensure you were protected forevermore.
As he watched you pull the sugar up and down on the hook to beat air into it, he sighed. He hadn’t been able to get as close to you as he’d been that day in the rain. The closest he’d come to it had been when you’d been working the checkout and changed hands with your coworker for a break when he wanted to bring some of your candy home with him to share with Saeyoung.
Even if he had been able to be that close to you again, he wasn’t confident he would be able to control himself. It was difficult to keep his hands from leaning in as you stepped further and further away, but the last thing he wanted to do was frighten you. He didn’t want to put a damper on your heart or expose you to butterflies via proximity.
They couldn’t know about you.
But, oh, how he wanted to know you!
How he wanted to know what it felt like to be the person you smiled at as you held out a fresh sample of butterscotch and called it perfection! How he wanted nothing more than to join you behind the counter and learn how to make a treat so sweet that hearts would never need dust from his fingertips to be happy again!
How he wanted to be with you, to know you as you knew yourself, and to relish the sensation of your lust up close and personal. Was it just as sweet when there was nowhere for your light to travel but into the person standing in front of you?
Why hadn’t he savored the taste more in the rain?
What a fool he was for being too slow to realize just how wonderful your heart was!
His lower lip trembled as he unknowingly took a few steps forward, drawn in like a moth to the flame as you removed your candy from the hook to transfer it to the rollers to create something brand new.
What could it be this time? Candy canes? A large lollipop? Bubblegum cores? There was no way to be sure, but Ray knew that it would taste perfect. You didn’t need to do much to make the perfect treat. All it took was the wave of your hand and the light in your heart.
You had a way of shaping something unexpected every time he watched you, and this time would be no different than the last.
I wonder what flavor they used this time… maybe they added more than one flavor to the batch again. I loved that sour candy that was split down the middle. The lime extract they added to the cherry hearts stuck to my tongue hours after the fact. It was like a little piece of them stayed with me!
Before he knew it, he was pressed against the glass counter, peering over the edge to watch you cut out long strands from the chunk of sugar. He hadn’t seen you do that before. It looked like the same method you used for canes, but… he didn’t see you moving with the same veracity he otherwise expected.
Normally, it would be rolled out quickly to maintain a circular shape, but you were allowing it to spread and smooth itself out on the marble instead.
What type of candy needed to be as thin as a sheet, anyway?
“Interested?” He heard your voice, but he continued staring at your hands as you snipped another few inches of sugar off the mass. You patted it down and set the scissors aside to begin working on the main product. “It’s been a while since I’ve made this type of candy. It’s normally more popular around the holidays, but… I figured that’s because nobody’s bothered to give it a chance in the summer.”
That was just like you, wasn’t it?
“...Amazing,” he whispered, fingers tapping against the cool glass that separated you. You haven’t even done anything yet, and he was still amazed. You made the sugar transform from crystals to dust to paste and then finally, into dough. That alone was impressive, and everything that came after it was icing on the cake. His sweet treat was unlike any other!
“Oh, you haven’t seen the best part yet,” you continued, adjusting your gloves to ensure maximum efficiency before gliding the candy away from the burner. “You see, I pinch the candy like this… and fold equal parts around each finger until there is no candy left to work with… and wallah! A thin strip of candy becomes a ribbon in ten seconds flat!”
Ray was more mystified by the growing smile on your face, so much so that he found himself looking away from the candy for the first time, and in doing so, realized that you weren’t talking to another patron of the shop... You had been talking to him.
Your heart fluttered in the same beat as his breath, and the light sparkled brighter as you held up the fruits of your labor for him to try. Ray felt himself stumble, not waver, as he reached out to receive the sweet token of your heart’s lust.
“Would you like to try the first one? They’re always the best fresh from the tray, but since candy is so fickle, by the time I finish everything, it’s hardened too much to melt on my tongue the way I like!”
“I would… I would be honored to tell you how it makes me feel from start to finish,” he said, the enraptured look in his eyes growing by the minute. But you didn’t seem to mind; if anything, your smile grew to match his. “That way, you can feel like you’re enjoying it, too.”
He couldn’t turn down your request.
He would’ve been a fool to turn you down!
After all, it wasn’t every day a Cupid had the opportunity to speak to the human he wanted to cherish. Always from afar, never up close, but he couldn’t help it. It was impossible to stay away from you, and he knew if he turned away now, there would be nothing but darkness in his future.
You were the sunlight he wanted to stand beneath, the source of his rays that would spread across the land to help the rest of humanity understand just how precious lust was.
More, more, more…
There was no satisfaction in a world where love possessed limits. It needed to keep climbing, chasing after the impossible high, if only to prove that it was possible to feel it!
You had created a ribbon. It was something delicate, truly precious to his heart, and although its original purpose was to unite whatever it was wrapped around with a velvet knot, the moment you brushed your fingers against his open palm, Ray knew this ribbon was meant to bind you together. Your warmth rippled into his heart all at once, like lightning, and he was left lovestruck.
If this was what it felt like to be swept away by the magic he created, he wanted to drown in it.
More, more, more…
Ray popped the ribbon onto his tongue, and an explosion of sugar danced across his tongue. It was strawberry this time, with a hint of honey that rested on the very back of his tongue as the sugar crystals began to melt. It was cool to the touch, but left him feeling parched in a good way. Like a refreshing glass of water after a long, hot day. He could’ve popped dozens of those ribbons on his tongue and still felt a longing for more.
It was his idea of love, tangled together with sugar webs, and the source of his bliss came straight from your wonderful heart.
How could he properly convey what tasted like eternity?
You deserved an answer, one that said everything you needed to know about this candy, and he knew nothing but lust would describe it. You had no way to know it, but in essence, you had created an aphrodisiac that could make even the most apathetic Cupid change their mind.
Tears prickled the corners of Ray's eyes as he braced himself against the counter. He had known the definition of being weak in the knees, but he never thought he would experience it.
I want more!
Even if the sugar melted into syrup and disappeared down his throat, you could make it again… and again… and again. That was the magic in your heart, and he wanted nothing more than to become a part of it. Yes, he thought, that’s the real answer to my question that I’ve been seeking all this time. I want to be a part of the lustful heart that wants to nestle under everyone’s tongue!
Long lashes fluttered over golden eyes as he murmured, “It tastes like someone’s unquenchable desire to be remembered as the ruler of saccharine. It’s sweet, tart, and most of all, leaves you wanting more once you feel the honey hit the back of your throat. You should try one for yourself. A few seconds to indulge in a treat like this shouldn’t take away from the final product.”
You laughed, cheeks powdered with a haze of warmth. You didn’t seem to believe him, but at his urging, you quickly twined another ribbon and plopped it in your mouth. Your eyes sparkled the way he wanted them to, the way he expected them to, and as you let out a dreamy sigh, you responded, “You’re right. It was worth it. This might be the best combination I’ve used so far. I can’t believe I never thought of it until today.”
“It’s perfect,” Ray agreed.
Then again, the next treat you would probably make him eat his words and your sweets.
“It’s the strangest thing,” you looked back at your mat and began to roll out the next treat with expert ease. “I’ve been smelling honey for the past couple of weeks around the store, and my boss hasn’t made any honeycomb toffee this year. I just couldn’t get the taste out of my head. It seemed like a good idea to try a few things until I landed on something good, but… it looks like first time’s the charm, huh?”
Oh, how wonderful, he thought. You were so close to knowing your own heart, but it was just out of reach because you didn’t know it the way it knew you. You just needed the right nudge, and then you would know it in return.
What kind of face would you make when you learned how precious you were to this world?
Would the euphoria drag you under the sea of delight until every breath you made was coated in syrup?
Would you grace him with the symphony of stars bound to dance across your tongue as you wept joyful tears?
Would you allow him to bake in the sticky honey that was your heart?
“I’ll buy the whole batch, whatever you don’t want to keep for yourself,” he said, simply.
You paused, ceasing your endlessly weaving to look him in the eye. “Are you sure? There’s an awful lot of candy for one person. I know that sounds silly, considering I’m the candy maker, but nobody’s ever ordered that much from me before. Most of my product gets turned into free samples.”
“What can I say?” His mouth watered, thinking of how wonderful it was that all of his lust could somehow be experienced in a single bite. “First time’s the charm. Your ribbon had a conversation with my heart, and I want to keep having it for as long as it lasts.”
If fear or doubt had ever existed in his heart, they were impossible to find as he grasped tightly to his desires and to the lust your heart inspired.
“Would you like that wrapped up with a non-edible ribbon, then?” Your laughter made him want to stay. “I’d hate for it to melt on your way home before you had a chance to enjoy it.”
“So long as you wrap it the same way. Honey might stick like glue, but I’ll only trust it if you tame it for me,” he said.
He wouldn’t know it until he arrived home, but carefully nestled at the bottom of the bag was a slip of paper with your name and number on it. A sticky heart made of honey, indeed.
The “draw” of AI doesn’t work on me for the same reason that the Ring couldn’t tempt Samwise. Because I LIKE to write. I like to make things, I like the process of making things, instead of just the end result.
Just realized that the reason I love making friends on tumblr is because it’s exactly how you make friends on the playground as a six year old. No, I don’t know their name but they love mermaids too and built this awesome sand castle. No, I don’t know their age but their imaginary cheetah is friends with mine. You like this show? You like this character?? You can sing the theme song really loud??? Here is a flower crown. Here is a juice box. You can share my time and I might never see you again but part of you stays in my soul forever. In my mind we’re still on the swing set and the sky is blue and nothing will ever be wrong again.
at some point in your life you will be boiling fruit, water, sugar, and lemon juice in a pot to make a syrup or jam. the instructions will tell you to simmer for a certain amt of time. your timer will go off and you will look at the pot and go, "hm, this doesn't look thick enough. maybe i'll let it go for another 10 minutes." this is the devil speaking. it's only so liquid right now because it is at boiling point. it will thicken when it cools down. learn from the follies of my youth and do not let this happen to you
at some point in your life you will be making a sauce or a stew in which you need to add cornstarch to thicken it. and you will prepare a slurry of starch in cold water and think "this looks like way too little starch to thicken this amount of liquid." this is the devil speaking. cornstarch instantly polymerizes at 95°C and if you add too much it will turn into an impossibly thick goop.
at some point in your life you will be making some sort of cream based dessert that requires gelatin to thicken it. and you will soak some gelatin sheets in water and think "this is too few gelatin sheets for this amount of cream." this is the devil speaking. it will thicken in the fridge and if you add too much you will end up with milk jelly
at some point in your life you will be baking cookies. you will take the sheet out after twelve minutes as the recipe instructs and the cookies will still be glistening and soft. "these don't seem cooked enough," you will think to yourself, "i should place them back into the oven until their edges are nice and golden." this is the devil talking. this is how you get dry, overdone cookies. the cookies will continue to bake on the warm sheet for several more minutes and then harden up after sitting on a rack for a while. trust the process. trust the process.
at some point in your life you will be adding a small pasta to a soup and you will think "that is not enough small pasta." this is the devil talking. the pasta will absorb the stock and expand. this is how you end up with a soup that is a solid mass of soggy ditalini.
At some point in your life you will be adding garlic to a dish and you will think "that is not enough garlic." These are angels speaking. They are correct. Add more garlic.
HELLO HELLO ALL (5 remaining) MYSTIC MESSENGER FANS!
LOOK WHAT I COOKED UP FOR MY FIRST ARTIST ALLEY!!
I'm hoping these guys will get here just in time for Fanasia, but once I get stuff sorted for an online shop, they will be available there too!!! This is just the art for now, but I'm DEFINITELY gonna be spamming once they arrive B)
If they show to be popular, I might even make Ray, Saeran, The Savior and Vanderwood (づ￣ ³￣)づ
I LOVE COLLABORATIVE SOTRYTELLING I LOVE CREATING THINGS TOGETHER I LOVE "YES AND"ING WITH OTHERS I LOVE "NO BUT WHAT ABOUT-"S I LOVE HEARIJG MY FRIENDS' IDEAS I LOVE BOUNDING OFF OF THEM I LOVE ART I LOVE STORIES I LOVE ALL THE DIFFERENT PASSIONS AND SKILLS REQUIRED I LOVE ALL THE DIFFERENT MEDIA IT TAKES I LOVE I LOVE I LOVE
I love how varied and universally weird the circumstances for making lifelong friendships are. Here's this guy I accidentally messaged once and I could not imagine my life without them now. Here's this girl I was so scared of when I met her, I would kill for her and remind her to rest on the regular. Here's this other guy we have so much in common we used to joke we were the same person in different timelines. It took us years to meet in person and I attended his wedding. There are also people who entered my life in absolutely unremarkable ways but changed it forever for the better. It's wonderful how easy it is to find people to love.
