✎ Modernization! [Touchstarved Modern AU Headcanons]
🤎𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: GN!Reader X Modern!Touchstarved LIs | 🌙𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Fluff, 3rd Person (?) | 🖊️𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 976 Words | ✏️𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬: Not Edited! | ❌𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: Suggestive if you like squint ish (?), Mild Language
🍁𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: Jayce has been watching too many Spider-Man movies.
👻𝐆𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐓𝐚𝐛𝐬: Slowly coming up with ideas~ If anyone has anything they’ll like to see don’t be scared to send in a request!
“There will be stars forever, while we sleep.” — Sara Teasdale, ‘There Will Be Stars in Dark of the Moon’
-> 🪽𝐊𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐬
Kinda obvious but he would be a doctor
I don’t know why but I can see him as a Pediatrician
Or an emergency room doctor
He just gives the vibes
He’s besties with Leander and Mhin, feels…strangely near Vere
Yall definitely meet after some accident
If we go emergency room route I imagine you did something stupid with your friends and ended up at the ER
If he’s Pediatrician I can imaging you doing a favor for a family member and taking a child to go see him
Either way you make excuses to go see him again…and again…and again-
To the point where he just knows you’re coming and just looks at you with his pretty eyes and crossed arms
“If you desire to spend time together you could have just asked”
Coffee date! Coffee date!
Is a true gentleman and waits for you before going inside
I can see him being good at words of affirmation he just seems wise and good at using comforting words
I can imagine him with a clean boy aesthetic or like academia styled clothes
White turtle necks, grey trousers, blazers and long coats
Always had a dash of blue in it~
You guys get matching turtle necks 🥰
-> 🥃𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫
Bartender! But like a really bad one-
He only has a job cause he’s pretty to look at
He’s friends with everyone literally he makes friends with strangers
You guys meet at the bar he works at
He kept giving you gross drinks “on the house” and flirting with you
And for some reason you were charmed and kept going
He’s def a gym rat and wants you to come to the gym with him
But he’s a gym rat in the way he wears a thong and it peaks out from his loose sweatpants
Also wears a cropped compression shirts~
I don’t make the rules!
Mirror selfies together <3
He also def takes random pictures of him and sends them to you
Messy bed head? Picture
At the gym? Picture
In the middle of eating something? Picture!
You have an entire album of them lol
Some might get spicer than others though 👀
He’s the one I can envision being heavy on the physical affection
He loves loves cuddles, hugs, kisses
If he’s touching you he’s happy~
I imagine him painting his nails black too or doing the pinkie nail only
If you like getting your nails done he’ll come along and match your design~
-> 🦊𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐞
I envision him to be a model
Works and gets hired for a lot of fashion brands
A lot of high end fashion brands for sure
I can see him doing OnlyFans too 🤔
Not for the money either more for the confidence boost
He’s best friends and friends with benefits with Ais
I can imagine a couple ways yall meet
One is the cliche running into rich person, spilling drink on them and owing them dry cleaning money
Or you’re a photographer and he finds you interesting after some silly banter you had (more you getting flustered and him smiling amused)
How you two get together is a miracle to everyone lol
Vere isn’t very physically affectionate but does share a lot of his love through gifts
He’ll get you a gift for every occasion or just cause
It might not be anything big either
After a shoot he sees your favorite treat and comes home with it~
As flamboyant as he is I also see him getting tired of it and wanting more lowkey dates
Something at home with you
At home dinner and movie date where he eases in to a little physical touch with you <3
-> 👹𝐀𝐢𝐬
Okay hear me out
He’s apart/was apart of a motorcycle gang and works at a pet grooming place
Or as a vet
Just like he babies his Soulless he def has a soft spot for animals
I also see him as a dog person lol
Besties with Vere and friends with benefits
Mayhaps fell in love with him along the way…
He wears techwear clothes I just know it !
And leather jackets~
Smokes cigarettes, smells like them and blends nicely with his cologne and the smell of whiskey or beer
Yall meet after you bring your pet to his work place
You think his cute and now make every excuse to go there specifically
Until the point where he’s secretly amused and gives you his number
First date with him is going on his motorcycle and stargazing, have a little picnic <3
I see him more as an act of service guy
He does things you don’t really want to do be it washing dishes to doing laundry
He’ll do it cause he loves you and wants to help you~
-> 🗡️𝐌𝐡𝐢𝐧
Idk why they’re the hardest for me buttt
I think they would be maybe a medical assistant (their aspirations of being a healer coming true!) or something to do with animals
Maybe a vet for not pets 🤔
They’re friends with Kuras hates everyone else lol
Maybe yall meet when you bring your pet for care (if they’re normal vet)
Or you work at a zoo and come to get help for one of the animals there
They’re quite quiet which you find cute
You ask them for their number the second time you see them lol
They seem more like a quality time person
Not super into physical affection and not good with words
But does like to spend time with you
Isn’t super flashy either doesn’t plan big dates
Enjoys just having you two sitting in silence doing your own things
Parallel play! Best date idea
Even if they’re silent they love you by sticking by your side <3
I imagine them wearing very casual button ups, dress pants/jeans with lots of blues and whites maybe a touch of red~
FEELING HUMAN, HOOKED ON YOUR BREATH ── leander + gn!reader, 430
leander is painfully aware of his reputation; knows that you've heard rumours of how the corner room you currently occupy in the wet wick was once exclusively for him and his one-night-stands, vere's little quips of him getting some action with a stranger or two in dark alleys, and he hasn't exactly been subtle with the way he looks at you in the candlelight when you're huddled together in one of the booths. he knows that you're no fool, that you're not deaf to the warnings to stay away from him lest you fall too deep into his spell of dark magic—
but you stay anyway.
perhaps it is because he is one of the few to offer you some semblance of comfort in the unfamiliar streets of eridia without asking for anything else, or because he is the only one capable of touching your bare hands and remain sane enough to see the exact shade of your pretty eyes, but whatever the reason, he finds himself unable to care. he finds himself doing a lot of uncharacteristic things since you've come around, actually.
leander does not believe in god, has never even entertained such thoughts of a divine entity existing with the sort of life he's led since birth, but he thinks that despite your curse, you are the closest thing to an angel he's ever met. leander feels bad about it, really; the thoughts that plague his mind when he lets you trace the grooves and scars of his calloused hands, your darkened fingertips ghosting upon the skin of his forearm like a dancer from the amaryllis district. he feels guilty, as if he's taking advantage of your trust like this, even if you're the one who's touching him, but it's outweighed by that something that leander still can't name even after all those nights of laying awake in night or nursing his nth bottle of rum in the wet wick at some ungodly hour of the night; something about how you touch him like he's the only solid thing in the world, the look in your eyes when you find your fingers wandering over to the scar on his face.
there is no such thing as heaven or hell, just the monsters (soulless and mortal) that linger in the space between, but your touch is divine, and for the first time in his life, leander wants nothing more than to repent for his sins, to whisper his confessions against the warm dark-gold of your knuckles as if he could find some semblance of forgiveness in your skin.
♡ Morning after with Ais. 70% cute, 30% ….something! This was originally requested by an anon, but tumblr blew up my response to the ask.. unless it turns up on my blog later..
Tangled in dark turquoise sheets, you stirred in your sleep, feeling warm breath fan over the back of your neck. Your grogginess faded when you realized where you were and what you did last night. And at that realization, you felt your legs and back throb.
In an attempt to distance yourself from the demon, his big arm pulls your body back to his.
“Where do you think you’re going, sparrow? Are you tired of me already?” Ais whispered, voice deep with morning raspiness.
Your cheeks turned hot. Ais was even closer than before, allowing his fingers to run up your stomach. They stopped just before your chest.
“Yes.” you said casually and falsely, putting your bandaged hand over his, feeling the ridges of metal rings.
“That’s too bad. I wanna keep you here.”
I like you too much. Ais thought, absentmindedly nuzzling his face into the crook of your neck, breathing in your familiar smell, careful that his horns don’t collide with your face.
Both of your heartbeats synced with one another after a while. Ais could feel his deep fondness of you consuming his mind. He wanted to be by your side forever, and he wasn’t sure that you felt the same until you lifted his tattooed hand to your mouth, leaving a feather kiss.
He had the slight impulse to push his fingers into your mouth— a vivid, lewd fantasy flashing before his eyes before your grip on his hand tightened slightly, snapping him back to reality.
You were scared to lose Ais to the cruel world of Eridia, but even more so to your curse. And yet, he was never afraid to touch you. He never hesitated to lay his large hands where he could, his faith in your bandages unshakable.
“I like you a lot, Sparrow.” Ais smiled, enclosing your hand with his fingers. You allowed his fingers to lace into yours, your bodies fitting together like a perfect puzzle. Everything was right.
“I like you a lot, too...” You replied quietly, catching the dim red glow of Ais’ eyes to your side. You felt him staring up at you from beside your body, a slight chill slipping down your spine. He stayed like that, staring, for an eerie amount of time before grinning.
“I’m glad the feeling’s mutual.” Ais mused, somehow pulling you even closer than before, as if your body was able to sink into his, the line of friend and lover between you and the demon blurred.
Though Ais was an honest guy, you had an inkling of doubt about the good he could do for your curse. He hasn’t harmed you thus far, was it so bad to just give in to him?
Because if you give a Rosie an animal/animal adjacent character, he’s going to want some behavior to go with it.
TW/CWs: Potential Accidental Canon Deviance, incredibly mild and vague sexy implications if you squint.
This is gonna be more conversational than my other headcanon posts, which probably isn’t saying much considering those posts’ tone. Likes and reblogs appreciated as always!
But yeah, man. I think Vere laughs like a fucking maniac. Like he hears one joke that hits him in just the right spot and he’s barking laughing with his eyes squeezed shut and this real wide smile that shows off all his teeth. It’s either deathly contagious, causing the laughter to fan out across whatever group he might find himself in, or it makes people get nervous because Holy Shit, Those Fangs Are Crazy!
Also the fox sounds carry over to some of the most benign things. Like he gets some dust up his nose and sneezes so hard it sounds like a bark. He’s especially sensitive about that sound so like… go forth and tease him within an inch of his life, it’s payback time.
Also also if, heavens forbid, someone steps or something lands on his tail he 1000% lets out that alarm bark/scream foxes do. Then he gets all defensive again because like. Ow.
Like most animals, fox kits will play fight with each other as practice when they’re tiny and I think it’d actually be really easy to goad Vere into a fight now that he’s an adult, but it might be hard to tip him off to the level of force he’s supposed to be using. You know how sometimes you’ll be wrastling with a puppy and out of nowhere it like Actually Bites You? That happens once or twice and Vere barely feels bad about it when it does—
His ears are really expressive, as we’ve seen already, and building off that I think they’re like. Constantly moving in busy environments. Like he’s flicking from noise to noise all around him trying to keep track of who’s saying what and where. Whatever kind of life he’s had before he meets us justifies a little caution, don’t you think? And as a consequence I think he gets auditory sensory overload really easily and that makes him especially crabby.
Ending on a high note, he’s got BNE, or Big Nuzzling Energy. Once he’s comfy with a person and it’s just the two of you, you can bet your sweet ass he’s cramming his whole face in whatever divot he can get, whether that’s your shoulder, chest, waist, you name it. Also he’s the reigning champ of building pillow nests and diving into them so consider your bedclothes’ days fucking numbered.
List of things I want to see in Leander’s route or I will cry… but it’s just stereotypical romance tropes
1. The “Bandaging Him Up” Scene
This could happen in anyone’s route but it works best in Leander’s cuz he’s 100% (?) human, which means he probably doesn’t have any supernatural healing capabilities. So that makes it even more emotional for the MC.
It’s that stereotypical trope where you find his battered body, lug him back to your room in the Wet Wick, and force him to undress so you can clean his wounds (all the while he’s telling you that he doesn’t need your help, of course). He’ll wince when you first press the wet rag onto his cuts, and then you’ll scold him for moving and for being so careless with his safety. Then he’ll argue back asking why you even care so much and then of course you yell out that it’s because you love him (or something like that)! And then he realizes he’s never had anyone truly care whether he lived or not and that he too loves you! It’s so trope-y but there’s a reason it’s a tried and true classic and it needs to be in the route.
2. The “Defending Him Against His Shitty Parents” Scene
We don’t know much yet about his family except that they are rich and/or high status mages and they wanted him to join the Senobium. Given that he had to leave home to live his dreams, I think it’s fair to say his parents do NOT like this new life he chose for himself. Whether his parents see it as simply a disappointing turn of events or a betrayal worthy of disowning him has yet to be seen but I imagine they’re not happy.
So I imagine we meet them and then there’ll be a whole scolding/argument where his parents will inevitably say something cruel (like “you’re such a disappointment/disgrace/dishonor to this family”). I want MC to have to choice to tear his parents a new one and defend him. I just want the chance to say something along the lines of “You don’t know him like I do, keep my man’s name out ya goddamn mouth!” Even (and especially) if we’re wrong about him I still want to defend my bby boy.
Also let me defend him against the other LIs they keep bullying my little guy
3. The “How Dare You Touch Them” Scene
He’s so good (sorta) at keeping up appearances of being calm and composed, so I just wanna see him lose it. Someone (maybe the Senobium 👀) hurts or kidnaps MC and THIS is the thing that pushes him over the edge. He probably won’t be a fist-fighting type of fighter (like Ais with that roughneck at the bar), but we’ll get to see his magic in action and oh god will it be glorious (and sexy).
4. The “Love Triangle Blows Up” Scene: aka Ais and Leander Jealousy
Probably will happen in either or both of their routes, but I wanna see some jealousy over the MC between them. Mayhaps even a moment where MC uses one to make other jealous?? Basically I want them to just brawl (playfully or not, that’s up to the Allmother) over who gets to hoard MC’s time. Is it basic and problematic of me to want to watch two men fight over me? Yes. Do I care? No.
── AND IF HEAVEN WERE TO TOUCH ME, IT WOULD NOT BE ENOUGH
kuras. the fallen angel sits with you in confessional as you ruminate on all you never dare to grasp for yourself.
Your knees ached, pressed taut and numb against the cold steps of which you’d been genuflecting upon for the past hour. Or had it been more than that? To be aware of the passage of time was to not fully immerse yourself in prayer with the gods, but the hymns did not come to you so easily anymore. Perhaps they never did. Grief weighed your lungs down like smoke, even in this holy house.
He stirred beside you. Kuras. Golden-eyed and beautiful in the way that made you want to kneel and repent for the sole action of loving him.
“I must confess,” you said, voice hoarse.
“Tell me,” he spoke, softly, the most divine thing you’d ever known. To speak to him felt strangely akin to repentance, but something horrid churned in your gut, and you shook your head.
“What of my anonymity?” you asked, half-joking. It sounded bitter upon your tongue.
Kuras’ eyes lowered briefly, hiding behind the shield of slender black lashes. The silence wrapped around your silhouettes like an invisible fog, thick and smothering, broken only by the distant chime of a distant bell. Then, Kuras’ voice emerged, gentle against the dark shroud of melancholy settled all around the room, illuminated only by the hazy glow of the candlelight.
"You know that what is said in this chamber will never pass my lips," he told you, words like a whisper that floated in the holy space between your vessels as a promise, a covenant. “The gods do not see us here.”
The words that come out of your lips were hoarse, caught in your devotion and hypocrisy. “Does it matter?”
To that, Kuras said nothing. His golden eyes flit to the candles, thousands lit over what could very well be a millennia and moulded into a single wax entity sprawled over the stone altar. Perhaps he thought of you two of you, melded and fused together to be one body, one soul. The very thought was blasphemous. It should not have made your heart sing.
He had fallen for you, you knew this very well. There was little you did know of his time in that kingdom that so many of your priests and priestesses have only dreamed of, but you were sure of this: you were the very reason he had decided to fly too close to the sun, why he bled molten gold and why he was doomed.
You were too, no matter how much you may have tried to deny it. It was only a matter of time before your own fall was recognised, and then comes your fall from grace.
The gods did not see you here, but what was once devout and holy in you and Kuras were aware of what you had done.
HOUSE OF ERIDIA ── touchstarved x reader, high fantasy au
“Among the monarch's most intimate inner circle was their Master of Whispers (...) sharp and cunning, the mastermind of an intricate network of spies and informants that ran through the high aristocracy within the walls of the palace, down to the most slimy backwaters of the kingdom's outskirts. The truth of LEANDER’s threat, however, laid within his charm (...) it is said that not even his most beloved Eminence trusted him.”
Leander was devoted— as devoted as a man of such skill in less than legal information brokering could be, at least. Often times you wondered whether he was worth trusting; so much information he laid out at your feet like a suitor would bestow upon you with golds and jewels and fine silks, and just as much he kept away from you. Perhaps it was unwise to bestow upon the fickle position of Master of Whispers to a man who shared your bed, but never his own secrets-- or perhaps you thought too much of him. You did, after all, cradle your own secrets to your chest.
“To one such as the monarch, who clung onto their religion as if it were drywood amidst the furious seas, KURAS was a strange sort of salvation in himself (...) rumoured to be otherworldly, golden-eyed and infinitely wise not only in his knowledge of forgotten, they claimed him a lost eldritch being, shunned by the highest deities of the sky. Others said that he was a deity himself. But what deity hid in the shadows of the throne and kissed the feet of the mortal that sat upon it?”
Amidst the fickle serpents' game of politics and war, there was a superficial solace to be found in the religion you were raised in as a child. From that faith, your devotion extended to a gift from the gods laid at your door, the golden-eyed angel that you were not quite sure existed till they bestowed him to you. Strangely enough, he treated you with the same sort of reverence— as an acolyte might to their own deity. Yours was a strange relationship, a push-and-pull of prayer and religious guilt. Both of you hid your unholiness within a facade of worship and idolatry. You did not know why he has come, but you knew he saw you for what you were and bent the knee anyway. Be not afraid, he said. And so you were not, blindly so.
“The paramour was flame-haired and quick of the tongue, an exotic pet that graced the bed of Their Majesty easily enough once lured with the promise of lavish gifts and security (…) VERE traded his ugly iron shackles for a prettier set of golden chains, but he was not so cunning so as to let himself be lured in by the false promises of what he called “these damned monarchs”.”
It was not an uncommon feat for monarchs to take paramours even after marriage, but if the whore picked from the streets of silk was pretty enough, it could warrant the envious whispers of enraged nobles no matter how high a position one may hold within the royal family. Fortunately, Vere played the game of thrones well, you must admit. Of all the lovers and paramours you've taken over the course of your rule, he is the one you have to worry about defending in court the least… though his knowledge and skill holds up a different problem for you entirely. Perhaps your Small Council does speak some truth when they warn you of the lies he could entrap you in…
”THE STRANGER came like death on a misty night in the dead of winter. Who were they? What reason could they have to lurk around the castle halls, to indulge themselves in the benevolence of the monarch of which they did not worship? What did they seek, and why was Their Majesty so eager to offer their aid?”
A ruler as kind and benevolent as yourself was not so arrogant so as to be oblivious to the suffering of the smallfolk. Many called you naïve, too young to carry the burden of the crown, but you have inherited centuries of peace from your parents, and are intent on continuing such tradition. That is, perhaps, the reason why you welcomed MHIN into your palace that night, turning down your council’s suggestions of torturing them — where they’ve came from, why they’ve come, how a commoner possesses a gift for the magic arts. You offer them bread and wine and a place of rest, speaking nothing of how you’ve noticed their eyes flit about— not warily, but searching. It is naïvety then, in your hopes that MHIN finds what you seek in you, despite your sureness that you will one day stand at opposite ends of a looming war.
“Rare was a monarch who did not indulge in illicit affairs, whether it be a matter of simply flesh or true romance— but what transpired between Their Majesty and the creature of Crimson Grotto was so twisted that their story was told as both urban legend and warning even a millennia afterwards. But in the most desperate of times, even the most noble of the gods’ chosen are capable of such sin.”
AIS was already a figure of urban legend when you came to him him, a sopping wet half-adult playing dress up in an oversized crown and velvet robes weighed down by the grimy water that stained its hem. He never did tell you whether the stories you’d heard were true, only confirmed that yes, he is capable of what you beg him for. He thought of you foolish, to make a deal with an eldritch creature — or, at least, the vessel of one — but he realised too late that he’d gone off the deep end with you when it came to this deal. In the end, there was only his hope that they would not liken you, so good and so bright, to the hopeless thing that is whatever is left of him. Or, perhaps, it will be a last mercy to both of you, to be known in history side-by-side, mentioned alongside the other always— like a single entity.