#and people will still just write fics set in the game universe n stuff and write in movie knuckles...

[rapidhighway]

once more I find a cool knuckles centric fanfiction that isn't set in the movie universe and they still wrote him as movie knuckles....

[bbydoll18xx]

This Is Me Trying

'I just wanted you to know that this is me trying.'

Azzi Fudd x Reader

Based on this request (sorry it took forever lol)

Masterlist

Word Count: 1.1k

Themes: depression, mild alcohol abuse, hurt/comfort

A/N: hiii so here i am trying out writing for someone other than Paige, and I really hope you like it! If this is a decent success I may write for other people as well :) And of course it was time to write a fic to go along with my most favorite song of all time (folklore stans rise up)

Lets do thisss

also sorry this is lowkey kinda depressing i am a sad girly

~

Your lack of sleep was showing in deep purple bruises under your eyes that no amount of even the heaviest concealer could adequately cover. You haven't slept well in days, and today’s shift had not helped your exhaustion. The day was filled with incessant neediness, people cussing you out, and an endless amount of shit.

Literally and figuratively. 

You walk into your apartment, just wanting nothing but to fall into Azzi’s warm and loving arms, but you’re met with the still darkness of an empty home. Your girlfriend was in Las Vegas playing against the Aces, and she would not be home until tomorrow afternoon. 

She had promised to call you after the game, but you weren’t sure if you would even make it through your shower, much less wait up for her by the phone for another three hours. 

Your eyes fill with tears, the feeling of overwhelming loneliness mixing with your exhaustion, and as you throw your stuff on the floor, dredging your body into your bathroom, letting the downpour of water drown out your own tears. 

You had become quite accustomed to hiding your feelings behind bright smiles and fake laughs, desperate to clutch onto the need to prove to everyone that you were okay.

Even if you really weren't.

Your girlfriend had enough stress on her, and the idea of her needing to worry about you, too, was enough to send guilt shooting through your entire body. 

You had kept up your facade all throughout college, choosing to take long, solo car rides until you had to pull over, the tears swimming in your eyes nearly blinding you. And when you were strung along to the bars with Azzi and the rest of her teammates, you drowned your sorrows and fears with liquor, numbing your thoughts and your body until you were delirious. 

You were the golden girl. 

You knew what jokes to crack for which group of people you were around at the time. Your grades were stellar. And you had bagged the prettiest, sweetest girl in probably the entire universe. 

So, you resented yourself for feeling anything other than being on top of the world, because it was actually quite the opposite.

It got worse once you graduated. 

Azzi was often gone, traveling for away games, and that left you alone to process the unimaginable emotions that came with your budding nursing career. Feelings of loss and incompetence clouded your brain constantly.

Today was no different. 

You had lost a patient, a kind, gentle woman who finally let go, taking her last breath while gripping your hand, completely alone. 

It broke you, and the devastating reality had sunk into your chest, crushing all of the air out of your fragile lungs. And you were now gasping for air, leaving you feeling bereft and vulnerable, like an open wound. 

Maybe that’s all you’d ever really be, and you could not help but think that you were the festering wound in yours and Azzi’s relationship, threatening to slowly tear it apart until the two of you were left standing in the tattered shreds of what used to be. 

You wanted things to be okay so, so badly, but the overwhelming feelings of loneliness and longing had set in, chilling you down to the bone. And you were scared. 

So you would just continue on pretending. 

Azzi comes home the next day, and you put the mask back on the second she walks through the door. You’d be lying, though, if her presence didn’t make you feel the tiniest bit whole again. You melt into her arms, drinking in her presence, as she rubs your back soothingly, her face pressed into the crook of your neck. 

Maybe everything would be okay, if only you could be honest with her.

~

Azzi lays in bed next to you, and you indulge in the way her smell has permeated the soft bedsheets again, after days of the scent slowly becoming less and less potent. She smells warm and comforting, and you nuzzle into her, desperate for her to fix every little part of you that was screaming out in insecurity and despondancy.

A low sigh escapes your throat, secretly wanting your girlfriend to pick up on your mood, and because she knows you better than anyone else, she does. 

“What’s wrong, baby?” She questions, her tone filled with concern and worry. She places a hand on your cheek, coaxing you to look into her eyes, and the glow of the lamp on the bedside table illuminates the kindness emitting from her deep brown irises. 

“I–��� You begin, taking a deep breath and then stopping. Trying to put all your emotions into coherent words was quite the task. And honestly, you were terrified of how Azzi would react. 

Her thumb strokes your cheek, as she sits up fully next to you in the bed, eyes still peering into yours. 

“It’s okay, it’s just me,” she murmurs gently, and something clicks inside of you.

It was Azzi. You could tell her anything, and it would never even come close to dimming any of the love she felt for you. 

In that moment, all the anxiety you felt about coming clean seemed silly, like it had been built up in your head to great heights, and here it was now, crashing down all around you.

“I’ve been really depressed,” you mumble, your cheeks feeling warm from her touch and the prickling of shame. “For a long time, actually. And I really fucking miss you. I hate feeling like a needy girlfriend, but I don’t know how much longer I can keep doing this.”

The confession pours out of you, and as the air stills between you, your heart races as you watch Azzi’s face contort into a look of hurt and confusion.

“Oh, baby,” she breathes, scooping you up and setting you into her lap, legs draped over hers as she interlaces your fingers with hers. 

“I’ve been missing you, too. And I didn’t want you to feel like you had to sacrifice your career for mine,” she murmurs, pressing a kiss onto your temple. 

Your shoulders sag in relief, and you connect your lips in a kiss. There were numerous unspoken words shared as your lips entwined in a sheer display of passion.

As you break apart, you gaze back into those dark brown eyes, pupils now blown wide. “Guess this means we’ll have a lot more time to be doing this,” you giggle, wagging your eyebrows at Azzi.

She shakes her head fondly. “Just want my sweet, happy girl back,” she whispers in your ear.

Little did she know, you already were.

~

I really hope everyone enjoyed this. I have been toying around with a lil Pazzi fic, so let me know if you'd be interested :)

xoxo katy

Taglist:

@fullladypanda-blog, @omg-imtumbling, @tenaciousglitternerd, @oldcrdigan, @paigebuxkets, @the-other-half , @patscorner , @dietcokesmom , @tndaqltoifwy

Want to be added to my taglist? Comment or send me a message!

[good-wine-and-cheese]

For the get to know your fic writer game:

4) Where do you find inspiration for new ideas? 12) How does receiving or not receiving feedback/support impact you? 22) Are there certain types of writing you won’t do? (style, pov, genre, tropes, etc) 40) If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see? 56) What’s something about your writing that you pride yourself on?

Oh this was a fun set to answer! :D

4) Where do you find inspiration for new ideas?

I couldn't tell you! It's usually some whim that passes by. Sometimes I'll have a very deeply well-thought-out idea and write down the general skeleton for the story I want to do but then not get past that, and then suddenly be struck with the random desire to write something completely different and actually manage to bang out that one. So like...usually it has to not be intentional. I can't go looking for inspiration or feel like I've come up with the narrative myself, it has to just kind of hit me otherwise it gets stuck in development hell.

12) How does receiving or not receiving feedback/support impact you?

To be honest, it doesn't. Of course it's nice to get feedback, especially when I get people sending me asks over here or comments that tell me I manage to capture the mood of the characters how they would be in canon and stuff, but overall? It really doesn't bother me if they don't get any attention. I started writing for a niche fandom so I never expected to get any recognition for it anyway. I kinda write stories for myself first, and if people like them, then great! But yeah no I'm just mostly writing for my own enjoyment so the attention doesn't matter too much. It's nice to see though!

22) Are there certain types of writing you won’t do? (style, pov, genre, tropes, etc)

I like experimenting with most styles of writing, but one I don't really enjoy is Y/N fics. I wrote one once at the request of a friend and it was more "y/n character is having a shitty day and gets comforted" which I could work with since pretty much everyone universally has had a shitty day and I could be as vague as to who "Y/N" was and what their problems were. I got a lot of comments on that one saying people could all take different catharsis from it and I'm glad it worked that way. But most of the time the Y/N format is looking for a romantic fantasy narrative which...is fine, but then you kind of have to create a more narrow set of "experiences" for Y/N character to have gone through. If that makes sense? Like, "Y/N" is meant to be self-insert-y, except that "Y/N" is still a character and has to have some sort of unique characterization which means you shut out a lot of people.

Also I will never, ever, ever write "Y/N" in those stories. Literally my biggest pet peeve. Nothing takes me out of a story more than "Hey, how are you, Y/N?". Awful. If I'm writing a wish fulfillment story for someone I'm just going to avoid saying the "Y/N" character's name.

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

Oh gosh oh man okay that's hard. Literally any would make me happy honestly XD I would be over the moon if someone sent me fanart of my fics. I can't really specify certain scenes or anything, but there are some parts of my stories where I really had a specific image in mind and you can kind of tell by how descriptive those scenes are...I'd love if some of those were the ones that spoke to people and they rendered their own version. I think that'd be cool.

56) What’s something about your writing that you pride yourself on?

I would say accuracy to source material? I get comments a lot about how either the characterization of characters themselves, or the narrative tone, feels just like how Monster does and it's something I'm proud of for sure. I like being able to take characters and put them in AU situations and new genres and still mold them in such a way that if you read that story side by side with the Monster manga it wouldn't seem out of place.

Fic writer ask game

[falcor-thee-luck-dragon]

Interviews - Henry Cavill x wife/actress reader

Summary: You and Henry have been married for a couple years now, and when you’re both part of the Witcher cast, fun interviews are to be had.

Warning: nothing but a good time, btw I’ve never written anything like this so I hope it’s good enough that I might feel motivated to write more

-Readers Witcher character is loosely based off my Geralt fic from here (just a little self promotion), but in this case you play a full vampire in this Witcher universe

The days have been long and grueling, filming hours upon hours of stunts and regular acting had taken its toll. Not to mention the countless times in hair and make up paired with costume changes and traveling to film on certain locations.

To say being apart of Netflix’s The Witcher was full of tiring days and some accidental bruises would be a huge understatement. But none of that mattered, nor did you bother to complain when through the thick and thin of it all did you have Henry with you along the way. And your favorite big slobbery bear, Kal whenever he was allowed on set.

Fortunately for you in the beginning of all the craziness, the casting and writers had wanted you specifically for the part of Y/C/N in the new series before Henry even auditioned for the role of Geralt, that was soon given to him after you accepted your fresh role of vampiric heroine.

It was ironically strange in a good way, you had watched your dork of a husband play the Witcher: Wild Hunt a few times before, eventually learning of what Geralt of Rivia was, who Y/C/N was in the story, who Yennefer and Ciri were, Tris and even Jaskier.

Who would have thought that you’d finally get to snag a role side by side with Henry in quite literally one of the most fantastic shows you’ve ever heard of. You didn’t even need to see the show yet to know how well it was most likely to be reviewed. Being a key character in the grand storyline was enough to convince you of how amazing it would most certainly turn out in the finished product.

And after all was said and done, you couldn’t believe how well loved and popular the show truly became in the following months after shooting and its eventual release onto Netflix. The after parties and cast celebrations truly made you blessedly grateful for pulling through to the vary end.

Then again you had your mans Henry by your side every step of the way. He was your rock and you were most definitely his. You know life on set would have been far less entertaining and dreadfully long if not for the lovely company of your dear Witcher, Henry. And so far after the fact, you and a good portion of the cast have been placed in random interviews for the majority of the day.

Reason being, The Witcher has at long last finally premiered and as per usual the people and media live for those cast interviews that always reveal some interesting events. So far this morning you’ve done some interviews with Anya that have gone perfectly fine since the two of you seem to click so well.

Also it helps ease the anxiety of your fellow newer cast mates to the world of continuous interviews with an experienced veteran actor like yourself, who’s gone round the ring more times then you can count. Though you can’t help but wonder how Henry’s doing, considering you’ve been separated since the sessions began at 10am, you’ve had lunch and now it’s about 1 in the afternoon with more hours to go.

Luckily for you, you’ve just been informed of another interview with the man of the hour himself. Saying your goodbyes and well wishes to your fellow cast mates, you stand and follow the guide into the advised place. Aka some really nice hotel room that’s been done up real nice for efficient interviewing, complete with the Witcher insignia on a large background poster and three chairs that happen to look rather comfy.

The camera and sound people nod in acknowledgment as you walk in, you nod back no doubt making their day with your friendliness and adorable smile that quite literally lights up a room. Soon you spot the bubbly yet nervous interviewee who instantly welcomes you into her space like you’re an old friend.

You sit, a bit confused as to where your partner happens to be at the moment, the interviewer, Lauren makes small talk before a door opens and her big bright doe eyes go wide in nervous excitement. A telling smile upon her face as she shifts in her chair before looking back to you again with a happy grin.

Henry says a quick hello to the behind the scenes crew before waving to Lauren, you smirk while watching him get comfortable next to you, “Well, well, well. Get lost on your way up, you know they have guides for a reason.” You tease as he chuckles at your humorous jab, relieved to see you again after a couple hours apart.

“Traffic.” He quips with a shrug.

“Uh huh.” You mutter with a shake of your head before drawing your attention back to Laura, “Can’t take him anywhere I swear, he does this all the time.”

She laughs as Henry pretends to gasp at your teasing, you chuckle along with them before she finally collects herself, “Well, welcome back to London. It’s fantastic to have you both in town once again, and your big beautiful faces all over Leicester Square.”

You both laugh, “Right.” Says Henry, “I guess we do look pretty cool.”

“Hell yeah, I mean where else can I see myself with a giant sword on a building? And anyways look at this beautiful mug,” You say gently squeezing Henry’s cheeks in your hand, “he’s literally killing it out there.” They laugh as you give Hen another playful squeeze before letting go and setting your arm against the chairs cushioned armrest. 

“Alight let’s start.” She says enthusiastically before glancing down at her cards then back up to you and Henry. Then into one of the two the cameras, “Hi I’m Lauren from Entertainment Weekly and today we’re here with the two stars of Netflix’s The Witcher.” She says enthusiastically while giving a nod to you two, indicating that the camera is now focused on you both, “Henry Cavill and Y/N Cavill.”

You both smile in acknowledgment as Henry gives a slight nod, “How you doing?”

“I’m great,” She beams, “So, I’ll get right into it, what do you like most about the story? What really drew you into the script that made you say, yes this is going to be awesome?”

Slapping a hand against Henry’s muscular leg, you hum, “I’ll let Hen take this one he’s a real expert on the linguistics of the whole show.”

“Thanks Y/N/N.” Replies Henry, bemused that you’re making him take the first question.

You nod to him knowingly with a smirk, “Of course.” Knowing how much he loves to talk about the show and also because you’d rather have him use his energy to talk about it then do that yourself. Priorities, right, though in your defense it’s been a long day.

“Well I absolutely love the games and the books themselves are phenomenal works of literature.” He explains, his face glowing with that usual glimmer of excitement in his eyes, “The story and the world of the Witcher is just so rich and full of potential that when I signed on for the show, I immediately knew it would be amazing, no doubt.”

You lean into the arm of you chair, “And of course I was there so that’s always a bonus.”

“That too.” He smiles adorably, “That too of course.”

Lauren smiles, “Great. So, what was it like working together, how was it having your characters interact with one another?”

You smile, setting a hand against Henry’s forearm, “This guy right here.” You deadpan before waving him off dramatically, “So annoying, my god he whined all the time and he was such a drama queen dear lord so ugh....” You start cackling before you can even finish the sentence causing Henry to loose it as well and with that the interviewer.

Shaking your head you rest your hand against his shoulder, “I joke, he was a gem to work with as usual...I mean I feel incredibly blessed to be able to act alongside my husband for months and months every single day. It’s a rarity in this line of work and I’m grateful to have shared this experience...and I guess more so this whole adventure with him as well.”

The interviewer aww’s as Henry tilts his head to lean into your hand that’s still resting atop his shoulder before pulling away just as quickly, the intimate sentiment not going unnoticed by you or Lauren who looks to be enjoying your loving yet calm energy with one another. “That’s so sweet, what about you Henry?”

“Oh yes absolutely,” Agrees Henry to your recent statement, “not only did I have her by my side through it all but the dynamic of our characters interacting together was so fun to shoot. I think the audience will really be able to see their relationship grow on screen into something strong and beautiful like in the books.”

Slow clapping you give him a curt nod of approval, “Well said.”

Lauren smirks, “Seems like it. Well, I was able to catch the premier yesterday and I gotta say...it was fantastic! I couldn’t believe how diffident the two of you looked from how you are now.” She gushes enthusiastically.

The corners of Henry’s lips curl into a proud smile for the fellow crew of the Witcher’s, “Oh that’s great then, honestly we gotta give all the props to the costume and makeup team, they’re so talented and know how to make us look like real badasses.” He adds.

You nod in agreement before grinning at a positive memory of your first interaction with Henry as Geralt, “Oh for sure, I remember during the early stages of production when our characters met each other for the first time, before this we came to set together but went separate ways to shoot our own stuff in the meantime so I never got a real look at him.” You recall with a bright smile as Henry watches your every move, beaming just the same.

“It was so funny, I was in the tent with Freya Allen, the wonderful girl who plays Ciri, and then suddenly her eyes got all big and nervous and I was like, that’s not me right? Something weird didn’t just happen with my costume? And then I turned around to find this man, wig on, face a mess, and his eyes looked so fearsome and different...it was a bit startling.” You say with a chuckle, “I clearly wasn’t expecting to see Geralt right then and there. He just looked so unlike Henry.”

“Yeah, I was almost hurt.” Laughs Henry, “She had to like squint and make sure it was me.”

Rolling your eyes, you shrug, “He had some real creepy looking colored contacts, yunno?”

Henry fake scoffs, “You’re one to talk, I mean when I first say her, Y/N’s eyes were red and she had fake blood spattered all over her face and shirt. Oh, and not to mention those fangs they put on your teeth...we probably traumatized poor Freya that day.”

“Oh shit you’re right!” You exclaim with a snort of concealed laughter, “God I completely forgot about how I looked...now since I think about it, I did that a lot too. I would just walk up to people and be completely oblivious as to what kind of nightmare I looked like, honestly I might have scared one of our producers a couple of times.” You add with a half nervous laugh, it’s true, you did scare some of the crew unintentionally. Most of the time.

Lauren lightly chuckles, “That sounds like you were quite the sight to see then.” She says before glancing back down at her notes, “Alright I have’ta ask, is there anything that you two took home with you from set?”

“Besides Henry every night,” He holds back a laugh while covering his mouth as you nonchalantly continue, “Uh, yes actually I got to take home Y/C/N’s wolf ring that I loved so much and just thought was the coolist thing ever and....uh, I might have stolen some socks too.”

“So that’s why after filming the amount of socks of yours I had to fold increased?” Wonders Henry with a surprised snort of realization.

Turning your head to give him a “no shit” kinda look, you look back at Lauren, pointing your thumb at Henry, “Master sleuth right here, but hey, he folds my laundry.”

“Aw that’s great.” Adds Lauren with a smile before turning her attention to Henry, “What about you Henry? Take anything from set?”

“More then Y/N did actually...”

“He just about took the whole makeup trailer most nights, I swear.”

Henry chuckles, “That. Is true.” He agrees with a nod, “Interesting enough, at home I’ve got Geralt’s armor hung up in our living room and a multitude of other nicknacks that I’ve collected during filming.” He adds, glancing over to you, “So uh, yeah, we were fairly lucky to be able to snag what we could.”

Lauren smiles, absentmindedly shuffling her cards, “That’s awesome to have such special memorabilia, you guys really are fortunate.” She adds before reading off from another card, “Alright you two, care to play a game called guess the image? Witcher style.”

Your face perks up at this, you’re a sucker for interview games and Henry knows it, “Are you reading my mind or something, I have been waiting all day for someone to ask about playing a game.” You gush rather enthusiastically. 

He smiles at your adorableness and how excited you’ve just become, Lauren grins, happy that her suggestion has been so well received, “Okay so how it works is, I’ll show you an image on my iPad and then you have to guess who or what I’m showing you.”

“Oh, cool I’ve heard of this,” You reply, turning to Henry with a smirk, “Loser has to clean Kal’s yard poop for a week.”

Rolling his gorgeous blue eyes he chuckles, “You’re on.”

“Alright, the stakes are high, you two ready?” Beams Lauren, holding her iPad to her chest as she awaits an answer.

“Yes, I’m ready to kick his ass.” You quip, leaning an arm against your chair while Henry does about the same, though he does his best to contain his laughter.

“Okay, first image.” She holds up the device to show some sort of weird golden thing, it’s shiny and hard, worst part is that you’re not entirely sure what the hell it could be.

Sensing your confusion Henry nudges your shoulder, though you ignore it before he smartly answers, “Oh, is that...Renfri’s brooch?” Little shit knows exactly what that is, of course he does.

Lauren claps, “Correct.” Zooming out of the image to show the full picture of the golden brooch, “Right on, that’s one point for Mr. Cavill.”

You scoff playfully, “Beginners luck.” While Henry side eyes you with a humorous grin upon his plush lips, he nudges your arm, “I’m going to really enjoy not cleaning up Kal’s grass turds for awhile.” He mutters lightheartedly, though you know deep down he’s being serious, no way is he going to win this, you think. You won’t have it, hopefully the next few pictures aren’t as difficult, Kal duty is not fun by any means.

“Shut up.” You grumble with a dismissive wave of your hand, though just teasing of course.

“Okay next image.” This time the blurred photo looks much more familiar, soon it clicks as to what the obscured blurriness actually is, yes!

“Got it! Anya’s er I guess Yennefer’s dress from the fight at Sodden.” Lauren giggles, zooming the image out to reveal Yennefer in her tasseled blue and purple dress from the battle at Sodden Hill. “I’m amazing I know.” You boast at Henry with a casual little bow in your seat.

“It’s the second question.” He deadpans, eyes crinkling in amusement as you shake your head at him.

“Pffff get outta here.” You mutter back, gently pushing his arm off of your chairs armrest and setting yours in its place while he gives you a fake shocked expression.

In turn you can’t help the smile that tugs at the corner of your lips, so instead of saying some sassy remark that would no doubt get a reaction out of him, you turn your attention back over to Lauren who’s looking over her notes again.

“Fantastic,” She says, glancing back up at you and Henry, “you’re both tied with one point each. Alright, anyone know what this is?” She asks showing something red and fuzzy, a bit of dirty skin showing from one corner but with The Witcher this bloody image could literally be anything.

The both of you squint, puzzled as to what this could be, “Y/N you got any ideas.” Wonders Henry, brows furrowed as his face contorts into deep concentrated thought.

Raising a brow, you hum, “If I knew I wouldn’t tell you.”

“Fair point.” He chuckles.

Lauren smiles, “Any guesses?”

 After a few concentrated moments, Henry shrugs in defeat,  “I’m stumped.” He admits as you study the image harder, mind racing to put the pieces together as to what the hell you’re looking at.

“No, I think I might know this....erm is it...me?” You wonder, voice raising in question, hoping to be correct about this or face the teasing of Henry.

Lauren quickly zooms out of the obscured image, “It is!” She says excitedly, revealing the picture of you from your characters debut in episode 2 where you save a girl from a werewolf, your mouth is covered in blood and so is most of your costumes chest area and left arm from the struggle. Not to mention the make-up teams fun 20 minutes of throwing fake sticky blood all over you to get the right look for the taxing scene.

You grimace a bit, “Oh god that was quite the day on set,” You recall with a half smile, “I was doing stunts all day covered in that red syrupy dye, I think it took a week to get out of my skin.”

Henry suddenly snorts with laughter, “Right! That reminds me, I thought Kal had gotten cut or something, it was just Y/N who had hugged him not realizing she still had some fake blood on her arm.”

“Jeez that’s right, I felt so bad, but I couldn’t stop laughing once we realized it was just me.”

Lauren grins, excited to hear some hidden information about little things that happens behind the scenes, “Oh wow that must have been a sight, alright Henry, Y/N’s taken the lead with a two to one score.” She says as you playfully nudge his strong shoulder. “Second to last image, what is this?”

Without missing a single beat Henry replies, “Jaskier.”

Squinting at the image you lean closer to the iPad, “How the hell do you see Jaskier?”

Smiling the interviewer zooms out to reveal the bards full outfit from the banquet scene, though he’s in the background of a fight between Geralt and some Cintran knights. “Right on!” She exclaims as you lean back into your seat dumbfounded, shoulder flush against Henry’s as he clutches your arm and squeezes it affectionately.

Ignoring his silent show of victory you shrug, “And they say he’s just another pretty face,” Earning a laugh from Lauren and some of the crew as you smirk at the camera, face them shifting to apologetic, “also I’m so sorry Joey you beautiful bastard apparently I’m blind. Uh, we don’t have to dwell on it, Lauren whatcha got?”

“You guys are both tied with two points each, last chance to win.” She replies before glancing down at her iPad, “Alright, what is this?” She asks, her iPad showing that of fuzzy bright colors, with a small corner smear of dull white that clearly wouldn’t make much sense to the untrained eye.

Smirking you glance at a puzzled Henry before sitting up in your seat, feeling rather good about yourself, “Would that happen to be, Hen in Stregobor’s illusion?” You answer with, though sounding a bit as a question considering you aren’t entirely confident as to what image this is.

Lauren’s brows raise in surprise, “Henry, looks like we have a winner. Y/N you are correct.” She beams, enlarging the image to reveal Geralt’s side profile as he talks to the old wizard while the background stays colorful and shrouded in various arrays of sunlight..

Shaking your fist victoriously in the air you give a couple enthusiastic whoop whoops while Henry simply takes it like a champ, “Have fun cleaning up Karl’s monster turds, cause this lucky lady doesn’t have to.” You boast as Henry and the crew laugh.

“Well that was something,” Beams Lauren, “I’m so glad to have chatted for a bit about your guys’ amazing new series, and maybe ended a relationship in the process.” She says jokingly as both you and Henry chuckle.

Patting his thigh affectionately, you smirk, “He’s a tough old bear, but yeah, it was awesome having you talk to us.”

“Yes, take care now.” Adds Henry while the interviewer Lauren stands, saying her goodbyes as she goes to exit the room.

The camera crew take a small break to adjust things and whatnot as you and Henry wait patiently for the next interviewer. He turns, an adorable smile pulling at his lips while you pretend to ignore his fiery gaze. “Well that went pretty well, minus the fact that I’m on Kal poop duty for a week...but uh...” He leans in close to you now, “I missed you all morning.”

Breaking out into a smile you raise a brow, “Boring without me huh?”

“Always.”

You casually shrug, “I figured as much. Don’t worry, we have a hotel all to ourselves tonight.” Your brows wiggle suggestively causing your blue eyed lover to shake his head with amusement.

“Say it louder next time.” He jokes.

Side eyeing the oblivious crew you begin to speak a couple octaves louder, “Henry I can’t wait to fu..” Suddenly his hand presses against your mouth before you’re able to call any attention to yourself. He gives you a warning look before slowly pulling his hand from your mouth.

You grin mischievously, “I wasn’t gonna say that...”

“Sure Y/N,” He mutters in your ear as a new interviewer walks into the room and finds their chair, “and I’m wasn’t going to make you scream tonight.”

Your brows raise in surprise and admittedly slight arousal at his choice of wording in this room of all places. Eyeing him up, face still showing surprise, you finally break out into a satisfied smirk. “You know what? I think you should consider changing your offer.”

He thinks deeply for a moment, though you know he’s only pretending to get you riled up, “Hrmm...maybe, possibly, should I? Should we? You are my co-star after all, that wouldn’t be very professional now would it Y/N?” He states with a shit eating grin, all done while the crew and interviewer get ready, minding their business and completely unaware to yourself and Henry’s teasing.

Scoffing playfully you lightly swat his arm, “We are way past being professional.”

He chuckles, looking from you to the rest of the room, “Oh, they have no idea.”

[yourmcu]

Mesmerized

Pairing: Natasha Romanoff x fem!reader

Request:

@lostaurorax​ said:

hii!! i love ur writing i was wondering if u could write a natasha x reader fic were reader is part of the guardians of the galaxy and they come to the compound and natasha is just starstruck but reader plays kinda hard to get and then just a bunch of fluff !

Word count: 1,388

A/n: sorry it took a while! I really hope this turned out ok I’m so nervous lmfaosdkdk

Warnings: none

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

gif not mine! credits to the owner^^

Natasha’s outside the compound by the landing zone, taking light sips on her beer occasionally. The Avengers are having some sort of gathering or low-key party inside to celebrate their victory against Thanos a while back.

They never really had time to gather everybody just after the battle, but Tony contacted everybody for this special night. Natasha just wants to take a break from the games and conversations for a minute.

Speaking of conversations, she rolls her eyes at the thought about something Steve said. Because the tables have turned; if she was the one bugging Steve to date a few years back, he's now bombarding her with names of single people they knew, one of them being Bucky.

“He wouldn’t mind going out to dinner with you sometime.” Steve suggested. But Natasha knows the Winter Soldier and herself are better off as friends.

Natasha gets up when after the guardian’s ship lands smoothly against the grass meters away from her. She moves a few strands of her hair from her face to get a clear view of Thor striding out of the ship as soon as the door opens, along with the other guardians.

“Ah, Romanoff!” The god of thunder grins, patting her on the back. She’s never seen him this happy. Probably because it's all thanks to him the whole universe was free from mad titans – at least for now. “How’s life? Oh, yes, I’d like to introduce you to my friends here… of course you already know rabbit, and tree…”

Greetings and hand shaking fills the friendly atmosphere for a moment. Then you finally catch up with them, nudging Thor’s side and thrusting the large barrel of Asgardian ale into his arms.

“You must be the Black Widow,” you breathe out and offer a warm smile to the redhead, your hand outstretches. “Thor’s told me awesome stories about you guys. Y/N, by the way.”

Natasha nods, slightly breathless like you are but because of... well, you. She returns a smile and introduces herself as well.

“Everything’s pretty tech-y now, s’mazing.” You muse, entering the compound side by side with Natasha. The rest are walking in front of you, chatting among themselves. “I missed this planet.”

She glances sideways at you, “when’s your last visit?”

You chuckle. “I honestly don’t remember when but, it was a brief visit to my hometown and everything looked old fashioned, I think these huge compact disks were all the rage that time, vines- no, not vines-“

“Vinyl records?” Natasha raises an eyebrow, smiling. You laugh, which she finds adorable, and nod. “You and Quill are related, then?” She proceeds to ask since you look like a normal human, no antennas or any odd space stuff you could’ve inherited.

“Oh, no, we’re both half human though,” you shrug. “What about you? Tell me about yourself.”

She hesitates to tell a bit of her story at first but you seem nice and - accepting, like you’d never judge her. But she does leave out a few parts for another conversation.

Natasha retreats over to Steve who is behind the bar counter when you receive a big hug from Peter and Tony greets you with a “How’s it going, fireball?” and a pat on the back. She figures you want to meet the others, so she sits down across the super soldier to steal glances at you from afar. 

“Finally, I was starting to think he wasn’t gonna show - hey!” Steve raises his champagne at Thor and he does the same gesture before hurrying after Bruce. “Is it just me or did Groot get taller?”

You're still joking around with Tony, pretending to hit the still-bandaged wound on his chest, Rhodey laughs along, then Wanda offers you a cocktail and you accept it, thanking her.

Steve’s now going on about Wakanda, also sharing the stories from T’Challa. Natasha’s barely listening but occasionally hum and nod.

“Nat, if you don’t close your mouth you’re going to drool.” He laughs lightheartedly, averting his gaze from her to you. “I guess we have a winner, then?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Natasha gets up to grab another beer from the cooler. Steve continues to laugh, having a stupid grin on his face. “Oh c’mon, what’s her name?”

Even saying your name she feels out of breath. There's no point in pretending she isn’t into you now. “This isn’t normal. I just met her tonight and I shouldn’t be feeling this way.”

“You’re infatuated, it’s-”

“Hi,” you sit on a stool across from the two avengers, holding an open pack of marshmallows. Natasha lamely excuses herself to fetch a bottle opener. Steve straightens up and extends a hand which you take. “Nice to finally meet you, I’m-”

“Y/N.” Steve says. “Natasha’s been telling me about you.”

“I just thought you seemed nice,” she quickly recovers but her heart is still pounding.

You raise an eyebrow at her and giggle. “I’m flattered. You’re not so bad yourself, Natasha.” It’s true, you think she ‘seemed nice’ too. Sure she sounded so badass when Thor tells you stories but tonight she looks so cozy with her sweater and her hair braided to one side.

“Being surrounded with people like you guys is great but now I just feel like a party trick.” You take out a marshmallow while scanning the room (Steve is now playing pool with Sam, you notice, and you're alone with the redhead).

“What do you mean?”

You hold the marshmallow between your fingertips, igniting it out of nowhere for a second so it roasts just right, then pop it in your mouth. “Pretty useless, right?”

“Maybe if you only used it for something like that, but no,” Natasha smiles softly. “Fire conjuring, bit scary if you ask me. What if you randomly lit something up?”

“I was born with it. I remember having to wear gloves all the time as a child when I first set a houseplant to flames,” you both laugh. “I’m in full control of it now though.”

“S’that why Tony calls you ‘fireball’?”

You let out a laugh again. “Yeah. Or he might’ve forgot my actual name.”

“Y/N! I took the liberty of putting your stuff in the room you’ll be sleeping at.” Thor butts in, grinning from ear to ear, patting you on the head.

“Oh, right. Thanks buddy.”

“You’re welcome!”

Natasha turns to you, “you’re staying?” In her head she's coming up with ways on how to talk to you again once the party’s over and you return to space with the guardians. This just makes it a whole lot easier to get to know you even better.

“Yup, Thor is too. We both agreed on staying for a few weeks to catch up on stuff.” You reply. “I might actually turn in now, ‘think those cocktails are kicking in...”

“I’ll walk with you.” She says without giving it much thought but you nod and smile appreciatively.

“Perfect. It’s the guestroom beside your room.” Thor claps his hands together and walks away.

-----

“Can I ask you a question?”

You zip your bag and hum before looking up at her.

Natasha's leaning on your doorframe, hesitating. Is she going to fast? Is it too soon to ask? She fiddles with her hands, “do you have any plans tomorrow?”

This is fine. If you say yes or say no then decline her next question, she’ll just forget any of this happened.

“I don’t - well, I think Thor wanted to go out for breakfast but that’s it. Why?”

“Do you... maybe wanna go out?” Natasha asks silently, looking at anywhere but you. “To, you know, catch you up on some of the things you missed. Only if you want to, no pressure.”

But your eyes light up at her words. You kind of expected it, she was showing signs that she likes you all night. And you actually made the Black Widow nervous. “Natasha, I’d love to.”

“Oh,” she sighs in relief, feeling the beat of her heart return to a normal pace. “Well I’ll - I’ll see you tomorrow.”

You walk over to her and place a hand on her arm, then lean over to plant a kiss on her cheek. “Good night.”

[flowers-of-io]

I know the fandom loves The Dark Future but it just reads as a poorly-written fanfic to me? I mean. Bear with me. Half of its charm is that it’s a ‘‘‘‘fanfic’’’’ to the “canon” timeline Elsie is currently in, and how strikingly different and messed up and weird it feels is a way to highlight the extent to which the Darkness can warp and change people and things. I’m no fan of the Eris Is Evil theory but it does fit into that apocalyptic setting, and the fact Savathûn is a minor inconvenience compared to her is like, my favourite part of that entire plot.

I know this is Elsie’s story, and the focus is on her and Ana, and how their relationship plays out; we see what she sees and we hear what she deems important enough to share. And the first four chapters are okay-ish? The pacing is good, the terrifying post-apo feel lingers like a chill on your back, and exo!Rasputin is a treat. But when it gets to Mara, and the whole chase after the Traveler... I just can’t help but see this as this self-indulgent postapocalyptic AU where all the Important Things line up just right and the Important People are now on Important Ships of other Important People. Mara flies the Leviathan, Eris and Sav are in the Scarlet Keep, Zavala camps in the Almighty, and they all come together for a big showdown...

(Oh this got long so I’m putting a read more not to give y’all unnecessary headaches.)

And don’t get me wrong, I don’t condemn self-indulgent postapocalyptic AU fics! I am writing a self-indulgent fic the sole purpose of which is to be a self-indulgent AU that I would have fun exploring! These fics are fine, and valid, and often very good works, because they happen when passion is unbound from the confines of canon. The complete madness that plays out in Dark Future is fascinating too, when you think about it--Mara on the Leviathan! how did she get there? where’s Calus? and Caiatl? why is she now commanding the Cabal forces? And Eris in the Keep! I love love love the Keep immensely and would die for some shenanigans in the Tower of Woe elevator, some new places of the Keep explored, some Necropolis content because that place is just so cool, like seriously, a HIVE CITY I can’t even begin to-

The problem is... we don’t really get to see that stuff. Everything is just thrown into the mix almost as an afterthought? All the important figures are there for the showdown to be epic, there’s a Traveler chase and Ghaul’s cage somehow rebuilt by exo!Rasputin the book just remembered was there so he speaks like once, there’s Zavala thundercrashing into the Scarlet Keep GO COMMANDER GO, and all this happens in like... one chapter? I think? The pacing is all over the place and never where it needs to, the chapters are either long conversations with nothing but dialogue or extremely short, little-detail descriptions of insane things happening, and it’s just irritating. I know we don’t get another Books of Sorrow every season, but this... oh this just feels like so much wasted potential, because this story could be so good if told differently, not just as glimpses into a Destiny x Marvel cross where the characters behave oddly, talk out of voice and act out of character, and just feel like faces and names thrown around for more impact. Ana and Eris are evil now but I don’t really care because they feel so off, and you can’t even argue it’s because of the corruption ‘cause Mara feels off too, and speaks unlike her, and has little to none Mara vibe™ going on whatsoever. And at this point I don’t care about this story at all, and all the dark future scenarios just irritate me because I can’t help but see the characters as 2-dimensional ghosts of themselves.

I think this book is too short, way too short, and lacks details. The pacing is odd. And it’s not that we haven’t got good lorebooks with detailed-but-not-overdetailed worldbuilding before! Marasenna is a trip, it’s a whole other universe to what we see in game, the characters are well fleshed out even when they aren’t the main focus (Sjur) or appear sporadically (Kelda Wadj, the Gensym Scribes), it’s a wild ride that feels like an elf fantasy, and is wonderful. Inquisition of the Damned has so much going on between the lines that I still keep discovering things upon reading it for the n-th time. Aspect is one of my favourites in how different the entries are from one another, and they still fit together as a coherent story. Duress and Egress is just A+ character study. The Dreaming City is a collection of snippets, of moments that are connected by the place they happened at. A Man With No Name makes me feel things. And I haven’t even touched the epistolary lorebooks.

Idk, I just feel this was such a waste of potential. I’m irked by the poor writing, by how the characters are off, and it surprises me how well received that book was by the community? I’m happy other people liked it, but to me it’s just a big meh.

[dragqueenpentheus]

Okay no one has to read this but i DO have to write it:

PYROC VS FATHER PAUL

Ya bitch needs an art break bc im getting angry about voices existing as i try to keep myself entertained. Today is NOT a god one for sinking into repetitive line work and that’s just about all i have on the table atm

SO! Im gunna do a little thinking about my little meow meows all fucked up by religion. Just a comparison for my sanity and interests. Pyroc is my baby i wrote him for the first time years ago. Five?????????? Whadda hell. Going on six.

ANYWAY john joined religion because of his trauma. His sister died and he felt lost. He was unmoored in this fishing village and looking for reason looking for hope. Hed had his heart broken and trying to make sense of tragedy on his own was totally beyond him. Thats why his interactions with riley in AA are SO good like. He knows that confusion and he knows the rhetoric that’s supposed to combat it. Only it dooesnt work for riley.

The same sort of thing happens for pyrc, only inverted. Loss urns him away from god and religion because its SO strong in his family and not only is he loosing trust in god, but his kin as well. He’s suspicious there’s mre they arent telling him, at the point of his fathers death. And he agrees to, on the surface, absolutely wholly throw himself in to being the second the family and the village need. But he’s keeping his treachery under wraps.

That’s one of the coolest things about father paul imo is like. That slow unraveling of what is. Frankly. An awful half assed plan, driven by fear and loneliness and desperation and dementia and love. Even VERY obvious things like. Taking down the newspaper photo of his young self ‘slip’ by him. I think, on some level, its DEEPLY intentional. He wants people to CHOOSE this. He wants people like bev. He wants people who see him and are in aw of him beating god. Of killing death. He wants to be worshiped and adored and for people to come to him willingly, no tragedy driving them to his arms.

Pyroc also wnats to be worshipped, but he ALSO wants to do the worshipping. He really longs for an element of almost????? But not quite??? Subjection?? He wants to be shown something and for a Great Voice to tell him, unquestioningly and unerringly that it is GOOD. Full stop. And then he wants to spend his life worshipping it. But this booko is an exploration of how….. no such thing exists. And more importantly no great voice exists either. There is nothing wholly good, nothing wholy evil. His lack of faith in himself once he becomes god is him starting to understand that as well. Thats on purpose baked into the lore. The starting point was ‘what if god was a position and in order to get promoted you had to be a murderer. No matter what’. He understands things are not wholly good, at that point. I onder how long it will be for him to realize they are not fully evil as well?

Bc pruitt does hm hm hm an interesting move. Where he takes something the narritve is very sure to communicate is EVIL no wiggle room just fact. Even if its driven by animal instinct its. Evil. And he makes it, not just good, but HOLY. And god i LOVEEEE that for him i ADOREEE that what a MOVE. Driven by desperation and dementia and relief and ‘if god saved me than maybe i can be good despite loving and sinning and maybe if i defeat god then i will be Thee Good’. SO sexy of him. Im really fascinated by his morality. He seems to have an understanding of the shades of grey in some respects??? But if he had a BETTER one with more forgiveness in his heart i feel like hed have left the church anyway after sarah was born??? Even if millie didnt ask him??? That might just be my own sensibilities creeping in but ….. like he culd have seen her on the weekends. He can do other jobs. Hes straight (??? Not totally convinced of this) he could have just dated her that makes me crazy. LIKE OBV HE HAD LINES HE THOUGHT THAT WOULD CROSS AND HE HAD INTERNALIZED THE CHURCH AND THE RULES AND SHE WAS MARRIED AND ECT ECT i know he couldnt have really but. Thye were straight. They coulda.

Im not gunna do fantasy homophobia bc i think its …………….. Boring. But i think some element of??? The vindlegaurd line MUST be passed along and for that particular rules must be applied. But thats also boring as hell :/ maybe i can work in my parthenogenesis lore?????????? I bet pyroc would love building that spell in any universe. That’s the sequal when he goes to magic university in helsin. But yeah i do like the concept that. Anyone can have a baby thru magic its just a time and energy commitment. Just a matter of wanting it enough together. Every baby is so deeply wanted and its mere existence is proof. Thats dope i love that. HMMM to be decided at a later date when im deeper into the story i think. I still havent figured out fully how and where and why orion is going to be invovled and if???? Pyroc and orion are even going to be romantic??????? Im torn im TORn…….

Thikns about john bonding w sarah over science and learning and starts wEEPING…. Like theres some surity beloved. Its just a matter of uncovering. I think sarah felt that same thirst for answers and hunted them differently. Her faith is in logic and science. I loveeee her god. Every scene w her and her dad absolutely RUIN me like!!!!!! SHE DOESNT KNOW!!! SHE DOESNT KNOW HOW LOVED SHE IS!!!!!! I hope at hte very end she saw the blood as the gesture of love it SO clearly was and not him trying to poison her. God i love that she spat it out. GOD. Thats about being gay, btw. Spits the religious offering that could save you across the gasoline soaked church floor like BABE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think we as a collective should talk about the possibiites around sarah/erin more. Bc their defiance combined would be. Earth SHATTERING for crockett.

In the future pyroc gets a kid. Ever since that campaign where Enemy ended up playing his daughter im like. How did i NOT know this idiot wanted nothing more in the entire world than to travel it with his daughter. I dont care how or why hes getting a kid. Hed be so doting and awful abut it. He would need orion as a co-parent for the kids self esteem to be normal levels. thINKS ABOUT PAUL GETTING TO RAISE SARAH AND JUST ABSOLUTELY GASSING HER UPPPPPPPP HANGING EVERY DOODLE SHE EVER MADE ON TEH FRIDGE. BOASTING ABOUT HER SCEINECE PROJECT OT ANYONE WITHIN EYESIGHT EVEN THOUGH ‘WE K N O W JOHNWE WERE ALL AT THE SCEINCE FAIR’!!!!!!!!!!! Let these fuck ups be doting fathers im fucking begging. That scene where paul is like. You take ccare of everyone on the island sarah. Its more than being a doctor. You comfort them.

HM HM comfort is such a thing for Miss Bitch like!! He sees it as a Good Thing. He tries to bring it for riley by asking to hold the AA meetings on island ((also manipulation. Obvously also manipulation. I wouldnt have bene shocked if he was slipping the vampire blood into the coffee every meeting either. But thats just a theory. A game theory.)) ANYWAY he sees comfort as hly. The church gave it to him when he needed it. The angel gave it to him in the cave. Feeling safe and warm is HIGH on his list of priorities and what makes him hand over respect.

I think pyroc has lived a very comfortable life in SO many ways, but in none he. Activly recognizes. A key part of his character arc his him…. Opening his eyes to the world around them. Seeing the privilege he has and being like. Wait. This isnt Right. We have to change thi. And when no one agrees ti shifts to I have to change this. With Violence. A little revolutionary <3 it only costs the life of his whole ass family

Thats more fun comparison ground like…… paul is SO much about I know whats right and there is a cost but i AM ignoring it. Like HE KNOOOOWSSSS he knooooows he just doesnt want o See. I’m not sure if im going to surprise yroc with the ……megadeath of. His whole family. Or if it’s a choice he has to activly make. I think a choice makes it more compelling, more layerd. It has to be in the moment though, becaus ei think thats. A key difference between them. Pyroc wouldnt do it.. hed just leave hed peace out and do what he could in small ways. But he wouldnt do his big stand off with god. Hed shrink his goals in order to not hurt his family. Out of love?? Intimidation?? Some instinct wihtin him that balks at the idea of disobedience??? I think even he doesnt know. But i LOVE john becaue he jsut decides to lie. He closes his eyes and says i am being stupid on purpose. I think thats PERHAPS more compelling than good guy coward pyroc BUT!!!!! Thats who he is rip to ths little man. Cant change him now hes a whole ass child in my head. The PLOT i can change. Him….. not without massive character development <3

UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MM set my brain on FIRE!!!! Im so glad nano is coming up. I love sharpening pyroc against the comparison of other AMAZING characters. Father paul hill my beloved millstone <3 anyway sorry to anyone who reads this its literally me unhinging my jaw and emptying my brain out. I had to write stuff that wasn’t novel or fic. A little character time down and dirty. I wil NOT be editing this love and light to future me trying to decode this

[to-boldly-nope]

Dreams and Disasters

Pairing: TOS Bones x Reader

Words: 2453

Plot: Taking place after the events of “The Empath”, the reader keeps on having nightmares about what happened. She can’t sleep and Bones does everything to make her better.

Warning: Just uh really bad writing ig, too many words, Bones being an absolute sweetheart...

I’ll be posting imagines I have already written about our favorite southern doctor while I work on your fic @emily-strange​ but I hope you like it 

You woke up crying. It was the fourth time this month and the same nightmare from a past experience where some alien held you and Bones captive and did experiments on the both of you. The bed was empty and cold beside you and you feared that it wasn't a dream. You slipped on one of his medical scrubs and went to Sickbay. If he wasn't there or on the bridge, then it wasn't a nightmare.

There were only a few people in the hallways of the Enterprise. Most of them were sleeping peacefully in their cabins. It must be nice for them. The doors to Sickbay opened and you looked inside. Nobody on the biobeds. Nobody almost dying from a weird space disease. You turned around and went into the office, where you let out a sigh and tears of relief.

"(Y/N), what are you doin' up?" Bones asked while standing up from his chair.

"I noticed that the bed was empty," you whispered.

"If you wanted to know why the bed was empty, then why are you crying? You're not gonna bug me, darlin', you can tell me."

"Remember what happened a month ago? With the alien and the experiment?"

"It's about that, huh? Come 'ere."

You slowly made your way to him. You were scared that he would disappear as soon as you touched him. You were scared that this was the actual nightmare.

"Darlin', you don't have to be afraid."

And that sent you over the edge, you ran to him and he hugged you. "Make them go away, please," you cried, "please, Len."

"I'll try everything I can. Why don't we return to my cabin so you can sleep? I'll go with you if that's what you want."

You nodded into his shoulder and he placed his hands near your elbows. "Come on now."

You nodded again and stepped away from him. You wiped your tears off with your arm. "I'm being overdramatic," you sniffed before laughing.

"No, you're just being emotional over some old country doctor."

You laughed again as he took your hand and lead you back to his cabin.

"You know, blue suits you quite well, dear," Bones said softly as you both walked down the corridor.

You suddenly remembered that you were wearing his scrub and blushed. "I forgot I put this on, sorry, Bones."

He let out a small laugh as the door to his room came open. It was different from what you heard a month ago, his laugh was light, soft, happy.

"I want you to go lie down, I'll be there in a moment."

"Ok," you told him as he brought your knuckles up to his lips and planting a soft kiss there. You stayed there for a moment, feeling the warmth of his hand and the ghost of his kiss.

"I'm not going to leave you again. I just had to do some last-minute paperwork."

You nodded as you took your hand back and crept your way to the bed.

"You should probably take some time off," Bones told you as he went behind the barrier between the bed and the next room over.

"I'll be fine."

"As the man courting you, I want you to take time off, as your chief medical officer and doctor, I want you to take some time off. It's the fourth time this month. Your file says that your performance level has dropped since everything has started."

"I can't argue with my superior officer, can I?" You sighed as you stared at the wall where a painting of a vase with flowers was hanging.

"It's not recommended, but hell, that never stopped anyone on this ship. I think you're the first person who hasn't argued with me when I told them that they needed rest," he said while laying next to you.

You laughed and looked at him and he looked at you with those beautiful blue eyes.

"I'll send a report to Jim early tomorrow for some time off duty. I don't want to see you in sickbay unless I ask or you're dying."

"Aw, Bones," you whined.

"No, you need rest."

You sighed again, "You're right. A few days to sleep won't be too bad."

"No, actually, it wouldn't."

"Will you be here if something happens again?" You asked.

"Of course," he reassured softly, "Either go to sickbay or call me and I'll be there."

"You have such pretty eyes," you sighed.

"Now you're just trying to sweet-talk me," he muttered.

"Why would I do that?" You asked innocently.

Bones only shook his head. "Goodnight, darlin."

"Goodnight."

~

You woke up again, the nightmare wasn't as bad, but it was there. Bones was still asleep next to you, snoring softly. You got out of bed and went to the observation lounge. Nobody was roaming the ship by this point. You walked into the room and went to open the panel over the window. You pressed yourself against the window, watching the stars fly past the window.

"I thought you would be here," Kirk said, making you turn around.

"I plan on returning before Bones finds out I was here. I already worried him tonight. He already told me that he wants me to take a few days rest."

"I'll be getting a report in the morning then," he chuckled.

Silence fell between the two of you.

"Captain, what happened a month ago, I wish it never happened."

"We all do, Lieutenant."

He was now standing next to you, also looking out the window. "I'm just glad that we were able to save McCoy."

"I'm glad also, Captain, now I have an old southern doctor by my side constantly," you laughed.

"Go back to your cabin, I feel like he's looking for you by now."

Kirk then left and you stayed there, your eyes slowly closing as you passed through another system. You felt a blanket drop on your shoulders and you snapped out of it. "If I knew this was a game of hide-and-go-seek, then I may as well microchipped you."

His voice was deep and tired. You felt bad for him because you didn't mean to wake him up. Hell, he even looked tired.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to lead you on a wild goose chase, I couldn't sleep."

"I could give you a hypo to knock you out for a few hours," Bones smiled as he stood beside you, his shoulder pressed against the glass. "Or a few days."

"I'll get better with some time," you told him while you hugged the blanket tightly.

"If I knew better, I would've thought that you fell asleep standing up."

You chuckled, "You're a very funny man, Doc."

"Oh god, you've gone insane, you called me doc."

You sighed and continued to look out the window at the millions of stars and other space objects. "It's funny how we're here. It's not the same as we're on earth, we're experiencing things nobody will believe. I just wanted to know that we're not alone in the universe, and I learned that we're not. I just wished that it wasn't the way it was."

"But I'm sure you had some good times, too."

"I did. I'm on the best ship in the federation, I haven't died yet, I have some really good friends."

"Is that all?"

"Of course not, I'm sure there are more good things to come. I'm not optimistic, but I got to be hopeful, right?"

"I couldn't have said it better myself."

"How long until your shift?"

"A few hours, at least. You slept for quite a while."

You now looked at him. "You being serious about that hypo?"

"Oh god no," he chuckled, "Maybe for a few hours, not a few days."

"I hate the fact that I still remember everything that happened. Emotional trauma at it's finest, is it not? Sometimes I get scared that this is the nightmare and you'll disappear as soon as I touch you. I still remember the captain carrying you into sickbay and Nurse Chapel and Doctor M'Benga doing everything to stop you from dying. I requested leave from my shift for a few days as you got better and I spent every minute in sickbay. Nurse Chapel had to tell me to leave every day, she was concerned that I would be affecting your recovery."

"Did you leave?"

"I did for a few hours, then I snuck back inside. She wasn't happy."

"She means well."

"Aren't the stars pretty," you sighed as you looked out the window.

"I guess they are."

"You guess?" You laughed in disbelief.

"We've been in space for two years now. Everything looks the same."

"But there's always something different. You might not see it at first but you'll find it eventually."

"I think I already have," he whispered.

You looked at him again and realized that he wasn't looking at the stars. No, he was too distracted by someone else.

He took his finger and placed it under your chin. He noticed how you saw the reflection of the stars in the corner of his eye.

"Bones?"

"Yeah?"

"Whatcha doing?"

"This," he said softly while leaning in. He planted a kiss on your lips, the first one you ever had.

You closed your eyes and placed your hands on his chest.

"I'm sorry," Bones apologized while cupping your face.

"No, don't be, it was the perfect setting," you reassured him before yawning.

"And it's the perfect setting for you to return to my cabin. Come on get to bed, maybe I can shorten your rest days if you get better."

"I'll only get better with time Leonard. We can only decide then."

"Are you sure you're not a doctor of some kind?" He asked as you two walked into the hallway, your arms were linked together.

"No," you laughed tiredly, "Just a security girl who's in love with a doctor and only has some basic medical knowledge."

"Like what?"

"Um, the skull is called the cranium, duh."

"You have basic anatomy knowledge, that's good to know." He laughed as you got into the turbolift. "I have to go to the bridge and drop off something to Jim."

The turbolift heard the word bridge and it started to move.

"I'm really sorry about leading you on a chase earlier. I just had a feeling to go to the observation deck."

"Did you have another nightmare?"

"Yeah, but it wasn't as bad. It was one of those ones where you're falling forever."

"I may have to do a brain scan. Maybe some neurological stuff, you know, the usual," he joked while slightly bouncing.

"I think I just need the constant reassurance that you're not dead or dying."

"I'm not going to die in space, heaven forbid I do."

You threw your head back and laughed, covering your mouth in the process. The turbolift opened and you both stepped onto the bridge.

"(Y/N), I see that Bones found you," Kirk said while turning his head to look at you two.

"I forgot to drop some reports off. I have them right here," Bones said while giving Jim a chip.

"Ah, thank you, Bones. I'll see the two of you tomorrow."

"Good night, Captain," you said while you and Bones went into the turbolift.

"You know, I can't wait to sleep for like three days straight."

"Neither can I, no offense, but you-"

"Look like trash, yeah, I know. No feelings were hurt."

"Just trying to be a southern gentleman."

The turbolift stopped and you looked at Bones, who stopped it. "I need to tell you something," he spoke softly.

"Yes? What is it?"

He stopped and looked at the floor. He acted the same way he did a month ago, he couldn't get what he wanted to say out. He continued to look at the floor, blinking a few times while pursing his lips. He sightly bounced again. "I want you to take care of yourself."

You smiled a caring smile at him. It was his way of saying that he loves you. He never actually said those three words but he found other ways to mean the same thing. He would say "Take care of yourself" or "Be careful" or he'll tell you to eat when you've forgotten or he'll try to help you sleep when you couldn't. It all meant one meaning to you.

And when he said something like that you would always smile at him and say, "I love you too, Bones."

He smiled lightly and opened the door and stepped out, you followed behind.

"Sleeping for three days, here I come!" You cheered while running past him and into his quarters.

You jumped on the bed and it bounced and you removed the blanket from your shoulders and covered yourself up with it.

Bones came in after you and saw you already in bed. He had four hours until his shift so he decided to stay awake, but instead, he laid next to you.

"Goodnight, Bones," you told him cutely, "See you in three days."

"Three days without you would be hell, darlin," Bones told you before he kissed your forehead softly, "Goodnight."

{Extended ending but in bullet points}

• Bones came in every two hours

• He sat on the edge of the bed for a few minutes, happy that you were still asleep

• He would hold your hand until he had to leave

• Just Leonard being a caring doctor boyfriend ™ like he is

• He would only wake you up when he thought that you needed to eat

• Bones would come in with a tray from the cafeteria and set it down on the counter before waking you up

• His ways to wake you up is as follows: shaking your shoulder, trying to talk you into waking up, then kissing you. In that order.

• "Well good mornin', darlin'. I brought you lunch because you're the only one who hasn't eaten yet."

• You would sit in bed and eat and talk to Bones

• "Any nightmares?"

• "The opposite. I've been having good dreams."

• "What about?"

• "The two of us. In the observation deck, when you kissed me. How shameless of me being this romantic."

• He would sometimes come in and see you reading a book or sketching something

• When he kissed you awake you would complain and tell him that you're not Sleeping Beauty

• He kinda pouts and tells you that you are a princess and then kisses you again because he be like that all the time

• After a few days, he finally lets you return to work :)

[sharperthewriter]

Chapter 11 of Possible-y Utah

Chapter 11 - The Agreement - Part I

AN: The Jack Jerky & Richard Rude names are given full credit to @split-n-splice. My thanks to her for the idea of these two! Also, the CHSAA is the Colorado High School Activities Association, because I am STILL trying to get used to writing KP fics not set in my home state. Now, onward with the story.

(1:13pm)

About a mile away, a limousine was parked at the Middleton Public Library. Inside the main luxurious posh accommodations of the limo were Brick, Bonnie, and Rebecca.

Rebecca was wearing a low-cut white croptop and a short pink skirt. Bonnie was in her pink croptop and baggy jeans showing off her CB boxers.

They were listening in on the entire conversation between Team Possible, Monique, and Tara.

"So...the loser couple is going to Utah of all places with her...interesting..family." Bonnie snickered while sipping diet soda from one of Rebecca's champagne glasses.

"And you can thank the hack-proof tech done by my scientists and engineers for that!" Rebecca grinned.

"Thanks for that, by the way, R!" Bonnie said with a smile. "Not even Possible's techno-buddy...whatever his name is...can break through!""

Rebecca added with a slight snob look, "That's what money can bring you...the goods, B!"

"Well then, I hope Possible doesn't mind me crashing her time off from her so-called 'save the world' thing!" Bonnie said before giving an evil cackle.

"How are you going to do that?" Brick questioned his girlfriend's malicious intent.

"It's very simple, Brick!" Bonnie replied, "We take any evidence, photographic or video, of any humiliating or scandalous moments of those two."

"Ooooh! Scandalous is the perfect word for my dictionary!" Rebecca cackled after taking a sip of the diet cola.

"There is, however, one itsy titsy bitsy little wee minor problem with my otherwise flawless plan." Bonnie mentioned sighing.

"And that would be...?" Rebecca asked, wondering where her new friend was getting at.

"If Kim knew that I was taking photographs or videotape of her on their little family trip, I would be kicked off the squad and possibly suspended from school." Bonnie explained her dilema. "If we have to do Operation Breakup, we have to do it...secretly..."

"But who can we get to take the pics?" Brick asked on how his girlfriend was going to do that.

"Brick, I think I know two of the most perfect people on the football team that'll take those snappies!" Bonnie replied with a grin, thinking of an idea.

Brick gasped, "Oh no! You don't mean...!"

Bonnie slyly replied, "Yes! Jack Jerkey and Richard Rude!"

Rebecca then shouted, "Driver, take us to the upper-middle class of town! Middleton Heights! To Richard's house!"

(30 minutes later)

Jack Jerkey and Richard Rude were members of the football team. Both were white, muscular, and both were star linebackers on the team. The former, approaching his senior year, had black hair and brown eyes and stood around 6'2 and 234 pounds. The latter had blonde hair and blue eyes and stood 6'1 and 229 pounds and already had a scholarship for Upperton University.

However, they would be forever linked in Middleton lore as the guys who failed to wrap up the Florence running back in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter of the second round of the CHSAA Class 3A playoffs. The running back stiff-armed the two linebackers to the ground on that 67-yard touchdown run. The Mad Dogs lost that game by the nailbiting score of 34-27, but Mr. Barkin vowed that the Dogs will be back for next season. Kim, after that game, had to console the senior cheerleaders whom were crying that this was the last football game that they were going to cheerlead in.

The limousine pulled up to Richard's house in the driveway.

"Brick, you stay in the limo. Me and R are going to talk to the two football players." Bonnie insisted.

"Yeah, there should be enough diet cola for you in the mini-fridge!" Rebecca added.

"Are you positive about this?" Brick asked, still unsure of what his girlfriend was doing.

"Trust me. I know what I am doing!" Bonnie sneered, "So stay there until I come out of the house with my plan in hand!"

Brick remained silent and nodded his head.

Rebecca and Bonnie walked up to the door.

"Is breaking up those two losers very difficult, B?" Rebecca asked. She has had very few interactions with Team Possible.

"Oh yeah, R..." Bonnie admitted, knowing the ins and outs of Kim and Ron's relationship "...those two have been together since Pre-K. Trying to destroy such a friendship takes very clever...and careful...planning! But..."

"What is it this time?" Rebecca questioned as they approached the door.

"It's the girlfriends of these two football players that could intervene with my plan." Bonnie explained, "I'll explain when we get inside."

She knocked on the door. One of the football players opened it.

"Huh? Oh, hey, Bonnie." Richard said, looking at the two cheerleaders. "Who's your cheer friend?"

"Ah, she's Rebecca Starlet. She's not exactly a cheerleader...yet." Bonnie explained about her new best friend. "Mind if we come in?"

"Be my guest!" Richard replied, smiling.

Bonnie and Rebecca both walked into the house.

"Would you like to take a seat?" Richard asked as they walked into the living room. "Jack's in the basement playing some football video games.""

"Don't mind if we do!" Bonnie replied. She sat down on one end of the sofa and Rebecca sat down on the other end. They all stared in amazement at the trophies and pictures of Richard during his football-playing days from pee-wee to high school.

Richard, in the meantime, walked down to the basement and knocked on the door.

"Yo, Jack! We got a couple visitors!"

"Who are they?"

"Cheerleaders!"

This piqued Jack's interest.

"OK, I'll bite. What do they want?"

"Well, then, get your ass upstairs and find out!"

Jack got up from the couch and the two football players headed back upstairs. He look at the two cheerleaders sitting on the couch.

"They're just sitting there!" he said.

Richard asked the burly football player, "What is it? Why can't you go out there?"

"Dude, our girlfriends would freak if they saw us with the cheerleaders!" Jack explained in a low voice, "Don't you know the rivalry between them?"

"Yes, I am well aware of that! Still, it wouldn't hurt to ask!" Richard insisted.

Jack came to the living room and asked, "Hello, ladies, welcome to Richard's house! How may I help you today?"

"Oh, hello, Jack!" Bonnie grinned, "Nice to see you! I may need a bit of help of the...humiliating kind!"

"Ah, you want to give wedgies to a few nerds? Or maybe put a kick-me sign on one of the band members?" Richard asked. He had indeed done such stuff before with his fellow other jocks.

"Even better!" Bonnie grinned, "You do know that a certain 'save the world' duo are a couple, right?" She used air quotes arounds "save the world'.

"Yes, we're both aware that Possible and Stoppable are a couple." Richard replied.

"And you did know that they caused $400 worth of damage to my prom dress that night when I landed in the cake with Brick?" Bonnie asked, sneering.

Jack began to snicker at this. He was there when the incident occurred. Bonnie gave a mean cold glare look at him and Jack's snickering immediately ceased, for she knew the wrath of Veronica Rockwaller and her infamous Swatter.

"So, as I was saying, I need your two's help...to break them up!" Bonnie replied.

Richard gasped, "B..Breaking them up? But...that is so evil! It's deplorable! It's diabolical! It's..."

"...perfect!" Bonnie interrupted him. "Furthermore, I would like to enlist the help of your two girlfriends on this little 'mission' as I would like to call it!"

But Jack was unsure, "I don't know about this, Bonnie! Don't you remember what happened with...The Incident?"

"Yes. I am very well what happened with...The Incident...but I do need their help in order to make my plan possible! Call them up now!"

Richard did so and called up his girlfriend on his cell.

"Hello, um...can you come on over to my house? And can you also bring Genna along with you? We have a couple of visitors."

[sporadic-writer]

Welcome to the Neighborhood pt. 2

Note: ok so I know that not all of the boys, meaning both twins, live with the others. And I know my update schedule sucks but I go in a block and funk. Sorry guys. I just want you to read something I would read and truly enjoy. Also, I think I may make this a Haz fic bc ones about hin deserves more love and notes.

No one really reads these but I also think I'll write this for Harrison bc when Tom posted the pic of Nadia, it shattered the illusion in my head lol and it feels weird to a certain extent to write when he is most likely dating her. Don't get me wrong, I'm so happy for him and he doesn't know I exist, but it feels odd idk. So im pausing on Tom stuff atm lol. Harrison is single as far as publicly that ik so thats that 😅

Pairing: Harrison x Reader (most likely)

Warnings: mentions of weed, alcohol, and swearing. I enjoy all these things responsibly and ik im not the only one. As always stop reading if you dont like something.

Part 1 here initial teaser here (got around 100 notes soo 😎 check that out)

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“Alrighty boys. That’s enough about me, tell me about yourselves. I only know this one from the big screen and that 2 of you are brothers.” You gestured to Tom as you spoke about him. “And from basic eavesdropping I gather you are all very close.” 

Tom smiled, “Actually I’m a brother to the twins, older obviously.” It was fun having a celeb lounging in your hot tub, drinking a beer with you. “But yeah I am an actor, Spider-Man as you probably know. Harrison’s an actor too!”

“Oh my god you are! I watched Catch-22 on Hulu! Comedy my ass..! I balled my eyes out several times.” He had the nerve to laugh in response. “Don’t laugh! That shit got intense quick. Then the shot where you all are swimming? Killed me. I don't know how I didn't notice you. Sorry!”

“Did you at least like it?” He smiled and asked hopefully. When you nodded yes he beamed! “Well then that’s all that matters. I will say an American accent is hard.”

You brought your beer up to your lips. “Yeah because your guys’ accent is so easy. You make fun of how different areas in America have different accents but it’s the same here!” They nodded in agreement at your words. You leaned your head back a tad and enjoyed the warm water. “Southern accents have different twangs bepending on the area, I have family that lives closer to New England, that's something all in its own. Just like here. You got London, Wales, some place called Essex and other places more north of here. It's not just the US." You reached over for your joint to finish it amongst the bubbles. "Now for real. Tell me about yourselves. Harrison you start I guess."

"Why me?"

"Shorter wikipedia page." You smirk as you re-lit your herb. The guys laughed and made 'ooh' noises to tease. "I'm kidding! Relax a touch. I just picked your name because you are right in front of me."

"Well I've known this lot since we were all kids. Tom and I went to school together and we have been stuck with each other since. I was his personal assistant for a while too." You listened as he spoke. Sweat was building up on his face from the hot tub. It added a nice shine to his, and everyone's faces. In order to avoid makeup running everywhere you sat up as you listened to him. You watched his eyes watch your movements as you took a hit and slowly exhaled. Almost like he was relaxing from watching someone relax from getting high without actually doing so. He kept going and you realized you zoned out a tad. "And then I wanted to do more than just model so I did more auditions and Catch-22 became my biggest so far."

You nodded, noting you heard and were listening. "That's cool and all but tell me like favorite song, movie, animal! Hahaha it isn't everyday famous people are in my hot tub. I'm going to savor this first encounter!" He smiled and answered your sort of questions. You offered the joint around before it finished. Tom passed, Tuwaine and Harrison took quick hits though. "But yeah that is me. Now someone else go so I don't have the spot light on me anymore." He looked at you as he said that and handed you the last bit. You winked in thanks, and to flirt lightly. (Shoot your shot right?) "Same questions to you love."

You responded your favorite song, movie, and color to him. "Yeah I like a bit of everything. But funny movies are my favorite. Obviously I like Marvel too Tom don't worry. Same goes for music but my preference ranges from new pop to older rock. I grew up on 80s alternative pop stuff." You smiled at him and he beamed in pride at the brand he represented. "Ok Sam you now."

Sam starts talking about his life and Harrison goes to grab more drinks. At this point the sun as almost finished setting and you tell the blonde how to turn the deck lights on. Soon the rows of edison bulbs flick on and a lovely mood is set. The glow isn't too bright and adds a nice light to your summer tanned skin. What you don't know is that the gentlemen appreciated the glow as well. However, they are too polite to say anything too bold after just meeting you.

If you could read minds or be sober enough to detect a certain lack of subtlety you would pick up on how the single men checked you out as you got out of the tub to get rid of the roach. Polite of course, 20 something men are going to appreciate a beautiful American girl right in front of them.

And if they could read your mind they would hear how you were taking in Tom and Harrison's jaw lines and toned muscles. How you appreciated Tuwaine's smile and height. Then add the twin's curls and freckles to the list and they'd think you were picking them like boys from a catalogue. Despite the slight oggling on your part, your eyes always wandered back to the blonde hair blue eyed boy the most. He seemed a little more laid back then Tom. Probably just because one was working more than the other, but that was just initial vibes you got. Regardless of vain appearance choices and vibe preference, all these boys were wonderful and you were just lucky enough your uncle's hot tub fit them all nicely.

Tuwaine smiled cheekily and spoke up. "Alright, we all have fresh drinks and proper buzzes. Let's make it fun and play a game. So Y/N, you went to college in the states, give us a classic drinking game and show us what you got."

"Ha! I don't know what you're looking for but I assume never have I ever is universal? You can't play kings or flip cup in a hit tub. Hold up 5 fingers, put them down if you've done said thing, drink as well."

"No fingers, just play till we are right pissed." Harry grinned and everyone else went along with it. "I will start. Never have I ever- wait this a normal game or sexy version?"

You said you didn't care and Tom said what the hell, so he continued. "Never have I ever gotten walked in on during a scandelous activity." Tom and Harrison both drank and groaned saying they have both walked in on each other at some point in life. Tuwaine continued.

"Never have I ever fooled around while someone else is in the room." There was a pause and no one drank. But then you rose your beer to your lips and they all looked at you in a manner of surprise and demand for explination.

Shrugging you said, "Old drunken hookup in school. We didn't know his roommate was in his top bunk asleep until it was too late. The mistake we made was keeping on going when we thought we heard him, because we did..."

"Wow Y/N. Learning a lot about the neighbor girl right away!"

"Shut up this game was your idea!" You laughed as you spoke in response to his teasing. "But whatever it's my turn now anyway. Never have I ever sent a dirty text to the wrong person." That got all but Harrison and you felt proud for getting them. "Alright so you are either morons or were in a rush to send that sext."

Tom defended himself saying her name was Sam and it was instant regret the second he realized.

Sam glared at him and said, "Yeah no one enjoyed that bro. I'm still shaken up about it."

"Get over yourself it was like 5 years ago! And you accidentally sent your friend Jake one, so pot, kettle, hi both black."

"It was detailed!"

You just sat there amused taking this all in. "I am so glad this happened tonight." You said more to yourself than them.

"Darling if this ends up in the tabloids we will never speak again." They were teasing with the threat. "But come on this is good let's keep going. Never have I ever done it in a car." You, Sam, and Tuwaine all drank and giggled.

The game continued on and another round of drinks were had. You learned Tuwaine had said the wrong name in bed. Also, that both Harry and Harrison have fooled around during family functions. In return they learned that you've hooked up in a college classroom and in a restaurant bathroom. That ended up getting you and your former boyfriend kicked out of the establishment. Towards the final round all were getting sleepier but still in a good mood.

"Never have I ever had sex high." Harrison challenged the group. No one drank. "Wait really? Thought I'd get you with that. Finish your beer and all." He looked at you as he spoke.

"Nope. Just never happened now that I've thought about it. Huh. You'd think right? But nope. Not that I'm opposed." You ended your statement by glancing his way while finishing your beer anyway. Harrison just watched the way your neck moved as you tilted your head back. "Ok boys this was fun but I am gettin tired."

Tom nodded. "Same here. Thank you for having us darling, it was fun!" The others spoke in agreement and you smiled at them saying they were welcomed back anytime. They offered to help clean but you grabbed the remaining bottles and told them you were good. After final goodbyes, you told them to not he strangers, you were all in your respective homes.

You went to bed pretty quick. Next door, at their place Tom, Harrison, and Sam lingered to get some water before bed. "She was really cool." Sam said while sipping water.

Harrison hummed in agreement. "Yeah I think so too. Very chill and all that."

Sam smirked and playfully said, "You just think she's fit mate." There was a pause.

"Well she is." It was Tom who said that and the others looked at him in playful shock. "What I'm not blind! She is! She's isn't some shy girl freaking out over us. She's cheeky and just seems normal about us living next to her. More Harrison's type though I'd say."

Sam laughed. "Yeah he always liked the classic American 'girl next door' type. Just a bonus she is actually American this time." They paused for Harrison to negate their statements but he just sipped his water and looked at them with a glint in his eyes. "Told you." Sam said as he took a sip. "She is better than half the models either of you bring back. Nuerons fire and she can keep a conversation. Not that all models are like that! But come on you went out with some stereotypes." Neither could disagree. Sometimes you just want to have a date with the beautiful face. Long term needs substance though, and both Tom and Harrison thought you had it all.

"We need to invite her over tomorrow, and any time she's free." Groundwork was to be established and Harrison was determined to get to know you more.

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As always, like and reblog! I hope you like it! Also if i forget to tag someone lmk, same if you wanna be tagged or not tagged. Feedback and notes are appreciated but be nice haha I edit as best I can. Thanks for reading and enjoying.

Tags: @jillanaholland @averyfosterthoughts @sarah-m-limelight-2007 @astridcommings

[sirenfromthelostcity]

A Cat and Spider Game

A/N: For a really long time i could not get the idea of making a Black Cat Reader x Spider-Man fic out of my mind so i finally decided to make one. Black Cat has really white hair so for the purpose of this fic, when you’re dressed as your alter-ego (Black Cat) you’ll be wearing a platinum white wig. I just wanted to say that from the beginning bc that’s just how Black Cat’s character looks and also i feel like it’d actually help keep your secret identity a secret if you didn’t have platinum white hair on your civilian persona as well lol. When writing this i was thinking about the Marvel’s Spider-Man PS4 game but tbh this can also fit in for Tom’s version of Spider-Man too since they’re both still Peter Parker anyways, it’s just that in this story he’s older. This is also a college AU so all the characters in here are about 20 years old. With that said not everyone you has powers, just you and Peter so far but i guess we’ll see what happens no? This is my first ever Marvel fic so i’d reeeaaalllyyy appreciate some feedback on this and if you’d like a second part just shoot me an ask or like and reblog and whatnot :) 

I do not own Spider-Man’s character or any of these characters (except you i think?). I hope you enjoy!!! <3333

Words: 3.6k+

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Making your way through the cluttered dormitory halls, you sigh in satisfaction as you not only finally reach your assigned suite but are greeted with silence and emptiness. You’ve arrived before any of your other roommates. You actually know who one of your roommates is going to be but only because you’ve dormed together last semester and got along so well that you’ve requested to dorm together again. Still, you’ve always made it a personal mission to be one of the first to arrive on campus on moving in day. Mostly just so you can pick out your room, settle in, enjoy some alone time, and overall begin preparations for the beginning of the semester and your “other” plans. 

A few hours pass and in that time you’ve managed to get a good chunk of your stuff unpacked and set up in your room. Wanda, your previous roommate, also arrived, said hi, and settled herself in. The two of you are still waiting for your third and final roommate to arrive. 

Deciding to take a break, you grab the Daily Bugle newspaper you picked up earlier on the way to the dorms and plop down on your freshly done bed. 

You stifle a laugh as you read the headline in J. Jonah Jameson’s voice. 

“MASKED MENACE SPIDER-MAN STILL TERRORIZING CITY!” 

They bring him back for one piece and of course he decides to make this the headline. 

You continue to peruse the many articles in the newspaper and stop as you find the one you’ve been looking for. 

“No new leads on New York’s newest criminal police are calling ‘Black Cat.’”

Criminal.

By definition according to google, ”a person who has committed a crime.”

Yes, a criminal is technically a bad person. However, you would argue that there are bad people and then there are worse people. Personally, you don’t feel as if you fall onto the worse branch.”

“As if I ever even actually hurt anyone,” you begrudgingly comment to yourself. “Rich people don’t count so, technically, I never did hurt anyone.” 

You haphazardly flip the page of the magazine you were browsing when you hear suddenly hear a knock on your door prompting you to look up.

“Come in,” you say and in enters your roommate Wanda along with another girl.

“Hey (Y/N), this is Gamora,” she gestures to the tall girl next to her, “it’s her first year at Empire State and she’s our new roommate.”

“Oh,” you sit up from your bed and walk up to the two women to properly greet your new roommate. “Hi, I’m (Y/N),” you smile at Gamora as you shake her hand.

“You showed her around the suite?”

“Mmhmm,” Wanda nods.

“Cool. So first year, huh? How you liking the campus so far?”

Gamora hesitates her response, “I’ve seen a lot of it since I got lost finding my way to the right dorm building yet I still don’t think I’ve seen all of it. But, so far it looks really… “

Both Wanda and you interject. 

“Opulent?” 

“Preppy?” 

“Yes, actually. No offense.”

You exchange an amused smile with Wanda, “None taken, this is a pretty preppy and opulent school but it’s got some good people in it. Also some bad people, but that’s everywhere you go really. Luckily for you though, you now have us to navigate your way through Empire State.”

“This is mine and (Y/N)’s second year at here so we know the terrain and its people pretty well,” Wanda elaborates.

“Speaking of terrain, have you had a chance to go to The Cool Bean Cafe?” you ask.

“No, but it sounds like a popular cafe.”

“Unfortunately it is a popular cafe. Not unfortunate for the owners, the sweetest old couple by the way, but kinda unfortunate for us in that it often gets crowded. But y’know,” you glance at your watch, “it’s only one-thirty right now, people ought to be busy unpacking and whatnot at this time. Do you guys want to wanna go now? It’d be the perfect chance to get to know each other better, my treat.”

“It’s always a yes from when the cafe is involved,” answers Wanda.

“Doesn’t sound like it could be terrible. I’m in.”

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Fortunately for all of you, The Cool Bean Cafe is only moderately crowded today so you and the girls were able to find a table to sit at. You spend most of your afternoon chatting with them and, to yours and Wanda’s delight, even witnessed Gamora genuinely laugh a few times. Okay she laughed once and briefly smirked one other time time but it was still silently agreed between you and Wanda that those were some pretty monumental moments shared with your new roommate. You did learn a lot about her too. Apparently it was Gamora’s dad who really pushed her to apply to this school. She wasn’t planning on attending upon acceptance, partly because of the move she’d have to make from Virginia to New York, but she was offered a full scholarship and her dad convinced her to attend. Afterall, Empire State University is a pretty highly esteemed school. It couldn’t be all that bad, she figured. Her major is astrophysics and she’s decided she wants to take on a second concentration but hasn’t decided on one yet.

Gamora learned a lot about you and Wanda as well. She learned that you and Wanda were roommates for your first semester at Empire State. Because there was no other roommate, you two had the whole suite to yourselves and became very close. She learned that Wanda has a twin brother named Pierto but he’s currently playing professional soccer in Sakovia. Wanda is an international student from Sakovia and is pursuing a psychology major with a minor in Sakovian studies. You were born and bred in Queens, New York and your major is journalism but you haven’t yet picked out a second concentration.

Wanda was explaining to Gamora the locations of the buildings in which her classes are going to be held in when you get a email notification from your phone.

“Shit,” you lowly mumble.

“Is everything alright?” Wanda inquires.

“Yeah, it’s just an email from my film studies professor. Apparently he believes that ‘Teamwork makes the dream work’ so as part of our weekly assignments he’s paired everyone in the class into pairs of two to complete the assignments together.”

“(Y/N) loves working with people,” Wanda sarcastically comments to Gamora and to both of yours and Wanda’s surprise, she actually chuckles at the joke.

“Does it say who you’re paired with?” Gamora asks.

“Yeah, he provided a list with the email, I’m checking right now……. Peter B. Parker.”

“Hopefully he’s not an asshole,” Gamora takes a sip from her coffee.

“Fortunately he’s not,” you put away your phone and take a sip of your coffee before elaborating. “I used to go to high school with him. We never talked because I was really busy with stuff at home and our after school activities never collided. He’s super smart though, we had a few classes together and I know he was in the school’s robotics club for a while as well as the academic decathlon team. Trust me, the guy is brilliant. Plus, from what I heard, he’s apparently a total sweetheart. I don’t think I have much to worry about.”

“You sure seem to know an awful lot about a boy you’ve never spoken to,” Wanda complacently coos before blowing at her tea and drinking it.

“Y’know, I have to agree with Wanda there,” Gamora raises her eyebrows.

“Could it be you harnessed a crush for this Peter guy back in the old high school days?” Wanda twirled her cup in hand, smirking but not looking at you.

You playfully scoff, “Y’know you treat your roommates out to one of the finest cafes within walking distance and how do they thank you? Oh yeah they don’t, they interrogate you instead,” you tsk and slowly shake your head side to side. “In all honesty though, no I did not harbor a crush for Peter Parker. Believe me, with the stuff I had going on at that time with my family and myself, boys were the last thing on my mind.”

“I feel that,” Gamora nods. “Also, do all professors send emails days before the first class?”

“Some professors do but not all of them, which is why you have to be really vigilant with your emails. I’ve ignored them for most of my life, but trust me you’re gonna have to pay attention to them from now on.”

Wanda nods as she downs the rest of her tea. “Speaking of vigilance, Gamora, have you yet heard of the masked vigilante swinging through our streets?”

Gamora shrugs, “A little actually. I overheard a few students talk about him when I was looking for the dorm building. Apparently he often literally swings by our campus and goes by…. Spider-Something?”

“It’s Spider-Man,” Wanda chuckles. “There’s some mixed opinions of him in this city but for the most part he saves lives, helps people in need, and fights crime. He’s a hero. Have you heard about the theories?”

“No. There’s theories about this guy?”

“Oh, there are so many theories about his origins and his identity. Some people think he’s an alien who snuck in through the vortex that opened in the 2012 attack here, but others argue that maybe he’s actually just a person with advanced technology. Some people even think he actually attends here because of often he seems to pass through the campus. Personally, I don’t think that’s true. Simply seeing him pass by the school a lot is not enough to support that theory and being in college while maintaining a job is hard enough. I cannot imagine a person trying to maintain a job, along with their grades, and a crime fighting alter-ego on the side. I just think he passes through here as a shortcut to someplace else, we are in a very big city after all.”

“Wow, people seem to be really fixated with this Spider-Guy,” says Gamora.

“(Y/N),” Wanda calls for your attention. “You’ve been awfully quiet on this topic. Don’t you have any theories of your own about the Spider-Man’s identity?”

“Not really,” you lie. “I mean as a journalist major in New York, it’s impossible to not write about him, especially with all the recent crime that’s been going on here, but outside of that I don’t really think much about him.”

“Wait, so there’s frequent crime happening around here? God, I really should’ve done more research before just moving here,” Gamora shakes her head.

You lightly laugh at Gamora’s reaction, “Don’t worry it’s not really that bad. Lately what’s been happening is a string of robberies but whoever’s doing it seems to be targeting the homes of the very rich or the places only the very rich can afford so we have nothing to worry about.”

“It still amazes me that the police still have no lead as to who the thief could be,” Wanda comments. “The investigation has been going on for at least two months now and already four homes have been robbed. Whoever has done that must be very affluent right now.”

You hesitate for a moment but deep down you can’t help but wonder and ask, “Do you think that, y’know whoever robbed those homes, that they earned the loot?”  

Wanda furrows her brows at first but takes a few seconds to ponder her answer, “Well, morally no because stealing is wrong. However, the people this person decided to target, they’re already insanely wealthy with more money than they could ever spend in one lifetime. Not to mention that the thief is so adept at what they do that no one has any clue as to who they could be so… I guess in some ways… yes, I’d say they earned their loot but I still think that stealing is wrong.”

You hum in thought, “That’s a good point. What do you think Gamora?”

“I agree that it’s not morally correct to steal but if this person is as good as you say they are then, I guess they do deserve to have their earnings. It’s not exactly easy to baffle the cops, normally they have at least one clue. But, it also makes me wonder why are they doing this, the thief I mean. Is it because they’re good at it or because they need the money or both? Guess we’ll never know.”

“Those are good questions, though,” says Wanda. “It does make me wonder about the thief’s motives. What about you, (Y\N), do you think the thief earned their prize?”

“Honestly, yes. I do believe he or she earned their prize. I get that it’s not morally right to steal but, according to the reports no one was harmed during the robbery. No one was even aware anything was stolen until the morning. And as you said, Wanda, the targets of this thief have more money than they could ever use in a lifetime so it’s not like the thief is preying on the less fortunate. As for the motive, we really can’t know without directly asking the thief. But my guess would be that it’s a combination of both the need for it and the confidence boost they must get from the police’s frustration at their lack of leads to his or her’s identity. As if stealing from a bunch of rich duds is the worst thing a person can do, though. There’s bigger issues than some rich people missing a couple of priceless artifacts. But I guess that could just be my bias against rich people speaking,” you tilt your head to the side and lightly laugh.

“If I hadn’t already known about your hatred for rich people I sure would know now,” Wanda awkwardly laughs.

“Yeah, I kinda went off on a tangent there. Sorry about that,” you briefly look down before changing the topic. “Hey, do y’all wanna get ice cream and maybe show Gamora around the campus more? My treat.”

“Someone woke up in an incredibly generous mood today,” says Wanda.

“I’m all for the tour of the campus but since you’ve already paid for the coffee you don’t have to buy me ice cream,” adds Gamora.

“It’s not a problem guys, really. My mom got a bonus at her job so she decided to treat me to some extra cash and now I’m deciding to treat you all to some good food. Are we ready?”

Wanda and and Gamora briefly look at each other and simultaneously nod before grabbing their things and exiting the cafe with you.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Much later that day…. 2:15AM ~ Stanlee Co-ed Dorms

Peter B. Parker lays comfortably asleep in bed after an exhausting day of moving into his dorm and of course being the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man almost everyone loves. Peter loves being Spider-Man. While it can sometimes get complicated balancing out the hero life with the civilian life, Spider-Man truly helps people. Sometimes not everyone sees it that way but the good Spider-Man does heavily outweighs the few negative responses he receives, at least to Peter it does.

Yeah, being Spider-Man is great. Peter would never change it for the-

“Peter, wake up!” Ned storms into Peter’s room, effectively and abruptly waking him up.

“AH! WHAT?!” Peter locks sleepy eyes with Ned and then his alarm clock on his nightstand. “Ned, what the hell man, what are you-what are you doing up so late?”

“Binge watching Game of Thrones to prepare for the finale,” he shrugs,” but that’s not important right now. I heard the police scanner say something about an alarm going off at that really expensive wine place on east 98th street near the park. It fits the M.O. of that burglar that keeps getting away.”

Instantly Peter tosses his covers to the side, hopping out of bed and retrieving his Spidersuit from his closet, hastily putting it on.

“It’s a possibility that it could be a false alarm but I have a feeling about this one and it wouldn’t hurt to take a look since we don’t have class tomorrow,” Ned commentates, handing Peter his web shooters.

Peter takes his web shooters from Ned before finally putting on his mask, “Thanks, Ned. Don’t wait up!” With that said Peter swings out of his fire escape window and into the night to potentially catch what even he admits to be a very skilled thief.

“You know I will!” Ned yells out to Peter from the window. “Oh shit,” he quickly pulls himself in, realizing he’s in a dorm building with other people possibly sleeping.

“Go get em, Spider-Man!” he enthusiastically whispers as he exits Peter’s room and closes his door.

Swinging at breakneck speed, Peter makes his way to the location of the expensive wine store, Wine and Spirits Co.. Within four minutes, he spots not only the building but an opened window on the third floor. Quickly, and quietly, he zips through the window. Upon landing, Peter immediately spots the elusive thief simply standing behind a bar counter observing a bottle of wine and a wave of shock washes over him as he realizes he recognizes thief. Donned in an all  black, skin hugging suit laced with white,  small cat ears on her wavy platinum white hair, and a black mask. He never thought he’d see her again.

“I-It’s you,” he mumbles.

You turn around in slight shock but hum in delight at seeing the great Spider-Man himself right before you. “And it’s you. Not many people can sneak up on me and arrive two minutes before the police. I have to admit, that’s pretty impressive.”

“But you h-how are you–– I-I-I saw you-”

“Wow, do you always stutter like this around girls?”

“N-No- Darn it!”

You chuckle as you slip the bottle of wine into your bag that’s already filled with at least five bottles, “Y’know that’s actually kinda cute, but you need to relax more.”

“I’d relax more with some answers,” he starts. “That night- how did you survive the fall? I-I tried to save you-”

“You can’t save everyone, Spidey… I chose to be where I was. The job just didn’t work out as I had planned. It wasn’t your fault. Also in the end it wasn’t really that bad. I mean from your viewpoint, watching that serum practically explode in front of my face and send me plummeting down to what should have been my death probably was bad but… I still have about eight lives left. Why stop the thievery now? Especially when I’m so good at it. ”

“I don’t really think that’s how cats work,” he says, still shocked at the sight of you. “Wait, so you’re the one who’s been behind these robberies all along?”

“Mmhmm,” you hum. “I’m pretty damn good aren’t I?” You hop over the counter and proceed to walk towards the window you used to enter until he halts you by grabbing your arm that holds the bag of wine bottles.

“Look I know this is your first time being caught by someone so you might not be familiar with how things go, but I can’t let you leave.”

You hear the police sirens go off signaling their arrival. Flashes of red, white, and blue begin to sear into the dim wine store and you give him a small smile, “Yes you can. You just won’t.”

You look down as you hear the footsteps of the police ascending the stairs then look back up to Spiderman, “But that’s okay. You’ll have other things to worry about.”

Suddenly the door to the entrance gets kicked in and in enters seven police officers aiming their guns and flashlights at the both of you.

“Freeze, Spider-Man!” yells an officer.

“Call this in, we got Spider-Man here and a potential accomplice,” instructs another.

“Accomplice, really?” Peter addresses the officers.

“Gotta run, Spidey. See you soon,” you say into his ear. Taking advantage of the distraction, you quickly attach a device onto him and jump out the window using your grappling hook to latch onto a roof’s edge and swing away.

Seconds later the EMP goes off, effectively short circuiting Peter’s suit and web shooters. He convulses in pain onto the ground until he manages to take off the device and stomp on it. Peter jumps out the window to follow you but is forced to tuck and roll onto the ground when he realizes you’ve disabled his webshooters. Not one to give up, he attempts to follow you on foot but your trail is quickly lost.

“Systems back online. Sorry about that Pete, she used an EMP device to disarm you.”

“It’s alright Karen. Can you call Ned for me, please?” with everything now fully functional, Peter lunges into the air and begins to swing through the air.

“Of course,” Karen replies. After a few rings, Ned finally picks up.

“Hey, Pete, did you get him?”

“No, but she got me pretty good.”

“She? What happened?”

“Remember the girl I told you about a few months ago, with the robbery?”

“Ohhhh, the one with the chemical explosion who seemingly disappeared after falling from a fifteen story rooftop? Yeah, that’s pretty hard to forget.”

“Yeah, well, it’s her. She’s been behind all these robberies all along and she’s picked up some new tricks.”

“Whoa, what kind of tricks?”

“Well, so far she’s used an EMP device to disable my webshooters and suit, and before she got away I saw her use some sort of grappling hook to swing away and escape, just to name a few. I’m sure she’s got more I haven’t had the chance to see yet but I’m sure I will soon,” he recalls your last words to him.

“No Way! Another super villain! But wait, how did she survive that fall, do you think it could’ve been something in that chemical explosion?”

“She said it was actually a serum but she didn’t specify. Not that we really had much time to talk when the cops stormed in anyways, they thought I was her accomplice!”

“The people know you, though, I’m sure that story won’t stick. Plus, when you catch her, it’ll all blow over quick. Where you heading to now?”

“Back to the dorms, I lost her trail but now that I know that she’s alive and that she’s behind all the other robberies I can probably create an algorithm to try to pinpoint where she might hit next.”

“Alright, well I’ll still be up when you get here. See you soon.”

See you soon

Your words echo in his head. He was there on the night of your apparent death. He tried to save you but failed. It haunted him for some time. Yet now you’re not only alive but back to your old ways. Peter didn’t know you but he still has some questions and, so long as you kept stealing, he knows he has to stop you.

[artificialqueens]

Run My Mouth (Monet x Monique)- Ortega

a/n: i actively refuse to type the word Momo into existence bc i refuse to associate that fucking horrendous face with these cute af idiots. this is my entry to the fic challenge bc someone wanted Monet x Monique and i wanted out of the Branjie emotion pit! this is filling the cliches 3 (enemies to lovers) and 7 (A has a sexy dream about B) and also is of course a lesbian au bc that seems to be the only currency i deal in. it’s also set within the Just The Game We’re In universe if anyone’s interested, and is also probably horrendously ooc. christ i’m good at selling my fics!! credit where credit’s due, the “holy trinity of why” was stolen from The Thick Of It, the song on Monique’s insta story is Own It by Ella Mai, and “panini head” is stolen from Gordon Ramsay. hope u all enjoy!

Summary: Guardian journalist Monet X Change arrives at the Ministry of Defence to run a piece on Shea Coulee. She didn’t expect to be distracted by a bad-tempered band 1 comms girl who seems intent on driving Monet to distraction entirely through sarcastic remarks, tattoos and acrylic nails.  

***

Journalism. What did it all actually mean? When it came down to it, all it was was writing about stuff that happened in the world. All it was was retelling a story. But then nobody ever really seemed to view it that way, Monet thought to herself, as she scuffed one high heel against the rough, sandpaper-like carpet of the lobby and continued to wait.

It was never as simple as just writing, though. Fuck, if that was all journalism was then how many horrific atrocities could have been avoided just through the lack of coverage and platforming alone? There was always an agenda to push despite Monet’s personal feelings on the situation, and she always just had to put up and shut up. For example, today. What Monet really should have been writing about was the Ministry of Defence’s catastrophic overspend, but someone high up in the party (probably Bianca Del Rio, Monet reasoned) had made some sort of deal with Bob to avoid excessive coverage of it. This surprised Monet as, before she’d started working at The Guardian, Bob had been part of Phi Phi O’Hara’s party as their press secretary. Still, even if Monet didn’t know the finer details of how politics worked she knew what a threat or a bribe looked like, so instead of writing about anything juicy or remotely interesting she was here, in the offices of the MOD, waiting on Shea Coulee. Bob had sent Monet out to do some private life piece, some sort of day-in-the-life of a department minister thing that was set to last for a fortnight. Shea would hate it as it meant Monet would be exposed to all sorts of potential party fuck-ups. Monet would hate it because it was a bunch of writing which was of absolutely no consequence. The Guardian’s readers would hate it because it was an article attempting to humanise a politician, and Monet knew people hated those, so there it was. The hat trick of fuck.

She waited dispassionately in the lobby, her heels swinging and scuffing the carpet with every passing second. She didn’t know how long she’d been doing it, or how many times, but there suddenly came a voice from one end of the corridor.

“‘Scuse me, ma'am.”

She didn’t turn around at first. In all honesty, Monet’s ego meant that she thought that anyone in the building would be addressing her by her last name, with a Ms. in front of it. So she kept swinging and scuffing.

The sound of heels came down the corridor. “Ma'am!”

Monet whipped her head around, slightly startled at the louder sound. She was met with a girl- early twenties, she would guess, in a smart black pencil skirt and suit jacket combination with a bright white shirt underneath. Her black hair was pinned up in a neat bun with a few strands helping her fringe frame her face, which was currently set into a scowl. Monet initially thought the girl was there to take her to Shea, however seeing the tray of coffees she was carrying made her second-guess. She frowned up at her from her position on the small sofa-lounger-thing she had been perched on. Monet’s back was already up and she hadn’t even said two words to her.

“Yes?”

The girl’s scowl deepened. “Are you aware that this is a ministerial department?”

Monet bit back a laugh. “Yes.”

“So you know that if you’re waiting here, you can’t sit and wear the carpet out like a pacing bear in a zoo, correct?” a smile finally came over the girl’s face, albeit a fake one. Monet briefly noted her eye makeup- bright and extravagant, a bit much for a day at work but still pretty and expertly applied. She decided to return the fake smile.

“Well thank you so much for that advice! I’m always really keen for pointers on office decorum by girls that look like their makeup was done by a blind toddler playing with dried up poster paints. Now,” Monet sighed lazily, pleased at the way the girl’s jaw had visibly dropped. “can you please make yourself useful and find me somebody that works for Shea Coulee? Because I’ve been waiting here a while.”

The other girl’s face was stony as she addressed her. “I work for Shea Coulee.”

Monet’s heart bunjee-jumped into the pit of her stomach. Shit. Okay, fuck, she didn’t need to panic. She was still holding the coffee tray, so that clearly didn’t indicate a senior position. The other girl’s face was set into a shit-eating smile, clearly happy to have scared her. This only served to rile Monet further. “Well, could you please check that she’s ready to see me? I’m Monet Change, I’m from The Guardian. I’m doing a piece with Ms. Coulee.”

The other girl narrowed her eyes in distaste. Monet noticed that they were deep brown, making them seem huge. “You got an ID?”

Monet rolled her eyes. Briefly, she cast an eye to the girl’s hand. “Are the office coffees not getting cold, tea girl?”

The girl looked briefly as if she’d been slapped in the face. Monet snorted. This was fun. She watched as the girl looked nervously down the corridor, then at the drinks in her hand. Monet almost felt sorry for her, until the girl frowned at her again.

“We’re living under a severe and constant terror threat, Ms. Change, and precautions are precautions,” she pouted, her face like vinegar. She held her hand out and Monet cast an eye over a set of neon green acrylic nails. With a small jump to her heart, she noticed that the nails on her index and middle finger were cut shorter than the others. She looked up at the girl and caught her eye. Another fake smile came her way. “ID.”

“Well how should I know you even work for Shea Coulee? Where’s your ID?” Monet answered back, taking far too much delight in the way the other girl pouted before taking her free hand and sticking her middle finger up in Monet’s face.

“There’s my ID, bitch! Do you want me to go get Ms. Coulee or not?”

“Monique, what the hell are you doing?” came a sudden voice from up the corridor, making the girl jump. A little splash of coffee jumped out from under the lid and landed on her wrist, and Monet didn’t miss the way she hissed a little through her teeth. She felt bad. Turning her eyes up the corridor, Monet saw who the voice was coming from- real and in-person Shea Coulee, with her neat dreads cascading down her shoulders and back and over her red shift dress. She radiated power, and Monet felt suddenly intimidated. The girl opened her mouth to speak, but Shea simply raised a hand and gave a light shake of her head. “I think you’d better get back to the office, don’t you? I don’t think any of us ordered an iced latte.”

The girl nodded sharply and walked briskly down the corridor, but not before she gave one final look to Monet that was mixed with anger, annoyance, and something else she couldn’t quite decipher.  

“Ms. Change, isn’t it?” Shea turned back to Monet and held out her hand, smiling as she took it to shake. “Pleased to meet you, I’m excited to be working with you. I have to apologise for Monique’s behaviour, she’s a complete hothead and she shouldn’t even have been interacting with you.”

Monique. It was a nice name.

Monet picked up her bag as Shea began walking down the corridor, quickening her pace to follow her which was tricky in her heels. “So uh, she’s not one of your advisors?”

Shea snorted a laugh. “Please. She’s a junior civil servant. You’ll meet my advisors, they’re just in the office.”

Monet thought for a moment. “So I don’t really need to interact with Monique at all during my time here then?”

“Oh, no. Don’t worry about that. You’re not going to be in with the little people,” Shea dismissed her with a wave of her hand as she walked into the bright and airy office space.

Good. It was good that she wasn’t going to be seeing Monique. Following Shea through to her office, Monet’s eyes scanned the room and somehow came to rest on Monique’s brown ones. Monique blinked once in surprise, then gave Monet a nasty look.

She was a total bitch, anyway.

***

Day five, and the end of week one. Monet would be lying if she said the whole thing was as boring as she’d thought it would be. Sure, the actual writing itself was boring. It turned out that a private life piece on Shea Coulee at work unsurprisingly consisted of Shea Coulee doing lots of work. Monet had met her advisors, Asia and Vixen, and they were nice enough girls but they were there to work too. So in lieu of anything interesting to do, Monet had had to invent her own fun.

Which consisted of annoying Monique.

It hadn’t started out like that, Monet always defended herself internally. She’d tried to make amends with her on the first day- stopped by her desk on the way out and asked her how her wrist was, but all she was met with was a wordless sneer. The next day, Monet had made a point of saying good morning to her, again met with no reply. She’d then complimented her hair when she came to Shea’s office to ask about a press release, but the only reply Monet got was a flip of it. So after that, the gloves were off. Monique had had three strikes, and now the bitch was out.

Monet could have just ignored Monique. That would have been the mature thing to do. But something about the girl had got under her skin and niggled away at her, like an annoying splinter. Plus Monet was competitive, and there was a need to get even.

On Tuesday, Monet got teas and coffees for the whole comms team apart from Monique. She didn’t miss the widening of Monique’s eyes then the disappointed pout that followed when she realised there was nothing for her. It made Monet’s skin prickle in satisfaction.

On Wednesday, Monet came into the department and walked up to Monique’s desk. She made sure Monique had locked eyes with her, made to smile at her, then fixed her eyes very pointedly on her cheek and frowned deeply, feigning concern as she walked away. She cast a glance at Monique over her shoulder as she walked away, who was furiously checking her reflection in her phone screen.

Yesterday, they had both been in the kitchen together. Monet had been grabbing a fork for her lunch when Monique had walked in, her eyes darkening upon seeing Monet. Monet felt a slight curl in her stomach when the other girl brushed past her and reached for a teabag, a rich, woody scent clinging to her like the black dress she was wearing.

“Morning, Monique,” Monet smiled, leaning against the countertop and smiling. “Hey, how are Cerberus and Hades this morning?”

Monique cast her a glare. She spoke after a beat of silence. “I don’t follow.”

“Guardians of the underworld?” Monet elaborated, receiving a tight smile in return.

“Oh, cute. Contemporary reference,” Monique bit back, reaching up to take a mug from a cupboard. “Should you not be, you know. Writing? Like an actual journalist? Are you an actual journalist or just a child pretending to be a journalist?”

“As opposed to you, who’s a child pretending to be…an adult?” Monet blinked, delighting in the way Monique visibly tensed up.

“Jesus, I can’t wait til you leave,” she muttered, Monet able to hear the eye roll in her voice. She gave a chuckle.

“Well get used to me, princess, because I’m here til next Friday,” Monet beamed at Monique as she turned around, her gaze frosty and making Monet shiver a little.

“I’m not your princess,” she said, her voice low and dark and giving Monet a small heart palpitation. With a sudden flashback to their Monday meeting, Monet remembered the nails on Monique’s right hand. A shiver ran down her spine.

“No, you’re right,” Monet said, dropping the pitch of her voice to match Monique’s. She took a step forward, closing the space between them. “You’re a little brat.”

Monique’s eyes bored into hers. There seemed to be something hanging in the air. After what could have been seconds or minutes, Monique scrunched up her face and spun around on her heel, leaving Monet on her own in the kitchen.

Monet had gone home and replayed their little confrontation in her head on repeat. It especially taunted her just before she was about to fall asleep, when she was lying in bed in the darkness with a dull throb between her legs that she tried her best to ignore. Monique was attractive, that was just a fact. She had a beautiful face and a little tiny waist and the most amazing legs, and when she wore short sleeved tops Monet could see the tattoos that went all the way up her arms, and she’d always been into tattoos. But Monique was also a total dick. So why was that so hot to her?

Monet found herself turning over in bed, switching the light on, grabbing her phone and typing xvideos into her search bar.

The next day everything seemed to be even more charged between the two girls, although that could have been Monet’s imagination. From the moment she walked into the department she had felt Monique’s eyes on her like a trained sniper, a blush hitting her cheeks that stayed there for most of the morning to the extent that Shea had asked her if she was feeling alright. Monet could hardly concentrate on the departmental she was sat in and was glad of the recorder she’d utilised to catch the meeting, because the only thought that seemed to run through her head was how do I get her alone again?

It turned out she didn’t have to wait very long. Monet was taking a phone call from Bob and she’d ducked into one of the small stationary cupboards to talk to her when Monique came in halfway through, her face curling up when she saw her. Monet’s heart gave a leap and, finding an excuse to finish the phone call earlier than needed, she pocketed her phone and turned to the other girl.

“Looking for some relevance?” Monet asked as she watched Monique bend down and open a cardboard box. The other girl narrowed her eyes at her as she stood up.

“Leave me alone, Monet. I’m serious,” she snapped, Monet crossing her legs together where she stood. Fuck, she could be bossed about like this all day.

“Oh, we on first name terms now? I’m a guest in your department, you should be addressing me properly,” Monet folded her arms and leaned back against the shelves behind her. Monique snorted and quirked a smile.

“Of course, Ma'am. I’m so sorry! Would you prefer Bitch, or Ms. Bitch?” she smiled sweetly. Monet couldn’t help but run her tongue over her bottom lip and then bite it softly, and she didn’t miss the way Monique’s eyes darted to it or the way her stare faltered.

“You know, you really shouldn’t be throwing around that word so casually, Monique, especially since I’m working with your boss.”

“Why are you doing this?!”

Monet exhaled. “Because I’m bored, it’s funny, and I hate you. There you go. The holy trinity of why.”

Then Monet got a shock as Monique suddenly took a step towards her, closing the gap between them in the already tiny cupboard, and if Monet leaned forward she would be able to feel Monique’s body against hers. Her eyes were dark as she scowled at her. “You think you can just walk into this department with your perfect hair and your perfect outfits and your perfect body and just talk shit to everyone after a week?”

Monet held back a gasp as Monique’s expression faltered, almost as if she’d given something away that she shouldn’t have. Her heart gave a jump. She’d really just said all that? Monet touched her caramel curls self-consciously. She looked at Monique from under her lashes. “I don’t talk shit to everyone, just you.”

Monique’s harsh stare was back. “Well you better stop.”

“Or what?”

“I’ll do something I regret,” Monique hissed. Monet blinked. It was so hard to read the situation. She couldn’t tell if Monique was genuinely threatening her, but she seemed to have got closer because Monet could feel the heat of her body just millimetres away from her own. She swallowed thickly. Just then she noticed Monique’s eyes dart quickly from her eyes to her lips and back up again. It made her decision for her.

“Dare you, princess.”

Quicker than Monet could blink, Monique had suddenly closed the minute gap between them, pressed her body up against Monet’s own, and was kissing her with more passion than she’d ever been kissed with before in her life. It was as if Monique’s lips were made of fire, and Monet moaned as she felt her hands tear roughly through her hair. Monet was so stunned that she was almost unable to kiss back, until she felt Monique suck gently on her tongue and lust flood through her whole body. Monet brought her hands, which had been resting on Monique’s waist, up to cup her jaw. Monique noticed the movement and Monet’s heart thudded quickly as she felt Monique take one of her hands in hers, lace their fingers together, and move it from her face down to-

“Monique! You still in there? I found a bunch of staples in the top drawer of- oh,” came a voice- one of the other comms girls, Monet recognised. With a speed that she didn’t think it was possible to move at, she leapt back from the other girl and thanked God that the comms girl on the other side of the door’s entry to the cupboard had been stopped by a huge box full of spiral-bound notebooks that Monique had moved to get better access to what she was looking for.

Monique ran her tongue over her lips and cast her eyes to the floor as she spoke. “Oh, thanks Vanessa! I’ll be out in two seconds, just need a couple more things.”

Monet hadn’t realised she was holding her breath until she released it when she heard the girl walking away down the corridor. Keeping her face neutral, she looked at Monique whose cheeks were dark pink and her eyes embarrassed.

“I should, uh,” Monet began, moving to the door in an effort to ease the awkward tension that had been created.

“Yeah, sure,” Monique nodded furiously, rubbing her forehead with one hand and averting her gaze. Without a second glance, Monet was out the cupboard and walking briskly up the corridor and back onto the meeting room she’d left when she originally took the phone call. Sitting back down in her seat, she was pleased that Shea was already talking so that nobody needed to acknowledge her arrival.

Just when she thought she was off the hook, Asia turned to her and murmured. “Girl, where the fuck did you take that phone call? A hedge?”

She declined to reply.

***

Monet walked into the department on Monday with a cocktail mixer of excitement, nerves, trepidation and readiness being shaken up in her stomach. Her mind had been a complete mess all throughout the rest of Friday, and Monique seemed to have been good at avoiding her because she hadn’t seen her at all for the rest of the day. So Monet had gone home at the end of the day with her head in a spin, her hair still a complete mess, and a burning need to be absolutely railed. She wasn’t able to stop herself from scrolling instagram when she was alone in her flat with a glass of wine, and her fingers were typing in Monique’s full name (which hung on the nametag around her neck each day) before she could stop herself. She found her instantly, and a guilty feeling built in Monet’s stomach as she found herself looking through the girl’s page, gorgeous selfie after gorgeous selfie making her stomach flip over and her palms grow hot. Suddenly, she saw the circle around Monique’s profile picture turn pink. Her thumb hovered over it, unsure if she wanted to graduate to full-blown instagram stalker creep status. Well, she’d come this far.

A mirror selfie of Monique filled the screen, her dark hair spilling over her shoulders and out of the ponytail it had been in earlier. She was smiling, and Monet found herself wishing she had that smile directed at her more often. With a pang she noticed that the wine in Monique’s glass was red, matching the crimson liquid in her own glass. As if she was afraid of being caught, Monet tapped off the story and buried her phone underneath one of her couch cushions.  

On Saturday, Monet met with her friend Bri for coffee, which was probably a good thing as it would serve to distract Monet from the dream she’d had last night of Monique, perched up on her desk in a black lace bodysuit and high heels talking in extremely explicit detail about what she wanted Monet to do to her. Meeting with Bri would stop her from lying in bed in her own filth masturbating herself into oblivion and obsessively checking Monique’s instagram like a complete loser. On the other hand, all Bri seemed to want to talk about was some French politician she’d slept with whilst she was over there as a correspondent for the BBC during the European Parliamentary elections, and it wasn’t really helping.

“…and like, I’d never really been one for strapons before- because, hello, big dicks usually aren’t really the selling point of lesbianism- but Jesus Christ, Monet, I swear I saw God. In fact, I fucked God. God was her. Hey, panini head, are you even listening to me?”

Monet blinked twice as she tuned back into the conversation. Her friend was staring at her intently, her blonde hair slightly all over the place with how animatedly she’d been telling the story. Not too far away from their table a family of four looked on, horrified.

“Oh my God, Cracker, it’s ten in the morning,” Monet rolled her eyes, utilising the nickname she sometimes hit out with for her friend (“Because I’m thin, white and salty?” “No, because it doesn’t take much for you to snap.“).

“So?! You can’t put a time limit on fucking a hot girl.”

“No, but you can put a volume limit,” Monet raised her eyebrows, as a Dad with a pram walked into the cafe. Bri rolled her eyes.

“Jesus, would you stop being such a prude? You need to get laid,” she sighed, then narrowed her eyes as she saw Monet shift in her seat and cross her legs, the memory of her stationary cupboard encounter flooding back into her head like a tsunami. “Unless you already have…? Monet?”

Monet took a sip of her coffee. She put it back on the saucer and tried to ignore Bri’s piercing eyes. “What?”

Bri jumped back in her seat and almost knocked a tray of tea out of the hands of a woman passing behind her. “Oh my God. You’re not telling me something. Tell me. Tell me now, or I go into more detail about my night with Aquaria Palandrani at double the volume I was using before.”

“How can it get more detailed?!” Monet cried in dismay, then frowned. “Whatever, I don’t want to know. Ugh, there’s nothing to tell, honestly.”

Bri leaned forward in her seat expectantly. Monet rolled her eyes and couldn’t help but laugh.

“Look, it’s honestly nothing! It’s just this girl-”

“A-HA! That’s not nothing! That’s a girl!” Bri gasped, excited. “More details, please.”

“You know I’m doing that piece on Shea Coulee for Bob? She works for her department, she’s a comms girl. We didn’t really see eye to eye at first…I mean, I guess we still don’t. But she’s fucking beautiful, and her attitude’s just really hot, you know? Even though it’s meant to make me not like her.”

“Ooh, hate fucking,” Bri gave her eyebrows a little wiggle, causing Monet to slap her on the arm.

“Shut up! I’m trying to get her to like me first.”

“Don’t. Hate fucking’s the best. Did I ever tell you about-”

Monet tuned out again, her mind now occupied by Monique now that she’d been talking about her. She wondered how she would play things on Monday, and how Monique would approach things with her. Even though she would be happy if Monique had had a personality transplant towards her, there was a small part of her that couldn’t help but long for one of her sarcastic clapbacks that drove her absolutely insane.

That night as she tried to write up things for her article, Monet couldn’t help but feel her phone in her jean pocket like an itch she had to scratch. Giving in, she opened up instagram and made her way to Monique’s page again, top in her search history. She saw a new post on her story and her heart gave a thud. Tapping, she was admittedly disappointed to see a song’s cover art pop up on the screen. She was about to tap off again when two emojis caught her eye, with a completely undeniable double entendre- tongue and squirt. The small clip of the song rang out in Monet’s living room before she could even adjust her volume.

“I put the na-na in naughty

Begging for it, got you on your knees

Didn’t make it to the bedroom, but we can do it there too

Whatever’s your fa-”  

“Oh my God, fuck off,” Monet yelped involuntarily, throwing her phone out of her hands so that it landed on the sofa cushion beside her. She didn’t know how the hell to interpret that, or if it was even about her, but all she knew was that she was more confused than ever.

***

Monet took a deep breath before she stepped into the offices on Monday morning, straightening her spine and walking in confidently, despite the fact she felt as if her legs were made of jelly. On her way into Shea’s office she passed by the desk that hadn’t been far from her mind all weekend (footage from her dream flashing through her head as she walked past) and out came the simple phrase that she’d rehearsed saying for hours.

“Good morning, Monique,” she said quickly, catching the other girl’s surprised eyes before sweeping past her desk and going straight into the Minister’s room, not giving the other girl a single chance to respond. Her heart beat rapidly all morning as she sat through meeting after meeting, a small triumphant smile on her face.

At quarter past twelve, Monet made her way to the elevators, ready to head out to grab some lunch. She cast her glance to Monique’s desk hopefully, only to find it empty. Her disappointment was short-lived, however, when she walked into the lift and heard the click-clack of high heels running to catch the it before it left. Monet pressed the button to hold it and her stomach flipped over when Monique, wearing a black, calf-length bodycon dress, ran into the lift beside her. She shot Monet a quick glance, then looked up to the ceiling and avoided her gaze. The lift doors closed and it began its journey down the many, many floors towards the lobby.

“Thanks,” Monique said, after a few beats of silence. Monet cleared her throat.

“No worries.”

There was another pause. Monet couldn’t tell where it was going, if anywhere, and the awkward atmosphere built. She tossed some of her honey curls out of the collar of her shirt and rubbed the back of her neck, embarrassed.

“So, uh,” Monique spoke up, inspecting her nails. “You have a nice weekend checking up on me?”

Monet felt as if someone had poured a freezing cold bucket of water over her head. She wished she could control the horror that was almost definitely slapped across her face. “What?!”

Monique gave a small smile. “It’s okay, Monet, I know I look good. The least you could’ve done is shoot me a follow, you know?”

Monet wanted the bottom of the elevator to drop off so she could fall directly down the lift shaft.

“I wasn’t…oh my God,” she trailed off, realising there was no way she could explain her way out of this one. She placed both her hands on her face, covering her eyes. “How did you-”

“You know it tells you who views your stories, right?” Monique’s voice came, a slight laugh to it that served to make Monet feel both more and less embarrassed. “Hey. Don’t worry about it. Happens to the best of us.”

Monet couldn’t muster a reply. She didn’t even think she could take her hands off her eyes.

“I mean, I gotta admit. I had a lil’ sneak on yours too,” the other girl said quietly, causing Monet to finally take her hands off her eyes and look at Monique who was leaning lazily against the bar on the lift. “You look like a snack when you’re not in those work clothes, girl.”

Ohhh, shit.

Monet tossed her hair over her shoulder and smirked at Monique. The conversation was finally going down the route she wanted, and she found herself squeezing her thighs together in anticipation. “I don’t know, baby, you seemed pretty keen on me when I was in them too.”

She watched as Monique laughed, looked up at the ceiling again, and shook her head. “That was a necessary step I had to take to stop you running your fuckin’ mouth, and it worked.”

Monet tilted her head as Monique finally made eye contact with her. She bit her lip and shrugged. “Can’t have worked that well, ‘cause I’m still talking.”

Monique smiled smugly, taking a single step towards her. “And what?”

Monet blinked, taken aback. “Well. Maybe you need to shut me up again.”

Monique twirled a strand of her hair around her finger. “Is this a big, powerful, high-up Guardian journalist begging a Band 1 Civil Servant to make out with her in an elevator?”

“Oh, Jesus,” Monet laughed, feeling the heat between her legs build up as Monique came to a stop beside her, deliberately standing a little too close. “You’re a bitch. Fuck, no, I’m not begging.”

“Mm, you wanna beg me so bad,” Monique smiled teasingly, and Monet had never wanted a lift to break down more in her life. Turning quickly so that she had one arm on either side of Monique and effectively trapping her, Monet saw a quick, wicked flash in the other girl’s eye as she leant in and dropped her voice.

“I bet I could make you beg me to do a lot of things.”

Monique flashed her a look from under her lashes. “Like what?”

The lift suddenly stopped and the doors slid open, making Monet flinch and Monique jump beside her. To her relief, nobody was waiting to walk in and she couldn’t help but laugh, the other girl rapidly joining in. After a few seconds, Monet realised they had to get out of the elevator and so she reluctantly walked out, Monique following behind her. Now that the moment had been shattered, it was back to being slightly awkward, but Monet really didn’t want to lose what they’d just created. She found herself stopping abruptly, turning around to face Monique who had stopped beside her and was gazing at her hopefully.

“Hey. Do you want to grab lunch just now?” she asked, her heart soaring as she saw Monique’s smile grow wider and more beautiful.

“Sure,” she beamed, Monet smiling back and feeling like a total lovesick idiot.

They started walking again. “Where do you wanna go?”  

Monique ran her tongue over her teeth and shrugged. “Well…my flat’s five minutes away and my flatmate isn’t home.”

Without missing a beat, Monet took Monique’s hand and led her out of the building, part of her hoping she would be able to shut Monique up and part of her really not wanting to.

[izupie]

Okay! Ask game! I pick 1, 13, 19, 35, and 47!

Thank you for the ask from this fanfiction ask game! <3

1. What was your first fic and could you stand to reread it today?

My first ever fanfiction that I ever wrote - before I even knew what fanfiction was - was a self-insert YuGiOh story I wrote because I was a little kid with an imagination and a pen and I wanted to interact with my favourite characters.

Which is why I will never be mean about kids writing really cheesy self-insert fics. Let them have their fun!

I still own this notebook and honest to god it’s the funniest read ever. Sometimes I get nostalgic about my writing and I’ll reread it just for a laugh. There’s an iconic line in it that me and my friend lose our minds over - if I just say ‘Cause she shouted...’ at any time to her she will immediately just shoot back with ‘mega loud!’

It’s a great read ahaha h a h a

In terms of my first actual published fanfiction it was a Kingdom Hearts fic I put on FF.net and it reads with all of the excellent tropes and cliches a 12 year old can write. It’s horrific! How weird that I can read the one I wrote as a really young kid, but not the one I wrote as a 12 year old ?

13. What’s the biggest change between your style when you started in fandom and today?

A bit of a neat segue from the previous question is that my style when I first started publishing fanfiction was full of all those typical ‘just starting out’ stuff like describing people based on their hair colour instead of just using their names. THE SILVER HAIRED TEEN did this. THE BRUNETTE did that. oh yes. I went there. Describing people’s eyes as ‘orbs’ 

and

holding a breath

they didn’t even know 

they were holding

(Oh wait I still do that one)

I kept it very simple, lots of dialogue.

Now I try to get inside my characters heads. And I loooove to describe simple acts, but as something pretty or important - like watching a character getting ready or eating lunch in a Ghibli movie. And I guess I’m more adventurous now, and willing to be flexible with my ‘style’. (Though I can’t really describe what that style is - does writer struggle to capture the essence of their own writing style???)

19. If you had to pick one fic/scene/chapter of your work to describe your entire portfolio to a stranger, which would you pick?

I’d pick Ochako entering the cafe and finding Izuku there in Beep Beep Beep. In my head it’s probably my favourite thing I’ve written - really atmospheric and my heart clenches whenever I think of that whole scene. Probably that whole last chapter makes me want to cry with sentimentality.

I’ll add it under a cut~

----------

“What the…” she breathed. The whole café was covered in strings of fairy lights – even more than usual – winding and twisting over the tables and chairs, dripping over the counter and draped over the plastic planets hanging from the ceiling. Softly glowing spots of silver shone through the darkness and bright lights like stars were being projected onto every surface. Ochako lifted her hands in awe to see the spots of light on her skin. It looked like she’d just fallen into the night sky.

It was beautiful.

She looked around, mouth still open slightly, and noticed the ‘stars’ were being projected from a glowing ball in the centre of the room.

Ochako softly closed the front door behind her and began to walk over to the projector, wondering why Mina had set this up, when she noticed a figure standing nearby, nearly hidden in the dark shadows cast by the lights.

She yelped in surprise and grabbed a chair, brandishing it in front of her. “Who’s there?”

“Ah! N-No- Wait, Ochako, it’s okay- it’s just me! It’s just me!”

She could barely make out the figure that jolted forwards quickly and dropped down to crouch by the projector, but the voice was achingly familiar. She heard a few clicks and the starry lights illuminated the café more brightly, making it so that she could see the figure clearly as he stood up and rubbed the back of his neck.

Ochako replaced the chair slowly.

“Izuku?”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I was going to say something- but you looked so, um… so pretty standing there and I…”

Ochako wasn’t sure who moved first. But within another beat of her heart, so loud in her ears, they had pulled each other into an embrace. She buried her face in his chest, arms tight around his middle, and gripped onto fistfuls of his soft hoodie. His strong arms squeezed her against him, and he lay his head on her shoulder.

Together at last.

It was like everything she’d been feeling for him came crashing through her in waves all at once; that initial spark, gratitude, friendship, fondness, admiration, affection… She’d missed him so much. Though they’d only been apart a few days but her longing to talk to him and be close to him had only grown with each day that passed.

She inhaled deeply and snuggled into his warm embrace. His clothes had picked up the subtle tang of coffee that permanently lingered in the café.

“I thought you had to work tonight,” she eventually managed, though it still came out as barely more than a whisper into the soft material of the hoodie over his broad chest.

“I was supposed to be.” He turned his head slightly so that his breath tickled the skin on her neck.

She shivered, despite her warmth, and hated that her thick winter coat felt like a barrier between them. She had to resist the urge to just throw it off.

Izuku eventually pulled back gently so that they could look at each other. Silver light kissed the flushed skin of his cheeks, and the projected stars gave him cosmic freckles.

“Someone gave me some good advice. I decided it didn’t matter if the universe just kept on keeping us apart. I just needed to t-try harder.” He brushed a stray flyaway piece of hair behind her ear and stroked her cheek lightly. “Last time I got you a bouquet of flowers, but this time… this time I got you the stars.”

Ochako could feel tears filling her vision and she tried to say something, but her voice stuck in her throat. Something she couldn’t identify passed between their shared gaze, intense and powerful, and she had the sudden incredible urge to kiss him. She might even have done it if he hadn’t blinked and looked away, a vibrant red blooming strongly across his nose.

“Uh, s-sorry, that was kind of corny…”

His hand drifted away from her cheek.

Ochako shook her head violently, scattering the tear drops she had been desperately holding back, and knew they would be catching the artificial starlight as they finally trickled freely down her cheeks.

“No!” she squeaked. “Nobody has ever said anything like that to me. Ever.” She took a steadying breath, hoping it would stop her voice from wobbling so much. “Nobody has ever tried this hard to get to know me and spend time with me. I-I can’t believe you’d do all this just for me. All of this, it’s beautiful.”

Izuku stared long and hard at her, a smile creasing the skin in the corner of his eyes. “I’m so glad.”

He gently wiped her tears and Ochako’s stomach flipped like the moment of weightlessness that she loved at the very top of a roller-coaster, just as plunges down the track. She felt like her whole body was being held together by the vibrations of the pulse through her veins.

“Although you did nearly attack me with a chair,” he added playfully.

Ochako blushed as she hiccupped and clamped her hands to her mouth. “Ah! I did, didn’t I? I’m sorry Izuku, I didn’t know it was you.” She couldn’t help the laughter that bubbled out from behind her hand.

----------

35. Have you ever written a ship into a fic without meaning to?

I accidentally had Ochako kind of almost slightly crushing on Doctor Shouto in BBB - I couldn’t stop her describing his ‘pretty eyes’ and I was like Yeah Me Too. oops

That’s as far as it’s ever gone though - I am pretty focused and single minded when it comes to writing my ships aaa

47. If someone you know in real life who isn’t involved in fandoms asked to read your work, would you let them? If yes, what would you recommend they read first?

I have had a few people in real life read Beep Beep Beep! A friend from work read it and passed it onto her son who also read it and he drew me some fanart that he printed out and framed for my birthday. I literally nearly just died on the spot. 

Other than the names it’s one of those AUs where it’s kind of it’s own thing - just a really really cheesy romance - so I think it’s fairly accessible even if you don’t know the show? You just lose some of the neat callbacks

[aro-aizawa]

Tell us about your AUs!! I’m curious!!

!!!!! an interested person???? hi anon i love you know that i would die for you without hesitation. bless you for letting me gush over my aus. this might be a lil messy (and long holy shit) considering im answering from my phone but from memory here are my aus (which i aint gonna lie are mostly either angst, hurt/comfort or canon divergent, or a mix of the three) in no particular order:

edit: now that im on computer it’s all under the cut but here’s a quick table of contents:

the one where hisashi is a pro hero

the one where hisashi is a villain

underground gladiator arena kidnap fic

the one where aizawa is inko’s brother

MUTE TODOROKI

izuku is related to all for one

gamer au

the one where uraraka is the protag instead

hp au

disney aus galore

the Spite™️ fic

the one where hisashi is a pro hero

heads up in literally none of my aus is midoriya hisashi a good parent. i mean in canon we know exactly three details about him being his name, his quirk and that he works abroad. that’s it. so, i don’t really like “good parent hisashi”. this au is basically ‘hey what if izuku got a fire quirk from his dad’ combined with my own personal views on fire, and then also deciding ‘wait what if hisashi and endevor did the same shit’. so it’s basically an au where izuku is in the same situation as todoroki.

it’s….kind of complicated now that it’s written down. in my head its p straight forwards?? anyways, basically my view on fire is that it absolutely shouldn’t be demonized as much as it is. because without fire, life couldn’t exist. it’s warmth and life and beauty. i just…think that view of it is perfect for izuku, and i always wanted to try my hand at fire quirk izuku.

also one of my few aus that’s actually gonna have a ship focus?? in that it’s tododeku but honestly knowing me i might end up accidentally dropping that aspect of it like i tend to do a LOT bc of my inability to write crushes (im an aro who’s never had a crush so me writing romance is…awkward at best lol)

the one where hisashi is a villain

i have……admittedly a lot of versions of this au. it’s by far one of my favourites to think about, for several reasons actually, mostly bc of angst but also because the hurt/comfort potential there is incredible.

my most current version of this au though plays with the idea that in the mha society those with ‘villainous’ quirks get discrimated against and pushed so the only chance they do have to survive is to turn to villainy. in this au i play with hisashi and inko’s quirks a little to make them more villainous and easier to discriminate against, for example hisashi can cremate anything he touches into ashes at will, and inko can minorly manipulate the limbs of other people although she’s mainly limited to pulling them towards her or pushing them back.

in this version, izuku is quirkless and still goes through ua determined to change the way that society works and right the wrongs in how it’s set up while also proving that quirkless people aren’t useless. a lot of dadzawa in this one because it is my w e a k n e s s. there’s a few other elements thrown in there, but overall that’s the basic jist of it.

underground gladiator arena kidnap fic

one of my darker aus where a group of villains kidnap kids who took the ua exam to create an “everything goes” fight club that customers can watch and occasionally participate in.

my general idea for this was “the sports festival is pretty brutal when you think about it. it’s almost like everything but killing goes” and then i thought that in a superpowered society there is no way there isn’t any kind of underground fight club where people can go full out w their quirks.

hence this au was born! the kids who’re kidnapped w izuku have been constantly changing over the ladt year or so that i’ve had this idea but rn i decided on having shinsou, kaminari, mina, tokoyami and yaoyorozu w him. the rest would be filled w ocs bc the villains weren’t dumb enough to kidnap all of the heroics students, just a handful.

bearing in mind the kids are all taken a couple days after the entrance exam so they’re not familiar with each other and izuku is the only one familiar w a pro hero and that’s a secret. not to mention he’s only used his quirk once at this point, and he has no access to recovery girl’s quirk so he has to figure smth out IMMEDIATELY or he’s completely fucked.

the one where aizawa is inko’s brother

look if you inspect my aus carefully you’ll see a theme and that theme is i fucking love aizawa. anyways, in this one izuku has a pretty powerful nullification quirk and is trained by aizawa. aizawa and inko have like an eight or ten year age difference, so they weren’t all that close until inko reached out when izuku was eight.

i’ll admit this is one of my lesser developed aus but it’s canon divergent with a focus on izuku hoping to be an underground hero. and due to his quirk and that aspect of his personality, it kind of changes a lot of things??? potentially a short(ish) au if i ever got round to writing it out. maybs about 20k-30k words idk.

(this is mostly born bc i feel like people forget that there’s only a fifteen year age difference between aizawa and izuku for a number of reasons. also bc inko/aizawa….is kind of weird in my mind. definitely not a fan :///)

MUTE TODOROKI

look i fucking love mute aus okay, but when i was trying to apply it to the mha universe i started thinking “holy shit todoroki could definitely be mute” or smth and ever since this au is close to my heart.

basically when poor rei burned lil shouto, she mentally scarred him into mutism. ever since the kettle incident, shouto can’t speak a word. endeavor is told by the doctor that although nothing physically is wrong, shouto is mute. endeavor is a DICK and p much decides he’ll just wait it out for shouto to finally talk bc he’s just being childish (basically he’s ablist and doesn’t let todoroki learn sign. which is bullshit but doesn’t majorly effect him bc he’s homeschooled until high school anyway).

it’s sort of canon divergent but also maybe a complete au??? in that there’s no league of villains. when all might fought afo the first time he succeeded in putting a stop to the villain and killing him. izuku still gets ofa, but he’s not the protag of the story, this time it’s todoroki.

anyways, ua sees that todoroki is mute (which isn’t registered and completely unknown to the general public) and doesn’t know sign language (resorting to notes and/or charades if he needs to communicate something), and decides to investigate that shit.

endeavor eventually gets what he deserves bc the trash bag can go rot in hell, and that’s p much all i got aside from the class realising FAST they need to adopt and love todoroki so there’s a lot of wholesome bonding there.

izuku is related to all for one

admittedly this one is one of my most underdeveloped aus but i still love it all the same. basically my take on it bc the whole ‘afo is hisashi’ thing kinda weirds me out considering afo is at least 200 years old. in this au he’s izuku’s grandfather and inko is his daugther who escaped him and lives in hiding.

i haven’t decided whether i want this au to be my take on izuku having afo or if it’s another quirkless izuku au. i haven’t gotten very far into it, all i know is that afo has no emotions and he’s a heartless bastard (me hating the dad for one trope w a passion) so there’s sort of MAJOR angst potential if i decide to go down that route.

gamer au

izuku’s quirk is that his life is a game. that’s….that’s it. if you’re familiar with sword art online, it has a lot of influence from that w/o the characters or plot or pervertedness or incest because what the fuck sao was so bad with all those. still pissed bc outside that it had potential and i think abt that a lot.

anyways, so y’know how in a lot of rpgs there’s the hud w stats and an inventory system and abilities?? well apply that to izuku and he’s p much that. the world “autosaves” whenever he sleeps, but he can’t manually load a save. if he dies he starts over from his last autosave.

bc of his access to abilities and stuff, he has the potential to be powerful bc hey he can basically do magic, but at the same time he just healed his body completely by drinking this drink he made w herbs and shit last night. also he can carry a ludicrous amount of shit that couldn’t possible fit in his backpack but apparently he’s got seventeen cheese wheels in there and room for half the classroom furniture too.

izuku sees the world w a hud which would be annoying but it’s normal for izuku. in fact, he sort of hates watching tv because the hud doesn’t appear on the screen and it’s so weird and bizarre he doesn’t really like it.

i haven’t planned anything but details of the quirk bc it can get waaaay too overpowered too quickly and hhhh i sort of burnt out of different ways this would effect canon, so i didn’t think abt it. but i did figure out that izuku would have so many gaming analogies for his friends and be into like a thousand different games.

the one where uraraka is the protag instead

born when i was complaining about how shitty horikoshi is at writing his female characters i brainstormed this au in a discord server where i overhauled canon w a more badass uraraka. (and she doesn’t even get ofa!!! she’s just badass on her own!!!)

basically bc she’s a lot more confident and determined in this au she influences a lot of her classmates. the other girls are a lot more active in their actions and are more than just the background characters. uraraka’s full strength is explored and i think i planned for her to win the sports festival bc she deserved it.

also inspired by the idea i had of pro hero uraraka kicking a lamp post down on her own strength and using it to put a comet home run on a villain like she did in the battle trial. bc holy shit that’s a fantastic mental image.

basically my “mha girls fucking rule and fuck horikoshi’s shitty writing” au

hp au

ah yes, finally we get to my take on the most generic of aus. basically i just wanted todoroki in hufflepuff to piss off endeavor and basically loving it bc he befriends izuku in it. i definitely haven’t developed this au outside of worldbuilding in how i’d combine the two universes whilst fixing both jkr and horikoshi’s bad writing.

i actually wrote a snippet that’s somewhere on my blog that i can’t link to now but you could probs for search it. but this was basically born from me getting angry at people putting the kids in the wrong houses. im a firm believer that izuku fits in nearly every house but hufflepuff and slytherin suits him the most while todoroki is ABSOLUTELY a hufflepuff. i wanted some platonic tododeku bonding so i put izuku in hufflepuff. uraraka is slytherin, iida is gryffindor, and it’d be too messy to list all the kids so i won’t.

but!! what im most happy w in this au is how i incoporate mha stuff into it. like how hagakure isn’t actually invisible she just got permanently hexed by her brother to always be unnoticed so you can never know what she looks like or where she is. tokoyami has a bird head due to a failed attempt at becoming an animagi. its permanent and although he could get it fixed, theres actually a number of wizards w the same thing do there’s a lot of animal like wizards. shinhou comes from a pureblood family thats been known for their dark magic, even though the last four generations haven’t been dark wizards the wizardinv world is convinced he’ll be a dark wizard too but shinsou wants to prove them wrong. amajiki being a metamorphmagus who shifts his limbs into animals when he’s nervous. etc etc. i have too much worldbuilding and no plot lmao.

disney aus galore

one day i thought up abt three different disney aus for the mha universe but my first idea was a little mermaid au for momojirou w momo being the princess and jirou being the mermaid.

except besides the basic premise i p much scrapped the whole movie in that jirou learns sign language to talk to momo and the two play music together. jirou plays piano or w/e whilst momo sings. it’s v gay. theres a ball and they dance and then kiss. i never wrote it out bc i didn’t wanna add conflict in it but never got round to actually writing it lmao.

but i thought up a tododeku tangled au, kiribaku cinderella au, tsuocha princess and the frog au, and a couple others that i didn’t plan out fully. still close to my heart if i ever manage to get round to writing them out. each would probs either be a long shot at 7k-15k words or a short multichapter fic at 25k-30k words.

the Spite™️ fic

the fic where i get pissed at every shitty thing about horikoshi’s writing. izuku gets mad at all might for his views on quirkless people and gets into ua on his first try. izuku rightfully does not take bakugou’s shit and calls him out at every opportunity. bakugou’s actions have repercussions. all might gets punished for almost letting bakugou kill izuku in an exercise.

izuku gets pissed over a lot of shit basically. also at one point he either punts mineta into the sun or loudly and publicly makes the argument that mineta should be expelled from ua including evidence and testimonies from the girls. and he encourages nearly all of them to get better costumes.

i haven’t actually written much abt it but if there’s smth i got pissed @ horikoshi for smth in canon it’d be address in this fic bc oh boy am i never spiteful so it’s kind of theraputic to write even tho i haven’t done it in a while.

uh….i have a lot more but man i think i’ve been writing this for like an hour or two idk im gonna finish this before the app crashes or smth. thank you for letting me ramble this got long oops sorry.

[nicolepremier]

Nano’s Knife

I’m currently writing a Nano/Akira fic and it occurs to me that I need to explain to everyone what’s really going on with Nano’s knife and its mysterious inscription that appears on so much iconic TnC merch. I was planning to write a brief summary in the author’s notes, but I wanted to go into a little more detail here, since I thought some of you might be curious.

Fandom lore would simply state that Nano’s inscription reads “wish” in some mysterious language, a symbol that he “wishes” to meet Akira again, and leave it at that.

It’s a lot more complex than that. And spoiler alert - the inscription on that knife does not literally read “wish” in any language.

For starters, there is some confusion in the translation from Japanese to English. The word the Japanese use that is translated to English as “wish” is 願い (negai), and that word has another meaning, a meaning that contextually makes a lot more sense. “Negai” also means “prayer,” and the context that it is used in throughout Nano’s route suggests that “prayer” would have been a more accurate and appropriate translation. For example, when Akira finds Nano sitting alone in the church with the black kitten, Nano says that he is there because he is “wishing” for another person’s happiness (obviously Akira’s, though that goes completely over Akira’s head) because it’s the only thing left to one whose fate has already been determined (referring to himself). What he’s actually doing is praying for Akira’s happiness. You don’t go to church to “wish,” you go to “pray.”

This distinction becomes very important when translating Nano’s knife inscription.

The inscription on Nano’s knife is written in Elder Futhark, a pre-viking Norse and Germanic rune system. (Though popular perception today simply refers to them as “viking runes.”) Being of Scandinavian decent from a family who loves anything and everything to do with vikings, I recognized the writing immediately since the same runes are on a ton of decorations all over my family’s home.

If you try and translate Nano’s runes phonetically, you get “hingath,” which is complete rubbish and means absolutely nothing as far as I can tell. It most certainly does NOT mean “wish.”

There is some additional complication due to the fact that N+C is horribly inconsistent with the runes from one set of merch to the next (presumably because they mean nothing to the designers), and the designers sometimes write them in ways that make the inscription even MORE nonsensical.

I actually sent a number of the different versions of the inscriptions to a professor friend who studies runes in several dead languages, and he came up with exactly the same nonsensical gibberish I did - it’s badly written Elder Futhark mixing several time periods that says nothing. He said it wasn’t all that uncommon for people to write nonsense runes on all sorts of stuff just because they like the look of them. For example, a well-known rune translation guide book has runes going around the cover which translate to “These runes don’t say anything, but they sure look cool, don’t they?”

But I wasn’t satisfied.

Elder Futhark is not purely a phonetic language like the Latin alphabet. The god Odin “sacrificed himself to himself” by hanging on the world-tree Yggdrasil for nine days and nights, receiving no form of nourishment from his companions. At the end of this ordeal, he perceived the runes, the magically-charged ancient Germanic alphabet that was held to contain many of the greatest secrets of existence.

The fact that the runes have, since their conception, been thought to be imbibed with magical powers is the reason they have been so extensively used by modern Neopagans in so much of their ritual practice. Simply the act of inscribing the runes, or keeping inscribed objects close, can confer power and blessings. Each rune has multiple meanings, but keeping that in mind, I believe I have cracked the code of Nano’s mysterious knife inscription.

The knife isn’t a “wish” or a symbol of a “wish” - it’s a “prayer.” It’s a prayer to the old gods.

Name: Hagalaz, “hail.” Phoneme: H. Meaning: destruction, chaos, change, invocation

This is a common invocation to begin a prayer to petition the gods.

Name: Ingwaz, “the god Ingwaz.” Phoneme: Ing or ng. Meaning: male fertility, the beginning of something, the actualization of potential via sacrifice

He must offer a sacrifice. The old gods don’t work for free. One must give something up in order for one’s prayer to have a chance of being answered.

Name: Ansuz, “an Aesir god.” Phoneme: A (long and/or short). Meaning: prosperity, vitality.

He’s calling on one or more of the aesir gods for help - Odin, Thor, Frigg, Tyr, Loki, Baldur, Heimdall, Idun, and Bragi.

Name: Thurisaz, “Thor, Giant.” Phoneme: Th (both soft and hard). Meaning: danger, suffering, solitude. (Note that this rune is often written with shorter vertical lines so that it looks more like an angular D. Both versions appear on different TnC merch.)

He wants an end to his suffering and solitude. His prayer is a desperate cry for help.

To be clear, I do not believe that Nano is a time traveling viking, or even of Norse decent - if he were, he might have written a more sensible inscription that actually meant something in one of the Scandinavian languages - all of which use the roman alphabet nowadays, and that is NOT the alphabet that Nano’s book uses, since Japanese use romanji as well and Akira has never seen those sorts of letters before. No one writes books in Elder Futhark these days. Here is what I believe happened:

Nano was the son of academics. He mentions in Kou Un (his official afterstory) that his father whose face he can’t remember made the knife. That’s not a normal skill, and even a rudimentary knowledge of Norse runes (and Norse gods) isn’t common knowledge among the general populace. This is consistent with how Nano dresses and presents himself - he isn’t the sort of person who puts a lot of thought into his clothing, but he likely tends to subconsciously gravitate towards what some part of his brain still registers as “normal” - things his father might have worn, and which he probably wore himself as a child before he was taken to ENED. His primary hobby is reading, and his eloquent speech and precise pattern observation makes clear that he’s quite intelligent, despite his naivety and eccentricity.

I headcanon that Nano’s father was an engineer, and his mother was a history professor (probably NOT in Norse studies), both of whom worked for a Russian university with government funding in South eastern Russia, in close proximity to both China and Japan. His father may have been involved in the design or manufacturing of weapons during WWIII. Likely both parents had an interest in historical reenactment and were eager to involve their children. Nano likely spent a good deal of time with his mother as a child since his father would have been kept extremely busy during the war. He was almost certainly taught to read at a very young age and given books on his mother’s favorite subjects to keep him occupied while she worked. When he developed an interest in vikings and Norse mythology as a young boy, he was almost certainly encouraged to pursue it. Therefore, although he was raised Russian Orthodox Christian, he was aware of (and likely fascinated by) mythology from various cultures. His speech in the game illustrates that he does indeed have a distinct interest in Christian mythology in particular, and likely that of other cultures as well, given that his only known possession was a knife inscribed with Elder Futhark. His father likely recognized his interests and made the knife for him as a gift, then let him help inscribe it with a prayer. To a little kid who really liked vikings, that was probably very exciting, so it isn’t surprising that the knife would become his most prized possession, even after his memories were altered and he could no longer remember anything else about his family.

After Nano’s family was killed, he was put into an overcrowded Russian orphanage, then later taken away by the Japanese for use as a nameless test subject in what was often lethal experimentation. At that point he was so scared that he was willing to try just about anything. Having no control at all over his own fate, his only recourse was to pray for salvation. When no one answered his prayers and his circumstances kept going from bad to worse, he almost certainly started to lose faith in the Christian god, and tried to invoke the old Norse gods in hopes that maybe he was just praying to the wrong god and there was still SOMEONE out there who would listen. He may even have forgotten what the inscription on the knife actually meant, only recalling dreamlike bits and pieces. It was a prayer. To be completely honest, I find it completely unrealistic that Nano could have kept that knife hidden for so long from ENED, given that it’s fairly large, he had no privacy, was watched 24/7, and only wore a medical gown inside the facility. I think it is slightly more likely that he was allowed to keep it, given how submissive he was to the researchers, since the end goal was to brainwash him into BECOMING a weapon himself.

In the end, when Nano had lost all hope and knew he was about to lose even himself… the sacrifice he made to invoke his final desperate prayer WAS the knife itself, his last remaining possession, the last reminder he had of his humanity, and with it his last remaining hope of salvation. He gave it all to Akira, in hopes that maybe one day, they would meet again.

Now, Nano’s fate, and his salvation, depends entirely on Akira.

[destiny-smasher]

Kingdom Hearts 3 impressions

So, uh, I will ONLY be talking about stuff up until the very start of the second World, and only AFTER the break. Kingdom Hearts 1 was an incredibly important and influential piece of media when I was growing up. I was writing fic based on Smash Bros. just before KH rolled onto the scene was like, “Yo, Disney and Final Fantasy, BAM, fuckin’ random? fucking RADDDD” and I was all about it. You had FF characters remixed with OCs remixed with Disney characters, and the villains were all crossing over to form the League of Bad Cartoons, it was a great time. And then Nomura realized his gamble was a win and decided to waste the next 15 years of everyone’s time shoving in every trope he liked, every IDEA that felt “cool” together into a mish mash of whatever the hell this “narrative” has become. Suffice it to say, I’ve got beef with Kingdom Hearts as a “story.” It just occurred to me today that a big part of this is thematic/tonal.

But it’s also VERY rare, maybe even unprecedented, for a piece of media like Kingdom Hearts 3 to come around. For years, then months, then weeks, then days, I told myself, “It’s not real, that game doesn’t exist, I won’t believe it until I’m literally playing it” and just could not be bothered to be hype or interested, if only because Nomura’s “vision”, from my perspective, warped something I admired in my youth into a fucking train wreck, leaving me very little to feel emotionally invested in outside of Aqua and by proxy the two lads she is trying to protect. (also I GUESS I’m slightly invested in Axel/Xion/Roxas.../Namine? for similar reasons now that I think about it?) Well, guess what? Kingdom Hearts VERY WELL might be real, and I very well might be about three hours into it. And for all of the beef I have with the plot, I am fucking relieved that those three hours have felt/sounded good, as a video game. NOW we’re gonna talk about the first World. --

When I first heard that Olympus was gonna be the first World in KH3 I was disappointed and BAFFLED. We’re visiting that place a THIRD time? And why THAT World? Turns out, there’s actually some substantial thematic relevance and that’s actually A-OK, not to mention that starting with a familiar world after ALL OF THIS TIME is not such a bad way to kick things off. First off, structurally, I actually really enjoyed the way this world played out. Two of my biggest problems with KH as a video game series have been that worlds feel like empty, vacant, haunted houses, and that said worlds are usually small and linear with a lot of pointless backtracking. Olympus fixes all of this. There are NPCs. Actual fucking PEOPLE in this world. Sure, they’re just people in danger, calling for help, but they’re THERE for once! And they have vocies! EVERY line of dialogue (except for like one “plot” moment) has actually been voiced so far! About time. Also. This World is not as linear as most KH Worlds. In fact, it help more open and dynamic than ANY World in any KH game so far, not to mention it featured three, THREE (wtf) unique and distinct types of settings. The city, the mountain, and Olympus. Nice. ALSO also. The music. We’ve been here before. We KNOW that Olympus theme from earlier games. And as you traverse the city, up the mountain, you hear this more sweeping, movie-like version, and it’s like “oh whoa nice” aaaaand then you get TO Olympus and it KICKS in, the old song, up to modern snuff. That was great. That was a thing that really helped convey “Kingdom Hearts is back, baby.” The World was big, compared to typical KH worlds. It had multiple nooks and crannies to explore, side-paths to go down, treasure to find hidden away. There is a LOT of verticality. Running up walls and seamlessly hopping over things in the environment makes traversal more enjoyable than it ever has been. Even though a lot of the World is technically a linear path it’s not structured like a path. Going off and exploring rewards you with items and the like, and the World is big enough to actually feel like you have places to poke around in. Having said this, WHY is there no...map? Like. You literally COLLECT Maps from Chests like you used to. But near as I can tell, there’s no way to pull up an actual MAP, to seer where the main path is, to see where the side paths are. It’s boggling. Maybe the game has the option hidden away somewhere but if so, that’s just silly. And if there’s just no actual map option at ALL that’s just...baffling. There were barely any load times for how much SPACE there was to navigate, and things looked very shiny and pretty, and ran at a smooth 60 fps MOST of the time. Tech specs aren’t everything, but when your brand is built on “looking pretty” it sure af helps when you bring scale AND a smooth framerate to match. It’s weird, and a bit jarring, sometimes in a good way, to see all of this stuff rendered in modern tech. Stuff looks...a little too plasticy a lot of the time, (which actually ought to pay off when we get to Toy Story?) but the environments so far feel rich and vast and detailed all at once in a way we just have never seen the series, because we’re basically jumping from PS2-level tech to PS4. So that difference in production is more noticeable for the wait -- I just wish things looked a bit more...I guess cel-shaded? Like the original trailer. Things (specifically, characters) look a little too flat/plasticy at times, for how pretty things are. Combat seems to be as flashy as ever and I’m sure I’ll feel differently as I get further in and unlock more options but it’s still too easy, simple, and mashy for my tastes. I am HOPING we get more moments that require quick reflexes and specific tactics like the harder moments of older KH games. The amusement rides mechanic is...weird. It’s given NO context in universe. And they last a little too long/feel too overpowered for how easy they are to utilize. Similarly, there are frequently seemingly random party-member tag-team attacks that...just seem like “press triangle to win” moves. I wish they entailed more interaction, and/or felt less common/random. I like the IDEA of these kinds of moves, especially ones that change your controls/method of attack for a few seconds (like Hercules’ team attack) but the execution makes them feel too cheap and easy to abuse, with combat that’s ALREADY skewing on the “too easy” side for the genre. I like the “form change” for keyblades, and that you can swap keyblades in the middle of a fight. Really hoping this allows for some good tactical stuff later -- buuuuut that would also require the game to ASK OF ME to do more than “mash X,” which KH as a brand typically does not do... Characters SPEAK in reaction to gameplay moments, when you initiate things in the environment, etc. It’s a nice touch that makes them feel more like characters in an RPG. Donald and Goofy are ALWAYS in the party, alongside the Disney member(s). NICE. Maybe KH3 is putting its best foot forward, but overall, I was pleasantly surprised with Olympus. It single-handedly corrected MOST of the issues I’ve ever had with Kingdom Hearts level design. I only hope the momentum keeps going. Moving on, Gummi Ships. What little I played is easily the best they have every been. I love having an open world with optional places/fights to explore, while still giving me those shmup-like bursts of action. The Gummi Phone seems like a fun mechanic, and taking selfies/photos makes SENSE for this game because of how visually detailed it is -- but the pleasant surprise was how I took selfies with Donald and Goofy and they REACTED to it, starting to pose and commenting on it. On the other hand, the loading screen being nonsensical “social media” posts from KH characters...I don’t like it thanks go away. x’D I’ve spent only a few minutes in Twilight Town and INSTANTLY I am so much more enamored than I ever was in previous games. Not just due to the bump up in visual fidelity, but also because -- GASP -- NPCs??? Are you trying to tell me this is an actual TOWN that people LIVE IN?? Holy shit, Kingdom Hearts, I never knew! For all of this stuff I liked, though, KH3 is still...a KH game. Which means after you get through the intro, after you gear up to land in Olympus, the game flashes the title: “Kingdom Hearts II.9″ ...no. Just no. Fuck. Stop doing this shit. Whenever an Organization 13 member (or EX member) shows up and starts speaking all cocky in riddles like the flamboyant anime jackass they are, whenever Mickey starts dead-ass blathering about weird nonsense whenever the plot HAS to acknowledge “oh right Sora golly gawrsh ya FURRGOT this random bullshit a-FYUCK better shove this expository throwaway dialogue right in here before we go n’ furrget again!” whenever Kairi continues to be irrelevant and invisible after ALL THIS TIME whenever Rikku has to say some obligatory thing about his darkness or his copy of himself or Ansem or whatever whenever the plot informs Sorta/Dornold/Goffy about another convoluted ridiculous THING that we already know about and they MAYBE already know about because it is OBLIGATED to because this game’s entire purpose has become to “wrap things up already Nomura” I am reminded of the freshly opened scar on my heart from how much SHIT this series has dragged itself through for...what? Nothing worth all of this, IMO. Thankfully, these moments feel less and less pressing in KH3′s opening hours than they certainly could be, though I’m sure the closing hours of the game -- once they’ve tidily gotten all of that silly, inconsequential DISNEY CONTENT out of the way (even though that’s the BULK of the game environments and HALF of the series’ identity/purpose) -- those closing hours will surely be packed to the gills with all of this crazy crap. Maybe by then I might finally care enough to finally get the catharsis I’ve waited over a decade for. I dunno. I’m just relieved the game looks, plays, sounds, and feels as good as it does so far. EDIT: almost forgot to mention this since it hasn’t actually come up yet BUT I picked up a BUNCH of “ingredients”??? Like. FOR COOKING??? Which is one of my all-time favorite mechanics in a video game?? (thanks Paper Mario) So I’m at LEAST excited to see what THAT is all about.