#was rereading some older stuff for them today and it's interesting

[peliginspeaks]

Thinking about Fallen London as a backdrop for the theme of the horror of the inevitable today. I know it's The Classic Cosmic Horror Thing, but it's really woven through all aspects of Neathy life even as the PC is written powerful and capable: the constant backdrop of breath-holding for the Sixth City, the Masters and the Bazaar as a force higher on the Chain with a plan that cares not who it tramples, a ton of the Destinies aside from the LotN ones, literally anything to do with the Dawn Machine, the Flukes...the thing that changes you irrevocably could be around any corner, could drop at any second. Everything else, every other story told, is either dealing with that or written in its shadow. Sometimes the game lets you deal with it by fighting back, with the message that even though you can't hold a candle to all of it, you can change some of it and that's enough reason to try. Sometimes, the game lets you deal with it by getting drunk off your ass with a dozen rats and stealing a painting or something of the sort. Both are honestly such valid ways of dealing with The Cosmic Horror Of It All, as is just rolling out of bed every day and complaining about the weather, and the spread of each that the game's writing has is I think what's made it stick so hard as one of my favourite pieces of horror media despite only about 20% of it reading like horror.

[moonchildstyles]

I saw you were talking about curious gazes stuff.... is citrine a part of that group 🧍‍♀️

wordcount: 2.6k+

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Parker kept his eyes on his phone, rereading his new text notification over and over even when the bell above his head jingled as he walked through the door of the record shop. 

Annie asked if he was going to be at Vera's party tonight. She asked him if she could go with him.

His cheeks almost ached from the width of the smile on his face. Maybe tonight would be the night—maybe he'd finally get the courage to ask her on a real date instead of all these friendly group outings. 

Parker pulled his gaze up only when he heard the familiar voice of the shop attendant, catching the wide smile on the man's face. It was the same man every time Parker came in, his name starting with an H (it was Harry, or Henry, or something in that universe but he could never remember and felt too shy to ask for clarification at this point). He knew so much about all of the records and the artists behind them, it was always interesting when Parker wasn't in too much of a rush and could talk to the guy. 

"Good afternoon! How are you?" he asked, the glimmering fabric of his top shimmering from the light spilling in from the large windows. 

"I'm good, man. Thanks," Parker greeted, feeling infectiously happy at the moment, "How are you?" 

"I'm doing really well, thank you," Harry (maybe?) said, dimples in his cheeks, "Are y'looking for anything specific today?" 

Shrugging, Parker shook his head. "Not really, just wanted to look and see if I can find something new." 

Harry perked up at the sound of something new being in need, a dark curl falling over his forehead. "We got a bunch of second hand records in the other day. It's mostly older albums, but 'm sure there's something you'd like. Let me know if you want any help or have any questions." 

Typically, Parker wouldn't mind asking a few questions, especially about the more vintage artists and pressings around the shop, but his mind was still buried deep in his phone. "I will, man. Thanks." 

With that, Parker drifted between the shelves that marked out the aisles in the small shop. Huddled between a pair of shelves holding different records and elaborate displays with special edition pressings, he pulled his phone out once again. Annie's thread was still open, her two texts shining in a beautiful, shining, hopeful blue. 

ur going to v's tngiht right ? 

if u want we could go together :) 

He'd never seen a string of letters look so perfect. It was like he was reading poetry. 

His fingers held a tremor as he texted her back. He attempted to play it cool, but of course he wanted to go with her. He would have given anything to enter that party under the label of being together with Annie. 

Sure! I have to do some homework tonight, but I'll be heading over there at around eight. Does that work for you? 

Shooting off the message, Parker felt conflicted about staring and waiting for the messages to be read with another set of preemptive bubbles filling where her next message would be, or locking his phone and not being so desperate for a single text. 

When the receipts didn't immediately switch to show that it had been read with another time stamp, Parker forced himself to lock the screen and shove his phone back into his pocket. Around him, colorful records asked to steal his attention, to put him back on track and remind him why he came to the shop in the first place. 

It was his sister's birthday next week and he wanted to pick out a couple of records for her since their mom was gifting her a player as well. (And, there was an album or two Parker had been looking at that he really hoped the shop carried). Forcing his mind off of his phone, he took his time perusing through the shelfs for anything special he knew she liked before he would start looking through the crates for something vintage she could brag to her friends about. 

Across the space, the bell dinged again, another customer stopping by. 

Instead of the usual greeting Harry offered to all guests, Parker heard a giddy sigh of, "Sunshine!" ring from the head of the shop. 

Lifting his gaze from where he was examining a record cover laden with roses and glimmering gold font, he saw a woman with a beaming smile making her way towards the register area. A plastic takeaway bag hung from her elbow, her hair pulled back with her outfit consisting of a logo'd shirt and black pants. The logo was familiar, from a restaurant deeper in the plaza that had margaritas that were a little too strong but cheap enough it didn't matter. 

"Hi, Harry," she greeted, opening her arms as Harry met her halfway and reciprocated her hug. 

The plastic bag crinkled over his shoulder but neither of them paid the food any mind as they wrapped around each other. Quiet whispers were shared between them, Harry's curls creating a small curtain so Parker couldn't even see what kind of reaction these secrets pulled from the newcomer. 

Instead, Parker only got to hear the sound of her laugh as she drew away from the hug. He felt a bit bad as he kept watching, but even when they shared a small kiss, he couldn't pull his eyes away. 

Harry had mentioned more than once these small details about his wife, interjecting that she loved a certain album, or that she recommended something new to him that he was now letting others in on. Truthfully, with who Harry was—so eccentric, extroverted in an introverted way, and seemingly from a different time—Parker had imagined his wife to be completely different than to who was standing before him. 

This woman seemed... normal. 

Not that it was a bad thing, or that Harry wasn't, but she wasn't draped in lace and gauze with jewels and glitter following her every step. She looked like she belonged in this century. 

He turned his attention back to the record in his hand a split second before she would have caught his stare. Though there was a track list right before him, he didn't read a single word, feeling a bit flustered knowing he had just witnessed what was most likely a private moment between the two of them. 

Parker couldn't help the way his mind went back to Annie. 

Would she visit him during her lunch? Would they embrace like that, without a care? What kind of secrets would she share with him? 

He couldn't help the minute check he made to his phone screen. 

No new notifications. 

Folding his phone back into his pocket, Parker directed his focus back onto his shopping. Meandering back towards the crates, he started flicking through the alphabetized stacks. 

With only a quiet album playing on the shop's record player—something crackly and old he didn't recognize but didn't mind—, he could hear the murmurings of the couple now huddled behind the register counter together. Though he didn't mean to eavesdrop, he didn't particularly try hard not to either. 

Straining an ear, he heard their hushed conversation over the music and quiet rustling of the plastic bag. 

"I can come back later, or save this for dinner," the woman said, "I don't want you to get in trouble, honey." 

"'S fine, dove, really," Harry insisted, his smile audible, "I know him—he's really nice. He won't mind, I promise. If he needs my help, I'll help." 

"But, H—" she tried again, only to be abruptly cut off. 

Maybe it was the romance on his mind, but Parker wondered if the soft sound he heard was another quiet kiss they shared. Harry's tactic to get his wife to let go of the argument. 

"It'll be fine, I promise. I've missed you all day, I don't want you to leave already." 

A plume of laughter could be heard alongside the laying out of styrofoam containers. The scent of warm food drifted through the shop. Parker's stomach piqued at the smell, reminding him the last time he ate was during breakfast. 

Maybe Annie would want to stop and get some dinner before the party. Or go for a late night snack after. 

Harry's wife's laugh pulls him out of the possibilities he was beginning to churn before he'd even received a text back. 

"We spent all morning together before you came here," she countered, her tone a gentle tease. 

"So?" Harry argued, quietly serious under his own joking tone, "'S not enough, and I've told you that before." 

A beat passed, the rustling of the bag filling the moment. "Well, I only have forty-five minutes left of my lunch, so you better make the most of it." 

Another set of hushed conversation sounded, words too quiet for him to hear. Parker figured with the scolding Harry! that left the wife's lips, he didn't really want to hear what had made them go quiet anyway. 

A vibration from his back pocket had Parker practically scrambling to reach for his phone and get the screen to light up.

Annie had texted him back. 

sounds good (: 

if its isnt to late by the time we r leavig we should get food or something 

Parker's heart just about soared right out of his chest towards the record player, the beats wishing to play their own love song in Annie's name. 

They were going to get food or something tonight, just like he hoped. 

Was this love? 

I was thinking the same thing! I'll see if I can finish up any sooner than eight, but I'll let you know when I'm on my way:) 

 There was so much Parker needed to do. 

Now the priority wasn't the set of essays he was planning on editing before he got ready for Vera's. These plants were now shifted, urging him to skip cleaning his apartment and instead rushing home to do his work then agonize over getting ready for the remainder of the evening. The cowlick on the crown of his head that had his hair sticking in weird places after every shower was going to be his prime enemy today. 

Focusing on the records before him, Parker skimmed through before grabbing a Fleetwood Mac album his sister would either love or let become a statement piece about how much of an old soul she was. Turning back to the shelves he reached for a foiled album, the band's name one he recognized but only vaguely through his sister's Spotify. He wasn't familiar with the artwork, but hopefully this was a good one. 

These two would have to do for now. If he needed to find a third, he'd do it later. Annie was waiting for him (in six hours, but the urgency still mattered). 

Taking his tiny stack to the register, he saw the bubbly couple huddled together sharing a container of French fries with their own respective sandwiches. When the woman realized Parker was approaching, she startled in her spot, immediately moving to get their meal out of the way of the register. 

"Sorry, sorry," she said, covering her mouth as she swallowed down the bite she'd taken just as he emerged from the shelves. Harry watched with a fond quirk to his lips though he didn't make any move to assist her move. 

"'S alright, love," he attempted to soothe her. While Harry was always purely friendly and full of a kind and giving spirit, Parker had never heard his voice take on the notes it did now. This man was in love with his wife—everything she did was special to him. 

"I don't mind," Parker jumped in, settling his records on the clear area of the desk, "I get it." 

"See, (Y/N)?" Harry pointed out, though he did begin straightening up and tapping at the register keys, "I told you he was cool." 

The woman—(Y/N), the name said with a reverence—didn't pay Harry's argument any mind, continuing to move their boxes out of the way for Parker. Harry shook his head, his green eyes lighting up with every glance her way. 

"You find everything alright?" Harry asked, sliding the records towards the inlaid scanner on the desk. Before Parker had a chance to answer, he saw Harry's face light up when he spotted the Fleetwood Mac record. "I didn't know you listened to them! Is this your favorite album?" 

Holding up the beige cover, complete with a familiar woman in pointe shoes and an unfamiliar man at her side, Harry looked to him with expectant eyes. 

"Um, this is actually a gift for my sister," Parker explained, feeling a bit bashful now that he let down Harry. "It's her birthday next week, and my mom is getting her a record player. I don't really listen to older music." 

Casting his gaze down at the album cover, Harry pursed his lips. "I guess it did come out in '77—feels like it was only last year, I forget sometimes." 

Parker canted his head. That was one of those things about Harry that had him assuming he was meant to exist long before this time. It wasn't the first time he made a comment like that. 

"If she likes that album," (Y/N) piped up from where she had stepped back to lean against the back counter, "you should get her some Stevie Nicks albums. She'd love them." 

Harry perked up with a smile on his lips, though he stayed quiet as he typed a few numbers into the register before the total popped up on Parker's end. 

"She's the singer from Fleetwood Mac, right?" Parker asked, sliding his card into the reader, "I didn't know she had her own music." 

"She's the best," Harry interjected, his words a clear praise of his idol, "Even if your sister doesn't get into it, y'should still try it out. Y'won't regret it." 

Maybe Annie would like some of this kind of music. They could have a song if they found one they both liked.

The idea had Parker giddy once more, itching to head home and prepare for the night.

"I'll have to come back then and see what you recommend," Parker said, grabbing his carefully bagged records with the receipt tucked inside, "Thanks, Harry. It was nice to kind of meet you, by the way"—his eyes moving to Harry's wife—"He talks about you all the time." 

The smile that stretched along her features was like the sunshine her husband named her after—bright and eclipsing. 

Though they were small, the things Parker picked up between the two had his heart softening in places he didn't know could soften. A love like that must be consuming in the sweetest way.

Annie was all that was swirling through his mind. 

"He does?" (Y/N) asked, her eyes drifting towards her husband. He only shrugged in response, a bashful set to his features with blushing cheeks. 

"See you next time," Harry said, biting back his dimpled smile as he bid Parker goodbye. 

Tossing a wave over his shoulder, Parker drifted towards the door, his precious phone sliding into his hand on instinct. His heart jumped when he saw a text from Annie. 

perf ! excited to see u (: 

His heart rocketed into his throat at the small string of words. Just before he left the shop, Parker didn't think before he was looking over his shoulder and catching Harry pressing a loving kiss to his wife's lips. 

He wanted a love like that. Hopefully, that will start tonight. 

——————

:))))) thank u sm for all the excitement about this pov I hope everyone likes it! thank u sm for reading, sorry for any mistakes, and please send in any fun ideas!

[masterghandalf]

MG Reads Embers: Chapter Sixteen

Note: This is a continuation of my reread and commentary of Embers by Vathara, originally posted last fall and winter on my Dreamwidth account.

Chapter Sixteen We open with an author note. A/N: NaNoWriMo eats your soul. I have a limited number of chapters worked out and beta'd at the moment, so I'm posting them slowly. That way, you'll have at least one new chapter for each week of the write-til-you-drop time! Yes, Zuko knows darn well the Fire Navy was Up To No Good at the North Pole. Technically, Min was perfectly correct about the Water Tribe defending themselves. However. Zuko loves his people very much. And displacing your anger onto someone else is a very human reaction when you yourself feel horribly guilty. Which Zuko does. After all, if it weren't for one masked marauder getting in the way of Zhao's plans, Aang never would have gotten to the North Pole, would he? And for everybody who wants to see the Gaang... we're getting there. The chapter proper opens with Toph, vowing to never let Katara take her out for girl stuff again. Still smarting from how the rich girls made fun of her, she’s gone out into the city, escorted by a Joo Dee and saying she’s looking for interesting stonework that might be useful in teaching Aang. The Dai Li are following them, but Toph thinks about how she’s the greatest earthbender in the world, and she can wait them out. Finally, after several hours out, Toph’s earthbending leads her to some jade at a shop. Showing off a piece of jewelry she wore to the Earth King’s party, she says she’s looking for the carver who made it; she wants to talk to them. The owner leads her through the shop and to a garden out back, which is full of kids, and sensing the shop’s architecture and all the people nearby makes Toph all the more certain she hates Ba Sing Se. She thinks about how she left home for adventure, and to test her skills against real opponents, not to get dropped into the middle of a city and left there. As far as she can tell, all Aang cares about is looking for Appa and waiting for the Earth King to finally read his position, when anyone can tell that Long Feng is the one really in charge and he has no interest in going along with their plans. She blames it on Aang being an airbender – anything to avoid dealing with a problem head on. She’s shaken from her thoughts by being introduced to the jade carver – it’s Huojin’s wife, Luli. Putting on her best aristocratic manner, Toph waves off the owner’s not-so-subtle request for more money and sends him away; she asks Luli if he’s always that bad, and she says he’s often worse. Luli introduces Toph to her daughters, and to Suyin and Jinhai, who she’s looking after today as well.

Toph wants to know how Luli found the flaws in the jade to shape her carving when she’s not a bender; Luli starts describing her process, and Toph realizes that this is something she has to teach Aang – not just how to bend your element, but how to know it intimately. Listening more to Luli’s descriptions, Toph realizes that she’s someone who doesn’t just pity her for being blind or tries to ignore it, but actually tries to let her see what they see, and she’s impressed. Luli, in turn, realizing how Toph senses the earth, thinks she needs to trade notes with Tingzhe Wen, who’s an earthbender and an archaeologist. She explains that he’s Jinhai and Suyin’s father, but they’re with her today because both their parents are tied up with dealing with their older siblings’ university issues. Toph says she’d be watched if she tried to visit the university, which gets Luli’s attention. She explains they’re being watched right now, or at least Jinhai is. Luli’s husband’s in the guard, so she knows how to spot trouble. A moment later, Huojin himself comes in; Luli introduces them, but Toph picks up subtle hints in Huojin’s accent and realizes that he’s Fire Nation. He explains about how his parents were from the colonies and he came to the city young; Toph realizes he’s nervous, but honest, and he wants to know if she has a place to stay in the city. She assures him she’s fine, but he lets her know it’s always best to have people around you can rely on; he reminds her a bit of Iroh. Huojin then discusses his work a bit, noting that apparently even “Lee” can go a few days without causing a disaster, piquing Toph’s interest. Huojin goes to look for his kids, and Luli offers Toph more help if she needs it, even if it’s just someone to help her think, and tells her that her husband has a big heart and a hard head and is good to have around. Toph thinks this definitely sounds Fire Nation to her. She leaves, still thinking about the elements, the city, and Long Feng – she knows Aang won’t go after a problem head on, Sokka and Katara are adaptable but can’t plan around someone who already has all the angles covered, and while Toph is good, she can’t take on all the Dai Li. She decides they need to attack, and wishes she had a firebender – Iroh or even Zuko – here to help – but she can’t imagine either of them is in the city. But, thinking of Huojin, she decides that there might be more Fire Nationals in the city than she realizes…

We cut to Shirong keeping watch for the hostile spirit, which so far hasn’t shown itself again. Still, from the human remains that have washed up at Lake Laogai, he knows it’s out there, and it’s eating people, and the Dai Li are angry about it. And, if it can travel through water, it could potentially be anywhere. Suddenly, Shirong is joined by Zuko, who asks if he’s watching everyone, or just him. Apparently, Iroh is getting some maps out, and wants to know if Shirong can join them; he can also make Shirong’s favorite tea. They head down into their apartment, where Shirong admits that Iroh’s tea is good; he wants to know how they knew he was up there, but Zuko had assumed someone would be and thought he’d check. Iroh says he’s too old to be climbing around rooftops, but Shirong has no doubt he could if he had to. Shirong wonders some more about what he’s pieced together about their pasts, determined to get more details, but not yet. Glancing around the room, he determines that they’re clearly ready to run again, if need be, and finally spots Iroh’s maps and wonders if they’ve really been all those places. Iroh admits they have, pointing out Kyoshi Island and comparing the Unagi to the Serpent; Shirong thinks the people there are crazy, not because they teach girls to fight, but because they think they can stay out of the war. Iroh and Zuko start discussing various locations, beginning with the Eastern Air Temple and then going through various other places in the Earth Kingdom. Shirong watches with interest, especially after overhearing that Zuko apparently got into some trouble on Kyoshi Island. Iroh suggests trying to recruit the Kyoshi Warriors, but Zuko is against it, as well as the suggestion of the Southern Air Temple. Particularly since Sozin’s men didn’t bother to give their victims proper pyres – places like that are especially dangerous. Shirong realizes that they’re not just talking about places to casually travel to and is also rather unsettled to notice how personally they seem to feel about Sozin’s action, as if they feel a need to make up for them somehow. They continue their discussion, and Shiron realizes that Zuko apparently broke into Pouhai stronghold. He demands to know what exactly Iroh’s been teaching his nephew, but Iroh admits he can’t take credit for that one. Zuko himself, meanwhile, is rather embarrassed to realize that Iroh had apparently put two-and-two together and deduced that he was the Blue Spirit.

The conversation continues through more locations, and at last turns to a particular stretch of island not far from the North Pole. Shirong is amazed Zuko would want to go back there, but Iroh makes some veiled comments about it being warm on the mountains there. From the air currents… but also, there’s potential volcanic activity in the area. It’s also not far from the Northern Air Temple, which Shirong is stunned to learn is still inhabited by refugees. Finally, Shirong asks what they’re planning, and Zuko asks him what he’d do if Ba Sing Se fell. Shirong tells them that will never happen, but what if it did? Shirong’s lived his whole life in one city – he doesn’t know what sorts of things are out there in the world. And, for the first time since the Dragon of the West, one of the Fire royal house took the field against the Earth Kingdom recently – not Prince Zuko, who is indeed banished, but his sister, who was the one in command of the Drill. She may be young, but Zuko warns Shirong to never underestimate her; Iroh adds that even the Dragon of the West might be wary of taking her on. So, they ask Shirong again – what happens if Ba Sing Se falls? Shirong realizes they’re more afraid of Azula than they are of the Dai Li, which explains a lot of their previous actions. Zuko says he’s tired of running – but sometimes, you have to retreat. Shirong realizes they’re trying to find a location for some sort of outpost, and if they wanted to evacuate people from the city, they might need help from local authority figures… someone like him. And they’ve clearly been making other allies, too. Zuko doesn’t think Azula would destroy Ba Sing Se – it’s too big, and too valuable. Still, there are people they might need to get out, who they could at least temporarily hide in the catacombs. Shirong realizes that while he doesn’t have a family, other Dai Li do, and they would be in danger if the city fell. He still thinks what they’re describing sounds impossible, but Iroh would rather plan for it anyway. For now, he wants to hear about the Air Temples.

We cut to Shirong later, thinking about the things he’s learned; he recalls the old adage about knowing your enemy, and while he doesn’t consider the Avatar his enemy, he is potentially a problem. He, Zuko and Iroh had gone over all of the Air Temples in turn, though they were evasive about the details of the people living at the Northern. Shirong is left wondering again just who these two are, and why they’ve traveled around so much of the world. Though he thinks it does explain why Zuko is so determined to learn to heal, if he’s seen so much violence. Eventually, the conversation did turn to the spirit, and the idea that it might be lairing in Lake Laogai. Shirong wonders if the Dai Li’s activities there – brainwashing, execution, imprisonment – might have drawn the spirit, though they’ve been doing that there for decades and nothing happened. Then it occurs to him that they have something else there – Appa. He recalls attending Tingzhe Wen’s lectures on Avatar Kyoshi and Chin the Conqueror and learning about the connection between earthbending and badgermoles – he wonders if the sky bison might be more than he appears. He knows Roku had a dragon and heard that Kyoshi had a badgermole companion – if the Avatar is being kept from their animal, he fears bad things might happen. He thinks that the Dai Li should serve the people, not put them at risk, and thinks that Long Feng surely wouldn’t be holding Appa if he knew the risk. Finally, Shirong decides that his mission right now is to worry about dealing with the spirit itself, and work on cultivating recruits. He recalls how Zuko, after they were done with the maps, had shown him a waterbending move that sheathed his hands in claws of ice, and asked about how the Dai Li’s stone gloves work. Shirong was impressed by the line of questioning and worked with him a bit on adapting the technique for waterbending. Thinking about how much potential Zuko has, Shirong decides it would be a shame to lose him and is pleased that Zuko had him in for tea – and then he realizes something. He’d thought of Zuko as a lone pygmy puma living by its wits when he first met him, but it’s also true of him. To even socialize in the city, he has to hide the fact that he’s Dai Li – Zuko and Iroh have befriended him without forcing him to hide anything. He realizes that he might be trying to recruit them… but they’re also trying to recruit him. He’s impressed by their boldness, and still curious about some of the things they’ve let slip and decides it’s time to really start investigating who they are.

We end with a brief Author Note: A/N: Written in part because, given what we know Sozin and Iroh did in canon (and I'd bet Azulon was no slouch), the reaction of any sane person to somebody out of that family taking the field should not be the Gaang's, "oh, look, crazy ladies with blue fire". More like, "Aaauuugh! Sephiroth! Run away! Run away!" MG’s Thoughts This chapter… is kind of transitional in some ways. We do get to see a member of the Gaang (Toph, in this case) for the first time in a while, and while there are some things I like about how Vathara writes Toph’s POV and her sightless view of the world, I do have some quibbles. First off, this is another part of the fic that relies entirely on knowing the canon, and that canon having happened in Embers exactly the way it did in the show. Which wouldn’t bug me as much if “forget canon and take the fic as its own thing” isn’t a refrain I’ve seen repeatedly from the fic’s defenders, when I really don’t think it’s something you can do. For another, while canon Toph was initially resistant to her girls’-day-out with Katara, she ended up having fun in spite of herself and the two of them bonded a bit. Embers Toph hated the whole thing and resents Katara for dragging her into it – I guess because Vathara has to remind us she likes Toph and hates Katara. Also, I’ll note that in canon Aang wasn’t just waiting around for the Earth King to maybe notice him. As soon as the Gaang were reunited with Appa – and Long Feng no longer had leverage on them – they immediately broke into the palace to tell the Earth King the truth. Now, maybe Toph’s just supposed to be wrong here, but considering she’s one of Vathara’s favorites, and how the fic treats the rest of the Gaang in general, I’m not betting on it. It’s also a bit of a coincidence that Toph just happens to meet Huojin and his family, but… it’s not bad enough to really be a problem for me.

The scene with Shirong, Zuko and Iroh – I really can’t help but think that it’s part of Vathara’s overall softening of the Dai Li, considering I’m pretty sure that if a Dai Li agent in canon overheard half of that, Zuko and Iroh would have been at bare minimum hauled off to either the palace or Lake Laogai to be questioned as either potential spies or potential seditionists (I can’t imagine Long Feng would look kindly on anyone trying to, from his perspective, steal some of his people and take them to a new settlement somewhere outside his control). The conversation does lay some pretty important foreshadowing for things the fic will be doing down the road, though, if you know what to look for.

Finally, about the ANs. The one at the beginning of the chapter seems like it’s trying to backpedal on some of the “Koizilla was the worst” bits from the previous chapter as just Zuko’s POV, but, well, the fic will continue to treat Koizilla as the worst, from the perspective of people other than Zuko, and add on more reasons why it was the worst, so… I’m having a hard time buying it. As for the ending AN – yeah, the Gaang did take Azula seriously as a threat, absolutely. She was the most dangerous bad guy they’d run up against yet, and they very well knew it. But I guess that’s not good enough for Vathara to not insist on presenting them as naïve kids, and that a “sane” person would have reacted differently. And really, I can’t imagine the Dai Li would have missed a trick like not knowing who was in command of the Drill – it’s not like Azula’s presence was a secret.

[triviareads]

This month was a bit of a hit-or-miss in terms of books I read. I took the opportunity to revisit an old favorite Tiffany Reisz and reread her entire Original Sinners series plus a good chunk of her novellas. I also knocked out a few ARCs (I'm very excited about KJ Charles's upcoming book in particular). I'm hoping July will be a better month, but here are the books I enjoyed the most this June:

Minx by Sophie Lark Holy shit. I don't think I've read a sexier book in a long time and I JUST finished it at 1 am today. Blake is a high-class escort, and Ramses is a billionaire investor who not only wants her, but also wants to be her exclusive client and is willing to go to great lengths to make that happen.

I'm restraining myself from listing every sex act but here are the most pertinent ones: pet play is a big part of this story (if the title is any indication...), there's some really hot exhibitionism, role-playing, the rare period sex (like he fully goes down on her and everything and afterwards, they're shrugging like "we're all animals aren't we?"), and I'm actually surprised to see this again so soon after finishing the Kingmaker series— butt stuff during a blowjob.

The romance was also stellar— I appreciate how unique Ramses and Blake's brand of emotional intimacy is: Intimacy for them is him opening up his trading books to her and her accepting investing advice from him. It's her getting the information he needs to financially fuck over his terrible stepfather. It's when his estranged mom is being The Worst in public so she flashes her pussy at him to buck him up just before he has to deliver an important speech. For two characters who tend to play a lot of power games, this is very gratifying to read. They're wholly unrelatable in the best way— too hot, too rich, too smart— and we're just here along for the ride.

An Island Princess Starts a Scandal by Adriana Herrera Stunning. Gorgeous. Here are my thoughts as I was reading it. Manuela is a Venezuelan heiress who is set to marry as soon as she returns from Paris. So she understandably wants to make the best of her time in Paris. And because of her immediate on Cora, she makes a deal with her: in exchange for a parcel of land Cora needs for the railway project she is heading, she will show Manuela around all the lesbian haunts in the city.

Manuela is such a bright, effervescent heroine. And dare I say a bit of a brat? There was this scene where she purposefully told Cora she'd be at a more *risqué* party and swanned around until Cora stormed in and was like "fetch her and have her brought into my carriage At Once". Cora is a classic older heroine: worldly, confident, a silver fox(!!), and she's guarding herself from loving again. But when these two collide.... fireworks. No other way to put it. I said this when I just finished reading it, but I truly hope this will be a classic historical romance in another decade or two because it has all the beats while providing much needed queer and POC rep within the genre.

Heartless by Elsie Silver Small town romances are very hit-or-miss with me so I don't recommend them lightly lolol. But Heartless was a standout for me among the few Elsie Silver books I tried. Will is a fun, bratty heroine (wow there's a pattern here) who is panties-optional (which is a bigger plot point than you think, and the culmination is very fitting in a very hot way— at least I thought). Cade is a gruff silver fox rancher. Really, what more do you need?

Sidenote: Since a lot of the plot is about Willa nannying Cade's son, I will say, I'm fine with kids in romances as long as they're not weirdly precocious or actively trying to shove the love interests together. Which didn't happen here.

The Chateau by Tiffany Reisz One of the only Original Sinner novellas I hadn't read: What held me back was that the cult in this story is based on the Story of O so... I wasn't too enthusiastic about reading a cult centered around that book. But when I started it, I was surprised to see it really isn't like the Story of O? Apart from the setting and a few other references. Certainly not sadomasochistic to that degree, and it's about male, rather than female submission. It's a fun read. Young Kingsley being unrepentantly horny and having zero limits really comes in handy now that he's a spy (assassin?) assigned to infiltrate this sex cult and get his boss's nephew out. You also see his desire for a family manifesting, but his ultimate (and at this point kinda tragic) devotion is to Søren. Would recommend for anyone who wants to read about male subs.

The Return by Tiffany Reisz Søren and Kingsley return to the sex cult chateau. I'd say The Return is entertaining in a different way from The Chateau; Now that Søren and Kingsley's relationship is more secure (aka Kingsley isn't trying to torture himself about how Soren doesn't love him lol), you really get to see their fun side. And by fun, I mean, Søren being hella bitchy to the women that fucked Kingsley over like 2 decades ago ("only I get to hurt him") and then proceeding to make good on that promise. Anyway, would not recommend having a pissed off sadist and a perpetually down-and-ready Frenchman has houseguests. There will probably be come stains on the rug.

[tiredelirium]

D.7

I haven’t read nearly as many books in my life so far as I should’ve. When I was a kid I used to consume them like kindling. One time I read an entire two hundred page book in the backseat of my mum’s car while she was shopping. She was only gone for maybe half an hour, but the words out of that book flowed pretty easily to me. My memory is bad, so all I remember of that particular book is that it was an Ursula Le Guin one, though I couldn’t tell you which cause I read so many different things back then.

As I got older I stopped reading books as much, only because I found the reading elsewhere. RPG games had so much reading, as did online games like Runescape and WOW with their forums. I started reading more comics and manga, in a wide range of stuff, from Cardcaptor Sakura and Bleach to the likes of Death Note and Berserk. Though I never really watched Anime as much, I think that was partly because I always liked the art in the manga better and, like with most media, lots of content gets cut from the pages to the screen.

I still read from time to time, two of my favourite writers, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett being books I always picked up when I could. I reread a lot of old stuff too with fresh eyes after movies and tv shows came out, like the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter series.

Harry Potter was always a weird one to me even before a reread. While I could enjoy the magical concepts of the world, so much was nonsensical that it just drew you out of the story. Like, why would a magical world such as this be so afeared and secluded from the rest of the world that they’d need a underfunded department to *study* non-magicians?

However, I still enjoyed it when I first read it, because I was a kid at the time of the first book, and could envision myself as a wizard in that world without being able to truly conceptualise all the wrongs present, and the writer’s own opinions and hidden thoughts plastered throughout.

Between the ages of 10 and 13 I was fairly active on an avatar website, forums built largely for teens to talk and talk to others about hobbies and interests. Here was the first place, and arguably last, that I actively wrote with others. The reason why I mentioned Harry Potter, despite the superior Discworld franchise or the funner Sandman works, is because one of the first interactive role plays I took part in was a Harry Potter one.

Each person involved -after sending in a forum application with their character idea with name, personality, history, goals highlighted- wrote a single post, often a paragraph or two in length. Others would work on their own responses, and so the story was written by the parts of many influences.

It was my first foray in role play writing, and I enjoyed it immensely. But, like all internet activities, I practiced safety. Never sharing my real name, pictures or information with the people I wrote with, even months into that experience.

A part of me regrets that. Especially now so long after that account has been buried and forgotten alongside the website it was on. I think if I had’ve I likely would still be friends with those people today, maybe even still writing. All I know about that first group is that one of them was French and another Filipino, I think most of the others were American, and I was the only English.

It was fun to write those back and forths, effortlessly engaging, and likely the driving reason why a handful of years after I stopped using that site I’d find myself watching a lot of TTRPG content. I didn’t have the confidence to do anything in person, and despite living in the city finding a place where one could even play ttrpgs was a task. So I watched. I consumed. I read some more.

The original series I saw was Roll Play, by ItMeJP, who ran many different liveplay dnd shows before they became the more mainstream option like they are now, where everybody and their mum has a dungeons and dragon’s podcast with their own spin on it. It was a good series, full of enjoyable creators working together and having a blast, and I got to have a blast in tandem listening to them.

Sadly that series ultimately ended due to a slew of reasons that I won’t get into, but it gave me inspiration and made me want to play too.

At the end of university I finally got round to having courage enough to ask some people if they wanted to try it out. These people were my housemates in my third year and I liked them all, as they were all pretty fun and nerdy in their own ways. I think if I was a more driven person I likely would’ve been able to maintain friendships with them after uni, but alas.

The first game I ran took into account the groups love of the Walking Dead, and was a simple setup. Not classic dnd stuff really, not even a module. This was largely because every liveplay I’d listened to or watched over the years had never been based on an existing module but a homebrewed setting instead. Though my setting for those games wasn’t something built entirely, it was a basic fantasy.

The party awoke in the woods where they were camping for the night, having been disturbed by noises in the bushes, after having a run-in on the road with some silk merchants, two men and a boy, who they helped out by fending off some wolves. Surrounding them in the woods were hundreds of corpses slowly wading through the bushes toward the camp clearing. As they looked on in terror, some spell came over them, rendering them asleep. The one who rolled the highest on their save got to notice two things before they fainted: that all the corpses had a marked etching on their forehead, and that there was someone else in the woods beside the corpses.

When the party awoke they were trapped in a cell underground. They broke out handily, and began to head up the stairs, finding themselves within a sealed tower, no sign of the silk merchants. With the door sealed in a way they couldn’t open it they were forced to head up the tower to seek exit or means to unlock the door and find freedom.

In the tower the party encountered a handful of living dead guards, a lab with notes of strange experiments, and living quarters. One of them was able to recognise a corpse that attacked them as being one of the two silk merchants, while another found the body of the other silk merchant, left a cadaver on a slab as an object of study. As they finally reached the apex of the tower, having found no means of escape as yet, they encounter a large undead creature whose body radiates death.

They find the boy who worked for the silk merchants, now mutated to anything but a boy.

This was their first boss, and they handled it well. Around the boys neck was an arcane key that unlocked the tower, while the room held an altar with a book bound in flesh, marked with the same symbol the party saw on the boy’s head.

This marked the end of that game, that had taken place over the course of two sessions, several months apart. The first session had been in person, as I’d travelled to their house in their fourth year to play, and had used a roll out gridded matt to make maps on. The second session had taken place over a skype call while using Roll20.

That was the last time that I ran a game for them. Not because I didn’t want to run more, or because they didn’t want to play anymore, but because times had changed and we all were doing different things. University had ended, with some of them doing master’s degrees at that uni, while others had went elsewhere. I’d went home, and, like always terrible at communication, began to message less and less. The straw that broke the camels back there was when I lost access to my facebook account due to email issues I kind of lost my ability to reach out to them as well.

I could probably try, and I think they’d probably answer, but it’s been so long now that I don’t think I have the guts to even attempt the reach. Who knows where they are now or what they’re doing, especially with the way things in the world have changed and altered so much.

It was fun though. That was the first game I ever ran, and it was by no means the last.

[allthefujoshiunite]

Hello, I'm the one from twitter yesterday....Do you mind if I ask for BL manga/manhwa/manhua recs? I already seen the Bl recs you gave to anon some time ago, is it better to give my favorite BL manga like that? (Sorry if I get this wrong.... )

My favorite themes are : childhood friends to lovers, enemies/rivals to lovers, taking care of child/children, happy ending....

Sorry again if the themes are too much, if you want to pick either one, I'm really happy....

Welcome back! Actually, people being specific about what they're looking for (theme, platform, tropes, dynamics etc.) makes it easier for me to narrow titles down. I have my own favorites so obviously those are what comes to mind immediately, but when people come to me asking for something specific, I go back to digging old stuff back! Some series provide a good read, but not to a point where I remember them, let's say, 6 months down the road :,) It's also a by-product of reading a lot. N e gays, let's dive!

Enemies/rivals to lovers is a trope I love as well, and I actually have made a short list of titles I like with that trope. Putting that one here in case you have missed it.

Childhood friends is not a big favorite (if it's a childhood friends + a love triangle I avoid it like plague 😣) but there are series that I loved available on Futekiya:

Love and Howling (Masa Masaru) - This one also contains some supernatural elements, overall, it was an interesting read.

Perfect Propose (Tsurukame Mayo) - Has dubious consent BUT older bottoms are chef's kiss imo and it's sooo pretty. If you love domestic life, this will be up your alley.

I'll Make You Cry (Nozomu Hiiragi) - I'll never shut up about this one!!! Sooo cute and extremely funny! I personally love delinquents with an attitude 💞

Revival Blue (itz) - I have my own reasons for avoiding childhood friends that include a love triangle and this one avoids that route BUT the rivalry part still feels a bit forced and bland. Yet! This one has age gap and a bit of angst sprinkled with a happy ending, it was sooooo good!

Life in Our Hometown with Me and You (Isino Aya) - This one is as slice-of-life as it can get. Very chill and perfect for a comfort read.

Not from Futekiya but Living With Him by Miyata Toworu is another chill, very sweet childhood friends-to-forced-to-live-together-bc-of-their-mothers-to-lovers story! Just reread it today 💞

Also, here's a very interesting manhwa on Lezhin (free to read) called Count Tachibana. Love the historical aspect and love the expressive art style with bold colors more! (The list was getting long so I cut it short but if you need more childhood friends recs hit me up again ^^)

Now, BL with kids is less of a favorite. I don't avoid them completely, but don't go into them excitedly as well. Looking for Omegaverse titles would be more likely to find such titles. I'll list a couple that I found cute (despite the kids xD):

Our Dining Table (Mita Ori) - Another down-to-earth, cute and chill title. The kid in the story is actually the brother of one of the male leads (they have a big age gap) but the story is centered around their domestic life and food, super sweet.

Would You Like to be a Family? (Koyama) - I remember reading this on Futekiya, it was a single dad story I believe.

Sorry I don't have a lot of recs that have children in them, the one's I've read are titles that everyone know. For the rest, I tried to go for titles that I don't see circulate around as much, hope they'll be to your taste as well. See you around ~

[darling-i-read-it]

Dandy's Sanity

Dandy Mott x fem!reader

Word Count: 1.9k

Warnings: murder, nudity but nothing sexual, violence

Author’s Note: shush...he was just very pretty and annoying which meant i had to love him...Also it’s been a hot minute since I watched freak show so this may have some errors

Edit: Im posting this at 2:11am like four months after I wrote it cause I just reread it and wow the superiority of finn wittrock ahs characters

Summary: You are the only person to keep Dandy from killing and Gloria has a problem with that.

Song: Carousel by Melanie Martinez

I don’t own these characters. They belong to author/director/creator

(not my gif)

You noticed the freak show one afternoon when you were on a walk. You liked to get out of the house during midday. Dandy got testy during midday. So you walked around and noted that the large tents were out and set up.

You had never gone before. You barely even knew it existed. You looked back toward the way you had come and then over at the colorful place in the middle of a field. If you weren’t back Dandy might wonder where you went.

He would get over it.

You walked across the field and into the small community. There were people out and about, talking and smiling. The sun was out and shining on the outside of the tents. They gleamed in the light, illuminating the people underneath them.

Their faces lifted as you walked by.

You didn’t belong here.

“Can I help you?” You turned around and saw an older lady standing outside of a tent. She had short blonde curled hair. She was wearing a light blue suit that matched her music. She stomped up to you. “We don’t have a show today.”

“Oh! I’m sorry. I was just walking by and hadn’t noticed the tents before. When are there shows? I would love to attend.” She pursed her lips. For a moment you thought that she was going to yell at you to get out but she stopped herself. A small girl ran up behind her and tugged on her jacket. She looked odd, a small bit of hair in a ponytail, her teeth wrangled. But she gave you a smile and you smiled back at her. The woman noted that.

“We have a show tomorrow,” she said stiffly. You nodded pleasantly.

“Wonderful. I’ll try and make it. Perhaps I’ll bring my husband, he loves this kind of stuff,” you said. You thought about Dandy watching an act. He might hate it but then again it wasn’t hard for Dandy to hate something.

“That would be nice,” she said. “I’m Elsa. This is my show.” She held out her hand. You shook it. “This is Pepper.” She gestured to the girl at her side.

“Hello Pepper,” you said gently. She smiled brightly and hid behind Elsa. You nodded a bit.

“I’ll just be going then. I look forward to seeing the show.” You turned to walk away and found a man standing beside you. He didn’t look threatening and at first glance you couldn’t tell if he was part of the act at all. As you backed up a bit you noticed his hands. Like claws. You showed no evidence of that affecting you by your expression.

“Kit, let her pass,” Elsa said gracefully.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“I’m sorry again. I was just walking past and didn’t notice this here.” Kit took a step back and you were able to walk away.

“Hope to see you at the show!” Elsa called as you waved goodbye. She hit Kit. “You can’t drive away customers like that.”

====

You walked back home, thinking of the people you had just met. You thought you were married to the most interesting character in town but there was a whole group you had never met.

You opened the door to your home. There was a crash. Gloria ran up to you, grabbing your arm tightly. You gave her a warning look but she didn’t back away. She looked frazzled. That wasn’t new for her.

“What-”

“Oh he’s losing his mind! Please! Please get him,” she said. You took your arm away from her. You and Gloria had never gotten along well. She always seemed slightly jealous of you but then came begging when Dandy got bad. You walked further into the house. You found Dandy in the dining room. He was throwing dishes around.

“Doraaaa!” he called out. “Come and clean this!” he yelled.

“Darling,” you said. Dandy’s head quickly snapped over to look at you. He let out a sigh of relief and ran over to you. He threw his arms around your shoulders and buried his head in your shoulder.

“Where have you been?” he asked childishly.

“I was just out for a walk. I saw a freak show out in the fields and I wanted to see if they were having any shows we could attend,” you told him easily. He pulled away from you and put his hands on your cheeks.

“Are they?”

“Yes. We can go and see one tomorrow. Why were you throwing plates at your mother and Dora?”

You and Dandy had always been betrothed to each other. His mother was rich and so was your father. It was expected from you at a young age to get married and though you were still children, you married at 18. You were both in your early 20’s now.

Gloria almost allowed you to back out of the marriage. She couldn’t imagine someone ever loving her Dandy. She could barely love him. But then something miraculous happened.

You could control him. He listened to you. He loved to listen to you. He loved you.

No one saw it coming but you. You knew how he acted and how to bring him down from his fits. In the end you were the only person Dandy could ever marry and he showered you with love. Love and gifts. Lots and lots of gifts.

“They made soup,” he told you. You furrowed your eyebrows.

“They know you don’t like soup.”

“Exactly!” He kissed you harshly and then smiled at you brightly. “You know me so well.” You laughed a bit.

“It’s my job dear.” You grabbed his hand and squeezed it gently. “Let’s go have a bath.” He nodded and then quickly passed you and walked to the bathroom. You locked eyes with Dora who cautiously entered the room. “Are you going to be alright handling this?”

“Yes,” she said. “Thank you.” You nodded a bit and turned to follow Dandy. He was waiting for you impatiently by the bath. You walked up to him and ran your hands through his hair. You held his face in your hands.

“You’re gorgeous,” you whispered. He scoffed.

“Yes I know.” You laughed a bit and started to run the water. “Will you join me?” he questioned.

“I’d rather just help you bathe, if that’s alright.” He nodded pleasantly.

“That’s just fine.”

He underdressed and got into the water happily. You sat on the edge, running the water carefully through his hair so it didn’t get in his face.

“Tell me more about the freaks you saw,” he said.

“There were a lot of them. I didn’t get a good look at most of them. There was a man...Kit I believe his name was. His hands were glued together like they were like claws of somesort. There was a woman there that looked like a child, teeth wrangly...Pepper I believe.” You washed his skin and he eased to your touch.

“That sounds wonderful. Were there any clowns?”

“None that I saw,” you said. “But I wasn’t there very long. Maybe we’ll see some tomorrow,” you said. He nodded quickly.

“That would be very nice.”

After a couple of minutes you left him to finish and wash up. You walked back into the kitchen where it was almost completely cleaned up. Gloria was standing there, looking stressed out. Her hand was on her head, rubbing her temples. She looked up at you as she took a deep breath.

“I’ll never understand why he listens to you,” she said honestly. “I’m his mother.”

“And I’m his wife. Dandy’s incredibly special and that’s why I love him.” You leaned your side against the wall. “I think he listens to me because I understand what he needs. Or maybe he just likes me better.”

“Y/N!” Dandy called from the other room. He walked into the room, head held high. He grabbed your arm. “Aren’t you going to take a bath?” You nodded a bit.

“I suppose I could use one.” He smiled a bit and dragged you to the bathroom.

You gave Gloria a wave as you went. She pursed her lips in anger. That was her son. He was supposed to love her. Instead he simply yelled at her, barked orders, acted like nothing but a child.

Why did he love you so much more?

=====

You slept soundly that night. Dandy was sleeping beside you, his arms sprawled about the bed. He had one arm over you, holding your hand tightly. You were more bunched up but you weren’t uncomfortable.

Gloria watched your breathing. It was even and calm. You looked peaceful. You always looked peaceful. She carefully walked up to you and kneeled down beside your face. She watched your features. This was the face of her daughter-in-law.

Gloria felt a stab of envy that was all too familiar.

The knife in her hand felt heavy. She held the hilt. Her knuckles were turning snow white with how tightly it was in her hand. The anger only seemed to spread as she thought about all the times you had calmed Dandy down. You were his sanity. All those times he looked at you and there was nothing but adoration in his eyes.

All she could see was red.

She didn’t even feel herself bring the knife up above your body until it was high enough to come down. She started to bring it down until a hard hand grabbed her arm. She gasped, turning around.

Dandy stood there. He tilted his head at her.

“Dandy I-”

“Shush, don’t wake her,” he said quietly. He took the knife from her and made her stand up. She looked at him, nothing but fear in her eyes as he held the knife out in front of her. He started to stab her. She yelped and ran out of the room, breathing loudly as she found her way through the dark huge house. Dandy was hot on her heels.

====

You woke up slowly. The sun seeped through the curtains. You smiled a bit and stretched. You turned around to see Dandy asleep next to you and froze at the sight of splattered blood on his face. You sat up quickly. It had stained the sheets. It was all over his chest.

His eyes opened slowly.

“Good morning,” he whispered.

“Dandy dear, what did you do?”

“My mother tried to kill you. So I killed her.”

=====

[nanistar]

also, i will say, i love seeing another 20 something yr old who still interacts with warriors and uses it as a springboard for their own writing/art. literally writing a play that has warrior RP and it is entirely because i stumbled across ur art and fell back in

WAA that is such a nice thing to say, i don't really know how to respond. writing a play sounds so cool and badass so i'm glad you fell back down the rabbit hole! warriors is so deeply flawed, but for me its nostalgic and it's an easy story to manipulate and work with and make your own and turn in to something you are really proud of i never really expected to reach the audience i have today, and i am very thankful for it. i like to joke that i've been reading warriors longer than some of the ppl in the fandom have even been alive. which is true! I started reading the books when i was in 3rd or 4th grade (2005/6 or so), when the new prophecy was still being published and i had to wait for them to come out. i spent years drawing and working on my little youtube career, long before MAPs were a thing, and making MS paint AMVs that i never finished before i moved on to other stuff towards the end of middle school. then a few years after highschool i was seriously depressed and unemployed and miserable, and for comfort i decided fuck it and reread TPB and remembered how much i loved firestar and how much it meant to me, and after looking on youtube i discovered all the MAPs and the beautiful AMVs and even (to my surprise) some of the people i was friends with in the past were STILL animating warriors and were making absolutely stunning animations and videos. i drew some cats, joined a few MAPs (this one remains my favorite, and is the most important to me) and from there... well here i am. sometimes i feel uncomfortable with the fact that i am 25 and still in the Warriors fandom due to my age compared to the general age of the fandom. and i sometimes think, am i letting something that i was interested in as a little kid dictate my adult life? but i am still the same me i was a decade and a half ago. older and wiser (maybe not) and more mature and i've been through some nasty things and changed fundamentally but deep down i still love a little orange kitty cat saving the forest, and that story has always been a core part of me.

[anniesocsandgeneralstore]

I'm sorry you had such a sucky day today. 🥺 Hope my fluffy thoughts make you feel better! 🥰

I went back and reread basically everything under the Echo tag after reading the final chapter and now I have Alpha!dad Jake on the brain. ☺️

So I've just been thinking a lot about Jake holding each of their babies for the first time, especially when Maisie comes along. Like, you know Jake is a hands on dad with their first two, but when his first baby girl comes along??? Something in him just switches on and he becomes the ultimate girl dad. And yes, I was totally inspired by the tags you wrote on that one post!

(Side bar- you know Maisie, Aurora, and Delaney have the absolute highest of standards when it comes to men because they grow up with a dad that shows them how a man should treat the women in his life. They watched him treat their mother like an absolute queen and he treated them as his more than capable princesses. And you know he taught his boys the same thing.)

He lets Maisie cover his lunch box or coffee thermos with sparkling unicorn stickers because he knows how happy it makes her, he starts forming opinions on Disney princesses, he learns how to do her hair, he brings her (and Ronnie) little bouquets wildflowers because he loves the smiles on their faces when he does, he bakes cookies & cupcakes with her, they have daddy/daughter picnics/hikes/fishing days, he starts caring around extra hair ties & clips.

Basically, just girl dad Jake. 😭🥰

GIRL DAD JAAAAKKKKEEEEE

god, i've been wanting to talk about the kids some more and i can always count on you indy. you know i can talk about this family for days.

God, yes, Maisie changes everything for Jake. He's an amazing father. But fathering a girl is just different. I can just imagine the look on his face when the midwife announces it's a little girl. Ronnie is just like "ugh FINALLY". And when he holds her for the first time 🥺🥺

And all three of the girls are so different from one another!

Maisie - very quiet, thinks before she acts on anything, introspective, imaginative, and when she's older she is very interested in woodworking and making things with her hands like her dad!

Aurora - the sweetest of the three girls and straight up like a Disney princess. she likes to help around the house and pick flowers for her parents and rescue little animals she finds in the woods. she'll just randomly walk up to Jake with a little bird in her hand with a broken wing and look at him like "daddy fix him 🥺". Jake has had to learn some vet medicine rather quickly cause he can't let his little girl down.

Delaney - the absolute wild child of the family. she's loud, she likes to roll around in mud, wrestle any of her siblings, jump off of stuff, and run through the woods. she doesn't care about getting dirty and she doesn't care about getting hurt. she does it all with a bright smile and a huge laugh playing on her lips because that's what's fun to her.

and Jake definitely takes the time to spend with each of his kids individually. While group activities are fun, getting to spend quality time alone with dad without anyone else around is just special. I love that.

[mrsbrookegillespie]

+Perfect Harmony+ (Part One) Luke x Reader

Description: For Y/N Molina, it never came easy for her. The hardest part not being able to do the one thing she loved, creating music. With her cousin Julie joining a ghost band that she’s been secretly admiring for years, her all time crush not returning the same feelings, and having many untold secrets, something is bound to go wrong.

Warnings: ANGST, swearing, mention of suicidal thoughts, Ray not being that nice (I’m sorry Ray, we love you), mention of slight sexual harassment, mentions of death (duh), terrible writing, typos, and probably more that my brain can’t think of at the moment. 

After Writing All Of That I’m Questioning This Story, But I Do Love It So... Many Songs Will Be Featured, Feel Free To Listen To Them When They Come Up.

+Perfect Harmony+

For Y/N Molina life wasn’t easy. Her parents, one being the sister of Ray Molina, dropped her off in front of the Molina household at the age of fourteen before going off to explore the world. At the time she was upset about the situation, but it wasn’t surprising. Her parents never wanted a kid, she practically raised herself while they were in Greece eating seafood, and sipping at the finest wine, no doubt. “How are you doing?” Rose, her cousin Julie’s mom, asks. 

Y/N shrugs. “They’re never coming back, so I guess I’m going to be stuck on this couch for a while.” She actually grew quite fond of the sofa that pulled out into a bed.

“We’ll make you a room up in the loft,” Rose assures.

“So, we agree, my parents are…” Her voice fades off, inhaling through her nose.

“You know, this used to be the studio of a band.” Y/N tilts her head, looking at the older woman. “A rock band, I met them when they were going to play at The Orpheum--”

“The Orpheum?!” Y/N exclaims. “That’s amazing!” 

“They were, but they died that night.” Rose stands up, walking to a box. “This is some of their stuff.” She picks it up. “I’ve heard the music you listen to, and I think you would like them.” Setting down the box in front of Y/N, she wastes no time searching through it.

“Sunset Curve?” she questions, staring down at the logo printed on the shirt. “Cool name,” she compliments with a wide smile, setting the article of clothing in her lap. She picks up a picture showing four boys. “Were these them?” 

“Yes, that one was Bobby, he’s a flirt, Reggie, sweetie, Alex, very sassy--” Y/N giggles, “And Luke, he was the lead singer.” 

“He’s… Quite decent looking,” Y/N observes sheepishly.

“I knew you’d think so.” Rose ruffles her hair. “Listen to the CD, you never know…” 

“I will.” Y/N clutches the photo to her chest as Rose leaves. Hastily she picks up the CD that had the band's logo plastered on the plastic case. She gently places it in the player, waiting for the music to come through the speakers. And then, there it was. “They’re amazing.” She grabs the box again, pulling out an orange beanie, placing it on her head. 

By the end of the night she had searched the entire studio for more stuff, gathering it, trying things on, she stayed up ‘til sunrise listening, and trying to learn each and every one of their songs, painting each of the members on canvases, writing songs about the guitarist that even though died years ago, she couldn’t help but feel connected to. A crush on a dead guy, what’s better than that?

“Boo!” Luke poofs in next to Y/N who’s currently getting her textbooks out of her locker.

“God!” she shrieks. “You need to stop doing that to me, gonna give me a heart attack,” she mutters as her fellow classmates, and random people she had never met give her weird glances. “Make people think I’m crazy.” Luke opens his mouth to reply, but Y/N beats him to it. “Yes, Luke, I know ‘we’re all a little crazy’.”

He pouts. “Someone’s grumpy today.” He crosses his arms, leaning against the locker next to hers. “But, anyways! Do you know where Julie is?” 

And there Y/N’s heart was punched. “I mean, she has to be around here somewhere,” she answers, slamming the locker door. “Now, if you’d excuse me, I have to go to class.” She takes her time to turn around on her heels.

“You’re gonna be at band rehearsal before our performance, right?” he asks, making her stop.

Turning only the upper half of her body to look at him. “I think you forget I live in the studio.”

He lets out an airy chuckle. “Right.” He playfully rolls his eyes.

Unlike Julie she didn’t care if people thought she was crazy, for the number one reason being that people already thought that. Wacky, coocoo, freak, those were just some of the words people called her before her favorite band suddenly popped out of nowhere because Julie played their CD.

That always confused Y/N, why is that when she played the CD all that time ago they didn’t show up, but when Julie did, they did? She never mentioned her already known infatuation with the band, even though it most likely answers the question of why Julie and her can see the ghosts. “But, I’m grounded so…” She carelessly shrugs. “I’m stuck on party duty for the time being, so probably won’t be there for that, but I’ll be there for the actual performance.” Even though she would’ve done it anyway, Ray wanted Y/N to be more ‘supportive’.

“Oh.” His smile falters a little. “Cool, I’ll catch you later then.”

An awkward tension fills the air. “Yep.” She salutes towards him, walking off. 

Grounded. No phone, only can drive her car to school, and home. Y/N wasn’t even allowed to listen to her records which she’s collected over the course of three years. And it was for the reason that she's failing multiple classes, but Ray didn’t understand the struggle she’s going through.

Let’s rewind… When Rose died it left the whole Molina family broken. But, it also left another part of Y/N broken when music became Julie’s thing at that moment, Ray not allowing Y/N to even have a guitar in her room. She loved music, all she wanted to do was sing, play every instrument, write every song with any word that popped into her mind. Julie couldn’t even touch a piano until recently, and yet, it had to only be Julie’s thing. So, now Y/N has to just secretly write songs in her red notebook knowing they’ll never be used, and secretly play in the school’s band room before any student takes a foot into the building, while she watches her cousin and the guys become ‘Julie and the Phantoms’.

What does hurt her everyday, is not being able to do something she loves because they’re afraid of how it might affect someone else. But, if Julie really cared for her family member then she’d be happy for her, right? Not to mention the way Luke looks at Julie hurts a little too, the chemistry. No one can deny it. It’s not like she’s had a crush on him before they even met him as a ghost. No, the biggest crush that she’s ever had is totally not a dead guy, and no, she’s never in the past thought about killing herself in hope to meet him if there were an afterlife, which she guesses there is now. She’s sure he loves Julie not being an absolute mess for him, and he probably knows that Y/N’s in love with him and is trying to show her he doesn’t like her in the worst way possible. “Y/N!” she internally screams, hearing the familiar voice.

“Josh…” she drags out his name. Maybe she should just give him a chance? He gives her plenty of attention. She giggles to herself when the thought crosses her mind. That wasn’t funny. An inner voice replies. 

“Hey, I just… Wanted to see how you were doing, you know--just friend to friend.” 

“I actually have to go to class, so we’ll talk later, ‘kay?” She tries to turn around to leave, but Josh grabs her arm to pull her back.

“Class doesn’t start for another fifteen minutes,” he counters.

“Y/N!” Luke exclaims, poofing right next to Josh. “I still haven’t found Julie, are you sure you don’t know where she is?” He almost didn’t even notice the other boy that had also been fighting for Y/N’s attention.

“I like to get to class early,” Y/N replies to Josh. “And you haven’t seen Julie around here, have you?”

“I think I saw her in the dance room.” She gives Luke a pointed look. “You know, practicing for that dance thing.”

“Yeah!” Y/N responds, not even an ounce interested in this conversation. Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, she noticed Luke not leaving.

“Who’s this?” he asks.

“So, Josh, I really have to go,” she claims. “I’ll see ya around!” 

“Wait,” he starts. “Is this about when I tried to kiss you the other day?” Y/N tenses up, 

Luke’s jaw dropping slightly.

Followed by a wide smile. “Does Y/N have a boyfriend?!” he mocks. 

“No, well, yes, it is. We aren’t dating, Josh, it’s uncomfortable.” Josh huffs out. “That’s not a weird reason for why.” Y/N’s blood starts to boil.

“You should feel honored that someone would even want to kiss you, I mean your reputation here isn’t all too great, Y/N,” he states. 

“Goodbye, Josh.” She turns on her heels. 

Luke watches as she angrily walks away, glaring at Josh who obviously couldn’t see him. He turns slightly, glancing over his shoulder to see Julie by her locker. Giving Y/N one more glimpse he goes to do what he came here to do. 

Y/N sits at her desk, rereading over the words that she colorfully wrote in her journal. “You pretty thing, with pretty things inside,” she sings quietly. She slams the book closed when she finds herself getting annoyed by just how untalented she was. 

“I think that Nick guy has a crush on Julie,” Luke reports, once again magically appearing in front of her. He was taken aback when she didn’t react.

[sevendeadlymorons]

Hey I’m that one anon from a while back that sent those long ass paragraphs about Lilith and Simeon, remember me? Anyway I know I’m very late to the party, but some of the boys are either getting to much hate or too much love over here (in my opinion) so I made a pros and cons list for all of them, I’m sorry- (I’m warning you now this will be long but I’ll put it in bullet points so it’s a bit easier to read, just read it whenever your mentally ready lol)

Lucifer (I hate this man.)

Pros

He’d help a lot with getting your life together wether that be finding a job, choosing the right college or other shit like that

He’d make sure your working hard and getting everything done, which is both a blessing and a curse tbh

He would be the one to take the most care of you whenever your ill psychically

Cons

He would probably overwork you

Doesnt have much time to spend on you and doesn’t make a effort to find more time unless your getting really sad about it

Probably wouldn’t be the best of help through issues with mental illness (he just doesn’t strike me as that type, feel free to disagree)

His pride would cause some serious problems in relationships :/

Mammon (I love this man.)

Pros

He’s the “if your sad, I’m sad” kind of guy so he does whatever he can to put a smile on your face

Makes his affection towards you known once he’s comfortable enough, mostly through things like hugs and head pats tho

He shows off anything you make, and I mean anything (you gave him a drawing? After showing it to everyone he puts it on the fridge. You wrote something? He reads it to everyone then puts it in his notebook to reread later, I think you get where I’m going with this)

Cons

There would probably be some communication issues due to his tsundere nature and habit of ignoring you when he’s mad

He’d get super mad at you when your trying to help him financially, maybe it’s a ego thing or maybe he’s just tired of hearing it

While his possessiveness is cute at times he’d definitely get way to overbearing if you don’t force him to cool it

Levi (I kin this man.)

Pros

He’d try to set up designated hangout times (like Friday is movie night, Tuesday is for RPGs etc)

Wanna spend time with him but aren’t very into what he’s into? While it will be harder to bond with him because of this I think if you REALLY wanted to hang with him he’d at least try to meet you in the middle (like if you like sports he’ll offer to play wii sports lol)

Insecurities getting you down again? Well never fear, levi is here! He’d find characters with flaws similar to those you see in yourself to prove that they don’t really matter (and since he struggles with insecurity himself he’d know how you feel and be one of the best at helping you through them)

Cons

Even if he makes an effort to meet you in the middle if you have different interests he’d refuse to get into “normie” stuff

He’ll guilt trip you constantly, even if it’s not on purpose (“Oh your hanging out with Asmo today? I get it, of course you’d wanna hang out with somebody cool and perfect like Asmo and not a gross yucky otaku like me”)

You have to initiate almost everything Hugs? You hug first. Handholding? You reach out to him. Confessions? You seriously thought he’d be the one to confess first??

Satan

Pros

Similar to Lucifer he’d be good at helping you get your life together and putting you on the right track

Unlike Lucifer, he’d actively make time for date nights and/or hangouts multiple times a week wether your going out for dinner or reading in front of the fireplace

While he himself might not be best at helping with comfort in the moment, he’d be great to turn to if you needed a long time treatment (you need a therapist? He’s got the best three in your area that you can afford and he found some helpful things you can do in this book)

Cons

As stated previously, he’s not the best with comfort, which can be an issue if you need a friend/partner who can be your biggest source of comfort (I’m not saying he’ll do nothing, it’ll just be kinda awkward ig)

If you vent to him about something he’ll always offer advice and while that can be good, sometimes all you want is someone to listen to you and getting advice can be annoying in the moment

I feel like hanging out with him you’d rarely ever get to talk about pointless things, everything would be serious you know? And while serious and deep conversations are good for bonding, some people (myself included) need to be able to talk about dumb things without having it turn philosophical

Asmo

Pros

He’s the best at boosting your confidence, there’s no competition

He’s more into spontaneous outings (he suddenly got the urge to go shopping, your coming with right?)

You can talk about just about anything with him, no judgment and he’ll never speak a word of it to anyone else if you don’t want him to (although he may brag to his brothers that you told him your secrets)

High emotional IQ

Cons

He has set things of things he’s interested in and his idea of trying the things your into is doing whatever it is for about 5 seconds then deciding it’s not for him

He cares a lot about looks, I don’t mean he’ll hate you or insult you cause he thinks your ugly, I mean he’ll constantly try to do your makeup, hair, and nails and he’ll always say things like “Your hair is a bit messy today, did you brush it? Yes? Well not good enough, let me do it” and “your wearing that out? There’s nothing wrong with it, I just think you’d look a lot cuter in this” and if your anything like me, that’ll get on your nerves a lot

While he’s great with emotional issues, if it’s a problem with anything like school or your job he’ll have no solution to offer, all you’ll get is a “You can do it!” and a good luck kiss

Narcissistic, need I say more?

Beel

Pros

He’s the best person to vent to, no judgment and tons of hugs and comfort food

He’s a mom friend, no explanation needed

Very supportive and always concerned for your health

Your in trouble? Call beel, he’ll help you and make sure your home safe before questioning you and will only lecture you out of love (unlike a certain older brother that will lecture you because “Your tarnishing Diavlo’s reputation by acting out like this. Your an exchange student, you must abide by the rules and behave yourself.”)

Cons

Food is his answer to everything (Sad?Food. Injured? Food. School’s stressful? Food plus a little help studying) and while food can be good for comfort, sometimes you need him to provide more than a snack

He’s the opposite of Satan in the sense that he’ll almost never offer advice when you rant to him, he just assumes getting it all out is help enough and won’t offer much more then a hug and food

Not getting along with one of his brothers? “They can be a handful, but they’re great people once you learn to handle the chaos” yeah he rarely thinks what his brothers did is a big deal so he gives you advice on how to apologize and get past it and he’ll give you food

Belphie (he really does attract the mentally ill people huh-)

Cons

I feel like he’d be good for certain people with social anxiety and people who have issues with always being scared about being a bad person (“you think your a bad person and are becoming more and more toxic by the day? Well your a better person than Lucifer that’s for sure, wether or not your toxic were going to cuddle now get in bed” or “your worried everyone is constantly staring and judging you for everything you do? Well I don’t really care about what your wearing or the way you walk so I doubt they do either, can we go home now?” ((Side note, I experience both of these issues and his uncaring personality would calm me, which is why I think this one of his pros))

He just wouldn’t care about whatever type of life style you lead and as someone who’s constantly scared of being judged for their lifestyle this would be amazing (“you sleep all the time? Same let’s nap together” “You don’t eat very healthy? Whatever, it’s fine, can we sleep now?” ((although it is a double edged sword))

He gets a burst of energy and just does the most random things (you see that tree? He’s already climbed half way up it. That petting zoo? He’s already feeding the lambs. That store? He’s already spent 30 grim)

Cons

Just like his twin he thinks every problem has one solution, but instead of food he thinks the solution is sleep (your sick? Sleep is the best medicine. A lot of homework? If you sleep you don’t have to think about it.)

At some point he just doesn’t care enough, if you come to him with a serious issue he’ll half listen to you rant then pull you down to sleep

He teases you a lot, which is fine teasing is fun, but he takes it too far. Maybe he touched on something your insecure about or he was too merciless, whatever it was, he won’t apologize for it, he just thinks your being sensitive. If he brought up some bad memories he’ll consider it, but his way of apologizing is cuddling

He doesn’t wanna do something? You guys aren’t gonna do it. You don’t wanna do something? Too bad, he wants to so your gonna.

I’m sorry this is so long- I tried to shorten it I swear- but anyway if you disagree I’m with anything, I wanna hear what you think

And even tho Beel doesn’t get much screen time and more serious moments, I think his character is way more then hunger

Random but I wanna add that other then Levi I kin Tamaki from mha and Ranpo from bsd

Dude do you just like torturing poor college students? This is so much to read, I’m about to cry 😭

I agree with the Lucifer part actually! Tho I do kinda thing he’s be good emotion support in some ways, for me, anyway. I feel like he may lack empathy that is needed in a stable relationship. Yes, he may be able to tell you with shit and honestly, he’d book my doctors appointments when I’m too anxious too so yknow. But yeah

Also agree with mammon. He’s a jackass when he wants to be, and I know he may not mean it, but his words are still hurtful in a lot of ways and he just can’t convey those emotions that’re needed in a loving relationship. But he’s so sweet and will show you off so it’s all good~

As much as I love Levi, I agree. He manipulates and guilt trips you throughout the entire game. It can’t be healthy in relationships but that don’t stop me from loving that sweet otaku boy 😔🖤

I agree with Satan too. I don’t have much to say but he’s avatar of wrath for a reason, for a start, and he honestly looks like he’d prefer talking about books than that funny thing that happened in class that made you laugh earlier

Agreed with Asmo too. Sometimes he may just get overbearing and the narcissism and the constant need to make you look better and improve you may get irritating

I agree with Beel. I don’t think he can comprehend that food isn’t an answer to everything and as a person who doesn’t cope with food and relatively hates it, he won’t be any help to me emotionally. He’s so sweet but he just won’t give you that proper support

I love Belphie so so much but I absolutely agree. He’s one of the most unbothered brothers who won’t care what you look like, yes, but that also means compliments may come rarely and like his twin, “sleep is the answer to everything” I can admit I like to sleep but I have a manic side that comes with insomnia and if he’s dragging me down and not letting me move and I just cannot sleep, I’m gonna get irritated and pissed off.

This got a bit long on my end too. I just really liked how you worded this and it was fun to see pros and cons of the ‘perfect’ brothers

I think Beel is more than food too, but I just don’t particularly like him either way cuz I’m not really a foodie so I can’t relate with him lmao

[planetjisungie]

shower- p.js

characters; idol! jisung x reader ft. dreamies

summary; crack, fluff kind of, the older dreamies being pervs and jisung making sure they know that 😌

an; okay just read the whole thing because taken out of context this looks so bad but this was inspired by an instagram post that im sure youve all seen

the boys were all sat on the sofa in the dorm, watching the movie so in depth that they were on the edge of their seats. apart from one of them. jisungs phone screen was glowing bright white, a smile constantly kept up as he texted his girlfriend— you.

"aye, park jisung watch the damn movie." chenle slapped jisung’s knee from his left, the taller overdramatising it by rolling onto his side and into jaemin. at this point, jisung had been on his phone the whole time and the boys were slightly irked. this was supposed to be their group bonding time, chenle had to go home himself in a couple of hours and haechan stayed at the 127 dorm so this time was rather hard to get.

jaemin didnt oppose to this, wrapping his arms and legs around the now struggling teenager who was trying to get out of the tight lock his groupmate was holding him in. "jisungie~" jaemins sweet tone made him scrunch his nose, turning to clawing his way out of the embrace. "hey let me gooooo!" jisung continued struggling, the other boys ignoring him as they kept their eyes trained on the movie playing on their TV. eventually he made his way out, phone now discarded on the seat of the sofa with his elbows on his knees as he caught his breath.

"im going to the toilet." jisung grumbled, standing up and leaving the room. once he was gone, all the boys scrambled over to the sofa that jaemin, chenle and the boy in question were sat on, jeno snatching his phone. "you guys should respect his privacy." renjun tutted, shaking his head before making his way over slowly. "don’t tell me you’re not interested in finding out who he was texting, did you see his smile?!" chenle reasoned out, entering the password that he knew off by heart into his bestfriends phone.

"just saying, if he finds out you snooped through his stuff, i had no part in it." renjun rolled his eyes but looked at the screen in interest nonetheless. of course they were all curious; recently jisung hadnt been paying as much attention to them and had seemed to have matured more.

it was the little things, such as washing up without complaints, doing the laundry, tidying his room more often, showering more often and he was even getting jaemin to teach him how to cook. it was suspicious to say the least, and the boys were going to find out what had caused such a change in the youngest member.

chenle double clicked the home button to open up the most recently used applications, pressing on the first and most recent one. the familiar snapchat app greeted their nosey eyes, the camera first showing their faces before chenle winced and swiped right. "snapchat? i didn’t even know he used it." jeno curiously peered down closer, pushing his glasses up his nose with his finger. haechan squinted before taking the phone out of chenles hands, eyes blown open as he pointed to the pinned conversation at the top of the screen. jisung only had about 5 chats open anyway from family members and they were all printed with ‘53w’ meaning he hadnt spoken to them in over a year.

however, the pinned conversation had the blue arrow, meaning jisung had recently sent a message "7 minutes ago? to... sweetpea with a bunch of hearts?" jaemin now grabbed the phone, pressing the pinned chat to open up the saved messages. "idiots, who even saves messages on snapchat these days." chenle retorted, lifting a hand to ruffle his hair. the room was practically silent except from the quiet noise of the TV, everyone now focused on the rectangular object in jaemin’s hands.

me: love this movie is so boring but i want to spend time with the others :((((

sweetpea💓🥺💓❤️: lolllll, just tell them its boring and ask to change it. this is quality time, enjoy it whilst you can

me: but im scared they’ll be upset, theyve wanted to watch this movie for so long now

me: why dont you come round to meet them today?

sweetpea💓🥺💓❤️: ahhh, now im scared 🥺 im in the shower anyway so maybe another time hehe

me: in the shower ;)

sweetpea💓🥺💓❤️: yes,, that is what i said bubs

me: send pics?

sweetpea💓🥺💓❤️: you mean the usual right?

me: yes pls ;)

"wait what??" jaemin screeched, rubbing his eyes before rereading. "i know he did not just ask for nudes." renjun was baffled, not really knowing what else to say. this was like their child, they had watched him grow up and to them, he was still like a baby.

just as the boys were all frozen in shock, the phone dinged with a message from you and the hair on the back of their necks stood up. "do we open it?" chenle tentatively pointed at the red squared next to your bitmoji. "no! that definitely is their privacy and we are not doing that." renjun with some common sense was strongly against opening the snap, shaking his head rapidly.

"open what and invade whos privacy?" jisungs voice surprised all the boys, jaemin jumping out of his seat and sending jisungs phone flying into the air. unfortunately, he accidentally pressed the chat, opening the snap. all 5 boys shrieked, pressing their hands to their eyes in addition to screwing them shut tightly so they didn’t see anything they shouldn’t be seeing. "is that my phone?" jisung walked closer to the sofa, slightly annoyed that they were going through his stuff but also confused at their reaction.

"park jisung i think we need to have a talk about women." jeno’s voice was shaky yet strong, gulping audibly as he pressed his hands to his eyes harder. jisung raised his brows as he walked round to the sofa, smiling uncontrollably when he saw the picture on his phone screen. "aww shes so cute!" he gushed, picking it up before sending weird looks to the boys. "why are you covering your eyes...you can look."

jaemin was the first one to open his eyes slowly, he was hesitant but he just had to trust jisung knew what he was doing. and boy did he feel like a fool when he opened them fully, sighing in relief and leaning back onto the sofa with relaxed shoulders. "guys false alarm." one by one they all opened their eyes, some holding in laughs from the situation and some wanting to praise the lord because jisung was still somewhat sweet and not a teenage douchebag.

that being due to the fact that the image on his screen was your face, your hair slicked up with soap into one vertical spike, a cute pout on your face. usually whenever you told jisung you were going in the shower he would ask for pictures of your hair in a spike which he would save into a whole folder of your cute spikey hair pics. ever since he saw that one post on instagram and begged you to try it, he had amassed a whopping 37 of these pictures which he would flick through if he was ever down or missing you. it was adorable really.

"what did you guys think it was?" jisung screenshotted the picture with a wide smile, secretly hoping that the big secret of his girlfriend would he forgotten. he wasn’t embarrassed of you or anything, he loved you with his whole existence but he knew you were a little shy to meet the other 5/6 dream members and the relentless teasing would further fuel your shyness. jeno looked around at all the awkward boys before realising no one was going to say anything if he didnt.

after seeing their reluctant expressions, jisung made a face of disgust and grimaced at the boys. "you’re all gross, not everyone is constantly horny you perverts." jisung shuddered, pressing his phone to his chest as he judged his older members who were stammering to explain themselves.

[guiltysecretpasttime]

Blended

I was (thankfully) given some time off during this holiday season; which I promptly used to spend time with the family and recharge at home. Also spent time watching various movies during this time and a little LoK story idea came from it.

In my usual writing preference – it’s still a Lin/Tenzin endgame story but – in sort of a modern setting AU, blended family/semi-highschool themed with ages differed a bit (Lin and Tenzin was aged down by around 5 years). Expect it to be tropey and may be a bit of a cliché. This is written on a whim so if it doesn’t make sense…ah well. Haha! May edit this piece later on…

I’m considering this to be a short story, just a little self-indulgent-written-for-fun type of thing. But if other people enjoy it too then that’s such an added bonus so I’m sharing it with you as well. 😊 Let me know what you think since this is somewhat different from my usual style, I guess.

Also – I have misgivings regarding creating OCs so I’m likely to lean on canon characters and take a lot of creative license in developing them for the story.

 ---

Title (tentative):  Blended

Legend of Korra, Lin/Tenzin, Modern AU, no bending

(Not sure if one-shot or will be multi-part yet)

 ---

Tenzin, Republic City Primary School

“Thank you for making time to meet today,” The silver-haired lady clasped her hands together on her desk. “I know you must have a packed schedule, but I think it would be good to have the check-in session for your daughter today.”

“Yes, of course – anything for my daughter.” The bald and bearded man threw a look at the door’s window, where he could see his daughter swinging her legs while seated at the corridor.

“Ikki is a bright child and she’s been doing her best to catch up with the class requirements. She excels the most at individual tasks.” The teacher continued to talk a little bit more about the projects that the students have been working on.

Teacher Yue handed the father a folder marked “Ikki”. Tenzin carefully picked it up and looked into the contents, smiling as he saw Ikki’s artworks and class outputs.

“However, I see that she seems to have challenges in adjusting in a large class set-up.” Yue shared. “It’s nothing to worry about though. We’ve had several transferees in the past as well and this is usual; I expect that might take a little bit longer since it’s a transition from homeschooling to a big school.”

Tenzin frowned and he hurt for his daughter. His two children had both been homeschooled until recently.

They also had to experience a lot of upheaval in the past year or so – from the divorce, to being uprooted from their childhood home, moving to a new city, and then going to a new school.

He did notice that while his son was as precocious as ever (maybe owing to his young age?), his daughter had become more subdued since their move.

“What can we do for her?”

“Well, we have a big sister-little sister type of mentorship program.” The teacher pushed forward a brochure and several index cards. “It’s mostly an afterschool interaction activity, we have here several students who have been volunteering. Maybe you’d like to ask Ikki to join?” She pointed at the index cards. “Feel free to select which mentor you think would help her best. We usually ask the parent or the student to select their preferred mentor profile from the roster. We would not want Ikki to feel uncomfortable; you’d know her best than any teacher.”

He nodded. After a few moments perusing the index cards and the brochure and pulled out one from the pile. “Let’s go with this girl.”

Tenzin pointed out to a profile labelled Jinora.

 ---

Jinora, Home

The ten-year old girl has just finished putting hair in a bun when she heard a knock on her bedroom door.

“Jinora!” It was her oldest brother. “Mom says I can use the car today – want to leave with us instead of riding the bus?”

“Sure!” She called back, quickly grabbing her backpack. “I’ll be down in a bit.”

“Alright!”

Smack!

“Hey! Why did you do that for?”

“Good morning bro!”

Jinora rolled her eyes good-naturedly. That was probably her other brother slapping the arm of the other one.

Even at eighteen and sixteen years old respectively, they tend to act like children occasionally to the consternation of their mother.

She hurried down, knowing that if she did not do so, there would be no pancakes left for her.

Jinora heard her mother’s gruff voice in the dining room. “Bolin! Leave some eggs for your sister!”

“But, Mom,” Bolin spoke through a mouthful of scrambled eggs. “I’m a growing boy. I need this stuff.”

“And Jinora is a growing girl,” Their mother drolly responded, taking a sip of her coffee after putting down the last batch of pancakes on the platter. “There should be enough from everyone.”

“It’s fine, Mom,” Jinora immediately sat down and her brother forked two pancakes to her plate. “Thanks, Mako.” She slathered butter all over the cakes then squeezed a load of maple syrup.

She ignored Bolin gagging at her left at the amount of sweetness. She also ignored her mother who was hiding a smile and shaking her head at seeing the display.

In their family, it was only Jinora had a penchant for sweets. Her mother said she likely took after her father in that regard.

Her father…her absentee father…

Jinora shook off her maudlin thoughts when she saw Pabu, Bolin’s pet guinea pig, land on her mother’s shoulder, probably hopping from her brother’s backpack which was hung behind his chair.

Pabu began chewing their mother’s greying hair without warning.

Wheek-wheek-wheek.

“BOLIN!”

“I’m so sorry, Mom! Pabu get down from there – leave mom’s hair alone!”

All in all, it was another morning in their household.

It was noisy and sometimes chaotic, but Jinora would not exchange it for the world.

 ---

Ikki, library

Truth be told, Ikki liked going to school. She even liked her teacher and classmates.

She liked to be busy and the activities were very interesting. Getting homeschooled and only seeing their tutor, nanny and Meelo had become very tedious anyway.

Staying at their old home also reminded her acutely that their mother was not there anymore. She did not understand what happened, but she tried to.

It has been more than a year since their parents sat her and her brother down to explain that they were separating but it did not mean they did not love her and Meelo any less.

At first, she thought it might have been her fault (or maybe Meelo’s fault for that matter, he did fart a lot and that annoyed her terribly). Her dad and mom were quick to quash those theories, however. They spoke of drifting apart, change in priorities and other grown-up things that she supposed she will understand when she gets older.

But for now, she supposed as she opened her notebook on one of the long tables in the library, they would need to get used to their new living arrangement.

It was difficult last year as they were shuttled to and from two households. It also did not help that their mother was starting out with her new venture had been spending less time at her home. On the other hand, Ikki noticed their father spending more time with them, cutting down his work hours. It all came to a head when Pema had said she will be moving to another country to establish her new business. And so, they ended up -.

“Hey, are you Ikki?”

Ikki looked up to see an older girl with dark brown hair in a bun.

She nodded her head yes.

The girl gave her a bright smile and extended her hand.

“I’m Jinora and welcome to Republic City!”

 ---

Lin, Future Industries Head Office

Lin tiredly wiped her glasses clean before putting them on again, rereading her email response for one last time before hitting send.

It had been a long yet productive day. Her team had managed to fulfill all the visual design requirements that were due that day. She reviewed the different files sent to the printers, making sure that the final and correct collaterals were attached.

Her last task was to ensure that the last set of proposals were on-brand and aligned with Future Industries’ visual identity. Once she had provided her comments and revisions needed on the file, she sat back as she waited for the files to be uploaded to their server.

She reached for her cellphone, wanting to check on her kids while waiting. She looked at their family group chat and read messages from the last time she sent one.

 Ohana (Lin repressed the urge to cringe. That was the final time that she would ask Bolin to create their group chat)

Lin: Kids – as mentioned earlier, I’ll be home a bit late. No need to drop by to fetch me; have dinner already and don’t wait up.

Jinora: Mom, I’ll be staying behind after class – I got a mentee! ☺ Mako Bolin can you wait up?

Mako: Jinora Bo has training today; I think we can wait for you.

Bolin: Jinora 👍🏼

Jinora: Mako Bolin thanks! 🙌

Jinora: Mako what will you be doing while waiting? You sure you’ll be okay?

Mako: Don’t worry about me. I’ll manage.

Lin scrolled through some more messages. Knowing her eldest, Mako would like skulk off to the library.

Jinora: I met my mentee this afternoon. She’s such a lovely girl.

Lin smiled at this. Her daughter had always been the polite one.

Jinora: Her name’s Ikki and she’s two years younger than me. She said she and her father had first checked out Patola Mountain Primary.

Lin frowned. Patola Primary was far; she went there as a child.

Mako: Kid didn’t like it there?

Jinora: They didn’t have the chance to know. They had to move besause of her father’s job.

Bolin: heeey sorry guys- just about to be done with training. Just gonna shower …unless I just shower at home?

Jinora: Ew, no Bo. Shower first please

Mako: Agree. You’ll stink up the car, bro.

Ding!

Lin drew her attention from her phone as her laptop screen indicated that the files have been uploaded. She hit the send button and packed up for the day.

She was looking forward to spending some quiet time with her kids tonight.

 ---

Bumi, White Lotus Headquarters

Bumi leaned back in his fully ergonomic chair, thinking about how times had changed.

Being in an office was something he balked at when he was younger. But now, after serving a long career in defense and military, he submitted his retirement and come to the aid of his younger brother.

Ah, his only brother – back in the day, he would be hard-pressed to keep contact with his brother.

His brother who took on the role of spearheading their family’s company back when their father died.

His brother who had the task of continuing to revive the company and making sure it keeps up with the times.

His brother, who, despite being the youngest, was tagged by the board of directors as the heir apparent owing to his excellent academic records.

His brother who Bumi had felt envious of at some point. He later on realized that his brother actually missed out on a lot of freedom in his life.

His brother who managed to keep their company part of the Top 100 and make malls relevant again.

His brother who probably made some life decisions for the benefit of their company rather than his own.

His brother who had been through hell and back the past year when he and his much younger wife called it quits. His brother whose ex-wife is now galivanting somewhere in the Fire Nation, expanding a business built on horticulture and floristry.

His brother who, despite making some decisions that Bumi might not agree with, is still family.

And if there was anything that their parents taught them – family is permanent.

The ex-military man took a deep breath, looking at their last family photo. For what it’s worth, he liked to think that their fragmented family had found its way back into each other in their adulthood.

Bumi had to admit that Tenzin did have remarkable business acumen that benefited their company, a conglomerate built on the mall industry. With the fourth industrial revolution at hand and the shift towards virtual and digital, the White Lotus Corporation had been challenged during the last years of their father’s life. Tenzin had worked hard to change the ways of working and the culture in the company.

To do it, he had to make sure that there is a buy-in from the board. Ironically, to bring the company to the current century, he had to abide with one of the most archaic practices – an arranged marriage, a marriage that would serve as a press release to the business world in general, that their company was stable and there to stay.

Bumi had been surprised to get a call from Tenzin back then. He had called to let him know of his impending engagement, seeking support. Bumi had cheered, given his congratulations – but named the wrong bride. He had launched into a long tirade, berating his brother for his choices. Tenzin had shouted back his defense.

He still did not understand why Tenzin acted the way he did. However, he could never regret his niece and nephew which came from this questionable business-like union.

Bloop-bloop-bloop.

Speaking of which…

“Hey Uncle Bumi!”

“Hello there, cloudchild!” Bumi greeted his niece with a nickname his sister Kya came up with, given that the kids were actually born somewhere near the mountains. “How’s the new school?”

“It’s great!” Ikki beamed at him and gushed into a long narrative of what she had been up to in the past days.

Bumi enjoyed video conferencing with his niece and nephew. Granted, Meelo had a short attention span but Ikki had always had the flair for storytelling.

It pleased him to see her spark back. He had heard from his brother and their trusted bodyguard/chauffeur Shung that Ikki had been withdrawn during the first weeks in Republic City. It saddened him to learn that the otherwise bubbly child had been affected in that way.

“…And then, I invited her over! Daddy said it was okay – and she’s sooooo nice. Didjaknow she also knows how to play the piano! We practiced a bit. She’s good even if her family didn’t have a piano, they only had this electronic keyboard but it’s so short. But she did well. She said she had a stepdad and it was totally okay. They’re a happy family. D’you think I’ll have a stepmom too? I think it would be okay if Daddy thinks so and maybe we’ll be a happy family here too and you know I joined this contest in school and I-.”

“Whoa, slow down, kiddo.” Bumi let out his booming laughter. “I didn’t quite catch it – what’s the name of your new friend?” He was heartened that Ikki seemed to have adjusted better now.

“Jinora!” His seven-year-old niece practically chirped the name. “She’s actually here!” Ikki turned to someone from beyond the view of the webcam. “Jin, it’s my Uncle Bumi – I want you to meet him!”

“Um, it’s fine, Ikki.” A calm voice of an older child can be heard. “I can wait here.”

“Nooonseeense.” Bumi could see Ikki pull something, rather someone to the camera. “Uncle Bumi, this is my friend Jinora. Jinora, my Uncle Bumi.” She said by way of introducing them.

Jinora gives a small wave and a soft hello.

Bumi gives them a short bow. “Nice to meet you, Jinora. It’s great to meet the friend of my favorite niece (Ikki ­please don’t tell Korra).”

Ikki gives a delighted clap and proceeds into another lengthy tale on what she and Jinora were working on that day at home.

Bumi smiles back at them, observing the children’s banter as they demonstrate the monologue that Ikki was preparing for. It was amusing.

Heh, they could be cousins.

He recalled when he was young, he, his siblings and even the sisters-who-must-not-be-named would stay over in one house after school to work on school projects. It had been one of the highlights of his childhood. He was glad that his niece would be somewhat experience it; he had been worried a few years back when Tenzin and Pema (primarily Pema) were very protective of their kids. It was to the point that they were both homeschooled and basically kept out of the public eye and the public itself.

It can’t be good for socialization. But what can he say? He didn’t have kids so he probably wouldn’t know what he was talking about, right?

He’s just fun ole Uncle Bumi.

Nonetheless, as he turned his attention back to the two girls, Bumi promised himself that he will always be there for his brother’s kids. It’s the least he could do as their godfather.

 ---

Mako, Republic City High

“I worry about Mom.” Mako picked at his dumplings during lunch time, a stark contrast to his brother who was eating a lot (“Coach said I needed to bulk up!”).

“Why? Has my dad been overworking her?” Asami slipped beside him at their usual lunch table. She brought out her packed lunch of pasta and a bottle of coconut water. “Just let me know and I can try to look into it.” She was, after all, interning at Future Industries in her spare time.

“Now that’s just powerplay.” The exchange student from Ba Sing Se High chortled, taking a sip of his sparkling water. “And that’s a no-no and Auntie will definitely get mad if she hears about that.”

“You would know about powerplay,” Bolin swallowed a mouthful of chicken, pointing his fork at the other boy. “Wasn’t that why you got the last slot in the elective you wanted to take this year?”

“Who? Me?” The other boy dramatically placed a hand on his chest, eyes widening. “You think, I Wu would stoop so low as to manipulate the results of the audition for the voice elective? Don’t you think I have enough talent to get into that class?”

Bolin just snorted into his food and Asami choked on her drink. Wu cracked a smile at their reactions.

“Again, Wu – don’t let Mom hear you call her Auntie.” Mako reiterated for the nth time in their friendship. “She hates it.”

“That’s why I do it.” Wu winked at them.

“Wait, Mako, what were you saying about Mom?” Bolin managed to ask in between bites of food. “Is something wrong? I mean, she’s a little bit run-down but she said it’s just because of the time of the year.” The last quarter of the year, after all, is usually the busiest.

“No, it’s just – well,” Mako sought words to explain it. “I’ll be leaving for college, you’ll be away for training, and okay, Jinora would be there but she’s in middle school now…” He trailed off. With Jinora’s aptitude and interests, Mako would not be surprised if she took on a lot of electives and extra-curricular activities. “Mom works too hard, you know?” He ended lamely.

“She has always looked out for us, but yeah,” A shadow passed over his brother’s face. “Ever since Pa passed away a few years back, she poured much of her energy to ensuring our welfare. She’s barely spent time for herself.”

Mako met Bolin’s now worried eyes.

The brothers knew that their mom had sacrificed a lot for them and Jinora.

When they first met Lin and one-year-old Jinora, she had already been under a lot of duress – taking care of a baby, leaving behind Jinora’s deadbeat dad, settling down in a new neighborhood and restarting a career. It had been two years later when she married their father San, who had been a sergeant at the city’s police station at the time.

And, Mako thought wearily, history has not been kind to Lin Beifong at all. While they did have four years (four wonderful years that Mako will treasure for the rest of his life), their fairytale-like family life came to an abrupt end.

San was involved in an armed bank robbery four years later and had not survived the gunshot wounds – leaving Lin behind with two boys at the brink of puberty and a young daughter.

Bolin and Jinora had been very confused at the time. Mako, already fifteen, had been expecting that he and Bolin would be forced into the system or sent off to their relatives in Ba Sing Se. He felt that Lin would not be in any way obligated to take him and his brother in; they were not blood relatives anyway. They were just stepchildren.

To his stunned astonishment, Lin did neither.  He recalled crying in Lin’s arms that night after his father’s funeral.

She had asked him, with a confused expression, why he was packing. Lin wept alongside him as she explained that Mako and Bolin are her sons and there was no way that she was sending them away.

Since then, Mako made sure to look after his mom the way she looked after them. The brothers’ protectiveness was soon well-known in their neighborhood.

Probably also why no one had expressed any type of interest towards Lin even years after…

Mako reflected that it might have been a good move on their part but now it might have been a little bit selfish.

He and Bolin would now need to rethink their strategy…

After all, their mom Lin deserves all the happiness in the world.

 ---

Tenzin, Republic City Primary School – Parking Lot

“Are you sure you’re not just using this as an excuse to have a sleepover?” Tenzin looked over at his daughter, a teasing grin out of place on his face.

“Of course not, Daddy.” Ikki replied indignantly, kicking pebbles as they waited at the parking lot.

“Why can’t you do the project at our house?” He was actually leaning towards allowing Ikki on her first ever sleepover/overnight but he wanted to hear from his daughter.

“We’ll need a big big printer, Daddy.” Ikki raised her arms to show him just how big. “We’ll need to print out my project and Jinora’s mommy has a big printer and lamin-lami-lamintor (“Laminating machine, dear?” Tenzin clarified.) because she frilancets (“Freelances?”).”

“Mmhhmm.” Tenzin looked across the school building, shifting Ikki’s overnight bag on his shoulder.

Ikki timidly approached him the other night, asking if she could spend Friday night and Saturday at her friend Jinora’s house. They had an output required of them of the big sister-little sister program. Tenzin was actually unclear as to what is the specific output that the girls had decided on but it did require a large-scale printer and a laminating machine.

Jinora attempted to explain to him what they were going to do during the last week that they were in his house but he felt out of his depth so he had nodded and let them work on what they needed to.

The father had met Jinora several times already in the past months so he knew the child was in earnest that their intent for the overnight activity would be mainly to finish a project. He also realized (well, Bumi made him realize) that Ikki was old enough for a sleepover (and Pema’s overprotectiveness would be to the detriment of their kids’ development). Additionally, he thought grimly, it would also keep Meelo from wreaking havoc on the work area of the girls.

Nonetheless, he took up Jinora’s mom’s offer to meet up for snacks before she takes the kids home. This would give him a chance to meet the mom, discuss some ground rules and as well thank the mom privately for letting Jinora help Ikki come out of her shell during her first months in Republic City Primary. Jinora did say that her pa and mom used to do the same before she spends the night over at her other friends – the parents meet up, share a small meal, get to know each other. Tenzin thought this was a good parenting tactic; it would definitely assuage his fears as well.

But now, said mom was late.

Jinora had hurried to them, dragging with her a large cartolina and illustration board. She explained that her mom’s work meeting overran and if it would be okay if she rode with them? Her mom will be meeting them at the local diner instead, so they don’t get caught up in traffic.

Tenzin could feel his impatience growing.

So far, this woman was not making a good impression on him.

How on earth she produced a lovely daughter like Jinora was beyond him.

 ---

Lin, Narook’s

Damn Sato, Lin ground her teeth as she finally parked her car into the last parking space in front of Narook’s. Of all the days for a meeting to go over time, it has to be today when she had explicitly asked to leave early to fetch her daughter.

Jinora had provided her enough context to know that making a good impression with Ikki’s dad was important to her daughter.

Lin heard that the dad was some big shot divorced corporate guy, who, she thought, was a bit paranoid about his kids’ safety.

Lin acted as an arts club moderator so she was regularly present at the Republic City High, which gave her chances to meet Ikki whenever she drops by the primary school to fetch Jinora.

The girl was a sweet child – energetic and delightful once she felt comfortable enough with you. It had come to her attention, in the short conversations with the kid, that she was not allowed to go out and play with other kids in their old neighborhood so she was very much excited to have a new friend outside of her class and her family.

When Jinora mentioned their culminating project and their dilemma on the timeline and materials, Lin suggested that they take the project home to work on.

The crestfallen expression of Ikki as she stated that her dad would not allow her pushed Lin to share that she’s willing to talk to the dad to help convince him to give his permission.

The infectious smile that burst on Ikki’s face was enough to convince Lin that she made the right decision.

Now, however, as she entered the diner, spotting her daughter at the corner booth, she froze and started to doubt all her life decisions that led to this moment.

Wondering and questioning the universe what had she done in her past life for her to deserve this.

Across Jinora, beside the talkative Ikki, sat Tenzin – her former boyfriend and Jinora’s father.

 ---

Note: Soooo hmmmmmm. What do you think?

[glowyjellyfish]

I started writing down an updated collection of thoughts and plans about my Megakingdom project, but they got very rambly and so I am beginning anew.

And no, I have not forgotten about Grimwood Abbey, but for my undiagnosed but likely adhd brain I gotta follow the fixations where they lead. It’s actually quite helpful to have several different Medieval Sims 2 concepts I want to play with while working on the excruciatingly long CC Sorting portion of the project, because I can bounce around from one to the other to find fresh things to think about without abandoning the CC project. I got through all the Teen and Child clothing, and everything in Buy Mode! I am halfway through Walls in Build Mode! I have some broken things to identify, some Star Factory stuff to check on updating (accidentally overwrote my fresh install of all those with some older duplicates and could not actually undo, Mia culpa), and a bunch of empty folders to check and remove. Then comes the real sorting. And a backup.

But today I am here to talk about the Megakingdom. I have realized I can’t just play it as a straight MCC, because I already have a king. And yet the Warwickshire rules are wayyyy too complicated for somebody who has yet to complete an MCC. So I am going to play mostly MCC, with a few Warwickshire rules incorporated early, using the advancements to replace unthematic community lots and make sure the community gets well-rounded. I’ll also be using the social advancement rules to earn sims the right to fill in a few empty class spots (for example, Pleasantview currently has no Gentry). I will probably start using some of the Warwickshire title guidelines once each subhood has a reasonable amount of sims in each class and sims start purchasing titles outside the basic ones. And I am thinking I might roll a THS for babies born in-game, but avoid randomized health hits and pregnancy health concerns until I get used to the system and/or those babies grow into adults.

The big difference I am planning from both rule systems is… frankly, I want to use the colleges and the college sims. The college sims are going to be a flexible marriage pool, but also, three is too many for just a couple of social classes to attend, and it really bugs me that college sims get more lifespan than non-college sims. So each college is open to a different selection of social classes. Academie Le Tour is the upper class university, and only royalty, nobility, and heir/firstborn gentry may attend. La Fiesta Tech is for non-heir gentry and merchants, and Sim State University is the trade school for yeomen and peasants who are sponsored by a noble. I’m not sure yet about the other two colleges, but SSU will for sure have a strong tuition fee, which peasants may request from a noble in exchange for becoming their serf. There will absolutely be many sims who still cannot afford to attend, and for those I’ll get some YA mods, but this plan will ease me into that play method AND will prep up some serfs for the megahood.

(I… will have to reread up on the lower classes and determine exactly how and who I want to set up as serfs, if I feel I need to start with any. For some reasons, I am constantly assuming that the lowest classes in these challenges do not automatically equal serfs and I might also just be wrong on that, and if I am I’ll figure it out.)

Some story plans and concepts:

Faith and Herbert Goodie are going to be church sims, with the Newsons moving in as a collection of orphans being raised by the church. Coral Oldie, meanwhile, is going to be a midwife (probably not the only one, but I haven’t identified anyone else for the role yet); I have set the Oldies as Merchant class, and so I might have Herb run a small business that complements her midwifery, perhaps selling herbs they grow or something.

I’m trying to figure out what’s to be done with Jessica Peterson; without the game lore she’s just an obvious peasant, but with it she’s divorced from Armand DeBateau, a duke, and therefore must be at least Gentry. I feel like the thematic way to handle this would be having her join the church or become an outcast, but I haven’t decided yet. By a similar token, I really want to keep Alexandra Teatherton nee O’Mackey’s “left family to become a pirate” story, but then I’d have to set up pirates and junk. Otherwise, she’s in the same position as Jessica.

Cassandra Goth is betrothed to King Malcolm Landgraab IV. I think that Don Lothario, a yeoman at best, has been trying to seduce her and making all kinds of promises in his efforts to bed her, but he never intended to actually try to marry her and is shocked at how seriously she took all his talk of running away together. That is way too permanent for Don Lothario, he just wanted to WooHoo her.

I did this same basic setup for a Steampunk Strangetown I played a while back, but I think the quickest and most interesting way to set up a kingdom in Strangetown is a. Olive Specter is the ruler, b. Ophelia has been raised as her heir, but c. Nervous is the true heir, kept secret because of his parentage but Olive plans to officially recognize him before she dies, and d. Loki learned the secret a while back and has been holding Nervous hostage in an attempt to either marry Nervous to Loki’s sister Erin or otherwise gain power. So that’s essentially what is happening here, Olive is the Duchess, Nervous is her heir, Loki is a mere Gentry trying some ruthless means of acquiring power and advancing his family’s status. Erin is a viable match for Nervous, but in my experience they usually don’t like one another; I think generally speaking I’m not going to force sims with X attraction to marry just because they’re a good match. Maybe for story purposes or if the pickings are too slim, but not in round one.

Oh, and I have designated a few ladies to be Duchesses of their subhoods, and a Gentry lady heiress here and there, but for the most part I will be sticking to full classic primogeniture. This is mainly for setup; I just picked the best/most interesting choices to rule each subhood. I.E., I’m not gonna make the Roths be the Ducal family of Riverblossom Hills when the Goths are right there ruling over Pleasantview, that is dumb, and Catherine Viejo makes a very interesting setup. Is Betty Goldstein her secret lover and/or lady in waiting? Is Andrew Martin her secret lover and/or gardener/serving man/serf? ...so Cleo Shikibu, heiress to the Duchy of Riverblossom Hills, and Florence Delarosa, Lady of Bluewater Village, will both have to find second sons or college sims to marry in order to preserve their respective inheritances (meaning, basically, they can marry Kent Capp or a college boy, because maxis families are really light on siblings generally). Olive Specter is technically another example, but since she has a male heir in Nervous, Ophelia is not being treated as an heiress and will just get married off wherever. (...not to Johnny, unfortunately for them. Johnny is a merchant. And thanks to Johnny’s heritage, it will be Difficult to cheat discretely. Sounds like Fun!) But I will be avoiding situations like this in the future, and will only allow heiresses if there is no possible male heir, and even then her duty is to marry a hapless guy and produce a male heir as soon as she can to preserve her family line.

I’m also pretty excited about my spreadsheet for the Megakingdom, making pages for simple round info, a full resident census, individual families and family trees, records of deceased sims and events, the neighborhood and treasury, maybe one day including full economic notes on sensible pricing for SMSF goods. And charts on viable marriage prospects for each class, which I am pretty proud of. They’re sorted by rank, red means not allowed, bright green is preferred, and light green is allowed. Generally speaking, sims get bright green within the same age group and light green outside it, making it easy to prioritize same age marriages over, say, adult-teen marriages or teen-child betrothals. Both of those are allowed but not preferred. And these charts will change as sims age, and sims will be removed when they get married and added when new sims are born or rolled.

I am very excited. The spreadsheets also give me something I can work on during down time at work!

[nevertrulyset]

Deleted Excerpt from Driftwood County

What’s up, friends? Some of you have noticed vague personal posts about something I had been writing. I don’t really know how to get people interested, because it’s something that came out of my head, not based on any existing media.

Below the cut is a scene that I felt had to be stricken after a couple of drafts. I’ve had multiple people, including a publisher, read the manuscript, and it’s considered to be too long. Because of that, I’m reworking the “boring” stuff that’s still important to the plot and characters. Basically, when the reader meets Donnie in the most recent draft, the events of this scene will have already taken place, but I feel the scene is important to understanding him as a character. It also conveys a lot about another character, Crystal, who is a teacher in a small town in which K-12 is taught in one big classroom.

So anyway, here’s a scene that is ultimately deemed “not necessary” but if anyone reads the final version, I want them to know this is canon.

Donnie Samuel arched his back over the chair of the school desk, satisfied when he heard and felt popping.  Maybe now I can focus on this test, he thought.  He reread the questions on the page in front of him. The words were all words he knew, but together, he could not decipher their meaning.  This was a problem for him sometimes, but the older he got, the more it happened.  He wondered if he was only having trouble with comprehension because he was eager to be finished, not just with the test, but with school altogether.  Someone had said something to him before about how he should clear his mind before a test. He couldn’t remember who said it, but he always thought of that statement, and he always thought he did a good job of clearing his mind, but then this would happen.  In frustration, he began tapping the eraser of his wooden pencil against his forehead.

He was reading and rereading every test question as carefully as he could, but nothing was making sense.  As his frustration built, intrusive thoughts came into his mind. This is history! It’s not even math! Why are you being so dumb today?!  He couldn’t even claim he was distracted by the younger children in the sanctuary-sized schoolhouse; Miss Crystal always made sure they were reading or coloring quietly while the older children took their tests.  He didn’t mean to think out loud, but the frustration overwhelmed him.  “Idiot!”  The word was little more than a whisper, but he knew the other students would hear. Crayons dropped on the other side of the room, and some of the kids closer to his age snickered.

Miss Crystal did not say anything, but she walked softly to Donnie’s side and knelt down to whisper, “What’s giving you trouble?”

Donnie whispered back, fighting the feeling that he was about to cry, “I don’t know. I just don’t understand what the questions are asking.”

“Okay,” Miss Crystal said, leaning closer to read the question Donnie was stuck on.  “Let's go through this in separate parts, alright?”

Donnie nodded, not wanting to speak.

“The Confederation of Rhine was created by Napoleon, right?”

Donnie nodded again.

“Because of that, something happened to the Holy Roman Empire in August of 1806.”

“You mean…”

Miss Crystal stopped him.  “Write it down,” she said, pointing to the blank space below the question.

Almost as if having an epiphany, Donnie tilted his head up. “Oh!” After writing that the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved, Donnie read the next question.

“Do you understand the next one?,” Miss Crystal asked.

He read it twice, and was still having trouble. He shook his head.

“Okay, we’ll do like we just did with that last one,” she said.  “But first, look at me.”

Donnie was confused by the demand, but he shifted his eyes and turned his head slightly until he could see her face clearly.

With a soft but serious expression, Miss Crystal whispered, speaking slowly and succinctly, “You are not an idiot.  I’ve noticed the trouble you’ve been having, but there’s nothing to be ashamed about. People function in different ways. Do you have trouble focusing on one task for an extended period of time?”

Donnie thought about it, and replied. “Yeah. The only thing I don’t lose focus on is my guitar. It’s almost like I need to be playing it in order to see the world more clearly.”

“So you need a simultaneous stimulus…” Miss Crystal made a thoughtful face and placed an index finger on her cheek.  “I’ll be right back.” She stood and walked to her desk.  She opened one of the drawers and seemed to get something out, but wrapped her entire hand around it, so Donne couldn’t tell what it was.  When she returned to his desk, she knelt again and gently placed a small box with a joystick and some other little built-in things next to his test papers.  “This is a fidget cube. A lot of people say their brains work better when their hands are busy. Now, some sides of the cub make noises that might distract your classmates, so it’s good to be mindful of that.  But I want you to have this. Use it whenever you’re having trouble concentrating.”

Donnie wrapped his hand around the cube and began twirling the joystick with his thumb.  Miss Crystal read through the next question with him and broke it into phrases as before. After that, she asked Donnie to read to try one by himself.  He had to read the question twice, but before the end of the second reading, he was confident he knew the answer to the question. He smiled and began writing. “Thank you, Miss Crystal,” he whispered.

She patted him between the shoulder blades before standing. “You’ve got this,” she whispered encouragingly as she walked away.

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #426

“insatiable furnace, burning up our surplus  /  watching all essential life become another servant”

Are you a brunette? Yep. It is way past due time that I get it dyed... What is your favorite channel on TV? I don't really watch TV, but if I did, I'm pretty sure it'd probably be Discovery. Have you ever been to Chicago, IL? Yes!! It's my only experience with a truly BIG city, and though I'm not a city person, the experience was pretty magical. It was something I wasn't even remotely used to. Just so much life and business and energy to feel there. Who was your first friend? Brianna. She was the sister of my older sister's best friend. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas. :') Do you regret your last kiss? Nope. Have you ever taken a karate class? No. Who was the last person to tell you ‘I love you’? My mom. Have you ever been to the Statue of Liberty? No. Do you live on your own? Noooo. I don't think I ever could. I would have to stay VERY busy, or else the loneliness would kill me. Hell, even if I was very active in stuff, I still don't know if I could. With how bad my depression is capable of being, it doesn't sound smart at all for me to move out unless it was with somebody. Are your the oldest child? No, I'm the middle kid. How many X-rays have you had in the last 2 years? Two, maybe? One for my legs and the other for my teeth. Are you on good terms with your last ex? Yeah, we're best friends. Do you have scars you don’t like to talk about? Nah. Do you freak out if a bee/wasp flies near you? ... yes lol. What subjects in history interest you most? The Holocaust. It's just so... shocking and extreme that it's oddly fascinating, but of course horribly sad. Are you superstitious in any way? Nah. How do you get rid of anxiety? Do what? Are there any items of jewelry you never/rarely take off? Yeah, my two rings, my lip piercing, and tragus piercing. Has a song ever made you cry before? There are many. ^If so, what about it brought you to tears? Again, I said "many," so this would be a horribly long list. There are four though - "Eternally Yours" and "Another Life" by Motionless in White, "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin, and "The Mortician's Daughter" by Black Veil Brides - that I really, really try to avoid, because I WILL cry. They're all associated with Jason for one reason or another. "Stairway to Heaven," especially, is absolutely forbidden for me to listen to. Would you consider yourself open-minded? Very, honestly. Have you ever met someone online that you wanted to meet in real life? I've met Sara! :') There are a handful of others I'd love to meet, too. Tell me about the last thing that made you laugh until it hurt. Wow, I have no idea. I don't remember the last time I laughed THAT hard. When you graduate, what color will your gown be? Ugh, it was this insufferable red. We got to vote on it, and I really wanted navy instead, as it looks more formal and not as obnoxious to me, but red won. Do you own a gun? No. My household legally can't because of my suicidal history. What color of shirt are you wearing? It's a black tank top. Do you use any acne medication? Nah, I don't really get acne anymore. Are you emotional or very stoic? I'm emotional as shit. Have you ever watched an anime series, start to finish? A few. There's Fullmetal Alchemist (as well as the Brotherhood expansion), Deadman Wonderland, and Ginga Densetsu Weed. I've seen bits of others. Which baby animal is your favorite? MEERKATS!!!!!! :') Once they reach three/four weeks, they're fucking precious. I also really like kittens. Do you like jam on your toast and biscuits? Sometimes. Have you ever reread a book? It is very, VERY rare I do this. The only cases I remember are for Because of Winn-Dixie and Meerkat Manor: Flower of the Kalahari. Do you have any religious symbols in your home? I think Mom has some religious quotes on the walls? What religion do you identify with, if any? None. What is you favorite flavor of pudding and/or yogurt? I love chocolate pudding, but I'm not very big on yogurt because of the sourness. I can sometimes eat a cookies 'n cream one, but occasionally I'm like "ew." We’re going to the best amusement park ever, first ride you choose is? One of those water rides where you go down a big slope. Did you have intense night terrors as a child? No. Know anybody who works in a tattoo parlor? No. That'd be dope. Have you ever had a piercing get infected? Ugh, yes. Worst was the first time I got my tongue pierced. It was early into infection though, thank God; I ended up having to take it out and get it re-pierced later. Have you ever shoplifted? No. Do you hate when people say, "Everything’s going to be fine,“ when it’s not? Sometimes. It can feel kinda dismissive of your extreme situation, and sometimes, things simply won't be okay. Like, you can't tell that to someone on their death bed. Do you check your fire alarms when you’re supposed to? No, oops. Are you a shorts-wearing kind of person? Absolutely not. Nobody wants to see my legs, not even me. Is your grandparents’ house obsessively tidy? My grandma's sure as hell was. She was very old-fashioned and "proper" and took cleanliness and manners very seriously. Do you know how to jumpstart a car? Nope. Would you date someone 8 years older than you? Probably. What did you do today? I WENT TO THE GYM AND DID A FULL HOUR OF EXERCISE!!!!! :') For once I am SO fucking proud of myself. I left drenched in sweat, but I also left with a feeling of great accomplishment. I'm going to be going twice a week now with a personal trainer. (: Who was the last person you fell asleep with? Sara. Have you ever punched a hole in the wall? No. People doing that shit terrifies me. Have you ever felt replaced? Sure have. Have you ever kissed someone who was high? No. If you caught your significant other cheating on you what would you do? I don't have a partner, but hypothetically, leave their ass in a blink. I don't fuck with those kind of people. Do you know who Jeffree Star is? Well, yes. I watch him on YT sometimes and (astonishingly) love his music, and I find his work ethic extremely inspiring. That man knows how to hustle. What’s your favourite alcoholic beverage? Probably sangrias. When was the last time you saw a photo of your ex? "The" ex, it's been years. I've removed all pictures I have of him, irl and digitally, because it's triggering for me. How many push-ups can you do? Probably zero. Do you play any games on your phone? There's Pokemon GO, DragonVale, and Dragons of Atlantis that I play semi-regularly. Have you ever received a compliment from a stranger? Yes. Have you ever shaved your face? Just my upper lip to avoid the lady stache, ha ha. What colour is your front door? It’s white. Do you take the stairs or the elevator? If an elevator is available, I will ALWAYS use that. I have an extreeeemely hard time getting up stairs because of having just about no leg muscle. Do you get motion sickness? No. When was the last time you went to your favourite restaurant? Oh man, it's been forever. :/ Olive Garden sounds soooo good right now. Do either of your parents have any tattoos or piercings? No. Well, Mom has her earlobes pierced once, but that's it. Are you desperate for anyone’s approval, in particular? It's funny, even though he hasn't been a part of my life for years, I still desperately crave what I think would make Jason proud. There have been many times where my mind has wondered to what he would think of me now... and I know it's not good. Are there any activities you enjoy doing, but can only do for a short amount of time before you get bored or tired of them? Reading. When was the last time you felt hopeful, and why? Today, after finishing my workout at the gym. I think, finally, that I may be taking another stride forward in life. Do you find yourself asking for the same things for your birthdays and for holidays? Ha, yup: a new tattoo, 100%. What is something someone recommended to you that you disliked/hated? Girt's recommended some music to me before. He loves sharing songs he likes with me. Of course I didn't tell him it sucked, ha ha. What’s a fact about the last person you kissed? She is very passionate about animals, reptiles in particular, and is simply amazing with them. If you had a child, would you rather have a girl or a boy? A girl for sure. Has anybody ever accused you of doing drugs? No. Have you ever fallen asleep with the last person you kissed? Yeah. Honestly, do you think that you will wanna settle down in the same town you’re currently residing in? HELL no. I hate this place. Does anyone call you darling? If so who? Sara does sometimes. Are you close to any of your cousins? No. Are you a romantic person? I think I am. What’s the coolest thing you’ve seen out the window of an airplane? Mountains. Have you ever been in the mountains when the moon and stars were up? NO BUT FUCK I WANT THAT. Just lay in a grassy spot with some s'mores or something and just ~vibe~. Do people like your hair? I get complimented on it a bit. Have you ever held birdseed and a bird came and ate out of your hand? Yeah, at a bird sanctuary. Could you ever live in Alaska? Hell yeah, I'd enjoy that. On the main page on YouTube, what’re the three recommended videos? There's one by a WoW gold maker, a song by 3TEETH, and a video of bullsnakes hatching. Do you really care how many friends you or anyone else has on Myspace/Facebook? Couldn't care less. I only "friend" people I know and care about. Does your significant other have any piercings? I'm single. Do you ever get bored of yourself? Oh, all the time. I feel like I'm extremely dull and plain and, well, boring. How many band shirts do you own? Which? Oh goodness, I have no idea. I own a lot. Do you go to shows mostly for the music, the moshing, or the merchandise? I go for the music. It's nice to buy merch, but it's SO expensive that it's dumb. Moshing, I think is just stupid. Have you ever had anything pierced that you don’t have now? Many places, actually. So many holes closed because piercings had to be taken out when I was in the psych hospital. I was so annoyed. Who were you with the first time you watched the last movie you watched? I was alone. Do you have any twins/multiples in your family? Are they identical or fraternal? No. What is the highest number of jobs you’ve had at one time? One. Is your mom a good mom? She is the actual best. Last thing you threw in the garbage? The crust of some leftover pizza I had this morning. I generally eat the crust, but this time it was WAY too hard.